September 2017 Newsstreak print issue

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PHOTO BY OLIVIA COMER

Overcrowding causing issues through halls Nyah Phengsitthy Social Media Manager In 2005, Harrisonburg High School was built to fit 1,350 students. As of this school year, there are more than 1,800 students enrolled. When it was first built, HHS was able to fit another 150 students,

which it has since exceeded. The total number of non-student bodies adds up to around 185, causing the population to almost reach 2,000. The only high school in the Harrisonburg City Public Schools is officially overcrowded.

This year, three new outside trailer classrooms were added to the north parking

lot. The south parking lot is filled with buses, to the extent where six more buses were added to the front of the school. Principal Cynthia Prieto is aware of HHS’s overcrowding problem, and is looking towards actions to alleviate it.

“We need to make a decision on what’s going to happen, whether it’s an

Wheeler awarded VA P.E. Teacher of the Year Theo Yoder Editor-In-Chief After playing football in the pouring rain during P.E class, students were offered to have their soaking shoes thrown in the training room dryer to dry off before switching classes. This P.E class belonged to physical education teacher, Amy Wheeler.

This past summer, Wheeler received the 2017 High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year award for the state of Virginia. This award required a nomination, application and references. “[Being nominated] made me feel so appreciative and grateful; and those words are not even strong enough. I can’t think of a stronger word to explain this feeling that you get when someone has noticed and acknowledged you,” Wheeler said.

While many might assume that Wheeler’s coworkers at HHS nominated her, it was actually a colleague of hers that teaches at Madison County High School. The two of them met at a P.E. conference many years ago. Since

See WHEELER page A2

PHOTO BY THEO YODER

LEARNING THE GAME. P.E. Teacher of the Year winner Amy Wheeler teaches her class the game of football at HHS.

annex addition or a second high school. We need to get moving on it because I know even if the vote happened today, it would take three to four years to actually get something built,” Prieto said.

A fourth lunch was added last year to eliminate crowded lunches. The cafeteria holds around 580

students, and with having a fourth lunch, that brings it down to around 450 students per lunch. Because the school cafeteria deals with having to feed a high number of students everyday, there are many details that affect how much food gets made and what to make. Cafeteria manager Patricia Newcomb deals

with this situation.

“It’s very challenging.

We go through a lot of food, a ton of food. We try to be creative and meticulous about what we offer…

Occasionally we could run out of a choice [of food] because we offer six different lines. You don’t have a

See CROWD page A2

Bluestone Elementary brings themed learning Audrey Knupp Feature Editor Mirrors in the movement center, Terrazzo floors, hockey stools and sky lights are all being used in one of the newest additions to Harrisonburg City Public Schools. Bluestone Elementary School was built for a maximum of 740 students, while the current enrollment is at 565 kids.

Principal Anne Lintner has had an impact on the design and decision-making for the new elementary school.

“People had the opportunity to put in names for the school to the school board. From there, the school board assembled a committee and they chose the name Bluestone. It is related to the fact that there is a lot of natural bluestone here in the area,” Lintner said. “We were trying to focus on the geography and geology of the valley.”

The thematic pieces and

PHOTO BY THEO YODER

FINISHED. Bluestone Elementary School opens for the 2017-2018 school year. the signage are based off the National Parks Service.

The school uses a lot of green and oranges as paint for walls and hallways.

Each of the classrooms has at least two forms of identification. The signs on the doors include the scientific classification of a given animal, room number and picture of the animal. This helps students with identifying the rooms rather than

just by a room number.

“All of the animal signs in the hallways and outside classrooms are animals that you would find in the caverns, valley or mountains of Virginia,” Linter said. “The names of the hallways will be Grottes, Woodland trail (a local mountain trail) and all the names you would see in a natural habitat.”

See BES page A2

Hurricanes affect HHS seniors Advisory, ELT expanded to bring positive change Sam Heie Feature Editor Disaster struck large portions of the American southern states in the past month after a series of hurricanes and storms pummeled and thrashed through several Gulf states.

First, category 3 Hurricane Harvey ripped through Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and most notably, Texas. Damage was extensive and the estimated cost for rebuilding is $70 billion.

But tragedy took no break in striking again, this time through category 5 hurricane Irma which slammed the Caribbean and made landfall stateside in Florida.

The death toll of both com-

bined is over 100.

But the hurricane’s reach extended to the family members outside the path of the hurricanes as well.

Senior Guillermo Torres has family in Puerto Rico, mostly on his mother’s side. Irma was predicted by some reports to hit the area his family lives.

“Puerto Rico is kind of a unique situation because everyone thinks it’s like the other Caribbean islands that get hit [by hurricanes], but there’s hurricanes there all of the time and it’s usually fine. People were kind of scared but they also had a lot of faith that everything would be alright, and that’s

See TORRES page A2

A5: Reviews on It, Game of Thrones and more

Samantha Little Feature Editor This year, several changes have been have been made in regards to every student’s weekly schedule involving advisory and ELT. Every Monday and Thursday of each week, all students now have a 30 minute advisory block built into their schedule from 7:45 to 8:15. During these meetings, one or two staff members lead a group of students where they have the opportunity to discuss and do activities related to topics such as bullying, adolescence, drugs and alcohol, stress and decision making.

It is meant to build a sense of community, mentorship and management between the students and staff.

With a growing student population, Prieto sees that placing each person in a small, close-knit group will allow every

See ADVISORY page A2

PHOTO BY CHRISTA COLE

CIRCLE UP. Biology teacher Trevor Chase leads an advisory discussion on Thursday, Sept. 14. Advisory for the week was focused on going over school rules and the handbook. All students took a quiz to see what rules students actually know.

A10: Interviews with SCA and class officers

B6: Fall sports updates

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

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Changes in schedule allowing all students to be noticed ADVISORY from A1 single student the opportunity to voice their opinions, ask questions and connect with people that they can trust. These groups will stay together for all of their years in high school to strengthen that communal bond.

“As we get bigger and bigger, it’s really possible for our quieter, younger or more shy and nervous kids to disappear, to become widgets. I don’t ever want a student to be a widget.

They’re not a number, they’re a person and they have a name,” Prieto said.

“With so many people, we wanted to create little mini communities, where the person leading that community can look [students] in the eyes and ask how they’re doing, for example.

Somebody knew they were here and that’s critical to me. Somebody showed that they cared.”

To further deepen the feeling of inclusion for every student at HHS, this modification aimed to work around the schedule of MTC students, who weren’t able to attend leadership meetings in previous years. By holding advisory meetings first thing in the morning as op-

posed to after first period, those attending MTC are now able to fit them into their day.

“We also wanted very bad to include the MTC students [in our advisory periods]. Their bus leaves around 8:15-8:30 and by being here for that advisory, they get to participate in our community so they don’t feel like it’s divided, MTC and then HHS. It’s all Harrisonburg High School,” Prieto said.

As opposed to students having advisory with those that they already share a given class with, they were assigned to random groups that mixed up grade level and demographic.

“When you mix it up, you get different perspectives. Just the same as when you mix up countries, you get different opinions and perspectives.

When you have all of the [same] kids in a group and then there’s a topic that doesn’t apply them, they all just sit around and you hear crickets” Prieto said.

“But when you have different perspectives and different questions, [they] go ‘Hm I didn’t think of that’ and so I think that has a lot of possibilities for just broadening people’s horizons and making the con-

versation more rich.”

Another addition to the school schedule this year is an hour-long Extended Learning Time (ELT) period that will take place every Wednesday after first block. During this time, students are able to visit teachers to get further instruction and make up work, do homework or attend the main event being held that is available to everyone in good school standings.

“ELT is a truly academic focus. There are choice and directed options, and we have main events. We’re trying to make the main events somehow connected to our students. So if during Hispanic month we bring in a hispanic band, it ties in our fine arts program or our Spanish classes. There’s a cultural component, it isn’t just ‘yee-haw, a band’,” Prieto said. “If we bring in a group of panelists that are college admissions officers, obviously that’s aimed at juniors and seniors, but anybody in good standings is welcome to come and ask questions.”

By giving students extra time to study and learn from their teachers during the school day, Prieto hopes that the outcome

PHOTO BY CHRISTA COLE

SPEAKING UP. English teacher Aaron Cosner leads his Advisory class in a discussion about school rules. Each teacher will have the same group of students throughout each student’s four years at HHS. will show itself as higher student understanding of content and thus improved performance on tests.

“Honestly, our goal is always to better our scores.

If we have 60 percent 3s, 4s and 5s on an AP test, why not 70, 80, 90? Why not 100 percent ? If we an 87 percent pass rate on an SOL, why not 100? If all of this happens, and people are really focused and have their brains wrapped around academics and have opportunities to ask questions or to redo things

BES takes fifth graders out of middle schools BES from A1 hallway has at least one neigh-

Bluestone has three floors: Caverns, Valley, and Mountains of Virginia.

“We have at least three different types of seating in each room. It is all mobile so it’s easy to shift and move around, that way teachers can use the classrooms in a variety of different ways,” Lintner said.

There are no desks or tables lined up into rows facing the front of the room. There are sinks in the classrooms, water fountains, some even have bathrooms. Tables that can go up and down for sitting or standing.

They are trying to support human health and student engagement.

Upon walking into the school you can see huge windows in classrooms and students collaborating. Bluestone also has learning spaces in the hallways, called neighborhoods. Every

borhood. They are using them as collaborative spaces just like a classrooms, so children from other classes can work together.

“The students are able to use those spaces and set a timer on their iPads so they know when to return to class,” Lintner said.

The new school brought changes to the division.

“The biggest thing that the division did was move fifth grade back into the elementary schools. This school was designed to take students out of some of those other buildings [that] are overcrowded,” Lintner said.

All of the other elementary schools in Harrisonburg have a gymnasium, but not Bluestone.

They have a movement center with colored lines and shapes on the floor, a mirror wall and dance bar.

“I think that the more traditional Physical Education programs may have been more lim-

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNE LINTNER

PLANNING IT OUT. Workers construct the cafeteria of Bluestone Elementary School ited to skills in particular areas.

Overall with Bluestone not being completely finished Lintner is excited for the upcoming school year. She is amazed as to how the students and teachers are using the design of the school to their educational advantages “These kids are taking responsibility for their learning,” Lintner said.

TORRES from A1

never really able to create a community because leadership meetings were so far apart. It was also way too inconsistent and people would come in and wonder if the day was ELT or Streaks Leadership,” Prieto said. “So now there’s a consistency and there’s a support system. If it’s Wednesday, [students] must have ELT. If it’s Monday or Thursday, [students] must have advisory. It gives students peace and control, and there’s predictable consistency.”

Wheeler nominated by fellow teacher WHEELER from A1

Torres, Joven have family impacted by hurricanes how it turned out,” Torres said.

Most of Torres’ family lives in the same area of Puerto Rico, so when they heard that Hurricane Irma was coming, they got together.

“A lot of them prepared by getting food, bringing the family together and…. staying in one house. They just kind of all hang out and pray a lot. They’re very religious and faithful. They pray to God that everything will be okay and they’re also thankful for the past. They do take time out of their day to thank God and pray for protection,” Torres said.

Torres and his family in Harrisonburg was able to contact their family before and during the hurricane.

Torres called and texted his family throughout the duration of the hurricane. The damage to his family’s hometown was minimal.

“A lot of them told me that their lights went out for a long time. Their electricity was out for a couple of days and there was some light poles and trees that had fallen down, but nothing too severe,” Torres said.

The lights and the electricity were out for four days, but power came back to the centralized power grid in the area. Other areas however, were not as lucky.

“At least from where I’m from, we’re pretty South and the hurricane was headed North. It got worse for the people in the North than down where my family is. It definitely was a problem but it’s nothing that shook Puerto Rico like [Harvey] did in Texas and some other places. It wasn’t that bad, but it was just a little more severe

to show they have mastery, then in the end [we’re] all going to be more successful,” Prieto said.

These changes were put into effect in response to a survey taken last year revealed that students weren’t satisfied with the setup of the ELT and leadership time. With both of them alternating inconsistently in the same block, there wasn’t a defined schedule for when each would take place.

“Last year, I overwhelmingly heard that we were

then, they have been communicating and collaborating on Google Drive.

After Wheeler was nominated, she was required to fill out an application and ask for several references. She was later notified by e-mail that she had won.

“You feel such an overwhelming honor… it kind of revives you a little bit. Anywhere that seemed my energy was lacking, I feel like it was boosted back up,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler has been teaching for 13 years, 11 of those years at HHS. She teaches tenth grade P.E. and driver’s education, a personal wellness class, and just added this year, a certified personal training course.

“I enjoy [teaching] because of the students. I love having a class of students and making that family, community environment. I also love getting people

active and smiling. I like seeing people grow, whether it is a physical fitness score or some type of wellness goal and become better human beings,” Wheeler said.

Over these past 11 years, Wheeler has taught hundreds of students. Senior Andrew Robinson had Wheeler for his tenth grade P.E. class and was also one of the students who had their shoes dried after playing football outside.

“I enjoyed her class because it was laid back [and] kind of fun. We would have team names that we could come up with when we played games.

[Wheeler] was always supportive,” Robinson said. “I truly believe she deserved this award; she was one of the best teachers I have had.”

As far as the future, Wheeler plans to continue teaching her classes for the upcoming years at HHS.

Buses, trailers added to lessen crowding a school is twelve to fourteen CROWD from A1 for hundred… In my mind, a second

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER MARDORF TAKEN FROM FREE DOMAIN WEBSITE FIMA.ORG

TOTAL DESTRUCTION. Houses and buildings are destroyed as a result of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. than other ones,” Torres said.

Despite the hurricane just grazing the area of Torres’ family, there was still some danger out on the streets.

“My cousin was sleeping pretty late into the morning and he woke up to these loud thumps and thunder. He noticed that a tree had fallen across the road and it was blocked off. There were also some light poles that fell on the road outside of their house, but nothing fell onto the house, so it was fine,” Torres said.

Unlike southern Puerto Rico, Florida, where senior Randee Rose Joven’s extended family lives, was hit hard. Floods invaded the streets and in some areas, a storm front brought 15 feet of water inland.

Joven has lots of family in the area, including aunts and uncles in Tampa, cousins in Fort Lauderdale and their respective families. Joven also has a cousin in Atlanta who the Floridian family was trying to evacuate to.

There were scarce resources on the roadway to Atlanta, causing problems for their travel.

“They were trying to find gas on the way, but all of the gas stations had run out. They did eventually get to Atlanta, but it took them more than a day. I think it was 27 hours and it usually takes eight hours,” Joven said.

Despite Joven’s family in Tampa being able to vacate, her family in Fort Lauderdale were prohibited from leaving.

Both of Joven’s dad’s cousins are doctors in the area. Both were declined leave due to the lack of doctors in the area because of the mass evacuations.

Luckily for Joven, her family in Tampa was allowed to leave and one was even encouraged to with a week of paid leave.

There are still a lot of questions as to the situations of Joven’s relatives houses in Tampa.

“Right now, [my family in Tampa] doesn’t know whether or not there was damage to the house because they haven’t gone back yet,” Joven said.

“There’s definitely a chance that there was damage, but we’re just praying it isn’t too bad.”

lunch count, so you’re trying to do an educated guess and an estimation of what children might eat. We take educated guesses on what the kids like and what the previous lunches have eaten,” Newcomb said.

Ordering more lunch tables and chairs, and adding another minute to second breakfast were added this year to work with the high number of students.

