The Little Hawk

THE LITTLE HAWK Iowa City, IA

Vol. 75

Friday, May 4, 2018

Issue 5

thelittlehawk.com

Best Buddies Holds Talent Show

By Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin News Editor

C ABOVE: The University of Iowa has announced a five month moratorium on all construction projects PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

Raising the Price After a series of cuts to the state education budget, the U of I has been forced to raise its tuition

By Lottie Gidal News Editor

“They told me that nursing tuition was estimated to be a certain amount in the fall, and now on my financial mma Hartwig’s collegiate aid letter it’s more than what they told dreams are coming true; She has me,” Hartwig said.

After a string of budget cuts in the been accepted into the University of Iowa’s highly competitive nurs- last year or two from the state legislaing program, and has been offered two ture, the University of Iowa has been forced to raise their tuscholarships to attend.

“I really like help- “PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES ition. The most recent only a month ing other people,” PLAY A VITAL ROLE came into the 2018 fiscal Hartwig said. “I had surgery to have my ap- IN OUR DEMOCRACY year after the state anpendix removed when AND WE MUST ALL nounced a shortfall in its budget.

I was 13 and that was KNOWLEDGEABLY “These cuts are difwhen I really noticed ficult,” Josh Lehman, EXPLAIN THEIR nursing. The nurses of Commujust made me feel so IMPORTANCE AND Director nications for the Iowa comfortable, and they were so knowledgeable VIGOROUSLY PROTECT Board of Regents said. about everything I real- AND DEFEND THEIR “We certainly advocate for appropriations ly looked up to them in MISSION.” from the state, and unthat moment, that was fortunately when the what really got me interested. It’s just a field LENA HILL other source is tuition, that I think I can be reCHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER we want to be mindful to find the right ally passionate about.”

But when the time came in the balance. But we do need to have the spring for the University of Iowa to resources to provide a quality educabegin finalizing its tuition for the tion.”

The Board of Regents is the group 2018-19 school year, Hartwig noticed that oversees Iowa’s three public unisomething was off.

E

Desegregating Iowa Schools

By Badra Kalil and Alison Kenaston Reporters On April 2, a panel discussion centering around the desegregation of schools was held. The panel featured Leslie Locke, an assistant professor at the University of Iowa College of Education, Kingsley Botchway, a member of the City Council of Iowa City, as well as Nikole Hannah-Jones, a well-known investigative reporter for the New York Times. Teachers, educators, parents, and

community members from all around Iowa came to take part in the discussion.

The event started out with each panelist talking a little bit about the factors that drive segregation in education.

Maya Durham ‘19, who joined the panel during the second half of the forum, said she believes history is the main cause for segregation in schools.

“Redlining and white flight and

versities: Iowa State University, Uni- inclusion efforts at the UI,” Hill said.

For Hill’s department, the Chief versity of Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa. However, the Board of Diversity Office, it means that two of Regents has little control over how the their subunits, Center for Diversity schools are funded, that money comes and Enrichment and the Diversity Refrom the state budget. If the universi- sources Team, will wait longer before moving into their new ties are not receiving space in their new enough money from “WE CERTAINLY space in the Universtate funds, they are ADVOCATE FOR sity Capitol Center. forced to raise tuition.

“These units have The University of APPROPRIATIONS been waiting since the Iowa chose to respond FROM THE STATE, 2008 flood to move to the most recent AND UNFORTUNATELY into this new space,” shortfall ($5.49 million) by announcing a WHEN THE OTHER Hill said. “It is incredibly frustrating five-month halt to all SOURCE IS TUITION, to have this midyear construction projects. cut further delay our This will balance the WE WANT TO BE into a space that budget, but staff say MINDFUL TO FIND THE move will allow us to serve this is only a tempoRIGHT BALANCE.” students, faculty, and rary fix, and that in staff more effectively the future there will quite possibly be cuts JOSH LEHMAN as we work to make to programs.

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATION, IOWA our institution as diBOARD OF REGENTS verse, equitable, and Lena Hill is the inclusive as possible.” interim chief diversity These cuts at Universities across officer and associate vice president, senior associate to the president, and a Iowa are only indicative of a larger faculty member in English and Afri- national trend taking place, with cuts of federal funding for research on the can-American Studies.

“Most of my current efforts focus upturn.

Continued on 7A on leading our diversity, equity, and all of that has led to, especially in the north, to deep, deep roots in segregation that aren’t really acknowledged,” Durham said.

Many agreed that not only is segregation an issue between schools, but also within schools. AP classes were a very common topic of conversation.

In schools, even ones that are desegregated, there are big disparities in participation in advanced classes, as well as in extracurricular activities.

As far as why there are such big disparities, Durham points to cost as one of the main factors that drives segregation.

Later on, the panel focused more on the lack of minorities being represented in school staff.

“The teaching force remains largely white, middle class and female.” Leslie

Locke said. “Secondary principles are largely white and male, therefore it’s possible for students to go through their entire K through 12 experience without seeing a teacher of similar racial or ethnic background.”

Most attendees believed that young students of minorities feel alienated by their fellow classmates, and are no longer excited to go to school like they used to be when they were younger, which is only exacerbated by segregation in schools. “[Students of color and lower-income backgrounds] are more strongly impacted by policies up to zero tolerance policies, dress code and hair policies, and are in schools with a stronger law enforcement presence.” Locke said.

Continued on 7A

ity High’s award-winning Best Buddies chapter is always looking for ways to show inclusion throughout the school. The club’s most recent event was the Best Buddies Talent Show: a way to showcase the talents of club members, along with a fundraising opportunity for the chapter.

“The talent show is basically an opportunity to put special-ed students in front of peers and build them up,” Molly Brennan ‘18, the 2017-2018 chapter president, said.

This event is highly anticipated in all parts of the City High community each year. It brings in students, families, and teachers, and accrues many dedicated attendees.

“I’ve gone every year, even before I was super involved [with Best Buddies],” Brennan said.

The event showcases the talents of students with a wide range of abilities.

This year, some of the most anticipated acts were Bob Tharrington singing and dancing, Eli Hansen singing, and Mr. Lehman singing.

“When they go onstage, they’re so happy. When Bob’s singing, he’s dancing all over the place, and loves the applause and attention,” Brennan said.

Best Buddies is always working to send out the message to focus on people’s abilities, rather than their disabilities. “[The talent show] broadcasts their abilities and shows that they’re not limited. It really gets the message out there,” Brennan said.

In addition to providing a safe space for students to perform, the talent show is also the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Best Buddies charges admission, sells snacks and T-shirts, and holds a silent auction. This year, the chapter raised approximately 1,800 dollars.

“It’s just a really great way to show the students that they’re supported within the school and the community,” Brennan said.

LH Video: Student and Teacher Summer Plans Scan the QR code below

2A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Contents SECTIONS A&B

5A

8-9A

Problems With the Humans of City High Pipes Learn about this issue’s students featured in Humans of City High.

3A

Teachers Protesting Teachers’ wages are low and it’s causing an uproar in Iowa schools and others across the nation.

5A

Mr. Peterson Retires Longtime guidance counselor Eric Peterson retires at the end of this year. Read about the plans for his position, along with his plans for life in retirement.

4A

6A

Get the inside scoop on the cancellation of the Ethnic Studies course.

Learn about your Student Senate presidential and vice presidntial candidates: Lottie Gidal, Naomi Meurice, Maya Durham, Eli Anderson, John Geerdes, Olivia Baird, and Ama Basan.

Behind the Scenes

Adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census could cause controversy.

10A

What Is Your Fate This Summer?

Take this quiz to find out your true summer plans.

1B

Staff Editorial: In the Presidential Campaign Red

2B

Measure Up

Inequality of the sexes in track can be physically measured.

3B

On the Rise Anti-Semitism is increasing in America and Shayna Jaskolka is not having it.

4-5B

Somewhere That’s Green

The excessive costs of Advanced Placement testing disproportionately affect students of lower-income families.

The theater department took the stage once again with “Little Shop of Horrors,” an edgy venture into the world of fantasy.

Letter from the Editors Wassup Readers, Wowza. This year has been amazing — we started out not too great, to put it nicely. Now, over 100 school days later, we’ve got a newspaper and magazine that we’re truly proud of.

When we set out to do this issue, we had a short turn around — three weeks, essentially, and we pulled it off! We’ve got it all this issue, from figuring out the fate of your summer to classic spring sports.

This is the pinnacle of our publication this year, and we know the bar will only be set higher next year.

We’re so proud of every editor

(and reporter who’s joined us along the way) this year, and are incredibly excited to see how the publication continues to grow next year—with a brand new crop (get it? Cuz we are in Iowa and we grow stuff?) of staff members and editors, we’re sure that next year The Little Hawk will thrive.

So here we are—one last family photo for the books. A celebration of not only how far we’ve come, but how far we’ll go. <3:’( :), Papa Vic and Mama Maya

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

HeforShe Club Begins One of City High’s newest clubs, HeforShe, aims to create an equal environment for people across the gender spectrum

SDEC Holds Student TED Talks

By Rika Yahashiri

By Ellis Chen Reporter

I

I

n March, HeforShe came to City High as a club which meets on Friday mornings in room 1303. Yardley Whaylen ‘20 and Mya Kahle ‘20 started the club.

“I think the topic of feminism and gender equality has more to do with guys than they think,” Whaylen said.

“They think that when they hear the word ‘feminism’ it’s all around women power and topics revolving around women but really [it’s] problems like toxic masculinity and gender roles.”

The HeForShe organization was founded by UN Women in 2014 with the goal of increasing male action for gender equality. At City High, the club aims to spread discussions of gender equality to a broader audience.

“If only one half of the population feels welcome in the fight for gender equality, then it’s not going to get anywhere, because it takes everyone,” Kahle said.

At the meeting, the club started the process of planning an Awareness Week. Together, they bounced ideas around about contacting speakers from the community, including a gender studies teacher and speakers from the Rape Victim Advocacy Program.

Both Whaylen and Kahle are adamant about the importance of increasing participation in the movement for gender equality. Member David KeffalaGerhard ‘18 concurs.

“I think traditionally, historically, men have carried a lot of weight in terms of influence and power in the world and women for the most part have just been on the sidelines because men haven’t let them take part, which is really not okay,” Keffala-Gerhard said. “What’s important is that women have always been trying to take part in the world they live in as they should, but men have been stopping them or

PHOTOS FROM @chs_heforshe hindering them, and it’s super important that people are reaching across this boundary line and helping pull the genders together as a sort of unification.”

The club also noted that it was open to all members of the student body.

“A lot of people think that it’s for girls or guys only, but it’s really for everyone on the gender spectrum,” Kahle said. “It’s not for one specific group.”

HeforShe meets Fridays at 8:00 am in Room 1303

NEWS 3A

Reporter

nspiring and influential, the nationally acclaimed TED Talks have struck City High with “ideas worth spreading.”

SDEC (Student Diversity and Equity Council) and Michelle TranDuong ‘19 came up with the idea to showcase TED talks on issues dealing with diversity and social issues from City High students who are passionate about the topic.

Run by SDEC and James Tutson, these TED talks are held in Opstad Auditorium or The Little Theater on Fridays during Advisory.

“I was first inspired by actual TED talks,” Tran-Duong said. “I thought it would be a cool idea to bring it to City High.”

James Tutson is the iJAG coordinator at City High and the coordinator of the Student Diversity and Equity Council.

“I believe, as with everything SDEC does, the goal was to engage the student population in conversations that were bigger than school,” Tutson said. “[Michelle] wanted students to either feel like they had a platform to speak about the things that inspire them or to feel like they had a platform to hear about inspiring things. I think often entire days pass by where we don’t get to do either.”

Tutson plans on getting faculty involved so students can see issues their teachers are passionate about.

So far, there have been three TED talks: one from Feda Elbadri ‘21 about racism in school and school bias, one from Kate Murray ‘19 about immigrants and their inventions, and one from James Tutson himself about race and concepts surrounding it.

“Since we’ve had a couple TED

talks already, most of the turnout is decent,” Tran-Duong said. “They’re typically friends of the speaker or the members of SDEC. I hope in the future more people can come and support these wonderful speakers.”

The TED talks have been announced on the daily announcements and there has been advertising around school about them, but the audience has so far been small “We had put up posters but it doesn’t seem like students actually pay attention to those anymore,” Tran-Duong said. “I really hope that in the future more people will come to listen to these speakers. These topics aren’t easy to talk about but the fact that these students are willing to publicly speak about it, I think that’s important.”

Tutson hopes that these talks will not only be listened to, but cared about and discussed.

“I think we’re all desperate for some real conversation in our lives. I think we can easily plan these things and think, ‘Well who cares what some random person has to say? Why bother?’ but then people show up,” Tutson said.

“They don’t even know what the talk is going to be about really, they just want something real to listen to and discuss.

I think there’s something significant to that.”

Even though this is the beginning of this project, SDEC has high hopes for the future. It is currently looking for anyone who is interested in giving a TED talk next year. Interested parties can email their potential ideas to James Tutson.

“This is a stretch, but it’d be awesome to team up with the actual TED Talk company and bring a...[TEDx] here so that not only City High students but others from the community can share their own stories too,” Tran-Duong said. “It’s more important that people are sharing their opinions and that others are listening.”

Teachers Protest Nationwide for Increase in Funding

By Maya Djalali

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Reporter

ince February of 2018, thousands of teachers from West Virginia to Arizona have been protesting for better pensions and more adequate school funding.

These protests were partly in response to budget cut plans by state governments that would cut 16 million dollars from school funding, as well as the 2% increase in pay that was promised to them. According to teachers, this still isn’t enough to cover the rising costs of healthcare.

Teachers in West Virginia ranked 48th in the U.S. in terms of pay.

Teachers, as well as parents and students, protested in the state capital of Charleston, even though strikes by public workers are illegal in West Virginia. The strike ended after two weeks, when a bill was signed to give teachers a 5% raise. The protests have been spreading like wildfire to other states and gaining attention from teachers and state governments across the nation. Many educators in other states, such as Oklahoma, Arizona, and Kentucky, have begun protesting.

All these states have one thing in common: they are all ranked at the bottom when it comes to teachers’ pay in each state.

Oklahoma and Kentucky were the first to follow West Virginia’s lead.

Oklahoma teachers, ranked 49th in pay, have been protesting against budget cuts that have left 20% of public schools on a four-day-week schedule.

A bill passed in late February cut even more funding from nearly every state agency, including $16.2 million from the Department of Education. Backlash from this caused legislators to increase taxes on cigarettes and gas production to provide teachers with raises of about 15-18%. It also added $50 million in education funding. However, teachers said that it still wasn’t enough.

In Kentucky, every school district was closed as teachers walked out of class and rallied at the capital, Frankfurt. These strikes, too, were in response to a bill lawmakers passed last week that cuts pension benefits for new and retiring teachers.

Teachers in Arizona threatened to follow West Virginia’s lead and go on strike if the state didn’t meet their de-

PHOTO BY ZOË BUTLER mand for a 20% pay increase. About 200 school districts closed as teachers and supporters rallied in Phoenix, wearing red as a part of their RedForEd movement.

These protests and strikes have caused schools to be closed for weeks at a time, leaving students who depend on schools for daily nutrition facing additional burdens. While some of the superintendents for these schools have voiced their support, they are calling for actions that have less of a negative impact on students.

