The Harbinger 18-19: Issue 13

the harbinger.

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS 66208 APRIL 1, 2019 VOLUME LXI ISSUE 13

SPECIAL SECTION PAGES 14-17

14 ADVANCED.

15 ENERGIZED.

16 HEALTHY.

17 EMPLOYED. SCAN TO READ MORE

FUT URE

From the increase of green energy to the changes in the job market, the future holds many unknowns. Read pages 14-17 to see what is expected in the upcoming years

02 IN S I DE COVER

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What’s coming up this week on smeharbinger.net

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S CAN T H E Q R CO D E

TO V I E W O U R O N L I N E FUTURE SECTION

R E V I E W : L O V E , D E AT H , & R O B OT S

by Will Tulp An overview and reaction of Netflix’s latest release.

T H E S P R I N G P L AY ( S )

by Maddox Mogensen

Get to know the spring plays, “Degas, C’est Moi” and “Life after Elvis” and their casts.

GA L L E RY B OY S VA R S I T Y T E N N I S V S TO P E K A

by Luke Hoffman

G I R L S VA R S I T Y S W I M M E E T D U A L V S B L U E VA L L E Y N O RT H

by Grace Goldman

B OY S VA R S I T Y B A S E B A L L V S O L AT H E N O RT H W E S T

by Lucy Morantz

VIDEO FAC E - O F F S E A S O N 3 : E P I S O D E 2

by Dalton Reck

The Shawnee Mission East Boys Lacrosse Team mad eht journey to play CBHS and MUS for the first time in nearly five years. A win here has the chance to put the Lancers on the national map.

S M S D C H A N G E S A C T I V E S H O OT E R DRILL PROCEDURES

by Ryan Gossick

SMSD now enforces a new policy during monthly code-red drills, letting the students choose to blockade the door or run away.

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S TA F F L I S T P R I N T E D I TO R S E m i l y Fey L i z z i e Ka h l e O N L I N E E D I TO R S Anna belle Cook W i l l Tu l p D E S I G N E D I TO R S L i l a Tu l p Grace Padon A S S T. P R I N T E D I TO R S Caroline Chisholm Carolyn Popper A S S T. O N L I N E E D I TO R S Jackie Cameron Ben Henschel H E A D C O P Y E D I TO R S E l i za b et h B a l l ew A l ex Fre e m a n P H OTO E D I TO R S Grace Goldman L u ke H o f f m a n Lucy Morantz M O B I L E M E D I A E D I TO R B r o o k y l n Te r r i l l A S S T. M O B I L E M E D I A E D I TO R L a u r e n We s t V I D E O E D I TO R D a lto n Re c k A S S T. P H OTO E D I TO R S Ka t e N i x o n A i s l i n n M e n ke Ty B r o w n i n g M O B I L E M E D I A P H OTO E D I TO R Re i l l y M o re l a n d P H OTO M E N TO R S Ally Griffth Ka t h e r i n e M c G i n n e s s E D I TO R I A L B OA R D Caroline Chisholm L i z z i e Ka h l e E m i l y Fey Carolyn Popper L i l a Tu l p

E l i za b et h B a l l ew Anna belle Cook W i l l Tu l p Jackie Cameron Ben Henschel M a ya St ra t m a n G r a c i e Ko s t A l ex Fre e m a n Lucy Patterson Av a J o h n s o n Grace Padon B r o o k l y n Te r r i l l A & E E D I TO R S P r i n t Av a J o h n s o n O n l i n e R i l e y At k i n s o n O P I N I O N E D I TO R P r i n t G r a c i e Ko s t L u c y Ke n d a l l O n l i n e L i l y B i l l i n g s l ey M a d d ox M o g e n s o n N E W S E D I TO R S Print Catherine Erickson O n l i n e R o s e Ka n a l e y S P O RT S E D I TO R S Print Lucy Patterson Online Miranda Hack E D I TO R I A L E D I TO R L i l a h Pow l a s F E AT U R E S E D I TO R S Print Meg Thoma O n l i n e A l l i s o n Wi l cox WEBMASTER Julie Fromm M U LT I M E D I A S TA F F A l ex D i nye r Eve l yn Ro es n e r L a u r e n We s t Lucia Barraza Max Patterson M e g a n Fu n key Natalie Scholtz Noah Manalo Olivia Olson Syd n ey Wi l l i a m s Ra c h e l C u r r i e

PAG E D E S I G N E R S Brynn Winkler J i l l i Fo l ey Lauren Dierks Natasha Thomas To m m y P a u l u s S TA F F A R T I S T S L i l a h Pow l a s R i ve r H e n n i c k Lauren Dierks S TA F F W R I T E R S C a m p b e l l Wo o d Ca t h e r i n e E s rey Chase Conderman Ga b by Ca p o n e cc h i Ke l l y M u r p h y Liddy Sta llard S y d n e y D e c ke r W i n n i e Wo l f C O P Y E D I TO R S Anna belle Cook W i l l Tu l p Caroline Chisholm Lucy Patterson A l ex Fre e m a n E m i l y Fey L i z z i e Ka h l e L i l a Tu l p Meg Thoma G r a c i e Ko s t M a ya St ra t m a n E l i za b et h B a l l ew Jackie Cameron Ben Henschel Natasha Thomas Carolyn Popper B r o o k l y n Te r r i l l Catherine Erickson Miranda Hack Scout Rice A D S M A N AG E R Catherine Erickson SUBSCRIPTION M A N AG E R G r a c i e Ko s t

M O B I L E M E D I A S TA F F Ca t h e r i n e E s rey Chase Conderman Julia Percy Liddy Sta llard R i l e y At k i n s o n R o s e Ka n a l e y S M E P H OTO S E D I TO R Ka t h e r i n e M c G i n n e s s P H OTO G R A P H E R S A n n a ka t e D i l k s Au st i n H o u s l ey D a ko t a Z u g l e d e r E l l e Ka r r a s Eve l yn Ro es n e r Julia Percy Megan Biles Megan Stopperan Noelle Griffin Sara h Golder Ta y l o r Ke a l Tr e v o r P a u l u s A S S T. V I D E O E D I TO R Maggie Schutt VIDEO TRAINING E D I TO R Rya n Gos s i c k A S S T. V I D E O T R A I N I N G E D I TO R La wd e r D es a nt i s P O D C A S T E D I TO R Syd n ey Wi l l i a m s L I V E B R OA D C A S T E D I TO R S Ben Henschel Ly d i a U n d e r w o o d M e g a n Fu n key A l ex D i nye r A S S T. B R OA D C A S T E D I TO R S Ra c h e l C u r r i e Lucia Barraza

EDITORIAL

design by lilah powlas editorial cartoon by river hennick

03

CHEATING, LYING, BRIBING & DONATING

TO THE TOP FOR: 13 These are the individuals on the editorial board who agree with the viewpoint of the editorial

AGAINST: 1 These are the individuals on the editorial board who disagree with the viewpoint of the editorial

Allowing students involved in the recent college admissions scandal to still be enrolled is an insult to the college application process as a whole

L

ast September, influencer Olivia Jade Giannulli gave her 1.6 million subscribers a tour of her new dorm room at the University of Southern California. Amazon had paid for everything in sight, the room itself being nothing out of the ordinary.

For the past school year, Olivia Jade has been optimizing the value of what her brand could become: a #relatable college student with a splash of aspirationalism.

But While Olivia Jade was spending spring break in the Bahamas – aboard a yacht belonging to the university’s chairman of the board of trustees – she was informed that her acceptance to USC was illegitimate. *gasp!* But come on, don’t you just love how irony works?

Now, instead of her subsribers refreshing their feeds in excited anticipation for her next “weekly blog,” they are now waiting to hear a storytime vlog detailing how she scammed her way into the university.

Olivia Jade’s acceptance is under scrutiny after her mother, “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin, was one of 50 people accused of participating in a college admissions scandal. She and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were charged on March 12 by the U.S. Justice Department with participating in a bribery scheme to get their child admitted to the prestigious college.

The criminal complaint alleges that Loughlin and Giannulli payed the school’s athletic director half a million dollars in exchange for having Olivia Jade as a “designated recruit” to the USC crew team. Ah – yes! The 19-year-old beauty influencer who attributes her livelihood to an aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed and YouTube vlogs detailing trivial matters such as her “birthday party prep” also prioritizes rowing crew at the collegiate level!

To make this situation even more infuriating, the FBI’s part in this scandal is limited to the parents, coaches and test administrators involved. Olivia Jade claims she was “unaware” of what was conspired by her parents, despite photos that were submitted to the university of her posing with rowing machines. MACHINES.. Not even an actual BOAT.

For USC allowing [Olivia Jade} to continue being enrolled is an insult to the college application process as a whole.

To our dismay, as of March 26 Olivia Jade is still enrolled in USC. The university is currently conducting a case-by-case review for students and graduates that may be connected to the scheme alleged by the government, and will make informed decisions as those reviews are completed.

It’s no secret that wealthy families use a side door to play an already unfair education system. But for USC allowing her to continue being enrolled is an insult to the college application process as a whole. Whether or not Olivia Jade was aware of the bribe made by her parents is irrelevant; she’s enrolled in a school that she wasn’t fairly admitted to.

But, while USC is using their leisure to decide whether or not she is welcome there, many companies who sponsor her aren’t. For example, Sephora, who partnered with Olivia Jade in Dec. 2018, released a statement on March 14 ending their relationship effective immediately.

And if Sephora was ever on the fence about continuing their relationship with

Olivia Jade, public outcry probably made the decision fairly easy.

People took to Twitter and even the review section of Olivia Jade’s pallette on the Sephora website, leaving sarcastic remarks you can’t help but laugh in agreeance with: “Do I get a discount if I use ENTITLEMENT or CHEATER as the promo code?” and “I love to use this product on days when I want to use my privilege to suppress and steal from more deserving individuals. Totally sweat proof, lasts all through my crew practice that I don’t actually attend.”

These comments are angry and resentful – and they have every single right to be.

In April of 2017 she tweeted, “it’s so hard to try in school when you don’t care about anything you’re learning,” but the apathy peaked about a month before she was set to enroll at USC; in one of her YouTube videos she admitted she “didn’t know how much” school she would attend. She told her followers she hoped she would “try and balance it all,” and said she was looking forward to “game days” and “partying,” but didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about the experience.

Her shallowness and sheer vapidity regarding the college admission process is insulting to those – and by those I mean 99 percent of the population – who actualy have to study for the ACT, who have to pay for tutors to guaratee a sufficient GPA, who have to train hours each day to even be considered for an athletic scholoarship. For example, following the scandal one tweeted, “poor kids that bust their a**es to get into schools like USC to change their futures only to lose it to someone who paid their way in only to experience the parties.”

Any high school or college student who has had to manage their academics, athletics and social life is entitled to be

enraged by her comments; grades, sports and friends – important, crucial aspects to the lives of young adults – often times seem impossible to balance. And a failure to balance the three can bring us to tears.

It can lead us to self-doubt. It can make us face rejection.

No matter how #relatable Olivia Jade’s “college life” appeared on her social media, this scandal reminds us that struggling to balance what we desire most in life – making friends, getting into a good college, succeeding in a sport – is normal. But more importantly, this also should make us reconsider who we allow to “influence” our lives.

editorial policy The Harbinger is a student-run publication.

Published editorials express the views of the Harbinger staff. Signed columns published in the Harbinger express the writer’s personal opinion. The contents and views of the Harbinger do not represent the student body, faculty, administration or Shawnee Mission School District. The Harbinger will not share any unpublished content, but quoted material may be confirmed with sources. The Harbinger encourages letters to the editors, but reserves the right to reject them for reasons including but not limited to lack of space, multiple letters of the same topic and personal attacks contained in the letter. The Harbinger will not edit content though letters may be edited for clarity, length, libel or mechanics. Letters should be sent to room 521 or emailed to smeharbinger@gmail.com

04 NEWS

design by catherine erickson

NEWS by brynn winkler

DISTRICT

BRIEF

A petition was released to reinstate a Fine Arts Coordinator

A PETITION RELEASED ONLINE on March 16 has garnered over 721 signatures as of March 26 in favor of the reestablishment of a district Fine Arts Coordinator.

This central management position was cut in 2015 by then-superintendent Jim Henson. The petition started when East band parent Gwen Wurst, along with other parents, realized that full-time teachers now perform the administrative duties that three administrators were previously responsible for.

East Band Director Alex Toepfer believes the establishment of this position will benefit fine arts programs across the district since teachers would no longer have to perform these administrative duties, including overseeing district festivals, summer band classes, instrument repair, the music library and inventory.

“While the SME administration and my colleagues have been great, getting this position back would enable the teachers to do what we do best: teach,” said Toepfer.

“I often find myself stretched thin with administrative

STATE

IN

and organizational duties, where I could be planning for concerts and working on ways to improve the band program.”

Band and choir student Davis Vaughn also believes the new position would reduce confusion in scheduling.

He noticed the lack of a key leadership position when rescheduling issues arose due to the cancellation of a band concert on a snow day.

“There was just a bunch of harumph about it being rescheduled, and it finally got rescheduled but there was no leadership,” Vaughn said.

According to Wurst the letter that stated the purpose of the petition was sent to superintendent Dr. Michael Fulton as well as the board of education.

“We had a conversation with some folks at the district and in context within the Strategic Planning process the district is going through,” Wurst said. “So we look forward to hearing how the Strategic Plan will come out in November, and hopefully it will address this issue.”

IB members have a chance to earn college credits from Kansas Universities

ALL INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB) participants who score a 4 out of 7 or higher on either Higher Level or Standard Level exams will now receive credit from all state universities in Kansas.

