WG ECHO October 2022 Issue

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Lydia Urice

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Izzy Poole

JUNIOR

Hadley Hoskins

SOCIAL

Maren DeMargel

Luca Giordano

NEWS/OPINION

Ali Schulz

Owen Crews

Sam Klein

FEATURE/ENTERTAINMENT

Joe Harned

Soledad Lee Dakota Motley

TIKTOK/

Eleanor Kanerva

Donald Johnson

SOME MATERIAL FROM TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

The Echo is a monthly publication of the newspaper staff of Webster Groves High School, 100 Selma Ave., Webster Groves, MO.

contact staff members, call 314-963-6400 ex. 11157 or write to wgecho@wgmail.org.

editorials are the opinion of a majority of staff members; signed articles are the opinion of the writer

Letters to the editor of 300 words or less are welcome; submit letters by the 10th of the month to wgecho@wgmail.org, or room 155.

letters must be signed, although the name may be withheld from publication if requested. The Echo has the right to edit letters for publica tion as long as intent remains unchanged. The Echo is a member of Quill and Scroll, JEA, MIJA, NSPA and CSPA.

Madrid to Missouri

Exchange student experiences American autumn

Maren DeMargel

Social Media Manager

Student sections. Fall weather. Home coming. Thanksgiving. Americans may call these things mundane, but for junior exchange student Marta Domínguez, these activities are nothing short of exhilarating.

Originally from Ma drid, Spain, Domín guez has never ex perienced any of these things before. Instead, she heard about them from her older sister.

“I wanted to come to the U.S. because my sister also was an exchange student,” Domínguez said.

Junior Marta Domínguez smiles with fellow Juniors Leila Smelser and Mia Willis. “I love my math class with Leila and Mia,” Domínguez said.

Photo by Maren DeMargel

Hearing about her sister’s experiences in Indiana attending American high school and joining an American cheer team made it impossible for Domínguez to ignore the prospect of having that experience for herself. Instead of cheering, though, Domínguez decided to become a mem ber of the women’s JV volleyball team.

“I love volleyball, and I love the girls on Varsity and JV,” Domínguez said.

Volleyball is not the only thing Domínguez loves about America though. According to her, even core classes are fun here.

place in the Webster Groves community.

“I love being in this school. I love the people who form part of this school society. I love how people cheer for you in a game, and yeah, I love this school in general,” Domínguez said.

Art by Canva

One thing that has made her American experi ence more enjoyable is her host family, the Miofskys.

“I love my American host family. I have a sister and two broth ers. George, that is my little brother, and Carly, that is my older sister, goes to Webster too. Carly is a junior and George is a freshman. I like watching movies with them. I have fun with them,” Domínguez said.

Domínguez’s host sister, Carly Miofsky, shared that the two have developed a close relation

“We have similar interests and it’s relaxed and easy to talk to her about anything,” Miofsky said via direct mes

Miofsky has worked hard to make Domín guez’s transition to American life easier, taking extra time to make sure Marta feels included and understood.

“I would say that there was a little bit of a language barrier between us because

I use a lot of slang which I know she won’t get right away. I’ve re solved this by explaining what things mean and asking if she understands me, which she usually does,” Miofsky said.

Domínguez’s host mom, Jess Miofsky, en joys watching Mar ta experience new things.

The Miofsky family, Carly, Jess, George and Matt Miofsky take a selfie with host family-member Marta Domínguez. “Relation ship building has honestly been very easy and fun with Marta. She is very friendly, conscientious, follows our house rules, and loves our pups just like us,” Jess Miofsky said via email.

“I love my math class with [juniors] Leila (Smelser) and Mia (Willis),” Domínguez said. “My favor ite thing is maybe hanging out with friends or my math class.”

While Domínguez has found friends in Webster Groves, opening up to new people is not something that comes easy to her.

“I think my biggest challenge is having friends, like meeting new people and being close to them, like showing your feelings to them. I think that’s so difficult to show, so that’s a challenge for me,” Domínguez said.

Nevertheless, Domínguez persisted and was able to find her

“We have in troduced Marta to American fast food like Canes and Chick-Fil-A. She loves Chick-Fil-A sauce and wants to put it on every thing! She never knew she loved Dr. Pepper until she came to America. We have watched many American movies, and Mar ta’s favorite so far is ‘Mean Girls’,” Miofsky said via email. “Marta has attended many high school football games and is experiencing fall weather and fire pits: both of which she had never experienced before.”

