December Issue 2011 by Melinda Gilman

THE

NORTH STAR

INSIDE: Off the beaten track

p. 7

Issue 4, Volume 26 Blue Valley North Overland Park, KS December 15, 2011

enior JJ Becker overcame the ultimate obstacle: a debilitating addiction that consumed his life. The story of his rise above the influence continues on page 12-13.

AOTM: Conner Crooker

p. 5

SinCYR Science

p.10

the north star news 12.15.11

Junior Vishaak Ravi studies his battlefield, especially so that his king, the board’s most important piece, remains safe from attack. Photo by Ali Falluca.

Check mates: Chess Club aspires to victory

Sarah Evans Business Manager

t looked like the Rockhurst Hawklets had the Mustangs cornered with only a few seconds left in their away game. The BVN competitor quickly made his play, hoping the strategy he had discussed with his coach would work. It was a heart-pounding nail-biter of fierce competition. It was chess. Strategies perfectly memorized and knights polished, the Chess Club is gearing up for its second season. A student-led group that meets on Mondays at 3:15 in the computer lab, Chess Club aspires to learn new techniques, win tournments and have fun. “[Chess Club] contributes to helping the student body on advancing their abilities to think,” sophomore and Chess Club captain Yarden Tamir

said. “It gives a sense of place and a challenge for whoever wants it.” Chess Club competed in the Blue Valley Classic tournament this year, at which the team collectively placed fifth and Tamir individually placed ninth. “There’s an ability to strategize that comes with chess that everybody could benefit from,” Chess Club sponsor Theresa Gonzalez said. “I was surprised at how much fun [the tournament] was– the kids are passionate about chess.” One obstacle that the Chess Club has been forced to confront is the ongoing stereotype that chess is “nerdy.” They won’t, however, let it stand in their way. “The societal outlook upon Chess Club is one of nerdiness and ridicule,” Tamir said. “It’s just for hanging out. It’s an opportunity for people to meet or problem-solve with an entertaining game.”

The deciding factor

Evan Watson Staff Writer

ow that most early application and scholarship deadlines have passed, it’s decision time. Seniors are realizing that, with just over a semester of high school left, college is imminent. But how to decide; that is the hard part. There are five main factors that determine college choice: location, size, cost, academics and campus life. Which one is the most important? A poll of 100 North students asked students about the most important factor in their college choice. Academics and campus life tied, each receiving 22 percent of the total votes. “Ultimately, you go to college to get an education. That’s why I think academics are the most important factor, because it determines my future,”

“It’s not really for nerds,” freshman Sarmila Venkoba Sah said. “It’s for everyone. It’s a game of learning. You always play and learn more. It’s always fun to win.” With several upcoming tournaments on the agenda, Chess Club’s goal is to defeat its rival Rockhurst High School. The Rockhurst Chess Team is renowned for its talent, and the team is rumored to practice for hours each day. “Rockhurst would be the big rival,” Gonzalez said. “They have someone who is ranked nationally. They are pretty fierce and have a lot of members.” The members of Chess Club, however, don’t seem too rattled by a little competition. Their attitude toward Rockhurst, just like their attitude toward the game itself, is one of optimism. “We want to crush them,” Venkoba Sah said. “We think we can beat them. We’re gonna work for it.”

Students remark on vital college choices

senior Vivek Menon said. On the other hand, college should be enjoyable, and that is the approach many North students are taking into consideration. “The campus environment is the most important for me. I want to go to graduate school, so I want my undergraduate experience to be the most fun that it can be,” senior Sarah Jurgensmeyer said. Cost and financial aid were only a little behind in students’ priorities, garnering 19 perent. “Out-of-state versus in-state, private versus public, the aid is the most important part to me,” junior Sarah Posz said. So North, what’s your most important factor? It’s one of the biggest decisions of your life; how are you going to decide?

Guys ’n Gals

Sports 7%

Academics 22%

Size 10% Location 13%

Campus Life 22% Cost 19%

03 [Reid This]

the north star news 12.15.11

Freedom to decide

Safe and sound

The anniversary of the First Amendment Jessi Glueck Co-Editor-in-Chief

Sarah Evans Business Manager

Berkeley Lovelace Feature Editor

n this day 220 years ago, a momentous event in the history of the United States and the world occured: the Bill of Rights was ratified. Among these first 10 amendments to the new nation’s constitution, one stood out--the First Amendment. It guaranteed our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition our government and freedom of religion. It overturned millenia-old traditions of censorship and repression. It endorsed the rights of the people as no government had ever done before. On its 220th anniversary, we take a moment to celebrate the Amendment’s declaration of freedoms that affect each of us every day.

“

It’s what separates our country from others. Freedom of speech, the unique aspect, is something we shouldn’t take for granted.” - social studies teacher Dylan Hitchcock

“

I don’t really have an official religion, [but] I still respect it because it’s freedom, and that’s what America’s about.”- junior Jon Zhu

“

My friends and I have the right to assemble every Friday night.” - senior Elizabeth Weis

“

I think it’s great we can have our own religions; in other countries, people are persecuted. We’re still persecuted here, but in other places it’s extreme. The freedom of assembly allows us to say what we want to our policy makers.”- senior Heidi Friedrick

“

It means I can be who I want to be.” - sophomore Elizabeth Wolock

“

It means that people who parade with the flag and who protest against the flag are equal.” - business teacher Dan Ritter

Once of the most chracteristics of the First Amendment is free press. The newspaper shows so much daylight on aspects of government. The press can keep us informed.” -social studies teacher Nancy Pence

“

It means I have the right not to answer this question.” senior Eric Davidson

“

It’s what separates the us from a lot of other nations. It’s key to evolving and innovating.” - freshman Joseph St. Pierre

Reid Eggleston News Editor et’s shift away from the First Amendment a moment and look to the Fifth. This year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which normally provides for defense funding, tacked on an amendment which will allow the government to detain suspected terrorists without stating cause to the accused. Sound scary? Look closer. Considering today’s most imminent threat hails from our country’s war on terror, it’s irrational to think some of our extraneous liberties won’t be curbed in our ultimate freedom of safety. Besides, it’s only the guilty that need worry. Law-abiding citizens will never be detained for suspicious activity. Quite frankly, what suspicion can a law-abiding citizen arouse? But because the notion of security before absolute freedom scares us, we shy away from the issue rather than propose a feasible plan such as the NDAA. At its worst, the Act targets specific groups and places a burden on the accused. This said, we’ve suspended the rights of the people for the good of the nation before. The Smith Act of 1940 and the Sedition Act of 1798 both allowed the government to hold enemies of the state during WWII and the nation’s founding. While they were never popular, they got the job done; they helped us move into new eras of safety and prosperity. And we miss the point that the NDAA isn’t as restrictive as either of these more severe past acts were. Our country provides for our safety by acting on hunches and preemptively attacking threats every day. We say we want freedom, but our freedom can’t come without sacrifices too. The NDAA will act as a litmus test for how willing we are to sacrifice for freedom. So, are you in?

04 the north star

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the north star sports 12.15.11

Guard rallys confidence for early wins

Athlete of the Month: Connor Crooker

David Tauber Sports Editor ost star hoopsters don’t sit through back-to-back AP courses, but for senior Connor Crooker, school is just part of his warm-up routine. “Focus is one of my key assets. It’s more than on the basketball court, though. Focus in class translates to the court,” Crooker said. Crooker learned the game from his older brother, Kyle. Kyle taught him everything from the pick and roll to his signature pull-up jumper. Center stage came to Connor after a heated brotherly rivalry. “Kyle roughhoused me a little when we played, but no blood no foul, right?” Crooker said. “When we got older we started playing at the J[CC] and Kyle really ran it there. After Kyle left for college, I sort of became king of the court,” Crooker said. “I guess you could call running the J a Crooker family legacy.”

Senior Connor Crooker is the Mustangs leading scorer. He scored 14 points Dec. 11 against Aquinas. Picture by Ali Fallucca.

Crooker is known around the area for more than his recreational play and pick-up games. A three-year varsity player, Crooker averaged nearly 10 points per game last year. “Connor is is just a good player all around,” BVNW guard, senior Brad Leubbert said. “He is a great shooter, you can’t ever leave him open.” Following the regular season, Crooker showed next-level potential in both AAU and summer play. “This summer, I started getting calls from lots of schools, mostly Division II, wondering if I wanted to play in college,” Crooker said. At the Jayhawk Invitational, Crooker led his AAU team to the quarterfinal. Then, with the Mustangs’ summer squad, Crooker drained a 3-point buzzer beater to extend the team’s rally at a Colorado tournament. “Connor is just a dependable teammate,” senior Erik Higgenbotham said. “He’s never the guy to get phased by the crowd or a few bad shots. He’s a go-to-guy as well as a leader.”

The team voted Crooker in as cocaptain before the season. Head coach Ryan Phifer hopes Crooker emphasizes his vocal leadership after his breakout junior year. “Connor is one of the top point guards in the state, and it’s because he carries a quiet confidence about him,” Phifer said. “We butt heads a little because I’d like to see more emotion out of him. What I’ve told colleges, though, is that Connor has the confidence to take the shot in tough situations. In close games, that’s all you want as a coach.” Crooker estimates he takes over 100 3-point shots during practice preparing for the downtown heave. “I’ve been waiting for this year all my life,” Crooker said. “There will be tight games, but that’s what I’ve worked for. The sweat, the practice, the sprints, and even the butt-taps all amount to the basketball experience. This could be my last season ever, so I’m going to treat every game as if it were my last.”

Cutting through the ice

Sophomore finds comfort, adrenaline on skates

Photo provided by Cecilia Helmstetter. Illustration by Ali Fallucca.

