The cold air nipped at her face, and she hurried to pull on her army green cargo pants and blue sweatshirt, anxious to get on the road. Along with her 15 classmates, she rushed through the morning routine—shoveling down what seemed like the millionth bowl of cereal that she’d eaten since she had started this adventure, washing her dishes, and packing up everything that she had used during the night, saving the green canvas tent for last. By 5 a.m., the group rolled out of camp, under a sky still pitch-black except for the clusters of stars.

***

While her friends from home were sitting in classrooms receiving a traditional high school education last semester, Weindling was traveling around southern Africa with a program called The Traveling School. She initially heard about the program from East graduate Margo Brookfield, who went on the trip during her junior year. At the end of her sophomore year, Weindling decided that it was something she wanted to try.

“It was kind of an impulse decision,” Weindling said. “I think I was just looking for something new. I was bored with the monotony of my everyday life.”

On Aug. 19 she boarded a plane to Washington D.C. to meet the 15 other girls that would eventually become her second family. But becoming so close was by no means an overnight process.

“A lot of the girls were really quiet, which was very different for me,” Weindling said.

The plane ride from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg consisted card game after card game, where the sound of the cards hitting the tray tables was the only thing interrupting the silence on the plane.

“We were all thinking it was so awkward,” Weindling said. “But we just went with it because we were all kind of freaked out at that point.”

Eighteen hours later, the plane touched down in Johannesburg. They were officially in Africa.

***

It took close to a month, but eventually the awkwardness subsided and the girls became “like a family.” They shared their thoughts in discussion-based classes like Southern African history and travel journalism. A circle of Crazy Creek camp chairs became their classroom. They learned to surf together in South Africa’s Jeffrey’s Bay, nicknamed “J-Bay,” and canoed down the Orange River despite triple-digit heat. They drove to the center of a salt pan in Botswana that was the size of Switzerland, where they were surrounded by nothing but white ground and silence, from horizon to horizon.

“I became so comfortable with the tent I was in and the people I was with and my sleeping bag,” Weindling said. “It really became my home.”

The fact that she was surrounded by other girls made for a laid-back atmosphere, which she noticed as soon as she left.

“I think the thing I miss most is just not caring,” Weindling said. “It was really nice to just not have to think about what you’re wearing, or your hair, or your make-up. It was refreshing and really carefree.”

***

Their blue truck pulled up to what looked like a mountain of sand—Dune 45. The girls took their shoes off, and felt the fine grains between their toes. This was one hike that didn’t require hiking boots. As the sky lightened, they started up the side of the dune in a single-file line, feet sinking into the brown sand with every step.

Before long, they were at the top, surrounded by a sea of sand in every direction. The dune sloped down on either side of them as they sat in a line and watched the sky grow lighter. Finally, the orange sun peaked out from the horizon beyond. Weindling sprawled out in the sand and watched the glowing rays rise higher into the sky. This had to be what paradise felt like, she thought to herself.

***

And then it was over.

“Coming home was weird,” Weindling said. “It felt like I had never left.”

Posters from her friends lined her walls. A giant stuffed giraffe from her mom sat in the corner of her room. Her house felt like a castle, so much bigger than when she’d left three and a half months earlier. She immediately started getting rid of the unnecessary things that just a few months ago she couldn’t live without.

“Everything was so cluttered,” she said. “I just felt like there was stuff everywhere.”

Looking around her room, she thought back to the townships she’d walked through in Cape Town—the discombobulated wooden shacks, the tin rooves, the barefoot children playing in the dirty alleys.

“People were so content with so few things there,” Weindling said. “That’s what’s so difficult and hard to grasp, is that people here have so much more, and they’re never happy. And then you see so many people who I might consider have nothing, and they’re so happy.”

***

In Weindling’s room, a picture of the group on Dune 45 hangs on the wall right next to the picture of her real family, because the girls know her almost as well.

The picture shows them jumping in the air on top of the dune, High-School-Musical-style. The desert goes on for miles in front of them, meeting the sunrise at the distant horizon. The fifteen pairs of hands and feet are all caked in a solid layer of sand, but none of the girls seem to notice.

“You were just always dirty,” Weindling said. “There would be times when my feet were literally coated with dirt and sand, and yes, it was disgusting, but it was just another day in Africa. I miss those days.”

Junior Stefano Byer stands in the Italian Alps mountains during his vacation there with his family last summer.

Some of Stefano’s friends make fun of him for wearing a seat belt. Racing through Italian cities, these young Italians consider the speed normal, not reckless.

“Never drive with an Italian,” Stefano said.

Stefano’s driving experiences are an example of the two greatest contradictions in his life: Italy and America. Students who grow up in multicultural homes, like Stefano or Korean-American sisters freshman Rachel and junior Jeemin Kim, are shaped by their cultural inheritance by interests, careers and language.

Stefano spends almost 11 months a year in Kansas City, home to his father and that half of his extended family, but he stays with his mother’s parents every summer since he was born, speaking and thinking in Italian. In these few weeks, Stefano and his family are immersed in Italian culture in everything from food and family to architecture, until they return to his American life in Kansas City after six weeks.

Growing up with two different cultures has affected Stefano in more ways than his tendency to swear at other drivers under his breath in Italian when he’s behind the wheel. For him, being exposed to Italy while growing up in both American and Italian culture has shaped not only his perceptions of the world, but also his hobbies.

“I kind of fell in love with art after going to the Vatican,” Stefano said. “I’ve always liked architecture, always liked photography and taking pictures of architecture, but after visiting the Vatican Museum, I appreciated art a lot more.”

His time spent in Italy has given Stefano exposure to both his interests and his future career. Stefano believes that everyday life in Prairie Village doesn’t show the hardships of life like a big city like Turin, Italy does. While Johnson County, one of the most affluent counties in the United States, is, in his opinion, a great place to grow up, he plans to move abroad. He hopes to go to college in Italy and thereafter do humanitarian work with Doctors Without Borders in less fortunate areas.

“I want to help other people, people that have nothing–especially in comparison to Prairie Village,” Stefano said.

Stefano’s mother, Silvia Byer, is a native of Italy. She believes that Stefano’s goals reflect how spending six weeks in Italy every year of his life has given him a more worldly perspective.

Stefano’s desire to go to college abroad has fueled his decision to enroll in the International Baccalaureate program. By the end of his senior year, he will take tests in six subjects that are standardized across the globe, making his high school credits easier to transfer to an Italian college.

“The fact that he is in the IB program is an indicator that he feels this international atmosphere within the household and within himself,” Silvia said.

Italy and his cultural inheritance have defined Stefano’s interests and plans for the future. However, other multicultural students, such as Rachel and Jeemin Kim, embrace their inheritance without being defined by it.

The Kim family is from South Korea. Unlike Stefano, Rachel and Jeemin don’t think twice about the culture contrast between their Korean parents and their peers’ parents.

“Over the years, it’s just become part of who I am,” Rachel said. “We’re in both cultures pretty equally and I wouldn’t call myself completely American or completely Korean.”

In 1996, when Jeemin was one year old, she and her parents moved to Wisconsin, where Rachel was born, to follow a job opportunity for her father. The two have grown up and lived all of their lives in America and are therefore more accustomed to American culture with Korean influences, especially predominant in language.

According to Korean custom of using titles, Rachel never simply calls Jeemin by her first name but rather uses “eonni,” a Korean term used for an older sister.

“At home, when I’m talking to my sister or my parents, we use a mixture of Korean and English–we call it Kanglish,” Jeemin said. “My sister and I have this unspoken agreement that we never speak Korean to each other. It’s just awkward because we both know that English is more comfortable for the both of us.”

For Rachel, growing up in America has given her a piece of two cultures. According to Rachel, though it can sometimes be difficult, growing up in a bilingual home has been a unique experience. She’s happy to have been able to learn not only two languages while growing up, but two lifestyles.

Two lifestyles are exactly what Stefano’s mother had envisioned for her son. Thanks to her efforts, Stefano has retained Italian culture and is fluent in Italian even without contact with many other Italians while in Kansas.

Sisters Jeemin and Rachel Kim pose with their grandparents on Geojedo Island off the coast of Korea in 2009.

“He integrates himself fairly easily in both cultures which was my goal, in fact, of making him comfortable in both worlds,” Silvia said.

Belonging to two cultures is a unique part of Stefano, Rachel and Jeemin’s lives that gives them a different worldview than their peers.

“I know that my life has been completely different from most people at East by being in a different culture at home than at school,” Rachel said. “It’s not living in two different worlds, but it feels like it sometimes.”

Grant Kendall | Harbinger Online

East started off this school year with a number of students on suicide watch that was somewhere in the teens, according to Krawitz.

“I think that number has shrunken considerably,” Krawitz said.

When students are on suicide watch, the administration intervenes and tries to get at the situation early on so that they can provide the services needed. They offer up names of therapists and teen counselors that work in the community. Krawitz and other administrators in the building want to be able to offer these supportive outside services to parents and students.

“Especially in the last year or two, we have been having a lot more training being given to our staff about all of the signs of suicide,”  Krawitz said. “This has been extremely helpful to our staff.”

Over the past two years, the Shawnee Mission School District has began giving their staff “Gate Keeper Training.” Gate Keeper training has been around for the past 10 years but is new to our district. This training program trains the staff at the beginning of the year on identifying warning signs of suicide like depression and other stress factors. It also teaches the staff how to address the problem by telling them who to talk to and what kind of discussion to have with a student.

According to Becky Wiseman, one of East’s counselors, a big part of the process is teaching the staff how to follow up with the kids by finding resources in the school and in the community. This is important because in some cases these students will go to a staff member when they want to open up.

“We do this training so that the staff will know all the warning signs and risk factors and what to do if they are concerned about a student,” Wiseman said.

Jane Smith*, who has been through suicide watch, has confided in the school nurse during her struggle. She is the one that Smith has opened up to the most since she is in her office a lot to take her various medications.

“I don’t want people to know, and I really didn’t feel comfortable telling a lot of people,” Smith said. “I felt really comfortable talking to the nurse, though.”

From Wiseman’s perspective, if administrators, parents, students or teachers are concerned about someone they will go to her and say things like “I’m really worried about my friend” or “I’m really concerned about this student, can you check in with them?” Wiseman’s role is to have this student in and speak with them.

“I have a checklist that I go through of questions to asses their risk factor,” Wiseman said. “If a student is at risk, it’s my role to contact parents and offer community resources; sometimes that means immediate mental health screening, sometimes that is just a list of counselors or support groups that the student and their family can seek help from.”

In addition to the checklist that Wiseman goes through with these students, East has a service called the Student Intervention Team (SIT). SIT is a team of professionals who review cases that are brought to them and they then try to make an action plan for these students with the information they are given.

According to Wiseman, each student that meets with her has their own unique story. In Smith’s case, she recently attempted suicide—she has been suffering depression because she has been bullied since elementary school. Smith recently returned to school after seeking an outside therapy and rehabilitation treatment.

“I was just at the point where I felt like I was hopeless and I was hurting a lot,” Smith said.

When students go to Wiseman to get help, one of the main pieces of advice she gives these students is to look to their support systems. Whether that is looking to their friends, their family members or even their teachers, they have to be able to know that there are a lot of things out in the community that can be helpful to them.

“I have to go to therapy once a week and I’m on really heavy anti-depressants,” Smith said.

The only reason Smith feels she is able to keep her spirits up while she’s at school is because she doesn’t want her peers or her friends to see her as “weak.” She feels she will be ill-perceived if she is constantly down and emotional.

“I just act like nothing’s wrong and I just tell myself that,” Smith said.

In most cases, when a student is feeling unsafe in their environment and is worried about the actions they might make, either the student or their parents will go to Wiseman.

Once Wiseman has worked with a student and she has determined that some resources, like outside therapy or a mental health screening needs to be put in place, she will do a follow up with the student to see how things are going for them.

“A lot of times that communication will continue but that truly is up to the student,” Wiseman said. “If the student has gotten therapy or counseling set up and they do not want to do it here at school then I will definitely respect that.”

After realizing all of the help that the suicide watch program has brought to East, Krawitz believes it is something that should be heard about and spread throughout other schools in the district as well as the country.

“I think from this point on not only in this school, but in schools across the country, it’s going to become something that will be a yearly discussion and training will be given,” Krawitz said. “It has become very much a reality.”

***

Habits to Fight Depression

Sleep
Research has shown that people who go without enough rest, 8 hours for teenagers, are six times as likely to become depressed.

Exercise
Evidence indicates that to prevent, and even to treat, depression with exercise requires three thirty minute sessions of exercise per week.

