The Little Hawk by The Little Hawk

the little hawk Iowa City, IA

May 7, 2021

Vol. 81

Issue 4

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Mock Trial gears up for Nationals

Quick NEWS

After making City High history by winning state, the mock trial team OTH prepares for the National High School Mock Trial Championship

The newspaper that leads

prom-like event After being pushed back a week, the date for City High’s prom-like event is now set for May 15. It has been moved from the turf to Bates Field. The time of the “Bash at Bates” is still set for 7-10 p.m.

GRaduation Graduation will take place on Sunday, June 6, at 7:00 p.m. It will be held, in person, at Coralville’s Extreme Arena. To ensure adequate social distancing, the number of tickets will be limited to four per family.

SENIOR HONORS CEREMONY Students have submitted forms listing their various accomplishments which will be shared during the ceremony. It is set for May 10, 7:00 p.m. and will be held virtually via a Zoom webinar. ABOVE: Mock trial team OTH prepares for the National High School Mock Trial Championship PHOTO BY JASON SCHUMANN

ARTS FESTIVAL By Max Berry-Stoelzle

ith hearts racing, the senior Mock Trial team from City High school anxiously awaits the announcement of the 2021 Mock Trial State Champion. “The team receiving the most judge ballots and named the State Champion for 2021...” John Wheeler, the organizer of the State Mock Trial tournament announced, pausing for dramatic effect “Congratulations to team OTH from Iowa City High School.” The team erupted into cheers as they realized what they had just achieved. Not only had they performed the best a City High team had ever done at the State Mock Trial tournament, but they had also qualified for the national tournament. “We all practiced a lot [and] everyone put in an incredible amount of work,” Katherine Geerdes ‘21, one of the attorneys for the team

said. “We figured out the best way to work in the online format [and] got an incredible amount of help from our coaches. I’m so happy we’re going to nationals.” The previous best placement a City High team had placed in their mock trial season was fifth-place at State in 2019. This year, two of the City High teams broke that record, with one reaching the semifinals and the winning the entire tournament. Now the winning City High team plans to continue on and set an even better record. “I think the team did a fantastic job,” Coach Lisa Williams said. “They exceeded all expectations, [and now] they would probably tell you that their goal is to win Nationals.” Throughout the course of the season, the City High Mock Trial teams have spent countless hours practicing their case. “They worked on their own, worked in attorney and witness pairs, we met in small groups via Zoom and even did full scrimmages with our other teams,” Williams

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said. “The success at the state tournament was a direct result of how hard the team worked. This team put in hours and hours of practice and at State they got to see the results of all that hard work.” In addition to the team’s success in the tournament, City High also ended up with two All-State Witnesses: Tobey Epstein, for his performance as Hays Hamilton; and Madelyn Hellwig, for her role as Pat Towne. City High’s Shoshanna Hemley was named All-State Attorney.. “The best part was just seeing everything come together at the end,” Geerdes said. “Having to do so many rounds for State really made our improvement clear after we [had] spent so many hours competing.” The National Tournament this year will be held over Zoom on May 12-15, giving the team less time to prepare than was given for the State tournament. “[Now we’re getting] even more practice,” Geerdes said. “We only have around a month and a half to

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write our entire case and learn the rules for Nationals, so it’s a lot of work in a pretty short [amount of ] time.” Just because there is less time, however, does not mean that the preparation is going to be much different. “We are preparing [much] the same way,” Williams said. “When the problem first came out we got together and decided on a theme for each side. Now everyone is working on their parts, [and] on the weekends we meet in one on one sessions to go through [parts] and answer questions. The next phase will be for everyone to start memorizing their parts.” Since the team is composed entirely of seniors, it is their final year of high school Mock Trial. “My goal is for the students to enjoy this one last opportunity to do Mock Trial together, [and] I hope they enjoy the experience working together with their team,” Williams said.

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Newly hired Fine Arts Secretary Marianne Davenport has organized an arts festival showcase for the end of the 2020-2021 academic year. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, May 25 at 5:00 pm on Bates Field.

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS Schools across the country have seen historic record high number of applicants after switching to test optional applications.

Quarantine UPDATE On April 13, the Iowa City Community School Board voted to approve a resolution to change the ICCSD’s quarantine protocol to follow the Iowa Department of Health guidelines.

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A2 NEWS

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Dear Reader, Here it is, the very last Little Hawk paper of the year, the very last one. Yes, the end of this long, crazy school year is actually approaching. For us senior editors, this is our last issue ever! This is a bittersweet ending to a long and tumultuous year. However as much as we wish for summer to just start already, we are not yet at that point. So with this issue, we bring you… you guessed it: news about City High and Iowa City! Despite this global pandemic, there is still a lot happening at our school. From the end of the year arts showcase planned for May 25, which we highly recommend you go to, to one of our Mock Trial teams winning state and now preparing for nationals! We also have a construction update for those of you who have found yourself seeing less and less of the actual school building throughout this past year. In this crazy year, there are also a lot of changes constantly being made. For everyone who wants to know what is actually going on, we have you covered! Read about the ever-changing updates on prom and graduation, the new ICCSD quarantine policy, and plans for the online academy next school year. Flip to the culture section to read about the 2021 Academy Awards, or turn to A&E to learn more about the musical, Matilda, or figure out what your next read should be with “What Every High Schooler Should Read.” Alternatively, you might want to flip to the sports section and read about how COVID-19 has affected student athletes and the new City High girls wrestling team that’s starting next year. The opinion section is well written as always and contains stories about gun violence and antisemitism on the left. We are thrilled to announce that Haileigh Steffen and Aala Basheir will take over for us next year as The Little Hawk’s executive editors! CONGRATS! Haileigh and Aala, we are excited to see what you do next year and we know you will absolutely crush it as execs. Best, Julianne and Jesse

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A4 NEWS

AP Research projects of the year An overview of student’s AP Research studies of the year, a course that builds critical thinking and research skills

ABOVE: AP Research group discusses paper clips. PHOTO BY JONATHAN ROGERS

By Shoshanna Hemley

P Capstone is a program that has been offered at City High for four years. Students in the two-year program first take AP Seminar as juniors and then AP Research as seniors. AP Seminar focuses on secondary research, while students in AP Research spend the year creating their own primary research, putting together studies and collecting data. “I think I learned a lot from both classes,” Joslyn Becker ‘21 said. “[Through] AP research, [I’ve] gained the confidence to present in front of people and understand that [I] have the capability to dive into topics and research [them].” City High teachers Micheal Ayers and Ali Borger-Germann run the program, alternating each year between teaching Seminar and Research. “If you had told me that students could do this [research] five years ago, I would have been like, ‘I don’t think so,’” Borger-Germann said. “But then I watched it happen, it’s astonishing. This is stuff that I didn’t even get to do as an

undergrad. You’re never invited to do this kind of experimental, or capital R, research.” This year’s AP Research students have finished collecting their data and presenting their findings, and are now in the process of writing their research papers. “What’s cool about this research is they can take it to an undergraduate advisor and say, ‘Hey I did this research, I’m interested in taking it further.’ They have this place where they can say, ‘I’ve already done this, I’ve already thought about this, I’ve already read the seminal writers in this field.’ They just have a leg up that literally no other high school student ever has had,” Borger-Germann said. Studies in the class this year range from content analyses of wealth in the TV show “Big Little Lies” to the emotional intelligence of sons raised by lesbian mothers, focusing on the humanities, science, and the arts. “This is your opportunity to create new knowledge in a field that you care about,” Borger-Germann said. “All of these [projects] will be super niche, but then they’re actually adding value to the world.

I just think there’s nothing like it in high school anywhere else.” Becker researched the correlation between grade point averages of students in the two different learning models in the Iowa City School District: in-person and online. “It took a lot [more] patience than I thought it was going to, but it was really interesting to see the findings. I found that there was not a direct correlation and that the GPAs from the two learning methods were actually really really close,” Becker said. Becker surveyed students from both learning models when conducting her research. “At first it was really hard to get people to take the survey. I initially sent it out to teachers in hopes that they could either put it on their Canvas page or email it out to their students, and I got close to no responses,” Becker said. “So then I contacted Mr. Bacon and he ended up helping me send it out to the entire student body which was extremely helpful because I think if he hadn’t done that, it would have been really hard to do my research project at all.”

Isaac Weigel ‘21 did a study on the effects of the events of 2020 on the City High student senate election, also surveying the student body, as well as interviews, to conduct his research. “It took a while brainstorming what I was interested in. I think kind of what set me off on that was the student council. The end result wasn’t what I necessarily expected it to be,” Weigel said. “I started thinking about how the other schools interacted with their student councils, but after narrowly going through the review process quite a few times, it kept getting narrower and narrower, and eventually I just focused on specifically the City High student council election to see what influenced that.” Weigel hopes to continue using the skills he’s learned in AP Research throughout his higher education, looking ahead to conducting more research in the future. Students who’ve completed both Capstone courses with an AP score of three or higher, as well as a four or higher on four additional AP exams besides Seminar and Research will be receiving an AP Capstone Diploma.

“I think that part of the problem is there are too many ideas, and you have to be able to choose one and then see yourself take that project from the very beginning to the very end, when you could be taking another project from the very beginning to the end,” Weigel said. “It’s hard to find out what exactly you like. You might have a broad idea, but you don’t know exactly what you need to find. It’s too much fun.” Students interested in signing up for AP Seminar in the future can reach out to their counselor to do so. “It was nothing like any other class you take, and it’s such an independent opportunity to do something that not only you enjoy, but something that you would maybe even see yourself doing later in life. Personally for me, I always loved the idea of creating new knowledge, of knowing something better than anybody else and taking it farther than anybody’s taken it before,” Weigel said. “I had no idea how to do that until we had AP Seminar and AP Research. It was a great experience doing something on my own.”

Dates of spring events finialized After being pushed back the date for prom has been finalized, the dates for graduation and the senior honors ceremony remains the same By Emmelene Perencevich

fter being pushed back a week, the date for City High’s prom-like event is now set for May 15. It has been moved from the turf to Bates Field. The time of the “Bash at Bates” is still set for 7-10 p.m.

“The event will be rather like prom and party after prom combined into one event,” Principal Bacon explained in an email sent out on March 23. “Around the perimeter, we will have party-afterprom-type activities for students, including games, prizes, and food.” The event is still being restricted

to City High juniors and seniors. Neither guests from other grade levels nor other schools will be permitted to attend. In other news, the GoFundMe fundraiser for the event has met its goal. “We’re still planning the details of prom,” Senior Class President Katherine Geerdes ‘21 said. “Now

that we have approval, it’s a matter of figuring out how the dance will work at City High.” Graduation will take place on Sunday, June 6, at 7:00 p.m. It will be held, in person, at Coralville’s Extreme Arena. To ensure adequate social distancing, the number of tickets will be limited to

four per family. Preparations for the Senior Honors Ceremony is already under way. Students have submitted forms listing their various accomplishments which will be shared during the ceremony. It is set for May 10, 7:00 p.m. and will be held virtually via a Zoom webinar.

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

5A NEWS

#StopAsianHate U.S sees a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across the nation

ABOVE: Family photos of the Robrigado family whom immigrated from the Philippines to the U.S. PHOTO COURTESY OF THOMAZIN JURY

By Shoshie Hemley and Emily Martinez

elanie Tran Duong ‘21’s father came to Iowa City decades ago after fleeing the Vietnam War. Though he was supposed to go to City High, he instead had to attend West High because it was the only school that had an English language learning program. Other members of Tran Duong’s family, such as cousins, attended City High later. “They definitely faced a lot of microaggressions and just aggressions in general. My cousins got into fights all the time because of it. I think because of COVID and just talking about it with my cousins, I got a lot closer to them. I learned more about what they went through,” Tran Duong said. In recent months, the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes and racism across the U.S has caused an uproar within the Asian community and its allies. The topic has gained much traction and has resulted in the #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate movements being shared across social media. “It’s really hard to talk about with friends that aren’t Asian, so they don’t understand where you’re coming from with your struggles with just trying to deal with it,” Tran Duong said. One recent act of violence was a series of shootings which took place on March 16 in Atlanta, Georgia. The attacks targeted spas in the Atlanta area and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women. “It made me sad to think that it just started to become a trend to start supporting [Stop AAPI Hate] when it’s been such a long history of these crimes since the California gold rush and then the yellow fever,” Thomazin Jury ‘21, who is half Filipino, said. “When the mass shootings happened, my family and I were actually in Georgia at the time and we were planning to go to Atlanta the next day. But then we just decided to cancel that trip because we honestly didn’t feel safe to go. That was really a lot, and it just was scary.” The Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, a nonprofit social organization that tracks incidents involving discrimination, hate, and xenophobia towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S, stated in a recent report that an estimated 3,795 hate incidents were reported to their center between March 19, 2020, and February 28, 2021. “City High is a very diverse population and Asian Americans are probably on the much lower end of that,” Oliver Bostion ‘21, a half Korean student, said.

These hate incidents have involved verbal were all people of Japanese descent put into harassment, shunning, avoidance of Asian internment camps, but there was a nationAmericans, physical assault, and online ha- al rise in anti-Asian sentiment, regardless of rassment, along with a mass amount of hate country of origin. targeted specifically toward elderly Asian “I feel like it stems from people being women, according to the Stop AAPI Hate ignorant and not being able to accept other National Report. people for their differences, and not educat“My grandpa, he’s like 95 and he loves to ing themselves on what is actually occurring go on walks. But he goes on walks by him- and how it would actually affect other people self, and that’s really scary, so we told him besides themselves,” Tran Duong said. not to do that anymore,” Tran Duong said. In 1992, Los Angeles erupted in riots folThe COVID-19 pandemic has also re- lowing the acquittal of four police officers sulted in a surge of anti-Asian hate crimes. who beat a Black man named Rodney King. According to Pew Research Center, 31% The acquittal was the fuse for tension that of Asian Americans reported having experi- had already been building, as a Korean store enced incidents of racial slurs and racist jokes owner had shot and killed a black girl earsince the beginning of the pandemic. lier that year. The main targets of the riots “It’s been really shocking and just really were Korean Americans living in L.A. who disheartening, especially knowing that a lot had their homes and businesses looted and of members of my family are very elderly burned down. that are just living on their own out in a dif“[The violence is] scary to me, especialferent part of the other side of the country. ly since my grandparents both have pretty It’s scary to think that I can’t be there to help heavy accents. I think that definitely contribthem or console them,” Jury said. utes. I’m not an expert, but I would think Throughout the pandemic, former that they would be more likely to be victim President Donald Trump referred to the to something like that because they’re older COVID-19 pandemic as the “kung-flu” and they don’t speak perfect English,” Bosand “China virus” in relation to the virus tion said. “I would be worried for them in originating from Wuhan places where maybe people China. are less educated and they “I’m living the model “The whole issue with haven’t been exposed to as Coronavirus being called many people who [don’t] minority myth.” the ‘China virus’ is people look like them.” MELANIE TRAN DUONG telling specifically Asian Jury hasn’t experienced CITY HIGH SENIOR Americans, and actually any violence due to her any minority, to ‘go back ethnicity, though she has to your own country and experienced certain microto ‘get out of here.’ It is such a flawed way of aggressions such as type casting in theatre, thinking, especially knowing that the U.S is the profession she wants to go into. made up of immigrants, so it’s a really un“Most of the roles I was given when I fortunate thing that people of color have to was younger were supposedly kids of color face,” Jury said. or only Asian characters. I’d be typecast as Many Asian American advocates feel that someone who’s really quiet, timid, and smart former President Trump’s words provoked an which is a common stereotype for Asian anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S and could women,” Jury said. “Even when I’d go to a be linked to the recent increase in violence program to get training from people, I would against Asian Americans. only be recommended songs that are sung by “That’s textbook ignorance when Trump Asian women. I was told in a class that, ‘Oh, was talking about the ‘China virus’, so any- well you’re Asian, you’d like this little prodone who looks like they come from China uct because they’ll think that you’re smart, so must certainly be carrying [the virus]. I think it’ll all work out,’ and nobody said anything that’s obviously horrible. There were a couple to me after that. People laughed and that was of times when I felt like people were maybe it.” looking at me funny,” Bostion said. While Jury has felt typecast into the However, COVID-19 isn’t the only mo- “model minority myth” in theatre, other tive for anti-Asian hate in the U.S. In 1882, Asian American students have felt “typecast” Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, into this role in their real lives. the only piece of legislation implemented in “I feel like I’ve definitely had different exthe U.S specifically banning all members of a periences, because it kind of ties in with the certain ethnicity or nationality from entering model minority myth where people expect the nation. During World War II, not only a lot out of me,” Tran Duong said. “And so

