September 2011

THE

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‘Sav-City’ makes strides page 25

Rock Bridge High School • 4303 S. Providence Rd. - Columbia, MO 65203 • Volume 39, Issue 1 • September 22, 2011 • http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/rbhs/bearingnews

Revisions passed on ‘Facebook law’ Sami Pathan

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he Missouri Senate unanimously approved revisions to the controversial ‘Facebook law’ which restricted teachers’ online interaction with students Sept. 14. The bill removed provisions passed in August barring teachers from using websites such as Facebook that give “exclusive access” to students through messages and private groups.

The law “was being met with a lot of criticism from people across the state because of the internet policy so we knew we had to change something with it,” Missouri senator Brad Lager said.

“We removed that provision and it was passed with a 33-0 vote.”

A Cole County Circuit Court judge placed the law on hold last month after concerns about free-speech rights. Governor Jay Nixon added the measure to a special legislative session.

“The governor wanted to just repeal the bill but we went a step further and revised part of it,” Lager said, “namely the teacher-student interactions in hopes of the law being met more positively.”

The revisions would require school districts to develop individual policies regarding contact among teachers and students through electronic media. The bill has found support within groups such as the Missouri State Teachers Association, the Missouri School Boards Association and the Missouri National Education Association.

“I think the new legislation was definitely a step up from the older version. We had members from three of the state’s education associations come and testify on behalf of the revised legislation,” Lager said. “That shows a great deal since these were the same groups championing against the law in the beginning stages.”

Social studies teacher Dan Ware thinks the revision is a positive change for teachers and students. He believes there are different ways to protect students while they are online.

Legislators “sort of didn’t look at the positives or benefits that can come from social interactions with students online and using those tools for classroom purposes, which helps to be successful in school. I think there’s a lot of great things that can happen with Facebook,” Ware said. “They really didn’t look at the positives.”

Lager expects the law to pass the House, but not without debate. The House Education Committee approved the bill Sept. 19, signaling a move down to the House floor for review.

“It’ll take some time before a final decision is reached on the bill. That includes going through the house as well as the governor — you can’t really tell what’s going to happen just based on the fact that the senate passed it on,” Lager said.

“But I feel it’s a good revision we have here.”

Scoreboard provides financial boost photo by Muhammad Al-Rawi

Lighting it up: Kelly Sports Properties raised funds to upgrade the RBHS football field with a new scoreboard, which provides local businesses with new options for advertising.

Alyssa Sykuta

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fter one year of planning, new scoreboards stand on the football fields of both RBHS and HHS thanks to a district partnership with Kelly Sports Properties. The scoreboard made its debut on Sept.

9 at the home football game against Hazelwood Central.

RBHS athletic director Jen Mast said the school district approved a four-year contract with Kelly Sports Properties in June 2010.

The scoreboards, which possesses live-video and message

capabilities that will take effect later in the year with more technological advances, were only the beginning products of the deal.

“The first goal was to get these scoreboards up because they are revenue-generators,” Mast said, “not because we needed a video scoreboard.

You can sell ads on scoreboards so … that was [KSP’s] first big project to get done.”

In the next five years, the program known as ‘Make It Happen’ will generate $1.5 million for the Columbia Public Schools athletic and activities department. With the help of

Kelly Sports Properties, the district achieved this incredible amount of revenue through a process mainly used with sports marketing in college divisions.

“This is an idea of Kelly Sports Properties that’s basically modeled after a college athletic idea,” Mast said. “It’s the concept of bundling smaller schools for sports marketing.

Large Division I universities like the University of Missouri have their own sports marketing because they are large enough to support such a thing.

Smaller schools … like Truman State couldn’t have [their] own

marketing company. But Truman State’s conference — their Division II conference (MIAA) — if you put all those schools together, they have a marketing draw. So that’s what Kelly Sports Properties does on a college level, and they thought that would probably work well with Columbia Public Schools.”

The ‘Make It Happen’ plan involves cooperation from several local businesses who pledge $20,000 per year to CPS, adding to the revenue that will eventually be generated to the school as well adding funds to Kelly Sports. story continued on page 2

New high school progressing on plan Isaac Pasley

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hroughout all of 2011, the Columbia Secondary Education Planning Committee has worked on planning the new Battle High School, scheduled to open in the fall of 2013.

Since January 2011, this 25-person committee, headed by co-chairs Dr. Wanda Brown, Darin Preis and Don Ludwig, has discussed plans for redrawing district boundaries and recommended them to the school board. In making their decision, the committee has needed to examine several factors, such as enrollment trends, bus routes and population growth.

“Redrawing boundary lines for the intermediate schools and the high schools is a really big job,” Brown said. “We have a committee, the Secondary Enrollment Boundary Committee, that has spent hours working in conjunction with [RSP & Associates], a company that does the district’s demographic data.”

Battle High School will occupy an 85-acre site at 7575 St. Charles Rd., off I-70 near the eastern end of Columbia. The school is named for Muriel Battle, a longtime Columbia Public Schools administrator who fought against racial segregation.

Bonds funded the $120 million costs for building the new school. Because Columbia’s

population grew 27 percent from 2000 to 2010, an increase of more than 20,000 people, RBHS and HHS are having problems with overcrowding, and the school board needs to keep pace with a fast-growing city.

The school board has “already been planning this school. They know it’s a lot of money, but they’re ready to spend it,” school board member Jonathan Sessions said. “Opening a new high school is not really optional [at this point]. ... There just isn’t enough space” at HHS and RBHS.

While some teachers will be new to the district, most will come from the existing high schools or even from junior high schools.

“Basically, all teachers [at HHS and RBHS] would have the opportunity either to come over to the new school or stay where they are,” Sessions said.

After Battle High opens, the district will change the way the grades are divided among schools. The senior high schools will expand to hold grades 9-12. Meanwhile, the middle schools and the junior high schools will col-

photo by Asa Lory

Building an education: Columbia’s new public high school, Battle High, is still under construction. It is slated for a fall 2013 opening.

lapse into a single tier known as “intermediate schools” encompassing students in grades 6-8.

Even though it will be a while before the new school opens, some RBHS students are already singing the praises of Battle High.

“I like the new school,” junior Shaila Kathke said. “What it means is that Rock Bridge won’t be as crowded” as it would have been had Battle High not been built.

On the other side of town, Father Tolton High School is currently under construction in southern Columbia, off Highway 63. When construction is completed, the $14 million facility will hold classes in November as Columbia’s first Catholic high school. For now students attend classes at Columbia College.

This year, Tolton is open only to ninth and 10th-graders with an initial enrollment of about 60 students. However, it is scheduled to expand to hold 11th-graders in 2012, and 12th-graders in 2013.

“I think [the new Catholic high school] is a great idea,” sophomore Katie Wheeler said. “I have a lot of friends who [will] go to the new Catholic school. They think it’s very fun.”

Because Tolton High School is small compared to the public high schools, it is not likely to significantly affect attendance at Battle High.

When complete, Tolton is expected to have an enrollment of 400 compared to Battle High’s 1,800.

Inside this Issue

Kahler trial finds closure

Hollywood man to musical

Football embraces diversity

Junior Troy Guthrie makes his debut at RBHS in the upcoming school play ‘The Music Man’ after returning from Hollywood. Guthrie lived in California for a year with hopes of landing roles in movies or television shows.

New players and old players alike are using their newfound friendship to press each other into improving their collective play. Players from different sports and different skill levels all join together to achieve their one goal.

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Strangers help Joplin recover photo retrieved from Facebook

The trial of Kraig Kahler is nearing an end as the final verdict will be announced Oct. 11. The jury has given a recommendation of the death penalty, but friends and family are still stricken.

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Students from Columbia send aid down to Joplin in order to help out the recovery effort after the destructive tornado hit four months ago. The school and band both struggle to start from nothing, but citizens from outside are making it easier.

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photo by Halley Hollis

Online: RBHS’ new journalism site, Bearing News, brings regular updates to the student body. www.columbia.k12. mo.us/rbhs/bearingnews News Academics Community Features Personality Profiles In-Depths Editorials Commentary Athlete Profiles Sports A&E

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News

September 22, 2011

The ROCK

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in brief Protests in Yemen turn to violence

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he Yemeni capital of Sana faces increasing violence as government forces battle against soldiers who have joined the antigovernment protestors in their seven month long movement to oust current President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

At least 10 people were killed Tuesday, according to media officials, bringing the death toll to more than 60, most of whom were unarmed protestors caught in the middle of the shootings. Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished country and a haven for Islamic militants, has found itself racing toward a civil war.

Tuesday also brought the first signs of actual battle as government forces started to shell different opposition residences with mortars, killing protesters in the process. Officials also closed Sana’s main airport, which has remained without passenger flights.

The United Nations sent a special envoy along with a delegation from the Gulf Cooperation Council Monday to attempt to mediate between the two sides. However, protestors have opposed all attempts at observing the country’s current status quo instead in favor of a complete revision of the social system.

The protestors are led by Major General Ali Ahmar who organized a peaceful protest then ordered his followers to attack the government troops which resulted in a lethal response from the troops.

Many protestors consider their fight similar to the one in Libya expect for one key difference. The international community has yet to offer any support to the rebels and their plight.

Earthquake slams India, other areas

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illagers in the mountainous regions of India’s Sikkim state woke Sunday night to an earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale. Tremors from the quake reached across northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and even parts of Bangladesh and Tibet.

The initial quake lasted almost two minutes, an above -average amount of time for a single tremor to last. This was followed by numerous less powerful aftershocks. Because of the remoteness of the regions, as well as the disruption to the phone services, news of the earthquake and damages were slow to filter out.

On Monday, Indian police reported at least 25 people died in the Sikkim capital of Gangtok as well as 11 in the state of West Bengal. Nepal reported at least seven people killed and in China the official Xinhua news agency confirmed seven more deaths in Tibet. Preliminary reports point to no less than 50 deaths and 1,000 houses completely destroyed with 100,000 facing some sort of damage.

The quake itself has also slowed recovery efforts. Numerous highways have been blocked due to landslides and the Indian government has no other option than to fly supplies as quickly as possible into the affected areas. Thousands of citizens are in need of help.

The quake-affected regions have launched over 5,000 troops to provide relief to the almost 2,000 displaced Indian earthquake victims. As recovery efforts get under way ,a clearer picture will arise of the actual damage as well as death toll. For now governments are compensating families who lost members with $4,000 and $2,000 for those who were seriously injured while they try to mobilize relief as fast as possible. ­— sources: www.nytimes.com, www.time.com — Sami Pathan

photo by Halley Hollis

Staying in touch: Senior Austin Cunningham checks his cell phone in the media center during his AUT. Students may text in the media center, but not in classrooms without teacher permission.

Cell service lost Faculty still permitted to confiscate cellphones Daphne Yu

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ore than 150 juniors cheered in response to what they thought was a cell phone policy change. Junior class vice principal Diane Bruckerhoff was reiterating existing policies during the class meeting Monday, Aug. 22, but students misunderstood the message.

Students left the meeting thinking teachers were no longer allowed to confiscate cellular phones, which is wrong, Bruckerhoff said. Teachers are still allowed take the communication devices if they are seen in class.

Still, juniors such as Brett Williams are confused as to the consequence of using cell phones. He explains what happened to him after the meeting: “Bruckerhoff said, ‘We have a new cell phone policy,’ and I was all nervous, like, ‘Oh, no, we’re not going to be able to use it in the hallways and stuff.’ And [Bruckerhoff] is like, ‘We’re not going to take your phones anymore because we wouldn’t like it if people took our phones away so we’re not going to take your phones away. We’re just going to tell you to put it away, and you can get a referral, but we won’t take it away.’ But then, in personal finance, the teacher’s all, like, snatching up the phones, and I was, like, ‘There’s that rule.’ And I just found out [Bruckerhoff] said otherwise.”

Bruckerhoff said teachers may take cell phones away, and any “referral” would be the punishment of insubordination when students who are told to put their cell phone away do not comply.

“What I said during the meeting was that we try to do a new

phone policy,” Bruckerhoff said. “I didn’t say [teachers] weren’t allowed to do [take phones]. I said we weren’t asking teachers to do it anymore.

“People always misinterpret what they hear, but it’s still up to a teacher’s discretion,” Bruckerhoff continued. “If a kid’s taking it out in class, and [teachers] feel like it’s causing a classroom disruption because it’s against what they said in their classroom, then [confiscating the phone is] certainly O.K. to do.”

In any classroom, teachers have the authority to create their own rules regarding cell phone usage, Bruckerhoff said.

“Teachers can still have their own rules in classes as far as saying, ‘I don’t have to give you a warning. First day of school, I’m telling you all no cell phones in my classroom ever. If I see it out, you’ll get a referral,’” Bruckerhoff said. “Cell phones can be a distraction to learning.”

Teachers such as biology teacher Nathan Harness say the school’s establish policy is on target.

“I don’t think it’s a problem as long as they’re not using them in instructional zones or at the teacher’s discretion. I don’t think they’re a problem at all,” Harness said.

In the end, it all boils down to freedom with responsibility, Bruckerhoff said. Students must learn to regulate themselves and what is appropriate in a classroom setting.

“It really puts it back on the students to know, ‘I’m responsible for my actions,’” Bruckerhoff said. “And if I don’t listen to what the teacher had requested for me to do, then I know that instead of getting two to four hours of a consequence, now I’m going to get a Saturday detention because I am refusing to listen to what the teacher is asking me to do.”

International clubs start up Alyssa Sykuta

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wo new clubs, Interact and the International Cultural Club, base themselves on reaching out into the community to connect with others through service projects and friendship.

The Interact program is an internationally-recognized organization to encourage youth between the ages of 12 and 18 to reach out into the local and worldwide communities.

Stories such as those of students traveling to South Africa to administer polio vaccines compelled juniors Nahush Katti, Sumidha Katti, Ipsa Chaudhary, Maddie Magruder, Rasheeq Nizam and Robert Benad to introduce the idea to Columbia high school students.

“The point of the club is that it’s not just a high school club,” Chaudhary said.

“It’s a community club. It’s not going to be ‘the Catholic students are doing this,’ but it’s all these young adults making an effort together.”

The Interact program encourages their clubs to organize two service projects per year: one project for the local community and another that promotes international understanding and goodwill.

Because the club intends to involve students from high schools in town, the group will meet once a month at the Hampton Inn by the University of Missouri—Columbia.

“We decide [on the projects] as an entire group,” Katti said. “That means that Hickman people would come up with some ideas, Rock Bridge people would

photo used with permission from AP educational services

New scoreboard generates cash story continued from page 1 District athletic director Bruce Whitesides said, in addition to the 10 title donors, a contract with Coca-Cola provides $45,000 each year and another contract with Adidas brings in $20,000 in apparel for the first two years, after which it bumps up to $32,000. At that point Kelly Sports Properties receives a slice of the pie.

“We send [each local business] an invoice for $20,000,” Whitesides said, “and then KSP takes a 30 percent residual unless they get to a certain threshold. If they earn us $600,000 over one million … then it drops down to 20 percent. If they go over two million, then it drops down to 15 percent residual.”

Besides the scoreboards, many proposals are in the works. Whitesides said these plans incorporate new uniforms for sports teams, general facility upgrades including new lights for RBHS and a softball field for Hickman. Overall, Whitesides expects the deal to be beneficial.

“It’s generating revenue that we didn’t have before … collectively for the district,” Whitesides said. “Before — I’m not saying that some … booster clubs didn’t do a great job, that parent groups didn’t do a great job — but collectively, as an entire district, it’s helping out.”

photo by Kat Schultz

An international community: Isaac Carbello, Law El Doe and Asad Asif are three of RBHS’ 52 English Language Learners, part of the reason students here are interested in international issues. These boys discuss customs in Lilia Ben-Ayed’s class.

come up with some ideas and Douglass people would come up with some ideas.

These projects are on a large scale. So for example, the international project is going to take a lot of time and preparation to come up with that and then raising all the money for it.”

Though Interact will receive financial assistance from the Rotary Club of Columbia, Mo., the club intends to hold fundraisers to come up with the rest of the money to fund an international trip.

Past international projects of chapters of Interact have ranged from building desks for impoverished students in India to donating relief containers to earthquake victims in El Salvador.

Katti said one group in Tennessee has “been around for quite a while, but their fundraising is like they have community dinners … Obviously we can’t do that right now, since we just started, but maybe in the future we can do something like that.”

A second new club, the International Cultural Club, enables students to interact with peers from around the globe.

“International students typically don’t have U.S. friends,” ELL teacher and club sponsor Peggy White said. “The International Cultural Club is for students who are from other cultures to hang out, relax, and get to know their peers from other cultures. Then hopefully some students from the U.S. will also be interested in meeting them. So it can provide an exchange between international students and U.S. students.”

The club plans to meet once a month to play games, such as bowling, chess, soccer and outdoor activities. White said the group meetings will be “informal and totally social.”

Members are enthusiastic about the future of their club. Students interested in how people live outside of the United States are able to join.

“If you’re interested in other cultures [and] you’re really interested in making friends with someone from another country then this is a good way to do that,” White said. “It’s something different than meeting them in class. It’s a different way of interacting with them.”

News

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September 22, 2011

The ROCK

12 students awarded merit Thomas Jamieson-Lucy

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ut of the nation’s 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists, RBHS has 12. These students now move on in hopes of becoming finalists eligible for 8,300 available scholarships.

“It looks really good on college applications,” senior Christian Ackmann said. “Whereas only 16,000 semifinalists, and if I am lucky enough to go on to become a finalist, there are 15,000 of those and approximately 8,300 of them will actually receive scholarships. So I might get a little edge on my college application and some scholarship money.”

The semifinalists besides Ackmann are seniors David Berry, Riaz Helfer, Katherine Hobbs, Elena Horvit, Avantika Khatri, Amy Scott, Nicholas Sun, Methma Udawatta, Christina Wang, Walter Wang and Angela Zhang. The fact that they have become semifinalists gives them an academic advantage when they are applying to colleges.

Guidance secretary Lynne Moore said between 12 and 15 semifinalists are named from RBHS each year. The semifinalist can receive scholarships from colleges outside of the national merit program just for being a National Merit Semifinalist.

“It depends on what school they’re going to go to. Some schools actually offer complete, really nice scholarships for them. Some schools it’s just more recognition; it’s easier to get into that school,” Moore

said. “It depends totally on what schools they’re looking at.”

Once named, a semifinalist moves on to compete to become one of the 15,000 finalists. To become a finalist, students have to complete several tasks.

They must submit a letter of recommendation from a teacher, take the SAT to confirm that their score was not a fluke, submit an essay based on a prompt similar to that of the common application and fill out basic paper work.

Semifinalists will learn whether or not they are finalists in February, and if they have any scholarships by March, according to www.nationalmerit.org.

As juniors, these students took the PSAT in October 2010 competing with Missouri students to get a qualifying score for National Merit Scholarship program with a test score index from 60-240. In order to be in the top 16,000, students must score above a cutoff number determined each year by the overall success of the students that last took the test, this year being 212.

For now, the semifinalists are glad they no longer have to wonder whether or not they are advancing to the next stage of the scholarship application.

“I knew what the standard was last year and so since I was four points above the standard from last year I kind of figured there was a little bit of leeway there,” Ackmann said. “So even though I was only one point over the standard I had a feeling I might get it.”

photo by Halley Hollis

Reaching for the stars: The 12 National Merit Semifinalists from RBHS sit in the PAC lobby and listen to their counselors, principal and gifted instructors speak. The students are all competing to become finalists, which will be announced in February.

Homecoming excites Bruins Nadav Gov-Ari Sami Pathan

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he 2011 edition of the RBHS homecoming week will take students from coast to coast. What has come to be known as the “Bruin Nation” theme will focus on promoting the different styles from around the country along with the RBHS spirit.

Games in the commons, creative costumes and the annual football game will all be taking place during the week.

“Homecoming Week will be Oct. 3 through 8,” activities director David Bones said. “The announcement assembly is Thursday [Sept. 22nd]. We acknowledge fall sports, homecoming queen candidates, and of course, the trike race — when we get to do all sorts of craziness.”

Inductees into the RBHS Hall of Fame, where graduates who have made a special impact in their communities, are also recognized. This year includes

a world renowned barbecue champion, a nationally influential macroeconomist and some local artists — a group that stresses the variety of personality found at RBHS. “Every year — it’s so amazing to me, we get such a variety,” Bones said. “You know we’ve had Carl Edwards. We’ve had the head of NBC studios. We’ve had percussionists that have performed at Saturday Night Live, and the list goes on and on. The diversity and quality — it’s the same this year as others. I’m really happy with this year’s class.”

Entry into the Hall of Fame is a special honor, one that goes through a distinctive selection process.

“There’s a committee of former Rock Bridge faculty and staff — they look for folks that have made outstanding contributions to their field,and/or the community,” Bones said. “Certainly in this group, all of [the candidates] meet all the criteria. They’re a special bunch.”

This year’s “Bruin Nation” theme features a cross-country road trip where students dress up on different days according to the location. The trip begins

infographic by Theresa Wang

Monday in Los Angeles then moves to Dallas Tuesday. The following day is a hop across the border to New Orleans followed by a retiree themed Florida day. The week ends back home with a green-and-gold-themed day.

“I love homecoming week — the game and the dance — because everyone is brimming with school spirit,” junior Muhamedali Khenissi said. “Everyone’s generally so excited, the school is so energized. It’s just a really good time, except for the football game, which we seem to lose a lot.”

Homecoming queen activities started this week with the voting for candidates yesterday. In order to know the nine queen candidates better, those considered will partake in various activities, introducing themselves in the commons and various other locations throughout the week.

“The week of homecoming, they’ll be doing some activities out in the commons, as well as having a questionnaire posted and their pictures, so people can get a feel for who’s who,” Bones said.

On Friday of homecoming week, the RBHS football team will face off against Francis Howell High School at 7 p.m. During the halftime portion of the game, the winner of homecoming queen will also be announced.

“I think homecoming is great just because you get to hang out with all your friends for the entire night, and it’s just a fun event to just go out and do,” senior Jordan Reynolds said.

The week will end with the annual homecoming dance Saturday, Oct. 8 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., taking place in the gym.

“I’m pretty excited for the dance,” Khenissi said. “For one, I’m quite the dancer. I love hanging with my friends, for sure.”

Reynolds is as excited as Khenissi expect for one distinct difference. This year he and his friends will be much more involved, due to it being their last year to enjoy the all the celebrations.

“I think the homecoming dance is pretty cool just because, like, a lot of Rock Bridge is there so you get to meet new people and have a good time with them,” Reynolds said. “It’s your last year in high school and you might as well have the most fun with it before you go to college.”

Computer systems receive upgrades Sami Pathan

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uring the past summer, the computer systems of CPS underwent major changes to upgrade the outdated hardware for increased speeds and functionality. The first portion of bond funds became available for use during the summer and the district has been working since then to implement numerous changes .

In an email interview with David Kessler, CPS manager of network infrastructure, the district used some of the money to buy 300 new computers as well as new servers, high-speed switches and a new network storage system.

“The basic changes result in increased file storage, faster login times and Internet speeds, and less restrictions on the firewall,” Kessler said. “In addition, throughout the year we will be developing deployable applications and a district image that will work on any/all CPS-owned equipment.”

This means that the maintenance of district machines will be more efficient and also increase the availability of laptops to students and faculty. But perhaps the most drastic change was the new district Microsoft license agreement allowing access to the latest versions of Microsoft software. Under the agreement, the district was able to move its file servers from Novell to Active Directory.

“The main goals of changing to Active Directory [the new login system] were fast logins and fast Internet access,” Kessler said. “But there is still a list of items to be completed, and we continue to work on that list while maintaining all other current services.”

However, not all the changes the district was hoping to make have gone as planned. Because of some hardware issues at the start of summer, many of the file servers were installed late, also affected by the start of the school year.

“We planned to start the build process for Active Directory and the file servers in late May and early June, but problems with server hardware prevented us from beginning until late June and July instead,” Kessler said. “Because of the priorities associated with the start of school, much of our time [was instead] used to create and refine student accounts.”

Along with the computer changes, the district also lowered some of the Internet restrictions for students, making their Internet access equal to that of a teacher. Kessler said the new one-filter-for-all approach will improve Internet speed.

“I didn’t realize they were going to totally open it up,” media center specialist Dennis Murphy said. “I mean, I think students have access to all those kinds of things outside of school, so it’s really Rock Bridge’s concept of freedom with responsibility.”

Voter approved bonds funded the costs of updating the different necessary parts. The capital equipment costs for the district network upgrades including supplies, servers, netwrok switches and computers was approximately $1.25 million. However, Kessler believes the costs are worth it for the better performance for all users district-wide.

“The upgrade of switches across the district in conjunction with the new computers and latest versions of software should result in much faster logins and Internet speeds. This will now allow us to integrate new technologies more readily into our network systems,” Kessler said. “Our hope is that will be beneficial to everyone involved.”

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September 22, 2011

Ads The ROCK

Academics

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September 22, 2011

The ROCK

New policy set to last Joanne Lee

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he guidance staff approved the schedule change policy that went into effect this school year to take place again next year. This means that students will continue to have to wait until the third day of school to change their schedules.

Continuing this year’s policy, “was an essential thing to do because we just don’t have room for random changes,” guidance staff director Betsy Jones said.

