Issue 10

the

Issue 10 2.7.05

harbinger

a publication of Shawnee Mission East • 7500 Mission Road • Prairie

Village, KS • 66208

LEFT: Students and teachers protest in front of the capitol building in Topeka, BELOW: student holds a sign advocating votes for gay marriage rights. Photo

by Ian Mcfarland and Kevin Gruwald

story by Gordon Culver

C

heard making their voices

Students and teachers protest at the capitol building against the banning of gay marriage

hants of “Straight, Gay, Its all OK”, signs that read “Honk For Equal Rights” and homosexuals walking into the middle of a crosswalk and kissing in front of stopped cars were all part of a Jan. 30 protest led by sophomore Aishlinn O’Connor. The protest was staged by a group of 150 students and activists from across the state including over 50 SME students. They protested in front of the State Capitol building against legislation putting a ban on gay marriage and civil unions on the ballot April 13.

“I had never done any protesting before and I have always wanted to do this for something that I believe in,” senior Simon Kass said. “I stand for gay rights and equality for all. Equality is something that is important to me. But I really wanted to protest in the name of separation of church and state. Kansas has infringed on this to the max and the separation is incredibly important.”

The group was protesting Senate Concurrent Resolution 1601, which was introduced on the Senate floor on Jan. 11 and was passed Jan 13.

O’Connor thought of the protest while surfing online for debate updates. She happened to come across a site that was talking about how the Kansas State Senate had already passed SCR 1601. The vote passed the senate 2811 and was introduced on the floor of the House on Jan. 14 and passed 86-28 on Feb. 1.

“I knew that there was going to be no way that I would be able to vote this April if the decision is given to the people,” O’Connor said. “When I read about this I wanted to figure out any way that I could get my voice out there. The protest was the first thing that came to mind.”

The debate work may have prompted the protest and all of the setup may have happened in the past weeks, but its foundation was laid this summer.

“Last summer I attended the week long Anytown camp, which is a diversity building camp. It is all about the different biases and bigotry that still exists in communities today,” O’Connor said. “We talked a lot about the lesbian/gay/bisexual community and how they were still the recipients of a lot of bigotry today.”

continued on page 4

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news

Making a statement

the harbinger

(but keeping it clean)

Administrators try to keep students from getting too rowdy at basketball games due to complaints handle.

“Students getting on the court disrupts the sportsmanship of the game, Green said.

All administrators agree that there is no way to stop students from doing what their minds are set on. When the emotions of the game get involved, anything could happen.

Announcements can’t stop crowds from intimidating their opponents by any means, and the games at South and Rockhurst prove that. At both games fans rushed the court.

Certain chants were made SM EAST fans held up a sign during the Jan. 28 basketball victory against Rockhurst. Signs at the Raytown South game over winter break that got like these are causing administrators and parents to become upset about fans. parents to complain to Green, photos by Samantha Ludington but no disciplinary actions distributed with a slanderous message printed on the were taken. front.

“The best chant we had was at the Raytown South game Athletic director Lane Green is proud of the crowds over winter break. They (Raytown South) told us better JUNIOR Michael Woodsmall is lifted up by friends as students cel- this season and said that they have made a lot of luck next year and we said: we’ll be in college,” junior Andy progress since the games at the beginning of the year. ebrate by rushing the court at the end of the game.

After the game at SM South, parents came up to Peterson said.

Peterson is an active East basketball fan who only misses Ben Whitsitt Green and told him that they were frustrated with the way East students acted. They reminded him that there games when they are too far away and said that what East he biggest game this year was met with the most are children in the stands also, listening to the profanities says in the stands should not be taken seriously as it is only a game. But some people feel differently about that. concern by teachers as East played Rockhurst. It chanted during the game.

“Their chants seemed pretty obnoxious to me, but was the one game teachers and staff thought for “A high school game is almost more challenging to sure would get out of hand. If the announcement handle than a college game. You’ve got half the students anyone can say whatever they want and it will probably made Jan. 27 about wearing derogatory shirts didn’t show from one school and half the students from the other school get on the other school’s nerves,” SM West junior Jenna Johnstone said. the cautiousness of the administrators, then the second at the same game,” Green said.

Whether or not this year’s crowd has become more announcement the next day made it clear enough: East’s Green’s main concern is everybody rushing the crowds have been getting out of hand and this has everyone court because serious injuries could occur, especially if rowdy than last year’s is up for debate, but one thing is for worried. someone were to trip and fall. But he said there is little sure, the administration is very pleased that nothing got out The announcement about the shirts was not under false he and the administration can do because there are only of hand at the Rockhurst game and that just might be the pretenses because there actually were t-shirts made and 10 administrators at the game and a lot more students to game that stops all the complaints.

T

news BRIEFS

Used Book Sale The library is now collecting books, videos and CDs for their annual book sale to raise funds for the library.

The book sale will be held April 10 and donations can be brought to the front office or the library.

Library purchases as a result of last year’s sale included a digitial camera, digital video camera, 2 media carts and a larger smartboard.

Questions? call 993-6648 or 993-6617

AP Exam Registration What: Advanced Placement exams are available through certain classes that many institutions award credit or advanced standing for qualifying scores. A list of colleges who participate in AP can be found at www.collegeboard.com.

How: Students may register for the exams in the Counseling Office by paying the exam fee of $82 and filling out the correct form. Teachers of AP courses will discuss the exams before registration begins and will pass out copies of the AP bulletin.

When: Registration begins Feb. 14 and ends March 9.

The actual exams will be giver May 2-6 and May 9-13.

Each exam is assigned a morning or afternoon during those two weeks.

Questions?: Contact Barb Johnson at 993-6636 or eajohnsb@smsd.org. Information is also available at www.collegeboard.com.

Feb. 7, 2005

College Connection What: Selling Yourself: Resumes, Essays, Interviews and College Visits. A program designed to help East students present their college applications the best way and to provide pointers on college visits. All juniors, sophomores and freshmen along with parents are encouraged to attend. Parents and students will have the opportunity to ask questions.

When: Tonight at 7 p.m. in the East cafeteria.

Who: The presenters include: Allison McCann, Assistant Director, Admissions at Washington University, St. Louis Bridget Gramling, Admissions Officer at St. Louis University Judy Barnes, former English honors teacher at East Mackenzie Buxcel, Admissions Counselor at Creighton

Questions? Contact Beth Brown at (913) 341-0446 (evenings) or via email j3517b@aol.com.

Johnson County Makes it Members of 60 Minutes follow around the task force while they bust teen partying in Johnson county Curtis Shank

Lesley Stahl.

The story debates the validity of the social hosting law.

“There are a lot of people who think that it’s better for teens to be drinking where they can be supervised by an adult who makes sure they won’t be out driving drunk,” Finkelstein said.

Senior Chris Holdgraf agrees with this view.

“Kids are always going to drink,” Holdgraf said.

“It’s more important to make sure we’re not out driving around drunk PARENTS present in a house where underage partying is present may be fined $200 or be than to try to keep us from jailed for up to six months according to the new Social Hosting statute. drinking completely.” support underage drinking, many parents disagree on just Morrison explains it this how big a problem it really is. way.

“There is definitely a big percentage of parents who feel “We know a lot of teens experiment with sex,” he said. “[Letting kids drink at their homes] is like having parents that drinking is not a problem in the Shawnee Mission East pass out condoms to the kids as they walk in the door and community,” she said.

Morrison says parents need to see underage drinking as then sending them down to the basement to have sex.”

Several parents have been prosecuted under the statute, it is—a serious issue.

“One of the most significant problems with allowing although none are East parents. An October 5 PTA meeting discussed the new law and the arrival of “60 Minutes.” underage drinking is that there aren’t any ground rules Over 100 parents came to hear a panel discuss the effects for it,” he said. “How will parents who object to their kids drinking feel when they find out they were over at and implications of the law.

“There were some parents there to see how the affects somebody’s house getting drunk with an adult there.”

The “60 Minutes” story is not yet finished and will air them, there were parents there to learn how to support the law, and then there were parents learning how to keep their sometime in the spring. kids out of trouble—how to shirk the law,” PTA president Cynthia Jarrold said.

Jarrold says while nobody would come out and say they

photo by Linda Howard

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison stared across at “60 minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl. The reporter for the television program was in the Johnson County courthouse, asking him about underage drinking and the new Social Hosting Statute passed this summer in Kansas.

“She was very nice before the interview,” Morrison said.

“But she once the cameras she hit me with some pretty tough questions.”

Stahl focused her questions on the social hosting statute, which makes it a crime for parents to be the hosts of parties at their homes where underage drinkers are consuming alcohol. Before police had to show proof that parents had knowledge that there were people consuming alcohol in the house. Parents could claim they had no idea what was going on. But now, offenders are fined $200 and could face up to six months in jail.

The law drew praise from Lt. Pat Hinkle of the Lenexa police department.

“If you’re in a house with a bunch of kids getting drunk, you know what’s going on,” he said. “This lowers the threshold to reasonable knowledge that alcohol is being served.”

Several other states also have laws similar to the new Kansas law, but it is how recently the law was passed that brought “60 Minutes” to Johnson County, producer for the show Sheri Finkelstein said. “[The social hosting law] is a controversial topic,” Finkelstein said. “We decided to come [to Johnson County] because it’s a new law and we wanted to see what effect it was having and how it’s being enforced.”

Finkelstein first contacted Morrison last fall to talk about what the newsmagazine program was interested.

The first camera crews came a few weeks after that to ride around with the police task force and take video of parties being broken up.

In January, camera crews came back, this time with

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BIG news

issue 10

Feb. 7, 2005

4

news

the harbinger

Students protest unions bill continued from page 1

Before the protest O’Connor passed out 900 flyers at the Kansas State Debate Tournament and the Kansas State Academic Decathlon Tournament. She also wrote a press release that was issued to local news stations and newspapers and sent out e-mails to all of the people in her address book.

“It was a lot of work to get this together, but it made it so we could have a lot of publicity,” O’Connor said. “We were covered in the Sun and the Herald Tribune before the event happened and while we were actually protesting there were five TV stations there along with the AP and the Sun.” The protesters were glad to get as much publicity as they could so that they could let all of the people in the state know just what was going on with their government. Even if they didn’t get anyone in the House to change their vote, the publicity afforded them an opportunity to change the mind of people who might vote on the issue.

“Gays are humans too. They are just like everyone else and they deserve the rights that everyone else gets,” senior Evan Conner said. “I think that the publicity our activism got could be really important. Activism is in general a good thing. I think that people who saw this on the news and in the newspaper might be swayed by how much we care and how important this issue is.”

Through talking to people at SME O’Connor discovered there were people who wanted to go but couldn’t drive themselves to Topeka. The easiest solution she could come up with was to try and have the district order a bus. She was aided by World History teacher Paul DeBarthe, who ordered a bus for the protest as part of Youth in Government, but O’Connor was responsible for the payment. In order to make up the funds, people who rode the bus had to pay $6. DeBarthe was unable to attend, but English teacher John McKinney and photo teacher Catherine Siegel

how to get

As traffic slows all along Mission Road, students will still have to get to school. Here are some alternate routes to take that avoid Mission Road.

Starting on Lee Boulevard, go north until Lee curves into Somerset. Take a left on Somerset onto Belinder and follow Belinder until the intersection of Belinder and 75th St. Take a left on 75th St. and turn into the junior lot.

Mission Rd. 75th St.

e.

Roe Av

Starting on Roe Avenue from either the north or the south of East, go towards East until 75th St. At 75th, if you’re coming from the south, take a right; if you’re coming from the north, take a left. Take 75th St to the junior lot.

75th St.

Lee Blvd.

Coming down Lee Boulevard, turn onto 75th St. and keep going west unti you reach the junior lot or keep going on to Delmar and turn into the Prarie Village pool lot.

Added school zones on Mission Road will improve students’ safety, slow traffic

Katie Jones

graphics by Cynthia Goldman

Lee Blvd.

Belinder

Mission Rd.

Somerset

in the

ZONE

here

75th St.

accompanied the students.

To further the amount of influence that the protest had, O’Connor e-mailed all of the state representatives and senators to make sure they knew what the protest was all about and why the people who were there felt that this was an important issue.

The response from the representatives and senators was generally a generic auto response thanking her for voicing her opinion on an issue. However, she did have two responses from senators who had voted against the bill and identified with her cause as well as one phone call from a senator.

“Whether or not we actually swayed anyone we won’t know for a few days because we will have to wait for the vote in the House. We are hopeful but we are still realistic,” O’Connor said. “If nothing else, SOPHOMORE Amelia Mallett shows her opinion of the Senate Concurrent we know that they all heard why were there Resolution 1601 by yelling at passing cars at the protest. and the amount of media coverage made it so that we know the word was out there.” get to vote on this issue.

