The Harbinger: Issue 13

the harbinger.

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS 66208

MARCH 26, 2018 VOLUME LIX ISSUE 13

A series of gun-related crimes have set a string of student responses and protests around the nation in motion, and East students are joining the fight PAGES 16-17

EF COVER DESIGN K ATIE HISE COVER PHOTO TAKEN BY CARS ON HOLTGRAVES PHOTOS IN COVER COURTEST Y OF AV ERY WALKER & MCT CA MPUS

table of contents. editorial

Distracted driving needs to end. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

NEWS

News briefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Girl’s soccer fundraising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Italy choir trip travel delays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

peek inside.

A more detailed look at a few stories in the issue

LAYING DOWN THE LAW

HOW TO LIFE MOVEMENT

CUP O’ NOODLES

PAGE 8 | OPINION

PAGE 14 | FEATURES

PAGE 21 | A&E

OPINION

#HOWTOLIFE

Faulty diversion program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Violence in video games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Bonding in no-cut sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Senior leadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

F E AT U R E S How To Life Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Theater crew family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 East joins country in taking a stand . . . . . . . . . . . 16/17 Sophomore’s year aborad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Reflection contest winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

A&E

Ramen review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Larkburger & Ellys Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Poetry book review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Axe throwing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

SPORTS

Swimmer balances schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 .

Sports 360. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 New spring sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Freshman excels at lacrosse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

MORE

10 Choir’s Italy trip photostory. . . . . . . . , . . . . . . .

Pi Day photostory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Spring cleaning alt-copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

editorial policy.

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

The Wyandotte County juvenille diversion program is degrading and flawed

Students bring the How To Life Movement to KC, aiming to help others find their way to Jesus

A Review of ramen noodle places that don’t just serve cheap, soggy noodles | aislinn menke & carson holtgraves

the harbinger staff.

PRINT EDITORS-INCHIEF Grace Chisholm Robbie Veglahn

ASST. PRINT EDITORS Emily Fey Lizzie Kahle HEAD COPY EDITOR Daisy Bolin ART & DESIGN EDITOR Katie Hise ONLINE EDITORS-INCHIEF Reser Hall Kaleigh Koc ASST. ONLINE EDITORS Annabelle Cook Will Tulp ASST. DESIGN EDITOR Grace Padon PRINT SECTION EDITORS Editorial- Gracie Kost News- Lucy Patterson Opinion- Ava Johnson & Sarah Wilcox Features- Abby Walker & Gabby Leinbach Spread- Caroline Chisholm & Lila Tulp A&E- Carolyn Popper & Grace Padon Sports- Elias Lowland & Meg Thoma

PAGE DESIGNERS Jackie Cameron Natasha Thomas Brynn Winkler Scout Rice Kaylin McCan Annabelle Cook Lucy Kendall Lucy Hoffman Allison Wilcox Julie Fromm Lydia Underwood Lauren West Sarah Bledsoe STAFF ARTIST Lilah Powlas

COPY EDITORS Mac Newman Madeline Hlobik Reser Hall Kaleigh Koc Annabelle Cook Will Tulp Alex Freeman Daisy Bolin Harrison Gooley Robbie Veglahn Grace Chisholm Emily Fey Meg Thoma Gracie Kost Katie Hise Maya Stratman Elizabeth Ballew Abby Walker Caroline Chisholm Lucy Patterson Lizzie Kahle Lila Tulp Anna Kanaley

STAFF WRITERS Lucia Barraza Miranda Hack Megan Funkey Liddy Stallard Kourtney Koc Clara Von Drehle PHOTO EDITORS Diana Percy Ellie Thoma Carson Holtgraves ASST. PHOTO EDITORS Grace Goldman Print- Lucy Morantz Online- Maddie Smiley SME PHOTOS EDITOR Izzy Zanone HEAD PHOTO MENTOR Izzy Zanone STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Tyler Browning Ellen Swanson Reilly Moreland Luke Hoffman Lucy Morantz Ava Simonsen Morgan Plunkett Katherine Odell Julia Percy Katherine McGinness Hadley Hyatt Ally Griffith Kate Nixon Camille Talkington

Aislinn Menke Avery Walker Kathleen Deedy Lena Heukelbach

HOWTOLIFE

2 CONTENTS

THE HARBINGER

ONLINE SECTION EDITORS News- Alex Freeman Sports- Ben Henschel & Brett Wainwright A&E- Carolyn Popper & Grace Padon Homegrown- :Kourtney Koc & Clara Von Drehle Opinion- Elizabeth Ballew Eastipedia- Miranda Hack Humans of East- Kate Nixon MOBILE MEDIA EDITORS Anna Kanaley Lucy Hoffman ASST. MOBILE MEDIA EDITOR Brooklyn Terrill VIDEO EDITOR Avery Walker ASST. VIDEO EDITOR Ian Schutt VIDEO TRAINING EDITOR Peyton Watts

LIVE BROADCAST EDITOR Peyton Watts PODCAST EDITOR Lucy Patterson INTERACTIVE EDITORS Will Tulp Annabelle Cook MULTIMEDIA STAFF Maggie Schutt Ryan Gossick Megan Funkey Georgia Cook Dalton Reck Brett Wainwright Sydney Williams Riley Atkinson Lawder DeSantis Cate Nearmyer EDITORIAL BOARD Grace Chisholm Robbie Veglahn Kaleigh Koc Reser Hall Katie Hise Daisy Bolin Lizzie Kahle Emily Fey Anna Kanaley Lucy Hoffman Madeline Hlobik Gracie Kost Alex Freeman Annabelle Cook Will Tulp

M ARCH 26, 2018

DESIGN GRACIE KOST

WRECK LESS

EDITORIAL 3

FOR: 15

AGAINST: 0

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Teenagers need to recognize the dangers faced when driving and implement safe driving techniques on a daily basis

e’ve all been there. Driving 38 mph down Mission Road at 7:30 p.m. when “Dynamite” by Tayo Cruz comes on shuffle. You lift your phone up above the steering wheel, taking your eyes off the road to focus on the screen as you scroll through Spotify until you find a song that fits the sunset driving mood.

Nine times out of 10, you’ll be fine. The cop is not looking your way, the guy in front of you left enough room at the light and the dog-walker has a secure grip on the Labrador’s leash. But that one time, things won’t go your way – and it could be deadly.

We’ve seen multiple crashes and fender benders in our East community in the past few months. One of which was fatal.

In the aftermath of tragedy, we have two options. We can allow it to be just another tragic event or a make it a reminder of what we need to change. We must take the latter.

We need to reform the way in which we view cars and practice safer driving.

Cars are the most dangerous weapons teenagers have at their disposal. Over onethird of teen deaths are the result of motor vehicle crashes according to the CDC. That’s

more than homicide, suicide and cancer combined. While practicing safer driving can’t eliminate all fatal car accidents, it’s a good place to start.

Dangerous driving is more than the scary PSAs we’ve been shown. It’s not just the Prom night video about drunk driving we’re shown in elementary school or the headlines we see plastered all over the news about a teenager who plowed through a red light with a Blood Alcohol Concentration of .13.

Most of us find ourselves distracted at the wheel in ways that may seem inconsequential but can prove fatal, for ourselves and others.

When you’re trying to balance a Chipotle burrito on the dashboard and a Sprite in one hand, you can’t quickly swerve to avoid a four-year-old who ran out into the street.

When you’re looking over your shoulder to laugh at your friend’s joke in the backseat and taking your eyes off the road for even a second, you can easily miss the pick-up truck coming around the bend. When you’re typing the word “streak” over your closemouthed smile on Snapchat, you won’t see

DRIVING

the pothole on the right side of the road.

We, as teenagers, are the worst offenders of distracted driving. The CDC has reported that drivers under the age of 20 make up the greatest proportion of fatal crashes due to distraction. We need to be extra cautious of this, since we are already at a disadvantage due to our lack of experience.

Driving instructors aren’t kidding when they say it’s life or death – about eight teenagers die every day as the result of a car accident, according to Edgar Snyder and Associates, a law firm specializing in personal injury.

We are not invincible, and we need to be able to realize this. We cannot assume that a fatal car accident will never happen to us.

It’s happening in our community, and we or our loved ones could be next if we don’t take action.

Everyone can take steps to protect each other from the dangers of driving. Instead of searching for a good song while already driving, queue up your music before you start your car or just put your favorite playlist on shuffle. Take away the temptation to read a text message by putting your phone on

“Do Not Disturb” when you start driving, or let whoever’s in your passenger seat read off the message and respond. Wait to take a bite of your Big Mac or a sip of your Coke until you’re safely at a stop light – or better yet, wait to eat until you get to your destination.

Even if you’re late to practice and your mom is texting you about the laundry you forgot to do, don’t take your eyes off Mission Road. Switching from “Rockstar” to “Candy Paint” isn’t more important than watching the incoming lane as you’re turning onto 63rd.

As a passenger in a car, you can do just as much to prevent car accidents.

Take away the keys of a friend who’s been drinking. Offer to navigate the way toward your destination, so the driver isn’t splitting their attention between their screen and the road. Express discomfort when your friend takes their hands off the wheel to respond to a text. Little actions can prevent a large tragedy.

We’ve all seen firsthand what dangerous driving can do. We can’t let this tragedy just be a tragedy. It’s time for us to learn.

THE DANGERS OF DRIVING

Statistics on car crashes and distracted drivers

ON AVERAGE

3,179 PEOPLE

DIE FROM DISTRACTED DRIVING EACH YEAR

DISTRACTIONS INCLUDE: TEXTING OR CALLING NAVIGATING GPS MESSING WITH RADIO TALKING TO PASSENGERS EATING OR DRINKING

INFORMATION COURTESY OF W W W. AUTOINSURANCE .ORG

EVERY

90

SECONDS SOMEONE IS

SOMEBODY IS INJURED FROM DRUNK DRIVING

23 TIMES

MORE LIKELY TO CRASH WHILE TEXTING AND DRIVING

28%

1

OF TEENS ADMIT TO DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OR WITH SOMEBODY UNDER THE INFLUENCE

MORE THAN

MILLION WEATHER-RELATED ACCIDENTS ARE REPORTED ANNUALLY

2/3

OF TEEN PASSENGER DEATHS ARE CAUSED BY TEEN DRIVERS

DESIGN LUCY PAT TERS ON

4 NEWS

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east

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BY LUCY PAT TERS ON Section Editor

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

The East Fund launches “In Honor of” Campaign and has one grant cycle, an opportunity for teachers to submit grants, left this school year, according to Reynolds.

Grant proposals can be submitted by East teachers and students and can potentially fund anything over $1,000. Grants are sent to the East Fund grant board which votes on the grants to fund each cycle. Past grants have funded gym speakers, eclipse glasses and 3D printers, according to the website.

According to Reynolds and her fellow student ambassadors, the campaign is a great way to recognize and thank teachers as well as benefit the East Fund.

The “In Honor Of” Campaign will last until May 4 and teachers will be honored at a luncheon held at the end of the school year.

Measles outbreak in South JoCo

The Kansas Department of Health has issued a measles warning for southern Johnson County. After an outbreak in a local daycare, the health department has confirmed a total of eight cases in Kansas as of March 20.

The measles are highly contagious and those infected generally show symptoms 7-14 days after infection, symptoms include: a cough, runny nose, red eyes, mouth spots and a red rash covering the body, according to the Center for Disease Control website.

Infected patients supposedly contracted the disease from

national

east local national

S F E RI

The East Fund launched their annual “In Honor Of” Campaign Mar. 4. The campaign works to recognize teachers that go above and beyond for their students, and it acts as a fundraiser for the East Fund, according to the East Fund Website.

To honor a teacher, students and parents can make a donation to the East Fund under a teacher’s name. Each teacher honored then receives a certificate following the campaign, which they can then display in their classroom, according to Laini Reynolds, an East Fund Student Ambassador.

The campaign raises several thousand dollars each year, which is then used to fund grants submitted by teachers four times a year, according to The East Fund website. Currently, the East Fund has financed over $600,000 in grants since its start

local

THE HARBINGER

an unvaccinated person at a daycare. The virus then spread to three children too young to be vaccinated, according to East parent and lead investigator for the outbreak Tiffany Wallin.

In order to prevent further spread, the health department has issued a warning to avoid areas which may have been exposed to the measles such as Children’s Mercy and AMC theaters in Olathe if you are unvaccinated.

“The best way to prevent the measles is vaccination,” Wallin said. “If you are vaccinated you are good.”

Scientist Stephen Hawking dies of ALS

British physicist Stephen Hawking, most famous for his work in cosmology and with black holes, died March 14.

At age 21, Hawking was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, also known as ALS, the disease that slowly deteriorates the body’s basic functions. Hawking was given a few years to live. He suffered for many years and eventually lost the ability to eat and dress himself. He succumbed to the disease at age 76.

Despite his illness, Hawking was able to make many scientific discoveries and publish books, including his most famous, “A Brief History of Time.” Hawking also used past scientist’s theories to explain ideas such as the Big Bang.

Finally, Hawking spent most of his time studying black holes and their radiation, now known as “Hawking’s Radiation”.