With the new schedule change policy “there were less schedule changes and more meaningful changes,” sophomore counselor Rachel Reed said. “By putting the students to experience two days of their requested schedules, they were less likely to make preemptive schedule changes, and the changes made weren’t because of reasons such as AUT in a certain time, teacher requests and such.”

W i t h directionless reasons weeded out of the schedule change process, counselors and students both experienced a more “quick and organized experience,” sophomore Alexa Shelton said. “It was so simple. I for sure knew I needed to change a certain class, and the entire process was very friendly. I was a little frustrated for having to wait, though, because the class I needed to change, I didn’t even sign up for.”

Although Shelton liked the process in general, like her, not everyone was pleased with the wait. Then there was also the daunting experience of having to face the teacher first, to get their signatures on the drop form, be-

“

fore seeing anyone about changes.

“I hated [the wait] at first but then everything worked out, and I actually think it’s a really good idea now,” senior Kat Schultz said. “There was still that humiliation of having to go up to the teacher.”

Samuel Martin and other guidance counselors decribed the new schedule change policy as “smoother.”

“Some [students] were frustrated [because of the three-day long wait,] but for the most part students and parents understood [our motives], and I think in the long run, the changes that needed to be made were made,” senior counselor Samuel Martin said.

“This prevented the few days before school from being as hectic as [they] used to be, and I had the chance to focus on students with holes in their schedule and incomplete one[s] ­ — thus, more urgent problems. We noticed [a] positive difference this year, but we’re always open to improvement. I prefer this method.”

Martin said all staff members are striving for the new system by progressing toward the new policies and changes being made.

Students are all the more fortunate to meet great new policies, let alone new teachers and friends.

During the counselor meeting on Aug. 31, “everyone was pleased with the new system,” Jones said. “We will be continuing this with one little change that we added; we will have the counselors and me, as opposed to just me, to explain for the students any questions they have for their schedules,” on schedule pick-up day.

Guidance staff changed schedule pick-up day policy so counselors and Jones would have the opportunity to conference one-on-one with students, instead of only seeing Jones.

“There were less schedule changes and more meaningful changes.”

Rachel Reed, guidance counselor

Back in the game: Math teacher Travis Martin helps sophomore Katie Wheeler with a geometry problem while on crutches.

Martin said RBHS students are the nicest he has ever encountered while teaching. Not an hour goes by without someone asking him whether or not he needs help. Martin broke his leg in a motorcycle accident over the summer while heading to Wyoming.

Source: Lynne Moore, guidance secretary

Right on schedule School reevaluates class titles, courses offered Dropped Floral Retail Management Horticulture Intro to Welding & Agriculture Mechanics Early Childhood Careers Greenhouse Op. & Management Landscape Design Iron Art & Design Pro-Audio Agribusiness Intro to Small Gas Engines Smarthouse/Smartgrid

Added Intro to Architecture and Design CP Internship - College & Career Exploration Career Path Internship 2 Sport & Performance Psychology Advanced Horticulture Certified Welding 3 Firefighter Emergency Med. Technician-Basic Design & Visual Communication

Jude El-Buri

F

reedom with responsibility is a cornerstone of RBHS, weaving its way into the hearts and minds of every Bruin. Students are supposed to represent this very point, showing the validity of this motto to the new faces of RBHS teachers.

The 2011 fall school year brought 17 new teachers to eight different departments. Only one of them had never been to RBHS, or in the Columbia environment.

Special Education teacher Kathryn Kemp is brand new to Columbia, having moved from St. Louis for her very first year of teaching. She served there as a paraprofessional and substitute teacher. In her entrance to Columbia, RBHS has already shown her the loving and responsive nature through contact and actions.

Kemp moved to Columbia when the district interviewed her, and knowing her daughter went to University of Missouri-Columbia, she couldn’t help but accept the offer of CPS. Kemp hadn’t heard of RBHS before and expected an unhelpful and unwelcoming teaching staff and departments which she said she had faced in her previous years.

“By me being a first-year teacher, there are a lot of processes of doing my job that I didn’t know how to com-

Robotics offered also at 10th grade level

Name Changes Then

Now

Networking Exploration Advanced Networking Intro to Teaching Profess.

Math 115-College Algebra CACC English 12

Information Tech 1 Information Tech 2 Teaching Professions CACC College Algebra English 12-CACC College Composition art by Joanne Lee

MSAN students gather for achievement forum Mahogany Thomas

T photo by Halley Hollis

New faces showing Bruin identity Parker Sutherland

Grade Adjustment

plete and instead of them leaving me out there, searching for a way to complete these processes and get my work done,” Kemp said. “I had overwhelming help from staff members in my department just helping me.”

Math teacher Travis Martin wouldn’t have been as surprised by such welcoming actions. He may appear as a new face to most students, but Martin taught at RBHS from 2004-2009 before moving to Washington D.C. for his wife’s medical degree.

They moved back to Columbia for the family environment they were missing in Virginia. Martin wanted his firstborn son, Reese, to grow up in a loving atmosphere.

As a returning teacher, he provides an interesting perspective on the continuities of the RBHS environment.

To Martin, the ideal of freedom with responsibility has been left untainted.

The processes by which he taught are still applicable under new administration.

From 2007-2009, Martin had a student in his class with hyper-anxiety when taking tests, leaving her unable to concentrate fully during an exam.

She was a distraction to the classroom and herself, and because of the schools understanding and commitment to students, Martin was able to give her a different location and time to take tests in order to meet her needs.

The student was in Martin’s precalculus and calculus classes and had great angst in the testing environment,

which is something a test enabling extended time is unable to provide.

Through strenuous work with the student and various processes to relieve stress, Martin was able to get her to take the AP test, on which she received a four. RBHS gave Martin the freedom to allow the student to have extra time, and it worked to her advantage, which played a large role in his decision to return.

“Some students are given extended time because they have been tested and get it because of the results of those tests, but here I also have the freedom to give some other students extended time if I know circumstances dictate they need it, even if they’re not tested,” Martin said. “I don’t know how that would set with some other schools.”

Kemp had many doubts about starting this year at RBHS, due to her previous grievances of the lack of help and support at other schools. The other schools she worked at placed her alone in the field and expected her to finish it without explanation or help.

At RBHS, Kemp has already seen the flowing love of the staff, finding what freedom with responsibility truly represents.

“I was afraid of lack of support [this year], which I had been accustomed to” as a paraprofessional, Kemp said.

“And I was afraid of failing. Now I can honestly say those fears have been dissolved, and I am very positive and upbeat about my success, and it has been a wonderful ride thus far.”

hree hundred students from around the country gathered at the Holiday Inn executive center Wednesday for the Minority Student Achievement Network: Student Conference, which lasts until Sept. 24.

CPS Minority Achievement Committee Scholars, the host of the 2011 MSAN Student Conference, welcomed the participants.

“I never thought Columbia Public School[s] would host the conference this soon,” Symone Thomas, the former MAC Scholar coordinator for the district, said, “But this truly is a historical moment for the students and Columbia.”

While this is the first time that Columbia has sponsored the MSAN Student Conference, the job comes as second nature to Columbia MAC scholars, as they have previously hosted two student-led conferences.

“To host a conference of this magnitude with the outstanding students attending is just awesome,” Thomas said. “It’s an enormous task but luckily Columbia Public School MAC Scholars have had their own mini-conference, ‘Failure is NOT an Option,’ which has helped to get them ready.”

As conference hosts, the duties of the students include not only greeting participants but also creating a theme, planning out the basis of the agenda and organizing the activities for all four days.

In May the students chose the theme, “Defy the Stats: by Defining yourself.” The agenda, which the students also planned, included activities such as a day at University of Missouri-Columbia, achievement gap discussions and action planning, giving the students time to make their own

plan for success.

Thomas said in order to make a successful conference it was important to have insight from students who had previously attended.

Senior Malachi Matthews, who attended the 2010 MSAN conference in New York, chose to be a part of the student planning committee for this year’s MSAN conference.

“Last year as part of our activities [at the conference] we looked at statistics on minority dropout rates, which made me want to make a change,” Matthews said.

“While planning for this year I remembered and thought, ‘Hey, if it can reach me, then we can find things to certainly reach someone else.’”

Dr. Wanda Brown, assistant superintendent of secondary education, said ideas like those of Matthews show why student input is vital to the process of understanding how to overcome the rates.

“We hope to accomplish a dialogue among students about issues of the achievement gap,” Brown said, “and more importantly, an action plan they can take back to their districts, to work on closing the achievement gap.”

Both Brown and Thomas agreed that in order to make the conference successful, the students are a necessity.

“Students know what students like,” Thomas said, “and students know what they will listen to and find engaging.”

Matthews said that overall he believes the students have created an excellent plan for the attendees.

“After all, [the plan] is what makes the conference standout.”

Matthews said, “because without the student input, everyone wouldn’t find the conference enjoyable.”

6

September 22, 2011

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Community 7 Rad rides capture rebel spirit September 22, 2011

The ROCK

Maria Kalaitzandonakes

H

aving the confidence to be different is a difficult thing, especially for the big foot, bad haircut days of high school. Yet there are some who dare to be distinctive by finding their niche in name staking vehicles.

Senior Valentina Bezmelnitsyna went to Cool Stuff, and found a large magnet mustache. She instantly thought of her car, Pierre, and its sad lack of facial hair.

“It’s hard to be unique in high school, but I’ve accomplished that by, amongst other things, putting the ‘Stache on Pierre’s hood,” Bezmelnitsyna said. “Students drive boring Fords and Chevys, and it’s hard to remember which car is whose. But when students see Pierre, they are like ‘Yup, Valentina’s here.’”

Unfortunately, soon after, the magnet fell off the bumper, and Bezmelnitsyna found it on I-63 in two pieces with one piece missing.

Bezmelnitsyna said after many tears, her father agreed to paint a real version of the mustache on the front of Pierre.

The ‘Stache, Bezmelnitsyna explained, is not just a painted black line though, nor is it just a joke. It is a daily reminder that being different is O.K. and that the push to be similar in high school is not a rule one must follow.

“Pierre ain’t just a car. Pierre is my car. He is like a person. He is my friend. In fact, he is my best friend who won’t ever leave my side. ...

He always wants to hang out with me and is ready to take me anywhere I want and anytime I want,”

Bezmelnitsyna said. “That’s kind of silly, but I love my car.”

Like Bezmelnitsyna senior Harry Stretz considers his car more than a method of transport. Stretz explained that a car should not just be a practical commuting vehicle; it is responsible for the style in which the driver gets to his or her destination.

Stretz has found not only a unique style but also a hobby in his car, Maybelle.

“My dad and I have been working on cars since the beginning of time, or rather, as long as I could hold a wrench,” Stretz said. “Our motto is that it’s better to keep classic cars on the road than to melt them down and make new ones.”

Having the skills to fix and maintain the cars allows Stretz to change out his car more often. In Stretz’s time at RBHS he has had three cars, all of which were easily noticed when parking in the lots.

“First, the shaggin’ wagon, was a 1977 Volkswagen bus, fully equip[ped] with a sick mini-fridge and two pull out beds. My second car was a 1967 International Scout. a.k.a. ‘the safari truck,’ as some people called it, and now my MGB,” Stretz said. “In a way, these cars partially led to my nickname ‘Crazy Harry.’ People recognize me by my cars.”

Both Stretz and Bezmelnitsyna jump in the driver’s seat, refusing to take a back seat on life and making the most of their own incredible differences.

“Finding uniqueness in high school is as hard as finding a turtle with a mustache,” Bezmelnitsyna said. “Turtles are adorable, but slow. Subarus are sexy and fast.

Beat that.”

feature photo by Muhammad Al-Rawi

The mustache makes the car: Just a few minutes after school gets out, the lot is almost empty and senior Valentina Bezmelnitsyna displays her finger mustache peel and stick tattoo with attitude. Her custom license plate, Zubaru, means zebra Subaru.

feature photo by Asa Lory

Rev the engine: Senior Harry Stretz noodles on his acoustic bass on top of his matching blue MGB during lunch hour, watching the crowds race off the pavement. Stretz’s combination of funky music and odd cars sets him apart from the rest in the dull lot.

Cancer survivors use Mourners remember Sun run to raise awareness C F

slowly into the night sky.

Bethany Ahlersmeyer, RBHS 2010 alumna, said the grief of losing such a arol Sun, RBHS 2011 alumnus, genuine friend would be impossible to filled his life with spontaneity. deal with alone.

So it is fitting that he did not give Chemistry teacher Gregory Kirchanyone much notice that he would be hofer described how those who knew leaving.

Sun have come together in an even tightAfter just two weeks in the hospital er knit group, supporting each other on Sun passed away Aug. 3 because of com- their path of mourning the loss of a close plications of Moyamoya disease. friend.

For senior Cory Cullen, Sun’s death “He would be willing to do whatevwas the second death of a close friend, er… My mom came to visit once, when but this time, he said, it was harsher be- she was like 72, and I was in class so I cause it was unexpected. had Carol go to the office to pick her up “Sun went to St. Louis to play Magik, and bring her down,” Kirchhofer said. a card game. The worst thing that “And I told Carol that she wanted to go should’ve happened is that he’d come out dancing that night, and that I had back with a paper cut,” Cullen said. a meeting and wouldn’t be able to take “Next thing I hear her. Would he be he’s in the hoswilling to do pital.” that? And he While in St. just said, ‘O.K., Louis, Sun’s I like jazz.’” family and docHis charistors came to the ma and leadunderstandership made ing that he was all those in the the unfortunate room take a possessor of this seat and listen rare genetic disto what he had order in which to say. Ahlersthe blood vesmeyer said if sels in the brain she met anyone become blocked. from any counRBHS 2011 try, of any age alumna Lauren who said they Baker visited knew Sun, she Sun in the hoswould not be pital twice besurprised. fore he died.

He drew “On the way people in with up [to St. Louis] his wide smile we would sing and his arguphoto provided by Lauren Baker mentative bansongs to the radio like normal Never Forgotten: From his per- ter. kids, and then had formance of “Gold Digger” in such“Hea great we’d get into the hospital… Capers to his Harry Potter puns, influence on so which already is Sun was the life of the party. many people,” a strange place A h l e r s m e ye r to be in by nature,” Baker said. “And we said. “I think no matter whom he met, or get into his room in the ICU, not like it’s whether the person knew him for a year in the children’s wing where there is art or five minutes, he impacted everybody. all over the walls. Just like a blank room You went away from an experience with and then tons of machines in the corner… him better off.” all buzzing and beeping, with his head Even after Sun’s death he continued partially shaved and all these wires com- to impact peoples’ lives. Sun donated ing out of him… And you could see his his organs to other patients fighting their heart rate on the monitor So you knew own diseases. he was alive, but at the same time you And although there is a hole where knew he was brain dead. It was weird to Sun used to be, through the influence see that and to know that, but not want he’s had on people Sun will continue to to know that.” live on in the halls of RBHS. For Baker, Those close to Sun dealt with grief to- this year will be different without Sun gether, giving comfort and help to those around; it will be lonelier. who needed it.

“We decided randomly that we would They participated in many remem- plan our Halloween costumes… and this brance activities like a semi-spontaneous was July,” Baker said. “We came up with balloon launch in his honor. Each per- tons of ideas. I told him I wanted to be son wrote a note on a thick white paper a Weeble, like those kids’ toys that never and attached it to a balloon. The thick fall over. We had crazy plans. I don’t reMissouri air raised the colored balloons ally know what I’ll be this year anymore.”

Maria Kalaitzandonakes

Maddie Magruder

or junior Carah Aufdemberge, life was like a dream.

A bad dream.

The doctor’s diagnosis of her mother’s cancer turned her teenage years upside-down.

Her mom, Carla, “was always so tired, so I never got to really communicate,” Carah Aufdemberge said. “It felt like I didn’t have my mom for, like, a year of my life.”

Many people with situations like that of the Aufdemberge family find hope in races organized

by Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Thousands of people meet for the common cause of spreading the word of breast cancer.

Last Sunday, thousands of people met at Mizzou Arena to run for the Cure.

The organization holds races all across the country, raising money and bringing hope. This promise between the sisters led to the birth of the organization.

Susan G. Komen got cancer at the age of 33, and her sister promised to help others with breast cancer in the future, accomplishing Komen’s foundation.

After Komen died, her sister started the Susan G. Komen organization in 1982. Since its founding, Susan G. Komen brings hope across the nation and money for breast cancer research and awareness programs.

Everyone has a purpose for running or walking a Race for the Cure. Many run in remembrance of lost loved ones, including Susan Woodbury.

She runs in the Race for the Cure everywhere from Cleveland, OH to Columbia, MO in remembrance of her daughter.

Doctors diagnosed her daughter with inflammatory breast cancer five years ago, one of the more aggressive forms of the tumor.

Her family joined together for a Race for the Cure in Kansas City to find hope for the suffering. Her daughter had gone through a lot of treatment, physically weakening her.

“We took a wheelchair along for her so she was able to walk about half, and she was very proud of it,” Woodbury said.

“We have some amazing pictures of her going across the starting line.”

Thousands of people come to each race, and they are not only survivors and victims. Mothers, fathers, children, sisters, brothers, grandparents, and friends, young and old, come to be part of the cause.

Carah Aufdemberge runs in remembrance of her mom’s struggle.

The Aufdemberge family has a long history of breast cancer.

At one of Carla’s checkups two years ago, the results showed a cancerous cyst.

Immediately after the diagnosis, she started treatment. During chemotherapy, her strength weakened along with the cancerous cells.

But strength wasn’t the only thing she lost. “ S h e used to always have really long hair that she loved, and she lost it during chemotherapy.

That was really hard for her,” Carah Au f d e m berge said.

“It was hard to watch her be in all this pain. It wasn’t like physical pain, it was emotional pain.... She wasn’t really herself the whole time she was going through treatment. We couldn’t do anything about it.”

Luckily for Carla Aufdemberge, doctors diagnosed her cancer at stage two out of four, which meant a eighty to ninety percent survival chance. After less than two years of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, her cancer was gone.

Carah Aufdemberge found a message from the pain. Instead of feeling sorry for herself and asking, “Why me?” she reflected on her faith to discover a bigger picture.

Breast cancer is in many families’ histories, making them more aware of the disease.

For biology teacher April Sulze, the presence of breast cancer in her mom, aunt, and grandma led to her getting yearly mammograms.

“

While no one in Sulze’s family died of cancer, but she still found the treatment emotionally straining.

“It’s just hard to watch a family member go through something that could potentially take their life,” Sulze said.

The yearly tests detected her mom’s cancer at an early stage, bringing an easy treatment. Her aunt, however, had to get full mastectomy in addition to losing her hair from chemotherapy.

Members of Sulze’s aunt’s family shaved their heads after her aunt lost her hair, and no one thought it was a big deal.

“Seeing [my aunt lose her hair] was not even a big issue, but [a reminder] that so much in your life can change from [cancer].” Sulze said.

Sulze participates in many races, including almost every St. L o u i s Race for the Cure in the past eight years. The experience never gets old for her. She loves the wide variety of participants.

“You see elderly people or people in wheelchairs or people that are not really able to actually walk that distance out there doing this because they believe in it,” Sulze said.

Even though breast cancer brings tragedy to many people, it also brings life lessons and greatened appreciation for the little things in life. Carah Aufdemberge found a meaning from her mom’s breast cancer, expanding her outlook on life.

“I feel like it was God talking to me saying, ‘Hey, you should be lucky. You have your mom still. You still have your family,” Carah Aufdemberge said. Finding a whole new perspective on life from watching her mom’s cancer progress and be cured “was an eye-opener.... I was so glad it was over.”

“It’s just hard to watch a family member go through something that could potentially take their life.”

April Sulze Biology Teacher

8

Features The ROCK

September 22, 2011

Teens question rules of religion Kirsten Buchanan

S

enior Haley Canada could not reveal her secret ­— it directly contradicted her religion. Worried about being alienated, Canada was hesitant to announce to the world she is a lesbian. The conflict between her unorthodox sexual orientation and her faith constantly nagged her.

My religion “was very controlling. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I had to be myself. There was one point where I got so sick and tired of it that I stopped believing in God,” Canada said. Religion “wasn’t how I imagined. I didn’t want to live my life in this certain way. I just wanted to be me.”

After a period of time where she ceased believing in God, Canada realized she still wanted religion in her life — just not a faith that tried to restrain and change her. When her friends began to talk about religion one day, Canada was eager to explore a faith again.

My friends “just started telling me about Jesus and God and everything, and I felt like it was something I was interested in,” Canada said. “Now it’s been a year since I’ve been to [my friend’s] church and I continue [to attend]. ... My youth leader, he’s like, ‘Anything that you say to me, chances are it’s not going to surprise me.’ He’s really open.”

Canada believes religion should have a part in one’s life but not to the extent where it takes over a person and alter him. Senior Adam Mefrakis, however, said religion has a place in dictating how a person should behave.

“There are some ways that my religion controls [me], like [the] way I speak. It’s controlling in a way, but it’s a positive thing … because it helps me behave better,” Mefrakis said. “The thing about the way you dress is one of the biggest things about Islam; it’s very distinct. It keeps modesty and purity and keeps people not thinking about the way they look but about how they act and what their character is, so it’s a good thing.”

While faith is a big part of Mefrakis’ life, religion has no place in sophomore Kira Kirk’s life, and that is the way she likes it. Kirk declared herself an atheist and has since been living without a faith.

“I was confirmed in seventh grade, and it was cool because I was into [religion] and stuff ... but then I just had questions like the fact that … Christianity in general don’t really except homosexuals and, like, I’m not cool with that,” Kirk said. “And I believe in evolution 100 percent and creationism to me is, like, ridiculous, so I couldn’t be a part of a religion that, believes that so I decided to be an atheist last year.”

Kirk is not alone. According to a Penguin Books survey, 59 percent of teenagers think religion has a negative impact in the world. In addition, 50 percent of teens have never prayed.

Kirk used to pray often, but when she left her religion, she stopped praying all together. However, she still goes to church when her family forces her to, even though Kirk dislikes attending the services.

“My dad forces me to go to church with him.

Going to church on Sundays when I didn’t really like it was just like, ‘Really? Why?’ because that takes up like half of your Sunday,” Kirk said. “I never really liked it, and it’s even worse now. I hate how it takes up all that time.”

Even though she is not religious, Kirk sees the place religion has in society and believes everyone should make their own decision of whether to follow a faith or not. Ninety-one percent of teenagers believe they should treat people the way they want to be treated. Some people, Kirk believes, need a religion to control their morals; she herself does not fit under this category, she said.

“I get people that go to church because it’s how they make sense of the world. … But I don’t need that. My life isn’t really different” without religion, Kirk said. “There are some people who don’t really believe in religion and are really disrespectful to the religion. But since I was a part of the religion for so long, I’m not, like, O.K. with that. You still have to be nice; you don’t need a religion to tell you that, though.”

photo illustration by Muhammad Al-Rawi

Scientists search for aliens Shivangi Singh

A

s the sun set on Nov. 8, 2003, people of Alden, Ill. saw an object two to three football fields long sprawled across the sky.

The citizens of the town saw the object moving through the air, right above their heads.

The sheriffs became aware of this unidentified object which they believed to be filled with human-like beings, and they immediately started following the object.

The two county sheriffs reported seeing what the people of the city saw, and when the object reached the third county, the object took off at an incredibly high speed.

“There are problems with these stories,” Richard Shanks, the Photonics teacher at Columbia Area Career Center, said.

The problem is not “that these people saw it. I am sure that they [said] exactly ... what they saw – some spaceship. [But] I personally don’t believe it came from space.”

Instead, Shanks believes the U.F.O. came from a different dimension, one that supports the survival of the aliens inside it.

He said it’s not possible by the laws of physics for the U.F.O., or the aliens in it, to have traveled the appropriate light years and come down to earth.

The arrival of the U.F.O. from space is “not following the laws of physics. In the dimension that we live in, everything in this dimension must follow these laws,” Shanks said. “It’s how our make-up [is].”

Shanks believes there is a dimension that supports aliens,

an assertion that is greatly reassuring to junior Sean Geerlings.

His interest in extraterrestrial life started when he got hooked onto “Star Wars,” and today he dreams that one day aliens will be here on Earth.

“I don’t know if [alien arrival] is going to happen,” Geerlings said. “But I have a feeling that they could be out there.”

Geerlings believes the aliens that appear on Earth will be benevolent, like the ones in his fantasies. He believes most are curreltly observing Earth, but there will come a time when they will react to humans.

If the society understands the meaning of such a discovery, the aliens will remain harmless.

But if the society fails, then wars could result. However, he said the ultimate outcome of both situations will be the same.

“I think eventually we will treat aliens just the way [humans] are treated,” Geerlings said.

Geerlings said the discovery of such life will come with more advanced technology.

Dr. Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, or SETI, has been working on developing such technology, but he has not been able to detect a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence, abbreviated ET. “Does this mean that [searching for a signal] has been a waste of time?” Shostak said.

“I don’t think so because we have been developing the technology. To [discover ET], you have do [everything] faster. In fact, today SETI researches are much, much faster [at developing new technology] than they were 20 years ago, and in the

future they will be even faster than [they are today]. So even though we haven’t found [extraterrestrials] so far, I am not discouraged.”