“It’s sometimes the hidden politics in education that we don’t see or hear or talk about that sometimes affect us,” said Dolores Silva, a Spanish teacher at

City High. “The current administration that is running our education department has every intention to work with businesses but not understand the educators that are actually doing the educating.”

In Iowa, teachers receive fairly average wages, placing 31st total in the United States in terms of pay. Under Iowa law, unions are not illegal but are limited in their ability to negotiate for public workers. Iowa teachers who strike face up to 6 months in jail and a $500 fine.

“It’s great that these teachers have the right to protest, but we in Iowa do not,” Silva said. “Anyone who works and is challenged to work should have

a voice.”

Many of the leaders of this movement say that the constant budget cuts and underappreciation of teaching staff by their respective state governments has made these strikes a long time coming.

“The pay and the benefits have been problems for years, and there’s constantly been the promises of, ‘We’ll take care of this, we’ll take care of this,’” said Kym Randolph, West Virginia Education Association Director of Communications and a teacher’s union member.

“It’s finally gotten to the point where the promises aren’t enough.”

NEWS 4A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Behind the Scenes

The motivation behind the cancellation of the Iowa City Community School District’s Ethnic Studies course

T

By Esti Brady Reporter

he preparation and planning for the Social Justice Through Ethnic Studies class had taken over a year.

Everything appeared to be in place, ready to go for the third trimester at both City and West High. But on February 26, a Press-Citizen article came out, suddenly informing the members of Students Against Hate and Discrimination (SAHD) and the students who had signed up for the class that it was to be “postponed”.

Equity Director Kingsley Botchway emailed SAHD about the decision, however, it came six hours after the Press-Citizen article was published.

“I felt like I was nothing. I felt like we were so minuscule and not even on their radar that it didn’t matter to notify us,” said Lujayn Hamad ‘18, a West High student and founding member of SAHD. The answer as to why the class was cancelled remained ambiguous for weeks. The Press-Citizen article stated it was due to low enrollment, but at the school board meeting on February 27, at which SAHD presented over 250 student signatures of support and 60 new signups for the class, issues with budgeting were discussed instead.

A few members of SAHD met with Superintendent Stephen Murley on March 13. Their primary goal was to to figure out the actual causes of the cancellation and how best to move forward. The Press-Citizen was correct in that the course didn’t have enough students signed up.

“The number we’re looking for when deciding to run a class or not is 24, but we’ll do it at 15 if it’s the first time that course is offered,” said Murley. “And unfortunately this class didn’t meet those requirements.”

S

Club Grants Not Available Student Senate will no longer fund City High student clubs due to a lack of funds in the Senate

By Henry Mildenstein Reporter

C ABOVE: SAHD members hold signs at the March 27 school board meeting PHOTO BY THEO PRINEAS However, issues with the district’s budget not meeting the course’s chosen teacher’s requests also played a major role in the cancellation of the class.

“We have a set amount of money to pay teachers that are teaching extra courses, as Ms. Covington would be because she is not a certified teacher, and that was the dollar value offered for each of those two classes, and she latter came back and essentially asked for twice as much as we had offered,” Murley said. “We decided that was not appropriate, as we would not double the pay for a teacher already working in the district, so that information was shared with her and that’s also where

the deal started to break down.”

In addition to SAHD members, students who had signed up for the class were also not notified prior to the release of the Press-Citizen article.

Having no fourth-period class on their schedule for third trimester unsettled many students.

“I was very disappointed, partially because I really wanted to take the class, it looked like it had a good teacher, good syllabus, good structure, and then I was also disappointed because I had no fourth period,” Joseph Bennett ‘20 said. “I had to figure out something else to do last-minute.”

At the March 13 meeting, SAHD

requested a public apology from the district to the students who were looking forward to being in the class over the mishandling of the situation, but no apology has been put forward to date.

Regardless of whether SAHD receives the sincerest of apologies or none at all, the organization, in conjunction with the school board, is moving forward with plans to implement this class in the future.

“The ideas are still coming together for next school year,” Hamad said, “but there will definitely be a course offered for 2019-2020.”

Dr. Terrence Roberts Visits City High

By Alison Kenaston and Paris Fuller Reporters

tudents gathered in Opstad Auditorium on April 6th to watch a historical figure who helped the Civil Rights Movement: Dr. Terrence Roberts, a member of the Little Rock Nine. In an attempt to facilitate the integration of public schools, these nine African-American students chose to start the 1957 school year at an all-white and previously segregated school in Arkansas.

“The Little Rock Nine showed up only because a group of people on the school board at Little Rock determined that they were going to do something positive in the wake of the Brown decision,” Roberts said. “So they put together a plan that they were only going to desegregate one school, Central High in Little Rock.”

During his time at City, Roberts shared stories of what he encountered at Little Rock and some of the tough situations he was forced to endure.

“I told [my parents] that I volunteered and they didn’t hesitate to say ‘we will support your decision 100 percent,’” Roberts said. “And they followed that up with this phrase: ‘If you get up there and it’s too hard and you want to quit, we will support you 100 percent.’”

He shared about the other eight students’ experiences as well as his own, mentioning their hardships and the (few) fights that they got into while

2018- 2019

ABOVE: Dr. Terrence Roberts addresses City High students PHOTO BY ALISON KENASTON at Central High.

“Minnijean [Brown-Trickey] is the only one in our group who didn’t finish that year. She got kicked out of school in February of 1958 for fighting. Now you might find that intriguing because all nine of us had taken a vow of nonviolence, we chose not to fight. One day in the cafeteria, [Minnijean] had her lunch and some kid prohibited her from entering her seat,” said Roberts. “He blocked her path and there she was with a tray of food hovering over this kid’s head and one question popped into her mind: ‘Should I or should I not share my lunch with

him?’ Well, she spent a short time contemplating, and finally decided in the affirmative.”

Roberts then took questions from the assembled students and gave them advice, making an effort to listen to and discuss with as many students as possible.

“In keeping with my philosophy of life, I don’t think human beings were meant to fight, ever, anywhere,” Roberts said. “I can’t understand why we act as if we’re animals when our brains are bigger than the brains of cats and rats. The default option is to fight because their brains are so small.”

Much of his talk centered around the question of nonviolence. Over the course of the discussion, Roberts offered several of his own interpretations of the concept.

“I am 99.9 percent nonviolent.

But I reserve that one percent to protect my kids,” Roberts said.

After, students lined up to take pictures or reaturned to classes.

“I thought that the way he taught us to be ourselves was very inspirational,” Shelby Caldwell ‘21 said. “He told people not to care what others think about you and to live the way you want.”

ity High offers many clubs, which present a diverse mix of opportunities that gets hundreds of students involved. While students enjoy a lot of the experiences clubs provide, the clubs can also be costly to run.

“Debate can be a costly activity.

More funding would help subsidize more of the costs of attending a tournament, technology, and so on,” said Drew Gardner, one of the debate coaches at City High.

According to Gardner, some schools are not quite as fortunate as the ones in the ICCSD. “The debate team receives funding from ICCSD and it is sufficient to run our team, some schools are much worse off,” said Gardner.

Recently, students at City High formed a frisbee team. The team had issues with acquiring the things needed to run properly.

“More funding would enable us to welcome players to the team who struggle financially, as we are fronting money out of our own pockets to pay for tournament/league fees, jerseys, and USAU memberships,” said Brady Vanlo ‘18. “We ended up getting some sponsors and did some fundraising opportunities to help us get the funding we need.”

According to Nolan Vibhakar ‘21, it can be very pricey to to maintain Robotics Club.

“A lot of our expenses were used on upgrading our equipment and materials,” said Vibhakar. “More funding could mean more and better equipment for the club.”

Vibhakar said that this equipment could potentially help to improve the team’s performance in competitions.

“This means we would be able to keep up to date on the most efficient tech and supplies,” he said. “This levels the playing field with the other teams that have those things.”

While most clubs have found a way to pay for their needs, there are somethings that the clubs would like to be able to do eventually do.

“Our biggest dream is that debate could be funded enough to make tournament attendance free for all debaters,” said Gardner. “However, in reality, the district has been very generous to City High Debate, and we feel very lucky to have a supportive district and administration.”

Vibhakar believes clubs allow students to find different interests “I think it’s important because clubs encourage students to go out and try new things,” Vibhakar said. “Funding helps make sure that those clubs can provide better experiences for students.”

NEWS 5A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

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

“I see more discrimination because of religion. I would see students, not teachers, making offensive comments about Muslims, Hinduism, or just religions that they’re not quite familiar with. I would see or hear them making offensive jokes about religion. It’s never really just about race. I don’t really put much thought about being black and being at City High. I don’t think that it’s a bad thing. Its normal, it’s just like being everyone else.”

“A friend is someone that keeps it 100 with me. Some people keep it 100 with me, and others just do things for others when it benefits them. That’s why I feel like I don’t have friends.

I’ve got family, though. I love my family because I know they will be there for me through anything, but with friends you don’t know that.”

“I was raised by my grandma, and she was sick while raising me. You would never know. Once I really found out that she had cancer and started going to the hospital, she really took care of me. She still remained strong, did things on her own.

Just being raised by an independent black woman, and seeing the hard times that she had to go through and just persevere. Everything that I do is for my grandma. I told my grandma I was going to be successful, I wasn’t just going to waste my life.”

“Hard work can beat talent. If you just have talent alone and you don’t have hard work, there will come a point where your talent is not going to help you.

You will need hard work to get you to the next level. My freshman year I was in the fresh-soph team and I was in the bench. I felt like giving up but I kept on going. I bounced back up and made varsity.”

By Cecile Bendera and Everline Bwayo Reporters

“I don’t think my parents...really care about my wrestling. I just do whatever I want to do. If I go to them and talked about wrestling they are going to say, ‘What the hell is wrestling?’ They don’t really care about it but I do.

I don’t really feel bothered, though, because they just don’t know about the sport and have never heard of something called wrestling. I didn’t know anything about it either until my sophomore year so I don’t blame them.”

From One Peterson to Another E

ric Peterson is a family man. When speaking of the many things that his two sons and his wife have accomplished, his eyes light up with pride and a contagious smile overtakes his face. In fact, descriptions of their achievements monopolized his conversation with the Little Hawk.

“I hate to say, sometimes you just know it’s time,” said Peterson.

&

Q A Q: What do you hope to do once you retire?

A: The main thing I want to do in retirement is take better care of myself. I put on weight the last several years, but I do really a nice job during summers in terms of exercising. I ride my bike 20, 30, 40 miles a day most days.

Q: How do you define self-care?

A: I think that in life you need balance and one of those balances is certainly physical activity and things from that standpoint. That’s one thing: while I have my health and while my wife has her health, I’d like to be able to do a bit of traveling and things like that.

Q: I remember you saying you had a son who

goes to the University of Dayton. Tell me more about him.

Peterson is also a man of many hats. Among his forays he can count Drama Director, Language Arts Educator, Radio Personality, cyclist, father, husband, son, and last but not least, guidance counselor, to his list of exploits. City High will say goodbye to him at the conclusion of the 2017-2018 school year as he will be retiring after 23 years in the guidance office.

A: Yup, they work there as the director, the very first director of the LGBTQ [facilities], they’ve never had an LGBT office there and so when they opened it, Petie was hired to be their first director of that office. They had been at Vanderbilt University in a similar office but as an associate so this allowed them kind of a step up to being a director [of queer affairs].

Q: Can I ask who is replacing you?

A: This will be a little odd because the counselor that’s replacing me, her name is Mary Louise Peterson and my wife’s name is Mary Louise Peterson.

Q: Are you serious?

A: Yeah! When I met her, I said, “You know what’s funny is people have been joking, they think maybe my wife was hired or something like that”’ I said, “Well the thing that would be really unusual is if your middle name started

with an L or if it was Louise,” and she said, “My Grandmother’s name was Mary. One was Mary and the other was Louise.” *To read the rest of the interview, check out the Little Hawk’s website.

By Mariam Keita Reporter

Band Trivia Night Buzzes With Huge Success

By Lindy Rublaitus Reporter

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he room hummed with excitement as students and families entered the cafeteria, having prepared themselves for a good time. Snacks and drinks were passed out, and a voice over a speaker asked, “Who’s ready for some trivia?”

“It’s fun to all come together and have families participate with us. Unfortunately this year was rigged and Dr. McReynolds actually won for once,” Maggie Cremers ‘19 said. “Our team had the significant disadvantage of only having 15-18 year olds. We killed the superhero and name-that-song categories, though.”

On April 7th, City High Band held their annual trivia night to raise funds for the band department.

“It had a better showing than last year and we raised somewhere around $700, so I’d say it went very well,” Quinn Kopelman ‘19 said.

All the entry fees go to the band department to help them purchase new equipment and music each year.

The obscure questions puzzled the teams as they tried to name famous women, match songs to movies, and think of which Shakespeare pieces included ghosts in them.

“Many questions were answered, many more sodas were demolished,” said Kopelman, whose team built a pyramid of soda cans through the two-hour event.

The annual fundraiser has been attracting families and students from all parts of City High to join forces and defeat other teams, handing out door prizes by answering random City High trivia along the way. Even though it was created by the band department and the Band Associates of City High [BACH], the cafeteria was filled with students who were part of band, building teams and a night fit for the whole community.

“I heard about it from my mom because my brother is in band, it seemed like a fun activity to do with people and it was a plus that it was supporting the band program,” said Veronica Abreu ‘19. “The night went really well.

My team did pretty poorly but we had a blast and everyone was laughing and participating.

There were students, adults, and teachers there and I think everyone had a good time.”

6A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

I have goals but I have realistic goals.

We have power, but the school president is not an all-powerful ruler. We have to work with other people and I think some people don’t realize that and just think they can do whatever they want. You need to have a leader...with cool ideas, but is realistic about it.

My big thing right now is I want to make school dances more fun. I feel like we’ve had some pretty rough school dances and I feel like there are some really easy changes we could do to make it more fun and bring it back.

Since freshman year, I’ve been pretty heavily involved in Student Senate, and it always kind of seemed like a clear path.

I think I bring in a lot of much-needed perspectives. As a student of color, as a queer student, and a woman, I have a lot of experiences that not a lot of the other people who are running do.

I want to talk with the school board about getting at least one vegetarian option at lunch everyday, raise awareness about the mental health services we have here, because every single one of the people I know at City has had a breakdown at one point or another.

Logistics excites me like you wouldn’t believe, which I know isn’t the same for a lot of people. The idea of organizing a bunch of little things and bringing them together to make a dance is always amazing, but I also see it as a really great platform to get things done that Naomi and I have been talking about.

You probably know Naomi and I from the recycling things we’ve been putting up around the school.

That is obviously still a big, number-one priority.

Movie nights, food-truck Fridays, tailgaiting on the front lawn before fall and spring sports. Another thing we feel is that football gets a lot of hype and a lot of other sports, maybe they don’t have a big student section to cheer for them.

I chose to run because I’ve been in Student Senate since my freshman year and I’ve always looked up to those presidential figures. I want to continue that and be that person people look up to.

I want to de-stress our school by bringing therapy dogs in during advisory periods maybe once a month. I want to try and improve our fundraising because this year we’ve really lacked in fundriainsg and we weren’t able to do the club funds.

