2010-11 Issue 4

Spark Lakota East High School February 14, 2011 $4 Newsstand

strivingfor

February 2011

Volume XIX Issue CXXXV Simple Six

Jumpin’ Jazz Laughs with Matt Keeping up with the Jones Spark Awards 2010 Reaching New Heights H2H: Wiki Leaks

Contents

Package

23 Signing for a Bottle Exploring the process of obtaining necessary or wanted perscription medications for mental illnesses.

Playing for the top-ranked team in the city, East senior Brian Evans jostles for position against Middletown senior Kirby Wright. East would go on to win 67-39.

12 15 44 50 58 64

23 54

photo eric muenchen

24 Living with a Stigma How prevalent stigmas of mental illnesses have affected those suffering from those disorders in their everyday lives.

26 New Campus, New Coping Taking a look at the life of a University of Dayton student coping with bipolar personality disorder.

28 A Chic Quality How Hollywood represents and misrepresents the reality of mental illnesses in films and the media to Americans.

29 Love and Other Drugs Telling the story of a local family dealing with the effects of mental illness in children, along with societal misconceptions.

35 A New Leaf An in-depth look into the past of a former East student and how major depressive disorder affected his life.

cover mason hood, faiz siddiqui As the best basketball team East has seen since James Dews’ in 2005, the Hawks are looking to cement themselves as the winningest team in school history. With the leadership of six determined seniors, they strive for perfection. photo sara patt

3 | Spark | lehsspark.org

opinion | letters

Dear Spark, “There’s no denying it; I’m a national security threat.” [Don’t Group Me, Bro] This statement, from Faiz Siddiqui’s article captures the essence of the extent to which paranoia has infiltrated modern-day America.

Now, I’m not trying to downplay the atrocities done by the 9/11 terrorists, but at the same time, I wish that America could get a hold of itself.

Arizona recently passed AZ SB1070, essentially making racial profiling “A-OK.” Arizona has made it “alright” to have a prejudice against the hardworking Latinos and Latinas of America. Although Arizona congresspersons may be saying that this is great in cracking down on illegal immigration, the amount of power that law enforcement officials in Arizona now have is disturbing.

In a “lawful stop,” law enforcement officials are now allowed to ask for immigration status if they have “reasonable suspicion.” This isn’t helping America. Has there ever been a time in which racial profiling has ever led to making America more diverse, more idealistic? No. Instead, this type of legislation helps segregate people.

Pre-Brown v. Board of Education, segregation based on race was legal. In fact the famous Plessy v. Ferguson case made the Jim Crow laws as legitimate as any other law. However, segregation is still a fact of life. But now, it’s based off of social status and how much cash money you can bring in at the end of the week. We now both racially profile people and socially profile people.

One of my friends told me a story about a salesman at a Lacosté. He avoided a family that looked like they were facing some rainy days.

However, another salesman was able to see past their dirtied complexions and see that the reason he worked there was not to judge, but to

about certain topics.

The head-to-head and the individual columns are all interesting, as well as the original art that is drawn to accompany the stories. As long as you guys continue to come up with interesting topics and have willing and able writers and artists to contribute columns, I will be eager to read each issue of Spark. Keep up the good work.

—Tyler Bain, former East student

editor’s note: In our December issue, Spark incorrectly credited the illustration on page 63 to Kaitlin Lange.

Credit should have gone to Caitlin Graska.

We deeply regret the error.

Got Something To Say?

help. These “random” pat-downs administered by the TSA are just another way of America showing its discomfort with those of different backgrounds, skin tones and cultures. Until America can grow up, we’ll always live in fear of another attack.

People around the world hate Americans because of our ignorance. If we could view the world through their eyes, we would see how detached we are from the world and how much we need to improve.

—Sonny Shi, East junior

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

Dear Spark, As a graduate of East, I read Spark to see how current students compare to students in my graduating class. It’s cool reading about the levy and other main news stories at Lakota, but my favorite part is the opinion column at the end. I’ve always liked reading different perspectives on topics and it is interesting to see what current high school students think

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

Spark Notes Spark’s March 19, 2008 issue covered the national issue of the overuse of prescription medication by teens. The growing trend of addictive weight-loss pills, known as “stackers,” was covered through the perspective of East students. The harmful addictive effects of these prescription drugs, including nervousness, insomnia and anxiety, took their toll on those craving the trend. Additionally, the increased use

4 | Spark | February 14, 2011

of prescription attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs led to a variety of legal issues on campus, such as the illegal trade of Adderall pills.

Furthermore, a variety of other conflicts were covered, such as the deadly effects of mixing prescription drugs. Medications connected to East included perscription anti-pregnancy pills and the legal, non-perscription performanceenhancing drug Creatine.

Spark

Mason Hood, Faiz Siddiqui, Ariadne Souroutzidis Editor-in-Chief Sarah Craig Business Manager Sarah Wilkinson Design Manager Dan Turner Photo Manager Jill Bange, Alyssa Davis Managing Editor Victoria Liang Web Manager

Defective diagnosis from the editor

Justine Chu Copy Director Tyler Kieslich, Christian Roehm, Lucy Stephenson Entertainment Editor Jenn Shafer, Christina Wilkerson Feature Editor Lauren Barker, Hannah Berling Lifestyle Editor Nathan Dibble, Shivang Patel, Nick Tedesco News Editor Tommy Behan, Sean Lewis, Nitya Sreevalsan Opinion Editor Megan Fogel, Victoria Reick-Mitrisin, Katie Szczur Package Editor Devin Casey, Kyle Morrison, Drew Souders Sports Editor Lisa Cai, Jeff Cargill, Ian Castro, Sarah Fanning, Rashma Faroqui, Emily Merrick, Logan Schneider Art Section Editor Eric Muenchen, Sara Patt, Sierra Whitlock Photo Section Editor Rachel Podnar Business Associate Brittany Bennett Public Relations Director Devon Lakes Ad Designer Melissa Gomez, Rachel Knock, Ashley Wolsefer Public Relations Reb Vachon Survey Coordinator Dean Hume Advisor

Spark is a publication that is produced at Lakota East High School. The magazine is completely studentgenerated through the efforts of the Journalism I, Journalism II and Journalism III-Honors classes. The publication material may not always reflect the views of the Lakota Local School District. Content is controlled and edited by the staff editors. The staff will publish only legally protected speech adhering to the legal definitions of libel, obscenity and invasions of privacy.

The publication is produced every five weeks on recycled paper. Production costs are covered through advertising, subscription sales and fundraisers. Advertising information is available by writing to the address below or at business@lehsspark.org.

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

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

Spark, a Gold Crown, Pacemaker and Gallup winner, is a member of the Ohio Scholastic Media Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, Quill and Scroll and a Hall-of-Fame member of the National Scholastic Press Association.

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

T

he most prescribed drug in America does not combat any bacterial or viral infection. It does not cure cancer or the common cold. It does not save people from starvation or malnutrition. No, it does not cure any physical problem—it is supposed to cure unhappiness. According to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control, 118 million prescriptions filled in 2005 were for antidepressants. The adult use of antidepressant medication has tripled between 1988-94 and 1999-2000.

Perhaps an increasing number of American citizens have developed a serious mental disorder from the poor economy, the super-long grocery line or an ever growing to-do list. The more likely explanation, however, is that our drug-crazy society is growing even more fixated with the notion of curing the problems people face with a quick fix, like a prescription pill.

When I am not happy, I suffer from depression. Because my mood can change rapidly I have bipolar disorder. Because I cannot concentrate on my school work while watching TV, being on Facebook and texting several friends, I have attention deficit disorder (ADD).

The list of possible mental “disorders” that I may have goes on and on.

While the word “disorder” typically has a negative connotation, mental illnesses have become commonplace in today’s society. There have been countless occasions where I have sat in class and heard my fellow students complain about how “ADD” they are that day because they cannot concentrate or how “OCD” they are being for perfectly straightening everything on their desks­and even the desks of other classmates.

But for some people, a mental disorder is not some gimmick to be used flippantly to describe their mistakes—it is their reality.

And the reality of mental disorders is that they are neither easily cured nor easily diagnosed. These people do not show symptoms, like a rash or a fever, follow the same exact behaviors as someone else diagnosed with the same illness or always develop the disorder at the same age in their lives.

It is not like strep throat or the flu, where psychologists or psychiatrists can run a simple test and come back and tell people that they are positive or negative for a disease.

That is why the legitimacy of mental disorders is sometimes hard to believe.

In our Prozac-driven society, a startling large percentage of people seems to be suffering from one mental illness or another. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 26.2 percent of the American population age 18 and older suffers from a mental illness. This means that roughly one in four people will most likely be diagnosed with some form of a mental disorder some time in their lives. That one person could be some random stranger in the hallway, the kid that sits next to you in math class or your best friend.

In this issue, Spark takes a look at how mental disorders are diagnosed and treated. While there is no absolute cure for a mental disorder, once it has been diagnosed, prescription pills and therapy exist to combat the symptoms of these disorders. In addition, Spark looks at how real mental disorders affect the lives of East students.

And as for me, I guess all I really suffer from is hypochondria from living in a society that is quick to explain tripping into a door, failing a test or some slight eccentricity as a symptom of a serious mental disorder. n

5 | Spark | lehsspark.org

news | east news

AROUND THE SCHOOL

news

SKI AND SNOWBOARDING CLUB story raika casey East’s Ski and Snowboarding Club took a 45-minute trip to Perfect North Slopes to enjoy a day of skiing and snowboarding.

“One of the great things about the club is how laid back it is,” said East sophomore Sarah Zupancic. “Everyone is just in it to have fun, which we always do.”

According to Zupancic, the relaxed atmosphere creates a healthy learning environment for all members. The club is not only meant for experts, but also for novices. Many beginners say that within a few visits to Perfect North, they were completely comfortable to go down most of the slopes.

East senior Charlie Biederman, who has been skiing since he was seven years old, uses the slopes as a way to get away from school.

“It’s cool to get out of school every Thursday and head straight to the slopes. It’s never crowded and always a good time,” he said.

“Everybody always has a good time and Ms. Stites is cool about helping out with whatever you need.”

The club will continue its weekly trips to Perfect North until the ski slope closes. n

FRENCH CLUB story kaitlin lange | photo arvind madhavan The East French Club constructed and decorated gingerbread houses at its meeting on Dec. 9. Students were given graham crackers, frosting and candy to build gingerbread houses and different types of structures such as the Eiffel Tower.

East French Club leaders seniors Claire Meyer and Bethany Stephens and juniors Lashell Jordan and Radhika Patel, as well as East French teachers Nichole Gfroerer and Brigitte Cornett, voted on their favorites. East freshmen Rachel Wegner, Renee Noe, Nicole Gayotin, Paige Landers, Eric Kirchner and Alexis Jerome’s Eiffel Tower won the contest. n

DRUG DOG SEARCH story kaitlin lange | photo maria rodriguez The Butler County Sheriff ’s Office and the West Chester Police Department led drug dogs through East on Dec. 10 to check lockers for drugs; none were found. East Principal Dr. Keith Kline said that the dogs were used to see if East had substance problems.

“It’s important to do what we can to maintain a drug-free school,” said Kline. “I don’t have tolerance for people bringing drugs into our school.”

In previous years, the dogs were used two to three times a year, most recently in the 2008-09 school year. East resource officer Deputy Doug Hale believed that the reason drug dogs were not utilized as often in recent years was because of a reduction in the number of police officers. East was not charged for the search. n

To accommodate for students who show comprehension in subject material before taking a class, the Lakota Local School District will allow those students to test out of classes beginning in the 2011-12 school year.

“The design of credit flex policy is to allow students with understanding of course content to move to the next course without having to take it for the sake of meeting ‘seat time,’” said Lakota Director of Secondary Curriculum Derek Smith.

6 | Spark | February 14, 2011

news online

story mason hood

photo sara patt

High School

Online Edition

In the Lakota Local School District’s continual superintendent search to replace Mike Taylor after his retirement on Jan. 31, the Board of Education approved using the search firm Hudepohl and Associates.

The resolution was passed at the Dec. 13 meeting with a 3-2 vote.

The $40,000 contract price could increase if the district wishes to do further testing or fly in candidates from other locations. The search firm will work with the Board to recruit potential candidates, examine resumes, do background checks and narrow down the pool to a couple finalists for the Board to choose a new superintendent. n

excerpt from “Testing Towards Tomorrow”

lehsspark lehsspark .org .org

High School Lakota East t n ota Eas Lak Online Editio

story ariadne souroutzidis | photo sierra whitlock

photo sara patt

SSpparak rk

SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH

Contemporary Contenders A total of 110 East students have submitted their artwork to compete in the Rivercenter Scholastic Art Fair. story amber jagpal | photo courtesy of the Art Department

I

n preparation for the Rivercenter Scholastic Art Fair, Jon Riehle has spent the past three weeks cutting out copper pieces and metal tubing, soldering the copper into a box and then soldering the tubes on top, putting a ruby and blue moonstone cabochon on the front of the box, sanding all the pieces and polishing the final product. Riehle is not just making one abstract piece; he is making eight different ones. But it will all be worth it if he is able to get his artwork placed into the art show.

Sculptures, photography, paintings and other artwork created by junior high and

”

Nothing compares to standing up on stage at Carnegie Hall in front of thousands of people as they clap for you.

”

high school students will be displayed at the exhibition from Feb. 11 to Feb. 25 in hopes that the pieces will advance to the national level competition.

Art teachers select which pieces will be displayed at the show. There are a total of 45 different schools entering the competition from the southern Ohio and northern Kentucky areas.

“Depending on which units of study we complete before the competition deadline, I will approach students who I believe have created intriguing, exceptional pieces of work which meet the criteria for the Scholastic competition and suggest they enter,” said East freshman art teacher Frankie Doerpers.

The teachers will take a picture of their

students’ pieces and then send them in to be evaluated by the regional judges, a group of active locals chosen from the art community.

“People chosen to judge are highly respected, well-recognized professionals,” said Doerpers.

The art that is picked by these judges will then be shown at the exhibition and will be in the running for a Portfolio Award, a Silver Key Award or a Golden Key Award. If a student receives one of these honors, then his or her art will be sent to compete in the national Scholastic competition at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The students also will attend the competition.

Here the students can gain recognition and receive scholarships. The national judges vary from Phong Bui, the editor and publisher of The Brooklyn Rail, to Lesley Stahl, a correspondent for the television show 60 Minutes.

Last year East students Jon Riehle and Bryan Smith both were able to advance to the national level for the metal art pieces they created.

“My goal for my high school career was to earn a Gold Key at the regional level. After I did that, I never really thought about Nationals until I found out I won,” said Riehle, who has been accepted into the industrial program at the University of Cincinnati. “Nothing compares to standing up on stage at Carnegie Hall in front of thousands of people as they clap for you. It was definitely one of the happiest moments of my life and once again I am so thankful for the opportunity.”

Although the pair achieved the highest honor, the odds of making it to the national level are slim. Last year, a total of 165,000

East junior Allante Foster did not want to be the “I” in “team.”

Several student-athletes at East have abided Ohio transfer laws in order to acquire eligibility for the 2010-11 season. One such student-athlete is Foster, who transferred from Princeton High School.

sports online

story scott koenig

photo erin muenchen

excerpt from “Transfer Tales”

Spark

This pendant, made by East senior Kimberlin Riggs, is one of the many pieces being entered into the art fair.

works were submitted into the competition, but only 25,000 pieces were selected to go into the exhibition. Of those pieces, a mere six percent went on to the national level.

“In the past it’s been difficult because we [the art teachers and students] have expectations of getting certain pieces in that we really like and they don’t get in because art is very subjective,” said East art teacher Linda Augutis. “We also encourage the students ahead of time and tell them that just because their work doesn’t get in it doesn’t mean that it’s weak work.”

In the 2010-11 school year, a total of 110 East students are submitting their artwork created either in class or at home in the show.

East senior Kimberlin Riggs said that she has high hopes for the necklace pendant that she has spent a month and a half crafting for the art show.

“I would like to get an award because it is my senior year and I don’t have many other chances to get an award. But [if I don’t win] I won’t be crushed, because it is my first year taking metals,” said Riggs. “I am very proud of my artwork though and have worked hard to get it the way it is.”

Many students enter the Scholastic Art Fair to display their love for art.

“If someone asked me how big of a role art plays in my life a few years ago, I would have laughed and said not even a little bit,” said Riehle. “I no longer think that art plays a little role on my life—art is now what keeps me going on a day-to-day basis. It is what I live for.” n

excerpt from “The Fighter Review” The movie’s biggest weakness is its slow pace. The first half of the movie goes to a new level of boring that felt like a waste of money. It doesn’t pick up until after Ward’s first For information regarding TEA Party at the Lakota fight, which is too far into the rally movie Freshman Campus, go to the news section on to redeem itself.

Thankfully, the lehsspark.org, and look for Rachel King’s story. boxing action is only part of the film.

entertainment online story dillon mitchell

7 | Spark | lehsspark.org

news | east news

Teachers Academy

Takes Off Two East students will voyage to China on March 24 for a 14-day trip. After a lengthy interview process, the Teachers Academy students will embark on a journey to observe Chinese education and technology. story wyatt johnson | infographic ian castro

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B

utler Tech chose two students in the Teachers Academy program to participate in a 14-day, educationfocused trip to China.

Out of 50 applicants, East seniors Ilysia Murray and Amy Schleitweiler were among the 15 finalists who received a spot on the trip, lasting from March 24 to April 6.

Throughout the application process, they were required to demonstrate strong extracurricular involvement, academics, attendance, character and desire to expand educational experiences through written recommendations and an interview, according to the Butler Tech news release.

The interviews were conducted by trip organizer and facilitator Lisa Tuttle-Huff, trip supervisor Rick Pridemore and Butler Tech Vice President of Secondary Workforce Laura Sage.

“I really did not do much preparing. I had things written about myself that I made sure were brought up,” said Murray. “I’m in Teachers Academy, so I am good talking in front of people. I have traveled to multiple places within the United States, so I can deal with the plane flight and things of that nature.”

Murray, who was “just being herself ” during the interview, was not entirely sure what made her stand out from the other candidates during the application process.

Schleitweiler, however, believed that she stood out because of her experience teaching in Laos during the summer of 2010.

According to Teachers Academy instructor

Crissy Lauterbach, the goal of the trip is to exchange and compare career and technical practices between Chinese and Western cultures.

“The trip is through the Chinese government and [U.S.] federal government and is meant to open up the Chinese culture and the Chinese community to the western part of the world,” said Lauterbach.

Additionally, students on the trip will look at how the Chinese manufacture products and farm crops, as well as educate students.

“We also look at what they offer career and technology-wise compared to American schools, so we can make sure we are using the most up-to-date tools and facilities we can have,” said Lauterbach.

The trip itinerary includes visiting Chinese career and technical schools; experiencing the life of a Chinese student; staying two days in the home of a Chinese family and seeing sights in Beijing, Nanning, Guilin and Shanghai.

“I am excited for the home stay because I get to live with a Chinese family for two days,” said Schleitweiler, although she is nervous about the communication barrier during the trip.

Pridemore, a third-year trip participant, said that the contact with Chinese families and students are some of the most beneficial aspects of the trip.

“The most positive experience the students have is the friendships they will establish with the home-stay families and students in China,” said Pridemore.

Selecting the Finalists Over 50 Teacher Academy students apply for the trip to China.

Applicants were required to get recommendations, go through an interview process and meet certain academic criteria.

The trip costs $2,250 per attendee. Murray has paid the trip in full through a $750 Butler Tech scholarship, donations and fundraising.

“The donations came from people from my church, family members and friends of family,” said Murray. “I sold candy, candles and pies through Teachers Academy.”

Schleitweiler is paying for the trip through her work at Mason Christian Village and fundraising.

“My parents are also paying for [a part of] it, and we have been sending out fundraising letters,” said Schleitweiler.

Unlike Schleitweiler, who has experienced traveling to an Asian country, this trip will be Murray’s first opportunity to travel abroad.

“I have always wanted to travel the world,” said Murray. “To be able to go to China at such a young age is an exciting experience.”

Both Schleitweiler and Murray have been attending meetings to prepare them for their exposure to the Chinese culture. The meetings cover aspects of cuisine, common etiquette, language and travel requirements.

As Schleitweiler explained objects should always be given and received using two hands, displaying the cultural differences. “[Because of these meetings], the students have a better idea of what to expect before they get there [so they have] very few surprises,” said Pridemore.

Murray and Schleitweiler concur that an open mind will allow the pair to gain the most educational benefits.

“The more you try things, the more you experience the culture,” said Schleitweiler. n

Out of 50 applicants, 15 finalists are chosen, including East seniors Ilysia Murray and Amy Schleitweiler.

Murray and Schleitweiler embark on their 14-day trip with Rick Pridemore to compare career and technical practices between the cultures.

Name: Devin C. English Math Physics Spanish Band Economics AP Art

A+ A AA+ A AA+

Interviews were conducted by trip organizer Lisa Tuttle-Huff, supervisor Rick Pridemore and Butler Tech President of Secondary Workforce Laura Sage.

Murray and Schleitweiler are selected to go on the trip to China.

Murray and Schleitweiler attend meetings about Chinese culture.

Meetings include aspects of etiquette, cuisine and language.

9 | Spark | lehsspark.org

news | east news

Tweaking The Machine The High Schools That Work program visited East to provide valuable observations and recommendations to the faculty in order to improve the school environment. story andrew breland | photo sierra whitlock | infographic mohinee mukherjee, logan schneider

Mrs. Whitely English department chair and TAV coordinator Ashley Whitely reviews TAV reports.

10 | Spark | February 14, 2011

“We are immersed in a culture every day, whether you are an administrator, teacher, parent, whatever,” said Whitely. “It really helps to get an outside perspective.”

TAV inspectors visited each East classroom for about 15 minutes and later interviewed senior and sophomore students about their education. The inspectors then pieced the observations together with the interviews to

”

A

s part of a Technical Assistance Visit (TAV), the national High Schools That Work program delivered recommendations to East administrators addressing the improvement of school programs on Dec. 6 and 7.

High Schools That Work is a division of the Southern Regional Education Board, whose website states that its mission as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works with 16 member states,” is to work “directly with state leaders, schools and educators to improve teaching, learning and student achievement at every level of education.” Inspectors from the program are invited by the schools to regularly visit and deliver advice on reaching agreed-upon goals.

These visits also allow the school to seek out further funding through grant money to continue operations.

Money is not the only reason, however, that East has chosen to take part in the High Schools That Work program. East English Department Chair and TAV site coordinator Ashley Whitely was adamant that the most important aspects of the inspection were the recommendations given afterwards.

having gone through this same process last year, served as the example school.

“They were kind of the model, you know, been there, done that,” said Whitely. “And so, if I had questions [about the inspection] it was always nice to say, ‘What did you do?’ or ‘How does this work?’”

East freshman math teacher and campus site coordinator Mike Floyd served as the

[They said] it was a great climate. We don’t have people hanging from the rafters. The kids were very respectful and engaged in what was happening in school.

”

generate advice for the East administration.

In addition to the advice, High Schools That Work also provides schools with examples of other districts, which exemplify certain aspects of education.

“When we get the big report back, it’s not only going to say, ‘This is what we suggest.”

It’s also going to say, ‘These are the sources where you can go to get that.’ [That could be] a book [or] another school, inside or outside the state,” said Whitely.

In mid-March, East will receive the report, which will outline the suggestions made by the High Schools That Work program.

In addition, the report will provide general observations made when the inspectors visited East.

The school currently has a rough idea of the contents of that report. Immediately following the visit, East administrators and teachers were given an exit presentation by the High Schools That Work inspectors which outlined their general impressions of East.

East Principal Dr. Keith Kline was pleased by the overall picture of the school during the inspection. “[They said] it was a great climate. We don’t have people hanging from the rafters,” said Kline. “The kids were very respectful and engaged in what was happening in school. In the end, [they noticed that we have] a very comfortable high school.”

The inspection and subsequent recommendations were preceded by significant preparations by East teachers and administrators. The East Freshman Campus,

liaison to Whitely, advising East educators in the preparations and actions they should take leading up to the inspection.

“I gave them the nuts and bolts: what you will kill yourself doing and what is easy,” said Floyd. “The most important thing was to do what you do. It’s not what we would call a dog-and-pony show.”

Following the visit, East teachers began to implement changes suggested in the exit presentation. Although nothing official has been mandated yet, teachers are talking.

“At a school-wide level, nothing [is being done]. But I really think the individual department chairs and teachers are internalizing the data and saying ‘Yikes, that’s an issue,’” said Whitely. “I think people are already filtering suggestions through their head, saying, ‘How can we make this work?’”

Some of these improvements include better use of a mentoring system and increased reading in English classes. The TAV inspection found, through student interviews, that 45 percent of East students read zero to three books per year in English.

The TAV inspectors also noted that while 21 percent of East students worked at an “advanced level,” taking AP courses, over 29 percent work at a level below-proficiency.

“Things that would really classify as a concern will be addressed,” said Kline. “I think there were some things that they said, ‘You might want to look at that.’”

Much of the same sort of adaptation happened after the TAV inspection at the Freshman campus last year. Floyd assured that

get the same results. We needed somebody to give us an outside perspective and say this is what you’re really doing well, this is what you really need to improve on,” said Whitely.

”

the real work is to come, but the school will be better off for it.

“The whole process is exciting. It gives us a real framework for improvement,” said Floyd.

“But changes happen after the real report comes. That’s when you look at what you’re doing and work to make things better.”

According to Floyd, TAV inspectors recommended the creation of both an advising program at the East Freshman Campus, parallel to the East Mentoring Program, as well as a “data war room,” where teachers and administrators could research past test scores and classroom statistics.

Whitely agreed with the sentiment, saying all schools should take the chance to be reviewed by other professionals.

“There is a mantra in education: If you keep doing the same thing, you are going to

The whole process is exciting. It gives us a real framework for improvement.

”

After delivering the report in March, High Schools that Work will not revisit East for another three to five years. By that point, the recommendations made this year will be implimented and there will be only one visit

for East and the East Freshman Campus combined.

“There are different issues in high school than there are in the freshman school; we deal with transitional eighth graders. The high school deals with teens, and adults in some cases,” said Floyd. “But they will become one inspection; we are one campus, despite our differences, and the inspection this year proved that.”

The inspection at East this year mirrored the visit at the East Freshman Campus last year, and the recommendations made were quite similar. According to Whitely, this expedites the process.