In addition, Shostak’s team has evidence supporting the existence of life on other planets, even if it is in the form of microorganisms. Mars, Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons, and Venus have all shown potential to support life, which, Shostak said, makes the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence even more likely.

In his 20-year career at the SETI institute, Shostak has gotten close to discovering extraterrestrial existence.

“There have been a couple of false alarms, but the most dramatic one,” was in 1997, Shostak said, “because it lasted about 15 or 16 hours. We thought that maybe we had found [ET]. We were using an antenna in West Virginia. I was in California when it happened, but it turned out to be the SOHO satellite which is a solar research satellite run by the Europeans. [The satellite] hit our antennas, and it fooled us for a while, but it was very exciting.”

Shostak considers that false alarm significant as the alarm showed what would happen if the SETI Institute really did find a signal. The institute was getting calls from everywhere;

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news stations were asking for reports and interviews.

“I was pretty nervous. I thought that ET was going to mess up everything that I had planned for this week,” Shostak said. “I couldn’t sleep. Nobody went to sleep.”

Shostak said if SETI were to find a signal, everything would change. Government funding would increase. There would be larger groups of people working on discovering extraterrestrial intelligence.

“It’s sort of like Columbus discovering North America,” Shostak said.

The discovery of ET will “really just [be] the start of just something new.”

In the signals, Shostak is not looking for a particular message. He said the signal could be either mathematics or poetry; he is more concerned with finding the spot on the radio spectrum that denotes the existence of aliens. He said the signals are more likely to come from star systems that have planets with liquid water oceans or an atmosphere that can support life.

“I think you are going to see [the signal] happen. It will happen in your lifetime,” Shostak said. “The development of life and even intelligent life — that’s not some miracle that only happened once in the entire universe.”

I don’t know if [alien arrival] is going to happen.

But I have a feeling they could be out there.”

Sean Geerlings senior

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9

The ROCK

September 22, 2011

High schools enjoy rivalry Isaac Pasley

T

he rivalry between RBHS and HHS is epitomized each year when the two schools contend for the Providence Bowl title. On Aug. 26 this tradition continued.

On one side of Faurot Field, an RBHS white-out crowd filled the stands and the “Bru Crew,” RBHS’s student section, was out in full force. In the front row, six fans stood all in a line, with the letters B-R-U-I-N-S individually painted in green on their shirtless chests.

On the other side, staring RBHS in the face, was the purple-clad legion of HHS supporters. Both sides hoped their team would prevail as football champion of Columbia and were pumped up to witness the exciting action that would soon follow.

The atmosphere “was overwhelming. It was eccentric,” senior Justin Smith said. “We had people tailgating. I got [to the game] an hour before, and there were people who had been there hours before. …It was super awesome because everybody was just thrilled to be there.”

This year’s game did not disappoint. The Bruins won in a close match 33-27. Last year, the Bruins blew a 17-point lead before winning 24-20, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with just over a minute to spare.

Various sights and sounds in the stands added to the appeal of the game. Several Bruin fans wore diapers to mock

Hickman’s baby mascot. At one point in the game, the fans passed RBHS’s mascot, the Bruin Bear, around the stands.

“I saw on the big screen a shot of a sword and a stuffed bear with a sword through it, and I thought it was funny,” Smith said.

The RBHS-HHS football rivalry hasn’t always been this way. In fact, from the time RBHS opened until 1999, the two schools played each other only three times in football.

“Because we didn’t start playing each other regularly until 2000, the rivalry wasn’t nearly as big then as it is now,” RBHS teacher Marilyn Toalson said.

Even after the Bruins and Kewpies began playing regularly, the event was largely one-sided. Although there were rare occasions in which the scores of the games were close, such as the 1994 matchup in which HHS defeated RBHS 43-42 in three overtimes, most of the contests were blowouts, such as the 2000 game, in which HHS crushed RBHS 55-0.

Because the competitiveness of the RBHS-HHS rivalry is a fairly recent phenomenon, many fans have differing views on the intensity of the rivalry. CPS teacher Kim Buresh and her friend Crystal Linneman, who were at the 2011 Providence Bowl together, don’t think much of the rivalry at all.

Despite supporting different schools, the two women are still friends.

“There aren’t any tensions between each other,”

Buresh said in regards to the rivalry. “Many Hickman kids have friends who go to Rock Bridge.”

Likewise, RBHS athletic director Jennifer Mast has mixed views of the RBHS-HHS rivalry. Mast was a student at RBHS from 1990 to 1993, and after that, she coached here.

During Mast’s time at RBHS the school was much smaller than it is now, and the Bruins played schools such as Kirksville, Mexico and Helias, with their main rivals being Helias and Mexico.

“The rivalry with Helias and Mexico was very big,” Mast said. “Mexico and Helias always had great football teams, so we needed to beat them both in order to make it to districts.”

Because Helias is the only rival from the 1990s the Bruins still play on a regular basis, Mast continues to believe beating Helias is a cause for celebration, especially since “we haven’t beaten their football team in years.” Nowadays, along with most RBHS fans, Mast agrees HHS is RBHS’s biggest nemesis, and she enjoyed the atmosphere at the Providence Bowl.

“I thought [the fans] were great, very supportive and excited, a big fan section,” Mast said. “They were great.”

However, one part of supporting the Bruins was putting pressure on HHS. Most of the fans in the Bru Crew spent almost all night taunting the Kewpies.

The RBHS fans booed HHS’s players when they were introduced onto the field

before the game. The Bruins also booed at HHS fans whenever one braved a walk near their section. Some of the fans took it a step further, yelling at the Kewpies to “Go back where you belong!” or “Go home!”

Whenever HHS committed a foul, the Bru Crew would heckle the opposing team with chants such as “That was stupid,” or “You can’t do that!”

Toward the end of the game, when Rock Bridge was winning, the fans chanted “Three in a row,” referencing that it was the Bruins’ third straight win in the Providence Bowl.

Neverthless, the RBHS fans’ animosity toward HHS was typical fan behavior and didn’t cause any major problems.

“There was definitely some booing, but no more than any other football game I’ve been to,” Smith said. “I feel like in order to not punch someone from the opposing side after the game, it’s important to let it out on the field. So you have to boo when you’re a safe distance from each other.”

Aside from occasional incidents of vandalism, however, RBHS and HHS don’t have much bad blood between one another. Senior Matt Kelly, a leader of the Bru Crew at the Providence Bowl, said most of the students at the game were relatively well-behaved.

“This year, we’re trying to keep it clean. We want to go out with class,” Kelly said.

“We’re not much about tearing down the other team. We just want to lift our players up.”

Rock Bridge Hickman - Discipline Incident Statistics: Hickman • 39 Number of incidents 18 • RBHS - ACT / MAP Statistics: Percent higher than national average Hickman • 43.6% | 60.9% • Rock Bridge Hickman • 23.6 Average ACT score 23.9 • Rock Bridge Percent of “proficient” MAP scores 62% for both schools - Graduation Rate: Hickman • 87.4% | 91.1 % • Rock Bridge - Student - Teacher ratio: Hickman • 24.1 | • 22.0 Rock Bridge - Average Administrator Salary: Hickman • $ 94,196 | $85,162 • Rock Bridge Statistics from www.city-data.com infographic by Kelly Brucks

At the top of their lungs: RBHS fans in the Bru Crew section at the Providence Bowl cheered wildly as the RBHS football team went on to win the renowned Providence Bowl. With “ROCK BRIDGE” spelled out on their stomachs, they juxtaposed the HHS students dressed in purple and gold on the opposite side of the field. Rival fans taunted the Bruins by placing a stuffed bear through a sword and passing it through the crowd, mocking the mascot of RBHS. Contrary to the teasing from HHS, Bru Crew members showed up with jeers of their own, dressing in diapers to make fun of the Kewpie baby mascot. photo by Maria Kalaitzandonakes

Power of expectation tricks students

Placebo effect prevails in study as students try to pick their favorite sodas Shannon Freese

I

n the fictional movie The Punisher Frank Castle dangles a captured man from the ceiling by his ankles. Trying to get information out of the man, Castle uses the torture technique of placebo.

Before blindfolding him, Castle tells his captive he’s going to burn his skin with a near-molten rod. Instead, Castle uses a blowtorch to char a piece of meat while poking the man with a Popsicle. Without harming the man at all, Castle gets the information he needs because the captive thinks he’s being scorched to death.

The placebo effect is not just in movies. On Aug. 29, The Rock did a similar test, minus the blowtorch.

The Rock filled a two-liter Pepsi bottle with Coke and a two-liter Coke bottle with

Pepsi and asked 35 students to taste test the two. The Rock also asked the students to answer two questions. The first was whether or not they could tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke and the second which of the two beverages they preferred. After tasting the soda, The Rock asked the students which of the two sodas was their favorite. Students who said they preferred Pepsi mistakenly selected the Coke. Students who said they preferred Coke picked the cups with the Pepsi.

The Rock poured the soda in front of them so that the students could see the brand as it was poured. This convinced students they were getting the right soda in the right cup.

These students experienced the placebo effect. Placebo often has effects in fields such as psychology.

“In psychology we see [the

placebo effect] in a lot of ways.

We expose people to different sights and sounds... we might put subliminals, so it’ll sneak by,” psychology teacher Tim Drennan said. “We check and see if [these] messages are truly influencing [people].

Sometimes p e o p l e see consciously as they flash by, but some people don’t see those things.”

According to www. webmd.com, the placebo effect works as a

headache treatment. Almost 40 percent of patients in a placebo effect study regarding headaches showed significant improvement after receiving a pill when told it was medica-

tion to get rid of the headaches.

On Aug. 29 most people in the commons believed they could find the difference between the two sodas, but the majority of the students could

not select the soda they said they preferred. Thanks to the placebo effect, students were convinced they were actually drinking the soda they had thought was their favorite.

Placebo

Students tested Pepsi and Coke and picked what they thought was their favorite. Pepsi was actually in the Coke bottle and Coke was in the Pepsi bottle.

• 9% tasted no difference • 71% picked the cup they thought their favorite soda was in • 20% chose the soda that corresponded to their preference infographic by Kelly Brucks

10

September 22, 2011

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Features

11

The ROCK

September 22, 2011

Memorializing friends: After the Kahlers’ deaths, friends posted pictures of the girls on a Facebook page. People also wrote messages on their walls during the trial, speaking directly to the girls.

photos retrieved from Facebook

Kahler trial touches friends Jack Schoelz

S

enior Paige Shipma did not want to look at the newspaper.

She knew if she glanced at the front page, the events and emotions of two years ago would rush back at her. Each day a new story covered the trial of Kraig Kahler. Every story seemed to detail the events of Nov. 28, 2009, when Shipma lost her best friend.

“It was kind of nerve-racking knowing the trial was going on, but I tried not to follow it too much because there is so much emotional stuff attached to it,” Shipma said.

“The way the papers keep saying the same stuff over and over again, you don’t want to keep reading [about] it really.”

For Shipma the experience was close to unbearable. Through it all she tried to remain true to her friend.

Before casting judgment on Kraig Kahler, Shipma asked herself if Lauren would want her father punished.

Remembering her friend as a kind and loving person, Shipma always fell short of an answer.

But then one day, a detail in one of the news articles caught her eye. Sean Kahler, Lauren’s younger brother who had been 10 at the time of the incident, had taken the stand. One phrase of Sean’s testimony provided Shipma with the answer she needed.

Now Shipma knew how she wanted the trial to end.

“They asked Sean, ‘Do you still love your father?’ and he said, ‘Not

really,’” Shipma said. “I didn’t want to say that I wanted him to get the death penalty before because I wasn’t sure if that’s what Lauren would want. ... But after hearing what Sean testified to, I’m glad he’s being considered for it.”

During the course of a three-week trial, Kahler was convicted of murdering his wife, two daughters and mother-in-law and recommended for the death penalty. Official sentencing will take place Oct. 11.

Several current and former students anxiously anticipated Kraig Kahler’s conviction. 2011 graduate Katie Holthouse, who worked with Emily and Lauren Kahler at Papa Murphy’s, followed every detail of the trial, wanting to see justice served to Kahler for the crimes he committed.

I was “definitely really relieved [upon hearing the conviction] just because of the fact that [he] took four lives, two of them being coworkers and friends of mine,” Holthouse said. “So I was definitely relieved and thankful that they finally got the justice that those girls deserved.”

Not only did the friends of the Kahler family have to deal with nerves and emotions as they waited for a conviction, but many of them had to participate in the investigation and prosecution of Kraig Kahler.

Although she never testified, Shipma was subpoenaed. Holthouse was interviewed by the FBI earlier in the investigation.

To Holthouse the ordeal has not

only been unforgettable and highly emotional, but also completely unpredictable. The Kahler girls held themselves together, giving others like Holthouse no reason to believe anything was out of the ordinary at home.

“They were talkative. They were outgoing. You’d never be able to tell there was something wrong with their dad or their home life,” Holthouse said. When she found out about the incident, “I didn’t believe it at first, of course, and then my second reaction was — I was just mad because those girls definitely didn’t deserve anything that happened to them or anything, and I was just mad at the fact that something horrific had to happen to them.”

Nothing could have prepared Shipma for the night when she found out about the tragedy. She sat at her computer as she would any other night, browsing the Internet and occasionally checking Facebook. Suddenly, a friend’s status caught her attention.

“Rest in peace, Lauren. I can’t believe this happened to you.”

Shipma hesitated for a moment, but she didn’t worry — ­ she thought the Lauren mentioned in the status was another girl, and after checking the friend’s Facebook status, Shipma believed everything was still O.K. In her mind, nothing had happened to her best friend; it quickly slipped her mind as she returned to doing homework.

Then, hours later, Shipma received

a phone call from a friend. es and late night cruises in Shipma’s “Are you O.K.?” the friend asked car that had typified her friendship her frantically. with Lauren happened only months “What do you mean?” Shipma ago, but seemed much farther away. replied, partly But Shipma has confused and finished grieving “I tried not to follow a little worried the loss of her best [the trial] too much about the alarm friend. The mournin her friend’s ing and the pain because there is so voice.

“Of of junior year was much emotional stuff course I’m O.K. “a book she had attached to it.”

I’m sitting here to close.” Student doing homecounseling seswork.” sions at school, as Paige Shipma, “Oh, God,” well as help from senior her friend reother friends of plied.

“You Lauren, helped don’t know.

Shipma ease her Turn on the T.V. It’s all over the pain. Studying abroad on a previnews.” ously planned trip to Belgium helped Shipma became frustrated and an- her escape the daily reminders of the gry because her friend would not tell tragedy that existed back home in Coher what happened. She did not want lumbia. And whenever she needed it, to wait to turn on the T.V. Instead, she Facebook posts on a memorial group demanded her friend tell her what helped her stay connected with her was going on. best friend. When Shipma returned As the words left her mouth, a to Columbia in June, the preparations wave of realization hit Shipma. Ev- for the trial were just getting started. erything, the Facebook status and this But when the trial was over, Shipma strange conversation, came together knew she had already found ways to as she realized the horrifying facts. move past the tragedy before the trial My friend “told me ‘Lauren’s even started. dead. He killed her,’” Shipma said. “I The recommendation “does give screamed as if I was in pain and fell a certain amount of closure to an exto the floor. I was crying and my little tent because you now know he’s getbrother rushed in. He was freaked ting what he deserves,” Shipma said. out, you know, because I was laying “He’s not going to be on the street on the ground crying.” walking around. I’m never going to In that moment her junior year of see or walk into him ever. But I think high school became the most difficult that I got closure, as far as my friendyear of her life. The sleepovers, lunch- ship with Lauren, a long time ago.”

“

Columbia citizens lend hands, make difference Nadav Gov-Ari

A

ustin Kolb and Ryan Rippel reassured multiple times that their current situation, studying in the United States, is just a pit stop on the long road to a better earth. Although Rippel and Kolb grew up in the same city, they went to different high schools, but today they share a common goal.

Both have dedicated their lives to those in need. Kolb, a 2010 RBHS alumnus, and Rippel, a 1999 HHS alumnus, have spent their post-high school years donating their time to charity, philanthropy and community service. Both have pointed their careers toward community service as well.

Each started his foray into philanthropy in high school. Kolb went on a mission trip to Guatemala City during his sophomore year to Casa Bernabe, an orphanage.

“I did little jobs there, sweeping the floors, washing dishes, mopping and just making friends with the young kids and playing with them,” Kolb said. He said that while dedicating his time to the cause of others may be one of the hardest things he’s ever done, “getting that match to start your internal fire” is extremely important and will open up your mind to the giving of yourself.

From there, Kolb took an interest in helping others and made other mission trips to Rwanda, even returning a second time. He also did more work for non-profits in the U.S. Kolb traveled back to Rwanda and began at

Excel School, where he helped teach English to young children.

“Rwanda is currently in the process of switching their national language from French to English,” Kolb said. “The funny thing about this is that most people in Rwanda speak the native language of Kinyarwanda.

The school system would bring in Ugandan teachers who spoke French, while learning English and teaching English to Rwandan children who spoke Kinyarwanda. See the problem?”

Even with all the confusion, Kolb said the job that he did was simple, yet very important to the people there.

“Our basic job there was to be a middle ground between the teachers and kids, as well as help the teachers in their English learning process,” Kolb says. “I lived there for almost another three months and built a real community of friends to hang out with in my free time.”

Kolb currently lives in the United States, planning his future and how he can further serve communities. Rippel, however, a Harvard and Cambridge graduate, has been studying law at Harvard for the past few years in anticipation of an official public service position. While volunteering in India, he came across a community of people known as waste pickers who were victimized by a recent jurisdiction. He’s dedicated himself to be able to help them out.

“Across the world there are many people

earning less than a few dollars a day trying to support their families. Waste pickers are among these individuals. They make their living by sorting through solid waste looking for plastics, cardboard and metal that can be recycled,” Rippel said. “They sell what they find to scrap shops and middlemen who then sell it to large wholesale recyclers.”

Waste pickers’ access to waste is at risk, however, because of court rulings suggesting that corporations should collect trash and not the waste pickers, who depend on this work.

“Unfortunately, these professional collectors usually take the trash right to the dump and don’t recycle,” Rippel said. “As a result, waste pickers are losing their rights to the trash and ultimately their livelihoods.”

Rippel is determined to see justice prevail, and the waste pickers’ relative livelihood restored, at least until there’s a better alternative.

Rippel believes starting out on one’s own philanthropic foray is not hard. He said service is possible, no matter what you do — just go out there and help someone out.

“I believe that whatever you do for a profession — whether it be business or politics, or journalism or working for a nonprofit — service can be part of it,” Rippel said. “Empathy gives us all a wonderful opportunity to commit ourselves to serving ends greater than ourselves. It’s at the core of citizenship in this country, and I believe it is an essential ingredient to a fulfilling life. These are lessons that I first learned growing up in Columbia.”

photo provided by Austin Kolb

Singing for fun: RBHS alumnus Austin Kolb plays his guitar for young children in Rwanda.

12

September 22, 2011

Personality Profiles The ROCK

Taking the stage: Junior Troy Guthrie rehearses his lines for the upcoming musical “The Music Man” in the PAC. After spending a year in California, Guthrie returned because of lack of work. Although he was unable to land any significant role there, Guthrie received the lead part as Professor Harold Hill for the RBHS fall school play. The musical will premiere in early November. His position requires singing and acting, both of which Guthrie is confident in.

He is excited for the play and to continue pursuing his passion of acting, even while he is still living in Missouri, hoping his talents will one day take him far.

Stepping into the spotlight photo by Halley Hollis

Return from Hollywood brings high expectations Maddie Davis

A

s junior Troy Guthrie and his brother made the 1,744mile trip from Columbia to Burbank, Calif., nerves and excitement kicked in. This was no vacation, but the chance of a lifetime.

For Guthrie his dream of making it in Hollywood meant moving away from all he knew.

“I was about two years old when I decided I wanted to act,” Guthrie said. “My mom always had me do musicals, and I loved it. I did TRYPS here and then got introduced to people in California. My brother went out there with me and became my legal guardian so that we could live out there together.”

Although Guthrie’s brother

became his official guardian, his parents still supported Guthrie’s dreams of an actor. They funded his year in Burbank and encouraged him through all of his auditions.

“I know that I am lucky to have parents like mine,” Guthrie said.

“They had the money to send me out there. A lot of parents would have taken that money and bought a condo or something, but I’m so glad they’re supportive.”

Family support doesn’t make getting roles any easier though.

Guthrie auditioned for anything and everything in California. Because of his age, however, most of his auditions were for pilot episodes on Disney Channel.

“I didn’t get any work while I was [in California], but it’s about getting

your name out there. I was at one audition, and they asked me to come back to read the lines again; [Zach Galifianakis] was there, and I got to meet him and shake his hand. The role went to a 30-year-old, but it was a good experience. You have to have thick skin because people will try to bring up the statistics and say you can’t do it, but it takes a long time, and I’m going to keep pushing it.”

He moved back for his junior year because of lack of work. Even though Guthrie did not receive any big roles, he remains optimistic and plans to stay involved around RBHS. He plans to try out for all of the school musicals and participates in the Children’s Theater class.

Along with being in front of an audience, Guthrie helps out behind

Spain captivates Wright Alex Burnam

F

or their first day of school, most students got on their buses, into their cars, and on their bicycles to make the trek to school. But unlike them, senior Landon Wright stepped onto a Boeing 747. As many students get used to school again, Wright is taking on a more unusual experience.

Since early May, Wright has been working toward becoming a Rotary scholar, which means he will be studying for a year in a foreign country. Wright chose Spain when he was selected for the program.

“Spain was appealing to me because I’d taken Spanish for a few years so I felt comfortable with it,” Wright said.

“It will be interesting to get to live somewhere other than America.”

Wright will attend high school in Madrid for his senior year. This could be intimidating with the language barrier and being the new kid in school. Despite the intimidation, Wright is excited to experience the differences at his new school.

“I was scared I wouldn’t be able to understand Spanish once I got there,” Wright said. “I was afraid the whole language barrier thing would prevent me from finding my way around or making friends. It would suck to spend a year alone in a foreign country.”

Yet, Wright feels this timidness is trumped by the opportunities available to him such as meeting new people, learning a new language and visiting new places.

“I’m torqued about being able to meet people that aren’t Americans,” Wright said. “I want to make contacts with people and network with people from across the world. If I maintained all of those relationships, who knows what kind of opportunities could arise in my future.”

Upon his arrival, Spain presented Wright with some challenges. First was the jet lag from lengthy flight.

“I’m trying to get acclimated to the time change,” Wright said. “I’m making sure I can figure out how they do things here. The meals are at different times than they are in the United States. I normally eat dinner at around 10 PM.” Wright was also keen to point out differences in how his host family acts. These differences included a strong focus on family.

“They’re really family oriented over here. Everyone my age here spends more time with their families than my friends back home do,” Wright said.

Despite the differences, Wright knows that the opportunity to spend a year abroad is rare. He is grateful that he has this chance to learn.

“I’d like to thank everyone for throwing so much support behind me as I tackle this challenge,” Wright said. “I can only imagine what I will learn.”

As Wright represents the U.S. and RBHS in Spain, he will be sure to remember his roots.

“I love America, and I love [RBHS],” said Wright. “I think my experiences at [RBHS] have really prepared me for my challenging year ahead.”

the camera. He and fellow junior Sam Keller make films about activities around school and students who are not well known.

“In Hollywood the triple threat is writing, directing and acting,” Guthrie said. “That’s my goal. I try to act no matter what. I also write scripts. I’ve written three so far about different things. When I’m older, I want to direct.”

With such an intense drive, Guthrie will do anything to stand out.

Whether it means making a fool out of himself for an audition or doing back flips on the football field for good film, Guthrie sees no reason not to give it his all.

“I was in a class, and everyone had to improvise and play an autistic kid.

The kid we were playing had to freak

out when someone touched him, and everyone was doing the same thing. I decided to try and stand out by flipping this huge table. I broke a phone and two flower vases.”

Even with the difficultly through classes and auditions, Guthrie plans to move back to California once he graduates high school. His love of movie making pushes him to continue to move forward with what he does best.

“Everyone has something they’re best at, that’s acting to me. [Acting] helps you figure out who you are because to be good, you have to put yourself into someone else’s skin.

If you don’t know who you are or what you want to do and if you’re not confident, then you can’t be someone else. It’s what I love and who I am.”

photo illustration by Muhammed Al-Rawi

Looking back: Although Wright is enjoying his time in Spain, he said he missed his dog and iHome, friends and family, pizza, Sonic and cheeseburgers. Despite the people and things Wright does not have while in Spain, he is excited for the new experiences and people that await him.

Personality Profile

13

September 22, 2011

The ROCK

Swimmer stays positive despite intensive injuries Blake Becker

C

atie Rodriguez and Alex Jones had an unexpected start to their junior year. On the way to school the morning of Aug. 18, a Freightliner dump truck collided with Jones’ Honda Pilot, striking the passenger side where Rodriguez was riding.

“Alex was driving on Route K, turning onto Old Plank Road on the way to school,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know really how it happened — if we were going over a hill or if maybe the sun was in the way, but the dump truck hit my side of the car, and [the truck] was full of rocks and stuff.”

Rodriguez is unable to recall much of what occurred during the wreck or the ambulance ride to the hospital.