Photo provided by Carly Miofsky

All in all, Domínguez’s American experience has been a posi tive one.

“I like everything. Like, there’s nothing that I will say I don’t like,” Domínguez said. “I’m not homesick yet. To be honest, I’m so great here, so I don’t miss home at all.”

Students debate Friendship Dance details

Sam Klein Podcast Editor

Homecoming is the event of the fall for most American high schools; however, Webster and Kirkwood have a different take. The Friendship Dance tradition continues this year at 7-10 p.m. on Nov. 5, at Kirk wood High School.

The dance has been going on for decades but took a two-year hiatus due to COVID.

In 2020 the dance was canceled all together, and last year the two schools held separate dances, so this year there was talk over if returning to tradition was the best way to go.

Webster took a vote that came out as 49% for a solo WGHS homecoming, 47% for joint Friendship Dance, and 3% didn’t respond. It was decided that the small difference in percentage wasn’t enough to change a decades long tradition so dramatically.

Junior Sydney Arrandale said,“I think we should con tinue the tradition because like, why break it? And we’ll just get it back at Webster in the future anyways. And you get to meet new people from Kirkwood.”

Junior Janya Johnson also com mented on the debate, “I was surprised when thoughts came up about people not wanting to do it with Kirkwood. I don’t have a problem with it.”

Johnson also talked about how she was excited to have it at Kirkwood and see what the other kids are like and how the two schools will interact at the dance.

Senior Dimion Butch er has a different opin ion. “I just think that we should have had our own thing, with our own like friends and our own community. I don’t re ally know anyone from Kirkwood, I don’t know the school, so I feel like it would really be as like fun.“

Along with the debate over con tinuing tradition, other talk about the Friendship Dance has been the prepa ration students make beforehand: de ciding on going with friends or a date, deciding on dresses, and other plans for getting ready and for after the dance.

Arrandale said she’s had a vague idea of what her plans are

since the beginning of the school year, but nothing is set in stone whereas junior Mia Willis said she will start planning during the sec ond to last week of October.

The last debate that circles the school every year is whether it’s better to go to the dance with friends or with a date. It’s a person al preference.

Arrandale said,

“I think with friends because you’re like with people that you’re really comfortable with and all that.”

Willis and Johnson both stated that they have fun going with friends, but going with a date would be fun as well.

Tickets to the dance are $10 and will be available until Nov. 3, at 11:59 p.m. To enter the dance students must have a valid ID and be dressed in semiformal attire.

Students can also invite students from other schools after fill ing out the Outside Guest Information Form. There will only be 75 of those tickets available.

Art by Tania Perez Landeiro

Statesmen soccer scores

Izzy Poole Print Editor

“It’s very exciting, but we’ve gotta stay humble,” senior Oli ver Doyle said about being ranked number one in the state for men’s Varsity soccer.

With a 15-3-2 record, and a nine-game, record-breaking, win ning streak with the longest unbeaten streak in the program’s history.

The team always stays prepared for its next win.

“We usually go into Coach Jeffrey Facchin’s room, and we discuss tactics and stuff like that for the game,” senior Henry Utterson said.

“We see what the other team is going to do, we see what we need to do to win the game, and we all get ready together,” Doyle said.

Senior Will Kaupp agreed, “I think about the game and what I can do to contribute.”

“We warm up as a team and try to hype each other up,” senior Habi Baker said.

Staying energetic for the game is important. “I listen to music, you know I kind of hype myself up,” Kaupp said.

Listening to music is a way other players stay spirited. “I have a game day playlist that I listen to,” Doyle said.

“The season’s not over so there’s really nothing to celebrate about” freshman Jake Clifton said about celebrating the team’s wins.

“Not really no,” Kaupp agreed. “It’s kind of business as usual until State.”

Although there still is time for celebration, “on away games we have a celebration on the school bus where we make a lot of noise,” Utterson said.

“Like chants,” senior Jaimeson Peplow added.

“Other than that we keep going,” Utterson said.

Doyle celebrates his personal wins in a different way. “I like to listen to ‘All I Do Is Win.’ It’s a fun song, and then I watch goals if I score,” Doyle said.

SLUH is a rivalry for the soccer team and was an exciting and memorable game, “Cause we always lose to them every year, but this year we beat them, so it felt really good,” Utterson said.

Kaupp agreed about his favorite memory so far from the sea son. “It’s kind of a really big rivalry and winning against them, especially my senior year, is just really cool,” Kaupp said.

