April 1, 2022 Pepper Box April Fools Edition
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Spanish teacher finds rare species Spanish teacher John Becker discovered the Chupacabra on a recent trip to Mexico City
Written by: Jennifer Huerta-Lopez A Spanish teacher at Ritenour recently made an incredible discovery while on a trip in Mexico. At the end of February, John Becker decided to go on a short trip with his family to Mexico City, Mexico. Becker was in Mexico for five days, but he never knew that during those five short days, he would discover something incredible, unreal, and never seen before. Becker is a really adventurous person, so he decided to take another trip with his family. Once he and his family arrived in Mexico City, they began exploring and looking at attractions. By the next day they spent all morning in museums and other intriguing places. As they were walking in the streets of Mexico, they came upon a local resident that was using hiking gear. Becker loves hiking, so he decided to ask where the best place for hiking was located, and the resident told him that the best place to hike was at the Bosque de la Cañada de Contreras. The man told him that this park was one of the most beautiful parks there in Mexico City. Becker was intrigued to see such a beautiful place, so he and his family decided to go hiking at 6:00pm. ¨The hiking in Mexico is just really great, and my family is really into being outdoors, so it was a great opportunity,” Becker said. Since they would begin hiking kind of late, Becker decided to purchase some tents for him and his family so that they wouldn’t
Photo by: Michelle Everett, Spanish teacher John Becker shows off a drawing he made of the Chupacabra that he saw while on a trip to Mexico City.
have to worry about it getting dark outside. They were hiking for about two hours when they decided to stop and set their tents up in a hidden but beautiful area in the park. ¨In the middle of the night it just got so hot in the tents, that we couldn’t sleep. So we finally just got up and went outside to try and catch a breeze in the hammocks that we had brought,” Becker said An hour later, Becker started to hear some noises coming from the trees. He thought it was probably just a squirrel, so he just went back to sleep. All of a sudden he heard growling, so he woke up his wife. They started looking around when all of the sudden they saw a dark shadow with some fur and horns. Becker and his wife were shaken, it was something they had never seen before. Becker was still curious to see what it was, so he tried to get a closer look, but his wife was absolutely scared. They got a little closer and then saw the
mysterious creature eat a goat. As soon as they saw this, Becker knew exactly what it was, it was el Chupacabras. Junior Melissa Lopez mentioned how scared Becker still was when he told the story to his classes upon his return to school. “When he told us this story he claimed that he was hiking when all of the sudden he encountered el Chupacabras hidden behind some trees. When he and his wife realized what it was they got scared and they jumped and screamed. They were terrified for their lives and began to run as fast as they could, el Chupacabras ran after them for a little, but fortunately it wasn’t really interested and left,¨ Lopez said. Becker was really shaken up, he could not believe he actually saw the Chupacabras. ¨Chupacabras are just so rare, we were so lucky to catch a glimpse. I guess probably even luckier that it had already eaten, and wasn’t that interested in us,” Becker said.
