Lakota East Spark 2017-18 Issue #6

Spark Lakota East High School lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 14, 2018 $5 Newsstand

187,000

Contents May 2018 | Issue #182

CONTRACT APPROVED

The Lakota School Board passed the “Master Contract Agreement” with a three to one vote. Lakota teacher contracts are being renewed.

8

4

senior profiles

Spark highlights the accomplishments and personalities of the class of 2018’s most prolific members.

19 61

15

When Life gets ruff Stephen T. Badin High School welcomes their newest faculty member: therapy dog, Rudy.

29

the skinny truth Eating disorders have become a prevalent problem for high school students.

41

balancing act East senior Emily Harmon not only baton twirls but dances as it is a part of her life.

61

Five More Minutes

East junior Alan Frank shares his thoughts on the chronic sleep deprivation of teenagers all over America.

41

66

66

Spark 2017-2018 STAFF

Editor in Chiefs

Julianne Ford Lexy Harrison Vivian Kolks Sidney Li

Writing Managers

Julianne Ford Lexy Harrison Sidney Li

Art Department Director Design Coordinator

Michael Croy Richard Giang

Business Team Manager Marketing Coordinator Subscription Coordinator Public Relations Directors

Vivian Kolks Rachel Vogelsang Leah Boehner Landon Meador Lauren Maier

Photography Editor

Meredith Niemann

Online Editors

Rebecca Holst Lina Kaval Katey Kruback

Broadcast Manager

Landon Meador

News Editors

Bea Amsalu Julianne Ford Stephen McKay

Culture Editors

Caroline Bumgarner Sidney Li

Feature Editors

Megan Finke Lexy Harrison

Package Editor

Sidney Li

Sports Editors

Opinion Editors

Julianne Ford Lauren Maier Jack Parr Jessica Jones Vivian Kolks

Art Editors

Tyler Bonawitz McKenna Lewis

Graphics Editors

Michael Croy Meredith Peters

Survey Coordinator

Advisor

Sidney Li Dean Hume

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Spark, It’s been about a year since my last day of high school, and as expected, a lot of things have changed since then. There was all the stuff I knew would happen, like having to live without parents for the first time, but there was a lot of other stuff too.

To start, I didn’t expect to love having a roommate so much.

The easy accessibility of food was also surprising (and probably not healthy). However, the biggest change was the least expected of all: I actually started to have free time.

This was a foreign concept to me; it was something I never really experienced in high school. I was constantly busy with classes and extracurriculars—Spark may or may not have been the main culprit— and it seemed like time would just disappear. My frustration with this lifestyle is what prompted me to write the column Time Wasted.

In this column, I essentially break down time usage like a budget. Through some tedious calculations, I conclude that we only have 16.8 years to live, after subtracting out all the time we spend sleeping, showering, and so on. The overall message is that we should stop wasting our very limited time on meaningless activities.

After experiencing the strange phenomenon of free time this year, I’ve developed a slightly different perspective. The main message of Time Wasted holds true—we should do things that are meaningful— but the reasoning behind it is flawed: activities ranging from work, to doing homework, and even to watching TV, are not meaningless. At least they don’t have to be.

My schedule in college was just about as packed as in high school, so the difference wasn’t the stuff I was doing; It was the way that I was doing it.

I fully dedicated myself to each activity, and by being present in the moment, I found value in whatever task was at hand. I learned that we don’t have just 16.8 years to live; we have the the potential of our full life expectancy, as long as we live mindfully.

—Cara Satullo, former Spark Opinion Editor The Spark encourages letters to the editor. Letters can be sent to the publication at lakotaeastsaprk18@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.

Spark Lakota East High School lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 14, 2018 $5 Newsstand

187,000

ON THE COVER art richard giang and mckenna lewis

Spark takes a look at the anti-gun control movement in America.

The 17 bullet holes displayed represent the 17 victims killed in the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.

Also, the 187,000 is the number of high school students personally affected by school shootings according to the Washington Post.

BLACK AND WHITE LEXY HARRISON photography meredith niemann

W

hen I look back on my high school career, I don’t see the bonfires with friends, weekends partying, boy problems or taking a break from our seven hour school day in the cafeteria to eat lunch with friends.

Instead, I see weekends locked in the Spark lab inhaling espressos before heading to a full day at work, pulling all nighters during deadline weeks at one of my co-editor’s house, leaving school during fourth period to speed downtown Cincinnati for an interview and dancing at prom while copyediting on my phone.

This doesn’t seem like a fun or voluntary option for most high schoolers; however, I wouldn’t change my heavy involvement in a student run and self funded publication such as the Spark for the world.

Being a part of the Spark newsmagazine for three years has taught me a plethora of life lessons to say the least. I am not most thankful for the infamous recommendation letter from my renowned advisor.

Nor am I most thankful for the connections that I have made with authoritative figures such as our superintendent Matthew Miller, nor having the position of Editor in Chief for an internationally awarded high school newsmagazine on my college applications.

However, I am most thankful for the lessons and skills that being apart of this “extracurricular” has taught me. Including time management, leadership, communication skills and real life experiences such as meeting with members of the Futbol Club Cincinnati headquarters.

Unlike many of my peers, I can confidently conduct interviews with distinguished individuals which will, and already has, easily translated into real life situations when it comes to looking for jobs or sitting down with the Ohio University administration and persuading government officials for more scholarship money.

I know how to relate to the people around me in a way that I didn’t before Spark. As a result of the stories I have written and the surfeit of interviews I have directed, I know how people think, why they do what they do and how they live.

So many people questioned my decision to partake in Spark as much as I have, to pursue science journalism after high school, to put so much time into this program but I don’t regret it. With that being said, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t absolutely suck at times.

Of course it did.

And so, to my future Sparkies and even non Sparkies, I wish you the best. Work harder than you ever have before because trust me, it’ll pay off in the end. High school sucks for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. However, you get out of it what you put into it. So don’t let it be the worst four years of your life. Watch yourself grow, thrive and succeed.

Although I am extremely proud of what I have accomplished and how much I have grown, high school wasn’t absolutely awesome for me. But I am thankful for everything that East has taught me from my first day that I walked into the freshman building until now, a week after my “last day” of high school as I sit in the Spark lab— where else would I be? •

news | educator of excellence

EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION Lakota honored the Educators of the Year by surprising them while they were working.

story leah boehner | photography meredith niemann

S

ince 2007, the Community Foundation of West Chester and Liberty has paired with the Lakota Local School District to award two teachers and a non-teaching staff member with the Educator of Excellence award which was started as a way to further engage the community with their local school district and bring recognition to staff.

Each year, the Lakota staff members are surprised with the award, whether it be during lunch or just completing daily duties.

Liberty Early Childhood team teachers Eunice Vogelsang and Kristin Sellers were bombarded by a group of friends and family to receive the kindergarten through 6th grade award during a morning staff meeting.

Similarly, West Freshman World and American History teacher Jennifer Parrett was pulled into an ‘emergency’ staff meeting after school. Parrett said she wasn’t expecting the award and was caught like a “deer in headlights” during the presentation.

“I was just happy to be nominated,” Parrett said. “I know it sounds cliche, but that was enough for me. This was just total shock and

surprise.”

Vogelsang and Sellers were finishing up an emotional meeting where a poverty simulation was shown. When their families began to flood in and cameras began to flash, they knew something big was happening.

“It’s very humbling,” Sellers said. “One of the first things I thought of is that there are so many other teachers in this district that deserve it.”

Along with recognition, the teachers who receive the award are presented with a $1000 grant to use in the classroom. Lakota Plains teacher Aaron Nunley received the award in 2014 and was able to use the money to purchase an iPad cart as well as mobile learning labs for his students. Similarly, Hopewell Junior’s chorus teacher Jennifer Akers was able to purchase a new piano.

C

urrently, Parrett plans to use the funds to add more flexible seating such as standing desks to her classroom to accommodate her students, especially her inclusion classes.

Sellers and Vogelsang are excited to purchase

Below: Adena Elementary student celebrates with the support staff winner, Adena Elementary Custodian John McCutchen.

Above: Adena student holdis up a sign for John McCutchen during his surprise. classroom supplies such as books.

“I think one of the ways you bring community within your classroom is through literature, and if you want children to have a passion for reading, the books have to be interesting and meaningful for them,” Vogelsang said. “I mean, they light up at different characters that they know.”

T

his year’s support staff award, in which money is not attached, was given to Adena Custodian John McCutchen who was greeted with posters and signs created by the students. The emotional event left him “all over the place.”

“As I looked around, the entire playground was filled with people I love, admire and respect,” McCutchen said. “[I was] especially happy to see the students take time out of their day for me.” •

food pantry | news

A NEW APPROACH Adena Elementary is taking a new approach to help students, by creating a food pantry. story megan finke | photography meredith niemann | art alex fernholz

A

dena elementary in Lakota Local Schools created a food pantry in order to provide their students with snack foods such poptarts, granola bars, fruit snacks, school supplies and various hygiene products used to provide a security blanket for those in need.

Adena Assistant Principal Keri Albrinck explains how the idea for the pantry was first brainstormed by teachers who saw first hand needs of the students, but when further thought was added, everyone involved from teachers to the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), knew the necessity of it.

“Well this year we’ve had a lot of teacher spend their own money on snacks and it has really been in a need in our building,” Albrinck said. “Not for students only to have snacks but also have school supplies and even some personal hygiene products.”

As time went on, the idea was brought to PTO in hopes to make an idea reality. The initial thought of a food pantry was not created by the Adena staff, rather by the parents who attended the meeting. The food pantry idea was widely accepted and anticipated which they then drew in National Snack Day. “PTO had a suggestion of doing something in honor of National Snack Day,” Albrinck said. “Then we had a snack drive here at school and so we were able to get a lot of snacks from students and parents.”

On Mar. 4, Adena Elementary students were encouraged to bring in a snack for themselves as well as “one to share,” which would go towards the pantry.

T

he pantry is also stocked with items obtained through various forms of donations from direct donations from parents, to donations from churches. Gift cards have also been given by businesses such as Kroger who donated a $150 in support to the pantry. The process in which accessing the donated products is designated to faculty.

“It is only teachers that come and access it and teachers will know if they have a student in need or even if a student forgot their snack for the day.” Albrinck said. “So any student can and will benefit from it.

Lakota Community Liaison for Shawnee, Adena and Hopewell Elementary Schools Jessica Allshouse was approached by Albrinck after teachers expressed their students needs. In addition, Allshouse immediately supported the

idea and now that it has blossomed into reality, she says the noticeable differences are exciting.

“I certainly see a lot more smiles when the students come in but I have recognized more of a connection with parents when talking to them about our school building,” Allshouse said. “In general, they are feeling a sense of welcoming connection and appreciative of someone helping their child by being as successful as possible at school.”

Hopes of expanding pantries throughout the district are within the eyes of Adena faculty and community, even though every building will have different needs.

“I assume each buildings needs are a little bit different,” Allshouse said. “So their pantry won’t look the same as ours.”

Lakota community member Erin Cox strives for pantries to be within each school in the Lakota District but first the education of suburban poverty is crucial in order to meet every schools needs. To spread the education she rallies the community in order to get a larger voice.

“Networking the community in the largest capacity we can and bringing education of what

it is to live in suburban poverty,” Cox said. “So that they understand the need of these children to meet their basic needs, so that they can be educated and focused in school.”

F

rom experience, Cox says that since she has seen situations first hand, she feels that food pantries throughout the district will not only help students attitudes but their overall performance on their school work.

“We need to expand this,” Cox said. “So that we can continue to be perform excellent in our district.”

Whether pantries expand through the district or just expand through Adena, the differences and motivating factor the pantry exemplifies Albrinck explains are self explained in determining whether to expand this project.

“I think the kids are really appreciative of this as a whole,” Albrinck said. “We have many students that are on different individualized plans and some of them are really motivated by snacks and things like that and so they are able to get rewarded through these snacks for their behaviors throughout the day.” •

Below: The Adena food pantry is fully stocked with donations from students, families and the community.

news | celebration of nations

CONNECTING CULTURES Students of different ages gather to learn and celebrate different cultures at Hopewell Junior School’s Celebration of Nations. story and art leo rolfert | photography sidney li

S

hoe boxes filled with culture; the fragrance of food emanating from the gym; music flooding the hallway—this was the setting at Hopewell Junior School’s Celebration of Nations on Apr. 17.

The event was a way for all community members to “engage with the school and community,” coordinator and Hopewell Junior counselor Andria Lapthorn said. “This was just an opportunity for students to actually engage with each other, to really just to celebrate who they were, culturally.”

With 2016 being the kickoff year for this annual gathering, the past three years has allowed communication, awareness and

inclusion of the community to grow.

“There’s more awareness of how diverse Hopewell families are,” Hopewell Junior’s Principal Jeff Rouff said. “We see it every day as educators. We know how diverse both of our buildings are, but I don’t know that our community generally understands how diverse we are in the Hopewell boundaries.”

I

n the 2017-18 school year, Hopewell Junior School had students born in 23 different countries, with about 20 percent of students having a native language other than English.

English, Spanish and Arabic are the top three languages.

Below: A table of shoe boxes representing different countries and the passport that was handed out at the school event.

“It’s interesting how non-diverse our community thinks we are,” Hopewell Elementary School Principal Christina French said. “When you think about Lakota as a whole, I think that people have a traditionally, middle class, Caucasian mindset of that’s what most of our schools look like. [But when people hear that] Arabic is one of our biggest populations of second language students, they are shocked by it.

The atmosphere in the Hopewell Junior and Elementary schools became much more welcoming, with “good energy,” French said.

The warm tone allowed more communication between students and parents.

Not only were parents communicating with Lapthorn, but also they were more confident when entering the school.

“I also think it makes the parents who do participate feel more a part of our community,” French said. “It makes them feel just that much safer coming into school if they need something or calling us to ask a question or even just feeling valued. I think it just kind of sends a message that we care about you. We want to learn more about you.” ighth grade Hopewell Junior science teacher Mark Bauer was overseeing a student led presentation that took place at this year’s celebration. “My Special Place on Terra (S.P.O.T), is a student centered project where the students choose their location,” Bauer said.

“The first half of the project focuses more on where the place is on Earth, the plate tectonics, [and more]. Then the second half of the project was all about the people, human history, and the culture. So it was kind of a cross social studies-science project.”

One of those students who was participating in the event was Hopewell Junior eighth grader Kylie Johnson who chose Japan for her S.P.O.T. project. “[I chose Japan because of ] my grandfather, when he was in the Air Force he got a chance to visit Okinawa, and that’s always been a place I’ve kinda wanted to visit,” Johnson said. “I thought it’d be cool if I did more research about it.”

Throughout the Hopewell Junior gym many countries had their own tables, led by volunteers, Mother of seventh grader Luis Duarte Navarro, Johanna Navarro, volunteered for the first time at the event this year.

E

Above: Hopewell Junior seventh grader Luis Duarte Navarro sharing the culture of his home country, Venezuela.

“I was born here, but raised in Venezuela.

My son was born in Venezuela, my daughter too. We came three years ago to live in the states,” Johanna said. “I’m really amazed with the level of engagement of people and the excitement for trying new things. Everyone is very interested in understanding where people come from and it’s nice.”

H

opewell Junior Instructional Aide Cecilia Sivira was also born and raised in Venezuela and moved to the United States 14 years ago and has been a citizen for six years.

This year was her first experience with the Celebration of Nations event. “[Celebration of Nations is] very important

because we can meet all kinds of cultures,” Sivira said. “You can see different people’s cultures, different food, different costumes that you wear. I love it.”

A

fter helping at a table representing Uganda in 2017’s Celebration of Nations and running another table at the 2018 event, Hopewell Junior eighth grader Reagan Kuprionis finds that the event is “very important” in her community.

“It’s bringing together all different types of people into one environment, and helping them to come across their differences. And to all kind of, see the same thing,” Kuprionis said.

“We’re all humans, we’re all people.” •

It’s bringing together all different types of people into one environment, and helping them to come across their differences. —Reagan Kuprionis, Hopewell Junior Eighth grader 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 4

news | stop the bleed

HELPING HANDS

A

t the front of a speaking podium in a sizeable conference room stands a young confident trauma surgeon with a tourniquet and rubber dummy in hand.

He smiles into the crowd of all ages and begins his presentation.

University of Cincinnati (UC) trauma surgeon Ryan Earnest is head of the Stop the Bleed campaign at West Chester Hospital. He teaches night classes once a month in the lower level of the building.

“Stop the bleed in a national campaign used to teach the public about all the ways to stop external bleeding,” Earnest said. “The purpose of this campaign is to teach people how to use tourniquets, when to use tourniquets and what to do if a tourniquet is not available.”

Earnest believed that the community would benefit from being informed and involved in bleeding prevention. Along with other local

surgeons, they have brought the campaign to West Chester and the tri-state area. Earnest hosts several public classes at the UC West Chester Hospital, as well as other local schools, churches, and nursing homes.

In the class, Earnest goes through several scenarios where people could potentially bleed out and walks participants through the proper way to treat the patient.

“Most people think [bleeding out] rarely occurs, or only happens in freak accidents,” Earnest said. “Bleeding out is also caused by normal-everyday things. This applies to to home accidents, car accidents, elderly falls, and lots of accidents can happen in typical daily life” Generating public knowledge and awareness of the Stop the Bleed campaign according to Earnest, could prevent many tragic deaths. Earnest is extremely happy with the

1. Apply pressure with hands onto dressing.

story lexi evans photography bea amsalu infographic samadhi marapane participation of the community, and is working hard to reach as many people as possible.

“Here in West Chester, you have people who are interested in being involved and making a difference,” Earnest said. “When we put effort and passion into something, the people are willing to reciprocate.”

E

ast seniors Hannah Ackerman and Sofia Seppi are certainly willing to reciprocate.

Ackerman and Seppi approached Earnest, asking how to get involved. They never imagined how much of an impact they would make.

“At first, it just seemed like [Earnest] was going to come in and teach us, but then he came in and told us we could get certified to be instructors,” Ackerman said. “It blew my mind and I got so excited.”

Ackerman and Seppi are working diligently

2. Apply the tourniquet two to three inches closer to the torso from the site of wound.

3. Pulling the strap through the buckle, tighten the tourniquet by twisting the rod and clasping to secure in place

5 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

East seniors and local trauma surgeon Ryan Earnest have been working together to bring a national bleeding out campaign to the community.

source dhs.gov

alongside Earnest to spread this national campaign to East. Once the girls get tourniquet certified, Seppi said they can officially begin teaching and leading the public on how to use a tourniquet. With supervision from Earnest the girls can lead and instruct a class.

O

nce Ackerman and Seppi become instructors, they would like to focus on spreading awareness for bleeding out within East. They are aiming to raise enough money in order to get four or five tourniquet kits for the East main campus.

“We’ve done restaurant fundraisers and stuff like that in the past,” Ackerman said. “Plus we would also ask the school to pitch in a little.”

The typical tourniquet kit costs around 20 dollars. They can be purchased by anyone on Amazon and the campaign’s official website.