The game was also one of Doyle’s favorite memories. “We’ve only beaten SLUH four times in the past 20 years. It’s so excit ing, and beating them at their place,” Doyle said.

Although it was one of their toughest games, “SLUH because they’re big and physical and skilled,” junior Riley Mihill said.

Varsity soccer team huddles on Selma Field before senior night game versus Vianney on Oct. 10.

Photo by Sam Klein

CVPA and CSMB

Police respond to calls of active shooter

Lydia Urice Editor-in-Chief

Four minutes after the first 911 call, police were on the scene at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (CVPA) and Col legiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, responding to calls of a school shooter on Oct. 24.

According to police Com missioner Michael Sack at a news conference, the police found the gunman eight min utes later, and after two more minutes, the gunman was re ported down.

The shooting resulted in three deaths, a health teach er, a student and the gunman.

Elijah Pohlman, a soph omore at the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, shared his story. The Collegiate School and CVPA share a gym, cafeteria and

courtyard. Their buildings form a square around their shared courtyard.

“I was scared,” Pohlman said. “I heard in total four gunshots and screaming.”

Pohlman was escorted out by police.

“I was worried for my friends, my siblings and my girlfriend. I just wanted to make sure ev eryone I knew was safe and okay,” Pohlman said.

After exiting the building, the students left campus.

“We were walked over to the parking lot across the school, then to the Schnucks on Arsenal [Street], then we took buses to Gateway Sci ence Academy,” Pohl man said.

Pohlman was reunit ed with his family, and physically unharmed, but the day had taken its toll.

“Everyone I know is shaken up,” Pohl man said.

Students Spill‘Do you use your locker, why or why not?’

Lydia Urice Editor-in-Chief

Lockers line the halls of the high school, but in the age of iPads, PDF textbooks and five minute passing periods, lockers are becoming unused.

Upper and underclassmen alike have a similar take on lockers.

“I haven’t touched my locker since freshman year. That whole section in [my] SIS got taken out, like the part where it says locker number and combination is gone,” senior Cole Walters said.

“No, I know where it is, but I haven’t used it since last year. It’s by the coffee shop. I can carry all my stuff in my bag, so I don’t have anything to put in it,” sopho more Ella Schilling said.

Some say it’s a matter of time.

“No, it’s so inconvenient. Mine is in the most inconvenient spot in the school. It’s right by Foods [and Nutrition]. There’s

just no point in going all the way to my locker, and I don’t have any time any way,” senior Addy Harrison said.

Others simply don’t have enough stuff to warrant a locker.

“I don’t have anything to put in my locker. I have a parking spot this year, so I put my lunch in my car. I don’t play any sports this year, so I don’t have to use it for that. That’s the only reason I used it freshman year. It’s in the math hallway, so it’s actually really conve nient,” senior Ellie Keegan said.

“No, because I decided to consolidate all my crap into one unit then carry that around with me. I started doing it be cause I was on crutches, and I didn’t have time to go all the way to my locker and back. My locker’s right by the gym,” ju nior Andrew Brown said.

One student knows where his is located but not how to get in.

“No, I don’t even know what my combi

Art by Lily Musgraves

nation is. It’s right next to Roberts Gym,” junior Dylan Zimmerman said.

The last take is that lockers are just stor age, location unknown.

“I have no idea where mine even is,” junior Nate Marshall said.

High school students were evacuated to the Schnucks parking lot from the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School after a re ported shooting at the school in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24.

Photo by David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/TNS

Harned Feature/Entertainment Editor

Although the library serves its purpose, it is everything but inviting. Fault doesn’t lie with any one person or system, but the school as a whole.

The ideal library is a welcoming space where students can study, rest and print when they want. The library offers next to nothing when it comes to that; its two main services are as a computer lab and a class for independent periods. The main reason: Passes.

The pinkish passes, which have prob ably been on countless bathroom floors, have caused nothing but annoyance for the students.

Students need a pass to print single pages of paper or check out a single book. The goal of limiting students in the halls may have been accomplished, but requir ing passes has been a net negative for stu

dents.

If students want to skip, they will do it whether or not it’s in the library. If a group of students is being loud in the library, the librarian has every right to kick them out.

Liz Forderhase, head librarian, said the decisions are made “by the Adminis tration… they told us ‘no student should be in the halls without a pass.’”

While this policy is very effec tive at keeping students safe and in the class, it limits the freedom that students have to use school resources, such as the library.

During a test of the policies administration, it took an average of one minute for four subject students to be asked to leave the library. This applied to two students who were reading books without passes and a student who did have a pass, but was looking at a cellphone.