I match those expectations, but then those expectations are put on other people. I’m living the model minority myth. I feel like a lot of children in my generation, they want to live up to that. I think that [parents] pressure their kids to try to live up to that when there shouldn’t be any pressure at all and everyone should be given the same.” While Tran Duong feels that she excels in school, she believes that there is an added pressure from those around her due to their perception of her based on her ethnicity. “I definitely feel like if I didn’t do as well in school as I do now, my teachers would look at me completely differently,” Tran Duong said. “I feel like they would be like, ‘Oh, why isn’t she excelling in school,’ because I feel like people have those stereotypes and they will always be there.” The model minority myth is the idea that Asian Americans are supposed to be the most successful minority group in the U.S. According to NPR, many cite that this stereotype is used to drive a wedge between different racial minority groups. “I think [the model minority myth] makes [Asian Americans] feel like their experiences aren’t valid enough,” Jury said. “If something happens to them I think they’re afraid of being seen as weak or as not being able to take care of themselves because for the longest time, Asian Americans have had to provide for themselves and work their way up to even be seen as people in America. I do think it’s that fear that holds them back from wanting to speak out because they’re afraid to.” Jury hopes that people will continue to take action against racism against Asian Americans, beyond merely the hashtag #StopAsianHate. “I’m glad to see that there are people out there that are genuinely wanting to spread awareness about this because it has been going on for way too long and it’s unfortunate that it’s just now being talked about,” Jury said. “It’s a small step that I think that has benefited a lot of people and will make people more aware if they see something on the street or maybe within their friend group or at school. Overall I think it’s a positive thing, but it’s just a small step.” She hopes that people will continue to support Asian Americans in other ways. “I think the best thing you could do is to really listen to people’s stories and experiences, to spread awareness, to stick up for people of color, and support local businesses. If you really love Asian culture, then you should really show your appreciation for Asian people as well,” Jury said.

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

A5 NEWS

#StopAsianHate U.S. sees a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across the nation

ABOVE: Family photos of the Robrigado family whom immigrated from the Philippines to the U.S.. PHOTO COURTESY OF THOMAZIN JURY

By Shoshie Hemley and Emily Martinez

elanie Tran-Duong ‘21’s father came to Iowa City decades ago after fleeing the Vietnam War. Though he was supposed to go to City High, he instead had to attend West High because it was the only school that had an English language learning program. Other members of Tran-Duong’s family, such as cousins, attended City High later. “They definitely faced a lot of microaggressions and just aggressions in general. My cousins got into fights all the time because of it. I think because of COVID and just talking about it with my cousins, I got a lot closer to them. I learned more about what they went through,” Tran-Duong said. In recent months, the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes and racism across the U.S has caused an uproar within the Asian community and its allies. The topic has gained much traction and has resulted in the #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate movements being shared across social media. “It’s really hard to talk about with friends that aren’t Asian, so they don’t understand where you’re coming from with your struggles with just trying to deal with it,” TranDuong said. One recent act of violence was a series of shootings which took place on March 16 in Atlanta, Georgia. The attacks targeted spas in the Atlanta area and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women. “It made me sad to think that it just started to become a trend to start supporting [Stop AAPI Hate] when it’s been such a long history of these crimes since the California gold rush and then the yellow fever,” Thomazin Jury ‘21, who is half Filipino, said. “When the mass shootings happened, my family and I were actually in Georgia at the time and we were planning to go to Atlanta the next day. But then we just decided to cancel that trip because we honestly didn’t feel safe to go. That was really a lot, and it just was scary.” The Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, a nonprofit social organization that tracks incidents involving discrimination, hate, and xenophobia towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S, stated in a recent report that an estimated 3,795 hate incidents were reported to their center between March 19, 2020, and February 28, 2021. “City High is a very diverse population and Asian Americans are probably on the much lower end of that,” Oliver Bostion ‘21, a half Korean student, said.

These hate incidents have involved verbal were all people of Japanese descent put into harassment, shunning, avoidance of Asian internment camps, but there was a nationAmericans, physical assault, and online ha- al rise in anti-Asian sentiment, regardless of rassment, along with a mass amount of hate country of origin. targeted specifically toward elderly Asian “I feel like it stems from people being women, according to the Stop AAPI Hate ignorant and not being able to accept other National Report. people for their differences, and not educat“My grandpa, he’s like 95 and he loves to ing themselves on what is actually occurring go on walks. But he goes on walks by him- and how it would actually affect other people self, and that’s really scary, so we told him besides themselves,” Tran-Duong said. not to do that anymore,” Tran-Duong said. In 1992, Los Angeles erupted in riots folThe COVID-19 pandemic has also re- lowing the acquittal of four police officers sulted in a surge of anti-Asian hate crimes. who beat a Black man named Rodney King. According to Pew Research Center, 31% The acquittal was the fuse for tension that of Asian Americans reported having experi- had already been building, as a Korean store enced incidents of racial slurs and racist jokes owner had shot and killed a black girl earsince the beginning of the pandemic. lier that year. The main targets of the riots “It’s been really shocking and just really were Korean Americans living in L.A. who disheartening, especially knowing that a lot had their homes and businesses looted and of members of my family are very elderly burned down. that are just living on their own out in a dif“[The violence is] scary to me, especialferent part of the other side of the country. ly since my grandparents both have pretty It’s scary to think that I can’t be there to help heavy accents. I think that definitely contribthem or console them,” Jury said. utes. I’m not an expert, but I would think Throughout the pandemic, former that they would be more likely to be victim President Donald Trump referred to the to something like that because they’re older COVID-19 pandemic as the “kung-flu” and they don’t speak perfect English,” Bosand “China virus” in relation to the virus tion said. “I would be worried for them in originating from Wuhan places where maybe people China. are less educated and they “I’m living the model “The whole issue with haven’t been exposed to as Coronavirus being called many people who [don’t] minority myth.” the ‘China virus’ is people look like them.” MELANIE TRAN-DUONG telling specifically Asian Jury hasn’t experienced CITY HIGH SENIOR Americans, and actually any violence due to her any minority, to ‘go back ethnicity, though she has to your own country and experienced certain microto ‘get out of here.’ It is such a flawed way of aggressions such as type casting in theatre, thinking, especially knowing that the U.S is the profession she wants to go into. made up of immigrants, so it’s a really un“Most of the roles I was given when I fortunate thing that people of color have to was younger were supposedly kids of color face,” Jury said. or only Asian characters. I’d be typecast as Many Asian American advocates feel that someone who’s really quiet, timid, and smart former President Trump’s words provoked an which is a common stereotype for Asian anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S and could women,” Jury said. “Even when I’d go to a be linked to the recent increase in violence program to get training from people, I would against Asian Americans. only be recommended songs that are sung by “That’s textbook ignorance when Trump Asian women. I was told in a class that, ‘Oh, was talking about the ‘China virus’, so any- well you’re Asian, you’d like this little prodone who looks like they come from China uct because they’ll think that you’re smart, so must certainly be carrying [the virus]. I think it’ll all work out,’ and nobody said anything that’s obviously horrible. There were a couple to me after that. People laughed and that was of times when I felt like people were maybe it.” looking at me funny,” Bostion said. While Jury has felt typecast into the However, COVID-19 isn’t the only mo- “model minority myth” in theatre, other tive for anti-Asian hate in the U.S. In 1882, Asian American students have felt “typecast” Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, into this role in their real lives. the only piece of legislation implemented in “I feel like I’ve definitely had different exthe U.S specifically banning all members of a periences, because it kind of ties in with the certain ethnicity or nationality from entering model minority myth where people expect the nation. During World War II, not only a lot out of me,” Tran-Duong said. “And so

I match those expectations, but then those expectations are put on other people. I’m living the model minority myth. I feel like a lot of children in my generation, they want to live up to that. I think that [parents] pressure their kids to try to live up to that when there shouldn’t be any pressure at all and everyone should be given the same.” While Tran-Duong feels that she excels in school, she believes that there is an added pressure from those around her due to their perception of her based on her ethnicity. “I definitely feel like if I didn’t do as well in school as I do now, my teachers would look at me completely differently,” TranDuong said. “I feel like they would be like, ‘Oh, why isn’t she excelling in school,’ because I feel like people have those stereotypes and they will always be there.” The model minority myth is the idea that Asian Americans are supposed to be the most successful minority group in the U.S. According to NPR, many cite that this stereotype is used to drive a wedge between different racial minority groups. “I think [the model minority myth] makes [Asian Americans] feel like their experiences aren’t valid enough,” Jury said. “If something happens to them I think they’re afraid of being seen as weak or as not being able to take care of themselves because for the longest time, Asian Americans have had to provide for themselves and work their way up to even be seen as people in America. I do think it’s that fear that holds them back from wanting to speak out because they’re afraid to.” Jury hopes that people will continue to take action against racism against Asian Americans, beyond merely the hashtag #StopAsianHate. “I’m glad to see that there are people out there that are genuinely wanting to spread awareness about this because it has been going on for way too long and it’s unfortunate that it’s just now being talked about,” Jury said. “It’s a small step that I think that has benefited a lot of people and will make people more aware if they see something on the street or maybe within their friend group or at school. Overall I think it’s a positive thing, but it’s just a small step.” She hopes that people will continue to support Asian Americans in other ways. “I think the best thing you could do is to really listen to people’s stories and experiences, to spread awareness, to stick up for people of color, and support local businesses. If you really love Asian culture, then you should really show your appreciation for Asian people as well,” Jury said.

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

6A NEWS

City High construction progress Construction is heading into phase five as classrooms once again shift to new locations

S ABOVE: Sign outside the Iowa City Community School District administration building on North Dodge Street. PHOTO BY CALLISTA ROBERTSON

ICCSD establishes a online learning program for next school year The Iowa City Community School District establishes new online learning academy, called ICCSD Online, for 2021-22 school year

By Callista Robertson

n March of 2020, students and teachers across the country were forced to move education online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Just over a year later, the Iowa City Community School District has announced its establishment of a permanent online learning program for the 2021-22 academic year. Registration began April 5, 2021 for ICCSD Online, the district’s new 100% virtual education program. Open to all Iowa students in grades PK-12, ICCSD Online will embrace students’ unique learning needs and provide a curriculum consistent with the Iowa Core Curriculum standards. The program will also incorporate honors and AP courses. An early enrollment period opened April 5 and closed April 12 in which parents interested in ICCSD Online were asked to reserve a place in the program for the 2021-22 school year. This period was intended to help district administrators better plan and prepare for the needs of next year’s online students. For parents who were unable to register their students in April, the district will offer a second enrollment period during June. Families will also be allowed to change enrollment at the end of the first trimester of the 2021-22 school year, due to uncertainties surrounding youth COVID-19 vaccinations. The ICCSD Online program will offer both full-time and part-time enrollment options for high school students within the Iowa City district. A part-time online enrollment could be scheduled in the morning or afternoon, with students attending in-person classes for the second half of the day. Students in other parts of Iowa are eligible to enroll in the program, however will not have the option of a part-time schedule. In an informational webinar on March 31, Gregg Shoultz, Director of Online Programs for the District, explained that though the online curriculum will look different in many ways from in-person instruction, its mission remains the same. “The curriculum is designed to cover

the same learning goals as all other ICCSD schools. We have the same pacing guide and the same line goals that you’ll find in the other schools. Classroom activities are of course different, we have to do things differently because we are going to be teaching all these students in their own homes,” Shoultz said in the webinar. The program will offer a learning environment with a higher degree of flexibility and independence for students, while maintaining the important aspects of more traditional in-person education. Mary Peterson, a guidance counselor

ABOVE: Alice Boerner ‘22 attends an school meeting over Zoom. PHOTO BY CALLISTA ROBERTSON

at City High, agrees that the district’s new online program will help students balance a successful learning experience with their more individualized needs. “We have students who struggle with mental health issues, like anxiety,” Peterson said. “Coming into a building with 1,600 students and just being around so many people can be a lot, and the online program allows [those students] to continue to get an education and not have to

put themselves in those anxiety provoking situations.” The transition to a virtual learning format at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year due to COVID-19 was unexpected, Peterson recalled. However, she has seen many positive outcomes of this past year’s adjusted school setting which she anticipates will continue into ICCSD’s more permanent virtual program. “Teachers have done a great job of really trying to make learning as interesting as possible for students,” Peterson said. “I’m hearing of teachers using things like TikTok and Kahoot in all these ways to try to engage students even though they’re off-campus, to make learning as fun and engaging as possible. Teachers have really stepped up and been very creative with that kind of thing.” The new ICCSD Online program will be designed and taught entirely by teachers and administrators within the district. “These courses are designed by Iowa City teachers and reflect the best practices for online learning,” Shoultz said in last month’s webinar. “They are collaborative in nature and they are indicative of the cultural sensitivity of our teachers. That’s what the ICCSD experience is, and we wanted to make sure that that was in capture.” As seen on the district’s PK-12 Online Learning Program homepage, the slogan for ICCSD Online is ‘Real Teachers. Real Classmates. Virtual Learning.’ Shoultz explained that many existing online programs exist in a completely asynchronous format, meaning that students may go through a class without ever interacting with a real teacher or fellow classmates, but that ICCSD wanted to take a more hands-on approach. “[A more asynchronous] experience may be appropriate for some students, but we thought that that is not our strength,” Shoultz said during the webinar. And our parents and students are expecting a little more. So they came up with the tagline, ‘Real teachers. Real classmates. Virtual learning.’ And I think that does pretty well summarize where we are with our online program going forward.”

By Kate Kueter

tudents can begin to see the new dome taking shape and scaffolding come down as the school year comes to an end. While there will still be some loud noises and construction workers in the halls of City High, construction for the remainder of the school year will focus on the new addition to the building, which is on track to be completed on August 2. “We are on budget and on time,” Assistant Principal Jesperson said. “Which is a great thing to say about a project of this magnitude.” On May 1, construction on the second floor will convert as demolition and removal of the boiler system begins. Classrooms will also be shifted once more. Most classrooms that were originally located on the second floor will move back to their initial rooms. Both the Little Theater and the guidance offices, currently located about the old gym, will not be open again until the end of the school year. Demolition of the boiler system will also begin in May, radiators in classrooms will be capped and removed. However, radiators, like those in the science classrooms, will not be removed as they are hidden behind pipes and shelving. The next section of classrooms that will move is the 1500 wing, the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and IJAG classrooms, which will relocate to the second floor as the boilers are shut off. The drama, art, and music storage area will also have slight renovations as the 1500 wing is moved. “My plan is to relocate those on the second floor in some of the rooms I get back,” Jespersen said. Phase five, the final phase of the construction project, will involve removing the remaining radiators, finishing the new addition, pouring the upper lot and the new backlot as well as the connecting roads, and renovating the old cafeteria and kitchen into new career tech and PLTW labs. “Phase five begins on June 7,” Jesperen explained. “Which is challenging with school not getting out until June 14, but when we set up the timeline it was built on school getting out in May.” Even with the scheduling conflict construction is organized to work around the students and staff as the school year wraps up. As students and staff leave for the summer 4th Avenue will close again so the parking lot and road can be repoured along with adding a new parking lot and road system on the back of the new addition. “We feel we will have more parking from when we started,” Jespersen said. The majority of class time disruption was due to fire alarms being activated due to construction. On Thursday, April 8, students evacuated classrooms due to fire alarms going off because of construction in the Little Theater. Sensors in the Little Theater were supposed to be turned off while it was painted. However, when dust got logged in the sensors it activated the alarm system. “I hope we don’t have any other issues, but I expected to have more throughout the year,” Jespersen said.

