Lakota East Spark 2016-17 Issue 4 by Lakota East Spark

2 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

CONTENTS March 2017 | Issue #174

NEWS 6 Be The Difference The program was recently expanded to include all of the sophomore class.

10 Low Income in Lakota One in five Lakota students is economically disadvantaged.

FEATURE 20 Biking For Charity Man bikes across United States.

24 Music Maniac

East junior follows passion for music.

PACKAGE 24 Fake News Due to recent events, the definition of fake news is evolving.

28 Obama’s Legacy East students discuss how Former President Barack Obama has affected them.

CULTURE 40 Localmotive 44 Photoshoot Comfortable and chic, athleisure wear is trending.

46 Reviews

SPORTS 54 Boys Basketball Senior Evan Kuhlman is leading East’s boys basketball team

56 NWF Wrestling

Northern Wrestling Federation is Cincinnati’s biggest wrestling promotion.

OPINION 66 Head to Head Are gap years beneficial to high school graduates?

71 Editorial Cartoon

opinion | letter to the editor

Spark 2016-2017 STAFF

Editors-in-Chief Erinn Aulfinger Michelle Chu Emma Stiefel Lauren Wilson Design Coordinator Julia Sanders Photography Manager Maya Wells Photography Editor Richard Giang News Managing Editors Sophia Spivey Emma Stiefel News Editors Julianne Ford Lina Kaval Culture Managing Editor Lauren Wilson Culture Editors Noor Ghuniem Richard Giang Feature Managing Editor Alyssa Hetterich Feature Editors Dani Dudash Lexy Harrison Karmi White Package Managing Editors Erinn Aulfinger Cristina Francisco Package Editors Michelle Chu Sidney Li Sports Managing Editor Allie Church Sports Editor Dustin Horter Opinion Managing Editors Victoria Negron Cara Satullo Opinion Editors Vivian Kolks Charis Williams Art Managing Editor Sarah Aftab Art Editor Tyler Bonawitz Graphics Managing Editors Sophia Chryssovergis Cassia Chryssovergis Graphics Editor Michael Croy Business Director Sarah Mullins Public Relations Director Cara Satullo Public Relations Assistant Victoria Negron Landon Meador Webmaster Michelle Chu Broadcast Manager Emma Stiefel

Advisor Dean Hume

2 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Spark, I’m terrified to think of how long it has been since I last worked for the Spark. I graduated in 2000, and I wrote for the magazine three years before that. Y’all can do the math. In my dotage and/or wisdom, I’ve come to realize that life is not all it’s cracked up to be: your elected representatives really are a bunch of crooks, being poor (or in debt) sucks, and Nicolas Cage is actually pretty funny after you’ve given up all hope of expecting anything from him. But I’ve also learned that success is just as much about luck as it is about merit. In that case, I must have been swimming in a pool of it when I joined Spark. I learned more from Hume and my fellow writers than I did from four years of (admittedly hazy) Journalism school, three newspaper internships, and two years of working for my college paper. As a matter of fact, I actually quit my college rag because it couldn’t measure up to the quality of what we were doing back in the Spark lab. And when I visited East a few years ago, I was thrilled to see just as many talented, smart, driven reporters doing work that frankly blew what we did out of the water. Spark opened my path to journalism, but it also opened my eyes to what we need for an informed citizenry – astute observation, unbiased inquiry, critical thinking, relentless debate, and responsibility to each other and to our communities. Open your own communities (or keep them open) to those very same values. Someday, someone might thank you for it. You’ve already got my thanks! – Catherine Matacic

The Spark encourages letters to the editor. Letters can be sent to the publication at lakotaeastspark17@gmail.com or delivered to room 118 at the Lakota East High School Main Campus. Letters must be signed, and the staff reserves the right to edit the letters for length, grammar, invasion of privacy, obscenity or potential libel. The opinion editors will contact writers for confirmation.

SPONSORS & PATRONS Patrons Lori Aulfinger, Amy Stiefel, Robert Zelina Sponsors Carolyn Landers, Wendy Mayo, Sara Humphrey

ON THE COVER design julia sanders Recently, the expansion of social media as a publishing platform accessible to anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection has led to an explosion of fake news, whether to make money through ad revenue or to generate political fury, and many have become confused over what, exactly, separates fake from real news.

SPARK ONLINE

Go to www.lakotaeastsparkonline.com to keep up with the latest school, district and community news, learn more about indepth topics covered by the Spark staff, and read reviews and fashion stories.

story sarah yanzsa | photography used with permission | infographic emma stiefel

story and photography emma stiefel | infographic bryn mangold

His original plan was 3,000 miles in three months. It included stopping from town to town, finding a place to camp at night and continually biking each day. Reality included 6,000 miles in ...continued on lakotaeastsparkonline.com

“In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf,” there’s a pause and the sound of a page being flipped to reveal a picture of a dark green caterpillar. “One Sunday morning the warm sun ...continued on lakotaeastsparkonline.com

REDEFINING FAKE NEWS

LOOKING BACK EIGHT YEARS

story michelle chu | additional reporting emma stiefel | infographic taylor anderson | art sarah aftab

story cristina francisco | photography alyssa hetterich| infographic karmi white | art sarah aftab

OPERATION PEDAL PATRONAGE LOW INCOME IN LAKOTA

They all began in these rooms. A computer lab turned workplace and a classroom filled with awards and a mural. A mixture of the past and the present... continued on lakotaeastsparkonline.com

He now obtains the office where some of the most powerful men have mapped out war strategies, planned inspiring speeches and contemplated difficult... continued on lakotaeastsparkonline.com

STAFF PLAYLIST: JANUARY

STAFF PLAYLIST: FEBRUARY

compiled cristina francisco | art sarah aftab

1. Fire & Rain - James Taylor Acoustic guitar sounds are played along with the soft deep vocals of James Taylor. 2. Moviendo CaderasYandel The song features pop sounds paired with island vibes. 3. Sad Girl - Lana Del Rey The soft laced ...continued on lakotaeastsparkonline. com

1. Everytime – Broods A dazed voice is interlaced with lyrics that speak of an entrapping love. “’Cause it’s never your fault / When you’re keeping your knees clean / And sorry’s below you / It’s always me, always me / If it breaks …continued on lakotaeastsparkonline.com

Spark is a publication that is produced at Lakota East High School. The magazine is completely non-profit and student-generated 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 or the publication as a whole. 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 recovered through advertising, subscription sales and fundraisers. The purpose of Spark is to inform the students, faculty, and community members of news, information and issues that may influence or affect them.

opinion | chief column

CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT...AND THE COUNTRY ERINN AULFINGER photography lauren wilson

here are some things that cannot be taught. It seems that every day I read an inspiring story about a young child thinking outside the box and changing the world. Take as examples the teen brother and sister in Pakistan who turned an empty lot into an outdoor school to solve the problem of education for homeless children, the Canadian teen who invented a flashlight that runs on body heat, or the young Tennessee pre-teen who created an algorithm to sift through DNA data and find markers that indicate potential drug side-reactions. These innovations are possible because children are naturally curious and unconstrained by the boundaries of what’s possible today. Adults, however, have a hard time solving these same problems, and the school system may be partially at fault. I remember being a creative child too, making my own crafty “inventions,” playing “let’s pretend” games with friends, and thinking of ideas on how to change the world. But something happened to me, and millions of other children, as we maneuvered our way through the school system. We became more focused on testing for the one correct answer and training for the standardized tests that measure learning success rather than our creativity. Public education resembling our current system began in the nineteenth century, as we shifted away from an agricultural economy. The increasing demands of industrialization fostered an education system that appreciated standardized training, better preparing students for working lives on a factory floor. This outdated system is still in use today. Kids are expected to simply regurgitate information, learning through strict methods of memorization and standards. Innovative thinking and creativity are discouraged with only one way to interpret a literary text, one way to solve a math problem, and one definition for a term in history. This insular educational process doesn’t allow students to reach their full potential, and it only values a certain kind of intelligence focused on memorization. According to a Spark survey of 244 East students, approximately 60 percent believe the American school system does not value creativity. Their perceptions reflect reality. Creativity is decreasing among children. A 2010 study by Kyung Hee Kim, creativity researcher at the College of William and Mary, found that children have weakened in divergent thinking since 1990 as SAT/ACT scores have risen. Children, Kim found, have become less imaginative, less able to produce creative ideas, and less able to elaborate on their ideas. A 1999 study by Dawson, V. L., D’Andrea, T., Affinito, R. and Westby, E. L., found that some teachers are actually biased against students who exhibit curiosity and creative thinking, likely because it interferes with their structured learning process. A 2010 Cornell study also found the average adult also has implicit biases against creative people, who potentially interfere with their sense of order. These findings contrast with the educational results from Singapore and South Korea, who score high on having smarter and more creative kids, and where the educational focus is on applied knowledge rather than rote learning of facts. While the natural curiosity kids possess is being weeded out by our current educational system, creativity is increasingly valued in the workplace. Executives in a 2010 IBM survey cite creative thinking as the most important business skills in the modern world, and a 2014 Forrester Consulting study found that creative companies are 3.5 times more likely to outpace their competitors with revenue growth of 10 percent or greater. It’s clear we need to create an education system that can combine practicality with innovation, and nurture the thinking that may someday cure cancer, invent future technologies, solve the world’s drinkable water problem and end violence. Otherwise, we’ll see American prominence, and American jobs, going to the students who actually know how to think outside of the box.

COMMUNITY FANFARE FOR STUDENTS

district | news

A new program encourages kids in school by bringing in community members to clap for them.

story michael croy | art sarah aftab

lapping. That’s the sound Lakota East junior Brady Wilson heard as he walked down Main Street surrounded by staff members and parents on Dec. 16, the last day of second quarter exams. He felt encouraged by the staff ’s willingness to come out and support him. “At first I thought ‘ugh, it’s exam day,’” Wilson said. “But it made me realize that the teachers are here for me, and it made me more excited to take exams.” Wilson also enjoyed having the staff out there, because it was something new and different. The idea for the fanfare group came from Lakota Community Outreach Consultant Angie Brown when she asked herself, “what’s a good way to start a student’s year off well and get the community involved?” The answer, she decided, was to have community members, such as parents and staff members, greet children as they got off of the bus at Hopewell Junior. Brown said that the fanfare event had a very positive effect on children as they were able to see not only people that they recognized, but also board members and Lakota employees that work mostly behind the scenes. As a result, the fanfare has expanded to other schools in Lakota such as East, Ridge Junior, Liberty Junior and Plains Junior. A full list of past and upcoming fanfare events can be found on the Lakota Website. “It was good for the kids to see the adults who were clapping, because some of the adults lived in their neighborhoods,” Brown said. “Some people who were there were friends and family of the students, and they were able to say ‘welcome back.’” Lakota Media and Community Relations Executive Director Lauren Boettcher noted that her team attempts to see how things like fanfare work. “We test these things at one school and see if they take off,” Boettcher said. “Angie Brown really rallied the troops for this one.” Boettcher said that one positive impact of the fanfare group is that students are able to see

teachers and staff members cheering them on. “Students benefit from seeing familiar faces,” Boettcher said. “It’s good for them to know that there is a whole team behind them that supports them. Boettcher said that the fanfare is “a really easy way to give back” and as a result, there are plans to continue the fanfare, but “it’s all dependent on community support.” Lakota Board of Education member Ray Murray was one of the people who helped

a way for us to show students that [the staff] genuinely appreciate them.” Davis knew that there were some students who said “‘what the heck is going on? This is so cheesy.’ But they were smiling anyway.” East English teacher Michelle Wilkerson enjoyed the community fanfare for a different reason. She said that she enjoys being able to work with other teachers together as a staff to make sure that students know that they are cared about.

At first I thought ‘ugh, it’s exam day.’ But it made me realize that the teachers are here for me, and it made me more excited. – Brady Wilson, East Junior

Brown set up the different fanfare events. He believes that the events are great for students because “the first day of school was one of the most depressing for me.” Murray also said that students and staff “feel a connection” through events like this, and both he and Brown said that they plan to continue to set up more events because of the overwhelmingly positive response they have received so far. East Principal Suzanna Davis said that the community fanfare event was something new designed to help make “students realize that the staff appreciates them.” Davis also said that there is a lot of engagement with parents and community members in the younger grades but “high school age students don’t always get that connection.” “[Central Office] reached out to us as principals and asked if we would want this at our school and I immediately said [Dec. 16] would be a great day for us,” Davis said. “It’s

“I think it’s great when we can all come together to support students,” Wilkerson said. “That’s what we’re here for.” Wilkerson was also impressed by the amount of staff that participated in the event. “We had two lines that went from the main office almost down to the first stairwell,” Wilkerson said. “There were a ton of teachers there.” East junior Taylor Simkins was able to participate with the staff and community members in cheering on the students walking into Lakota East. She described the experience as “inspiring” and said that she felt more ready to tackle exams as a result. Simkins plans on participating in fanfare events in the future because it “definitely had a positive impact.” “It gave me this warm fuzzy feeling inside, and I felt happier and more confident going into exams,” she said. “It made students smile and the adults and other students clapping want to continue to clap more and more.”

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 5

EAST BECOMES TH 20 percent of teens suffer from depression, increasing risk of suicide by 12 times. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in teenagers.

pbeat music meets the ears of the slightly apprehensive crowd waiting to trickle in through the beckoning doors. Once the first few curiously cross the thresholds, they are greeted with the pearly whites and high fives of those both familiar and unfamiliar. The cautious smiles of the young men and women quickly flee to reveal ones of a more comfortable nature. By the end of the day, those same smiles are surrounded by crumpled tissues and red eyes. But the smiles remain, more resolute than ever. At least that’s how it was for me. My name is Abby Pieratt, and as a sophomore, this was my first time taking part in a full-day outreach school seminar. Being someone who “people pleases,” I realized by the end of the experience the real value of living genuinely and being unashamedly transparent. Because of the impact this program had on me, I was inspired to write this article in hopes of investigating further into the program. For seven hours on Nov. 18, Nov. 21 and Nov. 22, students from disparate walks of life are able to actively engage and reconnect with one another. A process which took place through crowd-involved games, inspirational lessons, lunch and time to freely share their life story and struggles and find comfort in opening up to their peers. At Lakota East, which hosts Changepoint Learning’s Be The Difference Program (BTD), there is an annual reminder of the power of positivity in the high school climate,

especially in a school the size of East. This is significant considering that it has been confirmed that the larger and more diverse the school, the more cliques it has, according to research conducted by Stanford University Education professor Daniel McFarland. “In a high school this large, BTD allows students to see others and realize that we don’t always see the whole picture just by walking past a student in the hallway,” said East counselor Michelle Kohler, who introduced the school to BTD. The 2016 BTD included three day-long sessions in order to accommodate the entire sophomore class, an extension which had never before been done at East, according to East Principal Suzanna Davis. At first, BTD was made available only to those who had a recommendation from a teacher. But because not all were selected for the program, an application and recommendation process began as BTD gained interest from the student body. However, the program was still not having quite the widespread impact that Davis had hoped, which paved the way for the growth of the program in 2016. Over time, the program has retained

30 percent of teenagers have been involved in some form of bullying. the same goals and basic structure. The students in the morning engage in several different ice-breaking and team-building activities. For example, “Birdie on a Perch” develops people skills by allowing students to travel in opposite directions and then attempt to find, and sit on, their partner’s knee. A large-group volleyball match is yet another team-oriented activity that cultivates

6 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

90 percent of teenage girls want to change some part of their appearance, with body weight ranking the highest. sources i need a lighthouse, heart of leadership, bullyingstatistics.org collaboration. Sadly, despite the planning that my partner and I made to meet up in the same place, the birdie did not find its perch in time and we were disqualified. Despite this, I could not help but giggle when people were so involved that they would inadvertently overshoot their partner’s lap or try so hard to knock a competing partnership down. All these games are woven between the heart-wrenching testimonies of three Changepoint speakers, two being husbandwife team Pete and Robyn Bryant, who founded BTD in 2002 after teen years of unthinkable tribulations left them desiring to impact the lives of those who were also hurting. The students are then asked real-life questions in teacher and parent volunteerled small groups. For East special education teacher Jeff Combs, this is where his most powerful memories of the program have taken place. “[We] get to see, wow, the guy next to me might be going through a lot of stuff I don’t know about,” Combs said. “We all have a lot of issues, so [the small groups] help you relate to other people and value that their life might have some ups and downs even though everything seems perfect.” Kohler also expressed the value she has witnessed in the adult-student bonds formed out of BTD small groups. “Any time that we can help build those

E DIFFERENCE bridges and be a support to students, I think that’s really powerful,” Kohler said. “Sometimes all it takes for students is just one connection. So if we’re able to spark that, I think it’s really worthwhile.” In my small group, there were both joyful and heart-wrenching stories that were shared. We didn’t just delve right into the deep end, but gradually worked our way into it. During this time, I was reminded that each person’s story is intricate and lined with untold tragedy and loss. After the small group time draws to a close, it is time for “Cross the Line.” At this point, the speakers in turn ask difficult questions about abuse, addiction, bullying and peer pressure, and both students and adults are asked to step across the strip of tape on the floor if a certain situation applies to them. I remember after one particularly difficult question looking down the row and seeing a group of peers crowded around and laying hands on one another. And because they had the courage to present themselves before their classmates, they did not find rejection,

but outstretched arms, which was a very visible symbol of classmate unity. By the end, the acts of transparency left each person with a greater understanding of the daily heartbreak around them, according to Davis, who also witnessed the process. “It’s a great way to begin breaking down barriers for people to begin to see each other not as gender or race or religion or whatever,” Davis said. “It’s a chance to begin to see each other as individuals.” As a final follow-up to the previous activity, there is open-microphone time in which students can publicly apologize or make confessions. Papers are then doled out and students are invited to make accountability commitments and brainstorm ways to further impact their school positively. Then the East sophomores leave school with a choice to make. Either they actively apply what they have learned or they leave it behind as if nothing happened. In a recent survey of 302 East students, about 60 percent said that the program this year had a positive impact on the student

East sophomore Abby Pierrat, who participated in Be the Difference this year, was inspired to explore how the program has changed. story abby pieratt infographic melanie cain art mckenna lewis

body, while about 61 percent of East students surveyed who participated in the program this year would voluntarily take part in the event again, if given the chance. But for Davis, the effects of BTD go so much deeper than just a number. To her, the dynamics of the entire school are driven by the energies influenced by BTD. She has seen the impact of one day on an entire life. “It’s good for us to be reminded that we’re [adults] dealing with young adults who are dealing with many differences of their own and many life experiences that they bring into school every day,” Davis said. “Now, what I ultimately believe is that we’re giving students experiences that hopefully help them shape the culture that they want to see.” In the hallway after school that day, something was different. Classmates proudly sported their BTD tee shirts and walked with an extra spring in their step. Because they had been brave enough to be transparent about the ups and downs in their life, they finally had torn down the barriers. And it could not be hidden; it was genuine.

Be the Difference allows students to see others and realize that we don’t always see the whole picture just by walking past a student in the hallway. – Michelle Kohler, East Counselor

news | graduation requirements

OHIO’S NEW GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

The end-of-course tests taken in order to fulfill 18 points may be revised by the State Board of Education; but for now, they are here to stay. story lina kaval | art tyler bonawitz | infographic michael croy

hio juniors will be the first to graduate under the new graduation requirements that took effect in the 2014-15 school year. While Lakota administration and students are not worried about the requirements, there is a possibility of the requirements changing due to concerns from other schools. According to the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) website, students must now accumulate 18 points over seven end-of-course tests in order to graduate. These American Institute of Research (AIR) tests are given in Algebra 1, Geometry, English 1, English 2, Biology, American History and American Government. For each of the seven tests, students can earn one to five points. Along with the minimum 18 points, there are also subject requirements. According to the ODE website, students must earn four points in English, four points in math and six points across science and social studies. But some school districts in Ohio say that under the new graduation requirements, many of their students will not be able to graduate. Shadyside School District Superintendent John Haswell was part of a protest at The Ohio State House, where he gave a speech against the AIR tests on Nov. 15, 2016. Haswell’s speech included his research on how many students passed the AIR tests in Ohio. “Sixty-six students at Shadyside took the Geometry End of Year (EOY) exam; only 44 percent passed,” Haswell said in his speech. “The prior year, with the same teacher, teaching the same standards, to a different group of students, who took a different test, 100 percent of our students passed the Geometry EOY exam in the spring of 2015. This data alone should speak volumes about this current test.”

According to Haswell, through his study of the EOY exam results, 45 percent of sophomores across Ohio were behind on graduation points and 40 percent of test results were below proficient. Haswell says that standardized tests should not be the overriding factor that determines a student’s graduation. “We currently have a one-size-fits-all testing system in Ohio even though we do not have a one-size-fits-all funding system in this state,” Haswell told Spark in an email. “There is no way a single test should have the capability to erase an entire year’s worth of work on the part of our students.” Haswell was also concerned about how the tests were implemented. “There was no phase-in period,” Haswell told Spark. “No vetting of the tests to get data back to be able to make an educated decision on setting the graduation points. The State Board arbitrarily set the number at 18. I have confirmed this with two separate board

members.” The State Board of Education declined to talk about the process of setting the total of graduation points. While the ODE did not lower the number of points that must be met in order to graduate, they are in the process of reviewing the points. According to the Associate Director for Media Relations for the State Board of Education Brittany Halpin, the State Board of Education’s Standards and Graduation Committee discussed Ohio’s graduation requirements during its December meeting, passing a resolution to “create a work group to review the graduation requirements and consider any alternative approaches as they relate to the class of 2018.” The superintendent will present a recommendation to the Standards and Graduation Committee by the April 2017 board meeting. Students may also earn an industryrecognized credential by taking the WorkKeys

We currently have a one-size-fits-all testing system in Ohio even though we do not have a one-size-fits-all funding system in this state.

8 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

– John Haswell, Shadyside School District Superintendent

assessment, which will apply to students attending Butler Tech or earning a remediationfree score on the ACT or SAT to graduate. According to the ODE website, students who pass these tests would still be required to take the Geometry, English 2, Biology, American History and American Government tests due to state and federal reporting requirements for school districts. According to Lakota East Principal Suzanna Davis, every junior at East will be taking the ACT on Mar. 21. She said that this is a chance for students to “report their scores and take the test for free.” “So when they roll out these new graduation requirements, it will now be a component on our state report card, whereby our ACT performance will be reported,” Davis said. “It could be another way [for students to graduate], earning a remediation-free ACT score.” The new requirements are replacing the Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT), the previous series of tests used to determine graduation established in 2005. The OGT were all taken during sophomore year, rather than after completion of a course. According to East counselor Michelle Kohler, the new graduation requirements give flexibility, unlike the OGT. “One positive change is that due to the point system, students who have weaknesses in one area are able to gain points in other strong areas to counterbalance,” Kohler said. “With OGT testing, a student who didn’t pass

one subject area test would not be eligible to graduate. With AIR testing, that same student could potentially make up points in other areas, as long as they have met the subject area minimums.” Lakota Executive Director of Media and Community Relations Lauren Boettcher said that “the change from OGT to AIR represents nothing more than a change in the test provider.” Although the end of course tests may seem rigorous, all state tests have become more rigorous and the learning standards for both the OGT and AIR tests remain the same. “It’s still far too early to predict the real impact of the revised graduation requirements,” Boettcher said. “But a very preliminary look at where this year’s juniors stand in meeting their requirements isn’t alarming and doesn’t suggest an inordinate amount of off-track students.” Executive Director Curriculum and Instruction Marlon Styles says “it’s important to note that there are still 18 months left until the requirements take effect.” This gives students time to earn the required points, either through retakes or tests they have yet to attempt—or meet one of the alternative criteria, like the ACT. East junior Jillian Becker said that she doesn’t have an opinion one way or another about the AIR tests, nor is she worried about them. She said that “it’s annoying that [juniors] were the guinea pigs.” East sophomore Kate Harvey does not

actively track her accumulated points because she is not worried about the tests. But she doesn’t “know anyone who likes [the tests].” “I understand that we have to be tested, but it’s definitely gone too far in my opinion,” Harvey said. “Last year they were worse, because they took hours and hours of staring at a computer screen. But I’ve just gotten used to these tests by now.” Harvey says that while she cannot compare the OGT and the AIR tests, she “appreciates the new points system because it does appear to be more flexible.” Becker and Harvey are not the only students not worried about the tests. According to a survey conducted by the Spark, 63 percent of students surveyed are not worried about getting enough points. Styles points out that graduation does not only depend on AIR test scores, but also the fulfillment of course credits. “It’s much more than counting points,” Styles said. “Our counselors and administrators spend just as much time monitoring credits and state point requirements as they do assisting students in exploring their career interests, internship opportunities, career-oriented coursework and extracurricular opportunities. In the end, we’re proud that a Lakota diploma carries much more weight than a set of state tests.”

sources lakotaonline.com

n o i t s a u nt d ra me G re a t ui o k eq a L R

There are specific requirements to graduate in Lakota with some exceptions.

cre

gra are du req ate uir fro ed t o m La ko

dit

ta.

EXCEPTIONS

Physical Education – .5 credits required 1 semester = .25 credits

1 full year class = 1 credit 1 half year class = 1/2 credit

College Credit Plus – 1 credit for each 3 semester credit hour course

Electives

Fine Art

Physical Education

Health

Social Studies

Science

Math

3 English

Weighted Grades- All Honors, Advanced Placement and certain College Credit Plus courses: Add 1.0 (Cor better) to the grade point average.