This is the result of an update to the Kansas Board of Regents Credit by Exam policy that was announced on March 20.

According to East IB coordinator Monique Goodeyon, the new policy comes after several years of requests for reform by midwest IB educators.

“For many years IB programs from [Midwest IB Schools] have been asking Kansas state universities to reconsider their credit policy for IB exam scores,” Goodeyon said.

“Many schools and former IB students felt that the credit policy for AP was far more generous than the IB policy at these schools.”

NATIONAL

The new policy will go into effect for the 2019-2020 academic year, so current seniors in the IB program who score accordingly will benefit from the policy this coming fall.

Senior Anika Radadiya, who commutes 30 minutes each morning and pays a fee to attend East from out of district so she can do IB, believes that the college credit she will now receive makes her long commute and fee payments worth it. Radadiya, who will most likely be attending University of Kansas next fall, says the establishment of the new policy influenced her college decision.

“I was deciding between a couple of schools, and I think this [policy] is what helped me make my decision to go to KU, because I was able to get everything I want to get done and I can get credit for all of it,” Ridaddiya said.

The Justice Department decided Trump was not directly involved in Russia’s Interference of the election

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REPORTED on March 22 that Special counsel Robert Mueller has determined in his investigation that neither Donald Trump nor any of his aides were directly involved in Russia’s interference with the 2016 election.

The special counsel investigation, which began in 2017 and is commonly known as the Mueller Report, did not recommend any new charges, but also does not exonerate Trump from potential obstruction of justice.

International Relations teacher David Muhammed related the situation to an agnostic when explaining the report’s outcome.

“It’s kind of like an agnostic, who says ‘I’m not saying that there isn’t a God but I’m not saying there couldn’t be,” Muhammed said.

The Justice Department has announced that a version of the report will be made available to Congress and the public within weeks. This update has come as a response

to an uproar of Democrats demanding the release of the report to the public. Junior and policy debater Graham Revare believes Democrats will seek further investigation into potential Trump and Russia collusion.

“I don’t think Trump is going to get impeached,” Revare said. “The Republicans tried that with Bill Clinton and it didn’t work. If he did get impeached it would probably be over something somewhat minor.”

While some are focused on the possibility of impeachment, Muhammad believes society needs to turn its attention towards other questions.

“I feel like if your only hope for justice in a system is for corruption to be found, then I think you need to start questioning your democracy,” said Muhammad.

“Regardless of whether you like Trump or not, he won the election right, and one man winning an election is representative of a society.”

ABOVE | If International Baccalaureate students score a 4 out of 7 or above on their IB exams, they are eligible to get college credit at the pictured Kansas Universities and more. photo by ally griffith LEFT | Special Counsel Robert walks after attending church in Washington DC. photo courtesy of MCT Campus

MARK YOUR CALENDAR Important events coming up in the SM East community APR.

1 3 8 9

East Area Band Festival @ 7 p.m.

APR.

Spring Play Opening Night — Degas, C’est Moi, and Life after Elvis @ 7 p.m.

APR.

Board of Education Meeting @ 6 p.m.

APR.

Drill Team Spring Show @ 7 p.m.

NEWS

design by maddox mogenson by allison wilcox

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

Student Senate plans to have their new student engagement center filled with lounges, couches and study space for students by August 2019.

The 5,000-square-foot center will be located underneath the Burge Union and will include KU Info, a lounge for graduate students, an esports lounge, an innovation lounge, a seminar area and a director’s office. A $3.25 fee will be added to each student’s fees for the 2019-20 school year, but once construction of the center is complete, the additional cost for students will decrease. The project will cost roughly $800,000 – not including the additional costs of technology products.

Since December 2018, KU Student Body President, senior Noah Ries, and Chief of Staff, sophomore Zach Thomason, have been working with the rest of Senate to create the student engagement center to meet all students’ needs.

KU Info, a service designed to be an information source for students that has been on campus for about 50 years, will be at the entrance to the center.

The service was at risk of being shut down due to budgetary constraints. Along the walls will be a timeline of important dates commemorating Student Senate’s progress for their 50th year anniversary.

Thomason believes the center will be a great success among students of all grade levels and will be especially appealing to graduate students by providing them with a space to grade, meet with students and relax.

“We don’t always meet the needs of graduate students on this campus,” Thomson said. “So [it’s all about] being able to serve them in a way that is unique and provides resources they’ve currently been denied.”

In addition to the graduate student lounge, Thomason and Director of the KU Memorial Union, David Mucci, believes the esports lounge with high quality computers and monitors will be popular among students. Both agree that gaming is a quickly growing community and if KU doesn’t offer these gaming facilities, students might choose other schools in the future.

“I’m fascinated by how much activity and interest [gaming] generates,” Mucci said. “And it’ll be interesting to see how [the esports lounge] generates activity for people who are gamers.”

Senior Jack Lischer plans on attending KU next year and is looking forward to having a new place to study and interact with friends.

“I’m just looking for a place where I can get away from the distractions of the house and get my homework done,” Lischer said.

STU D E N T FOCUS

by liddy stallard

THE

2019-2020

STUDENT

COUNCIL

executive board will be the first group of seniors since the 2015-2016 school year to fill all leadership positions on the board During the election that took place on March 6 and 7, the first full executive board was voted in for the first time in four years. The board consists of President Eva Hill, Vice President Reilly Moreland, Secretary Brigid Wentz and Treasurer Ian Gould.

“The minute we started talking about who was going

to run for exec, we had enough volunteers,” junior Ian Gould said. “We knew pretty early on that all the positions were going to be filled and that was pretty exciting.”

All exec members are required to serve one year on StuCo before being eligible to run. Wentz finds this rule helpful because the group is already used to working together and know they mesh well as a team, especially since they are currently in the process of planning prom.

“If we have contrasting views, we are all pretty reasonable so we understand if one is better than the other,” Wentz said. “We pretty much always come to an agreement without too much arguing.”

Although the new board hasn’t finalized anything new for the upcoming school year, they plan to work as a team to create new events for the school such as a drive-in movie and an in school haunted house. They also plan to continue and better the traditional StuCo events like the Can Drive, Morp and Trivia Night.

“They genuinely care about East and they want to do a lot of really great stuff to increase school spirit and increase participation,” Junior StuCo leader Mrs. Hair said. “They all pull their weight.”

Jet Semrick, the current president and only member on the current executive board, missed out on the

05

While Thomason understands not every student will visit the center its first year open, he believes that eventually going to the Student Engagement Center to work on a project or watch TV will become a part of KU students’ experiences.

BOTTOM LEFT | Senior Jet Semrick speaks during a StuCo meeting. photo by megan stopperan ABOVE | An outside view of the new KU Student Engagement Center. photo by reilly moreland

KU’s new Student Engagement Center is set to be open as early as August 2019 Student Council’s executive board positions are full for the first time in four years team aspect of working with fellow members of the board.

“I would have preferred if there was [a full board] because it makes things easier in terms of dividing work and getting things done,” Semrick said. “Everyone else

The minute we started talking about who was going to run for exec, we had enough volunteers.

We knew pretty early on that all the positions were going to be filled and that was pretty exciting

ian gould junior on StuCo this year, class officers, made it really easy delegating work and getting things done.”

StuCo was designed to have a board of four executive members elected on by the student body. Although each position entails its own responsibilities, the goal was for the members to bounce ideas off of each other during brainstorms and split up work equally for events like dances and graduation.

“All of them are experienced on StuCo,” Semrick said.

“It’s a diverse group in terms of what they have done on StuCo which I think will make it a lot easier.”

06 NEWS

T

photo illustration by kate nixon design by natasha thomas

by annabelle moore he bell had just rung. Students in first hour English class pull out their laptops and paper, but senior Jacob Williams* is zoned out: dazed, red-eyed, and as Williams, a marijuana user would call it: baked.

Williams had just taken a hit of his shiny, lit up dab pen.

And then another.

It’s part of his routine. Everyday before school and most days during lunch, Williams takes a hit.

According to School Resource Officer Tony Woollen, students are going from not only Juuling everyday, but now also using the most recent form of condensed marijuana: the dab pen.

Woollen has seen a 10 percent increase of dab pens confiscated on school property this school year, when last year, finding one was a rarity.

According to Jasmine Bittar from the Addiction Center, smoking dabs are nothing like smoking a bud of the Marijuana plant, making the components and effects are extremely different. The active substance within the cannabis-filled cartridge comes with a rechargeable battery that rapidly heats the oil allowing uses to feel a similar high to that of smoking marijuana.

Due to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, the appeal of the smell-free pens have made their way up to becoming the latest craze according to Woollen.

Although using dab pens can lead to several medical and legal consequences, for Williams, it’s part of his before-school routine.

The Addiction center stated that pens are “nicknamed dab because of the act of taking a dab of hashish, or oil of the cannabis plant.”

On Feb. 24th, Woollen and Officer Lacey Daly were making their monthly rounds throughout the parking lot, and inside of only the third car they went to, a dab pen was visible through the driver’s seat window.

Woollen expects to find several more pens throughout this school year with their recent emergence at East.

Due to the fact THC is an illicit drug for recreational use in Kansas, Woollen explained that the consequences of being caught with a dab pen are much more serious than that of a Juul. Even though, most students who are caught with a dab pen are initially reported to the administration for vaping.

“This is a lot more serious than vaping,” Woollen said.

“It’s unbelievable how easy it is to access THC oil and dab pens these days.”

When a student gets caught with a dab pen, a student faces both academic and legal consequences. One side is the consequences from the school, which include inschool suspension and in some cases, expulsion. For the criminal side of the reprimands, if the pen comes back

positive for THC, Woollen and Daley send that record through the Johnson County District Court.

“Somebody [who gets caught is] going to get charged for possession of marijuana and for possession of drug paraphernalia,” Woollen said. “And yes… We’ve had people here that that has happened to.”

On and off school campus, students are increasingly investing in dabs as opposed to Juuls and straight marijuana, according to sophomore Jane Smith*.

“You see dab pens everywhere now,” Smith said.

“Teens love dabs because Juuls don’t really do that much and the effects are not as long term. You’re not buzzed for more than two minutes with a Juul.”

Smith got her dab pen base and cartridge for $45.

Dab pens now seem to be attending every party, every hangout, and every smoke break, according to Smith.

And it’s not just because of the cool factor — this new marijuana high is going viral within the classes of Shawnee Mission East due to its accessibility, and stronger and longer effects, as opposed to Juuls which contain nicotine.

In a recent poll of 170 students, 90.5% know someone who owns a dab pen, 70.2% have used one, and 26% own one.

“A Juul gets you buzzed sometimes for a few minutes, but why not hit the dab and be high for two hours?”

Williams declared.

These pens are not approved by the FDA, posing several threats for this new-found epidemic.

Chemistry teacher Jerrod Bardwell said that dab pen carts are not monitored — the manufacturer can put anything they want in the cart. Bardwell said that, “They can claim the [contents are safe], but no one ever checks.”

“It’s the same problem we have with Juuls,” Bardwell explained. “Some of [the carts] are being shipped over from China, where they have no laws about what they can put in [the carts], so [the consumer] will have no clue what’s in them. No one regulates it, no one checks it.”

This poses a major threat for dab pen users, potentially leading to fatal outcomes. Smith even recently came across a life threatening experience with her dab pen.

“My dealer texted me and told me to throw the cart he’d given me away immediately,” Smith said. “He was asking me things like, ‘How much of it have you used?’ or, ‘Are you almost done with it?’”

Someone else who’d been using these carts had gotten extremely sick and

A NEW

gone to the hospital, due to rat poisoning being in the carts.

“I’d probably used around a quarter of the cart,” Smith said. “The scary thing is that [the high] hadn’t felt different than any other cart I’ve used before. It felt the same.”

Smith never thought that using her dab pen could severely impact her health. “It was definitely a wake up call that you never know what’s inside a cart. All the sudden I was [thinking], ‘This could have horrible affects on my health… This could put me in the hospital.’”

Smith has not used her dab pen since.

Bittar stated that smoking a small amount of dab leads to an intense, long-lasting high. These effects can severely impair the smoker, putting them at risk of injury and bodily harm for several hours. And also recalled how some users experience hallucinations which can last up to several days. These hallucinations may be caused due to the constant unknown ingredients inside carts.

Many who use dabs could end up going to the hospital because of unusual behavior or feelings, especially paranoia and psychotic episodes, Bittar informed readers who visit the Addiction Center webpage.

Because dabs release an incredibly large amount of THC into the body, they cause the body to build up a greater tolerance much faster than other methods of consuming marijuana, Bittar stated. They can also lead to cause dependence and addiction.

“Nobody used to have dab pens,” Smith said. “Weed was a rare thing that you didn’t see people doing as much, but recently it has become so easy to access pens and carts.

People within my friend group, within my grade, and within our school and community are constantly purchasing and distributing dab pens.

It’s crazy that people have such easy access to that stuff when it’s not even legal in Kansas.”

Though illegal, dab pens are becoming the latest craze *names changed to protect identity

$

#livenaismith

08 O PI N I O N

design by gracie kost

OPINION HIGHLIGHTS STUDENT OPINION

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE KARDASHIANS?

