The Harbinger Issue 7 2022-23

THE ISSUE AT CORE.

Due to feeling undervalued and overworked in education, teachers flee the profession or reconsider how long they’ll remain

CROSS - COUNTRY CONNECTION

See what’s happening at a different U.S. high school according to their newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief

CHERRY CREEK HIGH SCHOOL

What current event are students and staff talking about right now?

CLUB Q SHOOTING

CLUB Q IS the only place like it in Colorado Springs.

I know that there are lots of people in the Denver Metro area that have been there, it’s an hour away from our school. And our school has a lot of LGBTQ+ people and people are vocal about heartbreaking issues regarding that community. I see more of it on social media where there’s a lot of people posting things about gun control. The bills and laws passed at the state and national level that target LGBTQ+ people can turn into real violence.

LEFT Denver’s Pride Parade was held on June 26 to close out pride month, and was celebrated for the first time after returning from COVID-19 shutdowns. Floats, marchers, and live music all contributed to the weekend of celebration in downtown Denver. Cherry Creek students were in attendance, and over 100,000 people participated in the parade.

photo by I quinn rudnick

VISIT THE CHERRY CREEK UNION ST. JOURNAL

design by katie murphy cover design by francesca stamati

smeharbinger.net STORIES

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story about the chili cookoff

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political cartoon

EDITORIAL POLICY

The Harbinger is a student run publication. Published editorials express the views of the Harbinger staff. Signed columns published in the Harbinger express the writer’s personal opinion. The 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 The Harbinger will not share any unpublished content, but quotes material may be confrmed with the sources.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.

SENIOR CARLY PHILPOTT

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF UNION STREET JOURNAL

cartoon by elle siegel

cover photo by macy crosser

ACTUALLY,

EAST ISN’T BEAST

The “East is Beast” superiority complex blinds students from recognizing flaws and traps them in an unrealistic bubble of expected perfection

FOR: 11 AGAINST: 5

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.

SEEING THE BUBBLE

Stats that demonstrate East’s lack of exposure to the real world

IT WAS THE last penalty kick. We knew we’d win. But the ball went just six inches too far left, missing the goal, losing the game. As we walked off in disappointment, the opposing team jeered the “goodbye” song, which only infuriated us more. Why would they tease us like that? But let’s be honest: we would’ve done the exact same thing.

When East loses a playoff game, it must’ve been the ref’s fault, not ours. Maybe it’ll make us feel better to insult the other team about where they live. Our drop in test scores? Probably just the COVID offyear. We’re still the smartest in the district — our boastful list of alumni at prestigious colleges says so.

Why? Because “East is beast” — we can do no wrong. At least, that’s become the widely accepted truth at our school.

What began as a joke to hype up East has morphed into an endorsed and toxic superiority complex that blinds the student body from recognizing its own flaws, mistakes and failures.

In all areas of school spirit, students tend to take the “East is beast” mindset a step too far — in the past chanting “That’s

alright, that’s OK, you will work for us one day” as a comeback to a game loss. And even a win comes with obnoxious, in-yourface celebration.

In reality, East is not the best. Niche.com’s ranking of the best high schools in Kansas placed East in sixth, below all of the Blue Valley high schools. So why can’t we admit our flaws and areas for improvement? We cover up our own elitism by insulting others’ socioeconomic statuses or school controversies while refusing to acknowledge our own.

BY

NICHE’S RATING

While our drive to be winners can motivate us to study longer, sweat harder and scream louder in the student section, there’s a fine line between desire and belief. It’s OK to strive for high achievement and encourage others to do the same, but don’t hide behind the “East is beast” motif or use it to undeservingly put others down.

By Niche’s rating scale, East received an “A” rating in academics, teachers, clubs and

Median home value almost doubles from SMW to SME

87.4% of the SMSD district is Caucasian 8% of East students qualify for free or reduced lunch Median household income of SMSD is $12,000 higher than the KC median

info from proximityone.com, niche.com, census.gov

activities, sports and college prep, but it was diversity and resources and facilities that were rated a “B.” The blunt reality is that we’re not that special, we’re privileged.

Sure, we study hard to score high on tests. But it’s easier to study with access to ample tutoring and prep classes. The numerous golf, tennis and swim state titles we’ve earned over the years compared to football and basketball shows how East athletes typically excel at sports they grew up playing in their country clubs — another privilege that’s rare outside of the East “bubble.”

scale, East received an “A” rating in academics, teachers, clubs and activities, sports and college prep, but it was diversity and resources and facilities that were rated a “B.” The blunt reality is that we’re not that special, we’re privileged.

Our advantages and access to resources are in many ways out of our control, but being trapped in this mentality of expecting success makes us look past our privilege and easy access to success.

If we were simply striving to be the best, it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s the arrogant mindset that we’re always the best that shields us from the reality that we can and

should improve. Not only is it ignorant and damaging to our reputation as a school, but it forms a false reality for students.

Spending four formative years of high school believing that you automatically excel at everything — and blaming others when you don’t — sets up students for a culture shock when entering the real world, where others are just as talented but half as pretentious. If you consistently refuse to accept your weaknesses, whether as an individual or as a schoolwide culture, you’re building yourself a weak foundation.

Plus, whether it’s getting all fives on AP exams or placing as a National Merit Scholar, genuine achievements with students truly working for their success are often overshadowed by the disrespect and arrogance present in our school culture.

Recognizing failure requires a change in perspective. So soak up the wins, pride yourself in high test scores and a school known to win, but accept losses with humility and recognize you’re not actually the best. It’s from your mistakes and flaws that you grow, by covering them up with a defensive “I’m still the best,” you’re only holding yourself back.

design by sophie lindberg art by bridget connelly

news.

story by connor vogel

AFTER TWO YEARS of COVIDenforced social distancing and masks, Americans experienced a decline in flu and other common viral diseases during the winter season. But this year, with nearly no restrictions in place and more people traveling this holiday season, there’s a predicted rise in viral infections, including influenza, COVID-19 and Respiratory syncytial virus-known as RSV in this ‘Tripledemic,’ according to the New York Times.

In the US, flu season typically begins to pick up in October and runs through March, peaking sometime between December and

THE CHRISTMAS COLD LEAWOOD LAWS

February. However, this time of year now faces other viral infections like RVS and COVID-19 as well.

School nurse Stephanie Ptacek recalls her experience dealing with these illnesses and the recent uptick in cases.

“We have started to see more illnesses over the last month or so, as the weather’s getting colder and people have been doing more indoor activities,” Ptacek said.

While the flu is less dangerous than COVID-19 with vaccines having been available for decades, the flu still causes major problems for Americans, with only 58.6% of people getting vaccinated last year according to the CDC. Influenza is

responsible for 13 million medical visits, 380,000 hospitalizations and 28,000 deaths in 2019 before anyone had even heard of COVID-19.

Another disease that has seen a significant rise in risk rate is RSV. This disease is especially dangerous for young children and the elderly, causing an estimated 58,000 children under five years old to be hospitalized from RSV every year, according to the CDC and Prevention.

The CDC’s recommendations to curb the rapid spread is for people to get vaccinated and put masks back on this winter to help prevent the spread of disease. The standard rectangular surgical masks continue to

provide about a 50% decreased risk against disease. If you want to up your game, you can wear a KN95 or an N95. These will provide about an 80% decreased risk against COVID-19 transmission and also decrease the risk of RSV and Influenza.

“We’re hearing that some of the primary care offices and pediatricians’ offices are so overwhelmed with patients with viral symptoms that they’re saying people should treat their illness on their own and stay at home,” Ptacek said. “You should not necessarily go to the doctor unless you’re at high risk for COVID-19 of the flu and need medication.”

LEAWOOD RESIDENTS WILL soon have a chance to weigh in on the city’s pitbull ban in the coming weeks through a survey that will be emailed to randomlyselected Leawood residents. The ban still awaits voting in Leawood, one of the last cities in Johnson County to still have one.

The Leawood city council looks to reassess their ‘dangerous animals’ city code banning the ownership of Pitbulls and other similar dogs.

According to the National Library of Medicine, these bans are opposed by most animal welfare organizations like the American Veterinary Medical Association because they have never been proven to increase public safety and are discriminatory torwards the dogs. Also, enforcing the ban costs the animal department over a quarter million dollars last year in kenneling and veterinary care, euthanizing and disposal of seized pitbulls. After the latest vote on overturning

ANGELS OF EAST

The changes in the Kansas senate after midterm elections

SHARE IS HOSTING their annual Angel Tree program to donate holiday gifts to children in the metropolitan area.

The Angel Tree program, started by The Salvation Army over 40 years ago, provides thousands of gifts, toys and holiday food boxes to families in need in Kansas City.

The Angel Tree SHARE chairs set up their display in the front office with a tree holding dozens of angel tags on

each branch, each representing a local child in need and their gift wishes. Students and teachers pick out tags and buy the gifts to provide for disadvantaged children up to 13-yearold. After they have bought the child’s gifts, they’ll return them to SHARE to be given back to the Salvation Army to distribute.

SHARE chair of Angel Tree and senior Caroline Gorman believes in the importance of giving back to the community.

“It’s always good to give back,

the ban ended in a 4-4 split, council members looked into gathering public feedback to help them make a decision. According to councilwoman Lisa Harrison, pushback to the survey is because it could cost the city $8,000 to $12,000 to conduct.

“I have a hard time justifying at least a $10,000 expense on an issue that doesn’t seem to be garnering a lot of chatter from residents at this time,” said Harrison.

especially during the holiday season,” Gorman said. “And this is doing something small to help make a kid’s Christmas special.”

According to Gorman, the program has been a success in recent years with their expectations being surpassed each year.

“Every single year we have to request more tags than the year before because they all go so quickly, with more people participating,” Gorman said.

A surge in the fu and COVID-19 has raised concern for local hospitals and schools

The city of Leawood has banned families from having pitbulls

ABOVE The Angel tree sits in front of the main office during the holiday season waiting for students to donate to the children represented by the angels on the trees. photo by I madi maupin

design by avery anderson

design by mary gagen & nora lynn

story by avery anderson

EAST WAS NAMED the sixth best public high school in Kansas for the 2022-23 school year with an overall A+ rating, according to niche.com.