4 Credits required

Cooperative Education CoursesThese courses are multiple period courses and students will receive credit M H amount of time corresponding E S to SS the PE spent in class or on the job.

Lakota Credits Required versus Recommended for College

LOW INCOME IN LAKOTA Though some believe Lakota is almost exclusively wealthy, over 20 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged. These students often face unique challenges, but some, like East senior Kyara King, are able to get the help they need to overcome them. story and photography emma stiefel | infographic bryn mangold

“I

n the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf,” there’s a pause and the sound of a page being flipped to reveal a picture of a dark green caterpillar. “One Sunday morning the warm sun came up…” Mary King’s voice carried on as her daughter, Kyara King, listened, until the tale of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” ended. It wasn’t her first time reading the story, and it wouldn’t be her last; the book was one of Kyara’s favorites, and she frequently requested it during their nightly reading sessions. This time was sacred to Mary. She had always understood the value of education, a point reinforced by the parenting classes she started taking after she gave birth to Kyara. Mary took these courses through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which helps mothers like her buy healthy food for their family and dispenses advice about meal preparation, budgeting, homeownership and child literacy. Mary took as many of these types of classes as she could and used any other service available to her. She was eager to do anything that could make things better for her family, which she often struggled to support as its sole breadwinner because her husband was unable to work. She always sensed that her daughter was bright, for example, so at the age of three Kyara was enrolled in preschool and Head Start, an early childhood program for families who are the most at risk in their community. “I’ve always known that my daughter is special,” Mary said. “Of course every parent thinks their kid is special. But my daughter was awesome!” Mary’s premonition was soon fulfilled when their roles reversed, and Kyara started reading to her. Years later, when Kyara was about 12, she was still reading, but her audience had changed. Now she was taking care of her little brother while her mom was out of the house working two, sometimes three, jobs as a nurse to provide for her family. Kyara didn’t like taking care of another child when she was still a kid herself; it was “weird and not very fun.” But she still did, because her mom couldn’t and there was no one else to; her parents got a

divorce in 2012 (Mary had the exact date, Sept. 14, memorized) and had been separated for three years before that. Mary would stay for dinner, but after that it was Kyara who had to help her brother finish his homework and get ready for bed. She would make sure that he took a shower, brushed his teeth, and put his pajamas on, and then she read to him until he fell asleep, just like her mother did to her when she was little.

his is only a small part of the Kings’ story, but parts of it may already seem out of place in Lakota, according to several local professionals who work closely with low income families. Though Kyara, now a senior at Lakota East, is one of the approximately 21 percent of students who are economically disadvantaged in the district, according to 2015-16 Ohio Department of Education (ODE) data, many community members see Lakota as overwhelmingly composed of wealthy and middle class families. This perception was more accurate in the 2005-06 school year, when eight percent of Lakota students were economically

disadvantaged. Since then, however, 1,781 economically disadvantaged students have been added to the district for a total of 3,140, according to ODE data. Lakota is still much wealthier than many other districts. Of the Greater Miami Conference members, for example, only Mason and Sycamore have less economically disadvantaged students, and Oak Hills has almost the same percentage; the other five member districts all have at least twice as many economically disadvantaged students, according to 2015-16 ODE report card data. Many, however, believe that there are very few low income families in Lakota, when in fact one in every five students is economically disadvantaged. A Spark survey found that about 40 percent of 182 East students surveyed underestimated the amount of economically disadvantaged students in Lakota by at least 10 percent. Lakota Community Liaison Jennifer Tye has observed first-hand that “there is a disconnect between what the perception is and what’s reality.” She lives in the area and has a student in the district, and when she tells people what she does for her job “their normal reaction is,

Mary King holds one of the books she used to read to her daughter, Kyara King, in her current apartment.

‘you do?’ or, ‘in Lakota?’” “It never ceases to amaze me that after 23 years of me being here, there’s still people who think that there’s no one who needs help in our district,” Reach Out Lakota CEO/Executive Director Lourdes Ward told Spark. “And they assume that [people receiving help] are sitting at home on their couch just collecting public assistance.” Most of the people Reach Out Lakota serves, according to Ward, are similar to Mary; they have jobs and are “trying to support a family on a retail or food establishment hourly wage, but it’s just not enough.” Low income families in Lakota, however, occupy a wide spectrum of need. Ward has seen individuals from wealthier neighborhoods come in for help because their income dropped after a divorce, and other people may only need assistance around the holidays or if an accident prevents them from working. On the other hand, there are about 80 families in Lakota who are homeless and live in a hotel, with another family or in a shelter, according to 2015-16 ODE data. “Our community would be surprised to find out the amount of need that really does exist,” Lakota Community Liaison Kim Huston said. “And they would be surprised at some of the actual struggles that families are having with paying rent and not having a vehicle and skipping meals because they don’t have enough money for food.”

he rising amount of low income students in Lakota is part of a nationwide increase in suburban poverty. According to Brookings Institute fellows Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube, “suburbia is now home to the largest and fastest growing poor population in the country.” “The majority reason [for the shift] is people just becoming poor in place, especially after the tech boom in the late 90s and the Great Recession,” Brookings Institute Associate Fellow Natalie Holmes, who works with Kneebone and Berube, told Spark. “It’s not so much people moving to places but people

Economically Disadvantaged Lakota Students The number of Lakota students on the free and reduced lunch has significantly increased over the past 11 years. Percentage of Low Income Lakota Students

Lakota students are on the free and reduced lunch

source ohio department of education report card data

already living there seeing their income fall.” While it may not be the main cause of the increase in suburban poverty, low income families moving out of cities has also contributed to the trend. “The suburbs started in the 1950s and have always been a haven for folks who are a little more affluent,” University of Cincinnati Assistant Professor of Social Work James Canfield told Spark. “But what we’ve seen now is people wanting to move back to the cities because the jobs are in the cities and those types of things.” As wealthier people have moved back to cities and downtown areas have gentrified, many low income families have been forced, according to Holmes, “to go farther and farther out of the cities” to obtain affordable housing. Lakota is relatively far away from the nearest cities, Cincinnati and Dayton, and most houses in the region are newer and more expensive, so this trend applies more to “inner-ring” suburbs

It never ceases to amaze me that after 23 years of me being here, there’s still people who think that there’s no one who needs help in our district. – Lourdes Ward, Reach Out Lakota CEO/Executive Director

8.3 percent

2005-06

10.3 percent

2007-08

13.9 percent

2009-10

17.3 percent

2011-12

19.7 percent

2013-14

20.8 percent

2015-16

close to cities than the district. But families may still move here from cities in search of better schools or other benefits. Huston, for example, has noticed that a lot of the students she works with came to the district from Cincinnati, Hamilton or other more urban areas. “Parents are coming to Lakota because they want their children to have a good Lakota education,” Huston said. “But when they arrive in Lakota they don’t always have the resources they need, because rent is a little more expensive here than it is in some of those areas.” This is what the Kings did. When Kyara was in third grade, they lived in Cincinnati, where she attended Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). The family relocated to the suburbs because the neighborhood they moved from, as Kyara remembers, “was actually the number one neighborhood you should not live in, because it was very dangerous.” The street they lived on was called Hawaiian Terrace, but it wasn’t anything like the island paradise its name evokes. Though it had been relatively quiet the first few years that they lived there, and their neighbors were friendly, eventually the area was plagued with drugs and gang violence. Mary started talking to her husband about moving, insisting that the family had to do something, had to go. They complained to the landlord about the crime and asked if there were any other properties available in different areas. She was afraid to leave the house, and her children didn’t like playing outside. It was when they were inside, however, that the incident that accelerated the family’s exodus occurred. Kyara was in her room, maybe playing or reading, when she looked out the window, gazing at the grey asphalt parking lot and the

Kyara King studies for pre-calculus; she’s stayed focused on academics despite her hardships.

row of townhouses behind her own. Another resident was slowly driving below, inching his trash, piled on top of his car, toward the dumpster. It was a routine pilgrimage for the residents, who didn’t like carrying garbage on foot. It was something Kyara had seen many times before. This, however, was the wrong moment for her to peek outside. She watched as the driver was shot. She watched as two men ran up to his car. She watched as they threw his body and then his trash on the ground, before either could reach their destination. She watched as the criminals drove away in her neighbor’s car. And she watched, for a second, as he lay bleeding on the ground. Then she ran, terrified, to find her mother and tell her that the man “didn’t look ok.” Kyara didn’t really understand what she had witnessed at the time; she was less than ten years old. That night she saw the man again, on the news, and the family went to stay with one of Kyara’s grandmothers, who lived nearby. In a couple of months, they would be in Lakota. Out in the suburbs, the Kings finally felt safe. It took Kyara a while to get used to living in a place where “you don’t hear gunshots and no one’s getting robbed,” but once she did, she

looked forward to going outside instead of fearing it. At first, Kyara struggled to make friends in Lakota because she wasn’t used to the way her new peers talked and acted, and “little kids just tell the truth and they’re super rude about it, so everyone said, ‘you sound weird so we don’t want to be friends with you.’” Eventually, however, she met the people she’s still friends with today. In school, Kyara now had opportunities to do things like travel to Disney World with the East choir, which she loved and would do “ten times over rather than going with my actual family.” She had started participating in choir in middle school, and it became a way for her to escape her stressful situation. She also found an environment that matched her focus on academics. At CPS, her teachers had noticed that she had a new book in her hands every day and put her in class with students a grade ahead of her. When she came to Lakota, she was on track to take classes with other students her age. Mary remembered that, when Kyara went to CPS, she would come home and complain about being bored. After the family moved, however, she would complain that “‘oh man, I’ve got a lot of homework,’ but she loved it.”

12 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

espite the increase in economically disadvantaged suburban families, many services for low income individuals remain geared toward urban populations, and suburbs are still designed more for those with means than without. One challenge for low income families in Lakota specifically is finding affordable housing; Huston, for example, works with families that “literally have difficulty paying rent each month.” The Kings were financially able to move into Lakota because Mary became eligible for the federal Section 8 housing choice voucher program, which assists low income families with affording “decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website. Once the paperwork for her Section 8 voucher was finalized, Mary again asked her landlord about moving to a different location and found out that they had just bought the Lakota Pointe housing complex across the street from Woodland Elementary. The first question she had was, “what’s the school district?” When she found out it was Lakota, she knew it had to be a good sign; the family relocated within a week.

Once families like the Kings do obtain affordable housing, however, their challenge often becomes leaving their home. One of the biggest differences between suburban and urban areas is physical access to resources; suburbs, which often lack public transportation, can be extremely difficult to navigate for people who can’t afford a car. “Transportation is a huge need, not just busing for high schoolers but in general,” Huston said. “We have a lot of families that don’t have a car or rely on other people. I have several families just this past week that I have driven to places, because they don’t have their own vehicle.” Though they owned a car when they first moved to Lakota, neither Kyara nor Mary currently have their own means of transportation. Kyara has to “catch rides from literally everyone” to get to her part-time job at The Web entertainment center and rides to school with another senior. Mary lost her car after an accident, leaving her “stuck between a rock and a hard place.” If she wants to go to the grocery store she has to find someone willing to drive her or take an Uber or cab. She tried taking an Uber to and from work for a while, but realized that doing so resulted in “so much going out and not enough coming back in.” Unable to get to her job, therefore, she resigned so that she could eventually be rehired and has been trying to get another car. For other families in Lakota, not having a car may prevent them from getting the services they need; according to Ward, “living out in West Chester, there’s a lot of agencies that are not here, and you would have to go to downtown Hamilton to apply for things [from them].”

ecently retired Mason Police Officer Derek Bauman, who is also the Vice Chair of All Aboard Ohio, a group that advocates for more public transit in the state, observed that low income families that do have a car are often still unable to afford repairs or speeding tickets. Throughout his career as a police officer, Bauman saw how devastating a $150 speeding ticket, no more than “a nuisance” for more affluent people, can be for low income families. Many won’t go to court or pay such a fine because doing so would mean not being able to pay for gas, electricity, food and other necessities. “So they just ignore it,” Bauman told Spark. “And what ends up happening is they get a warrant issued for their arrest for their failure to appear in court. Then they get their driver’s license suspended.” Once that happens, an individual can be pulled over again for driving without a license and get an even more expensive fine or have to spend at least a day in jail. If they do get their license reinstated, they have to go to a Department of Motor Vehicles office and pay

We were taking family vacations, I was putting away for my daughter’s car, mommy was doing it all. [Losing that] just felt so overwhelming. – Mary King, Lakota parent

another fee they likely can’t afford, leaving them, according to Bauman, “in the [criminal justice] system and without a driver’s license.” Nevertheless, many people in such a situation continue to drive to get to work or buy food, until “they get pulled over again, and what happens is it starts to snowball.” Bauman has seen people caught in such disastrous circumstances “simply break down” from stress. “If you don’t have help, you’re screwed,” Bauman said. “In our society that is so car dependent, I don’t know what you do. You keep driving and you keep getting pulled over and getting all these fines, and it’s a horrible problem because people get into that cycle and have a hard time getting out.” In short, according to Bauman, “the things that are merely an inconvenience to those with

more means could be devastating to somebody with a lower income,” a concept that applies to all realms of life, not just transportation. Huston has seen the families she works with become victims of this “snowball effect, where one bad thing happens and then it starts another bad thing and another bad thing, and it makes it really hard for them to get out of that rut.” The Kings have been in similar situations, where a single problem has an oversized effect on their lives. In 2012, for example, Mary had a hysterectomy to remove fibroid tumors from her ovaries, and in 2013 she had another operation to fix her temporomandibular joint dislocation, which would cause her jaw to lock open. She continued to work two jobs while suffering from the effects of her fibroid tumors:

A family photo, taken while Kyara was in middle school, of the Kings on vacation in Florida.

East community liaison Jennifer Tye works in her main campus office.

and when the husband died the family decided to move his wife into a hospice, taking away the first job that had paid her enough to support her family. “Yeah, it’s always something,” she sighed wistfully while recalling the memory. Being laid off had caused her to become depressed, and she felt “totally defeated.” “Here I was, with a really great job, financially set,” Mary said. “We were taking family vacations, I was putting away for my daughter’s car, mommy was doing it all. [Losing that] just felt so overwhelming.” The Kings lived off Mary’s savings and what she could borrow from her retirement plan until they became homeless once more. At this point, however, Mary’s relationship with her ex-husband was less hostile, so Kyara and her brother stayed with him while she was working, getting counseling, and “doing her own thing to get back on her feet.”

Some of the donations Tye keeps in her East main campus office.

they would rupture, causing her to menstruate for an entire month and disrupting her blood pressure. Eventually, however, Mary was laid off because she had gone to the hospital too many times. Then the Kings were evicted from their home because, as Kyara remembered, “when you’re living in an apartment and you have to pay rent, they don’t really care.” Mary didn’t have a Section 8 voucher anymore, so they couldn’t afford market rent in West Chester or Liberty Township. The family was homeless. Mary reached out to the community liaison she was most familiar with and learned about St. Raphael’s, a shelter in Hamilton that provides families with fully furnished apartments. They didn’t stay long, no more than three months; Mary had resolved that “if I just get some help for 90 days, I can do it.” The staff

at St. Raphael’s made sure that she went to doctor’s appointments, took her medicine and got enough sleep. Once she was healthy enough to work, Mary was required to turn in five job applications a day until she got hired. Though they had moved out of the district, Kyara and her brother continued to attend school in Lakota. Under the federal McKinneyVento Act, according to Lakota Director of Federal Programs Kim McGowan, districts are required to transport homeless children to and from their “school of origin.” Kyara had to wake up very early in the morning to leave in time for the 25 minute drive from the shelter to Hopewell Junior, where she was in eighth grade. The family moved back into Lakota and was stable until 2014, when Mary lost her job again. She had been taking care of an elderly couple,

14 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

inancial challenges like those faced by the Kings can create “non-cognitive barriers to learning,” as community liaisons call them, for economically disadvantaged students. For example, according to Tye, a student could be “bothered or not learning in the classroom because they’re hungry, they’re worrying about mom or dad, they’re not sure where they’re going to lay their head that night, or they can’t get medical care.” East Principal Suzanna Davis stressed that individual students’ circumstances differ, but noted that poverty can be “all-encompassing for some students.” “It’s an additional layer that students bring to school with them everyday,” Davis said. “It certainly can have an effect on every aspect of their life, whether it be relationships, academics or extracurriculars.” The cumulative effect of obstacles like these on an economically disadvantaged student’s academic performance can be severe. Tye sometimes worries that a student she’s working with won’t graduate, “not because they aren’t smart enough, but because there are so many obstacles being thrown in their way.” About 80 percent of economically disadvantaged Lakota seniors in the class of 2015 graduated in four years, compared to more than 95 percent of non-disadvantaged students, according to ODE data. And economically disadvantaged Lakota students in the class of 2016 were about half as likely to earn an advanced score on an Ohio Graduation Test than their wealthier counterparts. Lakota Board of Education member Ray Murray told Spark that this achievement gap appears early in elementary school because, for example, a child whose parents couldn’t afford to send them to preschool or stay home with them may often have a smaller vocabulary than a more fortunate one. “It just progresses, because these kids that are on target continue to learn more, but the

kid who started so far behind the line will be trying to catch up,” Murray told Spark. “But it really is hard to catch up, and that gap is going to still be there. That’s what Lakota is struggling with.”

hough this trend is prevalent, individual students can overcome their financial difficulties and succeed in school. Despite her hardships, Kyara has been able to remain focused on academics and has consistently made the high honor roll. “Academically, she’s always excelled,” Mary said. “I really can’t remember a time when she got a D. If she did, I don’t know about it, that one got past me.” After she moved in with her dad during her junior year, however, Kyara’s grades began to fall. Because she had been very independent when her mom was at work, she “wasn’t quite used to having a parent” and would “always butt heads” with her dad; their conflicts affected her first and second quarter grades, and she got her first C on a report card. Kyara and her dad had “a huge fight this one day and he was like, in more colorful words, ‘you need to leave.’” She realized that “just because I’m going through something doesn’t mean I need to slack off, especially this year when it’s really important,” and moved in with a friend; her grades subsequently improved. She’s currently enrolled at East as an independent student, meaning that she is legally able to make decisions for herself. Since the beginning of this year she’s been living with another friend and has had to budget the salary she receives from working four days a week at The Web to pay for her phone bill, eating out, toiletries, school supplies, clothes, shoes and anything else she might need. Her brother is still staying with their dad, who now lives in Middletown, though Mary is currently “going through the courts to switch

everything back,” another reason she hasn’t been able to work.

ommunity liaisons like Huston and Tye are normally able to help students like Kyara and her brother get the resources they need to be academically successful. When King needed to get a vaccine required for all seniors but couldn’t because she didn’t know where her mom was, for example, Tye helped her get the shot so that she could attend school in the fall. The community liaisons are employed by the Butler County Success Program but contracted to work in Lakota and other districts. In Lakota, 444 students participate in the Butler County Success Program, all of which are at 200 percent of the federal poverty level or lower. Tye, who works with high schoolers and middle schoolers on the East side of the district, currently has a caseload of about 60 students, and Huston, who works with the same age group on the West side, has a caseload of about 90. Students normally begin working with a community liaison once they are identified as potentially needing additional services by a Lakota staff member or someone from outside the district such as a church volunteer. A teacher may notice, for example, that a student is squinting because they don’t have glasses, or a cafeteria worker could see that they don’t have any money in their lunch account. Once they’re referred to a student, the community liaison will contact their parents. The program is voluntary, so, according to Tye, “there are definitely families that I reach out to but don’t work with.” If they’re able to reach the parent, however, a community liaison will set up a meeting to find out the broader reasons for why the student was referred to them. “For example, a child can be referred by a teacher saying, ‘this boy doesn’t have glasses,’” Huston said. “But then when we get to the

home a n d m e e t the parent we find out that they don’t have insurance and that’s because mom lost the job and now mom also can’t pay rent, so there’s a l o t more to it beyond what t h e teacher realized.” After that initial meeting, a community liaison will work with a family throughout the school year to ensure that all their needs are met. They can connect families with a wide range of resources, including assistance for paying utility fees, mental health counseling and organizations that provide food and school supplies. “This community is extremely generous, and I actually usually don’t go without,” Tye said. “If a family needs something, I can usually find it.” In her office at Ridge Junior, for example, Huston has a drawer full of items that staff members have dropped off, including clothing, …continued on page 19

It’s an additional layer that students bring to school with them everyday. It certainly can have an effect on every aspect of their life, whether it be relationships, academics or extracurriculars. – Suzanna Davis, East Principal

news | district

LAKOTA ADDS NEW CLASSES Lakota is introducing many classes to the new curriculum for the 2017-18 school year. One new semester history elective includes American Law and Criminal Justice story julianne ford | art tyler bonawitz

n the upcoming 2017-18 school year Lakota East is getting new courses added to the curriculum. These new courses include the art classes Ceramics IV and Metals IV. Two new options for CP English 11 that include Historical Survey of American Literature and Focus on the American Novel will be added to the Lakota curriculum. There will also be a new semester history elective called American Law and Criminal Justice. East Social Studies teacher Matt Newell created American Law and Criminal Justice with the intention of appealing and expanding to students who want to pursue a career in the field, a career he considering going into. “It dated back to when I was in college, those were the classes I enjoyed when getting my teaching licenses,” Newell said. “I liked stuff that is related to the law and I considered going into that as a career.” Newell took into account what students were looking for in social studies electives and decided to act on those thoughts. He looked into what Lakota had to offer students in social studies electives and wanted to add a broader range of classes. “When I came to Lakota I saw that we had a lot of classes dedicated to psychology and behavioral science,” Newell said. “I just felt like we needed a course that dug deep into American Law.” East junior Corie Mauer is taking the class to expand her knowledge of criminal justice. Mauer is hoping that this course will give her an inside look into the details behind cases. “I signed up for the course because I’ve

always been interested about the whole idea of a person being innocent until proven guilty,” Mauer said. “The idea that there’s more to the story than what meets the eye.” East junior Abby Martin also signed up for this course next year. While she does not want to pursue law as a career she thought it would be a fun course to put on her senior year schedule. “I signed up for the course because I enjoy watching trials and reading about the law,” Martin said. “I also thought it would be a unique class to take my senior year.” East Principal Suzanna Davis is very excited to offer a new course that can impact East students in a positive way and give them more career options for their future. “We have had many students that have asked for social studies options that weren’t AP,” Davis said. “We don’t have a lot of elective offerings in social studies but we do have a lot of AP courses. I think it’s being responsive again, we listen to our students.” Newell submitted the course suggestion for American Law and Criminal Justice to the administration during the 2015-16 school year, but the course was approved during the 2016-

I’ve always been interested about the whole idea of a person being innocent until proven guilty. – Corie Mauer, East junior

16 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

17 school year. “[The application process] was pretty simple actually,” Newell said. “I filled out a form, it asked questions about what the class would entail and what textbook I would need. It’s pretty funny actually, I turned in the form last year and I got it this year.” Executive Director of Media and Community Relations Lauren Boettcher explains how submitted courses are accepted by the district. “Teachers and administrators come together to decide if it is realistic to add a new course,” Boettcher said. “The curriculum director proposes this idea to the board of education. Financially we need to see if [the addition of this class is] worth it. We need students who would stand behind this financial investment. The courses also need to be able to help you after you leave Lakota.” According to the Lakota Program of Studies, the course entails many in-depth details into American Law. “Law and Criminal Justice develops and educates students on the basics of law, democracy, and human rights. This course traces the evolution of American law from its philosophical Enlightenment roots to our modern judicial hierarchy. By improving our student’s understanding and relevance of law we can create leaders who can solve problems and better our nation.” Newell is very excited to bring in a new course that could impact so many students. “I feel like [American Law is] something that all kids need to understand,” Newell said. Whether or not they will be going into that profession. They need to have a good understanding of what their rights are and where they come from.”

