Author Spotlight
Emily Fey
The East Theater Program has completed its run of Nooses Off, directed by Brian Cappello and student directed by Senior Sydney Horton. The show ran from Nov. 2 to Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. each night.
The production follows a dysfunctional troupe of actors, crew members and a playwright who fail in their effort to create a play based off of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians.”
Junior Davis Vaughn, who played Arnold, said that fall plays in the past have been serious dramas, while Nooses Off is the first comedy they have done this time of year while he has been at East.
“I am glad that they did a comedy this year, as those are a lot more energetic,” Vaughn said.
According to Vaughn, the audience for this year’s fall play was larger than past years due to comedies attracting more of an audience than dramas. Tickets were free for students with IDs, but $7 for everyone else.
Sophomore Lucy Brock, who played Taylor, enjoyed acting in the show because of the closeness of the about 20 cast members.
“It was a really fun production and there seriously wasn’t a weak link in the cast,” Brock said. “There was so much love in the cast it was insane.”
The Prairie Village Police Department has added “confirmation lights” to stop lights on 75th and Mission Rd. as well as 75th and Roe Ave. The two blue lights on each side of the stop lights are there to help police better enforce red light traffic violations.
“When the red light comes on, the light turns blue,” Traffic Unit Supervisor Sergeant Eric McCullough said. “That way an officer can sit from different locations and be able to see violations of the red light.”
The lights at 75th and Mission were placed on Oct. 26 and the lights at 75th and Roe were placed on Oct. 30. The confirmation lights, which have been used in Overland Park, Shawnee and Lenexa already, were placed on these two intersections due to an accident analysis done by the McCullough.
“Every year, I do an analysis of all the accidents in the city and 75th and Mission and 75th and Roe are consistently our highest accident intersections,” McCullough said. “A lot of those accidents tend to do with red light violations, which tend to be more severe accidents.”
The installation of the confirmation lights cost about $2600, and the money came from a grant given to the Police Department by the state. So far, they have no data on the effectiveness of the lights in our city, but McCullough says that studies done by universities and the Federal Department of Transportation prove that the lights are effective in enforcing red light violations.
“I’m trying to keep track of how many citations we issue off of the blue lights and see how that affects our accidents at the end of the year,” McCullough said. “If it seems to be helping [at the end of the year], we may put them up in other locations.”
On Nov. 5, Devin Patrick Kelley carried out the largest mass shooting in Texas history. Kelly, 26, opened fire on the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX, killing 26 people and injuring 20 others. Kelly also died from a gunshot wound. According to local authorities, it is unclear if the shot that killed him came from a self-inflicted shot, or the wounds in his side and leg fired by an armed resident.
The victims killed ranged from a 17-month-old to a 77-year-old. Among the dead was Kelly’s mother-in-law, Lula White. According to CNN, Kelly had been in contact with White as recent as Sunday morning, sending threatening messages to her before the attack.
In an investigation of the shooter, it was found that Kelly had been dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force due to assaults against his wife and toddler stepson. Kelly’s long history of abuse was not reported properly into the federal database that licensed gun dealers are required to check before selling someone a firearm. Under federal law, Kelly would’ve been restricted from buying the rifle he used to kill the 26 congregation members.
According to a statement released by the Air Force, the Air Force Inspector General is conducting an investigation into how Kelly’s domestic violence record had not been recorded, along with several other misfiled reports.
The shooting, which is not linked to terrorism, has brought light to the large issue of mental illness in our country. U.S. citizens are starting to question “if anywhere is safe anymore,” junior Gia Hense said.
“I’m not necessarily scared to go to church,” Hense said. “Obviously what happened was really scary but that shouldn’t stop me from going. It only makes me want to go more often so I can pray for all the crazy people in the world.”
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