Food
Lots of seafood is key! Omega-3 fatty acids as well as vitamin B12 are thought to contribute to mental well-being. Salmon, tuna, dark green vegetables and nuts. You can also find B12 in seafood and some dairy products.

Meditation
Practicing regular meditation has been shown in studies to improve overall mental health and effectively treat depression.

Jake Crandall | Harbinger Online

I had been seeing an asthma and allergy specialist after a particularly unhealthy year, which included three bouts with pneumonia and a hospital stay. So there I sat, in the sterilized doctor’s office, awaiting the results of my blood tests.

The doctor informed me that my immune system doesn’t work so well. I catch nearly every disease around me, and my body does nothing to prevent it from spreading and growing in severity. Every week for the rest of my life, I would infuse healthy antibodies into my blood stream through IVs. The process usually takes two hours, and yes, it does hurt every time I push the needles through my own stomach. Even worse is the toll that it takes on my body afterwards; I become overwhelmed with soreness and fatigue. I didn’t react to the diagnosis. I felt sorry for myself. But three weeks later, everything fell back into perspective.

It was the first day of summer football conditioning when Coach Sherman told us about his cancer. I sat in stunned silence along with the rest of the team.

How is that even possible?

He was invincible in my eyes; this was the man who opened up the weight room at the crack of dawn to work out harder than any guy half his age. I couldn’t accept that someone so healthy could get cancer. I guess Coach wouldn’t accept it either; he came to practice each day with the same vigor and positive attitude that we had always admired.

Even as he battled this terrible affliction, Coach put others’ well-being before his own. He recognized how I struggled on the first couple of days following each treatment and suggested that I sit out anytime I began to feel bad. Sure enough, I did feel bad, but I tried to follow his example and push through the pain. He was facing Stage 4 cancer and never showed a trace of weakness. I believe his attitude provided me with a dose of inspiration that helped me in ways my treatments never could. The whole team felt this motivation from Coach, and we showed our support by shaving our heads as he underwent chemotherapy. I wanted Coach to beat his cancer more than anything.

Jake Crandall | Harbinger Online

Was I really trying to tell a man fighting cancer that this was too much for me? My treatments lasted two hours; his lasted seven. My shaved hair would return in a matter of weeks; his wouldn’t. I think Coach knew what I was trying to do, but he stopped me from making a monumental mistake.

“Maybe you could try things out at linebacker this week,” he suggested.

“Yeah. That sounds good, Coach.”

I played every game this season for the first time in my career. Between my freshman and junior year, I caught bronchitis, H1N1 and pneumonia multiple times. But this year, nothing was more contagious than perseverance. I became part of a team that just wouldn’t quit.

In the last few minutes of our playoff game against the eventual state champs, everyone knew that we were facing imminent defeat. But none of us could accept that it was over. This couldn’t be the last time that I would congratulate a teammate after a touchdown. I cherished every neon-orange second that ticked down the end of my career. This couldn’t be that last time that I would line up on the 50-yard line and bitterly shake hands with the opposing team. But as I solemnly repeated “good game” to each Olathe South player, I realized that it wouldn’t be their last. And I boarded the team bus for one last ride.

In a few weeks, I probably won’t remember where I’m supposed to line up in our stack defense. But I’ll never forget Coach Sherman’s true lessons. He proves every day that no challenge is too great for the human spirit. Coach showed me that I’m not a quitter; I’m strong enough to overcome my own obstacles. I couldn’t quit if I tried.

***

Jake Crandall | Harbinger Online

As my teamates and I slowly walked off the field, coach spoke out in his raspy voice over the crowd. He needed the juniors and seniors, apparently he had some thing to “talk to us about”.

Nothing could have possibly prepared me for what I was about to hear, or how I’d react. He calmly told us he had been diagnosed with non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer.

I was devasteted. It seriously felt like I had been hit by a train. The first thing that came to my mind was, how long does he have to live? Over the next couple of weeks he proved me wrong time and time again. Not only did he continue living, but he didn’t skip a beat. He was so nonchalant about it. He made it seem like it was just going to be easy.

And it wasn’t all what he did, but what he didn’t do that inspired me. It was the times when he wouldn’t complain even though anyone else would have. These were the times that he taught me and all of my teamates so many life lessons without trying. These were the times that made him Coach Sherman.

Every single day he would come to practice with just as much energy as anyone of us on the field. Never once did he complain. Not when the hot sun from practice was bothering him after a day of chemo. Not when the radiation was making his throat so sore he could barely talk. And definetly not when a treatment session happened to land on the same day as a game. He never needed to worry, since he was so mentally tough. That definitely made me play harder. If he could do it, I could block better. Being able to watch him go through his unbearable fight was such an honor and a learning opportunity for me in so many ways.

***

The worst feeling you can have as a running back is seeing the ball fall out of your hands. Seeing it roll around on the turf is agonizing. The main job the running back has is to hold onto the football and when the ball is on the ground, you have failed, and in week four of my junior football season, I experienced that feeling of pure terror for the first time ever on a varsity stage. As I walked off the field I felt nothing but pure disgust in myself. I looked over at Coach Sherman and at that moment, he began one of the most prolonged butt-chewings I have ever been apart of on a high school playing field.

Jake Crandall | Harbinger Online

As I stood there on the sideline licking my wounds, Sherman came over to make his real point. He came up to me and looked me straight in the eye and said “Adam I believe in you, and I want you to go out there and show me what you can do.”

Sherman knew I could handle that, in fact, he knew that the butt chewing I had received that night would stay with me for a long time and help me even after football. He knew that because he cared and he made sure he really knew us, unlike most football coaches. But Sherman was one of a kind in that way. He was such a good teacher and motivator that he made the things he taught us on the field applicable in life. At the end of the game, I could tell Sherman knew I took someting from the football field that day; not necessarily about how to hold a ball, but how to take criticism and use it to learn on the spot.

He was able to teach me a lesson while also showing us respect at the same time.

***

Ever since I started playing football in sixth grade, I had always dreamed about my senior football season. I had alwasy hoped I would stay healthy and enjoy a great last year on the field, but on Aug. 23, just nine days away from the the first game, my hopes took a hit from a 250 pound deffensive lineman.

I got tackled on my left knee, and ended up tearing my MCL. I would miss at least two games of my senior season.

This was a gut check. Never had I ever felt so down for so long. All my hard work flew out the window. I felt like I could watch it staring me down while I sat in the doctors office hearing the diagnosis.

I didn’t feel like going to school that next day, but then I thought of Sherman. I knew in the back of my mind that this was exactly what he would not want me to do. When I eventally did tell him, he reacted just like Sherman would. He was positive and didn’t rush me back into the game before I was totally ready.

The majority of football coaches would try and hurry you back to play and not really be worried about your health, but not Coach Sherman. Again it was what he didn’t say that really made the difference. I knew he didn’t want to hear what I was saying. But he swollowed that urge and told me exactly what I needed to hear. He would be there at anytime of the day or night if there was anything he could do to help me. And I loved him for it, because he actually meant it. I’ll always remember what he told me before I left his office: He told me that he knew I would be strong and get through this. He believed in me, and he wasn’t afraid to tell me that either.

Jake Crandall | Harbinger Online

Anna Danciger | Harbinger Online

As the story comes to a close, the Choraliers madly erupt into applause and cheers.

This is Nick Lee, who student-taught in the choral program at East for eight weeks. Lee, who is studying at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, is planning on getting his degree of Bachelor of Science in Education, endorsed in Vocal Music and Drama and then graduating in the Spring.

Mr. Lee found out about Ken Foley, the choir director at East, when a student at Concordia, who previously had Mr. Foley as a teacher at Pembroke, told Lee that it would be a great opportunity to learn under him as he student taught.

“After the fact, I said ‘Hey, I had a student from Pembroke who went up to Concordia, do you happen to know Whitney Cain?’” Foley said. “He said, ‘Yeah, that’s the reason I found you, because she said you should go work with Mr. Foley in Kansas City.’ It’s sort of a small world type of deal.”

In order to find out more about the choir that Lee was about to direct, he decided to make the four hour drive to East on a Wednesday night for the fall choral concert. Lee wanted to get the chance to hear the choirs before choosing songs for them to sing at their next concert.

“I was really nervous the first time I walked in the school because I just had no idea what I was getting into,” Lee said. “It’s weird sitting there in that seat and watching these students, all of whom I was about to get to know really well and listening to this beautiful concert that they had put on and spent all these weeks preparing.”Lee was finally able to meet Mr. Foley after the concert. The man who up until this point he’d only heard about, read about and seen in pictures online. Lee calls meeting Foley a “surreal experience.”

Anna Danciger | Harbinger Online

Even with all the driving that evening, Lee was still energized and ready to start being a part of East.

“I got in the car and we started driving home,” Lee said. “You think I’d be tired from all the driving, but I was so ecstatic, just so excited to get down here. It was a good kick off, even though I did get home at 1:30 in the morning.”

Despite his current dedication to choir, Lee wasn’t always planning on going into music. Originally he started out at the University of Nebraska Kearney, where Lee, a percussionist by trade, was a part of the drumline. At the time he was looking to go into medicine, but a single experience changed his mind.

“We were singing Handel’s Messiah and right in the middle of that piece, something just hit me,” Lee said. “I just was so taken by the musicality of that and I just decided that I wanted to devote my life to music, so I decided right then that I was going to become a music teacher.”

In order to pursue his new career path, he transferred to the University of Concordia back in Seward, his hometown, because he was looking for a more challenging choir program than the one offered at his previous university.

In the middle of October, when Lee showed up at East on his first day teaching, he didn’t know what to expect. Between the sheer number of kids and fear of the unknown Lee was “terrified.”

Lee quickly became integrated into the choir program as he got to know people and as students had the opportunity to discover his personality.

***

It was a Friday, and just like other Fridays, the piano was in the center of the choir room, with all of the students circled around Lee as he led them through warm-ups.

“I’ll never forget the first time I was telling the Choraliers this dream I had about this crocodile encounter,” Lee said. “For whatever reason, [at] the last second I decided it was a good idea to tell 155 strangers about the weirdest dream I’ve had in a very long time.”

Although the story seemed random for Lee at the time, it marked a turning point for him and the group.

“I just got in the zone where I was telling this story and people were laughing,” Lee said. “That was the first moment that I really, really felt comfortable being in front of these people, and shortly after that I started sharing other stories with the choirs.”

After sharing the crocodile story with the group, Lee started “Mad Props” Fridays, a time when he congratulates the choirs and tells them what they’ve done well that week. It’s also a time when goals are set for the upcoming week. Usually a story or other funny happening is involved as a reward.

Anna Danciger | Harbinger Online

Junior Dani Mader, like many other choir students, enjoys the “Mad Props” Friday that Lee started. They’ve become something that is looked forward to each week.

“The ‘Mad Props’ of the Week really make us feel good and get us excited to work on a Friday,” Mader said. “Plus you never know what to expect from him and he’s one of the kindest student teachers I’ve ever met.”

Mader, who plans on studying the arts in college, thinks that Mr. Lee has been a valuable example for students who are thinking about teaching in the future.

“I love going to choir even more which I didn’t think was possible,” Mader said. “He’s an awesome teacher and is really inspiring. I want to be a fine arts teacher and he’s a really good example. He’s going places in life.”

Lee is thankful that his time at East went smoothly. He says that student teaching can often make or break a prospective teacher. Since it is the last chance to make up your mind, some people end up dropping out at the last moment.

“[Student teaching at East] really has secured me with this idea that I do want to become a teacher,” Lee said. “I look back and just think, if this wouldn’t have been a good experience, I could be changing the course of my life. But because it has, I’m ready for years in the future that maybe aren’t as good.”

Throughout his time at East, Lee has seen classroom ideology truly come to life.

“[In our educational classes] they said the number one thing you can do is just really get to know your students,” Lee said. “Whether or not you actually teach them anything should come secondary to you being involved in their lives.”

From Foley’s perspective, who has been teaching for years, student teachers can either help or hurt the classroom.

“[In] the immortal words of Forrest Gump, ‘Student teachers are sort of like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get,’” Foley said. “And it’s true, because if you get a bad student teacher it makes your life tougher, but if you get a good one it really helps. [Mr. Lee’s] really fun to work with, he’s been great.”

Reflecting on his time at East, Lee feels that he’s been impacted more than the students have been.

“I came here to teach all this stuff and I’m not sure I’ve taught anybody here anything, but I have learned so much about myself and about what it means to be a leader in the classroom,” Lee said. “I’m very, very excited to start teaching in my own classroom and just start changing lives, but we’ll see, because I came here to change lives and my life has been changed.”

