The Little Hawk

DOWNTOWN’S MAJOR OPERATION PAGE A9 BY CLAIRE NOACK

The

LittleHawk

Iowa City High School • Iowa City, Iowa • Vol. 72 Issue 2 • Friday, October 31, 2014 • www.thelittlehawk.com

District explores options for new magnet school

By Riley Lewers

Map illustrates every school shooting since the Sandy Hook Massacre, according to everytown.org.

Searching for safety

In response to the increasing amount of school shootings in recent years, schools across the country reexamine their safety policies in hopes of preventing another tragedy.

By Payton Evans Eighty-seven schools shootings have occurred in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook massacre in December of 2012.

This is approximately three to four shootings every month.

This frightening statistic alone is causing parents, teachers, students, and even those who have never considered themselves at risk, to confront the issue. When an unloaded gun and ammo were found in the backpack of an emotionally distressed student at Iowa City West High School in early October, the threat hit a little too close to home for many students and parents. They never imagined a school in small town Iowa in danger of experiencing this type of situation.

“I was just shocked because it always seems like that kind of thing is on the news for happening at some other distant school,” West High student, Maggie Taylor ‘15 said. “It’s not something you ever imagine really happening at your own school.”

On October 17th, a student at West High was sent to the guidance office after a teacher observed odd behavior. The conversation between the student and guidance counselor prompted the administration to search the student’s belongings, where the .357 handgun and ammunition were found.

“The incident really made me realize that almost all schools are at risk,” Peter Larsen ‘15 said. continued on A5

ICCSD considers one-to-one technology initiative

By Wynne Miller As technology is becoming a more important tool for student education, the Iowa City Community School District has committed to advancing the use of technology in students’ education. The district has been considering a plan to give each student a device for every day educational use.

“Simply giving a student a laptop saying, ‘Here you go, good luck,’ does not insure the program’s success,” City High principal John Bacon said.

“There are two parts: you have to provide the device and also provide staff with appropriate professional development so that they are designing experiences and making the best use of the technology.”

There are thousands of iPads in use around the district, and about 150 have recently been added to City High.

“We have iPads available to check out for teachers planning a unit that involves the iPad as a way to enhance instruction,” Bacon said. “We really encourage teachers to plan lessons to use technology as a tool.”

Over 2,000 computers are allocated to computer labs and mobile carts throughout the district. At City High, there have been two mobile laptop labs added to the school for teachers to check out for their classes.

“We’re really trying to increase our student’s access to computers so there’s always an available device,” Bacon said.

The district wide initiative to add

a SMART Board, document camera, projector, and hub computer has been completed.

“Naturally, the primary focus for technology in the district is for curriculum and instruction,” David Dude, Chief Technology Officer of the Iowa City Community School District, said.

The district has also made technology more accessible by improving the Wi-Fi network and adding an access point for each classroom, along with a variety of other renovations including firewalls, switches, and cabling.

“There are constantly improvements being made to our technology systems, but many of them are behind the scenes,” Dude said.

Student and teacher accounts

have been integrated with Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps for Education.

“The school district has made a concerted effort over the past couple of years to improve our infrastructure, setting the stage to allow schools to add more technology,” Bacon said.

Currently the entire district is at approximately a two-to-one students-to-computers ratio. However, the district is beginning to look at giving schools a one-to-one relationship. To test this, the district will be piloting Chromebooks during second and third trimesters in several fifth through 12th grade classrooms. continued on A6

The Iowa City Community School District is exploring the possibility of turning Mark Twain Elementary into a magnet school, an ICCSD school with a theme connected to it.

If Twain does become a magnet school, students from all over the district could attend it and would be selected for the school by a lottery. Students living in the Twain attendance area who do not attend the magnet school would go to Lemme, Lucas, or Longfellow. These schools would have space to take on more students due to the opening of the new three new elementary schools in the ICCSD. Currently Elementary schools Hills, Wood, and Twain collectively are about 72 percent Free and Reduced Lunch. Establishing a magnet school is a potential way to bring in kids from outside the neighborhood and lower the percentage of FRL. “I think the biggest challenge [for setting up a magnet school] in Iowa City is that we have such great neighborhood schools. I think it will be really hard to get parents to choose to send their kids to a magnet school instead of their neighborhood school,” Steve Murley, Superintendent of Schools, said. “It’s hard to find people who are critical of their neighborhood school, so it’s really going to have to have that wow factor for a parent to want to send their kid there.”

The Magnet School Committee’s first meeting was Oct. 15th.

The committee’s responsibility is to explore the possibility of a magnet school by looking at research and getting feedback from the community.

“I think I might get kind of bored if I only focused on one thing,” Rylie Kelley, a student at Lemme Elementary, said.

Some possible themes that could be connected to magnet school could include STEM, fine arts, foreign language immersion, montessori, or international baccalaureate.

Iowa core education would be embedded into the theme.

“I think part of the process, part of the reason for looking at it is knowing that not every student learns in the same way and figuring out how you present more opportunities for kids to match their learning style with our instruction,” Murley said.

Emily Kucera, another student at Lemme Elementary, expressed excitement about the possibility of a magnet school in the ICCSD. “I would love to go to a school like that,” Kucera said.

A2 PREVIEW

October 31 , 2014 The Little Hawk wFeature ad Magazine

Section A

NEWS: PROJECT ACHIEVE AIMS TO CREATE AP EQUALITY

4

8 NEWS: THE HEART OF OUR CITY

By Jonathan House A revisit of the underrepresentation of minorities in AP classes.

By Payton Evans, Claire Noack, Sofie Lie, & Elise Goodvin Little Hawk staff members examine the future of downtown Iowa City.

OPINION: THE MISRULE OF KING BRANSTAD

11

By Cody Owen Cronyism, bribery, lawsuits, extortion, and harassment from our wonderful governor.

7

STUDENT PROFILE: #ETHANUP

By Caroline Brown and Innes Hicsasmaz Get to know Ethan Nelson-Moore, creator of the famed “Lime Up” website.

ON THE COVER: SUPERSTITIOUS

By Caroline Brown City High staff and students share their experiences with the living dead.

A&E: Film Scene: The New Downtown Cinema

WHAT’S ON THE WEB?

31, October

2014

LH

By Ayla Canin Downtown Iowa City flaunts a new Indie theater, Film Scene.

azine Feature Mag

US P E R S T I T I O U S

What’s happening on thelittlehawk.com and on Little Hawk social media?

City High s ’

ces experien with the

SUPERNATURAL

see page

6 for stor

y

Section B

SPORTS: IT TAKES A TEAM

By Becca Meyer & Dominic Balestrieri-Fox

9 6

SPORTS: GIRLS XC

By Innes Hicsasmaz

Edward Esbeck ‘16 is from Uganda, has cerebral palsy, and has a passion for running.

Varsity girls qualify for state.

THE DEATH OF FACEBOOK?

By Sonali Durham The social media giant may not be forgotten as it seems to be.

From your editors...

By Anton Buri & Payton Evans To any Little Hawk journalist, the pressure to achieve perfection is not a new concept. However, that pressure increases exponentially with this issue. This edition must be the best of the best- the prettiest, the most well written, the most well thought out. In a mere amount of days, yours truly will be sitting in a room filled with members of the country’s top high school publications, eagerly awaiting the announcement of the winners of the most prestigious awards in high school journalism. We can only hope that the countless late nights in the newslab; mental breakdowns; days where we were living, breathing, and eating

journalism; and all the blood (papercuts), sweat, and tears that went into making The Little Hawk the best it can be will result in obtaining something to be proud of for the rest of our lives- the glorified Pacemaker award.

Our features editors and writers worked hard to brainstorm interesting story ideas to tie in with the spooky holiday that happens to collide with paper release day, thus we give you Superstitious, the feature magazine full of ‘City High’s experiences with the supernatural’. While we aren’t promising you won’t see the typical overabundance of females roaming the halls as black felines come paper day, we do believe you will find great entertainment in reading about the unique supernatural experiences of your peers as well as the unknown effects of some of the ultra-sugary foods we all love to indulge in, in moderation. Key word: moderation.

More serious matters took over the newslab when news of a gun found at West High shook us all up a bit, shortly followed by the announcement of the tragic shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School near Seattle, Washington. Making light of a dark situation, this tied in perfectly with the front page news story Searching for Safety. The Little Hawk delved into the details behind City High’s security policies and practices incase of a school shooting event. The staff editorial also goes behind the scenes to uncover City High’s safety policy and shed light on the overlooked mental health component of the reasons behind school shootings. We as a staff also worked to uncover the details behind a very important aspect of our future as a newspa-

per- technology. Reporters visited schools in other districts to experience firsthand the technological differences and improvements happening in other schools, and also met with school officials from our district to discuss the possibility of one-to-one relationship between students and computers for City High.

The design team also stepped up their game this issue in order to come up with more creative layouts. We strived to produce interesting infographics and emotional photos to make our publication more enjoyable for all of you. Our job is to not only to provide you with the most important and recent happenings around you, but also to engage you, our primary audience, in the text, via aesthetically pleasing design and intriguing stories.

That being said, our number one priority is to provide you with stories worth your time to read. We are excited for what the year holds, and we look forward to providing you, our readers, with the primary source of news and happenings here at The School That Leads. As always, we would love to hear your input and suggestions. The door is always open to room 2109.

NEWS

A3

October 31, 2014

ABOVE: The cast of the Diviners acceps a standing ovation at curtain call. PHOTO BY CAROLINE BROWN

City High drama helps Ferguson This year’s fall play, The Diviners, has created a fundraiser for student thespians in Ferguson to have a chance to visit the Missouri State Thespian Festival.

By Sophia Schlesinger & Ellis Fontana

The cast is gone, the set has been stripped, the lights taken down and the curtain tucked away. However, the legacy of The Diviners endures beyond the confines of Opstad Auditorium. Miles away in Ferguson, MO, drama students are being given the opportunity to attend Missouri’s state festival, thanks to the funding provided by City High’s fall production of The Diviners.

The idea came from Troy Peters, City High’s drama director. In the months leading up to the opening of the play, Peters communicated with Doug Erwin, the Ferguson Art Director, about how to help the Ferguson community.

“Erwin had posted something on a theater educator blog, and was wanting ideas for how their community could heal through the performing arts in their local high schools,”

Peters said. feel like the ‘raisins in the rice’ when It was eventually decided that the they go to these state conferences,” City High drama department would Peters said. “Nobody wants to talk help send drama students to the Mis- about race.” souri state drama festival in January Cast member Jared Kilberger ‘15 of 2015. agrees and believes that the festival “Our goal is will give the opportuto raise $1,200 to nity to discuss issues help out a coulike race.

“I THINK PEOPLE ple of thespians “I think people can CAN REALLY SHARE really from Ferguson share their opinTHEIR OPINIONS go to this state ions where they othWERE THEY OTHERconference in erwise wouldn’t have St. Louis, MO,” been able to,” Kilberger WISE WOULDN’T Peters said. The said.

HAVE BEEN ABLE actual amount Fellow cast memTO.” raised totaled ber Keegan O’Berry ‘16 $1,000, just shy also believes that the -JARED KILBERGER ‘15 students’ participation of the goal, but enough to send helps create public unat least one thesderstanding. pian to the festival.

“The awareness is a really big Peters believes the participation thing,” O’Berry said. “Since it’s not of students from Ferguson will fa- in the media cycle anymore, a lot of cilitate a much-needed discussion in people don’t know that it’s still going Missouri. on. It hasn’t stopped just because they “He mentioned how the students don’t see it.”

Taking on the challenge Students go the extra mile to succeed in college classes

By Nova Meurice, Sarah Smith, & Joe Weideman As the excitement and stress of the new school year winds down for a majority of students, homework becomes less of a priority.

Less and less time each day is spent studying as one becomes more comfortable with their work schedules.

For Ben Smith ‘16, this scenario is couldn’t be further from the truth.

“You spend more time studying and it’s faster paced, “ Smith said. “In general, it’s more time and effort needed to get a good grade.”

On average, most City High students spend seven periods a day studying at the school.

While a handful of students have decided to accept the challenge of enrolling in a college class.

“I wanted to be more prepared for college, and I wanted to get the experience and know what it was like,” Becca Meyer ‘15 said. “I feel like these classes are preparing me so much

more for next year than high school classes are.”

Meyers thinks the experience is one of the biggest benefits of taking a college class.

“I feel like I’m growing.” Meyers said. “I feel like I’ve learned more in this semester than I have in a while. Every day I learn something I didn’t know, and I’m building really good skills just for next year. I feel like college is going to seem a lot easier.”

College courses can be higher level courses of the core City High curriculum, or can cover topics that can’t be found at the high school level.

“I finished AP Bio and was given a choice of several classes” Smith said. “Age of Dinosaurs sounded the most fun and interesting.”

The University of Iowa also provides the opportunity for students to receive an indepth education about their personal interests.

“I took AP Music Theory last year, and I want to keep learning in that field,” Xavier Fields ‘15 said of his class at The University of Iowa, “[Music theory] there was the next logical step.”

A wider offering of more specialized courses can also aid students in deciding the course of their future.

ABOVE: Sophie Schlesinger led a campaign called #selloutDIVINERS in an effort to raise money to send Ferguson High School students to the Missouri state thespian conference.

PHOTO BY CAROLINE BROWN

“I think I’m making the right decision in going into music,” Fields said.

Another incentive to take the classes is an early start on college credit hours, before tuition costs set in.

“It suits them to work on college credit and to get a head start on their college education,” Linda Hoel, guidance counselor at City, said.

“Obviously the benefit is that it’s tuition free; it’s free credit.”

Even for the students who won’t attend Iowa or Kirkwood, the credit may still be helpful.

“Transferability will always be unique to a specific college. If you start at one college, it may transfer, and it may not,” Hoel said. “If you start college at Kirkwood or the University, chances are good that it will transfer, but there’s no guarantee.”

Even in the event that the credits don’t transfer, the experience can still give helpful insights into the college world, and influence college choices.

“Before this year I didn’t want to go to Iowa at all, but now, taking a class at Iowa, it’s a totally different perspective. When you’re downtown as a student, it feels like a new city. I go downtown every day and I don’t feel like I’m in Iowa City. Its just totally new,” Meyer said.

“Iowa is an option now.”

Despite the benefits, adding a college course load is not for everyone.

“I think it takes a certain level of maturity, because you’re in college classes with older students. You need to have a certain level of social and emotional maturity to successfully relate and work with the requirements of the classes,” Hoel said. “I would say students that are heavily involved in activities and have a heavy AP schedule have a difficult time. You really need to monitor how many challenging classes you can reasonably handle.”

Fields can attest to the challenge of enrolling

“It’s hard because [professors] don’t realize that you’re a high school student,” Fields said. “I have tests where I have to come in during the school day and I’ll have to find time during my open and make it over to the university.”