Another area of publicity for the protest was word of “I think that this let a lot of people know what was going mouth at SME. Students who were serious about this issue on in our state and made people aware of things that will be spread the word that the protest would be an important on the ballot in April if this passes,” O’Connor said. “Lots of event and that it would be a good way to function in seniors wouldn’t vote in April but maybe this will prompt democracy. them to if it comes to vote.”

“None of the teachers were talking about it but students After all of the signing, chanting and fun that was had at did. I talked about it in every class,” Kass said. “For the the protest the main goal was still in sight: extending civil people who were there it was an important issue and liberties to another oppressed minority. we talked about it with people all the time. We definitely “I don’t think that anyone should be able to vote to brought it up when possible.” take away other’s civil liberties,” O’Connor said. “This will After all of the work, the protestors are hopeful that they make it so in the future any majority can take away any had some success with convincing the population who will minorities civil liberties.”

Parents from various Shawnee Mission schools have been pleading with the Prairie Village City Council to put school speed zones on Mission Road for months, and finally they’ve got what they wanted. The council recently voted 9-2 to add speed zones as well flashing beacons near five schools on the busy street.

There’ll be one created at Prairie Elementary at 67th Street and Mission, St. Ann’s School at 85th Street and Mission, Mission Valley Middle School and Corinth Elementary at 83rd and Mission, and Indian Hills Middle School at 64th Street and Mission.

Captain Jordan from the Prairie Village Police Department said the 25 mph speed zones will go into effect at the beginning of the next school year. The amount of money for a ticket hasn’t been decided, but it’s usually one to two times more than a regular speeding ticket.

In addition to the zones, Police Chief Charles Grover brought up the possibility of a traffic enforcement unit within the police department, this means hiring more officers to patrol areas that deal with traffic accidents to undertake investigations. The PVCC and the Prairie Village Police say these actions are being taken because of all the safety issues surrounding these schools.

A study has shown that students who go to school on Mission Road would be in significant danger without lower speed limits and school zones. There was a traffic study done in early October on Mission between 63rd and 93rd streets. The study showed that there would be a positive

Feb. 7, 2004

outcome if the five school zones were established. With the lower speed limit, students coming and going from East and other schools will be safer when crossing Mission Road or its cross streets.

There is opposition to these new rules. Some kids don’t feel that the new road rules are necessary.

“Yeah, there’s speeding on Mission Road. It’s not hard to do, and frankly, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. It’s probably not even the cause of a lot of the accidents. It’s a busy street, so what do they expect?” sophomore Amanda Levy said.

Most students and parents, though, seem to agree that the school zones and the lower speed limit are a good idea.

“I think it’s a good thing even if it’ll take a little longer to get to school,” sophomore Amelia Mallett said. “Every time I’m driving down Mission Road, all the people are going about ten miles faster than the speed limit. Considering my car is about to fall apart every time I go fast, I don’t really feel safe.”

Mallett’s mom, Nancy, agrees. “I think it’s definitely all right if it makes it safer for people. I see close shaves when these kids are crossing the street sometimes. I also hope it’ll reduce accidents.”

Once the speed limits are changed and the school zones are settled around the area, policemen and PVCC executives will observe the outcome of the newly imposed laws. Only then will they see whether the zones have lifted the lead foot syndrome along Mission Road.

news

issue 10

Shoved into the

5

Shadows

Blue Valley parents petition to ban controversial books Annie Fuhrman “Challenge yourself, read good books in 2005” reads the bulletin board outside the library. It is decorated with book covers and small reviews of each book. “Stotan,” “Beloved,” “All The Pretty Horses,” and “Lords of Discipline”; each book on display is being considered for removal from the Blue Valley District approved book list for profanity, sexual content and inappropriate subject matter.

“I was being ornery,” librarian Kathy Knopp said.

“People have said ‘great bulletin board,’ and I have gotten lots of reactions to it.”

On Jan 10, Blue Valley parent Janet Harmon took a petition signed by 500 Blue Valley parents, taxpayers and patrons to the board of education. The petition requested that 14 books be removed from the curriculum and replaced with appropriate parent choices.

“There was a book challenged in one of our high schools in the early part of the 2003-04 school year,” Blue Valley School Board Vice President Lori Hisle said.

“This book went through the high school committee, a district committee, and the board and each unanimously determined that the book should stay in the curriculum.

Since that time we have heard regularly from parents on the various books until we have gotten where we are today.”

After the Kansas City Star printed a story with Harmon providing information about her cause and information against it, junior Ellen Haun sent a letter voicing her opinion about the issue. “ I though the situation was stupid, and that they shouldn’t be able to ban {books} without listening to high school students. I don’t think it will pass – I hope not!”

Haun said.

With the news of the book removal made public, the Shawnee Mission School district asked the English department head of each school put together a list of the books taught in each grade. Senior IB English teacher Suzie Schweiker, the SM East department head, said this

was a way to head off any conflict that may arise among parents of the SMSD schools. By providing a complete list of books on the curriculum parents will know what books their kids are reading.

The lists were made to calm parent concerns, but according to Principal Angelo Cocolis and Associate Principal Susie Ostmeyer there have been no complaints or concerns from parents at East. The Blue Valley parent concerns, however, are still very much an issue.

“I think [the parents] are reacting to the very understandable fear that there is too much explicit content in these books, and they worry for their children’s emotional and moral well being.” Schweiker said. “Life is hard and literature deals with that issue.”

Among the books under review are the classics “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” which is taught in sophomore English classes at SM East, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and “This Boy’s Life,” the book which brought about the parent concern and petition.

“The [Blue Valley parents] are stamping out diversity.

The books they are trying to remove are newer classics with more minority and women’s voices, and they are replacing them with older books written by white men,” sophomore English teacher Kelly Fast said.

Books that have been proposed as replacements include “Moby Dick,” “The Count Of Monte Cristo,” “The Last of The Mohicans,” and “David Copperfield.”

“There are as many dirty ideas in the books that are supposed to replace them, but the words are archaic now.

They are OK because to them it doesn’t seem offensive,” Fast said.

Currently at East, there is a policy in place that allows any parent that feels a book is not appropriate to request an

art by Sara McElhaney

alternative assignment for his/her child.

According to Hisle, parents at the Blue Valley schools have the same opportunity. While the policy is available for parents, they seldom use the opportunity. English teachers could not remember choosing an alternate book more than once in their teaching careers.

“Everyone has the right to an opinion about books, and the policy allows them to opt out of them, but for them to say they don’t want anyone to read those books is a kind of censorship,” Knopp said.

The parents involved in the petitioning/removal of books have a website, classKC.org, with information about their cause and how to be a part of the petition.

The site includes a “Sample Book Review Documentation Form.” This form allows parents to rate the books children are reading on increasing levels of violence, profanity, and sexual content and religious beliefs. A list of the occurrences of profanity, vulgarity and other adult content is also available on the website.

“The parents are pulling out and listing the words, and with that they determine it isn’t wholesome. They take it completely out of context.” Boley said. “They don’t understand the context of the classroom discussion or the teacher. The benefit of the classroom can eliminate those things. It’s a safe place where kids can honestly talk about those issues.”

Schweiker agrees. “The value of a book is based on more than the controversial elements of language or topic,” she said. “The value of literature is to address the human condition. The response to life should be mature and thought provoking, None of those books should be removed, every single book on that list has value.”

The Vulgar TruthReasoning behind the parents’ petition Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya required freshman reading

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger required sophomore reading

It’s about a 7-year-old boy Hispanic boy in the 1940’s

The main character is a 16-year-old New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. The story takes place in the 40’s and the book follows Holden’s random wanderings in New York for three days after he is kicked out of his third prep school for failing grades.

There are too many bad words in this book.

This book contains profanity, including the “f ” word.

Feb. 7, 2005

6

opinion

the harbinger

The good, the bad,

&THE UGGS The newest footware fad is disturbing Michael Pope in my own words

Before we get started here, let me point out that I am in no way a fashion expert. I mean, I’m the kind of guy that uses exorbitant amounts of Axe body spray as a substitute for actually washing clothes, the I-won’t-change-my-jeans-until-the-stains-onthem-become-so-significant-as-to-completely-alter-theoriginal-color kid who sits behind you in third hour. Your hair smells nice.

That being said, I still find the time to have many quarrels with adolescent fashion, and if I were pressed to pick just one it would have to be with the so-called fashion statement that all the girls know as the Uggboot.

Uggs, which might as well be short for Drugs considering you’d have to be on some to actually wear a pair, hearken back to those days of elementary-school yesteryear when, coming in from the vanilla-frosted chill of winter, we would slip off the outer exoskeletal shell of our snowboots and wear the fuzzy insoles about the indoors. Typical fashion for the average 8-year-old.

At least, for me, the trend died around that age. But given the maturity and mental capacity of some of the students at this school, it would appear that some of us have not yet reached that fork in the road.

Girls, it’s not twenty below and you’re not Norwegian prostitutes, so is it really that necessary to keep your extreme southern region so toasty? I must admit that it is a far more sane proposition than those depraved souls who continue to pound the pavement in their Birkenstocks all the way through late January, but come on, it looks like you should be strutting about the red-light district in a

Joey Soptic in my own words

fuzzy pink cowboy hat and matching skintight vest carrying a tiny translucent umbrella calling yourself “Candy”.

I mean, I’ve noticed that there is the trend at this school for students to continually blur the line between actual daytime clothing and casual bedtime attire, but that’s supposed to be cute and used quite sparingly for added effect. Your attempts seem only bent on killing the poor defenseless sheep you counted last night and wearing them on your feet the next day.

According to the official product website, uggz.com, these boots are made using the “highest quality doublefaced Australian sheepskin”.

Imagine that, quality clothing coming from a country whose previous claims to fame are beer, shrimp-on-thebarbie, those weird Aboriginal musical instruments that sound like a bunch of hornets trapped inside a tuba, hosting the Olympics that one time, and generally butchering the English language.

These boot-like

objects seem to be the latest example of the teenage desire to walk without lifting their feet from the ground. You can hear them along with all those Birkenstock-ers skitch-skitch-skitch≠ing down the hallways like they’re training for the U.S. Speed Skating Team. Sometimes, if you listen closely enough, you can make out the sound of a thousand little sheep bleating in alarm only to be silenced just as quickly by the sound of the class bell.

It’s times like these that I wish we had uniforms, but then again I couldn’t rest at home knowing that this would only cause the over-excessive wear of these adult booties outside of school. Much like a plague of rabid zombies, this is a problem that must be contained if there’s any hope of saving mankind. I’ll spearhead the resistance forces.

We’re going to need to put our heads together in order to stage a proper coup; it will take every resource available and some of you may end up losing your lives.

Just remember that you will have fought bravely for the fate of sane humans everywhere, and that effort will not be forgotten.

At least not until the new season of Survivor.

Buildingaway theboredom

Kansas City is boring. Not a lot of anything goes on around here.

It’s even a topic of conversation for my friends and I when we are bored. After a while our everyday, monotonous schedule just gets old. Our concert venues are, for the most part, outdated. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre and Kemper are our large venues, however, Kemper is roughly three and a half times as old as I am, and Verizon isn’t even in KC. At 14th and Grand Boulevard, where there now lie great mountains of dirt, I can think of nothing better than to assemble a 20,000 seat arena to revitalize the downtown urban core. Besides being a nice addition to the city, the renderings of potential designs for it are like none other.

Nowhere else will you find an arena that might end up

The addition of a sports stadium would help liven up the otherwise boring Kansas City

faintly resembling a massive glass paneled flying saucer with a moat-like water feature around its outside that will be a place people can go and ice skate in the winter. Hopefully this will give us something to do, and it will be known as unique throughout the world as the only arena covered in glass panels and surrounded by a giant moat.

The new arena could maybe tempt an NBA or NHL team into coming here. With the Royals finishing their season with a nice, embarrassing 104 losses, and the Chiefs coming up short of the playoffs, some different sports teams would be good to acquire considering the current shape of our professional sports. The actual costs for construction won’t even be a huge difference for most people. It was even put to a vote, raising surcharges on car rental and hotel charges.

Feb. 7, 2005

It seems to me like this won’t even affect most KC citizens anyway.

Kansas City corporate giant Sprint has laid claim to naming and advertising the arena at $2.5 million a year.

So expect a nice little storm of advertisement. We should have an awesome Sprint Arena at the cost of plenty of advertising.

Overall, the arena would reap huge benefits for KC. It would bring in tons of revenue for the city. Maybe people around the US will think of the awe inspiring arena downtown instead of immediately assuming that we are all barbeque eating cowboys. You never know, a few winters from now you might just be able to find me down on 14th and Grand ice skating a bit before I go in to watch an NBA game.

opinion

issue 10

7

With modern technology, math has become a defunct and irrelevant class

Tom Grotewohl in my own words

WHO CARES?

2+2=WHO CARES? Last semester I received a C in precalculus. I feel no shame in admitting this; on the contrary, I take great pride in this noble accomplishment. It shows I truly have my priorities in the right order, perhaps for the first time in my entire life.