It was also ranked as the fifth best high school for athletes and sixth best college prep high school in Kansas out of 362 public schools by niche.com. East has already been the top-ranked school in SMSD for multiple years, according to associate principal Susan Leonard.

Blue Valley North High School placed first in the state overall, followed by Blue Valley High, Blue Valley West and Rockford Lutheran School. East ranked similarly to these schools with a 98% graduation rate compared to Blue Valley North’s 95%. But Blue Valley schools were set apart by their consistently greater diversity.

The B- in diversity given to East reflected a lack in both racial and economic diversity. Diversity is evaluated due to the effect it can have on student’s experiences at school. In comparison, Blue Valley North received an A- in diversity and Blue Valley West received a B+. These stats are mainly due to the schools’ locations and who lives in each district.

decrease D’s and F’s and increase A’s, B’s and C’s”.

Despite East’s consistently above average standardized test scores, Dr. Leonard disagrees with the use of test scores to judge schools as a whole.

“If it were up to me, we would judge schools by how successful students were in attaining their goals post-high school,” Leonard said.

Another deciding factor in these rankings are reviews and comments left by teachers, students and staff members on each school’s website. 286 of the 387 East reviews were four stars or higher.

Many of the reviews praise East for its large variety of classes, involved staff and especially the support offered in academic, athletic and emotional areas.

I LOVE HOW MANY choices East has for classes. You can really start to think about what you want to do with college and you future career with so many options.

HELEN JONES

Along with diversity, Niche ranks each school based on academics, clubs, teachers, activities, diversity, college prep, sports, food and resources. They also consider test grades, reviews given by parents and graduation rate when determining the best high schools.

Each of these categories is graded with a letter and despite a few B-’s in diversity and food, East scored mainly A’s.

One of the large determining factors for the best public school is ACT, SAT and state testing averages, as well as availability of AP and IB courses and how many students enroll in these courses. Niche reports that East’s average ACT and SAT scores were 28 and 1310, respectively.

“We want our grade data to reflect more learning,” Principal Jason Peres said. “We want our ACT score to constantly improve. We want to

“I love how many choices East has for classes,” sophomore Helen Jones said. “You can really start to think about what you want to do with college and your future career with so many options.”

East has recently been using Panorama — the survey taken by students who opt-in during seminar about their school experience — for feedback. According to Leonard, students consistently reported negative feelings like being excluded.

Thursday morning teacher meetings are often used to discuss the student body’s experiences at school instead of how to achieve perfect test scores because experiences and mental health can often affect test scores as much as a perfect curriculum. “Safe Space” stickers have been placed in some classrooms to promote inclusion. Areas in the new renovations are being allotted to become a “comfortable space” for students to work on improving any low grades, according to Leonard.

“I think Shawnee Mission East could and should be the number one school in the state,” Leonard said. “I think we’ve got the best kids, I think we’ve got great resources. There are certainly challenges with every large public high school, but they’re just excuses.”

SOPHOMORE

and 68th Street was four feet deep underwater during heavy flooding in May. This past summer was one of the driest in Kansas history, according to the National Weather Service. The Farmers’ Almanac already predicted a colder-than-average winter for eastern Kansas.

As temperatures swing and weather events bounce to extremes in Prairie Village, residents feel the impact of climate

ACTIVE

change — propelling local groups to combat the issue.

Regional Environmental Protection Agency senior climate advisor Andrew Wynne defines climate change as “the significant changes in average conditions like temperature, precipitation and wind that occur over a long period of time.” In the Midwest, that means increasing temperatures, stronger storms and more flooding events and droughts that affect agriculture.

“In Prairie Village, there’s similar changes that we’re seeing throughout the Midwest,” Wynne said. “Like the really intense flooding that took place along the Missouri River back in the spring of 2019 and the storm in St. Louis just a couple of months ago with six or 10 inches of rain. Then there’s regional temperature changes.”

The past few years have been some of the warmest on record for Kansas, comparable to the extreme heat of the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, according to the National Center for Environmental Information. This follows the global trend, as eight of the 10 warmest recorded years on Earth have occurred since

1998, according to the EPA. Wynne reports that this past October was the fourth warmest October globally on record.

“There’s variability,” Wynne said. “It’s not a straight, upward climb since temperatures do go up and down, but the trend is overall increasing over long periods of time.”

Since 1990, Kansas has experienced a below-average number of nights with a maximum temperature of zero degrees Fahrenheit, according to the NCEI. The freeze-free season has lengthened, especially in eastern Kansas — including Prairie Village — averaging about nine days longer than the 20th century average.

“The shifts in the trends and the climate changes that we are seeing have natural causes, but there’s also human causes like the burning of fossil fuels,” Wynne said.

The frequency of extreme storms has also increased since 2015 as the average number of two-inch rainfall days has increased from 1.5 to 2.1 per year. Especially during transition seasons like fall, weather patterns are turning more abnormal, according to Wynne.

Students have noticed. In an Instagram

SCAN

design & art by katie murphy

Go online to see the complete package with four local solutions to climate change, videos, photos, interactive polls, maps and audio.

poll of 225 students, 87% are worried about climate change.

“The continuation of trends becoming more extreme is really dependent upon the adaptation and mitigation practices that we’re putting in place in each community, like in Prairie Village,” Wynne said. “We need to be thinking holistically about the solutions to curb that and ultimately bring temperatures back down.”

Local groups like the PV Environmental Committee, Public Works, Climate Action KC, Building Energy Exchange KC and East’s own Environmental Club are trying to neutralize climate change in Kansas. Wynne cites social and health benefits as well as economic benefits like financial incentives from tax cuts and job creations in new industries addressing climate change.

“We can’t just cut our emissions or just reduce waste or just reduce water or energy use,” Wynne said. “It’s ultimately a multi-pronged approach that requires lots of different folks developing groups and partnerships.”

Various initiatives are attempting to neutralize effects of climate change nearby or at East

*according to Executive Director Ashley Sadowski

- trains private contractors in green building renovations

- installs windows with more airtight sealing, higher-grade insulation and solar panels

- goal is to help Kansas City achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

*according to co-leader ishaan homes

- started this fall by freshmen Ishaan Home and Shubra Durgavathi

- 20 members meet after school in Room 301 or 300A on Wednesdays

- working to reactivate solar panels, reduce paper usage at school and transition to electric school buses

*according to chair Piper Reimer

-run by Prairie Village city council members

- runs mattress recycling program, installed four electric vehicle charging stations and plants native plants in traffc islands -funding a anti-fooding project at Mission Road and 68th Street this spring

*according to facility director Keith Bredehoeft

certifed

by gracie takacs photo by juila filmore lydia coe & molly miller

team

is currently ranked second in the state, following Washburn Rural.

This year’s junior varsity and varsity debate teams are composed of an above-average amount of freshman and sophomore debaters, according to head coach Trey Witt. Normally all upperclassmen, this year’s debate executive board is made up of four juniors and five sophomores, without any seniors as it has been in years past.

“We definitely have strong juniors and seniors,” Witt said. “But the generalization I’ll make is that we have some very strong first and second years this year.”

Witt was the assistant debate coach for five years before becoming head coach. He is now on his 15th year as the head debate coach.

Students in debate and forensics class are required to compete in at least three competitions per semester, but advanced and over-achieving students compete at up to eight — in either policy or forensics. In policy debates, one team makes a

proposal and the other team debates on why they disagree with that proposal.

Forensics is a type of debate that has twelve to fifteen different types of events that are either debate related, speech related or acting related.

Witt believes he has come up with a strong and effective way to get students interested in debate and forensics for all four years of high school.

The debate program has struggled in past years to get and keep students in class and engaged in the competitive aspect. According to Witt, this is because there is no debate program in elementary or middle school for kids to learn and try out debate before coming to high school like there is for music and sports.

early on and let them know that it’s okay to stumble and fall. Hopefully, they get motivated and excited by it.

Sophomore Mae Audus is currently part of the Junior Varsity team. She, along with her partner and debate executive board member Mae Bledsoe plan to continue on the team for all four years of high school – hopefully qualifying for nationals at some point in their high school career.

I THINK TO get kids competitive, we really have to not coddle them,” Witt said. “But I try to not pressure them too much early on and let them know that it’s okay to stumble and fall. Hopefully, they get motivated and excited by it.

TREY WITT

TEACHER

“I think to get kids competitive, we really have to not coddle them,” Witt said. “But I try to not pressure them too much

“We work almost every day after school with assistant coaches where they will help prepare us for our upcoming case,” Audus said.

As the girls work to improve their own debating, they make time to mentor freshman to ensure that the team stays strong next year.

“I think all the advanced debaters are more focused on helping the freshmen or the novices right now,” Bledsoe said.

THE DEBATE AND forensics

design

o p

SOPHOMORE YEAR, you’re stuck with the least class options, you can’t drive and there’s nothing special to it compared to the other years.

WHAT IN THE WORLD

Tweets on worldy topics

“GOP’S HOUSE MAJORITY has been offcial for less than 24 hours, and the frst big priority they announce is an investigation of Hunter Biden, after leaks they will also investigate the treatment of Jan. 6 prisoners. Crazy, craven, and incompetent all at once.”

@matthewamiller

TAKING HARDER classes like IB Diploma, for me, has been a very different experience, and having to adapt to that has made the year a lot harder.

ALL THE COLLEGE tasks and the deadlines for it are thrown at you so quickly, and most people already have their groups and friends.

“

“I WISH I could say I’m surprised by the lack of sympathy — and outright anger — directed at Brittney Griner. She committed a minor crime and is in a Russian penal colony. But because she’s not White or male or straight, lots of people don’t care or are happy. ”

@JFeinsteinBooks

REALLY PORTRAYED Princess Diana as this vindictive, silly young woman whilst Charles and Camilla are these star crossed lovers kept apart by out of date royal rules. This season of The Crown is pandering to the royal family. Ew.”