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House File 756 changes gun laws in Iowa Soon Iowans will not need a permit to purchase and carry handguns Content warning: this story contains mention of suicide.

By Rebecca Michaeli

eginning July 1, 2021, Iowans will not need a permit to purchase, conceal carry, or openly carry handguns. Governor Kim Reynolds signed House File 756 into law on April 2, 2021, removing the requirement to obtain a permit in order to purchase a handgun in the state. Federal background checks will still be required before each firearm purchase from a licensed seller. “I have used a gun before for hunting and target practice, and I do agree with [this decision]. I feel like it gives 18 year-olds more freedom. I’m not disappointed with the law, because it means when I turn 18, my guns can be passed down to me in my name,” Eli Rummelhart ‘22 said. According to current Iowa law, purchasing and carrying a shotgun or rifle does not require a permit, so the new law will only apply to handguns. Currently, in order to obtain a handgun in Iowa, one must receive a permit from the sheriff ’s office, then go through a federal background check. Under House File

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756, Iowans will no longer need to apply for a permit, but will still need to comply with federal law requiring background checks for any firearm purchases made from a Federal Firearms License holder. “I don’t really agree on the background check, but if they have to make one I would say just a basic criminal background check, no prior offenses with guns or anything like that,” Rummelhart said. While gun rights advocates are in favor of this change, claiming it supports Second Amendment rights and “constitutional carry”, others are fearful of the new law. “I am against people owning guns unless they are specifically made for hunting or are required for their jobs. I completely disagree with Kim Reynolds’ decision to remove the bill. Making people have a permit to own a gun forces them to let the police know that they own one, and to take that extra step to make sure people are buying the gun because they can safely own one, instead of just because they want to,” Helena Brown-Rodriguez ‘22 said. 80% of gun deaths in Iowa are due to suicide, which is unique to the state. Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement working to protect Americans from gun violence, have a statewide chapter among many local community groups throughout Iowa. “We experience less gun violence in the state of Iowa in comparison to our peers. However, our rate of suicide gun deaths is much higher than other states, so that’s one of the reasons we were so alarmed and disturbed by House File 756 and the governor’s signature,” Traci Kennedy, state chapter leader for Moms Demand Action said. “When you repeal those bedrock public safety laws that are helping keep gun violence death rates in Iowa down, we feel like we will see an increase in gun violence.” According to the Centers for Disease

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Control, in 2019, there were 294 deaths in Iowa due to firearm violence, however the state is among the lowest firearm mortality rate in the country. “States who have implemented laws similar [to House File 756] have seen an increase in gun homicides, gun suicides and firearm trafficking. It was a solution in search of a problem,” Kennedy said. “There were hundreds of people and several very influential groups, from school boards, to physicians, to mental health professionals, to faith leaders, that all opposed the bill. The only proponents of the bill were extreme gun [owners],

and the firearm industry.” House File 756 will take effect starting on July 1, 2021. The new law enacts oth er changes as well, one of them being that off-duty police officers and reserve officers will be allowed to carry weapons on school grounds, while only on-duty officers are currently allowed to do so. Further explanations and specifications of the law can be found on the Iowa Legsilature’s website. “This new law makes me feel a lot less safe in school because it’s becoming easier and easier to own a gun,” Brown-Rodriguez said.

Quarantine protocol changes in the ICCSD As the ICCSD relaxes quarantine policies, COVID-19 tracker Sara Willette explains pandemic patterns By Rebecca Michaeli

n April 13, the Iowa City Community School Board voted to approve a resolution to change the ICCSD’s quarantine protocol to follow the Iowa Department of Health Guidelines. The fundamental difference in this change of procedure allows students to cease self-quarantine sooner than 14 days on three conditions: if all individuals involved wore face masks at the time of exposure, if the student presents a negative COVID-19 test seven days after exposure, or if the student self-quarantines for 10 days. Over the course of the year the ICCSD has tracked student and teacher positives with the Iowa COVID-19 Tracker website. “Around March 20 there was a spike in the [COVID-19] positivity. I worried because we have the B117, which is the UK variant that spreads easy among kids and adults. I worried that either this increase is going to be from the school district or the college. I was like, ‘I’ve got to pay really close attention to the City, West and Liberty [COVID-19 positive cases]. I [learned that] it’s the school district. I’ve been watching the quarantines exponentially increase, along with the positive [tests], after that,” Sara Willette, COVID-19 tracker said. Willette and her lab of nine undergraduate students at Iowa State University (ISU) collect all school-related COVID-19 data from every school district that has a public dashboard or notification system. Willette has created the Iowa COVID-19 Tracker website, a dizzying array of extensive

COVID-19 statistics. She also uses Twitter ation (ISEA) reached out to her. The ISEA and Facebook to inform her social media fol- provides a financial base for Willette to emlowers of any COVID-19 related news. ploy undergraduate students to collect data. “I’ve assigned each person their own set “The ISEA reached out and said ‘Hey, of dashboards, everybody has their own sec- you’ve been tracking all of the state-level and tion. What I do late at night after everybody the county-level data. Would you be willing else has done their data collection for the to track all of the school-related data?’ That’s day, is I analyze that data. I publish the data everything from positives to quarantines, with dashboards, and give people notifica- isolations, deaths, and vaccinations. And I tions like ‘okay we have this many new pos- said ‘yeah absolutely,’ so we partnered toitives in kids in the last 24 hours that have gether,” Willette said. been reported by school districts’,” Willette Willette has advised superintendents explained. “For my school data, I exclusive- throughout the state, and utilizes social mely handle deaths. dia to alert locals I don’t let my colof any problems lege kids do that related to the vi“I’ve been watching the quarbecause that’s very rus. emotionally upset“The counties antines exponentially increase, ting and draining. that are having along with the positive [tests].” I do all that myincreasing positivself.” ity rates also corSARA WILLETTE Willette has a relate to the school COVID-19 TRACKER rare autoimmune districts that are deficiency, so has showing positives. had to be highly So, Iowa City educated on COVID-19 information and School District is having more positives than statistics since February of 2020. Willette left they had had before and definitely more her job, her husband began working from quarantines as a result,” Willette said. home, her son began doing school remotely, Through the ISEA and Willette’s partand the family went into 100% isolation. nership, a statewide map of COVID-19 “I originally was keeping track of just the outbreaks shows all outbreaks and quarregular, everyday data that the governor was antines in the ICCSD. On November 26, doing press conferences on. I was graphing 2021, there were almost 100,000 active that early data just for myself and my fami- COVID-19 infections. On April 28, there ly members so that we all didn’t feel like we were around 15,000. were going insane,” Willette said. “I do keep up with the current COVID After hearing about Wilette’s work in the cases in the district. I got quarantined for state news, the Iowa State Education Associ- one day for being in exposure, but then I got

sent back the next day because they said I wasn’t actually at risk,” Murray said. “I have been a bit nervous about COVID at school before, just because of the stress it would cause to be quarantined. I don’t really interact with too many people outside of school, l so I don’t feel like I’d be at risk of spreading [COVID-19], I just feel like the worry would be having to stay home and not be at school.” Atticus Murray ‘22 enjoys in-person learning, has never seen students in class without their masks on, and feels teachers do a good job of sanitizing surfaces in the classroom. Murray has been quarantined once due to an exposure at school. “I think the decision to relax the protocol for quarantine was not really necessary. I feel like [the district] could have kept the current one. But at the same time, the one they had wasn’t working. They would send people home, and then find more people, instead of just quarantining everyone at once and stopping the spread. It was like a chain reaction, where everyone kept going home,” Murray said. As of April 29, there are 103 students who have currently tested positive for COVID-19, and 109 students who are in quarantine. “I think vaccination is one of the most important things. If I could tell every teenager across the state, [get vaccinated] and encourage friends to get vaccinated. In the end we all have to work together and do what we can to make it easier on all of us. And if we’re all doing it, that’s a team effort,” Willette said.

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What this difficult year has taught us about reading Librarians and Language Arts teachers report higher student readership due to systems and circumstances put in place during the pandemic

ABOVE: Books ready to be delievered to classrooms by library staff. PHOTO BY HAILEIGH STEFFEN

By Haileigh Steffen

ity High librarians and language arts teachers agree that students may be reading more than previous years. The change could be due to a combination of new additions to the book library checkout platform Destiny Discover, changing the curriculum, and a lengthy global lockdown acting as a “gateway drug to reading.” The library is primarily operating using the digital library catalog Destiny Discover. Teacher Librarian Daphne Foreman delivers the requested selection of books to teachers and students. While using Destiny Discover to search for books has been an option for students prior this year, many opted to browse the library instead. Foreman compares the searchability in highschool libraries, organized by fiction and nonfiction, to that of a typical bookstore, organized by genres like mysteries and romance. Destiny Discover is organized like a bookstore, Foreman adds, which is why this year students have had highted searchability this academic year.

“It’s been a pretty radical transformation,” Foreman said. “Before COVID, kids seemed to prefer browsing in person. that meant just literally going up and down the aisles, grabbing books off, and maybe reading the cover or looking at the thickness of the book. Or looking at the pictures. that’s one good method but I think that it just doesn’t compare at all to choosing something based on interest. Reading books is a really transporting experience and it’s not about just the physical paper copy.” Foreman adds that the librarians have learned how to market books though Destiny Discover using visual collections organized through categories like Iowa High School Book Award, New Books in March LGBTQ, Must Read Graphic Novels, etc. After clicking on a book’s cover and locating the book’s summary, related books are to the right side of the website. Ali Borger-Germann, a teacher of English 10 Honors, Contemporary Literature, and AP Seminar, reports that while she has seen changes happening in her classroom in regards to reading, there’s no way for her to

verify them. She adds that the changes are “observational or experiential, as opposed to a fact.” “What I noticed is students are talking to me about books that they’ve read independently more frequently, particularly books that they read over the summer, or during the lockdown,” Borger-Germann said. “they had some kind of positive reading experiences, and they’re building on those during the school year. That’s wonderful.” Borger-Germann explains that due to the lengthy time spent under lockdown, many students experimented with a personal reading book for the first time in years. “I really think there was a level of boredom,” Borger-Germann said. “Even people who love video games or binge watching Netflix, you can’t do that for six months. You have to turn to something else eventually. And so many kids found a book that they liked.” Teacher Anna Basile has used knowledge of this year’s uncertainty to structure both her freshman and junior English classes with an independent reading structure meant to lessen stress, encourage

mindfulness, and improve reading stamina. “I wanted to make space for kids to become advocates for what they wanted, and something that they have complete control over in terms of what they read,” Basile said. “Because in terms of assessing reading, with so many unknowns, one skill that I knew we could practice would be reading stamina. It’s this idea that a lot of times, students who don’t independently read have very limited reading stamina, and they become distracted through the act of reading pretty quickly.” Basile recalls wanting to establish consistent, flexible routines. Basile notes that she feels responsible for setting her students up for academic success in the future. She wishes for her students to approach school as a lifelong reader instead of what she calls “compliant reader.” Basile explains that some of the learning systems are broken in a way that doesn’t allow for students to become lifelong readers, a sentiment Borger-Germann shares about related topics such as scheduling. “I am convinced that high school does not need to take

as much time as it used to. I’m really bummed that everyone keeps saying ‘I hope we go back to normal’, because normal was not sustainable, healthy, or even helpful,” Borger-Germann said. “With online school, I have kids coming to class every other day and having work to do on their off days. And the result is way higher productivity and way more reading. Students just have more time to read. I think that’s a big factor that we can’t overlook. Having these open spaces in your day make a big difference.” Back in the library, Foreman explains that she would like to see the school adopt what they’ve learned this year. “I’d like to think we’re thinking about how even if it’s kind of regular school next year, how we can translate this into success for the next time around,” Foreman said. “We’d really like to keep this excitement going about books. So hopefully we’ll find we’ve learned quite a bit about how to teach kids, how to market our kids, and how to make books really accessible even if it seems difficult to get them.”

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The class of 2021: COVID-19 and college How COVID-19 has affected college admissions and decisions for seniors

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By Shoshie Hemley

n 2021, UCLA received around 168,000 applications, 24% more than the year before according to their school newspaper, the Daily Bruin. They are not alone in this sudden increase of applicants, as schools across the country have seen record high numbers of applications. According to the Brown Daily Herald, Brown University received over 46,000 applications, a 26% increase from the previous year. “I was really surprised that almost every school had way more applicants than they'd ever had before. I thought during a pandemic more kids would take a gap year, but they didn't. I think that happened because of the test-optional,” City High guidance counselor Mary Peterson said. “A lot of the feedback we were getting from colleges was we got a lot more applicants, because it's test optional and we're looking at the students holistically. But that made the admission rates for colleges, a lot smaller than they already were. Especially those top colleges, if they had an 8% acceptance rate or something, this year it was four.” With the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting ACT and SAT testing, many schools have decided to go test-optional, meaning they aren’t requiring students to submit a standardized test score as a part of their application, at least for the graduating class of 2021. Experts believe that it is this widespread shift to a test-optional policy that has resulted in such a high volume of applications. “A lot of my students took advantage of it and didn't take the ACT or SAT. I still had more

students take it than I thought,” being accepted to the nation’s most cide where you want to go without Peterson said. “But also they had prestigious schools. being able to travel and go to tours maybe taken it earlier in their ju“Because there were so many on the campuses. Even if you can nior year. What was nice was if more applicants, there were a lot travel there, a lot of colleges arthey didn't do as well on the test as more places that I got waitlist- en't offering official tours,” Ballard they thought, they didn't have to ed, which is confusing because I said. “I went to a couple colleges, submit their score. It took some of don't know if I have a real chance just around the Midwest, for a nice the pressure off.” of getting in or if there's a bunch little road trip. We just drove past The country’s top public univer- of people on the waitlist,” Maggie them and you can get a feel of what sities and Ivy League schools aren’t Ballard ‘21 said. “It's weird because the campus looked like, but you the only ones a lot more can't really get that real-life tour seeing the inpeople ap- aspect of it.” crease. Cor- "This year was a little difficult, plied, so that Another decision facing high nell College makes me school seniors due to COVID-19 because a lot of [the school in Iowa saw a think maybe is the decision whether or not they 6% increase year] was put on pause... All the I have a bet- want to attend college close to in applica- colleges understand that we're ter chance of home or somewhere farther away tions accordgetting off from it. ing to Inside in a pandemic, so that's okay." the waitlist “I go back and forth on it beHigher Ed. in a normal cause sometimes I think I don't MARY PETERSON CITY HIGH GUIDANCE COUNSELOR “It was a year, because want to have to take a four hour surprise, and maybe peo- plane ride to get home, but then kind of disple applied sometimes I think that I do want couraging, for those students that and they got in, but really they to get really far away,” Ballard said. were really looking forward to ap- didn't want to go there. But then “In the past year, there's been times plying and going to certain schools. also it goes the other way because where I just want to get out of Iowa, It made it even more difficult to get there's so many more applicants I just want something different. I in,” Peterson said. “Often, it might that maybe want change not have been what they were the waitlist is from being "The process is stressful hoping for. But then maybe an a lot bigger at home all because with applications, the time, offer came from a school that they than it norhadn't expected. So from what I've mally is.” also with it's hard to decide where you but heard for most students, they got COVID, [I into someplace that they wanted. C o l l e g e want to go without being able don’t want It might not have been their first c a m p u s e s to travel and go to tours on the to be] quarchoice, but that can happen [in] a across the U.S a n t i n e d campuses.” normal year as well.” have been c o n s t a n t l y. While this increase in appli- closed to When I was MAGGIE BALLARD CITY HIGH SENIOR cations is benefiting colleges, it tours and the applying, I means that top schools are seeing public since was thinking a significant decline in acceptance last spring, even the schools that for sure I wanted to go somewhere rates. According to Inside High- have been allowing current stu- far away because I just needed a er Ed, Colby College’s acceptance dents to attend in-person classes on change from Iowa or the Midwest, rate went from 10% in 2020 to 8% campus. Students like Ballard have but now that it's getting closer I'm in 2021. Williams College’s accep- been unable to tour the schools changing my mind a little bit.” tance rate went from 12% to 8% they were thinking about applying Students applying to college as well. This means that students in to or were accepted at. this year have also had to face apthis year’s graduating class have had “The process is stressful because plications with a resume interrupta significantly more difficult time with applications, it's hard to de- ed by the pandemic.