“I think it’s really cool that he brought science to the public

and presented his ideas in ways that the majority of people could understand,” junior Claire Griffith said. “He definitely inspired me to pursue a career in science.”

Hawking’s ideas will continue to be taught for years to come and continue to inspire students like Griffith, including here at East.

“I am more inspired by the fact that he, in spite of many years dealing with the symptoms of the disease of ALS, was able to find a way to contribute to society,” said East physics teacher Miles Martin. “This reminds me that I can find my passion no matter what happens to me and do my best.”

Hawking will not only be remembered for his remarkable scientific discoveries, but also for his fighting spirit against ALS.

TOP | Senior Julia Kapros looks to a fellow orchestra member during the East Area Orchestra festival. | Ty Browning MIDDLE | Three student artists work on their drawings during Intro to Studio Art class. | Grace goldman BOTTOM | Junior Sara Miriani holds a large lizard for elementary school students during Environmental Education class. | Ty browning

M ARCH 26 2018

DESIGN ELIZABETH BALLEW

KNEAD THE

NEWS 5

DOUGH Girls soccer sells cookie dough for new equipment for the first time

BY GR AC I E KOST Copy Editor

T

he girls’ soccer teams began selling cookie dough as a fundraiser on March 20 and the fundraiser will end on March 27. Funds raised from the sales will be put towards new Under Armour uniforms, T-shirts, equipment bags for C-team and the annual weekend tournament in Burlington, Iowa, according to senior and center midfielder on varsity, Maddy Muther.

Boys’ soccer teams have been participating in the cookie dough fundraiser for several years now, and it has been very successful according to varsity coach, Jamie Kelly. The cookie dough fundraiser is intended to cover the additional costs added to the budget in order to pay for new gear.

The profits gained from this will be added to those from their annual stadium chair selling fundraiser.

Two years ago, East signed a contract with Under Armour that ensured a switch in all athletic gear to their brand within the next five years. The goal of the fundraiser is to raise enough money to eventually buy all new Under Armour uniforms for all three girls soccer teams. According to Kelly, with only three or four years left in the contract, the extra funds need to start coming in quick to take care of new uniforms.

The cookie dough fundraiser is organized for East by Fundraising University. FU is an organization led by former coaches and athletes who work with schools in eight states Colorado, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

FU ensures the fundraiser is a friendly competition to keep the athletes involved in order to raise as much money in the short time-frame as possible, according to their website, www.fundraisingu.net. Prizes are awarded to the most successful sellers and are meant to push everyone to meet the goals, which is for every girl on each team to sell at least 30 boxes.

According to sophomore and varsity goalie Sydney Daris, FU puts on a money version of the game Survivor. Which means, to keep players engaged, FU will award the first girl to sell 30 boxes with $20 of her own and one pull from the money bag, which contains bills ranging from 5-100 dollars.

From then on, each girl to reach 30 sales will get the opportunity to pull from the money bag. Each additional 10 boxes is rewarded with another pull from the bag.

By the end of the first day of the fundraiser, Daris had already sold 12 boxes.

“I love competition and setting a goal for myself and pushing myself to achieve it,” Daris said. “The most boxes sold in the past years has been 120. My goal is to sell 121.”

Not only is FU encouraging the girls to sell cookie dough, but the team itself pushes each other to succeed at meeting goals according to Muther. She enjoys the task of selling cookies and motivates the girls to carry out the fundraiser.

“The cookie sales are important for the underclassmen because it impacts them since they will be the following years, and they will be the ones getting the new uniforms,” Muther said. “It feels good to know I’m doing something to help the team, and it’s fun to do.”

ATLANTA WHEN IN ROME

DESIGN ROBBIE VEGL AHN

THE HARBINGER

6 NEWS

After being stranded in Atlanta and missing a day and a half of the trip, a group of students were able to make it to Italy to join the rest of the East choir

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BY RESER HALL Online co-Editor-in-Chief

light group one of the SME Choir trip to Italy was stranded in Atlanta for a night after their flight to Europe was cancelled by the airline.

The March 9 KLM flight scheduled to take the 26 students, plus chaperones and parents, of flight group one from Atlanta to Amsterdam, and eventually Rome, was cancelled unexpectedly. This forced the group to find a new way to Florence, instead of their original plan.

The group heard about the cancelled flight Thursday night in a text from Choir Director Ken Foley. Although they knew that they wouldn’t make their connection from Atlanta to Amsterdam, the group still flew to Atlanta on Friday as planned.

The group was compensated for their time lost in Italy while they were in Atlanta by the travel agency, Worldstrides, who set up the trip. They provided complimentary tickets to the Georgia Aquarium along with meal passes and hotel rooms as well as $900.

The 26 students split up looking for flights to Italy because there was not a flight that could accommodate the whole group.

Some students, like senior Jack Workman and his mother Gina, squeezed onto flights that could only accommodate two or three people. Since there were only two of them, the Workmans were able to get on a flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt then

TRIP TIMELINE

LEAVING K.C.

onto Rome on Friday instead of staying the night in Atlanta. They arrived on time for all of the events that took place in Florence.

One group of eight that included seniors Claire Long, Kaleigh Koc, Isabelle Cunningham, Isabel Epstein and juniors Dane Erickson, Charley Colby, Noah Manalo and the chaperone, Jean Long, decided on a flight to Paris and then onto Rome.

After their extra night in Atlanta, the group of eight boarded their flight to Paris.

However, after a delay in Atlanta, they were unable to make their connection from Paris to Rome, which once again stranded them, this time in Paris.

“We were just sitting on the Paris airport floor with everyone else walking around around us,” Erickson said. “We were able to look at everyone else’s pictures from what they were seeing in Italy which made us disappointed we weren’t with them.”

According to Erickson, it was disappointing to not be in Florence with the rest of the group. The group missed their concert at Chiesa di Ognissanti, or All Saints Church, in Florence the night they arrived. They also missed out on exploring Florence and seeing David, one of Michelangelo’s famous sculptures.

Once again they had to scramble to get on the next flight to Rome, which ended up getting the group there that day at 1 p.m.

When the group finally arrived in Rome everyone, minus Erickson who carried his bag with his belongings on the plane, didn’t

get their luggage. “[When we found out about the lost luggage], I was trying to stay as positive as possible in front of the kids,” Jean said.

“I tried to encourage them that everything would be okay.”

The group of eight eventually met up with the rest of the group in Italy and they were there for landmarks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They eventually got their luggage Tuesday night evening, two days into the trip when were in Assisi.

Even though they were stuck in Atlanta, Claire felt it was beneficial to meet and get to know people she normally wouldn’t hang out with.

“I met so many people I didn’t know well at all,” Claire said. “I got close with people who I wouldn’t have gotten close with if I wasn’t in Atlanta.”

As for Colby, his luggage issues still haven’t ended. While every other student on the trip got their luggage when they returned to Kansas City, Colby did not. He received news from his mother during sixth hour last Wednesday that his luggage had been found in Venezuela.

Despite all of the issues with cancelled flights, missed connections and long layovers, Claire thinks that being in Atlanta made her enjoy the trip to Italy more than if she hadn’t.

“I was appreciating each day so much more and not taking my time there for granted,” Claire said. “I was just excited to be in Italy and nothing else mattered.”

TOP | Senior Kaleigh Koc embraces as the last of the Atlanta group arrives in Italy, rejoining their friends in the lobby of their hotel in Montecatini, Italy | Courtesy of Bella Stamati

BOTTOM | Senior Isabel Cunningham

lies dejected in an Atlanta elevator as the group awaited news on connecting flights to Italy | Courtesy of isabele cunningham

A breakdown of the trip for the Atlanta group

1 DAY IN ATLANTA

6 DAYS IN ITALY

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DESIGN JULIE FROMM

THE HARBINGER

8 OPINION

LAYING DOWN THE LAW

The Wyandotte County juvenille diversion program is degrading and flawed

A breakdown of diversion

Diversion is a program for juveniles that are given a chance to have their criminal offense dismissed from their record

groups and I missed social events with my friends. Missing these things never forced me to think and learn from my mistake – and wasn’t that the only reason for the program?

The drug and alcohol abuse class – the location my diversion officer pointed me to – took place in an abandoned office building. My mom and I finally found the establishment at the far, cold end of the basement in an eight-by-eight size room.

As we sat in metal folding chairs and set up the appointment to complete the class later that week, for some inexplicable reason the counselor made my mom and I watch a 30-minute video from 1990 about STDs. How an MIP related to an STD, I still don’t know.

I considered this class to be the turning point of my diversion. Within hours of meeting me, the counselor insinuated that all of my friends weren’t real friends, that automatically I did drugs because I drank coffee and accused me of being an addict.

I was someone who had all A’s and B’s, someone who had strong friendships, someone who respected their teachers and their parents. But her words took my self esteem away, making me believe that my grades weren’t good enough, that my friends weren’t real, that I was disrespectful to my elders. That my best wasn’t good enough. And I began to think of myself the way she did.

I couldn’t even muster up the courage to argue with her accusations. I just sat there in a cold metal folding chair with tears in my eyes while watching a video about why I shouldn’t do crack cocaine.

This program didn’t serve as a second chance. These so called “counselors” didn’t help me; they only debased my decisions and accomplishments – which,

A diversion program normally lasts for four to six months

granted, is a part of the program. But it was accomplished in a degrading manner, and I left every court date, meeting and class feeling as if I had put an irrevocable curse on myself because I made one trivial mistake.

The decision making class, or TRACK class, was one of my last requirements. The two people in my class were on diversion for nearly beating someone to death and attempting to steal thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, respectively.

Holding a drink was miniscule offense compared to my peers’ wrongdoing.

For an entire hour, we sat, pen in hand, forced to complete a maze on an eight by 11 sheet of paper. For one, mazes do not get easier as you get older. But I sat there in blatant confusion because no matter what direction I went or what turn I took, I could not find a way out. The teacher proceeded to explain that the maze didn’t have an end; it was supposed to symbolize our own lives.

A maze with no way out does not resemble life. A maze with many twists and turn-arounds does. Life should not be viewed as a trap, or as a prison sentence, or as a place where mistakes stay with you forever. And that’s when I had my revelation. Diversion doesn’t work by teaching you how to fix your mistakes.

It diminishes you to exist in a state of ignorance and fear of the law.

Shortly before spring break, I had my last meeting with my officer. On my way out, I came to a complete stop when I saw Ed. “It’s almost five o’clock,” I said to him.

“I’ll see you next time.”

Little did he know, it was also my time to clock-out.

IN SUMMARY

DIVERSION in DETAIL

DEFINED

or the past eight months of my life, I have frequently found myself exchanging small talk with Ed, the security guard of the Wyandotte County Juvenile Detention Building. As he would pat me down and search my Marc Jacobs purse for weapons, I would always ask him how his day was going.

“I’ll be a lot better when it’s five o’clock.”

I didn’t have the same clock-out option as Ed. A trivial mistake I made at a concert on July 22 stole my freedom for nearly a year of my life. One second I was asked to hold a drink for a friend at a concert, and the next I was escorted and handcuffed to a bench in a white cement room.

In the moment, I didn’t cry. I didn’t panic. I first pleaded with the officer, explaining that I had never gotten so much as a detention in my life. When she would not listen to me, I got resentful. I texted my Dad an SOS with my non-handcuffed hand, and refused to answer her questions until he was present. But at that point, I might as well have waived the white flag.

For months following the initial incident, I was terrified that my friends, family and teachers would define me by my mistake. Yet, after spending four months waiting to just set up a court date and four more in a diversion program, I realized that the justice system’s flaws greatly outweighed my own.

I didn’t view my diversion program as any sort of redemption. In the simplest terms, the Wyandotte County diversion program was outright degrading, imprudent and pitiful in its methods.

The first meeting I had following the initial accident was with a social worker.

She asked me 100 yes-or-no, bizarre,

intrusive questions. Are you in a gang?

Are you pregnant? Do you have any children? Have you ever tried to kill one of your friends or your parents?

These were no-brainers, but I subconsciously began to question myself.

Was I now considered someone who was questionably in a gang, or a teen mom, or a murderer because of one mistake? This meeting with the social worker was the beginning of the humiliating process that they label diversion.

Instead of having one court date set up to begin the diversion process, I had three different ones that spanned over four months. Adding to this, the Wyandotte Court System could only schedule diversion appointments at 12:45 P.M. on Wednesdays – a prime example of their disregard and sheer ignorance. It was as if it never occurred to them that this would be an inconvenience to juveniles who also have school.

Finally on Nov. 29, the process officially begun, and my animosity for the justice system transcended.

Every three weeks, I had to allot two hours for an expedition to Wyandotte to meet with my diversion officer. She asked the same identical questions each meeting: How is school? How are your friends? Are you keeping up with your contract? When can we schedule our next meeting?. These meetings never took more than 10 minutes – but I traveled an hour and a half round trip.