There once was a time when I valued all my school courses equally. I would try hard in them just for the sake of trying hard, and I never questioned their relevance to life. This golden age of “caring” and “good work ethic” has now passed, bringing forth a new era of indifference -- no, hatred -- towards math. More often than not I now find myself slouched down in class, staring lifelessly at the overhead and thinking, “Uh… when in my life am I going to need to calculate the frequency of a sinusoid function?”

For 98 percent of mankind, the answer is a clear and resounding, “NEVER EVER”. The other 3 percent are math teachers. Do those numbers even add up? I honestly don’t care any more.

I guess my problem is that I see people all the time with absolutely minimal education in math living relatively successful lives. Take my parents for example. I am quite sure neither can count to 10, and yet, so far, they have managed to not die. And let’s not forget about little Mutlik the monkey. I’m pretty sure that monkey didn’t know squat about trigonometry, and NASA sent him to space. To space!

Truth be told, the vast majority of monkeys and Americans alike will never again use math aside from

Freshman Zahra Waldman “Staying home alone with my man, and eating chocolate.”

Sophomore Seth Auld “Going skiing at Snow Creek with some friends.”

balancing checkbooks and paying taxes. Even then most can get by without any mathematical knowledge learned past elementary school.

Such revelations have inspired a sneaking suspicion that math at the high school level is taught only for kicks and giggles. Think about it. With the invention of the calculator in 1642, all math classes were made defunct. After all, that’s the entire point of technology: to replace old methods with new, easier ones. Man stopped wiping with rocks and leaves after the invention of toilet paper, but 400 years later we are still forced to learn the silly secretarial duties of the calculator. There is absolutely no reason to force modern man to learn ancient traditions when simple alternatives are available.

Now, I don’t mean to offend students who want to become tidal wave seismologists, as I’m sure there are quite a few of them out there. I do not think math is useless. Countless important contributions to the world can be attributed to mathematics, but the same can be said about painting, archaeology, music and many other fields. The difference is, those latter classes are electives. There are no malevolent demon gods ordering us to learn them in order to graduate. Is

KIDS in the Hall What are your plans for Valentines Day?

Feb. 7, 2005

that fair? Probably not.

Let’s compare math to one such elective: Latin. Both are high school courses, both are dead languages (just kidding, kind of), and both will be used by only a few people past graduation. Yet math is still required, and Latin is not. I find it hard to believe that one pointless archaic tongue is more important than the other.

To me, it makes more sense to let students choose to take the classes that interest them, rather than wasting an hour of their day on something they hate. From a very young age I have despised math like the drunk stepfather I never had. I always knew I would never pursue a mathrelated career. Unfortunately, in order to get my high school diploma or go to any college outside of DeVry I need to take another year and another year after that.

Instead, I could be working towards discovering a cure to any variety of crazy diseases.

Until this day of days comes when I am allowed to construct my schedule based on what I want rather than what others want, that C in Precalculus will stay right where it is. Eventually it will drop to a D. Then to an F. My GPA will plummet faster than you can graph a tangent function, right along with my chances at getting into college and my will to live. I’ll spend the rest of my days gnawing on charred rat flesh for dinner, scavenging through strangers’ garbage cans for tattered clothing and many other fantastic exploits.

Thanks a lot, math.

Junior Kyle Westphal “I would get my girl some roses and take her to dinner on the plaza. After our dinner we would go walking along Brush Creek under the moonlight.”

Senior Brianna Boudreau “I’m going out to dinner with my boyfriend to the melting pot. I’ll buy him lots of chocolate kisses and a sappy card.”

Cause-ism

Students shouldn’t be persecuted for being cause-affiliated Activism is on the rise in America. Across a big part in ending the Vietnam War. the nation people of all ages are becoming more Being informed and active can only lead to good involved in issues that affect us all. From abortion to things in the future. The issues being debated by environmentalism, everyone seems to have a cause people in three-piece suits do affect us. Some day we will be those people, making to support, but, while these those decisions. crusaders for humanity go about their work, they receive Students who choose to Students shouldn’t be participate in causes and take criticism from all around. persecuted for being Those at East are not a stand on issues should be cause-affiliated immune to this persecution. applauded, not criticized. Getting involved with environmental Throughout the building people standing up for what groups, or animal rights groups may not save the planet, but they believe in are met with those who do get involved make negativity and snide remarks. agree disagree absent During the promotion of more of a difference than those who sit idly by. the pro-gay marriage rally two The point of all this is that weeks ago, statements such as, “It won’t make a difference, why bother?” or “I’d go to those who choose to be active are better people then the rally, but I’m going to the mall instead” were heard those who think otherwise. It is said that to save across the school. It seemed that at least some portion one life is to save the human race. Nobody would of the student body could care less about gays and say they’re against saving the human race, so why would you criticize people who take up real, human their right, or lack thereof, to marry.

Well, if everyone always took the attitude of issues.?

The problem ultimately lies in ignorance. It’s “What I say won’t make a difference,” nothing would ever have gotten done. But a lot has been done. We impossible to support something you are uneducated weren’t alive, but there was a period in American about and have a negative attitude towards. To History known as the Civil Rights Era. Protestors then change this, it’s up to the individual. Just remember changed national law, and, in part, public opinion. that you can go to the mall, or save the world, the There was a time when protestors and activists played choice is yours.

10 - 0 - 1

Editorial Cartoon

Sara McElhaney

the harbinger

BRIEFS Construction on Mission

BRIEFS

8

editorial

has returned.

Profits from WPA tickets have been donated to UNICEF.

harbinger

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“Catcher In the Rye?! Jonathan, what is this smut doing in your room?”

Feb. 7, 2005

Letters to the editor should be sent to Rm 521 or smeharbinger@ gmail.com. Letters can be edited for length, clarity, mechanics, and libel, and accepted or rejected at the editors discretion.

Libby Nelson Annie Fuhrman Gordon Culver Cynthia Goldman Mallory Toombs Stephen McKim Linda Howard Courtney Condron Katie Jones Ally Heisdorffer Laura Nelson Ellie Weed Kathleen Bole Jayne Shelton Libby Nachman Meg Fracol Ian McFarland Evan Favreau Erin Morrissey Curtis Shank Peter Goehausen Ben Whitsitt Sara Steinwart Tom Grotewohl Cay Fogel Amanda Allison Amanda Allison Courtney Condron Cay Fogel Bryan Dykman Evan Favreau Danny Mapes Ross Boomer Derek Martin Clare Jordon Scott Peterson Joey Soptic Davin Phillips Sara McElhaney Michael Pope Bryan Dykman Maggie DiSilvestro Lauren Kelly Erin Morrissey Meg Fracol Emily Rappold Samantha Ludington Molly Magoon Kelsey Stabenow Aimee Slater Kate Larabee Katy Garringer Kevin Grunwald Dow Tate

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, student body, or administration.

features

issue 10

9

Store helps third-world artisans get fair prices for their work Clare Jordan

T

his network of what now is around 180 shops located all over the United States and Canada started out as one member of the Mennonite Central Committee bringing back local artwork from her mission trips.

In 1946, Edna Ruth Byler visited MCC volunteers teaching sewing classes to local artisans in Puerto Rico. She saw these students stricken with poverty and began looking for ways for them to make a living wage.

When she saw how quickly Puerto Rican embroidery sold among her friends she began a basement business selling stitch needlework from Palestinian refugees and hand-carved wood from Haiti.

The original business run by one woman out of a basement has become a volunteer project that involves 50-60 volunteers at one time in the Overland Park store alone. The original three countries handcrafting artwork have turned into 32 countries located throughout the world in South America, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit organization. Their goal is to benefit artisans; providing them a living wage, not to maximize profit or take advantage of disadvantaged artists. Ten Thousand Villages is part of the International Fair Trade Association (IFTA) as well, which means they are devoted to payment of a fair price and quality of working conditions.

The stores higher buyers to travel to one of the 32 countries Ten Thousand Villages supports.

“They live with these communities for several weeks to see what

crafts are important ethnically to the area, but also what would be considered trendy in America,” said Linda Zemke, Overland Park store manager.

There actually is a bond between the artisan community and the buyers because they make sure each individual returns to the same area and stay for week periods.

“There is a focus on picking an artisan group and supporting them for life,” Zemke said.

Upon a buyers arrival to the community they pay the artisans fifty percent up front for resources and the other fifty percent after they receive the product.

“This way there is no way they can lose money if the ship were to sink,” Zemke said.

Although most of the traveling revolves around the buyers traveling to the artisans on some occasions the artist come to North America for workshops.

“It’s hard for them to get here with the issues of money and visas, but in 2000 a man from El Salvador came and carved crosses while the women drew pictures on them,” Zemke said.

The store doesn’t only promote Fair Trade in the sense of fair prices; they also encourage actual understanding between North Americans and people of developing countries. They make it their vocation not only to send the buyers to the countries but the managers as well so there is understanding of the process in the stores.

Ten Thousand Villages Location:

7947 Santa Fe Dr. Hours:

10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Monday thru Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Saturday At a Glance: Ten Thousand Villages is part of the International Fair Trade Association (IFTA) Items come from 32 countries located throughout the world in South America, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia

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Feb. 7, 2005

10 features

the harbinger

DOLLAR depre$$ion

Students at wealthier schools are more at risk for depression

Every morning, sophomore Elena Baker* wakes up, brushes her teeth, drinks her orange juice, and takes her Lithium, an antidepressant. Baker has been taking antidepressants since 6th grade and is among the four percent of teens that suffer from some sort of depression at East. A new study printed in a recent nurses’ magazine says that teens at wealthier high schools are more at risk for depression.

The study, which was printed in the February 2004 issue of School Health Alert, says that the socio-economic difference between schools is closely related to depression, and students that attend wealthier schools are more at risk.

Baker has had a form depression since elementary school. She began taking antidepressants at 12 years old.

“I always felt so sad. I got to where I couldn’t live with myself; I just couldn’t look in the mirror. That’s when I tried to commit suicide,” said Baker.

Depression, according to Dr. Marilyn Metzl who has a PhD in Psychology, is a sense of hopelessness, despair and gloom. There are two kinds: chemical and situational. Chemical depression comes from a chemical imbalance in the brain, while situational depression is when an event or situation sparks the depression.

Baker believes her depression was a result of both chemical and situational causes.

“I think chemicals act up when you are

in a bad situation. In my case, my best friend died, [and] that’s when I got really sad.”

The way to tell the difference is to have a diagnostic evaluation done.

After Baker was evaluated they decided she was depressed and was prescribed medicine for it, although she didn’t always “remember” to take it.

“Sometimes I think I am just normal and the doctor doesn’t know what he’s talking about, so I don’t take my medicine. When I don’t take it I get really bad mood swings,” Baker said.

According to Laurie Michie, a social worker at SME, depression is a problem for adolescents everywhere. Teens encounter challenges like choices, futures, grades, parents, friends, self-esteem and identity.

The most probable reason why there is a relation between high incomes and depression may be because of the expectations that these students must deal with their grades and their future, expectations from their parents and themselves.

“Depression is more talked about here…it is ok to have a therapist,” says Michie.

Michie said the students here are extremely driven to do well, and their parents expect it, like in Baker’s case.

“My sister was first in her class and went to Harvard, so my parents expect a

lot from me at school and my future in general,” said Baker.

With the correct mix of treatments, may it be therapy or medicines; depression can be helped, if not cured.

“It has never bothered me very much that I have to take medicine that others don’t,” Baker said, “I want to be normal, and I would just much rather be happy than sad.”

Symptoms

Symptoms and

Quick Fixes for

Depression

•Change in appetite or weight •Change in sleeping patterns, like having a hard time sleeping, awakening, sleeping too much, or nonrestful sleep •Loss of interest in activities formerly enjoyed •Loss of energy and fatigued •Persistent feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness or inappropriate guilt •Hard time concentrating, indecisiveness •Recurring thoughts of death or suicide •Overwhelming feelings of sadness and grief •Disturbed thinking such as a false illness •Physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomachaches

Feb. 7, 2005

*name has been changed

Quick Fixes

•Write down two activities a day that make you happy and do them •Exercise •Don’t get more than eight hours of sleep a day, it can increase depression •Go outside in the sun between 10 a.m. 2 p.m.

•Abstain from alcohol and drugs •Eat more Omega-3 fatty acids, the EPA in it helps depression •Don’t consume products that have aspartame(like Equal or Nutrasweet) •Break big tasks into smaller ones •Look into religion •Therapy or medications

art by Cynthia Goldman

Jayne Shelton

Tanning

Lines

features

11 photos by Linda Howard

issue 10

Where’s the divide between beauty and health?

Ally Heisdorffer Visiting tanning beds is a habit amongst many teenagers these days. Although all tanning salons are required to warn customers of the harmful side effects such as skin disease, cataracts, or melanoma, many people just blow all of the warnings off as something that “could never happen to them.”

Besides the obvious bad side effects of indoor tanning, there are also good sides to tanning.

