Lakota East Spark 2020-21 Issue 2 #195

Lakota East High School lakotaeastsparkonline.com January 2021 $5 Newsstand

THE INFLUENCERS SPARK takes a look at influential people in the Lakota community and how they impact the East student body both inside and outside of the classroom.

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 1

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Spark

2020-2021 STAFF

Editors-in-Chief: Abbie Westendorf Shiloh Wolfork Business Manager: Riley Higgins News Editors: Rachel Anderson Megan Miranda Feature Editors: Frankie Stull Marleigh Winterbottom Package Editors: Mia Hilkowitz Ava Huelskamp Culture Editors: Ianni Acapulco Natalie Mazey Sports Editor: Mason Wise Opinion Editor: Rehab Jarabah Photography Editors: Riley Higgins Cassandra Mueller Art Editor: Cassandra Mueller

chief column | opinion

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Spark, At EDGE Teen Center, our mission is to empower teens to impact the world. Our goal is to prepare teens holistically and teach them skills they may not receive inside of the classroom. Being a part of the Lakota community is an important part of the work we do. As community members, we strive to encourage teens in the areas of academic success, healthy living, community service, and life skills so they are able to be successful in the classroom and out in the community. We believe it is important to shed light on community members, such as our staff at EDGE, who contribute to the success of students inside and outside of the classroom, and we appreciate Spark for doing so. The work that community members do is important, often unrecognized, and can have lifelong effects for students.

Having mentors and various third-party adults in a student’s life is correlated with academic, social, and emotional wellbeing across cultures. In fact, it has been found that students who have these extra adults in their lives are more likely to have higher self-esteem and less likely to exhibit problem behaviors. These positive adult role models provide students with the tools to be successful in multiple contexts of their lives. These unique contributions to a student’s life provide them with experiences and knowledge that they might have missed if they did not have these adults in their lives.

We are going to do our job no matter what because we are passionate about contributing to teens’ lives but when we do receive recognition in any form, we never forget it. It only makes us more motivated to continue serving youth and at times, we refer to those moments of recognition when we need a pick-me-up!

—EDGE Teen Center Site Manager & Teen Specialist Meagana Wilkins and Katie Olson The Spark encourages letters to the editor. Letters can be sent to the publication at Sparkbusiness2021@gmail.com or delivered to room 118 at the Lakota East High School Main Campus. Letters must be signed, and the staff reserves the right to edit the letters for length, grammar, invasion of privacy, obscenity or potential libel. The opinion editor will contact writers for confirmation.

PR Director: Abbie Westendorf

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Copyeditors: Abbie Westendorf Shiloh Wolfork Advisor: Dean Hume

Spark

Lakota East High School lakotaeastsparkonline.com January 2021 $5 Newsstand

THE INFLUENCERS

SPARK takes a look at influential people in the Lakota community and how impact the East student body both inside and outside of the classroom.

4 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

This issue, Spark is taking a look at influential people within the Lakota community and exploring the ways in which they impact members of the East student body. The blue figures represent different members of the community, and the spotlights symbolize our effort to shine light on their influence.

SILENCING SLACKTIVISM E column shiloh wolfork | photography riley higgins

ndless posts of the same image flood the screens of millions of people worldwide. Thoughtless thumbs double-tap each image, and eagerly swipe to the next. Some leave a supportive comment under each post, convinced that their words represent some level of understanding.

Others leave negative comments, convinced that their hurtful criticism will spark a social awakening within the people behind the post.

During the summer of 2020, an online event known as Blackout Tuesday was held in an effort to raise awareness for Black Lives Matter (BLM). According to National Public Radio (NPR), the virtual movement was originally launched by two African American female executives within the music industry, Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas.

The campaign was intended to challenge society as a whole to recognize the injustices that face black people within the industry. It was meant to present a oneday pause on everyday life in an effort to make ourselves aware of these inequalities.

People were urged to show their support for the cause by posting a black square on their Instagram accounts.

According to NPR, the organizers of the initiative released a statement stating that it is the responsibility of the corporations and their partners within the music industry to empower the black culture and communities that have contributed to them. Links to donate to memorial and legal funds for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery and community bail funds were also provided.

Although this initiative had good intentions, its nature provided a breeding ground for performative activism and misinterpretation. Performative activism is activism done in order to further one’s social stance or status rather than to express one’s devotion to a certain cause.

Events like this allow people to believe that posting a black square is enough to stand for the cause. It promotes a cycle of praising people who engage in surface-level activism, or slacktivism, and it presents a false sense of allyship that celebrates those with large platforms for supposedly standing with the cause. But in reality, posting a single image or retweeting a popular hashtag in an effort to be “trendy” isn’t equivalent to understanding.

Of course this doesn’t mean that black square in support of the movement is uninformed. However, this slacktivism does provide a platform for those who haven’t previously engaged in the movement through donations or petitions to demonstrate insincere support. It also gives that platform to people who have directly contradicted the movement through discriminatory past behaviors. For example, former Glee star Lea Michele made a post in support of BLM before being exposed by her black castmates for reportedly making racist comments on set.

According to a 2019 Pew Research Center study, 72% of the public uses social media. Of those social media users in the U.S., 23% say that social media has led them to change their views on a political or social issue. For this reason, it’s important to promote online movements in a careful and positive way.

The Blackout Tuesday movement only succeeded in clogging up people’s Instagram feeds with the same repeated image, preventing users from viewing any educational posts under the BLM hashtag. It could have been a chance to provide credible resources about the history of systemic racism in the music industry, or to present the information as a series of interactive graphics.

Instead, the campaign contributed to the normalization of praising people for doing the bare minimum when in reality, a black square cannot eradicate, or even lessen, society’s institutionalized racism.

According to TenEighty, a digital publication that covers important events in social media, pictures using the hashtag Blackout Tuesday were posted more than 28 million times, while signatures for the Justice for George Floyd only reached 13 million.

Social media platforms can be an amazing resource for raising awareness for important causes but it’s important to consider how that awareness is presented. We should aim to present online activism in a way that encourages long-term change through engagement and understanding.•

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 5

news | photo captions

LAKOTA

To read more about this topic, see page 20.

CHOIR DURING COVID

East choirs adapt to restrictions presented by COVID-19.

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ne

raphy mary baro caption and photog

caption megan miranda photography marleigh winterbottom

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fter holiday break, Lakota adjusted to the new COVID-19 quarantining policy that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine altered under the influence of new data. The previous in-scho ol quarantining protocol had students quarantine if they had come in close contact with a positive student in class or during lunch.

Now, as long as students are wearing a mask, if they are in close contact with a positive student, they no longer have to quarantine. East junior the switch from ted tia ini e Lif Piper for Dorr (above) sees this as a positive change; she was quarantined lay Re , to er est sem s the new semester began t las m fro and” decorations ) towards the end of December and faced keeping up with online work East’s “Winter Wonderl -Chair Ellie Ford (above Co with the added weight of first semester ending. d an ior sen st Ea in full “Kickoff”, which ts that school is back “Teachers first priority is obviously their students in the classro den stu to er ind rem a om explained is group’s signature and for the kids who the h wit eet Str in Ma get quarantined it’s easy to fall behind,” Dorr rned ts’ den stu in sh swing. The committee ado fre ch said. “I faced that challenge while having to finish the semest keeping cancer resear er remote tpurple color scheme, el to hosting restauran pan with no real inclination of what I was supposed to be doing.” • the d ite lim has 19 Dhas VI ich CO wh s. nd nt, mi relay eve d of their usual spring based fundraisers instea brought in.

To read more about ns tio na do of er numb significantly lowered the ’re going to raise this we ney mo the play, read the the t tha ed “We’ve kind of accept past,” Ford said. “I think the in n bee upcoming issue. it’s at wh to l raising year won’t compare ver happens, we’re stil ate wh ber em rem to it’s important ch.” • money for cancer resear

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efore COVID-19, students huddling together on bleachers as they worked to sight read sheet music was a typical sight inside the choir room at East. While voices still meld together, changes have had to be made; bleachers were traded for socially distanced chairs in the gym as masks lining faces became the new normal.

“We are following what the Butler County Health Department allows us to do,” East Choir Director Becky Huddilston said. “Seating assignments have changed and we practice in the gym to stay safe.”

For East junior Haley Matson, following these protocols is worth it if it means she still gets to participate in an activity she loves.

Matson is now a part of two choirs, Voices and Company, having been a part of East’s Singing Thunderhawks since her freshman year.

“I sometimes have trouble with my mask staying on my face [while singing],” Matson said. “It’s hard to get the volume we normally would while wearing a mask, and it’s harder to

caption and photog

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fter winter break, Lakota adopted a phase in plan to welcome students back to school due to COVID-19. Teachers had an inservice day on Monday, Jan. 4, followed by a week of remote learning for students starting on Jan. 5. The following week began with remote learning on Monday, Jan. 11. For the remainder of the week, last names A-L attended in person on Tuesday, Jan.12 and Thursday Jan.14, while last names M-Z attended in person on Wednesday, Jan. 13 and Friday, Jan. 15.

“I would rather be in school with everyone back because of the social aspect, and it’s more organized,” East junior Sibella Russell said.

“With the health aspect, it was a smart plan, but I would rather be completely in school.” •

6 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

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he theater’s upcoming pla y, Puffs, will be conducte d similarly to The Brothers Grimm Spe ctaculathon by Don Zolid is performed by the Lakota East Drama Clu b earlier this year. The Bro thers Grimm Spectaculathon showcase d several Brother Grimm fairy tales, such as Princess and the Frog, and was performed by two teams of actors.

Puffs will be similar in per formance, a play that “is a romp through the world of a certain boy wizard, but told through the eyes of the Hufflepuffs,” according to East Theater Director Kr isten Hoch. The audience will be able to choose to watch in-person or virtually. The upcoming play on March 5, 6, 12, and 13 at 7:30p m, will also have actors who play a part of a live audience member wa tching from home and direct the audience on how to react. •

RECAPS

breathe, but I’m just glad we’re still able to do yourself to get it right.” it.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Superintendent Matt Miller recognizesPrevention initially made the claim that the that some of these protocols have presentedact of singing can contribute to the spread of challenges, but overall, changes have been ableCOVID-19, but reversed this decision on May to be successful.

23, when they changed guidelines regarding “I know that kids are still challenged bythe reopening of places of worship. some of the protocols that we have to follow,” “The early guidance that we were getting Miller said. “But it’s much better than I wouldfrom the CDC [regarding] the science of have thought three or four months ago at thethis, and from the Health Commissioner was start of school.” different, and [Health Commissioner] has Concerts presented by East’s Singingchanged, lessening the rules around choir and Thunderhawks have had to be shortened toaround music in general,” Miller said. “They accommodate new guidelines, and studentswere really concerned early on about spread may no longer stay to watch the choirs theythrough voice and from singing and expelling are not a part of perform. For their fall concertair.” which took place at East Freshman Campus, As the school year continues, Matson sees performers wore masked at all times along withthe safety guidelines become the new normal as the limited audience. she continues to adapt to the necessary changes.

“Choir is such a collaborative activity so “This year has definitely been different than staying socially distant can make it difficult atprevious years,” Matson said. “But we’ve found times,” Matson said. “Sometimes it’s hard toways to make it work and still have fun.” • hear other people and you have to rely more on- natalie mazey

Stages of the COVID-19 Vaccine Development 1

caption natalie mazey photography rachel anderson

briefs | news

2

Virus Anaylsis Researchers look into what causes the body’s immune response to the virus.

Vaccine Developed Researchers begin to decide which components should go into the vaccine.

3

Animal Tests Developers test the

4

Human Trials The vaccine is tested

5

Approval The Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccine.

6

Production Vaccine is

vaccine’s safety.

on volunteers overr different stages

mass produced for distribution.

source U.S Food and Drug Administration graphic mia hilkowitz

Read about the new COVID-19 Vaccine in Issue 3 January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 7

news | kinship connections

kinship connections | news

“I” IS FOR INCLUSION The Lakota Outreach Diversity and Inclusion Department has launched a new program to aid Kinship Caregivers through the journey of raising a child who's not biologically their own. • story infographic and art mia hilkowitz

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he Lakota Local School District has recently launched a new monthly program called “Kinship Connections” to families within the district. Piloted through the Lakota Outreach Diversity and Inclusion (LODI) Department, Kinship Connections aims to build a group of support and access to resources for grandparents and other kinship caregivers raising children who are not biologically their own.

A “kinship caregiver” is a grandparent, extended family member, or close family-friend who raises a child when a biological parent is unable to do so. According to data from the 2010 Census, over 2.7 million grandparents acted as “grandparent caregivers” and held primary responsibility for children under the age of 18. The Census finds that there are an estimated 6,000 kinship caregivers in Butler County alone.

LODI Parent Engagement and Community Outreach Coordinator Leah Aguilar says that the district had planned to roll out the program

in April 2020, but had postponed the launch following the spring COVID-19 outbreak. The idea for Kinship Connections was sparked from a community conversation hosted by Lakota at which grandparent caregivers expressed their own difficulties surrounding raising a child.

“One of the messages that our grandparents shared with us was the struggle to feel that they had a place,” Aguilar told Spark. “They didn’t fit in with the parents in the school, because they were the grandparents. They [felt like they] didn’t fit in with their own peer group because they were raising young children and their peer group might already be completed with that part of their journey.”

After hearing the feedback of it’s own kinship caregivers, LODI reached out to partner with the Butler County Educational Service Center (BCESC) Kinship Navigator department.

The Butler County Kinship Navigator was established in 2000 after Legislation was passed to establish a navigator program in every Ohio county. Starting with 15 pilot programs, these

navigators assisted kinship families across the state. In 2005, legislation to continue financial support for these programs was voted down.

The BCESC Kinship Navigator Department was able to obtain some financial backing, which they still maintain today.

Kinship Navigator Melissa Ruffner has been working with the department for almost 21 years. She helps assist families through any legal and financial challenges that arise from becoming a kinship caregiver.

“For caregivers that don’t have a navigator to help them, they feel quite lost. People don’t know how to even file for custody, much less how to do the paperwork or how to answer tons of questions,” Ruffner told Spark. “They’re scared and feeling alone. As the navigator, our position [helps] those people [feel] safer and confident that we’re there to walk them through the difficult process.”

Currently there are only two Kinship Navigators at BCESC to serve the county, Ruffner and navigator Jillian Campbell.

According to Ruffner, the two Kinship Navigators can serve anywhere between 300 to 400 families a year.

“We are not able to reach everybody, but we do our best to let people know we exist,” Ruffner said. “We work closely with the schools and children services. The majority of our referrals come from teachers, counselors and principals to know we exist and refer families to us.”

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ampbell, who is in her second year as a Kinship Navigator, says that the opportunity to partner with Lakota will help the department reach even more caregivers across the county, especially with the hybrid virtual and in-person Kinship Connections meetings. “[Kinship Connections] is a nice opportunity for people who may not be comfortable or available or ready to meet in person to connect with a group,” Campbell told Spark. “They get the support and [are able to] make some friends. It helps them day to day to know that they’re not alone in their situation. That emotional support is priceless.”

Campbell says that through programs like Kinship Connections, the Kinship Navigator program hopes to expand their resources.

“We hope to continue to grow,” Campbell said. “We hope to make progress in the community, agencies and schools to offer as much support as we can for kinship caregivers to come together. [Then] they can know what’s out there for them and know that there’s support.”

In addition to working with BCESC to offer resources to families, LODI is working with local health care, mental health, grief and trauma professionals to offer support and advice for caregivers. LODI offers meetings every month, both in-person and virtually. In person meetings are held over Zoom, while inperson meetings are held at Bethany Church on Cincinnati Dayton Road at limited capacity and adjusted to follow social distancing guidelines.

“One of the ideas that came from the community conversation was that the [in person] meetings are hard to get to, that some of these grandparents are still working,” Aguilar said. “[The virtual and in person options] allow us to continue that network of support.”

Usually, the Kinship Connections virtual meetings average from seven to 10 families per meeting. In-person attendance is steadily growing as the program continues;the last

in-person meeting on Nov. 18 totaled 19 attendees. But Aguilar believes that the most notable achievement from the recent program is that more Lakota families have reached out to the BCESC Kinship Navigator following these meetings.

“In the department of LODI, the I stands for inclusion,” Aguilar said. “[Lakota] really looked to help [kinship caregivers] feel included in what was going on within the district and to build that network of support.

It’s important to make those connections.” •

The Kinship Legal Process 1 6 A judge decides if there is evidence to prove child abuse or neglect.

A report of child abuse or neglect is made

Court determines whether to temporarily allow the child to be placed elsewhere until trial.

5

Judge decides where child will live and who will have custody.

7

2

Service or family members make contact with Child Welfare Agency

Investigators may decide to remove the child from their home.

8

4

Review hearings are held every 6 months to review current custody.

3 Child Protective Services investigates the report.

friends . faith . food HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SUNDAYS / 5:30PM INSTAGRAM @LHCSTUMIN

sourceChild ChildWelfare WelfareInformation InformationGateway Gateway source

8 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Liberty Heights Church

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 9

eco classroom | news The community came together to fundraise the cost of the Adena playground equpment.

East senior and NHS member Megan Sheth helps dig a spot for the new East EcoClassroom.

Adena students have recess on the newly renovated playground.

UPDATED PLAYGROUND BRINGS COMMUNITY TOGETHER Via various Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) fundraisers and community donations, Adena raised $35,000 and renovated their playground originally built in 2018. story andie madding | photography audrey allen | infographic emily taylor

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lthough Adena Elementary’s playground was completed in 2018, nobody could have predicted just how important it would become to the parents, staff, and students of the Lakota community in 2020.

Recess is one of the most eagerly anticipated parts of a student’s day. A 2018 study from the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association

(IPEMA) found that getting outside for fresh air and exercise provides social, physical, cognitive, and emotional growth. This is especially important now because it provides a sense of normalcy and opportunity for social interaction during the global pandemic. Of the teachers surveyed in the IPEMA study, 100% agreed that recess is crucial to children’s physical and mental development. Adena is willing to commit time and resources to sanitize and clean the new playground for the health and safety of the students and teachers. “[Groups of kids] rotate and each day; you get to play on the playground equipment or be on the blacktop using balls and jump ropes, among other items,” Adena Principal John Mattingly said. “We spray and disinfect between recess times.”

Mattingly was introduced to the Adena playground during the second year of the two-year project.

He said that it “brought new energy and overall excitement” to the students. The modern, new equipment includes slides, climbing walls, monkey bars, and poured rubber turf. The renovation cost $35,000.

“My favorite part of the playground is the swings and the new climbing equipment,” Adena fourth-grader Andrew Sharp said.

All of the funds were raised by donations organized through Adena’s Parent Teacher

10 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Organization (PTO).

“We held a Walk-a-thon that was very successful, and our annual Fun Fest, as well as several smaller fundraisers,” Former PTO CoChair Amy Pitzer said.

Many community members and businesses also helped to support the update. There were several hundred donors that contributed to the cause, including seventeen businesses and thirty-six families that donated over one hundred dollars.

“Another lasting impact of this playground project was the relationships established between the Adena Community and local businesses,” Pitzer said.

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he community is coming together more than ever during these uncertain times, just as they did to finish the project, completed in 2018.

The Windwood Swim and Tennis Club located in West Chester was among the hundreds of donors that provided funds for this initiative. According to the manager of the swim club, Dennis Beck, Windwood does its best to try to “support the community that is around the pool.” This mindset of so many other donors made the playground possible.

“We believe all projects that are good for the community need to gain and receive community support,” Beck said. “And we are glad we were able to be a small part of that success.”

The reward for all of the volunteer time, work, and sponsorship is evident daily through the smiling faces and excitement every time the doors open for recess. “[The new playground provides] much more opportunity to exert energy, play safe, and have fun,” Mattingly said. •

LEARNING OUTDOORS

With the current pandemic, the East National Honor Society chose to design and build an EcoClassroom - an outdoor area for students to socially distance equipped with stools, a whiteboard, trees, and overhead shade. story and infographic rachel anderson | photography audrey allen

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ast senior Megan Sheth walks across the grass to the plot of land she’s been assigned to for the next three hours. She stands next to the fence with mud seeping into her boots as she shovels the top layer of soil, and when she steps on the yellow and black shovel to push it in the ground, a feeling of accomplishment and inspiration takes over.

The 30x60 foot semicircle that Sheth is helping dig will eventually become East’s first EcoClassroom complete with overhead sails, trees, a whiteboard, and seats. The EcoClassroom is the 2020-2021 East National Honor Society (NHS) service project. “[The EcoClassroom] is something for us to look forward to. It’s uniting the members which is so nice,” Sheth said. “It’s basically a COVID-free environmental classroom which is beneficial for both students and teachers, especially the students [because] they will be able to learn like they used to before COVID-19, just outside.”

Every year, the members of NHS complete a service project to help better the school and community. Last year, the members partnered with Solar is Freedom and successfully raised

$20,000 to be able to install 45 solar panels on the roof above the auxiliary gym. The panels were installed over the summer of 2020. This year, the five NHS officers decided to take on an EcoClassroom.

The outdoor classroom will be adjacent to the football stadium on the back side of the building. There will be a concrete path leading to the classroom making it wheelchair accessible. Three pre-existing pine trees sit on the outskirts of the semi-circle classroom, as well as four trees that need to be planted.

Lining the classroom will be various trees and bushes. A whiteboard will be placed at the front of the classroom near the bleachers, and 26 wood stump stools will be used as seats. There will also be two collaboration areas at the two corners. The ground will be covered in mulch, and there will be three sails hanging overhead for shade.

“All of the hard work, and all of the manual labor is going to be done by NHS members. So all of the planning and all of the actual building is going to be done by our students, which is super important,” Alderman said. “[We want to] make sure that the students feel connected

to the project and make sure that after they leave, they’re going to feel like they really added something to East.

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ccording to three-year NHS advisor and Spanish I, II, and III teacher Maria Maine, the pandemic was the “driving force behind the classroom.” As soon as the officers were chosen, they started having conversations with students and staff at East to see where the biggest need was.

“With this pandemic, it seemed like every person that we spoke to wanted to do something that had to do with COVID-19 and a relief of some sort,” Maine said. “What defined this year’s project was definitely the pandemic and our restrictions.”

While the two NHS advisors, Maine and Advanced Placement (AP) and British Literature teacher Andy Alexander, did not come up with the idea of an EcoClassroom, they encouraged the officers to choose a project that would define them as a class. The officers wanted something that students learning virtually could still be a part of, that directly impacted the school, and that would be remembered for years to come.

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 11

news | eco classroom

eco classroom | news

New painted crosswalk

(8) Sea Green Junipers Existing Pine to remain

Provide ADA ramp at curb (2) Blue Point Junipers

Existing Pine to remain

The East EcoClassroom logo was created in August by East senior and NHS Vice President Lyna Sennoun and her older sister Iman Sennoun who graduated East in 2019. infographic used with permission

(8) Sea Green Junipers

Existing Pine to remain

(2) Espresso KY Coffetree or Zelkova

infographic used with permission

Site Plan Scale: 1/4"=1'-0"

Collaboration Areas (typ. of 2)

National Honor Society Project

Mulch ground cover (typ.), Brown Color Mulch Sail/ Shade (typ. of 3)

Teacher marker board

Wood stump stools spaced at 6'-0" o.c. min. (typ. of 26)

6840 Lakota Lane, Liberty Township, OH 45044

(2) Espresso KY Coffetree or Zelkova

for

4'-0"

Lakota East High School

Landscape edging w/ spikes (typ. at side of planting bed)

30'-0"

New Outdoor Classroom

New 6'-0" wide sidewalk

EcoClassroom Logo

“Getting outside and having that change of scenery is always good. I think [the EcoClassroom] will be really, really beneficial to both the students and the teachers here. So we’re hoping that it won’t only be a benefit to this pandemic we’re in, but will be an everlasting addition to East and its campus.” - NHS Vice President Lyna Sennoun 12 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Mulch ground cover (typ.), Red Color Mulch or Pine Needles

Lakota East High School

4'-0"

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ith students being required to wear masks while in the school building this year, classes have been taking mask breaks where students can socially distance outside and take off their masks. Some teachers have even decided to teach lessons outside. Currently, the only place to sit are the tables outside of the senior cafe; if those seats are taken, students have to sit on sidewalks, curbs, and in the grass. The EcoClassroom will provide a solution to this problem.

The EcoClassroom will not only be useful during the pandemic, but NHS Vice President Lyna Sennoun hopes that teachers and students will continue to utilize the space for years to come.

“Getting outside and having that change of scenery is always good. I think [the EcoClassroom] will be really, really beneficial to both the students and the teachers here,” Sennoun said. “So we’re hoping that it won’t

Arcitecht’s drawing of the East EcoClassroom

60'-0"

“It’s something that you could show to your kids 20 years from now and say ‘Oh my God, this is my high school,’” NHS President Shelby Alderman said. “It’s just something nice that many years ahead of us can use, and it’s something that will leave a very lasting impact on the school.”

Construction Set Issuance 11/12/2020

4'-0"

source NHS Treasurer Sonali Ray

are held outside or that offer a takeout option.

He also joined the Treesearchers that allowed him to receive the majority of his hours. Viox has already exceeded the amount of hours required by NHS members with a total of 26 hours. Each member needs to have a total of 24 hours, which can be gained by working on the EcoClassroom, as well as volunteering at school and community events.