“I just don’t really remember [the accident]. I don’t remember any of the ride to the hospital either. I know I was awake, but my brain must have just blocked it all out,” Rodriguez said. “So I honestly have no idea what happened. I only know what happened from what people have told me.”

However, Jones has a more vivid memory of the crash. The collision caused both vehicles to go off the road, resulting in major damage to both vehicles.

“It was pretty rough. I felt helpless, and there was nothing I could do, so it was an incredibily long time to wait,” Jones said.

The University of Missouri—Columbia Hospi-

tal admitted Jones, Rodriguez and the truck driver. The doctors reported both the truck driver and Jones’ injuries as minor but Rodriguez sustained more extensive injuries.

Rodriguez suffered a broken ankle, femur and pelvis. She was hospitalized for seven days, missed the first two days of school and the two weeks after. She will also be in a wheelchair for two weeks.

Despite her wounds, Rodriguez makes the best of the situation and appreciates all of the help given to her.

“I have had a lot of really good support from all of my family and friends. The doctors have been really helpful, and they have said I’ll make a full recovery, so it’s really nice,” Rodriguez said. “On my first day of school back, people were excited to see me and see that I was doing well.”

Rodriguez also received much-needed support from her family and friends during her stay in the hospital.

“It was weird with everyone talking about Catie,” senior Kelsey Garnatz said. “I made sure that she knew I would help her when she came back to school because otherwise it would have probably been rough for her.”

The bond between Rodriguez and friends helped her to recover faster and remain positive through her recuperation. Without the support, Rodriguez doesn’t believe her injuries would have remained as controllable as they were.

“There were a ton of people who came to see

Meet your fellow student Nicolie Butler

me — obviously my parents came and also people from my swim team and friends from school came too,” Rodriguez said. “It’s also really good and comforting to know that there are people who are actually thinking about me and that really does help me to stay strong.”

The support she receives from the people who surround her helps her create a better attitude.

This will help Rodriguez as she battles with her injuries to get back on the swim team.

“It’ll be hard to get back into the swing of things once I start back into it, but swimming will be really good therapy,” Rodriguez said. “I’ll be able to swim again once all my cuts heal, so I’ll probably get back in two weeks.”

Since Rodriguez swims backstroke and distance, she will need time and practice to regain her strength and endurance in the water. Because of Rodriguez’s time out of the pool, she is motivated to return to swimming and rejoin the RBHS team as soon as possible. Even with her time away, she feels confident that she will quickly return to swimming “Hopefully I can immediately go back and swim as hard as I can, but I know that I probably won’t be able to do everything. I swim the mile so it will be pretty hard to build back up my endurance, but I’ll get there soon enough,” Rodriguez said. “I just try to always stay positive because I know the more I fight through it and work through it the faster my recovery will be and the faster things will go back to the way they were.”

Maddie Davis Q: Where are you from?

A: I’m from Romania, and I’ve lived

here for three years. I was adopted here, but next year I’m going back to Romania to be a priest. But this is my first year at school. I really am learning how Americ a n schools are.

Q

:

H o w l o n g h a v e y o u studied E n g photo by Halley Hollis lish?

A: I’ve studied English since I was about two so I’m very fluent and decent about not having an accent unless I speak Romanian.

Q: What do you like best about Rock Bridge?

A: The best thing about the school is the library and also the availability of the teachers. I like how I can print out anything in the library and the books are unlimited about topics.

Q: What do you do in your free time?

A: I love to compose music. I compose a lot of classical music. I also do poetry and write a lot. I was going to run for student president but I decided I would do better as a representative instead Q: What instruments do you play?

A: I’ve played the violin ever since I can remember. I also play the organ, the piano and the cello. Those are my main ones, but I play others. I enjoy playing the violin the most.

Q: What else are you involved in around Rock Bridge?

A: Well, I worked here over the summer. I helped a lot with the computers and I helped change the passwords. I wanted to go out for soccer or maybe football because I’m very fast, but I decided not to. But I really want to become more involved around school.

Q: What is your favorite food?

A: That’s tough … But my favorite food is just plain peanut butter.

Q: Do you normally eat it off of a spoon?

A: Yes, that is typically how I eat it, unless I don’t have a spoon. Then I just eat it off my fingers.

Q: What do you never leave your house without?

A: That’s a good question. I never leave my house without a pen and a paper because I like to jot down ideas whenever they hit me.

Q: Which do you prefer — composing music or writing poetry?

A: Well, I write operas as well so that and poetry also go together but I do enjoy composing more.

photo by Muhammed Al-Rawi

Getting ready to go: Junior Catie Rodriguez prepares to enter her car in the north parking lot while looking out to fellow students. With the assistance of her mother, she is able to pull herself out of her wheelchair and into the car.

Young entrepreneur creates small local business Jack Schoelz

T

he mob of fans tightens and convulses with cheers as their idol Michael Phelps approaches the stands to sign autographs. It’s Feb. 17, 2007 — the second night of the national Grand Prix swim meet at the University of Missouri—Columbia recreation center. Tonight, Phelps has set the world record in the 200 meter butterfly, and now he stands before many screaming fans, all leaning over the railing waving posters, swim caps and magazines in an attempt to get his autograph.

While the crowd waits for their memorabilia, senior Eric Wetz has a different approach. Having paid several younger kids to get swim caps signed for him, Wetz will not end the evening with just one autograph, but several — and he does not plan on keeping any of them for himself.

Instead, Wetz will sell the autographs on eBay, making around $200 off of each one. It’s the beginning of a fruitful career.

Today, Wetz has three accounts on the Internet auctioning sites: one on Craigslist and two on eBay. Two of the accounts he uses for “flipping” — buying and selling personal goods at higher prices to make profits. With the help of a few partners, Wetz uses his business to make up to $2,000 in a single week when his business operates at maximum productivity.

“We’re meeting, on the high end, up to 20 people a week when

college is going on,” Wetz said.

“During the summer it’s pretty slow. It’s usually hit or miss. You might do a couple a week, but usually we take the summer off to hang out.”

Senior Andrew O’Haro, who spent most of last year working along with Wetz in advertising for the flipping business, believes Wetz has a very unique outlook on the world that also allows him to be so good at what he does.

“Most people are like, they get an iPhone and use it as an actual phone,” O’Haro said. “But he gets an iPhone, and he sees it as something to make money off of and a way to sell it and get profits from it. It’s just a very different aspect than most people.”

As a “flipper,” Wetz makes money by negotiating low buying prices and setting high selling prices. By waiting for the college year to be in session, he uses auctioning sites to take advantage of people hoping to make quick cash. Periodically, Wetz will even buy and sell the same product within only a few minutes.

“College students are the people who usually sell stuff for cheap

because they just need money,” Wetz said. Occasionally, “We’ll set up times [for two separate deals] five or 10 minutes apart so the buyer and seller don’t actually meet because we’re the middle man who makes money.”

With a knack for personal finance, Wetz knows exactly what sorts of career opportunities he wants to pursue.

“I’ve been business oriented my whole life [but] I don’t really want to do sales stuff,” Wetz said. “I just want to do stocks and just Wall Street, the corporate stuff, right out of college.”

To O’Haro, the business man’s energetic money management is only initially surprising. Eventually, they realize it’s simply a part of who Wetz is.

“He’s actually a really hard worker and once he sets his mind to something he really wants to get it done, especially with the business,” O’Haro said. “The money is really his driving force. It’s all about money. I guess that might be bad to some people but, I don’t know; it’s Eric.”

“

“He gets an iPhone and sees it as something to make money off of.”

Andrew O’Haro senior

s ’ Business Best: C I R E Eric

Paid

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Football

1.$500

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$100 for 5 tickets

G iPhone 3

2. N/A

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over $700

his own

over $200

$35

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3. $1

$41

$40

$100

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top

Dell™ Lap

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$100

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>$100 art by Joanne Lee

14

September 22, 2011

Ads The ROCK

In-Depths

15

The ROCK

September 22, 2011

Columbia for Joplin

Local volunteers devote Saturday to recovery Kaitlyn Marsh

G

etting up at 3:30 a.m., junior Emily Christensen packed sunglasses, put on tennis shoes and received a complementary face mask from a volunteer leader to start her Saturday morning.

She and many others filed into the parking lot at The Crossing Church, 3615 Southland Dr., as the spaces filled with more than 700 volunteers, each with $10, a safety waiver and a big heart. They were preparing to attend the Columbia for Joplin event Saturday, Aug. 27.

Passengers fell silent as the buses started the four-hour journey to Joplin, Mo. There was plenty of time for the travelers to sleep, but not enough to mentally prepare for the experience they were about to go though, Christensen said.

“You see it on the news, and you see pictures, and we’ve all heard about it, but it’s just so different actually being there,” Christensen said. “We literally pulled into town, and you hit one street and from there

on it’s nothing, like everything there was completely demolished — it’s just a bunch of house foundations, broken trees, and it’s been [four] months, and it’s still like that.”

On May 22, an EF5 tornado ripped through Joplin, killing at least 160 and destroying hundreds of acres. But the emotional toll was even worse— neighborhoods missing, businesses left in ruins and Joplin Public School buildings struggling to support their frames.

Joplin’s only high school was located in the heart of the damage, with nearly every window blown out, hallways collapsed and a gymnasium crumbled upon itself.

“We passed by the high school, and it was absolutely devastating,” senior Luke Nation said. “You can’t help thinking, ‘What if that was Rock Bridge?’”

Columbia dentist Neil Riley helped organize Columbia for Joplin after hearing the stories about the devastation.

“It was just amazing how people came together,” Riley said. “All of a sudden, we went from 200 or 300 [volunteers] to 700, and it didn’t really matter to me, as long as we gave people a way to go and experience the devastation.

We don’t have to go to the other side of the world to do a mission trip. We can

do one right here in our own home state.”

Seven buses trekked from Columbia to Joplin, each with different duties.

Four ventured to remove debris in neighborhoods, clearing lots and in a park. Two traveled to Joplin South Middle School to clean the surrounding areas. The seventh bus went to Misty’s Mission, which is still accepting donations.

Volunteers sorted different items that had arrived.

The volunteers had an eight hour work day in 90-degree heat, dressed in long pants, gloves, face masks and goggles, but helping less fortunate individuals kept them going, University of Missouri—Columbia sophomore Emma Faist said.

“I can’t imagine the fear and how people were feeling when the tornado actually hit,” Faist said. “Going through rubble, you see a bunch of dirt and wood and debris, but then you see something that’s like a Lego piece, and it makes it more realistic that people actually had to deal with this and go through this horrible devastation.”

As the day came to a close, volunteers returned to buses and looked back at their contributions.

Sophomore assistant

“

principal and volunteer Dr. Tim Wright said the volunteers’ experience personally touched each of them. What they brought back to Columbia, whether memories or realizations, affected them more than anything.

“I know I was impacted going to Joplin and giving up eight hours of the weekend,” Wright said. “And the experience of going there and seeing it and doing a little bit was much more meaningful than [writing] a hundred dollar check.”

The experience was something to feel good about.

“Those closest to the disaster have the ability to help the most and, being only four hours away, we had the opportunity to help efficiently,” Nation said. “It’s made me want to help more, seeing how easy it was to go down there, and, from what I saw, we were really able to help out.”

And if the opportunity presents itself, I’d like to go down again; there’s still a lot to be done down there.”

You see it on the news ... but it’s just so different actually being there.”

Emily Christensen sophomore

photo by Stazi Prost

Pitching in: Signs in Joplin thank the thousands of volunteers that have helped with Joplin’s long recovery from the devastating tornado.

Time volunteers left Columbia:

Donations to healing ConocoPhilips $500,000: Red Cross

4 a.m.

3.5

hours away

NAMM Foundation

Time volunteers left Joplin:

700

4 p.m.

volunteers

Violas and Basses

Kohl’s Dept. Store

$150,000: Joplin Sheryl Crow-Singer $100,000: Red Cross 1959 Mercedes-Benz: $50,000: Relief efforts

School Recovery

Verizon Wireless

Barry Manilow

$50,000: Red Cross

Instruments

Bank of America

$200,000: Relief efforts

Des Moines, Ill., Church School supplies

Sources: http://www.ky3.com/news http://www.joplinglobe.com/local

$1 Million: laptop for each student

United Arab Emirates

photo by Stazi Prost

art by Joanne Lee

Getting down and dirty: Sophomore Austin Scoles uses a rake to clear rubble as part of the volunteer force that came from Columbia to help Joplin last month.

$100 Million: Relief efforts

16

17

In-Depths

The ROCK

1

September 22, 201

Joplin photo provided by Mary Crane

Temporary fixes provide motivation: Joplin residents find ways to stay hopeful, such as the duct tape modification to the former high school’s sign.

Spirit salvages semblance of schooling

and human perseverance of both volunteers and Joplin’s residents.

ls ea Sh

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14 miles art by Joanne Lee sources: www.thetown-crier.com www.columbiaforjoplin.com news.blogs.cnn.com

10th — Varsity Football Home vs. Hillcrest 6:00 p.m.

16th — Varsity Football Home vs. Parkview 7:00 p.m.

23rd — Varsity Football @ Waynesville 7:00 p.m.

1st — MSSU Homecoming Parade Valhalla Marching Band Competition 7th — Varsity Football Home vs. Camdenton 6:00 p.m.

24th — Webbstock Marching Band Competition

14th — Varsity Football Home vs. Lee’s Summit North 7:00 p.m.

15th — Carthage Marching Band Festival

30th — Varsity Football @ Rolla 7:00 p.m.

21st — Varsity Football @ Ray-Pec 7:00 p.m.

Arrowhead Stadium Marching Band Competition art by Kelly Brucks

sources: www.fbo.gov/index

ne

27th — Columbia for Joplin event attracts over 700 volunteers

8

arrowing heat, sinister sock tans and the first alarm-clock-mornings of the summer mark the beginning of August.

Around the country, grudgingly enthusiastic teenagers trudge out onto football fields for hours at a time to start off the marching band season. Joplin High School marching band students are no different.

Only, they don’t have a band room.

The JHS band lost an estimated $3.7 million May 22, a hit that has been hard to come back from.

A band program cannot exist without music, instruments and equipment, all of which the tornado destroyed. Financially, the school no longer had a band program, junior drum major Taylor Hughes said. But besides the material loss, the band program also lost their home, a symbol, band members said, of the band program overall and an abode in which the musical family grew together.

“The hardest thing to realize was that our legendary band room, the sanctuary of many, was gone,” Hughes said. “It felt like the spirit of our band was in the rubble.”

But it didn’t stay this way for long. The marching band was able to get back to work “through the kindness of strangers,” band parent Carmen Borup said. This aid, in the form of fundraising, donations and support, poured in from many sources, but some have impacted the band more heavily than others.

Two bands in particular were especially dedicated. Little Elm LOBO Marching Band from Little Elm, Texas and Webb City Cardinal Pride Band from Webb City, Mo. devoted their summers to raise more than $250,000 worth of instruments and money to purchase new music and equipment.

Borup said the “Lobos” made the long, 330-mile journey across multiple states to hold a clinic for the recovering band.

Their constant correspondence is still spurring the band to do its best.

Businesses have also helped by donating money or services, like Palen Music’s offer to collect, clean and fix all donated instruments.

“The outpouring of caring, of support, of prayers and well wishes has been overwhelming,” Borup said. “In the begin-

ning just knowing that so many people were thinking about us and were behind us was incredibly uplifting.”

With his mother serving as vice president of the JHS Band Boosters, senior color guard member Brandon Nichols has been very aware of what donations and aid have come in.

“The band has gotten assistance from multiple places. [The two bands] have raised so much money for us, collected instruments and just been there for us through all the hard times after the storm,” Nichols said. “If we didn’t have the help [we’ve received], we would have never made this much of a comeback.”

By showing the students how much support they had, the donors and supporters have raised more than just money and equipment — they have raised the determination of the band. The band’s renewed enthusiasm has further aided in a speedy comeback. Nichols said they’re working hard to get the band “back to normal.”

In fact, Hughes said more than the band’s normalcy has returned. The makeshift band room on the stage of an old city building, new donated equipment and massive support from around the country have made the band’s return possible. But this aid has also motivated the band members, and the drum major himself, to perform better than ever.

“It’s incredible as a drum major to have your leadership goal realized,” Hughes said. “I have much more responsibility now, as my actions directly affect the morale of the band.”

The students’ spirits are up.

But, like other marching bands, the musicians aim to raise the school’s spirit, too. This is a goal that they will easily accomplish, as the band’s vigorous return to the field will have immense resonance, Borup said.

“To go to a football game and hear the fight song played swells your heart with pride,” Borup said, “and I would challenge a person to find a dry eye in the stadium the first time it’s played.”

The band has become a beacon for hope, attracting attention for the whole community. With participation higher than any previous year, the 160 members of the marching band are eager to recover.

The band is “basically starting fresh with everything,” Hughes said. “And we sound better than ever.”

October

20th — Barry Manilow donates instruments

Daycares

S E R b um N 7

stances. But they’ve demonstrated that not only can we survive, we can thrive.”

—JHS newspaper and yearbook advisor Mary Crane

H

BY THE

September

June

25th — Modular facilities for Joplin High School at Memorial Campus

—JHS senior and student council president Julia Lewis

all of us forever, regardless of whether you lost your ­—JHS junior house or lost a car or lost a Christopher family member or friend, it changed you,” Lewis Hanshaw said. “Everyone in Joplin has changed forever but moving on from it and becoming a better person from it. I think that’s something that I, as student photo provided by Christopher Hanshaw council president, can help students realize and move “Life is fragile. And it can on. And that’s kind of our goal change dramatically. The as student city of Joplin, specifically council this the school district, didn’t year, and my goal as a choose these circumstudent.”

17th — First day of school

August

May

22nd — High school graduation Tornado hits Joplin

of the people that I know.”

Gates even found many changes within herself. She pays more attention to teachers, and she’s more careful with the substances she consumes and her actions. The changes came quickly and at the beginning of the summer.

Her plans with her friends originally included going to Six Flags and “just do[ing] things we probably shouldn’t have, but that just got kind of thrown in the toilet.” She spent her entire summer helping people rather than her normal antics of video games and partying. Gates said she had to grow up quickly.

“I wasn’t quite done being an idiot,” Gates said. But “I just kind of felt like my home was destroyed and I needed to fix it, pretty much.”

JHS student council president and senior Julia Lewis said this idea filled Joplin, and the schools became the focus of many efforts to rebuild because, “the schools are kind of the heart of Joplin.”

Lewis has seen the JHS T-shirts a lot more, not only on students and faculty but also throughout the community. She said students have also been more motivated to represent Joplin.

“The sports teams themselves have brought it upon themselves this year to get better and to push themselves so we that we can go out and we can win for Joplin,” Lewis said. “I also think they want to do well academically so that people can look at Joplin and not just say, you know, ‘Oh, that’s the town that got hit by the tornado,’ but, ‘That’s the town that’s rebuilding. That’s the town that’s working hard academically.’”

However, it has been difficult. JHS was received a donation from United Arab Emirates that gave each student a laptop.

Sachetta said the goal is to go the entire year without using paper. Teachers have had to adapt curriculums to this new style.

And although the center for grades 11 and 12 at the mall resembles a normal high school in many ways, there are still differences.

Science classrooms must be outside in trailers because of mall regulations preventing fires inside.

“It’s so hard because the teachers don’t yell, like, yelling to get the kids to be quiet and trying to do our assignments,” Hanshaw said. “But the thing is, you can hear every teacher in the building because our walls

Mary Cra

F

orty minutes after the class of 2011 graduated from Joplin High School, a deadly EF5 tornado tore through Joplin at 5:40 p.m. May 22, unleashing its wrath on everything in its path.

The JHS graduation ceremony took place at Missouri Southern State University, where the tornado had no effect. Those who remained at the university survived unscathed. However, the tornado’s path was unpredictable, and many believed they could make it back home without crossing paths with death and destruction.

The calamity changed their lives forever.

“I think the class of 2011 will always remember: they walked out at graduation, ready for the world, ready for a lot of good things to happen in their lives, and many of [their] lives were turned upside down that day,” Kerry Sachetta, JHS principal, said.

“One of the graduates said it best: ‘I was getting ready to go to project graduation, stay up all night, have a good time with my friends, be a kid for the last time, so to speak, and I was pressed into action to help save lives in a horrific event.’ And this particular boy also had [Emergency Medical Technician] training. He couldn’t even spend his graduation night having a great time with his friends. He had to grow up real fast, and he did.”

Two of the nearly 160 lives lost belonged to JHS students. JHS junior Christopher Hanshaw’s friend “only had 17 minutes of his life [after graduation]. Like, his life started, went for 17 minutes and then he lost it.”

The hours after the tornado were utter chaos. People ran around, looking through debris for loved ones or finding places to stay. Little had changed by nightfall.

“It was the darkest night I ever slept. You could hear screaming, sirens, helicopters,” Hanshaw said. “It was complete dark. All the power was out. You could hear everyone outside.”

The next morning the power briefly returned, giving Hanshaw an opportunity to charge his phone. During that time he saw several mass texts all saying the same thing, “The school’s been destroyed.”

“I’m like, ‘No way.’ So I walk down to the

school — the gym is all kinds of effed up,” Hanshaw said. “Imagine a pillow, and you’re punching into the middle of a pillow, and it’s all indented like that. Imagine that being the gym, and ... half of it gone.”

The tornado destroyed the high school and demolished Franklin Technology Center across the street, a building with a similar purpose as the Columbia Area Career Center, providing classes such as culinary arts, graphic arts, welding and car repair.

But the destruction of these buildings was not as monumental as the fact that no one was in them.

“Thank God the graduation wasn’t at the high school,” Hanshaw said.

The district lost an estimated $150 million, yet the schools reopened on schedule, Aug. 17, a day before RBHS. However, the high school’s destruction left no place to have classes. No other building in town was large enough to accommodate all four grades. And even though the tornado flattened an area seven miles long and one mile wide in places, districtwide enrollment was still 92 percent of last year.

The district decided to split the grades into different buildings. Juniors and seniors found home in an unfinished part of the mall while freshmen and sophomores went to an old building constructed in 1917 for JHS. Both buildings are three miles apart, yet they still share the same principal, along with many clubs and sports.

“Being in one building is a lot easier, no question about it, so I’m trying to budget my time in a different way,” Sachetta said. “I have nine years of experience in one building, and as busy as that was everyday, I had a pretty good handle on what was going on. But this is a new experience for me. I have to admit that. … [Adjusting to being at two buildings] would be the biggest thing right now, and just getting used to hopefully not feel[ing] like a visitor each time I go into the building.”

The adjustment has been equally strange for students. JHS senior Christina Gates said her classmates transformed completely; students are a lot nicer to each other than they were before the disaster.

“We work together a lot more and a lot better, and also there’s a lot less bullying.

We had a major bullying problem in the old high school,” Gates said. “The saying goes, ‘Disasters can bring out the best in people,’ and I really believe that to be true with most

Nomin Jagdagdorj

scores of citizens dead, millions of dollars lost and an entire town devastated, recuperation has been possible only through the will power

“When we got back to don’t go up to the roof.” school, it was like, ‘Oh, Under the circumstances, students are my God, I’m so glad to see mature and cooperative, Lewis said. They you. Thank God you’re OK.’ are much more understanding and willing to work together.

Because I had a couple of “My role, that I see as president, is friends that never replied to just be positive, to keep things as to me on Facebook or never normal as they can be … and to give students a way to … [not only] answered their phones — I cope with it, and remember it, but was in shock to see them, also move on and realize that it’s and I was so happy.” just something that changed

photo pro vided by

Avantika Khatri

Young FOUR MONTHS LATER musicians n May 22, a merciless EF5 O twister, the highest intensity possible, ripped through Joplin, band together Mo., population 49,000. With

destroyed

“We’ve realized how precious [life] is and how much it can change.

In 10 minutes our entire town was just destroyed. A lot of us have just grown in our gratitude for the people who came and helped and who are still coming to help, and for people who really care about Joplin.”

18

Editorials

September 22, 2011

The ROCK

‘The Rock’ needs input

1 2

Bruin Soapbox

The Rock will feature writing from a different student author each issue in its column Bruin Soapbox. If you would like to write an editorial for The Rock, pick up an application in the main office or room 329.

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The Rock wants hear your opinions! Please drop your letters in the green and yellow box in the commons next to the activities office.

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THE

Statement of Purpose: The Rock is published for the benefit of the population of Rock Bridge High School and the community. The purpose of the paper is to inform, involve, educate, enlighten and entertain our readers fairly and accurately. In addition, The Rock operates as an open forum for student and faculty expression.

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ROCK

Rock Bridge High School 4303 South Providence Rd., Columbia, Mo. 65203-1798 Vol. 39. Issue 1 The Journalism: Newspaper and Honors Seminar classes produce The Rock. Please call us with comments at 573-214-3141.

The Rock’s purpose is to inform, educate, enlighten and entertain readers fairly and accurately in an open forum. The

Death penalty amiss No moral, practical reasons

A

jury has sentenced Kraig Kahler to death because of his actions in killing his two daughters, estranged wife and her mother.

On Oct. 11 a judge will determine whether evidence in the case supports the use of the death penalty, or whether Kahler will receive life imprisonment without parole.