SCHOOL BOARD REORGANIZATION At their annual organization meeting, the Lakota Board of Education members re-elected leadership positions and committee members. story lexy harrison | infographic michael croy

he Lakota Board of Education voted on president, vice president and committee positions during an annual organizational meeting on Jan. 10. The current board members are Ray Murray, Lynda O’Connor, Julie Shaffer, new president Ben Dibble and vice president Todd Parnell. According to Dibble, every four years the members for the board are elected and every January the individuals vote on positions within the administration and set the calendar of board meetings for the rest of the year. Executive Director of Media and Community Relations Lauren Boettcher said the board often “sees changes in leadership and committee representation.” This year, the Diversity Committee was created because of the fast growing variety of students in Lakota. According to Ohio district report card data, in the 2005-06 school year, 14.3 percent of students at Lakota East were non-caucasian; in the 2015-16 school year, 23.9 percent of students were non-caucasian. “As we have heard often in our community conversations, Lakota embraces and benefits from the diversity within our community,” Shaffer said. “We hope to continue to build on this to make sure we are meeting the needs of all of our learners.” Parnell, Shaffer and Murray, who run the committee, intend to have a meeting in February or March to set a plan for it. At this time no more information is available. The president of the board is responsible for running meetings, working closely with the superintendent and communicating with the public. The board members like to pass on the position of president to different representatives so one person does not feel overwhelmed as well as to see new perspectives. Parnell was re-elected as vice president for his second year in a row, and this is his first term on the board, starting in 2014. Responsibilities of the vice president include working with the president, treasurer and superintendent to set meeting agendas and running meetings if the president is not present. Dibble has been on the board since 2010 and was president once before in 2012. When he was previously in the position, he said it was a much more difficult time financially. At the time, $20 million was cut from the Lakota budget and multiple programs were cut from schools. Now, however, Lakota has been able to bring in more money to add classes and help students in a variety of ways. “The budget would not support what we were spending,” Dibble said. “There are two ways to solve a budget problem: you get more money in, but the community wasn’t giving us any money, or you take it out of the budget. And that is what we had to do.” Lakota was able to balance out the budget by dismissing almost 200 teachers, according to Lakota Acting Superintendent Robb Vogelmann. With a more financially stable plan, the board plans to increase student opportunities while maintaining the budget. Decisions on this topic will be determined in the near future. Vogelmann said classes added for the

2017-18 school year were included as part of the increase in student opportunities. “Internships, classes, clubs, everything,” Parnell said. “Basically, anything that could be beneficial to the student population to have, we’re working on. A lot of it is trade-offs and reallocation of resources.” Dibble said one thing they are also working on to boost student opportunities is lowering activity fees He said it’s a balancing act but “what we want as a board is to have a lot of people participate.” The Finance Committee meets four times a year to discuss the Treasurer’s five year forecast and other financial plans. Representatives from the community come to these meetings to give feedback on these plans. Shaffer said the main role of the committee is to “listen and bring the community’s feedback to the remainder of the board in our regular Monday night meetings when we make decisions.” The Policy Committee meets monthly to review the district’s policies and from there daily guidelines are addressed. These are the guiding documents for the district, according to Shaffer. “We contract with a company called Neola, which brings forward updates to make sure we are in line with any laws that change,” Shaffer said. “In addition, if we have a request from a staff or community member to consider changing a policy to make the district work more effectively, we consider making those changes as well.” The Community Engagement Committee meets with the Lakota faculty to analyze future issues and how to “most effectively continue our outreach,” Shaffer said. The District Parent Council, according to Shaffer, was created as a connection between parents and the district. The council listens to issues presented to them and gives feedback on what the board is working on. The board works closely together to help improve Lakota in ways such as education, opportunities and future readiness. “The beauty and challenges of a board come when you have multiple opinions on what is best,” Shaffer said. “Some call it a five-headed monster. We have to work through those differences and move forward together when a decision is made.”

Board Committee Members Lakota school board members serve on several committees.

Committee:

Members:

Policy

Ray Murray, Julie Shaffer

Community Engagement

Lynda O’connor, Julie Shaffer

District Parent Council

Lynda O’connor, Julie Shaffer

Finance Legislative Diversity Representative to Butler Technology and Career Development Schools Ohio School Boards Association Legislative Liaison

Todd Parnell, Julie Shaffer Lynda O’Connor, Todd Parnell Ray Murray, Todd Parnell, Julie Shaffer Ray Murray

Lynda O’Connor

news | q&a

Q&A: MATTHEW MILLER interview julianne ford | photography used with permission infographic bryn mangold Former Job: Mentor Public Schools Superintendent (in Northern Ohio) Experience: 12 years of Superintendent experience, 17 years of administrative experience. Hired: February 10, 2017 Start Date: June 15, 2017 Beginning Plans: To build relationships in every Lakota school and create a Lakota wide hashtag so students can voice their opinions about school related topics. Social Media: Miller plans to create a twitter account to communicate easily with staff and students.

Julianne Ford: What was your reaction to getting the position? Matthew Miller: I was very excited to receive the offer for the position. I just know that their are really good things going on in Lakota and that their are a lot of good opportunities in the district as well. So that was the main reason why I was excited. It’s a great place to be, not only for me but for my family. There’s a lot of potential in Lakota. JF: What about Lakota superintendent are you most excited about? MM: To get started. I’m most excited about getting down there and getting ingrained with the community. I’m excited to start building relationships as well. JF: How do you plan to build relationships with the student body? MM: One of the things I talked to the board about in my interview process was building a superintendent advisory group. In the meantime, I’ve started my @LakotaSuper page. I’ve done a little bit with that already but it will have more starting on June 15. That’s a great way to start communication with some of the student group. JF: How did students, staff and the community at Mentor react when you told them you were offered the superintendent position at Lakota? MM: Overwhelmingly people are sad to see me leave. That sounds self serving, but most of the comments have been ‘we are sad to lose you, but we understand that you’re leaving because of the opportunities Lakota provides.’ Yesterday, a group of students at Mentor High School interviewed me for a class. A lot of their questions revolved around me leaving, but they also asked when the new superintendent will come. So that was a different perspective. There are a lot of good things going on at Mentor, and I hope that they will continue to grow with whoever gets my position. I hope that I will get to talk with the new superintendent about where we’re at in terms of projects going on in Mentor. JF: What will be your course of action when you transition over? MM: I want to start listening to the stakeholders group. I was down last weekend because as part of my contract I need to get 15 days in the district before June 15. I met with our human resources director, our treasurer, and I met with the Chamber Alliance president. So I am already trying to build those relationships. I have also visited half of the buildings in the district. Those are the things I’m going to try to do between now and June 15 to create a better transition going in. JF: How could having a social media account will help the district? MM: I like the way I’ve used it in Mentor. It’s been a two-way communication tool between myself, the teachers, staff and students. At some point I want to involve students in helping me develop a common hashtag for Lakota. One of the things we’ve created in Mentor is the hashtag #onceacard, which means once a cardinal always a cardinal [the Mentor mascot]. We use that hashtag to share the good and positive things going on in the district. But other times I’ve had students tag me in a tweet and ask my opinion about things. As long as it’s school appropriate and related to school, I’m glad to have that dialogue. I see

18 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

the power of social media for students. It’s something they use in the classroom and something they should use more. JF: How do you think the students will react to you having a social media account and being a more active superintendent? MM: I hope it’s positive for them. Obviously you have to use it appropriately, but I like having it because I can’t be everywhere at once. I want to start having conversation with kids. I like getting the students’ voice in terms of what are we doing now for students’ opportunities and where can we improve in offerings. Those dialogues can begin over social media. I want the kids to be able to have that dialogue with me. I’m not one of those people who is going to sit in their office all day. I’m hoping that students will recognize me when I’m out in the buildings.

WE BUY, SELL, TRADE, AND CONSIGN USED AND NEW SPORTING GOODS

jump page | news

LOW INCOME IN LAKOTA …continued from page 15 athletic shoes, gift cards and a bag of bright orange body wash, and she also had a few teachers help a student go on a class trip to Washington, D.C. Tye has a similar stash of donations in her office. The Kings found out about the Butler County Success Program at the Lakota Enrollment Center and soon began working with a community liaison, who told them about other resources in the community like the Boys and Girls Club, several churches and family counseling. It was a community liaison who helped them find a place to stay when they became homeless. “These people were like godsends” Mary said. “I’m really glad that they are affiliated with the school so closely, because I didn’t know who to call or what I would do if anything happened.” While the availability of resources in Lakota means that she’s normally able to meet the physical needs of her families, Tye wants people to be “more open minded and kind toward people that are different.” “I wish the community as a whole would be a little bit more understanding that there are families and students all around them that need help,” Tye said. “And it’s not because they’re lazy or they don’t care. There’s some real tough stuff that students in this school go through.” One way a change in understanding could be accomplished is through Lakota’s Champions for Change program, which was started this school year to help the district adapt to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. “A lot of what we do is working on mindset, so concepts that can be applied in any way or to whoever,” Lakota Diversity Consultant Dr. Monique Johnson, one of the leaders of the program, told Spark. “[For example,] we talk about unconscious bias, and that applies to a variety of different populations. It’s not just race; it applies to gender, body weight, students in poverty. It could be anything.”

Though Kyara hasn’t been stereotyped like this in school, she remembered overhearing offensive comments from other students at her work and was shocked “just to hear the back and forth banter and what they would say about other people.” Mary knows that “being a low income family in Lakota comes with its own struggles as far as status,” and she was initially hesitant about her family being featured in this article because of how it might change the way others treat Kyara. There have been times when she’s felt like she’s been judged or ostracized because of the stigma associated with being a low income single mother, especially since she is younger than many other parents with children in high school (she was 15 when she had Kyara). Mary remembered getting invitations to social gatherings when she had a better paying job or a new car, but said that if she fell on hard times again, she’d stop receiving phone calls or “hellos” at a choir concert. “I wish things were different, but this is life,” Mary said. “I just stay as positive as I can and teach my children to treat others kindly no matter what they have or what they don’t have.”

he seems to have succeeded. Mary and Kyara’s personalities show no traces of the hardships they’ve been through; instead, they’re both incredibly positive and optimistic about the future. Mary hopes to work as a nurse again soon. But she’s more excited about her plans to open up a store, because “as long as I’ve been in West Chester there has never been a beauty supplies store, and I’m not talking about Sally’s.” People are always asking her where she gets her hair products, so she’s decided that it’s time for her to “make her move” and become an entrepreneur. In addition to beauty products, she plans on selling both East and West spirit wear so that she can attract customers from all over the district. Once she’s financially stable, she plans on giving back to the community with her family. They haven’t been able to do it in two years, but the Kings “have a charity, that we thought of on our own, called Santa’s Little Helpers.” During the holiday season she would collect

purses and fill them with personal hygiene items, and on Christmas, before any presents were opened, the family would pass them out at a homeless shelter. Though Kyara originally wanted to take a gap year after graduation, her counselor convinced her to go straight to college, and she’s currently in the process of applying to Wright State University, the University of Cincinnati and Berea College. She’s determined to be the first person in her family to attend a four-year university, the first person able to say, “‘this is possible. I went through craziness, and I’m still able to get this done.’” Kyara plans on going into social work, following her family’s tradition of helping people: most of her relatives, including her mother, went to nursing school or joined the military. While Kyara doesn’t think she is “strong enough mentally or physically to do that,” she wants to be able to “reach out to the kids that are like me.” Now, she would advise other students facing similar challenges to “find your little happy bubble,” like choir is for her, “and stay in that happy bubble or else it’s not going to be fun.” Even if a situation “seems super hard,” she said, “it is very doable, you just have to be able to ask for help.” Beyond school and careers, Kyara is certain that marriage is in her future. Until recently, however, she didn’t want children; she thought that “I wouldn’t want to put anyone else through what I went through.” Now she’s less sure. If she can “really pull this off ” and go to college, then “that changes the whole story.” Maybe she still won’t have kids. But maybe she will, or maybe she’ll adopt, and if so, though it’s cliche, she wants to give her children what she never had: “money saved up for college and everything else.” Perhaps Kyara will become a college graduate with a job she cares about, raising children in a home devoid of financial hardships but carrying on her family’s bedtime reading tradition. She might, one day, even share her favorite childhood story about a caterpillar with them and echo the concluding line her mother read to her all those years ago: “he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and… he was a beautiful butterfly!”

She’s determined to be the first person in her family to attend a four-year university, the first person able to say, “‘this is possible, I went through craziness, and I’m still able to get this done.’”

OPERATION PEDAL PATRONAGE Milford local, Alec Offenberger, spent six months biking across the nation to raise $39,000 for Mercury One. story sarah yanzsa | photography used with permission from alec offenberger infographic sophia chryssovergis, cassia chryssovergis, dani dudash

is original plan was 3,000 miles in three months. It included stopping from town to town, finding a place to camp at night and continually biking each day. Reality included 6,000 miles in nine months, stopping for weeks at a time, and sleeping wherever he could find a place: from park benches in New Orleans to beaches in Miami. Twenty-six year old Milford native Alec Offenberger biked for several months across the country, raising $39,000 for the charity Mercury One, which provides necessities to Christian refugees in the Middle East. He called his journey “Operation Pedal Patronage” and used the name on social media sites so people could easily follow him. “It’s my greatest achievement,” says Offenberger. “It is the hardest thing I have ever done, and I got lucky.” Offenberger’s initial goal for the trip was to raise between $5,000 to $10,000 over the course of three months. The trip ended up taking six months and spanning 6,000 miles, totaling over $39,000 for Mercury One. Offenberger knew he wanted to take action to help those being persecuted but initially was unsure how to do so. He had heard of people riding their bikes around the country to raise awareness of the disease Multiple Sclerosis and other causes. Offenberger decided to raise money by riding his bicycle for three months across the country, covering about 3,000 miles, though he had no prior experience with cycling tours. “I had no previous experience with bicycling or anything like that,” says Alec. “I did this all specifically for the charity, not the other way around.” According to Offenberger, Mercury One takes refugees specifically sought out by ISIS and transports them to camps started by their organization rather than the ones set up by the United Nations due to lack of safety. These refugees are then vetted by former CIA operatives, which entails months of intensive screening. The cost for a family of five to stay in the camp is roughly $25,000, according to Offenberger. “Coptic Christians and people who are affected by either political assassinations or honor killings, people who’ve had a mark of death on them, those were the people we were trying to help,” says Offenberger. “Coptic Christians were the people being sought out and systematically murdered.” Offenberger mainly heard about Coptic Christians and other groups of people being persecuted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) through his job as a firearms distributor. The direct impact that the threat of ISIS had on his business in the firearms industry made him increasingly aware of the mass murders and refugee crisis going on in the Middle East.

According to Offenberger, the threat of ISIS in the Middle East directly affects sales because, “when people feel scared, they want to go out and buy firearms.” He was constantly immersed in the news and worked with many veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan who witnessed terrorism. Being constantly surrounded by these events and stories inspired Offenberger to take action. “[Alec] joined the Catholic Church when he was 21 and that was his choice,” says Alec’s mother, Lisa Offenberger. “He feels a strong tie to these folks because they were the predecessors of the people in this region. They were tied to him.” Lisa notes that her son felt so passionately about the cause because of the connection he felt to Coptic Christianity being the first form of Christianity. Originally his idea was to connect with as many people as possible to pass along his message; however, this didn’t exactly happen. “I thought I would go to more places and stand up and speak,” says Alec. “I didn’t do that as much as I thought I would. It ended up just being person to person [and] meeting each individual person.” Alec set off on his trip from Bar Harbor, Maine on Sept. 28, 2015. He knew that this was not an ideal time to start his trip due to weather concerns but felt pressured to start it as soon as he could because he knew the problem of Coptic Christians being persecuted was happening now, and he wanted to do something about it immediately. It took Alec several months to save the money he needed for his bike, a specialized AWol Elite which ended up costing more than $2,500. To physically prepare for the trip, he rode his bike 12 miles to and from work almost everyday for three months. Regardless of this preparation, Alec states that he was not ready for the strain of his biking trip. “The first time I set up my bike [for] the way I would ride it during the rest of my trip was the day that I started my trip,” says Alec. “I got on and I could barely ride the bike [and] thought ‘oh man, this could be a problem.’” Alec’s bike held over 100 pounds of equipment that included camping gear, clothing, dehydrated food, spare tires, inner tubes and a few books for leisure. When Alec rode on his bike for the first time in Maine, he realized he needed to shed some gear to be able to ride it for the rest of his trip. “Now that I see what I did, I can say as far as my equipment goes, [that] I was pretty unprepared,” laughs Alec. “I didn’t have the right stuff in a lot of situations, but I made it all work. If I could go back and try it all again I would do things very differently, but it worked out, and it got me to the end.” Another problem Alec faced was having enough food. While he says

feature | community that it worked out most of them time, there were points throughout his trip when he ran low on the necessity. “I was eating the wrong food [and] when I got down to Jacksonville, Fla. I was very skinny because I was [burning] through 6,000 calories a day,” says Alec. “When you do that and you’re trying to eat on this really small budget, it doesn’t work out. It was as much my job to talk about my charity as it was to bicycle as it was to eat. Those were my three main jobs.” Lisa sent him care packages with dried foods to post offices across the country for Alec to pick up. Most of the post offices had a waiting period where packages could sit for weeks at a time, waiting for someone to come and pick them up. Some of the locations of the post offices were made public on Facebook so that other people could send him packages as well. Alec’s journey not only brought him a sense of accomplishment, but a new list of people to call friends. In Massachusetts, Alec met heavy construction worker Jake Foote while standing in line at a farmers market. Foote felt compelled to ask him about the map on the back of his bike. “There was no question in my mind that was God speaking to me,” says Foote. “I was racing to get where I was supposed to be, but I just couldn’t take another step towards my truck [until] I went back and asked the kid on the bike, ‘what’s the map for?’” Foote was heading to a potluck dinner at his church and invited Alec to come. There, Alec was given the opportunity to speak in front of the guests and collect donations for his cause. After Alec spoke, Foote began to ponder the refugee crisis and the persecution occurring in the Middle East. “You have to say to yourself, ‘well, what am I doing about it?’ and the answer is nothing,” says Foote. “That’s disturbing and it rattles people; it rattles me.” Staying in touch with Alec throughout his trip and afterwards has been “such a privilege” for Foote, as he has been able to continually help him with anything he needed during the trip. “Everybody listens to the news and we realize what’s going on in the world. Here’s somebody who has nothing to give but a bicycle and himself and off he goes,” says Foote. “[This is] someone who’s really going to change someone’s life and probably save a life, save a family, and I think it just stops [people] in their tracks.” While Alec was on the trip, the host of the radio show, “The Blaze,” located in Dallas, Texas, Glenn Beck asked him to come on the show. Alec was on the air for fifteen minutes and the popularity he gained enabled him to raise over $25,000 during the next 24 hours. “That was my big jump off point, that’s when everything blew up,” says Alec. “It was about six months before anyone really cared and I had raised about $5,000 before I got to Dallas.” After appearing on “The Blaze,” Alec was flown back to Cincinnati by Beck for 24 hours to visit his family, which up until that point he had not had the opportunity to do. Out of all the challenges he faced throughout his trip, the hardest part for Alec was maintaining his relationships back home and the ones he made on the road because he was continually leaving the people he met with the notion that he would probably never see them again. “It was hard; even now after the trip I try to maintain a lot of the relationships I made and it’s difficult, the same way it was difficult when I was trying to maintain relationships with people back home,” says Alec. “How do you beat that? I can beat the cold weather, I can beat 60 miles, or if my tire explodes I can put it back together, but that you can’t fix.” During his trip Alec faced many setbacks. One of the most time consuming ones occurred in Miami, Florida where he was forced to stay for two weeks while recovering from a stab wound. Alec was sleeping on a beach in Miami while waiting for a bike shop

22 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

source share.delorme.com

Alec’s Trek In little under a year, Alec Offenberger traveled across the United States by bicycle. March 4, 2016 Dallas, Texas Offenberger’s popularity started to kick off after being on “The Blaze” radio show

Start Date: September 28, 2015 Bar Harbor, Maine End Date: June 9, 2016 Santa Monica, California

to open. At about 4 a.m. he was awoken by a homeless man. Their conversation escalated quickly and Alec was stabbed for what seemed like “no reason.” “He stabbed me in my leg and I pulled a gun on him,” says Alec. “I work in firearms so I have my conceal carry license. I carried a Glock 19 with me the entire trip, and it got me out of trouble more than a few times.” Another set back Alec faced occurred in Joshua Tree, California, where he almost died of heat stroke due to the desertous conditions when trying to meet up with his sister, Allison Offenberger. When Allison found him, he was not sweating, regardless of the intense heat, which was “a clear sign of a heat stroke.” As Alec was going through the desert, he began to suffer from the 115 degree heat and eventually took refuge under a rock structure for shade. His mother saw where he was on the GPS tracking device and asked Allison to go and find him. “I drove for a few minutes, and then I finally saw him traveling towards me. He was swerving a lot,” says Allison. “I honked at him a few times to alert him that I was there. Finally I got close enough to him and the moment I pulled over, he just dropped to the ground.” The rough encounters sometimes pressured Alec to think about his current situation and what it would mean to go home. “There were a lot of times, especially after I got stabbed in Miami people were like ‘give up, go home, you raised $4,000 isn’t that good enough? You did the entire Eastern coast,’” says Alec. “I was like ‘nope’ and it still took months after that before things blew up for me and [showed that] it’s worth it.” As Alec spreads his message, he notes the challenges and triumphs of his journey. Despite setbacks and problems, the attention he was able to gather for a notable cause made the trip worthwhile. “Awareness is good; education is good. Money to save an actual physical human life is better,” says Alec. “When you increase awareness and education, that increases dollars to actually solve the problem instead of just being aware.”

modeling | feature

MODELING DIVERSITY

As Leah and Erin Eliopulos navigated the fashion world, they realized that there was something they wanted to change. story karmiela white photography used with permission from leah and erin eliopulos

rowing up in suburban West Chester, Ohio, Leah and Erin Eliopulos would have never imagined being where they are now. The Lakota West graduates have been everywhere from Barbados to California together, creating their own global stage. Being in the world of modeling made them content, but they craved something more fulfilling. “We were given this platform and we wanted to use that to send a positive message to people that look up to us or could potentially look up to us,” says Leah. “We also wanted whatever we would be supporting to be something everyone could somehow relate to.” As Erin and Leah sifted through Instagram, they saw models standing up for causes like women’s rights, gay rights and animal abuse. All of these were incredibly important to the two of them, but there was something else they could connect with more than anything. “We grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood so naturally we stood out because of our hair and skin color which would obviously make us more prone to bullying,” says Leah. “Every person can relate to being bullied; my friends have been bullied and so have my parents.” The two sisters wanted to shine a light on the topic of bullying in a way that would engage kids and give them an incentive to make a difference in their community. They decided to create two scholarships based on essays about what diversity means and how to embrace it. One will award $500 to an eighth grade student and the other will give $1,000 to a high school senior. “I have always wanted to give back in some way since I was bullied in high school. I could have just donated money to another foundation,” says Erin. “But I wanted kids to help kids [by] think up ideas [so that] they are helping each other.” Erin endured bullying throughout high school for not only her skin color but also something as minuscule as the gap between her two front teeth. This bullying also affected boys. Although she was able to stand up for herself, it has affected her deeply. “Kids will basically make fun of anything that differentiates you from the rest of the group. Kids are ruthless and mean sometimes. It was hard,” says Erin. “I’ve learned to embrace it, but even now I will still get self conscious when a boy comes up to me, I’ll be like ‘don’t smile.’”

According to the Anti-Bullying Institute, an estimated 160,000 U.S. children miss school everyday due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students, and nearly 70 percent of students think schools respond poorly to bullying. These are just some of the statistics that the Eliopulos sisters hope to change with their foundation. “Our goal is to get to a point where there is no bullying. We want to give kids a voice and help people get the message before it is too late,” says Leah. “We were fortunate enough to have parents that listened, but there are so many kids that don’t have that support. The parents just tell them to toughen up, and that doesn’t help at all.” The Eliopulos sisters couldn’t do this on their own. Their father and manager, Nick Eliopulos, has been there every step of the way to help them figure out the direction they wanted to go in with the foundation. “When they first came to me with the idea of course I was very excited. They endured bullying in middle and high school so I knew they would be very passionate about this foundation,” says Nick. “We had to figure out exactly what they wanted to do we just brainstormed for a good amount of time.” On Jan. 21, the sisters held an event in downtown Cincinnati where people who donated $125 or more were able to have a

photoshoot with Erin and Leah by family friend and New York based photographer Tyler Mitchell. Mitchell has taken pictures for American Eagle and rapper Lil Uzi, but he and the sisters could never arrange a time to shoot until now. “The whole thing was really surreal. Honestly and we were just so happy that Tyler could make it, the energy was insane,” says Erin. “Every second leading up to the event I was so worried that no one would be there and then we arrived and everyone was in a great mood and I was just blown away.” Dawn Johnson, who has a business that focuses on brand building for success and is also the co-founder of Procter and Gamble’s marketing program “My Black is Beautiful,” has also helped the Eliopulos family. She first met the sisters when they were in middle school as her kids went to the same school and they lived in the same neighborhood. She is a supporter of the foundation and a part of the board that will be reviewing the essays that are sent in. “I am honored to be a member of the board. I love helping youth and the community, and I have a history of working with Lakota in the PTO and the black community,” says Johnson. “I have spent lots of time brainstorming with the Eliopulos family about how to have an impact, and how to create their brand to make sure it helps individuals have a voice.” The goal for the sisters is to eventually make the scholarship larger, talk to different schools around the country and have more events that bring together kids and adults in the community, all while shining a light on bullying. “I was raised to be accepting and to never put anyone below me; I was taught to treat the principal and the janitor with the same respect,” says Erin. “Our goal is to place that same mentality into kids through everything we do, and that starts with ‘Diversity 101.’”

Leah and Erin Eliopulos at their photoshoot fundraiser in downtown Cincinnati on Jan. 21.

feature | student

MUSIC MANIAC

Ever since he was young, East junior Sidath Marapane has had a passion for music. story sidney li photography aidan hutt

East junior Sidath Marapane playing the ukulele and the piano.

he nerves ran through like electricity in his body. It was normal to be nervous for any performance but the adrenaline was skyrocketing this time. Peering down, the stage freight quivers were apparent. He held the blindfold in one hand and the ukulele in the other. The stage manager motioned him to move towards the piano resting on the center of the stage. With every step he took, all eyes followed him until he sat down. Inhale. Exhale. His fingers got in formation in C minor chord. Striking the white keys, he began the notes for “House of Gold” by Twenty One Pilots. It was now time to showcase his newest talent. Placing his feet on top of the keys, he grabbed the ukulele and eliminated his vision with the blindfold. Thus, he continued with the song as his anxiety took a step aside and allowed his talent to take the main stage. For East junior Sidath Marapane, music has always been a part of his life since he began playing the piano at four years old. As years went by, so did his acquisition for other instruments; such as, ukulele, electric and acoustic guitar, drums and bass.

