The Harbinger Issue 2 by The Harbinger

HARBINGER

ISSUE

THE

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS

9/21/15

After a hazing incident involving boys’ cross country, the question arises: when does a tradition of initiation become hazing? PAGE 7

INSIDE:

STUDENT TEACHES BIOCHEMISTRY

PAGE 16/17

PIGWICH REVIEW PAGE 20

TEACHER COMPLETES IRONMAN PAGE 25

THEEASTONIAN A Viscious Ritual The tradition of writing and distributing the underground, slander-ridden newspaper, the ‘Eastonian,’ should be discontinued

VOTES FOR: 9 AGAINST: 0 ABSENT: 2 There comes a point when tradition goes too far. With the first edition this year of the “Eastonian” being released a few weeks ago, we at the Harbinger feel like it’s time to talk about it. The Eastonian is an underground newspaper released randomly throughout the year, filled with slander and various drinking references connected to parties and school events, like football games. Its main purpose is to takes shots at the students of East. The idea of the Eastonian is appealing to many students, who are able to joke with their friends about the people and things mentioned in it. But what if it’s your name is in the paper? Most students whose names get put in it face incredibly humiliating repercussions. Why should they face social shame because a few peo-

ple hiding behind fake names say rude, often-times fabricated, things about them in a phony publication? We at the Harbinger understand tradition. The Eastonian has been around for years, and the need to continue this tradition is felt by some students. But it’s time for this tradition to come to a halt. If you’re thinking about writing the next Eastonian, don’t. Why feel the need to take such vicious jabs at students? Why feel the need to brag, exaggerate and glorify illegal actions and degrade girls based on social status and physical appearance? And really, this shouldn’t be accepted in an underground publication, much less any aspect of life. What good can come from spreading such negative thoughts to the entire student body? The idea and content of the

Eastonian hasn’t changed throughout its entire existence. Instead, year after year, the Eastonian increasingly gets worse as a name calling, backstabbing publication. Shawnee Mission East is an exceptional school with a great student body and faculty. In fact, we’re a family. Family shouldn’t treat each other with such disrespect. To the writers of the Eastonian: we know tradition can be hard to break. But to those being written about, our message is this: don’t be upset and feel bad about yourself. Instead, you should feel bad for the people writing the paper, hiding behind fake names in order to poke fun at the awesome kids that East holds.

Tommy Sherk

CO-ASSISTANT EDITORS Claire Pottenger Will Clough

HEAD COPY EDITOR Ellie Booton

ART & DESIGN CO-EDITORS Aidan Epstein Yashi Wang

NEWS SECTION EDITOR Caroline Heitmann

EDITORIAL SECTION EDITOR Chase Tetrick

A&E SECTION EDITOR Anna Dierks

CIRCULATION MANAGER Elizabeth Anderson

OPINION SECTION EDITOR Courtney McClelland

FEATURES SECTION EDITOR Chloe Stanford

SPORTS SECTION EDITOR Caleb Krakow

SPREAD SECTION EDITOR Ellie Cook

ADS MANAGERS Grace Chisholm

ASSISTANT SPREAD EDITORS Daisy Bolin Annie Jones

CO-PHOTO EDITORS Callie McPhail Hailey Hughes

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Elizabeth Anderson Ellie Thoma Diana Percy Tess Iler Maddie Smiley Hannah McPhail Ava Simonsen Abby Hans Abby Blake Kaitlyn Stratman Allison Stockwell

STAFF ARTISTS Lennah Cardozo PAGE DESIGNERS Ali Lee Abby Walker Katie Hise Teagan Noblit Annie Jones Daisy Bolin Robbie Veghlan Catherine Brown Marti Fromm Grace Apodaca Harrison Gooley Morgan Biles Kaylin McCan Seamus Carrol Isabel Epstein Ellie Mitchell Anna McClelland Jessica Parker

Sophia Stechschulte Porter Carroll

COPY EDITORS Chloe Stanford Courtney McClelland Caroline Heitmann Daisy Bolin Kylie Schultz Elaine Chamberlain Tommy Sherk Ellie Booton Claire Pottenger Will Clough

ONLINE ASSISTANT EDITORS

ONLINE HEAD COPY EDITOR

ONLINE CONVERGENCE EDITOR

ONLINE ASSISTANT COPY EDITOR Caroline Heitmann

ONLINE LIVE BROADCAST EDITORS

Joseph Cline Hayley Bell

John John Roney Will Hembree

EDITORIAL BOARD

ONLINE NEWS SECTION EDITOR

CO-ONLINE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Leah O’Connor

ONLINE VIDEO EDITOR

CO-ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS

Tommy Sherk Claire Pottenger Michael Kraske Will Clough Ellie Cook Ellie Booton Chase Tetrick Caroline Heitmann Courtney McClelland Celia Hack Daisy Bolin

PODCAST & RADIO EDITOR

Celia Hack Tyler Keys

Kylie Schultz

Anna Kanaley Grace Apodaca

ONLINE HOMEGROWN SECTION EDITOR Lennah Cardozo

ONLINE SPORTS SECTION EDITORS Reser Hall Davis Finke

Ellie Cook Michael Kraske

ONLINE OPINION SECTION EDITOR

ONLINE A&E SECTION EDITOR Jemima Swindells

ONLINE EASTIPEDIA SECTION EDITOR

Olivia Favreau

Morgan Biles

Students of SME, It is true that the Eastonian has been around SME for a number of years, but the most recent incarnation is nothing like the Eastonian of the past. Where the document used to be a satirical and sometimes humorous look at politics, social issues and life at East, it is now nothing more than filth and hate attempting (poorly) to pass itself off as “petty amusement.” Not only does it make light of excessive drinking and drug use, it attacks, insults and slanders fellow students. It is hatred and lies, nothing more, and contrary to everything that SME believes in and represents. The document that was distributed on Lancer Day is an embarrassment to our school, our student body, our staff and our community. Those responsible for its production or distribution should be ashamed. You have hurt your school and its reputation. Worse yet, you have tarnished the good name of the Lancers who came before you, many of whom now live in this community and send their own children to the very schools they once attended, including SME. Anyone who participated in the writing, editing or distribution of this document should be embarrassed; moreover, you should be punished. The “Eastonian” represents a violation of several SMSD and SME policies, including: ·

Policy JGEC - Sexual Harassment

Policy JDDC - Intimidation/Bullying

· Policy JHCA - Obscene or Libelous Student Publications

Harbinger Staff List: Fall 2015 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Letter to the Editor

Matthew Bruyere

Sean Overton

WEBMASTER Leah O’Connor

I urge those responsible for the creation or distribution of this document to come forward and accept responsibility for your actions. More importantly, I urge the students of SME to stand up against defamation and hate. Do not let the hateful and malicious words or deeds of a few represent the hard work and good name of the many. I urge you to bring this ridiculous "tradition" to an end.

ASSISTANT WEBMASTER Nick Mantel Alex Masson Will Hembree Joe McLiney

SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR John John Roney

ONLINE PHOTO EDITOR Katie Lamar

MULTIMEDIA STAFF Gabe Snyder Nick Mantel Lennah Cardozo John John Roney

CO-ASSISTANT ONLINE PHOTO EDITORS Abby Hans Morgan Browning

ADVISER Dow Tate

John McKinney Principal Shawnee Mission East

Things to Look for Inside:

Students create T-shirt Enterprise - 7 Student reflects on busy schedule - 11 Coach runs the Ironman- 25

NEWS in BRIEF

written byAnna McClelland

New Apple Products Unveiled

pple held a conference announcing several new products Thursday, Sept. 10. They unveiled the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and the latest version of the Apple TV. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will feature a 3-D touch screen, or “force touch.” The screen will be able to sense the amount of pressure applied. The iPhones are made with new aircraft grade aluminum, making them less likely to bend. They will also be available in rose gold. The new phones will be in stores on Sept. 25. “Since my old phone no longer works,” sophomore Toni Englund said, “I plan to get the iPhone 6s in silver.” Along with iPhones, there are several new innovations with iPads

Al Qaeda Leader Speaks Out

yman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda leader, released a group of audio messages breaking a long period of silence on Tuesday, Sept 15. It is not known when exactly the messages were recorded, but the first was released Sept. 9. The messages are attracting a lot of attention because al-Zawahiri recognizes ISIS’s caliphate, or a form of Islamic government, as legitimate. In the past, ISIS and al Qaeda have battled for power in Iraq and Syria. But after al-Zawahiri’s message, he encouraged all jihadists, or Muslims fighting for Islam, to fight a united front for the establishment of a caliphate. “I would cooperate with them in fighting the crusaders,” said al-Zawahiri during his message in reference to ISIS, “Because the matter is bigger than

as well. The new iPad Pro has a larger screen with a retina display, and will be compatible with the new Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil is a stylus that was designed to feel and work like like a pencil in the user’s hand. It can detect pressure, angle and orientation. A new remote was released to go with the Apple TV. It allows for volume control and has a screen for swiping up and down. Apple also released the iPad Mini 4 and more color options for the Apple Watch. “It’s crazy to think that ten years ago all we had was the iPhone 3G, and now we are at this insanely updated iPhone 6s,” sophomore Alyssa Vuillemin said. “I wonder where technology will be in another ten years.”

SMSD Experiences Cucumber Recall

HUMANS OF SM

EAST

An exhaustive catalog of the brilliant, quirky and multifaceted students of Shawnee Mission East

Jonah Shaver

Salmonella] because that would really suck.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak killed a 99-yearold woman from San Diego, and over 200 people have gotten sick across the nation. Teenagers and children are at a high risk of infection. About half of those affected have been under 18. The district is currently taking the necessary steps to prevent the recalled cucumbers from being consumed. They are removing them from all schools and no longer providing them for lunch.

Sophomore

he Shawnee Mission School District was notified last week that all cucumbers recently purchased were recalled due to possible Salmonella contamination. Thirty states, including Kansas, have recalled their cucumbers. The cucumbers in question were not served at East, but they could have been served at other district schools including Shawnee Mission North and Shawnee Mission West. “I feel like I’ve been lied to,” said freshman Billy Sellers. “I don’t want to get infected [with

A BREAKDOWN OF SCHOOL, LOCAL AND WORLDWIDE NEWS

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

me and their claim of establishing a caliphate.” The motives of the messages are not known, but it is possible that alZawahiri could have been attempting to gain rank among other al Qaeda leaders. “We consider that most of the corruption in the movement is within a small ruling minority that mixed good work with bad,” said al-Zawahiri during one of the messages. The Institute for the Study of War says that if ISIS and al Qaeda were to cooperate, it could lead to more global terrorist attacks and would undermine the effort to regain land from ISIS. “It makes me very frightened that ISIS and al Qaeda could collaborate,” said sophomore Rachel Walter. “That would not be good for anyone.”

photo by Diana Percy

photo by Morgan Browning

photo by Kaitlyn Stratmen

Top: Senior Charlie Burkhead throws confetti in the air at the Sept. 4 football game against GardnerEdgerton. Middle: Junior Camille Moore wakes up senior Will Kost to tell him he is a Homecoming nominee. Bottom: Junior Sky Tate runs the football down the field at the Sept. 11 game against South. If you had one million dollars, what would you do first? I think I’d either do something with volunteer work or I’d buy some house on an island.