“Once we become trained instructors, our main goal is to train teachers, and other members of [the student body],” Seppi said.

“This way [the campaign] can diffuse into a school wide thing, and every teacher will know what to do if there is an emergency”.

E

arnest, Ackerman and Seppi all agree that bleeding out is a serious issue in our community, but it’s an easy fix.

“Using a tourniquet is very simple, the knowledge that comes with it is mostly common sense. Nothing evolutionary,” Ackerman said.

“I think people should get involved and learn to make themselves feel more secure.”

Earnest loves working with the girls because

Above: East seniors Sophia Seppi, Hannah Ackerman and Sean Ackerman practicing for Stop the Bleed campaign. they share a common goal of spreading awareness. He loves their enthusiasm and passion to make a difference.

“They are so responsive,” Earnest said.

“They work so hard, you can see the willingness is there and it’s great.”

As for the girls, this has been an exciting learning experience. Working with a trauma surgeon has been surreal for them and it gives insight to what their life may be like as future

doctors.

The power team is working hard in order to have their voices heard. Spreading the awareness of bleeding out to the community will benefit local schools, churches, and businesses.

It could also save a life.

“It’s been really cool to work with real trauma surgeons,” Ackerman said. “And actually being able to do something that could cause a change and leave an impact on the school.” •

If you can

DREAM IT we can help

Your credit union with HEART since 1939.

7350 Liberty One Drive, Liberty Township, OH 45044 513.530.9351 • emeryfcu.org

LOCKER TROUBLES East students have a process to follow after locker break-ins. story anna mullins | photo illustration meredith niemann

E

ast sophomore Lexi Kodish had made plans with friends for after school on Mar. 22. She was excited to get her nails done and go out to dinner. She had brought her cash and excitement to school that day. By the end she will have lost both.

At the end of the day Kodish opened her locker, to find that her backpack had been riffled through and her wallet emptied of all $70 she had brought for her outing with her friends. She went to report it to the East Resource Officer Deputy Doug Hale soon after the incident.

The locker Kodish had been assigned her sophomore year had a broken lock so it no longer locked when she closed it. At the beginning of the year she hadn’t been worried about it, but that soon changed.

After Kodish talked to Deputy Doug she was sent to talk with Assistant Principal Rick Haynes, who is in charge of taking care of this type of situation using the plan that was in place.

“We either get Josh [Head Custodian Josh Crouch] to fix [the locker],” Haynes said.

“Or if he can’t we’ll we send them down the hall to Mrs. Green who will assign them a different locker.”

Students who have broken lockers can go to any of the offices and they will eventually be sent to East Data Specialist Mary Green, who is located in the administrative office. There she will assign students a new locker or she will request the head custodian change the lock.

“I assign [the student] a new locker. We get a new combination on there, [and] the head custodian will change the lock,” Green said. “Because normally we repair the broken lockers at the end of the year. If [it’s something we can replace] right away we’ll do that; we assign the new combination and you have your new lock for the locker.”

According to Green all the lockers are tracked by a program that decides where incoming students get their lockers at the beginning of the year. It is based off of where the students who graduated had lockers assigned. This program also tracks where the broken lockers are located.

G

reen said that it is not alphabetically all of the time. “So there’s some randomness to it.” Green said.

After the theft Kodish received a new locker a couple hours later. Maintenance on the lockers is done when students inform the office that there is something wrong. Then a school employee would attempt to fix the locker.

“We typically would order a replacement lock,” Chief Operations Officer Chris Passarge said. “If that does not fix the issue, the locker would be restricted for use by students.”

Even students who think cameras can help defray all theft, in reality they can’t. Kodish was told that they would check the security footage and after several days she went back to the office to see if they could tell her what happened.

“They checked the security cameras,”Kodish said. “But then they said there were a row of lockers blocking [mine] so they couldn’t do anything about it.”

With incidences like these in mind, Lakota Central Office is striving to install a better security system in our schools using the money they were supplied after the Levy passed.

“We are in the process of evaluation camera system upgrades,” Passarge said. “With the intent to start the upgrade process this summer and phase-in over the next 24 months.”

The security cameras monitoring the school are only used on an as need basis when there are thefts or other concerns in the building. According to Passarge, “The cameras are used by building administration to review incidents that occur on the premises.”

Even though security is being increased Kodish believes students still need to take measures to protect themselves.

“Go to the office for a new locker [as soon as possible],” Kodish said. “Because it is really easy to be taken advantage of.” •

Left: An East locker that has been broke into and had property stolen.

CONTRACT APPROVED The Lakota Local School Board passed the “Master Contract Agreement” with a three to one vote. story stephan mckay | photo illustration vivica heidenreich

O

n Monday Apr. 23 the Lakota Board of Education passed the “Master Contract Agreement” with the 960-member Lakota Education Association (LEA). After months of debating and communication board passed it with a 3-1 vote.

“Negotiations are just part of it,” Vice President of the LEA Kevin Carlin said. “We have some things we would like as teachers and the district has the things they would like. You just have to meet somewhere in the middle.”

The current contract began on July 1, 2015 and is effective through June 30, 2018.

Carlin, who is a math teacher at East and East freshman, is also a part of the financial committee of Lakota and he says that being a part of all of these things helps him as vicepresident of the LEA. “Our district is now extremely health financially,” Carlin said. “I know how our finances are and what they spend their money on and Lakota’s doing great.”

T

eachers will receive across-the-board raises of more than three percent into the 202021 school year. With Lakota’s teachers receiving a raise in the new teacher contract, the financial state of Lakota and whether Lakota can support this raise has been debated and talked about throughout the school board meetings and discussions.

According the Lakota’s treasurer, Jenni Logan, Lakota is as financially healthy as it has ever been as a school district and the five year forecast which is set to come out in May will show that.

I

ndividual “step” increases in salary are separate from the union labor agreement and are tied to a teacher’s level of experience, education, state instructional certification and subject taught.However, school board member Lynda O’ Connor was the dissenting vote as she believed the district could not support the raise that the teachers were receiving financially.

“I can’t in good conscience support this level of a raise, although I do believe they deserve one,” O’ Connor said at the Apr. 23 board meeting. “It exceeds the amount that was budgeted for and forecasted for in the planning process.”

Lakota School Board president Julie Shaffer believes that some of the most noticeable changes to the teacher contract include the 15 minutes that were added to the teacher workday, change of the salary schedule, change of planning time and the increase in specials elementary school students.

“Teachers have said they need more time to collaborate,” Shaffer said. “So I actually think that there are some that actually did feel as if they needed more time in the day.”

Lakota School Board vice-president Brad Lovell decided not the vote on the contract.

Lovell’s wife Kristin Lovell is currently a teacher at Independence, Brad thought that would be a conflict of interest.

The contract that was proposed to the school board by the LEA passed through the union with a 52 to 48 percent vote. “[The teachers] did a lot of things to really help our district become financially stable,” Carlin said. “Now, they wanted to add 15 minutes to our work day and a bunch of other little things and so our position was if you’re going to add more time we would like a nice raise.”

In the week leading up to the Board’s decision with the contact, many Lakota teachers wore union buttons to show their support for the LEA. “It’s just to unify us,” Carlin said. “We’re all part of the same team and trying to achieve the same goals. Our goals are all about having a great school district.”

W

hile Carlin says that the teacher contract negotiations can be a very stressful and tense time for the district he loves the direction that the district is going.

“I’ve taught in a bunch of different places,” said Carlin. “This is by far the best district I’ve ever been in.” • 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 8

JUULing has become a major trend for people as a substitute for smoking cigarettes. story julianne ford photo illustration richard giang infographic ruth elendu *Editor’s Note: Denotes name change

H

e looks up at the board to make sure the teacher has their back turned. He moves his arm from the cold desk to his cheek. With his sleeve touching his lips, he inserted his JUUL into his mouth. He takes a quick hit, slyly blows the vapor out into his sleeve and continues watching his teacher present.

This is a typical class period for East senior Bryan Dodd* when he wants to JUUL. Dodd bought his JUUL at the beginning of the 201718 school year and has been using it since.

“I dip a lot, I decided to cut down on dipping, so I bought a JUUL,” Dodd said.

“Instead of rocking the gums, I was rocking the lungs.”

A JUUL is a type of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) that is broken down into the shell and “JUULpod.” The shell is made of aluminum encasing a lithium ion battery, a circuit board and a pressure sensor. The other piece is the replaceable pod, which comes in many flavors, made of food-grade plastics and contains a stainless steel vapor path.

Each JUULpod contains 0.7 milliters with five percent nicotine by weight at time of manufacture which is approximately equivalent to one pack of cigarettes or 200 puffs. According to JUUL’s website, JUULs were originally created to get people away from smoking cigarettes.

Boston University Professor of Community Health Sciences Michael Siegel wants those who use a JUUL to understand what the product has inside.

“People need to understand what these devices are and what they contain,” Siegel said.

“I think one important thing that [everyone] should really understand is that the JUUL differs from other e-cigarettes in a very big way—that the formulation of nicotine in it makes it so much more addictive.”

To buy a JUUL in stores, consumers must be 18-years-old. Yet, to buy it on the JUUL website consumers must be 21-years-old.

Dodd, who is 18-years-old, says he has bought and sold both JUULs and pods to various people who are 17-years-old and under.

“In the past month I have probably made around $3,000 upcharging people,” Dodd said.

“I think the youngest kid I sold to was in middle school. They rode their bikes to the gas station and met up with me to get their JUUL’s.”

For 15-year-old Alaina Boyd*, she was peer pressured into hitting a JUUL while hanging out with her friends. After that, she said that she felt a sense of superiority in comparison to her peers who don’t JUUL and even bought her own from her 18-year-old friend.

“I JUUL before I go to school, during lunch and study hall and right after I come home everyday,” Boyd said. “Sometimes, I even JUUL with my friends in their car as a planned activity. I don’t care how much it costs because it’s so worth the money.”

Even though Boyd is a minor, it does not stop her from hitting the JUUL multiple times during the day. She has now gotten more of her friends to try and even buy a JUUL from

upperclassmen too.

The most that Dodd has sold a JUUL for was $120 dollars compared to just $49.99 for a starter kit online on JUUL’s website. A starter kit includes a rechargeable JUUL device, universal serial bus (USB) charger, four JUUL pods and a one-year limited device warranty.

However, Dodd says he changes the price based on the person; he says that no matter what price he says, “people will pay.”

East senior Alex Mayor* is 17-years-old and had his 18-year-old friend to buy his JUUL at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.

According to Mayor, an attractive feature of the JUUL is the light-headed feel and gives you a “head rush.” This head rush is actually just releasing adrenaline and increasing the oxygen flow to your brain, according to Siegel.

“I like to drink,” Mayor said. “JUULing gives me that same buzzed feeling. It’s just easier to get through the school day a little bit buzzed.”

J

UUL’s have become popular for high school students and young adults to use since they hit the market in 2015, according to Siegel.

Out of 386 East students surveyed, 189 said that they JUUL. The survey also found that 178 out 389 East students have JUULed at school before. As for both Mayor and Dodd, they said all of their friends currently JUUL as well.

East principal Suzanna Davis is aware of the current issue of JUUL’s around East, and has started to spread awareness to staff.

Silica wick and nichrome coil heater

Mouthpiece

Cartridge

The USB charger is connected to a computer and the shell is connected to the magnetic charging port.

The battery is charged until the indicator turns green, showing that the Juul is fully charged.

1

2

Pod Aluminum alloy slim body

Once the cartridge is attached to the pod and a puff is taken from the mouthpiece, the Juul becomes activated.

Indicator Stainless steel vapor path

3

Shell

The liquid in the pod is heated using an industry standard wick and nichrome coil system.

Circuit board

Pressure sensor

The stainless steel vapor path, combined with the battery, powers and heats the vapor.

6

Once the cartridge is heated it creates a create vapor, which quickly dissolves into the air.

USB charger

7

source juul.com

“We started to receive concerns over the winter. So I sent out communications to teachers,” Davis said. “I think we always knew the concept of vaping but the whole concept of JUULing was new due to the discreteness of it. It was helpful for us to be more aware, to have teachers be more aware because we actually started to see teachers recognize the things going on.”

S

4

5 Charger

Magnetic port for shell

The pressure sensor on the circuit board is activated. The circuit board, coded with a closed loop temperature control algorithm, prevents the Juul from overheating.

park reached out to JUUL headquarters about what they are doing on the large amount of youths abusing a JUUL. “JUUL Labs’ mission is to eliminate cigarette smoking by offering existing adult smokers a true alternative to cigarettes. JUUL is not intended for anyone else,” a JUUL spokesperson said in a written response. “We strongly condemn the use of our product by minors, and it is in fact illegal to sell our product to minors. No minor should be in possession of a JUUL product.”

Mayor chooses to JUUL for many reasons, but his main reason is the convenience of the product.

“It doesn’t smell. It’s concealable. I can throw it in my pocket and not worry about it,” Mayor said. “It gives the effect of a couple of beers, that’s why it’s so popular. It’s [also] easier to get than alcohol.”

Siegel believes that there are many factors that have contributed to JUUL’s becoming so popular to young adults due to the marketing, design and flavors of the pods.

“I think the first factor is it’s just a cool looking device,” Siegel said. “It looks like a USB port, a very sleek design. I think the second part is because is discrete and small. It’s easy to not get caught. The third part is that these devices have attractive flavors to them.”

JUUL pods come in varied flavors. The pods range from tobacco to fruit. 158 out of 344 East student’s surveyed prefer mint flavor pods, 87 out of 344 prefer Mango and 55 out 344 prefer creme brulee. The other 44 students out of the 344 prefered other flavors.

The American Cancer Society said in a statement on Feb. 15, 2018 that “based on currently available evidence, using current generation e-cigarettes is less harmful than smoking cigarettes, but the health effects of long-term use are not known.”

“I think there is no question that these devices are clearly better than cigarettes,” Siegel said. “[JUUL’s are safer due because of the] carcinogens smoke can contain. It doesn’t mean [JUUL’s} are safe, there may be some long term risks.”

JUUL has gained a large amount of popularity in the last year. Dollar sales of Juul have soared 710 percent over the past year, according to Nielsen data compiled by Wells Fargo. JUUL captured more than half of the $2 billion e-cigarette market in the four-week period that ended on Mar. 24, 2018.

With the amount of nicotine in one pod being equal to the same amount that is in a pack of cigarettes, Siegel believes that it has

become super easy for kids to become addicted to nicotine. However, both Dodd and Mayor believe they are not addicted. But JUUL headquarters still continue to spread awareness to youth about the dangers of their product.

“Our goal is to further reduce the number of minors who possess or use tobacco products, including vapor products, and to find ways to keep young people from ever trying these products,” a JUUL spokesperson wrote to Spark. “We approach this with a combination of education, enforcement, technology and partnership with others who are focused on this issue, including lawmakers, educators, community leaders and our business partners.”

S

iegel believes the way to warn youth about the dangers of this product is through proper education.

“We need to educate youth about what these devices really are. They are crutches for smokers who are really addicted and they aren’t able to get off nicotine so they need to rely on these devices,” Siegel said. “It’s a sad story for youth to understand. I think hearing these stories will changes their image of the device.”

Even though Mayor has been warned about the addictiveness and health affects, he says he will continue to JUUL. “Yeah, they haven’t figured out the longterm side effects,” Mayor said. “It will probably be lung cancer, but that’s okay. I live my life how I want to live it. At the end of the day ten out of ten people die.” •

TECH IN LAKOTA

iPads

30

Lakota East Freshman Campus

Lakota West Freshman Campus

Lakota is moving towards a one-to-one policy, which will increase the technology use in the district. infographic lauren maier

Lakota East Main Campus

Laptops

Desktops

2030

Lakota West Main Campus

iPads

700

Laptops

LAKOTA HIGH SCHOOLS Lakota Plains JHS

iPads

Desktops

130

Desktops

420

Liberty JHS

Laptops In the 2018-19 school year, all Junior High students will receive a new district owned Chromebook.

1800

Ridge JHS

Hopewell JHS

LAKOTA JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS Cherokee ES

VanGorden ES

Independence ES

Laptops

Woodland ES Endeavor ES

Union ES

1880

iPads

3000

Freedom ES Adena ES Hopewell ES

LAKOTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Desktops

720

source todd wesley, Chief Technology Officer for Lakota Local School District

TWITTER TALKS Twitter has been unblocked on East’s wifi networks and is increasingly being used as a school communication tool.

story alan frank photography meredith niemann

Above: An East student prepares to log in to Twitter in order join the weekly Lakota Ed Chats on Wednesdays

T

he social media app Twitter was unblocked on the East LLSDGuest wifi during the 2017-18 school year, and has become an increasingly popular method of communication. East principal Suzanna Davis said that Twitter was unblocked because there was no sense in keeping students off of Twitter at school, if it was going to be used as a communication tool.

“Mr. Miller tweets 24 hours a day, and people want to be a part of that,” Davis said.

“So all of the sudden when [the students] step into school it’s like, ‘nope for these seven and a half hours you can’t be a part of that [technologically] connected world’.”

According to Davis, teachers were encouraged at the beginning of the year, to build relationships with students and understand more about their personal lives.

The public nature of Twitter allows students to share details about their lives that teachers can see.

“I may know what kind of student you are, but do I know about your family? Do I know what you like?” Davis told Spark. “I know what activities you’re involved in outside of school.

And that, you know, is the foundation for good education.”

East senior Zach Dendler helped educating teachers about the set up and use of Twitter.

Dendler agrees with Davis’ opinion that the more connection between students and

teachers makes a better overall education.

Dendler said “I think [Twitter] brings a humanity to teachers.”

There are many other students that share Dendler’s sentiment and like the connection between teachers and students. 58 percent of East students said that they also follow at least one teacher on Twitter.

Many of the other students that don’t follow a teacher follow the official Lakota East Twitter account to receive updates about the school. 81 percent of East students said that they follow the official Lakota East Twitter account.

E

ast College Preparatory and Honors Physics teacher Brandon Bright said that his use of it, as a teacher, has other benefits than the ability to connect with students. According to Bright, Twitter is a universal platform that most students use, so it seemed like the most apparent option to pick when choosing a social media platform to communicate on. “If [students] were on any social media, they were on Twitter as well,” Bright said.

The transparency of Twitter was also appealing to Bright. With the instant gratification between students and faculty members, East staff members felt daunted by the possible fear if misconduct that could occur in a private setting on social media.

“You don’t follow kids back,” Bright said. “[This won’t] give them access to your direct

messages and you are able to communicate freely, but transparently.”

L

akota’s Chief Technology Officer Todd Wesley said that Twitter is a better way to share information than other methods because of its two-way communication ability. Wesley said, “Email newsletters provide more one way communication; whereas, Twitter allows for more networking and twoway communication in a school community.”

Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller agrees that Twitter allows sharing of information in schools, and thinks that public schools have previously lacked in this area. “Sometimes public schools don’t do a good job of getting out all the great things that are going on in the classrooms,” Miller said. •

81%

of East students said that they follow the official Lakota East Twitter account.