In preparation for the East talent show in 2016, Marapane decided to start playing the piano with his feet as “it wasn’t anywhere on YouTube when I looked it up and it’s something unusual.” But, Marapane had to learn how to play the ukulele first then the piano with his toes with muscle memory. “It was not as hard [to play the piano with my feet] as you’d think, but it was just a question of whether or not I could keep my balance,” says Marapane. “Putting [together] the ukulele and piano was pretty messy at first. Eventually, I got better at the ukulele and playing the piano with my toes became muscle memory.” Sitting in the audience at the talent show that night were two of Marapane’s friends East junior Malcolm King and former East junior Logan Lockhart. As they both knew Marapane for numerous years, they came in support for their friend. The surprising talent was a huge advantage. Through the votes from the audience and judges, Marapane was able to come in second place overall. “He simply electrified the crowd. I had seen his rehearsals and his audition, but even

24 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

I couldn’t have predicted just how exciting the act actually turned out,” says Lockhart. “When seeing him challenge and push himself, I knew he could do it and would be crazy for everyone to watch. It was almost as if the whole world stopped in that moment and was captivated solely by him. I could envision it from the very second he mentioned it [to me].” Marapane’s style for playing the piano ranges over a wide genre that’s unique to him. When he creates his own songs, he is able to capture any mood he chooses to convey. Besides playing alternative bands, Marapane has various musicians that he enjoys and admires. “My favorite genre is pop rock with artists like, Blink 182 and My Chemical Romance,” says Marapane. “Everything else works but they aren’t as fun as pop rock, as it’s the music that I grew up with.” Similar to professional musicians, Marapane builds a connection between his personality to his pieces. The music that Marapane creates is a gamut, just like his emotions and traits. “I think that Sidath puts a lot of his emotions into his music [but] also knows

It was almost as if the whole world stopped in that moment and was captivated solely by him. – Logan Lockhart, former East student how to put himself into it in a way. A lot of his songs sound exactly like how Sidath would be if he were transformed into a song,” says King. “His skills are comparable because he’s good at pretty much everything he does. He plays a variety of music and is able to cover songs from genres one would think wouldn’t sound good. He’s also very good with making harmonies to the songs he writes.” For as long as King could remember, Marapane has always able to play sheet music well, learn songs by ear and even wrote songs when they were in elementary school. Two years ago, King, Marapane, Lockhart and two of their other friends created the “Formality Band.” They all spent a lot of time together playing video games and other activities until they combined their musical instruments over the summer of 2014. Lockhart played trumpet and clavas, a metal rod cut into two smaller pieces, in the beginning but freestyled and became the vocals while King played guitar. Marapane wrote the music and played the rest of the accompanying instruments that went with their songs. “I always enjoyed playing music in front of a small group, especially with my friends,” says Marapane. “It’s more cozy as they can choose to sing along and feel the mood with the music that I put out and perform.” The recreational Formality Band is played mainly for their close friends. Whether it was in their basements or driveways of their houses, they still managed to have fun and jam out with the audience. “In middle school, Sidath wasn’t playing to his full extent on piano in Formality, mostly just simple chord progressions,” says King. “Then Solo and Ensemble came and my friends and I all went to see his solo and were blown away. He played in between his fingers super quickly and we were all proud, impressed, and super happy for him.” After high school, Marapane hopes to major in music production or work in a music related field. Until then, he has been practicing the guitar, drums, and piano everyday in order to reach his highest potential. With two-three hours of practice each day, music has not become bleak or tedious to Marapane for the last 13 years. “He could be anywhere he wants to be in ten years if he wants to be there bad enough. His obsessive nature and natural skill will take him far if he uses them correctly,” says Lockhart. “I

think he really has something special and seeing what I’ve seen from him I have no reason to doubt that he could be a professional musician in ten years if he chooses to.” Marapane’s mom Aruni Marapane had Sidath involved with piano when he was four years old. Traditionally, children began learning the piano at seven to eight years old with sight reading. However, Sidath was able to begin with his piano teacher Marilyn Galati through the delayed sight reading Suzuki method. According to the Suzuki Association of the Americas’ website, Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki had concluded that children all over the world learn to speak their native language easily. Thus, he applied those ideas and incorporated them into learning music and called this method the mother-tongue approach. With that approach, the core beliefs of parent involvement, delayed reading, encouragement, constant repetition, early beginning, and listening are some of the features involved with the Suzuki method used worldwide. “Sidath is more than talented, he knows he can do great things with his skills and impact others as well,” says Aruni. “Now, he has expanded his talents into drums and guitar since his ears are well trained by the Suzuki method. Sidath can play with whatever he can get his hands on.” One of the highlights of his piano career was when Sidath was eight years old, he played at Cincinnati Music Hall and Aronoff Center. He was given the opportunity through his skills along with the aid of Galati. “It was probably the largest audience that

I have ever played in front of,” says Sidath. “Everyone had really complicated pieces but I played ‘The Red Drum’ which was a minute long compared to people’s five minute long pieces.” Even though Sidath’s piece was shorter and different, it was still “special and longlasting” to him. Besides playing at venues, Sidath has played at nursing homes and rehabilitation centers around the community voluntarily. “Sidath has a program called ‘Sing Along, Play Along Music with Sidath’ where he is teaching children with learning disabilities at the Ronald McDonald House at Cincinnati Children’s,” says Aruni. “He’s so patient and it shows their children’s parents that they also have the ability to play music if they put their mind to it too.” With the original intent of practicing his hand at teaching children his art through the Suzuki method, Sidath found that it was enjoyable and successful at the same time. It started with piano in the middle of January but he has now expanded it to ukulele. His program has allowed Sidath to hone in on his hobby and improve his teaching music capabilities that he hopes to broaden in the future too. “I think above all, his reliance on music has enabled him to pursue it for such a long time. For as long as I can remember he has played with a passion that is unmatched,” says Lockhart. “Music serves as his outlet for whatever he is feeling and because of that, I think he has stuck with it for so long. It seems to be his therapy, whenever he plays he has the potential for something amazing.”

Marapane playing the piano.

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 2

PASSION FOR POLITICS East sophomore Kate Harvey has used her passion for public affairs to guide her path in JSA and community awareness.

East sophomore Kate Harvey attends a JSA convention in Washington, D.C.

story madison ragsdale photography used with permission

he sound of bouncing basketballs echoes on the gym floor. Spirited cheerleaders pump up the crowd while the pep band sets the mood with upbeat music. The bleachers are packed with enthusiastic students as avid fans wait for the Friday night boys’ basketball game to begin, but Lakota East sophomore Kate Harvey is not in the crowd. Instead, Harvey’s typical definition of a Friday night is preparing food, passing out drinks, and serving meals at the Community Meal Center (CMC). “I’ve gone [to the CMC] almost every Friday for the past three months,” says Harvey. “It’s really hard to miss the basketball games, but it’s so much fun being there with the people.” The CMC operates out of the Presbyterian Church of Hamilton, serving up to 400 people on any given Friday. Volunteering at the CMC has encouraged Harvey to connect with lessprivileged, local individuals while they eat their meal. “She’s really good at being able to go up to someone and sit down and make them feel really welcome,” says East junior Madison Lentz, a fellow volunteer at the CMC. “It really brightens someone’s day when someone is so nice to them and is so caring and interested in their lives.” Harvey’s interest in community service was sparked by her involvement in the Lakota East Junior Statesmen of America (JSA) club, which she joined her freshman year. Every third Friday of the month Lakota East students make up the main student mass of volunteers, most of which are JSA club members. Lakota East JSA President Weston Lindner says that he values the time students spend at the CMC because it exposes them to people who aren’t as privileged as most Lakota families. “There is some poverty in Lakota, for sure,

but in general, people just don’t understand,” says Lindner. “So it’s good to get exposure to that kind of life [of poverty].” Alongside community service, the JSA encourages students to “fight apathy” and be interested in the world around them, enabling students to formulate their own opinions about current events. Since joining, Harvey’s interest in social studies and politics has grown. “I stayed up on the night of the election with the results, and I cried. I was really upset because I really wanted a woman president,” says Harvey. “I feel like JSA sparked that in me, to be adamant about politics.” To get more involved in the JSA, Harvey has recently taken a test to become a moderator for debates. Lindner, who passed Harvey on her moderating test, said that she was “really enthusiastic to do it, and she did a good job.” She has carried out her role as a moderator in Lakota East debates, as well as in the Fall State Conference this past November. “I moderated in Fall State, which was actually really fun, getting to use the gavel and feel official,” says Harvey, smiling. “If the people in the audience are being loud, you can yell ‘decorum’ at them, which is fun.” Besides moderating, JSA has made her become increasingly aware of current events, helping her “connect with the outside world.” Lentz says that JSA has helped high school students cultivate their own beliefs, as they are compelled to formulate opinions on issues in society. “I think it makes us more aware of the world around us, because you can always watch the news, but actually formulating an opinion is really important,” says Lentz. “It’s really character development; knowing what you believe in is really important.” JSA Advisor and Advanced Placement

26 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

Human Geography teacher Matt Newell agrees with Lentz, saying that the JSA allows Harvey, among other students, to come to an educated opinion. “Her open minded nature allows her to come to truly informed decisions,” says Newell. “This is a skill that I feel so many [people] are lacking from our society.” The experiences and knowledge gained from JSA has cultivated Harvey’s love for the realm of politics and social sciences. After graduating high school, she plans to become a material engineer, but a political-science degree is not completely out of the question for Harvey. “I actually don’t [like history] at all, which is the funniest thing, because I used to think I hated social studies, and I liked science,” says Harvey. “Now because of JSA, I’m thinking about maybe minoring in a poli-sci (political science). The club’s so interesting.” No matter what degree she chooses, her skills in debating and developing her own opinion have already influenced Harvey and will stay with her in the future. “She’s able to have a meaningful conversation that doesn’t just involve ‘I’m right and you’re wrong,’” says East senior Lauren Harvey, Kate’s older sister. “[JSA] has helped her come out of her shell.” Newell agrees that the club has allowed Harvey to more confidently express her opinions, and he added that Kate “brightens any room she is in.” “At the beginning of the year, she was fairly quiet and reserved,” says Newell. “I think as the year went on, she became very comfortable voicing her opinion, which is awesome because every informed voice matters. I can’t wait to see what sort of opportunities her confidence and intellect will bring her.”

THE CANDLE LAB Nestled in Over the Rhine, The Candle Lab gives customers the unique opportunity to create scents complimentary to their personalities. story megan finke | infographic michael croy

n assortment of fragrances arise while walking through the doors of the Candle Lab. Whether it be selecting a pre-poured candle or creating one, the Candle Lab has something special about it that most competing brands don’t have. Ranging from baked bread to mint leaf, the Candle Lab has over one hundred and twenty one unique scents to choose from. Besides the sizes of eight and eleven ounce candles, they also sell things like reed diffusers, room sprays, soy wax tarts, body care items and much more. Rather than paraffin or vegetable wax, candles from the Candle Lab are made with natural soy wax, cotton paper wicks and pure fragrances which provide many beneficial factors to the customers. The products not only have a burn time up to sixty hours, but they are also help in providing a cleaner burn, which contains no toxins therefore it’s less likely to cause allergies or other health issues. They are also biodegradable, water soluble and stimulate the environment because of their use of natural resources. Bill Rust, owner of Candle Lab located in Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio says the use of soy wax not only increase burn time but also reduces health issues, which increases the customers liking of the product and overall experience in the long run. “If you buy a colored candle, like purple or green, they are beautiful but they have toxins in them, so they are not healthy for you, “ says Rust. “A lot of people love the aspect that we use soy because of the natural flavoring wax.” The opportunity to create a personalized candle containing multiple unique scents is not offered at many fragrance stores, but the Candle Lab offers the option to create custom candles at the Fragrance Bar. The process takes up to ninety minutes and offers the chance to create something that would only appear in a dream $15. After choosing from an array of fragrances, the mixture of multiple scents is created and poured into a container of the customer’s choosing while being evenly distributed throughout the melted soy wax. Next, the products sits to harden and then is ready to be taken home to burn. Haley Harrison, customer at the Candle Lab, says that not only is the experience fast and fun, but also that the employees help

with anything, whether it be with things like pairing scents and how to create the candle. “It was a lot easier and quicker than I thought it was going to be,” says Harrison. “They have an entire wall of different scents to choose from and they help you choose a good pairing.” Since 2006, the Candle Lab has been a Columbus-based location, occurring in places like Short North, Worthington. In 2015, the location was opened in Over the Rhine and more recently, the Candle Lab has also moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rust says that Over the Rhine is the perfect destination for a location in Cincinnati because of his experience in the city. “I opened up the Cincinnati, Over the Rhine store just because I live here and I just know it is a fabulous area,” says Rust. “I mean, it’s a destination.” The Candle Lab is an impactful addition to Over the Rhine because not only is the area reviving itself by adding small businesses, but the Candle Lab brings a chance for creativity, positivity and connection with the workers and it’s products. “I totally recommend the Candle Lab,” says Harrison. “I love supporting small local businesses and the quality is worth the cost.” Emily Barge, employee at the Over the Rhine Candle Lab says that the stores environment and opportunities that are achieved by working there are different than any other job would offer. “I love the creative environment that we have here, everyday is fun,” says Barge. “You get to make different scents and get to [show your] creative side here [while helping] customers pick something out that they love.” The environment and staff offered at the Candle Lab welcomes customers with creativity and a sense of open arms, they strive to create a fun experience for everyone by showing how much fun a candle can provide. “The whole point is the relationship with our customers and the main thing we want for [them] is that they have a wonderful experience,” says Rust. “It is a rewarding [process], and I like to get involved with them and [making] sure they are having a good time.”

The Candle Lab Candle-making isn’t a process that everyone is familiar with, but the employees at the Candle Lab are experts. Step 1: Pick your favorite scents and write down what you like on the chart. AutumnLeaves Leaves Autumn Bacon

Bamboo Campfire Earth

Bubble Bath Leather

Campfire Watermelon Earth

Step 2: Narrow your favorites down to 2 or 3 scents.

Step 3: Pour the scents into a container and mix.

Step 4: Pour scents into an 8 or 11 ounce candle. Wait 45 minutes until the candle is finished.

source owner of the candle lab, bill rust

MIGRAINE ON THE BRAIN East sophomore Olivia Sawchuk has suffered from migraines since she was seven years old. story regan ladle photography kayleigh bearden infographic lauren maier

lue and unmotivated, a silent girl walks to class with her head down. All the happy and excited conversations that usually interest her are now incoherent and jumbled, unable to penetrate the pain. She sits down at her desk and lays down her head to block out the fluorescent lights that make her eyes burn. Pain like a sharp shooting knife soon enters into her head and she succumbs to the pain. Anyone can have a headache, but not everyone has had a knife stabbing skull, head feeling like it’s being crushed, or light being too painful to look at- headache. Across America, 28 million people suffer from migraines, each case being unique with different symptoms and causes. There is no cure-all, no secret pill and no one size fits all. Each person has his or her own painful story. East sophomore Olivia Sawchuk is one of the 30 migraine cases at East. She has been suffering from migraines since the age of seven, which is not uncommon. Migraines can show up in children as young as 18 months old and half of all migraine patients have had their first migraine by age 12. “Before puberty the ratio of boys to girls getting migraines is equal, but after puberty there is a huge increase in girls,” says Susan LeCates, a nurse practitioner at the Cincinnati Children’s Headache Clinic. “Some epidemiology studies have gone up to 28% of girls getting migraines.” After girls start their menstrual cycle, their hormones tend to fluctuate, and these fluctuations are often a cause of migraines. According to LeCates, the average patient at the Headache Clinic is a 14-year-old female, but people can get migraines much younger or

much older. Sawchuk endures many of the common side effects such as sensitivity to light and sound, loss of mobility and motor skills, dizziness, and fatigue. “When I am at school I can’t focus as well, and it is hard for me to see so I can’t write down notes as well,” says Sawchuk. “Talking is really hard because it requires a lot of thought. When I am at dance [practice], I can’t balance as well and it is hard for me to dance in general.” While Sawchuk is dealing with this internal pain, she also is dealing with a decrease in her ability to function and keep on with normal life. “For most kids, their motor skills and ability to function are fine, but there are things we call complicated migraines and that is when you have a migraine plus other symptoms. [Those] can be numbness or tingling in parts of their body, they could have vision changes, or they can have confusion,” says Darcy Krueger, a neurologist at Cincinnati Children’s. Of the demographic of kids who suffer from headaches, it gets smaller with migraines and decreases from that with complicated migraines; which is what Olivia suffers from. “We have a large number of students that suffer from headaches, a smaller number of that suffer from migraines and they are different,” says Jennifer Breland, nurse at Lakota East. “The migraines can be various kinds of migraines, ranging from pain to visual disturbances.” These varying ranges of pain, and visual disturbances aren’t easy or fun to deal with and people with migraines often aren’t the same when they don’t have one compared to when they do have a migraine.

28 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

Olivia’s mother Sally Brantley says that when Olivia has a migraine she is much different from her normal self. “Usually she is very happy, smiley, animated and easy to get along with. However, when she has a migraine you immediately know as soon as you see her,” says Brantley. “She will have a look on her face that just expresses that she is in pain.” Not every person will showcase these personality fluctuations, but some emotional symptoms are common. Usual emotional symptoms range from confusion, a depressed state, or being unusually quiet. This kind of depressed state doesn’t mean the person is depressed, it just means that for the duration of time they have a migraine they may be sad or more irritable. “Kids can get more agitated, mainly just from the pain. Pain in and of itself causes you to get upset [which] causes more agitation,” says Breland. While many times an over-the-counter drug like Excedrin or Tylenol can be used to dissipate the pain, for many acute migraines, a prescription medicine is needed. There are several different medications used to combat migraines. A preventive medicine is taken on a normal schedule to stop a migraine from happening and an immediate medicine is taken at the onset of the headache to subdue the pain. “The most common [medications] are Amitriptyline and Topamax,” says LeCates. “For kids who are much younger and can’t swallow pills, there is a medicine called Periactin, but it doesn’t work on older kids.” Immediate medicines are usually ibuprofen

student | feature and other nonsteroidal drugs that help alleviate pain and fevers. Prescription medication typically has a higher dosage than it’s over-thecounter counterpart. Some common immediate medicines are triptan, naproxen, and imitrex. Side effects for these include dizziness, vertigo, nausea or vomiting, bruising, itching, dry mouth, and muscle cramps. For many migraine cases, Excedrin Migraine does the trick, as it does for Olivia. However, no matter what medicine is usually taken, the most important thing is speed – how fast from the onset of the headache one is able to take their medicine. Longtime migraine patient Lori Rahlf is a mother of five and part of a family who all suffer from migraines. They all started getting them at different times and experience varying ranges of intensity. “If I can take Excedrin quick enough, then I am usually fine, but you aren’t always at home or you don’t always have medicine on you,” explains Rahlf. “When that happens I will usually have to take more medicine and lay down with my eyes closed in dark room.” The Rahlf ’s cause of migraines may commonly be genetics, since her son’s possess a trait that is passed down. However, other triggers are stress, lack of sleep, dehydration, a lacking diet, hormonal imbalances, or over sensory stimulation, can also be contributors to the cause of migraine. In terms of genetics, the genes that are passed down by a child’s parents play an instrumental role in making them who they are. Including the gene for migraines, and the fact that they often run in families. However, just because a family is predisposed to migraines, doesn’t mean that all members of the family will get them. Migraines caused by genetics are really just a roll of the dice. “We don’t understand 100 percent what happens in the body, honestly, but one thing we do know is that if you suffer from migraines, you inherited a brain that is more sensitive to changes, and your body will react by giving you a migraine,” says LeCates. “One of the things that happens is that the blood vessels in the lining of the brain enlarge causing the pain.” These little blood vessels with the width of millimeters cause 13 percent of American adults indescribable pain. While the causes, symptoms, and relief plans for every person who gets migraines is different. But what connects all of them, is that an unbalance in their life, such as a change in diet, not drinking enough water, hormonal fluctuations, or lack of sleep, will cause this blood vessels to enlarge. “I really just learned to accept them,” says Sawchuk. “This is what I was dealt and I just need to push through and make the most of it.”

Migraine Malfunctions Migraines come with many different symptoms. Some of these symptoms are more common than others.

36% of people experience aura

80% of people experience light sensitivity

44% of people experience vision changes and/ or blurred vision

59% of people experience pain on one side

85% of people experience throbbing, pulsating pain

73% of people experience nausea and/ or vomiting

sources migraine.com, migraineresearchfoundation.org

package | fake news

DEFINING FAKE NEWS With a plethora of sites claiming to report credible news, Americans sometimes struggle to distinguish between what is real and “fake.” story michelle chu | additional reporting emma stiefel infographic taylor anderson | art sarah aftab

hey all began in these rooms. A computer lab turned workplace and a classroom filled with awards and a mural. A mixture of the past and the present. Black and white covers fill the walls of one classroom, PC monitors line another. Eventually they all left the Spark rooms. Now, Kevin Necessary is an editorial cartoonist at WCPO-Cincinnati. Olivia Lewis is at Miami University, double-majoring in journalism and international studies. Two work at The Washington Post. Faiz Siddiqui is a transportation reporter, and Rachel Podnar is a news editor for The Washington Post Express. As journalists, all of them, regardless of the medium they work in, are dedicated to accurately reporting events to the public. Recently, however, they have seen the truthful pieces they create compete for audiences’ attention with deliberately false, misinformative fake news. According to a Pew Research Center study from December 2016, 64 percent of American adults say made-up news stories have caused a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current events. Two distinct kinds of news stories have been dubbed “fake news:” completely fabricated stories and stories from mainstream news organizations but called “fake news” by President Donald Trump and his administration, says head of the journalism department at the University of Cincinnati Jeffrey Blevins. “The term ‘fake news’ currently refers to the recent phenomenon of political operatives intent on spreading propaganda or misinformation for political gain,” Blevins says. “As well as commercial interests wanting to attract click-through and use scandalous headlines as click bait,” By calling both types of stories “fake news,” Siddiqui thinks that the blanket term contributes to the public

2 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

finding both equal. “When you say fake news, it’s imprecise, it’s not very nuanced, it’s not specific, and journalism is all three of these things: precise, nuanced, and specific,” Siddiqui says. “What are we talking about with these things? Are we talking about hoax news, are we talking about propaganda, or are we simply talking about errors that reporters make in the course of their daily reporting?” Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University and News Director at the Media Law Center for Ethics and Access Jan Leach distinguishes fake news from hoax news sites as “completely made up.” Often, according to Buffalo State College Associate Professor of Journalism Annemarie Franczyk, the structure of fake news articles mimic journalistic writing, “usurping a journalist’s own format to promote their own dastardly deeds,” often with an inverted pyramid style of writing, a summary lede and quotes. Very recently, however, the label “fake news” has been used by some, notably Trump, to describe mainstream news outlets such as CNN and The New York Times. In this context, according to The Ohio State University Associate Professor of Journalism Kelly Garrett, “fake news” is being used “as a synonym for biased news.”

History of Fake News

She stepped into the room full of buzzing energy and excitement. The first word that popped into her head as she scanned the premise was “corporate,” with “an edition of the paper neatly placed on each crisp white table.” Since her first day of journalism in high school, Lewis had admired The New York Times, and she was now finally standing in the offices of the outlet. Lewis had visited New York in January with other journalism students from Miami University for a program called NYC Media to meet with 20 news media organizations in the city and learn more about the field during the week. The New York Times was their first stop, where they met Editorial Page Editor

Gail Collins and Public Editor Liz Spayd. Collins, says Lewis, believed that a big source of criticism in the media coverage of the 2016 election was the question of bias, causing many to use the term “fake news.”

black and white

espite the increasing prevalence of fake news, the phenomenon has been festering for centuries, since the creation of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-1400s. Yellow journalism, epitomized by Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Hearst’s New York Journal, prioritized profits over accuracy, often exaggerating stories and occasionally printing lies. Backlash to yellow journalism after its reign in the late 19th century led to objective journalism. Pulitzer himself would end up establishing the famous Pulitzer Prize to reward “the most disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by any American newspaper during the preceding year.” Adolph Ochs purchased a struggling newspaper called The New York Times in 1896, stating that it would be a “clean, dignified, trustworthy and impartial” newspaper in a time of sensationalism. Coinciding with the cultural changes during the 1950s, media organizations evolved from what historians termed “lapdog” mindset to be a more observant “watchdog.” The questioning of authority, says Indiana University Media School Assistant Professor Gerry Lanosga, affected many domains of life including the press. The Washington Post’s coverage of former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal during the early 1970s completed this transition, and though the public was initially distrustful of the press during the investigation, once Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s stories proved true journalists gained more respect. The evolving technological innovations added more platforms for voices to contribute.

From radio broadcast to television and finally the creation of the internet in as early as the 1960’s, when information increasingly became free of its original geographical location, allowing “regular people,” says Lanogsa, “to participate in that spread of information.” “There’s always been new media that’s been introduced in successive ways in the history of communication,” Lanosga says. “In a lot of ways the history of news is a history of technology.” At her college publication in Ball State, Podnar found that the staff would put all the content from the day’s paper online in the evening each day. The content would often mirror exactly what was found in the print publication, from headlines to photos. “There was just no understanding of what online was. And it’s not like other newspapers were doing that much better in 2012,” Podnar says. “People are always trying to get better at online but that’s the huge thing, the switch to putting things online all the time and everybody doing that.”

ith the evolution of technology came cable news and talk radio, allowing more people to pick and choose which facts to pay attention to, says Assistant Professor of Public Relations at Indiana University Nicholas Browning. The issue became more prevalent with social media as it allowed even more people to choose an outlet for news.

