Commentary pages 2 & 3 News page 4 In-Depth page 5 Student Life page 6 Trends/Culinary page 7 Entertainment pages 8 & 9 Sports pages 10-11 Photo Essay page 12
News Briefs
Widner joins hall of fame as 26th teacher of the year
Welcome to the family (From Left to Right) Government teacher Carlen Floyd and geography teacher Karl Lauer congratulate history teacher Ruth Widner. Floyd and Lauer are previous winners from 2012 and 2013. Photo by Photo Editor Ashley
Faculty rewards deserving teacher Jan. 29, history teacher, Ruth Widner was awarded Teacher of the Year over three other nominees. “Having admired many of Bowie’s TOY winners and nominees over the years, I am humbled and honored to be selected for the recognition,” Widner said. “It’s incredibly affirming and rewarding to learn that my collegues -- who truly understand the challenges of the job -- think so highly of me.” Widner has been teaching for 20 years and sticks with the same goal for her students and collegues. “My goal is to recognize each student as a unique individual deserving my very best effort each and every day,” Widner said. “I try to support and encourage my fellow teachers as we work to exceed the high expectations of our community.”
Snow day creates kinks
Due to severe weather conditions on Jan. 24 and Jan. 28, school was canceled. One of the make-up days will be on Feb. 17. Possible bad weather make-up days to replace Jan. 28 could be April 18 or June 6. If the district chooses April 18, absences could be excused for religious reasons with a note because it is Good Friday. If the district chooses June 6, the final schedule could be changed or they could hold seniors’ diplomas if they don’t attend school that day. AISD administrators have not decided on the exact date that school will be made up.
Both soccer teams step up their game to rise against their biggest competitions. For more on team bonding, practices and player information see page 11.
Trends & Culinary
Sports
James Bowie High School, Vol. 2013-14, Issue 4, 4103 W. Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX 78749, February 10, 2014, www.thelonestaronline.com
Dispatch
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Table of Contents
Soccer preps for 1st games
E-cigs popularity increases
A new trend has emerged for older students as an alternative to smoking regular cigarettes known as ecigs. Rules for campus are the same as having a cigarette at school, for more see page 7.
Miss Saigon takes center stage
Lights, camera, action... The scene shown, Song number 23 (Act 2) takes place in Bangkok. Despite opening night being postponed because of bad weather conditions, over 500 people showed up the following night and sold out the show. “I think we did a lot better than we thought we would. And each night after that we kept improving,” junior Shelby Becker said. Miss Saigon was featured in the Starlight Theater a total of eight times during a two-week period. See more “Saigon” on page 8 Photo by Photo Editor Ashley Stroud
Campus moved by Benson: “you’re one choice away from a different life” All eyes were on Kasey Benson as he shared laughs as well as dark and personal stories involving drug use with the student body. Every student was expected to go to this talk and sophomore Sofia Lozano thought it was good that it was the administration scheduled the event. “I think it was a good thing, the whole school needs to know what the consequences are if they drink and smoke,” Lozano said. Freshman Cole Koenning thought differently on the topic. “It seemed like an administration thing to do. I’m sure if they didn’t make every one go nobody would have gone. It didn’t necessarily convince everyone that drugs were bad,” Koenning said. “However they certainly achieved their goal with some students. I noticed quite a few anti-drug Facebook and Instagram posts that day.” Benson gave his talk hoping that students would take away from it a lesson that they have one choice away from a different life. “Bottom line is that they have one choice away from a different life. I hope that they will hear my stories and that when a situation shows up in their life, whether it is getting in a car with a drunk, driving drunk themselves or even trying drugs or alcohol for the first or tenth time that they will make a better choice,” Benson said. “Statistics show it for itself, I don’t have to say a lot of statistics. That’s why I don’t use statistics in my talks, because statistics are what they are, you can look them up all
day long. Main thing is that I hope they get the point that they have one choice away from a different life, or no life.” Senior Luke Rincon agreed that it was a very serious topic. “I took away from the talk that drugs and alcohol are a serious threat to your well-being and they should be avoided if possible,” Rincon said. “You should take action when a friend is abusing these items and help them to control themselves because it can lead to very serious consequences.” Many students including Benson said that his talk was a mixture of high and lows but that it makes an impact. “It is an emotional roller coaster, I like to have fun and laugh, I want to get you to where you are like “hey were are having fun together.” I cant go in there and just do a solid hour worth of emotion, that would be horrible I would hate to sit through something like that, I would hate to sit there for an hour and hear about all these deaths and horribleness,” Benson said. Junior Angela Traylor felt a various sense of emotions through out the talk and liked Bensons words. “I really liked Mr. Benson, I think he is someone who can truly leave a mark on people. He definitely took us on an emotional roller coaster, from personal, heartbreaking, tear-jerking stories to absolutely hilarious stories that made up for the sadness,” Traylor Said. “He was unique because he didn’t give us the usual “don’t do drugs because they are bad” speech.” After hearing this some students started looking towards their future, especially freshman David Garza. “It made me think of better decisions about my life and future, I don’t smoke or drink, but it made me realize that asking people how they
Words of wisdom Kasey Benson preaches a personal story related to drugs, abuse and triumph. Every student was required to go see the siminar during their English classes. Photo by Photo Editor Ashley Stroud
have been can sometimes make a difference both physically and emotionally,” Garza said. “ It made me want to go out and make people happy, make the people having bad days laugh or smile.” Benson gives talks all around the country because that what he does, it just so happens that his wife works at on campus and that he was contacted. “My wife works here, and this is what I do, like Mr. Kane said it, they scoured the country looking for the best school presenter in the country, and his wife works here and I thought it was kind of cool,” Benson said. “It’s also a little different because I go to school after school and then I leave that school, but what so great about this is that I’m here. Usually I go in do my presentation and then leave hoping that they will make better choices, but since I’m here, I’m here. I hope that one of my stories will ultimately spark inside Human table people because I don’t want to Four students volunteered to come up to the stage with Kasey Benson to perform a seminar activby bury any more teenagers. ity. The students had to sit on a bucket and lay on eachother’s laps to show they needed support, Photo Editor Ashley Stroud balance and unity to complete the activity. Photo by Photo Editor Ashley Stroud