Bueltmann finds an underground shark tooth black market Samantha Bueltmann is making good use of her dissections Written by: Paula De Hipolito Ruiz Zoology teacher Samantha Bueltmann found an interesting way to make some side income when the COVID pandemic began by selling shark teeth to local dentists. “I was having trouble with money, teachers don’t make a lot of mone, and I was trying to think of something I could do, and at the same time I was trying to figure out how to get the students interested in class,” Bueltmann said. “I thought, why don’t we come up with marketing skills? I never, never ever would have thought of this, but I had a dream one night where I was being chased by a shark, but when I turned around it was one of my students, and I just clicked those ideas together.” This became a harder business than Bueltmann expected because of the need to have a lot of supplies to keep the teeth in good condition
for the dentist and the people who are going to wear them. “You have to keep them refrigerated, the trick is that they can’t be in the same kind of preservative that we normally have, so they definitely have to be in a refrigerator,” Bueltmann said. “The sharks don’t need to be in preservation, but that would kill the special cells in the teeth, so they have to be in a preservative; not deep frozen, but colder than our average fridge.” Since Bueltmann has started supplying the shark teeth to dentists, there is starting to be a new trend where people are replacing multiple teeth with shark teeth. “Normally dentists just use them to replace singular teeth for people who have generally poor dental hygiene. However, there is also a kind of underground scene connected to changing body
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image, like with tattoos or piercing, and some people are replacing multiple teeth for shark teeth,” Bueltmann said. “I think it makes them feel tough, just like if you had fancy jewelry or having tattoos makes you look tough, or certain piercings.” As a saleswoman of shark teeth she confessed that she would wear the shark teeth as a front teeth, and as a now expert in this business she explains the policies, and the people who are involved here. “There’s not really a precedent, as long as they are not native sharks. We don’t have any native sharks, so it’s not illegal for the Department of Conservation, and as long as it is not an endangered shark, then that is okay as well,” Bueltmann said. “If we were going out killing sharks and just taking their teeth then that could become a problem, but we wouldn’t do that anyway, so we are using parts that are already there and everybody wins.”
SPECIAL EDITION STAFF Visual EIC: Kaitlyn Hurst, Content EIC: Kaylyn Riggs, Production EIC: Maricela Nunez, Online Editor: Chloe Sapp, Photography Editor: Michelle Everett, Social Media Manager: Chanel Foster, Adviser: Ron Steinschriber
Photo by: Michelle Everett, Zoology teacher has taken to selling shark teeth to make some extra money during the school year. The teeth are extracted while her students dissect the sharks.
Staff Members: Leanna Duncan, Paula De Hipolito Ruiz, Layla Fouche, Caden Gaither, Alexandria Griffin, Caroline Groceman, Danielle Haynes, Jennifer Huerta Lopez, Autumn Jacobsmeyer, Julia Lohnes, Nickolas Martin, Eaja McBroom, Ashton Miller, Jacob Nasalroad-Francis, Victoria Pratt, Janiya Scott
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Science teacher’s shocking biker past comes to light
Science teacher Cole Hartfield was kicked out of a biker gang
Written by Ashton Miller Many students know Cole Hartfield as a soft-spoken biology teacher. However, what most students don’t know is that he was once a member of one of America’s most vicious biker gangs. The group, known as the Amphibians MC, is a notoriously aggressive club. All across the country, club members have been arrested for crimes such as stealing change from parking meters and building fences around their homes that do not comply with city zoning laws.
Despite the club’s reputation, Hartfield was interested in the club because of the group’s tightknit community and sense of brotherhood. He became a member of the Springfield, Mo chapter. “The loyalty and comradery are hard to find anywhere outside of a motorcycle club,” Hartfield said. Although he was able to join the club, after just a week as a member, a minor issue arose that forced Hartfield to leave the club. “I didn’t have a motorcycle,” Hartfield said. The leader of the Amphibians, whose nickname is the
Photo by: Michelle Everett, Science teacher Cole Hartfield tried to catfish the Amphibians MC biker gang with this bad photoshop attempt. Unfortunately, all he had was a bike and he was kicked out.
Salamander, was initially unaware of Hartfield’s lack of a motorcycle. However, the Salamander quickly realized that Hartfield was not cut out for the club. “I set up a meeting in Springfield so he could introduce himself to some other members and show us his motorcycle. I thought it was strange when he kept telling us it was in the shop, but I believed him. He kept telling me it was a brand new Harley-Davidson FL Hydra Glide. But then I was sitting around thinking about motorcycles, and I happened to remember that the Hydra Glide has been discontinued since 1952. I guess that should’ve been my first clue,” the Salamander said. According to the Salamander, Hartfield did show up with a brand new bike. It was a sleek and shiny Schwinn, one of the best bicycles in the country. Another member who was present at the meeting, known as the Frog, couldn’t believe it when Hartfield showed up to the club meeting. “I expected him to show up on a sleek motorcycle, but when he pedaled into view on his bicycle, ringing the little bell on the handlebar to get our attention, everybody just stared in silence. He had the biggest grin on his face, like he expected everyone to cheer for him or something,” the Frog said. After that, Hartfield was out of the Amphibians in the blink of an eye. He gave up on trying to join a motorcycle club, and focused on becoming a teacher. Now, he’s known as a friendly biology teacher instead of a wannabe biker.
