2009-10 Issue 2

Spark Lakota East High School November 12, 2009 $3 Newsstand

HASHING OUT THE ISSUE OF

MARIJUANA

CONTENTS news

This Issue: The Marijuana Issue

38

16

BUSING

The new Lakota budget might force kids to look for other ways to get to school.

feature

lifestyle

GOING PUMPKIN

25 WHY GET HIGH?

Dana Sand analyzes the effects of smoking marijuana and why people continue to do so despite its potential effects.

Pumpkins are often the unsung heroes of health, but in reality provide many benefits.

sports

29 THE APPLE OF MY EYE

Faiz Siddiqui delves into the world of chronically high Cole Black*, who spends upwards of $100 a month on weed while still participating in varsity sports in high school.

18

THE HAUNTED

Spark investigates a local haunted courtyard and the history behind it.

20

CLAIRE MUENCHEN

Singing sensation of the Midwest Claire Muenchen discovered her talent at age two.

32 A SMOKIN’ HOT DEAL

Mason Hood discusses the economic ramifications of the possible legalization of marijuana for commercial use.

34 M.D. (MEDICAL DOPE)

Tyler Castner discovers that not all marijuana comes from the streets. Cannabis provides legitimate medical benefits.

36 MARIJUANA VS. TOBACCO

Kevin Li visually shows the different ways in which tobacco and marijuana affect important organs in the human body.

51

GIRLS’ TENNIS

The East duo of Carolyn Pitman and Taylor Holden fall just short of the state title.

54

Pedro Powell

Varsity running back Pedro Powell looks toward a career in the military service.

3 | Spark | November 12, 2009

opinion | letters

Forum Dear Spark, As someone who went to the old freshmen building, I am able to say that I have a complete awareness of how difficult it was for students to stay connected to the main campus.

Now that this year we have a separate freshmen building, I know that it will be a little bit easier for the freshmen to stay involved in the main campus, especially because its location is much closer now.

In addition, I know that this year many freshman bought subscriptions to the Spark, and so I am interested to see how the Spark ties the two schools together. Not only do I hope to see some stories about how freshman can get involved, but I t would be really cool if there could be a section that was devoted to news at the freshmen building.

I think that would not only connect the freshman to the upperclassmen but vice versa.

The Spark has the chance to play a big role in the unification of Lakota East as one school. —Katie McMahon, East junior Dear Spark, The education system has, for decades, declined in this nation as well as in many others.

Our education system has changed from the Socratic Method of asking questions and allowing the student to find the answers for themselves to the Parrot Method of merely repeating the information given. It is a method that does not learn the building blocks on which higher education can be built.

This problem partially stems from the fact that in our current education system, teachers have an authoritarian control over the students.

Many teachers have become more controlling and arrogant than ever to the point where both the teachers and the students believe that the teacher is infallible.

In this system, many teachers crush any student who dares to speak up and question the teachers, and the ultimate result is that

would vastly improve. However, while supporters of our current education system claim that three in ten is better than ever, this is primarily because so much of our educational time is spent teaching directly for tests such as the Ohio Graduation Test instead of teaching students to take limited information and come up with their own correct ideas. This would also help student morale because school is currently seen as a cumbersome part of the day in which students sit and listen.

Instead, teachers should teach students to think for themselves. Most students would feel more motivated by this because it will be their work that will show results, not the work of some dead and buried man who is somehow just more intelligent than them. —Derek Hubbard, East senior

the students lose their independence and self-worth. The job of a teacher is to help the student be able to learn on his or her own.

Unfortunately, most of our teachers have become so authoritarian that they see any student questioning them as a direct threat to their authority and respect in the class.

The result is a system that does not teach the student but subdues them into a realm of no intellectual growth. Students begin to feel that all the information in the universe has been discovered and that their sole goal as an educated individual is to repeat this information to others.

All great thinkers have had one common thread and that is the ability to use what others before them have created and innovate that into a new idea. Without this innovation, the education system is doomed to continue its plummet into these disturbing times where three in ten students do not graduate due to their lack of strict fact memory.

If we instead taught these students how to find the answer for themselves, this situation

Got Something To Say? The Spark, which provides an open forum for students, faculty, subscribers and community members, encourages letters to the editor. Letters can be sent to the publication at the address below or dropped off in the journalism classroom (room 118). Letters must be signed, and the staff reserves the right to edit letters for length, grammar, invasion of privacy, obscenity or potential libel. The Opinion Editors will contact letter writers for confirmation.

Spark c/o Lakota East High School 6840 Lakota Lane Room 118 attn: Opinion Editor Liberty Township, OH 45044 Phone: (513) 759-8615 ext 15118 Fax: (513) 759-8633 Email: lehs.spark.opinion@gmail.com

Spark Notes This May 1998 issue of Spark described the issues of Butler County youth imprisoned in the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center.

This issue explored the lives juveniles face in the prison system from dawn until dusk, the prison hierarchy system among inmates and the life of a man who works with youth there. The feature section discussed the first-year of East

4 | Spark | November 12, 2009

algebra and pre-calculus teacher Pat Kreider, and the sports section covered the efforts of the Greater Miami Conference to remove Lima from the league. Entertainment reviewed the trend of re-releasing old films with the review of John Travolta in Grease. Columnist Sunil Hari also commented on society’s difficulty with accepting responsibility for their actions.

Spark Kevin Li, Dana Sand Editor-in-Chief Sally Ryan Business Manager Radhika Madhavan Design Manager Caroline Tompkins Photo Manager Tyler Castner, Anna Hartman Managing Editor Amanda Kaine Copy Director Katrina Echternacht Layout Director Lauren Ellis, Dan Garrett, Victoria Liang Entertainment Editor Alyssa Davis, Kim Shearer Feature Editor Meredith Bleuer, Liv Devitt Lifestyle Editor Jill Bange, Ariadne Souroutzidis, Kavya Sreevalsan News Editor Ryan Fay, Lisa Liu, Nitya Sreevalsan Opinion Editor Justine Chu, Mason Hood, Lucy Stephenson Package Editor Sarah Fanning, Faiz Siddiqui, Sarah Wilkinson Sports Editor Brian Baltis, Logan Schneider, Heidi Yang, Sarah Zins Art Section Editor Eric Muenchen, Dan Turner Photo Section Editor Sarah Craig Business Associate Allison Korson, Mackenzie White Public Relations Director Anjana Jagpal Public Relations Associate Erika Andler Subscriptions Coordinator Brittany Bennett Survey Coordinator Eric Bloomberg Webmaster Dean Hume Advisor Spark is a publication that is produced at Lakota East High School. The magazine is completely studentgenerated through the efforts of the Journalism I, Journalism II and Journalism III-Honors classes. The publication material may not always reflect the views of the Lakota Local School District. Content is controlled and edited by the staff editors. The staff will publish only legally protected speech adhering to the legal definitions of libel, obscenity and the invasions of privacy.

The publication is produced every five weeks.

Production costs are covered through advertising sales, subscription sales and fundraisers. Advertising information can be obtained by writing to the business manager at the address below or at sparkbusiness@gmail.com.

The purpose of Spark is to inform the students, faculty, subscribers and community members of news, information and issues that may influence or affect them.

Spark accepts news releases, guest columns and sports information releases.

Spark is a member of the National Scholastic Press Association, the Ohio Scholastic Media Association, the Northeastern Ohio Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, Quill and Scroll and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Spark c/o Lakota East High School 6840 Lakota Lane Liberty Township, OH 45044 Phone: (513) 759-8615 ext 15118 Fax: (513) 759-8633 Email: lehs.spark@gmail.com

From The Editor On my way home from another long day at school, I tuned into Q102 to relax before starting on the hours of homework that lay ahead of me. Right as I turned into my neighborhood, the DJ introduced John Mayer’s newest single “Who Says.” Immediately after Mayer started drumming his guitar, the lyrics began.

“Who says I can’t get stoned? Turn off the lights and the telephone, me and my house alone, who says I can’t get stoned?”

I couldn’t help myself from grinning, but the song echoes the thoughts of an increasing percentage of Americans. Gallop’s October Crime Poll recently found record-high support for marijuana legalization at 44 percent.

The president seems to be listening. On Oct. 18, the Obama administration changed its medical marijuana policy to make prosecuting medicinal marijuana users in strict compliance with the law less of a priority. This was an important step in the right direction because before the policy reversal, even those in compliance with state laws could be arrested by the federal government for the use of medicinal marijuana.

In March of 2009, Obama claimed that his administration would make “scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.” He was referring to former President George W. Bush’s policy on stem cell research, but the fog currently created by the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) classification of marijuana is no different. The DEA website states that marijuana smoke may also promote cancer of the respiratory tract and lungs, but the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA), another government agency, reports that a recent casecontrolled study found “no positive associations between marijuana use and lung, upper respiratory or upper digestive tract cancers,” calling the link between marijuana and cancer “unsubstantiated.”

When the government cannot even stand on a united front on the “danger” of marijuana, perhaps its classification as a drug with no accepted medical use, even under medical supervision, should be reevaluated. Even if the national government is not willing to do it, state governments do not seem to have any qualms about legalization, as 13 states have now legalized medical marijuana.

This discrepancy between federal and state policy has been noticed by many, and it is leading to a general ignorance about marijuana. Because some states have legalized medical marijuana against the government’s warning that it is a drug with a high potential for abuse, people do not realize that marijuana is a dangerous drug. Perhaps it does not cause lung cancer, and perhaps there has not been a single death directly connected to marijuana, but that does not make it safe. Marijuana is smoked much differently than tobacco; the user commonly breathes in as deeply as possible and holds the breath for an extended period, which makes one joint obstruct airways as much as two and a half to five cigarettes.

These inconsistencies between independent medical researchers, doctors and the government can be solved very easily. Yet, it involves setting aside ideology and focusing on the science behind marijuana. If a consensus is reached that marijuana is as dangerous as its current classification suggests, that will be the end of the marijuana debate, but what if it offers a legitimate medical purpose?

It is the responsibility of the government to spearhead a marijuana research movement that gives legislators facts on which to base their decisions, and citizens a fair and realistic look at the benefits and drawbacks of marijuana.

“It is the responsibility of the government to spearhead a marijuana research movement.”

5 | Spark | November 12, 2009

news | world map

NEWSWIRE Berlin, Germany

Fort Hood, Texas

[Nov. 9] Citizens gathered in Berlin to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall, arguably one of the most influential shifts in European history.

[Nov. 7] U.S. Army major and army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, suspected of shooting dead 13 people at a military base, has regained consciousness and is able to talk.

Hasan also injured 26 others in the shooting.

Caracas, Venezuela

[Nov. 9] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has urged his armed forces to be prepared for possible war with Colombia amid growing diplomatic and border tensions. Hugo believes that the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it.

New Delhi, India Johannesburg, South Africa

information – www.msnbc.com

234205094539284723984703 923904878975912385712390 857129038572395781395875 239841653395872384589234 589469045548946551231567 489874461354897685452135 498798745645213165489798 6 | Spark | November 12, 2009 746543215456878474158524

FACE VALUE

1292 yards Pedro Powell has gained rushing, leading the GMC.

►

243

average number of days in the school year in Japan.

infographic tyler castner and kevin li

[Nov. 8] President Jacob Zuma rejects his predecessor’s denial of the viral cause of AIDS and critical role of antiretroviral drugs in treating it.

[Nov. 8] The Dalai Lama visited a region of India close to Tibet which China claims as its own.

Thousands gathered at Tawang in India’s mountainous state of Arunachal Pradesh to recieve the Perth, Western Australia Tibetan spiritual leader. [Nov. 8] New figures have revealed that sea levels along the coast of Western Australia are rising at a rate double that of the world average at 8.6 mm a year off of the coast of Perth.

Inducting The Dean story ashley wolsefer | infographic abby buns Due to the need for another administrator at the freshman campus, a new position has been created this year – the Dean of Students.

“There were openings both at East and at West,” said East principal Dr. Keith Kline. According to Kline, the district could not afford the new position, but Butler County was able to fund it.

As the new Dean of Students, Bill Brinkman will have similar responsibilities to an assistant principal.

“I will work with teachers, Mrs. Davis [freshman campus principal] and our school resource officer to deal with all the discipline, attendance, academic intervention, transportation and cafeteria issues,” said Brinkman. “But one thing I do not do is observe teachers and participate in their evaluation process.”

Because he works so closely with the students, Brinkman feels that his background in teaching mathematics will help him deal with students and their teachers.

“This [background] allows me to work with teachers [to address student concerns], because I have an understanding of what teachers go through,” said Brinkman. “I have also been fortunate to work in many different environments which definitely prepare me to face any of the challenges that I meet here.”

After teaching in Indiana for ten years and in Ohio for eight, Brinkman chose to interview for the Dean of Students job because he liked Lakota’s “reputation of high academics.”

For students like East freshman Ashley Niederman, the Dean of Students is a person that they can use to help them with their everyday frustrations and worries.

“He encourages us to reach our goals and he is there for our problems,” said Niederman. “It is nice having someone that I can trust to talk to about my issues with school.”

Niederman is one of many students that Brinkman hopes to help.

“If there is an issue that a student is having I am of course right there… [and] open to help them,” said Brinkman. “If I cannot help them, I am definitely going to point them in the right direction to get that answer.” n

The Assistant Principal’s duties may include:

Overseeing and enforcing discipline on all levels, student and faculty Carrying out decisions made by the principal and the board Intervening when someone or something is disrupting a teacher’s ability to teach

—East senior Daniel Tait on the impact of Young Life leaders on his life (page 22)

“Any symptom you could think of, I had it. I was basically like a baby but 18.”

—East senior Linsey Flick on her experiences with H1N1 (page 14)

“If we had to choose who to incarcerate, I would rather have the violent criminal or armed robber [in jail] than someone who is selling marijuana or using drugs.”

—East teacher Jennifer Reid on the punishment for marijuana (page 33)

“I just hate losing. I’m competitive and I want everyone on the team to be the same [way].”

—East senior Jordan Incerpi on his drive to perform and excel in soccer (page 49)

Dean of Students vs. Assistant Principal How do their roles differ?

The Dean of Students’ duties may include: • • • • •

Directing or assisting in the organizing of lunches and transportation Acting as a mentor to students to help resolve issues Deciding on the course of action for disciplinary problems Addressing attendance issues with students and their parents Working with teachers for academic intervention

76119

►

• • •

“[Travis is] not only my Young Life leader, but I also consider him one of my best friends.”

students involved in Young Life across the U.S.

“The idea of education reform loses some of its appeal when it requires the government to continue to spend money that does not exist.”

—East senior Kaity Conner on the finances of education reform (page 62)

85

►percent of people who have

tried marijuana before the age of 21.

23

people left the first showing of Paranormal Activity.

7 | Spark | November 12, 2009

news | quarter assessments

Quarterly Controversy Both East and Lakota West will administer the same quarter assessments on the same schedule due to a change in district testing policy, which has aggravated some teachers. story alyssa davis

T

his school year, both East and Lakota West took identical quarter assessments in core subjects for the first time.

According to Lakota Director of Secondary Education Dr. Derek Smith, the purpose of the common assessments is to provide feedback to teachers in order to monitor the academic progress of students.

“By measuring students’ learning against the district’s curriculum as well as state standards, teachers can make modifications that strengthen instruction and guide necessary intervention,” said Smith.

When East switched to quarter assessments in the 2008-09 school year, the school also decided to have common assessments within core subject areas. The tests were common within the building, but not within the whole district.

Under this policy, for instance, every economics class, although taught by three different teachers, was given an identical quarter assessment.

According to East economics teacher Lori Taylor, the three economics teachers at East were not involved in making the first quarter exams.

Smith said that the common assessments

“

Skills required for life are not encouraged or tested.

were expected by teachers to be written jointly between both high schools. However, each teacher had less input on exam content because more teachers were involved in the process than in the past.

If teachers do not cover a certain topic in class, they are not given the option of omitting a question from the quarter assessment. If a change needs to be made in the pacing, it has to be made throughout the district.

According to a survey distributed to all East teachers, 30 percent of teachers who responded to a survey planned on removing questions regarding material that was not covered in class.

Some East teachers feel this exam policy does not create an educational environment conducive to all learners.

In the survey, anonymous Teacher A said, “East and West need more autonomy in decision making and curriculum to meet their own students’ needs.”

However, this is unlikely to occur because

8 | Spark | November 12, 2009

a pacing guide was made for all teachers in the core subject areas so East and Lakota West would both be ready for the exams. This guide was intended to help East teachers maintain a consistent schedule with Lakota West so all information on the common assessments would be available to all students.

“The pacing guide does not mean that if it’s Tuesday, every teacher needs to be on page 45.

Teachers still have the flexibility to spend more or less time on certain content,” said Smith.

“But they must all be at the same place by the end of the quarter. We want to strike a balance between providing consistent instruction and allowing teachers the autonomy to meet the needs of their individual students.”

The surveyed teachers expressed concern that quarter assessments double the number of school days used for exams, adding to lost time.

Teachers were not asked about pacing until after the changes were made to the Lakota policy.

The finished tests were given to the curriculum department, which then distributed the exams to the individual department chairs.

According to surveyed East teachers, 75 percent had to alter their curriculum schedule to fit all the information in for the common assessments.

Since some teachers have had to fit the same curriculum into fewer days, enjoyable activities have been cut due to lack of time.

“Creative, engaging instruction” is what some surveyed teachers consider better than “testing kids to death.”

In addition, the new exam policy concerned anonymous East Teacher B that not all students in Lakota schools are college bound.

“I believe our society, country and schools are missing the chance to educate and train millions of our students who are not college bound. We need to give kids the skills to be employed when they leave high school, or have the option for further education,” said Teacher B. Also among teachers’ concerns is the fact that many colleges, such as Ohio University, Ohio State University and University of Cincinnati, are moving to semester classes.

As colleges transition to less testing, some teachers have questioned how applicable tests are to real life and if students are tested too frequently.

One anonymous teacher commented that, “skills required for life, such as critical thinking, are not encouraged or tested.”

Some of the educational staff believe quarter assessments revolve around teaching students to get good grades on tests, not to learn the subject matter.

EAST STUDENTS RESPOND “Quarter exams cover less information, so students generally do better, but they also take a week off the curriculum, which forces teachers to cram.”

—Alex Hanavan East junior

“Quarter exams are good because they help us learn stuff from earlier in the year. But if we do bad on them, they bring our grade down.”

—Hannah Sigala East sophomore

“Exams are to show that we’ve absorbed the information we’ve learned. When we are tested over a full semester, it’s hard to prove we’ve learned it all.”

—Emily Cottingham East junior

“Since quarter exams take up more time, teachers spend less time reviewing, I feel less pressure to study and my grades are not as high.“ —Casey Clyde East junior

Of the surveyed East teachers, 70 percent prefer semester exams.

Smith said that the purpose of the assessments is to measure the students’ learning ability.

However, some teachers are concerned that the students do not put as much time into studying for the quarter exams because the test is only 10 percent of the semester grade.

“As issues occur, they will be examined and appropriate revisions will be made,” said Smith.

“The process can be difficult; we think the end result will be beneficial to students of Lakota.” n

news | club cards

Clocking In with Club Cards story ashley wolsefer

story jill bange | photos dan turner

photo dan turner

Club Cards will cover sponsorship costs and allow membership.

Incumbent Powell, Dibble, Murray Gain Board Seats

The Lakota East administration has implemented a Club Card program for the 200910 school year.

To be in one or more clubs, students must purchase a $10 Hawk Club Card which is presented at all club meetings. Club Cards were temporarily sold at lunch, but they can now be purchased at the cashier’s office.

According to East principal Dr. Keith Kline, there is a holistic cost of $20,000 to operate the clubs offered at East.

“In order for East to maintain clubs and activities for students this year, we had to fund the supplemental contracts for all of the club sponsors,” said Kline. “Spreading the financial cost of running all clubs evenly over the student body made more sense than charging for each individual club or activity.”

According to Kline, the East Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) and the East Spirit Shop, which sells spirit wear, candy and school supplies during bell changes, together fund $10,000 of club expenditures. Club Cards raised an additional $6,000, while the other $4,000 will be funded by donations.

In previous years, excess money in the substitute teachers’ budget was used for club expenses. Currently, there is not enough money in the budget to cover these costs, according to Kline. Therefore, additional individual club dues may still be required to enter a club.

“Some clubs might charge more because we’re in a transition year, but they [generally go towards] t-shirts and entry fees,” said Kline.

For example, East Spanish Club advisor Dana Chapman has altered her club’s fees this year.

“In the past, we have included t-shirt fees [which totaled $20]. [We] now [charge] $10 because we may not do a t-shirt,” said Chapman.

Unlike club fees, Club Cards are not exclusive to one club. The purchase of a card allows a student to participate in any club, granted that

the card is be presented at every club meeting.

“This allows students to be involved in as many clubs as they would like and assures that we can pay operating expenses for each group,” said Kline.

East junior Amy Botos supports the Club Card system.

“I think the way [the administration is] managing the cards makes it easier for more students to join more clubs,” said Botos. “I am in Drama Club, and I would rather buy a Club Card to help [with funding] than lose the club all together [due to lack of money].”

On the other hand, 58 percent of 500 East students surveyed say they will not purchase a club card. East junior Shelby Hornsby is one such student.

“I think students won’t want to pay $10 to be in a club,” said Hornsby. “I decided not to be in peer counseling this year because I didn’t want to pay for a card to just be in one club.”

Regardless of students’ attitudes towards the program, Kline hopes that the card will not only help fund the clubs, but also will motivate more students to become involved in multiple clubs.

“Charging individually for each [club] would limit student participation,” said Kline. “We wanted to encourage students to join a variety of clubs and activities.” n

Incumbent Joan Powell will return for her fourth term on the Lakota Local School Board and winners Ben Dibble and Ray Murray will join her after receiving 67 percent of the 43,079 votes cast on Nov. 3.

Powell finished ahead of the other candidates with 25.99 percent of the vote. Dibble and Murray received 22.39 percent and 18.62 percent, respectively, closely followed by current board president Jamie Green with 17.81 percent.

Candidate Doug Cooper finished with 6.55 percent of the vote.

Dibble and Murray will fill spots currently held by Green and board member Jeff Rubenstein, who did not run. However, the new president, vice president and treasurer will not be Dibble chosen until January.

Dibble described his initial reaction with one word: Wow. “It is kind of overwhelming to think one, the fact that I got elected – it’s pretty amazing – and two, there’s an Murray awful lot of responsibility to go along with it,” said Dibble. Community response is optimistic.

“I am very happy to see people elected in the school board who are active in the school,” said Lakota parent Powell Melissa Andler. “It is going to be a positive thing for [everyone].”

The community’s expectations are high.

“My hope is that the school district continues to be on the cutting edge,” said Lakota parent Diana Mulleniex. “I also want the board to keep the arts and work to get parents more involved.”

Election cycles occur every two years; terms are four years. Current positions held by Linda O’Connor and Paul Lohr will be up for reelection in 2011. n n NEXT ISSUE: The Role of a Board Member

Around the School

Looking to win a new pair of Nike sneakers, students designed shoes for the Nike ID contest during their lunch in the cafeteria annex. Christian Johnson won the shoes.

photo Jill Bange

10 | Spark | November 12, 2009

Seniors (from left) Katie Iles and Andrew Huster and juniors Nick Marshall and Andrew Breland discuss issues such as the stimulus package, obesity, and the climate bill at the Junior Statesmen meeting in October.

photo kevin li

photo abby hurley

Seniors Emily Finney and Julie Vash discuss the National Honor Society community service project, The Can Drive, during their October community service committee meeting.

TOM’S SUPERIOR DRIVING SCHOOL

So, Which ride would you prefer?

We thought so.

Tom’s Superior Driving School 7390 Liberty One Drive www.tomsdrivingschool.net

Tom’s Driving school provides a curriculum beyond the state requirement as well as a leader with 23 years experience. Combine that with a convenient location and Tom’s patented “road stories” and it’s a no brainer.

Call and enroll today!

(513)-779-1040

news | cold building photo illustration grace kennedy

Cold Blooded Building As East implements energy-efficient principles into its operational technology, faculty and students endure colder temperatures. story reb vachon With chilly room temperatures in the fall, it was not uncommon to find students bundled up in class.

D

uring the summer of 2009, the Lakota Local School District changed its internal operating systems to become more energy efficient and reduce its carbon footprint.

Energy-efficient lights were installed in most classrooms and in the gym. Motion sensors were added to turn off lights in certain rooms when unoccupied. Rooftop air-conditioning units and the large cooling towers on the north side of the building were replaced.

The district took advantage of House Bill 264, also known as the Energy Conservation Program, to pay for the changes. According to the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission’s website, the bill allows districts to “borrow funds without having to pass a ballot issue.”

According to Lakota Director of Buildings and Grounds Robert Fischer, the $2.4 million borrowed from the state allows for “changes to the heating and cooling system to save energy.”

The loan will then be paid off with the savings from conserving energy.

In addition, the district replaced the boilers and updated the control system. “[The custodians] spent much of the first nine weeks adjusting the new heating and cooling system,” said East principal Dr. Keith Kline.

This installation process, which took a year to complete, affected the overall temperature.

“Early this year I thought it was cold, even colder than usual,” said East teacher Patrick Kreider. “But I understand how the temperature in a building this large is difficult to manage.”

East’s main campus has an area of about 320,000 square feet. According to Kline, because of its size, the building relies on multiple heating and cooling systems to keep temperatures in an acceptable range. In addition, the number of

12 | Spark | November 12, 2009

people in the building is a factor according to Head East Custodian Wayne Fornash, which makes controlling the temperature diffucult.

“The new system caused us to have to relearn the intricacies of the building and make adjustments accordingly,” said Kline.

East is heated by a “variable volume/variable temperature reheat” system, according to Fischer. Air is pumped through the school and then reheated to the correct temperature before entering the room. This requires the boilers to be running, which makes the school very warm.

“We try to keep the boilers off during the summer months going into September, but some of the rooms get cold because when [teachers increase the temperature, the heat is] not there,” Fischer said. “When I start getting a lot of calls saying it’s just too cold, then we’ll turn them on.”