Olga Deckman Staff Writer

he knows her routine forward and backward before she steps onto the ice. “I get up at 4:30 every morning to stretch and jog. That gets my body warm before I get out on the ice,” sophomore Miranda Helmstetter said. Most mornings, coach Katie Holmes drives Helmstetter to the rink. Whether it’s preparing for a competition or just having fun, Helmstetter has to prepare her body

before stepping on to the ice. “Before the skaters step onto the ice I have them work on 10-minute warm-ups like jogging, jumping jacks and stretches,” Holmes said. Helmstetter said that once on the ice, the exhilaration is liberating. “When I’m out on the ice I get such a rush. I feel invincible and free. When it’s been a hard day, ice skating is a great way for me to clear my head,” Helmstetter said. Helmstetter hasn’t always been an ice skater. Before moving to Kansas, she twirled batons as a sport.

“When I moved there weren’t really any baton twirling teams so I tried soccer, gymnastics and ballet. Ice skating has helped me find my true calling,” Helmstetter said. “Once we found more information on the sport it seemed like a better fit for her than any other sport,” Cecilia Helmstetter, Miranda’s mother, said. “She tried one of the eight-week learn-to-skate classes. Not only did she have potential, but she also enjoyed ice-skating enough to continue on after the eight weeks. “I’m very proud of my daughter. I

usually cry every time I see [Miranda] out on the ice,” Helmstetter said. Skating comes with its obstacles, but Helmstetter sees them as opportunities to succeed. “I’m not scared to fall. Ice skating has helped bring me out of my comfort zone,” Helmstetter said. “She’s a beautiful skater. She has a quality about her that makes it fun to watch her. She’s multitalented. She’s in ice dancing, synchronized skating and free style. She’s land accomplished; she can do double jumps,” Holmes said.

06 the north star sports 12.15.11

[Dave’s D.M.C]

MONEY, PRESTIGE BRING TITLES

Country clubs to credit for state championships?

Deep Meaningful Conversation

David Tauber Sports Editor

Toonsquad vs. Monstars

The saga continues

he winter sports pep assembly brought me back to a Warner Bros. classic, “Space Jam.” Connor Erickson and the basketball squad looked like the Monstars, gnawing away at the basketball net and the trash bags. Meanwhile, I and everyone else under six feet stared in awe like the vertically challenged Toonsquad as Erickson seemingly defied gravity. A little guy myself, I have always thought about size in sports. Is there a size cutoff? Is it possible to win without it? Why don’t I have it? Record books and first-hand failures tell me an extra two inches or 10 pounds is undoubtedly advantageous. Still, we can all agree it’s more exciting to watch Nate Robinson dunk over Dwight Howard than Yao Ming roll the ball over the rim from his tippy-toes. Mustangs are unlike the stereotypical Kansas westerners in many ways. With regard to size, most of us are not raised on corn stalks or supplemented with artificial chemicals to attain optimum height or weight. We do, however, boast a different quality – achieving with a vengeance, be it in athletics or academics. Take the athlete of the month, Connor Crooker, for example. Crooker joined the Monstars freshman year standing just 5'6" for the sheer love of the game. In life and sports, often some Goliath character seems to discourage us from taking the court. Before taking center stage and defying gravity, we may have to doggy paddle across the pool or break our fibula at tryouts. We have got to start somewhere. Th-ThTh-Th-Th-... That’s all folks.

Michael Hoffman Online Editor

ine. The number of high school championships North has won in the past four years in tennis, golf and swimming. Compare this to the number of hampionships in all other sports combined over the same time period– one, in soccer. Clearly, North has established itself as almost a purely country club sport school. “We are generally the best school around in those country club sports,” senior Peter Gallo said. “It’s fair to call us a country club school because people take pride in coming to our school that has has such tradition in those particular sports.” Although athletic administrator Mickey Masterson agrees with Gallo that calling North a country club sport school is fair, he doesn’t like the stereotype. “I’ve never liked that term,” Masterson said. “Athletics is athletics. It puts people in a box saying one is an athlete and one isn’t, so if I could get rid of the stereotype, I would because it doesn’t matter what sport you are doing. You are working your tail off regardless.” Even though he doesn’t like the

stereotype, Masterson believes that the stereotype helps North swim, golf and tennis teams. “The stereotype has a positive effect on our sports,” he said. “[For example] when I went in this morning I saw the swimteam practicing, and they had 45 swimmers out. Swimming is a tough sport, and to have 45 kids out is just amazing.” Many note students’ socioeconomic background as the primary reasons for North’s success behind the net and in the pool. But senior tennis captain Jackson Rist, who has been playing tennis most of his life, argues that money can’t be the only factor. “Country club sports require a lot of money, but they also require a lot of time,” he said. “They are sports that people [at North] have been playing since they were young. They don’t just randomly pick them up.” Gallo, a football player, accepts that country club sports are North’s top sports but still believes that his sport gets its appropriate respect. “I think football at every school including ours gets the most respect out of any sport,” Gallo said. “Losing season or not, football and the players get respect for their efforts.” Masterson believes that North’s label

as a country club sports school only temporary. “Sports success goes back and forth, and different levels and types of athletes come through and change schools’ perceptions about the sports they are good at,” he said. “It all just comes and goes with the types of kids we have.”

Girls golf coach Susan O’Dell drives varsity team members sophomore Laura Gibbs and senior Sarah Wylan in a golf cart at the Heritage Golf Club Tournament. This country club sports team is responsible for three of North’s 10 state championships over the past four years. Photo by Jennifer Peters

Chiefs fire head coach Photo from www.swagsoldseperately.com

Michael Hoffman Online Editor

his past Monday, Dec. 12, Scott Pioli, the general manager of the Chiefs sent shockwaves through the city and the NFL after firing Chiefs head coach Todd Haley with only three games remaining in the regular season. Todd Haley, who guided the Chiefs to a 19-27 record in his two and a half seasons with the team, led the team to its first division title since 2003. The team went 4-12 in Haley’s first season.

Haley’s six win increase to a 10-6 record the following season tied for the biggest improvement of any team in the NFL, and, as a result, Haley finished second in the coach of the year voting. After such a successful season last year, many believed the Chiefs had finally found a replacement after three disappointing seasons with previous head coach Herman Edwards, however, Pioli and Haley had gotten into heated arguments ever since Haley’s hiring in 2008.

Many fans enjoyed have Haley because of his daredevil attitude. He brought the wildcat offense to the Chiefs and was not afraid not to randomly go for an onside kick off or go for it on fourth down. Haley will be missed by a fan base who had grown used to explosiveness under Vermeil before three “boring seasons” with Edwards at the helm. Pioli named Chiefs defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel the interim coach for the remainder of the season.

the north star sports 12.15.11

RALLY UP for the RACE

Sophomore competes in circuit races Hayley Berger Staff Writer

hile other kids are playing football or soccer, sophomore Ryan Elcock is sitting behind the wheel of his shining sports car, helmet on and seat belt buckled, preparing for his next race on the black asphalt track. “I race in rally circuits in the E-stock racing division. Rally racing is a timed lap of a course that they set up the day of the race, and you compete to get the fastest time through the course in your division of class, G being the slowest and SS being the fastest,” Elcock said. Though he gets plenty of joy out of simply racing for fun, he does race competitively at monthly races held by the Sports Car Club of America throughout the spring, summer and fall. “I race both competitively and for fun. I always try to keep it light and fun because some of the people I race against have been going at it for their whole life, where, at the same time I’m competitively trying to get the fastest time in my class and beat my previous times,” Elcock said. To participate in these races, racers can’t have just any car. The car Elcock uses has been decked out with

numerous modifications that make him smile as he describes them. “My car is a 1992 Toyota Mr2, but I don’t like saying the name Toyota because I feel it underplays the car. The thing is a rocket. It’s a real blast to drive and quite the looker if I do say so myself,” Elcock said. “It, of course, is not stock, [having had many] modifications done to it. My personal favorite is the 17-inch work emotion rims imported straight from Japan, that are extremely high performance and that cost three grand apiece. They look absolutely sick, though, and are wondrous on the track.” For Elcock, cars have always been a big interest. When he was given the opportunity to do something that involved them, he took it right away. “I’ve always been interested in cars and racing, but I first got my start in racing two years ago once my neighbors who also raced signed me up for an event, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Elcock said. The cars weren’t the only part about racing that got him hooked. He also finds great joy in the excitement that

Sophomore Ryan Elcock shows off his decked out car that features blue rims on the tires and bright blue neon lights. His flashy car matches his need for speed while competing. Photo by Francine Gollub.

comes out of being behind the wheel with the engine rumbling. “My favorite part about racing is the rush you get once you floor it and the sensation of speed that comes directly after. Also, the feeling you get once you’ve hit your goal,” Elcock said. Although none of his school friends race with him, he likes to bring them with him to some of his races. “The most interesting part would be the variety of cars people bring to race with,” sophomore Nathan Hansen said. “Everything’s there, from Mr2s to Ferraris to Bugs to modded out lightweight pick up trucks.” Another enjoyable aspect for Hansen was just getting to see Elcock at work. Going to the race gave Hansen a new perspective on what it is that Elcock does.

“Other than washing my car once a week, racing is pretty much my life.”

“It’s fun to watch Ryan do his stuff and all, especially when he makes mistakes. It’s entrancing really,” Hansen said. “I would race purely out of spite. Elcock’s car is his treasure and mine gets me from point A to point B, so the thought of me beating him brings out the competition in me.” Unfortunately for Hansen, Elcock has ranked in the top places at some of his competitions and set some records. “I don’t have any ‘best’ records since the course is arranged differently for each event, but I have come in second a few times in my division and once first, which was exciting,” Elcock said. But for Elcock, the records aren’t really what this pastime is about. It’s just the rush of the racing and a love of cars. “Other than washing my car once a week, racing is pretty much my life. I love it,” Elcock said.