***

Choir student teacher Nick Lee shares his thoughts about the Dec. 6 choir concert at East.

What was it like leading the students whom you’ve taught at the concert?

I thought kind of going into it, it was going to be this feeling of ultimate power, to have all these people watching you and waiting for you, but it’s actually — I found it to be a very humbling experience and I didn’t feel so much like a leader so much as just a member. I just very much felt like I was a part of this music and part of the sound and it was just really an incredible feeling; I’ve never felt like that before, so much of a whole. Definitely last night, especially, there was something much greater than the sum of our parts which I know is kind of modeled in this choir — many singers one voice — and that totally came out last night and I understood what that was about.

What was going through your mind, before and during the concert?

Before the concert I was just sick, I was just nervous. It’s one of those things, because I knew I was going to have a moment to say some ‘thank you’s on the microphone and I was just nervous about what I was going to say and how I was going to say it, and obviously you want to sound professional, but when I got up there, something else just took over. It wasn’t really me directing last night or leading it was just something greater working through me, and that was just an incredible feeling to just be on autopilot with the students.

How did you feel after the concert, once it was all over?

I was overwhelmed, and not merely from the concert, from a music standpoint, but just from the love that I received from the students here. It’s just an incredible feeling to have that much support from your students, and I just really felt lifted up last night. Having my parents here was incredible and just meeting the parents of the students afterwards just to say, they wanted to say thank you, you know, I feel like I should be the one thanking everyone here for letting me even come in and do this and have this experience, because it truly has been life changing.

What was your favorite part about the concert?

My favorite part about the concert, I would have to say, was at the end when I realized that it had all worked out exactly like it was supposed to. That’s not to say everything’s perfect, but just that everything worked out the way it was going to happen, and it was just a feeling of relief and a feeling of excitement. But just the accomplishment knowing that these students were willing to follow me from the beginning and we got to this point, and Mr. Foley gets to live that feeling all the time, which has really set my desire to be a teacher which is definitely, that is now concrete, that is what I want to do, as I want to build experience, that feeling of accomplishment when you have that many people all accomplishing together.

Kat Buchanan | Harbinger Online

These recent events in the media are only the jumping-off point for the conversation that administrators, students and professionals are having concerning students’ online conduct.

“I really think that if people become so aware of the negative side of social networking, it will implode itself–because no one will want to do it,” principal Karl Krawitz said. “I think people will back away from doing it, because there’s nothing out there to make them feel good about the way they can protect themselves.”

Dr. Krawitz has taken interest in the current lack of social media education among high school students for the upcoming spring semester. Dr. Krawitz said the administration has been sending out emails in hopes of bringing specialists into the school to present a new perspective on the world of social media, due to students’ lack of knowledge on acceptable online conduct.

“I think [students] somewhat still think that they’re confined in this vacuum that’s somewhat safe within the framework of individuals who they’re communicating with,” Dr. Krawitz said. “But it only takes one person to take that [username] and exploit it, at just the drop of a hat. Before you know it, anything you might have been saying about something or somebody is now everywhere.”

Similar to a panel of corporate specialists presented to the PTA this past semester, Dr. Krawitz hopes to bring in professionals to offer insight on social networking and how to operate within personal rights and ethics when using sites like Twitter and Facebook.

“I don’t see any downside to teaching social media etiquette,” attorney advocate at the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) Adam Goldstein said. “The wrinkle is that you always have the right to use bad etiquette. The school has the right to teach you what good etiquette is, but the only way to really learn a lesson like that is to have the option to do it wrong.”

Students do, however, already have that right, according to Goldstein. The online transgression has to be something illegal or an event that stops the operation of school–but, as Goldstein put it, “you can’t legally be punished for being disrespectful online.”

“First Amendment rights exist on social media,” Goldstein continued. “At least at the minimum, you have just as much right [to free speech] as you have sitting at home–legally, it’s the same as saying things out loud.”

Law professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC) June Carbone agrees, insisting that “posting offensive comments on Facebook is much like putting up a sign in your front yard”–it may be frowned upon, but you have every right to do it.

The administration’s concern lies in the fact that students are tweeting from school and school-sponsored events–not from home.

Students at East are allowed access to smart phones and electronic devices during passing period, lunch and before and after school–this, according to Krawitz, doesn’t likely deter students from using such technology during class hours.

“We all know that the system is so grossly abused,” Dr. Krawitz said. “Just like those who get to go out to lunch is abused–but we don’t have the personnel to manage it.”

Social networking during class can hold negative connotations from a student standpoint as well, providing an unwanted distraction from lesson plans. Junior Eden McKissick-Hawley feels that more than anything, social networking during class hours is counterproductive.

“Sometimes I think Twitter is a funny place where kids can say what’s on their mind,” McKissick Hawley said. “But there are a lot of negative repercussions that come when kids are reading what’s on Twitter more than they’re reading what’s in class–I think that, overall, it’s not a helpful thing for schools.”

However, high schools around the United States have taken strides toward embracing social media in the classroom setting, according to the New York Times–one of which is Silver Creek High School in Longmont, Colo.

“Silver Creek unblocked many social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, two years ago after recognizing that they could provide learning opportunities,” Phil Goerner, a librarian at Silver Creek told the New York Times in September.

Dr. Krawitz feels that the goings-on of social networking sites like Facebook are better practiced at home, hoping to keep home matters and school matters separate.

“It’s none of our business,” Dr. Krawitz said. “It’s none of our business what a person says, does, whatever. I think the only time [what a student does outside of school] becomes our business is if it’s happening out there and it’s affecting an individual here–and as a result of what’s said out there, it turns into something real, a disagreement here.”

His care for the matter does, however, detail the conduct of students when representing or reflecting the student body as a whole in any given setting.

“If they’re representing the school–anywhere, at any time–especially during the day hours, then those things fall under the guidelines of the school,” Dr. Krawitz said. “Whether it’s here in the actual building or somewhere else.”

Carbone says while there isn’t necessarily a concern with “image” when it comes to the reflection of the school, there is still the matter of correct behavior.

“I think that schools have some ability to insist on a behavior code for students that emphasizes consideration for others and appropriate behavior in public settings,” Carbone said.

The potential of actually writing up a social media policy–outlining rules for web usage during school hours and events–is not on the administration’s to-do list, according to Dr. Krawitz, due mainly to a lack of personnel and manageable technology. Students’ rights advocates also show opposition to a potential content-tracking system that would keep social networking content under the administration’s eye during school hours.

“The school can monitor whatever it wants, although, frankly, I find the idea of grown people spending time doing nothing but reading teenagers’ social media sites a little creepy,” Goldstein said. “But, if that’s what they think the best use of their time is, they are legally entitled to do it.”

The idea of a lockdown on web surfing receives negative responses from the students involved, as well as the administrators and professionals.

“I think if I knew that my school was looking over my shoulder at what I was saying online, I’d probably be more careful–but I’d also think that that’s not their place,” McKissick-Hawley said.

Dr. Krawitz is also opposed to strict monitoring of networking content. He feels that while implementing a social media policy for the district or even East is out of reach, the more effective way to enforce change is to educate the student body on the consequences associated with social media usage, to the best of the administration’s ability.

“Education’s job is to help students understand what they’re getting into,” Dr. Krawitz said.

Dr. Krawitz hopes to further the wave of social media knowledge by adding the topic to class curriculum.

“I could see it becoming a part of our Legal Studies program,” Dr. Krawitz said. “In all essence, because of the nature of it, I think it probably needs to be.”

Prior to last week, senior Emma Sullivan had never been to the principal’s office.

After tweeting “Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot,” from Topeka on the annual Youth in Government trip, Emma found herself face-to-face with SM East Principal Karl Krawitz upon returning to school.

“As Dr. Krawitz sat there and lectured me for thirty minutes, I realized that [getting in trouble] wasn’t right,” Emma said in an exclusive interview with Harbinger Online.

“What he kept saying to me was, ‘Are you listening to me? I don’t think you get it.’” Emma said. “I really wanted to say, ‘I don’t get it,’ because I was pretty sure I couldn’t get in trouble for tweeting something.”

Observers across the nation have voiced their opinions on the situation after it was reported that a staffer from Governor Sam Brownback’s office contacted Youth in Government officials who contacted Krawitz about the tweet in emails. Many sources also stated that Krawitz insisted upon an apology letter, a fact that Emma claims was fabricated.

According to Emma, Krawitz told her about the consequences of her tweet and told her about who would have to face the public on the issue. He suggested a letter of apology, but never required one. Sullivan thinks the sources that believed the letter was mandatory simply misunderstood her previous statements.

The main source of much of the initial publicity stems from Emma’s sister, Olivia Sullivan.

“As a family, we decided that I should contact the media to give Emma some voice,” Olivia said.

Olivia called area publications, including The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle, to alert them of the situation.

As the story was picked up by more publications, Emma saw her number of Twitter followers jump from 61 close friends to 12,000 people from all over the world. Emma thinks the jump in followers played a large role in the misunderstanding the tweet brought up.

“I feel bad in a way because I didn’t mean to put Dr. K in the middle of the situation.”

“In a way I wish I had changed my wording. At the time I only did have 60 followers and they were all my friends,” Emma said.  “Most of my friends aren’t into politics and if I had tweeted about this and that policy it would have been different. No one would have read it and no one would have cared. The way I worded it was towards my audience.”

After much apprehension, Brownback apologized on behalf of his staff, posting a statement on his website.

“My staff overreacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize,” Brownback said.

The Shawnee Mission School District also issued a statement.

“Whether and to whom any apologies are issued will be left to the individuals involved,” the release statement said.

Looking back, Emma recognizes how big the issue has become and how many people it has affected.

“I feel bad in a way because I didn’t mean to put Dr. K in the middle of the situation. I am trying to steer it away from him as much as possible.” Emma said. “People keep saying radical things about him getting fired but that is too extreme. What would you do if you were principal of a school and the governor of your state emailed you pointing out what one of your students said?”

Students held a rally to show support for their school and all students in the face of controversy.

Four boys, all in separate places, connected together by one thing: a song on the radio. The boys, more well known by their band’s name, Local Talk, listened to their track ”Electrocution,” on Alice 102 at 6 o’clock on Tuesday, Oct. 25. Local Talk, which consists of four male juniors, Max Braasch, Ian Harmon, Thomas Petrie and Gardner Grantham, have always been brought together by their music.

***

Local Talk has come a long way from the basement they started out playing in. In their year and a half of being together, the band has performed at events and venues in the community and recorded their debut album “Local Talk EP.”

Last year, they slaved away at an original album that they shared with their family and friends. Recently, one of the hosts of Alice 102 got a hold of the album and wanted to broadcast one of the songs. He called Grantham and asked him questions about their background and told them that Local Talk was going to be on the radio. This was the first time their song was played on a popular radio station at a prime time.

“I was so glad that our music finally went somewhere even if nothing came from it,” Grantham said.

The band was started by Harmon, Grantham and Braasch. Harmon and Grantham were starting to get involved with music and guitar lessons. They were playing around one day and had the idea of starting a band. They knew their friend Braasch played the drums so they talked it over and the idea was an overall success. The boys discussed with their friends that played instruments and after a long list of members, Local Talk had finally landed on their final four: Grantham, Harmon, Braasch and Thomas Petrie.

Ever since the band started, Harmon, Grantham and Braasch have been the only steady members. Petrie was added about a year and a half ago and Braasch believes this is the most cohesive group that Local Talk has been through.

“I think we all understand music equally, so we know what sounds good and what sounds bad,” Grantham said, “and we are all very accepting to new ideas of how to play something or write something.”

Watch Local Talk’s first place performance at last year’s Bunch of Bands competition.

Their understanding of each others’ music taste came from similar musical backgrounds. Harmon’s father was in a band, which gave him the desire to learn an instrument. Harmon started out playing the trombone; however, he believed that this instrument was not going to get him anywhere because he “felt too restricted.” He wanted to write his own music and be able to sing. In sixth grade, he decided to begin guitar lessons. He never had to be told to practice because he loved it so much, and did not get the chance to sing seriously until he joined choir at school, where he was able to experiment with professional music.

“I don’t want to be too cheesy, “ Harmon said, “but the reason I find music so intriguing is that it has been around for a long time and I think it is cool to know that you can shut the outside world off and play a piece of music written 500 years ago.”

For Braasch, this was not the first band he was ever a part of. In 2004, he started playing the drums and this was been the only real instrument that he has ever played. In elementary school, he was in a band that was basically run by the parents instead of the members. Braasch was not great friends with the members so he did not enjoy the experience. He gets along with the members of Local Talk so well that he enjoys going to practice and they are able to get all of their songs and rhythms done within a decent amount of time.