“Personally, I have not had trouble finding hours. Thankfully, I joined a very important committee where I have been given numerous opportunities to gain hours,” Viox said. “[The officers] are doing the best that they can given the circumstances. There’s only so much flexibility when it comes to NHS, so they’re doing what is necessary to include students like me.”

Maine hopes that this EcoClassroom is just the start of adding outdoor learning spaces to East.

“It would be nice to have multiple spaces outside, but I think we have to start with something, and [the EcoClassroom] definitely opens up doors,” Maine said. “A classroom doesn’t have to be just inside the classroom; it could be anywhere. You could have a teachable moment at any space.” •

Existing Stadium Fence

Candy Grams

(6) Emerald Green Arborvitae

Chipotle

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he East NHS Communications Officer, senior Anne Matthew, is a VLO student.

While she may miss a few pieces of information that the other officers discuss throughout the school day, she is still able to stay connected to the project.

“We have organized our project so that it is accessible to those who aren’t able to come to school,” Matthew said. “Whether this be through virtual opportunities catered towards our VLO students, activities that can be done at home, or do not have the need to come into school.”

NHS member and senior Robert Viox, is also a VLO student. He, along with several of his family members, are susceptible to the virus, and he did not want to take any unnecessary risks. He is able to attend the fundraisers that

(6) Blue Point Junipers

Car Wash

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With 11 NHS members completing school virtually, Maine said that the advisors and officers have “had to get creative this year to involve them.” Depending on their restrictions, students that chose the Virtual Learning Option (VLO) can still come to the school to help build, dig, or help with fundraisers. They can use Zoom to be a part of all of the meetings, and they can still join committees.

(6) Emerald Green Arborvitae

$350

undraisers this school year may look different than last year’s due to the guidelines surrounding COVID-19, according to Florence. Annual fundraisers, such as the Halloween event and the Sadie Hawkins Dance have been canceled or altered in order to keep everyone safe, spread out, and healthy.

“Things are definitely going to be different.

[But despite the COVID-19 restrictions] I think we will be able to raise that amount,” Florence said. “We already have a lot of awesome fundraisers planned for the next few months and I’m sure by the end of the year we will have reached our goal.”

NHS has organized several fundraisers at restaurants such as Mod Pizza, Chipotle, and the Twist. They held a carwash and a candy gram event where they sold candy canes that were donated by the members and passed them out along with a small note to students during Hawk Time, East’s advisory period. They are also currently planning a drive-in movie, a trivia night, and an event to replace the Sadie Hawkins dance, as well as collecting donations.

The other five committees are the Landscaping Committee, Furnishing Committee, Tree Researchers (Treesearchers), PR and advertising, and the Project Management

Committee. The Landscaping, Furnishing, and Tree Researchers - known as the Treesearchers Committees all made PowerPoint Presentations early on in the project that detailed what types of trees, bushes, and furnishing should be used, keeping maintenance and cost in mind. The officers then gave those PowerPoints as well as any other visions they had to the district architect so a blueprint could be drawn.

The blueprint was given back to the officers on Nov. 12, and the members broke ground for the new EcoClassroom on Nov. 14. Over winter break, the members dug spots for the underground pipes that will help drain the water out of the EcoClassroom, keeping it dry.

The actual building of the classroom has been put on hold due to the cold weather, but NHS will continue to fundraise, build the furniture, and order everything they need during the winter months. The officers are hoping that the project will be finished by April.

“We’re still going to be working through the winter on things that we can do inside,” NHS Secretary Jordan Lehman said. “And then moving forward, [NHS members] will be putting down mulch, and hopefully by the end of March we will be finishing up all of the planting of our bushes and trees.”

Existing Stadium Fence

$375

of six committees, each tasked with a specific aspect of the service project. The Fundraising Committee, headed by East senior and NHS member Anna Florence, is responsible for organizing fundraisers and getting them approved by the administration.

North

$400

only be a benefit to this pandemic we’re in, but will be an everlasting addition to East and its campus.”

East Principal Yejide Mack agrees with Sennoun about the purpose of the EcoClassroom and its benefits even after the pandemic ends. Mack believes that NHS has done a “great job” communicating with the administration, following up with ideas on how to make their idea better, and planning the project.

“NHS wanted to, especially in this time, be able to provide another option for students and staff to still be able to learn, but to be able to do it in a COVID-safe environment,” Mack said. “But even after [the pandemic] it’s still an opportunity for us to be able to, here at school, learn in an environment that’s not traditional.”

Sheth believes that working outside in a nontraditional work space helps her stay motivated. According to the American Psychological Association, being exposed to a natural environment improves memory, cognitive flexibility, and attentional control, as well as reduces stress levels.

“Personally, I feel learning outside enhances my work ethic,” Sheth said. “For teachers [the EcoClassroom] is a great way to see the students’ faces when teaching a subject. The interaction with the students and teachers is greatly improved with this classroom.”

A study performed by William Helton, Professor and Director of Human Factors and Applied Cognition at George Mason University, proved that even short breaks from the classroom or study materials can improve students’ attention. Helton believes that, depending on the work level, breaks that last fifteen minutes are the most beneficial and that even simply getting Vitamin D can help attention restoration. “[Taking breaks from studying] improves subsequent performance via recovery of their attention and reduces the negative mood caused by sustained attention,” Helton told Spark.

“There is a fair amount of research suggesting natural stimuli - nature - is recuperative. The exact mechanism is not understood, but it could be that natural stimuli are processed unconsciously and this allows conscious attention which is effortful to recover.”

NHS Treasurer Sonali Ray estimates that the whole project will cost around $8,000, although that is not a hard number at this point in the process. NHS members will raise all of the money through different fundraisers.

Each member was able to sign up at the beginning of the school year to be a part of one

Existing Drive to Remain

Top 3 NHS Fundraisers of 2020 Fall Semester

Existing Bleachers to Remain

VSWC Project Number: 227-79

Enlarged Plan

A2 January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 13

news | sleep letters

sleep letters | news

SLEEPLESS IN CINCINNATI

High School Start Times

East Advanced Placement (AP) and Introduction to Psychology teacher Jared Haynes has created an assignment that encourages his students to reflect on the impact that school start times may have on their ability to maintain healthy sleep schedules. story shiloh wolfork | photography johannes fernholz and riley higgins | infographics natalie mazey

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ast Psychology teacher Jared Haynes has created an assignment that allows students to reflect on the significance of a proper sleep schedule by writing to their school administrators.

The assignment is to write a one-page persuasive letter to the East Administrative team explaining why or why not later start times should be considered for the high school. The students are meant to use factual information that they have learned in class and personal reflections from their Sleep and Dream Logs that were completed outside of class as supporting material for their stances.

Lakota East and West High Schools begin at 8:05 a.m., or 7:15 a.m. if students choose to take a zero bell. The high schools end at 2:40 p.m. The Lakota junior schools, including Hopewell, Lakota Plains, Lakota Ridge, and Liberty, begin at 7:15 a.m. and end at 2:25 p.m.

Haynes said that although discussing the importance of adequate sleep and its impact on the mind is an important part of the psychology curriculum, his observations motivated him to approach the information in an interesting way.

“Outside of it being in my curriculum and my content, [I was really motivated] by my interactions with students,” Haynes said. “I’ve noticed how sleep deprived they all are and also how that’s been impactful on their mental health. Teenagers should be getting nine to ten hours of sleep, and every single time that I poll my kids, less than a third of them g e t

that. So we’re talking 5,6,7 hours of sleep each night which means they’re going to be drastically compounding their sleep debt by the time they’re adults which is not ideal at all.”

Sleep debt or sleep deficit is the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep. Child Mind Institute, an independent national nonprofit organization that strives to help children and families who are struggling with mental health and learning disorders, said that 60 to 70% of American teens live with a borderline to severe sleep debt.

According to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), among middle school students, 57.8% reported insufficient sleep, and 12% report sleeping fewer than 6 hours a night. Among high school students, 72.7% reported insufficient sleep, with about 20% reporting sleeping fewer than six hours per night. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), children aged six to 12 should sleep nine to 12 hours per night and teenagers 13-18 years old should sleep eight to ten hours per night.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that middle and high schools should start at 8:30 a.m. or later in order for students to get the amount of sleep that they need. However, 42 states reported that 75%100% of their public middle and high schools start before 8:30 a.m.

East junior Mairin Jones takes a nap during East Psychology teacher Jared Haynes’ class. Haynes gave his students a few minutes to sleep during his unit on the importance of sleep.

14 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Haynes explains that he’s noticed many factors that contribute to teenagers’ poor sleep schedules.

“For some it’s homework. For some it’s homework because they play a sport and then they go to work. For some it’s just because they work all the time. So there’s just so many variables [that contribute toward inadequate sleep],” Haynes said. “But I do think as a teacher, it’s important that if you are giving homework, there should be a purpose behind it. We shouldn’t just be giving two hours of work just because we think they [students] should do it. I think we should be meaningful and purposeful with what we assign students, given how busy [they] are.”

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or East junior Marin Jones, her extracurricular activities have the greatest impact on her sleep schedule.

“I play soccer and sometimes I don’t get home until 9:45 at night. Then I still have homework to finish, take a shower and do other things,” Jones told Spark. “During the week, I try to go to sleep as early as I can, but it’s usually around 11. I usually only get about six to seven hours of sleep per night. But on the weekends, I stay up a lot later because I don’t have anything to do the next day.”

According to a 2017 study by Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization, high school teachers report that they assign an average of 3.5 hours of homework per day.

A 2020 article by ProCon, a nonprofit organization that researches and reports controversial issues, said that today’s teens spend about twice as much time on homework than teens in the 1990s. Today, kindergarten to fifth graders average 2.9 hours of homework per week. Sixth to eighth graders have 3.2 hours per teacher, and ninth to 12th graders average 3.5 hours per teacher.

Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller said that he would be interested in limiting homework assignments in an effort to ensure that the work

Lakota High Schools 8:05 a.m.

Mason High School 7:45 a.m.

that’s being given is effectively promoting understanding of the material.

“There’s value to homework that’s purposeful and that ties into the class in a positive way,” Miller said. “If the homework that’s being given is just busy work or something like that, I don’t think there’s a lot of benefits to that at all.”

According to Back to Basics Learning Dynamics, a network of educational and tutoring facilities, homework can help students acquire important skills such as taking initiative and developing time management skills, but too many assignments can be ineffective and harmful.

The National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and National Education Association support the “10 minute daily homework guideline” which recommends 10 minutes of homework per grade level. For example, first graders would receive 10 minutes of homework, second graders would receive 20 minutes of homework, etc. However, this rule doesn’t consider students who may need to spend more or less time to complete an assignment.

A 2018 article by Edutopia said that homework helps to facilitate an early love of learning for elementary students, but too much mandatory work can turn young students away from school. As students become older, homework becomes more beneficial because they are able to easily retain the knowledge and become individual learners. However, not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, such as a quiet environment or a computer, so it’s important for teachers to recognize that unfinished homework is not always a reflection of individual learning capabilities.

Princeton High School 7:10 a.m.

Fairfield High School 8:00 a.m.

and poorer academic outcomes like lower grades. There has also been some data to suggest that poor sleep may exacerbate mental health difficulties.” Brown told Spark. “Starting school a bit later in the morning has been linked to better academic performance.”

According to the National Sleep Foundation, drowsiness or fatigue is the cause of at least 100,000 traffic accidents each year. Lack of sleep also results in inability to self-regulate personal emotions, impulses, and moods. As a result, sleep-deprived teens are more likely to deal with negative moods by relying on alcohol and stimulants like caffeine and nicotine to get through the day.

Many mental illnesses first become known in the teenage years, so many doctors worry that severe sleep deprivation could trigger depression in teens who may already be predisposed to it.

Jones, who has Haynes’s semester-long Psychology class first period, said that she

Hamilton High School 7:55 a.m.

believes a later start time could benefit herself and other East students.

“There are some nights that I just don’t get enough sleep at all, and I feel like I don’t perform as well during the day because it’s harder for me to focus,” Jones said. “I think that being able to sleep in later will help give us a little more of a cushion, so that staying up later to work on homework will not make us as tired during the day.”

Brown said that a change in start times could have a positive impact on students’ learning experience.

“While sleep may not necessarily enhance [a student’s motivation] per say, better sleep could definitely aid in improving concentration and decreasing fatigue, which could assist students in coming to school and being prepared to learn,” Brown said.

Haynes explains why the letters are meant to be sent to East Principal Yejide Mack and Assistant Principals Dennis Smith and Matt

East Psychology teacher Jared Haynes lectures in front of his students’ artwork on his back wall.

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ccording to Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at University of Cincinnati Jennifer Brown, lack of sleep from time spent doing other tasks can have substantial impacts on overall health and behavior. “[Insufficient sleep] can result in poor concentration, increased disciplinary problems,

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 15

news | sleep letters

substitute teachers | news

However, studies have shown that students tend to fall back into their old sleep habits unless the information is emphasized continuously.

“Any type of social Average US Suggested Average Ohio media campaigns Start Time Start Time Start Time and things that just 8:00 a.m.

8:30 a.m.

7:51 a.m. let people know that teenagers should source National Center for Education Statistics be getting nine to ten hours of sleep Macfarlane instead of the members of would be helpful,” Haynes told Spark. “The Lakota Central Office who would ultimately announcements, and any other kind of PSA make the decision to change school start times. that gets that information out would be “I had them addressed to our own school helpful. I’ll preach it in my class, but it’s part administrators just because that’s who’s going to of the content so it’s easy for me to just be like be around us and with our kids,” Haynes said. get more sleep.”

“Those are the people who are familiar with Jones said that this assignment has been us. We could have easily gone in, jumped past the school administrators, and written to the school board instead. But, I think it’s important in kind of letting the people in charge of the building know how we’re feeling.”

Miller said that while a change in start times for East might have positive effects for East students, there would need to be an extensive evaluation of how that change could impact the district as a whole.

“For some students, it might make them more willing and excited to come to school, but I’m not sure that it would help all students.

If we start the day later, we’re going to have to go to school longer which could impact the home lives of some of our students and those of our students with after-school jobs,” MIller told Spark. “We’d have to look at what happens to the middle school, elementary, and early childhood students. Are they going to go later too? I’m certainly not opposed to taking a look at the change; I just think we have to think about how it impacts the whole district.”

helpful in educating her about the importance of good sleep.

“The value of this assignment is that it really forces you to think about your own personal sleep schedule and try to see if there is anything that you can do to improve the amount of sleep you get,” Jones said. “The mental health of students should be one of the topmost priorities and I think that a later start could help a lot of people.”

According to Haynes, while this assignment encourages students to consider the potential impact of later start times, it’s truly meant to spark a conversation. “[The assignment] is more or less to self reflect and to analyze why we are always so tired,” Haynes said. “If it has something to do with school start times, then let’s look at that, but the assignment is also meant to entail healthy sleep habits and to take a look at what we do before we go to bed and when we wake up.” •

MUSIC•DANCE

GYMNASTICS lessons in one location

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ack explains what her role would be in first exploring this change for the high schools on an organizational (building) level.

“Lakota is a little bit different from the other two districts I’ve been in because this district has two high schools,” Mack said. “When you only have one high school, it’s a lot easier to make decisions that are best for grades 9-12, as opposed to K-12. We have two high schools so typically what [the high school principals] have to do first is to agree that a certain decision would be best for us, as a Lakota East and a Lakota West. From there, we can make some decisions as to how we can move forward.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), schools can play a role in encouraging students to get adequate sleep through educational programs.

16 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

RISKS OF RETURNING

One repercussion of the COVID-19 virus is a substitute teacher shortage throughout Ohio and in Lakota. Fewer subs returned to school this year in the face of an increase in teacher absences. • story megan miranda | photography ianni acapulco | infographic and art cassandra mueller

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Substitute Bradley Stuart (right) and East student Nicholoas Breidenbach have a conversation in the food prep lab.

fa Good for new ot combine g a class. Cann families addin y other of fer. with an

fter 35 years of teaching and five years of subbing Larry Duff is left contemplating a decision he didn’t see coming: should he return to substitute teaching in the midst of a pandemic? The seemingly simple question is layered with pros and cons from health concerns to losing his source of community connectivity, but one must outweigh the other.

For the 76 year-old, long term sub at East, the risks of returning were too heavy.

East substitute teachers were never vast in supply; however, in this 2020 school year a substitute teacher shortage has become more prevalent than ever. As there could be many reasons linked to the diminished number of subs, Lakota Local Schools Superintendent Matt Miller views the issue in direct relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In your normal times, it’s really hard to get substitutes, [and] it’s been harder now since COVID,” Miller said. “I think people are a bit fearful of going into buildings where there are

people gathering, challenged with their own issues at home [if ] they have kids in a virtual learning environment, or maybe they also have family that might be compromised.”

While Lakota is dealing with the sub shortage first hand, the processing and contracting of subs is entirely through the Butler County Educational Service Center (Butler County ESC).

“We funnel [subs] through the Butler County ESC, and that’s the agreement that we have [with] them, that they are the third party contractor for our substitutes,” Miller said. “Once [substitutes] are hired through the Butler County ESC, our own building will reach out to subs that are on the list.”

Substitutes are organized through a program Lakota uses known as the Automated Educational Substitute Operator Placement (AESOP) system. Within this system teachers can mark if they will be absent, allowing substitutes to know the date and time a teacher

is out.

Every morning at 6:45 substitutes are scheduled to fill the teacher absences that are present that day.The East Office Manager Susanne Linder is in charge of regulating substitute scheduling and assigning subs to their classroom in the morning.

“In the morning I open up AESOP and see who’s out and [the subs] will pick it up on their end, [because] they see that the teachers are going to be out,” Linder said. “If nobody picks it up, then I have to try to find somebody to cover it within the building.”

This year Linder said her job has become more challenging while dealing with the sub shortage and is finding alternative ways to cover classrooms destitute of their teachers.

“We’ve covered it a couple different ways; if the teacher is out without a sub,” Linder said, “I cover it with instructional aides that are available because their student is absent.

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 17

substitute teachers | news

news | substitute teachers This has been happening more frequently than it ever had in the past. [Also] We have two paraprofessionals in the building; they usually run copies and they cover classes often. Sometimes we pull counselors, [or] an administrator, just whoever can help.”

One of the Instructional Aids at East, Connie Jordan, started in September after a 27-year career with Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS) came to an end because of the pandemic layoffs. She said a primary part of her job has been filling teacher absences when needed.

“I’m supposed to work in the mailroom, and if anybody needs copies or anything like that, but I don’t think there’s as many copies to be made this year because of covid precautions to alleviate touching,” Jordan said. “I’m in classrooms a lot, or whatever Mrs. Linder asks me to do, I’d say I’m [filling in for teachers] about 80% of the time.”

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radley Stuart, a first-year substitute for Lakota, has become integrated into the East community as a consistent sub during the pandemic.

“Normally the night before I check our computer program to see what teachers are out.

So then I can pick a teacher that I would be that day,” Stuart said. “I get here about seven o’clock, and really I just get a little post-it note that says you’re going to this class at this period, and I just go down the list until the end of the day.”

After getting a masters degree in chemistry at University of Cincinnati, Stuart was a teaching assistant at the college level for many semesters. He then transitioned his graduate school year, teaching freshman and sophomores in college, and within that time found a passion for teaching.

“I felt like I could make a bigger impact with students, so that’s why I’ve kind of diverted more towards high school teaching as my current career path,” Stuart said.

As this year is Stuart’s first experience as a substitute, the pandemic teaching style is his “normal,” besides what he was familiar with while serving as a student teacher in Chemistry with John Severens in January of last year. So while these new safety guidelines are unfamiliar, he quickly adapted to the biggest changes.

“I feel like I’m in a unique position that I came, [Lakota went virtual], and then I came back,” Stuart said. “All the social distancing stuff is a huge thing, [but] the biggest thing that surprised me was the wiping down of the desks.

That was a very good idea; those common touch surfaces and getting teachers to help sanitize will make a big difference.”

In contrast to Stuart’s experience as a novice, Duff taught at East for 18 years and in Lakota for 35 years and following his retirement became a sub for five years.

“I retired after 35 years and got bored, well I never get bored, but I [always] enjoyed the

classroom,” Duff said. “I enjoyed the staff, all the people and the social aspect of it. So I got a subbing license, and started to have something to do, see my old colleagues and it’s fun interacting with the kids, they always ask for my old time stories and I usually have a few.”

Duff is loved by students for his uplifting presence and entertaining stories from the past.

East senior Paige Whalen has had Duff as a sub over the course of her high school career.

“He always begins off class with a story, and then he’ll sidetrack and be like ‘remind me to tell you this at the end of the class,’” Whalen said. “It’ll just keep going and he makes the classroom environment just really joyful.”

Entering the 2020 school year both subs had to ask themselves if they were willing to return to the working environment in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because Stuart does not consider himself high risk, he saw this as an opportunity to come and teach when others might not be able to.

“I’ve reached the understanding that I can do the most I can to protect myself. But at the same time, life has to go on,” Stuart said. “So I

18 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

try to do the best I can, such as wearing masks, sanitizing, and paying attention to washing your hands and where you are putting your hands. As long as I follow those, I still need a job, I still need to move forward in my career.”

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owever, for Duff who is considered high risk at age 76, he had to have a different mindset about returning.

“It wasn’t easy, it was hard to make that decision,” Duff said. “I have four sons, and I sent them all an email. One of them’s a doctor, and I said ‘give me your advice, should I come back or not’ and all four said ‘no - too risky’.”

Many subs have to contemplate the same decision over returning to teach, for many different reasons, and some conclude with the same decision as Duff, to not return.

Stuart, because of his consistent role, has been adjusting to the needs of Linder and classrooms that need someone to fill the teacher vacancy.

“I feel like the office staff is very strained by the [lack of ] resources, because of that I feel like as a sub we go more by the seat of pants

The Road to Obtaining a Substitute Teaching License 4. Apply to a substitute teacher pool so local districts can access substitute candidates.

2. Get a bachelor’s degree. For a substitute license, the degree can but doesn’t have to be subject specific, but it is recommended to be in an area taught in school.*

3. Apply for and obtain a substitute teaching license through the Ohio Department of Education (it offers a variety of subjectarea licenses). Cost: $25 for a year, $125 for five years.

1. Graduate from high school.

source publicservicedegrees.org

“[I love] interacting with the kids and interacting with staff because I taught with all those guys for years, and the social aspect of it. [Without COVID-19] I would have subbed till I die.” - retired substitue Larry Duff and are willing to go with the flow,” Stuart said. “If a teacher has a planning period or a virtual online learning period, those periods I get assigned to other places so we can cover more teachers.”

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hile Linder is helping to maintain substitute fillings at East, as a district, Miller sees Lakota looking for other solutions to the ongoing problem.

“We were hopeful that because some schools were going remote that there was this sub pool [that] would increase but tha t’s n o t b e e n the c a s e ,” Mil l e r s a id. “ We ha ve ta k e n s te ps w he n s c ho o l s ha ve de c ide d to g o re m o te . Our HR de pa r tm e n t is c a l l in g the ir HR de pa r tm e n t to s e e if we c a n g e t m o re s ub s f ro m the m .”

With many other districts struggling similarly to find substitutes, the solution is sought out at a state level.

“There is House bill 756 that’s floating around in Columbus. They are trying to temporarily lessen the qualifications for subs right now in Ohio. You don’t have to have a teaching license but you do have to have a college degree,” Miller told Spark. “But housebuilders 756 is taking a look at making adjustments for that for this year. There would still be guidelines and background checks but they are trying to make it easier for school districts to get subs.”

One seemingly important factor is pay.

While subs are contracted through Butler County ECS, their pay is determined by the individual districts. Lakota offers subs a flat rate of $85 a day.

“Lakota has it as a three tiered system that is basically, are you doing a short term subbing or a long term subbing versus a day-to-day subbing. I know at Lakota it’s $85 a day but they do not have more for [different subbing positions],” Stuart said. “But [some] other school districts do either $95 or $100 a day, then if you do 20 o r m o r e d a y s i t ’ s closer to $110 per day and if you do more than 60 days it m o v e s u p t o l i k e $ 1 2 0 .”

Other schools offer a noticeably higher pay for subs, such as Mason City Schools. During November the district decided to increase pay from $85 to $125 a day during weeks with limited sub availability. Miller doesn’t see this as a factor Lakota needs to change in order to attract more substitutes.

“We talked about [adjusting pay], but from

our understanding with our own treasurer and HR department the pay is not really a factor to get someone to sub,” Miller said. “If there’s another district [further] from your house that might pay you five or $10 more a day, that’s not really much of an incentive to go there. It’s pretty much localized from what we’ve figured out.”

Helping out in classrooms is something Jordan has come t o e n j o y a s w e l l , noticing students good behavior and a decrease in stress from h e r p a s t c a r e e r.

“It’s totally different for me, but I love it. I can go home every day. I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to have to do the next tuart is a prime example of a sub who day, I’m stress free,” Jordan said. “This school specifically wants to be at Lakota. The draw here is awesome and most students are great.” comes from his positive e x p e r i e n c e a n d For Duff, subbing at East has also been g r o w i n g u p a s a s t u d e n t a t L a k o t a largely driven by the community aspect it We s t , w h e r e h i s b r o t h e r n o w a t t e n d s . provides.

