Issue 10

harbinger

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / 7500 mission road prairie village, kansas

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page 2 / news / the harbinger

Fighting for folk Students push to have folk guitar class offered at school by joey soptic

News Briefs Spirit Week Mon Feb. 6 - PJ Day Tues Feb. 7 - College Day Wed Feb. 8 - 50’s Day Thurs Feb. 9 - Mix and NOT match day Fri Feb. 10 - Lancer Day

Rock 4 Hope XI Auditions Rock 4 Hope XI auditions are being held Wed Feb. 15 at SM West.

This is a chance for high school bands to play and raise money for Operation Breakthrough, giving underprivileged kids a jump start to success. The final show will be held Fri April 7.

College Goal Sunday On Feb. 12 from 2-4 p.m., there will be a College Goal Sunday.

Volunteer financial aid professionals will be talking on how to get the money to pay for college. It is coordinated by state financial aid professionals and sponsored by youth-oriented, non-profit organizations and is focused toward any student that is planning on attending college or vocational trade school. For more information, go to www.collegegoal.org.

Categories Win On Mon Jan. 23 the East Categories team had their second win of the season. They won in overtime against BVN and won by one point. Their first win was against S.M. South. Jeff Bryant is the Categories MVP scoring around 10 points each game. This gives the team a chance to get into the playoffs.

This domino effect along with the fact that it would require a bite out of the already under-funded budget of the school district would be the top reasons why Folk Guitar would remain only writing on a page.

“Adding a class really is a big deal,” Baker said. “Everyone would have to have a guitar, and that would cost a lot, then there’s music and everything that goes along with that too.”

Although the addition of a class is a long shot, nothing is impossible.

“There’s a better chance of it becoming a club, then they could have it after school,” Dr. Henry Font said. “For a class, they need a certified teacher, and none of ours are available.

If it were to become a class it would be a singleton, meaning it’s only one hour a day.”

What is Folk Guitar?

A folk guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the Classical guitar, but generally strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound. Much heavier construction is required to withstand the added tension.

photos by katie woods

“Here read this and then sign it,” junior Will Shteamer said, referring to the sheet of paper in his outstretched hand. The paper was a petition for the Bob Dylan and Paul Simon fans at East, for a folk guitar class, which is in the course booklet but not actually offered.

All students who signed up for it were hit with “We don’t offer that here” on enrollment day. “7240 - Folk Guitar,” was crossed from enrollment cards, and replaced with alternate classes.

The petition, in the possession of Will Shteamer, has around 20 signatures on it currently. The signatures are of people who would actually take the class next year given the opportunity, not those who just support it.

“I was looking at the [enrollment] book during class,” Shteamer said. “I saw folk guitar in there and put it down as a class, and some of us started spreading the word [to take the class].”

Folk guitar is not a new thing, it has always been in the enrollment book, and there were always a few to sign up for it, but not until this year did anyone really take much interest in it, or voice an opinion about it becoming a class. Currently Folk Guitar is only offered at Horizons High School.

“I’ve wanted a class like this. Folk music has been a passion of mine for a while now,” Shteamer said. “And a class at East means that we don’t have to pay a bunch of money to take lessons somewhere. I also think it is really important that we create this class because there are lots of guitar players at our school.”

When people hear about it, more will sign up,” Junior Greg Halper said. “It seems like guitar is the only instrument not available in a class right now.”

There are many reasons why it may not be a class, such as not enough people signing up for it, not enough students actually staying in the class or maybe no teachers available with the qualifications to teach it.

“Everything becomes a major domino effect in this situation,” Counselor Don Baker said. “If someone wants a new class, it’s not that easy. We can only offer so many say math classes, so we can’t just add [the class], because it means people aren’t taking some other math class, and someone has to teach that, so someone has to fill that spot, and then it leaves yet another class short-handed, and so on.”

information courtesy of www.dictionary.com

Empty Bowl The art classes of Shawnee Mission are hosting an Empty Bowl event for the community. It will be held at S.M. West on Feb. 13. Tickets cost $15. This includes a bowl of soup, bread, a drink and a handmade bowl of choice. There will be an auction of celebrity bowls that have been donated, and music provided by Shawnee Mission musicians. All of the proceeds from the event are donated to organizations that provide food for people in need at the City Union Mission.

Late Start There will be a late start for students on Feb. 7. The faculty and staff will spend the morning in staff development sessions.

Classes for students will begin at 9:40 a.m.

Little Lancer Band Clinic On Tues Feb. 7 from 5-8:15 p.m. the little lancer band will be the entertainment at the basketball game. Any elementary band musician is welcome to bring their own musical instrument and be directed by Director, Kim Harrison. The cost is $20 per student. This includes pizza dinner, drink, commemorative Little Lancer Band T-shirt and participant admission of the boy’s basketball game against Olathe South.

Carnation Pick Up Any recipients of the Love Fund Valentine’s Day Carnation Sale will be notified on Feb. 10. The carnations can be picked up on Tue Feb. 14.

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / news / page 3

Sweetheart Dance by ronan mcghie

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The date for WPA, women pay all or sweetheart dance, has been changed this year. The dance was originally scheduled for Saturday, February 18th but because of a conflict with boys state swimming, the dance was pushed back to the 25th.

A date change was printed in the newsletter and soon after the administration started receiving calls from band parents.

The KMEA competition is that weekend in Wichita, so the date was moved up to February 11th, a week before the original date.

East was able to switch home basketball home games with Shawnee Mission Northwest, so that sweetheart candidates could be crowned.

The theme of the dance this year is Polar Bear Palace. The dance will be held from 8 to 10:30 PM in the East gym. Cookies and drinks will be served at the dance, which is organized by Student Council members.

Tickets for the dance are on sale now for $10 and will also be on sale at the doors for $15. Students must bring an ID to get into the dance.

Regardless of incidents at MORP, there will be no extra security or supervision at the dance.

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y Prize-Winning Pumpkin

Sweetheart Candidates: Queen:

Stephanie Anderson Katelin Clark Christie Coffman Emily Holst Linda Howard Molly Magoon Paige Peeke Emily Quick Heidi Schmidt Anne Slaughter Kristen Sprouse Emily Wallace

King: Brandon Barnds Jack Chalfant Mike Chalfant Mike Drier John Duvall Peter Fields Brian Humphrey Patrick Kohnle Thomas McIntyre Benjamin Quick Brian Tagg Garrett Webb

by ronan mcghie Hershey’s sign.

He sent in a 5 by 7 picture of his jackJunior Shelby Burford thought the post office website was a strange to find an o-lantern in October. The competition was announcement for a sweepstakes, especially judged in December. When Burford discovered one sponsored by Hershey’s. He figured that he had won the competition he said he was, “ few people would see the competition on the very surprised, but definitely excited”.

After taxes, the reward is $8,000. Burford post office website and he figured he had a has decided to invest half of his winnings for good shot at the $10,000 dollar prize.

He must have had a good, chance because college. He’s not sure what he will do with the he was informed last week that he had been remaining money, but plans to make a trip to New York City this summer. chosen as one of the grand prizewinners.

While Burford says he doesn’t have any The competition was to design a pumpkin using Hershey’s candy, without actually aspirations to go into the pumpkin decorating carving the pumpkin. The purpose of the industry, he does hope to continue the process “getting money easy”. contest was to promote a new Hershey’s candy o f that is meant to be used to decorate pumpkins.

Burford decided not to “Sweeten Up Your Pumpkin” talk the obvious path and design the pumpkin as Judging Criteria a jack-o-lantern but instead use the based on creative use of product candies to portray a chocolate factory. He used twizzlers to based on relevance to Halloween theme portray conveyer belts and minis going through baed on originality different stages of he candy making progress. This scene was complemented with a light-up

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page 4/ news / the harbinger

Stolen Goods, Stolen Trust Students lose confidence in peers after iPods, lunches taken from lockers by christy beeder It was finally fifth hour, and kids spilled into the hall, anxious to get into the cafeteria and eat. Sophomore Erin Aitken had already spent five minutes coming downstairs and was pressed for time. She opened her locker to find her lunch stolen.

Again.

“It happens so much I’ve found a pattern, it’s usually on Mondays and Fridays,” Aitken said. She leaves her locker unlocked to save time, but repeatedly finds her lunch stolen or just rummaged through. Even though it is just a lunch, Aitken explains that she gets frustrated because it means she has to stand in line to buy something to eat.

Security is a problem, and when kids leave things unprotected, they are especially susceptible. Just this year, there have been over 37 stolen items reported to the SRO office, including a Motorola Razor phone, a gym bag full of $400 of soccer gear and about a dozen purses and wallets. Campus officer John Betzer estimates that for every case reported, just as many go unreported. He says that they are happy with the general return rate on stolen goods, and that reporting missing items is the first step in getting them back.

Recently Sophomore Meredith Walrafren brought her Ipod in her backpack to take on the bus for a golf tournament. She left her backpack on the benches during weights class and came back to find the Ipod snatched.

“I wish I hadn’t been so trusting. I think in the locker room your stuff is very vulnerable,” Walrafren said.

“The setting is easy, it’s not like a huge open room.”

Walrafren didn’t file a police report because she was too busy and didn’t really think to do it.

Thinking back she wishes she had.

The locker room is a breeding ground for unlocked valuables, and the gym teachers are aware. Aerobics teacher Shelly King says that all the gym teachers advise their kids to lock their backpacks in their lockers with a padlock.

“Many times students are careless and forget, or just don’t have a padlock,” King said.

The locker rooms can’t be locked in case of emergency, and video surveillance isn’t allowed in because of privacy, so securing valuables is up to the students.

“If everyone did that, then the thieves of the school would find somewhere else to go,” King said.

But in the event that a student finds something stolen what should they do?

According to SRO Officer Steve Taylor, a student should go immediately to either him, or one of the two campus officers. Then students will be asked to fill out a police report, describe the item and when it was last

seen. After that, they have to want prosecution.

The officers will then review video surveillance for any possible leads. There are over 48 cameras in the school, and they often show students entering or leaving the areas where the items were taken.

Recently, after a coat was reported stolen, officers reviewed the tapes and found two girls coming out of the locker rooms, one wearing the stolen coat.

Officer Taylor suggests filing a report because occasionally people will overhear or witness someone stealing something. Many students feel that they can’t report something if it wasn’t locked up.

“Just because students aren’t always security conscious doesn’t mean they aren’t a victim,” Taylor said.

Sophomore Sam Stewart reported a stolen Ipod after he came back to the locker room from weights to find it gone from his backpack.

Within a week, officers had found the Ipod and the kid responsible.

Stewart was a little surprised to get it back so soon.

“I thought it would have been possible, but would probably take longer than a week,” he said.

The student responsible went to court, and Stewart’s family was mailed a form with suggested disciplinary action. Stewart’s parents suggested community service and counseling.

Campus officer John Betzer stresses the consequences of getting caught.

“I think kids need to realize that even though not all cases will be prosecuted, there is always the possibility. I was just at a hearing for an expulsion; it could end your high school career and get you in hot water legally.

While reporting cases greatly increases your chances of getting it back, sometimes it doesn’t always work. Junior Andrew Faerber reported over $300 worth of stolen goods when his Ipod and PS2 were taken from his backpack in the locker room.