Although he understands that some students can’t handle a college load, Fields encourages everyone that’s interested in an offered PSEO class to enroll.

“Give it a try,” Fields advises of PSEO classes, “The worst thing that could happen is that you could end up dropping it.”

A4

NEWS October 31, 2014

Interact Club frequents Ronald McDonald House

By Jordan Cronbaugh This year, City High’s Interact Club made the decision to volunteer at Iowa City’s Ronald McDonald house more frequently than they have in the past. City High kids litter the House, wiping down windows and vacuuming floors as families carefully avoid their work.

“It’s important because these parents and families are waiting for their children to get better in the hospital,” Alex Murra ‘16, said. “It relieves a lot of stress for them. They don’t have to worry about meal plans, where to stay, how to pay for a hotel. It’s just really comforting.”

The Ronald McDonald house is a non-profit organization that assists families who have children in the University of Iowa’s children’s hospital with serious diseases or illnesses whose stay may extend past a couple of weeks. It provides the families with meals and a place to stay with the hospital close by.

“It’s just a really comforting place to be,” the House’s Night Manager, Alexis Papouchis said.

“We call it the home away from home, which it really is.”

In the past, the club had volunteered at the House about once every two months. The cooking and cleaning that the club did for the House has always been largely appreciated by the residents and staff.

“Without groups like Interact, we wouldn’t get food, and we wouldn’t get the house clean,” Papouchis said. “It’s just very helpful that they come in.”

One Sunday a month, a group of kids from the club go over to the House to cook and clean.

Since this event has always been popular with the club, having it once a month makes it more accessible.

“They love the Ronald McDonald house. They all love to do the cooking,” Interact Co-President and Ronald McDonald project head, Maggie Morony ‘15, said. “Every time I write up a sign-up sheet for Ronald McDonald, it’s filled instantly. I just really wanted to find a project that I knew kids would really like and really want to go to.”

The club will continue with the project throughout the year, hopefully getting even more kids to participate as the year progresses.

“The kids just like the whole physical working, like the cooking,” Morony said. “We want to keep doing it because they all love it.”

Project Achieve aims to create AP equality

After an investigative report last year by The Little Hawk on the national issue of minorities in AP Classes a new project to encourage minorities to take AP classes was formed.

By Jonathan House After the Little Hawk’s reporting of minorities being underrepresented in AP and Honors classes, City High Principal John Bacon encouraged the guidance office to implement a variety of programs to work towards bridging the inequality gap. “(After) a wonderful story in the Little Hawk newspaper that did an examination of enrollment in our AP classes and compared it to the demographic makeup of the high school,” Mr. Bacon said.

“We knew that we had work to do to make our enrollment in our AP classes more representative of the high school at large.”

Project Achieve was formed

by City High guidance counselor Linda Hoel, and Kate Degner, an employee at the University of Iowa’s Belin-Blank Center for gifted and talented students. They created the program that is geared towards informing minorities about the AP programs at City High and encouraging them to sign up for AP and honors courses that they are eligible to take based on test scores. Project Achieve identified about 70 minority students, in grades 9-11, who were chosen for the program based on their academic performance.

“Last year, we organized, we did a mentorship with Southeast, we did a visit to the university, and we had a presentation from some AP students,” Linda Hoel, guidance counselor and coordinator of Project Achieve said. “That was about it because we started half-

way through the year.”

This year, Kate Degner isn’t working with the program, but Mrs. Hoel has many more activities are planned including: continuing mentorships with South East Junior High students, going on a visit to the University of Iowa, and developing a communication center, a series of bulletin boards where information can be posted for the students in the group. The coordinators are also working on producing an AP video, in which they interview all the AP teachers and some AP students and take shots of the AP classes in action.

The video will be shown to Project Achieve, and will also be available online for any students and parents that want to see it.

Minorities still are underrepresented in AP classes this year.

However, Bacon is still optimistic about the future, because many of the students in Project Achieve were freshman last year.

“I think it’s really going to be next year or the year after when we really we see results. A typical freshman is maybe taking AP World History as a sophomore.”

Mr. Bacon said. “When they are upperclassmen, juniors and seniors, is when I think we are really going to see the fruits of the effort on this, and see if these students are choosing to register for those types of college level, rigorous classes, when they are upperclassmen.”

Jens Dancer ‘15 , a minority student that has taken multiple AP

courses says that he has enjoyed taking AP classes, which have helped make him a better student.

“I have never really felt awkward in AP courses because of my race. I feel that anyone who wants to take the class can and should,” Dancer said, “I haven’t observed any prejudices in my classes.”

Mr. Bacon believes that diversity in AP improves the learning experience.

“I also believe in diversity very strongly, I believe that true diversity enriches everything that we do, and when any of our classrooms are fortunate enough to have true diversity in them, I think the entire learning environment improves,” Mr. Bacon commented, “When different cultures, different backgrounds, different experiences are represented, the classroom becomes a richer, more dynamic place; discussions become better, and that is why I’m a big proponent of diversity across the board, and certainly in our AP classes as well.”

AP US History teacher, Melanie Gibbens, agrees that AP course enrollment should be representative of the entire student body.

“It’s good to have a wide range of students, including kids who may not have considered taking an AP class, but then when you look at their test scores or their grades, they qualify,” Mrs. Gibbens said.

For video interviews and more on the story go to www.thelittlehawk.com

By Taylor Milefchik Hello! My name is Taylor Milefchik, I am a senior who is a first year ambassador. This experience has opened my eyes to the sheer population of City High. On a day to day basis you can easily pass, at least, a thousand different people throughout the the hallways and in your classes while some public schools in Iowa contain less than 100 students. At City high, we host an incredibly diverse and large population. We are so different in our religion, apparel, sexual preferences, gender, race, class, etc. Because we are not restricted by these factors, City High hosts students of all lifestyles. But sometimes, society manipulates this wonderful opportunity and uses our differences to segregate and alienate individuals. We shove down those who we think are inferior to us without a second chance. Instead, why don’t we open ourselves to vast perspectives and opinions of the incredible people who surround us? Every day you pass a thousand people with lives as individual as your own, with complex beliefs and opinions.

What if you took a minute to be bold and talk to someone you’ve never met or barely know? A simple “How are you?” can turn into a complex conversation and maybe even a relationship.

Learning about the people who surround you can not only expose you to amazing people but help you discover yourself.

LHONLINE

ambassador

W W W . T H E L I T T L E H A W K . C O M

ASK AN

A5

NEWS October 31, 2014

School safety from A1 City High Last year, the Iowa City Community School District undertook significant efforts to adopt the ALICE model in place of previous security practices.

“I think it was in response to the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut that served as a real impetus for a renewed focus on our security practices.” City High Principal John Bacon said.

The ALICE framework, which stands for alert-lockdown-inform-counter-evacuate, allows for many similarities to previous security practices, but contains differences as well, the most significant of which is giving the staff the power to determine the best plan of action in the given situation.

“It’s very empowering to know that we now have a broader range of steps available to us, rather than the old way of thinking which was just lockdown, hide, and wait,” Bacon said.

“Now evacuating is really the goal. Get out safely.”

Days before the start of the 2013-2014 school year, all City High staff was required to attend an extensive training to practice the new ALICE steps.

“We went through an active shooter training which was lead by the ICPD. The police officers were actually simulating an active shooter event and we had to determine ‘how do we respond?’”

Bacon said. “It was a really intense experience.”

Officer Jorey Bailey of the Iowa City Police Department coordinated and lead City High staff through the two hour training, which taught staff how to respond to a violent intruder situation using the ALICE model.

“The training that we provide is a curriculum, a way of responding, a box of tools for employees to respond with,” Bailey said.

Prior to the staff training, administrators received training on the University of Iowa Campus through an instructor and member of campus security.

“They teach you how to effectively lock down a classroom. We learned specific tricks you can do to make it secure,” Bacon said. “The district has done a really nice job of providing training for staff.”

This new sequence of safety procedures also stresses the importance of communication in the case of a crisis situation.

“The ALICE model teaches us to provide specific information to staff using all of the communication tools available to us,” Bacon said. “Having the freedom for the teacher to do a quick check, assess the situation, process

what’s being communicated in terms of what’s going on and where, and get the class out is very empowering, liberating, and a positive step to take.”

Breakdown of school shootings since Sandy Hook

The National Reaction On Friday, October 24, another shooting occurred at Marysville-Pilchuck High School outside of Seattle, Washington. The 14 year-old shooter and student opened fire in the school cafeteria, killing one and critically injuring four others before turning the gun on himself.

The recent influx in school shootings is causing school and government officials across the nation to reexamine their security policies, looking for possible adjustments to be made to help prevent other tragedies.

“The only way you prevent this absolutely is to have every student empty their backpacks every morning and search every student,” City High hall monitor Chip Hardesty said. “I don’t think anyone’s prepared to do that.”

Larsen agrees.

“Next to putting in metal detectors, a gunman is almost impossible to stop before it happens,” Larsen said. “That being said, I question the safety protocol that is in place, and I believe the safety protocol should be revised and more thoroughly looked at for all types of shooter instances.”

The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, a panel created to develop policy recommendations in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, is discussing plans to hold a hearing in order to hear from the victims’ families. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy established the advisory board made up of 16 people to give input on areas including public safety, mental health, and gun violence prevention.

Alongside state governments, the national government is also reacting to the increase in these incidents. The recent budget deal in Congress includes $140 million towards supporting safer school environments. According to the office of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, this is a $29 million increase to previous budgets. Harkin is the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which, according to their website, “has jurisdiction over the country’s health care programs, schools, employment, and retirement programs.”

The Future The ICCSD is in the process of discussing other new security precautions to further improve safety precautions. Some of these changes include new locking mechanisms on classroom doors that lock from the inside as well as the outside, school resource officers, and the possibility of a buzz-in system.

This school year, a few elementary schools in the area have adopted the buzz-in system to further increase safety features. Visitors during the school day will have to press the buzzer and speak into the speaker next to the door. This will ring into the office and office personnel will ask the visitor to identify themselves as well as the purpose of their visit. Security cameras were also installed, so office personnel are able to see who is requesting entry.

“As a parent at Lucas I’m pleased that that’s in place. It prevents just anybody from walking in,” Bacon said. “That would be tougher to implement at the high school level espe-

cially at a high school that has open campus and literally hundreds of people coming and going regularly throughout the day.”

The idea of school resource officers has also been up for debate. Many schools around Iowa have recently hired one to increase safety and reaction time in case of a violent intruder situation. Aside from the downfall of an added expenditure, Bacon claims the school is doing “quite well without the support.”

“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve not had the need for that [resource officers] necessarily,” Bacon said. “However, I’m of the opinion that if there ever were a worse type situation going on that having that support right in the building would provide a better response time than not having that immediately on hand.”

According to Bacon, the next step is figuring out a way to improve student awareness and involvement in these situations.

“This is scary stuff and it’s stressful to talk about these kinds of things, so it needs to be done the right way,” Bacon said. “Bringing students on board is important and it’s something that the district is in the process of doing.”

“Leave Your Mark” at Hancher People come from all around to sign a beam during the construction of the new Hancher Auditorium.

By Elise Goodvin Roughly 1,000 people showed up on October seventh and eighth to the under-construction Hancher Auditorium to sign a beam.

At 11 am on Wednesday, that beam was then lifted up to where it will be placed, and construction was continued. While the beam was being lifted, Iowa alum Susan Werner performed for a group of people. Karen Charney, an Iowa City local, was there for the performance.

“I was quite moved, it was really beautiful,” she said of the performance. “It was really poignant when the beam was rising and she was singing, she also explained to us why she wanted to come back to do this performance.”

Werner graduated from the University of Iowa back in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in music, and has since then gone to accomplish a critically acclaimed career in Folk music and composition.

Over the time of construction that beam will slowly be covered and the rest of the building will take place around it, but that did not matter to the people who came. People of all types came to sign, and also draw. Local artists not only signed their name, but also drew self portraits of themselves as well.

Junior Gabi Wadsworth was there on Tuesday to sign her name on the beam.

“I’ve always loved Hancher,” Wadsworth said.

“When I was little my parents took me to shows all the time.”

There were a wide variety of people there to not only sign the beam, but also see it put

into the building.

“It was a beautiful sunny day, it was really cool to see all the people with the construction hats on mixed in with everyone else,” Charney said.

People both young and old came back to sign the beam, bringing back streams of emotion to the people who had gone there as kids, and bringing excitement to those who were too young to remember the old building.

“There was a lot of good energy, everyone was excited,” Wadsworth said.

Hancher was damaged beyond repair back in the floods of 2008. The reconstruction of the building is about halfway done, just up the hill to where the old building stood right across from the Levitt Center. The expected date for the building to open back up for performances is in the fall of 2015.

“I used to go to a lot of classical, but now I like a lot of Pop and Indie [music] now,” Charney said. “I am looking forward to the new things that the new Hancher will bring into town.”

Hancher isn’t the only thing that was damaged during the 2008 flood. With the opening of Hancher, the Voxman Music Building is also somewhat reopening within it as well.

“My husband works with the University of Iowa Music department, and simultaneously that building is getting put up, so it’s extra exciting for us,” said Charney.

The anticipation is in the air with this new opening, and the new beginning for Hancher.

“I’m really excited for the new one to go up,” Wadsworth said. “It’s awesome to be part of history like this, I get to be part of the building now.”

ABOVE: Iowa Cityans gather at the “ground zero” of the new Hancher Auditorium. Hundreds signed their names on a construction beam. PHOTO BY KIERRA ZAPF

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NEWS October 31, 2014

One-to-one technology from A1 “The Chromebook pilot will be one of the pieces of information used to help determine if the district should consider the one-to-one device initiative,” Dude said.

In such an initiative, students would each be issued their own device to use both at school and at home.

“Some districts have had tremendous success with such initiatives and others have not seen much, if any, return on that investment,” Dude said. “We are approaching it with care to ensure we explore all related issues and make the best decision for our staff and students.”

Members of the district are looking at the pros and cons of an initiative similar to those used by several schools around Iowa that already have one-to-one technologies for their students.

At the school, the devices are issued to the students free of charge but a student does become responsible for fin,ancing a new part if the computer needs a replacement.

“We don’t want children to be charged with a cost simply because we’ve changed their learning environment, but if the students break the device ,then we ask them to take responsibility and pay for it. We don’t charge for labor, just the exact cost for the part or the replacement.” Paige said.

“They’re handed the device in good faith and we have a responsible use procedure the students need to sign before they take it home.”

The durability issue of the device brings up many factors of how the district initially chose a device.

“By in large you’re talking about a fairly reasonably priced device.” Paige said. “We just need to go look at what’s out there. We’ve had a good experience with the Samsung, but that’s not to Cedar Falls High School uses Chromebooks say there isn’t something better out there.” as their one-to-one technology device. The A difference in the Chromebook is that the school has about 1200 students grades 10-12. device doesn’t hold memory; there’s no software.