Buxman becomes the new national face of climate change The RHS history teacher is palling around with celebrities Written by: Layla Fouche Social Studies teacher and baseball coach Zachary Buxman has become the new public face of climate change. Buxman teaches Crimes Against Humanity, which has an entire unit on climate change. During that unit, a simple tweet began his leap into fame. “So it started off with me responding to a tweet from Leonardo DiCaprio, we started exchanging messages and emails and he was finding a lot of the research I was presenting to be very interesting. He came up with a great idea to promote an educator as the new face of climate change, kind of promoting the average Joe, someone more relatable, instead of someone from Hollywood,” Buxman said. “Since then we have appeared together on a few talk shows, Jimmy Fallon, Steven Colbert, etc. We will have a photoshoot in People and Time magazines, all of which will come out later this year. We are even going to promote a recycling campaign, and a campaign to show how everyday people can do small things to reduce their carbon footprint.” While there are other components that make up Crimes Against Humanity, Buxman slowly started to realize that climate change seemed to be the cause behind many of the world’s biggest issues. With his new role, the entire curriculum of the class has started to shift. “Originally I created the course to discuss some of the genocides, war crimes, and crimes against humanity that have taken place the
1700s into modern times. However, as time has gone on I have started to see a link between climate change and conflict, specifically how stresses on the environment lead to a lack of resources, which leads to conflict. We have started to learn how these environmental factors can be used as predictors for major events,” Buxman said. Buxman’s successes are widely publicized and are praised by many. While most give their congratulations, some are not fond of the abrupt rise in stardom of their coach, like Senior Charlie Farris. “This is all news to me and I’m absolutely shocked and kinda creeped out, to be honest,” Farris said. Along with other famous profiles, Buxman was able to meet a familiar face to the public eye. As well as him, Greta Thunberg is an activist for climate change. “Leo was able to introduce us during our campaign to reduce the carbon footprint. We were filming at PBS and he told me he had a surprise. I thought he was going to buy me a Tesla or something, but then out walks Greta,” Buxman said. “It was awesome, she told me that Leo had passed along some of the information that I had shared with him and she thought it was fantastic that students were being taught such important topics in schools. Leo, Greta, and I got to hang out and eat lunch and she even filmed some of our PBS campaigns with us. It was amazing.” With it being Farris’ last baseball season, he is not too fond of his coach being on the road instead of being at practices and games. “I honestly don’t like it because
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he needs to focus on baseball, but he wanna turn all Hollywood on the team,” Farris said. Sophomore Julia Lohnes was on the softball team this season, where Buxman was an assistant coach. She said that as all of this was starting to happen, he couldn’t fully focus on their team and kept bringing climate change up during games and practices. “He still coached, but at the same time, he was famous, so he would try to explain stuff as a coach, but then he would go into detail about like climate change and all these celebrities he was hanging out with. He would get off topic so many times,” Lohnes said. Even though Buxman has been traveling the road, he was still able to use his knowledge about climate change, and apply it to assist them in baseball. “So the more that I have studied climate change, the more we have begun seeing trends in atmospheric pressure. Weather related events are becoming easier and easier to predict ahead of time. When it comes to sports it has gotten pretty intense, I read an article recently that stated that on low pressure system days it is harder to throw and control a curveball,” Buxman said. “Obviously that makes it easier to throw when there is a high pressure system moving through. Pairing that with studying what pitches usually get thrown, and in what counts, the coaching staff and I have been able to predict pitches to an almost 93% accuracy. It’s amazing what the sciences are starting to show us.”