He has yet to hear back from the police.

Faerber, Stewart, Walrafren and Officer Taylor all agree that securing items is the best solution, other than leaving them at home.

Sneaky theif: Students who leave items out in the locker room, not Even if it presents a few second delay, locking your locker could mean the difference in padlocked in a locker, often find themselves the victim of a thief, with having a lunch to eat, and an Ipod to listen to. high-priced items stolen such as iPods, jackets and more sentimental “All kids need a bottom line: lock your items. photo illustration by frances lafferty lockers,” King said.

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Don’t forget about Spirit Week! Dress up, listen for the music during passing period and ladies, don’t forget to ask your man to WPA!

Admiring

issue 1 / september 6, 2005

?

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / opinion / page 5

Aniston overAbe

America idolizes celebrities while forgetting about the real heroes an opinion of laura nelson

For me, babysitting 5- and 3-year-old girls doesn’t often provide flashes of insight on society. But it did last Tuesday.

Mimi and Ruby, my charges, had plopped down in front of the TV and stuck “Disney Princess Sing-Along: Enchanted Tea Party” into the VCR. Ten minutes in, Mimi leaned over and whispered into my ear, “Cinderella’s my hero! She’s soooo beeyootiful.”

That startled me a little. As “Some Day, My Prince Will Come” warbled out of the TV, Mimi’s idea of a hero started to make me think. Maybe she’s only a little girl who likes pretty things. But Cinderella and Snow White are just juvenile versions of celebrities. As Mimi grows older, Cinderella will turn into Hilary Duff, who will turn into Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears – and she shouldn’t consider them heroes at all.

The kids I babysit, the students at

East and people around the country have become far too blinded by white teeth, too star-struck with Brangelina and too mortified with Kate Moss’s cocaine abuse.

Celebrities dazzle us to the point where we can’t recognize society’s true heroes. Heroes shouldn’t be the stars who give $3 million to a worthy cause to improve their images without noticing the dent. Heroes should be those who sacrifice for the greater good, work hard to achieve a goal, have conviction for a belief and are selfless for others.

Even though celebrities’ lives are snarls of scandal, we’re still instinctively drawn to them. Who knows why? Maybe for their money, their surreal beauty, their glamorous relationships or even the feeling that they aren’t from the same race as suburban high school kids. Their lives are a welcome release from our humdrum existence.

But as Presidents’ Day approaches, we should begin considering why we idolize celebrities and start to give the true heroes in the shadows the appreciation they deserve.

Lancer Voice

Who emancipated the slaves and who was married to America’s beloved Brad Pitt?

Michael Jordan is often called the greatest basketball player in the history of the game.

He’s a hero to five-year-old boys from California to Maine. But his basketball skills, the skills like his signature dunk from the free-throw line, do not make him a hero They make him an athlete.

Jennifer Aniston is striking, vivacious and a former star of “Friends”. She’s married to Brad Pitt–The Brad Pitt. In 2002, she won an Emmy and received five consecutive nominations. But her awards and boyfriends do not make her a hero.

They make her a celebrity.

True heroes don’t have to be famous. We should appreciate heroes like Rick and Patty Spady, whose daughter died from alcohol poisoning, and who have now devoted their lives to teaching the dangers of high-risk alcohol consumption and poisoning. True heroes are Todd Beamer and the passengers of Flight 93 – a plane bound for Washington DC. on Sept. 11 – who fought against four plane hijackers, saving thousands of lives at the cost of their own. These actions served a greater purpose - greater than slam dunks or Emmy awards. These actions helped

humanity, saved lives and demonstrated incredible courage.

We should honor people like Martin Luther King Jr., who stood up against Jim Crow laws, racism and prejudice to achieve equality for blacks, eventually being martyred for his cause. His hero, Mahatma Gandhi, spoke of loving your enemies and protesting peacefully against things you believe are wrong. We should honor Mother Teresa, who devoted her life to helping the sick, poor and desolate in the slums of Calcutta.

Heroics don’t have to involve death, though some of the greatest heroes have died for their causes. Heroics can simply be standing up for something you believe in.

It’s time to become aware of who we’re following, who we’re reading about and who we’re imitating. While people I know continue to tear apart People, US Weekly, Star and the Weekly World News to find news about celebrities, I’ll be trying to appreciate real heroes–the people who really matter–and I hope I won’t be the only one.

In the State of Union Address, which issue did President Bush address that was most important to you?

Background Information: On Jan. 31 President Bush gave his State of the Union Address. In his hour-long speech he discussed America’s dependence on oil, hopes for Iraq, the spread of democracy and terrorist threats.

Xuan Qin - 9

I think when he addressed the need to stop our dependence on oil fields and increase research on new energy sources was the most important.

Michael Lebovitz - 10

To me it was interesting that he said all he did about healthcare because recently he cut off healthcare to 30 million children, so it sounds kind of hyprocritical to me.

JJ James - 11

The 75 percent cut in imports of oil from the Middle East. I am suprised Bush is starting to realize the severity of the situation.

Wes Ellwood - 12

The most important thing to me was his discussion on future military action. He didn’t come out and say anything directly, but you can tell he has future targets.

page 6 / opinion / the harbinger

Made to Degrade Teen magazines chip away at readers’ self-esteems an opinion of meg shackelford

About a month ago I came across the December issue of Seventeen magazine with the huge picture of Nicole Richie on the cover. Reading over the headlines of what was inside, I didn’t stop to think about what they meant…

“500+ Ways to be Glamorous!”

“Best Outfits for YOUR body!”

“Make Over Your Image!”

“Flirting Moves that Guys Love!”

“Hot Celeb Hair Trends!” …those are just a few. If you really look closely at those teasers above, you’ll find they each have hidden meaning.

“500 and more ways to be glamorous,” suggesting that we girls (…or guys) aren’t already glamorous enough already. Some readers might see that and feel inadequate, as though they’ll never be able to live up to the standards of those models. They may feel like they’re just a ‘plain Jane,’ they would never stand out of any crowd. What they may not know is that the majority of all those gorgeous models with their completely blemish-free faces are being airbrushed and/or photo shopped. This means not only that the models are fake, but you’re being led to believe that you’re being compared to a fake person.

The “best outfits for your body” article, I take that as even more of an insult, like I’m being pressured to hide what the magazine classifies as bad. They’re basically showing all their readers that their bodies aren’t fit or shaped enough already to wear clothes that they may prefer. The writers don’t know what size may fit best anyway, it’s not like they can just whip out measuring tape and say, “Hey! You’re a size 4!” They’re telling us that we aren’t good enough, hence the “make over your image” at the top of the issue in bold.

Without reading the “flirting moves that guys love” article it’s evident that we couldn’t just get a guy to notice us when we’re being ourselves, or if we were using our own flirting tactics.

And the “hot celeb hair trends” article is extremely beneficial, because after all, everyone knows that the celebrities have better hair than us.

Then finally I came across a letter from the editor of Seventeen, Atoosa, and this is what she said: “It may sound corny but it is an honor and privilege to be a part of your life. That may sound like a fake magazine, but it’s honest. Why? You’re going to change the world- you’re

already doing it! So know that we’re in your corner, ready to move mountains. After all, we’re in this life together. You know where I am if you need me 24/7!”

That was deep. ‘It’s an honor and privilege to be a part of your life.’ So basically, the editor is saying that it’s an honor and privilege to tell us that we aren’t glamorous, and that we have to wear a certain kind of shirt to make our body look good? Changing who I am based on something a magazine says is going to help me “move mountains” and change the world altogether? Cool! After all, Atoosa the editor is here for us 24/7. We can go to her with all of our woes and worries since she is a top-notch editor of one of the most popular teen magazines in America. She’ll kiss it and make it better.

Contrary to the people that fit the Hollywood stereotype, that you have to be stick thin to be successful, there are some that don’t follow it. People such as Oprah Winfrey or Kirstie Alley. These women don’t have to follow the “best outfits for your body” article because they just wear what they want, despite not being the slimmest to walk the red carpet… Kirstie Alley had her TV show called Fat Actress, even. None of these expectations of having the best hair trend stops them from being successful either. They accept the way they are, and that just makes them so much cooler. If only we were more drawn to the character of Oprah or Kirstie Alley who have “moved mountains” in their success, like Atoosa said. Instead, we’re being directed to look like celebrities such as Kate Moss who had a drug addiction, and whose Burberry ads were taken off the side of buildings in London because of it. Lindsay Lohan is another example, only she confessed in a recent Vanity Fair magazine that she was bulimic and had abused drugs. Ask yourself whom you’d rather be compared to.

Some may argue that those articles were issued with all good intentions because they could just be trying to help girls who really want help… and maybe need it. And I’m for sure not encouraging you to stop reading these magazines because even I have subscriptions to a lot of them, but sometimes I find myself going, “How could I possibly benefit from this article? Is this honestly helping me become more confident in my own skin?”

Obviously the magazine and its writers are at fault for making me or anyone else think this way at all and there’s really no solution to it. Just decide for yourself what you think you’re reading. The articles are clearly saying that there’s always something better than what you have, and that you’re not good enough. Everyone has enough pressure in their lives as it is, whether it is school, sports, family issues… is it necessary to be told that your new sweater isn’t as good as the new Ralph Lauren cashmere?

Who are you?

One student struggles to find her true self with so many outside influences

While babysitting for my cousins two weeks ago, I watched Disney Channel’s newest movie “High School Musical,” about a guy named Troy who plays basketball, decides he wants to sing in the musical, but then gets embarrassed and almost doesn’t audition, letting go of his dream so that he’ll look good to his team.

Don’t we all do this? Just like Troy, we act one way around our teammates, another way around our closest friends, yet another way around people that we only talk to in the halls and even more differently around our parents.

Though (extremely) cheesy, I wondered if perhaps this Disney Channel-lame-must-have-a-moral movie didn’t have something valid to say.

Troy showed one face and personality to his basketball teammates; he showed a completely different one to the people in the Drama club.

When one person can portray themselves in so many different ways, it almost feels like lying. Which one of these ‘acts’ is the real one? Is Troy a basketball player who scorns drama or a thespian who just wants to be up on stage?

I come across this dilemma sometimes in my own life. Around some people, I’m shy and quiet as a mouse. Around others, I’m the loudest one in the room. So who am I? Quiet or loud? Shy or outgoing?

Much of how you portray yourself comes from comfort: who you feel comfortable being around. The more comfortable you are, the less of an ‘act’ your personality is. While I talk infrequently at school, where I am less comfortable, I never stop talking when I’m with my friends or with my family. The true personality is the one that comes through when you are most comfortable.

Troy hid his true self from his teammates because he didn’t feel comfortable to share that he had a dream of being in the musical.

Instead of hiding, open up to people. Tell your parents something new that you wouldn’t normally tell them. Share your interests, no matter how much they shame you. Smile at a stranger, confide in a friend. Let go of the masks that you cling to and let everyone see you for who you really are.

art by sara mcelhaney

an opinion of libby nachman

K-Life

issue 6 / february 6, 2006 / opinion / page 7

local youth ministry positively influences teens encouraging them to discover their faith an opinion of ruth stark

When I first heard about KLife, I thought it couldn’t possibly be something I would be interested in. Sure, church had always been a part of my life, andI tried to say my prayers before I fell asleep at night, but me, go to K-Life? Forget it. I wasn’t that devout. When people mentioned K-Life, I pictured them going into some dark church, kneeling in prayer for two hours, long hymns being sung loudly and people spending hours memorizing books and scriptures.