There isn’t any kind of real authoritative voice in media anymore: anybody can publish. Anybody can put up a website, anyone can say they’re a reporter.

- Kevin Necessary, WCPO Editorial Cartoonist March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 31

WAKING UP TO According to a 2016 Pew Research Center study, 64 percent of U.S. adults say fake news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current issues and events. infographic erinn aulfinger, lauren wilson

56 percent of adults use a cell phone to get news, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to use reputable news apps like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Google and Facebook are not reputable news sites, but after recent criticism, both companies are working towards preventing the spread of clickbait and fake news.

T i t a n n i c in

it in click ba onds. o n is here . Tla s32 r of sec tesp la ko a ko ta ta ea m ea sttst ke new 2 a sp a arar f ko in ko s nlnl s s inin r e.e. o co e co mmMM cr bling a of their follow m u t s t a ll a b h m it o oc story w ways t rinted p e best a h t o t f o nk is one are a li spaper anâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sh w c e s n r e a d g a Readin apers, and re newsp

FAKE NEWS Three Ways to Spot Fake News

5% of adults ages 1819 get news from a print newspaper and 20 percent of all adults get news from a newspaper;

1. Check the Source Reputable news sources are more likely to break stories that are true. Also, pay attention to website domains: .co can be added to similar domains as more reputable sources to disguise their identity. 2. Look for Duplicates An important breaking news story is going to be covered by multiple reporters and newspapers. 3. Determine Probability through Writer No news source or story is completely unbiased. Make sure to pay attention to wording, diction and sourcing to determine if a story is credible.

s e m i T

MM arar ch ch20 20 1717

h cente

earc ew res p , g r .o .org s npr source pressinstitute n a americ

82% of 256 East students surveyed said they had encountered fake news on social media. 83 percent of 248 East students surveyed said they had encountered fake news regarding the 2016 presidential election.

package | fake news Communication is 24/7 now, says Smith, with a copious amount of sources and information that people can’t always absorb. Information can be unfiltered and unedited when it reaches the public, resulting in content that is not always accurate. “People see the media as biased, and despite our best efforts to counter that perception, there is still bias in the media,” Leach says. “People aren’t always objective and there has been way too much reliance on things that erode trust.” These things include using anonymous sources and giving opposing sources equal weight to get all sides of the story even if their information may not be as valid, Leach adds. Necessary, who graduated from East in 1998, has seen the rise of social media since he was in Spark. “There isn’t any kind of real authoritative voice in media anymore: anybody can publish,” Necessary says. “Anybody can put up a website, anyone can say they’re a reporter. And you actually have that.” According to the Newseum Institute and First Amendment Center Chief Operating Officer Gene Policinski, people are having to readjust to “receiving news in a new way and understanding how to vet it” the same way they did when mass circulation newspapers, radios and TVs were introduced. “We learned as a society that certain news operations were more trustworthy than others, the gossip magazines versus the serious daily newspapers versus the really serious niche magazines that may have had a point of view,” Policinski says. “We learned to parse those over 100 and some years. The social media phenomenon is only a handful of years old.”

Presidential Election Breakdown Economists reported in a 2017 study that social media was an important but not dominant source of news prior to the 2016 election.

A Polarized Nation

During the 2016 Presidential Election, 65 percent of Americans got their news from digital sources, including 28 percent from news websites or apps and 18 percent from social media sites, according to the Pew Research Center. A quarter of American adults also said they learned about the presidential election via late night comedy shows, slightly higher than the 23 percent of Americans who got their news from national print newspapers. “I think the media got too wrapped up in covering characters and not campaigns and ignoring most policy,” Leach says. “[Which] contributed to people’s misinformation and difficulty making a decision on who to vote for.” According to a January 2017 study by economists Matthew Gentzkow of Stanford University and Hunt Allcott of New York University, social media was an important but not dominant source of news prior to the 2016 presidential election. Pro-Trump fabricated stories were shared 30 million times three months before the

34 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

S. U.

pu po

lation 318,90

0,0

69%

48%

60% 46%

U.S. Population Eligible Voters (by age) in the U.S. Number of People who Voted in the U.S. Eligible Voters who are Registered in the U.S. Oh

io p

opulation 11,61 73%

3,4 23

69% 2%

Ohio Population Eligible Voters in Ohio Number of Eligible Voters (by age) in Butler County Number of Voters in Butler County who Voted sources census.gov, nytimes.com, electproject.org

election, quadruple the number of pro-Clinton fabricated stories, said to the study. However, the most popular fabrications, such as Pope Francis endorsing then-candidate Trump, were seen by only a small fraction of Americans. It’s important to note, according to Garrett, that the people sharing fake news articles may not actually believe them. Though he’s still studying the phenomenon, he said that, “the early patterns of what I’m seeing don’t give me a lot of reasons to expect that people who use social media like Facebook were likely to believe a lot more falsehoods.”

iddiqui encountered the effects of fake news when reporting on a story concerning “pizzagate,” when a North Carolina man drove to D.C. and fired in a restaurant that some fake news sites had reported was where then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring in the restaurant’s bathrooms. The man later surrendered to the police when he realized there was no evidence for the hoax story, says Siddiqui. Instead of “directly convincing people that these stories were true,” according to Garrett, fake news more likely affected the election by “allowing people to share their emotional reactions to the campaign.” “They say, ‘I just don’t like this candidate and this is one more example of why I don’t like this candidate and why other people shouldn’t like the candidate either,” Garret says. “It’s possible it had an effect but not in the simple way that we tend to talk about; it’s not that a lot of people were fooled in a profound way.” Garrett doesn’t see fake news itself as “being fundamental to what this election was about,” and believes that the results can be explained without it. Even so, confirmation bias, which is the tendency for people to choose to believe what is already consistent with their attitudes is a prevalent problem with social media, according to University of California, Los Angeles Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Professor and Psychology Today writer Joseph Pierre. Algorithms that create social media feeds for sites like Facebook present users “with a biased selection of the news tailored to their preferences. Their brains are consuming information with ‘confirmation bias on steroids.’” The “filter bubbles” created by these algorithms may result in people living in “echo chambers,” only exposed to opinions they already agree with. “It creates an environment where we’re not challenged and it becomes harder for us to look at different types of news and discern what credible journalism is from not credible journalism,” Browning says. “We largely don’t know about it and are unwilling to challenge ourselves with information that we confront and that’s how fake news propagates.”

Social media does not have a “predefined role,” says Browning. “It is what we make it.” And what users have made it into is a “polarized space” and a potential for a distorted view of reality dependent upon someone’s social connections and feed. When Podnar began using Facebook her freshman year of high school, she says that users were mostly sharing pictures and statuses and “news sharing wasn’t necessarily the first thing that people did.” She adds that sites like Upworthy, Elite Daily, Mashable and Buzzfeed exist because of social media.

How to Correct the Fake News Problem

According to the December 2016 Pew Research Center study, 42 percent of Americans think social networking sites and search engines have a great deal of responsibility in preventing completely made-up news from gaining attention; 45 percent of Americans think government, politicians, and elected officials have that role; and 43 percent of Americans think members of the public have that role. In 2016, Google took down nearly 80 million ads that misled or deceived users according to Keyword, the destination for news updates from Google. Facebook updated its Facebook Audience Network Policy in November 2016 to include fake news sites in not displaying advertisements that included misleading or illegal information. However, Smith notes that there is “a limited amount of time and effort that goes into it because it costs money.”

or journalists, Lanosga says they will continue to strive for verification in their stories and hold the government accountable because the basic journalistic principles still apply. “We should be pushing the administration to be accountable for the information it puts out in the same way that we’ve done for many years,” Lanosga says. “For instance, if the administration is making [stats] about job numbers [we should verify that]. It is a two way street, but it’s going to be very challenging for journalists in the next few years.” Even in opinion, Necessary says that his editorial cartoons can be backed up by either news he has read or sources he has spoken to.

For instance, Duke Energy was unhappy with a cartoon he drew about a Duke Energy power plant that was in danger of leaking chemicals into the Ohio River; however, Necessary had based his cartoon off of a reporter’s story. “I was able to say ‘I based this entirely off long term reporting from one of our reporters,’” Necessary says. “And I think that’s why in terms of opinion journalism, you have to be able to back things up, you can’t just be making speculations and I think that’s where a lot of fake news comes in is because people are just making stuff up.” Browning hopes that eventually, verifiable news sites will succeed over the “outlandish ones” and that hoax news sites that serve as “mouthpieces” for political agendas will lose advertising and go out of business. Still, he also hopes this time will be a moment of reflection for journalists in refocusing their efforts on better serving the public. “[There may be] appreciation for actual facts in the long run if we come to identify that as an agreed upon problem,” Browning says. “It may be that this proliferation of fake news has kind of been a slow outgrowth of the decline in quality journalism in certain sectors.”

edia literacy for the general public, or the ability to evaluate media, will continue to be at the forefront for differentiating between credible news and hoax news. In the same Pew Research Center study, a majority of American adults are confident in their ability to spot fake news; however, the study shows self-reported information that cannot capture if the levels of confidence are truly warranted. “You have to go in with a certain skepticism in that everything that gets printed isn’t necessarily true,” Smith says. “[If] you see something that you have doubts about, it’s worthwhile to check it out, to look for other sources, to see if somebody else is saying it.” One way to differentiate hoax news sites from credible news sites is that in credible news sources, corrections will often be in stories after its original publication, says Lanosga. “If a reputable news organization published a story that is based on some false information, has some factual errors in it or it is just outright false, a reputable news organization is going to

I don’t just go around calling a train transportation [as a transportation reporter]. I call a train a train, I call a cab a cab, I call a bus a bus, and I think we need to do the same thing with this term. - Faiz Siddiqui, Washington Post Reporter

correct t h a t material and take that story down,” Lanosga says. “From that standpoint, you can kind of distinguish this idea of fake news.” Ultimately, however, Garrett believes that the problem of fake news stems from the increased lack of trust between Americans. Now more than ever, he says, “Democrats are willing to say that Republicans are stupid, evil, malicious and would do anything to advance their own cause, and Republicans would say the exact same things about Democrats.” “Until we get passed that I don’t know how we’re going to get past arguments about what’s true and what’s not,” Garrett says. “Because if you think the other side’s willing to do anything to get their way then of course you’re going to doubt when someone presents information that you don’t agree with.” Finding ways to restore trust between Americans and in journalism may seem impossible, but Policinski believes that doing so is vital to protecting “all of our freedoms and our system of government.” “I need accurate information in order to make judgements so I vote one way or another; the ultimate power of the self governed is to vote,” Policinski says. “So I see this as a threat to the institutional side of self governance in a way, and I don’t think that’s too grandiose a view of lowering confidence in the people that bring us that information full time. It’s not healthy for democracy.” While many people, even among journalists, have different opinions concerning how to solve the conundrum of fake news, Siddiqui says that it is imperative to redefine what exactly constitutes fake news instead of using it as a blanket term. “I don’t just go around calling a train transportation [as a transportation reporter],” Siddiqui says. “I call a train a train, I call a cab a cab, I call a bus a bus, and I think we need to do the same thing with this term.”

package | obama’s legacy

LOOKING BACK EIGHT YEARS

Former President Barack Obama has impacted the lives of many Americans with his legislations. story cristina francisco photography alyssa hetterich infographic karmiela white art sarah aftab

*denotes name change

e now obtains the office where some of the most powerful men have mapped out war strategies, planned inspiring speeches and contemplated difficult decisions.. He runs down his list of campaign promises that he has accomplished. February 2007: Announce candidacy for the presidency. November 2008: Win. Now he goes down the list and has one more promise to complete: Quit smoking for the First Lady, Michelle Obama. However, he faces more pressing issues of handling two wars and an economy in recession. President Barack Obama now has the lives of the American public in his hands, people of all backgrounds, ethnicities and genders. He even captures the attention of a small 10-year old boy. The TV at Woodland Elementary displays a tall, lean man surrounded by people in formal wear. Kids in a fourth grade class remain seated as they watch the 44th president’s inauguration. Nick Hamilton watches with ardent attention and only deviates his eyes from the screen when a classmate turns to him saying that he looks like the man on TV. “I remember seeing Obama with his hand on the Bible, and thinking, ‘[My friend’s] kinda right. We’re both biracial,’” Hamilton says. “ It was something I wouldn’t know the impact of until my later years.” Hamilton, who is currently a senior at East and a student at Miami Hamilton, is an admirer of former President Barack Obama. Aside from Hamilton favoring a positive outlook on Obama’s legacy, a recent Gallup Poll shows that 65 percent rate him as average and outstanding or above-average; 35 percent of Americans believe that Obama will “go down in history” as poor or below-average. The Gallup Poll says that his scores compare “favorably” with past presidents. John F. Kennedy had a favorable rating of 79 percent, Ronald Reagan had 63 percent and Dwight Eisenhower had a rating of 50 percent. There is a divide between Americans who favor or do not favor Obama’s legacy, but Hamilton looks back on Obama’s presidency as “revolutionary.” He attributes this to Obama being biracial compared to the other 43 former presidents who were all

white males. “I grew up for a large part of my childhood during the one time it was someone that looked like me,” Hamilton says. “Although [Obama] could have been spiteful and talked about ‘the white man,’ he didn’t do that. He was willing to work with both Democrats and Republicans to get things done.” Laura Belmonte, a professor and director of History at Oklahoma University, says that being African American was one factor that helped Obama win the nomination. “He was the first African American president, not the first [African American] presidential candidate,” Belmonte says. “[Shirley Chisholm] ran in 1972 and Jesse Jackson ran, but the fact that he won the nomination was a first, and that was really electrifying for a lot of people. His story and background was unusual; he wasn’t your typical candidate for president, and all of that converged at a time when people were looking for change and a sense of hope.” Hamilton mentions that his father has always been interested in politics but never felt like “someone represented him.” Hamilton says that most politicians are “rich white guys from the upper class,” but that Obama didn’t grow up in the upper class. Instead, he went to arguably the best law school and made the most of himself. Obama went to Occidental College in California on a scholarship before transferring to Columbia University. He then attended Harvard Law School in 1988. Obama later taught law at the University of Chicago, where he met Michelle Obama, a lawyer at the time, in 1992. “My father was the first in his family to go to college and got a job to support our family,” Hamilton says. “I think that’s a reason my dad liked him. Obama helped break the stereotype of black people. When you hear ‘black people,’ what group comes to mind? Before his presidency, people would think of [them as people] in the hood or poor people. He shattered that with the First Family being two highly educated, kind, black parents with their equally smart kids.” Department Chair of History at the University of Memphis, Aram Goudsouzian adds that Obama’s election in 2008 capitalized on a “certain optimistic strain in American p thought, a big-tent liberalism that emphasizes

the nation’s gradual expansion of democratic rights over the course of its history.” “He showed exemplary character as a president, despite critics on both the right and the left, and was able to show significant accomplishments, including the Affordable Care Act,” Goudsouzian says. Some families who have been personally impacted by Obama will view his legacy in a favorable light; however, Belmonte believes it will be viewed as a mixed legacy overall. When he came into office in 2009, Obama inherited a country that was involved in two wars, one with Iraq and one with Afghanistan. The U.S. was also in the midst of the Great Recession. But in 2009, a stimulus package, also known as the Recovery Act, was passed. According to the U.S. Treasury, it was an “unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs,” in a “crisis unlike any since the Great Depression.” Belmonte says that Obama had an ability to “shepherd” the U.S. through the 2008 fiscal crisis, but it did not generate a real economic rebound. She says that the recovery has been slow and thinks that Obama wishes he would have left a more “vigorous economy.” However she notes that there were many consecutive months of economic growth under his term and that he left unemployment half of what it was when he began. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is at 4.8 percent as of January 2017, less than half of the peak it reached in October 2009. Aside from aiding Americans in the economic sector, he became “admirable” in the eyes of another group, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. While Congress repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in December of 2010, it wasn’t until May 9, 2012, that Obama came out in support of same-sex marriage, only a few days after former Vice President Joe Biden did. Obama became the first sitting president to do so. In an ABC News interview, Obama said, “At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” He wasn’t fully supportive of it at the beginning of his term, but told ABC News that his views had evolved and explained why. He had staff members who were in “incredibly

committed monog amous relationships, s a m e - s e x relationships, who were raising kids together,” and that there were soldiers fighting on his behalf that felt “constrained” because they were not able to get married. June 26, 2015. She sees the usual lock screen of Obama on her phone and unlocks it. Opening Snapchat, she proceeds to scroll through her friend list until she finds her Florida friend and opens the Snapchat story. When she opens it, she sees her friend’s post that displays rings and a pride flag. Same-sex marriage has now become legalized across the nation. Caroline Patterson, a senior at East and same-sex marriage supporter was impacted and appreciative of Obama’s support of the new ruling. When Patterson saw that it had become legalized, she took to Twitter and began texting her friends to celebrate. “I started crying,” Patterson says. “I was so relieved and it was amazing because the person who posted it on their story hasn’t always talked about being supportive of it. I haven’t gotten a lot of support in my life, because I am apart of the LGBT community, so for someone who I look up to like Joe Biden and Obama, it was [a sense of] relief and this feeling of awe. It meant a lot to me.”

My father was the first in his family to go to college and got a job to support our family. I think that’s a reason my dad liked him. Obama helped break the stereotype of black people. – Nick Hamilton, East senior

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 37

package | obama’s legacy When Patterson lived in Florida, she was a part of Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) for two years at her school. She moved to Ohio in 2015 where she continued to be a part of GSA at East for two more years. Being a part of GSA has “changed” who Patterson is as a person. She says that she hasn’t always been super open-minded because that was just “the way I was raised.” When she joined GSA, Patterson realized that she was part of it. It wouldn’t be until late into her sophomore year that Patterson came to identify herself as pansexual. It had a tremendous amount of symbolic importance for Obama to put the whole power of the presidency behind supporting samesex marriage, says Belmonte. She adds that democratic candidates and political officials “kind of danced around [same-sex marriage] for many years.” For Patterson, the Supreme Court ruling was a complete surprise because she didn’t know that they were working on the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, the Supreme Court decided on the legality of same-sex marriage not whether they were in favor of it or not, with a 5-4 decision. “I didn’t think that anyone cared but then to

see that they did, it was crazy,” Patterson says. “[When they lit up the White House with the pride colors,] that was so cool.” Belmonte says bringing gay activists to the White House and displaying rainbow lighting when the ruling came out allowed Americans to believe this was the latest [march] toward equality for all, and it was “very inspirational.” The LGBT community received achievements during Obama’s presidency, but his legacy becomes mixed because Belmonte points outs that some of his accomplishments may not “withstand the test of time” and that most of them are going to “be undone relatively quickly.” “The Trump administration is hell bent on undoing a lot of things Obama did and what we see is that they are willing to do it quickly and aggressively,” Belmonte says. “That is a change in power that we haven’t seen in the modern [age]. Now [the Republicans have] full control of Congress behind them [which is] different because usually we have some divisions of political control.” Patterson admires Obama’s support for LGBT rights, but remains critical of the record number of deportations under his administration and his tackling of global terrorism. She says her best friend in Florida and Ohio were both immigrants and she sees how the Islamic State and of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a terrorist group, has

Important Events During Obama’s Presidency These are many noteworthy events that occurred over Obama’s eight years as President of the United States.

2009

2011

Inaugurated into office

Death of Osama Bin Laden, killed in U.S. raid in Pakistan

Potential legislations that face repeal under Trump’s Administation

2012

2016

Obama signs D.A.C.A.

Obama arrives in Cuba

Obama signs the Affordable Care Act

Obama declares his support for same -sex marriage

The Violence Against Women Act is signed into law

2010

2012

2014

sources cnn.com, presidential-power.org

grown in the Middle East. In some ways [withdrawing] from Iraq and Afghanistan have been premature especially in Iraq where we were seeing more extremists groups like ISIS arise says Belmonte. She adds on that more extremists groups spread and that Obama was worried about getting the U.S. in a military consequence, because of this, Belmonte would give Obama a “C minus” in “the world of terrorism.” In August 2012, Obama used executive action to instill a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, provides work permits to 750,000 unauthorized millennial immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 16. It also allows them to obtain licenses and attend college. However, with immigration being one of President Donald Trump’s key campaign promises, millennials under this act are unsure of what’s to come. East graduate Maria Cruz*,came to the U.S. when she five years old. Her parents brought her to the U.S. from Guatemala, and she entered into the American school system having to learn English and Spanish at the same time. Finally, after spending her years through Union Elementary and East, it came time for her to fill out college applications. However, the teenage dream of going to college was shattered as she was told by college counselors that as an undocumented student, she wouldn’t be able to attend. She ended the phone call and sat on her staircase crying, thinking about the time and dedication she put into her high school career. “I did everything like every other student,” Cruz says. “I went to school everyday and studied every night for my tests. I grew up in the American culture of spending years at school, something that I would not have gotten in Guatemala, but then to not be able to further my education because I wasn’t a citizen, it wasn’t an easy for me to process. I was hurt.” In addition to not being able to attend college, Cruz faced an earlier challenge when she was 16. She saw her friends drive away from the parking lot after school everyday, while she waited for a ride. As an undocumented citizen, she also couldn’t obtain her license. Year after year in high school, instead of grabbing keys, she would sit and patiently wait for her parents. When Cruz got the news about Obama signing DACA, she was happy and emotional but “careful not to get my hopes up.” She was prepared to face challenges that came with her renewed opportunities. Cruz was accepted at Cincinnati State to

I live with my sister now who is also under the DACA law. We both waited for years to be able to obtain our licenses and attend college. We are the only two children in our family who are undocumented and to be able to live our life like other American adults is amazing. – Maria Cruz, East graduate major in business. Five years after DACA was signed, Cruz is “thankful” for the opportunities and impact that Obama has had on her. “I am able to have a driver’s license and can pay in-state tuition,” Cruz says. “I have a job in banking, can build credit and do things on my own. I live with my sister now who is also under the DACA law. We both waited for years to be able to obtain our licenses and attend college. We are the only two children in our family who are undocumented and to be able to live our life like other American adults is amazing. It is easier to go through this experience with some else who can understand versus doing it alone.” Cruz also gives back to the community and when she isn’t working at the bank, she works as a community organizer with youth groups. She also helps run beauty pageants to support

girls and help them with their confidence. Another executive action of Obama that may not “withstand the test of time” is the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, that was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. It was later upheld in the Supreme Court on June 28, 2012. Although Obamacare is still up for debate and many Republicans are working on repealing the legislation, Belmonte says that it is one of Obama’s best accomplishments. Since the 1930’s, democratic presidents have tried to achieve some sort of national healthcare legislation. “Bill Clinton had an effort [in trying to get health care reform as well as] Harry Truman,” Belmonte says. “[Lyndon B. Johnson was able to achieve some form of healthcare] with Medicare and Medicaid but didn’t go for national coverage. It is pretty remarkable that [Obama] succeeded, and it really is kind of the peak achievement of his presidency. Now, we don’t really know what is going to come next and that is alarming to people who rely very heavily on this.” Along with comparison of healthcare to other presidents’, Belmonte compares Obama to other presidents. She says he resonates with Theodore Roosevelt. “Teddy was a big champion in the environment and so was Obama,” Belmonte says. “Then there are other ways in which I think he is a lot like both Ronald Reagan and [Franklin D. Roosevelt] in that he was a wonderful communicator. Bill Clinton would be in that realm too. Obama was really able to connect with people emotionally: he wasn’t afraid to show emotions himself and really could explain something in clear compelling ways that could change popular attitude.” Aside from public speaking and connecting to Americans,

Obama also connected to millennials on social media platforms such as Twitter, home of hashtags like #ThanksObama, which trended when it was time for him to leave office and home of memes which created the “bromance with Biden,” something that Hamilton has noticed. Hamilton says that Obama is one of the “coolest politicians, and one of the funniest guys.” “Regardless of political beliefs, he has made tons of funny jokes at places like the Correspondent’s Dinners and campaign trails,” Hamilton says. “Millennials see that humor, and his bromance with Biden. The Bromance is portrayed in many memes, which is definitely a millennial thing. Of course, there are some who hate Obama, but the majority agree he’s a pretty likable guy.” Belmonte adds on how he has also gained the figure of “ America’s cool dad” and has earned the nickname of “No Drama Obama.” The nickname came from his persona of being careful not to make decisions that were coming from a place of anger, according to Belmonte. “He wanted to have time to make sure his decisions were being based on rationality and didn’t put up with fighting in his administration or his campaign team,” Belmonte says. “[Obama] didn’t have time for gossip or that sort of stuff. He was a serious person who didn’t like scandal. [He] just wanted that calm thoughtful decision-making process.” Although most of his legislation and achievements may still be instituted or face repeals, Hamilton acknowledges the “accomplishments” under the Obama administration and the impact that Obama has had on him. “If I could say anything to Obama, it’d be ‘thanks, Obama,’” Hamilton says. “Although another joke around him, I’d honestly say thank you. [He] really got me interested with what’s going on in government, dropped the unemployment [rate], killed [Osama] Bin Laden, made health care available for millions, and showed kids [of color] everywhere that you really can be anything you want to be. He took insult after insult for eight years and kept his composure. He worked long hours, but stayed a family man. He was the president of my childhood.”