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Shocking developments to dealing with tardies
A new system will test electric shocks in the hallways
Written by Caroline Groceman Starting in a few days, students who are often late to their classes are going to get a shocking surprise. An employee from a local electric company went rogue and started their own electrical business called Tik Shock. The company is paying Ritenour $2.7 million to participate in a trial run of their new hallway shocks to get students to class on time. Before Ritenour became a school, the building was used as an old electrical plant. Due to this, the students that go here have a higher tolerance for electrical shocks. This is why Ritenour was chosen to
participate in the trial of this new policy that could be introduced into all schools in Saint Louis County beginning in 2023. This policy will begin at Ritenour on April 4,2022. Teachers believe that this will help students get to class on time, but could cause issues in the community. Ritenour High School government teacher Mike Murray believes that this could be dangerous. “When you care about student achievement and success you might have to think outside the box and be original in your approach to any given situation. Aside from the potential violations of students’ 4th, 8th and 14th amendment rights, and potential ridicule in the media and
Photo by: Janiya Scott Juniors Tamika Maney, Acacia Helton, and Ulises Hernandez volunteered to test out the hallway shock system before it went into full effect later this month.
community, I think it is a bold move and might set a precedent,” Murray said. Murray thinks that students will benefit from this. “After virtual learning, this generation of students is prepared for anything. From what I have heard, the shock is only enough to give students a jolt and move them along, not incapacitate them,” Murray said. Business and PLTW teacher Cheryl Jolly-Luster thinks that there could be another alternative offered where students wouldn’t be at the risk of getting harmed. “First, I don’t want any students to be harmed. I would like to propose an alternative- my Engineering students have been working on a relocator machine. When the machine is pointed to a hallway - all students in the hallway will automatically be relocated in their assigned classrooms,” Jolly-Luster said. Jolly-Luster believes that while this may hurt students, it could encourage them to come to class. Junior Isabelle Cortez thinks that this new policy will be a fun way to get to class. “I think it will be fun trying to dodge the shocks in the hallway, kind of like playing a game with my friends seeing who can dodge the most in a day,” Cortez said. “Honestly, I think everyone will be playing around with it. I could see it becoming a game that everyone is playing with their friends to see who can get shocked or who can dodge the most shocks in one day.”
The greatest baseball player of all time works at RHS Activities Director Lee Laskowski had a storied playing career Written by: Julia Lohnes Your favorite baseball player’s favorite baseball player might just be sitting in the Ritenour Athletics office. Activities Director Lee Laskowski went to Mizzou for college where he played baseball, and saying that he was great is an understatement. Laskowski was more than a great baseball player, he was extraordinary and has carved out a Paul Bunyan-like reputation in the sport. When he started playing baseball, he played on a Little League World Series team when he was still just in kindergarten. He got better and better as he played on. He was a first baseman and an outfielder at Mizzou and after college he got a call from the MLB to come and try out. Laskowski was offered a lifetime contract from the Saint Louis Cardinals just based on his tryout, but he ended up turning them down. “I turned down the MLB because they wouldn’t pay me enough so I found my higher calling to work with kids,” Laskowski said. Sophomore Nathan Hayden plays for Ritenour’s baseball team, and he was shocked to find out about Laskowki’s playing prowess after he mentioned the activities director to his dad. “My dad was telling me about how he would watch Mizzou’s game and he would always see Laskowski hitting home runs and robbing home runs,” Hayden said. Laskowski believes he could offer his assistance to the baseball team at some point, but that the team is just not ready for the help he could offer.