Well, I was wrong.

The first time I went to K-Life on a Tuesday night in September, I was greeted with about 15 bear hugs, seven of which were from people I had met maybe once in my life. There were high school students all around me, some playing foosball, basketball, or ping-pong and clusters of girls just chatting about the weekend or what homework they had to do when they got home. There was nothing stressful about this place.

K-Life has not only become a part of my life, but also something I look forward to and appreciate. It’s not all about memorizing scriptures or knowing that Matthew comes before Mark, Luke and John. It’s about becoming more familiar with Christianity and making friends that share this interest.

K-Life is a way to bring out the best in myself. It has

challenged me to think about my priorities, the kind of person I am, and how I chose to live my life on a daily basis. It’s about trying your best to live through the word of the Lord At the meeting: K-life leaders sing songs with teenagers on tuesday January and do the right thing. I’ve 30. photo by katie woods learned that sometimes you Algebra 2 equations will temporarily stop spinning in my have to forgive people who might not really deserve it, you head. The songs are great and so are the people. I realized have to look past someone’s mistakes because what good recently that I always leave the K-Life house with something does it do to dwell on wrong doing? Even simple gestures to think about. Nobody cares if you’re a bad singer—they like smiling at someone in passing or listening to what they just want you to join in. have to say can make a difference, and if you need a little I realize that some people out there may not share reassurance or help to get through a tough time. There is my opinion that K-Life is a positive group, but to always someone there who has got your back. call it a “Christian cult” is slightly extreme. I am not K-Life is a ministry for today’s youth to focus on their trying to preach about what you should do with your relationship with the Lord and help them with anything relationship with God. Recently, K-Life’s popularity they need some guidance with in their lives. This is has risen in the East community and my belief is that achieved through weekly meetings, small groups, and a ton people should learn for themselves what its all about. of fun events and activities. Small groups are when a few Let’s be honest, I am not the person at K-Life who teenagers meet with one leader. These groups help you form knows all the books of the Old and New Testament or has strong bonds with he people in them, as well as look a little memorized every song. I go because I believe that K-Life deeper into your relationship with the Lord. This is the place is a good way to get involved with Christianity, whatever where you can get your questions answered. denomination it may be. I think K-Life is a great thing for I know when I head to K-Life I can count on Phil to make high school students to try, even if its just once. me laugh with one of his funny skits and Bret to challenge my thinking with a meaningful lesson. When I am there,

Double for nothing Double

Sometimes a cleaner record does not mean a better life an opinion of hallie mccormick

Two things were going through my mind when I saw the flashing lights in my rear-view mirror. One: turn my music off. Two: start crying.

Maybe if the officer saw a glistening tear on my cheek he would take pity on this poor girl who was only speeding to make curfew.

But I couldn’t cry. I was numb. I didn’t seem to care that I was dealing with the law, or that my insurance would sky rocket or even that my parents would ground me from the car. Nothing could bring on enough emotion to produce a few tears, until he handed me a thick brown piece of paper with the sum $125 circled in blue ink.

The tears began to flow.

I knew there was no way out now, and would have to pay for my first speeding ticket.

The idea has been forced into all of us since elementary school that we have to take responsibility for our actions. I thought it would apply to paying for speeding tickets as well.

I was wrong.

When I arrived at school the following Monday, $125 poorer, I was confronted with the same question throughout the day: “Are you going to pay double?”

At first I didn’t understand their question. Pay double? Can you actually pay your way out of having a ticket on your record?

I found out (a few days too late) that the rumors were true. I actually could double my ticket and it would be like the whole horrible instance never even happened.

The idea seemed ingenious at first, like the incredible urban myth of speeding tickets.

But the more I thought, the more it seemed like we were coming back to medieval times

when the high class could pay off their sins so they are secured a place in heaven.

Having people be able to pay their way out of a ticket on their record sends one message: that money is power. Those with it get to have special privileges, and those without, don’t.

Instead of sending a check in the mail like a good citizen that accepts consequences would, you can go to court, plea to a judge, pay your ticket twice, and have your conscience and your record cleared. Simple.

Only what’s next?

“Well, I didn’t really mean to kill him, he just fell into my machete” “Ok, your clear, pay $500 dollars at the door and it’s like you never murdered anyone” By allowing people to get a clear record when they speed increases the possibility that they will do it again. More speeders on the road equals more crashes, more crashes—more deaths.

With this seemingly harmless act of paying your way to a blank record, in the long run, we’re creating bigger problems: the mentality of just throwing some money at a problem and it will go away. This teaches irresponsible people like myself (who speed only to satisfy their own needs) to keep right on doing it.

When I hadn’t completed my addition worksheet in first grade my teacher told me that I needed to accept the punishment for my mistakes. In this case I had to miss my recess.

Now, 10 years wiser, I am being taught the opposite: that there’s a loophole—wealth.

Mrs. McLaughlin seems to have been wrong that people need to accept responsibly for their mistakes; now if you have enough money, you can go under the radar.

page 8 / editorial / the harbinger

Students who posting private information online must be ready to

Face

the

Consequences “I monitor [them] every once in a while, It’s really pretty scary how much you can learn about someone by examining his Facebook. Just about any just to keep track of what is going on.”

Taylor said.

“It offers some good info.” computer-literate individual—parent, administrator, pedophile; use your imagination—can, with the According to Taylor, officers use online investigation not just to catch wind of parties, click of a few buttons on a momentarily abandoned but also to keep track of students on probation. computer in the library, unearth some incriminating He also warns that students and potentially dangerous secrets. posting photos depicting any type For instance, the average high of sexual content—explicit or school student’s Facebook gives away details of who they hang out with, implicit, no nudity required—of For the safety and privacy of minors can be in violation of what exactly they look like, and where both ourselves and others, we felony child pornography laws. they are at any given point in the day; need to be more careful about Privacy settings on Facebook not to mention what kind of beer what we post on Facebook can be utilized to minimize the they drank at last Saturday’s party. and other online journals. number of people that can view Regardless of this glaring your pictures and profile, but they vulnerability, students continue are by no means impenetrable. It’s to post personal information and just a matter of getting a few people incriminating photographs—both of to send you friend invitations, themselves and others—online as and the doors swing wide open. nonchalantly as if they were pasting What it all comes down to is them into a personal scrapbook that our current use of Facebook to be kept under lock and key. is irresponsible.

Our blatant This is not only irresponsible but disregard for our safety and also dangerous. Just imagine how 0 absent privacy of others and ourselves helpful an intricate visual web of social makes it easier for both criminals connections and acquaintances would and authorities to put us at risk. be to a stalker or sexual predator.

Facebook is a great, fun tool for keeping up How about a less dramatic but far more relatable with a variety of friends and meeting new people. example: a coach using Facebook as a tool to keep There’s no doubt it can be used responsibly. All track of their players’ weekend party exploits.

Administrators and coaches aren’t we need to do is remember one rule: if there are any people you don’t want to read or look at the only ones monitoring the web, either. what you are posting, don’t post it.

Student resource officer Detective Steve Taylor is familiar with a variety of online personal sites such as Xanga and Facebook.

the issue

verdict

9 2

editorial cartoon

the harbinger a publication of shawnee mission east high school 7500 mission road, prarie village, kansas 66208 january 23rd, 2006 issue 9, volume 52 editor-in-chief annie fuhrman asst. editors amanda allison evan favreau art & design editor ian mcfarland head copy editor bryan dykman news editor sara steinwart news page editor melissa lem opinion page editors thomas braslavsky clare jordan editorial editor foster tidwell features editor ellie weed features page editors katie jones christy beeder center spread editor laura nelson center spread asst. editor michelle sprehe mixed editor libby nachman a&e editor derek martin

page editors ally heisdorffer rachel mayfield photo editor linda howard assistant photo editor samantha ludington ads / buisness managers kristen crawford kevin grunwald vanessa legat circulation manager davin phillips copy editors amanda allison bryan dykman evan favreau annie fuhrman hallie mccormick laura nelson staff writers paige cornwall joe demarco clark goble tom grotewohl ronan mcghie stephen nichols meg shackleford adrienne wood photographers karen boomer katie james frances lafferty kelsey stabenow katie woods adviser dow tate

a&e page editors joey soptic ruth stark sports editor peter goehausen

by ren li

sports page editors jayne shelton ben whitsitt

Letters to the editor should be sent to room 521 or smeharbinger@gmail.com. Letters may be edited for clarity, length, libel and mechanics and accepted or rejected at the editor’s discretion.

The Harbinger is a student run publication. The contents and views are produced solely by the staff and do not represent the shawnee mission east or smsd faculty, or administration.

On d r a Bo

On the slopes: Junior Rachel Sixta enjoys snowboarding at Winter Park with her brother, Freshman Pat Sixta. She has been snowboarding since the fourth grade and she hasn’t looked back. photo courtesy of rachel sixta

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / features / page 9

Snowboarding has become a popular alternative to skiing for boys and girls by vanessa legat

On a Saturday morning at 10 a.m. junior Rachel Sixta, her two younger brothers, her friends Lily Carpenter and Nick Boehm pile into a gray Jetta. Among goggles, gloves, boots and warm coats they have what is most important: their snowboards. The car only stops once, at McDonald’s for breakfast, before they approach their real goal, Snow Creek in Weston Missouri, a fake snow resort.

Sixta has seen snowboarding getting more and more popular since she started boarding in the fourth grade.

Once forced to baord on separate slopes from skiers, today the number of snowboarders continues to grow.

According to the National Sporting Goods Association, the number of boarders has grown since 1988, while the number of skiers is decreasing. Especially now during the winter with the third appearance of snowboarding in the Oympics coming up, this winter sport is getting more important.

At Dick’s Sporting Goods in Merriam, employee Christine Barrera says that this season the store has sold more smowboard equipment than ski, especialy to teenagers and younger people.

Sixta and her friends try to snowboard whenever it is possible. Snow Creek, only 45 minutes from the Johnson county area, becomes their first choice for weekend trips. They don’t mind that there are no powder sno conditions, like in Colorado.

Junior Erik Barrow, one of Sixta’s friends, broke his arm while snowboarding, but even that can’t keep him off his board. His cast is black, just like his Burton 7 board, with which he fell.

“When the winter comes around, I kind of get

in a snowboard mood,” Barrow said about his passion.

“Snowboarding is definitely a feeling of freedom.”

For Sixta it is the great feeling of finally accomplishing soething that she has worked for that drives her. “[It is the] board and you,” she thinks that is all there is if it comes down to it. “It is the greatest feeling int he world.”

Sixta says those trips brought her closer to her brothers and her friends. Encouraging and helping each other and just having fun with snowboarding, that is what it is about for her.

Everyone is in a good mood, probably because of the adreniline rush they get from boarding, Sixta explains. this contributes to the relaxed atmosphere.

This loose attitude, the “I-don’t-care” rebel mentality, the speed on the slopes, and disregard for skiers seems to be the prejudiced image of most boarders. Their stereotype boarder in mind: crazy, tough and probably a teenage boy.

