The Little Hawk

THE

LITTLE HAWK Iowa City, IA

Vol 74

Friday, April 28th, 2017

Issue 5

thelittlehawk.com

ABOVE: Cora Bern-Klug '15 hands t-shirts out during a pick-up on April 8th, 2017. PHOTO BY SOFIE LIE

City Alumnae Create "ProtecTee" Three City High alumnae have come together in an effort to make a sustainable t-shirt, its profits benefitting Bur Oak Land Trust.

By Sofie Lie & Lucy McGehee

C

ora Bern-Klug ‘15 and Riley Lewers ‘16 were worn after the election. Lewers in particular had spent long hours campaigning for weeks, and both felt powerless; they wanted to take action, but didn’t quite know how. After a couple weeks of contemplation, Lewers and Bern-Klug

had an idea: to create a sustainablymade apolitical t-shirt, its profits benefitting a local environmental organization, Bur Oak Land Trust.

“The political climate [prompted us to do something],” Bern-Klug said. “I think this organization is completely apolitical, and I think both parties can be involved in this. It’s something that’s not, and shouldn’t be, a one sided thing. It’s something that we all should

work on, because it benefits all of our best interests.”

The idea, coined “ProtecTee,” took off within weeks. Bern-Klug, who maintains a significant social media following, gauged the idea with her followers and received an overwhelmingly positive response.

“The first week when I put this out on Facebook, put this out on Instagram there was a huge response.

Fashion Class Begins at City High Elizabeth Rook and Andre Wright have created a class that covers fashion from marketing to style to the runway.

Student Election Causes Controversy New Senate rule leaves candidates in outcry.

By Victor Kalil

By Zoë Butler

W

hen Andre Wright, CEO of Born Leaders United—a fashion line—and one of the Press-Citizen’s 11 “People to Watch” first approached City High about creating a fashion workshop, City High administration expected that it would take place during advisory.

“I wanted a way to give my brand another platform and give back to the community,” Wright said. “So I wanted to teach the kids what I know about the fashion industry.”

But now, instead of teaching during the 26 minute advisory period every few days, a class was created with a curriculum that will ultimately lead to a fashion show towards the end of the trimester.

“We started with the idea of having [the class]during advisory meetings,” Elizabeth Rook, iJAG coordinator and co-teacher of the class said via email. “But [we] realized quickly that that wouldn’t be enough time for students to do all the great things Andre wanted to get done, so we decided to create a class.”

Students will not just be learning about fashion, but many other skills that are es-

Everyone was like, ‘I really want one!’

And I think within that first week we had around eighty orders,” Bern-Klug said. “My expectations were completely gashed, in a good way. It was fantastic.”

Protectee materialized through collaboration of City High alumnae Ella Ostedgaard ‘16, Riley Lewers ‘16 and Bern-Klug.

Continued on A4

I

ABOVE: Fashion class students and co-teacher Elizabeth Rook collaborate on organizing the May fashion show. PHOTO BY VICTOR KALIL

sential to the fashion industry such as team building, organizing around a cause, and marketing as well.

Instead of just learning about fashionable clothes, the experience in this classroom is much more comprehensive. Students will be

learning lots of the behind-the-scenes parts of creating a fashion show as Wright has experience in helping organize fashion shows such as the Flyover Fashion Fest, a fashion show held in downtown Iowa City.

Continued on A3

n recent months, the Student Senate reversed its stance on who is eligible to run and changed the rules for next year­—changes that sparked controversy on social media and in the hallways.

“When we have people in charge who have not been to meetings or do not understand how it works, there tends to be a lot of delegating to people that do know how it works,” four-year member Natalie Holmes ‘17 said. “So you don’t get the title, but you’re doing the work.”

The issue started years ago when it became a pattern that Student Senate had only a handful of active members until students declared their candidacy. Attendance would rise throughout the election season (owing to the rule that all candidates must make meetings) but fall off sharply shortly thereafter, leaving the Senate with just a few dedicated newcomers by the end, according to Tygrett, a teacher advisor.

Student Senate began to have concerns about a candidate who would be ill-prepared for holding office.

Continued on A7

A2

NEWS February 10th, 2017 Section A

4

Gardens in the classroom

The LH Feature Magazine

14

Trump’s Travel ban misses the point

9

Flower Child

By Danielle Tang

By Eden Knoop

By Molly Liu

Q&A with multimedia artist victoria malone

20 10

Planned parenthood protests

By Lottie Gidal

By Addie Bass and Rasmus Schultter Inspired by her father, an elementary art teacher, Victoria has developed a style that spans different mediums and subjects.

12

Dancing the line

By Maya Durham

AJ Boulund ‘17 and Deckard Finley ‘17 created a mock forest safety film starring Addie Bass ‘17 for the spring speech season.

Dear Readers, As flowers bloom and sinuses drip, we young journalists have been hunching over bright monitors to bring you our final issue. This is it, our last hoorah!

Through the last six issues we have enjoyed pursuing the truth, following the spirit of inquiry, going on work-night-induced carrot binges, and reveling in journalistic camaraderie.

Soon, we will go from being Little Hawks, to awkward little fledgling things that look

By Sofie Lie, Nova Meurice & Sarah Smith

How class affects extracurricular activities

scraggly because they have feathers AND weird downy stuff all over their bodies. Out into the world we will go!

While each issue brought new challenges, one thing remains the same: we have, as always, sought to bring you timely, relevant content. This issue we intend to do no differently, covering subjects from the affordable housing crisis in the feature magazine to the rise of gardening-based science education in the news section to behind the scenes looks at the spring musical.

As our time comes to a close, our fledgeling editors must take our place. They will hopefully follow in our footsteps of sub-par deadline management skills. What we lack in organization, we make up for in JC Penney’s photoshoots.

Enjoy.

P.S. Thanks as usual to Chip Hardesty and the janitors!

With Love,

A3

NEWS April 28th, 2017

Four Influential Teachers Leave City After many years at City High, Tina Koepnick, Kevin Koepnick, John Carhoff, and Ryan Arp will leave a legacy as they seek new adventures.

By Zoë Miller, Lottie Gidal, Grace Parrott, and Noah Bullwinkle

TINA KOEPNICK

T

“To a teacher, teaching is your life…

It’s not the kind of job where you go in the morning and then go home. It’s the kind of job where you develop relationships with all of your students,” Kevin said. “Those relationships then carry on to every other part of your life.”

Originally, Kevin did not plan on staying at City High for more than 6 or 7 years. He figured he would finish his doctorate in Science Education and then go to a small college and teach biology or teacher education. In the end he decided he wanted to continue teaching high school students. He has been well-appreciated by the students and staff.

“Mr. Koepnick is extremely charismatic and engaging; he connects with students, he’s passionate about his content area, and [he’s] extremely professional,” John Bacon, principal of City High, said.

Kevin has been involved at City High in many ways. Not only did he find joy in teaching, but also in singing.

After a suggestion from a friend to do an acapella song with fellow teachers Jack Kennedy, Tom Yates, and Bruce Wilson, for the Annual Faculty Show, the quartet began playing gigs. They called themselves the WKKY. For the following thirteen years the WKKY played throughout multiple venues in Iowa City.

Kevin’s voice carried not only through music, but through the PA system at City High. Kevin began doing PA for the marching band in 1989. In the 90’s he did PA for track and girl’s basketball. In 2009 and switched to football play-by-play. “[Kevin’s] the golden voice of City High and has been for many years,” Bacon said. “His voice is synonymous with our school.”

As for what he will be doing in the coming years, Kevin has decided to travel to a couple of national parks. He is also considering working a little here and there.

“I tell everyone I’m going to take a gap year,” Kevin joked. “Gap years are trending and I never had [one]...when I was graduating gap years were called unemployment.”

Since teaching has been such a big part of his life, Kevin recognizes retiring will be a big change.

“It’s going to be hard giving you all up,” Kevin said. “[Teaching] is too much fun.”

ina Koepnick went to high school in Ankeny, Iowa, and after graduating came to the University of Iowa, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Science Education. Koepnick started out teaching science at Cedar Rapids Prairie and then has spent the last 30 years at City High School. Koepnick reflects on how she ended up teaching high school students.

“I really liked high school. I had a very good experience,” Tina said. “I didn’t [plan on being] a teacher, but as I thought about the things I enjoyed the most, I realized that I liked interactions with young people.”

Those interactions with young people have been built up through coaching as well as teaching. Tina was assistant varsity basketball coach for 4 years and then head varsity coach for 3 years.

“Basketball is my passion as a coach, but I love being a part of a team and the relationships that develop as coach and players work toward a common purpose,” Koepnick said. “Many life lessons are learned as a team member and competitor, and being able to foster those behaviors in student athletes outside the classroom adds a very rewarding dimension to being a teacher.”

John Bacon, principal of City High, had Tina as his biology teacher in his sophomore year.

“When I think of truly great teachers, my mind will always picture Tina Koepnick,” Bacon said. “She is the epitome of an excellent teacher. She is engaging, enthusiastic, and caring. To walk into her classroom is an absolute joy.”

As well as being greatly appreciated by students, she is a well-loved member of the City High staff. “[Mrs. Koepnick] is very caring. She believes that every student is capable of learning, and she brings that to her classroom every single day,” Cathy Wilson, physics and chemistry teacher, said.

In the coming years Koepnick wants to continue working with kids in some way or another, most likely through volunteering. She plans to travel in the fall.

Tina looks forward to being one of the commencement speakers at graduation as she finds it fitting that both her and the seniors will be closing the City High chapter of their lives.

“I find myself extremely fortunate for my years at City High, to have worked in this environment, with this commu- RYAN ARP nity and this set of kids and colleagues that I’ve had,” said Koepnick. “I couldn’t have asked for a better experience all around. That makes it difficult to leave, yan Arp, seven year assistant but I’m reassured to know that it will band director at City High, will continue. The greatness that is the City be teaching at Liberty next year, High community will go on.” filling the position of head band director.

“I am a pretty driven, motivated person, and I’ve also always been the assistant band director at City High, KEVIN KOEPNICK and I get to be the main director and the only director at Liberty. I get to pick evin Koepnick has taught for 34 everything out and design it however I years, 33 of them at City High. want; it’s pretty neat.”

Kevin came to the University of Arp will continue to build off of the Iowa with an interest in a health career, experience he has gained at City. however, after taking a class in educa“It’s not like I’m walking into sometion he changed his mind. thing that has great tradition like City “It didn’t take me very long to realize High. We’ll have to start from scratch, that the highlight of my week was not so it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s the organic chemistry lecture or any going to be an exciting challenge too,” other crazy class I was taking,” Kevin Arp said. said. “It was chilling with second gradArp was approached for the Liberty ers out at Shimek two days a week.” project in 2014 to be part of the design Kevin continued to take classes in committee. education and earned his bachelor’s de“I was able to design the whole band gree in general science and his master’s area to my liking. It’s at the heart of the in Science Education with an emphasis school instead of in far away lands like on teaching. He has taught everything it is in every high school. That’s someexcept physics. thing that I believe very strongly in. I’m

R

K

glad that I got to make those choices, and I took a lot of pride in doing that,” Arp said. “[I’m going to miss] everything about City High, and for sure the students. They’ve always been a plus, number one, since day one. I’m going to miss the traditions and the people at City High a lot,” Arp said.

Joey Schnoebelen ‘17 plays trumpet in wind and jazz ensemble. He has been Arp’s student for all of his high school career.

“I played him in basketball in Chicago for four years. I lost all four years.

That was kind of a tradition that we had. We looked forward to it, and we would always smack talk each other a little bit,” Schnoebelen said. “I’m really grateful City High had Mr. Arp. I think that he was great for this school. He could really connect to the students well, and he was a wealth of knowledge.

There’s just so much he taught us over the years.”

Taking over Mr. Arp’s current position as assistant band director at City is Aaron Ottmar. Ottmar graduated from UNI with a degree in jazz studies and is currently teaching at Davis County High School.

“Good dude. He was a former student. I only got him for my first year while he was here, but he was clearly talented. I’m really excited for him to continue on what I have started here at City High,” Arp said. “I feel like it’ll be a pretty seamless transition. And again, it goes back to the people and the students, and they deserve someone really good, and they’re getting that. It makes me feel good about leaving knowing that they’re going to be in good hands.”

Fashion Class cont. from A1 Prisca Namuchibwe ‘20 is one of those students hoping to learn the more unseen skills required for a fashion show.

“I wanted to learn and experience more about the fashion industry because I’ve watched a lot but haven’t experienced it,” Namuchibwe said.

The fashion class takes place in an open-ended environment. Most of the time, students are free to talk across groups and brainstorm ideas.

“The students are so attentive and eager to learn.”

— Andre Wright “It’s a class where you can share your opinions, change things, and see how your ideas are becoming something,” said Aileen “Dalia” Castaneda ‘17.

The class will also have multiple guest speakers come in to help talk to students about their experiences. On March 27th, Simeon Talley, co-founder of the Iowa Fashion Project, spoke to the class about Iowa’s role in the fashion industry.

JOHN CARHOFF

A

fter 47 years of teaching all over the world, and 16 years of teaching at City High, Mr. John Carhoff is retiring at the conclusion of this year. A teacher in the math department, Mr. Carhoff teaches algebra and geometry.

“I think algebra and geometry are the basis to be successful in the real world, where everybody needs algebra and geometry, but not everyone uses subjects like calculus. I thought I could benefit the most people by teaching them algebra and geometry,” he said.

Mr. Carhoff decided to teach because he loved watching the lightbulb go off in students’ heads when they learn new things.

“When a student gets it, and just has the ‘aha’ moment. That’s the fun part,” he said Mr. Carhoff, by anyone’s terms, has had a fascinating career as a teacher. He has tutored and taught in The Kingdom of Bahrain, Japan, Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, and even a prison system.

However, after all of these experiences, age was a key factor in Mr. Carhoff ’s retirement.

“I’m at the age where it’s either the time for me to settle down or teach for the rest of my life,” he said. “I would love to keep teaching, but after a while of thinking I realized it is probably the time to retire.”

After his retirement, Mr. Carhoff hopes to either continue producing and directing his Iowa City TV show, “Education Exchange”, and possibly work more individually with students.

“I want to keep my video productions alive and possibly work in tutoring. But for the first few weeks I’m just going to take it easy and go with the flow,” he said.

ABOVE: Students collaborate during fashion class PHOTO BY VICTOR KALIL

“When we say fashion in Iowa, a lot of people are immediately dismissive,” Talley said. “What you don’t hear about when it comes to fashion in Iowa is that there are some really cool and amazingly dope brands that were built here.”

Talley hopes the experience the class creates towards the end of the trimester will be successful.

During May, the fashion class will host a fashion show in the gym, complete with a runway, models, and clothes they have synthesized between traditional clothes of different cultures and everyday clothes. Castaneda believes showing this diversity is crucial.

“America needs variety of culture because without it, we would be boring.”

— Aileen “Dalia” Castaneda ‘17 “America needs variety of culture because without it we would be boring,” she said.

Wright is hopeful and excited for the class’s final product.

“The class is going so well [and] the students are so attentive and eager to learn. This will be one of those fashion shows not to miss.”

The class is looking for City High students who would like to volunteer as models for the show. If you are interested in being a model, you can email Elizabeth Rook at rook.elizabeth@iowacityschools.org.

A4

NEWS April 28th, 2017

ABOVE: Cora Bern-Klug '15 hands t-shirts out during a pick-up on April 8th, 2017. PHOTO BY SOFIE LIE

Protectee

continued from A1 All share a common background, but have different areas of expertise.

“I’m more social media and marketing outreach,” Bern-Klug said. “Riley’s definitely the brains behind everything. She’s really savvy when it comes to how to do things the best way. I think I have a business mindset and we both fill in the gaps for each other when it comes to business related stuff. Ella is really our artsy-fartsy printer extraordinaire. She’s fantastic.”