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 39

LOCALMOTIV age village salv

Right: Specializing in decorative fabrics, upholsteries, and drapery for all purposes, the Fabric Shack Home Decor has been a family business since 1984. The building it’s housed in originated as a masonic lodge and temple in 1870 and was later photographed with World War I troops. The store has fabric from over 100 companies worldwide, which creates a large variety spread out over two floors.“My grandfather came across a guy who was complaining about missing a football game to man the quilt store,” says owner Jesse Aschendorf. “He said he would sell it for a thousand dollars so my grandfather said, ‘will you take a check?’ and that is literally how we started.”

Fabric Shack

Above: Village Salvage is not the usual home improvement store. In order to keep American architecture alive, Lauren Lepley and her family travel across the country to find pieces from old homes to be salvaged. “We rebuild and restore many antiques from the 1800s and 1900s like lighting, doors, windows, and barn wood,” Lepley says. “We do a little bit of everything as we love old buildings and the idea of recycling objects from past American buildings.”

holly B swee

Right: When Holly Braden bought the store from her motherin-law two years ago, she morphed the original 27 year old candy store into her own rendition of the family business. Besides having Albanese gummy bears, M&M’s pretzels and caramels, Holly B’s Sweets store carries fudge and chocolates as well. “Four or five families come in every Friday [saying] ‘Ms. Holly, I got on purple today,’” says Braden. “I have no idea what that means, but obviously it must be good since they get to come here [and get sweets].”

Maria’s unique foods Above: Maria’s unique foods is located in the same building as Holly B Sweets. The food company makes an effort to sell goods produced locally in Ohio. “Maria’s sells an assortment of foods like canned goods, barbeque sauces, jellies, jams, and granola,” says employee Michael Sanders. “The granola is the best seller.”

From antiques and boutiques to one of the last clock repair shops in Ohio, Waynesville is a trip back in time to the good old days. Spend the day in search of salvaged treasures, and finish with sweets from Holly B Treats. story and art lauren wilson, sidney li, gabbie behrmann photography cara satullo

HOur House

Right: Marykay Gaffey and her husband always dreamed of opening their own shop in a small town, where they could pour their creativity into selling homemade furniture and home decor. This husbandwife duo achieved their dream in July of 2009 when they opened the Winsome Cottage. The cottage draws people in with it’s chic window displays and local artist products. “I love the creative side of owning my own store,” Gaffey says. “The customer relationships are just something that you can’t beat.”

Waynesville, OH

Winsome Cottage

Above: Over time the number of clock repair shops in operation has dwindled, yet Barry Heissman decided to open Hour House in an effort to keep the history of clocks alive. “People are not buying clocks anymore, and I think it’s a shame,” says Heissmann. “The younger generation is all about being green, but they buy battery operated clocks that end up in landfills, but you don’t see clocks from 1835 in landfills because they still have a lot of life in them.” Left: After growing up in northern Ireland, Charlotte Schwab developed a passion for history. When she moved to the U.S., Schwab opened her own antique and vintage style shop, the Tartan Turtle, to share her love for history with others. You can find anything from vintage and chic clothing, to antique books and trinkets. “I was trying to go home in way [when I opened the store in Waynesville],” Schwab says. “The town is just so quaint and charming.”

Etselle

Tartan Turtl

Above: Named after her two dogs, Etsy and Ellie, Lauren Lepley opened her rustic shop, Etselle, three years ago. The items in her store will always be in style since she is constantly ordering new products. Etselle has a little something for everyone, including your furry friends, with her dog section that has collars, toys and treats. “I had always wanted to open my own boutique,” Lepley says. “I finally made it happen when I opened Estelle.”

culture | tattoos

GOT INK?

Tattoos are growing in popularity as younger generations push the boundaries of acceptable expression. story and photography cara satullo | *denotes name change

Tattoo artist Jonathon Manning.

Lauren Wisner’s tattoo.

Chelsea Bass’ tattoo. 42 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

he doors of Voodoo Tattoo swung open and an elderly woman walked in, explaining how she received a tattoo of her husband’s name, Gary, about a week prior. She proceeded to point to her ankle, which read in clear black ink “Gray.” The subsequent discussion of this mishap was masked by the buzzing in the next room, where a tattoo artist maneuvered a needle over a woman’s calf, carefully applying permanent ink in the shape of his own face. In the past, witnessing the inside workings of a tattoo parlor like this was a much less common experience. Tattoos were sported by a few demographics, and regarded as taboo by a majority of others. However, this societal mindset is shifting as younger generations push the boundaries of what is considered acceptable expression; an estimated 40 percent of millennials have tattoos, according to the Pew Research Center. “Everybody is progressing forward in their acceptance of it,” says East English teacher Kathleen Foldy, who got her first tattoo when she was 21. “There are so many people with them these days, and just throughout my lifetime it’s become much more acceptable.” Despite their growing popularity, tattoos are not a new phenomenon. Archaeologists have found mummies with tattoos dating all the way back to 3370 BC, and the practice has been used for a number of reasons, including for cultural symbolism, class indication, religious purposes, medicinal practices and gang affiliations. However, with the advent of the internet and reality TV, tattoos have gained more mainstream attention through social media platforms and shows such as Ink Master and Miami Ink. Today, tattoos are often used as a form of expression. People will get one of something that’s significant to them or simply aesthetically pleasing, and these people are coming from an increasingly wide age range. This trend has extended to some East students, including East senior Lauren Wisner, who recently received her first tattoo to commemorate her grandma, who died of ovarian cancer in 2014. “My dad came in my room after I got it and he was like ‘you know, grandma would be very proud of you and she would like that you got it.’ So it’s things like that make it worth it,” says Wisner. “The whole time I was getting the tattoo I was thinking even if it hurts, it’s nothing compared to the pain she had to go through, [with] chemo and everything.” While more students find themselves walking through the doors of tattoo parlors, there is still some controversy surrounding the idea. Different generations have different mindsets, with only 10 percent of people over age 40 sporting tattoos, and many still finding them to be taboo. “I feel like most people are kind of judgmental about it, especially older people,” says East senior Chelsea Bass, who recently got a small tattoo on her wrist. “People my age aren’t really that bad. They generally just say ‘oh that’s cool, I’m probably going to get a tattoo too.’” With a continuously divided public reception, the way tattoos are regarded in the workplace is still a large factor in making the decision to receive one. “If you’re still in high school and you don’t know what you’re going to do for the rest of your life, if you get a tattoo, do not get it somewhere you can see it,” says tattoo artist Jonathon Manning. “Neck, hands, fingers, those are all job stoppers.” While there is still some resistance to tattoos among professionals, this resistance isn’t as strong as in the past. Some jobs still have regulations on visible tattoos, but many are relaxing these rules, or getting rid of them entirely; 31 percent of human resource managers who participated in a CareerBuilder survey said that visible tattoos could have a negative impact on a person’s likelihood of

being hired, but bad breath was a stronger factor in the survey. “It’s our professional responsibility to take our jobs seriously and the way we look seriously,” says Foldy. “I always wear long sleeves just out of professional courtesy for students and not wanting to be a distraction. [My tattoos] are still visible on occasion, but I try to keep them relatively covered.” Considering the workplace reception of tattoos is vital, but so are other factors, such as the likelihood of later regret, which is a feeling experienced by 22 percent of Americans with tattoos, according to a YouGov survey. “I knew I wanted a tattoo, and my dad always told me ‘don’t just decide on one then get it right away. It has to be something that you want for like a year so you know you won’t regret it,’” says East senior Haley Emerson, who currently has two tattoos. “I found [this flower] and I wanted it since I was 15, and when I finally turned 17 that was still my top choice.” This is an important consideration because when people change their mind, because there are only a few options available at that point: dealing with it, paying for an even larger tattoo to cover it up, or getting it removed. Laser tattoo removal can take between six and 12 treatments over a time span of several months to a few years, with a total cost ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. “Don’t get set on something just because you want one. Definitely make sure it’s something that you want there because it’s not going anywhere,” says Manning. “I have people who get something just because they’re here, and a month or years later they hate it.” Once a design is fully developed and decided upon, the next equally important step is making sure this is properly communicated to the tattoo artist. When East senior Kiki Davis went to get her first tattoo of a fleur-de-lis, she put a lot of thought into the design, but didn’t realize that the size it appeared in the sketch would be the size it appeared on her leg. “When I first got it I was like ‘oh my gosh, what do I do?’ because wasn’t sure if I really liked it or not, but now I really like it,” says Davis. “In my mind I wasn’t expecting it to be that big and I thought it was going to be the size of my thumbnail or something, but I like it now.” A large degree of thought is ideal when picking tattoos, and although making this decision spontaneously can result in regret, it doesn’t always result in a trip to a nearby shop, due to the growing popularity of stick and poke tattoos. These are homemade tattoos that involve repeatedly poking a needle into the skin and using these dots to form a larger design. East junior Clay Brown* learned this technique from his older brother and has since performed it on a number of his friends. “My brother did it when I was 12 and showed me how to do it,” says Brown. “I did my first one when I was 13, so I gave myself a piece of pizza [and] it’s horrible. It’s really scattered and not tight, but the ones I’ve done recently are better. I was a dumb little kid and thought it’d be funny.” Given his experience with the pizza, Brown is always conscious of the permanent nature of what he does, and tries to dissuade people from getting something they won’t like in the future. “It’s stressful, and usually I don’t love what I’m putting on people because I feel like I’m helping them make a bad decision,” says Brown. “I ask them ‘why do you want this’ and ‘are you going to regret this in a year?’ but usually they’re like ‘no, I don’t care,’ so even if I don’t think it’s a wise decision, I’ll still do it.” While searching for a tattoo artist, it’s essential to keep health in mind. A mistake with the ink or sterilization could be detrimental, and this consideration is important not only with stick and poke tattoos, but also with professional ones. The FDA advises consumers to consider the risks of infections, allergies, scarring, granulomas and MRI complications. “If I use the wrong kind of ink then it’s literally poisonous, and if I don’t sterilize the needle then there could be an infection,” says Brown. “I pour ink into a new vessel for each one that I do so that it’s safe because I don’t want to give people a disease.” Despite the potential for health risks, issues with job security and later regret, the tattoo trend continues to grow. As more people discover this phenomenon, more are drawn to this unique form of art and expression. “Yes, it’s permanent. I know it’s going to be there when I’m 80 years old, it’s okay,” says Foldy. “I don’t regret any of them really, they’re all part of my story.”

Haley Emerson’s tattoo.

Kiki Davis’ tattoo.

culture | around the world

EVERYDAY ALL STARS story noor ghuniem photos lauren wilson models lexi defillipo, maddox linneman

ach year brings new changes in politics, in education, in the environment and of course, in fashion, as the new trend of athleisure wear comes to light. “Essentially [the trend is] athletic clothing that is worn by athletes and nonathletes,” says Cheryl Steele of the Columbus College of Art and Design. “It’s commonly worn by anyone really, and is appropriate for a variety of events, fit for the purpose of a comfortable, leisurely look. Companies such as Under Armor, Nike and Adidas have always been in the business, but the trend really caught the eyes of the general public when admired celebrities began to release lines. Music personality Kanye West ventured into the industry in February 2015, with a line called “Yeezy Season 1,” a collaboration with Adidas, that sparked a great deal of interest for the athleisure wear industry. In addition to West, Beyoncé created her own line with Top Shop, as Alexander Wang did with H&M. “I’d definitely say that celebrities have an impact on the trends people follow,” says Dicks Sporting Goods representative Amy Reinhart. “If the athleisure style is what’s in with famous people, I’m sure that is what’s in for their fans too.” In addition to being celebrities’ favorite picks, this style has spread to low cost businesses. Stores such as Target, Wal-Mart, Meijer, and many more began to release their own lines for a considerably discounted price, creating looks that are both fashionable, trending, and easy to purchase. Additionally, they have allowed the prices of items in the industry to decrease substantially. According to SportsOneSource, the average prices of leggings and capris dropped 9 percent in the first quarter of 2016. “A good amount of our clothing sales are from the athletic department,” says Wal-Mart representative Dave Grimes. “I would personally say it comes from a mixture of athletic wear being popular and being at a low price here.” However, even as new businesses and people venture into the industry, the original athletic leisure companies remain at their height of popularity. Nike is still in the lead, generating $3.74 billion in sales in the most recent period whereas Adidas takes second place with $877.6 million and $830 million for Reebok according to Wall Street analyst reports. Adidas’ second quarter of 2016 displayed that they generated a 21.8 percent increase in sales after two years of decline, portraying a major turning point for the business

Linneman and Difilipo model adidas athletic wear. 65 October 44lakotaeastsparkonline.com lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2016 2017

photoshoot | culture

Difilipo models Nike athleisure wear.

Linneman models Nike athleisure wear.

and hinting at a gain in athleisure wear popularity. “I wear athletic clothes for any reason really. It could be because I’m lazy or am just feeling the look that day,” says East senior Ilias Boujlil. “I probably have at least one piece from every one of the bigger [athleisure wear] companies. My favorite is a shirt from the Yeezy collection.” Ranging from leggings to sweatpants to tracksuits, athleisure wear has made quite the splash in the fashion industry, creating a look that can be pleasing to the eye and well priced. “It’s all about the demographic it’s being applied to, many people do not play a sport and want to dress in the comfort of sporty clothing,” Steele says. ”Hence the street style fashion developed known as athleisure.”

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 2

culture | reviews

REVIEWS: MUSIC

photography fair use

THROWBACK: PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE ARTIST: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO

“Peel Slowly and See” Andy Warhol’s peelable banana cover art to discover the debut tunes from this psychedelic, controversial, and revolutionary band, The Velvet Underground & Nico. It’s iconic cover, designed by Andy Warhol himself, helped this album acquire the distinction of being one of the most bizarre albums released in the late 1960s. Released on Mar. 12, 1967, the album brushes a variety of genres such as art rock, punk, garage, grunge, indie and gothic that was successfully developed by band manager Andy Warhol. After gathering various notable stars such as Lou Reed on vocals and guitar, the musicians were able to work cohesively to produce an eerie piece of lyrical artwork. “Sunday Morning,” a sleepy and charming ballad, was placed on the album because a Verve records staff producer believed the album would have elevated success with this track. A celesta is used to create a heavenly sound effect throughout the tune and compliments Reed’s childish vocals that echo the strangeness of paranoia. Inspired by Venus in Furs, a book by Leopold von SacherMasoch, Lou Reed wrote the song of the same title utilizing unusual techniques such as ostrich guitar, which is a guitar with all of its strings tuned to the same note. An electric viola is also used to create a folk-like sound. Although the album was far from being very successful in the beginning, the many decades that have passed have lent themselves to further exploration of this album from music listeners around the world. Today, over 30,000 copies have been sold and it sits as an extremely influential album for bands that have developed since then. – Maya Wells

I DECIDED ARTIST: BIG SEAN

“I Decided.” is the newest album by rapper Big Sean. The album provides catchy beats that make the music easy to get lost in, while the lyrics show a heart-felt side of the artist. All of the songs flow effortlessly from one to the next and each has raw, genuine emotion that drives the mood of the album. Big Sean brings up heavy and emotional topics in some of his songs. In “Inspire Me,” he pays respect to his mother and describes her importance in his life. His mother introduced him to the music he listened to growing up, which made him the artist he is today. The song “Bigger than Me” emphasizes his need to make the people around him proud. The artist recognizes that he is merely a small piece of the puzzle and that it is important to realize that there is a bigger picture. Overall, the album’s depth and complexity makes it more than just a few “sick beats.” There is a masterful balance of meaningful lyrics and intriguing instrumentals. “Light” provides an upbeat beginning to the album with the suggestion that one should live in the moment. “Halfway on the Balcony,” on the other hand, is a moody track in which the artist reevaluates what he wants out of his relationships. For a rap album, it does meet the stereotypical expectations: strong beats, lyrics that represent issues of the artist, and deep emotion. That being said, the artist’s execution offers a fresh new take on such a familiar genre. – Ainsley Cambelle

46 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY ARTIST: ANDREW MCMAHON The perfect combination of indie and pop, “Zombies on Broadway” brings a level of lyrical genius to songs that are both rhythmic and unforgettable. While on tour for his debut album, “Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness,” the singer-songwriter managed to find time to write and record the songs found on “Zombies on Broadway.” Each song encompasses an emphatic beat and story from the tour to match. For example, “Brooklyn, You’re Killing Me,” takes the listener on a crosscountry journey with McMahon from Los Angeles to Brooklyn and into the stories that make up the unique qualities of the borough. As the album transitions between songs, the story comes to an inspiring and heartwarming tune, “Fire Escape.” As one of the singles released, this song holds the same spirit that made past hits like “Cecilia and the Satellite” so incredible. As stated on his website, andrewmcmahon.com, the song embodies part of what makes New York and its people special to him: “ the realization that sometimes the party does end and in that moment where you’re standing and who you’re standing next to says a lot about what comes next.” Andrew McMahon’s “In The Wilderness” succeeds in taking his sophomore album to incredible heights. Each song deserves to be sung as loudly as possible during his concert at Bogart’s on Mar. 28, 2017 or while driving with the windows rolled down, and radio blaring on a sunny day. – Alyssa Hetterich

REVIEWS: MOVIES THROWBACK:

It’s difficult to find a list of the greatest movies ever created that doesn’t have Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” on it. There is very good reason for this, as the film tells easily one of the most twisted stories ever. It keeps the audience on their toes right from the beginning with a hold-up at a diner. Then the plotline suddenly shifts to follow Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) as they go to confront several enemies of their boss in a hotel. Soon the tension in the hotel room builds and leads to a shoot out. After that the movie twists again to follow a whole new plotline. What’s interesting about this film is that it tells such a gripping story without anything too bombastic like an alien invasion, war or particularly heart-wrenching scenes. It simply tells the stories of some of the most interesting, believable and well-fleshed out characters whose stories mesh simultaneously together. “Pulp Fiction” isn’t a movie that can be completely understood on the first viewing as the several story arcs in the film make it hard to follow, but not in a bad way. This is why Pulp Fiction is so great. Amazing camera work, superb acting and the mix of serious but humorous undertones only add to the richness of the film. One of the greatest facets of Pulp Fiction, is the dialogue between its already astoundingly realistic characters. Tarantino crafted the words for each character in such a way that makes them seem true to the actor playing them. Quentin Tarantino really did create a masterpiece in 1994, one that still holds up today as a must see classic. – Michael Croy

PULP FICTION DIRECTOR: QUENTIN TARANTINO

GET OUT DIRECTOR: JORDAN PEELE Horror movies usually come off as comical with overdone bloody, gory scenes and idiotic characters that always go into the creepy house. That being said, “Get Out” is a thought provoking horror movie that showcases the real monsters: humans. The film focuses on the horrific real life experience of meeting a girlfriend’s parents. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) asks his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) if her parents know that he’s black. She reassures him that he has nothing to worry about. Then the two make their way to her parents’ secluded lake house. When they get there nothing seems too out of place. Rose’s mother is a hypnotist, her brother Jeremy is a creepy drunkard, and the family’s black maid and gardener both seem a bit off, but other than that it’s just a typical family visit. Things start to take a turn for the worse when Chris is hypnotized. Not wanting to cause trouble with his girlfriend, he blows off his suspicions and sticks around for the family’s annual suburban get together, where things get even weirder. Overall the plot line is invigorating, and the truth that’s uncovered is literally a brain twister. Additionally, there was a layer of much needed comic relief that sets the film apart from typical scary movies. With a mix of humor and reflections on racism, “Get Out” was a much needed breath of fresh air in the horror genre. – Lauren Wilson

A CURE FOR WELLNESS DIRECTOR: GORE VERBINSKI “A Cure for Wellness” opens with a scene of an overly stressed businessman who takes a sip of water and violently collapses onto the floor from a fatal heart attack. This misgiving scene sets up the distressing and obscure tone for the two and a half hour film. The mysterious thriller follows a young executive, Lockhart (Dane DeHaan), who is sent to retrieve the CEO of his company (Harry Groener) from a sanatorium amid the Swiss Alps. Upon the liberation of his boss, Lockhart finds himself as a patient in the eerie “wellness center.” The psychological horror movie has dramatic and dominant symbolism and foreshadowing. The film drives the mind to race with anxiety and suspense as the secrets of the institution unravel in an unpleasant, dark and disturbing way. Gore Verbinski is not known as a subtle director, but he goes completely overboard with an excessive amount of pornography and pedophilia that could have been taken out entirely, without being detrimental to the plot. The incredible acting and extraordinary cinematography does not make up for the long, drawn out and distasteful ending, which takes away from the original concept of the movie. However, Verbinski leaves the audience wideeyed and aghast with the final closing scene, making the moviegoers wonder what happens after this final twist. With this abrupt and confusing ending, “A Cure for Wellness” does not meet the expectations of the audience, but rather leaves them in a state of shock and consternation. – Lexy Harrison

culture | reviews

RESTAURANT REVIEWS Thai Taste

Bagger Dave’s

Troy’s Cafe

The old saying “looks can be deceiving” holds true for the little Thai restaurant nestled between Fratelli’s Pizza and Mandy’s Dog O Mat. Thai Taste may look sketchy on the outside, and the decor is nothing spectacular, but the food makes up for it all. To start I had a plate of crab rangoons, but not those nasty ones found in the freezer isle at the grocery store. No, these were deep fried until golden brown, crispy crab-filled treats that when paired with sweet and sour sauce turn into the opening dance scene of La La Land on your tongue. Next I tried to be healthy, and ordered a sesame California roll. Expecting a typical roll on a plate, I was pleasantly surprised when the sushi came out in little heart shapes. Now that I think about it, this may have been a jab at my nonexistent love life, as I dined alone. But aside from that the sushi was fresh and quite flavorful for a simple California roll. Then for the main course I tried the pad thai with tofu and a spice level of three. The large plate of noodles with sweet Thai sauce and steamed vegetables was a hearty and delicious dish. Also, ask for crushed peanuts and a lime to squeeze on the noodles to add a tanginess to the meal. As a final touch the check came with a fortune cookie to end the meal on a sweet note. Overall, the food is delicious and reasonably priced. Although Thai taste doesn’t have the best atmosphere for a fancy date, they do have fantastic takeout for those Netflix and Chill nights. – Lauren Wilson

Located smack dab in the middle of AMC and Main Event, Bagger Dave’s is in a prime spot for those left hungry after a movie or a game at Top Golf. The prices are similar to Red Robin’s across the street, so plan to spend about fifteen dollars per person. No Coke or Pepsi here; Bagger Dave’s offers their own signature soda instead, in flavors such as Black Cherry Cream, Lemon-Lime and Mystery. Their burgers, however, are the crown jewel of the menu. The Train Wreck burger boasts cheddar, french fries and is crowned with a sunny-side up egg. Another Bagger Dave’s favorite, Caleb’s Crispy Cheese Bacon Burger, is topped with four pieces of Applewood smoked bacon and a cheddar-Parmesan cheese crisp. For those who dislike hamburgers, the Awesome Grilled Cheese is a grown-up version of the American favorite made with crispy naan bread and Twisted Mac ‘n’ Cheese that features five kinds of cheese and pretzel croutons baked into the top. Similarly, their fries are gluten-free and are double-fried “Belgian style,” making them light, airy and delicious. Both the busy location and the complexity of the food mean that a bit of a wait is inevitable, both to get into the restaurant and to get your food, so be prepared. Bagger Dave’s goal, is to “create a ‘celebrated local’ place that serves fresh food, similar to early American taverns.” The restaurant certainly succeeds in their dedication to giving the most bang for the buck or, in this context, the most “bag” for your buck. –Vivian Kolks Right in the heart of Old Mason is a restaurant called Troy’s Cafe. During the spring of 2009, Troys and Tania opened up a Troy’s Cafe in the West Chester that came with all the equipment they needed to jumpstart their new restaurant. A few years down the line, they found the opportunity to open a brand new restaurant in the heart of Downtown Mason. Walking into the small brick restaurant, there is an automatic feeling of community in the air. Before sitting down to dine, there is an employee behind the counter ready to guide one through the extensive menu before they order. The menu can be slightly overwhelming as it ranges from burgers, to salads, to pastas, however, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and one can take this as an opportunity to try new things. One of the most popular items is the “Troy’s Burger.” The burger comes with their secret “Troy’s Sauce” that takes the burger from subpar to exceptional. On the other end of the spectrum, they have their infamous Five Cheese Mac ‘n Cheese, that fills up the entire bowl to the edge. The options do not stop with the menu, one can choose to dine inside or outside leaving more room to choose what atmosphere fits best for that day. This restaurant blends all of the best parts of a high-end restaurant and a relaxed, cozy establishment. It is the perfect medium when searching for a place that is fancy enough for a night out and casual enough to go to with family or friends. – Karmi White

48 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

COPY CAT RECIPES

skin | culture

Our interpretation of Bagger Dave’s “Caleb’s Crispy Cheese Bacon Burger.” recipe gabbie behrmann | photography lauren wilson Ingredients: 2 lettuce leaves 1 tomato Shredded cheddar and Parmesan cheese 1/4 pound defrosted ground beef 3 slices of bacon 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise 1 hamburger bun Directions: 1. Take 1/4 pound of defrosted ground beef, salt and pepper to taste, and shape it into a patty. 2. Place the patty into a frying pan, and cook each side on high heat for 2 minutes, then lower the temperature a bit. Cook another 2-3 minutes for a medium rare finish, 3-4 minutes for medium or 5-6 minutes for well done. 3. When finished, place the patty on a serving plate. You will assemble your burger on this plate. 4. Next, cook 3 slices of bacon in the microwave on high for 2 minutes, or until desired crispiness. Place on serving plate next to burger. 5. Take 1/2 cup of your shredded cheeses and fry in a non-stick pan on high for 30 seconds, then let cool until firm. 6. Get your hamburger bun and place the lettuce leaves on the bottom half, followed by slices of tomato, the burger, fried cheese, and bacon. Then put 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise on top. 7. Dig in and enjoy!

