“When I found out, I was really happy,” Ridgway said. “My family is really proud of me.”

Ridgway received the letter confirming his success two weeks ago and is required to fill out applications and write multiple essays for the chance to be chosen as one of the 141 finalists.

Principal Karl Krawitz considers having students in the running to be Presidential Scholar’s an honor. East has had finalists for this scholarship program in the past and Dr. Krawitz is proud to be a part of that.

“They reflect on the entire student body and the school and the staff,” Dr. Krawitz said. “And in turn, their honor becomes ours.”

Wiles and Ridgway have to turn in their applications by Feb. 23 and the final results will be announced on April 18.

On Jan. 26, Governor Sam Brownback proposed to the state Senate a bill that aims to completely rework the way state education is funded. When the recession hit in 2007, the state tightened its belt and started making cuts, and the amount of money allocated for Kansas education plummeted. Districts statewide have felt the effects of the decrease in funds, and the Shawnee Mission School District is no exception.“There are almost 300 school districts in Kansas,” Principal Karl Krawitz said. “And a year ago Shawnee Mission was fourth from the bottom of money received. The current formula that’s in place, it doesn’t help Shawnee Mission at all.”

Shawnee Mission’s lack of funding has become increasingly noticeable to patrons throughout the last year. Last semester, students watched and often protested as Mission Valley Middle School was closed and fellow Lancers suddenly became Raiders and Indians due to budget cuts. The same cuts have caused class sizes at East to grow to 30 students a class, and teachers are having to take on heavier workloads without any change to their salaries.

Dr. Krawitz hopes that Brownback’s new bill will solve these problems. The bill proposes that the state do away with its current formula for school funding, replacing it with a program that will increase spending across the state and give each district the freedom to raise money locally for its own budget needs.

The first change it would make is the amount of money spent per student. Since 2004, the amount spent on each Kansas student has dropped from $4,492 to $3,780. Brownback’s proposition will require the state to raise the amount spent per student back to $4,492 by the 2013-2014 school year. The second change allows local governments to raise taxes to fund education. Craig Denny, the SMSD Board President, has been hearing this idea for years, and believes it can solve many of the state’s school funding problems.

“I had so many patrons coming to me saying, ‘Please, don’t cut this program, we’d be happy to pay more,’” Denny said. “I had to tell them that we couldn’t, that we weren’t allowed to… People here will pay for it, so let them.”

Brownback’s proposition would do exactly that. The bill allows districts to levy local taxes to raise money for their district. A percentage of the money raised will be given to the state education budget, which will in turn spread the money evenly throughout state schools. The rest of the money can be spent freely on education by the district that raised the funds. Denny believes that this will bring in additional money to the Johnson County area, and help the district to avoid future budget cuts and job losses.

The chairman of the Kansas Board of Education, Dave Dennis, agrees that the bill would give the Shawnee Mission School District more funds, but he cites this as one of the Board’s concerns. The state of Kansas strives to provide statewide equality in education, Dennis said, and the new bill would not allow that standard of equality to be continued.

Since 2004, the amount spent on each Kansas student has dropped from $4,492 to $3,780.

“If you’re living up around the Kansas City area, by raising your property tax one mill (one tenth of a cent) you can raise millions of dollars,” Dennis said. “But in Western Kansas you’d only raise a couple thousand dollars. Rich school districts can give a Cadillac version of an education, while poorer districts could only give students a Model T version.”

But Dr. Krawitz and Denny say that statewide education is already unequal. They both cite the fact that larger, wealthier school districts such as Shawnee Mission are falling into the bottom 10 percent of money received. Dr. Krawitz says that SM East struggles with major inequality in special education funding. He said that the state education budget guarantees to pay for 75 percent of special education costs, yet SMSD receives only 67 percent funding from the state. While SMSD has to find a way to pay for that extra eight percent Dr. Krawitz said, other districts are being given over 200 percent of their special education costs in funding from the state. The state attributes these extra funds  to the higher poverty levels and lower test scores in other districts, but Dr. Krawitz still believes they are unjust.

“You know, we can’t spend as much on special education students at East,” Dr. Krawitz said. “But in other districts, they might be spending two and a half times what we’re spending. Is that fair? No.”

Dr. Krawitz also worries about the quality of education that East and SMSD can offer if budget reforms are not made. He notes that, since he became principal at SM East four years ago, the average core class sizes have grown from 20 to 30. The number of teachers teaching six periods instead of five has also increased dramatically. When Dr. Krawitz first came to East, only nine or ten teachers taught the extra period, but currently 44 teachers have had to add the sixth period. Dr. Krawitz wishes for more funding so that the teacher-to-student ratio can drop back to its original place, and he believes that the new bill is the best available solution.

The state Senate and House of Representatives are now in the middle of a 90 day session of reviewing and revising the bill. During this time, Dennis said, the bill could be altered to a point of being “unrecognizable”, or be vetoed completely. Despite general SMSD and Johnson County support, Dr. Krawitz is not optimistic about the bill’s chances of surviving this session.

“There is practically no support,” Dr. Krawitz said. “So who knows where we’re going to end up after this session.”

Dennis agrees that the future of this proposition is undecided. The state Board of Education has not even been able to agree on which side to take, he said, so the outcome of the session is impossible to predict.

“Will there be something at the end? Yes,” Dennis said. “Is there a possibility of the formula we have right now being kept? Certainly. Could the Governor’s bill be passed? Possibly. It could be anything right now. It’s gonna be an interesting session, and everyone needs to keep an eye on it.”

Lowe and Ator’s dance was chosen for the performance and they began teaching it to their teammates this past Monday. With only a week to learn, the dance had to be kept short and the team had to work hard to have their steps perfected by half time of Friday’s game.The girls described their dance as a “mixture of sassy hip-hop with a ghetto part in the middle.” The dance is to a mash-up of the songs “You’ll Find a Way” from the movie Fame, “This Instant” by Sophia Fresh, and “WOP”. Ator and Lowe both feel as if they have learned a lot from this experience, both about choreographing itself as well as teaching their contemporaries.