What is your favorite memory? Probably hanging out with my cousins in Canada where they live. So probably hanging out with family.

photo by Allison Stockwell Follow @humansofsmeast on Instagram or check out smeharbinger.net for more

FROM

OLD TO

NEW

East’s new cafeteria allows for a new Student Store location, leading to several renovations and additions to the program

ver the summer and into the school year, the cafeteria has hosted multiple construction projects. Aside from the main cafeteria improvements, an idea to create a new place for East’s student store was proposed by Assistant Principal Jeremy Higgins and Principal John McKinney. According Marketing teacher and student store advisor Mercedes Rasmussen, she and her students were ecstatic at the news. Last year’s student store was located across from the auxiliary gym, and was “an old shack,” according to senior store staffer Lola Hitchcock. The ability to design and get more stock into the store was a big issue for last year’s store because of the size of its doorframe and interior. But over the course of a summer, the new store was built with a large

STOCK This year, the Student Section is trying to vary its products. They recently got a shipment of sweatpants and shirts, with buckethats and sweatshirts coming in the near future. S

CER

LAN

“garage” door and inside space. “We have new students, a new location and new health standards if we want to sell any products that are edible,” Mercedes Rasmussen said. “We are working on designing the inside of the store in hopes that we’re going to have additional products that we don’t normally have. We’re actually going to have a little home store area and hope to expand it a little bit.” The store itself even changed its name to “The Student Section,” and a picture of the student section from last year’s state football game will cover the back wall. The student store students believe that the student section at East’s sporting events are huge supporters of Lancers, and the student store works to be the same. The store is also going to be taking credit cards and is adding a cash register to

HEALTH STANDARDS rds Health Standa ssion Shawnee Mi t tric Dis ool Sch

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The store must follow the same standards that the entire district follows when ordering food for the vending machines.

written by Mac Newman photos by Callie McPhail

the front desk. Senior store staffer Liam Griffin explains his own positive takeaways from the changes. ”I think [the changes] are good, they will streamline transactions and make it easier for people to get in the store and see the products. Business is strictly financial.” There are 12 people on staff and several different departments including sales, design, web design and finance. Each member is in a certain department, but can to sell in the store or translate to other positions, according to Hitchcock. Due to these changes, the amount and variety of products will both increase, Hitchcock says. They received new shipments last Tuesday, filled with new sweatpants and shirts. They are in the process of ordering sweatshirts and bucket hats.

NEW&

With the new location and staff increase, the store has expanded to online, with hopes to sell merchandise to a wider market, like parents and alumni. The website is connected to the Shawnee Mission East website and is called “Student Store”. They will also be able to take orders and ship them out in bulk. The entire aim of the Student Section is to resemble an actual store. Rasmussen feels this is a more attainable goal because of the updated store. She only does the final “say-so” of the big decisions, so the fate of the stores profit and overall well-being is up to the students. “I love the changes so far, I am so excited,” Rasmussen said. “It is a true business that gives them first hand experience, especially now that it feels like a real store.”

CREDIT CARDS

NAME The staff ordered a picture of the football student section to hang up in the store, giving the store its new name, The Student Section.

IMPROVED Currently, products can only be purchased with credit card through the Spirit Box. The store will receive a credit card machine soon.

The Studen

Section

GAINING MU MEMBERS written by Catherine Brown

Coalition breaks their record attendance, and plans for the new year

ocial Studies teacher David “Mu” Muhammad, sponsor of the humanitarian club Coalition, listens to the chatter of the students as they fill up the classroom. He stands at the front of the packed room, silently reviewing what he is going to say. Students are crammed into the small space, sharing desk seats, sitting shoulder to shoulder on the floor, while others spill out into the hallway, craning their necks to catch a glimpse into the classroom. He scans the eager faces staring at him, many of whom he does not recognize. After the first Coalition meeting for the 2015-2016 school year, Muhammad realized that his classroom could barely accommodate the 60 to 70 students who showed up. He debated relocating the meetings to the cafeteria, but decided against it because he did not want to break the tradition of hosting Coalition in his own classroom, room 309. Coalition needs the projectors and whiteboards in order to make their meetings successful. At a typical meeting, there is usually a video or presentation that goes along with the organization that the students decide to support. However, there are challenges that come with trying to instruct a large group of people. With so many students it is difficult to keep everyone under control and the noise and distractions can make students lose focus fast. Therefore, Muhammad has to get creative and find entertaining yet efficient ways of educating students on the causes. But despite the somewhat chaotic meetings, Coalition gets the desired results that Muhammad looks for. “Students are united toward the causes we support, and, when our events are successful, it makes everyone feel like they played a role.” Muhammad said. Senior executive Dalila Miller has been a part of Coalition for three years. Miller joined Coalition sophomore year because of the great things she heard from upper-

classmen. They told her how Coalition holds fun events that raise money to help people all around the world. At Miller’s first Coalition meeting, they discussed upcoming events and important social issues. She noticed how positive everyone was and that energy immediately drew her in. “I wanted to get involved in Coalition because I did not play any sports or do any other activities at East,” Miller said. “Coalition seemed like the perfect thing for me.” There are 15 Coalition executives for this school year,

“Students are united toward the causes we support, and, when our events are successful, it makes everyone feel like they played a role.”

-Social studies teacher David Muhammad and all of them work together to lead the club meetings. Due to the loss of seniors from last year, Muhammad chose students for the board based on each student’s previous interest and commitment to the club. He decided on 15 executives, a record number, because he knows that many students are involved in various activities and cannot devote all of their time to Coalition. With the large board, he hopes the executives will not feel overwhelmed. Students help the executives promote the events mainly through social media and self-made posters that they display around the school. According to Muhammad, word of mouth is the fastest and most effective way to get their message out. Coalition is holding a bake sale at Prairie Elementary on Sept. 20 to benefit Anna’s oven, a local restaurant that donates 50 percent of its proceeds to charity.

the

present Projects:

ILS OF PROMIS C N E PE

A “dance marathon” will be held in the aux gym this Oct. to support “Pencils for Promise, an organization that builds schools strives to increase educational opportunities in underprivileged countries. Everyone is encouraged to wear costumes.

C oa li t i o n

Within the first week of school, Coalition chose their initial organization to support, Anna’s Oven, suggested by senior Katie Lamar. Anna’s Oven is a local restaurant which supports global education. Their motto is “good food for a good cause,” and the owners dedicate 50 percent of all profits to help educate those in need. Coalition will be having a bake sale on Sept. 20 at Prairie Elementary in order to raise their goal of $400. Another cause that Coalition is supporting is Pencils for Promise, an organization that builds schools in underprivileged countries. These two organizations have the common goal of supporting education for those in need. In October, Coalition will be hosting a dance marathon in the auxiliary gym for Pencils for Promise, and everyone is encouraged to wear costumes. With a record amount of people wanting to get involved, Muhammad is excited about this upcoming year and what they have planned. He is impressed with the students’ abilities to think outside of the box and brainstorm new ideas for fundraisers and organizations they want to support. Coalition has always been a place where all students, despite their backgrounds, feel comfortable. Muhammad encourages anyone slightly interested to get involved. Even if a student has a busy schedule and cannot come to the meetings, they can still be involved by supporting the events and donating. Some days Coalition is Muhammad’s biggest motivation to stay in education, and the students’ positive energy and involvement is the reason Coalition continues to grow.

ave Novemb h S er No

e Lov

146

The “No Shave November” competition is back this year, but the organization that will benefit from it has still not been determined.

Coalition will be holding their anual concert in Feb. to benefit “Love 146,” an organization that works to end child sex trafficking and exploitation. The concert features local artists, many of them East students.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

A new change in policy permits students to receive multiple drinking infractions before facing severe consequences

he Shawnee Mission School District has implemented a new alcohol and drug policy. The changed policy replaces one that left little room for interpretation. It called for a student to be removed from athletics completely after their first offense. “The athletic directors in the district were trying to find a more equitable consequence,” Principal John McKinney said. “What we were finding was that different punishments were being issued for kids that were in season versus out of season, and kids at the beginning of their season versus at the end of their season.” The new policy allows for the athlete to be issued a warning on the first and second offense. “We always try to lean more towards the side of Delays brain’s being fair,” McKinney said. development If the student causing issues continues more of the same illegal activity, with decision the policy calls for making administrators and coaches to issue a

Drinking & Sports

Leads to weight gain and sluggish play on the field

Can lead to addiction, and result in legal consequences

Attention span can shrink for up to five days after drinking

Information courtesy drinkaware.com

written by Marti Fromm

punishment equal with the severity of the offense. This contrasts significantly from the old policy – which called for the removal from the team regardless of the severity of the offense. The SMSD recognizes that the importance of athletics goes beyond winning. The district has long held the belief that sports play a role in a variety of aspects in a student’s life. A team provides a family atmosphere while giving each player a sense of identity. “We don’t want to take away the only reason that some students come to school everyday,” McKinney said. However, the brotherhood/sisterhood of a team leaves more room for peer pressure among other athletes. Based on a survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2012, more than 9 million people between the ages of 12 and 20 reported drinking alcohol in the preceding month. This is almost 25 percent of people in this age group. “If the upperclassmen teach the underclassmen that drinking is cool, then they’re passing on a tradition that shouldn’t be there,” Varsity Soccer Coach Jamie Kelly said. “Then it comes down to a group saying: ‘this isn’t what we do here because we care about winning and competing at the highest level.” Based on the 2013 National Survey on Drug

Use and Health, 35.1 percent of 15-year-olds report that they have had at least one drink in their lives. “Teenagers drink because it’s been foreign to us for so long that it’s a new source of fun and it also poses another aspect of fun in that we aren’t supposed to do it,” Sophomore John Smith* said. Four years ago, the beloved varsity soccer player and senior Tyler Rathbun was driving on an ATV after consuming alcohol at a party. The vehicle flipped taking the life of a loved student, athlete and friend. In order for a heartbreaking incident such as Rathbun’s to never happen again, the coaches of all teams stress the reality of what can happen when alchohol is misused. “I talk about Tyler all the time,” Kelly said. “He was a phenomenal kid and player. When Thanksgiving comes around, we have to go through the mourning all over again. You have the time from when you’re 21 until you die to drink. You have the rest of your life to go.” The SMSD is hopeful that the changed policy will encourage students to decrease the use of drugs and alcohol. “Unfortunately, we know that this is a policy we have to have, so we are trying to be as flexible as possible, while providing the correct punishment.” McKinney said.