This year, the boilers were up for state inspection and not ready to run when the school year started on August 26. Also, the control systems that monitor temperature were not operational.

“We are slowly interfacing the old system with the new, so some rooms are still running

71 %

of 500 surveyed students at East feel that the building is too cold.

on the old system while others are using the new already,” said Fischer.

This automated system controls the temperature of East and of all 23 buildings in the district. Sensors located in thermostats and the heating equipment record data such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter. The computers then analyze all the data and adjust the temperature of the building accordingly.

Each teacher has limited influence over the thermostat in his or her room, but the automated system keeps the teachers from adjusting them to an extreme temperature. “[Teachers] can have some control; we keep it to a minimum in case someone puts the thermostat way up at 80 degrees. It won’t go up [that high],” said Fischer.

Many students who do not know about the change in heating systems have varied ideas as to why the school has been cold. Kreider has heard plenty of “conspiracy theories,” including that the school is purposely kept cold to kill off the H1N1 virus or to make students eat more food in the cafeteria. Another popular rumor is that the school is cold to encourage girls to dress more modestly and appropriately for school.

“I can safely say there is no direct correlation between the two, but if it helps students make better decisions about what to wear each day, maybe that is a good thing,” Kline said. “I honestly think it’s funny.”

Although students often complain about the temperature of the building, Kline knows that it is impossible to please everyone.

“It will continue to be a challenge to make sure the building is at a temperature that works for over 2,000 people,” said Kline. n

Venting or Refrigeration? infographic radhika madhavan

After the boilers are turned on, air can be reheated before entering classrooms.

Above each individual classroom is a Variable Air Volumn (VAV) box. This regulates the volume and temperature of air that is pumped into each room.

Until the boilers are turned on, a fan regulates how much 55-degree air is being blown into classrooms according to the teachers’ individual classroom settings.

The average size of a typical classroom is 750 square feet.

“[Heat due to occupants] would be over 400 British Thermal Units (BTU) per person, per hour, for a total of 12,000 BTUs per hour.

When you add in the heat loads from lighting, computers, other electrical equipment and the building walls and roof the total heat gain would equal that of a central air conditioner for a modest house – 2.5 tons, 30,000 BTUs. The room would warm up very quickly if it were not ventilated.”

After passing through the filter, air is circulated throughout the building.

Air is drawn in from outside by a fan, and a computer system measures the temperature of the air.

The computer accordingly opens valves that circulate hot and cold water through coils around air vents. This way, air is 55 degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of the outside temperature, before it reaches the particle filter.

atio

rm

info

r

he

sc

rt fi

e ob nr

news | H1N1

Behind the Mask Lakota policy deals with current cases of H1N1, a virus heavily covered in the media, and considers options for future outbreaks. stories emily lunsford, sarah craig, anna hartman infographic radhika madhavan | photo dan turner

East Takes Precautions

The H1N1 virus, formerly known as the swine flu, is a virus commonly found in pigs.

The virus can mutate and infect humans. Some symptoms are fever, cough, headache, chills, fatigue and a runny nose.

H1N1, unlike the common influenza, is spread through touch rather than through the air.

Many humans can overcome the virus without any medical treatment. However, an antiviral treatment and vaccine are available for those who need it.

The district has acknowledged the possibility of an outbreak of H1N1. For months a committee of Lakota teachers, administrators, nurses and custodial staff has been meeting and discussing a plan for a possible H1N1 outbreak.

“Our goal was really to preplan for any scenario that we knew we could be facing regarding H1N1 as we go into this school year,” said the Program Chair of the Lakota Nursing Department Mary Schnittger.

However, the plan is not yet finalized due to the uncertainty of how the disease would spread.

The district has adopted the guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to these guidelines, if any individual has a fever and flu-like symptoms, they should remain home until they have maintained a normal body temperature for 24 hours without aid of feverreducing medication.

If a student becomes ill while in the school building, he or she will be isolated and masked.

At that time, a parent will be contacted to pick up the student from school.

Staff members who become ill with flu-like symptoms will also be isolated and masked.

Furthermore, the district’s custodial staff has put an emphasis on cleanliness and germ-reducing environments. Restrooms, desks and other areas which are commonly used in the school are regularly cleaned because the virus can last up to eight hours on a surface.

East teachers are being additionally prepared for cases of H1N1. In case of possible illness, teachers were instructed to keep plans for substitutes updated. Teachers are also encouraged to post assignments and notes on Edline so they are accessible for any student who is home sick.

“There will definitely be more e-mail and phone contact for assignments,” said East

14 | Spark | November 12, 2009

sociology teacher John Lindeman.

Aside from adjusting the educational environment to the possibility of students being absent due to illness, the district is also following CDC guidelines for school closings, which allow schools to stay open if few students have H1N1. In order to prevent the spread of illness, students have been instructed via posters on the proper technique for washing hands and coughing into the sleeve.

“If you have been in any of the school buildings, hopefully you’re seeing the big posters on cough etiquette and washing your hands,” said Schnittger.

East teachers have been Following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control, and prevention if students become ill sending students to the nurse during the school day they will be isolated and masked. at the first sign of illness, keeping hand sanitizer available and emphasizing the importance of correct official records of the actual number of H1N1 coughing and sneezing etiquette to students. cases at East because most doctors stopped According to East nurse Peggy Boerke, “the testing for it. Instead, the doctors simply main thing is to keep [infected students] away” recognize symptoms of the H1N1 virus and from other students and faculty. immediately prescribe treatment.

In addition, the district sent information to However, according to Boerke, the first three parents and teachers to keep them notified of weeks of October had an average absence rate ways to prevent illness. of 81 students per day.

Cases will be posted on the district website Boerke does not find this number alarming. along with information on ways to keep children According to CDC recommendations, when healthy and what to do if they become sick. a school reaches a 20 percent absence rate as Lakota is also using phone communication to a result of illness, the administration should inform parents. An auto call system has been set consider closing. up to send out H1N1 news.

“The attendance rate might be a little lower “We’re working to manage the situation in on some days, but it has not gotten up to 10 our district,” said Schnittger. “We know we can’t percent, much less 20 percent,” said Boerke. stop it, but we know we can get that prevention A similar pattern of absence occurred at message out and keep our parents as up to date neighboring high schools such as Lakota West as possible.” and Mason High School.

“Our absent rate for illness was a bit up Thunderhawks Catch H1N1 [during] the weeks of Oct. 11 through Oct. 24,” The H1N1 virus has triggered a downfall said Lakota West nurse Janet Denherder. “The in attendance at East during flu season for the absence rate for illness that was related to flu2009-10 school year, but attendance rates have like symptoms was about three to four percent not significantly decreased in comparison to on Oct. 15, a random day [in the peak of flu those caused by typical influenza seasons in past season].” years.

Mason High School also was confronted with According to Boerke, the school kept no multiple cases of H1N1.

“Our attendance was way lower for a week and a half in October than it probably has ever been before, but we are already back to normal,” said a Mason attendance officer, who has requested to remain anonymous.

Mason sophomore Amanda Patton noticed this decrease in attendance.

“Everyone would always talk about how some new person was home sick,” said Patton.

“Over half of the students were gone in each of my classes. It was really bad, but it went down to normal pretty quickly.”

Although the flu has minimally affected overall attendance rates, it has greatly impacted individual students who became infected.

East senior Lindsey Flick was out of school for two weeks straight with the H1N1 virus.

“Any symptom you could think of, I had it.

I was basically like a baby but almost 18,” said Flick.

Following the two weeks of a 103-degree temperature, Flick recovered from H1N1 but encountered a new challenge upon returning to school – juggling a heavy load of makeup work. She missed three essays, 13 quizzes, six tests, a lab, first quarter exams and additional homework.

On the other hand, East junior Mike King had a different experience with the H1N1 virus.

King recovered after only 24 hours of hot and cold flashes and excessive coughing.

“It really was not that bad. I had a fever for one day of 103 degrees, but then I took my medicine and it went away,” said King.

While attendance rates this winter are not significantly different from typical winter attendance rates, the community is still wary of the full effects of H1N1.

According to staff writer for the Dayton Daily News Rich Wilson, who frequently reports on H1N1, the full effects of the virus will remain unknown until the completion of peak flu season.

“I think it remains to be seen how big of a thing [H1N1] is,” said Wilson. “We’ll probably have a better idea at the end of this season.”

The Media Reports on H1N1

When the spread of H1N1 was declared a National Health Emergency, many people feared what the impacts of contracting the virus would be, resulting in a media frenzy.

According to University of Cincinnati Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Dr. Judith Rhodes, coverage of the virus is crucial considering that the risk of being afflicted with the H1N1 virus is severe, particularly for young people.

“H1N1 influenza is an important public health problem,” said Rhodes. “One of the other concerns about H1N1 is that it appears to cause particularly severe problems in a subset of previously healthy, younger patients.”

As a member of the media, Wilson believes the severity of the virus is precisely why it must be reported on by various forms of media.

“The health departments are telling us that

it’s a new virus and that it is, in fact, a pandemic. The fact that they’re telling us that it’s something to look at more closely is why we One of the other concerns about need to cover it. We’re kind of reporting what they’re H1N1 is that it appears to cause telling us,” said Wilson. particularly severe problems in “There are also different protocols that businesses a subset of previously healthy, have implemented regarding younger patients. the virus and absences.

Those are all things we sensational, but rather there are just a number of report on.” different people reporting it.”

East junior Whitney Dottery thinks media According to Boerke, it is necessary to be reports on deaths resulting from the virus may alert and informed, but students should not cause students to overreact to the dangers of overreact to the potential risk of contracting the contracting H1N1.

H1N1 virus.

“I know a few people have died from it, so “Publicity is a double-edged sword. You need that automatically makes people a little scared,” to be concerned, but don’t panic,” said Boerke. said Dottery. “But I don’t necessarily think the Rhodes agrees, comparing H1N1 to the media is to blame completely [for the public seasonal strain of influenza, which does not frenzy].” typically arouse as much public alarm.

According to Wilson, the risks of contracting “Often the public loses track of the fact that the virus are not sensationalized by the media. seasonal influenza kills approximately 36,000 “I think people tend to read just a little bit of a story or they’ll catch just a headline and be very people in the United States each year,” said influenced by just part of the story,” said Wilson. Rhodes. “I don’t know whether one strain of influenza is better or worse. The populations in “I don’t know how much [the coverage] is which more severe cases are seen appears to be sensationalized. I think it’s simply been reported. [only slightly] different between seasonal flu and When it gets reported over and over by so many H1N1.”– additional reporting by Katie Szczur  different media outlets, it might seem like it’s

“

Symptoms of H1N1 Headache

Inflammation from infection can cause tissues to swell and press against nearby nerves, causing painful headaches.

Fever

When white blood cells sense an infection, they release a chemical that alerts the brain to raise the body’s temperature. This rise in body temperature helps the body fight the infection by creating non-ideal conditions for the infection.

Runny Nose

Nasal cavity membranes inflamed by infection excrete excess mucus, clogging the nose and irritating the throat.

Cough and Sore Throat

Many influenza viruses cause tracheobronchitis, an inflammation of the trachea and bronchi. This irritates the throat and causes coughing.

information – www.cdc.gov

15 | Spark | November 12, 2009

news | busing The Woodland “Walk Home from School Day” was sponsored

by Ohio State University Extension, the Parent Teacher Association and Lakota YMCA. The event prepared students for the possibility of walking home from school.

Transforming Transportation As the Lakota Local School District reviews its budget, the transportation system has come under scrutiny and changes have been made to make busing as efficient as possible. story justine chu | photos dan turner

W

ithout a levy or prosperous economy in the foreseeable future, the Lakota Local School District was forced to modify its transportation system for the 2009-10 school year.

The overhaul of the transportation system was left to Executive Director of Business Operations Chris Passarge. Petermann Bus Service and Lakota’s Director of Transportation Michael Miller also shared in this responsibility.

Passarge worked with Transpar, a national company that analyzes busing routes in order to help schools cut down on costs while keeping the routes effective.

“We looked at where we could [improve and] become more efficient,” said Passarge. “[Transpar] compared us to other districts for best [procedures].”

After the evaluation, Transpar sent a report of suggestions for cost-cutting methods

“

Each bus costs approximately $70,000 a year.

”

to Passarge. This included consolidating routes, changing bell times and transporting preschoolers, kindergartners and first graders on the same routes.

With Transpar’s recommendations, the Lakota transportation department cut back the district’s needed number of buses by combining preschool routes with other Early Childhood school routes, eliminating some private school bus runs and utilizing the school “sign up” process and the rated capacity of the buses, which under Ohio law mandates no more than 72 students per bus in order to more effectively route its buses.

Altogether, the transportation department

16 | Spark | November 12, 2009

eliminated 23 school buses, reducing the district’s spending by $1.5 million. For example, changing the time when Shawnee Early Childhood Center began its school day saved the district $700,000.

Lakota’s routing system consists of three tiers, each with a different start time: an early tier, which includes the high schools, private schools; a middle tier, comprised of the junior high schools and some elementary schools and early childhood centers such as Independence, Adena and Shawnee; and a late tier, consisting of all other schools. “[Transpar] said to us that we had a bubble in our routing system,” said Passarge.

The bubble came from the difference in the amount of buses from one tier to another. It was flattened when Shawnee was shifted from the middle tier to the late tier, evening out the amount of buses needed in each tier.

This meant that Lakota was able to eliminate 10 buses “right off the bat,” according to Passarge. Each bus costs approximately $70,000 a year to operate, including bus drivers, benefits for employees and expenses for fuel, gas and

PART ONE in a four-part series

L AKOTA

$

B

udget

$

LAKOT

A

Each issue the Spark will cover a single budget aspect. This issue covers cuts in transportation.

repairs.

Twenty of the 23 eliminated buses are old buses that Lakota decided to retire. Since the buses had been bought with taxpayers’ money, Lakota is required by law to have a public auction to sell them. The revenue earned from the auction is not included in the $1.5 million the district saved. Although auctioning off the buses earned some revenue, combining routes saved the most money.

According to Passarge, routes were combined because some buses had extra time in their routes or more space for additional students.

This change challenged the transportation department to operate in a more cost-effective manner while still maintaining excellent standards of student safety and customer service.

However, having more students on the bus does not mean that the bus is overloaded and

therefore unsafe.

“This is a simple matter of educating our parents, especially on the elementary level,” Miller said in response to students’ and parents’ complaints that buses are overcrowded. 58 percent of 293 East students surveyed who ride the bus think their bus is overcrowded.

The most common type of buses, Type C, is made so that each seat may hold three students.

Those students must be seated safely behind the seating barrier with the aisle left clear. When this cannot be accomplished, due to the amount of students, adjustments are made accordingly so that all students are safely seated. Also, any objects that students bring on the bus, such as band instruments and book bags, must be able to sit on students’ laps.

Bus drivers are also responsible for using discretion in reporting whether or not their bus is adequate in size. If a bus is deemed overcrowded, adjustments such as placing some students on another bus or having another bus to accommodate those students are made accordingly.

Bus drivers help minimize costs on the road by conserving fuel. They are not allowed to deviate from established routes or let their buses sit idle for more than five minutes at a time.

While some are unhappy with full buses, other are displeased with sparsely-populated ones. Kay Sanders, a Petermann bus driver, said that when taxpayers see a school bus that is only half-filled with students driving around the neighborhood, they will ask why Lakota still needs a levy.

However, some costs of operating a bus are hidden from the taxpayers’ eye.

Legally, the district must transport all students from kindergarten to eighth grade, whether they go to public or private schools. However, Lakota is only required to provide transportation for the parochial students whose school is 30 minutes away from the public school the student would have initially attended.

Since Lakota transports all students, this policy diminishes the effectiveness of

Jake Clark and other Woodland Elementary students participate in Woodland’s “Walk Home from School Day.” While walking to Liberty Park, students learned about proper safety methods for walking to school.

the changes the district is currently making, according to Transpar.

Therefore, to minimize more costs, Lakota has encouraged students to walk to school.

However, only 28 percent of 500 East students surveyed said they would walk if they lived within two miles of the school. “[We advocate walking] because of the health benefits. [Battling] child obesity promotes independence, natural importance [and] a sense of community. Kids get to meet friends and neighbors, [and] there are environmental benefits. We’re cutting back on traffic, and that’s better for air quality,” said Dan Remley, who is part of the Ohio State University Extension Program, which works with communities about specific local development issues.

At the Woodland “Walk Home from School

infographic ariadne souroutzidis

Day,” a survey was conducted for parents’ to voice their greatest concerns about their children walking to school. Out of 14 issues listed, the top three complaints were: no sidewalks or inadequate routes to school with 18 votes, vehicles speeding through neighborhoods with 17 votes, and “stranger danger” and bullying with 12 votes.

Passarge mentioned that the Ohio State University Extension Program and Liberty Township are currently requesting state funding to build walkways within a certain radius around schools. Walkways will not be created where there is heavy traffic, such as Yankee Road, which would be unsafe for children.

To further enforce safety, Woodland Elementary School students participated in a walk from the school to Liberty Park learn how to be aware of their surroundings when they Changes 500 East Students Have Noticed on Buses in the 2009-10 School Year walk to school.

To cut down on % spending in the future, 6 longer routes walking zones may be created for students to get to school without more 18%students buses. According to on each bus Miller, even with budget cuts, the safety of the students would remain % longer 18 routes and the top priority in future more riders plans.

“The decrease in funding for public 15%no changes schools across Ohio [has forced] school 43%do not ride districts to look at every the bus way possible to reduce spending,” said Miller. n

17 | Spark | November 12, 2009

feature | Community feature

Haunted by Its Past story and photos abby buns | infographic kim shearer

A

long the narrow hall, the nameplates of the unoccupied judge chambers reflect the limited light streaming into the hallway.

Behind each door, sparse wooden furniture still stands. Intricate book cases and stone detailing cover the walls of every room. Stairs wind up to an infamous tower haunted by its dramatic past.

The Butler County courthouse is the fifth courthouse built in the county and the third building built on the current site in Hamilton City.

The construction of the building began in 1885 and was finished three years later.

The flood of 1913 was the first in a string of catastrophes to strike the courthouse. Hamilton city residents took refuge on the upper floors of the

18 | Spark | November 12, 2009

courthouse. After the water receded, the courthouse was used as a temporary morgue for 10 days to hold some of the 200 people who died in the flood, and Hamilton City residents congregated around the courthouse, attempting to confirm the identity of any of the bodies that were brought forward.

Urban legend states one the spirits of the deceased firemen, killed during the raging fire, walks the tower protecting those inside from future fires.

The less fortunate were the three Hamilton firefighters who lost their lives: John Hunker, William Love, and George Fritz.

Jim Blount, a Hamilton City historian and retired Journal News writer, states that “between 1889 and 1999, the courthouse endured fire, flood,

Is your house being

haunted?

Below are the most commonly reported factors for suspected paranormal activity. Don’t confuse them with natural occurrences!

Odd sounds such as scratching, moaning and whispering are audible.

Flashes of light, shadows and floating lights are visible.

Unpleasant or sweet odors are smelled.

Doors, taps, and light switches are found open or turned on.

Objects disappear and sometimes fall.

(Top) view of an office inside the courthouse; (left) stairs leading to one of the four stories of the building which houses a 172-year-old clock (opposite page); (right) old court records.

Pets sense and react to something not visible to humans.

Ghosts are seen.

Hauntings are unexplained phenomena that witnesses believe are paranormal. When more than two separate people claim the same occurrences, the place may be haunted. Though hauntings are not entirely explained, magnetic fields are thought to be an explanation for some sightings. “Paranormal history” can cause some witnesses to see things which can be explained by science. information http://www.assap.org numerous storms and at least one ghost.”

The courthouse fell to a fire during an ordinary day in 1912. Although the structure suffered no permanent damage, the fire brought tragedy to the city of Hamilton.

The Journal News reported that very few people were alerted about the falling clock tower as the building continued to burn away.

The collapse of the clock tower was the most catastrophic event of the night.

“Several people were warned just before the entire tower, including the bell, dropped to the lobby. Cries from the pile of debris indicated others had not been as fortunate,” says Blount.

Along with the natural disasters, the multiple lives were changed based on the sentences handed down from the courts.

John Griffin, was sentenced to hanging on the courthouse lawn on July 29, 1869 after being accused of killing a man in a Hamilton bar. The stories continue to circulate about the ghosts thought to inhabit the building due to the multiple deaths.

One particular ghost sighting was reported by many staff members, inspiring papers to write about it, and Blount to compile a series of quotes from past newspapers to develop a complete understanding of the events that took place.

In 1893, the Hamilton Republican ran an account of a “ghost encounter” in the treasurer’s office. The watchman believed he saw a face of a previous watchman, who had hung himself in the room years before, reflected in the clock. The man’s death was suspected of being either murder or suicide, because the treasury was robbed that same night.

The report stated that one night the watchman was investigating a noise in the treasurer’s office when he entered and saw a “lifelike face overshadowing the clock dial.” The face appeared “sad” and “that of a man who seemed anxious to tell something, but was deprived of speech.”

The theory is that the man wanted to tell the names of his attackers.

However, Stacey Jones, founder of the Central New York Ghost Hunters

and featured on the television show A Haunting in 2007, says it is never easy to tell why paranormal activity may be occurring at a sight.

“It is the million dollar question,” says Jones. “That is why we do what we do.”

Overall, the theories behind the reasoning of paranormal activity have major variations.

“The science of paranormal is based on a lot of conjecture and theories (so it’s considered pseudoscience),” says the Dayton Ohio Ghost Hunters Society, D.O.G.S, who investigate any complaints of paranormal activity in the area. “This is due to the fact that you can’t study a ghost in a controlled lab experiment. That being said, the common belief is that ghosts haunt a place because it held some meaning to them in their life. Some believe that if a person dies tragically, suddenly, or violently, their life force doesn’t get a chance to dissipate into the environment as it would during a natural death.”

Judge Joseph Bressler, currently acting on the Hamilton Court of Appeals, previously worked at the courthouse. Prior to his current job, Bressler spent his career as an Assistant Prosecutor and Common Pleas Judge in the Butler County Courthouse from 1969-2000. He spent many late nights at the courthouse. Bressler stated, “Although many strange events took place at the courthouse, none of them were paranormal.”

Jones says it may be only specific people that can experience a ghost encounter.

“The reason ghosts tend to haunt a specific place has to do with the people and the frequency. Some people do not experience any activity at all while others might because they are not at the same paranormal frequency as the ghosts.”

Therefore, the stories will always vary as to what truly goes on around this historic building.

The hallways hold the stories of many tragedies and life changing events.

However, the possibility of the deceased actually haunting the Butler County Courthouse will forever be a mystery. n

19 | Spark | November 12, 2009

feature | dart

She’s Got Talent story allison korson | photo caroline tompkins

Claire Muenchen, an East freshman has recorded songs in the same studio as Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, Trace Adkins and Martina McBride. Although she’s still in high school, Muenchen has impressed many by the heart she puts into every song and hopes to one day achieve the fame of those who came before her.

A

t the age of two, Claire was singing songs from the musical Annie, with that powerful voice of hers. No one expected something so strong to come from such a little girl, but with her talent she has now become a recording artist.

“I’ve been singing ever since I could talk,” says Claire. “I think I was just always interested in it, being on stage and singing for people.”

Claire’s first time singing in front of an audience was the Children’s Performing Arts of Lakota (CPAL) Idol competition when she was eight years old.

“When I was eight, I was scared to death. I thought I’d never be able to be out in front of all those people. I was so little and I was so nervous,” she says. “But the next year it was the polar opposite; I don’t know what changed.”

She won her age division in CPAL Idol that year and could not compete again until she was in the next category. When she was eligible again, she beat out the other contestants in the 12 to 18 age division.

Claire’s current producer and songwriter Dan Landau attended the Mason Idol competition in August of 2009 to watch some of the students he

20 | Spark | November 12, 2009

had coached. After hearing Claire sing, he knew he had found a unique talent.

“I wasn’t looking to pick anyone out of the crowd. A lot of this whole thing is not describable because no one was looking for anyone and the combination just worked,” says Landau.

Her family and Landau agree that Claire has something special that she brings to her performances.

“When she sings, you feel like her heart is singing. She’s an ultra-believable performer,” says Landau. “Claire has an incredible stage presence, and she has the power to move people. She’s really good at making the words to songs come to life.”

Claire’s older sister Kelly enjoys watching her perform as well.

“I hear Claire sing all the time, but when I see her perform it’s a lot different because you can see how much she’s getting into the song and you can see her emotions,” says Kelly. “She can portray that to the audience well.”

Landau and Claire work together almost every other day, perfecting the songs. He has never Each issue the Spark staff picks a random East student and covers a unique aspect of his or her life.

worked with anyone to the extent he works with Claire.

About five weeks after Landau first heard Claire sing, the hard work paid off when Claire, Kelly, her dad and her mom Sally went to Nashville, Tennessee to record four songs at Dark Horse Recording and Atlantis Studios.

Despite Claire’s lack of experience, the producers and engineers were very helpful.

“They don’t care who you are or if you’ve never done anything or if you’re a big star. Everybody is treated equally which is really neat,” says Sally. “It could’ve been really intimidating.”

Dark Horse is removed from the city and it is the studio where Taylor Swift and Faith Hill recorded their platinum-winning albums.

“It’s really private, so it gives artists who don’t want to be in the city a place to go, rent the cottage, stay there for a week and possibly get the whole album recorded,” says Sally.

The family agrees that the whole experience was one to remember.

“It was really cool,” says Claire. “We all had fun working together.”

Claire spent that Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the studios recording vocals, watching the

information ben blakesley www.abclearnguitar.com

A Song-In-The-Making drummer and guitarist lay their tracks and then laying her own.

“When we were listening to the track for the first time back, I was blown away by everything, because I never thought it would be that good!” says Claire.

Production of a song can take anywhere from a week to a couple months.

“When the songs are mastered, they adjust the sound on all of the instruments so they’re not louder than the voice. They do a lot to mix it then master it,” says Sally. “We [had] never heard it all together so when he played it for the first time, it was like you could hear it on the radio. We were playing it in the car, so it made it even more real.”