All profit will be donated to Bur Oak Land Trust, an organization that buys land from primarily Johnson County with the goal of restoring the purchased land to its original state. The t-shirts, too, are indicative of the project’s goal: they are bought second hand to reduce waste, and hand-printed by Ostedgaard.

“We’re trying to make this as meaningful as possible. By

“I think it's important to know that [climate change] is an issue that's important to us.”

—Cora Bern-Klug '15

buying one of these shirts you aren’t contributing to any sort of materialistic commercialism,” Bern-Klug said. “You’re not buying a new t-shirt, you’re not putting anything else out into the world that’s not already been out into the world.”

ProtecTee’s main demographic is college students, Bern-Klug says, that lean towards the left politically. Bern-Klug, however, has been adamant in fostering inclusion along the ideological spectrum, having reached out to both the University of Iowa Democrats and Republicans, albeit unsuccessfully in the latter effort.

Bern-Klug says that she has been met with surprise while selling shirts, which she attributes in part to the conception that young people are uninterested in climate issues. “[At the Bur Oak Preview], people were like ‘wow you guys are in college? This is so cool that you guys are doing this and that you actually care.’,” she said. “I think a lot of middle-aged people think that our generation doesn’t really care about things.

I think it’s important to know that [climate change] is an issue that’s important to us.”

The Protectee business model is simple. Consumers either fill out an order form online and pick the t-shirt during set pick-up times on the ped mall, or buy the shirts at events like the Bur Oak Preview. The project relies heavily on social media, its main form of advertisement, as Bern-Klug has set up both a Facebook page (@ProtecTeeIowa) and an Instagram account (@protectee_iowa), where she markets the project by posting photos of customers wearing the t-shirts. The business model benefits from the growing movement to support local businesses, BernKlug affirms, as the t-shirts are made locally, their profit going to a local organization.

“Local is in right now,” Bern-Klug said. “It affects our com-

ADVERTISEMENTS

“We’re trying to make this as meaningful as possible. By buying one of these shirts you aren’t contributing to any sort of materialistic commercialism."

—Cora Bern-Klug '15 munity. It affects us right now, whereas Antarctica affects us indirectly, so more people are willing to spend money on [local efforts].”

Indeed, in just a few months and with three rounds of printing shirts, the ProtecTee project has netted $400 ($600 total revenue Bern-Klug says, minus a $200 cost of production).

Bern-Klug intends for the project to continue to expand, as she plans to organize an email list, register ProtecTee as a non-profit, launch a website, and set up a booth at the farmer’s market this summer. She does not, however, see herself making a profit from the project, affirming that, for her, the project is a way to funnel passion into a product.

“It feels good to be able to do something, but I really do think if people educate themselves and realize what’s going on and what’s being affected by policies that [the president] and Congress and people at our state representative level are putting in place, we wouldn’t have the people in office that are in office today,” Bern-Klug said. “We wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing to our environment if we really just educated ourselves.”

A5

NEWS April 28th, 2017

As Threats Loom to Defund UN, Students Seek Solutions The Iowa High School Model United Nations Conference took place amidst the new administration’s plan to cut United States funding to the UN.

By Sofie Lie & Lucy McGehee

W

hile high school delegates raised their placards at the Iowa High School Model United Nations Conference, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting to debate the merits of airstrikes launched by the U.S. into Syria.

In this meeting, the U.S. Delegation cited the use of chemical weapons by the Assad Regime against its own people as motivation for U.S. interference, whereas the Syrian Delegation countered that the airstrike was a “barbaric, flagrant lead of aggression,” that would embolden terrorist groups to use chemical weapons in the future.

Sameer Ali ‘17, who has participated in Model United Nations for two years, saw paralleled dialogue that same day— but amongst high school students, not United Nations delegates. For the second year, Ali participated in the disarmament committee and represented Japan.

“It’s important to represent different nations and to try to get in their shoes and figure out how the world could be working right now,” Ali said.

Ali’s committee discussed outreach programs by ISIL towards teens at risk, the prevalence of children in conflict, and nuclear disarmament. The committee ended the conference by coming to a clear consensus: to aim for complete nuclear disarmament in 50 years. Ali notes that the conference helps to emphasize the importance compromise.

“I like to think that kids are a lot more ingenious than a lot of adults,” he said. “While there is no winner, there’s a lot of different things you can get out of negotiating.”

Steve Dodge, advisor of Model United Nations and economics teacher agrees that there are many positive attributes that are strengthened and developed in students participating in Model UN. In his years advising the club, he has seen many students that have previously participated go on to earn high-level degrees and leadership positions.

“[Students can achieve] a wider view of the world,” said Dodge. “The skill of being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand another country’s perspective, the ability to get up in front of people and express your opinion or your view on a specific topic, and how to run an efficient meeting, is really valuable. It leaves an impression that influences students as they achieve career goals.”

Prior to the conference, students in Model UN prepare position papers for their respective subjects from a country’s point of view. This year, City High students represented three countries (one more than in previous years, due to a spike in interest, according to Dodge): China, Japan, and Norway. They then use their research to draft amendments that ultimately culminate into a final resolution, if passed though a two-thirds majority by the committee.

Ali, who grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, says that his interest in the United Nations goes beyond simulation. He asserts that the UN has been prevalent throughout his life, as several of his uncles were deployed to Sudan during UN peacekeeping efforts through UNAMIS, United Nations Advance Mission in the Sudan.

“I don’t know what a world without the UN would be like,” Ali said.

The Obama Administration spent $1.2 billion on funding to the United

ABOVE: Sameer Ali ‘17 speaks with RJ Johnson, the National Vice Chair of the United Nations Association.

LEFT: The Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee holds a caucus on April 7th, 2017 at the Iowa High School Model United Nations Conference.

PHOTOS BY SOFIE LIE

Nations, making up .1 percent of the $3.8 trillion total budget, according to the Congressional Budget Office and the UN Foundation, respectively.

Though the funding is just a mere percentage of the United States’ spending, the contribution makes up 22% of the United Nations’ funding.

This funding might diminish under President Trump, though.

The New York Times has reported an executive order is in the works by the Trump Administration that would strip the UN of this funding, a sentiment reinforced by White House budget director Mick Mulvaney when, in a Fox News interview, he stated that “[the Trump Administration is] absolutely reducing funding to the U.N. and to various foreign aid programs.”

This threat is in part due to President Trump’s doubts over the power that the U.N. holds; in December, he compared the U.N. to a social club, tweeting “it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.”

Though the United Nations does not have legal leverage over sovereign nations, they can impose sanctions—a way to enforce international agreements and confront violations—upon countries that do not abide to resolutions determined by the assembly.

Countries with numerous human rights violations, such as North Korea, are sanctioned by the United Nations.

During the conference, Ali noted that conflicts arose as the delegates interpreted the powers the UN had over its member-states.

“In terms of the position of the UN, it has always been conflicting, because what can they actually do? They cannot force governments to do things because then they just turn into an establishment or an oligarchy and that’s not what they want to create,” Ali said. “It’s always tough to say, ‘do we need it?’, ‘don’t we need it?’ But, there’s a lot of good things the UN is doing.”

Indeed, the UN heads many aid programs, aimed at developing countries, children, global health initiatives, and refugees. Ali notes that the UN falls short sometimes, but is certain that its efforts bring positive change.

“At least look into the UN, and look into some of the things they are doing,” Ali said. “They’re not perfect and I’m not going to say that they are, but they are doing a lot of good things out there that are helping people in need, and that’s what we should really focus on.”

Mock Trial Takes Seventh Place at State

By Lottie Gidal & Eden Knoop After last year’s state qualification, City High’s Mock Trial team took home a seventh place trophy, exceeding their expectations of placing in the top 12 teams.

H

undreds of people filled the seats of the auditorium, nervously awaiting the start of the awards ceremony for the 2017 Iowa High School Mock Trial State Tournament.

It was City High’s second time attending the competition, and the first year that they would be bringing a trophy home with them, finishing 7th out of 32 teams.

“We succeeded really well. Mr. Schumann and I both thought a top-ten finish would have been great, and we finished 7th, which was amazing,” Chip Hardesty, a coach for the team, said.

A typical mock trial team consists of four to five lawyers and six witnesses. City’s state-qualifying team was comprised of Max Meyer ‘18, Kawther Rouabhi ‘18, Jessica Sheffield ‘18, Zoe Hopewell ‘18, and Eden Knoop ‘18 as lawyers. After receiving this year’s case in mid-December, the lawyers spent three months working on writing questions, opening and closing arguments, and learning objections.

“We started a lot earlier, with our practice,” Jessica Sheffield said. “Because we started earlier, we put in a lot more time, particularly on the details.”

This year’s case, written by John Wheeler, is a civil case themed around the movie Karate Kid. There were three plaintiff witnesses: Terry Kreese, played by Gabby McCormick ‘18, Bobbi

Brown, played by Serena Collins ‘18, and Gio Lawrence, played

by Gabe Gibbons ‘17. Likewise, there were three defense witnesses: Danni Russo, played by Maya Durham ‘19, Aleja Mills, played by Jessica Sheffield ‘18, and Nikko Miyagi, played by Rasmus Schlutter ‘17.

The defendant, Danni Russo, was a sophomore in high school when she first developed her application, Teacher’s Pet, in Mr. Miyagi’s coding class. She worked on the app with a few other students, including her close friend Gio Lawrence.

Danni then decided to start looking for investors, so Mr. Miyagi introduced Danni to an old investor friend of his, Aleja Mills. In the end however, Cobra Kai Investments became the majority shareholder, and Ms. Mills takes up a subordinate position.

The case culminates when the Plaintiff, Terry Kreese, the vice president of Cobra Kai, sues Danni Russo for securities fraud. A ninja, or stealth code, had been written into the application that allowed students to cheat, to access the answers while taking tests. The argument is both over whether the ninja was intentional and whether Cobra Kai exercised reasonable care when investing in the app.

After working on the case since December, City High sent its two teams to the Regional Competition on March 4th. All teams were given the opportunity to compete in two rounds, once on the side of the Plaintiff and once arguing the Defense.

“Honestly, the regional performance exceeded my expectations,” Hardesty said. “I knew our witnesses were good, and the lawyers exceeded my expectations.”

City High’s teams ended up placing 1st and 3rd respectively.

“It’s been amazing. We won our regionals and I just think we’re doing really well,” Sheffield said. “It’s nowhere but up from here.”

As the teams that finished in the top two spots qualified for

“It’s been amazing. We won our regionals and I just think we’re doing really well. It’s nowhere but up from here.”

—Jessica Sheffield '18 the state competition, City Mock Trial sent one team to Des Moines to compete March 27th through the 29th. They would go on to finish in seventh.

Rocio Stejskal, a lawyer on the white team, traveled to state to watch the qualifying team compete. Despite not making it to state, she enjoyed watching them compete.

“We could tell that during the practices that their team is really passionate and that they really care a lot about mock trial.

It was very inspiring for us, to see a team so dedicated to their work. And they were not just about winning but about coming together as a team,” Stejskal said.

Despite this season just finishing, the whole team is already looking forward to the next case.

“I feel really good about (this season), but I also think there’s lots of room for improvement,” Sheffield said.

Coaches Chip Hardesty, Lisa Williams, and Jason Schumann all have big plans for next year.

“We think that next year WE will win the state title,” Hardesty said.

A6

NEWS April 28th, 2017

A Look Inside Liberty High After years of planning and construction, the brand new high school in North Liberty is almost ready to welcome its first students.

“The middle section, that’s probably the second furthest along. There’s no chairs in the auditorium, but the stage is done and the rigging and a lot of that kind of thing is there. The band room has the sound things on the wall and the speakers are up for their sound system so it’s in really good shape, it’s just not as far along as the main academic area,” Kibby said.

The third and final phase is the athletic wing. These indoor spaces, including the wrestling room, locker rooms and both gyms, will also be ready to use in the fall.

By Hannah Boer

A

s the school year comes to a close for City and West, Liberty High’s first principal, Scott Kibby, is busy preparing for his school to finally open its doors next fall. It’s been almost two years since work on the site first began in June of 2015. Now, in it’s 24th month of construction, crews are beginning to wrap things up. The project’s general contractor, Curtis Tomas of McComas Lacina Construction, has watched the site grow from an empty lot to the 264,000 square foot building it is today.

“We are about 90% [done], believe it or not. June 7th is substantial completion and then July 7th is final completion. It’s getting very close.” Tomas said.

The school itself has been built in a series of three phases. The first phase, or section of the building to be completed, is a U-shaped area which holds the vast majority of classrooms.

“The academic wing is almost done, the carpets are in the rooms, the white boards are up, and the walls have been painted,”

“The style is very modern with materials that play off of one another.”

—Jon Oosterhuis

“I completely get it, wanting to graduate with your classmates, after having been at a school for three years. But the reason we’ll grow is when those 30 kids graduate; we’ll bring in a class of 275 freshmen.”

—Principal Scott Kibby Kibby said. “Though there’s a few odds and ends left to do, I think that academic area is in really good shape.”

Of the 35 world language, math, english, social studies and science rooms available, 10 will be closed to students during the 2017-18 school year. These empty classrooms will be put to use in the future, but as of next fall, the extra rooms will be locked and void of furniture.

Although it has the capacity for hundreds of more students, Liberty will be far from filled its first few years. The 675 students expected next fall will be followed by 875 in 2018 and close to 1,100 in 2019.

When West High Juniors were given the choice to either stay at West or move to

ABOVE: Liberty High will feature a modern design, deviating from the styles of City and West High Schools.

PHOTOS BY HANNAH BOER

Liberty for their senior year, only 30 chose to leave West. Principal Kibby understood the students’ decision.

“I completely get it, wanting to graduate with your classmates, after having been at a school for three years, but the reason we’ll grow is when those 30 kids graduate, we’ll bring in a class of 275 fresh-

man. We’ll grow in a hurry because we’re bringing in full classes and replacing small classes on the top end,” Kibby said.

The second phase is the middle section of the building where the library, auditorium and rooms for music, art, Project Lead The Way and industrial tech are located.

However, the football and soccer fields, tennis courts, ballfields and other outdoor facilities won’t be completed until 2019. In the meantime, Liberty sports teams will use off site areas for games and practices.

“For football we’ll practice at Van Allen but we’ll play most of our games at West High and one at Bates Field,” Kibby said. “So we just try to find places to play. We’ll use a couple community parks, like Coralville Sports Park and Penn Meadows Park for some of the outdoor spaces. We’ll just beg and borrow.”

Once complete, the building’s three sections and a central common space will make for a simple and efficient layout. Architect Jon Oosterhuis and his project team at SVPA Architects Inc. designed Liberty with ease of navigation in mind.

“When buildings get this large sometimes wayfinding is difficult. A large lobby extending the full length of the building divides the athletic department to the west from the academics to the East. This clear building division helps people more easily understand the building layout,” Oosterhuis said.

SVPA wanted Liberty to stand out visually from City and West and made sure to give it a unique appearance. The exterior of the building is covered in a combination of brick masonry, composite panels and ribbed aluminum siding.

“The style is very modern with materials that play off of one another,” Oosterhuis said. “We just tried to break up the building and break down the scale so that it’s more at the pedestrian level. We played around with colors, trying to create some interest.”

Years of careful planning and attention to detail have evolved into what is now Liberty High School. With its first day of classes just around the corner, students across the district look forward to seeing just what the school has in store.

As Complaints Add Up, ICCSD Replaces Smart Boards The school district is beginning the process of replacing Smart Boards with projectors.

By Victor Kalil Through all of their years of usefulness, it has come time to retire the Smart Boards. The complaints are adding up and the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) began a process where Smart Boards four years and older will be replaced throughout the coming years until all of the present Smart Board systems have been replaced.

Instead of having the entire system being replaced with a better Smart Board and a better projector, the new system will only require a better projector, allowing the current Smart Boards to be replaced with white boards.