AGREE TO DISAGREE

Below are polls that correspond to opinions written this issue We asked our Instagram followers if they think social media has made it a society norm for girls to objectify their bodies

YES NO

90% 10%

*Taken from a poll of 135 people

We asked our Instagram followers if they think the Kardashians are respectable The Kardashians are worshipped. Paparazzi follows them everywhere. Everyone wants what they have. For example, they have a staff to do their hair and make up whenever they want. They have every outfit you could dream of. Their houses are to die for. Most importantly they have the power to speak and be heard.

martha saferstein junior

YES

34%

NO

66%

*Taken from a poll of 155 people

We asked our Instagram followers if they think girls lose confidence in doing things they are passionate about once they start high school

YES NO

75% 25%

*Taken from a poll of 139 people

Honestly I really like them. I think they’re entertaining and I watch the show a lot. All of them are also really successful individually and outside of the show which I find impressive considering they have such a large family.

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mallory frank senior @smeharbinger

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OPINION

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09

keeping up with the

KO N T R O V E R S Y The Kardashian clan represents more than just their money by being strong business women and great entertainers

by lila tulp

BREAK THE INTERNET KIM KARDASHIAN

AMERICA’S WOMEN

BILLIONAIRES

ES Magazine

in deep BUSK & BOOM

WRAP UP

BOSS

meet the

COMPLEX

Y

ou can hate them all you want but let’s face it — it’s the Kardashian’s world and we’re just following it.

We’ve been keeping up with this matriarchal mafia who’ve monopolized pop culture through their influence in television, makeup, business, fashion, social media, sports and music for over a decade now. Two hundred and twenty-six episodes later, the KardashianJenners are still engrossing the media with the exploitation of their personal lives — and I’m here for it.

I’ve witnessed the evolution of America’s power couple Kimye along with the public cheating triangle between Tristan Thompson, Jordyn Woods and Khloe Kardashian (#TeamKhloe). I’ve gotten to know Caitlyn Jenner since 2015 and three new children in the Kardashian baby boom of 2018, making nine total kousins. I’ve followed the complicated journey regarding exes Kourtney and Scott Disick’s relationship and read up on the billionaire status of the youngest member, Kylie Jenner.

Over the past 15 seasons, I’ve learned more about these six girls’ lives than I have about my own family’s, and it’s time we stop bashing them over their bike shorts and start realizing the positive influence they’ve had in society.

To their “what are they even famous for?!” haters, these polarizing women are a commercialized coven responsible for the demise of modern culture. To those in between, they are the insanely rich, vocal-frying, blank white noise that hums on the TV every Sunday night on E!. To the lovers and to me, they’re savvy, modern business-women strategically utilizing their looks and lives to show the ups and downs of the spotlight. But within the groups — the haters, the lovers and the inbetweeners — the majority makes searching for their flaws into its own sport.

The Kardashians offer a glimpse into a world of empty glam — the home of Pradaridden closets, private jets, chinchilla fur throws and exotic vacations around the world while maintaining the relatable mundanity of sisterhood and modern family life — yet one suspicion of lip injections turns into a whirlwind of headlines attacking the whole pack.

Maybe it’s because the haters still aren’t over the longlasting argument over if they truly

have “talent” (if you want to see talent, watch Kourtney eat a Kit Kat), or maybe it’s that they feel as though everything is handed to them — but that the constant negativity only makes them work harder to prove the success they’ve created on their own.

With the help of momager Kris Jenner, Kim managed to turn her D-List status as former A-Lister Paris Hilton’s assistant into an internetbreaking entrepreneur and fashion icon, while simultaneously serving as a gateway to the rest of her family’s fame.

Now think about it: have you seen Paris lately? No, you haven’t. It takes an incredible business-woman to continue to make every Daily Mail headline since 2007.

Their name is their brand, and they know how to take advantage of it. According to a

media’s punching bag anymore, but rather be recognized for their positivity and hard work.

They shouldn’t be criticized for the way they run their businesses or handle their break-ups.

Yes, they signed up to make their lives public, but sending death threats to a woman who was just robbed at gunpoint in Paris is far beyond their hypothetical contract.

People see the Kardashians as their own breed: spoiled, privileged women whose behavior is petty and superficial, and even my mom rolls her eyes everytime she hears their monotone voices complain about whether they should vacation in St. Barths or Thailand (what about both!). But these women stand for more than just money — they stand for loving parents, body positivity and strong businesswomen, all while being drenched in millions

But these women stand for more than just money — they stand for loving parents, body positivity and strong business-women, all while being drenched in millions of dollars worth of diamonds and providing us with a reality TV masterpiece.

lila tulp junior statement by Kylie last week in response to Twitter bashing her family’s business, not a penny of the money in their bank accounts were inherited.

Kylie has her lip kits bringing her to her 20-year-old billionaire status, Khloe has her Good American denim, Kim has her makeup, app and perfume, Kourtney has her comingsoon Poosh, Kendall has her modeling — and Kris well, Kris has them all. They were the first to learn the ins and outs of social media, and with a family total of 556.2 million Instagram followers they’ve used their platform as their biggest business asset. Kim posts a cryptic photo about KKW Body III dropping? Sold out within minutes.

But still, even the anti-Kardashians sit refreshing their Instagram feeds and Snapchat stories, not for the release of their products, but for some negative publicity on the krew.

It’s become a natural and accepted concept to dissect every step they take in their 6-inch Louis Vuitton heels.

The Kardashians shouldn’t serve as the

of dollars worth of diamonds and providing us with a reality TV masterpiece.

The Kardashians have celebrated female sexuality and confidently embraced their bodies on the cover of Vogue and on the runway despite venomous backlash and countless comments on their posts. They gloriously rejoice in their womanhood in a world where women are expected to be small and self-conscious — they’ve changed the face of Hollywood beauty, proving that you don’t have to be skinny and blonde to walk the red carpet.

In 2018, the Kardashians boosted their collective net worth up into the billions. You may disagree with their decision to purchase a five grand toaster, but that’s capitalism for you.

They earned their money through their hard work and they have the choice to spend it on what they choose, even if it is just a way to heat up a couple Eggos.

If this was your life, I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if everyone illegitamized your backbreaking (yet still glamorous) success.

10 OPINION

design by lizzie kahle

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PICTURE PERFECT!

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Social media has created the objectification of women to be a societal norm by gracie kost

I

t’s two weeks after spring break and I’m still scrolling through a stream solo pics of girls in their bikinis on beaches from Orange County to Cabo. As I come across yet another, I instinctively check the like-to-time ratio and scroll through the comments.

A comment sticks out that reads, “Oh my god, now I’m insecure about my post.”

I click the username of the commenter and look at her post of the same nature. A high school girl stretched into an unnatural pose on the sand of Florida in a teeny bikini.

I see it was posted a few hours ago during primetime (Sunday around 4 p.m.), when Instagram gets the most traffic.

Social media has given us a way to literally – and quantitatively – show if we accept a person’s life. We have evolved to capturing our lives in photographs and allowing the public to rate it by likes. And these posts are representations of the lives we live and show off who we are and what we look like — so there’s a lot on the line. As

Next time you come across a post that makes you feel any ounce of negativity about yourself, unfollow them.

gracie kost senior body image issues grow, teenage girls are turning to social media for approval of their bodies and lifestyles.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that it dawned on me that it is expected for a girl to post a bikini picture during spring break. This not only puts girls under pressure to “look the part” but do you know how long it takes to get the right angle? Without being too provocative and without looking “too chubby”? A “classy” bikini pic that draws attention without coming off as skanky is an impossible feat.

And as soon as we do find a picture worth the post, we can’t enjoy our vacations until we get X-amount of likes and comments. And if we see a post that tops ours

— whether it’s a better outfit, body, location or event — we’re left wondering if our own post was good enough.

Subconsciously, we end up linking our self-worth to our looks based off of how our followers respond to our posts in comparison to others.

According to a study conducted alongside the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, “72 percent of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful.” For the last 40 years, everything from movies to magazines have told us that thin is the ideal body. Social media, especially the more image-based ones such as Instagram and Snapchat, are the perfect platforms to enhance body image concerns, body surveillance and create drive for thinness and selfobjectification.

Thanks to the FaceTune app, teenagers now have the tools to whiten our teeth, smooth out acne and even make our legs a few inches thinner. Tools to make us look the way we have been trained we are expected to look. And while I am just as guilty of FaceTuning as the next girl, I have started challenging myself to look at the perfection and true happiness behind the photos rather than criticizing my hips or kinks in my hair.

Instagram especially has infiltrated teenagers’ minds to engage in a culture that emphasizes unattainable standards for body image. High school is hard enough with grades, friends and relationships. We shouldn’t also have to worry about being the perfect three-digit number when we step on the scale and coming up with unrealistic ways to express our average teenage lives in order to keep up with the media. And while Instagram has seen influencers try to combat the body image norms, it’s hard for us to look at plus sized models and feel confident in ourselves when we have been trained by society to be uncomfortable in with our own arms and legs.

The baseline for your body image is set by social media. We compare what we look like to who we follow.

Social media shouldn’t be something that brings us down.

Unfollow the unrealistic, bikini-cladden, world traveling influencers and follow accounts that make you feel good about yourself — whether its meme accounts, cooking accounts or inspirational accounts.

So stop following people who make you feel like sh*t.

Next time you come across a post that makes you feel any ounce of negativity about yourself, unfollow them.

SOCIAL MEDIA ACCORDING TO YOU

84% of 244 respondents believe social media has made it a societal norm for girls to objectify themselves

75% of 273 respondents believe girls lose confidence in doing things they are passionate about once they start high school

OPINION

design by annabelle cook

G L A S S

O N

Girls shouldn’t let gender norms keep them from the education they want

E

In middle school it’s easy to take a new class that you’re interested in. You’re fresh out of elementary school where you’re limited to a preset class schedule and now you have the ability to choose from a range of classes like creative writing and sewing technology. A class about personal fitness? You didn’t even know that was a thing and it sounds like it was made for you.

If you’re wanting to learn about automation and robotics or study a new language and take French, nothing should be stopping you. You have the ability to explore what it feels like to take a new class, with everyone around you doing the exact same thing.

But in high school, it can be just a tad bit intimidating.

You’ve already made one transition from elementary to middle school, and now you’re forced to take an even bigger leap and walk the same halls with thousands of high schoolers.

When picking out classes, it’s easy to fill the empty class slots on your sheet of paper with the so-called “comfort zone” of the stereotype you think you best fit into.

You’re a girl who plays soccer, tennis and lacrosse and you’re deciding between ceramics and team games. The ceramics class seems like the smarter route because all your girlfriends are taking it and team games is just another opportunity for “boys to be boys.”

Wrong. You take the team games class.

High school classes are one of the easiest and best indicators of your passions — you don’t have to fill out one of those pointless, time-consuming and utterly unhelpful “career cruising” forms on

G

lucy kendall senior

E

If you have a problem with a girl wanting to wrestle or take a woodshop class then you can go ahead and take a seat.

Skyward.

W h o cares if boys try to dominate every class you’re interested in. If you are the only girl in a class of 20 boys, then more power to you.

The bottom line of it all is that whatever you may be passionate about, whether it’s writing a story for the “Freelancer” or staying after school on Wednesdays to run ping-pong club, you have the ability to choose what your story in all of this will be.

You have the ability to be that one girl in team games, the one filled with traumatizing junior boys, playing baseball or be the only girl in the computer coding class full of 24 sets of eyes that can’t seem to break their stare.

You have the ability to be the new and improved Billie Jean King of 2019, throwing yourself into situations that are seemingly controlled by boys –– changing the preset norms that surround our society and making your interests the top priority at the same time.

Gender bias will be a thing until the day that people take their head out of the patriarchy and realize that girls and boys can be put into the same classifications when it comes to passion and interests.

At the end of the day ladies, boys will be boys.

We just have to find that little bit of confidence to tell us it really doesn’t matter as long as we’re happy with where we’re going.

B

“T

by lucy kendall hat’s a boy thing” and “that class is just full of guys” are some of the most gender-biased, confidence-depleting and downright false statements that a girl, not knowing any better, could say.

Nothing should ever be put into classifications of what boys are capable of doing in comparison to girls. It’s 2019, folks. If you have a problem with a girl wanting to wrestle or take a woodshop class then you can go ahead and take a seat.

If you don’t believe me when I say that gender bias is real and alive, then let’s go ahead and take a look at the typical stereotypes for girls and guys.

A girl walks into a classroom with 24 sets of eyes looking up from their coding program on their computer and stare at the only female that has step foot in a computer class ever. She suddenly feels subjugated to explain why she’s taking that class in the first place, even when classes don’t have regulations for who can and can’t sign up.

11

V I S I T PA R LO R B L O WO U T B A R F O R T H E DA N C E A N D H O L I DAY S E A S O N S 6 0 8 W 4 8 t h St Ka n s a s C i t y, M O 6 4 1 1 2 816-561-1302

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FEATURES

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FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS

13

UP IN THE CLUB

S T U D E N T S S AY :

What is your favorite aspect of the Spring season?