It currently has 7,641 Twitter followers.

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 12

E-WASTE ON THE RISE With the rise in the number of electronic devices, consumer awareness about where their devices are going is decreasing. story lina kaval photography meredith niemann

E

ast senior and co-President of the High Schoolers Healing Habitats (HHH) Club Noah Grace has spent most of his last year at high school promoting environmental awareness, including taking multiple science classes including Honors Biology and College Preparatory Environmental Science.

As the amount of electronic waste in the environment rises, Grace has taken measures to increase recycling of old technology and ran a Tech Drive through the HHH club at the beginning of the 201718 school year and plans to triple major in Zoology, Global and Multicultural Studies and Geography at Miami University.

“40 percent of all of the metals in our devices are mined by children under the age of 16 [in the Democratic Republic of Congo],” Grace said. “And the money doesn’t go to the governments, it goes to rebel groups trying to overthrow governments, so it’s just bad all around.”

Grace says that he sees “people don’t really care where the metal comes from, and we trust companies like Apple and Samsung [to be responsible].” Most of the items collected at the Tech Drive were old phone chargers, phones and earbuds; although, they could also accept items like curling irons.

“Normally, they’d have to remove the plastic part [of the earbuds] and the cording and just the wiring inside will be recycled,” Grace said.

“So most of that will probably be thrown out but metal is metal.”

According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Public Affairs Press Contact Tricia Lynn, “e-waste” and “electronic waste” are terms that are often used to describe used electronics that are nearing the end of its useful life and are discarded, donated or given to a recycler.

However, Lynn cautioned the use of the word “e-waste,” because it is commonly used to refer to electronics that are wasted, meaning not reused or recycled.

According to United Nations Environment International Environmental Technology Centre Programme Office Iyngararasan Mylvakanam, the amount of e-waste is “steadily growing globally due to rapid technological innovation providing an extensive range of electrical and electronic products to the market.”

Mylvakanam went on to explain that e-waste growth is supported by several factors such as industrialization, falling prices, increasing disposable income and lifestyle changes. The EPA has supported the use of keeping used electronics out of landfills in order to recover materials and reduce the environmental impacts.

“Electronics are made from valuable resources, such as precious metals, copper and engineered plastics, all of which require considerable resources to process and manufacture,” Lynn said. “Just one computer can contain hundreds of chemicals, including gold, silver, palladium, lead, mercury, cadmium, brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride.” . . .continue reading on lakotaeastsparkonline.com

TECH KIDS Lakota elementary and junior schools have seen an increased use of technology for its students. story kayleigh bearden photography charis williams

Liberty Junior School’s Design and Modeling and Automation Robotics class has 3D printers for their students.

A

s she travels from class to class, she notices how much everything has changed. In each classroom, she sees students hovering over computers to work on a project or on Khan Academy working on math practice problems.

There is nowhere in the school where she cannot hear the Kahoot music humming through the walls. Five years ago, this was not the case but seeing how the school has evolved has given her hope for the future.

Woodland Elementary Assistant Principal Liz Gruber understands the importance of technology in the lives of the second to sixth grade students she oversees.

“Technology is super important because it’s ever changing and is part of [almost] every single job now,” Gruber says. “With the advancements being made in modern day technology, as well as the increasing use of technology in everyday life, it is essential that students are taught how to keep up with the advancing world [in technology].”

In a recent Spark survey, 36 percent of 345 East students said they use their phone all the time in class for academic purposes.

According to the Lakota Local School District’s website, Lakota’s goal is to prepare students to be ready for their future “through a dynamic and engaging educational experience, Lakota prepares students for the realities of today and the unknown possibilities of tomorrow.”

36 percent of 345 East students surveyed use their phone all the time in class for academic purposes.

According to the United States Department

of Education, technology ushers in fundamental structural changes that can be integral to achieving significant improvements in productivity. This is true for all age groups, but it is especially prominent in the younger demographics.

Professor of Instructional Technology at Ohio University Greg Kessler believes that it is the role of influential teachers in the district to provide guidance to administration concerning the implementation of technology.

“In every school district there are a handful of teachers who have thought carefully about how they introduce technology and effectively address the goals of the class and the students’ interests,” Kessler says. “Those teachers can help to guide the use of technology throughout those districts or those schools.”

Gruber believes that one of the most influential ways technology is used in the district is how teachers and students can communicate and collaborate.

According to Gruber, elementary school teachers have increasingly been adding more technology into their everyday instruction.

Programs such as Tenmarks, which provides personalized online math practice and instructional videos are becoming commonplace in elementary school classrooms.

The ability to personalize math to each individual student isn’t always something a teacher can do for every single student. On the other hand there are some things that can’t be taught on the computer. “[This year], I’ve seen classes connecting with other classes, in the district or even outside of the district as well through technology, and

that’s more influential than anything else,” Gruber said.

According to Education Week, students having access to their own laptop for everyday use in the classroom leads to more studentcentered and project-based instruction, greater student engagement and better relationships between students and teachers.

T

he one to one rule that is coming next year is an addition to the technology that the junior schools already have. This means that every student will have their own single device at hand for academic purposes.

In 2012, Liberty Junior school and Hopewell Junior school were given 3D printers for their engineering classes, such as Design and Modeling and Automation Robotics, that are available to students through Lakota’s partnership with technical college Butler Tech.

“I have enough [3D printers] that they don’t have to ask. They can use them when they want them from any of their computers,” said Doug Noxsel, Butler Tech Satellite teacher.

The engineering Noxsel describes the design process as “a systematic approach to solving practical problems. It encourages students to slow down, fully understand the problem, brainstorm for possibilities, select the best solution, make a prototype, evaluate then re-design. Students are encouraged to find failures of a design early in the process in order to achieve a better final outcome.”

“There is a lot of freedom to fail with 3D print and how to correctly do it,” Noxsel said.

“But there is also a lot of freedom that one can have as well.” •

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 14

ISAIAH NICHOLAS FLOOD

senior profile | feature

East senior Isaiah Flood is using the lessons he learned from being on East’s Boy’s Varsity Basketball team to help him transition into his new lifestyle at Heidelberg University this upcoming fall. story lexy harrison | photo illustration richard giang

I

t’s the day of high school tryouts and he is relentless. He uses his past obstacle of being cut from his middle school basketball team as motivation to work harder and play better than his competitors to make the freshman team at East.

East senior Isaiah Flood played for East’s Boy’s Varsity Basketball team for two years after one year as a Junior Varsity player and one year as a freshman player.

“Around freshman year, I decided that I loved [basketball] and I wanted to play for as long as I could,” says Flood. “I’ve been blessed with opportunities to keep going so hopefully I play for as long as I can.”

One of Flood’s positive influences and “father figure” East Assistant Coach for the Boy’s Varsity Basketball team Kyle Vanderhorst has seen Flood grow as a player and as an individual since his freshman year tryouts. “[Flood is] an interesting story because he was cut in junior high but he continued to work hard and just loves the game,” says Vanderhorst. “A lot of times when you get cut

[from a team], it deters kids, but he took it as a challenge of having to work hard to make the team. “ Flood has a mentality of determination and a never quit attitude according to Vanderhorst and Flood’s father Dwayne Flood.

“His ability to understand what perseverance is and his willingness to have the grit that is necessary in order to overcome any obstacle that may stand in his way,” says Dwayne. “Hard work pays off. He works on things that he may not be good at right now, yet he believes and has the faith that he has the ability to get it done.”

Isaiah plans to continue his career on the court at Heidelberg University this upcoming fall where he will play basketball while studying either communications or business.

Not only is Isaiah a successful athlete, but he enjoys art extensively. He wants to minor in graphic design and is currently in Advanced Placement Studio Art, which has influenced him to incorporate some form of art into his future career.

“I’m very passionate about [art],” says

Isaiah. “My mom tells me that ever since I was little I was always drawing cartoons and I guess I just kept going with it and I still love it. I love cartoons, I’m a pretty weird and goofy kid.”

Isaiah believes that East has prepared him to balance a lifestyle of being a student while fusing together his passions of art and basketball.

“Basketball was everything,” says Isaiah.

“We had basketball workouts before and after school. It was tedious and it really taught me work ethic and if you really want something you have to go above and beyond.”

Vanderhorst says Isaiah often leads by example and is looked up to by the other members on the basketball team. Dwayne believes Isaiah will carry this mentality and attitude into his college career and afterwards.

“My hope and prayer for Isaiah is, whatever he’s doing, he’s going to be successful. It’s not because of the fact that he’s the most talented kid or the smartest kid,” says Dwayne. “It’s the fact that he works the hardest. It’s the fact that he is committed to what he wants to do and what he wants to accomplish.” •

I’ve been blessed with opportunities to keep going so hopefully I play [basketball] for as long as I can.

—Isaiah Flood, East Senior 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 16

Above: Alex Dunaway holds various sands and rocks from the countries he has traveled to.

senior profile | feature

alex Thomas dunaway East senior Alex Dunaway has dedicated his life to traveling and hopes to eventually work for a major airline. story julianne ford | photo illustration richard giang

H

e walks down the chilly Dayton jetway as he approaches the plane. He finds his seat number and prepares for takeoff. Closing his eyes, he drifts asleep through the one hour flight to Chicago.

Once he lands, he hops off the flight and tours the city until two in the afternoon. Traveling back to the airport, he boards again and casually heads back to Dayton.

Short trips like this is something that East senior Alexander “Alex” Dunaway has grown to love for the past few years. Besides traveling to places such as Dubai and Australia with his family, Dunaway loves traveling alone.

“It’s just so [eye] opening and gaining the experience that not a lot of people get to,” says Dunaway. “Getting a new perspective on the world, being able to see what all is out there.”

Dunaway has been able to travel to five continents so far and before he graduates college his goal is to visit all seven, with the last two regions being South America and Antarctica.

Once Dunaway graduates from East he plans on attending the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and dual major in Business and Industrial Engineering.

Dunaway’s long term goal is to be the Chief Operating Officer for Delta Airlines.

“I grew up flying Delta a lot, because Cincinnati is a [major Delta airport],” says Dunaway. “Most of my fondest memories are of me flying Delta on summer vacation with my family. [Delta] just seems like a really nice place to work.”

Besides traveling, Dunaway spends a large amount of his time golfing. He has been on the East Mens’ varsity golf team since freshman year and made it to the state tournament twice.

Close friend and fellow teammate East senior Drew Mahone has played golf with Dunaway since their freshman year.

“It’s been really fun [golfing with him],” says Mahone. “I’ve got to know him a lot better, we even went to Wyoming to play golf [at the Jackson Bowl tournament] together and are going back this summer.”

Dunaway has grown close to Mahone over their high school tenure. Mahone is attending the University of Kentucky, so him and Dunaway will be seperated. However, Mahone believes Dunaway will have “an amazing college experience at Georgia Tech.”

“I’ve been going to Wyoming every year for as long as I can remember and over the years it’s become like a second home to me,” says Dunaway. “Being able to see it through

[Dunaway’s] eyes as he experienced it for the first time was really cool and I think he enjoyed it too. I’m really going to miss how great of a teammate he was.”

D

unaway was recently announced as a National Merit Scholar for the class of 2018. He is one of three Merit scholars at East. Dunaway credits his success to the amazing teachers he has had throughout his time at East. One staff member that has greatly impacted Dunaway is East mathematics teacher Pat Kreider for the past two school years. Kreider has seen Dunaway grow as a person and as a student.

“It’s really cool that he chose Georgia Tech, there aren’t too many kids that will look outside [of ] the midwest area [for college],” says Kreider. “He’s going to have a bright future and it’s going to be fun to watch it unfold.”

Dunaway is excited to see what the future holds for him. No matter what, Dunaway plans on traveling the world.

“People go through life seeing pictures and the movies portray these places,” says Dunaway.

“But until you go and see [those places] for yourself you really can’t appreciate the beauty of what’s out there.” •

[Dunaway] is going to have a bright future and it’s going to be fun to watch it unfold.

-Pat Kreider, East College Prep Pre-Calculus and Advanced Placement Calculus BC Teacher

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 18

senior profile | feature

weston eric lindner East senior and valedictorian Weston Lindner has made it his personal mission to reach out to his community and offer his services for those who are not as privileged as he is. story richard giang | photo illustration richard giang

T

raveling thousands of miles to Junior Statesmen of America conventions, serving well over 1000 hours of community service at Community Meal Center in Hamilton (CMC), and fostering a community of collaboration at East, there’s nothing that he won’t do to give back to the community that has given him so much.

East senior Weston Lindner says that from his early years as a history buff, he figured out that he has grown up with a strong advantage: being born in a middleclass family in Liberty Township, Ohio.

This advantage affected much of his life, specifically his education. Lindner says that he knew that he had to give back.

“The vast majority of the world does not have what we have here at Lakota,” says Lindner. “So part of it is kind of recognizing that I’ve always felt that it’s sort of like a debt that I owe to society for being given all of this.”

Lindner has devoted much of his time to not only his strong academic record, but to his extensive extracurriculars that all have one common thread: service to others. Weston has been involved in clubs such as Junior Statesmen of America, Operation Hawks, Boys State and Boys Nation, Mu Alpha Theta,

National Honor Society and lastly the most notable from his perspective, Community Meal Center (CMC) in Hamilton.

Lindner says that he has learned the most from serving the underserved at CMC. The summer between his freshman and sophomore he went with his father Richard Lindner to CMC and quickly became a regular. Soon enough he had a full fleet of East students coming to serve the less fortunate every third friday of the month.

“It helps the volunteers because it’s really eye-opening for people,” says Weston. “For some people I think because living in Lakota, a lot of people haven’t necessarily been exposed to poverty and people who are really struggling.”

W

eston has become widely known as someone that does two things: gives back to the community and inspires others to do the same thing. According to Weston’s older sister Alex Lindner, Weston has always been this way.

“When he was in first grade,” says Alex.

“He set up a ‘help desk’ in the dining room where people could ask him for help with anything. He was also very shy, when we would go to events for his school and his

classmates would say hi, he would turn red and look away.”

It’s evident that everyone that comes into contact with Weston is affected in some positive way. Whether it’s a family member or a teacher, his impact is widespread and is known throughout the community.

“Weston has worked really hard to get where he is and I’ve seen that first hand,” says Alex. “Watching him go from the adorable little help desk operator to the hardworking, kind and civic minded young man that he is today has been truly amazing.”

The setting in which Weston has left his strongest mark is here at East. According to East Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography and American Criminal Law and Justice teacher Matt Newell, Weston sets an example that is unprecedented inside and outside of the classroom.

“What about Weston inspires me? The way he inspires others around him. I think it’s very rare for kids his age to spark so many positive interactions with the kids around them,” says Newell. “Trying to talk about politics and just trying to talk about the world around you—and Weston can not only do that—but he can bring others in to do that in a way in which I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do.” • 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 20

senior profile | feature

Chase tyler harris East senior Chase Harris used his time at East to become heavily involved in extracurriculars alongside his classes to find his passions and discover his future dream career. story gabbie behrmann | photo illustration richard giang

T

he music is just the right tempo. The sweet harmony of the choir sounds perfect- well, almost perfect. He stands and turns to the rest of the group, and tells them what they can do to make their song perfect. After they correct their mistakes, the mixed choir starts again, this time everything is just right.

While choir is something East senior Chase Harris enjoys, the right side of his brain is not completely turned off, as he loves choir as well. He has been involved in choir since the beginning of high school and has participates in Voices and Company.

“Voices is the mixed group, and Company is the jazz group. My favorite part is making music with your friends,” says Harris. “It’s amazing how music brings students together.

When we have a big concert it all comes together and we’re all connected.”

East senior Elizabeth Herzner has known Harris since middle school and has grown with him musically over the past few years.

“He’s very bubbly and spontaneous and always willing to do something to make someone smile,” says Herzner. “I’ve never heard chase say something negative about anyone.”

East choir teacher Becky Huddilston has known Harris for four years and thinks of him

as “outgoing and vivacious.”

“My favorite memories of [Harris] is when he knows that something is wrong [with the vocals in choir] and he will literally turn to the students in the class and he will speak his mind to them and say, ‘you know I’m right and what you’re doing is wrong,’” says Huddilston. “I love that he has that kind of leadership ability that when he sees something wrong he says it, he does it in an encouraging way, he doesn’t call somebody out.”

For Harris, extracurriculars are just as important as actual school work. He is involved in numerous clubs throughout the school.

“I’m involved in Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), medical club, and J. Kyle Braid,” says Harris. “I am the Vice President of People of All Cultures Alliance, am on the student advisory council, and I also run the 400M in track. I don’t know how I do all of this, I guess I’m just crazy. I make time, it’s a big balancing act.”

Along with his extracurriculars, Harris always makes time for medical research which is why he is involved in HOSA. It is something he enjoys doing since he plans on attending Miami University to become a doctor.

His passion for the medical field started five years ago when his great grandfather

underwent triple bypass surgery, according Harris’s mother Tamarae Harris says. Chase is always trying to find different ways to come up with preventatives.

“He wants to be a doctor,” says Tamarae.

“He looks into different things that are affecting our community to see if one day he’ll be able to have a cure for something. This morning he went down to children’s hospital, where he will be doing an internship in research this summer.”

While Chase’s time in high school may have come to an end, he credits a lot of his success to the opportunities that East provided for him.

“I think the opportunities that have been given to me through East is my favorite part,” says Chase. “All the different things I do allows me to work on my leadership skills. You might as well take advantage of the opportunities they give you.”

Huddilston believes Chase is going places and will be successful at Miami University and as a doctor after school.

“Not too many kids we can depend on, but [Chase] is very dependable. We give him something to do and you know it’s going to get done,” says Huddilston. “He’s got the ‘it’ factor. He’s going to do something great, and I’m going to smile and say I knew that kid.” •

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 22

Brady jameson keating East seniors Brady and Hannah Keating may be fraternal twins but their personal drives to succeed in athletics are identical.

S

ports run in their veins. Despite being fraternal twins, they are identical with their love for their respective sports. One plays in the middle or right side of the court on the East Girls’ Varsity Volleyball team and the other is the center midfielder on the East Boys’ Varsity Soccer team.

With both of their parents having been athletes, East seniors Brady and Hannah Keating have been involved with sports since their early childhood due to their family being athletically competitive.

“My parents always wanted their kids to get into sports to keep us in shape and to teach us important values, how to socialize, and how it is to be on a team and how to work with people,” says Hannah. “I have learned how to be a people person because of it.”

Even though Hannah currently plays indoor and beach volleyball, she “started soccer at three-years-old, then baton twirling for a couple years and figure skating at six-years-old.” After injuries occurred and figure skating being a solo sport, Hannah lost interest in the sports when then found her calling with club volleyball.

B

rady and Hannah’s mother Jane Keating played club soccer when she was in college as well. Their father James “Jim” Keating played baseball, soccer and basketball as a high schooler and later in the collegiate level.

