The Little Hawk

3B Sports

18A Arts and Entertainment

Dodge and Miller: Biking bros

Q&A with Les Mis senior cast members

13A Opinion

4A News

Head to head: Candidate compromise

Students travel around the world

The Little Hawk Iowa City, IA

Vol. 78

Friday, May 3, 2019

thelittlehawk.com

Issue 5

CITY NEWS The Little Hawk Your #1 Source of News about City High

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ity High coach John Raffensberger passed away. Coach Raff was a social studies teacher, Dean of Students, and track coach at City High who led City to ten state championships.

G.P.A. Switches to 5.0 Starting next year students will year A.P. students will earn up to a 5.0 for As in A.P. classes. Grades will be retroactively changed for their high school careers.

PROM A Star Wars themed prom will be held tomorrow night, Saturday, May 4th at the I.M.U.. And May the 4th be with you all!

ABOVE: City High students at the ICCSD office striking to advocate for solar panels PHOTO BY SHOSHIE HEMLEY

Students stand up for the planet

BLACK HISTORY GAME SHOW STATE CHAMPIONS The City High team won a state championship at the Black History Game Show.

MOCK TRIAL TEAM PLACES 5TH AT STATE The City High Mock trial team placed 5th at the state tournament with Lottie Gidal winning all-state attorney and Quinn Kopelman winning all-state witness.

“THE LITTLE HAWK” SELECTED AT ALL-IOWA NEWS TEAM FINALIST “The Little Hawk”’s journalism team was selected as one of the top five journalism teams in the state and won 30 individual state journalism awards for their stories.

BPA WINS 4TH STRAIGHT TITAN CHALLENGE The Business Professionals Association of City High won $4,500 in scholarships by winning the competition.

TESTING SWITCHED TO ONLINE Standardized testing moved online with students using their Chromebooks to complete the ISASPs. TEACHERS RETIRING Coach Tim Casey, Ms Fields, Athletic Director Terry Coleman, Ms Green, Mr. DeNeice, Ms Glowacki, and Band Director Myron McReynolds will all be retiring.

CITY ALUM PIEROTTI CREATES ROBOTIC QB Alumnus and CEO Nathan Pierotti spoke to students about his new company Monarc, Inc., and their new “robotic quarterbacks” called “Seekers” that can track data and cost $38,000. O.B.J. has requested a machine, as well as 12 N.F.L teams.

@instalittlehawk

Students from the ICCSD have been striking every Friday at the district office to advocate for the addition of solar panels throughout the school district

By Shoshie Hemley

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hildren in strollers, whitehaired grannies, and high schoolers holding signs stating, “There is no Planet B,” listened to former NFL player and City High alumnus Tim Dwight explain solar panels and their benefits in great detail. Led by South East Junior High student Massimo PaciottoBiggers, a few dozen students from City High and South East Junior High, joined by some supportive parents and adults, skipped school to strike for the climate at the Iowa City Community School District offices on Friday, April 19. Paciotto-Biggers read the demands he had for the

ICCSD: a climate curriculum and solar panels in the ICCSD schools. Ever since 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a speech at the U.N, her “school strike for climate” movement has been spread around the world, including in Iowa City.

According to vox.com, 1.4 million students across the globe skipped school to climate strike, one of those students being PaciottoBiggers. Since then, he has striked every Friday. For the first time, on April 19, students from City joined the South East student in striking.

There had been an attempt for a strike at City on March 15, when PaciottoBiggers started striking. However, it was disorganized and was unsuccess-

New birth control bill passes Iowa Senate A

By Estella Brady

few weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Governor Kim Reynolds surprised many with talk of a bill that would increase access to birth control. As a strong, self-proclaimed pro-life advocate, this came as a surprise to both her supporters and critics, and she was accused of making empty promises. But five months later, at the end of March, the Iowa state Senate passed this bill, Senate File 513, in

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a 42-to-6 vote, and now the bill is heading to the House.

“You’re going to see an expansion of opportunities for women to control their health care, which is something the Democrats have been trying to do in this state for years,” Iowa state senator Zach Wahls said. “[The bill] is going to mostly impact those who may not necessarily be able to get a prescription easily or quickly, so that’s why having this over-the-counter piece is really important.”

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ful due to the timing: March 15 was the day school finished before spring break.

“We weren’t really sure what to do,” Penelope Wilkins ‘21, who had attempted to strike that day, said. “We wanted to have an organized [strike], but that was just not happening. I actually heard about it the day of.”

According to Wilkins, the attempted strike was filled with confusion.

Many students had already left for vacation, or were on school trips such as the New York City choir trip or the French trip. That Friday meant a lot of testing and absences for City students, resulting in a failed attempt at a strike due to lack of attendance. Despite Principal John Bacon sending an email to

parents who might want to excuse their students prior to the strike, no strike at City ever occured. However, City High students were finally successful in striking on April 19.

A few weeks ago, a group of elderly women nicknamed “the grannies” started supporting the movement and attending the strikes, wearing green and holding signs. The 19 was their second strike.

“I think it’s really picking up, and a lot more people are coming now,” Paciotto-Biggers said.

Dwight is part of a solar company called Integrated Energy Services Incorporated. He spoke to the group about the benefits of solar energy. continued on A9

This bill would allow women 18 garding the distribution of hormonal years and older to purchase oral con- contraceptives. traceptives at a pharmacy without a “I hope that when [this bill] is prescription. Patients passed, it’s made suwould have their blood per clear to the public “YOU’RE GOING TO pressure checked by which pharmacies can SEE AN EXPANSION OF the pharmacist and be provide prescriptionrequired to complete free birth control and OPPORTUNITIES FOR a self-screening assesswhich ones can’t, beWOMEN TO CONTROL ment, which is modcause right now it’s THEIR HEALTH CARE, eled after similar legisnot obvious whether lation that was passed WHICH IS SOMETHING THE this will have an imin both Utah and Orpact for women in DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN egon, before obtaining all parts of Iowa or the contraceptive.

TRYING TO DO IN THIS STATE not,” Mya Kahle ‘20 Prior to a pharsaid. “But I’m really FOR YEARS.” macy being permitted glad it’s happening. to distribute birth conI have to say I’m surtrol without prescripprised Kim ReynZACH WAHLS tions, pharmacists olds would propose would have to comsomething like this plete a training program along with after she signed the heartbeat bill.” continuous education requirements re- continued on A9

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2A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

Prom dress shoppers went digital in ‘19 With Amazon and other online shopping options on the rise, students also shifted to online shops to buy their dresses

By Sophie Trom

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ith prom just around the corner, students have started their searches for prom dresses. Online shopping has become much more popular, but is online shopping the best way to find a dress?

Elli Dailey ‘20 sits down and starts scrolling through potential prom dress options on her phone, deciding which dress to buy—the one online, or the one in the store.

“People are definitely looking online more because if you don’t see a dress you like, you can go online and find the exact one you want,” Dailey said.

Although students can find more unique dresses and the selection online is much larger than at a store, there is still a lot of skepticism about whether it is the best way to find the perfect dress.

“I recommend definitely going to the store and looking, to make sure you get it on time and

if fits correctly,” Morgan Carey ‘19 said. “Last year I ordered a dress online, and it came late, after prom.”

Even though there is a lot of risk to online shopping, such as it not being the dress that matched the image or shipping late, many still prefer shopping online, and some have found ways to get around the risks in online shopping.

“Look at the reviews of the websites and dresses to make sure they are true to size and fits correctly before purchasing a dress,” Leilani Roach ‘20 said.

However, these shopping tips still have not budged others in switching to online shopping.

Some feel the risk is just too great when it comes to such an important aspect of the night.

“If you buy it online, it could come in the wrong size or turn out differently, and that is not something I want to risk,” Dailey said.

When it comes to prom dress shopping, there are various different places to look for the perfect dress, along with benefits and drawbacks to each method of shopping. It is a matter of what the buyer values most when shopping.

ABOVE: Dresses for sale in the Iowa City area PHOTO BY SOPHIE TROM

Letter from the Editors Dearest Readers, Wow. This is our last issue.

Ever...?! Looking back on these past few years full of reporting, photography, designing, and lots of deadlines, it’s pretty bittersweet to see it end.

As always, this issue is the best one yet. We’re so proud of our gang of editors for all their improvement throughout this school year. We started out this year with many editors who had never designed a page before, and all their hard work and learning has certainly paid off.

This issue contains many testaments to the wonderful school year we’ve had. In the news section, we

have a showcase of the best photos of the year. We also have two pages of profiles on four wonderful teachers who are retiring.

Opinion and A&E are just as great, with a full page of Right to Remain Silent and a Q&A with the seniors of the “Les Mis” cast.

Thank you so much for reading the paper. If you actually read this, come up to Phoebe on May 3 and she will give you candy. We want to know if anyone reads this.

Holy heck, we’re going to miss the newspaper.

Love always, Papa Phoebe & Mama Maya

NEWS 3A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

State standardized testing goes digital with ISASP testing After the introduction of Chromebooks last year, City High has now switched to a digital version of state testing

ART BY NINA LAVEZZO-STECOPOULOS

By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown

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n April 16 and 17, students here at City High, for the first time ever, took out their Chromebooks to take a state standardized test. The ISASP tests, or the Iowa Statewide Assessments of Student Progress, took the place of the Iowa Assessment tests which have been used by the ICCSD for the past seven years. The test was developed by the Iowa Testing Programs (ITP) at the University of Iowa and is supported by Pearson.

“There are quite a few differences, actually. I’m still learning myself, of course, because it’s brand new,” Principal John Bacon said.

These changes include an online administration, different kinds of questions and limitless time, making Iowa’s standardized tests look very different this year.

“So the biggest thing that’s happened is it’s gone online,” Tom Carey said , a guidance counselor at City High.

“As a result, there’s a lot of variables that didn’t used to be around.”

All students needed to have their fully charged school Chromebook, know how to use the tools that come with the new test, and be prepared for the new kinds of questions on the test.

“So before it was a paper, it was pencil,” Carey said.

“Now there are three spots to look for the tools and so [we are] helping students become familiar with that end of the technology.”

Another variable that comes into play when standardized tests are taken online is the need for a new kind of test security.

“The thing with the new technology is, unlike your paper-pencil test that’s set flat on your desk, your screen sits up, and we have to help you have a secure testing area,” Carey said .

The online test is different than other online tests that teachers at City High give. An application, called Test Navigator, has been downloaded onto all of the school-issued Chromebooks.

“As soon as they [the students] are in the Test Navigator program, it locks down their computer, so they can’t have one window where the test is and then another window where they’re Googling answers,” Diane Schumacher, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, said.

There are a few special cases when a specific studens may be allowed to take a test on paper if it is decided that that student would be able to perform significantly better on paper than on a computer.

“A team of people, including the teachers and administrators, the students and parents would have gotten together and have decided that based on the individual student’s need, in order for them to demonstrate their understanding of the content, they need to have a paperpencil format,” Schumacher said.

The second big change is that there are different kinds of questions. The Iowa Assessments, like most other standardized tests, consisted only of multiple choice questions. The ISASP test has multiple choice and short answer questions, as well as drag and drop questions. There are also two mandatory essay questions.

“There’s gonna be a writing test; that’s completely different. You’ve never had an essay-writing experience on the Iowa Assessments before, so that certainly is different,” Bacon said.

In the weeks leading up to the test, teachers showed students how to navigate the tools on their Chromebooks, took practice tests with them, and helped them prepare for the essay component.

“So that’s a difference from the past,” Bacon said . “We never really did practice tests. Since it’s so new this year with the format, we are going to do that.”

The third biggest change is that there is no longer a time limit. Recommended times for each test have been put in place, but students are allowed to use as much time as they need as long as they finish the test on the same day that they started.

“Even though 95 percent of the kids never need more time then what was allotted, just having that there raises the anxiety for students,” Schumacher said . “So [the ITP] decided to kind of lift that time constraint off of there and let kids have as much time as they need to help reduce that anxiety.”

It was determined by the ITP that whether the test is timed or not, the students will still perform roughly the same. However, an untimed test would reduce anxiety, which could allow students to perform better. Because there is not a time limit, students are able to go back and finish their test after the given amount of time.

“When you get to the end of your 60-minute period or if you just finished the test early, you’ll hit a button that

says you’re totally done with that one exam. You can’t go back to it if you hit that button,” Carey said. “If you had a different button at the end, [the proctor] can enable you to retest later. It’ll lock you out until you’re able to come back later in the day.”

Most of the tests are set at 60 minutes, with one test at 120 minutes. This is the amount of time that students were given to test in the morning, but they could go to the cafeteria later in the day to finish their test.

“And then, again, if students need more time, we’re going to create a routine where they have the opportunity to...go down to the cafeteria later in the day and continue to work on their test,” Bacon said.

Seniors do not have to take the tests and sophomores, unlike freshman and juniors, have to take a science test.

Eighth and fifth graders have to take the science test as well, because state law requires grade levels from elementary, junior high school, and high school to take a science test.

“I think the university was making sure that we had met the requirements of state law, but I would anticipate that maybe in the future they will develop science for other grades as well,” Schumacher said.

The results of state standardized tests are used as a part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) or what was formerly known as the No Child Left Behind Act. The state uses the test results along with other factors like graduation rate and the results of the Conditions for Learning survey as a part of the monitoring system for schools statewide.

“The ISASPs are probably the single biggest component of whether you are on the ‘in good shape’ list or you’re on the ‘you need some type of improvement’ list,” Bacon said.

State standardized tests also help identify subgroups, often students in the special education program or English language learners, who need extra support from their school.

“Assuming kids are trying their best, then [the ISASPs] yields really useful information that we can use to try to make sure we are challenging and areas of strength and providing extra support in areas where that’s needed,” Bacon said .

There are two scheduled make up days, April 17 and 18, for students absent on the two testing days.

Scores for the ISASP tests come back in October.

4A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

Off to Costa Rica and Spain For the first time ever, City High students packed their bags to go to Costa Rica over spring break to practice their Spanish.

Meanwhile, students also went to Spain to expirence the language and culture SPAIN

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ABOVE: Students on the Costa Rica trip working on a community service project PHOTO BY NINA LAVEZZO-STECOPOULOS

COSTA RICA

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By Kate Wolfe and Jesse Hausknecht-Brown

or the first time in City High history twenty-three students packed their bags and spent 36 hours traveling 3,459.6 miles by bus and plane before touching down in Costa Rica. With 45 students and six teachers from City High, West High and Liberty High, the spring break Costa Rica trip allowed students to practice using their Spanish while sight seeing, participating in touristy activities and community service projects.

“Overall I think it [the trip] was a success,” Dolores Silva, a City High teacher who chaperoned the trip said. “Primarily because I think the students gained a lot from the trip, and to me that’s always a plus.”

Students experienced cultural immersion while living in host families with two to three students in each family. The six teachers stayed at a hotel and met the students during the day.

“It was definitely a new experience. Because you’re in a residential setting, but it’s just different,” Francesca Brown ‘21 said. “You eat different food, you have to communicate differently. There are new people you’re meeting and you have to adapt.”

Most of the students were able to communicate well with their host families in Spanish.

Some host families could speak some English, but stayed in Spanish for the most part.

“I mean, the families, they’re pretty good about, like, understanding your Spanish abilities,” Ryan Carter ‘20 said. “They’re still speaking pretty complex Spanish, but they’ll speak a little more, more basic when they’re talking to you.”

While most students felt like they were able to get by with the Spanish that they had learned, Brilie Miller ‘20 didn’t think that her Spanish education had prepared her for the trip.

“I feel like the Spanish teachers thought we knew more Spanish going into it and then it was extremely difficult,” Miller said.

Students stayed with their host families at night, enjoyed the homemade Costa Rican food in the mornings and then met up with the rest of the students and drove a couple of hours on a bus to their destination for the day.

“San Jose is in the center of Costa Rica,” Carter said. “So to get to the coasts takes like, I mean it’s not quite a drive to Chicago but a bit under, because it’s such a small country you’re just kind of used to the travel.”

Through the Interact Program, a community service project was set up at a local elementary school. Students helped the landscape, lay rocks, organize trash and plant plants at the school.

“Basically we layed rock so that they wouldn’t have any more mud build ups because it rains a lot during the rainy season,” Silva said.

Ziplining, swimming at the beach, going to hot springs and waterfalls, shopping, whitewater rafting and visiting a butterfly garden were a few

of the more touristy things that the students got to enjoy.

“My favorite part was probably the day we went whitewater rafting and zip lining,” Brown said. “It was really fun. We had a really great guide for our whitewater rafting, he was just really fun.”

Twenty-three of the students on the trip were from City High and all forty-five students (from West and Liberty) spent the days together. Not knowing the other students and teachers on the trip was one of the more challenging parts of the trip.

“When I don’t know sudents that I’m in charge of it’s kind of difficult because it’s not like we had a lot of time to do get to know you activities during the trip and it’s hard to do before the trip because they’re in separate schools,” Silva said.

Both teachers and students felt like the large number of students also proved to be difficult.

“Big numbers are a challenge,” Jordan Garrett, the other City High teacher on the trip said. “If you don’t have enough chaperones, and keeping everyone’s attention when you have a very big group [is difficult].”

While mostly positive things were said about the trip, some students felt like certain aspects could be improved for future years.

“We didn’t have much communication about when we were leaving San Jose our layover,” Brown said. “There were some problems. I know some people forgot their bags at the baggage claim because they didn’t realize [the airline] doesn’t pick them up. Just maybe a little more communication about functional stuff.”

However, most students enjoyed their spring break and would recommend it to other students for future years.

“I would definitely recommend it,” Brown said. “I think it’s a great experience, you’ll get to learn a lot as well as have a lot of fun. And if you’re nervous about using your Spanish, just go for it, you’ll be okay.”

The teachers and many of the students thought that the best thing about the Costa Rica trip is the way it impacts the learning of the language. Between speaking, listening and communicating in real life situation, there is a lot to learn from visiting a Spanish speaking country.

“I think that it really gives kids confidence, and it also kind of puts everything into perspective of how much you actually know and how much you’ve gained,” Silva said.

Living with a host family lets students emerge themselves in a different culture by eating new food like plantation and experiencing the small differences between cultures and countries.

“This is the perfect experience for students to get to use their Spanish, especially a host family experience, you have the opportunity to share

your culture and learn about another culture,” Garrett said. “So it’s basically putting everything you learned in class into practice.”

Using Spanish in a practical setting outside of the classroom is a valuable experience for students. Students got to use Spanish in ways that they don’t get to at school while learning new phrases and words specific to Costa Rica.

“When you’re learning it in class, you’re just thinking, ‘Oh, it’s just Spanish,’ but there’s so much more to Spanish,” Carter said. “Kind of like in English if you listen to somebody that’s talking from England versus somebody that’s talking from Georgia, the way they talk and the different inflections and the different word choices they use are really different.”

Garrett loved getting to see the the students form strong relationships with their host families and practice using their Spanish is the homestay setting.

“My favorite part of the trip was getting to see the students that were really trying to use their Spanish have success being able to practice and getting to know new culture,” Garrett said.

Silva was really happy and proud of the experience due to the hard work students put into the trip. “[The students] acceptance and the openness of the other language and culture was awesome,” Silva said. “I’m really proud of our students that went.”

“IT PUTS EVERYTHING INTO PERSPECTIVE OF HOW MUCH YOU ACTUALLY KNOW AND HOW MUCH YOU’VE GAINED.” DOLORES SILVA

By Millie Garcia

t was early in the morning on March 16th when a group composed of 19 students and two chaperones flew out from the Eastern Iowa Airport to Madrid, Spain. This trip was offered earlier in the school year and was available to students in Spanish three or above. The flight took eight hours and as soon as they landed, the students started on their activities.

“We got off of the plane and went on a train to Segovia and spent the day there. It was the first time I had ever flown overseas so I was really excited to see what Spain had to offer,” Valerie Gonzalez ‘20 said.

Previously, the trip was 15 days long, but this year it was shortened to ten.

“We wanted to make the price of the trip more accessible. It was over 4,000 dollars for the 15 day trip and the ten day trip was 3,500 dollars,” Danielle Eivins, a Spanish teacher at City that chaperoned the trip said.

After sight seeing and spending a few days together as a class, the students met their host families. “[The students] stayed in a town near Seville called Dos Hermanas, they were all excited to meet the families they were going to stay with,” Eivins said.

Students met with their families at the train station in Dos Hermanas, recognizing them from the pictures that the families had emailed them before they left for the trip. The students stayed with their host families for five days. In those days, students got to experience the daily lives of families in Spain.

“I would say that staying with our host families was my favorite part of the whole trip,” Gonzalez said. “They made me feel welcome and I learned so much about the culture in Spain from them. I had a really good time.”

After those five days, students met back with the chaperones and stayed in Madrid for one more day before flying back to the United States.

“My favorite day was ironically enough the last day of the trip, but not because I was happy we were leaving but because I got to walk around Madrid with my friends and enjoy the night,” Ashley Barrera ‘20 said.

This experience not only allowed for students to meet new people, but it also allowed them to create great memories.

“I really enjoyed when we walked to ‘El Escorial’. We had a really energetic and funny tour guide and learned a lot about its history.

That was one of the most memorable parts [of the trip],” Barrera said.

Students enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to other students in future years.

“I decided to go on this trip because I like learning about other worldly perspectives and cultures. Stepping out of your comfort zone is definitely worth the experience,” said Barrera.

By going on the trip to Spain, students were able to put their Spanish to the test and learn from first hand experiences.

“It’s wonderful when students see that the language they’ve been studying in the classroom for several years-- that it works. That it’s understood.

They can use those structures and those words to express themselves, to ask for things and to communicate with new people,” Eivins said.