Still girls who snowboard are commonly seen as “tough board girls,” sixta refuses to be seen that way.

“My first time on a snowboard, people told me I couldn’t be a ballerina,” the Lancer dancer Sixta said. “That is so funny because I am a ballerina.”

Her snowbaord is white with a girly pink, green and yellow design.

She thinks girls should try out snowboarding. She thinks it is fun for boys or girls and Barrow agrees.

“It’s more fun, I would encourage everybody to try it.”

Sixta has never had the desire to try out skiing, however.

Barrow, who has skiied before, thinks that snowboarding is a “more fun feeling.” Has he ever skiied since?

“Never,” he said.

photo by frances lafferty

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page 10 / features / the harbinger

putting on the uniform Inside the ROTC & JROTC The students stand in formation in the halls of Shawnee Mission West, their arms bent at ease and their backs arched, trying to look as tall as they possibly can.

Seniors check the perfectly still rows of three.

White undershirt, check.

Hair not touching the collar, check.

No jewelry, check.

If they are out of uniform in any way, a senior marks them down by writing a note on the official inspection sheet on a clipboard.

One person gets marked down for his collar being folded the wrong way; another gets marked down for an inappropriate piercing. A West student walks by, but no one looks at her, instead they stare straight forward.

This is standard procedure for a Friday class, because for them, personal inspection is a crisp way to start the weekend.

The Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program is a two-period class that meets every school day at Shawnee Mission West for West, East and South students. Held at schools nationwide, it has been at West for 38 years and is for students who have in interest in the armed forces.

But it is not just a military class.

“It is a class that teaches American citizenship and military history; we do talk about possibly making it a career,” teacher Lieutenant Commander Sheldon Vasquez said. “But it definitely isn’t a means of recruiting people.”

The class will always begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call, where every student says “Here ma’am…Here sir,” after his or her name is called.

The rest of the class might working on memorizing the procedure, watch a movie about military science or practice marching.

L.T. Comdr Vasquez, who was in the Navy for 20 years before becoming a teacher, likes to stress that regardless of what career the students choose, the program can still be beneficial.

What are the benefits of ROTC?

What are the benefits of the ROTC program? information from www.collegeboard.com

By being a part of the ROTC program, a student is training to later be a part of a military service.

“Of all Americans fired from their job, 80 percent of them are fired because they couldn’t get along with their co-workers,” L.T. CDR Vasquez said. “The program teaches you to get along with others.

And even if [students] don’t choose a military career, they can still have fun.”

But according to the JROTC students, non-members often do not know about the non-military aspect of the class. JROTC students are shoved in the halls, stared at and labeled with derogatory terms.

Freshman Jewel Rousos joined the JROTC program because her aunt had done it in high school and had heard great things about it from her. Rousos enjoys the program, but does not plan on having a military career.

Rousos has come to expect namecalling and shoves come Friday.

“In the hallway, people knock into me and try to make it look like an accident,” Rousos said. “ They are just disrespectful; they stare at me and call me names.”

But these incidents don’t seem to affect Jewel’s perspective on the program.

“I know that the kids don’t know what the class is really like,” she said. “They are just ignorant so I try to ignore it.”

For junior Richard Hansen and freshman Frankie Pardo, the JROTC program serves as extra motivation in pursuing a military career. They both hope to join the Air Force after college.

“When I was a sophomore people would ask me why I was wearing the uniform and sometimes stare, but now it’s just my friends joking around with me,” Hansen said.

Being in the program hasn’t seemed to affect him socially, either.

“Obviously it [being in JROTC] is not a means of being cool; you have to do it for yourself,” Hansen said. “My friends don’t really care one way or another and it can be good because JROTC connects you to others who have the same interests as you.”

For Pardo, however, hearing people calling him ‘ROTC Nazi’ and telling him he is stupid for joining is a frequent occurrence.

“I think they do this because they

Normally, a person serves to earn their tuition aid, but in the case of the ROTC, they can graduate from college first. While in school, these students are required to take ROTC coursework for credit, and after schooling is finished, one must complete a specific time serving.

don’t know what the program is really like,” Pardo said. “I mean, it is just a class for naval science, but they might think that it is a class where they recruit people to do violence and all that.”

L.T. CDR. Vasquez knows that these incidents are inevitable, so he usually dedicates the first week to teaching the freshman ways to cope with these incidents.

“I tell them that if someone makes fun of you, it does not entitle you to argue with that person. That person is being ignorant, and that’s not a reason to fight,” Vasquez said. “People all the way back to the Vietnam War have been rude to those in uniform, so I think that one way to help soften the problem of ridicule is to not lash out. And the students know that they can come to me if they ever have a problem.”

South seniors Kyle Weese and Steve Nancarrow have faced positive and negative feedback when going out in their uniform. Weese, who doesn’t plan on pursuing a military career, has found that adults respect him for the most part, but students will sometimes stare or call him names.

“Yeah, people will call me “ROTC Nazi” and that’s annoying because I see the military as a back-drop, not the actual organization itself,” Weese said. “But I’ve been places where adults will come up and thank me.”

Nancarrow plans on joining the Army after college. His father lost a leg in Vietnam, his mother was an Army brat.

He sums up the entire program with this: “We’re like the hard-core Boy Scouts.”

STANDING TALL: Junior Richard Hansen in his JROTC uniform.

ROTC offers scholarships in three different branches- Army, Navy, and Air Force. While the requirements are different for each branch, the benefits are all alike: an ROTC student can go to college first (with aid from their designated program), and then serve.

In order to be eligible for a scholarship, an ROTC student must have a high school diploma, beween the ages of 17 and 26, have a high school GPA of 2.5 or higher, agree to serve after college, and must be a U.S. citizen.

photo taken by Samantha Ludington

by paige cornwell

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / features / page 11

Teaching in America Paraguay native experiences East’s educational techniques by adrienne wood Maria Susillo, an English teacher from Paraguay, wanted nothing more than to spend her summer vacation in school.

After waiting to visit America her whole life, Susillo is spending a month of her summer vacation—which takes place during our winter—with Spanish teacher Judy Henry through the Pearl White Kansas Committee. She is visiting East classrooms to learn more about American schools.

“I love American culture and have always wanted to experience it,” Susillo said.

Susillo came to East in the hopes of learning how American schools and the educational system work. After two weeks, she has picked up teaching tricks to keep kids engaged.

“I see a lot of methodologies and routines that teachers establish,” she said. “For example, in one class after presentations the kids snapped their fingers instead of clapping. I thought that was funny.”

Henry enjoys watching Susillo experience America, and loves to listen to her enthusiastic stories.

“Maria comes home every day with pictures she’s taken and is bubbly with excitement about what she’s seen,” Henry said. “She’s been preparing her whole life for this—studying American culture and reading English books.”

Even with the years of planning for her trip, little

things like classroom luxuries excite Susillo.

“I really like that every classroom has overhead projectors,” Susillo said. “In Paraguay we have chalk boards, and we don’t have TVs, radios, or computers. I think for a language class technology is necessary. That is my concern for my school back home—it is very important that kids look and listen, and technology would allow us to do that.”

Beyond the smaller classrooms, religious schools, and block schedules that dominate the South American school systems, the biggest difference in America for Susillo is the freedom to choose courses.

“Schools in Paraguay require all kids to take the same 13 classes,” Susillo said. “So students who aren’t good at art have to take art classes, and they feel pressure to do well. Also, many schools require religion classes and church sessions.”

Susillo believes our liberty to pick electives inspires more interest in the subject matter.

“It really grabbed my attention when the kids in elective classes were eager to learn,” Susillo said. “Here they ask questions, when teenagers usually don’t like to speak and aren’t focused. In all of the classes I’ve visited, the kids were interested and thinking about what they were doing.”

After Susillo returns home Feb. 20 with new ideas to keep her students involved and interested, and after she recovers from jetlag and culture shock, she will begin looking forward to her next trip to America.

“I’m taking so much away from this,” she said. “I’m getting new teaching ideas, learning about America, and enjoying a vacation. I can’t wait to come back.” photo by kelsey stabenow

page 12 / spread / the harbinger

setting aside

stereotypes Enrolling in stereotyped lessons helps form diverse classroom experience for two students.

Eddie Williams takes fashion at Broadmoor by cay fogel

Senior Eddie Williams is a fidgety boy with a wide smile who talks about evening gowns and Valentino the way a kid might describe his first Halloween costume; intricate details, excitement, anticipation. “[Fashion] is like any other great art; it can express something that words can’t.”

Williams is the only boy in a fashion design class offered at Broadmoor, a course where students can go to sketch clothing, design patterns, learn the dynamics of fabric and even see their clothing on models. Eddie has broken the gender barrier quietly and with complete confidence.

“Everybody loves Eddie,” senior Jessie Ashley said. “He fits right in with us.”

Not only this, but Williams has also gained the respect and admiration of his class. With his ambitions and talents putting him in a New York school for fashion next year, his talent is apparent to his classmates. Ashley reports that he is one of only four of the students in the class who create their own designs instead of working off a pattern.

“He’s an amazing designer,” senior Molly Simons said, another student in Williams’ class.

Williams has been interested in fashion since long before he began the Broadmoor class at the beginning of this year. He’d always sketched things, enrolled in different art classes, experimented with different mediums, but his realization that he wanted to do fashion came when he was in his freshman year.

He was sitting at home, watching TV, and came across a Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

He was impressed with the aesthetics of both the women and the clothes, but instead of being intimidated by that kind of design talent, Williams thought, I could do that.

“I could get paid millions of dollars to make hot women look even hotter,” Williams said.

His first day at Broadmoor, Williams was relieved to find that he was in a class full of like-minded people. Where some of his guy friends had given him flack about being in an all-girls class, everyone in the course embraced him and supported him

immediately. It was a room full of artists of the same medium.

“That first day I was worried,” Williams said. “I thought, ‘I’m the only guy in the class; everyone will think I’m gay,’ but they were actually great. All the girls thought, ‘This is so cool, more guys should take this class!’

They’ve become my very close friends.”

Being in an all-girls fashion class has nothing to do with shocking people, changing anything, or breaking boundaries. He’s sure enough of himself that it doesn’t have to be.

“It’s no big deal,” Williams said. “No one has ever acted like it was.”

Awkward moments and uncertainty were barely existent and easily conquered. While Williams promises that everyone in the class is a serious designer and loves what they do, the atmosphere has the easy-going goofiness and friendly simplicity of a senior art class, where everyone has input regarding each other’s work and trying new things is inbuilt.

Environments like this facilitate the overcoming of stereotypes, and by setting aside stereotypes, Williams has found a place where he doesn’t have to worry about them.

Top: Sophomore Elizabeth “Roscoe’ Abbey to make indpendent projects without consta project at Broadmoor Technical Center. Will katie james.

y drills a section of her birdhouse. In woodshop, students are allowed ant teacher supervision. Bottom: Senior Eddie Williams works on a liams attends Broadmoor daily to study fashion design. photos by

IX

TITLE

policy

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / spread / page 13 The law requires institutions to practice policies that don’t discriminate against anyone based on sex.

• The total amount of athletic scholarships must be substantially proportionate to the ratio of female and male athletes.

• It is a school’s choice to cut men’s programs in an effort to comply with the law or to meet budget constraints.

