The Harbinger Issue 9 2022-23

CROSS - COUNTRY CONNECTION

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

CENTRAL KITSAP HIGH SCHOOL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE COUGAR CHRONICLE

SENIOR OLIVIA MILLER

PACIFIC NORTHWEST

SILVERDALE, WA

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

OCT. 20 SCHOOL SAFETY INVESTIGATION

A LOT OF PEOPLE, myself included, were just confused about the protocols that were in place because we didn’t know what was happening until it had already happened — a couple hours later. On October 20, a student entered the building with a gun. He got into the school and out without anybody knowing. And then he was arrested right in front of the school. It’s been this huge thing in administration since they didn’t really communicate what was going on. We didn’t even go into lockdown. So [our paper] is doing an investigative article on administration’s communication with students and staff and things like that.”

LEFT The social justice class organized an open mic walkout in protest of administrative reaction to an armed intruder who entered campus. guest

SCAN ME WEBSITE

Harbinger

design by greyson imm cover design by francesca stamati

smeharbinger.net

STORIES

Read a news story about a recent armed carjacking in Prairie Village, an opinion story about music as a form of therapy and more by visiting smeharbinger.net or scanning the QR code

political cartoon

cartoon by sophie lindberg

Riley Eck

Julia Fillmore Claire Goettsch

Caroline Martucci Emily Pollock Mason Sajna STAFF

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Paige Bean

Kate Beaulieu Lydia Coe Audrey Condon

Sabrina Dean Ryan Dehan

Charlotte Emley Julia Fillmore

Will Griffith

Kenna Harrington Molly Miller

Clara Peters Tristen Porter

Ella Ralston

Jill Rice

Alex Sajna

Seri Steinbrecher

Lili Vottero

MJ Wolf

Amelie Wong

Madi Maupin

VIDEO STAFF

Luke Beil

Calen Domingues

Ryder Hendon

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 The Harbinger will not share any unpublished content, but quotes material may be confrmed with the sources.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.

photo by I adrie starkenburg

design by sophie lindberg

art by caroline daniels

OVERWORK,

UNDERWORK, REPEAT.

MOVING FORWARD

Steps to separate self-worth from productivity

*info from who.int and medium.com

create clear, consistent and specifc goals remind yourself that the time you’re “wasting” is resting your mind to perform later

FOR: 13 AGAINST: 3

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.

make strict schedules for yourself that allow time for work and relaxation

IMAGINE SOMEONE SITS down to write their New Year’s resolutions, enough to fill a page of notebook paper. Their pen flies in excitement for the goals that’ll transform their life — hit the gym five times a week, adopt a three-step skincare routine, go to bed at 9 p.m.

But by the end of January, they’re waking up at 2:30 a.m. with all the lights on, an unopened English book falling off their bed and too little sleep to attend their morning workout.

As students, we too often define our selfworth by what we accomplish. In order to see our own success, we need to find a balance between blatant laziness and overworking to the point of suffering.

Those who’ve experienced this phenomenon have coined the term “internalized capitalism,” which has spread to news outlets like USA Today. In modern America — a country that idolizes work ethic — we expect ourselves to maintain extreme productivity and personal achievement at all times, from our morning run to nighttime skincare routine. And behind the CVSreceipt-length New Year’s resolutions,

young people face the brunt of productivity guilt as America’s next workforce.

Internalized capitalism — a criticism of the “hustle culture” capitalism breeds — compels us to work longer hours after school, head from varsity sport to a nannying job and secure a string of straight A’s on Skyward. As a byproduct of the “American Dream,” we, as a culture, value hard work as the direct cause of growth and success.

We romanticize busyness — or rather the illusion of it.

Teens are expected to fill their schedules to achieve “success” like breaking athletic records or attending an Ivy League — or so we’re told by family friends at awkward dinner parties. Even simple hobbies like painting or playing the trumpet should be benefiting — or rather, benefiting society.

The productivity guilt teens experience manifests itself in cycles of high productivity and overwork followed by bouts of plummeting motivation, according to Life Junctions. And with a constant fear of not doing enough, burnout quickly follows.

New Year’s resolutions often end in a lack of enthusiasm because of the “failed”

attempt at improving oneself. Resolutions are often forced by the individual, but expected by peers.

It’s unrealistic to expect maximum effort all the time, especially late into the night. If a basketball player spent twelve hours a day running suicides and scrimaging, an injury is inevitable — dropping them from MVP to benchwarmer. And it’s the same for students. These unhealthy polar extremes are what can fuel cyclical productivity, leading to complete lack of motivation or drive to persist in their goals.

The World Health Organization categorized burnout as a clinical syndrome in 2019, stating that prolonged work stress can lead to burnout and chronic fatigue. As for teens, by setting high expectations for lofty achievements, we’re also setting ourselves up for nights stuck in bed, unable to reach them.

Separating productivity from selfworth is essential to a healthy school-life balance and stable mindset, according to Jess Lomax with Naked Politics. Discipline and overworking are two different things. While discipline is important to success, the

overbearing pressure to crank out work at an overwhelming pace can be emotionally damaging.

Solutions vary person-to person — some people need the accountability that pressure provides to stay active and motivated. However, this differs from internalized capitalism as it’s coming from a place of understanding what is beneficial to someone’s individual work ethic. Finding the right balance is key, like setting specific schedules for when you’re allowed to work or relax.

To combat this mindset, celebrate each accomplishment and milestone rather than immediately thinking, “What’s next?” And instead of comparing yourself to others, remember every assignment you finish or practice you attend is helping yourself achieve your goals, regardless of someone else’s journey.

By setting realistic goals for yourself to finish in a day, you can be left feeling fulfilled with your work — not horrible that you didn’t check off an item on your to-do list.

Teens and young adults needs to break away from the American ideology of tying self-worth to productivity

news.

story by avie koeneman

FACS GIVES BACK

FCCLA made snack bags and distributed them at the Ronald McDonald house

THE EAST CHAPTER of FCCLA— Family, Career and Community Leaders of America —a national organization for different service project opportunities, is working on their fourth service project for the Ronald McDonald house this year, preparing snack bags in the foods room for the families staying in the houses in downtown Kansas City.

The bags are made because they are easily accessible for the families that are staying at the houses, according to FCCLA volunteer and junior Paige Lischer.

The students participating brought

different snacks like Nutri-Grain bars and Poptarts to fill the bags with after school on Tuesday, Jan. 17, according to foods teacher Samantha Abel who is in charge of the East chapter of FCCLA.

East only participates in assembling the bags once a year, but the East chapter has participated more this year because of Lischer and her passion for the Ronald McDonald service project.

“I love how one person can contribute one bag and then that can turn into 100 bags,” Lischer said. “It brings me so much joy to be able to help the families in need.”

Comet C/2022 E3 will be visible in Kansas City on Feb. 1

COMET C/2022 E3 (ZTF) — a prehistoric comet that has not been seen for 50,000 years — will be visible to Kansas residents in early February.

It will be closest to Earth and most visible on Feb 1. The brightness of the comet is notoriously unpredictable, but by then it should be visible to the naked eye in the dark night sky, when passing by in close proximity to the earth, according to the Kansas City Star.

This is the first comet visible to the naked eye since the comet NEOWISE, two years ago. Many observers and astrophotographers hope for the comet to

be visible to catch rare photographs as it passes through a certain region of the sky near the northern pole.

The comet was discovered on March 2, by the Zwicky Transient Facility. It was first discovered as a tiny 17th magnitude smudge five times further from the Sun than Earth.

Sophomore Ellen Bowser who is interested in astronomy and plans to have a career with it in her future is excited for the comet to make an appearance over Kansas.

“I think it’s really fascinating,” Bowser said. “We never get to see something this rare. It’s very exciting to me that we get to experience it.”

ON THE WESTERN FLOOD

Dangerous floods in California draw action from the President

THE STATE OF California was put on flood watch on Jan. 14 following unpredicted heavy rainstorms. 90% of California remains under flood watch as the unpredicted storms continue to rage on. Torrential rain, widespread flooding, mudslides, landslides and heavy mountain snow are ongoing hazards in the state of California right now.

THE FLOODING was pretty bad. People went to the felds and realized they were absolutely horrendus.

East Students on the local Top Gun lacrosse team traveled to California over the weekend of Jan. 14. While the tournament was originally scheduled in San Diego, the players moved to Norco — a city about an hour and a half south of Los Angeles — due to excessive flooding.

HENRY MEUTEN

According to npr. org, several regions of the state are experiencing power outages with heavy rain, wind and snow. President Biden declared the storms a major disaster and has ordered federal aid to help people affected by the floods.

JUNIOR

Lacrosse player and junior Henry Meuten went to fields he was supposed to play on for the tournament and they were extremely muddy and unplayable. “The flooding was pretty bad,” Meuten said. “People went to the fields and realized that they were absolutely horrendous.”

Fast facts about Comet C/2022 E3

most visible Feb. 1 last visible during the Ice Age, 50,000 years ago

design by addie moore

ABOVE Junior Paige Lischer reaches for a pack of peanut butter crackers to place in the snack bags for kids at the Ronald McDonald House. photo by I amelie wong

THE MISSOURI LEGISLATURE’S House Bill 1606 went into effect on Jan. 1, banning sleeping on state land, including public parks and under bridges. Perpetrators can now receive a Class C misdemeanor after multiple offenses.

While Kansas hasn’t prohibited sleeping on state property, homeless people who spend the night on public land across state line will face a written warning and then up to $750 in fines or 15 days in jail — an attempt to address the surge in homelessness after the pandemic.

For Kansas City shelters and outreach organizations, the ban means an influx of homeless people to provide temporary housing and resources for. River of Refuge — a local non-profit organization that transitions unsheltered people to permanent housing — had a lengthy waitlist even before the bill, according to Executive Director Pamela Seymour.

“Our waitlist will get longer and longer,” Seymour said. “We did double our capacity in the last few months, but it still doesn’t empty our waitlist. Most of the families that want to work a program at our organization complete an application. It’s usually 9-12 weeks before they would be considered for the program because we don’t have room, even with the [capacity] extension.”

With shelters full and rent high — an average of $1,229 per month in Kansas City, Missouri, according to RentCafe — Seymour has concerns about where homeless people will reside next. Criminalizing sleeping in public spaces may increase the number of people squatting in private homes, breaking into buildings and setting fires to stay warm, she said.