I like spring because it means soccer season is star ting up and it means that it’s almost the end of the school year.

anabelle merchant sophomore

I ’m mostly excited for the spring because it means the beg inning of lacrosse season and I ’m excited to see how our sesaon turns out this year. Also, the weather is getting much nicer.

tommy pollock junior

TOP LEFT | Senior Nat Nitsch listens to sophomore Ava Walton’s skit idea in Latin Club. photo by julia percy TOP RIGHT | Senior Jia Self eats a snack as she listens to the club president present ideas for a skit they are performing at Latin Con. photo by taylor keal LEFT | Sophomore Violet Apodaca shares her highs and lows from the week during the weekly Freelancer meeting. photo by megan stopperan BOTTOM LEFT | As the National HonorSociety induction ceremony is coming to a close, junior Simon Zimmerman poses behind the podium while his mom takes his picture. photo by annakate dilks

A RT I S T O F T H E W E E K Sophomore Clara Von Drehle expresses her creative nature through singing and acting

C L A R A VO N D R E H L E , S O P H O M O R E Q: HOW D I D YOU ST RI K E A PAS S ION IN PERFOR MIN G? A: “According to my parents, I’ve been singing longer than I’ve been talking. I can remember [in grade school] not even liking my music teacher, but the class itself was my favorite part of the week. Starting in fifth grade, I would always ask my teacher if I could get up in front of the class and sing a show tune for everybody. After more auditions and performances, I realized it was...something I was really passionate about. “ Q: HOW D O YO U STAY POSI T I VE? A: “People sometimes tell me I don’t have as good of a voice as I think I do...but I’ve worked really hard at it and it’s made me realize that as long as you put in enough effort to something that you love, you can become really good at it. It’s nights like the choir concerts, looking out into the lighs — that’s when I get the happiest feeling in the world. “

Q:

HOW WILL S IN G IN G FACTOR IN TO YOUR

FUT URE?

A: “I used to want to making singing into a career for myself, but not so much anymore. But I still want to continue to take voice lessons for as long as I can, even into adulthood, because even if it’s not something that you want to do necessarily as a career, it’s important to continue doing what you’re most passionate about. “

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14 SPECIAL SECTION OPINION

L

by carolyn popper ooking up from my plate, I see an 8-yearold wedged between his grandparents, tuning everything out with an iPad, oversized Beats and a blank expression — I’m astonished that his parents don’t nudge him to put away his gadgets. The only thing I played with during dinner at that age was my food.

Ten years ago, kids would beg their parents to play games on their flip phones. Thirty years ago, your friend having a computer in their home was equivalent to having a home theater. Sixty years ago, people didn’t think technology could get any better than color TV. Now, there’s a fast-moving conveyor belt of technological introductions: Face ID to open a phone, self-driving cars, Alexa who listens and acts to the sound of your voice.

We are in an exponential growth of technological advancement. Picture a line on a graph that is slowly inclining and then all of a sudden, the incline shoots up almost vertically.

We are at the beginning of that vertical jump.

Despite having the option, we should choose to avoid these “advancements,” or we might lose meaningful steps of life that keep us human. Learning how to complete tasks that reward us later or handling social interaction.

Half of current jobs in the world are unlikely to exist in 2050. In thirty years, I’ll still be in the workforce. Hopefully I can find a well paying job that’s left. Even if I do, part of my generation could be trapped in isolation whether they wanted it or not. They will lose communication skills and social interaction skills — I could be surrounded by robots as well as robot-like peers.

There are plenty of movies to warn you of these allurements. Ex Machina, WALL-E and Passengers all contain the same warning: Stay away from technology! It’s cool, but maintain human nature and connections — it’s worth it!

Think to 10 years ago — before Snapchat, Siri or Apple Play. Textbooks, for the most part, were still books, not online PDFs. Texting had yet to completely eliminate phone calls and face to face convos. Schools weren’t using Macbooks, which meant no Google Classroom.

In 2010, an East classroom might actually utilize the whiteboard, contain tangible, paper worksheets and forsake Airplay (honestly who needs it?). Now that these advancements are here, imagine how enormously different

inventions will be in the next 10 years.

Ray Kurzweil, a futurist specializing in technology predictions says that in 2050, the dead could be reincarnated through artificial intelligence according to Apiumhub, a tech hub. Kurzweil predicts we’ll be able to send nanobots into people’s brains to extract memories of childhood and of loved ones, and with enough DNA sampling, it will be possible to create a convincing virtual version of somebody who’s bit the dust.

Yes, this is wildly impressive and a scientific surge for mankind but has anyone ever seen Pet Cemetery? Most books, TV shows, and movies involving reincarnation clearly suggest bringing back the dead will result in far more harm than good. Despite the obvious fiction, these stories have plausible arguments

We are in an exponential growth of technological advancement. Picture a line on a graph that is slowly inclining and then all of a sudden, the incline shoots up almost vertically. We are at the beginning of that vertical jump.

— we don’t know what will happen if we have robotic copies of ourselves walking around.

Imagine your grandkids only knowing an artificially modified version of yourself with a few hand picked memories to maintain your personality.

Kurzweil also predicts the next era of AI could produce self-driving cars without the high numbers of deaths and injuries. A Stanford report says these cars will “give us more time to ourselves,” but I want you to ask yourself what you would be doing in the car if you weren’t driving it. Answering Snapchat streaks? Maybe you will do something productive like catching up on sleep or finishing homework, but if one by one, our most baseline responsibilities are done for us, our accumulating laziness will result in generations to come of unmotivated, unchallenged and unaccomplished people.

I found myself bothered with an 8-yearold glued to his iPad for losing time with his grandparents. What will bother you in twenty years?

THE YEAR 2050

Despite upcoming technological advancements, we should maintain the electronic-free aspects of life

PLUG.

design by lila tulp

Technological predictions for the year 2050 *information courtesy of Apiumhub

TRAVEL

WORK

ELON MUSK’S SPACEX WILL PUSH SPACE TRAVEL ENOUGH THAT SPACE TOURISM WILL BE FEASIBLE IN THE YEAR 2050.

HALF OF CURRENT JOBS IN THE WORLD ARE UNLIKELY TO EXIST IN 2050.

CONNECT BY 2050 IT IS EXPECTED TO HAVE EVERYTHING CONNECTED TO THE CLOUD AND TO THE INTERNET.

CHARGE BY 2050 YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CHARGE YOUR IPHONE THROUGH THE POWER OF A PLANT.

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SPECIAL SECTION FEATURES

design by grace padon Liz Christian. They believe that this competition forces people to put more stress on themselves to keep up with expectations which they find increasingly more important than mental health.

Van Meter believes there’s more pressure on kids now than in past generations, which makes it harder to realize they need help.

“There is so much pressure being put on our youth today to be the best, to be perfect, to be No. 1,” Van Meter said. “While there is nothing wrong with working hard to achieve your best, it’s also just as OK to fail and pick yourself up and try again. Who wants to ask for help when they feel worthless and hopeless?”

Van Meter expects the pressures to continue growing and hurting the youth — making them feel as though their best isn’t enough — until people come up with a solution or way to decrease these expectations.

Advancements in methods used to treat mental illnesses bring a different side to technology’s impact. According to Christian, researchers are coming up with ways other than medication or therapy to treat depression and anxiety, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and behavioral trackers, to see real results in these mental health conditions.

Christian believes there will be better treatments for different and more specific chemical imbalances caused by having either too many or too few neurotransmitters, which assist communication between nerve cells.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation delivers short, repetitive bursts of energy against one’s forehead to stimulate the brain’s nerve cells and activating the cells in order to help those dealing with depression.

Dr. Thomas Insel, a neuroscientist, psychologist and past director of the NIMH, is developing behavioral trackers that record signs of impending mental health conditions like depression or anxiety. The tracker is used through an app that monitors the way a person types, taps and scrolls on their phone.

As people begin showing characteristics of depression, the app tracks it. Whether someone is responding less to texts, calls, emails or social media direct messages, taking longer to pick up their phone or even scrolling more slowly through apps and messages, the data is logged to find the likelihood of the subject sliding into a state of mental illness. While the signs may seem minor, capturing the small ones earlier, the app’s description said, aid in catching the illness early so help can be

THERAPY

A

by rose kanaley n IV hanging from his arm, then-freshman *Peter Ryans sat in his hospital bed.

After reaching a low of 102 pounds, he had ended up in intensive care for the second time in two years from his struggles with anorexia, depression and anxiety.

Now a sophomore, Ryans stayed until deemed healthy — gaining back weight through eating regularly in healthy portions, taking daily blood tests to make sure his organs were improving and visiting a therapist.

But Ryans isn’t alone. 25 percent of teens live with a mental health condition, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. They found that the number of people struggling with mental health has increased by about a third in recent years, especially in teens.

Predictions show a continuous rising trend, with an expectation that 50 percent of people will experience a mental illness at a point in their life.

New self-help apps, tests and technology like Kareo — a software that searches through medical records for patients who could be at risk for developing mental health conditions — have begun developing in the past decade to address the looming and threatening issue of mental health. They are not perfected or all used regularly yet, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, but NIMH said with time they are in line to become one of the main channels for easily accessible help.

Psychologists see social media and technology as a heavy influencer on mental health, and 43 percent of East students agree, based on a poll of 193 students. Since 1995 alone, technology users have increased by over 55 percent, according to Internet World Stats. Social media use has increased by over 15 percent in the past two years according to Smart Insights — and both are predicted to continue to rise.

The Pew Research Center found that over 45 percent of teens are using social media on a near constant basis, and Telegraph News found that people spend over 28 hours per week on their phones.

With the continual increasing technology progressions from iPhones to laptops to Apple Watches, they found that it’s expected to keep rising.

Expectations of success are high and getting higher with college and careers becoming more competitive, according to senior Blaine Murphy as well as team leader at Johnson County Mental Health Clinic Renee Van Meter and therapist

15

sought out by people dealing with mental health issues or their family before the effects get worse.

Some students, like senior Blaine Murphy’s friends, use technology to reach out to support groups and find access to help online and through social media like Instagram.

“I have a lot of friends whose Internet groups are really their only means of getting good support, which is the key to even beginning to get help with mental health,” Murphy said. “Without social media they would feel alone and in a worse condition.”

He found that the increasing use of these apps and websites could result in help for people who didn’t want to see a therapist as it was easier to speak honestly with strangers than with friends or in person. Murphy also thinks finding the help online eliminates some fear of judgement, with their accessibility contributing to their rise in popularity.

Websites like BetterHelp and apps like What’s Up and MoodKit are becoming more popular as they provide therapy and help for mental health rather than a planned hour of therapy costing an average of $75-100. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 9 percent of those dealing with mental health now prefer mental health apps to any other form of treatment.

The apps help users keep record of their mood and daily thoughts, ask questions in complete confidence, set and follow steps to improve wellbeing, keep contacts of local and national mental health support and contact emergency services if needed.

But Christian sees social media and technology as something that can distort people’s vision of themselves and contribute to worsening mental health.

“People do an almost constant comparison of their lives to the lives of others and people post almost exclusively fabulous things, not the rest of the realities they have to deal with,” Christian said.

Technology is battling itself as mental health conditions will be increasingly more common, but the technology advancements and society’s involvement can help change that according to Murphy.

“Unless there are major changes to how we treat it, and see it and what we decide to do about it, there’s not going to be any change,” Murphy said. “It’s going to keep rising, and I really don’t think there’s any way to make it stop rising unless we’re willing to do something about it.”

As mental illness becomes more prevalent in teens’ lives, online alternatives to therapy take the stage

16 SPECIAL SECTION NEWS

design by lila tulp

RUNS WITH THE

Following an agreement with KCP&L, Prairie Village and Mission are working towards increased usage of wind power

WINDY CITIES Stats of wind energy usage in Prarie Village and around the country

WIND ENERGY IN PRAIRIE VILLAGE kilowatts per month in energy, about 2 cents an hour dollars/year in savings roughly houses wind powered by one megawatt of energy

WIND ENERGY USAGE IN THE UNITED STATES

per thousand megawatts in the state

N/A

3-1,045

1-2

1,046-3,550

3,551-35,950

*all information courtesty of KCP&L

by scout rice he cities of Prairie Village and Mission have partnered with Kansas City Power and Light on a new agreement that will increase renewable energy in the respective cities through the Renewables Direct program.

The Renewables Direct program is KCP&L’s next step in Kansas City’s growing trend towards renewable power, as Kansas City is currently ranked sixth in the United States for harnessing wind energy, an eco-friendly and sustainable source of power, according to KCP&L. The program was launched on March 4 and is contingent on the participation of nearby cities, businesses, municipalities and school districts — each being considered one customer. If enough of these groups join, KCP&L can justify the building of a wind farm that would provide the promised wind energy at an undecided location.

For the wind farm to be built, a group of between 10 and 40 customers would need to collectively agree to sign on to 100 to 200 megawatts of wind energy. One megawatt can power around 725 houses, according to KCP&L’s Manager of Renewables and 2007 East alum Drew Robinson, and Prairie Village and Mission agreed to a combined 1.2 megawatts, meaning around 99 megawatts are currently uncalled for.

The two cities were the first customers to join the program, but Robinson anticipates more to sign in the coming weeks, given recent pressure to transition to renewable energy.

“We have a long ways to go, but it’s all about getting those first ones,” Robinson said. “We are coming up on that one month period where people had time to look at it, think about the risk, think about how long they want to subscribe and how much they want to subscribe for.”

After discussing the plan at a council meeting, the Prairie Village City Council voted unanimously on March 18 to participate in the Renewables Direct program. Prairie Village, according to council member Chad Herring, could save $2,000 a year by replacing city energy currently powered by fossil fuels with wind energy. However, he sees the real savings coming from a positive impact on the environment.

There is an awareness, he said, amongst city council members that leadership regarding climate change is a responsibility.

Herring believes the first step in improving environmental sustainability is reducing the city’s use of fossil fuels and controlling carbon emissions with cost effective plans.

One downside is the possible decrease in savings depending on price fluctuations regarding fossil fuels and wind energy. Wind

energy is currently the less expensive option, but there is no way to predict if the prices for fossil fuels will fall below the fixed price of wind energy in the next 20 years, according to Herring.

The other downside, Herring said, is a current lack of customers, and therefore a lack of funds supporting the program that would halt plans to build the wind farm. But for the customers, Robinson said, this is a great deal for any party in need of large amounts of energy due to its current cost savings and green aspect.