The majority of the students have positive feed- This allows students to access all their work from back for the device. any computer, since it’s all online. It also prevents “It’s a really awesome device; everything’s viruses and malware from being downloaded organized and all in one. It really helps,” Jamie and damaging the computer.

Becker, a senior at Cedar Falls High School, said.

“After the students caught on to the device, The technology has been mostly helpful for and it’s ease of use, turn it on and go system they the school but is still makresponded well to it,” Brian ing improvements.

Unruh, Coordinator of the “Yes I like them, but I Instructional Technology “SOME DISTRICTS can see the downside and Classroom in the Cedar HAVE HAD TREMENthe upside,” Austin AnedFalls School District, said. erson, a senior at Cedar In the high school, the DOUS SUCCESS WITH Falls High School said.

Chromebooks bring new SUCH INITIANTIVES The Chromebooks alaspects of equal education.

AND OTHERS HAVE lowed for a bigger transi“With every district all tion to technology in the the students have a differNOT SEEN MUCH, students’ everyday educaent social and economic IF ANY, RETURN ON tion. status and it’s interesting “We started to submit to see that there’s a lot of THAT INVESTMENT.” a lot of out assignments kids who don’t have techdigitally so it takes a lot nology. Those kids really of the paper away,” Anvalue this device.” Unruh -DAVID DUDE derson said. “Notes go ten said. “Leveling the playtimes faster and computer ing field is a term that gets labs aren’t really used anythrown around a lot, but more.” we’ve got where this is the The Chromebook has first time they’ve had acbecome an essential tool for many students at cess to a device this powerful.” the school.

The computers also offer a new set of life “I can tell you as a father of two high school skills for the students to learn. students I see them use the Chromebooks ev“All the life lessons we want to teach our kids ery night. Their homework is completely based like digital responsibility, time management, around the chromebooks, ” Troy Becker, Associ- problem solving, independent thinking, and ate Principal at Cedar Falls High School said. communicating are things that are hard to assess The school has experienced some issues with or value on a test,” Unruh said. “But they’re so the device’s physical strength. important. We want our kids to be productive “Durability is a problem. People will put the citizens and responsible once they leave the syslaptops in their bags and next hour it’ll have tem, so at some point you’re doing a disservice cracks all over the screen,” Andersen said. providing them skills to survive,” Unruh said.

“There’s about a 10 percent accidental damThe use of Chromebooks may bring up an isage rate with our current chromebooks. With sue of parent concern. a different a previous brand we used, the Acer “It’s tough because their are some parents Chromebooks, 9 percent of the computers failed who want to raise their kids with restrictions and out of the box,” Shane Paige Supervisor of Tech- blocks on information, and that’s their right,” nology Software in the Cedar Falls School dis- Unruh said. “We try to give our parents stratetrict said. gies toward their goal that aren’t technology re-

Cedar Falls High School

lated. We can add filters but there are great things you can do at home too. It’s more of a thing that crosses over into parenting. It’s a matter of trusting students and giving consequences when rules and respects are violated.”

The district has stressed how much they value having teachers be educated to fully use the devices.

“It’s going to be difficult to successfully utilize the device without ongoing support for personal development teachers,” Unruh said. “We provided building instructional technology leaders to go and work with different teachers. It was a necessity for the one to one initiative.”

The school initially created technology leader committee including about 10 of the school’s staff members.

“They learned about the device in depth and then educated the rest of the staff in a kind of a trickle down effect,” Becker said.

paired by apple. In the case of accidental damage the school pays for it, there’s nothing out of the student’s pocket unless the damage was intentional abuse. The school also accommodates for the technology support.

“The teachers had built in professional learning days led by digital literacy trainers who had been educated by members of Apple. those trained teachers lead sessions to show how to use the computer,” Ketchum said. “The digital literacy trainers are responsible for incorporating technology into lesson plans,.”

Xavier High School

Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids also used iPads in a one-to-one program at their school, which they started last year.

“We all learned how to use it together but the freshman this year struggled with figuring out how to use it,” Abby Willey, a junior and Opinion Assistant Editor at Xavier, said.

The school started the initiative by touring other schools and investigating other devices.

“We honestly went with the iPad because we Another school using one-to-one technol- can’t afford a tech person, and they seem to have ogy is in Cedar Rapids at Prairie High School. the least problems. At the same time there are so The school has about 1100 students, grade 10-12; many apps that help us with the education,” Keleach student is issued a MacBook. lie Wagner a teacher at Xavier said.

“The computer makes The students have tranthings a lot easier because sitioned to a new way of you have everything you organizing with the iPad “YOU FIGURE OUT need right with you all the and have responded posiTHAT IT’S FUN TO time,” MaeLina Araujo, a tively.

Senior at Prairie said. “We “It’s all together in one NOT PAY ATTENTION, need the computers for place now, the best part UNTIL YOU FAIL YOUR about it is the organizathe majority of our homework; we use it in every CLASS.” tional tool, you don’t have single class,” to worry about forgetting Like most computers, your homework at home,” the devices don’t work as KJ Giles a junior and As-KJ GILES well when there isn’t insistant Sports Editor at ternet connection which Xavier said. “The only accan be a difficulty at the tual textbook I use is for school. math. If I have my iPad I’m good to go.”

“There are some areas of the school that WiWith the technology transition there are the Fi won’t connect to. When that happens we can occasional difficulties. take notes on a word document but teachers can’t “Sometimes the school Wi-Fi crashes for a follow their lesson plan,” Katie Hamilton, a se- period and we can’t do much,” Willey said. nior at Prairie, said.

The students were reported to be struggling However, the district has many aspects that with the distractions on the device in the beginare used as technology support. ning.

“There are four techs in our department, and “You figure out that it’s fun to not pay attenwe’re responsible for just the one-to-one com- tion until you fail your class,” Giles said. puters and there’s 1 of us at each school,” Chris The iPad has been seen as a positive addition Ketchum, the Tech at Prairie, said. to the school overall, according to some staff.

The school also uses a technology called “Students produce work a lot faster. MotivaDINO which is a software that monitors stu- tion increased with the iPad, strictly with writdents’ computers at school. ing ,so we’re figuring out how to utilize the tool “Teachers can see what all their students are better in the classroom to increase the student’s doing, and can also shut their computer down learning,” Wagner said. or lock it,” Ryan Fritz the assistant principal at The one-to-one technology initiative has inPrairie said. novated these schools with pros and cons.

First the district established a process to initi“Even with all the technology problems we ate the program. have to overcome this is still better,” Joleen Dake, The initiative was funded by a bond that the a teacher at Prairie High school said. “It’s helping school board voted on, and also bought the ex- the students and it’s better.” tended care apple warranty; because anything not caused by accidental damaged will be re-

Cedar Rapids Prairie High School

LEFT: Austin Anderson works on his Chrome Book during a broadcasting class at Cedar Falls High School. RIGHT: An entrepreneurship class takes out their Chrome Books. PHOTO BY CORA BERN-KLUG

NEWS October 31, 2014

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A8

October 31, 2014

NEWS

GRAPHIC COURTESY IC GOV

Iowa City restaurants strive to be more farmer friendly.

By Elise Goodvin & Sofie Lie

When walking downtown, it’s hard not to consider the abundance of restaurants lining the streets. Local farm food is the new craze with local restaurants. More and more in the downtown Iowa city area are striving to acquire products from local farms and acknowledging the undeniable relevance of having local connections.

Currently, many are using food from food distributors, unconcerned with where it is from, only considering the quality. They say “support your local restaurant” while not supporting their native Iowans.

More than 90 percent of Iowa’s 55,875 square miles of land is used for agriculture. Three different local restaurant in downtown Iowa City use Iowa’s agriculture to their advantage.

New downtown, the Iowa Chop House opened over the summer with the goal to use food from local Iowan farmers.

“I think the people in Iowa are extremely proud of being from Iowa, and I think keeping things local in Iowa helps the revenue of all businesses and farmers and local people in the community, it keeps them in business,” manager Craig Vorba said.

Vorba enjoys meeting all the people who come from all over to come and eat at the restaurant, because they have heard about how all the food is local.

The Iowa Chop House wants their customers to know where their food is coming from, instead of just hoping it’s a healthy grass fed animal. They believe that fresh food is better tasting because it is grown closer to home. The restaurant focuses on the idea that because their costumers may know that the food they are eating was grown a town or two over that they feel better about it.

A lot of their menu is made for things found here in Iowa.

“All the meat that we use is from Iowa. With some of the different beef and pork products, animals might be slaughtered in neighboring states like Nebraska, but remain raised in Iowa.

All of our produce is locally from Iowa, we use some different distributors [of fruits and vegetables] from the state of Iowa as well,” Vorba said.

This gives them a stronger base from the items on their menu.

Not only is the food at the Iowa Chop house local, but a lot of the decor is as well. The tables, the bar, a beer dispenser, and all the photos frames are made from a barn in Oxford, Iowa. The touches give the restaurant a more homely feel, with pictures of barns and fields and animals

hanging on all the walls, showing where the restaurant is based around and bringing us back to the Iowa roots.

“The barn just became part of the restaurant. There is just a lot of history already inside the Chop House that came from our local farms.”

El Banditos in downtown Iowa City serves local produce and meat from Decorah’s Grass run farms and Solon’s Pavelka Point. This restaurant is yet another that relies on local farms.

“I think we have a pretty strong local, regular business base,” the manager of the Mexican restaraunt said.

Although El Banditos aims to support local farms, winter time always seems to be an issue when it comes to fresh fruit and/or vegetables.

“During the summer months it’s really good, because things are grown here, but during winter months, we obviously need to outsource to places that can grow the produce,” the manager said.

With the Iowa climate making it hard or even impossible for farmers to grow, restaurants are forced to go out of state to warmer climate states. But for the rest of the year, El Banditos uses as much local produce as possible; about 80 percent of all their food, meat and produce alike, is locally grown.

The restaurant uses food from owner David Perez’s own garden during the summer months. They also get their meat supplied from The Iowa Meat Processors Association, which is an organization comprised of beef, pork, wild game, and poultry processors and allied businesses throughout the state. Shopping with the IMPA helps a lot of cattle and other meat distributors get out their name and make a profit.

“We’re very interested in local products and supporting them; we’re at the farmers market.

It’s an ideal, if we could get local products all the time, that would be great,” the manager said.

The Linn Street Cafe, which was established 25 years ago, focuses on buying from local food providers and keeping their food free of preservatives, to both benefit the local economy and to ensure the most flavorful food.

“To me, it’s always just made perfect sense to [grow locally]. I’ve been doing it for so long I didn’t realize it was something you’re supposed to do,” chef and owner Frank Bowman said.

Bowman understands the significance of using local food, and he incorporates this into his restaurant. He uses produce and meat from local farms in his cooking.

“The biggest thing is the quality and the freshness. It makes sense and it’s logical,” Bowman said.

A9

NEWS October 31, 2014

Downtown’s major operation Over the next 10 to 15 years, a number of improvements, both small and large, will be made to downtown Iowa City.

By Claire Noack & Elizabeth Ronan While it is a bright and vibrant cultural scene, the center of Iowa City can be seen sporting heaving brickwork and crumbling sidewalks. Soon, though, these outdated surfaces will be replaced, as part of a much larger, 15-year Downtown & Riverfront Crossings Master Plan.

“I don’t think we’ve seen this kind of activity and interest in the core of our community since the early 1980s,” Iowa City mayor Matt Hayek said.

The project is aimed at enhancing the already thriving downtown area, rather than changing the way it is used.

Three main areas of downtown will be targeted: one block on Washington Street, a block on Dubuque Street, and the entire Pedestrian Mall.

“One of the benefits that we have is that the downtown is a very vibrant location right now, there’s a lot of people there, people are naturally drawn to the area,” Assistant City Manager Geoff Fruin said. “Unlike a lot of cities where they’re really trying to get the number of people visiting the downtown area up, we feel very good about the numbers that are there now.”

The construction will replace the dated streetscape left over from the 80’s as well as aging underground utilities, some of which may be as much as 60 years old.

“What this plan does is it kind of takes a step back, and instead of simply replacing what’s there, it asks the question ‘how can the space better serve the public?’” Fruin said.

One example Fruin uses is that of the kiosks downtown.

Currently, they hold a map of the district. However, there are also places for a payphone and newspaper racks. Outdated amenities like these will not be put back in when the construction is complete.

“Certainly things have changed and we need to rethink about how people use that space,” Fruin said. “And how we can put it back together in a manner that better serves them.”

In addition to modernizing the downtown area, the project will also repair and replace many deteriorating amenities people interact with each day.

“It’s more of a maintenance project,” Fruin said. “It’s not a clean slate project where we imagine we’re going to redesign and rebuild the whole thing.”

The maintenance work will address heaving bricks, repairing separated planting walls, replacing rusted out light poles, and even replacing some trees that are reaching the end of their healthy life.

The construction will address issues both above and below ground, depending on the street. In contrast to areas like the Ped Mall, Fruin gives the example of Washington Street. In the summer of 2013, the street experienced a water main break that shut it down for a week.

“In some cases the improvements are really driven by the underground needs,” Fruin said. “In other cases the underground needs aren’t as dire and it’s more about the above ground needs.”

The streetscape plan also includes several projects built with the environment in mind. The street and pedestrian lighting will be changed to an LED system. The downtown area will be made more accessible to bicyclists with more bike lanes and places for bike parking.

The city is also looking at the possibility of an environmental education area between the existing playground and library.

“We would look to introduce some exhibits that highlight recycling and stormwater management aboveground there, perhaps even have some renewable energy exhibits.”

Fruin said. “We are looking for those opportunities as they present themselves.”

The construction timeline extends far into the future, with some projects scheduled to start as far out as 2020.

The big hold up is due to prioritizing within their budget constraints.

“If we had all the money we wanted we would do all three of these within a couple years,” Fruin said, “But we don’t have unlimited amounts of funds to use, so we have to prioritize these projects with other projects in the community.”

The project has moved past master planning and is now in the schematic design phase, where exact timelines and measurements will be hammered out. “[A schematic design] would be the first of three typical design phases for the project where we come up with a couple of different options and work closely with the client committee group for an option.” Angie Coyier, project manager with gēnus landscape architects said. “We look at the framework, the layout, lighting options, and then they’re developed.”

The project has had several phases of community involvement, and the plan was presented at a community input meeting on October 28th. The ICDD, or Iowa City Downtown District is one of many organizations with a vested interest in the project.

“One of our roles as the ICDD is to support businesses and property owners.” Nancy Bird, ICDD Executive Director said. “Sometimes they’re one in the same.”

Although construction may be a minor setback to the downtown area, Bird sees it as a worthwhile investment.