@RaifaRafiq

SOFIA WEHNER SENIOR

AYDEN BEVERIDGE-CALVIN JUNIOR

EMMA KUHLMAN

SENIOR

SABRINA THUENEMANN

photos by sabrina dean & elle siegel

WHY WORK NOW?

EVERYONE SHOULD WORK in a restaurant at least once in their life.

Maybe I’m biased after growing up as the kid you saw doing their homework in the corner of your favorite local family-owned restaurant (since both of my parents own Buck Tui BBQ, Waldo Thai and Sandos KC).

From spending my middle school weekends as my mom’s extra dishwasher or my junior-year Friday nights escorting customers to their tables, I’ve seen and experienced different situations and positions in the restaurant business that have taught me life lessons.

I’ve learned that you need at least two things to satisfy you at a restaurant — the food and the service. Since service is such a big part of the restaurant experience, restaurants try to hire hardworking, charismatic individuals who know what they are talking about when it comes to food and drinks.

I consider the time I work and spend in the food service industry to be fundamental

to who I am today — even if it’s only been half of my 16 years. Whether you are filling waters, scraping dishes or serving tables, you learn invaluable life skills of customer service, hard work and respect that people outside of the industry struggle to understand.

There’s a certain maturity in learning how to balance three plates while reassuring frustrated customers that their food is in fact coming — multitasking. Learning how to clock in before 4 p.m. because the dinner rush is coming — time management. How to text in advance if you can’t work, or else your bonus might be taken — communication.

It’s the fast-paced nature of restaurants combined with the service aspect of talking and engaging with customers that sets restaurants apart from other service industry jobs. Things get heated and you need to think on your feet while smiling the entire time. With a line out the door, a waitlist of at least 10 parties, servers asking me to clean off their tables and trying to keep a smile on my face as I’m re-explaining the

menu to customers — it can be a draining job, but the benefits and people you meet are worth your time.

79%

OF EAST COMMUNITY MEMBERS AGREED PEOPLE SHOULD WORK IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY AT LEAST ONCE IN AN INSTAGRAM POLL OF 279

When you work in a restaurant, you work with a team of servers, managers, owners, chefs, food runners and hosts of all ages and backgrounds. I make the floor charts for my servers and they let me know if it doesn’t work for them. If someone is trying to clean off a table but they were just given two more, I’ll go ahead and clean it for them. My colleague needs a personal night? — I’m there to cover their shift. Spending hours each week as a team with these people, you learn how to work with others no matter your differences or how tired and frustrated

you may be in the moment.

Unfortunately, you can’t please everyone, even if you try your best at what you do and keep a positive outlook. Learning how to deal with this will give you “thick skin” to those who are nasty to you outside of your workplace as well.

They didn’t teach us enough about finances in high school, and being in the restaurant industry helps those of all ages learn the true value of money. Working in a restaurant as a server or bartender, you are usually required to distribute tips to the staff that helps with service — if food runners are taking my carry out bags up to the front, it’s only fair that they get a portion of my cash tips — you quickly learn how fast that money can go, dollar by dollar, similar to when you find out just how much of your hard-earned cash you owe the IRS.

Working in the restaurant industry fulltime certainly isn’t for everyone, but trying a stint to make a few extra dollars will help you learn essential lessons that will be valuable the rest of your life.

Liberda puts away inventory, makes barbeque sauce and serves food as part of her job at Buck Tui BBQ.

Everyone should work in the restaurant industry at least once in their life

story by marissa liberda

Skills Marissa has learned from working in the service industry

CENSORED.

story by mia vogel

THE HARBINGER design by larkin brundige

photo courtesy of spotify

HERO TO ZERO

AT THE TWO-MINUTE mark of what was probably my seventeenth stream of Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” music video, I noticed something changed — the clip showing the word “FAT” on the scale she stands on had been deleted. Instead of the word popping up on the scale, the camera swiftly cuts to Swift’s antihero clone looking at her disappointedly.

The video was edited last month because of an uproar on social media. The body positivity community in favor of the scene’s removal argued that the scene reinforced the idea that being fat is bad and that it’s a trigger word.

While it’s essential that prominent artists like Swift keep in mind how their work will affect their fanbase, fans need to keep in mind that everyone experiences eating disorders differently. The way Swift chose to depict hers obviously wasn’t intended to be offensive, after all it is her personal experience.

On Oct. 26, Variety reported that the video had been edited on Apple Music to remove the frame that shows the scale. On Oct. 27 it was also removed from the YouTube video after it had received 35 million views. On Oct. 21, the day of the video’s release, Swift posted a tweet saying the video represented her “nightmare

scenarios and intrusive thoughts.”

Even though Swift edited out the word, the message remains the same because of her antihero’s disappointed look. This outrage is so surface level — people just didn’t like to see “FAT.”

This perfectly represents society’s addiction to expressing our outrage on the internet but missing — or intentionally avoiding — the bigger picture. It’s not Swift’s fault that “fat” has negative connotations. Her work simply mirrors society. People aren’t angry at the word itself, but the culture of shame that it stems from.

Shaming Swift by dictating how she uses words is cruelly and unfairly dismissing her struggles, especially considering that she’s spent basically her whole adult life in an industry that places incredible emphasis on body image. If we’re trying to stop artists from representing their experiences, it narrows the scope of people understanding these illnesses.

It’s all too easy to target a celebrity and misinterpret their message. It’s art , which is meant to affect the audience in different ways. Just because you’re not in a space to see or hear a certain word, it doesn’t mean that the artist needs to change the work as a whole.

Swift made a whole documentary — “Miss Americana” on Netflix — addressing her struggles in the industry, including her eating disorder. She showed articles speculating that she was pregnant or calling her fat and described how she felt like she had to starve herself and would nearly faint on stage. So why are we now telling her that she isn’t allowed to feel this way or portray this?

We encourage survivors to be open about their struggles and claim to be supportive, but when those battling eating disorders produce art like this, they’re criticized and forced to dilute their messages and make them more palatable for their audience, regardless of how sincere it is to the individual’s experience.

It was a small number of loud people who complained about the video. While they’re entitled to their feelings, Swift was hasty in removing the clip. It’s understandable that in an abundance of caution she was avoiding the critique becoming a larger story and bringing poor publicity to her first new album in two years. However, she shouldn’t have felt she had to remove it in the first place.

Swift has proven to value her fans’ values and opinions, like when she attempted

to make tickets to her upcoming tour accessible and affordable — going so far as to release an apology when things didn’t go as planned. However, even the most wellmeaning artists aren’t exempt from public criticism.

Swift isn’t the only artist pressured by fans to change their art recently. This year alone, mega-stars including Lizzo and Beyonce have edited their music after public criticism. Some of these criticisms are justifiable — like when Lizzo and Beyonce were told to remove the word “spaz” from their songs because it’s historically been used as an offensive term for disabled people.

While these cases are drastically different — Swift has been called fat whereas Lizzo and Beyonce made an ignorant mistake — the public outrage was mirrored. People were angry at Lizzo and Beyonce for using the derogatory term instead of being angry that the term is so deeply ingrained in our culture that — like Lizzo said in her apology statement — they weren’t aware of the original meaning of the word.

At the end of the day, we expect artists to be raw and personal in their work but then freak out when we don’t completely agree or relate to it, zeroing in on one minor detail instead of focusing on the work as a whole.

IT’S ALL TOO easy to target a celebrity and misinterpret their message. It’s art, which is meant to affect the audience in different ways.

Listeners’ real feedback on Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” music video according to theguardian.com

“what would she be insecure about?”

“she doesn’t know what she’s talking about”

Taylor Swift shouldn’t have edited her “Anti-Hero” music video to appease critics who misunderstood the message of the piece

“disappointed”

“embarrased”

“anti-fat”

“fatphobic”

“i hate her”

“there’s no excuse”

“she’s scared of being fat”

MY DECISION, MY DECISION,

NOT YOURS NOT YOURS

IT BEGINS WITH sitting in your freshman year advisory class when the teacher assigns you to fill out what college you want to go to on Xello. Innocent comments of, “Oh I would never go there” start to come out of 14-year-olds’ mouths. Jumping to senior year, those comments start to increase — particularly when you’re in the same class filling out your common application.

If we’ve spent our high school careers working to get into our dream schools, then the last factor that anyone should consider when applying to college is their friends’ opinions. This is challenging when friends feel entitled to comment on your intended college, post-graduation plans or reach schools — as if another person has the exact right idea for you just because it may be a good fit for them.

still don’t know where I want to go to school, and every day I feel the pressure of deciding when I see my friends already looking for roommates.

Other students’ advice can provide clarity when it comes to the stress of schools and applications. For example, my friend who had already started applying to colleges helped me land on a topic for my college essay.

AND WHEN YOU make snide remarks about decisions that others are excited about, you only isolate yourself — they’ll avoid sharing their life with you.

What’s not helpful is when your friends shove their opinions down your throat, shaming you for choosing a different path with critical comments like, “Really, you want to go there?” When it comes to college, everyone’s situation is unique — whether they choose college based on distance, programs, size or tuition, so it doesn’t make sense to compare yourself to one another.

senior’s thoughts. In-state schools may be an amazing option for you, but that doesn’t mean that it’s my ideal option.

Even if I did want to go in-state, someone will say I’m taking the easy route because I “went through all that hard work for nothing” Not everyone has always dreamed of attending a big-name university, only to rack up thousands in student loans.

Think about a friend having their dream school as the University of Kansas. While you may think KU being your last option is a flex, bragging about it is rude. No one should be made to feel bad about their decision, no matter if it’s in or out-of-state.

Whether it’s an excessive amount of extracurriculars or a rigorous course schedule, we’ve all been working throughout high school to go where we wanted. So how do you think your peers feel when you shame them about their decisions?

INDECISIVE

EVAN PLATZ

SO MANY PEOPLE are like... ‘KU is not an option,’ it’s also kind of like, maybe I shouldn’t go. It changes my perspective on KU, when I have always wanted to go there.

It seems the two basic college routes are split between the kids who have always wanted to attend nearby state schools and those who are already buying flights to the other side of the country. But the most prominent group are the kids in the middle who have no idea what they want or where they want to go. I

While it’s obviously cheaper to go instate, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply to your dream school. Some people feel inclined to move out of the midwest and shoot for their dream school which is OK, because it’s the best decision for them in the end.