*Name changed to protect identity

photo illustration by Katie Lamar

OPENING NEW DOORS Seniors Jackson Ceule and Brayton Bowers create T-shirt business and look to expand product margin

photos by Maddie Smiley

“

Please move out of the doorway.” Those six words opened the door for then-sophomores Brayten Bowers and Jackson Ceule. Bowers and Ceule spent the summer kick-starting their business, and went from being just friends to business partners. Now you can see their T-shirts worn by students walking the halls of East. It started as a joke — as something to keep them occupied and entertained during seminar. While the two sat in the hall outside room 512 on their laptops messing around on customink.com, designing T-shirts to kill time, they got the request to move out of the doorway. Doorway. It clicked, and it stayed. Ceule and Bowers started with 24 customized tees, selling for $15 each. After three hours, they had completely sold out. With their current profit of $400, Ceule and Bowers plan to expand their product margin. Currently, the only product for sale is their white T-shirts with DWC printed across the chest. In the near future, they plan to put out sweatpants, hoodies, beanies, stickers and more. “We make sure they are cheap,” Bowers said. “So far we only have three letters on our shirts, it’s not like we are going to make people pay over $15 for that.” The boys play primarily equal roles in the business, although Bowers accounts

for orders while Ceule handles social media promotion. Advertisement-wise, they are getting publicity from their social media accounts — Twitter and Instagram — as well as self-designed business cards promoting the company. Bowers excitedly talks about their sponsors who include Brooks Brown, Gabe Snyder, Phillip Fuson, Lars Troutwine and more who proudly wear their shirts, getting the name out. “I feel blessed to be sponsoring Doorway clothing,” Fuson said. “Their T-shirts are pretty much the best.” The business, however, is not just a two man show. Behind the scenes they have their own personal designer, Junior Eli Kurlbaum. He helps brainstorm ideas for new T-shirt designs as well as helps create their business card. Junior WIll Hembree is working hard to give Doorway a professional and efficient site, while Junior Annie Lomshek has agreed to help the boys with anything regarding photography. Although this is primarily a student run organization, parents must play a role somewhere in this process. Bowers’ and Ceule’s parents initially looked at the idea of their children starting a T-shirt business as a sort of joke. Bowers’ parents still look at the company as a sort of “phase” or “hobby”. Although, each step further and the bigger this

“hobby” becomes, the more they come around to the idea that their children are running their own business. “Jackson’s parents are supportive about it, but it’s Jackson and I funding the whole thing,” Bowers said. “We don’t have anyone else’s money involved in it; it’s just us two putting in our time and effort.” The boys explained that it started as something fun, and it turned into a job much more intense and serious than they originally thought. They look forward to pushing the brand out and making their name big in the Kansas City area. Right now, their audience and buyers are primarily East students, but they are looking for opportunities to expand to their market. “I feel like a lot of people buy our shirts just because they know Brayten and I, so right now we are focusing on selling to the people that will buy even when they don’t know us,” Ceule said. Bowers and Ceule are walking through this process without the help of adults, and they admit that it has been difficult at times, but in the end the reward surpasses the challenges. With their impressive $400 profit so far, they agree that the wad of money is a perk. But walking by a kid wearing a DWC shirt in the hall is what reminds them why this is all worth it.

written by Jessica Parker

Start-up Stats

About 30 shirts have been sold since they started.

Six people are currently involved in the business. They plan to collaborate with Kansas City Alpha Downhillers (KCAD) to create more products. More products are in the making such as: beanies, sweatpants, sweatshirts, stickers and more.

Passing along

HOW THE GERMS ARE SPREAD

40%

of East students bring the hall pass into the stall with them

A day in the life of one of East’s hall passes opinion by Kylie Schultz 7:40 AM ere I sit, on another Wednesday morning, perched on the dusty shelf of some boring old math classroom. I’m surveying the newest round up of freshmen students, sneezing into their hands and picking their noses discretely, thinking they’re being sneaky about it. Slobs. Oh, great. Here we go. I find the first taker of the day slumping towards me, beady little eyes focusing right on me. I feel the grimy hands of the freshman boy close around me and try not to retch. I’m tossed into the air repeatedly, like I’m a football or something, until we approach the drinking fountain that I’m too well acquainted with for my own good. The kid spots one of his acne-covered friends and I fall to the floor. I wince at the sudden sensation of hurtling towards tile. Well that hurt. He has the audacity to leave me there, and I’m still grumbling about it when I see them. Tiny little green germs, thousands of them. Perhaps millions. The floor is absolutely covered in them, and they’re charging at me. All I can do is gape in horror as they cover me. I feel so dirty. I beg and plead for the freshman boy to pick me up and save me from this horrible fate but no, he continues to chat with his gross friend, and I lie there helplessly. I hate my life.

33%

of East students don’t wash their hands every time they go to the bathroom

76%

of East students use a hall pass at least once a day

4% of East students have dropped a pass in the toilet art by Morgan Biles

9:37 AM I’ve been mishandled so many times already today and it’s only the start of third hour. What kind of sicko takes you into the stall with them?! I’m still fuming over my last attacker, a junior girl who didn’t wash her hands, when a sophomore football player takes me by surprise. Before I can register what’s going on, I’m sitting behind one of those rusty-looking sinks in the boys’ bathroom, staring at the tile wall, trying (and failing) to ignore the thousands of little green blobs making their way all over me. Merciless beasts. I wait for a minute, then two minutes,

then three, then four. By now the germs are at least an inch thick, sliming their ickiness over every inch of me. The unwashed hands of that junior girl would feel like a sanctuary now. Where is this kid? The severity of the situation begins to dawn on me. I am positively furious — was I ditched? Did that bum leave me in such a horrid, germy place? Why? How could people be this cruel? I see another boy walk in, one of my brothers clutched in his hand and hope that he’ll notice me, and take me out of this dark place. No such luck. The other hall pass goes behind the sink right next to me, and I can nearly hear its silent scream of horror as some of the germs on me leave, scrambling for the cleaner, more vulnerable space. 11:24 AM After nearly two hours sitting in my personal, grime-infested hell, I’m rescued. Granted, I’m still covered in crawling green germs, but as I’m set down in my haven of the shelf by the whiteboard, I can’t help but breathe out a sigh of relief. The reek of unflushed toilets makes you woozy after a while. 1:04 PM The day is beginning to draw to a close, and I feel weirdly peaceful with the arrival of sixth hour. Just one more hour to get through after this, and then I can get some rest. Unfortunately, one horrible, terrible event stands in my way: lunch rush. This is when at least four pairs of beady little eyes settle on me at once. It’s just a nonstop line of icky hands transporting me to-and-from the drinking fountain, to the classroom, to the boys’ bathroom, to another pair of grubby teenage hands, to the girls’ bathroom, where she DROPS ME ON THE TOILET SEAT, and back to the classroom again. The fight in me has vanished at this point.

I am vulnerable to the germs that continue to overwhelm me on every single surface of this dastardly school. 2:33 PM Seven minutes until the day is over. At this point, my resolve has crumbled and I feel my heart breaking as I see yet another kid approach me, a malevolent gleam in his eye. I plead for him to have mercy – this day has been dreadful already – but it’s all in vain. The moment he carries me out of the room, I’m dropped to the filthy floor. If that’s not rude enough, he begins to kick me down the hallway, as if I’m a soccer ball. I am clearly a hall pass, is he blind?! I’m placed precariously on one of the paper towel dispensers and don’t even put up a fight when the germs swarm around me. Out of spite I hope the children transporting me throughout this dirty building will catch a few of these grungy illnesses I’m carrying around. I’m kicked back to class, carried the last few feet so the teacher won’t scream at him for “mishandling” me, and a few minutes later, the bell rings. The class of sophomores hustles past me, not noticing my condescending glare. God forbid what things will be like when flu season comes around.

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Students feel like a set number of hall passes per quarter shouldn’t cost them extra credit

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opinion by Jemima Swindells photos by Ellie Thoma

didn’t remember to bring a water bottle with me. My mouth was dry- I needed a drink. Soon I would start to feel clammy. My chest and throat would constrict. The grey brick room would start rocking from side to side. Knowing I would soon feel dizzy, I toyed with the idea of leaving class to get a drink. The headache getting worse I reluctantly got up and asked to go to the water fountain. This shouldn’t have been a hard decision; however, this necessary trip to the water fountain cost me two points of extra credit. Some teachers at East use a system that doesn’t let you leave class freely. You are allowed to leave, but when you do, you lose a pass worth two extra credit points. With 10 passes for the semester you have the opportunity to earn 40 points extra credit if you don’t use any in a year. I know of three teachers in the school that use this kind of system, though some vary the number of passes or the amount of points a pass is worth. However, the same principle of losing extra credit points just to get a drink or go to the

nurse still applies. The passes are recorded on a deceptively welcoming purple sheet decorated in flowers and swirls. The cuteness suggests that not being able to see a nurse is harmless, but the pale face and shaking hands of a sick student trapped in class doesn’t seem harmless to me. Now for me, and many other students, this hall pass system is frustrating but manageable, but what if I was barely hanging on to an 89.7 percent in the class? Imagine I was approaching the end of semester and I wasn’t happy with my grade. I think we’ve all been in that situation, and I think we would all be clinging on to that extra credit. Those students who need the extra credit are trapped in the classroom. They could feel sick or dizzy and they would have to sacrifice their chance to get their grade back up in order to see the nurse. Even if I just left my homework in my last class, there is no way to win. I can either get a zero on that homework assignment or lose extra credit points to leave and go get it. As well as the stress of spreading out your passes throughout the year, if you lose the sheet, you’re screwed. The sheet can not be replaced so you are stuck in that class for the rest of the semester. HealthGuides says if a teenager is drinking the recommended 64 oz of water a day, they should use the restroom every

three hours or around twice in a school day. On a block day I am in that class for an hour and a half, so there is a 50/50 chance that I will need to use the restroom during that class. But no, I’ll just have to wait until my next class to use the restroom. Teachers argue that it’s not unfair because it’s extra credit that you wouldn’t be getting otherwise. They expect us to see it as a reward for staying in class, not a punishment for leaving. However, I have heard, on countless occasions, teachers saying ‘always take advantage of any extra credit you get,’ but in these classes taking this extra credit comes at risk to our own health. They say it is a way to encourage students to stay in class and stop them from leaving when it isn’t necessary, but surely if we are skipping class and missing important information, we are the ones who will struggle when it comes to tests. If the extra credit is there, any student is going to try to earn it, and might in turn cause harm to themselves whether by not seeing the nurse when they feel sick or not drinking water when they need to. Teachers should trust us to exercise our right to use the school facilities whether that is the nurse, restroom, locker or water fountain. It’s not like we are going to be roaming the halls and at every chance we get.

11 opinion by Grace Chisholm

Sometimes a busy schedule can turn activities into respnsiblities

blank canvas sits in front of me. Each splatter of paint I throw invades the clean, white space. First blue, then red, then yellow. The paint spreads out in intricate drips, dots and smears, just as I want it. But the empty white space still dominates the page. Next I spread orange, green and purple. The blank space departs, and I am finally pleased. But the colors start to blend together, making ugly brown in some places, light purple in others. So, of course, I add more. Soon magenta, turquoise and emerald splash the page. But now the artwork looks jumbled, so I try to fix it, adding more and more paint. The canvas is no longer recognizable. So much going on. Too much going on. It’s overfilled, overworked, overused. This canvas is my life. I have built up a life so chock-full of activities and responsibilities that the streaks on my page are not longer separated beautifully; the “colors” have seeped together, filling the page with dark mixtures. Harsh strokes overtake the allure of the original painting. The first responsibilities I took on were necessary: eating a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios in the morning, sitting through seven classes a day and drifting to sleep when I get home. But other than sleeping, eating and school, I’m free to choose. I am free to decide what I want to do and who I want to be. I tried new things as the years went by. When I played my first tennis match, a rush of adrenaline coursed through me when I hit a winner. Completing the perfect pass during soccer practice thrilled me. A smile lit up on my face when the crowd applauded my performance in Bye Bye Birdie the musical. These hobbies brought me joy, but I wasn’t

satisfied yet. I wanted more contentment. I began to master hard pieces of piano music and fundraised for diabetes research, feeling accomplished and needed. But it still wasn’t enough. I kept searching for new ways to enjoy my time. I found fellowship with my religious small group and started vocal training, enjoying my refreshed faith and improved sound. I increased the number of activities on my schedule without realizing that the amount of time would eventually increase as well. It wasn’t practice two days a week, it was three. In order to keep up with other tennis players, I needed to go to clinics throughout the year. To keep myself performing, I needed two shows in June instead of one. I made my class schedule as difficult as possible in order to remain at the top of my class. I met with FCA on Friday mornings because being involved in a club at school looked good on college applications. I volunteered for SHARE whenever I could because it was an easy way to get necessary service hours. I went through the motions: school, practice, lesson, rehearsal, meeting. Repeat. But there came a time on a Sunday night after a soccer game, a KLife small group, a choir rehearsal and four hours of homework that I broke down. I cried. I released the stress bottled up inside of me.

