2021-04-23

WEST SI DE STO RY IOWA CITY WEST HIGH SCHOOL

2901 MELROSE AVE.

IOWA CITY, IA 52246

WSSPAPER.COM

VOLUME 53 ISSUE 5

THE DIVISION DECISION WSS investigates the long-term effects of separating students into different learning programs.

APRIL 23, 2021

PHOTO FEATURE TESS DEGRAZIA During spring break, I caught a glimpse of a butterfly fish quietly swimming by at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Nebraska. The break from school was a perfect time to explore and spend time with family.

TRIBUTE

Remembering Dylan Salge

NEWS

News Briefs Hate is a Virus

FEATURE Accelerated Caffeine Culture

PROFILES Honore-ing a better life A Pretty Shy Guy

COVER

The Division Decision

SPORTS

The Cost of Excellence

ENTERTAINMENT Sights of Spring The Radish

OPINION The End of the Rainbow Fading Tongue Facilitating Change

PRINT STAFF LIST Fareeha Ahmad* Profiles Editor Reporter Ruba Ahmed* Reporter Caroline Barker* Photo Editor Photographer Sara Baroncini Photographer Misha Canin* Managing & Business Editor Reporter Alex Carlon* Online Editor-in-chief Reporter Caroline Chandler* Assistant Sports Editor Reporter Maya Chu Reporter Artist & Designer Tess DeGrazia Photographer Heidi Du Reporter Sila Duran Artist & Designer Bess Frerichs* Managing & Feature Editor Reporter Kailey Gee* News Editor Designer & Reporter Sachiko Goto Artist & Designer

04 06 12 16 22 30 34 40

Dear reader, I’m so glad you are here, reading this paper. I know things have been tough and I just wanted to take this moment to remind you that you are loved, valid and so important.

Not only today, but everyday. Re-read that, write it down, remember it.

In times of crisis, it’s important that we find the strength to reach out to our support systems, the people around us, our community. Here are some free community resources available if you or someone you know is struggling: CommUnity: CommUnity Crisis Center’s talk/chat/text line is available 24/7 for students, families, and staff. Call 1-855-325-4296 and you’ll be connected to a trained crisis counselor in Iowa City.

United Action for Youth: Provides specialized support and therapy services for youth and their families. Contact 319-338-7518 to speak with a counselor.

Text HELLO to 741741 and speak anonymously with a Crisis Counselor.

There are also a variety of resources available through the school, including talking to a teacher or counselor or being connected with free counseling services. Scan the QR code or visit tinyurl.com/wssapril23 for a comprehensive list of resources and support services.

You are so loved,

MARTA LEIRA

CONTENTS Camille Gretter Zoey Guo Grace Huang Kevy Huynh Eva Jordan Krisha Kapoor Hanah Kitamoto* Soomin Koh Youjoo Lee* Marta Leira* Amy Liao* Caroline Mascardo* Zohrae McLaskey Alice Meng* Mishka Mohamed Nour

Photographer Artist & Designer Artist & Designer Photographer Designer Reporter Reporter Sports Editor Reporter Reporter Feature Editor Artist & Designer Print Editor-in-chief Reporter Design Editor Artist & Designer Copy Editor Reporter Photographer Copy Editor Reporter Reporter

Willow Oleson Nao Oya Audrey Parrish Ella Rosenthal* Katherine Shoppa Alyssa Skala Maddy Smith Amelia Stevens Rosemary Timmer-Hackert Gwen Watson Sara Whittaker Sydney Wildes Isaac Young* Helen Zhang Xiaoyi Zhu

Photographer Photographer Reporter Entertainment Editor Artist & Designer Reporter Photographer Photographer Reporter Reporter Photographer Adviser Photographer Opinion Editor Reporter Reporter Artist & Designer

*Editorial Board member

REMEMBERING

DYLAN SALGE West pays tribute to Dylan Salge ’23.

BY HANAH KITAMOTO DESIGN BY GRACE HUANG

H

is laughter.

For many who knew Dylan Salge ’23, that was one of his many memorable qualities.

“He had a really great laugh; it was one of my favorite things. In class … he typically just sat down and listened to his music ... but outside of class, he was a completely different person. He was a lot brighter, and he was a lot of fun outside of class to talk to,” said Ava Reed ’23, a friend of Dylan’s. “We were always able to make jokes. He had a really playful personality.”

Dylan’s presence had a positive impact on others.

“He loved talking about his favorite show, ‘Bojack Horseman,’ to anyone and everyone …

The way his energy level would change when you started talking about the show was so fun to watch,” said Abbey Schley ’22, a friend of Dylan’s. “Since I started watching that show for him, I told him that to pay me back, he should try ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ He said, ‘That’s never going to happen ... nope!’ That’s one of my favorite memories of him — it never fails to make me smile.”

Alongside his passion for the things he loved, Schley appreciated his caring heart.

“One time I was Snapchatting [with] him, and I had been crying a few minutes before responding to him. I thought I had cleaned myself up pretty well, but Dylan noticed that I wasn’t myself and immediately asked, ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’” Schley said. “It meant a lot that he checked on me, because that night, no one else did. I’m sure he did this to many others, too.”

No matter the circumstances, Dylan was always there for his friends.

“Dylan was such a bright light in so many people’s lives. He could always tell when something wasn’t right with me when not even my own family could really tell,” Schley said. “He constantly would check on people and genuinely cared that people were okay. When he asked you how you were or what was wrong, he really meant it, and that was something so special about him.”

Some remembered him as a caring friend, while others remembered him as a dedicated teammate — many knew he was both. Dylan found his love for the water when he was in Hawaii and became a certified scuba diver at the age of 10. He was an avid swimmer for the Iowa Flyers swim club and the West High boys swim team.

“He was super driven to the sport, and it was his one passion that I knew that he had ... it was

“ WH E N H E ASKE D YOU HOW YOU WE R E OR WHAT WAS WRONG, H E R EALLY M EANT IT, AN D THAT WAS SOM ETH I NG SO SPECIAL ABOUT H I M .”

-ABBEY SCH LEY ‘22 really nice to see him just light [up] whenever he got into the pool, or whenever he got better,” said teammate Jordan Christensen ’22. “He was always friends with the water, he was in it all the time. He had a special connection to it.”

His teammates weren’t the only ones who noticed his affinity for the water. Boys swimming head coach Byron Butler coached Dylan since his freshman year.

“You could tell that he enjoyed his time there,” Butler said. “He was just competitive. He always wanted more even when he had a really good swim; he sometimes looked down on himself which he shouldn’t have, but that’s part of the sport and part of being content with things.”

Whenever Dylan had the chance, he would ask countless questions to his teammates and coaches. Whether it was about biology, the swim set or the coach’s personal life, Dylan never failed to come up with something new to be curious about. His inquisitive personality was something that Butler found special about Dylan.

“We gave him a quota of he only gets to ask each coach three questions a day, and once he was done with those, he had to figure it out from one of his teammates,” Butler said. “[He] was very curious and always wanted to know more.”

Dylan was willing to do anything for his teammates.

“The priority is always scoring points for the team, and I think that was always in the back of his mind, and it says a lot about who he was and

the type of teammate he was,” Butler said. “He wanted what was best for everyone else, but he also wanted to beat everyone else.”

Teammate Nik Sung ’22 admired Dylan’s work ethic in the pool.

“He was that kind of kid who would not talk about his goals openly but ... in his mind and always used that before his races to motivate himself,” Sung said.

Above being a competitive athlete and caring

teammate, his contagious smile and legacy will live on at West.

“He was goofy. He would make sarcastic jokes all the time about everybody, and it was just always fun to be around [him] and made everybody smile,” Christensen said. “He was just a great person to be around to see [and] to watch him swim. It was just amazing to have him around.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SALGE FAMILY

DISTRICT QUARANTINES

EXPANDING SUPPLY

Since March 29, 313 Northwest Junior High students have been sent home to quarantine because of COVID-19 exposure. Shortly after, City High and West High quarantined 278 and 127 students, respectively.

On Feb. 27, the Janssen Pharmaceutical COVID-19 vaccine, owned by Johnson and Johnson, was approved by the FDA for people 18 years or older. Unlike other vaccines that have been approved for distribution, this vaccine requires only one shot instead of two. For those under 18, the Pfizer vaccine was recently proven 100% effective for kids 12 to 15 years old. Pfizer plans to submit the vaccine to the FDA as soon as possible.

TEACHER VACCINATIONS All ICCSD staff who wished to be vaccinated received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by March 26. As of March 29, 2,030 ICCSD employees have been vaccinated through the school district’s clinics.

VACCINES OPEN UP

PANDEMIC PACKAGE PASSED

As of April 5, every Iowan age 16 and older is eligible to be vaccinated. Vaccines are available at pharmacies and many other locations. As of print time, 16 and 17-year-olds may only receive the Pfizer vaccine. If you would like to be notified of where vaccines are available, follow the Twitter account @IAVaccineAlerts. If you or a loved one needs assistance making an appointment to get a vaccine, help is available when you call 211. Translation is available to those who need it.

President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act into law March 11, which provides funding for local governments, vaccine distribution and small businesses as well as $130 billion to safely reopen K-12 schools. It is also estimated to lift four million children out of poverty by distributing stimulus checks to Americans across the country. The first payments were sent out on March 13.

CORONAVERSARY On March 16, 2020, the ICCSD announced that school would be canceled until April 13, 2020.

This statement was later revised, and schools closed for the rest of the 2019-2020 academic year. March 16, 2021 marked the one year anniversary of school closures due to COVID-19.

Students were allowed to return to school under a hybrid model in September and full time in February.

NEW S BRIEF S From new legislation to the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in Iowa, here is an overview of recent major news.

BY AUDREY PARRISH

06

NEWS APRIL 23, 2021

PHOTOS BY CAROLINE BARKER & ALYSSA SKALA DESIGN BY SACHIKO GOTO

SUPER SUTURES Dasia Taylor ’21 received a tenth-place spot in the Regeneron’s Science Talent Search with her infection-identifying sutures, also known as stitches. The sutures change color when exposed to beet indicator, identifying if a wound is infected. She won a $25,000 scholarship and the prestigious Seaborg Award through the Talent Search. Taylor was highlighted in multiple publications, including the Washington Post and the Smithsonian Magazine.

IOWA JOURNALIST FOUND INNOCENT Andrea Sahouri, a reporter for the Des Moines Register, was arrested while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020. Many journalists were arrested during the course of BLM protests, but this case was one of a few to go to court. At her trial March 10, she was found not guilty of all charges, which included failure to disperse and interference of official acts. Free press advocates hail her acquittal as a victory for First Amendment freedoms.

VOTING LIMITATIONS

NEW GUN PERMIT RULES The Iowa legislature ratified an amendment to the state constitution Jan. 28, giving Iowans the right to own and bear firearms. The Senate approved this resolution, with all Republicans voting for and all Democrats voting against the new amendment. The same pattern was seen in the House vote. The amendment ensures this right cannot be infringed upon or restricted and will take away the need for a permit to acquire a gun. The amendment will appear on voters’ ballots in 2022.

HATE CRIME IN GEORGIA On March 16, eight people were killed in a trail of mass shootings at three spas in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the victims were of Asian descent, contributing to the long list of anti-Asian hate crimes this past year. The person who committed these attacks has been charged with eight counts of murder. To read more about the rise in anti-Asian sentiments, turn to page 8.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law March 8 that will shorten Iowa’s early voting period from 29 days to 20 and close the polls an hour earlier on Election Day. Additionally, absentee ballots need to arrive at their destinations before the voting period closes or they will not be counted in the election as they have in previous years.

Some worry these new barriers will make it more difficult for people to vote and ensure their vote is counted in the election.

MASS SHOOTING IN COLORADO Ten people were shot and killed at King Soopers grocery in Boulder, Colorado March 22. The suspect is facing 10 counts of first-degree murder, and their first court appearance was March 25. These charges carry the penalty of life in prison without parole. This attack adds to Colorado’s long history of mass shootings.

NEWS APRIL 23, 2021

07

HATE IS A

VIRUS

With a rise in anti-Asian violence sweeping the nation, many reflect on its impacts and deep-rooted history in the U.S.

BY MAYA CHU ART & DESIGN BY GRACE HUANG

“THEY HAVE RECEIVED HATE AND RACISM FOR SO LONG … NOW THEY DON’T EVEN GET MAD; THEY’RE JUST SO USED TO IT.” -IJIN SHIM ‘24

08

NEWS APRIL 23, 2021

D

espite a clear sky and shining sun, a somber cloud hung over the Pentacrest lawn.

Speakers stood on the steps of the Old Capitol behind eight buckets of flowers — one for each life lost.

“Everybody was crying,” said Ijin Shim ’24.

In the wake of the March 17 spa shootings in Atlanta that killed eight people, six of whom were Asian American women, around 250 people gathered in downtown Iowa City for a vigil.

For many, this attack represented the culmination of over a year’s worth of heightened anti-Asian racism resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the shooter claimed his motives were not racially charged, many activists, including Rebecca Wu, believe otherwise. Wu is a junior at Alhambra High School in Alhambra, California, and interns for Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy group and reporting database created in response to the rise in anti-Asian sentiment.

“After reading the quote from [the Cherokee County Sheriff Captain] about how … [the shooter] did this because he was ‘having a bad day,’ I thought that was an understatement because I definitely think it was a racially motivated hate crime,” Wu said.

In addition to a “bad day,” authorities said the suspect attributed his shootings to a “sexual addiction.” However, some argue that given historical fetishization of Asian women, the spa attacks cannot be disconnected from race. Tracing back to the Page Act of 1875 that banned Chinese women from the U.S. by labeling them “prostitutes,” stereotyping and objectification of Asian women has remained a trend in this country for over a century.

“When people think of Asian women, they’ll just think … we don’t have a voice, that when we experience this kind of assault, we’ll just stay quiet,” Shim said.