The resulting fines and imprisonment could also damage homeless people’s ability to escape poverty, according to Seymour, setting them back further in debt and with criminal charges on their record.

“It creates more obstacles for homeless people to jump through in order to get to self-sufficiency,” Seymour said. “With the rent as it is in our area, it’s quite a task to find a place to afford when you’re making minimum wage. Landlords are gonna look for backgrounds and see these warrants out.”

Though shelters, organizations and advocates opposed the bill, state legislators said the new law intends to protect unsheltered people in the

aftermath of the pandemic. Against claims that it criminalizes homelessness, Missouri Governor Mike Parson emphasized the need to redirect individuals from public spaces to safer environments during the bill signing.

“That’s our main concern,” Missouri Department of Transportation Assistant District Engineer Matt Killion said. “That folks may be putting themselves in harm’s way when they may not realize it, in addition to the conditions that may exist under a bridge with litter and trash.”

Homeless encampments can threaten both city infrastructure and the unsheltered people themselves, according to Killion, who oversees highways in the Kansas City district. When people store flammable materials like clothing or food beneath bridges, a heat source can ignite those items and damage the structure.

It happens often, he said. In 2022, an unsheltered person was killed when propane tanks and their belongings caught fire beneath a bridge in Killion’s district, causing the department to close lanes on the interstate highway to assess and repair the damage. The law could prevent more unsheltered people from endangering themselves, according to Killion.

However, Seymour and other shelter owners question the future of Kansas City’s rising homeless population. Since 2019, the number of unsheltered people in Jackson County, Missouri has increased 193%, according to Zero KC. Not all of them can access a shelter.

“That’s the million dollar question: where are they going to go?” Seymour said. “My theory is that maybe they’re going to be arrested, so they’re going to be a few days in jail. Maybe they’re gonna get sent to an area hospital for a mental evaluation, so that takes them off the street for a couple days at most. Bad news is that no matter what temporary placement they get, it’s temporary.”

To address where the homeless will seek shelter now, the bill includes provisions that require municipalities to create temporary camps instead of affordable, permanent housing.

In response, the Kansas City Council adjusted their plan for Zero KC — the city’s five-year initiative to end homelessness that involved building temporary shelters — which the council began

HOUSING HOSTILE

WINDOW SPIKES

working on over a year before the law went into effect.

When the bill was announced, the council modified the plan to still include semi-permanent shelters such as transitional or low-barrier housing, according to fifth district council person and Houseless Taskforce chair Ryana Parks-Shaw. These forms of shelter would include entry restrictions depending on factors such as time of day or gender of the inhabitants, distinguishing them from permanent housing. While her committee is still in the early stages of planning, they are considering converting hotels into single-room occupancy shelters.

“We’re really trying to push for the permanent housing because it’s the permanent housing that gets the people off the street,” Shaw said.

But not everyone is confident in the government’s motive to aid the homeless community. SHARE Executive and senior Milly Morgan, who volunteers for various homeless shelters and organizations like Uplift Organization and Morning Glory Ministries, believes the law is a misguided attempt to address the housing issue.

Morgan sees more direct career guidance and mental health resources rather than forced removal as stronger solutions to address the problem. After all, she said, organizations like Uplift distribute supplies directly to homeless encampments — the kind that are now banned.

“[The legislators] say that they’re fighting homelessness, and that they’re doing this for the benefit of these people who are in this situation,” Morgan said. “But in reality, they’re not fighting the issue of homelessness. They’re fighting the homeless people.”

PAVEMENT BOULDERS ARMRESTS

design by sofia blades photo by claire goettsch

story by francesca stamati

Missouri’s new law illegalizing homeless people sleeping on public property impacts Kansas City’s homeless community, shelters and government agencies

Hostile architecture describes design features created to deter homeless people from sleeping

Armrests prevent people from lying across benches, making them impossible to sleep on

Scattered boulders stop people from sleeping or begging on that area of the street

These window spikes defer people from sheltering under the awnings of windows

THE SHAWNEE TRIBE requested control of the Shawnee Indian Mission historical site at the beginning of the year to preserve the buildings and make updates to the site, but the city of Fairway denied their requests because of rising concerns relating to its preservation.

Tribal leaders provided reports to the city of Fairway detailing the buildings’ poor condition commissioned by San Francisco-based firm Architectural Resources Group. The tribe reports the deteriorating condition of the buildings necessitate repairs in order to preserve the site. According to the report, the West Building is “uninhabitable and in need of extensive repair” if it is to continue normal operation. All three buildings are in need of foundation repointing and window repairs, and the East and North buildings are in need of roof replacements.

Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes empahsizes the importance of restoring and improving the sacred site — originally a manual training boaring school that generations of American Indians were sent to starting in 1839.

“This is a sacred place for the Shawnee Tribe and many other tribes that had children attend here,” Barnes said. “The Mission is a crucial resource as America grapples with the consequences of Indian boarding schools, and it is also an important landmark in the history of the State of Kansas. This site is in immediate distress, and we need to act quickly.”

The tribe’s requests were denied due to incomplete and inaccurate information in these reports, according to Fairway City Administrator Nathan Nogelmeier.

“The city had a chance to review the reports that the tribe had commissioned to put together, listing out items that are getting to be addressed, and when we reviewed the report we realized that there [was] a lot of history of the buildings that were missing,” Nogelmeier said.

The site has rich Kansas history tied to it. The Bogus Legislature of 1855 and the vote for Kansas to become a state were held in the building. Since it contains a significant part of Kansas history as the oldest building in the state, Nogelmeier is concerned for the future of the site if ownership is transferred.

“The tribe has begun conversations with legislators about the possibility of

[gaining control of] the property,” the tribe administration said in a public statement.

Additionally, if control of the mission was transferred to the tribe, Nogelmeier says that they have the authority to do whatever they wish with this historical site — which is currently owned by the Kansas Historical Society. This could include using the site for profit or permanently closing its doors.

“So there’s a lot of history that pertains to Kansas that could potentially be lost if the ownership is transferred away from the state,” Nogelmeier said. “In addition to that, ownership was transferred away from the state, there’s no guarantee that the space would remain available for the public. The tribe could close the doors, they could do whatever they wanted to with the land if they’d become owners of it, so it would be potentially a great loss to the state of Kansas.”

“When it became clear there was no plan in place [to save the mission], we began conversations about the possibility of the Shawnee Tribe assuming responsibility for restoring and repairing this site,” Shawnee Chief Ben Barnes said.

The society, along with Nogelmeier, voiced concerns about the purpose of the proposed updates considering roughly $8 million of the $12.5 million total cost was dedicated solely to new displays rather than historical restoration. In addition, many items included such as remodeling and adding restroom facilities were unrelated to the site’s restoration.

As of now, the city of Fairway is responsible for carrying out day-to-day maintenance of the site. Transferring control of these operations is not realistic according to the city, as the tribe’s headquarters operate from Miami, Oklahoma.

“[There is] no guarantee that the Shawnee Tribe would continue to maintain or preserve the buildings from their headquarters in Oklahoma,” the city of Fairway said in a public statement.

Due to the city’s denial of transferring power to the tribe, the Shawnee Tribal Administration are pursuing other legislative options to gain control of the land — the specific actions of which remain unclear.

While the future of the mission itself is uncertain, the tribe plans to continue campaigning and appealing to the state and local legislatures for control of the land. Fairway and Kansas Historical Society are maintaining their current position on the issue as long as no new reports are provided.

design by elle gedman photos by ryan dehan & riley eck

story by greyson imm

design by kai mcphail art by alex sanja

AS ASSIGNED ESSAYS can result in hours of homework for students, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence that may change the way students write — by doing it for them.

OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research corporation, released the ChatGPT chatbot on Nov. 30. Since its release, the AI has impacted academic honesty in written assignments. Some students, like sophomore George Reeds*, have already started to utilize OpenAI to finish their work.

“It’s super easy to use,” Reeds said. “You can just copy and paste a question, and it’ll have a quality piece of writing in minutes. Everything it comes up with is an

easy A. None of my teachers have noticed anything.”

While it erodes academic honesty, this increased public access to AI is a leap forward in the tech industry, according to Shawnee Mission West IB English teacher Ben Pabst. Due to the easy access to free essay writing, he believes a spike in cheating is imminent.

“If you go through years and years and years of school, and you’re able to use AI to generate thoughts for you, I think that our educational experience could become more shallow,” Pabst said. “To learn how to discuss and interact with others. I just fear that we’re getting away from that.”

The future of academia depends on how educators treat AI — according to Wall Street Journal Head Tech Columnist Joanna Stern.

Pabst believes that AI shouldn’t be involved as it will inhibit interpersonal skills within his classroom. He values

face-to-face interaction and he plans to adopt a more traditional learning style. Students will handwrite the majority of their work and stay off their laptops to reduce the use of ChatGPT.

On the other hand, Stern and social studies teacher Robert Bickers believe that schools should embrace software. Bickers suggests using it as a tool to help kids by presenting various writing styles or instructing students to edit the generated responses.

Despite the sides, Pabst, Reeds, Bickers and Stern all agreed that AI is ever-evolving and that banning the chatbot would be a transient solution.

language model that has been trained on a wide variety of text, allowing it to generate responses that are similar in style and content to those written by humans.

IF YOU GO through years and years and years of school, and you’re able to use AI to generate thoughts for you, I think that our educational experience could become more shallow.

BEN PABST

SMW TEACHER

AI-detecting software such as Originality or Plag.ai for teachers to use to combat AI, but it’s extremely difficult to distinguish a response from ChatGPT from one written by a human. ChatGPT uses a highly advanced

To further prove the chatbot’s abilities, the paragraph above was written using ChatGPT.

Despite the capabilities of AI, it is still in development. The program is unable to provide sources and often switches up characters when quoting certain texts, according to Bickers, and there are basic composition errors that a human would usually catch.

“It can be useful,” Bickers said. “Right now, it’s a parlor trick. ‘Oh, look at this cool thing.’ When you scratch the surface, it looks impressive, but the end results are still not great.”

story by david allegri ChatGPT

OUR POLLS

I THINK HE’S too old. He’s been in the league for a long time, and he hasn’t been that good this year. When he was younger, he led his team to a lot of Super Bowls and took charge of his team, but this year he’s lost a lot more games.