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“They are too defensive-minded he was playing for Mizzou he hit for and not ready to take their offense the home run cycle. A solo home to the next level. I believe you need run, a two-run home run, a threeto have a Steph Curry mindset for run home run, and to end it all off, a the game of baseball. Where Curry grand slam, to give Mizzou a 13-12 drops threes, Laskowski drops lead in the third game in a threebombs,” Laskowski said. game series. He also finished that Laskowski did not just turn down game with ten RBI, one shy of the the MLB but he also turned down school record,” Hayden said. playing ball with some of his good friends, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. He has known Yadi and Waino since he was in college. Yadi and Waino were very sad that Laskowski turned down playing with the Cardinals. However, his friendships with the two have helped Athletics Director Drew Lohnes get to meet the professional players. “It’s great we have a lot of former big-league players that come and check on him. Yadi and Waino were here last week and I think they mentioned that Laskowski was the one who settled the labor dispute in MLB and helped end the lockout,” Lohnes said. Junior Blake Dingledine has started to hear some of the rumors going around about Laskowski’s playing days, and is not sure what to believe. “I heard that he robbed 46 home runs. On the last home run that he robbed there was a guy on first tagging to go to second. He ran from the 330 foot home run fence all the way to third base where the guy slid in and Laskowski tagged him out,” Dingledine said. Hayden also heard a very interesting story about Laskowski that seemed too good to be true. “ I heard that Laskowski hit a total Photo courtesy Mizzou athletics Lee Laskowski powers Mizzou to a victory of eight hundred home runs in his while he was playing for them in college. career. In one of his games when
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McKinney takes his YouTube stardom out on the road
The first year math teacher is going on a full time origami tour
Written by Leanna Duncan Algebra 2 teacher Adrian McKinney is going part-time after blowing up on YouTube for his work in origami. Shortly after starting his channel “keep calm and fold along,” his videos started to go viral. McKinney’s first love has always been origami, but he thought he needed to have a safer path, so he went to college for education. “I realized origami was my true dream midway through college, but at that point I figured I would just get my degree and finish strong,” McKinney said. “My influencer dreams were still on hold at the time so I went with my best option”.
In his free time he does origami of geometric figures, like the cube in his room. When you walk in his room you will also see origami squids,turtles, hot dogs, and rings made of money. McKinney also makes fidgets in origami to let his students use while he is teaching his class. McKinney started off in the Ritenour district as a student teacher during the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year, teaching alongside Geometry/Trig teacher Danielle Swallow. Following his graduation from college, he stepped in to take an open math position, but is quickly leaving for his origami dream. McKinney realizes that he might
Photo by: Leanna Duncan Algebra 2 teacher Adrian McKinney shows off his origami geometric cube. It is through origami activities like this that his YouTube channel went viral and he was able to monetize.
have done a few things differently. He regrets not involving his students more in his origami quest. “Teaching was at one point my life’s greatest passion and walking away from that could never be done with a grain of salt,” McKinney said. “I still want to pursue my dreams at all costs. I never thought I’d get this far. Who knows where origami will take me.” He did say that he could go back to teaching full-time if he runs out of origami ideas, but he does not really see that happening. “As long as my hands can still fold and crease, I won’t cease,” McKinney said. McKinney plans to go on tour, starting in Europe and then moving to Asia. However there are currently no plans for an American origami show. Sophomore Gabby Negrete is sad that she will have a new math teacher, but is looking forward to seeing how far origami will take McKinney. “It is upsetting that he is leaving because he is a good teacher. But if he ever tours America I would go,” Negrete said. McKinney will be waving his final goodbyes on May, 26 2022 after finals. He will be making each student from all six class periods a little origami hand with a note personalized to each of his students. “It is upsetting, but origami is something he enjoys doing,” sophomore Peyton House said.