Though racial violence has been exacerbated for Asian women over the past year, it hasn’t been limited to one gender. Stop AAPI Hate received over 3,795 reports of anti-Asian discrimination from March 19, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021. Of these reports, verbal harassment and avoidance were the most common, at 68.1% and 20.5%, respectively. Most publicized, however, has been the third-largest category: physical violence, which made up 11.1% of incidents.

An 84-year-old Thai man was killed after being shoved to the ground during his morning walk in San Francisco Jan. 28 of this year. A Filipino-American was slashed across the face in a New York City subway Feb. 3. Also in New York City, a 65-year-old Asian American woman was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked. In response to such incidents, students have experienced emotions ranging from disappointment to disbelief.

“My first thought was, ‘No way, that can’t actually be happening, right?’” said Catherine Yang ’23. “After that initial shock faded, I was like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s so messed up.’”

According to Stop AAPI Hate, about 7% of last

HISTORY OF HATE: 1871

THE CHINESE EXCLUSIO N ACT WAS PASSED BY CO NGRESS AND SIGNED INTO LAW BY PRESIDENT CHESTER ARTHUR, BANNING CHINESE LABOR IMMIGRATIO N FOR 10 YEARS.

FOLLO WING A CO N FLICT BETWEEN TWO CHINESE GANGS THAT RESULTED IN A WHITE CIVILIAN’S DEATH, A MO B O F 50 0 RIOTERS ATTACKED LOS ANGELES’ CHINATO WN. THEY SHOT AND HUNG 18 PEO PLE — ARO UND 1 0% O F THE CITY’S CHINESE PO PULATIO N.

1882

year’s racist incidents against Asian Americans targeted people over 60 years old. Viral videos of seniors being shoved, robbed and assaulted have made Shim, among many others with elderly Asian relatives living in the U.S., anxious.

“I’m scared … [my grandparents] don’t speak fluent English, and I guess people don’t like that.

[People] tend not to be kind to them,” Shim said.

“You don’t know what will happen.”

Shim, however, says this fear isn’t new.

“They have received hate and racism for so long … now they don’t even get mad; they’re just so used to it,” Shim said.

Despite a long history of anti-Asian racism, the recent surge of both physical attacks and xenophobic rhetoric has been linked to the pandemic. According to Pew Research Center, almost a third of Asian Americans have reported being subject to racist slurs or jokes since the pandemic’s outbreak.

As the first cases of COVID-19 surfaced, some students recall hearing such remarks from peers.

Looking back on comments she overheard, from racist slurs to bat-related quips, Wu feels disappointed.

“For the people who were using these terms and knew that it was insulting but they were still just doing it ... I viewed it as pretty ignorant and very immature,” Wu said.

Yang was relatively unphased early on, but after seeing the damaging effects of these comments, her viewpoint shifted.

“It wasn’t really a background thing; it just masqueraded as that,” Yang said.

Wu feels the rise in anti-Asian sentiment was also reflected in former President Trump’s speeches and tweets, in which he often labeled COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu,” sparking anger from activists and Chinese officials alike.

1910

FACING MOUNTING RACISM AND PARANOIA AFTER THE ATTACK O N PEARL HARBOR, PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT ISSUED EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066, WHICH SENT AROUND 120,000 JAPANESE AMERICANS TO INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR UP TO FOUR YEARS.

FRO M 1910-1940, SO ME 175,000 CHINESE AND 60,000 JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS WERE DETAINED AT ANGEL ISLAND IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY AND FORCED TO UNDERGO MEDICAL EXAMINATIO NS AND LO NG INTERROGATIO NS.

1942

“BEING A MINORITY GROUP OR EXPRESSING THEIR CULTURE DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN THAT THEY ARE FOREIGN.” -NIK SUNG ‘22 “I saw it as a lot of immaturity, ignorance and bullying,” Wu said. “A lot of people told [Trump] to stop; he knew the hate crimes were going on [and] he knew the consequences of his actions, but he still continued.”

Yang believes that although Trump incited acts of violence, these attacks were inevitable. “[Trump] definitely helped trigger more hate, but I think people who believed him … probably would have found a way to hate Asians. They would have found any excuse to do it,” Yang said.

“Trump just happened to be the trigger because he was in a position of power.”

In response to instances of xenophobia, President Biden signed a memorandum Jan. 26 condemning anti-Asian hate. He announced further actions his administration would take March 30, including hate crime reporting measures and the re-establishment of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders,

1982

IN A TIME WHEN JAPANESE CAR MANUFACTURERS WERE BEING BLAMED FOR THE U.S. AUTO INDUSTRY’S DECLINE, TWO AUTO WORKERS FATALLY BEAT CHINESE AMERICAN VINCENT CHIN, ASSUMING HE WAS JAPANESE.

which has an added mandate to promote Asian “inclusion, belonging, and opportunity.”

This mandate addresses a sense of exclusion that some Asian Americans face as a result of the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype, one that puts them in a constant position of the “other” in Western society.

“If I say, ‘I’m from Iowa,’ they’ll ask me, ‘Where are you actually from?” Shim said. “They don’t consider us as Americans.”

According to Yahoo News, 64% of Asian Americans reported being asked similar questions under the assumption that they weren’t from the U.S. “Being a minority group or expressing their culture doesn’t always mean that they are foreign,” said Nik Sung ’22.

Sung is a founding member of Dongari, West High’s Korean Culture Club. Throughout April, the club has been selling shirts to fundraise for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a non-profit that supports the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

Along with donating and raising awareness, Sung believes having open discussions in educational spaces would be helpful in supporting the AAPI community.

“Schools, from elementary to high schools, should make students feel comfortable to talk about these issues of hate,” Sung said.

Wu also believes education is crucial for progress.

“I hope that people take the time to inform themselves … about current events to foster insightful conversations with their peers,” Wu said. “Really use this time as a learning and reflecting opportunity.”

NEWS APRIL 23, 2021

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D E T A R E L E C AC MENSE IM S E M O C DRIVING IOWA, F IN O S E N G E E E T PRIVIL LLY FOR IA C 4 YEARS E WITH THE P 1 S T E S U — J Y T A IBILIT TARTING S RESPONS NDLE THE E A N H O L N A A E C IV EY N DR ROADS. ETHER TH E H H T WHO CA W G Y R IN R T E WO F NAVIGA O E R OLD. SOM U S S PRE

BY HEIDI DU & ALICE MENG

O

n a typical morning at West, it’s no surprise to see a stream of cars pulling into the parking lots, followed by dozens of students walking into school, jangling keys in hand. For many, being able to drive oneself to school seems like a rite of passage.

However, this newfound independence may come at a price. Nearly 20% of 71 West High students surveyed have been in a crash while at the wheel. Starting at age 14 and a half, the state of Iowa allows students to drive alone to school and school-related extracurriculars as long as they have completed driver’s education and have held a learner’s permit with a clean record for six months. This age requirement is the lowest in the country and may raise questions as to how much teenagers can be trusted with driving.

PEER PRESSURE

While scrolling through Instagram, you’ve likely come across a post captioned with “stay off the roads!” to celebrate the birthday of a newly 14-year-old friend. With this opportunity, 68.4% of 93 West High student drivers surveyed started driving right at age 14.

Out of 102 responses from the survey, 37.1% said they feel or felt peer pressure to begin driving at a young age.

Favour Alarape ’21 experienced this unintentional peer pressure before she started driving.

“It’s kind of weird when everyone pulls up to school, and then you have your mom that dropped you off, and your friends are walking out to the parking lot, and then you’re just walking to your mom’s car,” Alarape said.

After witnessing her peers start driving, Kamakshee Kuchhal ‘24 began feeling pressure to drive despite hesitation.

“Watching all of my friends get their driver’s [permit] before me and talk about driving can make me feel a little bit left out,” Kuchhal said.

“When my friends say, ‘Want to go to the courts to practice together? I can drive there,’ [I] feel self-conscious about telling them, ‘I have to ask my parents first, and I’ll get back to you.’”

However, Neena Turnblom ‘23 has not been influenced by this pressure.

“I don’t feel that there is a peer pressure to start driving because I haven’t yet, and everyone I know is fine with that,” Turnblom said.

According to Alarape, peer pressure can also cause drivers to make risky decisions. Since Alarape is younger than many of her friends, she had her learner’s permit when they had their intermediate licenses. As a result, she felt inclined to violate her permit’s restrictions.

“Some of [my friends] were 16 at the time, and I was like, ‘Oh they’re driving without adult supervision on a license ... I could probably do that too. [If] they can do it, I can do it,’” Alarape said.

Alarape has also noticed a larger trend of teen drivers making unsafe choices to gain social approval.

“Some people, when they’re in the car with others, pretend they’re excellent drivers and [drive] one-handed and look at their phone at the same time,” Alarape said. “Sure, you look cool, but you won’t look cool if you get in an accident.”

TOO YOUNG TO DRIVE?

The feeling a teen experiences when driving alone for the first time is often one of liberation.

On the other hand, some question if teens are ready for this amount of responsibility.

Being a largely rural state contributes to why Iowa allows teenagers as young as 14 to obtain a learner’s permit, as families rely on them to operate farm machinery. However, in more urban areas such as Iowa City, some feel this age is too

also yet to obtain a learner’s permit, sees the ability to handle this responsibility as dependent on individual drivers.

“I would not trust a 14-year-old to drive me ... because I think it’s generally unsafe and a little young in terms of maturity or responsibility,” Seo said. “But people who do [drive] at 14 and choose to take on the responsibility, they can probably handle it.”

As a 14-year-old herself, Kuchhal believes there is still risk involved with letting people her age drive.

“I get a lot of anxiety because there are just so many things that could go wrong, especially knowing that there are people out there my age who might be handling a car,” Kuchhal said.

Kurt Crock, who has been teaching at Mount Vernon Drivers Education since 2018, believes

“I GET A LOT OF ANXIETY BECAUSE THERE ARE JUST SO MANY THINGS THAT COULD GO WRONG, ESPECIALLY KNOWING THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE MY AGE WHO MIGHT BE HANDLING A CAR.” - KAMAKSHEE KUCHHAL ‘24 young to safely navigate the roads.

According to Corinne Peek-Asa, director of the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center, the teenage brain lacks the development necessary to make the safest decisions while driving.

“It’s really difficult neurobiologically for teens to turn off the emotions and turn on the frontal lobe, which is something that has to happen when you’re making quick decisions when driving,” Peek-Asa said.

Ali Burgess ’21, who doesn’t have her learner’s permit, believes 14-year-olds aren’t ready to take on the responsibility of safe driving.

“I don’t think that [14] is a good age to start driving … I feel like a lot of teens in that age range get into drugs and [bad habits],” Burgess said.

However, Ashley Seo ‘23, who is 16 and has

teenagers as young as 14 are capable of driving but with limited privileges.

“I would not be in favor of 14-and-a-half-yearolds being allowed to drive anywhere anytime,” Crock said. “[But] allowing them to drive to school is a great training ground where they [get] safe hours behind the wheel.”

Cher Carney, a senior research associate at the National Advanced Driving Simulator at the University of Iowa, found through her studies that experience is more important than age in terms of safe driving. In one study, Carney compared 14-and-a-half year olds who had just gotten a school permit with 16-year-olds who were getting their license, and 16-year-olds who had a year and a half of experience.

FEATURE APRIL 23, 2021

11

“What we found was it’s not really how young or old you are, it’s the amount of experience you have,” Carney said.

Emma Caster ’21 has been driving for three years and feels her experience allows her to make riskier decisions with a slimmer chance of facing negative consequences.

“I have driven with distractions because I was confident in my abilities as a driver to keep everyone in my car and outside my car safe,” Caster said.

However, driving experience may lead to overconfidence in some teens. According to a 2015 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, it is drivers aged 16 to 17 that continue to have the highest number for crash involvement rates.

Crock believes this is because as teenagers become more comfortable with driving, risky behaviors become less of a concern.

“By the time they’re 17, hanging out with their friends on a Friday night ... they’re not the same type of driver they were when I’m sitting right next to them,” Crock said.

DRIVING DANGERS

“I was on my way to school, and I hit a school bus.”

It was an icy winter morning, and the roads were slippery. Alarape was driving faster than she should’ve been.

Her crash was one of the 156,164 annual crashes due to icy roads, as reported by the Federal Highway Administration. Luckily, the bus was empty, and after her experience, Alarape became more careful while driving in ice and snow.

“I drove cautiously and slowed down a lot on my turns, especially because it was winter,” Alarape said.

Other than weather-related reasons, distractions are also a major cause of car accidents. Of PHOTOS BY SARA BARONCINI DESIGN BY YOUJOO LEE

12

FEATURE APRIL 23, 2021

“BY THE TIME THEY’RE 17, HANGING OUT WITH THEIR FRIENDS ON A FRIDAY NIGHT ... THEY’RE NOT THE SAME TYPE OF DRIVER THEY WERE WHEN I’M SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM.” - KURT CROCK, DRIVER’S ED EDUCATOR

71 student drivers at West, 68.1% report driving with notable distractions, and 54.9% text while driving. A quarter of car accidents in the U.S. are caused by texting and driving, according to the National Safety Council.

“I don’t [text and drive] because you’d have to be an idiot to do that ... [it] increases the chances of [a crash] by so much,” said Miles Clark ‘22.

“If I close my eyes for a second while driving, I’d end up in a completely different place, so I don’t see why looking down at your phone wouldn’t do the same.”

Though many are aware of the risks of texting and driving, an anonymous source notes that phone addiction and habitual checking may override that understanding.

“Sometimes I accidentally [check my phone] out of habit, and then I have to stop myself because I feel like driving has become pretty second nature,” the source said.

Another distraction that affects many teen drivers is driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. A study by the CDC found that one in 10 high schoolers drink and drive.

The anonymous source has driven under the influence of alcohol, cocaine and marijuana.

“I usually try to be rational with myself about it ... I know the statistics and how many accidents are caused by that, so I just really, really try to avoid that,” the source said. “But I have waited a bit after consumption, and then kind of assess myself like, ‘Do I think I can drive my car?’ I’ll test myself before I start driving.”