While hallways and breakfasts are where crowds begin, the main stairwell seems to be the spot where HHS has its overpopulated moments. Assistant principal Michael Eye suggests that students should start using other stairwells to get to classes because of the hold up the main stairwell causes.

“I’ve noticed that the main stairwell is extremely crowded during class changes, but part of that is we need to get students to use the North 1, South 3 and South 2 stairwells more to help alleviate that bottleneck that occurs there… Part of what we deal with is overcrowding, but we’re going to have to learn to adjust to work around it,” Eye said.

As principal of HHS, Prieto does have an idea of what she thinks could fix this problem.

“My vote is for a second high school. I think the ideal number

high school allows us to continue to be a tight community. Both high schools can work together, combining classes, combining band, combining concerts,” Prieto said.

“I also think a second high school gives more opportunities. You would have two presidents of SCA, two captains of whatever team… you’re not creating a bigger gap [between them].”

The Harrisonburg city school board voted for a second high school unanimously and city council is looking into the idea as well, to the point where they have given the go ahead for the school board to look at land. Although Bluestone Elementary, now located across from HHS, took a couple months to build, the elementary school was built on 10 acres, whereas HHS was built on 65. Building a new high school or adding another annex would take longer because of the need of a bigger space.

“I’m in favor of a second high school in Harrisonburg,” Eye said.

“I think it would balance things out and make room for a better educational process to have a smaller school, because I think we’re getting to that size where you lose some of the intimacy of education.”

PHOTO BY THEO YODER

PUSHING THROUGH. Students walk up the main staircase, said to be the most crowded staircase, before first period.

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

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New sign language class incorporates culture Sarah Earle News Editor Unlike a traditional language that uses vocalization to communicate, sign language uses visuals. This year, American Sign Language is being offered at HHS with teacher Julie Foster.

“I don’t know about the students, but I’m having a blast. It’s been fun to watch people learn a new language. It’s very different because it’s not a spoken language; it’s a visual language. It kind of makes an even playing field for all students because they come in with very little information,” Foster said. “Most people walk into the ASL classroom knowing nothing, so we’re all learning at the same pace. I’m amazed at how quickly they are learning… I’ve told them, ‘Practice everywhere you go.’ Having students who are deaf and hard of hearing at the high school, you can practice your language right here at the school.”

Not only does Foster teach the signs, she also incorporates the culture and experiences of sign language into the class.

“In the class, we have a period of time where we talk about technical vocabulary [by using] different language words. Then we have a section of the class where we’re actually signing and learning the signs.

We have a section where we talk about the culture… so it’s very relevant.

For example, America’s Got Talent has the young lady Mandy Harvey; she’s a great representation of someone who started out hearing and then lost their hearing. Regardless of what your ability levels are, you can accomplish anything,” Foster said. “We’ve had the opportunity to have two different interpreters come in so far, who are working in the school systems… [I

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hope] to expand on having visitors come in to share their different experiences, as well as students here, who are deaf and hard to hearing, to talk about their experience.”

In addition to part-time teaching at HHS, Foster teaches sign language at Bridgewater College parttime. “[I balance both of my jobs] very carefully. I do Bridgewater in the evenings. I love teaching. I love ASL. I love hanging out with people who are interested in the same thing that I

am, so it’s an easy balance.

When I stop liking it, then I’m going to stop doing it; right now, I love it. The age difference isn’t that big between high school students and college students. It kind of helps me work with both populations, knowing what the expectations are at college and where [students] come from at a high school,” Foster said.

“The information is the same because you’re learning a new language, but the pacing is different because these classes at the high school are semester

Alhassani uses experiences to teach Arabic Garrett Cash Editor-In-Chief Arabic teacher Israa Alhassani began her teaching career before she even realized it. She started by instructing her own daughter in the language as something on the side.

But after a phone call from James Madison University, she went into teaching full-time and hasn’t looked back since.

“I started teaching Arabic volunteering at the Islamic Center of Shenandoah Valley,” Alhassani said.

“I wanted my daughter to learn Arabic, so I started teaching her and her friends [at] Saturday school. I did it for three or four years, and one day, I got a call from JMU, and they were looking for someone to teach a class for just one month because their instructor couldn’t get a visa to come to the state to teach.

She took the job, which

opened a door to the career of teaching. The instructor’s visa never came, so Alhassani remained as a teacher at JMU for nine years, and still teaches classes there today.

Alhassani brings her experience teaching college students to first period Arabic 1 every day. Since she is familiar with the lower levels of Arabic instruction, which she teaches at EMU, as well as the upper levels, which she teaches at JMU, she’s able to bring a variety of instruction techniques, which will help her in her heritage speaker class next semester.

“Next semester, I’m teaching Arabic for heritage speakers, so that will be interesting. I’m going to have many levels of people who are almost masters, or they know the language very well, and I have students who are just now learning it, so it will be a challenge,” Alhassani said.

Alhassani hopes to teach

enough so that her students can enjoy the language and know enough to initiate conversations in Arabic. By imparting this enjoyment of the language, as well as a knowledge of the Arabic culture, she hopes to break down stereotypes that are associated with the Arab people.

“The stereotype of Arab [people] is like the one we see on media, that we’re terrorists or how they show them always in movies in Hollywood. They don’t know what they’re saying, they don’t think well,” Alhassani said. “I want to show the culture and beauty and diversity of the Arab world.”

In the future, Alhassani hopes to add upper level Arabic classes for nonnative speakers and to bring an overall appreciation of the language and the culture.

PHOTO BY GARRET CASH LEARNING LANGUAGE. Arabic teacher Israa Alhassani works with senior Daniel Ramirez as

they go over the previous night’s homework.

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X classes, so they meet every day. A semester class at Bridgewater College meets twice a week for an hour and a half. There’s twice as much meeting time at the high school than there is at college level, which means more practice.”

Foster has hopes for her students to implement their skills in sign language in day-to-day life. In her eyes, sign language is a skill that her students will be able to use throughout their life.

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the class on a personal level. The goal to become an interpreter doesn’t develop until much later, when people get out there and go to college and say, ‘That’s a pretty cool job. I might try that,’ or not. There’s all kinds of different aspects you can use with learning ASL. You could work anywhere in the public sector and at least now you know how to greet someone who’s deaf and be able to know strategies to communicate with them. Whether you can sign with them or not, you’re comfortable

with getting out a piece of paper and writing in a simple format so that you both can communicate on a simple level,” Foster said. “It’s a personal goal to just have students develop an understanding of another culture that exists right here. Deaf people could be your next door neighbor, so it’s really cool to watch people develop that understanding of another culture because there’s cultural differences everywhere. They’ll never know what deaf people experience on a daily basis but [I hope they] just have

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The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

HOT Or NOT

BY ETHAN POWERS AND CALEB GOSS

Earthquake hits Mexico An earthquake hit Mexico City, Mexico on Sept. 19, recorded at a 7.1 on the Richter Scale Charlottesville takes charge: Charlottesville is doing a benefit concert for the riots Changes in the cafeteria: Due to the addition of students at HHS and the need for food storage space, straws and ice cream have been cut from the lunchroom.

Face the facts: Face-detecting systems in China now authorize payments, provide access to facilities and track down criminals. Will other countries follow?

Termination of DACA: President Trump announced that the program DACA, started by President Obama, will end, leaving many recipients worried.

Taylor Swift tailors new music: Taylor Swift drops two new singles and announces new album “Reputation”.

He can’t hear you!

Police shoot and kill a deaf man holding a metal pipe on his front porch in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma after neighbors said he couldn’t hear the verbal warning.

What’s the matter? Chicken?

On Sept. 18 Arby’s introduced its new chicken parmesan sandwich.

School Shooter: A school shooting happened at Freeman high school in Spokane, Washington Brain Implants Are Real!

Scientists are making remarkable progress at using brain implants to restore the freedom of movement that spinal cord injuries take away.

Hurricane After Hurricane: Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria have devastated areas in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean Islands.

Stayin Alive! Stayin Alive!

New research by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington says we are all living longer.

HHS football losses: HHS Blue Streaks lost to the Charlottesville Black Knights 40-35 on Sept. 8 and the Bees of Brookeville on Sept. 15.

Apples in the news: The new iPhone 8 and the iPhone “X” have been announced.

Pricey!

Because of the hurricanes, gas prices have risen throughout the country.

Terrifyingly Moving Movie: The horror flick known as ‘It’ was released on Sept. 8 to the joy of the genre’s fans

Cease of DACA will further ‘Dissolve this America’ Martin Beck Staff Reporter Early this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration’s intention to terminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that protects unauthorized immigrants who entered the country as children from deportation. If Trump makes good on his word, it would enable Homeland Security to revoke the work and study permits of the 800,000 immigrants protected under DACA. Many could face deportation, even those who have lived in the United States since infancy, growing up immersed in American culture and receiving educations in American public schools.

Sessions’ announcement reinforces the anti-immigration principles characteristic of Trump’s campaign and presidency. Last December, he issued a statement “calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United

States until our counthe reason illegal try’s representatives immigration exists can figure out what’s in the first place. Far going on” and, two from hauling sacks of months later, an imdrugs into the United migration ban took States, immigrants effect which targetcross miles of wildered several primarily ness carrying their Martin’s Muslim nations. He’s children, risking their Message proposed legislation lives for an America that would drastibuilt on inclusion, cally reduce legal immigration not racial profiling. quotas over the next 10 years.

His decision to end DACA His ultimate goal with these de- marks a redoubled effort to discisions could lie in his campaign solve this America. Whereas he slogan, “Make America Great could argue, albeit on unsound Again,” which the Trump cam- footing, that his constrictive impaign sold as a wistful reminis- migration policies are keeping cence of America’s (allegedly) out terrorists and rapists, DACA bygone economic prosperity, protects children who, through but his behavior indicates that no fault of their own, find themhe might also be reminiscing selves in the U.S. without the about ethnic homogeneity. necessary paperwork. Its terOf Mexicans, Trump has mination does not secure our said, “They’re bringing drugs. borders. It does not put “AmerThey’re bringing crime. They’re ica first” (a saying coined not rapists. And some, I assume, are by Trump, but by the America good people.” For Trump, who First Committee, an organizahas himself endorsed sexual tion dedicated, between 1940 assault, to claim that the Mex- and ‘41, to preventing Americans crossing the border are ican intervention in Europe rapists is not only absurd, it’s against the Nazis). It excludes a racist, and it misunderstands young, bright population from

Inhumane animal testing trumps questionable results Emma Lankford Staff Reporter

moral, but has also proven to be unreliable. Approximately 95 percent of the drugs that were viewed as promising when Year after year, research has tested on animals were unsucshown that there are over 100 cessful when administered to million animals used in testing humans. Also, out of all of the dangerous side efworldwide. In my fects that are associopinion, using innoated with drugs, only cent animals in the 19 percent of them testing of medicines, could be predictcosmetics, foods, ed through animal chemicals and many ex p e r i m e ntat i o n . other products is inAnother study has humane. shown that there is First of all, I beEmma’s only a 43 percent aclieve that the pain anDilemmas curacy rate with aniimals are put through mal testing. In other during testing outweighs the results. During these words, the success of any given procedures, animals are often trial is fairly unpredictable.

Additionally, there are many forced to do things that they otherwise would not. The ani- alternatives that could be used mals that are being tested are to prevent such cruel methods. usually deprived of basic neces- For example, a professor from sities to live, such as food and Florida designed and created a water. Also, they are routinely device that is able to recreate put through excruciating physi- human muscle functions. This cal harm in order to observe the allows scientists to test different treatments and examine their way the animals heal.

One test that can be per- reactions without potentially formed on animals is the acute harming animals. Also, there is toxicity test. The chemical is giv- a new technique called “In Vien to an animal in outrageous- tro”, or in a test tube. Some of ly high doses, typically under these experiments show that extreme conditions. These an- In Vitro testing could potenimals can experience seizures, tially produce more accurate, abdominal pain, convulsions, relevant results in a reduced paralysis, bleeding or diarrhea, amount of time.

In conclusion, I believe that prior to certain death. Another example would be skin sensiti- testing on animals is unethical, zation testing, which is typically inaccurate and unnecessary. performed on guinea pigs. They While some may argue that may feel their skin becoming these studies have led to scienitchy, inflamed, or just simply tific advancements, it is clear to irritated because of the allergic me that we should respect other living creatures and utilize reaction.

Using animals to experiment some of the alternative methwith products is not only im- ods for testing purposes.

Chaos in North Korea: North Korea is still testing missiles and has now tested an atomic bomb.

Go JMU Dukes!

Dukes football won their opener at home against ETSU and remain the number one team in the nation Police Brutality?

Police shot and killed a man who was intoxicated and carrying a utility knife at Georgia Tech.

Student Clubs Are Back!: Clubs (both new and old) at HHS have started back up this month.

Bankrupt ‘R’ Us: Toys ‘R’ Us files for bankruptcy Protection.

Green Tech Dream: Apple announces Apple Park, the new solar powered Apple campus. It’s been called ‘Steve Jobs’ dream campus.’

What’s on your plate?

Tectonic plates crushing together in Mexico cause buildings to collapse.

More are expected.

Pie in the face: The first pep rally of the year ended in a pie in the face to three history teachers because of their loss in the tug-of-war against the administrator team.

Op/Ed-A4

the country of their home, the place where they learned to ride a bicycle, where they celebrated their birthdays, where they attended their first dance.

In his announcement, Sessions masqueraded DACA as an “unconstitutional exercise of authority.” He implied that the program granted immigration status to its beneficiaries, when in reality it simply shielded them from deportation. What’s more, Sessions perpetuated the myth that DACA precipitated an increase in illegal immigration.

No statistics exist to support this claim.

This isn’t a political issue so much as an ethical one. I have the privilege of dual citizenship, American and Czech, and feel intensely tied to both facets of my national identity. Others aren’t so fortunate. The children of DACA, who likely identify with both American culture and the culture of their parents, may have to renounce part of themselves in service to a bigoted agenda.

Memes on social media act as news source for Generation Z Sam Heie Feature Editor

dit forum that is known for xenophobic remarks gained an astounding 480,000 members during the 2016 News consumption has election. Yet another exshifted from reading, to ample of this is the infawatching the TV, to online mous death of the gorilla, news and finally, in perhaps Harambe, which coined its its death place, to social own hashtag as well, with media. There is one specif- people chanting his memic category of social media ory through cafeterias and that has slowly gained at- hallways alike. Little known tention from Generation is that this slogan was made Z: memes. The first I heard by a neo-Nazi group to mock of Hurricane Harvey was the movement sympathiznot from CNN, but from a ing the death of Trayvon meme account on Insta- Martin; #hoodsupfortrayvon. What most gram. Memes are perceived as copowerful. Scores medic remarks of youth unconactually had sciously rely on some very dark memes to gather roots. their day-to-day In discussing news and influmeme culture, ence their opinit is essential ions and beliefs.

Green to highlight the The power of Eggs And differences in the meme can Sam sincerity and sardrastically affect casm. This can entire institutions and organizations as well, also be said for memes that ones that otherwise would discuss 9/11, school shoothave been unharmed. For ings and much more. When example, earlier this year, a you repeat a meme with man was dragged off of an bigoted roots, sarcastic or United Airlines flight. A vid- not, the jargon gains publiceo was released of the sce- ity and spreads. The simple nario and went viral. What act of doing so can subconwould have been a small sciously make a larger popuevent blew up with every lation challenge their ethics, meme caption applica- and for some, start the dark ble. Instagram gained over webbings of hatred. From 100,000 hashtags of #unite- there, it is a slippery slope dairlines that month alone, into the abyss of loathing.