“It is an inconvenience but it’s one that I think people recognize is for the greater good.” Bird said. “We just do our best to get through it so that we can get to the other side

LEFT: Rendering of West Enterence to the Ped Mall.

RIGHT:Rendering of Black Hawk Mini Park after extensive updates and cosmetic rennovations. PHOTO COURTESY

GĒNUS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

The changing face of downtown A number of improvements are being made to downtown Iowa City in order to make the area attractive to a more diverse audience.

By Payton Evans From the latenight bar scene to the quiet, serenity of College Green Park used for anything from frisbee-ing to studying, downtown Iowa City has uses and attractions available to a variety of age groups. However, over the past few years, the City has been making changes to enhance the appeal of the downtown area to a more diverse group of people.

“We’ve done a number of things over the last five years to make downtown more balanced and more attractive to people of all ages,” Iowa City Mayor Matthew Hayek said. “I would say that the level of interest in developing or redeveloping downtown is at a 30 year high.”

Last fall, multiple ordinances were passed in order to make the Ped Mall and other areas downtown more utilizable for all people. Some of these ordinances covered storage of large amounts of personal property, laying down on benches, and other issues that were restricting the utilization of public areas downtown.

“The public amenities downtown are for everyone’s use,” Officer Schwindt, Iowa City’s Downtown Liaison Officer, said. “If a certain number of people are utilizing those all

day everyday, they’re kind of converting it into their own personal use, and it’s not available for the general public.”

Another of several things the city has done in the past five years includes imposing restrictions on the number of bars that can be located downtown. The intention of the law was to limit the expansion of the downtown bar scene by preventing new bars from opening within 500 feet of another establishment, with the exception of existing businesses being grandfathered in.

“We did that in part because we reached a tipping point where there were simply too many bars and the scene was getting out of control,” Hayek said. “It was scaring off retail shops and office uses downtown, as well as causing families and people who would otherwise come downtown to shy away from the area.

With this fairly new law in place, the downtown area has allowed for growth amongst other tenants. Retail shops, restaurants, office spaces, and other forms of art and entertainment have, in turn, made the downtown area more feasible to a variety of age groups and not exclusively to college students and adults utilizing the bar scene.

“We still have plenty of bars; we will always have plenty of bars. It’s a college town and they’re fun, but we also need these other things,” Hayek said. “I think where we stand in 2014 is in a position of having a much better balance downtown, and that’s the secret to a more successful downtown.”

Among the newer tenants downtown are those which will put emphasis on bringing a greater focus to the arts and cultural aspects.

The opening of FilmScene, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to enriching the cultural vitality of the Iowa City area through film that challenges, inspires, educates and entertains,” as well as the reopening of The Englert, Iowa City’s community arts center and performing space, has increased the cultural vitality of the area.

The University of Iowa is also making significant contributions in improving the health and diversity of the downtown area. The construction of the new Voxman Music Building, to be completed in 2016, along with the proposed construction of the art museum in the downtown area is expected to draw more diverse traffic to the area.

“We’ve worked closely with the University to improve downtown and create a better bal-

ance so it’s less of a bar scene and more of a balanced environment where you have bars and restaurants but also retail and cultural venues,” Hayek said. “We’ve made it more of an inviting atmosphere.”

The formation of the Iowa City Downtown District, a board compiled of local businesses and sponsors, in 2012 has also played a large role in reviving the downtown area.

“Our mission is to champion the downtown district as a progressive, healthy, and culturally vibrant urban center of the region,” Iowa City Downtown District Executive Director, Nancy Bird, said. “Our role is to champion the downtown and conveen a lot of diverse interests, as well as to partner and steward the area to support the health of the downtown business district.”

Bird also stresses the importance of the role that a diverse downtown plays in the community.

“We need to make sure that we help support families, teens, and young adults down here, as well as seniors and people who are urban professionals and students,” Bird said.

“Helping to find something that serves all of those different age groups is important to the health of the community.”

A10

OPINION

October 31, 2014

Staff Editorial:

Too Close for Comfort

An avoided shooter situation at West has highlighted the national school shooting epidemic

LH

Executive Editors

anton buri, payton evans

News Editor claire noack

Opinion Editors

will barker, cody owen

Feature Editors

caroline brown, sonali durham

Design Editor cora bern-klug

Sports Editors

dominic balesteri-fox, & innes hicsasmaz

Sports Feature Editor becca meyer

Photo Editor kierra zapf

A&E Editor jonas geerdes

Copy Editor olivia parrott

Ad Managers

nina dang, taylor milefchik

Online Editors

sarah smith, nova meurice, nina dang, and taylor milefchik

Staff joe britton, will braverman, ailsa burke, hazel crew, jordan cronbaugh, madeline deninger, libby fischer, kayla fischer, ellis fontana, claire goodfellow, elise goodvin, teghan gevock, sadie hobbs, jonathan house, anna lepcin, riley lewers, sofie lie, taylor milefchik, wynnefride miller, claire noack, drew orr, isabella pittman, rylee price, elizabeth ronan, katrina scandrett, sophia schlesinger, arielle soemadi, austin tholen, joe weideman

Adviser

jonathan rogers

Online Bios and Stories www.thelittlehawk.com/staff

mission statement

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

Equity Statements

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

If you believe you have (or your child has) been discriminated against or treated unjustly at school, please contact the Equity Director, Ross Wilburn, at 509 S. Dubuque Street, 319-688-1000.

Art by Nova Meurice

F

or most of us, the occurrence of a school shooting is little more than a nightmare, but for those at West High, it almost became reality. On Friday, October 10th, someone brought a gun to West High. As shocking as it is, firearms and shootings in schools have become an epidemic. Eighty-seven school shootings have occurred since the Sandy Hook shooting in December of 2012, an average of 3-4 per month. Three of them have occurred in Iowa.

The Little Hawk staff has voted that we think the Iowa City School District is well prepared for a school schooting. However, we feel that attention to the issues of keeping guns out of the hands of minors, and students mental health could be improved upon. Three-fourths of weapons used in these shootings were unsecured weapons from home. While imposing strict restrictions on firearms is considered extreme and will never happen while organizations like the NRA are so prevalent, simply requiring all firearms to be secured within the home would prevent the majority of these incidents. I wonder how many parents have thought back to the gun left under a pillow and wondered whether if they had locked that weapon away, the world might not be short as many young sons and daughters.

As random as these terrible events seem, there are steps that are being taken by City High and district administrators to prevent shootings and to be prepared if one happens. City High teachers are amazing, and do their best to have good relationships with all their students. Since communication with students and with the community is key to becoming aware of and preventing potentially violent situations the school has implemented a

While safety measures are fine and good once the situation is upon us, we have to understand that preventing school shooters is ultimately up to us. We have to get away from a school community where each of us lives in our own form of isolation.

The situation at West ended without a killing because someone had it in them to talk to this person. How many of these would-be killers could be pacified if someone simply asked them how they’re doing? We are all guilty, and we have all failed these poor people.

Every school in America likes to promote the idea of a unified community. Perhaps it’s time we lived up to that ideal by treating those within our school, everyone, as part of a community. It’s lazy to chock all of this up to simple insanity. Perhaps if we could talk to these people, we would hear a story about loneliness, bitterness, but most of all about a lack of compassion. A story about how no one cares. These people rage within their own minds while the world around them continues to turn, unabated, and those around them continue with their lives completely oblivious to the pain and woe of one of their classmates. Often the only difference between a horrific spree of violence and a crisis averted is one person’s compassion to break that terrible system of silence. People don’t want to talk about it. They look into the eyes of someone so afflicted and are terrified by what they see there.

It’s said that the eyes are the windows of the soul.

A look into a soul so filled with lonesomeness and rage is enough to rattle anyone. If anything will ever change, we need to change how we think, how we operate. We cannot simply leave each other to the wolves of “not my problem.” Thankfully for those at West High that day, for all of us, someone had it in them to ask when they saw a person at their breaking point. We could all stand to take a lesson.

Do you think adequate measures are being taken by the school district to prevent school shootings?

Yes:10

No: 6

system to make sure that every student feels appreciated and known by teachers. In the teachers lounge there are class lists posted on the walls with the names of every student at City High.

Teachers are encouraged to cross off the list names of kids who they have talked to and have good relationships with. This way it is easy to see who is accounted for and who is left out.

In addition to preventing shootings through maintaining good relationships with City High students, teachers are trained in what to do if an actual shooting emergency were to occur. Since the terrible shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut the department of education has worked hard to make sure that every teacher in the country is trained on how to deal with an active shooter. The system is called Alice which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. The Alice system was in place before Sandy Hook but has been completely re-designed in the last two years. In the summer before school started in 2013 City High teachers attended a training session at City High designed to prepare them for a real shooting. Teachers were placed in their normal classrooms while police officers walked around the school shooting guns with blanks in them. Teachers were told what to do and became much more familiar with their rooms safety features, and are now more prepared for a real shooting.

A11

October 31, 2014

OPINION

The Misrule of King Branstad

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by CODY OWEN

It’s election time again, that magical time of year when we elect to keep our ineffective politicians, or replace them with equally ineffective politicians that hail to a different animal.

Perhaps the most important election coming up is the race for the governor’s office. However, if recent polls are to be taken into account, we should be gearing up for four more Terrible years.

Branstad’s administration, especially in recent years, has largely been characterized by scandal, lawsuits, and shady use of government power reminiscent of the roaring 20’s. Four years ago, when Branstad took office, there was a mass firing of dozens of workers to make way for Branstad supporters and donors (which is known as cronyism), and the use

of over $700,000 tax dollars to keep these former employees quiet about the circumstances under which they lost their jobs. When this became known after the release of secret emails in a report by the Des Moines Register, it led to a witch-hunt among state officials.

Or the incident with the firing of the state trooper after he capture video footage of the governor’s van doing 90 on the highway. In addition, the governor’s recent visit to the Iowa Supreme Court, where is was decided that the governor was not immune to lawsuit, and that the case of extortion, sexual discrimination, and sexual harassment currently being brought against him could proceed.

The governor’s legal bills are even paid by taxpayers, and are climbing

close to $1,000,000.

This blatant corruption is a blight on the credibility of the state, an offense to the people who’ve elected these charlatans to office with the expectation that the other end of the social contract of representative government would be upheld, and an insult to the very system of representative democracy. The most amazing part of it all is how we, as Iowans, have elected this administration four times. The entire basis of our system of representative democracy is that the elected officials agree to act in our best interests in exchange for the power we’ve given them.

Elected officials must underst and

that their power is limited, and the voters need to demonstrate that limitation by removing these violators from office. Cronyism, bribery, promoting business interests over the citizens, lawsuits, extortion, harassment, and helping keep large-scale embezzlers away from the law. The administration has been brought to court or convicted for all of these offenses. While it may be too much to ask to have a nice independent come along and bring an end to party politics and business influence in Iowa, surely there are many other politicians who do the job better than t h i s . It’s time for the common person to take charge and remove such a man from our government and our minds.

Mr Roger’s beard No Iowa Assessments for seniors DTRB Lime Up radiostation Day off Halloween on a Friday Foreign exchange students Avengers 2 The Premier League

Dolphin rape Art by: Nova Meurice

Iowa Assessments Being too old to trick or treat Apples as Halloween treats

Destroying the Grade Book

C lunch

by Jordan Cronbaugh The sentence “I put your test grades in last night” is one of the most fear-inducing phrases to a high school student. Hands start to inch towards phones to open up powerschool, palms begin to sweat as everyones mind races. Students pull out phones during class to check if new scores changed the overall grade they have. Pained looks and laughs of glee litter the class as score details are examined.

The obsession with grades has slowly escalated to students checking powerschool even when they know that nothing has changed. Just in case a grade has dropped, or raised. Grades are supposed to be used as a mark of progress, things you can improve on or things that are going well. When checked all the time, they lose their intended purpose.

In our modern day school system though, grades have become an even bigger part of a class. Students feel immense pressure to receive grades that are ‘above average’ and need to check them all the time to make sure that they stay where they were intended to be. This poses a problem with stress and attention. Kids are so focused on getting good grades that they forget to learn.

So much emphasis is put on getting good grades- the general mind set is if you want to get into a good college, get good grades (unless you’re

Lost puppies really talented in something else). Your success in life reflects your grade point average. But in reality, they’re meant for something else. Grades reflect progress. Low grades show the need for help in a class, not your intelligence on a subject, but this is sometimes forgotten when you’re constantly surrounded by kids who are better at the subject than you are.

As someone who takes five AP classes, I feel like I can relate. When I get a 98 percent, there’s a kid who gets 100. There’s always going to be that kid who makes you feel like crap whenever you see your grades. But there’s nothing you can do about it. That kid will always be looking over your shoulder, fueling the obsession, and sometimes, that sucks. It sucks to feel like you’re less than what you are and it really sucks to have someone tell you that. But that doesn’t mean that it’s true.

I’m not going to sit here and lecture, pretending that I don’t check powerschool. Every single student checks powerschool. But that’s another thing. Checking occasionally isn’t the same as pulling it up first thing whenever you log onto a computer. It isn’t the same as checking just because you got bored of typing your essay. Remember that you are more than what is on the screen, and that you are not measured by the range of your grades.

Fluorescent Lights Cold rain Trucks taking up two spots Starbucks prices Lack of Wing Chun

A12

October 31, 2014

OPINION

Policing the Police

RIGHT TO RE-

by Will Barker

One of the most iconic scenes in the 1971 vigilante cop movie Dirty Harry comes when Agent Callahan tortures a killer who has information about the location of one of his victims.

The scene ends with the killer yelling “I have a right to a lawyer!” as the movie’s hero Callahan continues to torture this obviously guilty man.

This scene is shocking to many modern audiences but was a box office success when it was first released because it brilliantly captured the mentality of a country overrun with criminals in 1971. It was this mentality that caused police and law enforcement to crack down on crime.

Incarceration rates quadrupled in the next 40 years. While this might have been exactly what the country needed in the 70s, today things have gotten out of hand as police have gone too far in the other direction.

Even though incarceration rates are through the roof and crime rates are in the basement, police continue to arrest everyone who looks at them weirdly. As of 2012 there were 1.6 million Americans in federal prison, eight times what there were in 1970. Because of the continued police crack down, more and more horror stories of police brutality and innocent people going to jail are appearing in the news.

In 2011 Kalief Browder a 16 year old from the Bronx was thrown in jail for three years without a trial and placed in solitary confinement for 800 days after being accused of stealing a backpack. Browder continued to say he was innocent and requested a trial. For years juvenile corrections officers offered him plea deals and continued to delay the trial. Every plea deal that Browder was offered involved more jail time for a misdemeanor which he may or may not have committed. True stories like this seem like

something out of The Shawshank Redemption and have family members of suspects wondering how officers and state attorneys believe they can get away with such blatant violations of citizen’s rights. The reason why is that law enforcement officials are rewarded when prisons are full. Unfortunately, cases such as Browder’s that get reported on the news are only the cases where suspects held up under pressure and stood up for their rights, in many other cases suspects kept in jail will accept bad deals from prosecutors and serve time that the don’t actually deserve.

