Sept. 25, 2015

John F. Kennedy High School

Volume 49, Issue 1

Sept. 25, 2015

the torch Plans for the Senior Class Page 7

How to Henna Page 14

Keep in

Battle of the Stands Page 18

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In this issue: John F. Kennedy High School 4545 Wenig Rd. NE Cedar Rapids, IA, 52402 Volume 49, Issue 1

Mission Statement

The student staff and adviser are committed to producing top quality student publications, applying high standards of writing, editing, and production. These media seek to fairly serve the Kennedy High School faculty, students, and staff showing no favoritism to any particular interest, individual, or group. Final decisions about content are the responsibility of the individual editors, and the Editorial Board.

Non-Discrimination Policy

It is the Torch policy not to illegally discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, disability, religion, creed, age (employment only), marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and socioeconomic status (students/program only) in its educational programs and its employment practices.

Ownership

The Torch publication, website, official social media, and broadcasts serve as a public forum produced by the students in Journalism-Newspaper. Student editors make content decisions consistent with the Torch Editorial Policy, Iowa law and the ethics of journalism.

Editorial

Culture

04 Find your voice

12 Meet the team

05 Staff Editorial: Teen 14 How to Henna violence takes lives 05 Meninism: Serious or not?

News 06 To protect and

Photo

serve

16 Fall festivities

06 The skinny on

17 We have issues

Sanders

Sports

07 Plans for the senior 18 Battle of the stands class

19 The enforcer

Feature 09 Keeping it together

Letters from the Editors

I’ve had an interest in journalism since I was a freshman and I can honestly say that interest has never died out over the last four years.

It has by no means been an easy four years, but the hard work that I put in has definitely paid off.

I have gotten to experience so much and heard so many people’s stories.

Along with all that I have gained through Torch, I have also gotten to know and meet some of the most hard-working and creative people I’ll ever work with.

One of my favorite things about Torch is that we’re a voice of the people. Our basis is to be a public forum for the students and staff of Kennedy.

If there is something you want to see us write about or you have an opinion you want to share, come to us. The Torch is here for you to be able to voice your opinion through us.

It may be cheesy or cliche but that’s what I hope people can see us as.

My goal for the Torch and its staff this year is that we write about things that matter to you and make you think.

What I ask of you now as you read this issue is to remember that we are the voice of Kennedy High School. We are your voice.

Right now, you are holding in your hand a small part of the Torch.

Our newsmagazine is the tradition-filled, recognizable face of our organization.

But in recent years we’ve expanded into a multimedia news organization spanning social media, audio, video, the internet, and most recently, the app store.

You can access the goings-on of Kennedy and Cedar Rapids wherever you are. Kennedytorch.org is updated daily with breaking news stories of the day-to-day news of the school and the community.

The Torch’s Twitter, @kennedytorch, provides small nuggets of daily information, as well as live coverage of several of Kennedy’s major sporting events.

This year we also have two new additions to the Torch Family of Media. One is a mobile app, and the other is TorchCenter, a weekly video podcast about Kennedy athletics, starring John Nolan and Robert Donaldson.

We love producing our newsmagazine, and we’re grateful for all the support we’ve gotten for it over the years. But we hope you’ll take an opportunity to look into the plethora of media through which we put out the news. It’s a digital age, and we’re very excited to be a part of it.

Find your voice

Opinion

Try to count how many voices you’ve heard today. Not just the people in the foyer, shouting to their friends across the endless sea of students trying to get to their next class, or teachers talking about yesterday’s quiz. But also everything you’ve read in a book, on Twitter, in a text, written on the walls of the bathroom.

Every time an idea is introduced into your head, through a voice or through the written word, you are listening to the voice of the speaker, author, or tweeter.

We live in an age where making your voice heard is almost laughably simple. For no cost and almost no time, a person can put 140 characters out there on the web for the entire world to see.

The internet has given every single person the opportunity to make their own voice heard.

And many people use this resource to talk about sleep, coffee, and cats.

Why is that? Why do the students at Kennedy High School not tackle big issues online?

I know it’s not a shortage of opinions-that much is obvious from what students do put out there. And I know also that many students are aware of what’s going on in the world-some of the discussions I’ve been able to take part in during my time at Kennedy (Frye’s AP Lang 0 hour last yearbecause every day is Frye-day) have blown my mind.

Maybe the missing piece of the puzzle is that students don’t think their voice will matter. Well, let me assure you, it does. More and more, the world is moving towards social media, as I’m sure none of you need to be told.