After adding and adding to my schedule, I had had enough. — Sophomore Grace Chisholm After adding and adding to my schedule, I had had enough. What is the point of it all? Why am I running myself ragged? Society screams at me, “Add more. Do more. Be better!” Being busier means being better in today’s world. Someone with straight A’s who plays piano classically is accomplished. But another person who is a varsity soccer starter, pep club executive, volunteers at a local animal shelter and

has straight A’s - well they’re obviously the better choice when applying for college or jobs. We spread ourselves as thin as possible in order to be accepted, successful. Extracurricular activities transform into responsibilities instead of leisure. My mind pondered this idea on a night off from soccer practice. Why did my whole day become better after the practice was supposed to enjoy was canceled? Why did an early end to musical revue rehearsal make me happy? Why aren’t all the things I love the things I look forward to? I know why. Instead of focusing on serves during tennis after school, I pouted because it forced me to do my homework late at night. Instead of concentrating on choreography for a show, I despised that I was using up my only free afternoon to rehearse. Instead of loving early morning club meetings, I dreaded giving up the extra 30 minutes of sleep. It became hard to see the positives when the negatives kept piling on top of one another. As I added more activities, I added more commitment. More time doing. More time planning. More time thinking. Each obligation chipped away another piece of me. Somewhere along the way I had lost the rushing adrenaline, the quickening heartbeat, the eyes lighting up. It’s time to get those feelings back. I finally realized how my mindset was truly bringing me down. I created the life I have because I love every single part individually. I need to figure out how to love them altogether. I am not close by any means. My routine is familiar, habitual; it will take a while to recover. But no one else is going to live my schedule. No one else is going to be stressed or overjoyed or fulfilled by it. My work of art is just that: mine.

P U t i ’ n Members of the Shawnee Mission East Jazz Band performed at the annual Prairie Village Jazz Fest on Saturday, Sept 12 at Harmon Park.

below Senior Robyn Bellner says the bands short amount of practice time didn’t stop them from putting on a great performance. “I had some strangers come up to me personally and tell me I did very well,” Bellner said. “I hope to come back sometime as a professional.”

bottom left Admission for the festival is $5 for adults and free for children. It is an attraction to thousands of music lovers yearly and has been called the newest “destination jazz festival” in Kansas City.

above The SME jazz band, The Blue Knights, perform together each year. The band recently introduced a new director, Alex Toepher, to the stage.

below Junior Coleman Brockmeier performed the trumpet at the festival for the second year in a row. “I really enjoyed getting to play for the public,” Brockmeier said. “I felt like a professional musician for a day.”

photos by Haley Bell

Junior returns to Kansas with new outlook after living three years in India written by Porter Caroll

unior Hannah Breckenridge never thought she would live in a place where little girls would run to her, touching her white skin. That changed three years ago, when her father was reassigned to do oil and gas engineering in India. In April 2012, Hannah’s parents, Laura and Bill Breckenridge, visited India to look at schools and to make sure that everything was possible for their family to live in a country they knew barely anything about. *** Overwhelmed, tired and 8,423,000 miles from her home, Hannah arrived in Mumbai, India. She stepped off the plane around 2 a.m. after traveling for the last 24 hours. “We were so bewildered that there was nothing in the city familiar to us,” Hannah said. “We didn’t know anyone, so we didn’t know places to go to get food that were normal compared to our food back in the US.” Hannah described how big cities come with more people, more vehicles, and therefore creates more pollution. “It’s not a very pretty place but it is beautiful for other reasons. Just the people and the way they live their lives makes India beautiful,” Hannah said. Hannah’s mother, Laura Breckenridge, explains that things they saw in India changed the way her family looked at the world. The Breckenridge family explained that they were able to deepen their understanding of what true poverty looked like. They witnessed many cases where people did not have the access to basic need, mainly access to clean drinking water, shelter and food. “We saw devastating levels of poverty and now we appreciate more than we did before we left how lucky we are.” Hannah said.

photos by Annie Lomshek

While living in Mumbai, Hannah and her brothers, Hank and Nick, also got to experience what it is like to be a foreign student. They were all put into an IB prep school. The Breckenridge family had a personal driver take them everywhere they needed to go, and it would take about half an hour everyday to get to school with all the heavy traffic in India. The children’s school was filled with people from all over the world. “I really liked going to school with people from so many different places,because it just helped me have a different perspective on the world,” Hannah said.

It’s not a very pretty place but it is beautiful for other reasons. Just the people and the way they live their lives makes India beautiful... — Junior Hannah Breckenridge Hannah always had the intention to participate in the IB program when she moved back to the United States. Since IB is an international course, a lot of the material is very similar around the world, but there are parts that differ. According to the East IB coordinator Monique Goodeyon, IB course choices vary around the world. Where you live determines the type of history class you take and the equivalent to your English class in the United States will be whatever language is spoken in that country. According to www. Ibo.org, the International Baccalaureate organization’s goal is to help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills needed to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.

Even though the initial decision to join IB was Hannah’s, it was encouraged by both of her parents. Hannah’s mom thinks that IB gives Hannah a “small school” experience. In India, Hannah’s graduating class was about 50 people so moving from a school of that size to having (how many students in my graduating class) is definitely a big change. “Hannah is a pretty integrated learner. She likes to see things interact, and I think the IB program offers her a chance to reflect on her learning,” Laura said. “My favorite thing about Indian culture is that the energy was always super happy, anything the people did had a lot of passion in it and you can tell that people were always excited about whatever they were doing,” Hannah said. According to Laura Breckenridge their family did a play off the ALS ice bucket challenge. Instead of dumping water on themselves they handed out buckets of rice to people who lived off the side of the road for people to use. They used rice instead because where they lived people would never waste water on something like that, they take take a shower out of a bucket and they conserve their water. “The rice bucket challenge gave us the opportunity to acknowledge people’s living conditions and interact with them, that was something that seemed right to my family,” Laura Breckenridge said. Living in a brand new country they were not familiar with has taught the Breckenridge family about themselves and the world that surrounds them. Hannah said she will never look at the world like she did three years ago.

HER VIEW OF AMERICA written by Teagan Noblit

photos by Allison Stockwell

Senior Maria Otero describes her troubles and satisfactions with being a foreign exchange student at East

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My head hurts from all of this English. I just want to be able to learn in Spanish again,” Senior Maria Otero said as she sat in U.S. History, hands pressed to her forehead. Otero was born and raised in Spain, but had her mind set on coming to America after she visited two years ago. Her parents encouraged her to learn English and dreamt of their daughter coming to America one day. They saw the opportunity for a scholarship that allowed for students to spend one year attending school abroad. Her cousin had earned the scholarship the year before, so Otero expected to take the same opportunity. But, sadly she failed and did not earn the scholarship. The scholarship given to 75 students out of the 700 applicants. The student has to meet the required grade point average of a seven out of 10, which is the same as having all A’s and B’s, as well as having the funds available. If the student meets those two requirements, they are selected to have an interview with the leaders of the company. The Otero family had to find another way to send their daughter to America. So they began contacting companies all over Spain that specialized in the foreign exchange student program. Otero’s parents found a company they were satisfied with, laid their money on the table and started the process of arranging her excursion. The company began their search for the perfect place

for Otero to stay. When students in Spain dream of America they think of New York City or Los Angeles, but schools in those cities rarely accept foreign exchange students for free; however, Shawnee Mission did. People at East often ask Otero why she chose Kansas out of any place she could have chosen. She makes sure to say she did not choose Kansas. It was chosen for her. Although she loves this new adventure she misses her family at home, especially her little sister. It does not help that won’t get to see her for almost a year. Otero and her sister have an extremely close bond. That is the main struggle that Otero has as a student in America on her own: not seeing her sister. Otero is 16 and her sister is 14. They have always shared similar interests. Making music is their favorite thing to do together, Otero strums the guitar while her sister plays the piano. She misses her friends just as much as her sister. And to add on to missing them, her friends are still on summer break, posting pictures on Instagram of them at parties until midnight while Otero is asleep in her bed, getting ready to go to school the next day. Although Otero misses her sister and her friends, has loved her experience at East so far. She wants to try and go to all the sporting events, join a bunch of clubs and go to dances. She had never even been to a football game before two weeks ago.

“I did not know what was going on but I just clapped and cheered when everyone else clapped and cheered,” Otero said. Otero has never seen anything like an East football game: the crazy enthusiastic fans, the elaborate costumes and loud screaming voices. But understanding a Friday night football game is not Otero’s biggest concern. Her main goal of coming to America is to build relationships with people and learn a different way of life. She wants to go back to Spain with 300 new Instagram followers and 100 more people watching her snapchat stories. The main people helping her to do that is her host family, the Cousineaus. They have a daughter who just graduated college, a daughter who is in college and a daughter who is a senior at East, Maggie. [My parents wanted to host a student because] of empty nest syndrome” said Maggie. The Cousineau’s have almost all of their kids out of their house and thought it would be the perfect year to do it. Once Otero is adjusted she hopes to make as many new friends as possible and experience high school the best way she can. You will see her cheering in the stands, dressing up for dances, singing the school song and listening to people talk in English all day without her head hurting.

Maria’s Eyes h g u ro th s e c n re fe Interesting dif beach) ain(except to the Sp in ps flo pfli No one wears ain ica, but not in Sp er m A in bs jo ve Teens ha would r in Spain, but it ca a t ou ith w e liv You ca n ible here almost be imposs ain , but it’s 18 in Sp re he e iv dr n ca 14 year olds

KC VS. SPAI N

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Sophomore Max Collins travels around the country often to attend various professional sporting games written by Reser Hall

alking into Game Five of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., Max Collins was in pure awe of the spectacle he saw: a sea of blue and gold clad fans, a brand new stadium and banners with his favorite player, Stephen Curry. The yellow seats surrounding the allimportant court. The players are shooting around, and getting pumped for the big game starting in less than a half hour. Max is traveling with H&R Block to see these games because his mom is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the company. H&R Block sponsors the NBA, and all of the local sports teams here in Kansas City. Game Five ended with a score of 104-91 in the Warriors favor. With this win, Golden State had a 3-2 series lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors now only had to win one more game to lift NBA title. “I really liked Oracle Arena, which is where the Golden State Warriors play,” Max said. “It was amazing to watch the Warriors play in person.” Max Collins has traveled all over the place to see a ton of different sports. In addition to Oakland, Max has also been to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago to see basketball, baseball and soccer. Kathy Collins has only been the CMO of H&R Block for three years but has been a head-honcho most of her career. She worked at Lee Jeans as Vice President of Marketing before making the switch to H&R Block, and before that worked at a software company in cahoots with Bill Gates. She has even been awarded the title of one of the “Most Powerful Women Nextgen Leaders” by Fortune Magazine. “At H&R Block, I began as Vice President of Marketing,” Kathy said. “That position includes advertising, public relations, sports marketing, sponsorships and social media,” Although Max has been to a lot of cities in the last few

Game Five of the 2015 NBA Finals in Oakland

Featuring star player Stephen Curry, Max saw the Warriors win in person. He got to witnessa part of a major turning point in their season

art by Will Clough years, Kathy greatly outnumbers him. She has been to Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, San Diego, Green Bay, Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Miami and Cleveland. She has traveled to all of those places in a span of 15 years. The first big title game that Max went to was the Major League Soccer Cup Final between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake at Sporting Park in 2013. “The atmosphere was insane, going to games now it seems like nobody cares compared to how excited the fans were then,“ Max said. “It is also the same with the Royals and the atmosphere in October during the World Series.” Since then, Max went to all but one of the World Series games last October, even travelling to San Francisco to see two of the games between the Giants and the Royals.