This raises the question of if schools should base their policies around misbe having students or behaving students.

On one hand, policies like the pass policy limit skipping and roaming the halls, a rule that targets misbehaving students.

The problem is that the policy negatively affects the average, behaving, students. When poli cies are formed around misbe havior, not behavior, the poten tial of the school is limited.

The results of this are evident. Senior Jonas Oesterlei described the library as, “strict.”

Senior Emma Norton said she “never goes to the library, be sides for English class.”

Once again, the problem is not with the library.

Forderhase was eager to share about the new private spaces that the library had installed and the new furniture that students could use.

As long as students view the library as they do now, how ever, these spaces may be hard to fill.

Policies repel students from library

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Providing a common ground for communication, the Webster-Kirkwood Times seeks to unite its readers, businesses, school districts and local governments for the good of all.

Students experience

Eleanor Kanerva TikTok Manager/Public Relations

With Halloween just around the corner, ghosts are a common interest within this spooky season, yet not many people can say they’ve seen them.

Senior Zayne Smith said that he has the ability to see and sense ghosts. Although, it wasn’t until middle school that he discov ered he was a little different. He originally thought everyone could see ghosts. When he learned this wasn’t the case, he began doing his own research on it, and that’s when he learned more about his abilities.

This gift is common within his family. His little sister, freshman Abby Smith, is an empath meaning that she can sense the emotions of ghosts. Not only can she sense the emotions of ghosts, but she can also feel the emotions of the people around her. She explained how she would randomly start cry ing when talking about old family members that had passed away.

Smith said, “And it wasn’t like I was sad. Like I would be sitting there, tears roll ing down my face, and I would be so con fused.”

“She always knows when I’m upset for any rea son,” said their mom, Mary Smith. She described a time where she was with Abby and a song came on that reminded her of a sad time. Abby began crying because of the song not knowing the significance it had to her mom.

Not only do the kids have these abilities but so does Mary.

Mary said, “So I have the ability to see ghosts and stuff. I’ve had a lot of experiences. Some very alarming experiences, some good experiences, and then I decided to shut that out because I couldn’t handle it, in my 20s. I don’t know if it’s per se genetic, but I do believe like certain beliefs and people being open to cer tain thought processes can be passed down through the family, just like environmental.”

Zayne recalled what happened when his family and he moved into their house in 2019. “When I moved in there, I knew right away there were ghosts.”

Still there was a lot of confusion. Mary said when referring to Zayne, “They didn’t know how to handle this new gift. Was this real? Was this a good spirit? Was this a bad spirit?”

Zayne knows when a being is present by a feeling he gets in his arm. He said, “My left arm would tingle. It’s weird, but it would tingle and get numb whenever a ghost was near or some thing spiritual. If the ghost had bad intentions, it would be hot, but if the ghost had good intentions or neutral intentions, it’d be cold.”

Mary verified this by saying, “Not only did they get the gift to see things, but also hear and feel them which is really rare appar ently.”

Zayne recalled going to the basement of his house and feeling this hotness in his arm and the feeling that people were watching him. He ran upstairs to get his mom, who then went down to check it out and felt the same. Mary mentioned be ing able to hear chil dren’s laughter coming from the basement.

This wasn’t the only odd occurrence. Multiple other incidents took place within this house.

Zayne once woke up to a lady with long hair and red eyes standing over him. Zayne also men tioned their dog would start barking at noth ing. Eventually the fam ily called professionals whom Smith described as “good at get ting rid of bad energy and sens ing stuff.”

Mary said it was the St. Louis Paranormal Research Society, and she said, “We talked for a couple hours, and then they set up a bunch of equipment in our house, and it was definite, a hun dred percent spirits there. They said, ‘You have a family living in your basement.’ I thought that was so interesting because I’ve been hearing children laugh for a long time.”

paranormal events

What these professionals concluded was that these ghosts were merely mischievous and were wanting to play around, showing interest specifically in Zayne. He said these professionals ended up banishing the spirits, going around each room repeating some sort of chant with some sort of herb in hand.

After these incidents, Zayne struggled with his abilities.

Zayne said, “I was kind of hav ing a conflict of whether I should embrace this abil ity and make this a part of my life or get rid of it, and I chose to get rid of it be cause it just, it honestly kind of traumatized me.”

“It’s just a lot, and I just want to be a normal person, but some times I miss it, and like just be cause I closed it off doesn’t mean it’s completely closed off. Like, I can sometimes sense things just not all the time,” Zayne said.