SMITH MCKINNEY

I’VE ALWAYS SAID math is blue, I’ve always associated science with green, and I put English with pink, and then social studies I put with red because it was always more patriotic, I feel like. It’s always math and English that I debate.

HE STILL HAS a little bit left in him to keep going. Obviously, with all that’s happened, coming back, he should just do it for as long as he can. I know everyone says he should retire, and I know he’s super old, but I think he loves the sport.

I ASSOCIATE MATH with red because it makes me mad, green with science because it’s like nature, blue with English [because] I think it’s more calming, and then yellow with history. I can get into an intense argument about it.

FRESHMAN

KARA PARRETT

FRESHMAN

JORDAN O’BRIEN

FRESHMAN

BAYLOR RITTER

SOPHOMORE

design by sophia brockmeier photo by kate

beaulieu

LET GO TO

GROW

art by larkin brundige story by peyton moore

Technological advancement including tracking apps and parental controls create problems of overparenting and overcontrolling households

MY DAD TRACKS my every move on Life360 — but my parents used to walk home in blizzards and were ultimately free from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to live their lives in uninterrupted freedom till dinner time.

My parents like to remind me that life was harder for their generation.

Our parents’ childhood is a black and white movie that our generation might never understand. What did you do all day without a phone? Are you saying you didn’t have an Xbox? But how would you meet up with your friends without Snap Map?

Overparenting is an emerging parenting style where parents are extensively protective and involved in their children’s lives, according to pubmed.gov. On social media, this parenting style has been coined as “the helicopter parent.”

controls, problems of overcontrolling and overparenting styles have quickly risen.

Kids aren’t told to come home for dinner at sunset anymore. They’ll just get a ding on their smart watch. Every movement, failure, behavior — good or bad — is recorded and communicated immediately over apps like Life360 and Find My iPhone.

This leaves teens and children little space to breathe. When I miss a day of school, I know exactly what needs to be done to get back on track and have already started on my work. But before I get the chance, Canvas has my mom’s phone abuzz with 10 missing assignments. We’re almost adults — she doesn’t need the reminder too.

TECHNOLOGY has only made the inclination to be a helicopter parent easier. Parents can snoop on our lives with the click of a button.

It’s a common conversation in my friend group: what new, overbearing habit do your parents use to control most aspects of your life?

Technology has only made the inclination to be a helicopter parent easier. Parents can snoop on our lives with a click of a button. With technological advancement like tracking apps and screen time parental

The pandemic resulted in both of my parents working from home, transforming our family living room into their office — making my room the only quiet space. My friends explained how their parents got wide-eyed as they finished their second

CASES OF CONSTRAINT

Gluten-free as a child

“I went and got tested again and it came back as a partial allergy. I was so happy to go get a Chick-flA sandwich because I never got big [gluten] meals like that.”

raise adults who will overconsume what they couldn’t have as children. The kids who grow up with trust and freedom from their parents are less likely to be the ones cheating and sneaking around from their parents because they don’t need to.

With a more hands-off approach to parenting, kids will recognize natural consequences on their own and shape habits to avoid them. For example, if a teen

East students how have experienced different aspects of overparenting

Phone limited as a child

strictest about food, whose dad spends their free time on Life 360 and whose household has every square inch covered with cameras. It’s time for our parents and the next generation of parents to loosen the leash that technology has wrapped around our childhood. Let us have space to grow, make mistakes, live and learn.

Played baseball as a child

“I joined baseball wanting to play it but then once I had lost interest and enjoyment entirely [baseball] was mentally exhausting to have to constantly go every single week.”

SOFIA WEHNER JUNIOR

AVERY FOSTER SOPHOMORE

AYDEN BEVERIDGE JUNIOR

“I would get two hours [on my phone] and then everything would shut off. I would fnd a ton of work around sit so I’d have an infnite amount of phone time.”

You like math? Don’t tell them you’re Asian.

TYPICALLY

story by katie murphy

ASIAN

“predictable” Asian interests makes it hard to stand out, no matter how sharp you are.

a junior this year:

else I like.

This is real college application advice from my Vietnamese mom’s Korean friends — who hate affirmative action. To them, I’m lucky: my dad is white so I can (hypothetically) be more “creative” when checking the race box.

Asian students are frustrated about their identity in the college admissions process and systemically punished for having “stereotypical” passions — all while being held to a higher academic standard.

IT’S

And it doesn’t get more generic than me: an Asian American student who loads on AP classes with an emphasis in STEM. Oh, and shocker: I also play tennis.

to give Asian students a lower chance at college admission for preferences out of their control. I didn’t chose math as my favorite subject - I wish I could change it.

Designed to increase diversity, affirmative action is an admissions policy that considers race and favors underrepresented groups. Basically, acceptance is capped for each race — bad news for the large pool of academicallycompetitive Asian students.

Since 1990, the percentage of Asians in the US has more than doubled, according to the US Census, while the share of Asians in Harvard’s freshman class has only increased 6%.

Asians have to score 140 points higher on the SAT than white people to have the same chance of admission to top universities, according to a Princeton study. Having

It’s not fair to give Asian students a lower chance at college admission for preferences out of their control. I didn’t ask for math to be my favorite subject — I wish I could change it.

Man, the US has cracked the education system code: a 17-year-old regrets their favorite subject for a fair shot at their dream school. Colleges should encourage natural passions across all races.

Affirmative action can’t claim to promote racial equity while blatantly discounting Asian students.

Still, I won’t lie about my race (though I know those who have). Maybe I can’t speak Vietnamese, but I’m still connected to my culture and discrediting it in any form — even on an application — would feel like poking a hole in the boat that my refugee mom and grandparents came to the US on.

Instead, I’ve brainstormed less moralbreaking ways to differentiate my generic self since I began worrying about college as

A statistic from a study conducted by Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research in 2018

Should I forget the Pythagorean Theorem and burn my TI-84 calculator to explore a less predictable subject instead? Trade my tennis skirts for a water polo uniform?

I can’t bring myself to.

As unhappy as I am to perpetuate Asian stereotypes and fuel jokes about our nerdiness — cue sappy coming-of-age music — it’s who I am.

I know no one is forcing me to reinvent myself. College admissions are not life or death, and Asian people experience discrimination in other, more serious, ways. Being teased about eating dogs at school undoubtedly feels worse than fitting the smart Asian trope and can’t compare to anti-Asian COVID hate crimes.

But I’ve been set on attending a ranked, out-of-state college since entering the “gifted” program as an elementary schooler. And by searching for an artificially diverse class with affirmative action, admissions officers are basically asking me to pick between my dream college goals and natural interests. I can’t help but wonder if my odds would improve if I gave up doing what I love.

Good thing I quit piano because that would’ve hit the nail on my Asian-posterchild coffin.

I shouldn’t need to celebrate my love for writing on the newspaper partly because it’s less generic for my race than everything

I shouldn’t be happy that I moved from California to Kansas at age five because it makes me more “unique.” And my Asian friends in California shouldn’t have less of a chance at top schools than me.

We shouldn’t have to earn higher grades than students with other cultural backgrounds to stand out just because there are “too many” straight-A Asians. Effort to follow our passions, regardless of what they are, should affect admissions. Not race.

Everyone — especially college admissions officers — need to value “generic” math-loving, tennis-playing Asian students that traded their weeknights for AP Calculus. Hard work can’t become trite. The Supreme Court must take this into account while they review affirmative action to ensure fairness and equity without penalizing Asian students.

tion

the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups historically subject to discrimination

Hopefully by the time I start receiving college decisions, I won’t have to wonder whether rejections came from my being under-qualified or overly-typical.

Asian students are unfairly discredited in the college admissions process for being “stereotypical”

NOT FAIR

af • firm • a • tive ac •

design by bridget connelly photo by clara peters

AFTER SPENDING TWO minutes leaning towards the camera and tilting my head in front of a brightly colored homecoming backdrop, I grabbed my phone and scoured through my camera roll. Interacting with my friends at the after party could wait. I had to make sure that one of the 523 photos I took was Insta-worthy.

But none were up to my standards. Sure, they could be cute — if my eyes were open wider and my cheeks weren’t so puffy.

It’s like the hour I spent by my mirror curling my hair and dabbing in eyeliner never happened. I’d been looking forward to dancing with my friends at homecoming for weeks, but my entire night was ruined because my stomach was bloated and the golden hour lighting on the golf course made me look orange. All of the confidence I had when I arrived shattered with a few hundred clicks of an iPhone camera.

I can’t help thinking: Why do I look like this in pictures? Why can’t I be more photogenic?

And I don’t only think this during school dances. From birthday bashes to family vacations, I bite my nails in anticipation of how I’ll look on camera. I’ve had countless girls nights and dinner outings turn into a photo op — and I’m sick of meeting with people for an excuse to take photos.

The real question is, why do I even care? Cracking jokes and laughing at cringy movies with my friends is far

PICTURES

more important than snapping photos in someone’s basement. My parents are right when they say that teens should be more present.

I’m tired of using outings with friends as an excuse to take photos — let’s all agree that memories are more important.

But today, it’s practically a requirement to post any major event on Instagram. So I practice my smile in the mirror, poking at my face and critiquing my double chin. When my heart is racing on the treadmill or my arms are shaking from another round of weights, I remind myself that it’ll make me look better on Instagram. My 1300 followers need to see me at my best.

But even after all of that, I’ll waste more time scrolling through the hundreds of photos that I spent 30 minutes taking and hate how I look in every single one of them.

Sure, I look forward to the ego boost from reading Instagram comments. But is the hour of snapping and editing photos worth reading “cute!” or “so pretty”... do they even mean it? I’m making my experiences look enjoyable on social media, but in reality I spend way too much time getting two photos I actually like instead of placing bets on who will win in Mario Kart with my friends or dancing to ABBA music.

Taking photos isn’t the memoryretention tool you think it is. Snapping too many photos can actually harm your brain’s ability to retain memories, according to npr.org. With every click of a camera, we either offload the

responsibility of remembering moments or we’re so distracted by taking a picture that we miss the moment all together. Instead of living in the moment, you’re relying on your phone to do it for you. Besides, centering your evening around taking photos isn’t even enjoyable. Some of the best memories I have aren’t photographed — late night drives blasting Taylor Swift, being thrown off a tube with my friends and losing my voice on the sidelines while cheering. It’s OK to spend a night with friends without taking a single photo. I mean, why not actually live the life your followers think you have?