08 the north star feature 12.15.11

Peace of mind Therapy helps student cope with difficulties

“I

Sarah Evans Business Manager

’m not crazy,” Jamie* said. “A lot of people think if you have any psychological disorder, you’re crazy. You don’t decide to have a disorder... it’s something you can’t control. [Therapy] doesn’t mean you’re crazy, you just need extra help getting something you need.” At the age of 13, Jamie attended her first session of therapy. Bullied and cast out by her middle school peers, she began to exhibit symptoms of depression. “I didn’t feel like doing anything,” she said. “I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. Kids were just really mean. I would go up to a group of people, and they would move away from me like a school of fish. They said, ‘Stop following us; we don’t want you around us.’ My mom made me go to therapy.” While seeking outside help with psychological problems may seem strange to some, many suggest that attending therapy is much more

common among teenagers than typically assumed. “It’s not at all uncommon for [BVN Students] to see, have seen, or consider seeing a therapist,” BVN psychologist Dr. Mark Kenney said. “It could be a relationship issue with peers, family circumstances, death or significant illness of a family member, divorce or separation, school issues... it’s such a broad range of things that can impact students.” Though emotional problems plagued Jamie, her transition into therapy was not smooth. “At first I thought, ‘this is weird and awkward,’” Jamie said. “It took me half a year until I finally got up enough nerve. [Now] I feel like I can count on my therapist – I can tell her anything and she won’t judge me.” Jamie identifies the stereotypes that go along with being in therapy as one of her biggest struggles. “[People] think if you go to therapy you’re weird, and that you don’t you have any friends you can talk to,” she said.

Dr. Kenney also opposes the stereotype that teens in therapy are “crazy” or somehow abnormal. “Mental illnesses are in many ways no different than diabetes or cancer,” Dr. Kenney said. “It’s a chemical imbalance, and medical intervention is needed. There are students in this school that suffer from that. If they don’t get help, they could experience lifelong problems.” Jamie, too, has received medical attention in addition to her experiences in therapy. While at first medications negatively altered her mood and appetite, she has now found a prescription that has yielded positive effects. “Right now I’m on Pristiq,” she said. “It gives you adrenaline to get through the day. With depression I’m always tired and don’t want to do anything. It’s

Illustration by Ali Fallucca

supposed to make me happy.” Although not fully recovered, Jamie believes that seeking help led her on the right track back to happiness. “I have a much more positive attitude than I used to,” she said. “Now, I can look on the bright side of things.” *names have been changed to protect the students from harrassment

the north star feature 12.15.11

Volunteers finish a semester of service

Four students learn to give back to the community

Francine Gollub Photographer

Lisa and Katherine Tenny

“A

“I

Yarden Tamir

t Deanna Rose (a local petting zoo), try to improve the community and the there is a cow there who likes to be very people in it,” sophomore Yarden Tamir stubborn. She likes to charge at people said. Yarden participates in community service to help out of nowhere.” sophomore Katherine Tenny said. better the lives of others. He is actively involved in Katherine and sister senior Lisa Tenny, are a wide range of charities. siblings who like to bond while helping out the “I began doing community service in the community. They both share a love for pets and seventh grade for an Eagle Scout project,” he said. spend time together while helping tend to all kinds “After doing all that volunteering, I wanted to do of animals in the Kansas City area. community service every year. I volunteered at “I started to become more involved when I Harvesters, soccer camps, Safety City and youth wanted to join Lisa in her routine community court.” service about two years Even with various ago,” Katherine said. “We organizations he has volunteer at Wayside Waifs, volunteered at, his Deanna Rose and our unior Alejandra Garcia had a desire to get to favorite are the ones church’s annual fish fry. learn about her town. that involve helping During the winter, both “I always wanted to volunteer,” Garcia said. children. Lisa and I will continue to “I got my start babysitting for my teachers, and the “I like to help out volunteer at Wayside Waifs rest went from there. I wanted to get to know the with organizations and will help at Deanna city when I moved here from El Salvador.” that benefit little Rose when it opens in She now is the community service president of kids because I February. ” KAY Club for the second year, and helps create the belive that teaching “It’s nice to spend time foundations for most of BVN’s school drives. children important with the animals,” Lisa Sisters senior Lisa and sophomore Katherine Tenny take care of animals “I try to find sponsors and events that KAY club rules of life are added. at Wayside Waifs, a local animal shelter. They have used their love for would be interested in. For example, our KAY club things that should As they have explored their pets to help benefit the community. Photo by Francine Gollub. citizen week, where we honor family, school, and be valued more in love for animals through the local community.” society,” Tamir said. “I like to help kids with certain community service, the sisters have learned some Since Garcia entered high school, she has valuable lessons along the way. activities and skills that I had trouble with as a kid, branched out into also doing community service “At Wayside Waifs, we help match a person with and giving them advice.” outside of school. one of the animals. When we help the animals The most important thing that he finds about “I volunteer at the local library, and I also work become more social, it definitely creates for a community at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. I am happier environment between all the animals service is the interested in going into the medical field to help the positive and the people around them,” Katherine said. people,” she said. output that it “You’re not doing Garcia also brings to the it because you don’t mentioned future community. have to, but because plans for a KAY “It [changes] you want to. At Club diaper the lives of [Wayside Waifs] we drive to collect people around aren’t treated like we diapers and other you,” Tamir are volunteers; we products infants said. “It gives are treated as equal and toddlers me personal workers,” Lisa said. need. Garcia feels satifsfaction The Tennys also her belief helping gave the advice about Sophomore Yarden Tamir helps collect cans to deliver to when I see others is a huge how to take the first Harvesters. Making others happier through his actions are how I have a key aspect in volunteering. Photo by Francine Gollub. aspect of life. made other step into helping Junior Alejandra Garcia works as a volunteer at Overland Park Regional “Giving back people happy simply by my own actions.” around town. Medical Center. She donates her time to helping the community while also is a big thing for Tamir suggests that the most important aspect of “Community service is getting to know her town. Photo by Francine Gollub. me. It just makes volunteering is choosing the right organization. even more fun when doing me happy that I’m helping people, even if I don’t “It’s important to choose community service you it with another person, so get a group of friends know them. It makes me feel like I have really are interested in. Be actively involved in whatever together to have fun and make a change in the accomplished something.” community,” Lisa said. you like,” he said.

uring the fast-paced chaos of academics and extracirriculars, it can be easy to take certain things for granted. Others, however, realize that the world will not end tomorrow if those luxuries are not granted to them. What makes these people stay grounded in life is that they give back to the community. Dedicating even the littlest amount of time can help others in so many ways, which helps promote the spread of random kindness and being a good samaritan.

Alejandra Garcia

10 the north star feature 12.15.11

[Lovelace ties it together]

Bullying comes full circle

Berkeley Lovelace Feature Editor

his issue I wrote a story on the documentary “Finding Kind,” which underlined the epidemic of school bullying for girls across the country. The documentary had helpful tips for those affected by the bullies and ways to prevent bullying. Although I appreciate that the district hosted a video addressing bullying, I feel the district failed to provide help for the male population. There’s no question that both boys and girls are bullied in schools. It can be as tough for males as it is for females. The common conception of a nerd being shoved in a locker just isn’t the only problem anymore. It’s a little bit more complicated. Males may not only have to worry about physical features, as women do, but worry about sexual orientation. Homophobia has been the most highly noted reason for male bullying in schools. Men are more likely to be physically forceful when it comes to bullying than women are. Also, studies show that men are three times more likely to kill themselves because of the effects of bullying. As a whole, men aren’t given the opportunity to help or get educated on these problems. As a result, women are better prepared for the transition from high school into college than men. The district should have a bullying video that applies to all genders, not just one. The difference between sexes doesn’t change the fact that there is bullying. With many celebrities like Lady Gaga standing up against all bullying, we should as well. I am not saying the district is not doing anything, but they could be doing more.

More than formulgatosk.n.o.w first of many science Jan Cyr teaches one of her to provided by Jan classes over the years. Pho Cyr.

Liz Gaa Entertainment Editor

petite woman with a lot of respect attached to her name, Jan Cyr has been an icon of sorts for years. Since the school opened, she has spear-headed the campaign to teach children science, offering students a nearly boundless wealth of knowledge. Now, she’s also letting the students of North know a little about herself.

Early Life

Originally a small-town girl, Cyr described her childhood in a rural community as unexciting. “My father managed a grain elevator in a farming community,” she said. “It was a laid-back, ordinary existence.” It may be hard to imagine for her students, but she was once a teenager and a high school student too. “It’s been so long ago I can’t remember,” Cyr said “As a student, I got good grades, but was not a good student. I was occasionally in trouble. I did typical high school activities. I was StuCo president, if you care about crud like that.” Though she has never been married, she did have children to dote on: her nieces and nephews. “They have stayed with me off and on. I probably spoil them, whatever they want, they get,” she said, adding wistfully, “They’re all grown now, so...”

A Rewarding Career

As she is so undeinably dedicated to her teaching, it becomes difficult to imagine Cyr doing anything else. However, her degree is in engineering, a career she nearly pursued.

“I decided I really didn’t like what engineers did,” she said. “It sounded like they were going to lock me up in an office or a lab, not seeing people. I was only going to teach for a couple of years but I really liked it, so here I am.” A couple of years have turned into more than 25, and Cyr still finds her work satisfying. “My best teaching moment is when students succeed, so there are many,” she said. “By succeed I don’t mean that they’re winning a Nobel prize, I mean that they are successful at whatever they want to be successful at,” she said. There are aways challenges on the road to success, but Cyr faces them with a unique sense of optimism. “Occasionally you get a class that isn’t too into science, so I suppose I have to work a little harder, but I don’t know if that makes it worse,” she said. One of her biggest challenges came in her first years of teaching in the Blue Valley school district, when there was one school for grades 7-12 and not enough teachers to go around. “It was so small that I had to be the cheerleading sponsor,” she said. “It’s not something I would want to do for a career. That lasted for five years [of torture], probably for the cheerleaders too.” When she isn’t busy teaching AP Physics, physics and Science Research at school, Cyr devotes time to relaxation. “I enjoy reading, the arts, traveling,” Cyr said. “The coolest place I’ve been? Well, if you’re tallking temperaturewise, Alaska.”