In the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 28 people die in a drunk-driving crash every day. Under the influence or not, Clark believes teens make unsafe decisions because they believe the consequences won’t affect them. “[People who make unsafe choices] completely

ON THE ROAD

Of 97 student drivers, 69.1% drive themselves to school or would have if not for online schooling.

83.2% of 113 respondents said they can drive, while 16.8% said they cannot.

Source: West High survey

539 58

students had West parking passes in the 2019-20 school year.

students have West parking passes for the 2020-2021 school year.

Source: West High office

disregard the bad things; they think about the benefits, they don’t think about the downsides,” Clark said. “Even though they acknowledge that the downsides exist and they agree with it, they just don’t think about it.”

While many teen drivers try to avoid distracted driving, it can sometimes prove inevitable. Carney believes busy highschoolers’ cars can act as a place to carry out everyday tasks.

Alarape often eats breakfast while driving to school and feels driving the same daily route helps her multitask.

“Most of the time [when eating while driving], I’m on my way to school. I’ve gone down this road so many times, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay,” Alarape said.

Due to her busy schedule, Alarape has had to drive after taking sleep-inducing Tylenol, which caused her to make some errors.

“I shouldn’t have been driving because I was falling asleep … [but] I had places to go,’” Alarape said. “I think I ran a red light. I was so focused on the cars in front of me that I stopped paying attention to the signs.”

Alarape is not alone, as more than 40% of U.S. drivers have fallen asleep behind the wheel while driving, as reported by the National Sleep Foundation. Additionally, driving impairment after 24 hours without sleep is equivalent to having a blood alcohol content of 0.1%, which is above the legal limit of 0.08%, according to the Sleep Foundation.

To prevent nighttime crashes, teens holding intermediate licenses are restricted from driving alone between 12:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. Even though most teen driving takes place during the day, a third of fatal crashes with teens at the wheel still happen after dark, according to the CDC. Traffic accidents also affect those outside of the vehicle. The Federal Highway Association found that pedestrian and bicyclist deaths account for 16% of all annual traffic fatalities.

Brenda Gao ‘21 finds the West High parking lots, crowded with teen drivers, to be potentially dangerous.

“I take caution stepping out into the parking lot and walking across it because drivers can be rushed to get out quickly, especially in the back lot where people want to get out before the buses,” Gao said.

Though teenagers’ mentality and inexperience can compromise their ability to drive as responsibly as veteran drivers, Peek-Asa believes safety should remain the number one priority for anyone operating a vehicle.

“I think everyone has the potential to be a good driver,” Peek-Asa said. “The problem is when people don’t pay attention, don’t take driving seriously or prioritize speed over safety.”

tlement rather than a privilege. However, this possibility often depends on a family’s socioeconomic status.

More than 86% of 16 to 18-year-old drivers from households with an annual income of over $100,000 were licensed or had a learner’s permit, compared to 57% of teens from households making $50,000 or less, according to a study by The Zebra, a car insurance company.

However, the overall teen driving rate has decreased over the years. According to the University of Michigan, 71.5% of high school seniors had a license in 2015 compared to 85.3% in 1996.

One explanation for this decline is that teenagers have opted for online rather than in-person hangouts with friends, decreasing the need for a car, according to another study by the University of Michigan.

From a parent’s perspective, a self-transporting teen provides convenience for the household. According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, in 2014, about 90% of parents signed waivers exempting their teen drivers from the intermediate license restriction of allowing only one unrelated minor passenger in the vehicle without adult supervision.

“It’s overwhelming if you have multiple kids who [need] to be driven all over,” Carney said.

“As soon as kids [are] able to get a school permit, I think a lot of families feel relief.”

When teens do obtain a permit, their driving habits often mirror those of their parents.

“Kids start mimicking parent behaviors from a really young age, so whatever’s learned about the prioritization of safety is probably well established even before driving,” Peek-Asa said.

Peek-Asa believes driver’s education can impact this prior learning with different methods than currently employed.

“Driver’s ed programs focus more on how to maneuver the car and less on safety,” Peek-Asa said. “Often, they’ll approach safety by showing a lot of pictures of crashes, which from a learning neurobiology standpoint isn’t a great way to encourage [safer] behavior.”

Parental influence also plays a role when determining the time a teen gets their permit.

Alarape wanted to get a permit at age 14, but her parents were reluctant to allow her to start driving.

“I had to get my permit a year later because it took a lot of convincing [for my parents] to let me go,” Alarape said. “I think they were just kind of in denial about the fact that their child is growing up.”

Peek-Asa views driving as a chance for teens to take initiative in their actions.

“Some parents are not the best role models in driving, and teens can see that and choose to act differently,” Peek-Asa said. “It’s an opportunity for teens to really make their own choice.”

TEEN TRENDS

With teens eager to obtain a license and gain independence, many consider driving an enti-

FEATURE APRIL 23, 2021

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Caffeine Culture To balance the various demands of being a highschooler, many teens turn to caffeine as a remedy for sleep deprivation.

“Mental and physical health falling behind in favor of academics is prominent.”

At West High, where “excellence is a tradition,” many students feel pressured to join various extracurriculars while staying on top of their courses. Heidi Schmidt-Rundell ‘21 feels some students even take pride in their unhealthy sleep habits, seeing it as proof that they are taking rigorous classes and holding themselves to a high standard.

BY KATHERINE SHOPPA & ROSEMARY TIMMER-HACKERT ou blink rapidly to stay awake, trying to concentrate on the textbook in front of you, words blurring before your eyes. It’s 1:14 a.m., and you have to be up for school in six hours, but you still have piles of work to complete. Before you know it, it’s the next morning.

You’ve somehow managed to drag yourself to school, coffee in hand so you can finally feel awake and start your day. According to a poll sent out to West High students, this is a common routine for many, with 46.7% of the 90 respondents regularly consuming caffeinated beverages to help them get through the day.

For Jay Mascardo ’23, homework is one of the main reasons they feel getting normal amounts of sleep can be difficult during the school year.

“Balancing your mental health and self-care with the amount of homework we’ve been getting has just messed up others’ [and] my own sleep cycle completely,” Mascardo said.

This is a common sentiment among high schoolers, with many prioritizing homework and extracurricular activities over sleep.

“Lack of sleep has become something to brag about at West High,” said Liam Edberg ’22.

Y

“ WE LIVE I N A COU NTRY WH E R E WE WOR K TO LIVE AN D LIVE TO WOR K; IT’S AN AWFU L CYCLE .”

-GABRI ELLE BU RNS ‘23 “When I was in-person, there was a regular occurrence of conversations in which students were almost competing for a lack of sleep,” Schmidt-Rundell said. “One student would say, ‘Oh I only got four hours of sleep last night’ and then another would almost always chime in

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with something like, ‘Four? I didn’t even sleep.’

But even worse is people would support that and think it is cool. Sleep is something that we need to function properly.”

While staying up late has become normalized at West High, and even encouraged by peers, sleep deprivation has its consequences. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, teens between the ages of 13 to 18 should get eight to 10 hours of sleep per night, something the ICCSD took into account when they moved back the secondary start time to 8:50 a.m. in 2016. Despite these accommodations, 44% of West students surveyed reported getting less than seven hours of sleep a night. This is a problem across the nation, with CDC data from a 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicating about 72.7% of high school students don’t get enough sleep on school nights.

University of Iowa Assistant Professor Bengi Baran runs the Neurodevelopment and Psychopathology Lab. She studies the role of sleep in cognition, emotion and brain development.

“Insufficient sleep in teenagers [has] been associated with poor grades, mood disturbance, attention deficits, immune system compromises, metabolic problems, traffic accidents [and] substance abuse,” she said. “If not addressed adequately and on time, these can have serious, long-term consequences.”

After nights of little sleep and extreme fatigue, it can be hard to get through the next day, causing people to find alternative energy sources.

Caffeine is one of the most common alternatives students turn to. Gabrielle Burns ’23 has had experience with late nights and a quick caffeine boost to make it through the next day.

“Last night, I got like four hours of sleep and chugged some soda in the morning just to go to Zoom classes,” she said. “We live in a country where we work to live and live to work; it’s an awful cycle.”

However, relying on caffeine has its consequences. Caffeine is a drug naturally found in the seeds and leaves of plants but is also produced artificially and added to drinks. Caffeine causes increased alertness as it stimulates the central nervous system. For this reason, it’s popular among many for a short-term energy boost. As of 2020, around 80% of the world’s population consumes products containing caffeine daily.

While small amounts of caffeine consumed by adults can cause temporary energy boosts, increased alertness and increased information

processing, University of Iowa Professor Alan Johnson says it can also have negative effects, especially in teens.

“It activates brain activity and neurochemical systems in the brain that increase attention and arousal,” Johnson said. “However, in high doses … it can produce anxiety and motor tremors.

High doses of caffeine can increase heart rate and blood pressure and may produce heart arrhythmias.”

Mascardo experienced some of these side effects when they tried using coffee after one night when they did not get enough sleep their freshman year.

“I bought two bottles of Dunkin’ coffee from Fareway and drank one in my first period class and felt so much better, but as the day went on, I felt so sick and dizzy. After third period, I felt like I was gonna pass out, so I drank the other one and felt better,” Mascardo said. “After lunch, though, was the hardest since I didn’t have any more coffee, and I didn’t want to go to the nurse because I didn’t even know what to say to them.

I pushed through the day and haven’t had coffee since.”

Caffeine can also have more severe effects, such as stunting development in children and teens by disrupting the formations of important connections in the brain. During adolescence, the brain has many neural connections that can easily become inefficient with caffeine consumption. Long-term consumption at young ages can cause lasting health problems, especially in the bones and heart.

Caffeine causes the body to lose calcium and, in excessive amounts, can lead to bone loss and osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become fragile from loss of tissue. Caffeine can also agitate underlying heart problems such as coronary artery disease and cause heart palpitations. According to the survey, the average West student started drinking caffeine at 12.5 years old. However, Baran does not recommend consistent caffeine use at that young of an age.

“For adults, our recommendation is that they don’t drink more than one 8-ounce cup of coffee per day,” Baran said. “This should be even less for teenagers.”

Many students surveyed describe feeling “addicted” to caffeine and unable to stop or cut back on their consumption. Consistent caffeine consumers may experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop ingesting it, especially teens and children.

“Some of the primary withdrawal symptoms caused by abruptly stopping caffeine intake are headache, lethargy, fatigue, tiredness, sluggishness, reduced activity and an impaired ability to concentrate,” Johnson said.

Saundra Griffith ’24 has been drinking coffee regularly since she was 11 years old and has noticed some of these symptoms.

“I feel like I’m very dependent, mostly just because if I don’t drink it, I get terrible headaches and dizziness for the whole day,” Griffith said.

“Not being able to function throughout my day without it gets in my way.”

According to Johnson, oftentimes a drug’s withdrawal symptoms are opposite to the effects of taking the drug.

“This is because the brain has systems that are activated to try to restore the function of the brain to a ‘normal’ state. In other words, the state it was in before the drug was taken,” Johnson said. “[The system] stays [overactive] for a while to produce what is referred to as an abstinence syndrome, that is the collection of withdrawal symptoms.”

The best way to become less dependent on caffeine is to try to find ways to limit your intake by paying attention to the amount of caffeine in things you’re consuming and by avoiding the consumption of caffeine late in the day. There are many alternatives to caffeine that can help increase energy, such as peppermint, berries, B Vitamins and drinking more water. Another option is to start setting a consistent sleep schedule for yourself, something that Baran aims to educate students on through her lab and visits to schools.

“Teens should limit screen time or too much light in the evenings. They should also avoid dark curtains and make sure they get exposed to sunlight as much as they can during the day,” she said. “They should also avoid eating heavy meals for dinner or late-night snacking — same goes for exercise after dark. Eating late in the evening or exercise confuses our biological clocks and delays the onset of sleep even further.”

Baran recognizes that teens aren’t the only ones responsible for their habits. Rather, they are a byproduct of society.

“What the society should do is convince [more] school districts for later school start times for adolescents … Schools should also avoid late night academic or extracurricular activities,” Baran said. “Parents should also educate themselves about the importance of healthy sleep and wake patterns for adolescents and empower their kids to make informed choices about their sleep schedules.”

With all the detrimental outcomes that come with sleep deprivation and caffeine dependency, Alex Curtu ‘22 feels it’s important to discuss our relationship with caffeine usage. Reevaluating sleep and caffeine habits is crucial to do in an environment where this behavior is glamorized.

“I think West High sometimes has a toxic culture of who can get the best grades and be involved in the most things while also getting the least amount of sleep … I fall victim to this culture as well, but I also recognize that it has a negative effect on myself and my peers,” Curtu said. “I don’t think coffee is the answer to this problem even though some kids treat it as such.”

PHOTOS BY ZOHRAE MCLASKEY DESIGN BY EVA JORDAN

“ I DON ’T TH I N K COFFE E I S TH E AN SWE R TO TH I S PROBLE M EVE N THOUG H SOM E KI DS TR EAT IT AS SUCH .”

-ALEX CU RTU ‘22

46.2 %

of West High students consume caffeine regularly

40.7 %

of West High students get four to six hours of sleep a night Source: West High Student Survey

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HONORE-ING A BETTER LIFE

Carlos Honore revisits his path to founding the nonprofit organization Fifth Ward Saints.

BY FAREEHA AHMAD & MISHKA MOHAMEDNOUR

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onfident. Humorous. Athletic. Wrestling coach Tom Lepic saw all of these traits in one person walking down the hallways of Northwest Junior High. Lepic approached the student while trying to find recruits for the wrestling team. The boy laughed and said that he didn't wrestle, but after many encounters with a persistent Lepic, he finally agreed and became an unstoppable force for the Northwest wrestling team. The boy’s name was Carlos Honore, and his impact would go far beyond his accomplishments on the wrestling mat.