“This year was a little difficult, because a lot of [the school year] was put on pause. What we focused mostly on was writing letters of recommendation and having students submit applications focusing on what [they’ve] done prior to the pandemic. All the colleges understand that we're in a pandemic, so that's okay,” Peterson said. However, not all seniors have been faced with these same effects of COVID-19 on the college admissions process this year. Peterson has found that many of her students have been choosing to defer college for a year or take a gap year due to the pandemic, more so than in previous years. “I feel that more [students] are considering it, or maybe applying and then deferring for the following year so that they're accepted but they don't have to go to school next year,” Peterson said. While the test-optional policy has resulted in higher competition for college admissions, Peterson hopes schools continue with the policy in the future in order to have a more equitable college admissions process. “I'm hoping that it opens up the application process to colleges for the future as well. Just because sometimes, a one day test result isn't always accurate. I think looking at the whole high school experience can be a more accurate depiction as to whether a student will be successful in college,” Peterson said. “There are a lot of schools already talking about keeping it test optional, so we'll see how that goes. I'm still advising students to take the ACT or SAT, if they feel comfortable to do so, because you don't have to submit that score if you don't want to.”

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@IAVaccineAlerts: helping Iowans get their shots As COVID-19 vaccines in Iowa become widely available, community members have commited to help others find appointments By Rebecca Michaeli

uring times of crisis, some individuals emerge as leaders of their communities. Brian Finley is an application developer at the University of Iowa. What took Finley from a web developer to what some are calling a “hero” was the creation of a Twitter account that continues to help thousands of Iowans as the pandemic persists. “When [people] get their vaccine appointment, they’re able to take a deep breath that they’ve been holding in since the pandemic started. It’s a little bit of positivity in what has been a pretty dreary year and a half almost,” Finley said. Finley and some of his family members became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on March 8, when the state began to expand eligibility requirements, but was having a difficult time finding an open appointment. This is what inspired him to create a platform which would aid Iowans experiencing similar situations. The social media account went public on March 10, and by that night had gained 800 followers. The subsequent weekend, the follower count had climbed to over 10,000.

Finley’s account frequently posts updated posted, a new one will automatically post lists of locations in Iowa where there is vac- with updated appointment information. cine appointment availability. “Appointments in the bigger cities in Iowa “HyVee’s website only lets you search go real quick. A lot of the rural areas stay [for an appointment] in a 10 mile radius, there for a long time. I’ve seen some of those so I dug into the code on their website and openings for days, which is kind of frustratfound a way to expand that search to include ing. I think in some of those areas there is the whole state. I some vaccine heskept it running in itancy, whether the background, that’s political mes“When [people] get their vaccine refreshing every or distrust appointment, they’re able to take saging few minutes, and in the system for when I found some reason. But a deep breath that they’ve been a new appointin urban areas, apholding in since the pandemic ment I had it play pointments snatch sound so I could quickly,” Finley started. It’s a little bit of positivity up jump on,” Finley said. in what has been a pretty dreary explained. “After On April 6, all I got my folks’ Iowans aged 16 and year and a half almost.” appointments, over became eligiI tried to find a ble for the vaccine, BRIAN FINLEY WEB DEVELOPER way to get it onto regardless of pre-exTwitter to help isting conditions or other people, and profession. Then then it took off.” on April 19, President Joe Biden announced The codes that Finley has written and that every American aged 16 and over is adopted search the CVS, Hyvee, Walgreens, qualified to receive the vaccine. and Walmart websites for open availability “It makes me excited for some communievery three to four minutes. If any informa- ties that will be inching a bit closer towards tion changes from the last tweet that was ‘normal’. The more people who get the vac-

cine, the closer we can get to herd immunity,” Finley said. Finley has also set up Twitter accounts to help those in Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, in addition to the Iowa account that currently has over 29 thousand followers. Finley urges all Iowans who make a vaccine appointment to keep it. Oftentimes, people find appointments closer to them than the initial appointment they scheduled. If this does happen, Finley encourages keeping the original location, even if it means driving further to receive the shot. “For example, every time a HyVee appointment gets cancelled, a pharmacist has to go to a manually curated list and try to call someone to see if they can come in earlier. At one point they were getting 40 cancellations a day and pharmacists have to take time out of their day to try to fill them,” Finley said. “It’s putting stress on [pharmacists], and I really don’t want to make their lives harder, when they’re trying to save ours.” Replies to the informational tweets are filled with Iowans thanking Finley and declaring that they will be “happily unfollowing” the account. Finley has been recognized by local politicians in addition to the community for the work he has done and the

STATISTICS FROM IOWA COVID-19 TRACKER AS OF APRIL 29, 2021

103 109 5% 3.9% 30.2%

students postive with COVID-19 in the ICCSD

students quarantined in the ICCSD

14-day test positivity rate in Johnson County

14-day test positvity rate statewide

of Iowans are fully vaccinated

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ART BY ROSE FLORES RUBIO

system for some reason. But in urban areas, appointments snatch up quickly,” Finley said. On April 6, all Iowans aged 16 and over became eligible for the vaccine, regardless of pre-existing conditions or profession. Then on April 19, President Joe Biden announced that every American aged 16 and over is qualified to receive the vaccine. “It makes me excited for some communities that will be inching a bit closer towards ‘normal’. The more people who get the vaccine, the closer we can get to herd immunity,” Finley said. Finley has also set up Twitter accounts to help those in Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, in addition to the Iowa account that currently has over 29 thousand followers. Finley urges all Iowans who make a vaccine appointment to keep it. Oftentimes, people find appointments closer to them than the initial appointment they scheduled. If this does happen, Finley encourages keeping the original location, even if it means driving further to receive the shot. “For example, every time a HyVee appointment gets cancelled, a pharmacist has to go to a manually curated list and try to call someone to see if they can come in earlier. At one point they were getting 40 cancellations a day and pharmacists have to take time out of their day to try to fill them,” Finley said. “It’s putting stress on [pharmacists], and I really don’t want to make their lives harder, when they’re trying to save ours.” Replies to the informational tweets are filled with Iowans thanking Finley and declaring that they will be “happily unfollowing” the account. Finley has been recognized by local politicians in addition to the community for the work he has done and the lives he has impacted. “It’s cool to see that people are noticing and recognizing what’s going on, but part of me doesn’t feel like it’s that huge of a deal, what I’m doing,” Finley said. “My wife is a nurse at the [University of Iowa] Children’s Hospital, and the stuff that they have gone through for the past year and a half now is so much harder and has been so much more impactful than me with a little Twitter account. In my head, it doesn’t compare to what they’ve done.” Not only has the creation of one Twitter account impacted tens of thousands of lives, but a lasting community has been built. “The [story] that stuck closest to me was when a woman pointed out my page to her seven year old daughter, as an example of the Mr. Rogers, ‘when things get scary look for the helpers’, sort of holding me up as one of the helpers,” Finley shared. This story became the inspiration for Raygun’s new “Be a Helper” shirt, as a way of showing thanks for Finley’s work. All profits made from the shirts go to the United Way of Central Iowa, United Way of East Central Iowa, and the

Iowa Public Health Association. “In a perfect world I would be able to just stop the account, but I don’t think I’ll ever delete it, in case in the future there’s a need for booster shots or anything. It’s not a huge amount of effort on my part to keep it running, so I definitely want to keep this going as long as there’s a need. It would seem kind of selfish to pull it down,” Finley said. In addition to the Iowa Vaccine Alerts Twitter account locating available vaccines, multiple Iowans have come forward to manually help others to find appointments. “One woman and her friend have gotten upwards of 600 or 700 people vaccine appointments, with the average age of those people being over 55. It helps calm any worries about taking vaccines from older populations,” Finley said. Two Iowa City high-schoolers have also stepped up to act as “helpers” for those around them. Misha Canin ‘22 from West High and Lydia Karr ‘22 from City High have worked to find as many appointmentsfor others as they can. “I was helping out people in my neighborhood. I have some people living near me that are older and at high risk that were looking for a vaccine, and I started out by offering to help them. After finding Iowa Vaccine Alerts, it became pretty easy to get appointments quickly with notifications on,” Canin said. Once Canin began helping find vaccinations for others, the people she helped would share her contact information with more people, and eventually a web of communication was built. It became overwhelming to individually communicate with so many people, so Canin created a Google Form where those looking for appointment assistance can easily fill out. “I usually check the form every morning, and I will make a list of the cities that I need vaccines from. I have that hanging on my desk when I’m doing online school in case a notification comes in. I also have them listed in priority. I usually do first-come first-serve, but if someone tells me they have a pre-existing condition or they’re over 65, then I’ll usually prioritize that,” Canin explained. “Late at night, I’ve noticed a lot of them come in. The other day, I just took a nap for three hours and then stayed up until almost a.m., and was able to get six or seven appointments overnight.” Lydia Karr ‘22 also uses the Iowa Vaccine Alerts account to schedule vaccination appointments. Karr is a childcare provider, and after using the Twitter notifications to find her vaccine appointment, she began booking appointments for others, and has since helped over 55 people get their shots. “I’m just happy that I can help people because I know that this is something that a lot of people are working on, and I have the time and like the ability to do it. I’m just glad we can get shots in people’s arms because honestly, that’s the quickest way we’re going to get back to normal,” Karr said. “A lot of people try to send me things, but I’m just trying to help. I don’t need anything for it. For me, it’s so much easier

than it is for people who struggle with technology, so I just feel like I’m able to do it and I have the time, so I might as well try.” Finley, Canin, and Karr all describe experiencing a gratifying emotion after knowing that they have helped someone in this time of need. “My neighbor had cancer recently, and I was able to get her an appointment super close by. That was really exciting because that’s helping someone who’s at higher risk. There are a lot of older people living in my neighborhood, so that’s been super rewarding. I just imagine that people might have grandkids or other family that are probably super relieved,” Canin said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Data Tracker, over 40% of United States citizens have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination, while over 20% of the country is considered fully vaccinated. “It’s been very hard to feel hopeful in the United States this past year. But what’s happening right now, seeing that every day millions of people [are getting vaccinated], it’s just hope that we can have some sense of normalcy back,” Karr said.

As of April 19, 2021, President Joe Biden declared that every American aged 16 and older is eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccination. If you or anyone you know is looking to book an appointment, Finley shared some tips. “If you’re able to turn on push alerts for the account, that’s great. I would recommend probably only doing it when you’re near a computer, otherwise it could get to be a little much. If you’re a night owl there’s usually some refreshing going on between midnight and 3 a.m. Otherwise, if you’re having trouble, my DMs are open and I can help you get connected with somebody that can help,” Finley said.

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

lives he has impacted. “It’s cool to see that people are noticing and recognizing what’s going on, but part of me doesn’t feel like it’s that huge of a deal, what I’m doing,” Finley said. “My wife is a nurse at the [University of Iowa] Children’s Hospital, and the stuff that they have gone through for the past year and a half now is so much harder and has been so much more impactful than me with a little Twitter account. In my head, it doesn’t compare to what they’ve done.” Not only has the creation of one Twitter account impacted tens of thousands of lives, but a lasting community has been built. “The [story] that stuck closest to me was when a woman pointed out my page to her seven year old daughter, as an example of the Mr. Rogers, ‘when things get scary look for the helpers’, sort of holding me up as one of the helpers,” Finley shared. This story became the inspiration for Raygun’s new “Be a Helper” shirt, as a way of showing thanks for Finley’s work. All profits made from the shirts go to the United Way of Central Iowa, United Way of East Central Iowa, and the Iowa Public Health Association. “In a perfect world I would be able to just stop the account, but I don’t think I’ll ever delete it, in case in the future there’s a need for booster shots or anything. It’s not a huge amount of effort on my part to keep it running, so I definitely want to keep this going as long as there’s a need. It would seem kind of selfish to pull it down,” Finley said. In addition to the Iowa Vaccine Alerts Twitter account locating available vaccines, multiple Iowans have come forward to manually help others to find appointments. “One woman and her friend have gotten upwards of 600 or 700 people vaccine appointments, with the average age of those people being over 55. It helps calm any worries about taking vaccines from older populations,” Finley said. Two Iowa City high-schoolers have also stepped up to act as “helpers” for those around them. Misha Canin ‘22 from West High and Lydia Karr ‘22 from City High have worked to find as many appointmentsfor others as they can. “I was helping out people in my neighborhood. I have some people living near me that are older and at high risk that were looking for a vaccine, and I started out by offering

to help them. After finding Iowa Vaccine Alerts, it became pretty easy to get appointments quickly with notifications on,” Canin said. Once Canin began helping find vaccinations for others, the people she helped would share her contact information with more people, and eventually a web of communication was built. It became overwhelming to individually communicate with so many people, so Canin created a Google Form where those looking for appointment assistance can easily fill out. “I usually check the form every morning, and I will make a list of the cities that I need vaccines from. I have that hanging on my desk when I’m doing online school in case a notification comes in. I also have them listed in priority. I usually do first-come first-serve, but if someone tells me they have a pre-existing condition or they’re over 65, then I’ll usually prioritize that,” Canin explained. “Late at night, I’ve noticed a lot of them come in. The other day, I just took a nap for three hours and then stayed up until almost a.m., and was able to get six or seven appointments overnight.” Lydia Karr ‘22 also uses the Iowa Vaccine Alerts account to schedule vaccination appointments. Karr is a childcare provider, and after using the Twitter notifications to find her vaccine appointment, she began booking appointments for others, and has since helped over 55 people get their shots. “I’m just happy that I can help people because I know that this is something that a lot of people are working on, and I have the time and like the ability to do it. I’m just glad we can get shots in people’s arms because honestly, that’s the quickest way we’re going to get back to normal,” Karr said. “A lot of people try to send me things, but I’m just trying to help. I don’t need anything for it. For me, it’s so much easier than it is for people who struggle with technology, so I just feel like I’m able to do it and I have the time, so I might as well try.” Finley, Canin, and Karr all describe experiencing a gratifying emotion after knowing that they have helped someone in this time of need. “My neighbor had cancer recently, and I was able to get her an appointment super close by. That was really exciting because that’s helping someone who’s at higher risk. There are a lot of older people living in my neighborhood, so that’s

A11 NEWS

been super rewarding. I just imagine that people might have grandkids or other family that are probably super relieved,” Canin said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Data Tracker, over 40% of United States

citizens have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination, while over 20% of the country is considered fully vaccinated. “It’s been very hard to feel hopeful in the United States this past year. But what’s happening right now, seeing that every day millions of people [are getting vaccinated], it’s just hope that we can have some sense of normalcy back,” Karr said. As of April 19, 2021, President Joe Biden declared that every American aged 16 and older is eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccination. If you or anyone you know is looking to book an appointment, Finley shared some tips. “If you’re able to turn on push alerts for the account, that’s great. I would recommend probably only doing it when you’re near a computer, otherwise it could get to be a little much. If you’re a night owl there’s usually some refreshing going on between midnight and 3 a.m. Otherwise, if you’re having trouble, my DMs are open and I can help you get connected with somebody that can help,” Finley said.