For cities, the wind energy would go towards powering city buildings, maintenance centers, and community centers, according to Robinson. Due to the location and structure of wind turbines, wind energy would be a stable and reliable source of energy, in terms of price and amount.

“Lucky for us as a utility, we are right next to some of the windiest locations in the country so accessing wind and accessing solar is pretty affordable for us and, by extension, it is pretty affordable to our customers as well,” Robinson said.

For the United States in general, the intersection between science and public policy has always been a heated debate, junior Grant Colvin said, and the topic has always been interesting to him. Through debate, he has become informed on how the government can better tackle the changing climate and push towards sustainable forms of energy.

“I think the new local deals set a really good precedent for the people to follow,” Colvin said.

“I think now especially people are looking to the government for advice because there is so much turmoil and having this transition to renewable energy would certainly put a better light on the government and increase the public’s confidence in the government and renewable energy itself.”

This is not the first action from Prairie Village regarding green and sustainable energy.

Currently, the city is also building a park with solar panel-powered lights, as well as looking into options for an electric car charging station, according to Mayor Eric Mikkelson.

For Mikkelson, exploring the city’s options in the renewable field is a top priority. After the recent agreement with KCP&L and Mission signing on as well, other cities are following in their interest in the renewable sector with both wind and solar power, although wind is the less expensive option with current technology.

“I will say that with the interest from the broader metro area it is kind of a game changer to see a lot of municipalities come together to sign up for things like this,” Robinson said.

“We are hopeful we can keep some momentum going and keep Kansas City on the map from a renewables perspective.”

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Due to technology advances, industries are becoming more reliant on automation and less reliant on human labor by alex freeman

A

bout one-quarter of U.S. workers are in jobs where 70 percent of their tasks can be done by a machine, often cheaper and faster, according to a 2019 report by the Brookings Institution.

One-quarter is more than just a number. It’s 36 million people.

If the trend continues, there could be far-reaching implications for both students who are preparing to enter the workforce and the people in the jobs that face high exposure, according to Robert Maxim, a senior research analyst at Brookings Metropolitan Policy Institute and co-author of the report.

25%

of U.S. workers’ jobs where 70 percent of their tasks can be done by a cheaper and faster machine

For the people on the “right” side of the job market and skill sets, increased automation, or the technology that allows for tasks to be done with little to no human assistance, will mean higher paying jobs and an increased standard of living, Maxim predicts. But for people with jobs in the industries that are facing greatest exposure to automation — like production, food service, transportation and office administration — the future is unclear. While experts disagree on just how drastic the consequences of automation will be, one thing is clear: the job market is shifting.

The jobs available and skill sets needed now are not the same as they will be in the coming years — largely due to the rise of automation, which already eliminates 2.3 million jobs per year according to the Department of Labor’s displaced workers report. The Brookings report found that while the actual day-today of jobs will shift in virtually every sector there are two type of jobs that are expected to prove resilient to automation: jobs that work with machines, like engineers and software developers, and jobs that do what machines can’t do, like market research analysts and human resource specialists.

What’s different about the jobs that are facing the most significant declines are that they are comprised of routine tasks that can fairly easily be done by a machine. Based on a Brookings analysis of data from various sources including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and McKinsey, in the Johnson and Jackson County area, the most “high-risk” jobs are food service workers, stock clerks and order fillers and and accounting and auditing clerks, all of which are fairly predictable in daily tasks. Likewise, jobs that involve tasks that are constantly changing and require

creative thinking are the “safest”: things like business, the arts/entertainment and education.

Students, like junior Grant Colvin, are already feeling the pressure of this automated future.

“When I’m thinking about what I want to pursue in the future, I want to make sure that my job isn’t one that will be under threat from a machine who can do it cheaper, and quicker or better than I can,” Colvin said.

When deciding what career field he wants to pursue after graduating high school, Colvin considers whether the job is particularly susceptible to automation a major factor in his decision. This is why he plans to either go into medical or social sciences, both jobs that work with and simultaneously outside of machines. For many of these so-called “safe” occupations, a college education is a requirement in hiring — a path which 92.5 percent of East students plan to follow, according to a poll of 212 students.

The reality is workers with a narrow skill set and an education that maxes out at a high school diploma will face the brunt of the negative automation impacts — Brookings found that 55 percent of occupations that require less than a bachelor’s degree face significant automation versus only 24 percent of jobs requiring a college graduation.

We still need plumbers, we need electricians, we need woodworkers, we need programmers. There’s a lot of these kinds of things that are very fulfilling. And you can earn quite a bit of money that doesn’t require you to go to [a four-year] college.

thomas deagostino engineering professor While having a college degree will likely provide greater job protection from automation since it forces students to build a variety of skills, often in areas most resistant to automation, University of Kansas Associate professor of Engineering Thomas DeAgostino believes colleges need to be doing more to ensure students are best prepared for the shifting labor force. Based on his transition from working in the automobile industry for years to teaching mechanical engineers, he wants to see greater communication between universities and businesses to develop the specific skills that corporations are looking for in potential hires.

“I think there are steps being taken, but it varies greatly depending on which university you’re at, what the university wants to focus on and what the faculty opinion is of those things,” DeAgostino said. “I think there’s definitely people that are trying to make those changes. I think there are also people trying to resist it.”

For those people who do not attend a traditional

TAKEOVER

college and are unable to receive a bachelor’s degree, they need to find other, more affordable ways to develop the specific marketable skills of the new job market, according to DeAgostino. This can be achieved through accelerated learning programs — low-cost programs that train workers to fill open jobs at specific companies — trade or technical skills, apprenticeships or most commonly community college.

“We still need plumbers, we need electricians, we need woodworkers, we need programmers,” DeAgostino said. “There’s a lot of these kinds of things that are very fulfilling. And you can earn quite a bit of money that doesn’t require you to go to [a four-year] college.”

As the job market continues to change, Johnson County Community College has created a variety of certificate or associate degree programs aimed at preparing students to work in specific areas that are expanding, such as data analytics and web development, according to Coordinator of the Career Development Center Laurie Chapkin. Some employers are not looking for a specific level of degree, Chapkin said, but are more focused on a specific set of skills which JCCC is trying to provide.

Community colleges also often have programs to help develop the interpersonal skills (what machines can’t do) which will be needed in the coming years — JCCC’s “emerging professionals” program is geared toward teaching professional communication and emotional intelligence, which includes everything from email and phone etiquette to networking pitches.

While people shouldn’t expect to see mass elimination of jobs, according to Maxim, jobs that are more susceptible to automation will likely face a significant decline and will require a different skill set. Jobs will require working with the machines and enhancing the work done by the ones that have taken over routine tasks.

As self-driving cars become a reality, rather than physically driving the truck, the truck driver could be a supervisor for the software or a mobile salesperson.

But in many cases like that, far fewer workers will be required to do the job, so only the most skilled in a variety of areas will keep their jobs.

This reality has prompted various spots throughout the United States, most notably Arkansas, to require proficiency in some computer science classes before high school graduation. Likewise, the Kansas State Board of Education is currently considering a proposal to require computer science standards beginning in secondary school, according to to District 2 representative, Steve Roberts. The proposal will be debated and voted on at the April 16-17 board meeting.

“Every job is going to require technical skills,” DeAgostino said. “Back in the day, you could get a job doing something that didn’t require much thinking at all ... But those jobs are disappearing, and every job right from janitor ... all the way up to CEOs of corporations, you have to have some technical expertise.”

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GOODBYE, L AT I N The Shawnee Mission East Latin program is being cut because of small enrollment numbers

S

Principal Scott Sherman doesn’t deny the value of the Latin program and describes how it has benefited students, but says it comes down to a continued lack of interest and resources.

“The Latin program is extremely good in improving ACT scores, vocabulary [and] helps [with] science classes,” Sherman said.

“The value of the class is outstanding, but there are not enough students that want to take the class.”

According to Sherman, the limited funding and faculty members permitted by the state plays a major factor in which courses East can offer. If the student interest increased, there would be a possibility for the program to come back in some form.

In previous years, Latin Club visited eighth grade classes and attended orientation night to increase interest and encourage students to enroll by telling them about the benefits of taking Latin and handing out brochures. According to Nitsch, this enabled them to build a personal connection with the students when persuading them to take Latin.

“The students have also had to keep Latin going as a program and I’ve taken the lead on that the past two years,” Nitsch said. “The first thought that ran through my head was, ‘There has to be something I

could’ve done,’ because this didn’t happen last year or the year before.”

Nitsch encourages Latin Club members to spread the word about their program as well as their passion for Latin. She believes many people don’t take Latin because they think it’s a “dead language,” but in reality people use Latin everyday because it’s a foundation of the English language.

Sophomore Latin student Aidan Novo says he’s sad that he won’t be able to get the full experience of the program as it is no longer an official course, but also feels bad for the students who didn’t get to experience it at all. “[When I joined Latin Club], it was a bunch of kids, good people, friendly, and I enjoyed it a lot, so I showed up again, and again, and again, and I started doing all these things,” Novo said. “I couldn’t imagine a timeline where I would’ve done that had there not been a Latin class.”

Novo describes how Latin has shaped his life in the sense that he is a more wellrounded person and is more motivated towards academic achievement in all classes.

He feels it has helped him get involved at East, branch out into new friend groups and get a better perspective on the world through his studies of Western civilization.

Latin has also had a large impact on

AN OPEN LETTER

Our educational system is broken. You know it, I know it, and every single person that has ever encountered the US public school system knows it. Even here, funding is an underlying issue for every single program. And I know it pains you that you can’t fix the funding. If it were up to you, every high school would have enough money to be able to offer Latin and Calculus 3 and any high level course you care to name. And, because this whole thing seems like a funding issue, I’ll say this: I understand that the numbers don’t work out, even though the enrollment in

Latin only dropped by less than six from last year to this year. I understand that offering Latin as an online class seems like a good financial alternative to the outstanding Latin program we have had at East. I am not blaming you for having to cut something, but I am blaming you for choosing Latin.

KEEP READING: OPEN LETTER Scan this QR code to read the rest of senior Nat Nitsch’s opinion

A closer look at enrollment requests enrollment requests

Senior and Latin Club president Nat Nitsch’s open letter to SME administration

Nitsch’s life — she explains how she plans on going to the University of Chicago next year to major in Classics, which is the study of Latin and its culture. She hopes to one day become a professor.

“To tell the truth, I really love Latin and there’s nothing I’d rather do with my life,” Nitsch said. “It’s something I care a lot about, and out of all the things I care about, I think it’s the one that needs the most help.”

Latin Club continues to meet this year despite their removal. When you visit, you don’t just see a group of kids talking about Latin. They’re bonding over it, with big smiles stretched across their faces as they talk about Caesar and Orpheus and how to make a toga out of a bed sheet.

It’s evident that Latin is not a dead language as students build ideas for a skit using different dramatic points in Latin history while putting a funny twist on them. They all laugh about it in a humor only they can understand because of what they have learned in Latin. Latin is what brings them together.

“Logic. Complexity. It’s as beautiful and logical as a snowflake,” Latin teacher Athanasia Worley said. “If you have language you can learn everything else. It’s something that you have with you for life.”

BY THE NUMBERS 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

by campbell wood mall but mighty. This has been Latin Club’s saying for about three years.

“It’s true because the fact that we’re smaller means that we’ve got to be more dedicated if we want to show that we exist,” senior Latin Club co-consul (Roman equivalent to president) Nat Nitsch said. “I think that every single person that’s in Latin is very dedicated to their studies and what Latin stands for.”

However, the program’s small size has come to work against them and, as of March 4, the Latin program has been cut from East for future school years. While the course enrollment is consistent for the number of first year Latin students, the problem arises with the amount of students who choose to continue on with the language: only 25 current Latin students from this school year are enrolled for next year out of the total of 47 2019-20 enrollment requests.

Students who signed up for Latin 1 next school year have been asked to select a different elective according to associate principal Britton Haney. Current Latin students will most likely be given the option to finish all four years including the option for International Baccalaureate courses. It is still in discussion within the district as to how they will teach the students finishing the program.

If you have language you can learn everything else. It’s something that you have with you for life.

dr. worley latin teacher 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20

year

design by emily fey photos courtesy of courtney brooks

“I

by brooklyn terrill t’s just like high school musical!”

According to Courtney Brooks, Executive Director of Global Ties KC, this is one of the most frequent, and her favorite, quotes she hears from students coming to the U.S. through Global Ties KC. Fifteen students and three supervising teachers from three countries in Africa will be visiting East as part of the Pan-African Youth Leadership Program from April 10-23. The Kansas City portion of this program is part of a larger exchange of around 50 students occurring across the country during the month of April. Students will be participating in workshops around Kansas City focusing on leadership and service, according to the U.S. State Department.

The Pan-African Youth Leadership Program is designed for high-achieving students who went through an extensive application and interview process conducted by the U.S. embassies in their respective countries, according to Global Ties KC Executive Director, Courtney Brooks. The Global Ties KC flyer for potential hosts says, “Host A Future President.”

“These students represent the best and the brightest of their countries,” according to information provided

by Global Ties KC. “They are future lawyers, doctors, artists and scientists, who are coming to the Midwest to learn about what life is like in an America high school.”

Brooks says that for the students coming from Mauritius, Ghana and South Africa, seeing an American high school in real life compared to a TV show or movie

EXCHANGING LEADERSHIP

Fifteen students from three countries in Africa will be coming to Kansas City through the Pan-African Youth Leadership Program

is an incredible experience for the exchange student, but she hopes the exchange goes both ways.