Gettin science guru Jan Cyr

Words of Wisdom

Spending so much of her career in one school, Cyr has had the opportunity to get a feel for students’ changing attitudes and the gradeobsessed culture. “I think the students are a lot more grade conscious now,” she said. “When we came here [when North opened] there would not have been students dropping a class because, God forbid, they were getting a C, which I think is really kind of bad.” She went on to explain this position further, countering the grade-fueled frenzy with the notion that knowledge is more important than a letter on a transcript. “I really don’t care what a person’s grades are, I care whether they’re learning,” she said. “For some people, maybe a B or C is the best grade they’re going to get. It doesn’t mean they are less smart than someone else, it means maybe that’s all the time they can devote to the class because they’ve got so much other stuff going on.” Some students can’t seem to let go of those grade anxieties. “I always find it amazing 10 years down the road, students think that I remember the grade they got,” Cyr said. “I can remember if they tried, and whether they worked hard and what kind of person they were. Well, a really bad F I might remember.” As a woman who wanted to be an engineer, she has also seen changes in that male-dominated world. “Its pretty well evened out now,” Cyr said. “The only drawback I can see is women with children. They have to juggle everything and can’t forge ahead forever in their career.”

Cure the crime by “A

Berkeley Lovelace Feature Editor

re you going to be a bystander or a witness? Because they really are the same thing,” “Finding Kind” filmmakers Lauren Parsekian and Molly Thompson said. Blue Valley Northwest hosted a documentary showing about the growing rates of bullying in the U.S, Nov. 15. The documentary “Finding Kind” follows two girls who decide to go on a mission throughout the country. Their agenda was to find how girls of all ages deal with bullying and how also to correct the mean-girl perception. Principals and counselors stand in front of the documentary audience, sharing their personal stories and thoughts on “Finding Kind.” Photo by Francine Gollub.

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A crowd of families, teengers and teachers throughout the district packed the BVNW theater. Everyone watched as former bullies and those effected by bullying dished out their life-changing stories. “I was impressed by all the different view points. I have a 5-year-old daughter at home, and it gave me some tips,” Joe, a Blue Valley school district father said. “For example, being more mindful about how she feels. Sometimes it’s easier to just shrug these kinds of problems off and let them work out. But [because of this video] not anymore, not for me.” According to an expert pyschologist in the video, for every 10 minutes a young teen reads a celebrity magazine their self-esteem lowers. The documentary not only covered topics on self-image, but other issues such as the expanding trend of cyberbulling, social pressure, suicide, the influence of the media like photoshopping and cliques. They used clips from the movie “Mean Girls” and other movies as a catalyst for their messages. “It made [my friends and I] cry,” Sara, a fifth grade Stanley Elementary student, said. Sara came to see this documentary because she believed it would give her clear insight on what others, like herself, go through. “I know how it feels because I am kinda like a

midget and people make fun of my height. It made me feel I should try to be a better person. I feel bad to see all those people who were made fun of in the video,” Sara said. Once the credits rolled, the audience asked a few questions of principals and counselors, including BVN Principal Dr. Tonya Merrigan. During her discussion with the audience, Dr. Merrigan said a passion of hers has been studying the social network. “I liked the emphasis on kindness,” Dr. Merrigan said. “I learned there are a lot more people concerned about this issue. There are people who struggle with this and who want to know about this.” Circulation of the video has helped publicize the Kind campaign, started by the two filmmakers. The filmmakers briefly shared their personal truths as well. They made a final statement to viewers, “It doesn’t cost anything to be kind.” “The movie was empowering and nothing but inspiring. I mean, sometimes I am a complete b*tch, and I don’t really give it a second thought,” Blue Valley West junior Rachael Henricksen said. “Really, I kinda just give in to all the rumors and drama, but now in kind of a cliche way I want to be a better person.”

Sarah Newstrom: What is your favorite thing to do with each other? “Be weird. We always do really strange things and sing songs at home, but not in our real voices. We have so much fun together though; it’s really exciting.” What special thing makes you different from other fraternal twins? “We are a lot closer than others, and we feel so free and comfortable when we’re with each other. It’s like hanging out with your best friend and talking until 11 at night in my room. He comes to my room every single night... and we’ll do homework together and just talk for hours and hours.” What is the biggest similarity between you two? “That we’re crazy. That sounds weird, but I kind of like saying it because I know it makes us different from other people. Sometimes I’ll suggest we dress crazy and stick our heads in our laundry hampers, or make up games on our own. He likes to use our hampers as machine guns....We just have this special relationship, and I’d definitely say we bond off our craziness.”

Alec Newstrom: What is your favorite thing to do with each other? “We like to get into fist fights and beat the poop out of each other (she usually wins with her Brazilian Jhu-Jhitsu), also we like to do stupid things that our parents usually hate like pretending to be farm animals.” What special thing makes you different from other fraternal twins? “We’re a lot better friends than most other fraternal twins are with each other. Also, our sense of humor, overall creepiness and weirdness make us pretty ‘twinular’. Most fraternal twins don’t have as powerful twin powers as we do. Sometimes I will start singing native Portuguese folk songs and she will start singing the same song at the exact same time as me.” What is the biggest similarity between you two? “What makes us similiar is our sense of humor and again, how creepy we are. I would say that we are more alike [than different] because we just do a lot of the same typical twin stuff. We both like to eat things and to annoy the poop out of each other.”

Two of a kind Fraternal twins share about their relationship T

Hayley Berger Staff Writer

wins. The first thing that comes to mind is usually two people who look exactly alike. But there are also those that are fraternal. What makes them more than just a normal brother and sister duo? Sophomores Sarah and Alec Newstrom talked all about their extremely close relationship.

Sophomore twins Sarah and Alec Newstrom goof around in the hallways. Being fraternal twins has created a unique and irreplaceable friendship for both of them. Photo by Francine Gollub.

the north star spread 12.15.11

IN THE BEGINNING

anuary of his junior year, JJ Becker walked into a well-known pharmacy and explained to the man at the counter that his dog was sick and in need of needles for insulin shots. At home with his dog, Becker carefully extracted a needle from its case, loaded up the syringe with Methylone, shot himself in his favorite vein and waited for the waves to come. Pushing back with his palms pressed against the edge of the table and his chair precariously perched on its hind legs, Becker sighed and knowingly smiled at his mistake. “It might be easier for me to just start at the beginning,” Becker said. “Middle school didn’t go well. I was a good kid but I was bullied pretty bad. I was different; I wasn’t willing to retaliate so I just laughed it off,” Becker said. Home schooled in St. Louis, Mo. until middle school, Becker was hungry for acceptance from his peers. Extremely bright and still coming into his own, Becker’s middle years were plagued with physical and emotional bullying. The scarring he incurred in junior high began to shape his mentality about who he was and where he would fit in at Blue Valley West High School. “By the time I got to high school I had plenty of friends, but I still didn’t feel like me. I felt like I was wearing a mask, like no one knew me,” Becker said. The emotional stress of bullying during middle school took its toll on Becker in the fall of his freshman year. He sank into a state of depression and by the spring had become suicidal, “wimping out” only moments before ending his life several times. “I started believing the lies [that I told myself] and even convinced myself I had no future. The lies became the truth.” Becker said. Throughout his drug use, Becker’s faith taunted him. “I was going to church every so often, but I wasn’t super religious at this point. I was afraid of hell though. That was the only thing keeping me from dying,” Becker said. After experimenting with pills and alcohol over the summer, Becker was sent to a psychiatric hospital in November of his sophomore year. He stayed there for two weeks, but his mood remained the same and nothing was resolved.

the north star spread 12.15.11

“I expected nothing to be fixed. I was bitter at my parents and myself. I realized then that I had to find my own way out and that I had to try to make myself happy,” Becker said. Some say happiness can act as a drug, and for Becker, there was more truth to this than for most. He smoked K2 for the first time in January, believing he had found his escape. “It was like a catharsis. I started smoking periodically, mainly K2, and it turned into a weekly thing. By March, I was smoking once a day and also researching other drugs. I got a sort of high from that,” Becker said. Researching helped Becker realize his gift: he was a chemical genius at making his own drugs. In May, he expanded his repertoire to LSD, Nitrous and Methylone, a combination of Cocaine and Ecstasy. The summer before junior year, he was constantly high, buying Virola Bark online to make DMT, a drug that when inhaled or consumed, immerses the consumer in a powerful psychedelic state. But by the time school started again, Becker had quit his job and was running out of cash to continue to sell. His plan was to sell the K2 he’d been making. It was cheap and Becker needed the money. “I was selling the K2 that I had made at school. I was also smoking JWH, the chemical they put on K2. It was the cheapest thing I could make without losing money on the sale,” Becker said. Becker was caught by his parents a few months into his junior year. He gave them everything–his pipes, his drugs–and told them that he wanted to transfer to Blue Valley Northwest. “I told [my parents] I needed to get out of West. I couldn’t be around these people and be expected to change. So I started off Northwest clean… started off,” Becker said. Self-conscious and paranoid, he didn’t talk to anyone for awhile. Becker had stopped taking his depression medication because he felt like a zombie. “It was worse than drugs because I was emotionless, and my depression was worse than ever because I was clean for the most part. I still wanted to do drugs,” Becker said. Caught in a catch-22, Becker began stealing and drinking cough syrup in Decemeber, usually two bottles at a time, for the effects of the codeine. “I was at the point where I was filling up grocery Continued on next page...

“IT WAS

REAL.