“Tanning is used for therapeutic reasons such as helping inflammation of the skin,” said Dr. Colleen Reisz, dermatologist on the campus of Shawnee Mission Hospital. “Currently, the most common illness for which tanning is prescribed is psoriasis and eczema.” Psoriasis and eczema are both skin diseases with rash like symptoms. Psoriasis will leave a victim with rashes across a person’s elbows, knees, and their scalp.

“We always make our clients fill out a card about their personal history so we can see if they have any medical conflicts or history of skin problems,” Kendra Degranffenreid, an employee at Celsius Tannery, said.

All of Celsius’ customers must be 18, or have a parent signature. They will not let anyone tan who’s under the age of 15. Celsius has four different types of beds that vary with the amount of heat produced and also the amount of light bulbs in the beds. Celsius also offers the option of the sunless, spray on tanner, or the high pressure bed which is UVB free and therefore will not burn the tanner.

There are two types of ultraviolet rays, UVA and UVB. The difference between these two types of rays is the amount of damage it can do to one’s skin. UVB rays are proven to brun the outer layer of skin while UVA rays penetrate more deeply and can weaken the skin’s connective tissue, but UVA rays won’t burn as badly as the UVB rays.

“Our most commonly used bed is the 52 bulb bed because it’s more comfortable and the maximum time for that bed is 10 minutes, so you can tan quickly,” Degranfeenreid said.

For senior Brenna Walker, working at Celsius brings the benefit of tanning for free and with this

option, she has started to tan much more often. Walker started working at Celsius at the beginning of the school year because she liked the atmosphere and wanted to partake in the benefits.

There are also many males that feel comfortable in an indoor tanning salon and will go just as often as the ladies. Sophomore Greg Sherf goes tanning usually every other day. He started his tanning ritual last year and isn’t bothered by the possible side effects of constant tanning.

“I do it because it attracts the ladies,” Sherf said. “I

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see guys up there all the time and they’re doing it for the same reason as me.”

Degranffenreid says they have a pretty even ratio of men to women that visit Celsius and it has been that way since she started working there three years ago.

Sherf says no one says anything derogatory about his choice to tan and feels comfortable going to the salon.

Senior Monica Pack has chosen to stay away from tanning beds because of personal beliefs. Since Pack’s mom’s side of the family has a history of skin disease, and her father recently had cancerous skin removed, she prefers to stay away from tanning beds. The last time she went to a tanning salon was during freshman year to get ready for a dance.

“I didn’t even do it right,” Pack said. “I laid with the tanning bed open for the whole time.”

Pack has also lost a friend to cancer, so with all of her family’s history and the fact that she lost a friend

Feb. 7, 2005

has been enough to keep Pack away from the tanning beds for good.

“I’m just scared of getting cancer. If you can do something to prevent it, then why not?”

Junior Jennifer Sosna chooses to go to tanning salons only around dances. She usually starts to prepare for a dance around a month before and goes once a week just to “get some color.” Her parents don’t mind that she tans before dances, but discourage her from going on a regular basis. “[My parents] don’t like me to go that often, but they understand if it’s before a dance,” Sosna said. Sosna also says that uses goggles and lotion only when they’re provided for like at Sunseekers where they have free shot Fridays and goggles for customers to use whenever they come. Sosna can pick up a lotion for free and have goggles always available for her need.

Those that tan should use a moisturizer or some type of lotion, according to Degranffenreid because dry skin is more prone to burning and won’t keep a tan as long as moisturized skin.

“Those individuals with pale skin, those on [certain medications] like tetracycline or Zoloft, or those that have a high number of moles should avoid light,” Dr. Reisz said. Dr. Reisz would not encourage anyone do go tanning for pleasure, but instead she often has cases where parents will bring their children in so she can talk them out of going indoor tanning.

“It’s like if you’re going to take up smoking, should you go talk to your doctor about it? Well sure, if they’re going to talk you out of it,” Dr. Reisz said.

Depending on your history or skin type, tanning could or could not be the right type of treatment for you. Whether or not someone wants to benefit from a tanning salon or do it because they need a medical treatment, it is recommended that they check with a doctor or dermatologist before they begin a regular schedule so they won’t be harmed by the side effects.

“If people are aware of the causes then they can make the appropriate decisions,” Degranffenried said.

12 features

the harbinger

All BLOCKED in

Block scheduling has its advantages and disadvantages

Pros and cons of block scheduling

at East

PROS: Seminar: pre-scheduled time for assemblies and school-related functions Less stress: more time to study and do homework More class time: students can read a selection and discuss it in the same hour CONS: Possible disruption: block scheduling could affect East’s national and state academic record Less teaching: teachers don’t always use the whole 90 minute of class More class time: students have trouble concentrating the whole hour

Feb. 7, 2005

Ph avi n by D

stressed. Instead of preparing for seven classes each day, students in block scheduling only have to prepare for three classes.

A student has two days to work on assignments for a class.

“The reduction in stress is big,” Krawitz said. “They’re not moving as much: only three times a day. Students have more study time, and have half the classes to prepare for each day.”

Finnerty, who transferred from East to North his junior year, had to make the transition from regular scheduling to block, a process that was similar in difficulty to Skryagin’s transition.

“At first it was kind of hard, because I was used to 50 minute classes,” Finnerty said. “I was used to 50 minutes of English. I have to sit through 90 minutes of English. That meant I had classes I didn’t like only two or three days a week instead of five days a week.”

Since classes were 40 minutes longer, the time it took for kids in Finnerty’s classes to settle down after passing period didn’t contribute to a significant amount of learning time lost in each class.

“It takes 10 minutes for the class to settle down. [At East] 10 minutes is one-fifth of the class time, and in block it is one-ninth,” Finnerty said.

Despite the advantages, Finnerty discovered that block scheduling made it difficult to concentrate in some subjects for over an hour and a half.

“Ninety minutes of math is a long time,” Finnerty said. “After the first hour, people start to nod off and screw around. That happens at all schools, but at North it happens a lot more. It takes a lot to concentrate in math for a 90 minute class period.”

Krawitz also recognizes this problem with block scheduling at West.

“Some teachers lecture all hour, which can be boring,” Krawitz said. “We tell the staff they should change their teaching method at least three times in a period.”

When English teacher Yolande Mountjoy was teaching at North, however, she was the kind of teacher who would “teach bell to bell.”

“I could do that easily in 90 minutes,” Mountjoy said.

“It’s easier to have the lesson, and have a continuous kind of flow.”

When Mountjoy transferred from North to East this year, she too had to adjust from a schedule that was more open to one that was more time constrained. In literature classes at North, it was common for students to just read for 20 minutes. There, the students would have time to read a work, and then discuss it with the teacher the same day in class.

“My lesson plans were all geared to 90 minutes. I had to rethink how to teach some things,” Mountjoy said. “It’s a little harder because you are hitting every single section

art

Senior Andrey Skryagin was confused on his first day at East. The numbering on the floors didn’t make sense, his first hour wasn’t even in the building, and his class schedule had seven classes every day instead of four. Coming from Colecamp High School in Colecamp, Missouri, Skryagin had to make the challenging transition from block schedule to regular schedule.

“It was really hard to adapt for the first five weeks,” Skryagin said. “[At Colecamp] you only have your first four hours, and everything was on one floor.”

At Colecamp, Skryagin’s schedule consisted of four, 95-minute classes each day. Like Colecamp, both Shawnee Mission North and West have similar block schedule formats.

Although North and West’s formats differ slightly, both schools run on what is called the A-B schedule. On A days students go to blocks one, three, five, and seven.

On B days students go to even numbered blocks with the eighth block being seminar, a period where students can talk to teachers, do make up work, and work on other class assignments. “[In seminar] you have the ability to get seminar passes from teachers. Then you can leave your seminar and go to a different teacher’s seminar to get help,” North senior Andrew Finnerty said.

In addition to providing time for students to get help from teachers, seminar allows the school to have a pre-scheduled time for assemblies and other school related functions. Play cuts, Adequate Yearly Progress Assessments, and counselor visits are all scheduled during this time, allowing students to attend without missing class time.

The biggest benefit of block scheduling, according to West principal Karl Krawitz, is that students are less

illip s

Stephen McKim

you teach every day and you have less time.”

The benefits of block scheduling prompted East to research and consider a possible change in schedule, an undertaking that Associate Principal Ron Mersch spearheaded 10 years ago. Researching schools of comparative size, and academic achievement--such as ACT/SAT scores and National Merit semifinalists and finalists--Mersch and his group found that a hybrid form of block and regular scheduling could be of benefit to East.

But there were risks involved with making such a drastic change from seven class hours to as little as four. The risks, according to Mersch, posed a possible disruption to the school’s outstanding national and state academic record.

“There is a possibility that there is an implementation dip that could affect academic achievement,” Mersch said.

“Parents didn’t want to take that risk.”

Even with the implementation risks, the future for block scheduling in Shawnee Mission looks bleak.

According to Krawitz, district and state finances will eventually cause schools to switch back to regular scheduling, where less teachers are needed.

“We’re going to lose four teachers next year,” Krawitz said. “We know that we were going to make cuts, but over the last three years it’s to the point of no return.”

Even despite the financial problems, both North and West’s formats have been working for around 10 years, allowing students to have a larger opportunity to do school work, and ultimately have more control over their own schedules. And to Finnerty, this makes all the difference.

“You have more time in class and more time to work,” said Finnerty. “I can do stuff that I want to do.”

issue 10

the

challenge of

features

13

Junior adjusts to deafness, move from Ethiopia to U.S. Junior Moges Gembero sits still, but his hands never stop moving.

They flash expressively in sign language, fast enough that an interpreter can translate them almost at the rate of normal speech. He has traveled over 7,000 miles to be here, sitting in a classroom with an interpreter, traveled 7,000 miles to get the education he wanted.

Six months ago, 17-year-old Moges Gembero was in Ethiopia, living on his own in an apartment with his nephew, walking 15 minutes to a school without an interpreter, a school so crowded it had two shifts—one in the morning and one at night.

But moving to the United States hasn’t been the biggest adjustment in his life. Going from Ethiopia to Kansas is insignificant compared to the changes that happened to him 10 years ago, when he went from being able to hear to being deaf.

He’s used to adjusting, used to adapting.

Losing his hearing For the first years of his life, Moges could hear. But when he was six years old, he had meningitis, a serious disease that can cause brain damage or even death; it left him deaf and forced him to adjust to a new way of life.

“Before I was deaf I could talk perfectly, but then I began to have problems talking. The use of language became difficult” once he was deaf and could no longer hear himself speak, he said.

He also had to leave his 130-person second grade class at the elementary school near his home in northern Ethiopia for a school where he could learn sign language.

From second through eighth grade, he attended a boarding school for deaf children 25 miles away. Moving away from his family to live with other deaf children at school was like moving to a different society, he said: a society where they had religious service every morning, lived together in dormitories and spoke a different language.

“My social life changed, because I was now a part of the deaf world,” he said. “[Because] the deaf can’t hear, they doubt things [people tell them] and wonder if they’re true.

They can’t be sure on anything.”

He spent the school year in this other culture, learning from teachers who used sign language, going home to his parents’ house in the summers.

The boarding school didn’t teach high school students, though, and there was no deaf high school for him to attend; in fact, there was no high school at all close to his home. So he left his family to move to a town with a high school and rented a one-room apartment with his 15-year-old nephew.

Many high school students lived on their own, he said; most lived too far from the school to commute every day.

He spent two years at the high school, without an interpreter, surrounded by speech he couldn’t hear.

“I liked to learn, and the deaf school finished at eighth grade, so there was no other choice,” he said. “But it was a bad idea, because I missed a lot [in class]. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t learn… It was not a good way for me.”

An interpreter wasn’t an option in Ethiopian schools, and Moges decided that he could learn better with one— even in a foreign country. So he applied for a student visa to the United States, where his brother Erjabo lived with his family.

Arrival at East Two weeks before Moges started at East in September, he arrived in the United States, bringing a few books and some gifts for his brother.

Erjabo, now an ESL teacher, moved to the United States 13 years ago, when Moges was 5 years old and not yet deaf.

Erjabo had visited Ethiopia only a few times since he left, but Moges had been planning to come live with him in the United States for two years.