‘It’s just a meme,’ a lot of and United’s stock value you are probably thinking plummeted to record lows.

While it is easy to argue right now, and I absolutely that holding United Airlines agree. Up to a point. If there accountable was just in that is a meme that suggests situation, there are count- hate and you don’t like it, less more meme trends that keep scrolling and get over were harmful, one of the it. I don’t believe in censormore popular being chal- ship, but when someone lelenges such as the ‘boiling gitimately begins to considwater challenge’. To partici- er the credibility of an idea pate in this ‘challenge,’ par- in a meme, it can become ticipants are to drink boiling dangerous.

Memes are great. Everywater through a straw or dump it on their own heads. body enjoys select memes One unfortunate eight year and has every justification old girl in Florida subse- to do so. Just next time quently died after her throat you’re scrolling through your feed and see a meme and lungs were scolded.

In terms of group move- that is in bad taste, try to ments, however, memes consider the meaning and have been attributed to the the implicit message. rise of many alt-right and neo-Nazi groups. One Red-

ART BY JOSIE KOOGLER

Standardized testing prevents practice of true learning Sophie Sallah Staff Reporter

The goal at the end of many high school classes is simply to pass the SOL. Most of the material covered in the class is to prepare students for these standardized tests.

In my opinion, these exams put an unnecessary amount of pressure on students and teachers alike. Students get test scores put on college applications and report cards and are compared to other students.

The comparisons promote competition, which leads some to cheat to get better scores. On the other hand, teachers “teach to the test,” drilling informa-

tion into their students so that These tests also put an unthey may pass. Teachers are fair disadvantage on those with also measured on their teach- special needs and English laning abilities based on guage learners. Peotheir student’s test ple learning English scores. have to take tests in The cutoff scores English before they for passing and failing are fully fluent, and a test are concrete, students with speno matter how close cial needs do not get the score is to either. the accommodations Retaking is rarely an of their IndividualSophie’s option, and when ized Education Plans Signature it is, there is even (IEP) on standardized more stress put on tests. students to perform Some say stanbetter. The use of standardized dardized testing is a way to tests does not accurately mea- show improvement over a perisure the knowledge of some- od of time. A 2001 study by the one on the subject, just how Brookings Institution showed well they are able to memorize that over 50 percent of imand remember information. provements were temporary.

Another study by the University of Waterloo showed that students would not be able to recall more than 95 percent of the information after one month.

So, students are memorizing to pass, not truly to learn. Without the presence of excessive testing, students would not be wasting time reviewing things over and over again. Additionally, a great deal of instructional time would turn away from constantly going over information in preparation for standardized tests and more towards true teaching.

Overall, standardized testing has major downsides, which stress out students and are unfair to others.

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

Op/Ed-A5

“It” leaving moviegoers shaken

Lucie Rutherford Editor-in-Chief

urge to throw your popcorn all over the watcher behind you, but it plays with your I have one word to de- emotions. One minute, scribe Stephen King’s mod- you’re cowering behind ern making of “It”, and that your hands, the next you’re word is shook. In all caps. laughing hysterically and Within the very first 10 min- the next your heart is being utes of the film, you get a touched by the sad stories feel for what you’re getting of the characters. There yourself into for the next were moments where I retwo hours and 15 minutes. ally didn’t know how to reWithin that first scene, a act, because my emotions little boy comes across “It” were confused and clouded in the sewer, and the inter- with the last scene. But in action gives you chills. The a good way. The humorous scenes act as a stress-reanticipation is killer.

If you’re not familiar with liever between the adrenhorror the 1986 novel or the orig- aline-pumping scenes, and that is what inal movie made in 1990, makes this movie so great don’t worry, neither was I. To give a background, the and so different. It isn’t movie is about a child-tor- your typical, constantly being on the edge of menting, muryour seat horror derous clown movie. It has all the who haunts best parts of every a small town genre. in the mid Now you might 1980’s. These think, “What on kids are the Earth could make victims of bula person laugh lying as well, Lucie’s Logic hysterically during but eventuala movie about ly they come a tormenting, together to child-killing clown?”

What defeat not only their bullies you’ll soon find out is that and their biggest fears, but the characters in this film, the clown itself.

Not only does this film mainly young boys around make you cringe and cover the age of 13, have the huyour eyes and give you the mor and mouth of some-

one twice their age. From cursing to dissing each other’s moms, the jokes are the perfect touch to this cringe-worthy movie.

What makes “It” touch the heart is the idea that these kids getting tormented are all victims of bullying. Each character sees their own fear resem-

bled by the clown. For one of these kids, that is the scene of his parents’ death, and for the one girl in the bunch, it is her father’s face, the man responsible for her rape. For another, it is a freaky woman in a painting that haunts him every time he walks by it, and for the main character, Billy, it

is the haunting body of his little brother Georgie, the same boy that mysteriously disappears within the first 10 minutes of the movie.

With each individual story, you get connected to each character, and before long, you are rooting them on in their quest of defiance.

My one piece of advice

is to not watch this movie if you are deathly afraid of clowns. If that is the case, then I can ensure a heart attack, or two or three.

Though, for everyone else, this movie is a classic and a thriller that will have your adrenaline pumping for the many hours afterward.

Zoonazoo makes bizarre, funky tunes Forrest Matter Staff Reporter

tronic-jazz-comedyfunky-theatre-noise-popsampled-hip-hop. I’m not really sure how he made Several bizarrely amaz- that. They describe it as ing local music acts contin- “honest” music. The best ue to astound me with their part about their shows is extreme original perfor- Zoo’s stage performance, mances, but in though. That’s these recent days where they one has stood shake the roof. out in particular.

It’s unbelievZach Wlliams, or able how, well, just “Zoo,” and weird they get his brother Sprit without scaring make music or freaking under the people out.

Matter’s Musical name ZoanAll-original, Musings zoo. Zooannothin’ not zoo plays worth hearfrequently ing, “I’m-notdowntown at The Golden sure-what-genre-this-isPony. Zoo is a great en- but-it’s-cool” jazzy, hip-hop, tertainer and incredibly experimental joy. The lyrmind-boggling to behold. I ics are witty, comical and love it. honestly they pair perfectTheir style is incred- ly with the vibe of their ibly hard to describe, shows. but it’s pretty close to The whole thing is experimental-trap-elec- brought together by (usu-

ally) Sprit (the drummer), great crowd interaction, funky clothes and acting.

Yes, Zoo’s performances often leave the crowd pretty amused by his portrayal of arguments and conversations going on in the songs. He loves to bring up his friends in the crowd who only kinda-sing and only kinda-know the music to sing along. It’s fantastic. I saw him play a song that usually relies on Sprit performing a ton of loud drum solos, despite Sprit not being there. Zoo played through the whole thing.

He just ran to the back of the stage during the solos and made wild drumming motions and loud drum sounds.

All of his albums are on BandCamp and SoundCloud to listen to, and he has a bunch. My preference is still to see him live. It’s a lot more fun that way.

“El Internado” mistifies, thrills Madison Varner Advertising Manager When you think of one of your favorite shows, you probably think of “Orange is The New Black,” “Gossip Girl” or any of the other popular shows you can bingewatch on Netflix. Personally, I think of a show that many people have never heard of nor have seen, and that’s probably because it’s not in English.

I was introduced to “El Internado” last year by my Spanish teacher. We watched the first season of the show in class and I was hooked after the very first episode.

The show is set in Columbia at a boarding school called “Laguna Negra,” and it’s deep into the forest away from everything, which plays a crucial part in the plot

Varner’s Corner of the show. Five friends, and also main characters, Carolina Leal Solís, Iván Noiret León, Victoria Martínez González, Cayetano Montero Ruiz and Roque Sánchez Navas make the show very interesting because they suspect and question everything that goes on at the school. Alfonso, a history professor, believes that a creature lives in the forest and is responsible for many missing and dead kids over the years which adds another twist to the show. The five friends try to help Alfonso prove his

theory correct in many crazy ways that results in consequences, but also rewards.

Don’t worry if you don’t speak Spanish; you can put the English subtitles on and follow along just as you would with any other show, and you won’t miss a moment of the action. I honestly never thought I would enjoy a show so much that was not in my predominate language, but this mysterious and thrilling show has kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish of every episode. Every episode is an adventure of its own that you won’t regret watching. Although I have not watched the entire series, I can tell you that four seasons has been enough for me to name it one of the best series I have watched in a long time.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZACH WILLIAMS

GROOVY, DUDE. The members of Zoonazoo, Sprit and “Zoo,” stage themselves in front of a mural for their band’s photos.

New GoT season frustrates, satisfies Olivia Comer Editor-in-Chief WARNING: Spoilers Included Season seven on Game of Thrones was predictably unpredictable. What I mean by that is this: for six prior seasons, Game of Thrones has been leaving audiences speechless with unpredictable outcomes and season finales, so by now those of us who have been with it from season one are trained to expect the unexpected. With that said, it was still generally amazing as usual.

As the seasons have gone on, the writers have been brutal to our emotions, but they have also treated us with some very satisfying deaths. Unfortunately that means there is really no one left to hate in the show. Every character who was shallow enough that all viewers could band together and despise is already dead. The only char-

Live and Let Liv acters left lie somewhere between Sam Tarly, the purest character still alive, and Cersei Lannister, a brutal queen who is insane, but also very easy to sympathize with. Sure, she’s evil, but she lost all three of her children in pretty gut-wrenching ways.

Then there’s the saga between Dany and Jon: the lovebirds who turned out to be aunt and nephew. On the one hand, incest is not socially acceptable in 2017, but on the other hand, this show is not set in 2017, and they would have the most beautiful power babies ever. Besides, when has incest ever been a problem on Game of Thrones?

This season worked out very well for the Starks. In season one, they were all split up, and from there they were either hiding, being tortured or dying. However, in this season, threefourths of the Stark kids are reunited at Winterfell, but they are all very different people. Sansa won a war and endured torture, Arya became a faceless man assassin and Bran is now the three eyed raven (he is basically omniscient).

They ended up figuring it all out, and together they murdered the most diabolical trickster in the series.

If I had to describe this season in one word I would choose frustrating. There were no seriously satisfying deaths; they teased us with a dire wolf cameo and our dragon queen was way too stubborn with one of the only thoroughly pure characters left (until she really wasn’t). But all around, I loved watching it just as much as I have every other season.

Traditional movie theater outmatches drive-in John Breeden Staff Reporter Theater movies are one of the most popular social activities in the world. Ever since as early as the 1920s, people have enjoyed watching the newest films on the big screen with their friends

and family. Not only can you see movies in a theater, but you can also drive to an outside theater, where there’s a big screen, and you just simply sit outside your car and enjoy the film.

Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the traditional movie theater. It’s been the way

and it’s just more exciting.

It’s also way easier to get into than a drive-in; all you do is buy a ticket, get your family and friends and enjoy, rather than pack up a car, buy tickets, snacks and probably gas to get there as well. It’s easier access and more fun and comfortable.

theater chair instead of trying to get comfortable from the inside or outside of your car?

The people who prefer drive-in probably enjoy the travel, the excitement and the experience. While it seems pretty fun to “campout” and watch a movie, is it

Most likely you have a local theater that you can go to which saves money and travel time. Drive-in movies are mostly out of the way and not local, which makes theater movies superior and easier to get to.

John’s Take

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

Feature-A6

Every Person Has A Story

Alexiou enjoys, sees benefits in learning spanish language Oziel Valdez Staff Reporter Freshman Stella Alexiou is advancing in the Spanish language.

Alexiou previously attended Thomas Harrison Middle School.

She is currently a Harrisonburg High School student. Alexiou doesn’t have any Spanish background, but that doesn’t hold her back from doing Spanish for Heritage Speakers.

“So in seventh-grade my options were either Spanish, like pre-Spanish, or Spanish 1 and both of those were way too simple for me because I’ve been learning Spanish since I was young. So my parents were like ‘Hey, we’re gonna sign you up for Spanish for Heritage Speakers.’ And of course I threw a fit. I was a distraught mess for two days. Then it came along and I did Spanish Heritage for a semester and I did okay and then eighth-grade [happened, and] I did Spanish again, to see how it would go. Then in high school I was like ‘okay,’ and continued it,” said Alexiou.

According to an article written by Mark Hugo Lopez and Ana

PHOTO BY OZIEL VALDEZ

BOOK WORM. Freshman Stella Alexiou spends time reading a book in the school library.

Gonzalez-Barrera from Pew Research Center, over 37 million U.S. residents speak Spanish. With the popularity of the language in the U.S., there different opinions

about the language. Alexiou has her own opinion.

“I like the language. I am not a language learner; I’m more of a math person, but I enjoy how

Velker makes shift to public school after homeschooling in Tenessee Garrett Cash Editor-in-Chief Often times, homeschoolers join high school at the beginning of their freshman year, as was the case with senior Jack O’Brien, amongst others. But junior Christian Velker started high school after receiving two previous years of high school level education through his parents.

Although junior Velker came from being homeschooled all of his life, he has had no trouble adjusting to the 1800 strong student body of Harrisonburg High School.

“I was sort of used to the idea of coming to this school with a lot of people, so it wasn’t too different,” Velker said.

To Velker, the new and diverse population is exciting, as well as the way Harrisonburg’s public education is done. Coming from being homeschooled in Tennessee, Velker sees a difference in how education is done in Virginia.

“I’ve always been homeschooled. My parents thought that it was better for me to stay homeschooled than to be sent into the education system in Tennessee. It’s different in Tennessee than it is here. [My parents] don’t think it’s as competitive as it is here. Here, it’s a lot more competitive,” Velker said.

The competition in Virginia’s schools, as well as the fact that he has family here,

are the main reasons that Velker’s family decided to come to Harrisonburg, Virginia.

“To be honest, I moved up here because of my parents. [They moved because of] family,” Velker said.

During his homeschooling experience, Velker had the opportunity to participate in athletics through the public school system in his area due to the passing of new legislation. This, along with homeschooling groups, gave him opportunities that built friendships and his athletic talent.

“It’s a Tennessee law… they said homeschoolers could play with public schools sports-wise, you just had to make sure you were eligible.”

Even after the legislation was passed, Velker’s family still decided to come to Harrisonburg, and Velker is glad. He enjoys all the new aspects of his school, like the way education is done and the size of the student body.

“All the classes are bigger. It was essentially the same exact thing, except with more people, and with more of a state regulation. I think I like it more because there’s more people here,” Velker said.

Driven by his excitement about a bigger school and the structure it offers, Velker is prepared to take on the school year and all the challenges that come his way.

simple it is compared to English.

It’s a language of love, so it’s pretty,” said Alexiou.

Of course, with many Spanish speakers, there are some who

don’t speak it. Those include Alexiou’s parents, who believed it was more important for Alexiou to learn it.

“My parents speak no Spanish whatsoever, but they’re like ‘in this generation, it’s becoming mainly Spanish-speakers, and so it’s helpful to learn Spanish.’

My parents were like ‘hey, if she wants to get far in life, she needs to start learning a language young.’ And so they signed me up to take classes at a very young age. So I’m just learning,” said Alexiou.

Taking a language is a requirement to graduate high school.