ABOVE: Students on the Spain trip at Alcazar de Segovia PHOTO BY MILLIE GARCIAS

NEWS 5A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

H U M A N S O F C I T Y

News Classes for 2019-20

YOSALINE CASTILLO “I like to take care of my sisters. My big sister speaks English and I practice my English with her. Sometimes they make me angry, but it is not difficult to take care of them. I have fun with my little sister because she is [a] very good kid, but she also cries a lot. I have more responsibilities...with the baby than the other older kids.

Sometimes I don’t want to take care of my sisters because I have practice and when I come home I’m tired and I have to cook for them. If I don’t take care of my sisters my mom will say I don’t help in the house. I always take care of them so they will remember me.”

By Cecile Bendera

JENNIFER KALALA “You go places that you may not belong in and not everyone is going to accept you for who you are, but instead of giving up you have to show them that you belong there. You don’t just give up; sometimes, you have to fight for it. I’ve seen this type of attitude in a lot of my friends. When they first came to America, they got treated bad by a lot of people telling them that they don’t belong here and need to go back to Africa. If you know my friends, you know they are going to talk back. They didn’t let those people get to them and they talked back. Then everyone that used to talk bad about them, now they respect my friends and are trying to be cool with them.”

H I G H

By Luke Aschenbrenner LUCERO SOSA “I hate when people have attitudes. Whenever we are at school and kids talk back to the teachers, I really don’t like that.

Also, in general, when kids have talk-back and have attitudes for no reason and take their anger out on other people, I hate that. I have talked back and had attitude with other people but apologize. I try to maintain my character even when I am right. Just because you are having a bad day does not mean you should ruin somebody else’s day. There is a tone and a way to talk to people and it is never right to be rude to somebody.”

MORGAN TURNER “Of all the people that inspire me the most, it’s definitely my dad. He always encourages me to do my hardest when it comes to school and sports activities. When it comes to sports he’s always at my games and is my number one fan. Whenever I feel like I had a bad game he helps me with my mistakes and tells me to keep doing my best.

Definitely couldn’t ask for a better supporter and love how he’s always there for me. He has shown me that when striving for your dreams it’s not always gonna be easy and you have to work hard for what you earn.”

S

tudents looking for new courses to choose this coming school year will have 11 new options to pick from. The school board decided that this year, courses covering topics ranging all the way from composition to agriculture will be added to the roster for the 2019-2020 school year. These new courses are designed to provide more opportunities for students to learn new concepts and skills.

“I would encourage students to explore different areas, and see what interests they have and what abilities they have, so as to not get too locked into just one thing,” Linda Hoel, one of City High’s guidance counselors, said. “Since there are so many different things [students] can take, and with all these new courses being added, this is a great time [for students] to experiment and try new things.”

A few noteworthy new classes for this coming school year include Composition One/Two and Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR).

In Composition, a class previously only offered at the Kirkwood Community College’s Regional Center, juniors or seniors have the opportunity to take a college-level class that teaches valuable writing skills.

In AFNR, a wide variety of topics are covered that may appeal to many different students.

There are farming, environmental, and business components in this class, making it suitable for any students interested in growing crops, managing livestock, taking care of the environment, and even students interested in veterinary work. The complete new course descriptions for City High’s 2019 school year can be found on the City High website.

“I would encourage students [to] just take advantage of as many different courses that they can, and maybe take a risk once in a while,” Hoel said. “After all, if [they] were to go to a smaller school, they would maybe only see just a few of these [courses] offered. We want students to be well-prepared for when they graduate.”

So Long, Teachers, Hello, Budget Cuts

By Lindy Rublaitus

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obin Fields, a longstanding English teacher at City High, announced her retirement after 11 years teaching at the school. As long and fulfilling as her career was, Fields is retiring at a much younger age then she had planned. After talking to other teachers, her financial planner, and consultants, she thought that she should take this rare opportunity.

“I knew the insurance package plus the onetime stipend was a rare retirement incentive,” Fields said.

Fields is only one among many teachers who are taking the ICCSD’s early retirement offer. According to the budget savings plan as of March 2019, the district will save approximately $1,580,715 with the Early Retirement Program, helping to ease the over-five-million-dollar debt the district is in. But while many teachers across the district are taking hold of the early retirement incentive, schools are also put into the position of moving around teachers who are staying to fill those now open positions instead of hiring new teachers.

The district administrator staff reduction/ restructuring will save $483,253 and resignations will save $187,344. The big factor for high

schools with be the Secondary Certified Staffing Reduction with will save $673,572 but will make 137 courses with class sizes of 20 students or less be considered an “offer and teach” courses, a class that will only be taught if a teacher takes over for that position, and will make 39 of these small sized classes unavailable, such as Ethnic Studies, Intro to Agriculture, and Food & Natural Resources. There will also be significant savings with teacher library staffing reductions which will save a quarter million dollars, but these positions will be vacant for the 2019-20 school year.

While there will be lots of savings throughout the district, schools will be losing 73 teachers due to early retirement and resignation. According to Superintendent Steve Murley, the positions that will remain open for the 2019-20 school year include two administrator positions, 21 elementary teacher positions, 3.1 specials teacher positions as a result of the reduction of the 21 elementary sections, 9 secondary teacher positions, and three teacher-librarian positions.

“It looked, at one time, that we might have very little hiring to do this year at City High, which is unusual,” Principal John Bacon said. “We’re a big school and we also always have a fair amount of turnover each year and that’s normal for a school this size. But this year it didn’t look like there’s

going to be that much. Then the early retirement incentive came along which is definitely helping the district get on top of a difficult budget situation. The idea is that people at the top of the pay scale retire and then they get replaced with people that come, younger people at the the beginning steps of the pay scale.”

Some positions have been opened to be filled internally through the district while the ones that aren’t will be left open for next year. Essentially, the district is moving around teachers to fill in for classes rather than hiring a whole new teacher.

By leaving 38.1 positions across the district vacant next year, the school board will not have to hire new people but will just move around the pieces as much as they can until classes are taught and positions are filled.

“It’s kind of like playing musical chairs. We might put people in different seats and then, after that, people get into their new spot and there may be a job kind of somewhere down the line that we choose not to replace, one that maybe the district would be able to do without for at least a year while they’re trying to get savings,” Bacon said.

“That’s part of why you hire internally, would be to try to get people in the positions that we absolutely have to have filled and then allow people to kind of get in the different role in the district

that they want to try and then at some point. So basically it’s a way to try to fill positions in your organization without bringing any new salaries into the district that we’re not already paying.”

For City High particularly, positions have already been moved around, such as Phillip Hansen taking over as the athletic director. While he has not been an athletic director for a 4A high school, Bacon is hopeful that he will bring fresh ideas to the table but also keep with his current knowledge of how City High runs. On the other side of things, Dr. Myron McReynolds, the current band teacher for city who has been working at City for 15 years, will be replaced by Michael Kowbel, the band director for South East Junior High.

All of these cuts and the promotion for early retirement is due to an overspend through district in 2014 that is putting the school board into the position of cutting positions or going into a negative funding balance, which would be illegal.

“I think a few factors, including a lack of sufficient funding from the state the last several years, have necessitated the district to offer such a huge incentive,” Fields said. “That part is unfortunate because teachers and para[educator]s and administrators with a lot of experience are leaving the classroom and the schools. The good news is nobody was laid off.”

6A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

No Model to Follow

After the seniors in Model UN graduated last year, nine new students went to the conference without expectations or experience

By Emmelene Perencevich and Julianne Berry-Stoelzle

T

he chair of the General Assembly got out of his seat and walked behind the table, stepped off the stage, and walked out the door. Two students ran up and placed both a loaf of bread and a bottle of Dasani water at his seat in accordance with the passed Amendment A15.

“I loved the joke amendments at the end,” Harper Denniston ‘21 said. “So basically, when we had finished and didn’t have anything else to do, people could just write a funny amendment and put on and discuss them, and there were some pretty hilarious ones.”

Along with Amendment A15, several joke amendments were added to the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural (SH&C) Resolution on Crimes Concerning Humanitarian Aid after the General Assembly passed both the SH&C Resolution regarding Human Trafficking and Forced Labor and Political and Security Resolution regarding Right of Return for Refugees. The rest of the 2019 Spring Model UN conference was full of surprises, especially for the nine City High students who attended. Not one of them had ever gone before.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Denniston said. “I knew that you could...just observe if you wanted to, but other than that I really had no idea what would be going down.”

Last year, every single student who was in Model UN graduated from City High, leaving coach Steve Dodge with a lot of new and unprepared students.

“It always kind of goes in cycles; we had a strong group that graduated last year, and a lot of them have gone on to pursue academics in public policy and areas connected to Model UN,” Dodge said.

“I think it’s a valuable activity, and then many students find something they want to do as a career from doing it.”

Model UN, or Model United Nations, is a club at City High where students put themselves in the shoes of real UN delegates. They represent a country at a conference which is usually held by a college or high school Model UN club.

“My main goal is to get people there the first time, because I think once you get there, you’re going to want to come back,” Dodge said. “The difficulty...is trying to get people to understand what’s going to happen, and a lot of that you just got to get from experience.”

Of the nine students who went, all who aren’t graduating are planning to go back to the conference next year.

“Everyone...is going be accepting of you because there’s going to be all kinds of new people, they’re just starting out and then you’ll be that much more experienced to take on a bigger role in the future and to get involved in other activities,” Dodge said.

At the conference, delegates of countries get to vote on amendments and write their own during the caucus. Caucuses are where the delegates have time to write amendments and speak with other delegates. “[My favorite part was] interacting with the other schools from our state, and also being able to meet underclassmen of our school because I never have an opportunity to meet any of the underclassmen,” Magdalena Bialk ‘19 said.

Dodge recommends that any students interested in global social, humanitarian, political, or trade policies join the club.

“Don’t be worried. You got to overcome that fear of newness of trying something new,” Dodge said. “Just go out and take the risk.”

ABOVE: “The Bleachers” mock trial team at the state tournament PHOTO BY PETER PERSAUD

MOCK TRIAL MAKES STATE “The Bleachers,” an all-senior Mock Trial team, placed fifth at the state competition this year after having missed their shot by only a few points three years in a row and been put on “the bubble” at regionals

By Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin

N

erves were high at the Iowa Convention Center on Thursday, April 4 for the long-awaited state Mock Trial tournament. One of City High’s Mock Trial teams, nicknamed “The Bleachers,” has been working as a team since sophomore year. The team has been mere points away from making the state tournament for three years now, often splitting the ballot, meaning one judge believed it should win, and one believed it shouldn’t. This year, they were named the “bubble team,” causing them to wait for two weeks after the regional tournament to find out if there was a place for them at state or if the bubble “popped.”

“It was a little frustrating to be so close and not quite make it, especially multiple years in a row, but it made us work much harder to make it,” Rachael Volkman ‘19 said.

Eventually, they were notified of their place at the state tournament and got hard at work, rehearsing at their coach’s office almost every night for weeks.

“Once we found out that we were going to state, we started spending a lot more time at Peter’s office, so we were there almost every night the week leading up to state,” Volkman said. “It took up a lot of time, but it wasn’t a burden because I was there with my friends and I knew what I was doing was worth it.”

After watching them since their sophomore year, coach Chip Hardesty was proud of the work that this team did to

make it to state this year.

“This team was very good last year, but they polished things even just a little bit more. The margins are very small at state so it doesn’t take too much to improve their standing,” Hardesty said.

The tournament took place on April 4 and 5, with one round on the 4 and two rounds on the 5. In Mock Trial, the rounds are between two teams, each playing one side, defense or plaintiff. This year’s case was about an art fraud situation where the defense represented an auctioneer and the plaintiff represented a recent lottery winner who bought an expensive piece of art. The witnesses were Volkman, Kate Murray ‘19, Quinn Kopelman ‘19, Beatrice Kearns ‘19, Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin ‘19, and Nhat Tran ‘19. The lawyers were Lottie Gidal ‘19, Rocio Stejskal ‘19, Salwa Sidahmed ‘19, and Rylee Zuniga ‘19. Kopelman and Gidal won All-State witness and lawyer.

“In addition to the strength of our teams the last three years, it was great to continue our tradition of having an all state witness and an all state lawyer,” Hardesty said.

The team first competed as defense, then plaintiff, then defense again. The team won all three of their rounds, being named undefeated, and scored fifth place.

“I was pretty happy with the place we got, especially because we were undefeated,” Volkman said. “I think we did the absolute best we could.”

Hardesty was also happy with the

results, although not surprised.

“This year’s team did a spectacular job at state and built on the legacy we have already established as a state power in Mock Trial,” Hardesty said.

To attend the state tournament, the team traveled to Des Moines on a school bus and stayed at a hotel.

“The hotel was so fun. Everybody was in different rooms but we all would congregate in one room and just hang out, eat veggie straws, and go swimming,” Volkman said. “Everyone was so happy with how we did and the energy was just so exciting. We were all joking around and making inside jokes about the competition and everyone was texting and calling their parents. We were all really content with how it went.”

This was Volkman’s second year participating in Mock Trial. She joined to spend more time with her friends, but it eventually developed into a valuable experience.

“I am very glad I joined Mock Trial.

It’s definitely been my favorite thing to do in high school,” Volkman said. “It helped with my public speaking skills and helped me meet new people.”

Looking back, the experience of state Mock Trial is one that Volkman is really glad she had.

“Now that it’s all over, I’m missing all the trips to Peter’s office and all of the Bruegger’s Bagels,” Volkman said. “Going to state was an amazing experience.”

NEWS 7A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

A continuing political career 2017-18 student senate President Teagan Roeder ‘19 begins work with University of Iowa Student Government

Medical amnesty bill passes through Judiciary Committee Medical amnesty gives people the opportunity to bring underage people with alcohol poisoning to the hospital without being legally punished

By Esti Brady

T ABOVE: Teagan Roeder ‘18 PHOTO BY PHOEBE CHAPNICK-SOROKIN

By Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin

A

fter a year-long break from student government activities, Teagan Roeder ‘18 is reopening his senate career as an independent senator in University of Iowa Student Government (UISG). He ran on the same basic principles that he used for his City High election two years ago: communication and transparency.

“I truly believe that UISG needs transparency and communication. Often student government tends to stay confined within itself,” Roeder said.

“It should be representing all of us; we should all be involved with student government to the greatest degree that we can because we have to have a participatory governing style if we are to be a democratic government.”

As City High president, Roeder held town hall meetings for students to express their ideas to him, and for him to talk about what he has been implementing. Although his new role as senator does not give him the leverage to hold meetings

like this, Roeder is planning on opening up on the process of the UISG elections, one that he believes is flawed.

“I would like to fix the election code, or at least try my best to help them fix it, because there are multiple groups interested in modifying the election code...so that UISG doesn’t stay elitist in some aspects,” Roeder said.

As many City High students may remember, Roeder used a shoebox as a campaign strategy for his 2017 student senate presidential election. He held out the mystery of what was in the box, then, when presenting his final campaign speech, he revealed that there was nothing in the box: it was a place for the ideas of the student body. Although he did not repeat this strategy in his recent election, Roeder credits his use of memes to having set himself apart from other candidates.

“I put memes on every one of my flyers and I made people giggle and that was a wonderful feeling, to know that I was spreading joy,” Roeder said.

Roeder chose to run as an independent candi-

date, giving him the opportunity to form his own platform and campaign in the ways that he was comfortable with.

“I decided that I could run as an independent because I’m from Iowa City, I already know quite a few college students, plus with a good base of City High graduates going to the University of Iowa, I thought I would’ve had a good enough base to run off that,” Roeder said. “Plus, there was a lot of sentiment of support [for] independents.”

Roeder forsees a transition from being president of City High’s student government to being a senator in UISG. “I’m not going to be leading this body, I’m just going to be a participatory member,” Roeder said. “I will be working in committees.”

Roeder encourages all students, no matter what school they are attending, to participate in student government.

“Be active in any form of government no matter how you feel about it,” Roeder said. “It’s good to be involved in a democracy.”

he act of consuming alcohol can be dangerous at any age, but when this act is illegal and must be kept under wraps, the possibilities of things going awry skyrocket.

“Even though high school students know they’re not supposed to drink, they still do. And being at a younger age, they’re much less responsible while doing it,” Grace Murphy ‘20 said.

A bill that would allow people under the age of 21 to receive medical attention for alcohol overdoses—without any need for fear of legal action taken against them or who they’re with— currently sits in the Iowa state capitol. It’s been approved by committees in both the Senate and the House but is listed as “unfinished business,” meaning it may not reach the floor for a vote by the end of this session. Hira Mustafa, the president of the University of Iowa Student Government, went to Des Moines in early April to advocate for this bill.

“This really is a priority, in addition to state appropriations, for our education in the state of Iowa and needs to be addressed,” Mustafa said.

“I do think that it would be heavily supported in both the House and the Senate if it gets to the floor.”

Almost all legislators seemed familiar with the bill in April, Mustafa explained, because this isn’t the first time it’s been introduced.

“We’re trying to keep this bill specific to alcohol because last year someone added drug usage and it tanked the bill,” Mustafa said.

If this bill is passed, Iowa would join the over 30 states in the US that already have medical amnesty laws. Some colleges have also individually made it their policy to legally protect their students seeking medical help for alcohol overdoses. Even though this issue is seen primarily as affecting college students, there are countless stories of high school students needing the same help.

“I’ve heard about multiple times where someone drinks too much and no one wants to take them to the hospital because they’re scared of getting in trouble or something, so they just leave them alone for hours until they finally call their parents,” Diego Paciotto-Biggers ‘20 said.

“Also, it’s not like having protection from legal action will make more people want to get drunk or anything. It’ll just make those who do safer.”

Although medical amnesty bills have been shown to decrease rates of death and injury due to alcohol poisoning in other states, there’s no guarantee that Iowa will take this bill up for a vote because of their packed agenda.

“We’re hopeful that we can get something done this year because if it doesn’t, then next year it will have to go through committees again,” Mustafa said. “We’ve been working on this bill for years now and it feels as if every year not quite enough people call in to let their representative know that this is a priority.”

8A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2018

BEST PHOTOS of the

YEAR

NEWS 9A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

Birth control

Climate change strike Continued from A9

Continued from A9

In May of 2018, Governor Reynolds signed the “heartbeat bill”, the most restrictive ban on abortion in the nation, which banned abortion after the fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur before a woman even knows she is pregnant. It was quickly challenged in court and was deemed unconstitutional under the Iowa Constitution by Iowa District Court Judge Michael Huppert. Governor Reynolds had the option to appeal the court decision in February of 2019, but decided against it, handing over a victory to many who oppose her prolife position.

Reynolds’ recent actions that support those who are pro-choice over those who share her view on abortion have lead some to become skeptical of her administration’s future decisions.

“I didn’t see this proposal com-

ART BY KATE GOODVIN ing from [Reynolds], even though increased access to birth control will mean fewer abortions, but I’m definitely worried that something will come afterwards that makes it more difficult to get an abortion if needed,” Lizzi Ayers ‘20 said.

But the skepticism certainly

doesn’t override the excitement coming from Democrats about this bill, and as a proposal coming from a Republican governor, the future of the bill is bright.

“It’s a step in the right direction. I would like to see it grow, of course, and I hope that’s what’s going to happen over time,” Wahls said.

“We’re going to beat the big guys,” Dwight said in reference to large energy corporations such as MidAmerican Energy. “We’re flipping [the system] and we’re changing it, and they don’t like it.”

For Francesca Brown ‘21, it was her first climate strike on Friday.

“I’m just glad that kids that are even younger than us are taking initiative,” Brown said. “I thought it was really inspiring that they were organizing it and taking this initiative, and that they’re being leaders for us, even though they’re younger than us.”

Brown thought that Dwight provided meaningful insights on the facts behind solar energy.

“It’s important you educate yourself,” Brown said. “I feel like its a common misconception that solar power is going to be something that’s really costly, but when you break it down, it becomes less costly the more you produce. And in the long run you will actually get a return on your money.”

School board member Phil Hemingway spoke as well. He mentioned how there had been conversation about solar panels at meetings.

“Not that I don’t trust [Hemingway], but he kind of was like, ‘They’re reintroducing the idea [of solar panels],’” Brown said. “It shouldn’t be that they’re reintroducing the idea at this point. It should be that they’re finding ways to actually enact this plan.”

Brown was frustrated with the lack of action from the school board and the district.

“I feel like [Hemingway] was not of any help. He basically told us what we already know,” Brown said.

“Nobody [on the school board] is taking action right now. That they’re just having conversations about the idea of [solar energy], but they’re not implementing anything. And we already know that, and that’s why we’re striking.”

Brown believes not enough kids came to the strike, however she believes that attendance will improve as the strikes continue and the word gets out.

“I thought it was nice there was a speaker there. That way we were getting an educational opportunity and not just skipping school,” Brown said.

14 year old South East student Mara Mass also striked for the first time on Friday.

“I am conscious about the climate and I’ve always been very pro-solar panels and working against carbon emissions,” Mass said. “I’ve been looking for a change to come out here, and today was the day.”

Like many of the strike attendees, Mass was unsatisfied with the lack of students who showed up.

“I think there should have been more [people]. I was happy with how many people came compared to before, but I think we can do better,” Mass said.

Mass, along with Paciotto-Biggers and Dwight, spoke to the crowd, urging them that solar panels are necessary at Iowa City schools.

“We need to stand up for what we believe in and I think we all believe in having a home,” Mass said. “So if we are going to continue living on this Earth, like one of the signs said, ‘There’s no planet B,’ so we’ve got to make this work.”

While most students left and went back to school after the speakers, Paciotto-Biggers, amongst a few other students, stayed the rest of the school day to continue to strike. Brown was disappointed she couldn’t stay with the others, but plans to in the future.

“The adults and the people who run this district need to realize what is important to us,” Brown said. “This is something that matters to so many people, regardless of their age.”