“When we look at making changes, that’s going to come into play, and this is going to affect everybody,” said Whitely. “We’re one big campus, not two isolated buildings.” n

“Closing the Gap” The Technical Assistance Visit exit report listed three key practices that inspectors shared with East teachers and administrators. The term “closing the gap” refers to the process of enabling struggling students to academically reach the same level of highachievment students.

information tav exit presentation

Why Tackle This Practice?

What Has East Done? n

Met all indications on the Ohio Local

Report Card n

Awarded level of “Excellence with

Distinction” n

The 2009-10 attendance rate is

unchanged and graduation rate has gone up The sophomore grade pod formation

n

A teacher was concerned that the

bottom one-third of students are not served n

The 2010 High Schools That Work

Possible Recommendations n

Special education and non-special

education teachers should plan instruction together

Student Assessment showed that certain

n

Monitor students’ achievement.

students’ scores are below basic (30

n

Regroup students or classes to enhance

percent below in reading, 24 percent below

learning Review current inclusion model to

in mathematics and 27 percent below in

n

amid special education students with

science)

ensure that students are served in a less

common core teachers

n

n

Students’ mean scores were below

restricted environment

high-performing schools with similar demographics

11 | Spark | lehsspark.org

news | east news

Among those enjoying the smooth jazz at the fifth annual East Jazz Swing Dance were East junior Jared McMillan, East junior Ainsley Ellison (left), East junior Sara Rayburn and little sister Brooke Rayburn (center) and East senior Emily Cottingham and East senior Trevor Williams (right).

Jumpin’ Jazz The East Upbeat Club’s fifth annual swing dance attracted band and non-band students from all across the area. story michael tedesco | photos sierra whitlock

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he East cafeteria surged with professional dance instructions, live music and an ambitious “dance-off ” competition at the fifth annual East Jazz Swing Dance on Jan. 22.

The event was a fundraiser by the East Upbeat Club, the band booster organization that supports the concert bands, jazz bands and marching band.

Upbeat Club chairwoman for the East Swing Dance Laurie McKenna cited the reason for hosting this event as wanting “to see the East band be as successful as they can; that’s why we’re trying to raise as much money as [possible].”

Last year, the dance netted $5,484 for the bands after accounting for expenses. According to McKenna, this year an additional $400 will have to be paid to East in order to hold it at the school.

McKenna hoped to overcome the expense obstacle and net the same amount of profit this year for the band program.

This year 20 baskets were donated from various buisnesses in the area, such as Jet’s

Pizza and The Web, as a part of the raffle.

According to Cindy Dawson, who was in charge of the raffle, the baskets raised about $900.The donations allowed the raffle baskets to provide “pure profit,” said Dawson.

Another parent donating her time was Upbeat Club member and East parent Jennifer Moak. She returned for the third year to

proved otherwise. The cafeteria was full of people of all ages, swing dancing to the band’s jazz tunes.

“Music is something that speaks to everyone in a way, so it is only natural for a large variety of people to come, because of the universal appeal music has,” said East junior and Eastside Jazz Ensemble lead trumpeter Michael Dudley.

Dudley believed that the dance was popular because it was unique compared to other events in the community.

“Most dances play pop music that people hear everyday. But jazz music isn’t really on the forefront on the radio. It allows people to escape to a time and place where having fun was the business and jazz was the name of the musical game,” said Dudley.

According to East junior and Eastside Jazz Ensemble drummer Nick Hach all five East jazz bands played at the dance, and performed 22 songs.

As a fourth-year East Swing Dance attendee, East senior Dan Rieman preferred

”Music is something

that speaks to everyone in a way...”

12 | Spark | February 14, 2011

manage the East Swing Dance’s decorations.

According to Moak, about $150 was spent to transform the cafeteria to a dance floor, with most of the money spent on table covers and helium for the balloons.

McKenna worried that the weather would keep people away, but the event’s turn out

jazz events over other dances due to jazz’s medium tempo.

“I wish they played swing tunes at prom.

You don’t have to rush, but at the same time it’s not a slow dance. Nobody is grinding and it’s fantastic,” said Riemen.

The dance was not just for East students.

East parents Susan and Jim Vachon returned this year for their second East Swing Dance.

“I enjoy the music, and I enjoy getting the lessons. I wish they would do the lessons even more,” said Jim. “It is a great organization and the the people who run [the dance] do a great job; it’s highly organized. It’s been a great experience,” said Susan.

East students weren’t the only ones welcome to the event. Lakota West sophomore Sarah Klimek returned this year for her second East Swing Dance, last year even skipping her school’s winter formal to attend. After having a great time, she returned for more jazz and dancing this year.

East alumni Kavya Sreevalsan and Dan Garrett, reigning two-year dance champions,

wish they played ”Iswing tunes at prom. Nobody is grinding and it’s fantastic.”

did not return to defend their title this year.

“I want to give the chance to someone else.

I’ve had my time,” said Sreevalsan.

She describes her favorite East Swing Dance moment from when she and her partner won their junior year.

“It was an awesome experience, because I wasn’t expecting to win,” she said.

Sreevalsan’s advice to contestants was to “just have fun, smile and work the audience.”

After three hours of practice, the time for the dance competition had arrived. As the band played their traditional “Sing Sing Sing,” the dance floor flooded with contestants.

Judges Rob Tanis and William Thomas circled the floor, tapping contenders on the shoulder to tell them they were eliminated.

One by one, the crowd shrunk until only three couples remained. As the crowd cheered, the judges closely inspected the dancers’ moves until a final decision was made. University of Cincinnati freshman Steve Guard and East junior Natasia Reinhardt walked off the dance floor victorious.

First-time winners Guard and Reinhardt only practiced once with nothing but a YouTube video.

“It was that easy,” said Guard. n

How to Swing with Style infographic nathan dibble, michael tedesco, sierra whitlock

1

The first step to Eastern swing dance is to start in closed position. This involves standing parallel to your partner. One hand should rest on the waist of your partner and other in your partner’s hand.

2

The next step is the forward step. Both partners step out in the same direction and lean in the direction of the step.

3

The third step returns the partners to the closed position in preparation for the next step.

The tricky move to the basic Eastern swing is the rock step or “back step.”

Both partners step backwards with their front foot while shifting the weight off their back foot.

4 Ready for More...The Dip

The Dip is a classy way to end a song with your partner. As the music comes to a close, the male partner will lean the woman down toward the ground while supporting the back and neck.

13 | Spark | lehsspark.org

news | east news

APP and ISS are designed to continue students’ education even when they are out of the classroom. story ameera khalid | infographic irfan ibrahim

While we have to have punishment for poor behavioral choices, it’s important that education continues.

”

handled the situation better, and then Moore offers each student some “friendly advice.”

He also opens his door for students struggling with any problems. Often times, students who have been in ISS or APP assignment come to him if they are having trouble with a teacher or another student.

Moore hoped that students will view him as an advocate for them, not just a disciplinarian.

“If a student is having issues with a teacher or another student, they can come talk to me and we can work it out,” said Moore. “I want them to look at me in a positive light, as an advocate for them.” n

In-School Suspension (ISS)

Alternative Placement Program (APP)

Time

What Sets ISS Apart From APP

During regular school hours

Hours from 2 to 5 p.m. at Lakota West Main Campus

Make-up work (research projects, quizzes, etc.)

Make-up work while working with counselors

information lakota app director dana martin

14 | Spark | February 14, 2011

“They’re just excited because they don’t have to come in until 2:00 p.m. and get to sleep in,” said Bryan. “They don’t realize that APP is just so they don’t fail their classes. It’s actually a benefit for them.”

Although Bryan has only been to ISS once in sixth grade, he think ISS is a much more effective punishment than APP. “You don’t get early leave. You just have to sit [there] and work. You can’t talk to anyone,” said Bryan.

However, 33 percent out of 540 surveyed East students did not believe that ISS serves as an effective deterrent for poor behavior.

“Usually students either hate ISS or love it,” said Kloesz. “I’ve had students come to me after an ISS and say, ‘I hate this, I never want to go back.’ Then I’ve had kids come in for a minor offense and say, ‘Can you just give me a day of ISS?’ They see it as a day to catch up on work.”

Isolation from their peers is what kids hate about ISS, according to Kline.

“Many of the behaviors that result in these consequences are social in nature,” said Kline.

“It could be that the social aspect of school is getting in the way of the academic. So taking them out of the mainstream of the school can be a deterrent for some students.”

ISS sessions are usually mild: chatting in the hall and running late to class according to James Moore, East ISS supervisor and the APP supervisor for East, Liberty Junior,

Acitivity

S

everal students arrived at the East homecoming football game on Sept.

24 under the influence of alcohol.

According to rule 21 in the East student handbook, the punishment for offenders is expulsion unless an alternative punishment is determined for first-time offenders. As they were first-time offenders, the students were assigned to the Alternative Placement Program (APP) for 10 days.

APP stands as the alternative for Out-ofSchool-Suspension (OSS), according to East Principal Dr. Keith Kline. It allows students to be punished and kept out of school, while providing them with the opportunity to make up the missed work. While a student assigned OSS for 10 days would simply miss school and be unable to make up that work, a student in APP goes to school from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and receives his or her work, makes up tests and even completes assignments such as research projects on the computer.

“We use APP because it includes several academic and student-focused supports, whereas OSS is strictly punitive,” said East Assistant Principal Christopher Kloesz.

Kline shares a similar sentiment.

“While we have to have punishment for poor behavioral choices, it’s important that education continues,” said Kline.

According to Kloesz, the three administrators that assign In-School Suspension (ISS) and APP—Eric Bauman, Rick Haynes and himself—only assign two or three APPs each month.

“The majority of APP assignments are for 10 days, due to the nature of the violations which merit APP, and because APP is an alternative to out-of-school suspension,” said Kloesz, who estimated that on-campus drug and alcohol violations are the most common offenses that land students in APP. Aside from drug and alcohol violations or any other level-four offense, any level two or three offenses, which are more serious in nature than common classroom disruption and tardiness, can land a student in ISS or APP, depending on the severity. A repeated level one offense can result in an ISS as well.

East senior Fillip Bryan, who has friends who have been to APP and has been in ISS once this year, said that many students do not see APP as a punishment.

”

Substituting Suspension

Hopewell Junior, Wokini Options Academy and the East Freshman Campus. Moore sees an average of two to three kids a day in the ISS room, although it can range from zero to six students. They are usually assigned ISS for truancy or disrespecting a teacher.

Although seven percent of the 540 students surveyed admit to having been placed in ISS this year, Moore estimates that only 20 percent of all students that come for ISS return a second time. According to Kloesz, the percentage of students who return to APP a second time is under 10 percent.

Moore believed that the conversations he has with ISS and APP students has a great deal to do with the effectiveness of the programs.

According to Moore, students in both ISS and APP discuss the reasons for their punishment with him. They explore how they could have

feature | dart

Laughs with Matt story alyssa davis | photo sierra whitlock

East sophomore Matt King lays across his family’s lap, showing their playful and outgoing attitude.

E

With more than 170,000 views, East sophomore Matt King’s viral video has been viewed arond the world and has landed him a spot on multiple TV shows—even in foriegn countries.

very boy wanted a Wii that year,” house in Maryland where the family celebrated says Andrea King.

Each issue the Spark staff picks a that Christmas. Because it cost around $7,000 And on Christmas 2007, East random East student and covers a for the family to fly out to California and to unique aspect of his or her life. sophomore Matt King got his long pay for the pageant, the kids were told that awaited Wii. But that Christmas they should not expect the same kind of meant more than just getting a video game console. On that day, the Christmas that they had grown accustomed to.

King family filmed a video that became a YouTube sensation. But the When the King children opened their gifts on Christmas morning, video’s popularity did not end on YouTube. In the past three years, however, they were all surprised to find more than they expected— the video has attained over 170,000 views and sparked the interest of Rachel received a laptop and Sarah received an American Girl Doll. But multiple broadcasting companies around the globe. neither Rachel’s nor Sarah’s reactions could parallel the pure jubilation The story behind the whirlwind of emotion that is the “Wii for that Matt showcased.

Christmas” video began around Thanksgiving 2007.

After peeling away the paper to reveal the infamous white box with “[Wiis] were in high demand and I could not find one anywhere. simple grey lettering, Matt began to cry hysterically as if he were hurt. As Walmart would have some, then I would go, and they would be sold he cried and gripped the box to his chest, he rocked back and forth and out again,” says Mrs. King. “We were in Anaheim, CA for [my daughter screamed. Matt was so excited that he started to gag and had to leave the Sarah’s] pageant, and there was another mom sitting next to me [on a room to throw up. tour bus] and we were talking about Christmas gifts. I said, ‘My son “When I first opened it, I thought it was just a box for the Wii,” says wants a Wii but I can’t find any.’ She told me that she could get me a Wii Matt, whose family is well-known for their joking antics. “One Christmas because they had them everywhere in New Jersey. So she got her phone I had gotten a heater box as a gift, and I really thought that it was a out of her purse and dialed her friend. Within 40 minutes, her friend had heater. So after Christmas, my parents told me to open it up. There was bought a Wii for me.” actually a laptop in it.”

Mrs. King’s friend shipped the Wii to Ohio and when the family The whole Wii event was caught on tape. Since uploading “Wii for returned from California she wrapped the gift and took it to her mother’s Christmas” in January 2008, the video has been featured on Channel 9

15 | Spark | lehsspark.org

feature | dart News, Fox and Friends and TruTV’s Holidays from Hell. Matthew King, Matt’s father, says that it was “providence” that they had not sent the video to America’s Funniest Home Videos (AFV) because the family would not own the video anymore and Matt could not have made any money off of it. Since Matt uploaded the video, he has made around $5,000 from multiple broadcasting companies both in and outside of the U.S. “It was Mom’s idea to upload it. Dad kept saying, ‘Once you upload it, you can’t get it back,’” says Matt.

Mr. King did not mind the idea of uploading the video, but he wanted his son to understand that he could never escape it.

“I wanted to make sure he understood that if we posted [the video], that it would played at his graduation, bachelor party and wedding,” says Mr. King. “The video would follow him for the rest of his life.”

Yet the international attention that the video has received is even more impressive. An anonymous Japanese broadcaster hired a producer to come to Ohio and film a background story for Matt’s video with actors and actresses instead of the actual family.

“It is a two-hour program with a whole bunch of video clips, kind of like an AFV,” says Mr. King. “There are about 60 clips total and a studio audience. Out of all of the videos, there were three that they were doing a deep background story on; Matthew’s was one of the three. It is like American Idol where they stop every once in a while and show the [contestant’s] backgrounds and their hometowns.”

Unlike American Idol or AFV, the whole show will have Japanese voice-overs and will not be shown in the United States. Actors and actresses from around the area came to the King house to film the story.

One of the actresses, Mariah White, is an eighth grader at Lakota Plains Junior School.

“One lady came right through the front door of the house—she thought that this was a studio,” says Mrs. King. “They got a phone call late Wednesday night asking them to video on Friday. They had no idea what they were doing.”

Though Matt’s reaction in the video was surprising and extraordinary to most viewers on YouTube, Mr. King says that that is how his son acts all the time, “over the top, fun and crazy—unpredictable.” Matt’s crazy personality led him to learn a “greeting” for the Japanese producers coming to his house.

“When the Japanese people came here, I wanted to learn something to say to them. So I used Google Translator,” says Matt. “The phrase I learned was, ‘Hello and welcome. I like to fart.’ After the first part, the producer lady was impressed. Then after the second part, she was confused.”

Matt King clutching his brand new Wii during his infamous YouTube video.

16 | Spark | February 14, 2011

The Japanese producer paid the family for using their home for filming. The Kings were interviewed by the producers for their film after the actors had replayed the events leading up to the release of the YouTube video.

“The filming day started at 9:00 a.m. for the actors. They started out at the toy store and then they came to our house,” says Matt’s older sister East junior Rachel King, who found out that the actors had not even seen the video before that day. “They filmed the mom getting the Wii from the UPS guy, wrapping it and trying to hide it from the kid.”

Though the King family call themselves “crazy” and “weird,” that is not their main focus in their lives, nor was it the main focus behind that Christmas.

“We already knew it was going to be a light Christmas,” says Mr. King. “Rachel wanted a laptop really bad so I was talking to a friend of mine. I asked him to keep an eye out for a used laptop that is still in pretty good condition. He told me that he had one and that I could have it. I was looking for something to buy—I told him to let me give him something for it. He told me to take it and put a couple hundred bucks in the offering plate [at church] on Christmas. We took the laptop, but we decided that dropping money in the offering plate was too easy—we wanted to give something back to the community.”

The Kings then took the money and put it toward various community service projects. After the family returned home from Christmas in Maryland, they filmed a video for Mr. King’s friend who gave them the laptop, talking about what they had done with the money. The family had decided to go to Mt. Lake Park, MD, where the average income was $30,000 to do the service work.

“We sat down with the kids to teach them how much they made and how much things cost like insurance and rent,” says Mrs. King.

“Before we were even done showing them, Matthew interrupted and said, ‘There is not much [money] left. What do they live on?’ So they had an understanding going up there.”

The family spent $50 to buy a pregnant woman a coat for the winter, and then each child was given $60 to pay for one person’s groceries at the local food market.

Matthew and Rachel were nervous about paying, but their father encouraged them to just wait at the cash register to find someone. Matt, however, was more aggressive in his pursuit of a family.

“I had my eye on this elderly couple so I followed them around the store,” says Matt. “The woman was in a wheelchair and her husband, wearing a Santa hat, had one hand on her chair and the other on the cart.

They took forever.”

Matt sits with the young boy that played him in the “Wii for Christmas” backgroud video.

Though Matt could have chosen anyone in the store, he would only pay for this particular couple’s food.

“Rachel and I were already done, so we told him to find someone else, but he said, ‘No. I am paying for their food,’” says Sarah.

The family also spent part of their Christmas at a local nursing home visiting and talking with the patients.

“It was interesting to walk in and see how none of the families were there to see the residents,” says Rachel. “You would think that all of their families would be there talking to their grandpas or uncles. That Christmas, it wasn’t a tangible gift—it was the gift of making someone else happy.”

Mrs. King says that though they are a passionate family, Matt is particularly emotional. When his sister Sarah won the pageant in California, Matt was sitting in his seat with his head in his hands. When

King family has a summer home in Gatlinburg, TN, and every year they travel down for vacation, they go to a comedy theater and see Baker perform.

“Matthew picked up his routine and the next time we went down there, Matthew showed Billy his routine,” says Sarah. “Billy said, ‘Alright, you are coming on stage with me at intermission.’ So [every summer we went down there], he would always perform [a comedy routine] at the theater.”

Mrs. King says that ever since Matt was about five years old, Baker really “took Matt under his wing and encouraged him.” “[Baker] is the person we would accredit with Matt’s love for comedy and theater,” says Rachel. “Sometimes kids would ask Matt for his autograph after performing for intermission. He has a Forrest Gump sort of life. The weirdest things happen to him at just the right times. He is the luckiest kid that I know. Once we were creek stomping and he just found a $20 bill in the water.

He will win the lottery.”

Though Matt is undeniably lucky, he also has considerable talent and has used it to entertain his classmates and peers. Matt has found his niche in talent shows, where his crazy and over-the-top attitude helps him win. “[In the eighth grade talent show], I came out in this button-up jumpsuit and I said that I had done every sport except for one,” says Matt.

“Music started to play and the lights came on. I ripped off the jumpsuit and underneath I had on a sparkly tutu from a third grader and started to do a cheerleader routine.”

As little kids, the King siblings would dress up and put on plays for their family and even for their church. Because they spent so much time on these productions, the family has acquired tons of costumes and wigs over the years.

“I found this wig that looked just like Mrs. Lafranke, our assistant principal,” says Matt, who was the Liberty Elementary student council vice president and made morning announcements. “And every morning on the announcements the camera would start on her face then slowly pan over to me with the big wig on.”

Though Matt’s life is full of humor and entertainment, he and his family swear that the emotions in the video are genuine. Although Matt does not still play with his Wii, he has made enough money off of the video to buy his own car.

And just like every 11-year-old boy wanted a Wii in 2007, every boy Matt’s age now wants his own car. n

He has a Forrest Gump sort of life. The weirdest things happen to him at just the right times. they called her name, Matt ran up onto stage past security to give her a hug. Matt’s enthusiastic hug broke Sarah’s crown seconds after it was placed on her head.

“The crown had been on her head for about five seconds and he knocked it off and broke it when he hugged her,” says Mr. King.

Though Matt was not intended to be on the stage that day, his sister Rachel says that if there is a stage in the room, Matt will find his way onto it. Matt has been in numerous school plays including The Mouse that Roared, School House Rock and Oliver. Matt’s funny personality usually gives him the roles that involve a lot of humor.

“When I was in The Mouse that Roared, I was the announcer and I had to use different voices for a scene where the characters were trying to tune a radio,” says Matt, who plays piano, guitar, alto saxophone and baritone saxophone. “One time I would speak in an English accent, then an Indian or Russian or French accent.”

Though Matt loves theater productions, he wants to be a comedian when he is older. His family compares his comedy and antics to Jim Carrey’s. Matthew, however, did not learn his comedy from Carrey but instead from Billy Baker, a Ringling Brother’s clown, Clown Hall of Fame inductee and a comedian at a theater in Pigeon Forge, TN. The

Famous clown Billy Baker and Matt pose for the camera in Pigeon Forge, TN.

As a cowboy, young Matt dresses-up and shows his love for play-acting.

photos used with written permission of the King family

17 | Spark | lehsspark.org

feature | community feature

The

Sweet Life story jenn shafer | photos sierra whitlock

Thomas and Nicolas Aglemesis established a place of hand-churned ice cream and delicious treats over 100 years ago. Although they came from the other side of the world, the Aglamesis brothers have found their place in Norwood, Montgomery and now Liberty Township.

t

iny hands reach for the antique handle on the black door with pink accents. As the knob turns, the door is swung open, revealing a pink and white striped canopy on the far side with Tiffany chandeliers and a high ceiling made of molded tin squares. The sweet aroma instantly tantalizes the nose. Young hands dirty the glass behind which rows of unique, hand-made candies are waiting. Special-recipe ice cream is being scooped behind a counter on the other side of the aisle.

For over 100 years, Aglamesis Brothers, an authentic ice cream parlor and candy shop, has been serving the Cincinnati area with its special formulas created when the founders came to America.

“Aglamesis was set up and established in 1908 with the first store in Norwood. Thomas and Nicolas Aglamesis came from Sparta, Greece and worked in the old arcade downtown,” says the 83-year-old son of Thomas and current president of the corporation James Aglamesis.

“They got their training there and worked there for five to six years [before] opening the first store in Norwood.”

Originally known as The Metropolitan, the two brothers began the business by churning their own ice cream by hand and added candy to the menu soon after opening. The current location in Oakley was the second shop opened by the brothers in 1913. They sold the original store during the Great Depression, changing to their present name of Aglamesis Brothers. The business has expanded to another location in Montgomery, opened in 1970, and is also sold at Sweet Spot in The Web Extreme Entertainment Center on Cincinnati-Dayton Road.

Not only is the business expanding throughout the area, but as customers move throughout the country, they carry their favorite family traditions with them.

“We’ve had third and fourth generation families come in here,” says James. “There are people who have lived in Cincinnati and moved out of town and we get orders from them across the country. We ship ice cream and candy all over [the U.S.].”

Aglamesis Brothers was a hot spot for young couples back in the day, but it has now become a prime place for families and was started as a family-owned business. This tradition has continued through the third generation, including James’ children Dianne Lytle and Randy Young, also helping in the store. “[There have been] three generations of family working it,” says James’ step-son and Vice President of the corporation Randy Young.

“It’s not a reproduction—this is the real deal. Both in the way that our shop looks, as well as how the products are made, we haven’t changed much in these many decades. The formulas and recipes that Thomas and Nicolas came up with are the same.”

James was not always convinced, however, that he would stick with the business. After Nicolas passed away and Thomas became ill, James decided to stay with the shop at least for a little while.

“When I returned from the Korean conflict in 1952, I had no desire to be in this business. As soon as I came back from the Korean conflict in September, my father had a stroke four weeks later,” says James. “With his dedication and hard work all those years, I felt I should stay with the business while he was alive. I stayed with it, thinking maybe I would not pursue it. But I did.”

James has been in the business his whole life, even as a child. Since he has taken over, the business has continued to run smoothly with the same recipes and traditions as when the ice cream parlor began so long ago.

“It’s the quality we’ve maintained from the beginning. It’s a pure

It’s not a reproduction— this is the real deal.

18 | Spark | February 14, 2011

With original decorations, the Aglamesis Brothers’ ice cream and candy shop sells such items as home-made lollipos, rock candy and malt balls.

operation with quality and products,” says James. “We upheld all of the technology, but the basic premise—the formulas, recipes—are all the formulas for the family and did that from ’52 on. The stores atmosphere same. We’re making sure that technology doesn’t change any aspect has been retained in its original form where we continue to preserve it.” of the ice cream,” says Young. “It’s one thing to be using modern Although James’ health prevents him from fully participating in technology. But we don’t want it to change the way the ice cream feels or the production of the ice cream, he stays involved by overseeing his tastes in the mouth.” employees and manufacturing. He is responsible for supervising the The originality of the shop makes the experience different than a retail and plant staff and does mostly office work. James continues to normal, modern-day ice cream place. The history behind the shop gives help wherever he can, however, despite his title. His children follow with it a more personal touch that entices customers. the same outlook.

“It’s like a step back in time,” says first-time customer Traci McElveen.

“In small businesses, titles don’t mean anything,” says Young. “We “It’s all of the original floors from 1914 and the original marble. [My] have a title but it means virtually nothing. What’s more appropriate is we kids got a real kick out of looking at the grains of marble that were in all do everything. One moment I’m fixing the computer, next minute I’m the pictures and comparing them. It’s neat; there are not many places like making ice cream and the next, I’m literally sweeping the floor. That’s the this where you can see how life used to be.” nature of a small operation.”

The Aglamesis Brothers in Oakley is the oldest, original ice cream The confections found at Aglamesis are made in the plant built parlor in the tri-state area. One of Aglamesis Brothers’ greatest in 1922 behind the shop. There the cream, honey, eggs and sugar are competitors, Graeter’s, was actually founded before Aglamesis, but the churned together and kept cold at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The flavors are original shops are no longer functioning. added later to make the specialty ice creams that keeps families returning.

The two ice cream corporations recently went head to head on “I love interacting with the people by waiting on tables and serving national television on the Food Network’s new show “Food Feuds.” the customers,” says two-year employee John Dwyer, a senior at Summit Aglamesis may have lost the competition, but their ice cream and Country Day High School. candies are still noted and the “Nobody is ever mad. When workers take pride in each people come in, everyone is home-made treat. in a good mood.”