A group of thirty students entered Arndt-Helgeson’s first hour class and Morgan Satterlee made the announcement. Satterlee said the vote was close but Arndt-Helgeson edged out several other close contenders.

“Yoda deserved the teacher of the year because she enveloped the four pillars that NHS is all about. She is committed to developing not only the mind of her students, but their character as well,” Satterlee said.

Arndt-Helgeson will accept the award at the National Honor Society induction in February.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is hosting a celebration of the Chinese New Year and the opening of their new Chinese art galleries that will take place this Friday, January 27 from five to nine p.m. The event, which is free of charge and open to the public, includes Chinese food, traditional music, dancing, a “dragon hunt” throughout the new gallery, and demonstrations in Chinese calligraphy. The museum is located just northeast of the Plaza, and you’ll be able to find the celebration’s events throughout the museum, including the Bloch building.

“All of these things were about to hit her and I think she just ran away so she didn’t have to face them,” Medina said.

Medina was going into her daughter’s room to ask what she wanted for dinner when she discovered her gone. She decided to wait three hours before contacting the police. Kim estimates that Sarah left with less than $150  and doesn’t know if she packed a bag. Sarah had recently lost her phone and therefore didn’t have any electronic communication device with her. Her only source of communication was through Facebook.  Kim and her son hacked into her daughter’s Facebook and found some messages between Sarah and other people from Gardner, Kan., Kansas City, Kan. and Lone Jack, Mo. but as of last week there has been no activity on Sarah’s Facebook page.

“After we had hacked into her account, Sarah would erase any messages when she would get on,” Kim said. “Now she has stopped using it all together.”

The Medinas live in Overland Park and therefore the report was sent to the Overland Park Police department. Officer Michelle Koos, a police officer from the Overland Park Department, said that they are not allowed to share any information on the case because she is a juvenile. However, they said that for any missing person case they follow any leads that they receive and enter the person into their search data base which is sent to all departments around the area.

“All of these things were about to hit her and I think she just ran away so she didn’t have to face them.”

“In general, any leads we find from social media, electronic devices, email, interviews with friends and family we follow up on,” Koos said.

Although the police department is searching for Sarah, Kim is frustrated and believes that they aren’t doing enough. When Kim called the police department to check on the search, they asked her to to not call back to check up and that they would contact her if they found anything. Unsatisfied with the search, Kim has registered Sarah as a missing person on beyondmissing.com. She has also personally followed five leads.

“I had to do something and so I started researching sites reporting runaways on Monday,” Kim said.

The search has gone all across the Kansas City area and neighboring cities. Last Friday, Jan. 20, Kim received a call from her daughter. Sarah told her mom that she loved her but when Kim asked her to tell her where she was her daughter replied no. The call lasted about 30 seconds.

“She didn’t sound okay,” Kim said. “I said ‘Don’t hang up’, but she did.”

That phone call was the last time Kim had any contact or heard anything from Sarah. Kim created over 600 flyers and will be hanging them up all over Kansas City tomorrow. She is also planning on making a Facebook page. If you see Sarah or have any information you can contact 1-800-THE-LOST or send Kim an email at findingsarahmedina@gmail.com.

“She’s an award winning, ribbon winning, girl because of her horseback riding. She’s a beautiful girl. There is no reason for her to wander off,” Kim said. “I gotta find her.”

January marks a time which can be stressful for college-bound students – enrollment. Students must decide whether or not to take rigorous courses or easier courses which would allow them to explore their interests.

“Here at East, we’re expected to be top tier, taking the hardest classes, getting spots on varsity teams or the leads in the play,” junior Ali Felman said. “But really, if we do that, we have to choose two of the following: sleep, success or relationships.”

To make this decision, there are academic, social and emotional issues that students must take into account. School counselor Diana Griffey said that a student’s junior year is the most important year in high school because colleges look at your most recent grades and whethr or not you took advanced placement classes when evaluating their resume. Sophomore Kevin Xu made the decision to fill his schedule with AP classes. Xu believes that colleges will appreciate an ambitious schedule more than an easier schedule because it shows that the student really wants to challenge himself. He says that extracurricular activities have a similar impact as well, because it shows that the student is involved and is a dynamic person.

Kansas University admissions graduate assistant Alisa Tate recommends that students take more challenging classes if they are looking to become eligible for scholarships or wish to be considered for the honors program at KU. Also, on collegeboard.com, almost every college cites that a rigorous schedule is of crucial importance for colleges when they are evaluating a student.

Another route for rigorous study is through the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. According to senior Leyann Dahlgren, the program pushes you to be more involved with the added the class of Theory of Knowledge, and the community service requirement and a test score requirement to graduate with an IB diploma.

“I feel like it was worth it,” Dahlgren said of her experience with IB. “Even though it was hard, I feel like it helped develop better study habits that I can use in college.”

Dahlgren said that these study habits stemmed from the fact that most of her time was consumed by classwork and the Creativity Action Service program. C.A.S. is required for the IB diploma and requires the student to complete 150 hours of creativity, action and service activites. Dahlgren says this left little time for social interaction.

“Sure, you may lose sleeping time, but if you really want to hang out with your friends, you’ll make time,” Dahlgren said.

Wiseman says that students need time for themselves; while it is important to maintain a decent GPA, it is more important for them to keep healthy relationships in high school.

Because it is just that – high school.

“Students are in crisis mode all the time,” Wiseman said. “They’ll be freaking out over a test, homework that’s due or a project they need to work on but don’t have time for because they have practice or rehearsal. Students are constantly like produce, produce, produce, produce, produce. It’s not a healthy, and students won’t learn or perform as well under that kind of stress.”

Like Dahlgren, Felman also finds it hard to set aside personal time. Her schedule is “50 percent school, 30 percent viola, 10 percent work and 10 percent theater stuff.”

She says that if they get into good study habits now, the transition into college life will be a lot easier. Although she enjoys theater and her viola lessons, it isn’t the relaxing time she needs. Both activities require serious effort and attention.