However, the concept behind the death penalty is flawed, as there is no difference between murdering and condemning someone to death.

What good does it do to commit the same act against Kahler as he did to his family? This “eye for an eye” mentality is a logical fallacy. No moral or practical justification exists to support the death penalty.

The death penalty is the ultimate punishment, as terminating life is absolute.

However, those who the jury condemns are not always guilty. A jury is not infallible; no mystical force endows them.

They, like everyone else, are still human, which means they make mistakes.

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), when introducing the “National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2000” April 26, 2000, noted that one in seven

executed men are innocent, its use may be acceptable. which calculates to about a 15 However, the entire system percent error rate. hinges on a group of 12 In science, one can only randomly chosen people who accept a hypothesis if there is only have to know “beyond a five percent chance of error reasonable doubt” that the or less; the death penalty is at condemned is guilty. In a nearly three times that amount. case which involves the death Thus, it is necessary to reject penalty, though, it needs to be the hypothesis that the jury “beyond the shadow of doubt” is correct in its sentencing. ­ — to the point that there is Also, this process is meant for no question that the accused questions like “Is a flipped is guilty. Once someone is coin fair?,” not executed, something as m i s t a k e s important as cannot be Is the death human life. corrected. We Even if the penalty morally cannot revive condemned are the dead. It and practically guilty beyond would be doubt, that still better simply justifiable? does not justify to imprison their deaths. criminals for Life is one the rest of their The Rock voted lives, as paying of the three inalienable those costs are Yes-14 r i g h t s cheaper than No-18 outlined in the going through Declaration of the process Independence. required to The idea of the death penalty sentence them to death. conflicts utterly with this The costs an average concept; how can America be taxpayer pays for the execution indifferent to condemning men of a criminal are shockingly to die when it espouses life and high; each year at least $137 liberty? million is spent on the death Now, if there were some penalty system. In a standard foolproof way of deciding and trial where the death penalty delivering the death penalty, is on the line, the process

is astonishingly tedious.

According to Richard Dieter, the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in his testimony to the Judiciary Committee of the Colorado State House of Representatives Feb. 7, 2007, there is a lengthier pre-trial period, an additional number of expert testimonies, about double the number of attorneys and an extremely lengthy appeals process as well as two trials to top it off in every capital case.

If the accused is poor, there will be court-appointed attorneys paid for by the people. The longer trial time means more paid hours for the judge and the jury, paid for by the people.

The appeals process means the Federal government uses additional resources to keep the prisoner on death row, and more judges get extra working hours, paid for by the people.

All of this is wrong. The state should not have the right to take the life of another. With no real system and foolproof process behind it, the death penalty simply becomes a tool for retribution. There is no need for the death penalty, as revenge should never be a motive for a just body of law to condemn men to die.

What’s the difference?

art by Therea Whang and Kelly Brucks

Homecoming needs philanthropy S ervice to the community is something toward something greater than they are.

RBHS does well. For example, Rock No philanthropy exists in the RBHS Bridge Reaches Out has yearlong homecoming. All we ever do is watch our projects that benefit the community, and candidates and their escorts make fools of RBRO’s sheer size displays the themselves willingness of Bruins to help in the out. commons Should homecoming The grandiosity of d u r i n g queen candidates raise lunch. HHS homecoming offers an opportune time to raise students money for charity? money, yet we fail to take enjoy a advantage of it. s i m i l a r At HHS, part of the spectacle, The Rock voted homecoming queen election b u t process is how much money benefit the Yes-23 candidates raise for a community No-9 charity of their choice. This at the same philanthropic move benefits time. everyone: the community In 2010 helps various charities, the school gains HHS students raised more than $10,000, a good name and the candidates work according to the Columbia Daily Tribune,

Rock is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and International Quill and Scroll.

Advertising is $55 for a quarter page, $95 for a half page and $130 for a whole page.

The Rock accepts letters from students, teachers and community members signed with a valid signature only.

The Rock reserves the right to edit contributions if they are libelous or obscene. Any grammatical errors at the fault of the writer will be printed.

Editors-in-Chief: Avantika Khatri, Jack Schoelz, Shivangi Singh News Editor: Sami Pathan Academics Editor: Parker Sutherland Community Editor: Maria Kalaitzandonakes Features Editor: Kirsten Buchanan Personality Profiles Editor: Maddie Davis In-Depths Editor: Nomin Jagdagdorj Editorials Editor: Walter Wang

which went to benefit 10 charities. The Bruins are capable of raising at least that amount. The only thing that is stopping us is our inaction.

Just like at HHS, homecoming queen candidates here should raise money for charities. RBHS prides itself on being innovative, yet it has failed to take the initiative on this important issue. We have many service clubs which help the community. Any one of these can take the lead by beginning fundraising activities during homecoming.

There is no RBHS without the Columbia community. Columbia citizens are the ones who paid for the school and its resources. Now is the time to give back to the people who gave us our education and opportunities. We can start by having homecoming queen candidates compete by raising money for a charity of their choice.

Commentary Editor: Abbie Powers Athelete Profiles Editor: Caraline Trecha Sports Editor: Emily Wright Arts & Entertainment Editor: Sonya Francis, Daphne Yu Design Editor: Jackie Nichols Managing Editor: Jackie Nichols Art Editor: Joanne Lee Artists: Kelly Brucks, Anna Sheals, Theresa Whang, Photography Editor: Halley Hollis

Photographers: Muhammad AlRawi, Asa Lory, Anna Sheals Chief Financial Officer: Rose McManus Staff Writers: Blake Becker, Alex Burnam, Jude El-Buri, Shannon Freese, Nadav Gov-Ari, Thomas Jamieson-Lucy, Maddie Magruder, Kaitlyn Marsh, Isaac Pasley, Mike Presberg, Lauren Puckett, Adam Schoelz, Alyssa Sykuta, Mahogany Thomas, Luke Wyrick Advisor: Robin Fuemmeler Stover

Editorials

19

September 22, 2011

The ROCK

Too Much!

Avantika Khatri

H

igh school graduation requirements in Missouri prevent students from reaching their full potential. Students spend four years working through the 24 credits, six a year. The number isn’t so absurd that people stress over it, but the specifications block so much potential.

After suffering through nine years of schooling and nine years of following rigid schedules in elementary and middle school to explore all the subjects, high schoolers then get to “choose” what classes to take throughout their four years. But we don’t. The credits have rigid specifications, and there is little choice.

While Columbia Public School boasts a wide selection of classes, students can choose only a few, at the cost of exploring other classes. As a result, students enter the work field with little idea of what they are interested in. Students enter college, where they can spend upwards of $50,000, discovering what they should already know from high school. The requirements leave no opportunity for discovery.

The state necessitates four language arts credits for graduation, a reasonable request.

(But CPS decided exploring the language arts isn’t enough. No, of these four credits, three needed to be specifically for English classes.)

English classes through the years regurgitate the same things, and none can teach practical application as well as the other language arts classes. The intent of the classes is to provide

Graduation requirements numerous, lack benefits

students with necessary communication and fitness walking class, if not more, and the band analytical skills for life. But communication students carry huge instruments. Yet they don’t skills are better taught in public speaking or get any physical activity credit for it. debate courses, while analytical skills are a part If P.E. reduced obesity rates, the battle would of every class. be worth fighting. But for half a credit, a student People interested in fiction writing can take can pay Mizzou Online $240 to take Fitness Creative Writing for a language arts credit, for Well-Being. Based on the honor system, while those fascinated by journalism should the course allows students to say they have actually take the class Journalistic Writing. By completed the requisite amount of exercise (and restricting three of the four credits to English their parents sign, as if that makes a difference). classes, few students explore the other language But a student desperate enough to pay arts opportunities, thereby eliminating the field money to avoid taking an actual P.E. class, as a potential career either for time issues or for path. more personal ones, would S t u d e n t s no reason to do anything A student desperate have cannot take these in the online course. The only classes because the enough to pay money difference between taking requirements so online course and not to avoid taking an the severely limit them. taking one at all is the $240 Still, the district isn’t actual P.E. class, to etch another .5 credit on completely at fault either for time issues transcripts. for the students’ Should Columbia Public oppressed dreams. or for more personal Schools have local control The physical P.E., administrators issues, would have no over education credit could allow P.E. to be fulfilled should help reduce reason to do anything in more ways. Instead of the obesity rate, a making students who are in the course.” good intent. Forcing not at risk of health problems athletes to fulfill take the course, the district a credit, though, could create a fitness test. makes no sense.

Students who meet this Competitive athletes already spend most test would not have to take P.E. If the district waking hours training. They don’t need the offered independent course offerings for credit of P.E., but they might need a credit students involved in sports or marching band, elsewhere. The band walks as much as the that would be another logical solution to the ill-

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conceived structure in place.

Though it is a great program at RBHS — winning numerous recognitions at the state and national level — Personal Finance has little practical utility. With the economic recession a growing issue, giving future citizens knowledge about investing and saving seems reasonable. And the course teaches students useful information, but it’s nothing anyone would remember.

The information is skills learned practically.

Until an individual actually interacts with the different types of banking accounts, credit cards and stocks in real life, he or she will never retain any of it, not beyond a week of the class’s completion.

Eliminating such credits only solves the small part of a larger issue. President Ronald Reagan wrote “A Nation at Risk” in 1983, a time when the U.S. feared dropping behind other nations in education. Because of this generation, Missouri now requires 24 credits for graduation.

However, different issues plague high schools today. Rather than lacking academic focus, the excitement and exhilaration for learning are absent in schools.

After spending kindergarten through tenth grade in classes chosen by administrators, students should have the opportunity in their junior and senior years to explore other options and find their interests, or this generation’s high schoolers will enter the workforce simply to complete more requirements rather than following their passions.

Election 2012: who should win?

Obama offers American unity, stable platform

Perry provides America ‘right’ man for future Alex Burnam

Shannon Freese

T

here are many factors to take into account when planning a bid for the presidency. The most important of those right now are economic difficulties and the disputes in Iraq and the Middle East. These are recurring problems that President Barack Obama has and will have to face; however, he will have ample opportunity to work on them. Obama will have little trouble reclaiming his office in 2012 because of the stability he has created this term along with the broken front of the leaderless Republican Party.

Because of the recent recession, jobs and unemployment have become important issues in politics. Politicians in every party have promised to create jobs, but not all have succeeded. According to the Wall Street Journal, former President George W. Bush created only three million jobs during his 96 months in office.

The only president to achieve less than that in the last five presidencies is, ironically, President George Bush Sr. Despite the attention placed on employment in these troubled times, President Obama has been effective at developing a stable job industry.The stimulus plan he designed has created 3.6 million jobs and boosted the economic output by $400 billion, according to a report by www.usatoday.com conducted in August 2010. Even with this job increase, most Americans believe job availability continues to be a problem.

Citizens blame the economic situation for the way the United States is dealing with the Middle East. President Obama may receive criticism for the way America has responded to his procedures, but he inherited most of the problems. During President George W. Bush’s final year in office, the number of troops in Iraq reached a high of 187,900, according to www.fas.org.

Even as a senator President Obama proposed the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, an idea that followed him to the Presidential Office. With plans proposed and implemented by President Obama, the amount of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq will decrease by 64 percent.

As a bonus, the deaths of al-Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command Atiyah Abd alRahman, occurred during his administration. While the killing of the greatest enemy of America for the last ten years may seem to have little to do with the politics behind getting Obama re-elected, it creates a sense of security in the United States.

With the president turning the lights out on the biggest players in terrorism today, how could Americans not feel secure?

This feeling of safety has created a strong campaign for President Obama before the official campaign has even started. Taking everything into account, there is little reason for President Obama to lose the election in 2012. The only thing the president has to worry about is the Republicans; however, they do not have a strong front capable of battering the current president into submission.

The primary concern for the Republican Party is that it has not yet shown a real frontrunner while President Obama is already campaigning for the presidency. Many expected former Gov. of Massachusetts Mitt Romney to generate support and become the Republican nominee, but he waited until June 11 to officially announce he plans to run for the position.

S

ince his inauguration in 2009, President Barack Obama, despite his good intentions, has fallen short in completing his Presidential duties. A presidency that is ineffective in satisfying American’s needs allows for new potential candidates to enter the scene.

Enter Rick Perry, current governor of Texas and Republican presidential hopeful. Perry has done a spectacular job running his state. He has cut more than $31 billion in spending and hasn’t stopped there and cut taxes. Which Gov. Perry has ensured Texas is a safe, friendly place for small businesses to thrive.

During the past seven years, CEOs polled by Chief Executive Magazine have rated Texas first in the nation in business development and job growth. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that in 2010, Texas’ economy grew 5.3 percent as compared to 3.8 percent for the overall U.S. economy.

As a result of his aggressive agenda, Perry has created more than one million new jobs in the Texas, an achievement that even 20. . p e sS Obama can’t buy. ent tud s As president, Perry would apply the same 0 g 8 an d1 Wh rules to our national government, cutting and eye a v r s re su ck spending taxes in order to salvage the economic The Ro by art The situation that poor leadership has placed us in.

The current administration has not fixed the most critical aspect of American society: the economy. Rick Perry has the potential to make But because Romney was one of the last candidates to us great again. Both Obama and Perry inherited their recession-afflicted announce his candidacy, those who may have been his economies from George W. Bush. Texas was also in terrible economic shape, largest fan base lost that faith. yet there are two very different stories told from the actions that both men So, with no clear frontrunner, the Republican Party took. leaned on the Ames Straw Poll, hoping for a leader.

Two common themes this administration has used to solve the complex However, the same day, Gov. of Texas Rick Perry anproblems that plague the United States have been disgustingly simplistic: nounced his election bid, which took most of the thunder “Talk about it, but never do it” and “If it doesn’t work, throw money at it.” from the candidates at the Straw Poll — including winner Since entering office Obama has spent sums in excess of $5 trillion, Michelle Bachmann. resulting in job loss of over 650,000 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Because of this entrance, Perry’s popularity has jumped Statistics. and he has gained many followers. This action created a Despite Obama’s continued reassurance that all is well and the economy brand new Republican frontrunner. is back on track, the fact of the matter is that telling the American people However, Gov. Perry does not have a strong foundathat all is well does not actually do anything to help our economy. Small tion beneath him. Nine months ago, he released his book businesses are not hiring, and the national deficit rises daily, according to the Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save American from Washington about Internal Revenue Service. his plan to solve the problems in the government. Seeing In 2012 Americans must look past the eloquent emptiness that are Obama’s as most of the ideas in the book conflict with some of the promises and select a candidate like Rick Perry that will be proactive in generalities he has already proposed for his presidential addressing America’s problems with practical solutions. It is important for years, he has forsaken the entire text. If Gov. Perry cannot voters to know not only who, but what they are voting for, along with the even back himself up with his own book, what can he back impact their choice will face on their future. himself up with?

The liberal policies of the Obama administration have harmed the United The result of Perry’s actions indirectly makes Obama States to the point that four more years would be a destructive decision looks more secure and more stable than the Republican to make. It is time for the American people to look at a more conservative Party. Whether this is the truth or not, Obama’s reelection and practical approach to addressing current issues in the United States. is inevitable. He is the only candidate whose foundation RBHS students should be keen to help campaign for and support potential for the upcoming election is concrete. candidates like Perry in order to take control of their future.

With such confusion in the Republican Party and a As primary season begins, it is important for the Republican Party to strong showing on key issues by Barack Obama in the past realize the potential that Rick Perry has. Not only does Perry have the star years, the Republicans shattered front will be no challenge power to defeat Barack Obama, but he also has the conservative values for President Obama’s campaign. necessary to save the United States from the liberal agenda of the current The only way for the nation to improve is to keep the administration. Obama’s policies have driven the United States to the brink President in for a second term because the Republicans of economic devastation, and it will take a strong leader to fix this damage. cannot create the united nation that’s needed in a time like Perry has displayed his competence through his effective leadership in the this. state of Texas.

Who see would bec y ome ou rat he Pre side r nt?

a m a Ob y % 54 err P 46 %

20

Commentary

September 22, 2011

The ROCK

Do you value the learning you do at school every day?

Yes: 69% No: 31%

feature photo by Halley Hollis

Education concentration: The Rock surveyed 190 students on Sept. 20, 2011, asking if they valued the education provided for them everyday by RBHS.

Be content to be here Adam Schoelz

T

he hallways fill with footsteps, the classrooms with idle chatter and the cafeteria with raucous laughter.

The custodians have finished their summer work and are now resigned to try to contain the disaster of teenage students.

The teachers, coffee gulped and classrooms freezing, corral students toward tests, problems and self-direction.

And the students themselves prepare for another nine months of sweat, toil and labor, a.k.a. school.

Welcome back. Though mentally it seems summer was a distant dream, an oasis on the edge of autumn, it was only a month ago when everyone frolicked through the bright flowers and biting bugs of a Missouri summer. But now the pools are closed, the leaves are changing color and school is in.

There are few subjects met with such apathy or unabashed hatred as school. It rises only to the lips as a curse, wrought with memories of all-night marathon study sessions, reading of moldy old books, and the worst crime — essay writing.

For many, school is a symbol of oppression, math a torture akin to waterboarding and writing only for people who are too lame to party.

Though I may follow that description to a ‘t’, I would propose a different view.

To me, school is more than just a simple symbol of oppression. School is an opportunity, if you pardon my cliché. And despite societal interpretation of what school should be like, I find it mostly fascinating.

Yes, sometimes math can be negative, and sometimes I fall asleep during fourth hour, but consider the following, a la Bill Nye, The Science Guy: most of the stuff we learn is awesome.

For those who think learning is for squares, recall for a moment a simple piece of history — the Revolutionary War. That actually happened.

T h o s e were real men, who believed in a cause so much that they found it necessary to kill other people to defend that cause. They were wracked with self doubt, following an unproven cause to almost certain death.

And yet into the uncertain night they threw themselves, freezing and tripping over corpses, tumbling into history books.

Isn’t that amazing? And not the pedestrian sort of amazing, populated by Internet videos of cats and tasteful design, but a sort of more cosmic amazing, where the actions laid down in the past set off a domino chain that culminated in the country in which we

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“School comes down to the attitude of the student.”

Laughter reveals sense of character Abbie Powers

M

y cousin Katelyn and I dropped behind the counter as our bursting laughter weakened our cores and heightened our need to get out of sight. Silent chortles made us hug our stomachs and gasp for available air as we rolled around on the cold, stone floor.

I peaked around the side of the breakfast bar to see my mother and aunt staring back at us with annoyed expressions on their faces. Their eyes asked, “How old are you?”

This did nothing to ease the flow of giggles bubbling up from deep in my throat.

“It’s funny because it’s not funny,” were the stupidly stated words that caused this break of vicious laugher — that and a sugar high from s’mores. My parents, aunt and uncle were watching a movie fit for an ear-

lier generation — their generation.

A movie where lame ‘80s references were abundant and dorky slapstick humor sequences went on for far too long.

We had stood watching snippets of the movie from the kitchen, eating our s’mores from behind the counter, and were truly dumbfounded with each ring of laughter issuing from the parents in the living room.

Katelyn looked at me and we communicated, mouths full of gooey chocolate and marshmallow, through eye-language. How are they laughing at this? She stared at me incredulously.

I rolled my eyes in enthusiastic agreement: I know, right?

It wasn’t until the movie’s attempt at a comical fight scene that the adult’s humor became genuinely comical in and of itself. Another round of guffaws from the living room and Katelyn and I couldn’t kill what was rising

now live.

If we abandon our natural self-absorbed state for only a moment, we can sense the enormity of history. Those millions of lives extinguished before our own ring with the same loves, hates, joys and sorrows, unknowably complicated yet unforgettably simple. They yearned to be remembered as we do today.

If that is the purpose of history, then the purpose of school is to gain that most vital of life skills — a sense of perspective toward past, present and future.

And as it is not only history that makes an appearance in school, so is school filled out with subjects that practically yell to wake up and look around.

The goal that seems to be lost is that in school, we are supposed to learn about the world in order to better understand it and its people. Without a true appreciation of things learned in and out of school, one cannot, or will not, truly appreciate the life lived.

In the end, the idea of school comes down to the attitude of the student. One determined to hate everything will find plenty to dislike. One determined to gain, to understand and better his or her place in society, one who truly wonders at the marvels of the universe, will do so.

So, despite the desperate, essential apathy of this generation for once it must be begged to fully engage in school. One must believe, however reluctantly, in the peace only achieved through learning.

Society overly exalts death, adds to pain Kirsten Buchanan

T

he first time I was told I was worth more dead, I shook it off.

The second time, I rolled my eyes.

By the third time, I was angry.

“A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I’ll sell them for a dollar; they’re worth so much more after I’m a goner,” sang The Band Perry in their hit song “If I Die Young.”

Having just gone through the loss of two family members and a boy from my church, I was disgusted by the way the song casually viewed death.

The worst line though was “Maybe then they’ll hear the words I’ve been singing. Funny when you’re dead how people start listening.” As I listened to the line, I grew angry at the way it encouraged death, almost making it seem like a good thing.

But it wasn’t just “If I Die Young” that makes death sound great. Our society is set up so that when someone dies we idolize that person. It doesn’t matter if you secretly disliked the person while they were alive — as soon as you find out they’re dead, they magically become someone who had been perfect.

People make Facebook pages in memorial of them.

They hold special remembrance activities and dedicate things like trees or benches in honor of their name. They cry and sob and pay more attention to the dead person than they ever would’ve if the person had still been alive.

And people — the ones who are left behind — notice these things.

In themselves, each of these actions is not destructive.

But we have gone too far. It is hard enough for me to find closure in the deaths of those around me without having to see their Facebook memorial pages every time I log onto the Internet. I want to grieve at my own, slower pace without seeing an overload of memorials for those who I have lost.

When a boy from my church died this summer, we all grieved together. My whole youth group attended his funeral and cried on each other’s shoulders after the service.

We still struggle with our sadness, but we are moving on.

We are slowly accepting that, while it is O.K. to miss him, our lives have to go on.

I don’t know how I would move on if he had a Facebook page commemorating his death. I don’t know how I would feel today if I saw people wearing T-shirts glorifying him that would constantly remind me of him. I don’t know how I would find happiness in life if I had to face his death over and over again.

This summer, I made that mistake. I forced myself to face his death every week, and it made me miserable. Because he died near my house in a place where I often take walks, every Friday morning I would take one of my dogs and go down to the place where he died.

Sitting on a bench, surrounded by nature, I wrestled with all of my questions and my guilt. Why hadn’t I been there the morning he had died? Rationally, I knew that I had nothing to feel guilty about, but it still hurt, and I made myself feel that pain every week for most of July and August. Maybe that was why I struggled to find happiness those two months. They were months of pain and sadness and grieving, and I made myself feel those things every single week.

The second day of school was exactly six weeks after he died — the first week I hadn’t taken my memorial walk. Instead of being near where he had died, I was in AP Latin class. Spacing off, I realized I wasn’t feeling my usual pain. I was surprised to find myself beginning to move on. Yes, he had died, and yes, it was a horrible tragedy, but I still had a life to live and I had to continue to live it despite my sadness.

In a way, I realized I had been over memorializing him and had played a part in glorifying his death. Like so many other people, I concentrated too much on death rather than on life.

You will never catch me singing, “I’m worth so much more after I’m a goner.” That is not the message I want to send to grieving people, nor is it the message I believe.

Death is not glorious — death is merely the end of a beautiful life.

I miss the boy from my church. I miss all of my grandparents. I miss my uncle. But I can’t again make the mistake of glorifying or over-memorializing their deaths. Instead, I will focus on living my life and trying to leave my sadness behind me.

For this reason, when the radio told me I was worth more dead for the fourth time, I reached over and turned it off.

What’s the funniest joke you’ve ever heard?

photos by Asa Lory

What do you call a sleepwalking nun?

A roamin’ Catholic!

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Boo. Boo who?

Boo hoo! Why are you crying?

Katie O’Connor senior

La’Shawna Nichole Boone senior

from within us — laughter at our parent’s laughter. It’s funny because it’s not funny.

Why did it please them to watch that movie, packed with its over-thetop characters and attempts at contemporary humor? They considered this funny, and we did not. I never thought of the separation of humor, the things that made some people laugh and others snort in mockery, the factors that came into play and twisted what tickled our funny bones.

Humor seems a universal thing, “funny” a level adjective. But through the observation of my par-

ents and their movie, I found the world of laughter less stable than I once thought. Like all things, humor is affected by how we grow up, our gender, our age and, ultimately, who we are as a person. What a person laughs at can define him or her almost as well as what movies they go to or the songs they listen to.

Some laugh at everything; some laugh at nothing. One can draw conclusions about these people’s personalities from these observations as well as if they talked to them face-toface. Some people show ignorance by laughing at things that should be

treated with respect or gravity, and some show austerity by not laughing in any situation.

What someone laughs at is as unique as their wardrobe or selfportrait. In this way, we all have a right to laugh at whatever we want to laugh at. It defines who we are as individuals, and shapes the ways in which we find happiness.

In that case, our laughter at my parent’s laughter was both justified and wrong. The movie they were watching was quite funny. Hilarious, even — at least to them. And we could laugh at that.

Commentary The ROCK

Mission trip shows diversity at its core Lauren Puckett

P

ostcards are liars. The little pictures of sun-lit beaches on manila cardstock are beautiful, but they rarely give an accurate image of a time or place.