The atmosphere was insane, going to games now it seems like nobody cares compared to how excited the fans were then — Sophomore Max Collins “It was so different from Kansas City mainly because when the Royals won, the Giants fans got pretty mean and scary and that would never happen with Kansas City fans,” Max said. “I have to admit I was a little scared on the walk back to the car in San Francisco.” Max is typically bringing friends to games that are in town, including sophomore Ben Dollar. Dollar has been to most of the local venues with Max, including Kauffman Stadium, Sporting Park and the Sprint Center. “Max and I have been out to the K to see the Royals multiple times,” Dollar said. “We have also been out to Sporting Park to see a few matches. We even saw the Zac Brown Band concert

there.” The main reason that Max enjoys going to NBA games is because Kansas City doesn’t have a NBA team. However, Max believes that a Kansas City NBA team could be successful if they came to town. “We have such great fans and it would be cool to have an NBA team,” Max said. “Plus we have a place for them to play. The Sprint Center would be a great place for an NBA team.” Max has also been to Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Knicks and the Barclay’s Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets. All of these as part of all of the NBA All-Star Weekend festivities in New York City and the surrounding areas. As far as the future goes, both Max and Kathy expect to go see a lot of the MLB postseason this year and aim to attend some NBA games in the upcoming season. While they have plans in the near-future, they each want to go see something else. For Kathy, she really wants to attend the tennis U.S. Open. “I think it would be really cool to see a professional tennis match in person,” Kathy said. “That’s why I would love to go to the U.S. Open.” As for Max, he aspires to see the other U.S. Open: golf. “One of the only sports that I haven’t seen in person is golf,” Collins said. “I think that it would be really fun to watch the pros play in real-time.” Max hopes to keep traveling around seeing lots of games all over the country and to go to more Warriors games in the distant future. He really enjoys each trip for all of the differences they have. “It never gets old going to these games,” Max said.” It probably will never get old because there are always different things to do in each city.”

Max’s Top Three Games NBA 2015 All-Star game in New York City

2013 MLS Cup Final in Kansas City

Max experienced the 3 point contest and dunk contest in addition to the all star game.

Max saw Sporting Kansas City win the MLS cup amongst cheering fans at Sporting Park.

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hile most kids dread the horrors of memorizing formulas and getting their chemistry lab grades back, seniors Bhavish Dinakar and Spencer Thompson are the ones handing them out, now that they’ve started their own organic chemistry class. “It’s not a class that people don’t like because they have to study for a test and do a bunch of homework and stuff,” Dinakar said. “We’re just like, ‘You can learn some stuff if you want to, otherwise you can just eat fruit snacks and come over and we’ll blow stuff up.’” The inspiration for the class started when Dinakar and Thompson were in IB Chemistry 2 last year. They loved the subject, but they loved pranking their teacher, Jerrod Bardwell, even more. One of their more notable pranks, which involved each writing a 100-page design lab, resulted in the IB program issuing a required maximum of 12 pages for design labs around the world — all because of the boys. “It got to the point where it was more of a cult than a class,” Bardwell said. During January, the class covered organic chemistry, which is known as the most difficult unit. To annoy Bardwell, the boys tried to convince the rest of the class that organic chemistry was fun and easy — and ended up liking it themselves. They liked it so much, in fact, that they requested that the district create an organic chemistry class. According to Bardwell, there used to be an organic chemistry class years ago, but the district would never open it again because of low enrollment. With only two students interested, this year would be no different.

EAKING the NORM Seniors Bhavish Dinakar and Spencer Thompson take their love of chemistry up a level by creating and teaching their own afterschool organic chemistry class written by Ellie Cook

photos by Joseph Cline

“So I decided to take matters — and matter, ‘cause it’s chemistry, get it? — into my own hands and start the class myself,” Dinakar said. Dinakar and Thompson started their own organic chemistry class this year, which meets every Tuesday after school in Bardwell’s room on the fourth floor. Anyone is welcome to come, but the usual attendance varies from four to seven students. “What we do in my class is I’ll teach them the mechanism of a reaction — which is the organic chemistry part — and then we’ll actually do the reaction, which is the cool part. And the snacks,” Dinakar said. According to Dinakar, there are three types of people that come to the class: first are the current Chem 2 students who want to learn organic chemistry so there won’t be any surprises when the unit comes along later in school. The second are Chem 1 students who just come for the cool explosions and opportunity to hang out with friends. The third are kids who took Chem 2 last year and want to brush up for fun or for college (one even brings a notebook to take notes in). Since Dinakar and Thompson have almost all of their classes together, they plan for the next class during school. Using the copy of “Organic Chemistry for Dummies” Thompson gifted to Dinakar last May, the boys figure out a different theme for each class, such as oxidation of alcohols or stereo chemistry. After planning, the boys split up: Dinakar creates a lesson plan and does research. Thompson gathers the materials and writes out the steps for the

experiment of the week. “So before the experiment, I send [Bardwell] the procedure with what we would like to do and how we plan on doing it so he can look over it and make sure we’re not going to kill ourselves,” Thompson said. “If that’s okay, he’ll get the chemicals and he’ll just be there if I have any quick questions about doing something.” All the teaching during the class is done by Dinakar, with Thompson — and Bardwell — as his lab aids. Of course, it’s a running joke to tease Bardwell about this. Their relationship with him started in IB chemistry last year, when the boys would hang out in the chemistry room for hours before and after school almost every day. “Bhavish and I have a lot of what I

like to refer to as political capital with Bardwell,” Thompson said. “Which means that we have enough credibility with Bardwell and he trusts us enough that we can do experiments and we can convince him to let us do them.” The first meeting was a course on nomenclature for any Chem 2 students needing a refresher. The third week, the class reacted ethanol with 2,4-DNPH, which is the first time this has been done successfully at East, because they put in time and effort to complete it. This is a difficult procedure because it requires materials that are hard to obtain and must be done in the fume hood. That, and the fact that too much of the chemicals used can cause cancer or be explosive. The boys hope their class grows throughout the year, because they believe it’s a good way to get their

17 fellow students interested in chemistry. They are currently working on having Bardwell award extra credit to Chemistry 1 and 2 students who come to their class and write about what they learned. “Bardwell wants to have his students learn things, and we want to get more people [to come to our class],” Thompson said. “We both want to get those things done, but the difference is we want to do things specifically related to organic chemistry, and he wants us to focus on things related to the curriculum

for [Chemistry 1 and 2], which is more limited.” In order to do this, Dinakar and Thompson plan to move along with the IB Chemistry 2 curriculum, but go more in-depth and focus on organic chemistry, using their own Chemistry 2 notes from last year as a guide. The boys know that actually performing experiments is the best way to learn about them. Dinakar spent so much time reacting chemicals on his own outside of class last year that he aced many questions on his chemistry tests that his classmates missed.

A PRANKS

GRADE

Bardwell’s room is at an inlet and the end of the hall, so a few of the IB chemistry students built a wall of poster board from one side to the other so that no one could get in.

Anyone who’s seen “The Office” would recognize this prank: after multiple attempts, the boys once semisuccessfully suspended Bardwell’s hall pass in Jell-O.

Fellow chemistry teacher Steven Appier helped the boys come up with the idea for “Bardwell the Musical.” Though the show will never happen, they created a poster for the musical and presented Appier with a Best Actor “award” for his role as Bardwell. “It can be a little challenging to get a concept of how [organic chemistry] works,” Thompson said, “but just being able to maybe have [our organic chemistry students] spend 10 minutes just looking at it, seeing how it works, will help them for the future.” According to Thompson, the boys plan to continue their class until next spring when Dinakar has tennis. Depending on motivation of other students, Dinakar and Thompson hope some Chemistry 2 students will step up to teach next semester and even next year. “We started [the class] for the love of chemistry and I want to spread that at East,” Dinakar said. “Not even just at East, with everyone in the world. And there’s some element of trolling Bardwell.”

Last year when Bardwell got a microphone for his room, Dinakar and Thompson snuck it out to the hall and blasted the Soviet national anthem over the speakers in his classroom.

Whenever they have something leftover (anything from an eraser to a carton of milk), a few chemistry students will go into his class, kneel down in a formation, and present the item to Bardwell.

Thompson decided during his European vacation over spring break last year that he needed to give Bardwell a gift. So he blessed a scoopula in holy water every opportunity he had in France and England, then spent the rest of the year chemically fusing copper to the scoopula until it was covered.

The

Final Fort

After moving five times, Sophomore Faith Nicholson finally has a place to call home written by Kalin McCan photo illustration by Abby Blake

atertown, New York to Leawood, Kans. These were the places where the journey of moving around started and came to an end for Sophomore Faith Nicholson and her family. From the time Faith was born she has moved a total six times. Every two years, Faith and her family has to pack up and start over again. Leaving places and creating many memories along the way is just what the Nicholson family had to face. “I would say the hardest part has been leaving my friends I’ve made behind” Faith said. Most kids get to grow up with the same people, but I always had to just say goodbye.” Although Faith had to leave behind the people she had met, her family remained intact. The Nicholsons became closer than they would ever have imagined. From 19 hour car rides, to soccer games on Sunday night, Faith and her family spend practically all of their time together. Adjusting to new places became easy for the Nicholson family. In fact, Faith’s parents and her brothers have loved moving all over the country. Getting to travel, visit a new places and experience the different cultures were some of the things Faith enjoyed the most. With her father being in the Army, Faith’s family got to experience living in a different way. Since Faith was born, she has lived on and off post, a gated community where necessities were within walking distance from your house. Living on post was an easier way to be closer to the father’s unit. When Faith and her family lived on post, they lived in houses according to Mr. Nicholson’s rank. He’s a full bird Colonel and an aviator. With his position, he has been deployed twice. The first time Faith’s father was deployed she was

Faith’s Roadmap 1

Born in Watertown, NY

Fort Leavenworth, KS

six years old.The only two female figures left in the Nicholson house were Nicholson and her mother, so Faith took the role of packing lunches, cleaning up around the house and help caring for her younger brothers. “When you’re moving around on an average of every 2 years, living on post is a good way to connect with people. They are going through a similar situation there” Faith’s mom, Christina Nicholson said. Faith and her siblings attended schools on-and-off. Making new friends was never an issue for Faith. She felt that being an army kid has contributed to Faith’s personality. However, different regions have different curriculums. “I did world geography four years in a row.” “The move from Alabama to Rhode Island was a hard transition for Nicholson and her brothers because they had so much to catch up on” Faith said. Rhode Island was Faith’s favorite place to live. There, her family didn’t live on post. Towards springtime when she had finals, everyone would get out early from school and spend at least a day the beach. They all would gather and order cheese pizza. The final stop for the Nicholson family was Leawood, Kan. Despite the fact that she was leaving her favorite home, the family thought Leawood would be the perfect place to settle down. Despite the fact that she was leaving her favorite home, the family thought Leawood would be the perfect place to settle down. “I’ve lived all over the country.” Faith’s dad Demetrios Nicholson said.”I love it. I always tell people from Kansas City they truly don’t know how good they have it here.”