“I can be social possibly one night a week if I’m not working,” Felman said. “My schedule forces me to be flexible if I want to be social. Saturday isn’t always hang-out-with-friends night. Sometimes it’s let’s-do-homework night or let’s-go-to-bed-early night. It’s mostly let’s-go-to-work night.”

Wiseman said that because students are constantly in this blur of producing, they have no down time. They should take time to relax and find out what they’re good at. While Dahlgren opted to take the challenging IB schedule, senior Cassie Sterbenz has decided to mix it up. While she has taken every visual art class that East has to offer, with the intention of pursuing a career in art, she believes that she has balanced them out by taking a few AP classes throughout her high school career. She says that even though her classes weren’t all AP, her future isn’t jeopardized.

“I have a pretty solid GPA without a bunch of AP classes and I still got accepted to all the schools I applied to,” Sterbenz said. “It’s really important to balance out both [interests and academics]; you should find what you’re passionate about so that you can explore it and study it in college, but also take harder classes to prepare yourself for [college].”

Ultimately, Felman feels that exploring her interests in high school will be much more useful than taking tougher classes for the sole purpose of impressing colleges.

“I won’t need to know about calc when I’m 30, but I’ll want to know these things about viola when I’m 30,” Felman said.

But the fact remains, according to UMKC law professor June Carbone, that colleges value GPA points over knowledge in the application process.

“Concerning admissions, it really doesn’t matter how much you learned,” Felman said. “It’s sad but it’s true. So I guess, as students, we’ll just have to work for the points.”

While some students believed the switch was due to budget cuts, in reality, it was made in an attempt to teach the same curriculum throughout the district so that the high schools will be more in sync.

“We’re teaching the same stuff, we’ve just condensed it down so that you as an artist will have a broader range in knowledge,” Wanda Simchuk, the Division Coordinator of Art said. “We’re trying to introduce more to you.”

Although there are fewer art classes in which to enroll, Simchuk believes there will be just as many classes to teach because the art classes are enrollment based–meaning that as long as the same amount of students sign up, there will be the same amount of classes to teach.

Simchuk’s only concern about the switch is that students won’t be fully aware of what’s happening to the art department, and they won’t sign up.

“We could lose numbers because if the students don’t understand why or how it’s changed, they might think ‘Well, I wanted to take Jewelry. I’m not taking Jewelry if it’s called Jewelry/Sculpture,” Simchuk said. “Hopefully we do a good job of promoting it and we’ll get a lot of kids in art classes.”

There are currently 14 art classes offered at East. Next year, after dividing some topics into other classes, there will only be eight. Next year, when the switch is enforced, the eight classes will be Drawing, Painting, Jewelry/Sculpture, Ceramics, Digital Design, Photo 1, Photo 2 and AP/IB/Studio art, Fibers, Watercolor and Printmaking will cease to be individual classes, and will instead be merged into the curriculums of other classes.

“We’re still teaching the same things, it’s just reorganized in a different way,” Simchuk said.

These “different ways” that Simchuk speaks of include offering different assignments for students. For example, in the painting class, students will have the choice to do assignments under the category of painting or watercolor.
Drawing and Ceramics will feature some Printmaking, Painting will include fibers and watercolor, and Jewelry/Sculpture will also include some fibers.

Students should not be under the impression that the new art department is forever changed. James Meara, who teaches Print Making, Commercial Art, Design and Introduction to Studio Art, does not think that the change will be a permanent one.

“It seems like we change stuff pretty frequently,” Meara said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if in two or three years we change it again.”

Simchuk believes the switch will help students in the long run when they are deciding what to study in college.

“It’ll help when you go to colleges and get it real narrowed down and decide ‘I’m going to be a painting major or jewelry major,” Simchuk said. “In high school you need a wide range of information. You need to be able to experience it all.”

The proposed changes have not been well received by some students.

Senior Sarah King, who is one of the co-presidents of the National Honor’s Art Society (NAHS), was upset when she first heard rumors last year about the switch.

“I’m still upset,” King said. “It’s taking away from kids who are really interested in one type of art.”

Junior Lauren Alvey is not optimistic about the future changes in the art department, attesting to the lack of variety.

“There will be a lack of variety and we won’t get as much variety in our forms of art,” Alvey said.

Senior Natalie Pierce, another co-president of the NAHS in addition to King and senior Amy Franklin, thinks that students won’t take the classes that they might have originally wanted to take due to the change. Another concern of hers is that there will bee too much material taught in one class.

“You sign up for Painting, but you’re going to do Fibers, too,” Pierce said. “A lot more material will be crammed into that class.”

Simchuk, who currently teaches Ceramics and Intro to Studio Art, likes teaching classes that are focused on one subject, and neither of the classes she teaches will be greatly affected. Her Ceramics class will teach some Fibers, but she doesn’t feel like this will alter her teaching methods too much.

Meara thinks that the art classes will be “more interesting” due to the merging of classes.

“It should make art classes more available to students,” Meara said. “Sometimes students get bored of just drawing, but we’re combining Drawing with Print Making, so students will do something other than draw.”

Simchuk feels that the switch will work for both the students and the staff.

“I think it’ll be fine,” Simchuk said. “I can’t say I really like it because I haven’t taught it yet, but think ultimately it’s going to be fine.”

This year Indian Hills Middle School has started a renovation project that will last until fall of 2013. The new renovations will make the school larger and add newer features as well as new fields for East athletic teams to practice on.

“The building is really just in its original state since 1955,” Carla Allen, the principal of Indian Hills said. “We also have over 800 students now and just need more room.”

Additional features will be added later this year which include larger lockers, four new classrooms, a larger office space and another auxiliary gym complete with aerobic and weight equipment. The decision to conduct the renovations were made fall of last year by a committee consisting of Allen and other community members.

“They started with  Hocker Grove and Indian Hills first out of all five,” Allen said. “Because they were the ones that increased the most.”

The middle school also renovated the soccer and softball fields for East’s athletic teams to practice on. When the district sold Mission Valley and the adjoining soccer fields to RED development, East teams lost the ability to hold practices on the fields. This has caused some problems for a couple members of the girl’s soccer team. Caroline Dodd, a member of the varsity girl’s soccer team, will miss the fields at Mission Valley.