More likely, the place is either far more beautiful or far more heart-breaking than a photograph could ever portray.

This past summer I visited a rural area in Jamaica called Harmans with the mission group Won-by-One. They set our work out before us; we were to build houses and visit families, reading the Bible and discussing our lives.

The group leaders warned us the trip wasn’t going to be easy. A week without a cell phone and away from home was only the half of it. We could only take two-minute showers in collected rainwater, slept with no air-conditioning and dealt with giant bugs in bathroom corners.

I convinced myself this was no big deal.

I was prepared.

I’d brought my journal, a pack of Jolly Ranchers, some NutriGrain bars and plenty of T-shirts.

The stunning, photoshopped sunset images that decorate gas station postcard racks didn’t prepare me for tiny, one-story shacks with no electricity, dirt floors and spiders in the beds. I wasn’t prepared for Jamaica.

The first few days went by in a shock. We touched down in Montego Bay and loaded into a bus, watching as the sunbaked pavement jumped to seemingly endless green.

After a few days, I learned to stop flinching whenever someone honked at us — honking was the Jamaican way of greeting. I slowly got used to the heat and sweat and learned to laugh at the little boys who would jump out of nowhere, onto my back, cheering for a piggy-back ride.

Then, one morning when I was feeling particularly cheerful, I headed to the Infirmary.

The Infirmary was a combination of a nursery home, mental facility and place for the physically handicapped.

I was excited for it because I knew I could help make a difference. I wouldn’t just haul buckets of gravel up a hill, I would interact with actual people, actual Jamaicans who would have stories to tell and dreams to share. Being a writer and an emotional person anyway, I was optimistic. I expected flies, dim lighting and old mattresses, but figured it couldn’t be much worse than that.

I didn’t expect to step off a bus and see a disfigured man, lying on the pavement, drooling into his hands.

My initial reaction was just to stare. I forgot any and all manners when confronted with this small man. He looked up at me with his big brown eyes, his lips curved into a hopeful smile. I didn’t even have time to think, as my friends pulled me along to the women’s ward.

The facility was completely open. Every window was glassless. The walls were white and peeling, with cracks running up and down their sides.

The women, who limped through the walkway and absently stared at the horizon, had rows of ratty mattresses as their homes. I helped my mom feed an elderly woman from a lukewarm cup of watery soup.

The whole time I had no idea what to say.

And then I met Myrtle Smith. She was sitting out on a rusted blue bed-frame, eating chicken and rice from a bright pink bowl. She was dark and

thin with short, wispy white hair and a large nose. I sat down beside her, saying “Hello,” and like a typical, uncomfortable American, commented on the lovely weather.

I waited while Myrtle finished eating. She set the bowl down decidedly, shoved it to the side and proceeded to talk to me for the next two hours.

The entire time, I probably spoke five sentences. I asked her once about the fruit of Jamaica, and she spent 30 minutes taking me around the lawn of the facility.

She cut off leaves and seeds from bushes and trees, putting them in the palm of her hand. The tall, thin leaves were called “Callelu,” while the other plants were “Goongu” and needed to be cultivated. That was Myrtle’s favorite word: cultivate. “You must cultivate it, darling. Take it home and cultivate it.”

As she chatted on, I realized Myrtle was missing both her right arm and left index finger.

She hid the stump behind her o ve r s i z e d shirt. But thing about Myrtle was she was always too busy showing me something else for me to notice these things.

S h e used the stump of her arm as a pretend mango, miming peeling and chopping.

She told the story of her missing appendages, of her jealous family members who had cut them off when she talked to the landlord.

She recalled the pain of the endeavor, going to the hospital, frightened. She told me about a storm destroying her home, about her pastor and church, about how much she loved the Lord and how he had blessed her.

She was 103 years old but chattered like she was 17.

By four o’clock that afternoon, I considered myself an expert on The Life and Times of Myrtle. When we finally had to board the bus, leaving was more than difficult. Myrtle thanked us again and again, watching sadly as we left.

All of us spent the drive back in silence. I felt overwhelmed and shaken, yet oddly content in the midst of it all.

I had found this woman, the polar opposite of my lifestyle and appearance, and she only wanted the same things that I did — to be loved, accepted and heard.

Before the trip, I pictured Jamaica as a gorgeous beach: white sand, pretty sunset, piña coladas and tie-dye towels.

Now I think of open air, a blue bed-frame and brown hands clasped around my white ones.

Teenagers in general can be incredibly judgmental. Sometimes I think it’s because we believe we’re in a competition — one to find out “Who Gets the Most Out of Life?” And any methods different than our own worry us.

What we don’t realize is that sometimes the methods can be different and still get the same end. There’s the boy with the sports jacket wrapped around his shoulders or the girl with her arms filled with comic books. I sing with my friends and Myrtle peels her mangoes, but all of us are looking for the same happiness. That should rule out every other difference between us.

I returned from Jamaica, got back into the swing of my usual life — warm showers, hot breakfast, chocolate and ice — and readjusted to the American way. But I think about those Jamaican faces constantly. I wonder if Myrtle’s still alive and hope she’s still strong enough to show a clueless American, who’s seen too many cliché postcards, how to cultivate Callelu.

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I found this woman, the polar opposite of my lifestyle and appearance, and she only wanted the same things that I did.”

21 Find Love in China September 22, 2011

Traveler finds meaning in Beijing letters Maria Kalaitzandonakes

I

found love in underground Beijing.

In my cynicism, I even doubted its existence, thinking that electronic affection killed love.

On the downtown street I explored hundreds of small tourist shops lining the cobblestoned road. The air was thick because of the heat, the smell of spicy Chinese food seared my eyes. I allotted just one day for the classic scramble of buying gifts for friends to prove I had even been to Beijing.

About halfway down the path, I started to enter a shop, but, after glimpsing a shining row of ceramic penises, decided to run over to its neighbor. This store was dull and full of muted colors, one I never would have entered if it weren’t for my scare.

Inside, it was cool and dark, with high wooden ceilings and thousands of touristy chopsticks, Tweety bird mugs and the unfortunate initials of the “I <3 BJ” tshirts. I walked around a bit, enjoying the relief from the heat, when I saw a small set of stairs at the back of the shop. Of course, I went down them.

The hallway-like room I entered stretched itself out — long and thin. It was low-ceilinged and lit by a yellow glow emitted from bare, dangling bulbs.

There hung a feeling in the air; one of trepidation and closeted importance.

Against the wall stood a wooden table where two Chinese girls sat writing diligently. They only looked up to nod at me when I entered, as if I was being admitted into a secret club deep in the heart of underground Beijing.

Postcards filled one wall –– not the tourist ones I saw so often with smiling, white faces posed on the Great Wall. These were love letters. Some were homemade with lace and thick paper; others had sweet messages written in beautiful Mandarin script.

One of the girls, after noticing my clearly non-Asian status, began to read some aloud. “Always waiting for you,” one said. “I’ll kiss you when you wake,” said another. And then one, a small red card, simply stated the three words people often fear to say: “I am sorry.”

The girls explained how the shop worked: you picked your card and its destination; you wrote your letter by filling the blank spaces and then brought the letter to the other wall. On this wall was a series of small boxes with the numbers one through 31 engraved on their fronts. The set of 31 repeated four times.

Many of the boxes were full.

They showed me how each of the cards would enter one of the boxes, and how the owner, a little, stout, graying

woman, would send them so they’d be delivered on the day of the month that corresponded with the box’s number.

The young Chinese girl wrote one with just a few Chinese characters and put it in for July 14. She didn’t offer an explanation, and I didn’t ask.

Here, in the bottom of a crowded tourist shop with people above them flashing cameras and sending digital messages, a few Chinese girls reverted to the past. A past when “i luv u” wasn’t just text messaged. We found truth again in an ancient age where women and men wooed and courted, when you could get a letter that could change your life. You could receive letters from a person loving you from afar, from a friend who wanted to remind you why they care or from a stranger telling you that you affected their life without knowing it.

Call me a hopeless romantic. Call me old fashioned. Call me whatever you want. I know I am not alone.

An hour went by in that wobbly, wooden chair, and more than 30 people passed through the shop. Each one’s steps crushed my disbelief. Each one’s pen marks scratched out my cynical heart.

These followers left me with their belief in love, and left their words with an elderly widow, who promised to send them devotedly to all destinations.

photo by Maria Kalaitzandonakes

The Waiting Wall: Maria Kalaitzandonakes found adventure in her visit to China. Her wandering led her to an old letter shop, which awoke her inner feelings of love for good.

Fans bid farewell to Harry Potter Shannon Freese

I

t was a warm summer night in July when I attended my first midnight release party at the University Bookstore.

The untouched pages of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” were about to meet the hands of a mob of anxiously waiting supporters.

The interior of the bookstore was so crowded that a horde of people spilled out into the front lawn. The University Bookstore’s workers had dressed up as characters from the book. Their version of Moaning Myrtle wailed as she directed and coordinated the line with a woman wearing a fake hooked nose dressed up as Severus Snape.

To entertain the line of more than 100 people, there

was a costume contest, free food and drink and plenty of enthusiasm. People ran across the lawn, waving branches torn off tree limbs, shouting spells and curses created by the imagination author J.K. Rowling.

When midnight finally struck and the crisp pages fell into my hands, the story continued. As a seven-year-old who had just graduated from first grade, I surprised my own mother and myself as no grogginess could faze my excitement.

Eleven years later on a similar July night, I attended the final Harry Potter movie midnight release. In a crowded lawn outside of Forum 8, I watched as our generation said goodbye to arguably one of the best storybook characters of all time.

Since the release of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in 1998, readers who have grown up with the series have matured just as Harry has. We’ve been right there with him, every step of the way. Even though we might not battle the darkest of villains, many of the everyday challenges and experiences Harry and Co. have are linked to our lives.

I can’t imagine what it would be like if I didn’t live during this time. I can’t believe I was there to be involved in it, and that I will be one of the few to experience it.

The Harry Potter generation saw creative license, and even though the books and stories will surely last and eventually become what some may consider a classic, the story was new to us. We

bought the tickets and turned the pages before anybody else.

In 15 years, when the Harry Potter generation is past 30, they will be able to tell their children that they were there when Harry rode his broomstick for the first time.

They were there when he watched his godfather pass through the arch. They were there when it began, and they were there when it ended.

They lined up in front of Forum 8 on July 15, 2011, and closed the book on a story this generation will never forget.

And when they left the theaters and bookstores, they went away with a story about problems and day-to-day activities that everyone could relate to, making the Muggle world a little bit less mundane, one spell at a time.

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September 22, 2011

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September 22, 2011

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photo by Halley Hollis

Making a splash: Diogo Ferreira practices his favorite stroke, the butterfly. Ferreira is an exchange student from Brazil who competes with Bruins.

Exchange student finds home in pool Caraline Trecha

F

ive minutes before the most important race of senior Diogo Ferreira’s life, it began to pour. Sitting in the bullpen, nerves overcame Ferreira. After a long wait, the race was about to start, but Ferreira had lost focus.

He was competing in the biggest meet of his swimming career, the Brazilian nationals, swimming the 50-meter butterfly. Before he knew it, butterflies were turning in his stomach.

“While I was waiting for the storm to pass, my head began to spin, and I couldn’t focus on my upcoming heat,” Ferreira said.

After a couple of long minutes, the gun sounded and the race began. Not taking a breath is one way that helps Ferreira to swim faster and to help him stay focused. All was well until the last stretch of the pool when Ferreira took his first breath, slowing him down.

“I don’t know why I even took that breath,” Ferreira said. “I wasn’t out of breath, and once I finished the race and saw the times, I knew it

was a mistake.”

Swimming two hundredths of a second too slow to make the cut, Ferreira regretted that breath with everything he had. But, Ferreira was still the fastest 16-year-old Brazilian.

After learning he was traveling abroad to the U.S., Ferreira knew he wanted to continue swimming, regardless of the new environment.

He especially wanted to swim here because of America’s success in swimming.

“The U.S.A. is the best place to swim,” Ferreira said. “It has the best swimmers and coaches. I was so excited when I found out that I was going to be able to come here. I knew right away I was going to swim.”

One thing Ferreira wasn’t happy about was missing the Brazilian nationals. Although it was a hard decision, he was eager to right his wrong, “I have always wanted to swim in the U.S. A,” Ferreira said. “I didn’t want to miss the Brazilian national swimming meet, but I knew I would never get this experience to swim here again.”

Going from the No. 1 swimmer in Brazil to

the top two at RBHS, the competition is harder.

Ferreira also had to adjust to the murky waters at HHS. He had been accustomed to the traditional Brazilian practices of just swimming laps, but RBHS is different.

“I’m not a very good runner,” Ferreira said, “so it was kind of hard for me to keep up.”

Along with running, the way practices are structured was a difficult adjustment. Going from a fairly small swim program to a bigger one, Ferreira is working his way to the top.

“I am starting to get used to the intensity of each practice,” Ferreira said. “It was difficult for me to jump right into practices because they are so much different than mine at home.”

Moving to a new country and school was tough, but Ferreira was able to keep his Brazilian cool. Although he has only been here a few weeks, Ferreira is already becoming familiar with RBHS and its students.

“I wasn’t nervous, but I didn’t know anything about American schools so it was kind of weird and strange,” Ferreira said. “Everyone smiles at me. It’s like they already know who I am, so I just smile back.”

Smiles in the hallway have helped Ferreira overcome a minor injury this year. He was swimming with a broken wrist for three weeks and was worried about competing while hurt.

Luckily, it wasn’t an issue.

“I was nervous about my race and if I could swim or not,” Ferreira said. “Thankfully, I can still swim.”

Ferreira is glad to be a part of the swim team because he is enjoying the bond with the other swimmers and coaches.

“All of the guys are very nice and are good teammates,” Ferreira said. “One of my coaches is very funny and likes to make fun of me because of my accent, and the other is always trying to help me and improve my style.”

Ferreira’s goal is to get a scholarship to the University of Missouri—Columbia so he can study here and become a lawyer. He enjoys that Columbia is less busy than his hometown and would love to return and continue his swimming career.

“I would love to come back to Missouri,” Ferreira said. “Swimming in the U.S.A. has always been a goal of mine.”

Drive to succeed puts Reimler one stroke ahead Caraline Trecha

L

eading the girl’s golf team was senior Morgan Reimler’s goal. Playing golf since she was seven years old, Reimler had a continuous interest, but it wasn’t until her junior year of high school that she started taking the sport seriously. Reimler had been a multisport athlete, playing basketball and soccer, until she found her passion for golf. Because of her concentration, Reimler earned the No. 1 on the team.

“I have always played a lot of sports,” Reimler said. “But I decided to spend my time playing golf so that I can play in college.”

Since Reimler had decided to solely focus on golf, she spent most of her summer and fall practicing and taking private lessons. Her goal is to receive a scholarship after high school.

“I can’t wait to see where this season takes me,” Reimler said. “It is crazy to think this is my last Rock Bridge year of golf, but I am so excited to play in college.”

Not only will she remain doing something she loves, but she will also continue the great experience of being a part of a team and making memories that will last a lifetime. With the help of her teammates and coach, Reimler has no problem maintaining a positive attitude while

on the course.

“I love the girls I play with” Reimler said.

“We have such a great relationship, and it is always a blast to be around everyone.”

Outside of RBHS practices, Reimler typically plays seven or more rounds of golf every week. She looks forward to practicing her short game at the end of each week.

“Fridays are a good day to just go out and work on putting and chipping,” Reimler said.

“It helps everyone to collect themselves again and appreciate the day off.”

Golf revolves around personal performance, but at the end of every match or tournament, the groups’ scores are added, and the team with the lowest score wins. Not only are the players competing for an individual spot, but a team victory.

“It’s always a great feeling when we all know we played our hardest,” Reimler said, “and we drive home in the short bus with the feeling of a successful day of golf.”

Leadership and guidance make a strong team, and Reimler exhibits these traits by being a role model and creating a solid playing environment.

“When I think of a leader, I think of Morgan,” sophomore Catherine Howser said. “Not only is she No.1 because of her scores but also her leadership skills and her ability to talk to us

and teach us how to play. Although she takes her game seriously, she is also very fun to be around because she is really funny.”

Not only does Reimler’s attitude and friendship affect the players, but also the coaches.

“Morgan is the essential leader of the team,” assistant coach Austin Reed said. “She has every positive attribute of a No. 1 golfer. It is easy in golf to think about yourself because it is primarily an individual sport. But Morgan has the unique ability to think about her teammates first.”

Every year it’s expected for an upperclassman to provide not only good leadership, but great guidance and friendship to all the girls.

Reimler is pleased to lead the team this year.

“I like to make sure that everyone is trying their best and having fun at the same time,” Reimler said. “I enjoy being the leader because I like offering guidance and support to the girls when they need it.”

Reimler believes impacting the younger golfers is an important part of becoming a powerful team. She helps them with their golf game but also builds lasting relationships.

“I like to make sure that I get to know all the girls,” Reimler said. “It’s important to me that we all are family because it will not only help us work together better but also it creates lifetime memories.”

photo by Halley Hollis

Swingers: Senior Morgan Reimler practices her swing before a match in Mexico, Missouri. Reimler golfs in the No.1 spot.

24

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September 22, 2011

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Chur n a i r e t y b s irst Pre

Sports

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The ROCK

September 22, 2011 Poised to strike: The Bruin offense gets into its ready stance before the Providence Bowl on Friday, Aug. 26. This year, the RBHS football team recorded its third consecutive victory with a score of 33-27 in the annual matchup against its crosstown rivals, the HHS Kewpies.

The Bruins attribute their success this season to a unique team atmosphere. photo by Muhammad Al-Rawi

Football underdogs bond together Jackie Nichols

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boxer since the beginning of high school, senior Josh Powell is still hitting people, but this fall it’s on the gridiron. Accustomed to fighting guys in the ring, he took his skills to tackling on the field.

Next to him is senior Austin Ray, no newbie to the sport. Ray has played football since kindergarten, starting varsity for the Bruins since half-way through his sophomore year. But this year he is preparing to play against guys twice his size as he started the season giving his verbal commitment to play football at the University of Mississippi. To any other Division I athlete, novice players would grate on their patience.

For Ray, however, the bond with his teammates off the field translates to smooth sailing during pressure moments on it.

Because of a 4-6 finish in 2010, skeptics believed this year’s team would be weak at best.

The Bruins could have fallen to the criticism, but instead, they turned towards their unwritten leader. Senior Bo Bell doesn’t look like

much of a threat in the hallways — the 5’9”, 165 pound quarterback comes off as anything but intimidating. Once he hits the turf, he instantly transforms into a leader, a role he has dreamed of since his days at Webster Groves, Mo. His family moved to Columbia in 2009; the year before he would suit up in black and orange.

Now every Friday night he finds himself in a sea of green and gold. Though his new team lacks experience, Bell appreciates every day he gets to line up next to some of his best friends.

“The thing I love most about playing here versus my old school are my teammates. I wouldn’t trade them for the world, and if you don’t know them, they are some of the goofiest but greatest guys I’ve ever been around in my life,” Bell said. “We are definitely just as close off the field as we are on it.”

With players coming from such diverse backgrounds, most coaches would be concerned with how their team would connect on the field. Even though head coach A.J. Ofodile hasn’t touched on the subject much this year, their performance does not show it.

“There’s nothing we did program-wise that I think helps the bond. I think our guys are just

genuinely friends. We have, again, a group of seniors, and those guys have been together for a long time,” Ofodile said. “Guys that don’t necessarily have anything in common on the surface end up being great friends and learn from each other. We have a pretty good thing going with that year in and year out. And this year I think you can multiply that by 10. We got a really good, strong group of guys that are focused.”

However, the boys feel more than just excitement when preparing for a game. They channel their energy and differences into one goal. The players know their bonding off the field will bring them a win in the end and, despite struggles in the past season, the team is determined to make this year one to remember.

“All of us seniors on the team have felt like we’ve needed to step it up because it’s our senior year, and we want to separate ourselves from previous years in a positive way,” Ray said.

“We want other teams to look at their schedule and see Rock Bridge High School and fear the Friday night they have to line up against us.”

No matter the kind of day the guys have off the field, each one of them changes his attitude when the clock hits 0:00 every Friday night.

Seniors lead softball team

Cut to the chase: At practice, senior captains Matt Kelly and Sam Stoeckl make a turn in a suicide run.

The excessive running was a result of not completing 33 out of 100 goals in an earlier drill at the team’s practice.

Halley Hollis

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photo by Asa Lory

Soccer adopts ‘Sav-City’ New motto gets players to push themselves Maddie Davis

T

he phrase ‘Boomtown’ pumped up the soccer players and fans last year, but with a new team came a new saying.

Thanks to senior captain Matt Kelly, the boys now have ‘Sav-City.’

The overall purpose of both phrases may remain similar, but the meaning of ‘Sav-City’ relates much closer to the team’s style of play. “‘Sav-City’ stands for Savage City, and we’d like to apply that to the way we play,” Kelly said. “We wanted something different than Boomtown because we are a different team, and Sav-City inspires us to play aggressively and wildly, just like a savage would.”

After tying for third at state last year, the team’s motivation to become state champions has only grown larger. The Bruins are determined to further their winning record. Along with their hands-on style of play and mindset, the boys use practices to improve technique and skills on the actual field.

“We try to put ourselves in a

They know that in the next 48 minutes, they have to leave everything they have on the field.

“Our senior class is a very close group already, and we look to the underclassmen as one big family too,” Powell said. “We talk to and joke around with them in the locker rooms as much as we do with our friends outside of football, but through the struggle of two-a-days, the heat and conditioning, we came out a strong team.”

Ofodile appreciates the closeness of his team and knows it will play a vital role in how far they go. Even with the differences among the players, he sees how they mesh to perform effectively on the field.

“I think with this team we could be as good as we choose to be. And that’s a fun thing for a coach to be in a situation where you have all the talent to get things done, and then how do you put the pieces together and how do the kids respond to the challenges in front of them? And that ultimately defines your season,” Ofodile said. “It’s fun. We’ve got the people and you know when we do the right things each step of the way, as coaches, as players, across the board, we can have a pretty successful season.”

more possessive type of game,” sophomore Salim Gumati said. “We like to pass the ball around and get ourselves going. We have a really solid defense, along with a controlling midfield. We work to be the strongest, toughest and best team out there.”

With the upcoming Catholic Youth Council tournament, the boys prepare to prove themselves and their improvement from last year.

Sept. 19-24, the team will face Lindbergh, Christian Brothers College and Trinity at the tournament. Last year the Bruins had a record of 1-2 and did not make the tournament.

“We feel good going into the [CYC] tournament,” junior Tripp Sheehan said. “Our record so far proves that we are capable of winning so it will be no different.”

In order to secure a win, the boys focus on learning from past games.

On Aug. 27 the team lost 0-1 to Rockhurst. Despite the upset, the Bruins stay optimistic.

“We can do better than we did during the Rockhurst game, but they are defending state champs,” Sheehan said. “We were upset after

losing, but now we know what it’s like to play in pressure games and we are really looking forward to playing them again.”

The Bruins try not to focus on their loss and hope not to have a repeat of it. Along with Kelly, fellow seniors Kory McDonald and Sam Stoeckl help to keep the team on the winning track, leading by example.

“Sam keeps everyone in line in the back and keeps them in check at all times,” Gumati said. “Kory takes care of the midfield, controlling spacing and just keeping it in shape.

Then Matt Kelly leads us on the top, always hustling and scoring. It’s easy to look to them.”

Though the Bruins’ main goal is to win state, their immediate focus is on upcoming games and tournaments. Specifically, the boys look forward to their upcoming matchup with crosstown rival HHS. “The Hickman game is always a good one,” senior Ty Griggs said.

“The natural rivalry brings good competition. We want to win, but it’s important to treat this game like any other and just give it all we’ve got.”

s senior Kali Hall took one last glance at the scoreboard, she smiled. The RBHS junior varsity softball team had beaten varsity 9-1. Never had Hall smiled by looking at a losing score.

Hall was experiencing yet another softball first during her four years.

This was the first time Hall could remember the junior varsity team winning the Green and Gold game.

It is a first for many things on the softball team this year, such as the weight the seniors will carry, the incoming talent and the competition between the JV and varsity teams. Hall said she’s not sure what to expect.

“We’ve got a stacked line up this year, and we just have a lot of good players,” Hall said. “This year no one’s spot was just handed to them.

There was competition for every position, between all classes.”

Hall said coaches are still changing positions. But the upperclassmen have been stepping up to fill the same leadership roles the senior class before them had filled.

“The seniors last year had been in charge since their sophomore year.

They were the first good class we had, so basically we had the same seniors for three years,” Hall said. “Now that they’re gone and my class is supposed to be in charge, it’s weird, and definitely different, but I like it.”

There is still fierce competition between varsity and the underclassmen.

“JV is always competing with the varsity for varsity positions, and var-

sity is competing with JV to keep their starting positions,” sophomore Hannah Liebhart said. “As JV players, we know Coach is preparing us to play on varsity when the upperclassmen leave.”

As a way of boosting their confidence, the underclassmen seek the upperclassmen for advice with their technique, and bonding is important to them. Last month the team had the opportunity to go to Joplin to play in a tournament. In between games, the whole team went to the Salvation Army warehouse to sort through clothes for victims.