I’m not saying don’t take photos at all — I love scrolling through my camera roll and seeing photos that spark memories of slumber parties and journalism trips. It’s OK to capture memories with the people you love. But you have to prioritize spending time with friends or family in the moment — don’t waste all of your time untucking your hair or fine tuning an Instagramworthy outfit. Snap a few photos to remember the moment (if you want), then tuck your phone away. expectation that we have to look desirable at all times — an unrealistic standard that has ruined my self-esteem. But we don’t have to feed into this anymore. It’s OK to spend a night with friends without taking a single photo. Instead of snapping photos that you probably won’t even like, collect memories that will bring you more joy than an Instagram post ever could.

design by katie murphy photo by charlotte emley

THEDISSECTING DETAILS

design by macy crosser

For the first dissection of the school year, science teacher Carolyn Bossung’s anatomy classes cut open a mink to focus on the muscle groups and other body systems

BELOW Junior Callie Cattaneo begins dissecting the mink by pulling off and disregarding the outer layer of fat. This was the first required step before proceeding with the rest of the dissection. photo by I riley scott

ME

ABOVE After removing an outer layer of fat, juniors Laynie Manning and Michael Muller begin to cut into the abdomen of the mink, starting their lab checklist. “It was interesting to see how every component plays an important role in how a mink lives and survives,” Muller said. photo by I riley scott

TOP LEFT Senior Delia Cashman slices into the stomach of the mink alongside her partners. “It’s just different than textbooks,” Cashman said. “It’s like different to see the anatomy when it’s right in front of you, when it’s a physical thing.” photo by I riley scott

LEFT Junior Lida Padgett gags as she dissects a mink with her lab partner. “The gunk on my hand from the poorly-preserved mink was grossing me out,” Padgett said. “The dissection was a blast, but that part caught me off guard.” photo by I julia fillmore

ABOVE A lab group uses a scalpel to open the thoracic cavity of the mink to further examine the heart and other internal organs. photo by I caroline martucci

SCAN

PHOTO Use this QR code to purchase photos from this event

5938 Mission Rd, Fairway, KS 66205

A LOT of talent in it. All the leads and the ensemble have worked really hard for it. And everyone I know is just super talented.

BELOW Associate Principal Kristoffer Barikmo and senior Olive Goldman pose for a photographer in Goldman’s digital photography class. photo by I audrey condon

ABOVE Senior Heath Thomas and junior Rue Swanson take photos for their digital photography class in the new annex. photo by I audrey condon

LEFT Junior Lauren McGuire works on her personalized color wheel project in Intro to Art. photo by I caroline martucci

photos by riley scott & molly miller

AUDREY APPRILL

PEARL KRABS

Eugene H. Krabs is played by... WYATT OLIGMUELLER SENIOR PHOTOS FEB. 2-4 COST? 10 $ or free with student ID

TIME? 7 PM

tea &

TRUMPETS

story by hassan sufi

TRAILING THE SME Marching

Lancers sign, blaring trumpets, whistling flutes and crackling drums blasted over the chatter of the London New Year’s Day Parade. A crowd of 500,000 watched from the sides of Pall Mall St., but the band kept their shoulders back and eyes ahead.

It was a different environment than the band had ever performed in. The band only travels out of the country every four years, exposing them to higherlevel music and a bigger atmosphere. One of the main reasons for taking a trip like this is to force the students to support each other when perfecting a performance in a high pressure environment, according to band teacher Alex Toepfer.

“We had to have a polished performance after traveling for 15 hours, being jet lagged, and [crammed] in a hotel,” Toepfer said. “It helped the students support one another and act more like a team especially [when] putting together a performance for an international audience.”

other to stay in step while listening to their newly-learned whistle calls and eight-beat commands, according to senior and drum major Sam Fritz.

As they waited three to four hours at the venue before they went on, the jitters set in. Being in London and getting a taste of the international music world had band members twitching their fingers and adjusting blue hat plumes while sitting in painful silence. But the silence forced the band to fill it with discussion of their shared nerves, relieving the pressure.

WE WERE ALL there for the same reason — making music and having fun. We had to [come] together and not mess up when it’s something as important as the London New Year’s Day Parade.

SAM FRITZ

“We were all there for the same reason — making music and having fun,” Fritz said. “We had to [come] together and not mess up when it’s something as important as the London New Year’s Day Parade.”

Apart from performing at the parade and a concert in Westminster at St. John’s Cathedral, the band had time to explore the sights of London. They went on an eight hour tour of the city, saw the Crown Jewels and the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II. For Fritz, the trip was about exploring the city with and without his baton in hand.

Experiencing the cultural differences, such as outlets and the lack of London-based high school bands was something they weren’t used to. They all stayed in the Hilton London Kensington Hotel, uncomfortably crammed together with a new diet, according to Fritz. Spending hours in the dining halls eating beans and toast with marmite is not traditional for the band.

“It was a really fun experience to get to eat a cultural food of Britain [and] get some funny pictures out of it,” Fritz said. “It brought our table closer together because we were all in the grossness together.”

The London trip also allowed senior Sammy Hicks, Fritz and the band to explore London’s music culture — browsing Sax.co, which is one of the biggest saxophone shops in the world. Experiencing what their music career could look like convinced freshmen to stay with the band and seniors to keep pushing in their music careers.

“When we all talk about our musical careers in the past and accolades, it lets us know that we are all in each other’s corners,” said Hicks. “That’s what brings us closer together is knowing that we’re walking down that same path.”

TOP As the band marches through the street, an audience lines up to listen.

They had to learn to rely on each

design by larkin brundige photos courtesy of sme band

The band traveled to London to further develop their relationships with each other and reflect on their band careers

SENIOR

ABOVE East band marches holding onto a SME banner with the Lancer mascot.

ABOVE LEFT The Lancer mascot watches on the side of the street while the band performs, giving a thumbs up.

recent sexual assault allegations against an influential director in the Kansas City theater community, actors, directors and producers alike are grieving the loss of a mentor and sparking conversations around conduct policies in professional environments.

Making national headlines as “Kansas City theatre’s worst-kept secret,” the 30 years of alleged sexual abuse, grooming and manipulation by nowformer Coterie Children’s Theater Creative Director Jeff Church surfaced at the end of December.

On Dec. 20, actor Dashawn Young, who worked under the direction of Church at the Coterie until 2017, was the first to come forward about being assaulted by Church in a Facebook video. Since then, four more men have publicly shared similar stories, dating back to 1991. The Coterie began their private investigation Dec. 23, and the KCPD confirmed Church took his own life on Dec. 26.

But these aren’t the only victims, and youth theaters aren’t the only ones with these cases.

The theater industry’s hierarchical nature between established directors and vulnerable actors creates an environment revolving around power, according to long-time local actress and director Krista Eyler, who’s worked with a variety of community and professional theaters throughout Kansas City for over

truth in

church’s timeline A timeline

20 DEC.

20 years from both the acting and directing perspectives.

Many of the victims described how Church sought eager young adult actors, earning their trust and promising them career advancement in their statements. The allegations range from subtle, suggestive comments and touches, to years of harassment and even rape. Many of them mentioned that with a desire to succeed, the threat of ruining their reputation after coming forward ultimately silenced them.

Eyler also believes that many incidents go unreported because of the desperation for work and experience in the industry. The tight-knit nature of Kansas City’s theater community means that everyone knows everyone, according to Eyler, so when directors label actors as “difficult to work with,” reputations spread quickly to other companies.

“There’s no young performer who wants to make waves in an organization where they just got in the door,” Eyler said. “It makes it uncomfortable in a company. You’re working together for three or four months and the performer is the one thinking, ‘I don’t want to mess this up for everybody else.’ A lot goes through your head.”

KKFI 90.1 radio host and former Coterie actor

assault by Church in 1991 — watched three generations of plays and actors pass through the Coterie, all under the control of one man. He says it’s this dynamic that contributed to him staying silent.

“By putting so much power into that one person, and making them almost the ‘God’ of that theater, no one can question and no one wants to insult [them] in any way,” Manning said. “A lot of times the Board of Directors knows nothing about theater, so they give up so much control to that one person and people are almost afraid of the gatekeepers because they could possibly get blacklisted or not have a chance to work.”

As Creative Director, Church determined the casting and payment of every show produced by The Coterie. He also advised productions at The Unicorn Theatre, UMKC actor’s training program and Pembroke Hill’s summer theater camp. Under his direction, The Coterie was named one of the best five theaters for children in the country in TIME Magazine.

The majority of Kansas City theaters, including the Coterie, share policies with the Actor’s Equity — the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers — in the form of a handbook, displayed publicly and included in a contract for all company employees. Theaters are required to have written etiquette and conduct policies that meet both the Equity’s standards and state law requirements.

When it comes to situations, policies state whether to a supervisor or as the “zero tolerance retaliation” be retaliated against for managing director of a local not be identified, discussed actors’ safety in a work environment, they feel safe to become vulnerable necessary to the art form.

“We want to make sure the situation, whether it’s an employee, that people report something that they legal or unsafe, or unethical, harassment,” she said. “We clear that any report will and it will be investigated.”

Sexual misconduct in industry doesn’t just occur abuse of power, but also according to Eyler. Throughout career, she’s witnessed and several accounts of misconduct older and younger actors, difficult to report them reasons.

“It’s a strange world that theater, because it’s often world where you’re trying human interactions, which spectrum of emotions and Despite the clearly-outlined it’s late night cast parties that may blur the line between

Mark Manning — the second to speak out about alleged sexual

Dashawn Young, a former KC actor, posts on Facebook his story alleged sexual violations committed by Church occurring in summer 2017. Others who consider themselves victims make themselves known

KKFI 90.1

After recent allegations against the former Coterie theater creative director, actors, directors and theater community members discuss their experiences with sexual assault and harassment in the industry and their desire for policy changes

*according to thepitchkc.com

Coterie Theatre posts a statement to their social medias regarding the allegations, puts Church on administrative leave, and hires an outside investigator

23 24 26

reporting uncomfortable the means of reporting, or a board member, as well retaliation” — actors cannot for reporting anything. The local theater, who asked to discussed the importance of environment, and that vulnerable as it’s that no matter a contractor or people feel they can they feel is either unethical, or is actual “We also make it be confidential investigated.”

in the theater occur through the actor-to-actor, Throughout her and experienced misconduct between actors, but found it for the same that we inhabit in a very touchy-feely trying to imitate actual which encompass a broad physicality,” Eyler said. clearly-outlined policies, Eyler says or intimately staged scenes between acting and a sexual

misdemeanor.