Paciotto-Biggers will continue to strike until the ICCSD meets his demands.

“I’m just going to keep going until they actually do something,” PaciottoBiggers said.

There will be future strikes at the ICCSD offices every Friday. And for the attendees who were there on April 19, they hope to see more people show up.

“Anybody who’s available, come on out and work for it,” Mass said.

BU Y A

Y E A R B O OK T ODAY!

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

10A NEWS

A bitterswe

City High students bid beloved teachers, but they future

ABOVE: Jacque Green cooking with students PHOTO BY SHOSHIE HEMLEY

Robin Fields

Jacque Green

By Shoshie Hemley

J

acque Green has been teaching for 32 years. She started her career out at City High from 2000 to 2007, and has been teaching again at City for the past three years.

“I really do enjoy doing what I do. The kids are so much fun and we do so many fun projects,” Green said. “And I just enjoy high school kids an awful lot. I think I’ll just miss being connected to that younger generation.”

Green teaches Family and Consumer Science, something she very much enjoys.

“I’ve had a really good career. This is all I’ve ever done,” Green said.

“I guess I feel really proud that I’ve survived this long in teaching.”

After 32 years, Green is retiring the same year her youngest daughter graduates from City.

“It’s hard. Teaching is really hard job. It’s very stressful,” Green said.

“It’s very time consuming. And I guess I’m just happy that I had a really good career doing it.”

Not only does Green teach, but she also helps out with the theatre department’s costumes. She’s done costuming for many shows before, and has recently started costuming for City. She might continue to help with costumes after retirement.

“It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve learned a lot,” Green said. “I’ve discovered a lot of things about kids. And thats been another piece that I’ve really enjoyed a lot.”

Additionally, Green runs culinary club. One activity she enjoys with the club is cooking for the hungry fans at the last home football game.

“I’ve really enjoyed culinary club. The kids that come in for culinary club are so energetic. And they really want to try new things and create new things,” Green said. “We come in here after school and we just have a ball. We just have a really good time making whatever, having fundraisers, and making meals.”

Green believes City is a very welcoming institution.

“It’s really comfortable to be here. People listen, people are friendly, and it’s just a very positive place to be. You’re very supported,” Green said. “I am a department of one, and so I don’t have a lot of colleagues to chat with all day, but everybody’s so friendly. So that’s I guess what I like about it.”

By Owen Sorenson

R

obin Fields had teaching experience prior to teaching at City, however it wasn’t until she started attending the University of Iowa for her masters degree, that she realized that she loved Iowa City and wanted to take the job at City High.

“So when I was working on my Master’s degree at the U of I, I worked for the University and supervised student teachers, and a couple of my students were in the Iowa City schools, so I had an opportunity to come and view the school,” Fields said. “I also had former colleagues who were working at City High and I also just knew I liked the town of Iowa City, so I applied for the first position that was open here and I was lucky enough to get it.”

AP Language is a class that has been primarily taught by Fields throughout her career here at City High; however, it is not the only class that she has taught.

“I pretty much did everything English and journalism. I’ve taught freshman, sophomore and junior English, I was a newspaper advisor, I’ve taught US Lit, I taught Contemporary Lit,” Fields said. “I also coached junior high basketball for a couple of years.”

Originally wanting to be a teacher from a young age, Fields knew that she liked to teach and help other people. It wasn’t until her college years, however, when she decided to minor in teaching, that she fully decided that she wanted to go into teaching profession.

“As a matter of fact, when I was growing up, I had this toy room, and one of the things that I had hanging in the room was this green chalkboard and I would love pretending to be a teacher at school,” Fields said. “ In high school I was on the school newspaper and I wanted to pursue that as well, so I took a little bit of a detour and went into journalism, but then I came back around and brought in education.”

After retirement, Fields has a personal bucket list of things that she wants to accomplish.

However, because she has so many things that she wants to accomplish, she has yet to figure out what the first few things are that she is going to do.

“So I have already started making a retirement bucket list and I know I want to travel. I also definitely want to work because I have to stay busy or I’ll get bored,” Fields said. “I want to relearn Spanish, I want to work on my knitting, I’m going to get married, I want to spend time more with my kids who are older, I want to spend time with my sister in Texas. So I have all kinds of plans its just about figuring how and when I am going to do it.”

One of the most important things about retiring for many people is the legacy a teacher will leave behind. For Fields, this legacy is how she will be remembered by students and colleagues alike.

“I hope I am remember as a person who was compassionate and a teacher who was passionate.”

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

NEWS 11A

eet goodbye

farewell to some of their are excited to see what the e holds

ABOVE: Brent DeNeice looking through virtual reality goggles PHOTO BY HENRY MILDENSTEIN

Myron McReynolds

Brent DeNeice

By Emme Perencevich

D

r. Myron McReynolds has filled the halls of City High with music for 15 years. He’s spent a lifetime devoted to teaching band to students, and though he is retiring this year, he shows no signs of stopping.

“My plan is to continue to do something in music teaching,” said McReynolds. “I am intrigued with the idea of subbing and going to different places and doing what I do, but with different groups of students and different situations.”

From a young age, McReynolds was surrounded by music at home and at school. It became his passion and he showed it through every concert he conducted, pep rally he attended, marching band heck week he suffered through, and every rehearsal he directed.

“My father was a professional singer, so music has been a part of my life, always. And it is something that I found that I was pretty good at, that I loved to participate in,” said McReynolds. “It has always had a place in my heart. There hasn’t been a time that there wasn’t music involved. It just has been the love that I have always had, the one passion.”

This passion only grew once he started band. Years later it inspired him to start teaching music.

“I knew from when I was 10 years old [that I would become a teacher],” he said. “It probably boils down to having really influential band directors from when I was very young. My first two were wonderful people.”

Dr. McReynolds learned from his teachers and from his own experiences in pedagogy. He has incorporated everything he has learned over the years into his work.

“The most important thing I’ve learned is flexibility,” Dr. McReynolds said. “Having to understand that not all students are all the same and that they all have different needs, different desires, and you have to teach them differently, hopefully towards the same goal, but you have to come at it in different angles.”

Improving the way he teaches is one thing, but Dr. McReynolds has also applied a greater understanding of students as individuals.

“People come from different places with different strengths and weakness, but you have to teach it to each person differently,” Dr. McReynolds said. “I think that [directing band] helped me realize that everyone is an individual, even in something where everybody is supposed to be one, so to speak.”

Throughout his years at City High, Dr. McReynolds has made many memories with the various groups he has worked with.

“One of the last trips we took to Orlando, the wheel had come off of the bus and went right into the interstate, so that was kinda funny. Well, not funny at the time, but the bus lurched and sparks were flying everywhere and the hub is flying down the interstate at 70 miles per hour, so that was kinda funny in retrospect, but really scary at the time,” said Dr. McReynolds.

After working at City High for 15 years, he reflects fondly on his time, while realizing how much hard work it took.

“Oh boy… I worked hard, I showed up every day, and I did my very best,” Dr. McReynolds said. “That’s about all.”

By Henry Mildenstein

A

lthough Brent DeNeice has been working with teenagers for most of his adult life, teaching is his third career.

DeNeice has been teaching for 24 years and 22 of those have been at City. Although he is retiring from his position as a special education teacher at City, he still plans to keep working after he leaves. “l love what I’m doing, but I felt it was time for a change. Retiring for me isn’t retiring in the traditional way, since I’m moving on to something new. I may do some landscaping jobs, substitute teach, work at Menards, or privately work with some of the families I am working with now,” DeNeice said.

As a special education teacher, DeNeice’s job varied day-to-day.

“What the job entailed daily was assisting and supporting my students and the staff that works with them. Sometimes I was a teacher, sometimes I was a social worker, and other days I was a friend,” DeNeice said.

Throughout his 22 years at City, DeNeice enjoyed watching the growth of his students.

“Typically, teachers see a consistent growth within the semester for their students. For me, I generally have students for up to six years in some cases. The growth of my students isn’t always that quick, so it is really rewarding to see the growth they do make,” DeNeice said.

“Although someone on the outside looking in wouldn’t see a lot of growth over the course of a semester, for my students it’s a lot.”

Because the growth of his students is not always the quickest, DeNeice is proud of the things they do learn over the course of a year.

“We are still doing academic work, but it’s a different style of work,” DeNeice said. “General education students may be writing essays, however, for us we are learning how to handle money, fill out a job application, and doing vocational training as well.”

Even though DeNeice loved his job, he did

have a critique of the position.

“I think that one of the things that I would like to see is one person that is a coordinator for the staff,” DeNeice said. “There are five paraprofessionals in my group and I would like to see the district hire a coordinator for the staff so we all stay organized.”

Throughout his career, DeNeice was well respected by those who he worked with. Tom Braverman, another special education teacher at City, worked with DeNeice for 13 years and felt that DeNeice always put in the extra mile for his work.

“He is one of the kindest people I’ve ever meant, and he will go above and beyond for his students. For years and years, he would come in to work at 6:30 in the morning and work until six at night, as well as work on Sundays so he could be prepared for his students and modify their curriculum so they could be active participants,” Braverman said.

During their time working together, Braverman viewed DeNeice as an exemplar of what a special education teacher should be.

“A lot of students he works with are noncommunicative or not great readers so he works hard on activities that engage them. He would spend hours on an activity that the students would be done with in a few minutes,” Braverman said. “He just wanted them to not only be exposed to the core curriculum that everybody is doing, but teach it in a way they could actually engage them. I’ve learned a lot from him and his commitment to his craft is something I hope to match someday.”

During the time that DeNeice taught at City, he felt connected to the people and the building.

“I’ve certainly enjoyed working with the former principal Mark Hanson and John Bacon,” DeNeice said. “There is something about this building that’s special and it’s cool to see how far [the building] has progressed since I’ve come here.”

12A OPINION

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

LH Executive Editors

Maya Durham Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin

Opinion Editors Esti Brady Rhys Holman

Features Editors

Zoë Miller Nina Lavezzo-Stecopoulos

News and Sports Editor Lottie Gidal

Photo and Video Editors Lindy Rublaitus & Alison Kenaston

Copy Editors Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin Emme Perencevich Mira Bohannan Kumar

A&E Editor Lindy Rublaitus

Web Editor Mira Bohannan Kumar

Culture Editors Cecile Bandera Mariam Keita

Staff

Alice Boerner, Maya Chadwick, Elena Dreyer, Mario Medellin, Virginia Muturi, Montserrat Rodke, Javon Tyler-Cook, Noah Bullwinkle, Ellis Chen, Millie Garcia, Kate Goodvin, Natalie Green, Shoshanna Hemley, Reese Hill, Henry Mildenstein, Josh Poe, Owen Sorenson, Carly Weigel, Jack Bacon, Eva Bailey, Julianne Berry-Stoelzle, Everline Bwayo, Augustine Connolly, Jesse Hausknecht-Brown, William Irvine, Rachel Meehan, Ruth Meehan, Tariq Murphy Adviser: Jonathan Rogers

Mission Statement The Little Hawk, is the student newspaper of City High School, aims to inform, educate and entertain readers; to provide an educational opportunity for the students who produce it; and to provide a medium for commercial advertising.

EMAIL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO: LITTLEHAWKPAGE@GMAIL.COM

Equity Statements

It is the policy of the Iowa City Community School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, or socioeconomic status in its educational programs, activities, or employment practices.

If you believe you have (or your child has) been discriminated against or treated unjustly at school, please contact the Equity Director, Ross Wilburn, at 509 S. Dubuque Street, 319688-1000.

ART BY HAILEIGH STEFFEN

Staff Editorial: The tricks of the trade (school) Why trade school is a completely feasible option that high school graduates should consider

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he class of 2019 will soon exit the doors of City High for the last time and head out for whatever they so choose for their future. The decisions made regarding higher education are rarely quick and easy, especially when career choices loom above all else. As the demand for jobs that require at least a bachelor’s degree increases throughout the US, the emphasis on getting into college and completing at least four years has as well. This pressure can come from parents, teachers, counselors, peers, and even oneself, making the consideration of other options for one’s future seem pointless. One of the frequently overlooked, but viable, options for a successful future after high school is trade school.

Trade schools, also referred to as vocational schools when run or supported by the government, or career colleges when run by private institutions or made for profit, are designed to train students for a specific career path. Careers in which trade school is sufficient preparation can range from viticulturist–those who grow grapes–to cosmetologist to electrician.

Although whether a trade school is public or private certainly affects the price, they’re typically significantly less expensive than a four-year college. The cost of trade school ranges from about $3,000 to $15,000 per year, whereas four year colleges can range from about $10,000 to $60,000. When taking into account that trade school degrees rarely require more than two years to earn, the average graduate spends $122,000 less than those graduating from a four-year college. This could also increase in the coming years, as many colleges in the past decade have made scholarship requirements more difficult to obtain, and making scholarship amounts significantly less, making college more expensive as time goes on.

Upon finishing a course of study, students receive a diploma or certificate to acknowledge they successfully completed it. Some programs give out associate degrees, the degree from a two-year college, as well. After the diplomas or certificates are given, many programs will also help their former students in finding a job in that field as well.

But the relative affordability and less time required of trade schools doesn’t mean that the jobs they get people don’t pay well.

Multiple jobs that are popular paths in trade school have high pay and consistent employment. For example, construction workers make $34,810 per year, plumbers make an average of $53,910 per year, and electricians make an average of $54,110. All of these are

enough for a living, especially given that the decreased price means that there will be less to pay in student loans than a university and a trade-school education also takes less time to complete.

These high wages for relatively low educational commitment are because the jobs that are popular in trade school are jobs that are needed in today’s economy, but are attracting fewer and fewer people join them due to the increase in people going to college after high school. This has created gaps in the supply of labor for these jobs, which leads to the wages for those jobs increasing.

This increase in people going to college has been due to increased societal pressure about going to college and narratives that if someone doesn’t go to college they are bound to not succeed in life. However, this narrative is weakened when opportunities like trade schools are brought up. In fact, the relative financial return of bachelor degrees has been softening in a time in which the number of people willing to work these manual trades has drastically decreased.

Steering kids towards bachelor degrees when they leave high school is done with the best of intentions, but in some cases can be very harmful, because when that recommendation is for everybody, it leads to areas like trade school being completely ignored despite the increased benefits they have as a result of the decrease in people willing to work them.

Trade school jobs like plumbing and working as an electrician are jobs that will continue to be important in our world and will always have roles in our economy. As the demand of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree ebb and flow, there will always be a need for workers who make sure that the electricity is working and that the water is flowing as it should.

Especially with the rapid growth in population in the US and the increase of a reliance on electricity to power everything from our cars to our computers that hold our most important information, not only will these jobs remain available for the foreseeable future, but they will become more and more crucial to the stability of our society.

This isn’t to say that college is useless. Traditional universities have many experiences that trade school doesn’t have and, conversely, trade schools have many experiences that traditional universities don’t have. But the lack of discussion of trade schools leads to many being unaware of a high-paying alternative to a college education that is becoming more and more in need as the years go on.

OPINION 13A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

Head to Head: Candidate Compromise Is it better to vote for a pragmatic choice, or the candidate you agree with most?

I

By Rhys Holman

n America, the average person has very little influence on politics. They don’t have millions of dollars to give to campaigns, they don’t have an audience of hundreds of thousands to deliver their message to, and they aren’t on national television as a political pundit. But they do have one power. One way to meaningfully express their political beliefs. That is with their vote. Because our vote is one of the few things we can do to effect any change, it’s necessary that we only vote for candidates that we believe can create positive change in both the primary elections, the elections between members of the same party, and the general election, the election between the parties.

In Democratic circles the common idea is that the main goal of 2020 is to beat Trump and no matter who the primary makes the Democratic candidate is it’s key to vote for them no matter what to get Trump out of office. This idea is usually supported by many of the most common criticisms of Trump: that his immigration policy is awful and that his stances on social movements have been bad for marginalized groups, including women and African Americans, all of which is true. Their position is then that even if a very moderate Democrat won’t create massive change in economic or environmental policy, that they would be better for the rights of those groups and thus should be voted in regardless of their flaws.

However this idea both justifies the worst parts of candidates’ ideas and also robs the vote of the power it is supposed to hold. Many of the Democratic candidates, in my opinion, are not far left enough on many important issues, which makes voting for them not possible for me.

Saying that voting for any Democratic candidate because they must be better than Trump fails to see just how awful a Democrat in power can be if they don’t do anything to create substantial change. The groups that a Democrat in the White House are supposed to protect aren’t protected if that president refuses to protect them. How will the lives of immigrants improve if a new Democratic president goes back to Obama’s policy of deporting massive amounts of immigrants? How will the lives of African Americans be improved if the new president refuses to take on the discriminatory nature of criminal justice and keeps the cycle of incarceration going? How are women going to be helped by this new president if the court system, which is able to unilaterally strip them of their rights, isn’t substantially reformed?

Only a more radical candidate will be able to tackle these problems in an effective way that will create actual change instead of perpetuating the status quo. Only by electing a more radical candidate who will attack the structures that have created inequality and reform the country to protect marginalized people by protecting their rights in the courts, as well as passing legislation like state-run healthcare, will these groups be protected. They will not be protected by the moral platitudes followed up by no substantial policy that has been a hallmark of establishment Democrats for years now.

Beyond these particular groups that would be helped far more by a further left candidate, there’s another issue to attend to–namely, that the only way to prevent catastrophe to Earth is to not compromise on political candidates in the general election. Climate change is one of the greatest threats to Earth today, and it is estimated that if serious reform does not occur in the next 12 years it might be too late to fix. Only more radical members of the Democratic party have come out in support of this immediate action.

Whether you agree with all of the policy ideas I outlined above or believe the exact opposite, there’s one question that you should think about when deciding whether or not you want to vote for a candidate. “Is this person someone I think is good enough to be president and is someone that will create significant positive change to the country?” Don’t think about who they’re up against or who is the lesser of two evils. Just think whether or not, in a vacuum, that candidate is one that you want to support. If your answer after judging them on their own merits is that they would be good for the country, then go ahead and support them. But if you doubt whether or not the policies they support would be good for the country don’t just vote for them because they’re the opposite party of someone you disagree with. Make them earn your vote. Make them come out in support of issues that matter to you and people who share your ideals. Otherwise, any party can ignore the issues that you care about . Only by holding back your vote until it’s earned will your voice be heard, because that’s the only situation in which they’ll have to change their policy to get more support. If this idea of not settling for candidates still seems ridiculous, think about it like this. Imagine a politician, whether in the White House currently or not, that you think would be just about the worst possible person to be President of the United States. Now think of another candidate who is only ever so slightly better than them. You still disagree with them on everything but think they just aren’t quite as bad as the worst possible choice. Would you support someone you agree with on nothing and you think would be terrible for the country just because they would be slightly less completely terrible? Would you vote for someone you think is morally reprehensible and unforgivable just because they happen to be the nominee of the party you generally support?

So if a candidate meets this litmus test and you support them and the values they represent, go ahead and vote for them. But if neither party represents your beliefs and you think both candidates are morally reprehensible don’t support either of them. The answer to this is not to stay home and not vote. Your vote is your only way to directly engage the political process so giving it up is too detrimental. Instead vote, but when voting for president don’t vote for one of the major parties if neither represent you. That way, instead of giving up on the political process you’re engaging it in a rebellious way that might create change in a party you want to represent you, instead of voting for the same types of politicians with the same empty words that don’t end in any policy.

Writing in a candidate doesn’t win them the election, but it’s the only way refute to the false dichotomy of voting for the Republican candidate or voting for the Democratic candidate and instead vote for someone you think would be good for the country.

I

By Esti Brady

n a perfect world, the candidates in any given election would satisfy all the members of their political party. In a perfect world, the candidate chosen to represent certain ideals would have stayed true to them since the day they were born. In a perfect world, they would not have any missteps in their voting record, sacrificed what they knew to be morally right for what was financially convenient, nor made any mistakes in their personal life. But we do not live in a perfect world. Even more so, we do not live in a perfect nation. The United States is full of flaws, ranging from a history of grotesque oppression of many groups, to present-day platforms and agendas that rarely have everyone’s best interest in mind. The way to create a better, brighter future for all Americans is to put the best candidate in office, of course, but sometimes the best candidates just don’t get the nomination.

I am not one who believes that the primaries are for compromising or negotiating who would be the candidate that can appeal to the most voters. The idea of choosing one person over another because they have a better chance at bringing in the centrist vote or voters who feel misrepresented or isolated from their former party is not appealing whatsoever. I believe in putting your full strength and support behind the candidate who has the best ideas, the strongest stances on issues you care about most, an the most flawless past possible. Not someone who “realistically” could win and doesn’t have a radical bone in their body. But that is in the primaries. That is when their competition is others who share similar views on most issues and the field is vast and diverse. In the general election, although I do certainly see how it is tempting to do a write-in, voting along party lines is the option to try and see the changes you wish to see take place in your country.

I don’t wish to advocate for blind voting or not caring who the candidate is representing your party. I do still think that they should not be allowed to be as corrupt as they wish and still expect a win because of voters who don’t hold their party to any standards at all, but I don’t think that those who reach the general election can be held to the same standards if they were in the primaries. It’s painful to say, but in the general election voters have to be able to be more forgiving than in the primaries. A name of a candidate who has made some mistakes over the course of their lifetime or doesn’t have a policy platform that completely lines up with what you see as the only way to solve the issues we face is an upsetting thing to see on the ballot, I agree. However, sometimes you have to set aside how you feel and just do what has the greatest potential of doing good in the world.

The act of voting isn’t about you. Yes, it is your part in participating in our democracy, and yes, that part is fairly limited, but it affects much more than just you. You must keep in mind the Americans who are greatly affected by the party in power, not the person.