• Title IX applies to all elementary, secondary schools, colleges and universities.

information courtesy of www.american.edu

Liz Abbey

One girl in woodshop

by stephen nichols

Elizabeth ‘Rosco’ Abbey can show you how to use a lathe. Unlike many girls her age, she knows the difference between a jointer and a planer. Diligently, she’ll use these tools to work on every aspect, every painstaking detail, of her birdhouse until it is perfected.

On the first day of woodshop he was unfazed by the fact that she was one of the two girls in the entire class.

“It wasn’t really that intimidating. I’ve been a tomboy all my life and I tend to get along with guys better,” said Abbey.

As a self-proclaimed tomboy, Abbey has always had a different sense of fashion and attitude then other girls.

“I don’t dress to please anybody but myself.” Though her jeans are baggy and her shirts tend to be a variety of black she wears whatever feels comfortable.

During her freshman year she desperately wanted to play football, but to her disappointment, her father was concerned about injuries and said no. For some girls, not getting their way results a flood of tears or a cold shoulder, for Rosco, it meant shaving her head, an action that she knew would annoy her father.

With an architectural career in mind and a need to express herself with hands-on activities, Abbey decided to take a class that few girls have ever considered taking.

“I think, honestly, that very few girls are interested in making things by hand. There’s also the intimidation factor,” said Abbey’s teacher, Allan Rosenbaum.

With guys outnumbers girls almost twelve to one in Rosco’s class she sees why many girls are intimidated by the high testosterone level in the room, but Rosco is very independent and works intensely on her project.

workforce

STATS

46% workers 87% ofareconstruction male of the U.S. workforce is female

$1,432 800

is the highest weekly salary a female can earn (in pharmaceuticals) is the score on SAT math tests that more males than females are likely to achieve. But they’re also more likely to fail.

information courtesy of gendercenter.org

“She’s different." Rosenbaum said. "She is more outgoing, confident, and independent. The kids with little self-confidence need me looking over their shoulder… she rarely needs extended periods of assistance.”

Among the sawdust and half-finished stools, Abbey works on a project that has kept her occupied all year, the birdhouse. The birdhouse is crafted out of reddish brown ceder and smooth on each of the six sides. It is near perfection and she should be done by now but she frequently stops her own work to help the boys get their project right.

For this, Abbey has found her spot among the boys.

"It is a stereotypical guy thing and it is difficult working with power tools. It just depends on the girl."

To fellow classmate, Senior Kevin Reene, he was a little surprised to see two girls in woodshop but he quickly found out that Rosco was no slacker.

“I’ve never looked down on her for being a girl. She does more work than most of the boys,” he said.

However, he saw just how far Rosco would go to help others.

“The night of Homecoming it was raining really hard and my date didn’t have a jacket and I had left mine in the car,” Reene said. “She [Rosco] gave her jacket to my date and I only barely knew her from woodshop.”

Although so few girls enroll in wood shop, teacher Chuck Sulzen, another woodshop teacher, believes that it can be a very beneficial class for them to take.

“They need to be taking it,” Sulzen said, “especially to learn how to fix the little things.”

As for Abbey, she’s already enrolled for Wood 2 next year, but she has to finish the birdhouse first.

use your

head

Human male brains are, on average, approximately ten percent largerthan female brains

According to studies, men use only one side of their brain to listen while women use both sides.

Typically, men are more rightbrained and women are more leftbrained.

On average the female brain performs better on some skills, while the male brain executes other tasks at a higher level.

information courtesy of www.about.com

page 14 / features / the harbinger

E

by clark goble

nrollment has come and passed, and students received their current class rank and GPA. As sophomore Michael Dodd bragged to his friends about his higher GPA, they demanded to see his classes. They noted he had been taking Discrete Math Honors, a semester-long math course, and told him that Discrete was a joke of a class and an easy A. When sophomore Zach Barnhill told his friends about his lower-thanexpected GPA, they mocked him. Told him their ranks and how they were so much higher than his. When they checked his transcript, they realized the problem. Barnhill had Chemistry I, a non-honors course, and by not getting an A first semester, the grade in the class dropped his GPA considerably.

Both these examples show students’ lack of clarity on what makes an honors course, such as Discrete Math, or a non-honors course, such as Chemistry, what they are.

Extra credit?

Honors C

ourse

Discrete Math Honors

Chemistry I Sophomore Zach Barnhill reluctantly filled out his enrollment card last year with the fourth hour slot reading “Chemistry I.” “I’d heard about how hard the class was from other kids,” Barnhill said. “I knew I wasn’t ready for Physics, so Chemistry was my only choice for science.”

Only being a sophomore, Barnhill was already ahead of the regular track for students in his class. He took Biology 1 Honors as a freshman, therefore bypassing Physical Science. Even after taking an honors science class the year before, he was worried about what Chemistry, a non-honors course, would dish out.

“I don’t really understand why it isn’t honors,” Barnhill said. “It just makes sense for there to be a Chemistry and a Chemistry Honors.”

There is a reasonable explanation for the lack of an honors division. Science department chair and Chemistry teacher Cole Ogdon says that while his class is difficult, a student with a level of educational maturity can succeed.

“Chemistry is a more conceptional, higher level of thinking class,” Ogdon said. “It is a at a harder level enough, without being an honors course.”

Ogdon and Steve Appier are the only two teachers who have Chemistry classes. Ogdon has taught Chemistry at East for 16 years and has been the science department chair for 12 years. Ogdon’s experience has led to the conclusion that students who stay on top of their work do well in the class.

“Chemistry is a spiral curriculum, where you must learn the building blocks before you can advance further,” Ogdon said. “If a student missed some building blocks, they can fall behind early and never recover.”

Underclassmen are often the ones falling behind. The district receives calls

It’s questionable whether some courses deserve the status of “honors”

on a weekly basis, mostly from freshmen and sophomores, regarding the lack of an honors tag on Chemistry I. The science curriculum council for the district has discussed the matter numerous times in the past and come to the same conclusion each time: Chemistry I, while difficult, is not an honors course.

“Chemistry takes a level of mental maturity, but not as much honors level thinking,” Sharron Spence, Science Resource Specialist for the district, said.

Parents also complain that since there is a division of Physics 1, Physics 1 Honors, and Physics 1 AP/IB, there should be one for Chemistry. The difference is the mathematical knowledge necessary to succeed in Physics is much more than that of Chemistry.

The reason for the difference between Physics Honors and Physics AP is that the honors curriculum did not match with the JCCC College Now course. The AP class matches up with the JCCC course, so students can get College Now credit for taking the class. Chemistry 2 AP also correlates into College Now credit.

Chemistry I will remain a non-honors course in the near future, as the idea of making it an honors course was already discussed. The district admits that while the class can be challenging, it will remain a regular class.

photo illustration by katie woods

Sophomore Michael Dodd decided to take Discrete Math Honors after hearing about it from his freshman Algebra 2 teacher Carolyn Seeley.

“She told me it was a good course for the creative math kids,” Dodd said. “And honestly, I always wanted to know how to divide a pie perfectly equal.”

That was all Dodd needed to enroll in the class the next year. While his grades weren’t necessarily top of the class caliber, he had heard Discrete Math H was a relatively easy class from juniors who had taken it. They also told him it required little to no homework.

“When they told me that, I knew this was a class I should be in,” Dodd said. “It’s my easiest honors class by far.”

Rick Royer, who teaches Algebra 2H as well as Discrete classes this year, brought the Discrete program to East over 15 years ago in order to fill a void in the math department. There were no classes to address many real-world problems, such as election results interpretation, apportionment and fair division. Discrete Math was created to fill these gaps.

“There is good mathematics out there that we don’t teach,” Royer said. “Discrete was made specifically for those types of problems.”

For example, one problem required the students to determine the winner of an imaginary presidential election.

Noting the fact the Electoral College was not in place in this example, President A had won 50 million votes and President B won 40 million votes. By simple plurality, President A was the winner.

While there are problems much more difficult than these, sophomore Jordan Hahn says common sense can be used in a lot of Discrete problems. Therefore, some of the solutions are very easy to find.

Although Hahn believes some of the problems are easy, Royer has seen

a lot of students not able to meet their expectations.

“Most of the kids who came into the course thinking they would have an “easy A” have Bs or Cs in my class right now,” Royer said.

The teaching styles of a regular math class compared to a Discrete class are very different. For most of the hour, students work together in groups and brainstorm possible answers to the problem at hand, Royer said.

“It isn’t taught the same way the traditional math classes are,” math department chair Seeley said. “It is designed to allow students to come up with their own solutions and share them with others in class.”

Hahn says group teaching makes the class fun and occasionally easy.

“If you don’t get something the first time through, you can ask someone else and they might know it,” Hahn said. “I bet that is why a lot of people take the class.”

Students like Dodd take the class because they believe they have the math ability to coast through the course and receive an A. Teachers have a different opinion as to the difficulty of the course.

Royer says that the evaluation of ideas and solving of problems require a willingness to work and high math ability. While the students do work in groups, each student must be able to think “outside of the box” and contribute to the group.

Honors or not, Royer believes kids will keep taking the course because of the group-oriented activity and the realworld problems.

“It’s a different kind of course for the creative math student,” Royer said.

“It’s a change of pace from regular mathematics.”

mix xed

mix

ed

art

by

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / mixed / page 15

spotlightON the Outdoor Club

what is it? The Outdoor Club learns about wildlife and surviving as well as fishing and trapping techniques. Sponsor Tom Heintz brings his fishing equipment, such as lures, tackles and poles, to demonstrate. where do they meet? Mr. Heintz’s room, one or two times a month.

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what do they do? When it gets warmer, they plan to go on more camp-outs. They went on one last semester where they put their survival skills to work starting a fire, cooking dinner that they caught and making a shelter - all in 20 degree weather.

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who can join? According to club president Adam McCullough, the Outdoor Club “is comprised of a select few that possess a multitude of survival skills” but anyone can join, as long as the club isn’t bigger than 14 people.

These interesting lexicons are just the right thing to spice up that newest English paper or just to impress your friends...

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most common traffic infractions by teens, according to officer Chad Loughman

Anything you want to see on the Mixed page? Submit your ideas and original stories, poems, photos and art to smeharbin ger@gmail.com or bring them to room 521.

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from http://www.mercurynews.com

page 16 / features / the harbinger

Signing to Succeed

Signing with the family: Senior John Duvall and his parents, sister and grandparents pose for a photo with high school football coach John Stonner.

Seniors John Duvall and Kelly Zumbehl each signed letter’s of intent to play college football, last Wednesday. Duvall, the highly touted tight end and linebacker, will take his play to Princeton next season. A new family rivalry will be started in the Duvall household with John’s older brother playing at Yale. He chose Princeton over Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth. Duvall, won’t technically be signing a letter of intent because Ivy League schools only use verbal bindings.

Zumbehl, a defensive back and split back, signed his letter to play at Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas. His intent is to move onto a four year college after a year or two at Fort Scott. This season, fourteen players from Fort Scott signed on to play at four year colleges.

Famous alumni include highly praised KU quarterback Bill Whitemore who graduated KU in the spring of 2005. Duvall and Zumbehl were both big parts in leading the Lancers to a record-setting season going 6-4 and beating SM North for the first time in a decade. Also, senior Brian Tagg is still looking into playing at the next level at several D-II Missouri colleges.