“One of the drawbacks to Smart Boards is the fact that they can’t be used with a regular marker, and they’re limited in terms of size,” Adam Kurth, head of technology at ICCSD, said. “The interactive projectors will project

onto a regular whiteboard, giving students and teachers an additional general-purpose whiteboard for use in each classroom.”

The whiteboards will all measure 5’ vertically, which means most teachers will have 43% more area on their boards. Matt Miller, AB/BC Calculus teacher and extensive Smart Board user, is one of the teachers that will benefit greatly from this change.

“My understanding is that it’ll be a bit bigger, and so I won’t lose any functionality,” said Miller. “I’ll just gain another whiteboard for

“One of the drawbacks to Smart Boards is the fact that they can’t be used with a regular marker, and they’re limited in terms of size.”

—Adam Kurth, head of technology at ICCSD times when I’m not using my Smart Board.”

The new projectors will also be at an “ultra-

short throw” distance, which means that the projectors will no longer need to stick out a couple of feet from a wall mount. Projectors can be placed as little as 11” away from the board so there is minimal interference with shadows.

The projector will also be able to handle up to six different people using the board at the same time, instead of the present Smart Boards that can only handle one user.

Although the cost per new projector ($1400) is a bit pricey, when compared with current Smart Board systems, the projectors are less than 40% of the price paid for the current projectors and Smart Boards in each classroom.

Not included in the price of $3700 per current system are the costs to repair and transport the massive boards and technology when something gets damaged or malfunctioned.

Luckily, the $3700 systems won’t go to waste after they are replaced next year.

“The Smart Boards that are taken down will either be reused or sold to an electronics recycler,” Kurth said. “Those devices that are newer (less than four years old) will be stored, and will be used to replace defective Smart Boards or to upgrade older Smart Boards between now and the time when we’ve upgraded all classrooms to

interactive projectors.”

The new projectors will also work well with ICCSD’s other technology initiative—going one-to-one with Chromebooks next year.

Chromebooks, and other computers, will be able to work with the Smart Boards through the Epson iProjection App—up to 50 at the same time. The amount saved per classroom—$2300—is enough to purchase around 750 Chromebooks.

Multiple teachers had initial concerns about a new system swooping in, but ultimately teachers see they have nothing to fear. Miller was along those teachers with early concerns.

“I thought they were just getting rid of them and just replacing [the Smart Boards] with just a projector,” said Miller. “But as I’ve learned more about it, I’m excited about it because it’ll do everything I can currently do.”

Kurth says that after he describes that there won’t be changes in things such as the software use, most teachers have given support to the Smart Boards being replaced starting next year.

“Once I’ve explained that the functionality will remain, along with the benefits of the new approach, everyone seems to be on board.”

A7

NEWS April 28th, 2017

City Places Second at Jazz Championships

T

By Jonathan House

he City High Jazz Ensemble competed for a state championship at the Iowa Jazz Championships on Tuesday, April 6th. The Little Hawks finished in second place behind only West Des Moines Valley, beating both Johnston and Waukee, who finished ahead of the fourth place Little Hawks last year. “[I wasn’t expecting to beat Waukee and Johnston to make the final concert] at all because I knew that they were amazing schools. When we did get really close and when we were in really good competition with them at the time,” bass trombone player Wade Carter ‘17 said.

The jazz championship, held this year for the first time on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, is the top jazz competition for jazz bands across the state of Iowa. Bands must qualify by either winning another jazz competition or as a wild card.

City High finished in second place at the Tallcorn Jazz Festival in February, and would’ve qualified as a wild card, but made it as an automatic qualifier after winning the SEIBA Jazz Festival in March. City High played three songs at both concerts, “No Cover” by Paul McKee, “Now Playing” by Bob Florence, and “Atlantis” by McCoy Tyner, arranged by Bob Washut.

The Little Hawks were able to qualify for the final concert as one of the top two bands.

“I heard some of those other bands that are in our division, tons of respect for them, they’re doing great stuff, and I guess they liked us,” jazz band director Ryan Arp said. “To beat those bands that were there was a true honor, because there are some crazy talented bands in our division.”

The Little Hawks had to stay in Ames far later than expected and had to perform at 10:00 at night, and then listen to Valley, the eventual champion. Although City didn’t win it all, Arp says that making the final performance for the first time in school history was a tremendous honor.

ABOVE: The City High Jazz Ensemble plays “Now Playing” at the Iowa Jazz Championships in Ames. BOTTOM LEFT: Anders Lie ‘19 plays a solo on the tenor saxophone. BOTTOM RIGHT: Joey Schnoebelen ‘17 plays a trumpet solo. PHOTOS BY JONATHAN HOUSE

“To beat those bands that were there was a true honor, because there are some crazy talented bands in our division.” ­—Band Director Ryan Arp “That is a true honor, and I can’t say enough about Valley.

This is their fifth straight in a row, so they have a bit of a dynasty going,” Arp said. “I have nothing but respect for what they’re doing, and you can’t beat a school that has that many kids that are that dedicated to jazz.”

In addition, Joey Schnoebelen ‘17 was honored as an outstanding soloist in class 4A. “It was fantastic knowing that you were one of the top soloists in the state. It just showed my hard work paid off, and it was kind of nice to see that and get that award for City High as well,” Schnoebelen said.

Student election continued from A1 “I have seen people run for Student Senate as a joke, as a popularity contest, as a means to try to get something on a college application. I’m just not really [a fan of] that because this is a really important role,” Steve Tygrett, one of the three teacher advisors, said. “When you go to the school board meetings, you’re the representative of City High School, and if you’re not taking that seriously, that’s an issue. And if you’re not here at 8:15 every Wednesday, with an agenda ready to go, ready to lead, ready to delegate tasks to other people, that affects the entire

“There shouldn’t be prerequisites put in place to keep people who would like to run and didn’t know about these things in the first place.”

— Patrick McMillan ‘18 organization.”

In January, a new guideline for the election process was written by a committee within the Senate and voted into legislation. This rule stated that those who wished to run for any Student Senate office had to have attended at least half the year’s meetings. The section passed and was written into the revised constitution.

“We really need to make it a priority that we fix the constitution and make sure that only people who are active members of [Student Senate] can participate [in the election],” Student Senate President Lucy Wagner said in reference to a belief expressed adamantly by Vice Principal Jespersen.

The week before spring break, Patrick McMillan ‘18, an aspiring vice presidential candidate, attended his first meeting and explained to students he intended to run. Due to the revised constitution, he was ineligible to do so.

Pushback on the issue grew on social media—specifically Twitter. An anonymous account named @city_inquirer gained

attention by loudly proclaiming its support of McMillan’s right to candidacy. McMillan’s goal of vice president gained traction, and a petition was created and promoted by his younger brother Thomas McMillan ‘20, stating that he should be allowed to run; the petition eventually gained signatures from over 300 City High students.

As the matter gained more and more attention, Student Senate planned an emergency meeting where Principal Bacon would hear both sides of the debate and decide if McMillan should be allowed to run. This meeting was flooded with newcomers in support of McMillan.

The debate involved several members of the Senate, as well as McMillan’s supporters, each with their own side of the story.

“I will claim...authorship of that amendment,” Teagan Roeder ‘17 said of the motives behind the policy change. “What I had originally intended was essentially [this]: I just want to see an efficient Student Senate, one that can operate credibly and effectively. I come here every Wednesday morning at 8:15 to make sure that students are having the best time we can provide, and I just see it as unfair that someone, without coming to meetings regularly, gets to lead it next year.”

However, McMillan believes, “There shouldn’t be prerequisites put in place to keep people who would like to run and didn’t know about these things in the first place. Your attendance for a club should not determine your eligibility for a school-wide election.”

The debate officially stopped at the end of the hour, but a verdict was not immediately clear; allowing both sides’ arguments

“When you go to the school board meetings, you’re the representative of City High School, and if you’re not taking that seriously, that’s an issue. ” — Steve Tygrett

to sink in, Principal Bacon promised to return the following Wednesday with his final decision.

“My heart leaned toward those good souls that are at Hy-Vee in the mornings and cleaning up streamers at the end of homecoming instead of eating at Village Inn with their friends,” Bacon said. “My mind pulled me in the other direction. Intellectually, I agreed with the other side of this argument. I think you can make a stronger case for wide-open freedom to run.”

Bacon believes that if McMillan and other students that were

“I believe any time you try to suppress or constrain [a population’s rights], that is when you wind up having the opposite effect.”

— John Bacon not at necessary Student Senate meetings were not allowed to run, it would only make the issue worse; because of this, Bacon decided that a compromise was necessary.

“We did not adequately communicate this rule change this year, and I take some responsibility for that,” he said. “People can run who want to run with the caveat that they need to start attending Student Senate regularly throughout the third trimester.”

However, future class elections will have more strict rules.

Students who want to run will have to announce their candidacy by a certain date, and there will be reminders for this date in the daily announcements every day for two weeks along with a statement read in each English class about running for the positions. Candidates will then have to attend the majority of Student Senate meetings after announcing their candidacy.

“I believe any time you try to suppress or constrain [a population’s rights], that is when you wind up having the opposite effect,” Bacon said.

A8

NEWS April 28th, 2017

Gardening in the ICCSD Curriculum In collaboration with new science standards, schools are looking to gardening for a handson education.

By Molly Liu In 2012, Shimek Elementary welcomed its first classroom garden. Through the efforts of enthusiastic parents, the project expanded, helping to initiate the PTO Garden Group. As gardening in the classroom continues to grow in popularity, organizations such as Backyard Abundance are offering community workshops in hopes of enhancing the science curriculum.

“We looked into the research on the most effective ways to teach science. The strategy that ended up being most effective was experiential learning—or in other terms, the ‘real world.’

Students learn more about their habitat,” Jen Kardos, co-director of Backyard Abundance, said.

Backyard Abundance, an educational non-profit organization seeking to promote healthy food and habitats through eco-friendly projects, has teamed up with Field to Family and Iowa City Parks in order to encourage gardening as a teaching tool. On Saturday April 8th, the partnership hosted the community workshop “Teaching the Next Generation: The Garden as Your Classroom.”

Kardos was one of six speakers at the workshop, presenting successful school garden designs that were low-maintenance and supportive of the ICCSD curriculum.

“We are basically teaching how to use gardens as a resource, in similar ways [teachers] would use the library or computer lab,” Kardos said. “We focused on science and especially next-generation science standards.”

Kardos believes her previous experience with school science motivated her to get involved with the ICCSD.

“I came from a science education background, so I became really interested in working with the schools. I realized that there were ways that the garden could be used to supplement the curriculum. I worked with local teachers at Shimek and they enjoyed it,” Kardos said.

Shimek Elementary has been integrating gardens into their studies for the past few years.

Students have worked to grow their own produce, which has been used to make salads served with school lunch.

“It is critical to us that the gardening activities have a direct link to the district curriculum,” Sarah Kalsem, Shimek kindergarten teacher, said. “Children can plant and care for items in the garden. It's a great opportunity to make real world connections in science.”

According to Kalsem, gardening at Shimek has been successful.

“It’s been a valuable experience for our students,” Kalsem said.

In addition to the benefits for science classes, Kardos believes gardening can have lasting impacts on students’ well-being.

Her personal inspiration comes from Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, which explores the growing divide between children and the natural world.

“I guess [the book] is one of the biggest sources of inspiration.

It shows how it can benefit [students’] health to have more time outside,” Kardos said.

Outside of the classroom, Backyard Abundance hopes to use gardening to create an environmentally-friendly community. In addition to the April 8th workshop, Backyard Abundance is teaching classes at the University of Iowa and hosting a series on monarch butterfly gardens. “[The events] are some of the biggest connections [to the community.] We try to connect people through sharing food and gathering around the table,” Kardos said. “We hope that we can be a part of helping the environment.”

TOP LEFT: Attendees gather around a garden to learn more about the outdoor environment.

Progress Made on Gender-Neutral Bathrooms

TOP RIGHT: Co-coordinator Jen Kardos speaks at the public workshop.

By Zoe Tyne

BOTTOM RIGHT: Local parents and teachers take part in hands-on activities at the workshop.

A growing trend has nearly reached City High: gender-neutral restrooms.

The University of Iowa recently installed gender-neutral restrooms in the spring of 2016.

After a graduate student brought up the need for a gender-neutral restroom, 40 volunteers worked together to finance the placement of 147 restrooms.

“Gender-inclusive restrooms help to create a campus that is safe, inclusive, and supportive to trans students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors at the University of Iowa,” Teri Schnelle, the Vice President of Student Life, explained. “The goal of this project is to create inclusive and accessible restrooms on campus for all University of Iowa students, faculty, staff, and visitors.”

Bihotza James-Lejarcegui, a junior at City High, spurred the change into action when she visited Brown University over the summer. While there, she noticed something that was lacking at City High: gender-neutral restrooms.

"I met with Mr. Bacon about implanting gender-neutral bathrooms at City," she stated. “He was very supportive and open of the idea.”

James-Lejarcegui is working alongside Kingsley Botchway, Director of Equity on the School Board, John Bacon, City High Student Senate, Monsieur Balcaen, and EQUALS Club members to ensure that by the end of this school year (beginning of the next school year at the latest), City High will be installing its very own gender-neutral restroom, just like the University of Iowa.

Student Senate plans to place one gender neutral restroom on either the first or second floor so that is accessible to all students.

River Norman-Wikner ‘19 identifies as genderfluid and uses they/them pronouns, a choice that some other students do not understand.

“Like some other students in our school, I don't always classify as the gender I was born as,” Norman-Wikner said. “I'm scared to use the men’s bathroom for fear of how others will react.

I know that others are going through the same thing. I believe that a gender-neutral bathroom will make people in our school feel more accepted in the building.”

Maya Chadwick is a member of the freshman student body

BELOW: Jen Kardos demonstrates techiniques for low-maintenance gardening.

PHOTOS BY SOFIE LIE

who believes in the benefit of gender neutral restrooms.

“Students may feel safer and more comfortable during school,” Chadwick said. “That may improve their studies because they would have one less thing to worry about at school.”

When the gender-neutral restrooms were placed in the University of Iowa, no backlash occurred.

“I think that having genderneutral bathrooms placed in City High shouldn't be anything controversial,” Mariam Keita ‘20 said. “Everyone needs to pee.”’

Mags Chavez '19 at first did not think gender-neutral restrooms were needed. She thought bathrooms should not be a big deal. Yet, after she learned about what people have gone through, her opinion changed.

“I realized that students who are in transition feel uncomfortable and have been abused before, or peers around them feel uncomfortable,” Chavez said.

“Not ‘woman’ enough for the women's bathroom. Not ‘man’ enough for the men's bathroom.

The minute you feel unsafe in a place that is supposed to be safe, something is wrong.”

While many of the student body agree with James-Lejarcegui’s opinion on the need for gender-neutral restrooms, there are those who disagree.

“I felt like people were uncomfortable when they first saw it,” Mark McLaughlin ‘20 said, recalling an experience with a gender-neutral restroom he had seen last year in Indiana. “I asked my sister and mom if they would go in there to go to the bathroom they said no. It seemed like men were the only people going into the gender-neutral bathrooms.”

McLaughlin said he and others he knew were concerned about how many restrooms would be changed and where they would be placed. JamesLejarcegui explained the plan as it stands now.

“Student Senate has proposed switching one of the men's bathrooms on the first floor to be gender-neutral.”

Men’s and women’s restrooms would remain in place, as per the law.

“It's our job as a community to make sure that we don't allow that hateful rhetoric to survive in our community or our school,” Keita said. “You are free to be as you are as long as your freedom doesn't restrict others from being free.”

NEWS April 28th, 2017

A9

VINTAGE PROM

Prom Night: A Look Into the Past 1

1. Social studies teacher John Burkle attends his junior prom with his friends.

2. Social studies teacher Melanie Gibbens attends prom in 1980.

3. Spanish teacher Larissa Gasperetti poses for a photo with her parents before attending West High prom.

3

2 From the classroom to the dance floor, City High teachers share their throwback prom photos.

5

4

7 1

8

6 4. Social studies teacher Steve Dodge attends the 1986 Waterloo West High School prom.