It can start as a subtle brush of the body. A cast member skims an inappropriate area when adjusting a mic pack. Maybe it gets worse. A co-star walks in unannounced in the opposite gender’s dressing room. An innocently staged kiss-on-the-cheek turns into an unconsented kiss on the lips. In Eyler’s experience, the actor is often so taken aback that they play it off as a joke.

HARASSMENT happens so quickly, sometimes in a moment that you don’t expect,” Eyler said. “I think most people are good, and you go into contracts really acting for your fellow actor, and you’re there to work hard, so you just don’t expect it. That’s why it kept shocking me.”

KRISTA EYLER

ACTRESS & DIRECTOR

“Harassment happens so quickly, sometimes in a moment that you don’t expect,” Eyler said. “I think most people are good, and you go into contracts really acting for your fellow actor, and you’re there to work hard, so you just don’t expect it. That’s why it kept shocking me.”

Though four men have come forward publicly, a dozen Coterie employees and actors have reported stories to The Kansas City Pitch, and Manning says over 20 people have now confided in him privately about their situations with Church.

And if reported, situations are often brushed off before they can make it to a higher level in the company, according to both Eyler and Manning. In fact, Manning remembers telling a close group of friends about a previous harassment experience in his college theater who simply told him “That’s the way it is, that’s how theater is, you just have to get used to it.” Though this was in the ’80s, Manning doesn’t think much has changed since then. Since story after story of harassment and abuse

unfolded through victims’ social media posts, even those who weren’t victims of Church are feeling the impact of the allegations. Freshman Eliza King was selected by Church over the summer to join the Coterie’s Young Playwrights Roundtable. Having heard only good things about Church, the news left her and fellow playwrights to grapple with learning the actions of their long-time leader and losing him to suicide, all in one week.

“It’s such a shock to just have that [trust] ripped from you,” King said. “You never really know about a person, and it’s definitely affected the way I think about trusting adults and leadership roles within life.”

Young and Manning agree that social media and the #MeToo movement have opened conversations about sexual assault, but that it’s only the beginning. Manning regrets not publicly coming forward sooner, but never felt that there was an opportunity to do so until he saw other victims open up online.

reviewing their policies and procedures to “remain unequivocally and passionately committed to a safe and healthy, supportive working environment.”

Other local theaters, like The Unicorn, released similar statements around the same time. They discussed their own longstanding policies against sexual harassment and other forms of discriminatory harassment, as well as their promise to frequently review, share and follow them in order to provide a safe environment.

WE HAVE TO live in a different world where victims feel comfortable and safe speaking up and know that they’re not alone.

MARK MANNING

FORMER ACTOR

“We have to live in a different world where victims feel comfortable and safe speaking up and know that they’re not alone,” Manning said. “There has to be some kind of place that everyone knows about within their organization that allows people to report this when it happens. People are kind of loathed to talk about it, loathed to bring up what happened to them, and take on the judgment from people who may or not believe them and be victimized by it again, so there has to be a safe place.”

The Harbinger was referred to the Board of Directors’ statement explaining that they’d be

Eyler, King, Manning and Young agree that this tragedy is generating needed conversations about the deep-rooted issue within theater communities, and the importance of advocacy.

Manning hopes companies will update outdated policies to be clear and strict — defining consent, eliminating any blurred lines of what’s considered assault or harassment and holding all employees to the same standards of respect. Eyler encourages employees in the workplace to look out for one another. And Young emphasizes the value in advocating for yourself and others without fear of repercussions.

“I think everybody — actors and producers, directors — we were all kind of shaking in our boots, but it’s a reckoning that everybody, myself included, needs to have,” Young said. “Using your voice can help create some change and help healing for not only yourself but so many people. Don’t wait till tomorrow to advocate for yourself.”

design by peyton moore

timeline of events involving the now-former Coterie Children’s Theater Creative Director Jeff Church actor, of committed 2017. themselves known

radio host Mark Manning shares details of an alleged sexual encounter with Church that shares specifc behaviors and actions mentioned in Young’s story.

The Coterie announces Jeff Church’s offcial resignation KC Police Department and Kansas City Star confrm Church was found dead on Dec. 24 by suicide.

READY TO RUSH

story by caroline wood

SENIORS EMERSON BIHUNIAK , — along with seniors Luc Prendiville, Will Alexander and Cole Jackson — took his eighth 50-minute drive down to the University of Kansas campus. This time to visit the Phi Delta Gamma house for dinner. They’re squeezing in one more fraternity visit before making a decision that’ll impact the next four years of their life before even getting there.

For most students, the fraternity rushing process doesn’t start until they get to college, but for East students planning to attend KU, the process begins at the start of senior year.

Bihuniak and Pendiville have been visiting Lawrence since October to attend

invitational fraternity events. They typically start them off with a dinner with the chairs and a few other seniors from their high school and a house tour. Then they’re invited to events ranging from tailgates to poker nights. All activities have the same goal: getting to know the guys.

“You just get to meet everyone in the house, and you can just see really where you fit in,” Bihuniak said.

While the seniors meet new guys at these events, they already know some. Of the 57 guys who graduated from East last year and went to KU, at least 20 of them rushed a fraternity.

The Phi Delt house makes a Google Sheet in the fall for potential recruits to invite to visit campus, according to East alum Tyler Moore. Most come from their old high school, but some seniors will reach out to the fraternity members or rush chairs to get added to the list.

design & art by ava cooper

Senior boys are already started on the rushing process for the University of Kansas fraternities

Prendiville, it’s nice to go with friends and see past seniors at the houses because it helps them to feel more comfortable and makes the process more enjoyable.

“Sometimes you’ll go with some of your buddies down there or know some East guys already there,” Prendiville said. “When you do that, it makes it a lot more enjoyable to get to know everyone when you have someone that you already know.”

IT’S LIKE DOING this early is one less thing you have to worry about once you get on campus and rushing, so that you know where you’re going to live and that kind of stuff.

LUC PRENDIVILLE

SENIOR

Out of all the places students go after graduating, 23% of East’s 2022 graduating class went to KU. With Lawrence only 50 minutes away from East, it’s common for students to rush early there.

“Doing rush at KU is a lot different than a lot of other places because it’s not formal at all,” Prendiville said. “You just go up throughout your whole senior year of high school and just get to know people like that.”

most likely choose their houses in February and will be able to move into the fraternity house come fall rather than spending their first year in the dorms. It’s one of the things that drew Prendiville to KU.

“It’s definitely nice to get out ahead and see my options,” Prendiville said. “It’s like doing this early is one less thing you have to worry about once you get on campus and rushing, so that you know where you’re going to live.”

Senior Graham Mosher is still deciding which college to attend and KU’s rushing process is a factor being weighed in. If he were to rush early with KU, he’d be able to automatically live in the house and have a group of guys that he knows.

“There’s a bunch of the senior guys at East right now that I like,” Moore said. “That I think would fit very well [at Phi Delt], so I put them on the list.”

For senior Luc

After a few visits and parties, if the chairs think they’ll fit the house, the senior will receive a bid — an offer to join the fraternity. This longer time frame than the few weeks given for fall rush allows these seniors a longer deadline to decide which house they’ll commit to.

Bihuniak has already received three bids since his eight campus visits and is currently deciding which house he thinks he’d fit in with best this fall.

Those who’ve already received bids will

FRATERNAL PHRASES

Important rush vocabulary

pledge•ship

The time between a bid being offered to a possible new member and when he is formally initiated

“It plays a part because I know that if I go to KU and I joined a house, then that’s my group,” Mosher said. “And obviously, I’ll meet a ton more people at parties and stuff like that, but that’s kind of who you’re with, rather than when you live in a dorm. That’s a lot different than just being in a house with all the guys who have the same priorities as you.”

While already starting on the rushing process might seem premature, for the senior boys taking weekend trips to Lawrence, it’s all worth it to find a place to start off in college with.

“You have the automatic brotherhood right when you get in the house and you have 80 new best friends right away,” Prediville said.

leg•acy

A new member who has siblings, parents or other family members in a specific fraternity

design by anna mitchell photo by liv madden & paige bean

WHILE SIGNING UP for classes in spring of 2021, future rack partners, thenjunior Piper Benjamin and then-sophomore Claire Schudy, knew that with taking the girls’ weight class comes with misrepresentation.

Once the class started the following fall, now-senior Benjamin noticed that only a small percentage of girls take the weights class to seriously work out. Benjamin watched other girls as they went through the motions of the exercises, knowing that they weren’t intending to build any sort of muscle. This created a reputation throughout the class that the girls didn’t enjoy lifting compared to the guys.

When the girls discussed this with their teacher Coach Douglas Archer, the solution popped into Benjamin’s head.

“We should start an Instagram account.”

Benjamin and now-junior Schudy immediately started filming each other and posting photos on their new account proudly named @buff.beautiesi4 — inspired by the name they gave themselves, “Buff Beauties.” Whether it was a new personal record or just a silly 0.5 picture during their workout, the girls had their phone at hand in order to alert their followers of their progress.

Amassing now 98 followers and 15 posts as of the new year, the account grew to involve girls in all different weights classes and after school lifting groups, with Benjamin, Schudy, senior Avery Kim and sophomore Rachel Condon leading the account. These original Buff Beauties had one goal for the account — representation.

“I think [the Instagram account] shows that girls can take [lifting] seriously too,” Kim said. “When we do max days, that shows that girls can lift heavy too… it’s women empowerment.”

Although Buff Beauties is filled with

pictures of their Baby Yoda figurine and ten emojis following every caption, it also gives insight to the behind the scenes of the girls’ weight class, such as their winter break lifts.

The Buff Beauties showed up to their Christmas Eve lift while other students were celebrating the holidays over winter break. This was documented on the account, featuring videos of various girls back squatting. The background of the videos were filled with shouts of “You got it!” and “Up, up, up!”

They celebrated the holidays together again at their New Year’s lift, with that day’s post filled with timer photos, mid-air squat jumps and the caption “New year, same buff beauties.”

“[It’s] a really positive environment and everybody’s hyping you up,” junior Margot Beaver said. “It makes it more fun. But also it’s easier to get the weight up when you have 20 people watching.”