Everyone has different financial situations, and I don’t need to bank my college decisions on a high school

When you make snide remarks about decisions that others are excited about, you only isolate yourself — they’ll avoid sharing their life with you.

It seems like everyone makes applying to colleges a competition. Whether it is getting into Harvard or being a legacy at KU, superiority complexes are bound to come out. In the end, it’s better to be supportive than it is to be “superior.”

I DEFINITELY FELT pressure on the timeline, because people in my grade applied super early to a ton of different colleges and did Common App everything.

I just went straight through the KU website. I didn’t deal with all the Common App stuff, because it took forever, and I kind of knew where I was gonna go.

HAVE

DO

*Instagram

story by ben bradley

design by maggie condon photos by liv madden, jill rice & charlotte emley

SOPHOMORE

SENIOR

BRYNN FITZGERALD

Friends and classmates shouldn’t influence each other’s college decisions

How friends have affected their college decisions

art by nora lynn

RIGHT Senior Jacob Podrebarac paddles toward and reaches for the finish line with his paddle to finish more quickly. “It was a lot of fun and a great project. I honestly wasn’t sure if my boat would float or spring any leaks, but I trusted the math I did and it worked out,” Podrebarac said.

photo by I charlotte emley

design by rachel bingham

LEFT Student teacher Michael Scott and senior Jack Lucas clap for junior Katie Murphy as she wins the best costume award determined by the crowd’s volume of cheers. “It felt really good when your boat survived the whole course,” Lucas said, who placed first in the race.

“Like all the hard work paid off so it just felt really good.”

photo by I tristen porter

SINK OR SAIL

LEFT Senior Avery Guck lines up cardboard pieces to duct tape before the boat is ready and ready to race. “I calculated Mr. Scott’s weight for the boat so I initially built it to hold him,” Guck said. “I was also disappointed when it tipped over while Mr. Scott was in it; technically it was a mistake on my part and on his.” photo by I madi maupin

TOP LEFT After being in the boat for less than a minute, student teacher Michael Scott sinks using senior Avery Guck’s boat. “She constructed the boat and they needed someone to get in it and test it out so I volunteered. I think because she knew she wasn’t getting in the boat she didn’t make it well constructed,” Scott said. photo by I charlotte emley

LEFT Junior Katie Murphy and senior Jack Lucas, two of the four-student class, create their boats with cardboard and duct tape the class before the race. “We have all gotten to know each other a lot better because the class is so small and we are the only ones.“ photo by I riley eck

The Physics 2 class of four students competed in a regatta gala on Nov. 18 by creating boats out of cardboard and duct tape using formulas they learned in class

feature.

CLASSES AT THE CAA

Students go to the Center for Academic Achievement for classes based on professions and what they do there

CALLIE CATTANEO MEDICAL SCIENCE 1

WEEK

LEFT

INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONSHIPS

BOTTOM LEFT

In Amy Andersen’s fourth hour AP Literature class, seniors Anna Mitchell and Cate Holzbeirlien act out Hamlet in front of their peers.

“For me, acting out the actual play helps me betterunderstand the content because it makes me pay attention,” Mitchell said. photo by I julia fillmore

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

STUDENT and senior Jana Braun walked into East knowing absolutely no one. A school of 2,000 unknown faces was daunting for a girl from a small town near Hanover, Germany where she spent the first 17 years of her life.

One thing Braun has found helpful since she arrived in Prairie Village is International Club, which provides a space

for foreign exchange students to build a community. According to the club’s vice president and sophomore Cate Gallagher the club is an easy way for international students to meet people and immerse themselves at school.

During the monthly meeting in room 307, they bond through activities related to American culture. Some meetings correspond with holidays and events — during the November

meeting students talked about the history of Thanksgiving and crafted hand turkeys.

Through the club, Braun has been able to make close connection with French foreign exchange student senior Isaline Chapuzet. Braun and Chapuzet bond over being new to the U.S. and have become close friends.

“It’s helpful because there’s someone there that’s in a similar situation as you,” Braun said.

design by addie moore

International Club is a resource to welcome foreign exchange students to East

Students who attended the November meeting for International Club. photo by I clara peters

story by addie moore

THIS

IN PHOTOS A look at what’s happening inside the halls of East

TOP Senior Dillion Mong assists Sophomore Carter Brock while completing a 70lb incline dumbell press in their fouth-hour weights class. photo by I lili vottero

Sophomores Clara Burdick and Mae Audus make a backdrop for the Lancer Dancer trophy case. photo by I julia fillmore

ABBY NHYUS

learn basic functions of human body take vitals on dummies learn to interact with patients assist at a nursing home

CERTIFIED NURSE ASSISTAINT

WHEN THE SPEAKER announced Harbinger as a winner for the 2007 NSPA Pacemaker award, the staff of 39 launched out of their seats into shouts and cheers.

Harbinger editor-in-chief Laura Nelson was elated — the same amount of excitement she had when winning a Pulitzer prize in 2016.

“It was one of those corny high school movie moments,” Nelson said. “Like the soccer team just won the tournament but for journalism nerds.”

It’s only natural Nelson found her way into journalism — her parents work as editors at the Kansas City Star and her sister is an editor for Vox Magazine. She joined staff as a freshman with the goal of being an editor-in-chief like her sister at the time.

After graduating from the University of Southern California in 2012 with a journalism degree, she started writing for the LA Times.

She is now an investigative and enterprise reporter as a part of a two-time Pulitzernominated team.

In 2016, the Times won a Pulitzer for Breaking News coverage of the San Bernardino shooting.

THE

2015 HARBINGER ALUM AND and nowjournalist Morgan Krakow woke up every summer morning in rural Montana to the sun rising over the Rocky Mountains — an average day as a student at the University of Oregon.

Krakow spent a summer in college on a field research trip biking across Montana, reporting on climate change. The extended college course combined Krakow’s two passions — adventure and journalism.

The driven and friendly environment of the J-room convinced Krakow to continue with journalism. Other staffers she saw as close friends all worked together to push

PAIGE CORNWELL

each other to do their best by shamelessly critiquing each other’s designs and editing stories until 2 a.m. to meet their fullest potential.

“[On Harbinger] everyone was such a mixed bag and kind of from all different parts of East in different social circles,” Krakow said. “It felt like it was just this place where everyone could kind of come together and be themselves and be weird.”

She then attended the University of Oregon to get her journalism degree. After graduation, Krakow interned at the Washington Post looking into the Trump Administration.

into her mind.

Nelson worked on victim profiles and co-wrote “Shooters Kept Plans and Weapons Secret” — a minute-by-minute narrative story regarding the shooters and their motives.

One of Nelson’s most memorable stories was in 2019 when a diving boat caught fire and killed 34 people. Not only was it nominated for a Pulitzer, but the responsibility of writing victim profiles is an experience that stuck with her.

“It’s gonna be one of the last things written about these people so the responsibility’s really heavy,” Nelson said. “These stories are worth telling, even though they’re difficult.”

HARBINGER

During her internship, Krakow reported on two consecutive mass-shootings. She wrote profiles on the victims and was tasked with contacting distraught family and friends.

“It’s a fresh wound for people,” Krakow said. “I personally struggled with whether I should talk to them.”

The Post’s coverage made them a 2020 Pulitzer finalist in the Breaking News Category. The stories from this time are still stuck in Krakow’s mind — not because of the award but because of the emotional dent left by the 29 lives taken.

THE

walked with her boyfriend around the memorial site, reciting details from each of the lives instantly stripped away and showing him trees dedicated to each of the 43 victims of the 2014 Oso, Washington landslide. She knew her old teacher Dow Tate would love those type of details in her story.

THE HARBINGER MORGANKRAKOW PRINT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 2014-2015

body has been found’ before they reported the deaths that day,” Cornwell said.

In the first few weeks following the event, Cornwell didn’t realize the enormity of the event and the effect of her reporting. Her priority was to tell the story the best she could — the accolade was just an added bonus.

PRINT

Three years prior, The Seattle Times had won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the event — a team Cornwell collaborated on, collecting information on victims’ lives.

HARBINGER LAURANELSON

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 2007-2008

Her research included checking the list of missing people every day — as the weeks went on, names were only taken off of the list when a body was found.

“A one point, I knew the list so well I could see who was taken off of the missing list and say ‘OK, that person’s

Advisor Dow Tate saw the potential for her success all the way back in 2009, when her confident and sharp reporting style stood out among the rest of the staff and Tate still mentions her sharp writing over 13 years later.

The Pulitzer is just one of her slew of accomplishments— she’s received a Scripps Howard award, finalist for an IRE award, 2015 SPJ Regional New Journalist of the Year and second place for the National High School Journalist of the Year in 2009.

hauberk, laura nelson, paige

by addie moore

ANOTHER DOWN.

When social studies teacher Shannon Nolan graduated from K-State, her education department’s class was 23 students hoping to be teachers. A year after graduation, there were 20. The next, 15.

The most recent, an elementary education teacher, promised she was in it for life when they received their diplomas in May of 2019.

“I’m out,” she texted in the groupchat of Nolan’s graduating class — only seven of whom are still teaching.

While the other 16 teachers who have already moved on from the profession sent their congratulations, Nolan finalized her substitute plans — crying to her fiancé while praying her students wouldn’t tear up her classroom or fall behind other hours.

Despite the low pay and stress that drove the rest of her class from the profession, Nolan is still committed to teaching due to her love of kids. But that doesn’t make handling the stress any easier.

undervalued when suffering through the unbearable pressure of the profession.

But according to English teacher Samantha Feinberg, teachers have been burnt out for years. Leading five to six classes a day, with upward of 30 students with diverse learning styles and over 140 papers to grade — Feinberg is left exhausted. The next day, she does it all over again.

“There’s always things to follow up on,” Feinberg said. “Nobody likes stuff to fall through the cracks. But even when I’m doing my best, I’m sure there’s something I overlooked or missed or screwed up.”

I LOVE MY students. Even the ones that drive me up the wall, I love them all. But that doesn’t mean I should be paid less than another professional.