3 1

2 4

Fort Lewis, WA

Fort Rucker, AL

Portsmouth, RI

Junior Claire Pottenger visits local restaurant to sample their popular sandwiches

written by Claire Pottenger

he first part of my experience at Pigwich was the adventure to get there. It takes a 25 minute drive all the way to the East Bottoms, through a part of Kansas City I haven’t been to more than once or twice in my life. In passing, I got to see a lake, famous in the ‘80s for being a dumping site for dead bodies, the casino boats along the river and the Christopher Edge S. Bond bridge. It was a nice reminder that we really live in a bubble and a good reason to get out of the Johnson County. When I first arrived, I was surprised to find out that I wasn’t going to be eating in the building that sat on the corner of Guinotte Avenue. Pigwich is actually a food stand on the side of a butchery, The Local Pig. As soon as I pulled into the gravel parking lot, I was hit with the smell of onions and slowly cooked meat. I was also shocked by the amount of people there at 11:30 on a Sunday morning. The line was at least eight people long, with another 10 people waiting for their food. I got in line and began to scan the huge chalkboard menu that sat right next to the stand. Their menu consists of five sandwiches: porchetta, cheese steak, falafel, double cheeseburger and a reuben. They also feature a sandwich that changes weekly. Not only is it a special because it changes, but it is called their “charity sandwich” because every week part of its sales benefit

a different charity. This week the sandwich was a BLT and the charity was the Boys and Girls Club of KC. Despite the line, I didn’t wait long to order my food. To try as many sandwiches as possible, my group ordered the reuben, the porchetta and the cheese steak. For a combo, each sandwich was $8. The combo came with one sandwich, a drink and their homemade potato chips. I then went and waited in their only seating: a covered outdoor area with large picnic style tables. Since the stand was busy, we had no choice but to squeeze in next to people we didn’t know at the tables. At first I was a little uncomfortable, just because I was sitting essentially shoulder to shoulder with a large man who I didn’t know, but within two minutes I got over it because everyone was in the same situation. The group seating added to the relaxed atmosphere, as well as the music they had blasting through their outdoor speakers and the workers announcing on the PA when your order was ready. The wait was around 30 minutes, but it was understandable. There were only four people or so making every single sandwich fresh. It gave me the opportunity to visit the shop next door, Urban Provisions General Store. They had a collection of items: KC T-shirts, locally made soaps and other interesting local art.

ABOVE: Staffer Claire Pottenger takes a bite into her porchetta sandwich.

photos by Ellie Thoma

By the time I got my meal, I was having a bit of buyer’s remorse spending eight dollars on a sandwich, but it only took one bite realize it was completely worth it. The first bite in all the sandwiches were amazing. Each was unique in its taste but they all shared the same intense smokey meat taste and greasiness. My favorite was a tie between the porchetta and the cheese Steak. The porchetta was more had italian pork roast, greens and truffle aioli. The cheese steak had beef, three cheeses, onions, peppers and mushrooms. But for me, the highlight of the meal wasn’t the sandwiches. It was their homemade chips. They were perfectly salty and crisp, and solely responsible for why I overate. After about halfway through eating the Porchetta the taste was getting a little old. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it was a lot of rich greasiness to eat for an entire 10 inch sub sandwich. But nonetheless, the deliciousness over-powered and I finished the sandwich. I left stuffed and feeling more than satisfied with my meal. Not only was I hooked on the food, but also the vibe. I would recommend Pigwich to anyone looking for a relaxed, unique atmosphere, an interesting location and an unforgettable meal.

CHEESESTEAK

BEEF ONIONS MUSHROOMS 3 CHEESES PEPPERS

PORCHETTA

ITALIAN PORK ROAST GREENS TRUFFLE AIOLI

REUBEN

PASTRAMI SWISS KROUT

ABOVE: The outdoor attachment restaurant for the Local Pig called Pigwich.

Findingthe Perfect

While I run cross country, I have never done a single workout class. Ever. I enjoy running, and that is my main exercise. I’ll throw in some weights at Sylvester Powell every now and then, but besides running, that is it. Until now, when I did three classes in the span of six days. photos by Callie McPhail written by Caroline Heitmann

“

Caroline! Everyone is so jealous of your muscles shaking because that means you are getting a really deep stretch!” Kate, our peppy instructor, is yelling at me. I look down, skeptical, and I can’t but smile. My legs are shaking so hard it could be 40 degrees below zero. Everything in my whole body is burning, and we’re only halfway through this circuit. Going to The Bar Method for my first workout class ever was probably not a great idea. It was hard. Leg lifts, crunches, hand weights — you name it, we did it. We mainly focused on muscle strength, doing squats, pulses and stretches until we couldn’t go any farther. Even though I don’t have a lot of upper arm strength, I could tell we had done a lot when I felt my arms groan in resistance washing my hands 10 minutes later. For about 55 out of the 60 minutes, I was lost. Terribly lost. The other women, who varied in age and athletic abilities, knew what they were doing, since it seemed to be the same “Mixed Level” class every time. So when Kate told us to “Push!”, “Squeeze!” and “Tuck!,” the other women pushed, squeezed and tucked, while I looked around confused. Luckily, the instructor was very good about coming over and fixing my pose or stretch. But since she still had to talk to the class with the microphone headset, she couldn’t explain to me exactly what she was trying to fix. Still, I enjoyed it. While $24 for only one hour is a lot for the typical high schooler, the tough muscle-strengthening exercises combined with the deep, relaxing stretches after, made me glad I spent my hard-earned lifeguarding money. I’m happy I survived my first workout class in one piece, but I will build up my strength before attempting it again.

was probably the most nervous to go to Mojo. With horror stories of concussions after falling off the bikes fresh in my mind, and the fact I had just finished a cross country practice, I entered the spacious studio with some trepidation. But walking into the room, my fears were soothed. Rows of bikes positioned on two levels facing mirrors greeted me. The lights were turned off, except for a line of neon pink along the ceiling. Two rows of bikes were already full and warming up, so my friend and I choose some bikes in the front. Once we started the class, it took off quick. I had barely started pedaling when we were suddenly turning up the resistance and going fast. We pedaled the entire time, never stopping until our final stretches. We alternated between standing up, pulsing and pressing down into the handlebars and sitting down for a break. While standing, we moved up and down, from bending down low into the handles to going tall and straight. I ended up really getting into it. The pop songs were chosen and timed to coordinate with how fast we were pedaling, which made it very easy to follow along. Once I caught the rhythm, there was no stopping me. I kept turning my little orange knob, pushing the resistance up until my legs were screaming for a break. Our teacher, Sarah, was great. She was really into it, anticipating when we were most likely to slow and yelling at us to keep going. She even began dancing at times; her seemingly endless supply of energy encouraging me to keep going. The class was hard, but it was doable. It was very easy to slow the pace down or slyly twist the orange knob back to the left. But I felt good by the end, and that is what counted.

nearly missed it. Actually, scratch that I did miss it. I drove right by it. The Overland Park Fusion Fitness is tucked away between a Mexican restaurant and a coffee shop, not visible from the street. But after doing a slight U-turn and swerving around a parking lot before scoring an open spot, I finally found it. It was intense. The music was blasting, and our teacher, Anne, was yelling at us through her microphone headset. I must admit though, her motivation was great. Many times I felt myself slowing, slowing, stopping. But when she reminded us WHY! we were doing this class, I found myself lifting the weight again, doing another rep and pushing myself. The class was fast-paced, focusing more on cardio, rather than the musclestretching of The Bar Method. I was sweating within 10 minutes, and by the end, I was dripping. The weights were what really killed me. Over and over again, my arms struggled to bring it up, down, over, up and so on. But I kept going until I felt accomplished. I started enjoying myself, just a little, by the end. The pop music was pumping me up, and the clock told me we were almost done with our hour. Overall it was a good workout. We used a variety of workout equipment — like weights, resistance bands and gliders — that added to the experience. And I knew, walking away, that I pushed myself. Later that day my arms burned at the slightest movement, but that wore off a few hours later. The next day, though, I was sore. What really hurt were my legs, surprisingly enough. While not as painful as The Bar Method — I could actually move this time — I still felt it. But nevertheless, the motivating music combined with the quick exercises made me want to do it again.

TO BEING GUIDE A GIRL

FIT

The 28-day Fit Girl Challenge is successful in changing to a healthier lifestyle

MEAL PLAN RECIPES Strawberry Fit Cake

Day 1 of 28: Sunday, August 16

hat is the Fit Girl “28-Day Challenge”? It’s an ebook containing a beginner-friendly lifestyle change (not diet) plan. The ebook is packed with meal plans, a full exercise plan and tons of tips for healthy living that my whole family and friends all joined in on. The Overall Experience: I give the 28-day jumpstart a full five stars. Diets suck but this “challenge” was different. As cheesy as it sounds, it made it enjoyable and easy to stick to the plan Fit Girls layed out. If you’re looking to get that spring break body, jumpstart your school year or just feel great about yourself, I would go to the Fit Girls website and download the $30 ebook. It gave me the assurance that the food I was putting in my body was clean and healthy, yet still fueling me. Convince your family to become a “FitFamily” or grab some of your friends who will keep you inspired, because I could never have done it alone. Due to my mom’s fantastic cooking and meal prep abilities and having our pantry and fridge stocked with Fit Girl food, I’ve successfully completed the challenge. But it doesn’t end there. I will still use these recipes because of how easy they were (not when you’re doing the FULL meal plan) and how they truly made me feel like a Fit Girl. The two main points of the challenge are to change food habits and to encourage living a healthy lifestyle, here is a breakdown of what I thought of each.

The Food:

Clean and delicious: that is how I would describe the food. It may have been because I was practically eating my hand before meals I was so hungry, but I honestly enjoyed every meal. They never made me feel greasy or bloated, and provided me the energy I needed for the day.

Fit Girls works by providing an ebook (which I printed out for my not-so tech savvy mom), with weekly grocery lists. You eat the same breakfast, lunch and two choices for dinner. The grocery lists were very straight forward, and introduced my family to new, healthy foods we never knew existed, like almond butter, chia seeds and agave nectar. Although the rest of my family was dreading eating the same foods by the third day of each week, I never got sick of them. Especially the “Grown up Girl Cheese,”-- a grilled cheese sandwich-- with artichokes, turkey and tomatoes. I even had it for dinner the night after I finished the challenge because I was craving it. The “Overnight Oats” were another favorite and became a staple for my mornings. A common trend through the challenge was loading your plate up with veggies, veggies and more veggies. Protein and whole grain carbs, which are nothing to be afraid of, filled the rest of the dishes. The plan had barely any sodium, which I quickly realized is very hard to avoid. With the great food came a great amount of prep time. I was lucky that my mom did all the cooking for my whole family, because I couldn’t have done it on my own. The obvious downside is the fact that you can’t eat food outside of the plan, which can make it kind of awkward and difficult to turn down food everywhere you go. There were some times when I had to eat out, considering I went out of town for four days at the end of the challenge. However, by then I had become a pro at making faux-Fit Girl meals! For instance I tried getting an “unwich” (ditching the bread) from Jimmy Johns, loaded with veggies and turkey or passing up the chips offered at Mexican restaurants.