5. Business teacher AJ Leman poses for a prom photo with his date.

7. Science teacher and basketball coach Derek Roberts smiles for a photo with his date before his 2006 prom.

6. ELL teacher Leah Tweedy attends her prom.

9

8. Journalism teacher Jonathan Rogers attends the 1996 City High prom.

9. Hall monitor Chip Hardesty smiles for a prom photo.

Recreate one of the pictures on this page and tweet your photo @thelittlehawk for a chance to win a Starbucks gift card.

NEWS April 28th, 2017

A10

POLITICS

Caught in the Fray The recent legislation passed on the state level and the federal level have the potential to affect Iowa’s localities.

By Lottie Gidal

What a Trump Administration Means for Iowa Agriculture

By Madeline Deninger

Trump’s

I

owa has always been known for its vast expanses of farmland and its agricultural business. The state conjures up images of rolling fields and pastures of livestock.

In fact, manufacturing and agriculture are two major players in Iowa’s economy, and a key part of that is trade. In 2016, 1.7 billion dollars of corn was exported out of Iowa, along with 3.6 billion in soybeans and 2 billion in pork, according to the US Census Bureau.

“With one in five jobs in Iowa dependent on trade, access to new markets is critical in our state’s economy,” a statement from Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said.

Free trade agreements are essentially a deal in which member countries agree to a decrease in barriers to trade in order to promote economic growth and expand free markets. Key aspects of trade agreements include lowered tariffs and no delays for importing goods.

“Trade agreements are a way to try and formalize trade between countries. The advantage to open trade is specialization. Countries can specialize in what they do best and by doing that, both countries benefit,” economics teacher Steve Dodge said.

Trade agreements are a key facilitator in Iowa’s exports, and in the US as a whole. How to go about making these decisions is very complicated, and often highly political.

“There are tariffs and quotas and other types of things the agreements try to reduce to try and prevent disagreements, like accusations that one country is limiting the trade of another. [With the agreements], there’s a problem solving process to hear those complaints and resolve them,” Dodge said.

One of the most talked about trade agreements in recent years has been the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, backed by President Obama. One of President Trump’s executive orders within the first week of his presidency was one withdrawing the US from the proposed 12 nation trade deal.

The action was a cause of concern for a withdrawal from the TPP has caused number of people, including supporters of the concern within his own party. new administration. Senator John McCain said he believed the action was a “serious mistake.”

Senator Ernst, an outspoken Trump supporter, was another to voice disapproval.

“While I am disappointed in the executive action to withdraw the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership, we can’t let this stop us from pursuing increased opportunities for our exporters,” Ernst said.

The trade deal would have lowered tariffs and other barriers to trade to some of the US’s biggest trading partners, including Mexico, Canada, and Japan. In 2015, Iowa exported 7.8 billion dollars in goods

to nations in the proposed trade deal, according to a report from the Des Moines Register.

“In evaluating this particular agreement’s potential within the Agricultural Industry, there were definite possibilities to increase the movement of agricultural products into the countries that were involved in this trade pact,” Rhonda Clough, a professor of Agricultural Business at Kirkwood Community College, said via email. “The Asia-Pacific region is an area of great interest for increasing United States agricultural exports.”

Trade was a major platform on which President Trump ran, specifically on making the agreements more favorable to US workers.

In the same week Trump withdrew from the TPP, he also made the announcement that a border wall between the US and Mexico would be paid for with a border tax on Mexican imports into the United States, although it remains unclear if and when the tax will be instated.

Once again, the announcement was met with some uneasiness from Iowans in the agriculture and manufacturing business, including Craig Hill, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

“Agriculture is a globally competitive industry. Any restructuring of current free trade agreements by imposing import taxes on other countries can result in them shopping elsewhere, just like any consumer would,” Clough said. “If a better alternative is available, the consumer will look there to do business.”

While a future with the US in the TPP is unlikely at this point, the nations included in the agreement remain expanding markets that the US, including Iowans, will look to for future trade opportunities.

Before President Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in February, Senator Ernst wrote a letter to him encouraging him to pursue a bilateral trade deal that would provide opportunities to Iowa pork and beef producers.

“I have taken several steps to encourage this new administration to maintain and strengthen our existing trade agreements, while also looking for ways to pursue new trade opportunities,” Ernst said.

Iowa went to President Trump in the 2016 election, and a majority of rural counties in the state voted red. Trump continues to promise to renegotiate existing trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a major premise of his campaign.

However, with Iowa’s economy so dependent on exports, trade deals are likely to remain a highly talked about issue throughout his administration.

“When considering any federal action or policy, what most agricultural producers want is a fair and level playing field around the globe with reasonable oversight and regulations,” Clough said.

NEWS April 28th, 2017

POLITICS

A11

Iowa Budget Proposal Brings Change for Local Clinics

O

n April 19th, the Iowa House of Representatives approved a budget that cuts off all state funding from Planned Parenthood and any other clinic that provides abortions. The Senate passed a similar bill just days earlier. These bills will go into effect as soon Iowa’s governor, Terry Branstad, signs them.

The Department of Health and Human Services now faces a drop of $28 million for 2018.

While Planned Parenthood is not entirely funded through government stipends, 40% of Planned Parenthood’s funding comes through Medicaid, a federal and state funded health insurance provider. The new budget plan cuts off this source of revenue as long as Planned Parenthood continues to provide abortions. And while no public funds are used to pay for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother’s life is at risk, this 40% cut means cutting things such as Planned Parenthood’s ability to provide birth control, STI testing and treatment, HIV testing, transgender services, and pregnancy testing.

The bill will also affect private clinics who offer abortions, such as the Emma Goldman clinic in downtown Iowa City.

“Most of the funding for the Emma Goldman Clinic comes from fees for services,” Jennifer Price, the director of the Emma Goldman Clinic, said. “We serve many clients for our services whose insurance is through Medicaid.”

Because Medicaid will no longer cover abortions, patients will have to turn to other insurance providers. As of 2017, there are 88 insurance plans offered by 4 insurance providers in Iowa, none of which will cover elective abortion.

After the November election, Price has become even more concerned with the state of women’s health, and the country’s attitude towards it.

“Access to affordable, comprehensive reproductive and family planning services is a human right,” Price said.

Nationally, if the Republican Party succeeds on its promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, women will face greater challenges when it comes to accessing health care. The ACA currently prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage based on gender and prohibits them from charging higher premiums for women. It also requires coverage for contraception without out-of-pocket costs.

These are all issues that Iowa City are very familiar with, according to Ally Hanten, the teen parent coordinator at UAY. “We serve teens that are under the age of 23 in Johnson County that are pregnant and that are parenting,” Hanten said. “ We do home visits with them, teach them about child development, parenting skills, and connect them to the resources that they might need.”

Planned Parenthood is more often than not one of those resources for things like birth control, contraceptives, and STI testing.

“We’ve had young women come to us who are pregnant, have a baby, and don’t want to get pregnant again. They can go to Planned Parenthood for that,” Hanten said. “We’ve had young young men come here who need free condoms or STI testing. They can go to Planned Parenthood for that.”

Quite often these people are under 18, and might be in a situation

where billing their parents’ insurance is not an option.

By Lottie Gidal “We don’t ever encourage them not to talk to their parents,” Hanten said. “We always want them to include their parents in that conversation, but sometimes there’s not a parent around to have that conversation with. Sometimes that’s not a safe thing to do.”

In these cases, Planned Parenthood can be of help to adolescents.

“So Planned Parenthood is really nice because it’s a sliding fee scale, so if they don’t have insurance, or they don’t want to bill their parents insurance, they can go there and get access to STI testing, and birth control and annual exams,” she said. “If they don’t feel comfortable talking to their parents about birth control, it’s a really nice resource for them to have access to.”

Sarah* is a junior at City High who is in this situation.

“My family is very Catholic and very anti-abortion, and they associate [abortion] with Planned Parenthood a lot,” she said.

When Sarah thought about going on birth control, she encountered numerous obstacles. Her family, who she describes as “very anti medication” and “anti birth control, unless it’s 100% necessary,” were resistant to the idea. Her medical doctor, too, didn’t want to prescribe Sarah anything.

Sarah’s friends offered to get birth control for her, but she remains unsure as to what she will do going forward.

“I had no idea about what was available to me,” Sarah said. “I had no idea at all, about their sliding fee scale, about anything.”

This lack of awareness is something that worries Ally Hanten, who sees teens every day who are unsure of what their options are.

“When we talk about eliminating something like Planned Parenthood, we are sending this larger message of this is not an okay thing to talk about, that it’s not an okay thing to access, and that shuts down conversations,” Hanten said. “If we can’t talk about it, we can’t educate people.”

The Iowa House of Representatives approved a Sarah is in agreement that a more comprehensive education regarding birth control and budget that cuts state funding from clinics that the functions of Planned Parenthood is key. provide abortions.

“I think that there should be more education about this issue,” she said. “I’m very thankful that my friends kind of took me under their wing and offered to get me anything I need. But if I didn’t have those friends I think I could be in a really bad situation, or someone like me could be in a really bad situation where they feel really scared and trapped.”

Birth control and other contraceptive measures are increasingly one of the most popular services provided by Planned Parenthood. It accounts for 63% of what they offer, whereas abortion services only accounts for 5%, and nationally in 2016, two thirds of teenagers who received IUDs and implants did so on federally subsidized funds.

“As someone who would never have [an abortion], I feel that it is really important that people have access to preventative measures,” Sarah said. “When family circumstances or government makes it harder and harder and harder for you to prevent getting pregnant, it makes it really frustrating as someone who is morally against the alternative.” *Name has been changed to protect anonymity of the student

ABOVE: A protester stands outside of Emma Goldman Clinic on Thursday, April 20th.

PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

ART BY LUCY MCGEHEE

OPINION

A12

April 28th, 2017

protecting

LH

Planned Parenthood Do you think that funding to women’s health clinics should be cut? yes: 0 no: 9

Executive Editors

nova meurice, sofie lie & sarah smith

News Editors

lucy mcgehee & molly liu

Opinions Editor maya durham

Contraception% 35%

Abortion 3% Services%

Other Women’s 10% Health Services

Sports Editors

jim geerdes & jonathan house

A&E Editors

rasmus schlutter & addie bass

Cancer Screening 16% and Protection%

Other Services

Copy Editors

madeline deninger & danielle tang

STI Testing and 35% Treatment%

1%

Staff

emi bergman-corbet, mina takahashi, maia janssen, zoë miller, lottie gidal, addy smith, noah mueller, courtney hoang, stephanie betinez, olivia lusala, sam naylor, michael minietti, maureen fesenmeyer, lizzi ayers, eden knoop, greg jones, corbin nguyen, callie danielson, patrick mcmillan, landon clay, a.j. boulund, victor kalil, mira kumar

Little Hawk staffers discuss the federal legislation proposed to limit and/or cut funding to Planned Parenthood and other women’s health centers.

mission statement

The Little Hawk, the student newspaper of City High School, aims to inform, educate and entertain readers; to provide an educational opportunity for the students who produce it; and to provide a medium for commercial advertising.

Equity Statements

It is the policy of the Iowa City Community School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, or socioeconomic status in its educational programs, activities, or employment practices.

If you believe you have (or your child has) been discriminated against or treated unjustly at school, please contact the Equity Director, Ross Wilburn, at 509 S. Dubuque Street, 319-688-1000.

This year, both state and federal governments have been striking at women’s health clinics — the Iowa State Legislature voted to end public funding to Planned Parenthood clinics, the White House reinforced the Gag Rule, and President Donald Trump signed legislation barring Planned Parenthood from access to Title X women’s healthcare funding.

These legislative moves have placed women’s healthcare in a precarious position. The main objections to funding such services are rooted in religious fundamentalism: an anti-abortion perspective that generalizes to all women’s health services. However, it is important to keep in mind that Planned Parenthood and other women’s health/family planning clinics provide an array of services that support women in many aspects of their lives.

These clinics offer cancer and STI screenings, HIV testing, information for LGBTQ+ people, counselling, safe and affordable access to contraceptives, well-woman exams, and pregnancy care, among others. These services are provided by qualified health care professionals.

Cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood

and other Title X clinics would mean that many Iowans would lose their means of healthcare. A majority of people who use these clinics rely on public healthcare programs, such as Medicaid.

Those who would suffer the most from this state defunding are people of color, people living in rural areas, and people living below the poverty line — in short, those who are already disadvantaged and confront unfair systemic barriers to health and wellbeing. According to Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, “Two and a half million women, men and young people — nearly half of whom are people of color — come through the doors of Planned Parenthood health centers every year… [T]aking away their access to Planned Parenthood — which for many is their only source of health care — would be a disaster and would hurt the people already struggling to get by.” The defunding may trigger a healthcare crisis.

Few people realize that Planned Parenthood plays a vital role in teenagers’ lives, as well. A 2016 study in Perspectives on Sexual & Reproductive Health showed that “young women who live near a Planned Parenthood clinic are less likely than others to drop out of high school.” The study also

revealed that young women were less likely to become pregnant if they had access to a Planned Parenthood clinic. A Planned Parenthood clinic in Maryland started peer support groups that lowered teens’ risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Planned Parenthood provides information about a wide range of issues that affect contemporary teens’ lives: intimate partner violence, sexting, consent and sexual assault. It’s a place teens can go if they have no trusted adults to communicate with.

Cutting federal and state funding to Planned Parenthood will have a devastating effect on people of every class, creed, gender, and race across the nation. The cuts will deny crucial health services and information to people seeking it, potentially resulting in the rise of problems that adversely affect their lives. These people could be your next door neighbor, your friend, your classmate or teammate. High school is already fraught with stressors, as the economy worsens and the pressure for over achievements build — the nation is already divided between haves and have-nots. So why would we take steps that would only make matters worse?

A13

OPINION April 28th, 2017

Trump’s Travel Ban Misses the Point

by EDEN KNOOP

“It was done for the security of our nation, the security of our citizens, so that people come in who aren’t going to do us harm.”

Those were the words that Donald Trump defended his second travel ban with after a stay was put in place by a federal judge in Hawaii. But despite Trump’s insistence that this ban is for public safety, this order does nothing but make America less safe.

Islamic extremism is undoubtedly a major global problem. Extremist groups like ISIS are responsible for thousands of deaths worldwide each year.

Less than a year ago Omar Mateen killed 49 people in his attack on a gay nightclub, perpetrating the worst terror attack that the US has seen since 9/11 in the name of ISIS. However, terrorism being a global problem does not make it a domestic threat in America. Only those 49 people were killed in terror attacks on American soil in 2016. The deaths were all part of one attack, perpetrated by a New York-born man. This ban, which suspends immigration and the refugee program from Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, wouldn’t have prevented a single death in 2016.

Immigrants and people travelling on visas are already under a stringent vetting system, comprising of background checks, checks on terrorist watchlists, and in-person interviews. People use these visas both to visit and to live and work, as students, teachers, entrepreneurs, etc. Barring these people does not make the US any safer.

What this ban does is single out people from specific countries for particularly harsh treatment. And, whether intended or not, this ban is seen by both its supporters and detractors as an attempt to prevent Muslims from entering the US. America is increasingly seen as being in opposition to Islam, both on the international stage and by Americans who agree with the sentiment.

There is a great deal of danger in that sort of rhetoric. The greatest terroristic threat that the US faces is domestic, and language like this only invites radicalization of American citizens who feel targeted and excluded. This threat extends overseas as well. ISIS uses material like this ban as recruitment fodder to give credence to the idea that Islam is at war with the West.

Along with Section 2, Section 6 of the executive order targets refugees specifically, suspending refugee admissions from the 6 countries and reducing the overall number of refugees that the US will accept from 110,000 to 50,000.

