The Harbinger Issue 7 2021

the harbinger.

S H AW N E E M I S S I O N E A S T 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS 66208 DECEMBER 06, 2021 VOLUME LXV ISSUE 7

BRACE FOR

I M PA C T. With December being Drunk Driving Prevention Month, students and members of the Prairie Village community that have seen or experienced the effects of drunk driving tell their stories to bring attention to the immense risks of the issue

02 INSIDE COVER

staff list PRINT EDITORS Celia Condon Sydney Newton ONLINE EDITORS Sophie Henschel Campbell Wood ASST. PRINT EDITORS Peyton Moore Cesca Stamati ASST. ONLINE EDITORS Lyda Cosgrove Kate Heitmann HEAD COPY EDITOR Campbell Wood PHOTO EDITORS Elise Madden Maggie Merckens ASST. PHOTO EDITORS Rachel Bingham Macy Crosser Hadley Chapman VIDEO EDITOR Roberto Galicia ASST. VIDEO EDITOR Maggie Klumpp PHOTO MENTORS Emily Pollock Grace Allen Lily Mantel MJ Wolf STAFF WRITERS Caroline Wood Madeline Funkey Anna Mitchell Christian Gooley Caroline Gould Mia Vogel Paige Zadoo

Greyson Imm Sophie Lindberg Ben Bradley Nora Lynn Katie Murphy Luke Beil Maggie Kissick Emma Krause COPY EDITORS Sydney Newton Celia Condon Campbell Wood Sophie Henschel Peyton Moore Cesca Stamati Kate Heitmann Lyda Cosgrove Caroline Wood Caroline Gould Greyson Imm Nora Lynn EDITORIAL BOARD Sydney Newton Celia Condon Campbell Wood Sophie Henschel Peyton Moore Cesca Stamati Kate Heitmann Lyda Cosgrove Caroline Wood Madeline Funkey Nora Lynn SECTION EDITORS EDITORIAL PRINT Madeline Funkey NEWS PRINT Caroline Gould ONLINE Kate Heitmann OPINION

THE HARBINGER

design by peyton moore cover design by sydney newton cover photo by elise madden & maggie merckens

PRINT Sophie Lindberg ONLINE Mia Vogel FEATURE PRINT Anna Mitchell ONLINE Greyson Imm A&E PRINT Nora Lynn ONLINE Paige Zadoo SPORTS PRINT Caroline Wood ONLINE Ben Bradley PAGE DESIGNERS Anna Mitchell Katie Murphy Madeline Funkey Christian Gooley Caroline Wood Bridget Connelly Luke Beil Emma Krause ART EDITOR Natalie Scholz ASS. ART EDITOR Nora Lynn STAFF ARTISTS Celia Condon Sophie Henschel Sophie Lindberg Christian Gooley Bridget Connelly Marissa Liberda STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Audrey Condon Charlotte Emley

Elle Siegel Jill Rice Julia Fillmore Kate Beaulieu Maggie Klumpp Riley Eck Sabrina Dean Tristen Porter VIDEO STAFF Roberto Galacia Maggie Klumpp PODCAST EDITOR Ben Bradley SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS Celia Condon Sophie Henschel ASST. SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Mia Vogel Paige Zadoo SOCIAL MEDIA STAFF Madeline Funkey Campbell Wood Christian Gooley Grace Allen Paige Zadoo Sophie Lindberg Ben Bradley Peyton Moore Lyda Cosgrove Nora Lynn Marissa Liberda Bridget Connelly ADS MANAGER Greyson Imm CONTEST COORDINATOR Peyton Moore CIRCULATION MANAGER Maggie Klumpp

click for pics LANCER STATE CHEER Scan to view the gallery f ro m t h e c h e e r st a t e c o m p et i t i o n f ro m N ov . 2 0 by charlotte emley

BOYS BASKETBALL TRYOUTS Scan to view the gallery f ro m b a s ket b a l l t r yo u t s o n N ov . 1 5 - 1 7 by julia fillmore & charlotte emley

photo by charlotte emley

political cartoon by marissa liberda

Indigenous KC a package featuring local Indigenous voices by greyso n i m m

D

RIVING DOWN TO the Plaza for his yearly visit to Kansas City, SM Northwest alum Ryan RedCorn was instantly filled with a sense of dread as he spotted the police lights through his rear-view mirror. But after being pulled over to the side of the road, several officers called to the scene for backup surrounded the car. The situation escalated from a simple traffic stop to what RedCorn remembers as a hostile, almost dangerous altercation with the officers — traffic stops historically have severe consequences to natives, as they are statistically more likely than any other race to be killed by a law enforcement officer during police encounters, according to CDC data from 2009-2019.

The reason he was pulled over? The officer didn’t recognize his tribal tags on the license plate and thought they were fake.

“I get pulled over every time — every single time,” RedCorn said. “And

that’s embarrassing for the police. How do the police not know about tribal tags? There are 39 tribes in Oklahoma, several of which were moved out of Kansas. The police officer that pulled me over had never even heard of Osage before.”

RedCorn points partial blame towards the education system’s lack of native education. Incidents like this one are products of the erasure of native people in the curriculum. Had the officer known about tribal sovereignty — the self-governance of native nations, which includes motor vehicle registration — RedCorn believes that he would probably never be pulled over in the first place.

SCAN ME

To re a d m o re of G rey s o n I m m ’s I n d i g e n o u s KC p a c ka g e

EDITORIAL 03

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by madeline funkey cartoon by natalie scholtz

TOXIC

TRACKI N G

Students shouldn’t be asked to turn in assignments where they have to detail their eating habits

F O R : 9 A GA I N ST : 1 The members of the editorial board who agree with the viewpoint of the editorial are represented by for, and those who disagree with the viewpoint are represented by against.

E DITO R IAL PO LIC Y The Harbinger is a student run publication. Published editorials express the views of the Harbinger staff. Signed columns published in the Harbinger express the writer’s personal opinion. The content and opinions of the Harbinger do not represent the student body, faculty, administration or Shawnee Mission School District. The Harbinger will not share any unpublished content, but quotes material may be confirmed with the sources. The Harbinger encourages letters to the editors, but reserves the right to reject them for reasons including but not limited to lack of space, multiple letters of the same topic and personal attacks contained in the letter. The Harbinger will not edit content thought letters may be edited for clarity, length or mechanics. Letters should be sent to room 413B or emailed to smeharbinger@gmail.com.

T

HREE CUPS OF vegetables. Two cups of fruit. Eight ounces of grains. Three cups of dairy. Six and a half ounces of protein.

Every day teens are supposed to intake this many servings of each food group, according to MyPlate. The government tells us this. Our parents tell us this. And now our school quizzes us on it.

A few classes at East have required assignments where students must record their eating habits and intakes for several days in a row. The data is then used and processed to find various calculations.

In some health classes, the data is collected, categorized into different food groups and then compared to the United States Department of Agriculture’s recommendations for daily number of servings, which varies for each person and is not accurate for everyone’s health and body. Biology 1’s biochemistry unit asks students to record the macronutrients they ingest over a period of 24 hours and then calculate the number of calories and macronutrient ratio.

FOOD DECISIONS CAN plague st u d e n t s i n t h e w a y i t a f fe c t s t h e m s e lve s a n d t u r n i n g t h e i r l o g i nt o t h e i r t e a c h e r c a n m a ke t h e m fe e l j u d g e d fo r t h e i r e a t i n g h a b i t s .

While activities like this can provide insight into students’ daily eating habits, logging one’s food habits can be a slippery slope. Any analysis of eating can trigger thoughts of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and more. Analyzing food can make students feel poorly about themselves. Each student has a different relationship with food that should

be respected and not forced to be exposed for the sake of a grade.

According to the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, one in 10 young women suffer from an eating disorder. When eating disorders are prevalent in teens more than any other age group, food tracking is not something that should be recommended, let alone required for a class.

Teens often hyper-analyze their actions and compare themselves to others and their eating habits, with 25% percent of teenagers having some form of anxiety, according to Promises Behavioral Health. Decisions, like questioning if one should skip breakfast or cut out added sugars, can plague students in the way it affects themselves, physically and mentally. Then to turn in their log to be graded by their teacher can make them feel judged for their eating habits as well.

During a study conducted by the Duke Health Center for Eating Disorders, participants used an app to track their fitness and food habits. Of those who used the app as a calorie tracker, around 73% identified it as a contributor to their eating disorder.

There is no way to cater to all the different relationships with food. The solution is not to avoid talking about nutrition entirely, but to allow students to share their habits with food when, and only when, they feel comfortable to do so.

If logging their food is truly crucial for educational purposes, then students should instead be able to opt out of submitting the actual log and write a conclusion of their thoughts at the end of the activity. Reflection is the ultimate form of self-improvement and would impact a student more than a grade.

In some biology classes, the food tracking data is used to calculate food group servings or calories from different macronutrients. The raw data for the calculations does not need to be collected by the students but instead could be taken from past year’s results as another solution.

•national eating disorders association• ( N E DA ) i s t h e l a rg e s t n o n p rof i t o rg a n i za t i o n d e d i c a t e d t o s u p p o r t i n g i n d i v i d u a l s a n d fa m i l i e s a f fe c t e d by e a t i n g d i s o rd e rs .

Chemistry classes will sometimes use data from other lab experiments because of time or cost restraints. The classes may pull data from a previous year’s lab experiment and ask students to graph the data. When the assignment is focusing on drawing a graph, does it matter whether the student collected it themself if the end product will be the same?

Likewise, students should be able to use sample data sets instead of having to record the data, which can be uncomfortable and isn’t necessary to apply the same skills.

The application skills will remain constant however the wariness that is associated with food tracking won’t follow.

In the end, the data the calculations are based on isn’t just “data.” The “data” is food which affects your body, which makes you feel better after a bad day, the recipes that you’ve modified to make your own. It’s also the food that can make someone feel bad about themselves.

Food habits are personal information that teens shouldn’t have to disclose, as many struggle with eating disorders and feel uncomfortable examining their eating habits closely.

One assignment isn’t worth furthering an eating disorder.

It’s not worth a negative relationship with food, or teens questioning their relationship with food.

04 NEWS

THE HARBINGER design by caroline gould photo by audrey condon

Catch up on school, local and national news

NEWS

EAST

IN BRIEF

NATIONAL

East’s therapy dog, Ella, underwent surgery recently and is now recovering

A new COVID_19 variant, Omicron, was discovered in California on December 1

by soph ie lin dberg

found in South Africa was classified as a Variant of Concern by the World Health Organization on Nov. 26, and was discovered in California on Dec. 1.

The new variant was first detected on Nov. 9. Based on the higher number of mutations found in the variant, WHO suggests that this may indicate increased risk of reinfection — a higher risk of catching the variant again. At least 26 of the 50 mutations found in Omicron are unique to it.

Because of how little information we have on the possible dangers of omicron, neither WHO nor the

ELLA, THE 4-YEAR-OLD

Shihpoo that roams the halls at East to provide support for students, had surgery on Nov. 9 to remove over five kidney stones.

Ella had been experiencing some abdominal pain and difficulty going to the restroom, so Environmental Education teacher and Ella’s owner Russell DeBey, took her into the vet.

The 45-minute surgery went well with no complications, however, she still had to stay at the animal hospital overnight to be monitored. She returned home the next day to recover.