Landau is familiar with this process and has written over 600 songs. After seeing Claire, he wrote four songs for her to sing.

“The songs are country, alternative and pop, all put together. I usually sing country,” says Claire. “But the songs are my style because I also listen to alternative and it’s cool to be able to have exactly what I want all together.”

Her single, “Ready For Anything,” debuts at the end of October.

Although Landau sees unlimited potential in her, he and Claire sing because they love it.

“I think the true performers have to do this every day. I would rather change minds or hearts any day than be famous. And I think that’s the same with Claire,” says Landau. “I think she’s one of those people. Our goal is not to become famous or to make a million dollars. Those things are icing on the cake if we’re lucky enough to experience them, but we just want to get out there and sing for people; it’s part of who we are.”

Claire and her family are trying to take her career slowly and keep in perspective her education, friends and normal life.

1

“Everybody wants their dream and when you’re younger, those dreams aren’t really realistic, but this has been an amazing opportunity,” says Sally. “It was being at the right place at the right time.”

According to Landau, they are all glad that they found this situation and each other.

Landau feels that Claire’s enthusiasm is one of a professional.

“She is probably the most considerate and respectful young person of that age that I’ve ever worked with. As a person, she’s a sweet, wonderful, warm person. She listens and really gets it as far as the artistic side of things,” says Landau. “Part of my goal is that this helps her become the person she wants to be. I think she has unlimited potential. You learn as you go; you set new goals as you get to others.

We’re taking it as it goes and we’re trying to do everything right.”

Claire loves performing, but there was one thing she felt she was missing.

“I’ve really wanted cowgirl boots to wear when I’m singing,” she says. “A week before Mason Idol, I went to Trader’s World with my cousin, my mom and my sister and my eyes just went straight to these boots and I wouldn’t leave the place until I got them.”

She wore them while performing at the Mason Idol competition, which is where Landau discovered her. Claire now considers her boots lucky.

Boots are not the only things that make her performance special. Landau recognizes her talent as “something to be reckoned with.”

“I want her to be recognized as an artist with great credibility,” says Landau. “I know she’s just a student but she’s got this unlimited potential. If she keeps this up, she’ll be there.

There’s no question in my mind. She is a magical singer; her heart is in every word.” n

2

photos – muenchen family

Muenchen recording songs at Dark Horse Recording and Atlantis Studios in Nashville, Tennessee

Compose it

Write your lyrics and let the melody start taking form.

Arrange it

Decide a tempo and assign instrument parts.

3

Record it

4

Edit it

5

Mix it

6

Master it

Record your performance using micro-tracking: each section (vocals, guitar, bass) is recorded separately.

Change the timing and pitch of the original recordings and blend different takes for a natural and unified sound.

Combine different tracks together, sometimes being altered and enhanced so they sound right.

Raise the volume to a usable level and make sure the song can be played out of all speakers.

“I’ve been singing ever since I could talk. I think I was just always interested in it, being on stage and singing for people.”

21 | Spark | November 12, 2009

feature | club feature

For a growing number of East students, Young Life represents not only a club, but also the chance to live

A Changed Life story anna hartman | photo kevin li, heidi yang

T

here is something different about them. Even the most avid coffee drinkers, engrossed in their laptops, cellphones and Pumpkin Spice lattes, pause briefly to glance at the two girls. Their meeting does not resemble that of many Starbucks customers; they do not discuss business matters, nor do they meet to form a study group for the Honors Anatomy test next week. Their conversations and laughter are marked with a particular honest flair. The relationship of the two teenage girls, sitting at the table in the corner of the Starbucks on Cincinnati Dayton Road, has the mark of a genuine friendship – a relationship whose authenticity even attracts the attention of preoccupied Starbucks customers.

“She’s one of the most important people in my life,” says East senior Jenna Everson about Young Life leader Devon Bradford, with whom she shares weekly coffee meetings, along with other Young Life gatherings.

“Actually, when I think about it, she’s probably the first genuinely healthy friendship I’ve ever had and my first example of how to follow Christ, so I

22 | Spark | November 12, 2009

look up to her in a lot of ways. I just love her.”

Everson’s relationship with Bradford, who is a senior at Miami University, began during Everson’s freshman year when she was starting to attend Young Life.

“It kind of started out as this distant thing for me where she was just my leader and I was just a Young Life kid,” says Everson.

The development of such relationships is an important component of the mission of Young Life, an international Christian organization which annually involves 76,119 American high school students, according to the group’s website.

“Young people today need positive relationships in their lives,” says Brad Holitzell, the area director of the Greater Cincinnati Young Life region. “[Students who are involved with Young Life] have [Young Life leaders] in their lives who are positive influences, who are loving them, interacting with them and trying to encourage them in life. Seldom in our lives do we have

“

“

Sometimes when barriers are broken down and someone really opens up about their life, it’s an incredible thing to be a part of.

those really key relationships.”

These relationships are not one-sided, but rather are genuine friendships built between a college leader and a high school student.

The other college leaders involved are Brandon Bear, Kelci Haydocy and Travis Lepera.

Haydocy, who is a junior at Miami University, counts her friendships with East students as being immensely impactful in her life.

“Sometimes when barriers are broken down and someone really opens up about their life, it’s an incredible thing to be a part of,” says Haydocy.

“Without a doubt, getting to know students at East and sharing my life with them has been the most rewarding experience [of my life].”

Strong relationships are the norm in Young Life. The leaders believe that building friendships with East students is the paramount way to reach a wide range of people and bring them into a relationship with Jesus – the ultimate goal of Young Life.

For East senior Daniel Tait, this relationship-based approach proved effective. He began attending Young Life as a reluctant submission to Everson’s persuasion to go to a meeting, but soon grew to love the atmosphere and people involved in Young Life. “[Everson] had been begging me to go for a couple months and finally I decided ‘What the heck’ and went to Club,” says Tait.

However, Tait got more than he bargained for at his first Club, the Young Life meeting on Monday nights. He was hooked. He became progressively involved in the organization as he began to attend not only Club, but also the weekly Young Life Bible study, Core.

“Core is really just going deeper [than Club],” says Haydocy. “It is a smaller group. We worship and then one of the leaders will teach on an aspect of the gospel.”

Tait also went to Fall Weekend, the annual Young Life retreat to Camp Kern with approximately 600 other Young Life members from the Greater Cincinnati area. This retreat brought about new friends, amusing activities and a life-altering experience for Tait, as he began to truly understand the message that Young Life projected.

“I went to Fall Weekend and for the first time accepted God into my life as my Savior,” says Tait.

Following Fall Weekend, Tait’s new Young Life community continued to urge growth in his spiritual life as his friendships with Young Life leaders increasingly intensified, particularly his friendship with Lepera.

“He’s not only my Young Life leader; I also consider him to be one of my best friends,” says Tait. “He’s encouraged me to grow constantly and helps to guide me in my walk with Christ.”

Tait made a public statement of his new-found faith and spiritual growth on Oct. 25 when he was baptized at Four Corners Church. Demonstrating support and love for his mentee, Lepera attended the baptism.

“It felt amazing to know [Lepera] was there on my next spiritual step,” says Tait.

According to Lepera, stories like Tait’s speak to his role as a Young Life leader and friend.

“I think that’s why I do it,” says Lepera. “The goal of a Young Life leader is to eventually initiate a friendship where you’re not only just a leader, but also a friend and a person to call when they need you. Unfortunately, kids

have all these influences telling them ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘you can’t do that.’ As a leader, we don’t want to be another parent or another counselor.

We want to impact their lives and not order them around.”

The impact of Young Life leaders has indeed changed Tait’s life, and he too wants to provide that same influence on high school students. In college, Tait plans on leading Young Life at a local high school.

“My life has been completely changed by Young Life and it’s led me to develop a relationship with Christ. I’ve had so many fun experiences, learned so much and have developed some of the best relationships I may ever know,” says Tait. “In college, I want so badly to influence high school kids like I have been influenced.”

In addition to being strong role models and friends, the duty of a Young Life leader consists of supporting high school students through ensuring a fun and laid-back atmosphere at Young Life events.

“I feel that often today high schoolers don’t get a chance to be high schoolers and don’t get much of a chance to have fun. There are so many pressures – academic pressures, personal pressures and extra-curricular pressures. One thing that Young Life wants to do is provide an atmosphere where high school folks can be high school folks and have fun,” says Holitzell. “Plus, we really believe that God is fun and He wants us to have a fun life and a life of adventure. So fun, humor and adventure are a big part of what [Young Life tries to provide to students].”

A typical Young Life meeting incorporates the belief that having fun is a crucial aspect of life by singing pop culture songs, watching comical videos, performing outrageous skits and hosting competitions between peers.

Shoving bananas into their mouths while wearing panty hose over their heads, watching the leaders perform a skit which pokes fun at Celebrity Jeopardy and shouting the lyrics to John Mayer’s “Free Falling” – are all opportunities for Young Life members to relax and laugh in a supportive atmosphere.

“We want students to be able to come and not worry about looking cool or putting up a wall. That’s why we do fun and crazy stuff during Club,” says Bradford. “We want people to come and feel welcome. They can come to Young Life and just let loose.”

Although the majority of the hour time slot which Club occupies is devoted to these activities, Holitzell believes the entire hour incorporates Young Life’s message – not just the 10-minute discussion at the end in which a leader shares stories about his or her faith and where they have seen God in his or her life.

“The whole meeting is a message. Everything down from the music to the skit is part of the message. The idea of fun is part of the message. The idea of laughter is part of the message,” says Holitzell. “So much laughter today is negative laughter. It’s laughing at someone, so we try to provide opportunities for good, positive, fun laughter. That’s what Young Life is about.” n Photos: opposite page, Young Life leaders (from left to right) Bear, Bradford, Haydocy and Lepera pose for a photo at Edge Teen Center. facing page, members wait to board the bus for Fall Weekend; Tait manages slides and music during meetings; on stage, the Young Life band performs pop culture songs at Club; leaders and club members at the annual Fall Weekend held at Camp Kern.

23 | Spark | November 12, 2009

MARIJUAN

24 | Spark | November 12, 2009

NAMERICA

stories dana sand, faiz siddiqui, lucy stephenson, jill bange, mason hood, tyler castner *names of sources have been changed

e walked through the front door returning from a party, best friend at his side. It was a typical weekend night, but what he approached in his kitchen was not so typical.

His parents met him, armed with the predetermined plan to randomly drug test him.

They had been suspicious since smelling his car the week before, but now they wanted answers. He and his friend each took the store-bought test. His friend passed. He did not.

After that fateful night, his parents enrolled him in an outpatient rehabilitation program at Gateways Recovery in downtown Cincinnati in hopes of convincing him to give up his marijuana use, which he attributes to peer pressure. “[My friends] did it in front of me and told me how fun it was and how I would never experience anything like it,” East senior John Doe* says.

And Doe is not alone. The 2008 Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, revealed that out of 46,348 nationally representative students, 14.6 percent of eighth graders, 29.9 percent of tenth graders and 42.6 percent of twelfth graders had used marijuana at least once in their lifetime. Of those students, 0.9 percent, 2.7 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, used marijuana daily.

Furthermore, out of 500 surveyed East students, nine percent use marijuana daily, seven percent often, 10 percent occasionally and six percent rarely. Also, 53 percent of these 500 students say they personally know more than 10 marijuana users.

Dr. Jag Khalsa, Chief of NIDA’s Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse and Co-occurring Infections Branch at NIDA, attributes marijuana’s status as the nation’s most commonly used illicit drug to several factors.

“Young adolescents perceive it to be harmless, find it ‘cool’ to do what their older peers do, find it easily available through other young people who use it, and it [has a] low cost compared to other more expensive drugs like cocaine,” Khalsa says.

Ryan Vandrey, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University, reveals another possible reason for marijuana’s popularity.

“Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the U.S. and most of the developed world, for that matter. The reason for this is not entirely clear,” he says. “One likely factor

is that marijuana is a very hearty plant that grows well in most climates, requires very little work and skill to process, and is thus very widely available. Because marijuana is so widely used and available, it is most frequently the first illegal drug someone uses and others naturally follow.”

Supporting Vandrey’s analysis, 39 percent of the 500 surveyed East students claim to know specific locations where they can buy marijuana. Doe can also attest to the ease of attaining the illegal drug.

“It is pretty easy,” Doe says, claiming that most high school students drive to Clifton to buy marijuana. “It’s everywhere if you look in the right places.”

Psychologist and addictions specialist Dr. Richard Baum emphasizes the young age at which students are now able to attain marijuana as well.

“What we find out is that for some reason marijuana seems to be easier to get when you’re younger, and as you get to be 16 or 17, juniors or seniors, what you’ll notice is that kids start to drink more,” Baum says. “Not that marijuana goes away, but alcohol is available at parties. It’s available because people steal it from stores – they go to Kroger and steal diluted alcohol and kids will sell it to other kids for their ADHD medications.”

Baum also attributes popularity among teenagers to social pressures similar to those Doe cited as a major influence.

“They do it because it’s there, because somebody that they want to like them offers it to them. It’s because this is a time period in their life where they’re trying to learn about things and experiment about things and understand things,” he says. “You want people to like you. You want to feel accepted. And that’s normal. What’s interesting about that, for future reference, is that it’s unlikely, unless you stay in Cincinnati, that you will ever do anything with any of these people you meet in high school ever again after you get out of high school.”

Although high school students may not see their peers after graduation, Baum still acknowledges the dilemma teenagers face when considering how to shape their identity in high school.

“If you think about it at 16 or 17, marijuana is only as illegal as alcohol and cigarettes. So, you have a whole different criterion when you look whether or not that creates a problem for people,” Baum says. “What you’re talking about is a cultural shift, which says that marijuana is acceptable in the high schools, and that if you don’t get high, you’re not cool. So the question is, can you still be yourself and not use marijuana? Can you still feel it’s okay not to be accepted?”

Vandrey further explains why adolescents view marijuana as a safe and acceptable drug of choice.

“The perception of youth about the dangers of a certain drug tend to reflect its current popularity. As you might expect,

25 | Spark | November 12, 2009

if all your friends are using a drug and seem to be OK and having fun, you wouldn’t necessarily think it is such a bad thing,” says Vandrey. “Also, things that are popular tend to be glorified a little bit. Currently there are many positive references to marijuana in pop culture - movies, music and magazines that help perpetuate this belief. There are also a number of political groups that are lobbying for relaxed drug laws, and they are getting increased press related to medical marijuana issues.”

One of these pop culture references, according to Baum, is the magazine High Times, which shows how to grow marijuana, how to buy marijuana, how to flush things out of your system to achieve a negative result on a drug test and how to have a grow club.

Vandrey, who does full-time research and conducts laboratory studies on the human behavioral pharmacology of drugs with a primary focus in marijuana and nicotine, says that it is only later on, once long-term use begins to show consequences among a large number of people, that views of drugs change. However, he says there may be some truth to marijuana being less harmful than some other drugs.

“Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the U.S. and has been for a long time. People who try marijuana are less likely to develop problems related to their use than people who try cocaine, alcohol or heroin,” he explains. “That’s not to say that marijuana use cannot cause problems, but they are less likely, and there are a number of pharmacological and social factors that contribute to this relationship.”

Some of the possible health consequences of smoking marijuana include adverse effects on the immune, cardiopulmonary/respiratory, hepatic, adrenal, endocrine, reproductive and central nervous systems. It also may cause anxiety and panic while also leading to impaired attention, memory and psychomotor performance. Furthermore, marijuana causes increased risk of psychotic symptoms.

“Oftentimes, we just see people that don’t reach anywhere close to what might be their potential. And it’d be kind of sad that they have these great opportunities to do well, and not do well at all,” says Baum. “People have weight gain. There are things like increased pregnancies among people who use alcohol and drugs. We see a lot more criminal engagement, burglaries, thefts and shoplifting among people who use alcohol and drugs, either because they think it’s funny or they find themselves needing money to buy [the drug]. So from a physiological standpoint, it’s unclear, but from a legal, social, family aspect, the loss of respect, the loss of self-respect, all those things go into long-term effects for using marijuana.”

Pot Culture

Spark counts down the top eight marijuana icons.

8

Lil’ Wayne

Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil’ Wayne is not shy about his marijuana use. He often references marijuana in his music, and in some of his mix tapes the listener can actually hear him light up before he raps. In 2007, police found an astounding eight ounces of marijuana on his tour bus. He has since faced more legal trouble.

26 | Spark | November 12, 2009

While alcohol and drugs may have many similar effects, Baum also states that they have distinct differences.

“Marijuana changes your perception, especially your depth perception. What is true is that you don’t see the same change in personality with marijuana as you do with alcohol,” he says.

“You rarely see a person who is high on marijuana get into a fight. With alcohol, you see it fairly often. There are mood changes. People tend to get mellow [with marijuana].”

But despite these known effects, other possibly related effects are still being researched and are not yet fully understood.

“It is currently unclear whether long-term smoking of marijuana causes cancer. Marijuana smoke contains carcinogenic chemical constituents like in tobacco smoke, and thus, one might expect to see more cases of lung cancer than with tobacco smoking,” Khalsa says. “Zhang and colleagues (a research group) reported that the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck was increased with marijuana use in a strong dose-response pattern. The authors also suggested that marijuana use might interact with mutagenicity and other risk factors to increase the risk of head and neck cancer. But they also noted that the results should be interpreted with some caution in drawing causal inferences because of certain methodological limitations, especially with regard to interactions between marijuana smoking and concomitant use of alcohol and tobacco. More recently, testicular cancer in men has been reported in association with marijuana smoking.”

Many people have the perception that marijuana is also linked to lower grades and lower scores on standardized tests for students. Vandrey sees both sides of the debate.

“On one hand, there is clear scientific evidence that marijuana impairs cognitive function during acute intoxication.

Effects include impairments of time perception, attention, memory, motor ability, coordination and problem solving.

However, when marijuana users are not under the influence of the drug, these effects are largely not observed,” Vandrey says.

“Studies do suggest that long-term heavy use of marijuana is associated with memory impairment, but it is not clear whether the magnitude of this effect is large enough to interfere with academic performance. The problem with a lot of these studies is that we do not know how heavy marijuana users would have performed on research tasks before they started using marijuana.”

However, Vandrey does address another side of the widely believed claim.

“On the other hand, we must come back again to cultural and other influences. It is quite possible that students who smoke marijuana perform worse in school and on standardized tests because they also have mental health problems, a poor home environment or other risk factors that contribute to both drug use and poor academic achievement,” he says.

“Another possibility is that marijuana use is a common part of

Pineapple Express

7

Pineapple Express gets its name from a rare form of marijuana central to the plot. The central characters Dale and Saul are involved in a comedic drug war as they uncover corrupt cops and sell weed to teenagers.

The dynamic duo separates and reunites repeatedly as they are on the run from the law.

6

Reefer Madness

Originally filmed by a church group, the 1936 film Reefer Madness, initially to be titled “Tell Your Children,” has become an iconic movie detailing the life-style surrounding weed users.

The film disappeared for 35 years before reemerging in the 1970s.

photo caroline tompkins

a subculture that does not hold academic achievement as a high priority. In these cases, marijuana does not necessarily cause poor academic achievement, but rather is associated with it via another mechanism. Due to ethical restrictions in research, whether or not marijuana use is causally related to poor academic achievement cannot be tested, but it is important to know that it is a risk factor.”

Marijuana can lead to potential adverse effects not only on one’s health or school achievement, but also on relationships.

“Surely with parents, it reduces your relation with the fact that parents lose their respect for you. That’s for a lot of people,” Baum says. “But I understand that there are some parents who smoke marijuana. And it’s not unusual for parents to tell their kids, ‘We smoke marijuana, but it’s not for public consumption,’ and how often do you hear the old statement, ‘Do as I say, not as I do?’”

Along with parents, peer relationships also become susceptible to both use and non-use of marijuana.

“Obviously, it affects relationship with peers based on whether or not you want to be friends with people who use drugs or don’t use drugs. Or those people who occasionally get high at a party, go to a party where it exists, or won’t go to a party where it exists,” he says. “As drug use gets more and more important to you, the idea of having a relationship, whether it’s a romantic or sexual relationship, declines. Your interest declines. You find that connection less and less.”

However, many adolescents still smoke marijuana regardless of its potential hazardous medical and social effects because it leads to a sense of euphoria and intensification of sensory experiences, such as eating or listening to music.

“There are two major parts of your brain that seem to control this. There is the amygdale, which is in the center part of your brain, which is our pleasure center – we all have it.

Then you have the prefrontal cortex lobe, which is in the front of your brain,” says Baum.

These brain areas are the underlying basis for the likelihood of dependency on drugs like marijuana, according to Vandrey.

“The one major commonality among all drugs of abuse is that taking them is reinforcing. The neurobiological pathway for this effect is believed to be activation of the mesolimbic dopamine pathway in the brain. Marijuana, as well as cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, morphine, heroin, amphetamine and other drugs commonly used for recreational purposes all stimulate this area of the brain,” Vandrey says. “Aside from that, cultural and social influences largely drive which particular drugs are most popular at any given point in time. The popularity of drugs also tends to go in cycles that ebb and flow from generation to generation. Marijuana was extremely popular in the 1970s; use decreased in the 1980s and early 1990s and has recently seen a resurgence in popularity.”

Baum explains how these social influences have changed

marijuana (mair-uh-wah-nuh) noun – the dried leaves and flowers of a tall, coarse plant, Cannabis sativa, that is native to Asia but is naturalized and cultivated in many parts of the world and is the source of a valuable fiber used in a cigarette form as a narcotic or hallucinogen

from past generations to now.

“It’s all about escaping – getting high, having fun, proving that you’re cool – something that has occurred throughout history. When I was a little kid, it was all about getting drunk and driving…when I was your guys’ age, we used to call marijuana dope. The reason they don’t call it dope anymore is because years ago they had a commercial that said, ‘Why do you think they call it dope, kid?’ which meant you’re stupid for using marijuana. It got changed. It went back to being called weed or grass or Mary Jane,” Baum says.

According to Director of NIDA Nora Volkow, the popularity in the 1970s was due to the baby boom generation, who made marijuana its drug of choice. More than 60 percent of high school seniors had tried marijuana at least once by 1979, a number that decreased to 33 percent by 1992 as the baby boom generation grew up. However, with the following generation now becoming high school students, the statistic rose to 50 percent by 1997. Volkow attributes this increase to the fact that in 2002, approximately 2.6 million Americans used marijuana for the first time, and two-thirds of these new users were under the age of 18.

Another area of concern for some is that the potency of marijuana has increased with time. The active chemical in marijuana that causes both the “high” and adverse effects is

Harold and Kumar

5

The films Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, chronicle the events of two best friends and stoners beset by misfortune on their marijuana-related adventures. Harold and Kumar have become classic weed-loving characters on a journey in the hearts of those who have seen their movies.

27 | Spark | November 12, 2009

delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). According to NIDA’s Research Report on Marijuana Abuse, the amount of THC in marijuana rose dramatically in the United States between 1980 and 1997. According to Volkow, today’s marijuana can be up to five times as potent as the marijuana in the 1970s.

“Several varieties of cannabis with THC content up to 37 percent have been available in some areas of the U.S. and elsewhere,” Khalsa says. “One might expect increased toxicity from these potent varieties of cannabis adversely impacting many physiological systems in the body.”

Vandrey also states that there has been clear evidence that marijuana has become increasingly potent; however, he says the effect of the increasing amount of THC is unclear due to the variety of other factors increasing the potency of marijuana.

“While use, rates of dependence and treatment admissions have been on the rise, it cannot be determined whether this is related to potency because there are so many other factors that may be contributing to these things in parallel,” Vandrey says.

“For example, use in general increased recently, and there has been a trend in the criminal justice system to refer people to treatment rather than jail for law violations related to marijuana use.”

This “trend” is especially common among adolescents, including John Doe, who attended a 12week outpatient program at Gateways Recovery.

“The first six weeks, I had to go three times a week for three hours.

The second six weeks, I went once a week for an hour,” says Doe, who used marijuana every weekend and occasionally on weekdays for a total of two years.

Sandra Cullen, Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor and Manager of Gateways Recovery, works with adolescents like Doe to overcome their dependency. Gateways provides separate programs for adults and teenagers to offer treatment sessions that are age-appropriate.

“The younger you start, the more likely you are to have a serious problem,” Cullen says. “[We give] people more education so they are more informed of all the aspects of using drugs.”

Doe describes the treatment program, which he has now completed, as “basically a drug awareness class.”

“They showed how drug abuse is a problem, [and] they showed me how I was getting addicted even though I couldn’t see it at first,” he says.

However, one of the major debates currently surrounding marijuana is whether or not one can even become addicted to it. Many high school students view the drug as not dangerous

because they believe they are just getting a temporary high that will have no lasting effects on their brains and bodies. However, Vandrey clarifies that addiction and dependence are essentially the same.

“The key features of [addiction/dependence] are that the person has lost their ability to control use of the drug - they want to quit or cut down and cannot do so for an extended period of time; routinely violate rules they make for themselves about how much or when they will use - and that use of the drug is associated with negative effects for the individual - use causes problems at work, school or home; causes negative mental or physical health effects; interferes with social activities or relationships. There is clear scientific evidence that people can become dependent/addicted to marijuana,” Vandrey says.

Khalsa also provides many statistics that strongly suggest that marijuana is an addictive substance of abuse.

“There are an estimated 160 million people in the world who use marijuana regularly. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 14.6 million Americans, 12 years and older, have used marijuana at least once in their lifetime. Approximately two to three million are new users in the U.S. Approximately two to four percent become dependent within 24 months of first use,” Khalsa says. “According to Antony et al., the fraction of new cannabis users who eventually develop cannabis dependence syndrome is about one cannabis case for every nine to 11 who start smoking cannabis. Therefore, every effort should be made to prevent young people from using marijuana.”

This “effort” for prevention is being made not only through Gateways, but also through Baum’s Adolescent Substance Abuse Programs (ASAP) Inc. in Blue Ash. After assessing the patient, ASAP determines the severity of the problem and decides what level of care the patient receives. The first level of care consists of outpatient counseling. The next level is what Baum calls intensive care. It is a three-hour a day, three-day a week after-school program that runs for eight weeks, where patients, doctors and faculty have discussions and show videos to help kids. According to Baum, who is the president of ASAP, this kind of group work is most beneficial for patients.