“Raising [Brady and Hannah] has been easy but since the day they were born, I’ve been going as fast as I can, handling everything,” says Jane. “Brady is like a dreamboat—calm, never worries, the most laid back member of the family [and an] absolute joy to raise. While Hannah is the complete opposite as she is always stressed and worried. She is also more of the extrovert and Brady is [the introvert.]”

Hannah and Brady’s older brother Andy Keating played soccer and basketball for his first three years in high school. He then quit soccer and

hannah beatrice keating story sidney li photo illustration richard giang

focused on basketball in his senior year due to numerous concussions.

As for Brady, he also started soccer at three-years-old but has continued to pursue it ever since. He even created the indoor recreational soccer team “Louis Vuitton” because he and his friends wanted to have more opportunities to play besides at East’s Varsity team.

“Soccer has always been something that I’ve fallen back on. I feel more at home on a soccer field than in my own home,” says Brady. “It’s something so natural for me. I made five goals in our first game [as Louis Vuitton] and that feeling of accomplishment was so nice.”

B

rady’s friend and East senior Ben Reimer has known him since they were six-years-old. Reimer says that “Brady is really quiet but the more you get to know him, he brings out his funny side.

He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

“The first memory I have of us [is when] we were at a soccer camp for Lakota United and we just really bonded over something that we both loved,” says Reimer. “Brady was the best kid there by far and it was a fun challenge for me to play with someone who was so talented at such a young age.”

A

fter committing to Morehead State University for both indoor and beach volleyball, Hannah intends on majoring as a prephysician assistant and going into the field after completing graduate school. Brady, on the other hand, is attending the University of Cincinnati for engineering.

“We have always been really close together since we are twins and played soccer but as we’ve gotten older, we have become our own people and are more independent now,” Hannah says. “It’s definitely going to be weird not seeing my twin everyday this upcoming year but I know we will still be close and I’ll love Brady no matter what.” •

Hands Up; Arms down Gun information is shown across the country and the world. infographic landon meador

In 1996, Congress introduced the Dickey Amendment, which cut the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) funding to research firearms. The amendment also forbade the government to fund advocacy or promotion of gun control. After the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida, citizens wanted Congress to repeal this amendment and fund the CDC to research firearm violence, which is an epidemic in the United States.

RIP 6,929*

On average

American deaths related to

Shooting incidents since 2000, by type of school.

96

Global War on Terror

Each Day

Wounded

200

Americans are killed by a gun

Wounded

Over

10,000

2018 In 2014,

4,435

6,721*

American casualities in the

deaths linked directly to

150

American injuries/ deaths caused by firearms in

Revolutionary War

100

HIV

1 out of every 4 rifles

Wounded

50

produced in America are AR-15’s

2013

4

Wounded

Elementary

3% of gun owners own 50% of the total amount of guns in America.

S

30

Out of the leading causes of death, gun violence is the least funded and researched.

Middle

High School

Killed

Killed

Killed

Killed

In over million handguns were produced.

College / University

sources smallarmssurvey.com and newtown gun research Since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, there has been over 20 school shootings, including 13 within a month of the massacre.

in memory East Instructional Aide Linda Toirac’s niece Valeen Schnurr was injured at the Columbine High School shooting on Apr. 20, 1999.

story olivia collins | photography sidney li

I

t was Apr. 14, 1999 and East Instructional Aid Linda Toirac had just wished her niece Valeen “Val” Schnurr, a happy 18th birthday. A few days later, she called her niece again to see ask her how her senior prom had gone. Six days later, Toirac received a call from her brother-in-law. He told her that there were nine shotgun wounds along with numerous shrapnel injuries that had just penetrated through Val’s skin in the library of Columbine High School.

In Littleton, Colorado, two classmates went on a shooting spree killing 13 people and wounding over 20 others before turning their guns to themselves and committing suicide. Even though Val was not one of the 13 victims, her life was still forever altered.

Various news outlets across the United States (U.S.) tried to interview Val after the shooting, including talk show host Oprah Winfrey. They would send her fruit baskets, flower bouquets and other gifts in hope that she would share her story. Yet, Val only did a interview with journalist Katie Couric. Toirac says that after the shooting, “it was just a tough time, but the press and TV crews were terrible. I mean, we couldn’t get out of the house to do something without them hounding you.” On every following Apr. 20 since the Columbine shooting, people attempt to retell Val’s story. Last year Val even left the U.S. for a few days to avoid the press.

This isn’t the only way the shooting has affected her. Val decided to be a social worker, but whenever people look up “Valeen Schnurr,” they see is a girl who was shot in the fifth worst school shooting in U.S. history, according to a New York Daily News article on Feb. 14, 2018.

This forced Val to change her last name so she would no longer be associated with it. One way Toirac that has coped is by making a scrapbook compiled of numerous magazine and newspaper articles on Val. She also has the pages from “Stories for a Teen’s Heart,”which is Val’s perspective of the shooting told to journalist

Janna Graber.

The story is called “Triumph over Tragedy” and in it, Valeen said, “I spent a week in the hospital as I recovered from surgery, but the mental wounds ran much deeper. Questions continually raced through my mind. Why did they do it? Why did innocent people die? Why did Lauren die while I lived?” Lauren Townsend was Val’s best friend since preschool and was subsequently shot that day. Four days after the shooting, Val didn’t find out her friend had died that very day.

T

oirac says that Val, her parents and the family of another victim designed a license plate for Columbine in order to raise money for the wounded. The design has a mountain background with a Columbine flower in the middle. Below the characters are the words “respect life.” This became one of the most selected license plate designs in Colorado with 96,000 plates, according to a 2017 Colorado State Department of Revenue report.

Linda has two daughters Stevie Bledsoe and Dani Clifton and a son named Tony Toirac. After knowing that Val was shot 19 years ago, anytime there were ever any threats at school, they would “freak out.”

“My daughters knew what had happened to their cousin [at Columbine]. So whenever there [were bomb threats] at West, my oldest daughter was a mess,” Linda says. “I had to leave work and go pick her up because of the [stress] that she had from those.”

Linda’s sister Shari Schnurr still lives in Littleton, Colorado today despite how Columbine High School is there. Whenever there were school shootings, Shari would call and talk to Val in order to comfort and assure her daughter that everything is fine. “[Val has] been trying to run from [her story with Columbine] for a long time,” Linda says. “But this year, when everybody was doing [the] marches, [Val] participated in some of it so that’s about the first time she’s done anything like that.” •

THE MOVEMENT PART II

package | the movement

THE ARMS RACE

After 17 people were killed at the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones calls for teachers to be armed in schools. story abby bammerlin | photography ruth elendu

H

e has tried for five years to convince school boards to allow teachers to be armed. Every time Ohio school boards refused to grant his request.

Finally, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones has had enough.

On Feb. 18, Jones pulled over on the side of the road and sent a tweet saying he would be offering concealed carry weapon (CCW) classes to teachers.

“I am going to offer free concealed and Carry class free 2 [sic] teachers in butler county,” the tweet read. “Limited number.

Details coming soon on line [sic]. Also training on school shootings.”

Jones says that with proper training, CCW classes can be a good thing for various communities. He believes that having guns on school grounds will deter shooters from trying

that they would be willing to carry a gun in the school building.

However, Jones says he doesn’t want every faculty member to be armed. Depending on the school’s size, he believes that three to five armed teachers, who have been trained, are enough.

THE MOVEMENT PART II “I would say at least five [faculty members in East should be armed], plus the school’s resource officers,” Jones says. “Anybody who works in the schools should be familiar with a weapon, what it sounds like, what an automatic [and] semi automatic [is and] what it looks like.”

However, Jones can not change the policy

vote to allow certain qualified individuals to carry firearms in the school building. At the Lakota Board of Education meeting on Feb. 26, board member Todd Parnell said that the school board has been reviewing numerous options for increasing security.

“I don’t believe that flooding schools with guns is a good idea,” Parnell says. “However, I don’t think we should prevent highly qualified educators from carrying if they want to do so.”

Lakota School Board President Julie Shaffer says that the board was not yet ready to make a decision on arming teachers. As of the Feb. 26, the board did not make a decision to change Lakota’s current gun safety policy.

“We plan to continue discussing this issue,” says Shaffer. “We plan to meet with our extended safety committee, which would include the school resource officers and

As a teacher my job is to teach, nurture and help build up people in education. I’m not equipped to be a police man. The amount of training for me to learn how to do that is not be feasible. — Michael Floyd, East College Preparatory Geometry and Pre-Calculus teacher to attack the school.

“Your schools are a soft target,” Jones says.

“What I mean is you advertise ‘no guns here’ and people are coming in to harm your school.

They need to know that there are guns there.”

In the first eight hours of Jones’ online sign-up being open, about 300 teachers signed up before it closed. Jones believes that as many as 500 could have signed up. However, teachers aren’t the only staff members that can sign up for these lessons.

“It can be janitors, food service people, it can be maintenance people, school psychiatrists, administrators and secretaries,” Jones says. “Mostly school teachers have signed up. We’ve [had] close to 100 [people that] have been trained.”

Out of the 51 East faculty teachers surveyed, 38 percent say that the have already taken or are currently taking a CCW class. The survey also reported that 47 percent of teachers said 27 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

on his own. It is written in Ohio law that only the school board or the governing body of a school can decide to arm teachers.

A

ccording to the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 2923.122, “no person shall knowingly possess a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance in a school safety zone.” However the ORC 2923.122 states there can be exceptions to this law.

Some of the exceptions include, “a law enforcement officer who is authorized to carry deadly weapons or dangerous ordnance. [There is also] a security officer employed by a board of education or governing body of a school during the time that the security officer is on duty pursuant to that contract of employment, or any other person who has written authorization from the board of education or governing body of a school.”

According to this law, school boards can

supervisors from the police department and will include our administration. We plan to look at all issues on this subject.”

Assistant Psychology Professor at Miami University Aaron Luebbe says that the presence of guns can generate the “weapons effect.” The “weapons effect” is an increase of aggression created by the presence of guns.

“In communities in which guns are very prominent, arming teachers may not be seen as atypical and may not cause as much stress,” Luebbe says. “However, most students have come to expect schools to be safe and gunfree places. Many students may experience heightened vigilance, stress and feelings of threat. This, in turn, could lead to increased feelings of anxiety and depression or poorer academic performance.”

East teachers not only worry about their students mental health being compromised, but also how effective educators would be

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones sits behind his desk at his office in Hamilton, Ohio.

in the role of armed protector. On April 26, Spark held a focus group where faculty could express their views on arming teachers. Michael Floyd, who teaches College Preparatory (CP) Geometry and CP Pre-Calculus at East, doesn’t agree with Jones’ proposals on arming teachers with guns.

“First and foremost I am a teacher,” Floyd says. “As a teacher my job is to teach, nurture and help build up people in education. I’m not equipped to be a police man. The amount of training for me to learn how to do that is not be feasible.”

In a 2015 study conducted by the International Journal of Police Science and Management, researchers gathered expert, intermediate and novice shooters. Experts were defined as anyone who had “completed formal firearms training through a law enforcement academy or had formal handgun training or certification through the military.”

In this study, researchers found that when shooting from 18-45 feet, experts hit their target about 38 percent of the time. When shooting from 60-75 feet, experts hit their target about 14 percent of the time.

“We know that studies suggest that in real-life situations even highly trained lawenforcement officers only hit their target around 30 percent of the time,” Luebbe says. “I can’t believe that teachers would be any better, and I fear we would [be] significantly worse.”

Many teachers are also worried how effective they would be as deterrents. In a 2013 study, published by the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), researchers studied 160 active shooter incidents. They found that in 23.1 percent of shooters committed suicide at the scene before

police arrived.

Luebbe says that according to available scientific evidence and research, arming teachers is not an effective method of discouraging potential school shooters.

“Some individuals who perpetrate school shootings may expect to die in those encounters, lessening the likelihood that being met with force would serve as a deterrent,” Luebbe says. “Even if arming teachers were to be a deterrent, there is real potential for unintended and fatal consequences. Accidental shootings are more likely to occur than use of justified force.”

A

recent survey conducted by Spark showed that out of the 359 students surveyed, 71 percent of students do not believe that arming teachers with guns is an effective method of protection.

“It doesn’t matter if [shooters] know there are three [or] five guns in this school,” Floyd says. “[Shooters] are going to bring the guns in [to the school], set it up and when they know when they’re ready, they’re going to take that chance. They are going to hope they get as much damage done before they get killed.”

However, there are some teachers that believe arming teachers would help protect the school and the students in it. In a study published in 2014 on the Law Enforcement Bulletin provided by the FBI training division, researchers studied mass shootings between 2000 and 2012. They found in 2000-2008 there were about five mass shootings a year. From 2009-2012, mass shootings have increased to 16 per year.

“I agree that [arming teachers] would be scary. But times have changed,” one teacher

from the Spark focus group says. “I don’t think we need to say zero tolerance. My concern is if somebody were to come in [to the school], the first person they would take down is the person with the gun.”

While East principal Suzanna Davis says she does not have an opinion on arming teachers, she has worked with the school safety committee to improve safety.

“We’re always reviewing our protocols,” Davis says. “[Butler County Sheriff ’s] Deputy Doug [Hale] and I are always in discussion. We don’t wait for an event like Stoneman Douglas to begin the discussions.”

However, Jones says that he’s not going to give up his proposal to improve school safety.

He says that he wants to protect schools, students and his grandchildren from harm.

“Every time there’s one of these situations, [such as school shootings] the communication gets better and better; [it’s] sad, but it’s going to take time,” Jones says. “I’m not waiting for the government to help. We’re going to start reacting ourselves. That’s why we’re doing the CCW classes [and] why I’m having press conferences. I’m talking to somebody every single day and I’m not going to let up.” •

71%

of the 348 East students surveyed do not believe that arming teachers with guns is an effective method of protection.

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 28

Stephen T. Badin High School’s therapy dog Rudy lays on the ground at the counselor’s office.

When life gets ruff As of Mar. 22, Stephen T. Badin High School has a new therapy dog for its students. story katey kruback photography vivica heidenreich infographic ruth elendu

T

he girl laid in a heap on the floor of the counselor’s office, her face blotchy and red, and sobbing uncontrollably.

She wasn’t injured, just very stressed.

Her shaking fingers delved into Rudy’s fur, and it wasn’t long before the six-month-old black multigenerational Australian labradoodle padded closer, gently laying her head on the girls’ thigh.

She petted the dog before shoving her face against Rudy, crying hard, fingers clenched in the soft fur. Rudy carefully stood up and crawled into the girl’s lap, offering snuggles and softly licking the girl’s salty cheeks, offering comfort where needed.

Less than 15 minutes later, to the surprise of Stephen T. Badin High School Counselor Angela Bucheit, who had expected the session to last longer, the female student was settled and ready to return to class.

Rudy, Badin’s new therapy dog as of Mar. 22, 2018, wagged her tail and escorted the girl to the door before bounding back to Bucheit for a treat and an affectionate cuddle. Ever since her first day, the results have been positive.

In a recent Spark survey that was conducted, 89 percent of East students believe that therapy dogs are an effective coping mechanism.

“We have a lot of students that visit her, but her day also involves a lot of faculty [too.]

They’ll just come in and say that they need a few minutes,” Bucheit says. “[When] I get migraines, I’ll go lay down and [Rudy will] lay

29 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

on the other side of the bed and not leave. She just picks up on [it].”

According to a 2006 report conducted by three University of Montevallo students, animals have advantages: they can help teach specific topics, encourage socializing and develop a friendly environment for children.

THE MOVEMENT PART II Bucheit was introduced to the idea of therapy dogs this past summer after the American School Counselors Association Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. There she was introduced to the Charlotte Helen Bacon Foundation, which was established after Bacon lost her life on Dec. 14, 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Bacon’s family and friends found comfort in their local therapy dogs. Thus, they created Charlotte’s Litter, a subset of the Charlotte Helen Bacon Foundation, to advocate and support therapy dog programs in educational settings. They offer grants, resources and guidance to schools and societal programs looking to get a therapy dog or who need help with their current one.

According to the 2014 Charlotte’s Litter report, therapy dogs “can enhance children’s psychological development, improve social skills and increase self-esteem. Dogs can also teach responsibility, compassion and respect for other living things. [Also] dogs in the classroom can be used to calm fears, relieve anxiety and teach skills.”

“The costs to Badin High School for this whole endeavor has been minimal,” Allen Dirk,

Director of Admissions and Media Consultant tells Spark. “That’s something that has been really a blessing for us [as] everything fell into place so smoothly. It’s all very serendipitous.”

The grant from the foundation covered most of the cost of Rudy’s training, with the actual cost of the dog covered by an anonymous donation. After news of Rudy got out, small businesses within the community reached out to Badin and offered the use of free goods and services.

Pet Wants Hamilton offered to deliver fresh food each week and Mike’s Mobile Veterinary Services provides monthly check-ups and medical care. Soft Touch Pups Grooming is offering their grooming services once a month, and these are only three of the local business communities who offered their assistance.

“The groomer isn’t even taking any new clients so she doesn’t need the publicity, and the veterinarian said that they didn’t necessarily need more clients [either,]” Bucheit tells Spark.

“They just want to help with a good project.”

R

udy currently lives with Bucheit and her family. When school is not in session, Rudy will accompany Bucheit’s husband and Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit. She won’t be at the police department as a field dog; however, Rudy will aid the Hamilton police officers and visitors when they are in need of comfort.

Before the school announced their new faculty member, they instructed the students to wear pink—which is Bacon’s favorite color. “[Bacon] was a girl who loved animals and nature,” Badin High School junior Sydney Long says. “Her family [thinks] the reason these shootings happen is because of a certain gap between faculty and students. They aren’t

the movement | package There are many features that make a service, emotional support and therapy dog different from each other.

Key: = The dog meets this criteria = The dog does not meet this criteria

Service Dog

Emotional Support Dog

Therapy Dog

Trained for a specific disability Trained for emotional support and comfort

A

Assists a specific individual Allowed to go into public facilities Is allowed to live with owner, even with “no pet” policy put in place Able to assist more than one person Trained for different environments and interactions

Badin, and she has visited Rudy herself for a necessary pick-me-up. “[She] brought our school together and definitely gave us something to [bond over] and be excited about,” Moore says. “[Visiting her] can give you that extra oomph you [need] to get you through the day.”

The Badin counselors have noticed a distinct difference in the students visiting the counselors office since Rudy arrived and they’ve seen a definite spike in kids that they feel they weren’t connecting with before.

“What’s great about Rudy and what we’re seeing the most is that [she] makes the conversation with the counselor easier,” Angela says. “We have some kids that come in and are visibly upset and just need some time from class. Now they can come in, pet Rudy, instantly relax and the conversation becomes a little more natural. Some want to pet Rudy and a few of them get back to class a little sooner.”

sources adata.org & psychdogpartners.org

reaching [us] and they think that a good way to fill that gap is to a get a therapy dog.”

According to Yale University Clinical Psychology Researcher and Doctoral Student Molly Crossman, she’s “really optimistic” about the benefits of therapy dogs for students, but they “just don’t know yet.”