Through the struggles, many students manage to achieve the required language credits to graduate. Alexiou shares her wisdom on how to pass those classes.

“My tips are practice [and to] find friends that speak the language. Although it’s gonna suck, just speak it a lot. My friend likes [to] learn them through songs, so if you listen to Spanish music, then it helps you learn it more.

Those are my tips,” Alexiou said.

Addisu notices differences in schooling from previous time in London Olivia Comer Editor-in-Chief Every year HHS gets a whole class of freshman to add to the school, but they are not the only students who are new to HHS. Salem Addisu moved to HHS from Staunton and before that, London, England. “[We moved] for work reasons. My dad wanted to move [because] his job gave him an offer to come here. He was a nurse and now he’s the supervising nurse,” Addisu said.

The biggest difference Addisu noticed first living in Harrisonburg was the presence of shopping malls.

“How the houses are, how the neighborhoods are structured and the shopping malls are all very different [than England],” Addisu said.

According to Addisu, school is very different in London than it is in Harrisonburg, especially lunchtime.

“For starters, around the school schedule, we have break time for fifteen minutes between 10:45 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. and we have lunch for 45 minutes.

At lunchtime and break time, the whole school has it at the same time and we’re not in one place; we’re not in the cafeteria,” Addisu said. “We’re all over the

school and you can go wherever you want except for classrooms. [For] disciplinary: if you don’t do your homework, your teacher can keep you for like ten minutes during lunch or for the whole break time.”

Even though her home is England, Addisu has family scattered all over the states to make her feel at home. “[I have family] up North in Alexandria and in Florida and California. I left a bunch of cousins in England,” Addisu said.

Outside of England and the U.S.A, Addisu also has family from Ethiopia.

“I was just there this past summer for the third time. We stayed with some family and my grandmother took me and my little brother around the city [and] did a historic tour of what it was,” Addisu said.

In addition to a different lunch schedule in school, Addisu recognizes a bit of a differences in teenage impulse across continents.

“In England, the people there kind of have the impulse to do crazy things. This one time my friend accidentally jumped on top of a car because it nearly hit her and it was just crazy. People yell down the street all the time it’s very loud and crazy there,” Addisu said.

PHOTO BY GARRETT CASH

BUSTLING CROWD. Junior Christian Velker stands in the line for the salad bar during his fourth lunch period.

Nutter transfers from SHS, adjusts to new school

Sarah Earle News Editor

After attending the county schools all of her life, junior Jenny Nutter thought it was time for change. With the transition from a small school to a large school, Nutter finds herself adjusting accordingly. “[I transferred to HHS because] I thought that it had better opportunities for me,” Nutter said. “Harrisonburg is a lot bigger [than Spotswood]; there’s a lot of more people. [There are] different programs, like STEM, and different classes [that aren’t offered at Spotswood].”

On her first day, Nutter had no problems getting around the school, but she did have a hard time finding familiar faces. “[My first day] was really easy. The school is not hard to navigate. Lunch was kind of weird because I didn’t know anybody, but other than that it was good,” Nutter said. “I guess trying to make new friends [was the biggest struggle on the

first day].”

To make the switch easier, Nutter looked into all of the activities and classes offered at HHS ahead of time so she could get an idea of what she had to look forward to.

“I decided to get involved early [in the year],” Nutter said. “[My advice to other new students is to] be open to talking to new people and put yourself out there in clubs and get involved in stuff.”

Despite the overcrowdedness being hard to get used to, Nutter finds the students and staff to be welcoming.

“The amount of people [makes] it hard to get around. People are pretty nice and friendly [here] so it’s pretty easy [to adapt to HHS],” Nutter said. “The teachers are really nice and helpful [by] asking how my day’s been and stuff like that.”

Even though Nutter notices lots of differences between Spotswood and Harrisonburg, they seem to be positive.

“I feel like Harrisonburg is more lenient to everything in general,” Nutter said.

“There’s a lot more technology involved in

the classes.”

After playing on the varsity soccer team at SHS, Nutter will continue to play at HHS. With the season approaching in the spring, Nutter is hopeful and optimistic about how soccer will go. “[I’m looking forward to] playing soccer [the most]. I really like the coach, so that should be fun,” Nutter said. “[The soccer team] here has more people from all age groups. At Spotswood, it was more of juniors and seniors [on the team]. I think [the soccer team] is going to do pretty good. We have some pretty good players. We should have a good season.”

While the large population of the school seemed overwhelming at first, Nutter found the diversity in the school to be beneficial and inviting.

“I like the diversity and how there’s a lot of different people,” Nutter said. “I had a lot of people coming up to me and asking me how I was and how I was doing here, so that was pretty cool.”

PHOTO BY SARAH EARLE

HARD AT WORK. Junior Jenny Nutter looks over her notes in her AP English class.

September 29, 2017 The Harrisonburg High School Newsstreak The Policy The Newsstreak is published by the students of Harrisonburg High School every month. Reproduction of any material from the newspaper is prohibited without the written permission from the editorial board. Advertising rates are available upon request.

It is the policy of the Harrisonburg City Public School Board to comply with all applicable state and federal laws regarding non-discrimination in employment and educational programs and services.

The Harrisonburg High School City Public Schools will not discriminate illegally on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, disability or age as to employment or educational programs and activities.

Editorials appearing without a byline represent the majority opinion of the staff, but not necessarily the opinion of the adviser, school administration, or the school system.

Signed editorials are accepted from people on the staff, but are subject to editing according to published guidelines and policies. Editorials may be edited for special reasons.

Letters to the editor are encouraged and must be signed and a telephone number must be given.

Names may be withheld if the editorial board feels there is a just cause.

The Newsstreak reserves the right to edit and may refuse to publish ads or letters deemed inappropriate, libelous, or obscene. Please drop your letter by room 444 or give them to any staff member.

Letters may also be sent to the high school.

The Editors and Staff Editor-in-Chiefs: Lucie Rutherford, Theo Yoder, Olivia Comer, Garrett Cash Advertising Managers: Madison Varner, Audrey Knupp, Photographers: Sam Heie, Theo Yoder, Olivia Comer, Lucie Rutherford Page Editors: Kyle Brown, Anna Rath, Theo Yoder, Lucie Rutherford, Sarah Earle, Forest Matter, Garrett Cash, Samantha Little, Audrey Knupp, Nyah Phengsitthy, Sam Heie, Noah Siderhurst, Hannah Miller, Owen Stewart, Owen Marshall, Jackson Hook, Staff Reporters: Carlos Arevalo, Jenifer Bautista-Lopez, Simon Beach, Martin Beck, David Beck, Holly Bill, Madely Blas, John Breeden, Ryan Caricofe, Garrett Cash, Olivia Comer, Mia Constantin, Marvin Copeland, Jesus Cortes, Sarah Earle, Karleigh Gentry, Caleb Goss, Ariyah Green, Ellie Hammond, Sam Heie, Andrea Holgui, Jackson Hook, Ashley Iscoa, Lare Jalal, Adriana Jimenez, Shyann Keier-Litwin, Audrey Knupp, Josie Koogler, Sweta Kunver, Emma Lankford, Jessica Lawson, Samantha Little, Somaia Mallek, Owen Marshall, Forrest Matter, Nicole Mayorga, Hannah Miller, Ni’Kiah MoatsBryce Mullins, Nyah Phengsitthy, Ethan Power, Betsy Quimby, Edwin Rios, Emmanuel Franco Lucie Rutherford, Sophie Sallah, Madison Shifflett, Noah Siderhurst, Jalyn Sneary, Owen Stewart Dany T Medhin, Sid Tandel, Oziel Valdez, Madison Varner, Na’Diha Whitelow, Theo Yoder

Professional Affiliations The Newsstreak participates as a member of several journalistic evaluation services including the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA-2010 Gold Evaluation and 2005, 2009 and 2015 Silver Crown Winner), Quill&Scroll Journalism Honor Society (2012 Gallup Award), National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) All-American, the Virginia High School League, Inc. Trophy Class Award, and the Southern Interscholastic Press Association All Southern Ranking and 2010 Scroggins Award winner. hhsmedia.com Opt Out Notice: If you do not want to allow your student’s full name or image to appear on the school newspaper site, please send an email to vkibler@harrisonburg. k12.va.us stating: I DO NOT want my son/daughter (place student’s name here) to have his or her name or image published on the new online version of the newspaper, www. hhsmedia.com.

The Newsstreak

Op/Ed-A7

No straws, no ice cream, no problem

NEWSSTREAK STAFF EDITORIAL can’t fathom. How could As a student of Harrisonburg High School, one may have noticed the missings of a couple things from the lunchroom, one of them being straws, the other being ice cream. If you keep your ears wide enough open, you can hear the complaints of many students. For some, it’s the loss of straws that sets them off. How are they supposed to drink their apple juice without it?

Simple, open the top just a little and sip it. For others, it’s the loss of the beloved ice cream that they

they do this to us? If this is what you’re complaining about, you must have a pretty good life.

According to Patricia Newcomb, the head of HHS’s cafeteria staff, it isn’t the need to reduce plastic or the health reasons, but the simple need for space, and this is 100 percent valid. As a school, we have grown by over 400 kids in the past four years, and the cafeteria is bound by four walls, not able to move. When I say cafeteria, yes it is the cafeteria eating space and tables that are confined, but more importantly, it

is the lunch ladies’ actual space to work that is confined. How are they suppose to hold food for an additional 100 kids each school year when they have boxes of ice cream and straws taking up storage space? Realistically speaking, that sounds pretty impossible.

As another whammy to bring home why students should find other things to complain about, the nearby elementary schools don’t even have straws in their cafeterias, so it really isn’t necessary for high schoolers to have them either. And yes, indeed ice cream is a

delicious way to end your meal, though no matter how much argument may come from it, we as humans do not need ice cream to survive, and we definitely don’t need it every day. If you’re a person that absolutely can’t go without, you might just have to think up a way to successfully transport

the sweet treat to your lunch each day. Good luck with that. And if you’re on the other side, one of the people that can’t go without a straw, maybe it’s time to go buy a pack at your nearest Wal-Mart and keep it in your backpack. Problem solved.

WHAT IS THE STAFF EDITORIAL? The unsigned staff editorial appears in each issue and reflects the majority opinion of the Newsstreak Staff Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is comprised of all editors-in-chief, page editors, advertising managers, photographers and selected freshman journalism students.

In no way does our opinion reflect that of the school system or the administration.

Social media causes uneeded distraction Hannah Miller Feature Editor

ART BY JOSIE KOOGLER

Discipline is changing across nation

Noah Siderhurst Op-Ed Editor

When you think of discipline in schools, you probably think of punitive measures like suspension, detention, or “being placed not in good school standing.” For years these have been the default protocols in many schools across the nation. Recently at HHS, however, discipline has begun to change. Just as most schools no longer use corporal punishment as a go-to, Harrisonburg City Schools is now shifting away from traditional models of punitive discipline.

To understand how this came about and why it will be such a difficult task to fully implement, it is best to start with what has been done in the past.

According to associate principal Joe Glick, traditionally, when someone did something that required disciplining, “in trying to be fair to all the kids that may get in trouble, a set of consequences and in some cases a chart… that [says], ‘if you do this, then this is what your consequence is’ [was used],” Glick said.

There are several issues with this way of thinking. To examine them, let’s focus on one of the most common forms of punishment for moderate to severe disciplinary infractions such as fighting (one that the school administration has been trying very hard to drive down): suspension.

The first way in which this method is flawed comes from the fact that suspensions are often not actually distributed fairly. According to a 2012 study by the U.S. Department of Education, “Black students make up 18% of the students in the [Civil Rights Data Collection] sample, but 35% of the students [were] suspended once, and 39% of the students expelled.” While this may not be the exact case for HHS, it is important to remember that human bias plays a role in any decision and it is almost impossible to have a completely fair and equal system when it comes to punishment.

Secondly, when you give students who may already dislike school a day off, it only incentivises them to do the behavior again. It does nothing to address the underlying reasons for the behavior.

Furthermore, students who are out of school may become behind on school work, increasing a cycle towards even more detachment from school.

This leads to issues further down the road like the school to prison pipeline, where instead of addressing the underlying reasons for our issues as a society, we simply ostracize and lock away the people who represent the issues.

Suspension is simply a way of, “kick[ing] the societal cost down the road,” according to Christopher J. Ferguson in Time Magazine.

So about five years ago, with evidence piling up against traditional methods of punishment, the HHS administration decided to make a change.

For them, this meant moving to a model known as Restorative Justice, a way of dealing with discipline pioneered by local Eastern Mennonite University.

“So what we’re trying to do in disciplining through a restorative lense is looking at referrals from the standpoint of ‘how can we help everybody that was affected by this?’” Glick said. “What you find is once students start really deeply understanding how their behavior has affected their

teachers, their school, their parents, their education, their reputation, their future, all these things, then the students on a much deeper level want to make this situation better and they want to make it right. The intent is to learn from the situation and then learn the skills so it doesn’t happen again.”

However, that does not mean it’s an easy transition. Some people want to see the people who hurt them punished. Some people believe fundamentally that punitive systems work. And on top of all that, it requires a large amount of work on the part of the administration.

“I think it takes a lot of time and a lot of skills to be able to deal with punishment in a [restorative] way,” Glick said.

In some sense, it is much easier (both for admin and students) to simply give out and take the punishment than to go through the complex and difficult restorative processes the school has implemented. For the administrators, it is the added effort of trying to build in supports such as counseling for the people involved instead of simply punishing them and being Sagacious done. It is also the work of Siderhurst talking with everyone involved and trying to come up with an answer to the problem.

For the student, it can be a different type of difficult.

“Imagine a friend or someone you respect… that you’ve done something to harm, like you’ve broken their trust or you lied to them and they found out, and you’re given the choice between sending them ten dollars in the mail or sitting down at a table, looking them in the eye, listening to the effect you’ve had on this person that you care about and dealing with that. Which one is harder?” counselor Christina Norment asked.

Among the student body, reception of such things as leadership and advisory meant to build community and fit into the new restorative model has been largely critical (at least from almost everyone I’ve talked to and every leadership of advisory class I’ve been in). They feel mostly uninteresting, out of touch, and forced.

However, it is extremely important that as students we bear with the administration as they try to figure this out. It’s not perfect yet, but the intentions are good and over the long run, it should pay off.

As Glick put it, “doing discipline from a restorative justice perspective is not the silver bullet to change behavior. But the research and the evidence is showing that over time students do become more empathetic, more responsible and more understanding about how their behavior affects others, and there is less trouble that those people get into in the long run. But it’s not a one time fix on everything, so it’s not going to work in every single situation because people’s minds have to be at that point. If this is not working, then we do suspend, we do a traditional way of doing it…

It’s not the perfect thing for everybody in every situation, but it’s better than a straight punitive, zero tolerance policy.”

PHOTO BY NOAH SIDERHURST

BOOK WORM. Associate Principal Joe Glick has numerous books about Restorative Justice in his office.

Now in my junior year, I would literally kill for nine extra hours a day. I could make up an Hannah’s entire night Rambles of sleep, go on a spontaneous adventure, complete an entire day’s worth of homework or learn to play an instrument. As unfeasible as it may sound, I could get pretty close just by cutting out social media.

According to a report done by Common Sense Media in 2015, the average teen spends nine hours a day on various forms of media, and I’m sure the number has only gone up since then.