A12 OPINION

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

The gun violence epidemic cannot continue With already over 150 mass shootings already recorded in 2021, the Little Hawk editors demand for the violence to end

ART BY HAILEIGH STEFFEN

eading the news of the 10 lost lives in another mass shooting is an infuriating experience. It’s frustrating and deeply saddening that in only seven days, there were another seven mass shootings. Pleas to end the gun violence epidemic in this country come everywhere from the families of victims to President Biden. However, we see no real change. After 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook, 20 of them being children, President Obama couldn’t get tight gun legislation passed. Now almost nine years later it feels as though nothing has changed. Since then there have been over 2,500 mass shootings (Gun Violence Archive). The situation is starting to feel helpless. This can’t keep happening. Change has been promised and change is needed. A mass shooting is defined by the Congressional Research Service as a “multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms — not including the offender(s) — within

one event.” Oftentimes, voices against gun control cry out irrelevant or misleading claims such as how they take up only a small percentage of the total firearm homicides in the U.S., or that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The Violence Project makes a good claim against the small percentage argument, “The fact that mass shootings account for fewer than 1% of all firearm homicides does not diminish their extraordinary tragedy . . . mass shootings cause damage far beyond that which is measured in lives lost. It merely highlights that mass shootings are focusing events.” The “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” argument is completely ridiculous. The truth is that guns actually do kill people. Modern firearms are far deadlier than other weapons and they kill with a disgusting efficiency. These weapons are allowing mass shootings like Las Vegas to occur. 58 people were killed, those people would have never died if the shoot-

er didn’t have access to weapons of that grade. The gunman of the Colorado supermarket shooting in March was able to pass background checks and legally purchase a gun the same day of committing the crime (although he didn’t use the gun purchased in the massacre). These are problems that can be solved by gun control. Tighter restrictions and background checks will prevent the purchase of these weapons, and help to stop someone from walking into a gun store and walking out with a semi automatic weapon capable of committing a mass shooting. In 2017, the US had the 28th highest rate of deaths from gun violence, with 4.43 deaths per 100,000 people. This is magnitudes higher than what is seen in other wealthy and developed countries. Coming from one of the richest countries in the world it’s completely unacceptable. The U.S. also has more guns than people. It’s hard to not see the correlation here. 2021 has seen the resurgence of Mass shootings in the U.S. Action

“Reading the news of the 10 lost lives in another mass shooting is an infuriating experience. It’s frustrating and deeply saddening that in only seven days, there were another seven mass shootings.”

needs to be taken to control this violence. We’re witnessing a start within Biden’s infrastructure package, which allocates five billion for community violence prevention programs. However, it’s just not enough. Rational and efficient gun laws need to be put in place. Legislation that prevents easy access to dangerous weapons, by banning high capacity magazines, bump stocks, restrictions on multiple purchases, and creates other preventive measures like more extensive and universal background checks and qualifications. Along with fomenting gun safety in communities and in families. Making sure the youth does not have access to weapons. State-sponsored investing in smarter and safer guns, gun violence research, and health systems, where mental health treatment and violence prevention are also extremely important. This can help confirm and create solutions to the gun violence epidemic that is taking place in the U.S.

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THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

The left has an antisemitism problem Antisemitism is prevalent in far left spaces and young liberals let this kind of hate go unchecked

ART BY JESSE HAUSKNECHT-BROWN By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown

ntisemitism is on the rise in the United States. According to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), 37% of American Jews say that they have expirenced antisemitism in the past five years and 82% say that it has increased in the past five years. In 2017, Neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Confederate statue while chanting “Jews will not replace us.” Donald Trump went on to say that these white supremacists were “very fine people.” Trump’s hateful rhetoric towards Jewish people has fueled the recent fire, but this is not solely a rightwing problem. It is an everyone

problem. Antisemitism is a problem across all political parties. I align myself with the ideologies of the left but am often left wondering if they would fully support me. On the far left, commentary about politics and economics often boils down to class consciousness but skips over some key social issues. Young leftists, usually white ones, are able to hide behind their remarks of “socialism will solve it all” and “don’t worry about that, it’s just a fault of capitalism” without actually critically thinking about the causes and effects of so many social issues. The other part of this is the conflict in the Middle East. The Jewish people as a whole are not

responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. This is something that so, so, so many people seem to not understand. One of the most rampant and unchecked forms of antisemitism online is the idea that it is ok to tell any Jewish person to “free Palestine.” This is a comment that I see frequently on different social media platforms. A Jewish creator will post content about anything (it could be art, cooking, dancing, modeling, whatever) and the comment section will be filled with comments about freeing Palestinians. These comments aim to make it seem like the creator has something to do with the decisions of the Israeli government. This is blatantly anti-semitic because it links all Jewish

people to the actions of the Israeli government. Many, many Jews, including myself, do not support the Israeli government and to insinuate that there is a connection between the two is disgusting. What’s more is that these comments often come from pro-Palestine leftists; dialogue in leftist spaces about the Israel/Palestine conflict often becomes anti-semitic. One thing that I find interesting about this is that Bernie Sanders, the over-idolized leader of the left wing of the democratic party, is Jewish. I admire him for not weaponizing his Jewish identity as a political playing card, but I wish he could do more to stamp out the antisemitism on the left. However, Sanders has the same faults as

his base: everything boils down to class. He focuses so much on economic freedom and not enough on social issues, even the ones that affect this community. This isn’t to say that he has never worked on social issues or never helped the Jewish community, but he could certainly do better. Young leftists on social media with unchecked egos and an ability to fearlessly say whatever they want are dangerous. The idea that one has become socially conscious enough to hold a moral high ground is dangerous. Most importantly, according to AJC, more young Jewish people report being harassed for their religion than older Jewish people; antisemitism is still dangerous.

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THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

The light at the end of the COVID-tunnel Rediscovering just a bit of optimism at the end of a pandemic

By Emme Perencevich

he Little Hawk has been covering the pandemic for over a year. I’ve been personally reporting on it since last May. We have explored the various curricular and extracurricular cancellations, It has been a devastating time for the state, the country, and the world. In Iowa, over 363 thousand have contracted the disease and close to six thousand lost their lives. In the United States, there have been over 32 million cases and 572 thousand deaths. Honestly, it’s been difficult to stay optimistic. I’ve witnessed my dad and other healthcare workers pour their blood, sweat, and tears into their jobs until they burn out. I’ve witnessed friends and strangers deal with the grief of losing loved ones. I witnessed the world close down all around me. School, work, everything. So may people lost their jobs or had to work from home. Even still, people ignored public health recommendations. That was when it became almost impossible not to get angry. Those of us who’s jobs weren’t deemed essential watched from our homes as the death toll increased by the thousands each day. We called our friends before they left for work behind plexiglass partitions. My friends and I would Facetime and complain about how we hadn’t seen each other in months, while people were partying downtown. Cases went up, deaths went up, and there wasn’t much more we could do. It felt hopeless. That was a dark time but even

ART BY HAILEIGH STEFFEN then the world wasn’t completely devoid of hope. Six months ago I interviewed doctors and nurses about their outlook on the pandemic. With cautiously optimistic sentiments, they pointed toward the light at the end of the tunnel. They were confident in the vaccines

being produced and distributed. Now, they are even more hopeful, and so am I. People bound for college, and those already there, are looking forward to being in-person on campus in the fall. Each day businesses are reopening safely. Teachers, family,

and friends are all getting the vaccines, some are already fully vaccinated, and the rollout of the vaccine is still going strong. With the number of people fully vaccinated at around one million in Iowa and 95 million in the country, I can finally see the light at the end of the

tunnel. Before graduation though, I have one last request: with 50% of new cases in those of us under 30 years old, it’s our turn to step up and get vaccinated. Let’s protect each other.

Sports funding is necessary. But so are the arts. By Haileigh Steffen

ast winter, the Little Hawk published a series of photos of athletes playing sports. Despite depicting the team’s victories, the comments section had a more unsupportive tone. The issue was, commenters explained, that many athletes had been photographed playing with their masks worn incorrectly. While City High was the only school to initiate a mask mandate on athletes in (^insert where^),

critics of the team’s season argued that sports are unnecessarily risky during what they considered to be inappropriate. The comments section contained another common complaint among students involved in arts programs. More generally, performing arts students witnessed their performances canceled, their programs put on hold. Comparatively, athlete’s seasons were mostly unscathled. Some might interpret the gap as obvious favoritism. For instance, it can be common

in parts of the country for high school football coaches to earn over $100,000 a year, well over twice more, of those of an arts equivalent working the same amount of hours. It’s an unnecessary gesture that makes a funding and support gap seem outstandingly likely. While it’s not a big jump to say the United States education system favors sports, there are valid reasons why athletes need to continue their season. Sports, unlike many of the arts, relies heavily on the physical condition of the participant. Af-

ter all, it’s a lot harder for a basketball player to run up the court when nearly middle age than as a teenager. What if instead a painter were painting a landscape? Well, the middle age painter might have become a master of their field after having acquired years of practice. That said, athletes are typically in more need to prove themselves at a young age. However, that’s not an excuse to cut the arts first during a deficit. We need them both. Think about it. There’s a reason

half of TedTalks cries out that we must nourish and protect our creativity into adulthood. The school system is notorious for spitting up paper copies of compliant, like-minded students. The arts, so it seems, are notorious for the opposite. Plus, as this year and last have proven, the future is unpredictable. The future needs minds who operate just a bit differently.

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A16 CULTURE

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Sexual Assult Awareness Month raises awareness towards the issue of sexual assault and harassment while advocating for educating the youth on prevention and safety

By Emily Martinez

pril 2021 marks the 21st anniversary of Sexual Assult Awareness Month (SAAM): a month dedicated to raising awareness for victims of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse, while also educating communities about the issue of sexual assault (SA) and how to prevent sexual violence from happening. “Raising awareness is important because sexual assault happens a lot more than some might think. Some don’t recognize their own traumas of sexual assault until they learn about it, and some may even be assaulting someone by doing something they think is harmless,” Nadia Castañeda ‘23 said. According to a nationwide survey by Stop Street Harassment over sexual harassment and assault, they found that 81% of women and 43% of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment and assault in their lifetime with verbal sexual harassment being the most common (77% of women and 34% of men). “It doesn’t matter what gender you identify as, after hearing a statistic like that it should be clear why sexual assault is an issue that deserves attention. It has been so normalized in our society that little girls don’t think twice if they are catcalled and women don’t feel safe to report sexual violence against them. If we can begin to root out these dangerous behaviors through education, it could save millions and billions of women and men from dangerous, scary, and sometimes fatal experiences,” Victoria Weckmann ‘21 said. According to a report by Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, only 15.8% to 35% of all sexual assaults are reported to the police. As a result of low reporting rates, only 9% of all rapists get prosecuted, with only 5% of all cases receiving a felony conviction, and only 3% of such rapists receiving a day in prison. The remaining 97% walk free. “I did not truly understand what sexual harassment was until high school, and by that point, I had already experienced it,” Weckmann said. “The little discussion I heard surrounding sexual assault before high school, was not nearly enough to truly prepare me for what to expect or how to deal with those dangerous situations. Reports of sexual violence in elementary and high schools increased up to 50% from 9,600 in 2015-2016 to 15,000 during the 2017-2018 school year according to recent data from the Education Department. With this data, the Education Department has emphasized the issue of schools needing to be prepared to handle reports of SA and how to properly handle them. “I believe the most important thing for City High to do is to establish an environment in which students and faculty feel safe to report cases of sexual harassment. Victims should be able to speak anonymously or not, as well as receive easy access to legal, therapeutic, and administrative resources,” Weckmann said. “People need to know that they are doing the right thing by reporting an incident and that they have nothing to fear in terms of lack of support or backlash from others.” The City High NESST room is an area in the building which provides students with access to mental health/social-emotional support services and be able to work with

staff to build skills and strategies. “We want all students to feel safe at City High. If you need support and don’t know who to turn to, find a trusted adult in the building and talk to them,” Amy Collen, City High NESST room advisor/teacher said. “I think it is important for students to know where to go when they need support. Education on sexual assault is so important to support victims, but just as important to prevent sexual assault from happening in the first place.” According to RAINN, the National Sexual Assault Hotline, people between the ages of 12-34 are at the most risk of being raped or sexually assaulted. “There definitely needs to be a better amount of education, specifically curriculums aimed at young students. If not only techniques on how to handle being sexually harassed were taught, but also the unacceptability toward harassment,” Weckmann said. “It would go a huge way in stopping kids from getting on the wrong path while they are young. Not only that, but survivor stories need to be told. Not only does it allow people to humanize the issue of sexual assault, but survivor stories make assault itself much more taboo.” Addressing the issue of sexual assault and harassment through education can be essential to students in being able to recognize the contributing factors of sexual assault and harassment early on and how to potentially prevent it. “Many can easily feed into the normalization of sexual assault if their peers are doing so too. Sadly I’ve seen this happen a lot. Teenagers influence each other, [so being able to] differentiate between what’s okay and what’s not can make a huge difference. I think it should be talked about more often, and taken a lot more seriously. We need to feel we have a safe space to open up about these things, and I think every one of each grade level should be well educated on what sexual assault looks like [in terms of what’s okay and what’s not],” Castañeda said. Teaching students the importance of consent, boundaries and promoting positive relationships in sex education classes can also begin to create a safer culture of preventing sexual assault and harassment among teens as well according to RAINN. “These issues are addressed, but not very often, and not in much depth. Every student should be able to feel they can talk about their experiences without a huge fear of disbelief and invalidation,” Castañeda said. “Every student should be taught more of the idea of consent and sexual assault prevention, as not everyone fully understands that what they do and see as normal or harmless might not be okay.” SAAM works with victims of assault who do not receive support and helps in situations where incidents go unreported. “It is so important to support and believe anyone that opens up about sexual assault. Disbelief and invalidation scare so many victims into not opening up. More often than not the victim’s story is true, and disregarding someone’s traumatic experiences can be very hard on them. They may feel invalidated like they were overthinking, or like what happened to them was okay if they are silenced by disbelievers. It is important for them to know that what happened to them

was not okay, and not normal,” Castañeda said. “Support plays a big factor in helping them realize this and feel safer in talking about their experience. It takes so much and can be very hard to open up about sexual assault, these victims need all the safety and support they can get.” Social and cultural norms have also been contributing factors to encouraging violence with attitudes, beliefs, and behavior being associated with gender(s) according to a SA report by the World Health Organization. This includes norms surrounding sexism with things such as dress code and slut-shaming- both of which devalue women for the purpose and favor of men and ultimately pushing the narrative that women are deserving of SA because of the way they dress and/or act. “I have been told on numerous occasions that the clothes I wear are ‘asking for it’ or ‘look like something a prostitute would wear.’ I have been mooned by boys trying to get my attention. I have been forced to change seats in class because of continuing and unwanted comments from male peers. And I have had people emotionally manipulate and repeatedly coerce me into sending nude photos. It took me a very long time to realize that the way people treat me has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with them,” Weckmann

said. SAAM can begin to create more discussion over the effects, contributing factors, and social and cultural issues within society while giving survivors a chance for more visibility and transparency from their experiences. “Sexual Assault Awareness Month is definitely a safe space for many. As more people [begin to] open up, others are less afraid to do the same. It’s important for them to be able to validate their experiences if they think otherwise, and people sharing their own stories can help victims feel like they are not alone and can connect to people’s experiences,” Castañeda said. Many students and others alike hope to create a more open and safe environment for survivors of SA while continuing to push for change in education surrounding sexual assault and harassment. “The biggest thing I hope to see come out of Sexual Assault Awareness Month is awareness plain and simple. I think that sexual assault and harassment is a topic commonly avoided by society because it brings illumination to some of the biggest and ugliest problems we have,” Weckmann said. “It is not pretty or fun to talk about, but it is necessary to talk about if we ever want to see change.”