“These students have the chance to share about their own cultures too,” Brooks said. “I think in America we often think of Africa as safari and lions. The reality is the Mauritius, Ghana and South Africa are three very diverse places and I hope that the students at SM East are open-minded and excited to engage with these students and learn about their cultures as well.”

Though the exchange students will only be at East for a few days out of the duration of the program, while here, they will be giving presentations about their countries to East government and geography classes.

Freshman Sydney Beck, whose family has committed to hosting a student for the program, is excited, but nervous to interact with students who have already been deemed future community leaders.

“I’m kind of nervous because all of the people were picked by the government, so I’m assuming they are going to be like really good kids and really smart,” Beck

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19

said. “They are probably going to think I’m not smart or really weird. I think it will be fun, and I’m interested to see their culture.”

Though Beck is intimidated by the caliber of students in the program, she and her family wanted the experience of hosting an exchange student for a short time before committing to one for a full academic year, so they volunteered to host.

Brenda Fishman, the East coordinator for the program, has several families currently committed to hosting students but is still looking for more to participate.

While not at East, the exchange students and teachers will be participating in leadership and service activities around Kansas City. They will be visiting the Kauffman Foundation, meeting with the mayor of Shawnee and visiting Topeka to learn about Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. All of these activities will culminate in a final project that will be implemented in their respective home communities.

“A big piece of the program is that they will all be creating community projects for when they go back home,” Brooks said. “Individually or in a country group, they will be designing projects to improve upon different things in their home communities.”

Projects will vary based on the needs for the students’ home communities, so they cover a wide range of topics from environmental clean-up to drug education, according to Brooks. This program is aimed at giving already successful students a unique experience to help them become leaders in their home communities.

KC TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

Tours and activities the students will be doing during their 13 days in Kansas City

Plaza Scavenger Hunt

April 11

Brown vs. Board of Education April 16 Presentation in Topeka Federal Reserve Bank Tour

April 17

Kansas City Zoo

April 22

WHERE IN THE WORLD?

AFRICA GHANA three male and two female students

SOUTH AFRICA three male and two female students

MAU R I T I U S one male and three female students

These students represent the best and brightest of their countries.

They are future lawyers, doctors, artists, and scientists, who are coming to the Midwest to learn about what life is like in an American high school.

global ties kc

ABOVE LEFT | The cohort of Pan African Youth Leadership Program of 2018 tour MindDrive, a not-for-profit that hosts innovative afterschool programs for high school students in Kansas City.

ABOVE RIGHT | Students from the PAYLP, who visited KC last summer from South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, and Mozambique, pose for a picture.

RIGHT | Students who attended the 2018 PAYLP Program were able to visit many KC landmarks, including Kaw Point.

20 FEATURES

photo by elle karras and grace goldman design by lily billingsley

POWER THROUGH POEMS Senior uses poetry to spread her message and empower her audience

T

by jackie cameron hen 10-year-old Aakriti Chaturvedi was entranced by the way that actor Farhan Akhtar’s soothing voice flowed through the movie theater. His voice-over in the scenes of “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” wasn’t dialogue — it was poetry written by his father Javed and full of a flowing, peaceful “vibe” that Chaturvedi loved.

A few days later, she went outside and began writing her first poem (about bubbles) in her pink-feltflower-covered journal titled “Poems Diary.” Stuffed with rhymes and written as one giant paragraph with commas indicating each new line, her first poem was finished. But Chaturvedi wasn’t.

Now a senior, Chaturvedi is still turning to her flower journal. However, her poetry style has evolved from rhyming lines like “time for brunch” and “same old lunch” to poems that celebrate hair in different cultures and address the psychological effects of body dysmorphia. It’s not only Chaturvedi’s subjects that

Being willing to talk about something that’s intense, which is usually also personal, is very powerful and especially in the way that [Chaturvedi] does it.

amy andersen english teacher have changed, but also her audience.

Her poems aren’t just confined to her journal and Google Docs, they are performed as slam poetry — poems that are read aloud much like a monologue in a play. All of Chaturvedi’s poetry serves one central purpose: to promote strength in her audience.

Chaturvedi uses poetry as a way to send a message — she usually begins with a sad anecdote, like including a hospital scene in her poem “I wish I could understand,” that’s meant to extract a personal connection from audience members. She dedicates the latter half to reassuring the audience that their past mistakes don’t have to stick with them.

According to Chaturvedi, recognizing low points in one’s life and realizing that others are going through similar things is important. Although she hasn’t personally experienced the intense topics of her poems, she wants to remind those who have that everything ends in a good way, so if it’s bad then it’s not the end.

“I think especially at this age range with teenagers, it’s really easy to fall into depression and anxiety and I’ve seen so many people that are close to me that have fallen into that trap,” Chaturvedi said. “I just kind of want to make them know that it’s not worth it and whatever you’re struggling with, it will pass.”

Performing slam poetry elevates her messages because she’s able to reverberate and stress syllables

to add emotion. Chaturvedi has competed in the two years East’s Poetry Slam has happened — she’s won both times.

The first time she competed, she spoke about loving yourself, and last year’s poem was about dissociative identity disorder and familial tension — confronting, not dodging controversial topics.

“I’m super lucky to not have gone through what so many people go through but I think I’ve seen it to the point where [other people’s sadness] does sometimes bother me,” Chaturvedi said. “Writing poetry and sharing that with them, I think definitely helps me through that.”

Chaturvedi’s hands sway up and down and her voice gets lower at certain points during her performances to emphasize her ideas. She compares it to the way that rappers will stress two specific lyrics to get their point across and ensure those points stick, like how she will scream one line and sob the next.

And her method works — an audience member placed their hands on Chaturvedi’s shoulders and thanked her for the poem following her performance last year. Junior Lily Turner, despite not being able to personally relate to the poem, felt the pain of Chaturvedi’s words through her performance. “[The way she performed it] kind of added the ideas of anxiety over her poem,” Turner said.

To Chaturvedi, there’s a significant difference between written poetry and slam poetry. Written uses more metaphors and allows room for analysis while slam is more direct. According to her, strong messages like those related to mental health are better spoken aloud because if they’re on paper, people don’t take the time to appreciate what they mean.

“Being willing to talk about something that’s intense, which is usually also personal, is very powerful and especially in the way that [Chaturvedi] does it,” Amy Andersen, English and creative writing teacher and East Poetry Slam Head, said. “She’s writing things in a way that carries emotion through the beauty of the writing itself, and as we’ve talked about, with her powerful performances.”

Along with writing about heavy themes like depression and anxiety that she’s seen around her, Chaturvedi draws inspiration from movies — she recently created a poem based off of Netflix’s “Nappily Ever After” that covers dealing with cultured hair and then she moves on to promote embracing one’s cultured hair.

Whether it’s confronting mental health or hair, whenever she “feels” something, she writes. Maybe she was watching a YouTube video about anxiety or taking a walk outside. According to Chaturvedi, it’s all about the mindset — some ideas take her four days to think of but end up not working out and others can become some of her best in just 30 minutes, like her slam poem “Pessimism is a Phase.”

Chaturvedi’s desire to address social issues and provide strength to her audience is present in her other creative outlets such as her art and music. She incorporates oppression of women into her artwork for IB art and expresses different interpretations of strength — the best example being a painting of an Indian queen clothed in red to represent the fire she threw herself into after her husband died in battle, which was a common occurrence in Indian history.

With her music, Chaturvedi prefers covering songs like Ruth B.’s “Lost Boy” which deals with losing your place and finding it again.

“I think she has that mindset. She does not want to stick to one thing,” Aakriti’s mom, Madhulika Chaturvedi said. “I mean she is an artist from the inside, so she wants to explore different kinds of things.”

The themes, lengths and settings of her performances, writing and music might change. But her purpose going forward? The same as everything she writes now.

“Even if the themes are different, what I want to get across is the fact that [people] can overcome their struggles,” Chaturvedi said. “So it could be like the tiniest problem or the biggest thing, and just letting the audience know that whatever they are struggling with, they can get over it. That’s an underlying message even if I don’t blatantly say that.”

AAKARTI’S POETRY Scan this QR code to read Aakarti’s poems

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QUEER EYE IN KANSAS CITY

The makeover team of Queer Eye hit KC for their third season

I

will just admit it — reality television is my vice.

Ever since I had my wisdom teeth removed last summer, I’ve been hooked on “Below Deck” and “The Housewives” (let me tell you — senior year is not the time to get hooked on any television series).

But once I had finished all that Hulu had to offer, I was left looking for something a little more fulfilling.

Enter “Queer Eye” — a show featuring five fabulous gay guys looking to give people the makeovers that will make Jonathan say “Yas Honey!” and help them to feel their best. I decided to give the show a try, and have since been not-so-patiently waiting for season three, released on March 15, which just so happens to have been filmed right here in KC. Each season is made up of eight 45-minute episodes where the Fab Five successfully make over a — let’s just say “lifestyle challenged” — man or woman. Together, they address different aspects of the person’s life and help them transform into a better version of themselves, complete with a killer wardrobe, restaurant-worthy recipes and house decor that even Joanna Gaines would approve of.

The show, which initially ran on Bravo from 2003 to 2007, was originally known as “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Due to its wild success, Netflix decided to reboot the show with a new cast known as the Fab Five. Each with their own expertise — Bobby Berk (design), Karamo Brown (culture), Tan France (fashion), Antoni Porowski (food) and Jonathan Van Ness (grooming) — together the Fab Five can give you a makeover faster than you can say “French tuck!”

Season three showcases eight different Kansas City citizens from different backgrounds ranging from a lesbian woman kicked out of her ultraconservative home to a man struggling to raise his two kids after his wife died of cancer. Each episode beautifully tells their story and showcases their journey to confidence.

It’s easy to fly through the season as each episode just gets better, and leaves you feeling inspired. And while I recommend watching each episode, feel free to skip around and watch episodes in any order.

But make sure to stop at “Black Girl Magic” and “Elrod and Sons” — both equally inspiring stories unmatched in other episodes.

But don’t be fooled — this show isn’t a sob fest.

While you may need a few tissues to blot your eyes (it’s not just allergies), each episode is equal parts inspirational and funny, thanks to Jonathan’s eccentric outfits, Tan’s iconic strut and their foodstealing French bulldog Bruly.

However, while each episode does tell a different story, the season can seem repetitive. Essentially, each episode is the same, just with people from various stories and backgrounds. You can only hear Jonathan yell “YAASSS QUEEN” so many times without wanting to rip your Airpods out. But the views of Kansas City and final reveals of the newly transformed “hero” — Queer Eye’s name for the people they showcase — make each episode worth it.

And while the Fab Five may have been the real stars, KC has my heart. I found myself squealing as Tan went into the Plaza J. Crew and Rye — two of my favorite spots. I even saw that my pastor was featured in a wedding on the show. Plus, the videography presents the city in a way that would make any KC native proud — from the sprawling views of downtown to the Spanish architecture featured on the Plaza.

And from the looks of the show, the Fab Five really embraced Midwestern culture, frequently commenting on the friendliness of KC and, of course, the barbeque. Antoni can even be spotted wearing a Greeting Committee shirt, one of KC’s most prominent local bands.

But, let’s face it. This isn’t a review of the city.

“Queer Eye” is so much more than any location or a makeover. It’s about changing people’s lives and helping them to see themselves for what they are and loving every bit of it. And according to the Fab Five, confidence is beauty. And I couldn’t agree more.

And while I may not have had the chance to meet the Fab Five while in KC, I can only live vicariously through the season (and patiently wait for when the next special Queer Eye: ‘We’re in Japan’ premeries later this year).

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3

IN

by lucy patterson

COUNTRY CLUB PLAZA

S EAS O N

A&E

design by meg thoma

WHAT’S ON TAP? A review over the newly opened restaurant and arcade, Tapcade, located in the Cross Roads

by lauren dierks

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icture the Stranger Things arcade mixed with a more rustic version of the Prairie Village Johnny’s. This is what I thought of when my parents described the new restaurant in the Crossroads that has the same retro arcade games they had played when they were kids. So I made the 20-minute trip down to the Crossroads with four friends to see if my parents’ raving reviews were worth the drive.

My parents weren’t lying when they told me Tapcade would be fun — it took me back to my Chuck E. Cheese’s days without the scary mouse and screaming kids. My friends and I were able to turn a boring, rainy Saturday into an afternoon full of games from the past, like Donkey Kong and Tetris and good food, like their better than BRGR burgers, that were definitely worth the drive.

I knew I arrived when I stopped in front of the front wall, decorated with doodles of PACMAN and Mario Bros. My first impression — darkness. If I didn’t carry my phone with me at all times, I would have had no concept of time due to the lack of windows. But within the darkness were dozens of arcade games lining the walls and tables in the center of the room with the lingering scent of ketchup and fried food. A host showed us to a table covered with a checkered tablecloth — not exactly a dress and heels type of venue.

A server was quick to bring us menus, silverware and waters as well as a stamp showing we paid the reasonable $5 for unlimited game play. I was surprised to see a

AT A GLANCE: TAPCADE

what: pub grub & arcade games where: 1701 McGee St, KCMO price:

4.5/5 list of different kinds of burritos on the menu because of the apparent bar scene I saw in front of me. I decided on one of their most popular burritos according to our waitress: the California burrito — a steak, pico, avocado, jack cheese and chipotle ranch combination all wrapped up in a flour tortilla. But the most intriguing part? Stuffed with fries. For someone who usually sticks to the kids menu, this was pretty out-of-the-box for me, but I decided I’d give it a try for the sake of the server’s positive

review.