“After surgery, she was

fairly lethargic and she didn’t want to move much,” DeBey said. “She really became a lap dog then. And, of course, we had to put the cone of shame on her so she wouldn’t lick and tear out her stitches. Once she got outside, she was able to use the restroom without any issues.”

DeBey expects her to be back the week of Dec. 6, likely fully recovered by then. In the meantime, students are welcome to donate treats or any amount of monetary value — Mrs. Fishman and STUCO have already given Ella a “get well soon” card.

WHERE-A-BURGER The chain’s upcoming locations in the metro area

2021 | 8420 W. 135th St., Overland Park 2022 | 905 Hwy 7, Blue Springs 2022 | 1921 W. Foxwood Dr., Raymore 2022 | West 95th Street and Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park

A NEW COVID-19 variant, Omicron,

Center of Disease Control have come out with definitive statements on transmissibility or severe symptoms.

President Joe Biden spoke on the discovery of Omicron, stating that it will end up in the U.S., and it’s a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.” The U.S. has since confirmed a case in California.

With the recent move to go mask optional next semester, the school board will be keeping an eye on the new variant.

“I think it’s too early to make projections,” SMSD School Board President Heather Ousley said. “I don’t

think anybody knows enough right now about the new variant — I don’t know that we know that it is in Kansas City. If there was data indicating that we were dealing with something that was more severe, I think that that is something that we would be following, but I just hate to project when we just don’t know yet.”

LOCAL

Whataburger will open 30 new KC locations over next seven years TWO

BRAND NEW Whataburger locations — a fast food chain new to the Kansas City area — opened in Lee’s Summit, Mo. and Independence, Mo. on Nov. 15 and Nov. 29, respectively.

Back in November of 2018, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes tweeted about his desire for the Texas-famous burger joint Whataburger to come to Kansas City. Three years later, that wish became reality when a Whataburger opened at 1460 NE Douglas St, Lee’s Summit, Mo., followed by one at 18811 E US Hwy 40, Independence, Mo. But those aren’t the only locations the KC area will see.

In addition to the company itself

through an investment group called KMO Burger, Whataburger will open up to 30 new locations in the Kansas City area over the course of the next seven years, 10 of which are expected to open by the end of 2022, according to Whataburger press releases.

KMO Burger is what Whataburger describes on their website as an “expansion venture” or an “investor-led franchise group” dedicated to bringing their food to Kansas and Missouri. One of KMO Burger’s main investors is the Texas-raised Mahomes.

In an NBC Sports interview, Mahomes talked about his childhood attachment to the fast-food restaurant,

inspiring him to bring it to his new home.

When the first two locations opened in November, they experienced such heavy traffic from the line to get into the restaurant that the police had to create a traffic control plan. “[The line] was down the entire street and then started to go on the highway,” opening-day-Whataburger customer and junior Genesee McKenna said. “[My friends and I] all decided that we didn’t want to wait in the line, so we ended up parking across the street at Applebee’s and then running across the street and waiting in the line that was way shorter outside the door.”

NEWS 05

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by caroline gould

THE RIGHT TO READ SMSD marginalized Project LIT after parents complained about one book from the list being inappropriate for elementary schoolers

by cesca stamati SMSD HAS RESTRICTED the use of Project

LIT, a list of books that cover sensitive topics like racism and mental health by disallowing teachers to use the list in English classes. This was due to Johnson County parents expressing concern earlier this school year over a Project LIT book, causing backlash from English departments district-wide.

The novel in question, “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” was part of a reading list issued to students by at least one SMSD elementary school, and is currently part of the library collections at Shawnee Mission West, Northwest and East, according to the Shawnee Mission Post.

pro

ject lit

a l i s t of b o o k s t h a t c ove r s e n s i t i ve t o p i c s l i ke ra c i s m a n d m e n t a l h e a lt h

LGBTQ activist and author George Johnson intended the memoir to appeal to black queer adolescents, and it contains scenes of the author’s first sexual encounters. Multiple parents labeled the novel as pornography and demanded at district headquarters that it be removed from school library shelves, which caused SMSD to change their policy on how parents file complaints in October, according to Fox4.

Now, parents have to take up concerns about books first with a teacher, librarian or principal, then request a district review and ask for a public hearing if they can’t solve the problem at the school level. However, SMSD didn’t explicitly state the policy change was a result of these complaints.

Following the complaints, the district sent English teachers emails in November stating they can’t use the Project LIT list for whole-class, small-group or individual reading choice, or use them in their personal classroom libraries after the complaints were

made.

East Librarian Jennifer Robinson and IB English teacher Meredith Sternberg have shared the Project LIT list to students looking for a book to read in the past, but are no longer able to do that. Teachers can still pick books that are from Project LIT and form a longer list with other books as long as they’re district-approved, but they can’t give students the official Project LIT list in class, according to Sternberg.

Librarians from SMSD high schools began using Project LIT in 2020, meeting virtually with students in a book club where members read a book from the list every month. While the Project LIT book club isn’t active at East this year, it continues at other high schools in the district including Shawnee Mission West and South, and school librarians can still use the list because it’s a voluntary out-of-class activity for students.

While they didn’t outright ban the list, SMSD discouraged the use of Project LIT by reminding teachers via email to follow district guidelines and use books from the districtapproved novel list in class, according to Sternberg.

English teachers and librarians across the district reacted to these emails by vocalizing their opinions about SMSD marginalizing the voices being shared from the book list and by discussing Project LIT with SMSD staff at the district level in a curriculum council meeting, according to Sternberg. Robinson says that high school librarians responded with emails of their own, giving their input based on what they know about Project LIT to district-level staff.

“All the schools in SMSD were told [not to use Project LIT] and [teachers responded by saying] ‘what do you mean we can’t give them a list of books?’” Sternberg said. “What

SHOULD SCHOOLS BE ABLE TO RESTRICT OR BAN CERTAIN BOOKS FROM BEING SAID YES USED IN ENGLISH *Instagram poll CLASSES?

76%

of 333 people

do you mean we can’t promote these kinds of books in class?’”

According to Sternberg, novels that have appeared on the list, which is updated yearly, include “The Hate U Give” and “Clap When You Land,” which contain topics like racial prejudice, gun violence and loss after the 9/11 attacks. These books help expose students to more real-world applicable and controversial concepts.

Despite concerns that some Project LIT books may be unsuitable for school, promoting books that shed light on these topics is important to the high school curriculum as it allows students to learn new perspectives and also feel represented in the content they’re learning, according to Sternberg.

“It sparks conversations,” Sternberg said.

“It can reach out to a kid who perhaps feels marginalized, who doesn’t feel like they have a voice or representation in what we consider to be standard English curriculum — to put a book in their hands that speaks more to them and to their experience as a core person, as who they are.”

Junior Eero Alber agrees on the importance of reading about these topics in school and doesn’t think school districts should be able to restrict or ban books or book lists.

“I think we should give students every opportunity to expand their horizons and learn more and have conversations about important topics like what’s on the Project LIT list,” Alber said. “Like racism, sexism, sexual orientation, LGBTQ experineces and mental health.”

On the other hand, junior Tommy Marx believes schools should regulate what books are being used in the classroom to keep their curriculum appropriate, but shouldn’t control what a teacher recommends students to read as they did with Project LIT.

PROJECT LIT PICKS

“I’d understand if they were saying no to a book because it had explicit content or something like that, I can get behind that,” Marx said. “But not if it’s actually educational. If it’s going to teach someone about mental illness, a racial matter or the LGBTQ community, that’s not explicit, that’s more informative.”

Before SMSD informed teachers they couldn’t use the book list, Sternberg had planned to give her students a project involving only books from Project LIT and compare the topics covered in each one. She has since had to change her project, now using Project LIT as a launching point for a larger list of books that she and IB English teacher Kristin Anderson have compiled, which Robinson will present to students in the library so they can choose a topic that interests them and promote real-world learning.

“I think that it’s difficult to say that diversity, equity and inclusion is a huge part of who we are,” Sternberg said. “If you look at our curriculum, it’s not that way. And so [the list we created] is trying to sort of offer different values and different views, different perspectives and different cultures, which again, really shake the status quo.”

While parents have complained that topics like those on Project LIT are unsuitable for school, Sternberg believes it’s important to promote books that cover relevant social issues so students can form their own opinion before hearing about it outside of school.

“I think that people still tend to view schools as these places of tradition, and everything must be the same and everything must be very tame,” Sternberg said. “But if I were to bet, there is nothing that’s more shocking in these books than what you would find on TikTok, or Snapchat, or Reddit or every single day on your phone.”

Two novels that are on the 2020-21 Project LIT book list

CLAP WHEN YOU LAND

LOVE FROM A TO Z

tells the story of a girl from the Dominican Republic who copes with the death of a loved one who passed during the 9/11 attacks

follows two Muslim teenagers as they fall in love and takes on topics like Islamaphobia and racism in the classroom.

06 NEWS

THE HARBINGER

design by christian gooley photo by riley eck

MADE IN SMSD

SMSD opened a store at Oak Park Mall to showcase student businesses and promote entrepreneurship

SCAN ME • WEBSITE S c a n h e re t o v i s i t t h e st o ref ro n t ’s website and view the fe a t u re d p ro d u c t s

by campbell wood

S

MSD OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED a window display called Real World Learning at Oak Park Mall on Nov. 29 to support and showcase student-run businesses so they can grow profits and establish themselves in the business world.

Located outside JC Penney on the first level of the mall, the store features two display windows which currently exhibit merchandise from nine SM West student businesses — they plan to include businesses from other SMSD high schools as the year progresses. Additionally, there’s a QR code hung up between the two windows that shoppers can scan to visit a website highlighting the student businesses where they can donate or buy products from.

“We are changing the way we view education,” SM West business teacher Tiffany Dixon said. “It’s not just a handful of kids, it’s any kid that is saying, ‘I want to start a business, I want to try this.’ They should have that support, right? So that’s what we’re here for.”

The idea for the store originated in Dixon’s classroom where she created a website featuring all of her students’ businesses.

Dixon wanted a physical display of her students’ work, so she reached out to SMSD’s Business Education Coordinator Laura Harsch, who connects with businesses to give students work experience opportunities, to create the physical setup for their entrepreneurial projects.

The original idea from Harsh was a shelf or kiosk space, but when she called Oak Park Mall’s Senior General Manager Carla Engel, she proposed the window display in an empty space that was available.

The businesses featured will be rotated

quarterly as new student entrepreneurs have finished setting up their business and are ready to open it up to the public with sample products. As an entrepreneur in the technology field and a teacher, Dixon sees the storefront as a real-world approach to education.

“In the same way that young people can go out and apply for work, you can start your own business and experience what it’s like to do something on your own, to venture out, to take some risks and it doesn’t break your bank,” Dixon said.

While beneficial to the students, Engel also saw this as a win for the mall as it provides something innovative for their shoppers and brings a virtual shopping experience to a physical store — something Oak Park Mall has been trying to incorporate with online retailers doing pop-ups and national retailers struggling to get the staffing to run an inperson store.

“I thought it would be a really interesting venture and something new that hasn’t been done before, and supporting the school district was a definite bonus and being able to build that partnership,” Engel said.

In terms of affording the space, Oak Park Mall is paying for a majority of the shop lease using funds from their budget for up and coming entrepreneurs that goes toward helping new businesses with merchandising or refurbishing a space. The mall also assisted SMSD by lending them mannequins, backdrops and other accessories like plants and furniture seen in the display window.