Oh, those long nights. . .

Making it official: (top) The varsity football team surrounds seniors John Duvall and Kelly Zumbehl for a team photo before the two sign to their colleges.

(Below) Kelly Zumbehl signs his contract to accept his place on the football team with Fort Scott Community College. photos by Linda Howard

Those involved in the musical spend countless hours after school perfecting Grease for performance week

The gang: of the T-Birds, Roger (senior Sean Stenger), Sonny (senior Nathan Stepp), Kenicke (senior Kyle Hergenrader) and Doody (junior Joe Wheeler) finish singing “Tell Me More” side by side.

Slumber party: (above) Frenchie pierces Sandy’s ear at the Pink Lady’s sleepover party. Frenchie is played by freshman Katie Bartow. Sandy is played by senior McKenzie Kelly. Bartow is the only freshman with a lead part. This is Kelly’s third musical performance.

Dance all night: Caroline Goehausen, a member of the chorus, strikes a pose for the finale of the school dance scene after dancing to the “Hand Jive.”

Those Magig changes: (right) Doody, played by junior Joe Wheeler, serenades Kenicke, played by senior Kyle Hergenrader, and Sonny, played by senior Nathan Stepp with his solo, “Magic Changes.”

photos by Katie Woods

Class sizes l b r i n e b g v u o b

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / features / page 17

The overpopulation in the Chem 1 class is a hindrance for teachers and students by tom grotewohl

“These were all projects that the chemistry department had set up on our own every year,” Ogdon said. “This year with so many students there isn’t enough time to fit in these extra projects, which is a shame because it helped not just chemistry students but those they interacted with as well.”

Appier and Ogdon may be doing their best to cope with the size problems, but the source of the trouble is out of their control. According to principal Dr.. Angelo Cocolis, the packed classrooms are the result of a lack of funding and a high student-to-staff ratio.

“We’ve really been up against a wall for the last eight or ten years because of a shortage of funds from the state, so we haven’t been able to hire as many teachers,” Cocolis said.

“We got a little bit of a boost recently, but the student-to-staff ratio is still set at 19.5.”

That means that for every member of staff there are 19.5 students. Even though the size of the student body declined from last year by over 100 students, the ratio still remains the same.

“Right now our class sizes are to the max,” Cocolis said. “For all of the classes there is a range the district wants the size to fall in, and East usually likes to stay on the lower end of that scale, because smaller class sizes are better for everyone.”

That range for chemistry is 20-35 students, but the optimum number is 28. With some chemistry classes now in the 30s, they are clearly above that optimum according to district standards.

“Luckily, the ratio should be going down next year,” Cocolis said.

“We’ll get better funding and it should drop to about 18.5, which makes a huge difference. When the dust settles we should end up okay.”

Appier and Ogdon certainly hope that they “end up okay”, because, as Appier puts it, “More is definitely not merrier.”

art by sara mcelhaney

At the beginning of the school year, chemistry teacher Steven Appier’s 6th hour class had so many students that he couldn’t even seat them all.

Materials ran short, projects were cut, and even Mole Day was cancelled all because of the massive class sizes.

“Thank God people dropped at semester,” junior Katy Renfro said. “It was the biggest class I’ve ever had.”

It is a situation that is becoming all too familiar for Appier. Since the recent departure of coworker Lisa Grotewiel, Appier and teacher Cole Ogdon have been forced to pick up the extra slack, resulting in much larger class sizes for them both.

“Both Mr.. Appier and I started off the year with around four additional students per class,” Ogdon said. “Chemistry has a high drop rate, so that number has gone down, but size is still a huge problem.”

While Ogdon’s class sizes may have dropped, many of Appier’s still number in the 30s, a number well above what he’d prefer.

“It’s getting to the point now where it’s taking a toll on both the kids and the teachers,” Appier said, as he has had to take on an extra class to accommodate more students. “I’ve now got six classes and they’re all packed. There isn’t even enough time in a day for me to grade all of 175 lab reports, not to mention preparing the labs themselves.”

When Appier does manage to set up labs for the students, there are often too many of them for the lesson to work properly. The students are frequently are forced to share materials, delaying the entire procedure.

“The labs are designed for classes of about 28, for 14 labs of two people each,” Appier said. “But now I’ve got some classes that have 31, 32 people, and when the numbers get high enough it starts to effect them in their lab experience.”

Sometimes it even manages to change the entire experience altogether.

Because of the escalating class sizes, Appier and Ogdon aimed to switch half of their labs to virtual labs, or experiments recreated on the computers.

“The virtual labs recreate situations well, but they aren’t as good as the real thing,” Appier said. “They’re clean, they work. Real life isn’t like that.

Imagine dissecting a rat on a computer screen and then having to do it in real life. You’d have no idea what to do.”

In addition to these lab difficulties, Chemistry 2 AP and IB students are paying a price of their own. In past years these students would participate in certain extra curricular activities, such as Mole Day and elementary school science nights.

page 18 / a&e / the harbinger

“Something” integrates new and old elements Romantic comedy combines overused plot points and race relations by ian mcfarland “Something New,” the lone love story in theaters this Valentine’s day, does introduce some interesting and hither to unseen elements to the traditional, clichéd love story; but in the end it just might be too much of a traditional, clichéd love story to ascend above the barelyabove average chick flick.

“Something” stars Sanaa Lathan as Kenya McQueen, an upper class black woman that makes more money in a year than 98 percent of anyone else in America. She’s a 30 something that lives in a monochromatically beige house, has an unattainable idea of the perfect man and when put in the position to make a request, asks for one weekend a month that she doesn’t have to spend working.

Yeah, she’s kind of uptight.

Well, that is she was uptight. Thanks to a blind date, Kenya somehow finds the quite attainable perfect man. Brian (Simon Baker) is charming, caring and a whole lot of handsome; and when he meets Kenya, this hot slab of hunk makes her not so uptight. Just too bad he’s a white dude, because it keeps Kenya from letting herself fall for the guy.

So the plot is kind of, how do you say, not original in the slightest.

You’ve seen this story at the your local AMC before, and chances are you’ve caught it on ABC some Saturday night and even saw the Lifetime channel TV movie.

But what keeps the film from blending in with the copious other movies that share “Something” ’s plot is its social commentary on racial relations.

It seems like any movie that tries to say something about racism today has to star Queen Latifah or some other black actor portraying the hip-hop stereotype, all before an unamused stern, cold white man.

But, in the end, all of the characters learn that race doesn’t matter.

“Something” isn’t about overcoming racism, it’s about dealing with it.

It all comes together to form a movie that borders on good, but there’s too much of the old in “New” to make it more than a date flick.

Having said that, the fact that it’s the only love-themed entry available this Feb. 14 means that all of my fellow men out there are going to be dragged by your ladies to your local AMC regardless of what I say, so enjoy the show! GRADE: B-

Whole lot of love: Simon Baker and Samantha Lathan (pictured above and right) find each other, fall for each other, then break up because Simon ain’t a brother. Haven’t they ever heard the Michael Jackson tune in which MJ preaches that he “got to find his baby, it don’t matter if she black or white?”

The Craze Continues Eight years after the sitcom ended, “Seinfeld” proves ever popular

by jayne shelton When sophomore Steven Fowler turns on the TV at 10:35 p.m., he is looking for one show: “Seinfeld.”

Though the show went off the air in 1998, the constantly shown re-runs bring faithful viewers in the next generation.

In a world of “Desperate Housewives” loving critics, “Seinfeld” reruns, sex and violence free, appeal to students through the writing and not the visuals.

“It changed so quick, each episode was different, and there were so many plot things in one show,” Fowler said.

Fowler began watching “Seinfeld”

with his brother since his brother taped all of the episodes before the show went off the air.

Sophomore Matt Modrcin also watched it with his brother but had other reasons.

“I thought it was good to watch before bed,” Modrcin said. “It started at 10:35 p.m., perfect time.”

“It is so funny and out of the ordinary, you don’t think about it, but hope they are things that have happened,” Fowler said.

Senior Eric Hafner began watching “Seinfeld” with his mom. For the Hafners, watching it is like family bonding. When they are together, the family talks to each other using

quotes from the show.

“We’ll say the ‘yadda, yadda, yadda’ stuff,” Hafner’s mother, Jane, said. She thinks the appeal of the old show is the simple laughter.

“It’s easy, mindless watching and then you laugh at the end,” Jane Hafner said.

The Hafners began watching “Seinfeld” after it had gone off the air, so they watch the re-runs. For them, it was the craziness of Kramer that drew them to the show.

For any true “Seinfeld” fan, re-runs are part of the fun.“It is old school,” Modricin said.

“It is still funny when you watch the same show for the eighth time.”

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / a&e / page 19

A change of tune...

From the 90’s to present, musicians that have changed, faded, or fallen apart by kevin grunwald I remember the bus ride during which I was introduced to Cisqo and “The Thong Song”. I still know the words to Smashmouth’s “All Star.” If I were to look for it, I could find the video given out at the end of sixth grade featuring Vitamin-C’s “Graduation.” But where are these bands now?

Is Coolio still spendin’ most his life in a gangsta’s paradise?

Does Pink still want to get the party started? Let’s look back to where our music tastes first began—the primordial world of Otara’s Millionaires Club and Britney Spears. Go ahead and dust off the Collective Soul, Pink or Citizen King album. And I know you still have Blink 182 and Lou Bega.

1997 was the year that Hanson swept every school in the country, setting the teenyboppers up for boy bands like N’Sync. In Elementary school, I thought “MMMBop” was annoying. It wasn’t until I stumbled across “Middle of Nowhere,” their first CD, at a garage sale that I actually listened to it. I saw the bright orange CD floating around and, laughing, I bought it for a dollar.

But who knew that Hanson had released another album? Wait, two more?

I looked up Hanson’s most recent album, “Underneath,” which wasn’t bad. While they have gotten older and more mature, they have the same type of sound.

Understanding that current music trends have changed since sixth grade, it seems like Hanson’s sound is the same, while my, and everybody else’s preferences in music have changed.

Something about “Middle of Nowhere” makes the songs fresh and catchy. It feels like the sound is more raw, like it’s untainted. “Underneath,” while more polished, isn’t as youthful and new. When I listen to the two, I feel like “Middle of Nowhere” captures Hanson when they were still just a band in Tulsa. The new one is more mature, less fun.

Many of these bands are now releasing greatest hits albums, often a sign that the band is finished. Sugar Ray’s came out in June of last year. Their greatest hits album is a nice blend, including the best songs from all their successful albums.

Songs like “Fly,” “Every Morning” and “Falls Apart” were as familiar as if I had listened to them yesterday.

My personal favorites from “14:59” were not included in the greatest hits. I loved the remake of Steve Miller’s “Abracadabra.” “Personal Space Invader,” with its robotic sound was my other favorite.

“14:59,” the album with “Every Morning,” through overall good music and a variety between the songs, was an album that you play all the way through—you don’t skip tracks.

They followed up “14:59” with 2001’s “Sugar Ray” and 2003’s “In the Pursuit of Leisure,” The greatest hits album also includes a few new songs by the band.