Minorities, those in the LGBTQ community, the incarcerated population, women, and those with physical or mental disabilities are generally better off with a Democrat in office, not with a particular person. I will not pretend that all Democrats are interchangeable and that no matter who they are, they’ll make the right decisions for all these groups without fail, nor will I pretend that the track records of recent Democratic presidents are exclusively made up of choices that promote justice for all. But doing your part in putting someone in office who has a much greater chance of protecting and increasing the rights and safety of these groups is still important, even if they may not do it the best of all of the original candidates of their party.

Doing a write-in or voting third party is not helping anyone but yourself. You may walk away from your polling station feeling a little bit better than if you had given your vote to someone who you don’t believe is 100% deserving of it, but I doubt that feeling can stay forever. When the results of the election are out and you see that you took part in allowing someone to reach the oval office who does not even remotely agree with you on any subject and will most likely make the lives of your fellow Americans much more difficult, regret is inevitable.

Not having the president you may have put in hundreds of volunteer hours for, excitedly talked to all your friends and family about, and genuinely knew in your heart would be the best for the future of the United States in office is tough. Nobody is saying it isn’t. But what’s even tougher for those who you share this country with is knowing that they and their loved ones are going to have a more painful next four years of their lives due to your wishes of remaining morally untainted by an imperfect vote.

14A OPINION

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

Urban racism How racism can go overlooked in liberal, urban communities

By Ellis Chen

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ART BY LAUREN SMITH

US education fails the test How the American public school curiculum inhibts students’ ability to fully understand their courses courses for students that are just as challenging as AP classes, however there are no tests at the end and they are not backed by the College Board, nor are they nationally standardized.

I spent two years at a private school where the system was in the proany students often ponder the question: what is the cess of blending AP with their own method, the Advanced Topic (AT) point of high school? During SAT and ACT season, system.

Courses that had switched to the AT system were college level important tests, and homework overloads, some students joke about dropping out of high school. They courses, however they did not have tests. The students had mixed reacwonder what all their hard work is for. Is it to get into college, and get a tions about it, however in the long run, students still enrolled for the good job? Or is it to simply live up to the standards many parents pres- classes even though the classes were no longer technically AP, and could sure us into? The entire point of high school is to learn. The point of an not potentially give college credit. They were now taking these classes because they wanted to. Because they wanted to learn, the education is to be educated. It seems like a straightforway it should be. The classes were no longer structured ward concept. We go to school to become smarter, yet “WE WERE ABLE around a final test in the end of the year to prove what somehow, American students often feel like all they get TO FORM DEEPER you’ve (temporarily) taken away from the it, but instead from school is stressed out. For most American teenagers, on research and writing. And it wasn’t only school has become about getting into college and simply UNDERSTANDINGS structured advanced classes that made the switch. surviving, not genuinely learning. High school education AND CONNECTIONS My World History class freshman year was one of the has missed the mark and is no longer truly educating.

American public school has been teachABOUT WHAT WE two options in which freshman could choose from to fulfill their social studies requirement for that year. World ing how to take a test, not teaching concepts.

WERE LEARNING History was a research based class, just like the AT classes.

After asking questions in class, saome students are met INSTEAD OF JUST The research based aspect allowed a structure with both with the response, “you won’t need to know this for the test.” This leads to an incomplete understanding of sub- NAMES AND DATES.” essays and projects, but also allowed for personal exploration for what students were interested in. We were able to jects, and instead just incoherent bits and pieces that lead form deeper understandings and connections about what to further confusion. Classes go unit by unit, preparing for tests, and forgetting any knowledge accumulated af- SHOSHIE HEMLEY we were learning, instead of just names and dates. The other option, World Studies, was fully project based. This terwards. This is especially seen in the Advanced Placeallowed for even more exploration of concepts taught in ment (AP) system. the class. Even science classes used research and projects The AP system is a class for certain subjects with the related to the broad concepts in order to fully grasp the information given expectation that students will take a standardized test in the spring along with thousands of other students across the nation, and oftentimes col- in class.

Research and project based curriculums give students the opporleges will take high test scores as college credit. However, this method intunity to truly learn. Simply getting lectured and taking notes doesn’t hibits true learning and is contradictory to its original purpose. It encourhave the same effect as researching the topic yourself and then writing ages slacking for the test during the school year, and then cramming for the test the few weeks leading up to it. Even if students do pay attention or presenting your findings. Students should be exploring, learning, to the class, their entire success in the course should not be measured by and growing. Not simply memorizing for a test. If students had the opone test. More and more schools across the country have been dropping portunity to fully understand their classes, their stress would decrease the AP system. Eight private schools in the D.C area announced they significantly. They wouldn’t feel so lost in school and their grades were dropping the AP system in 2018, according to insiderhighed.com. would reflect that. The American public high school system needs to New systems of education are emerging in private schools, and other elite adapt to the needs of their students. Switching to research based curschools across the U.S. These new methods of education have college level riculums is the change that the public school system needs to make.

M

By Shoshie Hemley

ith the election of Steve King and apparent indifference to his history of making racist and xenophobic comments, there has been a lot of discussion of racism in rural, primarily white areas. These concerns are not unfounded. Historically, rural areas - particularly in the South - have had large amounts of racism, through things like Jim Crow laws. While racism in these areas is important and should not be ignored, we must be careful to not let it gloss over issues in our own community.

Urban areas are often more racially diverse than most rural areas, and Johnson County in particular has different demographics from other counties.

However, it’s important to not let a focus on poor behavior of others prevent us from recognizing issues in our own community. When we externalize racism from our communities, we think less of it. Racism becomes a thing that couldn’t happen here, because racism is a thing that happens in rural Iowa or southern states. A similar situation is with the South-North dichotomy.

Although there is an idea of Northern pride for being part of the Union and fighting against the slavery-supporting confederacy, the North also had racist policies such as redlining as Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South.

When one frames racism as a binary between being part of a liberal college town in America and being in a rural county, it shifts the focus of attention away from issues within that liberal community. Racist language is still used in “liberal” towns. Implicit bias has also had an impact, even if explicit and open racism is frowned upon. Disproportionate school discipline and suspensions within the Iowa City Community School District also came to attention, with black students making up around 60% of suspensions despite making up a much lower percent of the population, which many attribute to implicit bias. Many schools have a lack of teachers of color, despite large numbers of students of color.

Some might argue that rural areas are, in fact, more discriminatory.

While this might be true, it doesn’t change the fact that when we pridefully talk about of being in an area against racism, it ends up removing the ability to criticize very poor local behavior.

Yes, you can condemn racism in rural areas, but you should be sure to not frame it in a binaristic way that happens to absolve people in urban areas of their responsibility.

To be clear, this does not excuse racism and other forms of discrimination in rural parts of the United States, and I don’t wish to erase the action towards progress that has been taken by my peers and others. Racism is inherently evil, and the idea that people should be excused of discrimination for being “ignorant” is patronizing and ignores the agency that individuals possess to control their behavior. It’s also neither fair nor accurate to label everybody in rural communities as racist. Rather, I think that it’s important that we don’t overlook and excuse racism within our own community, and acknowledge racism wherever it exists, instead of just focusing on certain areas of the country.

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM |FEBRUARY 14, 2019

OPINION 15A ART BY ZOË BUTLER

Silent anniversary A year after Parkland, discourse around gun control has dwindled, to the detriment of all

By Mira Bohannan Kumar

T

oday is Valentine’s Day. It’s a day for cutting half-hearts out of a folded sheet, exchanging notes and candy and flowers, a day for cheesy romance quizzes and special additions to The Little Hawk. But this day now has a far more sobering meaning as well: it’s the anniversary of one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.

On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered his alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with a semiautomatic rifle called an AR-15. He pulled the fire alarm and began to shoot at students and faculty as they attempted to leave the building. 17 people--14 students and three faculty members--were killed: Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Beigel, Martin Duque, Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis, Jaime Guttenberg, Chris Hixon, Luke Hoyer, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alex Schachter, Carmen Schentrup, and Peter Wang. Hixon, a veteran who died trying to protect students from gunfire, was the eldest at 49 years old; several of the victims were 14. 17 more were injured. One radiologist who treated the victims wrote in an article in The Atlantic that “[m]ost of them died on the spot; they had no fighting chance at life.”

In the few weeks following the shooting, anger and grief intermixed to create a movement. A

group of MSD students formed Never Again MSD, organizing for common-sense gun-safety measures, like universal background checks and gun registries, in Florida and nationwide. Eventually, that movement morphed into the massive March for Our Lives, which held hundreds of marches nationwide in support of gun control.

Across the country, young people, parents, communities, and advocates lobbied for change.

After the success of a national school walkout, closely followed by March for Our Lives, several MSD students went on tour to promote political action and youth voter engagement, and across the nation, the spring of 2018 mobilized multitudes to speak out about gun control.

Here in Iowa City, I along with several other City and West students formed Students Against School Shootings (SASS) after a walkout we organized on February 19, 2018. For almost a year now, we have been working to prevent gun violence in Iowa City, in Iowa, and around our nation. We organized a March for Our Lives event last March, for which almost a thousand members of the Iowa City community turned out in a blizzard. Now, a year after the Parkland shooting, I’m policy director for SASS, and we’re still hard at work organizing in the Iowa City area.

But everything is not the same as it was a year ago. Sometime after Parkland, perhaps in the

spring or summer, something shifted. Suddenly, gun control was no longer a topic of conversation; our quick news cycles moved on to other issues like romaine lettuce recalls and prospective Democratic presidential candidates. People forgot about the tragedy of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. They forgot about the horror. The Dickey Amendment, which banned the CDC from researching gun violence, was repealed--but Congress did not allocate funds for that research, rendering the repeal toothless.

Significant advances in gun-safety legislation were made in some states last year, but some states, like Iowa, have not become safer. In fact, the conservative-trifecta (conservative Republicans control the state house, senate, and hold the governorship) Iowa government is currently finding a way forward for an amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would prevent any gun-control measures from being enacted. Hope springs eternal--a bill proposing universal background checks has been introduced in the federal House-but any change to be made on this front will be an uphill battle against the political machine of organizations like the NRA. Progress comes slowly, yes, but progress cannot come when we choose to forget.

Every year on this day, without fail, we cut half-hearts out of folded sheets, exchange notes and candy and flowers, read and write special

additions to The Little Hawk. But every year, too--not just today, but many, many days of the year--silent anniversaries pass us by, anniversaries of the tragedies that American society chooses to forget. On April 20, the anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School, in which 15 people including the perpetrators died. On December 14, the anniversary of Sandy Hook, when we lost 20 young children and six school staff members. On June 12, the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando; on that night in 2016, 49 people were killed. On October 1, the anniversary of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, during which 59 people including the perpetrator passed on. We need to remember these devastating events as well, to honor the memories of those we have lost and to keep pushing for the change that must be made.

SASS is holding letter-writing sessions at City and West today, February 14, after school, and another on Saturday, February 16 at the Iowa City Public Library (to learn more, you can check our social media @sassiowa). Join us, and tell our elected officials: We remember Parkland.

We remember Columbine. We remember Sandy Hook. We remember the grief and the loss. We remember the victims. Even though the anniversary of the shooting at MSD will come every year, tragedies of its kind don’t have to happen again.

A stand for grade fairness

By Azzura Sartini-Rideout & Katherine Introna

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he school board has decided that, starting next year, we will be on a graded on a weighted system. That is to say, our grades will be on a 5.0 scale rather than a 4.0 scale. Students who obtain B’s in AP and Honors courses can still maintain a 4.0, and an A in an AP or Honors course will give a 5.0 for the purpose of calculating grade point average. The system will give students who decide to challenge themselves with harder courses the opportunity to be recognized for their efforts.

However, the school board has also decided

not to apply the weighted grades retroactively, families, first impressions are important. How meaning this system will only apply to future can we expect a piece of paper attached to the years, not previous years. back of our transcripts to This signifies that, while our save us from the first-glance “WE EARNED transcripts will say “weighted biases of college admissions grades,” for juniors the previdirectors? 4,806 students OUR GRADES; WE ous three years will still apwere accepted into the UniDESERVE TO HAVE pear out of a 4.0. This puts us versity of Iowa last fall; even THEM REPRESENTED at a significant disadvantage. more applied.

Although there will be a With thousands of appliACCURATELY ON OUR letter attached to our trancants, there is no guarantee TRANSCRIPTS.” scripts explaining that we are that the letter will get more in a transitioning year, at a than a glance. Our grades glance we will look far worse are crucial for catching than the competition. As us students have been the attention of the colleges that we hope to attold many times by the school system and by our tend. How can this year’s juniors hope to stand

a chance against other students if our total GPAs can only reach a maximum of a 4.25 to other schools’ 5.0? Even though the change will most affect the juniors, that does not mean that this year’s freshmen and sophomores are exempt to the issues this system creates.

One of the reasons given for not changing our grades for every year of high school is that teachers may have given specific grades bearing in mind the 4.0 scale. Even if that is the case, the changes aren’t significant enough to outweigh the benefits of changing grades retroactively. We earned the grades we received; we deserve to have them represented accurately on our transcripts.

The only way that the weighted system can fulfill its potential is by applying it to all of our work.

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

ART BY HAILEIGH STEFFEN

OPINION 15A

A&E 16A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

JAZZ CORRIDOR QUINTET A

By Owen Sorenson

trombone, saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums with five students playing each of them has created the Jazz Corridor Quintet recently. Students Ana Koch ‘21, Peter Stoltz ‘20, and Kolbe Schnoebelen ‘20 make up the part of the band from City High with Ethan Buck ‘21 representing West High and Vivian Shanley ‘22 from Cedar Rapids. The group was formed over a summer camp that they all attended where they sparked the idea to create a jazz band.

“Ana Koch, Peter Stoltz, Ethan Buck and I all met at a jazz camp called “Birch Creek” in Wisconsin last summer. Ethan knew Vivian Shanley and we decided to create a combo to play around the area,” Schnoebelen said. “When we got back in town, we all met for our first rehearsal and had a lot of fun playing together.”

Not only does the Quintet play for fun, the group also plays with a level of professionality. The Quintet has already been hired for multiple gigs. They have also been asked on multiple occasions to play for KCCK, a jazz radio based in Cedar Rapids, as well as other events and fundraisers.

“We play for fun and professionally so to speak,” Schnoebelen said. “For example, last September we

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played at the Hills Bank Youth Salute Reception at the Englert Theatre and got paid $50 each.”

Starting out as a jazz combo, the Quintet has stuck to their roots and focused on continuing the jazz theme.

However, they have recently begun to play more of the genres born out of jazz such as Funk, Latin, and Swing.

“We play solely jazz, but we play a lot of different styles, like Funk, Swing, Latin and more Modern types of jazz that we listen to.”

The Quintet has managed to make their band entirely self-lead and directed only talking to a director if they are looking for a gig to perform at. The group runs in a democratic style, giving each member an equal say in the direction the band is going.

“The group is entirely self lead and we all give our thoughts and opinions on what to play and what gigs to play at,” Schnoebelen said.

With the end of the school year looming overhead, the quintet has begun to look to the future. They plan to continue playing for the next two years. However, there is concern as to what will happen when both Schnoebelen and Stoltz graduate.

“Our group plans on playing through the next school year,” Schnoebelen said. “Once Peter and I graduate, hopefully we can still play together at least on a shortterm basis.”

One of their biggest performances was at the Winter

Jazz Showcase when Band Director Aaron Ottmar decided to add their quintet to the lineup. Ottmar decided to include the Quintet because he thought that the performance at the showcase would help them start their career as well as give an opportunity for band students from outside of Iowa City High a chance to perform.

“I wanted to feature them during our Jazz Showcase to give them a great venue in which to be seen by a large and appreciative audience,” Ottmar said. “Also I wanted to aim for a collaborative effort with jazz musicians at City High and other high school musicians in the eastern Iowa area.”

Being in a band not only a fun way to express the groups creativity, but also it can also help with improving the groups general ability to play. Playing in a smaller band setting helps improve skills that are otherwise overlooked while playing in a larger group such as becoming more independent or individualistic.

“You truly get to experience music in a chamber setting where everybody plays a bigger role than they would in a big band setting,” Ottmar said. “In addition, presenting a group on your own without a conductor is an extremely valuable experience that I believe every musician should expose themselves to. You will find out more about yourself as a musician in this setting and it will push you to a new level of musicianship that you haven’t experienced before.

A&E A17

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

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A R T X E !

EXTRA LTE O N O T S E M O C S E I NEWS

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ABOVE: Thomazin Jury ‘20 is one of several students involved in “Newsies” this summer PHOTO BY LINDY RUBLAITUS

Jazz ensemble at 2019 Iowa Jazz Championships Photo Story By Lindy Rublaitus

By Kate Kueter

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By Lindy Rublaitus he annual teen show produced by CCPA every summer tends to be a highlight for high schooler’s breaks and this year is no acception. Nolte Academy in hand with City Circle Acting Company will be performing the musical “Newsies” June 14th-16th and 21st-22nd. The show will connect students from every school in the district including City High as well as some high schools near by. Several students including Tommy Brands ‘19, Elias Perez ‘19, and Lauren Rude ‘20 will be involved in this production with directors Chris Okiishi and Leslie Nolte.

“Newsies” is a musical about a group of newsboys in 1899 who are living on the streets and making their way through life by selling newspapers. Jack Kelly, one of the many homeless newsies, is an aspiring artist who is trying to get his way out of New York City and to Santa Fe. On the other side of things, the publisher of the New York World newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer, is raising prices of newspapers to outsell competing newspapers. Along with rookie reporter Katherine Plumer, the newsboys set out to start a revolt all across New York City and begins the Newsies Strike of 1899.

“It’s amazing being able to work with such talented students from the district,” Elias Perez ‘19 said. “The teen show is one of the only times where we can all be together and fo theater with one another. The students I meet are some of the best people I know and some of my closest friends.”

City Circle Acting Company has had ties with Nolte Dance Academy in past shows such as “Legally Blonde”, “Shrek”, and “Seussical: the Musical”. Because “Newsies” was on the list of shows that both City Circle and Nolte Academy wanted to do for the 2018-19 season, Chris Okiishi and Leslie Nolte took the show and stepped forward to co-direct the teen summer show.

“Working with 56 teenagers is a joy--especially these particular teenagers, who are coming to rehearsal so prepared. We truly have the most dedicated, talented actors from across the area and they are working their hearts out. There are superstars in every role and it’s our challenge to make it the best experience it can be,” Okiishi said. “The show is going great.

We are thrilled beyond imagination. We are anticipating something truly remarkable. I think the audiences are in for a breathtaking experience and I hope everyone in the cast gets a chance to expand their skills.”

Choir takes on cathedral ine glasses filled with water is not the usual instrument for the City High choir.

Choir director Hagy used wine glasses filled with water for the piece, “Tree,” combining with the solo from Ingrid Streitz, creating the mystery the composer meant to have.

“In the church, the sound [of the water glass] reverberates after the singers have stopped singing and you can hear that the sounds still lives,” Hagy said.

Echoes and songs filled St. Mary’s cathedral during a night where the choir sang different selections of religious music.

“You really get to see the different aspects of a religion when you do the Cathedral Concert with each director and group,” Tyiann Conaway ‘19 said.

The songs the choir sang were specifically written to be sung in a cathedral.

“Much of the music we sing [at St. Mary’s] is written by composers with that sound in mind,” Greg Grove, choir director, said . “It gives our students a more authentic performance of the music that they work so hard to perform.”

City High has performed the Cathedral Concert for the past 20 years.

The Cathedral Concert is a unique performance, marked by the building’s uncommon architecture and the availability of different instruments. The high ceiling in the narthex, the main sanctuary of the cathedral, allows the songs to ring and resonate for moments after the choirs stop singing. St. Mary’s also allowed the choirs to use their organ.

“We had an organ so I thought why not use it. These students may have never heard or sang a piece that uses an organ,” Tyler Hagy, who is also a choir director, said. “This concert allows for a great opportunity for them to learn a rich tradition of music written for organs.”

The concert starts with Advanced Women’s Choir in the balcony of the cathedral singing “YOU REALLY GET TO “Lift Thine Eyes SEE THE DIFFEREST to the Mountains.”

ASPECTS OF RELIGION “I chose ‘Lift WHEN YOU DO THE Thine Eyes to CATHEDRAL CONCERT the Mountains’ because it fits WITH EACH DIRECTOR beautifully into AND GROUP.” singing from the balcony,” Grove said.

TYIANN CONAWAY ‘19 After the Advance Women’s Choir, the Treble Choir (women grades 9 through 12) performed only one song, “High Flight,” a poem from an airforce pilot that died soon after he wrote the poem.

“We only sang one because we really wanted to focus on getting the one song right,” Rachel Marsh ‘22 said.

The Little Hawk Singers performed after the Treble Choir with two songs; “Sing a Mighty Song,” “O magnum mysterium”, and “Hine Ma Tov.” Cellist Max Stelzer ‘21 joined the Little Hawk Singers for “Hine Ma Tov.” “I had them sing Latin because they don’t get to do that very often very short song called on O magnum mysterium,” Grove said.

Advanced Women’s performed after Little Hawk Singers, singing three songs, “Exaudi! Lauda!”, “Praise His Holy Name”, and “Ani Ma’amin”. “Ani Ma’amin” is meant to be an encouraging song for Jews originating in the Warsaw ghetto during the 1930s, during the Holocaust. Advanced Women’s presented three solos in “Praise His Holy Name” from Conaway, Virginia Muturi ‘19, and Asha Keller ‘19.

“You feel like you’re on a bigger stage, weirdly,” said Conaway. “You feel more open about singing because you’re like in a place of God so like there’s no judgment there.”