It’s not all scary experiences though. Smith mentioned their grandpa who had passed away and how they were able to sense him as well.

Mary, when sit ting on their couch with Zayne, said, “We felt these footsteps walk ing right to us and all of a sudden Zayne’s face goes

really relaxed and like they were going to cry and said, ‘Mom, it grabbed my hand and put its hand on my head.’ We had realized at that moment that Zayne’s grandpa had just died like maybe a couple months before then and his wife, their grandma, had told us a story where she was mourning the loss of her husband sit ting in her living room alone and the exact same thing happened to her. She told them, ‘I knew it was him because he had grabbed my hands and put his hand on my head.”

Zayne said, “He would sit on my couch a lot. There’s this one spot like where he would sit all the time, and there would always be an indent in it, and every time I sat there I felt like this weird burst of energy almost.”

There was another time in which, Smith and their family were driv ing back from his funeral, and a song played that reminded them of him, and they began smelling cigarettes which their grandpa frequently smoked.

Smith said, “That’s a very common thing for people to have a smell when there’s a ghost around…If a ghost does that, that means that they want you to know that they’re there and that they’re watching you, and thinking of you, and protecting you.”

A couple other students have also had experiences pertaining to ghosts but not to the same degree as Zayne and his family.

Sophomore Maggie Corrigan described an event one day where there was a constant figure of a woman wearing glasses and a Hawaiian shirt showing itself right before her.

When Corrigan went to her mom for help, her mother told her to tell it to leave. She did this, and the ghostly figure walked through her and out the door. Ever since that day, she hasn’t had any other experiences.

Sophomore Elise Leon, who has grown up in very old houses, also said she has heard and seen things since she was little. Leon specifically mentioned being able to see vague outlines of fig ures or something in the corner of her eye.

Leon also noticed hearing things within the old houses she lived in as well as finding things out of place.

Leon said she was able to see more when she was younger because in her opinion children are more susceptible to seeing the paranormal because they have more energy and attraction.

Art by Norah Rohlfing

Nothing to smile about Horror movie fails to stand out

Owen Crews Sports Editor

Content warning this article discusses topics of suicide and trauma.

“Smile” is one of the newest original horror movies that was released into theaters Sept. 30.

This psychological thriller movie that has viewers on their toes has fantastic cinematography with shots that intend to make the viewers to be just as uneasy as the ran dom people that smile in this movie.

Sosie Bacon (“13 Rea sons Why”) plays Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychia trist, who has a mysteri ous patient who comes in and kills herself as she is smiling.

Cotter then has to deal with the repercussions that come with that. The movie then deals with her mental state and an evil presence she can’t seem to shake.

“Smile” also deals with mental health as Cotter had a tough relationship with her mother, who also commits suicide.

The whole movie shows the help that peo ple need with their men tal health and has people deal with trauma that is caused by watching these suicides. The evil presence then haunts their minds and eventually takes them over.

“Smile” is a movie that uses jump scares to frighten the audi ence and has a message that deals with the hold trauma has on viewers and how the vicious cycle can continue to harm other people. These suicides and the evil presence shows how trauma can pass down based on interactions. The cycle of trauma kills literally and figuratively.

Overall, the movie was good but not great. The pacing was

either too slow or had too much action which will throw viewers off. This is what they were going for as a horror movie element, but it was a weak point.

Another was the ending. The ending will ruin the whole expe rience for viewer.

Viewers will feel that the message the movie gave was a good one and sticks with the viewers. The problem with the movie was that it didn’t have the same effect of what it could have been.

Not being able to escape the mind that the trauma is trapped into is a good warn ing, and viewers un derstand why that was a poignant point being made.

However, a more positive message might have been bet ter because viewers will walk away from that movie feeling like it could have been more.

“Smile” is still a fun watch with friends, and viewers will feel the same.

It won’t stand the test of time as a hor ror movie to revisit, but it will feel like a stone in stomach because viewers will see the troubles Dr. Cotter goes in, and she is a protagonist that audiences will have an easy time rooting for, and being complex enough to be lieve the story.

It is a movie that viewers should watch for a serious note of mental health but not for the typical horror movie.

“Smile” is rated R for strong violent content, grisly images, and language. It has a run time of one-hour-and-55 minutes, and the production company is Paramount.