I FEEL LIKE I’VE BEEN

REBORN.” journey to sobriety

carts with this stuff and walking out with it,” Becker said. January of his junior year, Becker’s drug use escalated. “I would go to Walmart with a BS story about how my dog needed insulin shots,” Becker said. “Shooting up was the ultimate high. It wasn’t the same as everything else. It had a darker tone to it. I would shoot up and all of a sudden it would hit me in waves. There were a lot of repurcussions, but nothing that would stop me.” “I would shoot up and run out because of how expensive it was so I would go through widthdrawl. That down was worse than the high. It felt like my body was being ripped apart, and then I would just black out. I knew a couple people that had died. We were all friends, but didn’t care about each other,” Becker said. Talking about these friends makes Becker fidget in his seat. He pauses a moment and looks up through his lashes. “I wish someone would’ve tried to stop me, but I know I wouldn’t have. It had to have come from me,” Becker said.

THE TURNAROUND

ecker finally acknowledged the severity of his drug use in March. He had been on a cycle of staying clean for two weeks and then caving and using drugs. These crash periods continued until Becker was asked by his pastor to speak to his youth group about his drug use. “I knew drugs were ruining my life but I couldn’t stop. I was kind of going to church but I rejected the fact that God wanted to help me; I wanted Him to change my circumstances. So when my pastor wanted me to talk to my youth group about my experience, I told my story about how God is the only one that helped me out, although I didn’t quite believe it yet,” Becker said. Senior Steph Hughes walked up and introduced herself to Becker after he spoke to his youth group that night and invited him to hang out with her friends the next weekend. “My first impression of JJ was that he was really fun and outgoing. JJ is the kind of guy who never thinks about himself. When JJ told me about his past, my first reaction was shock. He was so outgoing and nice that it seemed crazy that he was fighting those struggles. He's so open and honest about what he's gone through and how he's grown from it,” Hughes said.

“I met a lot of Steph’s friends and they all opened up to me right away. I thought it was going well, but then I began partying again. I was living a lie. When I thought about getting clean I couldn’t do it [by myself],” Becker said. Becker knew this was a battle he couldn’t fight alone. In June, he was arrested two days in a row for smoking methylone, and then again two days later with a Minor In Possession. “I came home from work really drunk, and punched a hole in my window. I left the house and was arrested down the street while I was sitting on the sidewalk. When that happened, I knew something had to change. I completely, 100 percent, turned my life over to Christ. It was the biggest effect anything has had on me. I was still struggling but now I had something to lean on,” Becker said. Becker started praying to God to help him get through his struggle. The temptation was still there, but was never strong enough that God couldn’t help. “This can be used for good. This pain, everything I went through, was all God’s purpose. It was real. I feel like I’ve been reborn,” Becker said. Staying clean is one of the hardest things Becker has had to do, but he figures it’s not as difficult as keeping up a loving relationship with God. “I have to work to build a personal relationship with Him, just like I have to work to stay clean. Drugs never filled up the void I had, God has been the most fulfilling thing to me. Unlike drugs, He’s renewable,” Becker said. LOOKING FORWARD ecker has found BVN to be a better environment for him. The lack of hard drugs and the constant support from his friends has allowed him to focus on the things he’s passionate about. “I wrestle, and I also love music, listening as well as making it. I drum, but I also tinker with synthesizers,” Becker said. Becker recently visited TCU and Baylor where he’s considering majoring in psychology. “I’ll probably go into counseling for addiction and depression, or maybe even be a pastor,” Becker said. “I’m surprisingly not very good about talking about myself. I like listening.” Before Becker leaves the interview, he jokes, “now you’ll have to tell me your life story.”

Sarah Campbell Design Editor

Lily Lieberman Staff Writer

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IN THE BEGINNING

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“IT WAS

REAL.

I FEEL LIKE I’VE BEEN

REBORN.” journey to sobriety

THE TURNAROUND

Sarah Campbell Design Editor

Lily Lieberman Staff Writer

14 the north star feature 12.15.11

Fistfights, fires and dreams

Kids hailing from other school districts tell their stories

“M

Jessi Glueck Co-Editor-in-Chief

y school got set on fire like 10 times,” sophomore Dahsia Jones said of her old school, Southwest high school in Kansas City, Mo. “Kids were sneaking in lighters, setting the lockers on fire. They just bored. They in the city. They don’t care.” In the past few years, and especially with the recent loss of accredidation in Kansas City, Mo., schools, North has experienced an influx of students from other school districts. They come with memories and mixed feelings and indomitable hopes. These are their stories.

“T

here were girls fighting in the halls. Teachers would try to break it up, and then they’d get slammed into lockers, too,” senior Jenny Zhang said of her middle school, Liberty Middle School in Madison, Ala. “I was the one who was trying not to look.” Zhang came to North because her father got a job with Garmin, a navigation company based in Kansas City. At first, she said, she had trouble fitting in. “It was pretty difficult because all the Leawood [and] OTMS kids already knew each other and already had friends,” Zhang said. Socioeconomic disparities, she said, played a large part in cultural differences between the two schools. “Johnson County’s a lot richer. Over there, you wouldn’t see [expensive] cars on the street,” Zhang said. Racially, Zhang said she sees both differences and similarities between North and Liberty. “I was friends with the Asian crowd, usually. We were the smart Asian kids, and people would just mistake us for cousins or whatever,” Zhang said. “Here, I still hang out with a lot of Asian kids. Around them I can make jokes that no one else would get. I think it’s a universal thing.” Discomfort as a minority has followed Zhang from her old school, though she said that here it’s less intense. “In Alabama, there was some racial difficulties,” Zhang said. “I felt it more there. But [even here], I would go to debate with a Caucasian person, and when we [were ranked] 1 and 2, I was always [ranked] 2. I’ll always wonder, if I was white, would I get the one?”

unior Keilon Willis attended Ruskin High School in St. Louis for his freshman and sophomore years. He came at the urging of his mother, who wanted a better education for him. “At my old school, they were short on books, so we would have to finish homework in class, or they didn’t give us homework,” Willis said. “[The transition to North] was hard. I just told myself I had to strap down.” Willis said he sees major social disparities between the two schools. “There are kids [at Ruskin] that wanna learn, but there are a lot of kids there who just make the wrong decisions. They may not have a good role model,” Willis said. “[My peers] were just taking their education for granted, not realizing that they’re getting a great opportunity...[and that] no one can take that away from them.” The social scene at North, though, welcomed Willis warmly. “I did feel out of place at first, but then [North students] welcomed me with open arms,” Willis said. “I feel good here now.” Perhaps the most important difference between Willis’s old school and North, he said, is a difference of expectations. “[At Ruskin], they didn’t have expectations. Once you graduate high school, you’re done,” Willis said. “Here at North, you’re expected to go on to college. You’re going to college.” When discussing his own future, Willis’s eyes lit up. “I want to go to school for either sports medicine or journalism, and maybe be a counselor to help young teenagers,” Willis said. “I had some challenges in my childhood, and I can help other teens and inspire them to overcome obstacles in their life.”

ophomore Dahsia Jones came to North after spending her freshman year at Southwest, a school she said was “number one on the list of schools that should be shut down.” She and her sister and brother now live with their aunt. “My dad lives in Texas and my mom works in the city,” Jones said. “I see my mom every other week. I see my daddy every blue moon,” she said. Jones’s mother urged her to come to North to escape disciplinary issues at her old school. “School-wise, [there were] fights, and fires...we ran out like six principals,” Jones said. “[I came here] for a better education.” Jones said she believes her discipline about school has helped her deal with North’s more challenging environment. “Basically, over there you passed easy. But lately I’ve been on it, doing what I have to do. It’s not that hard, it’s just different,” Jones said. Jones said she sees problems with North, too. “[North] sort of [made me feel welcome], sort of not,” Jones said. “They would always use my old school as an example, say, ‘you’re at a better school now. We don’t want you to do what you did over there.’ I don’t want to be blamed because of where I come from.” She said her discomfort with some aspects of North extended beyond the attitudes of teachers. “Here everybody’s so serious,” Jones said. “Everybody’s so focused, and so ready for what they’re gonna do, and just all prepared. I’m not used to being so serious.” She’s serious enough, though, to be sure about her future. Jones said she wants to go to college to pursue her dream of being a pediatrician. But Jones said she isn’t the only Southwest student with big plans. “One thing I can say about that school is, everybody had a dream,” she said. “There were a few that didn’t but in the back of their minds, they all wanted to do something. They just didn’t want to be heckled. But they all had dreams.” Photos by Christin Smith.

the north star

photo by d3 Dan

SAT Algebra Tutor Arturo Sanchez 913-648-5483

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12.15.11

the north star entertainment 12.15.11

[Going Gaa Gaa]

Sleepless nights

What does sleep deprivation really do?

our fearless North Star staffers took on the task of pulling an all nighter to see the next day’s consequences. Senior Olga Deckman, senior Alex Goldman, junior Ellie Holcomb, and senior Lily Lieberman attempted to stay up all night on a Monday, with only their school work and some form of legal stimulant to keep them up. Considering that the average teen is supposed to get over nine hours of sleep a night, the difference left our staff members feeling, well, different. While they stayed up studying, they kept the following journal. Ellie–10:30 p.m. Just made a fresh

pot of coffee, after sucking down a 6-shot latte that I got from work. I’m pretty hyper from the caffine. Not gonna lie, I’m getting pretty random. AND OH MY GOD I CANT STOP JUMPING. Alex–11:47 p.m. I’m definitely

starting to fizzle–currently surviving on HBO specials to keep my eyes open. Love life.