In addition to meetings with my officer, my contract required me to attend an eight-hour drug and alcohol abuse class as well as a decision making class. It was as if the program was designed to punish you by wasting your time – I missed practices, I missed meetings with teachers and study

BY THE NUMBERS

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BY LIZZIE K AHLE Assistant Editor

The juvenile must go to school, obey their parents, and do a certain amount of hours of community service

DESIGN ALLIS ON WILCOX PHOTOS AVERY WALKER

M ARCH 26, 2018

OPINION

9

VIDEO GAME VIO ENCE Government and media should focus on mental illness and gun control laws instead of blaming violent video games for school shootings LEFT | Mac’s video games consist of Grand Theft Auto, Doom, Battlefield 1, Rainbow Six Siege and Mafia 3.

BY M AC NEWM AN Copy Editor

I play FIFA – but I haven’t been recruited by FC Barcelona. I play Rocket League – but I don’t try to jump my car over ramps.

I also play Call of Duty, Battlefield and other violent video games – but I would never bring an AR–15 to school.

President Donald Trump held a series of meetings with lawmakers and video game company CEOs to discuss school safety and the influence of violent video games on Feb. 22 and again March 1 a week after the Parkland, FL shooting. Trump claimed violent video games and movies play a role in school shootings. This claim has been made before and will be made in the future – but I believe it is false and supported by little to no evidence.

Violent entertainment is not the cause of school violence. The media and legislature need to be focusing on and blaming the true culprit: gun control and mental illness.

Despite Trump’s claims that the Internet, video games and movies are to blame for wrongly shaping young minds, violent entertainment is not the cause of school violence.The media and legislature need to be focusing on and blaming the true culprit: gun control and mental illness.

“We have to look at the internet because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds and their minds are being formed and we have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it,” Trump said.

According to ProCon.org, as many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry.

More than half of the 50 top-selling video games in the US contain violence. But, according to

psychology experts Dr. Patrick Markey and Dr. Christopher Ferguson, Justice Antonin Scalia and professor Henry Jenkins, they do not promote aggression or violence in kids.

Crime in young people has been decreasing since 2005. Henry Jenkins, a professor at the University of Southern California, wrote an essay in 2005 for PBS that said juvenile crime in the United States was at a 30-year low even though large numbers of young people play video games.

In a book published in 2017 titled “Mortal Kombat,” psychologists Markey and Ferguson claim that the countries where video games are the most popular are the safest in the world.

In Japan for example, about 60 percent of the population played video games in 2016, according to NewZoo, a gaming market research company.

But almost no one is killed by a gun in the country, which bans possessing, carrying, selling, or buying handguns or rifles. There were only six gun deaths in Japan in 2014. The countries that purchase the most video games in the world, Japan and South Korea, are some of the safest too.

Even the US Supreme Court rejected the idea that violent video games are a main cause of real-life violent crimes. In 2011, Justice Antonin Scalia rejected the claim that violent video games promote real-life violence. The case ruled seven to two in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association that California could not ban the sale of violent video games to children.

Justice Scalia said that psychological studies that show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not have enough evidence to prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively.

There should be shift in efforts from banning violent video games towards helping children and teens with mental illness and on improving gun control laws.

According to the LA Times, at least 59 percent of the 185 public mass shootings that took place

in the United States from 1900 through 2017 were carried out by people who had either been diagnosed with a mental disorder or demonstrated signs of serious mental illness prior to the attack.

Mental illness is what causes people to commit school shootings, the media needs to start raising more awareness for young people with mental illnesses and how to see the warning signs.

In addition, Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, used an AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle during the attack that was bought legally. Dick’s Sporting Goods and Wal-Mart have both raised the age to purchase firearms to 21, but there has yet to be a nationwide federal law instituted to raise the age, something that should happen.

The fact is, older generations will always fear what the newer generation is exposed to. In the past it was “The Silent Generation” (born in ‘30s) fearing that the young are being exposed to too much sex on TV. In our case, the baby boomers fear that the millenials and Gen Z children are being exposed to more violence and more sex on the Internet.

All in all, it’s virtually impossible to prevent young people from seeing violent entertainment.

Children are allowed to see R-rated movies, just with a parent. Children can access almost anything online, as long as their parents don’t block it.

Without some over-the-line “Black Mirror”esque media blocking device for children, people will continue to be exposed to violent media at young ages. But it isn’t hurting their minds, they are simply being exposed to something they would see at a later age earlier than in previous generations.

There isn’t a perfect solution, and there doesn’t need to be. Violent media simply does not influence real-life crime. Mental illness and easily obtained firearms is what causes real-life crime – so don’t look to running civilians over in GTA or killing soldiers in Call of Duty, look to depression, bullying and gun control laws.

TRUMP’S OPINION Trump expressed his opinion on violence in video games following the Parkland, Fla. shooting*

“

I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts

“

“

We have to look at the internet because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds and their minds are being formed...and we have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it

“

–President Trump durng a meeting on Feb. 22 at the White House *quotes from nytimes.com

DESIGN DIANA PERCY

THE HARBINGER

10 P H O T O S T O R Y RIGHT | Junior Will Thomas is “pied” by junior Nat

Nitsch. “I was slightly confused,” Thomas said. “It was like being in a straight jacket and blindfolded due to pie covering my goggles.” D I ANA P ER CY |

PI(ED)

The IB HL Math students celebrate “Pi Day” with activities including pie-throwing, eating pie and reading the “Pledge of Pi-legiance”

ABOVE |

Junior Dane Erickson tries to keep junior Will Thomas from slipping on the piecovered tarp laying on the floor. “Only slightly worried I was about to die,” Thomas said.

D I ANA PERCY |

ABOVE | Junior Nat

Nitsch takes a slice of pie from the table.

“Dane Erickson made a lemon meringue that was kind of like soup with crust,” Nitsch said. “And someone brought mustaches (I’m clearly wearing one).”

ABOVE |

cars on holtgraves |

ABOVE | Senior Annabelle Rixson takes a photo of juniors ABOVE | Brett Kramer prepares to get “pied” by junior Will Griffin Keeter, Will Thomas, Tom Joyce, Ally Griffith and

Thomas. “At that point I was wondering if his hand would create impact on a follow-through that might make it more painful,” Kramer said. “Also, how cold is this gonne be?” | DI A N A P E R CY

Nat Nitsch dressed up as “s-Pi-es.” “We came up spies so it made it kind of clever,” Joyce said. “It just kind of clicked.”

| di a n a p e r cy

Juniors Anika Radadiya and Kayla Starns clean up after Pi Day. “It was very sticky and it smelled horrible,” Radadiya said.

“There was a lot of wiping and yelling of ‘ewww.’”

| DIA NA PE RCY

DESIGN SARAH WILCOX PHOTOS HADLEY HYAT T

M ARCH 26, 2018

NO CUT COMFORT

OPINION

11

No cut sports let athletes of all skill levels bond

BY LUCY HOFFM AN Mobile Media Editor

I

’ m su r rou nd e d by my 20-person event group and we’re in the middle of our form drills.

We’re all waiting for Coach Tricia to begin the day’s workout.

Together, we feel the weight of 100 elephants leave our legs when she says it’s going to be an easy jog.

Cut sports that have tryouts cause too much stress and create unneeded competition between teammates who would otherwise be friends. With no cut sports, instead of having a week of brutal tryouts, we get to spend five extra days forming friendships and laughing about who has the best high-knee skip or backwards run.

Sports that divide athletes into separate teams for practice make it difficult for athletes to form any sort of relationship between the varsity and the C-team. I never would have gotten to know my JV friends through running if I hadn’t stopped with them when my legs wouldn’t keep me up with Varsity.

I’ve never had to endure the cruelty of refreshing the team website every five minutes to find out if I made if I even have the opportunity to play or not. Thanks to the nocut mentality that comes with running, athletes get to bond over all the times when they’re supposed to be running, but are actually walkshuffling. Sorry coach, it’s a tradition to walk through the park.

It might seem that being on a team with so many people would limit the quality of the relationships you could create. But when you can feel comfortable cry-running through a field while your friends cheer you on, it’s impossible to not become close with so many

different people.

Starting out as a freshman with no idea about any of the rules, it was comforting knowing that I could easily befriend upperclassmen and teammates that already knew all of the routes and drills. My friendships with freshmen that need help with their warmup skip may vary from the friendships I have with runners my age, but we all laugh at the same classic Chaffee jokes.

If you were to glance at our full team practices, you wouldn’t be able to tell who was on what team, or what kids are the best in their events. But, you could see hurdlers and distance runners helping each other in partner

If you were to glance at our full team practices you wouldn’t be able to tell who was on what team, or what kids are best in their events. But, you could see hurdlers and distance runners helping each other in partner leg swings.

LU CY H OFFM AN JUNIOR leg swings.

You would also see all of the more experienced teammates explaining workouts and how to divide up the track. With JV and Varsity getting ready in the locker rooms and enduring road runs together gives more opportunities to reach out for help if you’re new, and time to take the lead and mentor if you’re a returning veteran. The shift from relying on advice from my senior friends about when I should put in my final kick to being able to offer my own tips to younger athletes

Coaches of other no cut sports share why they like the approach

Coach

VOICES

ABOVE | Hoffman and other track runners warm up with a jog at practice.

Andy Gibbs

boys & girls tennis

One of the large challenges of high school is fitting in and so an activity that is no cut gives kids a chance to be a part of something.

was when I knew the sport was a major part of my life.

In cross country, being at the same meets with the whole team means you get to support your friends in different competition levels while they run their races, and vice versa. With a small team playing a game, there aren’t as many teammates left to cheer, but with cross country, nothing beats having 100 of them yell your name (amongst other not-so-appropriate words) all throughout the three-mile course to motivate you. Because your teammates have already run the course that day, they know the best Rim Rock hill to motivate you at ––

Emily Fossoh track

I like the ability of having every one participate. It just takes organizational skills and being on top of it.

the second one, if you were wondering–– and where you’ll most need the support.

When I missed state by milliseconds, JV and varsity runners were both at the finish to comfort me. And when I got my personal best, they were there to keep me from fainting and to congratulate me on my win.

I may not know the feeling of winning a singular game with your teammates, but thanks to running, I know what it’s like to have a celebratory feast in Lawrence after the last meet of the season with my 200 friends or congratulate them on qualifying for relays.

Ian Hutchison girls swim

It encourages more people to join. Some people think they barely make the cut but surprise themselves as they improve over the season.

DESIGN LIL A TULP PHOTOS COURTESY OF LINDA HOLBROOK

THE HARBINGER

12 O P I N I O N There is importance in being a memorable and positive leader

BY ELIAS LOWL AND Section Editor

“Y

ou’ll be here next year. I promise.”

At the swimming state championship meet four years ago, coming from my mentor, best friend and thensenior captain, Benn Schmatz, these words were painful, but also created a deep sense of hope for the future.

As I sat by the side of the pool freshman year watching the team hoist the state championship trophy, I sobbed from not being a part of that title. But while the rest of the team celebrated, Schmatz came to me after the meet — not to rub in my face that he won, but to console me on the fact I wasn’t part of it.

Leadership, especially in sports, is not black and white, or something done by the book in every instance. Each team dynamic is different, but what Benn did so well was tailor his approach to every swimmer on the team, while keeping the same attitude and level-headedness to everyone.

That day in 2015 changed my drive towards swimming at East completely.

Not did I only want to be able to join my teammates in hoisting up a state trophy in the pool, I also wanted to become an influence for my younger teammates – to become the Benn Schmatz of my team.

I wouldn’t be the swimmer, leader and person I am today without Benn and the team that I always had surrounding me.

The best captains are those that don’t try to be. I wanted to be a friend to those in grades below me first, and an experienced varsity swimmer second.

Simply introducing myself to freshman at the car wash fundraiser each year, learning names and giving encouragement for anyone wanting to try to swim with varsity, went a long way. I am extremely grateful to have been named captain at the end of the year, but that was never my goal at the start of my senior season.

Benn’s ability to connect with every member of the team, whether it be freshman sensation Aidan Holbrook (who turned out to be the second-best East swimmer ever) or not-so-sensational freshman me, drew the team closer as more of a family.

Benn’s willingness to include and care for every swimmer, even if they might not reap benefits that directly affected himself, made him a leader that everyone could appreciate.

I, along with other senior swimmers Brian Christian, Tyler Cunningham, Carter Kirkland, Evan Root and Holbrook, tried to continue this welcoming presence we felt our freshman year in our final year on the team.

This year was the biggest varsity team we’ve had in my four years, but we also had the smallest state team.

What the seniors did this year, which

was completely different from earlier years, was simply provide encouragement to those who thought they might want to be on varsity – to just try it for a week.

In this way, we were able to hook a lot of underclassmen on the attitude and comradery of the swim team, and team dinners became just that. Freshman were told to sit with the rest of the team rather than isolating themselves out of intimidation. This past season, more than any before it, felt like a family.

This sense of family wasn’t because of domineering pressure from the seniors on down through the chain, it was because we wanted – I wanted – people to experience what has been the best part of my high school life.

My experience with Benn and the swim team has formed friendships and a bond that has been created regardless of class.