SHANON NOLAN

TEACHER

“Every single one of us teachers want to teach kids and aid them to be informed citizens,” Nolan said. “But after COVID, [teachers] are realizing that, just because [we] want these kids to be successful doesn’t mean that [we] can’t take [our] own mental health in consideration.”

Almost two in five teachers plan to quit in the next two years, according to a June survey of members of the American Federation of Teachers union.

Nolan works every day to not be part of that stat — sponsoring four activities for the extra pay, buying posters of famous figures in World History to decorate her classroom and keeping her at-home grading to a minimum to separate work and personal time. But still, Nolan and 55% of National Education Association members say they’ll leave teaching sooner than they had originally planned as of February. The mass exodus of teachers, counselors and para professionals has increased nationwide after feeling

But 2020 just made teacher burnout more obvious.

In August of 2021, 37% of NEA members considered leaving education sooner than planned. Since this Febuary, this number has almost doubled to 55%, according to NEA. Now, from a poll of 39 East teachers, 41% said that the pandemic made them reconsider staying in the education profession.

Once in-person education was back in session, social studies teacher and East’s NEA representative Stephen Laird witnessed colleagues who he never thought would consider quitting reevaluate their career choice due to the strain of teaching via zoom, masking and stress of getting sick in the classroom that the pandemic caused.

“[When] we see more of our peers start leaving the profession [after the pandemic], it makes us [teachers] think to ourselves, ‘What should we do?’” Laird said.

Teachers across the nation were doing what seemed impossible during virtual schooling, as the community named them and frontline workers “heroes,” according to Laird. But once in-person school returned, kids fell behind, which added ample pressure on teachers to refine their curriculum to only the critical lessons.

An anonymous survey was given to the East faculty and received 39 total responses. One teacher explained that the district is constantly changing their goals and curriculum for teachers.

“The pressure is now much worse, because the pandemic shifted concerns and focus across the board,” the teacher said. “Instead of being allowed to focus on what we see in real life every day, we’re being held hostage by those in a building miles away without any kind of understanding of our students. It’s a huge issue in education.”

COVID-19 encouraged teachers to inspect what worked and what didn’t about their teaching styles, Laird said. While online, teachers considered how they wanted to adjust their teaching.

“Remote learning was hard,” Feinberg said. “Masking was hard, hybrid learning was hard. Taking care of your families and keeping them alive while trying to continue your job was so hard. But all of humanity is burned out from COVID, and teachers are just a part of that humanity.”

Another anonymous teacher that responded to the survey agrees with Feinberg that it was “infinitely” harder to come back to school and immediately resume teaching when years of learning was lost.

“They just went on... as if nothing happened and left teachers and students to figure out how to get back to normal,” the teacher said. “The disruption to the educational process called for major procedural and discipline policies and nothing was done. Our school has no standards for conduct, and it will be years before we get back on track.”

This caused more bad days filled with kids fighting back about wearing their mandatory mask than good days, according to Laird.

During the pandemic, the conversation of, “Is this something I still want to do?” was prevalent in the profession. According to the NEA, 86% of members say they’ve seen more educators leaving the profession or retiring early since the start of the pandemic in 2020. More than a half-million teachers have left the profession since the start of 2020, according to governing.com.

According to the anonymous poll, 95% of teachers believe they have seen a higher percentage of colleagues leave the teaching profession since the pandemic.

The biggest push for teachers leaving the profession is the pay and time — or lack thereof, according to Feinberg and Laird.

According to the SMSD employee salary schedule, first-year teachers with a master’s degree start making $52,544 before taxes. The average homeowner salary in Prairie Village is just over $81,082, according to zippia.com.

Teachers like Nolan are watching friends and colleagues leave the profession for jobs with higher salaries, better benefits and less stress causing Nolan to question if teaching is a sustainable life-long career.

“I love my students,” Nolan said. “Even the ones that drive me up the wall, I love them all. But that doesn’t mean I should be paid less than another professional.”

The overwhelming support from parents and administrators and binder of student thankyou notes have been a huge factor for Nolan to stay in the profession, despite low pay.

ten • ure

a status granted after a teacher’s trial period that protects them from being fired

Nolan believes her daily stress of “business meetings” like her friends may have is vastly comparable to those in a corporate level job. She’s not just sitting at the meetings — she’s running, presenting and differentiating the material for 30 people who have never seen a population pyramid before. Between meetings, she gets a total of 30 minutes to prepare materials, evaluate how each meeting went and take care of personal needs.

Even though she leaves the classroom with bear hugs from current and past students that come to her classroom just to chat, she can only describe it as draining.

“My friend will text me and say, ‘Hey, I’m going for a walk right now’ [or] ‘Hey, I’m going to

VOID

PARAPROFESSIONALS

ANNUAL SALARY: $27,582 WEEKLY SALARY: $530 HOURLY WAGE: $13.26

THE AVERAGE

KANSAS SALARY IS...

ANNUAL SALARY: $50,937 WEEKLY SALARY: $979 HOURLY WAGE: $24

are supposed to be role models and a support system for their upward of 130 students. An anonymous teacher explains that the biggest difference from pre- and postpandemic is the increased mental health needs.

“It’s a really overwhelming and anxietyprovoking feeling to know you are not helping a student in the way he or she needs to be helped,” the teacher said. “You take that home with you.”

progressive action.

story by peyton moore

design by anna mitchell & nora lynn

COUNSELORS

the bathroom when I want,’” Nolan said. “They’re showing me that there is a way out.”

But guilt results from leaving the profession, according to former anatomy and biology teacher Tim Brill. Brill — who quit teaching last school year and is now a Client Success Manager at the healthcare technology startup Spark Change — chose teaching as a way to share his love for learning about how the human body works. Despite the guilt, the non-teaching activities such as hallway patrol, managing behavioral issues and the extreme pressures that came with the profession along with the discouraging pay repelled him.

Brill explained the pressure that teachers

Laird explains these pressures lead to an eternal fight for higher pay — a fight teachers have to battle alone in politics. According to Laird, teachers who are members of the NEA have found success in reducing workload — like the contract fight in February of 2020 that reduced workload for most secondary teachers from six to five classes and gave a pay increase. But salaries are simply out of their control.

A teacher’s frustration with feeling undervalued by society can be seen directly in politics, according to Laird. This frustration is real specifically in Kansas, according to npr.com, as Kansas lawmakers have stripped state protected tenure from teachers and cut classroom funding.

For Laird as the NEA representative and other teachers seeing no increase in their paycheck and little legislative action, politicians use these issues in their campaigns as talking points for debates — resulting in no

The mass exodus of teachers draws conversations about whether the lack of respect and time is worth staying in the underpaid profession

“We had to fight that fight for years and the legislature and the governor were fighting against us,” Laird said. “But these are the same people who say, ‘Happy Teacher Day,’’ but all they do is give us a thumbs up.”

another year. Brill and Nolan both agreed that East’s administration has been a crucial resource for them to overcome the pressure that comes from parents and the district by being flexible with how they teach their lessons and supportive of those decisions.

“It gave me autonomy to choose how I found success as a teacher,” Brill said.

wage pen

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al

•

ty

the difference between the average wage paid and the wage paid to a covered employee

Teacher Appreciation Week, from May 1 and May 5, often consists of cards from students, treats in the teachers lounge and restaurant discounts. Though teachers appreciate the coffee mugs and thank you cards, it’s simply not enough, according to Feinberg.

“[The government] needs to care about education, and want to pay us more,” Feinberg said. “It’s not just pay, it’s about caring about the learning, and growth, development and access of students. And if you care about that, you’ll care about the teachers who are teaching them, and you can care about them. You’ll want them to be valued. And if you value them, you’ll pay them.”

According to the Economic Policy Institute, Kansas teachers face a teacher wage penalty of 22.6% less than comparable college graduates as of 2021. This number has grown nationwide throughout the years, with a staggering 18.4% increase from 1993-2021, with a previous penalty of 4.2%. Public schools are funded by the government as public-sector wages, so their salaries stay stagnant compared to competitive professions or private-sector wages, according to newsnationnow.com. Edweek.com explains that the national average teacher salary has decreased over the last decade by an estimated 3.9 percent due to inflation.

Since the pandemic, SMSD has used government ESSER funds to help mitigate

ESSER fund

the

illness and support teachers, according to Feinberg. In both 2021 and 2022, SMSD teachers were given stipends for staying

Nolan finds support through her students’ parents, like East parent Kathy Schirger, who has not only respected her as a teacher but taught her kids to do the same, bringing her coffee or staying after school to help decorate bulletin boards. Nolan has been there for senior Kate Schirger since her freshman year World Regional Studies class, her mom said. Schirger has

learned and taught her kids that respect means recognizing what teachers do for their students, from discussing real world hardships in World Regional Studies to being 140 kids support systems during a hard day — a lesson she hopes every parent and student informs themselves on.

“Talk to them and they appreciate what they’re doing, send them a note or get them a cup of coffee,” Schirger said.

As teachers continue to leave the profession due to the pressures of the profession, gaping holes in departments remain. The ratio of teachers hired to job openings in education has reached new lows, with 0.59 teachers hired for every open position at the start of the 2021-2022 school year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it hasn’t always been this way — in 2010, the ratio was 1.54 hires for every position.

And in the Shawnee Mission district, there were more resignations in the 20202021 school year than hires, according to the Director of Human Resources Jeremy Higgins.

“We are losing quantity of teachers, but [we’re] also losing a lot of high quality teachers, which is ultimately bad for students,” Brill said. “I’m scared of what the schools are gonna look like. Not just 10 years from now. I’m scared of what they’re gonna look like in one or two years, because of the high level of turnover.”

TOO MUCH

TABLE TOPICS

AS DISHES WERE passed around her Thanksgiving table, Sara Burke* knew she couldn’t eat all of the food on her plate, but she didn’t want her family to worry about her not eating enough.

Burke went to therapy for her anorexia for two years. While she loves the holidays, they always brought the stress of having to face her eating disorder under the observation of her family.