“In our program, we’re less concerned whether it’s legal or illegal, whether it’s moral or immoral. That’s not our issue. Our issue is, is it causing problems in a person’s life?” says Baum.

“Most people who have this problem are in denial. That means that they minimize the problem or deny the problem or they hang out with kids who have the same problem, so that no one points their finger at this person. You have a five to 10

“In our program, we’re less concerned whether it’s legal or illegal, whether it’s moral or immoral. That’s not our issue.”

4

Half Baked Dave Chappelle stars in Half Baked as Thurgood, a custodian who steals marijuana from a lab to raise money to bail a friend out of jail. Thurgood and his friends start the drug company Mr. Nice Guy, challenging local drug lords and causing the drug community strife.

28 | Spark | November 12, 2009

Weeds

3

The series Weeds features a suburban woman who resorts to dealing pot because of her financial difficulties. Since its debut in 2005, the series has won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe, and has been nominated for countless other awards. Weeds has become an iconic television series focused around marijuana.

The comedy duo Cheech and Chong found success in the 70s and 80s with their marijuana-related humor. Their first featurelength film, Up in Smoke (1978), was a hit. The pair went on to make more films and establish their place as two of the most memorable stoners of all time.

Lakota East

High

Out of 500 East students surveyed

32

have used marijuana

49

believe marijuana should be legalized

32

know how to roll a joint

84

know marijuana users

Baum is also skeptical that despite the efforts of these programs most people will still try the drug at least once.

“I fully expect that sometime in your life you will try marijuana, if not in high school then in college. There are few people [who] because of either religious or moral beliefs do not try it at all. I have rarely met anyone that has never tried.

Really roughly I would say in your age group by the time people have turned 21, 85 percent of people have tried marijuana,” says Baum. “If you and I take a walk through Lakota East, we will not be able to pick out all the stoners; they look exactly like all of you do.”

Bob Marley

1

Jamaican musician Bob Marley was a proud supporter of the marijuana movement. A dedicated Rastafarian, Marley made reggae music, which was often centered around marijuana themes.

His fan base has continued to grow after his death in 1981. Bob Marley is regarded by many as the most legendary marijuana figurehead of all time.

infographic jeff cargill

2

Cheech and Chong

infographic katrina echternacht

better chance of becoming addicted if you try either alcohol or marijuana before the age of 16.”

Furthermore, Baum and Cullen both use outpatient programs for adolescent treatment, and Baum claims there are not any local inpatient programs for more serious cases of dependency.

“The closest actual in-hospital program, believe it or not, is in Louisville or Columbus,” says Baum. “There’s none here in Cincinnati for adolescents. In fact, there’s none here for adults either.”

88 percent of the 500 surveyed East students say that those they know who use marijuana are not actively trying to quit.

And while treatment programs may be abundant, they may not always be successful, according to Vandrey.

“In the U.S., approximately one million people seek treatment for marijuana-related problems each year. In clinical research studies, less than half of those who seek help for their marijuana use are able to successfully quit on any given attempt, and these rates are similar to those for people seeking treatment for use of other drugs such as cocaine and heroin,” he says.

But despite these odds, Doe has been able to successfully break his dependence on marijuana through Gateways. He says his friends still use the drug, but he has not tried to convince them to quit.

“They wouldn’t understand unless a professional explained it to them,” he says.

Doe also says that at first it was difficult to avoid smoking while his friends continued to do so, but it is no longer difficult to stay sober because he is now used to it. Although Doe was able to work through this difficulty, Cullen believes an adolescent’s group of friends has a major impact on recovery. “[We advise teenagers] to either change their group of friends or find ways to say no, for example, ‘I am being tested, so I cannot take a chance,’” Cullen says.

She also explains that parents play a “very important” role in the treatment process. Doe’s parents attended meetings once a week with the counselors for family sessions to ensure that Doe was getting the full support necessary for successful completion of the program.

“We insist on parent cooperation and involvement,” Cullen says. “[We use] cognitive behavioral therapy, group and individual sessions, 12-step sober support, education and family conferences [when working with adolescents].”

While Cullen’s passion is to counsel adolescents through the process of becoming sober, she feels that some antidrug organizations are “not very effective” when dealing with students in junior high and high school, and Doe agrees. “[Gateways] used what you’ve experienced in your life while using drugs and showed how you were on the path to addiction,” says Doe, explaining why the program was more effective than anti-drug presentations during school.

29 | Spark | November 12, 2009

The Apple of My Eye As the old saying goes, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” While the phrase may be accurate for fruit-lovers, it is the farthest thing from the truth for East junior Cole Black*.

Black has been using Granny Smiths, specifically, as devices for narcotic use since the summer after his freshman year. He cuts the apples into halves and cuts out the insides. He replaces the apple core with the drugs and places a hollow tube halfway through one half of the apple. The junior’s drug of choice: marijuana.

Black is among the 22.4 percent of students in the U.S. who reportedly use the illegal drug. According to Dr. Richard Baum, president of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) in Blue Ash, up to 85 percent of Americans will have tried the drug by the time they turn 21. Baum is especially concerned with use among teens.

“I have noticed an increase of people who smoke marijuana that are younger,” he says. “That is a concern for [ASAP] because developmentally, the earlier you use it, the more likely you are to have problems.”

Black attributes the popularity of the drug to the fact that most teenagers are not afraid its legal and medical consequences.

When he was first given the opportunity to smoke marijuana, Black did not think twice about using. He admits that he did not consider “smoking weed to be a big deal.”

Now Black, a varsity athlete, smokes marijuana three times per week on average. He has noticed that his usage has had an effect on his athletic work ethic.

“I skip practice all the time now,” he says. “Two to three times per week.”

The junior’s interrupted practice schedule has taken a toll on his endurance and stamina to the point that he sometimes has to skip practice because he knows that his body will not be able to hold up afterwards. He has even faked injury in order to be excused from practice for an extended period of time.

Still, the junior does not plan on decreasing his marijuana use because he does not see any reason to do so. Since he started smoking marijuana after his freshman year, Black’s grade-point average has increased from a 3.5 to a 3.8. Though he does not attribute his GPA increase to marijuana, he does

not believe that his use of the drug has significantly affected him academically.

“My academic mindset has not changed,” he says “I am the same student I was before.”

While Black’s believes that his academic mindset has stayed the same, his social mindset has completely transformed since he started smoking marijuana. Instead of going to football games on Friday nights like he used to, he spends them using the drug. One Friday night, Black and his close friend, East senior Mark Thomas* were having a hard time getting their hands on some marijuana.

Instead of acquiring the drug themselves, Black and Thomas called a friend. They smoked his marijuana and then left. They acknowledged that they were only using him for his marijuana.

According to Black, not only is the drug a hassle to acquire, but obtaining it be extremely expensive.

“The money is a big thing,” says Black. “I’ve spent $100 on it at one time.”

Black acquired a job this summer and plans on retaining it throughout the school year. His motivation for working is slightly different than the motivations of his high-school counterparts.

“I’m keeping a job [throughout] this whole school year to pay for [marijuana],” he says.

Thomas has similar motivations and similar expenses on his budget.

“I’ll spend $60 on it a month,” says Thomas, who was recently apprehended by police for possession of marijuana.

When his mother found out about the charges, which were later dropped, she suggested that he use marijuana in his family’s backyard, rather than in public.

Contrary to Thomas’ mother, Black’s parents rule with an iron fist. They recently stumbled across his water pipe, a piece of drug paraphernalia, which he smokes marijuana out of. Black faced consequences for associations with marijuana for the first time.

“I got grounded for two weeks,” he says “[My mom] took away everything.”

Nevertheless, Black resumed his use of the drug two months later.

“There’s just not really a reason to quit,” he says. “It’s not really addicting.”

Decades of Dope infographic mason hood, lucy stephenson

40

Key Seniors

Sophomores

Percent of users

35

30

25

20

15

10

8th Graders 5

‘90 ‘91 ‘92 ‘93 ‘94 ‘95 ‘96 ‘97 ‘98 ‘99 ‘00 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08

30 | Spark | November 12, 2009

Year

information randall bond

The only downside that Black sees to usage of marijuana is that it is illegal. Because it is currently illegal, Black is a cautious advocate for marijuana’s legalization.

“I’d be [for legalization],” he says. “But everyone would be high all the time.”

Black came to this conclusion through personal experience, recalling a time when he had a continuous high for five hours.

According to Dr. Baum, marijuana “makes [its users] lethargic and it makes [them] want to eat,” which is why on that same night, while still under the influence of marijuana, Black did not settle for a small dinner. He decided on a burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill. Then came dessert. Black started by eating an entire cookie cake, then a bag of Reese’s Cups, a bag of Starbursts, several cupcakes and finally a batch of cookies.

Despite the frequency of their marijuana use, Black and Thomas do not believe that they are dependent on the drug.

Both believe that it can be a gateway drug, one that leads its users to abuse other substances like crack and cocaine. At this point in time however, they feel as though they are in control of their decision making in regards to marijuana.

Still, Black’s decisions conflict with the rules and values of his parents. His parents made an agreement saying he would not smoke marijuana for the entire school year, which he signed. He is currently enrolled in several honors and Advanced Placement classes and is maintaining high-honor status through quarter one of this school year. Even so, Black continues to use and will plans to use until the drug significantly affects his academic performance. His parents have noticed an increase in his “consumption” of apples recently.

The Feel Good Drag It is dark, 10 o’clock on a Saturday night. With no real cares in the world, a group of friends drive down Cincinnati-Dayton Road, with the smell of pot still lingering in the air. They are already high, including the driver, and are on their way to smoke yet another time.

The driver of this car is East junior Jordan Hunter*. He has been smoking marijuana since the end of his freshman year simply because he wanted to know what it was like.

“I was interested in it,” says Hunter. “I had actually wanted to start it in eighth grade, but I had never had the opportunity to smoke it. But [freshman year] I finally got the chance.”

Most teenage users take that chance to fit in with the crowd, according to Baum.

“Part of the reason why they do it is for the social connection. I would call it social pressure, but it’s not social pressure in the way that adults think that kids have it,” explains Baum. “It’s more that ‘I want to be part of the group.’ It’s rare that someone is going to hold you down and make you smoke marijuana.”

Even though some parents are very active in preventing their son or daughter from caving into this pressure, others are not. Many parents nowadays are trying to be more like a friend to their child than an authoritative figure, which Baum claims is worsening the drug use problem among teens.

“There used to be something called the generation gap. We don’t talk about generation gaps as much, but we do talk about parents who are sometimes afraid to be parents,” Baum says.

“They want to be friends with their kids.”

Some parents do not take full action in stopping their child’s use, even if they want their kid to stop. Hunter’s parents, for example, are aware that he smokes pot, but have never taken serious action against it.

“When they find my stuff, they usually just ground me and then forget about it until they find my stuff again,” says Hunter.

According to Hunter, his life has not changed much since

he started smoking marijuana. His group of friends has stayed the same, and his social life has actually increased.

“I still talk to the same people,” explains Hunter. “But now I hang with a lot of different people. I’ve actually met a lot more people.”

Hunter’s personality has not changed much, either. According to Stephen Ferron*, East junior and friend of Hunter, he is still the same kid as he was before he started using.

“Honestly, I didn’t even notice a change when he first started using. I doubt I ever would have found out if he had never told me about it,” Ferron says.

However, Baum states that many negative side affects come from smoking marijuana, including laziness and a decrease in a student’s academic performance.

“I think the most obvious [problem] is lethargy. There’s no real data that says it’s going to create a genetic problem,” he explains. “But think about what you’ve got. A lot of the times, you’ve got kids that are fairly intelligent. They’re in grade decline. They start talking about not liking school because they get this idea that they’re not doing well and they don’t care. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Contrary to Baum’s prediction, Hunters’ grades have actually become better since he has started using marijuana.

Though marijuana does have several negative effects, Baum has also noticed that many kids go unaffected by marijuana.

“The hard part is to say that marijuana is only bad because of the effects it might have on you and the risk that you run for your future. But again, a lot of kids use it without ever having any problems,” Baum says. “The problem is, how do you know when you use it if you’re one of the kids who won’t have problems or if you’re one of the kids that will have problems?

And there lies the dilemma: you can’t predict the future.”

Though marijuana seems to have little to no effect on Hunter, he has experienced some negative effects of smoking marijuana.

“My parents don’t trust me as much anymore, and my memory has gotten worse. I will forget things I do while I’m high, but that’s not a big deal,” he explains. “People think I’m stupid though, which sucks.”

Even with all these adverse side effects, why kids continue to smoke pot is a question that has a simple answer Baum explains.

“It’s like asking why kids have sex. It’s because it feels good,” laughs Baum.

It seems to be that more kids are becoming like Hunter. Not only is the number of pot users increasing, but the age of first use is decreasing. Minors are now more frequently smoking pot at grades as low as 6th grade. Publications such as High Times, promote the illegal substance even more. And television shows such as “That 70’s Show” and movies like “Pineapple Express” are making the drug even more socially acceptable.

Despite the memory loss, bad reputation and loss of his parents’ trust, Hunter will continue to spend his weekends cruising the streets and staying high. He has no plans of cutting off his marijuana use.

“I like it too much,” he says. “I don’t see anything wrong with it besides being illegal. It can’t kill me.”

Legalization of Pot The Continuing Debate

On Jan. 26, 2006, police found the biggest and most complex underground tunnel between the United States and Mexico to

31 | Spark | November 12, 2009

date. It stretched more than 1,200 yards - a little under a mile - between Tijuana, Mexico and Otay Mesa, California. The tunnel was used for smuggling - not illegal immigrants - but more than two tons of marijuana.

As of Nov. 2008, the United Nations reported Mexico as the number one marijuana-producing country in the world, although it is not the only country that exports the drug to the United States. Paraguay produces the second largest amount of marijuana, and much of America’s supply of the drug comes from there. Various other South American countries, such as Columbia, Brazil and Argentina, also add to the 10,000 tons of marijuana grown on the continent each year.

Marijuana is illegal in nearly all countries worldwide. But this international industry, which trades an estimated $300 to $400 billion worth of product yearly, successfully sneaks under the radar. As the U.S. considers legalizing marijuana, whether or not the intricate underground global economic system would be significantly altered is unknown.

According to University of Cincinnati Professor of Economics Dr. Benjamin Passty, legalizing marijuana in the U.S. may not affect trade of the substance between countries because the industry is already so extensive.

“My understanding is that the U.S. is pretty level with other countries as far as what drugs are banned,” says Passty. “[Given] the degree that other countries have already cooperated illegally with the U.S., my estimation is that those countries would favor U.S. legalization. It opens up a whole new range of customers for them.”

On the other hand, Passty says that according to the United States Department of Justice, legalizing marijuana could make America a “global outlier,” much like when alcohol was made illegal in the U.S. in 1919.

“Other countries did not understand why we would want to make alcohol illegal, and once again we would be separating ourselves from the rest of the world by legalizing marijuana,” says Passty.

In fact, many countries not only ban drugs, but also have social customs dictating that the drugs are unacceptable, and strong stigmas exist around illegal substances.

According to Jessie Liu, an East Chinese foreign exchange student, China is one such country. These resentments result from Britain’s use of drugs to keep economic and political control over China during the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century.

Even though marijuana is illegal in her country, Liu realizes that some use still goes undetected, just as in the U.S. “If you have a good family, your parents would restrict the use of drugs because it is harmful and dishonorable,” says Liu. “However, families who are poor and uneducated do not know any better, so they would try marijuana for the excitement and [would] get addicted.”

Though numerous countries have laws prohibiting drugs, the Netherlands is an exception, collecting $600 million in marijuana tax revenue every year. Within the country, purchasing the drug is as easy as walking to your nearest marijuana “coffee shop.” Its legalization impacts nations surrounding the Netherlands as well. “[Hypothetically], if marijuana were legalized in Germany, little would change because the people who already smoke it bought it in the Netherlands anyway,” says David Greiner, an East German foreign exchange student. “Germany would not need to legalize marijuana; people have access to it now.”

Regardless of foreign economic gains or social stigmas,

Passty comments that the U.S. would have to assess its own pros and cons for legalizing marijuana.

“It is easier for an economist to estimate the current costs of regulating and confiscating illegal drugs than it is to estimate the tax revenue on legalized marijuana,” says Passty. “This is because currently we do not know exactly how many people are buying marijuana illegally, so the possible government profit is difficult to determine.”

A Smokin’ Hot Deal Marijuana legalization has been debated in the United States for decades. Some believe the drug only enables corruption in society. Others argue for the economic benefits associated with introducing a new taxable market into the country.

According to Passty, there are both positive and negative consequences from lifting the ban on marijuana. These consequences must be factored into the decision of whether or not the drug should be legalized.

“You’ve got a whole bunch of people [who think] the price [of marijuana] is too high [currently]. If I’m not willing to pay $5 for one joint, I might be willing to pay $0.75, like for a stick of gum,” he explains. “Once the price goes down, you might have a lot of people whose consumption increases.

You certainly will have some people whose consumption will increase because they’ll take the amazing amount of money they’re spending now and [buy more marijuana legally]. But you probably will have a bunch of people who will venture onto the market [if] it’s legalized.”

The expanded market for marijuana could be a problem for the public as legalized marijuana adds another substance for Americans to potentially abuse.

Dr. Richard Baum, president of Adolescent Substance Abuse Programs, Inc. (ASAP) in Blue Ash, thinks that marijuana abuse, though it may cause fewer problems than alcohol abuse, still causes impairment.

Passty believes that marijuana legalization could cause as much property damage as alcohol currently does, even though marijuana is not as violence-provoking.

“Look at legal drugs and the [consequences] they cause,” he says. “There are estimates that drunk driving causes property damage between $10 billion and $100 billion in the United States. If you were to legalize other drugs, why wouldn’t there be that much additional property damage?”

With more Americans using marijuana, more property damage could ensue. Even though marijuana is already available with ease to the everyday American, Baum states that marijuana would become much more affordable.

“If you said today ‘I want to smoke marijuana,’ how hard would it be for you to smoke marijuana? Not hard at all,” says Baum. “You know exactly four or five people that can get it for you directly or know where to get it. Why keep it illegal?

[If legalized] it would become cheaper. By how much, I don’t know, but it would become cheaper. There’s no doubt about it.”

With a cheaper and legalized product would come more prospective buyers, and more money pumped into the American economy, according to Passty. This is because taxation of marijuana would also help bring more revenue to the government.

“The government would tax a portion of all sales [of marijuana]. This is done with liquor, usually at the state level, already,” says Passty. “Alternatively the government

“If you said today ‘I want to smoke marijuana,’ how hard would it be for you to smoke marijuana? Not hard at all.”

32 | Spark | November 12, 2009

photo illustration heidi yang

could provide licenses to sell marijuana; sellers could buy the licenses.”

Passty believes that while stimulating the economy could be achieved, the traditional pro-marijuana legalization argument of reducing police-force enforcement costs is not as accurate as many would believe.

“What law enforcement says is that [drug legalization] will reduce its cost depending on what is legalized,” says Passty. “If you legalize grass, you’ve still got all these high-margin drugs from Central and South America like cocaine and heroin. You’ve still got to stop those guys. Those drugs are really profitable.”

The desire to get high off of marijuana is a huge money maker for those who decide to deal. Actual street dealers however, have some of the deadliest jobs. Marijuana legalization would help protect these dealers, according to Passty, and give them legitimate jobs. “[Marijuana legalization] might contribute towards the drug sellers – the bottom level of the drug gang. If you go up three levels from there, you have a guy who’s essentially earning $150,000 a year, tax-free. So at that level, there’s actually good business,” explains Passty. “What you do have though are people who commit themselves to this gang, make less than minimum wage, still live with their moms and have a one in four chance each year of dying [from this lifestyle.]

Passty says that this is due to the dealers’ belief that they do not have anything to offer the “above-the-table labor market.”

“What legalizing drugs would do for these guys is that it would actually improve their human capital because it would give them experience in an activity that is safer. They could put it on their resume,” Passty explains.

In effect, legalizing marijuana would remove more marijuana dealers and users from jail cells, freeing up space for other criminals. East Advanced Placement U.S. History and U.S. History 101 teacher Jennifer Reid believes safety would be improved by freeing up more prison space.

“If we had to choose who to incarcerate, I would rather have the violent criminal or armed robber [in jail] than someone who is selling marijuana or using drugs,” says Reid.

Despite the safety or quality of life legalization could bring about, it would not bring about huge economic effects immediately according to Passty.

“You would see the profitability of big tobacco and various alcohol producers go down,” he says. “Legalizing marijuana would essentially decrease the price of a good that is a substitute for tobacco and alcohol. This would reduce the quantity demanded at any given price of tobacco and alcohol, which is bad for sellers.

Passty does not believe however, that this would affect the economy immediately.

“What legalization essentially would do would be take a market that is underground and illegal and make it legal.

Estimates of total output and all that already include [marijuana] a little bit. So you wouldn’t see a big pop-up in gross domestic product or anything like that.”

Even over time, how the market would be affected is unpredictable in Passty’s opinion.

“If there were a change in the market [over time], it would really have to depend,” he explains. “You would have more illegal output counted in the gross domestic product because of making the market legal. But at the country level, I doubt you would see a big change.”

While the debate over marijuana legalization for those over 18 years old is hotly contested, legalization of marijuana for minors is less so. Experts, like Baum, believe that marijuana should not be legalized for anybody under the age of 18 or even 21 as he says he sees people who, “don’t reach anywhere close to what might be their potential” because of the drug.

Weed bowls are a common means by which East students smoke marijuana.

“It’s kind of sad that [teenagers] have these great opportunities to do well, and [do] not do well at all,” he says. “That’s one of the long-term effects [of teens using marijuana].”

East students have different views on whether marijuana should be legalized. Out of 500 East students surveyed, 66 percent think the U.S. economy would benefit from marijuana legalization. Despite this, only 49 percent said they believe marijuana should be legalized, compared to 51 percent who think it should not. East junior Rick DiAntonio is one student in favor of legalization.

“We have this gargantuan and powerful drug system in the underbelly of America. Even East has a very developed system,” says DiAntonio. “If the government were to legalize it, they would be able to control [marijuana] a little bit more.

When drug dealers [deal] it, it’s really expensive and dangerous.

If you could just go to Target and buy some marijuana, it would be safer than buying it from a guy who has a gun pointed at your head.”

Unlike DiAntonio, East junior Andrew Breland believes marijuana should not become legalized, and sees any kind of legalization as a negative impact on the future of the U.S. Based not on personal morals, but from watching the evening news nightly, he strongly supports marijuana remaining illegal.

“We think we have a drug problem now; let [marijuana] get legalized, let people get [mentally] addicted to it, let the economy collapse some more and we’ll have a drug problem,” says Breland. “Even if it becomes legal, there will still be illegal importing into the country. It will still be managed illegally, and that’s where the problem lies.”

Passty believes, like Breland, illegal activity will continue regardless of legalization.

“People avoid imports, which are another government tax,” says Passty. “If there were a legal taxed market, my suspicion is

33 | Spark | November 12, 2009

infographic kevin li

Nationally, marijuana is illegal and classified by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as a Schedule I drug. Yet at the state level, marijuana is currently legalized for medical use in 13 states. This discrepancy highlights the difference in opinion between certain scientists and the government, and this graphic examines some of the side effects of weed.

THE BRAIN The active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), affects the brain systems related to pleasure just like other drugs of abuse do.

When THC enters the body after marijuana is smoked, ingested or vaporized, it attaches to cannabinoid receptors, which are sites on the nerve tissues of the brain.

The number of cannabinoid receptors

differ in the various sections of the brain, which means that THC will impair each function with differing severity.

THC severely impairs body movement, coordination, learning, memory, higher cognitive functions, reward and movement control, while it only moderately impairs sleep, temperature regulation, peripheral sensations, analgesia, nausea and fear.

THE LUNGS When marijuana is smoked, it is typically rolled into a joint, which lacks a filter, and the user generally breathes in deeply and holds in the breath.

This method increases the effects of marijuana, but at the consequence of more lung damage – one joint causes as much airflow obstruction as three to five cigarettes.

Marijuana also reduces the number of small airways that transport oxygen, which forces the lungs to work harder. This causes symptoms like coughing and wheezing.

Unlike tobacco, however, there is no positive correlation between marijuana and lung cancer. The largest study of its kind found that marijuana may even offer a protective effect against it.

THE HEART While marijuana only damages the lungs if it is smoked, all uses of the drug will affect the heart.

Marijuana, due to its biphasic effect on the autonomic nervous system, has been shown to both speed up and slow down the heart. In low doses, it can cause an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, and in high doses, it can cause a decrease.

This means mairjuana can speed up the heartbeat as much as 50 percent, or slow it down enough to cause heart block, which is when the electricity in the heart that makes it beat begins to malfunction.

Marijuana has also been related to stroke and heart attack. The danger is minor for the healthy, but marijuana can cause problems for those already at risk.

THE STOMACH THC has a well-documented tendency to stimulate hunger. Although the effect is poorly understood, it causes one of the effects marijuana is most known for – the phenomena commonly referred to as “the munchies.”

THC’s stimulation of the cannabinoid receptors related to appetite has two uses.

Because THC boosts feelings of hunger, it

34 | Spark | November 12, 2009

helps patients with a lack of appetite, such as those with AIDS and those undergoing chemotherapy.

Secondly, it may offer an effective treatment for obesity. Researchers are studying THC’s effect on the cannabinoid receptors responsible for hunger in the hopes of reversing “the munchies” and effectively decreasing appetite.

Nationally, tobacco is legal for anyone over the age of 18. Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that tobacco is “the single most preventable cause of disease, disability and death in the United States,” causing an estimated 443,000 deaths annually. There is not much debate over the effects of tobacco, but it remains legal.

THE BRAIN Tobacco affects the dopamine-related brain systems. This is important because many researchers believe dopamine plays a role in addiction as the neurotransmitter that produces feelings of pleasure and reward.