When a red basket with red-checkered wax paper carrying a tinfoil-wrapped burrito arrived, I saw exactly what I didn’t want to see. I know a bad tortilla when I see one, thick and the only thing you can taste. I gave it a chance anyway, but I was right. Definitely not worthy of the “most popular” title. The insides weren’t much better — the jack cheese was overpowering and made the fries inside soggy, leaving me upset that I had put a dent into my short cash supply.

I knew I should’ve stuck to my classic order of chicken tenders and fries judging from my friends’ near-empty baskets. But they were nice enough to offer a charity chicken tender and — to my surprise — it was one of the best I’ve had. Its flaky, crumbly crust gave it the perfect crunch leading into the chicken and was nothing short of delicious. If not for my short cash supply, I would’ve ordered some for myself.

After topping off my mix-and-matched meal, I left to check out the Centipede game console that my mom had so badly wanted me to try. The goal of the game is to kill the centipede before it kills you. It seems simple but after losing a disappointing number of times, I decided to make the rounds.

My dad’s favorite, Galaga, was more my speed: a simple move around and shoot type of game. Leaning over the machine with my friends trying to get my initials on the leaderboard was a different type of thrill than passing a new level in Slices or beating a high score in 1010. I let out a squeal with each new level I was able to pass.

Post-Donkey Kong my stomach was longing for something a little more, and the deep fried Oreos sparked my curiosity. My mouth was watering when the basket carrying six deep fried balls topped with powdered sugar reached the center of our table. I was the first to pop one into my mouth and was able to give my friends the big thumbs up. The crispy outside met a fluffy inside, like a funnel cake with oreo crumble on the inside. The perfect end to make up for the subpar burrito.

Though the burrito will not come close to my mouth again, the other menu options are perfect after a round of pinball and the variety of games gives little opportunity for boredom.

My mom would be pleased to know I would definitely keep Tapcade on my list of things to do on a rainy day.

ABOVE | Tapcade’s order of the $7 Deep Fried Oreos. photo by annakate dilks BELOW | A view of the arcade game lined wall and dining area from the outdoor patio vantage point. photo by annakate dilks

BELOW | The $10 California Burrito containing steak, avocado, pico, jack cheese, cihpotle ranch and stuffed with fries. photo by annakate dilks

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24 A&E

photos courtesy of IMDb.com design by ava johnson

WH AT ’S N EW I N T H E AT E RS

Staffers review Us and Five feet Apart, two movies that are new in theaters

US

by jilli foley family who’s possessed doppelgängers try to kill them? Just one of those crazy plots I would’ve made up in my head while sitting in English class in eighth grade, certainly not something ordinary to watch unfold on the big screen. “Us,” directed by Jordan Peele, expresses a new idea that left my palms sweaty almost every minute of the movie — my friend whose hand I was grasping wasn’t the driest either.

The story begins with protagonist Adelaide Wilson returning to her childhood beachfront home with her family. Already plagued by a past traumatic experience at a beachside carnival, Wilson can’t let go of the feeling that something bad is going

A

FIVE FEET APART

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by megan funkey had never cried in the women’s bathroom line with a bunch of strangers before I saw the movie, “Five Feet Apart.” The stuffy noses, red eyes and Kleenexes suggested we had all just seen a puppy run over by a car, but no — the strangers I felt a new connection with had all just witnessed the story of Claire and Will — teens both suffering from Cystic Fibrosis.

Claire and Will meet on a rooftop of a hospital after signing up for the same drug trial when Claire convinces Will to get down from the ledge of the hospital roof as he jokingly walks along the ledge, almost losing his balance. This is the first encounter of their relationship.

Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited disorder that causes severe damage in the lungs and a thick amount of mucus to form in the body, causing these two lovers to be prone to chronic infections especially towards others with the same disorder.

They were left with no choice but to fight for their love for each other from five feet apart.

Claire’s obsession with the neatness of her pill cart immediately contrasts with Will’s urge to never take his treatment

seriously, so of course we find our two opposites attracting at least 20 minutes into the movie. It’s what I expected. But what I didn’t expect is to become so attached to these characters undeniable chemistry.

Claire played by Haley Richardson and Will played by Cole Sprouse completed their treatments together, but due to their five feet apart rule they are left to eat their chocolate pudding that is mixed with their daily pills over FaceTime, while being three rooms away from each other.

Claire and Will find ways around this rule like working out together and going on dates while holding opposite ends of a 5-foot pool stick instead of holding hands.

Seeing the realistic scars covering Sprouse and Richardson’s bodies and the cords attached to their lower hip, made me forget that this was just a movie.

Claire Wineland inspired the movie after director Justin Baldoni collarborated with her on a TV series called, “My Last Days.” Wineland had a conversation with Baldoni about dating with the disease and how dating other people with the disease can end in cross-contamination and eventually lead to death.

This conversation sparked the plot

4/5 to happen to her and her family.

She shows worry through her unresponsive actions and stillness.

This internal worry soon becomes a reality when four strangers arrive at the house, forcing the Wilsons into survival mode. But these aren’t your stereotypical killers wearing a ski mask. They look familiar —a little too familiar — they are an exact replica of Wilson’s family. They dress in gory attire consisting of red-robe-looking clothes with gold-sharp scissors in their hands.

The suspense with the Wilsons’ unwelcome guests made me consider taking a bathroom break to escape.

The film goes from dead silence to a deafening piano riff which brought texture with contrasting music that helped foreshadow subsequent scenes.

Each time the “new” Wilsons appeared, a staccato violin sound began to play on repeat. My hands crawled up to my face as I buried my head into the arm rest any time the sound played. The music really made the “other” family’s presence and appearance show throughout the scenes and is glued into my brain until this day.

As the film unfolds, the original Wilson family realized they would have to fight off their mystery guests to survive. Even though the horror movie had a new idea, it wasn’t totally immune to the scary movie cliches — house in the forest, opening the closet door, leaving the car when they shouldn’t. And the characters had the trademark horror movie lapses in judgement throughout.

5/5 line of, “Five Feet Apart.” Shortly after the conversation Wineland was brought onto the movie as a consultant ensuring that the portrayal of the disease was accurate. Wineland worked with Sprouse and Richardson to make their coughs as authentic as possible by having them bend over backwards with deep heaves.

I can see how some viewers think the movie is a replica of the movie, “The Fault in Our Stars” with the star crossed lovers, the rebellious bad boy and the disease that stands in the way of the relationship and life itself. But after hearing Wineland’s story about how she helped make the scenes accurate, and watching the Sprouse and Richardson fight for their lives and their love on the big screen, all of the stereotypical clichés disappeared.

Wineland never saw the impact of her story because she passed away Sept. 2, 2018, after experiencing a stroke following a double lung transplant. Although the viewers can be comforted by the credits knowing it was just a movie, for others out there like Wineland these character’s stories are similar to their reality. Drained of emotion and tears after the movie, I’m now counting down the days until it comes out on On Demand.

Scan this QR code to watch an episode of “My Last Days” on Youtube

PHOTOSTORY

design by grace goldman

FREQUENTLY FUN FRIDAYS Seniors in Advanced Repetoire Theatre direct their own Frequent Friday performances bi-weekly for their senior project

RIGHT | In a rendition of the TV show, “Friends”, Monica Geller, played by freshman Jane Kohlhase, yells at her brother Ross Geller, played by freshman Ethan Nickolett. “I was really excited because it was a show that I’ve watched like a million times before and [Monica is] a lot like me as a person,” Kohlhase said. photo by grace goldman RIGHT | Freshmen Carson Atkins and Brooke Ashlee Taylor audition for Evann Greene’s Frequent Friday titled “Moonrise Kingdom”. “I played the role of Sam Shakusky,” said Atkins. “I actually had a really fun time even though we only spent a little bit of time together.” photo by annakate dilks RIGHT | Freshman Ethan

Nickolett performs the character of Dwight in senior Alana Rowan’s Frequent Friday titled “Just a Stage He’s Going Through.” “My character… didn’t know where he belonged in life, and it was just a story about him going on his way to figure out who he is and what he’s doing in the world,” said Nickolett. “It was really pretty fun.” photo by reilly moreland

RIGHT | Senior Ella Stotts turns off the house

lights to be able to turn on show lights. “The lights in the little theatre are crazy and they’re LED so you have to program each light with each color individually, so getting those colors to match each other after programming the last lights was a challenge [...] but it worked out, it was ok,” Stotts said. photo by grace goldman

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LEFT | After the end of senior Luke Knopke’s Frequent Friday, sophomore Reilly Kenney greets his friends. “I played George, it’s kind of confusing because it was a show within a show, but in the show I was Sarah, so I was a guy who played a girl in the show,” Kenney said, “it was called ‘The Actor’s Nightmare’, and it’s basically about a guy who’s waking up where he’s put on stage and he doesn’t know any of his lines and it’s like a nightmare.” photo by luke hoffman

LEFT | Before the show starts, senior Aaron Berlau chats with some friends in the audience. When asked his favorite things about theater, Berlau said, “I definitely think being on stage and knowing what it’s like to be up there kind of changes how you watch shows. It gives you so much more knowledge into how much work your friends or other actors you see put into a show”. photo by luke hoffman

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SPORTS

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27

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS DON’T MISS OUT APRIL

Schedule for East sports April 1-8

boys varsity tennis v. topeka

@ East

2

girls swimming v. BV North

@ East

4

varsity softball v. SM West

@ SM Softball complex

6

varsity baseball v. Olathe East

1

APRIL APRIL APRIL APRIL

8

varsity golf invitational

@ CBAC

TOP | Junior Peter Kohring slides into the sand pit while competeing in the long jump field event last week. photo by lucy morantz

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BOTTOM LEFT | Junior Maggie Shutt laughs before she hugs her teammate during a scrimmage last week. photo by lucy morantz

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TOP LEFT | Coach Shawn Hair and Coach Andrew Gagnon laugh with sophomore basketball players during their banquet. photo by megan stopperan

by ben henschel usually have that “my-bracket’s-screwed” moment a day or two in. March will do that to you. I’m good at this stuff, I thought — at least I did before this year, and for good reason. I’ve won in all of my three routine groups at least once (in two of them, twice), the largest of which being a pay-to-play with over 200 participants.

Three hours in, I had that angering mybracket-sucks realization that’s so well known and well hated by bracketologists and fans.

The worst part? It wasn’t because of upsets.

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Scan the QR code above to continue reading Ben Henschel’s backetology during March Madness

28 SPORTS

design by will tulp

1 2

3

LEFT | Seniors Jack Lischer (left), Patrick RIGHT | Senior Quincy Eastlack steers a White (middle) and Michael Spivak (right) Catalina 24 yacht with junior Charlie Wolf talk while hiking to balance the sailboat. behind him. photos courtesy of ted lischer

COME SAIL AWAY Friends share and spread passion for sailing through club

O

by thomas paulus ne thing was routine in Jack Lischer’s summer vacation: sitting on his parents’ dock on Lake Perry in Lenexa, waiting to sail his Dad’s heirloom 420cm class dinghy.

Since he was four years old, Jack has been sailing alongside his parents on the lake, making sure to master every sail turn and body stance, while also having fun spending time with his family When he entered middle school, he soon started taking his friends up to the lake for them to experience the wind blowing through their hair while laughing with their freinds .

“I just wanted to hang out and get them involved in something I love,” Lischer said.

Because of their love of sailing, Lischer and seniors Michael Spivach, Quincy Eastlack and junior Charlie Wolf created a sailing club at East in 2017. They don’t have a club sponsor or scheduled meetings after school, but they do have regular practices and meets accompanied by some “pretty awesome club T-shirts” according to Eastlack.

During the summer sailing season, April through September, the club heads up to Lake Perry to catch rays and chat about crazy anecdotes of wind-related injuries – like when Eastlack took senior Quin Napier out to sail and he ended up breaking his nose. Their days continued with exciting races and sail until the sky is purple and the sun is almost gone, with the added bonus of extra practice for weekly meets every Saturday.

“It’s just a couple friends hanging out, sharing their love of sailing,” Eastlack said.

The club has the chance to participate in races hosted by Kansas Youth Sailing, a non-profit sailing foundation focused on supporting high school, collegiate and adaptive (or disabled) sailing. The goal is to make it a more visible sport throughout Kansas as well as the nation, according to president Ted Lischer.

The sailing foundation was founded four years ago

8 7 6

in part by Lischer’s dad, Ted Lischer, who is now the president. They have set up opportunities for young sailors around Kansas to compete against each other and become friends, pairing comradery with competitiveness.

These opportunities have allowed the team to compete in races like the Junior Olympics Festival, a regional competition where they represent East against against high schools from across the Midwestern area.

“I remember standing at the starting line with the chaotic wind in my face, studying all 100 boats about to race,” Lischer said.

As they have progressed through years of maneuvering masts and working with winds, they are now becoming trainers to young aspiring sailors.

The team has gone from trying to perfect the perfect angle into the wind to making sure they score the best in the sailing nationals at Shawnee Mission Park, to training young nautical aficionados. This year they are even refurbishing and repairing a sailboat for racing that will help accommodate people with disabilities.

Last year, Jack was one of the first instructors in the Midwest to help put a person with disabilities into a racing boat and teach them how to sail. Now, Jack spends most of his time at the lake teaching people with disabilities the very techniques his dad taught him at a young age.

“It’s fun teaching the kids so they can enjoy sailing as much as I do,” Lischer said.

With the help of his dad, Lischer has been working in his spare time to help prepare and polish their newest addition to their slew of racing boats: an adaptive 420-centimeter racing boat. There Prairie Village neighbors can see them in their driveway with a rag in one hand and polisher in the other working to help incorporate all walks of life into the world of sailing.

“We do this because anyone that wants to sail, can,” Lischer said.