1

Decade Wonders Bands of the 90’s that faded

Limp Bizkit DMX Master P Semisonic Spice Girls Garbage Pearl Jam STP Collective Soul Ace of Base

YOUNG OR OLD, WE CENTER ON YOUR HEALTH Phone: 913-722-8200

6200 Martway • Mission, KS 66202 Fax: 913-722-8208 • web-site: www.missionks.org

page 20 / a&e / the harbinger

The Harbinger takes a look at movies inspired by literature

by davin phillips, katie jones and cay fogel is transformed. Chiyo’s blueMemoirs of a Geisha she grey eyes, which bring her much

by Arthur Golden

As I read Arthur Golden’s 1997 bestseller “Memoirs of a Geisha”, I was filled with the very real emotions of the characters and the beauty of the exotic world they lived in. The story was so detailed and real that the world Golden depicted was imprinted in my mind.

The comedy, tragedy and romance were all delicately entwined into an elaborate love story that drew me in. I had trouble imagining that a movie could give Golden’s writing justice, but director Rob Marshall managed to stay true to Golden’s story, embellishing on parts for his viewer’s sake.

The story presented in the novel is basically untouched; a few parts were condensed, but the characters and buildings were so well recreated that they were immediately recognizable. The feelings I had gotten from certain scenes in the novel were again brought forth as I watched the same scenes on film.

The sumo wrestling match, which had filled me with excitement and intrigue came to life as I watched the film. While the movie isn’t as subtle as the novel, you still experience the same emotions as you did when you read the book.

The story of Chiyo, a poor girl living in 1929 Japan, is sold by her father to a geisha house where

attention, also invoke jealousy from other geishas. Chiyo flourishes in her training. World War II brings everything that she has worked for to an end. After the war, she pursues the only man she ever loved and in the end, finds happiness.

A certain harshness is present in the film that wasn’t apparent in the novel. The soldiers, who were only mentioned in the novel as the men that the geisha entertained, were depicted in the film with more reality, showing that the life of a geisha was not the only life that was present in Japan at that time, and it wasn’t the only one affected by the war.

The novel, which concentrated mainly on the dizzying training that is endured in becoming a geisha and the emotions that Chiyo goes through while doing so. The film focuses more on the final product that is a geisha. Condensing Chiyo’s training into one musical montage takes some of the reality away from film. The subtle and delicate details which make up the novel are, while not entirely deserted, outweighed by the action and artistry that is true to Hollywood.

The film may not be entirely what I had in mind when I read the novel, but it does give a new interpretation and perspective that I would have not otherwise experienced.

by Jonathan Safran Foer

When I found out that Everything Is Illuminated—one of the most poignant novels I have ever read—made its way to theatres, I got so excited I ran over I started marking down the days until the premiere in my planner.

However after it was over, I felt a little disappointed.

The film wasn’t bad, but the book was so good it made my eyes water, and the movie just didn’t have the emotion the book was brimming with.

The story’s wandering prose is unbelievably emotional. But the movie hardly feels like wandering prose, It just plain feels unorganized.

There are two stories intertwined throughout the book–one being more of a travelogue, or a travel diary, and the other a creative story. A young Ukrainian translator, Alex, who speaks severely butchered English writes the travelogue, while the young journalist, Jonathon writes the story. The two journey through Ukraine to find the woman who may or may not have saved Jonathon’s grandfather from the Nazis. The two separate parts alternate throughout the novel.

The movie only deals with the travelogue aspect of the novel, which is a sharp disappointment. The journalist’s story gives the reader some background on the woman they are searching for, making the reader more intent on finding her. With the second story missing, some of the suspense is lost. It does retain some of the

imaginative, foreign humor of the book, but loses the eloquence the journalist’s story contributes to Foer’s work. It also seems like the movie tries too hard to recreate the intense situations in the book.

Even though the story line is simpler because only one of them is included, the scene transitions made the movie seem disjointed and uneven.

Because the film snipped the journalist’s story, it lost the incredible poetic quality—the word repetition, the streams of consciousness—that I loved in the book.

Moreover, Schreiber focused more on Jonathan than Foer does in the book. This would be fine except that in the book Jonathan is hardly developed. Having very few lines and almost no facial expressions or body language, it was hard to relate to Jonathon in the movie. I felt so much for Alex throughout the novel that it was let down that I couldn’t connect with him as much in the film.

Even if Alex wasn’t as relatable in the movie, he was still an excellent interpretation of the book’s young foreigner. With his own brand of broken English and his bling jewelry, he provides some comic relief throughout the journey. Although he has a comical side, his complex character holds other sides that reveal themselves as the movie progresses.

The book is more complex and fulfilling than the film. But taking into consideration that most books are, Schreiber’s adaptation is still worth seeing.

photo illustration by Samantha Ludington

Seen any good BOOKS lately?

Everything is Illuminated

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” has all the elements of a great chick-flick: romance, sex, family turmoil, personal revelation, cute boys and pretty clothes. The dialog is sweet, and not all of the character interaction is corny. The vistas of Greece, where the movie was shot on location, are beautiful and the girls are likeable. It’s a movie that’s meant to be watched in a pink and white bedroom with a few of your girlfriends, offering insightful advice to the characters on screen who, infuriatingly, continue make the wrong choice almost every time. It’s a fun movie. An indulgence. It’s satisfyingly simple.

Only hang up is, it shouldn’t be.

Not that it isn’t fun to go see a movie like this every once and while and indulge in an estrogen party, but for those who feel a movie should be an echo of its book, it falls short.

We’re not talking about how Tibby was supposed to be a blond, or that Lena left for Greece in June in the book and in the movie it was April. I mean almost everything that made the book meaningful.

I understand that the delicacies, the tiny, meticulous tragedies and glories that can be captured in paragraphs of exposition and short clips of revelation that come at the end of a chapter can’t always be reasonably transferred into film format. The way people often try to do it is by plugging in an ethereal, all-knowing voiceover that pervades the movie, but doing this is almost always a copout. Because the movie fails to translate this, the viewer loses the only aspect of the book that made it anything but a teeny-bopper novel.

by Anne Brashares

The idea is that good writing should show up on film in the form of interesting plot and pleasant dialog, but the best thing about the book wasn’t the plot or the dialog. The best part was what got lost in those long paragraphs The intricate perspectives of each girl, the intimacy with which you know the characters, the surprising strangeness of their thoughts. The book had so much meaning, but it came to you in little drips, tiny moments, things that proved too elusive and vague to capture on screen.

The story of Bailey, the little girl with leukemia who meets and befriends a main character, loses all of its profundity in the movie. In the book their relationship seems complicated, careful, odd and beautiful because of that oddness. In the movie it seems flat and awkward and then finally cliché.

There are a few moments in the dialog of the movie that hint at the truth of the book, but they are rare and seem to be taken from another movie, one about higher concepts and richer people.

issue 10 / february 6 2006 / sports / page 21

FUN GIRL’S BASKETBALL

by rachel mayfield Junior Alex Kelley had been working hard and was prepared for basketball tryouts in mid-November for the 2005-2006 season. She had played on the East basketball team her sophomore year and had high hopes of making the JV or Varsity team. When tryouts were over, Kelley was disappointed to hear that she didn’t make the team. She didn’t want to give up on basketball.

Before tryouts started, Kelley had overheard friend, junior Molly Emert talking about how she was starting a basketball team in the Fun Girls Basketball League (FGBL).

“It was a major bummer not making the team,” Kelley said. “ I just wanted to play basketball and if I couldn’t play for East, then I might as well play for [the FGBL] team.”

Emert’s team, the “Rim Rockers,” is one of several teams from East in the FGBL. The team consists of former East basketball players who were either cut from the team or didn’t try out. They can play basketball, have fun and it won’t be a major time commitment.

“Everyone has a good time when we are playing and there isn’t that constant feeling that you have to do well,” senior Stephanie Anderson said. “Playing for the Rim Rockers instead of East gives me a lot more free time. I am able to keep my grades up, play basketball and stay in shape.”

Since all the girls on the team played for East at some point, they often jokingly refer to themselves as “Rhoades Rejects.”

“None of them are rejects though,” Coach Rick Rhoades

Girls who don’t play basketball for East get their chance in FGBL

said. “There are so many girl basketball players at East.

Not everyone can make the team, which makes it very competitive.”

Although the girls are having fun on their new team, there are certain aspects about being on the East team that they miss.

“The team dinners were so much fun and it was always good to get together with my teammates outside of basketball practice. The bus rides were fun because we all just went crazy!” junior Kortney Jones said.

Kate Pfanmiller misses the relationships that she was able to build with people on the East basketball team.

“I’m not as close to the girls on this team,” Pfanmiller said.

“There is more unity in East basketball mainly because you are practicing with your teammates everyday and working together.”

The Rim Rockers don’t have a regular practice schedule or a coach, but they like it better that way. They keep each other motivated by meeting together at junior Kelsey Stabenow’s house to get pumped up for their game.

“We definitely go crazy on the court, and we use some plays that most of the girls know from playing for East,” Anderson said. “We all just go out there to have fun and play basketball for the love of the game.“ Their strategy seems to be working: the Rim Rockers are currently undefeated and are looking forward to the rest of the season.

TOP LEFT: Juniors Ellie Weed, Kortney Jones, and Anna Zeiger laugh in a team huddle in their FGBL game on Jan. 28. TOP RIGHT: Junior Kortney Jones jumps for a layup. ABOVE: Juniors Ellie Weed and Kortney Jones try for a high five, and miss. photos by kelsey stabenow

SPORTS BRIEFS SPORTS BRIEFS SPORTS BRIEFS SPORTS BRIEFS SPORTS BRIEFS SPORTS BRIEFS SPORTS

Junior bowler number one in 6A

Sophomore starts water polo club

Junior Samantha Kirkwood is the number one ranked female bowler in the 6A division. With an average score of 165, Kirkwood shows her skills from seven years of competitive bowling. She is involved in three leagues that meet once a week. The individuality of the sport is what appeals to her. “It is competitive but you have no contact with anyone else, it is just you,” she said. With her favorite Rampage bowling ball, Kirkwood will try to lead the team to a victory, but still sees room for improvement.

“I am just going to try to work myself up to being number one in state.”

Sophomore Sylvia Shank started a water polo club for girls with Mr. Nickels as the sponsor. Inspired by team games and swim team, set up the game to be for girls and less aggressive. She has been in contact with the swim coaches for pool time. 18 people came to the meetings last week. Shank plans on having enough girls to make four teams of six people by the start. She has been trying to set up a game with one of the Blue Valley schools.

RIGHT: A strike is bowled at a bowling club meeting photo by Kelsey Stabenow

LEFT: Senior Katie Schlicting swims for a ball in water polo photo by Kate Larabee

New Track and Field Coach East track & field team has found its newest coach for the up coming season. Trish Beaham was announced as the third head coach in the last three years. Junior English teach Bill Bolley stepped down two years ago. Last season’s coach Brie Meschke moved to Wichita leaving the reins to Beaham, who is also the cross country head coach. Though not a teacher at East, she will be a familiar face as she starred in the HyVee commercial last fall about the store supporting the cross country team.