“I think the authenticity Infographic sami knauft, jenn shafer Not only does the taste of it and the way it has been keep customers coming preserved [makes it unique],” back for more, but the says James. “I don’t see friendly atmosphere plays where we could do anything a key factor in bringing additional, except maybe put people into the shop, a huge in new wallpaper.” role in helping the business Generations of survive even during tough customers pass through the economic times. doors and introduce old The basic ice cream mix is made The ice cream is made from “This place has been traditions to their children in a huge refrigerator vat by all-natural ingredients, including here for as long I have been and grandchildren. The churning all of the ingredients fresh cream, milk, eggs, sugar, together. The flavors are then honey and a little gelatin. here,” says Dwyer. “I live small hands take the ice added individually into the mix. in Oakley and I remember cream cup and look at it with passing it all the time and anticipation. The young boy The cream is then transferred coming here as a family.” smiles up at his grandmother. from the vat into a machine, where it is placed into a box and Aglamesis Brothers is “[The best part is] having frozen in a batch freezer. Before served, it is placed in a warmer holding on to old traditions, families enjoy themselves and freezer to soften the ice cream. and proving that newer having young people, little The ice cream is then ready things are not always better. boys and little girls, come to be served. Each pint and ice cream cone is handAglamesis uses the latest in with their bright, smiling scooped for the customer. refrigerant technology, but faces and serving them when the formulas and charming they are young,” says James. atmosphere remain the “All the compliments we same. receive from so many people “We’ve kept up with is very gratifying.” n

Making the Sweet Treats

19 | Spark | lehsspark.org

feature | student feature

a figure of grandeur The injuries that ice skating can cause may keep some people off of the ice for good. But for East senior Kristen Shulz, the risks are nothing compared to the reward of the sport. story and infographic devin casey | photo eric muenchen

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he takes a deep, fortifying breath. As she waits to step onto the ice, she runs through the intricate footwork and sharp turns of the routine in her mind. She watches with sweaty palms as girls much older than her walk off the ice hanging their heads.

The feeble skater steps onto the ice and announces to the judges that she will be performing the difficult “senior moves,” the last level of “moves” for technical footwork.

She immediately begins the routine, executing each edge and turn perfectly. As she mesmerizes the judges with her performance, her concentration is unable to be broken. She skids to a sudden stop and smiles brightly at the judges who applaud the effort of the young 12-year-old.

East senior Kristen Schulz incorporates into a routine the same sharp turns, jumps and revolutions that she learned when she was 12-yearsold at high speeds while landing on the same quarter-inch thick blades.

Every day, the bell rings at 2:39 p.m. and Schulz heads to Sports Plus.

Immediately she begins stretching before stepping onto the ice to practice loop jumps, Axel jumps, Salchows and footwork for two hours.

She only stops when the zamboni comes to clean the rink.

Her parents Mark and Marianne Schulz find it hard to watch Kristen performing maneuvers that Michelle Kwan, Kristen’s favorite skater,

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East senior Kristen Schulz gracefully practices skating during her daily training.

may have had trouble with when she was younger.

“It is very stressful to watch her skate,” says Marianne, who enrolled Kristen in her first lessons when the Schulz family lived in North Carolina.

“We obviously want her to do really well and are very supportive, but skating is just such a physically demanding sport. Sometimes I feel it would be safer for her to stop.”

Marianne’s concerns are not unfounded; in the 2010-11 school year Kristen has suffered multiple injuries, including a tear of her medial collateral ligament (MCL) of her left knee, which left her disabled for seven weeks.

Yet Kristen continues to work hard.

“I had to miss the regionals competition this year because of injuries.

It was a really important competition, probably the biggest one of the year,” says Kristen, who has not competed recently but plans to be in a local competition in February. “I am eager to get back into preparing routines, because as far as I can remember, I have always loved skating.”

Kristen started private lessons when she was six years old, learning spins and jumps, and soon began competing in front of a panel of judges. But she still recalls her first step on the icy stage when her father, a former ice hockey athlete, held her hand as she vigorously scrambled to maintain her balance.

Today she has won gold numerous times. But since she has increased

the difficulty of her maneuvers, she has fallen more. The falls on the tough ice have bruised her hip, back and other areas, causing her to miss several competitions. She returned to the ice in August 2010, but was unable to prepare a three-minute routine with her technical choreography coaches in time for an October competition.

“Going fast, jumping, doing two or three turns and landing on a thin blade—falls and injuries are expected,” says Kristen’s technique and jump coach David Goodman, who coaches 30 skaters, including 14 on a national and international level. “But Kristen sees injuries as an opportunity to work on different details and optimize her time.”

During her time away from the rink, Kristen worked on her off-ice training to build endurance. She started stretching more, doing aerobics and dancing while finding different means to take her mind off of her bruised hip and knees.

While she put the skates away for a while, Kristen focused more on her other hobbies, including playing the piano and guitar. She has taken piano lessons every week since sixth grade and performs recitals in addition to her ice shows and competitions, leaving her with a hectic schedule.

If she is not hustling to music practice after skating, she does her office training or focuses on school work. This routine occurs every day of the week, but she also takes a ballet class at the University of Cincinnati (UC) every Saturday in order to aid her balance on the ice.

“I am very determined and just never want to stop,” says Kristen. “I always want to do more, despite my skating-related injuries.”

Injuries have never kept Kristen from continuing to pile on activity after activity. Since she started skating competitively, she has appeared in several competitions every year. She has traveled across America to skate in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and New York.

“She is very tough on herself, which is a great quality for a competitive skater,” says Goodman. “She is definitely one of the more serious skaters I have worked with. If you ever met anyone as determined as her, you can never consider any injury a ‘career-ending injury.’”

On Dec. 17, Kristen’s first ice show since her MCL injury, she did not utilize any jumps for the first time in a choreographed routine. Since then, she has already begun working with her coaches on a routine that she choreographed herself while getting back into the groove of her year-round practicing.

Now that Kristen is back on the ice in the middle of her senior year, she is certain that she will be skating alongside her career. Despite her mother’s warnings, she keeps skating.

“Sometimes I just want to say, ‘enough is enough,’” says Marianne.

“The injuries have taken a physical toll on her over the years, but she knows what she wants to do [after high school] and has already persevered through the hardships.”

Kristen plans to continue skating as a UC Bearcat while doublemajoring in health education and political science.

While Kristen plans to enter the field of physical therapy or law, she says skating will always be close to her heart. She attributes her interest in physical therapy to her personal ambition to stay on the ice and out of the hospital.

Maintaining the same drive and determination she had in her “senior moves” performance, Kristen attributes her love for the unique sport to the idea that the typical athlete her age can not even skate and debunking the myth that skaters are not true athletes.

“Skaters train hours a day, endure great amounts of stress and pain and put in just as much or even more effort than a typical athlete does,” says Kristen. “I enjoy skating because of the excitement and the difficulty. Most people are unable to even skate, and I like the fact that I can do somethiwng most people cannot.” n

“[With Kristen], you can never consider any injury a careerending injury.”

Triple Salchow Know-How The triple salchow is one of more difficult moves a figure skater can perform. It is even incorporated at the international level.

1. Before the maneuver, one leg is is extended backwards and scoops forward to give the skater more lift.

2. The skater jumps from the back inside edge of either foot.

3. The arms are kept close to the body during rotations.

4. The skater performs three revolutions in the air.

5. After landing, the arms are extended to optimize balance.

6. The skater lands on the back outside edge of the opposite foot he or she took off from.

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Pills for Thought With mental illness and prescription drugs becoming increasingly prevalent in our modern society, stigmas surrounding disorders and medication have forced individuals and groups to cope with the facts. *Names of sources have been changed for confidentiality

Signing for a Bottle

It’s all about the quick fix.

Society today is running on a medical system that is so advanced, there are medications for nearly every illness, from insomnia to depression to attention deficit disorder.

People slave over their prescription medications to a point where they are hopelessly dependent on that next refill bottle every single month. The multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry impresses a numbing routine on its loyal customers, who before even considering alternative methods of care, are immediately reaching for the computer mouse and self-diagnosing their complications. Names like Vicodin, Ritalin, Paxil and Celexa are a godsend to people.

And yet when used unnecessarily and in excess, they are a godforsaken curse.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 130 million Americans consume prescribed medication every single month. The pharmaceutical consulting company IMS Health cites that more than 3.5 billion prescriptions are filled every single year—much more medicine than any other country in the world.

“Each new room is a challenge; 75 percent of my patients [come in to ask for prescriptions],” says urgent care physician Dr. Emil Kirovski. “Most patients do research on the Internet and assume the worst. If it’s a viral infection, no medicine will work.”

Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, which are just protein-coated capsules of genetic material, a cross between living beings and pure chemicals. Antibiotic drugs, which usually interfere with the cell wall, organelles of a bacterium

and their ability to reproduce, cannot “kill” these infections.

“People paying from their pocket will not accept being told there’s no medicine [for viral infections],” says Kirovski.

“But people will still go immediately to someone else in order to get the drugs they want.”

Pediatrician Dr. Madhavi Delsignore, who frequently diagnoses the viral infections of her patients, says that parents often do not understand that viruses are immune to antibiotics, despite physicians’ efforts to make parents aware that antibiotics cannot be prescribed for these situations.

“Viral infections require systematic treatment, which means comfort measures such as fluids, rest and time,” says Delsignore. “Parents are very much about the ‘immediate fix’ for their kids.”

Furthermore, the problem is made worse by the fact that today’s busy society encourages instant gratification.

“It’s so lucrative because parents and patients in general want something quick to make themselves feel better,” says Delsignore, citing that in today’s fast-paced society, adults do not have the time to deal with a slow and grueling healing process. “It’s sad because in other countries, people are not [penalized] for staying home with their sick child—that’s expected. But in the U.S., that’s not acceptable to employers.”

Kirovski says that the blame for society’s dependence on drugs is partly the physicians’ fault. Doctors need to “spend more time with their patients” and “shouldn’t be intimidated by the 10-minute time slot of their schedule.”

As an experienced physician, Kirovski takes many factors

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into account before he diagnoses illnesses and prescribes medication to his patients, including clinical presentation, prevalent symptoms and the sickness seasonality. There are even some drugs that Kirovski will hardly consider prescribing due to their dangerous side effects and high addictive potential. These drugs, especially Vicoden and Percocet, are derivatives of opiates known as narcotics, which block pain receptors in the central nervous system.

Finding the balance between the risk and benefit of drugs is a double-edged sword to many of today’s physicians. Over 125,000 Americans die each year due to drug interactions and complications, making pharmaceuticals the fourth leading national cause of death in the United States. Most doctors, however, believe that it is logical to say that drugs have helped generally improve the standard of living.

“Without drugs, about 30,000 Americans die from influenza every year. I don’t know whether the big drug companies are making too much money, but there will always be complications [with their prescription medication],” says Kirovski. “Sometimes, [the drugs] are just chemicals that we need in our body.”

He adds that the reason for the large number of drugrelated deaths is largely attributable to the sheer population growth of the United States and advanced healthcare system that the country implements.

“Modern medicine is incredible as far as improving the quality of life and improving longevity,” says Delsignore, “But a lot of studies today are showing that you can get the same effect with placebo.”

A significant number of Americans fall prey to the placebo effect in which people believe that they are sick when they actually are not. They are lulled into a sense of security knowing that ‘there’s a pill for that.’ Drugs left alone, Delsignore recommends that a “healthy lifestyle and healthy thinking can go a lot farther than just medication.”

One of the concerns of people today is whether society’s dependence on drugs is getting worse. According to IMS Health, prescription sales in the United States are projected to increase four percent, for a total of about $325 billion in revenue for prescription drug companies in 2011.

“Since the economy is bad now and people are struggling, I see a lot more psychiatric drug prescriptions,” says local retail pharmacist Steve Jones*. “But at the same time, there’s been an increase in the amount of doctor’s offices and pain management clinics locally, which definitely plays a big role.”

An even more concerning aspect of the pharmaceutical industry is that the rise in counterfeit prescription drug sales has contributed greatly to the profit of pharmaceutical drug companies according to the Center for Medicines in the Public Intrest. It projected that fake drug sales would increase up to 92 percent from 2005 to 2010.

“The drug enforcement and the police around here do a very good job notifying us ahead of time with pictures of people trying to pass forged prescriptions,” says the pharmacist.“They constantly send us names of people who are trying to get these drugs and we search our computers to check if we have prescriptions filled for them.”

One indicator of a forged prescription is a mismatch with the physician’s Drug Enforcement Administration

“These days, patients are products...and you need them to make money.”

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(DEA) number. A DEA number is a code assigned to a specific health care professional, which permits him or her to write prescriptions for controlled substances. Because electronic subscriptions are becoming more widespread and drug criminals are obtaining more sophisticated forging technologies, however, verifying the authenticity of a prescription becomes very difficult.

Apart from illegal drug trade, one of the concerns of the medical field is that some patients simply believe prescription drugs are safe, and they completely trust their doctor’s professional guidance. It is hard to tell how individual patients will react to drug treatments, no matter how experienced or trustworthy the physician.

A huge controversy lies in the pharmaceutical industry’s focus on encouraging physicians to prescribe their drugs rather than spending money on research. An expert survey conducted in 2008 shows that 85 percent of doctors said that they received free food along with other promotional gifts as expensive as laptops or free memberships at pharmaceutical company-sponsored lunches. Although the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America enacted a strict limit on the value of promotional gifts to doctors, the practice still continues.

Regardless of whether or not the pharmaceutical giants have good intentions, the industry is still a business and these businesses depend on money to run according to an anonymous physician. He provided chilling insight in what he believed was the result of the wrong turn the pharmaceutical industry has taken in recent years: “These days, patients are products,” he said. “It’s all about numbers, and you need numbers to make money.”

—Sean Lewis

Living with a Stigma She is an adventurer in life. Wavering through anxiety’s unpredictable quakes and mountaineering up depression’s steep peaks are her specialties. As all adventurers do, she carries a pack with the supplies she may need, while learning from the experts and looking to family and friends for support. From her teenage years until now, former account processor Linda Goebel says that she has overcome the mixed feelings caused by anxiety and depression, along with the stigmas that the general public often accepts concerning those issues.

“I think a lot of people do not understand the symptoms,” says Goebel. “Sometimes they are not compassionate or educated enough to know what is going on with someone.

They don’t really know what [people with mental illnesses] are going through.”

Though Goebel tries to maintain peace in her life through counseling and medication, she still has to deal with occasional panic attacks that are symptomatic of anxiety.

“All of a sudden, I feel my insides start to shake really bad. My heart starts beating fast and I start to perspire really, really bad,” says Goebel. “Once I take my medication, I relax quickly. Then I am so wiped out that I just fall asleep.”

Goebel is not alone in dealing with these symptoms.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately 40 million American adults have an anxiety disorder, many of whom also deal with depression.

Nasrallah explains that there are a wide variety of symptoms people like Goebel may experience when dealing with anxiety, including restlessness, pacing and the inability to sit still.

Percocet

Paxil

Prozac

Celexa

Generic Name: paroxetine Type of Drug: antidepressant Use: treats depression, obsessivecompulsive disorder, anxiety.

Generic Name: oxycodone Type of Drug: narcotic pain reliever Use: relieves moderate to severe pain.

Generic Name: citalopram Type of Drug: antidepressant Use: treats depression.

Generic Name: acetaminophen and hydrocodone Type of Drug: narcotic pain reliever Use: relieves moderate to severe pain

Zoloft

Generic Name: sertraline Type of Drug: antidepressant Use: treats depression, obsessivecompulsive disorder and anxiety.

information drugs.com

Generic Name: fluoxetine Type of Drug: antidepressant Use: treats depression, bulimia nervosa and obsessivecompulsive disorder.

Vicodin

Meds of the Mind infographic alyssa davis, nitya sreevalsan

“There are mental symptoms of anxiety, such as worry, rumination (pondering and meditation), fear and difficulty sleeping or focusing,” says Nasrallah. “However, there are also physical symptoms like palpitation (rapid beating of the heart), difficulty breathing, sweaty palms, butterflies in the stomach and dizziness.”

He says that depression also has numerous symptoms, including sadness for at least two weeks, a loss of pleasure in activities that were once found enjoyable and a sense of worthlessness or personal failure. Additionally, people with depression may have difficulty concentrating, have suicidal ideas or plans and have weight loss or weight gain.

“Sometimes, people with depression will burst into tears for no apparent reason,” says Nasrallah. “They may feel vague aches and pains all over the body and can have a severe lack in energy.”

All of these symptoms can make life exceedingly difficult for the people coping with them. Nasrallah explains that that psychiatric disorders are caused by an illness in brainpathways. People, however, still remain inconsiderate toward those who have mental illnesses.

“Mental illnesses still face discrimination and a [negative] stigma because many people still do not know they are brain disorders,” says Nasrallah.

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Butler County National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) executive director Sally Fiehrer agrees with Nasrallah. Fiehrer leads a local branch of the national NAMI organization, which has 1,200 affiliates. It is a completely volunteer-based organization offering support to people and their families who deal with mental illnesses.

Through advocacy, education, support groups and research, the group attempts to reduce stigmas about mental illnesses in society.

“These are illnesses that have carried over from times when research didn’t know these were brain disorders,” says Fiehrer. “Because nobody understood these illnesses until fairly recently, research has not funneled into the population yet, so people do not understand that they still are stigmatizing these illnesses.”

Fiehrer’s organization tries to diffuse common misconceptions: blaming the family for the illness and assuming that the person has bad character or believing that the person is evil or devil-possessed.

“We try to eliminate or reduce this stigma by giving people accurate information about these illnesses and the treatment possibilities,” says Fiehrer.

Goebel cannot recall a particular instance when someone behaved inconsiderately to her challenges, but does recognize that this is a problem that many people in her situation experience. Fortunately, other organizations such as Active Minds also work to alleviate the burdens of mental illness by making society aware of its connotative speech and actions.

Active Minds reaches out to college campuses to create a more open and knowledgeable discussion environment among young adults. It has student-led chapters located in many American college campuses, including The Ohio State University (OSU). Active Minds OSU President Neethi Johnson says that some of the group’s main goals are to promote awareness of mental health, to identify symptoms of mental illness and to direct students to local resources.

“We feel that knowing why, when and where to get help is extremely important and we do our best to connect students to their mental health needs,” says Johnson.

Both NAMI and Active Minds provide opportunities for people to get involved, such as fund-raisers and social events.

“We also host a community-wide 5K run and walk

called ‘Stomp Out Stigma,’ which is a healthy event to raise awareness in the community about student mental health,” says Johnson.

Similarly, NAMI holds an annual “Walk for the Minds of America” each October, with 300 to 400 participants. The group also hosts picnics, holiday parties and social clubs in which people and their families can become involved.

Active Minds’ event called “Kick Back at the RPAC” allows college students to enjoy food, games and other stress-relieving activities, while also providing information about mental health’s importance. Johnson says that young adults have the highest prevalence of diagnosable forms of mental illness.

While Active Minds reaches out to young adults, NAMI mainly addresses the stress placed upon families of those diagnosed.

“A lot of families end up taking care of their loved ones, and we help them learn how to set limits and boundaries, while also caring for themselves,” says Fiehrer.

Through organizations like NAMI and Active Minds, people can work to change the perspective and approach made to mental illnesses.

“There is no need to be embarrassed,” says Goebel.

“Just be honest, and let the chips fall.”—Sara Rayburn

New Campus, New Coping Jared Loughner is the reason U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is excited she can speak again. Jared Loughner is the reason the country stood at attention for days as Gabrielle Giffords fought for her life. He was the reason her family, friends and the rest of America thought she was dead.

Joel Garrison*, however, is the reason why the field of mechanical engineering will be taken by storm. Joel Garrison is the reason his roommate wakes up on time. Billy Garrison is the reason why sitting in the dining hall is so much fun.

Both Jared Loughner and Joel Garrison are college students. Both have a mental illness. But because Garrison is cognizant of his disorder and works to overcome the negative aspects of it, he is a trusted member of society.

Finding an association between coping with mental illnesses and becoming violent, many faculty and parents are becoming more concerned about the mental health of college students. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 55

How Pills Are Made infographic shivang patel

1

Water

Inactive Ingredients

Active Ingredients

Ingredients are measured and mixed into a moist granulator.

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2

3

The paste is then transferred to a drying oven.

The dried paste is transported from the moist granulator to the second granulator.

percent of Americans blame a failure in the mental health system for the shootings in Phoenix.

The transition from high school to college can be nervewracking for any teenager, but for the increasing number of students who arrive on campus with diagnoses of serious mental illnesses, coping with them on a college campus can be particularly tricky.

Students not only have to face struggles with classes and their social life, but they also struggle when deciding whether to use campus counseling services, whether to take medication and whether to reveal a disorder to colleagues or professors. Psychiatrists now say that severe mental illnesses are more common among college students than they were 10 years ago, with the majority of people seeking treatment for depression and anxiety.

A study shown by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that the amount of students on psychiatric medications increased more than 10 percent over the last 10 years. According to East nurse Sharon Frentzel, six students at East receive daily medication from the clinic for various conditions, while 16 students have access to medications in the event of an emergency.

University of Cincinnati psychiatrist Henry Nasrallah believes that this is because parents are now more accepting of the idea that their child has a mental disorder.

“In the ‘50s’ or ‘60s,’ if any boy or girl developed a mental disorder or behavior problems, they did not have much support of the parents,” says Nasrallah. “The guilt was enormous.”

Nasrullah explains that diagnosing involves more than just meeting with the student—a psychiatrist meets with parents and teachers too.

“The pediatrician is usually the first one who sees them,” says Nasrallah. “Sometimes parents take them to school counselors.”

When a child turns 18 and heads off to college, parents are not always able to contact the psychologist or counselor for information due to breach of confidentiality.

University of Dayton sophomore Garrison has suffered from bipolar disorder since he was six years old.

Garrison was encouraged by his parents to meet his college psychologist before arriving on campus because his parents were concerned about his transition into college, as he is generally bad when dealing with changes.

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“[Bipolar disorder] is a mood disorder that causes rapid change in demeanor,” explains Garrison. “The thing that weirds people out most about me is I can go from angry to completely normal really quickly. In the next moments after I am angry, I can be fine and go on with my day.”

Garrison often met with counselors during high school and sometimes with teachers he was close to.

“I got into a lot of fights in junior high because I was a pretty hot-tempered kid,” says Garrison, who has not had any issues with his disorder since attending college.

To cope with his bipolar disorder, Garrison has chosen to forgo medication and instead works out to relieve stress and tries his best to solve the issue.

“I try to be as constructive as possible,” says Garrison.

“I’ve denied medication in the past because I’ve seen how medication can really mess up a person with addiction and dependence.

I prefer to cope with [bipolar disorder] on my own.”

Garrison’s strongest coping method is to give himself time to calm down and to acknowledge the fact that the situation he is in is not new and can be solved.

“Any time I get particularly angry or down I just remember, ‘Well, I’ll be fine in five minutes,’” says Garrison.

This method usually works for Garrison, but he realizes by the time he is calm, those that are around him are still agitated because of something he did or said.

For example, Nasrallah explains the importance of the right diagnosis of a patient when medication is prescribed.

Unipolar depression and bipolar depression look similar because they both involve symptoms of depression, but require different medication.

“If you give a bipolar patient an antidepressant, his behavior will shoot [in a negative direction],” says Nasrallah.

Bipolar disorder is most prevalent in individuals between the ages of 18 and 19. Approximately 90 percent of bipolar patients are diagnosed around the age of five, however, because it is genetic disorder.

Mental disorders such as this can grow with intensity with the anxiety that comes from going off to college.

Because they are leaving home for a long period of time,

“Anytime I get angry or down...I remember, ‘I’ll be fine in five minutes.’”

Compress

Pill

Eject A mechanical arm moving over a series of screens forces the dried paste to form smaller particles ready for compression in the tabletting machine.

The machine has a rotating tray of hollow dye that the powder falls into from the hopper. An arm holding an inverted dye descends and exerts several tons of pressure on the powder. This compresses the powder into the shape of a pill.

Pills for

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these students are outside of their parents’ control and guidance. They find themselves in a new environment with an entirely new set of peers.

According to the Associated Press’s “College and Mental Health Poll,” in spring 2009, of more than 2,200 college students across 40 colleges and universities, 85 percent feel stressed on a daily basis.

Miami University freshman Katherine Mohr has observed a few of her colleagues undergoing severe depression.

“I think that students in general should be more aware of other people’s emotions and behaviors so that they can try to be supportive and caring,” says Mohr whose colleague almost tried to commit suicide. “I think it’s definitely a problem once you get into college because you are on your own and have to be able to think and care for yourself.”

Regardless of the challenges, Garrison is always capable of overcoming his weakness. He refuses to allow this lifelong disorder keep him from moving forward as an individual with many talents.

“It’s something you can work through and it shouldn’t hold you back,” says Garrison. “You just have to learn how to cope with it. Otherwise you’re going to set yourself back repeatedly.”—Rashma Faroqui

“On the outside, I was the picture of health and happiness...but I was falling apart.”

A Chic Quality Her index finger scrolls through the expansive music library on her iPod. Finally, after two minutes of searching she stops on “All I Want” by A Day to Remember. Currently this is her favorite song—but that will probably change in a matter of days. Because for this 20 year-old, music in its entirety has been more than a hobby—it has been her saving grace.

She uses music to cope, to release her feelings—to identify with other people Former East student and current Florida State University sophomore Stefani Bauman has had a long history of depression.

“Growing up, I struggled with anorexia and selfmutilation,” says Bauman. “On the outside, I was the picture of health and happiness. I was in clubs and teams. I had friends, good grades and a family that loved me. But on the inside, I was falling apart.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 15 percent of adolescent females in the United States experience major depressive disorder. Bauman believed that if she were to open up about having a mental illness, she would face public scrutiny about her condition.

So she chose not to seek treatment.

Mental illness-related storylines are presented much more frequently in movies, and are often portrayed in a much more varied way, according to Charles Barber, the author of Comfortably Numb, How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation.

“Until the last decade, Hollywood has offered two paradigms of mental instability: the kindly mentallyimpaired person and the homicidal over-the-top psychotic,” says Barber in his 2008 book. “The last decade has brought depictions, sometimes even accurate ones, of specific disorders and their treatments. Hollywood, in other words, has discovered diagnosis and nuance.”