“The student products are really what’s on display and that’s what we wanted to feature, so everything else, we hope, fades into the background a little bit but sets a scenario

for the products so people can see them and envision it in their home,” Engel said.

To SM West sophomore Logan Bennett and senior Jayla Powell, it was surreal to see people viewing their work in a professional display at Oak Park Mall. While Bennett and Powell haven’t officially launched the sites for their businesses, they see the shop as a good way to get their brands’ names out there. Both crafted their apparel and retail brands in Dixon’s business class, using resources like Wix and Adobe Photoshop to bring their visions to fruition. “[Dixon’s] helped us learn all these really helpful websites and tools to create our own websites and brands,” Bennett said. “She’s been really supportive and helpful outside the classroom.”

Unlike Bennett and Powell, SM West senior Aidan Hall has had his business, KC Homemade, for four years, selling 200-300 of his most popular item — a shirt with a vintage-looking football and skyline of Kansas City, Missouri — in the past year alone. The shop is a chance for him to further expand his market.

“All the hard work Ms. Dixon’s put into it is cool to see it all pay off and for me it’s cool to see my stuff on display,” Hall said. “I even had friends who were here this weekend shopping and they were telling me how they saw my stuff up so it’s cool to see how it’s reaching people.”

Hall’s initial entrepreneurial start of duct tape wallets has transformed into him buying his own Die Cut machine to make his merchandise. Now, he hopes to continue expanding and make a career out of his business — maybe even open his own storefront someday.

“There is no age limit to being an entrepreneur,” Dixon said. “Technology is making it so that young people can become business owners immediately.”

While SM West students are the only entrepreneurial students featured as of right now, they plan to open it up to more students across the district next semester. Business teacher Jennifer Hair sees the store as an opportunity for East entrepreneurs to reach beyond the market of The Village and Corinth Square and expand their market outside of the East district — something junior Evyn Roberts, who owns her own business making custom prints and collages, is open.

“When you’re a small, little business it’s really hard to get people to know about your stuff,” Roberts said. “Whenever I make people things I always put a little note, I’m like, “If you could put this on your social media or something or mention it to someone or put a picture somewhere that would be really cool.’ People don’t do it a lot of the time or forget, so it’s really cool that they’re [opening a storefront] because it’s always hard to get people to see your stuff.”

The storefront will be open through May and then Dixon, Engel and Harsch will reevaluate based on the storefront’s success as to if it will continue next school year.

Going forward, Harsch and Dixon hope this partnership will lead to other pop-ups in the SMSD area to showcase more student work.

“Imagine what it would be like if second graders were pitching their ideas and talking about mowing yards or lemonade stands or whatever it is they want to do because they can,” Dixon said. “It makes education much more of a cool experience.”

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by maggie merckens

SCAN ME • PHOTO

PHOTOSTORY 07

Use this QR code t o p u rc h a s e p i c t u re s f ro m t h i s eve nt o n H a r b i e

After it was stopped due to COVID-19, Shawnee Mission East students bring back the ultimate frisbee club by playing during seminar

Junior Wyatt H a u g hto n a tte m pt s to h i t t h e f r i s b e e away from juni o r J a y H u tc h i n s o n . W h e n a ske d to help create the c lu b , H a u g hto n wa s o n b o a rd a n d thought it was a g re a t i d e a . “ M y fa vo r i te a s p e ct of the club is all of u s g ett i n g C h i c k - F i l - A b efo re we play,” Haughto n s a i d .

PHOTO BY ELISE MADDEN R I G H T J u n i o r B la i r P ta c e k b lo c ks j u n i o r Wyatt Haughton to improve his chances of catching a pass from junior Luc Prendiville. “My favorite part has been competing against a bunch of different schools and meeting new people,” said Ptacek.

PHOTO BY KATE BEAULIEU

A B O V E Backpacks and drinks lay on the sidelines while the team plays. Every Tuesday, the team goes to Chick Fil A then plays frisbee during seminar.

PHOTO BY ELISE MADDEN T O P R I G H T Junior Tristan Chabanis catches the frisbee from a teammate. “My stepdad played in college and during Covid, we had nothing else to do so we would just play frisbee a lot,” Chabanis said.

PHOTO BY KATE BEAULIEU T O P R I G H T Junior Wyatt Haughton winds up to pass to a teammate while junior Blair Ptacek tries to block it.

PHOTO BY ELISE MADDEN

08 OPINION

THE HARBINGER

design by sophie lindberg

OPINION

HIGHLIGHTS

T HIS WE E K Opinionated tweets from this week IN TWEETS T H E R OYA L S TA N DA R D I S L OW E R E D A N D F O L D E D, S Y M B O L I Z I N G T H E QU E E N B E I N G R E P L AC E D A S H E A D O F S TAT E I N B A R B A D O S B Y A N E W P R E S I D E N T.

HANNAH FURNESS

11/30/21

A look into student opinions and the opinion section

P R O N U N C I AT I O N P O L L S Pronunciation varies from region to region. Though, every family will have their special pronunciation for specific words — this is how our Instagram followers pronounce certain words

J U S T S AW # W E S T S I D E S TO RY - I WA S V E RY S K E P T I C A L O F T H I S M OV I E . H OW C O U L D A N YO N E , E V E N S P I E L B E R G , A P P ROAC H T H E O R I G I N A L’ S G R E AT N E S S ? I WA S W RO N G - I T ’ S A N O F T E N B R E AT H TA K I N G S TAG I N G O F A N A L L - T I M E C L A S S I C , R E S P E C T I N G T H E O R I G I N A L B U T A L S O R E I N V E N T I N G I T. O N E O F 2 0 2 1 ’ 2 B E S T F I L M S .

DAN MURRELL

44

122

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE “CRAYON?” “CRAN”

“CRAY-ON”

270

* I n s t a g ra m p o l l of 4 3 6 vot e s

J E R O M E P OW E L L J U S T A D M I T T E D T H AT T H E R I S K O F H I G H E R I N F L AT I O N H A S I N C R E A S E D. T H I S I S E X AC T LY W H AT B I T C O I N E R S H AV E B E E N WA R N I N G AG A I N S T F O R OV E R A Y E A R .

POMP

* I n s t a g ra m p o l l of 4 2 9 vot e s

K

“EN-VELOPE”

296

“AHN-VELOPE”

East students’ thoughts relating to this issue’s opinion section DO PEOPLE POINT OUT HOW YOU PRONOUNCE CERTAIN WORDS OFTEN?

YES

52%

NO

48%

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE OVER-IDOLIZE CELEBRITIES? * I n s t a g ra m p o l l of 2 8 0 vo t e s

YES

92%

NO

8%

D U

A look into our recent online opinion articles found at smeharbinger.net

E

N

T

ONLINE PREVIEW

11/30/21

* I n s t a g ra m p o l l of 2 5 3 vo t e s

T A

133

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE “ENVELOPE?”

E

S

“CROWN”

11/30/21

DO YOU THINK CLASS RANK IS IMPORTANT TO ADD COLLEGE APPLICATIONS?

@smeharbinger

Follow us on social media to participate in the polls

@smeharbinger

@smeharbie

T

TA K E O U R P O L L S

YES

38%

S

* I n s t a g ra m p o l l of 2 5 6 vo t e s

NO

62%

OPINION 09

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by lyda cosgrove illustration by caroline gould

UNRANKABLE SUCCESS Schools shouldn’t use class ranking systems to divide students, as it leads to unecessary and unhealthy competition among classmates

1

by n ora lyn n

F

OR THE PAST 11 years of my life, I’ve spent hours after

school on worksheets, essays and projects for school where I’ve put everything I have into my current and future success, as have practically all of the other students here at East.

All of the presentations, book reports and DBQs I’ve done between now and first grade brings me pride, but I know for a fact that if we had a valedictorian at East, I would not even be close to earning that honor. And now suddenly my achievements seem to have less value.

Grades in general can create an environment where learning becomes based on achievement rather than growth, especially when people are competing for the top spots in their grade. Class ranks are another tool that many schools have been eliminating, like East did in 2014 when the district decided it was doing more harm than good to SMSD students pursuing higher education, as it earned them lesser scholarships than their GPA alone would have.

HOW ARE CLASS RANKS C A LC U L AT E D ? c o m p a r i n g G PA s of s t u d e nt s i n t h e s a m e g ra d e t o o n e another, calculated to the ten-thousandth decimal p o i nt

trophy after 12 long years of growing and learning as much as everyone else.

Keeping track of class rank doesn’t measure students’ academic achievement. It has no real value beyond competition.

ex trin sic

mo ti va tion

c o m p l et i n g a t a s k o r ex h i b i t i n g a b e h a v i o r f u e l e d by ex t e r n a l c a u s e s s u c h a s a vo i d i n g p u n i s h m e nt o r re c e i v i n g a t a n g i b l e re w a rd

Seniors who’ve spent their last few months applying to colleges may find East’s lack of class rank to be a hindrance in their applications because it becomes a blank. But according to the College Board, the importance of class ranks to college admission officers has declined as they rely more on SAT and ACT scores and GPA. In fact, the s i g n i f i c a n c e class rank holds to colleges has been decreasing for over a decade, and according to SharpSchool, only 19% of colleges by 2012 still considered class rank in applications.

Plus, before it was discontinued, East’s class rank was weighted on a 5.0 scale, which meant that to increase your class rank, you had to take more advanced classes like honors, AP or IB that are also weighted on a 5.0 scale. So a student who put everything they had into their GPA but only took regular *Instagram poll of

Class rank and grades idolize extrinsic motivation and fuels students’ need for the tangible reward of doing well in school — good grades and a high class rank — rather than simply learning to better yourself. When we strive to be number one, we end up prioritizing turning in work as fast as possible because of the status that having high grades creates — the quantity becomes more important than the quality. Instead, we should take the opportunity to use 288 votes these assignments to further our understanding of topics that can aid us in finding our interests.

Though grades are trickier to flush out of school systems, abolishing class ranks nationwide like East has done is a much more realistic way to keep students’ focused on learning content without the of students & pressure of attaining absolute excellence. parents think There is no educational benefit to having class schools shouldn’t ranks in a school environment. It reinforces the idea use class rank systems that greatness or success is something that can only be attained by the best of the best and it leaves the other 400-plus students who didn’t make the cut go home with the equivalent of a plastic participation

59%

2014 SMSD did away with class ranking systems altogether

classes and ended with a 4.0 would still be far behind their fellow classmates.

I understand that the concept of competition and the goal of becoming valedictorian or at least being in the top 10% of the class rank is meant to motivate students to be academically successful, but students who know they’re not going to make it are immediately disheartened.

While it’s commonly believed that class rank enforces how important hard work is to success and prepares students for real life scenarios where everything is supposedly competitive, this seems like a dramatic, and largely untrue claim. Class rank can be very exclusive, regarding only one aspect of high school life: GPA.

W H I L E I T ’ S C O M M O N LY b e l i eve d t h a t c l a s s ra n k e nfo rc e s h o w i m p o r t a nt h a rd w o r k i s t o s u c c e s s a n d p re p a re s st u d e nt s fo r re a l l i fe s c e n a r i o s w h e re eve r y t h i n g i s s u p p o s e d ly c o m p et i t i ve , t h i s s e e m s l i ke a d ra m a t i c , a n d l a rg e ly u nt r u e claim.