Every team dynamic is and rightly should be different. Just as Benn altered the way in which he approached each team member for me, seniors in every sport can change the way in which they talk to their teammates to fit their respective sport.

Leadership isn’t a born quality. It’s fostered through experience and as weird as it may sound, not trying. Sure, I was trying to leave an impact on the team, but from Benn I knew that the best way to do that is let my actions and the fact I was a senior on the team do it for me.

Seniors on all teams have a responsibility to make the team better than when they left it. The underclassmen are the future of all programs, and no matter the circumstance, will look to the seniors for guidance. The tone and attitude that the seniors set will continue past the end of that season.

Good leadership isn’t done through pressure and anger, it’s done gradually with true care for the team as a whole, not just fellow upperclassmen and team stars.

Even though mine was an isolated experience since I only played one sport in high school, it was a formative one, and easily the most important experience of my life.

The lessons I learned from my experience as a member of such a good team will stick with me throughout college and my professional life. I was taught not by a coach or teacher or parent, but by an 18-year-old kid who I spent three hours a day with for only 100 days.

Influential leaders don’t have to be powerful adults. Fellow student athletes, even if they’re only one, two or three years older, can make a major impact on their teammates. I encourage anyone who is in a position that is remotely similar to what I was my senior year, to embrace it.

Leadership isn’t for the one who is actually leading, it is rather to make the experience of those around you better.

They are the ones who will be there after you’re gone; the ones carrying on how you taught them to lead.

FOLLOW THE

LEADER

ABOVE | Senior boys swim team co-captain, Elias Lowland, claps for his teammates as they compete at the state meet.

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THE HARBINGER

14 F E AT U R E S

#HOWTOLIFE Students bring the How To Life Movement to KC, aiming to help others find their way to Jesus

BY GRACE PADON Assistant Design Editor

T

he aroma of slightly overcooked brownies fills the air in junior Paige Prothe’s living room as 11 high schoolers from the Greater Kansas City area lounge on the couches.

Stories of sitting around campfires at Kanakuk, a Christian summer camp, and K-Life dodgeball games are exchanged when the group realized why they were meeting — to plan the final details of the first How To Life movement (HTL movement) event in the state of Kansas.

“A lot of people are intimidated to go to K-Life or YoungLife because everyone there has been together for so long,” Angelo said.

“This is an entirely new movement that we can all be apart of and involve people from everywhere.”

The HTL movement is different from other church groups because it’s studentled and is only for students. The movement was created to spread a “teen-friendly” approach towards Christianity, according to the HTL movement website.

Junior Jack Reeves, a guitar player for the worship songs, felt that the experience was unique because it was student led.

“Usually things like this have adults there talking about their experiences, but this is different because it’s just kids,” Reeves said.

Events across the globe are hosted by each chapter’s leaders, known as the worship group. The worship group sings hymns and gives five to seven minute long testimonies about the time they realized the importance of God in their lives.

The movement originated in Arkansas three years ago by 19 year-old Jordan Whitmer. Since then, it has spread to eight states and Europe, with the first chapter in Kansas being led by Angelo, who is co-president along side junior Dasha McDonald from Pembroke Hill. The HTL movement has grown popular as it revolves

around one shared belief: the importance of embracing Christianity without the intimidation of past religious experiences. “[The HTL movement] is a less intimidating stepping stone to knowing God,” Prothe said. “If you go to church and don’t relate to the message you lose all interest in being there.”

The Kansas City chapter had their first event March 3 at Village Presbyterian Church and included students grades six through 12 from Blue Valley schools, Kansas City Christian, Pembroke Hill and other Shawnee Mission schools.

Only 20 students were expected to come, but 75 students ended up filling the Youth Loft at the church.

“We didn’t really go into it expecting a lot,” Prothe said. “We were just going to tell our stories, hoping that it reached someone, and it reached so many more people than we thought it would.”

Angelo shared her experience of reconnecting with God to the group, in an attempt to ensure the HTL movement was a place to express Christianity in a pressure free environment without long sermons and strict routines.

“I had a moment freshman year where I realized I had nothing left but a relationship with God,” Angelo said, describing her testimony. “No matter what is happening in the moment, there’s always something to come out of it that’s good, even if you don’t realize it.”

At the end of the event, students were invited to go up on the stage to the foot of the cross to “commit their lives” to God and to start a relationship with Him. Immediately after the announcement, no one walked up to the stage. But after three minutes of awkward silence, six people came forward. Although it was only a fraction of the students in attendance, it made history. Six people was more than any event in the history of the international HTL movement.

Angelo was introduced to the HTL movement when she was contacted by Whitmer over the summer, who she met at a summer camp. Whitmer wanted to expand the movement to more areas around the country. Days later, Angelo was added to the international HTL movement GroupMe, thus founding the Kansas City chapter. Angelo then recruited McDonald to be her co-president in Sept. 2017.

“I was interested in becoming copresident with Elle because I go to a private school where not everyone is Christian,” McDonald said. “I wanted to educate people about religion and faith because it means so much to me.”

The excitement dissipated after the initial meeting in September because McDonald went to Switzerland for three months. By December, several members of the worship group had quit.

Despite their struggles, a “switch flipped” after Christmas and the remaining members of the worship group became more invested, according to Prothe. They went from having one to two meetings a month to having weekly meetings.

“We had a venue and we had a date, and we knew it was happening whether we tried hard or not,” Prothe said. “We were all so passionate about it. No matter how much time we had, we wanted to make it the best it could be.”

The worship group hopes to host more events later this year, and will only lose two members to college. Until then, they will continue to have occasional meetings and brunches to stay connected and to plan for next year. They are trying to recruit younger members to make the HTL movement a tradition in Kansas City.

“Everyone has a different story and a different relationship with God and the fact that all of our stories brought us together is amazing,” Angelo said. “You never think that your story can be powerful, and it changed me to realize that my story is just as powerful as one that someone can write a book on.”

About HTL

“#HowToLife is a movement of high school students mobilized together to lead their peers to stand and live for Jesus.”

I realized I had a year and a half left of high school, and I wanted to make it count for Jesus.

JORDAN WHITMER FOUNDER

2 8

COUNTRIES USA & England

STATES

Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Nebraska, Tennessee, Georgia

E AST M E M B ERS : Juniors Paige Prothe, Jack Reeves, Elle Angelo, and sophomore Maddy Slaughter

This is an entirely new movement that we can all be apart of and involve people from everywhere.

ELLE ANGELO JUNIOR INFORMATION COURTESY OF HOW TOLIFE MOVE MENT.COM

DESIGN E MILY FEY PHOTOS K ATE NIXON

M ARCH 26, 2018

F E AT U R E S

THEIR OWN CREW

15

The theater crew has created an unbreakable bond between each other while working on this year’s play sets

I

BY LUCIA BARRA ZA Staff Writer

t’s 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, just five hours after the final number of the last show of “Nooses Off,” the fall play. The members of the crew stand on an empty stage embracing each other, tears in their eyes. They’ve just finished tearing down and stowing away the very set they’ve spent two months painstakingly building.

The red and gold wallpaper senior Layla Villanueva spent a week painting, the platform frameworks that took sophomores Gracie Schwabauer and Nick Edge a month to assemble, the variety of fake murder weapon props sophomore Megan DeVolder personally picked out for every cast member, all gone in a matter of hours.

Although their work may not have remained on the stage, the crew had built something else over the past two months that no one could tear down: a family.

“We get to know each other so well and the goods and the bads of our lives,” said senior Zoey Davis. “There isn’t a single person on crew that I wouldn’t trust with my life.”

This crew family came out of the two months of splinters, dark eye circles, and tears put into the sets they created as community. It’s built on the inside jokes whispered through headsets and late nights spent tediously arranging the set pieces perfectly in their positions on the stage.

And this bond all begins in the auditorium,

the place the crew calls “home.”

Their home is complete with narrow catwalks in the roof, the light storage room they call the “Bat Cave” and an upstairs props loft filled to the brim with various fake animals, food and costumes. The auditorium is their sacred, free place for the members to work, talk or simply hang out, and it is where their familial bond grows.

Then there is the main room of the house: the workshop.

There are no couches or bean bags but, in the eyes of Schwabauer, the warm laughs and smiles of the crew make the space feel less like a workshop and more like their own living room.

It is in this room that the crew kids meet when they don’t have a job to do. It is the location of many dance parties and singing sessions and the home of the tools used to build the sets.

They gather in the corner of the room, cracking jokes and bringing up random topics of conversation. Everything from the highs and lows of their day, breakups or new possible relationships, grades, doomsday conspiracy theories or the latest DeFeo meme someone sent on the group chat is brought up.

“We trust each other with more than just things related to crew, we tell each everything about our lives,” Schwabauer said. “The crew is our safe place.”

According to Schwabauer, the crew family bond isn’t limited to the walls of the auditorium. After long work days crew

members will often go on adventures outside the school to get donuts or go on late night shopping expeditions. Car rides complete with show tune jam fests ensue on the way to grab dinner at places like Noodles and Company or Chik-fil-a.

“Whenever crew is around each other we can’t help but smile because we are all together,” DeVolder said.

The crew community means more to the members than just an after school activity.

For many, like Davis, technical theater isn’t just an extracurricular to add to a college application – it’s a future, a support system. If she had never stepped foot in the auditorium and decided to not go to a work day when she was a freshmen, Davis believes her life would look very different.

She would go home at 2:40 p.m. instead of 5:00 every night, she wouldn’t be majoring in technical theater in college and she wouldn’t have the same friends.

Like Davis, DeVolder says that without theater crew she would not have found her career passion in scenic design. Nor would she have found a creative and emotional outlet through her props and fellow crew members.

When she’s sad or stressed about her grades or friend drama DeVolder finds comfort in her props loft. She sifts through the dozens of fake animals, food or crazy clothing and plays with the random stuff she finds. When she’s sporting cat glasses and a sombrero hat or chasing her friends across the loft welding plastic lobsters

as weapons, it’s hard to focus on the bad things.

The family is there for each other in the best times and the worst, both the highs and the lows. So when Davis’ dad had a stroke earlier this year, it was the crew that first reached out and comforted her, especially technical theater teacher Tom DeFeo. After hearing the news from Davis’ mom that her dad was in the hospital, DeFeo pulled her aside before the musical review and sat her down to talk.

“It’s going to be OK,” DeFeo said. “Last I heard he was doing alright... If you need anything please don’t hesitate to ask.”

These reassuring words and check-ins continued throughout the musical review show that night, comforting Davis. She knew she had a support system to count on in her crew family, no matter what life threw her way.

According to Schwabauer, it doesn’t matter if you are in lights, sound, set or paint crew, everyone is contributing to the same goal: to create a perfect show. Each crew depends on the other.

They aren’t the ones standing in the spotlight, or bowing on stage receiving standing ovations from the audience. Their success is hidden from the public’s eye, but their community’s hard work and bond throughout each show is enough fulfillment.

In their eyes, they’re a family through and through, and will continue to be even after all of their set pieces are taken away and the stage is left empty.

JUST

‘CREWING

A R O U N D ABOVE | Senior Isa Fimbres and junior Blake Peery talk about college plans while working on the set.

ABOVE RIGHT | Senior Ricardo Ramaswamy and freshman Emmett Lilijegren talk while sorting through the “bored bucket” of nails and screws.

Even during the stress of building the set for the spring play “Dearly Departed,” the theater crew still takes time to have fun with each other

DESIGN CAROLINE CHISHOLM

P HOTOS CARS ON HOLTGRAVES AND AVERY WALKER

16 N E W S

NEWS

17

HOW IS EAST RESPONDING?

BY E MILY FEY Assistant Editor

S

enior Sam Fay remembers walking home from school on Dec. 12, 2012. As the sixth grader walked into his front door, he was greeted by his shaking mother, who had tears streaming down her face. This is the first time he heard about the fatal shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School – a moment that has stayed ingrained in his mind till today.

But when asked, Fay doesn’t know what he was doing when he first received the news of the 17-victim shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl on Feb. 14. To Fay now, the news of a mass shooting didn’t register the same sense of distraught that the Sandy Hook shooting had six years ago.

“I don’t remember what I was doing, and that makes the situation even more disturbing,” Fay said. “These [shootings] are happening with more and more frequency, that they all blur together and seem less significant.”

As students around the nation plan to join forces on April 20 for National Walkout Day – the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, CO – student leaders at East are planning events that will allow and inspire students to join forces with the rest of the country in the push for harsher and increased control on guns.

Seniors Sam Fay, Robbie Veglahn and Ellie Van Gordon met with Principal John McKinney to discuss ways they could plan for students to somehow participate in the walkout on April 20. The group came up with an idea of encouraging students to participate in a 17-minute walkout, honoring the 17 students and adults who were killed in the Parkland shooting.

Fay is in support of the 17-minute walkout because he believes it will unite students and give them a chance to show their support in the national movement towards stricter gun reform. However, Fay doesn’t believe the walkout will create a direct gateway to the “common sense gun laws” he is looking for. Social studies teacher David Muhammad agrees. “[A] walk out is not going to change legislation,” Muhammad said. “The walkouts are more of an emotional opportunity to [make students] feel like they are a part of something bigger, which they are.”