“I don’t like it because Mission Valley had a really great field,” Dodd said. “It was really large and had a lot of space.”

The East softball team will also be practicing at Indian Hills now which according to Dodd will make the space more crowded. The central location of Mission Valley an easy spot for players to practice at now the distance will also cause problems for some players as well as well as benefits for other players who live closer to the school.

“For me, I live in the South district, and Mission Valley was a lot closer,” Dodd explained. “But for some players that live closer it will be easier.”

The girls soccer team will start practicing on the new fields at the end of February. The upgrade to Indian Hills will be finished in the fall of the 2013 school year.

Marisa Walton | Harbinger Online

Notified through a letter sent out by the USPS, residents gathered prepared to discuss the “current location of the branch.” Many came with signs and petitions, fearing the branch would be shut down. Gary Mattox, a real estate specialist for the USPS from Denver, brought only good news for those fearing the worst.

“First thing I want to say, we are not closing the post office,” Mattox said.

The meeting was called to inform residents about the pending sale of the building the post office occupies, and assure them it most likely won’t result in any big changes. The USPS owns very few buildings, most of its post offices are leased from real estate companies, and turnover among owners is not uncommon, Mattox said.

“We operate our buildings under a government lease, that’s used for every post office,” Mattox said. “We agree on terms with the owner and rent the building, it works just like any commercial lease”

He told the crowd that the USPS was working hard to ensure that the boxes and retail operations would remain open and in the same place, however that will come down to who buys the new building and the terms they agree on.

“When a building we operate out of goes up for sale, we put a solicitation in for the new owners to let us lease back the boxes and the front end,” Maddox said. “If the new owner tells us to get out, we have to leave, but four to five times out of 10 they let us stay.”

If worse comes to worse and they have to move, the post office will still offer the same services it does now, with only a slight possibility of a disruption to those utilizing PO boxes, Mattox said.

“If we have to move, some box numbers may change,” Mattox said. “However we don’t know if and when the building will sell. It may sell tomorrow, it may not sell for a few years. We don’t want to move, if the building sells and we can still lease back the boxes and front space, we’ll do that.”

“It doesn’t matter how many classes you take on education, you don’t learn too much until you teach,” East choir director Ken Foley said as his student teacher, Sam Green, conducts the women’s choir behind him. “I always let my student teachers have the class, let them succeed or fail, because they have to learn that process. I had a great teacher who just gave me the choir and said ‘Here ya go, figure it out.’ Its so important because that’s how you find out how to teach.”

This is Foley’s second student teacher this year. As always, he looks forward to mentoring someone going through the same process he had years before. As with the other teachers that have taken college students under their wing, he understands that this is the best possible training for those hoping to succeed in education.

“I’ve been fortunate to have two great student teachers this year,” says Foley. “Its important to me that they figure out what works, and especially what doesn’t work.”

Here’s a quick run down of the student teachers currently at east:

Stefano Byer | Harbinger Online

Lauren Phillips
Mentor: Adam Finkelston
Currently studying at: University of Central Missouri in Warrensberg – Graduate School
Why SM East:“I listed the Shawnee Mission school district in my top choices of assignments, and then they in turn chose me and assigned me to East.”
What have you learned so far: “I am really impressed with everything you guys have here. The art teachers are really involved and give the students a lot of opportunities that I didn’t have in high school.”
Reason for student teaching: “I want to be a high school art teacher, and this is giving me the experience to get a job as a teacher.”

Stefano Byer | Harbinger Online

Mentor: Ken Foley
Schooling: Graduated from Webb City High School in 2007, Currently a student at UMKC
Why SM East: Assigned to East by University advisor.
Experience so far: “It’s a great fit. I mean, Mr. Foley’s great and I think we work together really well. I am really enjoying learning from him.”
Current Residence: “I live in a house with three other room mates so I’m living cheaply and driving every day.”
Reason for student teaching: “Music has always been a passion of mine, and being able to share it with other people and being able to teach it to younger students is just an incredible opportunity that I feel very lucky to be able to do.”

Stefano Byer | Harbinger Online

Bryce McElroy
Mentor: Mercedes Rasmussen
Currently studying at: Kansas State Univerity
Why SM East: “ I knew I wanted to come in the Johnson County area somewhere and Mercedes went to KSU and happened to have worked under my advisor.”
Current Residence: “I really love the area of Kansas City. I have an older sibling who lives here so I have free rent and that’s really nice.”
Reason for student teaching: “I would like to teach any kind of high school business courses. Marketing, accounting, computer classes, financial literacy or finance classes.”

For East students in Chinese 1, 2 and 3, the new semester brought the award-winning language learning software Rosetta Stone.

The district bought several licenses of the software for all the critical language classrooms (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian) in the district. The Chinese department is the only department at East to receive the program. The software was purchased at the beginning of the year, but due to technical delays and the need to train teachers, students are just now starting to use it.

“I know this program [is expensive] but with the tight budget I wasn’t even thinking of asking for an expensive software like this,” Chinese teacher Hau-In Lau said.

So when Lau heard the news at a professional development day from SMSD Resource Specialist for English Language Learners and World Languages Mike Flenthrope, she could not believe it.

Students will now begin logging onto their accounts and working with the program at their own pace. The district also bought headphones and microphones that enable the students to speak the Chinese characters and hear their voice being played back.

“[The program would] read off a sentence in Chinese and then you have to match that sentence with a picture,” senior Sarah Cook explained. “It was kind of hard because it was using everything we had learned up until this point.”

Lau hopes to incorporate Rosetta Stone into their daily classroom routine by introducing it in fourteen minute sessions. Chinese is the first department at East to receive learning technology like this but it might not be the last.

“Rosetta Stone can be a useful supplement to the curriculum of Shawnee Mission’s critical languages,” Flenthrope said.

“It was sad because it was our last debate tournament in the state of Kansas but it was also a good thing because we got second and we lost to a team that was really good,” Carey said.