“We in the lab are really interested in whether [therapy] dogs help with mood, anxiety, arousal or distress in the short and long term for people with serious stress-related disorders, but also for students who face day-to-day stressful circumstances,” Crossman says. “There is accumulating evidence to those effects, but we can’t yet say that they are definitely effective.”

The correct terminology for Rudy is a “facility therapy dog,” the added “facility” means that she is at the Badin campus when students are. Crossman’s example is of a court therapy dog that works out of the courthouse.

“If you have a child who was the victim of sexual abuse that has to testify in court, that’s a really scary thing to do and the dog will be

there for them,” Crossman says. “Students from [Marjory] Stoneman Douglas were also greeted by therapy dogs on their [first day].

Community members brought their dogs in and [the kids] played with them for a few minutes because that is a really stressful and traumatic experience, and hopefully the dogs provided them with a little bit of comfort.”

Crossman’s therapy dog theory is rooted in the history dogs have with humans, in that they co-evolved with people and developed skills needed to communicate. “[Dogs] are typically really good about communicating with us and that socialemotional communication is really important for providing social support and helping us feel better,” Crossman says. “We haven’t tested these ideas and we don’t know for sure that dogs are good at this, but my personal hunch based on [this] theory is that they might be.”

According to Badin High School senior Shelby Moore, Rudy is a “more than effective” way to combat student stress and anxiety in

ccording to a 2016 report from nonprofit pet therapy organization Paws for People, therapy dogs improve a person’s cardiovascular health and release endorphins, such as oxytocin, which calms and decreases physical pain for a person.

Similarly, they can help lower the chances of depression, isolation and anxiety whilst increasing feelings of comfort, physical interaction and socialization amongst peers.

Not only that, dogs can also help increase a child’s self-confidence, focus on academia and even improve their literacy skills.

Most of the students that come in now just need some time with Rudy to reduce their stress and “calm down.” Petting her does that, as it lowers the blood pressure, which has worked well for the students and the counselors.

Therapy dogs aren’t miracleworks, as Long says, and therapy dogs can’t help if the person isn’t receptive to be being helped. She says that “you have to go in with a positive attitude. You just pet her and talk to the counselors. I think [Rudy] can bring you a new kind of peace.”

“Some people think we need immediate change, and all those people are forgetting that one thing isn’t going to change an entire world of problems,” Long says. “I think having a therapy dog is taking a step in the right direction in [beginning] to fill that gap. Why wouldn’t it be worth a try? If you’re given the opportunity, why not try to do something that’s going to be fun, helpful and meaningful?” • .

89%

of the 348 East students surveyed believe that therapy dogs are an effective coping mechanism.

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 30

moving forward After experiencing a school shooting on Feb. 29, 2016, the Madison School District community members have been brought closer together.

story rebecca breland | photography landon meador

T

wo shots went off. The sounds reverberated and echoed through the school. Seconds ticked by and screams could be heard. The shrill of adolescent voices could almost shatter glass. That was the reality for students at Madison High School on Feb. 29, 2016.

Former Madison High School eighth grader James Hancock had shot two of his classmates in the cafeteria of their school. This led students to flee in panic. Two years later, those survivors can still remember what happened.

“I just remember being in a state of shock and disbelief,” former Madison School District Superintendent Curtis Philpot tells Spark. “I had to call our communications director to inform her of the shooting.”

Philpot was 50 feet away in the office with Madison Principal Justin Smith, Madison Assistant Principal Darren Stevens and Student Resource Officer Kent Hall when the shooting happened. Today, Philpot remembers knowing exactly what he had heard and being in shock.

“I honestly thought that because we were so small and close knit, we didn’t have kids who sat alone,” Philpot says. “[We] emphasized the importance of positive relationships with that

31 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

we could never have a shooting.”

However, through all of this, the Madison school district community has leaned on each other in support of one another.

“The shooting pulled our community closer together,” Philpot tells Spark. “Families provided meals and support for the families of the victims, but also the family of our shooter.”

Philpot, through all of this community

THE MOVEMENT PART II work and events in February 2016, learned that it only takes access to a gun to be able to cause something like this to happen. Hancock had gotten the gun from his grandmother and had kept it hidden in his backpack during the day.

“Sadly, he showed the gun to two other students earlier in the day and those two students, who didn’t ask or deserve to be put in that situation, didn’t tell anyone,” Philpot says.

According to a March 2018 Washington Post report, 12,752 students are present for school shootings in 2018 alone. Also, there has been 11 school shootings within the past year.

Madison community member and East Freshman Campus World Studies and Honor’s United States (U.S.) History teacher Chad Thompson, has two sons, Gunner, 19-yearsold and Cy, 12-years-old, who were both at Madison High School during the shooting.

Chad believes that even though there has been work and loves how the school has come together on the community level and even on the country level, people could be doing a better job looking for warning signs.

“It’s imperative. Now that kids actually tell somebody and they’re so worried about being considered a snitch, a lot of kids don’t want to tell,” Chad says. “I keep telling [his East students] to write a note and slip it on the front desk or my desk or something.”

Chad not only believes this but takes it back to his own classroom where he teaches at the East Freshman Campus.

“I think a lot of kids keep everything in and it builds and builds and they think nobody cares. That’s why I try to find out things that every kid that in my room [is] interested in outside of the classroom,” Chad says. “You have to make that personal connection with them because you know they’ll open up more

The shooting took place in the cafeteria of the Madison Junior and Senior High School.

and then they feel like somebody cares.”

According to a 2016 National Association of School Psychologists and National Association of School Resource Officers report, out of the 349 principals surveyed, 17 percent reported a firearm incident at their school in the past five years.

However, East Speech and College Preparatory English 10 and Madison School District parents David Honhart and his wife Jena Honhart have their own children attending that district. He says that he is “bothered by the lack of input from staff, students and the community. The decision was rushed and there are other steps that should be considered first.”

After the Madison school shooting on Apr. 24, the board passed a policy that allowed faculty members to have concealed carry weapons in their classrooms. This was done in order to prevent anyone to be involved in another school shooting.

Madison School District adopted the F.A.S.T.E.R program, Faculty Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response, created and run by the Buckeye Firearms Association. Buckeye Firearms Association Board of Directors member Sean Maloney has

created this F.A.S.T.E.R program as a result of the school shootings that occurred in the U.S. When asked to comment on the passing of this policy, the Madison School District Board of Education did not respond.

“We train teachers, we provide the funding the train teachers to carry concealed in school principals janitors whoever it is,” Maloney tells Spark. “So essentially, we’ve trained over 1300 teachers over 200 school districts in the state of Ohio. We’re in 12 different states and have a parent program in a state of Colorado and now in Pennsylvania.”

T

he policy that the Madison School District has passed with the help of the F.A.S.T.E.R program states that those who are to carry guns in the school must have a concealed carry permit, to go through training each year to be recertified, and have written permission from the superintendent.

“Now, the F.A.S.T.E.R training that we provide has upwards of 35 hours of training and also in this training includes combat casualty care training, application of tourniquets, chest seals, this allows them

[faculty and administrators] to be the first responders,” Maloney says.

This new policy was not universally accepted by everyone within the Madison school district, including Philpot.

“I am not sure that a teacher getting a weekend training will be able to make the right decisions in a moment of stress like no training could ever prepare them for,” Philpot says. “ I also don’t think it is fair to place this burden on teachers.”

Even though Philpot does not agree with this choice and believes that teachers already are asked to do so much more than just teach their students, he still believes that they need to be ready for anything that might be thrown their way.

“We teach our kids that we aren’t preparing them for another shooting at Madison but we are giving them skills that we hope will be valuable the rest of their lives,” Philpot tells Spark. “Unfortunately, shootings not only happen in schools. They happen in churches, airports, nightclubs, the mall, and in workplaces.

We want our students to be the best trained, most safety minded students and ultimately adults in the world.” • 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 32

package | the movement

Gun culture Speaks

robert adleta

H

e is no stranger to the Sharonville Gun Show at the Sharonville Convention. As a familiar attendee to the event, he visits this frequent event four to five times a year. It is his most comfortable environment.

However, this year, Robert Adleta came to the gun show because his two children wanted to look at the selection of lasers. On the other hand, Adleta was intrigued by the array of guns that were in display all around the massive convention center.

Despite the $10 admission price for adults and $1 for children 12 -years-old and under, Adleta doesn’t mind and enjoys the liberating atmosphere with other community members that travel from across the Tri-State area.

According to the United States (U.S.) Constitution, the Second Amendment says that “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” “[Buying a gun and The Second Amendment] is not for hunting or self defense,” Adleta says. “The Second Amendment is the amendment that gives us the ability to keep the rest of the amendments.”

For Adleta, he thinks that taking guns away from Americans would be a terrible idea. This leads him to believe that there will be a negative consequence if the U.S. were to have stricter gun laws within the country.

“History repeats itself, just as they did in Nazi Germany,” Adleta says.

“They took their guns away from the Jewish. They suppressed them and tried to eliminate [then] kill them.” •

eric whittaker

O

n a cold yet crisp Sunday afternoon, Eric Whittaker decided to hop in his truck and join his buddies on a short trip. Despite the harsh wind chills outside, he felt absolutely thrilled for the experience ahead.

It was his first time attending the Sharonville Gun and Knives Show that spanned across two days of every month of the year, but he did not feel nervous at all. It was not the first time he had seen or used a gun for himself.

“I grew up around guns and stuff with my family all the time,” Whittaker says. “But I wouldn’t say I have a burning passion for guns either.”

Just like many others who attended the show, Whittaker was looking to purchase a gun on that day. He says that he does not really attend gun shows that often but it was time to get one for his own personal use.

With the help of his friends, he would soon find the gun that fits best for him.

Whittaker has a belief that he and hundreds of other gun-owners have the right of all Americans having the ability to defend themselves in their homeland.

As a citizen, Whittaker believes that guns and the Second Amendment are parts of the essential foundation that helped to shape the American culture.

“It really wasn’t anything that sparked my interest, it’s just kinda like being raised American I guess, you know what I mean,” Whittaker says.

“If other people have guns, you ought to have one too.” •

the movement | package Individuals were interviewed about their opinions on gun control at the monthly Sharonville Gun Show on Mar. 11.

THE MOVEMENT PART II

story makenna henderson, broc nordmark and joe phelan photography lexy harrison and makenna henderson

Justin shepHard

T

he bond between a son and his father was built through hunting.

That event built a close bond between the two that was previously non-existent. Now, this is why guns fell so close to the heart of Justin Shephard, as they helped bring his family closer together over a similar hobby.

According to the 2013 National Shooting Sports Foundation report, Ohio is fifth nationally within the United States in residential hunters and 11 out of the 50 states in the number of jobs associated with huntingrelated industries. It has a more than $853 million economic impact in Ohio through the sale of equipment, fuel, food, lodging and more.

“I was going through a rough time with my home life, and the best way I could find out to ease myself was to hunt,” Shephard says. “And that brought a lot of emotional memories in with it, both good and bad.”

Shephard attends the Sharonville Gun Show every year but, this year he decided to buy a gun. His continued interest in the area of guns is stemmed in both his childhood experiences, and his family’s influential military past.

He and his father are both involved in the military. With his experiences both with guns and with society, Shephard expects to be able to defend himself as he views guns to work as both a method of protection, and a way to ease his emotions and tensions. He believes that overall, guns will provide more benefits than harm to the American public as it did for him too.

“Guns have been in my life for nearly 15 years,” Shephard says.

“They’ve been a huge part of myself as a person.” •

Vincent french

V

incent French packed up his car and headed out to attend the Gun Show at the Sharonville Convention Center. French is a member of the former military and feels strongly that owning guns is an important right. He believes in the Second Amendment and that it is vital for ensuring the protection of each and every citizen in the United States (U.S.).

“In your history classes, did they show you what happened in Germany back when Hitler was rising and why they took all their guns?”

French says. “When you have an unarmed populus, that kind of stuff happens.”

These are just some of the reasons French is interested in the hobby of collecting and showing guns as well as French’s father who was a policeman. French believes that citizens of the U.S. need to be armed to protect themselves from many circumstances.

“The people in higher-positions within Cincinnati want to build a new stadium to replace Nippert Stadium. You don’t want to go down there,” French says. “The people who live down there are not nice people.”

If citizens are unarmed within a whole country, French says that they wouldn’t be in a position to fight against the government or other terrorists if there was an attempt to attack them.

“That place [where Nippert Stadium is in at West End] was rated with the highest crime rate in the U.S. at one point. For me personally, I have my concealed carry on me 24/7,” French says. “I would never go down there in the city without my own gun on me, because criminals do not obey the law.” •

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 34

package | the movement

Sights Set While Premier Shooting and Training Center offers classes relating to guns, weapons are far from the sole focus of the facility. story amy bohorfoush | photography sidney li

A

lmost three years ago, part-time owner of Premier Shooting and Training Center Tommie Rowland and her family created the facility to teach people the skills her son had learned in the Marines. Rowland’s observation that more women and families attend Premier Shooting reflect this development.

However, her focus isn’t on attempting to market her business to different demographics. Instead, Rowland is satisfied to be active in the society of the area she calls home through the facility.

“We just completed a contest for the local Boys and Girls Club and raised $1,350 for them over the weekend,” Rowland says. “We live in West Chester, we support West Chester and that’s why we chose to have our business here.”

The contest to which Rowland is referring is the Shamrock Shoot.

According to Premier Shooting employee Steve Waldorff, participants paid five dollars to shoot at a shamrock for a chance to win a full size M+P 2.0 by Smith and Wesson.

Along with the range, which is located along 747 south of Tylersville Road, Premier Shooting includes a martial arts dojo and a fishing lake.

The facility offers classes with topics from conceal and carry to women’s self-defense to critical casualty care and first aid.

Premier Shooting event coordinator and manager Kellie Wilson believes that this variety has enabled Premier Shooting to stand out among facilities that offer similar services. She also thinks that the manner in which the lessons are prevented makes an impact.

“Our women’s self defense training is more physical, and it puts them under stress,” Wilson says. “It can be fun, but we also take it seriously because we’re teaching people to protect themselves.”

For some customers, such as David Pendergraft and Jason Barrett, the novelty of the three-year-old facility piqued their interest. Pendergraft visited Premier Shooting for the first time based on what he heard about the facility on a radio commercial. Barrett has taken a total of two trips to Premier Shooting, and took his first in order to “check it out.”

Another patron at Premier Shooting is Wyoming High School junior and Young Activists Coalition founder Rasleen Krupp, who started taking gun lessons eight months ago.

“So I take gun lessons and I think that’s been very impactful because I realized it’s hard to fight something that you don’t know something about,” Krupp says. “So I think that’s my way of getting to the other side and seeing their perspective.”

Rowland is aware of the national debate about arming teachers to prevent school violence. She attempts to create an environment in which those on either side of the arming teachers with guns debate are comfortable.

“We offered some free conceal-carry lessons to [those that] felt the need to do it, [and] that’s their personal preference,” Rowland says.

In addition to requiring a 4-minute safety video and discussion before entering the range, Premier Shooting enforces a minimum age of 18-years-old for purchasing a long rifle and 21-years-old for purchasing a handgun. Recently, however, both Rowland and Wilson have observed an increase of people signing up for Premier Shooting’s critical casualty care class. During these lessons, people would receive basic first aid

THE MOVEMENT PART II

35 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

Premier Shooting and Training Center is located off of 747 and south of Tylersville Road.

training. One of those who participated in the three-hour, $50 class was East Honors Pre-Calculus and College Credit Plus Honors Pre-Calculus teacher Judy Buckenmyer.

“If there was an emergency, that would probably be my role,” Judy says. “[I just want to be] taking care of the wounded,” According to a recent survey of the East faculty, 49 percent of the 51 staff members who participated, believe at least somewhat that arming teachers would protect students in school shootings.

However, Buckenmyer’s stance is shared by her husband, East Honors Algebra II and College Prep Pre-calculus teacher Michael Buckenmyer.

He says that “if the cops come in and you’re holding a gun, how do they know that you’re not the shooter?”

On April 26, members of the Lakota East staff met with Spark for a focus group on the subject of arming teachers. During the discussion, one East teacher voiced the opinion that the time required to train teachers sufficiently to carry weapons on campus was impractical.

“The first year I went hunting with my father, i just carried the gun for the entire hunting season, until my father was sure I knew how to carry a gun correctly,” the teacher says.

In a recent Spark Twitter poll, only 21 percent of participating followers agree that arming teachers would prevent school shootings, while 79 percent disagreed.

As demonstrated by the student-led Marjory Stoneman Douglas event on East’s Main Street on Mar. 14, East students are also beginning to raise their voices about the issue of school shootings. One of those students was East junior Albert Cho. “A school should be place where we should feel safe and focus on learning,” Cho says. “[It should not] be guarded by teachers with guns.

No matter whether or not arming teachers is the answer to the problem of school shootings, Wilson stresses diverse nature of the ways that lessons from Premier Shooting can be applied. “[For example,] critical care classes could be good for anything, industrial, auto, or home accidents,” Wilson says. “We enjoy teaching and encouraging people, giving them the knowledge, tools, and confidence they need to handle situations.” •

Generation Glitch East senior Hannah Wilson has had a different experience with technology in comparison to her mother Elizabeth Wilson. story jessica jones photo illustration meredith niemann

C

oding. It’s her natural language.

This language is used to write programming statements, the very same statements that she used within her Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles and now AP Computer Science A class.

East senior Hannah Wilson says these classes make her think in a different way. Besides being in the computer science curriculum, Wilson has also been in East’s INTERalliance and Hack clubs for two years.

Wilson says that she doesn’t remember using technology that was implemented by the curriculum until her junior year. However, she uses online textbooks and likes to use Google to “help with things I’m confused about.”

Yet, Wilson doesn’t just use technology for school. She says that she spends one to two hours a day playing video game Overwatch with her friends and uses social media like Facebook and Snapchat from for 15 minutes a day.

Wilson’s mother Elizabeth Wilson had a different experience with technology while at Bloom Township High School in Chicago.

When Elizabeth was a senior in high school, the school only had one computer, which “was dominated by the boys of the school.”

“When I see [both of] my kids have tablets and computers, I think we are moving in a good direction,” says Elizabeth. “It has been a gradual change since I was 25 but as things change, the more rapidly the change happens.”

According to a Social Media Today website, the average person will spend an accumulated five years and four months on social media in their lifetime. This equates to walking to the moon and back 32 times.

Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University Joseph Bayer studies the mental processes that humans use in order to interact. Bayer says that social interaction and social support are one of the most fundamental needs of humans to survive and prosper; “we are seeing that people are able to interact more. This brings us to being able to find social affirmation.”

Hannah says that while she uses technology for mostly productive reason like homework, she also uses it to connect to her friends via texting and other social media. According to a recent Spark Twitter poll, 59 percent of the

East Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles and Computer Science A teacher David McKain helps East senior Hannah Wilson on the computer. followers use the Internet for socializing.