RIGHT: Coach Trish Beaham along with coaches Brie Meshke and Michael Chaffee look at time scores photo by Katie Woods

page 22 / sports / the harbinger

Wrestlers struggle to keep the pounds off

by ellie weed “You want one?” senior Peter Field’s classmate offered him an M&M cookie on Cappuccino Friday.

“No, sorry, I can’t. But I really wish I could,” Fields told him. “They’re my favorite.”

“Oh yeah, wrestling…that sucks.”

It was a Friday afternoon, and the thought of weighing in on the huge digital scale in the weights room the next morning was looming in the back of his mind. It’s not like he can just jump around weight classes -- if he doesn’t make his designated weight class, he won’t be wrestling.

After school that day, he loaded on layers of clothes and sweatshirts and ran the halls and stairwells of the school with the other wrestlers. This was their “make weight” practice. This was the best way to lose water weight.

“Water weight is the heaviest weight that anyone has,” varsity wrestling coach Chip Ufford said. “The night before the wrestlers weigh in, they run off some of their water weight and then essentially dehydrate themselves that night.”

But besides dehydration, there’s other ways of losing those last few pounds in the days before a wrestler weighs in.

“I’m definitely a crash dieter,” Fields said. Crash diets are considered the most unhealthy, but it’s the easiest and allows wrestlers to keep eating what the love to eat: junk food.

Someone that crash diets eats whatever they want all week, and then a day or two before they have to weigh in, they practically starve themselves, not even drinking water.

Even though some wrestlers crash diet and eat the unhealthy foods they love, there are still some that have learned how to pace themselves into a healthy eating pattern.

“The best method is to pace yourself,” junior TJ McManus said. “Eat a little bit, go work out, drink a little bit, go on a run, and just keep going. It’s all anaerobic exercise, which means you’re not doing a lot of breathing when you’re lifting weights.”

Coach Ufford considers wrestling a good way to learn a healthy dieting pattern.

“This teaches you to eat well,” he said. “It’s all about the discipline, and if you’re really motivated enough to eat right and make weight.”

When a wrestler still has a lot of weight to lose a few days before weigh in, they use other methods besides working out to lose weight.

SP

SPORTS PANEL SPORTS PANEL SPORTS PANEL SPORTS PANEL SPORTS PANEL SPORTS PANEL

CLARK GOBLE PETER GOEHAUSEN

JAYNE SHELTON BEN WHITSITT

“All week you’ve been working out and you’re just exhausted. You just want to do something else besides work out,” junior Zach Lehr said. “I’ve heard of people making themselves throw up just so they can get it over with and lose the weight.”

But getting sick is an unhealthy and sometimes ineffective way of losing weight.

“If you’ve been crash dieting and not eating for a few days, throwing up wouldn’t be any good for you,” McManus said.

“If you have nothing in your system, you won’t have anything to throw up. You only hear of that in really rare cases.”

Another option is going to YMCA to sit in the sauna for as long as they can stand, sweating out some water weight.

“Your pores clog up and you just sweat it out,” McManus said. “You hear of people even turning on their shower as hot as it can go and putting a towel in the crack underneath their door and just turning their bathroom into a sauna.”

But whatever way McManus chooses to sweat it out, he’d much rather do it with the company of a friend or fellow wrestler.

“If you’re by yourself, that hour goes by so slow and sitting in there just sucks. If you’re with someone else it’s not so bad. Even if you’re in a pissed off mood about having to lose weight, I think most people would rather have some company.”

Even if a wrestler has a lot of weight to lose, their coach can’t force them to work out or to go to the sauna. It’s a state

BOYS BASKETBALL

SM East

GIRLS BASKETBALL

WRESTLING

Olathe East Olathe East

rule, and the wrestlers have to be motivated enough to do it on their own. If they don’t, they won’t be able to wrestle in their next match.

“If you don’t make weight, you’re kind of letting your whole team down, and you’ll psyche yourself out,” McManus said.

In the second half of the season, it gets easier to make weight, because halfway through the season, the state gives all wrestlers a two-pound “growth allowance.” Since everyone has been getting stronger and growing, it allows them to use that new muscle, and not let it work against them by raising them a weight class.

On those Saturday mornings before their meets, the whole team gathers around the big, expensive digital scale in the wrestling room with their coach and Lane Green, the athletic director, so he can sign off that they all made their weight.

“You can’t even be .1 of a pound over the designated weight,” McManus said. “Most of us get there early to make sure we’ve made weight.”

At the beginning of the season, all the wrestlers bring their scales to the wrestling room and calibrate them to the master scale so they can check their weight at home.

“I’ve got a countdown going until the end of the season,” Fields said. “A countdown until when I can eat like a normal person again.”

BOYS SWIMMING

BIG XII BASKETBALL

NCAA CHAMPIONS

SM East

Texas

Villanova

Wichita Northwest

Olathe South

Olathe South

SM East

Kansas

Connecticut

Olathe South

Aquinas

Maize

SM East

Oklahoma

Illinois

Olathe Northwest

Olathe South

Hutchinson

SM East

Texas

Memphis

issue 10 / february 6, 2006 / sports / page 23

“

LIFE ON AND OFF THE FIELD JUNIOR GUARD ROSS SIMPSON

ON BEING THE KMBC (CHANNEL 9) ATHLETE OF THE WEEK It was pretty cool, they sent out a reporter and camera. They interviewed me and asked me how big of a win the game against Rockhurst was.

ON HOW YOU’VE BECOME SUCH A DEFENSIVE GEM I just accepted the face that it is something you have to do in basketball. I have always liked playing defense, and I’ve always taken pride in getting big stops. Defense will also always get the game going.

ON WHAT MADE YOU PLAY SO WELL AGAINST ROCKHURST It started with our whole team playing great defense. We forced a lot of turnovers which gave us easy transition baskets.

ON SHUTTING DOWN YOUR OLD FRIEND AND AAU TEAMMATE, CONNER TEAHAN It felt great to beat all of those guys. Terrance and Tagg played great defense against him and shut him down. Tough I didn’t get to guard him until the final two plays, it was nice to beat him. (Simpson was also on a team with Brian Barnthouse, Eric Vogel and Alex Potts.)

ON THE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR GAME THIS SEASON FROM LAST SEASON I have just become a bigger offensive threat. I have taken it to the lane more which has allowed me to score more baskets. At the beginning of the season Hair told me I needed to be more of a threat on offense, and I’ve just been stepping it up as much as possible.

ON COACH HAIR’S FIERY ATTITUDE With him being that way, it always gets us pumped up for the games. He always keeps us going with being so aggressive, and that is good for us.

ON YOUR TEAM’S CHANCES THE REST OF THE WAY The Rockhurst win was big, we needed a win and we got it, and then we beat SM North. I guess we are finally getting on track, and we can hopefully win out. We still have big games against Leavenworth, because we already lost to them once and Olathe South, 13-1.

Simpson has been one of the main reasons for the Lancers recent resurgence. He has been the teams top shut-down defender and has been on a scoring tear on offense. photo by linda howard

ON PLAYING AT THE NEXT LEVEL It would be great to play college basketball.

If I did play it would have to be at a small D-II or D-III school, but I wouldn’t mind that.

”

Simpson propelled the Lancers to their biggest win of the season against Rockhurst and followed it up with a six point effort and shutdown defense against North. He will lead the team against Olathe South Tuesday Night. as told by peter goehausen

The Week Ahead

What to watch for in Lancer Athletics By Peter Goehausen

MONDAY 2/6

Girls Basketball vs. Olathe South

When sophomore guard Taylon Johnson was told she needed to step up this season, she seemed to save her best for final half of the season. Johnson led the Lancers in two out of their three games at the Topeka West tournament, in which the team took second. They lost the final game to Blue Valley, as they let a two point fourth quarter deficit turn into a twelve point loss. Tonight, they take on Olathe South who, at 13-1, leads the Sunflower League.

TUESDAY 2/7

Boys Basketball vs. Olathe South (Band Night)

With their biggest win of their season, by far, against Rockhurst the Lancers should have an abundance of momentum heading into the final stretch of the season. Hair has seen a huge boost in performance from junior Ross Simpson, who poured in 19 against Rockhurst, and sophomore Terrance Thomas, who has been the top shut down defender this season. Tuesday’s game may be their hardest game the rest of this season, as Olathe South leads the Sunflower League with a 12-1 record.

FRIDAY 2/10

Boys Basketball vs. SMNW (JV) @ 5:30

With impressive of a record as they have, 11-0, it would be hard to overlook the JV basketball this season. Led by juniors Colin Hertel, Bobby Miller and sophomore Michael McRoberts, right, they have been the most successful East team, on land, this winter. It once looked as if the status of the program would be in great decline after the all-time leading scorer Christie leaves this year, but now it looks as if there may be a light heading into next season’s campaign. The varsity game tips off at 7 against the Cougars who have already beaten them once this season.

FRIDAY 2/17- SATURDAY 2/18

GAME OF THE WEEK-Boys Swimming @ State With an event of this high calendar it is a must to mark the calendars early. Never in the history of East athletics has the school had a group of individuals this dominant for this long. After taking state last season after the preliminary meet on Friday the Lancers cruised to a 50 point victory over the nearest competitor, BV North. After tearing up competition again this season, head coach Wiley Wright will have to feel another 6A championship coming. On a sad note, this meet will be the final hooray for an extraordinary senior class led by John Cook, Brandon Barnds and Kevin Reene. The future will still be bright though as All-American junior Luke Tanner, who should win the millions of events he’s participating in, will return for an anticipated senior season.

SATURDAY 2/11

Wrestling @ Sunflower League Meet

After taking fourth at the SMN Invitational, the Lancers will have some momentum to fuel them at the Sunflower Meet this Saturday. Sophomore’s Joey Lutz and Kenton Kloster each won their weight classes at North, while junior John Carr took second. photos by katie james and frances lafferty

page 24 / photo essay / the harbinger issue 1 / september 6, 2005

NUMBER ONE FAN: Freshman Grant Morris held up a pink sword from the beginning of the J.V. game to the very end of the Varsity game, without ever letting it down. While fans took breaks to sit down and rest between halves and games, Grant continued to stand and await his team’s memorable victory. photo by linda howard PEP TALK: The Varsity basketball team gathers togeher before the game to pump eachother up and prepare themselves. The Lancers went on to beat Rockhurst 54-45, ending the week with a clean sweep after the freshman, sophomore, and JV teams beat Rockhurst as well. photo by kathleen sprouse

THE CROWD GOES WILD: The freshmen and shophomore classes desperately attempt to distract a Rockhurst basketball player from making his freethrows. Due to the crowds of people, upperclassmen were in seperate bleachers than the underclassmen. photo by megan koch

RACKING UP THE POINTS: Junior Reid Robson shoots a layup while senior Brian Tagg follows behind for the rebound. Junior teammates Ross Simpson, Bryan Nelson, and Robson all made a huge impact, with Simpson scoring 19 points. photo by megan koch HERALDER SPIRIT: Seniors Kyle Hergenrader and Charlie Ehler cheer and scream into the Metro Sports cameras with a future East student. The East/Rockhurst game was the Metro Sports Game of the Week. Out of all the crazy fans, Metro Sports crowned senior Graham Stark fan of the game. photo by samantha ludington

A Signature Win

With an estimated 3,000 fans packed into the East gym, the Lancers took on Rockhurst in the best victory of the season