In addition to keeping suspects in jail without a speedy trial, often law enforcement will seize money or freeze bank accounts of suspects because of the suspicion that the money was obtained illegally, a practice called civil forfeiture.

In cases of massively rich drug lords, this might be a legitimate practice however, the evidence required for civil forfeiture is extremely minimal and as a result, many innocent people are unable to defend their rights because they have no access to their legitimately earned money.

Even though murder rates are the lowest they have been in 50 years local and state police across the country find it necessary to purchase ex military grade hardware to protect against “Terrorist threats” and other dangers plaguing small town America. Waterloo, Iowa joined the ranks of weekend soldier police forces by purchasing an urban assault vehicle. The police department claims that this new toy is a benefit to their “tactical teams”. Why the Waterloo police’s tactical teams need a tank for busting meth labs remains to be seen. But there was enough of a case made to convince the Department of Homeland Security to offer a grant for

the vehicle. Dozens of other local police forces have purchased similar surplus army vehicles and equipment, the Ferguson Missouri police department is among them. Throughout the month of August riots in Ferguson, Missouri were handled poorly in part due to the overzealous, over armed, and trigger happy police department. In the wake of the Ferguson riots police departments should be working with their communities to prevent further violence instead of flaunting their newly acquired military hardware. In order to maintain a healthy relationship between citizens and police, people should not be afraid of their police departments.

While 40 years ago immediate imprisonment for suspects, civil forfeiture, and militarization of police departments may have made sense and appealed to the general public, today actions like these by police are unnecessary and harmful. In this new era of low crime rates a new attitude needs to be taken by law enforcement. If suspects are granted speedy trials, it will mean more immediate justice, and less wasted time by law enforcement officials. Civil forfeiture should only be used when it has been proven that a suspect’s money was obtained illegally. Additionally police departments should not be allowed to purchase military grade hardware when it is not needed, and should instead become more focused on their communities in order to maintain low crime rates and keep up good relations with the public. In the past, the police have been effective in taking new stances on crime, the crackdown in the 70s and 80s was a good thing, but now that crime rates have gone down it is time for Dirty Harry to put away his gun and take up golf.

SILENT

“

“I know you want the new calculators because they are so slim and sexy.”

- Mr. Bevelaqua

“HRGHSSSSSSSSSSS” -Mr. Hartwig imitating a possesed cat

“Under no circumstances am I allowed to do crack with you”

Frightful Future

-Mr. Burkle

by Jonas Geerdes

“I need to go find a corner to die in now” -Mrs. Smirl trying to get the class’s atention

“Parents shouldn’t show off their ugly babies”

“

- M. Balcaen

“It’s not wrong to be in love” Art by Nova Meurice

It’s strange what a few beheadings can do to a country. Along with a rapidly spreading disease that causes internal damage., our country is apparently in complete disarray. It’s clear from our reactions and overreactions of the recent Ebola outbreak that we have no idea what to do. The barbaric behavior of ISIS has left us dumbstruck as we cannot identify a face behind the mask. Our attempts to control these problems have caused more harm than good, with the solutions creating more trauma and panic. There are now proposals stop all all flights from West Africa to America. According to an article by the Washington Post, travel agencies in Africa have already begun restricting air access from the ebola-infected countries.

Stopping people from traveling to get their much needed medical help won’t stop the infections.

While Ebola is a horrific disease

with a high fatality rate, each year more people die from common diseases such as the seasonal flu.

The Center of Disease Control and Prevention explains that over ten thousand people die per year from seasonal flu related deaths.

In contrast, Ebola only recorded a death count of little over five thousand in the 2013 year. Ninety-percent of those deaths recorded were from African countries Further, past epidemics have not been a insurmountable problem in the past for the world. In the case of the influenza flu pandemic of 1918, an estimated 3% to 5% of the world population died. Ebola will go away, it just needs time. So stop spreading the anxiety, and spread the awareness. That you need to get a flu shot.

The media itself promotes the nightmares, with constant updates on ebola, providing disturbing image of the unlucky victims who contract the disease. People

follow the updates religiously, and spread rumors through the air like an actual virus that is infecting our minds. That irrational fear of the future is crippling us as a nation, as it slowly gives way to future mass paranoia.

The fear of one man needs not to become the fear of all. Scared persons tend to think, “Could this happen to me? Could I be the first person to get ebola from the air?

Maybe ISIS will attack my city because we have the best corn crop?”

Our instincts lead us to fear the future. Examine pop-culture, with the genre of zombie-thriller rising to the top spot. Franchises like The Walking Dead make millions from guessing people’s fears. People are afraid when they can’t predict.

The show predicts you will probably die a painful death of being slowly eaten alive or gunned down by fellow humans. People eat that stuff up. It piques their interest.

Almost as much as children dying

from Ebola or little British girls fighting a faith war for the jihadists. Because we can’t believe in something so ridiculous, that it makes us want to follow it even more closely. The media uses this reverse psychology to give us the emotion we call fear. Again the heavy media presence corrupts our foreign outlook on the world, as we only learn from their lying selves.

The media reports only on the one of a million of people who contract ebola. What about the other nine-thousand nine hundred ninety-nine? They’re ebola free and are not wasting their time on poor newscasting. They are not being morons. They are accomplishing things that will help them in their life, like getting flu shots.

People are only terrified if they become idiots that stare at the screen all day. Go out, do something that isn’t ebola or ISIS related. Trick or Treat or something.

- Mr. Rogers

LH OPINION O

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w w w . t h e l i t t l e h a w k . c o m

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October 25, 2014

OPINION

Ellis Says NO to the MPAA

by Ellis Fontana

So it’s that time of the year again, it’s Oscar season. Which, for those of you who are not familiar with that concept, means that we are about to be bombarded with a series of new movies that try to be “thought-provoking” or “original” in order to corrupt our youth. I mean, how dare Gone Girl challenge the concept of the American Dream and the still present gender dynamics of America? Who does Steve Carell think he is being all serious in Foxcatcher? What does Christopher Nolan think he’s doing with Interstellar? Just make another Batman already! It’s these kinds of movies that are threatening to destroy the minds of our youths every winter season with their flashy cinematography and good writing, and it’s for this reason that we have built the glorious MPAA to protect us from the evils of cinema and tell us what’s right for us to watch.

Now, hopefully the average reader will find something very wrong with that first paragraph, and if not then maybe this article is not for you. But nevertheless, the movie industry needs to come face to face with one of its current problems: The Motion Picture Association of America (or the MPAA). For those of you who don’t know, the MPAA was created as a way of regulating and rating the content of movies for the public, a.k.a. G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. Originally, the MPAA was much more lenient one what could go into a PG movie. For example, the first scene in the movie Jaws contains a girl skinny-dipping in the open before having her leg ripped apart by a nasty shark and being eaten whole; not to mention the recurring use of swearing, blood, gore, violence, and alcohol use throughout the movie. Yet despite these “horrible” profanities, Jaws still got the PG rating which allowed it to draw in the huge crowds and create the modern blockbuster. However, since then the MPAA has significantly cracked down on what qualifies as PG-13 or R due to the demand by parents that were worried that their precious children would become serial killers because they saw Ar-

nold Schwarzenegger shoot a guy in the face. It’s because of this crackdown that the MPAA has become more of a hinderance to the movie making business than a helpful guide.

The main problem with the MPAA is actually what it specializes in regulating, the marketing. In Hollywood, it’s a well known fact that a movie rated R will do worse at the box office than a movie rated PG-13, and it’s this fact that spurs movie producers and directors to pander to the MPAA’s strict rules on what’s okay for kids to see in order to get a PG-13 rating. You can see this pandering with the famous “One F*** per movie”, where if a movie uses the oh-so-terrible F-Bomb twice then they get slapped with an R rating for “Language”.... for two swears.

Hopefully, you can see the problem that the MPAA creates when it forces directors to submit to their rules on what is or isn’t morally correct. This kind of restriction makes your summer blockbuster movie into another cookie-cutter action movie with no realism, real violence, grittiness, or true emotion to them. And if you like those kinds of movies, then great, you can have those opinions but you still can’t deny that these restrictions make it much harder for movies to branch out.

Unfortunately, the problems with the MPAA are not just restricted to a simple matter of how strict or loose their rules are, but also include controversy on homophobic ideas that the MPAA creates. If you want to hear more about the problems with the MPAA’s view of sexuality you can go watch the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated(2006) by Kirby Dick. In this documentary it compares two movies: But I’m A Cheerleader(Rated NC-17) and American Pie(Rated R) and it shows the clear unfairness with the difference in rating. Since most of the readers are probably not familiar with this movie, But I’m A Cheerleader is about a high school girl who begins having thoughts about her sexuality and is sent to a correction camp. The film was rated NC-17 because of “Sexual Scenes/

Themes”, and in order to change the rating down to R, the director cut a two-second clip of one of the characters having a non-nudity masturbation scene. Let me repeat that in case you didn’t get it the first time, a two-second clip with no nudity. Now let’s compare that to American Pie which was rated R from the get go, in that movie there is a scene where one of the characters masturbates with a pie. Once again, I’m going to repeat that, a character masturbates with an apple pie and ejaculates into it, not to mention the whole movie is about high school kids trying to get laid, and yet it was only rated R. Hopefully you can see the problem with the MPAA’s morals here.

Honestly, I could write a several page essay on all of the problems that the MPAA creates in the film industry and why there should be a larger demand for change in the system. But I doubt that the opinion editors want me to take up the entire Opinion page so I think I should wrap it up in this last paragraph here. In short, the MPAA creates small boxes for the creative and intelligent people making the movies they love to be trapped and confined inside based on the morality of a loud minority. And the worst part is that it doesn’t work, for example just this summer me and some friends walked into 22 Jump Street (Great movie by the way) by buying tickets to Maleficent, and is anyone going to arrest us now that I’ve released this information? No, because no one actually cares, because it doesn’t matter what letter you put on a movie. If someone wants to watch a movie, they’ll watch that movie, whether its buy sneaking in, Netflix, DVD, or just pirating it online it is physically impossible to regulate movies the same way anymore. Trying to do so is just trying to preserve a past way of thinking in a modern and socially changing time, it just gets tedious at this point. So please MPAA, just stop. Stop with all of this overprotectiveness, homophobia, and pretentious moral ideals, because it’s starting to get really annoying.

art by Nova Meurice

Let’s Get Satirical: “Aesthetic Appeal is Key” Say Apple Users

by Sophia Schlesinger

Apple has done it again. It’s double release of the curvaceous iPhone 6 along with iOS 8 includes many new features, especially those incorporating the fingerprint scanner, such as applications like Apple Pay and the Health app. I’m especially fond of these features because it makes it so that I never have to carry anything more than my phone. And if I ever lose it, I can kiss goodbye not just some, but all of my social security.

Never again will I have to carry out the most taxing task of carrying my purse with me to the store-- now, I can simply whip out my iPhone, who’s gold-aluminum sheen is almost as bright as my first world privilege.

The new iOS 8 also includes shortcuts for many tasks, such as texting, calling, and FaceTiming. All one must do is double click the home button, and a list of recent correspondents displays across the top of the screen. Additionally, one can respond to texts the very moment they come in, making us all into the human version of a cat chasing a laser dot. I love cats! Lol cats, midget cats, you name it. This also saves me whole seconds when trying to respond to a text. If a phonerelated task takes longer than ten seconds, it can’t be worth anybody’s time. Any capitalist citizen worth their salt wears their ADHD on their sleeves. One must let the world know, “I’m important. I couldn’t care less if what you have to say is urgent. My twitter feed is shinier and moves much faster than your trifling self.” We can all sleep a little better at night know-

ing our human interactions are purified to filter out the dirt of intimate and meaningful connection.

That said, the iPhone 6 has seen an increase in screen size as well as resolution. The new screen sizes are either 4.7 inches for the regular iPhone 6, and a whoppin’ 5.5 inches for the majestic iPhone 6 Plus. This size has earned it the derogatory-sounding title of a “phablet.” In addition, the iPhone 6 has 1334x750 pixel resolution, up from 1136x640 pixel resolution on the iPhone 5s. Could these changes have easily been made a year ago? Two years ago? Yes. Do these changes really make all that much difference? This significant change in resolution is virtually undetectable to the human eye, but it does drain my battery life. I’m still going to pay the extra $200. It’s just like Tim Cook said at the release, “I mean, it’s a lot, but it’s still what all the cool kids are doing. You losers.*” Besides, I can hardly be seen with my current phone, the iPhone 4s. It came out a whole three years ago; it should be extinct by now. It’s glass casing is prehistoric, it might as well be clothed in alligator skin. It’s 3.5 inch screen is practically the size of the common wristwatch. Just before handing me my decaf-soy-mocha-chicken-latte, the blonde woman behind the counter at Starbucks clicked her tongue and snidely remarked, “Wow, can you even call people on that thing?!” and shuffled away in her $200, shapeless, Ugg boots. You see my predicament. What with Apple constantly putting out new software

designed to slow down my phone, it has become the technological equivalent of a backwater, confederate old man; spewing racial slurs and screaming about how Hoover is ruining the nation.

Now, one could perhaps argue that Apple has betrayed all of it’s products. Like some middle-aged, fashion photographer, it’s moved the iPhone 4s through the stages of fame, praise, glory, and then promptly stolen away it’s self-esteem and allowed to rot away on sites like ebay, with the dehumanizing description, “lightly used.” It could be that Apple has betrayed my phone. It could be that I’ve betrayed my phone. And, it will probably be that the iPhone 6 will end up in the same cruel cycle. The gods of Apple have turned generation after generation of iPhone into the tragic hero; it’s just a matter of a few years until the iPhone 6 is slapped with an Oedipus complex and a low-lit photoshoot on craigslist.

But I’m going to buy it anyway because it’s so pretty. *Note-- not a real quote from Tim Cook

ARTS

A14 Upcoming Events Ty Dolla Sign @ Blue Moose on November 12th at 7:00 pm

&

ENTERTAINMENT

Open Screen Night @ Film Scene on November 16th at 5:00 pm A Christmas Carol Premiere @ Riverside Theater on November 28 - Time Undecided

From Greased to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious The decision has been made to change the spring musical from Grease to Mary Poppins.

By Ailsa Burke While some are still prancing around in their poodle skirts, stuck back in early October, the rest of us have moved onto jumping about with umbrellas and singing about spoonfuls of sugar. If you’re totally lost, let me explain: City’s Spring musical has been changed from Grease to Mary Poppins, and not everyone is floating with elation (and magic umbrellas).