Since 2000, 10 actors have been nominated for Academy Awards for their portrayal of various mentally-ill characters in feature films. Recently, Natalie Portman won a 2011 Golden Globe for her representation of a psychotic ballerina and stands to win an Oscar for her role in Black Swan. This new exposure, however, breeds a skewed view of the way people with mental illnesses live and is not entirely accurate. Bauman experienced that firsthand after going through her ordeal.

“Hollywood does a great job of [portraying] mental illnesses as this horrible, terrible thing and it also casts a shadow of fear and hesitancy toward it,” says Bauman.

“Honestly, if you aren’t really studying mental illness and the neuroscience of the brain, your opinion is based on the media and Hollywood. Those perceptions are entirely wrong.”

According to Bauman, Hollywood-based speculations are the basis for most of the stigmas about mental health today. She also believes that in television there are more characters taking anti-depressants and other medications.

More celebrities are also frequently checking themselves into rehabilitation centers while not fully committing to their recovery. “[Movies featuring drug topics] have sailed to the top of the charts,” says Barber. “Mental illness and psychiatry have gone from being taboo subjects to being almost chic.”

Bauman, a double major in criminology and psychology, studies the extent of these stigmas in her criminal justice classes.

“Stigma doesn’t even begin to describe the way most

Mental Illness in the Media

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infographic rachel knock, jill stelletell The teen drama 90210, based off the hitseries from the ‘90s, depicts the lives of several high school students in luxurious Beverly Hills.

Erin Silver, played by Jessica Stroup, deals with bipolar disorder in the most extreme of ways, by acting promiscuously and impulsively.

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Girl, Interrupted, filmed in 1999, is an adaption of Susanna Kayson’s memoirs of her 18-month stay in the psychiatric ward of a hospital during the 1960s. The film explores Susanna’s (Angelina Jolie) life and her struggles with a borderline personality disorder over her two-year stay in the mental hospital.

people respond to mental illness,” says Bauman. “I’m studying the criminally insane in school right now, and the way people behave and respond to mental illness is like this contagious disease they think they might catch. That isn’t the case at all.”

This stigma is not just limited to mental illnesses; these stereotypes also branch out into the way society treats people with disabilities. East senior Niki Lozier experiences this every day.

Lozier’s twin sister Shelly was diagnosed at a young age with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Because of this disease, Shelly’s muscles are tightened and the disability affects the way she walks and talks. Her CP also causes some decreased brain function, so Shelly requires extra help for completing homework and focusing in classes. Growing up as twins with very different capabilities has been hard for Niki. From a young age, she noticed the stigmas that surround Shelly.

“I do feel as though Shelley is treated differently because of her disability,” says Niki. “People look at her and think she doesn’t know what she’s doing. They treat her like an infant. She’s 17 going on 18 years old. She has differences, sure, but she is still a teenager. She isn’t as different as people believe.”

People like Bauman who study psychology and the brain, are helping society understand mental illnesses and disabilities and helping reduce the stigmas attached to those people that have them.

“I’ve always been crazy obsessed with what makes people do the things that they do and I knew that this was where my future was going to lie,” says Bauman. “Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology [at East] helped me understand more about myself. I learned what might be causing me to feel the way that I had been feeling and that I wasn’t as alone as I thought I was.”

Bauman has never been medicated and instead used what she learned in AP Psychology to work through her own depression.

Developing research has increased understanding of these diseases and has helped change the way that mentally ill Hollywood and the world perceive them. Since the ‘60s and ‘70s, even the way similar characters are shown on the big screen has changed. For example, in The Shining, which was filmed in 1980, Jack Nicholson plays a psychotic writer who wishes to murder his entire family. Fast-forward to 1997, and Nicholson plays an obsessive writer in the film, As Good as it Gets. In this instance, however, he is wellmedicated, wealthy, charming and an asset to society. This swift change of thinking has affected the mass media as

Love and Other Drugs Most days, Julie Marshall has to ride the wave. Sometimes, it surprises her in a tumultuous rush while other times it is nice and easy. Never knowing in advance what the surf of the day will bring, she must anticipate anything and everything.

Unfortunately, these waves are not made of salt water, and they do not carry her back to a sunny beach. These waves are the daily struggle of having a child with a mental disorder.

Julie’s 12-year-old son Alex has an uncommon set of conditions. He was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a disease that involves the progressive degeneration of muscle strength. In addition to this, he has also developed Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which is not related to or a side effect of SMA.

4

The Silence of The Lambs takes readers through the fall of Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist who becomes a cannibalistic serial murderer.

Written by Thomas Harris, this novel, later made into a 1991 movie, confronts antisocial personality and narcissistic personality diosorder.

information imdb.com

3

Brad Pitt stars in Fight Club as Tyler Durdon, a soap salesman who befriends the unknown narrator of the film and helps to create underground “fight clubs.”

Suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, Durdon’s alternate reality appears in his sleep and allows the viewer into his mind.

well.

“Even though negative stories continued to outnumber positive ones, a study of newspaper reporting on mental illness showed that negative portrayals were reduced by half between 1989 and 1999,” says Barber.

Bauman even notices these changes transitioning from high school to college.

“Mental illness in college is taken much more seriously around campus because it is seen as more serious,” says Bauman. “A lot of time in high school people made jokes about mental illness or made comments about how a person was only behaving that way to get attention.”

This change toward acceptance and open discussion helps people who are suffering from these diseases to seek treatment and talk about their illnesses. According to NIMH, in the past year alone, 58.7 percent of adults and 50.6 percent of children with mental illnesses have sought treatment.

Just like scrolling through dozens of songs to find the perfect one takes time, so does finding treatment. In Bauman’s case, the alternative rock lyrics of her favorite song became all that she needed.

“It took me a long while to get help,” says Bauman. “I kept everything that I was feeling to myself and it wasn’t until I discovered music in the 10th grade that I made any efforts to get help. Music saved my life. Music showed me that I wasn’t alone, that there were people who were just like me, and it connected me to something that was so much bigger than just me. I knew I had to get better for me, and so I did.”—Ashley Wolsefer

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THE

POWER OF THE PILL infographic mason hood, faiz siddiqui

A look at the different aspects of attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and medications used to treat a variety of other mental illnesses.

SparkPharmacy J. back Adderall (amphetamine) take twice daily Qty: 33

in a survey of 10 countries

2 refill(s) before 07/28/11

Store phone: (513)867-5309 prescriber: Faison Hoodiqui

thorazine:

Treats: Schizophrenia side effects: Drowsiness Dizziness when changing positions Blurred vision Rapid heartbeat Sensitivity to the sun Skin rashes

boys: girls:

hyperactiviy disorder primarily characterized by “the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity.�

30 | Spark | February 14, 2011

the Mental medications

Zyprexa:

Treats: bipolar disorder side effects: Loss of coordination Excessive thirst Frequent urination Blackouts Seizures Slurred speech

ritalin:

Treats: ADHD side effects: nervousness insomnia hypersensitivity anorexia nausea dizziness

information national institute of health

Treats: Anxiety Disorders side effects: Upset stomach Blurred vision Headache Confusion Grogginess Nightmares

Treats: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) side effects: Decreased appetite sleep problems stomachaches headaches

ADHD attention deficit

Treats: DEPRESSION side effects: HEADACHE NAUSEA SLEEPLESSNESS AGITATION jITTERS sEXUAL iMPOTENCY

xanax:

Adderall:

nearly one in 10 u.s. children has adhd

pROZAC:

adhd gender ratio:

total days of productivity lost each year to adhd combined

million

143.8

2005 u.s. adderall Prescriptions (in millions)

“SMA doesn’t mean OCD,” says Julie. “Actually, SMA kids are brighter [than other children] and don’t usually have mental disorders. But Alex was two years old before he started talking, so we knew he was delayed.”

Although the two conditions are not related, their coexistence presents a unique set of challenges. Those with OCD commonly need to do things in a particular order or have furniture oriented in a particular way. Alex, who is in an automated chair because of his SMA, cannot move things himself.

“Alex can’t live out his OCD, so he has to direct it. We have to do everything for him,” says Julie. “I have to do everything in a specific order. When I come into his room, I turn on the light first, then shut the door, then go to him.

I have to do it like that every single day or it will set off a meltdown.”

While the Marshalls’ trials are highly anomalous, OCD alone affects 0.5 percent of children and adolescents according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). In contrast, 3 to 5 percent of school-age children have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Beyond OCD and ADHD, about 20 percent of U.S. children experience a mental illness in any given year, according to the U.S. Surgeon General.

Some may question the validity of these numbers, citing overprotective parents who are quick to label their children.

Julie understands this viewpoint, but having a child with a mental illness has led her to realize that mental illnesses are not a figment of the imagination.

“If someone is on the outside, it may look like a parent is just bad at disciplining,” she says. “They see it as [being] disobedient, out of control, but we know that these problems are real.”

University of Cincinnati (UC) Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics Jeffrey Strawn agrees, adding that he does not believe that mental illnesses in children are over diagnosed.

“Our ability to diagnose pediatric mental illness as well as increased screening for these conditions has likely resulted in individuals being more likely to be diagnosed,” says Strawn. “However, we have limited data regarding any actual increase in the prevalence of any pediatric mental illness.”

One such disputed disease is Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), characterized by excessively hostile and disobedient behavior including frequent temper tantrums, arguing with adults or having a spiteful attitude. While this sounds like many sullen teenagers, the AACAP reports that one to 16 percent of all school-age children and adolescents have ODD. “This has recently been a very controversial diagnosis,” says Strawn. “As a child psychiatrist, I think it’s critical to look beyond a diagnosis of ODD. Often children who have been diagnosed with ODD may have an underlying mood or anxiety disorder or there may have been interpersonal conflicts which have precipitated the symptoms of ODD.” This leads to the question of what sets off mental illness in children. UC Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Henry Nasrallah says that mental illnesses are caused by a combination of factors.

“Genetic inheritance has been observed for most psychiatric disorders, but research has shown that the environment has a big role,” he says. “Stressful life events can bring out depression, anxiety or psychosis, but mainly in people who have a genetic predisposition. Biological

[factors] play a major role during pregnancy, [during which] the fetus’s brain development can be adversely impacted by what happens to the mom.”

Regardless of how a mental illness developed, diagnosing it is a complicated process. The multidisciplinary process consists of clinical interviews and the evaluation of stories and incidents from various people the child interacts with.

According to Strawn, a doctor cannot make a diagnosis with 100 percent confidence at any age because developmental nuances must be considered and not misinterpreted.

For example, a child who likes a certain routine, like lining up specific characters in a specific order may be developing normally and the routine may not be a symptom of a disorder like OCD. Furthermore, Strawn says that certain conditions show up at different ages during a patient’s life.

“Conditions such as autism may be diagnosed between [the ages of] 18 and 24 months, while other conditions may [begin] in the preschool years and others may not begin until adolescence or early adulthood,” he says.

Julie says that in her case, it was evident that her son had a mental illness in addition to SMA when he was about two or three years old. He would continually repeat the same words and react adversely to any miniscule change in routine. It was not until he was four years old and in a preschool class for SMA children at the Perlman Center at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital that he took an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test.

“We always thought he had OCD, and while he was in preschool, the therapists discovered that he wasn’t on target,” she says. “He had the IQ test at four, and we found out he has a very low IQ. Then we spoke to therapists and doctors, [about his OCD symptoms] and everyone agreed on the diagnosis that he has OCD.” According to Julie, the OCD may have developed as a result of the low IQ, because children with lower IQs have a harder time processing daily life. There is, however, no history in Alex’s family of any mental illnesses.

Dealing with a diagnosis can be tough for any family, and deciding on what form of treatment to use is another challenge. Parents must make the choice regarding whether to put their children on medication at an early age or pursue therapy. Strawn says that the type of illness determines whether medication should be prescribed.

“For some conditions, children can do very well with psychotherapy,” he says. “However, for other illnesses the combination of therapy and medications is best, while for some, improvement is unlikely without medications.”

For the Marshalls, the decision is even more complicated due to Alex’s SMA. Alex tried an anti-seizure medication called Depakote and, although it was able to mildly improve his OCD, its adverse side effects and effects on muscle control outweighed the benefits.

“He gained 20 pounds in six months,” says Marshall. “It made his SMA worse because it made it even harder for him to move with more weight. That medication might work for a normal child, but Alex couldn’t run off the extra weight.”

Currently Alex is not on any medication for his OCD, and Julie says the best way to deal with the illness is to just

“Alex can’t live out his OCD, so we have to direct it. We have to do everything for him.”

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Pills for

Thought

endering italin infographic shivang patel

Ritalin is a psychostimulant drug that is used to control symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Ritalin contains methylphenidate, a central nervous system stimulant that increases the levels of dopamine in the brain to help individuals focus, control their actions and remain still and quiet.

Methylphenidate was first synthesized by Leandro Panizzon in 1944. By the 1960s, it was used to treat children with ADHD. Ritalin Distribution Non-Federal Hospitals Clinics Independent Mail Services Chain Stores Miscellaneous Health Maintenance Organization Home Health Care Federal Facilities Long-Term Care Food Stores

“ride the wave.”

“Some days it takes up all of my emotional, physical and spiritual energy,” she says. “Other days are really good. Even with the challenges, our family wouldn’t be the same without him just the way he is. Even though it is hard, he brings so much joy into our lives.”—Rachel Podnar

Global Pharm New family, new school, new country—new health care.

German exchange student and current East sophomore Lara Pluer was worried. Like any teen, speaking a new language fluently is difficult enough. She never expected that differences between her home country and America would be so drastic, particularly concerning health care.

Systems like Germany’s Universal Health Care have been implemented in Canada and a number of European countries, including the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Greece, Spain and Italy. Addtionally, regions like Scandinavia have partial universal health care, meaning lower taxes and higher criteria for publicly covered medical procedures than full universal health care.

Although numerous foreign countries have embraced a socialized system, Americans have yet to agree—46 percent of Ohioans approve of the repeal of healthcare reform

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while 44 percent oppose. According to German Orthopedic Surgeon Dirk Steinhagen, however, the German socialized model fulfills the goal of a healthcare system.

“In Germany, you are insured no matter what,” says Steinhagen. “That way, everybody can have health care. The American system is more for making money [rather than providing appropriate health care coverage for all].”

Germans must pay for public insurance and can pay for more expensive private insurance, but only if a person earns more than about $68,000 per year. Private insurance takes pre-existing conditions like obsesity or pregnancy into account. Ironically, as Steinhagen says, private insurance could be cheaper earlier in a person’s life, when one is younger, childless and healthier. As the person gets older, private insurance becomes more necessary and expensive.

“Everyone gets the things that they need, but private insurance holders get to pick whether or not they see a specialist without a family doctor’s consent,” says Steinhagen. “They also are able to say in what quantities they need certain [medications or services].”

Pluer agrees that the difference is monumental.

“I have diabetes,” says Pluer. “Here in America you have to go to the doctor and pay for the medicine, but in Germany you don’t. However, in America the price is not quite as a high as in Germany.”

Methylphenidate (Key ingredient in Ritalin) Distribution Per 100,000 People

information U.S. drug enforcement administration, IMS health incorporated

Above Average: 3,852 grams or more

Average: 2,310-3,851 grams

Below Average: 2,310 grams or less U.S. Average: 3,081 grams

Steinhagen explained further the price difference between German and American health procedures. In 1999, Steinhagen’s brother, Yentz, broke his leg and was operated on in America, costing him $20,000 instead of the German price, the equivalent of about $4,000. The price difference is directly related to the cost of surgery materials and salary of medical professionals. As an orthopedic surgeon, Steinhagen says he would earn one million dollars in America but earns the equivalent of almost $14,000 in Germany.

A small clip he uses for toe operations costs €80 in Germany compared to $600 in America even though they are bought from the same company—basically, leaving the Americans ripped off.

The monetary differences in both countries have even affected the perspectives of their respective citizens.

“German patients think they’re entitled to any treatment with minimum pay,” says Steinhagen, “but American people realize the cost of health care much more.”

Despite paying so much more for the procedure in America than in Germany, Yentz’s operation was very quick in comparison. In Germany, operation and recovery would have taken ten days while it took only two in America. The wait for an actual doctor’s visit is up to a few days and for a scheduled surgery is approximately four to ten weeks; however, emergency surgeries can be done sooner.

For many socialized systems like Germany’s, long waiting periods are one of the biggest drawbacks. Sweden, as a partly socialized system, has this problem.

Despite the criticized long waits for care, the Swedish CD must not complicate the SMA. Themodel of healthcare is attracting much attention from other countries due to it’s efficacy, sporting the fourth lowest infant mortality rate, and lack of cost to the government, with only nine percent of the countries annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being used on healthcare as opposed to America’s 15 percent.

According Human Resources manager Lindsay Biatgini, the American system works best even though countries like Sweden have a lower GDP. “In other countires it is hard to get appointments and referals to see a doctor,” says Biatgini. “Here you have options, can be treated quickly and can chose what coverage works best.”

East senior Rick DiAntonio, who was born in Sweden, agrees about the effectiveness of American healthcare.

“In a perfect world, both socialized and privatized health care systems would work,” says DiAntonio who was born in Sweden. “It just depends upon which is easiest to implement. The system we have now works best— American’s are terrified of the word socialized” The Scandinavians are not afraid to combine the two

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Pills for

Thought

extremes.

Because Scandinavian countries have partial Universal Health Care, doctors are paid twice as much in comparison to those working in Germany, but German medicine is much cheaper. For this reason, many German doctors move to Denmark or other higher paying countries while patients tend to go to Germany. Steinhagen says he has even considered coming to America but chose not to due to his family connections in Germany.

“If I were to come to America, I would have to take all of the American exams, extra tests, then a few years working for the hospital,” says Steinhagen. “Then I’m old and grey.

But it has been a consideration.”

With health care reform as a topic sprinkled through the news on a daily basis, Steinhagen thinks Americans should take the failures and successes of other countries into consideration. The Germans are able to cover all citizens who need healthcare, but leaves many medical establishments on the brink of bankruptcy. If they take on too many publicly insured as opposed to privately insured patients—they are not able to support themselves. The government funds them only by season, so money is a huge issue. In addition, medical establishments are funded regardless of efficiency and quality, so improvement is not as drastic as that of American medical facilities.

“I think people in America are right when they say the system will run out of money if it becomes socialized,” says Steinhagen. “I think they should learn from Germany and not make our mistakes again, but rather improve upon the [German] model.”—Alexandra Wilson

Diagnosing Diseases Until fourth grade, she was a normal elementary school student. She received good grades, paid attention in class and did not have a stigma following her wherever she went.

Then she entered the fifth grade—and everything changed.

In fifth grade, Miami University freshman and 2010 East graduate Jenna Everson was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD).

“My grades drastically dropped and I was inattentive,” says Everson. “My teachers recommended that I get tested for something. First I was tested for epilepsy because I had staring spells and epilepsy runs in the family. When I wasn’t diagnosed with that, I was tested for [ADD].”

When she was identified as having ADD by Linda J. Snow-Griffin, a psychologist in Cincinnati, she was unsure of how to react due to her young age and lack of understanding about exactly what the mental disorder was.

“Honestly, I do remember it being sort of a relief,” says Everson. “It was strangely comforting that there was a reason I was [unable to pay attention] at school.”

Snow-Griffin did several tests on Everson to determine whether she was ADD positive. These tests, according to Everson, included putting various puzzles together within time limits, clicking buttons when dots showed up on a computer and other “tedious” activities.

Differences between ADD and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) primarily concern the

“It was strangely comforting that there was a reason I [was unable to pay attention.]

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patient’s level of hyperactivity. Showing hyperactivity leads to ADHD while not showing hyperactivity leads to ADD. According to University of Cincinnati Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Henry Nasrallah, diagnosing ADHD is tricky as other mental illnesses often times have many of the same symptoms to look for upon diagnosis.

“When diagnosing ADHD, both parents must say how disruptive it is: how [the child] can never sit still, they never can follow through on any activity and they can barely pay attention when they try to do small tasks,” says Nasrallah.

“The teacher fills out a questionnaire about how they do in class: Do they sit still in class? Did they listen? Do they focus on what the lesson is? Are they always talking? Are they always bothering kids, not sitting still? There’s always a degree to it like there is to anything in the world.”

Eventually, brain scans may be utilized to diagnose ADHD due to research that has recently been performed in the field.

“Our brain gives us the ability to choose our behavior, especially the frontal lobe. Kids who have ADHD turn out to have a frontal lobe problem. In fact, it’s about 10 percent smaller than normal kids’. It hasn’t developed completely,” says Nasrallah. “They followed up a whole bunch of kids who had ADHD and did a follow up on them and found that there frontal lobes were smaller than normal kids’. Then they rescanned them. [The kids] are now big teenagers. First scans [were] at age 7 and [at] 17, the brain is still smaller. So there is some pathology and that might help us with some diagnosing for these cases.”

Stimulants are the most common prescription for ADHD in order to increase dopamine levels in the brain, thereby increasing attention and focus while reducing hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. Nasrallah typically prescribes these drugs to those patients in need of the medication.

Everson, however, did not begin taking medication until eighth grade for her ADD. “Let’s be real—elementary school wasn’t difficult. At that point my ADD was manageable and there was no need for medication,” says Everson. “[But after eighth grade] I tried a couple different kinds before finding a medicine that worked for me. Since then, I’ve been having regular appointments with my pediatrician to keep the proper dosage and make sure I still need to be taking medicine.”

But the side effects of taking the medication are not at all pleasant according to Everson; the disease itself is nothing to scoff at.

“Having ADD sucks. It makes schoolwork and studying really difficult,” she says. “But taking medicine alters your personality. You feel like a zombie when you’re on it and you crash when it starts to wear off.”

This is why diagnosing mental disorders is so critical.

The wrong medication given to the wrong type of disorder can lead to detrimental effects on a patient’s mental and physical stability, especially when differentiating among various types of disorders. According to Nasrallah, giving a bipolar patient an antidepressant, for example, can make them “shoot the other way.”

Despite the risks in using medication for the wrong mental disorder, emergency room (ER) social worker Sharon Wise says that she does not see kids with ADHD in the ER often. “[The mental disorder wouldn’t be to a severity] where [kids] would be in the ER for the mental disorder,” says Wise. “Kids in the ER would be in for depression [if it had gotten to the point where] they want to kill themselves.”

Costs Across the Globe infographic emily chao, sophia li infographic emily chao, sophia li

The United States spends more on health care per person than any other nation does. These pills represent how much each country spends on health care for each individual. information visualeconomics.com

$2,998 Canada $2,743 Denmark $3,048 France $2,983 Germany $2,745 Sweden $2,317 United Kingdom $5,711 USA

$0

$1000

$2000

$3000

$4000

$5000

$6000

Money Spent Per Person

ADD and ADHD are used as an excuse for everything “now-a-days,” according to Everson. She is not excited by where the stigma attached to the disorder has led, and understands that this is why proper diagnosis is so important.

“Now [ADD] has this reputation; it’s like an excuse or cover-all term. If someone is struggling in school, it couldn’t be a nurture or motivation issue,” says Everson.

“So much has been blamed on ADD and I do not think it’s taken seriously for that reason. It is definitely not a made-up disorder and I can tell you that from [personal] experience.”—Mason Hood

A New Leaf Will woke up one morning to find that his world had gone gray.

Nothing had changed for those around him. Life beyond the rims of his glasses moved along as it always had. He brushed back the long curly hair that had crept over his left eye to see the huddled clumps of backpacks moving toward the school, his classmates chattering away about girls, grades and drama. Will kept his head down and crept between the students. Everywhere he was he could see the signs of hope; the girls were laughing and giggling about the same boys that were casting nervous glances in their direction. Everyone was full of happiness and potential. He could see it, but the

significance was lost. Nothing could bring the color back to the world of this eighth-grade boy.

Will Albrecht was 13 years old when he was first diagnosed with major depressive disorder, a condition in which the individual exhibits at least five of the nine major signs of depression. The mental disease, however, would go untreated until his sophomore year.

“It’s like a shroud over you; you can’t see things the way they really are,” says Albrecht. “The thing is, when you get into a depressed state, it’s hard to think clearly—it’s hard to focus on the good in life.”

While no conclusive research has been done to find a definitive cause for depression, the disease is considered by most to be a hereditary medical condition. Although it is very easily treated with modern medicine, it is necessary to catch it early—depression is the number one cause of suicide in the nation.

Will’s mother, Jennifer Albrecht, says that she first started to notice the changes in her son during his eighth grade year at Liberty Junior.

“His grades dropped and his appearance changed. He started to wear black clothes and chains,” recalls Jennifer. “I thought [the clothes were] him just expressing himself, but I was concerned about his grades.”

Formerly an honors student, Will began to fall far behind academically. Before long the constant sadness that

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Pills for

Thought

While fighting depression, Butler Tech senior Will Albrecht found his calling to study psychiatry.

“Everyone’s got their demons, but you just have to keep moving.”

36 | Spark | February 14, 2011

as possible.

“Will became more withdrawn, had a hard time staying awake and just seemed in general lifeless and disinterested in what was going on around him,” reports Elifrits. “I made a distinct effort to talk to Will each day. When he was absent, I got all his assignments together for him and we discussed a plan to make up work when he returned. Will is a smart kid and I refused to give up on him.”

Although Will’s mental illness was severe, many other teens suffer similarly. Approximatly 20 percent of teens report that they had experienced some form of depression before adulthood, while approximatly 15 percent of teens have at least one symptom of depression at any given point in time.

“If [a patient has] a physiatric disorder, we have nothing to show in the brain that is abnormal—it’s physiological,” says University of Cincinnati Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Henry Nasrallah. “We have a full psychiatric synopsis—the brain is falling apart. And whenever your brain starts falling apart, you lose inhibitions [and] become excited generically.”

The prescription helped Will to maintain a mental balance, allowing him to function more efficiently than before. Will has made an effort to get the rest of his life back in order.

He now attends Butler Tech in order to earn some of the credits he lost while he was being treated. Will says that his “sulks,” periods of time where his depression is the most intense, have been reduced from everyday occurrences to events that happen, at the most, once every other night.

Recently, Will and his mother made an even more promising announcement: Will is going to be returning to East. Despite earning all of the credits he needs to graduate, the Miami University hopeful says that he needs an extra year to earn a higher grade point average and learn coping skills for when he is on his own in college. Once he has earned his degree, Will plans to go one step further—he wants to become a psychiatrist.