“I want to stay in Lakota still because my “[I love] interacting with the kids and dream job is to work in Lakota, I have some interacting with staff because I taught with all feelers in [East] and I just started subbing so those guys for years, and the social aspect of Substitute Starting Pay for it just kind of snowballed from there,” Stuart Teacher it,” Duff told Spark. “[Without COVID-19] I said.$150 “I really like the Butler culture here.

I like a lotSchool would have subbed till- IJanuary die.”• County Districts 2021 of the teachers, I get along with the staff and $140 they’re very helpful.”

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$130

Substutue Teacher Starting Pay $120 for Butler County School Districts -- January, 2021 $110

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$80 $70 $60 $50 $40 $30 $20 $10 source bcesc.org Edgewood City School District

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Hamilton City School District

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Madison Local School District

Middletown City School District

Monroe Local School District

New Miami Local Schools

Ross Local School District

Talawanda City School District

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 19

news | covid-19 study

covid-19 study | news “We’ve seen spread happening because kids [are] congregating outside of school and doing things they shouldn’t be doing under some of the COVID-19 restrictions,” Miller said.

“When you look at close contact, we have some students that have already been quarantined three times this year. This study may be an opportunity for us to see if kids really need to be quarantined that long.”

Caitlyn Spaulding, Ibrahim Malik, Macy Collins do their schoolwork during Hawk Time.

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A SHORTENED QUARAN-TIME East participated in an Ohio State University study conducted in late November through December, to research the effects of in school quarantines. story and infographic megan miranda | phtography marleigh winterbottom

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akota was selected as one of three local schools in Ohio to participate in an evaluation following in school exposures. The study began the third week of November and was carried out by The Ohio State University (OSU). After a month of testing at Lakota, Mason, Princeton, and 6 other Ohio voluntary districts the state has decided to change the protocol for quarantining students.

Since the initial launch of the study the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) limited the quarantine length from 14 days to 10. Following this in late December Governor Mike DeWine announced that students and teachers in a classroom setting if exposed, while wearing a mask, no longer require quarantining.

Timothy Sahr, the principal of the study at OSU notes that the Ohio Schools COVID Evaluation (OSCE) was requested by the State of Ohio as an investigation on exposure risk.

“OSCE is an exploratory evaluation that investigates consistency of outcomes associated

with variations in school policies for quarantine rules,” Sahr said. “Unlike a reviewable study, a reviewable hypothesis was not determined.”

The study provided an optional way for students to have an alternative to the two week quarantine period that was previously enforced by the district and state. A signed permission form allowed for students to be tested, during school, four times within the two weeks they would have been quarantined at home Matt Miller, Lakota Superintendent said.

“If a student is in close contact and normally would be quarantined for 14 days, they would get evaluated by [the OSU research] team through a non invasive nasal swab. If they are negative, they could stay in school [and] they are tested three more times during a two week period,” Miller said. “The unique thing is if you take part in the study, and you’re a student athlete, you still cannot participate in that extracurricular or sport. Their thinking is, even though you’d be negative you’re still a part of a control group for 14 days.”

20 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Lakota had taken many considerations before agreeing to the evaluation, having thorough conversations with Wright State University (recruited to be field professionals) and OSU, who were the local providers for the program. Miller saw that one of the most common misconceptions was that the study was mandatory.

“We had to talk to the evaluators from the Ohio Department of Health; we had to talk to our health commissioner. We had numerous conversations about the study itself,” Miller told Spark. “We asked upfront, and we’re told that the [choice to participate] would be totally voluntary for the parents, students and staff members, to hopefully cut down on the number of days students and staff miss school.”

From a state and district perspective, Miller said it was important to conduct the evaluation as an update for the community. Specifically because as the school year continues, there has not been a significant spread happening due to students being in school.

iller first heard about the evaluation through one of Governor Mike DeWine’s press conferences and reached out to a contact in DeWine’s office acknowledging Lakota as a good candidate for the study.

“I think they looked at Lakota because we would have a large sampling of students that are close contacts because of our size,” Miller said. “Also, I think it helps that we have been in person [all year]. You can’t have schools that are remote or hybrid on a consistent basis to be a part of this study.”

The voluntary COVID-19 testing was state led and sponsored by the Ohio Department of Medicaid, the Ohio Department of Health, the Ohio Department of Insurance, and Governor Mike DeWine’s office. To be conducted it was then approved by The Ohio State University internal and Ohio University external review, as well as the State of Ohio stakeholder agencies review.

One student participant is East junior E.J. Upton. While he had not been previously exposed to the virus or quarantined by the school he wanted to be aware if he had COVID-19 and who he had been around that could potentially affect him.

“I am participating in the study because I am one of the people that have not been quarantined yet [and I know/am surrounded by] people that have been quarantined four

times,” Upton said. “It could give me some good information.”

Upton has personally taken precarious steps and mindful decisions to protect himself against the spread and stay positive in the midst of the pandemic.

“I keep a good mindset, and I keep my distance from people that I really don’t know.

That’s how I have been going through this pandemic,” Upton said.

Upton hasn’t seen his participation in the study, which took place during the school day, interrupt his class time. He answered surveys, got tested in East’s upper gym, and went back to class.

“At the beginning they ask questions like if you had a cough, sore throat, or runny nose and you circle yes or no and give it to the nurse that’s there. After we give it to her she takes your temperature, gives you a number and then they call you back,” Upton said. “For me they put [a q-tip] in each nostril for around five seconds and once 15 minutes is up, they call you back and tell you what you got.”

The process students follow for participating in the study had reportedly gone smoothly, but Miller said there have been some bumps in the road regarding communication and meeting expectations.

“One of the negatives is that the research teams don’t have the capacity in terms of testing [all the participants]. Early on they talked about how they would have the staff to get that accomplished, [but they don’t]. They are able to do it but not on the scale that probably needs to happen,” Miller told Spark. “It’s been a work in progress, they may have over promised and under delivered a little bit on what they could get done in terms of capacity.”

Miller had also noticed a slow start to the program that could create negative

repercussions. For example, he saw that starting later created less time to do the OSU evaluation which limited the amount of testing and therefore the amount of results.

“A part of my frustration is they have not been able to get this moving as fast as they probably should have. We [were] less than a week out from Thanksgiving break [for the start], it would have been maybe better to have a few days to get some more data before people left [for break],” Miller said. “But I understand that it’s not easy for them either.”

East school nurse Lindsay Jarrold noted having little information about the study at the beginning of November. Although she deals with many COVID-19 cases, she didn’t believe that she would have much direct involvement.

“I feel like we’re getting little bits of information as we get it. Right now, we have a list of people that have filled out the consent form,” Jarrold said. “So we’re not really sure how that’s going to play out as far as all of our roles, but the [OSU] research team will be physically doing the testing. I think I’ll be helping more with those who had symptoms, and making sure the right people get to the right place.”

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he East Administrative team, including Dr. Yejide Mack, have distinct roles to trace COVID-19 cases. To her knowledge, prior to the study, her job in regards to the virus would also not change while the in school testing takes place. “[If other schools had done the study] I think we could at least make a conjecture about what we foresaw based on some other data,” Mack said.“But this is the first time that this data is being collected so we don’t even have the opportunity to look at anything else to see what it will turn out like.”

Rapid Test Process For Exposed Students Positive

Negative

1

A flexible cotton stick is inserted into the nose to collect a mucus sample.

2

You wait 15 minutes for the results as the test checks for viral protiens.

3

Results then show either a positive or negative detection of the virus. source fda.gov

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 21

news | covid-19 study

“When you look at close contact we have some students that have already been quarantined three times this year. This study may be an opportunity for us to see if kids really need to be quarantined that long.” -Lakota Superintendent, Matt Miller started.

“It had probably been mentioned but I didn’t know anything about it,” Campbell told Spark. “I forgot it was still going on now.”

E

ast utilized the federally approved rapid test “BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card” for the study, because it is a rapid test making it (among other COVID-19 tests) subject to false negatives or positives, students like Campbell questioned the legitimacy of the test. According to The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the test “While generally highly accurate, may be subject to false positive results especially in areas where there are fewer infections.”

“I would want to take it to not miss school,” Campbell said. “I just don’t know if my parents would think it is smart.”

While the study has faced challenges, Upton said it was necessary because of the way that being quarantined can affect students. He was worried about how time spent in quarantine

could affect his learning experience and extracurriculars. While the study still prevents participation in those extracurriculars he appreciated having awareness from getting tested.

“I am very concerned about being quarantined. I wasn’t necessarily concerned previously, but when it comes to second semester, my number one sport is lacrosse.

And during that season, I just don’t want to miss anything,” Upton said. “I don’t want to miss school because I like to be there with teachers, I like to connect with them, and I like to ask questions and talk to them.”

Mack also acknowledged how a quarantine period can have different impacts on students because of differences in their learning types and abilities in a different environment.

“There are several students who do very well with remote learning and who stay on top of their learning during that period. They

engage with their teachers, and make sure that they’re [staying caught up]” Mack told Spark.

“On the other side, we have some students who aren’t doing as well. The [students] who are not procrastinators will get their work done and then [other students] will wait to turn their stuff in; it’s just something we can’t control.”

Upton, drawing from his personal positive experience, encouraged others to participate in the study.

“I think more people should do it. If we are constantly testing, we find out who has it and more information will be available,” Upton said. “If more people take it, it’ll help add some clarity.”

While the evaluation has come to an end at East Sahr notes that this specific evaluation wasn’t designed for research results.

“The selection was not set to an inferentialtargeted sample,” Sahr told Spark. “Given that, the overall results are still being analyzed and are not available at this time. •

what it takes in an effort to be here for the students.”

This is the first year that the high schools, as well as all other Lakota schools, have partaken in the everyday block schedule. The new schedule cuts back on the contact between students and teachers, the students have just a few long classes whether than many short classes like in previous years.

“I’m so glad we get an extra break in between the classes,” West junior Kiley Neff told Spark. “It lets us relax before having to go back to class for an hour and a half.”

S

T-MINUS 10 MINUTES Principals of both Lakota East and West high school made new changes to the schedule this year to ensure the safety of students and teachers while following COVID-19 guidelines. story olivia rigney | photography cassandra mueller | infographic megan miranda

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oth Lakota high schools, East and West, have always followed similar schedules.

However, this year presented some changes as both schools adapt to new COVID-19 protocols and regulations.

Both schools run on a block schedule that consists of three 90-minute classes, not including the optional 45-minute zero bells.

At East, there is a five minute passing period, compared to West where there are 10 minutes in between classes.

For East Principal Yejide Mack, the decision to switch from a 10 minute to a five minute passing period was made to keep contact between students and teachers minimized and controlled. Switching from last year’s six bell schedule to block scheduling everyday helps out with that plan.

“Changes had to be made,” Mack said.

“And changing the schedule had everything to do with COVID, I want to make sure you guys and all of us stay safe.”

In contrast, West Principal Ben Brown made the decision to keep 10 minutes in between classes while keeping students and teachers in mind. The West schedule runs almost simultaneously compared to East, but with a slightly shorter XH bell, referred to as

tudents from both schools have to learn to manage their time and adapt to a new schedule. For East junior Charlie Resch, it has been difficult to sit through long classes with not a lot of time in between.

“I’d prefer to have the 10 minutes again because it gives me more time to decompress and talk to my friends,“ Resch said. “The block schedules everyday can be very draining on the students and the extra time would help a lot.”

Brown believes that overall both East and West have accommodated well this year with changes and difficulties that students and teachers have faced regarding COVID-19.

“I am very proud of our students,” Brown told Spark. “They are wearing their masks and making the most of this school year even though it has been really challenging.” •

hawk time at East. The East bell schedule also includes a 15-minu t e s t u d y h a l l b u i l t i n t o p e r i o d s t h re e a n d West and East f o u r.

“We expanded our passing periods to 10 minutes between classes this year to allow more time for teachers to clean classrooms,” Brown said. “[This also] gives the students more time to use the restroom West Schedule and stagger their travels.”

T

his year, each teacher must disinfect and clean every desk that a student occupied and came into contact with in the previous class.

“It has been something that I’ve had to get used to,” East teacher Tiffany Ashley said. “However, I will do

Schedule Differences

East Schedule

0

7:15-8:00

0

7:15-8:00

1/2

8:05-9:35

1/2

8:05-9:35

XH

9:35-10:15

XH

9:40-10:25

3/4

10:25-12:45

3/4

10:30-12:50

5/6

12:55-2:25

5/6

12:55-2:25

*10 minute changing periods

*5 minute changing periods

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 23

feature | playhouse in the park

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

The cast of Cincinnati Playhouse in their 2019 performance of A Christmas Carol.

As COVID-19 impacts performances, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park finds creative approaches to events.

HOLLYWOOD East Maintenance Specialist Roger Fields has been in more than 26 movies and TV shows and is the CEO of the largest Christian wrestling organization in the world. story mia hilkowitz photography mia hilkowitz and fair use graphic mary barone

story caitlin o’donnell | photography used with permission

T

he black box theater located at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is one East Alumni Kelly Croy can’t get enough of. The transformative stage leaves her feeling mesmerized when she has the chance to see one of their professional productions they put on.

“The environment of the Playhouse is very welcoming, inclusive and provides an exciting atmosphere during their shows,” Croy says when talking about her experience at the Playhouse.

On Oct. 10, 1960, Cincinnati Playhouse was born. For more than 60 years, Playhouse in the Park has provided a place where the magic of theater can be expressed through the professional productions it puts on during the 10 months it’s open each year.

“The theater is a black box setting which allows the stage to be set up and customized to whatever the shows needs, I really enjoy this because it totally transforms and differentiates every show,” Croy says.

The Playhouse runs each one of their shows over the span of four weeks having them perform 8 times a week. The Playhouse is a nonprofit organization that brings in nearly 190,000 people from all over, operating on an annual budget of 11.9 million dollars, performing an array of shows. Due to the recent events surrounding COVID-19, The Playhouse had to cancel their mainstage subscription season

in order to ensure a safe and healthy return in fall 2021.

“Since the shutdown, we have worked throughout the spring and summer on a comprehensive safety plan and ways to bring our community innovative and/or virtual ways to experience theater,” Cincinnati Playhouse’s Marketing Director Kathy Neus says.

Dong Wong, a Ticket Service Manager at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, explained how impactful and detrimental COVID-19 has been to his staff and the show season itself.

“In the beginning we started cancelling the shows one by one until eventually we learned the magnitude of the situation, so we began to cancel the whole season,” Wong says. “Certainly this has all been detrimental since I had to lay off my part-time staffers due to COVID-19 which was really difficult.”

E

ven with COVID-19 hardships, the Cincinnati Playhouse has been finding ways to keep its audience still involved while staying safe starting with its Monologues of Hope video series. Monologues of Hope was created for local playwrights to write monologues around the theme of hope,each one being performed by a local actor and shared on the Playhouse’s Facebook page.

On top of that, their program called “Off the Grid” helps create an immersive theater

experience that puts on virtual and socially distant events for people to still get that taste of theater but in a safe way.

“We adjusted the programming for our current health crisis with virtual and socially distant events [as] a natural extension of the unconventional Off the Grid program,” Neus says.

Due to Ohio’s approval of opening businesses at 30 percent capacity, the Playhouse had to cancel their in-person 30th-anniversary production of The Christmas Carol. Instead, Playhouse actor Bruce Cromer performed a one man show of the production on WVXU-FM on Dec. 23 and 24.

“The mainstage season and Christmas Carol requires dozens of artists and staff to work in very close quarters indoors for extended periods of time,” Neus says. “Even with our comprehensive safety protocols in place, full productions are in perpetual risk of being shut down due to a spike in positive [COVID-19] cases.”

With the majority of staffers working from home and the cancelation of performances, the Playhouse has made sure to keep in touch with their subscribers and those who have purchased tickets.

“The terrific community goodwill and the generosity of people towards the Playhouse during this hard time has been extremely moving,” Wong says. •

“Even with our comprehensive safety protocols in place, full productions are in perpetual risk of being shut down due to a spike in positive [COVID-19] cases.” -Kathy Neus, Cincinnati Playhouse’s Marketing Director 24 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

East Maintenance Specialist Roger Fields standing in the halls of East. Faded: Roger playing the role of an FBI agent.

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oger Fields holds many different titles; East maintenance specialist, former marine at the Korean Demilitarized zone line, retired engineer, and CEO of the largest Christian wrestling organization in the world. His story, comparable to that of American treasure Forrest Gump, has brought him everywhere from Cincinnati to Japan. But, despite his life of extraordinary experiences, Fields had never expected to enter the world of Hollywood at 55-years-old.

In 2015, Fields made his screen debut.

Taking up the background role of a boxing referee, Fields worked alongside Oscarnominated actor Mickey Rourke in “Tiger,” a film about a man who is banned from the sport of boxing. But, unlike most aspiring actors, he never auditioned for the part. Instead Fields, who owns his own wrestling organization “Christian Wrestling International,” was specifically sought out by entertainment professionals.

“I was working with D. Lynn Meyers, a casting agency out of Cincinnati who does all the movies here. They found out that I had a ring and a building, and the casting company was looking for a place to shoot a boxing movie,” Fields told Spark. “They came and asked if they could use my building and use my ring. I had to be there [during filming] in

case they needed things and one of the casting agents came up to me and said ‘hey, you do this wrestling thing, is there any way you can be a referee in the boxing match?”

Though a film novice, Fields agreed to the role. In the days leading up to his shoot, he watched countless boxing videos, much different from his usual wrestling specialty, and prepared his moves.

“I was scared to death. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’ve never been around movie people,” Fields says. “But once I got in the boxing ring, it was just like being in a wrestling ring. I felt like I was at home. And I felt so good that I wanted to do it again. After that, I just kept wanting to do more and more [acting].”

Since his first role in “Tiger,” Fields has continued on his journey to Hollywood.

Expanding from background roles, he worked for independent film companies in Cincinnati with speaking roles to improve his skill.

Recently, Fields has been working with an independent film company called WitchDoctor Films on a series of horror movies.

“I played a character named John Carter, who was a mercenary,” Fields says. “[My character] got to kill people in the movie and talk and it was a very exciting role. It’s just been one role after another. I just love it.”

WitchDoctor Films Producer Matthew Parmenter says that Roger is the type of actor that a film crew wants to work with.

“When Roger called me to film he was very enthusiastic,” Parmenter told Spark. “I usually have a group of actors that I like working with, and I like working with Roger. I can always rely on him. He shows up on time and he’ll give you everything that he can.”

W

itchDoctor Director Elbert Smith agrees, saying that Roger’s experience is beneficial to everyone on set.

“We needed a part for a ‘bad guy.’

Roger has a certain look to him like a grizzled military guy for working on that part,” Smith told Spark. “Roger doesn’t ever really complain.

He’s been on a lot of film sets and he knows how much time and effort it takes to film.”

Each film takes months to shoot, and even longer to edit and release to the public. Fields often participates in 12 to 13 hour shoots each day. Though Fields uses independent films to perfect his craft, he has grown to play roles in large, block-buster movies. From mystery shows to romantic comedies, he has appeared in more than 26 shows and movies.

“I’ve worked with so many projects that I start to forget until they come out,” Fields says.

“A lot of the movies I’ve filmed are still coming

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 25

feature | roger fields out that I had filmed two or three years ago.

Some never come out.”

F

ields’ favorite project that he has worked on so far was the 2019 film “The Public.”

The film follows a standoff between police forces and a large group of homeless men in Cincinnati who take over a library while seeking shelter during the winter. Fields played

Fields and John Tranvolta filming Gotti which was released in 2018.

roger fields | feature a homeless veteran alongside stars such as Alec Baldwin, Gabrielle Union and Emilio Estevez.

“Different stars act in different ways. I had a great experience with Alec Baldwin. I was shooting a scene with him and he got on the phone with his wife and showed her all 63 of the homeless veteran actors on set,” Fields says.

“It just cracked everybody up. She’s laughing and everybody’s laughing. He was one of the nicest guys. He came out and told stories during the breaks about other actors and things that happened to him on Saturday Night Live.”

Fields also worked with John Travolta on the 2018 film “Gotti” following the life story of famous mobster John Gotti.

“I watched ‘Welcome Back Kotter’ when I was a kid and I grew up watching [John Travolta] do all these movies and then all of a sudden I get to work with him. It was like a childhood dream,” Fields says.

Despite his remarkable success from the past five years in the entertainment world, Fields never expected to be an actor. Born in 1960 and raised in Hamilton, he and his five siblings lived in a neighborhood called “The Knob.” The Knob was a middle class area, where most families worked for manufacturing companies such as “Fisher Body’’ and “Champion.” One of his close childhood friends was Ray Combs, who would host “Family Feud” from 1988 to 1994.

“I wasn’t the best kid,” Fields says.

“Most of the guys that I grew up with were always getting in trouble. I was a hooligan. I got suspended from school. I got kicked out of Hamilton schools and had to go to Badin. I had fun when I was a kid but I was a little bit crazy.”

After graduating high school, Fields enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17-years-old. After graduation, he was immediately sent overseas to Japan for training.

“My family were all marines, so I decided that I wanted to be the best.

26 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

I always thought I was the toughest, so I went to the Marine Corps,” Fields says. “I spent six years [serving ]and by the time I was out I was pretty much grown up. I turned 18 in Japan.”

F

ields knew no one going into the military as he gained training as a combat engineer.

Of his six years in the marines, he spent two years stationed in Korea on the DMZ line separating North and South Korea.

“I spent most of my time on the DMZ line looking into the North Korean’s eyes and as a young man of 17 years old to see gun towers in the streets, I was in total shock. I had no idea that this went on in other countries because I had never been out of Hamilton,” Fields says.

“It was culture shocking immediately. They had a thing called Cinderella curfew where they only let you out until midnight because they had death squads from North Korea try to come in and kill people. That was my job; to keep them on their side of the fence and us on ours.”

When Fields returned to Cincinnati, he worked a variety of jobs from plumbing to hanging satellite dishes. While working as a bouncer at a bar in Hamilton, Fields met his wife, Christy, in 1993.

“Just a couple of days after [meeting Roger] I fell in love with him,” Christy says. “We’ve been together ever since, almost 27 years.”

The couple had two children, a daughter named Harris and a son named Jacob. Christy, who works as a special education instructional aide at Lakota, says that Roger has always had a bright personality.

“Roger has the biggest heart and a wonderful soul. He would help anyone with anything,” Christy says. “He’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. He’s very, very friendly. I always call him ‘Chatty Cathy.’ He is very social and he goes out of his way to talk to anyone.”

After meeting his wife, Roger started his own plumbing company called “RCH Services” named using the first name initials of his wife, daughter and himself, as his son Jacob had not been born yet. He used the skills he gained as a combat engineer to grow his business for over

25 years.

Roger retired and sold his company when his son Jacob, who has autism, entered high school. Roger made the decision to become a stay at home dad during his son’s high school years to support Jacob and the family.

Longtime family friend James Madden admires how Roger is committed to his family.

“Roger is still the same person I met 20 years ago,” Madden told Spark. “What I like about Roger is he takes care of his family. His family is first to him and then everything else just falls into place.”

R

oger has been very devoted and spiritual for his entire life and attributes all of his opportunities to God. He sat on the board of Tylersville Worship Center for several years.

“I give God all the glory for everything that I’ve done,” Roger says. “Religion keeps me going. I feel like if I keep working sooner or later I will have done what God asked me to do but I’m still working on it.”

It was through his religion that Roger and Christy became involved in a new venture: Christian entertainment wrestling.

“A pastor came to me [at church] and said, ‘God has spoken to me and said you need to be involved in this,’” Roger says. “The [Wrestling Organization] was already running shows, but [were] unsuccessful. So, I said ‘Yeah, okay, I’ll help’ and I started announcing for them.”

Beginning as an announcer calling moves in each match, Roger and his family were very involved with the organization, “Christian Wrestling International.” As a Christian wrestling organization, all of the shows are kept family friendly without blood, foul language or sexual antics.

“I was never a wrestler. I just fit. I could speak well on my feet and in the ring. I can talk without people having to tell me what to say,” Roger says. “It just grew from there and I met a bunch of trainers and people that were involved in the bigger shows and learned from them. And it just got exciting and we just kept growing and growing.”

Like Roger, Christy was not originally a fan of wrestling. However, that did not stop her from getting involved in the organization.

“I am not a wrestling fan by any means,” Christy says. “My support went to trying to help people out, and then I really got interested in the wrestling business. I got into it and then my family started getting into it. My daughter started helping me with the music. My son loved wrestling because he actually likes to see wrestling moves. So, almost everybody in the family started helping with wrestling and started enjoying it.”

Christian Wrestling International, which is now one of the largest Christian wrestling organizations in the world, runs food donation drives at every show. The largest show the organization hosted had over 1,000 attendees.

The food collected is donated to local food pantries across Hamilton.

“Knowing that we have fed lots of families from fans’ [donations] through our organization when they come to see our wrestling shows is an experience I’ll never forget,” Christy says. “[I will] treasure my entire life being able to drop off food to a pantry and knowing that it’s going to be really needed and helping the people.”

Roger became the CEO of Christian Wrestling International in 1996. He organizes all the events, hires all the wrestlers, sets up the rings and coordinates promos and commercials. Christy is a promoter for the group, handling technical and legal operations, as well as promoting the nonprofit.

According to Christy, in 2019 she was the only female wrestling promoter in Ohio.