Fay and Veglahn, along with other school leaders, have taken it upon themselves to create that direct impact. They are in the process of planning a Civic Engagement Day, which will host students, administrators, adults, local gun reform activists and legislators to start the discussion of how East and the Johnson County area can prevent our schools from being the next victim of a mass shooting.

As of now, the two have not set an official date for the Civic Engagement Day. Fay says their hope is to host the event at East in late April – during a time when the government is not in session in Topeka – in order to allow for as many government legislators to attend and speak to students.

“Our forum is going to be a broader conversation that is going to focus on influencing legislation,” Fay said.

Fay’s goal with the forum is to help students become informed on an issue he believes isn’t based on politics, but instead on student and citizen safety.

“To me, it’s not about how I got so passionate about the movement, it’s how are people not as passionate about it as me,” Fay said. “People should be a lot more involved than they are.”

According to Fay, the event will not be East or district affiliated in order to allow the questions and discussion topics to have a larger focus on affecting legislation on gun reform, which administrators are not allowed to comment on when representing the district. They will encourage attendance from students and adults outside of the East and SMSD community.

“We want our panels and forums to be a non-partisan thing,” Fay said. “We just want the opportunity for discussion and to share our opinions that can intersect, so we can find our respect and mutual respect for others views.”

The seniors want the conversation of safety in schools and common sense gun reform to “not die out” and continue thriving and spreading throughout the community. But they also want to spark immediate political action in the capital. Right before the government goes in recess, Fay and Veglahn plan to take a bus of students to Topeka to speak directly to legislators to push for what they are purposefully calling “common sense gun reform.”

Democratic State Representative Cindy Holscher invited students in the Johnson County area to travel to Topeka to knock on government officials’ office doors and express first-hand their concerns and opinions in regards to gun control. Holscher invited the students to come on March 14, the same day as another National School Walkout Day. Due to spring break, no East students attended the lobby day.

In an interview with National Public Radio host Ari Shapiro on Feb. 26, Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer explained how “there is a

conversation that’s happening about gun violence [in Kansas],” but “it’s not as loud as the national one.” And Holscher supports this by the fact that there currently aren’t the pushes for gun control regulations and background checks she would like to see in Kansas.

“Our legislators need to see us,” Holscher said. “They need to see that people are taking action, they need to hear that people are using their voices, so that’s why it is important [for students] to come to the capital.”

And Holscher believes the students who lobbied made a direct change in legislator opinions. The day after the students came to Topeka, the Senate voted on a bill that would restrict people who had a domestic abuse charge to own a gun until five years after their last recorded incident. The bill had passed the House of Representatives and then on March 15, passed the Senate.

Fay hopes that the group of students they bus down to Topeka can spark the same call for action that the students on March 14 did.

“Students in Blue Valley are coming together to try and draft a bill,” Fay said. “They are using lawmakers they know or are interning for to figure out how to draft a bill and get something tangible that we could actually give to a lawmaker when we travel down to Topeka.

Something tangible that encompasses all our ideas for common sense gun legislation.”

With the Civic Engagement day and lobby day planned in the near future, some East students have already contributed to the national movement that calls politicians to be proactive when it comes for gun control.

Senior Denny Rice and freshman Ellie Freeman joined the March for Our Lives KC Student Board. The board helped plan the March for Our Lives rally that took place last saturday at Theis Park in downtown Kansas City. The rally was one of around 800 other March for Our Lives events nationwide that took place on that day. Their website shares their movements message, which is to “demand that [citizens] lives and safety become a priority and that we end this epidemic of mass school shootings.”

After the Parkland shooting, Freeman found herself tweeting back at President Donald Trump’s responses to the shooting and retweeting messages from the March for Our Lives twitter account. Already having a passion towards gun reform, Freeman joined the committee and helped plan the interactive activities present at the rally, such as the posters everyone signed and walls of photos showcasing victims of past school shootings.

Through working on the student board, Freeman was able to help leave an impact on 10,000 plus attendees, instead of her 115 Twitter followers.

Senior Denny Rice was also on the Student Board. He was part of the committee that helped create one universal goal they wanted to see happen through the rally – they wanted elected officials in both Kansas and Missouri to have a clear idea of what direction March for Our Lives attendees want gun legislation to go in.

Their main reform goals at the state level are to create stricter background checks when purchasing a gun, an increase in the allowed age to purchase a firearm, protection of “no gun zones”, such as schools and government buildings, and giving control of certain gun laws and restrictions to local government.

East students are not the only kids looking to make a change on the local and national level in regards to gun control legislation.

During East’s 17 minutes of silence, schools in the surrounding area such as Blue Valley North are planning to participate in the national walkout as well. However, BVN junior Taylor Mills says her school will “not [be] coming back in” after the 10 a.m. National Walkout start time.

“I think that sometimes extreme situations require extreme movement to make things happen and bring attention to them,” principal John McKinney said. “A walkout is a peaceful, safe way of addressing the issue of school safety.”

Leaders at BVN have also planned a community rally at the Jewish Community Center following the National Walkout, welcome to the public.

Fay says he plans on attending the April 20 rally, but also has been planning with student leaders from the Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley and Olathe school districts to create one uniform event to push common sense gun control.The 25 students communicate in a GroupMe called “KC Political Leaders.”

There are t-shirts designed for the National Walkout Day available for all schools and there has been talk of creating one cross-district rally for students in all three districts to attend. Fay thinks that creating one large event will allow for a larger impact on the community, due to the fact that media will only have to cover one event, instead of multiple smaller one.

With the Civic Engagement Day and lobby day plans still being worked out for the future, Fay’s goal is to uncover the underlying issues as to why our country is losing the “battle” against preventing mass shootings.

“I strongly disagree that taking away guns is the answer, and I am in full support of the second amendment,” Fay said. “But something needs to be done, whether that be regulation or requiring annual mental health checkups. Something needs to change if we want to stop American schools from bleeding.”

joining the MOVEMENT

no wrong answers forum SMSD held the No Wrong Answers public forum to discuss their future school safety plans and discuss gun control within the schools

YD gu C op ns en fo afet ru m y Young Democrats club is holding an additional forum to discuss gun legislation and discuss students political views on gun control within schools

East joins the nation wide movement to end gun violence and create a sense of safety in schools for students

LOBBYING T O CONGRESS Students are going to Congress to push for Common Sense Gun Reform

FOR H C R a m IVES OUR L

Students marched together on Saturday to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and to put an end to mass schooings

NATIONAL SCHOOL WALKOUT Students across the country are planning to walkout of school on April 20 for 17 minutes to honor the students from Parkland and to demand the end of school shootings

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DESIGN NATASHA THOM AS PHOTOS COURTESY OF ADA M JOLLES

M ARCH 26, 2018

F E AT U R E S 19

BACK TO HIS

ROOTS LEFT | Adam and his

classmates walk through a field in Israel.

A connection to religion is formed during an 18-week experience in Israel

BY MEG T HOM A Copy Editor

T

he marimba ringtone rattles sophomore Adam Jolles awake at 6:15 a.m. He brushes his teeth, combs his hair and changes out of his pajama pants. He stuffs his North Face backpack with two spiral notebooks, an itinerary with the plan of the day, an extra pair of pants and a few T-shirts.

He makes his way to the cafeteria to grab a bite before catching the bus at 7:15 a.m. He boards the yellow school bus with his friends – but not the ones who live on his block. His friends here are from all across the U.S. They pop their headphones in and look out the bus windows as the sun gradually rises over the Mediterranean coastline. Together, they embark on a two-hour long trip to their new home’s capital: Jerusalem, Israel.

Adam left behind his monotonous routine of a seven period day, followed by video games and after school sports by deciding to take his sophomore year studies all the way across the world. His longing to displace himself from friends and family for a six month long travel opportunity arose from what makes up 50 percent of his DNA: his Israeli culture.

“It’s hard not to be curious about that other part of you that you never got the chance to really learn about,” Adam’s mom, Michelle

Jolles said.

Spending 18 weeks from the end of January to June this year, Adam has the opportunity to venture across the 290 mile span of the small country, from Tel Aviv to West Bank — seeing his father’s hometown, Herzliya, allowing him to experience for himself where his native father had grown up.

After growing up with his father, uncle and grandparents, all from Israel and deeply ingrained with their culture, Adam wanted to experience first-hand the stories he had heard. Whether it be praying in sacred Jewish temples or getting a feel for the kindness radiating through the city, what was once just heard in story form is now brought to life.

“If you need help with something, you can count on anyone walking by to stop and try their best which is so different from back home” Adam said.

Instead of highlighting passages from the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, within the confines of his bedroom, this year Adam has been able to fully immerse himself in his Jewish culture through perusing the local food stands and adapting to the native culture of the people on the streets.

Junior Ben Jolles, Adam’s brother, did not have the opportunity that he did to travel, but he believes that this opportunity will set him apart in the long run as far as independence.

ADAM’S

TRAVELS

Adam has taken several field trips across Israel with his school

In Tzfat Adam visited a Mikvah – a cold water bath in a cave

“He’ll be a lot more independent from living on his own for six months, giving him good experience for what college will be like,“ Ben said.

While traveling throughout the country, Adam, alongside his peers from places like Seattle and Florida, are able to visit and learn from historic sites. The parable of Jews committing suicide due to Roman suppression on Mount Masada with the moral, “live free or die,” retained a new power when he was able to learn about it on the same ground as it occurred.

Because they are able to see the topics they are learning about first hand, the students end up spending more time outdoors than in the classroom.

“It’s cool how we aren’t just learning about our culture, but we are learning about it in the place that it actually happened,” Adam said.

His high school, Alexander Muss, is the brother campus to a private Israeli high school and the setup resembles more of a college campus. It mirrors the same benefits of free periods in between classes and the day split up into four periods verses seven, giving the students time to travel two to three times a week.

Unlike a typical day in the halls of East, Jolles has his four core classes in increments of one and a half hours to two every day with

TZFAT

Adam visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall and David’s Tunnel

JERUSALEM

breaks in between.

Not only are the students graced with this freedom, but the school is only composed of approximately 60 students, so classes typically only have two to three students.

Although he is still carrying on with the classes he started with at the beginning of the semester at East — AP European history, Honors Algebra 2, English and Chemistry — this new dynamic has helped Adam to better learn unfamiliar topics like the history of Israel due to the teachers one-on-one approach.

Along with this, he is able to study the basis of the program, which is the history of Judaism, and become accustomed to the language and the kindness present within the Israeli way of life.

According to Adam, his infatuation with his culture won’t end when his program does, and, so far, has only strengthened his urge to stay close to his origin. After finishing high school back at East, he plans on applying for Israeli citizenship and later enlisting in the Israeli defense forces.

“Being surrounded in the culture is something that would be really hard to walk away from once the program is over,” Adam said.

Adam climbed mountains and snorkeled in the Red Sea in Eilat

ISRAEL

HOD HASHARON (ADAM’S SCHOOL)

EILAT

DESIGN K ATIE HISE PHOTOS GRACE GOLDM AN

THE HARBINGER

20 F E AT U R E S

WITHIN Two students win annual district contest for their creative submissions in dance and visual art

BY LIL A TULP Section Editor

The Parent Teacher Student Association Reflections contest is a district-wide competition for students that encourages them to explore different areas of art, ranging from dance to photography to literature. This years broad topic,

reach “Within Reach,” gave students in four different age groups — primary, intermediate, middle school and high school — creative freedom in one of seven categories to submit their interpretation of the theme. Winners are now being sent to Washington D.C. for national judging. Here’s a look at two of this year’s East winners.

RIGHT | Freshman Parker Burrus works on an art project in class.

Parker Burrus THE SHAPES WITHIN

ABOVE | Junior Maggie Mulligan practices a routine in the dance room.

Maggie Mulligan DREAMS WITHIN REACH

Junior Maggie Mulligan was dropped off at her first dance class at Pattie Beller’s Dance Studio before she even learned how to tie her shoes — and she really only went for the lollipops.

But as she grew older, and her one dance class per week turned into almost seven a week, Mulligan began to love the art of dance — the way she gets the freedom to move, the way it makes her forget her worries and the way it invites all kinds of people to come together.

“I feel like when high school hit, dance was kind of an outlet for me,” Mulligan said. “When I was feeling stress or overwhelmed I could just go take a dance class and it melted away.”

After hearing about the PTSA Reflections contest through her mom’s friend in late February, Mulligan submitted her

original choreography for her dance, “Dreams Within Reach,” to the annual PTSA Reflections contest, winning first place in the high school division. Inspired by her desire to make those around her happy, Mulligan’s piece – originally a duet with former co-captain of the JV Lancer Dancers, Gia Hense, for last year’s spring show – was an upbeat “sassy jazz” dance, choreographed to the song, “Shake it Down.”

When accepting her award at the PTSA board meeting in early March, Mulligan’s dance was shown among the other winners, and accomplished her goal of relating to others and share her passion through a dance she created.

“I think [dance] touches a lot of other people because it’s really for everyone and it inspires them and gets people involved from all different kinds of parts of the world,” Mulligan said.