“The way I see it, it’s just who I am,” says Will. “Everyone’s got their demons, but you just have to keep moving. If you can help another person and make everything better for one person—then it’s all worth it.”—Drew Souders

photo sierra whitlock

had become a part of his life forced him to look for an outlet. Will began to self-medicate through the illegal use of marijuana, becoming part of the 30 percent of teens with depression who also develop a substance abuse problem as a result of the disease.

In high school, problems only got worse. During the 2007-08 school year Will began experimenting with a variety of painkillers, anti-anxiety medication and cough syrup. He finally lost control at the end of his sophomore year. In September 2009, he was directed to stay at North College Hill Psychiatric Ward, where he attempted to commit suicide two times before he was released. The visit would not be his last; Will would be placed in a psychiatric facility five more times over the next two years.

“When I first became friends with him in seventh grade I never thought I would have to worry about him being suicidal,” says Will’s longtime friend Craig Mcnear. “Some of his worst times were spent in the psych ward.”

In short, Will had gone through Hell.

He was scared, depressed and terrified. He felt like his life was spinning completely out of control. Fortunately for him, the 16-year-old heavy metal fan had another emotion that no amount of bad luck could take away from him—hope.

After his first stay at North College Hill, he went to see a psychiatrist. While Will was there, the psychiatrist prescribed Cymbalta for his depression along with an antipsychotic drug.

Since then, Will has seen results due to the vast improvements in his ability to control his mood. He now also has been able to acquire a firm control on his substance abuse problem.

According to Will, the improvement he has seen has not been because of medication and personal drive alone.

“I have a pretty good support system,” Will says. “My family was there for me, and they all helped me get through it.”

His support did not end with his grandparents and mother, however. East Latin teacher Amy Elifrits tried to help her former student through the difficult times as much

lifestyle | healthy eating

Smart Snacking Coming home after a busy school day, many students search for filling food. But sometimes it can be hard to find healthy snacks.

Each issue, Spark explores nutritious dining options for each meal.

“

D

story hannah berling | photos sierra whitlock

ance. Then work. Ahh! I have so much homework. When am I supposed to eat? Or even sleep for that matter?”

When the final bell of the day drones, East junior Courtney Kelley feels her stomach begin to growl and hears those thoughts race through her head. Idly chatting with friends and peers, she cannot keep her wandering mind from focusing on her empty belly. She is eager to go home, where delicious snacks are calling her name. The quick after-school snack is her favorite “meal” of the day.

“I try to drink water a lot throughout the day,” says Kelley. “I sometimes think I’m hungry, but then I gulp some water and realize I was just thirsty.”

While teens may be tempted to reach for the chips after school, adopting nutritious snacking habits does not have to be as difficult as most think.

“I think the biggest thing for high school kids is taking control of the choices that you make and being aware of what you’re eating,” says Spark People magazine nutritionist Tanya Jolliffe.

Kelley steps out of the car and quickly walks toward her front door, feeling her energy levels dipping substantially. She explains that like most kids, a day at school really wears her out. After staying up late doing homework and waking up early for seven hours of classes, Kelley feels the power surge after school is essential.

“Protein is important for energy,” explains Jolliffe. “Calcium is important for bones because teenagers are growing more than adults. Iron [is necessary] because kids are making more blood than at other times in life.”

Finding alternative options with lower fat ingredients can help keep snacks wholesome and the right combination of carbohydrates, protein and fats can keep students going until dinner. “[For savory dishes,] you can use Laughing Cow cheese instead of cream cheese,” says Jolliffe. “You get the same creamy taste with

38 | Spark | February 14, 2011

less fat.”

Kelley feels starved, but she has dance class soon after arriving home. She opens the pantry, searching for anything she can eat on the way.

She pans through the items of the fridge.

“Smoothies are really big right now. You want to get the ones made with real fruit and low fat yogurt,” suggests Jolliffe. “That’s a great way to get calcium in, but they’re [also] very filling. But you want to have them as an addition to, not as a replacement for, a meal.”

Kelley settles for a filling bag of proteinfilled homemade trail mix before rushing to her dance class.

“Know what you want to feel like, and know that your nutrition is what fuels your body and mind,” concludes Jolliffe. “How you eat makes a difference, but you have to own that.” n

Nutritional Info Serving Size: 2 sticks Servings per Recipe: 1 Calories: 158.4 Total Fat: 3.4 g Cholesterol: 10 mg Sodium: 939.2 mg Total Carbs: 26.5 g Dietary Fiber: 15.2 g Protein: 16.6 g

Mozzarella Sticks Ingredients 1 stick light string cheese 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs 1/4 cup egg substitute 1 tbsp Italian seasoning, to taste Salt and pepper, to taste Marinara sauce (optional, not included in nutritional information) Directions 1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) Measure out 1/2 cup of the Panko bread crumbs.

Place crumbs in a small plastic container with a lid.

Season crumbs with salt, pepper and seasonings to taste.

3) Cut the cheese stick in half. In a small bowl, thoroughly coat sticks with egg substitute.

4) Roll the cheese sticks in the bread crumbs. Cover the container, and shake it to coat the sticks in the crumbs. Repeat this step.

5) Place sticks on a baking dish sprayed lightly with olive oil. Spritz the tops of the sticks with a quick mist of the oil. Place dish in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

lifestyle | 8 Things

Each issue, a member of Spark discusses his or her current favorite eight items.

Britney Spears:

Blowfish Shoes:

The Princess of Pop lives on wtih her latest single “Would You Hold it Against Me?” I love old Britney music and this punny, perfectly calculated pop song ensures that her next album will not disappoint.

A year ago, I bought a pair of Blowfish flats and thought that the insane comfort was just a fluke. After adding two more pairs to my collection, I have realized that this company does a heck of a job providing comfortable, attractive shoes at an affordable price.

Sprouted Grain Bread: I’m into whatever superwheaty bread I can find, and Food For Life’s sprouted grain bread tops them all. With no preservatives, it must be kept in the fridge.

08

TRESemme Flawless Curls: How do I get away with not washing my hair every day? This mousse regenerates my curls and keeps them bouncing all day long.

Snuggie: I admit it. I love my Snuggie. It is warm and convenient to wear while I do homework. Go ahead, laugh if you want.

things of the moment

iPod Classic: My days of being restrained by 4GB of memory are over.

With the 160GB iPod Classic I will never be without my full iTunes library. This is what being set for life feels like.

Flip Video:

Half Price Books:

There’s nothing funnier than watching old videos of yourself and laughing at how cool you thought you were.

The Flip video camera lets you take and save videos onto your computer for an easy trip down memory lane.

I could spend an entire day scouring their random CD collection and shelves of books. Where else can you find a wide variety of CDs starting at just two dollars?

Thank goodness I bought an iPod with more memory.

RACHEL PODNAR CHRISTIAN ROEHM

photos labelled for commercial reuse

39 | Spark | lehsspark.org

lifestyle | energy drinks

FIVE HOUR

POWER

Five Hour Energy is a popular energy-booster drunk by many to give them a much needed lift. The lasting effects, however, may not be worth the temporary energy high according to some experts.

story victoria reick-mitrisin

W

ith schoolwork, cheerleading and a heavy load of honors classes, East junior Cindy Combs is feeling the heat. Her exhaustion perpetuates as the college searches and extracurriculars pile up, but she refuses to succumb to the peer pressure.

Combs refuses to take 5-Hour Energy, something she finds to be “a common replacement for sleep for most teens and young adults.” She agrees with Wal-Mart’s new policy, which states that minors may not purchase the popular brand unless accompanied by adult.

“None of the 5-Hour Energy drinks are sold to minors because it is a dietary supplement,” said West Chester’s Wal-Mart manager Dane Bryant. “It could cause harm.”

The beverage contains high quantities of stimulants, and no more than two doses can be consumed each day. A bottle of the original 5-Hour Energy contains the caffeine equivalent of eight ounces of coffee, while the newer version contains the equivalent of 12 ounces.

Both versions also contain a high dose of vitamin B3, commonly known as niacin, which is necessary to improve metabolic and brain function. Exceeding the recommended daily dose could potentially cause the user to suffer from “niacin flush,” a condition that causes the skin to temporarily become pink until the niacin leaves the system. The flushing is accompanied by itching that could last for up to 30 minutes.

Combs believes that the company’s claim that 5-Hour Energy eliminates an eventual slump is false advertising. She comments that today’s teenagers are constantly looking for a way to fit more into their schedule and look for a “quick fix” for their lack of sleep.

“Kids think that [5-Hour Energy] is better for a person [than other caffeinated beverages], because it comes in smaller bottles,” said Combs. “If you really think about it, it still does the same amount of damage, if not more.”

According to Combs, Wal-Mart’s restriction on underage purchasing is necessary, but will have little effect on teens, who can purchase the drink at local grocery stores and gas stations.

East junior Jennifer Tuilmette agrees that Wal-Mart should ban minors from purchasing 5-Hour Energy, believing that a false perception of the energy drink is created because of its small container.

“If [Wal-Mart is] going to do that, they

40 | Spark | February 14, 2011

need to ban all other energy drinks too,” says Tuilmette.

Tuilmette feels that the regulation would be more effective if it came from a company.

“I think it’s great that Wal-Mart is taking a stance,” says Tuilmette. “But kids are just going to go down the street to the nearest gas station and not think twice.”

The characteristic that makes 5-Hour Energy different from other drinks on the market is the stimulant phenylthalanine, a natural chemical that energizes the brain, that is needed in order to survive. The human body cannot produce this element of its own accord, but acquires the chemical from foods such as dairy instead. Too much of this, however, can cause an over-stimulation of the brain cells, leading to potential brain damage.

East junior Natalie Paul agrees that the product is unhealthy, but because none of the

drink’s ingredients are illegal by themselves, the drinks should have no restrictions either.

“If [underage consumers] are going to buy it themselves, then they drove there by themselves, making them at least 16,” said Paul. “[That is] old enough to decide if they want to drink something that is not exactly healthy.”

Mason High School senior Eric Beck’s mother, Mary Lee Beck, disagrees. She allows Eric to buy the energy drinks, but forbids her 12-year-old son from using the energy boost.

“It is dangerous for your health at such a young age,” says Beck. “I believe that children of that age have enough energy on their own without the help of artificial chemicals.”

Beck believes that preservatives in the drink cannot be good for the body.

“I don’t like that Eric drinks 5-Hour Energy,” says Beck. “But he is a capable 18-year-old, fully aware of what it does to his

The 5-Hour Effect Phenylthalanine, a chemical found in 5 Hour Energies, energizes the brain and is needed in order to survive.

The excessive Vitamin B6 in 5 Hour Energies can affect nerve and muscle coordination, as can the excessive Vitamin B12.

infographic emily merrick, ashley wolsefer

Caffeine, a common drug found in energy drinks, raises heart rate.

If taken on an empty stomach, as recommended for maximum energy, some nausea may occur.

RIVETING

RESOLUTIONS

East students recorded their 2011 resolutions on sticky notes during study halls on Dec. 17, as pictured above. But East junior Mikey Goldman’s resolution, although not quantifiable like weight loss or grade improvement, sticks out from the crowd. story sean lewis | infographic jill bange

T

he New Year marks a time for individuals to begin anew, with a clean slate and the opportunity to make changes to their individual lifestyles. About 100 million Americans continue the classic 2,164-year old tradition of setting self-improving resolutions at the start of the New Year.

For East junior Mikey Goldman, the holiday signifies much more than a chance to start eating healthier or beginning to exercise.

Goldman has committed himself to seeking out and practicing a new religion or philosophy by which to live.

“I believe when you lose a friend or anything tragic happens in your life, most people fall back on their religion,” says Goldman. “I haven’t really found a philosophy that I’ve fallen in love with yet—but I’m still looking.”

As one of many students who was affected by the loss of former East junior Jordan Day, who died during a fatal car crash in August 2010, Goldman had difficulty coping with the loss of a dear friend when turning to his previous religion, Judaism.

“With the loss of Jordan, Mikey just needed something that he could depend on, and he didn’t have a religion to help strengthen him,” says East junior Harrison Frost.

Given that grieving is a very personal and highly individualized coping mechanism, it was expected for each of those affected by the loss of Day to seek out different routes in the healing process. “[My friends] started going to church more often and began to look at the positives, while I was just stuck,” Goldman says.

He decided to invest time studying philosophical texts due to his interest in psychology as well as a desire to help others and himself.

According to a survey conducted by the Opinion Corporation of Princeton, NJ, only eight percent of people are entirely successful in achieving their resolutions. Author of GoalFree Living Stephen Shapiro states that although people have good intentions in making end-ofthe-year evaluations and creating resolutions, they struggle with formulating realistic goals, especially in the U.S. Unrealistic goals inevitably lead to defeat, which causes the bitterness

and unhappiness surrounding New Years’ resolutions.

Despite the controversy associated with the effectiveness of these resolutions, Goldman does not believe that he will be deterred. Unlike a commitment to stop consuming unhealthy foods or to rid a bad habit, he believes that because his study of new philosophies is not a continuous labor, but is a goal that one can take periodic breaks from, the resolution is more likely to be attainable.

Shapiro and other consultants strongly suggest that resolutions should not “sacrifice today in the hope that a better future will emerge,” but rather should keep the present times and an individual’s own happiness in consideration. Rather than setting a specific, measurable goal, such as losing 20 pounds or jogging two miles each day, the best objective to choose involves an expansive theme, very much like Goldman’s goal to adopt a new philosophy.

As Goldman progresses in his search, he has recognized the positives of his situation and has gradually let go of the depression surrounding the entire event.

“The loss of Jordan has made me appreciate life so much more, especially friends and family,” he says. “It helped me understand what others are going through.”

In addition, Goldman has found that simply reading books and listening to people’s insights has allowed him to focus more in his daily activities, such as golf, improving his outlook on the sport.

Regardless of what the New Years’ resolution, committing to a goal should be a great experience designed to improve one’s happiness in life. As Goldman studies different viewpoints on life during his search for a new set of beliefs, he aims to finally find his spiritual passion. n

Popular New Year’s Resolutions in America* *Percentage adds to more than 100 because those surveyed could set multiple resolutions.

S S S

34% S

38%

Related to money

Related to weight

47% 31% Related to education

Related to relationships

information www.steveshapiro.com

41 | Spark | lehsspark.org

lifestyle | how to

HOW TO:

GET FIT

Staying in shape is a common New Year’s resolution for most Americans. But there are multiple factors than are incorporated into achieving this common goal. story christina wilkerson | photos sierra whitlock

A

s much as I hate to admit it, I have some bad habits. I purposefully procrastinate on projects, I binge sleep on the weekends and I eat junk food at ungodly hours of the morning. But from June to December, my worst habit reveals itself—I completely stop exercising.

As soon as the New Year rolls around, a surge of inspiration moves me to “make a change,” “become a healthier ‘me’” and “achieve my goals.”

Those clichés sound simple to cross off a todo list, but instead, exercising regularly tops my list of things that are “easier said than done.”

From January to May, I dedicate an hour after school to follow the exercises neatly designed

in the fitness section of Seventeen magazine.

And as soon as summer makes its grand entrance, my lifestyle loses any sense of normal routine, along with literary terms and math formulas. All motivation is lost until December, when it is resurrected from my mess of a lifestyle that consists of a 3:00 a.m. bedtime and an unstable diet, only to wane away five months later. And the wave of motivation continues to fluctuate throughout the year.

Exercising seems to have become a necessity for Americans, as more than 45 million people belong to health clubs and spend about $19 billion combined every year on gym memberships. I can attest, however, to the difficulty of sticking to my resolutions.

In 2000, the Minnesota Heart Survey showed that 57 percent of Americans said that they exercised regularly specific exercises on specific days, every week. But that is not saying that all 57 percent of those people were telling the truth.

According to the American Council on Exercise, maintaining the motivation to stay in shape requires just as much effort as the actual exercise. This includes developing a plan and setting realistic, specific goals—ones that a person knows he or she is capable of reaching particular to the person’s individual wants and needs.

At Explosion Fitness Solutions in Fairfield, OH, personal trainers ensure that people

DEADLIFTING infogaphic lauren barker, jordan wheeler

Dumbbell deadlifts incorporate the primary muscles in the middle and lower sections of the body, especially the hips, thighs, gluteus maximus and back muscles.

information www.acefitness.org

1

Start with two dumbbells placed at the sides of the feet. Squat down, spreading the legs so that they are only slightly wider than the width of the shoulders.

42 | Spark | February 14, 2011

2

With a flat back, pick up the two dumbbells. Face forward with the chest outward while lifting the two weights.

3

Brace the abdominal muscles before rising. Extend the hips while lifting the dumbbells.

Keep the dumbbells as close to the body as possible.

Exercise Equipment:

Medicine Balls are great to use while doing crunches, as they help stregthen the abs.

reach their goals. Matt Wheeler, the owner of the gym, trains up to 100 people per day and knows how important it is for people to stay motivated when trying to stay in shape. “[The trainers] use emotional motivators,” says Wheeler. “If people want to give up, we use these motivators—whether it’s a wedding that’s coming up, a cruise to the Bahamas or a visit with an old friend they haven’t seen in years.”

East junior Travis Helton, who has trained with Wheeler in the past, recognizes the importance of staying in shape as a teenager.

“It’s important to me to stay fit because [exercising makes me] feel great every day,” says Helton, who works out six days a week for one-and-a-half hours each day.

Helton not only pushes himself in these rigorous workouts for the baseball season, but he also persists during the off-season because of his motivations.

“I want to live for a long time without any problems, like being overweight,” he says.

“Besides, who doesn’t want to strive to have an eight-pack?”

Although Helton’s hardcore workouts are effective in producing results, staying in shape is an activity that is unique to each individual.

And obtaining an eight-pack may not be the easiest task for some people.

Goals, plans and types of workouts may vary from person to person, depending on his or her lifestyle. A junior on the baseball team may want to improve his performance, while a senior enrolled in five Advanced Placement classes may want to relieve some stress.

For students who do not participate in sports, staying in shape might not be as simple as Helton makes it seem. After all, a workout consisting of push-ups, planks and dead lifts is probably better suited for someone like Helton ‘sopposed to a non-athlete. Besides, dead lifts probably do not sound appealing to people

Exercising with kettle bells allows for a full body workout, rather than isolating specific muscles like most weight machines do.

who are not training to hit home runs.

East junior Amanda Long may not be weight lifting on a daily basis, but she works out five days a week at Fitness 19 in Mason, OH to gain an extra energy boost and to feel better about her appearance—a motivation shared by most people who exercise on a regular schedule.

“It’s also a stress outlet,” she adds. “If I’m angry and stressed out, I run it off so I can get it out of my system.”

But another motivating factor for Long is ensuring that all the hard work that she has put into exercising regularly is not for a lost cause.

I want to live for a long time without having problems, like being overweight. Besides, who doesn’t want to have an eight-pack? “[If I lose motivation to work out], I feel like I’ll lose all the progress I’ve made,” says Long. “It could all go to waste.”

Because teenagers are in “the top of their game,” staying in shape should be an effortless task. But the key words are “should be.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 14 percent of teens in the United States are overweight due to lack of physical activity.

But a lack of physical activity comes from a lack of motivation. The support of friends and family, the upcoming football season, the prom dress hanging in the closet or simply the rewarding feeling of having good health are some of the countless motivators out there.

Without an incentive, it is hard to maintain a regular exercise routine. Without exercising,

Dumbbells are great to use in core muscle strengthening workouts.

people cannot stay in shape.

But while motivation is a key factor of staying in shape, willpower does not always work.

According to Steven Gortmaker, the head of Harvard University’s Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity, the more physically active a person is, the hungrier he or she will be after a workout—thereby eating more than normal. If Long has to push herself to run on a treadmill for an hour at the Fitness 19, then she will be more likely to choose a freshly-opened bag of potato chips as a snack once she returns home.

In an 18-month study of 538 students, Gortmaker discovered that those who exercised ended up eating more—“more” being an average of 100 calories more than they burned.

For this reason, exercising should not necessarily be sweaty or grueling. In fact, one of the best ways to stay in shape does not involve 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise.

“You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles,” says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don’t have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day.”

Amidst all the Facebook stalking, studying for tests and planning the weekend’s activities, it is easy for teens to forget how much—or how little—they are capable of doing to stay in shape. Whether it is Helton’s dead lifts, Long’s trips to the gym or simply a walk around the neighborhood, teens have many options for staying in shape. But in reality, all they really need to do is choose to take the stairs over the elevator. n

43 | Spark | lehsspark.org

lifestyle | fashionable student

Keeping up with the Jones Sporting undeniable style and eye-catching outfits, East junior Meredith Jones brings a fresh fashion sense to the table. story lauren barker | photos dan turner

I

f you were to “Facebook creep” on East junior Meredith Jones, you might notice her shiny, dark-brown hair and white toothy grin simply from her profile picture. But, when continuing to “creep” on her photos, you would notice her variety of tops, scarves and jewelry and notice that Meredith has quite the eye-catching wardrobe.

“I’m big on style,” says Meredith. “I’m into appearance and putting together outfits.”

For Meredith, dressing sharp is not a coincidental occurrence. It takes on the form of a hobby.

“When I put together an outfit and it looks really good, I get a sense of accomplishment,”

44 | Spark | February 14, 2011

explains Meredith as she sports a red flannel scarf paired with dark jeans.

Meredith’s understanding of clothing and how individual pieces go together stems from her family’s shared passion. Her fashionconscious mother and role model sister, who are both keen on fashion sense, played large parts in nurturing Meredith’s interest in style.

“I grew up around people that always wore cute clothes,” says Meredith. “[That] made me want to be like that too.”

Meredith’s sister East alumni Morgan Jones owns a unique but sophisticated wardrobe, which has influenced Meredith’s own style.

“We shop together a lot and bounce ideas off each other,” says Morgan. “Our styles are very different, but we let each other know if we like an outfit or not.”

As an older sister, Morgan has been there to watch Meredith’s style mature and develop over the years. According to Morgan, Meredith’s style started out preppy, consisting of Abercrombie. Then Meredith adopted a punk style and only wore PacSun. Now, she shops mostly at Forever 21, modeling a classier look with a hint of urban flare.

Meredith’s style evolution has not only

sparked the interest of family members, but also intrigued her peers.

“Whenever we go out, everyone is always complimenting her on how cute she looks.

Meredith always gets noticed,” says East junior and best friend Whitney Wyckoff.

Meredith is not afraid, however, to turn heads, a trait that is reflected in her appearance.

“I’m not really scared to try a new outfit,” says Meredith. “I don’t wear what everyone else wears; I try to stick out a bit.”

Meredith’s unique taste in clothing and her creativity could lead to a career in fashion. She is considering designing her own line of clothing in the future.

“I think it would be fun to design my own clothes,” says Meredith. “I get frustrated [when I go shopping] because I know what I want and not all the stores have it.”

No matter what the future holds, Meredith will not only have her fashionable flare and supportive friends and family, but also her confident personality to help her along.

“I would rather have my own style. I’m like that with a lot of things, not just clothes,” says Meredith. “I want to be my own person, not just what everyone else wants to see." n

I want to be my own person, not just what everyone else wants to see.

holiday classes

The Dilemma

N w showing



MOVIES:

The Dilemma

Imagine Entertainment PG-13 111 mins.

Season of the Witch

Atlas Entertainment PG-13 95 mins.

The Green Hornet Columbiia Pictures PG-13 119 mins.

Black Swan

Fox Searchlight Pictures R 108 mins.

Movie Posters: impawards.com

46 | Spark | February 14, 2011

The Dilemma is a story of two best friends.

It is a simple, yet unoriginal plot. Ronny Valentine (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Brannen (Kevin James) finally get a chance to make it big in the auto industry.

Ronny decides to propose to his longtime girlfriend Beth (Jennifer Connelly), but before he can, he stumbles upon Nick’s wife Geneva (Winona Ryder) kissing another man. Ronny must decide between telling the truth, thus ruining his bond with Nick and risking the future of their company, and staying hushed and maintaining the status quo. When Ronny starts hiding things from Nick and Beth, their relationships begins to unravel.

Director Ron Howard has not directed a great movie since Cinderella Man in 2005 and continues his losing streak with The Dilemma.

This was not all Howard’s fault—writer Allen

Loeb did not deliver any kind of comedy in his script, which affected Vaughn’s and James’s abilities to make this movie funny. Vaughn was great with Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers and James worked well with Adam Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, but this duo does not work well together.

The acting in The Dilemma is not a complete letdown, as Vaughn had some moving emotional scenes ranging from loving to clinically insane. Unfortunately, he was cast into the role of a mature adult, which is not the right role for a man who usually plays a man-child. James is terrible in the fact that he fails to bring hilarity to his character, making this a movie he will want to forget. It is unfortunate that Beth is not a more prominent character, as she could have added some needed depth to an otherwise shallow plot.

The movie worked on some levels with its witty jokes, but failed on so many others. The plot was underdeveloped, especially coming from Allen Loeb, whose hit movie 21 showed much more promise. This film may mark the beginning of the end for both Vaughn and James’ once-great careers.—Sabeel Qureshi

Season of the Witch  Actor Nicolas Cage and director Dominic Sena have teamed up again to produce the year’s worst action film.

Season of the Witch includes demonic qualities: bad acting, poor plotting, low-quality animation and even more bad acting.

Behmen (Cage) and his grizzly comrade Felson (Ron Perlman) start the movie by crushing thousands of enemies in the holy wars fought for the “will of God.” They fight for the Church until they are ordered to slaughter women and children. At this point, the confused pair of knights leave after awkwardly rebuking their superiors. Behmen experiences the clichéd and predictable anti-Church experience, which unfortunately follows him for the rest of the film. After deserting the army, the pair travel across Europe and escort a witch about to stand trial for starting the Black Plague.

As soon as trailers came out for Season of the Witch, red flags and alarms were going off everywhere. A movie with Nicolas Cage never turns out well. When he stars in a movie where he plays the same role as his last thousand characters, the audience might doubt the movie’s potential.

Cage is the reason why this movie is so substandard. As with past films, this is as poor a movie as Cage is an actor. The more Cage makes these awful movies, the more desperate for attention and broke he seems.

Director Sena is also a major reason why Season of the Witch is sub-par. The film seems to be in line with all of the other films he has made, namely unheard-of films from the ’90s.

He already tried once to make a film with Cage, Gone in Sixty Seconds, ending in failure.

Again he tries with this film and is now on strike two.

Season of the Witch is a real disappointment in the movie industry. It is a film containing all of the demons, wolves and witches that appear within it. Maybe the witch did start the plague. Maybe the demon did try to destroy the world. Or maybe they just cursed this entire mess of a movie.—Tommy Behan

The Green Hornet 

Natalie Portman won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Film Drama for her performance in Black Swan.