Too often, we all open an app on our phones and start using it without even thinking. Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Spotify and any of the other numerous media options are all too accessible. Maybe this is just me, but media doesn’t exactly help with productivity; in fact, it just makes it easier to procrastinate. Social media pulls us away from the tasks and social situations at hand.

Ironically, the more social media we use, the less human interaction we actually experience. Rather than take note of our surroundings or be engaged in the world around us, we pointlessly take out our phones and scroll through the all too familiar feed that hasn’t been updated since the last time we looked at it seven minutes ago. I’m not saying that social media is the root of all evil, but it’s used senselessly way too often. It’s mindless, it’s time-wasting and it’s addictive.

If the fact that over a third of our day is wasted on social media doesn’t appall you, you haven’t wrapped your head around the stat. That’s more time than we spend in school. That’s more time than we spend sleeping. What’s especially crazy is imagining how much of that time is actually productive.

How often are you truly interested in the things you see, as opposed to the time you spend mindlessly scrolling through things you’ve already seen or don’t care about seeing. Young Americans check their phones 74 times a day on average. What are we looking for? Nothing interesting has happened in our lives and we know it, so why do we continue to think that something is going to pop up?

This summer, I deleted Instagram because of these very reasons. I kept the app on my phone because I have to use it in my journalism class, and I can honestly (and sadly) say that in those few days following I would open the app and just look at my screen.

Out of pure habit, I would open my phone and click on an app that led to literally nothing.

The saddest part of all? I was worried I was going to regret deleting my account, and felt almost apprehensive in doing it. Social media encourages us to form false connections with false things. I had 21 pictures on Instagram. Three years of my life and I had 21 meaningless photos to show for it. I had formed a connection with my pictures, but it stopped there. I was fine once I screenshotted them, and I could now delete my account in peace. Other people, though, have become attached to the material things.

They’re connection would have lied with the followers and likes, which in reality, are just numbers.

Social media can be very useful, don’t get me wrong. Since deleting Instagram, I’ve taken to Twitter as a source for news stories, memes and friendly stalking, and so far my connection to it has been a lot less obsessive. Today’s media is a privilege that many of our parents didn’t have, we just need to practice a little restraint in how often we use it.

September 29, 2017

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September 29, 2017

REPPIN’ THE BLUE STREAKS

Feature-A10

Every year, students of HHS vote for new SCA members to represent the student body for the next school year. Elections for class officers also take place before the school year begins.

Healy starts off year as student body president

Theo Yoder Co Editor-in-Chief

With a new year comes new responsibilities. Senior Sam Healy was elected SCA president after campaigning last year, taking the place of previous president Zach Benevento. The SCA president carries the responsibilities of communicating with administration, planning specific events and overseeing all SCA operations and members.

After receiving news that he won, Healy experienced a mix of emotions.

“I was happy and relieved, but then again it hit me that now I have to do a lot of work. [Being elected] was a good thing though,” Healy said.

Despite school being in session only weeks, Healy has been able to accomplish a few early goals that he had in mind. One of these goals being new flat screen televisions that the school has purchased to place in the cafeteria and main hallway. They serve the purpose of communicating with students certain announcements, pictures or any other media that students might have interest in. This is just one example of something that Healy has been able to do this year.

“I was able to plan a successful

pep rally, I also have been able to get students into the homecoming football game for free and have reduced the homecoming price by five dollars,” Healy said.

In addition to homecoming, pep rallies and televisions, Healy is working with administration on a lunch app.

“The way the app works is you download it, you go on your phone first block, order what you want for lunch and it is ready and paid for by the time lunch begins. This way you won’t run into long lines,” Healy said.

This project is a work in progress. Healy plans on many more meetings with administration to successfully plan out the process.

After the first couple weeks and one pep rally down, Healy feels like the year is off to a good start.

“I got positive reviews on the pep rally last week which was a relief, so I feel like this year has started off alright,” Healy said. “[Being president] is pretty cool; I have more authority than the normal students, and I have a lot more responsibility. It is not stressful, and it is fun to really help the school out.”

As for right now, Healy is planning the decorations, playlist and theme for the homecoming dance coming up in October.

PHOTO BY OLIVIA COMER

WHAT’S NEXT. Other than planning events for the student body, senior Sam Healy plans on creating a lunch app to reduce the lunch lines in the future. If the app goes through, students will be able to pre-order and pay for their lunches at the beginning of the day during first block.

What is the most important issue the student council should focus on?

52 Student rights

26 School events

15 Student community

7 New technology

POLL OUT OF 100 INFOGRAPHIC BY DAVID BECK

Q&A’s with sophomore, junior, senior presidents Atilia Thomas

Q. Why did you want to be

sophomore class president?

A. “I wanted to be sophomore class president so the

sophomores could have events just for us because a lot of the thing that are going on during school or after school activities are for everyone like homecoming, so I just wanted to make events specifically for sophomores.”

Q. What are the events that you plan

on doing?

A. “I’m trying to plan a field trip either to Six Flags or

Kings Dominion for us to be able to go. I decided on that because they’re really fun and you’ll have a good time if you go with your friends.”

Chris Johnson

Lucie Rutherford

Q. Why did you want to be the class

Q. What made you want to become

A. “I think somebody in this position needs to be confi-

A. “Class president’s plan class reunions for the rest

president?

class president?

dent, willing to work with others and is good at communicating, and I think that being who I am, I am all three of those and people like me. So I wanted to be in this position because I wanted to listen to everybody, not just because I am a football player.”

of their lives, and I really wanted class reunions to be a thing.”

Q. Is being president a lot of work?

A. “To some it might be, but it’s something I’m like used to for a little while. It’s kind of fun being able to oversee a lot of the things and to be that guy that people count on to make decisions and to represent them. I like doing stuff like that, so to me it’s not a lot of hard work.”

Q. What is something that you think

Q. What is the election process? makes the sophomore class different A. “So you just campaign for a week basically and the

from other grades?

A. “The one thing is that we’re the class of 2020. We’re

starting the whole next decade or 10 years, so it’s like we have to make sure we end our senior year right.”

Q. What was your election and campaign process like?

A. “I told people I was running [for president], and since

I was eighth grade class president, they already knew I would be able to do stuff and try to get things done, so a lot of people voted for me because of that fact.”

students vote for you. I’ve been class president for the past two years, my freshman and sophomore year, so I think that helped as well. A lot of people know me, and I try and be outgoing and speak to as many people as I can.”

Q. What do you do as president?

A. “Some of my responsibilities [are] choir, [helping to]

organize and run prom and help out with homecoming.

Other things are like listen to what students ask and try to pitch ideas to administration to better the school. Some of the things we are doing right now are we are trying to help fundraise money and items to send down to Florida and Texas to victims that were affected by those tragedies. So those are just a few things.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY NYAH PHENGSITTHY

Q. What do you like most about this school? Why?

A. “I like that there is so much diversity in this school; it’s like a mini version of the whole world.”

Q. How has your time as class president affected your school experience?

A. “It’s given me a lot more responsibility and made me a lot more busy.”

Q. What tips do you have for future potential class presidents?

A. “Make sure you have the time to be class president;

you have to do a lot of work outside of school, and make sure you can speak in front of a crowd because you have to speak at graduation.”

Q. What are some of the

responsibilities as class president?

A. “Doing class reunions, speaking at graduation and being the voice between the students and administration.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY JALYN SNEARY

INFOGRAPHIC BY SIDHARTH TANDEL

Officer on the street: Why did you decide to join SCA? Senior Sam Healy President

Junior Nina Andrews Vice president

“I wanted to help HHS. I have a dad who teaches here and I’ve been coming here every day for a very long time and I wasn’t very happy with some stuff and I decided to make a difference.”

“I decided to join SCA because I’ve always been one to want to help the school. Ever since middle school, I was in SCA for at least three years and I just realized when I got in high school I wanted to do more, so that’s why I kind of do sports to keep me active.”

Junior Shadther Rosso-Feliz Secretary “I wanted to make a difference in this school and I felt like we needed a better leadership and we needed to make more change in our environment at school.”

Junior Hannah Miller Reporter

Senior Ban Mansoor Treasurer

“I decided to run for reporter be- “I joined SCA because I’ve always cause I thought it would be nice enjoyed planning events... I’m also considering going to college to to be able to help out with things study political science, so this was around the school rather than a way for me to represent 1800 just complain about them and students and see if I can handle we could actually change them.” the responsibilities that come with being the voice for students’ concerns.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY JENIFER w LOPEZ

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

Feature-B1 Feature-B1

Estes introduces robotics into curriculum

Samantha Little Page Editor Next semester, Introduction to Robotics, taught by Geoffray Estes, will be making a reappearance on the course list. In previous years, it was a dual enrollment class taught through JMU by Estes, who proposed it as a new class, and JMU’s Instructor of Record Dr. Kevin Giovanetti.

However, as it returns this year without the dual enrollment component, Estes will be teaching it on his own.

“I’m very excited to teach the class. I’m a little nervous, as well, because while we taught this class once before a couple of years ago, this is a new iteration of it and so it has new material. It keeps me kind of anxious to teach something new,” Estes said. “[However,] I know it’s going to be fun, I know it’s going to be an exciting class for the people taking it and I hope they learn a lot.”

The curriculum of this introductory class is designed to help students first learn what a

robot is and then apply that knowledge to real world situations.

“We’re going to learn about the engineering, design and development process, and we’re going to learn a little bit of programming. We’re also going to learn quite a lot about ethical questions with respect to when you design and develop anything and what impact those things you design or develop are going to have on the greater community, locally and globally,” Estes said.

The students will be using basic robot kits to build prototype models of both autonomous robots and teleop robots.

Autonomous robots have pre-programmed commands that they act off of, while telep robots have programmed motors that respond to a device such as a joystick that is able to control its movements.

The overarching focus of the class is going to be the dilemma of autonomous vehicles and the ethics behind their design and development.

“[For example,] you and your family are in your car driving down the road and you’re in an autonomous vehicle. All of a sudden, out in front of you walks an old lady,” Estes said. “Does the car swerve to miss the old lady, potentially killing you and your family in an accident, or does it goes through the old lady, saving the family in the car? That’s part of the ethical dilemma and we are going to discuss it. I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong answer, but it’s going to be a heavily debated topic.”

Estes believes that while some teacher-to-student instruction is needed in the class, it will be a limited part of what they do.

The structure will be more freeform where the students will be able make what they want, taking their own path to meet the end goal. There will also be checkpoint-type quizzes along the way that are based on the material that is covered.

“I want to know about their knowledge, and I want to know

about their dispositions in the beginning and also their dispositions in the end to see if there has been any growth or any change in those ideas about robotics or autonomous vehicles. Most of the assessment is going to come from their design, their development and their implementation of their cars,” Estes said.

While much interest for this class comes from members of the robotics team and one core group, Estes wants that to expand and be more representative of the school’s diversity.

“I would like to see that interest grow into a much larger section of our population here.

Based on what I see on our current roster, the class really looks like a cross-section of the demographics here at our school, which I think is really great. We have a wide range of people from all different backgrounds that are interested in this,” Estes said.

AP Human Geography adds new, unique social study Nyah Phengsitthy Social Media Coordinator

PHOTO BY SAM HEIE

MR. WORLDWIDE. Sophomore Lucio Bianchi traces his globe impersonation onto an orange. This assignment was intended to assist students’ memory of where the equator and the prime meridian are as well as the general location of the continents.

Why is there a Walmart distribution center down the road and why is it there? A question like that can be answered in the new AP Human Geography course offered this year. Taught by social studies teacher Jere Borg, the course teaches and discusses the where, what and why about humans on a deeper college level.

“Anything you see, read on the newspaper, get on the internet, that’s human geography. Human geography is everything humans have done on the face of the earth. Religions, languages, politics, city/county, state,” Borg said.

While the subject focuses mainly on humans and cultures, other discussions such as current events and human life from the

past are held as well in this class.

The main question students will learn around is why humans use a particular space, how they use it and why it is located there.

Projects for AP Human Geography for this year will include mapping out Harrisonburg, collecting data for population data and more. Field trip wise, the class plans to take a trip to downtown Harrisonburg later this year to visit “Picturing Harrisonburg.”

The exhibit features images of Harrisonburg from the 1890’s up to today. There, students will use those photographs to relate it back to the questions of human geography.

“I think you need to find out what makes the world tick, and you’re going to be living in it. This is how the real world works. Harrisonburg doesn’t pick where to

put a sewage treatment plant.

Everything comes back to location; where it is and why. I think you need to know why, and it will help you a lot,” Borg said.

If Borg could describe the purpose of human geography and the background behind it, she would compare the subject to a simple cup of coffee.

“Have you ever thought about a Starbucks cup of coffee? That’s human geography. Where’s it grown? Why? How? Why is it a cheap price? Because those people in developing countries probably don’t get paid a lot of money, but we love having our cheap cup of coffee,” Borg said. “How we produce our coffee, well that’s the manufacturing step. Pricing it, distributing it, marketing it, all of that’s geography.”

Personal trainer certification opens career opportunities Noah Siderhurst Feature Editor After the end of this school year, you may start to see some familiar faces in local gyms. That’s because the new personal training class taught by PE teacher Amy Wheeler certifies students as official personal trainers able to work in almost any gym.

“The class is the first of its kind in the state of Virginia where a credentialing agency has teamed up with the Virginia Department of Education. So NASM, the National Academy of Sports Medicine, has partnered with the Department of [Education] and they are offering this course through CTE (Career and Technical Education),” Wheeler said.

“That means they can immediately enter the workforce and start making money.”

At the end of the course, students must pass an offsite exam in Charlottesville to be credentialed.

Wheeler first encountered this course at a con-

ference two years ago, but it wasn’t until last year that she decided to go through the course provided by NASM and actually establish this class, the first of its kind, here at HHS. Outside of school, becoming a personal trainer through the NASM course can be very expensive, but because the course is offered through the school, students get to take it for free. HHS still picks up the tab, but at a reduced rate compared to what it would cost outside of school.

This class adds to a rapidly growing field of classes focusing on health care, something that may have been overlooked in the past.

“If you look at our program of studies, we didn’t offer very many courses for that health science pathway. So since I have an interest in health science, I thought this would be a nice opportunity to start to develop that,” Wheeler said.

Not only can students become personal trainers

at the end of the class, but Wheeler believes that it will expose students to a variety of possibilities for their future.

“I liked the idea of preparing students for real life stuff,” Wheeler said. “This also opens a door for other career opportunities in the health and fitness field.

So a lot of people might start with this credential, but then they might go on to get additional credentials like [ones that allowed them to] instruct classes or become a dietitian. It just offers branches out into the fitness world.”

Senior Alanna Macadam sees these possibilities from taking the class.

“Whatever I do, I want to work with something athletic. Whether it’s a physical therapist, personal trainer, athletic trainer, that’s definitely the field I want to be working in,” Macadam said.

Senior Stedman Clark took the class for similar reasons.

“I’m big into fitness. I’m going to use this to my ben-

efit so when I work out I know what exercises to do and what [will] trigger this muscle or other muscles,” Clark said.

Clark is also taking anatomy, another class that fits into the health sciences field. In fact, one of Wheeler’s reasons for starting the class was people like Clark who were interested in taking more classes similar to anatomy.

“I felt like it would be a nice fit for a pocket of students at the school,” Wheeler said.

Macadam also took anatomy last year, which she thinks is helping her a lot this year. However, the new course also has its own challenges.