4

Graphic by Xander Riley, modified from Creative Commons.

Big corporations have official Twitter and Instagram accounts. Even people like Barack Obama and the Pope have created accounts.

So do yourself a favor: find an issue that you personally think matters.

Then put yourself out there and talk about it.

If nothing else, your voice will be heard, and maybe that will get other voices talking too. One tweet, one text, or one blog post can provoke massive thought and discussion on anything.

Think about accounts like @MeninismTweet. Those have provoked a lot of thought and discussion. Granted, a lot of people hate them, but those people have to think about why.

Now, I’m not going to try and convince you that you’re going to change the world overnight by tweeting about an issue you care about. That’s unrealistic and we all know it.

But one of the worst things a person can do is to stop thinking about things and just go with the flow. An issue that’s been well articulated by someone who truly cares about it can get people to start thinking and caring about issues they may not have even known existed.

When I say “issues,” I’m not just talking about politics, although the upcoming election is certainly stirring up a lot of discussion, and lots of students are getting involved with that. But there are a million things going on in the world besides the election, any one of which could generation a lot of conversation.

Find your issue. Find your voice. Get people to think. Be heard.

Xander Riley

kennedytorch.org

Opinion

Staff Editorial: Teen violence takes lives The Torch staff editorial is a topic important to the students of Kennedy . This editorial represents our student editorial board’s opinion.

Teen violence is something that our community has dealt with quite a bit recently. Whether it is threats, fights or even homicide, teen violence is out there and it isn’t going to change overnight or even within the next month.

So what are we supposed to do? Let it happen, or do something to end the violence? There are many people involved with violence. Some are the witnesses, others are the offenders and unfortunately the remaining are the victims.

Beginning in the 90s teen violence and teen gang involvement has increased and remained high since. According to Teen Violence Statistics, one in 12 teens in high school reported that they have been injured or threatened with a weapon.

So, are teens being involved in violence a big deal? Yes, because this affects many people, not only teens themselves, but their family and friends as well.

Many students at Kennedy see teen violence as something out of the Hollywood aspect, not out of real life. At least that is what they saw it as until the recent event that has impacted our own school district.

We were sadden to hear of the death of Aaron Richardson, a 15 year old student at Washington High School, but what we didn’t know was that the other person involved in his death was one of our own students here at Kennedy.

Teen violence has indeed gone too far in our society today and a lot of us may not take this as serious as it should be.

If students become more aware of why these violent acts are happening then it will become easier to end them. With the knowledge of how these tragedies has shaped our society negatively we can do more as a community to raise awareness to these violent events.

Serious or not?

Feminism. It’s a word a lot of people don’t understand the true meaning of.

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of feminism is the doctrine advocating for social, political and economic rights of women to be equal to those of men.

Some feminists today have tended to drift away from the traditional meanings of feminism, favoring women over men. This is not true feminism and should not be referred to as such.

As most of you know there is a twitter account that is trending. @MeninistTweet is an account that has gained 1 million followers. It brings up issues about double standards between genders.

For example this tweet was tweeted off of this account, “us men should also get a week out every month to complain and be taken care of, like girls do on their period.” Another one talked about how women expect men to pay when they go out on a date.

These things can be very true in some cases, but that doesn’t mean all women are like that.

I personally follow the account, and to be completely honest it doesn’t bother me. In fact it makes me laugh because most of the things they tweet about are stereotypical things that women don’t actually do.

Some people take offense to the things they tweet about but they shouldn’t. They not only get offended by the tweets but also the mer-

chandise that has #Meninist on it. People should just ignore the shirts and hats if it bothers them. All they are doing is giving them a reaction and that is just what they want from the feminists.

In reality if you just ignore the things that bother you about the twitter page and the shirts then it will probably blow over. It’s just a trend that will eventually get old.

Erica Gouchee

“I hate when people say, ‘women should stay in the kitchen’....how are they supposed to clean the rest of the house?”

-@MeninistTweet

Pages by Abby Donovan 5

News

To protect and serve While many of the students and teachers here at Kennedy have noticed that the school’s resource officer, Charity Hansel, is no longer protecting the halls, relatively few have had the opportunity to meet Officer Aaron Leisinger, the man currently taking over for her.

Due to a knee injury, Hansel is taking a temporary leave of absence while she heals, and in the meantime, Aaron Leisinger is filling in for her. While it is not known for certain how long Leisinger will be here, as it is based upon the unpredictable factor of healing time, it is likely that he will be here for approximately half of the school year.