Assistant Professor of Communication at Ohio State University James Bonus studies the media experiences of children and how they learn from these experiences. He says that the shift in usage has been said to be something that is dangerous to society by other people, but he sees it as a way to access more information that ever before and stay connected in ways that haven’t been available before this time. “[The younger generation] gets a bad rap most of the time from how they use media, but I think it’s great how connected they can be,” says Bonus. “Giving them a way to be organized through social media is effective in how they are expressing their voice.”

B

ayer and Bonus both say that the usage of technology between teens and their parents is commonly the same because they both use it for social connections through social media. Teens, however, just use it more often. “[Other teens] probably use [technology] to cure boredom,” says Hannah. “[It’s probably] because they use more social media than I do.”

According to a 2011 Pew Research Center report, 95 percent of millennials, 18 to 34-yearolds, use their phone. However, 84 percent of baby boomers, which ranges from 47 to 65-years-olds, use their phones too.

Hannah has also noticed the shift with using more technology in classrooms. She says that she has seen more of her teachers begin to use online learning portal Canvas and try to reach their students on different platforms.

East AP Computer Science Principles and

Computer Science A teacher David McKain has seen the shift in use of technology in schools shift as well. He says that when teaching computer classes there is a constant need to change the curriculum.

W

hen he was teaching AP Computer Science II, McKain had to change his curriculum every year because of how deep they went into current technology. This class was taken out of the East offered classes this year.

“Every year I would evaluate it and decide from what was really cutting edge from the world,” says McKain. “I would choose things that would be cool to dive into from a software coding perspective.”

Being a part of the shift of technology has made Hannah more aware of how the subject is changing. She is seeing it integrated into the lives of her and those around her—just like the new parking pass system that is being implemented into East within the next year.

“I see technology being used more in inventions in [the near future],” says Hannah.

“It will become more commonly used and advanced at an increasing rate.” •

59%

of Spark Twitter followers use the Internet for socializing.

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 36

culture | eating disorders

THe skinny truth Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are common eating disorders amongst millennials and high school students.

story gabbie behrmann photo illustration sidney li infographic caroline bumgarner

I

t’s Friday night, around dinner time. Hungry guests are stalking their way through the front doors of Brio Tuscan Grille, like a pack of lions hunting their evening meal. They pad up to the hostess stand, as the young hostess standing behind it greets them with a smile. Looking at her, one would think she was an ordinary girl, just earning some extra money.

But underneath, her stomach was growling with hunger, loud, like the lions. “Good. I’m doing a good job,” she thought proudly as she leads the guests to their table, pushing the growing hunger to the back of her mind.

Soon enough, her shift ends and she drives home, her personal fuel tank on empty. Diving into bed she reviews what she ate throughout the day; a cup of fruit, and that’s all.

For East senior Sami Barbro, these days were typical, since she has been battling an eating disorder since the end of her sophomore year.

“I have always been a bit larger my whole life,” says Barbro. “I think I was just insecure. I always had friends that were super skinny and pretty. I’m not one to seek attention from anyone but I never really got it, so I think the best way I thought I could get it was to make myself more attractive. I decided that the biggest step was losing weight.”

According to the Mayo Clinic website, eating disorders are serious conditions related to “persistent eating behaviors that negatively impact your health, emotions, and your ability to function in important areas of life.”

Most eating disorders develop in teen and young adult years, although they can still occur in other ages. Barbro’s developed her own in May 2016.

Looking back on it, Barbro thought she really didn’t have a problem at the time. She had lost 50 pounds, without exercising. Yet, she was never medically diagnosed with an eating disorder.

“I always thought it was anorexia, because I never threw up or anything like that, but I would just starve myself,” says Barbro. “I never got to the point where I was underweight, which is technically the qualification for it.

If it had to be something, it would be bulimia. I would binge eat and then I would go a week with barely eating anything. When I did eat, I would eat one thing a day and it would be around 200 calories.”

Barbro says that people started to notice her changes throughout the summer and into the following school year. By fall 2016, she had lost 20 pounds. When she worked on the weekends she would use that as an excuse not to eat due to a “lack of time”.

“At work if I was hungry, I would drink soda and say those were my calories for the day,” says Barbro, whos been working at Brio for two years. “Then I wouldn’t eat after that. Obviously you can’t starve yourself completely or else you’ll die. I trained myself to feel hungry and be ok with it. I can say for one thing, every time I felt hungry or everytime my stomach growled, I felt like I was doing a good job, I saw it as a sign of success. If I wasn’t hungry I felt like I was fat. If I felt actual hunger pains I would applaud myself.”

East freshman Alex Barbro, Barbro’s sister, thinks of her as caring, considerate person, who tries to be the best she can be. She remembers when changes from the lack of nutrition started to show as she “would tell me how she was losing weight, like ‘oh I lost 10 lbs,’” says Alex. “[At] probably around 20 lbs [lost,] I noticed her face get really skinny. The biggest thing I remember was she had this extreme jaw line. Her jaw was very exact.” •

37 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

East student measures her waist size with a measuring tape.

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 42

culture | eating disorders

Statistics About Anorexia source www.nationaleatingdisorders. org & www.anad.org 50-80 percent of the risk for anorexia and bulimia is genetic.

25 percent of individuals with anorexia nervosa are male

Symptoms of Bulimia source www.healthline.com & www.bulimia.com low blood pressure leads to feelings of faintness

mood swings forceful vomiting can lead to red eyes the acid in vomit causes enamel to erode, yellowing of teeth and tooth decay

As Sami lost more weight, more confidence was gained.

Throughout the battle, Alex recalls Sami becoming an open, more confident person. Sami credits this to receiving attention from people who wouldn’t otherwise give it to her.

One of Sami’s friends and East senior Alexis Heggood, wasn’t a good friends with Sami when she first developed her eating disorder. However, towards the end of it, Heggood was Sami’s shoulder to lean on.

“Definitely at the beginning of our friendship I wouldn’t have said anything mean or accused her something that she had,” says Heggood. “But if it was now I would because I feel like I have more authority to do so. She’s very closed off, I would try not to pressure her. I would be there for her to make things a little bit better. I feel like she’s gotten better. She’s always going to have that thing in the back of her mind.”

N

ow, Sami’s eating disorder is mostly gone, and she is working hard to gain back the weight that she has lost. She says that “[eating disorders] are definitely the worst thing you can do to your body.”

“It destroyed my hair. It used to be thick and long, but once I started [not eating] it got super thin and would fall out. It’s horrible for your skin. It takes away more of your muscle than it does at your fat,” says Sami. “My legs used to be super muscular but now they are mostly fat since the muscle was eaten away. It’s not worth the toll that it takes on your body.”

Eating Disorders are common. In 1999, Laurie Mitan was hired to start an Eating Disorders program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (CCH). A survey was conducted by CCH and primary care physicians throughout Cincinnati identified the program as a clinical need. “[The] initial appointment is with an adolescent medicine physician. . . continue reading on lakotaeastsparkonline.com

39 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

Spark

Renew Your Subscription Now! Receive six issues of Spark for one low price in order to stay updated on all the happenings at Lakota East and the community!

Lakota Staff: $15 Lakota Student: $20 Community Member: $25 Checks can be made payable to the Lakota East Spark and dropped off in room 118 of the Lakota East Main Campus.

Contact sparkbusinessteam@gmail.com with any questions.

MY DEAR MELANCHOLY,

N

INVASION OF PRIVACY

T

ARTIST: THE WEEKEND GENRE: HIP-HOP RELEASE DATE: MAR. 30, 2018

ARTIST: CARDI B GENRE: RAP RELEASE DATE: APR. 6, 2018

othing leads to more beautiful artwork than a broken heart in it’s fragile mending stages, and Abel Tesfaye embodies that in his surprise release of “My Dear Melancholy,”.

Starting off in 2010 anonymously uploading original songs to Youtube under the stage name “The Weeknd” and soon after releasing the nationally recognized mixtapes “House of Balloons”, “Thursday”, and “Echoes of Silence” in 2011, Abel’s career skyrocketed. After continually dropping hit albums such as “Beauty Behind the Madness” and “Starboy”, he began to sink into his own category, notorious for his dark, sexual pop.

His vulnerability and unapologetically raw music is what lead him to make “My Dear Melancholy,” opening up to darker and more serious topics.

Openly singing about suicide and depression after heartbreak left the world in question - who hurt The Weeknd?

During the duration of the six songs on the EP, which go back and forth between denial, anger, and the beginning of acceptance, the tug of war with his feelings is easily detectable. In “Call Out My Name”, the cry for what he has lost is apparent with lyrics like “why can’t you

he debut album by “Bodak Yellow” rapper Cardi B was a slightly underwhelming work compared to the buzz the single received.

Every song can be put into one of these categories: the Bronx native’s rags-to-riches story about how she used to be a stripper and now she’s making money (“Get Up 10”), what she’s doing with this money (“Drip”, “Money Bag”, “I Like It”), and how men aren’t worth anything and how Cardi’s a bad b**** (“She Bad”, “Thru Your Phone”, “I Do”). Cardi’s verses all manage to talk about the same things no matter what the song is (we get it, you had messed up teeth and now they’re fixed, but so were just about every kid that’s ever had braces, you’re not that special Cardi). It also doesn’t help that her flow is mediocre and sometimes doesn’t seem to match up with the beat much (a great example of this being “Be Careful”).

wait ‘til I fall out of love?” and “I want you to stay, even though you don’t want me”. Although the EP is presumably written due to experiences from past girlfriend Selena Gomez, the third track “Wasted Times” is rumored to be about ex girlfriend Bella Hadid. This contrast between past lovers and the heartbreak he is still suffering results in ballads of both the love and the now anger he possess in a catchy, alternative rhythm and blues. In the last track “Privilege”, he seems to accept that the love is gone and that he will go back to his “old habits”, singing “We said our last goodbyes So, let’s just try to end it with a smile” and “I got two red pills to take the blues away”. Along with drugs, he references how sex and being intoxicated will “make him okay” again, returning back to his usual mix of dark thoughts and empty lifestyle.

As the EP name suggests, his comeback to the Billboard 100 is nothing less than a brilliantly worded response to a nasty break up text. Using his music as his own personal therapy, he infuses his brokenness into powerful lyrics of love and lost that leaves the broken-hearted with 12 minutes worth of background music to listen to while crying into a tub of Ben and Jerry’s.

—Meredith Niemann But the thing is, no one was expecting musical genius from Cardi nor from her album.

She’s Cardi B, ex-stripper-turned-rapper from the Bronx who speaks more gibberish words like “okurrr” and “eowwww” during interviews than real English. “Bodak Yellow” became the second solo female rap song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs list since 1998 not because Cardi’s lyrics spoke wonders, but because the song was catchy and easy to chant along to. The irony of Cardi proudly wearing a 10 million dollar watch with $20 K-Mart jeans makes you feel like you have the confidence to do anything as well. No one should go into this album searching for a deeper meaning in the lyrics because you won’t find one. What you will find, though, is an instant confidence booster, and your own personal hypewoman in Belcalis Almanzar, better known as Cardi B. —Bea Amsalu

FEATURED SPOTIFY PLAYLIST:

“90S ROCK RENAISSANCE”

BY SPOTIFY FOLLOWERS: 1,378,768

Artists such as Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine and the Cranberries make an appearance on this playlist that showcases the rock and alternative hits of the 90s grunge.

— Abby Bammerlin

THE WOODEN BARREL PRICE: $$

LOCATION: 9303 Cincinnati Columbus Rd, West Chester, OH 45069

HOURS: Sun 7am-8pm Mon-Thurs 8am-9pm Fri 8am-10pm Sat 7am10pm

T

he Wooden Barrel is an independently owned neighborhood pub at 9303 Cincinnati Columbus Road, West Chester Township. The restaurant sits in a strip mall, and is easily overlooked, even when trying to find it. As we walked in the door to the darkened interior, there was a sense that everyone else there knew each other. The staff was very friendly, and quickly put us at ease.

Most patrons seemed to be family members enjoying a pleasant night out for dinner. The décor was country-store Americana with heavy wooden furniture covered in plaid tablecloths.

The menu was simple and short. There were a limited number of appetizers, salads, sandwiches and entrées. Fried food was the specialty. Breakfast was the pleasant surprise; it is served all day at the Wooden Barrel. We ordered breakfast and a fish dinner. The meal

F

or every pair of Bombas socks you purchase, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need. So far, they have donated fifty million pairs.

The name Bombas was derived from the Latin word bumble bee. Bees live and work together to make their world better. They are small, but their combined actions can make a big impact. The slogan “bee better” was also derived from this concept. The socks remind you that even little improvements can add up to make a big difference.

Socks are the number one most requested clothing item at homeless shelters. When founders Randy Goldberg and David Heath heard this they knew they needed to do something. Goldberg and Heath founded Bombas in 2013. One year later they went to Shark Tank and received additional funding from John Daymond.

Sadly, the beautiful socks are not cheap. For one pair of women’s or men’s ankle socks, they

arrived within ten minutes. The over-medium eggs were cooked perfectly with the white crisp and the yellow runny. The pancakes were tasty, served with warmed maple syrup. The haddock fish was above average, and we thoroughly enjoyed the French fries, hush puppies, and Cole Slaw served with it. The prices were easy on our wallets. Sadly, we were too full to attempt dessert as we had heard good things about it.

The Wooden Barrel represents its category well. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a meal of comfort food. Do not go there for a light salad. Be ready to eat a heavy meal of fried food and be in the mood to enjoy it without regret. You will feel like you just visited your grandmother’s kitchen, as you walk out the door, rubbing your full stomach.

—Kara Echternacht

are $12. For a six pack, they are $68. These socks are on the pricey side, but you get what you pay for. They are most definitely worth it. Hopefully in later years to come, Bombas would consider opening a line of less expensive socks that were not as highly engineered for people that want to help the community, but cannot afford that much money themselves.

Another downside is that there are no children’s socks.

Even though these socks are expensive, they are extremely comfortable. Bombas uses the softest long durable yarns from high quality cotton and merino wool. This new level of engineered comfort includes honeycomb support structures to hug your foot, y-stitched heels, stay up technology, and more. This company makes you feel better about your online shopping addiction because you are making a change.

—Kara Echternacht

BOMBAS SOCKS

PRICE RANGE: $10-24 / PAIR

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 42

Taking the world by storm “F infographic megan finke and mckenna lewis | photography meredith niemann ortnite Battle Royale” (BR) is a sensation. It has gained worldwide attention from people of all ages and by the media. There’s a reason “Fortnite” has gained all of the attention it has been getting. It checks major boxes of popular video games today especially by fitting into the battle royale genre.

Battle royale video games involve a large map and many players being pitted against each other and the last player standing is the winner.

The element of accomplishment when placing first is unrivaled in any other game I’ve played .

“Fortnite” pits 100 people against each other in a “Hunger Games” style. The feeling of besting 99 other people to be the solitary winner is extremely addictive and rewarding causing so many players to come back game after game.

“Fortnite” has gained over 30 million players since the launch for early access on September 26, 2017. “Fortnite’s” popularity is completely justified due to its solid gameplay mechanics. It seamlessly adds building elements akin to games past such as “Minecraft” and combines them with well-developed shooting and combat fundamentals similar to games like “Counter Strike: Global Offensive”. The smooth combination of building and fighting makes for an experience unlike any other thirdperson action game that I’ve ever played and for that reason, “Fortnite” is easily recommendable especially at it’s zero dollar price tag.

The game has several different game modes that keep the experience fresh each time it’s played. A player can choose to go in solo, with a duo or in a squad of up to four people.

The times that I’ve had the most fun playing are in a squad of three other friends. With the amount of people currently playing the game it is extremely easy to talk about in almost any situation.

The popularity makes it simple to find more and more people to share such great experiences with. This is made even easier with “Fortnite’s” cross platform compatibility which allows people on different systems to connect with each other. With “Fortnite’s” free-to-play price model, the number of people playing it, the ease of access to play with friends on any system and the intuitive and unique gameplay mechanics, Fortnite is easily recommendable to anyone who wants to play whether they are interested in playing competitively or casually.

— Michael Croy

PLayer profiles “My favorite part about ‘Fortnite’ is linking up with your friends and having fun as a collective group,” says Phelan.

“It brings back the old days of playing ‘Call of Duty’ together.”

“Playng the game is just a way to relax and have fun with your friends,” says Nordmark.

“It helps me destress and just forget about responsibilities.”

Joe Phelan

Broc Nordmark

71 East students answered: what medium of technology do you play fortnite on?

PC 10 people

125 East students answered: do you play fortnite?

53 people 76 people

Xbox 23 people Mobile Phone 11 people PS4 26 people

No Yes

129 East students answered: how many hours each week do you spend playing fortnite?

150 120 90 60 30

0

15 people 16 people 32 people

65 people

victory royale!

Fortnite has quickly become a video game sensation and garnered a very large following of dedicated players.

sources: ign.com, epicgames.com

Game Modes: Battle Royale

Junk Junction

This free-to-play game mode is on a large scale where 100 players drop down into the large island map shown below and the last one standing wins.

Anarchy Acres Haunted Hills Wailing Woods

Pleasant Park

Tomato Town Loot Lake

Snobby Shores

Lonely Lodge

Dusty Depot Tilted Towers

Retail Row Salty Springs

Greasy Grove

Shifty Shafts Fatal Fields

Save the World A quest/mission based game mode where players complete tasks to unlock items and heroes while progressing. While this game mode is not free, it will be free-to-play at some point in 2018.

Moisty Mire

Flush Factory Lucky Landing

Growth Fortnite has grown significantly since it’s time in early development.

Oct. 11, 2017 -10 miilion total players

Dec. 8, 2017 -30 million total players and 1.3 million concurrent players

Feb. 8, 2018 -3.4 million concurrent players

Kumon Math and Reading Center of West Chester 8202 Highland Pointe Drive West West Chester, OH 45069 513-777-0888 • kumon.com/west-chester-oh

VAULTING TO VICTORY

East junior and Pole Vaulter Lindsey Kluesener continues to set records. story stone shields photography lauren maier

N

o, it isn’t a Friday night under the lights.

No, the marching band isn’t booming the fight song. Yet, there still are athletes in the Hawks Nest ready to compete. The stadium is full of murmurs as the runners take positions.

Viewers might miss some of the recordbreaking action. This includes watching a blonde girl soar over an 11 foot pole. East Junior Lindsey Kluesener has been pole vaulting for a year and has broken three East records and finished runner up in the Greater Miami Conference (GMC).

“My dad always said I should pole vault. I listened to him sophomore year and started in the outdoor track season,” Kluesener says.

Kluesener grew up a gymnast but quit after the 2017 season to focus more on pole vaulting.

She says that her gymnastics background has helped her become a good pole vaulter.

Kluesener says that “gymnastics has really helped me as far as my strength and body awareness in the air

when I pole vault.”

Pole vaulters have an indoor and outdoor season that run from January to June but Klusesener competes in both and summer training.

Every week she goes through two to three “sprint” workouts as well as actual pole vaulting two to three times. The sprint workout is a mixture of 40-350 meter runs with up to eight repetitions. She takes the day before her meets off and competes either once or twice a week.