Using the idea of rank, one could conclude that the world is highly exclusive as well, but in the real world, there isn’t just one person on top and several people are needed for our society to function — the world needs more than one doctor or lawyer.

Not to mention, between the top 10% on a class rank, the difference between intellectual ability — or as some may see it, potential success — is statistically insignificant, according to author Alfie Kohn, who wrote “Schooling Beyond Measure.” Class rank does not account for any extracurriculars or sports and the difference between top students’ ranks is often one AP class.

Education is not meant to be a simple game of merit that results from class ranks — it’s meant to be the foundation of interests and knowledge. If of voters think a class rank is going to dilute this main goal with class ranks are competition and extrinsic motivations, then East’s important to lack of it is highly beneficial. Colleges will find who college applications you are as a person and student far more interesting than a computer-calculated rank.

37%

10 OPINION

WHAT’S

Celebrities shouldn’t be idolized and view them as flawless due to their social status

IS

DONE

THE HARBINGER

design by anna mitchell photos by kate beaulieu & IMDb

DONE

by luke beil

there were over 50,000 people who rushed over barricades and compacted on top of each other as soon as the concert started according to the New York Times. There also didn’t seem to be enough security at the concert because if there was, people wouldn’t have been able to break through the entrance. However this concert still could have been stopped. Online videos show Scott continuing his show even after spotting a passed out girl and hearing chants from the crowd to stop the concert.

So, with all of this information, why was the concert allowed to happen?

B U T T H E S I M P L E fa c t i s t h a t n o a ve ra g e p e rs o n k n o w s w h a t these individuals do in their p r i va t e l i ve s , a n d n o n e of t h e m s h o u l d b e h e l p u p a s exa m p l e s of h o w s h o u l d t h i n k , b e l i eve , o r l i ve t h e i r l i ve s — j u st b e c a u s e t h ey h a ve a fo l l o w i n g .

The answer is simple: because of Scott’s status as a celebrity. As a successful musician, Scott has accumulated mass amounts of wealth and fame. When the injuries went down at the concert, Travis continued playing for almost 40 minutes.

However, even after his negligence of deaths at the concert, several people are

SORRY NOT SORRY? “I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those T R AV I S S COTT impacted by 21 what happened at NOV. 6 Astroworld Festival.” *according to The U.S. Sun

still idolizing him, excusing his behavior by saying he “didn’t know what was happening”’ or “he didn’t run the concert”.

If the event was being led and sponsored by someone who is simply an average citizen, it’s hard to imagine a Chief of Police accepting their concerns being dismissed, as happened with Astroworld.

Scott isn’t the only culprit. Many people, especially teenagers, believe that just because someone is famous, they have some kind of knowledge or wisdom that makes them worth listening to. That just isn’t true. Taylor Swift for example is very politically active and voices her opinions frequently on Instagram about political elections and certain movements she supports, such as the LGBTQ community and the March for our lives movement.

Since she’s a huge pop star, people instantly agree with her political opinions without doing their own research. Someone’s views and values shouldn’t be determined by celebrities.

Kanye West saying “400 years of slavery was a choice” doesn’t make him an expert on the history of slavery just because he makes incredible beats. And Kyrie Irving’s high-level basketball-playing ability doesn’t mean people should listen to him on why he thinks the earth is flat.

He isn’t an expert on geology or virology.

In America, we often confuse being successful in one particular area with

being generally smart or wise. And that’s before we even discuss the way in which celebrities often disappoint us with their moral decisions The examples are almost too many to count. Celebrity musicians, athletes and actors frequently find themselves in jail or under fire for everything from DUIs, to domestic assault to even more serious crimes like rape, sexual assault or even homicide. If you show me a celebrity that someone idolizes, I can probably easily find a controversy they’ve been involved in.

I’m not saying there aren’t any exceptions, for example famous actor Tom Hanks is universally respected, he contributes to philanthropy, is happily married and generally stays out of trouble.

Bruce Springsteen has been famous for four decades without ever being accused of significant wrongdoing. Actor Denzel Washington has spent the majority of his successful life visiting wounded soldiers.

But the simple fact is that no average person knows what these individuals do in their private lives, and none of them should be held up as examples of how someone should think, believe or live their lives— just because they have a following.

Next time you find yourself looking up to your favorite actress or singer, consider the actions and behaviors they’ve done before blindly idolizing them.

Celebrities apologies to their frowned-upon action, and Luke’s “ratings” of their sincerity “This is me. And my intention is to always be the best person I can be. And if I’ve ever let someone ELLEN D EG ENER ES down, if I’ve 21 ever hurt their S E P. 2 1 feelings, I am so sorry for that.”

*according to the New York Times

“I publicly tore you down by coming at you in a derogatory manner … I should have hanSNO O P DO GG dled it way 20 different than F EB . 8 that.”

3/5

love, their immediate reaction is to freak out — from screaming to jumping to running up to ask for a picture. Maybe it’s a star athlete that plays for their favorite football team. Or maybe it’s a pop star who recently released a single that has been streamed a billion times. For others, it might be an actor who stars in their favorite TV show or superhero franchise.

It’s basic human nature to be excited to meet a famous person. However, it’s awful — and even dangerous — when celebrities are put on a pedestal and treated as perfect humans capable of doing no wrong. I say this because just cause a person is a big pop star or famous actor, it doesn’t make them immune to being a bad person.

There is nothing wrong with being excited to meet your favorite celebrity, but viewing them as a hero can be dangerous.

But there’s countless examples of celebrities who received special treatment even after making mistakes that negatively impacted others.

One example is Travis Scott’s Astroworld Fest in Houston on November 6th, when ten people were crushed to death from injuries sustained when an outof-control crowd surged and asphyxiated them. As media coverage of the event has unfolded, it has become clear that Scott, who helped organize the event, did not plan it out very thoroughly. Police estimated

2/5

HEN PEOPLE SEE a celebrity they

1/5

W

*according to the New York Times

12 FEATURE

THE HARBINGER

design by anna mitchell

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS A look at the new recycling club, a featured act of kindness and student life this past issue

T H I S W E E K I N P H OTO S Featuring teachers and students while participating in their classes

RECYCLING CLUB

A B O V E In his newly d e c o ra te d c la s s ro o m fo r C h r i st m a s t i m e , Mr. Burrows teaches h i s I B m a t h st u d e nt s a n ew t r i a n g le t h e o r y surro u n ded by h is h ol i d a y l i g ht stra nd s .

PHOTO BY MACY CROSSER

WH O - environmental e ducat i on stud ent WH AT - students get hours fo r t h e i r grade by help ing emptying tras h /recycling bins WH ERE - groups are as s i gne d on ea ch floor WH EN - every Tuesday s e mi nar WH Y - to help the school aviate rash problems and not wa ste nat ural resources

A B O V E S e n i o r G ra c e A l le n b ra i n sto r m s w i t h te a m m a te s to come u p w i t h a n ew i d e a fo r St u d e nt Store.

PHOTO BY MACY CROSSER

ABOVE Seniors Rhett Wallace and Luke Billingsly block the volleyball from going over the net in Team Games.

PHOTO BY MACY CROSSER

A CT S O F K I N D N E S S

*in partnership with Homegrown Kitchen

Be chosen for doing an act of kindness to be rewarded with a gift card from Homegrown Kitchen.

T HIS W E EKS WINNER: KARLY CHRISTIAN

alongside Source of Strength Club Members for writing encouraging notes & doodles on windows.

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by celia condon

BROOKE

MAKES

W H AT

At the events she goes to, Brooke can make a variety of balloon creatures

FLOWER BASKETS

HATS

SWORDS

MONKEYS IN TREES

BUTTERFLIES AIR GUITARS

DOGS

...AND MORE

BROOKE

USES

WHAT

The materials used in Brookes' everyday work

BALLOONS BALLOON SCRAPS

SCISSORS SHARPIES T I P J A R AT E V E N T S

AIR PUMP

BROOKE'S

BEEN

WHERE

The places Brooke has been hired for her balloons SUMMER EVENTS IN THE VILLAGE F A L L F E S T I VA L S HOMECOMING PARTY B I R T H D AY PA R T I E S

UP, UP

FEATURE 13

AND AWAY! Sophomore Brooke Gariss’s unique balloon art business, "Ballooney Tunes," has taught her to be patient and confident

by ka tie mu rphy OPHOMORE BROOKE GARISS'S hands smelled like latex, her palms were stained with blue, green, yellow and pink dye and her right index finger was throbbing purple from tying balloon after balloon.

Parents, who had been sweating in line for 40 minutes, stared her down as she twisted up her hundredth balloon dog of the day.

Gariss was manning her one-woman balloon stand as part of the entertainment for Prairie Village’s summer live music festival — set up between The Body Lab and Bijin Spa where she’d been working for two hours and had already made $140.

“It doesn't seem to matter where I set up because the kids always find me,” Gariss said. “I show up in a balloon hat and they immediately congregate around me. It’s kind of magical.”

Gariss earns money and makes toddlers smile while learning to handle unusual situations filled with popped balloons, crying four-yearolds and pushy parents — all through her selfrun balloon art business, “Balloony Tunes.”

Gariss first picked up a balloon pump for a fifth grade school project to “create a business.”

Inspired by balloon artists at birthday parties, Gariss ordered 100 balloons off Amazon for $10. At the time, she wasn’t very serious about ballooning — her family was convinced it was just a phase.

Four months later, she had an ear surgery that she had been waiting to receive since she was little. Sentenced to a month indoors with no exercising or sweating, Gariss began teaching herself how to make different balloon art projects off YouTube because she “had to stay entertained somehow.”

Even after she had recovered, Gariss continued to twist up balloons alone in her room late at night, learning to make a flower one week and a pigeon the next. Her mom encouraged her to start working private parties in 2018. She booked her first gig that summer for one of her mom’s friends at The Learning Tree, a toy shop in Corinth Square. To prepare, Gariss crafted a homemade balloon carrier — Dixie cups of balloons sorted by color and tied shut with zip

S

ties packed into a cardboard box.

“I make sure to keep the bags closed because balloons can go stale,” Gariss said. “It’s not something most people have to think about.”

By then, she had a full repertoire stuffed with unicorns, monkeys on trees, guitars and butterflies. Her favorite thing to make was flower baskets — carefully woven with a handle and four white daisies. But once she was set up at the actual event with her first non-relative customers, she panicked. She swears she couldn’t remember how to make anything other than balloon dogs in the moment.

“I just couldn’t stop making them,” Gariss said. “Dog after dog after dog.”

Her hands were sweating the whole time — sometimes she would burst three balloons before successfully creating a dog. Heads turned with each pop as the line of people watched Gariss’s every mistake. And then came her least favorite part — closing up her stand.

I T D O E S N ' T S E E M t o m a tt e r w h e re I s e t u p b e c a u s e t h e k i d s a lw a y s f i n d m e . I s h o w u p i n a b a l l o o n h a t a n d t h ey i m m e d i a t e ly c o n g re g a t e a ro u n d m e . I t ’s k i n d of m a g i c a l .

BROOKE GARRISS SOPHOMORE “Cutting off a line and telling a sobbing 7-year-old that you won't make them another balloon dog is very difficult,” Gariss said.

She was only scheduled to work at The Learning Tree for one hour, but ended up staying for two because she was scared to turn families away.

Her muscle memory and confidence grew at her next few party bookings. She began to loosen up, making more than just dogs, and was able to enjoy her customers’ company more — realizing that “kids are weird in a good way.”