City High has two extracurricular choirs, Männerchor, an all-male group, and Select Women’s Ensemble, an allfemale group. Männerchor sang two songs “Steal Away” and “Come Sing to Me of Heaven.” The text was picked by the mother of a friend, who was dying of cancer. “‘Come Sing to Me of Heaven’ was written for a mother who is a friend of the composer who was dying of cancer,” said Grove.

Select Women’s Ensemble sang one song in Italian, “O Pastorelle Addio” means saying goodbye. The song connects to the beginning of the French Revolution.

The night ended with the Concert Choir, the highest choir level in City High with a mix of men and women.

They sang three songs, “Be Not Afraid,” a version of a popular church hymn, “Trees,” and “Magnificat.”

A&E A18

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

Q&A

Seniors of “Les Miserables”

By Ruth Meehan

The Little Hawk: What shows have you been in?

Alejandra Revelez-Poindexter ‘19: I was in Grease my freshman year, Guys and Dolls my sophomore year. Junior year I was in Little Shop of Horrors and now I am in Les Miserables Claire Green ‘19: Wizard of Oz in third grade. When I got to high school I was in Grease, To Kill a Mockingbird, Guys and Dolls, Charlotte’s Web, Little Shop of Horrors, an Evening of Comedy and Les Miserables.

Joshua Fletcher ‘19: Les Miserables will be my first and last show at City High.

Virginia Muturi ‘19: My first show was Little Shop of Horrors last year’s spring musical. Then this year I was in the Laugh Out Loud Night of Comedy and am currently in Les Miserables.

LH: How did you first get involved?

ARP: Well freshman year they were doing my favorite musical of all time so I was like why not audition.

CG: I actually transferred from Regina because theatre was and is a big part of my life and I really wanted to be in a school that had a really good theatre program. It was one of my main goals going into high school because I had already been involved with theatre programs around Iowa City.

JF: I think how it happened was I was in the combo for show choir. A lot of people in show choir also do are in the drama department. They were the people who convinced me to try out.

VM: I have always loved acting so I took the acting class with Mr. Peters. He had the sign up for the spring musical in his room and encouraged be to tryout. I did not no anything about the show, music, story. Then eventually I auditioned.

LH: What is your favorite memory from your time in the drama department?

ARP: Probably meeting my two favorite people in the world Tommy Brands and Natalie Almerato who graduated last year.

CG: My favorite memory was during a workday I was with Tommy Brands, Addie Bass and some other kids in the drama program and we were playing tag in the balcony. We were jumping over chairs and screaming because Addie had said she saw the women in red. She told us the legend of the women in red and that story is something I like to tell the freshman every year.

JF: Acting and drama is just something new and exciting to me. It has been a lot of fun to expand my horizons and do something I have never tried before.

VM: Last year’s spring musical. It was one of the greatest things I have done at city high. I have played basketball, football, and was homecoming queen but one of the best things I have done is join the drama department. I feel like I truly found myself by being involved

LH: What will you miss the most about the program?

ARP: The people, over anything else.

CG: What I will miss most is just how much of a family everyone is.

I’m going to miss just hanging out with my friends at rehearsals, tech week, meals and all that good stuff JF: There are lots of cool people and that is what i’ll miss most.

VM: I will definitely miss the whole family feel of the program. I will probably have another group like that in college but this department is so friendly and welcoming.

LH: What is something you have learned?

ARP: Just have more confidence to be honest. Confidence is one of the main things I am still learning how to show.

CG: Something that I’ve learned is that everyone has talent and is good at something. And if you don’t get that lead part it is okay because someone else is going to do such a good job with it that it doesn’t matter.

JF: I have learned that acting is much harder than I thought it would be! It also taught me to try something new. I tried this new thing drama and it worked out in the end.

VM: I have learned about myself! I have found out that I love to meet new people and try new things that are different.

LH: What are your plans for the future?

ARP: Going to Kirkwood for two years then two years at the university. I hope to become an elementary school teacher CG: Next year I am going to the University of Iowa with a liberal arts major with an emphasis on nursing plus environmental policy and engineering JF: I’ll probably go to college. I’m not quite sure where but it’s fine.

VM: I plan to go to the university of iowa and I will major in theatre arts.

ABOVE: Les Merserables performed in Opstad Auditorium on April 12th-14th PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

Staff appreciation: Mary Mahaffa “Even if we’re all stressed, “She is probably one of the sweetest, most reliable, “She’s always super kind and caring to everyone as she quietly Mrs. Mahaffa’s always a runs everything behind the scenes and she always has some amazing people that I’ve ever met. She is always calm, grounded presence.” peppermints for us. She’s such a queen.” there when you have a question and 99.9% of the Quinn Kopelman ‘19 Asha Keller ‘19 time she has the answer. Without her, our music “Mary Mahaffa may be the sweetest program would be a mess. We love her so much, woman to have ever walked the halls of and would be completely lost without her.”

“I appreciate all the times City High. Even through the madness Sophia Surom ‘20 “Mrs. Mahaffa’s always she has unlocked the of listening to fanatical choir kids, and got a positive mentality practice rooms handling what seems to be every fruit and she’s always willing for me at the end of “It was so awesome that she came on sale, I’ve always seen her with the warmto give anyone help” the day.” the Italy trip, Our assigned chaperone est smile on her face.”

Aidan Smith ‘19 Katherine Introna ‘20 never did bed checks, so Mrs. Mahaffa Thomazin Jury ‘20 started checking on us every night, always making sure we had everything “Mrs. Mahaffa is honestly one of the most positive and kindest we needed.” people I know. She is always willing to work with students and Bella Epstein ‘19 “Mrs. Mahaffa as far as we can tell, she is fantastic at her job. Though I don’t is one of the most, if know exactly what her long list of tasks is, all music events at not the most, supportthe school run incredibly smoothly, and I have no doubt that “She is the kindest cutest human being ive teacher I’ve met.” it is largely because of her contributions. I have absolutely zero ever. She’s always there to help us and Phong Nguyen ‘19 complaints about her, and I’m very grateful that she is a part of greets everyone and is always smiling. the music department.”

She’s just amazing.”

Joseph Bennett ‘20 Heba Abdalla ‘19

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM |MAY 3, 2019

A&E A19

Becoming better musicians City Hosts their annual Solo Ensemble Festival for music students accross the department

ABOVE: Select top ranking performers are chosen to perform at an Honors Recital after the festival PHOTO BY RUTH MEEHAN

By Owen Sorenson The music wing was marked with signs stating that all must be quiet beyond a certain point. Students stand, waiting nervously with their instrument as the other students perform their own selected pieces. The annual solo and small group competitions have come and gone to City High once more, taking place on April 18 through April 24 this year. Students from band, orchestra, and choir were able to create a small group or compete on their own in the contest.

“It’s incredibly enjoyable to participate in this every year. We get to play a piece of music that we personally choose, which means we have more motivation to work on it,” Oliver Myers ‘20 said. “It can be a bit of a stress inducing event, but we harness that energy to galvanize us into working harder on the piece.”

These groups were primarily supposed to self lead, having the students make the administration choices, as well as directing and conducting themselves during the actual performance.

“For City High, directors can help soloists and/or groups as needed but we really want the performances-and rehearsals leading up to it-to be student-led.” Band Director Aaron Ottmar said.

“We can clarify any questions and offer some suggestions but we really want the students to be self-directed. Solo ensemble contest is a wonderful opportunity for students to play in a group of their own and truly take ownership of the whole performance.”

Keeping with the traditional standards of the music classes, students are encouraged to play pieces that fall in the classical/ traditional standard. The students are allowed to choose their music, or they can ask the directors for assistance on finding a piece, although the pieces must first be deemed “appropriate” for the contest.

“Solos, duos, trios, quartets, and other chamber-like pieces within the ‘traditional, Classical’ realm of choral and instrumental music.” Ottmar said. “Then the music they perform should be deemed appropriate and acceptable, arrangements of pop music and/or mainstream music should be avoided, by their large ensemble director before they perform.”

The contest themselves bring different students from each musical specification, each one for a different reason. For some, the contest is about improving their own playing skills, for others it is more about the actual competition. Regardless of what the original reason for joining, all people

“[For us] it has just become a tradition,” Myers said. “Our section leader, John Bounds, was the one who convinced us to give it a shot the first year, and we’ve been doing it annually ever since.”

One of the main reasons that people participate in the competition is the benefits it offers to the playing skills of the performers. These benefits can range from learning how to play in smaller groups to bettering the students confidence to just helping their overall sound.

“Presenting a performance without a conductor/director at first can be very different but, ultimately, is extremely beneficial in my opinion.” Ottmar said. “I believe that it causes students to really know each other’s parts and really serve as their own conductor and open their ears to listen critically, even more than they usually would in a large ensemble setting.”

One thing that always turns students away from participating in the contest is the stigma of losing. However, Ottmar wants people to understand that there is no risk to participating in the concert.

“There is absolutely no risk in doing this contest,” Ottmar said. “The worst thing that will happen is that you will become a better musician.”

City students react to mass shooting in New Zealand

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By Shoshie Hemley

n March 15, 2019, a gunman walked into a New Zealand mosque and killed 50 people between the ages of three and 77, the world reacted in a way the Muslim community has never seen before. Although New Zealand is several thousand miles away, Muslim communities all over the world came together in solidarity, including Muslim students at City High.

It took a few days for the weight of the news to sink in for Heba Abdalla ‘19’s household. But when it did, the grief struck.

Abdalla realized just how common Islamophobia has become in post 9/11 society.

“That could have been us. It just happened to be somewhere different. It could have easily been us, it could have easily been our sister, brother, uncle, and it’s a little hard, a little frightening,” Abdalla said.

Since the radical terrorist attack of the Twin Towers on 9/11, Islamophobic hate crimes have been on the rise. In 2001, the reported number of anti-Muslim assaults in the U.S was 93 victims, according to the PEW research center. However, since Donald Trump announced his bid for presidency in 2015, Islamophobic assaults peaked higher than the number after 9/11.

In 2016, there were a 127 anti-Muslim assaults reported to the FBI. Between 2001 and 2016, there were over 850 Islamophobic assaults. And due to the U.S’s fear of Muslims ever since 9/11, rarely is there solidarity from the non-muslim community when such hate crimes occur.

The shooting in New Zealand changed Salwa Sidahmed ‘19. Although she feels pain regarding the shooting, she is also impressed with the way New Zealand has been handling the tragedy.

“It’s kind of shocking, and it’s also a little bit sobering to see the way in which the people of New Zealand have reacted and how the Prime Minister has reacted.

And I think that kind of shows the lack of leadership here in the United States,” Sidahmed said.

Less than a week after the shooting, New Zealand banned military-style, semi-automatic weapons. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern paid her respects to the victims of the shooting while wearing a hijab. Reporters across the country reported the story wearing hijabs as well, and the Muslim call to prayer was broadcasted across the nation. This is the first time such solidarity has ever been shown by the non-Muslim community.

“I think the terrorist’s intent was to separate and create a divide and I think in New Zealand, at least, he has done the exact opposite,” Sidahmed said. “To see thousands of people come out to prayer the following Friday, to hear the call to prayer played across national TV, so that every single person, Muslim or nonMuslim, in New Zealand, heard it on the week anniversary of the terrorist attack, I feel it’s truly light in a moment of darkness, and it makes you aware of how different it is to the environment [in] the United States.”

In 2017, a mosque shooting occurred in Quebec City, killing

ART BY NYAH TAYLOR BUTCHER ‘19

six. However, few have heard of it. Although it was a similar situation to the shooting in Christchurch, the reaction from the global community of non-Muslims was much smaller, if one was present at all. Although the Christchurch shooting was tragic, it brought on great global support. The people of New Zealand truly showed the Muslim community they cared through their efforts.

“Not only do the Muslims of New Zealand have their fellow New Zealanders with them, they also have 1.8 billion other Muslims, and also many, many non-Muslims, there to support them and [show] that our hearts are with them,” Sidahmed said.

New Zealand has been the first nation to not only show solidarity with the Muslim community, but make a change after such a tragic event. “It makes me fear that if there were a situation where a shooter chose to attack a large group of people here in the United States, there wouldn’t be that same level of reaction and efforts to try to combat not only Islamophobia but gun violence overall,” Sidahmed said.

After the Parkland shooting last Valentine’s Day, students from City High and other schools across the state walked out of school demanding stronger gun control legislation; however, none has ever been passed in Iowa.

“For the people who have the same beliefs as the shooter,” Sidahmed says, “Islam is built on the notion of peace.

And I think that to be able to dedicate so much time to hatred of others just shows that...these people do lack peace within.”

Sidahmed believes more people need to understand that Muslims are people too.

“It’s person first and then Muslim. So I just think that you need to treat everybody with respect [any]way,” Sidahmed said.

Abdalla was also once asked a question that she feels resonates with the Christchurch shooting.

“Is your faith bigger than your fear?

Are you willing to stay by what you believe in, despite all these people not wanting you to?” Abdalla said.

20A CULTURE

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

“US” Movie Review Caution: this story contains spoilers.

Read at your own discretion

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By Kate Kueter

and produce inequality. This was very much in line with the Ronald Reagan era. Reagan was a conservative and cut back on government programs to help the poor and unemployed. Peele’s turns the string of red hand-holding paper dolls from the ad into evil characters in red jumpsuits who are trying to get revenge on their privileged look-alikes, poking fun at the age-old fear of the rich that the simmering resentment of the poor will erupt into rising up against them. During the final scene of the movie, the camera zooms out to an ominous image of thousands of doppelgangers holding hands across a mountainside, a replica of the images from Hands Across America, ready to descend and wreak havoc on the town below.

ordan Peele’s new movie, “US,” is not just an entertaining high paced thriller. The movie is also a critique of society that calls attention to the unfairness and the resentment that builds up when the wealthy and privileged pretend that the people who are exploited to make the rich richer do not exist.

“US” follows an upper-middle-class black family who go on vacation in California in the mother’s childhood vacation spot. A well-off and educated mom and dad with two kids, they are the picture of a happy, all American family. After a day at the beach with family friends, the Tylers, the Wilsons are settling in to go to sleep when they see the silhouette of a family holding hands at the end of their driveway. The father, Gabe, goes out to investigate and comes to the chilling realization that he is seeing a twisted version of their own family, four doppelgangers dressed in red jumpsuits and each armed with a pair of scissors. As the movie progresses it follows a classic get-out-of-the-house trope.

An entire community of red jumpsuit-wearing doppelgangers have emerged from underground to get revenge on their privileged look-alikes, a movement they call “the untethering.”

The idea of “being tethered” is set up in the opening scene of the movie which seems almost designed to confuse the majority of its viewers. In a flashback to 1986, the camera zooms in on an old TV playing a commercial for an organization called Hands Across America.

This was a benefit campaign sponsored by USA for Africa to raise money for the hungry and homeless. People were encouraged to donate money and then on May 25, 1986, they could join with other people from across the United States to hold hands and form a human chain across America for 15 minutes.

Hands Across America was predicted to raise somewhere between 50 and 100 million dollars but after covering their costs only $15 million was donated to charity. The commercial in the opening scene of “US” ends with a string of red paper dolls across the screen while a cheery announcer exclaims that the whole of America will be “tethered” together.

No character ever mentions Hands Across America, but this long-forgotten charity makes many appearances in “US.” In Jordan Peele’s eyes this ultimately underwhelming attempt at helping the poor morphs into a symbol for something much more sinister. He sees it as an elitist movement with an if-we-all-hold-hands-everything-will-be-okay mentality which does nothing to ART BY ADAM BWAYO tackle the systems that are designed to oppress people

ART BY JULIA WEINER

State of America: A Poem

By Feda El-Badri

When you think of the state of America, a few images may come to mind People, but not always bright People whose tears sting their eyes People who type for a life People who celebrate prejudice and strife But In the face of adversity In lying awake at night, no sleep No secret rendezvous No giggly tryst Just you, your bed, and a lack of drive Something still exists in you, a waiting wick While your mind refuses to rest, Always working overdrive The state drains away, an irremovable tick, A persistent parasite, A breath-taking kick And relief never comes; rest is obsolete But If there should be one reconciliation, it should be to know we’ll be strong, Because whenever there is a call For the different, for the down, for the change of a law, The setting sun shines through idyllic glass It touches the unaware And the light spots in their vision blurs our world with its care If there should be one reconciliation, that this nation can hold and achieve, it is the inability to ignore What it can strive to be They say “That unavoidable glare reaches me,” and we are off, to see what we will be So we go outside and run, and walk, and wheel To listen together, while those who speak, speak for victory For themselves, and for those who don’t have the voice or the strength to say We are still people Under the same sun, The same sky And the same flag we will share tonight

Cultured Corner

The Cultured Corner is a column on pop culture where we bring the news that students are talking about On rapper Nipsey Hussle’s murder

On the Jussie Smollett case

Dwayne Walkins Jr ‘19

Virginia Muturi ‘19

I believe Nipsey Hussle died because he was about to expose the government. He wanted to expose the government with his documentary about Dr. Sebi who had the cure for AIDS. Let me explain: if he in his own neighborhood around all the people that love him and that he helps, why would they just randomly kill him? Why would his own people just randomly kill him? They try to make it seem like it was gang-related but it wasn’t.

On Cardi B confessing to drugging clients while working as a stripper Daijonna Glee ‘20 Before Cardi B was a rapper, she was a stripper, but she drugged her clients and robbed them. A lot of people are defending her about it and saying, ‘She had to do what she had to do especially living in the Bronx and being a stripper,’ but it’s like, no, she didn’t have to drug people. The situation holds the same dangerous demeanor to it as Bill Cosby, because he drugged and raped people; even though rape is different than [robbery], it is still bad [o]n a different level. You didn’t have to drug these people to rob them. If you were bold enough, you should have robbed them in the open. Also, people are giving her immunity because she is light skinned and her music and what she portrayed.

Since Bill Cosby was put in jail and pushed away from the community, that should happen to Cardi B too.

Jussie Smollett was trying to get awareness because people were hating him for being a black man and gay. [The] Chicago police said that he hired two people to fight him or harass him because he was a black man and gay and I guess the police department thought that he was using this as a way to get clout...or more famous than he already was. Then they found him innocent. At first, I felt like it was horrible, because when you want to bring awareness and bring positivity you shouldn’t do it in a negative way. Maybe he did it or not, [but] that is still not the way to bring awareness to something.

On the college scandal Angel Sila ‘19 The college scandal is when rich parents are bribing the admission officers so the kids could have an advantage during the admission process. Two people in the scandal are the two actresses. Becky from “Full House” paid half a million dollars to have her daughters be recruited to USC. Felicity [Huffman] paid someone $5,000 to change her daughter’s ACT scores. It’s wrong [that] there are kids who have been working their butt off all four years of high school and staying up late until four in the morning to finish homework, then there’s this rich person who comes and takes that opportunity away from them. At the same time–I’m not condoning their behavior; obviously, what they did was wrong–as a parent, you want the best for your kids. I am also pissed that the two actresses are the header of the whole scandal while it has been happening for years.

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

B1 SPORTS

Thos Tough

By Lottie Gidal

E

very morning Thos Trefz writes a quote on the blackboard that hangs over his room. Quotes are all over his Instagram and T-shirts; they are layered throughout his coaching lessons. Any of the runners that frequent his room could tell you about all the times Thos has used a quote to help them push through their pain or stress.

But one afternoon, as students gathered in the Welcome Center, instead of telling his athletes about the workout plan or the lifting routine, Trefz shared his diagnosis of testicular cancer.

“It was surreal how he was reacting to it,” Izzy Jones ‘19 said. “Honestly, I don’t know how he was so strong about it. He was wearing a shirt that said, ‘Run Happy,’ and then he told us, ‘Okay, today we’re going to run happy.’”

Trefz is now the fourth coach on the girls running team to be diagnosed with cancer, but for him, the process was a much shorter ordeal. Only 27 days after his diagnosis and following a successful surgery, his CT scans came back clean.

Now, three months later, Trefz is cancer-free, and has just returned to running with his athletes.

“That’s been head-spinning. I don’t think I’ve come to grips with the fact that I had cancer,” Trefz said. “When I struggled with depression two years ago, that really clued me in to all the support I had and that people really cared about me whether I coached or not. Whether it would be friends and family, this school, the track team, in particular that mid-distance/distance group, I knew those people were going to be there for me. For me, not so much my doctor, that was part of my treatment plan.”

In many ways, coaching is one of the most important things in Trefz’s life, and he credits the relationships he has been able to build with students over the years as what makes it so rewarding. Back in 2003, with no experience running or coaching, he reached out to the late Coach Raffensperger to see if there was an opening.

“I like running. It can seem like a pretty individualistic and selfish endeavor, so I think I was looking for some way to contribute to a community,” Trefz said.

And he has. Over the past two decades, Trefz has become a fixture not only in the Welcome Center, but in the running community of City High.

He’s coached dozens of girls who have gone on to run collegiately, and has seen his runners set, achieve, but just as often fail to make big goals.

“Big goals are great and I’ve had a lot of girls who’ve had really high goals for themselves,” Trefz said. “Lots of those girls haven’t

reached those goals however, but because they committed themselves every day they didn’t walk away disappointed.”

Like many female runners, Jones found herself slowing as she grew older and became frustrated with how well she was doing. Her times did not compare to freshman year, so she reached out to Trefz.

“He helped me appreciate that I can still run for fun and try my best instead of focusing on being the best,” Jones said. “Instead, I can focus on being my version of my best.”

As much as his athletes will tell you about all that Trefz has given back to his community and all that he has taught them about running, he claims that in fact, it is the athletes who have taught him.

“I always think that if the girls learn a tenth of what they teach me, that would be incredible,” Trefz said. “You can get a grasp of the Xs and Ox of coaching from reading books but it’s those relationships with athletes that really teach you how to become a coach.”

Trefz has been Jones’s athlete since before freshman year, and she remembers how hard it was to see an adult she looked up to be diagnosed.