Mulligan didn’t expect to win. She was just happy to share her dancing with others. Now, as a winner, she will get to share her work with those in Washington D.C. as it is submitted for judging.

The bell had just rung and freshman Parker Burrus was sitting in his first hour, Introduction to Studio Art class. He grabbed his firetruck-red colored pencil and started sketching.

He drew three shapes: one pyramid, one sphere, one cube. Each shape was shaded making a three-dimensional illusion — it was simple, but different.

A few weeks later, Burrus’ mother, Jennifer, got an email from the SMSD board asking him to accept an award for a contest that he knew nothing about — he had won first place in the High School Special Education Artist division in Visual Art for the annual PTSA Reflections contest. East parent and PTSA member, Dee Wright, had entered his piece, later titled “The Shapes Within,” in the contest, and his art has since been sent in for national judging, according to Jennifer.

“It’s so great that he won for something he truly enjoys,” Jennifer said. “And it was exciting that someone else saw potential in his art and submitted it, we had no idea that the contest was going on so it was a nice surprise for him to get his certificate and medal.”

Burrus, born with issues with his heart, is involved in the social skills and SPED program through East, but his first class of the day with teacher, Jodie Schnakenberg, is his favorite hour.

Not only is this the class where he gets the chance to be with his peers and draw silly self portraits and abstract art inspired

by Kandinsky, but it’s where he can express himself through his art — where he’s not graded for understanding, but for his effort and his passion.

Burrus’ path in art is something he plans to continue through high school, whether it be doodling in the margins of his notebook paper or drawing with his red colored pencil, he hopes to achieve another medal to hang on his closet door.

CUP Noodles 0’

DESIGN ANNABELLE COOK PHOTOS AISLINN MENKE AND CARS ON HOLTGRAVES

M ARCH 26, 2018

A&E

BY JACKIE CA MERON Staff Writer

I associate ramen with the broke-collegekid lifestyle: quick, cheap, easy. I think of the white and orange ramen label and boiling water — the only two ingredients needed. Little did

Review of ramen noodle places that don’t just serve cheap, soggy noodles

I know these soggy noodles could make up an entire entrée menu at a restaurant. When one of my friends wouldn’t stop raving about the best ramen bowl she ever had in Lawrence, I decided

KOMATSU RAMEN Surrounded by lightly-stained wooden tables, I concentrated on Komatsu Ramen’s overwhelming menu. Each of the three broth bases offered at the Broadway Boulevard location could be paired with twenty ramen options, which seemed a bit much, and I was clueless as to what half of the ingredients on the menu were. So I settled on the chicken hot buns as an appetizer and a Narita ramen bowl.

Waiting for my food, I felt like I was in an unfinished house: wooden booths, tables and a bar area surrounded me and offered a natural vibe to the restaurant that I liked. Besides the wood everywhere, Komatsu smelled like someone had sprayed soy sauce Febreeze everywhere.

I thought the buns I’d ordered would be similar to hamburger sliders, but they turned out to be three pieces of spongy pita bread covered in tender chicken and a sweet sauce – even better. The sesame seeds dotting the appetizer added a nice crunch.

The second I finished devouring my starter, my ramen bowl was served. Perfect. I slurped up the bowl, filled to the brim with miso broth, noodles, scallions, boiled eggs and chicken and thought the filling meal would make great leftovers for school the next day.

The broth’s strong flavor saved the bland noodles.

The egg tasted as if it had been soaked in the broth for decades and turned out to be my second favorite part of the bowl after the crunchy scallions. I was able to finish most of the bowl — and the rest would be safe in my purple flower thermos for the next day.

The $18 price tag seemed like a lot for just noodles and an appetizer. However, the large helpings and the flavorful chicken buns helped me hold back my eye roll when I saw the check.

3.5/5 ABOVE | The Narita ramen bowl was filled with miso broth, noodles, scallions, boiled eggs and chicken.

21

I had to give ramen a chance to prove it could be more than the diet of a university student. Here’s my review of two local ramen restaurants:

shio ramen shop The dull black awning outside of Shio Ramen Shop on Broadway Boulevard didn’t do the inside justice.

Walking through the black and white curtain to reach the main area reminded me of how Lucy reached Narnia through the fur coat closet. Even though there was no fawn in a snow covered forest to greet me, the entrance to the quaint restaurant made me feel special.

With one ramen experience under my belt, I felt confident ordering the Shio ramen bowl and okinomoyaki. My total order set me back $23 – that’s two Chipotle bowls, with guac.

However, the okinomoyaki made up for the priciness.

Also known as Japanese savory pancakes, they were similar to hash browns topped with meat smothered in a barbecuetype sauce. The sweetness of the okinomoyaki contrasted the tangy barbecue flavor and made for an odd but satisfactory combination.

Thank goodness I saved my fork to help me eat the noodles, because the portions were mountainous. Besides noodles, there were scallions, egg, pork, chicken and daikon in my family of four-sized salad bowl. The daikon, winter radishes, were my favorite because of their resemblance in taste and appearance to a baked carrots. The meat and the noodles soaked up the chicken broth, so they were perfectly soft.

The only drawback to the charming shop was the close proximity of the tables. I could barely hear my friend talk about her spring break plans without also hearing the man next to us tell his wife about his day at work.

Even though the price was high and the tables were mere inches from each other, I would rather eat a Shio ramen bowl than a typical 99 cent pack from the grocery store.

4.5/5 ABOVE | The large serving of noodles contained scallions,

egg, pork, chicken and daikon.

DESIGN LYDIA UNDERWOOD PHOTOS JULIA PERCY AND K ATHERINE MCGINNESS

THE HARBINGER

22 A & E

m a i n s t r e e t

Larkburger E A T S

BY M ADELINE HLOBIK Copy Editor

T

ake a typical Freddy’s and revamp it. Not with self-serve dirt and worms concrete machines and a french fry conveyor belt that runs through the restaurant — but with starch white table tops, lime green chairs and a clean wooden backdrop behind the cashiers.

Larkburger, the Country Club Plaza’s newest burger joint, is the epitome of this. While surrounded by the smell of homemade fries, Larkburger had me hooked before I even tasted their burger.

Compared to my normal $9 Juicy Lucy at BRGR, I found the total of $12.78 surprisingly cheap for a small cheeseburger, small truffle and parmesan fries and small chocolate milkshake.

Initially, I was worried about ordering all small portion sizes instead of the regular sizes — I normally eat all of my dinner, a post-dinner snack an hour later and still find myself feeling hungry. However, I walked out of Larkburger feeling stuffed, and didn’t even have my usual craving for cookie dough ice cream as dessert.

Within 15 short minutes after ordering, a waiter brought me my burger and fries in miniature brown cardboard boxes — these cute little boxes with the Larkburger logo stamped on the side of them added a perfect dose of retro to the modern ambiance.

Although the amount of grease stains on the boxes had me a little worried that I was going to have oily fingerprints all over my iPhone screen, my burger held just the right amount of grease in it without being overwhelming. The perfectly melted cheese glued the fluffy, toasted buns and patty together.

Paired with my cheeseburger, the truffle and parmesan fries were to die for — and trust me, I’m picky when it comes to quality fries — not too

potatoey, but not too crispy. The fries themselves were skinnier than my normal McDonald’s fry; however, they had just the right punch of salt. With the garlic and parmesan sprinkled on top of the fries, I found myself in that weird mix of wanting more of the cheesy flavor, yet also feeling stuffed when trying to finish them.

To top my meal off, the chocolate milkshake hit the spot. It was extra chocolatey (which I’m a fan of) and had a thick consistency, but wasn’t annoyingly thick to the point where I couldn’t sip it out of the straw.

Overall, those truffle and parmesan fries were enough on their own to make me want to go back to Larkburger. But when you pair those fries with a uniquely modern atmosphere for a burger joint, it becomes that much better.

LARKBURGER 4800 MAIN ST SUITE 102

Reviews on two of the newest restaurants to open on Main St.

Price

review

$$

$

$$$

LEFT | A

Little Lark with a black angus beef patty and cheddar cheese on a toasted bun.

LEFT| A

small fry tossed in grated parmesan, italian parsley, and balck truffle sea salt.

4.5/5 Stars

ellys Brunch and cafe

BY BRY N N WIN K LE R Staff Writer

B

reakfast is known for being the most important meal of the day. Luckily, it also happens to be my favorite. As a passionate cereal lover and all-day waffle eater, I was more than ready to check out the recently-opened Elly’s Brunch & Cafe at 49th and Main Street.

The second I walked into the cafe, I had a hunch that this would become a new Sunday morning favorite. Windows surrounded the entire dining area, and there was an energy about the space that made me feel as if I were lounging in a corner cafe in New York City.

Inside, there is also a mini coffee shop with coffee and pastries available for purchase as people wait to be seated. Though Elly’s was bustling at 11 on a Saturday morning, the spacious venue allowed me and my friend to be seated right away.

I started off my breakfast with my daily dose of coffee, opting for the cold brew with caramel flavoring. The coffee was decent, resembling an average cup from Starbucks. However, I’m not picky when it comes to coffee, so it was pleasant to sip on as I took in the rest of the cafe and waited for my breakfast.

I waited about 25 minutes for my Classic Breakfast, consisting of two buttermilk pancakes, hash browns, and two eggs.

The rustic concrete ceilings and simple architecture gave the cafe an urban vibe, while colorful plates on the wall made it feel like I was back in my family kitchen. I could not get enough of the demographically diverse and inclusive atmosphere. The cafe’s unique location drew people from all backgrounds to relax and chat over brunch under one roof, which brought a sense of community.

The hash browns were the highlight of the ensemble — buttery and crunchy on top, warm and soft underneath. The scrambled eggs turned out to be as average as my attempt to make eggs. I was a little disappointed to find that my eggs weren’t completely scrambled, but in rather large chunks.

The golden brown pancakes with powdered sugar on top were gone in a matter of minutes (and made up for the eggs).

Overall, the $7.50 Classic Breakfast aligned with my high school budget, and it still satisfied my bottomless pit of a stomach that developed after swimming 5,000 yards at swim practice. Though Elly’s food was delicious, it was the energizing, inclusive atmosphere that will make me drive past my usual First Watch for brunch at Elly’s.

ELLY’S BRUCH & CAFE 4800 MAIN ST

Price

review

$ $$ $$$

4.5/5 Stars

ABOVE| The

classic breakfast with buttermilk pancakes, hash browns, and two scrambled eggs.

RIGHT | A

Twelve ounce iced cold brew with carmel flavoring.

M ARCH 26, 2018

Passion for Poetry

DESIGN GABBY LEINBACH

A & E 23

“The Sun and Her Flowers” is a powerful book of short poems that evokes emotion

BY M AYA STRATM AN Copy Editor

W

hile I was waiting in line to buy it I was already finishing up page six. I barely heard the cashier yell “Next!” because the author of “The Sun and Her Flowers” words were filling my ears.

I reread Rupi Kaur’s first book “Milk and Honey” three times – it had me branching out to find a new poetry book just as good. “The Sun and Her Flowers” was just that – a powerful book with short poems that make me feel almost every emotion in as few as five words.

Kaur breaks her new book into sections: wilting, falling, rising, rooting and blooming. These sections of poems show the process of losing someone and then learning how to grow from that heartache. The universal feeling of loss is what made this book easy to connect with. Even though I have never suffered a terrible breakup, I have grown apart from people I love and can relate to lines like “you’re everywhere except right here and it hurts.”

The poems in the sections follow a theme that goes along with the headers.

On the first page of “Wilting,” Kaur writes, “On the last day of love my heart cracked inside my body.” The rest of the poems in this section shadow this somber idea.

Phrases like, “On the first day of love you wrapped me in the word special,” prove how even the simplest phrases can make me feel warm inside. In short poems every word is important and Kaur does this by using words such as “wrapped” to create a sweet image in my head.

Kaur uses a technique of breaking

up important words on their own line such as “nothing” to give them a greater impact. This helped me focus on what she was trying to emphasize like how nothing in the world is promised to you.

The first section, “Wilting,” was her most powerful section of the book – a 42-page compilation that deals with the pain of heartbreak and loss. Kaur left me with haunting lines like, “You took the sun with you when you left” that threw me back to the first time I felt I couldn’t leave my bed of blankets because of a shattered heart.

Kaur does an awe-inspiring job of communicating feelings in a concise way, creating an overall heartwrenching collection of powerful poems.

M AYA ST R ATM AN JUNIOR

The way she compares her lover to the sun leaves me with an image of how much she needs him. I felt right along with Kaur – waiting around for him to come back when he only brought the pain, making this section meaningful.

Kaur does an awe-inspiring job of communicating feelings in a concise way, creating an overall heart-wrenching collection of powerful poems.

In the second section, “Falling,” Kaur takes the reader through the process of allowing oneself to feel the pain of losing someone. It was an interesting

perspective – one of not wallowing in pity or trying to feel better but simply accepting the pain of loss.

Instead of writing “things will get better” like your typical Pinterest quote, Kaur goes deeper and writes “I do not weep because I’m unhappy I weep because I have everything yet I am unhappy” – one of my favorite lines from her book.