Through their shows, the Fields family have met several big names in wrestling including World Wrestling Enter tainment (WWE) star Dean Ambrose.

WWE has even used the warehouse where they hold their shows to film a “WWE Chronicle” episode in 2018.

W

hen his son Jacob graduated high school, Roger took up a night shift maintenance job at East in 2018. In 2019, he accepted a full time day position as a maintenance specialist.

“I got a [job at East] strictly by accident. I wasn’t planning on being a maintenance man here,” Roger says. “I was just coming off my son graduating and was looking to do some part-time work, so I applied for a part time job.

They ended up finding out I was a plumber and hired me full time.”

Even with his many occupations, Roger has only become more involved with acting.

“I think [acting] has made me a more confident person because I have been able to succeed,” Roger says. “I became more confident in myself being able to do the roles.

It lets me step out and do other things I was uncomfortable with [in the past].”

Roger says that he will keep auditioning for more roles and take the biggest part he can get.

Butno matter what role comes his way, he is ready for the challenge.

“Never in a million years [did I think I would be an actor]. I have always loved movies since I was a kid. And it was always a dream that I could do that, but I never thought I would have,” Roger says. “I never thought I’d have the opportunity.

God just opened that door for me. It’s just a blessing.” •

Fields played a boxing referee

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 27

feature | hope sqaud

hope sqaud | feature says. “The award was a complete surprise. It was a moment of complete blindness, but a very emotional and very happy moment for me.”

East Hope Squad Advisor Justin Dennis has watched Marshall make a difference at East the past two years and believes she is more than deserving of this recognition. Within East’s Hope Squad, Dennis has seen Marshall step up and lead, while encouraging others to do the same.

“I think what she embodies is that she doesn’t need the attention,” Dennis says. “She doesn’t need that to do the work, it’s part of who she is. There’s not a lot of light shone on her work because it’s silent, but it’s worth it.”

on a larger scale. Everyone serves for a different reason, but for Marshall there is one specific driving force: inclusivity.

“For [Hope Squad National Council members] in [places such as] Texas, I’m really their exposure to a lot of things because I’m a member of the LGBTQ+ community,” Marshall says. “I feel like I’ve really gotten to broaden horizons a bit and pull back a curtain through sharing my perspectives.”

According to the Trevor Project, a national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth, LGBTQ+ youth are almost five times more likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth. The mission of Hope Squad is to spread positivity and raise awareness surrounding mental health and suicide prevention, and Marshall has been particularly drawn to advocate for underrepresented communities.

“She wants to give a voice to some of those populations that maybe haven’t had a voice,” Davis says. “How we can actively protect LGBTQ+ youth and make them feel supported in their school and welcome and supported in life is really important to her.”

During one of the Hope Squad National Council’s Zoom conferences, Marshall presented books representing diverse stories to members from Texas to Utah, as she sees representation as a way to bring hope to underrepresented communities.

“The basis of my work on the [Hope Squad National Council] is inclusivity and acceptance,” Marshall says. “I shared books

O Marshall talks with her fellow East Hope Squad members (left to right) Mary Kenrich, Myriam Alexis, and EJ Upton.

INSPIRING INCLUSIVITY

As she exemplifies Hope Squad’s mission of positivity and kindness, East junior Olivia Marshall’s work within the organization landed her the Inspire Award and a position on Hope Squad’s National Council. • story natalie mazey | photography ianni acapulco | graphic wudie amsalu

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or East junior Oliva Marshall, being a part of East’s Hope Squad since her freshman year has led her to receive national recognition; but that’s not why she does it.

“A lot of people in my life, myself included, have struggled with mental health and mental illness in the past,” Marshall says. “I don’t want people to struggle the way I have or the way I’ve seen people I love struggle. And so for me, I just want to try to make one person’s day bright or make one person smile.”

Through Hope Squad, Marshall has raised awareness regarding mental illness along with spreading positivity through chalk art and mints.

Marshall’s work within her “home” Hope Squad at East has made her stand out as someone who is actively working to “expand

the dialogue around mental health and suicide prevention,” according to Grant Us Hope Director of Programming and former East principal Suzanna Davis. Alongside two other students in Ohio, Marshall was picked as a recipient for the Inspire Award.

“The Inspire award is given every year by [Grant Us Hope] to people that have truly gone above and beyond in inspiring people to really lean into the mission,” Davis says. “People who are given the award are increasing awareness about Grant Us Hope and Hope Squads specifically.”

On Oct. 6 during Hawk Time, Marshall and the rest of the Hope squad were ushered into East’s parking lot, greeted by Marshall’s family and East Principal Yejide Mack, as Davis prepared to present Marshall with the Inspire

28 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Award.

“I have deep roots at Lakota East and I will say I was very proud to present all of the Inspire awards to all three recipients, but there was a very special place in my heart when presenting [it to] Olivia,” Davis says. “I have been so proud of the work that the hope squad has done at Lakota East and how they’ve really helped to change some of the dialogue about mental health and suicide prevention.”

As Marshall’s fellow Hope Squad members cheered her on, she was overwhelmed with pride. Marshall had no idea she was going to receive the reward, nor was she aware that her family would be present for this special moment.

“I see my dad run behind the car, and I’m like, ‘what is this guy doing here?’,” Marshall

utside of her efforts within East’s Hope Squad, Marshall was also chosen to serve on the Hope Squad National Council. Due to the unprecedented times brought forth by the pandemic, the National Council has not been able to hold in-person conferences like in the past, but Marshall is an active participant in zoom calls and virtual efforts.

“I’ve not only gotten closer with my home Hope Squad, but I’ve gotten to meet people who live in Ohio and [throughout the country],” Marshall says. “I have some friends in Utah and Texas now. Everyone is so passionate, and it’s so fun to talk to people who have such positive energy and live with such positive outlooks.”

The Hope Squad National Council is composed of high school students from across the country, all of which bring their own experiences from their Hope Squads within their schools to find ways to make a difference

that discuss people of color or people in the LGBTQ+ community, and the kind of stories that are more untold than what you would typically hear from authors.”

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ennis has seen Marshall’s passion for embracing all people carry over into every facet of her life as she lifts up voices that are not always heard.

“The main thing in [Marshall] is that she’s always fighting for what is right,” Dennis says.

“She really puts herself out there to be a positive person and that positive outlet [is]not only [for] other people but herself as well.”

During Oct., East Hope Squad hid a small pumpkin around the school, and when a student found it and returned it to a Hope Squad member, they received a prize. For Marshall, it’s the small moments like these that make her happy, like seeing a smiling face thrilled to have found a pumpkin.

“I feel like a lot of people don’t understand that we’re not simply focused on suicide prevention,” Marshall says. “That is, of course, the biggest thing we emphasize, but we also really focus on spreading positivity in general.”

According to Dennis, students that carry empathy and kindness in their interactions with others are the type of people that make a good fit for Hope Squad, and Marshall exemplifies these characteristics in everything she does.

“She deserves an award, but I think she’d be the first person to say that’s not why she does it,” Dennis says. “She would be the first person to say that what she does every day matters more.”•

2

cou mem ncil bers in high schoo 1 l

3

council members in 3 highschools

10

counci member l s in 7 highsch ools

1

council member in 1 highschool

1

council member in 1 highschool

HOPE SQUAD ACROSS THE NATION states where hope squad isn’t present states with hope squad programs in schools states with hope squad national council members

source grantushope.org

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 29

feature | special education

special education | feature

ENGAGING EDUCATION

it air out for three or four days. I separate the desks six feet, but if you’re working with a kid, you have to be sitting right next to them.”

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East’s Special Education Department has had to be creative with following new COVID-19 protocols while still meeting students’ needs. story and photography marleigh winterbottom

East Senior Bitsy Summers and Multipule Disability Intervention Specialist Ellen Bowmann laugh as they read a story to help Summers with memory recall skills.

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ast Special Education student Tyler Holliday and his Instructional Attendant Kathy Guckenbergur sit at their isolated table in the middle of the classroom with plastic tokens scattered all around the table.

Guckenberger encourages Holliday as she guides the token in his hand to drop into the slotted container placed in front of him. After being bit by a tick in second grade, Holliday contracted Rocky Mountain Fever, a bacterial infection that can cause damage to the lining of blood vessels, tissues, and organs. Ever since then, Guckenberger has been by Holliday’s side as he suffers from regular seizures.

As Holliday slowly progresses to maneuver the token on his own, Multiple Disability (MD) Intervention Specialist and Department Chair Ellen Bowmann pulls a chair up next to him, clapping and cheering him on. After several tries, Holliday moved his arm across the table to grab a token and successfully dropped it into the container on his own. Guckenberger and

Bowmann celebrate with cheers and highfives as Holliday smiles, proud of himself. “[My favorite part of my job is] being able to see them learn a new task or be proud of themselves,” Bowmann says.

COVID-19 regulations have brought many changes to classrooms for the 2020-2021 school year. Lakota’s Special Education has had to take these new protocols and adjust them to fit the needs of their 1,600 students.

“Special Education has lots of legal obligations,” Lakota Executive Director of Special Services Andrea Longworth told Spark.

“We have to continue to provide services and an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) to the greatest extent possible during the pandemic. It may look a little different, but we’re providing many of the same services.”

Bowmann works in a MD classroom, which requires hands-on activities and instruction to meet her students’ needs. They were provided with safety equipment from the district to use,

30 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

but social distancing between students and their aides and teacher is not often a reality that can be met.

“We have gloves and we’re provided masks and face shields if we choose to use them,” Bowmann says. “We do the best we can, but we have to be in close proximity to each [student] in order for them to get their needs met.”

With eight people on her caseload, Bowmann assists students aged 14 to 21 (grade 23) with coexisting impairments. Once a grade 23 student turns 22-years-old, they age out of the program and no longer receive their services through the school. Throughout the day, Bowmann and other Special Service Providers work with their students on daily functional skills such as typing, communication, and motor skills.

“We do a lot of hands on activities [in the classroom],” Bowmann says. “We have a bin in the back and we sanitize [objects] after each kid. If it’s something we can’t sanitize, we let

ast Intervention Specialist Sarah Tanis, however, works with 18 students on her caseload who struggle with intellectual disabilities. Her class aligns more with a typical curriculum provided by Ohio Extended Care in which subjects are broken down into simpler and more essential skill focused topics.

“A lot of times, [my students’] disabilities don’t show through as much,” Tanis told Spark.

“For example, I have students who are in band and they do perfectly well and it would be hard pressed to know that they have an IEP, because it doesn’t affect them as much in there.”

While both Bowmann and Tanis’s classrooms are part of East’s Special Education Department, their different environments lend the two programs to be separate, with the exception of when they have a student in common. One program they have in common, however, is the Work Study program where students are given the opportunity to work in the community to acquire more everyday life skills.

One of Bowmann’s grade 23 students, Ashleigh Rosczuk has a fascination with dates.

When given a date and a year, she can recall what day of the week it falls on. Therefore, for her Work Study, she spends her mornings at CVS scouring the shelves for foods with expired expiration dates. She also goes to the Boys and Girls Club in the afternoons to help clean.

“Because of the pandemic, we’re not able to have [many] opportunities because many partners have chosen that they don’t want to have students coming into their buildings at this time,” Tanis says. “We’re still doing the best we can to provide them valuable work experiences.”

Before the pandemic, Bowmann and Tanis’s classes would take weekly trips into the community to work on recreational, retail, and everyday life skills.

“For recreation, we went to Niederman Farm and we were able to pick pumpkins, go on hay rides, and go on the pillow,” Tanis says.

“For retail experience, we went to Dillard’s one year and picked out prom dresses and got fitted for tuxedos in the spring. We’ve also gone to Target to pick out clothes that we would wear to an interview.”

When Lakota Local Schools announced the transition to remote learning in the Spring of 2020, Tanis had to find new ways to incorporate these experiences virtually. “[During remote learning], my kids got to go to Disney World and the Galapagos Islands virtually,” Tanis says.

When COVID-19 protocols began to buckle down, families of Special Education students and Intervention Specialists worked together to create a plan that would work best for the student.

“Some parents didn’t want to Zoom because they knew it wasn’t realistic or they had to work and they couldn’t be there for the kids,” Bowmann says. “Other parents wanted worksheets at home so we would make copies and send things home. I was never so exhausted in my life.”

Zoom, however, was not always an effective option according to Bowmann.

“Face to face, you can see the animation and you’re not staring at a camera. You can totally tell that they’re there,” Bowmann says. “[On the computer], they were not being as productive or interactive as they would be if we were in school.”

While some classes were able to Zoom as a class in the Spring, Tanis could only work with her students one-on-one.

“We weren’t allowed to have our classes together, so that was a challenge, but it allowed us to have individual time with each student,” Tanis says. “A handful of my kids were able to be independent. I could post things on canvas and they could check every day if my directions were explicit enough.”

Both Bowmann and Tanis note that the hardest part of remote learning for their students was the lack of socialization their kids thrive off of. “[Remote learning] was absolutely horrible because they had no interaction. They can’t call or FaceTime their friends [like others can],”

Bowmann says.

While we are now back in school, socialization is still a struggle for Special Education students. In a typical year, Bowmann holds the club for Special Opportunities, Abilities, and Relationships (S.O.A.R.), where East students can go down to Bowmann’s classroom to do activities with her Special Education students. “[The hardest part this year is] the social interaction,” Bowmann says. “I have SOAR, which I’m not doing this year. It’s where the typical kids can interact with our kids. We can’t have that because they can’t be close, so they don’t have that social aspect.”

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fter being thrown into remote learning this past Spring, teachers such as Tanis have had to learn from each other new teaching tactics and COVID-safe activities.

“A lot of [East Special Education teachers] belong to Facebook groups for teachers on campus and special education teachers, so we’re learning a lot of different things from other teachers around the country which has been really helpful,” Tanis says.

With experience and new knowledge, Lakota has begun preparing and thinking ahead to what remote learning for the Special Education Department would look like if we had to go virtual again, making adjustments to better the program.

“Many things we did in the Spring, we’ve refined, making sure we’re providing the best tools possible,” Longworth says. “Because we’ve had time to plan, instead of a flip of a switch, like in the Spring, we will be able to provide a better and more comprehensive type of education to our students.”

However, while plans have been discussed, nothing is set in stone.

“Everything is on the table at this point in time,” Longworth says. “We’re exploring all options.”

As the token drops to the bottom of the container and the cheers begin to fade, Holliday and Guckenberger move on to their next task, ready to learn something new and celebrate once more.•

“Some parents didn’t want to Zoom because they knew it wasn’t realistic or they had to work and they couldn’t be there for the kids. Other parents wanted worksheets at home so we would make copies and send things home. I was never so exhausted in my life.”-MD Intervention Specialist Ellen Bowmann January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 31

feature | ekra khliad Now a freshman at the University of Cincinnati studying optometry, Khalid has begun taking portrait photos for seniors.

She had first taken photos of a friend during quarantine, and once she did, East students came to her to ask her about taking their senior portraits.

Although she had not initially intended to turn it into a business, as she took more pictures, and received more attention on Instagram, her schedule quickly became booked up.

East senior Anne Matthew had been following Khalid’s photography account when Khalid posted about senior photos and was immediately interested.

“I liked how natural yet beautiful they looked,” Matthew said. “The places she shoots and the editing she does--I was in love. So it was an easy decision; I didn’t really consider anywhere or anyone else.”

Khalid uses her Nikon D3400 to focus on her newest subject.

CAPTURING THE MOMENT East Alum Ekra Khalid discusses her photographic journey. story ianni acapulco | photography marleigh winterbottom

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kra Khalid’s photography journey began with three things: a photography app, an iPod Touch, and her friends.

Utilizing the camera on her iPod touch, Khalid initially captured photos of her friends’ eyes, compiling them into a collection, a “journal”, on the app VSCO. There, she would write about each set of eyes she photographed, taking note of the eyes’ characteristics and features that stood out.

“I kept that little journal and it had over 20 or 30—I don’t even know how many eyes,” Khalid says. “I literally took pictures of every single kid in my small town.”

Khalid remembers becoming fascinated with the notion of photography and its ability to capture moments through a lens. It was no longer enough to take pictures on her ipod.

She began urging her parents to buy her a camera, but to her surprise, it would be her younger brother, Subhan Khalid, who would gift her one. Her brother was eight years old at the time, while Khalid was a high school freshman who had scarcely anticipated that her little brother would sacrifice his birthday money on the camera he’d disguised in a Nike shoe box.

“I got my [DSLR] camera and I started taking pictures of just everything,” Khalid says.

“Pineapples, rocks, my dad, my friends. Just everyday, simple things.”

Although Khalid proceeded to take many

pictures, it would not be until her senior year at East that she would properly learn her camera’s functions and become serious about photography.

What Khalid really appreciates about the craft is its ability to “stop time” and take a snapshot of a moment that she can keep with her.

“In real life, you can’t ever pause at all; it keeps going,” Khalid says. “And that’s kind of scary to me, because I wish I could pause moments in my life. So to me, photography is like those paused moments of life.”

Even before Khalid began to seriously use her camera, she was always known in her friend group to assume the role of ‘videographer’ or ‘blogger’, constantly taking pictures or videos of her and her friends during their time together.

She says that she always finds it rewarding to look back and recall their good memories.

Nasma Jarabah, Khalid’s friend of three years, has been a subject of her photography several times.

“She doesn’t get in the picture as much, but she’s always taking pictures,” Jarabah says.

“She just has this creative eye. We could just be in a neighborhood, and she could fix it up to become such a beautiful shot.”

Often, her friends would come to her when in search of a particular photo or video, knowing Khalid would be a dependable source.

It is something that she takes joy and pride in.

32 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

INTERACTIONS MEAN THE MOST Lunch staff member Vanessa Ryan talks about her favorite part of her job. story rehab jarabah photography marleigh winterbotttom

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halid’s editing style for pictures is typically partial to warm tones. She prefers to have her subjects be casual during shoots and to take candids rather than more ‘generic’ posed shoots.

“She’s a sweet, light, and airy kind of person,” says East senior Ream Awad, who has been friends with Ekra since 2016. “Especially in her editing, you notice all her photos are bright and energetic.”

Once senior portrait season wraps up, Khalid hopes to try more photoshoots where she can experiment with more artistry. She plans to reach out to people who are willing to act as her models for her ideas so that she can learn more about her style as a photographer and to expand her portfolio. For now, the craft is just a hobby for her, but Khalid says she’s both open and apprehensive to turning it into a profession.

“I have a lot of passions and goals in life, and if photography becomes one of them, I’ll be more than happy for that,” Khalid says. “[But] if it becomes a profession, I’m scared that I’ll get sick of it. Because when you start doing a passion for a living, then it might conflict with it actually being a passion anymore and you might dread doing it.”

Khalid’s work in photography has won her student journalism awards over the course of her high school career. In 2020, she earned an Ohio Scholastic Media Association award for her work in the categories of Feature Photo as well as Photo Story.

If it were to turn into a profession, Khalid says it would be her dream to travel to different countries and capture the cultures that aren’t as often shown to the media.

“I feel like a photograph can speak 1000 words,” Khalid says. “And it can be really loud.

Looking at a photo can truly change someone’s perspective on something. So, if you capture photographs of something that someone’s not used to seeing in a really beautiful, artistic way, I feel like it’s a great way of capturing someone’s attention.”•

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locking in at nine, she sets her stuff down and gets ready for her day at work. She greets all the other lunch staff, and starts on her job, preparing meals for the thousands of students who attend East.

Vanessa Ryan has been on the East lunch staff for six years. After quitting her job after having her daughter, Ryan decided she wanted to do more. Although she had hoped to work with the younger children, the Lakota district placed her at East.

“I wanted to work with children if I’m being honest. I thought the high schoolers would be mean and I didn’t know anything about them,” Ryan says.

However, as the years progressed, she’s more

than content with high schoolers. This year she was promoted to a cook, but still “favors working as a cashier.”

“Even though I don’t get to talk to [the students] as much as I’d like, I like having those interactions with them [as cashier],” said Ryan.

No matter how big or little the interaction is, Ryan says “it’s the most rewarding part of my job.”

The feeling isn’t only felt by Ryan. Monica Denton says the same thing.

“Having interactions with the students is probably one of my favorite things along with working with these other amazing ladies,” said Denton. “I’m in the front all the time so I talk to the students pretty often.”

Lakota East sophomore and Ryan’s daughter, Reagan Ryan, has a special relationship with her mother because of this. According to Reagan, “their relationship at school is a little hard to put a label on.”

“We don’t really interact much at school; the most we really get in is a ‘hello’, and that’s only if she’s actually out front and not back in the kitchen,” says Reagan. “Most of the time it’s easy to forget that she’s in the same building as me.”

The lunch staff is more than people who just serve the student body of East food. They make connections with the students and make us feel like we have at least a few more people who are on our side.•

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 33

feature | the frost factory

the frost facory | feature

DRINK SIZING

The Frost Factory’s slushie machines.

20 oz

12 oz

Amanda Heck, West Alum and Frost Factory first-timer, chose the bar to celebrate her 21st birthday and went with the Berry Blast (raspberry vodka combined with a blend of fresh strawberries and raspberries) to commemorate the occasion.

“I think it’s a really cool idea,” Heck says. “I love the fresh fruit component and the alcohol makes it much more unique than the average slushie place.”

Size-wise, customers have four options to pick from. The number of shots in each drink vary depending on the size. The standard sizes are 12, 20, and 40 ounces which hold one, two, and three shots respectively. Their largest drink is referred to as a “Fish Bowl”. Anyone who purchases a fish bowl gets $3 off any refills they get on the product. All full size drinks can be layered with two flavors and for less decisive

SLUSHIES WITH A TWIST

40 oz

flight

consumers, the bar offers a three-flavor flight which consists of three smaller drinks.

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bby Finley, Frost Factory worker, has been with them from the very beginning.

She joined the team on friends and family night, one day before the bar officially opened.

“The job is fast paced and it keeps me busy,” Finley says. “On a nice day, we’ll have a line going out the door. That’s a lot of orders to keep up with.”

Despite their recent success, the Frost Factory co-owners faced a lot of barriers on the road to bring spiked slushies to Liberty Center.

COVID-19 had a big impact on Gregory and Wendt’s plans for their space.

“Originally we would be able to let people pile in here and just have a good time,” Wendt says. “But, we have to s o c i a l d i s t a n c e s o

h a l f o f our tables are unavaila b l e a n d w e c a n o n l y allow a certain number of people inside.”

They also had some unpredicted troubles with finding a location at Liberty center. A few stores such as H&M require to be 500 feet from places that solely serve alcohol. After months of sorting out zoning rules, the bar finally found its place. Located down the street f ro m K o n a G r i l l a n d Rusty Bucket, the Factory has hundreds of people come across their venue each day.

Dayton senior Emily Rainey h a s v i s i t e d t h e b a r four or f i v e t i m e s s i n c e i t s opening.

“The first time I came here was in the summer when they had completely different flavors,” Rainey says. “I have to say the fall flavors are the best that I’ve had so far, you can’t beat pumpkin spice.” •

Liberty Center welcomes The Frost Factory to their array of businesses, bringing a new market for spirited slushies to Liberty Township. • story, photography and infographic mary barone

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itting on the corner between Occasionally Yours and Sunglass Hut lies a brand new experience. The recently opened Frost Factory serves a wide variety of slushies and gives of-age customers the choice to add alcohol.

It all started with a frozen margarita and a dream; in the summer of 2019 while in Dallas for her son’s Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) tournament, Jam i e Gregory was surprised to come across a f r o z e n m a r g a r i t a b a r.

“I guess I always thought that they had to be by the water,” Gregory says. “And I just thought ‘oh we need one of these’”.

Gregory took the proposal to her friend Samantha Wendt, who wa s i m m e d i a t e l y o n board. And from th e r e , t h e i d e a evolved.

“She didn’t even hesitate,” Gregory says.

“Then Sammi took the idea a step further and suggested making the slushies in-house.”

To prepare the frozen beverages, they purée real, fresh fruit bought from local markets and combine it with a gluten-free syrup.

From there, customers have the option to add

alcohol, provided they are 21 or older.

Brandon Cliffe, one of Frost Factory’s seven employees, came across the bar when he was doing construction on the Planet Fi t n e s s located across the street from L i b e r t y C e n t e r.

“One day I came across this place and decided to try it out,” Cliffe says. “I really liked it and I actually want to start my own franchise, so I work two days a month to try to get an idea of what the business is like and see if I went open my own.”

With 13 frozen options and four hot beverages, the bar gives customers a wide range of flavors from spiked hazelnut espresso to mango habanero. To keep their flavors as fresh as their ingredients and in sync with the seasons, they change all of their flavors every three months. On top of that, the bar has four slushies pre-mixed with alcohol which they switch up every month.

On Dec. 1st the bar made the transition to holiday-themed drinks, including their eggnog colada with real eggnog and a hint of pineapple, gingerbread latte - a fresh c o l d b re w w i t h a h i n t o f cinnamon and ginger, and santa’s

34 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

cookies which has a creamy, butte r y, v a n i l l a f l a v o r.

“We just look up what’s popular at the moment and then we put our own spin on it,” Gregory says. “You know, you may find a pumpkin recipe online but we always put our own spin on it and create our own recipe.”

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hile workers will suggest which alcohol pairs best with a given flavor, customers can take their pick from 30 different liquors to elevate their drink from an average slushie to a classy mixed drink. The Frost Factory offers both house and premium liquors, with a slight extra charge on the premiums.