Carlos, West High class of ’97, never expected Fifth Ward Saints would grow into what it is

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today. He established the program with his wife in 2009, which served over 2,000 kids in Fifth Ward, Houston, a marginalized community where many children experienced harsh home realities. Carlos’s goal was to give young kids a chance to build relationships, have fun and receive necessary support.

However, his path to success was a difficult one. Carlos grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a similar environment to the Fifth Ward. Life at home was challenging as Carlos’s parents struggled to provide food and attention. In hopes of giving their children a better quality of life, Carlos’s parents moved to Iowa to attend a rehabili-

tation center that assisted individuals combating drug addiction. He and his six siblings followed a year later.

“Prior to moving, I didn't have any communication with white people because they just weren't in my community; they weren't in my circle,” Carlos said. “It was hard for me to fit in because … I had a country drawl, and I was real hyperactive.”

Because Carlos found the culture shock quite significant, he was relieved to discover a community where other students accepted him. Carlos now realizes that they may not have been the best influence on him.

“Now, I notice we were at-risk kids, but at the time, that was the only group of kids that embraced me,” Carlos said. “And at that age, what kid doesn't want to have friends and be a part of something? Then, I started taking on the traits of those kids that I was hanging out with, so [it] kind of went downhill for a while.”

Carlos was put on probation and almost sent to juvenile detention at age 13. When he met coach Lepic at Northwest Junior High, he found the mentor he was looking for.

“He's like a godfather to me. He introduced me to sports … and that's where my life kind of started, that feeling of belonging,” Carlos said. “I found the camaraderie and the brotherhood and the things that I was yearning for.”

Although Honore is thankful to have connected with a mentor, Lepic couldn’t be happier he had the opportunity to meet Carlos.

“I was just one of those fortunate people to have the opportunity to work with Carlos and proud that I had the influence on him that I had,” Lepic said. “But I'm even more proud of what he has taken from that and realized how important it was and how he needed to give back … and he's doing an amazing job. I might have helped him, [but] he's helping hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more than I ever did.”

Not only did Carlos find a home in school sports, but he also excelled at them. To spend as much time as possible with the community he loved, he participated in four sports: wrestling, soccer, track and football. After months of hard work, he became an All-State running back starting sophomore year.

“The coaches, teachers and counselors at West High really believed in me before I even believed in myself. They saw something in me, and they were consistent with me until I realized that I can be greater than the generation before me,” Carlos said. “I didn't know how much I needed sports … but it actually evolved me into the person that I am today.”

After graduating, Carlos attended the University of Iowa on a full-ride scholarship for football.

However, because Carlos had his sights set on making it to the NFL, his college grades slipped, and he ended up back in Louisiana working var-

ious part-time jobs. He felt lost, until one day, he met a woman named Tatum.

“It was love at first sight. We connected instantly, felt like we knew one another forever,” said Tatum Honore, his wife.

After she finished her master’s degree, Tatum and Carlos moved to Houston to start their life together. They had only lived in Houston for a short period of time before Carlos was invited to the Fifth Ward area to visit a friend. When he arrived, he realized how much the community resembled what he dealt with growing up.

“Seeing [the Fifth Ward] is what made me want to start the football team initially and give those kids something positive to do because sports can mold and change a kid's life,” Carlos said.

Because Carlos wanted to give back what he had gained through sports, he and his wife got to work setting up the program right away, deciding to create a safe space for kids to play football together. Days turned into months, but as the pair kept organizing, Carlos knew they had to move to Fifth Ward to best serve the kids.

“My thing was, how are we going to go into this community and convince people that, ‘Yeah I know times are rough, things are hard, but it's going to get better’ when we go back out to our two-story house in the suburbs? To this day, we were glad that we made that decision because we wouldn't be where we are now if we never did that,” Carlos said.

“He knew he was going to do whatever it took to make it happen,” Lepic said. “I don't know that people realize how much work it took for him to get that started and to keep going, but he's an overachiever. He always wants to do better, [and] I think he's happier doing what he does now than even when he competed.”

When Fifth Ward Saints was ready to open, Carlos plastered fliers around the city. Since he was relatively new to the neighborhood, he wasn’t sure what response to expect. They held the first meeting in a local park, and, to Carlos’s surprise, 28 children showed up. The next day, around 60 came.

“The first day was nerve-wracking, but it was exciting at the same time … to be able to be a coach and train these kids and to impact them from a coach's perspective,” Carlos said. “It was just, ‘Let's start a football team to be able to have fun with these kids,’ and it was real fun. After it first started, and I got the jitters out, it just flowed really well.”

The program first started as an after-school event, where about 80 kids would come with their school uniforms on. They would proceed to practice football at a nearby field. Since donations were low, Carlos had to gather resources himself. From providing jerseys, cleats, helmets and footballs, finding the money was challenging, but to Carlos, it was worth it.

“We knew finance was a barrier for kids to play

organized sports,” Carlos said. “We passed paying on our mortgage one month because the jerseys needed to be purchased … and now when I look back on it, those are kind of things that make it worthwhile, the sacrifices that we made.”

Although at first it was just a neighborhood program, the public learned of the organization through an article in The Houston Press. After that, the program started receiving more funds,

" NO MATTE R WHAT YOU R SITUATION [I S] , WHAT YOU R HOM E LI FE I S, OR WHAT YOU COM E FROM , THAT DOESN ’T DE FI N E YOU." - CARLOS HONO RE, FOU N DER and it grew. Carlos was even able to establish a branch of the organization, Fifth Ward Saints North, here in Iowa. To meet the growing interests of students, additional sports and arts programs have been included. Other facets added to the program were reading literacy, tutoring and case management. “[These additions are] ultimately bringing sports into the 21st century with more focus on support for athletes and changes in coaching,”

Tatum said.

Due to the pandemic, the program has been paused for safety, but this doesn’t stop Carlos from improving students’ athletic experiences for years to come. In hopes of expanding nationally, the nonprofit will be renamed as Community Student Support Solutions. Redefining how the program will be structured, the services will be provided through partnerships with high schools across the country. Dick’s Sporting Goods is also in the process of funding the program while Carlos reaches out to friends and former classmates working in various school districts to consider taking on their curriculum.

West High will be the very first school to implement the program beginning next school year.

“It's just the holistic approach, and I think that's what's missing because a lot of people paint a broad brush and expect all those kids to fall into that one stroke, and some kids don't fall into that stroke,” Carlos said. “We want them to realize and educate [teachers and faculty] that just because a kid's not getting that stroke that you stroke, doesn't mean that they're not capable.

You just need to find out what triggers them…

It's our job, I feel, to help bridge that gap.”

Carlos is not only developing the program further but is writing an autobiography reflecting on his life entitled “The Evolution of an At-Risk Youth” to spread a message of hope.

“No matter what your situation [is], what your home life is, or what you come from, that doesn’t define you,” Carlos said. “There is so much more that is out there.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CARLOS HONORE PHOTOS EDITED BY SACHIKO GOTO DESIGN BY ELLA ROSENTHAL PROFILES APRIL 23, 2021

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Jack Gluesing ’21 has taken “get your head in the game” to the next level, holding a world record for Nintendo’s “Mario Kart Wii” title.

BY FAREEHA AHMAD & ALEX CARLON

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ou’re cruising alongside the ocean on your motorcycle, wind in hair, achieving speeds you never thought possible. Sweat flies off your brow as adrenaline courses through your body. You tense and wait for the right moment.

Three. Two. One. Jump. Your avatar, Funky Kong, speeds across the finish line. “World record time achieved” flashes across the screen.

Your name is Jack Gluesing ’21, and you’ve just set the world record lap time on the “Mario Kart Wii” “Shy Guy Beach” track.

The “Shy Guy Beach” track is a fitting record for the introverted Gluesing to hold. Finding solace in the contained chaos the game offers, Gluesing discovered his love for “Mario Kart” at age five. After a hiatus that lasted through his junior high years, he sought a return to the simpler days of his youth in the form of his beloved childhood game.

“It was just a hobby over the years, but then just last year, I noticed that there was a more competitive scene,” Gluesing said. “It was exciting to think that I could get a record of my own some day.”

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IT WAS EXCITI NG TO TH I N K THAT I COU LD G ET A R ECOR D OF MY OWN SOM E DAY.” - JACK GLU ESI NG ‘21

Gluesing is now far from a casual “Mario Kart” player; he is part of a community of thousands who dedicate their time to beating the game’s world records and discovering new, lightning-fast ways to complete tracks, known as “ultra-shortcuts.” Ultra-shortcuts have been found for nearly every “Mario Kart” course, with players doing everything from clipping through walls to analyzing the game’s code in hopes of achieving a faster time.

“Shy Guy Beach” is a remake of a course that originated on the Game Boy Advance version of the title. The specific record that Gluesing holds is “GBA Shy Guy Beach Glitch Fastest Lap.” The “glitch” refers to an ultra-shortcut technique Gluesing employs while completing the course that was not originally intended by the game’s developers. Instead of completing the track by driving his kart on the game’s marked pathway, he uses a power-up to launch his character into the ocean at a specific point in the track, waits for the game to respawn him near the track’s finish line and completes a lap far faster than a player following the game’s intended pathway

would.

The “GBA Shy Guy Beach Glitch Fastest Lap” was the first world record time that Gluesing attempted. Although there are simpler records to attempt in the game, Gluesing felt he was ready for the challenge that the “Shy Guy Beach” glitch provided.

“I started on Shy Guy Beach because I knew the record that was held at the time could be improved by a lot because there was a strategy that hadn’t been done yet,” he said. “I knew if I [perfected the strategy], I could improve the record by a lot. So I did that and improved the record by almost a second.”

Gluesing finally achieved the world record time after only 13 days of training. However, because he had not installed a mod called “CTGP” on his Wii that would verify his record on a global leaderboard, Gluesing’s record wasn’t formally counted by experts.

“I was kind of in disbelief because it just happened. That’s the record, and then I told people about it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, we can’t count that as legitimate, so get the mod, and then play on CTGP and see if you can beat it,’” Gluesing said.

“After they said that, I wasn’t feeling as good as I would have.”

But Gluesing was determined. After downloading the mod, he set his sights once again on the world record time.

“I was actually pretty confident breaking it again, but ... there was a lot of room for improvement. I knew I could still smash the record,” he said. “So going into [retraining for the record] I was pretty confident, but it was way more difficult the second time around.”

After two weeks of retraining, Gluesing did it again — and this time, no one could tell him his time wasn’t verifiable.

“That felt really good, to beat it and have it be legitimate right away,” he said. “Then I beat it a few times after that, but those were the first few times. I’m always learning new techniques,” Gluesing said.

Gluesing converses with fellow gamers on a chat server called Discord to improve his skills.

Advice, shortcuts and tracks are only a few of the topics they discuss. Despite all of these subjects being of interest to Gluesing, getting involved

with the server was a big jump out of his comfort zone.

“I definitely was a little uncomfortable at first, interacting with other players, just because I didn’t think that I was that great of a player,” Gluesing said. “When I did join the Discord server, everyone was like, ‘No way, Jack’s here,’ and they gave me a really warm welcome.”

Surprisingly, Gluesing isn’t the sole “Ma-

IT’S SU R R EAL TO BE TH E BEST I N TH E WOR LD AT SOM ETH I NG, ESPECIALLY FOR A GAM E LI KE TH I S THAT HAS COU NTLESS OTH E R I NCR E DI BLE PLAYE RS.” -JACK GLU ESI NG ‘21 rio Kart’’ world record holder to have passed through the halls of West High. In fact, just nine years ago, Anthony Lehnertz ’12 was an ambitious student like Gluesing and went on to break the Guiness World Record for “Longest video game marathon playing the ‘Mario Kart’ series’’ during his time as a University of Iowa student.

Lehnertz feels as though both Gluesing’s record and his own “Mario Kart” feats are a testa-

ment to each player’s persistence and attention to detail.

“There are a lot of different types of things to strive for, and to strive for something like this and accomplish it is very telling of your work ethic and how you would be in jobs or beyond,” he said. “Think of it as a life skill as well that you’ve learned.”

Connor Curtiss ’21, a friend of Gluesing’s, feels similarly optimistic about Gluesing’s ability to transfer his “Mario Kart” skills to the real world.

“Jack’s a really smart guy and will probably do a lot bigger things in life than be a top 10 ‘Mario Kart’ player in the world, but it will always be amazing for him that he can tell people he holds a world record,” Curtiss said. “Not many people can say that.”

While Gluesing plans to use his “Mario Kart” prowess as a resume-builder in years to come, in the short-term he has his sights set on moving up within the community.

Currently, Gluesing is ranked number nine on the Combined Average Finish leaderboard, which is a ranking system used worldwide. According to mariokart.com, this ranking signifies the “average of a player’s positions for each track.” Gluesing’s goal is to maintain his spot and eventually surpass the players at the top.

While Gluesing remains humble about his “Mario Kart” successes, he takes pride in being part of such a skilled community.

“It’s surreal to be the best in the world at something, especially for a game like this that has countless other incredible players. On top of that, setting records in my childhood game makes them much more special and personal and memorable for me,” Gluesing said.

For players who want to get into the world of competitive gaming, Gluesing says the key to success is knowing when to ask for help.

“It’s going to take a lot of time, a lot of motivation and a lot of not giving up ... don’t be afraid to reach out and ask people for help,” he said. “I’ve played on my own for the past year, and it was okay, but if you want to speed up that process and you do want to get good, I recommend that you need to talk to other people and see what you’re doing and compare yourself to others.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF JACK GLUESING ART & DESIGN BY ZOEY GUO

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DECISION With the ICCSD offering the Extended Learning Program, English Language Learners program and Special Education Program, students are divided into learning sections from a young age which results in contrasting academic and social experiences.