“Every single event — especially Thanksgiving — is based around food,” Burke said. “I have a family who’s very caring, but in the way that they’re always forcing you to get seconds or making comments about how much you’re eating or what you look like now.”

While the holidays are known for being a joyous time for feasting with family, it can be triggering and anxiety-inducing for those with eating disorders.

According to greater Kansas City eating disorder specialist Kirsten Oelklaus, these environments can trigger those with disordered eating due to reasons like irregular meal times that can disrupt their routine eating schedule, unfamiliar or “scary” foods and holiday expectations of how much to eat.

“The holidays in our American culture have really evolved around food,” local eating disorder therapist Whitney Harken

said. “And when someone’s struggling with an eating disorder, food is not much of a celebration, and it’s not really a point of connection.”

One of the most anxiety-inducing aspects of the holidays are conversations at the table about diets, eating habits and bodies, according to Harken and Oelklaus.

Comments from relatives like “I shouldn’t have eaten that” or “I need to work out so I can eat more later” might seem like harmless statements, but for those like junior Izzy Margolin, who struggled with anorexia, it triggered the restricting thoughts already in her head.

“When I hear those things, it makes me feel like I should do the same,” Margolin said. “After being in recovery for longer, it’s gotten a lot easier, but more early on in my recovery it was definitely like ‘Oh, they’re saying they’re gonna do this, I should do it.’”

When it comes to dinner table topics, Harkens points out when finding topics to connect with people on, ones that make others feel uncomfortable or stressed are avoidable and unnecessary.

From her experience, Burke finds it less harmful when people try to make comments about food positive instead of questioning someone’s eating habits.

“If you’re making comments about what they’re eating, then do it in a supportive way,” Burke said. “Be like, ‘Oh, did you make

this? It was so good,’ instead of being like, ‘How much have you eaten?’ All of these questions that you think may be supportive are actually just anxiety inducing.”

Along with comments on food choices, Harken advises to stray from remarking on others’ bodies – even if it’s meant to be a compliment. When it comes to weight fluctuations, there could be many reasons, some of which aren’t always positive.

When in the midst of struggling with her anorexia, Margolin found it hard to enjoy the holiday season because of pressure to feel excited and happy about a triggering situation that came with the big meals.

“[There’s] this kind of conditioned expectation that [around] the holidays, we should feel joy and peace and connection, and a lot of people are not feeling that,” Harken said. “There’s this layer of shame or guilt of ‘Oh, it’s the holiday season, why don’t I feel that way when I should?’”

Whether it’s mental health, illness, addiction-related or even a positive fitness journey, comments on how someone “looks so different” are never necessary. Additionally, when struggling with disordered eating or negative body image, people’s minds can often twist anything said about their bodies into a negative.

“It highlights that other people value us for the way we look, and that’s just not true,” Harken said. “It’s really important then to compliment or see each other for who we are, not how we look.”

Oelklaus finds Thanksgiving to be the most challenging holiday for her patients as most of it revolves around food preparation and feasting. Depending on the patient, Oelklaus usually prepares for holiday meals with them by helping them plan. This includes deciding what they’ll eat, preparing alternative conversation topics or allowing themselves to enjoy foods without needing to compensate through workouts or fasting.

“Really prioritizing connection, when we have the energy to do so, can just make the world of difference,” Harken said. “[For] some of those really hard consequences or depression and anxiety symptoms, it can really change everything to just have that

The holiday season poses unique challenges to those with eating disorders due to discussions and pressures about eating

Senior Keely Hood uses writing as a means of creative expression, and hopes to further this passion by self-publishing her own novel by the end of the year

COLD BREW IN hand and her meticulously-curated Spotify playlists that she makes to get for each writing project blaring through her headphones, senior Keely Hood sits down at her dining room table and pulls up her 250-page Google Doc. She emerges 10 hours, several hundred words and two cups of coffee later from her self-described “hermit state” — a “good day” of writing for her.

“My writing process is insane,” Keely said. “All my friends know this about me. I’m very obsessive about it. It’s been my main hobby for the majority of high school.”

Devoting almost every spare minute to one of her ongoing projects, writing has been at the center of her personality since middle school. She’s furthering this passion by self-publishing her full-length fiction novel, “Where the Road Ends,” before graduating in May.

Keely credits her love of writing to books she read growing up. In elementary school, Keely remembers tearing through the “The Hunger Games” and “Harry Potter” series in a matter of days. Sharing book recommendations with her sixth-grade friend group and older sister Tatum, Keely remembers this as the time where she began leaning into her passion.

“I’m sure that she kind of looked up to me and saw me reading a lot, and I’m sure that inspired her to want to take on that same thing,” Tatum said. “In elementary school, there was a ‘Great Wall of Reading’ with fake stones for books that students read. I had so many stones that I put up there, and so I think she wanted that too.”

Seeking to imitate the style of her favorite authors at the time, J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins, 11-year-old Keely launched her writing career with her first story, “The Night the Dreams Came,” a dystopian tale about how high schooler Victoria Wright’s unsettling dreams manifest themselves in reality, making her question reality and fiction. She even printed several copies for her friends and family.

Ever since this first dystopianfantasy story, she has completed five novellas and novels, a published short story in the Freelancer literary arts magazine and a handful of one-off personal projects in her free time. Her

writing style shifted as her reading taste changed — writing more horror and mystery after obsessing over Stephen King in middle school and doing deeper character studies inspired by John Steinbeck’s work. Last summer, Keely undertook her biggest self-set writing challenge yet — writing and publishing a full-length novel by the end of her senior year.

This current project, “Where the Road Ends,” is a thirdperson story set in 1998 featuring the male protagonist Dane and his encounter with secondary character Roland. The story follows how the two evolve during their road trip across the U.S., each finding out the other’s backstory and reason for traveling. Each chapter covers their adventures in a different state.

Exploring the lives of Dane and Roland has given her more experience with in-depth character studies and writing realistic dialogue. But she developed something more important in the process.

“This [project] is where I found my voice,” Keely said. “Not only in terms of my writing voice, but also in terms of themes I like to write about.”

After writing her first draft in the summer of 2021, Keely began the revision process by having her two trusted literary companions edit — Tatum and her friend and classmate senior Anohita Paul.

Tatum felt honored that Keely trusted her to read her story and felt invested in the characters’ personal journeys. Most of all, she felt proud of her childhood reading buddy’s development into a legitimate author.

“When I was editing, it stood out to me that [‘Where the Road Ends’] was better than at least half of the books that I read this year,” Tatum said. “It’s very professional. When she publishes this, and if she can get her feet on the ground and promote it a little bit, I really think it could do well.”

While editing, both Tatum and Anohita specifically noticed Keely’s meaningful use of prose and description, explaining how it comes off as engaging when Keely writes it compared to when she’s seen it used by authors as filler text.

“She’s really good at using prose in a way that might come across as long-winded if other people wrote it, but she does it in a way that’s genuinely engaging instead of boring and flowery language,” Anohita said.

After reading and responding to Tatum and Anohita’s edits over a few months, Keely has met with a professional editor and is almost done editing. After publishing her project, Keely plans to continue writing in college and in her future career — something 11-year-old bookworm Keely could only imagine.

JohnSteinbeck

DonnaTarttChuckPalahniuk

AnneRice

story by greyson imm

NOVELTY NAVY in the

Senior Ben Rodriguez’s journey to receiving a $200,000 scholarship to the NROTC at Purdue University

HEN-SEVENTH GRADER BEN

Rodriguez knew he didn’t want to waste his $50 of souvenir money on cheesy Washington D.C. souvenirs. He wanted to ride the fighter jet simulator — three consecutive

His fellow campers at Naval Academy’s STEM summer camp weren’t as enthralled with the gears, shifts and rolls of the ride

Now-senior Ben still craves the rush that he felt when he entered the fake cockpit and intends to fulfill his seventh grade dreams of becoming a naval aviator at Purdue University after receiving a $200,000 scholarship from Purdue’s Navy Reserve Officers’ Training

“I couldn’t get that feeling and that experience out of my head,” Ben said. “This is something that is in my head and never left me since then… [and]

everything I’ve done in high school is really just [helping me get accepted to the navy].”

The NROTC is an extremely difficult program to get into, for example last school year, 5,000 students nationwide applied for the navy ROTC and only 1,200 students were accepted, according to rotccounsulting.com.

Ben’s application process to the NROTC database consisted of a PT test, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test — a multiple choice test over military knowledge and airplane engine parts — as well as his ACT score and an interview.

The PT test, which Ben performed on the East track, consists of two minutes of push-ups, two minutes of sit-ups and a mile sprint — or so Rodriguez thought before taking it.

“I was genuinely stunned,” Ben said. “I couldn’t breathe or talk or do anything. I remember zooming home and planning to surprise my mom. I said I needed her to proofread an email. She popped up screaming and hugged me.”

I

Ben was sitting in his AP Psychology classes when the acceptance email from Purdue was sent to his inbox. He suddenly couldn’t breathe.

REMEMBER ZOOMING

home and planning to surprise my mom. I said I needed her to proofread an email. She popped up screaming and hugged me.

BEN RODRIGUEZ

SENIOR

From commanding his classmates to “drop and give him 20” pushups in first grade to “play army” to doing 50 pushups when he woke up and 50 before bed to train for his physical tests for NROTC applications, Ben never turned his attention away from his one objective.

Ben’s mom Michelle Rodriguez applauds his achievements and has supported his military dream since elementary school.

“He’s very patriotic, very proud of being an American,” Michelle said. “[His] military interest and fascination with it and desire to serve [has] always been a part of him.”

“Three weeks after I submitted the application, the Navy ended up changing it nationwide,” Ben said. “So you had to do a plank instead of the situps. I had to do the entire test all over again.”

Ben was frustrated. He’d trained all summer for the test, spending five to six hours in the gym and 10-20 miles biking and running per week — all for his running time of 5:05 to be slower by nine seconds for a score of 5:14. Still, he submitted his score to the ROTC database. Despite the set-backs, this score still got him a scholarship to his number one choice school.

He will train to be a naval aviator at Purdue — the position he’s wanted since the moment that he left the simulator ride in Washington D.C.