Leisinger explained that he chose to take this job because he enjoys teaching. Leisinger stated that if he had not gotten a degree in criminology, then he would have been teaching, and also pointed out that he has taught martial arts, and was a range instructor for the Boy Scouts.

Besides his love for teaching, his desire to provide guidance to students also fueled his decision to become a resource officer.

“Just being able to get out ahead of the problem,” Leisinger said.

As an officer, Leisinger typically deals with students in situations after they have already been caught doing something

wrong, whereas as a resource officer, he can try to prevent any wrongdoing from occurring in the first place.

“It’s nice to be able to get out ahead of that and help steer you guys in the right direction,” Leisinger said.

Prior to becoming a school resource officer, Leisinger worked as an auto mechanic, and later graduated with a four year degree in criminology. He is also on the Special Response Team and is a designated marksman.

During his time at Kennedy, Leisinger hopes to steer students lives in the right direction, and will strive to have as strong of an impact on students as Hansel has over the years.

“She truly believes in this position and the impact you can have on students in a positive way, and helping you guys,” Leisinger said. “I hope I have half the impact that Charity did on you guys.”

Photo by Jayden Bisson. Graphic by Xander Riley.

Jayden Bisson

The skinny on Sanders

A day in the life of intern Maia Bennett For senior Maia Bennett, the last two months have been nothing but busy. Bennett began interning for the Bernie Sanders campaign at the beginning of August. She will continue interning until the caucuses on Feb 1.

Bennett’s internship is held at the Marion field office of the Sanders campaign. She says that she doesn’t do a lot of traveling besides going to help out at local events that are held in Cedar Rapids or Marion.

“I have learned a lot of interpersonal skills, how to educationally talk to people about politics, how you can’t win everything and how to not let that bother you,” Bennett said.

Bennett says that this experience has assured her completely that politics is the direction that she wants to take in her life.

6

The reason that Bennett decided to participate in this internship is because she is planning on studying political science and statistical economics once she gets to college. Bennett then wants to pursue a career in politics.

Bennett’s time commitment is quite heavy. She is usually at the office 10 to 15 hours a week, minimum. Bennett is at the office every day for at least three hours.

Bennett’s internship has many parts to it.

She staffs all of the local Sanders events and rallies, helps organize phone banks, trains volunteers and does polling data entries. In addition to that, she also trains others to do phone banking and go knocking on doors to raise awareness of the campaign.

“I have met Bernie twice. The first time, I was able to get in touch with the Iowa Cam-

paign Manager, Becker, who got me the internship,” Bennett said. “The second time, I was able to talk to him about his campaign progress and how grateful I was about being able to assist in his campaign and how he helped me get the position I have.”

Bennett says she definitely thinks Sanders would make a good president because besides his views aligning with her political views, his history of fighting for the same things that he is still fighting for today shows that he will be a committed and trustworthy president.

Abby Donovan

kennedytorch.org

News

Plans for the senior class National Honor Society will revamp Noelridge Park

National Honor Society leaders Alec Hanson, Nina Yu, Sweta Sudhir, and Aren Buresh present the senior project at a class of 2016 assembly.

Photo by Abby Donovan Kennedy’s class of 2016 announced their senior class project at an assembly on Sept.

3 during homeroom advisory class.

Originally the proposed project was to raise money for Kennedy to build its own all- inclusive playground, but recently the senior class has decided to partner with Variety to help with the funding.

Variety is a non-profit children’s charity, they are the head organization for the project. They have contractors already in place who would be building the playground and they have approved it through the city.

The all-inclusive playground is going to be built in Noelridge Park off Council Street. It will allow children who normally take part in playing on the playground to continue doing so, but it will also include children who have disabilities by being more accessible.

“We thought it would be a great way for Kennedy students to get involved since Noelridge is so close to Kennedy,” National Honor Society leader Sweta Sudhir, sr., said.

“This would benefit all kids in that they would have a brand new playground that’s nicer than the current Noelridge playground, but especially benefits those with disabilities,” NHS leader Alec Hanson, sr., said. “It would unite families with children with and without disabilities and allow everyone to have a good time at the park.”

The goal for Kennedy’s contribution is to try and raise as much money as possible.

Variety’s goal is $500,000.

“Fundraising hasn’t officially started for us, but Variety already has funds in place,” Hanson said. “We will be setting incremental fundraising goals later for our class.”