Moges was used to trying different schools: besides the boarding school for the deaf and the hearing high school in Ethiopia, he’d walked 20 minutes to a public school in the summers he spent JUNIOR Moges Gembero works in his first hour class. He’s trying to catch up on with his parents; he’d obtained a student graduation requirements and American classes after arriving at East in September. visa to study in the United States; and he had registered at SM Northwest and spent Culture clashes a day at SM North before coming to East, the only Shawnee Five months later, Moges is making cultural adjustments Mission school to offer interpreters for deaf students. more difficult than differences in sign language. He’s Though it had been difficult for him to find the right learning to use a computer; he write and rewrites school, he never considered giving up, he said. sentences to learn English vocabulary. The biggest cultural “Learning is very important for you, for your life,” he adjustments have been at school, as he attempts to get used said. “When you finish [school], you can have a good job, to the relaxed atmosphere he found strange the first day; and you will be able to teach other people…I wanted not to at home with his brother, nieces and nephews, they keep be stupid, to have a good head on my shoulders.” the Ethiopian culture intact, eating the same foods and The bus that transports deaf students to East had picked speaking the same language. him up at his house in the Northwest area and dropped him “Sometimes I try to do things the Ethiopian way and off that morning. As he walked up the stairs that first day, US people say ‘Why are you doing that?’ ” he said. “I’m he was nervous—what he described as “culturally scared.” living with people who have another different way, too—a He saw students eating and drinking in class, students who different way of communication.” weren’t afraid to joke with teachers or wander around the The different cultures he has—Ethiopian culture, classroom. In the stricter Ethiopian schools, that never American culture, deaf culture—sometimes confuse him. happened.

“Here in the United States I live with my family and we Faced with such a different environment, Moges didn’t have the same culture we had in Ethiopia,” he said. “And know what to think or what to say. here [at school] I’m with deaf students. But when I’m the “I was shy,” he said. “I was a little embarrassed to sign. only deaf student in a class as the only deaf person, it’s I became kind of a jerk; I didn’t talk to people by signing. I sometimes difficult to give my opinion…When I’m with all was kind of neutral, kind of a loner. People were very nice, deaf students, I give my opinion and talk.” very welcoming, but I wasn’t willing to talk with American But Moges’s time in the United States has changed him: signs.” he says having an interpreter has made a big difference to He didn’t face a true language barrier: he learned to sign him. Now he’s able to understand enough in class to get English in Ethiopia, at the boarding school. Signed English the education he couldn’t have had as a deaf student in is the language that most interpreters and deaf students Ethiopia. at East use, according to interpreter Jessica Denson. But “At first when I came I was shy,” he said. “I’d had a lot American vocabulary is still slightly different, Moges said, of friends and a big family. I learned different cultural ways and occasionally Denson has to stop him and ask again [here]. I’d missed a lot of lessons in Ethiopia. Here [with an what he means. interpreter] I make my teachers proud…In Ethiopia, I was last on the last grade-wise. Here I’m at the top.”

photo by Kate Larrabee

Libby Nelson

Feb. 7, 2005

Over the past two months, three Harbinger writers visited three different schools- one rural, one urban, one small private school, finding out other schoos’ perceptions of us and discovering what it’s like for them. Each spent a day shadowing a student, going to classes, and...

getting a new

“These kids will probably hate gay people, and minorities,” I thought to myself. Driving up to the Piper complex I had already made up my mind as to how things would be. Some kid in overalls and a plaid shirt would stroll down the hall and say “Howdy, folks.” From everything I’d heard, Piper was a “rural” school. It only took five minutes inside to realize how wrong I was.

After stumbling around trying to find the office, I finally found myself standing in a brightly lit room, talking with the principle.

“I think the kids here are a bit more naïve than the kids at East,” Assistant Principal Marge Eckard said. “Our kids even look younger than the kids in Shawnee Mission.”

I was taken aback at hearing a staff member talk about her own school in such a manner.

You’d think the head of a school would convey a positive image of that school, but apparently they do things differently at Piper. I didn’t have long to question her about it, though, because the guy I was shadowing showed up.

After we did our introductions, we started down the hall to his first block. Piper runs on a block schedule, meaning that they only have four, 95-minute classes a day. I got some weird looks as I walked, but everyone seemed friendly enough. In a school of around 450 people it’s easy to pick out someone new.

We made it to his first class, College Composition, and I started talking to the people around me. No one that I talked to really had any preconceptions about East. To them, it was “just another Shawnee Mission School,” meaning we were “more city-like”.

I didn’t have a chance to talk long before the teacher came into the room and I quieted down, ready to be bored out of my mind. My

PIPER

expectations were met and exceeded as I proceeded to sit through a lesson taught in monotone, and an hour of time to work on things silently. It seemed all too familiar.

I noticed a few things while I was sitting quietly. Not one single pair of Birkenstocks were to be found, nor were there any North Face fleeces in the building. Other than that, well, I didn’t notice anything. It was the same; it seems class is class wherever you go.

As the hour drew to a close people started talking and I took some time to ask the guy I was shadowing, Derek, some questions.

He informed me that the only thing remotely close to Piper was Village West, home to Cabelas, Nebraska Furniture Mart, and The Great Wolf Lodge. To do things, most of the Piper kids came “into the city” even though they technically live within Kansas City.

In the second block, things were a lot more relaxed. It was journalism, but journalism at Piper is a bit different than journalism at East. The entire newspaper staff consisted of eight people all in one class. Here at East, we have two hours with a total of 45 people. At Piper their paper comes out eight times a year, and here we come out eight times a semester.

While I sat making conversation with the various people in the class, I couldn’t help but notice how at ease I felt. Even when I was just roaming the halls, everyone seemed close to each other, not in an over-crowded sense, but there didn’t seem to be tension. In the morning when I first got there everyone was sitting around and talking. There wasn’t any obvious division among students.

All of these qualities come from the fact that Piper is a small school. In the Piper school district there is one high school, one middle school, and two elementary schools. Most of the kids in each class have known each other since first or second grade.

As the second block came to a close I began to get a better feel for what makes Piper different than East. At East blending in is unavoidable: with so many people it’s hard to stand out. At Piper, blending in becomes a difficult task, because as soon as one person knows something, everyone knows everything.

LEFT: Going through the lunch line, students get a nice variety with a school-bought lunch. BOTTOM LEFT: A view from the outside of the school shows the similarity to SM schools.

BOTTOM RIGHT: A less-crowded lunch room makes for a more relaxed and personal half an hour to spend with your friends.

Piper High School

Piper Unified School District #203 12036 Leavenworth Road Kansas City, Kansas 66109 Phone: (913) 721-2088 Public School, Co-Educational “...The kids here are a bit more naive than the kids at East. Our kids even look younger than the kids in Shawnee Mission,” Assistant Principal Marge Eckard

photos by Katie Westphal

Derek Martin

perspective..

..

TURNER

A few weeks ago I ventured outside my Shawnee Mission East bubble to a mysterious land without Ralph Lauren Polos, iPods and Jeep Grand Cherokees. Yes, my fellow Lancers, a place like this does indeed exist!

I spent a day shadowing at Turner High School in KCK. Gasp! Upon telling this to the East population I received the following reactions.

Your’re going to get shot.

I didn’t, and witnessed no violence of any kind. In fact, I felt just as safe as I do at East. The students welcomed me, and I never felt uncomfortable.

Everyone there is trashy.

Another uneducated Turner stereotype. Does making less than a six-figure income equivocate to “trashy?” Of course not! A more appropriate word to describe them is “real.”

Turner is more in-tune to issues such as poverty and unemployment. Thirty-seven percent of the students are on the Free or Reduced Lunch Program, compared with three percent for East.

These students come from blue-collar backgrounds and aren’t guaranteed the opportunities that we Lancers often take for granted.

“If a Shawnee Mission kid wants to become a doctor, his or her parents probably know a doctor personally who can set up a shadowing or rounding opportunity.

Those types of connections don’t exist with the families at Turner,” said Assistant Principal Paul Colwell.

Thirty-one percent of Turner’s 2002 graduating class went to a junior college, such as Kansas City Kansas Community College, which was dubbed “Turner North” by students because of the high percentage of students who attend the college after graduating. Fifteen percent went to a four-year college, such as KU or K-State.

“Going out of state for college is practically unheard of,” said Colwell.

“My goal is not to end up at Turner North next year,” said a senior who is a varsity debater and President of the Business Professionals of America in Kansas. “Hopefully I’ll go to KU.” Mindee Hoit, Co-President of Turner and the student I shadowed, is also going to KU next year.

You will be the only white guy in the entire school.

Seventy-five percent of the students at Turner are white (East is ninety-seven percent), eight percent are black, and 12 percent are Hispanic. Whites, blacks, and Hispanics don’t intermingle much.

Wear neutral colors. Avoid pink, black and red – those are gang colors.

I saw no gang activity at Turner and I didn’t witness a single fight.

Guys dressed casually, most wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

Girls at Turner dressed similarly to girls at East, except without Uggsboots. I didn’t see a single popped collar, Ralph Lauren polo or Livestrong Band.

That school is ghetto.

No. The four-year-old school is nicer looking than East. Turner’s pool makes ours look like a self-inflating kiddy pool, their weight room is nearly twice the size of ours, and the halls are cleaner. The classrooms look about the same and the teachers that I saw seemed to be as good as the teachers I have at East.

Students participated actively in class and were generally open with one another. This was apparent in Family Life, a senior only version of a health class where some students confessed that they were “oops babies,” having no problem doing so.

Class sizes were similar to East’s, but all of the honors classes I shadowed had many of the same people in them, and everyone seemed to know everyone else on a personal level. Students seemed happy and had a positive attitude.

The new tardy policy, instated to correct attendance problems, is harsh, yet effective. If any student is late to any hour without a pass, that student is sent directly to the Tardy Room, where they sit in silence and do work for the remainder of that hour. In the four hours that I shadowed, not one person was late.

My only complaint was the food. Options were hamburger, pizza, fries, milk, and one other item each day. “Having a hamburger every day gets really old,” one senior said. There is no open lunch for seniors.

After hearing all of the stereotypes, I was surprised to find that Turner was nothing like we East students might imagine it to be. It’s a great school in which I wouldn’t hesitate a second to enroll.

photos by Kevin Grunwald

Ian Stanford

TOP LEFT: Standing in front of the mascot mural, writer Ian Stanford checks out Turner’s gym. TOP RIGHT: A view from the principal’s office shows the similarity to the offices at East. BOTTOM: Turner Senior Mindee Hoit shows Ian Stanford around Turner High School.

Turner High School Turner USD #202 2211 S. 55th Street Kansas City, Kansas 66106 Phone: (913) 288-3300 Fax: (913) 288-3301 Principal: Allen Voth Co-Educational, 9th-12th Grades “These students come from bluecollar backgrounds and aren’t guaranteed the opportunities that we Lancers often take for granted.”

continued on page 12: Kansas City Academy > > >

16 features

the harbinger

S

Sara Steinwart

meaning Students and teachers have

lipping into class two minutes late, Freshman Zahra Waldman takes her seat. The teacher asks where she has been and she comes up with an excuse to avoid facing the consequences of being late. She is not punished and once again succeeds in her power struggle against the teachers.

Administrators, teachers and students all have different views on getting to class on time. These ideas vary from teachers giving out detentions to others accepting excuses.

Students have their own opinion on getting to class on time. There are students who strive to get there before the bell and students, like Waldman, who try to be late.

“I like being late because then when you don’t get into trouble it makes you feel like you have more power than the teachers do,” Waldman said.

She loves getting away with the little things to make her feel more powerful and is creative with her excuses when caught.

“I will just tell them that I fell down the stairs or something like that to avoid trouble,” Waldman said.

She has worked her way out of being puished for being late.

“I like getting away with being in classes where the teacher obsesses over students being on time,” Waldman said. “I usually get out of it because I am good at arguing and can usually make the teachers feel sorry for me.”

While Waldman tries to be late to class, there are students like Sophomore Cole Easterday, who try to make it to their seat before the bell. Over the years Easterday has found what works and what doesn’t during passing period.

“I don’t stop and stand around to talk when I know that my class is far away,” Easterday said. “I just get to where I have to be and save the socializing for when there is time.”

Easterday has learned that making a trip to his locker is a major set back in punctuality since his locker is not on the way to any of his classes.

“I get all of my books for my morning classes before school, and my books for my afternoon classes during lunch,” Easterday said, “This works well because of the 10 minute passing periods after lunch time.”

Taking into consideration where a student comes from before their class is something that 5th floor teachers think about. It can be a challenge for a student to get from the basement up to the 5th floor in five minutes, even if they don’t socialize Sieck said. She works out a private arrangement with students who are in this situation.

On the contrary, there are teachers who see promptness as a necessity and choose to punish those who do not fulfill it.

“Every quarter I give my students one free tardy each, and the second time it is a 15 minute detention where I usually make them clean my transparencies,” math teacher Molly Fast said.

Fast does not take being tardy to the next step however.

She will not turn the student in to receive an office referral unless they do not show up for their detention.

Economics teacher Rebecca Murphy punishes students only if they abuse the privilege of being late to class without punishment.

“I hate tardiness and when it becomes a problem I send the tardy students to the office disruption for the education process,” Murphy said.

Teachers such as art teacher Jill Oliver have a more laid back view on promptness.

“I expect students to be on time and don’t usually take action unless if becomes a huge problem,” Oliver said.

If a student is late one day Oliver will just warn them, telling them that they should be on time tomorrow.

When a student is not in a constant pattern of being late, Oliver will accept excuses/reasons for being late.

“I understand that if distance is a problem for a student or if there was too much hall traffic some days,” Oliver said.