Refugees coming to America already face a stringent vetting process that includes several security checks and screenings. They are also made to attend a cultural orientation class to allow easier transition into American society. The entire process can take up to two years, during which the potential refugees live in limbo.

The irony of this section of the order is that it does very little to better protect Americans, instead targeting the victims of violent Islamic extremists, rather than the perpetrators. According to the Cato Institute, the odds of being killed by a refugee in a terror attack is 1 to 3.64 billion. (Keep in mind that there are only 7.5 billion people on this planet. That makes selfies, which led to the deaths of over 50 people in 2015, more dangerous than refugees.)

Between 1975 and 2015, over three million refugees were admitted in the the US. During this 40 year period, only 20 refugees, or roughly 0.00062% of the total, turned out to be terrorists. Out of those 20, only 3 managed to carry out fatal attacks. They were all Cuban refugees, who killed 3 people in a series of attacks during the 1970s before the Refugee Act of 1980 established vetting procedures for refugees.

Rather than posing any extremist threat, refugees are the ones whose lives are threatened by domestic terror. They are fleeing the violent conflicts, starvation, human rights violations, and extreme poverty caused by the various wars and conflicts in the region. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died and millions more are displaced as a result of these conflicts. In Syria alone the civil war has displaced over 6.3 million people. As one of the largest and most prosperous nations in the world, the US has an obligation to help these people, particularly given that American foreign policy has contributed to, if not flat-out caused, this refugee crisis.

To do anything other than help is to play into the extremists’ narrative

“I snapchatted all of our heee haw and now everyone thinks I have a problem.”

- Mr. Rogers

by ORSON CODD

PHOTO BY MAYA DURHAM

about the West. It gives terrorist groups further evidence of the West’s immorality and hatred of Islam, providing them with more recruitment material.

This order makes America less safe, and it does so at the expense of innocent people.

Terrorism is an act of fear and coercion. This executive order preys on the fear of millions of Americans who, justifiably or not, see the Middle East as the enemy. The more we allow this fear-based policy to dominate our politics, the more we allow terrorism to be an effective tool. If we don’t let fear control us, we strip terrorism of its power over us and allow ourselves to help thousands of people. In this sense, we truly have nothing to fear but fear itself.

RIGHT “Memes.

Don’t.

Lie.”

- Mrs. Mclaughlin

LH Reviews: The Walking Dead Season Seven

“There’s no one i love better than mr. koepenick.”

- DR. Schnoebelen

to REmain silent

“Let’s take a step away from poetry and talk about your personal lives.”

- Mrs. Borgergermann

The Walking Dead aired on October 31st, 2010. It started off as a really promising show about a hero named Rick Grimes fighting to survive a zombie apocalypse. Seven years later, the show has concluded with its newest season...and it was such a big letdown.

Season 6 ended with the main group of characters being held hostage by the newest villain Negan, played by Jeffery Dean Morgan, and him killing someone. The show chose to not show the viewers who Negan mysteriously killed. So fans were in for a big surprise when the show returned 6 months later.

When the show started up again in October, it was revealed that Negan had killed...Abraham & Glenn. Nobody expected Negan to kill 2 people, especially Glenn. Evidently, that is the same way Glenn is killed in the comics, and he is the only one to be killed. But it was more of a surprise because Abraham was killed first, so fans thought that he was going to be the only one killed in that episode.

Ever since the death of those two beloved characters, the show has taken a turn for the worse because of how the other characters are dealing with Negan and living under his new rules.

Throughout this season, the show has been jumping around because they have introduced us to 3 new groups (the Saviors, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom). Fans have not been able to see a consistent timeline of what is actually going on.

For example, one episode could focus on the Saviors. It could be a good episode and leave us with a cliffhanger ending…but we won’t get to see how it turns out for another 2 weeks because they rather focus a whole episode on Tara (Yeah, great choice– NOT!!).

Imagine that scenario being repeated over and over again, especially with the Kingdom. They made their first appearance in October’s episode “The Well,” and we didn’t get to see them again until the mid-season premiere “Rock In the Road,” which aired in February.

That’s another thing that was done so poorly throughout this season: it felt like characters would just disappear. With there being so many storylines going on, it felt like the characters in the show were just gone when they focused other episodes on completely different characters.

Like Heath (played by Corey Hawkins), for example. Heath is one of the best characters from the comics. He is important in so many story lines.

When it was announced that he was going to be in the show, I was so happy!! But since they introduced him, he has just been a waste because they rarely used him in season 6. He had one episode in Season 7 and LITERALLY JUST FLED. I honestly don’t know how to describe it because it is so befuddling.

Granted, we haven’t seen the last of him because they left his fate on a cliffhanger. But it just goes to show that this season didn’t know how to deal with all of their characters this season because they are so many.

Lennie James, who is an actor that plays Morgan on the show, told digitalspy that he hated filming this season because of how separated everybody was: “You just didn’t see anybody—because we film The Kingdom in a completely different area where they were filming either Alexandria or Hilltop or where the Saviors were. No one was close to each other.”

One of the things that made The Walking Dead so good the first few seasons was that the group worked together as a cohesive unit. Even one of the actors on the show said that everyone likes working with each other because they all work well together. So when they’re miles away from each other and only communicating through walkie talkies, it just loses its touch.

Now don’t get me wrong, Season 7 had some good episodes. They’re trying to expand in order to show viewers that there is a much larger world outside of Rick’s group. The issue is that the executing of it is done poorly.

Hopefully with the ending the show chose, Season 8 will be way better and more action-packed.

Granted, that’s what everyone said when Season 6 ended.

The Walking Dead returns in October on AMC.

A14

OPINION April 28th, 2017

by MIRA KUMAR

by ELENA LYONS-MACATEE Reckless behavior has always been a deeply rooted part of adolescence. Recklessness, as well as being exciting, can help reveal things about life that one couldn’t learn from a book. Impulsive decisions are what make us human, and by all means can be celebrated. The problem in most cases is that, as teenagers, our impulses haven’t been constricted through experience enough to be under the command of rational thought.

Frances E. Jensen, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School says, “The teenage brain is not just an adult brain with fewer miles on it, it’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them.” That’s why dealing with teenage recklessness is often left up to parents.

However, it’s more useful to teach teenagers how to protect themselves.

Parents can try to keep their kids away from danger but they can only control what they see, and no adult sees all of their kid’s life. Besides, it has been proved that children with over-involved parents can be at risk for behavioral and emotional problems. “Research of teens with overprotective parents,” explains Kirsten Li-Barber, assistant professor of psychology at High Point University in North Carolina, “has found they are more anxious, less socially skilled, have poorer coping skills and higher rates of depression.

In addition, they don’t transition to college well.” Teenagers tend not to have as much experience as the adults in their lives simply due to the age gap, and some are aware of that—some can recognize that they don’t have enough experience to trust their instincts but still don’t want to rely on adults to tell them their limits. In order to make the transition towards independence, it’s imperative to learn how to trust yourself in those socially and emotionally charged moments.

Whenever I’ve done reckless things that I wasn’t supposed to be doing, the questions “Am I leaving evidence? Do I seem suspect?”

Air conditioning jim geerdes singing bohemian rhapsody @2109Convos on twitter ham cubes

have been the most prominent things in my mind. But realistically, I wasn’t really in danger of getting caught and I spent so much time worrying about it that I never considered the question I should have been asking myself: “Can I get hurt doing this?” Now, I don’t think that rattling off graphic examples of teenagers doing dumb things and getting

E. Jensen chimes in again saying, “We make the point that what you did on the weekend is still with you during that test on Thursday.

You’ve been trying to study with a self-induced learning disability.”

There are a lot of ways to become responsible for personal safety, but it can be difficult to find one that works. Reminding yourself to pause and reflect is similar to reminding yourself of homework or an appointment.

The hardest part is forcing awareness upon yourself out of nowhere. Once you feel that you have started to lose some control over a situation, practice hesitating. Taking even a second to slow down is all you need to remember that, while feeling a little out of control can be fun, you are still responsible for how your night will go. Once you remember that you still have a responsibility, do a pass through of whatever introspective security checkpoint you decide on.

The idea is to allow your rational brain to infiltrate a situation once you have ventured into unfamiliar territory. Some tried and true methods include: • Plan ahead and consider where events may take you. Figure out how to stay away from the impulse/ danger zone where every decision you make feels risky.

ART BY AJ BOULUND • Take some time to think about your values and establish lines that you refuse to cross.

• Recognize dangerous cyclical behavior. Aka, anything hurt is really an effective teaching device. that will eventually end in getting caught or Instead I like to remember the bottom lines seriously hurt. from all the health videos I’ve been shown.

• If you do catch yourself doing this, take It only takes using a lot of substances once a break. If you can’t take a couple weeks off, to become addicted, and for other substanc- it’s probably turning into a bigger issue and es, using them once makes you more likely you should tell an adult that you trust. to use them again. It also only takes having • If the adrenaline rush is what motivates unprotected sex once to contract an STI, and you, figure out ways to feel the same way in having sex without birth control (if neces- your daily life. Introduce yourself to somesary) will eventually end in pregnancy. Ad- one you admire, speak out in class, watch a ditionally, in a recent study where rats were scary movie. exposed to alcohol, some brain cells recovered but some remained “disabled.” Frances

THUMBS UP

DISCLAIMER: The Little Hoax is a satirical blog. Everything in this article is not real in any way, except for the point being made.

New studies of teens in high school sex ed have yielded exciting results about the effectiveness of our abstinence-only sexual education programs.

Apparently, according to a study done by the National Foundation for Health Education, teen pregnancy rates have gone down in the last ten years, as well as the frequency of STI transmissions. These decreases have happened almost entirely in states where no sex education or abstinence-only education is mandated by the government.

“States that educate teens about contraceptive strategies and comprehensively cover ways to have safe sex have actually had pregnancy rates skyrocket and STI transmissions spike in recent years,” said Robert Abalos, the commission’s head, adding, “These results are not what we were expecting. Personally, I feel ashamed to be even part of this commission.”

(Abalos then burst into tears and left the press conference. Bystanders claimed that as he exited, he added, “I’ll clean out my cubicle and go.”)

So what does this mean? Well, it shows definitively that the less sex education high-schoolers get, the better.

It means that if teens aren’t educated or are told that abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnancy and STIs, they will automatically understand that sex is dangerous, so they will be abstinent until marriage.

Obviously President Obama’s decision to cut funding for abstinence-only programs and instead direct money toward sex education that helps students understand safe sex has been a failure.

“The truth is that abstinence-only education is the only way to keep kids from having sex,” said Senator Alvin Tramley Tuesday at an official press conference on the issue. “Giving teens information on how to protect themselves will just make them have more sex than a head of cattle under the full moon. It’s dangerous to our families and it doesn’t work. Vote Tramley for 2020!”

These findings also vindicate Congress’s attempts to fund abstinence-until-marriage programs, attempts which have been ongoing for more than thirty-five years. It’s good to know that a forty-year program and nearly two billion dollars in federal funding have paid off: abstinence-only education seems to be yielding results.

And more good news: LGBTQ+ students seem to especially be benefiting from the absence of health ed.

“While LGBTQ+ students in states like Connecticut and California, which include them in their sex ed programs, are contracting more STIs than ever before, those in communities which don’t teach them about their identities and sex as it pertains to them are much more healthy and have no problems whatsoever,” said Monica Giovanni, the CSY PR consultant, who replaced Abalos after his teary departure. “As the latter category includes nearly all of the nation’s health education initiatives, this is welcome news.”

The new administration is working around the clock with the heads of the NFHE and the CSY to pioneer initiatives regulating sex ed and making it illegal to teach it comprehensively, but some are protesting, demanding more studies to verify these results. “We aren’t going to grant these requests,” said Giovanni. “These are facts, and they have been confirmed by several different studies: the less sex education, the better. If people can’t understand that the government is obligated to do what’s best for our teens, then they don’t have the right to call themselves Americans.”

A Student’s Perspective on Teenage Recklessness

Thumbs down

THE LITTLE HOAX: Sex Ed and the City

jim geerdes The danes (specifically rash)

slushy snow Ham cubes backwards hats ART BY AJ BOULUND

A15

OPINION April 28th, 2017

Beauty and the Beast: Disney Breaks Ground for LGBT Representation

by REESE HILL

We all know Disney has become increasingly progressive in the past few years with its inclusion of more diverse casts, feminist movies, and empowering messages in its films. Following Frozen, a movie which focused on platonic love saving lives over romantic relationships, and Moana, the first movie with a Polynesian princess and a non-white cast with no male love interest whatsoever, Disney’s latest reformist step has sparked revolt across every variant of opinion: in the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, Disney has unveiled its first openly gay character.

Unsurprisingly, this has led to loud controversy — from my mother complaining about it over dinner to the movie being banned in an Alabama drive-in theatre and in countries like Kuwait and Russia, where gay rights are next to nonexistent. However, the strongest resistance to this news came from the LGBT community itself.

This is because at first glance, Lefou is as stereotypical a gay character as they come. Lefou is the villain’s fumbling sidekick and bares the brunt of most of the movie’s jokes. He is short and stout and flamboyant and foolish. His love interest, Gaston, is the misogynistic villain of the movie and an abusive bully to both Lefou and all those around him. In the 1991 cartoon, his appearance is anything but charming. And worst of all, his name literally means “the fool.”

The whole point of LGBT inclusion is to break stereotypes rather than enforce them, but in Beauty and the Beast, Disney seems to be doing the latter. They repeat harmful tropes the film industry has been using for decades: creating gay characters as goofy sidekicks whose only purpose is to liven up the movie, as well as the justification of abusive and manipulative relationships.

So the controversial question is this: what is and isn’t progressive representation?

“I felt really good about [Disney’s decision] at first, and then I thought about it and realized that of all the characters, they picked the one that was iffy, I guess,” said Margaret Glenn ‘20.

“It felt like they could be stereotyping.”

Many agreed that while Disney’s inclusion of a gay character is a great step forward, they made the wrong decision about who they used to represent the LGBT community. Several even had their own ideas as to who Disney could have chosen instead.

“I think having a gay character is a progressive choice,” said Lizzi Ayers ‘20. “But I think they could’ve picked a different

character; maybe Belle’s dad.”

“I think there are other characters I would have chosen, especially because Gaston is so aggressive I don’t think that would be a very healthy relationship,” English teacher Mandy Sotillo said. “When I heard that there were going to be gay characters I thought that they were going to be talking about [Lumiere] and Cogsworth.”

But some who were originally opposed to the idea, like Glenn and myself, found our opinions had changed once we saw

ART BY MAYA DURHAM

the remake. Lefou became a much more developed character in the live-action film than he ever was in the cartoon, and he was even given a redemption arc and a happy ending. “[In the movie], it was very subtle and wasn’t made as big of a deal,” said Glenn. “Which I think is a very good thing because

when you see other characters that are gay, it feels like they’re played up too much, like they’re trying too hard to be progressive. But [Disney] just kind of slipped it in and it didn’t feel like it was forced or anything.”

“Leading up to what I saw in the movie, I was just really excited,” said Ayers. “And as a member of the LGBT community, I thought it was a really big step for Disney.”

“It shows that Disney is not biased on how they believe people should actually be,” said Maureen Fesenmeyer ‘19. “I think it’s great that people are able to show what they actually love.”

In fact, this double-sided issue of Lefou’s sexuality has led to discussions about how Disney will continue their diverse inclusion in the future and if they’ll improve how they deliver it.

While Lefou was a sketchy choice, many believe Disney will use him as a platform to leap off of into greater representation and equality.

“I really hope they keep adding gay characters,” said Ayers. “I think there was talk for a while about people wanting Elsa to have a girlfriend because they kind of set it up for her to be lesbian. I think that would be great. I hope for gay kids that they can have role models for them to look up to when they’re little.”

“We definitely need a Latina princess,” said Sotillo, who has a young daughter who loves Disney princesses. “I love what they did with Moana, where there was no romance, [and] she wasn’t saved by a man. In fact, she was the one who saved the demigod in that film, so I think if they keep on that path that would be very positive.”