“On the day he left for his surgery, he was so scared, and it was really hard to see someone I look up to like that,” Jones said. “I’ve never seen him be scared. Usually, it’s me being scared at the beginning of my race, scared of the pain I’m going to go through. He always says, ‘It’s going to be okay.

You’ll be done and be proud of yourself.’ Thos has taught me it’s okay to be scared and accept that you’re scared.”

PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

B2 SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

Passing the Baton

community he has found at City High exemplifies that commitment.

“There’s something different about City. The people that put in time don’t just put in enough time, but more than what is needed because they understand the tradition that is City High,” Hansen said. “That willingness to do what it takes from the student, the parent, the grandparent...everyone buys into it for that common goal, and it will be so rewarding and fantastic to be a part of that.”

The position itself is incredibly demanding, and Coleman knows that Hansen faces a steep learning curve.

They plan to work together almost ev-

By Lottie Gidal

I

n the 24 years Terry Coleman has spent as Athletic Director at City High, there’s one thing he’s learned to value above all else: people. From athletes to coaches to parents to teachers to staff, in some ways Coleman has come to see City High as another one of the teams he oversees every year—as a group of individuals working towards a common goal.

“Being able to have people like Art Connell, the head night custodian for most of my years here...he is a Little Hawk through and through,” Coleman said.

“There’s all kinds of people like him who aren’t in the spotlight but they are critical components of what it takes to make this school run. There are dozens and dozens of them. I value those folks every day.”

And there’s one group of folks Coleman has made sure to pay particular attention to, a group he says is too often forgotten—the alumni. He helped to create the trophy displays in the gym foyer, the wall of state champions, and the hall of fame.

It’s one of the accomplishments Coleman is most proud of, a legacy he knows the incoming athletic director, Phillip Hansen, won’t forget in a hurry.

“Part of our responsibility is to the folks who are here now, part is to the folks who are coming here, but a lot of it is to the folks who have been here,” Coleman said.

Coleman’s departure occurs with a much larger wave of teachers taking the district’s early retirement plan. Hiring Hansen from within not only the same district or building, but from just down the hall, seemed a natural transition to them. Hansen has spent the last few years as a math teacher and soccer coach at City High, and says he is excited to become even more involved in the athletic programs.

“When I think back on my high school experience, even as a math teacher, I don’t remember the math lessons, I remember the state soccer games, the basketball games, the baseball tryouts in the rain,” Hansen said. “Being a part of high school athletics is always something that I’ve wanted to do; it was something I knew I had to be a part of.”

Hansen shares Coleman’s commitment to the individual, and says that the

ery day over the summer to get things prepped, but Coleman already has a few words of wisdom for his successor.

“You’ve got to be able to relate to all sorts of different folks,” Coleman said. “All of them have different ways of interacting, and you have to be able to interact positively in order that the real[ly] important things, the students, don’t get lost. The other thing is to remember that all of our teams are made up of individuals, and taking care of the individuals, whether it’s coaches or kids or parents, that’s what makes for a healthy team.”

As excited as Coleman is for the next stage of his life, he knows that he will miss City High.

“For any educator, it’s why we get into it in the first place and it’s what we miss when we leave and that’s just working with the individuals in our different programs,” Coleman said. “I’ve been at six different schools, I’ve seen a lot of different buildings, a lot of different cultures, and this one is the best.”

PHOTOS BY LOTTIE GIDAL

L E T T E R F RO M T H E E D I T O R

M

awage. Mawage is what bwings us togeder today. No, I don’t believe in twoo wuv, I’ve just always wanted to start a Letter From the Editor like that.

Well, this is it. The final issue. There’s something about that that just sounds so... well, final. It’s been three years of doing this crazy, wonderful class that for the life of me I can’t remember why I signed up for in the first place. Journalism has taught me so much about what it means to be a leader, a listener, and a teacher. The life skills I’ve had the opportunity to accumulate are innumerable, but more than anything journalism has opened my eyes to a creative side of myself I never thought could exist, and even more surprising, a side I am so, so proud of.

I’ll be sad to leave behind the memories and communities I’ve been a part of these past four years—the newspaper certainly holds a special place among those.

Through the paper, I’ve had the chance to understand so many of my classmates in a much different way than most people ex-

perience them. I’ve heard all about your crazy habits, your secret ambitions, the unique, intense pastimes you fill your extra hours with, and best of all, you’ve trusted me to share the part of yourself you are most proud of. You have inspired not only me, but any passerby who picks up a paper to think critically and take the time to consider someone else’s perspective.

I have no ambitions of continuing in any future journalistic endeavors. But the editors that my fellow seniors and I leave behind are worlds ahead of the curve; they will no doubt be delivering you some quality content in the coming year. It has been a true joy to watch them grow into intrepid journalists filled with curiosity, humor, and conviction (qualities they already possessed).

In this issue you will get to hear about a pair of bikers who push themselves past the 100th mile, the trials and tribulations of the boys tennis team, how track has created a family atmo-

sphere and comes together to support a beloved coach. You’ll gain insight into the mind of the boys soccer coach, and get to hear about what the seniors on the girls soccer team will miss about their sport and their team. You’ll get some tips on starting your own backyard farm, and better understand the transition from one long-standing athletic director to the next.

As much as senioritis has afflicted the rest of my academic life, I can assure you that this issue has received my full and unwavering attention. There’s something cathartic about putting in one final week of hectic work. After all, my ducklings, I plan to roll out of this school in style.

Lottie Gidal

SPORTS 3A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM |MAY 3, 2019

Dodge and Miller: The Biking Bros

By Lottie Gidal

I

f you happen to be out on a gravel road around Iowa City, odds are you will run into Matt Miller and Steve Dodge, not teaching math or economics, but in their 48th mile of a bike ride.

“Everybody has their own mental health they gotta take care of, I value that a lot,” Miller said. “I always feel better when I exercise, and I think there’s a lot of truth to that.”

But it’s not just the exercise these two teachers are in for-what keeps them coming back for more is the comraderie.

“Steve’s a good guy,” Miller said. “He’s very steady, and I really appreciate his enthusiasm. There’s never a hesitation about wanting to do it. We’ve done so many really hard things together. We pick each other up, get through it as a team, and don’t let anybody die. You’re spouses don’t like it when you die.”

They’ve come closer than some however. Miller describes the duo as “adventure bikers” and they are always on the lookout for a grueling 200+ mile gravel bike ride. They have been caught in hail, lightning, and downpours, all at midnight at the end of a race. Currently, Miller and Dodge are training for a 200 mile race in Michigan, from the coast of one great lake to another, and this time they have invited Ryan Ahlers along for the ride.

“We are both interested in really challenging ourselves,” Dodge said. “We like the process of training for those huge gravel races. Not a lot of people necessarily want to do that. When times are getting tough and you’re trying to survive through to the end of the ride [Miller] can lighten things up. He’s great company.”

“It’s some people like us who are just middle aged people looking for some adventure,” Miller said. “Wedon’t get to play sports as much anymore, we’re all here to do this common thing and push ourselves. About mile 150 you enter this darkness, and its like nothing I’ve ever seen. You’re in the dark, alone with your friends, and you really rely on each other to pick each other up.”

PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

What’s All That Racquet?

Take a look inside the boys tennis team you’ve heard all about: post meet traditions, games during practice, and all the ways they stay positive

By Victoria Weckmann

“WE KIND OF DO WHATEVER WE WANT UNTIL CHIP SAYS IT’S TIME TO PLAY AND CRUSH. AND THEN WE PLAY AND IT’S REALLY GOOFY.” SAM STRATHEARN

PHOTO BY VICTORIA WECKMANN

F

rom smashes and topspin shots, to lobs and dropshots, the 2019 boys tennis season thus far has been an eventful sport, and despite some crushing losses, they are optimistic as ever.

“The season is going okay, I don’t think we have won a meet yet,” said Elliot Tomek ‘20, a junior varsity player.

“I also have not played in one yet.”

One of the things which helps the team to stay positive is their shared love of tennis. Satchel Cochran ‘20, another varsity player, shares his thoughts.

“I just love the sport itself and the welcoming laid back attitude of the team.”

The easygoingness revolving around the sport seems to be a common attitude among players.

“Junior Varsity is pretty relaxed, it is mostly about [building friendships]. It’s a good atmosphere, and the coaches are really nice and chill,” Sam Strathearn ‘21 said, a third member of the team.

During some of their practices, the boys participate in some very “chill” activities.

“Our normal practice consists of playing singles or doubles for about half an hour, then we play rush and crush,” Cochran said. “It is a fun game that the whole team plays for the rest of practice.”

For those who are not familiar with the activity, Jacob Strathearn ‘19 explains how the game works.

“There are two ‘kings’ at one side of the court and everyone else is in two seperate lines on the other side. When it is your turn, Chip throws you the ball and you’ve got to try and win the point. However if you hit the ball out then you have to go to the back of the line. It is pretty exciting.”

The love of rush and crush seems to be a common

occurrence among other players on the team, which helps to push teammates closer together.

“We kind of do whatever we want until Chip says it’s time to play rush and crush,” Sam Strathearn said. “And then we play it and it’s really goofy.”

Along with the more fun aspect of the game, rush and crush prompts competition among the players. “[My goal for the season is] to defeat everyone at rush and crush,” Jacob Strathearn said. “And, if you hit the ball out then it is culture to throw your racket at the fence and act as if you are in great despair which makes people laugh.”

Including dramatic portrayals of disappointment during rush and crush, the team also participates in other traditions of tennis.

“At the end of each practice, Chip always yells ‘whos cheese is it’ and all of the players respond ‘nacho cheese,’” Jacob Strathearn said.

When asked about this, Sam Strathearn responded in an admiring way about the tradition.

“That exchange is the best thing [to use to] explain what junior varsity tennis is like,” Sam Strathearn said.

Jacob Strathearn clues us into yet another common practice of the boys tennis team.

“At meets, we always blast loud music in the back of the bus with the speaker. [Every sports team does that,] but we do it right.”

And through every practice and meet, the members of the team all seem to view Chip, the coach of the team, as a very positive force.

“One of the reasons that I like tennis is because I like Chip a lot,” Tomek said.

Jacob Strathearn had a similar opinion to that.

“Chip motivates the players and he’s really good at tennis.”

So despite some of the team’s losses, they have managed to stay positive about each other and what is to come.

“Well after meets we frolic around holding hands because of our bonding time together listening to very explicit rap music,” Jacob Strathearn very jokingly stated.

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM |MAY 3, 2019

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

from your backyard

farm table to

W

hether you live on a farm or in an apartment, whether you have an acre of yard space, 20 square feet, or just room enough for a window box, there’s room enough to grow your own food. At the time you’re reading this, the planting season has just begun, so let’s get gardening!

For starters, every vegetable, fruit, legume, or herb has its own growing season, so here’s a guide to when its the right time to plant, fertilize, and harvest.

may

June

july

august

september

october

beans beets

beets cabbage corn

what could i do with the vegetables one i’ve harvested them?

cucumber Kale

1.

Kale squash

Bring them to neighbors. there’s nothing wrong with showing off your hard work, and who doesn’t like a surprise gift

2.

tomato lettuce

lettuce Peppers

3.

pickle or canning. As the seasons turn, try your hand at preserving some of your creations in a jar. canned tomatoes make for a great mid winter spaghetti sauce, and why not serve your own pickles next time around?

eat them!

SPORTS 3A

7B SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

ABOVE: Owen Jones ‘19 passes off to Ry Threlkeld-Wiegan ‘19 for the final leg of the 4x800 PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

Bringing It Home Together At the most anticipated home meet of the season, athletes came together to honor coaches, family, and most importantly, the team.

Looking to the future, they echoed the sentiment of boys track coach Mike Moore: “We’re Coming”

By Lottie Gidal

T

he Forwald Coleman relays are the last chance for Iowa high school track athletes to qualify for the Drake Relays and make their dream of running on the blue oval become reality. This year, City High is sending athletes

ABOVE: Varsity and JV athletes alike gather to cheer on their teammates PHOTOS BY LOTTIE GIDAL AND ALISON KENASTON

to 15 total events. But for many, Forwald is just as much a cathartic experience as it is a competitive one.

“It’s the most energetic and fun meet. When you do track, it’s not a sport where you can get a lot of your friends to come watch, but Forwald is special,” Yasar Hassan ‘19 said. “There was a lot of emotions from our coach and the team, because we had heard about Coach Raff’s condition and we wanted to impress and give Raff one last show. He had told Coach Moore that he wanted one more victory out of us. It just really felt like a team.”

Longtime track coach John Raffensperger (for whom City High’s track is named) passed away four days later. Raffensperger won 10 state titles in 11 years, a record for any coach within any size classification. City High stepped up to the challenge, however, and honored his memory by making one of its strongest showings in years. Daniel Brown ‘19 qualified

for four Drake events, half of the total the boy’s “It’s a lot of stress and very overwhelming,” team competed in, but only ran three: the dis- Sekafetz said. “But I hate just being at home not tance medley, open 800, and the 4x400. doing anything. It’s very hard on my body, but “Winning a state championship with three of I enjoy it, and I’ve done gymnastics for so long your best friends is pretty hard to beat,” Brown and I know that running helps with gymnastics.” said, referring to his win last season in the 4x800.

That certainly seems to be the case. Sekafetz is “But when it comes to Drake, I just want to get the returning regional champion in pole vaulting, out there and compete.” and the Iowa state champion in beam, pole, and Brown says that on both a personal and team all-around. But Sekafetz puts in the work to manlevel, people have been putting in the work to age both sports because of the team environment make this season a success. Whether it’s in the she experiences during track. weight room, eating healthier, or getting those “We cheer for the last girl, we cheer for the eight hours of sleep, the effort is there. first girl, people are up and running across the “The main thing I love about track [is that] field,” Sekafetz said. “I think it’s a really supportit doesn’t matter how good ive and welcoming group. It you are naturally. It uldoesn’t matter who you are “IT DOESN’T MATTER timately comes down to or what you run. You don’t HOW GOOD YOU whoever works the hardest want people to walk away crosses first,” Brown said. from the sport because they ARE NATURALLY. IT “Seeing teammates compete feel unwelcome.”

ULTIMATELY COMES in all the races, and you Brown says this sort of DOWN TO WHOEVER can tell they care, that they atmosphere is mirrored in want to win and they are trythe boys team, and that it WORKS THE HARDEST ing their best to do that. So has stemmed from a real efCROSSES FIRST.” that’s what I like about it, fort from the seniors. that you get out of it what “Our coaches have comyou put in.” plemented us saying that’s DANIEL BROWN ‘19 There’s some athletes what takes a good team to a who are putting in more great team, and a great team than just one sport’s worth of work however. to a championship team,” Brown said. “When Jordan Sekafetz is only a sophomore, but she you guys hold each other accountable and want competed in the shuttle hurdle at Drake Saturday each other to do better and cheer for each other, morning at 8 a.m. She came from competing in and you don’t just hang out in the stands and the the regional gymnastics tournament in Min- not pay attention. So I feel like everyone has been nesota Friday night. lifting each other up throughout the season.”

BEST PHOTOS of the

YEAR

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 3, 2019

8B SPORTS

Thos Tough

By Lottie Gidal

E

very morning Thos Trefz writes a quote on the blackboard that hangs over his room. Quotes are all over his Instagram and T-shirts; they are layered throughout his coaching lessons. Any of the runners that frequent his room could tell you about all the times Thos has used a quote to help them push through their pain or stress.

But one afternoon, as students gathered in the Welcome Center, instead of telling his athletes about the workout plan or the lifting routine, Trefz shared his diagnosis of testicular cancer.

“It was surreal how he was reacting to it,” Izzy Jones ‘19 said. “Honestly, I don’t know how he was so strong about it. He was wearing a shirt that said, ‘Run Happy,’ and then he told us, ‘Okay, today we’re going to run happy.’”

Trefz is now the fourth coach on the girls running team to be diagnosed with cancer, but for him, the process was a much shorter ordeal. Only 27 days after his diagnosis and following a successful surgery, his CT scans came back clean.

Now, three months later, Trefz is cancer-free, and has just returned to running with his athletes.

“That’s been head-spinning. I don’t think I’ve come to grips with the fact that I had cancer,” Trefz said. “When I struggled with depression two years ago, that really clued me in to all the support I had and that people really cared about me whether I coached or not. Whether it would be friends and family, this school, the track team, in particular that mid-distance/distance group, I knew those people were going to be there for me. For me, not so much my doctor, that was part of my treatment plan.”

In many ways, coaching is one of the most important things in Trefz’s life, and he credits the relationships he has been able to build with students over the years as what makes it so rewarding. Back in 2003, with no experience running or coaching, he reached out to the late Coach Raffensperger to see if there was an opening.

“I like running. It can seem like a pretty individualistic and selfish endeavor, so I think I was looking for some way to contribute to a community,” Trefz said.

And he has. Over the past two decades, Trefz has become a fixture not only in the Welcome Center, but in the running community of City High.

He’s coached dozens of girls who have gone on to run collegiately, and has seen his runners set, achieve, but just as often fail to make big goals.

“Big goals are great and I’ve had a lot of girls who’ve had really high goals for themselves,” Trefz said. “Lots of those girls haven’t

reached those goals however, but because they committed themselves every day they didn’t walk away disappointed.”

Like many female runners, Jones found herself slowing as she grew older and became frustrated with how well she was doing. Her times did not compare to freshman year, so she reached out to Trefz.

“He helped me appreciate that I can still run for fun and try my best instead of focusing on being the best,” Jones said. “Instead, I can focus on being my version of my best.”

As much as his athletes will tell you about all that Trefz has given back to his community and all that he has taught them about running, he claims that in fact, it is the athletes who have taught him.

“I always think that if the girls learn a tenth of what they teach me, that would be incredible,” Trefz said. “You can get a grasp of the Xs and Ox of coaching from reading books but it’s those relationships with athletes that really teach you how to become a coach.”

Trefz has been Jones’s athlete since before freshman year, and she remembers how hard it was to see an adult she looked up to be diagnosed.

“On the day he left for his surgery, he was so scared, and it was really hard to see someone I look up to like that,” Jones said. “I’ve never seen him be scared. Usually, it’s me being scared at the beginning of my race, scared of the pain I’m going to go through. He always says, ‘It’s going to be okay.

You’ll be done and be proud of yourself.’ Thos has taught me it’s okay to be scared and accept that you’re scared.”

PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

volume 76 | may 3rd, 2019 | city high school

t-shirts and tor ment The correlation betweeen clothing and catcalling at City

Preview If you see something... say something? 4 The side door 10 16 and starting college 15 Fortune favors the bold 16

Nina, We are so proud of you. You’ve come so far and continue to amaze us every day. You’re going to be a wonderful Executive Editor next year. We can’t wait to see what you do!

Jesse, We are excited to see you stepping into this new role. Your hard work and dedication can be seen through the stories you’ve written this year. We can’t wait to see what you bring to this magazine and 2109 in the coming years.

With love, Zoe Miller and Maya Durham

2 | THE LITTLE HAWK

CONTENTS

This letter is brought to you by Zoe and Maya. As we write our last letter, we wanted to give a bittersweet goodbye. It’s been a blast working on the “The Little Hawk” for the past few years. We’ve enjoyed covering the talented, unique and inspiring people here at City High. We want to thank our readers for supporting the stories we’ve been able to tell. Through this magazine, we’ve been able to highlight the stories at City that might not have otherwise been told. This magazine will always have a special place in our hearts.

TABLE OF

Dear readers,

04 08

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING...SAY SOMETHING?

BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

10

12

16

THE SIDE DOOR

16 AND STARTING COLLEGE

FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD

18

22

T-SHIRT’S AND TORMENT

DOING IT ALL

MAY 3, 2019 | 3

IF YOU SEE HEAR SMELL SOMETHING...

The role of teachers, administrators and other mandatory reporters in reporting suspicious and illegal activities at City

By Nina Lavezzo-Stecopoulos and Maya Durham

you can see it, I would probably just send Mr. Bacon a text and say, ‘You should probably check on so and so,’” Burkle said. elso* is a student at City High. Like many students at Mandatory reporting is a teacher’s duty to their students, but City, they are vaguely aware of what mandatory reporting this responsibility extends beyond school grounds. is, and know not to speak of “drugs and stuff.”

“If I’m out and about, at a supermarket and I saw somebody try“A lot of people just see [mandatory reporting] as, ing to use a fake ID, I would probably notify the manager,” Burkle ‘Oh, they’re going to call the cops on you if you’re doing drugs,’” said. “I would say, ‘Hey, that kid’s underage; might want to check Kelso said. “Very few people think about the safety aspect of [man- that out.’” datory reporting].”

Different situations warrant different reAt a basic level, mandatory reporting is a syssponses from mandatory reporters. When off tem set up to protect students, according to Asschool grounds, there is no administration to “I’M NOT GOING TO sistant Principal Scott Jesperson. When it comes report to, and if the student has graduated, there APOLOGIZE FOR IT. IT’S to the Iowa City Community School District, is no direct action a faculty member can take.

A GAME. IT’S CAT AND staff members, faculty, and administration are “It’s not my business anymore,” Burkle said. legally required to report any situation where a “I’m more worried about people I’m immediMOUSE SOMETIMES.” student could be in harm’s way. ately in contact with. It’s more about students “[Mandatory reporting occurs] if we’re aware in my classroom, in my school, and if I know JOHN BURKLE that there is some law being broken or a stuthey’re doing something stupid outside of dent is in danger, and that in itself can be conschool.” strued in different ways,” said Jesperson. “Is the A majority of the mandatory reporting prostudent in danger because you feel like they’re cess is behind closed doors, to the point that abusing drugs or alcohol, or do you think they’re in a bad position not even the reporting teacher is aware of the consequences or reor have you heard anything about them hurting themselves. [In sources given to the student in question. those situations] the procedure is usually that a teacher would bring “I don’t think it’s anybody’s business besides the student, the it to the administration and maybe guidance.” student’s parents, and the administrators,” Burkle said. “ConfidenJohn Burkle, a government teacher at City High, has mandatori- tiality is key.” ly reported on students in the past.