Being tardy is something that is interpreted differently by different students and teachers. Some strictly adhere to the idea that it is important to be in class before the bell, while others think of the bell only as a gentle reminder that class has started.

different opinions on being late Whether rushing to class or avoiding getting there, students have figured out how to act when the teacher asks why they are tardy. They make up excuses and make mad dashes from the first to fifth floor. They find a way to get to their destination.

The administration at East has no distinct policy that teachers are to follow, but they encourage the teachers to take action.

“If the students are late six or fewer times I recommend that the teachers either contact with parents, give a detentions or a loss of participation points,” Assistant Principal Susie Ostmeyer.

After the first six tardies Ostmeyer encourages an administrative referral. This means an administrator takes over the punishment. Depending on the student’s background, Ostmeyer usually uses Saturday school for first offenses, and if the behavior persists she assigns a suspension.

Ostmeyer considers tardiness a behavior of disrespect.

“Being late to class is telling your teacher that your time is more important than theirs,” Ostmeyer said.

Teachers have different policies for dealing with tardiness in their classroom. Some teachers choose to punish tardiness with detentions, other teachers deduct from students’ grade, and some don’t have punishments at all.

Spanish teacher Linda Sieck gives her students citizenship credit for being on time. These courtesy points are for acting appropriately in class. Points can be taken away for doing things such as leaving trash by their seat and being late to class. These points hurt a students grade if they are taken away.

“I don’t think being late should cause a student to receive a detention because that is punishing me for them not caring,” Sieck said.

Feb. 7, 2005

photo illustration by Kevin Grunwald

Blurred

Shop ‘til you a&e

issue 10

17

Drop

4200 Broadway 64111

Started 25 years ago, The Music Exchange is the sixth largest record store in the world. It has everything from classic rock to reggae to folk along with CD’s, movie posters, concert programs, magazines, posters and tshirts. The Music Exchange has over a million records with including 78’s and 45’s. Almost all of the employees are over age 40 and have met many famous artists including The Beatles’ George Harrison and Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. They know a wide range of music and have very interesing experiences to talk about. The Music Exchange is a great place to find your favorite music or to spend hours browsing the hundred thousands of albums.

Kathleen Bole

Kansas City is full of shopping malls and chain retail stores. Where do you go if you want something different? We reviewed several unique shops around town that will please almost anyone’s taste.

Whether you’re looking for dresses, T-shirts, jewelry, shoes or music, we’ve got it covered.

4056 Broadway 64111 The Bunker has a trendy ‘urban street wear’ style with popular brands such as Paul Frank, Triple Five Soul, Candies, Steve Madden and Puma. It was started by Lee Chang who owns a similar store in Chicago, The Belmont Army Surplus. Prices range from $35 to $200. The Bunker has the largest selection of Puma shoes in the Midwest outside of Chicago. Coming to the Bunker this spring is a new selection of Puma shoes, Volcom clothes, and Diesel jeans.

1201 W. 47th St. 64112

Oopsy Daisy’s is a funky boutique located in a neighborhood just outside of the Country Club Plaza. It opened four years ago first as a consignment and furniture shop and has evolved into an original, almost-to-girly boutique. Oopsy Daisy’s sells women’s apparel, shoes, fun gifts and accessories. Prices range from $20 to $70 with brands including Y Apparel, Paramita, Honeypunch, Soprano, Minimi and Original. Lily Pulitzer is coming this spring.

2701 W. 53rd St. 66205

photos by Kelsey Stabenow

Serendipity (n.): an instance of making a fortunate discovery by accident. This perfectly suits the quaint boutique shop in the heart of Fairway. Miriam Garvey opened Serendipity in December 2002 because there were many apparel lines that weren’t represented in Kansas City. Serendipity is an expensive women’s clothing and accessories store that sells brands such as Michael Stars, Juicy Couture, Hardtail and new lines Chan Lu, Milly, Plenty and Alvin Valley. The shop is a cute, but has too much of an upscale environment.

Feb. 7, 2005

mixed

18

the harbinger

the section about life

30thoughts second

with

Tay l o r M e n y

If you could be any instrument, what would it be and why?

A trumpet or piano because that’s what all the great jazz players played.

Are you a gypsy or a sailor?

Sailor.

For love or money?

Love.

Which do you prefer, vertical or horizontal stripes?

Either. Both of them look good.

topgrade

I say clouds, you say: Ice cream.

what’s cool

what’s hot

today

“I love giving money to those in need. (Are my lavender-scented, cellulite removing, lace panty lines showing?)” -Jane Celebrity. These people are on your TV screen, preaching to you to give money to this and that. You know, they sacrificed themselves for this “cause” of theirs, meaning that they didn’t buy a ruby encrusted bagel for lunch, but instead gave that money to Tsunami Relief or Save the Music. Come on.

If your going to tell us to give $100, why don’t you give twice that. You can afford it. Besides, I don’t think you need 16.84 Hummers in your driveway, er, personal runway.

freemoney

These scholarship deadlines are quickly approaching

yesterday

One, er, a couple words. The old guy with the white beard. With unsmiling children frolicking around behind him. Send money, get a picture. Send love get a friend. It was nice. I miss him. Especially around 4:30 a.m. when his infomerical was on.

•lookout•

Using my mad Tireseis-like skills (come on, where did you store your Odyssey/Iliad characters?) I can say that pretty soon people are going to give up on giving. The hassle of tax refunds; celebrities shouting at you to hand over more; not enough money to buy a third iPod. But please. Don’t stop giving.

“

Calgon Take Me to College Scholarship Monetary total: $1000 to $7000 Deadline: February 28, 2005 •Females •18 years or older •Must be starting college in the fall or plan to attend a four year college in the U.S. •Min. GPA of 3.0 Entry: Simply visit takemeaway.com and fill in a form Deadline: Feb. 28 Dorothy Vandercook Peace Scholarship Monetary total: $250-$500 Deadline: March 1, 2005 •Open to highschool seniors •Visit grandmothersforpeace.org for details regarding the writing requirements for the essay.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep / And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost —Robert Frost Feb. 7, 2005

”

in

Africa features

19 All: A FEW CHILDREN orphaned due to the AIDS epidemic in South Africa

Out

issue 10

Student travels to South Africa on missions trip to build an orphanage Mallory Toombs

photos courtesy of Greer Donley

Slicing a pineapple for the group on the trip, Greer needed when I started to bond with a young girl,” Donley had enough money to build a playground.

Donley carefully discarded as little as possible of edible said. “Everytime I would open my arms she would run Along with building an orphanage, this organization pineapple knowing that there were hungry children. into them and she was so easily entertained.” is attempting to help the QwaQwa community in many Immediately after throwing away the core and the Each Friday van Rensburg would travel into town other ways. Van Rensburg is working with the school scraps, Donley noticed three kids approaching the trash and retrieve the scraps from the supermarket, driving teacher of the elementary school to help tutor the young can. They took the scraps and ate off them whatever back with them in the back of his truck. The children children in English. He is also trying to build shelter for they could find. knew that he would do it each day and eventually chased pregnant women and ill mothers who need to have a “Everything that we his truck until he would stop. Donley place where they can get the care that they need. did there seemed so happened to be there on a Friday and she Donley said there is a chance that she would not want important.

The girls was able to help pass out the food to the to go to college after this trip and spend her life in Africa Upcoming Missions Trips spent a lot of the time children. with kids helping.

July 4, 2005 - July 15, 2005 there fixing meals for “The kids immediately lined up to get “There is nothing that can keep me from returning to August 1, 2005 - August 12, 2005 the kids out of any food and were so excited,” Donley said.

QwaQwa and to these children,” Donley said.

December 27, 2005 - January 7, 2006 food we could find and “We gave them chocolate and they weren’t playing with them, used to it and were so Cost while the boys built the surprised at the rich playground,“ Donley taste.”

2 week: $543 said.

Donley and the Airfare not included Although Donley and three other girls on the 13 other high school the trip lived in the For more information and college students Salvation Army in www.christiansportbike.com were only building a a room with barred playground, Wim van windows and dead Rensburg, a missionary bolted doors.

The of Breakthrough South African men Ministries, is hoping to in the end build an orphanage in have an ancient belief that if they QwaQwa, South Africa. rape white women or virgins they The group that went down on Christmas Day helped can get rid of AIDS. Therefore, Van Rensburg to use whatever money he had to build a the girls had to be with a boy at playground for the children, many of whom have AIDS. all times or in a group when going Because of the widespread AIDS epidemic in South into town.

Africa, kids are daily left to fend for their own after their The boys on the other hand, parents pass away leaving them to live in the house stayed in an old church on top of by themselves. The government does not believe in the mountain. Awakened by the orphanages so there is nowhere for the children to find girls each morning, they would love and care after they find themselves alone. Not only travel as a group up the mountain does AIDS take many of the childrens’ parents but many to pray and then to the orphanage. of the children have it themselves, suffering with no The building, as it is so far, is only hope of care until they find their way into a shelter like walls. They have not been able to SENIOR GREER DONLEY plays with the children in South Africa while there on van Rensburg’s. raise enough funding to build a a missions trip. She spent her days cooking the children meals and building a “I realized how much love and attention the children roof. At this point, Van Rensburg playground.

Feb. 7, 2005

20

a&e

the harbinger

‘Date’ leads the pack of romantic comedies Scott Peterson

Debra Messing, long time star of “Will and Grace”, has finally broken out of her single-show career. And although her new movie “The Wedding Date” isn’t exactly an award-winning film, it has at least managed to finally improve upon the overused and beaten to death genre of romantic comedies.

Messing stars as Kat, a sad and train wrecked woman who is on her way to her stepsister’s wedding where her ex-fiancé, Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield) is the best man. She has hired Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney), a male escort, to accompany her to the wedding so she can make her ex feel jealous about breaking up with her. She wants him to believe that she has moved on from their harsh breakup, although it is obvious she hasn’t.

Nick turns out to be Mr. Perfect, of course, and this is where the movie begins to become just like every other romantic comedy. He knows exactly what is good for everyone, and has an impeccable set of morals. He is the typical “Mr. Right” that movies need to start breaking away from if they want to be deemed original.

Aside from the humor and the well-acted scenes, “The Wedding Date’s” plot is all too predictable.

Watching it, I felt like I had seen this movie a million times before.

The story and emotions were boring, and would not compel you to remain in your seat and see the film all the way through instead of taking that much needed bathroom break. If you’ve seen a good handful of romantic comedies, then you will be able to tell what the ending is before you even step in the theater. It is unfortunate that this flawed plot prevents the audience from enjoying the well-acted parts. The thing that makes this movie better than its sister films is its comedy.

Messing’s sit-com experience helps her continue to

The Wedding Date

“

...sheds light on the overused and beaten to death genre of romantic comedies

”

produce effective and witty one-liners and slightly klutzy humor. She has proven she can do more than just TV acting. However, the humor does not come solely from her. She has several characters to help her bring laughs to the audience as well.

Among them is Kat’s British cousin TJ (Sarah Parish), an open and single woman who makes no attempt to hide her attraction for Nick. She never tries to steal him away from Kat, but she still has the funniest role in the movie as well ass the dirtiest. Expect to laugh every time she opens her mouth.

Although it is a well-known fact that in comedy timing

Feb. 7, 2005

is everything, very few movies successfully pull it off. “The Wedding Date” has no problem with this, and the humor is delivered at the right moments and without the feeling that it’s being forced.

Without this humor the movie wouldn’t be worth going to. The casting and the acting were well done. Other films need to take this and improve upon it if this genre is going to ever get out of this rut.

This movie is great for a date or when in the mood for a light film that doesn’t cause heart attacks or sudden deafness, but not for much else. It isn’t a great film, but it does provide a step up from the usual boring and sleepinducing movies that are driven by break-ups and reunions repeatedly throughout the movie.

a&e

issue 10

21

Killer

Bounty hunters search the North Korean countryside for cash in this new game

‘Mercenaries’ Andreas. You can hijack jeeps, tanks and helicopters, or you call in for various back up, whether it be an air strike Bullets whiz, rockets fly and or a supply drop.

This freedom is the game’s strong point: you use whatever buildings tumble. This is the scene in war-torn North Korea, and it is against this you want in order to go after the 52 bounties, each of which backdrop that you will hunt down enemies happen to be code-named as playing cards, an obvious nod to the system used in Iraq. With help from the above average for a nice cash bounty. You are a mercenary.

It’s the near future and war has broken out on graphics (especially the explosions), commandeering an attack helicopter and taking on the the Korean peninsula.

North Korean military by yourself Several factions are vying feels incredibly intense and fun. for power: the Allies, South Korea, China and But thanks to the in-game freedom the Russian Mafia. In the your choices are never limited to any one strategy. middle of all this you play as ... taking on the North It’s after you play a couple a privately hired mercenary missions that the game’s single company. Your sole objective Korean military by large fault comes into view: there is not to support a specific yourself feels incredibly is no depth whatsoever. Anything side but to work with whomever necessary to resembling a story is absent and so intenese and fun. is any real feeling of relationship hunt down the North between the rivaling factions. This Korean bounties.