“It’s a lot of memorization. It’s a bunch of new terms I’ve never heard before, so vocab is definitely the hardest thing in that class,” Macadam said.

Other challenges arise from the fact that this is the first year this class is being offered.

“So far we don’t have textbooks for the class, we

can’t get our online stuff for the class… I can definitely say it being brand new is definitely affecting how it’s running so far,” Macadam said.

Wheeler has seen challenges in the budget, logistics and also the deep nature of the course material.

“It’s been a lot of work in a good way,” Wheeler said.

Because it was a new class, according to Clark, students were also hesitant about taking it.

“People didn’t want to try it out, they were timid about it. I tried it out because it will benefit me in the long run and [right] now,” Clark said.

In the future, Wheeler hopes to expand the class outside the classroom by partnering with the 24/7 Fitness gym just towards downtown on route 33 to give students a full picture of what it’s actually like to be a physical trainer.

“It’s more than us just sitting in the classroom and learning from our powerpoints and our labs, but going out into the real

world and meeting with real clients,” Wheeler said.

“A lot of times I refer to [my students] by the names of trainer and client because they’ll develop a lot of soft skills, managerial skills, as well as learning how to put an exercise plan in place for every type of individual that they might meet at a gym or facility.”

For now at least, these plans are still in the future, and the challenges of teaching such a new class, not only for the school but for the state of Virginia, are great.

“I do wish I wasn’t taking it the first year, but it is kind of cool because Mrs. Wheeler is also learning about it as well,” Macadam said.

Clark believes, though, that the class as whole is still a good fit for himself and people at HHS. “It’s [for] people that love fitness, love to work out, love to help people strive to be better for themselves and [to be] healthier,” Clark said.

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

Feature-B2

New teachers adjusting to HHS Math teacher Megan Holland comes from JMU

Oziel Valdez Staff Reporter Q: If you won a gold medal in what you’re best at, what would it be?

A: “I think I’m pretty good at math. I think I would win a gold medal in a math test.”

Q: Were you always good at Math?

A: “So I was always good at math, but when I was in high school I took advanced math classes, but I was not that kid that was acing the advanced math classes. I was always that kid that was kind of being dragged along by the collar in the advanced math classes. So I didn’t feel smart necessarily.”

Q: What is the craziest thing you ever saw in New Jersey?

A: “Are you trying to say that New Jersey is full of crazy stuff? How fascinating. I don’t believe that I witnessed any particularly crazy things. So for a kid growing up in New Jersey, it was pretty normal. Like we went to school and stuff. All that stuff you see on MTV and stuff, that’s just TV. I don’t recall in any crazy things.”

Q: So you went to college twice, is that right?

How would you describe your college experience if you had to use 3 words/3 short phrases?

A: “So I went to JMU for my undergraduate Q: What is your favorite out of the country degree. Which [makes] people wonder how you trip? get from New Jersey to JMU, A: “When I was in college, but it’s actually really common I had an opportunity to study “Are you trying to say for people from New Jersey to abroad in Malta, which is a that New Jersey is full come to school in Virginia. So small island in the Mediterraactually a lot of the students in nean, and since then I’ve been of crazy stuff? How JMU are from New Jersey. So I back twice. It is my favorite fascinating. I don’t be- went there and I studied inteplace in the whole world. Just lieve that I witnessed grated science and technology. the culture, the history, it is any particularly crazy I was a math minor. And then beautiful. Well it is in the Mediafter I graduated, I thought things.” terranean, so.” that maybe I wanted to teach, -Megan Holland so then I went back and got Q: You were not born in Jera Master’s at UVA and that’s sey, so why did you move there how I ended up teaching. It in your childhood? was fast. And it was fun. And engaging.”

A: “I was not born in New Jersey. I was born in Illinois. But we moved to New Jersey when I Q: What is the funniest memory you have of was around two and a half, so I basically spent your children? my whole childhood growing up in New Jersey. So A: “So this was this summer, and my parents my dad worked in a financial industry, and when were talking to my daughter. And she is kind of I was young he got a job offer in New York City, like a busy body, like all 5 year-old girls are. And I and so many people who work in New York City think that she had overheard something and relive in New Jersey and commute to the city. Fun peated something and my mom said, ‘She’s just fact. That first job was on the 104th floor of one like her mother, she never misses a thing!’ And of the Twin Towers.”

Nicholas Zimmerman FACS, FCCLA Holly Bill Staff Reporter Q: Tell me about yourself, where are you from?

A: “I am originally from North Carolina. I moved to Virginia when I was four. I graduated from Page County High School. I still live in Page County. I went to Bridgewater College, go Eagles! I graduated in May and now, I am here.”

things. I get dressed up in the costumes and all of that good stuff for the kids.”

Q: When you first came here, what was your first impression of HHS? A: “My first impression was that this was going to be very different from my high school experience, for sure. But I felt like there was a huge opportunity to meet students from a wide variety of backgrounds and to really get to know different cultures, and I think I’ve started a lot of that. But I really enjoy anyone that smiles at me, I’m smiling back and there’s been a lot of that here, so I’ve enjoyed it.”

Q: Do you like Page County better than Harrisonburg?

A: “I think they both offer something very different. The atmosphere in Harrisonburg offers a lot of diversity, but a lot of my family was born in Page County and lives in Page County and I’ve grown “My first impression up there, so they both have a was that this was different place in my heart.”

Q: Not related to school or anything, but what are your going to be very dif- hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time?

Q: Did you know you want- ferent from my high A: “Oh gosh. At home we ed to be a teacher when you school experience, have a 13 pound shih tzu went to college? for sure.” named Lilly. She is spoiled rotA: “As soon as I got to colten, and so I love to play with -Nicholas Zimmerman lege, I knew. I knew at about her. She loves belly rubs, and tenth grade that I wanted to so we have a good time with teach family consumer sciencthat. Church is still very big es.” for me, so that’s a huge out of school hobby. I love Facebook and Snapchat, Q: When you were in college, what are the and so when I’m at home, I’m on those a lot. other things you did for fun?

Food, I love to cook. And just spending time A: “In college, I was involved in choir, which with my family and friends. I’m so very fortuI really enjoyed. I was very involved in our stu- nate that I have both sets of my grandparents dent club we had through our family and con- alive and they live within 15 minutes of me. sumer sciences department, and even from the They’re not getting any younger, so I really entime I was little and through college, I’ve been joy spending time with them because they’re very active in my church back home, so with not going to be around forever.”

Vacation Bible School and all of those kinds of

Psychologist Melanie Pruit assists teachers, students Mia Constantin Staff Reporter Q: Did you always know you wanted to be a psychologist?

A: No I didn’t actually, I knew that I liked working in the human services, helping people,supporting people, and finding ways to improve people’s lives. I actually worked as a social worker after undergrad.

Q: What did you do as a social worker?

A: I was foster care social worker, and I worked with kids to reunite them with their families if they’d been removed from their families. I also worked with parents to achieve goals to be reunited.

the evaluations for special education eligibility. I conduct the psychological portion of those evaluations to determine whether a student would be eligible for additional support through special ed. I also work with students through counseling. I do consultations with teachers for any kind of support that I can provide them in class and sometimes I do interventions throughout school.

I was a foster care social worker, and I worked with kids to reunite them with their families if they’d been removed from their Q: Why did you decide to families. come to HHS? -Melanie Pruit A: I did my internship IN HCPS when I was in school, but I never really got to go to the high school a lot. I then spent some years working in other places and then came back to the city and this was one of the schools I was assigned as part of my school psych assignment. I’m also at Keister.

I’m loving being here, I really enjoy working with the high school population.

Q: What do you do here as a psychologist?

Q: Have you ever lived outside of Harrisonburg?

A: I have, I grew up on the eastern shore of Virginia over across the Chesapeake Bay in a little town called Onienca, so when, came to JMU for undergrad and I got here, Harrisonburg was a big city for me. When I first got out of school I lived here and then moved to New Hampshire a year later, but since then I’ve been here for the last 20 years or so.

Q: Why did you come to JMU? A: Originally, I went skiing up Massanutten, I was in middle school, and somebody had a child that was at JMU at the time and we rode through the campus and I just loved the campus. From the time I was in middle school I just kept learning about JMU, and it just always seemed like a place that would fit.

Trainer Timothy Huynh helps athletes

David Beck Staff Reporter Q: Did any injuries that happened to you as an athlete influence you becoming a trainer?

A: “Certainly. The one major injury I had playing sports was when I got knocked out during a soccer game. I woke up, and it was pretty much just like a dream. I remember that not that many people knew what to do, and there were no nurses or doctors on the sidelines.

That made me want to get into this profession, because there wasn’t anyone there to help me, and so I can be the person to help these younger individuals.”

Q: What college/colleges did you attend?

A: “I went to James Madison University for my undergrad. That’s where I got my degree in athletic training. After that, I went to George Mason University and got my masters degree in exercise, fitness and health promotion.”

Q: What was your motivation to become an athletic trainer?

A: “I’ve always played a lot of sports growing up, and science was always my best subject in school, so I put two and two together. Junior year in high school, I took an ‘Intro to Sports Medicine’ class, and that kind of introduced me to the profession.”

had kids, I would probably say that I wouldn’t let my kids play football, mostly from the things I now know.

There’s a lot of research out there on injuries in these sports, but there are still things that not a lot of the general population knows about. I also wouldn’t let my kids play rugby, because you’re not even wearing a helmet, so the possibility of a pretty big head injury is high.”

Q: What are your duties that most of the public doesn’t know about?

A: “Some of the behind the scenes stuff that happens is the rehab side. When an athlete sustains an injury or has a chronic injury, it’s important to try to get the athlete healthy and back to playing. Also, preventative type stuff is a big side.

When an athlete comes in saying that they feel an injury coming on, we help them with that by trying to prevent the injury. We try by giving them treatments and rehab exercises to do even before an injury occurs. I feel as though that’s important because we are the only health care professionals educated in prevention of injury.”

Q: What sports did you play throughout your life?

A: “I grew up playing soccer.

That’s my favorite sport. I picked up basketball in middle school, and then in the backyard I played football and baseball with my friends.”

Q: What classes did you have to take to become an athletic trainer?

A: “To become an athletic trainer you have to go through an undergraduate program which is accredited by CAATE Q: In your [Commission on experiences, Accreditation of “That made me want to what sports Athletic Training get into this profession, have been Education]. The because there wasn’t most dangerclasses you have ous? to take include anyone there to help A: “Obviexercise physi- me, and so I can be the ously football ology, anatomy, person to help these is high contact physiology, upyounger individuals.” and starts in per and lower the summer, so -Timothy Huynh extremity rethere is always hab classes, an the possibility emergency care of heat illness. class, CPR and AED certification, Heat illness is the number one killer statistics and then through a practi- of athletes. cum program.

Q: What are some of the worst injuries you’ve ever seen?

A: “The main one would definitely be a shoulder dislocation.

When I worked with JMU football, I saw a complete pectoral tear. The last one would be when a baseball player was trying to put down a bunt and the ball popped up on him and cut his lip open.”

Q: From injuries you’ve seen, if you have kids, will it stop you from letting them play a specific sport/ sports?

A: “Nowadays, obviously, there’s a lot more research and technology with figuring out injuries. If I

Q: What is your favorite sport and sports team?

A: “My favorite sport is certainly soccer, I love watching soccer. I watch English Premier League every weekend. I have two top soccer teams I follow. I follow Manchester United and also FC Barcelona.”

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?

A: “I’m really happy to be back in Harrisonburg after going to JMU. Ms. Glazer, as well, has been great.

She’s helping me learn the process and how things go around here. I’m glad to be here, and the kids have been great so far, so it’s definitely been a good experience.

Resource officer Ron Bowers looking to bring positive role Emma Lankford Staff Reporter Q: What college did you attend?

A: College? Didn’t go to college.

I went into the military.

bies?

A: I like the outdoors, I love being in the outdoors, so anything to do with the outdoors: camping, I’m an avid fisherman, outdoorsman, hunter, stuff like that.

Q: When you were in school, what was your favorite subject and why?

A: My favorite subject was history. We’ve learned from the things Q: Is there anything else that from the past: what was good, you would like to add? what was bad, what worked and A: I know this is new to me, bewhat didn’t work. ing a police ofThat’s just what ficer in a school Having good interinterested me, environment. how even hun- actions with the stu- The school I went dreds of years dents may influence to didn’t have ago some of the them to think that po- school resource things they did officers, it was a then are still in lice officers aren’t as small school, so place today and bad as you think they it was something still work today. are. that I had never even heard of. I -Ron Bowers Q: When you would like to add were younger, that a police ofwhat did you ficer in a school think you wanted to be when you environment should be a very posgrew up? itive role. Having good interactions A: I had a lot of interest in flying. with the students may influence Like, flying airplanes and stuff like them to think that police officers that. I never did that, but when I aren’t as bad as you think they are. went into the military I worked on So it’s just something else I would aircraft. Never got to the point of like to add. For the students not to actually flying an aircraft, but I defi- be afraid to approach police offinitely got to the point of knowing a cers and talk to them, we are norlot about them, so that was good. mal people just like everyone else.

Q: What are some of your hob-

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

Feature-B3

BAND BENDS TIME How big is our band? Q&A with senior Madisyn Coburn Trumpet

15

8

7

et rin Cla

14 9 Saxophone

Drum line

7 21

Pi cc ol o

Mellophone

Q: How would you describe this year’s theme?

A: “[This year’s theme is] based around time, time warps. It’s inspired by Salvador Dali’s painting, The Persistence of Memory, with the melting clock.”

Pit

17

Q: What do you like about the theme?

A: “[I really like] the second movement, it’s about time crunches with the really cool, dark sounds.

Although, the third movement is going to appeal more to the audience because the ballad, that’s what appeals to me and a lot of people like that. When we add the marches and color guard choreography it will continue to get cooler.”

Q: Who is the section leader?

A: “I’m the Piccolo section leader.

[I like it a lot] because I feel like I can make a difference, have a helping hand in making the band better. I love band, they are really great, they call me mom.”

rass B w Lo

QUESTIONS BY SWETA KUNVER

Q: Why is it important to be a section leader?

A: “Being a section leader, I make sure that they can march, know how to march. [I help] them learn their music, I keep them in check, make them do push-ups when they don’t ‘obey’, pay attention so they don’t disrespect their band leader.

I feel like I’m a little bossy, but it’s needed sometimes.”

Q: How do you coordinate with color guard?

A: “We can’t really work with color guard until we’re on the field. For now, we just rehearse with them and watch how they do the show and then we do it together in the show.”

Q: How do you think band will impact your lives?

A: “I think marching band teaches people a lot of discipline and teaches to know how to work with each other. This is something that will carry on with [our] lives. I definitely think the friendships last forever too.”

Gomez takes on role of section leader for trumpets Simon Beach Staff Reporter High school marching band is the highlight of some people’s football season. Junior Ronal Gomez is the leader of the trumpet section this year. As leader, Gomez is in charge of keeping them on task, helping them play things correctly and making sure everything else runs smoothly.

“I’ve seen everyone go through the ranks as a freshman and a sophomore, and now I’m finally section leader as a junior, so that’s pretty cool,” Gomez said.

Gomez has been playing the trumpet since fourth grade, starting when he was nine years old.

Trumpet is the only instrument that he’s ever played. With practice every Tuesday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., band is a big commitment, though members really enjoy it, thinking of it as an escape from their day at

school. Almost everyone has a different favorite part about band and likes different things.