Ingredients strawberries ricotta honey nutmeg walnuts

photos by Haley Bell written by Aidan Epstein The Lifestyle:

Out of the 200 page guide, only 20 pages are recipes and grocery lists. The other 180 pages are filled with tips for sleeping, when to weigh in, what to do if you cheated the diet, an exercise guide and tons of random facts about being a Fit Girl. These range from “progress not perfection,” comparing your body to different fruits (one of the more humorous ways to define your body) and the definition of clean eating. I didn’t really get into this part of the book. Although the ebook’s design itself was adorable with its retro theme, the book could have honestly just been the meal plans. I rarely did the exercises, because I exercise daily at tennis practice so they were useless to me. There is also a big Instagram community, for example I could have made an account like @FitGirlAidan and shared my progress with the Fit Girl community. This could come in handy when needing motivation during the challenge. I didn’t make an account for myself, but still looked through other Fit Girls and their progress! A major lifestyle change is having accountability and knowledge of what to eat. You can’t avoid food, so when I go to restaurants now I ditch the fries, get extra veggies on the side and get my sandwich with an open face. I also don’t linger in my kitchen when dinner is over. My appetite has also decreased. I know how my body reacts to foods and I weirdly, but thankfully, crave fruits and veggies over Cheez-Its and ice cream. I also have a new confidence in my step, knowing that I accomplished the challenge and know the new Fit Girl way to live.

Doughnettes Ingredients oats dark chocolate honey almond butter chia seeds

Grown up Girl Cheese Ingredients whole wheat bread thin turkey tomato artichokes sour cream mozzarella

STUDENT OPINIONS

Katie Lamar Senior

Abby Hans Senior

“I was so excited to make my meals everyday and stay dedicated to this diet. After a few days, I got tired of waking up early and staying up late, but Aidain kept me motivated. It’s important to have a friend by your side who is rooting for you. Even though I didn’t finish the full 28 days, it was empowering to know I had the self control to do that. I saved the recipes and continue to make them almost every day.” “The food was so good. I couldn’t believe how strange some of the recipes were, yet tasted so good. My favorite meal was the pumpkin lasagna which sounds disgusting, but it was actually so good! The only draw back was not being able to go out to eat and it took a lot of work to prepare all the meals.”

BANK OF PV AD

TOURINtGhe

The Dragonfly Tea Zone pleases with unique crêpe and bubble tea items written by Elaine Chamberlain

had only ever been to the City Market about four times before last Tuesday. These rare instances occurred when my mom or grandma decided they couldn’t survive another day without a juicy Kansas cucumber and brought my brothers and me along to the farmer’s market. While there, my brothers and I would generally spend our time begging for caramel made from goat milk or snickering over the live country music (not our favorite genre). So that’s why, when I went of my own accord with a friend last week, I didn’t really have any idea what to expect aside from the usual weekend farmer’s market. It took us a while to find the actual City Market within the River Market area, and when we did, we wandered around for a long time trying to find a place to eat that looked appealing. There was a Minsky’s close by, but the majority of the restaurants were completely unknown to me. Our first time around the market, a large, colorful sign displaying delicious-looking crêpes caught my eye, but we decided to tour around a little more to get a feel for the place. But the second time around, I decided I really wanted that crêpe in the picture, so we stopped at Dragonfly Tea Zone. Tea and crêpes don’t really sound like they go together, and I didn’t even realize this store sold beverages until the second time we came to it. But once we entered, it was clear that their main focus was tea. There were glass jars of herbs and tea leaves everywhere, and posters about different types of tea and boba–the “bubbles” in bubble tea–covered the walls. The walls themselves were cement and had pink-and-green paint on them in a graffiti-like style. Dragonfly Tea Zone’s menu consisted of smoothies, bubble tea and crêpes. Despite

E N O Z TEA photos by Tess Iler

the rather extensive array of smoothie/tea flavors, a lot of them sounded a little too exotic for me on my first trip, like Jasmine and Lychee Nut. The only crêpe options were Nutella and peanut butter, so it wasn’t difficult for me to settle on strawberry bubble tea and a Nutella crêpe. My friend ordered a wild berry smoothie. The lady who took our orders asked me if I wanted my tea over ice or blended, and I figured since I hadn’t been adventurous enough to sample the Lavender Milk bubble tea, I should go for blended. It turns out that blended bubble tea is a smoothie with boba in it. It also turns out that smoothies with boba in them are very good. My friend’s drink, a wild berry smoothie, was extremely sweet. My blended bubble tea was also very sweet, but not overwhelmingly so (maybe because it was technically tea, even though it looked like a smoothie), and it ended up making a nice complement to the crêpes. The crêpes themselves took a few minutes longer than the drinks, which came right away, but it was absolutely worth the wait. They were light and buttery, and the Nutella and whipped cream made them even better. It helped that I have a dangerous sweet tooth

and would probably marry Nutella. There were no places to eat inside the shop itself, so we went and sat at one of the tables outside. I found the atmosphere unexciting, but we went on a weekday that was also cloudy, and not many people were there. I’m sure on a weekend or summer day, just roaming around City Market is an enjoyable experience. Even though we weren’t in the area on the best possible day, the food was still exceptional and I’m glad we went. Still, you should shouldn’t be afraid to try some of the many other food options as well, since bubble tea and a Nutella crêpe does not constitute an ideal lunch for those who lack my fatal attraction to anything and everything sweet. But if you are like me, or if you just want something sweet after lunch, definitely hit up Dragonfly Tea Zone.

above

The shop greets customers with a variety of color and food options

above

Graffiti covers the walls of Dragonfly Tea Zone

What is bubble tea? A combination of tea, milk and tapioca filled bobas

below

How the tea is displayed at Dragon Fly Teazone

Where did bubble tea originate? Taiwan

above

Two of the offered drinks are strawberry bubble tea and a wild berry smoothie

What are bobas? Pearls made of tapioca starch with a chewy consistency * Information courtesy of http://fatstrawpdx.com/

n a M n o Ir Ufford

Aug ust on ma n last ir n a d te le comp written by Seamus Carroll Coach Ufford photos by Diana Percy

Ufford’s Longest Traning Workouts

1.5 100 MILE BIKE 18 MILE RUN

HOUR SWIM

16 HOURS 27MIN 42 SEC RACE DAY

Ufford’s training lasted from the beginning of February to the day before his race in August ib number 2206. One of the 2,700 other competitors who is lined up to begin the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile marathon that makes up an Ironman. Adrenaline pumping through his veins. Nerves are racing. He inhales and letting his lungs fill up with the thin Boulder, Colo. air. Football and softball coach Chip Ufford, one of the 2,700, is ready for the first part of the race: the swim. The competitors dive into the open water and the competition starts off intense. With all nearly 3,000 competitors in the water at once, there is hardly any room to swim. “Everyone is swimming on top of each other for awhile and it’s like bumper pool,” Ufford said. Ufford eventually swims out to open water but finds another problem. “There are some people that throw elbows and start throwing punches because you’re too close to them,” Ufford said. After gliding through the water in the 2.4 mile swim for an hour and a half, Ufford moves on to the next leg of the race: the 112 mile bike. Around him, Ufford begins to see some of the other competitors’ bodies give out and quitting on them. Pedaling and fighting, he keeps a constant pace and moves on. “I saw this lady and the side of her face and arm was just all scraped up because she

Ufford’s Race Times

had blacked out and fell off into a ditch,” Ufford said. Despite other people breaking down, Ufford had properly trained and was took enough supplements to keep going to the last leg of the competition; the marathon. “I didn’t want to run, I didn’t want to finish one mile let alone 26.2 miles,” Ufford said. Despite being dizzy, with exhausted legs and blistered feet, he powers through. Stopping at every rest stop to pee, grab gel packets, a banana and some water, Ufford needs every ounce of energy and hydration he can get to keep moving on. Emotionally exhausted and physically drained, Ufford keeps putting one foot in front of the other as he treads on to the finish line. The dark Colorado night is lit up with bright, stadium-like lights. People high-five him as he runs down the finish chute that is as long as a football field. Crossing the line, Ufford pumps his fists and hears the announcer say “Chip Ufford, you are an IRONMAN!”. He completed the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile

2.4 MILE SWIM 112 MILE BIKE 26.2 MILE RUN bike and marathon in 16 hours, 27 minutes, and 42 seconds. “When you finish it’s like wow, it’s pretty awesome,” Ufford said. “It is one of the most memorable experiences I have ever had in my athletic career and I’ll never forget it.” *** Training for this incredible feat started way back in February when Ufford and some of his neighborhood friends decided that they would all do an Ironman together. “If you know him, you know that dedication and competition is a character trait that he possesses. He works extremely hard and when a goal is placed in front of him he attacks it with focus and determination,” said Josh Perkins, who trained with Ufford and also is a neighborhood friend. But for Ufford the dream of completing an Ironman started even before that. “It’s a bucket list thing,” Ufford said. “When I turn 40, that’s one thing I wanted to do, an Ironman”.

So he did. Ufford’s training started out light in February and then continued to increase throughout the six month period up until the final days before the competition. His longest training was an hour and a half swim, 100 mile bike, and 18 mile run. Along with training, Ufford had to eat right too. Burning so many calories while training, Ufford could eat just about anything that he wanted and still lose weight. “I could eat quite a bit, but I wanted to make sure I was eating a lot of the right stuff.” Although Ufford did cheat that idea a little. “I had ice cream, I like ice cream.” Ufford is not yet done pushing his body to the extreme. He plans on completing more half-Ironmans, all the distances in the Ironman just cut in half, in the future. In fact, he is already signed up for one next summer in Wisconsin. Despite wanting to do another full Ironman, Ufford was advised by his doctor to never attempt again due to a minor heart condition, Atrial Fibrillation, that causes an irregular heartbeat. It did not however affect his actual performance in the Ironman. Conquering Ironmans can only be accomplished by an elite group of determined, extremely fit men and women. Often the finishers will have a permanent trophy to remind them of their accomplishment. “I want to get a Ironman tattoo on my right calf,” Ufford said. “It’s a badge of honor.”

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LET’S TALK ABOUT

HAZING

Athletic Director Kelli Kurle waited in her office. First a parent entered, then a runner. Next came a coach, another runner, then a parent again. Thirty times through, she interrogated the boys cross country runners and their parents about what really happened Aug. 21. As for their punishment, she’d made her decision: they were never to run cross country again. “I made [the consequence] severe that first Saturday because any time there’s an accusation like that, I just shut down everything until I can investigate further,” Kurle said. As the story evolved, so did the consequence. With further examination, the suspension was reduced to a year. And with even more information, it became two weeks “Initially when I got the bullying report it was ‘I’m kicking every kid off cross country’,” Principal John McKinney said. “It clearly stepped over the line of good-natured fun, and stepped over into verbal abuse, harassment [and] denigration. Not only was it a violation of the East code of conduct, it was a violation of the anti-hazing policy of the district.” The policy, stated in the student handbook, asserts that “Hazing is any action or activity, with or without consent from a person, whether conducted on or off Shawnee Mission School District property...designated to or has the foreseeable effect of humiliation, denigration, offending, physically or mentally abusing or exposing danger [to] a person.” It also states that “There will be no initiation ceremonies, intimidation, or hazing of students...violators will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including expulsion from school.” On Aug. 21, the boys cross country team went for a run. Varsity athletes and administration declined to release details, however, freshmen were hazed. The next morning a bullying report was filed, and head cross country coach, Tricia Beaham, suspended both passive and active participants.