ART BY HAILEIGH STEFFEN

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

A17 A&E

ABOVE: The Arts Festival Showcase is planned to take place in Bates Field May 25th. PHOTO BY MINA TAKAHASHI

New fine arts secretary plans end of year arts festival Mary Ann Davenport, hired last January as the fine arts secretary, plans what she hopes will become a new annual community tradition

By Haileigh Steffen

n lieu of the fine arts department’s traditional performances and showcases which have been mostly cancelled this year due to safety concerns, newly hired Fine Arts Secretary Marianne Davenport has organized an arts festival showcase for the end of the 2020-2021 academic year. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, May 25 at 5 p.m. on Bates Field. The showcase, as Davenport puts it, will behave similarly to Iowa City’s Summer Arts Festival, complete with food, at least one stage setup, and tents for art students to display and sell their

work. Making an appearance at the showcase will be City High’s two show choirs, show choir combo, orchestra, pep band, jazz band, and drum line, as well as cast and crew from this year’s musical production of “Matilda”. Davenport describes this year’s arts festival showcase as both a “ramp-up” and “trial run” for what will hopefully become an annual community event. Unfortunately, due to scheduling inconveniences, the event has no backup dates this year and would be canceled if rain occurred. As a former sub and a show choir parent of eight years, Marianne Davenport feels like this event is a step in the right direction towards more community-wide

appreciation of the arts. “I hope [this showcase] turns into an event where it’s not just for the arts kids,” Davenport said. “I hope it brings a bunch of people in. Not everybody can come to a concert. You go to a concert if you have a kid. However, especially this year, you can’t. I hope it’s a community showcase for City High.” Davenport stresses that the primary purpose of the event is to showcase the arts department, not to fundraise. She adds that the art department is incredibly creative with their fundraising as it is. However, due to the uncertainty and novelty of this academic year, many fundraising campaigns have been canceled.

“For example, marching band, their revenue generator is parking lot cleanup from the University [of Iowa] football games. That didn’t happen this year because there were no football games.” Davenport said. “The show choir generates their funds through a lot of donations. But that spring and winter show that they do generate a lot of their funds for them also. The jazz bands kids don’t really have anything except the jazz showcase. They generate their funds from that. Orchestra does a dessert concert. Additionally, parents’ donations constitute a large portion of funds.” In the future, Davenport hopes that the arts festival showcase in-

corporates new attractions in coming years. For example, Davenport mentions a booth for faculty artwork to help showcase the work of the entire school. Davenport adds that this arts festival showcase works well as a kickoff for Iowa City’s Summer of the Arts. “We live in a town where our arts festivals are incredible. I’ve lived in Denver and I’m telling you, this Summer of the Arts is phenomenal,” Davenport said. “I mean, between the Jazz Festival, the Friday night concert series, the movies... they have so many festivals. And so I think [our event] fits right into that. We’re reading what’s going on in the community.”

Book Club resumes at City High for the first time in over a year Through the collective efforts of students, Book Club has been brought back to City High and is a new opportunity for students to explore interests in literature By Anastacia Laux

he City High school library has begun ordering multiple copies of some of its books. These books are quickly being checked out as students around the school begin reading them, eager to discuss their thoughts at one of City’s newest additions, Book Club. After its absence for over a year, Book Club has resumed. The club started up again in February, bringing together its past members with new students joining for the first time. Daphne Foreman, a librarian at City High, was not previously planning on restarting the club this year. She was concerned students wouldn’t have the interest due to the changes made by Covid-19. “I really toyed with the idea of whether it was a good idea or not to have Book Club this year,” Foreman said. “I decided not to do it because I assumed that kids were tired of Zoom. [The librarians and I] knew that there were attendance issues; kids were struggling to attend, and we were afraid that

students were overwhelmed by online classes. So, I decided, ‘Okay, this year is just not a year for Book Club.’” That all changed when a group of students eagerly approached Foreman with the idea of bringing back the club. They sent her an email, claiming that they had recruited students to join. “I was super excited because the girls who approached me said they probably had twenty people who were interested in Book Club. So, that just immediately took off,” Foreman said. Within no time at all, word spread about the club amongst friends. Mr. Bacon helped to further distribute the news over the school’s announcement speakers. When it came time for the group to begin meeting, the club found the accessibility of Zoom eased the previously challenging scheduling process. “[In the past], we were competing for time for people to meet through advisory and for other classes and meetings with teachers and so on. Honestly, it kind of fiz-

zled,” Foreman said. To communicate with all of the club’s members, Book Club created its own group chat on a messaging app called GroupMe. Lydia Karr, one of the students managing the group, posts polls for everyone to recommend books. Once a book has been chosen by vote, it is discussed and read over the course of a month before the club moves on to their next book. In only six weeks since the club began again, members have already finished “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” a murder mystery revolving around the infamous murder of a schoolgirl. “[The book] was pretty good,” Wendy Buchanan ‘23 said. “It was a little predictable; it’s not as good as other YA mysteries that I’ve read, but it was good and [I thought] it was worth reading.” Buchanan recently joined Book Club after hearing about it from a friend. She decided to participate in it with the hope of being exposed to new books she would not have otherwise considered. “I enjoy being able to get out

ABOVE: Book Club members pose for a photo at a club meeting. PHOTO BY ANASTACIA LAUX

of my comfort zone, and usually, I don’t [do that]. But now, because other people want to read certain books, I am able to get out of my comfort zone and read books that are actually good,” Buchanan said. Foreman also acknowledged the variety of book types members were being exposed to. “[The students] really do plan to use this as a way to expand their repertoire of reading and discussion into other kinds of areas,” Foreman said. “So, that’ll be challenging in some ways and really supportive because they’re still going to have conversations with each other, understanding that they have different tastes in readings.” During meetings, members share their thoughts about the current book. These discussions allow

the opportunity for critical opinions and create an environment where students can express their viewpoints. “I like just meeting about the books and being able to listen to people talk about how they feel,” Buchanan said. “It’s not always in a positive light. In schools, it’s often in a positive light: you’re talking about what’s good about the book and what you liked. But now, our discussions are usually quite negative, which can be fun.” The club is now starting on its second book, “Cinderella is Dead.” “I think Book Club is a great way to meet new people and to read genres that you’ve never read before and try new things,” Amy Anil ‘23 said.

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

A18 A&E

One of a kind This year’s musical, “Matilda,” looked incredibly different compared to previous shows

ABOVE: Francesca Brown '21 is joined by her castmates at a dress rehearsal. PHOTO BY ANNA GAYLEY

By Sophia Wagner

he lights of the auditorium fade to darkness. Backstage, hushed whispers rise to the rafters. Actors peek around the curtain, attempting to locate their friends and family seated around Opstad. This year, however, the limited audience capacity for City High’s spring musical made these familiar faces easier to find. This adjustment was made in an effort to minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread. City High teacher Jennifer Brinkmeyer, the head director of “Matilda,” explained how the pandemic factored into this year’s show. The cast, script, and set were

all cut down in order to create an abridged version of the original musical in an attempt to construct a safer environment. Members of the cast and crew found themselves adjusting to this new adaptation. Lily VanderLinden ’21, the stage manager for “Matilda,” explained the unique experience faced by those involved in the production. “Being stage manager of this production was a one-of-a-kind experience,” VanderLinden said. “The cast and crew overcame many challenges to make this happen. For example, all vocal rehearsals were via Zoom.” Ana Leyser ‘22 was cast as a “Little Kid” in the show, and pointed out that rehearsals could be incredibly challenging when

conducted in an online format. Shaking her head, Leyser thought back to logging into rehearsal after classes ended for the day. “It was very bad,” Leyser said. “First of all, there were a lot of technological barriers. The Zoom would cut out and I would miss part of the songs. I also couldn’t listen to the other vocal parts during rehearsals, so it was fairly difficult to learn the songs.” VanderLinden was aware of the challenge that virtual practices presented, and expressed concern in regards to the situation. “I was quite saddened by this because I really wanted to make this an enjoyable experience for everyone, but this was a non-negotiable aspect of producing a musical

during a pandemic,” VanderLinden said. “It showed how dedicated my cast was to doing their best and to making the musical sound fantastic but I couldn't resolve it. Additionally, it denied them the opportunity to connect in person. This connection is one of the best parts of theatre.” After weeks of rehearsing vocal parts over Zoom, students met in a City High band room to record the songs. During the live show, these recordings would be playing in the background as the cast performed the choreography onstage. “Recording was very stressful,” Leyser said. “Whatever we recorded was going to be what we used for every single show, so we were pressured to do really well.”

Despite the incredibly different circumstances under which “Matilda” fell, students were still enthused to take part in a City High Drama Production. Eviann Smith ‘24 auditioned for the first time this year, and she felt that although the production could be stressful at times, it proved to be entirely worthwhile. “It's been a really great experience,” Smith said. “I'm really glad I went out for the musical and tried something new. [“Matilda” has] definitely been hectic these past few weeks. I've been really nervous with all the quarantines around school, but we have been trying to be as safe as possible. We really wanted this opportunity to perform. It's a great group of people and it’s been really fun.”

ABOVE: The students that played a role in this year's spring musical. PHOTOS BY HAILEIGH STEFFEN

A19 A&E

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

ABOVE: Jazz Musicians use the Real Book to allow them to play jazz standards on the spot, at a gig or a jam session. PHOTO BY JULIUS PEREZ

Music review: Jazz is not boring By Julius Perez

ftentimes, young people describe jazz as boring and redundant. It’s thought of as a thing of the past, only found in the records tucked away in dusty cardboard boxes in the back of an antique store. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Jazz is one of the most exciting musical artforms you’ll ever listen to. One Hard Bop classic is called “Moanin,” a song by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. It’s almost impossible not to be excited when you hear this song. Morgan takes the first solo of the tune, he grabs the attention of the listener. Morgan’s use of the upper register

paired with his catchy rhythmic ideas creates the farthest thing away from boring I can think of. Started by the delicate, yet forceful touch of Bobby Timmons, the piano plays the iconic melody. This is shortly answered by the rest of the band, the sharp sounds of the horns invading your ears with color. Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, and Timmons in unison, lead us to the chorus. The surprise of the first strong chord of the chorus always makes me giddy. I constantly find myself stomping my feet with rhythm and smiling at the bluesy vocabulary. Hard Bop witnessed the “birth of the cool,” literally, with Miles Davis’ 1957 album, The Birth of the Cool. Recorded in ‘49 and ‘50,

this record helped to produce the bebop variant dubbed Hard Bop. While I find Hard Bop exciting, it is easily understandable how this style could be seen as less thrilling, as many of the records it created displayed a seemingly tranquil and laid back style of jazz. However, it’s far less arguable that bebop is unexciting. Take, for example, “Ko Ko,” a tune filled with the lightning fast playing of Charlie Parker, the epitome of the Bebop era. The drummer’s swinging high-hat is hard to ignore, as it teams up with Parker’s ingenious playing to induce an effect that will make you lean in with awe then pop back into your seat nodding with the ever present patterns of the drums. How is that

boring? Listening to the technical skills and recognizing the knowledge of music these musicians possess is mind blowing. When you get the privilege to hear jazz, I suggest that you take an active listening approach. Fill your head with the notes and rhythms; picture the artist playing, how much precision it would take. You’ll hear harmony you’ve never heard, illustrating the greatest tension and release you could ask for. Musicians like the pianist and composer, Thelonious Monk, are much more than musicians. They influence and produce ideas that are more than simply art. Take, for instance, Monk’s famous song, “Round Midnight.” Monk possesses such a vast knowledge

of music theory, he likes to break it in every possible way to create a unique sound. This results in innovative and nuanced jazz. I urge you to find more exciting jazz. Listen to the best big bands of the 20th century - Duke Ellington is a great place to start. If you want a little more modern jazz I recommend Kamasi Washington. Washington has put his touch of jazz onto hip hop projects like “To Pimp a Butterfly,” by Kendrick Lamar. However, I find his own songs, such as “Street Fighter Mas,” to be enthralling as well. I sincerely hope you can find some jazz music that intrigues you.

In-person music rehearsals open up to online students Fully online students are now given the option to come to the school building for group music rehearsals

By Greta Stanier

his year, students chose between online and in-person programs for school. In the City High music department, this split up the band, orchestra, and choir, making it unable for them to rehearse and perform as one group. Recently, however, students in the online program have been given the opportunity to participate in in-person rehearsals during school. “[In-person rehearsals] were something that we discussed with Mr. Bacon. We asked if that would be possible to offer the opportunity for students to attend,” Tyler Hagy, one of City High’s choir directors, said. “Of course, not requiring them to come, but just allowing them to if they felt safe and had the time and interest to come along so that we could prepare for the upcoming concerts that we all have.” Students were initially given the option to come to in-person rehearsals at the end of March to prepare for concerts coming in May. In addition to preparing for performances, these in-person rehearsals have

allowed teachers to rehearse with a larger, more complete group. “Having a bigger ensemble is always helpful,” Hagy said. “Thinking back to the hybrid time that we had for most of the beginning of the school year, my one choir class had four students at any given time. And to go from that to a choir of 30-ish people feels a lot different.” While having online and in-person students together has made rehearsing easier, the band, orchestra, and choir have spent the year adjusting to Zoom rehearsals. “It’s certainly been a struggle for me in terms of adapting to the rehearsal and adapting to the kids that are there in front of me in both senses,” Hagy said. “You know, how can I best serve the kids that are on the screen, and keep them involved and make them feel connected to the group, while also having the other kids that are in the room?” Alice Boerner ‘22 recently took up the opportunity to come to her in-person choir rehearsals after a year of doing school online. “Trying to work as an ensemble online is so hard,” Boerner said. “I would be on

Zoom and we would be trying to practice the songs, but it’d be so hard for me to focus and feel like I was part of the group. I really wanted to come in person, because it feels so much more like a community when I’m there.” When Boerner first came to in-person choir rehearsals, she experienced some adjustments compared to her previous Zoom rehearsals. “To be honest I came to the rehearsals not really knowing the music as well as I should, just because it’s so hard to learn it on Zoom,” Boerner said. “I felt like I was a little behind everyone else, but with in-person it’s so much easier to commit and get the music in your hands and be with everyone else, and it just makes it so much easier to learn.” Overall, Boerner has enjoyed coming to school and participating in choir. “I like that I’m able to go and see some people at school because otherwise, I’m fully online,” Boerner said. “That’s the only time I have really stepped foot in the school. It’s been kind of fun to go back to school a little bit and see some teachers, get out of my

house, and be a part of the musical ensemble.” The band, orchestra, and choir each have their own upcoming concerts. Additionally, the music department is planning an ‘arts fest’ event. This outdoor event will allow ensembles to safely play together and showcase their work to a larger audience. It will also include groups like show choir and jazz band. “We’re trying to offer everybody kind of a culminating experience in a sense. Our show choirs, their season ended in March and they weren’t really able to have any kind of audience,” Hagy said. “It will be good to give them that opportunity where it’s an outdoor setting to share the work that they did over the course of this year.” Despite the challenges that the music department has encountered over the year, Hagy is happy with the overall progress that has been made. “For me, the work is worth it, because we did the work. You know that’s important just to build a skill, and learn the pieces and learn about different things that relate to that,” Hagy said.