Progress only counts, of course, if it’s followed through. And perhaps Disney should listen to feedback from their audience to understand what proper representation really means. After all, marginalized peoples are going to have the best advice on how to encourage and preach acceptance for discriminated groups.

“I think they should add more Disney princesses of color,” said Ayers. “I think it would be cool if there were a trans character or a trans princess. It’s good to have a gay side character, but it would be even more powerful if the actual princess was.”

Thankfully, Lefou, however questionable of a decision, is a promising sign for Disney’s future films and projects. And perhaps, even, it’s a sign of optimism for the entire film industry.

“I think [we’ll see representation] outside of Disney, too,” said Sotillo. “If [they’re] paving the way it’s going to allow other films to do the same.”

How to Survive a Horror Movie: Tips from 2109

by ORSON CODD

As we all know, there are always the characters in horror movies that are just flat out stupid. They do something that usually ends up getting them killed. So just in case you find yourself being chased by a serial killer, this article will help you know what NOT to do (and what to do instead). First, let’s look at what Randy from Scream has to say: Don’t have sex Don’t drink or do drugs Don’t say “I’ll be right back”, “Hello?” or “Who’s there?”

You’re probably thinking, “Maybe if I’m careful, I can do those things and survive.” Let me tell you…you’re wrong! Randy makes some very good points. All three of those rules make sense, because you’re weak when you’re doing all three. You’re not in your right state of mind. You are basically giving the killer the goahead to kill you.

4. Don’t wander off.

This rule is just common knowledge. Seriously, you’re not working with Mystery Inc. So don’t wander off. JUST STAY WITH THE GROUP! It’s better to fight a killer with three people instead of just one.

Your chances of survival will highly increase if you don’t leave.

5. Know your surroundings.

Always remember, the killer is the smartest person in the room. They know (almost) everything. The one thing they don’t know is what you’re thinking/already know. The killer believes that you’re as dumb as a rock. Even if you’re not in a life-ordeath situation, just always look for the closest exit.

6. Don’t go investigate the strange sounds.

If you hear a sound that is

strange, and you don’t know what (or who) it is…just let it be. Don’t go trying to find it. It’s only going to get you killed.

7. The flickering lights.

Let’s make a scenario for this rule: You (either alone or with a group) are walking down a hallway.

Nothing/nobody is chasing you.

If you find a way to kill the killer, make sure you kill them twice. That basically means that maybe you find a way to make sure they are extra dead and not still alive. Just look at almost every single Scream movie.

The killer always finds a way to come back to life because our dimwit heros never check to make sure

11. The legs.

Always go for the killers legs. If you hit their legs with a bat, it will slow them down significantly because they use their legs to run after you. But they can’t do that if their legs are broken now can they?

12. Double knot the shoes.

You’re gonna be running a lot. So

“As we all know, there are always the characters in horror movies that are just flat out stupid.

They do something that usually ends up getting them killed. So just in case you find yourself being chased by a serial killer, this article will help you know what NOT to do (and what to do instead.)”

You’re just looking for an escape. All of a sudden the lights start flickering. If that happens, it’s time to turn around. If you keep walking straight towards the dark hole where the devil resides, you are only leading yourself closer to your death.

8. Stay with the nerd.

I know, the nerd isn’t the guy you wanted to spend your Saturday night with. But I’m pretty sure getting killed isn’t ideal either. In almost every single horror movie there is always a nerd character. They seem (and probably are) the most expendable, but they always make it out alive.

As Jesse Eisenberg from Zombieland said…..

9. The double tap.

they are fully dead. The double tap help assures that they are fully 100% dead. Also never turn your back if you haven’t done the double tap. In horror movies when our hero’s turns their back, they always show the killer slowly sit up because they’re still alive.

10: The little kid or elderly person always know something you don’t.

Most of the time, that rule is 88% true. The other 12% is just you being ageist. But seriously, the little kids or the elderly folk always know something that you don’t know. Maybe some long boring back story that has little effect on the plot, where something is but is impossible to get to, or some info on how to defeat the bad guy but you never end up doing it that way.

make sure to double knot those Converse. Last thing you want is for them to come undone, trip, fall, and die.

13. Elevators.

99.9998% of the time the elevator always fail. So don’t get in one. If you do and it breaks down, you’ve basically put yourself in a corner. There is very little chance that you will actually escape. So just take the stairs (it will also improve your cardio).

14. Always have a survival pack.

Make sure to bring a small backpack of things you think are essential to you that help keep you alive: water, food, inhaler, weapon of choice, etc.

But make sure to pack light. You don’t want the survival pack slowing you down if you’re running, because then it couldn’t be called the survival pack.

15. Long sleeves and pants.

Granted, it’s #15, but this is one of the most important rules. Jeans and a jacket will help get you a long way through your troubles. If the killer swipes at you with a knife, the cut won’t be as bad because you’re wearing long sleeves and pants.

16. Never let the group suspect you’re a killer.

You should always be the most trusted person in your group. Here’s a bit of advice. Don’t say “It’s okay guys, I’m not the killer”. If you’re not the killer, then don’t tell people you’re not the killer unless they ask.

Because they’re most likely thinking someone else is the killer. But since you mentioned you not being the killer, their alarms are going off that you possibly could be. It’s like saying you’re not crazy. If you’re not crazy, then you don’t need to say “I’m not crazy”.

17. Never set down your weapon.

Your weapon is very important.

So whatever happens, don’t set it down. It helps keep you safe from the killer, but it can’t do that if it’s on the ground 7ft away from you.

And the final rule…..

18. Don’t let the Wayan Brothers get a hold of it.

They will straight up make your horror story into some crappy, cheap, Scary Movie 5 type movie that will probably star Anna Faris & Gabriel Iglesias.

Those are some of the most important tips to survive a horror movie situation if you’re ever in one.

A16

OPINION April 28th, 2017

The Trans* Experience

by ZOE TYNE

Zoe Tyne addresses the experiences of transgender people in America from an insider’s perspective.

People who have not been Court would hear his case this March. exposed to information on gender Yet the Court then announced that it identity often hear the term “trans” would wait for the lower courts to and picture a man in drag or a work on the case more, supposedly woman with short hair, both of which due to the current climate in the are incorrect images. A transgender White House. No one is saying that person doesn’t have a certain image, people of the opposite gender should a man who cross-dresses is still a go into a restroom. What we need is man, and a woman with short hair for people who identify as women is no less a woman than any woman to be allowed into the women’s with long hair. Not only can society’s rooms, those who identify as men image of what a transgender person to be allowed into men’s, and gender be incorrect, but it’s vastly limited. inclusive restrooms for those who Society needs to embrace people for identify as neither. who they are, not for what gender As soon as we are born we are they assume the person to be. We labeled as a boy or a girl. Dressed need to stop assuming who people in blue or pink. Those who are based off of how they look and receive childhoods free of gender accept that there is more to identity expectations are rare, which later than just the black and white views on in life can often hinder one’s we’ve been taught since birth. We perspective towards those whom need to increase identify with awareness a gender they nationwide, weren’t assigned and whether at birth. There are that be through “As soon as we are born we so many genders education or the are labeled as a boy or a girl. out there other Dressed in blue or pink. media portraying than male and Those who receive childhoods more than just a free of gender expectations female, such as single story does are rare.” genderfluid (a not matter. It gender in which just needs to get is essentially done. If not for multiple genders, making everyone in society feel more as one may feel like a different gender comfortable, but to save lives. Trans* at different times), non-binary individuals have such an incredibly (identifying outside of the binary, high suicide rate that it is frightening. simply just not a girl or boy), and Gavin Grimm, a trans* teen, was agender (identifying with no gender). denied access to the men’s restroom at Let me repeat, gender is not a solid his school, spurring him to bring his binary thing. People may identify in issues to the courts. As the case rose millions of ways. Each of these is a through the different levels of court valid identification that often receives it was announced that the Supreme dismissal when mentioned in public.

Yet, according to the Trevor Project, only around 150,000 Americans are transgender, leaving many other people at a loss as to what being trans* really is.

“Yes, even here, at The School That Leads, people aren’t as accepting as we would like to portray them.”

As someone who identifies as nonbinary, I’ve not only witnessed painful behaviour, but I’ve also had it directed at me. Yes, even here, at The School That Leads, people aren’t as accepting as we would like to portray them. Not that long ago I was thrown into the situation that inspired this article. A student openly laughed at another student mentioning being genderfluid. My insides churned, wondering what other hurtful, if not downright cruel, actions I had been protected from in my strange semicloseted state.

Despite the pain I have witnessed from cisgender people (those who identify with the gender they are assigned at birth), I have never felt the need to bend to other people’s ideas that my gender isn’t valid. I know who I am. I am not a boy, nor am I a girl. I use they/them pronouns and a smile dances onto my face every single time someone uses my preferred name or some variation

of it. I do not want society to pay numbers of politicians….and fellow attention to me to the point where citizens. Apparently the right to not I’m raised up on a special pedestal; I be discriminated against on the basis need society to let me comfortably be of gender doesn’t apply to us, for myself. reasons we can’t figure out.

Grimm is making huge leaps Society impacts us far more than by pushing the issue of not being we are accused of impacting it. We allowed in the bathroom he feels are asking for equal rights and to be most comfortable in, but this is not treated like human beings. We are just about bathrooms. Yes, everyone asking for families to be supportive will feel more comfortable when and respectful so we will have one less bathroom rights are protected and factor contributing to the incredibly gender inclusive restrooms become high suicide attempt rates. We are not more prevalent, but that is not the asking you to be transgender also. only problem. The problem lies within We are not asking to be constantly society’s mindset that prevents things thought of. We are asking to be like gender-inclusive restrooms and considered citizens, at least enough people using whichever restroom to have our identities in the census. they feel most comfortable in from Being nonbinary isn’t a silly happening. attempt at gaining attention. I don’t School isn’t the only place spend my days correcting people on transgender people face ridicule my preferred pronouns; I let people or downright harassment. Online, use she/her pronouns and my birth people can get name without dubbed as “special throwing a fit. snowflakes” for “What matters about being What matters their gender nonbinary is that I underabout being identification, as stand who I am. That the peo- nonbinary is that if they just want ple close to me understand.

I understand who to be different That I can use my experiences I am. That the from everyone and feelings to raise awarepeople close to else. They may me understand. ness about what society is doface strange looks That I can use ing to transgendered people.” when using a my experiences public restroom and feelings to that does not correlate with their raise awareness about what society is birth gender. Now, we face torment doing to transgendered people. by our own country.

You are valid, no matter how you With an altered census and identify. “bathroom bills” seemingly being We are valid. thrown everywhere, transgender citizens are being viewed as corrupted less-than-people by larger and larger

A17

April 28th, 2017 A&E

&

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

The Little Mermaid For the past few months, student actors from across Iowa City have been feverishly preparing their audition material for the upcoming teen musical at City Circle Acting Company, The Little Mermaid. Nearly 100 aspiring performers auditioned, with City High students making up onefourth of the final cast of 40 actors.

By Reese Hill

ABOVE: Ensemble members Josh Millsap ‘19, Elias Perez ‘19, and Keaton Scandrett ‘18 sit for a script read through.

LEFT: Veronica Abreu ‘19 reads for her role as Ariel.

RIGHT: Kyle Irish-Gorvin ‘17 reads for his role as Prince Eric.

PHOTOS BY REESE HILL

C

ity Circle productions are notoriously difficult to get into. Casting is usually minimal, and the bar for experience is set extremely high, with actor Nysio Poulakos ‘17 describing past shows as “incredible due to the high caliber of performers.” However, this year, the sheer mass of talent auditioning was incomparable to past years, leading to three Little Hawk actors scoring leads in the show — including Veronica Abreu ‘19, who will be playing the lead role of Ariel.

“I found out my part before I saw the entire cast list and my first reaction was shock. I screamed because I was so excited,” Abreu said. “As I saw the other cast members my excitement grew because I got to see who I’d be working with, and I could feel how good the cast [would] be.”

Abreu will be starring alongside fellow Little Hawk actor Kyle Irish-Gorvin ‘17, who was cast as Prince Eric.

This production of The Little Mermaid means a lot for the City High Drama Department and its student performers, as it will be carrying on City High’s streak of leading roles in City Circle and introducing the community theater scene to the younger actors who will dominate the stage in years to come.

“I’m so proud of all the City students cast in lead roles, because it’s a big deal to get into a City Circle production, let alone as a lead,” Lauren Rude ‘20 re-

marked. “I think it truly proves what a great group of students we have in the performing arts this year and going forward.”

Rude has participated in City Circle shows in the past, and while she did not audition for The Little Mermaid, she will be assisting the show through stage management.

“I really enjoy the quality of [City Circle] shows, not just what is happening on stage, but what is happening backstage,” Lindy Rublaitus ‘19 commented.

“You can tell by watching this group of actors that they are a close-knit community.”

The amount of creative capacity in this specific batch of actors alarmed director Ian Zahren, who claims it is the hardest show he’s ever cast. Everyone was taken aback by the aptitude of each person who got a callback, and anxiety levels were through the roof as actors soaked in the competition.

“The callbacks were very stressful,” Jessie Shaw ‘17 recalled. “All of my theatre friends were there, but there was so much talent in the room. It was terrifying! It definitely made me want to try harder because I had more people to impress, but I also wanted to impress the director and myself.” Shaw was cast in the ensemble and is a principle dancer.

The actors agreed, however, that it was a blessing rather than a curse to be pitched against such competition. Everyone retained a positive attitude and took the pressure in stride. Instead of a brick wall, the

challenges became an uplifting empowerment.

“The group of people at callbacks was by far the most talented group of people I have ever auditioned with,” said Poulakos. “Everyone there had something unique about them, and the talent was off the charts.

It was an honor watching everyone audition as well as perform in front of such a supportive group of people.”

Poulakos, cast as Ariel’s father, King Triton, is also starring in City High’s productwion of Guys and Dolls as Nathan Detroit. This is his third year in a row involved with City Circle.

“There were about 45 kids who got called back, and many of them I had never seen before, and we all sat in there and listened to [each other],” said Elias Perez ‘19, who was cast in the ensemble. “I had never heard that much amazing talent in one room, especially from these people all under the age of 18. Some of the callbacks made me laugh and some made me cry, but all of them were equally amazing.”

Theatre is often a business full of ups and downs, but when the group lifts each other up and inspires everyone else to continue with their strongest performance, individual wins become team wins.

“This show is going to be phenomenal with so many bright young actors and actresses showing how amazing they are,” Perez affirmed. “It is a show you won’t want to miss!”

A18

April 28th, 2017 A&E

PHOTOS BY RASMUS SCHLUTTER TOP: Jordan Lafauce '18 lifts Cassidy Slater-Scott '17 BELOW: Choreographer Patrick Dulaney directs the male ensemble led by Noah Freeman '17

Guys and Dolls A Photo Preview

By Addie Bass

O

pening Friday the 28th, City High's spring musical takes the drama department back to the golden age of Broadway with their performance of Burrow and Swerling's Guys and Dolls.

The production follows big league gambler Sky Masterson, played by senior Noah Freeman, as he is bet against by con-man Nathan Detroit, played by senior Nysio Poulakos. The bet in question involves a morally upright, conservative missionary Sarah Brown, played by soaring soprano seniors Emma Arp and Emma Myers. However, the bet continues to be hindered by Nathan Detroit's love-struck bride to be, Miss Adelaide, played by senior Genevieve Wisdom.

Tickets are six dollars for students and twelve for adults.

A19

April 28th, 2017 A&E

The Art of Politics

Protest art has experienced a significant revival with the election of President Donald Trump. Four student artists, all working in different mediums, find a common connection in utilizing art to express their beliefs on the current political climate.