This positive environment has made Beaver and other lifters not see taking weights class as a dreaded, required P.E. course, but rather a class they look forward to taking for multiple semesters in their high school career.

Schudy has decided that the Buff Beauties will continue past her time in weights class at East. She will pass the account password down to an underclassmen, freshman Fina Kessler, to keep the Buff Beauties name relevant in the next generation of students.

“I think that the people that are taking [weights] classes have really been able to change or see a difference in themselves,” Schudy said. “I know that there have been a lot of girls in our weights that have started to take it more seriously. I see them after school [and] I think it’s great how much the program has developed.”

story by ada lillie worthington

BELOW A 3D model of the Aurora Ship from the video game Subnautica made with BrickLink.

nora lynn

wolf octavio galicia

DREAM BUILDING

THE

East alum Octavio Galicia is campaigning for a 3D Lego model he created to become a real Lego set

DESK ORNAMENT TURNED threemonth passion project turned official Lego set? Yes.

After East Alum and now freshman at University of Missouri-Kansas City, Octavio Galicia handcrafted three 3D Lego prototypes of the front full and base of a ship, his roommate wanted one of Galicia’s own digital Lego models on his desk to enjoy. As both boys loved the video game Subnautica — an adventure game taking place underwater on an alien ocean planet — and specifically the Aurora Ship in it, Galicia used his Lego expertise to build the model of it for his roommate to relish.

“Originally it was for my roommate, I wanted to create something nice for him and I also wanted that challenge as it was a much larger set than I had ever made,” Octavio said. “While I was creating it, it was amazing, I was in awe of it. And I realized I didn’t want this to go to waste. I love this design and I think a lot of people will too.”

One-hundred hours placing 1,000 individual Lego pieces, a few hours every day dedicated to working on his own digital 3D model paid off when he posted it on the Lego Ideas website on the first day of 2023 — Legos official website where designers can send their models in hopes of receiving enough votes to legitimize it as a set.

Octavio is at 2,149 votes as of Jan. 18, campaigning and hoping to make it a tangible Lego set you can buy in stores. He’s 20% of

the way there, needing 10,000 supporters for Lego to review it and determine if it will become an official set.

In early October, Octavio taught himself how to use BrickLink’s studio software to create and put together Lego models and sets piece by piece. BrickLink allows users to digitally design any creation they want with digital, individual Lego pieces they can place to construct their design.

He’s placed over 1,000 pieces starting with the base of the ship to 3D images of the full design.

He accredits his quick grip on the software to his usage of Photoshop and graphic design software.

WHILE I WAS creating it, it was amazing, I was in awe of it. And I realized I didn’t want this to go to waste. I love this design and I think a lot of people will too.

While constantly playing with sets as a kid, he also discovered a fascination with the designs and intricacies of the Legos, specifically in his Ninjago sets, even participating in a Lego building competition at age seven.

into a passion is amazing,” Castro said. “Most kids find that hobby but don’t move it on to something else. But it’s stuck with him and it’s time-consuming, tedious work but it’s those things that excite him and make

In order to complete his goal, he’s made it an undertaking. From creating Instagram and TikTok pages dedicated to the model, posting and promoting it on social media and constantly sharing the website to family and friends, his dedication is obvious to everyone surrounding him.

SCAN ME PETITION

Scan here to sign the petition to make Octavio Galicia’s Aura Ship design an official Lego set.

Once he was three months into the project, Octavio revealed it to his family — who were surprised to hear about the project for the first time.

OCTAVIO GALICIA

EAST ALUM

His mom, Katie Castro knew just how important it was by the eagerness in his voice when presenting the model to them.

“He showed us the 3D version of it and said how excited and proud of himself he was for doing it and showed all the details of it,” Castro said.

But as shocked as his family was to see the digital model of the ship on his computer, they couldn’t be that surprised — he’s been remodeling and revamping Lego

“He didn’t win and he was of course devastated and not happy about it,” Castro said. “But I think something, in a way, stuck with him. He realized other things he could build and create.”

Now he’s more focused on the design and detail of his model, like the four thrusters on the back and front of the ship and its blimp shape.

With every milestone of supporters, the designer receives more days to collect signatures. Galicia has reached milestones like 100 votes on the first day he posted it and 1,000 votes within four days of posting it. By focusing on the project, promoting it and campaigning for it on social media platforms and staying dedicated to it.

“Seeing him turn something from what he enjoyed as a kid growing up and a hobby

“Every time he hits one of the milestones of supporters, he makes sure he shares with everybody,” Roberto said. “He posts, he texts people individually, posts on his Instagram, posts on his Instagram story and sends it to the family group chat to let everybody know this is truly something special.”

story by paige zadoo

Junior Kat Ferry makes and uploads stop-motion animations to her Instagram account, and hopes to continue her art post-graduation

Classes and programs Kat has taken, and ones she plans to create

WHAT SPARKED YOUR LOVE FOR ANIMATION?

IN LATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL — around fourth or ffth grade — I started doing claymations so I’d take my iPad and prop it up on my desk and with clay I would make monsters eating each other or would make an orange and then squirt it into orange juice.

DO YOU CONSIDER ANIMATION AS A HOBBY OR POTENTIAL CARRER PATH?

I REALLY WANT TO pursue it in the future. I have always been a really creative person and if I had to choose one medium to do the rest of my life it would defnitely be animation. I’ve always known I wanted to do something in the creative feld when I got older but I think I actually have a chance at this.

WHAT IS YOUR ANIMATION PROCESS?

USUALLY IT STARTS WITH hours or just a long period of time where I can sit and think. Sometimes it’ll just come to me if I hear a certain song that I really like or if I see something in the real world that I want to turn to animation. But frst, I just need to get a really good idea that I’m excited enough about to get me through the next hours and hours of animating that I’ll do. Usually when I do an animation, it’s easy for me to sit down for hours and hours and animate.

design by greyson imm photo by caroline martucci

design by veronica mangine

photos from amazon & IMBD

O N F U S I O

story by mia vogel

THE OCEANS SERIES, “Now You See Me,” “Knives Out” — Netflix has added another to the long list of shows and movies that make up the expansive criminal mystery genre.

The new Netflix original “Kaleidoscope” follows a crew of savvy criminals attempting to pull off an epic heist and steal $7 million dollars from a secure vault, but their plans are thwarted by greed and betrayal.

The most intriguing aspect is that the episodes don’t need to be watched in chronological order. The order is displayed differently in everyone’s queue based on your watch history, or algorithm. There are also alternative orders curated by @ netflixgeeked such as the Tarantino or Rainbow order to supposedly give the show a different vibe with each watch. According to TikTok, the only general rule is that “White,” the heist episode must be watched last.

My Netflix had the order “Orange,” “Yellow,” “Green,” “Blue,” “Violet,” “Red,” “Pink” and lastly, “White.” Overall, I’m happy with the order my storyline followed, but the 30 year timeline made the show confusing nonetheless.

Each episode is assigned a color along with a moment in time surrounding the main heist. The whole episode is expertly coordinated based on the title color — for

example, everything down to the flashdrive in “Yellow” is yellow.

However, I wish the episodes were titled both the color and when it took place surrounding the heist, instead of simply flashing the time stamp for a second at the beginning of the episode. It’s easy to get confused 25 minutes in and it becomes difficult to remember if these events are taking place five days or seven years before the main heist.

I tried to watch an episode each day over a week in a vain attempt to absorb every detail, but the way the timeline jumps around — regardless of the order you watch in — made the show difficult to follow the plot and pick up on details crucial to the main heist like the bees or the bloody handprint. I ended up having to restart four episodes in and just binge the whole series in one day — for the record, I’m still a little confused.

who are critically acclaimed for other roles that I’d get distracted thinking of them as.

Each episode focuses primarily on one or two characters and has its own mini-heist. Though this kept my attention and made the series interesting, it was ultimately unfocused. Each episode seemed independent from the others, leading to an anticlimactic main heist.

EACH EPISODE seemed independent from the others, leading to an anticlimactic main heist.

Furthermore, there was zero chemistry within the crew. In every single group scene the characters were either separated or in the midst of violent outbursts. With crime movies and shows like “Kaleidoscope,” I find it most enjoyable to watch when the crew is a collection of misfit criminals who are first and foremost a wholesome friend group. These people all just hated and betrayed each other.

A few things the show does have going for it is that the cast is solid and the episodes were never boring.

Every role was believable and no one was overacting. Also, the actors were obviously experienced, but the cast wasn’t just loaded up with A-list celebrities so I only knew them as the character, not as famous actors

It simply wasn’t satisfying to watch. Everything felt so disconnected and messy, I wasn’t attached to any of the characters and things didn’t tie together in a satisfying bow. Motives were clear but it wasn’t a clean conclusion.

I wanted a closing scene akin to Sandra Bullock descending the Met steps with a smirk of triumph and all I got was a dude holding a necklace.

Netflix’s new interactive series is disappointing and confusing, offering little more than a nonsensical order of episodes

design by lily simmons

A review of the brand Fahlo and their impact on climate change and wildlife reservation

SMALL BRACELET BIG IMPACT

story by lucy wolf

THE BEST NOTIFICATION

to improve my mood while annotating for English class?

“Foxe’s most recent location has been updated, click the notification to track and view her journey!”

The name however is misleading — “Foxe” isn’t my fox. It’s my polar bear.

I purchased the $16.95 polar bear package from myfahlo.com, which included a Venture bracelet and most importantly, the ability to track a real-life polar bear in the Hudson Bay area.

Inspired by one of my friends who was interested in “adopting” a polar bear, it’s proven to be a cute way to learn more about the environment and the challenges animals are facing due to climate change.

Fahlo is a brand that partners with nonprofit organizations to create bracelets — with each purchase you are given a real-life animal to adopt and track across the world. However, the bracelet isn’t the tracker, a gps transmitter is used with the animals for customers to track their own animals through the app. Since its creation in 2018, Fahlo’s been fortunate enough to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to help recover from the effects of human industry on the environment.

By combining a bracelet and an interactive tracking experience, Fahlo’s goal is to educate their customers about wildlife and excite them about conservation.

Fahlo is currently partnered with six

organizations: Sea Turtle Conservancy, Polar Bear International, Saving the Blue, Save the Elephants, Global Penguin Society and their newest partnership, Ewaso Lions. You’re able to choose an animal to track — from elephants to sharks to polar bears — and a bracelet that matches the animal’s aura.