First, I just thought it would be cool to run and be vice president. And second I think not a lot has been done at City High recently and there are lots of problems that need to be solved.

I think that Gardening Club is a good idea. I also think parking is an issue right now, especially for upperclassmen this year, everyone is complaining that they can’t find a parking spot because of lots of sophomores and freshmen that park up there. I think something needs to be done about that.

There wasn’t a defining moment when I chose to run. I just thought it would be really fun and I wanted to make some differences.

Students should vote for Lottie and I because we’ve got a great bond going. We definitely have different interests, but I think that’s important, and we’ve got a lot of great ideas and good connections within City High...to hopefully make these ideas come true.

I chose to run because I believe I can make a difference and this is something I care about deeply.

Unlike some of the other candidates, I am not constrained by time. I’m not caught up in a bunch of other activities.

As vice president, I would like to bring a lot more fun into this school. Since Eli and I are running together, one of our platforms is going to be changing the school dances to make them more accessible to all and more geared towards everyone. Another thing we would like to do is tailgating.

The president and vice president of Student Senate perform important duties and help to lead and organize Student Senate activities like school dances, fundraisers, and necessary changes to the way City High runs. The Senate president also delivers a speech at graduation. Juniors can vote for a president and vice president on May 11.

I know what goes on and also I have many things that I want to try and change because I feel like sometimes wer’e not very productive in those meetings.

INFOGRAPHIC BY ZOË BUTLER AND ZOË MILLER

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

NEWS 7A

Universities Defunded continued from 1A

LOGO BY OLIVIA LUSALA

By Mira Bohannan Kumar Copy & Opinion Editor

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March 21

he Student Senate meeting on Wednesday, March 21, began with a presentation from the City High Ultimate Club (CHUC).

“The Frisbee team is super inclusive, anyone can come in. It’s a mixed-gender sport that promotes gender equity and collaboration...it’s one of the fastest-growing sports in the world,” said Shayna Jaskolka ‘18, a member of CHUC, detailing how the initial costs of the club were paid outof-pocket. “We’re going to go for the $500 [grant].”

CHUC meets every Monday and Wednesday at Scott Park from 6:007:30 pm, with additional supplementary practices when necessary. The club is open to anyone wishing to play.

Xeniphilius Tyne ‘20 proposed a new system for voting on Homecoming Court members which would not be divided based on gender. This change would be an effort to include student members of the LGBT+ community.

“Everyone can vote starting at [28] students out of the entire senior class, and then 14 students, and then two,” said Tyne. “We’re not really taking anything away except the fact that there’s ‘boy’ and ‘girl.’ That’s the only thing we’re taking away.”

Junior Class Representative Maya Durham ‘19 said that “given what we want to carry over into next year, which is about [$]3000,” the Senate will be limiting grant funds to $2000 this year.

The budget discussion segued into covering the topic of the Senior Picnic. The Senate looked for ways to reduce costs for the Senior Picnic, and will be setting up a committee to discuss it during the next meeting (Wednesday, March 28).

Prom committee presented on its progress in planning the prom, which will take place on May 5. The Senate voted on prom-ticket design and determined decoration arrangements.

Christine Lewers, the primary faculty adviser for the prom, also mentioned the proposed methods of notifying students about prom technicalities.

“All you need to know about prom--how to park, how to get tickets--will be put out to parents and in the announcements on Friday,” said Lewers. “They really want to promote it; they really want to get students to go this year.”

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April 4

he Student Senate meeting on Wednesday, April 4 began with the presentation to the Senate of contracts to run for Sen-

ate president and vice president. The election period will officially begin on April 23, and the contracts are not due until April 20.

“Nothing hung up until April 23rd, the election [period] basically goes for three weeks, then the election is May 11,” Senate faculty sponsor Steve Tygrett said of the time frame of the race. “It will probably be during Advisory and go into sixth period.”

Tygrett discussed Senate budget with the assembly and the necessary starting purse to fund Homecoming 2018.

“We started out at $3000. I added up everything we spent on Homecoming. We spent $2700 on Homecoming,” Tygrett said. “We need to start out at $3000 [next year]...just to be safe.”

The Senate also discussed the potential cost of the Senior Picnic once again, and determined that there will be no grant funds for clubs this school year in a massive break from Senate tradition.

“We’re not flush with money anymore,” Tygrett said. “We’re fine, and we’re fiscally secure, but there just won’t be any grant funds this year.”

Chip Hardesty entered the Senate’s conversation to propose solutions to the issues with the Senior Picnic.

“I think I have a slight vendetta against [usual food provider] HyVee,” Hardesty said. “I would go to Pancheros and say, ‘What can you provide a buffet for?’”

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April 25

he Student Senate meeting on Wednesday, April 25 began with the opening of prom ticket sales for lunch and after school.

Tickets will be sold in the cafeteria during lunch and after school and in the library both times as well as before school.

The Senate will send out a survey on proposed Homecoming Court voting changes. “Student Senate is proposing that this [process] become more inclusive of LGBTQ+ students,” the survey, written by Xeniphilius Tyne ‘20, said.

The survey puts forward two options to facilitate this increased inclusion: the elimination of gender categorization entirely or the creation of a system in which students declare their preferred gender before voting and can opt out of the voting pool if need be.

Interested in Student Senate?

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he Senate meets every Wednesday morning in room 3311 at 8:15 am. To learn more, one can contact Steve Tygrett, the primary faculty adviser, or attend meetings, which are open to all students.

But the Midwest has been harder hit than some, as the home to a large number of public universities which lack the same kind of economic support system that places like Silicon Valley possess. Even without adjusting for inflation, the amount of money appropriated by the state 20 years ago was more than the University of Iowa would have had before the midyear cuts.

Another consequence of these cuts is what some describe as a “brain drain”, or the loss of talented faculty to other, more well-endowed universities. Bruce Harreld, the current President of the U of I, cited this in a statement announcing a raise in tuition after the drop in state funding.

“To fulfill our mission of student success, research, scholarship, and economic development, the university must continue to recruit new talent and provide competitive salaries for high-performing employees,” Harreld said. “To do that, the university must increase its tuition so that it can compete nationally for the best and brightest faculty and staff. Request-

ing a tuition increase from the Board of Regents is not an action that the university takes lightly; however, it is now necessary in light of this continued generational disinvestment.”

The universities are also concerned that students are leaving Iowa after graduation, research conducted by the Board of Regents found that approximately half of all U of I and Iowa State graduates chose to leave Iowa after completing four years.

“We have a vested interest in making sure you get a good education,” State Senator Mary Mascher said.

“That you are successful, and determine where you want to go to school so that we can support you in those efforts and hopefully we can keep you here. One of the things we worry about in Iowa is that we are an aging population. We are seeing a lot of that brain drain with kids going outside of state. And we get that that’s okay, kids need those opportunities too, but we also need you back, we need you more than anything.”

Lena Hill says one of the most troublesome aspects of the disinvest-

ment issue is how it distracts from the University.

“I am frustrated by the way the discussion of the budget overshadows the amazing work unfolding across our campus,” Hill said. “The U of I continues to be a vibrant institution where students, faculty, and staff are doing incredible things.”

Hartwig agrees, saying that this raise will not change her decision to attend.

“I think the University of Iowa is a really good school,” Hartwig said. “I think that tuition is lower than some other private schools, but it’s supposed to be there as one of the lowest options for students who can’t afford other schools, so it’s kind of like difficult to hear that it’s not as low as people think, or that it’s increasing.

Because for most people [the U of I] is one of their only options.”

“Public universities play a vital role in our democracy,” Hill said.

“And we must all knowledgeably explain their importance and vigorously protect and defend their mission.”

Desegregation of Schools continued from 1A Different solutions for creating an inclusive environment were mentioned as well.

“Educating themselves on different minority students’ backgrounds,” Durham said. “Whether that’s a racial or ethnic background, or educating themselves on the LGBT+ community more, really make sure that when they’re talking to a student who may make

experience different things than them and have different barriers when it comes to school, really being able to empathize and understand what they’re going through, and be able to relate to them.”

And, as far as taking action to end segregation in schools, Kingsley Botchway of the Iowa City City Council said that working together

was essential.

“Ultimately, in order to impact the change that many of you are here that wanna see, it’s gonna take everybody to move those mountains.”

8A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

2020 Census

Problems With The Pipes Proposed changes to the 2020 census have sparked outrage after the Department of Justice proposes a possible citizenship question which could be interpreted as targeting undocumented immigrants

By Esti Brady Reporter

taken off the census dates back to 1787, within the writing of the Constitution.

Article I, Section II of the Constitution calls he next decennial census is going to for an “actual enumeration” of the entire poputake place in 2020, and it is on track lation, not just citizens.

“I think the biggest impact would be that to include a question regarding citiwe’re not going to get an accurate count of zenship that was not included in the last census. This question would be included be- people living in America because people who are cause of a request from the Justice Department, here who are immigrants, even legally, might not according to a memo by Wilbur Ross, secretary answer the question, or fill out the census, from of the Commerce Department, the overseeing the fear of deportation,” AP Government teacher department of the the Census Bureau. Within John Burkle said.

The argument from this side is that the addithe form, it would ask recipients to mark if they and their family members were born in the U.S., tion of the citizenship question will cause people born in a U.S. territory, born abroad with at least or families who are not all fully citizens to not partake in the census, thus decreasone U.S. citizen parent, are ing response rate, not counting the a naturalized citizen and the “EVERY TIME IN total population, and making it year of their naturalization, or MY MEMORY THE unconstitutional. the fifth and last category: “not Aside from potentially breaking DECENNIAL CENSUS a U.S. citizen.” constitutional law, there are other Those who are in favor of TAKES PLACE, impacts that this question would this addition claim that getting CONTROVERSIAL have if it was added to the decenthis information from everyone in the U.S. will improve ELEMENTS RELATED nial census. Jim Leach, a former of 30 years and curthe enforcement of the Voting TO THE MANNER congressman rently the Chair in Public Affairs Rights Act (which was written HAVE DEVELOPED. and visiting Professor of Law and in 1965 and works to prevent Senior Scholar at the University of the discrimination of minority STATES, Iowa, noted that the census convoters) because counts of the COMMUNITIES, AND trols some of the most important voting-age population are used to ensure these protections. POLITICAL PARTIES aspects in citizen interaction with the federal government: representaHowever, this announcement HAVE NATURAL tion and funding. did not go unnoticed, nor did VESTED INTERESTS “This [decennial census] data it go unopposed. is used to allocate Congressional IN THE COUNT.” More than 25 cities and representation between the states. states are filing lawsuits against Hence Iowa, which at the turn of the question being added to JIM LEACH the 19th to the 20th centuries had the census (Philadelphia, San FORMER 11 or 12 Congressmen, now has Francisco, Virginia, and Iowa CONGRESSMAN AND only four due to faster growth in are just some among them).

CURRENT PROFESSOR other parts of the country,” Leach The primary reason given as said. “The same data is also used to why the question should be

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internally to draw district lines for State House and Senate seats. In turn, this data is relevant to presidential determinations which are based on electoral college voting. Each state has the same number of electoral votes as it has a combination of the number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.”

This structure would mean that if the states with high numbers of undocumented immigrants, such as California, New York, Florida, or Texas, had lower response rates, their representation in the House of Representatives could be smaller than it should be, and consequently, so would their influence in the deciding of the president and pieces of congressional legislation.

“This would take away the voice of everybody in those states, as well as those unauthorized immigrants,” Maryam Abuissa ‘20 said.

There are many implications for “OUR funding as well as CONSTITUTION representation.

IS SUPPOSED “Many funding arrangements estabTO PROTECT lished in national legislation rely on PEOPLE EQUALLY, distribution for- NATIVE-BORN OR mulas tied to the IMMIGRATED NONdecennial census, CITIZEN.” sometimes updated by states or communities between the JOHN BURKLE census-taking, but AP GOVERNMENT not always,” Leach TEACHER said.

The possible lower response rates of those states with high undocumented immigrant populations combined with these funding arrangements would result in those states, cities, and communities getting insufficient funding for health care, public education, housing, child care, job training, and transportation. The possible lack of access to these services has left some to wonder whether undocumented immigrants have the same rights as full citizens.

“Our Constitution is supposed to protect people equally, native-born or immigrated noncitizen, so I think that it is a pointless question at this point in time,” Burkle said. “We’ve always been a melting pot of a nation, so I don’t think we should ever target a group.”

It was also pointed out that in addition to discouraging undocumented immigrants from completing the census, this question has the potential to make them feel more marginalized.

“It just seems like a way to target unauthorized immigrants: make them feel scared or singled out,” Abuissa said.

In 1787, it was decided that the brand new United States of America would enumerate the number of people within the nation every ten years, starting in 1790. Although the U.S. has

completed 23 decennial censuses, it has not been without its controversies as is seen today.

“Every time in my memory the decennial census takes place, controversial elements related to the manner have developed,” Leach said. “States, communities and political parties have natural vested interests in the count due to the effects of census results on political reapportionment and governmental allocations of funds. It would not be abnormal to have a host of legal challenges.”

N roun ically citize durin “W “It w quest tratio non-A

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

NEWS 9A

ART AND INFOGRAPHIC BY ZOË BUTLER *Data collected from the Pew Research Center and the United States Census Bureau

INFOGRAPHIC CENSUS

BY LOTTIE GIDAL

Not only have there been controversies surnding the census before, but even more specify, many changes have taken place in the way enship is dealt within the census, especially ng the last 70 years.

Well it’s been included before,” Burkle said. was included in the ‘50s. It’s not an awful tion, it’s just linked to the current adminison’s history of mistreating immigrants and American citizens of the U.S.”

1950 is the most recent year in which a decennial census that went out to every household in America included a question about citizenship. Ten years later, there was no question regarding status, only location of one’s birth. In 1970, the citizenship question was added back to the decennial census. However, a new system which contained one “short-form” questionnaire, which went out to five out of every six households in America, and one “long-form” questionnaire, which went out to the remaining one-sixth, was put into place. The citizenship question was only on the “long-form,” so most people in America did not have to answer it, along with the many other questions about those who lived with them only included on the “longform.”

After the 2000 census, the Census Bureau got rid of the longform census and replaced it with a smaller American Community Survey, which is sent out every year. The ACS only goes out to about 2.6 percent of American households—less than the long-form census; however, because of its frequency, it is used to gather data on trends in the U.S. between the censuses.

The ACS has been pointed to as a reason that the question regarding citizenship does not need to be included on the decennial census, because although it is small, it can be used to approximate the number of citizens versus non-citizens in the U.S. Many believe that the policies and proposals concerning immigrants right now should be aiming to create less tension and more security.

“I don’t think it’s a needed question right now. I think that the government needs to figure out how to protect Dreamers and immigrants,” Burkle said.

The reason someone who is a family member of someone who is undocumented, or undocumented themselves, might not complete or send in their census often comes down to the fear of deportation.

Although the federal law is clear in stating that the Census Bureau is not permitted to share information about individuals with other federal agencies, so the fear of deportation should not be a factor when filling out the census, the law has been circumvented before:iIn 1940, the Census Bureau helped the government round up Americans of Japanese ancestry into internment camps.