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 2

TRĂ&#x2C6;S BON TOAST

recipe and photography lauren wilson Ingredients: 6 pieces of bread 5 eggs 1 cup milk 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract chocolate and raspberry syrup powdered sugar Directions:

1. Whisk milk, egg, vanilla and nutmeg together in a bowl. 2. Dip bread into egg mix, making sure both sides are coated. 3. Put stove burner on medium heat, and place coated bread in a frying pan to cook. 4. Let cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. 5. Plate french toast, then drizzle chocolate and raspberry syrup on top. Finish with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 2

East sophomore and wrestler Christian Chavez.

A NEW MATCH story jack parr | photography lauren wilson

e paces around the mat with laser-like focus, sizing up his opponent, who happens to be two years older than him. In a flash, he makes a lightning-fast move and pins his opponent to the ground. The victory draws whispers from the crowd; every one of them expected the senior to win. But to him, the triumph is no surprise. During his second season as a varsity wrestler, Lakota East Sophomore Christian Chavez has already surpassed expectations after just two years of wrestling experience. Liberty Junior High School football and wrestling coach Rico Hill saw Chavez’s potential when he coached him during his eighth grade football season. Hill knew that Chavez possessed the natural skills and passionate work ethic to succeed at wrestling. “He was such a hard worker and with his size and build at the time he was the perfect project for success,” Hill says. “He was also one of the most respectful and coachable kids I have ever had.” Despite only beginning to wrestle in eighth grade, Chavez has achieved success at the varsity level early in his career, placing third in the sectional tournament and qualifying for the district championships—where he won two matches—as a freshman. “Winning those two matches taught me that I can be better,” Chavez says. “If I keep working hard I can make it to state.” East varsity wrestling coach James Lehman says that although Chavez hasn’t been wrestling for as long as many of his competitors, his

unrivaled passion and dedication for the sport outweigh his lack of experience. “He is accomplishing great things for somebody with so little experience,” Lehman says. “It is a true testament to his athletic ability and dedication.” Since he began wrestling, one thing that has never been a question for Chavez is his love and passion for the sport. Lehman says Chavez “loves wrestling,” which is essential for him to be successful. Chavez also credits his willingness to work hard to allow him to have success in a sport in which achievements don’t come easily. “You have to be one hundred percent dedicated,” Chavez says. “You have to enjoy the process because it’s not going to be easy.” The impact of Chavez’s positive attitude and dedication towards wrestling can be seen by those who have coached or wrestled with him. East wrestler and teammate Jackson Leahy says that Chavez has helped motivate him to continue wrestling. “He’s given me a more positive attitude about the sport,” Leahy says. “He’s one of the reasons I’m continuing to wrestle.” Not only has Chavez made a difference for his teammates when it comes to wrestling, but the impact of his passion and determination has translated to his coaches as well. “Kids like Christian Chavez are my motivation to come to practice every day,” Hill says. “I wanted to give it my all because I knew he would give it everything he had plus some.” This year, Chavez is currently placed 4th

52 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

in the GMC, with a 12-4 record and 5 pins as a member of the 113 weight class. The team hopes to build on last year’s success by reaching the state tournament in Columbus. So far, Chavez has qualified for Districts. “Winning duels was a big thing for us last year because we didn’t have a full lineup,” Chavez says. “If we can get up to Columbus that would be really great.” Lehman says that if he continues his trend of success over the next two years, Chavez will certainly draw attention from colleges. Chavez remains focused on the team and this season’s goals, but hopes that wrestling will be a part of his future after high school. “I want to be the best out there and I know it’s not going to be easy,” Chavez says. “I hope to be able to compete at the college level.” Lehman agrees that Chavez could wrestle in college, saying that his talent and work ethic give him the potential for future success. “He certainly has the ability to accomplish some very good things and to develop into a college wrestler in the future,” Lehman says. “He has a very bright future in this sport if he continues to work as hard as he has over the last two years.” For now, the sophomore looks to continue surprising people by achieving success as a varsity wrestler. Getting a pin to win a match, a feeling that he says is second to none, surpasses the months of work required for the sport. “That’s the best feeling, to know that all your work paid off when that moment comes,” Chavez says. “It’s indescribable.”

PLAYING SMART

guest column | sports

sports guest column broc nordmark | art julia sanders

got my first concussion playing football in 7th grade. I had never really considered the risks of concussions at that point. Nobody had ever really talked about them too much, so when I got my first one, it was an experience unlike anything I had ever had before. However, I still didn’t consider the fact that this was a serious issue, even after sustaining my second concussion. Then my third concussion came during a noncontact drill at practice. I knew when I hit the ground that something was wrong. As my head was throbbing with pain, I was finally forced to evaluate my past experiences with concussions. I used to say injuries are just a part of the game. This is a common notion in sports, and it contributes directly to the overall issue of improperly handling concussions. People don’t take them seriously enough, just as I hadn’t. When I was thinking about my future in football, I had to weigh the risk of continuing against how much I’d miss the game if I quit. I went to my family and friends for advice, but ultimately, I had to make the decision to quit for myself. Concussions have affected millions of people. Sports and recreational activities contribute to approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries among American children according to National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Many athletes who have sustained a concussion keep it a secret so that they can keep playing, which makes the problem even worse. When left untreated, concussions can result in long-term brain damage and may even prove fatal. Not only does keeping concussions a secret hinder the recovery process, but it allows for more blows to the head, worsening the injury. While the first hit can prove problematic, the second or third can cause permanent long-term brain damage. According to Head Health Management System, cumulative sports concussions are shown to increase the likelihood of catastrophic head injury leading to permanent neurological disability by 39 percent. This is the point where making the decision to maintain health over love for the sport becomes vital. There is an added pressure when athletes feel obligated to contribute toward the betterment of their teams. This adds to the problem, and is especially bad in high school football. High school football accounts for 47 percent of all reported sports concussions, with 33 percent occurring during practice, according to Head Health Management System. Concussions don’t have to happen during games; they can happen at any time. Athletes aren’t safe from concussions, and if they happen to sustain one, they can’t afford to put off recovery. If they do, they may never recover at all.

A few days after my third concussion, I was laying on my bed thinking about what I was going to do. I had to make a decision; I couldn’t put it off forever. One of those little cartoon light bulbs went off in my head. It was simpler than I thought it would be and it ultimately came down to one thing. I wanted to be there for my family, my friends and anyone else who needed me for as long as I possibly could. I wasn’t going to ruin my future with the best people on earth because of a high school football team. As much as I loved football, it wasn’t worth the risk. Reflecting on it now, it was definitely the right decision. It saved my future, and if more people make the decision to step away, then concussions won’t be nearly as severe of a problem.

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 2

THE E.A.S.T. WAY story dustin horter photography used with permission by christina whitehead

Senior basketball player Evan Khulman.

he atmosphere surrounding the court was something the players had never experienced before. Nothing could prepare them for this game against a multiple-time state title contending team. With the little experience they had making big playoff runs, Lakota East basketball managed to dominate not only within the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) conference, but also among teams who have multiple state championships, such as DaytonWayne. This helped the team make a run to regionals where they were beat in the final seconds versus Centerville. The few returning players from that varsity team and the ones that watched the team last year are now trying to make a better run in the playoffs than ever, rallying around East head basketball coach Clint Adkins. Based off Adkins outlook on the team, he believes the sky’s the limit for the Hawks in the postseason. “Can this team make a run this year?” Adkins says. “Absolutely. We are a little less experienced this year, but this season is about getting our feet wet.” The starting five going into the playoffs for the Hawks is junior Jalen Peck at point guard, junior Jackson See at guard, senior Jarrett Cox at guard, sophomore Kyrell Metts at forward, and Senior Captain Evan Kuhlman. Kuhlman, Cox, and See all played on the 2015-2016 team that made East basketball playoff history. However, with Kuhlman being the most experienced player, the team looks up to him. “Being a senior captain means you hold guys accountable,” Kuhlman says. “That’s my job

scouting report | sports this postseason along with the help a few other guys. I’d say they look up to me for guidance about how to do things the ‘EAST way.’” Kuhlman committed to Evansville earlier this year to play basketball. He managed game after game to lead the Hawks in scoring, working as both an inside, post-up player and perimeter shooter. Against Lakota West, Kuhlman posted 17 points and helped the Hawks to win 61-39, an early confidence booster that helped lead the Hawks to a successful 15-7 overall record and an 11-5 GMC record. “Beating West helped our team a ton,” Kuhlman says. “We know we can play with everyone in the city, we just have to put it all together this postseason.” After his experience last year, Kuhlman thinks the Hawks are coming back stronger than ever and can make a playoff push in his senior season, despite the loss of a few key players from last year’s team. “It is definitely possible to be as good as last year or better with the guys we have this year,” Kuhlman says. “Jarrett [Cox] and Jackson [See] are playing at a high level, and we believe we can certainly repeat last year.” Other coaches from the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) weighed in on Kuhlman’s impact on the court, including Fairfield head basketball coach Jeff Sims, who said Kuhlman is an aggressive player who knows how to trust his offensive skills and lead a top tier team. Oak Hills head basketball coach Mike Price also commented on Kuhlman’s work ethic. “Evan has worked extremely hard to improve,” Price says. “He shoots the ball extremely well and earned the right to be team leader and a great player not only at East, but in years to come at Evansville.” With Kuhlman’s experience fueling his leadership, he plans to show them the way to success as he saw for himself last year. He is not alone in this process, however, with Cox and See to help him. Cox says that although the team works well together, hard work and strong leadership are still needed for success. “We can’t just show up and beat teams,” Cox says. “We have to compete, lead, and play hard every practice and every game like it is the last one we’ll have together.” Cox ended the regular season leading the GMC individuals in points per game, averaging 18.4 points, with the next highest scorer per game with 17.5. Despite his individual success on the court, Cox stated that even over playoff success, he values the brotherhood his team has created off the court this year. “Off the court we are never not together,” Cox says. “We’ll go bowling or simply meet at someone’s house. We are as close as it gets to being brothers without being related, and win or lose, we are a family” Kuhlman, Cox and See work well in the offense set up by Adkins; in their game against West when they all scored 15 or more points,

Senior basketball player Jarrett Cox.

showing their ability to spread the wealth they hope to bring to the playoffs. Adkins is confident that his team will be able to come together and make an impact in this year’s playoffs, but is focusing one game at a time to improve his team step by step. “The Southwest is such a hotbed for basketball talent,” Adkins says. “I think this team absolutely has the potential to make a deep run in the playoffs, but we know we must get better.”

The team motto for the Hawks this year was “Do things the right way, the EAST way.” The EAST acronym stands for “Exertion, Attitude, Selflessness, and Toughness.” Adkins says that East will look to create their own separate identity from the team last year based off these principles. “We’re trying to play the game we want to play,” Adkins says. “Ultimately we’re trying to take pride in the way East does things and be selfless as a team.”

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 55

sports | wrestling

THE FIRST, THE LAST, THE BEST With over 21 years of producing professional wrestling training, events and entertainment, the Northern Wrestling Federation is one of Cincinnati’s biggest wrestling promotions. story austin black | photography used with permission

he match is well underway. T-Money and Sean “The Virus” Harddrive have been pushing each other to the limit under the roof of Western Sports Mall on the Sept. 24. Virus dropkicks T-Money into the corner of the ring. He runs ahead, but T-Money chases after and smacks right into an elbow as Virus suddenly stops. T-Money is dazed in the middle of the ring as Virus signals for the end. Virus runs forward and bounces of the middle turnbuckle. He performs a moonsault straight to T-Money, but T-Money catches Virus with a dropkick in mid-flip. He rolls on top of Virus and hooks his leg. The referee gets a two count and Virus barely kickouts before three. The crowd can’t believe what they have just seen. This is the atmosphere of a Northern Wrestling Federation (NWF) event. The NWF is the longest running Cincinnati-based professional wrestling promotion. It started in the mid-1990s, created and run by Johnny Diamond until it was bought by current owner, president, and trainer Roger Ruffen. “It’s very difficult [to run a wrestling promotion],” Ruffen says. “It takes time. I still have a full time job. I work a 40 hour job and put anywhere between 25-35 hours in the wrestling promotion. I’ve been doing this for 33 years and I can’t wait for [Saturday’s show] to be over. But, then I wake up Sunday morning and I can’t wait for next week’s show.” NWF has been known for their production of family-friendly professional wrestling for the past 21 years. Professional wrestling is an athletic form of entertainment based on a portrayal of a combat sport. It originated during the 19th-Century and was most prominently popularized by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). While WWE is more on a global scale, NWF is a locally based promotion within the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region. “We like to say we are the first, the last, the best,” production coordinator and wrestling manager Kirk Sheppard says. “We are the first independent promotion in Cincinnati and we are the longest promotion, as well. No one can claim to have produced as many shows as we have. Our wrestlers are the best trained and definitely the most well-rounded of any promotion in the area because of the intensive quality and lengthy training they receive.” The NWF produced 62 live events in 2016 and has over 25 professional wrestlers on their roster; some have wrestled all over the world. Former 220 lb NWF Champion Virus has wrestled in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Dojo and Ring of Honor, but still considers the NWF “home”. “The NWF is always going to be one of my top promotions to ever work for,” Virus says. “They have one of the most dedicated and loyal fanbases you’re ever going to find. The boys in the back are going to be one of the most well trained guys you’ll find. It means a lot to just work for the NWF and to be trained with someone like Roger Ruffen.” Most of the wrestlers have been trained by Ruffen and the NWF. Besides putting on shows and wrestling, the NWF provides professional wrestling

56 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

sports | wrestling

It’s like a drug. You get out there and get those adrenaline rushes. It’s about performing in front of the fans, making them happy, and putting smiles on kids faces. – NWF Wrestler, Sean “Virus” Harddrive

training at BoneKrushers Pro-Wrestling Facility. The NWF training has produced the likes of former WWE Divas Champion Jillian Hall, former 4-time International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) Tag Team and current WWE Raw Tag Team Champion Karl Anderson, and former National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Champion Abyss. Current NWF Champion Titan praises the facility for having “the best training”, but requires “great dedication” in order to succeed. “I’ve seen guys who were around for 6 months and I’ve seen guys who have been around longer than me,” Titan says. “You just go to hammer it. If you don’t love it, you’ll probably get bored and it will fade away.” Titan has been in the business for 11 years and started watching wrestling when he was 2 years old. He played many sports in high school, but “nothing ever felt right”. Titan found the opportunity to be apart of the profession he grew up watching with the NWF. He started as a 120 pound wrestling manager and slowly transferred into the ring and became apart of a tag team. Titan then realized that his partner was getting more stardom than him, and people were passing him by. Having realized this, Titan decided to “shift into a new gear,” and with his training and passion for profession wrestling, Titan became a 205 lbs wrecking machine, the number one contender for Virus’ title at the time and went on to defeat Virus for the NWF Championship. “I’m the guy right now,” Titan says. “I’m the guy who’s breaking necks and cashing checks. “I’m the one out there taking out the big guys now. It’s just been a hell of a ride.” Apart from changing lives, BoneKrushers is also home to NWF’s weekly show Bustin’ Loose. The show draws around 50 people, while non-BoneKrusher shows draw 198 people on average. NWF also host special events such as their anniversary show and annual Fanfest. These events provide NWF with their larger audiences, drawing over 350 people. After 17 years of shows and events, BoneKrushers has decided to find a new home. It will move from it’s original location on Colerain Avenue, to a new facility on Vine Street. The first event at the new BoneKrushers is being planned for sometime in March. According to former Unified Champion David

Tyler, the new location will hold the same standards for its wrestlers as the original. “It takes anywhere from six months to two years if not longer to be on shows,” Tyler says. “You train there for that long, and if Roger thinks you’re good enough, you get to come out here and wrestle.” Even though training to become a professional wrestler requires time and patience, many of the NWF wrestlers still hold the deep passion for the sport. “I fell in love with it immediately,” former NWF Tag Team Champions Matt Stevens says. Stevens stands at 5-9, weighs 202 lbs, and is apart of the duo of outlaw bikers called Tough Justice. “Through all the bumps and bruises, one thing lead to another, and now I’m so deep into it. I don’t think I can ever get out of it.” For most, the passion starts when they are little kids, similar to Titan. Many experienced the WWE while growing up, and instantly wanted to be apart of the professional wrestling scene. They found that opportunity with Ruffen and the NWF. “Ever since I was like six or seven years old, my grandma used to sit me down in front of the television and put wrestling on,” Virus says. “I would be enamored in it and just got hooked on it. Ever since then, I’ve been addicted to wrestling, and when I became old enough for wrestling school when I was 17 in high school, I got in to start training with Roger and the NWF. [I’ve] been doing it ever since.” This passion doesn’t come without a price. According to MedicialDaily.com, professional wrestlers are 20 times more at risk for early death than professional football players. Professional wrestling is considered one of the most dangerous sports and forms of entertainment, yet thousands of people partake in it including wrestlers in the NWF. “It’s like a drug,” Virus says. “You get out there and get those adrenaline rushes. It’s about performing in front of the fans, making them happy, and putting smiles on kids faces.” The common ground between professional wrestlers is the passion. Even though many injuries and incidents have occurred within the squared circle, especially in 2016 where WWE saw 14 wrestlers suffer injuries, the wrestlers still go out and perform. “It’s something you gotta love,” Stevens

58 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

says. “Watching it when I was little, seeing the things those guys were doing, it’s a thrill. Knowing you’re going to put it all out there because the people are going to come see you, people are going to buy tickets to watch, and knowing you’re fulfilling a childhood dream [makes it worthwhile]. Then someone could jump in and start training or just enjoy coming to the shows. Either way it’s really for the love of it and the passion.” Lakota East sophomore, William Brady, is “astounded” by what professional wrestlers put into their work. He avidly follows the world of professional wrestling, and is “always blown away” with what the wrestlers do. “It’s just unbelievable,” Brady says. “The fact those guys go out there, train everyday, work super hard and put their own life at risk just to entertain and make other people smile is a huge deal that more people need to realize. I will always have respect for professional wrestlers.” The NWF also interest a younger crowd. At every event, kids fill the stands bearing wrestling t-shirts, belts and other gear. Many of the fans directly interact with the younger audience, giving high fives and signing their gear. “It’s awesome,” 7-year-old fan Owen Burgei says. “This was my first time seeing it and I really would like to come back to see more. I love it.” The match ended with Virus retaining his title. But it was not a clean win. The crowd boos as Virus walks away with the title. Titan looks on as Virus holds his title high, but Virus is unaware of his rushing fate of losing the title to The Titan. The end of every NWF match is the same: one leaves with his hand raised, and the other leaves in defeat. But what remains constant is the fact that the NWF has changed many lives and continues to do so even after 21 years. “We will always be the first, the last, the best,” Ruffen says. “We are successful because we have been doing this for a long time. We know what we are doing. When I was a little kid, everyone wanted to be a baseball player, a fireman or whatever they wanted. I wanted to be a wrestler. Even from a young age I wanted to be a wrestler and there was going to be nothing to stop me.”

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 2

East swimmer coached by Dennis Beck competes at a meet.

52 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

FUELING THE HEAT

swimming | sports

As a continuation of Spark’s coaching package, East and West boys and girls head swim coach Dennis Beck discusses his 20-year coaching career in Lakota. story allie church | photography richard giang and maya wells

akota West senior and swimmer Alyssa Stigler dives into the water and begins the warm-up routine she’s completed during every practice for four years. She then swims the length of the pool, multiplying her speed and force with each stroke. Each practice becomes more intense as she glides through the daily increase in laps. The days crawl past, and the minutes tick by. But when she glances up to see her coach encouraging and pushing her and her fellow swimmers, it somehow feels as if time is flying. She grows stronger and faster; her coach grows prouder. Witnessing her and her fellow swimmers improve is what he’s lived for almost 30 years. It’s made him who he is. Dennis Beck has coached swimming since 1988, beginning during his second year of college after swimming in high school. He started teaching in Lakota in 1995, originally at Ridge Junior High School and currently at East Freshman Campus. Two years after beginning his teaching career in Lakota began, he took over as head coach of both East and West boys’ and girls’ swim teams. As a coach of 20 years, Beck has coached in the district longer than the majority of all other Lakota coaches. “[The length of my Lakota coaching career] has a lot to do with the fact that we have really great kids that participate,” Beck says. “It also has to do with the fact that this is where I teach. I think it helps to work and coach in the same district, because you get to know the kids a little better. Even when I was working in the junior high, I still got to see kids and I could recruit. It also makes it very easy when you have an athlete who has a college signing or you have kids who qualify for the state meet. It’s not a hassle or a problem to go, because you’re representing the district you work for.” It is his teaching and coaching career combined, says East Athletic Director Richard Bryant, that make Beck effective. Connecting with athletes inside and outside of any sport, according to Bryant, helps the overall strength of the program. “Anytime you can have a coach in the building that can interact with students athletes on a day-to-day basis, and also can assist and mentor on the academic side, is very important,” Bryant says. “The more you’re around the person who’s in charge of

your given program, the better off the entire program will be.” Beck’s ability as an effective coach has not only been evident to Bryant, but to his peers as well. He was voted Greater Miami Conference (GMC) Coach of the Year seven times, most recently in 2013. In 2005 and 2006, he was awarded Southwest District Womens’ and Mens’ Coach of the Year, respectively. He was also chosen for the Stu Eversole Award during the 2005-06 season, and most recently won the Ohio High School Swim Coaches Association (OHSSCA) Larry Lyons Award in 2015. Beck, who also in 2015 sent five West swimmers and four East swimmers to the state meet, led a former East swimmer to an Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) state championship. According to Bryant, every award Beck has won has been earned. He says that Beck’s dedication to coaching swimming, despite its differences from other high school sports, is unmatched. “Swimming’s a little bit different in that you have a lot of kids that swim significant time outside of the school and outside of the program, and then you have them for a few months as they represent East, [but] all those things come together with Beck,” Bryant says. “He loves every kid; he loves the sport, and he’ll do anything for the program.

His dedication and loyalty to our kids and our families is unquestioned.” Swimming is also different from other Lakota sports in that both East and West boys’ and girls’ swim teams are coached by Beck and practice together. This is partly due to the Lakota district’s lack of swimming facilities, Beck says. All of the teams practice together at the Lakota Family YMCA. While he has to maintain four separate teams and nearly 80 athletes, according to Beck, it’s rewarding to be a part of. “We’ve been doing this for 20 years, and it’s still working,” Beck says. “It is a sport where the kids do get along fairly well, and it’s because we practice together. For each meet, I have to write four separate lineups, so there is more work paperwork wise and entry wise, but I like it. [The athletes] like to see competition, and they compete against each other, but if there’s a Lakota athlete swimming from either of the schools, we hope that they win.” While Beck says that it is sometimes difficult to coach competing teams simultaneously, according to East freshman and swimmer Liz Jantausch, Beck doesn’t treat any athlete different than another and has made her and other underclassmen feel welcome. “I think he manages the two [schools] like we are one huge team,” Jantausch says. “Obviously there is competition between the

The high expectations I have of them, I have that same high expectation for myself. – Dennis Beck, Lakota head swim coach

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 61

sports | swimming swimmers, but he won’t put up with [anything] that is not in jest. Coach Beck has made me feel welcome by noticing me in the hallway, recognizing me, and engaging in conversation. After each race, I am greeted with a smile and fistbump congratulating me on a good race, and he also usually provides me feedback in order for me to improve.” According to Sycamore High School boys and girls swim head coach Dan Carl, Beck efficiently balances multiple, competing rosters while keeping his athletes’ “best interests at heart,” an approach with which “you really cannot go wrong.” “It takes a lot of patience and understanding not to offend or upset one program while advancing the other,” Carl says. “It is quite the balancing act and Mr. Beck has done it flawlessly for the 13 years I have been in the GMC. He actively works to provide an encouraging environment where all students can thrive. It is an honor to call him a friend.” Although Beck has to manage more athletes than most other coaches in Lakota, Stigler says he is still effective in motivating them each to work hard and succeed. “Coach Beck not only wants to score points but wants us to be proud of ourselves,” Stigler says. “He is always pushing us and challenging our bodies, which helps us become better swimmers, [but he also] tries to have fun with us and tries to make swimming an enjoyable sport. He has been coaching for a long time so he knows how to effectively train [us] to be champions in the pool and in everything else.” Part of Beck’s effective training includes a structured, thoughtful practice schedule. East and West swim teams start their seasons with low yardage and increase through December and January, in which training becomes most intense. In February, the athletes begin a period of resting by once again lowering yardage. They also “taper,” or swim at fast speeds for shorter distances. The athletes practice seven times a week with two practices in the morning, five every day after school, and swim meets on the weekends beginning in December. According to Beck, in order to be most efficient, he must be flexible and keep his goals in mind. If the training he is providing to his athletes is not shown to be successful in one season, for example, Beck says he will adjust accordingly for future years. What he requires of his athletes, he also requires of himself. “The high expectations I have of them, I have that same high expectation for myself,” Beck says. “If they’re at practice, I think I need to be at practice. I think they know that it’s not something I do just because it’s there for fun. It’s something I do because I want to see them be successful. We try to make them well rounded athletes and not just [focus on] how fast they’re going to swim, but that they’re going to have a good time with their team and enjoy it.” Beck creates an atmosphere of enjoyment,

But for those athletes that do find it fulfilling, Beck is the best possible coach they could swim for, according to Bryant. Whether he is able to accomplish recruiting more athletes onto his teams in the future or not, Bryant says that Beck will continue to lead East and West swim teams as effectively as he always has. “I wouldn’t trade [Beck] for anyone,” Bryant says. “He’s had state champions, league champions, district champions, regional champions, and that speaks to the program as a whole, but we would be where we are, where we have been, or where we will be without Dennis Beck.”