In the weeks following, 15-20 JV runners filled the varsity seeds, and coaches and athletes building-wide are forced to ask the question: where is the line drawn between tradition and hazing? *** Junior Diego Galicia made JV in time trials. Now, quads engulfed in flames, he was running a varsity race. With the top runners on a two-week suspension, he and the rest of JV had to take their place. But bodies flew past him. He was nervous, and he couldn’t match the other runners’ pace. The 77th of 83 runners to reach the finish line, Galicia wondered how he had gotten so far behind. For the next two weeks, he would wear the varsity jersey, run the varsity races and bear the varsity name because of a violation. Or was it, rather, because of a tradition? *** “The seniors started [hazing] my sophomore year,” East Cross Country alumnus Jimmy Kinney said. “And the next year’s seniors kept it going, so it kind of turned into a tradition.” In years past, Kinney says, cross country boys would run a specific route known as “the horse run”, attempt the gallon challenge, and the cinnamon challenge. Each year, he says, certain traditions are upheld and others are changed. This motive – upholding tradition – is what Kurle and Caroline Danda, a cognitive behavioral psychologist, believe is the rationale behind hazing. “Tradition subsumes ideas such as repeating hazing because that is what has always been done,” Danda said. “[Like] getting ‘your turn’ to haze after it happened to you, and going along with the group.” According to Kurle, traditions are embedded throughout the school, within every group. Head soccer coach Jamie Kelly says that, following the suspension, parents of runners accused the rest of the

HAZING BREAKDOWN haz•ing noun

“Any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person’s willingness to participate”

1.5 million

High school students are hazed each year

45% Of female students 51% Of male students

said they have experienced hazing sitations

27 The difference between hazing and upholding tradition is questioned after a recent violation of the SMSD code of coduct written by Ellie Booton sports teams, including soccer, of practicing traditions that may be considered hazing. “I’ve talked to the boys already, and I’ll talk to the girls come spring, and say ‘look what happened’ [to cross country]” Kelly said. “There are traditions, but the idea is to [have traditions] to make [freshman and sophomores] feel apart of team. It’s just hard to find that fine line between humiliating and just messing around.” So when does horseplay become hazing? According to stophazing.org, 47 percent of high school students will have experienced hazing by the end of their senior year, yet only 16 percentage will have considered themselves to have been hazed. Knowing the difference between hazing, horseplay and sustaining tradition, to McKinney, is the first step in making that distinction. “Establishing that point where it goes from kids giving each other a hard time [to] becoming a violation of East’s code of conduct,” McKinney said, “is whenever the parties involved feel that [the initiation] has changed from playing around, to an act of harassing or abuse.” And more often than not, students are unable to make that establishment, McKinney says. To him, that’s where the presence of an adult must surface. “We’re all mandated reporters,” McKinney said. “Once we become aware of something, then it’s on us to do something about it. But we can’t do anything about something we don’t know about.” So, through the Bully Referral app, by sending an email, making a phone call or scheduling a meeting with an adult, victims or witnesses can inform authorities of these instances. “It can be hard to break traditions,” Danda said. “Change is difficult; however, alternatives exist to hazing. Being part of creating team identity within the school, [can push groups] to do their best.”

HAZING vs. BULLYING

79%

of NCAA althletes reported intially being hazed in high school

47%

Of high school students have been hazed

16%

Sometimes Interpersonal Agressive aggressive violence behavior behavior Implications for Intended to Not always students and schools cause harm intended to Immediate and long cause harm term consequences Repeated Not always Imbalance of over time repeated power over time

of students who report experiencing hazing behavior, consider themselves having been hazed

information from stophazing.org and insidehazing.com

written by Sofia Stechschulte photos by Abby Hans

SAME CLEATS DIFFERENT SPORT Soccer players step up to be kickers on football team

hree boys stood in football pads at the 2-yard line, staring up at the field goal jutting into the East skyline. Sophomore Tommy Nelson watched as sophomore Alex True bent down, placing a football gently on the turf. Senior Liam Griffin broke into a run, drew back his leg and kicked the ball, something he’s being doing for many years. But for Griffin, it’s his first year kicking a football. “Don’t they play soccer?” someone asked. They’re right. Griffin, True and Nelson are the kickers for the 2015 Lancer JV/Varsity football teams, but play on the soccer team as well. “They kick the ball better than any of my football players,” said varsity football coach Dustin Delaney. Soccer players generally make good kickers because of the power they’re able to exert on the ball. This ability forms from their soccer training, and is difficult to teach the majority of football players in a single season. Each of these players were selected in different ways, but for this similar reason. During True’s freshman year, the freshman football team lost a game due to the lack of a designated kicker. “[One of my friends on the football team] asked if I wanted to kick for them,”

longest field goal

10 of 12 PATs attempted

True said. “I went out there, and Coach Gagnon let me kick an extra point.” After that, True was handed a helmet and pads. He had been chosen as the new kicker. Nelson and Griffin, however, were selected as kickers after trying out at the beginning of the season, along with trying out for the soccer team. The transition from soccer to football doesn’t seem to be an issue for the boys. After all, “you’re just kicking balls,” True said. Similarly, the transition from football practice to soccer practice isn’t much of an issue either. After school, the boys go down the the field for a 15 minute kicking practice, then drive off campus to soccer practice at 3:30 p.m. According to True, it’s important that these brief practices pay off, as a field goal can mean the difference between a win or loss. “You don’t do anything all game and then all of a sudden they need you to score some points or kick a last minute field goal,” True said. “I try to block everything out and convince myself it doesn’t matter.” Like True, Nelson feels the pressure of his position, even though he hasn’t kicked a PAT, or point after touchdown, yet this year. A good warm up helps him cope with

the pressure and get his nerves out. Griffin, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised when it came to game day. “I thought I might be nervous the first game,” he said, “but I felt confident and didn’t really notice the crowd.” During practice, the pressure to attempt perfection is at a low. If the boys miss, it’s no big deal; however, if the boys miss a field goal during a critical point in a game, it’s a difficult situation for both the team and the fans. “[The football team] knows all of [the kickers] from school, so we can joke about them missing kicks in practice,” sophomore Tom Phillips said. “But if it were a game where we really needed them to make a field goal but they missed, it would make everyone dislike them.” Each of the boys feels that they undertake a responsibility when they step out on the field: a responsibility to make the field goal, to defend the team’s record, to elevate the level of school pride and to show the entire community that they are number one. When it comes down to the final kick in the closing seconds of a game, True, Nelson and Griffin know they can rely on the skills they’ve learned through soccer to play well on both fields.

6 total goals 5 soccer teams 12 assists

FEATURED

KICKER Alex True junior varsity

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH SPORTS AT SME

Boys’ Soccer East’s varsity soccer team beat Blue Valley North 2-0 on Saturday Sept. 12 to win the championship of the KAMO tournament.

Volleyball Girls’ Varsity Volleyball won the Lansing Invitational tournament 11-0, on Saturday Sept. 12.

Instagrams of the Week

Cross Country

Cross country raced in the Joe Schrag Invitational meet in Topeka, on Saturday Sept. 12. The boys’ varsity, jv and c team placed first place in their races. The girls jv and c teams placed first place and varsity placed second.

Football

On Friday Sep 11 East beat South 49-0.

Passing Touchdowns Rushing Touchdowns

Q: What is something you need to

Q & A with Luke Kaiser

Q: How do you think you’re doing so far? A: I think I’ve been doing fine. I’ve had my hits and misses, but things are going in the right direction.

work on?

I have a few mechanical things that I need to work out to help some of my throws.

Luke Kaiser Profile:

Quarterback for varsity football team Junior 3rd year on varsity

LUKE KAISER photo by Joeseph Cline

Above

Freshman Charles Boerger poses with his teammates after his team beats South 50-21.

Below

Senior Mary Booton posts a photo after winning their first game against Blue Valley NW.

Strategy. Experience. Compassion. Fighting for the injured and their families.

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Visit PottengerLaw.com or call 816-531-6006 today for a free consultation.

One of Payne’s “hidden rules” is that education means different things to different economic classes. In general those in poverty will see education as being useful in theory, but not in reality. In 2013, 1.2 percent of students dropped out of SMSD before graduation,

according to honline.ksde.org. However, in KCKPS the dropout rate was 2.89 percent. Those in the middle class see education as being vital for a successful and happy life, and the upper class feels there is more of a traditional importance in education than applicability.

FOOD

What East students considered the most POVERTY

11.2 %

QUANTITY

MIDDLE CLASS

HIGH CLASS

QUALITY

PRESENTATION

85.5 %

3.1 %

$ $

EDUCATION How it is percieved by East students

21 %

HIGH CLASS

MIDDLE CLASS

POVERTY

NOT VALUED

13.2 %

65.8 %

NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS

Those living in poverty value having enough food before they consider the quality. In the middle class, though, people focus more on if they liked the food.

TRADITION

The upper class thinks about the presentation as well. This means they think about the restaurant or the food’s appearance.

Societal Class Rules

written by Abby Walker

merican author and teacher, Ruby Payne, outlines in her book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, key differences between the three societal classes in her book. She addresses worldviews, language and education importance, food, money, possessions, etc., which she dubs the “hidden rules.” Each idea has an answer that pertains to a socioeconomic class. About 38 percent of students in SMSD are economically disadvantaged according to online.ksde.org. This means that they

In poverty, their relationships are valued the most. In the middle class, having material things or items is more commonly valued. In

the upper class, having unique objects or family heirlooms are important, in addition to leaving behind a worthy legacy.

BASIS OF CHOICES What East students base their decisions on

POVERTY

32.5 % PRESENT EVENTS

MIDDLE CLASS

42.7 % FUTURE EVENTS

The most important motivator for the lower class is survival. Their main focus is on working to pay their bills, as well as buying necessary food and clothing. For the middle class, achievement and

HIGH CLASS

24.8 % PAST EVENTS

recognition drives the middle class. They center their work around being as successful as possible. The upper class focus on their social and financial benefits, as well as personal connections.

are on a free or reduced lunch plan. Therefore, they are most likely living in poverty, although at East that number is significantly lower, about 11 percent of students. In Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, though, that percentage is significantly higher; 91 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. A poll of students at East, and asking some of these key questions relating to our socioeconomic class and here are the results.

$ $ $

POSSESSIONS What East students value most

POVERTY

MIDDLE CLASS

PEOPLE

THINGS

85.5 %

4.7 %

The upper class focuses on the past when they think about their choices. Their traditions must be upheld. People in the lower class live in the present. They only worry about what

HIGH CLASS

9.5 %

UNIQUE OBJECTS

needs to be dealt with at that particular moment in time. The majority of the middle class think mostly about their future and what they will achieve in their lifetime.

MOTIVATIONS What drives different East students

POVERTY

11.2 %

SURVIVAL

MIDDLE CLASS

85.5 %

ACHIEVEMENT

HIGH CLASS

3.1 %

SOCIAL BENEFITS

raving about

photo by Callie McPhail

MUSICAL REVUE The fine arts program put on the annual Musical Revue show, with performances on Sept. 15, 16 and 17 in the SME auditorium. The show had an “Disney” theme, consisting of classic Disney movie songs.

Senior Tyler Armer, student director of the Musical Revue, introduces the opening song, “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast. Armer has been a part of Musical Revue for all four years of high school, and decided to take on the role of student director this year. “I thought this would be a great opportunity to look more into the process that goes when creating a show,” Armer said.

photo by Callie McPhail

photo by Morgan Browning

Sophomores Venus Gutierrez and Gwen Madden goof around during their five minute break between rehearsals. The cast ran through the show twice, so the minimal down time was utilized because everyone was tired.

Choir director Ken Foley leans over to help out one of the performers. Foley is very active with assisting the productions put on by theatre, and is always going out of his way to help his students improve. Junior Devon Detrich takes the stage and sings her solo, “Poor Unfortunate” from the movie, “The Little Mermaid,” going along with the overall Disney theme. “The Disney theme was such a blast,” Detrich said. “I loved it because it brought me back to my childhood.”

photo by Callie McPhail

photo by Joseph Cline