According to the Chicago Tribune and The Guardian, the past two years have seen dramatic decreases in the number of crime reports and usage of health services in communities in the

INFOGRAPHIC BY ESTI BRADY U.S. with high undocumented immigrant popu- too. lations. These trends have been attributed to the “It broke my heart to see my favorite uncle increasing desire of not wanting to draw atten- leave. We always hung out and he was a great pertion to one’s self or community, in the case of son. I still talk to him over FaceTime and hope possible deportation due the current climate of that someday I’ll be able to fly to Guatemala and nationalism, increased xenophobia, and the ad- visit the rest of my family over there,” Mary said. ministration’s proclaimed “crackdown on illegal The question of citizenship status on the immigrants.”

2020 census is not planned to be removed thus The fear of deportation and the careful ways far. However, because of the many U.S. civil libof life necessary to remain safe and with one’s erty groups, immigrant communities, cities, and family is not new or surprising, states suing to block the question, even within City High. present state of the census “IT BROKE MY HEART the “Of all of the adults in my could change before it is sent family, only one is a U.S. citizen. TO SEE MY FAVORITE out to individuals and families I have about 10 aunts and uncles UNCLE LEAVE. WE around the nation in two years. who aren’t full citizens: three are it changes or not, the HUNG OUT ALL THE Whether undocumented and at risk for decontroversy has reminded many TIME AND HE WAS people in the U.S. to appreciate portation. My parents have their legal residency, but my dad isn’t A GREAT PERSON.I the work of those around them, allowed to leave the country or any lack of documentaSTILL TALK TO HIM despite else he’ll get deported,” Mary* tion they may have, and to defend said. “My uncle was deported OVER FACETIME AND each other’s safety. because he was caught drinking HOPE THAT SOMEDAY “The census should be used and driving twice to work--he was as a tool to help the nation and a legal resident back then. But I’LL BE ABLE TO FLY all of the people who live and everyone else in my family is ex- TO GUATEMALA AND contribute within its boundartremely careful.”

VISIT THE REST OF ies,” Owen Sorenson ‘20 said.

In the unlikely event that the MY FAMILY OVER *Name has been changed to Census Bureau shares information that leads to the deportation protect anonymity of student THERE.” of undocumented immigrants, it is not just those people’s lives MARY* that will be impacted. DeportaCHS STUDENT tion has strong emotional effects on friends and family members,

10A NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Strengths?

I have a lot of speed on the base path, so I try to put pressure on teams by getting on base a lot.

I try to make teams afraid of me, if that makes sense. Whether that’s talking ish or by outplaying and outworking them.

Fondest City High baseball memory?

Probably hitting a home run against ranked Cedar Falls last year. I hit it and I couldn’t believe it happened. It was dead-center over the flagpole. That was the farthest ball I’ve hit in my life. I couldn’t believe I did it. We were supposed to lose that game and we won both games.

Favorite pump-up song?

I love listening to Latina music with Coach Mitchell. He always plays that and it’s a good vibe.

Favorite baseball brand?

Probably New Balance.

Pre-game snack?

I always have a Honey Bun before every game from the gas station. It started sophomore year when I had a really good game after eating a Honey Bun before, so I had to keep eating them. I have to have a Vitamin Water, too.

Pre-game rituals or superstitions?

Not anymore, really, but I always keep my stuff in the same spot in the dugout. I also always have to be second in line when we’re playing catch so there’s always someone in front of me, since I’m number 2.

Preferred rain-delay dance move?

This year it’s probably just going to be Fortnite moves. Otherwise I like to throw a ball back and forth and play tic-tac-toe.

Why did you choose the number 2?

When I was eight I was in love with [#2] Derek Jeter; I wanted to be him.

Something you have to get done before you graduate?

I just want to make it to Principal [Park], even if it’s just for one game. I want to win those sub-state games. I know that would mean the world to [Coaches] Mitchell and Sueppel and I want to be a part of that really badly.

How will your new role as captain and being the most experienced player on the team make this season different than past ones?

It’s going to be different because I don’t have anyone to follow anymore. I’m going to have to be that guy that takes people under their wing, which is different for sure because I’m not used to that, but I think I’ve been doing a good job so far.

My most dearly beloved, The time has come. It’s been a treat, but I must retreat.

In the words of the great Young Money, I’m sure that you’ll “hate to see [me] go, but you’ll love to watch [me] leave.”

You won’t have to put up with my groan-y puns, pitiful tendency to procrastinate, or extreme affinity for cutouts.

In all seriousness, however, it has been one of the greatest pleasures of my yung life to serve as YOUR 2017-2018 Little Hawk Sports Editor. My fellow student journalists have made this experience a once-in-a-lifetime endeavor. A sincere thank you to Mira, Theo, Maya, Victor, Zoë (x2), Olivia, Shayna, Phoebe, Mina, and Edie for all of the hours and, most importantly, borderline appropriate jokes.

I can’t wait to see all of the metaphorical pacemakers you all will win in the years to come.

In addition to the great honor it has been to serve as Sports Editor, it is an even greater honor to be named the

SPORTS 11A

Q&A WITH THE CAPTAIN

Travis Reyhons ‘18 opens up about his new role as the veteran leader of the baseball team

By Addy Smith

Individual goals for this season?

I’d love to be an All-State player and I know it’s going to take a lot of work to get there, but I know I can do it.

Team goals for this season?

We don’t have as much talent as last year, but I feel like we can work together enough so that we can win a lot of games and go from there. Last year we were just thinking, “Principal Park. State championship,” but this year I think we just need to take it stepby-step.

Why do you like shortstop?

I feel like [the shortstop] is in control of everyone. At shortstop I feel like I’m the leader of the infield and some of the outfield. A shortstop gets a lot of action. You just have to show your athleticism.

Watson Memorial Scholar this year. As we seniors embark on our next journeys, I can only hope that we will detach from the walls of City High with half as much enthusiasm and devotion to our passions that Matt Watson did.

With my last Little Hawk issue of my (short, but super sweet, career), you know I tried my very hardest to go out with a bang. (If only I could’ve figured out how to make the last ~six~ pages of

A self-destructive :,( ) Regardless, I packed every last space o’ white with quality, truthful, and accurate content detailing the hopes and dreams of each City High athlete the spring has brought along. Ain’t no fake news here.

Security, security, this girl needs to go. Needs to go.

Alright, alright, fine. I’m leaving.

Thanks for hanging with me, XOXO

My most dearly beloved Here and There Near and Far This Way and That PHOTO BY HER HIGHNESS MARILYN MALDONADO

12A SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM |MAY 4, 2018

TRIPLE THREAT

ABOVE: Freshmen Ella Cook, Carey Koenig, and Ayana Lindsey pose in front of the scoreboard at their home field after a scrimmage against Liberty High School PHOTO BY ADDY SMITH

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t would be a mistake to stereotype these three as ordinary freshman girls. Instead of boys and clothes, the trio of Carey Koenig, Ayana Lindsey, and Ella Cook have the future of an entire softball program on their mind.

This past summer, the threesome led the City High Softball team to its most successful season in over a decade.

“It was odd that there were three eighth-graders that were playing such a big role on a varsity team,” Carey Koenig said.

Even with their grand ambitions, they are still 14 years old.

They eat Smuckers Uncrustable sandwiches for lunch, pausing between bites to clear their braces-embellished teeth of the “extra- gooey” peanut butter filling, but also don T-shirts and athletic shorts so they can head straight to the lifting room after school. All before their first day in high school, the eighth-graders led the Little Hawks to their first winning season in over a decade and along the way swept rival West High for the first time since the trio has been alive.

All three athletes have dabbled in most other conventional sports, but softball has always been different to them.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know why. It’s just so much fun to play,” Koenig said, cracking a wide smile. “It’s just fun, I don’t know. I’ve never really had that connection with any other sport, so softball was just the one.”

All three girls began playing T-ball as kindergartners and would later combine forces as third-graders on a rec-league team under the direction of Jeff Koenig. Now, six years later, only the name of their team has changed. Ella Cook remembers the time she first realized her goal of making the City High softball team a winning program.

“Our club team when we were in elementary school would scrimmage the sophomore and JV City High teams and we’d beat them handily,” she said. “It was weird to see that they were playing at such a slow level when we were used to playing at such a high level. We wanted to just bring the program back up.”

The trio attended high-school skill practices as grade-schoolers. By the time seventh grade rolled around and Jeff Koenig became the head varsity coach, they were traveling with the team, sitting in the dugout, riding the bus, and practicing with a team they had by then grown to which they had become “familiar.”

“We bought into the program young and we’re the group that’s starting to rebuild and make it so that once we leave, the legacy of our

Freshmen Carey Koenig, Ella Cook, and Ayana Lindsey have become the forces behind the City High Softball revival campaign

By Addy Smith

team will continue with the younger generation,” Koenig said. “We’re just here to rebuild this program and get it back up to where it should be.”

After years of preparation for their varsity debut, Lindsey, Koenig, and Cook came in with their sights on one thing and one thing only: winning.

“We brought in that competitiveness that they needed,” Cook said. “We weren’t there to just have fun, that this could be a joke. We were there to compete, win games, and take care of business.”

Although the eighth-graders had been submerged in the City High softball program since they were children, they had never actually played an official inning in a high school softball game. They said they had to remind themselves that the game was no different than what they were used to playing, that they didn’t

need to change a thing.

Soon, they could compete with players four years their senior.

“It was one of our first games we were playing #1-ranked Pleasant Valley, who happened to be the state champion the previous year,” Cook said. “I got up to bat, my first at bat, and I hit a home run.

It was just like, ‘I just hit a home run off the #1-ranked pitcher,’ which gave me so much confidence for the rest of the season.”

The 2017 warm-up T-shirts consisted of a plain white T-shirt with the simple phrase “Elevate and Celebrate” across the front. Coach Koenig adopted the motto from one of the most successful softball programs in the sport’s history: that of the University of Alabama. “Elevating” the ball means hitting home runs and then “celebrating” accordingly. With the help of the newly-cherished motto, the team broke the school record of

26 home runs and 70 doubles.

Although things weren’t smooth-sailing from the get-go (the first double-header of the season, City was run-ruled by Davenport North), the team went on to win six of the next eight games, and fans would soon start to pay close attention. When City played North in the regional quarterfinal, the score was 16-4 in favor of the

“WE WANT TO PUT RECORDS UP THERE THAT AREN’T GOING TO BE BROKEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN. WE WANT TO BE REMEMBERED.” ELLA COOK ‘21 Little Hawks.

“This year, things really started to come together and we had faith in each other and we started to believe in each other and people started to see that we can be successful,” Koenig said. “The whole mentality of City High softball started to change.”

When asked why Koenig thinks that last season was the year for City High Softball’s story to change, she said, “I think we just had to set the pace for the team.”

The threesome soon anticipates other players with a shared level of dedication will soon join them in the remainder of their City High careers.

“There’s other people that are right up with our intensity coming up in the ranks and the people that are already above us are able to play, too,” Koenig said. “I think that if we keep playing as a team, there’s nobody that can really stop us.”

As for this upcoming season, the girls are nowhere near satisfied. Each of them will spit out just exactly what they are vying to get done, no questions asked. For Ayana Lindsey, 150 strikeouts to top her previous 97. Carey Koenig wants to be above .500 as a team and to be able to throw runners out again after arm surgery. Ella Cook pulls out her phone, heads to notes, and says, “How much time do you have?” That list includes a conference championship, numbertwo seed in the playoffs, hitting higher than .500 as a team, never getting swept, and a trip to Fort Dodge for the state tournament—in that order.

“We want to put the records up there that aren’t going to be broken over and over again,” Cook said. “We want to be remembered.”

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018 GIRLS GOLF

SPORTS 13A

GIRLS TENNIS

Success on Seeking Redemption with “Ideal” Mix of the Horizon Experience and Talent

Despite inexperience, the young squad remains determined to become a winning team

By Mira Bohannan Kumar and Theo Prineas

C

By Addy Smith 200.

The number on which the girls’ golf team has set its sights.

After a team score of 203 at the Jones Golf Course on April 26, Coach Bevelacqua continues to challenge his players to maintain their upward improvement.

“Eventually I’m going to drop [our goal number] more because I know they can do it,” he said. “There’s four or five girls now who I think can shoot in the 40s or below for nine holes. That makes us very competitive.”

After not having won a meet for several years, the junior-led team dropped 23 strokes as a team to clinch first-place. Juniors Emily Knoche and Kaylee Paulsen placed first and third respectively.

Knoche said there’s only one thing she’s focusing on for the remaining weeks of the season.

“To shoot lower.”

Knoche and Paulsen are just two examples of now-upperclassman golfers who picked up the sport freshman year and have only improved since.

“The last couple years a lot of younger players have had to play varsity against some really good girls in the conference,” Bevelacqua said. “I think they’ve gotten that experience and they’re willing to stick it out.”

It’s common for City High golf teams to be relatively inexperienced. Out of this season’s 16-player squad, eight are beginners, and it’s proven difficult for them to compete against country-club golfers who have been steeped in the sport for years. This is especially true in a record-breaking cold season which has resulted in several meet cancellations and indoor practices.

“In general they haven’t won many meets.

Our juniors are kind of the core right now— they’re leaders on the team,” Bevelacqua said.

“They haven’t really won, they don’t know how to win, and sometimes they don’t have the confidence that, ‘Hey, I can actually shoot a better score than them.’ It’s just believing in themselves and knowing they can do it, and putting in the time.”

Knoche believes in “the process” and is confident that if she and her teammates remain as committed as they are now that they can eventually set their sights on goals even greater than the current “200”.

“I’m hoping to make it to State at some point, if everyone keeps working as hard as we’re working.”

ABOVE: Alexa Fredericks ‘19 takes a swing during a home meet at Pleasant Valley Golf Course PHOTO BY JONATHAN ROGERS

“WE HAVE SENIORS WHO AREN’T NEW TO THIS AT ALL AND WE HAVE FRESHMEN WHO ARE SUPER TALENTED BUT WHO ARE COMPLETELY NEW TO THE WHOLE HIGHSCHOOL-SPORT THING.” MARY LIEBIG ‘18

ity High girls tennis is back by popular demand, this time with a host of rookie and veteran players alike, a strong sense of team camaraderie, and a renewed desire to accomplish its goals.

“I personally feel like we’re a lot closer this year, than we have been in previous years,” Four-Year Varsity Letterwinner Mary Liebig ‘18 said. “It’s nice to have a little bit of representation from each class. We have seniors who aren’t new to this at all who know what’s going on, and then we have freshmen who are super talented but are completely new to the whole high-school-sport thing.”

After four consecutive years of going to the state team tournament but losing in the first round, last season’s squad didn’t qualify at all. Liebig hopes that doesn’t happen again.

“If we could go to State and then maybe win, that

would be a cool upgrade,” she said. “That would be really neat.”

Despite having inconsistent attendance throughout the season, due to freak injuries, college visits, and volleyball tournaments, Head Coach Fred Pedersen remains confident in his team’s campaign for postseason success.

“Just like every team and sport, I’d say going to State is what we want to do,” he said.

“It may be a little harder because a lot of the team has been missing, but I feel we can do it.”