Teachers throughout City have different metrics for mandato“If it’s somebody who’s obviously high, if you can smell it and ry reporting. Some compare situations they encounter to how they

K

4 | THE LITTLE HAWK

SaY SOMETHING have dealt with their children, and others choose to ignore their out some programs that have tutorials and then you take a quiz. stated duty of reporting everything they hear. But when these se- Once you pass the quiz, it records that you have recertified.” lect relaxed teachers do report their students’ mischief, they find Some teachers, however, don’t take the online course as seriousnegative reactions. ly as the assistant principal would like.

“I’m not going to apologize for it,” Burkle said. “It’s a game.

“It’s not new information. [The test is] just refreshing the inIt’s cat and mouse sometimes.” formation we already know,” Burkle said. “I know what it is, so I Dan Peterson, an art teacher at City, has a different approach. can’t say that I’m 100% invested in it. I think the longer you’ve Due to the difference in classroom focus, Peterson sees the emo- been here...you kind of trust your gut. It might might not be crittional state of his students more in their art work. A painting ical to your evaluation of students, but it’s something we have to could hint at some sort of trauma, and this presents a unique situ- do.” ation for Peterson. When artistic expression could possibly expose The tests are updated each year based on new “trends” in adoa students’ issues, is it reportable? lescent substance abuse, including the newer trends of vaping and “I feel like there’s a little bit of gray area,” prescription pill abuse. But even as trends Peterson said. “If I feel like someone’s unsafe, or change, teachers still relate back to their misif I feel like a parent should know, I’ll talk to a chievous days. parent about a kid directly, instead of reporting.

“We were you once,” Burkle said. “You’re “THE BOTTOM LINE IS WE I’ll make sure mom and dad have some sort of not inventing the wheel. We know the things DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO grip of what’s going on at home.” that we did when we were in high school.”

BE HARMED.” The art teacher has only been at City for four Marshall Hardesty, a hall monitor and years, and has had one major experience with tennis coach at City, has had varying experimandatory reporting. While painting a mural, ences with mandatory reporting throughout MARSHALL HARDESTY a student of Peterson’s threatened one of their his life. At his previous job, supervising atpeers with a gun. As Peterson had witnessed the risk kids in Cedar Rapids, his main focus incident firsthand, he knew he must report it. was keeping these students safe. This duty “I felt very well-supported there because as lead Chip to develop a relationship with the soon as I had the chance to talk to Mr. Bacon process of mandatory reporting and workwe were on the phone with law enforcement getting advice on how ing with Department of Human Services workers. Within an into identify the kid,” Peterson said. stitution like City, the reporting process is different, but some ICCSD staff, faculty, and administrators undergo annual on- things are always the same to this vetted mandatory reporter. line training in mandatory reporting procedures, according to “Bottom line is we don’t want people to be harmed,” Hardesty Jesperson. said. “We can’t stop people from doing these things and trying “We all have an account through the Grant Wood AEA, the these things. In some ways, it’s almost psychologically required education agency that the state funds,” Jesperson said. “They push that people try on masks. We’ve all been there.”

MAY 3, 2019 | 5

A Silent Struggle Homeless teens face unique challenges that often go unnoticed by their teachers and peers

By Mariam Keita and Cecile Bendera hen many people picture homelessness, they conjure up images of middle-aged men with unruly beards living in shelters or on the streets. However, being homeless does not always mean living on the streets.

According to Amy Kahle, a Student Family Advocate [SFA] at City High, there are 1,236,323 unaccompanied youth nationally. One federal report shows 6,789 homeless students enrolled in Iowa schools for the 2016-17 school year. In the Iowa City School District alone, there are 456 recorded unaccompanied youth.

“Each new student that gets to City High fills out a new student questionnaire in the office that asks a question about their homeless status...and so if that’s flagged, then they get referred to Thos [Trefz, an SFA] or I,” said Kahle. “Whether they ran away or whether they were kicked out doesn’t matter; as long as they aren’t under the roof of a legal parent or guardian, then they’re unaccompanied.”

By the definition given in the McKinney-Vento Act of 1987, the word “homeless” denotes individuals who lack “a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence,” or additionally, a child or youth who is not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. This definition includes those who lack a permanent home and may be “doubled up,” or staying with friends and relatives, as a result of housing or economic hardship or other extenuating circumstances.

Students whose living situations change during the school year are more difficult to flag. In those instances, there is no way for school administrators to know that these newly homeless students need additional support unless they choose to identify themselves. If not, Kahle said, they must face a slew of challenges and barriers alone.

“You might not get enough sleep, you might be really tired.You might be anxious,” said Kahle. “All of those little tiny hidden fees in high school like a cap and gown for graduation, t-shirts or ath-

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6 | THE LITTLE HAWK

letic things that you might need–or that most high school students might take for granted [because] their parents might just give them ten bucks or 30 or 50 dollars to get something–that’s not always available for homeless youth or unaccompanied youth.”

Indicators that a teen does not have fixed housing may include falling asleep in class, poor attendance, anger and behavioral issues, and hoarding food. Identifying McKinney-Vento-eligible students can be a difficult process because of the level of trust needed in order for them to reveal their situation and face the stigma of being homeless.

McKinney-Vento provides several protections to qualifying students: the right to be enrolled at educational institutions without a transcript, free lunch without needing to apply, and help with transportation to and from school if needed, among other things. Students under McKinney-Vento have full access to their rights regardless of whether they have run away from home, been kicked out by parents or guardians, or live, along with their families, without fixed housing.

Garcon Personne* is a teen attending school in the Iowa City Community School District. The summer before the 2018-2019 school year started, he ended up being kicked out of the house following a disagreement with his family.

“I had to find a place to live and the school was like, ‘Hey, try UAY!’” Personne said.

Despite being advised to do so, Personne did not initially going into the Transitional Living Program at the UAY. “I just needed to do one thing at a time,” said Personne. “I was still trying to process, like, ‘Why did my dad kick me out? What’s happening in my life right now?’ So it’s like, focus on one thing first.”

Instead, Personne chose to couch surf for several months, living with friends, family, and even teachers at school. At times, Personne even found himself sleeping outside.

“School is number one first,” said Personne. “[Last summer], I came to school, talked to the school, had to get Thos involved so he could find a way to get me help and everything, and so I’m good right

now for school. Plus, me being in the homeless status gets me a fullride to Kirkwood for free.”

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eenagers with an inadequate or irregular housing situation also face hardships in enrolling, attending, and being successful in school. Othor Emerald Smith, Tuesdays through er challenges might include lack of support from a Saturdays typically consist of the same caregiver and basic needs, including food and medical sequence of events. She checks her daily care, resulting in hunger, fatigue, and poor health. appointments to see who she will meet with on Not having fixed housing also makes it harder for that day. Each meeting will last for about an teens to access legal and financial paperwork that someone in a more hour. Later, at her desk, she will document how stable position would typically get from a parent. This can complieach meeting went. cate otherwise simple tasks, such as filling out FAFSA forms to get For the last eight years, Smith has been working as a homeless federal aid for college, medical information, employment, obtaining youth advocate with the United Action for Youth Transitional Living government assistance, and more.

Program [TLP].

“If you are [a certified] unaccompanied youth, then you can click “I have a history of...working with juveniles [and] youth who are a box on the FAFSA and...you don’t have to give your parent’s inforat-risk, who are basically seen as a “problem child,’” said Smith. mation,” said Kahle. “That automatically makes you eligible for the In Iowa City, there are several resources for homeless individuals, full Pell Grant and as much loans and grants as you can get.” which include the Domestic Violence Intervention Program, Shelter Before being certified as unaccompanied youth or minor at the House, Catholic Worker House, and the TLP, which is unique in that federal level, students must go through an interview process with a it provides services to those ages 16-21. This means even those who student-family advocate (Kahle or Trefz) or City High’s career adviare not yet 18, and therefore cannot access the other safe housing op- sor, Russ Johnson. tions, such as the Shelter House, can be provided with living services.

“We kind of go through that, let you tell us your story, figure “If it’s housing that they’re looking for, we do have a couple of out where you’re living,” said Kahle. “In one way it’s totally black homes, where if they meet criteria and eligibility, they can move in and white, because you have to be considered homeless under the for up to 18 months,” said Smith. “During that time, we’ll be able McKinney-Vento Act and not living with a guardian, but it’s also not to teach them the basic skills of survival. By the time [TLP mem- that easy. There’s a bunch of grey area there, so we just have to get as bers] move out within that 18 months, our goal is much information as possible so that we can make to already have somewhere they can move to, somea judgement call.”

“OUR FOCUS IS TO where stable, so they can make sure that homelessOutside of college admissions, homeless teens EMPOWER, WHETHER... might also face challenges during each school day. ness does not come back into the picture again,” Smith said.

“Constantly worrying about where you’re going THROUGH COUNSELING The TLP, though its name may indicate othto sleep at night [can affect academic performance],” [OR] APPEARING FOR erwise, does not merely provide housing services. said Kahle. “A lot of high school unaccompanied Keeping in line with the goals of the United Action SOMEONE WHO MAY NOT youth couch-surf. Stay with people as long as they’ll for Youth, the TLP’s mission is to uplift.

HAVE THE CONFIDENCE let you, and then you find someone else and then...

“Our focus is to empower, whether...through someone else. Constantly having that worry–where TO SPEAK UP.” counseling [or] appearing for someone who may I’m going to lay my head at night–is not a very not have the confidence to speak up,” Smith said. good way to focus on your studies.”

EMERALD SMITH Though it provides many services, the TLP is Frequent school mobility, or changing schools not without its flaws. Since there are only a certain often, has been linked to lower graduation rates, number of rooms and beds available, not everyone lower academic achievement, and higher dropout who needs a place to live can get one immediately. When all beds are rates for students in transitional housing. The National Coalition for full, problems may arise. the Homeless reports that 75% of homeless or runaway youth have “[TLP applicants must] wait from someone to get kicked out dropped out or will drop out of school. or wait for someone to graduate out of the program,” said Smith.

As a result of these barriers, the McKinney-Vento Act strives to ”Sometimes we are able to find some folks their own apartments if keep students in their original schools through the rights and resourcthey are working a pretty good job.” es it provides, which, along with transportation and lunch services, For students who are not yet 18, and are also unable to find resi- include FAFSA assistance and tutoring services. dence within the TLP, options are limited.

In addition to implementing the provisions of McKinney-Vento, “If you are under 18, you can’t go to the regular homeless shelter. schools can support homeless teens in other ways. One way of doing In Iowa City, we lack housing options for students who, for whatev- so is to make sure that teachers are cautious of their demands in er reason, can’t be at home. [We lack] someplace for them to stay,” the classroom, creating an environment which helps homeless and Kahle said. unaccompanied students feel welcome. For example, when assigning According to Smith, who is one of three people (two full-time) homework or other classwork, teachers can take care to understand staffing the TLP, it has been around for about 40 years. Despite its the barriers to completing it for homeless students, who may have longevity, many homeless and unaccompanied teens are still unaware trouble gaining access to Wi-Fi, taking photos, making food, or bringof the resources available to them through the TLP and other local ing in objects from home. lodging services.

“Not having a place to plug in your Chromebook, or “We [at the UAY], we’re pretty sure that there’s some individuals not having Wi-Fi where you’re staying...all of those things who don’t even know who we are [who are] dealing with these types that most kids take for granted are things that unaccomof situations,” said Smith. “We want to figure out how we can get to panied youth constantly have to think about,” Kahle said. those individuals because they need us. That’s what we’re here for.”

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MAY 3, 2019 | 7

BA N C

COLAT O H C E A N I F F S U N A IP M H

PHOTOS MAYA DURHAM, 8 | THEBYLITTLE HAWK ZOE BUTLER, AND OLIVIA LUSALA

PHOTO BY ZOE MILLER

Dear Readers, I’ve been doing most of the food features throughout this year. It’s been a blast getting to explore new recipes and photograph them. I wanted to close out my final food feature with my favoite banana chocolate chip muffin recipe. I found this recipe on Pinterest over two years ago. The recipe is from a little blog called How to be Lovely. Since then, I’ve brought them to show choir, cross-country, the musical, and various other practices.

Sometimes I just bring them to school and whoever finds me first gets one. These muffins have been a fun way for me to connect with others. I hope they continue to be made and passed out in the City High hallways in the coming years. I’ve included some fun reviews of the banana muffins below. So, without further ado, here is the recipe!

Zoe Miller

INGREDIENTS: 4 overripe bananas 1/3 cup of melted butter 3/4 cup of sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda pinch of salt 1 & 1/2 cups of all purpose flour 1 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips INSTRUCTIONS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins.

Peel bananas and put them into the mixer. Mix until smooth. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Add salt and baking soda and stir. Pour in flour and mix. Add mini chocolate chips.

Divide into muffin tins. Bake until cake tester or toothpick pulls out cleanly, about 18 minutes.

REVIEWS “ZOE’S BANANA MUFFINS IMMEDIATELY BRIGHTEN MY DAY. THEY ARE SO DELICIOUS. YOU KNOW IT’S GOING TO BE A GOOD DAY WHEN YOU SEE ZOE CARRYING HER GIANT TOTE BAG BECAUSE YOU KNOW THERE’S GOING TO BE SOMETHING GOOD IN IT. “ –IZZY JONES ‘19

“ZOE’S BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS ARE AMAZING. WE MADE SOME TOGETHER ONE TIME, AND I ATE WAY TOO MANY.” –INGRID STREITZ ‘19

“I LOVE ZOE’S BANANA MUFFINS. WHEN I SEE THEM MY DAY LIGHTS UP AND GETS 100% BETTER. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THAT ONE TIME ZOE WAS CARRYING THEM AND THEY FELL ON THE GROUND AND I PICKED THEM UP AND ATE THEM ANYWAYS.”

“ZOE’S MUFFINS ARE THE BEST THING EVER. ZOE ALWAYS SEEMS TO SHOW UP WITH THE MUFFINS ON THE DAYS I’M SUPER HUNGRY OR NOT FEELING GREAT AND THEY ALWAYS BRIGHTEN MY MOOD.’ –NAOMI MEURICE ‘19

–ANNA LINDOWER ‘19

MAY 3, 2019 | 9

THE SIDE DOOR The 2019 college admissions scandal impacted students around the world and at City High

By Zoe Miller

10 | THE LITTLE HAWK

ART BY ZOE MILLER

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ach year, high school seniors agonize over essays and study essays, taking placement tests, creating a resume and more. for the ACT and SAT in hopes of getting into their dream “For as long as I've been doing this every year there are situations colleges. where I’m very aware that the parents are doing everything and the In March 2019, the college admissions scandal, nicknamed Op- kids are not doing anything,” Hoel said. “It’s very easy to see that eration Varsity Blues, came out. William Rick Singer, the CEO of the parent has written this essay or the parent has done this resume. a company called The Key, was the ringleader There's really no way for us to be involved in that. behind the operation. According to Forbes, 50 I guess I’ve always felt that at the next level when people have been charged including parents, all of that is being reviewed and considered those “I THINK IT’S A REALLY coaches, and ACT and SAT test administrators. people have years of experience and are very perSAD SITUATION. IN Some of the colleges that were impacted by this ceptive and they will latch onto that.” scandal include Yale, Stanford, and GeorgePrivilege comes into play in the college appliMANY WAYS IT’S AN town. Since the news about the scandal was cation process because the amount of money a INDICTMENT OF THE released, videos of people’s reactions to it have family has can change how students apply.

WHOLE APPLICATION been uploaded to YouTube and Saturday Night “I think there are so many other systems in our ADMISSIONS SYSTEM, Live has put up a skit on it. country that aren’t necessarily criminal, but work For students at City High, the news about in just the same way. A wealthy parent will donate BUT I THINK MORE bribed college acceptances has affected people’s a building, say, seven years before their child goes IMPORTANT...[IS] WHAT outlook on higher education. to college and then when the time comes around IT SAYS ABOUT OUR “It was frustrating to see as I watched some for them to apply, they get in,” Murray said.

SOCIETY AND PEOPLE videos of the kids who got into these schools “Richer parents can afford to have tutors for their and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, they don't even care children for essentially all of their life. It's even a AND THEIR VALUES.” about school. Why did their parents pay all of privilege on its own to be able to retake the ACT.” this money?’ My follow up thought was, ‘These For the students at City High, especially those LINDA HOEL are the people who got caught, not the people who applied to college this year, the scandal imwho are still doing this,’” Kate Murray ‘19 said. pacted their view on acceptances to higher eduThe scandal included cheating on placement cation. tests as well as connecting parents with coaches “I think it was also a wake-up call to myself who could give recommendations to the colleges about whether the that getting into these colleges or my friends getting into these colstudent should be accepted. This included students who had never leges wasn’t any measure of our worth. I think this was further even played the sport they were being recruited for. Students were reinforcement of what a rigged system it is,” Murray said. not the only people who had a response to the scandal.

When guidance counselors advise students on how to apply, they “I think it's really a sad situation. In many ways it’s an indict- do their best to cover all of the bases. ment of the whole application admissions system, but I think more “I think we've always tried to be honest and say that you're lookimportant...[is] what it says about our society and people and their ing at the front door, but everyone knows there are other doors,” values,” Mrs. Hoel said.

Hoel said. “All we can do is advise students and While there is a strong focus on the how the parents this is the way that it’s supposed to be scandal has made it unfair for other students done and if there's manipulation at other levels who have applied to these schools, Hoel reflected “DON’T BASE YOUR SELF- that's beyond our control or really their control.” on another side of the story.

The idea of a dream college is something that WORTH OFF OF WHERE “I look at it more from the human side. My has been around for many years, but Ms. Hoel YOU GET IN AND WHERE first reaction when I heard about it was that it suggests it may not actually be a helpful term.

YOU DON’T.” was so sad for those kids. As a kid, what does “Many kids and parents feel like there's one that say to you about your parents? What they option or one best option and if they don’t get think of you, the confidence they have in you, in then their life is over, and it has such a negKATE MURRAY ‘19 your relationship with them, their trust in you ative emotional impact on kids. It’s important as a person and your ability as an individual to to help parents and kids understand there are make your choices and decisions?” Hoel said. many, many, many good choices and schools Since the news has come out, colleges have responded to the ad- that will be a good fit,” Hoel said. missions scandal with a promise to look more deeply into the adMurray gave advice for she would tell other people to approach missions process, including recommendations from coaches within the application process. their athletic programs.

“Don’t limit yourself dream-wise,” Murray said. “If you While this scandal included larger-scale schemes, there are smaller have the resources time- [and] money-wise to apply to your ways that college admissions can be impacted. To apply for college, dream schools, do it, because it’s worth the shot, but don't base students must go through many steps that include writing personal your self-worth off of where you get in and where you don't.”

MAY 3, 2019 | 11

16 and startin college W

hile taking the ACTs, applying to college, and eventually packing up to leave home may seem like something only upperclassmen have to worry about, two City High sophomores, Morgan Shelton ‘21 and Rylie Kelley ‘21, are enjoying their last trimester of high school before leaving for college in the fall.

“I’ve been thinking about it since like seventh grade, when I learned about the program,” Shelton said. “My parents and I had been talking about it on and off. We were like, ‘I might as well fill out the application,’ and then when I got accepted I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m definitely going to go.’”

The Bucksbaum Early Entrance Academy, run through the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa, is a program for highly motivated and gifted teens who are academically ready for college. Students can apply for the Bucksbaum program as

either sophomores or juniors.

“Students have been going to college early for decades,” Jan Warren, Assistant Director for Student Services at the Berlin-Blank Center said. “There are famous people who have gone to college early, including Martin Luther King Jr., Sandra Day O’Connor, and many others.”

However, the Bucksbaum Academy aims give their students a different experience than simply attending college early as King or O’Connor did. The Bucksbaum Academy aims to make the transition from high school to college as easy as possible while offering extra opportunities to their students.

“We try to smooth out some of the rough edges that are in place for students because they’re doing this out of step,” Warren said.

The two girls learned about the program independently of one another.

Shelton, while looking online at the Belin-Blank summer camps, stumbled upon the Bucksbaum Academy home page and Kelley found out about the program through her mom, a university professor.

As they were both very interested, they attended a information day together.

“In seventh grade, one of my teachers suggested that I do a program at the Berlin-Blank center,” Shelton said. “I couldn’t do it that summer because I had another camp I was going to but I went to the website and I was like, ‘Oh [the program] sounds cool.’”

A desire for more of an academic challenge and to get ahead of their schooling led both of the sophomores to apply to the program.

“I know that it sounds really dumb, but going to med school, getting a PhD, and going through college takes a really long time,” Shelton said.

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By Julianne Berry-Stoelzle and Jesse Hausknecht-Brown

The Bucksbaum Academy also has scholarships to offer, which, along with scholarships from the University, made it an easier financial decision for Shelton and Kelly. The average ACT score to get into the University of Iowa is 24, but the average ACT score to get into the Bucksbaum Academy is 31, making students eligible for university scholarships as well. “[My parents] helped me process the concerns that I could have,” Kelley said. “They helped me pro-con it.”

The application process consisted of two letters of recommendation, a few essays, an essay from the parents, an ACT score of around 31, and an in-person interview.

“They’re truly very bright kids, but they also are very mature,” Warren said.

“They’re socially ready to go, and their parents have confidence that they’re going to make good decisions while they’re here.”

The Bucksbaum Academy is a relatively small program compared to similar programs at other colleges. Twelve students have confirmed that they will be a part of the program for the 20192020 school year.