I remembered the videos of starving, underweight polar bears struggling to stay on ice that always pop up on my “for you” page. My animal choice was simple: the polar bear.

Fahlo’s website explained that polar bears’ biggest threats stem from global warming. These animals thrive in cold temperatures and live on ice, but their habitats are being restricted due to warmer temperatures. I appreciated how the Fahlo website opened my eyes to the near extinction of this species and made me more aware of how our actions are affecting these animals.

I chose the igloo blue bracelet and placed my order, with ten percent of proceeds from the sale donated to Polar Bear International.

My order arrived three days later. I didn’t hesitate to wear the dainty Venture bracelet — made of blue marble beads surrounding a polar bear bead in the center — to school. The information card included with the bracelet introduced me to my new polar bear friend, Foxe, that I now track and see her whereabouts.

PICK AN ANIMAL

According to the card, Foxe was first seen wandering the tundra at seven years old, and was pregnant the last time scientists spotted her. These fun facts made me feel like Foxe was my actual pet polar bear.

I was most excited about the QR code, placed in the bottom corner of the card, where I can track Foxe’s movement and journey throughout her life on the Fahlo app. Her location updates every week, so I can look forward to that little notification once a week for a few years, depending on the life span of the polar bear you are paired with.

The tracking map shows small points along the way that Foxe has traveled, along with seeing the exact time she made it to each different location. It includes other details, like how far Foxe has traveled since her last location and her average speed since her previous location. This easy to read tracking map has left me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next notification to pop up a week later, guiding me to Foxe’s newest location around the Hudson Bay.

As I’ve joined the Fahlo family, I’ve expanded my knowledge about polar bears and other animals Fahlo supports. Animals in need will benefit from any kind of help — whether it’s buying a bracelet and tracking an animal or donating to an animal conservation. Fahlo says it best on their website: One small bracelet, one big mission.

design by veronica mangine

design by lyla weeks photos by madi maupin & libby marsh

art by adya burdick

MASTERING

M E D I T E R R A N E A N

Meddy’s, a new mediterranean restaurant in Prairie Village, has delicious food that transports your tastebuds to the mediterranean coast

CRASHING WAVES, SANDY beaches and oven-baked pita sound like a miracle this late in the winter — especially in the middle of Kansas. But thanks to Meddys, a newly opened Lebanese-Mediterranean restaurant in Corinth Square, we can all save the wait — and not to mention a couple grand — for a trip to paradise.

Marble topped tables, vibrant plants and giant windows all lent to the casual feeling atmosphere.

But don’t be deceived by the modern, Prairie Village-style architecture and decor — this fast casual cuisine’s falafel, shawarma and baba ghanoush are as authentic as anything you’d find when roaming the streets of Italy.

Thank Meddys founder Alex Harb, who moved from Lebanon to the United States in the 1990s for this delicious authenticity. Through his restaurant, he takes the taste of his childhood straight to the table.

The cuisine is also healthy, allowing me to enjoy the Mediterranean food minus the guilt — while still being delicious. Meddys also has both gluten free and vegan options for those with dietary restrictions but still craving a tasty meal.

For my trip to the Mediterranean, I ordered falafel, garlic chicken, garlic potatoes, baba

ghanoush, hummus and pita, beef shawarma, lamb shawarma and the Grand Finale for dessert.

Starting with hummus and pita, this dish came with crispy, golden brown pita chips and a soft bread complementing Meddys’ awardwinning humus. The hummus was like a creamy garbanzo bean, lemon, garlic and tahini smoothie. It was garnished with a mix of parsley, whole garbanzo beans, olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika for a sharp spice to cut through the smooth puree — a flavorful beginning to my meal.

Next was the garlic chicken. This entire bone in half of a chicken is roasted with a strong garlic flavor — enough that I could smell the aromatic seasoning the minute the plate was set on the table — but, luckily, not enough to make my eyes water.

What shocked me the most about this dish was that the chicken wasn’t overcooked. This may seem like a low bar, but every time I get a chicken taco, I find myself gagging as I try to choke down the dry, tough meat. It was well cooked and fell off the bone for easy eating.

potatoes were my favorite. The pile of potato cubes were seasoned with garlic, lending the dish its name. There was a hint of lemon for that extra tang and parsley adding a pop of green and fresh taste to the potatoes. The crispy, fried skin and rich blend of flavors tempted me to order five more batches.

I also tried the ShwarmaBaa or lamb shawarma — get it? The wrap included lamb with a hint of mint and a smoky undertaste, fresh green lettuce, tomato and red onion. The thin pita wrap gave the sandwich a balanced bread-to-filling ratio, and didn’t overpower the classic flavor combination.

BUT DON’T BE deceived by the modern, Prairie Village-style architecture and decor — this fast casual cuisine’s falafel, shawarma and baba ghanoush are as authentic as anything you’d fnd when roaming the streets of Italy.

And now, for the grand finale, I ordered… The Grand Finale. This is a shareable dessert of a filo-dough bowl, with rich vanilla ice cream, bright green pistachios, a generous dusting of chocolate sprinkle and topped with a small piece of baklava. A bonus layer of Nutella beamed up at me from under the ice cream, packing a chocolaty punch and concluding my meal with a dessert as gourmet as the rest of the dishes.

Despite the fact that it’s a side dish, the garlic

story by libby marsh

photo

THE HEART OF THE ISSUE

story by connor vogel

Damar Hamlin’s injury sheds a light on the ugly side of sports injuries and the numerous safeguards in place to protect players safety

DURING ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

Ryan Johnson’s most recent biweekly Shawnee Mission athletic directors’ meeting, the district’s sports safety policies were reviewed by medical director of youth sports medicine Dr. David Smithwith of the University of Kansas Health System.

This meeting was a direct result of NFL player Damar Hamlin’s injury.

On Jan. 2, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field after taking a hit to the chest from Cinncinati Bengals Receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin went into cardiac arrest, causing Bills medical staff to perform CPR to restore his pulse on the field before transporting him via ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment.

Hamlin’s injury shines a light on the dangers of sports at every level. The risks of severe concussions and undisclosed injuries are commonly overlooked.

Junior and varsity basketball player Ashley Zastrow understands the gravity of the situation first-hand after suffering a season-ending injury during a game earlier this season.

“The other team was shooting free throws,” Zastrow said. “I was going up for the rebound, I got bumped and landed straight-legged on my left foot and heard a pop.”

Zastrow’s injury required a MRI and six weeks in a brace before reevaluating with the athletic trainer for a physical therapy program to regain normal strength and mobility.

While serious game-stopping

injuries like this do happen, Johnson is confident in East’s training staff and safety procedures.

“All of our sports medicine or studentathlete safety policies are implemented by the district in partnership with the University of Kansas Health System,” Johnson said. “So we have the same doctors and plans as the Chiefs and the Royals probably to deal with injuries since they serve all of those teams.”

These policies for injuries are a result of an Emergency Action Plan. Along with injury procedures for all kinds of injuries, the EAP details the layout of the building and practice fields, contact information for coaches, SROs, emergency medical services and the athletic director along with their superiors.

Gilshiemer believes the SMSD EAP leads in prioritizing player safety.

“[The injury policy] is 10 times safer than what I had at the collegiate level,” Gilshiemer said. “Because like you guys are still growing individuals your brains are growing. It forces you to slow down, it forces you to self analyze what you’re doing when at a majority of the collegiate levels they don’t even have a return to play form.”

The Damar Hamlin incident illuminates the truth that while these kinds of media captivating injuries don’t happen on a regular basis, they’re frequent enough that players step onto the field knowing that they could suffer an injury that will prevent them from coming off without assistance from the athletic trainer and coaches.

“Students playing in a sport know there’s always going to be risk. There is risk just walking down the hall or crossing the street,”

of student athletes report a sports-related injury 54 reported student athletes who’ve played while injured football-related injuries treated in hopsital ER’s

from ages 5 to 14

Johnson said. “That’s why we have these preventative measures in place to help kids stay safe, play the game by the rules, and keep everybody safe in that environment.”

While the EAP allows the training staff and coaches to be prepared for serious injuries on the field, Johnson believes that the players should do their part to be open about their injuries and communicate with coaches before they become a bigger problem during a game.

“My whole career before [being hired], I coached football and basketball, and you’d have kids try to hide their injury and not tell you if they had a head injury or bum ankle because they didn’t want to miss time,” Johnson said. “Instead of trying to play through or tough it out leading to further injury, they need to talk to the trainer and get help so their injury doesn’t prolong and get worse”

Junior Jack Kessler, who broke his leg playing a football scrimmage against Bishop Miege this summer, had accepted this risk but his preconceptions severely underestimated the dangers of football.

“We’re all told we are making a sacrifice to play football or any other sport and I always considered myself willing to make it,” Kessler said. “Then once I actually made the sacrifice playing like that, it was kind of a wake up call to ask myself serious questions of whether my leg would even be back to 100% and ‘Is this worth sacrificing my future for?’”

Contact sports naturally have higher injury rates, but according to the Journal of Athletic Training, effective communication and medical staff oversight will improve player safety.

“At the end of day it’s about how much you love the game and what you’re willing to do,” Kessler said. “For me, I’m glad I played high school football and I’m glad I made it out with an injury that could have been way worse.’

design by caroline gould photo by sabrina dean

*information according to Weinstein Legal

Sports injury statistics focused specifically on student athletes

design by grace demetriou

ACROSS

Grace Strongman’s journey to being an All American athlete and how East cross country helped her achieve the title

COUNTRY THE

story by emmerson winfrey

ALL ABOUT ALL AMERICAN

EAST ALUM AND then-freshman Grace Strongman joined East cross country on C team — the lowest group there is. Strongman didn’t think to take cross country seriously, but as just an extracurricular to be a part of and stay active. Until junior year, when she realized the love she had for the sport and how much she had excelled in races, practices and dedication in the past two years.

Lida Padgett admires Strongman’s dedication and hard work to the sport. Padgett considered Strongman her first role model when she joined cross country as a freshman. As one of the only freshmen on varsity, Strongman introduced Padgett to everyone and made her feel welcomed on the team.

to the average 50 miles a week in a high school season.

STRONGMAN’S

MILE

STONES

Facts and times from Strongman’s races

“I think I realized ‘Oh, I actually really love this sport,’” Strongman said. “I could actually see myself doing this, more than just in high school. I really liked exercise and I’m really competitive. [Cross country] was a way to practice my competitiveness.”