“The thing [about music] that intrigues me the most is that it is totally made by you and interpreted by you” Braasch said. “When writing a song you have total control over the music and that is pretty cool to do. There is so much music I listen to that there I always something new, which keeps it fresh and exciting.”

Petrie agrees that when he plays or listens to a song that he is feeling, everything stops and he is in his own world for those few minutes. Petrie believes that his musical taste comes form his family because his mother was a great musician. This led him to try playing a lot of instruments as a child before finding one he enjoyed: he started with violin and clarinet in elementary school, but was not inspired until seventh grade when he began taking guitar lessons.

“After taking lessons for a while, I played an acoustic version of “Read My Mind” by the Killers with my guitar teacher,” Petrie said. “I realized music was going to be one of the most important things in my life.”

Like Braasch, Grantham’s father listens to classic rock types of music, inspiring Gardner to do the same. The boys all share this musical taste and understand music equally, a key factor in the group’s ability to succeed. They have known each other since elementary school so they’re aware of how to act around one another in order to get work done.

“We all know what sounds good and what sounds bad,” Grantham says. “We are all very accepting to new ideas how to play something or write something.”

As of now, Local Talk performs at private parties and events through the school and community. They played at a basketball tournament at East, First Fridays at the Crossroads in downtown KC and runs like the Dragon Dash and Trolley Run. Their favorite event was at this year’s Bunch of Bands competition at East because the whole crowd was into the performance and they were pumped up. They tied for first place at the competition, which is just another step forward for this local band.

The band has been recording their second album over the past couple weeks. All of their songs are original and a collaborative effort within the group. One of them may come up with a beat or verse and they all bounce ideas off of each other. According to Petrie, none of them are afraid to correct each other or share their opinions. They believe it is constructive criticism and they are able to improve from each others’ input.

The group is unsure about their future and are just “going with the flow,” according to Harmon. Local Talk is considered a fun thing to do for the members and they are wanting to work hard this upcoming album. They are planning on spending more focus this time around on recording and producing a really well thought out album.

“I want to keep playing with these guys for as long as possible” Braasch said. “Obviously with college creeping up we may be separated from one another but nothing is for sure.”

Watch Local Talk at last year’s Coalition Love 146 concert.

Junior Shane Parcels works on his trapshooting skills at Powder Creek, the shooting range he practices at.

Junior Shane Parcels jr. was four when he shot his first gun. He was in the backyard of his Overland Park home on the Fourth of July holding the gun his dad, Shane Parcels sr., bought in 1989 at a mall in Wyandotte County. Shane sr. was supporting his back so he wouldn’t fall down from the recoil the gun puts out after it is shot.

“It is fun, getting out and getting away from everyday life, and getting to do things that not everyone gets the opportunity to do,” Shane jr. said.

Shane jr. is now mainly competing on the local stage in trapshooting participating in competitions all over Missouri and Kansas. From the fall handicap in Kansas to competing in the Ozarks or Wichita about once every month. To the World Championships in Illinois.

The competition circuit goes year-round. Parcels sometimes shoots every weekend for three months, to not competing for three to four weeks at a time. The schedule he maintains makes it difficult to keep up with his Advanced Placement school work.

“It is really hard to find that balance and then I start freaking out because I’m not getting all my work done and the more stressed I am, the worse I shoot,” Shane jr. said.

Parcels began competing in trapshooting his freshman year. He competes with five friends from his shooting range, Powder Creek, in Lenexa. During competitions, the teammates each stand at different stations and shoot clay pigeons that fly in different directions. They then rotate until each person has competed at each station.

“I like it because it is an individual challenge,” Shane jr. said. “You get one shot and if you mess it up then you don’t get another chance.”

Parcels has competed in shooting competitions referred to as shoots in the zone, or regional shoots and state shoots. He has even made it to World Championships twice in just three years of shooting competitively. In one round of competitions alone, Parcels shot against people from Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland and New Zealand.

“I couldn’t understand a word they said,” Shane jr. said. “But the whole thing was a fun experience.”

Shane jr. has done well on both the local and world stages when it comes to trapshooting, placing second in state and his team placing in the top 50 at the world competition. According to Shane jr. a big part of that is attributed to his coach Kevin Malone and his dad. To Shane sr. shooting has been a place for them to build a relationship and memories.

“I was proud seeing him run his first perfect round of 25 straight,” Shane sr. said. “It was super big to me because it took a lot of time and effort to get there.”

Last May Shane jr. competed in the Youth Hunters Education Challenge where he was challenged in areas of archery, shotgun shooting, 22 millimeter rifle shooting, orienteering, and wildlife identification. Shane jr. had never participated in a competition in archery or orienteering or wildlife before. However, he took first place. To Shane sr. this was one of the proudest moments he has of Shane jr.

“I thought he would do well in some of the areas like shooting,” Shane sr. Said. “But I didn’t expect him to do that well in all of the areas.”

Shane jr. says, shooting isn’t just a physical sport, it is also a mind game. According to him, the key to shooting well is to have the right mindset. From the time he goes to bed the night before a competition to the standing on the sidelines waiting for his turn, he feels he has to stay optimistic about his scores. However, often he can get distracted by school work and all of the stress of that is associated with that.

“You have to go to bed the night before in a mindset that you are going to come out tomorrow and shoot upper 90 scores and you are going to shoot perfect rounds,” Shane jr. said. “You have to wake up in that same mindset and you can’t let anything distract you.”

Shane jr. not only shoots competitively, he is also an avid hunter. Parcels shoots both with guns and bows, however he prefers the bow because of the challenge it poses. In the past five years, Parcels has missed only three weekends of deer season. The season lasts for three months.

“[Deer hunting] is one of those things where you can go weeks without seeing one then out of nowhere you have one walk out in front of you and you get all shaky and excited,” Shane jr. said.

To Shane jr., shooting is not a “cheap man’s sport.” On an easy day of competition shooting Parcels can spend upwards of $200 on shells alone. The cost of shells, entering the competition and the gun itself adds up to the cost of his sport.

“At a competition you have guys carrying around$30,000-$40,000 shotguns,” Shane jr. said. “Shooting is a pre-madonna, rich person’s sport.”

Shane jr. hopes to have a bright future with his competitive shooting. Shane jr. plans on applying to West Point Academy and one day joining the army. If he doesn’t get accepted into his school of choice he plans on attending a school with a shooting team such as Norwich University.

“I will probably go to college based upon it,” Shane jr. said. “If I don’t make it I’ll still shoot for fun, but I doubt they will let me keep my guns in my dorm.”

Shane jr. says, shooting is also way to blow off steam and relax at the end of the day. Whether he is shooting lying on his back on a rack holding the gun behind his head or shooting in the woods with his dad Parcels enjoys it.

“[Shooting] is a feeling of excitement, relief, adrenaline and happiness all mixed into one,” Shane jr. said. “It’s like driving really fast, you can’t explain it, but it is a good feeling.”

Hiba Akhtar | Harbinger Online

Corinne straps on Brady’s blue bib, twists the lid off the jar and scoops out a spoonful. She then helps open Brady’s mouth, slides the spoon in and waits until she swallows. She then turns her attention the the TV and watches “The Office” for a few minutes until Brady has burped; if she tries to feed her before that, she’ll throw up. Corinne repeats until an hour has passed and there isn’t a scrap left in the jar.

Trisomy 18, or Edward’s Syndrome, is a genetic disorder that causes complete dependency on other people to take care of them. People living with Trisomy 18 cannot speak for themselves, feed themselves or even walk. According to PubMed Health, 50 percent of children born with this disease don’t make it past their first week, and those who do make it to teenage years live with serious medical conditions and developmental problems, rarely making it to adulthood.

In the Stratton family’s eyes, this makes Brady a miracle.

“I kind of started preparing [to lose Brady,] but that was just hard because it was when we were after delivery, and you know a mom is so emotional,” Kim Stratton, Corinne and Brady’s mother, said. “It was an older man doctor. He said, ‘you need to prepare yourself because she’s not going to live past a couple weeks’ so it was very emotional. It made me thankful that we had her.”

Brady was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 three days before she was born. According to Kim, doctors had seen small red flags throughout the pregnancy, such as an abnormal amount of fluid in the womb and low weight of the fetus, but were only able to confirm the diagnosis near the end of the pregnancy due to lack of medical technology during that time.

“We got our emotions out that day of course,” Kim said. “It was nice to be able to have that time before she came.  I’ve heard [stories about] other Trisomy 18s who didn’t know the results [prior.] So we just had our cries.”

Despite their five year age difference, Corinne has always felt like the older sister. During childhood, she was often jealous of the amount of attention Brady received. Corinne was especially resentful when Brady got to share a bed with Kim, who decided she needed to be with her in case Brady had a seizure. As Corinne grew up, those feelings of jealousy began to fade, and she began to warm up to Brady.

Corinne even babysits, which doesn’t take much more than just sitting in the same room with her to keep an eye on her. When in the mood, Corinne will play music from “High School Musical” and dance around Brady in the living room to get her to laugh.

“I guess it doesn’t seem like she’s an older sister really. It’s like taking care of a little sister, or even a baby,” Corinne said. “You have to feed her and she can’t get dressed on her own, so you have to do everything for her because she doesn’t understand.”

Taking on the role of Brady’s favorite babysitter has come with its benefits, according to Corinne. She has evolved into a much more nurturing and empathetic person because of having Brady in her life.

“It’s easy to see how much she loves us,” Corinne said. “She gives us hugs and shows us how she loves us and that’s taught me a lot of care. I know I can be more caring because of her. I think [what I’ve learned from taking care of her] does make me a more caring person because I’ve known how to do that.”

Without Brady, the Strattons know they would be a completely different family. Brady has brought them together, especially with the responsibility of caring for her. The Strattons switch off responsibilities with Brady like feeding, waking her up and putting her to bed, and dressing her. By seeing the way Brady lives happily, though it may not be like most people do, she has taught them to keep a wide perspective on certain things in life, have empathy, especially for families in similar situations, and humility.

“We wouldn’t be the same family if we didn’t have [Brady,]” Kim said. “When you’re down and depressed, she helps us look at life with gratitude. I think we’re more nurturing, definitely a nurturing family.”

With their very structured schedule, everyday life for the Strattons is quite a bit different from typical families. Feeding Brady takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, and she needs to be put sleep at certain times everyday, or else she’ll get cranky and start screaming. This restricts them from doing things in public very often, like going out for dinner together or taking vacations.

“[The worst part is] not being able to go as a family all together just out,” Kim said. “She can’t regulate her body temp, so with certain weather we can’t take her out. So, because of her needs, we have to sacrifice our wants a lot of times. So I think that’s taught us about our faith.”

After Brady was born, each of them were tested for being carriers of Trisomy 18 and both Brad and Kim turned out negative. For this reason, during Brady’s first few years, they began to question their faith and grew farther away from God.

“My parents, I’m sure Brad’s parents too, they were kind of doubting God,” Kim said. “So I remember talking to my mom and they were questioning God, like ‘why is this happening to us?’ It kind of made me think that I wasn’t the only one [thinking that].”

After just a few years of living with Brady, the Strattons had a change of heart. They began to realize the value of having Brady in their lives and how much of a blessing she was. They began to notice little things, like how, despite her disability, Brady knows who her family is. When she sees someone she recognizes as her family, Brady will reach her arms out and pull them close to her and a big grin spreads across her face. Even when her family’s car pulls into her driveway she’ll start laughing happily because she knows that she is home.

“Over the years, I really feel like our families have seen why God blessed us with her and how she is like a gift that he gave us,” Kim said. “She has a purpose in our life, and I feel like she has brought us closer to God. I don’t know if we would be the same person if we did not have her. She brings so much unconditional love.”

Brady has specifically taught Corinne how to have strong faith and to be thankful for each day she gets to spend with Brady.

“There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with [Brady],” Corinne said. “And my faith would definitely be different if I didn’t have that to really be thankful for, like God chose us to take care of her and have that really big responsibility.”

For now, the Strattons are looking at every day they get to spend with Brady as a blessing and not something that they just have to deal with.

“Corinne used the word ‘gift,’ and we’ve always looked at it that way,” Brad said. “But it’s a gift with responsibilities. The best gifts are the ones that are truly unique, but in this case the uniqueness comes with responsibility of caring for her.”

Most game nights, to get a seat in the gym, you had to arrive by the fourth quarter of the JV game, and that’s just for the parents and middle school kids. The student section regularly filled up their allotment of seating stretching into the north bleachers. With not an empty seat in the gym, the Lancers possessed an unfair home court advantage.