Liebig said that her team has been focusing on maintaining positive attitudes through adversity. She believes that one of the most important aspects of the sport is not only not getting too upset, but also not showing it if you do. Coach Pedersen promotes this mindset with abstract rewards.

“We have this thing called the ‘Ice Cream Cone of the Match’, which has never actually resulted in a real ice cream cone,” Liebig said. “But if you played the most interesting match, Coach will reward you with ‘Ice Cream Cone of the Match’. A few days ago Liza Whaylen [‘18] was down 0-7 and ended up coming back against [her] Waterloo West [opponent] to win 10-7 which was really impressive.”

ABOVE: Kelsey Law ‘20 stretches for a shot during her doubles match with partner Caroline Carter ‘20 against Xavier on April 24 PHOTO BY ADDY SMITH

BOYS TENNIS

W

INCESSANT ADVERSITY PROV E S DIF F ICU LT

By Ellis Chen

alking onto the tennis courts at 7:45 in the morning, the men’s tennis team begins their practice; a rapid, back-and-forth exchange across the courts between the players.

As the season has progressed, the team has faced difficulties, including losing several of its top players. The team holds a 1-8 record, with a single win against Dubuque Senior. Despite losses, players on the team have seen varying levels of personal growth. “[The team] is strong in that most of the varsity players are inexperienced but continue to try hard and several of them have really improved over the season. Are they good enough to compete at the level they’re competing?

Sometimes,” head coach Chip Hardesty said.

“Victor Kalil is one of those. He lost a match in the opening match of the season to a kid I think he would beat now if he was playing the way he’s playing now.”

Hardesty was confident in the ability of the younger players to improve and become competitive with other players. He noted Billy Samuelson ‘20, who transitioned from junior varsity to varsity this season.

“He’s not winning every time, but he’s competitive and his level of competitiveness is growing all the time,” Hardesty said.

Samuelson is also eager to improve his playing.

“I just want to improve my overall game, but especially my serve which could definitely need some work,” Samuelson said. “But I love playing the game, so I think everything has a lot of room for improvement and I’m excited to improve.”

For some of the newer players, struggles stem from a lack of experience and repetition.

“Kahleb Fallon [‘19] came out for tennis.

ABOVE: Miles Pei ‘18 attacks a serve during the Little Hawks’ tournament against #3 Cedar Rapids Washington on April 29 PHOTO BY ADDY SMITH For him, it’s a matter of getting back stuff he’s improved and we didn’t.” learned and adding nuances on to that. There’s Although the win-count of the team is lower no substitute for actually playing someone elses,” than expected to Hardesty, he is optimistic Hardesty said. about the ability of the team to be competitive However, Hardesty noted that improvement in the future. was lacking from returning players.

“For a while, we were the top-finishing “For returning players, we haven’t made a boys team of any sport in the overall standings lot of progress from last year. Many of those they take for any sport. That will slip this year. players didn’t play much, if at all, at tournaRecord-wise, it’s not a good year. Next year, I ments in the summer. For them it’s a two-month hope we’ll be better,” Hardesty said. “The good sport. That’s fine, but if you want to get good at side is the number of junior varsity players we’ve tennis, it takes playing tournaments. You learn had is in the thirties.” to adapt and so forth,” Hardesty said. “I had a Sophomore Billy Samuelson is one of those player against another team from Dubuque. Last players. year he beat this guy 6-0 and 6-0. This year he “I’m still striving for greatness and just looklost to him in three close sets. So that guy had ing to become a better player.”

14A SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

ABOVE: Charlie Maxwell ‘19 competes in the 4x800 BELOW: Anna Lindower ‘19, Maisha Sila ‘20, and Cece Kelly-Harvey ‘21 PHOTOS BY LOTTIE GIDAL

The 2018 Forwald Coleman Relays brought both the girls and boys track teams together to give their best performance of the season and, despite several setbacks, qualify for the Drake Relays in 10 events

By Lottie Gidal and Maya Djalali

rest of their meet after that, especially Oisin. He was all boogered up, knees, shoulders, everything, and he went out and ran two-tenths of a second he crowd collectively gasped as Oisin Leo- faster than he’s ever run in the high hurdles. I was pold ‘20 tumbled to the ground. When he so proud of him.”

As the last qualifying meet for the Drake Rebecame the last-place finisher in the shuttle hurdle and did not hit his goal of 15 flat, the ex- lays and the state meet, both boys and girls teams pectations of qualifying the relay for Drake were had high hopes for this year’s Forwald Coleman Relays. Of the eight teams there, City High girls dashed, as were Leopold’s knees and shoulders.

“Immediately after I fell I was kind of stunned took fourth and boys took fifth. City High also for a second because I don’t really fall too often. qualified for Drake in 10 events, which was not as I was just stuck there and I heard my coach yell- many as the teams had hoped, but Coach Moore ing,” Leopold said. “I thought, ‘Oh shoot, why is looking on the bright side.

“Sometimes you gotta pull am I not going already,’ so I got some positives out of some negaback in and we got in last but I tives. We responded well, and finished the race.”

“I JUST BLOCKED I think not all is lost,” Moore But Leopold came back later OUT THE PAIN AND said. “Another good takeaway in the night to finish his 110-meis that our field events all scored ter high hurdles with a PR. AlI WAS ABLE TO points which is something that though worried about falling RUN FASTER THAN did not happen last year.” again and in considerable pain, The girls team had its best Leopold finished fourth.

I NORMALLY DO, night of the season in 18 out of “I just blocked out the pain SO IT WAS REALLY their 19 events. The team’s perand I was able to run faster than formance pushed it to be ranked I normally do, so it was really all ALL MENTAL. I third in the state. mental. I was thinking, ‘I just WAS THINKING, ‘I “The most impressive part gotta push through it. I can reJUST GOTTA PUSH was the team effort,” Head cover after the race,’” Leopold Coach Terry Coleman said. “It said.

THROUGH IT.’” wasn’t one individual here or “We had some adversity hit one individual there, it was evus in the face in the shuttle,” boys head coach Mike Moore OISIN LEOPOLD ‘20 erybody all across the board and that’s one of the things we’ve said. “We were going to qualify really been trying to focus on is for Drake. Now they are not going to get to run at Drake but I think they all having that team effort.”

Ayana Lindsey ‘21 and Cece Kelley-Harvey ‘21 turned around and responded really well with the

T

both ran legs of the 4x400 and 4x200 together put themselves in a position to have a really nice year next year.” and qualified for Drake in both.

During the meet, many people stood out, “The 4x400 team is the best we’ve had in a long time. They are running about 60 seconds though one person in particular caught the flat and it’s hard to find one runner to do that, crowd’s attention: Caroline Schaeckenbach. A let alone four. They are third in the state right homeschooled student and first-year track athlete, Schaeckenbach was an unfamilnow,” varsity runner Aly Hecker iar face to many, yet she blew the ‘19 said.

“THE MOST crowd away as she qualified for Both girls are freshmen, and IMPRESSIVE PART Drake in every one of her events. according to the coaches are This meet was the only home only the tip of the iceberg when WAS THE TEAM meet with both boys and girls toit comes to the class of 2021.

EFFORT. IT WASN’T gether, so spectator turnout was “The thing that I like as we high. Members of the team who ONE INDIVIDUAL get down to conference, diswere not running still showed tricts, and state, is that the freshHERE OR ONE up to support those competing. men are not running and jumpINDIVIDUAL THERE, “Just a credit to the kids who ing and throwing like freshmen there,” Coleman said. “All anymore,” Coleman said. “They IT WAS EVERYONE were of the kids who weren’t compethave just a great ability to block ALL ACROSS THE ing were there cheering on their out all the distractions and take teammates, and that was huge care of business. We did not have BOARD.” for us.” one freshman who was caught John Momberg ‘18 attended up in the moment and lost their the meet to cheer for his twin focus. Every one of them had a TERRY COLEMAN James, who was racing in the great performance.”

800-meter run.

Even though some of this “I feel amazing. I’m so happy to be a part of season remains, Coach Coleman is already excited about what the abundance of talented fresh- such a successful and amazing team. I loved to men means. Coleman is certain that this incom- watch my brother race against Daniel Brown,” Momberg said. ing group will lead the team to future successes.

“People know me, they know my track staff “It could be interesting next year. We could push a top-five state finish, and who knows, we and they know City High track and field tradimight be able to bring home a trophy,” Coleman tion, and I think they’re not going to be surprised said. “That’s what this group is able to lead us to. when we show up this weekend at Drake and do And it’s a process, it’s not something that’s going really well,” Moore said. “In the few things that we to be able to happen overnight, but certainly they are going to do, we are gonna do them really well.”

15A SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

FROM KICKERS TO KEEPER Men’s soccer goalie Alex Greimann ‘19 returns to the turf after taking a five-year hiatus

P

“

It feels great. I don’t like them.”

Captain Jackson Meyer ‘18 has beat cross-town rival West High three out of his four seasons as a Little Hawk, but, for him, the feeling is just as satisfying the third time around.

After the girls team’s 4-0 domination of West (their first win against the Trojans since 2007), the boys’ team wrapped up the cross-town sweep campaign with a 2-1 win during an aggressive, four-yellow-card game.

The first half ended scoreless, with both teams battling for possession and neither able to find the back of the net. A key save off a free kick by Little Hawk goalie Alex Greimann kept the score at 0-0 heading into the break.

Early in the second half, senior leader John Clark nailed a long distance shot off the post to put the Little Hawks up 1-0.

“It was pure adrenaline,” Clark said. “I saw the whole crowd and I was just thinking, ‘This is amazing. This is it. This is what we play for.’”

The celebration was short-lived, as the Trojans quickly answered with a goal of their own, putting the score at 1-1.

As time rolled off the clock, it became clear that a score for either team would likely decide the game. So when sophomore Noah Bullwinkle ‘20 drilled a shot off a goalie-box scramble with 15 minutes left in the second half, the Little Hawks knew they were in good shape.

When the final whistle blew, the large crowd of City High students in attendance rushed the field of the University of Iowa Soccer Complex to celebrate the Little Hawk’s first sweep of West in the soccer double header since 2003.

After easing some prominent first-half jitters, Clark said the team played well in the second half.

“We had been practicing for their long balls constantly, so we knew what they were going to do,” Clark said. “We just executed, made runs and good passes.”

Meyer agreed.

“We had a rough first half, but the second half we had way more composure than them. In the second half, they were trying to do what they did in the first half, which was win the ball off of our mistakes and then counter,” Meyer said.

“We let them do that a bunch in the first half, but we cleaned it up in the second half.”

The second-half surge is what Head Coach Jose Michel Fajardo thinks was responsible for his team’s victory amid the intense atmosphere.

“Those games are so emotional in the beginning it’s kind of like a horse race. There are too many emotions going and too much adrenaline,” Fajardo said. “Those games don’t settle down until minute 25 or 30 or even in the second half when players start getting tired and that adrenaline goes down a little bit and [players] get used to the environment as well.”

The win against West is of great importance to Fajardo and his players, but in the grand scheme of their season, what matters most is how they play at the end of May. Fajardo knows that his team must play with the cohesiveness it did in the second half to make it back to Cownie Soccer Complex for the state tournament.

“We are a team that when we compete together, we are a very tough team,” he said.

“But we need to get in that mindset that we need to start competing from minute one, and not minute 41.”

ABOVE: Quincy Ott ‘20 challenges West player Geda Ambo during their teams’ match-up at the Iowa Soccer Field April 20th PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

SOCCER CITY

ABOVE: Noah Bullwinkle ‘20 prepares to take a shot BELOW: John Clark ‘18 motions to the student section after putting his team on the scoreboard PHOTOS BY LOTTIE GIDAL

By Addy Smith

rior to the 2018 season, the last time Alex Greimann ‘19 had stepped onto a soccer field was when he played in Kickers—the recreational soccer league marked by parent coaches, goals susceptible to wind, and postgame Capri Suns.

“I liked soccer a lot, but Kickers stopped and I didn’t want to do club,” Greimann said.

This season, after previous goalie Sam Tomek’s graduation, the position became vacant.

“I heard they might need a goalie and I thought about doing it other years but hadn’t done it. I figured I might as well try,” Greimann said. “Even if I didn’t make the team, I’d have a good time trying.”

In the months leading up to tryouts, Greimann practiced with former Kickers teammate and current forward Ben Steve ‘19 in preparation for tryouts. Greimann said the game couldn’t be more different since the last time he played with Steve.

“Things have definitely changed,” he said.

“The game is a lot faster-paced now.”

Greimann made the varsity squad and has since started in the goal for every game of the Little Hawks’ 9-3 season. Greimann says he has definitely felt the pressure of filling a crucial position on a team which, Head Coach Jose Michel Fajardo says, “isn’t used to losing.”

“I’ve never really played goalie before, so this is my first year and there’s a lot to learn; it’s a big learning curve,” Greimann said.

“Especially the first couple games were pretty nerve-wracking going into them.”

Despite the newfound game control which has fallen into Greimann’s hands seemingly overnight, Fajardo is pleased with his goalie’s progress and is confident in his capacity to ameliorate his skills.

“It’s a hard transition but I know that what he’s dealing very well with is the pressure of being thrown there without experience, the pressure of ‘if I make a mistake, I cost my team,’ so it’s a lot of pressure,” Fajardo said. “Psychologically, I think that he’s doing an excellent job.

The tactical and technical part, well, that’s going to take time. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

LEFT PHOTO COURTESY OF ALEX GREIMANN, RIGHT PHOTO BY ADDY SMITH

Sports

May 4, 2018

THE DROUGHT

ENDS

By Addy Smith

T

he last time the City High women’s soccer team pulled together a win against West was in 2007. For eleven years, the program has fought to put more in the back of the net than its Trojan counterparts. This year it did. By four.

“It really means a lot to me. I honestly don’t think [my teammates] need to get me a senior gift anymore. We beat West High and that’s like the greatest gift in the world—especially when we’ve been dry for eleven years,” Sydney DePrenger ‘18 said.

Deprenger put three past West’s keeper late in the second half to add to teammate Madelynn Fontana ‘19’s early goal that put the Little Hawks on the scoreboard, as well as the two goals of Karissa Dilanni ‘20.

Dilanni’s almost back-to-back goals may not suggest that she hardly ever makes them. However, as a target forward, she typically is not on the receiving end of assists.

“I play the nine. I’m supposed to be the target and be the one that helps [my teammates] get back and score. It’s awesome finally being able to score for being the target,” Dilanni said.

DePrenger chalks up her team’s success to two C-words: composure and communication.

“At the beginning [of the game] we were a little hectic, but then we calmed down and found our rhythm,” she said. “I think West got tired of chasing us around and we had pretty good shooting and passes that got us out of pressure situations.”

DePrenger also witnessed a great deal of preparation pay off.

She said containing West High threats and mastering set plays made the difference in her team’s dominant performance.

“We wanted to stop Rachel Olson. We wanted to step out to her whenever she got close to the box just because she can take strong shots from the outside,” she said. “We also wanted to keep an eye on Carlin Morsch and Lizzie Raley because they’re both pretty quick on the top.”

City goalie and returning MVC keeper of the year Naomi Meurice ’19 also played a crucial role in the Little Hawks’ shutout win. Meurice’s nine saves on nine attempts allowed her team to focus on their offensive endeavors.