Art by Frances Baken

Star studded cast let down by messy plot

Luca Giordano Video Editor

“Amsterdam” is the new est star-studded movie in theaters, featuring Christian Bale (“Batman”), Taylor Swift (“Cats”), Margot Rob bie (“Suicide Squad), Robert De Niro (“Goodfellas”) and others.

The film follows World War I veterans, doctor Burt Berendsen (Bale) and law yer Harold Woodman (John David Washington), in 1933 New York. As they plan for a veterans’ event, the guest speaker and commander Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.) in the war is found dead. Meekins’ daughter Elizabeth (Swift) brings the body to Burt to do an autopsy, as she doesn’t be lieve her father died of natural causes.

Burt performs the au topsy with help from nurse Irma St. Clair (Zoe Saldana), and they find poison in Meekins’ stom ach. When Burt goes to share the findings with Harold and Elizabeth, Elizabeth is pushed into the flow of traffic by a hit man. The hitman points his finger at Har old and Burt, and they are suddenly prime suspects of Elizabeth Meekins’ murder.

While evading the police, Burt and Har old try to get to the bottom of the mur der mystery and its connection to Bill Meekins’ death. In this murder mystery chase, the veterans run into former nurse Valerie Voze (Robbie), who took care of them during WWI and had a romantic re lationship with Harold.

The movie is caught between genres and cannot decide whether to be a murder mystery, an adventure or a comedy. While the plot is focused on this murder mystery, the characters are constantly distracted by remnants of their past. Scenes also get so confusing that it is better to just laugh at

the situation. Because it is caught between genres, it fails at all three of them.

Awkwardness is a theme of this movie. A low frontal shaking shot is frequently used while characters monologue, giving us the perspective of a child looking up at the characters. These shots also awkward ly isolate the characters, by paying too much attention to the monologues spewed out and not enough to the reaction of the other characters.

There is far too much dialogue in this movie, making it hard to follow and bor ing at times. Characters will monologue with no end, and will often reveal key de tails that would have been more rewarding to discover without dialogue.

Finally, the phrases “Amsterdam” and

characters are in trouble or seeking some breakthrough, they throw these words around and suddenly everything magi cally resolves. When the last two shots of the movie are close ups of main characters saying “Amsterdam” without any reason, it becomes immediately clear that the planning of the movie was sloppy.

Although the visuals are stunning and period accurate, the plot is hard to fol low and rarely engaging. The main trio of Washington, Bale and Robbie have charming natural chemistry, but are let down by the sloppy execution of the film.

“Amsterdam” is rated R for violence and bloody imaging and is available to watch in theaters. The movie’s run time is two-hours-and-14 minutes.

“Commit tee of the Five” are thrown around so often they lose meaning. Any time

From left, John David Washington as Harold, Christian Bale as Burt and Margot Robbie as Valerie in “ Amsterdam.”

Photo by Merie Weismiller/20th Century Studios/TNS

“Amsterdam” tries too hard to be a Wes Anderson movie. The characters are quirky and delightful, but the plot around them is disjointed and hard to follow. Visuals are vintage and aesthetically match the time period, but paired with awkward shots and cuts, the flow of the movie is constantly broken.

Students perform exorcism

Lydia Urice Editor-in-Chief

There’s a store in the West County Mall that sells antiques. One student, sophomore Daun Pawlicki, went there and bought earrings. The earrings, they said, were haunted.

“We like to go there because it’s got all sorts of really cool stuff. Sometimes you find something. Sometimes you don’t, but that’s very rare. Honestly, I think every time I’ve gone the I’ve found something that was like, ‘Yo, I’m cursed or haunted,’” Pawlicki said.

“There’s a tingling feeling you get in your fingers,” Pawlicki said. “It’s really hard to explain. I don’t know if anyone who’s never felt it would get it.”

“A lot of these things that were hap pening to them have never happened to them before in their life. They’ve been cutting their hair for five years and one day they just suddenly slipped with the scissors and cut their ear on it, in a very specific location on their ear. That was pretty suspicious,” sophomore and friend of Pawlicki River Padilla said. “They’re having trouble seeing, like they think everything’s 2D or some thing; they’re seeing like it’s a virtual re ality headset instead of actual real life. It’s just crazy.”

The friends decided to contact the ghost.

“The four of us practice Wicca. It’s a form of Paganism. We were doing a se ance in order to communicate with a ghost that was inside one of our friend’s’ ear rings,” junior MJ Ryan said.