“Naval aviation is not just like a topdown fad thing to me,” Ben said. “It’s really something that’s been a part of me, and it’s the only thing that makes me full when I talk about it.”

design by caroline gould photo by lili vottero

ada lillie worthington

WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME AND WHY IS IT YOUR NAME?

My full name is Johnnie Ruckus Collins, and it’s my name because my dad wanted to name me Johnnie Fender as my middle name instead of Ruckus. My biological mom was like, “No, no, that’s not happening.” My dad was a punk rocker. This is what he tells me — he said that he told my mom, “Johnnie Ruckus.” And that happened.

WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS OF MAKING MUSIC?

First, I have to be alone. I have to be able to think straight. So basically, a topic comes at me, I just think of a topic, and then I start processing lyrics in my head, and then I’m like, “I need write that down!” So I grab a notebook, and I write it down. And then once I start writ ing, like the whole frst verse down, or like some of the verse, I just grab my guitar, and I try to incorporate the sounds that go well with it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LA AND KANSAS CITY IS?

The greenery is way better here. Trees are green, grass is green. It’s beautiful. Sometimes, you don’t even need to water your plants in order to make it green because the rain just comes. In LA, it doesn’t really rain.

Senior Johnnie Collins talks about living in California, making music and his unique middle name

a&e.

design by nora lynn

SMALLER

RECENT RELEASES

RATTLESNAKE

HEARTBREAK by miniature tigers

GENRE: alt-indie The rough guitar compliments his soft voice

ON MY WAY by emotional oranges

GENRE: dance

The drum beat is has both a dancy and calming sound

HIGH UP by half • alive

GENRE: alt-indie

The beat drops are satisfying when paired with the lyrics

GROUPIE by groupthink

GENRE: rough pop HIGHLIGHTS: Groupie, Peach Fuzz

photos from spotify & IMDB

UPCOMING MOVIE RELEASES

THE WHALE 12/09/2022

GENRE: drama

Starring Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink, this story follows a 600-pound middle-aged Charlie who’s trying to reconnect with his 17-yearold daughter after they grew apart.

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER 12/16/2022

GENRE: action

Set over a decade after the original movie, this is the frst of four sequels to follow the 2009 Avatar.

BABYLON 12/23/2022

GENRE: drama, comedy

Following many different characters in Hollywood during a time of decadence and depravity. Starring Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Toby Maguire, and more.

A closer look at some newly released music by smaller artists

GIRL OF MY DREAMS by fetcher

GENRE: pop HIGHLIGHTS: Suckerpunch, Her Body is Bible, Healing

SOFTCORE by fousheé

GENRE: alt-indie HIGHLIGHTS: simmer down, supernova, smile

REALISTIC by corook

GENRE: alt-indie HIGHLIGHTS: smoothie, your mom

GOODNESS TO HONEST by elephant jake

GENRE: alt-indie HIGHLIGHTS: Randy Wheeler, Goodness to Honest, Remorse

WOMEN TALKING 12/23/2022

GENRE: drama

Based on the 2018 novel, eight women struggle to cope with their faith after they discover that men from their community are rapping women.

DISMAYED

Season five of “Yellowstone” fails to develop characters and storylines, making it predictable and disappointing

IF YOU EVER walk into a bar in Montana, do NOT strike up a conversation with a blond lady wearing way too much mascara. After season five of Yellowstone copied and pasted their overused scene of protagonist Beth Dutton’s verbal brutality — along with every other stereotype from past seasons — I’m appalled that the entire state of Montana doesn’t know to avoid her by now.

Following the ever-sneering Beth and her family — the Duttons — as they fight to save their expansive Montana ranch (again), Yellowstone’s season five retains the same storyline as seasons one through four, with only a few new players. Since the twoepisode season premiere on Nov. 13, I can predict each episode of Yellowstone just as I know it’ll air every Sunday at 7 p.m. The producers’ version of a plot twist was streaming on Paramount Network instead of Peacock.

That’s right, you can’t watch the Duttons fight to save their ranch with the $4.99-a-month Peacock subscription you bought last year solely for Yellowstone (or was that just my family?). But the predictable season isn’t worth the $9.99-a-month Paramount Plus subscription — opt for the free trial if anything.

As much as I adore watching Beth harass another unsuspecting man or Jamie cower behind his sister and dad, season five was a missed opportunity for their character development to propel the storyline. Instead, we get the same big-shot, corporate property developers smashing glasses into walls in frustration of the Duttons’ relentlessness. After the season four finale wrung in 9.3 million views, I’m sure the show’s producers thought the audience would eat up another formulaic season.

Well, I lost my appetite.

Skittering far too close to the lengthy “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Friends” territory, Yellowstone has fallen into a trap of stereotypical characters. It’s

their patented storyline: the family’s newest enemies conspire to take the ranch, the Duttons violate moral reasoning to protect their living and John Dutton — the father — wistfully gazes into his snow-capped mountains to remind us why he won’t just sell the land and retire.

On top of that, scenes attempting to add depth to backstories were needless and sloppily placed. Flashbacks of Beth and Rip’s past relationship and John’s early career reveal little about the characters and were flung randomly between scenes of John’s inauguration as governor and corporate villains’ scheme sessions to steal the ranch.

To be fair, less than half of the season has aired — there’s still time for Jamie to grow a pair or John to take a nap. But the first four episodes haven’t provided much more than Kayce whispering his vague prophecy of “the end of the Duttons” and John desperately clinging to power he doesn’t want (*sigh*, life is so hard as the governor of Montana). Every viewer knows that the family will prevail again, so no amount of suspenseful country instrumentals will convince me that season five ends with a novel outcome.

Thankfully, the acting was just as compelling as past seasons. But actor Kelly Reilly’s ability to make us root for the narcissistic Beth and Wes Bentley’s convincing portrayal of the cowardly Jamie only make it even more frustrating that the directors didn’t further showcase their actors’ talent this season through character development.

Despite the season’s flaws, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching. I’m still drawn to the Montana ranch charm and the Dutton’s vanishing, traditional lifestyle that challenges our idea of modern progress. But I would’ve preferred the show’s creators to develop the story to remind me why I pressed play.

design by maggie kissick

photo by elle siegel

mystic meanings

FUTURE SEEING

TAROT CARDSthe newest niche trend on my TikTok feed. It seems like the algorithm is practically begging me to listen to a stranger pulling cards that are meant to predict my future or give insight into my spiritual life.

After a month of watching these videos, I began noticing that things said in the videos were actually happening in my life — oddly specific things like drama in my friend group or predicting what happened with that one British boy I had a thing with a

So in order to see if these cards were too good to be true, I skipped the general readings on TikTok and decided to get a personalized reading of my own from Etsy.

After glancing at a few listings, I settled on an “In-Depth Tarot Reading for the Next Six Months of Your Life” by Etsy seller AnaReadings for only

I gave her my name and birthday, then opted for her “two-question” option over the blind reading so I could ask specific questions I wanted to be answered: “What will the following months hold for me?” and “What should I know about my current relationship?”

Within 12 hours she sent me my 1,618-word reading, detailed with timelines, certain traits I have and upcoming situations. She described the five cards pulled, what they meant and how it would affect me in addition to answering both of my questions.

The main points of my reading were that I’m currently in a bad period but good fortune is coming my way and that my current relationship will strengthen.

While there were some predictions

that were slightly inaccurate, like that I’ll soon get together with Jackson — my boyfriend of almost a year — I had no questions after reading it.

For the price point and speed of the reading, it seemed well worth the money and I’d happily purchase another in the future.

After my hopeful first reading, I decided to give it another go and try one by Melizzzyyy called “Personalized Mystery Intuitive Tarot Reading” for $7.77. This one was different from my first reading as instead of sending questions, there are categories you can choose from which were love, general, witchcraft, spiritual, career, friendship, advice, mystery reading and “random! chaotic!”

I was instantly drawn to the “random! chaotic!” due to my love of exclamation points and having been described as a naturally chaotic person.

The reading came the same day in an aesthetic PDF that the seller messaged to me, unlike the first that was just an Etsy message. It was five paragraphs total but one was just a random story the reader gave relating to my reading, which may be annoying to some, but I didn’t mind. I did buy the chaotic reading after all. They pulled three cards total but only delved into one of them.

The reading itself was about a masculine energy currently having “petty beef” with me. It also gave details about the masculine energy such as names, hair colors and astrological signs which I found helpful and interesting.

While I wouldn’t pick this reading over the first one as it wasn’t as descriptive or informative, it still gave me helpful insight and I don’t regret purchasing it.

I decided I needed one more reading to fully understand my future and to bump up the price to see how it compares to the cheaper ones.

I chose a three-month tarot reading from tarotreaderkarly. You can choose between an Etsy message or voice memo in the normal 5-6 day timeline or a 24 hour option. My low patience went for the 24 hour Etsy message, totaling to $20 — twice as much as my other readings.

The reading came 18 hours after purchasing and they had pulled oracle cards, along with tarot— two tarot and one oracle card for each month.

They gave a breakdown of each month in reference to the card — December being a time for exploring new things and growing, January will be calm while I make deeper connections and February will have highs and lows that I’ll have to push through.

It wasn’t too detailed which left me with a few questions, but since it was a more general reading I didn’t mind. While it was vague, it gave me good advice on these coming months and how to handle some situations mentioned such as making sure I take time to rest during the lows in February.

I don’t think this was worth the extra money since it was equivalent to the others in length, description and how many cards were pulled, but it still was a helpful reading. Even though it was an adequate reading, I’d opt for the cheaper options any day.

While I won’t be consulting tarot cards for every question and problem that comes my way, these readings still piqued my interest in the practice and also gave me interesting advice — even if it may not be totally true.

THE HARBINGER design by ava cooper

story by emmerson winfrey photos by sabrina dean

A review on

story by emma krause

“SPIRITED” STARRING WILL Ferrel and Ryan

Reynolds is a Christmas story musical that was definitely a fun watch. It had a variety of characters and emotions that you might typically see in a Christmas movie, but the plot made them have more layers and excitement.