“I really like playing my trumpet, I’m in control and I feel like I can do anything,” Gomez said.

The junior’s favorite band memory was in eighth grade on a bus ride back from Washington D.C. The band was there to watch a professional band play and see how it is done on that level.

“The bus driver started playing Hispanic music and me and my bud started jamming out and singing along and having a good time,” Gomez said. As a three year member, Gomez thinks that this year’s band group is going to be better than those in previous years, but that they can never stop improving. If you are debating whether to do band or not next year, take some of Gomez’s advice.

“Do it,” Gomez said. “You won’t regret it. It will be the best [time] of your life.”

PHOTO BY HEIDI RAAB

BUGLE BOY. The trumpet section, led by junior Ronal Gomez, rehearses the halftime performance before a home football game.

Color guard relies on alumni for routine help Olivia Comer Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO BY MADDIE SHNAHOLTZ

TEACHING TO TWIRL. Members of color guard, old and new, practice this year’s halftime routine. Over the summer, the color guard had alumni, including recently graduated Kennedy Wolter, come in to help the girls with their routine.

At the beginning of the marching band season, it is a tradition for alumni to come back and help the new section leaders become good coaches for their section; however, until this year, color guard has never had an alumni come back. Kennedy Wolter was a member of color guard last year and came back to assist the initial coaching of newbies. Senior Karina Vazquez-Murillo was very happy to see her return.

“I was really surprised because she’s the first of all the seniors who have already graduated that has come back, so I was like really happy that she came,”

Vazquez-Murillo said.

“There [are] usually other sections that [have] alumni go over and stuff, but not color guard. This was the first show, and it was really exciting, and just having someone from the color guard was great.”

In the beginning, Wolter assisted mainly to help get the ball rolling and to help catch people up who had to miss practice.

“She just helped us with the basics. First, she really helped us with catching up the people who couldn’t be there on the days they were supposed to. It was just great to have her there. We’re just going through basics, and she’s really good with that,” Vazquez-Murillo said.

Post band camp, the new color guard members have impressed their section leaders.

“To be honest, the freshmen have been really great about soaking everything in. We had a day where [we learned a] section of the show, part four, and the next day we put the whole thing that we learned into a [show] setting and it went great,” Vazquez-Murillo said. “It was a really proud moment for the freshmen because the freshmen are in the mindset that they need to do anything to fit in. The color guard is great… [because] you don’t have to do anything to fit in, but they still try so it’s a good thing.”

Although they had some initial struggle, this year’s show is a lot less accident prone than last year’s, according to Vazquez-Murillo.

“Probably just getting everything set right [would be the most hazardous thing] because we’re kind of getting everything finished off; and the S curves.

I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but they’re the S shaped things. They’re metal and we’re afraid to hit the band members or hit each other because they hurt and they leave bruises, but they’re a new thing so we kind of have to be careful about that,” Vazquez-Murillo said. “It kind of scares us, but we have fun with it.”

Do section leaders fit the stereotype?

Junior Kadean Click Low Brass “The stereotype [for trombones] is to slack off. I feel like bluegrass is looked as the slacking group, but I am trying to fix that this year. [We don’t fit it]; Leo [Lopez] and I are trying to do a better job to keep everyone on task and make them work ethically.”

Senior Nicole Raab Color Guard Senior Lizet Muniz Drum Major

Junior Alexia Munoz Front Ensemble

Courtney Carpenter Clarinet

“For saxophones [the stereotype is that they’re] crazy, rowdy and pretty much unfocused, very talkative... Kirk McClay [fits the baritone saxophone stereotype].”

“A lot of people think that the pit is easy work because we don’t have to march, but in reality we have more notes than everyone else; we definitely have to articulate more.”

“[Our stereotype is] that we are really quiet, which is true, it’s not just a stereotype... I think that our group really fits it actually, pretty exact to the stereotype.”

“I feel like in the global scheme of things, color guard is kind of the group that is just the playful ones... We are just the happy group... We are the uplifting energetic group. The band will be dead and we will be like, ‘Woo!’”

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September 29, 2017

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Volleyball comes out strong for new season Danait T-Medhin Staff Reporter Last season, wins were hard to come by for the varsity volleyball team, as they picked up just two victories throughout the course of the year. This season, however, the team has gotten off to a fast start, with a 4-2 record as of September 14. Sophomore Atilia Thomas has belief in her team’s ability to continue this level of success.

“I feel for this season we’re definitely going to have a winning season and maybe even make it out of our first round of conference,” Thomas said. “I feel like this year is way different than last year because I feel like this year everyone’s just friends and everyone’s just talking with each other more. In order to keep winning as many games as possible we’re going to just do what we’ve been doing. So pretty much getting hype at every point we get and other stuff like that.”

Thomas believes that this year the team has definitely improved since last year.

“Last year we had one passer in the back row; her name was Athena. I feel like we really depended on her a little too much,” Thomas said. “This year it’s very spread out, everyone’s getting enough passes up, everyone’s able to hit the ball. It’s pretty good this year.”

At first, Thomas didn’t really consider volleyball, mainly because she was part of another fall sport that took up her time.

“The reason at first I wasn’t going to start [was] because I was doing cross country and I was like ‘Volleyball? What the heck?’ But I don’t know I guess my friends convinced me and then I just started playing and I really like it,” Thomas said.

Thomas, prior to this year’s varsity season, took part in multiple offseason activities to get ready.

“I prepared by going to a bunch of open gyms during the summer and I also did travel volleyball during the winter,” Thomas said.

Lily Harmison, a Sophomore on the JV volleyball team has been playing volleyball for HHS the past three years.

“I started playing volleyball because I’m pretty tall, I guess, and my dad said I’d be really good at it, so I was like ‘Oh, I’ll give it a try.’

I don’t have anything else to do in the fall.’ Then, I just kind of fell in love with it,” Harmison said. “It’s a really fun sport, really great team sport, and it’s just fun game.”

Even though Harmison was really busy this summer, she found time to prepare for the season.

“This season I prepared by... going to [travel] practices, working hard, developing my skills and getting more touches on the ball,” Harmison said. “I came to open gyms when I could. I was really busy this summer so when I did come I would make sure to get everything out of it.”

According to Harmison, the games the JV team have played went pretty well, but she would

PHOTO BY THEO YODER

NO, NO, NO, NOT TODAY. Sophomore Atilia Thomas blocks a spike during a home game this season against Turner Ashby. Thomas is one of the starters who has helped lead the Streaks to a 4-2 start after they won just two games in 2016. like to see her team improve on their endurance, not just physically but also mentally.

“I’ve seen lots of improvement from last year just in the way we work together, but I can tell we still have work to do because we fall apart or our mental toughness just kind of falls and cracks under pressure,” Harmison said. “That kind of is what happened yesterday during our game. We won in the first set, lost in the second set

and then in the third set we lost.

We were up 14-8 and we ended up losing which is really rough, but it’s okay, we played well, we just need to get that mental toughness up.”

The Harmison believes that one of the reasons the high school teams have improved is because of the arrival of middle school volleyball in Harrisonburg.

“Everybody has a general idea of what we’re doing and it’s not

like we have to completely teach them the game of volleyball when they come in. We just kind of have to teach them rotation stuff and special little things here and there but other wise they know the basics of passing, setting, hitting and serving. It’s been really good to just take those skills and develop them instead of having to teach a whole new set of skills,” Harmison said.

Growing cheer team hopes to perform in all three seasons Lucie Rutherford Editor-In-Chief

PHOTO BY OLIVIA COMER

FISTS UP. The cheer team performs a routine during the first school pep rally of the year.

PHOTO BY OLIVIA COMER

CHEER TIME. The sideline cheer team performs a stunt during the first pep rally of the year. In addition to their performances at both football and basketball games, the volleyball team hopes to also perform at volleyball games and spring sports events this year.

Unlike most sports, sideline cheer is one that carries on into more than one season. Though they take part in football games in the fall, cheer is also a part of basketball games in the winter, and this year, coach Lisa Thurman has plans of carrying it through all three seasons.

“We’re going to come to volleyball games, and then depending on where my girls are, we may do something for spring sports if I can get a team early enough,” Thurman said.

According to Thurman, the team has bigger numbers this year at 20 girls versus 16 in previous years, six of them being freshmen. Dorothy Yates is one of those freshmen, and one with a long history in gymnastics and cheer.

“I started in fifth grade. At the time I went to Thomas Harrison [Middle School, where] only seventh and eighth graders could be on it, but I started doing gymnastics since I was three, so I had all the tumbling and flexibility of a ninth grader,” Yates said. “I had a bunch of the skills that a bunch of the other girls didn’t have. I talked to the coach about it, and I got on the cheer leading team.”

A central focus of being a cheerleader is memorization.

“We have anywhere from 50 to 70 [cheers], and then there’re [seven or eight] dances and [ten]

NFL suspensions must become more consistent, correlate with crime The National Football League is America’s most watched sport, drawing the largest television ratings of any live athletics in the nation. The Super Bowl is annually one of the most watched events in the entire world, drawing 113.7 million viewers during Super Bowl LI. The league brings in millions of dollars every year, but despite its success, it still has its share of problems.

The NFL has an extremely lengthy arrest record, and they don’t really seem to be doing anything about it. Player after player seem to get off lightly on charges that they really need to be punished for.

The Ray Rice incident four years ago was essentially the beginning of the huge domestic violence epidemic. Since then, player after player has been accused of domestic violence or other crimes related to it, and many time, the charges are either dropped or reduced to a point where the NFL doesn’t even suspend their player. Even when a player does get suspended, it doesn’t really seem to fit the crime. Panthers star defensive tackle Greg Hardy was accused of domestic violence and given a 10 game suspension, whereas Steelers receiver Martavis Bryant was suspended a full-year (16 games) for a drug violation for which he wasn’t even convicted of a crime.

Domestic violence is not a small of-

fense. Most cases of domestic violence that include physical abuse (which both Rice’s and Hardy’s did), are felonies that legally are supposed to lead to jail time.

However, just one look at nflarrest.com shows that a punishment of jail time is very rare in the NFL, even for repeat offenders. Sure, the debate could be made that people make up domestic violence stories about football players for attention and money, and while there is evidence that has happened on occasion, the amount of times that the result of the case is listed as “charges dropped” is alarming. For example, former Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall was arrested THREE times for domestic violence/disputes over the span of 18 months, and not once was he charged with a crime. Those three arrests got him a total of a one game suspension from the NFL. Where is Marshall now? He’s lauded as one of the New York Giants’ best receivers, with hardly any acknowledgement of his past outside of his Wikipedia page. This isn’t a “young people make mistakes” situation. Domestic violence is not a mistake, it is a serious crime that for a non-professional athlete would result in jail time. The fact that it happened three times is absolutely inexcusable. Marshall should no longer be allowed the privilege of playing professional sports, much less making millions

of dollars to do it.

The biggest problem of the NFL isn’t even the lack of suspensions and overall punishment for the domestic violence cases, it’s more of Lil Stew’s the contradictory Sports nature of other punishments, such as Ezekiel Elliott’s domestic violence suspension. Almost as soon as the woman came out with the story of Elliott abusing her, the NFL suspended him six games with absolutely zero evidence whatsoever (the suspension was later overturned). America always preaches the “innocent until proven guilty” method, but it seems like the NFL can’t seem to deviate from either being “innocent no matter what”, or “guilty until proven innocent”.

This isn’t a problem that’s going to go away until punishments begin happening.

The NFL needs to crack down on crime in their league. They’ve done a good job of attempting to hide these crimes to keep their image positive among the general public, as they even keep fines for some cases undisclosed. However, the information is always out there somewhere.

The National Football League has bigger issues than concussions to worry about.

stunts,” Thurman said.

To give the girls a visualization of all the cheers, Thurman shares a list of them, according to Yates.

With this many routines to memorize, Yates keeps this list on her phone and has come up with her own strategies to ingrain them into her brain.

“Personally, I’ll go out to the park and I’ll have my phone in my hand and I’ll start running. I’ll say the words over and over and over until I know the cheer, and then I’ll go to the next one,” Yates said.

When it comes to memorization during practice, the girls use a similar strategy of straight repetition.

“During practice, we’ll do them multiple times, like over and over and over, and we’ll get with our big sisters and little sisters to go over it again,” Yates said. “The big sisters and the little sisters is basically where the older girls, who have been cheering for a long time and know the cheers, they are assigned a little sister,” Yates said. “They look out for you, so we can meet up with them and do practices, we go over cheers and they help us with school stuff. They’ll just be that person that you can always go to.”

For Yates, her involvement in cheer leading brings a whole new excitement to her life. “[My favorite part is] just the rush that goes through your body when you’re out on the track, it’s a lot of fun,” Yates said. “We get really hype and it’s just, it’s amazing.”

NFL CRIME

(since 2000) -188 DUIs -94 Drug Arrests -85 Domestic Violence -66 Assault -38 Disorderly Conduct -Minnesota Vikings: 44 arrests -Adam Jones: arrested 10 times since 2004

September 29, 2017

The Newsstreak

Sports-B7

English department dominates coaching staff Owen Marshall Sports Editor After finishing the 2016 season with just two wins, the varsity volleyball team has already doubled their win total in the first five contests. The varsity coaching staff has added two new coaches to the roster; Emily Hussack and Caitlin Francis are the new coaches alongside head coach Hannah Bowman.

Francis was invited to help during tryouts and continued to coach as the season went underway.

“I was influenced to coach because I played volleyball in high school, loved the sport and wanted to get involved in coaching but didn’t want to take on too much as a new teacher.

So this year I really felt like I would have a better handle on things. The coaches asked me to help with tryouts and I kind of just stuck around,” Francis said.

All the coaches work in the English department of the high school, which puts them in the same environment throughout the day and has made them more than just coworkers.

“We are definitely better friends and see each other more often. We’ve planned things together; three of us did summer school together and two of us carpooled together because we live in the same town. It helps because we know each other better and generally like each other more as friends and as people,” Hussack said.

Whereas some of the other coaches on the team have been with the athletes throughout their whole

high school career, Hussack is still getting comfortable with the players.

“I’m not the relationship role, that’s definitely Bowman because she’s been with this group for four years. The girls are awesome to me; they listen to what I say. There is a mutual respect there, [but] they just don’t know me as well yet,” Hussack said.

Being new to the team, Hussack has fallen into her role as a coach faster than she expected.

“They have all been really welcoming. I’m new to the coaching staff, but we mesh well. Bowman is the head coach, but she includes us as pretty much equals. She just has to take care of all the annoying stuff that head coaches have to do,” Hussack said.

Hussack is an English as well as the broadcasting teacher. She believes that volleyball gives her a chance to see how her players are both in and out of the classroom.

“I really love the sport of volleyball; it’s fun to watch and see the team get better. I have some of the girls in class this year and I like seeing them in a different perspective than just students. It’s more fun, it’s a different atmosphere than the classroom and they get to see us as different people in a way,” Hussack said.

Francis also enjoys seeing her students in a different atmosphere.

“My favorite part about coaching is getting to have a different type of connection with students I’ve had in the past [and] also getting to have a connection with students I don’t get to see on a daily basis,” Fran-

PHOTO BY THEO YODER

WARMING UP. Assistant coach Emily Hussack spikes the ball to the players during their coach-on-three warm-up before their game on Sept. 14 The Streaks took on the Knights of Turner Ashby and fell to the Knights three sets to one.

