L one Star Dispatch
The
James Bowie High School
In-Depth Mental Health and Bullying
Commentary
Equal Pay Day
Entertainment Tech Theatre UIL
When to get help when bullied or harassed See page A5
The pay difference between men and women See page A11
Students compete in technical theatre See page A4
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Friday, May 19, 2017
Vol. 29
Issue 6
PALS fight against abuse INSIDE
News A1-2 Entertainment A3-4 In-Depth A5 Athletics A6-7 Student Life A8-9 Reviews A10 Commentary A11 Photo Essay A12 Senior Tab
Cianna Chairez Staff Writer
Music blaring throughout the courtyard, the rhythmic clapping of hands to the beat, and the occasional chorus of cheers are all familiar sounds to anyone who was on campus during lunch on Friday, April 21. April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and students were encouraged to wear blue that day to show their support. History teacher Alejandro Garcia leads “Blue Out Bowie,” a movement that promotes Child Abuse Awareness through the month of April and invites students and teachers to donate supplies to the Austin Center for Child Protection. “Since my PALS class focuses on working with kids we always want to set aside a day to kind of remember victims of child abuse,” Garcia said. “It’s just a day of remembrance and honoring people who have sometimes fallen victim to the actions of people older than them.” The Bowie PALS were in charge of promoting the drive and handing out cookies to those who wore blue on that Friday. Junior Julian Haddad was at both lunches to hand out treats. “It was a big mass of kids at the start of each lunch, that’s when the en-
PAL Pep Talk: History teacher Alejandro Garcia and incoming principal Mark Robinson congratulates PALS on this year’s drive. This is the 5th “Blue Out Bowie” at Bowie High School. Photo by Douglas Smith
ergy was the highest and the pit in the courtyard was nearly full,” Haddad said. “All the PALS were just moving to the music and handing out cookies as best we could.” The donated supplies are collected in Garcia’s room. At the end of the month, Garcia and several students load up trucks with the donations and they are carried to the Aus-
tin Center for Child Protection. “I don’t offer any extra credit for bringing any supplies or stuff like that because in my mind, to give is to give out of your heart,” Garcia said. “I’m not going to give you something to force you to give. That’s not the intention of the whole day or meaning of the event.” The drive began in
2013, when Garcia, inspired by the No Place for Hate parade, decided he wanted to have a day to honor the victims of child abuse. Since then, it has grown exponentially. Last year, the large number of donations required two trucks in order to transport to the center. “It kept getting bigger and bigger and more teachers started to buy into it,”
Garcia said. “So it started off of a little idea that has now become, five years later, a really, really big and powerful fundraising drive for a very noble organization.” One way students were encouraged to show their support was through a contact at the Austin Center for Child Protection. Child Development teacher Jean Frazier brought in a rep-
resentative of the center to talk to her students and raise awareness. “I realized that was something that I really wanted to share with my students so they agreed to come and speak to my classes and that was about three years ago,” Frazier said. “We have been working with them since.” The Austin Center for Child Protection is based in Travis County, which means that everything donated stays in the Austin area. “We’re helping our neighbors and there are so many that are in need that we have no clue,” Frazier said. “We all tend to hide behind a facade sometimes and it could be someone sitting right next to you in class and you’d never know.” With help coming from all sides of the Bowie community, students and teachers continue to make a difference in raising Child Abuse Awareness. “To see people, not only my own current students, but former students and kids in other classes bringing stuff in, I know it’s because they wanted to give,” Garcia said. “It’s because they heard the announcements and saw the signs and were excited about what that meant to be able to participate in a fund raiser like this.”
Campuses role in AISD zero waste policy
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Austin residents have heard this for years, but how does this apply to the schools in the Austin area? Austin is working towards becoming a zero waste city by 2040, how will this affect the school’s recycling policies? Currently the school recycles everything that they can. Since Bowie does not have a compost system items such as pizza boxes and used paper towels are thrown in with the regular garbage. “We do not have a compost bin for food items and pizza boxes or anything else that food was directly placed in. This is something the school district does at the elementary schools and may sometime in the future roll out at the high school level,” head custodian Theresa Bachmann said. With the issue of global warming being such a largely discussed topic these days, one wonders how much good comes from just recycling alone and what are some measures that can be taken to improve policies that are already in place. “AISD is working toward a “Zero Waste” policy. This is not completely in effect yet but should be within a few years. Less stuff going into the landfills means fewer landfills over time. Less stuff is decomposing under ground to potentially poison our water and land,” Bachmann said. Many of Bowie’s students do not know that there are even rules to follow when it comes to recycling or were unaware that
Bowie recycled. “I was not aware that Bowie had a recycling policy in place, I always just throw out what I do at home which I assume is the same thing that is in place at school,” junior Brianna Garcia said. Some teachers were not even aware of the recycling systems in place. “I actually had no idea that we even had a recycling program, no one ever told me about that,” physics teacher Cara Willig said. “I have a recycling box, and it keeps getting emptied so I assume that it is being recycled.” Bowie follows the same recycling schedule as the rest of the Austin area, the only difference is that Bowie’s recycling is in bulk. “We recycle almost everything here at Bowie. We have the blue recycle bins in some classrooms and around the campus for cans, bottles, and any paper items. This is picked up from the recycle bins and put in the recycle dumpsters two or more times a week as the bins fill up,” Bachmann said. As AISD is working towards becoming zero waste, it is important to understand exactly what that entails. “I would assume that zero waste means that the person/place produces no waste meaning that they send nothing to the landfills in the surrounding area,” Garcia said. If Bowie were to create a compost system there would be many more opportunities for the Bowie community to not only recycle but creating a compost would allow the student council to use it in their gardens or to use in the greenbelts, there
Recycling in the United States:
-Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in the landfills to build our nation’s entire commercial air fleet. -Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
Art by Fuaad Ajaz and Callie Richards
Madison Austin Student Life Editor
-Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12 foot high wall from Seattle to New York.
could be many benefits. “We do not recycle any paper towels or restroom trash. It goes to the trash dumpster. Later if the school chooses to compost, used paper towel would be included in the compost dumpster for pick-up later,” Bachmann said.
Source: www.recycleacrossamerica.org
As Bowie continues to explore options regarding recycling, students and staff will continue to recycle as many items as possible. “It is a work in progress. Reduce, reuse, recycle is a life lesson we should all learn early,” Bachmann said.