The Frost Factory recently collaborated with Le Macaron, a french pastry bakery located a few shops down from the bar. For the holiday season, the bar is offering gingerbread macarons to top customers’ slushies for an extra $2 charge.

“We buy them in bulk at a discount and then just adjust the price of the drinks,” Cliffe says. “It’s a different and exciting way to make the slushies more decorative.”

Frost Factory’s three-flavor flight featuring the Frozen Hot Chocolate topped with a gingerbread macaron, Mango Passionfruit, and the Naughty Grinch.

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 35

feature | east nurse

east nurse | feature

Jarrold-Brinck, East’s nurse, helps out a student in need of assistaance.

roles she takes on is a listener to students who come to her room to get away or talk about personal issues and mental health. She enjoys the opportunity she has to be a safe space for students.

“Normally I would have a lot of traffic in and out, not necessarily people would come and sit here all day long not feeling well. But a lot of personal needs that kids may have,” Jarrold-Brink says. “Some students really just need that one on one attention, they might not be getting at home. To be kind of a constant person that they see every day can come down and even have a short check in in the morning or a short conversation or things like that.”

The routine of relying on Jarrold as a safe space was one of an East seniors’ during the 2019-2020 school year. After returning from maternity leave Jarrold reconnected with the student who was continuing to struggle in her current foster home.

“As we kind of got to know each other more she expressed some things that were happening in her current foster home that just weren’t really that great,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “I knew Maiya would be a good fit for us, based on her personality and interests and things like that.”

CREATING A SAFE SPACE

Lindsay Jarrold-Brinck, East’s nurse, has a passion for mental health and helping others, all leading her to a journey in Foster care. story megan miranda | photography ianni acapulco

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fter East Head Nurse Lindsay Jarrold’s first foster care child, ended in adoption five years ago, her now eight-year-old son is in the process of getting adopted by her husband Something Brink. Therefore, she won’t take her husband’s last name yet, not wanting Davis to be the only Jarrold in a family of Brinks.

That’s the kind of person Jarrold-Brinck is, so at East she’s known by both, her maiden name Jarrold and her future last name Brinck.

After getting a masters in nursing with an emphasis in forensics as well as a masters in criminal justice, Jarrold-Brinck worked in different research facilities, held different nursing leadership roles, as well as taught paramedic and nursing students. Beyond that experience she was an ER nurse for ten years, had worked in the Burn Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and before coming to East, was the manager of education at West Chester Hospital.

“She is incredibly intelligent, it takes a certain kind of person to work in [the] burn ICU,” close friend and East counselor Michelle Quarry says. “Besides her intelligence [Jarrold-

Brink] has so many admirable traits. She is kind, empathetic, and selfless.”

These traits have been echoed since JarroldBrinck’s childhood as she sought a future that involved helping others.

“I wanted to be in healthcare, I wanted to do something to help people,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “I remember more in high school, I liked psychology. I find it very interesting, the mind and the way people think and how different things can cause changes in the way you think.”

Jarrold-Brinck’s desire to help people influenced her decision to do medical mission work in Haiti. Starting around 2009, the next four years of her life consisted of traveling with a group from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where she worked in a Hatian emergency department. On other occasions, she would travel with a different group to orphanages.

“We would just help provide them resources. And sometimes we would do medical assessments on [the orphans],” JarroldBrinck says. “Sometimes it was more educating the kids, teaching them the things they need

36 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

“Being able to recognize when somebody really does need something, and being aware of their nonverbal cues, or something changed from yesterday or the day before. When I talk to someone I sit down, because I think it’s important for them to know that I’m not in a hurry and I’m on their level.”- East nurse Lindsay Jarrold-Brink

because we want them to be able to function on their own rather than be enabled. It was quite an eye opening experience.”

After her experience in Haiti, Jarrold-Brinck found a passion for helping children in need of homes. At 30-years-old, because of the opportunities she felt she’d been given, foster care seemed like a great option.

I

n 2019, childrensrights.org found that over 672,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care. Also on average children remain in foster care for over a year and a half, and five percent of children in foster care have languished there for five or more years.

“I was single, I had my master’s degree, living in a house and just felt like [foster care] was a good thing that I had the ability to be involved in,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “So I’d had that experience in Haiti, and just to look at the bigger picture of that, if you have the resources, space, and time to give, then give it.”

After becoming East’s head nurse three years ago, the job sparked her familiar drive to help others. One of the most important

Q

uickly Jarrold-Brinck’s household turned from a family of six to a family of seven as Jarrold-Brinck, in addition to Davis, has three biological children under the age of five. Maya moved in with the Brink’s in Feb. and was adopted a week before her 18th birthday in Sept.

“It was kind of right away. I went home and told my husband there was somebody I want to bring home with me. And he was like, ‘well, as long as they’re not three’, because of all these little kids. So I said, ‘well, she’s 17’,” JarroldBrinck says. “And that was it. We called our foster agency, and within a couple of weeks, she was moving into our house.”

After her first foster placement with Davis ended in adoption, her heart for fostering remained. While Jarrold-Brinck hasn’t had many foster placements, she and her husband do consistently provide respite or temporary care to children in foster care.

“Over the past, however many years, we’ll take kids on the weekends when foster parents kind of need a break. And we’ll keep the kids for a weekend or a long week or something like that,” Jarrold-Brinck says.

East’s front office secretary Keri Myers, has worked with Jarrold since getting her position last Spring. Between balancing everything at work to her homelife Myers acknowledges

Jarrold-Brinck as an everyday hero.

“She is amazing,” Myers says. “The best way to describe her is as Superwoman.”

Jarrold-Brink is a morning person, up at four A.M. ready to get work done for the day, and the pace doesn’t stop between the 90 phone calls, student visits, and COVID-19 responsibilities.

“It’s just a different kind of work. It’s a lot of coordinating and paperwork and organizing,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “And other people are depending on me, because I’m kind of at the frontline of the information that we’re receiving. Some days I’m here later just because the day is crazy, so I’ve just worked it out.”

After the school day ends, her responsibilities at home continue as she takes on her most important role, as a mother. “[One time,]I was here till six o’clock, which is fine as long as we can figure out the schedule at home and still be able to spend time with my kids,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “When I get home, it’s just kind of crazy. I have little ones that haven’t seen me all day. So, my day doesn’t really slow down or stop until they go to bed.”

A challenge Jarrold-Brinck has faced this year is a change to her usual routine involving student interaction. Prioritizing safety guidelines has changed the ways students can meet with her in regards to distancing and tracing between people in and out of the nurse’s office.

“I think some kids are afraid to come to the nurse [in fear of getting sent home]. Sometimes I do, but it depends on what you tell me. Even though I may not necessarily think it’s COVID, my job is to follow those rules,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “I would say in general, there’s less people coming in and out.”

Amidst the business of her job she still finds it necessary to emphasize that mental health is important and she advocates for students through her actions.

“We’re kind of buzzing around. But being able to recognize when somebody really does need something, and being aware of their nonverbal cues, or

something changed from yesterday or the day before,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “When I talk to someone I sit down, because I think it’s important for them to know that I’m not in a hurry and I’m on their level.”

While Jarrold-Brinck has always been interested in mental health and psychology, a large breaking point that encouraged her to delve into those topics was influenced by her experience with her now, eight year-old son, Davis. Before he was adopted he had experienced some trauma in his younger life and his biological parents have a significant history of mental illness. “[Davis] has some behavioral struggles and sensory issues,” Jarrold-Brinck says. “ I’ve taken a lot of classes and have learned a lot about how to interact with people that are having some sensory trouble,” This year Jarrold-Brinck believes she has seen an increase in teen anxiety and more students struggling that hadn’t sought help through the school before.

“Normally throughout the school year I’d refer a couple of people to the counselor [school based therapist],” Jarrold-Brinck says.

“But, I found recently that we’ve had a lot more students that are feeling anxious and overwhelmed. So, Quarry and I do work very closely in that regard.”

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yers notes that Jarrold-Brinck’s load has increased extremely this year but she handles any extra stress well and is always there for students.

“I have never heard her complain once,” Myers says.

“She is a rock at East, she keeps the school going day in and day out, somehow managing it all with a graceful heart.” •

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 37

bethann niederman | package

Bethann Niederman

THE INFLUENCERS

Our community is full of teachers, mentors, and coaches who have made a noteworthy impression on students and young adults in the East community. This issue, our staff wanted to highlight such people. A survey was sent out to the local community asking for nominations of people who they believed have had a large influence in and around East. Our writers sifted through the nominees and selected a group of ten powerful leaders to feature. From sports coaches, to entrepreneurs, to first responders, there is a wide variety of significant people who deserve to be recognized for their unique contributions to our community. Although we recognize that this package cannot fully account for all of the amazing people that positively impact our community, with this issue, we hope to shine light on some of the influential figures who have greatly impacted the lives of East students both inside and outside of the classroom. --Ava Huelskamp

38 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Bethann Niederman holds a painted pumpkin for the farm’s Fall festival.

Bethann Niederman is using her farm to offer memories for the families who visit. story zach shultz | photography mia hilkowitz

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or most people in Butler County, going to work each morning consists of a 30 minute drive down highway 75.

But for Bethann Niederman and her family, their job is their home. A mother of five, Bethann was born in northern Ohio and met her husband Bob Niederman at The Ohio State University. When the two got married in 1988, they moved to Bob’s home farm in Liberty Township, Niederman Farm, to raise animals and crops.

In the early 2000’s the couple expanded the farm to include a corn maze and pumpkin patches, and have been adding new family friendly aspects since, such as a giant jumping pillow, firepits, and hay rides. Originally a dairy farm, they transitioned to the beef business in 2004, When Bob passed away in 2011 from cancer, the farm fully moved into the agritourism aspect and Bethann took over farm operations. Now Niederman Family Farm, which holds a Fall Festival every year, is a place that thousands of families enjoy coming to every year, according to Bethann. Niederman Farm also maintains a boat and camper storage operation and a paintball range called Paintball Country.

Bethann’s youngest daughter and East junior LeAnn Niederman, says that her mom is the brains of the farm operations.

“[Bethann] does a bit of everything around here to be honest,” LeAnn says. “She works non-stop year-round.”

East junior Bryson Blankenship is a yearround worker on Niederman Farm. He says Bethann is very supportive and understanding of all of her employees, m a k i n g sure they get to work safely.

“She’s always wanting to do the best she can for customers, employees, and friends and family.” said Bryson. “She’s always thinking in other’s best interests.”

Bethann says that she works hard so she can keep her late husband’s memory alive for her children and grandchildren. She believes the best way to do this is to “pour 110% of myself into the farm that he loved and grew up on.”

She thinks that helping other families make memories on the farm is a meaningful way to honor his memory.

She also feels that she can be influential to the community by providing goods and services to Butler County families, along with giving fun experiences from the festival or paintball.

LeAnn says that her mom likes to say their job is to bring joy and smiles to whoever visits.

Influential

“I feel like there are many people that work every day that are influential members in the community,” said Bethann. “I hope that what we offer here for our families, neighbors and guests, continues to be a positive influence.

Whenever we get criticism on our activities, we see if it’s information that we can use to make an experience even better.”

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iberty Township trustee Christine Matacic says the Fall Festival is a “popular tourist spot in Liberty Township” and that Bethann keeps the efforts of running the farm alive.

“All of her efforts, along with the rest of the Niederman extended family, have been important to promote farming, their family-friendly tourist activities, and Liberty Township,” Matacic says. “The Niederman Family Farm is a model for the future of how family farms will survive as a business -- being creative to find other activities to supplement their income. Diversifying is how many successful businesses adopt to keep moving forward.”

Bethann says her goal for the future of the farm is to “continually improve on the experience that our customers have.” This next year will be the 20th anniversary of Niederman Farm’s Fall Festival. •

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 39

package | kevin keen

eliza bush | package Keen sends a weekly newsletter to “mentors” in the INCUbatorEdu program.

Kevin Keen

This INCubatorEdu teacher is inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs inside and outside of the clssroom. story rehab jarabah | photography and graphic audrey allen

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eep on keeping on.”

Standing at the white board in front of his class, East social studies teacher Kevin Keen faces his students to offer this advice. Just like his students, Keen entered the world of entrepreneurship this past year eager to immerse himself in the growing business environment.

Entrepreneurship, he says, is a difficult path to pursue, so “keep on keeping on.”

Last year, Keen was offered the advisor position for INCubatorEdu, an entrepreneurship class where students spend the course building their own business and pitching to investors. Keen, who had been teaching Advanced Placement Human Geography for 15 years, was thrilled to take up the new position.

“I thought [INCubatorEdu] was an important course because of how many startup businesses there are in the Greater Cincinnati area,” Keen told Spark. “It

1 Pairing

2 Ideation

Students are put into groups at the beggingin of the semester

Groups brainstorm problems and solutions to develop in the future

also interested the district since it focuses on entrepreneurship, one of the “E’s” the district wants.”

Enlistment, entrepreneurship, education, and employment are the “four E’s” that Keen mentions. According to their website, the Lakota district tries to implement these into their schools by adding programs such as INCubatorEdu for their students.

To Keen, INCubatorEdu is more than just a usual course; he believes that the “entrepreneurship spirit should be more common [in general] and around the school.”

“I want to see students embrace the idea of chasing a goal, chasing something that they’re going to create and being willing to fail and learn from those failures,” Keen says. “Because that’s life and in life we are

40 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Influential 3 Interview Groups conduct interviews with potential customers about their ideas

4 Finances Groups analyze the financial cost of developing their business

met with obstacles and we aren’t successful in everything we do. The true failure would be not learning from those lack of successes, but if we learn from our failures and we fail forward, we’re in line to be successful people.”

INCubatorEdu student and East junior Lucas Brown agrees and says that the course has helped him embrace the entrepreneurial spirit in his own life.

“This class has helped me realize how many great ideas there are [that need] to be made and innovated upon in the world,” Brown tells Spark. “I really think that all schools should offer an option like IncubatorEdu for a course, because who knows how many great ideas are waiting out there to be made and help change the world.”

Keen’s wife, Emily Keen, believes that teaching a class like INCubatorEdu will have a lasting impact on the next generation of students by providing them with real world experiences.

“I think it is an awesome opportunity for students to get exposure to what it takes to start and run a business. I would have loved to take a class like this to gain real world experience in high school,” Emily told Spark. “He really takes pride in making sure that he teaches his students not only the curriculum, but to expand their knowledge about other people and places around the world.”

Keen has also been a HopeSquad advisor and is known in classes for speaking about mental health, depression, and anxiety.

“Mr. Keen isn’t just interested in teaching us; he actually wants to make relationships with us and cares about his students,” East senior and INCubatorEdu student Alyssa Hampton told Spark. “He really makes an effort to be involved with each group and to relate things like mental health struggles to us, and I just think that’s what makes him so different.”

Through INCubatorEdu, Keen not only hopes to spark the next generation of entrepreneurs in Lakota, but also to give students a teacher to connect with in and out of the classroom.

“I hope they see someone in front of the room that has a passion for teaching and for the content,” Keen says. “I hope they see an advocate for them in front of them, and that they see someone who respects them as young adults.” •

5 MVP Groups build a “minimum viable product” of their business

6 Pitching Groups pitch their business to investors at the end of the year

Bush curates a new clothing drop while shopping at a local Goodwill.

Eliza Bush

East Alum Eliza Bush has started a small thrifting business called Guud Thrifts that provides trendy pieces for people of all shapes, sizes, and styles. story abbie westendorf photography ava huelskamp

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he day after her fall drop, she opens the roll of brown wrapping paper and gets out her markers. She wraps each piece of clothing carefully, slips in a thank you note in, and writes “thanks, girl” on the outside in calligraphy.

This is the packaging process that East Aalum and Miami University freshman majoring in Communication Design Eliza Bush goes through after each clothing drop of her business Guud Thrifts, which she runs on Instagram. She started the small Instagram business in July in hopes to fill her time amid COVID-19.

“I just wanted to do something to distract myself and others from everything that was going on,” Bush says. “Once thrift stores reopened, I was like ‘oh my gosh, this would be so much fun’ and started brainstorming.”

According to Bush her father, Brian Bush, has been a huge factor in her love for thrifting and sustainable fashion.

“When I was a kid, my dad would take me to garage sales on weekends, so I’ve always loved [shopping second-hand],” Bush told Spark. “But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized you could find nice high quality, fashionable things [at thrift stores.]”

Brian says he considers Eliza a close friend and they’ve bonded over their love of “finding good bargains” and “getting things you can’t get just anywhere.” When Bush pitched her business to him and asked for a small loan, he was all for it.

“I thought it sounded like fun. It didn’t sound like it would make her a lot of money,” Brian says, ”But, I think rather than making money she was interested in doing something that fills her and others with joy.”

Brian and Bush went thrifting together for Guud Thrift’s first drop. According to Brian, Bush takes her time in the stores to make sure she can develop the best inventory possible.

“I noticed that I can go through a whole thrift store in about 20 minutes, and it takes her more like two hours,” Brian says. “She’s very thorough, and it gave me a chance to look at things I wouldn’t normally.”

Macy Crump, a Miami freshman, and Bush’s roommate has also had the privilege of working with Bush on her business.

“I got to help her build her inventory, make business cards, package orders, and send things out,” Crump says. “[Eliza] is so passionate and involved in her work.”

Crump owns a small business of her own called Macy Lacy Designs where she creates prints and drawings.

“It is so inspiring to see another female entrepreneur be so successful.” Crump says, “Seeing her put herself out there and be excited about her work has encouraged me to continue to grow my art business” East sophomore Ella Huelskamp, a frequent

Influential

buyer from Guud Thrifts, says she loves how easy the business comes to the customers due to the work Bush puts into it.

“You can really tell that Eliza puts a lot of time and effort into planning out all the captions, making the little business cards to put in every package, and personally dropping off most packages,” Hueskamp says. “She makes you feel like you’re a part of the business with her.”

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ccording to Bush, Guud Thrifts is for anyone and everyone. To do so, she buys clothes in all shapes and sizes and asks friends to model the clothes for her drops.

Huelskamp says it’s super easy for her to find clothes that fit her body and her style.

“I found several neutral- toned pieces that I’m able to pair with anything. There’s also a lot of unique pieces I bought that appeal to my personal style,” Huelskamp told Spark. “I truly believe that whoever you are, you’ll find something that fits you and your style.”

Brian believes Bush holds many attributes that have and will make her a good business owner, and that the things she has learned through Guud Thrifts will be carried with her the rest of her life.

“I hope that whatever she ends up doing after college is something that she enjoys as much as she has enjoyed building Guud Thrifts,” Brian told Spark. “She has always loved learning new things and challenging herself, which has really shined through this business of hers.”•

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 41

package | lisa von haefen quadriplegics that allowed people to walk.

“I think we live in a world right now where the value of science has been undermined.

That scares me as a scientist, that’s my background, my passion, my belief,” von Haefen says. “When I can instill that excitement and that interest in my students, that’s important.”

Von Haefen “doesn’t take any crap”, according to former Butler Tech student Josephine Graft. She deeply cares for her students, fostering a family-like community within the walls of her classroom. Even through the pain of her mom’s passing this summer, von Haefen still goes above and beyond to be there for her students, securing internships and nominating them for awards such as the Career Technical Presidential Von Haefen works Honors that Butler Tech senior with her students Minahil Haroon, who is dual on a disection at the enrolled at Butler Tech and Butler Tech Bioscience East, was awarded in Nov. “My mom had Alzheimer’s.

Center.

My dad, my sister, and I cared for her for a long time. That’s part of the reason I moved back,” von Haefen says. “My family is everything to me.”

Students in von Haefen’s classes become like a second family. For Graft, von Haefen not only helped her navigate the world of biomedical science, but also Butler Tech teacher Lisa von Haefen uses teaching as a helped her to find her path in life. platform to share her passion for Biomedical Science.

“Even though she’s been struggling, she still checks in on me and makes sure story natalie mazey | photography used with permission/butler tech that we’re all okay,” Graft says. “She puts ot long after 9/11, Lisa von Haefen for her students with AstraZeneca, a everybody else above herself, including returned to West Chester from company that manufactures and sells her mom and her family.” just outside of Pittsburgh, after pharmaceutical and biotechnology A student once told von Haefen losing her middle management products. Butler Tech houses over 16,575 she should start writing down her “von position in biomedical science due to students from 11 associate school districts Haefen-isms”, sage words of advice she the recession. In her year out of work, including Lakota. gives her students on a regular basis. von Haefen took time to spend with her “I admire her intelligence,” Butler What started as a joke became a part of family and her sister’s new baby, but she Tech Counselor Jeanette Becker says. “[A her classroom culture. Recently, some was at a loss as to what to do. A friend teacher’s salary] isn’t the highest salary, so of her students were disappointed when gave her a suggestion that would then she could be making a lot more money they weren’t picked for the AstraZeneca alter her life’s course: teaching doing something else, but she chooses to internship, and she wrote them a note, Von Haefen boasts an impressive teach.” detailing a sentiment that she hopes can resume, with a Bachelors of Science Von Haefen’s passion for biomedical ease some of the heartache. and a Masters of Science in Biomedical engineering dates back to being a “The one thing I’ve learned is that, as Engineering from Case Western Reserve, student at Lakota High School where she disappointed as I am, everything happens and a Master’s of Education from graduated from in 1987, when her dad for a reason,” von Haefen says. “The Xavier, all encompassing her passion for showed her experiments working with opportunities that are still ahead, or that Biomedical Engineering. While teaching came your way because that door closed, at Butler Tech’s BioScience Center for the are even better than you thought you were Influential past 7 years, she has made strides including going to get over there.”• developing an internship opportunity

LISA VON HAFEN N

42 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

ethan klussman | package

Ethan Klussman

and brings a lot of energy and drive to his position,” Oakes told Spark. “He is very hardworking and consumes himself in his position. Chief Klussman is very analytical and finds ways to maximize the resources he has to work with.”

In early September of this school year, the Lakota East Freshmen Campus a faulty light fixture wire started a small fire in the building.

After a staff member pulled an alarm, East Associate Principal and leader of the Freshman Campus Nicole Isaacs is thankful for the relationship Lakota has with the Liberty Township Fire Department.

On Sept. 2 2020 a faulty light fixture wire caused a small fire in the Freshmen Campus.

After a staff member pulled the fire alarm, the department arrived at the school within minutes and controlled the “massive amount of smoke in order for school to resume safely,” according to Isaacs.

“We have a wonderful collaborative relationship with the fire department,” Isaacs told Spark. “[We] are extremely grateful for all they do to protect our students and staff, especially on this day.”

Liberty Township Fire Department Chief Ethan Klussman is using his passion of the fire service to help members of the local community. story rachel anderson photography ianni acapulco

Klussman directs firefighters from within the cab of his truck.

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t was hard to miss the flashing lights of the fire trucks when traveling northbound on Interstate 75 in Butler County on July 8, 2019. Two semi-trucks had collided, both spilling hydraulic fluid. At the scene of the accident, a Liberty Township ladder truck was blocking the right lanes and assisting with traffic control right before the exit for Ohio 129 and Liberty Way. Then, just after midnight, a driver of a semi fell asleep, striking the ladder truck.

Had the truck not been there, the nine pe o pl e o n the s c e n e w o ul d ha ve b e e n k il l e d.

The decision to block the scene of an accident was the result of the hiring of Liberty Township Fire Chief Ethan Klussman. When Klussman was hired in September 2017 after former Chief Paul Stumpf retired, the department had no command staff positions.

In an effort to grow the department, Klussman hired three battalion chiefs.

These leaders allow Klussman to not have to personally respond to every call, and it gives him more than one viewpoint on important decisions.

Before joining the Liberty Township Fire Department, Klussman had been with the Kettering Fire Department for 22 years. At his former department, it was not protocol to block an accident with a fire truck, however, Liberty Township had been following that practice for a few years unofficially. After listening to his Battalion Chiefs, Klussman decided to make the practice official in

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September of 2018.

“When I hired my battalion chiefs, we sat down and talked about that practice, and they actually encouraged me to continue doing it,” Klussman said. “I really had to take a moment to think about it because it tied up more resources. But I’m thankful that I listened to their counsel because, had I not, we would probably have had funerals instead of just replacing the truck.”

The new ladder truck that replaced the one totaled in the crash cost $1.3 million, according to Klussman, and was placed into service in August 2020.

Along with the promotion of three Battalion Chiefs for 24-hour supervision, Klussman has completely restructured the fire department. Since Klussman started at Liberty Township, the department has added 11 full-time positions including three Captains and an Assistant Chief. According to Klussman, this model “has been instrumental in the growth and development” of the department.

Lieutenant Chris Oakes, who has worked with the Liberty Township Fire Department since 2006, says that Klussman devotes a significant amount of his time in moving the department to the highest level of excellence it can be.

“Chief Klussman is very motivated

Influential

hile Klussman is passionate about his job, it is not the path he had in mind during high school while attending Ridgeville Christian in Springboro, Ohio.

Klussman had dreamed of being a police officer and eventually joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He even decided to major in Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. However, when Klussman was 18 years old, he decided to volunteer at the Mason Fire Department to experience what working in public service would be like.

“As I began my training, and making calls with the fire department, I saw how much of an impact firefighters and paramedics made on those who had called them,” Klussman said. “This ability to make a positive impact on people’s lives excited me and I chose to pursue this career path.”