Life in a bubble: The return of the Spanish Flu After a 100 year absence, the virus is back and being defended Written by: Tori Pratt Due to a shocking comeback of the Spanish Flu circulating around the area, Ritenour will go back to mask mandatory starting on Wednesday, April 6. At the end of March, the area first saw reports of the Spanish Flu coming back into the population. Now it is confirmed that the district will be going mask mandatory, and if students want to be on campus, they will be assigned to walk around in bubbles everyday. As a result of being put in bubbles, Ritenour will switch half of their stairs to slides in order for students to safely get around. Based on a parent suggestion, there will be bumpers around the school to prevent students from harming themselves and getting into collisions. In addition to their role as a safety precaution, the bubbles will be weighted down so students can transport themselves safely to their next classes. Safety being Ritenour’s first priority, they are doing everything in their power to remain able to stay open. By incorporating masks, bubbles, and slides at this rate, the school will be able to stay open. It has not yet been confirmed though. By reinstating the mask mandate Ritenour knows there will be some backlash but by doing this they are hoping to not change everything like COVID did back in March of 2020. Junior Bre Barnes was a freshman when the whole world was flipped upside down in March of 2020, and does not want to go back to the way things used to be. “It would make me feel like I
have no freedom. I would feel like I’m confined to this one particular area. It would just feel worse being at school because there’s limited space when you could just do virtual and not have to worry about being isolated in a bubble,” Barnes said. Junior Kali Smith says that while the bubbles would be potentially problematic, the slide element would add something that students had never seen before. “I would probably feel lost and upset. Being stuck in a bubble you lose the connections you have to people. I would be having the time of my life with the slides though. I
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think it would go well but it would take a while to get used to,” Smith said. It is understood this will be a big change to Ritenour and it will be rough to adapt at first. It is not expected of students to be in person though. There will be a virtual option just like the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. Ritenour hopes that parents, students, and staff will understand the precautionary measures they take and support them in their decisions along the way. It has appreciated the opinions, concerns, and questions they have gotten so far.
Photo by: Layla Fouche Junior Kyle Williams tests out the bubble in the Ritenour hallways. Every student will be expected to stay inside their bubble and use the stairs and slides during school.
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Written by Autumn Jacobsmeyer As the school year full of memories is coming to end, new opportunities open up. As students leave these halls for the summer, they will bring some things with them, but they also will be leaving some things behind. One of those things being left behind is a beloved teacher, who made a surprise announcement. After 14 years of teaching English language at Ritenour High school, Colette Love-Hillard is retiring. “I’m so excited to start this new chapter of my life,” Love-Hillard said. The Ritenour teacher will be moving right outside in Portland,
English teacher retiring to live a simpler life
Colette Love-Hilliard is moving into a tiny home Ore. Her plan is to reuse old school buses and turn them into tiny homes. Love-Hillard says that she chose tiny homes because she likes the idea of living minimally, and the fact that she can take it with her to explore new places. “Redecorating my classroom has inspired me to take this further as a career. I already bought my own school bus with my husband and our dog, I chose to move to Portland because that’s where my husband proposed to me. He acted like we stumbled upon this beautiful open area, but I later learned that it was actually called proposal rock. How funny is that? We will turn our school bus into our home. My dog would have her own little space
Photo by: Autumn Jacobsmeyer English teacher Colette Love-Hilliard starts packing up items in her classroom as she prepares to leave teaching and start a life in a tiny home on a former schoolbus.
and her own little doggie door. My husband is tall, so he would have some adjusting to do,” Love-Hilliard said. Love-Hilliard also said that they would be buying every single bus that Ritenour is not using anymore to turn into homes for others. Sophomore Audrey Stuvland has been a student of Love-Hilliard’s in Creative Writing Club. She was shocked and saddened to hear about her departure “Mrs. Love was always the sweetest, as her name implies,” Stuvland said. “With no one to call me baby duck, I don’t know if it’ll be the same.” Love-Hilliard still has reservations about leaving because of what she will be missing. “I will miss it. I will miss all the in-between moments. I will miss it when students trust me when sharing a story about what is happening in their life. I would miss the connection. But I would miss watching my students become their own person and watching them live, love, and grow,” Love Hilliard said. However, as much as she will miss everything, she is thrilled to trade in her first love for her new love. ”I’m excited. I’m about to live my second passion, teaching was my first passion, but my love for making a bus to make a tiny home for someone that they can love makes me happy. Restoration, turning something that’s old and battered that makes it beautiful and cherished and loved, makes me happy. I like transforming and showing people the ideas of what restorations can do, the before and after picture,” Love-Hilliard said.