BY RUBA AHMED, MISHA CANIN & HANAH KITAMOTO ART & DESIGN BY XIAOYI ZHU

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s your classmates settle down into their cozy nooks and crannies, the noise in the once chatter-filled room dwindles down to near silence with the exception of an occasional page flip. Drawn into your mystery book, the sudden shuffling of students “quietly” getting up startles you. They whisper loudly to the teacher and leave the room, giggling and chatting, headed off to their ELP activities.

From a young age, students divide themselves into cohorts. Grade levels, friend groups, clubs, teams and extracurriculars are just a few of the different communities that make up one’s identity. As students get older, a new identity element is added: learning programs. These include the Extended Learning Program, English Language Learners program and special education program, which can each shape how a student develops.

to check her academic history, which eventually led to her acceptance into Seminar.

“At first, I was definitely surprised [and] kind of taken aback,” Babikir said. “It was a very weird situation because at first I was confused, but then I was like, ‘Oh, so this is what I’m gonna have to deal with for my entire life.’”

Babikir believes there are several misconceptions about students in the programs. “[The reason you would be in] ELL is just because you can’t exactly properly speak English, but ELP is because you’re [an] academically advanced student. You could be both,” Babikir said.

“A lot of kids don’t really get that, and they think that immediately if you’re in ELL class, you’re just not as smart as everyone else around you.”

West High students in ELP receive emails with resources about educational opportunities, such as scholarships and support for college applica-

“[There needs to be] more diversity within the upperclassmen talking to us, because that was definitely mostly white people and then a couple of Asian girls, but that was really it,” Ochola said.

“It wasn’t representative of the people in ELP at all.”

Pulling Apart The Programs

I

n the ICCSD, every elementary school has an ELP program. All second graders are required to take the Cognitive Abilities Test, also known as the CogAt Screener, and receive a certain score to be eligible for the program.

To enroll in ELP services at the high school level, students must meet the criteria in at least three of the six requirements: GPA, advanced

“

[THE REASON YOU WOULD BE IN] ELL IS JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN’T EXACTLY PROPERLY SPEAK ENGLISH, BUT ELP IS BECAUSE YOU’RE [AN] ACADEMICALLY ADVANCED STUDENT. YOU COULD BE BOTH.” - RAZAN BABIKIR ‘22

Students and Sectioning

T

he length of time a student is a part of any of these specialized programs varies from person to person. Some individuals join their respective programs as young as elementary school, while others are introduced at the secondary level.

Razan Babikir ’22 joined Seminar class, the junior high ELP equivalent, in 8th grade. Before coming to Iowa, she was in the ELL program for a brief amount of time in another state. She has noticed the division of students into educational programs can significantly impact students socially.

“There’s the quite obvious social hierarchy of a middle or high school,” Babikir said. “If you were in ELL … you’re going way to the bottom of that, but if you’re in an advanced classroom like an ELP program … then they’re not as likely to treat you like they would with the ELL program.”

When Babikir went to Northwest Junior High, she found out about ELP from her peers. Babikir asked her counselor about the program, but she felt the response she received was rather discouraging. Prior to checking Babikir’s grades, her counselor told her that she wouldn’t be able to be in the program. Knowing that she should be qualified for ELP, Babikir asked the counselor

tions. For Babikir, this guidance has been beneficial.

“I definitely think I was given more opportunities being in ELP,” Babikir said. “[Without ELP] if I had wanted to look at a scholarship or something that would give me an advantage, I’d have to go to the counselor and ask about specific things, or I’d have to be at home googling furiously in the middle of the night … I definitely think [ELP] is helping me further my education in high school and even afterwards.”

Although ELP students receive these supports exclusively, West High ELP Coordinator Kelly Bergmann says any student has access to these resources.

“Anything we do in ELP is something that your school counselor can do for you,” Bergmann said. “All we have to know is that you have a need that isn’t being met.”

Talyia Ochola ’22, an ELP student, feels students in ELP are given extra resources that are not as beneficial to them as they would be to other students.

“It’s not really anything that helps with your learning. It’s more so if you’re already doing well in school and already succeeding and learning well, then it’s just showing you how to continue and your [future] options, more so than actually helping you learn,” Ochola said.

Because of this, Ochola believes there are still improvements needed to make the program more inclusive.

classes, Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress scores, national standardized test scores, teacher recommendations and portfolio.

According to the district ELP coordinator Julie Ewert-Hays, the purpose of ELP is to fit the needs of a student’s ability level.

“The program is to really provide that curriculum for kids who are thinking [at a high] level and provide them a chance to work with other kids who are on the same intellectual level or academic level,” Ewert-Hays said. “It’s really about equity. If we have kids who are thinking and learning at that rate … we need to serve them just like we need to serve everybody else. It’s just a different program.”

Mitchell Kelly, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Iowa, says these learning programs are necessary for students to succeed in the classroom.

“I think the goal of school is to help every student reach their full potential, and I think that those programs can aid in that process,” Kelly said. “I don’t see any other way to do it without letting people fall through the cracks.”

For Anah Austin, a former Seminar teacher at Northwest Junior High, it was difficult to adjust her teaching style for ELP students at first.

“The first year I taught it, I made a lot of mistakes,” Austin said. “I think I was getting into a lot of the stereotypes of ELP students, and so what I did was assign a whole lot of work for the students to complete independently, and I

“

ANYTHING WE DO IN ELP IS SOMETHING THAT YOUR SCHOOL COUNSELOR CAN DO FOR YOU, ALL WE HAVE TO KNOW IS THAT YOU HAVE A NEED THAT ISN’T BEING MET.”

- KELLY BERGMANN, ELP COORDINATOR quickly realized that was not going to work.”

To combat this, Austin started to apply an inquiry model to the curriculum, where students’ learning is more reliant on personal exploration and discussion. She noticed this method was better suited for her ELP students.

“I think that model benefits a lot of students.

Just by the nature of helping students come to find answers to their own questions and knowing how to do that, and that’s a really beneficial skill,” Austin said.

According to Austin, Seminar prepares students for success in high school courses.

“They learn to be a little bit less black and white in their thinking, [and] they feel more comfortable living in the gray,” Austin said.

Another program at West High is ELL, which stands for English Language Learners. This program is focused on giving students who are learning English the resources they need to be successful in high school. According to the district’s website, this program serves about 1,750 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

“They have a legal right to be provided equitable access to the same content as the general population,” said ELL teacher Cat Haxton.

“There’s a real significant educational and legal rationale for offering these classes to our students.”

To officially exit the ELL program, students must demonstrate proficiency in English on the English Language Proficiency Assessment 21, also known as ELPA21. However, the test is only administered once each school year, usually in the spring. Haxton believes this testing process can make it difficult for students to exit the program.

“It’s a difficult task to pass out of,” Haxton said.

“Some students, particularly at the advanced level, find themselves with enough English proficiency to be successful in their classes and be successful in life, but they struggle to pass that stupid test. In that case, a lot of our advanced students will have their parents waive them out of ELL.” According to Exauce Kiakanda ’23, an ELL student, passing a certain ELL proficiency level does not occur very often.

“Not everybody changes levels after they take the test. Many people stay at the same level. Even my teacher told us it’s okay to stay at the same level because [there are] only five levels. Most people stay at the same level for two years or three years,” Kiakanda said.

Despite this, Haxton feels the ELL program is essential to ensure English learners are less overwhelmed in the mainstream classroom. “[ELL] students can feel very intimidated because the students are mainly English-speaking and are able to raise their hand and offer very eloquent and sophisticated answers that ELL students might struggle to produce,” Haxton said. “There’s kind of an intimidation factor in mainstream classes that is really taken away in sheltered classes because they feel the comfort of being in a class surrounded by ELL students just like themselves that are going through the same experiences.”

Haxton recognizes the difficulty for ELL students to translate and then comprehend the concepts themselves.

“When you’re learning every class in a language that’s not native to you, it adds an additional level of processing difficulty,” Haxton said. “They’re taking content in English, trying to translate it into their first language in their head and then trying to produce output in a language that is not native to them.”

“

In addition to these two programs, there is special education. The goal of special education in the ICCSD is to provide appropriate educational opportunities for students with a diverse range of learning abilities and needs. This is done through collaboration between special education and the district’s general education program to extend learning services to those who need it.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act entitles all students to a public education entirely free of charge and in a nonrestrictive environment. To do this, guardians of students that qualify meet with a team of professionals to develop goals, determine placement, make any program or testing modifications and determine any other services a student may need to be successful. These decisions are recorded in the student’s Individualized Education Plan, which must be followed in accordance with federal law.

Sectioning Impacts

W

hile these learning programs can affect students’ education, there are also many social and emotional impacts that come with sectioning — both positive and negative.

“We want them to challenge themselves, but we also want them to design a schedule to help them be successful along with having a balance [so] that you still have time just to be a teenager.

And that’s hard,” said Guidance Counselor Paul Breitbach. “I’m a firm believer that you can go anywhere and get a great education. The line I use [with] students is that it’s more important what you do where you’re at than where you’re at.”

While students can find success outside or within the programs, Kelly believes that separating students can have long-term effects.

“I think all students should interact with all students at some point in their schooling experiences,” Kelly said. “Once you get out of school, you interact with all types of people.”

THE GOAL OF SCHOOLS IS TO HELP EVERY STUDENT REACH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL, AND I THINK THAT THOSE PROGRAMS CAN AID IN THAT PROCESS.”

- MITCHELL KELLY, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

EXTENDED LEARNING PROGRAM IOWA CODE CHAPTER 59: GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAMS

Source: Chapter 59: Gifted and Talented Programs

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS LAU PLAN What is it?

The Lau Plan requires the development of a plan to address the specific language instruction education needs that are necessary to provide for English learners.

Overview A Lau Plan is required of both public and nonpublic accredited districts in accordance with Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (PL 107-110) and federal civil rights law as well as Iowa Code 280.4 and Iowa Code 216.9.

Source: Iowa Department of Education

SPECIAL EDUCATION INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT The IDEA upholds and protects the rights of youth with disabilities as well as their families. To ensure that students have access to special education a team of professionals meets with the family of the student to develop an Individualized Education Program completely free of charge. This includes annual goals, determining placement, modifications needed for programs, testing and any other unique educational needs.

Source: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Iowa City Community School District Special Education website

PROGRAM STANDARDS

“Gifted and talented programs shall be provided by a school district and may be made available to eligible students as a cooperative effort between school districts or through cooperative arrangements between school districts and other educational agencies. It is the responsibility of school districts to ensure that the programs meet the requirements of state statute and these rules.”

“

IT’S MORE IMPORTANT WHAT YOU DO WHERE YOU’RE AT THAN WHERE YOU’RE AT.”

- PAUL BREITBACH, GUIDANCE COUNSELOR West High’s motto, “where excellence is a tradition,” speaks to many of its opportunities and programs that excel in their respective fields.

“I think one of the great things about our school is we set high expectations, and we challenge students at the same time. This may sound odd, [but] that’s also one of the things that sometimes is a negative,” Breitbach said. “I’ve seen students, for lack of better words, kind of get sucked into the vortex.”

For Molly Abraham, West High assistant principal and former special education teacher, the school culture has become more inclusive during her years at West.

“When I first started here in 1984, it wasn’t as good,” Abraham said. “I don’t see kids getting teased for looking different or for not being able to do this or that. West High kids have stepped up to the plate as far as kids with disabilities, and that’s one thing I really respect about West.”

Special education teacher Steve Merkle echoes these sentiments and believes there is a positive environment for special education students at West High.

“I have never felt like the special ed kids in West High were dealt any more disrespect than any kid or any group of kids,” Merkle said. “I think maybe even our special ed department gets more respect. We have programs like Best Buddies [and] some of the neatest kids I’ve ever met have come to my classroom just to be student helpers.”

A Step Further

E

ducators in America began using standardized testing in 1838 to measure the achievements of students, according to the National Education Association. Since then, this has become a common practice across the world for measuring intelligence. However, Austin believes standardized tests don’t always accurately measure someone’s knowledge, but rather the resources they had access to in preparation.

“You could argue that standardized assess-

ments are a little more fair … but we know historically that standardized tests traditionally rank students who are middle class, upper class, white [higher],” Austin said. “There’s a whole lot of reasons for that that aren’t the fault of the district, but we also have a responsibility to consider that when we’re thinking about which students have access to receiving these services.”

Alex Casillas, a principal research psychologist at ACT, believes standardized tests themselves may not be the only reason students of marginalized communities sometimes struggle when taking them.

“Standardized tests are not ‘the cause’ that is disadvantaging students,” Casillas said. “The educational system as a whole is not sufficiently preparing entire groups of students, with historically underserved groups often bearing the big-

gest burden of this lack of preparation.”

One solution that Casillas proposes is to not replace tests altogether, but to supplement them with measures of social and emotional learning.

“Instead of focusing so much effort on getting rid of tests, we should focus those efforts on ensuring that people from underrepresented backgrounds are given true opportunities — not just access — that can maximize their likelihood of success,” Casillas said.

“Standardized tests are not ‘the cause’ that is disadvantaging students,” Casillas said. “The educational system as a whole is not sufficiently preparing entire groups of students, with historically underserved groups often bearing the biggest burden of this lack of preparation.”

One solution that Casillas proposes is to not replace tests altogether, but to supplement them with measures of social and emotional learning.

“Instead of focusing so much effort on getting rid of tests, we should focus those efforts on ensuring that people from underrepresented backgrounds are given true opportunities — not just access — that can maximize their likelihood of success,” Casillas said.

Austin recognizes there is always room for improvement and is currently examining the district’s grading process and standards to better fit students’ needs.

“The district is really trying hard to do this right now,” Austin said. “These conversations are happening, but [we need to] think about not only consistency, but how our biases impact grading and our understanding of knowledge.”

To combat this stigma, the program changed the name from “Talented and Gifted” to the Extended Learning Program when it was first introduced in the district. According to Ewert-Hays, the program hopes to eliminate the stereotypes that come with ELP. “One of my biggest goals was to dispel that elite attitude that a lot of people have about ELP,” Ewert-Hays said. “I’ve worked very hard to kind of take that away because that’s something that has been in the past, I’d like that to go away. They just need something different, that’s all.”