Kluesener works with Assistant Varsity Track and Field Coach Jared Haynes on her event. Haynes taught her the basics of the sport in the 2016-17 school year and has helped her improve since. She says that “he helps make my technique clean and fixes my bad jumps.”

“She is always looking for ways to improve,” Haynes says. “I don’t know many athletes that would spend two days a week driving to University of Cincinnati (UC) to practice and drive Midwest for offseason.”

D

ue to this dedication, Haynes has high hopes for Kluesener as the track and field season begins to unwind. “The goal is to go to state and win and we feel she has a good chance of accomplishing this,” he says.

Kluesener also helps the younger vaulters in her free time. This

gives Haynes having high hopes for Kluesener as the track season begins to unwind.

Kluesener also works with UC alum Josh Dangel—he vaulted at UC from 2011 to 2014.

Dangel was the 2013 Big East Conference Pole Vault Champion, 2013 NCAA 1st team AllAmerican, and broke East’s record in 2014.

Kluesener and Dangel met this winter when she attended open gyms at UC. Now when they train together, they work on vault specific technical training and technique. Dangel attributes most of her accomplishments to her unyielding desire to succeed.

“I have no doubt in my mind that she can claim a state championship and the state record during her high school career,” Dangel says.

“If she chooses to jump in college, she could compete nationally in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. She can be successful in whatever she does in life.”

Kluesener is pursuing a scholarship and pole vault in college. Once she hits 12 feet, she will begin to get some Division I looks but has not ruled out an Olympic run.

“Being an Olympic athlete would be awesome,” Kluesener says. “But right now I just have to keep working hard and see where that takes me.” •

East junior Lindsey Kluesner participates in vaulting practices after school.

SEN OR LEADER

East senior varsity lacrosse captain Sukhleen Kaur dedicates herself to the sports on and off the field. story gracie estep photography julianne ford

R

acing down the field, putting all her energy into one thing; to defend her team’s goal. Every weeknight, East senior Sukhleen Kaur practices with her varsity lacrosse team to make sure they can continue finding the success that has allowed them to start with an 9-5 record.

Kaur has played Lacrosse since her Freshman year. Her hard work has allowed her to become one of the Senior Captains on the team.

“My favorite thing about being a team captain is getting my teammates hyped up and lifting their spirits up when we lose because we know we can play better than we did that game,” Kaur says “We’re all really close this year and I love playing with them.”

During the lacrosse season, Kaur has to balance all of her extra curricular activities, such as Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), Relay for Life sponsorship co-chair and volunteering for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Liberty campus and Mercy Health.

“Lacrosse is everyday after school, then soccer is every Friday night,” Kaur says “I have volunteering Mondays and Sundays, the rest of the time I just hang out with friends.”

Engineering Principles, Aerospace Engineering teacher and Varsity Lacrosse Coach Kenneth Kinch expresses that Kaur is always upbeat and smiling. “[She] provides a ton of leadership for our team, the girls look up to her,” Kinch says. “She is a great role model when it comes to hard work and being there everyday.”

O

n the field, Kaur plays defense, keeping the ball out of the opposing goalies side. Attacks try to score the ball, Midfielders run up and down

the field and goalies keep the other team from scoring.

Kaur stays focused in whichever task she is currently pursuing, on and off of the field, putting her in a leadership role where teammates, schoolmates and friends will all look up to her. She plays “intensely but calms everyone down at the same time.”

“She is a big time lead by example. She’s quiet sometimes, but everyone knows she’s going to give 100 percent.” Kinch says “She’s good at motivating and is always positive, always smiling, always upbeat, never negative.

The kids look up to that and enjoy having her around” Outside of her time playing lacrosse, Kaur also participates in HOSA, where she has recently won second place in Medical Reading at the regional competition in Butler County.

Being part of the East Medical Club helps Kaur’s general knowledge when preparing for a competition.

A

fter graduation, Kaur plans on going into neuroscience with a pre-medical track at The Ohio State University where she will grow her love for science through helping people. Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors Chemistry teacher Elizabeth Gosky says that the AP Chemistry class she is currently taking will help with her future endeavors.

“This class will give her a solid foundation.

Whether or not she is moving onto higher levels.” Gosky says, “She has already gone through that struggle with the hard concepts, frustration and time management where her peers next years are going to see that for the for the first time.”

Kaurs teachers see how her hard work and dedication pay off in the classroom.

“She is very determined to make sure she figures things out,” Gosky says. “She always does a good job at making sure she understands things and not just accepting that the answer is C.” Although Kaur is moving onto college next year, she will miss many things about East and her high school experience. “[What I’m going to miss most] about lacrosse is that feeling you get when you win and work together as a team and the coaching staff,” Kaur says. •

sports | lacrosse

RENOVATION: LACROSSE East Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse made major changes to the 2018-19 school year with a new head coach. story broc nordmark | photography julianne ford

I

t’s pouring rain, with each raindrop hitting the turf louder than the one before it. The stadium lights illuminate the field, as the East Girls’ Lacrosse Team scores yet another goal against their Greater Miami Conference (GMC) foe Fairfield.

The Varsity Girls have won seven of their ten games to start off the season. The girls spend many nights out on the field practicing vigorously, and the rain doesn’t stop them.

East Varsity Girls’ Lacrosse Coach Kenneth Kinch is in his first season as the head coach, after serving as assistant coach alongside Rick Urmie, who stepped down before the season.

Kinch takes pride for the improved work ethic and success the girls have enjoyed this season Kinch has begun to build a new system for the team that is steadily proving itself successful.

He has changed many things about how the team runs, such as attack strategy, defensive strategy and even how each of the teammates coalesces to make such a strong unit.

Changing all of those aspects of a team from one season to the next takes quite a bit of time and work, and that all starts with practice according to Kinch. Practice is his favorite part of how the team runs, he believes it is the key to the successful change in system.

“We hold them more accountable on certain things. We set the expectations pretty high on how hard to work,” Kinch says. “But the girls respond well. They answer and they call whenever I challenge them. It really comes down to them in the end.”

The girls on the team have also been a huge part of the change that has occurred this season

Below: East junior Emily Willms playing against a West lacrosse player.

according to Kinch. Their willingness to work hard under Kinch has increased drastically from last season.

East junior Makenna Henderson has seen the change first hand. She talked about how she used to not care about practice nearly as much, but that it has all changed this year.

“Last year, personally I would miss practice whenever I really felt like it,’ Henderson says, “But this year, he’s showed us that skipping is a disservice to the team, and that you need to be here for the sake of the team.”

H

enderson believes that Kinch helped instill the idea of accountability in each of the girls, and has built team spirit in doing so. One of Kinch’s desires coming into the head coach position was to drastically increase

the level of accountability, not just by coaches, but also by the seniors.

Another thing that Kinch changed is the level of team chemistry, and the relationships not only between the girls, but also with Kinch himself. While Kinch maintains a level of respect during practice and games, he also likes to put in a bit of a fun taste to the environment they play in.

One way Kinch has done this is the introduction of the Lunch Pail award. Kinch developed this award to recognize one girl each game. The physical award is an old 1960’s metal lunchbox, and helps put a fun spin on awards night while still giving recognition to someone who deserves it.

“It’s easy to award kids for most goals scored, most valuable player and other things,” Kinch says. “We try to award the kids who do the things that go behind the scenes, like fielding ground balls, forcing turnovers and the assists.”

T

his award is one of the many ways Kinch finds a good balance between being serious, and finding ways to incorporate more enjoyable aspects into the team. This philosophy has brought the girls closer together than they’ve ever been before.

East junior Braylee Dishun is a believer in what Kinch has done to bring the girls together as one. When asked about what Kinch has done to make team chemistry such a vital part of their team this year, she simply started out by saying, “Everything.”

“Kinch just came in, and he was what we needed to fit everything together, and to make everything more cohesive,” Dishun says. “I know a lot of people respect him, and he knows exactly what we need to do to bring out everyone’s strengths.”

Dishun likes that Kinch vocalizes his confidence in each girl, and is very positive and supportive of everyone on the team. Kinch’s positive reinforcement is one of the traits he incorporates into his mix of skills.

“I want the players to play intense, so I’m pretty intense. Intensity is contagious, so if I coach that way, the players will play that way,” Kinch says, “But at the same time, I try to have fun. I’m not bashful about getting on them if they mess up or they’re lazy, but I will commend them for a good job.”

East Assistant Coach Tori Meyer jumped on the opportunity to help out with the lacrosse team. Now, she works alongside Kinch, learning from all of his strategies for both on the field strategies and tips towards making sure the girls are motivated and prepared from a mental standpoint.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone who gives a better pump up speech than Kinch.

They’re always funny, but they’re always very motivating,” Meyer says. “He’s really good at motivating the girls, no matter what the situation is. I think that’s hard to get out of

Above: East junior MaKenna Henderson playing against a West lacrosse player. teenage girls sometimes.”

Meyer continued to state how much of an impact Coach Kinch has on the girls, and how coaching alongside him has allowed her to experience firsthand how to develop a healthy relationship with the athletes.

“We’re always looking to increase our technical systems and our schemes,” Kinch says. “Each year we sit down and we talk about, when we graduate our seniors, what the juniors did well last year, and how do we adapt our offense and defense in transition to them.”

I

n conjunction to this, Kinch’s system is built to give the girls more freedom on offense.

He uses a mix of organized attack and opportunity for the girls to choose how to attack in order to keep things fresh and allow the girls to develop a feel for the strategy of the game.

This philosophy is huge for Henderson,

who feels that the new system allows her to become a more complete lacrosse player. She says that the new system “has built leadership” in each girl.

“He does a lot more with the seniors running it rather than him running it because he knows that he’s not always going to be there on the field,” Henderson says. “He changed how we all see each other.”

Henderson believes that Kinch has made a lasting impact on each of the girls by not only increasing the success they’re enjoying on the field and making them more complete lacrosse players, but by also bringing them together as a family.

“Coach Kinch is for sure the strongest part of our team. I don’t really know if anyone knew what to expect from him,” Henderson says, “He’s made our team a lot better than it was before we had him as our lacrosse coach at East.” • 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 50

sports | coach in-depth

CYCLE OF COACHES Certain East sports have been through a number of coaches over the past few years, which East Athletic Director Richard Bryant looks over.

story dustin horter | photography meredith niemann | infographic lauren maier

H

iring of new coaches is a yearly task for East Athletic Director Richard Bryant. Through paper work and school board approval, coaches become pieces of Bryant’s East athletic puzzle, some more stable pieces than others.

With the recent hiring of three new coaches at East, some of those puzzle pieces were adjusted to fit a developing outlook within the athletic department. Such an outlook changes over time, but for Bryant, the current goal for coaches coming in is to have a long term plan in place.

“We’re hiring coaches who have a plan in place,” Bryant says. “With that being said, we like where we’re at and headed as an athletic department.”

Bryant introduced three coaches in a span of two weeks to the department, all of which Bryant states have formed or are in the process of forming plans for the upcoming season.

These detailed plans include how the season will run and more importantly how the offseason

will run.

“It is very important for our coaches to have a plan in place for the offseason,” Bryant says.

“It is easier for me to hire coaches who come into this process with structure.”

One of the latest additions to the wrestling staff is newly hired head coach Chad Craft, who has five years of assistant coaching experience at Colerain, Dixie Heights, West and four years of head coaching experience at Little Miami.

With nine years of experience overall, Craft wants to be a successful coach, but also values the relationship he wishes to develop with his team.

“I don’t coach for me, the results, or personal performance,” Craft says. “If the kids are having a positive experience wrestling, I will consider my coaching to be successful.”

The new coach will be only the second wrestling coach in East’s 20 year history, following up the 19 year tenure of Jim Lehman, who resigned mid season after the parents surrounding the program wanted to see it go

in a different direction. Craft stated that East was an attractive destination for a coach not only for its stable position, but because of the athletic department and kids he’d be working with.

“East is filled with kids who want to work and learn,” Craft says. “It also helps to have one of the best athletic departments in the state of Ohio supporting the wrestling program.”

Incoming senior and 132 pound weight class wrestler Jackson Leahy will be a part of that first team of students under Craft. Leahy says that he understands Craft has a lot of knowledge he can learn from and is optimistic for his last season as a Thunderhawk wrestler after a 12 win, 12 loss season which included five pins.

“I look forward to what I can learn from Coach Craft,” Leahy says. “I’m hopeful his expertise will build upon the skills and lessons taught by the past coaching staff.”

The East girls volleyball program also added a new head coach, Janna Stephens after the

source east athletic director richard bryant

East Athletic Director Richard Bryant posts applications on the Lakota East website, Ohio High school Athletic Association website, social media and coaching outlets.

1

The current coach resigns, is fired or quits and the process of finding a new coach begins.

51 lakotaeastsparkonline.com Apr 2018

2

APPLICATION

A new coach is hired on staff.

3

By sending out several different applications, it casts a large net to find a new coach.

Interviews are conducted next.

4

coach in-depth | sports two former coaches resigned. The volleyball position has opened and closed frequently, with five separate head coaches in the past ten years.

The athletic department sought stability when hiring the new volleyball coach. Stephens has coached for multiple national level club teams as well as the East freshman school, so she was considered a hire from within. As a player herself, Stephens graduated from East playing volleyball, so coming back to coach for her home team made East a desirable destination for her.

“It has always been my goal to coach at the place where my love for volleyball started,” Stephens says. “Not only do I get to coach at a well respected high school, but I get to do it in a place I can call home. To me there is no better situation than that.”

Stephens will look to better the Hawks after last season. The team went 7-2, good for a third place finish in the Greater Miami Conference (GMC), but went 13-12 on the season overall.

According to Stephens, the team will try new things this offseason to better themselves.

“We are continually adding to the summer program,” Stephens says. “We are going to try some new conditioning and training. The summer is really our time to start bonding as

a program.”

Incoming senior Riley Adleta was first skeptical of having her third coach in four years, but meeting Stephens proved to give her and the team confidence going into the 201819 year.

“I didn’t know how to take it at first,” Adleta says. “I was wanting to go into my senior year of volleyball with certainty of how the program worked. Although there has been a lot of changes to the program, meeting Coach Stephens made me pumped for what’s yet to come with her as our coach.”

Of the three newly hired coaches, Dan Wallace will fill one of the bigger roles the athletic department has to offer in women’s basketball. The department saw former coach Gideon Dudgeon and his staff resign after a 5-19 season.

Wallace has 11 years of coaching experience around the area, previously coaching most notably for Colerain and McAuley. His career record with those teams is 139-54 in eight seasons as head coach, but over the past five years with McAuley, he was 99-26.

“Winning is the focus of every team and every program, but building the foundation that will leave to success is the goal,” Wallace

says. “Immediate success is hard to chase, but that depends on how quickly we can pick things up and the effort level of everyone involved.”

Wallace enters a coaching position with little security over the past ten years. Six new head coaches have been introduced over that period, with a combine record of 121-185.

Even the players have noticed the lack of security for coaches. Incoming senior guard Lily Rupp commented that she has had three coaches in four years as a player on the team, but states it has not had an effect on the team dynamic.

“This transition hasn’t been as bad as people would expect it to be thanks to Coach Wallace,” Rupp says. “I’ve learned a lot from him already just coming to summer gyms and I can tell he will be extremely committed to our team.”

Incoming junior guard Elizabeth Holthaus echoed Rupp’s optimism for Wallace, stating that through only three open gyms, it is easy to spot his dedication to the program becoming better.

“Just by talking to him you get a sense he’s all about unity,” Holthaus says. “That’s something I would say we lacked last year. This upcoming year is all about encouragement rather than consequences.” •

HISTORY OF EAST HEAD COACHES GIRLS’ BASKETBALL Cindy Feltman (‘97-’03) Dave Honhart (‘03-’08) Todd Benzinger (‘08-’09) Nikki Drew (‘09-’13) Larry Sykes (‘13-’14) Jill Phillips (‘14-’16) Gideon Dudgeon (‘16-’18) BOYS’ BASKETBALL Dave Davis (‘97-’02) Wally Vickers (‘02-’14) Clint Adkins (‘14-Present) source east sports information

GIRLS’ SOCCER Mike Popejoy (‘97-’03) Tara Riffle-Murray (‘03-’08) Amy Kreider (‘08-’09) Tom McEwan (‘09-’13) BOYS’ BASKETBALL Dave Davis (‘97-’02) Wally Vickers (‘02-’14) Clint Adkins (‘14-Present) BOYS’ FOOTBALL Greg Bailie (‘97-’09) Wally Vickers (‘09-Present)

East junior Jada Bouyer serves at a Greater Miami Conference game.

sports | alternative sports

BALANCING ACT As she has found her niche within athleticism, East senior Emily Harmon’s passion for baton twirling and dance has impacted her life in numerous ways. story sidney li photography richard giang Right: East senior Emily Harmon practices to perform for at the Boys Varisty basketball game.

T

he metal baton sits in her hands as she stretches her back straight, perpendicular to the wooden floor. Taking deep breaths, she calms herself down as the crescendo of the music starts to dissipate in.

It’s her cue. She begins to dance around the gymnasium with a mixture of dance moves.

With sweat all over her body, East senior Emily Harmon didn’t have a care in the world as she continued to finish her baton twirling routine.

“Twirl has played a major part in my life as I have been doing this since I was four-yearsold,” Harmon says. “It is an individual sport but I’m on a team too. But through it all, it seriously is an underrated sport that I wish more people were aware of.”

Harmon competes on both an individual and team level for the United States Twirling Association (USTA) team Encore. With the four individual categories—freestyle, solo, dance twirl and strut—Harmon found that she

53 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

enjoys dance twirl due to her dance background that she started when she was two-years-old.

“Dance has influenced baton as I have a distinct style because of all the dance experience that I have,” Harmon says. “But baton has influenced dance. Baton is so individual, it has given me the confidence that I need for dance.”

After having Harmon fill in for one of her other twirlers in 2010, coach Machelle Steihl had Harmon join the team until 2014 where she decided to focus on herself. Then, Steihl created her USTA twirling team Encore near Nov. 2017 with a total of 10 girls from across the United States (U.S.).

“Emily is a very talented dancer and twirler.

She has won several state, regional and national twirling titles,” Steihl says. “She goes out of her way to cheer on her competitors [while] always exhibiting superior sportsmanship.”

The team meets up every other weekend in order to practice and perfect their choreography

for eight hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

Now, Encore is Team USA after winning the U.S. World Trials. Harmon is now also on the University of Kentucky Dance Team.

While her mother and older sister Cindy and Megan Harmon both participated in baton twirling themselves throughout their lives, it wasn’t unnatural for Emily to try the sport too.

“My mom got me into baton twirling with my friends and their own moms as we were all girls around five-years-old at the time,” Cindy says. “I’m sure it was just another activity that was used to keep us all busy but we all loved it and continued with it as we got older.”

W

hen Cindy went to college at Miami University, she still continued her baton twirling and became a judge at local, state, regional and national competitions, After that, Cindy decided to become a coach for local girls in the neighborhood.