Nicotine reaches the brain a mere eight seconds after tobacco is inhaled. Nicotine can be especially harmful in adolescents

and children because it damages synaptic function and the brain areas involved with learning, memory and mood.

Nicotine also creates a physical dependency, which is why smokers will feel agitated if they have not smoked recently.

The body also builds a resistance to nicotine, so one must smoke more tobacco each time to get the same effect.

THE LUNGS Smoking tobacco can seriously damage the lungs. Tiny hairs inside the trachea trap dangerous particles before they enter the lungs. These hairs, collectively known as cilia, are destroyed by smoking, which increases risk for chronic cough, chest infections, lung disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Not only does smoking increase the

risk for lung cancer, but it also causes about 90 percent and 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and women respectively.

Smoking also damages the air sacs, known as alveoli. This deterioration of the alveoli means that the lungs will have to work harder to absorb the necessary amount of oxygen and to expel the necessary amount of carbon dioxide.

THE HEART Cigarette smoking has several adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, which in turn increase the risk for many diseases and conditions.

This occurs because smoking damages alveoli; nicotine raises heart rate and blood pressure; and tobacco contains carbon monoxide, which lowers the blood’s efficacy at holding oxygen. Collectively, this forces

a weaker heart to more frequently pump oxygen-poor blood to supply the rest of the body with necessary nutrients.

This in turn causes smokers to be two to four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease, more than 10 times as likely to develop peripheral vascular disease and almost twice as likely to suffer from a stroke as non-smokers.

THE INTESTINES Smokers have an increased risk of developing Crohn’s disease, which causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.

This swelling can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, weight loss, arthritis, skin problems and fever.

Scientists do not currently know the cause of Crohn’s disease, making whether tobacco actually causes Crohn’s disease

unclear. What is clear, however, is that an association exists – smokers not only have a higher risk of developing Crohn’s disease, but also higher rates of relapse and repeat surgery.

Researchers currently believe that the relationship could be related to a weakening of the immune system or a decrease in the blood flow to the intestines.

information – www.cdc.gov, www.washingtonpost.com, news.bbc.co.uk, www.nyc.gov, www.sciencedaily.com, www.columbia.edu, www.lung.ca, arizona.edu, teens.drugabuse.gov, digestive.niddk.nih.gov

35 | Spark | November 12, 2009

that would still have underground activity where people were buying [marijuana] tax free.”

Despite what some East students believe should happen in regards to marijuana legalization, Baum does not think marijuana will be legalized anytime in his lifetime. He says that if any action is taken, it will occur when the current generation of high school students starts to reach middle-age, because there “isn’t a big push right now.”

M.D. (Medical Dope) Bobby Johnson was getting anxious and the pressure was really starting to get to him. He checked his watch. It was quarter-to-five on a Friday afternoon.

“Crap,” he thought. “There’s no way I’ll make this.”

He was going to meet his dealer, who worked strictly from nine to five on weekdays and had a professional policy of refusing to see clients on the weekends – if Johnson was not downtown in 15 minutes, he would have to wait until Monday to get his fix.

Johnson decided to take the back roads and got to the corner of 4th and Main with five minutes to spare. He had agreed to meet in his dealer’s office even though he had to walk past a police station on his way to meet his dealer, who happened to be a medically accredited doctor in the area. Johnson walked into the office and met with his doctor, paid the $20 co-pay and walked out with his 100 percent legal medical marijuana to help relieve the intraocular pressure caused by his glaucoma.

Johnson, like citizens in the 13 states where medical marijuana has been legalized, is able to obtain prescriptions for medical marijuana with a physician’s recommendation. These people must also suffer from at least one symptom from a list of various ailments which marijuana can assist in soothing.

According to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), marijuana is most commonly prescribed for anxiety, glaucoma, agitation due to Alzheimer’s disease, HIV, AIDS, nausea, seizures, persistent muscle spasms and cachexia, a wasting disease associated with cancer. Dr. Ryan Vandrey, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The John Hopkins University, also adds that marijuana can be used to treat the pain and spasticity associated with advanced neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple-sclerosis.

The OMMP was established to administer the registration program of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act as approved by the voters of the state of Oregon in Nov. 1998. According to OMMP program analyst Aaron Cossel, the registration process to smoke medical marijuana is an extensive one.

“After acquiring an attending physician’s statement, anyone wishing to use medical marijuana must fill out an application stating where their supply is being grown, pay a fee and provide identification for themselves as well as their grower,” Cossel says. “The state reviews [the application] and if all is well, you are issued a card which is valid for one year. You must reapply every year or else you lose your [medical marijuana] license.”

Cossel notes that the fee helps fund the OMMP. “We are a completely self-funded organization,” Cossel states. “There is no state tax for [the OMMP].”

Cossel explains that contrary to popular belief, there is no difference between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana as far as chemical composition is concerned.

Legally, however, there is a difference. The Drug Enforcement Administration has created a drug schedule from I to V. Marijuana is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substance Act. Schedule I drugs are classified as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use and a lack of accepted safety for use, even under medical supervision.

36 | Spark | November 12, 2009

This makes it difficult on the federal level to legally prescribe or research marijuana. All medical marijuana is home grown like recreational marijuana. The biggest difference is due to incongruities in growth and harvesting techniques. At the time of growth and harvest, the level of THC, the main psychoactive substance found in marijuana plants, in marijuana is much higher, which means it is more potent as compared to when it is sold.

Dr. Jag Kahlsa of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) says that progress is being made to develop a medication to reduce the effects of THC. “The Division of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse within [NIDA] supports a significant amount of research on the development of medications for the treatment of drug addiction, including that of cannabis addiction,” Kahlsa says. “Currently, new chemicals are being tested in various phases of clinical trials to determine if one or more would be effective for the treatment of cannabis dependence.”

This dependence is partially what caused marijuana to become a Schedule I drug making marijuana illegal under Oregon law.

Regardless, OMMP has plugged over 30,000 registered medical marijuana users into its registration database.

“We’re the DMV of marijuana,” Cossel jokes.

Recently, a new Obama administration policy loosened the guidelines on federal prosecution of medical marijuana users, effectively ending the pursuance of users with qualifying medical conditions. The Justice Department told federal prosecutors that targeting those who use or grow medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws is a waste of time.

Dr. Judith Feinberg, Professor of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, worked in California, the first state to legalize medical marijuana, and believes that the policy for medical marijuana is not as tight as it could be.

“In California, medical marijuana is a nonprofit industry,” Feinberg says. “The law is interpreted pretty loosely. Some people can get a prescription without the symptoms. There are ways around the legality of marijuana.”

Feinberg was on the Institute of Medicine panel in Washington D.C. which reviewed the medical value of marijuana nearly ten years ago. The panel consisted of experts from areas where there existed any possible use for medical marijuana.

Feinberg was there as an expert on AIDS, but there were also experts on cancer, glaucoma and various other fields.

Feinberg states that studies have shown that those who have smoked marijuana recreationally tend to be less anxious about taking the drug medicinally.

“Those who haven’t smoked [marijuana] recreationally have anxiety about using it,” Feinberg says. “The benefit of smoked marijuana [as opposed to the FDA-approved pill form, Marinol,] is that it is absorbed very quickly into the bloodstream and is relatively short acting depending on inhalation. The problem is that some people don’t like the feeling that smoking marijuana gives them.”

One fault of the prescription pill form, Feinberg believes, is that users are unable to control their dosage because it is already in the pill, but when one smokes marijuana, they are able to control how much they inhale.

According to Feinberg, part of the anxiety of the general public stems from the idea that marijuana can cause addiction.

“There is a stigma that marijuana is a gateway drug. I don’t know that that is necessarily true. I think [marijuana users] do it because it is easy to find,” Feinberg explains. “There is a group that thinks it will move to worse down the line, but there is no data to support that [claim]. People start with marijuana and beer because it is cheap and easy to get to. There is nothing inherent in marijuana which makes you go out and smoke crack

infographic jeff cargill

WEEDING OUT THE STATES

KEY States that have legalized marijuana in small amounts or for medicinal purposes

States that have not passed any legislation for the legalization of marijuana

or shoot up heroin.”

Unlike other drugs to which marijuana is frequently compared, such as alcohol, marijuana does not cause a physically-evident addiction.

“There is no evidence of [marijuana] causing physical dependence,” Feinberg says. “However, there is evidence that [marijuana] can create a psychological dependence. But unlike drugs like alcohol or heroin, there is no physical dependence or withdrawal symptoms like shakes or seizures.”

Vandrey adds that there is no evidence of any side effects from research of medical marijuana.

“The question of risk versus benefit is very different. For example, despite the known fact that medications used for pain relief are diverted and abused recreationally does not mean that they should not be available for medical use,” Vandrey says.

“Instead, efforts are made to restrict access to these medications to [only] those who need them and to ask physicians to monitor patient progress to the point that access to the drug is not provided beyond the point that is needed medically.”

While the side effects of recreational marijuana are common knowledge, the side effects of medical marijuana are in much murkier waters.

“Very little research has been conducted on the side effects of marijuana within the scope of medical use, but the side effects of marijuana in general are pretty well understood,” Vandrey says, “Marijuana is often associated with a dry mouth, increased appetite, anxiety, paranoia or fearful reactions, an increased heart rate, dizziness or lightheadedness, red and irritated or itchy eyes, sedation and impaired cognitive functioning. In some cases, usually involving higher doses or inexperience, marijuana can cause nausea or vomiting, delusions, hallucinations and panic attacks. None of these effects are life-threatening, but they may last several hours and can cause quite a bit of discomfort.”

Feinberg believes it “would be good if Ohio had access to medical marijuana” and that until marijuana “is legal across the board,” there will always be a mass of red tape one has to follow in order to use it.

“There are some real potential benefits [in marijuana], when it is developed in the purest form of the drug, as opposed to

what’s bought on the street,” Feinberg says. “You must take it in the context of each individual patient. You can’t address it across the board. Do I think there are individuals who would’ve benefited from medical marijuana? Yes, I do. For those who can truly benefit from [medical marijuana], the drug should be made legal.”

Local pediatrician Dr. Arthur Moebius is unsure if the decriminalization of marijuana would be beneficial but does support medical marijuana. Although the conditions which would warrant such marijuana use are rare in pediatrics, Moebius believes the risks associated with marijuana are worth it.

“I have never had the need for the use or prescribing of medical marijuana,” Moebius says. “If I thought the patient would benefit from medical marijuwana, I would have to balance the legal ramifications of risking the loss of my medical license before prescribing it. Medically speaking, at this time, I believe the benefits most likely outweigh the risks.”

While Moebius does believe that medical marijuana is beneficial despite the risks of decriminalization, he acknowledges that medical marijuana has the potential for abuse by those it is meant to assist.

“If there is a propensity the human race has demonstrated, it is the ability to abuse or overuse almost anything,” Moebius says. “The ‘War on Drugs’ is a prime example of government’s ability to control or manage abuse. The risk and consequences of abuse should be weighed against benefits of decreased restrictions.”

Vandrey agrees and believes that marijuana cannot be used without at least some abuse.

“Marijuana is a popular drug with known abuse potential, thus it would be foolish to think that there would not be problems with people using it for medical purposes initially and then developing a recreational use habit afterwards, or that you would not have people faking medical conditions in order to get medical marijuana,” Vandrey says. “This happens all the time with narcotic, sedative and stimulant medications, and it is likely to occur with marijuana. In fact, I believe this is happening currently in states with more relaxed medical marijuana laws.” n

37 | Spark | November 12, 2009

lifestyle | interesting vegetables

color me orange The fall is upon us and pumpkin is everywhere. Discover where you can conveniently enjoy pumpkin around the town. story meredith bleuer

“It tastes more like bread than a cake,” says Anya Lewandowicz, East senior and Servatii’s employee. “It’s really good and not too sweet.”

1 4

5

2

According to East senior and Stan the Donut Man employee, Adam Bland, pumpkin donuts are “not like gooey pumpkin pie, so you can hold it in your hand and eat while driving.”

1 4

Pumpkin Spice Cake Pumpkin spice flavors combined with raisins and topped with a swirl of cream cheese frosting ($6.85).

Servatii Pastry Shop and Deli 7671 Voice of America Centre Drive Mason, OH 45069

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream A blend of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg mixed together in a creamy texture. Available in the fall in a pint ($4.29) or a single serving ($3.25).

Graeter’s Ice Cream 7651 Cox Road West Chester, OH 45069

38 | Spark | November 12, 2009

“My family makes pie at home, but we always end up going to Frisch’s every Thanksgiving to buy pumpkin pie anyway,” says East sophomore Angela Eikens.

6

3 photo 1 jalen elwood photo 2 emliy morrell photo 3 caroline tompkins photo 4 dan turner photo 5 dan turner photo 6 jalen elwood

2 5

Pumpkin Pie This classic pumpkin pie is a fall favorite that is full of pumpkin spice and topped with a mound of whipped cream. Sold per slice ($2.25) and pie ($8.25).

Frisch’s Big Boy 8545 Cincinnati Dayton Road West Chester, OH 45069 Pumpkin Spice Latte A creamy pumpkin flavor infused with a slight coffee taste creates this pumpkin spiced latte. Sprinkled with a pumpkin spice blend. Available in tall size ($3.50), grande ($4.20) and venti ($4.50).

Starbucks Coffee 6819 Liberty Plaza Drive Liberty Township, OH 45011

3 6

Pumpkin Pancakes Made with real pumpkin and spices, these pancakes are topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Available in stack of four ($7.21) or as a combo.

IHOP 7748 Cox Lane West Chester, OH 45069 Pumpkin Doughnuts These pumpkin spiced doughnuts have a melt-in-your-mouth inside surrounded by a glazed crispy edge. Sold as a single doughnut ($.70), half dozen ($4.00) or dozen ($5.75) Available from Sept. to Jan. Stan the Donut Man 7967 Cincinnati Dayton Rd. West Chester, OH 45069

pimp your pumpkin As a classic fall vegetable, pumpkin provides health benefits while creating tasty meals.

story meredith bleuer photos caroline tompkins

M

ixtures of brown, red and yellow visually signal the arrival of fall, but as far as taste buds are concerned, it is the savoring of perfectly spiced pumpkins that indicate the flavor of autumn. The name pumpkin originally comes from the Greek word ‘Pepon’ meaning ‘large melon.’ Although most see the pumpkin as a medium for carving frightening or happy faces, it actually provides many health benefits.

According to Maria Adkins, clinical/Bariatric Dietitian at the Good Samaritan Hospital’s Weight Management Program, “Pumpkins are antioxidant rich [and] high in beta-carotene.”

Beta-carotene is a carotenoid that not only adds to the pumpkin’s signature orange color, but also nourishes the skin after the enzymes remove dull or dead skin cells when pumpkin is used in skin treatments.

“Carotenoids give the color and they are antioxidants which mean they help rid the body of free radicals,” Adkins explains.

Both the beta-carotene and alpha-carotene in pumpkins fight free radicals which are atoms with unpaired electrons that are formed when oxygen interacts with certain molecules. If free radicals interact with important cellular components, such as deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA), it can cause the cell to function poorly or die.

“Free radicals are not good,” says Adkins. “They are the outcome of poor living, poor diet, genetics and your environment.”

Besides having the ability to battle free radicals, the abundant amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium and zinc in pumpkin promotes healthy vision, boosts the immune system, regulates cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease. In addition, one cup of pumpkin contains three grams of fiber and only 49 calories. The flesh of pumpkin provides many benefits and can be baked, boiled or steamed, but the most valuable component of the pumpkin belongs to the pepitas, more commonly known as pumpkin seeds.

“Every fall, my family bakes fresh pumpkin seeds,” says East senior Melissa Webber. “All we do is add a little oil and salt and we have made a healthy snack.”

Once used as medicine by the Native Americans, the high amounts of zinc, Omega-3 and iron in pumpkin seeds can come from any type of pumpkin. Garver Family Farm Market in Middletown, Ohio, sells various types of pumpkins including the 200-lbs. giant pumpkins, 20-lbs. carving pumpkins, one-lb. pie pumpkins and small jack-be-little pumpkins which are actually squash. This variety of pumpkins became possible because of the good pumpkin growing season this year.

“The best growing conditions would be sufficient water and warm weather, not anything extreme,” says Mike Garver, Owner of Garver Family Farm Market. “Just like the summer we had [with] 85 degree temperatures [and] normal rainfall.”

With the plentiful advantages that pumpkins offer and the wealth of pumpkins from a successful growing season this year, there is no excuse to not experience the classic flavor of pumpkin this season. n

Pumpkin Crumb Cake Ingredients: 1 package yellow cake mix 4 eggs ½ cup melted butter 1 can pure pumpkin puree (no additional spices) ¼ cup granulated sugar ½ cup packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice (substitute with a mixture of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg) 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons softened butter Water to add for thickness Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 glass pan.

2. Set aside 1 cup of cake mix.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining cake mix with 1 egg and ¼ cups melted butter. Mix until all ingredients have moisture, adding small amounts of water if necessary.

4. Pat mix into prepared pan to create a crust.

5. In a different bowl, mix pumpkin, 3 eggs, brown sugar and pumpkin spice. Pour over crust.

6. Combine the remaining cup of cake mix with ¼ cup sugar and 3 tablespoons of softened butter and mix until a crumbly texture.

7. Sprinkle over pumpkin filling.

8. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes.

39 | Spark | November 12, 2009

y a d i l o H

ARTS & CRAFTS SHOW

AT LAKOTA EAST HIGH SCHOOL Saturday, Nov. 14 Sunday, Nov. 15 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM ***Admission $1 to support student programs*** I-75 to exit 24 (Rt 129W), exit 24 (Cinti-Dayton Rd) Turn right and follow the signs.

MORE THAN 240 INDOOR BOOTHS For information: 513-759-8615 ext 15319

Stan the Donut Man Come enjoy fresh donuts today!

Come On Down!

7967 Cincinnati Dayton Rd West Chester, OH 45069 (Located in the Lakota Plaza) (513) 759-0016

FREE ½ Dozen Donuts with the purchase of 1½ dozen (4 dozen limit) Expires 1-15-10

entertainment | playlist

Spark Playlist: Caroline Tompkins Every issue, a member of the Spark staff is chosen to create a playlist that showcases a selection of the music that he or she has been enjoying as of late.

“The New Love Song” Avett Brothers

“The Garden That You Planted” Sea Wolf Although Alex Brown Church’s voice may be a little depressing, it is hard not to fall in love with “The Garden That You Planted,” which is a song about a fallout between two lovers.

“Crushed Bones” Why?

A lovely combination of melody and great song writing make this track unforgettable, much like every other Avett Brothers song.

This band has the ability to transcend any genre and do it well.

Why? is not for every listener, but no one can deny the complexity of Crushed Bones’ wonderful fusion of rap and indie rock, especially with this song about working at Kings Island.

“Knifeman” The Bronx

“Casual Discussion In A Dome Between Two Temples” Algernon Cadwallader

The Bronx is a brutal punk band from L.A. that never disappoints fans in its overall song construction. “Knifeman” is one of their fast-paced songs and has one of the best first lines pertaining to the art scene.

“White Collar Boy” Belle And Sebastian Belle and Sebastian will always be the original indie rock that has influenced so many bands today. “White Collar Boy” is a dancy hit that is a definite cult classic.

“Castles In The Air” Annabel Annabel combines infectious indie-pop melodies with shimmering guitars and forms it into the perfect sound. This threepiece band from Kent, Ohio is sure to be the “next big thing” in Alternative Press.

“Sweet Darling” She and Him She and Him is a trendy duo that takes you back to the 50s. With influences like The Ronettes and the Carter Family, it’s easy to see the voices of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward complement each other perfectly.

“Greyhound Bust” The Frankl Project This Tri-State band claims to be “punk with flavor” and is making a lot of noise in the music industry for both friendliness to fans and flawless song writing and style. Every song is bound to impress.

This do-it-yourself, four-piece band does an amazing job of layering flashy guitar riffs, screams on top of screams and wonderful melodies, making any listener want to dance.

“Sometimes” Langhorne Slim This folksy one man band captures any listener with his catchy style and wonderful vocals. “Sometimes” is particularly easy to sing along to.

“Man On Fire” Good Luck Good Luck is becoming known for having catchy songs that are incredibly relatable.

They have become the poster boy for indie record label No Idea Records and “Man On Fire” fits perfectly into this persona.

“Come On in” The Pinstripes This local Cincinnati band is the future of reggae. Although reggae itself may not be very popular, this band can please all audiences with their defined song writing and live shows.

“Back In Your Head” Tegan and Sara Tegan and Sara are hard to forget, not only because they are sisters who each have a unique style and voice, but also because most of their songs tell a very spirited story of lesbian love.

41 | Spark | November 12, 2009

entertainment | reviews

The Music Christmas in the Heart

by Bob Dylan Sony

Anywhere but Here

by Mayday Parade Atlantic Records

I and Love and You

by The Avett Brothers American

Daisy

by Brand New Interscope Records

Machine Dreams

by Little Dragon Peacefrog Records

Crazy Love

by Michael Buble Reprise Records

christmas in the heart – bob dylan Bob Dylan, the quintessential American songwriter of the last five decades, is a certifiable legend. The man can do no wrong. Except, perhaps, record a Christmas album like Christmas in the Heart.

All of the classics are covered, from “Little Drummer Boy” to “O’ Come All Ye Faithful” to “The First Noel.” Recorded in Jackson Browne’s home studio and produced by Dylan himself, Dylan’s 34th studio album is more side project than full studio effort. Dylan will be donating his royalties from the album to charities that work to stop world hunger: Feeding America in the United States and The United Nations’ World Food Programme and Crisis in the United Kingdom.

Dylan presents the tracks with his signature guttural croon, although he sounds a bit more like Tom Waits on the record than is probably necessary. This would give the songs the edge that they

desperately need, but any headway made by the uniqueness of the vocal delivery is offset by the mediocrity of the arrangements and randomness of the background singing. While it is clear that Dylan tries to present a wholesome vibe, the album ends up just being cheesy. Dylan’s usual substance is noticeably absent; although this is probably to be expected as it features no original songs and is, at its heart, a novelty record. This is by no means Bob Dylan’s finest hour.

However, Christmas in the Heart isn’t completely terrible; it can be enjoyable at times. Guitarist Phil Upchurch deserves props and the songs themselves are timeless. It’s just that there is nothing new or interesting brought to the table. At the end, Christmas in the Heart will never be able to hold a candle to the rest of Dylan’s impressive body of work including Blood on the Tracks. Despite everything, it is a solid effort that should be praised for its charitable intentions.

– Tyler Kieslich «««««

anywhere but here – mayday parade Maybe it wasn’t an eternity, but the two years since Mayday Parade released their debut major-label album, A Lesson in Romantics, have been agonizing for many of the band’s loyal fans. The bitter departure of Jason Lancaster (guitar/backup vocals) caused some panic among the band’s followers, because his vocals were the perfect complement to frontman Derek Sanders’ melodic voice. With the release of Mayday Parade’s newest full-length album, Anywhere But Here, these fears were set aside, despite Lancaster’s absence. While the captivating dual-vocals from their previous album will be sorely missed, the band still perseveres with an amazingly well-balanced album anchored by superb anthems such as “Bruised and Scarred,” “The End” and “Still Breathing,” in addition to slower ballads “I Swear This Time I Mean It” and “Save

42 | Spark | November 12, 2009

Your Heart.” Anywhere But Here tops the work of any of Mayday Parade’s contemporaries such as Boys Like Girls and The Academy Is, avoiding the cheesy, teenage lyrical failures, mediocre tracks or predictable melodies that plague other artists in this genre.

Mayday Parade’s first single, “Kids in Love,” may not have been the wisest choice for a lead single, but the album has more than enough depth in other tracks to make up for it. Quite frankly, Anywhere But Here lives up to the hype that their debut yielded, something most bands today fail to do, and is on par, if not better, than A Lesson in Romantics. Their distinctive sound is very easy to get lost in, making this the best album within this genre this year by a long shot. This is a must-have for any fans of Mayday Parade, as well as any other music aficionados.

–Kyle Morrison «««««

i and love and you – the avett brothers It is often hard to let things go, like a past relationship, a cherished piece of clothing or a favorite band. It is hard for any fan to see his or her special “thing” go from playing in old, sweat-stained bars to being on VH1, Letterman and other high-exposure television channels. This is what has happened to most Avett Brothers fans.

The Avett Brothers have always been known as a folk-rock-country fusion band and many fans’ best kept secret. Before making their new record, I and Love and You, The Avett Brothers decided to sign to major label Columbia/American Records and hire big name producer Rick Rubin, who also produced albums for The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica. While the Avetts do not entirely

abandon their North Carolina roots, any long-time listener can hear the changes in their sound, which may disappoint some fans.

I and Love and You has a more refined rock sound. It lacks the dirty guitars and screaming vocals of previous records, but does not abandon the heart. While most of the songs do not disappoint, tracks like “Slight Figure Of Speech” seem a little too influenced by Rick Ruben. However, songs like “January Wedding” or “Laundry Room” sound like they could be off of The Avett Brothers’ previous six albums.

Although most first-time listeners will fall in love with I and Love and You, many long-time fans may be disappointed with the album’s lack of cohesiveness compared to their previous album, Emotionalism.

– Caroline Tompkins «««««

daisy – brand new On Sept. 22, Brand New released Daisy, their first major-label album since 2006’s The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. Lead singer Jesse Lacy offers listeners wide-ranging vocals from mellow to wanna-be screamo throughout the 11-track CD. Debuting number six on the Billboard Top 200, “Daisy” is the most eclectic song on this album, beginning with a radio-announcer’s voice, pounding drums and somber vocals which are interrupted with an eerie child’s voice. “Noro” is also a likable song on this CD due to its haunting and catchy melody.

Unfortunately, these two songs do not carry the entire album. The lyrics and vocals on Daisy usually either drown in the instrumentals or are incomprehensible due to Lacy’s screaming.

According to fans, Brand New has completely changed from their old sound, which was rightfully classified as alternative music. In addition, the lyrics throughout Daisy lack serious substance compared to those earlier songs. This style change has resulted in overall reduced fan ratings, but die-hard Brand New fanatics will continue to show their support.