Of the 77 teams participating, Carey/Hill were expected to do well because of their two previous visits to State, with an eighth place finish as sophomores and a fourth place finish last year. The other East teams had no prior experience at the tournament.

The tournament spanned over two days and 20 hours and as the rounds progressed, the tension and pressure rose.

“Emotions were high because State is the last debate tournament of the year in Kansas. For a lot of seniors, it’s the end of a huge stage,” Throckmorton said.

Brendan Dulohery | Harbinger Online

After a three-hour bus ride, the students arrived in Salina, and were given numbers that determined when they would audition. Nerves ran high as auditions began.

“I think my audition went mediocre,” junior bass player Mimi Rebein said. “I didn’t play as well as I could have, but that’s because I was really nervous.”

Sophomore cellist Alex Symes had never been through the process of auditioning before, and was surprised to see how much nerves affected her.

“You aren’t really self-aware when you’re in the audition room, because you are so nervous,” she said.

However, she enjoyed the experience overall, and saw it as more than an audition.

“It was much more of a group bonding experience than I thought it would be,” she said. “It’s nice to know that you’re all doing it together.”

Six students from SM East made the cut for 56A All-State Band: Claire Tracy (flute), Mary Grekstas (flute), Michelle Lu (flute), Graham Eidemiller (trombone), Nathan McCloud (trombone) and Larson Woolwine (snare drum).

Maddie Sullivan was the only East student to make All-State Choir.

Sixten students made All-State Orchestra: Grace Martin (violin), Ian Wiseman (violin), Kristin Anthonis (Violin II), Madison Hattaway (Violin II), Vannis Jones (Violin II), Emily Kulaga (Violin II), Sam Rowe (Violin II), Ali Felman (viola), Allie Chesbrough (cello), Addie Hotchkiss (cello), Kevin Xu (cello), Mimi Rebein (bass), Jake Wheeler (bass), Emma Reno (flute), Ingrid Starkey (horn) and Kellyn Harrison (horn).

Two students made All-State Jazz Band: Zachary Williams (tenor saxophone) and Kristen Shedor (trombone).

You can view a full list of the results here.

Carey/Hill finished fourth out of 36 teams with a 5-2 record at the tournament run by members of the SM East debate squad at East. The team of Seth Myers/Max Werner went 2-5.

Junior squad member Liam Murphy worked in hospitality and thought the tournament was a success.

“It was definitely run well and went according to plan. Chris and Michael, who are arguably one of the top five or even best teams in the state, ended up getting fourth, which they weren’t happy with necessarily, but that’s still the fourth best in Kansas,” Murphy said.

The novice state tournament held at SM West also brought success for the squad with two teams going to out-rounds, where the teams with the best sixteen records and speaker points were put in a bracket. Jack Werner/Will Oakley upset the number one seed in the first round of out-rounds, but lost the following round. Walter/Walter lost in the championship round.

“It was a long day and it was tiring but I felt that it was rewarding in the end. It was really rewarding to beat so many good teams and to be able to advance so far in the tournament,” Karl said.

East librarian, Kathi Knop, was the one who submitted the grant request for the Nooks. With the approval of the grant, the door was opened for the library to get 15 Simple Touch Nooks and five Color Nooks.

Knop would like to see the Simple Touch Nooks used for a new book club in the near future.

“Then everybody will have the same [book] title,” Knop said. “But they’ve all got it on their Nook. Then if we’re not having book club, then they’ll just be available to anybody for check out.”

The Simple Touch Nook readers will be able to be checked out like any other book in the library. They will have a standard bar-code and will be able to be checked out for three weeks at a time, but there will be no renewals. The Nook Colors will remain in the library and will be loaded with content such as magazines for students to view.

The total cost for the grant comes to about $4,000. This includes the 20 refurbished Barnes and Noble Nooks, protection plans, cases, some e-book titles and even a Barnes and Noble credit card for future purchases.

Knop got the idea after learning how other schools have been implementing the new technology in their systems.

“I’ve been reading about other school libraries that have gotten Kindles or Nooks,” Knop said. “I thought, ‘Ok this would be something fun to check out,’ so I investigated [and found out that Nooks are more suitable for a library].”

Instead of another e-book reader, such as Amazon’s Kindle, Knop says Barnes and Noble’s Nook was chosen because it is easier to use in a library setting. Currently, if a title is purchased for one of the school Nooks, then it will be synced to all of the other 19 Nooks. However, Barnes and Noble may change this in the future, requiring that one copy is bought for each device. Initially, the Nooks will come loaded with 10 titles, including books such as “Hunger Games”, “City of Bones” and “Maze Runner”.

Even with the draw of new and interesting technology, Knop thinks that the e-book readers aren’t going to affect the library in a negative way.

“I just think it’s a part of the evolving nature of libraries today,” Knop said. “I don’t think it’s going to hurt book checkout, I really don’t. I think it’ll just be another opportunity for reading, just on a different venue.”

Following the progress of SOPA closely, junior Sam Tulp has educated himself about all aspects of the bill.

“I am against this bill because of the justification it gives to further restrictions being made and further limiting of speech and censorship,” Tulp said. “I also feel this is an example of the rich and powerful lobbyists coming from the Music and Film industries using their money and influence to lobby and whine about how there are people out there circumventing copyright and ‘stealing’ from them.”

The purpose of SOPA is “to promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes” according to the bill proposal. If passed, the government will give law enforcement the power to shut down websites that display unlicensed content. This may include copyright infringement, unauthorized fixation, selling or buying recordings or videos of live performances and handling counterfeit labels, goods and services.

The passing of this bill will cause the unauthorized use of copyrighted material to become a felony, meaning both the user and website owner could potentially face legal consequences. The punishment currently being deliberated is the five year jail sentence. The government will also demand all websites and telecom service providers to oversee that there is no pirated materials on their page.

“I am against SOPA because people don’t get a say in the government anymore,” junior Ivan Novikov said.

According to the bill, in the situation that a claim is made against a company, the provider will be given five days to cut off all business with the site in question. The short amount of time to take action could possibly lead to the complete shut down of a site if they do not react in time.