One of the girls that Cindy coached is East senior Julia Bergquist. Now, Bergquist is accompanying Emily as one of the 10 members for USTA’s Encore team and they practice around 14 hours together.

“Emily inspires me every time she twirls,” Bergquist says. “Every movement [of hers] is perfected [and] every time I see her perform, she is always fully involved in the performance.”

As Cindy enjoyed twirling, she wanted her daughters to experience the thrills that she once did and had them aid in her classes. Later, when Megan attended Miami University, she also twirled throughout her college years; now, she currently coaches the twirling team there too.

As for Emily, she plans on pursuing a different path from Cindy and Megan at the University of Kentucky.

From driving to competitions together and spending hours at gymnasiums, Cindy not only supports Emily in both dance and baton

twirling, but she coaches her daughter on a weekly basis before her lessons and choreographies throughout the week.

“Emily sets her own goals, which I had no idea she’d do. It is exciting to see her do that; yet, it’s nerve-wracking too,” Cindy says. “That’s why she has other coaches besides me because it does get hard being a mom and a coach, plus they can be more pushy than me.”

However, due to Emily’s dedication and love to the sport, she often “is hard on herself,” Cindy says. This does lead to some arguments but “I just want to help my daughter get to somewhere for what she loves doing.”

Cindy teaches at Star Performance Centre— the same place that Emily dances too. Even though Cindy doesn’t coach Emily’s teams, Emily often helps with the younger girls in the classes that her mom has.

The effort that Emily has put towards baton twirling has paid off for her. She has won the

dance twirl and strut category at the 2017 Ohio State Baton Twirling Championship. Not only did Emily win state but she won her first national title in 2016 as the 2016 16-Year-Old National Dance Twirl Champion.

“Last year, I competed in the Pan Pacific Cup,” Emily says. “It was really cool to see teams representing other countries, which is what I also hope to see at World’s this year.”

D

espite the obstacles that Emily has reached since she started baton twirling and dance as a child, she has no regrets with what they have taught and instilled in her.

“Both dance and baton has brought me my best friends. I have learned to be driven and determination and motivation has really shaped me into who I am,” Emily says. “Those two sports have definitely helped me figure out my personality. I wouldn’t be who I am without dance and baton.” • 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 54

HEAD TO HEAD I

would not consider myself to be a die-hard environmentalist or a very educated biologist, but I do consider myself an animal lover. Ever since a young age I have loved to visit zoos, aquariums, or pet stores and look at all of the amazing creatures in hopes that one day they would have a great home.

Often times I have found myself at a loss for words just from looking at a creature and wondering how in the world they have 10 legs or bright red eyes. The genetic diversity of animals is a miracle.

Dissections of specimens started in the early 1920s with frogs being used at the college level and integrated into the high school level. They have since been a way to educate students in biology all over the world.

According to a humane science education site called Animalearn, an estimated six million dissections are performed on rats, pigs, frogs along with 167 other species every year.

These animals are ripped from their families and transported to companies like Carolina Biological: the company that East gets their dissection specimens from.

A

fter being deprived of space, fresh air, and freedom, animals are slaughtered and their babies are used for dissections. Investigators from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have recently documented cases in which animals were removed from gas chambers and injected with formaldehyde without first being checked for vital signs, which is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Formaldehyde is a substance that causes a painful death.

According to the vegan organization One Green Planet, after the injection of formaldehyde other animals are then separated into class A and B dealers. Class A dealers are organizations who breed animals to sell, while class B dealers come from a multitude of sources, including stray animals, pounds, or shelters.

Most of these animals have already been raised in terrible conditions and it is an added cruelty to dissect them after death. With rats being one of the most common animals used in dissections, they are naturally very intelligent animals, and when confined in cages they don’t have the opportunity for natural behavior.

University of Georgia psychologist Jonathan Crystal said that rats know when they don’t know what is happening. These small animals are aware that something unnatural is happening to them.

In biology classes, there have been instances of the students goofing off and disrespecting the animals they are supposed to be learning from.

Harding Charter Preparatory High School in Oklahoma ended dissections because nine students reportedly made cat corpses dance to the “Meow Mix” cat food theme song in a video.

The conflict that occurred led to outcry from animals rights groups that called for an

ANIMAL DISSECTIONS

end to dissections in every school.

N

ot only do these archaic practices devalue life, but they are a waste of money.

Dissections are a one-and-done situation.

It is not possible to cut an animal open and sew it back together. Students don’t need to cut up animals to understand basic anatomy and physiology. At the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, no aspect of teaching involves dissection. They use medical imaging, life models, and pathology lectures in the context of clinical scenarios.

Dissections are also bad for the environment.

It is upsetting enough that these animals are being taken from their families and out of wildlife but the effects of it are happening rapidly.

The population of frogs has been severely decreased after 900,000 frogs were taken from the wild in Mexico. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the formaldehyde is a “hazardous air pollutant, water pollutant, and waste constituent.” The chemicals can also cause intense irritation even to the human the eyes, throat, and nose.

Everything around us has a meaning and a purpose in life. Allowing these animals to get a fair chance at living their fullest life should be just as important as anyone else. Students in schools are being taught about the biodiversity crisis and all of its negative aspects, but yet are being encouraged to contribute to it.

Anything with a pulse matters and since these kids are tomorrow’s future, violence and gore are not the first thing they should be practicing. •

To read Spark staffer Jack Parr’s commentary on the Cincinnati Red’s, visit lakotaeastsparkonline.com

The season of dissections in biology classes has arrived, but with it comes the moral dilemma of whether or not this should be a requirement in the classroom.

columns sophie knauer, joe phelan art mckenna lewis

B

iology is a part of my family business. My mom earned her PhD and became a doctor because of of her learning experiences with animal dissections and she always told me that the best part of medical school is witnessing how amazing the systems of the body. I want to follow her path to help other people in the future.

That leads to a special shoutout to my Honors Anatomy teacher Julie Deak. I would not have discovered my extensive interests in the medical field without her guidance through the cat dissection.

Biology and anatomy students need the hands-on experiences to learn about the animals and their internal systems. Virtual diagrams don’t provide the same experience, the authenticity of actual dissections creates an engaging learning environment.

According to a statement from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), it is determined that dissection in the classrooms is one of the most effective ways to meet certain standards of learning. This environment is essential for students to retain the information they learn instead of forgetting after the class is over.

T

ake Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, one of the most commonly known system to differentiate types of learning, for instance.

Teachers have found that more students are kinesthetic, meaning that physical activities is crucial in their learning cycles. Dissection gives students a chance to pay attention to detail, work with a partner, and get their hands dirty, which activates other learning styles as well. In my experience, it enforces a life lesson that will lead to proper understanding of the system they are dissecting.

Using other options like virtual dissections simply cannot live up to the standards. Real life doctors perform surgeries on real people, not simulations. Our next generation of doctors needs to encounter challenges if they are expected to perform real procedures.

Still, animal rights groups are still pushing for a complete ban on animal dissections, especially People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). PETA is distributing petitions nationwide to ban dissections, regardless of the wishes of educators and students. Furthermore, PETA says their mission is to halt all animal

testing in laboratories, the same reason that led to all the medical breakthroughs in the past century.

They want to release the animals who grew up in a laboratory, but it is way more complicated than their assumption of how easy it is.

Those animals for science cannot survive long in a real ecosystem. Releasing them from the purpose of science advancement is just sending those animals to their dooms.

A

ccording to dosomething.org, the estimate for homeless cats wandering the streets of America is ranging up to 70 million.

Instead of helping this cause, PETA and other “humane” organizations are trying to interrupt the learning of America’s future veterinarians, which contradicts with their purpose.

These organizations are also not doing anything to help the adoption of these animals. Most of the animals used for dissection come from shelter homes. From there, they are put down and then prepared with formaldehyde and sent to the classrooms. According the PETA’s own website, animal shelters in America are overpopulating.

They can’t take care of every single animal in America.

L

ittle do they know, the NSTA had worked in the past decade to prevent any cruel treatments of animals before they make it into the classrooms, making dissections an ethical option. On the plus, the NSTA released a statement saying that schools are only getting the animals from companies that go through the routine investigations, therefore only animals from humane environments.

I’m not saying that all students have to participate in dissections, but it should be a free choice. If Sally has no interest in learning about the internal system of a frog or it makes her nauseous, Sally doesn’t have to puke in order to receive points for the assignment.

I still walk by Deak’s room everyday. Even though the intense odor of formaldehyde occasionally makes me uneasy, I still have gained a new profound respect towards the animals I have dissected. But a ban on animal dissections will strip this respect and choice from me and millions of students.

opinion | column

JOY IN REPETITION BRYCE FORREN art mckenna lewis

I

n mid February, I hurried onto my computer and surfed the web to get information on the Smashing Pumpkins’ reunion tour. News of this tour has surfaced some 25 years after they released “Siamese Dream,” an album that I feel has one of the most original sounds of its genre. I didn’t hesitate through the process of purchasing two tickets, website fees and all. However, once the tickets were printed, it occurred to me that I wasn’t sure if the band was still any good at performing.

It is now nearing 20 years since the band has played together in their original lineup, while frontman Billy Corgan has continued the band’s legacy with a supporting group of much younger artists.

Still, I couldn’t resist. To someone who idolizes the albums that they put out years before I was born, this was the biggest thing in music. A band that transformed the alternative scene in the 90s and I had the chance to see them live.

Absolutely. But it presents a much bigger problem for society as a whole.

Rock music has lately been suffering from exactly this issue. While the world of hip hop and rap continues to innovate and transform its sound, stretching slightly into its future with each year, rock and alternative stuck itself into a loop that rewards repetition and nostalgia.

To his credit, The Smashing Pumpkins’ frontman Billy Corgan is well aware of this problem, telling Fuse that when it comes to modern music, “individuality has been erased and wiped away.” “[Modern pop music] has made itself completely irrelevant as an aesthetic form,” he said. “It’s like looking into a hall of mirrors where all you see is the other mirrors.”

The genre, through popular media, has celebrated how cool it used to be back in the day rather than attempting to advance or break through.

A band like Greta Van Fleet, hailing from the underground scene in Detroit, is given hit

57 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

after hit. Radio DJ’s treat their innate imitation of Led Zeppelin’s signature sound as something to be praised and recognized in a new era. An audience craves to feel the way that listeners felt in 1968 upon the release of Zeppelin’s first album.

In reality, there have been very few artists that have challenged the genre over the past decade. This is a rapid change of pace for rock

In order for any genre of music to progress any further, it has to leave some of itself behind. music, having experienced at least four or five a decade in the latter half of the 20th century.

The modern scene lacks an Elvis that sways his hips all while upsetting our parents and provoking the status quo.

In order for any genre of music to progress any further, it has to leave some of itself behind.

When the Beatles changed the rock n’ roll genre in the early 60’s, they weren’t exactly topped by all of the copycat four-pieces that brandished bowl cuts and suits.

T

hey set the standard and defined their generation because of their ability to take aspects of what the architects of rock and roll had built and move it to the next level.

The majority of rock or alternative music on the radio appears to either be abandoning the genre entirely or going backwards on the time line. Even artists that defined their respective genres at one point in time appear to be stuck in their own personal stalemates.

Marilyn Manson’s 2017 effort “Heaven

Upside Down” derives its sound from everything that made America scared of him two decades ago. He has played his role in creating his culture, however, and now it seems his only job is to ride upon the empire he has created from his music.

His influence is visible, as metal stations will loop any song derived from the very sound he popularized? Rewarding the works of a musician for effectively repeating the sounds of bands and artists that were innovators of their genres puts the complacency of the music industry to the forefront.

However, whenever the genre finds itself in one of these holes, there is always hope to be found in the underground scene. In the era of sometimes-decent but repetitive hair metal throughout the 1980’s, rock and roll found its new beginnings in the underground clubs of Seattle, sparking another decade of breakthroughs for the genre. The feud that existed between Guns N’ Roses frontman and Kurt Cobain embodied the spirit and conflict of a fresh and interesting sound taking over the mainstream.

Because of this, it is very likely that history is repeating itself and that the genre will be able to recover. Perhaps the only natural next step is to wait and see what remote part of the world the next big sound will come from. •

What The Students Said 341 students were asked if they listen to modern rock or alt music.

Their responses were:

Yes

No

column | opinion

FIVE MORE MINUTES ALAN FRANK art mckenna lewis

T

he deafening ring of my alarm clock fills my ears to pull me out of my peaceful state of slumber. I go through this same routine every morning, wishing that I had just five more minutes of rest. Once I finally complete my daily routine, I sit in English, contemplating why no matter how hard I try, I can never seem to get enough sleep.

Sleep deprivation is a common ailment in teenager’s lives. According to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Sleep Center, the body’s circadian rhythm, an internal clock, shifts when people reach adolescence.

This shift causes the sleep regulating hormone melatonin to be released two hours later than the normal 9 P.M. release that occurs in children and adults. Teens’ attempts to fall asleep earlier in the night are usually foiled by this shift. The resulting late bedtimes combined with early class times can cause sleep deprivation.

Sleep scientist at RAND Corporation Wendy Troxel called the lack of sleep an epidemic.

“Only about one in ten [teens] get the eight to ten hours of sleep per night, recommended by sleep scientists and pediatricians,” said Troxel.

This chronic sleep deprivation can have negative effects that many people attribute to just being a teenager. According to Troxel, moodiness, irritability and laziness are all unlikable characteristics in teens that could be less common if they were able to receive the recommended amount of sleep they need each night.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) echoed this sentiment in a study about the causes and effects of teen sleep deprivation. They found that sleep deprivation can have detrimental effects on teenagers.

The agency put out a statement that said sleep deprived teens are more likely to not get enough exercise and be overweight, as well as suffer from depressive symptoms.

“Adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to engage in unhealthy risk

behaviors such as drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using illicit substances,” said the CDC in a statement.

Poor decision making is another outcome of sleep deprivation in teens. According to Michael J. Breus, PhD, a clinical psychologist and diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine, the region of the brain that is responsible for governing impulse control, judgement, and complex decision-making, is negatively affected by a lack of sleep. A lack of sleep can push people to make decisions that would normally be chalked up to immaturity.

D

espite many parents’ belief that sleep deprivation is due to phones or social media, schools often play a big part in depriving teens of reaching the recommended minimum of eight hours of sleep they need. In

[occurred].”

Early school openings don’t even take into consideration the amount of time it takes a teenager to prepare to go to school. They have a morning routine that they go through in order to prepare for the rest of their day.

Plus, to really prepare for the day, teenagers are supposed to eat breakfast before they go to school. This entire process of getting ready for school and eating breakfast can take an hour or more, depriving them of even more sleep.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, the best way to prevent bad sleep practices is to have a consistent sleep schedule.

“Stick to a sleep schedule of the same bedtime and wake up time, even on the weekends. This helps to regulate your body’s clock and could help you fall asleep and stay asleep for the night,” said the National Sleep

I sit in English, contemplating why no matter how hard I try, I can never seem to get enough sleep. the same aforementioned CDC study, it was discovered that many schools start too early for teens to receive the recommended amount of sleep.

The study found that schools that had a start time of 8:30 a.m. or later were on track to give students the recommended amount of sleep they needed. On the other hand, Lakota East High School begins their regular classes at 8:05 a.m., with a 7:15 a.m. start time for students that want to benefit from an extra class period voluntarily.

These early class times deprive teens of needed sleep and can also be dangerous for tired teenagers who drive themselves to school.

According to a Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine study that tested the effects of a onehour start time delay, “a significant drop in auto collision rates for high school-aged drivers

Foundation.

The National Sleep Foundation also states that teens often need more sleep than adults on a regular basis.

“Teens need about eight to ten hours of sleep each night to function best,” said the National Sleep Foundation. This is an hour over the seven to nine hours recommended for adults.

Waking up and going to sleep at the same time every day is the trick to getting a good sleep every night, but this isn’t always possible for a teenager. The early wake-up times that teens have to live with on weekdays already deprive students of sleep, so getting up early on weekends feels hard to do. Inconsistencies in sleep schedules end up hurting teens because sleeping in late makes it harder for teens to wake up early when they need to. • 2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 58

opinion | editorial cartoons

“The White House Goes Mad” — Bryce Forren

59 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2018

east speaks | opinion

“Priorities” — Alex Fernholz

EAST SPEAKS OUT

Do You Support Animal Dissection In Biology Classes? interviews and photography tyler bonawitz and charis williams

YES

NEUTRAL

NO

Yeah, definitely. I mean I don’t like it like I want to do it but I think it’s part of the learning process in Biology.

It depends on the animal being dissected. I do not think that animals should be dissected in labs but it could bring to light things wrong with animals that we could discover.

It’s a split topic, like some people are like we should dissect animals, why not?

But that’s gross and not ethical, would you want your body cut up without your permission?

-Kyle Oliver

-Maya Wells

-Kate Picray

2018 May lakotaeastsparkonline.com 60

RIP TO THE TRUTH SIDNEY LI

photography meredith niemann

I

never imagined myself typing an autobiography about my interests and hobbies. Putting myself out there on the internet is actually daunting. Finding words to explain myself in a positive manner while being approachable is worse than doing a lab in Advanced Placement Biology.

I only created a Facebook account two months ago so I could connect with incoming Ohio State University freshmen who are also seeking future roommates around the campus. Little did I know, I didn’t know how to make myself sound as appealing as I am.

When I finally managed to get into the Ohio State University (OSU) Class of 2022 Facebook page, I was greeted by the same hundreds of future Buckeyes who were searching for their future roommates too and I was struck by the desperation of trying to represent the entirety of my life and personality in a few hundred words.

There’s no way that an individual can express themselves to the full extent in just a few, brief sentences. Yet, one must endure his or her struggle and garner the strength to abide by these new socially facilitated rules of information and communication.

According to a 2015 Common Sense Media report, 68 percent of teens text one another daily, 51 percent of teens go on social media platforms daily and 11 percent of teens have sent or received tweets at least once a day.

This isn’t a surprise as the internet and social media are integrated into the lives of the millions of teens around the country. During almost every minute of almost every day, we are expected to “put ourselves out there”, to show the world in a handful of characters and images exactly who we are and what we stand for.

This is an absurd expectation, starting with being expected to find a compatible person to live with for a year based on one Facebook post, let alone, connecting my other social media accounts so other incoming freshmen at OSU could further delve into my internetportrayed life.

Little do my followers know, I am an actress. I’m not one of those Hollywood big shots but I can simply make myself out as someone who I’m not through my posts, tweets, and Snapchat stories. This facade is something I actually set out to do, but once I reached high school and made more friends, it seemed like I had to just because everyone else around me was too.

I don’t want to let my Twitter likes, my Instagram selfies, my Facebook posts to define who I am. I don’t even want to try because I know that no matter what, I’ll just fall short. I’m more than a witty caption and edited photo but here I am, trying my best poses and attempting to look the best that I could possibly be.

I won’t let social media define me and it shouldn’t define others either. Yet, through it all, social media will truly be the death of us. •