“It’s definitely such an amazing feeling. We’ve been working for this for awhile,” Meurice said. “Obviously it’s bragging rights and everything. But it just feels really validating because it’s been a long time.”

DePrenger acknowledged the importance of Meurice’s clutch saves.

“We were lucky on a lot of [shots]. I’m so lucky Naomi’s back there and not some other person, because I can trust her with anything,” DePrenger said.

Nine saves appears to be a substantial amount on the box score, but Meurice says her role was much more than preventing West from scoring.

“A lot of what I do is yelling,” she said. “Most of what I’m doing is making sure that the team knows their direction and on everyone’s butts to make sure they’re getting back. If someone’s yelling at them, they’re more likely to do it.”

Meurice knows that although beating West is a great milestone, it is only the beginning of the season and her 5-3 team is now better prepared to confront even better competition in the weeks ahead.

“This is going to give us a lot of confidence, especially since it’s been so long.”

PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

LH Executive Editors

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

OPINION 1B

IN THE RED

Maya Durham & Victor Kalil

News Editors Lottie Gidal & Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin

Opinion Editors Eden Knoop & Mira Bohannan Kumar

Feature Editor

ART BY EDEN KNOOP

Mina Takahashi

Sports Editor Addy Smith

A&E Editors Zoë Miller & Theo Prineas

Video Editor Shayna Jaskolka

Photo Editor Jacob Strathearn

Web Editor Zoë Butler

Copy Editors Theo Prineas & Mira Bohannan Kumar

Art Editor Olivia Lusala

Staff

Jack Bacon, Gabriel Baird, Olivia Baird, Samiya Batie, Cecile Bendera, Landon Clay, Orson Codd, Quincy Coghill-Behrends, Alexis DuBrava, Alfredo Filero, Forrest Frazier, Paris Fuller, Sylvia Gidal, Anshul Gowda, Allyson Guyer, Reese Hill, Madelyn Hix, Bihotza James-Lejarcegui, Alyse Lacina, Nina Lavezzo-Stecopoulos, Liam McComas, Henry Mildenstein, Emmelene Perencevich, Julia Powers, Teagan Roeder, Lindy Rublaitus, Abbott Ruhinda, Dylan Ryfe, Egan Smith, Escalade Smith, Robert Strang, Eric Thomas, Griffin VogelgesangMaurer, Rika Yahashiri

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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, 319-688-1000.

The ever-increasing costs of AP testing, along with new, earlier registration deadlines, may prevent some students from succeeding on—or even taking—the tests

A

P classes are typically regarded as the most challenging classes available.

These classes, which provide students with key educational skills, demand a great deal of dedication and academic motivation. But now, it seems, they also require a great deal of something else: money.

The costs of AP tests have skyrocketed over the years. Students now need to pay close to 100 dollars per test, and even students on free and reduced lunch programs must pay around 50 dollars to take an AP test. Now, new policies from the AP are only going to further the expense of our supposedly free public education, according to City High guidance counselor Eric Peterson.

“We are one of 800 schools that have been selected to...pilot…this early-registration program, although it is my understanding that one year later all schools will be moving to this,” Peterson said. “When students have to commit to the test previous years has been somewhere in the week after spring break. I believe the deadline next year is November 15th, so it is significantly earlier that students have to commit and pay for exam.”

These changes are already alarming some teachers, including English teacher Robin Fields.

“Kids are going to be asked to make a decision in November, which is a little bit unfortunate because they won’t even have a full trimester under their deck of their AP class,” Fields said. “I don’t know if they’ll have a fair assessment of how they would do on the test. To walk into taking the test with not being guaranteed to get all the money you pay…it makes me a little bit nervous. As a teacher, I might not feel as comfortable saying, ‘Look into taking this test,’ if I know that these requirements are there.”

Peterson shared many of Fields’ concerns when it came to the early registration.

“The later deadline worked relatively well. It got the kids basically two-thirds of the way through the class, gave them an idea of their chances of being successful on the test. It'll be interesting to see how that changes,” he said. “Sometimes students may not know for certain how they’re doing in the class.

It may be their first AP class. Some seniors…opt to cancel because their school is not going to accept their score. I understand why students would want to cancel, but there would be financial penalties that are much more significant than they are now.”

More than just pushing up the deadline to register for AP tests, the changes also establish high fees for students seeking to drop a test.

“Any exams that are either added to or subtracted from the order after November 15th incur a $45 penalty. Any student that simply opts not to take the test which again has already been ordered, they get charged the whole $94. If they choose not to test, they’re still out the entire cost of the exam,” Peterson said. “I’m a little bit nervous how those earlier deadlines might impact some students. [For free or reduced lunch students,] it’s about $54.

But, again, if a student cancels, there’ll still be that cost. So I’m nervous about that for our…free and reduced lunch students.”

With these costs racking up on students’ bank accounts, and with the decreased probability that the tests will pay off at all, one must stop and take a

closer look at the College Board’s reasoning behind the expensiveness—and new early-decision nature— of exams.

“They believe it’s a ‘best practice.’ Some schools, if you’re in AP, they require every student that takes an AP class to take the test. Many others have much earlier deadlines,” Peterson said. “AP states that they think that’s a ‘best practice’ because students are committed from day one in class, they know the test is expected earlier, so they are much more diligent throughout the class.”

Many of the College Board’s practices, especially the financial ones, have been called into question before. The College Board, along with other large ‘nonprofit’ educational organizations like the ACT and the Educational Testing Service, is perhaps the least nonprofit of nonprofits. While these organizations are technically nonprofits, they pay their higher-ups immense sums. According to Americans for Educational Testing Reform, the CEOs of the three largest testing services, which include the College Board, make on average five times more than the CEOs of the largest nonprofits.

While this is technically legal, it is morally questionable. So much so, in fact, that in recent

“IT JUST SEEMS THAT IN SOME WAYS IT’S GOING TO CREATE INCOME FOR THE COMPANY.” ERIC PETERSON years backlash has sprouted against testing companies. In Iowa, the attorney general’s office requested that the IRS review the salaries of the Iowa branch of the ACT after it was uncovered that its board members received salaries higher than 98 percent of other nonprofits.

The ACT is not the only testing company whose practices have been called into question. The Educational Testing Service was reported by the AETS for a profit margin of 10.7 percent. The next year, the ETS’s profit margin decreased to 0.9 percent only after a large increase in expenses totalling over $100 million, but the company failed to account for why or how that money was spent.

Like the ACT and the ETS, the College Board has reported huge profit margins. In 2009, 8.6 percent of its revenue was profit—a margin which, according to AETS, “would be respectable for a for-profit company.” That margin has only increased, leading the College Board to have a profit of 317 percent of the industry average. In 2013, one of its former presidents earned $1.3 million in compensation, 444 percent of the average for his position in the industry. High salaries and compensations extend to the current presidents and executives as well.

These high profit margins and unnamed expenses become more questionable when one considers the other ways these companies market their products and make money. The College Board, the ETS, and the ACT all offer test-prep materials for the tests they themselves create and administer.

This creates a sometimes insurmountable barrier

for low income students, who may be unable to afford the tests themselves, let alone the study materials. While the College Board does offer some grants and support to low-income students, AP tests still cost around $50 for those on free or reduced lunch before taking the cost of studying into account.

“It’s time to examine the examiners by holding the standardized testing industry accountable for failing to operate cost-effectively,” Bob Schaeffer of watchdog FairTest told the Washington Post. “Federal and state officials should also investigate these ‘not for profit’ organizations for overcharging students and parents to pad their bottom lines.”

The increased prices and penalties also drew skepticism from Peterson.

“I cringe at the penalty costs. In the past if we had an unused exam, it was $15. Now that’s up to $45. If a student opted not to test, that was $15.

Now it’s $94,” Peterson said. “It just seems that in some ways it’s going to create income for the company.”

For that reason, we stand in opposition to the AP policy changes that the College Board is seeking to implement. Moving registration up and increasing penalty costs hurts students, especially the financially vulnerable. The only thing improved by these so-called ‘improvements’ is the College Board’s profit margin.

This goes beyond the College Board, however.

Making public education truly free is the responsibility of the government as well. That is what public means. The finances and spending of large testing organizations should be investigated by the IRS. The companies must either change their practices, or lose the protective nonprofit status that the government provides. Last year, Congress eliminated the AP Test Fee Program, which subsidized AP tests for millions of low-income students. Now, the price of AP tests has increased up to tenfold for those who used to depend on the program. The government has an obligation to those who depend on public education to reinstate the program, to provide funding and grants to low-income students, and to make efforts to reduce exclusionary, elitist AP culture. This includes taking actions like eliminating the requirement some schools have that students in an AP class must take and pay for the test. Such a requirement is tantamount to forcing students to pay to take high-level classes, a violation of the principles of public education.

The goal of public education is to provide equal access to education for all students in America. Although there are many obstacles facing that goal, few organizations are so careless and malicious in their treatment of the American school system as the College Board, which leaves students in the lurch, in the red, and out of the running when it comes to higher education.

Students should never be put at a disadvantage because of circumstances they cannot control.

As of now, the College Board and organizations like it hold the reins when it comes to college admissions and a host of other opportunities only available based on the scores of standardized tests often administered unjustly. This system must provide students with aid when they need it. It must enable them to get back on the horse, and take hold of the future they were always meant to have.

2B OPINION

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

ART BY OLIVIA LUSALA

Measuring Up The observable inequality of the sexes in track

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hat would happen if girls ran the same distance as the boys in track and field? Well, first off, our uteri would stop functioning due to the extreme activity levels of running 1800m less than we do in the fall season of cross-country, leaving us pitiful, useless beings. Secondly, it would throw our fragile hormone balances out of whack, causing us all to get mood swings simultaneously and making it nearly impossible for our male coaches to control us. Lastly, those things would absolutely not happen because they’re simply preposterous.

I’m not saying that those are the arguments made against making girls’ track distances equal to boys’.

Those arguments are typically the fears of participation rates decreasing, the claim that girls’ and boys’ times will no longer be comparable, and noting that the physiology of the sexes are not the same, therefore the distances need to be different in order to keep the aerobic loads equitable. However, when the cross-country distance changed from 4K to 5K for girls in Iowa, the participation rates continued on their upward trajectory. No one compares girls’ times to boys’ times (this is a subtle hint for the boys who ask for a girl’s time for the sole purpose of making themselves feel better to please stop).

The physiology argument doesn’t hold either because of the numerous other sports and distances within track

By Esti Brady that are equal.

By comparing all 50 states in the U.S., it appears that those arguments have been brushed aside by reason and logic. Very few states in the U.S. share Iowa’s sexist standards of high school track distances being significantly less for girls than for boys.

The vast majority of states in the U.S. allow both the high school girls and boys to run 1600m and 3200m, but the boys run 110m hurdles, whereas girls run 100m hurdles. The height of the hurdles are also higher for the boys, but this is because the average height of boys are significantly taller than the average height of girls.

However, Alaska has made every distance the same, including both the girls and boys running 110m hurdles.

In Hawaii, girls run the same distances as boys in everything except the hurdles, with both girls and boys running 1500m and 3000m--the same as the collegiate distances. In Iowa, in addition to the hurdle distances being different, boys run 1600m and 3200m, as is done in many other states, but the girls’ distances are cut to 1500m and 3000m.

Whether the distances for girls are changed to 1600m and 3200m to match the boys’ distances, or the distances for boys are changed to 1500m and 3000m to match the girls’ and collegiate distances, I frankly could not care less. What matters is that they’re the same. What matters is equality.

I do recognize that this matter is very insignificant and there’s almost no point in even discussing it, because 100m, 200m less than boys in your high school sport? Big whoop. There are bigger, much more important issues in this world that need solving. But I’m aware of this. That’s why it just doesn’t make any sense not to change it. It shouldn’t be a big deal, nor should it be controversial at all. Just three years ago, the state of Iowa changed the girls cross-country distance from 4K to 5K to be equal with the boys, which shows that changes like these are certainly possible. Not only are they possible, but they are necessary. The symbolism of not allowing girls to push themselves as far as boys do is too clear to be ignored.

As a feminist and as a runner, this issue has always bothered me. Not because it will improve my athletic performance or have a large impact on the sport at all, but because it reflects poorly on our state. It appears as if we’re behind on this national movement towards equality of all genders. It also feels aggravating as a girl runner experiencing it. I know that we can race longer than we do. We run longer than either distance (1500m or 3000m) nearly every day of the year, but because of the fear of change, or perhaps simply because of the lazy acceptance of the status quo, we have not been allowed to prove ourselves and how capable we are to compete alongside boys’ distances.

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The distances that girls and boys track teams run are significantly different: while girls run 1500m, boys run 1600m, and while girls run 3000m, boys run 3200m.

B INFOGRAPHIC BY EDEN KNOOP

This disparity is unnecessary and nonsensical, and needs to be addressed.

Most states have already changed this sexist standard. It's time for Iowa to take the baton.

OPINION 3B

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

On the Rise

By Shayna Jaskolka

ART BY OLIVIA LUSALA

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ilver earrings with six-pointed stars adorned with teal opals, a necklace with the Hebrew letters chet and yud meaning ‘to life’, and a circular necklace with 18 diamonds. These are my beloved pieces of jewelry, and they have all been stowed away in the back of my closet. I am scared to wear them. I am scared to be called out for wearing jewelry with Jewish significance. I am scared I will be hurt for wearing them.

I have been bullied about my religion all my life. The term ‘anti-Semitic’ used to refer to discrimination against anyone from the Middle East. Now, it specifically refers to Judaism. It is a form of discrimination as toxic and as hurtful as any other, yet it is frequently ignored and put to the side because it is perceived as ‘not important.’

Judaism is unlike any other religion. There are religious Jews, who believe and worship a higher being, and cultural Jews, like me, who choose not to participate in the religious aspect, but follow traditions and rituals such as having a Bar/Bat Mitzvah and celebrating holidays. The only requirement to be Jewish is following a few simple rules in the Torah, all of which are ensuring you’re a good, well-rounded person. The way Judaism is set up is one of the reasons I am so proud to be Jewish. Another interesting aspect of Judaism is that 0.2% of the world population are Jewish and 49% of the world Jewish population lives in the United States. Judaism was the first monotheistic religion to exist, yet the fewest people follow it. Rabbis actually try to sway people from converting to Judaism, not because they think someone should not be Jewish, but because Rabbis want to ensure that person truly wants to commit to being Jewish. Anyone is welcome, but there are many steps to take to become part of the religion and culture, like courses and rituals. Another reason to be swayed away from converting to Judaism is having to always be on the ready to defend yourself and all other Jews. Since Jews are such a small minority, there aren’t many people who have the same experiences as you do.

I used to reveal almost instantly to new acquaintances that I am Jewish, but as time has progressed and anti-Semitism has become more prevalent—after 2017 saw acts of anti-Semitism rise by 57% on a national level—I now only tell people when they ask, which rarely happens. In seventh grade, when my class studied world religions, my teacher skipped Christianity. When it came time to take the test, I couldn’t answer any of the questions over it. When I told my teacher, he answered that I should “know these because you’re Christian, right?” I stared at him in shock for a moment, then told him that I’m not, in fact, Christian. I understand that you can’t always physically see if a Jew is different than you—people will wish me Merry Christmas or Easter, when I celebrate Hanukkah—but it’s not all right to assume that everyone around you is Christian, just because they don’t ‘look’ like a Jew. I can pass as your average white Christian when needed to protect myself. I have the ability to hide myself from whomever I please. Being a hidden minority is an experience that is not easy to explain because it’s a hard place to be in. As I said before, I am a hidden minority. I can pass for the majority with no issues, if I want. I can hide when need be. I have always viewed the world from the perspective of being part of a minority, but someone wouldn’t know I was one unless they asked.