“About a month ago, this kid asked for a monkey on a sword, which was already a strange request,” Gariss said. “Then, he ran off and sold

it to another kid right in front of me for $2. He came back, showed me and was like, ‘Look, I made two bucks’ in a country accent. It made me laugh out loud.”

Wide-eyed kids staring in wonder as she works and telling her she’s “so cool” make the popped balloons, dye-stained hands and summertime sweat worth it for Garriss. While some parents politely leave her tips or bring her Kona Ice at parties, the rude parents always manage to find her stand.

“A sword will unravel after their kid swings it around for 30 minutes or pop after they whack it on spiky grass, and the parents will cut in front of the whole line and say, ‘Fix this,’” Gariss said.

“They think they can control me because I’m just a kid, but I’ve learned to say, ‘No, there’s a line.’”

Now, after four summers of practice, Gariss isn’t afraid to cut off lines or stand up for herself against the “terrible parents.” She doesn’t get as frustrated when she accidentally pops balloons.

“I’ve learned to be patient with myself and stay calm, even if there’s a long line of people waiting on me,” Gariss said. “It’s made me more mature.”

She works at least six parties per summer, making around $40 an hour — half of what professional balloon artists charge but still more than she makes babysitting, mowing lawns or coaching elementary school soccer. All of her summer events, fall church festivals and private homecoming parties are booked through word of mouth, and she’s used to receiving positive feedback.

Gariss doesn’t know any other teenagers who practice balloon art. To her knowledge, she’s the only teen with over 1,000 balloons shoved in the back of their closet because it's a cool enough temperature to keep them fresh and who takes trips to the American Balloon Factory — a specialty balloon store — to purchase packs of balloons by the hundred. But it doesn’t bother her to have an uncommon hobby.

“I like being unique,” Gariss said. “Plus, there’s less competition.”

16 FEATURE

WEDFULY TANK

IN THE

THE HARBINGER

design by marissa liberda

East alum’s experience taking her business Wedfuly, onto Shark Tank

by carolin e wood IRST IN THE Tank is a modern way to celebrate your union.”

The doors open and wearing a veil and white dress, 2013 East alum Caroline Creidenberg walks down the “Shark Tank” hallway and into “The Tank” to pitch her business, Wedfuly.

You’ve got this, stay cool, calm and collected and have fun... and don’t do too many crazy facial expressions, Creidenberg tells herself.

After an hour and a half of pitching her business and answering questions from five iconic multi-millionaires, Creidenberg received an offer from entrepreneur Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary which was countered by CEO of Herjavec Group, investor Robert Herjavec agreed to her counter offer of $200,000 for a 10% stake in her company.

“I didn’t think I would get the counter that I countered with, so when Robert came in and offered that, I was just really excited,” Creidenberg said. “I love Mr. Wonderful and I know he has a ton of wedding businesses, but I liked Robert’s demeanor better.”

Wedfuly is a virtual wedding planner which transitioned to Zoom weddings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wedfuly will film and monitor the Zoom meeting while the couple are able to enjoy their special day with their virtual guests.

Before COVID-19, Creidenberg was doing 50 weddings a year. However last year, Wedfuly held over 700 weddings — the most being 35 on one Saturday.

F

W E D E F I N I T E LY H A D a c o u p l e c l i e n t s a n d c o u p l e s w h o l ove d ‘ S h a r k Ta n k ’ and used to tell us all the time that we should go on it

CAROLINE CREIDENBERG

EAST ALUM

“People were obviously freaking out last year, just because they were so unsure what the world would look like and a lot of people couldn’t have their nearest and dearest even come on site,” Creidenberg said. “And so we were kind of the backbone of their wedding and saved the day for a lot of people. And then we also saw a ton of people — which is where we kind of decided to fully pivot to virtual weddings — who were actually planning to begin with but just had maybe a different idea of what a wedding could be for them.”

Last February, “Shark Tank” had emailed Creindenberg to notify her that her application to possibly take her business on the show had been approved, however Creidenberg and her staff didn’t recall applying for this.

“We definitely had a couple clients and couples who loved ‘Shark Tank’ and used to tell us all the time that we should go on it,” Creidenberg said. “But honestly, I have no clue.”

While she doesn’t know exactly who she ended up on the show, Creidenberg didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.

“Our team’s approach in general was just like, ‘why not?’”

Creidenberg said. “It’s an amazing experience. It’s amazing publicity. I felt confident enough that we could prepare well enough and that my business was strong enough that it wouldn’t be negative publicity for us but also passing up this opportunity would have been silly.”

After the initial interview and submitting her company’s statistics, Creidenberg had to film a video to pitch her company — luckily she already had a video productions team on hand.

With advice from a friend who’d been on the show, Creidenberg decided she needed to show her quirky side, so being in Denver, what better to do than wear a wedding dress while skiing.

Her video was quickly approved and Wedfuly moved into the pre-production stages. For two months, Creidenberg met with the two producers she was assigned and they’d go through her script, set-up and presentation.

Over the time spent preparing to possibly be on “Shark Tank,” Wedfuly was still hosting their virtual weddings. Despite there being a lot to do, Creidenberg was glad she still had her business to work on to keep her from freaking out about going on “Shark Tank.”

“It was a lot,” Creidenberg said. “That’s why I think I stayed so calm, as there was just a lot going on with the business in general. So I didn’t really have time to focus too much on ‘Shark Tank’ in a good way.I prioritize the business over ‘Shark Tank’ and just really made sure that I was still focusing on that. Because I didn’t want to think that this would be the end all be all for us.

Obviously, it’s amazing, but there’s still so many other things that you have to do to keep your business alive.”

Even though they were prepping for her to go on the show, she still wasn’t sure whether she’d actually get to present to the Sharks until she got the news three weeks before her film date.

After being flown out to Los Angeles, the producers put her and one of her full-time partners up in a nearby hotel where they did face masks and tried to relax the night before their pitch.

They spent the next morning at Sony Pictures getting prepped in their own personal trailer, being carted around the studio and getting a pep talk from the executive producers.

“I like blacked out,” Creidenberg said. “Just because it’s so exhilarating. But I was so exhausted. At the end of it. I really gave my all it was fun. I mean, looking back on the experience, it was such a great experience. And I don’t really remember a lot of it because it’s so exhilarating.”

After being filmed in July, the episode finally aired on Nov. 5.

Before jumping into their partnership, the Sharks typically give a business a few months to adjust as they get a lot of attention after airing.

“Obviously so many people know about us now,” Creidenberg said. “And so we got just a huge influx of business partnership requests, a ton of investors reaching out. It was really big on the business side and then it created a huge pipeline of leads for weddings.”

Creidenberg looks forward to working with Herjavec and his team now that the episode has aired and see how this experience helps grow her business.

“In terms of changing the industry as a whole, that’s always been our mission, to continue to chip away at changing what a wedding is and how people celebrate their marriage,” Creidenberg said. “And so this is only fuel to that fire. And so, virtual has been the vehicle right now, but we’re super excited to continue exploring what that next step will be for us.”

DIVING IN The process that the Wedfuly team had to go through before the episode aired

1 3 5

draft application interview video recording pitch to producers episode aired

2 4

scan here to watch Wedfuly on Shark Tank:

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by cesca stamati photo by hadley chapman

by so phi e henschel ITH MUSIC PLAYING through the garage-

what’s in

W

STORE

The SME Student Store has developed for over 15 years as an opportunity for students to learn how to run a business hands-on

Seniors Will McClella n d , Ty le r M o o re , To m my M o re la n d , Madeline Funkey, Ka s ey N e ls o n a n d E l i s e M a d d e n , w h o are part of the stude nt sto re p ro m ot i o n te a m , p o s e w i t h merchandise while th ey p la n fo r t h e i r n ex t I n sta g ra m p o st , reve al in g n ew p ro d ucts.

BEHIND THE SCENES What each of the five student store teams do

sales team Sell merchandise Open the store during lunch periods Make announcements in the cafeteria of new designs or sales Show students new merchandise

advertising

Promote the store Brainstorm promotion ideas for new products Create content for Instagram and TikTok with videos, giveaways and more

style door in the corner of the cafeteria, seniors Maeve McGrath and Brian Heneger head out to promote the Student Store’s new products to the students eating their lunches.

Student Store is made up of students who applied to be in the class to learn how a store runs and operates after having taken the Marketing Principles class. McGrath and Heneger are among the newest members on the Sales Team for the Student Store, a program that’s become well-known amongst students over the years as they’ve watched the student store kids promote their newest sweatshirt, t-shirt, jewelry and other designs to the school and community.

The Student Store sits on the south side of the cafeteria decorated with Christmas lights and home to a cash register, endless clothing racks and display cases of SME merchandise that they’ve created for the community. Students flow in and out of the store throughout the four lunch periods as the sales team members practice their persuasive skills, convincing students to buy their products by approaching tables and hosting giveaways. According to an Instagram poll of 197 students, 55% have purchased an item from the student store during their time at East.

The Student Store focuses on all aspects of business and marketing lessons that students can take with them into the real world. The store is made up of the two general managers, sales team, finance department, website design team, advertising and social media team and design and development team.

According to Heneger, having the opportunity to work for Student Store has taught him to be prepared for future real-world job opportunities.

“I think it’s beneficial because you can use it in real life and if you’re taking marketing classes in high school, you probably want to go into marketing when you get older which in my case I do, so it’s nice to get that first running a store feeling without actually having to run a store,” Heneger said. “I’ve learned how to sell merchandise better while being in-store versus just sitting in a classroom having a teacher lecture [me] about how to sell stuff.”

What most students don’t know is that the store

finance department Track inventory & daily sales Keep track of deposits and transactions on spreadsheets Restock the Spirit Box — the merchandise vending machine near gym entrance

web design Go to the store with the finance team to track sales from the previous week Contact customers for online orders to ask how they’d like to pay for and receive their product

FEATURE 17 hasn’t always worked this way. When marketing teacher Mercedes Rasmussen went to the district wanting to create a new way to teach her Marketing Management class over 15 years ago, she had the goal of fostering a more hands-on learning environment for her students. She was determined to create a community of students who’d experienced the marketing principles class and were ready to apply what they’d learned.

“I firmly believe that all people learn better by actually doing, not just talking about it,” Mercedes said. “If you’ve ever been in [the marketing classroom] during fifth hour when the store is going, it’s bubbling. People are excited when they walk in here and they’re excited to see what the plan [is] because they get to do you know, and it’s so handson. It’s also very [student] run.”

When the Student Store began, it was limited to students selling snacks and knick knacks from a retired maintenance closet outside the cafeteria, and soon moved to the concession stand by the auxiliary gym. As the store gained traction with students, the first workers of Student Store began to expand what was up for sale — creating school merchandise by sending out their designs to thirdparty t-shirt companies.

The orders flowed in and popularity as a store grew over the years, so they moved to the cafeteria for a larger space with more accessibility to students, where it still remains today. According to Rasmussen, the money to fund the materials such as t-shirt presses and printers used to create the merchandise came from various PTA grants over the years and store profits.

According to Student Store General Manager and senior Kate Rasmussen, working in the store gives students the opportunity to learn how to run and work in a business, using the tools they’ve learned in their prerequisite marketing classes.