5

4

KNOW YOUR BOAT A basic anatomy of the saiboat

1. Mainsail It’s in the name — the main sail of the boat, capturing most of the wind to propel it.

2. Mast The tall pole roughly about the center of the sailboat.

3. Jib A secondary sail that helps with the aerodynamics of the boat and allows it to sail faster.

4. Hull The symmetrical shell of the boat.

5. Keel Assists in balancing the boat.

6. Rudder The part that controls the direction of the boat.

7. Tiller The steering mechanism of the boat that controlls the rudder.

8. Boom Attached to the mainsail, used to direct the sail and capture as much wind as possible.

design by elizabeth ballew photos by sarah golder and dakota zugelder

SPORTS

NEW COACHES ON THE COURT

29

Chemistry teacher Susan Hallstrom and math teacher Olivia Lacona are the new additions to the boys tennis coaching staff

Honestly I just [wanted to coach] because it’s my favorite sport and I love the outdoors, especially going out there after being inside all day teaching I really want to coach in the future and I have my coaching license.

olivia lacona teacher in college and coached kids at a five week summer tennis program. During her short time at East, Gibbs wants to give her the opportunity to get some experience with coaching tennis at the high school level according to Gibbs. While she shadows Gibbs, Lacona hopes to help the team improve on their doubles skills and overall teamwork. “[I want her] to see how to run a practice, see the ways that you can [help] players find success and for her to feel like this is something that she can do if that's what she chooses to do,” Gibbs said.

“So that's what I hope for her.”

Lacona hopes that she can teach the team about the importance of mental toughness in tennis and learn the lesson that many of her coaches have taught her: take each point as a fresh start. Gibbs agrees with Lacona, and has made the team’s goal for this season a mental one. He wants players to “win” the 20 seconds between tennis points by using it as a much needed break to recover and prepare for the next point, both mentally and physically.

“We made the goal something that’s not directly tied to something that you can't always control,” Gibbs said. “I can control between the points. I can't necessarily control how good of a player you are or how well you play that day.”

In addition to Lacona, Hallstrom will be joining the boys tennis coaching staff. The selection of Hallstrom, known to students as the Honors Chemistry and Physical Science teacher, as an assistant coach came as a shock to many members of the East community, including junior, tennis player and Hallstrom’s former student Jack Friskel. “[Hallstrom’s addition to the coaching staff] caught me off guard and took me by surprise a little,” Friskel. “I didn’t know she played tennis.”

While Hallstrom has no prior experience with tennis or coaching, she didn’t join to be the type of coach who gives players advice through the fence during matches at State or feeds balls during drills at practice. For now, she will be performing non-coaching tasks such as supervising the boys at practice and transporting them to and from matches in the team van.

Despite Hallstrom’s lack of experience, Gibbs chose her for the job due to her willingness to learn from the other coaches, her ability to manage people and the fact that she doesn’t have to travel to East from another school. According to Hallstrom, she is excited to get to know her students in a more personal way and spend some “much needed” time outdoors.

“It’s fun for me to see students outside the academic arena and to see that students have so many gifts and talents that are way beyond the classroom,” Hallstrom said.

Even with the addition of the new coaches, sophomore and returning state qualifier Blake Eason thinks that the team has a high chance of winning state. Last year, the six-player team went to state and won the overall runner-up title.

“I think we have a really good chance [at] winning because last year we lost by only one point to Blue Valley West,” Eason said. “They had two good juniors that swept the singles draw for all of the points.”

For the remainder of the season, Lacona and Hallstrom plan to learn as much as possible and make the most of their time with the team.

“I think [Hallstrom and Lacona] will bring some consistency and, Hallstrom’s definitely fun, so some energy to the court,” Friskel said. “They’ll develop players well and help all of the freshmen get better.”

GET TO KNOW THE COACHES Read this Q&A with the new additions to the boys tennis coaching staff

math teacher club tennis at Iowa

OLIVIA LACONA

C

hemistry teacher Susan Hallstrom and student teacher Olivia Lacona have joined the boys tennis coaching staff for the spring, fllowing the resignation of assistant head coach for boys and girls tennis, Frank Gagnon, at the end of the girls season last fall.

Lacona, a senior and math major at Iowa State University, volunteered to shadow head coach Andrew Gibbs and assistant coach Jed Bair during the next six weeks while she student teaches for math teachers Alania Shelton and Rachel Schaller at East.

“Honestly I just [wanted to coach] because it's my favorite sport and I love the outdoors, especially going out there after being inside all day teaching,” Lacona said. “I really want to coach in the future and I have my coaching license.”

As she’s grown, her passion for tennis has as well. She played tennis in high school, club tennis

what's your favorite part of practice?

SUSAN HALLSTROM

by kelly murphy

I’ve only been there a couple times, but it’s probably learning how to coach from the other coaches. It's been fun for me to see how they do it.

chemistry teacher no tennis experience

what's your favorite part of practice?

It is fun for me to see students outside the academic arena. It's fun for me to see that students have so many gifts and so many talents that are way beyond the classroom.

30 SPORTS

GIRLS LAX RIVAL: Saint Teresa Academy PREVIOUS SCORE: East lost 15-10 I have a pretty good feeling about the season, but we have a lot to work on to be able to make it to the finals . . . It is so much fun playing with all of them.”

kiki ehrich senior

SOFTBALL RIVAL: Bishop Miege PREVIOUS SCORE: East won 16-3

photos by megan stopperan, kate nixon and dakota zugelder design by lauren west

SPORTS IN BRIEFS by riley atkinson BETWEEN THE TIME the bell rings at 2:40 p.m. and the time the sun goes down, East athletes can be found covering the fields, courts and pool. Here’s a look at how the start of the season is going for some spring sports.

TRACK & FIELD RIVAL: The whistle PREVIOUS SCORE: They’ve never lost It’s definitely difficult to get back into the swing of things, especially right after spring break, but we’re feeling pretty good about the season.

lucy hoffman senior I think that the team chemistry is pretty high right now. We all get along and goof around but know how to focus when we need to.

GIRLS SOCCER

maddy schultzer senior

RIVAL: Shawnee Mission West

BASEBALL They’ve won state back to back years and they’re supposed to win again this year, so it was actually a really big win for us. If you look at our schedule it’s not a stretch to say we could go undefeated.

We’re really confident right now and we believe in each other.

robert moore junior

RIVAL: Blue Valley High School PREVIOUS SCORE: East won 6-4

PREVIOUS SCORE: East won 3-0 We played really well and we’re all really excited about the upcoming season. I think our team chemistry is a lot stronger than it was last year, so that translates onto the field.

kourtney koc senior

BOYS GOLF RIVAL: Rockhurst PREVIOUS SCORE: Placed 1st with score of 299 We feel pretty good with the season coming up . . . We just need to get used to our team and how big it is this year

jack dierks senior

design by lucy morantz

PHOTOSTORY

31

AND THEY’RE

OFF

Varsity spring sports begin their competitive seasons this week and are hopeful for the seasons ahead

ABOVE | Senior Alec Schlote clears

his jump in pole vaulting during the first Varsity Track meet of the year, the Quadrangular. Schlote’s best jump from the meet was 10 feet. “I think there were athletes that showed us a great starting point, so we can kind of see where they start, and go from there,” Varsity Track head coach Emily Fossoh said. “I’m really hoping the boys will improve this year and the Quad definitely showed that they would because the boys had about 120 points at the quad and the next team had about 60.” photo by katherine mcginness

ABOVE RIGHT | Seniors Ben Jolles

and Henry Leopold talk to their doubles opponents from Shawnee Mission South while approaching the net to begin their first match. The Lancers took the overall duel victory 21-3. “I think with practice it’s just going to get a lot better,” Jolles said. “We missed a whole week of practice before spring break because of the weather, so we haven’t had much practice, but we’re getting back into it and it’s going to be a really good season.” photo by grace goldman

CHECK OUT THE GALLERIES: VARSITY TRACK QUADRANGULAR Scan this QR code to view this gallery

LEFT | While freshman Tate Moody is at bat, senior Justin Randa glances up at the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning of extra innings. The game went into 11 total innings, as opposed to the regular seven, but the Lancers ended up falling to the Firebirds 2-1. “We took 19 guys to that game, 16 played, and I think that’s a huge positive for us.

Everybody is getting experience,” said Varsity Baseball head coach Will Gordon. “We just played against two very high caliber teams and I’m pleased with what I’ve seen early on. Now I have a better picture of who we are as a team.” photo by lucy morantz

ABOVE | Before the start of the first Girls Varsity Soccer game vs. Lawrence Free State, senior and captain Emily Cooper leads the team in the ‘Biscuit Basket’ chant.

The Lancers went on to defeat the Firebirds 3-0. “[Coach] Kelly’s really restructuring the team this year from the standpoint that he’s not putting the starting line up for ABOVE | In the first Varsity Softball game of the year the whole year,” Cooper said. “He’s just playing our own against Bishop Miege, freshman Tess Roman pitches in the individual strengths...it’s really good because I don’t think bottom of the second inning. The Lancers beat the Stags any of us are taking it personally because we all really 6-3. photo by ty browning want to go far.” photo by lucy morantz

ALT-COPY

design by caroline chisholm

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FOOL YOUR FRIENDS

PAST P R A N KS TAC KY TA P E

I

t’s fourth hour, you’re sitting in class trying to think of the best April Fools prank before the day is over.

Don’t worry, the Harbinger has you covered! Indulge in the stories of past pranks, from sticky notes on a car to tape in the doorway. Let inspiration strike as you read the wicked stories of your classmates and teachers. Let us help you get in touch with your inner prankster.

by catherine esrey

SENIOR TOM JOYCE SEALED THE PERFECT PRANK for his little brother. “It was April Fools about eight years ago and I just put a bunch of Scotch tape on the doorway between the hallway and the kitchen. I can’t remember what I said to my brother but I said something, and he just came charging down the hallway and ran right into the tape and fell over. It was pretty funny.”

T E AC H E R T RA P

SOPHOMORE TWINS, LUCY AND ZOE HARTMAN, pulled a Parent Trap on their eighth-grade teachers. “We switched classes for April Fool’s day, and we wore the same clothes. We both wore our hair up because my hair was longer than her hair at the time, and I don’t think any of our teachers really noticed.

But like, we went through the day and we actually had a math test that day.

We didn’t take it for each other, we just put our own names on the test and [our math teacher] just thought he mixed them up for some reason. None of our teachers really noticed, but a lot of our friends did, and you could hear everyone laughing about it. We also switched backpacks to look more alike.

ST I C KY S E DA N

SOPHOMORE KENNEDY KAUFFMAN GOT HER MOM INTO A ‘sticky’ situation on April Fools last year. “[My mom] had to go to work the next day, and I thought it would be funny if I covered her car in sticky notes. I bought a giant pack and I wrote ‘April Fools’ on the sticky notes. It probably [took] 2 hours.

She was mad. She actually drove to work with like half of them on and they were just like flying around the car.”

P RA N KS TO P U L L CLASSIC SWITCHEROO

CLASS CAN GET BORING WITH NOTES ON rational exponents and quadratics.

So to liven it up, pull a ~harmless~ prank on your teacher. Every time the teacher turns their back, switch seats with your fellow classmates. Continue until the teacher notices. Get everyone in on it to make it more fun!

CRAIG’S CALLING

FRIEND GETTING ON YOUR NERVES? Maybe mess around with them by placing their number on a Craigslist ad pretending to sell something. Sit back, relax and watch as their phone blows up with random calls about purchasing an item. Make sure they have T-Mobile’s unlimited minutes plan!

K I TC H E N C H AO S

SENIOR DANE ERICKSON CHANNELS MARIE KONDO BY reorganizing his family kitchen – without them knowing. “A couple of years ago I reorganized the entire kitchen. I took out all the pots and pans and plates, spoons, food, utensils, and everything and I put them in a totally different cabinet, Then my parents came down that morning and had no idea where anything was, and they didn’t want to do it all over again cause it takes forever to reorganize.

Then finally like a day later they just said screw it and they reorganized the whole thing again. So that was really funny because they just couldn’t find anything all day. It took me probably like an hour and a half or two hours to do.”

A R U D E AWA K E N I N G

GULLIBLE GINA HALSWORTH WAS TRICKER BY HER DAD consistently on April Fools. “When I was young, I lived out in the country 8 miles [away from school]. We always rode the bus and my dad would wake us up, [and] because he was a farmer, he would wake us up early all the time.” “It was probably four or five o’clock in the morning and this happened multiple years.

He would skip a year so we would forget it. But he would come down and say, ‘The bus is coming.’ You could see the bus when it was at the neighbor’s which gave us about two minutes to get our stuff together. He did that so many times on April Fools Day that I hate April Fools. But he would stand at the top of the stairs and we would get all the way dressed, get all of our stuff get to the stairs and realize it was 5 o’clock in the morning, and he just laughed and laughed.”

NEED MORE IDEAS? Here are some extra pranks that you can do right now at school before the day is over.

HONKING HOAX

ALL YOU NEED TO PULL THIS NEXT ONE off is a pen, paper and scotch tape.

Write and place a ‘honk’ sign on your friend’s car without them knowing and wait for them to get road rage. Make sure the words are big enough to be seen by passing cars.

FO RG I VE MY P H ONE

IF YOUR FRIEND TRUSTS YOU ENOUGH TO BE ALONE with their phone, change the autocorrect in their phone so every time they type ‘no’ it turns to ‘yes’ other phrases that will annoy them work too. Or, even better, change around their contact names and watch them send texts to the wrong people. Who knows, maybe they will accidentally send something to their mom meant for their S/O.