By Addie Bass

Ailsa Burke ‘17

“I think it’s important for people know that they’re not alone in their beliefs,” Ailsa Burke ‘17 said. “It’s important in communities to know that there are young people who are following this and care about it and are trying to make a difference.”

Burke ‘17 uses mediums such as watercolor, screen printing, and linoleum prints to express her political opinions.

“I feel like all art is an expression of whatever’s going on inside you, and when something this poignant is going on it’s hard not to get involved,” Burke said. “I don’t want all of that energy and especially that negativity trapped inside me, so this is one way to let it out and express my views so that other people can understand and relate.”

Burke’s interest in artistic participation in protest movements began after Trump’s explicit comments on female sexuality were leaked to the public. Burke was contacted by members of the student body who were interested in T-shirts to wear to protest events, hence the lewd stencil left on her kitchen table.

“A couple people asked me if I could make shirts for them because they know that I have the skill and the supplies to do it, and then that just kind of snowballed into me taking on more of that subject matter and being able to work with it,” Burke said.

Antonio Lopes-Round ‘17 Senior Antonio Lopes-Round takes an artistic approach, using charcoal and chalk pastels, to illustrate his stance on the current election. Lopes-Round ‘17 has been drawing his whole life but wasn’t inspired to incorporate political opinions into his work until the 2016 election.

“During the race my dad said, ‘I think you could do some really good political cartoons—some good caricatures and stuff ’, but I didn’t really do any until Trump

was elected.” Lopes- Round said.

Lopes- Round’s parents play a large part in his political involvement. Even before his mother, a Canadian immigrant, obtained citizenship status she was out canvassing and protesting for different political issues, events for which Antonio has helped her paint signs.

“She’s always tried to affect me in that way, and I think she has to some degree,” Lopes-Round said. “I definitely care about what happens.”

While his mother’s political participation has a greater goal in mind, Lopes- Round’s protest pieces act more as an emotional outlet than anything else.

“I don’t think it’s going to change anyone’s mind. People will look at it and say, ‘I like that’; that’s all I want. I just have a phrase in my head— just an idea. I like art with words in it. I wish I could have thought of something,” Lopes-Round said, gesturing to a piece of his work in front of him. “I couldn’t think of anything to put on this one, and that’s why I feel like it’s not that good. It doesn’t have anything to say.”

Mariam Keita ‘20 Freshman Mariam Keita participates in a more formal method of opposition. Keita ‘20 uses language to voice her disapproval in the President of the United States. Keita writes essays and poetry, and also gives speeches with the student-led group Students Against Hate and Discrimination, which was founded by City High, Regina, and West High students.

The group participates in marches and demonstrations, and offers Keita an environment for her to share her thoughts and ideas.

“I believe that words are the most powerful weapon that anyone can have,” Keita said. “Even if you can’t talk, you can still communicate.

Words are more powerful than people give them credit for.”

Keita often notices how people treat her differently due to her religion and skin color, which she reflects upon in her writing.

Keita is a practicing Muslim, and aspires to further expand

the representation of people like her.

“I try to make the world see me,” Keita said. “I feel like people that look like me, talk like me, act like me, have the same background as me, are often overlooked or they face precon-

ceived notions more often.”

Keita continued. “People have a set opinion or a thought on the way that I act before really getting to know me, and I found that people who know me are often surprised by how I act, how I talk, how I carry myself, and I want people to get to know more people like me.”

A20

Q&A

April 28th, 2017 A&E

PHOTO BY ADDIE BASS

Multimedia Artist Victoria Malone

Inspired by her father, an elementary art teacher, Malone '18 has developed a style that spans different mediums and subjects.

By Rasmus Schlutter

How did you get introduced to art, and what made you continue with it?

"I’ve always been interested in art since I was my in elementary school. My dad is an art teacher. He's been an influence on my art in a way, he’s always been creating stuff with me and kind of pushing towards art. Since he was an elementary teacher, he would always have planned things, and he would test it on me, and then we'd do it together."

What kind of art do you most enjoy creating?

"I do a lot of drawings with pencil, and sometimes I’ll included paint and string. But I’ve taken ceramics, drawing, painting, video production—pretty much all of the art classes.

I have done prints before, and I really just wanted to experiment with this one."

Within your multimedia art, is there a particular style that you find yourself repeating?

"I don't know what it's called, but I like creating a lot of lines.

A lot of my artwork includes lots of lines and small dots everywhere... it's just always been my style."

Have you ever had your art displayed, either at your own exhibit or in some other public location?

"Exhibits, I haven't really done before. I’ll have my art in art shows that are provided by the school or like a modest one, but I've never done one myself. That'd be cool to do one, but I feel like I don't have enough art right now to do it."

Are there any particular artists or styles that you’ve felt influenced your own art?

"My dad is definitely a big influence, but I also get inspiration from social media, Instagram mostly. I don't really have a favorite artist, but when I'm on there I always see art that I get inspired by."

What kind of role do you think art will play in your future?

"I’m kind of stuck. Sometimes I feel like I should continue it as a career, but then I think I should do it as a hobby. For me, it's just kind of a way to have fun."

Do you prefer drawing, or making art, of people or other subjects?

"I do make people more often. Not realistic—when I draw eyes, they're not going to look like normal eyes. Though it changes depending on the mood I'm in when I make the art, if I'm sad my drawings will be different. It's expressive and fun, or just a way to procrastinate. "

Sports

April 28th, 2017

B2

SPORTS April 28th, 2017

UPCOMING EVENTS

3 TRack Sends Athletes to the drake relays

apr. Boys Track & Field 28-29 Drake Relays Drake Stadium All day apr. Girls Track & Field 28-29 Drake Relays Drake Stadium all Day APR. 29

APR. 29

Girls Tennis vs. Kennedy City High 8 am

4&5

May 2

6

Equestrian

8

Q&A With Grace Brown

Boys Tennis Vs. Kennedy Kennedy HS 8 am

APR. boys soccer 29 Tournament City High 9 am May 1

The Boys fall to west

Girls Golf MVC Super Meet ST. Andrews Golf Course 9:30 AM Girls soccer VS. Waterloo West Cedar Valley 4:15 PM

7

HOff Leads Way For Tennis

Out with the old, in with the new To Whom it May Concern, It seems to be that time of year - the flowers are blossoming, the birds are singing, and I’m getting kicked off The Little Hawk. Most would probably see this as a negative, but I see the contrary. A new chapter is beginning in my life, and it’s going to be a good one.

Luckily, I’ve found a replacement with more competence than my counterpart. City High’s golden girl has graciously accepted the reigns of the highly coveted position of Sports Editor. That’s right. Addy Smith has agreed to the confinements of the Little Hawk’s back eight pages. My ending as editor is inevitable, as is the circle of life. Next year the section will continue, and so it will the year after that.

Addy is a smart and fun girl, who will run circles around the low standards I have set for her. The following words will be written

by Addy. Goodbye newspaper. Goodbye City High. Thanks for the good times.

Alright folks, starting today we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking the Little Hawk sports section. But in all seriousness, I’ve got some big shoes to fill. Like HUGE. Jim Geerdes wears a size 14. So sit back, relax, and stay tuned for a year full of some good ol’ Little Hawk athletics.

Jam&Smooth

B3

SPORTS April 28th, 2017

City Sees Ups and Downs at Forwald

By Addy Smith The final chance for many area teams hoping to qualify for the Drake Relays takes place on City High’s very own Raffensberger Track and Bates Field, at the Forwald-Coleman Relays. Drake qualifications are announced at midnight the night of the meet, which makes for an atmosphere of high-energy scrambling to run and throw the fastest and farthest of the season. The last-minute energy surge led City to fifth place and six Drake-qualified events.

“Forwald is so much different than any other meet for so many reasons. First off it’s our only varsity home meet and that’s a massive thing in itself. Plus it’s the last day for Drake qualifying and the each of the teams who show up to Forwald come with their best lineup in hand and ready to lay down fast times,” Jim McMillan ‘17 said.

“Our goal is to win the meet, but it’s always a challenge anytime you host your own meet and bring in the level of competition that we do at Forewald. We are disappointed we didn’t win the meet but we are focused on MVC, Districts, and State in May,” Head Coach Mike Moore said.

Nevertheless, Rex Thompson ‘17 in the high hurdles, Michael Berg ’17 and Matthew Dodge ‘17 in the 3200 meter run, the 4x100 meter relay, the 4x400 meter relay, the 4x800 meter relay, and the distance medley relay all found spots this weekend on the blue oval.

“Rex Thompson qualified in the [high hurdles], coming in 32 out of 32 spots. It’s been really neat to see him grow and improve over the years. This season especially he’s had much better focus so I’m really happy for him,” Moore said. “The chance to run at the blue oval is a great honor that nobody can take away from him. He’s a great kid.”

“It feels amazing. Looking back at my freshman year I was so bad that [the coaches] didn’t even take me to JV meets and now I’m a Drake qualifier. It truly is a dream come true,” Thompson said.

Thompson’s teammate, Zach Jones ‘18, will be joining him in Des Moines this weekend as

“Our goal is to win the meet, but it’s always a challenge anytime you host your own meet and bring in the level of competition we do at Forwald.”

—Coach Mike Moore

Michael Berg ‘17 runs the 3200 at the Forwald Relays on April 20th and qualifies for the Drake Relays. PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

well.

“Zach Jones had a great night. He was part of the 4th place shuttle team that had a season’s best time of 1:00.36, the 4th placed 4x100 team who ran a season’s best time of 44.19, the 3rd placed 4x400 team who also ran a season’s best 3:25.26, and he also placed 2nd in the Open 400 with a PR of 49.93,” said Moore.

“We didn’t get the shuttle to Drake but we had a PR and the team is even more focused for State now. 4x400 came up a little short too [last night]. Not winning that last event to take it home was not what we wanted but we had qualified already so I’m confident in that team. Open 400 PR and it felt good so I know I can run faster. 4x100 we have talent so we can compete,” Jones said.

Although some like Jones experienced success at Forwald, others like Jim McMillan

who placed 13th in the 800 last year at Drake weren’t quite satisfied.

“I think it’s safe to say Jim McMillan is disappointed right now. Jim just missed qualifying in the open 800 being 17 out of 16.

But he is mature enough to understand that the May is our ultimate goal,” Moore said.

“Personally I feel like my races didn’t go how I intended them to go. I got in bad spots in my open 800, which ruined my chances for Drake qualifying. Then our 4x8 and basically everything else we ran just really didn’t come together as we wanted, and you can see that in the results, which were frankly [bad], for our standards as a team and for myself personally,” McMillan said.

“We have to keep in perspective how young and inexperienced we are in a number of event areas, throwing and jumping especially. We just

have to keep coming back and getting better, meet after meet,” Moore said. “[At Forwald] Levi Sherod, who’s just a freshman, threw a 4 foot PR in the discus, over 120 feet.”

Although discouraged, McMillan remains focused and even more motivated to improve throughout the rest of the season.

“My main focus going into these next few weeks is mainly to get back to work and control what I can do. Which is preparing better for my races as a whole, being the best leader and captain for the other guys on our team and finally running in two relays at the Drake relays. Then building off that into state where I plan to take my racing to the next level along with the rest of our team’s. We still have time and I look forward to the next days and weeks we have of putting in the hard work to give us the best chance we have to be happy in May.”

Obstacles Block Success for the Girls

By Grace Parrott The temperature soared to 80 degrees as City High girls track competed against Jefferson, Prairie, West, and many other teams at Kingston Stadium in Cedar Rapids.

The team got off to a slow start in the season and many girls on the team experienced injuries or sickness.

“We’ve have had more than our fair share of adversity, it seems.

Which is too bad because the weather’s really been favorable for track. But just between illness and people being gone, and injury, there just seems to be a flood of difficulties,” assistant coach Tom Mittman said.

With the soccer season going on at the same time as the track season, some athletes chose to do both. Many key members of the team, including sophomore Naomi Meurice, who competes in multiple varsity running events. Because of her soccer commitment, Meurice has had to miss some track meets.

Mittman thinks this is also a factor as to why the team has not been getting the times that would be expected at this point in the season.

“We need to have all the people able to participate at the same time and be healthy. And when we have that happen I think something great is going to happen,” Mittman said.” But we really haven’t had that situation yet. We really haven’t run our best 4x800 yet, just because we never have everybody all able to run at the same time. And it’s just been that kind of a year.”

Mittman hopes to see times improve greatly at the ForewaldColeman Relays and Divisional Meet because there will be full participation of the varsity athletes as well as JV. Senior Molly Hansen has also experienced this track season’s difficulties.

“This season’s kind of been a little bit of a pain. It hasn’t been quite like what I wanted. But I’m just focusing on being there for my other teammates, especially, and to encourage them through this,” Hansen said.

Hansen will be attending Moody Bible Institute in Chicago in the fall. She plans on continuing with running competitively for their cross country team. But for right now, Hansen wants to focus on finishing her last track season at City High strong. “[I hope to] just give it my best and keep improving,” Hansen said.

“My hopes for the rest of the season are that I give it my all and I just really leave it all out there, knowing that I’ve done everything I could.”

Mary Arch ‘17 has been a key member in the outdoor track season, competing in the varsity open 800 and the varsity 4x400 this past meet at Kingston. She has since signed to the University of Iowa and will be running on the women’s cross country team but is still unsure about running on Iowa’s track team.

Some highlights of the Kingston meet include Lucy Murphy ‘17 placing 3rd in the discuss and 6th in the shot put. The sprint medley relay and the 4x200 placed 2nd and the 4x100 placed 1st. Emily Bywater ‘17 finished 3rd in the 3000 meter run. Arch placed 3rd in the open

Annalise Rummelhart ‘19 runs a relay at City High’s Sherwood Relays.

PHOTO BY LOTTIE GIDAL

800 meter race, and Meryl Green ‘19 finished 2nd in the 400 meter hurdles.

Mittman hopes to see the team translate their hard work in their workouts to times in races, as the state meet is fast approaching.

“I think we have come and kept a good attitude and competed well but the results haven’t reflected the

amount of effort we’ve put in thus far.

So it’s been a little bit disappointing from that standpoint,” Mittman said.

“The kids are working hard and getting good workouts in but it just hasn’t translated into the success that I would like to see. So I would say that we’ve been successful in having good workouts, good team spirit but the results are still yet to come.”

B4

SPORTS April 28th, 2017

A

fter finishing off as the state runner-up last year, the City High men’s soccer team started the year off perfect again and with high expectations.The Little Hawks were 6-0 and once again ranked number one in the state before falling to West High last Friday, losing to the Trojans for the first time in four years. The setback is one that the Little Hawks did not expect, however they hope it will serve as a learning experience.

“If anything, it’s just more motivation for us to work harder in practice, to focus more in games and learn from our mistakes that we make and fix those,” team captain Jonah Dancer ‘18 said after the West High loss.

City High head coach, Jose Fajardo, says that he liked the pressure of being number one.

“If we want to be state champions, if we want to be good at anything we do, not only here but in life, we have to have that pressure [of being unbeaten and being number one] on our shoulders,” Fajardo said.

The Little Hawks started the season highly ranked and cruised to many early wins. City High beat Waterloo East 8-0, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 101, and Dubuque Senior 7-0 early in the season. Last week, however, the Little Hawks struggled, falling behind quickly against then tenth ranked Cedar Rapids Washington before eventually winning 2-1.

Following this close win, the Hawks proceeded to be shut out by West High, 1-0 on Friday, April 21st.

It was City’s first regular season loss since May of 2015. Last season, City High’s only loss was in the state championship game. According to Coach Fajardo, one of City’s biggest problems throughout the past few weeks has been scoring on its chances, something he believes the Little Hawks were unable to do in their close game against Washington and then in the loss to the Trojans.

“That’s part of the game, it’s not how many chances you create, but how many chances you put away,” Fajardo said.

So far this year, City High has had to put seven new players on the field, with only Rasmus Schlutter ‘17, Sam Tomek ‘17, Jonah Dancer ‘18, and Jackson Meyer ‘18 being the returning starters.