“We choose to not be a big program, because we want to have a lot of what I call face time,” Warren said. “I know all these students. I know a lot about them.

I know where they’re from and all their parents.”

A week or two after they interviewed, when Shelton and Kelley found out that they had been accepted to the program, both automatically knew that they would go.

“We texted each other; we were like, ‘Do you have an email?’ We tried to be really ambiguous about it because we didn’t want to give hints if one of us had been accepted,” Kelley said.

While the idea of going off to college two years early may seem daunting and crazy to some people, both girls feel ready for this leap. “[Older students] point it out to all of their friends,” Kelley said. “Then there’s the people that are weird, there was one person that was kind of proud but also seemed mildly weird about it.”

Nancy Sherman, a teacher of both Shelton and Kelley, feel as though they are both ready for college, but feels unsure about sending kids to college when they are so young.

MAY 3, 2019 | 13

“[I have] mixed, mixed, mixed feelings,” Sherman said. “For some kids, I think it’s absolutely awesome, give them a chance to get a head start. At the same time I am worried that students are trying to grow up too fast.”

While high school teachers may worry about college forcing teenagers to grow up too quickly, Warren believes that these exceptionally smart teens need to go to college early so that they can push themselves by getting an education that is better for them.

“Students tell me, later on when they’re seniors or graduating, that they feel like this has been a lifesaver for them, and that’s pretty profound,” Warren said. “A lot of times we think, ‘Oh, gifted kids, they’re fine, they’ll be fine on their own.’ These kids really need it. They need the challenge, they need the academic rigor, and they need the social-emotional piece as well.”

Shelton and Kelley also feel like they won’t be academically missing much in the two years of high school that they’re skipping.

“I’m a little sad I’m going to be missing school dances, just that kind of thing,” Shelton said. “But, I feel like the pros outweigh the cons.”

Sherman and Warren both say that adjustment to college life will most likely be a little bit challenging at first. Warren teaches a seminar for first-year students that focuses on getting used to college.

“That is just another opportunity for me to meet with them once a week,” Warren said.

“We do a session on how to manage your time,

we do a session on how to work with faculty, just kind of some of the basics that [are] helpful for them to know as new students on campus.”

Transitioning from the structure of high school to having only a few classes a day and not taking the same classes every day can seem especially daunting.

“Your classes are not as structured as high school and the first time you experience that, it’s easy to start skipping classes and it’s easy to not do homework,” Sherman said. “The freedom is awesome, but there’s a growing up that has to occur or you kind of blow it.”

As for Shelton and Kelley themselves, they both are more concerned about adapting to living out of the house than the educational aspect.

“I’m gonna have to figure out which buttons mean what on the washing machine [and] find a way to get to the grocery store,” Kelley said.

Along with washing clothes and cooking for themselves, the girls will be living in Daum Hall with the other members of the Bucksbaum Academy.

“They live in the honors residence hall, which is nice so that they all live on the same floor but then as well they’re surrounded by other honors students,” Warren said.

Shelton, having skipped sixth grade, will only be 15 at the beginning of her freshman year of college and will be too young to actually live in the dorms.

“They are still trying to figure out ways that I could possibly live in the dorms,” Shelton said.

“I’m definitely going to live there my sophomore year, but freshman year is still up in the air.”

Shelton will be receiving a key card that allows her to access all of the facilities of the Buxbaum Academy, but she will be returning home every night.

“It’s not that far, about a ten-minute bike ride,” Shelton said. “In the winter I can also probably take a bus or get one of my parents to drive me. I still have several months until then to figure things out.”

Similarly, Kelley also does not know all the details of her room situation.

“I have no clue who my roommate is going to be, which is a little bit concerning, but I’m hoping to... find out who they are soon,” Kelley said.

She is looking forward to having all of her things in one place, which she hasn’t experienced before, as she has lived in two houses during high school.

“I’m excited [to live in a dorm room],” Kelley said. “It’ll be nice, because I’m going to be able to set my own schedule and have my own things.”

Warren and Sherman both advise the students to ask questions, do their schoolwork, find resources, and get involved in study groups.

“Kids who are pretty bright don’t like to ask for help; they see it sometimes as a sign of not being as smart as everyone thinks they are or as being weak,” Warren said.

One of the special things about The Bucksbaum Academy are activities called “salons.” Salons give students the opportunity to have deeper, more meaningful conversations with each other, with teachers and with community members. Salons deal with topics like empathy, community and wonder. “[Salons] get into the conversations about the meaning of life, where you would have those more intimate conversations about life and learning and the likes of the mind, that maybe we don’t always get to have when we’re in a large lecture hall,” Warren said.

Last fall a salon was held with the mayor of Iowa City at a park south of town with a room looking out on the water. This gave students a chance to talk with the mayor about what makes Iowa City an appealing place for high school or college-age students. This was also a great chance for kids, especially kids from out of state, to see parts of Iowa City aside from just the university campus. “[Students] were able to submit ideas to [the mayor] and he took notes and he was so engaged with the students,” Warren said. “And they followed up with him. So that’s a cool option that the average college student doesn’t get.”

Another salon that they did dealt with empathy and was held on the top floor of the children’s hospital. Guests from the child life team who work with terminally ill children talked with the Bucksbaum students about their work. The students did a project for the kids as well.

“We think we all know what empathy means and what it’s about, but to really think about it, and how we’re paying it forward in our own lives [is important],” Warren said.

The girls will not be graduating from City High after their sophomore year because they will not have enough credits. They would like to use their college credit as high school credit to work towards high school graduation while in college. While this has not been approved by the school yet, Shelton and Kelley are looking at other options.

“If they don’t end up accepting college credit, then we’ll just end up getting our GEDs,” Shelton said.

A GED, or Graduation Equivalency Degree, which is acquired by passing a test, would act as a high school diploma so that girls wouldn’t actually need to graduate from high school. Another option they are considering is transferring their credits to a different school district with fewer graduation requirements and getting

their diplomas there. “[Kelley’s] dad lives in the Solon district, and my parents have a second house in a different school district,” Shelton said. “Both of us are considering transferring credits there and then graduating.”

As of now, Shelton and Kelley have not met the other kids going into the Bucksbaum program for the 2019-2020 school year. The students will meet before classes start. They will also attend a special Bucksbaum orientation the day before honors orientation. The girls hope to still see each other a lot while in college.

“Their dorm regulations might hinder it a little bit but we want to try and take at least math classes together,” Kelley said.

This past year, Kelley has been taking PSEO (post secondary enrollment option) courses and going to the University of Iowa during the school day. In the fall semester, she took a course in Greek classics and now she is taking one on Russian literature.

“I’m doing that to make sure I feel confident in my collegiate academics,” Kelley said. “It’s more rigorous [than high school classes]. They ask more of you, which is definitely something to keep in mind. It’s harder, but not significantly so.”

While this is a big jump, both Shelton and Kelley know that they are doing what is best for their education and are looking forward to next year. With less than half a trimester left, Kelley and Shelton’s time at City High will soon be coming to an end.

“I’m pretty excited. It’s gonna be cool,” Kelley said. “I’m glad that I’m getting to do that next step. That makes me happy but a little bit nervous [as well].”

FORTUNE FAVORS

THE BOLD PHOTOS BY ALISON KENASTON

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PHOTOS BY NINA LAVEZZO-STECOPOULOS

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The correlation between clothes and catcalling at City

By Alison Kenaston and Victoria Weckmann

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ccording to The Merriam Webster Dictionary, catcalling is “a loud, sexually suggestive call or comment directed at someone publicly (as on the street).”

For years, woman have been catcalled, making catcalling a frequent thing to witness on the street. A sex education instructor working for the United Action for Youth, Stanzy Scheetz, expressed how catcalling affects our society.

“It’s difficult to put a number to the frequency of catcalling, but I believe that it’s much more common than people think,” Scheetz said.

People tend to stay silent with their stories because in our society, street harassment is a typical thing for women and young girls to experience.

“Experiencing street harassment is so widespread, that victims do not always mention certain incidents because–very unfortunately–it’s become so normalized,” Scheetz said.

Meaning that people often do not realize how common catcalling is, and how it affects people’s views of themselves.

“Being catcalled made me feel so alone because I felt guilty to talk about it,” Ruth Meehan ‘22 said. “I kept asking myself, ‘What did you do to deserve this? What did you do wrong that made this happen?’ It just made me feel like I was nothing.”

Another City High student, Jane*, conveyed that catcalling diminishes one’s self esteem.

“I think it lowers your confidence, causing to rethink what you do, whether...it’s what you wear or how you carry yourself,” Jane said. “Once you start getting called these names, you start to wonder if you’re doing something wrong or if you’re asking for this attention.”

Because of the commonality of catcalling, women tend to think that the uncomfortable feeling is their fault and not the man that cat called her.

“It made me feel awkward and uncomfortable because I didn’t know the guys who were catcalling me. It was unnecessary and I know I didn’t do anything but it made me feel like I did,” Olivia Burke ‘21 said.

Besides promoting a variety of emotions, catcalling can prompt anger among victims “I kind of want to flip perpetrators off, because I get angry.

Me, being the feminist that I am, I want to say, ‘Screw you, you suck,’” said Shoshie Hemley ‘21. “However, it could be dangerous to react, so it’s really irritating. Catcalling makes you mad, but doing anything can be unsafe.”

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dictionary states “make a whistle, shout, or comment of a sexual nature to a woman passing by.”

“I have not personally heard guys talk about being catcalled, but it is something that can happen to anyone, regardless of gender,” Scheetz said. “However, statistically, women experience catcalling at much higher rates, with men being the perpetrators of 43% of catcalling at higher rates.” men have Despite what statistics say, it is still notable that men can expebeen catrience street harassment as well as women. called* “It’s stereotypical for people to think that men can’t be catcalled because they don’t have the things that women have, but that’s not true,” Jane said.

Another problem centering around street harassment is the belief that it is affected by what people-specifically women-were wearing at the time of the incident.

Due to concerns like these, women don’t normally confront the “I think we do have more features than guys do and it sucks people that are catcalling them, but rather ignore them and take the that we can’t wear certain things because of that,” Van Beek said. comments.

“It’s important to know that you shouldn’t be told what to wear, “Unfortunately, some don’t see catcalling as harassment since it’s and to know the consequences of what you wear. You need to untypically verbal, but ignoring or confronting the catcaller can lead to derstand that and that the guidelines are there to help.” aggression or violence,” Scheetz said.

An anonymous poll taken among 22 City High students of varDespite the lack of crime in Iowa City, there are still catcalling and ious ages reported that 16 of them believed there was a connection associated violence. Emme Perencevich ‘21 shared her story. between what people wear and if they are catcalled.

“A couple of years ago, I was biking home from my friend’s house “There is this idea if she’s wearing revealing clothes, then she is and some guys in a white pickup truck were driving behind me. They asking for the attention,” said Asha Keller ‘19. got closer to me and were yelling stuff that I couldn’t really underDespite this common belief, a different poll taken reported that stand,” Perencevich explained.

84.6% of 39 people reported having been catcalled at least once.

She didn’t expect violence to take place beOf 30 responses, one person reported wearcause the yelling seemed so harmless.

“AS THEY GOT PARALLEL TO ing a crop top, one person reported wearing a “As they got parallel to my bike, they threw MY BIKE, THEY THREW GLASS muscle shirt, and three people reported wearglass beer bottles at my tires. They drove off, conBEER BOTTLES AT MY BIKE.” ing dresses. The other 25 people reported weartinuing to scream at me,” Perencevich said. ing jeans or leggings and T-shirts, shorts and Along with violence, people find it hard to T-shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, turtlenecks, deal with the fact that they are catcalled or ha- EMMELENE PERENCEVICH ‘21 sweaters, or baggy clothing. rassed in areas they would normally feel safe in.

“I do not believe that there is a correlation “I was walking home from school one day and between catcalling and clothes, as it seems I saw some guys on my side of the road. They looked...pretty rowdy, that people can and will be catcalled regardless of what they are so I decided to switch sides. As I was crossing, the guys started whis- wearing,” Scheetz said. “Whether it’s a sundress or sweatpants, the tling, clapping, making crude gestures and laughing, and then one of problem of catcalling is on the perpetrator, not the victim’s prethem said, ‘Get your fine a*$ over here,’” Meehan said. “It took me sentation.” awhile to get over it, and I wasn’t allowed to walk home after that.”

Other catcalling and street harassment victims have reported The feeling of fear has stuck with Meehan since the harassment similar opinions. took place.

“A big stereotype is that what you’re wearing provokes some“I’ve been walking home from school since I was in first or second one to catcall you, which is completely unfair and your clothes grade, and then all of a sudden as a fourteen-year-old it was scary just because someone had catcalled me,” Meehan said.

Meehan is not the only one to have been catcalled in areas which would normally be considered safe. Other students, like Ana Van Beek ‘21, have been catcalled numerous times by upperclassmen at City High. Jane has been catcalled at South East Junior High. Niyati Deshpande ‘21, a West High student, has been catcalled at school. Pe81% of rencevich was catcalled at a school sponsored Model UN conference. women “It’s just so hard to be somewhere that you think is safe and nothhave been ing will happen to you, and then something does,” Meehan said. catcalled* Another problem which many people face when it comes to catcalling is that many victims don’t conform to the stereotypes they see in media and in their lives which revolve around harassment.

“I mainly see a lot of men catcalling women,” Jane said. “And I see a lot of tight clothing or less clothing thought to be involved.”

Men can also be catcalled. Even the definition provided Google’s

*According to Stop Street Harassment

ART BY FREE DAKAHLO

shouldn’t matter,” Meehan said. “We have the freedom to wear what we want to wear and if other people can’t control themselves then they need to get help. It’s not the victim’s fault, it’s the person that’s doing the catcalling.”

This trend, which recommends that a street assault victim is partially responsible for being catcalled due to their choice in fashion, has had a negative effect on the situation.

“Recommending people dress differently to ‘prevent’ catcalling harbors a culture of victim-blaming and ignores that the problem is not about fashion to begin with,” Scheetz said. “Rather than focusing on how victims need to change themselves, catcalling should be called out for what it is–harassment–and perpetrators need to be held accountable.”

People are still continuing to voice their disdain on the question of what people were wearing during a harassment incident.

“One stereotype would be that people who put themselves on display, for any reason, are automatically the ones who get catcalled. But when my friend and I were standing in a parking lot and got catcalled, we were wearing T-shirts and sweatpants,” Deshpande said. “In actuality, catcalling says more about the perpetrator than it does the victim.”

Being asked what people were wearing when someone harassed them made them feel even worse about the situation than they originally did.

“It’s very demeaning. It makes it seem as if it was my fault that I got catcalled when in reality it was the boys’ fault,” Deshpande “HE COULDN’T RESPECT BASIC BOUNDARIES AND said.

“He couldn’t respect basic SOMEHOW IT’S STILL MY boundaries but somehow it’s FAULT.” still my fault. The question of what I was wearing makes the NIYATI DESHPANDE ’21 incident shameful.”

Catcalling has been so normalized among the day-to-day actions of teenagers that it can be considered “a right of passage” and leave people with low self-esteem when they lack the attention of others. Madelyn Hellwig ‘21 shared her feelings on the issue.

“I definitely think that catcalling has become validating in our culture. I’m sure there are other girls who haven’t been catcalled who feel the same as I do,” Hellwig said. “They feel that somehow they’re not good enough, pretty enough, or not deserving in general of feeling like they look good. It’s kind of become something that just happens and you should expect it.”

The expectation to be catcalled has left people who don’t get the same attention feeling somewhat affected.

“Not being catcalled has definitely subconsciously affected my ego. As I’ve grown up I’ve kind of realized that with all of my friends, people look at them ‘like that’ and say stuff ‘like that’ but I never get told things like, ‘What’s up, hottie?’” Hellwig said.

“It just makes me feel kind of bad, even though I don’t think it should. It’s definitely been a bit of a blow to my already crippling fear that people don’t like me.”

Despite not being catcalled herself, Hellwig thinks that there is still a line that should not be crossed.

“I think if somebody said, ‘You’re so hot. Come here right now,’ [that is a problem]. There is a line, but it’s kind of an unclear line,” Hellwig said. “You’ve got to define what is respectful and what isn’t, rather than just grouping everything in one category.”

S HY YR B O AN OT PH HOLM

Three City High seniors choose to share ther religious traditions to gain understanding of themselves and others

By Rhys Holman here’s a great amount of religious diversity at City High, with many different religious beliefs practiced throughout the school. It’s very common for religious students to believe different things and celebrate their religions in different ways, if they celebrate at all. But what’s less common is a group of friends not only celebrating their own religious celebrations, but those of their friends as well. Despite being a very unique take on celebration, this is exactly what a group of friends have done.

“It all started when we were volunteering at Longfellow at the school carnival and we were in the cakewalk room,” Lottie Gidal ‘19 said. “But it was sad because Rachael had started Lent just a few days before, so she couldn’t eat any of the cakes, and so me and Salwa decided that we’d give up sweets too.”

Lent is a Christian holiday that involves giving up something important, beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending about six weeks later on Easter Day. This sacrifice is usually some sort of food or another thing of leisure in order to replicate the sacrifice of

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Jesus Christ in the desert. But as time moved on, the three friends decided not to stop at Lent and to support each other further in celebrating each other’s religious beliefs.

“After that we decided we would try Passover, ‘cause Passover runs into Lent by a couple of days,” Rachael Volkman ‘19 said. “So we did Passover with Lottie. Then we couldn’t leave Salwa out, so we celebrated Ramadan for not the whole month, but me and Lottie did it for two weeks.”

Though Gidal is not herself Jewish, her father is, which was the reason for them celebrating Passover. Passover, like Lent, involves giving up food items but instead celebrates the Jewish people being freed from slavery in Egypt. They celebrate bread, because when leaving Egypt to escape, they didn’t have time to let bread rise, thus giving it up recreates the sacrifice they made. “[Passover] was a little bit more difficult, because giving up sweets is a lot easier than giving up all bread products,” Salwa Sidahmed ‘19 said. “It was really fun, and then after that we celebrated Sater at her house, and so it was really interesting to see the two

different perspectives.” other’s religions. It was also about becoming closer as friends and But despite the difficult nature of these celebrations, they still growing closer through hardship. embrace it because of the positive experiences associated with do“I feel like it’s been very good in that we support each other in ing it with friends. the restrictions, because it’s sort of hard to be fasting while watch“To start, it was about experiencing each other’s cultures and ing your friends continuously eat food or give up sweets then watch getting to know how these different religions celebrate and sacrifice your friends eat cake in front of you,” Sidahmed said. “I think it’s for different reasons,” Volkman said. “It was really interesting going a good way to show each other that we care and that we want to from Lent, where you just give one thing up, to Ramadan where support each other.” you’re fasting for significant periods of time.”

This support of each other’s religious beliefs and traditions has Through not only learning about these celebrations, but also also changed the relationships between the friends. experiencing them, they’ve grown to learn more about each other’s “We’re definitely closer than we were at the beginning of high religions. school and it’s been a great experience and I’m really glad we did “I thought the most informative part out of all of this was cele- it,” Volkman said. “The amount of weird looks I got when I said I brating Sater with Lottie’s family because they celebrate it in a very was celebrating Ramadan alone was 100% worth it.” traditional way with prayer and specific foods By breaking expectations and celebrating relithat we ate,” Sidahmed said. “It was interesting gion in a very unorthodox way, Gidal, Sidahmed, because Lottie’s dad asked whether or not we’d “I THINK IT’S A GOOD WAY and Volkman have learned that as long as they’re TO SHOW EACH OTHER doing something together, the difficulty of it be comfortable reading some prayers too and Rachael said that it was the same God for all of us, doesn’t matter.

THAT WE CARE...THIS which I thought was very intriguing.”

“I think this experience has really brought us EXPERIENCE HAS REALLY closer This tradition has also led to Gidal, Sidahmed, together. Like sometimes you really, really and Volkman understanding their own religious BROUGHT US TOGETHER.” want sweets and you can’t have them, so to have beliefs and traditions even more. a friend who you can complain to who under“Christianity and Islam are a lot more similar stands what you’re feeling is helpful,” Sidahmed SALWA SIDAHMED ‘19 than they are different, and just seeing that as we said. “It’s also helped me realize how hard it is both give up something and seeing the mirroring for other religious practices. Rachael has been of those things is very educational,” Volkman said. “It’s interest- celebrating Lent her entire life and I never thought about just how ing following these three religions that are based around the same much she’s giving up when she gives up all sweet things.” thing and how they celebrate the different things and it really opens This same sentiment is echoed throughout all of the group. up your eyes that it’s really all the same.”

“I can say that today I have much more love for Rachael and SalSeeing the similarities between the religions helped the group wa than I did two years ago,” Gidal said. “Part of it is understandunderstand more about the messages and themes of all three reli- ing more about them on a deeper level and making it so that we can gions. do all the things we don’t normally get to do together as a group.”

“I think the main thing about it is that I didn’t know the deeper The group believes that though religion may be something that’s meaning to many of these religions and why we do it, even if the divisive for some both in the United States and abroad, for many it exact reason isn’t something we agree with,” Gidal said. “There’s a can also serve as an outlet to come closer together and understand lot of fear in the culture today about different religions and people each other more. that some think they don’t share a common set of ideals with, “The best part is knowing you have friends who try to underbut I think you learn a lot more about those people when you try stand you and don’t just try to ignore an important part of who something together.” you are,” Sidahmed said. “It just feels a lot better when you have This exercise in solidarity wasn’t just about learning about each your friends there.”

LEFT: Salwa Sidahmed ‘19 and Lottie Gidal ‘19 relax together on the front lawn BELOW: Gidal and Rachael Volkman ‘19 before the City-West game PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOTTIE GIDAL

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