To improve the program, Bergmann believes there should be more funding for ELP in the future.

“There are a lot of things that as a school counselor I could be able to do for these kids, but given time constraints and all the other hats that school counselors also have to wear to meet the needs of kids, there just isn’t a way,” Bergmann said. “If [ELP coordinator] was my only job, I just can’t imagine the possibilities of the things that we could do.”

Babikir hopes the programs can grow in a way that meets all students’ needs.

“I think that the school should offer more learning programs to supplement their students’ education,” Babikir said. “They should also be way more transparent about these programs and make sure every single student knows that these programs are an option.”

HOW STUDENTS ARE SELECTED 02 ELL

01 ELP If not already enrolled in elementary school or junior high, students who are interested in participating in ELP must complete the following appeal process.

Minimum of three options must be met in order to be considered for enrollment.

GPA Classes

Cumulative GPA of

3.90 or above

Completion of above grade level, honors or AP classes

Iowa Assessments Iowa Assessments Core Total or Complete Composite Score at the Iowa Assessments Subject score (ELA, Math, Social Studies or Science) at the

97th

PERCENTILE

99th

PERCENTILE

National Standardized Tests SAT

ACT

PSAT

Selection Index

1340 30 200+ Teacher Recommendation

Three teacher references

Portfolio Submission

ELPA21

(English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st century)

This online assessment measures proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking.

When students enroll at West, their parents fill out a Home Language Survey.

If a student speaks a language other than English in their home, they are given an English proficiency screener test.

Placement depends on the test score. If the student demonstrates proficiency, they are not placed in an ELL class.

Families have the opportunity to waive ELL services for their students.

ELL Divided into five different levels: Beginners Intermediate 1 Intermediate High Intermediate Advanced

Ask the school ELP counselor for additional information about the submission process.

Source: Christy Weitz

Source: Kelly Bergmann

03 SPECIAL EDUCATION Supports and services are given to a student through an individual education plan.

Individualized Education Plan: Developed to ensure that a child who has a disability that is recognized under law has access to specialized instruction and other related services.

IEP Information Parents make a referral Eligibility process Does not declare students as eligible based on a disability

Source: Molly Abraham

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29

BY CAROLINE CHANDLER, KRISHA KAPOOR & SOOMIN KOH

W

here excellence is a tradition” has been a true testament to the West High athletics department for decades. The halls of West are packed with gold trophies and plaques, and state championship banners honoring West’s numerous victories adorn the gym walls. Behind the glory of these achievements are years of devotion and training.

As athletes strive to win the next state title, some push themselves to the extreme.

UNDER PRESSURE

THE COST OF

EXCELLENCE With athletes feeling pressure to excel from a variety of factors, some push themselves to unhealthy limits to succeed.

The fine line between an athlete’s best performance and exceeding their limits can be fragile. This rings true for many athletes at West who strive to compete at a top level consistently.

For track and cross country runner Ella Woods ’22, the combination of a competitive environment and the pressure to excel causes her to aim for an unrealistic standard.

“I feel like I always have to be good … and I can’t have bad days,” Woods said. “When I win one race, I feel like I have to win them all.”

West High Girls Varsity Tennis Coach Amie Villarini feels athletes have pressure coming in from a multitude of sources to continually achieve the best results.

“Pressure exists because we all want to succeed.

We all want to be winners. Nobody wants to fail,” Villarini said. “At West, there are certainly higher standards, which then makes for stronger competition with peers to make the cut or to be the best.”

Like many of her players, Villarini participated in United States Tennis Association junior tournaments and can draw parallels to her personal experiences.

“I remember feeling bad and beating myself up a lot for making mistakes and losing because I was the only one to blame,” Villarini said.

Athletes may also feel the stress of maintaining good time management between work, school and sports. For some, juggling these commitments can make playing a sport feel like a burden.

This is the case for track and cross country athlete Clare Loussaert ’22, who feels the constant expectation of improvement can be exhausting.

“This sport kind of became more of a chore than it was enjoyable,” Loussaert said. “All I wanted to do was get better, and every single thing I needed to do perfectly.”

Bailey Nock ’18, a West High alumni and current collegiate cross country runner at the University of Colorado Boulder, resonates with the effect the competitiveness of West athletics can have on athletes.

“There’s a lot of pressure for high school athletes, especially at West High, because we have this tradition of winning and producing

BY THE

NUMBERS 2.6 MILLION 24% 6.3%

children aged 0-19 are treated in the emergency department each year for sports-related injuries.

MOST COMMON INJURIES OTHER

HEAD INJURIES

7% 13% SPRAINS & STRAINS

27%

41%

of college athletes experience depressive symptoms. of college athletes experience moderate to severe depression.

14%

DEHYDRATION

BONE INJURIES

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Safe Kids Worldwide, Psychology Today

titles,” Nock said. “That just puts a lot of pressure on kids when we’re very young.”

Nock has since discovered that athletes must maintain a healthy balance between striving to do their best and pushing themselves to the limits.

“We all kind of toe this tightrope of [wanting] to be the best. But we often will fall off the tightrope and be injured or mentally we just can’t do it anymore and we burn out,” Nock said.

“There’s a lot of times where you want to get right up to that limit, but you don’t ever want to go above it, and toeing that line is extremely difficult.”

Nock feels that athletes must take care of their mental health if they want to succeed.

“I was doing track for everybody besides myself ... to make other people happy, and that really takes a toll on your mental health,” Nock said. “I think an athlete is never going to perform as well as they can if they don’t have that support and they don’t believe that they can.”

Girls varsity tennis player Ella DeYoung ’23 echoes these sentiments.

“Mental health is the hardest part of tennis.

Most of the time, you’re by yourself, and it is hard to not get in your head,” DeYoung said.

“Lots of times you get so in your head that you spiral out of control, and it’s hard to get back from that.”

Nock believes there is a stigma around athletes fighting through mental health issues, which is often overlooked or ignored, especially in men’s athletics.

“Athletes are kind of just told to toughen it up

“

“ I FE E L LI KE I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE GOOD … AN D I CAN ’T HAVE BAD DAYS. WH E N I WI N ON E R ACE , I FE E L LI KE I HAVE TO WI N TH E M ALL .”

- ELLA WOODS ’22

and to figure it out on their own,” Nock said.

“Guy athletes I know have struggled with it, but they’re told to ‘man up,’ and that just is not fair to them.”

As a male baseball player, Schuyler Houston ’21 has faced similar experiences regarding this stigma surrounding men’s mental health. “‘Be a man’ is one of the common phrases that you hear. That’s one of the ones people like to harp on nowadays, which I get. It’s definitely not a positive phrase that helps growth,” Houston said.

Although some athletes find themselves struggling mentally, for DeYoung, it can be reassuring to know that others can relate.

“If you’re struggling with something, there’s always someone else struggling with it as well.

So, reach out to someone,” DeYoung said. “I’m sure everyone has struggled with the pressure that athletics bring. Find someone you can trust and reach out for help.”

Despite the mental toll that sports can impose on athletes, Head Football Coach Garrett Hartwig notes how athletics can also be a source of emotional support.

“I have noticed that athletes often use sports and athletics as a form of mental therapy,” Hartwig said. “[It’s] a release from other daily pressures and an opportunity to focus, think, play and have some fun in another venue.”

SPORTS APRIL 23, 2021

31

ATHLETES ADVICE SHEILA’S SUGGESTIONS

PHOTOS BY TESS DEGRAZIA, KARA WAGENKNECHT & OWEN AANESTAD DESIGN BY AMY LIAO

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MONITOR YOUR NUTRITION. Nutrition is what provides the

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required energy to do an activity. According to the NCBI, what and when you eat can impact not only performance, but prevent injury and promote recovery.

GET GOOD SLEEP. The CDC recommends at least eight

hours of regular sleep for 13 to 18-year-olds. According to The Sleep Foundation, student athletes should be getting at least nine to 10 hours hours of sleep.

Fou ndati on

REST AT LEAST ONE DAY PER WEEK. Recovery periods

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keeps muscles strong and healthy, improves range of motion and can reduce the risk of injury. Strength training yields many of the same benefits.

a on ati s: N rce Sou

REGULARLY IMPROVE YOUR STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY. According to Harvard Health, stretching

Th eS leep

allow for the body to replenish muscle glycogen and repair body tissue.

an rol ont C ease nolo gy Info r Dis rmation, Centers fo

WORDS OF WISDOM “ BU I LD TH E PEOPLE AT TH E TOP U P BECAUSE SOM E DAY, YOU ’ R E GOI NG TO BE AT TH E TOP; YOU ’ R E NOT GOI NG TO WANT PEOPLE ON YOU R OWN TEAM TEAR I NG YOU DOWN .”

“TAKE TH I NGS ON E STE P AT A TI M E ... MOVE FROM ON E DR I LL O R PART OF PR ACTICE TO TH E N EXT WO R KI NG AS HAR D AS POSSI B LE .”

BAI LEY NOCK ‘18

PUSHING THE LIMITS Along with straining mental health, sports can take a large toll on physical health. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, almost a third of all childhood injuries are sports-related.

Villarini believes much of the physical stress her tennis players face comes from not wanting to let down their teammates.

“I have had players push their bodies to the max because they are extremely competitive and don’t want to let the team down,” Villarini said.

“The consequences of making an injury worse and not being able to play are far greater than the consequences of sitting out one match or a

32

SPORTS APRIL 23, 2021

practice.”

During her first year on the track and field team, Loussaert suffered injuries which she attributes to exhausting her physical health in a long indoor season.

“Freshman year, I definitely did not know that I was pushing myself to the point of stress fractures because I didn’t know a single person on the team … that wasn’t suffering from shin splints,” Loussaert said.

Along with this physical hardship, Loussaert found it difficult to voice her concerns regarding her stress fractures.

“I was trying to say ‘No, my shins hurt’ and ‘I’ve had stress fractures before’ because I know this feeling, and I know what’s pushing my body too far,” said Loussaert. “But then to hear like, ‘Oh, you can keep pushing through’ … It was really challenging to keep advocating for myself and it

GARRETT HARTWIG, H EAD FOOTBALL COACH

made me question myself a lot.”

As a coach, Hartwig believes it is his responsibility to monitor the health and well-being of his athletes.

“Pushing limits is important, but not to the extreme,” Hartwig said. “It’s critical to identify the ‘breaking point,’ and I feel my coaching staff and I have a decent handle on this, but it is always a concern.”

While injuries are tough on athletes, many have found ways to make the most of it. Erica Buettner ’21 found positive ways to channel her energy during recovery.

Buettner’s hip injury originally began as a dull pain that didn’t improve with stretching and ice.

As her injury progressed, Buettner found it hard to not be able to directly contribute to the team’s successes. However, the extra time allowed her to pick up hobbies she previously did not have

time for.

“I realized that I needed more balance in my life because running was such a big part of my identity,” Buettner said.

Nock agrees that while not competing alongside teammates can be frustrating, it can allow athletes to gain more appreciation for their sport.

“Mentally, it’s really hard to be injured, because you put in all this work and then your body gives up on itself,” Nock said. “The one good thing about injuries is that when you’re not doing the sport and when you have to sit on the sidelines, you start to realize how much you miss it.”

To prevent future injuries, Buettner has implemented some new techniques into her training routine by gradually building up in mileage when she starts running, and maintaining consistent sleep and stretching schedule.

West High Athletic Trainer Sheila Stiles notes that rest is one of the most essential components to ensure athletic success during the season.

“Our bodies start to break down when we do repeated motions,” Stiles said. “Rest is as important as the weight room or shooting 100 free throws a day or running 50 miles per week.”

Body image and maintaining a healthy diet while training can also prove challenging for athletes, affecting both their physical and mental health. Within the athletes’ world, DeYoung believes social media is a large contributor to athletes’ body image issues.

“It’s so hard to not pay attention to social media and any kind of media [when] they’re always showing you the ‘perfect body,’ which is really skinny,” DeYoung said.

Nock believes this unhealthy mindset has become increasingly prevalent in the running community. “‘If you are thinner, you’re going to be faster.’

And that’s like drilled into your mind,” Nock said. “[The running community] thinks if you don’t eat, you’re gonna do better.”

After personally experiencing this struggle before participating in high school sports, Woods has found that improper nutrition had made her more susceptible to injury.

“When I didn’t get enough food [and] when I was pretty malnourished, that’s when I really started getting injuries,” Woods said. “I never had shin problems until I wasn’t eating enough.”

However, Woods believes that her coaches at West have had a positive impact on athletes’ nutrition by promoting healthy eating habits and the importance of a balanced diet. “[My coach] did a really good job promoting just getting a lot of fuel and food … making sure he doesn’t ever pressure us to eat too little,” said Woods. “[They] also had a dietitian come talk to us about food … so I’m just glad that they’re smart about it.”

MORE THAN A MEDAL Through wins and losses, practices and competitions, coaches are there with the team through it all. Loussaert believes that maintaining an understanding and positive relationship between players and coaches is vital in establishing a successful team environment.

“The coach has the ability to determine the success of the team,” Loussaert said. “I think it’s really important for coaches to establish open communication with injuries and mental health.”

Nock agrees that coaches have a major impact on helping athletes stay engaged in their sport and creating a positive team environment.

“If you can’t keep your athletes in love with the sport and working hard, you’re never going to win,” Nock said.

Finding ways to connect with his teammates off the field has helped Houston cultivate a positive team culture.

“We do a really good job of just talking with each other and catching up on our lives,” Houston said. “It’s all about that system you have in place with your team and making sure you’re

like a close-knit family.”

To facilitate a healthy team environment, Hartwig recognizes that football only accounts for one aspect of athletes’ lives.

“We forget we are dealing with young athletes who have a life outside of our sport,” Hartwig said. “I often have to remind myself that football is only part of a students’ day, and it is not the most important part to many.”

While winning is satisfying, Villarini believes sports have the ability to teach important lessons, and coaches play a vital role in doing so.