When the movie started and everyone was singing it came as a surprise because I didn’t know it was a musical before. The songs, although could have just been said normally, added originality to the movie and characters themselves.

When I first saw Clint in the movie I already didn’t like him because not only was he singing out of nowhere — even though I know it’s a musical — but his character had the intentions of deceiving everyone around him and not for the better.

His difficult personality created a challenge for the Christmas spirits to get through and I honestly didn’t think they would because of the pure immaturity from Clint. Anytime Jacob, or another ghost would talk to him, Clint would laugh it off as a joke and find a way out.

Clint had one of the best character

developments I’ve seen in a Christmas movie because he himself didn’t even think he was a good person at heart, but from the help of Jacob and everyone else, he was able to see that anyone can change with enough threats from ghosts.

Personally I don’t really like musicals, but this was better than I thought it’d be. It was a fun twist on A Christmas Carol and I loved seeing Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferell together. This movie kept me entertained the whole time with the creative jokes and characters.

AS A BIG fan of Lindsey Lohan in “The Parent Trap” and Chord Overstreet in “Glee,” I was ecstatic to see Falling for Christmas, a Netflix Original, got an 8/10 rating on my Christmas movie excellence scale. While this film did have the stereotypical, cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie trademark and was predictable 95% of the time, Lohan and Overstreet were able to add their personal flair to keep me entertained for the entire hour and 33 minutes.

The movie follows Sierra Bolmont, a newly engaged rich girl who’s trying to break away from being known for her father and her highclass last name. But right as her boyfriend proposed on what they thought was a scenic snow mountain, the ground falls through and

Sierra slides down the hill and is knocked unconscious, resulting in memory loss and total seperation from her home and family. As she recovers, Jake Russell — the dreamy North Star Lodge owner — gives her a place to stay and a fresh perspective on her previouslyspoiled life.

After 20 minutes of the movie, I already couldn’t stand Sierra and her boyfriend — both portrayed as rude to waiters, maids and each other. I don’t want to say I was glad to see her and her new fiance get separated on that mountain because Sierra ended up with head damage which is never good, but I think it actually benefited her and made her have more interesting character development.

I enjoy watching Jake and his family because they are genuinely kind people from the start of the movie and not only because they let a complete stranger into their home and cared for her.

These little and big acts of kindness from the family created a selfless and compassionate Sierra in less than a week compared to the arrogant person we saw at the start of the movie.

I never thought that hitting your head on a tree, losing your memory and staying in a cabin with a family of strangers could convey the Christmas spirit. I enjoyed watching this movie because — although it was predictable at some points — it was still a feel-good movie.

Reviewing two new Christmas movies, “Spirited” and “Falling for Christmas”

photo by emily

photo by amelie wong

SHE’S THE MOST IMPORTANT member of the team. She takes so much criticism from her team, and she’s running the whole entire offense. She is on the court the entire time, and I never see any aggressiveness or anger towards other teams even when we were struggling.

SHE PRACTICES A TON and spends a lot of her free time playing. She’s gotten a lot better from freshman year to junior year, and she’s going to get even better next year.

SPORTSMANSHIP DEDICATED COACHABLE

LEADER BEST ATTITUDE BEST

EVEN THOUGH HE was injured early in the season, he really pushed us to better ourselves and keep the intensity high and focus during tough times. He did this by giving us words of encouragement and motivational speeches before games and practice to get us going.

SHE IS THE HAPPIEST. I can’t even express how energetic she is. She got a birdie on a par fve once and gave her mom the biggest hug. She’s always smiling and in a good mood. She never gets mad about anything and always has a positive mindset.

8 YEARS

HE’S THE HARDEST WORKER because he is the frst one in the building and the last one out, and he grinds in the weight room. He does everything he can in the off-season to make the team the best it can be.

XC VARSITY

2 YEARS

SHE WENT FROM OUR 35th to making our top seven in one year. She didn’t miss any summer training or winter training. Everything I give her she never complains about it. She’s believed in the system, and she’s believed in herself. I knew she was super passionate about it because nobody else came to some winter practices when it was snowing out.

COACH RICKY HACKER

SHE’S THE NUMBER ONE cheerleader for every single girl, and she’s never had anything not positive to say. She showed up to every meet, even the ones she wasn’t competing at, and she was always willing to help Jill and I out with senior stuff.

CAROLINE GORMAN

design by veronica mangine photos by mason sanja, rachel bingham, macy crosser & hadley chapman

JUNIOR ABIGAIL LONG

SENIOR WILLAN SHROCK

SENIOR MANAGER TYLER KIRCHOFF SOCCER

SENIOR

GEORGE KOPP

SOPHMORE

INGRID BLACKETER

SENIOR

CRUNCH CRUNCH

CRUNCH TIME

THE LANCER DANCERS sat together on the arena floor, tightly holding hands and clenching their jaws as they anxiously awaited their results. After what seemed like hours, a judge finally walked up to the podium to face the room and announced:

“In no particular order, the following teams have qualified for finals: LawrenceFree State, Washburn Rural ...”

Hearts pounded.

“Shawnee Mission East.”

After a split-second moment of surprise, all the tension was relieved. Together they leapt onto their feet, hugging and cheering as the applause of other teams rang in their ears. They qualified for finals for the second year in a row, placing fifth out of 18 teams at the State Game Day competition.

The Lancers first performed a jazz dance followed by a fight song and band dance both of which were performed to recorded marching band music.

Two more teams competed at the

Stormont

year, providing

Lancer

daunting competition, according to Lancer Dancer and senior Julie Griggs. To make it more selective, the judges also would only be accepting six teams to the finals compared to the eight that made it in the past. Still, the dancers felt capable of repeating or improving their state result from last year with extra experience.

“Everyone wants to make finals because last year was the first year we competed at a game day competition, and we were still able to make it,” Griggs said. “We’re hoping that the experience we have pays off and we can hopefully make it farther this year.”

Griggs noted that though the team had the advantage of experience compared to the year before, they likely had less time to practice their routine than the other teams in the competition.

“Blue Valley schools and Mill Valley have the whole beginning of the year to train for state while Shawnee Mission schools can’t

truly start on their game day routine until October because we focus on band shows during football season,” Lancer Dancer and senior Avery Guck said. “It technically puts the team behind.”

The Lancer Dancers began practicing nearly 10 hours a week, working entirely on their state routine. The routine itself is also constantly changing, due to last minute changes their coaches made with the hopes of improving their material score. Coach Alexis Close asked dancers to send a recording of themselves performing the dance from home in order to fix mistakes.

sync.

“Two people can learn the same thing, but they’re going to interpret how to do that differently,” said Griggs. “Our coaches make sure they’re doing it exactly the same. We want everyone to look uniform.”

JULIE GRIGGS

Guck pointed out that though memorization is an important component of their practice, most of their time is spent “cleaning up” the routine — making sure that everyone is on the same count, their formations are correct and movement is in-

With only three weeks to prepare, the Lancer Dancers brought back former East coach Britney Hinote to help perfect their routine. According to Griggs, her presence was immediately appreciated by the dancers, as she helped to quickly clean their dance.

“I think her being there got us all to really focus because she’s someone we’re not used to being around as much,” Griggs said. “We’re on our best behavior, and no one’s talking, everyone worked really hard. She was a huge help cleaning, I don’t think we’d be where we are now without her.”

MILL VALLEY WASHBURN RURAL LAWRENCE FREE STATE OLATHE NW SHAWNEE MISSION EAST

story by tristan chabanis

Vail Event’s dance floor than last

the

Dancers with

The Lancer Dancers competed at their state competition on Nov. 18, qualifying for fnals and placing ffth

Results from the state 6A competition

ABOVE Dancers celebrate for junior Laynie Manning’s video after making finals.

ABOVE Junior Liv Noble kisses the spirit stick for good luck before the competition.

ABOVE Senior Kate Cronenwett reapplies bright red lipstick for hip hop.

SENIOR

WE’RE HOPING that the experience we have pays off and we can hopefully make it farther this year

design by lily simmons photos by lydia coe

Senior leaders give a rundown of their goals for this upcoming sports season

GOING FOR THE GOALS

“For me personally I want to have a positive record with a low amount of losses this year and I defnitely want to top out at regionals, place at league and qualify for state.”

JAYDEN SCHUESSLER

SENIOR

“A team goal I have for this season is that I want to qualify for state, because we had a decent shot last year but sadly came up short in the sub-state championship game.”

SPENCER BLACKETER

“Goals I have for the team are hopefully seeing us win League again. For state, I am hoping we win again, but if not a goal I have is top three which I think our team is capable of doing if we all work hard enough.”

JOE MUSICK

SENIOR

SENIOR GRANT LUCAS

story by lucy wolf

SOPHOMORE

design by grace demetriou photo by ella ralston

RIGHT Art teacher Emma Chalk and junior Abi Limbird laugh together as they count the tickets in each bag representing votes. As they decided the final winners of the contest, they discovered that there was a tie between for third place and were imagining different scenarios that they would put them through as a tiebreaker.

RIGHT Juniors Marissa Liberda and Sophie Angilan stir chili in a restaurant pot while pouring in cans of beans. “I had a lot of fun working with friends and cooking something new. It was really cool to talk to everyone at the cook-off and tell them about how we made it,” Angilan said.

FOR CHARITY

LEFT Juniors Max Kuhlman, Collin Ford and Connor Bykowski taste their brisket chili that took a day to prepare. They smoked the brisket for 24 hours and spent a couple additional hours adding other ingredients to complete the chili. photo by I liv madden

TOP LEFT Junior Claire Goettsch puts cheese on the chili she made, preparing it to be tasted by judges. photo by I kate beaulieu

LEFT Junior Greyson Imm and seniors Caroline Wood and Caroline Gould placed second at the chili contest out of six teams. “It was my grandmas recipe and took us 2 hours to make, I knew that there wasn’t many teams to beat, but we were not expecting to place,” Wood said. photo by I liv madden

photo by I kate beaulieu

photo by I claire goettsch

design by hadley chapman

iJunior STUCO representatives hosted a chili cookoff on the evening of Nov. 16 as a fundraiser for the Johnson County Christmas Bureau, which resulted in over $300 being collected