A common Jewish slur is ‘k*ke,’ meaning a ‘Christ killer.’ It has the same weight as the N-word, but some people throw it around as though it were acceptable, which it is not. I have been called this slur before, but no one around me said anything–none of them knew that it was so offensive, and how much it hurt to be called that. President Trump has made multiple anti-Semitic and racist comments without concern, such as when he called Jewish reporter Chuck Todd ‘Sleepy Eyes,’ an anti-Semitic slur used by Nazis during the 1940s. But Trump is no surprise; he’s not exactly known for being socially accepting. There are many others, people we idolize, such as Michael Jackson.

People say that “he didn’t mean it because he apologized,” but Michael Jackson put slurs into his song lyrics, and he made a ‘joke’ about his banker being Jewish.

Jokes are supposed to be funny, right? Joking about gas chambers and yellow fabric stars and the systematic murder of 8 million people is funny, right? Well, here’s a shocker: no, it’s not. Genocide is not funny. I have family who died in the Holocaust. Anti-Semitism didn’t die with Adolf Hitler, and neither did fascism or Nazism. The nearest neo-Nazi group to Iowa City is in the Amana Colonies in Iowa, which my family and I visited two weeks prior to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Finding out that a neo-Nazi group was so close to me, to my people, to my synagogue, was one of the most devastating things I have ever had to experience. The rally in Charlottesville was a white supremacist rally, but many participants were shouting anti-Semitic slurs, such as “blood and soil,” “Blunt and Boden,” “Jew will not replace us,” “White lives matter,” and “one people, one nation, end immigration,” while some of them even carried flags with swastikas on them. Nazis and Nazi supporters used many of these slurs were during World War II in the persecution of Jews.

Next year, my family and I are going to visit Israel. My parents decided to take the cheapest option for the flights, stopping in Germany, but I refused. We are frequently recognized as a ‘Jewish-looking’ family, especially accompanied by my grandfather, who is from Israel himself. Despite the fact that Germany is legislatively one of the least anti-Semitic countries in the whole world, socially it is still one of the most anti-Semitic. For example, last week a German official advised that Jews should not wear kippahs in public due to Jewish children being stoned on their way to and from school. Germany still makes me uncomfortable to enter as a Jew. Even in the U.S., I have to think about everything I say, wear, and do, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in order to make sure I am safe, and it’s much worse in Central and Eastern Europe. Poland recently created a law stating anyone who thinks the Polish government was complicit in the Holocaust during World War II would be fined. In the past month, there have been six reported acts of anti-Semitism in France alone. Austria has a neo-Nazi party in their current government, along with Greece and Turkey– and even the United States has neo-Nazi groups.

Being Jewish is a culture frequently linked to ethnicities from the Middle East. And, just like many ethnicities, it is not always treated with respect or equity. Racism is an ever-evolving concept, growing more and more complex. Being white is a privilege beyond just the color of your skin. It also means being Christian, and rich. Being Jewish I’m always on guard for the next incident with a peer or someone else in the world. Being a hidden minority can be a blessing and a curse. It makes me feel safer around others, but I’m also denying a big part of my identity--my religion, my race, and my culture. I know the color of my skin is white, but the history of my religion and heritage is permeated with discrimination, and if people know I’m Jewish then the assumptions will start rolling in.

Judaism is no stranger to stereotypes: long noses, relatives being doctors or lawyers, being rich, dark curly hair, always speaking Yiddish, and wearing ‘those little hats’ (kippahs). I have been asked about my financial status and my nose more than anyone would like to imagine. No, I’m not rich. Yes, I may have nice things, but I buy all of my own clothing, my money comes from me and my hard work, not my parents. I’ve been called a JAP, Jewish American Princess, meaning my parents are filthy rich and buy me anything and everything I want. This isn’t a funny or endearing term, nor is it accurate. If I want something, I work hard, get paid, save up, and buy it.

Judaism is a beautiful and ancient religion, but it is so often looked down upon and hated. The first step to fighting anti-Semitism is education. We have to teach students that not everyone is the same and educate people about religions and beliefs in order to do away with these stereotypes and misconceptions. Even if Judaism isn’t meaningful to the curriculum, it’s meaningful to me, and it’s meaningful to the 6.8 million other Jews worldwide.

The Myth

of the Model Minority Portrayals of Asian-Americans are unjust not only to themselves, but to other minorities as well

By Ellis Chen

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ithin the United States, Asian-Americans as a whole are thriving economically. According to the Pew Research Center, Asian-Americans have the highest average hourly earnings of any racial demographic.

This has given rise to the “Model Minority Myth,” in which Asian-Americans are stereotyped as industrious, studious individuals–and also as living proof that the system in America is perfectly fair and equal.

This portrayal of Asian-Americans is deeply problematic. It functions to reinforce white supremacy as it is used to continue racism and excuse inaction. The myth portrays Asians as a shining example for other minorities who may be, on average, poorer and less educated. In this way, the myth is used to shift the blame for earning disparities from racism to the victims of racism. It continues the false idea that America is a utopia of perfect equality, in which anyone can be successful if only they work hard enough. However, this view is flawed and fails to account for implicit biases and years of systematic discriminatory policies like redlining that have hindered other minorities.

The myth also homogenizes oppression, as the struggles of Asian-Americans and other minority groups are portrayed as the same, when in reality they have differed historically. The oppres-

sion of those who suffered in internment camps and the oppression of those who were enslaved should not be conflated, even if there are some similarities. Additionally, while Asian-Americans did initially face rampant discrimination, the myth doesn’t account for how the media began to portray Asian-Americans as hardworking, industrious immigrants the very second that it became convenient to do so. In order to silence the voices of other minorities, the media created the positive image of Asian-Americans to contrast with a negative image of groups such as African-Americans, who were demonized and negatively stereotyped.

In other words, the media portrayal of Asian-Americans did not change to combat racism against them. It changed to increase the racism inflicted upon other minorities.

Not only does the myth facilitate racism against other minority groups, it also is harmful to the model minority themselves. The stereotype results in skewed self views. In the context of education, enormous amounts of pressure are often put on Asian-American students to succeed and conform to the stereotype, which can be detrimental to mental health and can discourage Asian students from asking for help when they are struggling academically. Even in Iowa City, people have made jokes about Asian students excelling at math or being forced to become doctors by their parents. Personally, in seventh grade, I was asked by a classmate if my parents would hit me if I received anything less than an ‘A’ based solely on the fact that he heard in

attendance that my last name was Chen. Whether it was meant to be a harmless joke or not, it gave me the impression that I was automatically expected by my peers to get good grades.

Furthermore, it is unwise to make generalizations about an incredibly diverse group. While Asian-Americans of East Asian descent tend to have higher incomes, other ethnic groups have significantly higher rates of poverty. For example, Burmese-Americans have a poverty rate of thirty-five percent, according to the Pew Research Center. As this myth focuses on the economic success of East Asians, it ignores the high poverty rates of other groups which do not support the desired narrative. In this way, the myth disregards the diversity of Asian-American communities and encourages people to overlook the barriers that they face.

The myth of the model minority should be abandoned and recognized for what it really is: a tool of white supremacy used to dodge any action on combating racism. Under the myth, Asian-Americans become living proof of how any inequality faced by other minority groups is self-inflicted. This in turn prevents people from taking responsibility for racism as they lose all fault.

Along with this rejection of the myth must come the realization that there is no such thing as a “positive” stereotype, because even so-called “positive” stereotypes lead to negative impacts. The time has come for America to acknowledge that the model minority does not exist. Perhaps then, when the myth has been abandoned, systematic racism and inequality can truly be addressed.

4B A&E

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Mr. Mushnik, played by Andrew Stewart ‘18, sits with the Doo-Wop Girls before he enters his renamed shop, Mushnik & Sons, to confront Seymour about the mysterious disappearence of Orin the dentist PHOTO BY NINA LAVEZZO-STECOPOULOS

SOMEWHERE TH Behind the scenes of City High’s spring musical, “Little Shop of Horrors,” set designers and performers prepared for hours every day after school for their three days in front of an audience

By Zoë Miller and Theo Prineas

was not actually onstage.

“It has been very fun, and a new challenge, because you have to he spinning stage turned to reveal a huge plant that spoke, portray the character without being onstage. That presents a whole sang, and ate people. Bringing this monstrosity to life from new set of challenges,” said Sanogo. “If anyone cares to venture the inside, Clara Froeschner ‘18 controlled its movements, backstage, they will see me doing a lot of dancing and a lot of movewhile its powerful voice, sung by Amadou Sanogo ‘18, filled the ment to keep my energy up all the time.” theater.

Another difference between previous musicals and this one was “Aside from hot, claustrophobic, and physically uncomfortable, that along with Sanogo, the pit orchestra was backstage. [puppeteering] is actually pretty fun,” Froeschner said. “I get a big “It’s interesting. I’m more of a traditionalist, so I like being in [audience] response from doing almost anything.” the pit. I feel like we can interact more with the cast, but this is City High Drama performed “Little Shop of Horrors” for this taking us out of our comfort zone, which is good learning for all year’s spring musical. It tells the story of a young flower seller’s as- of us,” Megan Stucky, the conductor, said. “There are advantages sistant named Seymour who buys a plant and names it Audrey II, to being back here. We don’t have to dress up and wear all black. after his coworker-and-crush. Eventually, That’s a plus. For me, personally, I really like he learns that it is hungry for blood. The having Amadou back here. We get to jam out “ASIDE FROM HOT, plant, shown with puppets rented from a and put some soul into it which is fun.”

CLAUSTROPHOBIC, warehouse in Huntley, Illinois, was porFive musicians and one director worked AND VERY PHYSICALLY trayed in four stages, each time growing in the orchestra pit, unlike during “Guys and just a little bit larger.

Dolls,” when it had included 22 musicians. At UNCOMFORTABLE, Gamze McFarlin ‘20 puppeteered the first, they rehearsed alone, but moved to work[PUPPETEERING] IS smallest two. Froeschner worked the larging with the cast as it grew closer to the show.

ACTUALLY PRETTY FUN.” est two.

“These are really easy students to work “[Puppeteering] is really fun, a little with. I’m lucky that I have capable musicians. scary, a little tiring, and an adventure,” They’re not normal, but in a good way. They CLARA FROESCHNER ‘18 Froeschner said. are very high-ability musicians,” Stucky said.

Froescher found that she had to spend This musicianship is reflected in their pertime learning how to control the plant. Throughout the weeks when formances as well as their pre-show practice. she was able to work with the puppets, she had to find different ways “It’s a lot of fun, especially when we do the jam sessions before, to maneuver them, so she would be more comfortable. One thing during, and after the show. We try to get everyone in on soloing and that she strengthened in this role was her connection to Sanogo. playing,” Levi Pugh said.

“Amadou and I have been friends, but this brought our friendFor three of the musicians, it was their first time playing in pit, ship to a whole new level. I’ll see Amadou in the hallway now and while others, seasoned veterans like Levi Pugh ‘18, have been playhe’ll say ‘Hello body’ and then walk away, which sounds really ing pit since they were freshmen. Pugh shared his thoughts on what weird to passersby, but it’s really funny,” Froeschner said. pit has meant to him over the years.

For Amadou, playing Audrey presented new challenges, since he “This has given me the opportunity to conduct and play in a

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pit orchestra and it’s set me up for wanting to do more of this in my career as a musician,” Pugh said. “It has been really fun to be part of this production, and I hope this isn’t the last one for me.”

Another way this show approached acting differently was by double-casting the two lead roles, Audrey and Seymour, who were played by Lauren Rude ‘20 and Veronica Abreu ‘19, and Aidan Smith ‘19 and Tobey Epstein ‘21 respectively. “[Tobey and I are] similar in some ways, but we also have a different take on Seymour,” said Smith. “I’ve noticed I take the character in more of a serious and kind of depressed way, while he takes it a little more comically.”

While the actors shared notes, they also found ways to make the character uniquely their own.

“Double-casting worked really well in my opinion,” Rude said.

“If one of us had to miss a day we would share notes or we would have people take notes for us and that worked really well. Veronica is super professional. She’s worked in a lot of shows, so there was no weird competition between us for Audrey.”

“Little Shop of Horrors” boasted not only one, but two villains.

David Keffala-Gerhard played Orin. The character is a sadistic dentist who eventually suffocates on laughing gas before Seymour feeds himto the plant, Audrey II. “[Playing Orin] has been super fun, creepy, and uncomfortable all at once. My favorite song is “Dentist” for sure, because it’s a fun song, but I prefer the scene of my death,” said Keffala-Gerhard. “It’s a different side of the character and being able to die is not something a lot of people get to do in shows.”

Through the long tech week, the cast spent hours working together to bring to life “Little Shop of Horrors,” which previewed on April 20 and ran through the 22, along with holding an extra showing for sixth graders from nearby elementary schools.

“My favorite part was working with the amazing cast. I think the cast is really good this year, and everyone is super into it. It’s been really enjoyable. The set work is great and having people who are this dedicated is really a blessing,” Keffala-Gerhard said.

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Seymour (Epstein ‘21) and Audrey (Abreu ‘19) kiss just before Audrey II eats her PHOTO BY NINA LAVEZZO-STECOPOULOS

Seymour (Smith ‘19) anxiously regards the smallest version of Audrey II, imploring it to grow larger PHOTO BY THEO PRINEAS

By Lucy McGehee Reporter

Orin (David Keffala-Gerhard ’18) and Seymour (Tobey Epstein ’21) just before Orin is killed to be fed to Audrey II PHOTO BY NINA LAVEZZO-STECOPOULOS

HAT ’S G

ART BY REESE HILL

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AMADOU SANOGO ‘18

Thomazin Jury, playing one of the Doo-Wop Girls, sings a solo on opening night PHOTO BY NINA LAVEZZOSTECOPOULOS

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“YOU HAVE TO PORTRAY THE CHARACTER WITHOUT BEING ONSTAGE. THAT PRESENTS A WHOLE NEW SET OF CHALLENGES. I REALLY LIKE THE CHARACTER, BECAUSE I THINK WE CAN ALL RELATE TO AUDREY II. WE’RE ALL HUNGRY FOR SOMETHING. I REALLY DO ENJOY PLAYING THIS CHARACTER, AND I ENJOY PLAYING A VILLAIN.”

Audrey (Lauren Rude ‘20) belts a high note during the preview as the chorus, acting as New York City passersby, looks on PHOTO BY THEO PRINEAS

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A&E 5B

6B A&E

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Women of Tech Technical theater is starting to open up for women to work on set and construction

OPINION COLUMN

By Lindy Rublaitus Reporter

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uring my first musical at City, the freshman version of myself joined construction crew without a clue of what I was doing. I was surrounded by upperclassmen guys who worked together as the heads of the crew. They showed me the ropes and gave me some of the easier tasks of constructions while they built staircases and worked the flys. They did the heavy lifting while I handed them the tools. I honestly felt out of place, like I didn’t know what I was doing, like I was “just a girl.” Still, I pushed through and continued to pursue technical theater.