Black Swan  Darren Aronofsky’s latest thriller is bad—it’s naughty, grotesque, violent, dark, creepy—in other words, bizarre.

Black Swan is the story of an unglamorous art, of an untold world where perfect execution means more practice, where an open cut only means more toetape. Nina Sayers is a ballerina.

But she doesn’t stroll gingerly into a dance studio every Saturday morning to be fitted into a pink dress and tights. Nor does she flail her arms around aimlessly to the delight of her overenthusiastic parents. No, Nina is a different breed.

She is the type of ballerina who would stab a shard of glass into her adversary before hiding her dead corpse in a closet—or at least imagine it. But she wasn’t always this way.

Played by the ever-charming and elegant Natalie Portman, Nina starts her career as the quintessential white swan: morally ground, modest and timid both on and off the stage. She formulaically executes her dances to perfection all while balancing her demanding dance career with the unrealistic expectations of the overbearing and controlling mother she lives with. But all of this changes when Nina seeks out a role in her ballet company’s production of “Swan Lake,” which requires one dancer to perform as both the white and the black swan.

When Nina’s role suddenly demands more than swift and systematic dancing, she folds under the pressure. Already a master of the white swan technique, Nina will stop at no end to command the

other half of her role.

When the seductive and talented Lily (Mila Kunis) steps in as her alternate, Nina feels threatened. Her solution is a night out with the enemy, eventually fantasizing about taking Lily to her bedroom. Subtle metaphors serve as means of capturing Nina’s metamorphosis, from psycho-mommy’s little girl ,to demanding ballet director Tomas Leroy’s “little princess.”

Black Swan is predictable throughout.

The story certainly isn’t as compelling as that of Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. Figure in the movie’s erratic shifts from sensual to downright disgusting and the decade certainly could have had itself another Gigli, which usually tops Internet lists of “The Worst Movies of All Time.”

But instead, audiences are left compelled and inspired by a brilliant display of acting and production that supersedes any such attempts before it. They see a story so real, hallucinations included, that it did not need much development to begin with. They see a character so relatable and unpretentious that they are willing to sympathize with her, even when she slams her mother’s hand in her bedroom door. Audiences attach themselves to the ever-changing Nina, a character whose “Swan Lake” performance will have even the most unlikely of viewers, the mustache-sporting football coach, jumping out of his seat—for ballet.—Faiz Siddiqui

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picture used with permisson from allmoviephoto.com

When I was seven years old, I dreamt of being a superhero. I was so determined to fulfill my dream that I dragged my parents to the store and forced them to buy me the finest Superman pajamas I could find. With my new eveningwear, I felt as if I could take on the world. But before I took on any criminals, I needed to confirm my ability to fly. I put on my PJs and stepped out of my bedroom and into the hallway. I took one last deep breath, stuck my arms out in front of me and dove. For the split second that I was suspended in the air, I knew that only kryptonite could bring me down. That is, until I landed face-first in a unforgiving pile of dirty laundry.

The Green Hornet also stars a wannabe superhero. This time, he is a full-grown man named Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), the ne’er-do-well son of newspaper mogul James Reid. When James suddenly dies, Britt meets the mysterious Kato (Jay Chou), a jack-ofall-trades who worked for his father as a car mechanic and barista. With Kato as his sidekick, Britt becomes “The Green Hornet,” a superhero disguised as a supervillain. The “criminal” exploits of the duo gain them the attention of Chudnofsky, the most powerful crime lord in Los Angeles.

Before it was a movie, The Green Hornet was a radio series, and in 1966, was adapted for television. The TV series starred Bruce Lee as Kato, and while it is impossible to fill Lee’s immortal shoes, Chou brings a good degree of wit to the otherwise dry character. Luckily for Rogen, who is only capable of playing a narcissistic jerk, Britt is a narcissistic jerk.

Much of the humor in the film comes from the banter and, at times, brawling, between the “superhero” and his sidekick. Seeing Rogen’s arrogant character get kicked through a window by a small Asian man makes the whole film worth watching.

Although this story has been around for much longer, The Green Hornet still comes off as a cheap rip-off of Kick-Ass. While the physical comedy and stylized action in the film is mildly entertaining, for a great story of a man making good on his childhood dream of becoming a superhero, Kick-Ass is easily the better choice.—Zach Fulciniti

EDITORS’ PICK

N w Playing

The Decemberists 

ALBUMS:

The Decemberists The King is Dead Captol Records

Cage the Elephant

Thank You, Happy Birthday Jive Records

Michael Jackson

Michael Epic Records

The Script Science and Faith Sony Music

Album Covers: coverhunt.com

48 | Spark | February 14, 2011

The Decemberists sound like one of those bands that MTV would feature in the background of a reality TV show like Teen Mom or I Used to be Fat—in other words, no one has ever heard of them. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if they actually were one of those bands before. And with the release of their fifth album, The King is Dead, The Decemberists will probably continue to be one of these obscure MTV bands, failing to garner any further recognition.

With a wide variety of atypical instruments, such as the accordion, harmonica, violin and a string instrument called a bouzouki, The Decemberists should have an interesting sound. Instead, they over-simplify their music, using elementary drumbeats and guitar riffs that any eighthgrade wannabe band could play. The sound is not bad, just boring. The song “June Hymn” features a homely-sounding

acoustic guitar and a bellowing harmonica that sound nice but incite no emotion.

Unfortunately, this simple style plagues over half of the album, causing most of the songs to sound similar to each other.

Some tracks do break this monotonous mold, however. The song “Calamity” spices up the album a bit with its upbeat and catchy tone. Another song, “Down by the Water,” has a R.E.M.-esque sound, especially during the chorus. This is probably because Peter Buck, the guitarist for R.E.M., is featured in this song as well as on two other tracks. The band claims that The King is Dead was inspired by R.E.M., but fails to come anywhere near R.E.M.’s level of talent.

The King is Dead isn’t a terrible album; it is just predictable. The tracks lack complexity, depth and interest, but they don’t sound bad. Maybe if they didn’t sound like every other indie-folk rock band, they would gain recognition beyond their narrow fan base. But until then, their songs will continue to pop up in various MTV shows, going completely unnoticed.—Lucy Stephenson

Cage the elephant  Cage the Elephant makes a lot of noise; they smash around their instruments and scream into the microphone.

They don’t worry about everything sounding perfect; they just want it to be loud and brutal. Despite the fact that Thank You, Happy Birthday is their second album, Cage the Elephant seems to be desperately clinging to their garage roots. Thank You, Happy Birthday is full of stereotypical garage rock songs. Guitarist Lincoln Parish hammers away at his guitar, occasionally spitting out obnoxious guitar riffs, and bassist Daniel Tichenor supports him by laying down fuzzy bass lines that compliment that hectic guitar.

Between the garage-esque tunes, more typical rock songs fill up the album. The only problem is their tendency to mimic other bands’ styles. “Aberdeen,” a lighter and catchier song, sounds like it belongs on Weezer’s Red Album. “Sell Yourself ” features Matthew Shultz yelling instead of singing, and sounds similar to early Beastie

Boys music. The songs aren’t necessarily bad; they just lack originality.

Cage the Elephant only breaks from their fast and furious mold twice. “Rubber Ball” is a slow acoustic song that is completely forgettable. The guitar never changes and the lyrics are insignificant “Flow” however, is a seven minute track that is actually two songs in one. The first is a beautiful acoustic piece with traces of Arcade Fire. When it finishes, a small window of silence takes place before a hidden song, an acoustic rendition of an earlier track on the album, “Right Before My Eyes,” begins.

Thank You, Happy Birthday is an admirable second album for Cage the Elephant. They are part of a genre known as garage rock revival, and they capture and polish the sound of the stereotypical first band teenagers dream of forming, giving the album a great sound. Unfortunately, almost half the songs on the album sound too familiar.

Even the great garage rock tracks have a tinge of The Black Keys to them. Cage the Elephant shows that they know how to make great music. They just need a dose of originality.—Dillon Mitchell

Michael Jackson 

The Script frontman and keyboardist Danny O’Donoghue performs at the 2008 V Fesitval.

photos labeled with commercial reuse

“I’m never pleased with anything. I’m a perfectionist; it’s part of who I am.”

Michael Jackson was such a perfectionist, he even thought about scrapping an early version of the album Thriller, which went onto to become the bestselling album of all time. Maybe MJ was right.

Maybe the early version of the album really was “crap,” as he described it. Or maybe he didn’t want his name on anything but the best.

Controversy has surrounded the King of Pop’s posthumous album, Michael, since the project was announced. Much of the fuss was because the songs were not finished products, and they didn’t exactly get Jackson’s stamp of approval. There has also been a heated debate among the Jackson family and fans over whether it is truly Jackson’s voice in several songs on the album. Producer Teddy Riley claimed that he had to do more processing with the voice to get it in key because Jackson wasn’t there to record new vocals.

Honestly, if fans are questioning the authenticity of certain vocals, then those vocals shouldn’t have been included in the album. If Jackson was unhappy with early versions of Thriller, there’s no way he would approve of over-processed garbage. Songs like “Hollywood Tonight” almost sound as if he is singing through his plastic surgery-destroyed nose due to the over-produced vocals.

Not everything about Michael, however, is bad. The first single “Hold My Hand” is classic Michael Jackson. The duet between Jackson and Akon shows the love Jackson always wanted the world to have. The irony here is that the first line off the album and the song is “This life don’t last forever/So tell me what we’re waiting for.”

A common theme throughout the album seems to be the media and paparazzi tearing him down. One such song with this theme is “Monster,” featuring 50 Cent, who has labeled the song as the 2010 version of “Thriller.”

The song mentions a “monster,” but it’s nowhere near the level of “Thriller.”

Michael is all-right. It’s better than most of the obnoxious pop albums topping the charts today. Jackson, however, is the King of Pop. He would want to be better than “above average.” For fans that must have more MJ, Michael is a decent album. For everyone else, stick to his classics. Regardless, Michael is pretty good for a dead guy.—Christian Roehm

EDITORS’ PICK

The Script  With a hint of genuine Celtic soul, The Script has been producing anthems of heartbreak and lost love, much like every other artist in the music industry, since March 2009 with its self-titled debut album. Lead singer Danny O’Donaghue’s pure voice won over people’s hearts with the gentle, flowing melodies of “Breakeven” and “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.” But the Irish trio makes am even bolder statement with its sophomore album, Science and Faith.

While encompassing the over-used theme of love, The Script manages to do so in a unique style—which makes its album one of the few about heartbreaks that is refreshing rather than pitiful. The album’s first single, “For the First Time,” is a slow-paced song, or rather a plea to preserve a relationship, while on the other side of the spectrum, “Long Gone and Moved On” describes the attempt to get over one.

“The Bullet from a Gun” and “Science and Faith” are two particular tracks with appealing drum set parts, courtesy of Glen Power. Both songs also exhibit original melodies and harmonies, unlike typical rock songs with predictable chord changes. And in another song about heartbreak, “Exit Wounds,” O’Donaghue serenades listeners about the drastic effects of a recent breakup. Despite the excessive description of the suffering that his mental health has endured, the listener is drawn to the beat of the drum set and the excellently-chosen mix of melodies and harmonies.

The Script successfully integrates

background vocals that complement O’Donaghue’s seemingly delicate inflection. Listeners are sure to realize, however, that his voice carries a rich, resilient sound and is capable of reaching the higher notes of a scale.

Some may say that the content of the album is cliché, filled with nothing but failed romances. The Script surprises its listeners, however, with “This is Love,” the most insightful track on the album with lyrics such as, “It’s in the soul of a city/What it does after it crumbles and burns/And it’s in the blood of a hero/To know where he goes he may never return, yeah.”

In the same track, the band throws in a rap by B.o.B. for the bridge—and although it may come off as a little cheesy, B.o.B. is actually questioning listeners about what they would do if they could do anything.

It may be a vague question, but then again, most rock albums don’t throw in raps on their tracks.

But this only proves the band’s ability to take risks with its music and to be confident in those risks.

The Dublin natives are not simply different because they’re Irish or because they can successfully mix rap and rock.

While pop stars and rappers are producing hits with expensive technology and auto-tune in this day and age, The Script undoubtedly has something that they don’t—genuine, untainted talent. —Christina Wilkerson

49 | Spark | lehsspark.org

entertainment | spark awards

SPARK AWARDS all photos used with paid permission from mctcampus.com, allmoviephotos.com or labeled for commercial reuse

tyler kieslich

TV Shows

Singles

Bored to Death

“Scissor Runner” Jenny and Johnny

Jason Schwartzman and Zach Galifianakis team up for hijinks and literature in this comedy about a struggling novelist that moonlights as a private detective.

Ted Danson emerges from obscurity to reprise his role as resident snarky wisenheimer.

The Walking Dead

Lucy Stephenson

First aired on Halloween night, The Walking Dead added a human element to the stereotypical zombie story. The show is dramatic, constantly drawing viewers in with numerous plot twists, complex characters and realistic features.

The middle

Christian Roehm

The Middle is a comedy that the whole family can relate to. There are the feuding parents, the lazy teenager, the nerdy middle-school student and the socially awkward, but amusing kid. The mix of characters provides for a very entertaining show.

Jersey Shore

Jeff Cargill 50 | Spark | February 14, 2011

Jersey Shore is a perfectly trashy show that took hold of an entire generation. The lack of intellectual stimulation disgusts some, but fascinates many. Jersey Shore is simply an undeniable guilty pleasure that is overwhelmingly successful.

Jenny Lewis and boyfriend Jonathon Rice can sure craft a pop song. In this jangly ode to ‘60s surf, the pair doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but they sound great. It rivals anything Rilo Kiley ever released.

“California gUrls” Katy Perry This song was by far the anthem of the summer. With its catchy lyrics and upbeat sound that none can resist, “California Gurls” spread like wildfire, quickly reaching the top of the charts. No one could help but sing along.

“animal” Neon Trees Before “Animal,” most people hadn’t heard of Neon Trees. Their hit single became popular over the summer and is still played on the radio. Tyler Glenn’s unique voice combined with a catchy melody makes for a successful song.

“Mr. rager” Kid cudi Like most of his music, Kid Cudi’s “Mr. Rager” offers an escape for hip-hop fans into a world of reflection. The song’s slow, mellow beat complements Cudi’s voice perfectly as he brings listeners into his world.

2010

The Spark Entertainment editors sifted through the past year of pop culture to bring you 2010’s best in television, music, movies and beyond.

Movies

Pop Culture Moment

Exit Through the gift shop

Lost Finale

Street artist Banksy showcases the graffiti culture with help from Shepard Fairey and others. Maybe it is a hoax. Maybe Mr. Brainwash really is a creation of Banksy’s imagination. But the film raises interesting questions about the value of art and the artificial nature of art collection as a practice.

Plus, the story is just too good to look away.

It had to end sometime. The landmark TV show went on a lot of tangents during its six season run, but it was at its heart about the battle between good and evil. The finale disappointed some fans, but its ambiguity was a fitting way to end a series so mired in its own complex mythology. There will likely nev er be anything like it on network television again.

The Social Network

sandra bullock and the biggest tool ever

The Social Network led the Golden Globes this year, taking four awards, including Best Drama, Best Musical Score and Best Director—rightfully so. It’s not just a movie about Facebook—it’s about friendships, lies, deceit and sacrifices made for success. The film’s soundtrack, written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, was phenomenal.

It was a touching scene: Sandra Bullock had just won Best Actress for her role in The Blind Side. The camera panned to her husband Jesse James as she lovingly thanked him on stage.

Within the next few days, news headlines were flashing that James had not just cheated on his wife with one girl, but with several. He soon became the most hated man in America.

Inception

Miley’s Dirty Secret

Inception was the movie people couldn’t stop talking about over the summer. Since its release on DVD, people still can’t stop the discussion: dream or reality? Does the top keep spinning or does it topple over? The psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio does what all movies should do— get people talking.

Parents were given another reason to think that “Hannah Montana” is a poor role model for their kids when a video of Miley Cyrus smoking Salvia from a bong surfaced in 2010.

The video, which depicts a strung-out Cyrus mid-hallucination seems to have been filmed by one of her “friends” at a party. The worst part? Salvia sales increased in the weeks after.

The Town

Free Weezy

More than just an action movie, The Town has an interesting plot that delves into the lives of four bankrobbers as they evade capture. This movie incorporates elements of suspense, romance and action that leaves viewers on the edge of their seats right until the credits roll.

The Town is perfect for people who love action, but can’t stand lame action-movie plots.

As one of the most successful rappers of all time, Lil Wayne shocked his fans when they learned that he would be going to jail for almost a year. Fans sported “Free Weezy” t-shirts and wrote many letters as they waited for him to complete his nine-month sentence.

In November, Wayne was released and has kept music coming consistently ever since.

51 | Spark | lehsspark.org

entertainment | book review

The Man in the High Castle T

he Man in the High Castle is about a lot of things.

On the surface, it’s about an alternate history in which the Allies lost World War II. It’s a world in which Hitler was able to conquer the Russians and avoid a cowardly death in a bunker underneath Berlin. He does still have syphilis, though. I guess it’s just one of those things.

A fragmented America is split up into tiny regional city-states. The Japanese set up puppet governments on the west coast, while the Nazis imperialize the East. Much of the book takes place in a Japanesecontrolled San Francisco about 15 years after the war.

The Man in the High Castle takes place in this alternate view of 1963.

But it mostly has to do with the I Ching, an ancient Chinese form of divination. Apparently Dick consulted it when writing the novel; so do his characters. They take its advice and shape their lives around it. It is essentially fate written out as a Chinese character.

One of the characters guided by the I Ching is Frank Fink. He works at a factory that churns out counterfeit antiques. Apparently there is an entire industry of this, as the Japanese are willing to shell out lots of money for early American artifacts. He is fired one day for showing his temper. The I Ching then tells him to start making his own original artwork. So he does.

Robert Childan owns an antique store that is supplied by WyndhamMatson, the company Frank Fink once worked for. He has no idea his store is full of fakes.

Nobusuke Tagomi is one of Childan’s best buyers. Early in the novel, he purchases a Mickey Mouse watch he intends to give to Mr. Baynes, whom he believes is a wealthy Swedish industrialist. Baynes is actually a German spy come to warn the Japanese about the Nazis’ plan to nuke them.

Hawthorne Abendsen, the titular “man in the high castle,” is a novelist. The other characters throughout read and discuss his book, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. It is about an alternate history in which the Allies win World War II. Frank Fink’s estranged wife is enamored by it and goes to meet him. He tells her he wrote Grasshopper according to the I Ching. When she asks it why it wrote the book, it tells her “inner truth.”

All of these characters are so beautifully interconnected, so gracefully placed in this dense and complex set of circumstances. Yes, this is a book about what would have happened if the War turned out differently. But it is about so much more than that.

It is about the subjectivity of history. To the victors do go the spoils, the winners do get to write the history books. The propaganda after the war depicts heinous crimes committed by the British—apparently they slit some throats of some innocents, or something. The world at large then thinks of the Allies as the bad guys. The Holocaust was never even widely discussed.

More to the point, this novel is about the subjectivity of reality. Take the antiques. They are fakes, yes, but only an expert could really tell. If a buyer believes them to be real, is willing to pay as if they are real, then what is the difference? There is a scene toward the middle of the book.

Wyndham-Matson is in a hotel room with his mistress and he takes two Zippo lighters out of his coat pocket. He says that one was on President Roosevelt the day he was assassinated and the other is a fake.

He hands them to the mistress, asks her to “feel the historicity.” There really is no tangible difference between the two. Value is something that

52 | Spark | February 14, 2011

author phillip k. dick publisher putnam pages 239 cost $7.95 (paperback)

is contrived and artificial and exists in the minds of the buyer.

There are more mind-bending bits. The artwork created by Frank Fink resembles actual 1960s American folk art. It has a strange and mystical effect on everyone that looks upon it, like the art is a bridge between their reality and our own. Especially Tagomi—it eventually transports him to a San Francisco in which the whites do not defer to the Japanese, in which a highway that was not built in his time splits right through the middle of the city. The highway is probably the Embarcadero Freeway and that reality is probably ours. Abendsen’s novel-within-a-novel presents a third possible timeline, but the I Ching’s answer to Mrs. Fink suggests something deeper: “inner truth.”

Grasshopper exists to tell the world that it is living in falsehood. Fate wants it to realize that this was not how things were supposed to be.

The ending is ambiguous, but it seems like Abendsen and Fink become aware of the true reality. Regardless, The Man in the High Castle will wrack your brain and keep you up at night if you let it. It’s brilliant, it’s subtle, it’s complex—it is just one flat-out well written novel, and probably Dick’s best.—Tyler Kieslich

entertainment | news

Censoring a Classic story justine chu

B

photo used with paid permission from mctcampus.com

y retracting the “n-word” 219 times from the book and replacing it with “slave,” Alabama professor and (Mark) Twain scholar Alan Gribben hoped to make The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn more accessible to younger audiences and less offensive. The new edition, which will be released by NewSouth Books sometime in February, also uses “Indian” in place of “Injun.”

“I struggle a little bit [on deciding whether or not that was a good choice] because it’s not just literature,” said East principal Dr. Keith Kline. “There’s history in the literature.

When that was written, or when any piece was written, when you’re talking about good literature, there’s a historical basis to it. It’s written to authenticate that time and bring the reader back to that time, and there’s some historic things that are a part of that.”

At East, Huck Finn is part of the Honors English 11 curriculum. East English teacher Missy Wipperman said that it is “an important book to teach because it is such a popular novel of the canon of American literature.” She adds that she understood Gribben’s argument in replacing the “n-word” with “slave;” for a modern audience, seeing the “n-word,” especially in such a widely distributed text, can be very offensive.

“I think that Mark Twain used the ‘n-word’ in a way that would have been acceptable in the time that the novel was set in,” observed Wipperman. “The word is offensive to me. I tell my classes that when we speak about the book in class, if we’re quoting something that uses the ‘n-word,’ we don’t actually say the ‘n-word’ because it is a personally offensive word to me.”

As of press time, the East English department has not discussed whether it will use the new version of the book in the Honors English 11 curriculum. All five East English teachers surveyed said that they would rather teach the original version of Huck Finn rather than the revised version. East English teacher Rich Schmaltz believed that the new edition would make the novel less accessible to younger audiences instead of more accessible, as Gribben had set out to do.

“It gives them a different view of the world that is much cleaner,” he said. “ It covers up the reality of the book; the whole point of the book is to convey this specific reality. You can’t whitewash that. You’re losing something of that, you have to be able to take the ugly.”

Kline said that Huck Finn, like any good piece of literature, was written with the intent to explore the 19th-century culture which differs vastly from that of the 21st-century.

“As a society, we’re conscious of things that are offensive to others, things that bother other people now that didn’t bother people in the time that it was written or in the time that it was written about,” said Kline. “There’s some value to students understanding that piece of it as well that was an unacceptable piece of culture a hundred years ago.”

By removing the word, Schmaltz said, Gribben was destroying the artistry of it.

“Huck Finn is a hard book to read,” Schmaltz pointed out.

“To say that you’re trying to make it more accessible, you’re either censoring it or dumbing it down, and both are bad things to do.” n

53 | Spark | lehsspark.org

sports | inside east sports East senior Jeff Cargill dives for a loose ball in the game against Mason on Jan. 18.

with a humble attitude, a “ten-deep” roster and national recognition, east basketball is...

reaching

NEW HEIGHTS story jeff back | photos eric muenchen

W

ith a commanding presence that could silence any room, the man donning a black sport coat and tie scanned over the court below him at the future backbone of his program.

Despite watching the East Junior Varsity (JV) boys’ basketball team’s drubbing of the Oak Hills Highlanders unfold before his eyes, he refused to allow even a hint of a smile to show. In the thick of a conversation with one of his assistants, he held a packet beneath his arm. In large black letters the cover read, “One Heartbeat.”

These words have served as a mantra for the East boys’ Varsity basketball team ever since. During the 2010-11 season, the leadership of six seniors on the team has propelled the Thunderhawks to their best start in school history.

Varsity Head Coach Wally Vickers cites this leadership and the experience of his veterans as the reason for this year’s improvement, but makes sure that his team knows it has to finish what it started.

“It’s one of the best teams I’ve ever had,” says Vickers, who has coached basketball for 28 years. “But the thing is, this team hasn’t accomplished anything yet. I told them before we got off the bus [after the 69-65 overtime victory against the fifth-ranked in the city Mason team], ‘Stay humble.’”

The team should have no trouble with that, however, as its humorous nature and camaraderie prevent any of the seniors from getting caught up in the success that many have not seen since junior high.

“We’re more like a family,” says East senior and leading scorer Michael Boyd.

This “family” spends countless hours at fast food restaurants, hangs out together every weekend, makes fun of each other ceaselessly and

54 | Spark | February 14, 2011

raps for fun in their spare time.

Senior center Jeff Cargill says that after practice and workouts, the seniors, along with a mix of other varsity players every once in a while, religiously frequent the McDonald’s on Cincinnati-Dayton road.

“We always sit at the same table and talk for hours about anything,” says Cargill. “It takes up so much of our time.”

Boyd says that after practice, the locker room is filled with shouts of where to go to eat. “Subway! Skyline! Wendy’s! Skip’s!” But somehow they almost always end up at McDonald’s.

“We play basketball and eat. Last time we hung out, we went to Chili’s,” says East senior Jalen Goodwin, who leads the team in threepoint field goals.

And jokingly, senior Brian Evans says, “We’re high on life.”

But when the buzzer soundsm, it is time to get down to business and the East boys’ basketball program knows how to work. All six seniors attest that they have worked harder than ever this year.

“This was the hardest spring we’ve ever had,” says senior leading defensive rebounder R.J. Leppert. “All we did was work out. And run.

Run. That’s all we did. Run. And Junior Varsity Coach Adkins decided to kill us in the weight room.”

The tough workouts, which involved more running, more weights and more sweat are what truly make this year’s team better, according to the East varsity boys’ basketball seniors.

Boyd makes the point that this year’s success both offensively and defensively was easy to predict considering all the hours the team worked out in the offseason.

“As soon as last year ended, we started working really hard,” says

Boyd, who leads the team in steals. “We were in the weight room two days after [last] season ended and we had to come in during Ohio Graduation Tests.”

The East boys were in the gym lifting, while the rest of the conference was sleeping in during sophomore standardized tests.

Even the competition can easily recognize that the varsity Thunderhawks have been putting in the hours. Oak Hills Varsity Head Coach Mike Price notes the improvement he has seen in this year’s team.