The reason for all of those packed bleachers? The administration gave the student body freedom, encouraging them to be actively involved in the game and allowed them to actually enjoy the experience. Each basketball game it was tradition for several seniors to dress up in costumes–the student section was led by Santa Claus, Big Bird, inflatable cows and other characters. With an unlimited arsenal of chants and cheers, the student section was in unison and entirely involved; even the middle school section contributed. Almost all of the cheers were aimed at the opponent and their student body. Although the old cheers may have been a little more “aggressive,” they brought together the student section in ways that today’s chants can’t match. And I can assure you, none of those “that’s on you” chants were anything a Raider basketball player or Rockhurst fan lost sleep over.

With the fan experience being one that didn’t include being hassled by the faculty, basketball games marked the best time of the year to be a Lancer.

But over the last few years, the administration has put a stranglehold on the student section and it is sucking the life out of it.

No longer can seniors dawn the front row representing Santa Clause, no longer can the students respond to the endless personal cheers from the Rockhurst students and hence no longer can the fans give their team a home court advantage. That is unless you want to get escorted out of the building. Doesn’t that sound fun freshmen?

Because of this radical censorship, the turnout has dwindled and the incentive to stay for the whole game has gone away, making the 4th quarter the popular time to get on with the rest of the students’ Friday night plans. Even with the football team on the brink of winning their first playoff game since 2001, the student section began to shrink well before the game was over.

Although the last couple basketball teams haven’t been what East has been used to, the dissipated support hasn’t helped.

With the basketball season opening just a week from tomorrow, the administration has the opportunity to bring back the culture and atmosphere that surrounded the basketball team just a few years ago. But to get there, the radical censorship must stop.

During the last couple basketball seasons, the muzzle has tightened only allowing “positive encouragement” from the student section, and the line between acceptable and not has become very gray.

With all cheers directed at the opposing team being outlawed, despite being non-malicious like “air-ball” and “you let the whole team down,” the student body has gotten monotonous with their cheers due to their small range of creative freedom given to them by the administration. Although the support was strong for the football season, the basketball season is entirely different with the close proximity to the players and the opposing fans.

A home court advantage is made by the fans’ ability to intimidate the opposing team, but how can that be done with a half empty student section that is only allowed to encourage their own team?

Sure, games against Rockhurst do and always will draw the full student section, but it used to be that during that game both student bodies would go blow-for-blow throughout the game with their cheers. But the last couple years, we haven’t been able to respond. From a fan standpoint, it has gotten almost entirely one-sided with the private Jesuit school left with no restrictions. Despite all of Rockhursts’ cheers being in good fun, I think I speak for the student body when I say it is embarrassing to be left so defenseless.

There is a line that needs to be drawn by the administration to prevent altercations after the game and public embarrassment, but that line is far from where it is now.

With the basketball team being poised to have a great season, the perfect time to bring back the passion and enthusiasm that used to surround East basketball games is now.

I understand that the administration wants to prevent any violent altercations while upholding the school’s image, but in no way should our sporting events be ran with a dictator’s mentality. It isn’t necessary, never in my four years of East sporting events have I seen a student from another section leave the stadium crying or shaken because of a chant, they know it’s not personal and just a facet of high school sporting events.

With the first game only about a week away, the administration owes it to the students and the basketball team to give the fans just a little more freedom.

Whether you’re a newcomer to the Muppets or you’ve loved them since early childhood, the franchise revival “The Muppets” is guaranteed to make you feel like a giddy, carefree kid in the company of your favorite group of fuzzy characters all over again. So genuine and innocent are its intentions that you’ll forget the cynicism of the real world (and of the weighty awards pictures too, for that matter) as you become wrapped up in its unconventional wit, catchy musical numbers and overwhelming enthusiasm.

Over 35 years of Muppet shows and films, from classics like “The Muppet Movie” to “The Muppet Christmas Carol” have nearly always delivered great entertainment that’s enjoyable for the entire family–yet this installment accomplishes an even greater feat. Not only is it a respectful tribute and spot-on continuation of the series, but it also addresses the waning cultural relevance of the Muppets. It’s able to reignite the love many fans had for them while they were younger and makes Muppets popular again, providing an extremely clever and surprisingly heartwarming adventure that’s one of the year’s best comedies.

It begins with the introduction of two lively brothers growing up together as devoted fans of “The Muppet Show”: Gary (Jason Segel) and Walter (voiced by Peter Linz), who’s a Muppet himself. When invited to join Gary and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) on a trip to Los Angeles for their 10-year anniversary, Walter becomes ecstatic to tour the old “Muppet Show” theater there. Upon arrival, however, they discover the theater totally dilapidated and learn that ruthless oil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) plans to excavate the site for oil once the title deed expires in several days.

Unwilling to stand by and let this happen, Walter, Gary and Mary locate Kermit the Frog and convince him to get the old crew back together, all the Muppets proving as happy to reunite with each other as viewers are to see them return to the big screen. After assembling everyone (there are just enough Muppets to satisfy all viewers without losing focus on the notable characters), they all join efforts to put on one final show, hoping to raise the $10 million needed to buy back their theater before time runs out.

Muppet movies are known for their endearingly silly, tongue-in-cheek style of humor, and like the previous films, this one is quite a refreshing change of pace from the vulgarity and unoriginality of typical comedies. Its self-aware nature and the sincerity with which it embraces its own ridiculousness offer flourishes of audacious comic genius rarely seen in blockbusters anymore.

The menacing Chris Cooper even breaks into a rap at one point, with sing-a-long lyrics at the bottom of the screen. This wry sense of humor permeates the musical numbers too, from the huge dance group collapsing in exhaustion after finishing the big opener, to songs like “Man or Muppet,” which involves Segel belting out about an unusual identity crisis of his.

An avid fan of the Muppets himself, Segel is actually the one responsible for convincing Disney to resurrect the franchise, and he co-wrote the film with Nicholas Stoller. His kind, clueless demeanor is charming as always here, though more exaggerated and simplified than usual to keep with the innocent tone. Similarly, Amy Adams is a total sweetheart, like a more subdued version of her vivacious character in “Enchanted.” Chris Cooper is the real treat among the humans however, exuding villainy with cool wickedness and a slightly corny side. Anytime his evil plan is coming together, he just says “maniacal laugh” repeatedly, and it’s hilarious.

But this is a Muppet film after all, so naturally they’re the main source of humor and the ones we really care about. Wise leader Kermit, cheesy Fozzie Bear, over-the-top Gonzo, wild drummer Animal, sassy Miss Piggy and new addition Walter give the film its true heart, struggling with unexpectedly deep themes for a family movie.

Sure, Walter’s search for where he belongs in the world is simple enough for the kids to understand, but Kermit and Piggy’s faded love for each other feels quite adult. Even more complex is how the Muppets have drifted apart as friends and have been virtually forgotten by the rest of the world, but reconnect as they try to save their legacy and fulfill their passions to entertain people one last time. With such sympathetic, detailed characterization, as well as sublime manipulation of each Muppet, these characters easily transcend their inanimate confines and seem more like living, breathing creatures.

Safe to say, they accomplish their goal to delight viewers, and with resounding success. It’s clear the Muppets haven’t been forgotten by Hollywood, evidenced by more cameos than you can keep track of–from Jack Black to Neil Patrick Harris, Mickey Rooney to Selena Gomez. All the famous actors that show up to support these lovable oddballs stand as a testament to the special place the Muppets hold in many people’s hearts, showing that this franchise of nostalgic, unadulterated fun is alive and well.

The results are as followed:

Jackson Granstaff was bought for 110 cans by Allie Mellor.
Ben Tschudy was bought for 95 cans by Annie Kuklenski and Lindley Savage.
Morgan Twibell was bought for 110 cans by Michael Mansfield.
Victoria Sabates was bought for 100 cans by Lily Fritts.
Troy Wilkins was bought for 110 cans by Lacey Gasaway.
Will Cray and Nick Kraske were for 500 cans by Chloe Hubler and Grace Pickell.
Jeri Freirich was bought for 305 cans by Paige Hess.
Brennan Williams was bought for 120 cans by Halle O’Neil.
Helena Buchman was bought for 170 cans by Jacob Lanan.
Joel Anderson was bought for 300 cans by Gabby Magalski.
Grant Kendall was bought for 371 cans by Paloma Gustafson-Ika.
Lanie Leek was bought for 140 cans by Tori Holt.
Emily Frye was bought for 255 cans by Ben Randolph.

Every two cans is equal to $1.

Grayson’s Solo Performance

Not since she got pregnant.

Today, Anna is on her way to one of the many weekly doctor appointments where they check on her baby boy that she’s been carrying for seven months.

Every day of those past seven months, Anna has reflected back on the circumstances.

It was spring break; Anna was staying at a friend’s house. Her parents were out of town. Anna and her friends had people over to the house everyday. She wasn’t dating anyone at the time. Things had been “complicated” with the same guy for a while. Anna doesn’t recall when they used protection and when they didn’t. It was all a blur.

Spring break ended, and Anna’s normal schedule resumed. Waking up early, going to school, and hanging out with her friends. But one thing was off. Her period was two weeks late.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” Anna said. “I was stubborn and just thought ‘it’s not going to happen to me, it wont, it can’t.’”

Later on that week, two of Anna’s close friends, junior Mackenzie Bridges and SM West junior Taylor Sheets, dragged her to the local grocery store to get a pregnancy test.

“She was really hesitant about it, and we wanted to be sure,” Bridges said. “At first we tried to make her go to a clinic, but she was really worried about that so we just got [a test] from the grocery store.”

They were worried, and Anna had mixed emotions flooding her brain. On the outside, she made it seem like she didn’t believe that she might actually be pregnant; on the inside, she was questioning herself. She didn’t know what to think; she needed to take that test to be sure.

She took the first one in the grocery store bathroom. The pink smiley face indicated it was positive.

“It came out positive so fast, in a snap, I looked at it and just started laughing,” Anna said. “I didn’t think it was true—I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen.”

She saw it and burst out laughing, but when she looked at her friends, their faces were lined with concern. She didn’t know how to handle it. Her friends were unsure at this point. They bought another test.

Positive again. There weren’t any laughs after this test. The only thing she knew to do at that point was cry.

“It didn’t even feel real because I didn’t have any symptoms, it was just like everyone was telling me this and that–and I had to believe it,” Anna said.

When all of the pregnancy tests Ignatovich took turned out positive, she struggled for a week and a half thinking of ways she would tell her mother. She didn’t want to have to watch her mom’s face as she broke the news to her. She didn’t want to see disappointment or anger. Later on in the week, Anna left her a note on her mom’s bed and then went straight to her friends house to spend the night.

Anna’s nerves were on edge when she saw her mom’s number appear on her cell phone that night. She answered it with trembling hands. Her mom wanted her to come home so they could talk in person about the note left on the bed.

“She was afraid to tell me in person about the pregnancy, because she thought I would scream and yell. It was shocking, but I was never angry,” Anna’s mother Olga Ignatovich said.

After the talk with her mom, the two decided to go to the doctors office to make sure the pregnancy was real. When they found out it was, Anna had to look at her options.

She never considered abortion; it was just something she didn’t believe in since she was brought up in a Christian household, and adoption was out of the question, too. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life thinking about all of the “what-ifs.” Olga was surprised to see Anna making such a mature decision to keep the baby. She took pride in the fact that her daughter was growing up.

“She wanted to keep the baby and take all responsibility,” Olga said. “She didn’t want to give him up.”

The pregnancy has taken a lot from Anna. Coffee: she can’t drink her number one tool to staying awake on early school mornings anymore because it’s bad for the baby. Appearance: It has transformed. Anna doesn’t fit into her snug shirts and skinny jeans anymore. Her stomach now feels rock hard, and it feels like she is always “full.” It hurts when the baby kicks, but it’s a good hurt. Relationships: She has had to realize who her true friends are after hearing some of her closest friends didn’t support her decision in keeping the baby.

“I cried at the beginning,” Anna said. “Everyone tells me ‘you’re not gonna make it’, ‘you’re gonna fail in school’ and I’m just trying to prove them all wrong.”

Anna has been through highs and lows. Some days she is very optimistic, she pushes aside all of the looks and stares she receives.

But there are other days. When Anna was at Price Chopper last month, an old lady came up to her and asked her all about the baby, but when Anna told her she is only 17, she rolled her eyes and walked away.

Those are the times Anna feels like she’s just been punched in the gut.

But Anna has proved to herself and the people around her that she is going to be able to handle this “pregnant teenager thing.”