“Everyone’s eyes really opened at that point, and we all realized how lucky we were to have each other, as well as a house to live in, and a place to go to school,” Liebhart said.

Freshman Kelsey Knorr said settling into the new atmosphere of high school softball is a rather large change. The family-like bond is a new concept for her as well.

“This year, I’m not only a part of a team but also a family. You learn how to be a team player,” Knorr said.

“You’re there for the team and not just the number on your back.”

Knorr said she feels no tension this season, and she’s just happy to feel welcomed by the upperclassmen.

Many of the underclassmen believe it’s important they have role models to look up to in many ways.

“The upperclassmen are really great to us, and they definitely have our back,” Knorr said. “They cheer us on even when we mess up because they have been in that position before.”

photo by Muhammad Al-Rawi

An easy win: Senior Kelsey Nietzel bats during the Bruins’ 10-0 winning game over the New Franklin Bulldogs.

26

Sports

The ROCK

September 22, 2011

New coach boosts swimmers’ morale Emily Wright

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s the fall season approaches for competitive Columbia swimmers, they have the opportunity to swim for their high school. In the past, many swimmers have denied this opportunity because of dissatisfaction with the coach, practices, and training regimen.

During recent years, this has led to a decline in the number of both HHS and RBHS swimmers. However, with new head coach Karen Steger and assistant coach Peter Willett, the 2011 team has grown, giving the swimmers a new start.

“In the past, a lot of [Columbia Swim Club] swimmers didn’t swim high school because of the coach,” senior Conner John said. “From what I’ve seen, Karen is a really good coach and she seems to be bringing a breath of fresh air to the team.

[Willet] gives really good criticism. He is always watching to make sure we do strokes right. I think the two of them make a very good team.”

John said Steger has instituted a new training regimen. He said she is open to many new ideas and has a more personalized approach to practices.

“Last year the only dry-land we did was weights,” John said, “but this year we have added a lot of running, core work and abs and stuff. Our workouts are a lot better because we focus on different aspects of swimming. She takes in our ideas and asks us questions which is really good.”

John said the workouts are easy to understand, and that there is a focus on swimming basics, giving new swimmers an opportunity to learn.

“We put in a lot of technique work which is good for us,” John said, “especially for the younger and newer swimmers because they don’t know how to swim correctly.”

Sophomore Harry Stanton said he believes the new coaching staff will lead the team to be better prepared both mentally and physically.

“The new coaches really know what they’re doing,” Stanton said. “I think we will have a lot more success this year because the workouts that we do are a lot more comprehensive.”

Steger, a former swimmer for Hazelwood Central High School in St. Louis and the University of Missouri-Columbia, said she plans to develop a tradition of success at the state level for both RBHS and HHS. Having coached in North Carolina, she would like to take her experience and apply it to her teams in Columbia.

“We have so many more resources available to us here than what I am used to so there have been many chances to actually try things that I have learned,” Steger said. “We have already started to see some great improvements early on.”

Steger would like to see her team become one of the best in the state, something that she thinks will come with time.

“We are starting over brand new,” Steger said “We have a new staff, new outlook and new ideas like a complete overhaul. We have a good group of swimmers to work with, the majority of whom are committed to our training demands. We know it will not all come at once, but we believe that the ability is there.”

photo by Halley Hollis

Starting over: New swim coach Karen Steger watches over practice Sept. 13.

photo by Asa Lory

Serving it up: Junior Maddy Kayser (background) along with sophomore Sophi Farid (foreground) play in a doubles match on Sept. 7. The girls’ tennis team went through competitive summer tryouts in order to determine the varsity team for the 2011 season.

Sight set on state title

Summer competition fuels tennis team’s goal of dominant season Emily Wright

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fter months of five-hour-a-day practices in the summer sun, the girls’ tennis team feels prepared to crush their competition. Following last year’s win at state and a long tradition of district titles, they know the pressure is on.

“Last season we won state against Ladue.

It was huge,” senior Savannah Everett said. “I think that with anything less than winning state we would be disappointed just because we know how winning feels from last year. We are willing to work that much harder for it again.”

In order to achieve this goal, sophomore Sophi Farid said she and her teammates went through a grueling summer training regimen, attempting to gain both experience and an atmosphere of team bonding.

“During the weeks this summer we went to hours of clinics every day, if not more,” Farid said. “Over the weekends we would go to tournaments down in Tulsa and up in Iowa. We spent a lot of time together.”

This summer dedication, Farid said, is key in developing a team attitude, something which she believes was necessary once the competitive tryouts began.

For the first two weeks of practice, it was difficult for her and her teammates to stay friendly as they played one-on-one matches to determine the makeup of the varsity team.

“Tryouts were very intense,” Farid said. “I have never been so stressed in my life. Tryouts are when the whole team thing rips apart, and it’s just individual games and everybody’s fighting for what they worked for.”

Everett echoed Farid’s discontent with the lack of a team atmosphere during tryouts, believing that the extreme competition within the team erupted because of the similar skill levels of the team members.

“Tryouts lasted a lot longer than normal because when we played each other we were all really close in ability,” Everett said. “Last year we knew the order, so people weren’t as upset but this year it was different because we were so even. We all could have been number one.”

Though tryouts were intense, Coach Ben

Loeb believes the competitiveness highlights the strengths of his team.

“The closeness in ability level creates a team with good depth. Good depth has been a trademark of our team for the past many years,” Loeb said, “It makes a big difference and we’ll need it at times during the season.”

Similarly, Everett said the team’s biggest strength is the team members’ similar skill level, which forces each person to improve through competition.

“Tennis is different because it is individual in some aspects,” Everett said. “Until season starts, it is who can beat who and everything matters.

You want to be as high as you can but ultimately it’s all about the team points once you’re in season. The team is what really matters.”

All in all, both Farid and Everett believe they pushed themselves to their limit this summer, giving them the confidence to move through their season as a unified team.

“We were sisters last year and I want us to come together and be like sisters again,” Farid said. “As a team, I want us to get just as far as we did last year. Winning state is always the goal.”

Cross country hopes to reach high expectations Thomas Jamieson-Lucy

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ast year was bittersweet for cross country. The boys finished a school record second at the state meet, but Lee Summit North beat RBHS by 23 points.

However, this year the boys are ranked No. 1 in Missouri and 17th in the nation by an ESPN poll.

“I’m hoping we can win at state and go undefeated and just go out there and perform to the best of our ability,” sophomore Evan Schulte said.

In order to achieve this, the runners put in work to set themselves up for what has started as a good season. At the Liberty Invitational on Sept. 3, both the boys and girls showcased their hard work with wins. Both teams also won at the Forest Park Invitational Sept. 10, one of the largest and most competitive meets in the country. The early success is a testament to the work the teams put in.

“We all just started training really hard after last year’s off-season,” Schulte said. “We had all the varsity guys training over the summer so we’re hoping hard work will pay off.”

Schulte said although the runners have put in the work, they can’t get too cocky. Even though RBHS is nationally ranked, the team has not yet proven itself against other nationally ranked teams. They must

continue to work hard.

“I try not to let rankings get into my mentality and how I practice and race,” junior Nathan Keown said. “I more use that as a nice compliment that other programs respect us but at the same time we still have to go in and do all to work necessary and try to live up to that expectation.”

The representation on a national scale brings pressure that was not present in the past. RBHS is the only cross country team nationally ranked from Missouri.

The ranking “is not supposed to affect us but I can still see it a little bit. I feel myself a little more tense at times, not quite as laid back as I have felt in the past,” Coach Neal Blackburn said. “I feel like we have to live up to those expectations and represent Missouri nationally, but also at the same time I also have to catch myself and realize it’s just one person’s opinion and we just need to try to take care of business and stick with what got us here.”

The girls’ team has not started the season with the same hype as the boys. However, the success of the boys has motivated the girls to work harder, which they showed with a win at the Forest Park Invitational, where the girls beat one of the top teams in the state, Eureka.

“It is nice to work around such a good team. We get to see how hard they work and what their work has done and that makes us work hard-

er,” senior Sam Garrett said. “We like being the underdog. The Rock Bridge boys are not the only good cross country team at Rock Bridge.”

The girls want to beat their eighth place finish in 2008, when Garrett was a freshman. The team is traveling to Chicago, Ill. for the Palatine Invitational, one of the most competitive meets in the country.

“It will help us compete on the same level we will see at state,” Garrett said, “so when we get to the state meet we won’t be like, ‘everyone is so fast,’ we will be ready.”

For the boys the Palatine Invitational provides the toughest competition all season. They will race two nationally ranked programs, Palatine and York.

“I think [the Palatine Invitational] is going to be a wake up call,” Blackburn said. It gives us “an advantage because we can go in and make ourselves vulnerable to the competition and it’s not like we lost a chance at a state championship or we lost a chance to qualify for state. We get a chance to run against some of the best competition in the country.”

Even with all the expectations going into the season the boys maintain focus on their main goal, a state championship.

“Even though we’re ranked number one right now, we still haven’t got the state title,” Keown said, “and it definitely makes it that much bigger of a goal.”

photo by Anna Sheals

Chasing a dream: Senior Mackenzie Schimpf competes in the Forest Park Invitational. The girls’ team surprised many by winning the meet.

Change in coaching facilitates ideas of intensity, simplicity Adam Schoelz

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he girls’ volleyball team’s 2011 season has been full of new situations. New coaches, new ways to practice and almost a whole new team underscore a year that has been all about intensity.

“The coaches are brand new, and we have a lot of underclassmen on varsity,” junior Maddy Jones said.

“The way things are being done is very new.”

The girls’ volleyball team has a new head coach, Tatum Anderson, who is new to coaching but not to volleyball. Anderson’s grandfather coached volleyball for 30 years, and

her entire family has played competitively. Anderson was part of a state championship team in Nebraska and enjoyed success at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In addition, she trained with the U.S. national team in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“I have not coached many teams in the past, [I’ve] mainly just done private lessons and small group camps.,” Anderson said. “A few years back I coached a club team that was filled with Rock Bridge girls, which is where I got my introduction to the RBHS community.”

Anderson has taken new ideas down to the lowest level: practice.

She hopes to intensify and simplify the program from the ground up.

“Our approach to volleyball is keeping things simple. Volleyball can be a very complex sport, leaving small room for error. When you keep things simple, you give yourself a greater chance to succeed,” Anderson said. “Also, we have been blessed with many pure athletes who have raw volleyball skills. So teaching everyone about the physical and mental side of the game has been the challenge and the excitement going around the program.”

For the volleyball players themselves, the simplicity has manifested as a new intensity in practice.

“When we go into practice, there’s no goofing around. We have to be there on time, ready to go, ready to

run,” junior Katelyn Race said. “She expects perfection out of us, and it really pushes us to be better. She’s really intensified the program, and it takes a lot more out of the team and I think it’s really going to push us.”

Despite training harder than ever before, the Bruins opened the year with twin losses to Jefferson City High School and Ozark High School.

However, Anderson was certain the team would improve, and a win in the Independence tournament over 12 other teams confirmed it.

“We haven’t got off to the best start; however, there were improvements from our first match. We have played two of the tougher schools on our schedule, which has been great

for the players to see where we could be with hard work,” Anderson said.

“We have a great amount of talent on both our varsity and JV teams; it’s just working on putting all of those talents together to making them work as one unit. Volleyball is a team sport, not one person can win a game for us.

So continuing to build that chemistry and trust, as well as the technical skills has been our focus.”

With many sophomores on the team, Race believes that the victory at Independence is indicative of a larger trend of gaining experience.

“We have a lot of underclassmen on the team this year, and we’re getting the groove with people who have less experience,” she said.

Sports

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September 22, 2011

The ROCK

JVSpotlight What has been your biggest accomplishment this season?

Jake Alden, Junior Cross Countr y “I’m most proud of my last race at Forest Park because I beat my [personal record] on my 5K time, but I also ran the first mile of my 5K faster than I’ve ever run it.”

Shelby Smith, Senior Golf “Being able to have competition for the varsity sports has made me a better golfer.”

Jenny Yao, Sophomore Tennis “My biggest accomplishment is winning the Bruin invite since that has been the most competition we’ve had so far this year.”

Kyle Tonnies, Junior Soccer “Tying [Christian Brother College High School] has been my biggest accomplishment this season.”

Blake Ward, Junior Swimming “I’m doing swimming and diving this year, so balancing that is my biggest accomplishment.”

Sarah Ashbaugh, Junior Softball “For me, improving as a player, I think that playing for Rock Bridge I’ve really grown and learned a lot, and beating Hickman was cool.”

Maddy Jones, Junior Volleyball “I sometimes get to play varsity even though I’m on JV. We haven’t lost a game at home yet.”

Zach Reuter, Sophomore Football “My biggest accomplishment is scoring the game-winning touchdown against Hickman JV.”

photos by Halley Hollis

art by Anna Sheals

Football fans compete online Sonya Francis

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veryone has reasons for doing things. Some have agendas, while others have personal motivation. Whether the matter be small or large, nothing comes without purpose. This includes the lifestyle of devoted fans who participate in the online game of fantasy football.

Senior Scott Coffelt joined a random fantasy football league last year, and after a succesful year, he got his friend, senior Will Echelmeier, involved.

“I enjoy [fantasy football] this year even more than last year because I have a bunch of people in my league that I know and that are friends with me, so I’m not just playing a bunch of strangers online. I actually know who I’m playing against,” Coffelt said. “You can kind of banter with [your friends when playing] — you know, make a game out of it, make it fun.”

Because of the close bond that Coffelt and his league members have discovered, they have developed a new prize, one that suits the intentions of Coffelt’s league.

Normally, each team in a league puts in a decided amount of money in the pool, and the winning team takes the coveted money all for itself.

However, Coffelt’s league takes the cash and puts it to a more league-oriented prize.

“As commissioner of my league, I think I’m going to suggest that we each put in $80, and we invest it in a huge trophy that would get passed year-to-year so that you could put your name on it or ‘2011’ or something like that,” Coffelt said. “So

it wouldn’t be winning money, but you would get the trophy for a year.”

The trophy may up the ante in competition for Coffelt’s league, but, as with any game, what makes a good nail-biter is a healthy dose of rivalry. Each week two teams within the league comepte head-tohead.

“Two people playing against each other in the league might be a bit more interesting if it’s close,” Coffelt said, “especially since you know who is playing.

It’s a lot more personal, and it could make it more entertaining,” No matter the relationship, there will be a competition; with Coffelt’s league, it was through friends, but with junior Cody Vandergriffe’s, it is all about the family.

Vandergriffe plays fantasy football with his younger brother and father in a league made up of middle-aged men from his dad’s workplace. Keeping up with the acquired knowledge of the National Football League with men who are engrossed in the game is no simple task. In fact, Vandergriffe does it just for the joy of beating his father.

“I play for the competition and trying to beat my dad. He always wins at everything,” Vandergriffe said.

Vandergriffe’s determination to throw his father off his undefeated throne relays through his brother.

My brother “always wants to beat me because [he doesn’t like that] the older sibling always wins,” Vandergriffe said.

Despite the competition in the Vandergriffe household, the family turns the rivalry into a base of their relationships.

“My dad signed me up, and now it’s a family competition,” Vandergriffe said.

The sport “is something we can talk about, and it’s something we can all do.”

For both Vandergriffe and Coffelt, this is their second NFL season playing fantasy football. They are both continuing to play with their competition — be it against their friends or family.

Although senior Alex McDonald is also starting his second season of fantasy football, he enjoys the online fun for a different reason. McDonald started playing last season in a random league, where although he planned to enjoy the experience, he did not expect to win the prize.

However, the outcome was somewhat different.

“I finished second [in the league], which is surprising,” McDonald said. “I didn’t think I was going to do that well. It was my first time playing, and the people that I was in the same league with were older and they had been doing it for a while.”

While McDonald’s first experience playing the game went better than expected, it also gave him a taste of something he liked. He continued playing the game this season. However, this time around he went into fantasy football with a new attitude, determined to be more competitive.

“It’s fun, it’s entertaining and it’s the thrill of competition,” McDonald said.

Ultimately, the desire to win is what drives the players. Fantasy football is a medium of being involved in NFL while containing the drive that is rife in any sport, whether on the field or online.

“People think, ‘Oh, I could coach so and so better than the coach of certain teams,’” Coffelt said. “You get to be the boss, and you get to be in charge.”

Golfers try to balance athletics, schoolwork Kaitlyn Marsh

T

eeing off on the seventh hole in a varsity tournament last week, junior Makayla Baker wasn’t thinking about what club to use in order to land her in the fairway — rather, her focus was the chemistry test she was missing that day.

“I missed my chemistry class on Monday when I was supposed to take a test, and then on Wednesday I missed it again, meaning I had to find outside of school time to make [the tests] up,” Baker said. “Our new [chemistry] unit started on Wednesday, so I needed to figure out what that’s all about; I’m really behind.”

Last Monday Sept. 12, the girls’ golf team headed off to its fifth tournament of the season, playing at Sedalia Country Club.

Coach Melissa Melahn and her varsity top five were in the heat of their bustling six-week schedule, placing second by three strokes behind defending state champions Notre Dame de Sion.

“It makes things extremely difficult because we are usually missing the second or third day of school, and unfortunately, due to the calendar, we tend to miss the same day, which means you’re missing the same class,” Melahn said. “That really means that the girls have to learn how to manage their time.”

Besides trying to juggle school work, at least two hours of practice every day after school, clubs and possibly a part time job, these high school golfers miss at least one full day of school a week during the season, because of the 18-hole tournaments that last five to six hours and cannot take place after school.

This adds even more stress, as the athletes must try to find time to meet with teachers, gather make-up work from all their missed classes and attend matches, often twice a week, after school. Nine-hole matches usually take golfers out of their fourth hour class and keep them competing on the course until dusk.

“You have to balance golf with your grades, and you don’t have all your time to play golf,” junior Megan Goree said. “Your grades start to slip, and you have to come in extra time, but you can hardly find extra time to come in [to school] because we have golf every day after school. It messes with my mental game because I’m thinking of all this school stuff I have to do and not focusing on golf.”

Baker faced conflicts with golf and her grades in the first few days of school, having to drop from pre-calculus honors to regular. Unfortunately, she had limited classes to choose from, causing her entire schedule to be altered after the first week of school.

“Pre-calculus honors was a class I was looking forward to challenging myself in this year, but after I missed a few classes [because of golf], I realized it was really hard to keep up on my own and decided it would be a good idea to drop down to the regular pre-calc class,” Baker said. “I liked my old schedule, but I couldn’t keep it and still reach my goal of doing well in school.”

Struggling with grades because of absences and conflicts does not settle well with Melahn. She tells the girls that school comes first and is constantly reminding the golfers that she has complete access to their grades.

“I do expect that everyone communicate with their teachers ahead of time. The other expectation is for anyone who has below a C, then we kind of have to work on an individual basis as far as them working with their teachers to get their grades up,” Melahn stated. “The season is so short, I don’t want something that is so short to affect the rest of the semester with how much school we miss.”

In total, the golf team has about 11 full days of school to miss, including sectionals and the state championship in October and about seven matches that take place after school. But in the end, it is rewarding for the team.

“Even though we miss a lot of school and it takes up a lot of time, playing golf is worth it because at the end of the day it’s something I’m doing for myself and [it’s] my own personal goal to reach for,” Goree said. “And when you do reach that goal, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

photo by Halley Hollis

Bump and Run: Senior Shelby Smith works on chipping during practice. The team will have to miss many school days this season.

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Arts & Entertainment

The ROCK

In focus

‘Contagion’ thriller does not deliver on concept Mike Presberg

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In tune

ontagion, the new film from director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s Eleven), opens with Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) coughing. She is the wife of Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon), who, 15 minutes into the film, loses both his wife and his son to a deadly epidemic that sweeps across country.

His only surviving family member is his teenage daughter, Jory (Anna Jacoby-Heron in her screen debut).

The film is the second thriller Soderbergh has made about the role of government when faced with a global catastrophe.

The first was the psychologically and emotionally devastating Traffic, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director in 2000.

But while Traffic had rich, complex characters, Soderbergh’s new film fails to establish personalities viewers care for. A relationship between the head of the

Centers for Disease Control (Laurence Fishburne) and his infected colleague (Kate Winslet) is well-acted, but not nearly as poignant as it could have been.

A sub-plot involving a blogger (Jude Law) who insists the drug companies and the government are involved in a vast conspiracy has almost no substance, and the relationship between Mitch and his daughter — which should be the most moving part of the film —is severely underdeveloped.

All of these problems could have been avoided had Soderbergh and his writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) been more interested in character-development and less interested in cutesy, clever lines.

The film’s multi-stranded plot certainly had promise, but Soderbergh failed to follow through on the depth of the concept. Unlike the two-and-a-half hour Traffic, which used the theme of global catastrophe to probe deep questions about modern society, the one-and-a -half hour Contagion feels like nothing more than a formal, money-making exercise at times. This has been a trend in Soderbergh’s career since his hit 2001 heist-movie Ocean’s Eleven.

Oddly enough, however, this lack of ambition is also a blessing in dis-

guise for the film. Although it certainly isn’t as good as it could have been, at least the film isn’t the bloated, incoherent mess most big-budget Hollywood disaster movies are (think John Cusack’s 2012).

In fact, viewed simply as a thriller, Contagion is relatively well-made. It moves at a lively pace, and gives the impression of knowing what it’s talking about when it comes to the science behind the epidemic. But it could have been so much more.

Less than a year ago, Soderbergh held a press conference stating he would retire in 2013. Since then he said he’s changed his mind, but if he’s intent on wasting his incredible talent on slightly above-average thrillers, then why not just call it quits?

What’s most frustrating about Soderbergh during the past decade is his films are never horrible, only relentlessly mediocre. They give the impression of being almost there. He takes fascinating concepts and gives them stylish, yet half-hearted treatment.

Contagion is more of the same. It isn’t a bad film. It’s another competent, stylish thriller fans will enjoy.

But the film deals with lofty themes and, therefore, had greater potential than any heist movie. Had Soderbergh decided to take his job seriously, it might have been a masterpiece.

September 22, 2011

Festival unites citizens Mike Presberg

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s the smooth, melancholic tones of famed blues musician Taj Mahal and his trio echoed through Peace Park late Saturday night, a crowd of hundreds gathered to end yet another year of the Roots N Blues N BBQ festival.

Senior Shane Kuse attended the festival for the third straight year.

He took a particular liking to the band that came directly before Mahal; the Tex-Mex rock fusion group, Los Lobos.

“My highlight was seeing Los Lobos perform,” Kuse said. “They have a very unique style and are a really good live band. The mix of their Mexican culture and experiences in rock music is what impressed me.”

Every year at summer’s end, thousands of people from across midMissouri gather in downtown Columbia to celebrate two of America’s unique pastimes — blues music and barbecue.

Frequent festivalgoers and true lovers of American music, however, say the festival features much more than that.

“The [festival] is essntailly paying homage to all American music of the past,” Boonville resident Harold McNeal said.

“Everything from folk to R&B is here. It’s likestepping like walking into an American museum of

music history or something.”

This year’s festival was no exception. The featured artists were as diverse as R&B queen Mavis Staples (member of the legendary 1960’s soul group The Staples Singers) blues giants Taj Mahal and Robert Cray, and the Tex-Mex group Los Lobos. Hallsville resident John Schloot believes the festival has quickly grown into one of the best in the country.

“I’ve been to a lot of these and this is maybe the best year in and year out,” Schloot said. “You get everything. You get country and blues and everything in between.

There’s nothing with that kind of variety. Considering it’s only been around for a few years, that’s pretty amazing.”

Junior Shelby Richardson attended the festival for the first time, and the bands impressed her just as much. Officials estimate there was an increase in attendence from last year’s total of 65,000.

“The amount of people [there] really amazed me,” Richardson said.

“And on top of that they were so into it. I saw people by themselves dancing to the music.”

Genre isn’t the only thing that’s varied at the festival, even simply in terms of music. Centralia resident Glenn Meador believes what makes Columbia’s festival so wonderful is how different the bands are, not just in sound, but also in experi-

Daphne Yu

E photo: Anna Sheals

Caption: Ana Popovic performs Friday night, Sept. 9, at the mPix stage on 7th & Locust ence.

“You have the lesser known, up-and-coming bands, and then you have the superstars like Los Lobos and Taj Mahal,” Meador said. “It’s not just only the all-stars or only the rookies like most festivals. You get to sample everything in the business. It’s a great mix.”

And great music wasn’t the only thing to sample at Roots N Blues.

After all, the festival does have barbecue in its title.

Although they came for the music, both Schloot and McNeal say the food may just be the highlight of their weekend.

“I have to admit, even though I consider myself a music aficionado, the food was my favorite part,” Schloot said.

“There were judges there figuring out what food was the best and what wasn’t, but I loved it all.

I have to say the brisket was the best, though. ” The judges for the barbecue contest came from as far as Ten-

nessee, Wisconsin and Georgia and sampled everything from brisket to ribs and steak. McNeal frequently visits the famous Kansas City barbecue contests, and echoes Schloot’s opinion of the food.

“The food just puts [the festival] way over the top,” McNeal said. “I mean how many shows can boast about being as good as any in the country when it comes to music, and as good as any Kansas City barbecue competition at the same time? It’s really an amazing thing.”