“I think the team is really together. I’ve been to several games where we’ve scouted and I’ve seen the whole team together,” says Price. “I think they have a lot of experience. They’ve really bought into Coach Vickers’ system. They work very well together. They’re executing really well and playing extremely hard, too.”

Price, who has coached at Oak Hills for 30 years, says that East’s success was a storm he saw coming.

“I started to see it happen at the end of last year and I think the players saw it too. They went into the offseason in the spring, summer and fall and really started to work with a purpose and work together to have a great season this year,” says Price, who coached most of East’s senior baseball players on the Cincinnati Shining Stars Amateur Athletic Union basketball team last summer.

Evans states that East’s 10-12 losing record in the 2009-10 season is a “great motivator” for the team.

“We just take it one game at a time, and if that ‘time’ ever comes, we’ll just have to work twice as hard against the next team,” says Evans. “There’s no bigger motivator than losing, but you never want to be in that position.”

As far as their significant past losing streak goes, these seniors have stowed away that mindset once and for all. All six believed that coming into this year, after the hard offseason workouts, they would experience great success.

“I felt like we were going to be this good,” says Goodwin. “Back in the 2-19 season people said, ‘Wait until their senior year.’”

Based on the goose egg in the loss column, they entered senior year with a vengeance.

As for the rest of the season and the team’s goals, however, all of the seniors agree that they want to get their own banner in the gym.

“That’s the big thing,” says Evans. “We want to be better than that team that already has one up there.”

But Vickers refuses to make any comparisons to East graduate and University of Miami (FL) basketball player James Dews’ senior team until after the season, according to Evans. Among the seniors, though, it is agreed that this year’s team is deeper.

“We go 10 deep. They couldn’t,” says senior Cameron Lee. Price agrees.

“James Dews’ team was exactly that—James Dews’ team,” says the Oak Hills coach.

“I think they’re probably better than that team because their team has more pieces,” says Price, who coached at Oak Hills during the 2005-06 season. “They can play more people. They get solid contributions from all their players, whereas that team was James Dews’; he had to carry that team, and he did that year.”

In fact, the Thunderhawks, as shown through their statistics, are remarkably balanced. They only have one player, Boyd, who is averaging more than 10 points a game. Eight other players average between four and nine points for the Hawks.

Additionally, the Hawks receive tremendous support from their bench, which outscores their opponents’, 329 to 180.

The Thunderhawks’ greatest asset, however, is their man-to-man

East senior R.J. Leppert attempts to pass by a Middletown defender

defense. It is their ability to capitalize on the colossal number of steals and turn them into points. The Hawks have 285 points off of turnovers this season, contributing to their top-ranked defense in the state.

“We knew we were going to have the best defense in the league,” says Goodwin.

Vickers’ emphasis on defense and teamwork is what will lead the Hawks’ to great places this year. When asked what this year’s team can accomplish, Vickers says that there is not anything this team cannot win.

East athletic director Richard Bryant, who attends all of the team’s home games, agrees with Vickers.

“They’ve played and beaten every team that’s come across them,” says Bryant. “They’re as good as anybody in the state. I have a concrete faith in our coaches and our kids.”

Bryant also believes that the basketball team’s success has made a significant impact on the student body at East.

“It’s tremendous, our student body. Our student sections are anywhere from 100-150 kids. The other night at Mason, we had 250-300 kids—at an away game. The student response is unbelievable,” says Bryant.

The seniors are really excited about the crowd sizes and believe it boosts their performance. Cargill says the crowd provided great support in the early stages of the game.

“From the first quarter, we showed that we were a better team than [Mason],” says Cargill. “We had the ability to win; it was just a matter of getting it done. And the crowd really helped us with that,” says Cargill.

The program’s unparalleled success has caught the attention of almost everyone in the school.

“Our boys’ basketball program has made us all proud and most

55 | Spark | lehsspark.org

sports | inside east sports importantly given the student body, parents and alumni something to look forward to every time [the team] steps on that court,” says East senior J.D. Whetsel. “The best thing, though, is they’re all humble and level-headed about the success.”

The buzz that this undefeated East squad has stirred up is not going anywhere. The future of the program looks “incredibly bright” according to Vickers. These thoughts are shared by Vickers and other coaches around the Greater Miami Conference (GMC).

“I think they’ll be fine [next year],” says Price. “They have some underclassmen that are contributing this year on varsity and the JV team seems to be playing pretty well right now. It’s just a matter of buying into the system and being coachable and working hard. In our league you have to do that every night, and I think the East guys are starting to do that better and better each year.”

Despite his optimism for the future and confidence in the quality of young talent in the program, such as varsity players Allante Foster, Mark Minch, Stedman Lowry and Rob Harpring, Vickers says that the fact that “expectations don’t change” is what has played a significant role in this year’s success and will prove crucial to the success of the program in the next few years.

Additionally, the JV team’s 6-5 record may be a glimpse at what is to come.

“Each team is different. How you go about things, how teams learn, how individuals learn, both collectively and individually, it always comes into play in how we do things,” says Vickers.

His mottos of “Carpe Diem” and “One Heartbeat” will be what drive the success of the East boys’ basketball program.

The “senior leadership” that Vickers names as the main difference between this year’s team and last may leave after this year. The work ethic that the seniors have instilled in the underclassmen in the program, however, will not be leaving anytime soon.

As for this season, the family that eats, laughs and plays together will continue to do what it does best: win. Boyd, Leppert, Goodwin, Evans, Cargill and Lee vow to continue the work they started, and will not be satisfied with anything less than a state championship. They each have different plans to become engineers, music producers and broadcasters, and many wish to play basketball in college or overseas.

They realize, however, that there is no time like the present.

“We’re seniors. This is our last year, and we want to put a banner in the rafters,” says Evans. n

“THE BEST THING, THOUGH, IS THEY’RE ALL HUMBLE AND LEVEL-HEADED ABOUT THE SUCCESS.”

East senior Jalen Goodwin fights for a loose ball in the game against Mason. The Hawks beat the Comets 69-65 in overtime.

56 | Spark | February 14, 2011

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sports | feature

Now an co-captain on the East gymnastics team, junior Alexa Brownfield did not let a broken neck stop her.

Hanging in the Balance story kyle morrison | photos kyle morrison, sierra whitlock

Seven broken bones, two sprained ankles and one nasty accident could not stop junior East gymnast Alexa Brownfield. Now, as the team’s co-captain, she takes her positive attitude back to the mat.

A

dozen East gymnasts lie in a circle on the gym floor as a part of their post-practice tradition. The girls have just put in a hard day of practice, but their goal—qualifying for the state meet—still lies on the horizon. Their leader sits in the middle of the circle and reminds the girls to keep their eyes on the prize.

“Keep working hard and work on your new skills,” East junior team captain Alexa Brownfield urges. She motions for the girls to congregate closer, and they erupt into a loud “E-A-S-T! Go, Hawks, go!”

Juniors are typically not team captains. Then again, Alexa Brownfield is a walking, tumbling, breathing contradiction of sorts. After all, she manages to flip and twist through her sport despite an injury that has kept some people from walking.

Rewind two years to Brownfield’s freshman year. It is only her second meet as a Thunderhawk, and she is performing on the uneven bars, one of her best events.

She swings around and around, picking up momentum as she prepares for her dismount, a flyaway—but she is going too fast. In one last attempt to slow her momentum, enough to perfectly execute her aerial maneuver, she makes a decision that jeopardizes her gymnastics career—she swings one more time.

She loses her grasp on the high bar, her shins hit the low bar and she plummets down to the ground, landing head-first with a thump. The crowd falls silent.

Her diagnosis offers little hope, as she has fractured her C1, C2 and C3 vertebrae, sustained a concussion and damaged every ligament in her neck.

58 | Spark | February 14, 2011

The closest witness to the accident was one of Brownfield’s closest friends and teammates, East junior co-captain Jenn Shafer.

“It was awful. I was holding the mat for her dismount. That just absolutely terrorized me,” says Shafer. “I hate seeing her go through all of these health problems that most people never have to deal with.

It was scary. We try not to go back to that gym anymore. We think it’s cursed.”

With her season over and her body mangled, Brownfield, an energetic, life-long gymnast, was confined to a neck brace for six of the most monotonous weeks of her life.

“I almost went into a mini-depression because I couldn’t do anything. I just had to sit at home and let myself heal for six weeks,” says Brownfield. “Recovery [took] a long time and I did not like just sitting there at all.”

Shafer says that while Brownfield was not able to carry out her usual activities, she still kept high spirits through the ordeal.

“I know that during the recovery time, she wasn’t quite herself. She had to quit everything,” says Shafer. “She was still trying to be optimistic, and it showed. She bedazzled her neck brace and put ribbons on it every day, or she would come in with a scarf on or something to make it seem like her life was normal.”

The rest of the team, as well as East girls’ gymnastics coach Margi Sammons, were also at her side in her time of need.

“The team was very supportive of her. The girls went over to her house and visited her on the way to a meet one time,” says Sammons.

“We wanted to make sure she felt okay.”

Brownfield went through countless therapy sessions in order to strengthen the ligaments in her neck. Whether it was through weight machines, simple movements or electric stimulation, she did whatever her therapist told her in hopes of getting back to the sport she loved.

After all, she had not let minor roadblocks in the past, such as her appendix removal, sprained ankles and seven broken bones, keep her away from gymnastics.

“I’ve [even] broken the metacarpals in my hand. They’re like the most impossible bones to break. I’ve broken the growth plate in my foot. I’ve sprained my ankles many times, and [the injuries have been] so bad that I couldn’t walk,” says Brownfield. “But I really motivated myself to fight back. I’ve been doing gymnastics for 14 years, and nothing will keep me away. I just love it so much.”

From her first practice as a two-year-old at a Wisconsin YMCA, Brownfield knew that this was the sport for her. The reason she took her first tumbling class, however, is not exactly what most people would expect.

“My mom didn’t want me to be clumsy like her,” says Brownfield.

“But when I grew up, that really didn’t turn out like she planned. I just get hurt a lot.”

As a third grader, her family moved from Wisconsin to Ohio. She was enrolled in Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy, where she was able to make the team for level four, the youngest age group offered in club gymnastics.

After a switch in gyms, she eventually reached level six, where she achieved her greatest gymnastic feat. As a 13-year-old, Brownfield won the state meet at level six, scoring a 9.5 on bars, the event in which she would later sustain her neck injury.

The intense world of club gymnastics began to burn Brownfield out during her freshman year. She was not ready to quit the sport altogether, however, so she made the decision to quit club gymnastics and join the East squad. “[Club] was too stressful—too much time—so I decided to do high school gymnastics instead,” says Brownfield. “The change was dramatic.

Club is strict—you have to be perfect, you can’t mess up.”

While Brownfield did expect some disparities between club and high school, she soon found out that while the two were the same sport, they were completely different worlds.

“You just wear a leotard for club practice, so I came into high school

“I motivated myself to fight back. I’ve been doing gymnastics for 14 years, and nothing will keep me away.” practice just wearing a leotard,” says Brownfield. “Everyone else was in shorts and t-shirts. I was so confused. It was completely relaxed, and we could just try what we wanted to. It was completely different from club.”

Brownfield and Shafer came into the East program together, and the two have seen their friendship grow throughout their high school gymnastics careers.

“We were the only two freshmen when we started. Now we’re the only juniors,” says Shafer. “We got to decide on what color the sweatshirts and t-shirts were going to be, and we agreed on everything. We think very similarly on a lot of topics.”

There is one difference between the two junior captains, however.

“Alexa is obsessed with scary movies. That’s one thing we disagree on,” says Shafer. “I like the cheesy romantic comedy movies and she hates them.”

While Shafer and Brownfield both lead the team by example, Brownfield’s history of overcoming injuries gives her perspective when

Brownfield prepares for her routine on the balance beam.

it comes to helping teammates through their personal struggles with staying healthy throughout the season.

“Whenever a girl gets injured, I’m the one that goes to them first and helps them get through it,” says Brownfield. “I let them know what I think is wrong and how to get through it, if they should continue practicing or see a doctor.”

East sophomore Annie Davis is one of the girls who has received Brownfield’s injury advice this year.

“I’ve injured my back so I can’t compete, and she keeps on helping me through that,” says Davis. “[Her injury history] definitely shows that she’s been in gymnastics for a long time and she goes all-out no matter what. A lot of girls don’t go all the way out because they’re afraid to get injured, but she always pushes it.”

Sammons agrees that Brownfield has become the team’s leader, despite only being a junior.

“She’s definitely more confident than she was as a freshman, she’s developed into a strong leader on the team,” says Sammons. “When she came back her sophomore year, she didn’t want to do bars again, and everyone was supportive of her. But then this year, she tried to do bars to help out the team.”

As dedicated to the team as Brownfield is, her ultimate balancing act does not take place in the gym. Rather, it is in her schedule, as she is also engaged in the East theater program.

“I love to perform and it was always something I wanted to do,” says Brownfield. “It’s so difficult to balance [gymnastics and theater], I have to give up gymnastics for theater sometimes . It’s hard to do both.”

Her schedule is not even what concerns Brownfield the most.

“I’m starting to get worn out from all of my injuries. My neck has been bothering me,” she says.

Despite this, she considers herself in better health than usual.

“I’m pretty healthy and I want it to stay that way,” says Brownfield. n

59 | Spark | lehsspark.org

sports | briefs

he East Academic Quiz Team (AQT) is coming to a close on its season with a 9-7 record in February, recently winning against Lakota West 40-31.

“We are struggling with literature,” said junior and first-year AQT member Daniel Robbins. “But I like the challenge.”

The team is always working on its strategy to overcome these struggles. It is difficult to practice for the matches due to the wide variety of the question content. The questions can vary from Harry Potter to history. This kind of knowledge is built over many years.

“History and school related questions come up a lot,” said Thomas Vidas, senior and first year AQT member.

Robbins said he studies on the weekends to

prepare himself for practices and matches and to “better himself.”

Senior co-captains Emily Cottingham and Nitya Sreevalsan make the lineups, run the practices and decide how the team will function.

The time that the AQT spends together, whether they are studying or eating together, has united the group.

“I love the ‘family’ within the team,” said Cottingham. “We have a lot of time to bond.”

The final element that allows the AQT to function self-sufficiently is the fact that most of the teammates are acquaintances outside of the club and have the same niche.

“We all do the same sort of activities,” said Cottingham. “We’re together all the time.” n —Kali Martin

C

Boys’ Bowling

photo kali martin

onfident that it would take home its second consecutive win, the East varsity boys bowling team fell to rival Lakota West.

The five seniors on the varsity team, Mitch Geers, Brady Williamson, Jake Hutton, Chaz Himes and Brandon Paisley were looking forward to another victory against the Firebirds.

In last year’s cross-district matchup, Geers sealed the victory for the Hawks with a late strike leaving a final score of 2,458-2,447.

Before this year’s contest began, Geers says that he was “feeling confident” that the team would be successful.

“We have prepared the whole time and are ready to win,” said Geers.

Both the team members and coaches agreed Senior Brady Williamson chucks the ball down the lane at a match against Lakota West.

Spark

“Repeat as state [champions],” was all senior right wing Corey Kadash, who has scored nine times this season and assisted 15 other goals, had to say about the team’s aspirations for the rest of the season. “The team needs to keep up the intensity to achieve its goal.”

One of the team’s 13 wins this season came against rival Lakota West, with a 6-3 victory.

“Everyone was really pumped for it,” said Kadash, who had two assists in the win. “We really played well as a team.”

Ronnie Price, the team’s leading scorer at 15 goals, believes that the team’s ultimate goal of back-to-back state championships is a realistic possibility.

“We just need to skate hard and keep on giving effort,” Price said. n —John Grasty

Quiz Team East senior Akash Umakantha and sophomore Wyatt Johnson write answers during a match.

that maintaing focus through the season is key.

“I try to get them focused and dialed in and make sure their emotions are in check,” said coach Mike Ballard.

After the first two individual matches, Paisley, who averages 185.3 points per match, led East with 403 points.

Williamson, who leads East with 3,200 pins this season, says that East struggled throughout the 2,687-2,450 loss to Lakota West.

“If we would have gotten more [spares], we might have won,” said Williamson.

The team also realizes that next season will also be a challenge for the Hawks. The entire varsity roster graduating in June will leave the underclassmen to pick up the spares next season. n —Natasha Rausch

Hockey

photo eric muenchen

B

oys’ basketball is the typical sport mentioned when East athletics are brought up. East’s defending state-champion hockey team, however, is currently riding a 13 game winning streak and also deserves a buzz of its own.

“On the announcements they always talk about the basketball team and how they are undefeated,” said the Hawk’s senior goaltender Adam Fabry, who is considered a team captain.

“But you have to pay four dollars to see them, while we only have two losses and it’s free to see us.”

Fabry, who has saved 91 percent of the shots that have gone his way, also added that he was honored to play on the defending state champion hockey team.

photo kali martin

T

Hawk Briefs

East senior goaltender Adam Fabry surrenders the game-winning goal to the Mason Comets.

Check updates of East winter sports throughout the season and read the results of every East-West classic, including the boys’ basketball visit to West, at lehsspark.org.

TICKER: GIRLS’ n BOYS’ BASKETBALL—Allante first in GMC field goal percentage; first in GMC steals per game TICKER: SOFTBALL­ — Tied for 2nd Foster in GMC n BOYS’ TENNIS— First inMike GMCBoyd n

Lady Thunderhawks Sound as One story hannah lee | photo kali martin

T

he varsity girls basketball team is more than just a team. Aspiring to reach the Ohio High School Athletic Association State Final Four, the Hawks are like sisters both on and off the court.

“I would not trade my team for the world,” says East junior Molly Blomer.

From the team dinner to game days, the Hawks are together, as East sophomore Imani Outlaw described.

“We do everything together,” says Outlaw, one of the three team captains. “We play hard and stick together.”

With a record of 10-3, the Thunderhawks are ranked number three in the city polls, behind Princeton and McAuley.

Through the wins and losses, however, the team always keeps its original goal in mind.

“Our motto is ‘Four,’” says Outlaw. “It stands for Final Four, which is our major goal.”

East varsity head coach Nikki Drew is well aware of the team’s “hunger” for their goal.

“Each player makes a goal for the team,” says the second-year varsity coach. “Then we narrow it down to the best goals.”

The Lady Hawks expect to have an even stronger team next year, as this year’s roster features seven juniors and only one senior.

Blomer says that the girls have played together so long that they all know the playing stlyes of their teammates.

“They are experienced youth,” says Drew.

“They have unselfish personalities and that makes them want to play with each other.”

According to Drew, their selfless attitudes stemmed from their upbringing.

Sophomore Imani Outlaw zeroes in on the basket as she prepares for her shot. Outlaw has made 15 of her 20 free throws this season.

“These are good kids at East and raised well,” she says. “The girls are respectful to me and to each other because they know they get what they dish out.”

The Lady Hawks “dished out” a defeat against the Division II, two-time defending State Champs, Hathaway Brown. The final score of 52-37, in Berlin, OH in the Classic in

the Country Showcase, displayed what happens when the Hawks play together.

“We played as hard as we could the whole game,” says Blomer. “The atmosphere was great and we had fun being there together.”

Outlaw says that being focused in practice is the only way to get better. As a former Xavier University basketball player, Drew played against a designated boys team to help strengthen the team.

Similarly, the Hawks practice with a group of East boys to better their skills.

“When I coached at Vanderbilt [University], I was responsible for finding the boys that played against the team,” says Drew. “Boys are faster and stronger. And you have to play against better to get better.”

In practice, the boys help the girls prepare for their games.

“The boys are great,” says Outlaw. “They are fast and quick, which really helps us.”

Drew agrees that the boys help bring a change of pace to practice.

“The boys help spice things up so the girls are not always doing the same thing in practice.” says Drew. “Our boys will meet with me and run the other team’s stuff. They have fun with it and have contributed to our success.”

With the team being so close and having fun, a family that plays together, stays togeher.

This season, the Lady Hawks are no exception to this rule.

“We pick each other up so we can get through it,” says Blomer. “Getting by is not enough—we have to be on top. Wins are not going to be handed to us.” n

HAWK CULTURE

A look into the lives of East athletes

Wally Vickers VARSITY BOYS’ BASKETBALL COACH

infographic alex griffin

Aleth Pashi VARSITY GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Matt Kaltman VARSITY SWIMMING

Kelly Monroe VARSITY GIRLS’ BOWLING

Abbey Cramer VARSITY SWIMMING

Neema Mohommadi VARSITY WRESTLING

Watch the Superbowl?

YES

NO

YES

YES

YES

YES

Like/Dislike New School Start Time?

DISLIKE

LIKE

LIKE

LIKE

LIKE

DISLIKE

Favorite Kids’ Show?

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

DORA THE EXPLORER

SCOOBY-DOO

PHINEAS AND FERB

PHINEAS AND FERB

BUGS BUNNY AND ROAD RUNNER

Coke or Pepsi?

PEPSI

PEPSI

COKE

COKE

COKE

COKE

Favorite Fast Food?

SONIC

SKYLINE

CHICK-FIL-A

IN-AND-OUT BURGER

WENDY’S

CHIPOTLE

n WRESTLING —Ryan Miller in 130lb class BOYS’ BASKETBALL— Firstfirst in GMC forweight rebounds

n

n

BOYS’ SWIMMING—Greg Reynaert second 100-yard BOYS’ BOWLING— Mitch Geers 2nd teaminall GMC breaststroke

sports | eight things

story rob harpring east boys’ basketball and football (as told to devin casey) photo eric muenchen

Manage Social Life

“Come to terms with the fact that playing two sports takes a lot of time and you will not get to see your friends as much.”

Have a Routine Workout

“I practice right after school for two or three hours. On weekends and during the summer, it is good to increase your workout length.”

Remember Academics

“I feel that it is good to work hard during practice, but then come home and immediately get to homework so it is completed on time.”

Ask for Help

“Keep up with all your classes so you do not get behind because of any sport you are playing. It can be hard, but talk to your teachers when you need help.”

Eat Right

“Not just eating healthy, but eating enough. I eat a large breakfast, lunch and dinner to have enough energy.”

8

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

two-Sport athletes

62 | Spark | February 14, 2011

Focus in the Offseason

“You still need to be working out regularly after each season ends. I do this so, when I get back into a new season, my body is not worn out.”

Get Plenty of Sleep

“Getting plenty of sleep is always key during the week for school, practice and games.”

Plan Ahead

“Practicing six days a week with the occasional games means that you study ahead of time for tests.”

Justine Chu Spectator Spectacle

SPORTSOPINION

In her first experience with American sports, American sports fans and American eating, Justine Chu observes the workings of a lizard face.

F

riends don’t let friends drive drunk. Friends don’t let friends take home ugly men.

And friends most certainly don’t let friends live on Earth for 16 years without having watched a single basketball game before.

This explained why I was sandwiched between two of those so-called “friends” on a couch with a state-of-the-art plasma TV in front of us.

I was obviously not living out life to its full potential until this day at a week-long youth group camp, when my eyes followed 10 vertically-gifted men run back and forth across a gym floor for a good 48 minutes with squeaky shoes. I was lucky enough to be sharing this special moment with overpaid sports announcers who could explain the players’ every move and with the spectators decked out in their $45 jerseys.

I sullenly pointed out that friends don’t kidnap friends by wrapping them in a blanket until they look like a Chipotle burrito. Friends also don’t force friends to watch the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers in the seventh game of the 2010 NBA Finals.

When I asked why they were putting me through this torture, the only response was a mumbled “It’s for your own good.” My captivity was obviously of no interest to the other 26 people in the room, their eyes glued on the TV screen as the teams entered the basketball court.

Watching this game was not for my own good. It was actually detrimental to my health. As soon as the first basket was made, the room erupted into chaos and an epiphany hit me harder than a basketball to the head: I wasn’t here to watch the Celtics and the Lakers. I was here to watch the Celtics and the Lakers fans. A quick survey of the room showed me that the Celtics fans had congregated to one side of the room and the Lakers fans had amassed on the other. They had sneakily placed me as the battle line between the two sides. After every steal, every point, every time Kobe Bryant did something remotely amazing, the fans from one side would cheer boisterously and the fans from the other side would trash-talk scathingly.

Thankfully, both sides were mollified when the pizza came, even though the delivery man was late, saying that he was busy; after all, he had six stops before ours. Everyone apparently wanted copious amounts of traditional spectator sports food to commemorate this special game.

A commercial break provided ample time for the two teams to convene in the dining room, gulp down Gatorade (spectating sports burns a lot of calories) and scheme up ways to embarrass the other side.

I was left alone in the living room, still bundled up in my Chipotlestyle cocoon. With the attention of my captors diverted, I managed to sneak my left arm out to grab the remote control. Triumphant, I pressed a button and the channel changed—to ESPN. I wasn’t looking at a true journalistic company, rather one that had morphed sports into a profitminded venture, under the alias of giving people constant access to it. ESPN had taken what were originally simple recreational activities

“

and morphed them into profit-crazed undertakings, complete with unnecessary glamour and glitz.

Luckily, a rabid Lakers fan discovered me and changed the channel back to NBC before my eyes could be scarred even more so than they already were. The rest of the crazy mob followed, the commercial break ended and the peaceful atmosphere shattered.

“RAJON RONDO IS A LIZARD-FACE WHO CAN’T SHOOT A BASKETBALL TO SAVE HIS LIFE!” Rabid Lakers Fan A pointed out calmly to Fanatical Celtics Fan A. The three of us turned back to the TV just in time to see the “lizardface” score a three-pointer. Rabid Lakers Fan A avoided our eyes while Fanatical Celtics Fan A cackled with glee, before launching back an equally barbed retort about the Lakers.

Hypothetically speaking, two people yelling inane insults at each other over my head and waving slices of pizza in a menacing manner shouldn’t be comfortable at all—but it was. Underneath the ESPN-laden, overpriced sportswear and junk food-infested layers of spectator sports was devout loyalty to a team, the rare camaraderie that is diminishing in the modern era. Regardless of whether I actually understood the game (I didn’t), I could revel in the easy banter in the room. It was comfortable to be amongst people who were all doing something together, with no one responding to text messages every few minutes. Spectator sports were not only good for gaining weight and partaking in yelling-matches, but also good-natured, albeit over-the-top, humor and fun. It was comfortable being sandwiched between a Celtics fan and a Lakers fan, knowing that once the game ended, they would return to being best friends.