Earlier this month, on October 14th, the rights to Mary Poppins became available after several years of running on Broadway and going on national tours. The drama department quickly applied for these rights to perform the show, and was granted them. The decision was made to replace Grease with Mary Poppins this year, pushing Grease back to be performed in the Spring of 2016.

“We’ve been waiting for this for many years,” City Drama director Troy Peters said, “If we were to do [Mary Poppins] in 2016, everybody and their dog would’ve performed this show by then.”

Some concerns about the change in plans have been voiced by this year’s seniors, but positive attitudes are being held up.

“It’s really disappointing for seniors because we won’t get a chance to do Grease,” Elena Swanson ‘15 said. “Everyone else can do it next year, but this was our last chance to do Grease, and we missed it. After some time I’ve adjusted to the change and accepted it, I’m excited now.”

Senior Arielle Soemadi describes her feelings about the situation when first hearing about the change, and how she’s feeling looking forward into the Spring.

Right acquired to the film by Disney

Scene Rights aquired for a musical

1961 1934 First book published

1967 Film Premiered on August 27

1993

“At first I was really upset because I was so pumped to do Grease,” Soemadi ‘15 said, “now, I’m excited again. Musical time is so fun, I’m with my closest friends on stage, I know it’s going to be such a fun time and I encourage everyone to try out because these past two years for me has some of my favorite memories.”

Being part of the drama department for many years, senior Libby Fischer tries to help herself and other stay positive about the switch.

“If Grease hadn’t originally been said to be the musical, everyone would be super excited about Mary Poppins,” Libby Fischer ‘15 said. “That’s the way I’m spinning it to people that come to me complaining. Mary Poppins is still going be really awesome.”

One other possible effect of the change in musical is the change in audience turnout.

“Mary Poppins is pretty kid-friendly show,” Will Barker ‘15 said. “There are always people who don’t like that, there are always people who want to do the raunchiest, sexiest show that we can do.”

“The student body likes the raunchy shows,” Swanson ‘15 said. “But I think we’ll draw in a larger outside audience if we do a kid-friendly show, which Mary Poppins definitely is.”

Despite all the hullabaloo following the switch in plans, Peters is in high spirits about the upcoming show. “[Mary Poppins] is a great show, it’s filled with magic and special effects and flying and all kinds of stuff,” Peters said. “It’s going to be a challenge as far as sets, lighting, sounds, and special effects, and we love those challenges. It’s going to be a different production, probably bigger and more dazzling than Grease.”

Premiered on Broadway

2006 2004 2007

Saving Mr. Banks arrangements are sold to Disney

2013

2014

Premiered at the West Broadway Production Rights released for local End Theater wins Tony Award for productions best scene design October 14

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A&E October 31, 2014

Film Scene: The New Downtown Cinema Iowa City comes together to support Downtown’s new Indie Theater, Film Scene.

By Ayla Canin Little girls with missing front teeth and white haired grandparents alike are traipsing down the long glass hallway to a cheerful lobby, looking forward to coffee and popcorn, a comfy armchair, and a good movie at Iowa City FilmScene.

It has been just under six months since FilmScene, Iowa City’s only seven-day-a-week movie theater was opened by Andie Brodie and Andrew Sherburne, and already they have surpassed their ticket-sales goal for the entire year. They had hoped to sell 10,000 tickets to their 67-seat theatre in 2014, and as of earlyMay they have met that goal.

“That’s pretty good for only being up for five months,” said Sherburne. “We’re about 40% ahead of where we were projected to be.

A lot of people have wanted this for a long time and it just shows that people were hungry for this.”

The founders of FilmScene, former Bijou director Andie Brodie and independent filmmaker Andrew Sherburne, succeeded in creating FilmScene in December of 2013, after two years of working make the necessary connections, find a suitable location, and a campaign to raise the money required to open FilmScene. The effort to raise the money began with a campaign that targeted higher-dollar donors, then moved on to a crowd-funding phase. The community responded to the crowd-funding request and more than $91,000 were donated

by Iowa City-area film-lovers. In total, the campaigns raised almost $250,000.

“We knew it was going to take a lot of work to get something up and running,” said Sherburne. “Doing it as a non-profit, we had to raise a lot of money. Raising the money and...following through with all those things was a lot of work and it took a lot of time. The only way to do it was slow--it did take over two years.”

With daily programming of independent features and documentaries, foreign films, student-focused late-night weekend movies,

ALBUM REVIEW From Nico & Vinz

A

By Jonas Geerdes

m I wrong to be in love the new norwegian pop duo? Yep. The hype of “ Am I Wrong” led to a wish to see more of this duo’s new blended style of pop and reggae music. The album was released on a thirty month delay due to the addition of “I, the controversy created a mob of doubters who felt that they could never live up to the expectations. I believed the album to be like “Am I Wrong”, onehit wonders. Knocked off its spot of the top thirty albums on itunes within a week, most have underestimated the new norwegians, and they do have a point. They have shed the traditional pop values like quick rhythms and catchy lyrics to focus more on creating a rich blend of reggae, pop, and soul music. I, as the could-be fan, easily understood the motivation behind the album. Nico and Vinz were able to put Africa in a new light, changing the view of mass hunger and sickness to a proud people with big dreams. The title of the album itself is a nod to the artist’s roots of Ghana. Mad props to the Nico Sereba and Vincent Dery for their heart-felt ambition.

The album itself consists of thirteen total songs and seven shorter intervals. The intervals themselves served as limitations to the album overall. They gave more of a gap-to fill feeling, as if they tried to make the album

and animated films for children, people of all ages can be seen lounging in the lobby and sinking into the arm chairs and couches that furnish FilmScenes 67-seat theatre. Since FilmScene opened, it has shown a variety of films, including early showings of films that turned out to win Oscars, like Alexander Payne’s Nebraska and Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. In programming for the single theatre, Brodie and Sherburne have tried to cater a variety of ages and movie preferences.

“Quite a wide variety {of people come to FilmScene},” said Brodie. “We try to do different kinds of series and films and things that attract all ages. We’ve done things that are geared towards kids and families and we’ve done stuff that brings in a lot of college students and we’ve done stuff that brings in an older demographic.”

While in school at the University of Iowa, Brodie directed the student-run Bijou Movie Theater, which is now housed in the IMU. Though the theatre there seated more people, it was far enough from downtown that it did not serve the wide-swath of movie-goers that Brodie and Sherbourne believed needed a place to see great films. And since The Englert and the Campus both stopped showing movies there was no place in downtown Iowa City to see movies.

“I really like seeing people enjoy film-these kinds of films especially,” said Emily Salmonson, director of operations at FilmScene. “I always wished Iowa City would have {an independent film theatre} that would show films we usually wouldn’t see.”

The programming at FilmScene is ultimately carried out by Brodie, but FilmScene still collaborates with the Bijou film board, gets feedback from a student advisory group which makes a list of movies they would like to see as well as a couple of series they curate on their own, and suggestions from FilmScene and board members. Requests from the community are welcome.

“We definitely love hearing from people in ABOVE: The facade of Film Scene is plastered with posters and faces the Downtown Iowa City Ped Mall.

PHOTO BY: CAROLINE BROWN the community,” said Sherburne.

Black Star Elephant seem larger than it was. The upbeat afro music is consistent with cheesy lyrics especially the song “Miracles” with the chorus “You don’t have to be big and tall, To stand up and hold your own”. The cheesiness continues with the song “People” first verse describing how if we are “If we were all rich we would be poor,” and “ if I had money I would provide for my family.” Diversity ranges from the rapping in “Another Day” and the more-African themed “My Melody,” (pronounced melo-day in the song). However the deep rumble and the fivehundred plus hum-hums of “Imagine” exaggerates the African blend. After that, things became a little blurrish. Lots of good rhythm but much of it too similar to take much notice.

The lyrics grow tiresome very quickly with the cheese overload.

Overall the album was a good switch from the flood of sob stories that we keep hearing from Africa. Nico Serena and Vincent Derby both contribute to the content with Derby’s mad raps and Serena’s abundant knowledge of African tradition. Despite the immediate backlash, the songs all contain the elements of good, blended afro-themed music that describes the joys of African culture. Overall the album is a three out of five stars, good for beginners. They develop a distinct style that gives the heart a good tug, but the cheese gets to be too much. One pity star and two for the effort.

A&E October 31, 2014

A16

major profile The Little Hawk sat down with the three drum majors of the Little Hawk marching band, Drew Gartner ‘15, Kayla Schumacher ‘16, and Myles Young ‘16 and discussed what it is like to be in charge and conduct The Little Hawk Marching Band.

By Jonathan House LH: What is your favorite part about being a drum major?

LH: What’s the hardest part about being a drum major?

DG: I think it’s definitely got to be the performances, just being in front of thousands of people, kind of with your band, it just is really exhilarating and awesome to be like, this is my band, and I helped create what we’re showing you.

KS: It’s really like a bonding experience with your band, you get to know everybody for how they are, and how they work.

MY: I’d say my favorite part is just getting to conduct the band, because it’s a really exciting thing, because everyone is reacting to what you do, and that’s a really good feeling.

DG: I think it is being able to kind of balance having to learn your own music, kind of being in charge of the band, but making sure that they look good, but then also making sure that you don’t mess up either. It’s a big balance between managing the band and yourself.

KS: The people don’t always take criticism that well, I mean, especially when they are in your friend group. and you are trying to help. It is really hard to talk to them, but you have to separate yourself from your friends at that time, and they have to know you are doing what’s best for the band.

MY: I’d say the hardest part was, at least for the first time was getting up in front of the crowd, knowing that if you mess up, it could potentially mess up the whole band.

LH: Why did you want to become a drum major?

DG: Well, there are a few reasons, I’ve always really liked band, and especially marching band, I thought it was always really fun, and I thought it would be pretty cool to actually be in charge of the band, and that it would be kind of cool to have a different perspective of working with the band.

KS: One reason was because Savannah, who was our last drum major was one of my closest friends, and she said ‘Hey, you’d be really good at it’, so I’m like ok, I’ll try. It seemed like something that would help me later in life, if I want to go into music.

MY: I just wanted to have, kind of, an outlet for leadership, so that way I had an application for college, and it’s kind of something I’ve always kind of wanted to do since I was a freshman, and I joined the marching band.

LH: What did you do to prepare to become a drum major?

DG: Each year, in the summer, the school sends you to a drum major camp, where there are a bunch of different drum majors there. They work on things like conducting, how to lead the band, also you get your scores before the year is over, so you are supposed to work on them all summer, but nothing really prepares you kind of for the first day being in front of the band.

KS: I practiced, Savannah showed me a lot of conducting, and she showed me how to call to attention, She also showed me some videos to watch.

MY: I just kind of practiced conducting at home, and basically, just a lot of marching leading up to the audition.

LH: How is being a drum major different from being a regular member of the marching band?

DG: There’s a lot more pressure, the directors are always looking at you, you can mess up when you are in the regular band, and, you know, a lot of the times it won’t go noticed, whereas if you mess up as a drum major, it is guaranteed to get chewed out, and you are going to be under fire for a little while.

KS: You have to be reliable, like if someone asks “oh, how do I do this, like how do I march?” you have to know not just how to conduct, but how to march really well, and how to tell them ‘oh yeah, you’re wrong, but that’s ok, we’ll fix it,’ because some people don’t take it as well.

MY: It’s not a lot harder, but it’s definitely a lot different, because you kind of have to watch out for everyone, and make sure their marching is right, and there’s always those couple people who don’t want to listen, so then you have to try to get them to listen to you.

LH: What’s the sensation of being up on the ladder conducting everyone?

DG: It is one of the best feelings in the world, it’s so cool, especially big games, there’s a bunch of people there, it’s the best feeling in the world.

KS: At first, in my first game, it was nerve wracking, because you don’t want to screw up, but now it’s like, oh, I’m actually up here, and I know what I’m doing, it gives you a sense oh I know what I’m doing, and I feel good about it.

MY: I hate to describe it as power, but it does feel kind of powerful, because everyone is reacting to what you do.

LH: What’s your best memory of your time as a drum major?

DG: I think the Bates Field Folies are always one of the most memorable times, last year, my first year as a drum major, I had two seniors, and they were in tears, after we were done, it’s just kind of an emotional experience, and it’s just really interesting to see how attached people come to marching band.

KS: Heck Week, because you met everyone, and you got to bond with everyone.

MY: My best memory thus far was definitely the first performance, just because it was a brand new feeling, and it was really cool.

LH: What’s your most embarrassing moment as a drum major?

DG: There are a lot of embarrassing moments, I mess up a lot, I’m not gonna lie, we all do. I think just the constant, you know messing up in front of the band, it’s always embarrassing, especially when the directors get upset at you, because then there’s 200 kids like ‘wow, this guy does not know what he is doing.’

KS: Falling down the ladder in heck week, yeah, that sucked.

MY: When I tried to set the field horizontally, and Mr. Arp made fun of me for seven minutes.

LH: What do you think was the most successful part about this year’s marching band season?

DG:This year, I think we brought together the largest band that we’ve ever had, and have made the show really come together. It was awesome, we’ve never really had a show come together this well before.

KS: We’ve improved a lot, from the year before to now, we’ve actually improved not just our music, but our marching.

MY: I’d say our most successful thing was the first performance, because it went a lot better than it did last year.

LH:What are your expectations for next year?

DG: (Senior, not asked this question) KS: To do better, like always, I mean, you can’t just say “I’m gonna try my hardest, but I know I can’t do it,” You have to have the attitude that I can.

MY: I would definitely expect the band to be even better than it is now, we’re gonna have a lot of senior leadership next year, since we have a lot of junior section leaders this year, and it’s gonna be a good year.

LH: How do you think state went?

DG: It was good, we didn’t really know what was gonna happen, and it was really exciting to get a division I rating.

KS: Overall, I think we did really well, I was nervous, everyone was really nervous, the drum majors especially, but I think we did really well, and from up on the ladder it looked like we cleaned a lot of stuff up, and we all felt a sense of relief when it was over. We all sounded good, we had good dynamics, especially on the backfield to frontfield, you could really tell a difference.

MY: I’d say it went pretty well considering that we got a a division one rating, the color guard was good, all the transitions were good, the music was fantastic, we had a lot of sound from everybody, the judges were impressed, and the issues we had were minor.

SPORTS

Putting the

pieces together After finishing their season, Varsity football looks to a bright future next year.

October 31, 2014

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October 31, 2014

SPORTS

Table of Contents Varsity Football: Fixing Mistakes Necessary for Success Sophomore Football: Looking Forward

3

Varsity Volleyball: Conference Champs on the Road to State

4

Girls’ Varsity Cross Country: Young Team Takes

MVC Title and Qualifies for State

6

Boys’ Varsity Cross Country: Bender on to State

8

It Takes a Team

9

12

Playmaker Profile: Ashley Smith Keeping Her Eyes on the Ball

B3

SPORTS October 31, 2014

ABOVE: Michael Fredieu ‘15 receives a hand off from Nate Wieland ‘17 during the homecoming game against Prairie. Fredieu has taken up the starting running back position after Runge ‘15 was injured.