A20 A&E

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2020

Book recommendations for highschoolers City High English teacher Haley Johannesen talks about why she loves the books that she recommends for highschool students

Synopsis:

“[Esperanza] experiences things in the world that I think high schoolers grapple with themselves, and are not always sure how they’re supposed to feel and she assures students and high schoolers. It’s okay not to know how to feel all the time. And it’s okay to just have feelings. I think the story would still have an impact but I think if you are experiencing some of the things that she experiences, as you are growing up, it might have a heavier impact when you are a high schooler rather than a sophomore in college. Some of the moments you might be able to say, ‘Oh my gosh, that just happened to me.’” HALEY JOHANNESEN

speranza, a twelveyear-old Chicana (Mexican-American girl), and her parents move from their old apartment to a run down small house on Mango Street in the center of the crowded Latino community of Chicago. Esperanza does not have any privacy in her new community and is determined to leave Mango Street and get a house of her own. The book follows a year in the life of Esperanza as she matures emotionally and sexually. She develops a crush, makes friends, deals with a changing body, endures sexual assault, and finds writing as a outlet for expressing herself and escaping her neighborhood. Along with Esperanza, “The House on Mango Street” also follows the stories of people in the neighborhood. Esperanza works with her friends to work through her sexual trauma and her friends’ parental abuse.

CITY HIGH ENGLISH TEACHER

ABOVE: Haley Johannesen holds the book “The House on Mango Street.” PHOTO BY KATE KUETER

Synopsis:

“I think it’s interesting to have a perspective of how much the adults in your life care for you. Sometimes I think that we, and I say we because high schoolers and adults take for granted how much our parents and our guardians above us, care about us. [The book has] poetic writing or more lyrical than other books that might be considered required reading for high schoolers. And I think that when students see what writing can do and how writing can be sort of bending those genres or be sort of a poetic experience, they realized that reading can be enjoyable and easy.” HALEY JOHANNESEN

etween the World and Me is written in a long letter format from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his fifteen-yearold son, Samori. It is not a normal narrative story, but rather Coates’ thoughts and opinions on the world and how they changed. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a Black man who is writing to his Black teenage son, kind of explaining to him his understanding of the world so far. It is equal parts sort of encouragement and sort of telling his son, that everything is available to him, but to understand his history as a Black man.

CITY HIGH ENGLISH TEACHER

ABOVE: Haley Johannesen holds the book “Between the World and Me.” PHOTO BY KATE KUETER

SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

Athlete Spotlight:

Kate Kueter

story on B4-5

B2 SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

On the upswing

Despite an unprecedented year, City High girls golf has more participants than in the past few years

ABOVE: Anna Knoche ‘21 gears up for a swing. PHOTO BY MAX BERRY-STOELZLE

By Max Berry-Stoelzle

s schools and states slowly start to lift COVID-19 restrictions, many spring sports have ended up behind due to their season being cancelled last year. For some of these sports it has meant lower participation rates, but not girls golf. “The numbers are actually up slightly this year,” head coach Mike Bevelaqua said. “With 16 girls on the team, it is actually the largest team I have gotten to coach in my

time as the head coach.” One effect that COVID-19 has had on the golf team was that the cancellation of the last season left the team with less experience than they would normally have. “Because of our inexperience we have had to start slower than past seasons,” Bevelaqua said. “However, the players are committed to playing better and are working hard to do so.” In the three meets City High has continued to improve getting 10th, 2nd and 3rd

in the three meets they have already participated in. “This season has been going better than I thought,” Sierra Josephson ‘21 said. “With skipping a year of practice, my teammates have been doing really well, and our scores continue to improve.” This season City High is joining a new annual golf meet. “On April 26 at Finkbine Golf Course, we are having our first annual varsity meet with Iowa City West, Regina, and Liberty

high schools,” Bevelaqua said. “We are calling this the “Clash for the Club”, and the meet location will rotate between the schools courses each year.” Josephson believes that this will be fun for the team to have a yearly recurring meet. “I think that the new Clash for the Club meet will be really interesting and a fun way to meet new people,” Josephson said. “I think it will be a great new addition to the list of traditions that City High already participates in.”

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Dear Readers, Well, hello to those of you that are still hanging in there. We’re getting close to the end of the year, sort of. This whole pushing back the school year by two weeks has really messed up the schedule. Anyway, let us not worry about that now. Instead, let’s focus on what has been happening in sports this season. Remember last March when the pandemic hit and shut everything down? Well, it’s kinda hard to forget isn’t it? That shutdown included spring sports, so they were not able to have a season. This has left many teams with less experience this year than they have had in years past. Additionally, many teams have found themselves with fewer members, except the girls golf team. They actually have more members than in years past, which makes sense when you think about. From all the sports to participate in during a global pandemic, golf has got to be one of the safest ones. So, as always with this issue, we are bringing you the updates on all the sports teams along with some additional news. City High will once again have a new lifting coach. This time it is Mitch Moore, who some of you may already know is the new head football coach. Another interesting opportunity coming up next year is the beginning of City High girls wrestling! This will be combined with the West High’s girl wrestling team, and will be a winter sport. However this is not a completely new idea. Two years ago, Sophia Strathern joined the West High girls wrestling team. Make sure to check out her story titled “A Little Hawk in Green” on thelittlehawk.com. Now, of course we also have our athlete spotlight. This is one that Julianne has planned on writing for almost all of her three years in journalism, and has finally done so. This issue’s athlete spotlight is Kate Kueter. She plays lacrosse on a club team in Des Moines, which comes with no shortage of difficulties. We definitely recommend you take a look at this story! Finally, we would like to thank you diligent readers (those of you who are still reading this letter from the editors are surely the most diligent of our readers). As generally happens with seniors, we will both be leaving at the end of the year, leaving our roles as sports editors for the next brave souls: Alice Boerner and Max Berry-Stoelzle. We wish you all the best! Julianne Berry-Stoelzle and Jae Dancer

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

B3 SPORTS

City High hires new lifting coach Mitch Moore takes on new job opportunity as co-coach for City High’s lifting program

By Jae Dancer ABOVE: Vivian Tomek ‘23 serves the ball in a game earlier this season. PHOTO BY ANNA GAYLEY

Getting back in the swing of things

Starting tennis this year has come with some additional difficulties due to the global pandemic and lack of last year’s season By Julianne Berry-Stoelzle

fter not being able to have a tennis season last year because of the pandemic, many players on the City High boys tennis team have had to start at the basics. “The team is very inexperienced, but they’re learning really fast,” Chip Hardesty, the head boys tennis coach, said. “[Missing last season] I think just sort of broke the rhythm of interest.” Therefore this year Hardesty is focusing on building up those basic skills for the boys who need it. The number of boys on the teams is around 22, close to half of what it was last year. “I’m using this season as a big opportunity for everybody to learn and get experience. I’m working hard to make sure that that happens,” Hardesty said. Instead of using the ICCSD vans to travel to meets, the team

now uses school buses for social distancing. This has the added benefit of allowing more athletes to travel to meets. “They will all have a chance to play at some varsity match at least once, maybe more than once,” Hardesty said. “We’ve gone to Dubuque already, that was our first meet. I think I took 11 or 12 people, and everybody got to play something.” One of the biggest differences between this year and past years is that City High’s tennis teams no longer have their own facilities to use for practices. Therefore the teams go to Mercer to practice. “You have to worry about trasportation and especially for freshmen and sophomores, I think it puts a burden on parents to drive them if they can’t get rides,” Hardesty said. However, according to Hardesty, transportation has not become

a major problem this season and he is very happy with the motivation he has seen on the team. “Even though it’s a short season a lot of people are beginners when we start after spring break and by the end, if they keep coming to practice, they get much better,” Hardesty said. “I take pride in that because you’re teaching a bunch of people how to play tennis for the first time and it’s not as easy as it looks on television.” Anita Venzke ‘21, one of the captains of the City High girls tennis team, has also noticed the players on the girls team getting better since the start of the season. “This season’s going good. I think we can definitely see improvement in all the players, and we’re starting to win more and more,” Venzke said. This year the girls tennis team has also had less players than in years past. However, there are

more underclassmen than in the past, so the team is no longer senior dominated. “This season, we definitely had a struggle to have enough players, and [needed] to pull up some of the younger girls that we hadn’t necessarily gotten to watch play,” Venzke said. “We have younger people who will continue to be able to play in the next year so I think the team will be really strong in the next few years.” Despite everything, Venzke is glad that she was able to have her senior season of tennis before heading off to college. “It’s really exciting, especially since we missed last year. It feels really good to get back into the season and get to see people and play with people again and just kind of have that friendship and bond of going on road trips together to further away games,” Venzke said.

Girls wrestling to come next year

By Rachel Marsh

tarting next year, City High will have a girls wrestling team. This new development from the City High athletic department was announced in early March by Athletic Director Philip Hansen and Principal John Bacon. “We put out an interest form to see how many City High Little Hawks would be interested in women’s wrestling next year,” Hansen said. “Right now, 10 people have stated they are interested, [through] the form that was sent to all students.” For a 4A school, 10 people interested in a sport is not enough to justify a whole program for it, so the administration will be

combining the City girls wrestling program with the West High girls wrestling program to form one team. The girls season will be at the same time as the boys season, making it a winter sport. “Right now, women’s wrestling is not sanctioned by the IGHSAU. Other schools have teams but most are clubs or connected to the boys team,” Hansen said. Though they are working on a team, there is still uncertainty surrounding the exact details of matches and competitions, as this is a newer sport. “The goal is to get enough girls interested in wrestling to have our own City High Women’s wrestling team. Get involved and try something new!” Hansen said.

ABOVE: Sophia Strathearn ’21 posing in the City High wrestling room with her West High girls wrestling uniform. PHOTO BY ALISON KENASTON

he City High lifting program has been consistently growing and improving for many years, from getting new equipment to technological improvements. Now, Mitch Moore will be taking on the responsibility of overseeing the City High’s lifting program, in addition to his responsibilities as City High’s new varsity football coach. “It’s fun to see an athlete understand the value that a weight room provides for their body both physically and mentally,” Moore said. Moore graduated from the Master’s program at Wisconsin Whitewater in Kinesiology and has an extensive history in sports performance. He has coached athletes of all levels, including high school, youth, and professional athletes in the private sector. He has also been the head strength coach at both the high school and collegiate level. “It’s good to see the growth and incredible gains an athlete gets when they put in training,” Moore said. Moore feels that strength and lifting is an important aspect of athlete performance overall. “It is absolutely essential to the development and durability of any athlete in any sport,” Moore said. However, Moore also feels that the level in which athletes perform has several different factors that go along with strength training. “Athletes and most people in general probably don’t understand that strength training is just a small portion of how you make yourself stronger,’’ Moore said. “Nutrition, rest, sleep, and hydration are equally as important.” Moore agrees that overall athletes can gain many important lessons and mindsets from participating in strength and training programs. “Athletes can gain mental toughness, body awareness, confidence, and value of consistency,” Moore said.

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

B4 SPORTS

Athlete Spotlight:

Kate Kueter

From driving two hours to get to practice, to being a junior high athlete on a high school lacrosse team, to having to train by herself the majority of the time, Kate Kueter ‘21 has overcome a lot of obstacles to continue playing her favorite sport

TOP LEFT: Kate Kueter ‘21 catches the lacrosse ball in the air, avoiding a player from Ankeny Thunder Lacrosse Club. TOP RIGHT: Kate Kueter ‘21 poses with fellow teammate Mackenzie Hermanson ‘21 on their senior night. BOTTOM LEFT: The referee flips a coin to decide on which side of the field each team will be starting as the captains and coaches watch. BOTTOM RIGHT: Kate Kueter ‘21 run across the field during a lacrosse game aginst Ankeny Thunder Lacrosse. PHOTOS BY JULIANNE BERRY-STOELZLE

By Julianne Berry-Stoelzle

n athlete’s dedication to their sport is constantly tested, but for Kate Kueter ‘21 these tests of dedication were more difficult than for most athletes. Kueter began playing lacrosse around the age of nine, when she joined Annandale Youth Lacrosse, a club team in northern Virginia. She recounts that her initial reason for playing lacrosse was to avoid playing soccer. “The choice as a kid was you played soccer or you played lacrosse,” Kueter said. “And I really didn’t want to play soccer. I was highly against it as a child, so I chose lacrosse.” Despite her initial reasoning, Kueter quickly found aspects of the sport that she enjoyed. “There were a lot of things I really liked about it. I liked that I had a bunch of what

I thought of as fancy equipment, like I had fall ball season [and then I] came back for the goggles, I had the stick, and I could have the spring season. It was a great experience pretty colors on my stick,” Kueter said. “[Ad- with them, and I’ve been playing with them ditionally,] when you put the goggles and the ever since.” mouth guard on and you’re running towards While she was glad to be able to play lathe ball, you feel so awecrosse once again, playing some, like battling attack “I went to one practice, for the West Des Moines Lamode.” Club came with some then it was two prac- crosse When her family moved difficulties. tices. [It] turned into to Iowa in 6th grade, Kueter “When I first started had to try to find a new la- a fall ball season [and playing with the Tigers, I crosse team. The closest one, really nervous before then I] came back for got the West Des Moines Lagames, partly because I was the spring season.” a junior high student, and crosse Club, was a two hour drive away. I was playing against these KATE KUETER CITY HIGH SENIOR “We went over to West high schoolers,” Kueter said. Des Moines to just try it out “I thought that was a little and see if it was something we were interest- insane but I also thought that I could totaled in being a part of and we connected with ly beat them. Our skill level matched even them,” Kueter said. “I went to one practice, though our ages were completely different, then it was two practices. [It] turned into a [but] they were physically bigger than me.”