Klussman transferred to Sinclair University, where he graduated with a degree in Emergency Medical Services/Fire Science and is currently pursuing a degree in Fire Administration at Bowling Green State University.

Klussman hopes to continue making the Fire Department the best it can be, and show to the residents that their “tax dollars go to a service that is exceptional.”

“You have to be passionate about wanting to help people...And you have to have that heart of a servant because we see a lot of things that nobody should really see,” Ethan Klussman says. “The ultimate goal is to be with people at their worst day and to be able to make a difference in their life. So that passion for helping people helps override the bad things.”•

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 43

package | mench

michelle moody | package five-day Americanism Test Trip to Washington DC Jasmine Washburn, these opportunities allowed her to use her political interests to form her own opinions about the US government system. Washburn received the Golato Award for a 100% on the Americanism test; she is the first Ohioan to receive this award in 12 years.

“Mench is genuinely passionate about the subject she teaches; it’s not just a job to her, and I really admire that,” the former Mench student says. “If I hadn’t taken Mench’s AP Government class, I probably wouldn’t have taken the test and won. The trip really helped me form my own beliefs and opinions, and understand how to advocate for them.”

be worth it in the end once I’m able to build something that will give me more flexibility.”

Moody says that she received support from her family and friends to get through this difficult first year. West Chester Liberty Lifestyle Editor Tera Michelson met Moody through Church and has been a part of the publication since its launch five years ago.

“Michelle is passionate and compassionate.

She’s one of those people that brings people together,” Michelson told Spark. “Community is really important to her and she actively works, both in her work and social life, to make [West Chester Liberty Lifestyle] a really great place to live and grow.”

Michelle Moody

Michelle Moody founded her own magazine, “West Chester Liberty Lifestyle,” to connect the Lakota Community and give back.

story mia hilkowitz | photography used with permission

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Tisha Grote Through her teaching, East Government teacher Tisha Grote-Menchhoffer encourages her students to become civically engaged beyond the classroom. story shiloh wolfork | photography riley higgins Mench demonstrates her political passion in the classroom.

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rowing up, Tisha Grote-Menchhoffer (Mench) was always surrounded by politics. Her friends and family had graduated at the top of their classes from the most prestigious law and business schools. Although this environment inspired her love for political science, the high-achieving atmosphere made her begin to doubt her own capabilities.

As much as she wanted to go to law school, she didn’t believe that she was smart enough.

Now, as an educator teaching the subject that she adores, Mench hopes to e n c o u r a g e her students to believe in their potential.

In college, Mench studied Secondary Education in Social Studies with double minors in Political Science and History at Miami University and obtained her master’s degree in Educational Administration from Xavier University. She then earned a PhD in Educational Leadership from Miami. She has been teaching US and Advanced Placement (AP) Government for 20 years.

Mench says she tries to share her passion

for political science and civic engagement with everyone who walks through her classroom door. For example, she has voter registration forms readily available to students on the bulletin board outside her classroom.

“I want my students to know that they can change what they see as an injustice. There’s so many resources that are pumped into trying to get 18 to 25 year olds to vote, but it’s not working,” Mench told Spark. “[Young people] have to vote and get people in office who represent them and their issues.”

Mench encourages students to further their political understanding through opportunities offered by the local American Legion Post 681. These opportunities include Girls and Boys State, programs that allow students to experience government in-action and the Americanism Test, an exam that tests students on their knowledge of citizenship and policy.

For East senior and 2019 winner of the

44 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Influential

merican Legion Chairperson Jerry Nelson says Mench’s support of Post 681 and commitment to producing “informed and engaged students” motivated him to nominate her for the American Legion Educator of the Year Award.

“Lakota East students have won the Americanism Trip consecutively for the past five years, and Mench’s classrooms have provided approximately 90 delegates for Girls and Boys State,” Nelson says. “Her goal is not just to see her students pass a test. She encourages them to think deeply about government and politics, and I think the award is uniquely suited for her.”

The Legion Department recently declared Mench the Ohio state Educator of the Year.

“I think education in the US would be better if we had more teachers like Mench,” Nelson told Spark. “She is truly someone that her students can rely on. Post 681 now has over 200 members, and they all share in my pride of what we do in the community, and it all really started with Mench.”

According to the Ohio Director for the Campus Election Engagement Project, a nonpartisan organization that strives to increase voter turnout among college students, and 2007 East graduate Nate Hall, Mench was the inspiration behind his decision to pursue a career in politics.

“If I hadn’t taken Mench’s classes, I’d never have considered a career in politics. She sparked that interest in me that led from running for office, to working on and managing campaigns,” Hall told Spark. “Now I work coaching college students on campuses across the state how to organize their peers to vote and engage in the political process.

All of that because Mench taught me how one person can make change in our system.”

Mench hopes to empower her students to take control of their own futures.

“My dad told me that I didn’t need to go to college, that I was never going to get good grades, that I wasn’t going to do well. And I decided that I would go to college and that I’d reach the highest degree that I could,” Mench says. “I need my students to know that they can do it.” •

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Moody stands in “The Square” at Union Center, a popular spot for her readers in the West Chester community.

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ichelle Moody had never expected to run her own publication. A former marketer turned magazine owner, Moody describes herself as “the most unlikely entrepreneur ever.”

“I am the most unlikely entrepreneur ever,” Moody told Spark. “I am not a risk taker. So it was a huge step for me to start my own business.”

Raised in Cleveland, Moody was the editor of her school paper, The Courier, at Solon High School, and attended Miami University for marketing. After graduation, Moody entered the workforce as a marketer for News America Marketing. With over a decade of experience, she left to pursue a new venture that would combine both her love for writing and marketing skills; founding her own magazine, “West Chester Liberty Lifestyle.”

“I wasn’t very passionate about what I was doing and I wanted to do something where I could make a positive change,” Moody told Spark. “I found the opportunity to start my own magazine and thought it would be a great way to connect to my community and give back locally.”

After leaving her marketing job in 2015, Moody started the process of building her publication. During her first year as a new business owner, Moody would often work 60 to 80 hours each week.

“I told my family ‘I’m going to have to work very hard this first year,’ Moody says.

“You may not see me a ton but it’s going to

Influential

est Chester Liberty Lifestyle magazine covers many stories about community members and local businesses. Moody launched the publication with three goals; to connect the community, help local businesses promote themselves and provide a platform for nonprofits. One recent success catalyzed by the magazine was a story run on a local nonprofit “Hope for Haiti’s Children.” Two weeks after the article’s release, the organization had 8 children adopted by local families.

The Lakota West mother has used her business experience to give back to other rising e n t re p re n e u r s .

Recently, Moody has become a mentor for the high school entrepreneurship p r o g r a m “INCubator Edu.” As a mentor, she was assigned to a group of student entrepreneurs to help them build their business, answering their questions and providing insight. “[Moody] wanted to know about us, not only our project,” East senior and INCubator student Rebecca Strack told Spark. “She brings a unique and needed perspective into our group.” “[Moody] doesn’t even get paid to help us but she’s still willing to put her time into our group,” East junior and INCubator student Sarah Renfro says. “In the workplace, it’s not as common to see a woman who’s her own boss.

[She shows us] that’s not out of reach.”

Moody says that even though she loved the people and products at her former marketing job, it does not compare to being a publisher for West Chester Liberty Lifestyle.

“If you enjoy what you do it never feels like work,” Moody says. “Ever since I’ve had this job, I wake up before my alarm every single day.” •

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 45

mellody wallace | package people of this world. Everyone can get better at singing, but I think all my students gain confidence and other skills too,” Wallace told Spark.WW After getting her bachelor’s degree in piano performance and piano pedagogy from the University of Minnesota in Duluth, the Minnesota born musician moved to Cincinnati to escape an abusive home life.

She later obtained her master’s degree in vocal accompaniment from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

Ever since, she has been providing vocal education to students in the Mason and Liberty Township communities, some of which continue their musical journey even further, to college and beyond.

Northern Kentucky University (NKU) freshman Alex Pletikapich is one such student.

After participating in musicals at Lakota East High School and Royale Theatre Company-all while receiving voice lessons from Wallacethe Lakota East alum now majors in Musical Theater with an intention to perform after college.

“One thing I remember [Wallace] saying before I went to college was after she saw me in ‘Heathers: The Musical’ in which I played J.D,” Pletikapich told Spark. “She looked me in the eye and said, ‘I am so proud of you.’ Of course I have heard her say this before, but the depth in which she said it resonated with me. She was always there to support me.”

Wallace poses at a recital.

RICO HILL

Liberty Junior Physical Education teacher uses his class to build a safe, inclusive environment that teaches real world lessons. story wudie amsalu photography mia hilkowitz

Melody Wallace

Rico Hill strikes a signature pose.

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he rumble of sneakers hitting the court echoes through the gym as songs requested by students pulse from the speakers.

Whistles blow and students lace up their sneakers. For many people, this may seem like a typical gym class. But for the students at Liberty Junior High School, their physical education class will take a different route.

Throughout his 19 years of teaching at Lakota, Liberty Junior Physical Education teacher Rico Hill has been working to cultivate a safe gym for the middle school that allows for both creative and physical expression. Hill, who says that being in the school environment puts him at ease, wanted to build a space that makes his students feel that same sense of security.

“Kids, adults and teachers accept me for who I am. I don’t have to change who I am, I can just be free and be me,” Hill says. “My best attribute is my personality, and the kids never make me feel like I don’t want to be there.

Hill believes that his acceptance of his own character has inspired many of his students to do the same both inside and out of the gym.

For instance, East junior and former Hill student Nym Mills says that his class provided the first safe spot for them to openly share their gender identity. Mills says they accidentally came out to Hill as non-binary, a person who

does not fit the male or female gender binary, but rather than brushing off the situation, Hill made the effort to ensure they felt comfortable during class.

“Hill told me, ‘I normally split the class into girls and boys [for games]. Would you like me to let you choose [which group to go with]?’“ Mills says. “That was the first time a teacher ever did that for me.”

Hill says that treating kids with respect is an integral part of his teaching method. He tries to come into each class with a purpose to engage students in their physical education, which makes forming connections with his kids easier.

East junior Zoey Chappell says that Hill’s class was one of the few places in her school where “she felt heard,” recalling one particular assignment in class. For the physical education dance unit, students were required to perform a choreographed routine in front of the class.

However, several students were uncomfortable performing under those circumstances, so Hill allowed groups to present their routine in private. For Chappell, this made all the difference

46 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Influential

not only for her personal worries but for the class as a whole.

“I felt like he was kind of the bridge between adults and kids in the building,” Chappell says. “He understood both sides, which a lot of teachers don’t.”

Even with almost two decades of teaching experience Hill says that being visited by former students still surprises him. Some are kids who caused trouble in class, others are former athletes who were close to him. The sense of unity in the gym goes beyond a student’s time enrolled in the class, and Hill is grateful for that.

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he 2020-21 school year has been different than any other year Hill has taught, however, both him and Liberty Junior students have been able to connect despite all the adjustments and precautions. For Hill, the kids have always been the core of the class.

“You can be the introvert in a corner and I will bump elbows with you, or you can be the person that comes up to me and talks and I’ll talk to you,” Hill says. “I don’t want anybody in my learning environment to ever feel like that they’re not a part of it. If I can be any type of peace or sanity with [students] throughout the day, I’ll do so.”•

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Voice and piano teacher Melody Wallace has been using her expertise to influence and shape young minds in the world of music for more than 20 years in the Liberty Township and Mason communitites. story ava huelskamp photography fair use

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er hands travel up and down the ivory keys in a roller coaster of soprano and alto notes as a student walks in for their lesson. The front room is guarded from the outside world by a wall of windows and filled with bookshelves sagging under the weight of vocal books and musical scores.

A white board hangs in front of her piano, displaying the names of different musicals and plays her students perform in the community.

Melody Wallace, a 20-year veteran of teaching voice and piano lessons sits in her reclining rolling leather chair behind her wooden piano cluttered with smoothie cups.

“I love meeting and helping the young

Influential

here is no typical lesson with Wallace.

She trains musicians specializing in genres ranging from classical to musical theater.

One constant in Wallace’s lessons is the way she interacts with her students not only vocally, but on a personal level as well.

“I feel like Melody is a friend,” says East Alum and former student of Wallace Kelly Croy, who is now a freshman at NKU. “We text all the time about anything, and sometimes lessons turn into just talking. That’s really special.”

Wallace’s pink sheep stuffed animal, Francis, doubles as an emotional support device. Francis perches on a leopard print chair in the corner of her studio by a window, ready to be paired with a tissue box if one of her students is having a bad day and just needs to talk.

For Wallace, teaching $55-an-hour weekly lessons isn’t just what pays the bills, it’s a chance to gossip, laugh, and be a shining beam of positivity for her students to lean on during the 30 minute lessons, or 60 for those inclined.

“I’d say I’ve always been a teacher/mentor deep down. As a pianist, you get to play for many lessons and I picked up a lot of who I am from watching other teachers,” Wallace says.

“Also, I always wanted to grow. Students can teach you as much as you teach them, just be open.”•

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 47

asian food week | culture

package | jeff martin

Martin teaches a one-on-one lesson with student Nicci Back.

Jeff Martin

Instructor Jeff Martin has been teaching martial arts in the Liberty Township community for more than 15 years. story and photography audrey allen | infographic mary barone

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or many members of the Liberty Township community who drive on Wyandot Lane on their way to Lakota East each morning, the grey, warehouselooking buildings may seem nothing out of ordinary for the growing township. But for students at Martin Martial Arts studio, the drab, garage building is a place of community.

Jeff Martin has been teaching Tae Kwon Doe here for more than 15 years.

For East student Maddie Cramer, a red belt, the building is home because of the continued lessons Martin teaches each week. She says that he influences countless people. He is positive no matter what.

“I can’t remember the last time I bowed off the mat and left and [Martin] didn’t say something along the lines of ‘good job’ or ‘you will get that kick next time just keep working,’” Cramer told Spark. “He is very encouraging and that definitely helps when you are struggling to do something right.”

Martin was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and moved to Cincinnati when he was two-years-old. He went to school at St. Bartholomew on Winton Rd. Martin started music lessons at 12 years old. He learned Rock, Classical, and Spanish music. In seventh grade he formed his own band “The Walnut Brick” that traveled and performed at different universities and venues. When Martin was an

adult he started teaching music lessons.

In 1977, one of his music students invited Martin to come and learn Martial Arts from the student as his mentor. During the past 40 years Martin has studied with some of the most highly regarded instructors and martial artists from around the world.

“I used to watch an old TV show when I was a kid called ‘Kung Fu,’ and I just knew I wanted to do it,” Martin says, “I was just fascinated by it.”

Kung Fu (1972) is an American actionadventure Martial Arts Western drama television series starring David Carradine.

Finding a love for the craft Martin says that he wanted to open up his own studio to “give back to the arts”. He opened up Martin Martial Arts in 2005. Combining Tae Kwon Do with his love of music he opened up Sidekick Guitar Studios next door with Rob Landrum in the same year. Landrum is the lead instructor at Sidekick Guitar Studios.

“I have been working with Mr. Martin for 15 years,” Landrum told Spark. “Mr. Martin genuinely cares about his students and that’s what sets him apart from all the other studios.”

Martin says that he loves teaching the guitar and seeing how creative students can be with the instrument. He enjoys watching his students grow.

“That’s one of the most rewarding things

48 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Influential

for me, seeing them progress into great citizens and being creative,” Martin says. “I would say seeing some of my students who become very successful musicians are the best memories.”

Cramer says that she admires Martin for pushing her to do her best in the martial arts studio. He encouraged her to go out of her comfort zone and become a Taekwondo instructor for the younger kids.

“He has taught me so many valuable things, not [only] when it comes to Tae Kwon Do, but in general. He inspired me to teach kids,” Cramer says, who teaches elementary aged kids each week. “He just instilled so much confidence in me.”

Martin devotes 40 hours a week to run both studios, ensuring that his students can succeed in their passions, something that Landrum admires about his coworker.

“He is absolutely dedicated to his professions,” Landrum says. “He has so much empathy for people and has the patience to teach kids that may have a harder time to learn.”

From adults to children, Martin believes the Tae Kwon Do spirit opens wonderful doors toward respect, discipline, confidence, perseverance, and determination.

“All of my self-confidence and discipline comes from Tae Kwon Do. Just all the words on the wall [of Martin Martial Arts] like discipline, determination, and respect have really helped me get farther with college and life,” Abby Laughlin, a 20 year-old black belt alumni, who has been doing Tae Kwon Do for 15 years told Spark. “The thing that keeps me drawn to this environment is that it is such a family kind of environment. It is really energetic and never lackadaisical. Everyone is learning but also teaching each other.”

Martin says that even as a teacher, he still learns new things from his students everyday.

“I [personally] follow the attitudes that I teach to my students [and I] apply that not just to my students, but to my children and my grandchildren,” says Martin, who adds he learns [things] from his students every day [like] how to become a better person [and] how to work on his own attitude. “They make me strong. I am motivated to be creative by coming up with new ways to motivate myself as well my students. I enjoy it so much that I really don’t find [my job] challenging.” •

SPREADING THE GOOD NEWS Through “Asian Food Week,” Asianati worked to celebrate Asian food culture and promote Asian restaurants in the Cincinnati area.

story natalie mazey photography ianni acapulco Saigon Noodle Bar’s $20 special for Asian Food Week featured spring rolls as an appetizer.

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sianati has hosted “Asian Food Fest,” an event with vendors from Asian restaurants across the Cincinnati area, in downtown Cincinnati for 10 years, but the roadblock of the pandemic led the team behind “Asian Food Fest” to get creative. “Asian Food Week”, hosted Nov. 2-8 allowed the mission to still be carried out, while complying with guidelines related to the pandemic. Asianati strives to promote Asian restuarants throughout the year through endevors like “Asian Food Week” and their restaurant directory.

“The Asian American Cultural Center of Cincinnati [ACAC] were the ones who started this event called Asian food fest that happens downtown every year. This year we have no choice but to cancel it,” Co-founder and chairman of Asianati Koji Sado says. “We were still looking for ways to help support Asian businesses and get c u s t o me r s b a c k in s o we came up with an idea of Asian food week.”

Many participating restaurants adopted a $20 special for “Asian Food Week,” with most containing an appetizer, entre, and desert, while others chose to sell a secret menu item throughout the week. 38 restaurants across the Cincinnati area participated, with dishes from curries to bubble teas all showcased.

Saigon Noodle Bar, one of the participating restaurants, opted to offer a $20 special, with the first course being a choice of an egg roll or spring roll, the second course offering beef, chicken, or vegan pho, and the third course being a choice between ice cream or flan.

Manager at Saigon Noodle Bar, Taylor Le, was approached to participate in “Asian Food Week” through a Facebook message, and found

that the week brought in business that Saigon Noodle bar wasn’t typically getting. According to Rally for Restaurants, a grassroots initiative working to support the restaurant community in times of need, average revenue for restaurants in the Cincinnati area dropped 43.8% since Feb. 18. Due to the pandemic, restaurants have faced unprecedented struggles, and this we e k w a s a b l e to bring more customers in.

“It definitely brings in newer customers that we haven’t seen before, especially those that don’t live in West Chester [where Saigon Noodle Bar is located],” Le says. “Asianati is mostly focused around downtown so it’s nice to see people from other parts of town come and experience other restaurants.”

Sado has seen the participating restaurants positively impacted, proving that the week has worked to help fulfill Asianati’s mission of highlighting asian culture.

“We’re getting comments back from [participating restaurants that they really appreciate us helping out, a lot of businesses were getting hit pretty hard with COVID,” Sado says. “There are a lot more customers who came in who previously didn’t know that our business even existed.”

Le says that Saigon Noodle Bar will participate in this event again in the future as “a lot of unfamiliar faces came in and tried [Saigon Noodle Bar] out.”

Kung Fu Tea, with locations in Kenwood and Mason, took part in the event as well, opting to offer a Secret Menu Winter Melon Lemonade with Nata Jelly.

“A lot of people came in to get the special,” Kung Fu Tea employee Julianne Lambert says.

“We didn’t see a huge influx in customers, but

it definitely had an impact.”

12 volunteers including Sado worked to organize this event, and will again in 2021, after this year’s event was such a success.

“There was really no cost to them,” Sado says.

“We were trying to just help them, promote their business and then get the awareness out, and I think that worked pretty well.”

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n an effort to continue to promote Asian restaurants within the area past “Asian Food Week”, Asianati held a giveaway for customers.

“We bought a bunch of different cards from the [participating restaurants], and we ended up close to 40 gift cards,” Sado says. “We were able to give out those gift cards so that they can go out and help them out again in the future.”

“Asian Food Week” ran a week long, but the impact lasts long after those seven days.

Asianati’s website hosts a directory of Asian restaurants throughout the Cincinnati area, along with showcasing where specific dishes like ramen or dim sum can be found. The directory can be accessed year round and is updated routinely, also containing staff picks and hot and new restaurants. Even without being able to carry out “Asian Food Fest” as in the past, other endeavors h a ve a l l owe d t h e AC AC a n d Asianati to spread the joy o f good food.

“The overall goal is tied to the lead initiative for ACAC, which is to bridge and connect people so they can learn about the Asian culture around Greater Cincinnati,” Sado says.

“Our purpose is really to continue spreading the good news and great culture that’s really around Cincinnati that a lot of people still aren’t necessarily aware of.”•

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 49

culture | winter fashion

LOVING LAYERS As weather becomes cooler, style does not have to sacrificed in order to stay warm. photography ianni acapulco models mason khounesombat and lina miesse

Curdoroy’s reputation is rooted firmly in the 70’s, but has been revived thanks to the likes of celebrities such as Bradley Cooper, Mark Ronson, and Eddie Redmayne.

The material remains in style according to The Zoe Report, “toeing the line between timely and timeless”.

Trends come and go, but animal prints return perenially. Harpaar Bazaar claims the print to look good with almost anything, instantly pumping up any outfit.

Many past seasons have been dominated by more decadent trends, filled with sequins and glitz as well as athleisure. But Paris Fashion week in the autumn/winter2019 saw a streetstyle scene awash with ecru, khaki, and cappucino, and it was the multitude of beiges that began to dominate.

There are two cardinal rules of layering, according to Melanie Wilkinson, who is The Guardian’s styling edior. One is two never layer your bottom half, and the other is to start with finer, thinner naterials and work your way out.

Refinery29 states that the turtleneck is one of the most versatile layering pieces out there, and can be worn under virtually anything, making it a staple of any wardrobe.

Shutterstock’s 2021 color trends report shows green to be one of the most popular colors as well as champagne and gold.

They are daily colors that Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) says are “steeped in hope and optimis.”

Although sweater vests haave often been branded as grandfather-esque, Vogue reveals that the piece remains trending on the runways over the past few seasons with brands like Prada and Ganni. Though it tends to be more popular in women’s fashion, celebrities like Harry Styles and Tyler, the Creator, help ensure its slow burn return to Men’s fashion as well.

50 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Glamour declares a printed button-down shirt as a winter layering essential, claiming prints “to be the new black.” •

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 51

ballet | culture East junior Amanda McCrary balances on her pointe shoes in attitude.

THE PANDEMIC EN POINTE A deeper look into how Cincinnati Ballet is incorporating COVID-19 protocols into their Company and Otto M. Budig Academy. story and photography marleigh winterbottom graphic natalie mazey art mary barone

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ive...six... seven...eight…

Pointe shoes pound on the Marley floor. Dancers prepare in B-plus as they wait to conquer the beaming stage.

As Cincinnati Ballet dancer Alyssa Manguiat takes her final steps on the Aronoff Music Hall stage, performing the famous ballet, Swan Lake, she peers out to see her fellow dancers in front of her, on the brink of tears. For the first time in her 17 years of dancing, Manguiat finally felt like she had made it.

“Thinking about that moment still gives me chills,” Manguiat told Spark. “It was right around the time when I found out that I had an apprentice contract, so it really felt like things were coming together for a second. Obviously everything fell apart the next month, but that’s just a moment that I will never forget.”

As COVID-19 began its rampage in the U.S. mid-March, countless performing art organizations and businesses including Cincinnati Ballet were forced to shut down.

52 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Manguiat took advantage of this time by focusing on her online classes at University of Cincinnati, while working towards a Marketing degree she can fall back on after her time dancing professionally.

“That was really a reality check when everything shut down,” Manguiat says. “[Ballet dancers] spend so much time thinking about ballet all the time growing up, and suddenly we couldn’t do it at all, so it forced a lot of people to rethink, reevaluate, and find a backup plan.”

While in-person classes were no longer an option, Cincinnati Ballet’s Otto M. Budig Academy, which offers pre-professional training and classes, began holding classes for their 600 students on Facebook Live for students at home.

“The teachers couldn’t see us and they couldn’t correct us,” East junior and Cincinnati Ballet Academy dancer Amanda McCrary told Spark. “Being a dancer is so much about the other people you’re with and you don’t enjoy it as much because you’re not with the people and you’re not there.”

Vice President of Academy Operations Ginger Johnson said it breaks her heart knowing that students must be limited with their social interactions.

“I know growing up as a dancer my dance friends were my closest friends,” Johnson told Spark. “It’s hard that they can’t congregate around each other or celebrate events, but they’ve done a good job [at still maintaining] a healthy relational experience.”