Ellie–11:49 p.m. COFFEE COFFEE

COFFEE I LOVE COFFEE. I need to start my chemistry homework. I have a test tomorrow and a writing thing in AP US History. But I havent started yet. I’M STILL JUMPING. Lily–12:09 a.m. Ellie keeps calling

me and she sounds super chipper. I want to kill her. This five hour energy gave me a headache. I’m not even hungry anymore. You know it’s bad when Lily isn’t hungry anymore. Nothing to do. I’M LONELY. Olga–12:12 a.m. Ellie plus coffee

is kind of scary... just saying...

my head hurts but I’m still jumping. Chemistry time. But seriously, I’m starting to feel fuzzy in the brain, yet I know I couldn’t sleep if I tried. Lily–12:23 a.m. Just finished some

ravioli. I’m falling in and out of consciousness. This five hour crap made me crash. I’m going to lay down and rest my eyes. I will not fall asleep. I will not fall asleep. I WILL NOT FALL ASLEEP. (I’m hypnotizing myself).

Alex–12:36 a.m. Guys, I’m warning

you. I’m getting to humanity hating mode. I now will not talk to people. I might eat someone if they try to contact me. There’s no way in hell I can concentrate on anything right now.

Ellie–1:05 a.m. STILL GOING!!

Olga–1:39 a.m. I’ve been watchin

a really good movie called Soul Surfer. SO INSPIRING! I’M KICKIN BUTT W/ MY METEOROLOGY HOMEWORK! Ugh, so slap happy right now.

Alex–1:46 a.m. I’m getting a

massive headache, barf.

Ellie–2:00 a.m. Still awake... Not

refilling my coffee cup because I’m getting a major stomach ache from it all. MY HEAD HURTS. I’m switching between crying and laughing. Alex–2:10 a.m. I’m still up. I’m

not even really tired anymore. I think my body is way too used to getting five hours of sleep or less...

Olga–2:13 a.m. I AM SOOOOOO

TIRED!!!! I’ve got a head ache and I feel awful.

Ellie–12:14 a.m. The coffeee is

Ellie–2:47 a.m. The coffee is

By knocking off just a few hours of beauty sleep, you could experience...

•Memory problems

making my tummy hurt. And

making me super sick. I’m

SLEEP STATS

•Slowed reaction time •Depression •Anxiety

getting cranky, and I’m pretty sure my judgment is impaired. Oh well, I can do this.

Alex–3:46 a.m. I’m about to accept defeat.

Ellie–3:58 a.m. Exhausted... Trying

to read AP Euro while this tired is hard, and I know I won’t remember a thing tomorrow but I’m going through it anyways. Wait, why did I type AP Euro? I’m not in AP Euro... I’m in AP US History.. I haven’t been in AP Euro since sophomore year. Sorry Smajda, I’m just so tired..

Olga–6:50 a.m. BOOM! NO NAPS, NO CLOSING MY EYES... I pulled the all nighter Ellie–11:43 a.m. Full disclosure...

I slept from 6:20 till 6:40 A.M. this morning. I feel bad...I slept in gifted, and psychology, and APUSH. Chem test in a few hours. So scared. What’s a mole?

The morning after...

Lily I only stayed awake until 1:30 a.m., but I still felt like I had been run over by a reindeer the morning after. Olga It really wasn’t the all-

nighter that was difficult, it was just the next day; I barely made it through.

Ellie I aced my chem test the next day, but then I went home and crashed for eight hours. Alex Being completely honest, I don’t get much sleep on a normal basis. However, I was literally dizzy the next day after only getting two hours. It was bad–I just copied and texted funny tweets to Sarah Jurgensmeyer all day long.

•Weakened immunity •Obesity •Heart attack

Getting your priorities straight Liz Gaa Entertainment Editor

ec. 7 saw Night Two of Radio Station 96.5 The Buzz’s annual Christmas concert bonanza... without the headliner. Celtic-punk band Flogging Molly dropped the two last dates of its tour and returned to Europe, leaving behind Matt and Kim, Company of Thieves and local band Antennas UP to keep the show going without them. Flooding the station’s inbox and text-line with miffed (to say the least) comments, avid fans of the group vented their frustration so that even the notoriously foul-mouthed DJs were shocked. Understandable, right? Not really. The band’s absence was due to complications with the birth of the drummer’s first child and he needed to be with his wife to support her, which to me seems to be a legitimate reason to miss a show. Apparently for some fans though, their desire for one hour of entertainment outweighs the need of a man to be with his family in its time of need. And this incident demonstrates a wider trend of messed-up priorities. When we fly off of the handle about minor annoyances in our lives, like the test we only got a 90 percent on or the drama between friends, we often fail to see the larger, more important issues. Maybe your friend can’t listen to your physics angst because she is dealing with an even larger problem, or maybe the strain of craming for finals threw off your groove on test day. Whatever. The point is, reserve judgment until you know the whole story, or you might just be freaking out about nothing.

the north star entertainment 12.15.11

f the Mayans are indeed correct, and the world is going to end next year, there could hardly have been a more exciting penultimate year for the world.

Japan devastation

On March 11, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake (the fifth most powerful of all time) caused a monstrous tsunami to strike eastern Japan resulting in over 15,000 deaths. Just as devastating was the nuclear fallout caused by the tsunami which led to a nuclear power plant to explode in Fukoshima, Japan. The country has been in the process of recovering from this apocolyptic disaster for the past nine months.

2011

Michael Hoffman Online Editor

icture the future as a metaphor for a movie. As teenagers, we get a front row seat to watching the world unfold before our eyes. It will be filled with science fiction, drama, and a little bit of comedy. But the question on everyone’s mind is, will this turn into a disaster movie?

See ya in London

Grab some popcorn and an American flag, the ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympics are about to begin! The events don’t kick off until July 12, but right now, athletes around the world are anxiously training for their chance to shine on the world stage. Hosted in the city of London, this Olympics will feature a variety of sports, ranging from archey and beach volleyball to sailing and weightlifting. Will 2008 Olympic heroes Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps again dominate the headlines? Tune in during the summer to find out.

Down to their final Card

Adam Wainwright embraces teammate Yadier Molina after their team, the St. Louis Cardinals, completed a cinderella run to capture the World Series title. Ten and a half games behind the Atlanta Braves with just 32 games remaining in the season, the Cardinals went 23-9 down the stretch to make the playoffs. The magic did not stop there as the Cardinals found themselves down to the last strike trailing the Texas Rangers 7-5 in the pivotol game six of the World Series. They responded characteristically with a two run triple to extend the series which they eventually won.

You can’t move forward unless you look back

Bendable phones?

Two thoughts come to my mind when I hear this phrase. One: How does that work? And two: How easy will it be for me to misplace it and then it’s gone? Developers Nokia, Samsung and Sony have all been working on this new technology that requires you to bend and twist your phone to do simple tasks like sending texts and making calls. There’s no release date yet, but this new technoloxy is expected to hit the shelves early next year. Not only do the phones bend, but they can also be folded and tucked in your pocket. They are light, thin and flexible, which will make them hard to break, something that all teenagers will be glad to hear. Trends like this could be the wave of the future, but my guess is no one will buy them and they’ll disappear as fast as I’d misplace one. All Photos from creative commons

Arab Spring

After Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi (above) set himself on fire to protest his country’s repressive government, numerous Arab countries, including Bouazizi’s Tunisia, caught fire and successfully overthrew the rulers and established new regimes. The two most prominent rebellions were those of Libya and Egypt, which should help create a less hostile Middle East. The United States provided highly controversial military assistance to Libya. Concerns remain in nations like Israel that peace treaties with Middle Eastern nations’ old governments will no longer be honored.

2012 Danny Rosenberg Staff Writer

The end?

It turns out, the movie might have gotten it wrong. When “2012” hit theaters a couple of years ago, people immediately jumped to the conclusion that the date Dec. 21, 2012, would mark the end of the world. In the movie, it’s a date full of natural disasters and millions of people die. While there are several theories that do predict the end of the world, as being caused by various disasters and a collision between Earth and a black hole, there are also other theories that the movie failed to acknowledge. According to the Mayan prophecy, the year 2012 does mark the end of a world cycle, but 2013 marks the beginning of a New Age. All of these projections are simply based on astronomical observations, however, which some scientists consider unreliable. So what will actually happen remains unknown, but nothing happening is just as possible a conclusion as the world ending.

18 the north star entertainment 12.15.11

Oddball relatives light up the holidays Rachel Anderson Staff Writer

he holiday season is a time for hot cocoa and family gatherings. Along with those gettogethers come sloppy kisses from old aunt Sally. But if you have an Aunt Sally who wears you to your last nerve, you’re not alone. Other students this winter break will also be dealing with nutty family members.

“My grandma is insanely obsessed with weiner dogs. She has statues and paintings of them all over her house, and she has two of them herself. Anytime she comes over for a holiday, that’s all she talks about,” sophmore Jeremy Day said. “My cousin is actually kind of a nice guy, but I became friends with him on Facebook-big mistake. He updates his status every hour, half of the updates are either about alcohol or ‘Call Of Duty’,” junior Abe Cullom said. “All of my relatives pick on me because I’m Asian and adopted,” senior Michael Ho said. “My grandpa will sometimes think that I’m a friend of a relative or something, and will ask me what my name is.”

Photo by Rachel Anderson

“Mickey Masterson, my dad, is kind of strict. He is a neat freak. He is not always so annoying though,” freshman Mychal Masterson said. “When he gets mad he doesn’t know what to say and he just freezes up and pauses.” “I have some relatives in Illinois that constantly scream and yell [including] a 3-year-old cousin who cusses me out when I don’t do what he wants,” senior Chris Desett said. “One time he threw a remote at my dog.” “Oscar, my younger cousin, is just so serious about everything and takes things so literally. He is a third grader who reads college books. He annoys me with facts about insects and science,” sophomore Lauren Haines said.