At the beginning of my sophomore year, I earned the title of assistant stage manager.

This made me the boss of everything backstage, including those guys who were so high above me the year before. I started to gain leadership in all departments of theater, making me feel more like a leader. While working on To Kill A Mockingbird, I slowly recognized a growing interest through female students in crew, moving heavy scenery and building mock houses—the things I wasn’t qualified to do my freshman year.

I was starting to find my community and I

felt like I couldn’t be put down because I was building when I first started out. I walk last show at City. Obviously, and nervously, I acsurrounded for people just like me. through the half-finished set pieces and cepted the position. I felt so empowered by earnI specifically remember see almost exclusively women working ing the title of stage manager because, looking up to my stage on them. As I look through the lists of just a year before, I was seeing manager and light crews, I see a growing female population myself at the lowest rank in designer, Elisa taking over lead roles throughout the the crew. Now, I felt like I Swanson and drama department. There are still guys was creating a path for the Ailsa Burke. mixed in the crews but girls finally know other girls on crew just I watched that they can do like Elisa “AS I LOOK THROUGH what they want, them work and Ailtheir magic sa had THE LISTS OF CREWS, I they can be creduring rein so many d o n e SEE A GROWING FEMALE ative hearsals as ways. I imagine for me. they created E v POPULATION TAKING what I could have a path for me accomplished if ery day OVER LEAD ROLES to follow in the this was the group in reyears to come. hearsals, THROUGHOUT THE DRAMA I was surrounded They had leaderby during my I would DEPARTMENT.” ship qualities that I freshman year. come in and could only dream of It is truly inspiring to see how show actors the ropes, leading obtaining...and they women are taking projects into their them into a great show. I got to help were women. own hands and becoming leaders as new crew recruits learn everything Right before high schoolers. It is amazing to see that there is to know about being on “Guys and girls know that there are no limits, that crew and where it could lead Dolls” started, they are not going to be brought down them.

I was asked if they are surrounded by upperclassAs I am moving into to take over as men guys. Those girls I see everyday, my third year as a part of stage manager working hard with drills in their hands the drama program at because the and doing what they love, gives me City, I see groups of current a sense of pride to be part of a strong girls walking into the one decommunity. These girls are going to scene shop, working cided to audo amazing things, because they are on the huge projects that dition for her strong enough to take that first step. were the things I dreamed of ART BY ZOË BUTLER

LH Book Reviews: “The Lord of the Rings”

By Theo Prineas A&E and Copy Editor

B

efore “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien, high fantasy was scorned by most mainstream literary critics. Many of Tolkien’s contemporaries dismissed his work as wild children’s tales, not to be taken seriously, but 65 years and over 150 million sales later, “The Lord of the Rings” has been hailed as one of the most influential works of the 20th century, as fantasy authors such as Terry Brooks, Ursula K. LeGuin, J.K. Rowling, and Christopher Paolini have all admitted to taking inspiration from Tolkien’s work.

Tolkien began writing “The Hobbit” as a standalone, meant to be read aloud to his children, before he submitted it to Allen and Unwin. “The Lord of the Rings,” intended for adults, addresses more complex themes relating to human interactions with temptation, geo- and sociopolitical issues, environmentalism, and, I think subconsciously, Tolkien’s battle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from his experience in World War I. At the time this was written, PTSD was not considered a medical condition, and Tolkien realistically would’ve had problems coping with his experiences; he began writing the foundation of the world in which “The Lord of the Rings” takes place in an infirmary tent on the Western Front, not long after his best friends were killed in front of him at the Battle of the Somme.

Many years later, in his essay “On Fantasy,” Tolkien described fantasy as escapism—a way to take a break from the harsh realities of our world. Finally, in the third installment of “The Lord of the Rings,” Frodo and Sam venture through the Dead Marshes, a bog with the faces of dead warriors, of orc, elf, and humankind alike. It’s a striking scene straight out of the Battle of the Somme.

The hobbits, symbolic of generic Eng-

lish agriculturalists, are completely out of their depth venturing out into the unfriendly world. Tolkien grew up in the English countryside, and was, as a result, taught to value the “old ways” of agriculture, just like the hobbits. As he aged, train tracks and the forces of industry slowly crept into the countryside, just the same way as how, in the books, Saruman takes over the Shire and tries to industrialize it.

But the innocence of the hobbits isn’t just defending the environment. It’s also defending and perpetuating Tolkien’s belief in racial superiority.

The orcs call the humans and the hobbits “Whiteskins”, and are portrayed as savage invaders of the “innocent” Shire.

They’re given no interiority, and are as a result dehumanized and degraded as living beings It doesn’t stop there; “the Lord of the Rings” has misogyny covered too. Aside from Eowyn’s famous “I am no man” scene in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields when she slew the Nazgul in defense of King Theoden, the rest of the characters who create action are men. Arwen? Galadriel? They sit in Rivendell or Lothlorien respectively, and supply motivation for male characters.

And are there any other female characters?

No. “The Lord of the Rings” actively rails against women and people of color, and perpetuates fossilized and unacceptable ideals that have no place in the modern mainstream.

All the same, I would recommend reading “The Lord of the Rings” if you are capable of witnessing the issues presented, but not internalizing them. Yes, I know everything I’ve said has implied that these books should be buried and forgotten, but the bigotry which is so blatantly put on display in “The Lord of the Rings” will not disappear if it is ignored. It needs to be recognized for what it is and stand as testament for how far society has come since it was written—and of how far we have yet to go.

ART BY AVERY SHRADER

INFOGRAPHIC BY ZOË BUTLER AND OLIVIA LUSALA

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Q&A

Shrader's portrait of Olivia Lusala '19 eating a kiwi

With

Avery Shrader

Shrader's portrait of Zoe Butler '19 eating a peach.

Avery Shrader '19 has been drawing since elementary school, and intends to pursue her career as an artist after high school

By Olivia Lusala Art Editor Q: When did you begin making art?

Q: What do you like about your work?

A: Elementary school. Everyone took art in elementary school and that's when I started really liking it.

A: I like drawing a lot of real people and young people who have made an impact on me personally. I’m still trying to explore with that.

I like that I use markers because it’s something that not a lot of people use around me. I like that it’s a different medium that most people don’t use.

Q: Why is art your favorite hobby?

A: I think it's just the one thing I've had a very big passion for. It’s a huge stress reliever and it just makes me happy!

Q: How do you work?

A: I usually work in a quiet space with music playing. That’s my favorite type of atmosphere to work in. A cool space that has good vibes.

Q: What memorable moments do you have related to your work?

A: I won the Hancher show and got accepted to into Arts Fest, which are pretty memorable moments that I’m proud of, I also know that these memorable moments are helping me explore more opportunities in art.

great thing. I think a lot of people think you have to be really good to be in AP, but you just have to have your own style! It’s relaxing and the only time in the day that I actually feel non-stressed.

Q: What pieces are you the most proud of?

A: My dream project would probably be something that really punches at social issues.

A: I look at pieces that I was super proud of when I first finished them and now I’m like why did I think this was good? It’s not good anymore, in my mind I think of my art very highly, and then when I go look at it it's not what I thought it was.

Q: Are you considering continuing with art after high school?

Q: What role does a artist play in society to you?

A: I definitely want to, I don't how to make that a living right now, maybe I'll be a starving artist.

A: I really think it’s powerful to be an artist!

I think we have this amazing view and voice that we can put into society, they’re able to voice their opinions in ways others can’t through their art. A picture is really worth a thousand words. You can write things down, but when you portray it and show it in a creative way, I think that’s a powerful thing.

Q: What’s your dream project?

Q: Would you recommend students interested in art to take an AP Studio Art class?

A: I definitely would, if you like art or you just like that kind of atmosphere. I think it’s a

A&E 7B

8B OPINION

THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | MAY 4, 2018

Stars & Strife

Patriotism is a concept upon which, ironically, many Americans disagree. Two sides of the debate are shown below, as two Little Hawk staffers go head to head, presenting their own opposing views on the subject

By Mira Bohannan Kumar

M

y father is an immigrant. When he drives me to school, he looks out the windshield into the Iowa winter and calls himself “a citizen of the world.” I peer along with him, and wonder what it would be like to live somewhere else, to find myself torn enough between two places I might call home to give up setting one above the other and call myself a citizen of the world, with allegiances to be pledged not to my country but to something more instinctive, something global, something which jumps over the walls we build to keep ourselves locked away. The ivory from which we build our towers didn’t come from the States.

It seems that those who feel a strong bond with a certain nation look at those who don’t, they think that we do not know what it feels like to have those ties that bind. I have pride and loyalty, and I believe strongly in liberty and justice; I also have the unshakable impression that those things don’t come from any specific plot of land.

The products of misplaced and overzealous patriotism resulting in nationalism can be seen throughout history. Nations’ motivation to establish themselves in a position of power has resulted in programs of imperialism, in wars, in genocides, in dangerous divisions between countries and regions. Not only this, but many varieties of nationalist ideology draw lines between people of certain cultures and races, defining a country by the traits of the majority of the people who live there. This divisive rhetoric can result in institutionalized discrimination, reducing people like my father to foreigners, people who are told to go back to their own countries. My father is a citizen of the world; to which country should he return?

Of course, not all patriots go this far in their speech or in their actions.

America’s founding ideals--freedom, equality, and human rights--are excellent ones and can give us standards to which to hold ourselves. Unfortunately for those ideals, however, our country has an inclination toward patriotism which manifests itself not in social aid, in working to better ourselves, in removing the systemic inequality ingrained in our society, but in harmful, exclusionary political and social discourse. Donald Trump’s rhetoric of “Make America Great Again” has promoted an image of his ideal America, one which disadvantages people of color, women, immigrants, religious minorities, people in the LGBT+ community, and many other groups who are marginalized in today’s society.

Patriotism frequently causes people to turn a blind eye to the problems inherent in the US’s past and current policy decisions, particularly issues which affect certain classes or groups of people. Overtaxation on the lower socioeconomic classes and tax cuts for the wealthy are still a major shortcoming in our policy decisions, both state and federal, and Iowa has seen how tax cuts greatly benefit the top 1% and end up slashing our budget to tatters. It can also blinker citizens to problems of systematic oppression such as police brutality, equal pay over gender and race lines, and the US government’s abhorrent treatment of Native Americans, whom it originally killed in huge numbers to claim land as its own and to whom it still causes immense harms.

Badly translated forms of patriotism directly affect citizens in debates such as gun control, one of the most controversial and polarizing issues in America. Many gun-rights activists use the Constitution to justify their argument that owning guns is a fundamental right, claiming that our Founding Fathers would not have wanted gun control. Here, citizens use patriotism to justify supporting a position which results in the deaths of thousands every year.

Laying aside the US’s political and social issues, however, I personally cannot prioritize ties to country over those to family and friends, those to loved ones, and those to all the people I never have met who deserve my respect.

Although I agree with many of the fundamental principles upon which this nation was founded, I do not believe that the way to achieve them is by isolating and deifying ourselves. How many times have I been told that the US is the greatest nation in the world? How many times have I been made to deny my identity—as a daughter of people who have taken their own journeys across states and countries and many, many borders to the here and now, as a sister to all the people inhabiting this planet which is becoming less and less blue, as a person in and of myself, as a citizen of the world? How many times have we all denied our own roots in this Earth and not in its lands?

I see no point in defining myself by this dirt which crunches between my toes in a place I happen to inhabit in this lifetime. No one, not even myself, knows who or what I may be in the future—or where. All I know is that I need to define myself not as someone who sits under the sun which belongs to the United States, not as someone who watches the stars which belong to the United States, not as someone who smells the winds belong to the United States, which ram up against our rigid borderlines.

No, I must call myself a citizen of the world, one who cherishes liberty and equality for everyone, no matter who they may be or where they may live. I must remember always that the ivory from which we build our towers did not come from the States. I must remember always that the sun and stars and winds—and yes, even the soil— are always in motion, and belong not to any one of us or to our flimsy flags, but to the many spaces between.

By Eden Knoop

I

am a patriot. That’s not something that a lot of people in my generation, especially in a place like City High, would say. It’s strange to me that so many young people actively reject patriotism, because their activism, community involvement, and awareness would seem to indicate otherwise. It’s a little troubling to me, because it indicates a deep division within America and within the way Americans view their own country. Many people in the United States are too quick to reject their own country, even if their hearts are in the right place.

Of course, this is not to say that someone has to be a patriot. But I also think that people, in their haste to reject patriotism, harm the causes they seek to support. Many liberals distance themselves from patriotism because such pride is irrevocably linked to nationalism and conservatism in their mind. However, what they don’t realize is that they are, in effect, seceding America, or at the very least the ideal of America what should be like, to the very people with whom they disagree. By abandoning all overt pride in their country and the ideal, we are in essence conceding that the conservative vision of America is the true one. We are conceding that conservatives and conservative ideals represent America, that they are the true Americans, and that their America is the true America, even though it’s not the America we want to see. It gives conservatives power over the American narrative and control of our national identity, despite the fact that a liberal America is just as true to American values, if not more so, than a conservative one.

Likewise with those who look upon America’s long and often shameful history and reject any sort of national pride. Because of slavery, because of the institutionalized racism, because of the sexism, because of the homophobia, they won’t be proud of America. Although such people’s hearts are in the right place, their actions seem wholly counterintuitive to me. Yes, the slave owners, the lynchers, the KKK, the Jim Crow-ers, the sexists, and the homophobes were all American. But do you know who else was?

The slaves. Martin Luther King Jr. Harriet Tubman. Rosa Parks. Frederick Douglass. Every single black American who stood up against injustice. The LGBT+ community and every single woman who did the same. By rejecting America in the name of the wrongs done to them, these people perpetuate the idea that the people who stood up for their rights in this country are somehow separate from America itself. Such a mentality accepts that America belongs to the white cisgender male and that therefore these people are less American and less representative of its ideals. It’s an unintentionally ironic outcome, given that it is the precise opposite of the cause which these people are attempting to support.

America’s bloody past is the strongest argument against patriotism. Such a sentiment is beyond understandable, because even if those wronged were Americans too, it doesn’t erase the way that our government, our society, and the majority of Americans behaved and believed. However, there is not one nation on this Earth that doesn’t have a stained history. I don’t think you can be proud of a country without also taking on the burden of responsibility for what it’s done. By taking pride in the United States, you’re giving yourself an identity as a member of this country, allowing yourself to speak up for change, and taking pride in the good things that it has done, even though you weren’t directly involved.

By doing this, you also have to bear the burden of the evil, because you cannot be selective about your citizenship. That’s not how being a responsible member of society works.

However, the converse is also true. I don’t think you can accept the historical shame and responsibility of righting past wrongs in this country without also taking pride in the good. National identity doesn’t work on a timeshare.

Certainly, it doesn’t make much sense to only take responsibility in the bad, because national identity is not founded on the negatives, or guilt, or blame. It is founded on pride.

ART BY ZOË BUTLER