“We don’t play with Ouija boards be cause they tend to open up a lot more than just like that specific ghost or spirit you’re tying to talk to. They tend to be kinda dangerous in some senses, so we stick to pendulums and dice and stuff like that. I’m usually really skeptical about these sorts of things. If a ghost is like, ‘Hey, I’m Queen Elizabeth,’ or something, I’m not gonna believe that. If the queen actu ally had any unfinished business or stuck around, I’m sure she wouldn’t be in St. Louis, in America, in the Midwest,” Paw licki said.

The friends made contact with the ghost.

“We did [connect] briefly,” sophomore Ange Lopilito said. “It was cold, colder than when we walked in, and given that there was five people in there. I was only there briefly because we had to move and then they went to the park.”

“I’ve talked with ghosts before. This is the first time I’m helping with an exor cism. It’s pretty cool so far,” Padilla said.

“We try to see if we can help talk to the ghost, using a pendulum and a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ map. We try to get ghosts to answer questions like, ‘Are you intentionally harming this person’ or ‘Are you aware that you’re possessing them,’ that sort of thing. We use that [‘yes’ or ‘no’ map] to indicate if we can sort out an agreement with the ghost and get them to stop pos sessing us,” Padilla said.

Sometimes it works.

“Yes, the effects will wear off [if it works]. It will probably be a descent

Photo by Lydia Urice

[gradual wearing off] of the effects wear ing off instead of a boom done. We can still talk to the ghost if we wanted to. We can’t kick it out of its object,” Padilla said.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

“The plan for that [not working] is we try to coax it out slowly over multiple ses sions. It’s like therapy, keep coming back for it and hopefully over a long period of time, get it out or at least stop some of the bad effects it has on our friend,” Padilla said.

This time, it did.

“We asked, ‘Yes or no, does you name start with A, B, C, D.’ Ended up with Katherine E. Jackson. We asked for time frame and then we started asking for spe cific days,” Pawlicki said.

“We ended up looking up later. We did find a gravestone with the name Katherine Elizabeth Jackson an hour and 10 minutes away from where I live. The birth and death dates were perfectly aligned,” Paw licki said.

Sophomores River Padilla, Daun Pawlicki and Ange Lopolito, along with junior MJ Ryan contact a ghost with a pendulum.

Ghost contacting is a frequent activity for the friends.

“Contacting a ghost. It’s a very normal occurrence for us,” Pawlicki said.

“Whenever they have time and they’re like, ‘Hey, you wanna talk to ghosts with us,’ I’m like, ‘Yes.’ Then we just do that and hang out. It’s always fun,” Padilla said.

“I believe there’s all kinds [of ghosts]. There are varieties of ghosts I’ve talked to. There’s ones that are super crazy and like, ‘Leave me alone; I don’t want to be near you,’ and there are ones that are like, ‘Hi, I wanna be your friend.’ It’s like human personal ities. They’re all over the map. There’s no specifically bad ones. They’re all just morally gray,” Padilla said.

Not all objects are haunted.

“Usually, the kind of pos session is haunting an object that’s run in your family for awhile and is an antique or something. Those tend to hold souls more. Usually, it’s unfin ished business,but sometimes it’s just people who just wanna hang around for fun and giggles, chill. There are peo

Joins us in Fellowship and Celebration of God’s Love!

Worship Service is Sunday Mornings

at 11 a.m.

ple who decide to go to the afterlife and chill down there instead, but there are definitely ones who stick around here too.

While it wasn’t as crazy as the name im plies, the exorcism worked.

“I think in some ways, they didn’t cut their ear again, so that’s a plus, so I think so [that it worked], but I don’t think the ghost disap peared. It was less mali cious, less violent. We gotta return the earrings to the graveyard,” Pa dilla said.

“I wanna go [to the cemetery]. I wanna see what’s going on there. I wanna go before October ends because it’s spooki er,” Pawlicki said.

Art by Izzy Poole

Students share love for figure skating

Hadley Hoskins

Junior Editor

While figure skating may capture the attention of millions of Americans during the Winter Olympics, some students dedi cating themselves to the sport all year, re gardless of Team USA.

Figure skating includes competitive synchronized skating, but some skaters also participate in perfor mances such as “Nut cracker on Ice,” which the Webster Groves Ice Rink puts on every year during the holiday season.

Senior Sofia Kattentidt explained she has been figure skating since she was eight years old. She said she mainly participates in performances such as “Nutcracker on Ice,” or most recently, “It’s a Wonderful Life on Ice,” which the Web ster Groves Ice Rink put on in July.