There is no specific date set to start the construction, but the contractors are planning to break ground in the springtime.

“Once all the money is raised it takes six weeks to talk to the departments about getting the materials on site, but once everything is on site it takes ten days to build the park,” Sudhir said. “It’s something that very reasonably could be done before we graduate and we are really hoping to see that happen.”

Abby Donovan

Graphic provided by Sweta Sudhir.

Pages by Xander Riley 7

Ads

8 Page by Gabby Olejniczak

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Feature

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Keeping it together

he students and staff of Kennedy wake up every day, Along with students being able to turn to their school counseldrag themselves out of bed, and prepare themselves for ors, teachers want students to be able to talk with them about what’s to come. But what do they do when what’s to difficult issues that occur both in and out of school. come is shock, anger, or sadness? How do the students “When we get news like we did, it’s important for teachers and and staff keep their school together in these moments? students to respect everybody,” teacher Patrick Cory said. “It’s “We are available to talk to anyone and are responsive to all kinds hard for teachers because we don’t always know where the converof things,” counselor Lori Clore said. “…things that could happen sation will go. Each person grieves and deals with it in their own over the weekend at homecoming- that’s just one end of the spec- way. When we’ve lost students through car accidents, suicides, trum, but of course we are here for things that are tragedies.” and things like that, they’ve always been terrible and this is no The Cedar Rapids Police Department arrested 14-year-old fresh- different. People are going to experience it differently.” men Robert Humbles on Sept. 9. Humbles was charged with first- Teacher George Anderson stressed the importance of “being degree murder in the shooting of 15-year-old Washington sopho- there” and “letting them know that someone in the building is more Aaron K. Richardson on Sept. 6. concerned” for what they feel.

Humbles had attended Kennedy for two weeks before the shoot- “Mainly the thing is just giving them a place to talk and work it ing occurred. If he is tried as an out. I just make sure that they’re just constantly adult and is convicted, he will face a of the fact that I’m here for them,” Ander“You just don’t hear about that aware life sentence. son said.

The news of the murder charge really ever happening in Cedar Staff members are reaching out and letting Rapids.” against Humbles was announced to students know that they have somewhere to the school by Principal Jason Kline. turn; they are helping them keep it together.

-Griffin Konchar, sr.

Along with the announcement to Kennedy is just one of many schools that has the school, Kline also sent a recorded had to respond to a tragedy like a shooting bephone message out to students’ families that alerted them saying: tween two students from the surrounding community. Wheth“This incident did not occur on school property nor during school er it’s a call made to parents or teachers helping students talk hours. We will continue to work closely with law enforcement of- through an issue, schools have plans in place to help the staff and ficials to maintain the safety and security of all staff, students and students keep it together and heal when such tragedies strike. visitors to Kennedy and all district schools. Our counselors are Kline recognizes that conflicts that result in people getting hurt available to anyone who feels the need for support. Please keep are happening more frequently across the nation and that schools the families of the victims in your thoughts and prayers.” need to be a resource and support system for their students and Students and staff reacted differently to the news of the charge staff. against Humbles. Some teachers just held class like they would “We are talking about the loss of a 15-year-old child. It’s one of any other day. Some students had hushed conversations in the those things where people who didn’t know either of these young hallways. men may think that it would never happen,” Kline said. “This may Senior Griffin Konchar was shocked when he heard the an- not have been someone who you knew as a friend, but they were nouncement about the charges against a fellow Kennedy student. other people’s friends. It’s happening very frequently nowadays “You just don’t hear about that really ever happening in Cedar and it needs to be taken very seriously.”

Rapids and [it’s shocking] because they were both really young,” Konchar said. “It was more surprising to hear that a kid from our Elianna Novitch school was involved.”

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kennedytorch.org

Fast facts:

Feature

• Aaron K. Richardson was shot near Redmond Park and called police from a house near 16th street for help.

• Richardson was pronounced dead after surgery at St. Luke’s Hospital.

• Robert Humbles was turned into the police on Sept. 9 by a family member.

• There have been 75 shootings or shots fired in Cedar Rapids so far this year.

• Police believe recent shootings may be linked to Richardson’s death.

Resources: The numbers listed below have people available to talk to whether it’s an emergency or issues you are having in school or at home.