“Blooming” was the last and my favorite section of the book. For someone like me, who drinks out of a “feminist as f––” mug every day, a section focused on self love, female empowerment and closeness to nature was the perfect way to end the book.

Kaur continually refers to a woman’s body as their “home,” a comparison that I connected with as a home is something you feel safe in and take care of. She tells the reader to thank their body as “there is no home like you.” This is something I wish every woman struggling with body image would read and understand.

If the easy-to-digest sections and insightful poems haven’t convinced you to order the book, the short time commitment will. Because most of her poems are only one to five lines with only a couple words in each, they make for a quick read.

You can start anywhere and jump around as you choose. If you need motivation I’d suggest reading through “Rising.” If you feel like getting into the “feels” maybe you can find solace in “Wilting.”

“The Sun and Her Flowers” is currently at the top of my recommendation list – while poetry is usually just a unit people dread in English class, this could become something you look forward to reading.

other books

by Rupi kaur

“Milk and Honey”

“One NRI Girl”

“Modern Romance” Coloring Book

“Guess How Much I Love You” Coloring Book

“How Deep is Your Love?”

Coloring Book

“The Colors of Love” Coloring Book

Maya’s Rating 5/5 Stars

DESIGN LIZZIE K AHLE PHOTOS CARS ON HOLTGRAVES

O N E T D

HE

T

hwack.

I throw my hands up, stomp my thick industrial boots and turn to my friends in celebration of a successful first throw. After pulling the axe behind my head and thrusting it at the wooden target, I watched the blade and handle slash the four point ring – just one away from bullseye.

Blade and Timber axe throwing: the perfect rainy day activity and a way to discover your inner lumberjack.

The brick warehouse, snuggled between numerous miscellaneous shops in the West Bottoms, has hosted axe throwing for five months.

According to axe-throwing coach Nathan Bartlett, Blade and Timber was opened by the creators of Breakout KC as another alternative activity for the area.

Recreational axe throwing is making its way into the Midwest after starting in Canada. Frankish soldiers and celtics to pioneers, frontiersmen and Native Americans have used and traded these hacking tools. Now, they are in our hands for entertainment and, believe it or not, the waiver is quite simple – an online signature will do it.

I was greeted by friendly axe throwers and distracted

by TVs showing various lumber-related competitions like trunk sawing and wood chopping. After watching all of the bearded men in flannels chop away, I started to channel my inner lumberjack too.

Bartlett showed me and my friends the simple hold, one hand stacked on the other holding the base of the axe with thumbs pointing up. With help from workers like Bartlett, I walked away feeling like anyone can learn how to throw the axe – no party member left out. The only part a person would potentially struggle with is the strength needed to throw it hard enough to stick.

When the throw is just off enough or just weak enough, the loud clunk of the axe hitting the target and falling to the ground of wood chips attracts the kind of attention that makes you want to duck down. It was great to watch, however, when it happened to me, my sturdy-lumber-

BLA

24 A & E

THE HARBINGER

BULLSEYE

BY DAISY BOLIN Head Copy Editor

Axe throwing, a trending leisure activity, proved to be challenging yet expensive woman feeling deflated and I felt the need to immediately redeem myself.

While embarrassment may creep its way into the game on occasion with an unlucky throw, safety is not an issue.

Each lane is separated by a three-foot wooden wall and fencing up to the ceiling. Only one person is allowed in the throwing area at a time, so that the axe thrower has plenty of space to swing. The simplicity and novelty of the activity was stress-free, inclusive and somewhat thrilling.

However, the pain my wallet felt after paying $65 for three people for one hour – that seemed to fly by – was as sharp as the blades themselves. To give an appropriate comparison, Topgolf is $35 altogether for up to six people per booth for one hour. Plus, Topgolf offers food whereas you bring your own to Blade and Timber.

Despite the high prices and lack of snacks, I enjoyed

the urban lumberjack experience. They played Black Keys and Foster the People to give the room an urban buzz and provided sodas for purchase.

Because the target never changes and there aren’t a variety of things to do besides axe throwing, I assumed the activity would be easy and become repetitive. However, I learned the single-arm throw is more challenging and worked for roughly fifteen minutes to hit one of the blue dots.

Axe throwing game instructions were placed at each wooden high top table just outside of the lanes. For all games, the target is labeled with points, up to six if you hit the center, when you hit the target’s rings, and two blue dots in the upper corners are worth ten points, too.

My personal favorite was “You call the shots,” the axethrowing version of Horse.

The games added a competitive element and challenged everyone to activate their logger-self enough for a lifetime.

Although I drove quite a ways, I enjoyed discovering the oasis of paper goods shops and antique stores surrounding Blade and Timber amongst the factories and train tracks. If you aren’t up for a drive like that, luckily they are opening another Blade and Timber on May 1 in Town Center in Leawood.

Aside from the game itself, I appreciated the Blade and Timber design: a simple and aesthetic logo, axes for door handles and walls and ceilings made of wood. The brick outdoor façade doesn’t allude to the Lincoln Log feel inside.

At the end of our hour, we stood in front of a timed camera with a Blade and Timber background, where we recorded a GIF that was sent for free by text to each of us to mark our experience. It’s one to remember for sure, however, my Paul Bunyan experience is plenty fulfilled.

If you’re looking to mix things up, Blade and Timber is your place – I just hope you’re ready to have your wallet chopped as much as the targets are.

ABOVE | The logo for Blade &

Timber at the front entrance at the downtown location.

ABOVE MIDDLE | The view of the bullseye from where Daisy threw the axe.

ABOVE | Daisy grips the axe in the simple hold: one hand on the other with thumbs pointing up.

LEFT | After throwing the axe, it splits the wood just above the center bullseye.

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DESIGN Sarah Bl eds oe PHOTOS DIANA PERCY

THE HARBINGER

26 S P O R T S

TO making ITTHE

OLYMPICS

In order to achieve her goal of competing in the Olympics, Lauren McDouglad must beat the Olympic standard qualifying times

life IN THE FAST LANE

Lauren’s Best times

100Y

FREESTYLE

Swimming for two competitive teams causes a struggle for balance

F

BY L AUREN WEST Staff Writer

reshman Lauren McDougald snoozes her iPhone buzzing on her bedside table. She rolls straight into her bathroom, grabs her can of shaving cream and spreads it along her legs, arms, and back.

It’s 4:30 a.m. and her pump-up playlist is blaring through her speakers as she prepares for the sectional swim meet at the University of Missouri the next day.

McDougald spends ten hours of her week at the pool, squeezing in homework whenever she can and going to early morning practices.

This hard work has lead her to be ranked second best overall for 200-meter butterfly in her age category in the Missouri Valley District, and has landed her spot on the East varsity team — without attending tryouts.

Her dedication to the pool makes her one stroke closer to qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.

McDougald made the Kansas City Blazers national team with a sectional time of 02:09:98 in the 200-meter butterfly.

She’s 11 seconds off of the women’s current best time in the 200 fly for the Olympics, according to olympic.org.

From swimming with the Lenexa Lazers recreational team at age eight to joining the Blazers national team at age 14, McDougald has spent 15 years of her life underwater. Yet, she had many other passions at a young age.

As a child, McDougald’s mom, Natalie Lynch, wanted her to try various sports, so she wasn’t committed to one at a young age.

McDougald participated in dance, soccer, volleyball, basketball and lacrosse before she chose swimming.

“A neighborhood friend had told us that Lauren should try out for the summer league

because she had always enjoyed going to the pool with friends for fun,” Lynch said.

“The next thing we knew she was making the city championship meet at the end of the summer and I thought ‘Wow she really has something.’ By the end of the year we signed her up for a more competitive club.”

McDougald’s passion and dedication to swim is what allows her to succeed at the sport.

With the Blazers, she has two and a half hour practices every day. Some days she’ll have doubles, which means they practice twice a day from 4:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The next thing we knew she was making the city championship meet at the end of the summer and I thought ‘Wow she really has something,’ By the end of the year we signed her up for a more competitive club.

N ATALI E LY N C H M C DO U GAL D’S MO M Every winter, spring and summer, McDougald travels with her national team of 28 high school girls and boys to compete in the Junior Nationals, Sectionals, and Division meets.

With such a busy swim schedule, McDougald’s Blazer schedule overlaps East’s — but she chooses to make it to all of East’s practice over the Blazer’s for the remainder of the school swim season. She will only swim with the Blazers during the morning practices she can attend.

Teammate and senior Izzy Smith swims

with McDougald for the Blazers and will be swimming together for this upcoming varsity swim season.

“I got to know Lauren by carpooling to practices at the beginning of the year,” Smith said. “She is a very good swimmer, and shows a lot of potential in her swimming.

The transition of her old group to this group is a big one and she’s handled it well.”

Every day, McDougald comes home from a long school day, takes a nap, tries to get all of her homework done, then it’s off to swim practice for the night. Whenever she has a meet out of state she always tries to stay on top of homework and tests, but McDougald’s schedule takes away her social time. She does all of this while looking forward to the Olympics.

“I really wanted to play volleyball, basketball and lacrosse for East, but I didn’t have time because I practice 10 times a week,” McDougald said. “If I went to football games it was right after swim practice and I usually made it by the end of the third quarter.”

All of McDougald’s hours devoted to swim shifts into her results at meets.

“I love the positive energy at meets, it gets me going. Knowing that there are people watching and cheering for me, it’s very motivating,” McDougald said.

McDougald will have a two week break after sectionals with the Blazers until it’s back to the pool. This will help her transition from club season into school season. She hopes East will help her to improve her times and enjoy making friends with her new teammates.

For now, McDougald is ready to use her razor to shave for the East team. But in the near future, she hopes to be shaving the night before the women’s 200 fly for the 2024 Olympics, listening to a new and improved pump-up playlist.

55.06 100Y

200Y

FREESTYLE

2:09.26 200Y

BUTTERFLY BUTTERFLY

58.68 100Y

2:09.10 200Y

BACKSTROKE BACKSTROKE

1:00.20 2:11.10 100Y 200Y BREASTSTROKE BREASTSTROKE 1:22.91 2:54.05 olympic competing times from the 2016 Olympic qualifying times*

100Y

FREESTYLE

56.49 100Y

200Y

FREESTYLE

2:02.39 200Y

BUTTERFLY BUTTERFLY

1:01.19 100Y

2:14.99 200Y

1:00.19 100Y

2:16.59 200Y

1:11.49

2:24.99

BACKSTROKE BACKSTROKE

BREASTSTROKE BREASTSTROKE *INFORMATION COURTESY OF olympicswimming.org

DESIGN GRACE CHISHOLM PHOTOS CA MILLE TALKINGTON

M ARCH 26, 2018

SPORTS

BY LUCY KENDALL Staff Writer

36

F E AT U R E S 17

A look into spring teams’ rivalries and coming seasons

GIRLS SOCCER

GIRLS SWIM

BOYS LACROSSE

RIVAL: SHAWNEE MISSION WEST

RIVAL: LAWRENCE FREE STATE

RIVAL: ROCKHURST

PAST RECORD: 2017 - L 2016 – L 2015 – W

e

GAME DATE: APRIL 5 | 7PM | SMSC WHAT WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE THIS YEAR? Our biggest challenge will probably be meshing as a team because we lost 11 seniors so a lot of our leadership is gone, and we have a ton of new faces.

C L A I R E LON G S E N I OR

WHO’S YOUR BIGGEST RIVAL THIS YEAR AND HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO THE PAST? SOPH OMORE M AG GIE SCHUTT

South and West are two teams we always want to beat and our biggest rivals. This year our bracket is set up differently, so the teams in our section are our biggest rivals.

C L A I R E LON G S E N I OR

PAST RECORD: 2017 - W 2016 – W 2015 – L

PAST RECORD: 2017 - L , L 2016 – L 2015 – W

GAME DATE: MAY 9 | 4PM | LFS

GAME DATE: APRIL 20 | 7:3 0 PM | SMN

WHAT WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE THIS YEAR?

WHAT WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE THIS YEAR?

We have a new coach this year so adapting to his training and connecting as a team is something we need to work on.

H AN N AH M C P H AI L SEN I O R

WHAT MAKES FREE STATE YOUR BIGGEST RIVAL? They didn’t have anyone graduate last year and have some good freshmen coming in. We both have depth in our teams but they may have a couple more top swims at state than us at this point, but we are pretty equal.

H AN N AH M C P H AI L SEN I O R SE N I OR E M M A LI N SCOT T

Our biggest challenge will be not beating ourselves.

Meaning if we can do really well at the things we can control then we will give ourselves a great chance to win.

MILTON BRA AS CH SENIOR

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON TO GET READY FOR THOSE TOUGHER TEAMS? We started off season practices much earlier than we ever have this year so we got our fundamentals back and we will continue to build our team chemistry so we will be playing our best in May. MILTON BRA AS CH SENIOR

S E N IO R M ATT M CGAN N O N

DESIGN WILL TULP PHOTOS REILLY MOREL AND AND T Y BROWNING

THE HARBINGER

28 S P O R T S

NEW COACHES GIRLS SWIM

IAN HUTCHISON - Varsity swimmer and diver at East, class of ‘04 - Coached for Kansas City Swim Academy

TRACK – SPRINTS DREW STEFFEN

GIRLS SWIM & DIVE: NEW LOOK First-year head coach Ian Hutchison designed a new crest and team T-shirt for the upcoming swim and dive spring season.