But perhaps the best thing about the festival is the opportunity it affords musical enthusiasts.

American music lovers from across the state are able to bond in the name of their favorite art form.

“I saw some people who must have been old friends stumble across one another and become super excited about seeing each other again,” Richardson said. “I guess it makes the whole ‘arts bring people together’ saying really true.”

art by Joanne Lee

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fter school on an unseasonably chilly September day, I charged to the front of Forum 8’s box office in quest of a freshly torn, “twilight-priced” ticket to two hours of a femininely satisfying film.

I Don’t Know How She Does It was this afternoon’s treat.

The film was centered around a busy, working woman in the bustling city of Boston. She works with a steel-sharp work ethic and is also a warmly loving wife and mother of two young children. When work gets even busier, and equally more successful, she is faced with a classic dilemma: work or home?

I sink myself deeper into my too stiff chair, prepared for yet another movie about a woman who juggles work and family comically and probably chooses family in the end.

Its intro was spot on – stringy notes stuck together with sweetness like syrup and a few soft bursts from the piano – the classic, invigoratingly lovely sort of tune: the one whose job it is to shift the audience’s emotional state from that of the non-cinematic world to a place where nobody pees or brushes their hair.

As the beginning dragged on, I became increasingly aware of too much talking — it was a chick flick, but even those have their limits.

Sara Jessica Parker (Sex and the City, Failure to Launch, The Family Stone)

held a running commentary that seemed like it’d never stop.

Narrating to introduce the movie is one thing, but when she started to describe in detail the story about the pie, I’d had enough of her voice for the next two hours.

By the end of the film, the vexatious tones of her drawl seemed almost natural, a part of a character we’d eventually learn to accept, and a commonplace necessity in the running of the story.

But that doesn’t mean it didn’t take some getting used to.

Parker comes from a long line of high-heeled, hollow-cheeked, big city talking women (Failure to Launch), and it seems almost too perfect she should be playing a woman with very similar values in this film – hardworking, relationshipcentered, clever and well presented.

But every time I hear Parker talk, it’s about herself. The voice in her head broadcasts over so many conflicts, so many scenes, that it’s grown too old to be entertaining.

Her one-dimensional acting style is quite simple in itself — reserved woman, as smart as any man, witty enough to be somewhat funny, but not loose enough to convince the audience of an actual sense of humor.

While her character lacks a genuine, robust presence, Parker continues to act well and pulls off the few comical sequences that rendered true humor and a round of laughs from the audience.

The costars in I Don’t Know How She Does It pulled quite a bit of its weight.

SNL’s Seth Meyers added subtle, cruel yet tasteful humor as the resident jerk at Parker’s workplace, Pierce Brosnan instills a classic comfort and charm as his handsome, successful self, and Christina Hendricks provides quick, fresh wit and sincerity in her acting as Parker’s strong-willed best friend.

The movie rang with predictability. Many scenes even made me roll my eyes, like the too happy grins exchanged between Parker and her husband across a busy room. Still, it’s not without its moments.

Although montages of happy, day-to-day events between mothers and their children often induced the eye rolls, there were a few times during I Don’t Know How She Does It that forced me to smile.

It conveyed some part of the actual joy mothers claim they feel in a freshly comical way like when Parker cries because of missing her son’s first haircut no matter how hungry I was or how cynical I was trying to be.

The family she may or may not choose in the end wins over the hearts of the audience — it has to, since Parker is trying to decide between them and her work the whole film — and we have to be rooting for what she innately knows is right.

But this is Parker’s movie we’re talking about: a feel good, Friday afternoon, easy-to-follow film: her choice is less than obvious.

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‘The Robber’ steals audiences hearts Shannon Freese

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agtag Cinema has done it again. They have brought to the screen not only a wonderful story, but also a tale of true character development. First seeing the movie’s poster, one may think the Der Räuber (The Robber) is a Germanic mixture between Ben Affleck’s The Town and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Catch Me If You Can. After a short 90 minutes in the theater, the movie poster does not matter. The only thing that matters is the characters and their development, not only internally, but also externally.

The characters truly are the star of the film. The movie is based on the novel The Robber by Martin Prinz which is based on a true story about a bank robber who, on the side, runs marathons and does well in both aspects of his life, legal and illegal.

In Der Räuber, Andreas Lust (“Der Kameramörder”) plays nearly emotionless Johann Rettenberger, an Austrian ex-con who trained to run marathons running in his jail cell while serving time for attempted burglary. After his release, Rettenberger is thrown out to the world attached to a needy parole officer played by Markus Schleinzer (“Rammbock: Berlin Undead”).

Without a place to stay, Rettenberger turns to Franziska Weisz (“Habermann”) who portrays Rettenberger’s old friend Erika. She wel-

“

comes him into her home without question, and just as the two begin a romantic relationship, Rettenberger starts to rob banks once again.

This puts not only his relationship with Erika at turmoil but also his freedom, especially after Rettenberger plays a part in the untimely death of his parole officer.

Screenwriter and director Benjamin Heisenberg (“Sleeper”) has mastered the art of quick frame jumps as well as the art of minimum dialogue. The majority of the scenes cut instantly to the next progression, some of the scenes having no dialogue or music whatsoever.

While in some instances this made the audience uncomfortable, they quickly moved on to different scenes using the classic “quick cut.”

The beauty of the entire film is the characters. Through love, bad decisions, and a pump shotgun, the characters outshine the story itself. The subjects entirely overshadowed the plot.

While that may be a problem in more plotdriven movies, Der Räuber effectively used the plot as simply a frame to surround the characters.

The dramatic and bittersweet ending left the audience wondering who truly the bad guy was and who really changed for the worse.

The Robber is a Germanic mixture between Ben Affleck’s The Town and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Catch Me If You Can.

art byTheresa Whang

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Colbie Caillat

Abbie Powers

imag

ven though the name “antebellum” suggests the band is something of the past, the music produced by Lady Antebellum in their third album, released Sept. 13, does indeed “Own the Night.”

From upbeat melodies to calming harmonies, the album is full of charming music. Like the norm these days, their album is full of romance. From a tentative first kiss to the pain of unrequited love, from showering compliments on a loved one to finding an old beau, the songs tell a range of stories.

Emerging from the terrains of Tennessee in 2006, the country-style band follows the precedent of so many vocalists before them in their approach to music. Not only did they capture the charts with No. 1 hits like “Need You Now” and “I Run to You,” but they also snatched nominations and wins from the Grammys, Teen Choice Awards and American Country Awards.

Unlike some country stars (think Taylor Swift), Lady Antebellum continues to stick with their roots. Multiple pieces in their album highlight the band’s country origins, —“Love I’ve Found In You” with a clean, well-written fiddle accompaniment, and “Singing Me Home,” a piece that transports me from the 21st century to a truck rumbling down a dirt road in the ‘70s listening to a scratchy radio in intense Missouri heat.

Other pieces appeal to human emotions effectively, using the strings as suitable back-up tonality to an otherwise slow, simple melody. Lack of syncopation surprisingly works in “As you Turn Away” to keep the steady beat of the soulful, melodic farewell song. But for you rhythm-lovers, there’s still plenty of off-beat accompaniment in the piano and guitar in other songs to keep you satisfied.

However, this track isn’t perfect. Some lyrics really speak to the listener while others are just bland, general words that rhyme. The uber repetitive chorus of “Wanted You More” (guess which words were used over and over again?) could have warranted some more editing. And even though Lady Antebellum has a beautiful trio combination, their voices can only take some songs with an almost non-existent instrumental section so far. For slow pieces (“Cold as Stone”) the listener could use a bit more momentum.

From start to finish, this album is not great, but quite good. Both the first and last song make my list of favorites, with “Just a Kiss” and “Friday Night.”

Both are unique, whether it’s the rhythm, the lyrics or mood of the piece. A well-balanced production, this album is going nowhere but forward in history.

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The Blue Note Fri 9/30 Doors 6:00p.m. /Show 7:00p.m. $20.00 Concert Preview

Sonya Francis

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ith a voice that relaxes, lyrics that excite and an atmosphere that will make her fans fall in love, Colbie Caillat is sure to bring a solid performance to Columbia.

Caillat’s dedicated band will follow through with the outdoor concert whether rain or shine.

Her new album “All of You” is nothing short of her previous records. It shows her followers her true inner spirit of relaxing, acoustic music that is sure to make the listener attuned with the sound of life.

The song, “Make it Rain” will place a mood that makes swaying lighters irresistible.

However, a few songs earlier the crowd might have been swaying their hips to one of Caillat’s

The Blue Note Wed 9/28 Doors 6:30p.m. /Show 7:30p.m. $20.00 Concert Preview

Circa Survive

‘Sex in the City’ star fails to find spark in new movie

Lady Antebellum ‘Owns the Night’

Nomin Jagdagdorj

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or a singer, Anthony Green talks a lot.

Lead singer of Circa Survive, Green’s casual shout-outs in the middle of his performances only enhance the band’s personal feel. He invites, almost demands, audience participation, and perhaps this is what gives their concerts their fiery liveliness.

After seven years, three albums and multiple tours with groups like My Chemical Romance, Circa Survive seems to have fully mastered balancing on-stage performances with audience interaction.

Even their mellower songs, such as the acoustic version of “Get Out,” feature a distinctive buzz, one that lifts members to their feet and pulls their hands into the air. But faster songs like “I Felt Free” represent the vigor of Circa Survive’s live performances, charging concerts

faster-paced melodies on the album, “Favorite Song” featuring Common.

The pop star catapulted into the industry through self-advertising of her well-known song, ‘”Bubbly” on MySpace, which set the stage for her future career as a laid back artist with a soft voice and easy tone.

As she expresses the perfection of living simply through each song, the show is sure to be full of a light-hearted atmosphere. This creates a relaxing yet invigorating experience —perfect for dates or a girls nights out.

The melodies and style have direct correlation with Caillat’s background after growing up in southern California and Hawaii. Her music clearly eludes to a lifestyle commonly known as a “West Coast” attitude toward life.

Altogether, if a good mood is needed, the Colbie Caillat concert should be a sure hot spot for lovers of life and a style of music that the birds sing to.

with almost urgent beats and rhythms.

The more melodic sounds of States and Maps & Balances will balance Circa Survive’s electric sound.

States, the only group with a female singer, will reach out to those who prefer soothing songs. Their lyrics weave with the melody to form songs that recall warm summer nights, especially with songs like “Asleep.” Filling the audience with a feeling of melancholy calmness, they will add a softer mood to the concert.

Finally, Maps & Atlases will bring to the group performance a unique, folk sound. Comparable to Mumford and Sons, they feature husky vocals and bubbly rhythms, a sort that entices your feet to tap and your head to bounce along.

States, Maps & Atlases and Circa Survive’s concert at the Blue Note will resound with listeners even after they’ve left. Together, the three bands will synchronize their individual sounds and meaningful melody-lyric combinations to produce a performance that appeals to a large range of listeners and an even larger spectrum of human emotion.

Devil Wears Prada sounds like death Nadav Gov-Ari

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h e Devil We a r s Prada is a metalcore band, a genre that involves a lot of screaming, growling, raging, and destroying.

So it comes as no surprise that their new album, titled Death Throne, defines the style. Blaring, snarling and obnoxiously loud and disruptive music at all times, this album is no different from the rest.

‘Mammoth,’ the third track from Death Throne, embodies the metalcore mold. It starts with a guitar, which sounds like 60 people hell-raising on guitars at once, then the ‘singer’—or possessed, as he sounds —starts growling. More violent music begins to play.

At this point it seems that the singer - who is in need of an exorcism - is beginning to calm a bit, as does the music. The song even begins to sound like music, but the second it does, the track reverts

back to heavy thrasher mode, which was a little disappointing as the song had potential.

Then arrives the eye of the storm -the short period of relief and calm where things are unaffected by the surrounding damage caused by the weather. The chorus (the eye) is actually quite catchy and sounds like a punk rock song, a much more enjoyable music genre than metalcore. Then the noise resumes, back from the dead, to consume the ears of anyone unlucky enough to be around.

The songs ‘Death Throne’ and ‘Vengeance’ are barely any different.

The album is a mix of passionately scarred, hurt and desperate people. At least most of the people involved with the creation of these songs are depressed —the lyrics speak of being critically and emotionally wounded and compromised, brutally smiting back all those who wronged him in some way, usually involving murder and suicide. The lyrics are philosophical- too bad they’re wasted on such a mess. The album’s dark, the songs are scary, and makes one wonder how emotionally damaged one can be.

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September 22, 2011

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31

September 22, 2011

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Jordans, Levi’s and Polo Men’s fashion trends fill hallways, wardrobes with expressive clothing

Singers try for district choir Lauren Puckett

Converse, Lacoste, Burberry, Gucci and Chanel are the five most popular brands of 2011.

O

Adidas is the second-biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world with Nike being the biggest.

Chuck Taylor, basketball player, began Converse’s All Star brand.

Before, the company only made rubbersoled shoes.

Air Jordans began releasing in 1985, and new designs are released anually.

On March 16, 1966 in Anaheim, Calif., Paul Van Doren opened the first store starting popular brand, Vans. photos by Anna Sheals

In 2009, TOMS aimed to give shoes to children in Haiti in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative.

Hollister was ranked as the second most preferred clothing brand in 2008 by Piper Jaffray.

Founded by Bob Hurley, Hurley puts emphasis on skateboarding, surfing, music and “fun.” Since 2002, Hurley has been owned by Nike, Inc.

www.wikepedia.com and www.nbcnewyork.com

n Sat. Sept. 17, when it was pitch black outside and most students were sprawled over their beds snoring, choir students dragged themselves out of their sheets, attempted to at least appear awake and made their way to RBHS. There they loaded onto a bus at 6:30 a.m. and made the trip to Moberly High School, the host of the 2011 All-District Choir auditions.

Sophomore Megan Kelly, who participated in district choir last year and auditioned again Saturday, said there were two rooms waiting for students at MHS. At first, each student has an assigned number and must wait in a line for his number to be called. When it is called, the student must step through the doorway and sing his or her selected song. Then they move onto key signature identification and sight-reading.

Although the audition process is intense, nerve-racking and quick, students prepare to compete diligently. Many students, including Kelly, took lessons with music director Mike Pierson during the summer, and tried to practice their song as often as possible.

“I just get nervous whenever I sing in front of people, because I always get scared about what they think of my voice,” Kelly said. “Sight-reading … is the hardest part because you can’t really prepare for it. ... That’s the worst moment, when you walk in and there’s the sheet on a music stand. There’s a recording that says, ‘Go to line whatever’ and you have 20 seconds to look, and then you start singing. It’s a scary experience.”

As each student came out of the blue doors on Saturday, some came out biting their lips or shrugging, others with grins.

They spewed to their friends what went wrong and right, and the word heard most often throughout the day was “nervous.”

“I walked into the room and I was doing nothing but doubting myself,” senior Dakotah Cooper said. “But I picked up the book, and I looked at it and thought, ‘Okay, this is what I’ve been doing for weeks. I’ve got this.’… So it was definitely just keeping in my little zone, in my little corner of the room.

If you stay in your own world, you’re [going to] be fine.”

For students, making district choir does not just mean having his or her name on a fancy sheet of paper. All students who are admitted to the choir come together on one day, Nov. 5, to rehearse and practice, and in the end they produce a public concert for anyone to attend in Moberly, Mo. District choir “is a growth experience,” Pierson said. “It’s a good opportunity for you to network with students from other schools and see how they do things at their school. Then you come together and produce a concert in a different atmosphere than what you’re used to at school … and it can only help you grow.”

Choral music is mostly older, harder pieces with high and low parts and a need to be in balance. But for those who try out for district choir, it’s just another way to do what they love.

“I don’t know, singing is just such an important thing in my life,” Kelly said. Singing “tends to calm me down and bring me to a good place and I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t sing.”

For students, it’s about taking what they already have, showing all of it off, and taking the risk with their talent. When they sacrifice for the show, they will remember their hard work and how it paid off for the rest of their lives.

“Get comfortable with testing yourself because you’re always going to want to achieve more,” Cooper said. “And always have an open mind to keys and learning different pieces and adapting to different styles. But when you’re faced with a challenge, just look at yourself and say, ‘Hey, well, maybe I’ll give it a shot’ and do the best you can. Always make sure you can make something worthwhile out of it.”

Graduate rises to stardom in East Asia Abbie Powers

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ome dream of a world in which everyone knows their name. They picture themselves on a stage, their lives in a spotlight and grow up with stardom as their only ambition. For few, fame creeps suddenly and catches their lives by surprise, emitting the effects of its presence on those who never sought it.

RBHS graduate Briana Marsh is one of those lucky victims, hit unexpectedly by fame on her rapid path to stardom.

After posting a video on the site YouTube, Marsh has acquired an astonishingly large response from a predominately Asian fan base.

“It was November of 2010 when I recorded the first video of myself singing a Chinese song and put it on YouTube,” Marsh said. “It got an OK response, it wasn’t anything fantastic, but since then, I’ve been uploading more and more videos. I don’t know how they found it, but towards the end of July, I was featured on Hong Kong, Chinese, Taiwanese and Malaysian news channels. Things have just kind of taken off since then.”

Marsh’s genuine passion in a unique hobby brought about her stardom. Her love for Chinese music and culture came naturally.

“I just thought the language was really cool, and I’d always enjoyed learning languages, but Chinese is by far my favorite. It’s captivated me since the beginning,” Marsh said. “I mostly sing Chinese ballads. They’re slower, more emotional songs. They have such a unique sound.”

Along with the music, the Chinese language and way of life have always captured Marsh’s interest. Her appreciation for this foreign land started with discoveries made here at RBHS. “Learning about China in World Studies was really interesting to me,” Marsh said. “That was the time I discovered the Chinese language and wanted to start learning it. There are so many different cultures in Rock Bridge. You get to meet so many people from all different places, and there’s so much focus on international things [like] Global Village.”

Marsh has posted 37 videos under her YouTube username, TRUMOO007, and her most popular video has reached more than 171,000 views. As her fame expands in the continent of Asia, her opportunities grow accordingly.

“A company is using my covers of songs as part of an app for learning languages, so I’m working a lot on that right now,” Marsh said.

“It’s going to be based around using music to learn a language. In my personal opinion, that’s one of the most effective ways to learn a language. So I’m going to be recording songs especially for this.”

Throughout her journey, Marsh keeps her values grounded. A simple love for Chinese music and culture has taken her further than she ever imagined.

She realizes the importance of appreciating the beauty of other cultures and will continue to thank technology for allowing her the chance to cross cultural lines.

In her advice for striving superstars, she highlights two tools that helped carve her success.

“Definitely do not underestimate the power the Internet has in the entertainment business.

It’s a force to be reckoned with,” Marsh said.

“Also I feel like a lot of people tend to stick with what’s acceptable in America. They don’t like to branch out culturally. Explore different cultures — there are so many neat things you can learn about different countries and how they live.”

photo used with permission from YouTube

Singing star: Briana Marsh sings for her most viewed video, getting over 171,400 views on YouTube.

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September 22, 2011

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10 years to the day Mid-Missourians remember 9/11 tragedy First deploy: Eyes of responder Mahogany Thomas

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hen Columbia Area Career Center firefighter teacher Dean Martin received an alert on his pager informing him that an airplane struck the World Trade Center in 2001, he thought a plane had accidentally crashed.

However, by the second page, he knew America was under some sort of attack.

Martin, a member of the Missouri Task Force One, had trained with 64 men to handle any type of tragic situation that called on his expertise. But he never imagined deployment to an event such as he witnessed in New York City after the attacks on 9/11.

While the first and second alerts seemed unreal, Martin said once he received the third one, his life changed. He had just been advised to deploy to the battle zone that would come to be known as ground zero.

“To be perfectly honest, I was so scared,” Martin said.

“None of us knew exactly what we were getting into.”

The pages came while Martin was substituting for a Spanish teacher at RBHS during the attacks. He finished teaching that day, knowing he was headed East.

The Missouri Task Force One flew by military plane to New York City. Martin and the task force were stationed there until Sept. 24, 2001.

“When we got close enough to see all the smoke and the missing buildings from the landscape, it was just utter silence,” Martin said. “I saw such devastation — more than I ever expected. I felt this overwhelming feeling of fear.”

While the job forced Martin to focus on the lives of others, this situation added another element: suddenly he had to be concerned for his own life and personal safety.

“I’m trained to save lives,” Martin said. “But the hardest part of being one of the first responders is that we never found anyone alive.”

Raised in the Manhattan area, Martin said he never anticipated coming home under these conditions.

“While living in Columbia, I never thought I would return back home to New York City as part of my job to help in a crisis,” Martin said.

Even 10 years later, 9/11 remains an emotional memory in Martin’s life. He said he watches few shows about 9/11, though he still discusses the event with his firefighting students.

“It’s important for them to know that just because we are in Mid-Missouri doesn’t mean there won’t be an emergency in another place that you won’t be drafted for,” Martin said.

First observer: Views of a witness Mahogany Thomas

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hen Audrain County Sheriff Edward Williams shared his 9/11 story, tears streamed down his face.

It was the first time he opened his memories to the public since the days of the attack.

Williams hadn’t even shared the news with his immediate family upon his arrival back to Missouri.

“The news didn’t do it justice,” Williams said. “I shoved it to the back of my mind, so I would never relive it again.”

As he commuted to work into Manhattan on the morning of the attack, he stood 90 floors below where the first plane struck in the North tower.

“None of us knew anything; we were all just catching the subway like any other day,” Williams said.

However, once Williams arrived at work, he turned around and saw the north tower burning. At 8:46 a.m., Flight 11 crashed into the north tower, killing everyone on board as well as hundreds inside the building itself.

“I watched the tower catch fire and the surrounding buildings burn to the ground. I had to get out of the city,” Williams said.

He said the subways shut down, phone lines cut off, people were scared and law enforcement covered the city. Almost two hours after the crash itself, the tower collapsed at 10:46 a.m.

“They kept saying, ‘The towers are gone. The towers are gone. The towers are gone,’” Williams said. “I went down to one subway station, and all the people were running away from where I was headed. They yelled about a bomb, so I just ran and kept running until I felt safe.”

Because of the attacks, New York City delayed subways.

Though frustrating at the time, it turned to his advantage because if he had boarded a few trains earlier, he would have died when the second plane hit the south tower.

“I saw people jumping to their death because they had nowhere else to go,” Williams said. “Nothing was safe. No one was safe. We had no hope.”

Fortunately, Williams was safe the day of 9/11, but he witnessed the destruction, and the images he carries of those who didn’t survive continue to haunt him.

“No one talks about the smell that covered the city,” Williams said. “You could smell burning bodies and jet fuel for miles.”

As Williams walked through the city that night, he said he felt as if he was walking through a ghost town with block after block of signs of those missing.

“We were in fear,” Williams said. “I know a man who ran all the way home for four miles without even looking back.”

Now, 10 years later, Williams reflects on his experiences and how they’ve affected his life.

Since the attacks Williams has moved out of the big city and completely switched professions working from with stocks to now enforcing the law. Williams said his aspirations changed following 9/11.

“I wanted to save lives because I saw its effect on others that day,” Williams said.

But 9/11 didn’t just him aid in a new direction professionally, it assured him religiously.

“I always knew I had a guardian angel and that day he had his hands on me,” Williams said.

Used with permission of Boone County Fire District

Under crisis: Missouri Task Force One flew in as first responders to help the survivors of Sept. 11.

First judgment Local Muslims confront backlash after acts Mahogany Thomas

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unior Duha Shebib does not have memories of the events of 9/11, but her parents were well aware of the potential impact the attacks might have on the Muslim community.

Shebib’s parents, like countless American Muslims, knew Shebib would face a different life from what they had hoped for her from that moment on.

But how does one address the implications of such atrocities with a first grader?

They waited, knowing the right time would come.

Three years later, Shebib’s peers began to form their opinions of her based on what they understood about 9/11 and their assumptions about all who followed Islam. Not that the group of children could clearly comprehend the attacks, but in their mind what they heard and saw were enough for them to make assumptions.

“I was in the fourth grade when someone called me a terrorist,” Shebib said. “All I understood was that a terrorist was bad.”

As she began to cry, she didn’t know what to think of the person who had hurt her, but she knew one thing: “Not once did I ever consider myself a terrorist.”

Although the schoolyard taunt declares “…words will never

hurt me,” Shebib said that just is not the case. From the moment of the bully’s scorn, her life changed forever.

Until then, Shebib had thought of 9/11 as a historic day, which she always referred to as sad. Though she was too young to understand what 9/11 was about, her parents knew it was time to explain what they could to their little girl and how the actions of those terrorists in 2001 would alter the way she would carry herself from then on.

“My parents told me that [because of 9/11] people will see me differently since I am Muslim and that life is not the same anymore,” Shebib said The news of how some Americans perceived Shebib troubled her. After talking with her parents, for the second time that day Shebib said all she could do was cry.

As the 10-year anniversary of the event neared, Shebib still applies the precautions her parents advised her to take years ago.

“Whatever I do and say now has to represent myself clearly,” Shebib said.

Shebib said it’s important to make sure that others preconceived notions aren’t made a reality because she knows who she really is.

“I have to let people know that I am not the stereotype,” Shebib said.