The Streaks record dropped to 4-2 after the loss, and 0-2 in district play. cis said.

Hussack comes from a volleyball background starting in the sixth grade and continuing on to play D-I at James Madison University. While she brings the high level of experience to the team, she has to tone back some of the more advanced aspects that she tries to coach.

“I have to tell myself to scale it down a little bit because it’s not their fulltime job here, as it tends

to become in college with scholarships on the line,” Hussack said. “Sometimes I say things that we just haven’t talked about yet, or we don’t have the time to get as technical as a college program can. Any college program has so much more time and a longer offseason to really get into the technical pieces of it. I find myself saying things that we haven’t talked about and that are just not at our level yet.”

Hussack believes that the team is successful because the program is expanding and setting up opportunities to get the players playing more often.

“I didn’t see a whole lot of games last year, but we have a core group of young players who get better every game and our senior leaders are just really blossoming. They are just sticking them out and we are fighting for every single point and then all of a sud-

den we are at 25. It’s really fun to be in the middle of that and feel that,” Hussack said. “They put in some offseason time and Bowman got a lot of girls into [the club team]. She [worked] with the juniors program and pushed a lot of girls to play. A bunch of the other schools’ girls play essentially year-round volleyball.

We are catching up to other schools that have the history of people playing volleyball all the time.”

Sorber takes on additional role as golf coach David Beck Staff Reporter Christopher Sorber teaches math for Special Education students at HHS. This year, he took on the additional responsibility of coaching the golf team after the former coach, Mike Ruckman, gave up the position due to health concerns. Sorber will oversee golf practices and matches through early October, when the season ends.

His passion for sports took off in high school, where he participated in football, baseball and wrestling. In the spring, Sorber played golf recreationally with his friends. Once he finished high school, Sorber decided to go to Penn State University, but later transferred to East Strouds-

burg University. His experiences at East Stroudsburg showed his future career in Special Education. During Sorber’s time there, he attended the Special Olympics in New Jersey. He was able to work with kids with disabilities, which changed his career path. At first, Sorber did not expect to become anything more than a math teacher.

“After leaving the special olympics, I went back to my advisor at college and I said ‘I think I want to be a special education teacher,’ so I could work with these kids,” Sorber said.

Sorber’s education and learning through high school and college helped him have more learning and understanding strategies for his Special Education students.

“You know, working with

PHOTO BY SAM HEIE

FORE. Chris Sorber is the coach of both the varsity and junior varisty golf teams. He is the only coach at HHS that represents both the junior varsity and varsity teams. students with challenges really helps you focus on how you learn yourself. I didn’t realize through all

these years of school and college all the different ways I myself was learning, either visual, or audi-

tory learning, or you know, all the different learning styles,” Sorber said.

Before coming to the high school, Sorber had experience coaching golf in King George, Virginia.

One of his biggest accomplishments this year was taking the coaching job at HHS. Some of the HHS golf athletes include Walker Thompson, Sam Heie, Owen Stewart, Owen Marshall and Jane Thompson.

“My best golfer is a girl, and her name is Jane Thompson,” Sorber said.

He still enjoys watching the responses he receives from opposing coaches when they find out his top golfer is a girl.

“Traditionally it’s always boys that are number one golfers, not that girls are not as good as golfers as boys, but they typically

don’t hit as far as the boys do,” Sorber said. “Jane is pretty much playing against boys every time we have a match against other schools. She’s the number one. The reaction is interesting. When the coaches see Jane play in that first group, they’re like, ‘wow he’s got a girl at number one, I’ve never seen a girl at number one before’.”

Sorber has grown the golf team since players first signed up in July.

“I was nervous [and] I was scared; I had two golfers in the beginning of July, and I know I needed at least four. The word got out and players started emailing me. I quickly grew from two golfers to thirteen. It’s a really great experience. It was very humbling on my part,” Sorber said.

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

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September 29, 2017

The Newsstreak

Sports-B8

Fiske brothers playing varsity, JV football Owen Stewart Sports Editor In the world of sports, there are times where two siblings find themselves playing with and against each other during their professional careers. Some of those siblings also played together during pee wee and junior league football, up into high school. Freshman Parker Fiske and senior Timothy “Bubba” Fiske are HHS’ example of this, and while Parker Fiske plays on JV and Timothy Fiske is on the varsity squad, Timothy Fiske still enjoys seeing his brother in the same uniform.

“It’s cool to watch him play on the JV team and see the steps he takes [to improve]. He’s wearing the same number as me, so hopefully he represents that number well. It’s pretty cool having a little brother playing for the high school team,” Timothy Fiske said.

While Timothy Fiske has been playing football since he was a little kid, Parker Fiske is a bit newer to the game. Because of this, Timothy Fiske acts as a mentor to his brother off the field.

“We watch a lot of film,” Timothy Fiske said. “It’s one of his first years playing football, so he still has a lot to learn. We definitely throw a football around, watch film and take it stepby-step.”

Parker Fiske notes that he makes use of Timothy’ Fiske’s post-game advice and also believes his brother had some influence on his position change.

“He tells me what I did wrong in my games and he usually just helps me with

what I can do better from what I did wrong,” Parker Fiske said. “I looked up to him, and he was the quarterback, so I was thinking, ‘Yeah, I’ll be the quarterback.’ I tried it out and I’m pretty good. I like it a lot.”

For Timothy Fiske, a starting wide receiver, he’s been through both a move and a position change to get to this point. Prior to his freshman season, he transferred to HHS from rival Turner Ashby. After moving to Harrisonburg, he was the JV quarterback as a freshman and was varsity’s backup QB as a sophomore.

Prior to his junior season, he made the transition to wide receiver, and after being a part-time player as a junior, he is now one of the offense’s leaders as a senior.

“I worked on everything [this offseason], honestly.

My route running, especially, and my blocking had to improve from last year.

Those were areas of focus,” Timothy Fiske said. “I was ready coming into the season. Being a senior and being one of the leaders on offense, I had to be vocal and make sure all the younger guys are doing what they’re supposed to do so the offense can work like it’s supposed to. Even though I’m not the quarterback, I have to make sure all the receivers are doing what they need to do in order for the offense to work.”

As for Parker Fiske, he made the same position change, but in reverse, transitioning from receiver to quarterback between his eighth grade and freshman seasons. Contrary to his brother, he didn’t believe

PHOTO TAKEN BY SAM HEIE

FIRST DOWN. Senior wide receiver and quarterback Timothy Fiske runs the ball against Broadway High School in a valley district showdown last year at Bridgeforth Stadium. Timothy Fiske’s younger brother Parker Fiske also plays football for the Streaks on the freshman football team as a quarterback, where his father is the head coach. there were many physical adjustments to the position change, but there were some mental changes. “[There] weren’t really that many adjustments except that I had to get smarter with the plays [and] learn all of them. I have to be smart and not make bad decisions,” Parker Fiske said.

As a receiver that is well under 200 pounds and

stands around just 5 feet 9 inches, Timothy Fiske knows he needs to do a little bit more in the little parts of the game to be successful on the field.

“For sure [I need to do more]. I’m not super athletic, so I have to over exaggerate everything, as little as getting separation on my routes and using my smaller size to get leverage on bigger corners. Those are

just little things I’ve picked up through playing,” Timothy Fiske said.

As he enters his last season as a Blue Streak, Timothy Fiske hopes to end his career by doing something he hasn’t done yet in high school: help take his team to the postseason.

“I want to finish my high school career winning most of our games and having the experience of getting

into the playoffs. [I’d like to] play more than 10 games, [hopefully] 13 or 14 games.

That’s how I want to end my career,” Timothy Fiske said. “[Being a Blue Streak] means a lot. I came from TA in eighth grade, and Harrisonburg is a lot better than what I experienced at TA. The football team wasn’t welcoming [there]. I have a lot of pride in being a Blue Streak. I love playing here.

White brothers make offensive connection John Breeden Staff Reporter

With the 2017 football season in play, the varsity team hopes for another solid season. This season, however, will be different from the past three. This

year will mark the end of senior A.C. White’s high school football career. A.C. White has been the varsity starting quarterback for every game he has played in high school. After going 7-3 and 6-4 the last two seasons, White is looking to finish strong in his final sea-

son for the Streaks. “[I’m] very excited, a little nervous and scared, but the time has come. [I’m] looking to have a better season than last year, help my team win games and have the potential to stop the playoff drought that has been going on for such a

PHOTO TAKEN BY SAM HEIE

TO THE END ZONE. Senior quarterback A.C. White runs the ball against Brookville High School on Sep. 15 at Harrisonburg High School. His younger brother, sophomore Austin White, also plays on the varsity football team as a wide receiver. The brothers have connected to score a touchdown this season against Charlottesville High School.

long time,” A.C. White said.

A.C. White has been able to maintain his spot as starting quarterback throughout all four years, with no talk of replacement. His strength, speed, his hard-throwing, southpaw arm and simply his knowledge about the game has made him the leader of the team. “[It] means a lot; not many people get a chance to play for four years. I’m really honored, and at the same time I’ve learned so much from it. It’s really helped me out,” A.C. White said.

Not only is this A.C. White’s final year, but he now has family on the field to join him in his senior season. His younger brother, sophomore Austin White, is a player on the rise who moved up to the varsity level this year. Like his brother, Austin White is very optimistic about his first year on varsity.

“I feel like we put a lot of work in [during] the offseason. The first game didn’t show too much because we have a lot of new faces, and we were trying to come together, but I think the second game we really came together and stepped up our game and played well versus Handley,” Austin White said.

There’s always the ups and the downs in football and at times, teammates can have arguments and disagreements. However, it’s mostly just the competitive spirit in every athlete who wants to push hard and get better in order to win games and competi-

tions. Older brother, A.C. White is proud to have his brother on varsity with him, but he says that the competitiveness in him gets him to push Austin to get better. “[Having Austin on varsity] is good. I get on him a little bit more than I do with the other guys, but it’s great [to have him on the team]; it’s really awesome,” A.C. White said.

Austin White agrees he and his brother have their ups and downs in the game of football.

“It’s fun [playing with A.C.]. We argue sometimes, get mad at each other, trying to make each other better, but at the end it’s fun to have someone I’m related to out there on the field,” Austin White said.

This season, HHS athletics moved up to the 5A division, giving teams more opportunities to travel to different schools and compete.

A.C. White however, would prefer to not be in the 5A division.

“I definitely wish that we could be 4A or 3A, but there’s nothing you can do about it, so I just control what I can control,” A.C. White said.

Like his older brother, Austin thinks it’s going to be a challenge playing 5A teams.

“It’s going to be tough, but we have a good team this year and I think we can do some damage in the playoffs,” Austin White said.

In his first year on varsity, Austin White wants to make an impact and take full advantage of the op-

portunity and prove that he belongs on the team.

“Personally, as a sophomore, I think I have earned my way to getting good minutes on the team, and I feel like I just have to contribute. The coaches have trusted me in the starting role and I have to be able to make plays and help the team win,” Austin White said.

For older brother A.C. White, the biggest challenge this year will be avoiding any mistakes that could lead to giving the opponent opportunities to score.

“The biggest challenge for me is limiting the turnovers, no interceptions and me fumbling when I run,” A.C. White said.

Although A.C. White won’t be in a Steaks uniform next season, the football journey for him is far from over. Over the last year, he’s gotten offers from numerous colleges, such as Old Dominion and Campbell University. However, A.C. White is holding out to see all the offers before he makes a decision.

“I’m hoping to pick up a few more offers as the season goes along, and I’ll probably make my decision a little bit after football season is over,” A.C. White said.

A.C. White hopes to leave Harrisonburg on a high note and be remembered positively by teammates and coaches. “[I want my team to remember] that A.C. White was a hard-working guy that always gave it all,” A.C. White said.

Thompson siblings push each other on golf course Garrett Cash Editor-In-Chief Ever since a young age, sophomore Jane Thompson and her brother, junior Walker Thompson, have been competing against each other on the golf course.

“I’ve been golfing with [Jane] since I was pretty young, so it’s not really out of the ordinary to be golfing with her [on] a high school

team,” Walker Thompson said. “I think it’s really cool that sometimes we get to play together in tournaments and stuff, like in the same group.”

The Thompsons started out early, encouraged by their dad to take up the sport. They both believe that they picked up the sport without a second thought; it was simply a part of their life.

“I grew up on a golf course, Spotswood Country

Club, and my dad’s been a player ever since he was little, so he just introduced me to it when I was a really young age, and I just took to it. It was just really fun,” Jane Thompson said.

Having grown up together on the course, the Thompsons are accustomed to playing against each other, and they often find themselves playing better when they have each other for competition.

“It’s been pretty fun

[playing with my brother].

It’s nice because it adds a certain level of competition, because Walker and I are competitive in literally everything we do. Honestly, I think it makes me play better,” Jane Thompson said. “It’s really competitive, but it’s a really fun [type of] competitive.”

The Thompson siblings are no strangers to talking smack. They often find each other doing that to each other in the spirit of com-

petition.

“I don’t know if we trash talk each other the whole way. Just a little bit, a healthy amount,” Jane Thompson said.

Along with the sibling competition, Jane and Walker Thompson are both top seeds on the team, with Jane Thompson at number one and Walker Thompson at number two. This keeps them striving to be their best, propelled by the pressure of being at the top.

“[There’s] a little bit more pressure being number two, because I’ve always been three and four, so I definitely feel a little bit more pressured to do well,” Walker Thompson said.

With the pressure of being the top two seeds on the team, the motivation of sibling competition and the hope to come out of the regional competition strong, the Thompsons are ready to hit the course.

The Newsstreak

September 29, 2017

Humans of HHS-B10

HUMANS OF In keeping with our motto “Every person has a story,” the Newsstreak interviews students every month in the style of Humans of New York creator, Brandon Stanton. The idea is to tell the story of as many of our students as possible. Check out a similar projet at www.hhsmedia.com.

HHS

Sophomore Ty McDaniel “I learned [how to play piano] in my house by myself. I taught myself basically.”

What motivated you to teach yourself?

“I just like how it sounds.”

Senior Kevin Hernandez-Aguilar and biology teacher Trevor Chase Why did you choose Mr. Chase to wear your jersey?

“I picked him because he respects me so much and honestly I respect him, and I felt like he would be a good teacher to let my jersey represent me for the good things.”

Sophomore Jean Moyet

What is something that people don’t know about you?

“That I’m Hispanic.”

Where are you from?

“Puerto Rico.”

Senior Hussein Hussein

“What we basically do is we get together. We help newcomers who get to the school, we show them around, get them caught up with the classes they need, [help them find] programs and sports they like... basically we just take care of them.”

“Today we’re going to vote and hopefully I will be a leader, if that works out it’s going to go awesome. I did it last year but I was slacking off, I had too many things going on, but hopefully I’m intending to do it full year this year.” “[I’m from] Iraq.”

Aerious Kubein

Why did you decide to get colored contacts?

“Mostly because of the fact that I really don’t like my natural eye color.

It’s literally just crap brown. I like eyes with depth. “ Why red?

“Because they didn’t have purple contacts on the interweb, this was the next best choice.”

Senior Marina Fermin “What is your happy place?”

“My room.”

“Why?” “Because I’m by myself and I can be happy there without anyone telling me anything.”

Freshmen Shania Rostem and Katherine Paiz How long have you known eachother?

“Since elementary school.”

What’s a memory you have together?

“We’ve been riding the same bus for nine years now.”