Many players have had to step up into positions that they haven’t played before, and players that were on the roster but didn’t get on the field much have been playing more.

“I think there’s been a number of players who have really found themselves on the field. There’s been a couple players last year who got some playing time on the team but didn’t get too much on the field, especially during big games that’ve really stepped up this year,” team captain and four year varsity player Rasmus Schlutter ‘17 said.

As a four year player, Schlutter says that the four co-captains, all the returning starters, have different roles on the team.

“I’ve been on the team for four years now and I’ve kind have been in a lot of different roles so I’m kind of aware of what it’s like to not play for a bit, what it’s like to be frustrated in practice, or to just do well for the first couple weeks and then not get to play as much,” Schlutter said. “I like to be a supportive player and a supportive captain.”

Schlutter emphasized that work ethic of all the captains and everyone on the team is vital to the group’s success.

“I think all of us really want to just demonstrate that to be on this team, to be good on this team, it takes more than just raw skill, it takes more than just luck, it takes like a level of hardwork that each and everyone has to commit to,” Schlutter said.

One of the new players, Adam Engelbrecht ‘20 has had to adjust to playing varsity this year. In his first season, he is already starting and playing many minutes most games for the Little Hawks.

“The pace of the ball is a lot quicker, there are a lot more quick and short passes, and it’s just a lot faster so just getting in the mindset of as soon as you get the ball, you have to know what you want to do with it, that’s the main thing,” Engelbrecht said.

City High has been able to find a lot of offense from its junior class this season. Jonah Dancer ‘18 has led the way for the Little Hawks early with seven goals. Cameron Chavez ‘18 is second on the team with five goals. Brothers Hunter and Ethan teDuits ‘18 both have seen their roles increase this season, and Ethan has stepped up to lead the team

in assists.

As the season progresses and the Little Hawks look to overcome their first loss, they hope that their team chemistry can help them out.

“Team chemistry is great. None of us is more important than the team and everyone knows and respects that,” Fajardo said. “Having chemistry helps you more during bad times than during good times.”

The Little Hawks hope to rebound quickly from the West High loss to get back on the road to the playoffs and what Schlutter and the team hope will end as a championship season.

“Now we have to get our butts on the field again and get ready to go back to number one,” Fajardo said.

“If anything, it’s just more motivation for us to work harder in practice, to focus more in games, and learn our mistakes that we make and fix those.”

SPORTS April 28th, 2017

UNDEFEATED NO MORE City High's perfect season came to a close Friday night when cross-town rival West High edged the Little Hawks out 1-0 in a nail biter.

By Jonathan House

—Jonah Dancer '18

City High's Imata Mwenekamba '17 walks off the pitch as West High fans storm the field in celebration. PHOTO BY JONATHAN HOUSE

B5

B6

SPORTS April 28th, 2017

Lily O'Brien '17 and her horse, Rio, practice jumping at her indoor course just outside of Solon, Iowa. PHOTO BY JIM GEERDES

A

EQUESTRIAN

s a ten year old, Lily O’Brien ‘17 was asked a question that would change her life. Her answer would hold more weight than she could

imagine.

“Are you willing to ride?”

Her father had an idea in August of 2010, hoping that his daughters would pursue the passion he had as a child. He had been raised alongside horses, a lifestyle that would soon be known to one of his daughters. Lauren, his eldest, chose to pursue more traditional sports.

Lily simply answered yes, and never looked back.

“When I was 12 he came up to me and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to fix up the barn,’ and he was like, ‘would you be willing to ride if I were to do this?’ That August I rode for the first time, I remember it was a Sunday, and I just fell in love with it,” O’Brien said.

Starting off in equestrian is not an easy task. A rider’s partner is as key of a necessity as the rider themself. Finding a horse is not a simple task, often taking months, if not years, for each rider. This task becomes increasingly difficult when located in Iowa, which is not known for having a riding community. But O’Brien was determined to ride, and made it a priority to find the horse for her. As she progressed through the riding world, becoming more and more competitive, she rode horses that weren’t quite suited for her.

One year ago, O’Brien took a trip to Florida, which is regarded as a mecca for the United States horseback community, to find her partner. She met with horse after horse, with no luck.

Just as her trip to Florida seemed to be a bust, a family friend invited her over to see his horses. O’Brien was offered to ride a few, and stumbled upon Rio, a Selle Français, which is widely known as a successful show jumping horse. She immediately fell in love and has been riding her since.

“They say you always need a year to really

A horseback rider shares the difficulty of her sport and forms a bond unknown to most.

By Jim Geerdes get to know your horse. I spend so much time just spending time with my horse. Before and after each ride I just love on her. I mean we’ve just kind of grown to know each other,” O’Brien said. “I’m out here so often. She will be outside and whenever she sees my car she comes running. She definitely knows who I am, she kind of considers me the treat lady.

There's a lot of time out of the saddle with your horse in order to truly know them.”

Having a bond with a horse is half the battle in a sport that demands teamwork as much as equestrian.

“I think that Rio and I are a team in every sense of the word. People always ask me ‘do you wish your horse knew how to talk?’ ‘No. Heck no.’ She’d probably tell me she hates me because we are together so much. But we are

definitely a team. It’s a bond, a connection. We always have be on the same page. On sports teams people can have an ego and say, ‘Yea I'm the best player,’ but here, without your horse you would be nothing. So a lot of teamwork goes into what we do. We can’t get off kilter.”

"Having a horse like Rio makes it all worth it. It all pays off. I’m at an equilibrium. I don’t have much time for social life, but I’ve kind of learned that it’ll be worth it in the long run. I love it.”

—Lily O'Brien ‘17

O'Brien smiles after succesfully jumping a hurdle in practice. PHOTO BY JIM GEERDES

Each competition presents a new challenge. Due to the small riding community, shows often have to be held across state lines, with the busiest riding state being Florida.

Showcases are five days long. O’Brien will arrive with her horse on a Wednesday, and jump with small classes on Thursdays. For the rest of of the weekend, O’Brien and Rio compete amongst their division. Each division is 15 to 30 people, depending on the skill level of the rider.

As a student-rider, O’Brien has to find time to balance academics and equestrian.

“I’ve always said that school comes first.

Recently, I may have had a shift with such a high quality horse," O'Brien joked. "So I basically get home, I go to the barn, get back back around 7:30 or 8, eat dinner, and do homework. I don’t remember the last time I went to sleep before 12. Having a horse like Rio makes it all worth it. It all pays off. I’m at an equilibrium. I don’t have much time for social life, but I’ve kind of learned that it’ll be worth it in the long run. I love it.”

Her academics will be put on pause next year, as she plans to take a gap year to pursue riding. O’Brien plans to travel with Rio, and attend more competitions. After her year of riding, O’Brien is unsure of what to do, but will be guided by her horse. She says that her college decision will be affected by the barns in the area, and that she will ride throughout her college years.

“It’s a lot harder than it looks. But ultimately i’ve got so much gratitude for my horse and it’s taught me to not only work hard, but how to overcome so many challenges. It’s not easy. I have good days. I have bad days. But there's a lot of compassion, love. it humbles you,” O’Brien said. “I rode one of my best rides of my life one time, and the next day I fell off. There are a lot of ups and downs. You can be having a great time and it could diminish easily. I love what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I wouldn’t trade Rio for anything.”

B7

SPORTS April 28th, 2017

Girls Golf Prepares for The Future

By Jonathan House Most days, you can find the City High girl’s golf team out at Pleasant Valley golf course, practicing for the next meet. This year, the varsity roster is young, with only two seniors and one junior, in addition to four returning sophomores. First year head coach Brittany Aude, who spent the last three years as an assistant coach for the Little Hawks, looks for her young team to progress as the season moves forward.

“My hope is that when we finish the season we look back at the beginning and we see a significant amount of growth,” Aude said.

“My hope is that when we finish the season we look back at the beginning and we see a significant amount of growth.”

—Coach Brittany Aude Sameer Ali ‘17 prepares to volley back a ball against a Dubuque Senior opponent on April 18th. PHOTO BY JIM GEERDES

Hoff a Leader for the Boys

By Jim Geerdes Going into the singles state tournament his junior year, Joe Hoff was unranked and unknown to most. By the end of the week, all of that would change. Hoff tore through the tournament, and found himself in the championship match against cross-town rival and childhood friend Jiung Jung from West High. The two juniors battled it out and Hoff was just edged out. He finished second in the state and does not intend to take that outcome twice.

“I plan to win state,” Hoff said. “Jiung is a great player but he’s beatable. And I need to do it.”

“Joe plays in a tournament almost every weekend,” his school coach, Chip Hardesty, said. “That’s where he’s really gotten good, on top of the coaches he works with in the off season.”

The 6’5” senior is more determined than ever to make his state title run. He has posted a flawless record as City’s number one man, and is handily going through the competition in the Mississippi Valley Conference. Not

only is he excelling as an individual, but the City tennis team seems to be gravitating around his success.

“He’s a leader of this team,” Hardesty said.

“He’s been number one on this team since his freshmen year and that’s unusual in such a highly competitive conference. He makes everyone else better”

“He’s a leader of this team.

He’s been number one since his freshman year, and that’s highly unusual in such a competitive conference.”

—Coach Chip Hardesty Behind Hoff, and in the number two spot, is Diego Paccioto-Biggers, who is filling the role of City’s number two man as a freshmen.

Paccioto-Biggers is showing potential, beating opponents three years his senior.

Sameer Ali ‘17, a first year varsity player, has stumbled his way into the position of Hoff ’s doubles partner.

“It’s a big step up from JV. It’s a lot harder grind. But it’s a great experience and it’s more

competitive,” Ali said. “Joe is a great guy to play with and he constantly pushes you to be better.”

City High’s JV program is well-known for producing varsity athletes. On top of Ali, Jonathan Albaugh ‘17 and Victor Khalil started their tennis careers on City’s JV squad and are all now playing at the varsity level.

Sam Bloom ‘18, Miles Morrow ‘18, Mikhale Sadecky ‘18 are three other varsity athletes.

The Little Hawks have posted a 4-4 record as of April 24th, while the main highlights seem to be Hoff ’s singles matches, which often result in blowouts.

This fall Hoff committed to Creighton University, a DI program in Omaha, Nebraska.

“I’m excited to be around guys who are pushing themselves as hard as I do,” Hoff said, on the Creighton program. “It’ll be exciting to see the progress I’ll hopefully make on the team these next four years.”

Even if college is in the near future for Hoff, the state tournament is still his priority.

“All I need to do right now is stay focused, stay prepared.”

Aude says that getting back out on the course after six months off, it can be difficult to judge how the team will perform at later meets, but she is excited to continue to work with the young team, with Alexa Fredericks ‘19, Merryl Green ‘19, Emily Knoche ‘19, and Kaylee Paulsen ‘19 joining the varsity squad this year.

“I can remember last year, like for them to shoot in the 50s was a huge success,” Aude said of the younger players. “They’re steadily getting lower and lower, and I think that’s really exciting to see that they’re consistently expecting more out of themselves,” The two leaders on the team so far this year have been Rose Sadewasser ‘17 and Lexi Shield ‘18. In addition, Morgan Galer ‘17, who was on the team a few years ago, made her return to the team this week after transferring back into the district. Aude expects Galer to make an impact this year and be one of the top performers on the team for the second half of the season.

This year, as one of the only two seniors, Sadewasser has been able to have fun while mentoring the younger team, as well as constant improvement.

“Making sure everyone knows the rules and gets used to playing in all day meets is a main goal for us,” Sadewasser said.

“We’re mostly just focused on having fun and beating our own personal records,” Sadewasser said.

The girls still have five meets until regionals on May 22nd, with the next home meet coming up on Thursday, May 11th.

Girls Tennis Rebuilds

By Hannah Boer The girls varsity tennis team is back on the courts this year with several new players and new team captain Lucy Wagner ‘17. Having made it to state quarterfinals for the last three years in a row, City will look to return to state this year the new team.

The varsity team lost five of its eight traveling players at the end of last season and the change in group dynamic creates both a challenge and opportunity for its returning varsity members, Wagner, Amelia Prybil ‘17 and Bihotza James ‘18.

“We’re kind of in that awkward stage where we’re trying to build a team. [Last year] we had a very solid team,” Wagner said.

Freshmen Kelsey Law ‘20 and Caroline Carter ‘20 are both new to the team, but have found a way to have winning records in singles for the Little Hawks in their first season on varsity. Carter has been playing the fourth singles spot and Law the sixth as of

late.

“The fact that we can help the incoming freshmen and help rebuild the team, I think that’s a strength, and the fact that we don’t have these established relationships, we can build new ones,” Prybil added.

Law and Carter are already playing at the varsity level in their first year of high school tennis and Coach Fred Pedersen is confident in their abilities.

“I think we’ll be fine. I really do. I’m really comfortable with the girls, they work hard. I tell them everyday, let’s just try to get a little bit better,” Pedersen said. “So if you’re better today than you were yesterday, everything’s going in the right direction.”

Wagner found herself in the same position as the freshmen below her. Under the guide of then-sophomore Innes Hicsasmaz ‘16, Wagner went to the state doubles tournament as an alternate. Her experience is at the helm of the team.

However, wiith so many new players and high expectations set for the season, the girls can feel the pressure, but Coach Pedersen is

Bihotza James ‘18 sends a ball back in a match against Cedar Rapids Prairie. PHOTO BY JIM GEERDES

making sure they all stay calm on the court.

“I always try working on creating a low stress environment. The girls put enough stress on themselves so I like to create an environment where they can feel comfortable,” Pedersen said. “I kind of look at every match

as the same, I don’t try to hype up any match.”

As of Monday, April 24th, the girls are 5-5 on the season. The team plays at home against Cedar Rapids Kennedy, but is especially looking forward to playing West High on May 2nd.

B8

SPORTS April 28th, 2017

By Olivia Baird

Grace Brown, the 5’4” senior and team captain, is often the life of the team. Brown has been on the varsity roster since her freshman year and has committed to Nebraska to continue her soccer career next fall. Brown, a very talented defensive player, hit the turf with The Little Hawk for a fun pregame interview.

How do you feel about the new team?

I’m excited because this is pretty much a whole new team since we lost about 6 starters from last year, so i’m just excited to see how to new team works together. We’re definitely a young team and we’re trying out a new formation based on just the people that we have that play. I think that if we can get down this new formation, we will be pretty solid.

Do you have any players to watch from City for next year?

We have a pretty young team right now so next year I will just be interested in seeing the team grow together.

What is your favorite pre game pump up song?

I think the one that we always have in the “hands clap” song. We always play it while we’re going through the cones for warmups, and everyone claps along, it’s pretty funny.

What is your favorite soccer memory?

Probably last year when we finally beat Cedar Falls because all three years that I’ve played them [with City] I’ve felt like we’re the better team but they always ended up somehow getting a win and we finally got them last year, so that was exciting.

What do you love most about soccer?

My favorite thing about soccer is that it is a team sport so everyone has to come back to help on defense and everyone is involved in build up plays This makes the goals mean so much more especially since soccer is a pretty low scoring game.

Why did you choose Nebraska? Where else were you looking at?

I chose Nebraska because I really liked the atmosphere there. I also already knew a couple of people on the team from club and they had nothing but good things to say about the program. I was also looking at Iowa, Drake, and Creighton.

Nike or Adidas?

Adidas all the way, because my feet are kind of fat, and Nike’s [cleats] are pretty narrow, so I have to wear Adidas cleats and I think they just fit better and next year [at Nebraska] I’ll have to wear Adidas.

What is your favorite pre-game snack?

CLIFF bars. I like the white chocolate macadamia nut ones, even though those are probably the most unhealthy.

Have you had any serious injuries?

I tore my meniscus freshman year during basketball season and then got surgery and came back for soccer season. I re-tore it sophomore year and haven’t gotten it repaired again. It doesn’t really bother me when I play but I ice and take ibuprofen and it stays fine.