“While many are making claims that this Act could inhibit freedom of speech it is not necessarily that this bill specifically does (though there are certain provisions within it that make almost a blacklist of websites that the government can restrict and shutdown).” Tulp said. “It is not the bad in this bill but rather the further things that this bill can justify in the future.

In short, the bill will be able to take URLs out of the Domain Name System which allows people to find websites. Other sites that are associated with websites that have been blocked from the internet will be banned as well whether or not they violated the bill. Due to the bill’s vague wording, actions that will constitute for means of punishment are unclear possibly putting social media websites in the path of legal trouble according to internet bloggers. Today, social media sites such as Google, Yahoo and Twitter have made their position against SOPA clear by publicly opposing the bill and sharing their concern with lawmakers.

“Currently we use the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) under this act blame does not fall on the hosts of websites and does not blame websites for copyright violations made by its users as these things are beyond their control,” Tulp said. “Under SOPA this would change and the potential exists for websites to be shutdown during times in which copyright infringement is being determined.”

#VoteSocialMedia, a past trending hashtag on Twitter, is just one of the ways people are speaking out against SOPA. Websites like www.americancensorsip.org encourage people opposed to the bill to talk to their senator. This website asks people to submit their contact information, and in return a representative will call each person to review discussion points and directly connect them to their senator. Mozilla Firefox also created a site similar to this.

“There are some new measures that could make downloading more difficult and riskier,” said Tulp, “but it does not seem as though the restrictions will at all dampen the way I will acquire my music.”

Controversy over SOPA has caused internet users to question their security within the Web and the power of the government; some bloggers comparing the desire to censor the Web to China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship. Bloggers have also noted the similarities that do prevail such as “corporate self-discipline” which holds companies responsible for their users’ actions. For example, if a YouTube member posts a video of themselves singing the newest hit song, the company would be punished.

“There’s not a higher power that can police what the American government does besides us,” Novikov said. “And the only way that we can police them is prevention, and the only way of prevention with the American government is protest and civil disobedience.”

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.

Do you often see Facebook impacting kids in a negative way?

Definitely, I think that’s the thing that most students aren’t aware of because what we are seeing is colleges, corporations, companies and military personnel doing background checks to get a sense of the person they are trying to hire. If someone has a negative page, then chances are that company or university will most likely not consider their application. We are seeing more of that lately.

Do you think it is fair to decide on whether the applicant should be accepted by their Facebook?

No, because at the same time I think you’ll see those companies trying to get a sense of that person. They can get an idea of a person, but they will be reluctant if they know people can hack into the sites and create phony situations. I have a perception of all of the students. I will say in my mind that they wouldn’t be out there doing stuff they do, but reality tells me I am living in a fantasy world. It is such a tough issue because you are trying to guard yourself. Unfortunately, it will never go away and I think that’s what haunts kids.

Do you ever worry about what students put on their Facebook?

I really do, I don’t know why students put their personal life on social media. Right now, I think students really have to go back and assess what they have on Facebook. You only have to have it backfire on you and then it seems like these people are trailing you. I have seen more negative than I have seen the good and maybe that’s being magnified too much.

KU Assistant Director of Communications – Lauren Erickson

Does KU look at an applicant’s Facebook?

It is not a part of our application review process. We do a lot with the social media, but it is not related to a students admission to KU. Our admission is solely based on students applications, materials and whether or not they meet our criteria. We engage students and get to know them through Facebook and Twitter, but we don’t look at their profiles on whether or not they should be accepted.

What is your main concern when it comes to Facebook?

Is it OK to not let a student into a university based off something you have seen on Facebook?

I think it’s only fair that colleges and universities make it clear what they are considering when they look at a student for admission. If a school said they were going to look at everything they can find on students and the students knew that was how they were being considered then I think it’s fair game. I think it’s important for schools to be up front with what they are requiring.

Senior – Camille Goehausen

Why do you have your profile on private?

It’s been on private because I get creeped out sometimes. I don’t know all of my friends and I don’t want them to be able to see my pictures. I haven’t worried about colleges looking at my Facebook until this year, but I don’t think I have anything on my page that would hurt me too bad if colleges did look at it. I am also friends with a lot of parents and possible future people I could work for in the future so I think that’s another reason why my friends and I are on private. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Have you thought about the consequences that can occur because of Facebook?

Yes I have, especially now because I know there have been multiple instances of people getting in trouble with the school because of pictures, but I personally don’t think I have anything inappropriate. I just think it’s better to be safe about it.

Do you think Facebook affects kids in a negative way?

I think it can. People can take things out of context on Facebook and be bullied through Facebook, but I also think there are a lot of positives to it. Sometimes people post things without really thinking about what they are posting.

What is your opinion on colleges looking at Facebook?

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.”

SRO officer gets arrested, resigns
School Resource Officer (SRO) Richard Pacheco resigned from his post at East just before Thanksgiving. Several days before, he was arrested after being accused of aggravated assault, and was released shortly afterwards. This, according to KCTV 5 News, was not his first run-in with the law–in 2003, two of his ex-wives filed for protection orders and he had been charged with a domestic assault. Three months ago, Pacheco was appointed Chief-of-Police in Mosby, Missouri, just outside of Kansas City. Pacheco was unavailable for comment.

Students prepare for new finals schedule
Finals week will be split up over two weeks this semester, with a weekend break in between students’ third and fourth hour exams. On Thursday, teachers will administer their first hour finals in a normal hour-and-a-half time period–after their first final, students will go to the rest of their shortened classes for quick reviews and study sessions. On Friday, students will take their second and third hour finals followed by an early dismissal where students can stay for lunch or leave after their last exam. Then, students will have a weekend to study and relax before the rest of their finals, with winter break officially beginning for 9-12 grade on Tuesday, Dec. 20, afternoon.

NATION

Court approves new race-based admission guidelines
The Obama Administration recently sent public universities court-approved guidelines detailing the act of admitting students based on their race. The guidelines state that schools are close to as diverse as they were in 1960–so they are taking action. The administration believes that students need to learn in racially diverse communities in order to be prepared to live and work in an interconnected world. It has also been suggested that secondary schools redraw their boundaries to become more diverse. Thus, students can be admitted by their race and other admission qualities to create a diverse community that will contribute to the learning atmosphere of colleges.