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fter a few months of strict quarantine had passed, Cincinnati Ballet began working with their team and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) union, in which Company dancers are protected under, over the summer to plan a safe return to in-person dancing.

“We have two union reps in our company who are kind of that bridge between the union and [Cincinnati Ballet] that worked tirelessly over the summer, on phone calls with the union almost every single day to figure out how we can come back,” Manguiat said. “The union also has a team of medical experts who came up with all of these protocols on how to make people be dancing in a studio and still be safe.”

One of the major new protocols affecting Company is a pod system. While Cincinnati Ballet is continuing to put on performances in a COVID-safe manner, Company members must be split into two separate “pods” for each show, reducing the average attendance for a Company level class from 35-40 to 10-12 dancers. Cincinnati Ballet then ensures that each pod never comes in contact with the other by assigning them separate studios, teachers, restrooms, dressing rooms, making it so that they never cross paths backstage. “[Pods] can change from show to show because we have a two week layoff period in between,” Manguiat says. “It’s kind of crazy because for about four weeks, you won’t see half of Company.”

Due to this new pod system, children were not able to participate in the 2020 Cincinnati Ballet Nutcracker.

“Unfortunately, [the pods] meant we couldn’t introduce other cast members to the performance this year, so it’s sort of a condensed and very unique version,” Johnson says.

Social distancing standards mean that performances will not be held at the usual Aronoff Center, but instead through video or at smaller venues such as the Music Hall Ballroom with socially distanced tables. Each table can hold up to four people of the same household and the audience must wear masks for the entirety of the show.

“The audience is such a huge part of why we do it, and we want to present this to them. It really fuels what you’re doing,” Manguiat said.

“That’s definitely been a difficult part of all of this. The audience right now is super excited to be back, but there’s just not as many people and

it’s not quite the same.”

Masks and proper social distancing are also required for every dancer and staff member while in class, performing, and anytime in the Cincinnati Ballet building as well as the incorporation of new health and cleaning procedures. Each day, dancers and staff members get their temperature taken and are asked questions about symptoms, social distancing, and mask use outside of Cincinnati Ballet. Additionally, full time cleaning crews ensure that each studio and piece of equipment is adequately sanitized between each use.

Academy classes are held partially in-person and partially on Zoom to minimize exposure.

For those quarantined or feeling symptoms, each studio is fully equipt with a live video feed and Cincinnati Ballet asks that they stay home to attend class virtually. “[In class], we have our little ‘gear spots’ where we put our yoga mats. We’re not allowed to touch the floor with our hands, and [Cincinnati Ballet] always has hand sanitizer, tissues, and extra masks on a little table,” Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts Sophomore and Cincinnati Ballet Academy student Ava Reick-Mitrisin told Spark. “We also have our little boxes we dance in, and we have our own bars which they wipe down between every use.”

Otto M. Budig Academy Levels and Requirements Dancers are required to take more rigorous classes as they advance through the levels.

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minimum of two 75-miute ballet classes per week

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minimum of two 90-minute classes per week

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minimum of three ballet classes per week and a conditioning class; may begin pointe

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or many, including Manguiat, the constant use of masks while dancing has been a big adjustment physically.

“A lot of times, if you are doing a high stamina piece, [the mask] will just go right into your mouth when you are breathing and then you feel like you’re being suffocated,” Manguiat says. “When we perform, our wardrobe department has made us special masks that have little plastic pieces that go over your nose and mouth and a normal mask is laid over it, and that prevents [the mask] from going into your mouth while you are breathing.”

Johnson, however, is impressed with how well the dancers have been handling and adjusting to the masks.

“I just know for myself, while walking up and down the stairs with a mask on, sometimes I’m out of breath. I’m really impressed that our dancers have done such a remarkable job with that,” Johnson says. “We’ve actually found that it’s helping to develop their cardiovascular capacity as well. While I hope they don’t have to dance in masks forever, there has been a good byproduct of that.”

Although it is not always easy, Manguiat is glad that Cincinnati Ballet is setting a good example for the community by requiring the use of masks.

“If we can do a whole ballet in a mask, then everyone can wear a mask,” Manguiat says. “I think it’s a really good image that Cincinnati Ballet is putting out for everyone to wear masks.” •

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minimum of three ballet classes per week which include pointe work

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minimum of four ballet classes per week

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minimum of five ballet classes per week along with a class in a rotating discipline

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minimum of five ballet classes per week along with a class in a rotating discipline

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minimum of five ballet classes per week , a class in a rotating discipline , and Advanced Modern

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 53

pic six | culture

culture | pic six

PIC SIX: BAGELS EDITION #1 reviews and photography mary barone

119 E High St, Oxford, OH 45056| $3.75

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efore I wrote this review, I had only been to the Bagel Deli once. However, when I decided to write this piece, I knew the 80 minute-round trip would be worth it to eat one of their bagels. Located less than a mile from Miami University, this deli is the perfect place for college students to chow down. They offer over 90 sandwich variations served on bagels. As I sank my teeth into the perfect ratio of bagel to cream cheese, I was hit with a feeling that I can only describe as bliss. If we ever discovered a perfect utopia, these bagels would be there greeting you at the entrance. The secret is that they steam their bagels, ensuring that fresh taste while also warming it up. With many of the other bagel places, I felt the bagel was either fresh or well toasted; but here, you don’t have to choose. The cream cheese was pretty standard, but the almost excessive quantity is enough to make any bagel lover drool.

#2

12092 Montgomery Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45249| $3.19

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he deli’s focal point is a neon sign which casts a blue-red glow on the tables, giving it a sports bar feel. While they are open for both dine-in and takeout, they have plastic partitions between their booths, offering customers protection from one-another’s germs. Skip’s offers 20 different flavors, all of which are made from scratch. They also make a variety of sandwiches. The bagel was bigger than the rest, beating the others by a few inches in diameter. There was just enough cream cheese to cover the entire bagel, but no extra. Not only was the bagel fresh and well toasted, it also had that classic bagel flavor. I appreciated the contrast in temperature between the chilled cream cheese and toasted bagel. My mom decided to get in on the bagel action, rating it an 7/10 for its “fluffy and spongy” qualities.

#3

9590 Kenwood Rd, Blue Ash, OH 45242| $2.89 nterestingly enough, Bruegger’s is located .2 miles from Marx Hot Bagels. Despite their similar whereabouts, the two bagel places could not be more different.

Bruegger’s meets the customer with bright, energetic lighting but a closed off eating area. Due to COVID-19, their tables and chairs are shoved in a corner, offering only take-out at this time. They advertise New-York style bagels, kettle cooked and baked in a real stone hearth oven. They offered the widest selection of cream cheese at 11 flavors and an impressive collection of 15 different bagels. I was greeted with pleasant workers who were more than happy to fulfill my bagel needs. With quick service and reasonable pricing, I was eager to put their bagel to the test. I received a generous amount of cream cheese on top of a very fresh-tasting bagel. While this combination offered a satisfying texture, the bagel was pretty bland. This bagel definitely gets the job done but there is nothing special about it.

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PIC SIX: BAGELS EDITION #4

9701 Kenwood Rd, Blue Ash, OH 45242| $3.39 estled between a Snooty Fox and Lefty’s Tobacco lies a 50’s themed bagel deli with great customer service and a fun atmosphere, but a mediocre plain bagel. To their credit, they offer 31 other bagels and 22 sandwich variations served on bagels, all of which are Kosher and the majority of them looking much more appetizing than the bagel I consumed. However, for fairness’ sake, I stuck to my usual order.

The store offers both dine-in and carryout, which quite a few families were taking advantage of. I asked for my bagel toasted, as I had at the rest of the venues I visited.

Unfortunately, my request caused the bagel to become unpleasantly crunchy. The stiffness of the bagel was counteracted by the mountain of cream cheese that came on top of it. As a cream cheese lover, I was delighted at the sight. My overall experience was a 7/10, thanks to the friendly and charismatic workers. Sadly, the overly toasted bagel really brought their average down.

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#5

7725 Voice of America Centre Dr, West Chester Township, OH 45069| $2.69 anera is a large, well-lit space filled with a combination of booths and tables, perfect for completing school work or having a casual lunch with friends. They are offering both dine-in and takeout, with every other table closed off in order to maintain social distancing. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at Panera, they were sold out of plain bagels. So I opted for the next best option: The Everything Bagel. Right out of the gate, I noticed the bagel was quite thin and wimpy (Panera employees, if you’re reading this, sorry for verbally insulting your bagels). The cream cheese came in a separate container rather than already on the bagel. For the sake of comparison, I spread all of the cream cheese on the bagel to show how much they give you. It tasted like the standard cream cheese, although I personally feel there wasn’t enough. In addition to its already thin and wimpy qualities, my bagel was over toasted, making it difficult to eat. However, the everything seasoning was a nice touch.

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#6

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9216 Allen Road West Chester Township, OH 45069|$1.10

hen I entered the establishment, the first thing I noticed was the cozy lighting and a large array of seating options both indoor and outdoors. Unfortunately, they’re only doing takeout at this time. According to their website, they bake their bagels throughout the day to ensure their freshness. Considering the price, I was expecting more bagel for my buck. Out of all of the bagels, this was the smallest coming in at about six or seven inches in diameter. When I bit into the bagel, I was met with a strange combination of feelings; disappointment immediately followed by happy surprise. The bagel itself was quite condensed and hard. However, the cream cheese more than made up for the bagel. I can’t exactly describe the flavor, all that I know is that it’s in my top five cream cheeses of all time. In fact, the only thing keeping it from a perfect 10/10 is the fact that there wasn’t nearly enough of it.

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 55

culture | reviews

C’EST LA VIE DE EMILY review olivia rigney | art vi dao

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etflix’s original “Emily in Paris” delves deep into the French culture and takes a journey through Paris with star Emily Cooper, played by Lily Collins, alongside French actors Lucas Bravo and Camille Razat, and American actor Ashley Park. Originally released on Oct. 2, season one of “Emily in Paris” consists of 10 episodes which were filmed in Île-de-France, capturing the beauty of the landmarks each episode includes.

The feedback of the show was extremely positive, topping the TV Time chart during the first week of the initial release. Netflix reports that subscribers watched 676 million minutes in the first week alone. Witty commentary and a captivating plot line isn’t the only thing enticing viewers.

The soundtrack features various French artists and songs including “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” a Edith Piaf classic. Although originally released in 1960, the song peaked at number one on the Billboard’s Top TV songs chart for Oct., with over 687,000 U.S streams and 4,000 downloads that month.

The accurate representation of French culture makes it feel like you moved from

LYRICAL SELF CARE review wudie amsalu | art vi dao

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eleased a few weeks after his feature on Drake’s Billboard Hot 100 single “Chicago Freestyle”, Long Beach native Giveon’s “Take Time” has garnered new attention from R&B listeners. The standout voice that, for many people, was the highlight of “Chicago Freestyle” shines Abrightly in this debut album, crafting a scene of reverence and affiliation in 8 powerful tracks.

While many R&B albums fall into the trap of making every song blend together, “Take Time” allows each song to shine on their own which makes the emotional confliction of the theme palatable.

“Heartbreak Anniversary” embraces the pain a breakup entails while simultaneously avoiding the borderline whiny tone that has grown popular in the genre.

The amount of pure adoration in these 8 songs are incredible, and helped greatly by Giveon’s dulcet vocals. Lyrics such as “Why is it so hard to figure out?/I need you every day,

56 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

Starring: Lily Collins and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu Episodes: 10 Chicago, Ill. to your own studio apartment with Emily Cooper herself. As Emily makes her way around the city seeing the sites, enjoying the food, and meeting new friends, there are innuendos to French culture that are not common in America. For instance when Emily moves to her building, she struggles to find the right floor because, although staying on the sixth floor, her room is labeled as the fifth, as it is typical that the first floors in French buildings are called the ground floor and the next floor preceding it is referred to as the first.

“Emily in Paris” does fall victim to French clichés by stereotyping the Parisians in the show.

Emily finds out quickly that not everyone she comes into contact with would be as nice as she would hope, maybe because of her outgoing personality or the fact that she doesn’t know the language of the country she just moved to. Her new coworkers are very cold, playing into the cliché that the French never smile at strangers.

Emily’s journey doesn’t seem to be over just yet, as after just over a month of the initial release of “Emily in Paris”, Netflix announced a return of the show with a second season.

Unfortunately, the release date of season two is still up in the air due to the quarantine in Paris, which will set back filming until at least Dec. 1. •

Nominations: Grammy Award for Best R&B Album Tracks: 8 believe me when I say it” in “Like I Want You” are elevated by an effective blend of Giveon’s voice and the smooth instrumentals. The raw emotion in his voice resonates with , perfect for quiet nights alone at home.

Some parts do drag on, mostly due to the repetition of lines used. “It Ain’t Love” is the most striking example as the words love’ and ‘trust’ are drilled into the listener’s brain with every reappearance, however that track is the only one where they are repeated over 20 times. Most of the time, the repetition is used tastefully, which is gratefully appreciated.

As R&B slowly returns to the musical forefront, “Take Time” is a hidden gem that deserves a listen. With vocals, instrumentals, and poignant lyrics working together seamlessly, it is bound to to soothe and comfort all who hear it. With his first major release, Giveon has created an earnest depiction of love that sets him as a rising artist to watch. •

nate johnson | sports

DUNKING D1

East senior Nate Johnson Commited to The University of Akron to play D-I basketball and pursue his passion. story and art evie colpi | photography riley higgins

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he white lights shine off the wooden court, the sound of nets swishing and basketballs dribbling along with the occasional squeak of sneakers as East senior Nate Johnson dribbles up the court performing one of his famous dunks into the hoop.

After playing basketball for 14 years, and being on East’s varsity team since he was a freshman, Johnson committed to The University of Akron on Nov. 9 to pursue his passion at the Division I (DI) level.

His support system includes his mom Geri Brady, who believes that the best part about witnessing Johnson’s journey as an athlete is watching him play and seeing h i m v i s u a l i z e the court, anticipating every next m ov e .

Over the past few years Johnson has had some troubles. His sophomore year, he was diagnosed with osgood schlatters, which is a difference in growth of the muscles and tendons. He was told he could not play during the summer, but persevered and performed harder to achieve his goals. He came back his junior year as a transformed player. “[He] worked so hard, changed [his] diet, and followed the doctor’s orders,” Brady

Nate Johnson 2020-21 stats games played: 11/11 points per game: 18 steals per game: 2 field goal accuracy: 52.7% free throw accuracy: 73% assists per game: 4.3 (GMC leader)

says. “[He] transformed [his] way of thinking and love for the game and worked hard every day to rebuild [his] confidence, skills, and strengths.”

East social studies teacher, and Greater Miami Conference (GMC) coach of the year, Clint Adkins, has been coaching basketball at East for 18 years and has held the position of head coach at East for seven.

“The best part about watching Johnson as a player is that each year in our program his skill level and athleticism have improved,” Adkins says.

From the end of his sophomore season to the end of his junior season, Johnson upped his free throw percentage by 15%, increased his three pointers made by 50%, his average points per game had tripled, and went from making 50 field goals (FG) his sophomore season, to 140 FG. That hard work paid off and sophomore year, Johnson’s first scholarship offer from Fairmont State University came rolling in.

“After I got my first offer, it was a relief, like ‘I did it’, now my mom doesn’t have to pay for anything,” Johnson says.

“But at the same time, it was motivation to get more.”

After a season of hard work, a team GMC title, and a GMC player of the year

award, Johnson received his first DI scholarship the summer before his junior year to Miami University, in Oxford Ohio.

Soon after, three more DI scholarships followed suit, Ohio University, Kent State, and Youngstown.Then, in May of 2020, Johnson made the decision to commit to Akron University, where he would get the education and athletic training he was looking for.

“I like the family environment,” Johnson says.“The coaches and players are great, and the campus is nice. They also have my major, [business].”

For Johnson, basketball is not just a hobby.

He works hard every day, waking up early to lift and staying up late to practice.

His senior season has not been what he expected, with the coronavirus limiting both crowd numbers and games played, however he has made the best of it.

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n a recent game against Mason highschool, Johnson helped turn the game from their one point lead at half time by scoring eight points in the third quarter and then in the fourth quarter, rounding out the game with a steal and a slam dunk.

“My favorite part about the game is the joy it brings and [how] it clears my mind,” Johnson says. “My coaches have influenced me to become a leader and [to] work harder.” •

Nate Johnson prior to a reverse dunk against Mason in 2020. East won the game 44-40.

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 57

sports | running

running | sports individual qualification, the boys team qualified for regionals for the first time in two years.

“I would have liked to make it to state,” Gibbs says. “But as a team we all made it to regionals instead of just me individually, which was awesome. We had a great season.”

According to head coach Adam Thomas, who finished his 13th season at East, the boys team is hoping to start a new tradition of being at regionals.

“The season and this year was hectic with COVID-19 restrictions,” Thomas says. “[But], once we got used to it became automatic every day.”

East senior Kelsi Harris approaches the finish line at the GMC meet. She finished 14th with a time of 19:35.

XCROSSING XC ROSSING INTO TRACK Coming off her senior cross country season, Kelsi Harris looks to the upcoming track season. story and photography riley higgins | additional photography cassandra mueller | infographic rachel anderson

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ince her first year running with the East Cross Country team, Senior Kelsi Harris has worn the same uniform. In addition to sporting her usual tank, shorts, headband and runner’s bib, her new mask made its first appearance. But unlike her mask, her appearance at the District, Regional and State meets weren’t an unusual appearance.

Since her first year running with the East Cross Country team, senior Kelsi Harris has worked hard to meet her goals as a long distance runner. That involved leading the team to GMC championships and four trips to state. Now in her final year, Harris works hard to use her experience in cross country to take on the imminent track season.

Coming out of her final season on the East Cross Country team, Harris, an Ohio University signee for next season, was set back again from her usual preseason training due to a refracture in her second metatarsal.

“I had to be pretty careful this year because

injuring the same bone twice is obviously not great,” Harris says. “I did some physical therapy [to get my foot] back to normal and I am hoping to stay healthy as I head into [the track season] and college.”

Long distance runners who, unlike Harris, were able to start a regular track preseason began to train mid November for the season that will last until early June. Each runner was given a calendar of mileage to complete on their own time in addition to the three times a week the team meets to run together at local parks.

These at-home workouts are very similar to activities upheld by Harris when she was quarantined for almost two weeks during the cross country season from Sept. 21 to Oct. 2 due to contact tracing at school.

Harris spent her quarantine keeping up with her team from home by going on runs and completing the same workouts as those who were able to participate in regular practice.

Her efforts were not wasted as she earned her

58 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

East senior Carly Spletzer raced to First Place at the GMC meet with an 18:12 time at Voice of America Park. As a team, East finshed third behind Mason and Oak Hills.

East junior Ashton Gibbs kicks toward the finish at the 2020 GMC meet. Ashton placed 9th with a time of 16:09. East finished third behind West and Mason.

personal best at her first meet back with her team at the Sycamore Invitational on Oct. 3.

She ran a 5k in 18 minutes and 14 seconds, beating her previous personal record (PR) by four seconds.

“I wouldn’t say it ruined [my season] but it was a little bit different for me just because I had a two week period where I had to train by myself,” Harris says. “I couldn’t be with my team, do workouts with them, and I even missed a race so that put a blip in my season.”

According to Harris, starting the track season is made easier by her training from cross country. “‘I’m already in the routine of running and getting mileage every single day instead of going home after school or not working out at all.” Harris says.

line until the last second. Teams were required to stay in designated boxes that were six feet apart until a whistle signaled the runners to line up at the start.

The boys team was led by junior Ashton Gibbs who ran a PR of 16:14, earning him a 9th place finish at GMCs. In addition to Gibbs’

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t the District tournament, held on Oct. 24 the varsity girls’ team placed first, qualifying for the Regional meet on Oct. 31 where they placed second. Leading the pack was senior Carly Spletzer who earned a PR of 18:11.

In addition to the team, five girls individually qualified for Regionals: Carly Spletzer, Kelsi Harris, Dani Thorner, Josie Willis, and Paxton Oberhaus.

For the fourth year in a row, the girls varsity team qualified for the state meet and placed 8th overall.

“A big help for me was honestly my coach [Adam Thomas],’ Spletzer says. “He ran with us [during] our workouts and he pushed us every day.” •

Kelsi Harris’s Personal 5k Records 2017 - 19:19.1 2018 - 18:23.7 2019 - 18:39.7 2020 - 18:14.8

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ooking towards the next few months, Harris believes she can use her hard work to set new PRs. Currently her times for her specialized events stand at 5:06 for the 1600, 10:59 for the 3200 and 2:23 for the 800.

“I would love to break five [minutes] in the 1600, and then get a PR in the 3200,” Harris says. “Obviously making it to state would be the ultimate goal.”

Although cross country practices started as early as May for some athletes, meets for the regular season didn’t begin until August.

Following the conclusion of the regular season, postseason meets began with GMCs (Greater Miami Conference) where both the boys and girls teams secured third place overall.

Meet days looked a little different with the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) requiring all athletes to wear masks when not running, as well as staggering the start

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 59

sports | running

indoor protocols | sports East XC runners Carly Spletzer (left) and Kelsi Harris pose with their winning plaque at the 2020 OHSAA regional meet in Troy, OH. careers, the girls are now faced with a new challenge; being split up at different colleges.

“I’m definitely sad about it, we thought about going to the same college but ultimately we wanted to make the decision for ourselves,” Spletzer says. “We’re in the same conference (The Midamerican) so we get a lot of meets where we’ll get to see each other.”

Running since middle school, Spletzer is well versed in the difficulties involved.

“The most difficult thing for me is just the mental toughness that [running] comes with,” Spletzer says. “But, I like the team aspect and how it challenges me every day. There’s not a day where it’s easy and that’s what makes it worth it.”

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ON TRACK FOR SUCCESS

East seniors Kelsi Harris and Cary Spletzer commit to two DI schools to further their track and cross country careers. story mary barone | photography used with permission

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n Wednesday, Nov. 11, best friends Kelsi Harris and Carly Spletzer signed to become the newest track and cross country (XC) athletes of two Division I (DI) colleges.

Harris committed to Ohio University (OU) and Spletzer to Ball State, both girls were offered full rides from their respective colleges.

Even though Harris went to Hopewell Junior and Spletzer went to Liberty Junior, the schools combined into one team for the XC season where the two girls met. By the time high school rolled around, Harris was forced to choose between soccer and cross country.

“At the beginning I wasn’t sure because me and Carly came in and we were kind of on

the outs as the only two freshmen on varsity,” Harris says. “That made it a little difficult, but Carly convinced me to stay, she didn’t want to be the lone freshman.”

Head coach Adam Thomas has worked alongside the girls since their debut on varsity four years ago.

“Their freshman year they were very quiet, I didn’t even know that Carly could talk until her sophomore year,” Thomas says. “The last two years they really stepped up into leadership positions. They began to speak freely which helped us fine tune their training for exactly what they needed.”

Reaching the end of their high school

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uffering from multiple fractures in her tibia sophomore year, Spletzer had to cut her cross country season short. However, that didn’t stop her return to the field junior year where she placed third at Greater Miami Conference’s (GMC) with a personal best of 18:26 for the 5k. The girls also took home the GMC title that year, no doubt thanks to Spletzer’s astounding comeback.

“When Carly got to her senior year her injuries were constantly in the back of her mind because she was afraid it would happen again,” Thomas says. “But, when she got halfway through the season and was feeling stronger, she flipped the switch on her training. It just seems like the second half of the season she put herself into another gear and started to run really amazing.”

In 2018, during her sophomore cross country season, Harris ran a 18:18 5k (3.1 mi), ranking her the fourth fastest in school history.

“Carly and Kelsi are for sure some of the best athletes I have ever met and I’ve had the pleasure of being friends with them,” East varsity runner Cali Reynolds says. “Kelsi has an attitude of honesty and she will say it as it is.

Carly always leads by example and is overall so incredible.”

Looking into the future, Harris is planning on studying psychology with the intent of becoming a sports psychologist.

“I have always been interested in psychology and the mental aspect of sports,” Harris says. “Being an athlete my whole life, sports psychology will let me do something I’m interested in while helping other athletes.”

Spletzer plans to focus her academic efforts on speech language pathology.

“Originally I wanted to go into education but the medical field has always been interesting to me,” Spletzer says. “I love the different options for work environments that a speech pathologist can have.” •

East players sit socially distanced on the sidelines as freshman Payton Peck launches a three-point attempt in their 58-23 game against Whitehall-Yearling High School.

ATHLETES TAKE ON THE PANDEMIC In response to COVID-19, East Athletics have seen tremendous changes throughout the various programs. • story and photography mary barone | additional photography cassandra mueller

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oaching highschool sports is full of unseen pressures - parents, scholarships, and unrelenting competition. However, for East boys varsity coach Clint Adkins a global pandemic has recently been thrown into the mix, complicating and completely redefining what it means to lead a team.

“One of the areas that really stinks for the kids is they lost the opportunity to play in front of a big crowd and big atmosphere,” Adkins says. “I think back to [this season’s] Lakota West game (a 54-50 loss and the first loss to West at home in seven years), which is usually a sellout of 3500 people, instead we had 250.”

The occupancy in the East gym is limited to 300 people not including coaches and players, giving basketball players four tickets for family members and cheerleaders three. According to East Athletic Director Rich Bryant, the school uses electronic ticketing to keep their numbers in check.