It was so comfortable, in fact, that I fell asleep five minutes into the third quarter. A whoop of triumph from Rabid Lakers Fan A startled me awake to the sight of half of the room celebrating and the other half of the room sulking.

The deep pompous voices of sports announcers were announcing the Lakers’ victory as a historical event rivaling the fall of Rome. I ignored them and looked around again. To my surprise, everyone had turned off “fan-mode” and returned to being a homogenous clump of law-abiding citizens and were cleaning up the greasy paper plates and half-filled soda cups calmly.

“Are you ready for the next game?” chirped Rabid Lakers Fan A, now reverted back to Normal Good Friend A. The other 26 no-longer-crazy faces waited attentively for my answer.

“Yup,” I said. Because friends don’t let friends watch only one basketball game in their entire life. n

Friends don’t kidnap friends by wrapping them in a blanket like a Chipotle burrito.

“

Spark

Want more sports opinions? Find out why Brett Colburn thinks the NCAA is full of stock brokers at lehsspark.org.

63 | Spark | lehsspark.org

opinion | column

Tyler

Kieslich A

A diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks detailed the corruption of former Tunisian President Ben Ali. The people read about how Ali and his cronies stole their homes, stole their businesses and stole their jet skis only to use them for their own personal benefit. This was the metaphorical straw that broke the hypothetical camel’s back. Just ask Salem Bouazizi: His brother, Mohamed, lived in a city called Sidi Bouzid. Life was always tough for Mohamed. He dropped out of school at 19 to support his family, but the only work he could find was that of a street vendor hawking fruits and vegetables. He had to go into debt to put up the $200 for his stand and his wares.

These circumstances would have been hard enough on their own, but the harassment Mohamed faced from the local government in Sidi Bouzid made things unmanageable. They’d tease him, slap him, tell him he didn’t have the right permits. In reality, Mohamed just didn’t have enough money for the bribes. Once, a female municipal officer confiscated Mohamed’s weight scales and spat on him. In an Arab nation that still holds to strict gender expectations, this was the worst kind of humiliation. Mohamed was denied a meeting with the local governor to report the offending officer. This was only the latest bit of fuel to the growing flame of Mohamed’s frustration.

So he bought a can of gasoline and proceeded to light himself on fire.

“Freedom is expensive, and my brother paid the price,” said Salem.

Following Mohamed’s self-immolation were more protests and the eventual ousting of President Ben Ali. It had been a long time coming.

The cable was only proof of something the people had been feeling for years. The West is calling it the first “WikiLeaks Revolution,” a clear indicator of the kind of power the organization wields.

Purported sexual promiscuity aside, Julian Assange, founder and editorin-chief of WikiLeaks, has started something that will change how we think about journalism and politics and what goes on behind closed doors. The process is simple enough. Hackers and other degenerates submit the classified information to WikiLeaks, who in turn release it to the Internet. The hope is to incite violent revolution or at least vigorous political discourse.

One of the more visible of these degenerates is Bradley Manning.

The former soldier and master of espionage pretended to listen to Lady Gaga while downloading gigabytes of classified government intelligence from SPIRNet (the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network). He submitted the material to WikiLeaks, the most controversial of his additions being a video called “Collateral Murder.” It depicts a terribly tragic 2007 U.S. airstrike in Iraq. The bombs appear to rip apart a large group of journalists and other innocent bystanders. Then a medical van pulls up—and the bombs blow that up, too.

Manning is now rotting away in a military prison in Quantico, VA. WikiLeaks, as it stands, operates in an awkward legal gray area.

“Wikileaks has already shown its capacity to shape world politics.”

64 | Spark | February 14, 2011

HEAD t

Wiki

In 1971 the Supreme Court ruled in New York Times v. U.S. that the Nixon administration had no right to prevent the New York Times or the Washington Post from publishing classified material relating to the Vietnam War. Following that logic, doing things like breaking into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account to reveal she has been sending work-related emails (and thereby breaking public record laws) might be illegal, but publishing it is not.

The American government is obviously nervous about the idea of an organization shining a light on all of its shady dealings and sketchy inner workings. The Dick Cheneys of the world probably wouldn’t want everyone to know that our government spies on U.N. officials, that McDonald’s lobbies for influence over free trade legislation or that Shell has essentially taken over the Nigerian government and is now maniacally laughing about it in that evil genius sort of way.

Supreme Court precedent hasn’t seemed to matter so far. After numerous denials of service, WikiLeaks now hosts its servers in a nuclear bunker somewhere beneath Stockholm, Sweden, and Assange’s role with the company seems to have been reduced from principal spokesman to principal fugitive and apologist. He and his organization are being chased by angry governments bitter that they are being exposed and can do nothing about it.

Apparently, the idea that democracy is based on the idea of a transparent government that allows people to make informed decisions based on facts doesn’t matter. The truth is that transparent governments don’t exist in the real world. The press is supposed to pick up the slack and inform the people of what the government will not. But this is capitalism. The press needs to consider dividends and profit margins, and the truth doesn’t always sell. So here is the niche for WikiLeaks, a non-profit run mostly by volunteers. Someone has to serve as a check to secretive regimes, to do what the press cannot or refuses to do.

One of the many failures of the war in Iraq was the way the press ignored glaring holes in the Bush administration’s rationale. Dick Cheney should be glad that he didn’t have WikiLeaks breathing down his back while he was telling his intelligence agencies to find evidence to a conclusion that had already been reached. The lie would have been revealed, and the administration would have been exposed. Ask the 100,000 Iraqis that have died in the war if they think it would have been worth it.

WikiLeaks has already shown its capacity to shape • Born in Australia in 1971. Became world politics. It has revealed a hacker at an early age. corruption in Kenya and • The purpose of the site is to Somalia, stopped toxic waste expose wrongdoing by governments dumping in Cote d’Ivore, and now prodded revolution in and corporations while allowing Tunisia. The leaks do have whistle-blowers to remain some capacity to cost lives. anonymous.

That is the terrible and ugly • Journalist, internet activist and truth. But freedom is expensive. self-described editor-in-chief and Mohamed Bouazizi’s family spokesperson of learned that the hard way. n WikiLeaks.

Who is Julian Assange?

o HEAD

leaks

O

On a small boat on a frosty Delaware River, George Washington led his soldiers from Pennsylvania into New Jersey territory. With Hessian militia counting sheep in barracks in Trenton, Washington and his crew were able to ambush them. His covert attack demolished the British morale. In a time in the American Revolution where hope was all but lost, this surprise attack marked a turning point for the Patriots.

If New England was marred with the presence of Iraqi veteran Private First Class Bradley Manning, who allegedly supplied over 250,000 secret diplomatic cables concerning the Pentagon and national security to WikiLeaks in the spring of 2010, Washington would have had to worry about more than tea. Assuming Julian Assange, founder of the treason-ridden site WikiLeaks, had not been incarcerated for sexually assaulting Loyalists, he would have taken Washington’s confidential plans and informed the public by jumping on his horse and galloping through the streets of New Jersey shouting, “The Yankees are coming!

The Yankees are coming!”

Had this all occurred, the Hessian mercenaries would have expected Washington’s attack, halted the ambush and killed George Washington, crushing the American Revolution. Had this occurred I might currently be sipping tea while reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with a cricket match blaring on the radio in the background.

I do not like tea. And treason isn’t so hot either.

The sabotage-minded users of WikiLeaks are making the national defense’s job of preserving freedom and national security unnecessarily difficult. The WikiLeakers that defend their cause with the First Amendment are destroying the integrity and original purpose of that amendment by taking it upon themselves to inform the globe about the internal secrets of the Pentagon. The supporters of such activities are ignorant and unaware of the repercussions of their broadcast.

As expected, the globe is interested in this news bulletin: Currently the Pentagon is trying to prove that Assange violated the Espionage Act of 1917, which prevents the “unauthorized” possessor of a document who “has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation” to communicate the document “to any person not entitled to receive it.”

In laymans terms, Assange and WikiLeaks are illegally redistributing the National • Started Football League’s (NFL’s) WikiLeaks nationally televised broadcast with a to anyone remotely interested group of in football—without like-minded written consent from NFL individuals, Commisioner Roger Goodell. who, The only reason Assange according is not currently six feet under to the site, for treason charges is that include the Pentagon has not proven “journalists, software deliberate and willful acts programmers, network engineers to harm the United States. and mathematicians.”

Yet, it is hard for a man who • Now under house arrest in the masterminded a “sabotage United Kingdom for accusations of America” site to defend that sexual assault.

Devin

Casey he has no intentions of harming the U.S. national defense. Assange is also responsible for the posts that detail critical overseas infrastructure for pipelines and vaccine factories. While this seems innocent, it excludes the fact that one would have to be painfully naïve not to understand that America has many enemies. Details such as these, which are included in just one of the millions of articles on WikiLeaks, supply perfect targets to our radical enemies who want nothing more than to see Americans slaughtered at their hands.

The damage caused by the ignorance of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks progresses past just jeopardizing American lives. Knowing that America’s secrets are essentially being turned into Wheel of Fortune answers, our country cannot be expected to be trusted by other countries with confidential material ranging from military secrets to trade relations.

A WikiLeaks article discussed that if Seoul, South Korea controlled the entire Korean Peninsula, China would have no problem looking the other way. This could not only drag America and China into another Korean War, but also freeze foreign relations with Asian nations for decades.

WikiLeakers have provided nothing but disgrace, a cyber red scare and a false sense of freedom of the press for publishers and supporters.

When WikiLeaks disclosed that a popular Mediterranean city hosts several al-Qaeda camps and hideouts, Americans naturally felt much safer knowing where the danger zone is. American representatives in that city, however, have been put in jeopardy at relevant American outposts and have had to nearly triple their counterterrorism effort.

Despite this, WikiLeaks support groups continue to defend the efforts of contributors and Assange. When the WikiLeaks founder was incarcerated for inappropriate sexual conduct with two Swedish women, flamboyantly liberal filmmaker Michael Moore offered $20,000 for the bail of Assange, the same man who founded the site that will lead to the loss of innocent lives, if it has not done so already.

If Assange cannot be charged with treason, he should be jailed for starting the next world war—a cyber war. Not only does Assange have a raucous group of hackers supporting him, but the United States government has employed “Mudge,” a reformed hacker that is now working to stop the digital leaks for good. Now that the team captains have been picked, as well as their hacker teammates, the cyber war is ready to begin. Assange has not only struck the first blow in America’s defense, but he has threatened to take down all big business in the same manner.

Before we strap on our boots and shove the gun powder down our muskets, we should consider the high road. While Washington’s men may have had no alternative to prevent a chaotic counter-attack, today’s government should implement an internet policy that allows them to freeze WikiLeaks while the problem is being solved. If a policy like this was employed during the Revolutionary War, Assange would have been met by the Patriot militia before he could grab his saddle to go impede the national defense. He would then have been thrown into the brick chambers of a Boston prison to rot away. n

“Assange...should be jailed for starting the next World War—a cyber war.”

65 | Spark | lehsspark.org

opinion | column

Katie Szczur

Hollywood’s Silver Lining

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Contact Katie at katiekat37@fuse.net

Thursday nights will now forever be associated with the word “situation,” a once ordinary term now synonymous with a New York native who brought us the genius of “GTL:” gym, tanning and laundry. Three days later, Sunday rolls around, and it is the time to begin the daunting task of following the “dolls” of the Kardashian family through Calabasas, CA. While Jersey Shore is never complete without incoherent cat fights and club scenes and Keeping up with the Kardashians uses bleeps within the first 10 minutes to mute the sounds of swearing, a silver lining exists in the chaos.

Parents will inevitably complain about reality television, whether referring to Seaside Heights slang of “lean cuisine” or “juiceheads” while gossiping about men and the beach, or Khloe, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian’s playful lingerie photo shoots modeling Ashley Paige swimwear. However close the shows emulate the fictional glamour of film, the broadcasted characters and their flamboyant personalities do not end when the credits begin to roll. So before the Parents’ Television Council, an organization on a mission to “change television” through “an army of concerned Americans,” brands programs with a yellow or red light to signal that shows are inappropriate, the council members need to realize the benefit of anti-rolemodel qualities.

Resisting the temptation to mirror a life after those glorified through Hollywood comes from parental lessons.

Especially with episodes featuring an intoxicated Jenni “JWoww” Farley urinating behind a rooftop bar and wearing tops that seemed to be pulled from the depths of a box of rags, mothers and fathers need to teach their children how to draw boundaries between the irresponsible actions of reality television and reality. After this difference is accepted, the consequences of being irrational and disrespectful that are idolized by reality television producers allow the stars, their colorful vocabulary and decisions to remain inside the television.

With citizens like the Parents’ Television Council attempting to purify the channels that are home to reality television’s finest, viewers will be at the ultimate disadvantage. Believing that a positive and ethical way of living is a mantra for all will only be a game of pretending. Parents cannot remove the shows from the media and expect for the same behavior to disappear in the world.

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is not a character imagined in the mind of one of Hollywood’s greatest directors or screenwriters; rather, he is a Staten Island, NY native who appeals to Jersey Shore creators Anthony Beltempo and SallyAnn Salsano with his superficiality and narcissism that capture the essence of the quintessential East-Coast Guido. The Kardashians are not a group of actors taking rounds of shots at restaurants and giving explicit gift baskets to their sisters in

an attempt to pass as a family. The family of eight and its frequent antics is a true example of a family in its home environment, however inappropriate or controversial their actions may seem or the numerous boundaries they seem to be pushing.

Concerned parents cannot change the channel when witnessing the influence of these individuals on a daily basis outside of the television screen. Apart from showcasing examples of how not to act, the cast members of the reality television series’ often try their hand at several markets and personalize the world that we all observe, not just the devoted TV series audiences.

Outside the circle of crew and cameras, Sorrentino is donning the role of a trainer in his 2010 workout video The Situation Workout while Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi becomes an author with her book A Shore Thing.

Kim Kardashian’s self-titled perfume hit the market in 2010, and she is currently collaborating with her sisters Khloe and Kourtney to create the product line K-Dash by Kardashian, which will feature handbags, lingerie and swimwear in 2011.

The best option is acceptance—acceptance of the lifestyle and contributions of the stars and acceptance that our own virtues and morals will be a saving grace from the celebrities’ distasteful and often shallow choices.

Before complaining about what is shown on the television, parents should educate their children on the difference between behavior on television and what should happen in real life.

Khloé Kardashian perfectly sums up the ridiculousness of reality television as she turns a facial into a time to give her sister Kim a unicorn-esque avocado horn and the next day tries to force her to take a sip from a bottle of her sister Kourtney’s breast milk in recent episodes of her family’s series. Behaving in such a way on film does not grant the audience an “OK” to do the same. Criticizing the promiscuity and thoughtless behavior of reality television stars in our own homes will do nothing to change the actions or outlook of those individuals in their lives. Rather, after watching the shows, viewers can control the realization that we can only change how we decide to act. Now, watching and laughing at the ridiculous antics of reality television stars and their make-shift unicorn horns is all that there is left to do. After all, despite all the examples of bad behavior on television, their foolish actions sure do entertain.

So before jumping to the conclusion that reality shows breed a generation of perfectly coordinated fist pumpers and spendthrift sisters, parents should sit down and think about the power of anti-role-model qualities.

Those reality TV stars, they just might have some “situations” up their sleeves to give us what we need while, in the end, entertaining us all. n

“ Parents cannot remove the shows from the media and expect for the same behavior to disappear in the world.”

66 | Spark | February 14, 2011

“

Reality TV

Mom, this is my new boyfriend, and don’t call me Molly anymore.

My new name is M-Pow.

Yo.

editorial cartoon ellen fleetwood

My daughter

A parent’s mental math regarding reality television.

East Speaks Out

Do you think Jersey Shore and reality TV are bad influences to teenagers?

Brendan Todahl, Junior

Jasleen Kaur, Senior

Megan Manley, Senior

Travis Martin, Junior

“Yes. My sister used to watch it. All it shows is people doing irresponsible things, going out clubbing every night and bringing girls home. It sucks.”

“I think it is a bad influence because teens like to copy the media.”

“Yes because they are so fake and orange. They have fake boobs that pop out everywhere. I don’t want to see that. Little girls don’t need to think that is okay.”

“I feel that Jersey Shore is a bad influence on the youth of today because it glamorizes the bad decisions people are making with their lives and it makes it seem okay.”

67 | Spark | lehsspark.org

opinion | column

Nitya Sreevalsan Standardized Stupidity

S

Contact Nitya at evilsmartie615@gmail.com

Standardized testing is a lot like taking out the trash. It’s an unwanted job that gives little pleasure, but if you don’t do it, you’ll be wading in garbage the rest of your life. The tests serve an important function as a way of nationally ranking all college applicants, but in reality, so many different factors affect the outcome of the tests that the original purpose of the tests has been lost and replaced by a giant money-making scheme.

Harvard College Undergraduate Admissions states that they “regard test results as helpful indicators of academic ability and achievement when considered thoughtfully among many other factors.” They further explain that they realize that many things can affect test performance such as “schooling, intensive test preparation and socio-economic background.” However, the paradox remains that though they can see how the test may be manipulated to get better scores, Harvard along with 66 percent of accredited four-year colleges and universities throughout the country require some form of standardized testing. There is, however, simply no other way.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the ACT provide something that colleges cannot get through high school grade point averages or extracurriculars; they provide a level playing field where, ideally, everyone goes in equally and performs to the best of their ability on topics such as critical reading and basic math. In a perfect world, the SAT and ACT tests would be indicators of future performance by testing important skills rather than subject matter. Because they would be the same for everyone, no external circumstances would have to be taken into consideration, like high school profiles that are necessary to provide context for grade point averages. In fact, 51 percent of 540 surveyed East students believe that

standardized test scores should be vital to college acceptance decisions.

Sadly, once money-loving business got hold of the notion that kids would pay for materials to study for them, this ideal world was ruined.

Extreme preparation for these tests is a very lucrative business, as two million students spend a total of $1 billion to $2.5 billion a year on test-prep materials. Price for testing help ranges from $25 for a basic class to literally thousands of dollars for a private tutor. Taking the test itself also costs money—$47 for the SAT with Writing and $48 for the ACT with Writing. A recent policy started in 2010 that allows students to take the SAT as many times as they want without having to show colleges the scores from each time. This allows students to take the test repeatedly until their scores improve. With all of this preparation available to people with money, an article in a 2008 New York Times economics blog showed that as reported family income rises, so do SAT scores. While no direct causation can be inferred from this, there’s no denying that more preparation materials are available to those students who have more money.

The real purpose of the standardized tests has been sullied by nervous students trying to make themselves look better on college applications.

I am no exception. My parents hired an SAT tutor for me, helping me raise my score by about 200 points. Unfortunately, as long as colleges have no other way of comparing individual students on a national level, standardized tests like the SAT and ACT must be part of our lives. To be on the same level as everyone else, making use of all resources possible is almost a necessity. But remember, after college admissions, your score might as well be thrown away. n

But you can always retake it. So why don’t you go play some Xbox? It won’t hurt.

68 | Spark | February 14, 2011

You must study!

That’s my boy!

editorial cartoon emily chao

Later...

You really are going to study all those for your SAT tomorrow?

Nathan Dibble Going Rogue

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Contact Nathan at nathan.dibble@fuse.net

Education is paramount to the success of the state and nation as a whole. Internationally, America currently ranks 26th in education, based on Newsweek 2010 Best Countries survey. Without a quality education, students will fall behind the academic achievements of other developed nations, leading to harsh economic ramifications when America will not be able to match the global competition.

But budgets are tight and education in America is getting the short end of the stick. Education, like a stray dog, lacks attention from state budgets and lawmakers. In fact, lawmakers still have not changed the education funding system that has been deemed unconstitutional by the state of Ohio.

The Ohio Constitution mandates that school funds be provided by the General Assembly of Ohio, the legislative branch of the state government, to create a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state through a state fund. Ohio’s General Assembly, however, has done nothing in recent years to secure education funding to meet the needs of large, growing districts. The situation is dire, and Ohio government has failed the people, businesses and students of those large, growing school districts.

The funding provided to large school districts is terribly inadequate.

The Lakota Local School District is a prime example of the funding dilemma.

In fiscal year (FY) 2009, Lakota spent $9,503 per pupil to provide an “excellent with distinction” education to students.

The state, however, only provides roughly $3,325 per pupil, leaving the district and the education of students at the mercy of the tax payers.

With only a third of a student’s education being funded by the state, taxpayers and businesses, who may not be able to afford a tax hike or do not have students in the district, are held responsible for providing the remaining two-thirds of the funding for local schools. Despite the fact that a majority of a student’s education is being paid for by local taxes, the state is going back on its requirement to provide a quality system of common schools through state funding.

If students only got a third of a year of school, which is the amount of funding the state would provide, rather than an entire year, they would not be prepared for any achievement tests, let alone the real world or college.

Additionally, the state uses a flat funding model to allocate funds to individual districts, meaning the state will only pay for the number of students that the district had in 2005, when an education funding cap was implemented by lawmakers. Because it is a public school district, Lakota has been forced to take in about 2,000 students who are all unfunded by the state. The excess students cost the district $6.6 million.

To inadequately fund students and tell the district that it must still educate those students is simply bad business.

The state and federal governments’ inability to change or consider new, better methods have left the issue of local districts’ funding

unaddressed, despite many possible solutions to the issue.

Becoming a charter school district would address the lack of funding for the unfunded students burdening Lakota. Charter schools are schools that differ in curriculum and educational philosophy from the other public schools while maintaining state funding. This possibly revolutionary change would make Lakota the first ever charter school district. Lakota would not have to change the way that students are educated, but every student would receive state funding. The $6.6 million received by becoming a charter district would alleviate some of the financial burden that unfunded students force upon the district. It is not a significant amount, however, compared to the two-thirds of those students who would remain unfunded.

A second solution would be for Lakota to become a private school system. Lakota would no longer be required to follow state mandates.

Costly programs, such as physical education and busing would no longer be mandatory. Lakota would not, however, receive any state funding.

The inability to raise funds through either property taxes or state funding would force the district to charge tuition costing around $9,500 dollars (the cost of educating a student in Lakota FY 09) a year, $700 cheaper than private schools like Moeller. The downside still remains: the cost to a household with a single student in the school would almost be five times as much as they pay in property taxes now.

Many people would not be willing to pay this amount of money, especially during these poor economic conditions.

The most effective way for Lakota to fund itself while providing a quality education, however, would be to become a “rogue district.” The idea of the new, unencumbered school district entails maintaining local tax funding, but rejecting state funding and mandates. Though the proposition is not yet legal, the General Assembly of Ohio needs to pass legislation to let schools solve their own funding issues. Lakota receives approximately $62 million in state funds, but state mandates cost the district more than that amount through teacher pensions and other costs. The state funding is nonessential enough that if Lakota rejected it, and retained its tax base, it would be able to manage itself better. The district would run more efficiently. Teacher unions would not be required for negotiating salaries, and special programs, like band and chorus, would excel without the constant fear of facing cuts. Lakota would be the district that its residents pay for, not a school district whose fate lies at the mercy of the state funding system.

Lakota is running back to the state to be attained to, but instead of being nurturing and caring, the state government has shut the door and told Lakota to fend for itself. The future of education is now bleaker than ever before and we must pay to keep the quality high. It is the voters’ choice of what kind of schools they provide for and currently, the government and people are saying that education—our future—is not worth the price. n

“The situation is dire and the government of Ohio has failed the people and students.”

69 | Spark | lehsspark.org

opinion | finishing touch

MASONHOOD Twisting Mark Twain

“ S

he take my money…when I’m in need…”

I sensed my friends’ horror as Spark co-chief Faiz Siddiqui and I began a duet, singing, or rather, attempting to sing, Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” on Karaoke Revolution: Glee for Wii. Our voices sounded more like a screeching train crashing into a semi-truck than music.

After singing in a much higher pitch, we began to rap. “Now I ain’t sayin’ she a gold digger/But she ain’t messin’ wit’ no broke, broke,” I rapped monotonously. But Faiz rapped something different: He replaced the word “broke” with the “n-word” as it was a part of the original lyrics.

Obviously the song was not exactly kid-friendly, and the considerate Konami software developers censored the lyrics to warrant a tween-friendly E10+ rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

But when I read on Yahoo! News that Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn was being republished without the “n-word” and the word “Injun,” I was astonished by the blatant disregard for the novel’s historical integrity. Twain scholar and Auburn University English professor Alan Gribben’s aim was to make the American classic more accessible to younger readers. He said that the word puts the book in danger of joining the list of classics that Twain once defined as those “which people praise and don’t read.”

School boards in the past have been notorious for censoring studentaccessible material. The Lakota Local School District censored Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for its sexually-explicit content in 1996. After the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People complained in 2007, East administration cancelled the Thunderhawk Theater’s play “Ten Little Indians” because the original novel published in 1939 by Agatha Christie had the “n-word” in the title—none of the racist undertones were included in the East production.

Students’ First Amendment rights are crucial not only when writing and speaking, but also to reading and performing. Students, too, have the right to speak. And while censorship hinders their voices, it is not the main controversy in republishing Huckleberry Finn. In its most basic form, the book is an accurate account of racism and slavery. But Twain’s novel did not degrade blacks—it condemned the racism that exists in America. The racial slurs used throughout the classic illustrate how wrong bigotry is. Twain loathed racism so much that he wrote an entire novel satirizing the matter. He would be appalled to find his novel modified in a way that lessened the satirical effect.

By removing the racial slurs, Huckleberry Finn also loses Huck’s first hand experience with the evils of racism. Students who do not have the intellectual capability to understand the immensely different connotations of the word between the 19th and the 21st centuries do not have the maturity to understand the complexity of the theme behind Huckleberry Finn or the plot of the novel.

We should not be tarnishing a great piece of literature to cater to an audience simply because it cannot grasp the full thematic undertones of the novel.

When used in correct historical context, the word helps us understand where our society came from so we can advance and not regress back to when blacks were vehemently discriminated against. When blacks were forced to use separate drinking fountains. When blacks were considered three-fifths of a man. Yes, slavery and racism are dark parts of American history. But they are parts that we cannot forget, nor should we try to. We should learn from our history instead of blurring and changing it. A 21st century song such as “Gold Digger” has no historical context or satirical meaning behind the word’s usage. It uses the “n-word” to use the “n-word.” So when I sang Kanye West, I did not use the uncensored lyrics—I used those provided in the game.

“But I ain’t sayin’ she a gold digger/But she ain’t messin’ wit’ no broke, broke…”

Unfortunately, I’m still tone deaf. n

70 70| Spark | Spark| February | February14, 14, 2011 2011