COMMUNITY

Johnson County Christmas Bureau sets up in KC
Gift-giving, cozy fires, enjoying the first of many snowfalls–the Johnson County Christmas Bureau aims to give every family a chance to enjoy these traditional holiday exploits without having to worry about making ends meet. The organization gives students a chance to contribute to their community by providing assistance to low income families in the area. Giving away donated toothbrushes, soap, bedding, toys and other common household necessities, they hope to improve the life of someone less fortunate. Donation boxes have been set up around the community including the Commerce Bank at 83rd and Mission.

PV City Council discuss tax hike
Prairie Village Council members had a meeting on Monday, Nov. 21 discussing whether or not a tax should be placed for the up-keep of local parks. The plan would be to increase the cities sales tax by a half of a percent which would produce $1 million in revenue to go to the parks. They would like to make improvements to the parks similar to the recent reconstruction and landscaping of Weltner Park. Council member Ruth Hopkins told the PV Post that she would rather focus on maintence and basic services before working on the city park plan. The council is working on coordinating a city-wide vote on the tax.

City honored for energy conservation efforts
The city of Prairie Village was recently honored as a 2011 Honoree for their Geothermal Project/Energy Conservation Measures from the Mid-America Regional Council’s (MARC) Sustainable Success Stories held at the Kauffman center this year. The city is working on weatherizing their buildings and installing a geothermal heating pump which will conserve 33,484 gallons of gas according to the project’s website. The city council approved the building contract in July of 2011 and they are in the middle of the contruction process. Once completed, the council is hoping to save the city a substantial amount of money.

The district made the choice to ban the option of soda in both the cafeteria and vending machines. Now, the only place soda can be found in the school is a vending machine in the teachers’ lounge. Since the ban, the district has been taking steps to make drinks healthier.

According to Jill Funk, the district’s nutritional analyst, East, like all the other schools in the Shawnee Mission School District, follows a school wellness policy that includes goals and specific nutritional guidelines to promote student health.

Sophomore Ellen St. Clair feels the cafeteria does give students the opportunity to be healthier, and even says she prefers water to the other unhealthy alternatives. St. Clair believes students can still make their own decisions and bring soda in from home or when they go out to lunch.

“I think the choices are pretty good since there are no sodas and they serve drinks like water and Vitamin Water,” St. Clair said. “If students do still want soda they will just bring it in themselves.”

Even with steps the cafeteria making to improve students’ health, students still crave sugary drinks. St. Clair believes the problem isn’t the choices offered, but the according to St Clair students still crave for sugar.

“I think the good taste of sugar just draws them in,” St. Clair said. “And then it just gets them addicted.”

Funk believes the new alternatives are healthier for students; even though they contain sugar, all the sugar is natural and not artifcial.

“Since the cafeteria has juices, and not juice blends, the natural sugar is not all bad and will just come with the concentrated fruit,” Funk said.

According to Dr. Karen Stephens, a dietitian at Children’s Mercy Hospital, the average teenager needs about 125 grams of glucose a day, and all of this can be easily obtained by eating a balanced diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, and milk. She believess the extra sugar in drinks is just unnesscsary.

“Drinking sugar is like putting water in your gas tank and expecting it to run,” Stephens said. “It just doesn’t work.”

According to the CDC the average amount of sugar in a regular soda is 28 grams, compared to the average amount of sugar in an orange juice which is also 28 grams. The consumption of sugar, according to Stephens, is still too much. Because of this, the concesquences are still the same.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity rates have tripled in past 30 years. The overconsumption of sugar can be linked to this statistic because kids are choosing to drink too much sugar.

“We are seeing an extra amount of weight gain in children because of these drinks,” Stepehens said. “As well as brittle bones in these young, teenage girls.”

The average teenage boy drinks around 22 ounces of soda and other sugary drinks a day. This more than doubles the average 10 ounces of milk they consume a day. Teenage girls usually drink around 14 ounces of sugar-filled drinks compared to the only six ounces of milk they drink a day. The student’s choice to drink the sugar offered in schools is one of the main causes for this.

Even though soda is eliminated from the school, juices and sports drinks are still offered and have high natural sugar contents. These natural sugars are an improvement and healthier than their artificial, high-fructose corn syrup counterparts, but still supplies students with sugar. Drinks ranging from Gatorade to V8 V-Fusion to apple juice hide large amounts of sugar behind presumably safe names and labels. For example, a small bottle of orange juice has, on average, 30 grams of sugar. This is about the same as that of Pepsi or Sprite. Even milk has a high sugar content; the small jug of chocolate milk sold in the cafteria also has 30 grams of sugar in a serving.

Though high doses of sugar are written in the fine print of many labels, tasty and healthy alternatives do exist and are offered in the school’s caefeteria.

“We’ve been making gradual changes over the years,” Funk said. “We now only serve skim or one percent fat content milk and one hundred percent juices and not juice blends.”

Stephens also reccomends the healthier alternatives that the East cafeteria offers.

“I would recomend water and skim milk for kids,” Stephens said. “There are also some good sugar free alternatives out there.”

The healthy alternatives that are offered still taste like their sweet competitors. Propel flavored water has only six grams of sugar and also contains no artificial coloring. Nestle Pure Life flavored waters are also a very healthy alternative; this water has no sugar in it at all and is completely flavored naturally.

No matter if students love sugar or see the danger in it, if the sugar is natural or artificial, Stephen thinks it is the cafeteria’s responsibility to keep students well-nourished.

“Kids eat lunch and sometimes breakfast five days a week in the cafeteria,” Stephens said. “They are getting a signifigant portion of thier meals from there, and nutritious options should definitely be offered.”

The incident occurred on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. around I-670 and Central Avenue and he was later arrested at 4700 Parallel address, a Kansas City, Kan. police report stated.

“Placing employees on administrative leave is a standard practice,” said Leigh Anne Neal, Associate Superintendent of Communication for the school district. “It allows the district to look into the situation.”