“Mercenaries,” released for XBOX and PS2, absent dynamic could have really propelled this to being a is what is known as a “sandbox” game; the must buy. The result is a game in which you repeat the same developers provide the tools, but it’s your choice actions over and over again.

Despite the faults, “Mercenaries” is an enjoyable rental. what to do with them. This idea of freedom, which is also seen in games like “Grand Theft Its sense of pure action makes it great to just pick up and Auto,” is represented here but with a North play. So if you ever feel the need to take on an entire army Korean war setting instead of gang-ridden San from your living room, this is your game.

Evan Favreau

Mercenaries

“ ”

artwork courtesy LucasArts

Bring this coupon and receive 2 Single Topping Queen Pizzas for $13.99 6846 Johnson Drive Mission, KS 66202 913-789-7117

5285 W. 95th Street Overland Park, KS 66207 913-381-3338

Expires June 16, 2005

Feb. 7, 2005

22 a&e

the harbinger

Superheroes, vulgarity and Rick James, OH MY! Here’s a peek at movies and television coming to a DVD player near you in the coming months CHAPPELLE’S SHOW – SEASON 2 IN STORES MAY 24

Season 1 of the sketch comedy show has outstripped “The Simpsons” for the title of highest selling TV show on DVD, so what can we expect from the comedian that brought us Tyrone the Crack Addict this season? There’s a spin on “Training Day” involving Wayne Brady, the Racial Draft, and best of all, Chappelle’s show defining impression of Rick James (“I’m Rick James, b****!”) We may have to wait a while for the two disc set, but needless to say it will be worth it.

DONNIE DARKO: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT IN STORES FEBRUARY 15

Over the last few years, the name Donnie Darko has been synomynous with the phrase “teen cult movie.” And so when studio NewMarket saw its popularity among the young people, it gave director Richard Kelly a few million to throw in some new sequences, some shifts in the sound track, and a few theories the movie encompasses. The end result is “Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut”. It’s hardly different from the original, but fans will find new special features in this two disc set that weren’t in the original DVD’s release

FINDING NEVERLAND IN STORES MARCH 22

Quick! Someone get the tissues! The overrated but nevertheless praised and still not too bad tearjerker “Finding Neverland” is coming to DVD! “Neverland”, nominated for seven Academy Awards, stars Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie, the man who wrote Peter Pan. The flick follows Barrie as he comes to know a family that inspires him to write the play.

FRIENDS – THE COMPLETE NINTH SEASON IN STORES MARCH 8

Fear not “Friends” fans, you still have the DVDs! The ninth of 10 seasons is coming this March with another 23 episodes. The four disc set will include the documentary “Behind The Style: The Look of Friends, a retrospective on fashion, make-up and hairstyles through the years.” Now we can watch Joey and Rachel kiss until the cows come home! Or we can just try to forget that I just said that...

THE INCREDIBLES IN STORES MARCH 15

Pixar delivered one of, if not the best, computer animated movie last November with “The Incredibles”, a cartoon about a family of superheroes that come out of hiding to save the clan’s patriarch. Only nominated against the mediocre “Shrek 2” and the down right bland “Shark Tale” for the Best Animated Movie category for the upcoming Oscars, “The Incredibles” is sure to win. Look for it next month.

SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON IN STORES FEBRUARY 22

Ah, “South Park”. The show that taught us so much at a young age, and still makes us laugh to this day. The fifth season of the show continues the tradition of sometimes vulgar but always funny episodes, and includes this writer’s favorite episode of the series, “Scott Tenorman Must Die,” of which the subject matter cannot even be printed in this student-run newspaper. These 14 episodes are sure to tickle your funny bone and irritate your parents sense of morality until the cows come home.

What? I used that stupid phrase AGAIN?

Feb. 8, 2005

Ian McFarland

sports

issue 10

Raising the bar

23

Hopes among wrestlers are high as Regionals approach Wrestling Coach John Sonderegger hopes to shatter the school record of taking seven wrestlers to the Feb. 25 State tournament.

“I think we’ve got a good chance of taking 10 or 12 wrestlers,” Sonderegger said. “Who, I can’t really answer that question, it depends on how they wrestle.”

To qualify for state, a wrestler has to place in the top four in their weight class at the Feb. 19 regional tournament.

To prepare the wrestlers for regionals, Sonderegger has made the January wrestling practices shorter but more difficult. This means more rope climbing, more live wrestling, and more conditioning packed into a shorter time span. Then, before the Regional tournament, Sonderegger plans to change the practices back to the normal length and the more relaxed pace, because he doesn’t want to strain the wrestlers right before the tournaments.

“Obviously I don’t enjoy the harder practices, but I know they are paying off because I’ve gotten stronger,” JV wrestler Jack Stout said.

The practicing give the wrestlers most of the conditioning needed, but Sonderegger expects outside effort such as eating 3-5 healthy meals per day, jogging on their free time, and lifting weights.

“Since I began wrestling, I’ve started to watch what I’m eating. I need to make sure I have enough carbohydrates so I eat a lot of pasta and fruit,” varsity wrestler Jack Krieger said.

The harder training has paid off.

At the first tournament of the year, the squad lost brutally, 70-9. Since then, the Lancers have come a long way winning the Topeka Highland Park, Christ Prep, and the Feb. 1 Senior Night at SM South, where defending state champion, Ryan Sonderegger, led the team to a 4818. Also, with only 9 wrestlers- about half of the squadthe team took fifth at the SM North Invitational with a score of 77.5.

“I see signs of the team starting to peak and I’m very proud them,” Sonderegger said.

According to the coach, one of the problems that has arisen over the season is being underweight because of the immense amount of exercise.

“Some wrestlers are finding that they can’t eat enough. They are trying to keep their weight on but they just keep shedding pounds,” Sonderegger said.

One wrestler in particular, JV wrestler Patrick Grindinger, is doing everything he can to keep the pounds on for football. Grindinger has lost almost 15 pounds from the middle of January since the end of football.

In wrestling, there are 14 different weight classes, ranging from 103 pounds and below to 215 pounds and above, also known as ‘Heavyweight’. With a new weight class starting every five or six pounds losing 15 pounds, could drastically change a wrestlers weight class. But Grindinger says, weight isn’t everything.

“I don’t really care what weight class I end up in, I just want to win,” Grindinger said.

photo by Megan Koch

Danny Mapes

SENIOR Logan Rutherford attempts to pin his opponent at the meet against SM North on Feb. 1

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24 sports

PERFECT PAIR

the harbinger

photo by Emily Rappold

A strong senior duo has led the Lancers near the top of the Sunflower League Peter Goehausen

photo by Emily Rappold

Coming into East as freshmen, seniors Jennifer Franklin and Sarah Parker never imagined they would be where they are today, starting on a girls’ basketball team that is currently ranked eighth in the state while combining to form one of the best duos in the Sunflower League.

“When I was young, I always knew I wanted to play varsity basketball,” Franklin said, “ but we have definitely exceeded my expectations.”

This season, Franklin has exceeded everyone’s expectations in leading the conference in scoring with 20 points per game, and in rebounding with 9.1 per game.

Jennifer has had five games with 25 points or more while helping lead the girls’ team to a 6-3 record.

“It’s just nice to get the recognition,” Franklin said.

Why the enormous improvement in Franklin’s game this season? Part of it, she said, was her participation in an excessive amount of summer basketball games. On her former AAU team the Bells, she traveled all around the country to places such as Las Vegas and North Carolina. She learned a lot and improved while playing against talented players such LEAGUE LEADING STATS as Kansas recruit Points- 19.8 points per game and Olathe East star Rebounds- 9.1 rebounds per game Danielle McCray.

Game highs “I learned a lot over Points- 29 against SM North the summer,” Franklin Rebounds- 18 against SM West said. “It’s made me step my game up.”

“The recognition is nice,” Franklin The other reason said, “but it means nothing if we are for Franklin’s vastly losing.” improved numbers— 10 more points per

Jennifer Franklin

25

game—is the new coach and his style of play. Coach Rick Rhoades runs an offense with four guards and lets Franklin play the post. He directs the majority of the plays towards her. It allows her to control the low post, and whether she is scoring or grabbing the rebound from a missed shot, she has owned the paint this season.

“The offense we run kind of forces me to do something, whether it is scoring or getting the rebounds,” Franklin said.

When Franklin is double-teamed in the low post, her first option is to get the ball to the sharp-shooting Parker.

Though Parker’s statistics aren’t league-leading, they are still the best numbers she has put up in her career, while filling the role as one of the best sidekick’s in the league.

“When Jennifer get double-teamed,” Parker said, “it opens everything up for me.”

Parker has taken advantage of the open looks she’s getting on the perimeter, shooting 40 percent from the threepoint range, which ranks in the top 10 of the Sunflower League. Along with her high three point percentage, she is averaging 16 points, three steals and three assists. She has been the consistent stable perimeter player this season, Rhoades said.

“I guess these two could be compared to Shaq and Kobe,” Rhoades said laughingly.

Ever since they led their freshman team to an undefeated season, these two have had success on the basketball court. After that year, they have spent the better part of the past three seasons creating havoc on the varsity level, while creating a friendship off the court.

“We now know each other’s game really well,” Parker said, “ and that’s what makes us a good tandem.”

While their time on the court over the past four years has always been spent together, next season the two will part ways and head to their respective schools. Franklin will continued her playing career at Truman State. She will be the only player for Truman State who is over six feet. Though the Bulldogs have struggled this season, 8-10, Franklin hopes to come in and immediately contribute.

Feb. 7, 2005

SENIOR Sarah Parker exhibits her range from beyond the arc, as she makes a three against SM North.

“She is a great triple threat forward,” Truman State Coach John Sloop said, “but the thing we like most about her is her enthusiasm for everything she does.”

Parker has yet to sign a letter on intent anywhere, but is strongly looking to play at either St. Mary’s or Avila.

“Both of those two schools have basically guranteed Sarah a starting spot,” Rhoades said, “so she is definitely interested.”

Before college begins, the girls still have to finish their four-year reign at East. So far this season, East is one of the most improved teams in the Sunflower League with a 9-4 record. On a negative note, they play in the toughest sub-state bracket, which includes St. Thomas Aquinas, SM Northwest, and Olathe East. The top two teams in sub-state advance to the state tournament, and the Lady Lancers have already lost to SM Northwest and Olathe East. They have yet to play St. Thomas Aquinas, who is currently ranked first in 6A. However, Rhoades believes they can advance to State, if they can finish the season on a winning streak and build some confidence.

“The sky is the limit for this team,” Rhoades said, “however, everyone must improve and feed off Jenn and Sarah.”

sports

issue 10

25

what you need to know about...

Working Out

photos by Molly Magoon

and where to do it

Aerobic group convenes at the local gym to get their workout in for the day.

Davin Phillips The sweat runs down her forehead, dripping off the end of her nose. The need for water is intolerable. Every muscle in her arms and legs is burring and they seem to heavy to lift anymore. She keeps going, because she knows the rewards in the long run are much greater than the pain she goes through now.

“You can’t do a sport without being fit, you won’t go far, you have to put out effort,” JV Volleyball player sophomore Alex Etherington.

Most students who exercise outside of gym class are doing it for a sport or to keep in shape during the off season, improving speed, jumping height, and strength for various sports. Other students do it to look fit and have hard abdominal muscles. Students are also involved in CAP, which is a special program designed for the sport you’re working in. Dumbbells, medicine balls, and treadmills are a few of the pieces of equipment they use for an hour and a half on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“It makes me feel 10 times better,” freshman Volleyball player Alex Zyck.

Keeping physically fit is one of the most important things to do. It not only keeps you healthy, but also makes you feel good about yourself.

“You produce a chemical called endorphins, which gives you a natural high,” gym Teacher Debbie Ogden said.

It is recommended that you exercise every day, three to five times a week doing an aerobic activity: walking, jogging, or lifting weights. Stretching before every physical activity is critical. If you don’t exercise you can become stiff and weak.

Becoming injured when doing sports is also more likely. The reason most teens don’t exercise is due to their attitude. They can become easily discouraged when exercising, and they feel as if there is no point to it.

There are many fitness centers around the Kansas City area that offer a wide range of programs for teens to sigh up and participate in. They not only offer a way to stay fit, they

also teach work ethic and goal setting.

“I’m so used to exercising everyday that if feels weird if I don’t,” sophomore Emma Bergin.

24 Hour Fitness offers Youth Sports for student athletes.

Each year over 16,500 student athletes participate in the Team Sports Varsity Program. Athletes can experience the latest in fitness equipment and training for free during the school year. 24 Hour Fitness also offers Team Sports Booster Program for help to raise money for a team by letting them sell fourteen day passes to 24 Hour Fitness and the team keeps all the profits.