“It’s really cool to see how there’s so many different aspects of one store,” Kate said. “I think it’s very, very different from other electives and classes because basically all of the students that are in Student Store run the store. It’s not Mercedes running it — it’s fully on all the students. It’s a super cool experience.”

managers

Host weekly meetings with the staff to create a plan for the week Give staff jobs for the week and approve specific plans of the teams Place orders for materials like t-shirts and Cricut paper

design/development Brainstorm, design and physically make merchandise Press designs on blank clothing items for trial with their Cricut and sublimation machines

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19 A&E

THE HARBINGER

design by nora lynn photos from spotify, instagram and imdb

A&E HIGHLIGHTS Catch up on what’s trending in the arts and entertainment world

A R T I ST | A M A LO U R E L E A S E DAT E | N OV 24

N

T Te c h , c u lt u re a n d p o li ti ca l wr i ter D erek T h o m p s o n , a lo n g w i t h g u e st s , c re a te s c le a r v i ewp o i nts a n d ta ke a wa ys o n c u r re nt n ews i n t h i s n ew p o d c a st re le a s e d eve r y Tu e s d a y a n d Th u rs d a y .

E

R U N T IM E | 40 M IN

KC SY M P H O N Y C H R I S T M A S F E S T I VA L The Kansas C it y Symphony and Symphony C horus present familiar C hristmas Carols in stu nning mus ica l a r range me nt s. T icket s start at $35.

LOCATION KAUFFMAN CENTER, 1601 BROADWAY BLVD, KC, MO

SCHEDULE DEC DEC DEC DEC DEC

16 17 18 18 19

-

7 P.M. 8 P.M. 1 P.M. 7 P.M. 2 P.M.

N

De eply rooted in R&B, this EP focus es on themes re garding introverts and versatility with powerful lyrics and a husky voice with riffs and runs .

P OD CA ST | P L A I N E N G L I S H W IT H DER EK T H OM P S ON

V

EP | AT LEAST WE HAVE THIS

E

PODCASTS

G

MUSIC

S

RECENT RELEASES

P OD CA ST | I A M KOB E

I

SI NG L E | HUMAN ( FEAT. ECHO ES

O C U

With ly rics that root in v ul ne rabil ity , John S ummit us es rol l ing bas e l ine s and heav y pe rcus s ion to cre ate a s ingle s howing his st rengt hs i n bot h s ong writing and club tracks .

J o u r n a li st Mi ke Si els ki ex p lo res Ko b e Brya nt’s li fe th ro u g h h i g h s ch o o l co a ch es , fr i en d s a n d fa m i ly to u n d e rsta n d h i s d rea ms a n d g o a ls th a t lea d to Ko b e’s d ete r m i n a t i o n a n d st re n g t h t h a t m a d e h i m b eco me a leg en d .

P

REL EA SE DATE | NOV 24

M

R U N T IM E | 40 M IN A RTI ST | JO HN SUMMIT

NEW MOVIES

J E F F D U N H A M S E R I O U S LY ! ? TO U R C omedian Jeff Dunham’s a ct include s his many ventr iloquist cohor ts, li ke Pe anut and Walte r .

D unham’s “ Se r iously!?” to u r w il l inc lud e his n ewe st me mbe r “ U r l . ” T i ckets start at $76.

LOCATION

DATE

T -MOBILE CENTER, 1407 GRAND BLVD, KC, MO

DEC 2 8

TIME 6 P.M.

MOVIE:

MOVIE:

MOVIE:

BEING THE RICARDO’S

WEST SIDE STORY

NIGHTMARE ALLEY

GENRE:

GENRE:

GENRE:

MUSICAL, DRAMA, ROMANCE

ACTION, THRILLER, CRIME, DRAMA

RUN TIME:

RUN TIME:

BIOGRAPHY, DRAMA

RUN TIME:

2 HR 36 MIN

2 HR 30 MIN

SUMMARY:

SUMMARY:

SUMMARY:

This biography gives a look behind the scenes of “I Love Lucy” and the relationship between Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem).

Directed by Steven Spielberg, this 2021 version of this Broadway musical follows Maria (Rachel Zelger) and Tony (Ansel Elgort) in a forbidden romance.

This physiological thriller is set in 1940s New York and follows fraud Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) who’s biggest score is against a dangerous tycoon.

2 HR 5 MIN

20 A&E

THE HARBINGER

let's

design by peyton moore photos by julia fillmore background photo courtesy of ava cooper

gogh the rooms

ranked

Visit Kansas City’s art exhibit, Immersive Van Gogh, at Starlight Theatre

by pey to n m o o re

Ranking the side rooms at the exhibit

HOLDS: THE VAN GOGH GIFT SHOP A SMALL CAFE THE

lobby HOLDS: BEDROOM LIVE SET INFORMATION ON OVER 12 PIECES THE

bedroom HOLDS: WALLS OF MIRRORS THOUSANDS OF SUNFLOWERS

sunf lower THE

A

LL I’VE HEARD my art-enthusiast grandmother talk about for weeks is the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit located at Starlight Theatre. In fear of letting her down, I decided to go before it closes at the end of 2021 and add a new topic of conversation to the family dinner table.

The exhibit consists of five rooms: the lobby with a gift shop and cafe, an informational exhibit which holds a 3D rendition of his piece “Bedroom”, the main exhibit projecting Vincent Van Gogh’s work, the sunflower-filled room and the “Starry Night”-themed event space.

After entering through the lobby, you see the stocking-stuffer-dreamland gift shop — mugs, shirts, keychains and more. The small cafe offered a variety of muffins, pastries and coffee.

Next was the informational exhibit — a series of stagnant art with plaques explaining the history of Van Gogh’s most popular paintings. The most notable part of the room was the 3D version of Van Gogh’s 1888 piece, “Bedroom”, which featured a real bed that looked like it was made of thousands of oil paint strokes. I learned from reading the plaque that this painting was made as Van Gogh looked out of his window at an asylum in southern France, and admired it for almost an hour.

I wish they had a sign that said, “cool stuff that way” or “keep walking” because the highlight of this room was the fact I stood in the very spot where Pitbull performed earlier this fall — it was all I could talk about. But as we walked through the short black tunnel to the main room, my jaw dropped and I quickly shut up.

My breath was taken away the second I entered the main exhibit. 90 million pixels, 500,000 cubic feet of projection and 60,600 frames of video surrounded me — I had no clue where to look first. There were about 20 huge floor-to-ceiling projections surrounding the room with moving pieces of Van Gogh’s art. Trains chugged along the walls, flowers spread through projections on the floor and the stars in Van Gogh’s most notable piece, “Starry Night”, swirled like a daydream overhead.

It was clear this room was the showstopper. One starry-eyed lady I talked to said she’d been sitting on the floor in the corner for over an hour staring at the works of art, wanting to see all 56 minutes of the loop — I joined her to take it all in.

The exhibit was packed. Surrounding the large room built on the Starlight stage were at least 80 people all watching the paintings in awe. Most were sitting on the few benches or on the ground staring at the floor monitors that were often lit with more artwork.

As the train chugged along to the music and passed by me for the third time on the projections, I decided it was time to further explore. The sign reading “sunflowers” with a large left-pointing arrow drew me over. With the entrance hidden in the corner, I don’t think most people visited this room, but it turned out to be my favorite part.

My jaw dropped yet again as I was transported to a field in southern France during golden hour, spanning hundreds of thousands of yards encasing solely sunflowers from floor to ceiling. A closer look revealed that the room is no bigger than a bedroom, but surrounding mirrors reflect the sunflowers, creating an illusion of being much bigger. Despite its simplicity, it truly immersed you into Van Gogh’s masterpiece.

I wish the exhibit featured more rooms where you could feel, see and be immersed in the art. While I was most excited for the large room, I was disappointed that only six of the 56-minute video featured “Starry Night”. Unlike the sunflower room, the projections did not reach you in the same way — a missed opportunity for what could’ve been a room full of spinning and dazzling stars.

The Van Gogh immersive experience was well worth the $35 student ticket. Even if you don’t appreciate art or know much about Van Gogh himself, the exhibit is an amazing experience for all ages. For a moment, the hills of southern France, intimidating self portraits and dazzling lilacs were flowing across the room, it felt like everyone there was silent for the same reason — to appreciate one of the leaders in historical art.

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by bridget connelly photos by lily mantel

PAST TIME ACTIVITIES

Different ways the Allen filled her time when not using her phone

read

NO PHONE?

O ve r b re a k , G ra c e to o k t h i s t i m e to c a tc h u p o n h e r b o o k fo r her English c la s s

get active G ra c e to o k t i m e to wo r k out on her p h o n e b re a k , by fo l low i n g t u to r i a ls o r j u st m ov i n g a ro u n d

walk

I n ot h e r f re e t i m e , G ra c e to o k h e r d o g , Cooper, o n wa l ks a ro u n d h e r neighborhood

ticking time The average time teenagers & tweens (8-12) spends on their phone according to abcnews.go.com

TEENS: 7 HOURS, 22 MINS TWEENS: 4 HOURS, 44 MINS

A&E 21

no problem

Senior Grace Allen sets not using her phone

time limits on her phone and shares what she did when

by grace al len S SOMEONE

A

WHO’S constantly scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, it’s not surprising that my average daily screen time was a whopping eight hours and 47 minutes when I looked at my settings. This means that during the 18 hours I’m awake each day, eight of them are spent with my neck at a 45-degree angle staring into the shining pixels of my phone. I wouldn’t say I’m addicted, but my family would disagree.

So, I’ve decided it’s time to turn myself around.

This week I challenged myself to cut my screen time in half. I knew that exiling my phone and locking it away would just make my “addiction” stronger, so this had to be the start.

My first strategy for lowering my screen time was figuring out what to do when I’m bored — usually I go on my phone when I have nothing better to do. This turned out to be my first problem. My first attempt to solve it was reaching out to friends and family to spend a bit more time with them.

Usually when I’m with friends, I’m off of my phone, but there are lots of times I’ve realized I naturally gravitate to my phone just to keep my hands busy.

Hanging out with my friends the past week revealed how often we’re on our phones together, constantly showing each other pictures and funny videos. Because we interact this way so often, it ended up being a hard habit to break, but having people around to distract me from my phone proved to be successful overall. In fact, not allowing myself to get pulled into the addictive scroll of TikTok or the consuming double tapping of Insta photos made me appreciate the moments with the people I care about so much more.

75%

O F E A S T S T U D E N T S H AV E A S C R E E N TIME ABOVE FIVE HOURS

Another attempt to cut my screen time included working out. That whole week I walked my dog more than I have in the past year — yes, I played music on my phone, but made the walk more enjoyable and wasn’t me actively staring at my screen the whole time. Another special exception for using my phone was for the occasional workout video. But, after watching a handful, I think I could set myself up for a killer workout without the help of my phone.

Without being on my phone so much, I felt a lot less stressed everyday and rarely felt obligated to check

my notifications — when my phone is off, I really don’t care about it. It made me realize how attached I am to my phone, always carrying it with me and checking for notifications even when I haven’t felt it buzz or heard it ding. Even though I was still carrying my phone around, having my notifications off changed how frequently I was on it.

I S C R O L L F O R l i t e ra l ly h o u rs g et t i n g i n s t a n t s e ro t o n i n a n d s o m et i m e s a t h r i l l f ro m a 3 0 - s e c o u n d v i d e o . M i n d l e s s ly s c ro l l i n g t h ro u g h v i d e o s w a s s o m e t h i n g I missed being able to do at first, but a vo i d i n g s o c i a l m e d i a h a s n o w b e c o m e a re a l ly g o o d h a b i t fo r m e .