Lakota head swim coach Dennis Beck.

Stigler says, by forming relationships with each of his athletes. He is able to create a “safe place,” in which Stigler and other swimmers feel comfortable to have fun while working toward their goals. Fostering a strong rapport among each of his athletes is crucial to Beck, because it allows them to openly communicate during practices and meets. With a goal in mind to build up the programs to even larger numbers, Beck says, forming these relationships becomes even more important. In the future, Beck hopes to see a greater turnout of swimmers for each team. “This years athletes are working really hard, and I think that we’ll see some fast swimming when we get to the end, but if I could change one thing, it would be to have more kids out,” Beck says. “I respect all the sports, but when you swim or run, you do the same thing

62 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

everyday. Everybody loves their sport, but it takes a special kind of attitude towards being in the water for two hours. It’s a long time to be swimming back and forth. I think swimming is a monotonous sport, and it takes a certain personality to think that is fulfilling.” But for those athletes that do find it fulfilling, Beck is the best possible coach they could swim for, according to Bryant. Whether he is able to accomplish recruiting more athletes onto his teams in the future or not, Bryant says that Beck will continue to lead East and West swim teams as effectively as he always has. “I wouldn’t trade [Beck] for anyone,” Bryant says. “He’s had state champions, league champions, district champions, regional champions, and that speaks to the program as a whole, but we would be where we are, where we have been, or where we will be without Dennis Beck.”

jump page | sports

Contact Nicole Grice Ngrice@masonumc.org for information, events and times.

column | opinion

TRUMPING HATE JESSICA JONES

heir footsteps echoed on the ground as their chanting rang through the streets. All of these women were shouting for their threatened rights, and I was one of them. This was at the global Women’s March, the largest protest in world history. An estimated total of 4.5 million people came together for this Jan. 21 protest and marched against President Donald Trump the day after his inauguration. When I learned that there were so many people in attendance for the march I was shocked and amazed, but something else also came to mind: the implications of such a monumental response to one man’s rise to power. Throughout his campaign Donald Trump promoted sexism through statements such as “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out her wherever,” directed at Megyn Kelly after she moderated the first debate, and “pigs, slobs and dogs,” directed at women in general. On top of making crude statements about women and other minorities, he is also threatening the safety of these groups with his promised and already enforced policies. This is why Lindsey from Cincinnati carried a sign that said, “ask yourself why women who speak out make you angry.” For example, Trump has described himself being “totally against abortion,” identifying as pro-life. As a result, he plans to defund Planned Parenthood, despite the millions of women and families that are helped by the organization. Only three percent of their services include abortion, and they don’t use federal funds for that procedure. Cutting funds would only harm the other services they provide, such as aiding expecting mothers, offering contraception and STD checks/treatments, and counseling sessions for addiction and abusive situations. “If I hadn’t gone to Planned Parenthood, I would not have gotten my diagnosis of stage two breast cancer,” Planned Parenthood supporter Colleen said. “I might not even be here today.”

When I learned that there were so many people in attendance for the march I was shocked and amazed. Besides, defunding a safe environment for abortions will not stop people from getting them. Women have used clothes hangers and gone to nonprofessionals in the past, and using these unsanitary and dangerous methods can cause deadly infections. On top of this, according to Politifact, 50 percent of the country was pro-choice in 2015. His stance on this issue is both outdated and unsafe. One person’s sign from this monumental march addressed this, saying “America’s popular vote was for progress.” The Women’s March on Washington was centered around women’s rights, but it also stood up against the racial and religious prejudice Trump frequently promotes. He has mentioned many times how he is going to reform the immigration system, build a giant wall, and ban people from seven predominantly Muslim countries. This controversial travel ban that Trump enacted through an executive order was found to be unconstitutional and has since been denied by the U.S. appeals court, but that still doesn’t dilute the effect of islamophobia in the country. According to a poll from YouGov, 55 percent of Americans said that they have an unfavorable view of Islam, and, according to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims have increased by 67 percent over the past 20 years. The ban only instigates and supports this hateful behavior. “[It is] calling to mind an incident in 1939 when the US turned away a ship carrying 937 Jewish refugees,” says Historian Erika Lee.

“[The ship] was forced to return to Europe where nearly a quarter of the passengers were murdered in the Holocaust.” The First Amendment is about religious freedom and free speech, but by signing this document, Trump has thrown these fundamental values and human liberties into the trash. Alienating legislation like this goes directly against what the Founding Fathers had in mind for this nation, which is why the phrase “Girls just want to have fun-damental rights” was sported on many signs. All over the world people marched in solidarity with Americans protesting against their new leader–a leader who doesn’t take into account the safety and well-being of his people. The US was built on freedom, and Trump’s job as president is to enforce this freedom and equality among his people. Instead, he has separated the country with hate. The millions of people that marched that day were proving him wrong. We need to stand up against the hate that Trump promotes. If no one stands up, then nothing will get better. The country came together to fight the injustice that Trump will enforce. His actions have led the people to believe he will take away a woman’s right to choose, religious freedom and the basic needs of the public. His hatred and oppression need to be matched with the people’s love and resistance.

March 2017 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 65

HEAD TO HEAD GAP YEARS T

ossing and turning in bed, I’m startled awake by all of the things on my to-do list. Not only am I overwhelmed by the pressure of college decisions, but also the need to finish senior year in order to be free from the constant stress of school. However, this freedom is fleeting, lasting only a few short months. After 12 years of school, extending this summer break to a full year seems like an increasingly beneficial option. It’s a common notion that college is a place where students learn more about themselves, but sometimes a better way to do that i s

to just take a break. Annually, 250,000 young people pick the latter option and take a gap year, according to Go Overseas, an organization encouraging students to study in alternative ways. A gap year is a period between completing high school and beginning college, which can be anywhere from a semester or a full year away from traditional classroom studies. There are several different routes a student can take to plan a gap year. For many students, this time is used to travel, and being away from the endless amount of societal pressure can have numerous positive effects. According to a study conducted by Assistant Professor of Economics Claire Crawford and Research Economist Jonathan Cribb, students who have taken a gap year are more likely to graduate with higher grade point averages than observationally identical individuals who went straight to college. Of those who participated in a gap year, 60 percent said that their experience influenced their decision of which major they wanted to pursue, according to a study conducted by previous U.S. Department of Education Director of the Adult Literacy Initiative Karl Haigler and Associate Director of Education Policy Rae Nelson. On top of this, 97 percent of gap year students have said that their gap years helped them become more mature, and 90 percent of them returned to college within a year, according to the American Gap Association. Colleges are also beginning to see the benefits of gap years, and some even encourage them. Harvard University suggests that students consider deferring admission to take a gap year, with 80-110 students out of an average of 2,106 admitted students pursuing this choice. In 2015, Tufts University was one of the first colleges to offer a bridge year service learning program where they sent a group of incoming freshmen on a year of volunteer work and learning before a traditional four-year college experience. Many other universities have established a similar opportunity for students, such as the University of North Carolina, which provides

seven early admissions students with $7,500 to use towards its Global Gap Year Fellowship. Princeton University has a similar program in which tuition and living expenses are covered for their travels. There are organizations that help students plan a gap year program that works best for them. For example, the Council on International Educational Exchange helps build structure into a study abroad program for students so that they can reflect on their experiences and benefit from them for a lifetime. Through the USA Gap Years Fair, individuals who take a gap year have the opportunity to travel, intern, work, study, get involved in environmental conservation and serve in the military. With all of the options students have to expand their horizons, the only problem is which route to choose. In order for students to get the most out of their gap year, they need a plan. Without this, they cannot gain the knowledge desired in their path. According to Go Overseas, the most successful plans include intent, mentorship, field based experiences and companionship. Before deciding the exact plan for the trip, a student must consider what they want to get out of the experience and what interests they want to explore. Looking forward to the future can be daunting, especially when today’s society is so college focused. Starting the decisionmaking process right away is not the best for all students. Only by silencing the outside noise and listening to one’s heart can a student know what is best for them. Taking a gap year opens more doors than it closes while bringing a student to their fullest potential. Focusing on what feels best for personal achievement can help students succeed, even if it means going against the norm to take a gap year.

Being away from the endless amount of societal pressure can have numerous positive effects.

As their high school years come to a close, some students consider the option of taking a gap year before continuing their education. columns sophia spivey, lauren wilson | art julia sanders

t’s easy to see why a gap year would appeal to students. The chance to go on a mission trip to Africa or backpack across Europe is not something everyone gets to do, and after 12 years of school, a break seems well deserved. But, while there may be situations where a taking a year off is a smart option, going straight to college is typically a better option. This year’s graduating seniors have applied to colleges and are prepared to further their education next fall, and students who are taking a gap year are already behind. It’s estimated that 1.2 percent of first-time college freshmen take a gap year, according to the Higher Education Research Institute. Many of these students wait a year to apply to schools which may make it harder to get a counselor’s help and teacher recommendation letters after graduation. For the students who take a year to travel the world, volunteer or intern, it may be hard to return to a typical classroom setting. After a year of exciting hands-on learning experiences, it would be hard to go back to learning from textbooks. In fact, 10 percent of these students completely neglect returning to the classroom, according to the American Gap Association. The remaining students who do return to school after a gap year are a year behind everyone else their age on campus. This could make it harder for these students to connect socially with their peers. Founder of College Planning Network, LLC, Scott Weingold says, “It can be hard for kids if their friends have moved on to new lives at new schools and they’re now a year behind. This can be a discouraging and lonely place to be.” It’s also possible to forget what was learned in high school after a year off. Things like the periodic table, the unit circle and the plot of Macbeth can easily be forgotten. Ron Fairchild,

While a gap year can be a good learning experience, college can be an even better one.

Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning, reports that, on average, students lose about 2.6 months worth of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during their summer break. Summer break is only three months, meaning that much more knowledge could be lost in a whole year. Aside from that, traveling the world is expensive, especially on top of a college education. Data from the College Board shows the average cost of tuition and fees for the 201617 school year was $9,650 for state residents at public colleges, and even more for outof-state schools. Avid world traveler Stephen Schreck estimates backpacking across Europe costs roughly $1,500 to $2,000 a month for food, housing, and sightseeing. That’s up to $24,000 for the year, which is nearly equivalent to the cost of three years of in-state public university tuition. It’s understandable for a student to want to take a year off to work in order to pay for college. That being said, the national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year, that’s only $15,080 annually. This money may help pay for college, but the cost of paying back loans wouldn’t change. On the other hand, students who go straight to college and receive a bachelor’s degree start off with an average annual salary of $48,500. With this salary a student would have an additional $33,420 to pay off loans. If a student is still considering a gap year that will ensure they go back to college, it’s important to go through organizations that offer gap year programs to help students stay busy. The American Gap Association and Thinking Beyond Borders offer many opportunities that would make a gap year worthwhile. While a gap year can be a good learning experience, college can be an even better one. College gives students a chance to grow up

before going out into the real world. High school hasn’t prepared students to live on their own, since most students haven’t had to be responsible for themselves before. College is a stepping stone into adulthood and it shouldn’t be postponed by things that can be done after receiving a degree. See the world, get a full-time job, or take a year to binge-watch everything on Netflix, but go to college and get a degree first.

opinion | column

STANDARDIZING STUBBLE

CHARIS WILLIAMS

very year, winter brings some relief to the girls who can stop worrying about having to shave, and instead let their body hair grow, hidden under long-sleeved shirts and pants. However, during my winter swim season last year, the girls who were going to the Greater Miami Conference (GMCs) and beyond were told that in order to shave some seconds off, they had to shave. Despite this, when I showed up to swim in the GMCs, many of the guys on the team sported speedos, showing off their coarse leg and pubic hair without shame. While nobody batted an eye at the body hair on the boys, many girls would have been shamed by others for letting such an obscene display be in view. The standards of shaving are outdated, and shaming girls who don’t adhere to these standards is too. While some European countries started shaving more recently than the U.S., many have displayed their indignation at shaving by joining various movements and speaking out on social media with hashtags such as “#flowersandarmpithair.” Despite this growing opposition, shaving remains a seemingly innate part of raising a daughter. According to the Journal of American Culture, shaving for women in the U.S. originally started in 1915 when the magazine Harper’s Bazaar produced a fashion ad featuring a model with her arms raised in the air, showing off her sleeveless clothes. It also showcased her recently shaved armpits. The trend of wearing sleeveless dresses quickly caught on—as did shaving. However, what started as a fashion statement has turned into more and more of a hassle. As a seemingly required part of morning routines for girls, numerous problems arise while performing the daily duty. First of all, the average price for a women’s razor is about three dollars more expensive than a men’s razor on the Walmart website. This double standard means that while society pressures girls to shave, it also charge them

more to do so. Second of all, shaving can be bad for the skin. Many injuries are received when a blade gets too dull or the razor veers a little too far to the side. Not to mention the hard to reach places that many have to contort their bodies in order to shave, and the constant uncomfortable razor burn that leaves legs on fire for the rest of the day. Avid waxer Anisha Kore confided that she stopped shaving because of the injuries she received. “I used to shave,” Kore told Spark. “I don’t anymore because I’ve cut myself so many times. I now wax, it’s just like shaving but it’s more painful and faster.” Waxing is said to cause more pain, but it

based on whether or not they shave,” Cisler told Spark. ”I mean, I’d say it’s entirely up to the individual.” Controversy on this topic sparked when Mattel, a toy company that produces Monster High Dolls, manufactured the doll Clawdeen Wolf. This doll represented a character that was very focused on shaving and waxing. Human behavior and body image expert Patrick Wanis agrees that these dolls aren’t appropriate, and that they teach girls from a young age that they should be ashamed of their bodies unless they are sexually appealing. “By sexualizing these young girls, corporations also create another avenue to market and sell more products to a younger

also avoids the itchy rashes and scars that come with shaving. Waxing also last longer so it isn’t necessary to feel that pain as often as the lesser pains and irritations that shaving causes. Unreasonable beauty standards require girls to go through painful processes such as shaving and waxing. They force girls to either regularly try to stop the growth of hair, which occurs naturally, or be looked upon differently for letting it grow out. The idea that a natural process is obscene or disgusting should be left in the past. Thirteen year old Ethan Cisler summed it up perfectly when he said he could care less what anybody does with their body hair. “I don’t really have an opinion on somebody

demographic,” Wanis says. “These dolls also promote skimpiness of clothing, encouraging a young girl to dress like a stripper and believe that they must be sexually enticing to everyone around them.” Society shouldn’t force members of a gender to participate in a process that is uncomfortable, costly, and unreasonable. Just as hair growth is a natural process, pressuring people to get rid of it is an unnatural one. It’s time to change the stubble standard.

Unreasonable beauty standards require girls to go through painful processes such as shaving and waxing. They force girls to either regularly try to stop the growth of hair, which occurs naturally, or be looked upon differently for letting it grow out.

68 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

HIDDEN FIGURES VIVIAN KOLKS

he thing is, I really do hate the fact that I find it impossible to cry during a sad movie. Nobody wants to be the loser whose eyes remains as dry as the “Titanic” wasn’t or the person excluded when “Marley and Me” just means Owen Wilson and everyone else sobbing in the theater. Sure, the first eleven minutes of “Up” made me melancholy, but I never shed a single, solitary tear. Then, on a Friday night when I had nothing else to do, I went to see the movie “Hidden Figures.” The movie depicts the genius Katherine Johnson, played by the talented Taraji Henson, a “colored computer” at NASA in the early days of the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Despite her vast intellect, she is subjected to not only blatant racism in her workplace, being forced to run a mile to use the “colored” bathroom everyday, but also discrimination based on her gender. As Johnson balances being a single mother with getting the first man into space, she is constantly denied important information simply because there is no protocol for a woman being in the Pentagon meetings that are so crucial to her work. Watching the hardships and eventual triumph of this real-life heroine from the comfort of Cobb’s red leather recliners, I inexplicably began to feel a little tickling in my tear ducts, a nudge on the side of my nose. The thought of such important history being forgotten tugged at my heartstrings and made my eyes well up. Johnson and her colleagues are an excellent example of the unfortunate effect of being forgotten, but there are other “hidden figures” that the world needs to address. For example, this wasn’t the last time this happened in the STEM field, or even at NASA. Take the origin of the term “software engineering” for instance. Margaret Hamilton worked at the program a few decades after Katherine Johnson, leading the team that developed in-flight software for the Apollo space mission. Furthermore, she also brought the little known field of software engineering

into the limelight where it has stayed lucrative ever since. As a woman of color, Alice Coachman faced racial prejudices similar to Johnson. Coachman was the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948 and with Coca-Cola in 1952, the first to get an endorsement deal. Raised in the segregated South and denied access to sporting events, she trained on dirt roads and fields before earning her medal in Track and Field, later living a quiet life in obscurity as a teacher. Margaret Keane, a now prolific twentieth century artist, wasn’t a scientist or a woman of color but rather one of the most recent

There is no way to account for women who were forced to publish or create under a male pseudonym or accredit their work to others instead. examples of women who were denied credit where credit was due. The avid artist of the famous “big eye” paintings which depicted angelic children with large, soulful eyes in the 1960s, Margaret was forced by her husband, Walter Keane to sign all her paintings simply as “Keane,” which allowed him the chance to claim ownership of the artwork. Only after a messy divorce and a lawsuit against her exhusband was Margaret finally recognized as the artist of her beloved “big eye” cherubs. The fact is, these names are only a few of an unknown number of women whose work the world will never know was theirs. There is no way to account for women who were forced to publish or create under a male pseudonym or accredit their work to others instead. Those who wished to keep these key parts of history in obscurity unfortunately

were all too successful. And the trend, far from being a tradition of the past, continues today, according to a study conducted by Harvard PhD candidate Heather Sarsons. Analyzing the results of requests for tenure by economists at one of the top PhD-granting universities in the US, Sarsons concluded that between 1975 and 2014, women who coauthored papers received tenure far less than when their work was a solo effort. “While women who solo-author everything have roughly the same chance of receiving tenure as a man,” Sarson writes. “Women who coauthor most of their work have a significantly lower probability of receiving tenure.” Further research indicated that the issue wasn’t based on seniority of the tenure candidates or even skill, but unconscious bias towards male economists over their female counterparts, which, according to Sarson, will continue the cycle of women not receiving credit. “In such male-dominated fields, however, group work in which a single output is produced could sustain the leaky pipeline if employers rely on stereotypes to attribute credit,” Sarson states in her paper. It’s disappointing to learn that the struggles of half a century ago are still problems that women suffer today. Now I’ll know to think a little harder, dig a little deeper, in the hopes that no one’s work is forgotten or misattributed and to inspire others to do the same. I do this in hopes that when I leave high school, I’ll be ready to take my place with these women and not only find their history but make my own. Misses Johnson, Hamilton, Coachman and Keane, I hope I’ve made you proud.

opinion | guest column

IN DEFENSE OF SCALIA WESTON LINDNER W

hen Justice Antonin Scalia passed away over a year ago, he not only left open a seat on the Supreme Court but also an indelible legacy of constitutional textualism. Constitutional textualism is, in a phrase, a process by which the Constitution is interpreted based solely on the meaning of the words within it. Textualism is not a perfect judicial interpretation, but it is the best interpretation that has been conceived. To understand this, one has to understand the flaws with the other five major forms of judicial interpretation. Chief Justice John Marshall advocated for an interpretation based on logical analysis. His objective standard was logic, and he used major and minor premises to reach conclusions. For example, in Marbury v. Madison (1803), Marshall’s major premise was that any law repugnant to the Constitution is null and void, his minor premise was that the law at hand was repugnant to the Constitution, and so his conclusion was that the law at hand was null and void. While this approach may sound reasonable, the premises themselves aren’t objective; someone has to come up with them, and they aren’t actually derived directly from the Constitution. Another form of judicial interpretation that has found some popularity in history is that of constitutional doctrine. The objective standard for a justice of this philosophy is a doctrine such as “one person, one vote” in voting cases or “a high wall of separation” in religious cases. Constitutional doctrines are flawed because they merely introduce more things to be interpreted in addition to what’s in the Constitution, and they tend to oversimplify the text of the Constitution. One other especially pernicious form of judicial interpretation is original intent. Its objective standard is the intent of the Framers of the Constitution. However, even among original intent supporters, there is a divide

over whether it is the intent of the writers or ratifiers of the Constitution that ought to be considered. Regardless, the fundamental flaw of original intent is that the United States has progressed so far technologically that the Framers couldn’t have possibly anticipated some of the constitutional issues that have arisen. For instance, it is impossible to know what the Framers would have thought about Netflix or net neutrality. On the other end of the spectrum from

Textualism is not a perfect judicial interpretation, but it is the best interpretation that has been conceived. original intent is the living Constitution form of judicial interpretation. Living Constitution is often misunderstood to refer to simply extrapolating 1790 ideas to new technologies. In reality, this interpretation doesn’t just add on to original intent; it actively ignores it. In one death penalty case, Justice William Brennan said he knew the Framers didn’t think it was cruel and unusual punishment, but it is now, based on his standard of “human dignity.” The issue is that, from a legal perspective, that standard is hardly objective. The whole point of having a constitution in the first place is to have an objective, written plan of government, and if original intent allows for too little change, living Constitution allows for too much. A fifth constitutional interpretation is actually a form used by all justices, even those that believe in the other interpretations. It is the idea of stare decisis: precedent, or “let the decision stand.” Cases are decided by what

70 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017

past cases have said. Precedent is generally used by the lower courts, and sometimes the Supreme Court, to provide for continuity in the law. However, using precedent as a be-allend-all judicial interpretation is dangerous. It is possible for justices to set bad precedents. Additionally, precedent cannot be used for dealing with the first of a particular type of case. The final and best form of constitutional interpretation is Scalia’s prized textualism. In constitutional textualism, the objective standard is the text itself. The original intent of the Framers isn’t taken into consideration; a textualist considers what the Framers actually wrote, and does not purport that the Framers would write one thing but mean another or intend the meaning of their writing to go beyond what it actually states. The meaning of the words simply refers to looking at what a reasonable person would interpret them to mean. In this way, the form of interpretation is able to adapt to changing times while not being as overly baseless as the living Constitution method. It’s not a perfect system because complete agreement on the meaning of the words isn’t possible, but it is certainly more objective and fair than the other forms of constitutional interpretation. Justice Scalia was not a perfect justice by any means, but when he came to the Supreme Court and saw a long history of misguided judicial interpretation, he carved out a niche of textualism which would become his signature and left the Court with an enduring method to decide its cases.

EDITORIAL CARTOON

l a i r o t i d e o n – y r Sor ue, s s i s i h t cartoon on t n e w n Laure strike. man wo

uta o h t i w y a #D

“Day Without A Woman” – Lauren Wilson

A BALANCING ACT LAUREN WILSON photography erinn aulfinger

ll throughout high school I’ve had to choose between success and happiness. I usually chose success. My weekends were spent working, doing homework, and interviewing sources for Spark. Grades were more valuable than sleep, stress became a subconscious feeling, and I gave up having fun in order to ensure success for my future. We live in a success-driven society. In America, kids are required to start school at age six and continue their education until adulthood. GPA and ACT scores are used to gage academic success, and these numbers decide where kids go to college and what scholarships they receive. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 20.5 million students enrolled in college in an attempt to ensure success in the career field of their choice. After College students work hard to receive a diploma, the next step is finding a job. Most people don’t get their dream job right off the bat, but they find something that will hopefully get them to where they want to be. A survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com found that more than four out of five people do not have their dream job. In other words less than 20 percent of adults achieved the career they wanted or worked for. For many people, success also entails name recognition. Names like Beyoncé, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian will live forever in history. Aside from celebrities, people like Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr. and Susan B. Anthony have left their own footprints on the world. These people are remembered and will continue to be remembered because of their success in life. Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, but happiness is the feeling of contentment. A survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Strayer, found approximately 78% of Americans consider themselves to be at least somewhat successful. On the other hand according to Harris poll only 33 percent of adults are very happy. As for the 129 East students surveyed 77 percent said they would choose happiness over success. Like I said I spent most of my time in high school preparing for my future, but I feel like sometimes I missed out. I envy those who are able to throw all cares to the wind in order to just live life and be happy, but I also envy those who work hard all their lives in order to make a legacy of their name. Although both lifestyles are very different, I think it’s important to find a balance. Looking back on how I spent high school I hope for my future that I can learn to let loose more often and just enjoy life. Success can bring happiness, but happiness shouldn’t be taken away by success.

72 lakotaeastsparkonline.com March 2017