The administration at East received notice of Pacheco’s resignation from his supervisor, Lt. Steve Beck.

“We did not receive any other information other than the fact he had resigned, effective immediately,” said Molli Armstrong-White, Associate Principal at SM East.

Everything there is to know about Lloyd Robinson can be found pinned on a navy KCPD hat.

“That’s my history right there,” Robinson says pointing at it, stroking each medal and pin.

There’s a crest from Saint-Lô, France, where he was stationed most of his time in World War II, that fills him with memories of adventures with Captain Griffin and trucks filled with gasoline exploding. A gold Star of David reminds Robinson of his relationships with Jews during the war, a gold hook tells tales of German prisoners who worked for him.

Robinson, 94, lives alone in a humble wooden house in Mission, and has since his wife Martha passed away six and a half years ago. His pale blue eyes are hidden by wrinkles and bristling grey eyebrows that fan out like a garden rake, but those blue eyes light up when you ask him about anything on his hat. He has trouble breathing, and can’t speak for more than 20 seconds without having to take a few seconds to catch his breath again, but that doesn’t stop him from pointing out each medal or pin and telling you story upon story about where they are from, and how they are significant in his life.

“The Lord has blessed me with… with an incredible memory,” Robinson said.

Jake Crandall | Harbinger Online

He’d rather not speak about what they did, though.

Born and raised in Ottowa, Robinson and could tell you about growing up and dreaming of being a Chemical Engineer for a big corporation. About how he can remember buying his mother the first washing machine invented, and having to crank the side of it when he came back from college at the University of Kansas and wanted to get laundry done. He could tell you about how he almost fought in the famous “Battle of the Bulge,” because his general, who according to Robinson, “hated his guts,” and frequently tried to send him to the front lines.

Twenty pins and mementos hang on Robinson’s hat. Some war medals. Some walnut scrapings he’s found in his back yard that look like a smiley face. Some abstract pins that remind him of past friends, like the Jayhwak pin, that reminds him of Ernest Lindley, the seventh Chancellor of KU, who was the best friend Robinson ever had. He’d love nothing more, though, than to get one more medal before he passes away: a purple heart.

“You see…when I was walking on [Utah Beach] my leg hit a steak in the ground and cut through three layers of clothes and caught my leg… right by my knee,” Robinson said. “Of course, people don’t usually care about the engineer who got a scratch on their leg… but I slept in a foxhole with two mosquitoes that night and it got… infected a little. I don’t know, I just think it’d be… really nice to be able to show my great-grandchildren… their old grandpa got a purple heart.”

Robinson has sent a letter to the government, and is waiting on a reply.

In the mean time, Robinson doesn’t do much now-a-days. He tries to keep up with is three children and grandchildren, but he mostly putters around his old wooden house and reminisces. He has a study where he keeps everything. Every award. Every old picture. The walls are littered with newspaper clippings of important dates. Pictures of him and Martha sit quietly on his desk. He attributes his length of life to his old 1986 pick up truck, or as he calls it, his “alter-ego.”

“The Lord has blessed me with… an incredible memory.”

After being diagnosed in 1985 with Colon Cancer, doctors predicted Robinson to live no more than three years. He had a simple procedure by a local doctor, who is now deemed one of the best doctors in the country, and after, was cancer free. After the surgery, half of Robinson’s large intestines were gone, which explains why he can’t speak for more than 20 seconds without taking a break. Robinson walked out of the hospital, and spotted an ‘86 Chevy, and fell in love. He bought it, and has kept it ever since. The car is bent out of shape, and has worn rusty with age, and costs about $2000 a year to keep running, but in Robinson’s mind, it’s worth the money to keep it.

“The way I see it… if I can keep that truck running… then… I will keep on going,” Robinson said. “That truck is running like a top now, and I’m in good physical shape as well. I’ve been blessed to live this long…and see…what I have seen.”

Going 35 miles per hour and with slippery conditions due to snowfall, Filbeck was unable to avoid the oncoming vehicle, “and I T-boned her– pretty bad.” After the initial crash the 2004 Ford Sport Trac spun 180 degrees and collided with a third car. The driver of the third car remained stationary, but the second car was more severely displaced. The sedan from the initial accident continued on to collide with a house on the corner of that intersection, puncturing the wall of the house and throwing the sleeping resident from her bed. She visited the hospital, but no one else involved in the crash was injured.

Photo Credit: Jason Filbeck

Spencer Davis | Harbinger Online

“The students learned all about the ecology of the river, the history of the river, its importance to Kansas City and to the local and national environment,” Finkelston said. “Then they turned all that information into artwork. We went to scrapyards under the bridges and learned about pollution and everything that Missouri River Relief deals with.”

The teachers of the East art department last year were faced with the task of selecting students that they felt would truly appreciate the trip.

Spencer Davis | Harbinger Online

Because it was a small group, around fifteen students, the students felt extremely privileged to be among the few chosen.

“I was really surprised. I never expected to get selected for this because I am not a big art person,” says now senior Leyann Dahlgren. “I don’t think I am all that good so I was really excited and I think I kinda stepped up to the plate and had to improve a lot to make pieces for this.”

The artists selected covered a wide range of mediums. The works produced varied from photographs, to graphic design to even sculpture-like pieces.

Spencer Davis | Harbinger Online

Students approached what they saw on the river from many different viewpoints. While some, like Long, chose to focus on the combining of nature and human interference, others saw the pollution in a more negative light.

“We had to try to raise up money for the river because its just so dirty right now,” said senior Jennifer Huran. “There’s just trash everywhere and there’s no one on the water.”

A semester later, with the help and generosity of Studio B Art Gallery, the students finally put their work on display. As visitors passed through, many were amazed by the quality of work that was produced.

Sam Rider, a senior at East, remarked that he, “didn’t know there were artists my age at East that were this good.”

Spencer Davis | Harbinger Online

“I’m really, really happy. The kids did an incredible job and there’s a lot of great work and it’s selling pretty well,” Finkelston said during the showing. “I hope the kids had a great experience. I mean its certainly been great for me.”