When I started this challenge, I thought that I’d get lonely. But, I realized I actually liked having a good balance by still texting my friends, but not to alert them about every move and decision I make.

The hardest apps to keep myself away from were definitely Snapchat and TikTok. I normally scroll for literally hours getting instant serotonin and sometimes a thrill from each 30-second video. I’ve realized how unhealthy this really is for me. Mindlessly scrolling through videos was something I missed being able to do at first, but avoiding social media has now become a really good habit for me.

My biggest challenge in the whole week was trying to stay off of my phone before going to bed and right when I wake up in the morning. It’s basically part of my nightly routine to check social media and text my friends before falling asleep, so trying to avoid that seemed impossible. I tried reading, watching movies and going to bed later to be more tired, and most of the time I still failed and ended up scrolling on my phone by the end of the night.

By the end of the week, my average screen time went down 37% to five hours and 21 minutes. It was still way too much for my liking, but I knocked off three hours and enjoyed challenging myself to change a bad habit. Hopefully in the future I’ll keep doing my new hobbies to keep my screen time down.

mrs. flurry

22 LOCAL LANCER

THE HARBINGER

design by sydney newton photo by maggie merckens

WHAT IS YOUR NAME AND WHY IS IT YOUR NAME? My name is officially is Ann Margaret-Heidersbach Flurry, but people call me Annie. Margaret is my middle name after the grandma that scared me, but I guess she hadn’t been named after yet. Heidersbach is my maiden name. When I got married, I changed my middle name, but the social security office kind of screwed it up so now I have two middle names. Heidersbach was a small German town and my family’s German. And actually that’s the town that my husband wanted to propose to me in.

IF YOU COULD ONLY EAT ONLY THING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Asian food in general, but of course Asia is a continent and not just one country. So I would say probably Thai food. But if I could only eat one thing, and I was guaranteed good health while eating it, then crab rangoon. It’s so good. And there are different kinds, I have some favorites.

I’ve always really loved it. I craved it a lot when I was pregnant, and ever since then it’s been my favorite.

WHAT’S ONE THING THAT YOU HATE? Well, yeah. I hate pickles. I hate olives. I hate apathy. I think that everyone should care about stuff. I hate close-mindedness. I hate unkindness. I hate censorship. I hate bullying. I hate water chestnuts. Mustard is awful. But the middle stuff is the important stuff that I hate.

IF YOU COULD BE ANY CHARACTER IN A BOOK, WHO WOULD YOU BE AND WHY? I think I might have really loved to be Jo March in Little Women because she was an amazing writer and a great person from her time. I loved her independent spirit, I like that she didn’t want to be tethered to anything but what she loved and I loved her fierceness of love for her family and her sisters.

IF YOU HAD A MILLION DOLLARS, WHAT WOULD YOU SPEND IT ON? I think I would be a really good rich person, first of all. I’d be really creative. I’d of course spend some of it paying off bills and things.

Then, a lot of travel. I would definitely buy a bunch of books for some students here. I would definitely take the English department here on a trip because teachers work really hard. I would probably want to take my kids to Europe. I want them to see some of the great countries that I’ve seen. And then I would spend a lot of time thinking about where to donate a lot of the money.

SPORTS 23

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by caroline wood photo by riley eck

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS Gallery, first competitions, rosters and season predictions

ABOVE Freshman Davis Fillmore makes a move on defender Carter Brock to drive to the rim.

FAR LEFT Sophomore Autumn Sun shoots a layup over freshman Faith Gracian.

L E F T Sophomore Andres Driver laughs after traveling w h i le trying to score a layup.

STARTING UP THE SEASON

Dates of the first competitions for each winter sports team *info from sunflowerleague.org

GIRLS BOYS BASKETBALL WRESTLING DEC. 1 | V&JV. vs Blue Valley @ SME

VARSITY JV ROSTER

DEC. 6 | C&Fr. vs Bishop Miege @ SME

DEC. 2 | Soph. vs Bishop Miege @ SME DEC. 4 | Fr. A&JV vs SMW @ SME

DEC. 7 | V&JV vs Bishop Miege @ Bishop Miege High School

VARSITY JV C TEAM FRESHMAN ROSTER

DEC. 7 | V vs Multiple Schools @ SME

BOYS SWIMMING DEC. 3 | V&JV. vs Olathe East @ California Trail Middle School

VARSITY JV SOPHOMORE FRESHMAN ROSTER

VARSITY JV ROSTER

W E S TA R T E D O F F s l o w , yo u

I ’ M M O S T LO O K I N G fo r w a rd

[ I ’ M LO O K I N G F O RWA R D t o ]

P E O P L E A R E M OV I N G p rett y

k n o w , g o tt a t e a c h t h e n e w g u y s w h a t ’s t h e d e a l a b o u t w re st l i n g b u t i t ’s p ro g re s s i n g n o w . I t ’s g o i n g re a l g o o d n o w .

t o j u s t re a l ly h a n g o u t w i t h t h e g i r l s . I t h i n k o u r t e a m c h e m i st r y a n d o u r t e a m d y n a m i c t h i s ye a r i s re a l ly g o o d .

j u st g o i n g o u t a n d c o m p et i n g h a rd , d o i n g o u t b e st a n d h o p ef u l ly st r i n g i n g t o g et h e r some wins.

JAHIR CONTRERAS SENIOR

TESS ROMAN SENIOR

PATRICK BERGKAMP SENIOR

fa st . . a n d a l l t h e f re s h m e n a re re a l ly n i c e . I t h i n k w e h a ve a re a l ly g o o d b o n d s o fa r t h i s s e a s o n , a n d I ’ m re a l ly exc i t e d t o s e e w h e re t h a t g o e s .

JAMES SHIPFER

SENIOR

24 SPORTS

THE HARBINGER

HAVING A

design by greyson imm photos by audrey condon

Sophomores Autumn Sun and Katie Murphy have made key changes to the Pickleball Club, while still preserving the fun nature of the club and carrying on their older sisters’ legacy

(PICKLE) BALL by emma krause

T

HEN-FRESHMAN AUTUMN Sun didn’t

want to go to Pickleball Club. It was a Friday afternoon and she had homework, which was her top priority, but her older sister and former president of the club, Sienna Sun, hustled her into the car anyway.

They arrived at tennis court #10 in Harmon Park to meet 10 of Sienna’s friends — mostly from IB — including then-senior Kelly Murphy. Like most meetings, everyone parted ways after a few short rounds of playing to 11 points.

Four months later, after their older sisters and Pickleball Club members graduated, now-sophomores Autumn and Katie Murphy decided to continue the club as co-presidents. What started as another excuse for Sienna’s friends to spend time together has turned into a carried on club.

Pickleball Club still meets at the same park, on the same court but this time with 32 students. Many of them show up in their matching bright blue sweatshirts that read “I HEART PICKLEBALL” that Katie and Autumn distributed and sold to the club.

Ater a popular request for a tournament from the club’s members since their first meeting this year, Autumn and Katie happily planned a tournament and promoted it on their Instagram account, @ smepickleballclub, and GroupMe. Runners and dog walkers stopped to stare at the group of students cheering on their friends performing chants normally heard in the student section at football

games. According to Katie, an man even took a seat on a nearby park bench to watch the entire match, where sophomores Matthew Yarlagadda and Sam Burns beat Collin Ford and Chris Minto, taking the championship title.

The finals match was a significant moment for Pickleball Club, according to Sun, since it turned into a football-level student section led with members of the club shouting the ‘Go Bananas’ chant along with other East chant classics.

“It was a bigger student section than at some of my real cross country meets,” Autumn said. “It was wildly successful and succeeded our expectations.”

With all the commotion and excitement of the tournament, Autumn and Katie were surprised by the turnout compared to how many people would typically show up to last year’s meetings.

“We expected about 12 teams to show up — that was our optimistic estimate,” Autumn said. “There ended up being 18 teams total. And with the $3 entry fee [to help us pay to reserve the courts] we actually still went into debt.”

Besides the tournament, they advertise all the meetings and their merchandise.

After partnering with the SME Student Store and countless days of designing and planning, Autumn and Katie were able to sell their sweatshirts.

“I see people wearing those sweatshirts all the time in the hallways and my

classes,” non-Pickleball Club member and sophomore Cayla Reeves said. “It’s like a cult.”

Autumn and Katie originally estimated to sell 25. They ended up selling 47 — almost five times the number of club members last year.

“We designed them ourselves without any help from any adult,” Autumn said. “[Science teacher and club sponsor Susan] Hallstrom knows that we’re responsible and trusts us to make decisions on our own.

She doesn’t micromanage us at all and has a lot of trust in us.”

Being the sponsor for the past two years, Hallstrom is proud to see how Autumn and Katie have expanded the club.

“It is a much more actively engaged club this year,’’ Hallstrom said. “Last year when we were doing it we were hybrid so it was hard to do. [This year’s] social media presence also has been an extremely effective driving factor in drawing new members [in].”

H a l l s t r o m ’s thoughts and feelings

towards Pickleball Club are nothing short of gratified and positive.

“I like that our members are getting the opportunity to learn a lifelong sport,” Hallstrom said. “The students are learning to collaborate and work as a team.”

Autumn and Katie are proud of the growth of what used to be a small get together of friends and something to do after finals to what they built it to currently be in the span of three months. They both agreed that being co-presidents of the club is more than just another bullet point on their resume.

“For me personally, I think the Pickleball Club gives me something to look forward to and lead,” Autumn said. “It gives me a sense of responsibility.

It makes me so happy to be able to see everyone together and to think that [Katie and I] continue this legacy.”

PLAYERS’ PERSPECTIVES Members of the SME Pickleball Club share what they enjoy most about the sport of pickleball as a whole, and the club specifically P I C K L E B A L L I S S U P E R f u n . I t ’s re a l ly

I T ’ S J U S T A s i m p l e c o n c e pt — I ’s j u st

e a s y t o g e t i n t o . B efo re I j o i n e d , I h a d n eve r p l a ye d . I e n j oy p l a y i n g p i c k l e b a l l , b u t eve n m o re , I j u s t e n j oy t h e e nv i ro n m e n t i t c re a t e s

a b u n c h of k i d s g ett i n g t o g et h e r o n a S u n d a y n i g ht t o p l a y p i c k l e b a l l . B u t i t ’s s o m et h i n g I l o o k fo r w a rd t o eve r y w e e k .

RYDER HENDON SOPHOMORE

CAROLINE REISER SOPHOMORE

SPORTS 25

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by sophie henschel

NOT TH E O DD ON E OU T Junior Lily Haw vocalizes the need for an all-girls team games class, while others enjoy the competitive nature of the original class

by ben bradley S SOPHOMORE LIDA Padgett sat in

A

her team games class waiting to play football, she couldn’t think about what position she wanted to play or who she wanted to be on a team with. As she gazed around the gym, the only thing on her mind was the striking number of boys in the class.

In fact, sophomore Sydney Hernandez, the only other girl in her class, was alongside her as one of the last to be chosen.

“I’ve gotten picked last a lot because everyone just normally picks their friends first,” Padgett said. “It’s just kind of depressing sitting there watching everyone else in line with their teams staring at you.”

H AV I N G A N A L L - G I R L S c l a s s w o u l d g i ve my f r i e n d s and I the chance to play s p o r t s l i ke k i c k b a l l t h a t w e want to, and show our full potential without being judged based on our gender.