Anna has been doing online school. It gets lonely though. It’s just her and the computer for five hours, four days a week. A friend or two will come visit on school days occasionally, but other than that it’s just her. After she finishes her classes, she will clean the house, do the dishes, and make a nice lunch for herself. She says she’s starting to feel like a “housewife,” something that she thinks will come in handy in a few months.

She is showing people that she isn’t just a kid anymore; that she has responsibilities now. She has to be careful about who and what she surrounds herself with, which means no more parties and no more sleepovers with all of her friends.

“She has definitely grown up a lot,” Bridges said. “She still jokes and has her same personality, but I can tell she’s learned that she can’t just party and be with friends all the time. She knows she has to grow up. She’s already gotten there and she hasn’t even had the baby yet.”

Anna feels as if her whole life is changing. She has to eat, breathe, and think for two instead of one now. She’s changed the way she treats her schoolwork. She used to push off homework to the last minute, but now she finishes up one of her online classes and studies and does her homework right away. She wants to try her hardest and do her best for the baby’s sake.

Anna is embracing the fact that her experience will help her become a stronger person in the long-run; she just wants to raise her son as best as she can and with all of the support she is receiving from her friends and family she knows that a lot of people “have her back.”

“I just don’t want people to feel pity for me,” Anna said. “I just feel like everyone thinks things like ‘why didn’t she give it up for adoption’, ‘why didn’t she get an abortion’, and I just don’t want them looking down on me. Maybe it was a sign from God, maybe it wasn’t. I just want to make the best of it.’”

It was a cool, windy Saturday night in Colombia, MO last November when freshman Jake Hansford and his friends finished up an intense motocross practice, and decided to have some extra fun on their bikes.

Hansford was jumping off of a ramp and performing mid-air tricks when something went wrong.

He botched the landing, and within a split-second, he thrown from his bike and onto the ground. He tumbled down the landing ramp, and felt a jolting sensation coming up his leg. When he finished rolling, he could feel the rough dirt against his back. He looked down to the location of his pain, and saw his leg, broken in half.
***
Hansford got into motocross in fourth grade with a friend from SM Northwest, Aaron Okrzesik. They both had gotten lower-level bikes for fun, and would speed up and down the neighborhood streets racing each other. After a few weeks, they got bored with their street, and wanted to actually try legitimate racing, on real dirt tracks. Soon after, Okrzesik’s parent took them out to a track in Perry Lake, MO. This is where Hansford fell in love with the sport.

He rode on his lower-level ‘pit bike’ for one month before his mother bought him a race bike as a gift.

“One day when I went over to a friend’s house, my friend raised his garage door and there was a new racing bike sitting there. I said, ‘Oh, cool man…you got another bike.’ And my friend said, ‘It’s yours,’” Hansford said. “I guess my mom and his dad had gone and picked one out for me earlier that day as a present.”

Motocross became Hansford’s main pastime, and later that year, he started competing in the Missouri state championship series. On Friday nights, he and his family would drive a while out to a track and spend the night with the other families, camping out in the crisp Midwestern air, telling stories and roasting marshmallows around a bonfire. Then, in the morning, all of the participants would unload their hulking trailers and the kids would race throughout the morning.

Hansford did this for the next four years and motocross became his life. The accident changed everything.

It was his last jump of the day, and he planned on doing one more jump before he headed home. He and the other riders were competing in a playful “biggest whip” competition, similar to the popular long, trick-filled jumps seen on the X Games. The rider would do tricks by turning the bike sideways or flicking the tail out as far as possible, then straighten out and land before touching down on the other side.

Hansford was tired from the long day of practice and got lazy when correcting the landing. At the end of the jump, he didn’t straighten the bike back as far as he needed to, and was launched at the ground sideways, bouncing and somersaulting down the other side of the dirt landing pad. His bike flew from his grasp and during the flipping, his leg hit the ground at high speed at an awkward angle, and it broke.

“I kinda felt my leg break, and I flipped for so long that I had time to think ‘Why am I still flipping?’” Hansford said.

Having broken his ribs, elbow, wrist, puncturing one of his lungs and receiving countless concussions before, Hansford was no stranger to pain.

After he came to a stop on the dirt, his dad rushed over and asked if he was all right. Hansford simply replied:

“Well, my leg’s broke.”

The break was obvious to see, because the bottom half of his leg dangled at an awkward angle from the rest of his knee. After an hour or so, they went to the hospital and got an x-ray. It turned out that he had broken his tibia and fibula in half, and he couldn’t leave the hospital for the next four days.

Hansford wasn’t able to get out of his bed much for the first month, and had to stay at home most of the time when he wasn’t at school. His mobility was very limited.

“My mom and dad didn’t even let me go up the stairs at my house, so I had to stay on the ground floor,” he said.

Hansford’s parents thought he might not be able to walk again because of how messy the break was. The doctors were unsure about how things would turn out.

In a surgical procedure to correct the damage the break had done, doctors inserted a metal plate with seven screws into his leg. He recovered quickly, and was given a six month recovery time that after he could return back to motocross.

Through this whole time, his parents had mixed feelings.

His father thought he was exaggerating.

“It can’t be that bad,” he’d say, “You should be fine.”

His mother, on the other hand, asked “Okay, so are you ready to quit now?”

Both of his parents have been extremely supportive throughout his career, they just showed it differently.

“My mom was trying to keep me off my bike, while my dad was trying to keep me on my bike,” Hansford said.

When there was a week or so left, he hadn’t been in very much pain, and decided to go out riding. He was happy to be back doing what he loved, but his enjoyment was short-lived.

That day, he took a ramp with too much speed and overshot the landing, causing him to slam into the ground. When this happened, one of the seven screws created a hairline fracture in his leg.

“It hurt worse than the first time,” Hansford said, “I couldn’t hold my leg out straight because it felt like it was going to snap off.”

He was given another six month recovery period, and this time he didn’t ride early, in fear of worsening his injury even further.

He hasn’t raced since he got the plate removed, and is eager to get back into the danger of the sport he loves.

“The speed, the jumps, the thrill of the race, winning,” Hansford said, “That’s what makes riding worth the risk.”

Six months from his last accident, Hansford is ready to get back to motocross. To prepare for the next season in May, Hansford is planning on taking time practicing down in Texas and Oklahoma to get back into the swing of things. But more important than the opportunity to compete, he’s just happy he gets to ride again.
***
Footage of Jake Hansford on the motorcross track.

All the places Frommer’s named make KC a wonderful place to travel to, but there are also things that some travel guidebooks may overlook. When I think of KC, I don’t necessarily think of museums. I think of a combination of my favorite local restaurants and more well-known destinations. Here are seven reasons that contribute to the magic of KC and reasons why I think KC deserves that top 10 spot in the world, from a local perspective. These seven things make KC the Kansas City I know and love, a point of view no travel magazine could capture.

The Plaza
The Country Club Plaza is known beyond KC for its beautiful architecture and abundance of shopping. I love the Plaza for both of these reasons, but I also treasure it for the festivities associated with it.

The Plaza art fair, in late September, is nationally known. The entire Plaza transforms with restaurants setting up stalls outside and stores opening their doors to the fresh air and friendly chatter. The sidewalks and streets are packed with families experiencing unique art in a beautiful atmosphere.

In the winter, there is the Plaza Lighting Ceremony. The local singers and dancers showcase KC talent and at the flip of a switch iconic towers and buildings are lit with rainbow lights. The experience is magical and exemplifies the grandeur of the Plaza.
The Plaza helps make KC great because it brings the city together with its accessibility and far reaching events.

Classic Cookie
Classic Cookie is a little known café in Waldo with a cozy feel and KC’s best pastries. Whereas most residents of KC recognize Panera as a great lunch spot, Classic Cookie is lesser known, but just as good. Since I was little, my mom and I have gone to Classic Cookie for special treats and now I make sure to show my friends my favorite café when we’re looking for somewhere to eat.

Classic Cookie makes KC special because it has a charming atmosphere nestled into a quaint nook. Although it is not known city-wide, it is a classic to those lucky customers who hear about or stumble upon this adorable bistro.

Classic Cookie serves some of the best breakfast and lunch in KC as far as I’m concerned, but what sets it apart from other cafés is the assortment of mouth-watering cookies. The Classic Cookie bakes all the classics, and some with slight variations such as my personal favorite: chocolate chocolate chip. The cookies may sound ordinary, but they are soft and bursting with homemade flavor.

Four Seasons
Not only does KC have terrific restaurants and destinations, but the atmosphere itself is noteworthy. KC has about equal lengths of each season and varies from freezing cold to 100+ degree days. The four seasons are special to KC, not many other popular cities are lucky enough to experience all the seasons in such extremes.

Without the seasons, everything there is to do in KC would not be possible. The Plaza would not be the same in winter without the snow swirling as the lights are turned on. Farmer’s markets wouldn’t have the same draw if you could experience them throughout the day instead of waking early on summer mornings to beat the rush. The variety of weather is what gives KC a background for all of its wonderful components.

Oklahoma Joes
Unlike the other local restaurants, Oklahoma Joes is known beyond KC, and for good reason. KC is known for its barbecue, and Oklahoma Joes is the epitome of delicious barbecue, having won numerous awards for its meat and sauces. The restaurant’s location in a gas station and humble atmosphere portray the KC home-town, down-to-earth feel. Despite its popularity, Oklahoma Joes is not outrageously priced.

The locale is secondary to the food though. Pretty much anything ordered at Oklahoma Joes will make your taste buds tingle, but the beef brisket and the pulled pork (the house specialty), are the must-tries. Simple sides including French fries and potato salad compliment the tender, flavorful meat.

City Market
The City Market in the Rivermarket district draws people from all over KC, which is what makes it one of the best places in the area. The City Market offers a wide range of products from fresh produce to exotic spices. It has a wild tang to it, but at the same time a homey feel due to all of the fresh produce grown by local farmers. I love the fact that you have to wake up early in the summer to get there before the sun is scorching hot. The variety of fresh, juicy fruits and vegetables available for taste tests, friendly vendors and crowded walkways is a sensory overload, in a good way.

The City Market is a notable KC destination because of how it combines the diversity of the area with the home-town feel. The various sides of KC blend seamlessly into a colorful, delicious Farmer’s market.

Winstead’s
It was only recently that I learned that Winstead’s is a franchise particular to KC. This knowledge made me appreciate my favorite restaurant for summer nights and pre-MORP dinners that much more. Winsteads opened its first location on the Plaza in 1940. Winsteads’ KC roots, unique diner-style atmosphere and classic food make it a legendary KC landmark that was necessary to my list.

The food and atmosphere make Winsteads special; there are no other restaurants I’ve been to that have a working jukebox and mint-green vinyl booths. Stepping into Winsteads brings familiarity and a KC hometown feel. The food is still relatively cheap and the cheeseburgers, onion rings and milkshakes can be described as nothing less than American classics. Winsteads is a landmark in KC that travelers could easily pass by if they had not heard of it, but KC residents recognize it for its virtue.

Murrays
Murray’s Ice Cream and Cookies is a hidden gem within Westport. The average tourist would not know about Murray’s, which is what makes it that much sweeter. Off the beaten path, Murray’s is popular with KC locals for its ice cream, cookies and soda fountain specialties such as malts, sundaes and phosphates. The ice cream and cookies are made on the premises and the ice cream flavors vary depending on the day. One of the more creative and delicious flavors is de‘mint’ed.

Because it is not a chain, Murray’s can be pricey, but it is worth the extra dollar to taste the original flavors and experience the family atmosphere. As a popular ice cream shop for locals, Murray’s adds spunk and tradition to KC.

He showed up early to practices and pushed himself as hard as he could. He remembers seeing the seniors practice and seeing how they pushed each other and worked hard day in and day out. He saw them as kids he could look up to and try to emulate. When all the seniors lined up with their families to be honored on senior night, a night where all the senior athletes on their respective sports team are recognized for their hard work, Rose saw it as a destination–he wanted to be standing in that place at the end of his senior season. But he could ever get there, he was going to have to prove himself to the coaches. He got a chance to do so when he was called to the scout team, which practiced with the varsity team, when he was a sophomore.

“We would just get drilled every practice,” Rose said. “The players were all bigger than us sophomores, and it was just not that much fun. That year we made the playoffs, and seeing the seniors continue to push the underclassmen made me stick with it.”

All the hard work paid off when Rose made the varsity team his junior year. Going into senior year Rose said that the senior football players became the leaders of the team after years of looking up to the previous year’s seniors.

“As seniors, coach Sherman always refers to us as ‘sitting at the head of the table’ meaning we’re the oldest out there on the field,” Rose said. “And as a group of seniors we are trying to make this the best season possible.”