“It’s more than winning. Sports can teach us a lot about life, [its] struggles and how to cope and deal with pressure,” Villarini said. “I think the ultimate goal of coaches is to teach life lessons and to teach [athletes] how to cope with pressure, success and failures.”

One of these lessons that Nock has learned as an athlete is to maintain a healthy balance between all parts of her life.

“We are people before we are students, and we’re students before athletes,” Nock said. “We’re all trying to balance everything going on in our lives, and if we can’t give 100% every single day, it’s not a cause to bring us down.”

“

IT WAS R EALLY CHALLE NG I NG TO KE E P ADVOCATI NG FOR MYSE LF AN D IT MADE M E QU ESTION MYSE LF A LOT.” -CLARE LOUSSAERT ’22

SPORTS APRIL 23, 2021

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SIGHTS OF SPRING April showers famously bring May flowers – learn how to identify them and more with this handy local field guide.

BY KAILEY GEE & MARTA LEIRA

SPIDERWORT

These three-petaled purple flowers are found from April to mid-July, most often in prairies.

PRAIRIE PHLOX

These flowers bloom in a spherical cluster from mid-May to early June.

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ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 23, 2021

GOLDEN ALEXANDERS

Found in both woods and prairies, Golden Alexanders blossom from April to June.

SHOOTING STAR

Native to eastern Iowa, these downwardcurving flowers begin to bloom in May.

REMEMBER TO BE PREPARED AND STAY SAFE ON TRAILS. CANADA WILDRYE

This long grass is common in prairies from May to June and is identified by the spikeshaped formation of its green seeds.

VIRGINIA WILDRYE

GEOCACHING BASICS WHAT IS IT? • Another way to explore is through Geocaching, an outdoor scavenger hunt activity where participants find containers of varying sizes from GPS coordinates and clues.

• Ensure you’ve read the rules of Geocaching before you get started.

SCAN THIS QR CODE to get started on your Geocaching journey with the West Side Story Geocache.

This long grass is found from March to May. Although similar to its Canadian counterpart, it can be differentiated by its yellow color.

ENTERTAINMENT ART & DESIGN BY KAILEY GEE

APRIL 23, 2021

35

THE RADISH WARNING: The contents of this page are entirely satirical. These stories should not be taken seriously, as they bear faint resemblance to reality. Unless…

BY CAROLINE MASCARDO & ISAAC YOUNG

MASKS ON

T

he pandemic has proven that anything that can be turned into partisan politics will be turned into partisan politics.

This has gotten to the point where stopping the spread of the COVID-19, more specifically wearing masks, has become a supposed fight over individual freedoms.

“We simply can’t have members of the Congress waltzing around without a mask on,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “It’s just not safe for the rest of us.”

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Democrats and COVID-19-cautious Republicans banded together to find creative ways to get anti-mask representatives to stop the spread while vaccine progress slowly advances.

“It’s no secret that some of our peers who refuse to wear a mask are really into conspiracy theories,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar. “And while I absolutely abhor those kinds of lies, we figured we could use them to our benefit.”

The plan involved convincing Rep. Marjorie

Taylor Greene that Antifa was responsible for the anti-mask narrative so she would relay this info to other conspiracy nuts. Representatives would have hushed conversations in front of Greene about weakening the conservative voter base with COVID-19 and anti-mask policies.

Greene and many of her colleagues came to work with a mask the next day.

Of course, only a very small percentage of the Congress is that gullible, so other measures had to be taken as well. Omar once again came to the rescue with another brilliant idea.

“We found out that if we put out free masks with stuff like ‘MAGA 2020’ and ‘STOP THE STEAL’ on them, they couldn’t help but pick one up and put it on,” Omar said.

The newly designed masks were completely gone an hour after they were laid out in front of the Senate and House chambers.

Thanks to these few safety measures, no new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Congress for well over a month.

OH, BIDEN!

M

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ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 23, 2021

any citizens have been shocked by what the Biden presidency has done for America; or rather, what it hasn’t done. After a few months in office, he has successfully retracted some policies from the Trump administration, such as the transgender military ban and the Muslim ban, but beyond that, very little has changed.

The most surprised demographic seems to be those of the Republican base.

“I was very surprised to see no gay, Sharia, Antifa communism when he stepped into the Oval Office,” one Trump voter said.

Many conservatives shared the same experience after repeated claims from Republican politicians that a Democrat president was a sure path to socialism. Republicans were dead set on creating a radical leftist Biden narrative to garner support.

“If you drop that word into a speech or something, everyone gets scared immediately. We said [Biden is a socialist] so much that I forgot it wasn’t true myself,” Sen. Ted Cruz said.

On the other side of the aisle, Biden supporters seem certain that Biden is a godsend for American politics, but despite optimistic views from his voters, many actions the Biden administration has taken are deserving of criticism. One startling example is his continuation of an ageold American tradition: violence in the Middle East.

In almost every way, Biden has shown signs of upholding the political institutions that have plagued America for years, but many have begun to idolize him alongside socialist revolutionaries of the past.

“I just got this sick t-shirt with all of my political heroes standing side-by-side,” a Biden supporter said. “There’s Che Guevara, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.” This political phenomenon has been a cause of great confusion for academics.

“It’s remarkable that American political discourse is skewed so far right that centrism can be confused with leftist ideologies,” Professor John Brigham said.

A NEW VARIANT

D

espite several warnings from the CDC, thousands of Iowans left the state during spring break. Surprisingly, no new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Iowa since March 23.

“We expected a dramatic influx of cases, considering how many Iowans crossed state and international borders,” said Dr. Kirk O’Dile, director of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

“The fact that there have been zero in the last month is honestly mind-boggling.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds attributes these numbers to her admirable leadership and a successful vaccine rollout.

“We did this together, Iowa,” Reynolds said.

“Thanks to your hard work, we can finally return to normal and say goodbye to masks.”

Oddly, the sudden halt in COVID-19 cases contrasts with a disturbing increase in missing persons reports, especially for those who traveled during spring break. Even more bizarre, for every missing persons report filed in Iowa, there has been an alligator sighting to match. In the past month, there have been 928 separate reports in 67 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Some experts theorize the two are related.

“Although it may seem impossible, a new COVID-19 variant may be behind all of this,”

ART & DESIGN BY SACHIKO GOTO

O’Dile said. “An extreme mutation may be causing those infected with the virus to turn into alligators.”

Since spring break, over 100 Iowans have called animal control services describing puzzling runins with these giant reptiles. The alligators have been transported to an empty warehouse in Des Moines, which is now acting as a make-shift containment center.

Contrary to typical alligator demeanor, those moved to the warehouse have been described as overwhelmingly docile and agreeable, displaying characteristic “Iowa nice.”

Despite many Iowans’ fears of contracting the presumable variant, which is now commonly referred to as “GATOR-21,” Reynolds insists there is nothing to worry about.

“Until I see proof that these reptiles are truly the result of some COVID-19 mutation, we can say, ‘See you later alligator’ to this pandemic,” Reynolds said.

O’Dile disagrees.

“While it is unclear what is going on here, it’s evident that we have not taken COVID-19 precautions seriously enough,” O’Dile said. “Had people not ignorantly taken these vacations, I doubt we would be seeing all of these things. The pandemic is not over.”

MEDIOCRE MEDIUM

A

mericans are tired of all things COVID-19. Despite the current vaccine rollout, an end to the pandemic and a complete return to normalcy seem like an intangible ideal. After failing to contact an actual disease expert to answer all of your virus-related questions, “The Radish” turned to the supernatural. In an exclusive interview, Floridian rapper and oracle Chee T. Aiz sees into the future to predict what will become of COVID-19 over the next year.

The transcript of the interview reads as follows: Radish: We’ve been in a pandemic for over a year. How do case numbers look in 2021?

Aiz: Way too high, yeah, yeah, huh? Woah, woah, woah, what? Way too high. What? What?

What? So high, man, I can’t even feel.

R: What needs to happen before the pandemic can end?

A: When them vamps outside, you better be ready. When them guns outside, you better be ready. When the stars align, you better be ready.

R: Some are skeptical of the vaccine’s safety. Is the vaccine truly effective against COVID-19?

A: One thing I hate the most is some friendly people don’t talk to me. [They are] not with us …

We can find out, we can find out, we can find out … if you feel like dying.

R: When can we expect COVID-19 precautions, such as mask wearing and social distancing, to end?

A: I just hit a lick with a mask, MF DOOM …

Don’t get close, yeah, baby, don’t get too close.

What you don’t know, it won’t hurt because you don’t know, what?

R: What do we need to know about COVID-19 right now?

A: Uh, as the king and the queens gather the cheese, no fees, you count the bodies … running the streets. [I told them], “All my life, it’s been troublesome things.”

R: Why should our readers listen to what you have to say about the future of the virus?

A: Never too much, never too much, yeah, never too much, never too much, yeah. [I’m] rockstar made, rockstar made, rockstar made. What?

What?

Note: It wasn’t discovered until much later that all of Aiz’s responses were various lyrics from Playboi Carti’s 2020 album “Whole Lotta Red.” Aiz’s credibility subsequently came into question, but “The Radish” made the executive decision to still print the interview, citing Aiz’s clairvoyance and creative genius as a potential explanation for their often perplexing and convoluted statements.

ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 23, 2021

37

In 2021, the Iowa legislature proposed a record-breaking number of bills targeting the LGBTQ community, a precedent that has farreaching consequences for the state’s future.

BY CAROLINE MASCARDO & ELLA ROSENTHAL

T

he rainbow is fading.

Like many other states in the country, the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives saw the introduction of a historic number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills. These bills range from intrusive transphobic “bathroom bills’’ to restricted teaching on gender identity to removing the transgender community from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. As members of the LGBTQ+ community, we are already familiar with the homophobia and transphobia that these bills seek to normalize.

These efforts to promote discrimination remain unacceptable and horrifying, leaving a stain on Iowa’s reputation of friendliness.

Luckily, all proposed legislation failed the first funnel deadline March 5, so there will be no further discussion for passage by either legislative body. Despite this marginal victory, these outrageous proposals have already set a disturbing, dehumanizing precedent for the treatment of LGBTQ+ Iowans.

While Iowa was one of the first states to legalize gay marriage in the country, progress toward establishing other legal protections for the

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OPINION APRIL 23, 2021

Notice unfamiliar concepts and words? No worries, pull up the article on this QR code for linked definitions and explanation videos.

LGBTQ+ community has since been stagnant — and even counteractive. Notably, the state touts an HIV criminalization law while lacking a conversion therapy ban, protections for intersex Iowans and access to transgender healthcare. This hostile environment can be attributed to the balance of political power in Iowa’s government, where the connection between the Republican Party and promoting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is undeniable.

The GOP has continued to state that “marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society” on its official platform. Unsurprisingly, no Republican leaders have condemned any of the recent bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

In Iowa, attitudes toward anti-LGBTQ+ legislation are starkly divided along party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats in opposition. The Republican Party also controls the entirety of Iowa’s legislature, meaning they are the majority in both the state senate and state house while occupying the governor’s position — a Republican “trifecta.” With an overwhelming majority in both law-making bodies, Republicans can more easily introduce and maneuver their bills through the legislative process.

Growing up in Iowa City has shaped how we see the rest of our state, a place that seems to

aim for the hateful result of discriminatoryhomogeny. As we have grown and learned more about the political differences within the state, polarization has become easily distinguishable through visits to conservative areas. There, we must censor ourselves through all forms of self-expression to prevent the hatred these bills would reinforce.

Amid this formidable red sea, Iowa City is a blue island and a haven for the LGBTQ community. Although Democrats only comprise a third of active Iowan voters, they accounted for over half of Johnson County’s voting population during the 2020 election. This makes Iowa City the most Democratic and LGBTQ-inclusive place in the state, having earned a perfect score for LGBTQ+ inclusion from the Human Rights Campaign for the seventh consecutive year. The city has also elected Mayor Bruce Teague, the second openly gay mayor in Iowan history.

The jarring, polarized divisions between blue and red ideals has compelled some Iowa City residents to take action by speaking up at subcommittee meetings, attending protests, supporting their local LGBTQ+ community and contacting their representatives. However, no matter the outcome of these bills or the effort put into stopping them, the message from the Iowa legislature rings clear: the LGBTQ+ community is not welcome here.

Despite dedicated advocacy efforts, the Iowa legislature’s structure ensures minimal criticism on anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Bills are delegated to a subcommittee after they are introduced, and since the GOP maintains a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, each three-member subcommittee is facilitated by one Democrat and two Republicans. During public subcommittee meetings, community members provide input on the proposed law, but those opposing the bill are powerless. In several subcommittee meetings, Republicans have been quick to indirectly silence opposing viewpoints, many of whom are LGBTQ+ youth who would be directly impacted by this legislation.

As if these proposed bills are not detrimental enough to LGBTQ+ students, attempting to protect our rights has proven to be virtually ineffective. We have been lucky enough to attend a few of this year’s legislative subcommittee meetings, but they are often scheduled inconveniently with less than 24 hours notice and during school hours. There, few community speakers spoke in favor of the bills, but their opinions were clearly prioritized by leading subcommittee members. Some speakers claimed to fight indoctrination and “gender theory activists,” hiding behind misconstrued reasoning paired with offensive word choice, showing a total disregard for whom the bills would restrict. In closing remarks, the Republican senators continued patterns of disrespectful language before signing the release form in front of all attendees.

By refusing to listen to those directly affected by the proposed legislation, the Iowa government

discourages their participation in the legislative process. This reflects the solidified and more grandiose image of queerphobia and hatred that these bills represent.