Performances include weeks of practice lead ing up to the show and a dress rehearsal-- all of it leading up to the actual show. “I haven’t done drama, or acted in shows, but I feel like that’s [what performanc es] feel like,” Kat ten tidt said.

On the other hand, syn chronized skating, otherwise known as “Synchro,” includes five out-of-state competitions per year. The team travels together, competing in front of judges.

“[Competi tions] are very professionalfeeling. We have unofficial practice and official practice ice in front

of judges, then we complete our two pro tices are fun, they can also be frustrating.

“You want to be good at something automatically, so when you’re not, it’s frustrat ing,” Kattentidt said.

Skaters tend to practice at the Webster Groves Ice Rink, but rinks in Brentwood, Kirk wood and Creve Couer are also common practice loca tions.

Despite the level of commitment that it requires, students still say that figure skating doesn’t get the same level of attention as other sports.

Buescher said she started competitively skating when she was 10, but recently had to retire from competitive skating due to a foot injury.

“Figure skating doesn’t get enough credit, although it is starting to,” Bue scher said. She explained that since fig ure skating is a sport one has to start at a young age; it’s not school sponsored-which can cause the misconception that

it isn’t

ing, both Kattentidt and Buescher agreed it was the feeling of performing.

“It’s like how people are with run ning, you can just lose yourself in it and not think about anything else,” Kattentidt said.

Art by Dakota Motley.

Film club collaborates on art

Soledad Lee Business Manager

Film Club has been working on making its own films that will be featured in its spring film festival.

The process is collaborative, and that is just one of the reasons, students love it.

“It’s really collaborative. It’s really hard to do with like few people, but it is also hard to do with too much people. It’s like you have to get the right amount in. Film Club’s good at that,” junior Saroya Wil liams said.

When coming up with ideas for their films, students reflected on how a lot of the ideas come from just brainstorming and bouncing back and forth with friends.

“Well junior Katherine Ragain gave me the idea. We were thinking of ideas for a movie, and she said slasher, and it just kind of unfolded from there. I got ideas from my head, and I wanted it to be a little silly, but also some horror in it,

some death,” junior Ruby Coalier said.

Making these films, the club is in groups. In every movie people watch, there is a role to take and a position of be ing the direc tor. It is impor tant to respect that, according to senior Adre onna Grant.

“If I’m not making the plan someone else is, and I just follow through with what they want to do, because some people in terfere with the director’s idea, and I don’t think that’s cool,” Grant said.

Photo by Savannah McClendon

ing a film is writing the script.

“Me and my friend were hon estly joking. One night we were just writing, and it turned into a script, so it’s pretty good,” Wil liams said.

The movie’s have casts, including differing grades and

One of the important factors in mak

one film, “Famiglia,” directed by ju nior Saroya Williams and junior Vanessa Schroeder, includes a formal film club president, graduate of 2022, Thomas Kes sler.

Senior Noah Weihl films senior Luca Giordano for a TV show skit.

Photo by Maya Murray

Juniors Saroya Williams and Vanessa Schroeder direct their film, “Famiglia.”

Someone needs to make more Halloween music

From buckets of candy to scary movies, Halloween almost has it all. The one thing that Halloween doesn’t seem to have is enough music.

Everyone knows the classic Halloween music such as “Monster Mash,” “Witch Doctor” or even “Thriller.” These songs are exactly what they are called, classics: 1900s songs that people know only because they are played on repeat throughout the Halloween season.

While remixes of Halloween songs like “Spooky Scary Skeletons” have surfaced in recent years, they have also been repeat edly played to the point where they can be recited with ease. Every remix has its own touch to it that makes it different, but at the core it is still the same song, just with a little fluff.

Along with these classics and remixes come the well known scary music that appears in almost ev ery Halloween movie.

Movies like “Hallow een,” ”The Shining” and “The Exorcist” all possess this ste reotypical scary music, and they are always played right before the scary moments in every movie.

Although basic, the scary music and classic Halloween songs are what truly make Halloween the holiday it is. Hallow een would not be the same without the scary music that sends shivers down spines or the upbeat music that makes one want to dance and sing along.

As much as these songs make people want to dance and sing along, it still does not make up for the lack of variety. The few Halloween songs all follow the same plot of some scary creature, with no songs about the other aspects of Hallow een.

Halloween has almost everything, from can dy to scary movies, but the lack of music choices show. Therefore, for all those musical people out there, go create some new Halloween music with a new twist on it. This simple problem can be solved by standing up, and creat ing new and different Halloween music.

Art by Dakota Motley