Being a junior high student, who is a starter on a club team consisting of high schoolers, was not made any easier by the fact that she lived in Iowa City. “I was a little afraid of disappointing my teammates. That was the huge thing for me when I first started playing with this team, because I was a younger kid, I was a smaller kid, and I was a kid who lived two hours away and barely came to practice,” Kueter said. “Reminding myself that I knew what I was doing and [that] I was bringing something that would benefit the game when I stepped onto that field really helped me.” Due to the long drive to practice, Kueter normally goes to practice once a week in the fall and then twice a week during the official season in the spring. “I’ll go to practice two times a week, and I’ll match whatever they do practice wise with wall ball, so I’m still practicing. I’m just

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not practicing with them,” Kueter said. as a teammate,” Hermanson said.“She has When training by herself, Kueter bounces the commitment. She has the drive and she’s a lacrosse ball off of a solid wall, also known grown so much as a teammate and as a playas wall ball. She often does this at the North er.” Dodge gym, followed by cardio and footBoth Hermanson and Wilson are familiar work ladder drills. with Kueter’s situation and value what she “[Kate] puts in a tremendous amount of brings to the team. work outside of practice,” Meghan Gruver, “It’s hard sometimes not having her at the West Des Moines Lapractice because she’s such crosse Club head coach for a major part of our defense, “[Kate] is the most but when she’s here, she’s on high school girls, said. “If she did not put that work in, loud and most wonder- her game and she’s ready to then she would not be where ful person you’ll ever go into determined focus. she is as a lacrosse player She works with what she right now. The fact that she’s meet. She’s just a born has,” Wilson said. willing to do that says a lot.” leader and you can see Due to the extensive Since Kueter is not able drive, Kueter’s parents drive it on the field.” to make it to many practices, her to practice as well as laMACKENZIE she makes the ones that she crosse games on weekends. goes to count. This puts a lot of responsiHERMANSON WAUKEE HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR “When she comes to bility on her dad especially, practice she works hard, she since he does most of the plays hard. She plays every practice like a driving. game [which is] huge,” Gruver said. “[My dad] is the one who has to drive unKueter described how in the beginning til 10 o’clock at night on a busy interstate. she was motivated by worry that her team- He is the one that has to do work from the mates would think that she was slacking be- car sometimes,” Kueter said. “I know that cause she was not at practice. Now, Kueter he has given up a lot and that he has had no longer feels this way, as she has had the to work around me playing lacrosse and so chance to get to know her teammates. when I get home I also give him a big hug “The relationship is a lot better now be- because I am so thankful that he has done cause they know I put in the work and so this for me.” they respect when I’m there. I think that they Kueter’s dad has also found additional now understand the work it takes to actu- ways to become involved besides driving. ally get me there. I think they appreciate it Kueter recounts him announcing at home more,” Kueter said. “Right now it’s kind of a games and taking stats notes. running joke in my team because I have this “[I am] very happy and very grateful for one teammate, who’s our goalie. She calls me him and all that he has done,” Kueter said. a slacker because I don’t go to practice that “Because he’s not just on the side lines, playoften, and at the beginning of my journey of ing on his phone, waiting for me to be done lacrosse that probably would have hurt my and then chauffeuring me home. He is not feelings, but now I laugh.” just a chauffeur. He is being a part of it. He Throughout this journey, Kueter has purposely goes and he helps out. He has been learned to know what she is capable of and not only a supervising parent but he has been not let what others think get in her way. an involved parent. I’m very grateful to have “They didn’t understand my story,” Kuet- that kind of parent who does that for me.” er said. “So part of it is, I should tell my stoRecognizing how much her parents do ry. I shouldn’t be afraid of telling them what for her in order to enable her to play lacrosse, I do. And then the second part of it [is] I Kueter tries to make their lives easier. have to just ignore what they don’t under“I have learned to do the little things for stand, and just focus on what I know I can my parents because they’ve done so much in do. So I think I learned that lesson: just do my lacrosse career that I keep remembering what I can do, and do it the best I can.” that they do this huge thing for me, I should Kueter has also found that she no longer do the little things for them and maybe it gets nervous for lacrosse games, unless it is will add up to a big thank you.” Kueter said. for a big championship game. Starting next year, Kueter will be playing “It’s second nature. I get on [the field] Division III lacrosse for the University of and know exactly what I’m doing,” Kueter Mount Union. She is very excited about this said. “I mean yeah sure, I get nervous, may- opportunity, since playing lacrosse in college be before really big games, that’s when I get is something that she has always wanted to nervous, a little bit, but also a small part of do. me is like, I’m not nervous because I have a “I would say eighth grade, I knew I wantgreat team. It feels like a home being on the ed to play lacrosse in college. I just had a field, so why would I be nervous at home?” feeling like I did not want my lacrosse career Her senior year as a player for the West to end after high school. That was insane. I Des Moines Lacrosse Club, Kueter is a start- literally could not imagine my life without ing defender and a team captain. Jade Wil- playing lacrosse. It felt like I would have son ‘22, who goes to Waukee High School in nothing to do,” Kueter said. Des Moines, is also a captain. What Kueter is most excited about is the “Kate is a strong player, and she knows consistency of college lacrosse, where she can what she’s doing. She’s a great leader,” Wil- practice with her team every day. son said. “It’s great having her as a captain, “In college, I’m going to be able to see my and as a fellow teammate because she has teammates all the time. It’s going to be awesuch experience and really helps perfect oth- some,” Kueter said. “I’m so excited because er people’s techniques.” that’s the thing I really miss out on playing Mackenzie Hermanson ‘21 also goes to with the Tigers. Obviously I have a connecWaukee High School. She and Kueter have tion with that team and it’s a connection that been playing together on the Tiger lacrosse is very special and I will hold it with me forteam since seventh grade. ever and I do consider them both teammates “[Kate] is the most loud and most won- and friends, but I also don’t get the sort of derful person you’ll ever meet. She’s just a connection that other athletes have where born leader and you can see it on the field, I can hang out with them on the weekends she cares for everyone. She makes sure no- or grab a coffee. So I’m excited for that in body’s left out. She is the person you want college. I’m excited to have that connection.”

B5 SPORTS

TOP: The West Des Moines Lacrosse Club high school girls lacrosse team has a team meeting before the start of their game. MIDDLE: Kate Kueter ‘21 gets a hug from her mom on her senior night. BOTTOM: Lacrosse sticks are laid on the ground before the game so the refree can check each one individually. PHOTOS BY JULIANNE BERRYSTOELZLE

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

B6 SPORTS

Up and running

Last year, the girls soccer season was canceled due to COVID-19. This year, the girls hope to pick up where they left off and complete their season with a winning record, all with a new head coach

By Rachel Marsh

hey are finally out on the turf after a year away. Under the lights, with their parents and friends right on the bleachers looking over the field, they wait to get the touch, the pass, the goal, the win. The girls soccer team officially started their season in the beginning of April. With their first game under their belt, they are looking forward to the rest of the season. On Monday, April 5 the girls went against Pleasant Valley. Although they lost, they gained experience, according to player Mia Deprenger ‘22. “Coming into our first real game we knew Pleasant Valley was a good team. They’ve always been an aggressive and technical team. Those are the type of teams that you want to play first so they can expose our weaknesses and help us figure out what we need to fix going forward,” Deprenger said. Tryouts for the team were held over spring break. After the lists came out and teams were formed, they practiced for three weeks and had a scrimmage to prepare for the upcoming season. “Our scrimmage went well, but we have a very young team that doesn’t have experience playing in high school games,” Deprenger said. “We have to figure out how to play with each other. We have really good players but we aren’t connecting well yet. All this comes with time and more experiences.” Last year, their season was canceled as COVID-19 was just starting. A year later, there are still concerns surrounding dealing with quarantines and exposures amidst many students and staff receiving vaccines. “A lot of our players, including me, made the decision to switch to online learning for the third trimester to lessen the chance of being quarantined,” Deprenger said. “We also wear our masks during games, and we haven’t been letting them affect how we play

ABOVE: Claire Brown ‘23 takes a shot on goal during the game against Pleasant Valley on April 5. PHOTO BY RACHEL MARSH

which is really good. I’m hoping we stay healthy and get healthy for the remainder of the season.” The team hopes to complete a full season, while being competitive and playing better games each time. Gaining experience and maintaining friendships is also high on their priority list according to Deprenger. “Hopefully as we keep practicing together we’ll learn how to play with and support each other better. It feels like everyone on the team knows we can be very good and we’re all excited to put in the work and see where we can get this season,” Callie Menzel ‘21 said. The captains this year are Lizzie Peters ‘21, Stella Foster ‘21, and Menzel. Missing

out on their junior season, the girls are itching to get out there and have their eyes on a winning record, Menzel explained. “I’m super excited about this team, everyone is ready to be competitive. I look forward to going to practice everyday because I know it’s going to be fun but also beneficial because everyone is putting in the work,” Menzel said. Another change is the new head coach. Scheduled to coach last season, Corbin Scholz is heading into her first real season as varsity head coach of the girls soccer team. “I love being the head coach. It feels good to be able to coach the way my favorite coaches coached me growing up. Of course there is a lot of administrative work on the

side that I have to take care of, but that comes with any job,” Scholz said. “The high schoolers are so fun to work with and there is barely a practice I leave without smiling or laughing the whole time.” Despite challenges, Scholz is hoping to make this season competitive, and also make it one the athletes will learn life skills from and remember. “I’m hoping to not only help them understand the game of soccer and improve their skills, but to encourage them to be the best versions of themselves in this world; to teach them the importance of being kind to others, completing their school work, and giving everything they do 100 percent,” said Scholz.

Boys soccer finds its footing

This year the City High boys soccer team has been trying out new strategies and focusing on building up experience

ABOVE: Ben Horwitz ‘22 clears the ball upfield during the game against West High. PHOTO BY ANNA GAYLEY

By Isaac Bullwinkle

he City High boys soccer season is in full stride. The Little Hawks won three of their first five games, with wins against

Urbandale, Waterloo West, and Dubuque Hempstead, and losses against Muscatine and West. Last year’s season was cancelled due to COVID-19. Due to this cancellation, both the sophomores and freshman on the team

are experiencing their first year of high school soccer this year. And with the team consisting of just three seniors, the Little Hawks lack the experience of a team like West, who have 13 seniors on their roster. Coach Jose Fajardo is taking this inexperience into account, during practices and games. “The only way to deal with inexperience is playing more games like the West [game]. You have to go to practice and try to simulate a game as much as possible. The pressure, the feeling, the environment,” Fajardo said. “We throw freshmen into this crazy environment and that is not always easy. The best thing that we can do is put those players in these environments as much as possible.”. Fajardo is constantly experimenting, which he says is necessary to get better. Whether it’s a new position for a player or a new formation for the whole team, doing things differently helps the whole team learn. However, this comes with a cost. “When you are trying to win and experimenting, you’re going to make mistakes.

Something is going to go wrong in the lab, our lab being [the field]. So we’re going to lose some games because we are educating, forming, making players while experimenting with new positions. But that’s the only way for us to get better,” Fajardo said. In the game against West, the Little Hawks entered halftime down 2-0. After an early second half goal from Alima Mmunga ‘23, the score was 2-1. The Little Hawks were in a position to tie or win the game, until West scored again with 4:23 on the clock. The game ended 3-1 for west High. “Most teams would have dug a big hole and never gotten out. We got out. Not only got out, we got to a place where we could have won the game or tied the game. And that’s what makes this team special, and a team where we can believe anything can happen. We can be the first half team, but we can also be the second half [team]. So depending on the day, if we show the second half team, we can beat anyone in the state,” Fajardo said.

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2020

B7 SPORTS

ABOVE: Jordan Sekafetz ‘21 runs the achor leg of the shuttle hurdle relay. BELOW TOP: Mackenzie Dvorsky ‘24 and Jordan Kucera ‘24 pose for a photo during the Forward Coleman Relays. BELOW MIDDLE: Truman Thompson ‘23 runs the second leg of the 4x800m relay. BELOW BOTTOM: Parker Max ‘22 and Noah Carey ‘21 wait for the gun before starting the 3,200m. PHOTOS BY NATALIE GREEN AND JAE DANCER

The end of the track After not being able to have a complete spring season last year, many senior track athletes are glad about a final chance to compete in high school track By Jae Dancer and Paris Fuller

“There are a lot fewer people amazing experience to anchor the coming out and more absences, but last event for my team for my last I think it makes our team stronger ever home meet. I will never forget hile the pandem- and more competitive with one an- it.” ic has turned other,” William Arling ‘21 said. On April 22-23 the track teams students’ lives On April 13, both City High traveled to Drake Stadium in Des upside down boys and girls track Moines to comfor more than a year, students are teams competed in “It’s hard to believe pete in the anfinding a new normal within track the Forwald Colenual Drake Rethat this is really the lays where they after Kim Reynolds signed a new man Relays. The health proclamation on January 7. girls placed 4th last year but it was competed against Starting March 1, the City High overall with a total good everyone tried some of the fasttrack teams officially began having of 87 points while est runners in to keep the season as practices. the boys won for Iowa. “I really just want my team to the first time since normal as possible.” “I think peohave what feels like a normal sea- 2014, scoring 158 ple benefit from WILLIAM ARLING son, especially the freshmen. It can points. The team of CITY HIGH SENIOR track because of be hard to feel safe in a sport that Sierra Pruessner ’24, the camaraderie is both individual and team-orient- Maya Morales ’21, Reynolds, and and [because] it’s something to do ed,” Lilly Reynolds ‘21 said. Jordan Sekafetz ’21 finished in sec- to keep you active. I know I’ll miss Although attendance has been ond place behind Waukee in the that,” Arling said. “It’s hard to beless this year than in previous years, 100 meter hurdles with a time of lieve that this is really the last year that has not stopped the teams 16:30, while Parker Max ’22 and but it was good everyone tried to from competing. Noah Carey ’21 finished 2nd and keep the season as normal as pos“I hope that everyone is happy 7th overall in the men’s 3200 me- sible.” with their overall ter race with times The Drake Relays was one of season, that each “I hope that everyone is of 10:03.55 and the last major track meets of the person feels that happy with their over- 10:18.09. Addi- season, leaving many seniors feelthey raced their Reynolds ing nostalgic about their time on all season, that each tionally, heart out as much got 2nd in all her the team. as they could,” person feels that they events including “I will miss so much about City Reynolds said. the shuttle hurHigh Track,” Reynolds said. “I will raced their heart out as Students are dle relay, distance miss getting to run up to a teamrequired to wear much as they could.” medley relay, mate after they just got a PR. I will masks whenever LILLY REYNOLDS 4x400 meter re- miss getting that handoff just right CITY HIGH SENIOR they are not comlay, and 400 meter after what felt like a million tries peting and there hurdles. in practice. I will miss meeting new are limited interactions between “Forwald went really well. I was people and talking about random teammates and competitors fol- overall happy with my results,” topics with them as we warm up lowing COVID-19 safety precau- Reynolds said. “It was also an for practice. I will miss everything.” tions.

B8 SPORTS

THE LITTLE HAWK THELITTLEHAWK.COM MAY 7, 2021

Silver Linings From cross country to swimming to softball, this is a collection of some of the best sports photos taken in the 20-21 school year. Photos taken by Natalie Green, Julianne Berry-Stoelzle, Jae Dancer and Rachel Marsh Ella Cook ‘21 slides into home plate during softball’s season opener. City defeated Waterloo West 12-0 on June 16. PHOTO BY NATALIE GREEN

The City High volleyball team holds their hands in a circle over teammate Emma Nugents Jersey. PHOTO BY JULIANNE BERRY-STOELZLE

Gable Mitchell ‘22 catches a long touchdown pass in City’s victory over Ottumwa 41-16. PHOTO BY NATALIE GREEN Jay Kennedy ‘22 and Ben Kueter ‘23 cheered on their teammater as they watched City in the state baseball tournament. PHOTO BY NATALIE GREEN

Avery Loftus ‘24 swims breaststroke. PHOTO BY SHOSHIE HEMLEY

Kelsey Jones ‘23 looks for an opening in the game against West. PHOTO BY NATALIE GREEN

Elliot Dunwald runs for the boys cross country team. PHOTO BY RACHEL MARSH

Sydney Wilkes and Jae Dancer run on the cross-country team. PHOTO BY RACHEL MARSH

Cale Seaton ‘24 wrestles against a Cedar Falls opponent during City’s 40-29 dual meet win. PHOTO BY NATALIE GREEN

Girls bowling placed sixth at the state tournament. Top individual scorers from City High include a 22nd place finish for Britney Russell ‘22 with a score of 374, a 27th place finish for Kendra Schwarting ‘24 with a score of 362, and a 28th place finish for Rios with a score of 358.. PHOTO BY JAE DANCER