Rose and the rest of the seniors have experienced a hectic season with injuries almost every week and even seeing some players getting dismissed for violating athletic policies.

“Being a senior, you feel like it’s your year and that all the other players are looking up to you,” Rose said. “Our goal was to win state and even with all the off field distractions, it still is. Ending your senior football season with a state title would be the ultimate accomplishment.”

Unfortunately for the seniors on the boys soccer team, their playoff run was short-lived after losing to Blue Valley Northwest 1-0 in the second round. Senior Jeremy Young, who has been playing soccer since kindergarten, says that game will probably stick with him for the rest of his life.

“Losing that last game was not how I wanted to end my East soccer career,” Young said. “I probably won’t ever forget that game, and how sad it was to end my senior season.”

After losing 17 seniors last year, the varsity soccer team had some new faces and were made to make changes to their set plays and playing style.

“Going into the season with a whole new team gave us a different challenge,” Young said. “It was really fun to get big wins against teams like Olathe East and making a run at the end of the season. Even though we fell short and were eliminated early, I’ll never forget the friendships I made with a lot of the players.”

The soccer team had a memorable senior night, beating SM West in overtime after being down 1-0 at halftime.

“The game was amazing,” Young said. “Seeing all the fans come out to the complex and hearing them cheer as loud as they did felt great. That with the overtime goal was crazy, I will never forget that game. It was weird because it didn’t feel like it was that long ago I was watching the older seniors line up.”

The volleyball team also came short of their expectations, finishing with a 12-12 record and lost to Blue Valley North for the third year in a row at sub-state. For senior Haley Hansford, her senior season was still memorable, despite their early exit.

“Even though the loss was heartbreaking, I had a blast with my team all year,” Hansford said. “One of my best memories this year was when we were down 12 points in the third game against Olathe Northwest and we came back and won,” Hansford said.

Hansford is proud of not only what she has won with the team but also the girls she has befriended over the years.

“I’m never going to forget the bonds I made and the friends I met through this program,” Hansford said. “I’m going to remember all the girls I met along the way, winning Sunflower League my sophomore and senior year, my coaches and just playing to represent my high school.”

As the athletic careers of fall sports seniors end with their fall seasons, the final seasons for senior winter athletes like Alex Schoegler are just beginning. Schoegler and the rest of the basketball team will be trying to improve from last year’s 7-15 record and that the seniors are all ready to make a final run at State.

“The whole team has gone to a lot of team camps in the summer and playing preseason games, Schoegler said. “We all want to make it to state and the only way to get there is by working hard and putting in the hours.”

Despite all the vigorous practices and seemingly endless amount of sprints Schoegler has had to go through, he will still miss wearing Columbia blue for the lancers.

“It’s really bittersweet going into your last season,” Schoegler said. “These past years in basketball have been pretty rough, but it’s all worth it in the end because it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Schoegler also believes that as the season progresses, the team’s work ethic will pick up even more.

“Knowing that this is my senior year will definitely pump me up throughout the season,” Schoegler said. “Knowing that this is probably my last year of organized basketball, I know it will hit me hard when senior night comes at the end of the season–I will work a lot harder and try to push the team as far as we can go.”

With the thought of this being the last season of “real basketball” in his life, Schoegler wants to not only go far with the team in playoffs but mostly relish his final season with his teammates.

“I want to go to state with this team,” Schoegler said. “But I really just want to have a lot of fun with the guys on the team and make the most out of it before it’s all over.”

Over the past 50 years, dating has revolutionized. What started as a formal practice has now become less intimate, less formal and more communicative.

A typical date 50 years ago was much more formal than it is now. The boy respectfully asked the girl and picked her up after meeting her parents. They often went to dinner and a movie. Another main difference is these dates were usually solo.

Dan and Shelle Jensen, high school sweethearts and parents of senior Kurt Jensen, have observed that back in their day, if a high school student was interested in another person, they would usually ask them out on a date to get to know them. But now, they find that teenagers go out more in groups. Dan finds this new group setting a setback because when spending time one-on-one, couples can get to know each other better.

“If it’s just you two, you’re not busy trying to impress someone else,” Dan said.

Because young people interact in these groups rather than one-on-one, dates are not as common as they once were. Whereas Dan and Shelle used to go out on dates, Kurt might simply invite his girlfriend over to watch a movie or occasionally go out to dinner.

With this decrease in actual dates, events like Homecoming and Prom have transformed. Instead of going with a boyfriend or girlfriend, like Dan and Shelle did when they went to East, junior Laura Metz has noticed that teenagers today go to these dances with good friends.

“I think it’s a lot of fun to do and it’s just kind of the norm now to go as friends [to dances],” Metz said. “A majority of people who go aren’t actually dating.”

AP American History and Sociology teacher Vicki Arndt-Helgesen has noticed that dating has become more informal as well. Going in a group, she believes, takes away the awkwardness and pressures of going out on a date.

“I just think it makes much more sense the way kids do it today, in terms of being with groups of male and female friends,” Arndt-Helgesen said. “Initially, for getting to know people, it’s far more comfortable getting to interact in a group.”

Arndt-Helgesen attributes new terms, such as “hook-up” or “friends with benefits,” to the new informality of dating that most adults are unaware of. Hook-ups today are also very casual and noncommittal, and can mean anything from making out, to having sex.

“The fact that we have those terms, the idea of potentially sexual relationships without commitment, that’s a little bit different,” Arndt-Helgesen said.

Arndt-Helgesen thinks that the informality of dating is because there is less of a search for security, thus bringing about the idea of a steady. Women in the 50s were trying to find a spouse because most people got married right out of high school, but people today generally marry after college.

For Dan and Shelle, having a steady during their high school years in the 70s was just a part of high school. They met in their choir class when Shelle was in ninth grade and Dan was in eighth grade. He would turn around and squeeze her knees, and she would giggle. At the December mixer, he asked her to go steady, and they have been together ever since.

The Jensens think that there is more pressure on couples today because of social media, like texting and Facebook. With this new technology, teenagers today are staying in constant contact with each other, but when Dan and Shelle were in high school, communication was limited.

“Back then, it was a phone that was attached to the wall with a cord, so you didn’t have the privacy,” Shelle said. “My parents knew how much we were talking whereas now-a-days, I would be completely clueless.”

Dan thinks that having the option of constant communication is “too much, too soon” and can have a negative effect on a relationship, going back to the old saying that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” He believes having a break from each other is healthy. Though Kurt agrees, he also thinks that texting makes it simpler.

“It’s a lot easier to stay in touch with people but it also nearly isn’t as personal,” Kurt said. “Until you actually hang out with them, you aren’t going to really know them.”

Calculus teacher Rick Royer has been with his wife since they were in sixth grade, and thinks that the increasing use of technology in relationships has a negative effect on teenagers. Even today, he and his wife only use cell phones during emergencies.

In today’s world the phrase “go on a date” is seldom used. Couples usually either hang out in large groups or casually watch a movie at each others’ houses. Occasionally, they still go to dinner and a movie but the feeling is much less formal.

For couples now, being able to communicate by texting is considered an essential part of relationships. Seniors Maddie Sullivan and Andrew Herst met in middle school, where cell phones were a big part of their lives.

“We basically met by texting,” Sullivan said. “Now we don’t text all the time, we usually just talk on the phone.”

Arndt-Helgesen believes that kids today are being exposed to relationships much earlier than they were in past decades. Shows like “Jersey Shore,” or magazines such as Seventeen show young people the dating culture. While kids used to be sheltered from that throughout their junior high years, middle school students today often are in stereotypical relationships in response to the media.

In high school, this aspect of a relationship becomes more serious and there is a process that comes with that.

“First, you basically have a ‘thing,’ that’s just from talking a lot and you’re really getting to know each other at first,” Kurt said. “Then once you start to feel more comfortable with each other I guess you hang out more often and become [Facebook] official and start dating and going out together, just you two, more often.”

Among today’s high school students, being Facebook official has become an important part of dating; it defines today’s relationships and sets boundaries. Sullivan and Herst have been dating for four years, and think it’s critical in the dating process.

“It makes the lines more clear,” Sullivan said. “It used to be that having a thing, dating and being a boyfriend and girlfriend, the lines were kind of blurry.”

In her time teaching at East, Arndt-Helgesen has noticed decreasing public display of affection (PDA) in schools. Where hugging and kissing in public were the norm when she first started teaching, today’s teenagers rarely show this.

“It’s a little more subtle,” Arndt-Helgesen said. “The ones where there are more public displays of affection, there’s an awkwardness about that.”

For sophomore Emma Calvert and her boyfriend, sophomore Nick Medlin, PDA is a normal part of their school lives.

“We just hold hands and kiss sometimes,” Calvert said. “We are more affectionate because we don’t see each other very much outside of school.”

Having a steady was much more valued in the fifties than it is today. Break-ups were much more dramatic; in the 50s, they involved giving back the class ring or the letter jacket a boyfriend may have given his girlfriend, whereas today, break-ups are represented by the click of button on Facebook and people find out much sooner.

Although she thinks dating has become less formal, Arndt-Helgesen still believes it is an important time in a person’s life.

“I think high school relationships are very serious,” Arndt-Helgesen said. “I think those first times that we commit to other people, where we’re sharing who we are, I think they’re significant learning experiences.”

***

Terms used in dating that are generation specific

Our Parents’ Generation

1. Pinned: when a boy gets a varsity letter (in pin form) he pins this on his girlfriend.

2. Going steady: the equivalent of asking someone to be your boyfriend/girlfriend.

3. Go stag: the act of going solo to a dance.

4. The busy signal: when a couple’s conversation on the home phone would be interrupted by another incoming call.

5. Parking: when a couple hooks up in a car.

Our Generation

1. A thing: an elusive term that implies dating, without making it official.

2. Hook up: ranging from making out to having sex with someone that you aren’t dating.

3. Exclusive: when you aren’t dating but you aren’t going to hook up with other people.

4. F.B.O. (Facebook Official): when your relationship status shows who you are dating.

5. Friends with benefits: when you aren’t dating, but you hook up often.

***

Teachers’ Disaster Dates

Mrs. Gehring-Lowery, english teacher
“I was about 22 and living in Corpus Christi, where there is a big naval base, and a friend of mine was dating this guy in the military and she suggested that I meet the friend of this guy. After she had finally convinced me, she arranged for us all to go on a date. First off, when I met the guy he was 18 and then he smiled. It looked like he hadn’t brushed his teeth in years—there was a layer of yellow film over his teeth and I’m kind of fanatical about teeth, like I’m not going to date someone who doesn’t brush their teeth. I also am kind of a nerd and I value intelligence in a person and he didn’t seem to care about education at all. Plus, he chewed with his mouth open.”

Mr. Foley, choir director
“There was this girl who was in my choir in college and we got friendly so I asked her out. But it turns out that she was far more enamored with me than I was with her. It really freaked me out when she started to talk about marriage on the first date. It seemed like she was already in love with me before we went out.”

Mr. Oettmeier, math teacher
“My freshman year in college we went on these fraternity/sorority date nights and on one of them we went to this bar for dinner and dancing. I did not want to dance and I could tell that my date did so I sort of avoided her the whole time. Then, about a week later I found out that I was on a list called “Guys Not to Date.” It said your name and reason why. Mine said ‘cocky jerk’.”

Ms. Davis, anatomy teacher
“In college I had a friend that really liked me and he asked me on a lot of dates. I kept turning him down, but finally I was like, ‘let’s just go to a movie.’ We get to the movie and he didn’t talk. The whole time. He was so nervous, he just sat there like this. He later told me that he was just really nervous, but at the time he just didn’t talk. The only time he talked was when we were driving home and it was pouring down rain. He pulls over, picks up his phone and calls his mom. It was very embarrassing. I was just like, ‘Just take me home now.’ We didn’t go on any more dates after that.”

“It is a fun experience being able to spend time with girls you usually don’t hang out with,” Degoler said.

The junior girls put together a team and have already developed a camaraderie says Degoler. Football players Connor Rellihan, Billy Sutherland , Vance Wentz and Nick Pirotte are coaching the junior girls. According to Rellihan, it is supposed to be a fun experience for girls to see what the game is like. The football players teach them the basics of football, like tackling and throwing. According to Rellihan, this results in the girls running around in circles and passing the ball to whoever is standing next to them.

“It’s tough teaching girls how to play football,” Rellihan said. “I don’t think I have ever been asked so many questions at once.”

The coaches organize practices twice a week for at least an hour to prepare for the game, which will take place after the football season is over. The girls work on running drills, tackling and scrimmaging during practice. Some of the girls don’t understand football so the practices aren’t very serious and usually becomes unorganized. It sometimes results in Sutherland telling junior teammate Brennan Williams to run through people’s legs.