Five years and an uncountable number of runs later, Strongman achieved All-American for cross country. While her dedication to the sport and time at Colorado School of Mines has pushed her to reach the accomplishment, East cross country helped Strongman get to where she is today.

As a nervous freshman looking for a place to belong at East, she quickly found a strong community on the cross country team. Running with the same people everyday, pushing each other to cut seconds off their time, weekly team dinners and long bus rides to meets all helped Strongman meet people she would’ve never known otherwise. Cheering each other on during the final stretches or talking about how excited they were for upcoming races made all the hill workouts and extra long runs worth it.

“I think the biggest thing is running with your buddies everyday and doing something that’s a little tough and uncomfortable,” Strongman said. “It brings people together.”

Former teammate and junior

“She’s always been such a hard worker and good teammate,” Padgett said, “She has really been just dedicated to the sport in every aspect.”

Since leaving East, Strongman joined cross country at the Colorado School of Mines as a redshirt freshman. With a spot at the bottom of the group, Strongman fought to earn her place on the team and All-American title. Coming out of high school with an underwhelming resume, she had to show the team and coaches she was there to improve and take the sport seriously.

SHE’S ALWAYS been such a hard worker and good teammate. She has really been just dedicated to the sport in every aspect.

This extensive training throughout the season got her to the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships — the top 40 to finish achieving All-American status. Throughout the last half of the race Strongman knew she was right on the border between being top 40 hearing “That’s 40, That’s 40!” every time her pack passed. After six miles of running a 5:43 pace, she could barely breathe, let alone know if she’d achieved AllAmerican.

As her foot crossed the finish line, she promptly glanced up at the scoreboard.

LIDA PADGETT

JUNIOR

39. Her mind flashed back to her freshman self running on C-team, no idea where it would take her. Strongman was left speechless in front of the scoreboard.

Following coach Chris Siemers’ individualized weekly plans for her workouts and runs and updating him on how she was doing with the training helped Strongman prove herself to the team.

“Once a week we get a plan and it says, ‘Here’s exactly what you’re doing every day this week,’” Strongman said. “[The coach] keeps tabs on how you’re feeling, how you’re doing and if you can handle more. So slowly, just over months and months you grow and do more and more and you just have to put your trust in him and trust the process. It doesn’t go fast, but it pays off.”

Throughout this season she worked her way up to running 70 miles a week — including two hard workouts and one long run. Similar to her usual workouts, just a big change in volume, compared

While her coach at Mines helped push her to where she is, Strongman is grateful to East’s program for her current success in the sport.

Coach Kelly’s enthusiasm for the sport brought out her own interest in it and the community within it got her to where she is. Even on the days it was hard to show up, as long as she did she had people excited to run with her — even if her pace was slower than most. While the programs set high expectations that may seem unrealistic, Strongman finds that as long as you show up everyday and give it the best you can, everyone can reach them.

“I would not be where I am now without cross country at East, without my fantastic coaches and my teammates at East,” Strongman said.

LINING UP HIS toes on the threepoint line, aiming to shoot the ball, junior Alex Flower smirked as the ball approached the hoop — confident in his mediocre basketball skills. The crowd of Flower’s closest friends hollered and cheered from the stands.

The ball missed any kind of contact with the basket or backboard by a foot. But Flower didn’t care — the only thing at stake was his dignity. And despite his airball, the massive, roaring and adoring crowd — that consisted of about 10 people — still went wild.

The Fireballz — a rec basketball team created by a friend group of eight juniors — made their notable Great American Basketball League (GABL) debut on Jan. 8, losing to another East rec team 72-44.

The players pride themselves in having fun — regardless of the score.

“I like to win,” player and junior Patrick Flint said. “But at the end of the day it’s just a GABL game. It doesn’t really matter if you win or lose.”

To be fair, none of the players are currently on an official basketball team — some haven’t even picked up a basketball since kindergarten.

Instead of recognizing the team’s skills on the court, students know the Fireballz for their Instagram account with hype videos, weekly MVPs and game recaps according to fan junior Lauren McGuire. After losing the first two games by at least 15 points, the account run by players and juniors Alex Tiedt and Mason Hedrick started posting fan submissions

more clips of airballs and failed rebounds than the ball actually touching the basket.

The games start off with good intentions — Fireballz players dribble down the court and dogpile over the ball. But setbacks like accidentally giving an opposing player a bloody nose or running into their own players often delay victory.

“I bent down to grab the ball and shouldered him in the nose,” Hedrick said. “I didn’t think it was that bad until it started bleeding. His whole nose is a little crooked.”

According to Flint, GABL stopped running the highschool league a couple years ago due to teams like the Fireballz who are there just to mess around. The league resumed this year, but doesn’t tolerate any horseplay.

At the end of their second game, after two consecutive half-court shots while trailing 18 points, the ref ended the game 55 seconds early — the team started to joke around, violating the policy.

The Fireballz dress to dazzle and taunt the other teams — by wearing headbands, arm sleeves or Flower’s signature bright red futsal sneakers.

“I think it’s funny that we all wear a bunch of accessories even though we’re not crazy good at basketball,” Flint said. “It might make us look a little better until they see us play and are like ‘What the hell?’”

The Fireballz lineup features a range of unique personalities. For example, when Flower isn’t warming the bench, he sprints up and down the court, trying his best to steal the ball from his sometimes six-foot

opponents and perfecting his halfcourt airball.

“It’s fun to watch Alex play defense with his little futsal shoes,” junior and teammate Hudson O’Neill said. “His form is terrible.”

Meanwhile, junior Chris Minto showed up to the first game in pants — expecting the league to provide shorts for each player (spoiler alert: they didn’t). After spending the first half tripping over his flailing loose pants, he was finally desperate enough to borrow a pair of skin-tight lacrosse shorts from one of his female friends in the stands.

Minto’s outfit change brought a new energy to the cheers from the socalled “student section.” Some fans on the varsity cheer team performed unofficial stunts at halftime. Signs that say “let’s go boys” and fatheads of the players add to the humor of the game for the team.

“You bring posters to basketball and football games at East, so when they brought them to the GABL game it made it even more funny,” Flower said. “[The signs] take a humorous tone to something more serious.”

McGuire accompanies the team to all of their games and some scrimmages at Matt Ross. As the only regular fan who actually plays school basketball, she shouts tips at the players — hoping to make each jump shot slightly less embarrassing for the team as the game goes on.

“I forget that they’re not basketball players,” McGuire said. “I expected them to be a lot better than they were. It’s really funny to watch them try hard and then fail.”

The Fireballz — a rec basketball team made up of junior boys — pride themselves in having fun over basketball skills

story by addie moore

design by maggie condon photos by molly miller & addie moore

Junior Mason Hedrick guards the opposing player from passing.

The student section cheers for the team.

Junior Alex Flower prepares to get the rebound from a free throw.

COLUMBIA BLUE

COMMONS COMMONS

SCAN ME PHOTO

After about a year of construction, the commons are now open as a study space for students

Sophomores Bennett Tuttle and Colten Sims study math packets during work time in the commons area. “I like [sitting there] because it has a TV, so if you need another screen, you can airplay to the TV,” Tuttle said. photo by I riley eck

LEFT Freshman Mak Terril and sophomore Sam Sharbutt work on their “factors of production” poster for Intro to Business on the stairs. “[The space] is more open and isn’t as loud as classrooms or hallways usually get,” Sharbutt said. “I had a lot more fun on this project because I could hear and pay attention to my partners.” photo by I lydia coe

BELOW Junior Rue Swanson takes photos in her fourth hour digital photography class. Students shot the architecture and each other to practice aperature and shutter speed. photo by I audrey condon

RIGHT Business teacher Mallory Dittemore explains to her students senior Louis ProsserGebhardt and sophomore Alexis Myers the guidelines of a project. “[The space] is so nice for Intro to Business since we do a lot of hands on projects, so it’s nice to use the multi-purpose room to spread out,” Dittemore said.

photo by I lydia coe

LEFT Freshmen Tori Murphy, Kate Jones, Sophia Yanicx and Eva Lowery work on their group project in Intro to Business. “It is super helpful, the staircase and all the other things make it easier to do group projects,” Jones said.

design by rachel bingham

photo by I lydia coe

OUT

IN: The Junior Lot The Senior Lot

IT’S TIME WE acknowledge the truth — the junior lot is superior to the senior lot and this is the year we’ll see it. The junior lot is simple and leaving the lot is twice as fast. What more could you want?

THE AMBIGUITY OF the senior lot is overwhelming. There’s staff parking, seniors and juniors clambering for a front row spot, sophomores and freshmen lining up at 7:00 a.m. for a back row spot all while Prairie Village Public Works trucks loiter for who knows why. This year, we’re parking in the Junior Lot.

ENOUGH OF SEASONS greetings, it’s time to switch out the old and bring in the new. This year, we’re looking for efficiency and finding more peace in each day. To ensure you stay ahead of this year’s trends, check out our list for our totally professional insight.

IN: MCI Airport

NOW, THE MCI airport is designed for post-9/11 security and doesn’t look like a brutalist tornado shelter anymore. Instead, you can get some BoLings, Meat Mitch or a slice of Buffalo State Pizza

PINTEREST SHUFFLES IS an app by Pinterest that allows users to automatically make collages from Pins they find or from saved Pins. You can also browse the collages and find inspiration for your outfit, home decor or mood boards.

BIRD SCOOTERS ARE a sure-fire way to look like a tourist in your own city. What are you doing here and why do you need to scooter? If your destination is close enough to scooter, just walk. Don’t bother with the awkward sidewalk-to-road-and-back-to -sidewalk scooter dance.

QUIT INCESSANTLY CHECKING Snap Map to see how far away your friend is when meeting up with them and instead live a life of peace without interruption.

I mean, does everyone on the app really need to know you went to Hen House after school?

THIS YEAR YOU may expect to see a Tyler, The Creator album release. He has released albums every other year, with each album coming out in an odd-numbered year. Keep your Spotify playlists open as his new album will be sure to make it onto your playlist.

WITH RUMOURS FLYING about Rex Orange County, a bad taste has been left in our mouths about the once-loved “Pluto Projector” singer. Plus, he’s already stopped at Kansas City on tour, so he really was already irrelevant by the time his team packed up the equipment.