– Lauren Ellis «««««

machine dreams – little dragon Electronic soul is not a genre of music approaching mainstream popularity anytime in the near future because few people appreciate the musical genius to marry the dance elements of electronica to the emotional feeling behind soul. Funky, synthesized beats mix with slow, jazzy vocals as Little Dragon, a Swedish electro quartet, releases their second studio album, Machine Dreams.

Although the 44 minutes of listening time do not live up to traditional standards of techno dance music, Little Dragon brings musicality and a sense of passion to their tracks such as “Never Never,” which is timeless, neither belonging in the past nor future.

Vocalist and percussionist Yukimi Nagano sings with a distinct accent that can make understanding lyrics a challenge, but the vocals have emotion that is evident throughout the album.

There are not many melodies listeners will be whistling after hearing the tunes, but that does not hold back on serenity. This branch away from stereotypical electronica sets Little Dragon apart from the crowd of DJs and artists that repeat the same driving beats over and over. Anyone can pick up some mixing equipment and repeat the same 20 seconds of various whistling, synth drums and catchy sci-fi movie phrases through a four-minute track, but bringing the listener into a transcendental experience with electronic music takes passion and, well, soul.

Generic techno falls into one of two categories: either driving and repetitive, meant for nothing more than a slick beat for dancing, or flying out into the abyss of noise and oddities. Machine Dreams does a fantastic job of breaking boundaries and examining an unexplored area of electronica without going over the edge.

– Dan Garrett «««««

crazy love – michael bublé Michael Bublé has already proven that he can croon with the best of them, earning him the controversial epithet, “the new Sinatra.” He tries to live up to this reputation in his long-anticipated release Crazy Love with a mix of pop songs, modern takes on jazz classics and jazz takes on rock songs. As always, Bublé consistently sings with the sultry sensitivity for which he is famous, each note tumbling out of the speakers like a cascade of fine wine.

“Heartache Tonight” is brimming with skillfully restrained ardor and “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)” featuring Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings is delightfully spunky, bringing to mind a true 1940s jazz club. Some tracks, such as “At This Moment,” feature swelling orchestration that perfectly compliments the emotion in Bublé’s voice.

Other tracks, however, stew together in their mediocrity and fall flat. His cover of “Cry Me A River” lacks the deep passion previous recordings have had. His first single, “Haven’t Met You Yet” tries to be sunny and lighthearted but sounds like a duller version of his last album’s single “Everything.” His cover of Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” sounds virtually emotionless, especially considering that Bublé is widely considered to be a master of vocal expression. Although this is the weakest track, Bublé decided it should be the title of the album to reflect the overlying motif of the album: the “rollercoaster ride of relationships.”

In the end, this album will please diehard fans and maintain Bublé’s successful career. But unlike real-life crazy love, Bublé’s Crazy Love is easy to forget.

– Victoria Liang «««««

43 | Spark | November 12, 2009

entertainment | reviews

The Motio Flying over in a Lockheed L-10 Electra, Amelia Earhart looks down on the landscapes below from her flight.

Unfortunately, the movie Amelia fails to soar above similar films like Rudy or the Rocky series. Earhart is played by twotime Oscar award-winning Hilary Swank. If Swank’s most impressive performance was in Million Dollar Baby (2004), this would be her least impressive.

Both Anna Phelan and Ronald Bass are two high caliber screenwriters, but the film crashed and burned due to lack of inspiration and emotion. Phelan and Bass based the movie off of two biographies about Earhart – East to the Dawn by Susan Butler and The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell.

Although Swank is the main focus of the movie, her performance is overshadowed by Ewan McGregor and Richard Gere. McGregor plays Gene Vidal, an aviation enthusiast who has a love connection with Earhart, and Gere plays Earhart’s husband and promoter, George P. Putnam.

While the actual mystery surrounding Earhart’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937 is compelling, the movie version fails to portray the suspense. Giving inadequate information about Earhart’s childhood and skipping directly over Earhart’s marriage to Putnam, the plot gets confusing to the viewers. Furthermore, the movie does not provide a background about who Earhart was.

The majority of the film depicts Earhart and her escapades with Putnam and Vidal. The movie focuses too much on Vidal’s love affair with Earhart and Putnam’s fight to prove his love for her. The dialogue was dry and uninspiring. This movie was a disappointment for amelia movie viewers everywhere. Despite a duo of excellent rated – PG writers and an award winning cast, the film failed length – 120 min to leave the runway. As a result, Amelia crashed like IMDb ratings – 6.0 Earhart in 1937.

Rottentomatoes rating – 16% – Shawn Baxter Spark rating – «««««

Hyped up to be the scariest movie of the decade, Paranormal Activity does not disappoint thrill seekers. Video game designer Oren Peli was inspired to write and eventually direct the movie after hearing strange noises and noticing bizarre occurrences in his house. In fact, the movie was even filmed in his own home and only costed $15,000. On opening night alone the movie grossed an estimated total of $535,000 in 33 cities. Paramount originally showed the film in 16 college towns, but because of overwhelming viewer demand, the movie is now playing everywhere.

The plot focuses on a young couple that has just moved into their new house. After Katie (Katie Featherston) claims that the house is haunted, her boyfriend Micah (Micah Slote) decides to film what happens after they fall asleep. Soon the couple notices paranormal events that would make even the bravest individual nervous. One particular event includes non-human footprints being left on the couple’s floor after

Micah dusts it with baby powder. Micah’s filming of these events seems to make these happenings more serious, especially after Katie is found sitting outside with no idea how she got there.

With a style similar to that of The Blaire Witch Project, Paranormal Activity will unsettle moviegoers. Instead of depending on special effects used by most horror movies, Paranormal Activity relies on scare tactics and suspense.

Instead of relying on the cliché horror movie soundtrack, this movie is dead silent, keeping the audience’s senses on high alert. The movie was so frightening to some that 23 people had to leave the original screening.

Those who are usually unaffected by scary movies will definitely be shaken by this one. It will leave moviegoers paranoid, avoiding the attic and keeping their lights on at night.

– Lucy Stephenson

44 | Spark | November 12, 2009

paranormal activity

rated – R length – 86 min IMDb ratings – 7.6 Rottentomatoes rating – 86% Spark rating – «««««

n Pictures The movie spin on the beloved children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak has taken a turn from the book’s “cute” storyline. The expected escape from reality into a world where “only the things you want to happen, happen” is disappointing. As a matter of fact, Where the Wild Things Are is more reality than fantasy.

Max, the 11-year-old protagonist played by Max Records, flees his home after biting his mother’s shoulder in a fit of childish rage and escapes into the world of the Wild Things. When Max arrives, the Wild Things are furious over the infidelity of their friend, K.W. Max where the quickly becomes King of this land that is desperately wild things are seeking structure for happiness. Unfortunately, the rated – PG empty promises Max makes to become King cause his length – 101 min downfall and he begins the voyage home, once again IMDb ratings – 8.3 Rottentomatoes rating – 69% returning without an apology for his wrongdoings.

Morals were replaced with fantasy and violence. This is Spark rating – «««««

not to say that a child could not handle the movie, but unlike children’s movies such as Horton Hears a Who or Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the themes and values will simply go over their heads.

Where the Wild Things Are holds no substance for viewers and frightens small children. For older audience members, this movie delves into the hurt of life without a “sadness shield,” what the movie calls a protection from the sorrows and confusion of life. Unsuspecting parents bringing their children to this movie would rightfully be upset. While the special effects were stunning and the soundtrack, made

by Karen O and the Kids, were the perfect touch for this movie, they simply did not compensate for the lack of plot.

Where the Wild Things Are deserves props for fulfilling the challenge of making a full-length movie from a 10-sentence picture book, but is not worth the price of admission.

– Lauren Ellis

Law Abiding Citizen, directed by F. Gary Gray, starts out innocently with Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) spending quality time with his young daughter making necklaces.

That façade quickly dissipates after the first 30 seconds as Shelton’s family is brutally murdered and the intense action thriller promised in trailers begins.

Shelton is compelled to implement justice for his family’s murder on his own because the judicial system is ineffective.

In the beginning he appears to be a knight in shining armor, but he quickly blurs the line between good and evil as he kills innocent people in hopes of fixing the judicial lawabiding system. His plan of revenge is intricately wrought over citizen a decade and planned so it can be carried out while he rated – R is in prison. However, the movie never addresses why length – 109 min his family was killed in the first place – viewers will IMDb ratings – 7.4 Rottentomatoes rating – 23% only be able to speculate.

In spite of the unexplained murders, the movie Spark rating –«««««

does a fantastic job pinpointing the shortcomings of the judicial system. Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) portrays the cliché, overly ambitious assistant district attorney, who works so hard that he does not have time to spend with his family.

Gradually, he begins bargaining with vicious murderers to keep his conviction rate from dropping. In the most insightful scene, Shelton almost convinces the judge to post bail by pointing out that he had no prior offenses and posed no flight risk, even though Shetlon previously confessed to two murders.

Viewers will be on the edge of their seats waiting to see how Shelton’s elaborate schemes unfold on the widescreen with the fast-paced soundtrack by Brian Tyler. The movie’s suspenseful commentary on the judicial system is worth seeing as long as viewers are able to stomach the graphic violence.

– Ariadne Souroutzidis

45 | Spark | November 12, 2009

entertainment | reviews

The Literature

U

sually when the lives of the urban poor are chronicled, the “story” becomes glamorized about the situations and lifestyles, and overlooks the subject. This is not true for Adrian LeBlanc’s Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx, which is a 406-page delivery of an incredibly honest and thought-provoking look into the run-down lives of two Puerto Rican girls, Coco and Jessica. LeBlanc, an American journalist who has contributed to the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and Esquire Magazine, has created a masterpiece using a very unique approach. She spent 12 painstaking years immersing herself in every detail, daily happening, small-time joy and agony of the “random family.”

LeBlanc’s intention is clear: do not glamorize or sanitize anything, and let Jessica, Coco and the assorted characters tell their stories. A general theme that Random Family drives at is the futility of a narrator. Despite all the years LeBlanc spent trailing her subjects around the Bronx, visiting prisons, hospitals, courtrooms and welfare offices, she is not seen as a narrator, a character or even a voice anywhere in the book. Instead, she extrapolates herself out of the family’s lives to accentuate the people with stories. Random Family reads like a novel, but LeBlanc accomplishes tasks that are different, and in some ways more difficult, than a novelist’s. For example, she commits to a plot that is often stagnant, circular and lacking in a resolution. None of the characters she writes about gravitate towards a newer or better life, yet she makes each story fascinating by allowing it to flow by itself.

Another way the book compels the reader is through its overwhelmingly descriptive writing style. With details such as “a sixteen-year-old Puerto Rican girl with bright hazel eyes, a huge, inviting smile, and a voluptuous shape, she radiated intimacy wherever she went,” and “George’s black leather cap matched the black leather trench coat. He’d cropped his dark brown hair close and kept his goatee neatly trimmed. His brown eyes were intent,” Leblanc skillfully paints a multi-colored portrait of each individual. After developing Jessica and her family, LeBlanc introduces other characters only after providing a detailed description of their backgrounds, as shown here: “Puma dealt drugs, but he was no ordinary boy. He had appeared in Beat Street, a movie that chronicled the earliest days of hip-hop from the perspective of the inner-city kids who’d created it. Puma had cinematic presence, and he was a remarkable break dancer, but when he met Jessica his career was sliding to the bottom of its brief slope of success.” LeBlanc’s ability to assemble so much information about her characters makes the reader feel as though she was always with them. This intimate and descriptive style is atypical when it comes to discussing the impoverished, but is extremely effective.

Along with LeBlanc’s impressive writing style is her objective account of life in the Bronx. On page 25, LeBlanc writes, “Rocco’s role model had been his uncle Vinny. Vinny was a longtime heroin user with a fairly successful illegal career, and told Rocco that he could succeed at crime.”

Here, LeBlanc writes about a controversial topic – drug dealers as role models – yet she prevents her own opinions from becoming a hindrance.

She also never mentions anything about the larger world, such as laws, politics or demographic shifts. While most writers would analytically rail about societal issues, LeBlanc’s ability to tell controversial stories without bias is remarkable.

Random Family is a stunning glimpse into the pity of America’s inner cities, not because the author exhaustively spent 12 years working on it, but because she meticulously developed the story with reporting expertise. The key to a good piece of writing is balance, and by harmonizing research with writing, LeBlanc brings to light a rare look of the world from the subject’s point of view. Surely there have been stories like this written before, but LeBlanc elevates the subject by capturing the disturbing, complex and emotional sides of life in the Bronx to make this book a truly extraordinary achievement in journalism history.

– Lisa Liu

46 | Spark | November 12, 2009

random family Cesar had gone from acting like a hoodlum to being one; his tough posture had calcified and become part of his identity. He called himself a stickup kid. As he remembers it, he went from playing tag to hiding drugs in his pocket to carrying guns. “That part where you and your boys go to the movies?

I passed right by that.” (83)

T

the overachievers In present day America, school for many students has become a competitive frenzy.

The high school environment is no longer about the student’s pre-adult exploration with the goal of narrowing likes and dislikes so that he or she ultimately can choose a college curriculum, vocational school or career path that fits. (14)

he hallways and classrooms of East are full with different types of students with various attitudes and levels of effort regarding their academics. Common perception focuses on students who fall behind in their classes, those who the district worries about bringing test scores down—but this view ignores many of today’s high schoolers. There is an emerging group of students whose focus is on achieving the best test scores and on being accepted into the best colleges. Although often overlooked, these “overachievers” are shaping our future as students.

In Alexandra Robbins’ latest book, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, perfect SAT scores are only one concern. Robbins takes a look inside many high school students’ overscheduled lifestyles. These teenagers rely on standardized test scores and class rank to guarantee them admission into the top universities in the country. As a result of their intense routine, students become overly competitive and stressed. As Robbins states in her book, “high school has become a game of Survivor, a hyper competition that swirls around the percepts ‘outwit, outplay, outlast.’” After spending a year interviewing students, parents, college counselors and other education professionals, Robbins gives readers a true idea of the epitome of overachieving students.

Robbins focuses on Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland which is one of the highest achieving high schools in the country. At Walt Whitman, a small percentage of students in every graduating class goes to Ivy League schools, and the average SAT score for 2005 - the year Robbins studied the school – was 1256 out of 1600.

The book concentrates on many pertinent issues to high school students. Robbins states that “high school is not what it used to be. With record numbers of students competing fiercely to get into college, schools are no longer the primarily places of learning.” It is disheartening knowing that many people no longer are at school to learn, but rather to compete to get better grades and scores than their peers.

Robbins’ ability to skillfully tie in a fascinating story and pertinent research makes it impossible to put down the book. Robbins, who graduated from Walt Whitman a decade before researching for the book, admits that she was an overachiever herself and can relate with the characters. From personal experience, Robbins is able to weave a thorough account of the life and mind of an overachiever from the perspectives of both the student and the teacher.

The Overachievers leaves little hope for the deteriorating state of the American education system. The book focuses on nine overachieving students whose lives have been sucked into the black hole of stress and merciless competition. Robbins develops strong relationships with the nine characters and follows them around in order to truly delve into their lives.

She documents the pervasiveness of the overachievement crisis by giving facts on sleep deprivation, eating disorders, cheating, college admissions and the Asian educational system. Through her reporting, Robbins also describes how wealth and privilege account for much of the reason these overachieving students are able to reach such academic achievement.

Although she is able to give both sides of her argument that many present-day students are becoming overly stressed with high school, Robbins is clearly one sided when she continuously mentions the No Child Left Behind Act, arguing that it “focuses more on test scores than teaching.” Robbins emphasizes how much of an impact the No Child Left Behind Act is making on today’s society. The book portrays how teachers are now teaching to the test in order to get high test scores when tests should focus on diagnosing where improvement is necessary – they should not be the determining factor regarding entrance into higher education.

The Overachievers is an eye-opening description of the lives of many high achieving students in the education system today that should be read by anyone involved in education who wishes to understand modern pressures and forces acting on “overachievers.”

– Anjana Japal

47 | Spark | November 12, 2009

entertainment | feature entertainment | feature

The interior of Cornerstone Hub and Grub preparing to open up for the public.

Olde Faithful After 100 years as a hometown biker bar under a number of names such as The Twilight Zone, Gilby’s Irish Pub is transforming into Cornerstone Hub and Grub, a family-friendly eatery. story lauren ellis | photo caroline tompkins

A

biker walks by with a heaping ice cream cone bathed in sprinkles while the air vibrates with the sound waves of Christian rock bands Lest We Boast and RedLine Live. The community in attendance consists of people ranging from infants to the elderly, made up mostly of friends and family from the evangelical motorcyclist groups Keepers of the Word (KOTW), Iron Samaritans and Bikers for Christ. Not a single bottle of beer is found in sight. The transformation from Gilby’s Irish Pub into a family-friendly gathering place is underway.

Bryan Gilmartin, the manager of Gilby’s for the past 13 years, holds his head up high as the community surrounds and supports him in taking the 100-year-old neighborhood bar and turning it upside down and inside out into a “hub for Christ.”

According to Scott Speight, member of the Iron Samaritans and KOTW, which meets at the hub Tuesday nights, the new name for the pub, located off of Cincinnati-Dayton Road, will be Cornerstone Hub and Grub.

However, the building’s changing name and purpose is only one reflection of Gilmartin’s larger transformation. Everyone who has heard his story has immediately jumped on the motorcycle for this man.

Sheldon Speight, friend of Gilmartin and member of KOTW says, “[Gilmartin] started telling me about his story and where he’s wanting to go with this place, and it sort of blew my face off.”

Gilmartin’s story begins when he was volunteering as a Santa Claus a few years ago. He contracted an unspecified illness from a child and later spent a total of 756 days in the hospital.

“I have been read my last rights eight times,” he recalls.

During his hospital stay, Gilmartin remembers a visitor who would pray with him every day and tell him he needed to accept Jesus Christ in his heart. Gilmartin felt like a hypocrite, owning a bar across the street from the River Church. In addition, Gilmartin went through a state of depression after a misdiagnosis, the nature of which he would like to keep personal. Gilmartin turned to alcohol as an outlet for his depression, but in August of 2008, he stopped his personal use of

“

Gilmartin started telling me about his story and where he’s wanting to go with this place, and it sort of blew my face off.

48 | Spark | November 12, 2009

alcohol and commited his life to God, although he continued to own the bar in the hopes of ministering to patrons.

Ron Williams, music producer of Joshua Sound and Lighting (JSL) and director of KOTW Men’s Ministry and Men at the Cross, partnered with Gilmartin in the transition of the pub, encouraging him to close the bar and get rid of the liquor license.

In an effort to boost the changes at Gilby’s, the KOTW, Iron Samaritans and Bikers for Christ held a benefit ride and pig roast Sept.

12. The biker’s ride began at the familiar music venue, the Underground in Forest Park, and circled around the I-75 loop, ending at a pig roast at Gilby’s. The benefit raised over $1,000.

On Oct. 24, as an official re-opening, the Hub held a CD release party for local band Live Past Life. This party was open to the public and housed roughly 45 customers. As of now, the Hub is open Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to midnight.

According to Gilmartin, the Hub and Grub is working toward opening Wednesdays through Sundays to the public and will serve MENU EXCERPTS gourmet coffee drinks, smoothies and sandwiches. pulled pork & Any youth or adult mac and cheese $3.00 Christian-based group will almond poppy be welcome to rent out the seed bread $2.00 building to be used as a meeting ground on Mondays banana nut bread $2.00 and Tuesdays for a reasonable coffee $1.50 price. iced tea $1.75 “It’s going to be very inexpensive. We’re not here to gouge them,” Gilmartin says. “What we’re offering is a comfortable atmosphere that isn’t based off of the fact that we have to sell the alcohol or turn the tables or listen to people cursing.”

Andy Ransdell, pastor of Lifepoint Vineyard Church, which meets at Wyandot Elementary School, is looking into renting out the building to help meet the needs of the different ministries in the church.

“The space would be a good mid-week meeting place,” Ransdell says.

While the Hub and Grub may be rented, Gilmartin and Williams have requested that any and all alcohol remains off the premises.

As the second oldest continuously running business in Liberty Township comes to a new beginning, Williams reiterates: “There will never be alcohol on this property again.” 

sports l inside east sports

Postseason Run Ends at Districts East boys’ soccer team ended its season with a 11-5-2 record and advanced to the district semi-finals where they fell to Lakota West story kaity conner photo eric muenchen infographic logan schneider Junior Troy Ward charges toward the ball during the Hawk’s 8-0 win against Western Hills

C

oming off of a 1-0 pre-season win over Gahanna Lincoln, then ranked second in the state, the East men’s varsity soccer team continued to build momentum. The team ended the 2009 season with an overall record of 8-3-2 and a conference record of 5-2-1.

“The team had a lot more motivation and skill [than last year’s team],” said junior Phillip Rawlins, who has been on the varsity roster for three years.

“We really stepped our game up.”

Junior Stephen Crossman, who played varsity for the first time this season, agrees that this year’s team possessed a combination of skill and desire.

“We had a lot of talented players who have played soccer most of their lives,” said Crossman.

“We also had a team that is willing to work hard in order to be successful.”

This is due in part to the leadership of team captain, senior and three-year varsity player Matt Fleming, who “has been the big leader, trying to push us to work harder,” according to Rawlins.

“Our captain did a great job this year,” said Crossman. “He is a great communicator and leader.”

Fleming feels that his position as captain has changed his perspective on East soccer, in comparison to his three previous years playing junior varsity and varsity.

How to Do A Bicycle Kick Keep your eyes on the ball.

“It was hard having this responsibility field,” they could have been able to make “a good sometimes, but it’s worth it in the end when I run at State.” see the guys playing at a high level because of my However, East’s regular season loss to rival leadership,” Fleming said. “I took it upon myself Lakota West challenged the team’s positive to try and push the guys as much as I can, as well attitude. as push myself at the same time.”

“I think [this loss] hurt us [because] a lot of Along with Fleming, Crossman believes that players are started to forget we’re good,” Incerpi the other senior members greatly contributed to said. “If we picked it up and started playing the success of the team. again then we could have still made it far in the “The seniors were a big part of the team,” tournament and been successful.”

Crossman said. “The seniors, as a whole, gave the Landrum agrees that maintaining morale team heart. They rallied us for every game.” would play a huge role in the team’s success at the One such standout is senior striker Jordan end of the season.

Incerpi.

“We just tryed to get a little of our confidence “I just hate losing,” said Incerpi of his drive to back and just play with a little more intensity,” perform. “I’m competitive and I want everyone Landrum said. “The biggest thing at the end of on the team to be the same [way].” the year was just getting our intensity back and His contributions both on and off the just understanding that if we go out and do the field have been appreciated by teammates like things we’ve worked on, then everything else will Crossman. take care of itself.”

“Incerpi did a great job at finding the goal,” But after being dealt a second defeat by West Crossman said. “He gave 200 percent effort for in the district tournament, East’s dreams of state every game.” were shattered.

The players, as well as Coach Danny Landrum, Junior Ben Slageter said the team wanted to believed that the team could have better reached rally together as a team to win. their maximum potential if they had played at “Regardless of who we lost to we wanted to their peak all year. win because of the seniors,” Slageter said, “Losing “We felt that if we went out and played our to West stung a little bit more.” game, we shouldn’t have had to “I feel the season was a bit of a dissapoint adjust or do anything different ment [because of] the high expectations we had for any of the teams that we early in the year when we were playing so well. It played against,” said Landrum. also was a big dissapointment that we didn’t beat Pull your toes Incerpi believes that West at all,” said Crossman, who hopes that the back so your ankle makes a oftentimes, the team did not team will have greater success next season. “But right angle go out and play the best they the positive was that we made it past the second could. round for the first time in four years. Next year Extend your kicking “We had a lot more talent I feel we will have a very successful team based leg to meet the ball [than last year’s team], but we on the talented juniors that will be returning next while falling backdid not use it,” Incerpi said. year and some of the young sophmores will only wards Fleming agrees that the continue to get better.” team’s success depended on Slageter agrees that next year’s team has a good each of its players performing chance of being successul in both the regular and Bring the knee to the best of his abilities post season. of your nonand feels that if the team had “The best thing we can do is win Greater kicking brought “a high intensity every Miami Conference (GMC)’s, and then we’ll see leg to your chest time [they] stepped on the where we go from there,” Slageter said. n

49 | Spark | November 12, 2009

photo weston neal

Boys’ Golf

Senior Matt Witzman teeing off on the 11th hole at Four Bridges. photo eric muenchen

Girls’ Soccer

Senior Katrina Echternacht fights for the ball during the Hawks win against Sycamore photo weston neal

Cross Country

Senior Nate Thomas (left) and junior Colin Apperson compete at the GMC meet.

photo eric muenchen

Girls’ Volleyball

Junior Stephanie Gregory digs for the ball during the sectional final against McAuley

The loss of seven seniors after the ’08 season did not diminish Lakota East Boys’ Golf coach Jeff Combs’ faith in his team. Combs was confident with the group of boys he had returning from last year.

“I thought we would be more consistent with lower scores. We had to take a high number every match,” said Combs.

They placed third at the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) tournament in October.

Sophomore Jordan Day and senior Matt Sorrows finished first team all GMC, while junior Anthony Fiorenza and senior Matt Witzman made second team.

The boys narrowly made it to districts by one stroke without Sorrows playing.

“I was worried that [playing] without Sorrows [would] hurt our chances of making it [to districts].

When I saw we made it, I was excited,” said Day. At districts, Day and Sorrows both shot 81’s followed by Fiorenza with an 83. Their scores ended up being 4 strokes short from advancing the boys to state for the second consecutive year.

“I’m bummed we didn’t make it [to state]. That is our main goal for next year,” said Fiorenza.

Combs would also like to see the boys finish on top of the GMC standings in the coming seasons.

“I love what we have coming back. A lot of good golfers are coming back. I’m excited to see what happens,” said Combs. ­­—Sarah Wilkinson

East’s Varsity Girls’ Soccer team stayed strong throughout the season with a record of 8-7-3.

The team rounded out its season with a Greater Miami Conference (GMC) record of 5-2-2.