CounselorsLori Clore: 319-558-3738 Rachel Collins: 319-558-1062 Andy Jacobsen: 319-558-1396 Elizabeth Wessels: 319-558-1348 Other Emergency numbersCedar Rapids Police department: 319-286-5491 Pages by Elianna Novitch 11

Culture

Meet the Team: Fres

Name: Grant Brown Department: Foreign Language Favorite celebrity: “Gi-

Name: Julie Batterson Department: Activities Secre-

Fourth of July, because it’s America’s birthday.”

useppe Garibaldi. He was a pirate who freed slaves and founded modern-day Italy.

“Emptying the dishwasher because it seems like it’s always full, and I’m the only one who can empty it.”

Name: Elizabeth Broomfield Department: Art Favorite Dessert: “French

Name: Jesse Meyer Department: Substitute and Debate Coach Favorite Movie: “‘Jurassic

Name: Kevin Karr Department: Special Educa-

Name: Kaleb Ferring Department: PLTW/ Con-

struction Tech

Favorite Holiday: “The

macaroons, because they melt in your mouth.”

12

Park’. It was state of the art, cutting edge when it came out.”

tary

Least Favorite Chore:

tion

Favorite pizza topping?:

“Canadian bacon and sauerkraut.

When I was your age I used to work at Happy Joes and made it all of the time.”

kennedytorch.org

esh Face Favorites

Name: Rob Craft Department: Special Educa-

Name: Allison Gardner Department: Foreign Lan-

tion

guage

Favorite Actor: “Harrison

Favorite Sandwich: “A good

Ford, because he was Indiana Jones.”

cheeseburger, medium rare, not overcooked.”

Name: Shauna McClintock Department: Language Arts Favorite movie: “‘Now You

See Me’.”

Culture

Name: Leif Segen Department: Science Favorite Hobby: Neighbor-

hood community development

Name: Hilary Nekvinda Department: Special Educa-

tion

Favorite Television Show: “‘The Big Bang Theory’,

because it makes me laugh.”

Pages by Naomi Hofferber 13

Culture

How to Henna

Natural Henna

Black Henna

Henna is a natural plant that grows in hotter climates, often in the Middle East.

Henna has traditionally been used in those regions for decorative purposes during celebrations such as weddings, birthdays, and holidays.

Only in the past few decades has henna become a prominent part of popular culture in Western society. Henna is one of the most ancient cosmetics, and is commonly known for its ability to dye the skin and hair.

Henna Night, or Mehndi Night, is an old wedding tradition, wherein a bride-tobe is adorned with extensive henna designs covering her whole body. According to tradition, this is said to bring good luck to the marriage and so long as the patterns are visible on her body, no housework is to be done by her.

Tattoos typically last around two weeks, depending on the amount of time the henna is left on the skin to set.

A black henna tattoo may be temporary, but the consequences of one potential hazardous chemical in many black henna mixes are far from it.

Black henna, a chemical concoction unlike its natural henna counterpart, has been found to often contain the chemical paraphenylenediamine, or PPD. PPD can cause severe allergic reactions from prolonged skin exposure, resulting in itchy, burning rashes and even increased sensitivity to PPD in the future.

This means that any additional exposure to PPD, whether through another black henna tattoo or through black hair dye could cause a severe allergic reaction.

The FDA has only approved of use of PPD in hair dye, and is not approved for use on skin.

Black henna, however, should not be confused for pure, natural henna, which does not contain PPD. Natural henna is red or brown in appearance, and has a rich, earthy scent, while black henna typically appears dark in color and may have a less natural scent.

VS.

Henna can be purchased in Apply henna liberally to desired pre-made cones or as a natural area. Paste should be thick and powder. If in powder form, mix appear brown or green. one-fourth cup of lemon juice and two teaspoons of sugar to one-fourth cup of henna powder. Let sit for 24 hours.

14 Page by Naomi Hofferber

As henna dries, it will begin to chip off. This is normal. Allow the dried henna to fall off the tattoo. A light orange design will remain.

Design will darken within the next half of a day. The longer the henna paste stays on the skin, the darker the design will be. Different sections of the body dye differently as well.

kennedytorch.org

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(319) 558-4581 Page by Gabby Olejniczak 15

Photo

Fall festivities Homecoming 2015

Photo by Naomi Hofferber

Cougars smile after a 42-0 win over North Scott for the homecoming football game.

Ellie Klein is crowned homecoming queen before the varsity football game.

Photo by Naomi Hofferber

Sean Wu goes all out for pajama day for spirit week.