Photo by Cora Bern-Klug

Fixing Mistakes Necessary for Varsity Success

Sophomore Football Looks Forward After First Career Loss

Little Hawks go (2-7) overall, missing playoffs by narrow margin

Sophomores turn (34-0) loss into motivation for the 2015 season

By Dominic Balestrieri-Fox

By Bella Pittman & Sadie Hobbs

After a dramatic back-and-forth final loss to Muscatine (42-47) the City High football team is left without a playoff game for the first time in 12 years.

“We’ve been through a lot this season as a team, and it hasn’t been easy at times but we stuck together and were able to create opportunities for ourselves towards the end of the season,” Fredieu said.

Overall, the Little Hawks went (0-4) in non-district play, the first time in 33 years that they dropped beneath (0-3).

The Little Hawks rallied late in the season with back to back victories including a Homecoming win against Prairie (27-23) and a comeback win against Burlington High School (38-24).

“There were a couple of games where we had the ball and were driving, and as you look at a few of the individual games coming through, you’d like to think that this team had a chance to be an above 500 team,” offensive coordinator Joe Wilcox said.

A key in the turnaround came with a renewed power running game with #24 Mike Fredieu.

“It was a role that we needed; someone to come in and be a physical runner, which was something the coaches and I thought I was capable of doing,” Fredieu said.

Fredieu began starting after previous starter running back #1 Bryson Runge ‘15 became injured during mid-season play.

Fredieu ended the season with 30 points rushing, for a total of 649 yards.

Also helping out the running game was quarterback #15 Nate Wieland ‘17, the team’s top rusher, with 42 rushing points and for 753 yards. Wieland threw for 1093 total yards for five touchdowns with a 51.7 percent completion rate.

The two-game winning streak was checked by Cedar Rapids Washington High School, the #1 ranked team in the state at the time. The Little Hawks fell (28-7) and Washington claimed the district champion title, the first such title in history. Washington is currently undefeated and is second in the state behind, Dowling Catholic High School.

“We came up and gave Wash, Cedar Rapids Wash, one of their closest games that they’ve played, and one of their toughest games all year,” Wilcox said.

Wieland ‘17 sees areas to improve for the 2015 season.

“We had too many mental break downs early in the season. We’ve started to eliminate a lot of those mistakes,” Wieland said.

The continued development of the Little Hawks’ progress made in the 2014 season is left to the class of ‘16 and to the sophomores; juniors such as Erick Fletcher, who led the team on defense with 46 solo tackles, and Griffin Fellows, the team’s top receiver.

Fellows ended the season with 19 receptions for 238 yards.

The sophomores field a near undefeated team, 17-1 in two years of play.

The younger players will need to fill positions left by graduating seniors such as DeJuan McKenny ‘15 and Eric McDonald ‘15, team captains and defensive linemen.

McKenny, a defensive end, followed Fletcher closely with 31 tackles. McDonald has been a key offensive lineman since his junior year.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into being a football player, and there’s a lot of time. Sometimes it can go unnoticed.

There’s a lot of good work from the seniors, but that’s a group that needs to be replaced,” he said.

The previously undefeated sophomore football team dragged their feet as they left the Washington field, reflecting on the first loss of their two-year streak.

“We’ve battled for two seasons and seeing our perfect record disappear really struck us,” tight end Brett McCleary ‘17 said.

Ending the football season, the sophomore team is now 17-1 over the past two years.

The team went head to head with undefeated Cedar Rapids Washington, finalizing in a 34-0 loss. Although the sophomores had a loss against Washington, they are focusing on what is to come.

“We’re using it as motivation for the future,” running back Bryce Frantz ‘17 said. “When you lose a battle, you find a way to win the war.”

Wide receiver Isaac Buatti ‘17 attributes the team’s success to good chemistry.

“As a team, we’ve really grown together and we’ve made really good friendships together.

We really brought in the new quarterback this year, Jared Taylor, and made him part of the team pretty quickly,” he said. “We all just work well together and we’re friendly together.”

At the beginning of their season, sophomore quarterback Nate Wieland moved up to varsity as a starter. Jared Taylor ‘17 filled the position in his absence, and led the sophomore team to a winning season. Taylor is new to City High, a former quarterback at a North Dakota school.

“Being new is definitely a challenge, just trying to get familiar with all of the plays and building chemistry with all of the teammates.

But I feel like everyone accepted me really well and I made a lot of friends really quickly,” Taylor said.

As of Taylor’s position next year on varsity, it is still undecided who will be starting quarterback.

“Jared could push. He’s got a really nice skill

set as a quarterback, and I am excited to see how he progresses within our system. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could end up being the quarterback in this class,” offensive coordinator Joe Wilcox said.

The sophomore team capitalizes on strong talent in the backfield, running the ball roughly 80 percent of the time.

“We have a better running game because we have the best running back in the state, Bryce Frantz,” Taylor said.

Rushing 1,314 yards in the last game of the season, Frantz broke City High’s sophomore level record for single season rushing yards, previously held by Xavier Washpun ‘14.

“I feel like it’s more of my team that deserves the honor rather than a single person,” Frantz said. “Overall it feels great to be in the books, but most of the credit goes to the linemen because they are the silent heroes.”

Coach Wilcox has a positive outlook for next year’s team when the sophomores reunite with the sophomores on varsity.

“I do know right now that our sophomores have had an excellent season. We’ve got five sophomores up at the varsity level, so it looks on paper like we should be a pretty strong team in the future,” Wilcox said.

Buatti believes that hype is building surrounding the team as they move up to varsity.

“With the press, we don’t really get recognition, but in the school people see us as the future and people are waiting for us to get up to varsity to take over and start winning some games,” Buatti said.

Frantz is confident about his teammates’ ability to compete at the varsity level.

“Next year, I think our team will go deep in the playoffs. We have some guys that will return that got injured, and we’ll have the sophomore players that will come up and step up to the occasion,” Frantz said.

B4

October 31, 2014

SPORTS

Conference Champs on the

road to state

By Becca Meyer & Rylee Price

Ending the regular season with a record of (22-10), the girls’ volleyball team heads into regional play ranked #8. As conference champs, the girls will also have a reputation to uphold as they start into regional games.

“There will probably be a little pressure now that we have the title that we do,” captain Sarah Plock ‘15 said. “But I feel like we don’t have anything to lose, because we came in as the underdog and proved to everyone that we could win.”

On October 18th, the volleyball team

claimed first place at the Mississippi Valley Conference tournament. The team went (2-1) during pool play, losing only to Cedar Rapids Kennedy. However, the team rallied back and made it to the finals, once again facing off against Kennedy. The girls ended up coming out on top, winning both sets (25-16).

“We finally proved to the state that we are not to be overlooked,” Plock said. “We kept the end goal in mind when we played teams that we knew were going be hard. We had to come out with the same mentality we had against West: every point matters.”

Now that the team has earned the right to be known as conference champs, they hope to continue their streak of success and make it to state.

“If we put everything together and play how we know we can, I think we can make it very far,” Alexa Aldrich-Ingram ‘17 said. “I think we have a good chance of making it to state. we have been playing really well but I think we have more to prove.”

City High’s last appearance at the state tournament was in 2012. They fell short of a state title, and became runners up for the second year in a row, matching their 2011 performance.

“It would be so amazing if we could get back to state and win it this year. It would be a really big upset,” captain Jamie Young ‘15 said.

“Anything is possible, though. We just need to take it as any other game and focus on our side of the court.”

The girls hope to continue to rise above the competition and be one of the eight teams that will make it to the state tournament in early November.

“I’m kind of nervous for Regionals and possibly state because I know teams are going to come out and leave it all on the court,” Ingram said. “I have faith that we will too, but everyone is going to have to step up in order to win.”

Every squad member will be involved on the road to state.

“I think after the weekend we realized that everybody on the team makes a difference.

Even the people on the bench need to be super loud and energetic in order to pump everyone up,” Plock said. “Everyone has to know their job and what they have to do for us to succeed.”

Volleyball Stats: Regular Season Record: 22-10-0

Kills per set: 11.3

Serve Efficiency: 90.5%

Total Digs: 1633

Total Kills: 974

Serve Successes: 1608

Total Aces: 132

Blocks per set: 2.92

TOP: Cyan Vanderhoef ‘17, Kendra Cave ‘17, and Alexa Aldrich-Ingram ‘17 celebrate after a spike by Aldrich-Ingram. BOTTOM LEFT: Rylee Price ‘15 goes up for a kill agasint a Waterloo West player. PHOTOS BY ELISE GOODVIN BOTTOM RIGHT: Alexa Aldrich-Ingram ‘17 leaps into the air for a kill. Aldrich-Ingram leads the team with 243 kills this season, and a 40 percent kill efficiency which is also the highest on the team.

PHOTOS BY INNES HICSASMAZ

B5

SPORTS October 31, 2014

Alix Sharp ‘16 swims at Mercer Aquatic Center. Sharp is one of the swimmers who has continued swimming for the school swim team. PHOTO BY CAROLINE BROWN

Girls’ Swim Team Battles Adversity

By Katrina Scandrett & Libby Fischer

Clara Froeshner ‘18 ends her race after swimming the 100 free. She’s one of five freshmen still on the team.

PHOTO BY CAROLINE BROWN

Boys’ Golf Wraps Up Season Despite a losing season, the boys’ golf team hopes to improve for the future with promising younger players and new coach-implemented programs.

By Austin Tholen He places his tee into the fresh green and lines his swing up the way he wants it. Will Braverman ‘15 is golfing for his last time as a City High student.

Finishing the year with a final average score of 189.73, this year’s golf team was placed second to last in the standings,“The season didn’t go as we planned,” explained Braverman. “But I’m really excited for the people who are willing to play on next year’s team. They have a lot of young talent and potential.”

New training programs, added by head varsity Coach Jerry Hora, such as a golf simulator and weight lifting programs, aim to keep City High at pace with the competition. The team shot a 363 total score at this year’s divisional meet at Hunter’s Ridge Golf Course.

In addition, the golfers were able to cut their total score by 50 strokes from the super meet held earlier in the year at the same course, as compared to the 2013 season.

At State Districts, Garret Highly ‘17 made Honorable Mention All-Conference and Calvin Greenberg ‘16 shot an 83, the best score on the team.

“We need to improve,” said Greenberg. “To do better than we did last year overall in the conference.”

Overcoming the difficulties presented by a decrease in numbers has been central to the girls swim team in the 2014 season.

“I think it’s been a good season, we have all been having a lot of fun. It got rough when a couple of our girls quit, but in the end it helped the team to come together and improve,” team captain Annie Hartley ‘15 said.

The team lost three key swimmers this year: Elizabeth Brown, Taylor Pajunen, and Alayna McCafferty. The girls were a part of their medley relay that went to state last year with a time of 1:58:55. The team is currently trying to recruit from South East Jr. High as well as girls from West Branch and Solon.

“We are so small compared to the other teams,” captain Naftalia Flatte ‘15 said. “We now have 13 swimmers total and face other schools that have at least 40 swimmers. It makes it so much more difficult to do well at meets.”

The girls also started the season with a new coach, Zane Hugo, a breaststroke specialist and former four year swimmer for the Hawkeyes.

Hugo also coached at the Mason City swim club, Black Hawk area swim club, and was an

assistant coach with UNI for two years.

“Our coach is great. He is always on time, has a good attitude even with everything that has happened this season, and most of us really like him,” captain Alix Sharp ‘16 said.

Hugo replaced Ivan Sanchez as the girl’s swim team coach this year. Sanchez had been the coach for four years.

“He has a completely different coaching style compared to Sanchez, but he works on different things that we were falling behind in, like turns and starts which is a very good change,” Flatte said.

The team has been working hard towards qualifying for state, with ten practices a week, roughly 15 hours of training.The varsity girls are focused on preparing for Regionals, the state qualifier meet, which takes place on November 1st.

“We all hope to qualify but it’s very difficult.

We are working our hardest individually, but qualifying times are fast,” Hartley said.

Only the fastest 24 times are counted towards qualification in the state meet.

“Our hope for the team in the future is to have as many girls as possible, have a good environment, and to build the team back up to where it used to be,” Sharp said.

B6

October 31, 2014

SPORTS

Young team takes MVC title and qualifies for state As JV wrapped up their season with an MVC title, varsity has continued to prepare for the state meet on November 1st. Both varsity and JV teams won MVC champions, a title City High hasn’t had since 2010.

ABOVE: The Girls’ Cross Country team poses for a photo after learning about their MVC title. Pictured from left to right: Bridgette Brown ‘18, Mary Arch ‘17, Emily Bywater ‘17, Hazel Crew ‘15, Celeste Chadwick ‘17, Maddy Denninger ‘17, Molly Shepherd ‘15. PHOTO BY KIERRA ZAPF

D

tion of how the girls perform, and if they didn’t perform well I behind West High’s first place finish. wouldn’t have had that honor,” Mittman explained. “But it’s good “I knew the potential was there,” Coach Mittman said. “I exfor the program, and it’s good for the school. There is a little extra pected us to improve, I expected the team to accept the challenge pleasure this year because everybody really worked hard.” put before them. I’m very happy for these girls to enjoy some espite being such a young team, the varsity With captain Molly Shepherd being the only four-year runsuccess.” girls proved themselves against solid teams like West High, ner, the team had to push younger, less experienced runners up Despite rampant sickness and injury, the team strived for allHempstead, and Cedar Falls at the state-qualifying meet last onto varsity. However, the underclassmen on varsity have proved around improvement. A highly-infectious virus swept through week. Strong performances from every runner on varsity helped themselves as invaluable to the team, both with their times and as the team at the beginning of the season, knocking out a large the team to a second place finish. future leaders. fraction of runners. However, many girls came back to greatly Molly Shepherd ‘15 led the team, “I wasn’t worried. I knew comimprove their personal records. Being lucky enough to avoid finishing third with a time of 15:30. ing into the season that a lot of the illness, Bywater shaved 1:22 off of her time, landing a spot on the “I KNEW THE POTENTIAL WAS THERE...I Mary Arch ‘17 took fourth with a younger kids were going to step up,” varsity team for state. time of 15:37.

Shepherd said.

“It is really nerve-racking, but it is also a really fun and EXPECTED US TO IMPROVE, I EXPECTED “I thought our varsity ran a With everyone stepping up as awesome experience,” Bywater said. “I have been placing THE TEAM TO ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE very good meet,” head coach Tom a whole, the team held a “run-off ” much better than I ever expected and it feels really good to PUT BEFORE THEM. I’M VERY HAPPY Mittman said. “We’ve come from to determine which runners would know that you did something great for your team.” worrying about being able to make make up the lower half of the varsity Verdick shared a similar experience.