Varsity coach Tara Riffle-Murray had expectations beyond those of the regular season.

“We are definitely a tournament team, so I’m expecting them to bring it on in the postseason,” she said.

Riffle-Murray can be credited for much of the team’s success. “[Coach Riffle-Murray] knows when to joke around with us and then when to be serious. She’s always telling us to try our hardest,” said junior Nicki Klass.

Pre-game rituals are very important to the

girls’ team as well, especially for the seniors.

“The seniors bring everyone together and we tell them what each game means to us since it’s our last year because it’s what they’re going to want when they’re seniors,” said senior Andi Martin.

Riffle-Murray’s coaching can be vital to the team’s success.

“For games like [those against] West or Mason, they really don’t need me to get them pumped up,” Murray says. “For other games I just give the girls the facts: Here’s what we need to do,” Rituals like these put the girls deep into the GMC tournament. Unfortunately the team was defeated by Mason in the final round.

—Taylor Patrick

With tremendous improvement since the beginning of the 2009 season, the Lakota East boys’ Cross Country team overcame many obstacles throughout the course of the season.

The team persevered despite its increasing number of injuries.

“We’ve been dealing with some injuries all season,” said Coach Adam Thomas.

In the process of becoming healthy, the team also practiced daily to shape up, including an intense week of practices, nicknamed hell week.

Hell week consisted of five tough practices after school. Days one three and five included speed workouts.

“I like the way the coach has been pushing us,” said junior Colin Apperson, “He’s been

really hardcore. A lot of people might not like it when he’s tough on them, but he’s making the team better.”

Apperson broke 17 minutes for the five kilometer run.

Although 17 minutes is a feat, Apperson hoped to achieve 16 minutes by the district meet.

After practicing on a softer ground, due to rain, the boys placed seventh at the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) Championships.

Apperson placed first for East, with a time of 16 minutes, 47 seconds , putting him at 11th place overall. He advanced to districts, where he placed 19th, missing states by three places.

—Rashma Faroqui

After finishing the regular season at 15-6 the East Varsity Girls’ Volleyball team advanced to the district finals. This was the deepest an East girls’ volleyball team had gone into the postseason.

The team lost seven seniors last year, but a young core of talent, strong leadership and determination propelled the team to a winning season.

“We lost seven seniors so it really took a toll on the experience of our team. Even so, we’ve surprised a lot of people and the younger girls have really stepped up,” said senior Meredith Garda.

Despite the lack of experience on the team, hopes were high for a successful season.

“I think that everyone always has that winning expectation, so the expectation of this year was not any different from any other year,” said senior Lauren Barker.

The girls finished the regular season winning six of their final seven games.

Coach Emily Langan was most impressed with the win over Mason.

“Against Mason we played well offensively.

We passed really well, and we came out and won,” Langan said.

The team defeated Turpin and McCauley in three games before losing to Harrison in a five game final.

—Jordan Drake

TICKER: FOOTBALL- Trae Broadnax 9th in GMC receiving

n

GIRLS SOCCER- Hannah Doerbaum 5th in GMC defense

Serving Up Victory

HAWKS’ ALUMNI

story sarah wilkinson l photo weston neal

East four-year varsity volleyball player Haley Lippert continues her career at Fairmont State University.

As a senior at East, she helped to lead the team to a GMC title.

She made first team in the GMC in 2008 and second team in 2006.

Starting out strong as a freshman at Haley Lippert now plays at Fairmont FSU, Haley State University. averages 2.5 hits per game, .5 sets per game, 1.5 digs per game and .25 blocks per game.

Lippert was an outside hitter at East and is continuing as an outside hitter for the Falcons. She is only behind teammate Micah Bell for the highest number of hits per game.

Lippert and the Falcons currently have a winning record of 19-12 and their season ends with the division tournament in November.

Lippert’s success in volleyball at East has lead her to success in volleyball at Fairmont State University. n

A look into the lives of East athletes

n

she played a different After leading the East opponent. girls’ tennis team to a 14-2 The decision to have season, junior Carolyn Pitman Pitman and Holden play and freshman Taylor Holden together in doubles was teamed up as doubles partners not one made by Coach in post-season play. The duo Karen Barnes. advanced to districts, which “Taylor and Carolyn they won, and had a successful both play in the USTA run in the state tournament. tournaments during the They lost in the state doubles summer. They played final to the New Albany team. together a few times and Even though Pitman enjoyed the experience. and Holden played first and The girls were successful second singles during the and approached me at the regular season, this was not beginning of the season the first time they paired up Junior Carolyn Pitman (left) high-fives freshman Taylor Holdento see if they could play to play doubles. They came after winning a point during district finals. doubles,” Barnes said. in second at the Ohio Valley “I was really excited just because In preparation for their trip to Midwest Qualifier, a United States we beat [West] straight up when the state tournament Holden and Tennis Association (USTA) event. they’re our biggest rival,” said Pitman refreshed their memories on Although singles and doubles Pitman. doubles strategy. play is drastically different, the For Holden this victory was “We started asking professionals transition did not force them to equally sweet. from clubs to play doubles against alter their method of play.

“It felt pretty good beating West us,” said Pitman.

The change to doubles helped after they had just beaten us at the After excelling during the Holden and Pitman travel to sectional final,” said Holden. regular season, Holden and Pitman Columbus on October 23 for When East and West met this would like to make it to states again the Ohio High School Athletic year during the regular season, as a doubles team.

Association state championships.

Pitman fell to Witte while Holden “Carolyn and Taylor both play Prior to this journey Holden prevailed against Turner. Pitman a high quality level of tennis. Their and Pitman fell to the Lakota West and Holden met West again in the game styles complement each other doubles team of Ashleigh Witte fourth round of the state team well. One has a fiery personality and and Tori Turner in the sectional tournament. For the second time aggressive style of play. The other finals. The duo retaliated and easily in the season, Pitman fell to Witte. is patient and has a more consistent defeated the same team in straight Holden won second singles, but playing style,” said Barnes. n sets 6-4, 7-6 for the district title. photo used with permission of tim buck

story sarah craig

HAWK CULTURE

INSIDE THE NEST

infographic devin casey

Emily Bostain VARSITY GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL

Ben Slageter VARSITY BOYS’ SOCCER

Stephen Humbert VARSITY CROSS COUNTRY

Sofey Fugate VARSITY GIRLS’ TENNIS

Danielle Favors VARSITY CHEERLEADING

Bengals in the playoffs?

YEAH

OF COURSE

YES

HECK YES

HOPEFULLY

Favorite season?

SPRING

FALL

WINTER

FALL

SPRING

Quarter or semester exams?

QUARTER

SEMESTER

QUARTER

QUARTER

QUARTER

Favorite fast food place?

SKYLINE

TACO BELL

MCDONALDS

CHICK-FIL-A

CHICK-FIL-A

Megan Fox is...

PRETTY

CRAZY

A GODDESS

DONE NOTHING

OVERRATED

BOYS’ SOCCER- Troy Ward 7th in GMC offense

n

Skyline Chili was founded in 1949 by a Greek immigrant.

It was named for the view of Cincinnati’s skyline that could be seen from the franchise’s first restaurant.

The chili is unique because it is not Chili con Carne.

Many customers claim that the chili’s unique flavor comes from chocolate and cinnamon, but the actual recipe remains a family secret.

BOYS’ CROSS COUNTRY- Colin Apperson 11th at GMC Conference Meet

sports l day in the life

the life of

1

bryant

Everyone wants a piece of Richard Bryant.

Every day he answers 75 to 100 e-mails, schedules facilities, evaluates 47-plus coaches, hears disgruntled parents, coordinates 27-plus sports and on Oct. 30, he had to prepare for the biggest Lakota football game of the year, East vs. West – a game that saw the usual 3,000-person attendance figure double.

3

5

story and photos caroline tompkins

1

This first-time Athletic Director starts his day with coffee and a Pop Tart. “This job is really an eat-when-you-can kind of thing,” Bryant says. The 15 minutes before school starts are Bryant’s only moments of peace.

The rest of the day he runs through his office doing one errand after the next, slowly picking away at his Pop Tart with each run-through.

2

Before the game Bryant takes care of all the details that many audience members never notice. The day of the game, he confirms all announcers and officials, organizes tables, check times and makes sure everything will run smoothly for the big game.

He even allocates all 150 VIP parking passes, including that of East Freshman Campus Associate Principal Suzanna Davis.

52 | Spark | November 12, 2009

3

In the middle of running errands, Bryant stops to help pack and organize canned goods for the East canned food drive.

“It’s the little things that slow you down,” he says.

“You think something is going to take you 15 minutes and it ends up taking you an hour.”

4

7

Toward the end of the school day, Bryant unveils his surprise to the student body: new 30-foot banners that read ‘Hawk’s Nest’ or picture the East Thunderhawk. Before picking them up on Friday, he called in secretaries, administrators and people around his office to show off his gift to East.

9

11

2

4

5

One of Bryant’s many tasks is formatting East’s brand new scoreboard for each game.

“This thing can do anything,” he boasts. All the while, his walkie-talkie remains glued to his ear while he gives out orders to people around the field from the press box.

6

Bryant works closely with two outdoor custodians, Roger Vangordon and Patrick Dugan, to make sure all facilities are properly serviced.

Throughout the day he keeps in close contact with them through walkie-talkies, telephone or e-mail. He even helps Dugan, hang the rest of the new signs.

7

The first thing one notices about Bryant is his sense of humor. Throughout the day he responds to anyone’s “How are you?” with “Like a chicken with his head cut off,” and he jokes with the East Resource Officer Deputy Doug Hale, East Principal Dr. Keith Kline and any other staff member.

When one of the flag runners trips during the beginning of the game, Bryant shares a good-natured laugh with the Thunder Club.

6

8

8

“Part of my job is public relations,” Bryant states. While unruly student behavior is not his top priority, he must always make sure every aspect of the game is running smoothly, even if that means dealing with hundreds of riled-up teenagers.

10

12

9

Bryant does not take a moment’s rest during the game. There is always something to do and a certain time by which it needs to be done. Bryant’s only checklists are the ones he has in his head.

He takes care of every aspect of the game, while still being the host of the party.

10

More than anything, Bryant likes to see East students doing well in the sports they play. When preparations are finished, he cannot help but smile when two East tennis players, Taylor Holden and Carolyn Pitman are recognized during the game for their state runner-up performances.

11

Bryant refers to anyone he talks to as “boss.” However, it is understood that Bryant calls the shots. There is never a moment when he is not communicating with someone about little problems that need to be solved during the game.

Bryant wearily admits that throughout the day, “you just have to go and go and go.”

12

Bryant looks on after what was a less than ideal outcome. Despite East’s 17-5 loss to West, Bryant believes that sometimes “you just have to go into the fire.” n

53 | Spark | November 12, 2009

photo tyler castner

sports l player feature

Pedro off The Pitch Pedro Powell runs hard wtih his mind set toward moving on to The Naval Academy or to an Ivy League school. story sarah fanning infographic matt fleming

E

ven before his legal name was printed on his birth certificate, Christian Powell was known as Pedro.

His nickname originated at Lee University, where his father, Curt Powell, majored in music.

Curt spent numerous hours perusing the local music store with his friends and future wife, where the owner constantly called customers “Pee-dro.”

Uncertain as to why this was, Curt asked where this unusual name came from.

“Well, you know its like the Mexican name,” the owner responded.

The thick southern drawl he possessed prohibited “Pedro” from being pronounced “Paydro.”

The mispronunciation of the common name became an inside joke among Curt’s circle of friends. When Pedro was in the womb, Curt began to call him “Pee-dro,” and the nickname stuck.

Although his nickname has unique beginnings, Pedro is known at East, across the Greater Miami Conference (GMC), and at several interested universities as a premier level running back.

Pedro, his family and coaches attribute much of Pedro’s success to his dedication and hard work on and off the field.

“He is a tremendously hard worker in the weight room. In the off season, he understands the commitment it takes to be good at this level and in this league,” East head football coach Greg Bailie says.

Pedro admires the hard work of NFL and college running backs.

“I look up to Eddie George,” Pedro says, “He was a hard worker and fulfilled his dreams by working hard.”

Pedro’s hard work began at a young age, as a member of the team his father coached.

“If you don’t work hard in this house you

Pedro Powell looks to continue his success as a running back at The Navy or at an Ivy League.

54 | Spark | November 12, 2009

photo eric muenchen

won’t last very long in it,” Curt says.

Curt taught his son from a young age that a mental edge is vital to success in football and anything one wishes to do in life. Because of this, Curt believes that his son is the toughest mentally on any team that he has played for.

After playing football under the watchful eye of his father until junior high and upon finishing his freshman football and wrestling seasons, Pedro joined Bailie, the coaching staff and the team in the weight room.

“When wrestling was over, he came with us and he wasn’t very big, but he worked real hard and came into the season where we saw that he had a natural running ability,” says Bailie.

Pedro uses the wrestling season to stay in shape for football season instead of attending the winter workouts with the team.

While keeping in shape for football, Pedro also excels on the wrestling mat. Last year he was ranked fifth in the GMC in the 171-pound weight class.

After wrestling ends, he resumes lifting and working out with the football team.

To supplement wrestling and team workouts, Pedro works out six days a week. His workouts mostly consist of weightlifting and speed and agility training.

The natural ability noticed by Bailie and the coaching staff has grown and prospered with hard work into the GMC’s second leading rusher, with 1,469 total rushing yards.

His long runs have contributed to nine out of the team’s 19 touchdowns this season, placing him eighth overall in GMC scoring. Pedro’s touchdown runs and game-changing plays helped lead the Thunderhawks to their three victories.

When the team is down in a game, Pedro looks to outside sources to stay focused on the game.

“Having friends around you helps [you stay motivated,]” Pedro says. “The student section is helpful too.”

Pedro has only played running back at the high

This TD run was part of Pedro’s 178-yard, two-touchdown performance in a 17-0 win at Hamilton.

school level, but coaches have wished to put him in as a kick returner as well.

“Special teams is dying to have him play for them because of his speed and running abilities,” Bailie says.

Although Pedro is now a conference leading rusher, his success has not come without struggles.

“He used to have a fumbling problem but Coach Bailie worked with him on keeping the ball high and tight,” Curt says. “Bailie put a lot of trust in him.”

This season, Pedro has only fumbled three times.

Pedro also has had to work through a midseason quarterback change when Michael Boyd tore his ACL and was replaced by Stephen Donoghue.

“I was used to working with Stephen, so it wasn’t that hard for me,” Pedro says.

Pedro believes that the coaches helped the team to keep going when they were down or faced

GRIDLOCK: Top 5 Rushers in the GMC (Yards Per Game) 40

60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Greg Tabar (Colerain) - 96.1 yds

Trayion Durham (Colerain) – 111.3 ypg

Devin Jarrett (Hamilton) – 117.2 ypg

Pedro Powell (Lakota East) – 146.9 ypg

20

LAKOTA EAST

Lakota East

20

Jordan Thompson (Lakota West) – 157.3 ypg

40

60

80

100 120 140 160 180

* After 10 games

obstacles, such as a quarterback change. “[The coaches] tell us to stick together and play as hard as we can as a team,” Pedro says.

Even though a lot of trust is placed upon Pedro, he does not feel the pressure.

“I just go out there and know that I am going to do well,” Pedro says.

When Pedro’s number gets called in the huddle, he stays focused on the upcoming play.

“I think about where I need to go, and what I need to do in the play,” Pedro says.

As a leading scorer on the team, Pedro is a role model. However, he does not view himself as a vocal leader.

“I lead by example,” Pedro says. “I always work hard and try to support [the team].”

Teammates, such as senior defensive lineman Grant Keller, agree that Pedro leads the team more with his actions and work ethic – not his words.

“His leadership drives others to do as well as him. He led through his actions more than speaking,” Keller says. “[Pedro] would take time to teach others how to lift properly and others would want to follow that and his good work ethic. As the main person he works out with, I can say I owe a lot of my success to him for pushing me to my greatest potential.”

Bailie also sees Pedro’s mature leadership style.

“He doesn’t mess around; he doesn’t say anything. He just goes out there every day and works hard,” Bailie says.

Although Pedro leads the team in yards, he still hopes to improve his vision in the backfield, support his teammates and stay energized for the duration of the game.

Pedro listens to heavy metal and rock music before the games and drinks Five-Hour Energy to keep his endurance level high for the upcoming game.

In the first snap of the game versus Sycamore, Pedro rushed for 80 yards and scored a touchdown.

This energy has helped Pedro average 146.9

55 | Spark | November 12, 2009

sports l player feature yards per game.

These plays would pump up the team.

“Whenever [Pedro] would have a great play everyone would be pumped,” Keller says. “Our defense would see how hard he is working for the team and that drove us to give up less points.”

Pedro’s family has been a major influence on not only his play, but also his commitment. His father was his coach when he began playing and continued to motivate him throughout his 12 seasons of football.

“I pretty much pushed him from age five or six,” Curt says. “I coached him for years and really focused on teaching mental toughness, just giving him any edge I could.”

Curt believes that Pedro’s mental toughness creates a domino effect of positive events.

“If you believe in yourself and control yourself mentally and play as hard as you can all of the time, positive things will happen for yourself and your team,” Curt says.

Pedro also finds motivation in the form of his younger twin brothers who are in junior high.

One of the the twins, Ducey, has cerebral palsy.

Immediately following his birth, he was clinically dead for 45 minutes before he was revived.

Cerebral palsy is a condition that causes muscle tightness and reflex movements that cannot be controlled. It is caused by a brain injury or problem during pregnancy or birth.

Watching Ducey struggle with the disease has taught Pedro and his family to not take anything

for granted and to always work their hardest.

Ducey is now in seventh grade and his twin brother, Trey, is now in eighth grade. They have attended all of Pedro’s games, but they spend the majority of the time at games running around with friends.

Although the boys may not always be physically present in the stands to watch their brother play, they serve as motivation for Pedro to do his best every time that he steps on the field.

“

[Ducey’s cerebral palsy] makes me feel sad; to watch him try so hard to do well in the Special Olympics makes me want to do well for him.

”

“Pedro saw [Ducey] go through [cerebral palsy] from a young age,” Curt says. “I think it motivates him to work hard.”

Ducey’s hard work to overcome his disease by participating in track, bowling and basketball in the Special Olympics has pushed Pedro to do well for his brother. “[Ducey’s cerebral palsy] makes me feel sad; to watch him try so hard to do well in the Special Olympics makes me want to do well for him,”

Pedro says.

The motivation between Pedro and his brothers is mutual. Curt and Pedro also believe that Pedro’s success inspires his brothers to work hard.

“They come and watch me; it gives me motivation, and I think it motivates them too,” Pedro says.

Pedro plans to continue both his athletic and academic success at one of the colleges recruiting him. He is in the top 25 percent of the senior class. So far, Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, a few small Division Three schools and The Naval Academy have shown interest in Pedro.

“I feel privileged to be recruited by these [prestigious schools],” Pedro says.

Pedro hopes to play for The Naval Academy.

As a child, Pedro dreamed of being in the armed forces. When The Naval Academy showed interest in him this dream was rekindled.

The Naval Academy is expected to contact Pedro sometime in December. The Naval Academy would pay for Pedro’s schooling and provide him with a career after college If Pedro does not attend The Naval Academy, he will attend the school that gives him the most financial aid, and that also has a good Sports Science or Criminal Justice program.

“I’ve always wanted to be in the military,” Pedro says. “I want a job that doesn’t have me sitting behind a desk all day. I want do something exciting and I want to serve my country.” n

A $50,000 Score When Richard Bryant stepped into his office on his first day as the East Athletic Director, he had not heard of any plans for a new scoreboard.

“I was contacted by Mr. Powell in the first couple weeks of September,” Bryant says.

Senior football player Pedro Powell’s father, Curt The old scoreboard was built in 1997; the new in October of 2009.

Powell, told Bryant that he was interested in improving the balance consisted of private donations, including East scoreboard and had money to donate to those from Powell’s family ($15,000). project.

“Boosters are raising the fund over the next “The new field looks so nice and our three to six months for the remaining $20,000,” scoreboard was not up to par with others in the said East Booster President Darrin Ward. “The GMC,” Powell said. “Lakota East should have biggest thing in trying to do this is to increase the best. We have an excellent stadium, a great membership so, in turn, it will increase revenue.” coaching staff, but a pitiful scoreboard.”

Ward, Powell, and Bryant all believe that The challenge became having a new the new board, which was manufactured by scoreboard working by the homecoming football Daktronic and constructed by The Industrial game (Oct.9). That provided five weeks to Electronic Service, brings benefits to the complete the $50,000 project.

Thunderhawks’ Nest, which added field turf “I was put in an interesting spot,” Bryant during the summer thanks to Atrium. said. “I quickly realized how expensive top-of“The size of it, for starters, is much larger the-line scoreboards are.” than the old scoreboard,” said Bryant. “More The East Boosters paid for half, while the importantly, the visibility and location (in the

56 | Spark | November 12, 2009

south end zone) is so much better.”

Other advancements on the new scoreboard include its new technology. Along with being energy efficient (only using up one eighth of the power that was used on the older board), it can also change the names of the teams playing. It is wireless.

Consequently, the person controlling the scoreboard can sit outside of the stadium and still control it.

But even with this technology in place, further improvements are still planned.

“We really wanted to have a T.V. screen put in but we weren’t able to do it at the moment,” Powell said. “But still, the wiring is there to do that in the future. It would be around $50,000 to add a T.V. screen, and in the next few years, we may be able to get that done.”

Although the new scoreboard was installed suddenly, the old scoreboard was not forgotten.

Plans have been in place for the old board that was put in when the stadium was first built.

“The old board will stay where it is for the rest of the season,” Bryant said. “But we’re looking at putting it somewhere else like the East Freshman Campus or a junior high school in the next year.” photo lfaiz siddiqui

photo sarah fanning

sidebar matt fleming

sports l briefs

Driving Through Districts story victoria liang l photo alex monson For East junior Abby Tepe, this golf season has been one filled with improvements. Playing as the number one individual from Lakota East in the sectional tournament for the first time, Tepe became the first East girls’ golf player to qualify for districts in 10 years. She finished the season 19th in the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) with a nine-hole average of 43.50.

At the sectional tournament, 29 teams competed on two different courses. Four teams and four individuals competed together in a group. Lakota East played at Fairfield Greens with Middletown, Oak Hills, and Fairfield. The top individual and top team from that group moved onto districts. “[East senior] Caitlin Buck used to play number one individual, but she had mono,” Tepe said. “The Fairfield girl came in thinking it would be easy to qualify for districts because Caitlin wasn’t there. But I had my goal set on making districts and becoming our leading player,” At districts, Tepe shot an 89, missing the state qualifying score of 82 by seven strokes. According to Tepe, her game was “not as good as it should have been, because a few holes were just a little short.”

East Varsity girls’ golf coach Cindy Feltman is still happy with the results.

“[Tepe] is very close to being a state caliber golfer. I know she was a little disappointed but we are very proud of her,” said Feltman.

Tepe’s success this year has also inspired her to continue golf in college.

“Last year, I didn’t think I could [play in college] because I was shooting pretty high but now I realize I’m good enough,” said Tepe. “And because my brother is playing in college, I can get a feel for what the experience is like.”

Tepe attributes many factors to her success this season, including quitting soccer and volleyball to focus on golf, but cites her practice during the off-season as the primary reason to her game improving.

“My dad and brother golf, so I’m around the sport all the time. I live in Four Bridges, so I can golf whenever I need to,” said Tepe.

Tepe’s mother, Anne, also believes her daughter’s attitude helped her greatly. “[Golf has made Abby] focused and driven.

She knows what she has to do to be able to reach her goals and fit everything in,” said Anne.

Tepe has already begun preparing for next season.

“This season has been a good experience because I know what I need to do and the mentality I want to keep for next year,” said Tepe.

Tepe practicing her swing at Four Bridges Country Club the night before the District Tournament

“Next year, I want to make it to state, if not as a team, then as an individual. But I’d rather make it as a team. If the freshmen girls step it up and start working hard, I think our team has a shot.” n

A Run at State story anjana jagpal l photo weston neal With her Mini Wheats in hand at every meet, Alaina Norman’s high hopes came through for her this year as evidenced by her state championship qualification and subsequent 78th place finish.

“My friends have always joked that I will be going to the Olympics and my face will be on the cover of a Wheaties box,” Norman says.

Even though she is only a freshman, adjusting to the high school cross country level was as not difficult as she initially anticipated.

“The adjustment was hard at first, but as the season went on it was more gradual and I got used to it,” Norman said.

Second year girls’ cross country coach Adam Thomas was surprised by her immediate impact on the team.

“She kind of shot out of nowhere. I didn’t realize her potential until she ran a 20 minute 59 second run on a very hilly course,” Thomas said.

Norman’s best run of 19 minutes 22 seconds is currently ranked fifth all-time at East for its best girls’ cross country run.

“Alaina runs really fast which motivates us to run really fast as well,” said freshman Hailey Monnig.

In high school cross country, the course is 3.1 miles long. The courses’ terrains can range from being very hilly, making it harder to compete to

flat and level, exerting less fatigue on the runners.

Weather is also a factor that can affect the runners’ course, especially if rain makes the ground soft, which affects the toll taken on the runners’ feet.

“My favorite trail to run on is the trail at Voice of America Park. It was also the first time I broke 20 minutes,” Norman said.

Norman’s persevering attitude has an effect on the team as a whole.

“When she does well, it motivates the other girls to push themselves, especially the upperclassman,” Thomas said.

Although cross country may seem like an individual sport, according to Thomas, leadership is key on a cross country team.

“Alaina is a different type of leader. She is more of an indirect leader, when she does well it motivates others. It just shows that hard work in the off season pays off,” said Thomas.

The girls’ team participated in the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) championship race on October 17. Norman earned first team all GMC honors, and placed fifth out of fourteen. After cutting two minutes off of her district time at the regional meet, Norman placed 11th. Her time of 19 minutes, 32.37 seconds allowed her to qualify for the state championship meet.