“If you do it right, you only are able to sell the amount of tickets that you can have in the gym,” Bryant says. “We know everyone who’s

coming in advance and no one’s allowed to just walk up and buy a ticket.”

While East’s mens’ basketball team maintains some normalcy from past seasons, the girls basketball program has hit more than a few bumps in the road during their 20202021 season. Many of the schools they play against only have two teams which varsity and JV1 normally take on, leaving the JV2 team to scramble in order to find another school to play against. This complicated scheduling as well as cleaning after each game, custodial staff members take on the responsibility of disinfecting bleachers, benches, and any other surface that could spread the virus before the next crowd of people rolls in.

“This year it’s been all over the place because we never know when an individual team might have to cancel because of COVID,” East varsity player Liv Hines says. “It’s unpredictable but at least we get to play the sport we love.”

On Jan. 25 the girls will go head to head with Ursuline. Since the private school only has two girls’ teams, Hamilton Baden is being

brought in to play the 4:30 game against the JV2 team. In the transition between the two games, athletic maintenance individuals Patrick Dugan and John Wilson will be in charge of sanitizing equipment and other points of contact.

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he pandemic has also impacted those on the sidelines, as well as those on the court.

Farrah Miles is the only junior to cheer for both varsity basketball and football this year at East. With five years of experience under her belt, Miles has witnessed firsthand what it’s like to be a cheerleader during the COVID-era.

“The worst part about cheering with masks is how muffled our voices become,” Miles says.

“It’s already hard to hear each other on the sidelines, but the crowd hears even less.”

Every cheerleader has their own set of pom poms that they don’t share so they don’t have to worry about cleaning them in between uses.

However, they must keep their masks on at all times and coaches administer temperature checks before practices and games.

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 61

sports | indoor protocols

column | opinion

POLITICAL SCIENCE

“One of the areas that really stinks for the kids is they lost the opportunity to play in front of a big crowd and big atmosphere.”

- East basketball coach Clint Adkins The concern for COVID doesn’t stop on solid ground; the swim team has also had to make changes due to the pandemic. Lakota head swim coach Dennis Beck said the virus has had a big impact on their numbers. The freshman class especially has been lacking swimmers this year.

“I also think there’s some social spirit stuff that we’ve lost over COVID,” Beck says.

“Cheering is a perfect example because we would all stand in a big group, now we can’t even do cheers because we’re all masked and we can’t have people closer than six feet.”

The facility that hosts the swim team recently placed clear plastic dividers between lanes to keep swimmers as distanced as possible and limit each lane to three people. Swimmers are required to wear masks until they’re on the blocks and they’re expected to put them on immediately after getting out of the pool and drying off.

“Spectators aren’t allowed at meets so there’s definitely a lack of motivation to do well,” East junior and varsity swimmer Maddi Kidwell says. “It’s tough putting your mask on after getting out of the water because it sticks to your face.”

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restlers have seen their sport encounter a lot of changes over the last 10 months.

Regularly they would be free to practice with any teammate of their choosing.

However, contact tracing forces wrestlers to stick with one partner for the season. This shorthands them on the opportunity to train with different types of wrestlers.

“The biggest challenge is trying to learn and get better at wrestling while following all of the new rules,” varsity wrestler Ashtin Reip says.

“Many of them get in the way of learning.”

Wrestlers have also been hit hard with scheduling discrepancies. Schools have to

cancel matches at the last minute when an athlete tests positive, leaving coaches to scramble to find a new team for their wrestlers to compete against. On Jan. 18 an East wrestler tested positive, forcing the team to cancel their dual against West.

“Wrestling isn’t a new program but our wrestlers don’t get the attention they should.

Those kids have been training since November like all of our winter sports and the constant unknown whether they’re going to be able to compete is draining.” Bryant says. “And what I found is when the kids are struggling, parents soon follow.”

Despite these drawbacks, Bryant has faith in the school’s capabilities.

“We have to hold people accountable across 28 different programs,” Bryant says. “Are we perfect? No. But I’m incredibly proud of how our staff and students have handled this situation.” •

Under the watch of veteran coach Scott Fetzer, East wrestlers follow their new safety protocols during practice by sticking to one opponent and spacing out on the mat.

62 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

RILEY HIGGINS

photography abbie westendorf | art shiloh wolfork

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lipping through the daily mail after school one afternoon, I came across an unsettling sight. As per usual, during any election period, my parents and sisters received their respective party’s endorsement card. Despite my inability to vote, I decided to look at the options my family had for the 2020 ballot. I looked at the people endorsed starting with the President and Vice President, Congress, Supreme Court, Senator, and finally at the very bottom right corner were the positions that took me by surprise: Butler County recorder, treasurer, engineer and coroner.

Puzzled by the inclusion of political influence on positions based in fact and science, I decided to ask my father. He paused and pondered if he knew the answer before telling me he had no idea.

Ohio is one of only two states in the US that requires County Coroners to have a medical license. This is a major red flag considering their responsibilities to their communities judicial system. Why should political parties have the authority to endorse candidates that are underqualified?

According to the Handbook for Ohio County Commissioners, The coroner is charged by Ohio law with the responsibility of determining the cause and manner of death in all cases of death by violence, accident, suicide, or suspicious or unusual manner (ORC 313.12).The investigation of a death involves both a medical and legal phase, and requires a specialized discipline correlating knowledge of both law and medicine.

While the democratic process of electing public figures is understandable, there is no reason for these positions to be endorsed by polarizing political parties. The addition of politics notoriously causes facts to be distorted in the public view.

Political parties strive to capture control of major political positions such as Congress, governor posts, and the presidency in order to ensure that their opinions are heard and the views of the voters are accurately represented.

The original intention of having two parties was not to endorse candidates like coroners, but instead were created for much bigger issues

that were up for debate in 1787.

How can trust be achieved when politics has collided with science and law? Opinion, political or not, should not interfere with occupations centered around science.

In Butler County, the Republican party endorsed Dr. Lisa Mannix for her third term.

Her job is to provide accurate, thorough and efficient medicolegal investigations related to violent, suspicious, unusual or sudden deaths.

Although this position is noble in print, I can’t seem to separate her work from political push.

It is considered taboo for a politician to go against his or her own party. If they choose to go against their own party’s beliefs, they may not be reelected by the voters when the next election comes around. Even if the decision was logical, it attracts negative publicity. It is this type of political influence that is so detrimental to positions like county recorder, treasurer, engineer and coroner.

served as evidence for a side of the argument that claimed that Dr. Baker’s report meant that the police officers should be exonerated of their wrongdoings. Without the inclusion of political stances, there would be less uncertainty around the facts of Floyd’s case. Misinformation spreads like wildfire, sparking debate over a matter that should have been set in stone by science. Death is a very sensitive subject and should not be used against people for a political motive.

I do not look forward to repeating the same process in 2024, and instead hope that we will reevaluate the importance of roles like the county coroner and the negative influence of polarizing political bias.•

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lthough the position may seem small, and worthy of the last slot on the slate card, county coroners have the power to induce a national debate as seen with the autopsy done by Dr. Andrew M. Baker on George Floyd.

His report stated that Floyd’s cause of death was “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression” whereas the independent examiner hired by the Floyd family listed the cause of death as “asphyxiation from sustained pressure”.

This information was weaponized by people who aimed to discredit the horrific manner of Floyd’s death. It

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 63

opinion | column

guest column | opinion

LIFE IN A BUBBLE

ACROSS THE LINE

photography ianni acapulco | art shiloh wolfork

photography riley higgins | art shiloh wolfork

OLIVIA RIGNEY

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hen the novel coronavirus reached the United States on January 21, the fear of the virus outweighed the severity of the situation. Now, as we grow to accept the newfound normal, the fear and realization of the impact of the virus is considered unimportant as cases and the number of total deaths consistently rise.

In the months following the COVID-19 outbreak, what we see as normal has changed greatly. Wearing a mask has become a requirement and schools and businesses have taken extreme measures to sanitize and clean to ensure the safety and health of the public.

But there’s only so many precautions that can be done by others. Social distancing and mask

mandates keep staying healthy a priority, and in theory new guidelines and regulations should be leading to a decrease in cases, but they’re not.

From March 30 to May 15 the stay-at-home order ordered by Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine on March 23 was in place, and cases peaked on April 19 at 1,380 cases in Ohio alone. Now, with no stay-at-home order and our lives almost back to normal, Ohio cases continue to spike, with the latest peak at 8,071 on November 13th.

It’s a personal decision to make sacrifices to save others; living in a bubble isn’t going to make the world go back to normal, but there’s a common ground between doing so and intentionally disregarding every medical official’s advice to stay at home. Although it is a personal decision to stay home, it’s a sacrifice not many would like to make. Teenagers and college students that continue to go to mass gatherings and parties are setting our country back, and not allowing the problem at hand to make progress.

Partying during a pandemic is selfish, and although seeking a teenage and young adulthood experience is something everyone wants, it’s not worth the danger it puts others in. However, there are many people who are treating partying as an option, even with the large risk of putting themselves and others at risk for COVID-19 At Miami University in Oxford, COVID cases are growing exponentially as more students move into

64 lakotasparkonline.com January 2021

school for in person classes. On September 5, Oxford police were called to a house party that directly violated the city’s ordinance. The emergency ordinance, passed by The Oxford City Council, limits mass gathering to 10 individuals.

Of the eight people who lived in the house, one had just tested positive for COVID-19.

However, when police arrived, there were more than 20 people in the house, even with the positive case, according to the police report.

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he rules are made to keep everyone safe and alive, and it’s understood that the rules are not always easy to be followed when it’s the same life we’ve been living the last nine months. Living in a bubble doesn’t help rebuild our lives to where they were, but staying considerate about keeping as many people safe as possible is what will.

Going to parties will only contribute to the increase in cases. Taking a look around the world there are other countries who put a more strict lockdown in place and penalized those who went out. For example in Australia there have been no more than 31 cases over the whole country in the past two months. Victoria has reported 20 consecutive days without a new case, and Melbourne lifted lockdown restrictions on October 28.

Having personal discipline is what will lead us to the other side. Just by practicing social distancing and wearing a mask you can save others and slow down the spread. Everyone has a role in making sure the people around you are safe, and continuing to go out to social gatherings our personal responsibility in controlling the spread. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released prevention practices that are simple and easy to follow; stay home if you’re feeling sick, stay six feet away from others, and wash your hands frequently. These regulations are not a lot to ask in the middle of a pandemic.

When everyone begins to avoid crowds and wear a mask when needed, the end will be in sight.•

HAITHAM EID

B

GUEST COLUMN

rowsing through social media this summer, I quickly saw a trend on my Muslim friends’ stories; there was a post circulating, calling for Google Maps and Apple Maps to put Palestine back on the map. Immediately, I was angry., So I decided to find a solution; I created my own petition to put Palestine back on the map. Taking Palestine off the map, erases my own and millions of others of people’s identities, as if our lives meant nothing. Still, Palestinians have been fighting for decades to ensure that they and their struggle are recognized.

Getting into Palestine is a hassle; travelers cannot go from America directly to Palestine.

For example, when my uncle visits family in Palestine, he goes through Amman, Jordan, then drives the remaining two hours to Palestine. In many Palestinian territories, there is very limited movement, of both people and resources. One prominent example: Gaza, Palestine.

Many people in the western world are unaware of this crisis. When Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948, millions of people were already living there. As more land was allotted to Israel, the amount of Palestinian refugees increased. However, it is a difficult conflict for both the people of Palestine and for the people who don’t support the actions of the Israeli government, specifically the youth of both countries.

One notorious Palestinan-Israeli conflict was the bombing of Gaza in 2008 and 2014 resulting in around 3000 deaths in Gaza and 72 deaths in Israel. The UN estimated that more than 7,000 Gazan homes were razed.

The economic impact of the operation on Israel citizens is estimated at approximately US $2.5 billion and GDP loss of 0.4%.

Along with corresponding bombings,there is a blockade between Gaza and the Western Strip, including East Jerusalem. Supplies including water, food, and medical staff are limited and people are unable to leave the city. In April 2017, electricity supply was

significantly reduced for Gazan citizens.

According to Oxfam International 96% of water is undrinkable while one million Gazans cannot afford to feed their families., For many, this can be fatal.

The blockade has affected the physical being of Palestine and Israel alike. According to Confidence Interval and the United Nations Relief and Work Agencies survey, 60% of students in Gaza have thought about suicide, and of those, 18% have made a serious plan to commit suicide.

In July 2020, 23-year-old Gazan activistSuleiman Al Ajouri took his own life.

His friends believe that he took his life when he saw no possible way to get out other than suicide. This blockade prevented Al Ajouri from living life to its fullest when he couldn’tt be sure where his next meal was going to come from.

blockades. There will be no solution if Israeli civilians are in the crossfire of unwanted violence. Currently, people are losing their lives and money in between a conflict of state governments.

I began to text people individually, using facts and numbers from first-hand sources like videos and people’s experiences. Although there is a lot of misinformation about the conflict, the most we can do is contribute to an environment that allows people to understand the perspective of Palestinians. Although I haven’t experienced the aggression myself, I refuse for my identity to be erased and for those who have faced the aggression to have their struggles to be erased. Because soon, more of the youth will look across the line, and create a solution.•

A

2017 University of Michigan study also found that as a result of persistent exposure to ethnicpolitical violence, Israeli and Palestinian children alike became more violent and aggressive toward peers in their own ethnic group.

The PalestinianIsraeli conflict has been going on for decades, and one thing is clear; he citizens of Gaza are struggling. But how can these issues be resolved when the citizens of both countries are ignored?

There will be no solution if the population of Gaza and Palestine are dying from the

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 65

opinion | head to head

head to head | opinion

T

he nomination of the US Supreme Court is one of the most important commitments in the government. Supreme Court Justices serve for life. This gives members decades of experience and job security, allowing their decisions to remain unbiased and uninfluenced by the president or other court members.

Article III of the US Constitution says that Supreme Court judges and federal court judges “shall hold their offices during good behavior”, which essentially allows for the members to serve for life, unless impeached or taken out by Congress.

Having years of experience under their belts makes the members of the court better qualified to make decisions. They also operate alongside their colleagues for the majority of their time spent on the court, which creates a mutual trust and respect from the other judges.

An example of this is illustrated perfectly by the late Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They were both judges who served on the Supreme Court, although on opposite sides of the political spectrum; Ginsburg was a Democratic liberal while Scalia was a Republican conservative.

Even with these differences, the pair became very close friends and many times they came to form an agreement because of the respect they formed for each other.

The popular five-step team development skill, “forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning” states that in order for a team to cohesively succeed, they need to understand and trust each other. If the terms for the Supreme and federal

HEAD TO HEAD YES

column evie colpi art shiloh wolfork

Should US Supreme Court Justices continue to serve without term limits?

courts were shorter and the people serving were changing constantly, similar to the situation of Congress, nothing would ever get done. It takes time for people to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their coworkers and teammates and even longer to appreciate them.

The steps to appointing a Supreme Court Justice begins with the president nominating a candidate. The Senate then votes and confirms the nomination, and following that, the president appoints the candidate as an official judge. This process usually takes two to three months.

The panel of Supreme Court Justices make decisions that impact the daily lives of American citizens. Healthcare, education, marriage rights, social security, and voting rights are just some of the things decided by the Supreme Court.

In the US, the different branches and roles in the government have different term lengths; the president’s term lasts four years, a term in

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the House of Representatives lasts two years, and a term in the Senate lasts six years. In the Supreme Court where nine Justices determine appeals to all federal cases, it is a lifetime. There are only nine justices, so each justice’s voice opinion has the power to make a major impact on the final decision.

The Supreme Court acts as an independent branch of the government and in order for the US to maintain its democracy, the court cannot be swayed by the opinions and views of the president or the public.

Much of the government and politics in general today is just that: politics. People in power, such as the president and members of Congress, who are voted in and replaced every few years, feel political pressure from public opinion and let that influence their actions.

Serving for decades prevents the court from using their term for political or financial gain.

Out of the federal judges who have retired from the bench, the most common reasons for doing so collected through surveys were ‘“return to private practice,” and “appointment to another office.” If a justice knows they will need another job once their term is up, then they might be more inclined to use their term and rulings to gain popularity for future employers, instead of making the decision based on what is best for America.

A lifetime position allows for independence and removes the temptation to react to political pressure of a party, public opinion, or a president.

Many people believe that the Supreme Court having terms would make the process of appointing new judicials less high-stakes

because each president would have an equal number of representatives. Creating a process like this however, would encourage presidents to choose more extremist judges, either on the far-left or the far-right. This would then lead to a divided court where no compromise would be attainable and nothing would get done.

Once Scalia, the poster boy for the conservative wing of the US Supreme Court died, then President Barack Obama was given the opportunity to appoint a more liberal successor. The shift in the court’s balance shows how influential one person’s voice can be in the court.

The US is now more politically divided than ever. According to a 2020 Pew Research Essay survey, the 26 percentage point difference between the two parties is among the widest it has been over the past two decades, and introducing term limits will only widen this gap.•

P

icture a person over the age of 60 trying to figure out how to use technology. They’ll likely complain about how the on/off button is difficult to find, the words are too small to read, and at some point will most likely take an accidental selfie. Some might say grandparents shouldn’t even bother, that their generation is too old to understand these things.

This is comparable to a Supreme Court judge on a lifetime appointment. While comparing them to grandparents using technology may be a slight exaggeration, the principle of the idea still rings true.It is one of the many reasons why the Supreme Court lifetime tenure in the United States should be abolished.

According to the National Institute on Aging (NIA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, older adults are more likely to be slower to recall words and names, have more problems with multitasking, and experience decreases in the ability to pay attention. The job of Supreme Court justices is to uphold our Constitution, but they are not able to properly fulfill that role at the age that many justices stay in the court until. According to the Washington Post, the average age of a retiring Supreme Court justice is 78.7 years old.

Moreover, the Chicago Tribune says that many justices will stay on the bench until an ideal president is elected who they trust to fill their spot with the right predecessor. By doing this, judges who should be retired are in their seats for months, even years longer, as their best work and productivity slowly start to get further behind them.

According to the Center for American

have been practicing longer and have more experience.

The issue was discussed in a March 11, 2014 debate between Columbia Law School Professor Thomas W. Merrill and Northwestern University School of Law Professor James Lindgren. Merrill wants to keep lifetime tenures, while Lindgren argues against them.

In his argument against lifetime appointments, Lindgren claims that term limits would help usher out judges with mental decrepitude and loss of stamina, eliminate strategic retirement for political reasons, reduce animosity in confirmation, and return to traditional levels of judicial independence.

Supporters of lifetime tenures would argue that one of the biggest reasons we need to keep them is to prevent political pressure from influencing judges’ decisions. If judges had to worry about getting re-elected, they would be more likely to succumb to the political ideals at the time. This puts the credibility of our Constitution in jeopardy. However there is another way. One of the most popular solutions discussed by those against lifetime tenures is staggering 18year term limits.

Lazarus explains the reasoning behind the widely supported 18-year term limits in a 2004 CNN Law Center column. He argues that the beginning of each justice’s term should be staggered two years apart, so that two justices will retire during every presidential term. He explains that this proposal would rejuvenate the Court on a regular basis, prevent justices from hanging

The US Constitution provides that Supreme Court Justices serve during “good behavior”, which has generally meant life terms. Now, with the impact of political partisanship becoming greater each day, some wonder if introducing term limits to the Supreme Court could help to address the divide.

Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organization on economic and social issues, never before in history have Supreme Court judges held their seats as long as they do currently. Naturally as life expectancy has grown, the time judges remain on the bench has as well. The position has become easier by way of lesser work loads, leaving judges to be more inclined to keep their positions for longer.

On the other side of this, the longer a person does their job, the more wisdom, knowledge, and experience they gain. You get better at something the longer you’ve been practicing it, which is the same in this case.

According to Cable News Network (CNN) FindLaw columnist Edward Lazarus, presidents are more likely to appoint younger judges, knowing they have more time on the benchconsiderably 30-40 years. This makes the pool of qualified judges significantly smaller, cutting out opportunities for older judges who

on for political reasons, and somewhat temper the importance of each individual appointment considering none of the appointees could stay on the Court indefinitely.

With this method in place, the original reasoning for term limits would still be retained.

Justices would be limited to a single, 18-year term, meaning they cannot get re-appointed and therefore would not have to worry about making decisions based on politics. This solution would also mean that judges have no control over when they leave the bench, preventing them from waiting until a president they like comes around to appoint what, in their eyes, is a suitable predecessor.

Yes, the Constitution is difficult to amend, but it is possible. The costs of changing the lifetime tenure appointment severely outweighs the benefits, and it is the best decision for all involved: Supreme Court judges and the American citizens which they reign over. It’s time to make a change for the better. •

NO

column ava huelskamp art shiloh wolfork

January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 67

east speaks out | opinion

opinion | collumn

JUST LIKE ME

EAST SPEAKS OUT

REHAB JARABAH

photography ianni acapulco | art shiloh wolfork

Who is one of the most influential people in your life and why? interviews and photography madison koroschetz and zach schultz

L

ate at night, when my sister and I are supposed to be asleep, we tend to have amazing, in-depth conversations. My older sister, who I look up to and think nothing could upset her, admitted to me that something did in fact upset her; how we as Muslims are represented in media. However, her discomfort and frustration weren’t shown how someone tends to express their discomfort and frustration.

Instead, we had this conversation laughing and making jokes about how horribly the media portrays us.We recalled a 9-1-1 Lonestar clip; although there was finally a Muslim character, the directors debuted an episode that completely misrepresented the character praying. It was disheartening and made me realize how often the media inaccurately portrays Muslims.

When I watched cartoons, I hadn’t noticed it, but when I got older, I started feeling badly

about myself when I turned on the TV or watched a movie.

I could flip through hundreds of channels, and never see anyone who looked like me. No one who had a “weird” name. And when there was a sparkle of hope for a Muslim or Arab character, they almost always turn out to be one of the bad guys; usually associated with terrorism.

Now, at 16, I’d argue that any representation I could have had was obliterated as a whole.

When I put my hijab on in 2015, I realized that Muslim women, especially those who wore hijabs are almost never represented. How are Muslim girls meant to grow up and leave their mark on the world when they aren’t able to find people like them on the big screen? According to The Media Portrayals of Minorities Project at Middlebury College, The Muslim community is only represented in the media 1% of the time, and are almost always portrayed negatively.

Most mainstream shows have no Muslim characters, specifically Muslim women.

And those that do have Muslim characters, often whitewash and lack connection to the culture or relect“the oppressive religion”.

Islam is portrayed as oppressive to women and that Muslim women are in need of saving.

For instance, in Netflix’s popular show, Elite, Nadia, a Muslim character, wore the hijab but soon, confessed to “being oppressed”, took off her scarf, and quickly left the religion to be with the main love interest.

My hijab, which I should always be proud of, is misinterpreted as a symbol of oppression due to t h e media’s portrayal of women like me.

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However, television is not the only media outlet that portrays Muslims in an inaccurate light; much of the misinformation also stems from newspapers, YouTube channels, and online news sources.

A 2019 University of Alabama study found that consistent negative portrayal of Muslims, primarily within a “national security” framework, leads media outlets to overemphasize acts of terrorism committed by Muslims. The study found that terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims received 357% more media coverage than those committed by other groups. However, when covering injustices towardsthe Muslim community, media organizations only mentions Islamophobia in two percent of their coverage There is an easy way to stop stereotyping Muslims and lessen the hate they recieve; better and more accurate portrayal in every form of media. This would also fix the spread of misinformation about Islam.

Directors needs to start hiring real Muslims to play Muslim chartacters. Hiring Muslim cast members will help the misinformation Actors like Ramy Youssef, Hasan Minaj, and Riz Ahmed are a few of the newly A-list Muslim actors in Hollywood.While this is progress, there is still not enough representation for Muslim women and for Muslims of races other than the stereotypical Arab and Desi.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) examined 651 feature films released theatrically in 2017 and found that among the films that made at least $250,000 at the box office, only 12 percent of directors were women and 10 percent were people of color.

The solution begins in hiring Muslim actors for Muslim roles. From there, the industry can create more opportunities for major films to be directed by Muslims and offer roles cast to a more diverse group of people.

Not only will this create opportunities for Muslims, but it willallow Muslim kids to see someone on the big screen that looks just like them. Because all I ever needed growing up was someone I could point to and say “hey, they look just like me!”. •

KYLE SMITH

IBRAHIM MALIK

SHIDAA ADJEI

MAGGIE SIZEMORE

FRESHMAN “The most influential person in my life would have to be my grandma.

She’s such a hard worker, and she taught herself all kinds of skills to take care of us when my grandpa died.”

SOPHOMORE “Doctor Severns because he is very understanding and has made the best out these harsh circustances. He is a wonderful role model for our community and has really made this year better [for me].”

JUNIOR “Mr. Dennis is a great example of what a teacher should be. Other than just academic success, he also cares about the emotional success of his students and I really appreciate him for what he does.”

SENIOR “The most influential person for me is probably my sister because she is super successful in life. She’s a well rounded person and is a role model for me.”

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January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 69

opinion | political cartoon

“WHAT VIRUS?” editorial cartoon vi dao

chief collumn

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January 2021 lakotasparkonline.com 71

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