FOR THESE GIRLS TO ENJOY SOME it to state to being able to be a top team at the state-qualifying meet.

“I cut a minute off my time from last year. I improved a lot.

SUCCESS.” ten team at the state meet.”

Arch, Shepherd, Bywater, MadLast year I wasn’t even close to being an alternate, and this year I -COACH TOM MITTMAN Both JV and varsity were eline Deninger ‘17, Hazel Crew ‘15, made it,” Verdick added. awarded MVC District ChampiCeleste Chadwick ‘17, and Bridget The team’s progress was truly evident at the state-qualifying ons, a title City High hasn’t had Brown ‘18 made up the varsity top meet, with a 58-point lead over Cedar Falls, a school that City since 2010. seven with Amelia Morrow ‘18, GaHigh had had close races against in earlier meets.

“In the past couple years, the team hasn’t been as strong briel McCormick ‘18, Mollie Hansen ‘17, and Verdick qualifying “Our varsity really has nothing to worry about. They’ve made as we’re used to, so the coaches have been trying to build up the as alternates. With a score of 55, the team surpassed schools like it to state,” Coach Mittman said. “What we want to do now is program a lot more,” varsity alternate Hailey Verdick ‘16 said. “I Hempstead and Cedar Falls to qualify for state, but came in just show that this is a step. We want to take it up another notch. We think it’s finally starting to want to be top-ten, to have a come back and we’re getsingle digit in front of us at the ting some younger leaders. state meet. It’s a challenge, but I Winning MVC champions think they can do it.” says something about our As the state meet approgram. It shows a step in proaches, the varsity girls have the right direction.” been keeping to their regular “I would say we routine, being careful not MVC Divisional Class 4A State Qualifier achieved our goals,” varsity overwork themselves before 1 Mary Arch - 15:15 3 Molly Shepard - 15:20 runner Emily Bywater ‘17 the race. added. “I have become much 2 Molly Shepard - 15:35 4 Mary Arch - 15:27 “We started tapering so closer to my teammates over we can recover and be at our 9 Emily Bywater 16:03 11 Emily Bywater 15:59 the course of the season and best for the meet,” Shepherd we are definitely a better 11 Maddy Deninger - 16:09 12 Maddy Deninger - 16:02 explained. “We’re just going team than we were last year.”

13 Hazel Crew - 16:29 25 Celeste Chadwick - 16:33 to go out there and compete Coach Mittman was to the best of our ability and also honored as MVC 14 Celeste Chadwick - 16:33 27 Bridget Brown - 16:34 see what happens.”

Coach of the Year.

“It’s really just a reflec-

By Innes Hicsasmaz

Girl’s Varsity Cross Country Times

B7

SPORTS October 31, 2014

UPCOMING “WINNING MVC CHAMPIONS SAYS SOMETHIING ABOUT OUR PROGRAM. IT SHOWS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.” - HAILEY VERDICK ‘16 ALTERNATE VARSITY RUNNER

SPORTS EVENTS Volleyball Tuesday Nov. 4 7:00 Varisty Regional

@CR Jefferson Wednesday Nov 12 TBD State

@ CR Ice Arena Thursday Nov 13 TBD State

@ CR Ice Arena Friday Nov 14 TBD State

@ CR Ice Arena Saturday Nov 15 TBD State Final

@ CR Ice Arena

Boys Basketball Monday Nov 24 7:00 Varsity Jamboree

@ Home Wednesday Nov 26 12:00 Varsity Scrimmage

@ Home - Main Gym Monday Dec 1 7:00 Varsity Scrimmage

@ Home

Girls Basketball Friday Nov 21 7:30 Varsity Game @Burlington Saturday Nov 22 11:30 am Varsity Scrimmage

@ Ames High School Saturday Nov 29 1:30 pm Varsity Game

@ Dowling Catholic

Cross Country Saturday Nov. 1 11:00am Varsity State Meet

@ Fort Dodge - Lakeside

Municipal Golf Course

LH SPORTS online

TOP: Mary Arch ‘17 runs to the finish. BOTTOM LEFT: Molly Shepherd ‘15, finishes on a track. Shepherd is only one of two seniors on varsity. BOTTOM RIGHT: The JV girls’ team starts off a race. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CITYRUNS

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SPORTS October 31, 2014

IT TAKES A

TEAM S F

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P

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O

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R

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S E

RUNNING WITH EDWARD

By Becca Meyer & Dominic Balesteri-Fox

B8

SPORTS October 31, 2014

ABOVE: Varsity Boys’ Cross Country runners take off at the beginning of the home meet at Ashton Cross Country Course. Pictured left to right: Joel Bender ‘15, Tom McDowell ‘16, Jens Dancer ‘15 and Matthew Dodge ‘17.

PHOTO BY CORA BERN-KLUG

Bender on to

state

There is a silver lining to the sudden end of the City High Boys’ Cross Country season.

A

By Hazel Crew

fter last Thursday’s district meet, all but one runner ended their season.

The City High boys came into the meet seeded fourth and left the meet placing fifth.

Although the rest of the team did not qualify for the State Cross Country meet, Joel Bender ‘15 will be representing City High at the state meet on November 1st in Fort Dodge after an eighth place finish at the district meet.

Bender spoke briefly about his race on Thursday.

“Districts was really slow, everyone in our race ran really slow. I just felt really bad about how my race went,” Bender said.

Bender also feels that things will be a lot different at the State Cross Country meet without his teammates running with him.

“It’s definitely going to be different without my teammates with me at state. It will be very weird. I don’t know how I feel about it yet.”

Even though Bender will be without his team, he will try to keep his focus on state.

“My main goal for state is to run under 16 minutes, and to just do the best that I can,” Bender said.

The JV runners ended their season on a high note, however. They were MVC divisional champions. Leading the junior varsity squad was Lucas Froeschner 15’, who won the

race on Thursday, October 16th. After putting in hard work over the summer, Froeschner earned a varsity spot for the first six meets.

“I really enjoyed going from a not-so-great freshman, to junior year’s and summer running paying off that much for me,” Froeschner said. “I have nothing but respect for the varsity guys who ran this year, although some had ups and downs at times.”

Cross country has meant much more than just miles under feet for Froeschner.

“Cross country has affected my life in so many ways,” Froescher explained. “I had a huge struggle last year getting through depression, and it got very serious, but the team and running in general helped save my life and get me on my feet. I love it with all my heart, and would do it a thousand times over if I could.”

Froeschner shared his thoughts on what he thinks is most meaningful about Cross Country.

“The most important thing to do while you’re running is just to remember how much you are accomplishing with every step,” Froeschner said. “Remembering that you are representing your school, team, and family by racing a 3.1 mile race and in practice every day. I cannot stress how beneficial running is to a person, and no matter how little you run, you are lapping everyone on the couch.”

@INSTALITTLEHAWK

ABOVE: Joel Bender ‘15, rips off his tag as he crosses the finish line first during City High home meet: Bud Williams Invitational at Ashton Cross Country Course. Bender has led the team all season finishing first in several meets. PHOTO BY CORA BERN-KLUG

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SPORTS October 31, 2014

“It was different to have someone disabled on the team, but he fit right in with all of us.”

-Jens Dancer ‘15 Varsity Runner

F

or Edward Esbeck ‘16, it’s not about the times or what place he gets. It’s not even about enduring fall after fall when he runs cross country.

“On hard surfaces, on the track, he would take a tumble.

We’re talking blood on the fingers, blood on the elbows, blood on the knees,” Jayme Skay, head cross country coach, said. “But he always got back up immediately, and we would have to stop him to put on Band-Aids, or to clean him and get him going safely.”

Esbeck, a transfer student from Uganda, has cerebral palsy and has been running solo since he was seven years old, battling every run to make it through his falls.

“Sometimes I want to stop when I fall, but then the team really encourages me,” he said. “If they don’t encourage me then that slows me down. The team helps me to become better.”

When Esbeck was six years old, he and his younger brother Derrick were adopted by Craig Esbeck. They lived in Uganda for almost ten years, but decided to move to Iowa to have a safer life, away from fighting in neighboring cities.

Now that he’s at City High, he finally has the chance to compete with other runners at the 4A level–but not without a little help.

With the assistance of associate Alissa Bornhoft, Esbeck was officially cleared to compete in three meets in the ‘14 season.

Bornhoft ran along his side during practice to keep him going, and help him whenever he fell.

“Edward was so positive during practice from the very beginning and remained positive throughout the season and during meets,” Bornhoft said. “He never once complained about anything. He thrived through the meets and workouts.”

Esbeck’s disability sometimes prevents him from staying on his feet. Cerebral palsy is defined as a disorder that generally causes impaired motions associated with floppiness of the limbs and torso, abnormal posture, and unsteadiness of walking.

Esbeck says running alleviates the discomfort of his disability.

“It makes me feel good, it stretches my legs out,” he explained.

Bornhoft isn’t always there to make sure things go safely.

Esbeck races solo, having to struggle through multiple falls on his own.

“Falling gives me more motivation to get up and pass other people and do the best that I can,” he said.

Esbeck chooses not to define himself by how many times he falls, but by his constant drive to get back up and keep going.

Because Bornhoft constantly ran with him during the season, she was able to witness his unrelenting positivity.

“He always gave his best effort and finished so strong. He also always made an effort to interact with the other athletes,” she said. “He continually passed people at the end of his races, and when he would pass people, he would give each of them some sort of encouragement, such as a pat on the back or a thumbs up.”

Esbeck never had the opportunity to run before because sports like cross country are not school-organized in Uganda.

“I never ran competitions in Uganda, I only ran on my own.

I did not do it for school, I did it for myself,” Esbeck said. “In America I have a lot more opportunities.”

“Then one day my dad “He’s a hard worker and was understood that I wanted to always positive about run because that is what I everything.” love to do.”

-Sy Butler ‘16

-Edwdard Esbeck

JV runner

JV runner

America has opened up a whole world of new experiences for Esbeck, but his running roots will always come from Uganda. Esbeck’s father was the first person to ask why he wanted to run despite of how often he fell.

“My dad didn’t know why I wanted to run because sometimes I fall down and I hurt myself. It was so hard for him to understand why I would run or why I would fall when I ran back in Uganda,” Esbeck said. “Then one day my dad understood that I wanted to run because that is what I love to do.”

Falling never phased Esbeck while running in Uganda, and he continues to brush it off during his races in America. His “get up and get going” attitude caught the attention of Coach Skay throughout the season.

“He’s the epitome of ‘once you fall down, you’ve got to get back up,’” Skay said.

During the season, Esbeck needed more assistance than the other runners, but that never affected how the other boys treated him.

The team made him feel right at home from the start of the season.

“The team embraced him wholeheartedly, and he embraced the team,” Skay said.

“He wanted to do everything.

He wanted to go to stadium cleanup, to do every workout, and to be a part of every aspect of the team.

I think we all became better people with him on the team.”

Esbeck’s season consisted of new opportunities, new friends, and a new personal record. His best time of the season was 24:37, but his record is just a number; Esbeck values his hard work above all else.

“I don’t really think back on what time I got, but more of what improvement I’ve made,” Esbeck said. “I see it as a good opportunity that I can do my best to run in a race.”

B11

SPORTS October 31, 2014 “There were 200 meters left in a race, and there was a kid a few feet ahead of Edward.

Edward didn’t have to catch him, but he sprinted faster than lots of kids do in the finish. He put everything he could into it and beat him. He went beyond what he had to do.”

-Max Friton ‘16

“On hard surfaces, on the track, he would take a tumble. We’re talking blood on the fingers, blood on the elbows, blood on the knees... but he always go back up immediately, and we would have to stop him to put on Band-Aids, or to clean him and get him going safely.”

-Coach Jayme Skay

TOP: Edward Esbeck runs during the Bud Williams Invitational Meet PHOTO BY: CORA BERN-KLUG MIDDLE: Edward gives a thumbs up to a coach before a race BOTTOM: Edward runs during the Pleasant Valley meet, his personal record is 23:47 .

PHOTO COURTESY OF CITYRUNS

keeping

her EYES

on the

SPORTS October 31, 2014

Playmaker Profile:Ashley Smith

PHOTOS BY: INNES HICSASMAZ and ELISE GOODVIN

By Becca Meyer As the music starts to fill the gym, City High’s varsity volleyball team runs excitedly onto the court, ready to play. Ashley Smith ‘16 looks up at the stands full of people and sees something she is not used to; everything from the walls to the volleyballs are red and white. This is Smith’s first year at City High, and she has had to adjust from being a Tipton Tiger to a Little Hawk.

“I came to City because I wanted more opportunities,” Smith said.

“I wanted to be at a bigger school where I could meet a bunch of new people.”

Smith transferred at the beginning of this school year from Tipton High School, but she has been involved at City High for over two years. During the spring of her freshman year, Smith joined the varsity soccer team because her school was too small to have one of their own.

This year, Smith is a big contributor to the varsity volleyball team as well.

“I love being on the City High team because the chemistry is so great,” Smith said. “I feel like I’ve known everyone on the team forever and I just met most of them this year.”

The results of that chemistry are starting to show for the team.

They currently have a record of (22-10) and recently captured the title of conference champions.

“Being conference champions is super exciting for our team,” Smith said. “Winning is such a great feeling, the rush is awesome and celebrating with the whole squad is a lot of fun.”

Being a part of a conference champion team is not the only accomplishment Smith has had this season. As the libero, she leads the team in passing, averaging 5.58 digs per set, and has a total of 474 digs.

Smith hopes her hard work and passion for volleyball will lead her to a D1 college in the upcoming future.

“My dream college to go to would be UMKC. The location is awesome and the defensive specialist coach is one of the greatest coaches I’ve ever met,” Smith said. “I for sure want to play volleyball in college, I can’t think of any other way I’d want to spend my time.”

Smith has put many hours of effort into becoming a better player, which she hopes will pay off with a volleyball scholarship. Overcoming the nerves of being at a new school has only made her that much stronger of an athlete.

“When I first came I was really scared to come to City, because I thought no one would be open minded to new players coming in,” Smith said. “But when I came everyone was so encouraging and supportive; especially throughout the summer at league games” Although the team welcomed Smith with open arms and made her feel at home, she still gets butterflies before every game.

“I get really nervous before games, because coming to City High. I don’t know what kind of talent there is from the other teams because City is in a different conference than Tipton,” Smith said.

Nevertheless, Smith always pulls through and plays her game no matter what team City comes up against.

“It’s always a surprise to see who is on the other side of the net.”

Smith said. “But I’m always ready for whoever it is.”

ball Stats on Smith 5.58 digs per set on average

25 total aces

Plays on Rockets Club Team

Played 85 sets

315 total serves

Stands 5 foot 7 inches

Has played v-ball for 7 years

B12

474 total digs