Photo by Colby Manley

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Photo Xander Riley Editor-in-Chief

Macy Anderson Photo Editor

Elianna Novitch Editor-in-Chief

Gabby Olejniczak Business Manager

We have issues

Abby Donovan Editorial Editor

Photos by Macy Anderson

Naomi Hofferber Culture Editor

Jayden Bisson Writer

Colby Manley Writer

Mary Liscum Writer

John Nolan Writer

Erica Gouchee Writer

Pages by Macy Anderson 17

Sports

The Cougar Nation in an “America-out” at the homecoming game against North Scott High School. Photo by Naomi Hofferber.

Battle of the stands The Cougar Nation competes to be the loudest

K

ennedy is one of eight schools competing in “The Battle already are,” Henry said, “The best way we can get the word out of the Stands” for a grand prize of $25,000. is by having everyone follow. The most important thing is that if On Friday, Oct. 9, judges from across the nation will you are going to be in the student section we ask that you cheer, look for the biggest, loudest, and most spirited student section as we are trying to be the loudest student section and support our the Cougars take on Waterloo East. teams the best way we can so get loud.”

Although this is not one of the foot- “The most important thing is that if you If the Cougars have enough spirit to ball team’s biggest games, Athletic Diwin the competition Stecker said the are going to be in the student section we money would most likely go towards rector Aaron Stecker said the school ask that you cheer.” “needs to get as many students to the Kennedy’s gym or athletic fund.

-Jacob Henry, sr. game and alumni as we possibly can.”

“We have got some larger purchases The more students and fans that that we need to make for our facilities show up to support this event, the better the chance Kennedy that we just have had a hard time making so I would probably use has to win. about half of it for that and then the other half to supplement the Jacob Henry, Sr., is the leader of the student section and the existing budget for each of our sports,” Stecker said. twitter account @Cougar_Nation16.

Erica Gouchee “I’m really happy with how the freshmen and sophomores are contributing this year. Definitely a change that’s helped the student section a lot, but I believe we can be even louder than we

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kennedytorch.org

Sports

The enforcer

Photo by Gabby Olejniczak.

O

ne would think that the person subject to the most danger during a football game is on the field playing.

However this was not the case during a high school football game in Texas when two football players, with orders from their assistant coach, deliberately tackled a referee while his back was turned.

Video footage of the incident immediately went viral and the teens were faced with an enormous backlash from all over the country.

Kyle Scheer, sr., was among the Kennedy students who saw the video online and disapproved.

“What they did was terrible,” Scheer said.

“There is no excuse and any reason does not justify what they did.”

Another person who saw the video and was less than pleased was Jerry Winter, a longtime referee of 36 years.

“This is a horrible situation. Totally unacceptable, and this kind of behavior towards officials cannot be tolerated,” Winter said. “Referees are an essential part to the game of football because we enforce the rules of the game and promote sportsmanship and winning the right way.”

Throughout his career, Winter has officiated around 500 high school games and approximately 250 Division 3 games, and has never before witnessed this type of behavior.

“In my personal experience, I can not recall a time when I was officiating in Iowa that was not positive,” Winter said. “I personally believe that the sportsmanship demonstrated in Iowa is on average, better than that of other areas of

“This is a horrible situation. Totally unacceptable, and this kind of behavior towards officials cannot be tolerated.”

-Jerry Winter the country and I can’t picture something like what happened to the official in Texas happening here.”

Scheer also feels that what the Texas official experienced is not typically what happens to officials and does not believe that officiating should suddenly be seen as a dangerous job where officials constantly need to be watching their backs.

Scheer, like Winter, agrees that this event shouldn’t be taken as representative of how high school football players, particularly ones from Kennedy, behave towards officials.

“We are taught by Coach White to always respect the referees and even if we have a problem with one of the calls, we know that we need to take it up with the coaches and let them deal with it,” Scheer said. “He tells us to just keep playing our game and be smart, not worry about the referees.”

The two players were immediately suspended from school and the football team, while their assistant coach has been placed on paid, administrative leave. Now the boys are facing not only social consequences but the possibility of criminal charges if the referee decides to press charges.

“I feel that this all could have been avoided if the coaches just expressed their dislike of the official to the school and solved the problem in a professional way rather than allow their players to behave in such a disrespectful manner,” Winter said.

Gabby Olejniczak

Pages by Gabby Olejniczak 19

“Let the word go forth...that the torch has been passed to a new generation.�-John F. Kennedy

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