Before this season, the team did not have a personal crest — they either used block text or pre-existing Lancer emblems. Hutchison designed the new crest for the team which will appear on the swim caps, suits and coach’s shirts. Additionally, he designed the yearly varsity “team T-shirts” with a retro ‘80s theme.

“I checked with the school to see if there was anything we should use, and they said basically every team just

comes up with their own,” Hutchison said. “I took that as an opportunity to make something we could have for the next few years at least.”

Outside of coaching, Hutchison works as a graphic designer for the technology company Garmin, so he enjoyed using his visual design skill to help the team.

“It’s a good chance for me to do something else and something different and I think it’s fun,” Hutchison said.

- East Football Coach - Special Education teacher

BASEBALL

WILL GORDEN - Former coach at Bishop Miege High School - Coached Major League Baseball in China

BOYS TENNIS JED BAIR

- Biology Teacher at Shawnee Mission West - Plays disc golf

SENIOR GOLFER’S

SEASON HOPES

FROM OWEN HILL & THOMAS LUGER

WIN SUNFLOWER LEAGUE WIN EVERY TOURNAMENT THIS YEAR SCORE UNDER PAR AS A TEAM

H T I IN W THE

W E N

Varsity girls soccer has a roster of 17 for their upcoming season — a major shift from their 23-person squad last year.

The team will have six substitutes including one goalkeeper. Varsity coach Jamie Kelly believes this change in size will improve the team by allowing for more playing time for the best athletes.

New dynamics, designs and “I felt like we didn’t get in a good rhythm last more for spring sports teams year, that players weren’t playing enough together,” Kelly said. “As soon as we got players out there [and] girls were getting used to each other on the

BY WILL TULP Assistant Online Editor field, all of a sudden we would sub and it would kind of break things down a bit.”

Additionally, Kelly hopes that the smaller roster will allow for more movement of players between teams. Last season, no players were moved from C-team to JV or from JV to varsity. “[It] was disappointing for me as a coach, that SOCCER SETUP girls that worked hard didn’t get the opportunity VARSITY BY THE NUMBERS to come up,” Kelly said. “I actually had to tell one of the 23 [varsity players] she couldn’t suit in their ability to up because I’m only allowed to suit up 22 for compete well this playoffs.” season.

STARTERS Senior midfielder Maddy Muther is excited SUBS “I think the luxury about the new team and believes the team will PLAYERS we have this year be closer and perform better with the smaller which we didn’t have amount of players. last year is if we play our “I think we just have more team bonding best, we cannot be beat,” and chemistry than last year,” Muther said. “Last Luger said. “I really feel we year there was so many of us, it was hard to all be have the best team in the state.” connected and stay as friends.”

BOYS GOLF: NEW HOPE The boys golf team has high hopes for their upcoming season coming off a win against Rockhurst High School on March 20.

The tournament was in a match play format, so the 16-man team each competed one-on-one against the Rockhurst golfers. The squad won eight matches, lost six and tied two for a total score of 9-7.

Rockhurst is heavily favored to win state in Missouri for their 6A Class, according to senior golfer Thomas Luger, so the team is confident

Girls soccer: NEW DYNAMIC

11

17

6

DESIGN AVA JOHNS ON PHOTOS IZZ Y ZANONE

M ARCH 26, 2018

S P O R T S 29

DOMINATING THROUGH DETERMINATION Years of hard work and dedication to the sport earn a spot on varsity lacrosse

BY CL ARA VONDREHLE Online Section Editor

F

reshman Cade Eldred spent hours every day shooting into his backyard lacrosse goal in the weeks leading up to lacrosse tryouts. He challenged himself, a left-handed shooter, to play with his right hand, and yet still made almost every shot. After five years of playing with his sights set on playing varsity, he made it.

Tryouts for the 2018 lacrosse season consisted of line drills where the players showed their passing and shooting skills — group versions of what Eldred does in his own backyard. Out of nearly 20 freshmen who tried out, Eldred was the only one who found his name on the varsity roster.

Eldred played with five lacrosse teams before coming to East, playing middle and back-up face off. Eldred started playing after seeing his neighbors, his sister and his friends enjoy the sport — and he enjoyed it too. But it turned into more than just wanting to have conversation starters with the people in his life. According to him, it became a passion, a love, and something he wants to continue with well into college.

In the moment of the tryout, Eldred said he was feeling confident about how he was playing.

Making varsity was both thrilling and terrifying for Eldred, he said. While being on varsity would fulfill his biggest motivation, he was unsure if he would be accepted on varsity as a freshman and whether or not he was truly ready for it.

Sophomore Will Mohr, who made varsity when he was a freshman, knows what a switch it can be to go from playing lacrosse with kids your age to playing with upperclassmen that are two or three years older than you. Mohr is confident that Eldred is the perfect addition to the team.

“He is a really strong left-handed player,” Mohr said. “That’s something we’ve lacked in past years and that gives us a more versatile offense.”

Lacrosse coach Dan Leff says for a freshman to make varsity, the player must have both impressive stick skills and speed. Additionally, playing 17- and 18-year-olds every week is physically challenging, and the underclassmen need to exhibit the strength that it takes to beat players older and bigger than them during their tryouts. Leff knows Eldred is up

to the task. He’s seen Eldred play during fall freshman games, watching intently as he scored five goals in just one half.

There is no doubt in his mind that Eldred is not only going to add skill to the team, but be a leader on the team.

“The kid’s stick is like a part of his body,” Leff said. “He can shoot right and left in tough spots with a defenseman on him.”

Lacrosse practices started March 19, and Eldred feels good about fitting in with the rest of the team.

Leff knows that, besides age, the only thing that sets freshmen apart from the older guys on the team are their jersey numbers. For years before Leff came to East, one varsity freshman has worn jersey #29. The first guy to pick that jersey passed it down to the next freshman, and the tradition stuck.

“I could care less about seniority. The 30 best kids get jerseys and get to play varsity,” Leff said, agreeing with the players that their team is just that — a team.

He says it’s not about how old the player is, but about who can help the team to grow and achieve their goals.

The goals that varsity players have this year include winning the LAKC championship and hopefully going

undefeated, which, according to Leff, would probably bump the team up to the top 100 high school lacrosse teams in the nation. But Eldred’s personal goals are to improve on his passing skills and his right-hand shots.

“Lacrosse is like it’s own community,” Eldred said. “When you go to other states and play other teams, you get to know people around the country and you know every other player in Kansas.”

Up until he leaves his backyard turf, Eldred will continue to spend countless hours practicing to nail his right-hand shot.

But for now, he stands alongside the rest of the varsity team, where he brings his left-hand skills to the weekly games and makes a name for himself as a freshman.

Scan the QR code below to watch episode 2 of Faceoff, A Shawnee Mission East Lacrosse Story

A TIMELINE OF ELDRED’S CAREER:

PRAIRIE VILLAGE LACROSSE 2011 to 2017

BLUE LIONS LACROSSE 2013 to 2015

FOUNTAIN CITY LACROSSE 2017 to PRESENT

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST LACROSSE 2018

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DESIGN ELLIE THOM A

M ARCH 26, 2018

RIGHT | After touring Basilica di San Francesco, seniors Caroline Blubaugh and Kaleigh Koc talk with the monk who gave the tour. “Kaleigh and I talked to him for a bit after the tour and he gave us some words of wisdom,” Blubaugh said. “He highlighted the importance of joking around and not taking life too seriously.”

P H O T O S T O R Y 31

BELOW | During their one day lay over in Atlanta, seniors

Izzy Zanone, Isabelle Cunningham, Savannah Worthington, Isabel Epstein, Emma Renwick and Kaleigh Koc spend time at the aquarium. “I actually loved the aquarium,” Cunningham said. “It was a good escape for a few hours to not think about being stranded in Atlanta.” | grac e c his ho lm

| photo court esy o f Caroline Blubau g h

BELOW | The Shawnee Mission East choir performs in Vatican City

| p hoto court esy o f Ken fo l ey

Shawnee Mission East choir spends spring break in Italy to sing and explore historical sites LEFT | The choir

performs at the American Military Cemetary and Memorial in the south of Florence in memory of 4,402 fallen U.S. soldiers. | Photo

co urt e sy o f ke n fo le y

RIGHT | The choir

performs for an audience at the Duomo in Florence.

“The best thing for me is seeing the kids realize yeah, I’m going to see some pretty cool stuff,” said Choir Director Ken Foley.

“But once we actually get to these historic places it’s really fun for me to see these kids have amazing experiences.” | photo court esy of ken foley

ABOVE | Junior Carson Jones has a bracelet made for him on

the walk to tour a church. “I gave him my finger and he danced around while making it,” Jones said. “It only took him 30 seconds to a minute and everyone just stopped and watched him.”

| m or ga n plunke t t

DESIGN CAROLYN P OPPER

THE HARBINGER

HOW TO:

32 A LT- C O P Y

YO U R L I F E

This spring, learn to de-clutter, rejuvinate and sleep soundly with these three tips

BY NATASHA THOM AS Staff Writer

T

he fourth quarter and rainy weather have arrived, and lives everywhere are being put on hold to partake in the “spring cleaning” phenomenon. This cleaning trend has the Monica Gellers of the world going Swiffer-crazy this time of year.

Renovating guest rooms, organizing bookshelves and scrubbing floors are at the tops of many people’s lists right now, but the avalanche of dirty clothes in my closet should say it well enough — I am not a tidy person and do not care to be one.

Even though I’ve never been the vacuum-wielding type, I understand

MIND

Although the thought of one minute without our phones makes many of us instinctively reach for our beloved screens, research from the University of Chicago suggests that more phone time may mean a slower mind.

If you want to up your mental game, download the free app “Space - Break Phone Addiction” to moderate your phone time.

Space sets a daily limit of minutes that you are allowed to spend on your phone, and days you are below the limit you earn an achievement. The objective of the app is to use

why people find value in spring cleaning: it gives you a sense of change from the winter, and a feeling of accomplishment after living like a hibernating bear in the cold weather.

In this time of over-Windexing and color-coded sock drawers, I feel obligated to help those who, like me, want to improve their lives this spring without feeling like they’re in an infomercial for Clorox.

These are three ways you can spring-clean your mind, productivity and health that are full of self-improvement — and none of them involve a Wonder Mop.

your achievements (which come in the form of little planet and star graphics) to create your own virtual universe. The more days you are under your daily limit of phone time, the more planets you can add to your “Space.”

The first day I used Space, I spent two hours less than my five hour average on my phone.

My brain thanked me when I got through first hour PreCalc the next day without losing focus once. Even though your palms might sweat in your phone’s absence, I would recommend downloading Space — this spring you can dust off your brain cells instead of the bedside table.

HEALTH If you get seven hours of sleep like the average American teen does, you need to get more. Based off studies from NASA, keeping plants in your room can get you that golden nine hours of shut-eye.

My childhood nights were spent laying in bed wide awake — flipping my pillow to feel the cool bottom side on my neck, creating a fictional story in my head, doing anything but actually going to sleep. Then when my mom bought me my first plant — a peace lily — for my bedroom, the stuffy, stale air in my room suddenly felt fresh and relaxing. My eyelids would get heavy after five minutes in bed, and the feeling in the room sent me to my dreams in no time.

I didn’t connect better sleep back to the little potted lily sitting on my windowsill until fifth grade science class — I learned that plants elevate oxygen levels and ease breathing.

Aside from this well known fact, plants can also remove common household toxins from the air. Simply put, your room is cleaner and more refreshing in with a plant or two in it.

My sleep improved so much that I continued buying plants, and my room currently holds 11. So, if your sleep cycle could use an update, clear a spot in your room for a little ficus or spider plant. You’ll be refreshed and healthier for it, and the only spring cleaning you’ll be doing is in your dreams.

PRODUCTIVITY My freshman year I put every homework assignment I was assigned into iMac Reminders and set the app to notify me the night before they were due.

Then when those notifications popped up on my screen, I would hit “remind me in one hour” over and over like it was a snooze button at 6 a.m. on a Monday morning.

The only way I escaped the procrastination cycle was by ditching scheduling apps and online calendars altogether — I went old school and bought a paper planner.

The idea came to me one night while web-surfing and trying to avoid my impending chemistry lab, when Google mocked my laziness by recommending me a painfully relevant recent study — according to a professor at the Dominican University, people who wrote their goals down on paper were 42 percent more likely to accomplish them.

One trip to Target, a $12.49 planner, and a few assignments later, my late homework-filled nights were replaced with sleep and better grades. This year I’ve written all assignments in my planner and have yet to turn in an assignment late.

If you noticing a lag in the homework category, drop the scheduling apps and purchase a paper planner — you won’t be spring-cleaning anything but your grades.