Anti-LGBTQ+ bills cause more than just surface-level damage; they create trauma and contribute to a climate that is exclusive of the LGBTQ+ community. According to a study from the Baylor College of Medicine, traumatic experiences in childhood and adolescence have detrimental effects on long-term mental and physical health. LGBTQ+ youth are already at a greater risk than their same-age peers of experiencing a variety of traumas, including harassment, abuse, institutional discrimination and microaggressions. The American Psychological Association also categorizes growing up in a pervasive, heteronormative environment — where LGBTQ+ identities are punished — as another type of trauma. Additionally, LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to have unmet mental health needs but lack access to high-quality, culturally appropriate care.

Bills like SF 224, one of three bills that would restrict transgender bathroom access, have little historical support and would instead negatively impact transgender youth. “Bathroom bills” are often justified by the reasoning that women need to be protected, but in a study of four states by the Police Foundation, researchers found no evidence of sexual assault cases where a man acted as a woman to victimize women in a restroom.

Additionally, a study by Harvard demonstrated that when transgender bathroom bills were in place, the rate of 13 to 17-year-old transgender children that reported having been sexually assaulted in the past year jumped 10% — from 26% to 36%.

Although unpassed, this queerphobic and sloppily written legislation has damaging consequences, not only for the LGBTQ+ community but Iowa as a whole. Definitions of LGBTQ+ keywords in the bills, like gender and sexual orientation, are inaccurately vague, removing even binary gender equality.

The proposed bill SF 167 prohibited gender identity-related curriculum without parental consent. On the surface, this bill expands parental involvement at the cost of student access to education about their peers. The inaccurate, broad use of the term gender identity leaves the bill at risk of being interpreted as preventing anything relating to feminism, sexism or gender from being discussed. While discussing these incoherent, disrespectful bills during subcommittee meetings, right-wing legislators frequently confuse basic yet crucial terms needed to discuss LGBTQ+ issues, especially for politicians trying to change our civil rights. This sets an even further reaching precedent of widespread discrimination in Iowa.

Religion is another commonly cited excuse for prejudice; a new Religious Freedom Restoration Act bill permits the discrimination of LGBTQ+ Iowans under the veil of faith, effectively bypass-

ing the 2007 Iowa Civil Rights Act. It should go without saying that this endangers everyone by creating literal legal loopholes. While these specific bills happen to directly affect more than the LGBTQ+ community, it is important to note all proposed bills were similarly motivated with the

“

No matter the outcome of these bi lls or the effort put i nto stoppi ng them , the message from the Iowa leg islatu re ri ngs clea r: the LG BTQ+ commu nity is not welcome here.”

same broadly destructive intentions.

Furthermore, the bills create a grim cycle of diversity drain, a longer term problem that is harder to recover from. During brain drain, individuals leave an area seeking a better life and

more opportunities. As more and more talented, educated individuals depart, their absence harms the community over time. In an Iowan study about brain drain, researchers found that there is already a detrimental emigration of college-educated individuals who left in search of certain “desired community features.” Applying that to the LGBTQ community and its allies, this will mean after years of trauma from Iowa’s discriminatory legislation and prejudice, many LGBTQ+ adults will flee the state, looking for fair treatment. Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ youth are left with fewer safe, supportive spaces and role models as they grow up. The Iowa LGBTQ+ community will shrivel and the state will grow more uniform in its inaction and exclusion as Republicans gain more political power. After time, fighting against this legislation will prove nearly impossible, pushing even more LGBTQ+ individuals out of the state. This cyclical pattern will leave those who can’t leave traumatized and starved of acceptance, drowning in Iowa’s unforgiving red sea.

Regardless of political affiliation or religion, this heinous treatment of the LGBTQ+ community is unacceptable. Although these recent bills have failed, we cannot watch the Iowa legislature continue to strip LGBTQ+ youth of their identity and rights. We cannot expect LGBTQ youth to fix these problems themselves either, as it disregards the trauma these bills inflict. All of us must make a sustained effort to ensure the inclusion of all, whether in the Iowa legislature, our classrooms or the state at-large. — Iowa’s future depends on it. By doing so, we can bring the vibrant rainbow of pride back to Iowa.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED Check in on your LGBTQ family and friends.

Support local LGBTQ organizations.

Eg. One Action Iowa and Iowa Safe Schools.

Advocate for the LGBTQ community.

Attend subcommitte meetings and work to stay educated on LGBTQ+ topics.

Support elected officials who listen to the LGBTQ community.

Connect with your current legislators.

Go to https://https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find to find yours.

Attend your school’s LGBTQ group.

West High’s can be found at @whs.colorsclub on Instagram.

OPINION ART & DESIGN BY ELLA ROSENTHAL

APRIL 23, 2021

39

Losing the language of your heritage can leave room for regret — but that doesn’t mean you should be any less proud of your culture.

BY HELEN ZHANG

I

still remember the absolute dread I felt every Saturday from age 6 to 9. I wanted to do anything but take part in a weekly occurrence I felt forced into: Chinese lessons. Every weekend, my brother and I would spend around two hours learning the language, either from our parents or our parents’ friends, whose children learned with us. I often dreamed about watching cartoons or going to a birthday party instead, and during each lesson, I would count down the minutes until I would finally be free. It wouldn’t be until several years later that I realized how much I took those lessons for granted.

I am what is known as a heritage speaker: someone who has learned a language informally by being exposed to it at home. Like many heritage speakers, I am a child of immigrants, as my parents moved to the U.S. from China before I was born. Since I was a toddler, I have spoken Mandarin Chinese with my family, and in my earliest years, I was at least equally fluent in Mandarin as I was in English. Unfortunately, my fluency and comfort with speaking Chinese have weakened over the years, and most days, I don’t utter a word of it. The process of losing one’s first language is called language attrition, and issues associated with it include forgetting words, becoming hesitant and developing a for-

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OPINION APRIL 23, 2021

ART & DESIGN BY SILA DURAN

“AT TH E TI M E , TH I S CHANG E WAS A R E LI E F. NOW, I ’VE COM E TO TE R M S WITH TH E FACT THAT IT HAD A DETR I M E NTAL E FFECT ON MY ABI LITY TO SPEAK TH E LANGUAG E .”

eign accent.

This experience is not unusual for immigrants and their descendants. According to Pew Research Center, as of 2018, 17% of U.S. immigrants ages 5 and older only speak English at home. Additionally, as of 2017, 32% of Asian Americans only speak English at home. During both the past and present day, the pressures of assimilating to American culture and English-only rhetoric have been prominent factors that lead foreign-language speakers to prioritize English as their primary language.

For me, Chinese simply became less of a priority. After the third grade, my family stopped lessons because my brother and I became occupied with other extracurricular activities. At the time, this change was a relief. Now, I’ve come to terms with the fact that it had a detrimental effect on my ability to speak the language. I rarely practiced reading or writing it after that and never became literate. I was more comfortable communicating with my parents in English and became less and less used to speaking Chinese.

It was a vicious cycle: as I continued to use Chinese only minimally, I lost my fluency, resulting in my stronger preference for English. Even though my parents continue to speak to me in Chinese, I usually reserve speaking Chinese for my extended family, mainly my grandparents.

Sometimes during a conversation, I forget how to say a word or phrase, and I immediately regret

not working harder to learn Chinese. Because of this, our conversations feel strenuous and one-sided at times. My grandparents will ask me about my life, and I will provide short, simple answers but cannot ask them much about theirs.

Lacking fluency has made it harder for me to form a close relationship with them.

However, my relationship with my grandparents has shown me that my minimal fluency does not define my connection with my culture.

One of my favorite activities I get to do with them is cook, and I’ve learned a lot from them about making dumplings, noodles and other traditional Chinese dishes. During our time together, my grandparents have also told me stories about growing up and living in China.

I remember my grandmother telling me about going to school as a child and showing me a style of Chinese dance that she loves. Just listening to them has taught me so many wonderful things about my culture, and spending time with them has been extremely valuable. Even if I can’t say as much to them as they say to me, expressing my interest in the things they share can show how much I love them just as well as words.

Still, there is that fear in the back of my mind of abandoning my culture. I am envious of those who are fully immersed in their ethnic culture, including their ability to speak and write in their other language perfectly. Am I just lazy for not taking the time to learn Chinese? Is it too late to try again?

I do have some responsibility for how much

I practice the languages I speak. I could have made a greater effort to speak Chinese at home and found ways to expand my vocabulary instead of leaving it very limited. But I shouldn’t feel guilty, and if you are in a similar situation,

“ MY CU LTU R AL H E R ITAG E I S SOM ETH I NG I ALWAYS CAR RY WITH M E , AN D I SHOU LD BE ABLE TO TAKE PR I DE I N IT EVE N I F I DON ’T KNOW ALL OF IT PE R FECTLY.” you shouldn’t either. According to the Association for Psychological Science, it isn’t unusual for our brains to suppress our native languages when learning a second one; it’s natural that when speaking multiple languages, one becomes

dominant. Although I don’t feel as fluent in my culture’s language as I wish to be, I don’t have to be less connected to it. My cultural heritage is something I always carry with me, and I should be able to take pride in it even if I don’t know all of it perfectly.

Furthermore, it’s never too late to relearn or learn something. Even if I don’t achieve the accent of a native speaker, I can still learn to carry a conversation with someone. The purpose of speaking a language is to communicate with others; perfect pronunciation and grammar are not necessary to fulfill this purpose. I understand the reluctance to learn; speaking a language that’s not my dominant one causes me embarrassment at times, especially when people make offhand comments about my American accent or the fact that most of my family members are more proficient in it than I am. However, some embarrassment is a small price to pay to improve a skill that you strongly want to excel at — whether it’s language or something else. At any age, practicing a new or old language with others and exposing yourself to it will be beneficial.

I don’t know if I’ll ever significantly improve my ability to speak Chinese or learn to write it. Maybe I’ll take Chinese lessons again, either at home or at college. What I do know is that this does not reduce my Chinese identity, and it doesn’t have to hold me back from embracing my cultural heritage and the people that come with it.

57% of U.S. residents who speak a language other than English at home are foreign-born.

43% are born in the U.S.

20% THIRD

of Americans can converse in two or more languages.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau & American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the U.S.

OPINION APRIL 23, 2021

41

FACILITATING CHANGE The WSS Editorial Board expresses their disapproval for the current student complaint system.

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OPINION APRIL 23, 2021

isagreements between students and teachers are a natural part of their relationship. Things like homework, test dates and missing work can all be points of contention, but there are times where more serious issues arise. Major arguments are sometimes found when the beliefs or identity of a student or teacher are disrespected or when someone feels they have been treated unfairly academically.

When something like this happens, there needs to be a system for transparent review. It is the opinion of the West Side Story Editorial Board that a new system, which gives members of the ICCSD community a platform to share their grievances, will allow for equity in accountability and make the classroom a more inclusive place for everyone.

In the current administrative guidelines for the district, the ICCSD School Board asserts that it “firmly believes concerns should be resolved at the lowest organizational level by those individuals closest to the concern.” At first glance, this is a logical way to handle any disagreement because these are the people most familiar with the situation. However, it is also important to note that emotions and tensions are highest on the ground level as well. This heightens the feeling that the concern being brought forth is more of an attack than a simple disagreement.

When coupled with another board policy to “support its employees and their actions to free them from unnecessary, spiteful or negative criticism and complaints that do not offer advice for improvement or change,” a needless battle is forged between student and teacher. Of course, any employer should defend its employees, but when the concern is brought forth by the very people the district is meant to educate and care for, the same consideration needs to be afforded to the student.

From a student perspective, it often appears that concerns are not being taken seriously.

Perhaps in some situations the criticism was deemed “unnecessary, spiteful or negative,” but this is certainly not always the case. In the 2019 Student Climate Survey, it was found that 26% of ICCSD students have reported hearing a hurtful comment from a teacher about sexual orientation, 25% about race, 22% about gender identity

and 21% about religious identity. Additionally, 100 students said they felt dissatisfied with the performance of their teachers on the grounds of ineffective teaching and inappropriate conduct.

Clearly, students feel as though there are times where their identity is under attack or their education has been neglected, and at much higher rates than are acceptable.

The ICCSD has taken a significant step towards recognizing student voices in hiring an ombudsperson, someone who is meant to investigate complaints against staff and attempt to find a solution. Making sure there is a representative for the public in the inner workings of the ICCSD is a pivotal step, but only if it is executed correctly. The key to success for the ombudsperson will be facilitating communication with students, and the best way to go about this is in a similar fashion to university course evaluations.

Presently, many teachers independently ask for course evaluations so they can improve their course materials for the next year. Should a student have a more serious grievance against a teacher, one can imagine it would be uncomfortable to relay that information directly to them, so a system facilitated by administration would be best. In this way, a third party can decide if there is a legitimate claim based on severity and recurrence of the complaint in other student evaluations. This information can then be relayed to teachers to decide if they need to make changes. This type of regulated feedback coming from administration will encourage accountability in teachers. In cases of poor conduct, it gives an ombudsperson the opportunity to investigate claims as a mediator instead of in defense of either teacher or student. Implementing a system in which students can have a discreet platform with administrators allows for all students to have a voice in their education and for teachers to be saved from the burden of undue criticisms.

Through the application of this sort of administrative plan, the ICCSD can achieve full recognition of the student experience. It is important for student inclusion to be prioritized, but it is equally important to facilitate transparency. The system is ineffective if students involved in incidents and the general public cannot see the results. Being able to see behind the seemingly closed doors of administration into the inner workings of our education is a necessary step to further equity.

ART & DESIGN BY EVA JORDAN

OWEN AANESTAD Ella Woods ‘22 glides over a hurdle while competing in the 100-meter hurdles at the Iowa City West Invitational. Woods took home first place on her home track with a time of 17.3 seconds. This was the first time the girls track and field team had a chance to compete in an outdoor meet in over a year. “Being back on our track after nearly two years was a large mix of fear and anticipation, but I was super excited to leave with a great start to the outdoor season,” Woods said.

PHOTO FEATURE

Spot the Difference

May is just around the corner, and you know what that means: it’s officially time to do some spring cleaning. Find and circle the differences between these two lockers, and then scan the QR code to see if you found them all.

BY SILA DURAN

ART & DESIGN BY SILA DURAN