LILY HAW

JUNIOR

The popular co-ed elective is designed for students to play sports games with their friends while still exhibiting the fitness requirements of a physical education class.

East counselor Traci Ybarra says team games have gained the reputation of being a male-dominated elective, leaving the girls highly outnumbered and often feeling discomforted.

After hearing how fun team games was from her male friends, junior Lily Haw wanted to be a part of the elective since freshman year. However, every time she contemplates signing up for it, her female friends have advised her not to form stories

of girls feeling like outliers in the class. But instead of letting the stories turn her down, Haw decided to approach her counselor about creating an all-girls team games elective for future years.

“Having an all-girls class would give my friends and I the chance to play sports like kickball that we want to, and show our full potential without being judged based on our gender,” Haw said.

Haw’s academic counselor Michelle Grimes advised her to find a teacher who would lead the class, and Haw immediately went to gym coach Chip Ufford. He taught her girls weights class last year, and knowing he had daughters and stood for womens’ rights, she knew he’d be the right coach to ask.

“Sometimes the boys just kind of play the game and [don’t] always include the girls,” Ufford said. “So this will give the girls a class where they can all be included, and get in their fight and participate to the best of their ability.”

Many girls end up dropping the class a few weeks into the year, leaving around the two or three in every class that actually stick with it, according to Ufford. He always gives them a fair warning at the beginning of the year to let them know the boys may not always be inclusive and let them play as easily.

When Padgett received this spiel, she knew she wasn’t going to let that happen to her. She didn’t want to be treated any differently in the class just because she was female. She could do everything the boys could, and she wanted to show that.

“One time I was dribbling the basketball around a guy and he was like, ‘Oh, I can’t guard you,’” Padgett said. “That really ticked me off because I can dribble a

basketball around a guy if I feel like it.”

For Padgett, a huge part of sports is being able to be competitive. Padgett believes that everyone should be able to show their best skills in the team games class regardless of their gender — which the all-girl class would give them an opportunity to do.

Additionally, Padgett feels that in an all-girls class, some of the girls wouldn’t want to play all of the same sports that they would in a co-ed class which could be a potential downside.

“I think an all-girls class would be fun, but I wouldn’t want the sports to be changed,” Padgett said. “I would still want to play sports like football.”

Ufford feels the same way, and encourages girls to have a space to play the same game that the guys do and not feel lesser because of their gender.

“We are trying to get it on the doc for next year if enough people have enough interest and sign up for it,” Ufford said.

On the other hand, Ybarra feels that it may be hard for the class to get approved.

In order to do so, there will have to be coed classes removed to make more room in the schedule. The girls will have to be very dedicated for it to become a reality.

As for Haw, she doesn’t want to create the class as an excuse for her and her friends to goof around, but to feel comfortable participating in the team games activities that they wouldn’t feel comfortable doing in a co-ed class.

“It’s more of a way for girls to play with people that they feel comfortable being competitive around,” Haw said. “The boys in the classes aren’t always willing to play with girls and we want to play with people that are [willing].”

A B O V E In most team games classes, the boys heavily outweigh th e g irls. PHOTO BY CHARLOTTE EMLEY

MORE THOUGHTS Replies from an Instagram question, “What are your thoughts on the creation of an all-girls team games elective?”

55%

OF FEMALE EAST STUDENTS HAVE BEEN IN A MALEDOMINATED GYM

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STICKING A group of 6 seniors has been involved with Carriage Club hockey for 12 years or more and their friendship is part of the reason the team is so strong by cel i a co ndo n

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BARRETT

17 17 TRAVERS

13 GIBBS photos by rac hel bingham

WITH IT

T THE OUTSKIRTS of the Carriage Club ice skating rink, then-six-year-old Gibbs Morris sat on the bench with his dad, Jeff Morris. As they watched boys and girls skate in circles around the edge of the rink, the pair was waved over by a man.

“Hey, we’re throwing skates on a bunch of these kids,” the man said. “Do you want to put some on him?”

Jeff agreed, “What’s the harm?” he thought. Neither knew then that the man, Joe Zwillenberg, would be Gibbs’s hockey coach for the next 12 years.

Seniors Jackson Jacobs (JJ), Barrett McKee, Spencer Newton, Blake Sowden and Travers Wong began playing hockey at Carriage Club together around the same year Gibbs did.

The boys spent the first few years in the U8 league (eight and under), followed by Squirt (ten and under), Peewee (12 and under) and Bantam (14 and under).

Through all of these leagues, the boys were coached

by Joe, and Barrett and Blake’s dads, Aaron McKee and Peter Sowden.

The most basic yet crucial skill required to learn how to play hockey — skating — didn’t necessarily come easy for a bunch of first graders.

“We were just completely eating the ground all the time,” now senior Gibbs said. “Ice in the face constantly.”

The first few years were all about simply getting the hang of things, whether it was learning how to pass the puck, move on the ice or simply gaining the courage to let go of the wall.

“Not every kid loves hockey the first time they do it,” JJ said. “Your skates don’t fit and your helmet is too tight, but eventually it all works out and you grow to really like it.”

The hockey season is almost six months long and there’s not much competition close to home, so the boys spend a lot of time on the road heading to neighboring cities including St. Louis and Omaha, Neb. for games and tournaments — but only once they’d mastered meeting their stick with the puck.

“When we got to go on those trips, the boys would swim in the pool, they’d play hotel tag, they’d get to hang out with their buddies in the hotel room,” Peter said. “They loved that aspect of it and it set up some really close friendships among them.”

While not all of the boys attended the same

elementary school, hockey practice at Carriage Club was a place for them to kick around on the ice and hangout with boys they don’t get to see everyday at recess.

“The boys just had that common bond,” Aaron said.

“Not a lot of people play hockey in Kansas City, so not everyone else understood why they loved it so much.

But they did.”

Barrett, Spencer, Blake and Travers all attended the same elementary and middle school — Briarwood and then Indian Hills, respectively — while both JJ and Gibbs attended Pembroke Hill. As they’ve been friends through hockey since childhood, each of the boys were excited when JJ came to East as a freshman, with Gibbs following halfway through sophomore year.

Once in high school, the boys moved up to the junior varsity and varsity Carriage Club teams, coached by Joe and former Kansas University hockey players Mike Weinberger and Jack Hallbrook. Because they’d moved up to the higher stake teams, they were at the point of their training to play rivalry games and championship tournaments.

On the varsity team, the boys practice for about two hours three days a week, and usually have anywhere from one to four games per weekend. Practices start in late October and are held at Silverstein Eye Center in Independence, Mo. at first, before moving to the Carriage Club ice rink in the beginning of December after the ice has been laid.

Knowing that this is their final year to play hockey together, the boys have made it a goal to attend every practice and make sure that they grow as much as they can by the end of the season — and the coaches are always eager to remind them of this as well.

“The one challenge that I always have with seniors is getting them to understand that they only have 22 games left in their career,” Joe said. “And a lot of seniors don’t want to hear that because it’s emotional.

But if you can get them to buy into that, and understand that, and make sure they give it their all, you can have a pretty special season.”

The boy’s friendship reflects positively on the team, according to Mike, showing the younger boys the bond he hopes every senior group can have in the future.

“The Shawnee Mission East boys really are the heart of the team,” Mike said.

DECEMBER 06, 2021 design by peyton moore & elise madden

East students begin the first week of practice for the Carriage Club hockey team R I G H T Sen i o r S p e n c e r Newton le a n s a g a i n st the back of t h e g o a l post while h i s c o a c h speaks to the te a m . “ I t r y to think sho r t te r m a n d my mindset i s n ot o n ly good to d eve lo p j u st for hockey, I t h i n k t h a t it’s a really g o o d s k i l l to have thro u g h o u t l i fe , to have a g o o d m e nta l framework d eve lo p e d , ” N ew to n s a i d .

PHOTO BY ELISE MADDEN

A B O V E Junior Ch a r l i e Zwillenberg kneels d ow n on the ice to lace up h i s skates before his dad, Co a c h Zwillenberg starts pract i c e .

“My dad has been my co a c h for my whole life and h e ’s coached me to five mayb e s i x championships,”Zwillen b e rg said. “He’s the reason we ’ ve won all together and he ’s a great coa c h . ” PHOTO BY JILL RICE L E F T Seniors Spencer Newton and J a c k L a mbert watch the scrimmage from t h e s i d e l i n e as freshman Joe Sowden subs i n fo r s e n i o r B a r rett McKee. “Hockey has introdu c e d u s to s o m e of the underclassman and that h a s been really fun,” McKee s a i d .

PHOTO BY MAGGIE MERCKENS

A B O V E Senior Blake Sowden stretches with his teammates before the start of practice. “It’s hard because every year we don’t get to practice on the rinks outside like every other team, so they have a three month head start on us,” Sowden said.

PHOTO BY ELISE MADDEN

SCAN ME Use this QR code to p u rc h a s e p h o t o s f ro m t h i s eve nt on Harbie Photo

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THE HARBINGER

Winter Bucket List by madeline fu n key

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FTER STASHING HALLOWEEN costumes in my closet and clearing my fridge of Thanksgiving leftovers, I know the holiday season is approaching. Pulling out my fuzzy socks from my drawer and putting on my favorite Christmas movie, Elf, my next question was what I was going to do in honor of the winter season. In the little time there is between getting ready for my seven finals and going Black Friday shopping, here are my top three winter bucket list items that’ll make the cold, grey days a little bit more festive.

FURTHER

the

FESTIVITIES

Additional ways to make these activities more festive

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DRINK HOT COCOA

QUIKTRIP

FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE

STARBUCKS

PEPPERMINT MOCHA

WEAR HOLIDAY SWEATERS

DO YOU PREFER CUTE OR UGLY HOLIDAY SWEATERS? * I n st a g ra m p o l l of 2 0 0 vo t e s

CUTE 54% UGLY

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design by campbell wood photos by elise madden

Fun activities to do during the holiday season

Gingerbread House

M

Y ULTIMATE FAMILY tradition is our yearly gingerbread house building competition.

There’s usually no clear winner, but the excitement and competitiveness of trying to design the best house is a staple activity in the Funkey house. Not only can you display your masterpiece as a holiday decoration, you get to tap into your creative side as well, making each detail your own.

Sitting down to decorate your house, turning on your winter playlist and grabbing a hot chocolate is the perfect atmosphere to distract you as you take a break from all your pre-final Chemistry homework.

Ice Skating Holiday Lights

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HEN YOU START to get symptoms of cabin fever from being pinned up in your house all day because of the weather, ice skating is the perfect activity to escape the claustrophobia and get some fresh air. Getting a group together to go to the rink at The Ice at Park Place in Town Center or downtown at Crown Center Ice Terrace can be the perfect winter adventure.

Whether you’re a natural Gracie Gold on the ice or just lacing your skates up for the first time, taking a day trip to the rink is a classic winter activity. Put your skill level aside and enjoy a day on the ice.

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HE SEROTONIN BURST I get when Christmas lights start to appear on houses is something I always look forward to during the holiday season. You can make a night of driving to all the different light displays such as the Plaza lights, Candy Cane Lane, Swope Park Light Show and nearby neighborhoods.

With the seat warmers on high, my friends and I piled into my five-seat car and drove around the Plaza and Brookside looking at all the different holiday lights. The shows that coordinate with your radio are definitely must-see during your Kansas City light tour.