At the state championship which was held at

Norman running at the GMC meet at Voice of America park. She placed 14th at this event.

a windy Scioto Downs course near Columbus, Norman finished with a time of 20 minutes, nine seconds in the 3.1 mile run enabling her to place in the middle of the 143-runner field. 

57 | Spark | November 12, 2009

sports | quick hits

OPEN GYM Footwork is a Big Deal

1

“I take one step with my right foot to the right, then while I’m stepping with my left, I toss [the ball] in front of me. Then I step two more times and swing.”

Technique is Everything

8

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT VOLLEYBALL SERVES story hannah berling east girls’ volleyball player (as told to rashma faroqui) photo caroline tompkins

2

“I spin [the ball] before the serve on my hand. I look at the zone my coach gives me and mentally put the ball there. I only have 6 seconds to serve.”

Go Full Force

3

“I toss the ball really far in front of me so I have to put all of my force behind it. I swing hard and put float on it so it’s hard to read. People say [the ball] drops mass.

It’s awesome when you see a girl shank your serve.

4

Stay Mentally Focused

“The mental aspect is huge. You really have to focus; it’s the one thing in volleyball you personally control.”

Aim Wisely

5

“I look for the weaker players and the girls that have shanked or just messed up.

Also when I serve I look for big holes in the court. If there’s a big space where nobody is, I go for it.”

6 7

Have Your Own Approach

“For a jump float I stand with my hands on the sides of the ball straight out in front of me, my feet shoulder-width apart.”

Be at Ease

“I take a deep breath, relax and focus on getting an ace.”

Look to the Coach

8

“I aim where my coach tells me to, we get zones to serve. There are six different zones. It is basically the element of surprise”

58 | Spark | November 12, 2009

sports | opinion

IN THE STANDS

sports opinion kyle morrison

Drug testing has high standards at the college level, but is nonexistent at high schools across the country.

It is a completely preventable affliction that is more likely to end an athlete’s season than a torn ACL. It plagues countless athletes at East, and at all levels of sport. It is also completely voluntary, within the control of the athlete, and not atypical for a teenager to do. It is a choice that millions of high school students make every year. It is the choice to get high, and it can have major ramifications on one’s athletic career, among other things. Recreational drug use may seem harmless to some, but in the NCAA, where tests for such drugs are mandatory, one failed test can kill a dream. However, the majority of high schools do not drug test their athletes.

The absence of drug testing from high school athletics can be attributed to many different factors, but the main two reasons are a lack of funding and the possibility of a lawsuit. Some schools receive federal funding for drug testing, but those schools are nothing more than a few grains of sand in the ocean. The legal issues that are involved with drug testing involve the privacy of the malefactors who fail said tests. In 2008, Washington’s state Supreme Court ruled to outlaw high school drug testing, citing the 4th Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, as the grounds for their ruling. This philosophy is the polar opposite of the NCAA’s testing program, where tests are frequent and have severe

“Athletics at East are not devoid of drug-using students.”

punishments. The lack of high school drug testing allows prep athletes to engage in drug use without fear of authority or repercussions, while NCAA athletes fear that their scholarships will be revoked and their playing time reduced due to failed drug tests.

The relentlessness of these tests in the NCAA shows that the athletic directors, alumni, and coaches do not want their universities to be represented by drug-using athletes. It tarnishes the images that these universities work so hard to protect. There is certainly an element of mutual respect between the athletes and universities that high school athletics utterly lacks.

It is a shame that Lakota’s funds are so restricted that there is virtually no chance of the district setting up a program, as its benefits would most likely outweigh the risks. Not only would drug testing show that the administration truly cares for the well-being of its athletes, but it would also demonstrate that these schools care about their image. An improved image could attract new families into this district or keep athletes from transferring to local athletic juggernaut schools such as St. Xavier and Moeller.

If Lakota were to begin a drug-testing program, athletes who fail tests could be treated for addictions and could kick their habits before the next level, where one positive test can put an abrupt end to years of dedicated work. Athletics at East are not devoid of drugusing students, as many would like to believe. Perhaps through the establishment of a drug testing program, the athletic directors could learn that an amplified reputation is more addicting than any drug. n contact kyle at kyle_morrison23@msn.com

IN THE STADIUM

sports opinion brandon kors

Sports can be used as a medium in which memories are made, whether on or off the field of play.

I heard the “King of Pop” died. That was the shocking news this summer. Too bad I heard it from seat-23 in the row behind me as I was settling into my field-level box seat at the Rodgers Centre. The dome was open and the CN Tower hovered over the stadium as the June sun blazed down on the hardy 15,329 patrons watching baseball that day. Thiller is an awesome song, but as the “okay Blue Jays, let’s play ball” song blared over the loudspeaker, the zombies coming to attack me was the least of my worries.

When planning a family vacation, my family and I always try to see if there is a sports venue around that we can cross off our list and then look for a hotel. Over the years I have added several to my list, including Fenway Park in Boston, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Camden Yards in Baltimore. My list is still growing and I hope to visit all the parks someday, but that is not my ultimate goal.

The real thrill for me is bonding. My family used to go as a whole, but as my two sisters got older, they got married and moved away. I am the only child at my house now.

So now I go on trips with my dad. I can tell you the memories of seeing a walk off home run at Comerica, viewing the Capital building

“Sports lore is fun to talk about but the real memories are made with my dad.”

in between the crack at Nationals Park, or watching Brett Favre destroy the Detroit Lions in the Thanksgiving Day game. Sports lore is fun to talk about but the real memories are made with my dad on and off the field.

Memories such as driving to the Mid American Conference championship game in Detroit and braving the ice and snow storm with deadly road conditions on the drive home. Not to mention getting home at four in the morning and going to school the next day.

Or stopping in a Speedway in a quaint one stoplight town in Indiana late at night on the way home from an Indiana Hoosiers football game and getting coffee. Or even the time when I wanted to go to the Indiana basketball finals and we did not have tickets so my dad woke me up at six in the morning to drive down to Indianapolis to try to buy scalped tickets for four games that day.

There is nothing better than sitting with my dad on a beautiful Saturday night taking in a ball game with a bag of peanuts in my hand, a non-alcoholic beer in his and having man talk. You can always see a walk off home run, a shot at the buzzer, a deak past the goalie to win the game or a complete game, but there are some memories that you can never re-live.

Sports is just one excuse to spend time with my dad. When I get home from school, my dad and I are outside throwing curl routes to each other or engaging in long epic battles of one on one. Sports are always going to be a part of my life and the memories made through them will be with me forever. n contact brandon at brandon.kors@gmail.com

59 | Spark | November 12, 2009

more info can be found at excapesalonanddayspa.com

All Lakota East students always receive 15% off!

Haircuts starting at $30 Highlights starting at $60 Upstyles starting at $40 8206 Highland PT West Chester, OH 45069 (513) 777-9444

­—In front of Fitworks next to the Walmart—

opinion | commentary

RYANFAY ganja goodness

He opened his car, reached underneath the seat and removed an empty candy tin. He popped the top off to reveal a small plastic bag containing what looked vaguely like pepper, but with an olive-colored tint. I didn’t believe him when he said he had it, because I had never even seen the stuff before.

It was a case of typical high-school procrastination. My friend had put his English essay off until the last minute, and because of his job, he couldn’t get it done in time. He asked me to do the essay for him and promised to pay handsomely – twenty dollars worth of marijuana. I didn’t’ take up the offer, but it would have been incredibly easy to obtain marijuana right then and there.

That day was an excellent example of why marijuana laws are ridiculous: they are virtually impossible to enforce. The national laws governing marijuana are a wasteful misuse of federal manpower and finances. The laws are contributing to unsustainable prison populations, bypassing an opportunity to increase tax revenues, and most importantly, the laws are restricting the rights of the America. The criminalization of possession of marijuana for personal use must end.

Marijuana usage is far more widespread than one might believe. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the federal agency that oversees enforcement of national drug laws, 14.8 million Americans used marijuana in 2006.That’s roughly one in every 20 Americans who used a substance that is illegal under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.

Let me be clear: this is not advocating the legalization of

prison sentences often accompany a drug offense. According to marijuana expert Eric Schlosser, author of the book Reefer Madness, the average prison sentence is six months for a marijuana offense. The Florida Department of Corrections reports that it costs $55 per day to imprison an individual. Even if only half of the marijuana possession arrests were sentenced to prison time, and they served only those six months, the government would be forced to pay almost 3.4 billion dollars to detain them. Prisons are vastly overcrowded and costly. Legalizing marijuana would reduce the amount of prisoners being held, and therefore the taxes that Americans must pay to detain them.

Now consider the alternative to imprisoning those hundreds of thousands of offenders. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, a kilogram of marijuana sells for 3,500 dollars at the wholesale level. Combine that with the DEA’s report that 661,000 kilograms of marijuana were seized in 2008 alone, and that amounts to the confiscation of $2.3 billion worth of marijuana.Currently, selling marijuana is a crime. However, if the industry could be legitimized, it would be a major source of revenue. Opponents claim that legalization, taxation and commercialization would just give criminals a way to make more money by selling legally. That is not true. Instead of people being forced to give their money to criminal cartels, businesses would open to fulfill the demand legally. This would create jobs, stimulate economic growth and increase the tax base.

The legalization of marijuana would increase incomes in both the private sector and government coffers. Less money being spent on useless law enforcement and incarceration and expanding businesses and the tax base is an extremely solid recipe for fiscal responsibility.

By legalizing and taxing marijuana, we can help close the gap between government revenue and expenditures.

Fiscal benefits notwithstanding, a strong case can be made for legalization simply because of America’s libertarian pledge.

America is not as free as it thinks it is. This is an infringement on personal liberty and a demonstration of the government’s inability to prioritize crime-reduction. A conscious choice to partake in smoking marijuana when it does not hurt anyone else is no business of the state, just as a person’s choice to smoke or drink is left up to them.

Since 1970, when America criminalized marijuana, the United States has been in a downward spiral of declining personal liberties. It’s time for us to once again set an example for social liberty. Leave this issue to the states, not the federal government.

In a time of inflation, recession and rampant deficits, it is clear that federal priorities are out of line. The cost of enforcing marijuana laws is far greater than the benefits, since it is still so readily available anyway. The status-quo forsakes great opportunities for business development and taxation. Making the marijuana industry legal and regulating and taxing it like the tobacco industry would create jobs and reduce deficits.

It’s time to stop wasting resources on these futile efforts and time to legalize marijuana. The United States is missing a great opportunity. To paraphrase Dr. Evil’s famous quote, “Why spend billions when we could make…millions?” n

“It’s time to stop wasting resources on these futile efforts and time to legalize marijuana.” extremely dangerous “hard” drugs, such as heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and so on. They are known to destroy the body and cause dependency. A DEA study of common drugs used in the United States ranks marijuana as one of the least dangerous substances available in terms of bodily harm. It is even ranked below tobacco, a legal drug. But, it is classified as a Schedule I drug, which means the government considers it is just as harmful as cocaine and heroin, despite the fact that their own study proves that to be wrong.

Health concerns regarding marijuana are no reason to ban it, since those risks are already available in legal drugs. Alcohol and tobacco-related deaths are in the hundreds of thousands annually.

According to the US Drug Abuse Warning Network, no deaths can be directly attributed to marijuana use alone, though tobacco and alcohol use led to over 500,000 deaths in 2000. Those substances are legal and marijuana is not.

The legalization of marijuana would relieve a great burden on the corrections system. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1.8 million arrests occurred in the United States in 2005 for drug-related offenses. Of those arrested, 37.7 percent were arrested for simply possessing marijuana, not for producing or trafficking. That translates into about 679,000 arrests for possession. Punishments for convicted offenders can include fines, probation and mandatory rehabilitation programs, but contact

Ryan at hereticleader13@yahoo.com

61 | Spark | November 12, 2009

opinion | commentary

HEAD T President Obama proposed “a truly historic commitment to education” to the American people while he was campaigning for the desk in the Oval Office. He also promised that he would not “just tell everyone what they want to hear.”

But the President seems to have done just that. His proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was meant to show that he is “committed to providing every child access to a complete and competitive education, from cradle through career,” will pose more problems than solutions.

One of the main focuses of the ARRA is improved teacher effectiveness and higher salaries, to “ensure that all schools have highly-qualified teachers” by evaluating teachers and introducing a merit system of wages. The President does not give a specific method for measuring the ability and effectiveness of any given teacher, a task proven difficult by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Teachers cannot be “graded” solely on the performance of their students, nor can they be applauded based on feedback from pupils and parents.

This lack of a grading scale could result in wrongful termination of “ineffective,” as the President challenges districts to get rid of staff members indentified as such. His proposal of the use of incentives to “keep talented teachers in the schools that need them the most” has been met with much opposition from many teachers’ unions, including The National Education Association (NEA). Additionarlly, merit pay could cause friction between school staff members, including the teachers and the administration. If a list of teachers who were not receiving merit pay was to be seen by the public, schools would be bombarded with a firestorm of complaints from parents whose children are not in the “best” teachers’ classrooms.

Another component of the ARRA is an extended school year. American schools would need to add at least 20 days to the school year in order to match the international average of a 200 day school year and increase competition with students worldwide. In practice, this extension would require a large increase in funding to provide for 20 days worth of school lunches, 20 more days of transportation costs, 20 additional days of teachers’ pay, and more expenses.

According to WestEd research agency, “lengthening the school year would cost states between $2.3 and $121.4 million for each additional day.” This increase in time and money spent at school does not guarantee increased productivity or learning, and results in the loss of summer days. American students do not only use their summer break for lounging by the pool—many students depend on the income they earn from their summer jobs. Others use this time to travel and attend camps that teach them more than any classroom lecture can. Students that wish to attend institutions such as the United States Naval or Air Force Academies take part in summer seminars to give them a leg up on admissions. Programs which enable teenagers to visit foreign countries and experience different cultures, such as People to People, would no longer be able to benefit American students if the school year were extended. In an effort to increase competition programs intended to do just that by “preparing students and professionals for success in a globalized world,” People to People’s goal according to their website, would become extinct.

The President intends to use part of the ARRA funds to increase college financial aid.

But, as the costs for college steadily increase, so would the need for more and more financial aid. While growing higher education costs are a great burden to many American families, not every student has the desire or the need to attend an institution of higher learning.

A study from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems study showed that only 55.7 percent of high school graduates in the United States go directly to college. The great number of students who are not headed to universities require training and resources to prepare them for life outside of high school, whether it be the life of full-time employment or military service. Increasing financial aid only benefits 55.7 percent of America’s students.

With the national debt surpassing 11.9 trillion dollars, according to the U.S. National Debt Clock, the President’s ARRA would require the distribution of money that America does not have. The idea of education reform loses some of its appeal when it requires the government to continue to spend money that does not exist. n

educ

kaity conner

“Teachers cannot be ‘graded’ solely on the performance of their students.”

fourncincy@gmail.com 62 | Spark | November 12, 2009

O

HEAD The American children have been left behind.

With a grade school curriculum trailing those of competing nations by two years, it’s no surprise that U.S. students ranked embarrassingly low in the International Assessments of Student Achievement (IASA) report.

In the study, the U.S. ranks 21st of 30 countries in scientific literacy, 25th of 30 countries in math literacy and 15th of 29 countries in reading literacy. Furthermore, only six percent of America’s eighth-grade students scored in the “advanced” level, compared to 45 percent of students in China, 40 percent in Korea and Singapore and 26 percent in Japan.

In other words, America desperately needs to improve its global report card if it wants to compete against countries like China, Korea and Japan – not in the future, but now.

Fortunately, President Barack Obama is determined to lead us in the right direction.

Last March, Obama proposed to restore value of academics into America’s currently corrupted school system through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The new education plan would improve teacher effectiveness, reform standardized tests, extend the school calendar and expand college affordability.

In countries like China and Japan where the smart kids rule the school, teachers not only are extremely valued, but also provided prestigious social status. In America, where fed-up teachers are going on strikes just to be heard, not so much. Yet researchers at the University of Tennessee found that teachers influence student achievement more than any other schooling factor. Our country needs to attract more of its best and brightest to the teaching profession to ensure that our students are taught by high quality instructors.

To promote this, the plan would raise teacher salaries and reward good performance with merit pay. Such actions include: learning new skills, teaching in under-served areas and taking on added responsibility. These are not obligations, but ways to encourage teachers to continually improve their skills for a more effective learning experience.

However, teachers are losing a motive to genuinely educate students as schools are focusing too much on standardized test scores. When the public opinion research organization Public Agenda surveyed 600 middle and high school schools nationally, it found that 84 percent of teachers and 60 percent of parents think schools place too much emphasis on standardized test scores. These assessments have dominated curriculums to an extent where teachers are being forced to teach to fill-in-thebubble tests, causing students to place more value on learning the test and not the material.

The plan would revamp this fraudulent system by implementing a broader range of assessments that challenge students to think critically, communicate effectively, engage in scientific investigations and master necessary skills for the 21st century. Also, it would urge schools to decrease class sizes and teach to a full, rich curriculum that includes science, technology, history, art, music, reading and math to develop high-order thinking skills.

This fuller, richer curriculum would demand an extension of the school year. However, teachers do not have enough time to teach everything in their curriculum even with the current academic calendar, and some even have to spend their first months reviewing material that students have forgotten over their three-month long hiatus. Of course, many students use their summers wisely by attending camps and studying abroad, but not all parents can afford a trip for their child to help starving children in Africa. Currently, school year length in the U.S. is 180 days, which is the smallest amount of time in comparison to other developed nations, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The plan pushes for a 200-day school year, which would align the U.S. with the international average, behind Japan’s 243-day lead.

As the global economy is depending more on the college-educated, Obama’s final reform initiative is committed to ensuring easier access to higher education. He wants to boost college affordability by dramatically expanding financial aid and giving $2,500 a year tuition tax credit for students from working families.

With 80 percent of the world’s fastest growing fields requiring a college education in math and science, America will be in at a huge disadvantage if our students cannot compete for international jobs that our economy depends on.

Our country is lagging behind in this education race, and we cannot afford to lose. n

ation

lisa liu

“Our country is lagging behind in this education race, and we cannot afford to lose.”

lliu92@gmail.com 63 | Spark | November 12, 2009

opinion | commentary

HEIDIYANG

formulaic degeneration Introductory Statement: Formula writing leads to a world that lacks creativity and critical thinking.

Introductory Paragraph: In high school, students are taught to write essays according to a standard five-paragraph rubric, resulting in 18-year-olds with the same writing capability as elementary students. While it may seem easier to write an essay according to guidelines, forcing students’ ideas into a predetermined form will eventually diminish their writing ability and ingenuity.

Structure statement: Some examples of this are my own writing

ended up writing like zombies with dysfunctional brains.

Second example topic sentence: Unfortunately, this zombie fear is real, because over time, our brain cells die from disuse.

Support: Neurons operate on electrical impulses sent by the brain. Without regular use, they become dormant and eventually die. According to a study by Queensland Brain Institute scientists, “if a cell is not appropriately stimulated by other cells, it selfdestructs.” The more students are forced to write the mundane five-paragraph essay formula, and not forced to think of creative ways to present the material, the less neurons are used, allowing the rest to degenerate. It’s more productive in the long run to think abstractly and write on one’s own design than to follow a strict formula that shapes ideas and intuition.

Third example topic sentence: College is meant to foster creativity and potential in its students, and formulaic writing is not helping.

Support: Sure, the five-paragraph essay format is convenient for the 25-minute essay on the SAT , but it does not emphasize what really matters: originality and ability individual ideas. It’s like an admissions officer saying, “Be yourself. Just according to our standards.”

Conclusion: Writing based on a set system is not helping students. When college entrance exam preparation books all teach how to write essays right to the number of sentences and sizes of paragraphs, little room is left for the manifestation of truly novel thoughts. Instead, students worry too much about writing what they can in the template that they’ve been directed to use.

Creativity always trumps conformity, so let us students write how we want, and don’t judge us for it. n

“College is meant to foster creativity and potential in its students, and formulaic writing is not helping.” ability trend [personal example], brain function deterioration [scientific/academic example], and college admission criteria [worldly example].

First example topic sentence: I have been afflicted with a five-year writer’s block ever since I was taught formula writing.

Support: Every time I start writing a high school essay, I cannot exactly put my feelings into words as I could in elementary school. When looking back on my old essays, I think to myself, “Wow, I made more sense before than I do now.”

Now, my default setting is the five-paragraph essay: introduction, three supporting paragraphs with examples and a conclusion. Though my English teacher tried to break my class from that pattern last year, he was unsuccessful. He even tried to take points off for any essay with a topic-support format, but the method was already too ingrained into our minds to break. We contact

editorial art kim shearer

Heidi at heidi.yang.44@gmail.com

White House Welcome to the White House Mr. President!

64 | Spark | November 12, 2009

You’ve just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!

East Speaks Out “Without tests, you can’t be sure that the students know the substance.”

“Other countries focus on longer school years, so maybe there’s something to it.”

Matt Winfough, senior

Mason Aguilar, junior

What are your thoughts on President Obama’s education plan? ”I prefer teachers to teach creatively and less to tests.”

“I think it’s good he’s making education more practical.”

Lauren Jencen, senior

Allie Edmonds, sophomore

SHAWNBAXTER

obamanomics As I cruised down Tylersville Road, I noticed the fresh paved asphalt and a sign that read “Paid for by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” with the slogan: “Putting America to work.” Construction projects have been hit hard by the recession, which has led to more layoffs. But thanks to the government funding new projects, more jobs are being saved and created.

After inheriting the worst economic recession since the 1930s, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17 to help jump-start the economy.

This stimulus package included $787 billion to create jobs and promote economic recovery, to assist those most impacted by the recession and to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health.

In the past few months, signs of economic growth have emerged and the stock market has been on a seven-month rally since last year’s recession. After hitting a six-year low in March 2009, the Standard & Poor’s 500 has gained 51.2 percent by the end of the third quarter. The Dow has gained 45 percent and the NASDAQ has gained nearly 61 percent, which is the best in the quarter for both. These numbers all point in the same direction: the economy is on par for an overwhelming comeback.

Though unemployment has continued to climb from 6.2 percent last August to 9.9 percent this October, the Recovery Act is creating more jobs. In fact, 3.5 million jobs are projected to be created as a result of this law, and 95 percent of working Americans have received a tax cut. According to the Associated Press, over 13,000 jobs in education, law enforcement, social services and construction have been saved in Ohio alone due to the Recovery Act. Another successful undertaking is the Credit Card

Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act) of 2009, which has fundamentally changed the rules governing credit card usage. This law states that credit card issuers must give consumers 45 days notice before making changes in card terms, and consumers are given 21 days to pay their monthly credit card bills. The act also bans individuals under the age of 21 from having credit cards unless they have a means to pay the debts. These rules will ultimately help regulate the credit card issuers and help Americans manage their debts.

And to rescue our nation’s current 9.9 percent unemployment rate, Obama plans to create five million new environmental

“The great measures Obama has taken to rescue the economy have kept us from economic collapse.” jobs. He has projected an increase in renewable energy use of 10 percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025, plans to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050 and wants to put one million plug-in hybrid cards on the road by 2015. Over the next 10 years, America will invest $150 billion to become an international leader in climate control. Overall this will improve the environment and create more jobs for Americans.

During the third quarter of 2009, the U.S. economy grew 3.5 percent, the best quarter in two years. This means the recession is over. The great measures Obama has taken to rescue the economy have kept us from total collapse. Critics will say that the stimulus was a waste, but they should tell that to the tens of thousands of teachers, police officers and construction workers who would have been cut from payrolls without the stimulus.

Unemployment recovery always lags behind growth. But the American economy is growing again, which means true recovery is not far behind. n contact

Shawn at lesthebest37@aol.com

65 | Spark | November 12, 2009

opinion | finishing touch

DANASAND voting blind

It was two hours before East’s parent curriculum night, and I, along with a few other Spark editors, was frantically cutting a mountain of brightly-colored flyers and stacking them in piles that would later be handed directly to parents as they left.

These weren’t just any flyers. They were flyers that read “Meet the Candidate Night” in big font across the top, leaving room for the date, time and place of the event along with a brief description of what the night would entail.

This was only the beginning of the preparation that would need to be done for Candidate Night, where a Spark panel interviewed each of the five candidates running for the Lakota School Board for two hours and attendees had the opportunity to personally address the candidates during an open-microphone session following the panel’s questions.

But despite all of the planning ahead of us, we were still filled with anticipation for such an important event. One person guarded each door at every possible exit of the school, and each person had more than enough flyers to hand out. We were prepared to say the least. With this many parents receiving the flyers, we thought we were bound to have a great turnout.

But my optimism quickly dissipated when one woman simply took the flyer without a word, walked two steps to the right, and threw it away in the outdoor trash can right in front of me. I was shocked by her blatant disrespect, but when only 40 people showed up at Candidate Night on Oct. 5, I realized that she was part of the majority – not the minority.

Voter apathy has become a major issue among community members. At curriculum night, rooms were filled with parents following a shortened version of their child’s daily class schedule. There were easily enough parents to represent a fourth of the students at East, meaning over 1,000 parents received flyers that night. If these parents were willing to block out an hour or two of time from their busy schedules to meet their children’s teachers, they should have also been more than willing to take the same amount of time to learn about the candidates running for the Lakota Board of Education instead of jeopardizing Lakota’s future.

What many parents fail to realize is that the members of the Board affect their children’s education in a very significant way. While teachers impact what a student learns throughout the day and how students perceive their classroom environment, teachers are still required to follow the policy decided upon by the Board members regardless of their own opinions. Parents who care about whether they like their child’s teachers but don’t care enough to vote on Board members are disregarding the fact that the new Board members could change Lakota’s fundamental beliefs of how education should be. Voting gives parents the control over who is ultimately in charge of the education of not only their own child but of all Lakota students, but many parents don’t take that responsibility seriously.

While other events may have been occurring at the same time as Candidate Night, it is upsetting to see how few people cared enough to learn more about those who will now be making major decisions in the near future, including difficult decisions about the current state of Lakota’s budget. It is unsettling to know that many either did not vote or voted without any valuable knowledge as to which candidates they saw as most fit for the position. n

66 | Spark | November 12, 2009

67 | Spark | November 12, 2009

68 | Spark | November 12, 2009