How to beat the teach Students offer pointers for arguing in class Reid Eggleston News Editor

e’ve established that we’re smarter than our parents, our coaches and our teachers. But how can we get our authority figures to acknowledge this? Enter our school’s foremost classroom debaters and academic arguers. For years, these students have craftily perfected the science of sass, poring over and analyzing teacher contradictions, vague test questions and unclear grading marks. Now, a few are willing to share their secrets to success. “Be pretty calm about it, up front, but if you’re still having problems with whatever you’re arguing about, be more aggressive,” freshman Sophie Jerwick said. “The teacher should be intelligent enough to understand what it is you’re trying to say.” Sophomore Ryan Samuels, though, takes a different approach. “The trick is to never let the teacher talk,” he said. “If you dominate the conversation, you’ll win every time. And it always helps to get the class in on the argument with you.” But why have these students chosen to take on the responsibility of holding

teachers in check? “Because I’m better than the teachers,” Samuels said. “I’m pretty cocky and when I know the teacher’s wrong, I won’t stop until I prove I’m right.” For most, however, it’s about mastering the subjects for which students are responsible. “If you wait and don’t say anything and whatever your problem is doesn’t get solved, you will never understand it,” senior Tyler Haynes said. “It’s never a bad time to argue. If the teacher is wrong, she’s wrong,” Samuels said. Of course, argument may be more fruitful in Spanish than in calculus. This is why it’s important to carefully consider where the argument will take place. “Try out (English) literature,” Haynes suggests. “In lit, nothing is ever very factual or concrete. It’s very opinionbased, so it’s super easy to argue in.” Ultimately, the message when it comes to arguing is just never to give up. “Yeah, you’ll probably make yourself look like a fool,” Hayes said. “But it’s worth it, every time. I won’t stop until I prove I’m right.”

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the north star opinion 12.15.11

How the teachers stole christmas

Ellie Holcomb Opinon Editor

ll joking aside, as lights and trees go up, Black Friday sales cause mass rushes and stories of “trampling’s” (or pepper spray), and menorahs are lit, it’s hard to join in on the holiday cheer. How can we get excited for one of the happiest times of the year when first, we have to “look forward” to finals and piles of

Illustration by Berkeley Lovelace

Holiday cheer is drown out by stress for students

homework as teachers try to squeeze in lessons in double time? Yes, with the end of the semester approaching, our grades are important and work comes first. The district and state have guidelines for what we must have learned by the end of the year, and teachers have to oblige. But the extra pressure leaves almost no room to get excited for what is supposed to be a time of year reserved for slowing down and appreciating the things that are dear to us. December’s approach used to incite joy and excitement. Now it just brings with it an extra bundle of stress. This year, finals end on Dec. 20. That means that for those students who celebrate Christmas, there are five precious days of holiday cheer to pack in an entire winter of fun before the holiday is over. Hot cocoa, iceskating, gift exchanges, snowmen, oh, and don’t forget that winter break

homework. For those students who celebrate Hanukah, which begins Dec. 20 at sunset and ends on 28, that leaves only eight days. Prior to this, our time is spent studying, stressing, and working. Even the best students, those completely caught up and with full understanding in every class, feel the pressure as the pace picks up. To me, it doesn’t make sense that the pace intensifies towards the end of the semester. In some classes, it’s as though the teachers are trying to play catch up for lessons they didn’t teach us in September and October, and we’re paying the price, in the currency of tinsel and carols. The solution? Even out the pace in those slower September and October months, when everything is given more time to be absorbed, so that our holiday season isn’t crammed full of enough textbooks to give us a hunchback. Oh, and nix the huge tests the day before

“Every kid in North liked the holidays a lot, but the teachers, at the top, obviously do not. The teachers hate the holidays, the whole holiday season. They drown it with stress, tests, and homework, no one quite knows the reason.” finals. The extra “padding” points aren’t worth the worry they cause or the days we lose studying for them as opposed to our finals. As nice as it would be if school’s pace could be more even and simply slope down to a smooth finish at finals, I doubt that’ll happen. Regardless, there are ways to try and integrate holiday cheer while studying for the massive tests and doing the increasing loads of homework. Sip on hot cocoa while working math problems or read Les Miserables by the fire. Not exactly the same as the stress free life, but closer.

The good side of being mean

Selfish shoppers ruin selfless day of the year

Berkeley Lovelace Feature Editor

t’s ironic that something so selfish takes place on the selfless day of the year. The holidays’ now have a new tradition. Reframing from the old adequate idea of being thankful for ones family and life at a dinner-table, its been replaced with the late-night ceremony of standing-in-line alone completely prepared to pepper spray anyone who gets in the way of your “O’ so low prices.” Which in turn perpetuates the selfish notion that it’s ok to do so, as long as the end result is a arm-full of shopping bags at a bargain price--no, it’s just greedy. If you haven’t realized already I am talking about Black Friday and I find its idea outrageous. So much so, that it has made my Ridicu-list. Not many have probably heard of the Ridicu-list. It’s a stream on CNN.

com, by Anderson Cooper, that lists a variety of ridiculous and outlandish things people have done. It expands from a man suing to have his wedding photos redone after he had already been divorced to a guy calling 911 multiple times because his iPhone wasn’t working. And I think some participants of Black Friday tops the list. I know our American history didn’t start on the best of terms around this time of year. The foundation of Thanksgiving began with the Pilgrims and Native Americans--and I don’t think I need to explain what happened. But

what I will say is that the tradition transitioned into something more unified. It transitioned into something to be proud of. Now this time it has seemed to gone back out of the loop. Black Friday shouldn’t be after or near Thanksgiving. Move it to a week after I don’t care, but it’s ruining the tradition that took decades to build. Black Friday now reminds me of the situation the Pilgrims and Natives had. On the news, after the thanksgiving feast, you hear of people being beatin for $39.99 iPod shuffle or others hopelessly stepped on in a race for the lastest

“ Black Friday shouldn’t be after or near Thanksgiving. Move it to a week after–I don’t care–but it’s ruining the tradition that took decades to build.”

sports wear. It is in all out brawl between you and potentially some from your neighboorhood. Some may even skip their Thanksgiving events for these occasions which upsets me, because I found thanksgiving to be one of the most selfless times of the year. Thanksgiving isn’t like christmas. Christmas can be somewhat selfish, simply for the fact that you’re expecting gifts--for those who are fortunate enough. Though, on Thanksgiving people come together to have nice meal, no strings or cost attached. Smells waft in and out of the kitchen. Loved ones and even strangers join for something people take for granted, a meal. I know some want their deals and to save money well deserved which is reasonable. However, leave this holiday out of it. And be thankful for what you already have, not what you could.

Defending women’s rights

the north star opinion 12.15.11

[Ellie’s Insights]

Abortion battle raises questions of dignity

Chris Shanklin Staff Writer

bortion has been an issue of heated debate for decades. We see signs of the argument every day: passing the pictures of babies and mini crosses in front of local churches or seeing dramatic ads and commercials advocating abstinence. Just last month, the Mississippi state legislature attempted to outlaw abortion. But that attempt failed. Maybe our nation’s finally coming around. Not to say that the old ideals are dead. A new set of societal morals gives women the right to be Pro-choice without the shame formerly associated with abortion. This is a good thing. Having said that, abortion should not be the first option or an alternitive to contraceptives, it should be avaliable as a last resort. The issue of abortion cannot be put in terms of good or bad as every circumstance differs. A rape that leads to pregnancy is a

trama that will not go away. Forcing someone to carry a child that was concieved through an act of violence or a child that will live in a violent situation is an atrocity, one that will

Abortion is a controversial issue that has been questioned by many, and Mississippi’s recent attempt to outlaw it caused further debate. Photo illustration by Christin Smith

stick with the mother and baby long after the child is born. Choosing to abort a child is not a simple decision made light-heartedly on a whim.

Outlawing the procedure entirely is dangerous for mothers who will attempt abortion in unsafe conditions and without the guidence of a physician. Ask your parents how abortions were carried out pre-’73. I’m not trying to say there is a pleasant form of such a practice, but at least in the care of a doctor the mother is more likely to survive and have no serious post-operative issues. As a guy I know it may look as though I have been in this situation before. I assure you that I have not. My belief in Pro-choice is grounded on the rights and dignity of women. Taking away the right to chose for themselves puts into question what America believes. We are a country founded on the freedom to make our own decisions based on what each individual believes. The views of a few should not be forced upon the masses. I believe in a choice that women deserve, one that shouldn’t be made lightly but none the less, one that should be avalible.

Approaching the overload point

Is high school encouraging involvement or insanity? Alex Goldman Co-Editor-in-Chief

woke up this morning, and just like every other day, immediately checked my calendar. Today is a winner, that’s for sure–there’s a Spanish Club meeting before school, a unit test in AP Calculus and another in AP Physics, a newspaper deadline with tons of editing to do, a debate work night at 3 p.m., followed by a Photos4Good charity event, and finally, a late night hostess meeting at work to discuss schedule changes. And I’m not the only one with a day like this. This hectic 24-hour blocked out schedule is undoubtedly common among high school students. Even before freshman year, kids are encouraged to join as many clubs, teams and activities as humanly possible. We’re force fed the idea that colleges, and whatever

comes after that, want the perfectly well rounded candidate: one who’s state-ranked in every activity they participate in, creative, innovative, charismatic, athletic, and to top it off, extremely intelligent. So, kids as young as 14 years old are signing up for as many clubs and activities as they can handle to give themselves an edge. The Book Club, GSA, National Honor Society, Spanish

Club, the Asian-American Club, the Political Science Club – you name it, people are joining it. Add to that a handful of AP or honors classes, complete with the hours of homework that come with them. And, last but not least, some crazy kids (myself included) try to balance all of the above with a job. But, when does all of the involvement become too much to bear? You can only attend so many after school meetings, go to so many work nights, work so many shifts and do so many hours of homework. Eventually something’s got to give. Over the past four years, I’ve discovered one very important thing – do what you love. Yes, you might take an extra AP class to make your transcript look better, but save your valuable free time for things that make you happy. You have your whole life ahead of you to be miserable with a crummy desk job, so why settle now? Illustration by Berkeley Lovelace