The YMCA offers a great variety of programs for teens to participate in, such as Junior Yoga, which teaches balance, flexibility, strength, focusing on the mind and breathing exercises. Junior kickboxing is a cardiovascular class that concentrates on boxing movements. Martial Arts can teach confidence, courtesy, mental focus, and self-control, and is a great way to exercise. The Y also offers an open gym, and personal trainers. Fitness programs that can be done with family or with friends are offered too. Family Fun Nights help you enjoy family time with games and swimming. Teen Activities include dancing, swimming and a DJ throughout the summer and school year. Every program has different times that they are offered so that it is easily worked into any schedule.

what they have to offer YMCA

- jr. Yoga - jr. Kickboxing - open gym - personal trainers - family fun nights

24 Hour Fitness - youth sports - team sports varsity program - team sports booster program

why you should get in shape - improve speed, stamina and strength for your upcoming sport - “get right” for spring break and build up your self esteem - shed those unwanted holiday pounds

Feb. 7, 2005

26

sports

Prepfor pep Courtney Condron The gymnasium will be filled with 2,000 students. The cheerleaders will perform in front of them all. They will be held 10 feet up in the air, and they can’t mess up. This performance will be their only chance to show off all that they have practiced for.

“I get really excited right before we perform the dance,” senior and co-captain Monica Pack said.“If someone does fall during a stunt, we know it’s not because we didn’t work hard enough, it’s just a matter of luck.”

A week earlier the girls had been hard at work. The stunts hadn’t gone up yet and they were just learning each count for every step.

Thursday (5 days before the assembly) “Do your flatbed into extension, then you walk and then you cradle in a ripple!” Pack shouted to the cheerleading squad.

With their time cut short due to the McPherson tournament, the cheerleaders had to get their stunts down tonight for Tuesday’s assembly, or risk embarrassment in front of the entire school.

Forming their four stunt groups, the cheerleaders practiced lifting their flyer up into the air.

“1....2....3....4....” the bases counted as they pushed the flyer up into the flatbed position. When the flyers came down they prepared to do it again and again, until it was perfect.

After 40 minutes of practicing their lifts and timing their counts, the squad was ready to start going through the dance.

“Teaching the dance takes a lot of patience, and it also takes a lot of work from everyone, but once we get it down it’s a lot of fun,” Pack said.

According to Varsity cheerleading coach Shirley Larson, it takes the squad a “good month” to learn each dance that they perform at the pep assemblies. Pack usually choreographs most dances along with other seniors who have background in dance.

“I discuss a lot of issues with the captains and set the ground rules, but they do a lot of the creative aspects,” Larson said.

Because the squad is student led, a lot of the time things

the harbinger

Cheerleaders prepare for pep assembly through hard work and early morning practices

do get a little dramatic with 18 girls.

“It’s always someone’s word against yours, so it’s nice to have the captains, Monica {Pack} and Sarah {Weltner}, to jump in and set it one way or the other,” senior Meredith Looney said.

As Pack stands at the front, she watches for mistakes as the girls go through each step of the dance.

“5….6….7….8….Ok do it again! We’ll start from the beginning!” Pack shouts.

After thirty minutes of starts and stops, their practice is over. The cheerleaders leave the next day for McPherson, and then will return for two extra 6 a.m. practices the next week to prepare for the assembly.

Tuesday morning (day of the assembly) At 5:15 a.m. senior Jaclyn Frankenberg reluctantly got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

I feel like I just went to bed an hour ago, she thought to herself.

At 5:57 a.m. Frankenberg pulled up to the school, ready for early morning practice for the second day in a row.

The cheerleaders must have their practices in the morning when they need extra time due to lack of gym availability, and because cheerleading is not a class in Shawnee Mission. All Olathe high schools have it as a class just as Drill Team does at East.

“I think we would be an amazing squad if we had it as a class,” Looney said. “However, I think that then it would be more of a school course and it wouldn’t feel as fun because it would be so competitive.”

So the cheerleaders were at East stretching until 6:15 a.m., and then “cleaning up” the dance, pointing out any miscounts and wrong steps.

“I’m really excited; the only thing I get nervous about is stunting,” Frankenberg said. “The songs we chose this time are kind of silly like “Barbie Girl” and “Jump On it” so I just hope people realize that, otherwise we’ll feel really stupid.”

Tuesday afternoon The cheerleaders arrive in the gym at the beginning of seventh hour to stretch, warm-up and do one last runthrough.

As students file into the gym, packing the stands, the cheerleaders line up for the fight song.

Once it is complete they sit through the beginning of the assembly until it’s their turn. Finally, they are announced.

Go Lancers go beat the Hawklets, let’s go East!

The squad chants.

Flyer: After the cheer, the music comes on. As “Come The girl who is lifted or thrown in the air during stunts. on Ride the Train” blasts throughout the gym, the four stunt groups come together. Flatbed, extension, High V: cradle in a ripple. All of the stunts went up.

Arms are completely extended above the head in a V position The cheerleaders run off after each doing a few with thumbs on the outside of the fists. extra jumps.

“It went really well,” Looney said. “It was more of Russian: a fun one so I think people enjoyed it.”

A type of jump where the cheerleader does a straddle in the air The dance is finished, and all the hard work is while extending their hands towards their toes. completed. Now, it’s time to start thinking about the next one.

“We work so hard to just do it once and then it’s Russian Retake: done,” Pack said. “Cheerleading is a lot harder than A stunt where the flyer is flown in the air into a russian and then people think. I know at games a lot of the time we’re caught and popped back into a regular stunt. just standing there, but lifting people is not easy, and jumping gets tiring and makes you sore. It’s not like Shell: we get out of breath, but it is hard work.”

The top section of the cheerleading uniform.

Know the lingo

Feb. 7, 2005

TOP TO BOTTOM: Senior Emmie Leek practices the dance one last time before the performance at the Jan. 25 pep assembly. The squad huddles together as co-captain Monica Pack gives them last minute directions. Junior Megan Turner is hoisted up into the stunt by her bases Junior Megan Sayler and Senior Amy Harris. As the dance ends, the squad forms their final pose. photos by Linda Howard and Celene Reynolds

Sports

issue 10

27

New trainer joins the team Maggie Disilvestro

The training room, Aaron Bruns’ office, is alive and buzzing by 2:45 with athletes who are eager to get to practice. After wrapping several ankles, comments like “You saved my life!” can be heard everywhere. To this he cordially replies, “That’s what I’m here for.”

Bruns works as the East Athletic Trainer in the afternoon during sports practices, but before that he often helps out at the Sports Rehabilitation & Physical Therapy Associates center.

Growing up in Prairie Village, Bruns always called Kansas City home. He played on the tennis team at Rockhurst high school and dabbled in his favorite sport, hockey, but his main interest was athletic training. After attending Rockhurst for four years, he moved to Springfield to go to South West Missouri State. SMS has an excellent athletic training program, which was the career Bruns had wanted since he was a sophomore in high school. Bruns says this was his way of staying involved with sports. He studied for five years at SMS, and after passing the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) exam, Bruns earned his certification and joined the work force.

He relocated once again to Palm Beach, Florida, to be an athletic trainer for the St. Louis Cardinals A division during their spring training. He worked with them for twelve years during which time he traveled to 44 of the 50 states and lived in 12 of them. But the jetsetter life didn’t suit Bruns. He worked seven days a week from April to Labor day because,

as he says, “In baseball you don’t get days off.”

When he was moved to the AAA division during his last two years, Bruns realized that he wasn’t going to move back up to the major leagues; his career wasn’t going anywhere. He left the Cardinals for the simpler life of homeKansas City. “I was tired of the constant travel and it was time for a change.”

In KS, Bruns applied to Sports Rehabilitation & Physical Therapy Associates and he got the job and was assigned here.

Now that Bruns is working with students who play many different sports, Bruns sees more than baseball related injuries. In the typical day during basketball and wrestling season, Bruns sees ankle and wrist injuries, as well as contusions and bruises. The worst injury was when he was still working for the Cardinals and he saw a compound fracture where the bone was WRAPPING ankles is one thing new trainer Bruns does for athletes sticking out of the skin. replied, “Absolutely nothing but wait to come back [to East].”

Bruns says he difinitely likes working with high school kids over the bigwigs of his past. “The kids here are Senior Rachel Beck offers to take him out to the clubs with great and fun to work with. In the major leagues it is all her to find him a “woman.”

Bruns graduated from SMS in 1992 and intends to about money. Here it is a different atmosphere.” he said.

Students here also like Bruns and it is obvious from the continue being an athletic trainer at East, “as long as they moment anyone walks into his office. When some of the want me.” female athletes asked what he does on the weekends he

ports ticker•sports ticker•sports ticker•sports ticker•sports ticker•sports ticker•sports ticker•sports ticker•sports ticke

Athlete of the Week Luke Tanner Varsity Swimming

Not only does Luke Tanner come from a family of swimmers but also is a dedicated worker. He has recently broken the school record of 48.20 in the 100 freestyle with a time of 48.00.

His 200 freestyle time is currently the fastest in the state. He was expected to have broken the league record in both the 100 and 200 freestyle. His relay team consisting of John Cook, Brandon Barnds, and Kevin Reene is hoping to break both the state and the All American records in the 200 and the 400 freestyle relay.

Basketball Girl’s Varsity: Girls are atop the Sunflower League with a 10-4 record. Seven seniors are leading the team, especially Jennifer Franklin, who leads the conference in scoring and rebounding.

Junior Varsity: The team is on a two game losing streak but still has a winning record of 5-2 after losing to Shawnee Mission South and West.

Boy’s Varsity: After winning the biggest game of the season at Rockhurst, the boys basketball team will play Olathe North at home tomorrow night. The teams record is 9-4. JD Christie leads them in scoring with 19 points.

Junior Varsity: The JV squad is 4-2. They lost by over 30 against Rockhurst. Play Olathe North tomorrow at East.

Game of the Week

Girl’s Basketball vs. Leavenworth, Feb. 8, 6:00 p.m.

If the girls want to start hitting their stride for the state tournament, this is the game they must win. Leavenworth sits in the middle of the Sunflower League and is a very beatable team. The seniors must come to play if they want to beat Leavenworth. This game will start their run towards their state birth

Upcoming Schedules

Boys Basketball

2-8 vs. Leavenworth, 7:30, SM East Gym

Girls Basketball 2-8 vs. Leavenworth, 6:00, SM East Gym Wrestling 2-9 SM North Dual, 6:00, @ SM North Swimming & Diving

Wrestling Varsity: The team found success on Feb. 1 which was

senior night. Senior Marshall Martens won twice in the 135 lb class, senior Chrus Uhl won in the 140 lb class after being violently ill earlier in the day, senior Ryan Sonderegger won twice in the 171 lb class and senior Logan Rutehrford won twice in the 215 lb class including a win in under 30 seconds.

Junior Varsity: JV league was Sat., Feb.. 5, at SM West.

The wrestlers are as follows: 112: Ross Ringer, 119: David Schrunk, 125: Jack Stout, 130: Miles Grantham, 135: Bobbie Miller, Will Kobolynski, 140: Cole Spickler, 152: William O’Rourke, 160: Andrew Collingswood, Cole Johnson, 171: Patrick Grindinger, Kenton Kloster, 189: Matt Baker, John Brickson, Dennis Jilka, Josh Beller, 215: Matt Lane, Dillon Goins

Feb. 7, 2005

By the Numbers

4000 100+

Number of average yards swam by varsity boys swimteam daily.

The Number of points the boys swim team is expected to win league by.

Other Top Performers

Bryan Nelson Sophomore, center, varsity boy’s basketball Nelson had his first dunk in the game against Rockhurst, which gave East the momentum and later the victory. Nelson finished with 8 points.

Marshall Martens Senior, wrestler, varsity

Recieved third place at the North meet.

Swimming & Diving State Qualifiers

Boy’s Swimming: Brandon Barnds- 50, 100, 200 free Jack Chalfant- 500 free Mike Chalfant- 100 fly John Cook- 50, 100, 200, 500 free, 100 fly Brad Crist- 100 breast, 200 I.M. Mark Modrcin- 50 free Kevin Reene- 50, 100 free Brogan Runion- 100 fly, 100 back Mike Stalzer- 200, 500 free, 100 fly, 200 I.M., 100 back Luke Tanner- 50, 100, 200, 500 free, 100 back

Boy’s Diving: Scott Borgmier, Andrew Block, Michael Horvath, Chris Hause

28

photo essay

the harbinger

SOPHOMORE Amelia Mallett yells at last week’s protest in Topeka against an amendment banning same-sex marriages. “It was great to see people of such diversity all coming together,” she said.

Standing for Equality Photos by Kevin Grunwald

SENIOR Stuart Sudekum smiles above the American flag. He used the flag to show SENIOR Matt Turner waves his sign at the protest. “It was overwhelming to see so much support and acceptance,” that America should support gay marriage.

Turner said.

Feb. 7, 2005