“I am really enjoying powder puff so far because it is fun to see who is athletic and who is not,” Spradling said. “I was surprised to see how good some of them are and if I hadn’t joined the team I wouldn’t have known that.”

The coaches humor the players, according to Spradling. They like to joke around, but they also try to make the practice somewhat serious.

“The funniest things they have said about the team are ‘this looks gayer than a two dollar bill’ and we are ‘definitely going to die,’” Spradling said.

The juniors will face the seniors in a game coming up. The junior team is nervous that they won’t have a chance of winning because the senior team is strong and the referees are senior boys.

“I am nervous of getting injured,” Degoler said. “I think the senior team will be really good, I’ve talked to some of the girls on the team and they said they have some really strong players.”

According to Degoler, this has been a good bonding experience for the girls in her grade. The team is made up of a variety of different players and it gives them a chance to talk to people they usually wouldn’t. The girls have created more friendships because of powderpuff, according to Spradling.

“I have become closer with girls that I would have never talked to if I hadn’t played powder puff,” Spradling said.

Seniors
The senior powder puff team is ready to win this year after a disappointing loss last year, according to senior coach Elliot Faerber. The girls have been practicing twice a week, usually on Sundays and Tuesdays, working on a variety of things from throwing and catching to tackling with a mat. The team work on specific drills for certain plays and they end practice with a scrimmage against the coaches.

“Some coaches try and teach us some of their plays, but we usually don’t do them because we don’t think it will work in the game,” senior Lilli Stalder said. “We just throw it to someone that is open and run it.”

The senior coaches this year are Adam Lowe, Logan Rose, Elliot Faerber, Dylan Brett, Jeff Cole and Sam Heneger. According to Rose, it is interesting and fun teaching the girls how to play football and it is a nice break from the three hour practices he has to go to after school.

“We’ve got some really fast and athletic girls on our team,” Rose said. “I’m excited to see them avenge last year’s heartbreaking loss against last year’s seniors.”

A good amount of the girls played on the team last year, but this year they are taking it more seriously according to senior Taylor Wolf. Since many of them are returning players there is a lot of experience and returning talent, Rose says.

“I think they will have a better idea of what to expect and want to win since we came up just short of beating the seniors last year,” Rose said.

According to Stalder, the team is doing better this year and she is confident that they will do well.

Wolf, the quarterback on the team, gets a bulk of the coaches’ attention. Cole goes through various drills with Wolf trying to refine her throwing motion. One of which is where the coaches make Wolf slow down her throwing motion and break it down mechanically, focusing on hand placement and following through.

According to Stalder, the main goal for the team is to just get out there and win. The girls have been practicing and want to make it worthwhile, especially after losing last year. The only thing that would keep them from losing, according to Stalder, would be the lack of equipment protecting them.

“I want to play well after all of the work we have put into the practices,” Stalder said. “The only thing holding me back is the possible injuries.”

Overall, this has been a good bonding experience for the senior girls, according to Stalder. Even though they know everyone on the team, they don’t usually get to see them on a regular basis.

“I would say this is definitely a good bonding experience because there are a lot of seniors I get to talk with that I usually wouldn’t be able to at school,” Stalder said.

Junior Julie Sanderson* sat in the white office chair, trying to keep her mascara in check as she held back tears. It was time to hear the test results. She wiped away the drips of black makeup that had slid onto her cheek; she tried to sit up and listen. Part of her wanted to look strong. The other part wanted to curl up in a ball and sob.

Sanderson’s mind had been racing for two days since she missed her period. She says she had the proverbial “what if I get pregnant?” fear ever since having sex—a fear that maybe the condom broke or there were other unforeseen complications. For the 48 hours before her visit, pregnancy was all she could think about. She hadn’t been able to sleep or focus in class.

But finally, her thoughts were put at ease—even if just a little bit. She was OK.

“[Before reading the test results] she told me briefly about all the loving people she meets looking to adopt babies in the area,” Sanderson said. “It was just comforting. Mainly small talk, but helpful.”

Sanderson, whose test came out negative, is one of many teens in the KC Metro area who have called on the services of Planned Parenthood. The institution has seven facilities in Kansas, offering services ranging from abortion to distributing of contraceptives to an estimated 10,000 plus people. According to the company’s mission statement, their goal is “to provide comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services in settings which preserve and protect the essential privacy and rights of each individual.”

For Sanderson, the program gave her someone she could talk to.

“Abortion was never once mentioned during my visit, it was never about that. It was about me and what I was going to do and if I was going to be OK,” Sanderson said. “I needed that; I needed someone taking care of me.”

But not all students are supportive of the program. Junior Roberto Sada, a firm supporter in pro-life causes, thinks that while Planned Parenthood has its benefits in providing sexual education and contraception, the distributing of abortions is a deal-breaker. Sada explains that people who are morally against the practice should not be forced, even indirectly, to pay taxes supporting it.

“Being morally opposed to abortion and somebody who would probably also support an amendment or a law against abortion I feel that it is a bad business choice,” Sada said. “It’s the wrong decision.”

This difference of opinion mirrors a much larger national debate. A Gallup poll filed in July reported that 40 percent of Americans would support a law prohibiting health clinics that provide abortions from receiving any federal funds. This has led to attempted budgetary cuts on the program in multiple states across the country and even an online petition, defundpp.net, aimed at changing “completely unacceptable” taxes citizens pay to the agency.

However, according to Director of Education at Planned Parenthood of Kansas and mid-Missouri (PPKM) Sarah Aenstaff, the federal money that goes towards Planned Parenthood is not used on after-the-fact medical procedures. Aenstaff is able to point out confidently that no public money is used to fund abortion services—the only federal money used, she says,  is “Title X” family planning to provide cancer screening, STI screenings, treatment, contraception and education.

Aenstaff also notes that abortion makes up less than ten percent of the services Planned Parenthood offers yearly. She says the company’s main objective is to “provide access and information to individuals in order for them to make effective decisions about their reproductive and sexual health.”

“PPKM provides services not solely to pregnant teens,” Aenstaff said, “but to all teens.”

Aenstaff feels strongly, in particular, that Planned Parenthood’s willingness to help anyone regardless of money is one of their best services. She says that while they accept a variety of payment methods and offer funding programs to assist clients, they will never say no.

“Our staff provides affordable care, and our doors are open to everyone.  No patient is ever turned away due to inability to pay,” Aenstaff said. “In these tough economic times, this component is of utmost importance to women and families.”

With Planned Parenthood, and abortion services in particular, money often comes into the equation. A study compiled in August by the Guttmacher Institute shows that a large majority of woman seeking abortions come from the lower class. The data shows that 42 percent of woman obtaining abortions have incomes below 100 percent of the federal poverty level ($10,830) and an additional 27 percent have incomes between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level.

According to Mike Males, senior researcher for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, “you can’t understand abortion without first understanding poverty levels.” As part of his job, Males tracks statistics of unplanned pregnancy in poor and rich communities—looking for disparities between the two. His research, to date, has continued to show that abortion is often higher in areas of poverty. He attributes this to a lack of federal spending in poor areas and, ultimately, to cuts to programs like Planned Parenthood.

“There’s a lot of people that have the income to deal with [unplanned pregnancy] in private medical facilities and that’s fine,” Males said. “But I don’t think somebody else should be punished, especially when they’re too young to earn their own incomes or determine their own economic circumstance. I’m very much in favor of low-cost medical care being available across society—and they can raise my taxes to provide it.”

Regardless of income, Males feels the program is beneficial, even in areas like Prairie Village.

“All of us in society benefit from preventing disease and injury among all populations,” Males said.

Males, who wrote the book “Teenage Sex and Pregnancy: Modern Myths, Unsexy Realities,” also points out that there are a lot of misconceptions on the issue of unplanned pregnancy. In his book, he discusses the poverty issue in detail, but also focuses on facets of culture like the media and Hollywood—discussing how they are used as a “scapegoat.” His research has shown that while unplanned pregnancy is at an all-time low in America, the media continues to promote the notion that pop culture and Hollywood have corrupted our youth.

It’s these “scapegoats” that Males says distract away from the real problems. Males, who discusses the concept in his first published work “Scapegoat Generation” and in the follow-up “Framing Youth,” says that the stereotyping teens and creating fear in the media is prevalent in the Planned Parenthood issue. He points out that one of the main arguments against the program incites fear of youth—saying that kids may become reckless with sex now that they have a place for preventative actions.

“It’s a ridiculous argument. It’s like saying ‘let’s take the seat belts out of cars so that nobody will drive fast,’” Males said. “Then if you crash and go through the windshield you’ll drive more carefully. It’s that kind of argument.”

Junior Eden McKissick-Hawley agrees, saying that arguments against Planned Parenthood are often “filled with hypocrisy.”

“You can’t judge this situation in a general way,” McKissick-Hawley said. “One person’s need for an abortion might be totally different from someone else’s. Who are you to tell them what they do and don’t do?”

McKissick-Hawley, who formerly worked at Planned Parenthood as an intern and gave a testimonial in the program’s defense at a town hall meeting, says that a defunding of Planned Parenthood is like “taking away rights to your own body.” According to McKissick-Hawley, the information Planned Parenthood offers about sex is invaluable—if taken away, people lose both information about their own body and the steps to prevent disease.

“If you don’t tell a girl ‘you are at a huge risk of getting an STD’ and she hears that sex is fun from every corner of the media, from every discussion at lunch, she’s gonna do it,” McKissick-Hawley said. “People need to open their eyes and realize that they’re not helping anyone by having this predisposition towards education.”

She ultimately says that the debate over Planned Parenthood is a “human rights issue.” Mckissick-Hawley, an active member of Youth in Government Club at East and former field organizer on the Obama campaign, says the issue should not be right vs. left. According to her, it goes beyond partisan politics. She says  our youth is hurting as a result of politician’s inability to cross party lines to enact change.

“Politics [is just] not what it used to be,” McKissick-Hawley said. “And it’s sad that we are the one suffering from it.

Sada counters this point—he says that the case against Planned Parenthood is an issue of politics and there be a federal law banning it. According to Sada, if Planned Parenthood were to split up into two entities—one focusing on abortion, another solely on sexual education—than he would be behind the program. But until they do, Sada doesn’t feel like taxpayers should be forced to give them any money.

“There are a lot of people in this country who are morally opposed to abortion,” Sada said, “and they shouldn’t be forced into even indirectly contributing to something that they are deeply opposed to.”

But from the looks of things, there seems to be a future for Planned Parenthood. The issue at the heart of the debate, abortion, is steadily gaining approval, according to a study conducted in July by Harris Interactive. The study shows that 36 percent of those polled believe that woman should have access to abortion in “all circumstances”—the highest number in Harris Polls since 1985. Additionally, those opposed to abortion in any circumstance fell from 21 percent in 2009 to 17 percent this year.

For Sanderson, who went to Planned Parenthood a little under a year ago, the program gave her someone she could turn to that’s easier to talk with than her parents or friends. She feels that Planned Parenthood is only helpful, and does not do anything to encourage abortion or sex.

“Planned Parenthood existing isn’t what made me want to have sex; having health care doesn’t make you want to go out and get sick; AA doesn’t make you want to become an alcoholic because there’s hope for you should you find yourself in that position,” Sanderson said. “Planned Parenthood up and running just means kids can get help if they need it. It doesn’t encourage sex.”

Sanderson and Sada may disagree over the funding of Planned Parenthood, but both can agree that sex education is increasingly important in society. Sada, who wishes there was a national ban on abortion, believes that sex education can save lives.

“Increased sex education reduces abortions because it reduces the amount of unwanted pregnancies; it hopefully is able to increase the access of contraceptives to lower income people,” Sada said. “And for those of us that are privileged and go to East—and probably have learned quite a bit about pregnancy—it really increases some of our knowledge about STD and STI transmission.”

*name changed to protect identity 

The tournament was held on Monday November 7th and Tuesday November 8th.  This was the seventh year the tournament was held and 32 teams participated. Each team had ten people and brought 18 cans of green beans to participate. The teams were paired up in a bracket and played games against each other for fifteen minutes each. At the end of the fifteen minutes the team that won the  most moved on. The winning team this year was a junior team named Team Quincy. A total number of 576 cans were collected and will benefit Wilhemina’s Kitchen in Kansas City, Kansas.

“This year was a lot calmer and a lot less chaotic and intense,” SHARE executive Tori Holt said. “Overall it was a really good experience.”

 
View a Photo Gallery on the tournament here