My own brand of home therapy

Ellie Holcomb Opinion Editor

his issue, I got the “privilege” of taking part in an oh-so fun newspaper staff sleep study. (Full disclosure-it was my idea. I was hyped up on coffee all night.) Funny thing is, since then, I don’t think I’ve gotten a single full night of sleep. Regardless of the night, I find myself sitting at my desktop Mac at 11:30 keeping up with the pre-finals workload. I know this isn’t a unique conundrum, but maybe what sets me apart is that while typing this article (timestamp, 10:45 p.m.) I’m dreaming of baking cookies instead. While I’ve always been a busy person, junior year has definitely caught me off guard. I can’t say I was prepared for the work load or curriculm. Regardless, I’ve found that I reach the point of imploding if I don’t take some time at least every week, if not every few days, to do what I love – with absolutely no regard for how it will affect my transcript, college applications, position at work or basic intellect. For me, it’s baking. I know people who run or make jewlery or build robots. It’s all in the mindset of dong something just to be happy, not to be better. When I spend an hour or two doing what makes me happy, I end up being more productive. And more productive, to me, seems better. To kick off the dreaded (yet fun) newspaper all-nighter, I baked a few dozen cupcakes. Yes, it took a few hours. And yes, sometimes even when I’m exhausted, I choose flour and sugar over warm blankets and pajamas. A little bit of homemade therapy is always worth it. I’ve found, especially lately, that when life kicks into high gear, doing what you love can raise your spirits more than you’d ever imagine.

the north star opinion 12.15.11

Race to election cut short due to scandal Obsession over alligations leaves focus on wrong issues

Ellie Holcomb Opinon Editor

e’re all guilty of obsessions, especially the media. Recently, they had an obsession with former Republican candidate Herman Cain and unproven alligations surrounding him. But when does it become too much? When this pushes a candidate to withdraw from the race. Cain suspended his campaign after the media badgered him about accusations of sexual harrasment and an affair. Maybe he is guilty of doing everything he is accused of, or maybe he’s a saint. Regardless, these aren’t the main factors we should have been looking at with his candidacy. The questions we should be asking are about his basic competency, not his morality. It seems as though Americans love drama. Ask them what they knew about Cain, and even those who knew nothing about where he stood on the issues will know that he was accused of sexual harrasment and a 13-year affair. Kids in our school, who could care less about politics (even though they will be able to vote in a year or two, if they can’t already) keep up with sex scandals involving politics. It’s just like high school gossip. And this gossip should not be the reason a man withdraws from the race to the White House. Cain seemed unaware that China had nuclear capabilities. He didn’t know the role the United States played in supporting the uprising in Libya against Ghadafi. When finding that alligations toward him were about to be leaked, he simply ignored them. His ignorance on foreign policy is a reason to condem him, as is his reaction to the events surrounding him. Unproven allegations are not reason for us to judge him. Before we jump to conclusions about someone, perhaps we should make sure we are making our decisions for the right reasons. There are extremely legitimate reasons why Cain did not deserve a place in the White House, and none of these caught the media’s attention. If we judge our politicians on intellect and not scandal, our country may actually be run by the best and brightest.

“If we judge our politicians on intellect and not scandal, our country may actually be run by the best and brightest.”

Americans come to their senses stopping an unethical candidate

Chris Shanklin Staff Writer

ormer presidential candidate Hermain Cain’s recent sex scandal allegations have captured the nation’s attention. Politicians and goverment officals always seem to be tied up in one form of corruption or another. Frankly, I’m sick of it. Regardless of how dense or brilliant a politician is, if he or she can’t quell their sexal escapades when in the public light, I do not endorse him or her. Of course, when we decide whether politicians are the “right choice”, their policies should come first. Their stance on war, economics, foreign policy, taxes, abortion, gay rights and education should all be president. A canidate’s character is, however, the factor that determines whether he or she will follow through with his or her promises. Take 2008 Democratic candidate John Edwards as an example. Edwards’s wife Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2004 and his campaign painted him as a family man and a supportive husband never leaving his wife’s side. Behind closed doors, he fathered a daughter with another woman. I could have supported Edwards whole heartedly up to that point, but what he did is a disgrace and a man such as that does not deserve to run my country. Government corruption seems to be a global phanominon. Perhaps it’s the power that drives a politician to outrageous self-indulgence and greed. I do admit that I have never experienced the pressure of public office, but if this is a coping issue it should be handled differently and in private. As far as knowledge in foreign affairs, Cain’s comments on China are disheartening. But it is the fact that he, as president, would have represented the United States of America. In this global society it is key to have a respectable representive who can stand for his or her nation with pride. Mis-managing his own affairs proved to me that he was incapable of running an entire nation. I am proud of the pressure put on Hermain Cain that forced him out of the race. No politician is perfect, but his blaitant sexual escapades deserved to be punished.

“A canidate’s character is the factor that determines whether he will follow through with his promises.”

the north star opinion 12.15.11

[The Gluecktionary]

[Gold from Goldman]

Learning to read

Free to tweet Alex Goldman Co-Editor-in-Chief

o far, we’ve had @BVNTeachers, @BVNGossipTweets, @TheNorthernBeat, @BVNRumors, @BVNSkinnies and who knows how many other lovely little gossip Twitter accounts centered around our school. Awesome, huh? Twitter, an originally harmless social media website, has been transformed into a BVN bash-o-rama over the past year. These anonymous accounts have done it all – calling people out for being too fat, too preppy, too smart, too dumb, everything. They’ve made claims about teachers doing drugs, they’ve pinpointed specific students about drinking – it’s just a hot mess. But why do it in the first place? And why onTwitter? Twitter, it seems, has made it easy to be a coward. Unlike Facebook, MySpace and many other social media sites, there’s really no personal information connecting a person to

[

Jessi Glueck Co-Editor-in-Chief

his or her tweets. Any student can simply adopt a random username, get on the Internet and be as malicious as he or she pleases without a soul knowing who’s behind it. People hide behind the illuminated screens of their computer monitors and their phones, and that’s a serious problem. One of the first things we learn as little kids is that if we don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Well, mysterious tweeters, what would you say if someone called you dumb or a slut or accused you of doing something simply because they felt like it? Think about it, if you ever do think at all. Thanks to the First Amendment, we’ve been given a unusually large amount of freedom when it comes to speech. Though this is definitely something to celebrate, we have to remember one thing: social media may be open and at our disposal, but there’s no reason for us to abuse it.

“R

ead in order to live.” The famous French author Gustave Flaubert put it pretty simply. The study and enjoyment of books is an essential part of our lives. It elevates us. But in today’s society, the study of literature is often a secondary concern. Take, for example, our school. We offer six AP courses in math or science. We offer two AP English courses. That’s it. Two. Burn through all the AP math and science courses we offer? You’re a perfect candidate for Science Research, or alternatively you can spend your time on research at CAPS. If you finish English early, like I did, you’re pretty much on your own. With the school’s permission, though without much help, I’ve taken a college English class this semester. We focused on one author, John Milton, and discussed his impact on art and politics. It was fascinating. In the end, finishing high school English

The North Star Staff

Editors Alex Goldman, Jessi Glueck News editor Reid Eggleston Feature editor Berkeley Lovelace Sports editor David Tauber Entertainment editor Liz Gaa Opinion editor Ellie Holcomb Online Editor Michael Hoffman

Photo editor Christin Smith Design editor Sarah Campbell Multimedia Editor Ali Fallucca Business manager Sarah Evans Illustrator Berkeley Lovelace Photographers Ali Fallucca Francine Gollub

Staff writers Sarah Evans Lily Lieberman Chris Shanklin Rachel Anderson Hayley Berger Evan Watson Danny Rosenberg Olga Deckman Adviser Melinda Gilman

early turned out wonderfully for me. So why am I complaining? I’m complaining because I can’t believe that I got through four years of North’s English classes without the chance to do any of this. I’m complaining because my friend at a California private high school had his choice of a seminar on Dante or one on Renaissance Fiction or Russian literature, and because even though I can teach him calculus, I’ve done a third of the reading for school that he has. I’m complaining because no one else from our school knows what it’s like to debate about Milton’s God. Is this something our school district can change? I don’t know. But we should try. Without a broader selection of literature classes, half our student body will never figure out that they like to read. If we did offer more opportunities, though, I think we’d be stunned by the rich new dimensions we would see in our books – and in ourselves.

The North Star is the official publication of Blue Valley North High School, an open forum distributed to all students nine times a year. This publication may contain controversial material. Kansas law prohibits the suppression of a student publication solely because it may contain controversial matter. Blue Valley Unified School District No. 229 and its board members, officers and employees may disclaim any responsibility for the content of this publication; it is not an expression of school policy. Student authors and editors are solely responsible for the content of this publication. Letters to the editors are encouraged from students and non-students alike and should be less than 500 words in length. All letters must be signed and turned into room 411 at least one week prior to publication. All letters require a signature. Names will be published. The North Star reserves the right to edit with regard to libel, without changing the substance of the letter. The North Star will not publish obscene or libelous material. The North Star Blue Valley North High School 12200 Lamar Ave. Overland Park, KS 66209 (913) 239-3116

24 the north star as we see it 12.15.11

With November came the first winter chills, another slew of sports tryouts, hoards of Thanksgiving leftovers and a suspicious clan of teenagers...with beards. Well, some earned the accolade. Other whiskered displays reminded us that we are still kids. The North Star captured the fuzzy, the stubbly, the grizzly, the unkept and the splotchy face warmers for your viewing pleasure. Onward to Decembeard!

Top row: Senior Micheal Hoffman, senior Cole Ferguson, senior Jonathan Contag, senior Greg Castro Bottom Row: Sophomore Eli Fried, senior Ryan Wood, senior P.J. Woodward, senior Peter Berry