A2 News & Features New Charging Stations Continued from A1
By: Liam Barry
Spreading Holiday Cheer Battle Corps holds a toy drive
By: Summer Evans
Susie Adams, Social Studies Department Chair, was thankful the technology department was able to find and fix the issue so quickly. Adams said, “I was surprised that there was a problem with the charger and am thankful that we did not have any student issues with them at Battle.” Adams is a spirited supporter of student charging stations. Adams commented, “I am very happy that we have charging stations available for our students again. It allows multiple students to
charge without dragging their charger to school each day. Students have so much to keep track of and having chargers in the classrooms allows them more room in their book bag. Also, having multiple chargers removes the excuse that students can’t charge their computers.” Gavin Nelson, sophomore, thinks that the issues caused were due to overuse of the charging stations. Nelson said, “It’s common sense to not try to plug so many chargers into one station,
you can overload the plug and cause fires and other issues like the ones that were caused. I am thankful for them because I can’t always charge my laptop at home.” Rodnesha GainwellBrown, sophomore, was glad to hear that the charging stations came back with better safety features. Gainwell-Brown said, “We really need them because some of us don’t have the proper utensils at home.”
Finally Finals Continued from A1
By: Colten Stone Some students take extra measures during finals week to make sure their bodies, not just their minds, are prepared for the strenuous testing schedule. Some students adjust their diets, leisure time, and sleep schedule to be in their prime for finals. Moore thinks that using a proper study plan alleviates the need to sacrifice sleep during finals week. Moore said, “I like to study weeks ahead because if I start cramming in information just days before a final, I begin to lose sleep and I’m gonna need a lot of sleep to have the energy to pass my finals.” Other students, such as Jeremiah Cole, don’t feel that their studying habits will
impact their precious hours of sleep. Cole said, “I usually go to sleep around 11:30pm and during finals week my sleep schedule will be the same as my normal sleep schedule. I think I will be just fine for finals.” Many students also believe that they should try to keep to their normal routine as much as possible. Cornell believes that students shouldn’t alter their schedule just for tests. Cornell said, “For finals, I don’t usually change my sleep schedule because it would be very difficult to get my original sleep schedule back [when finals are over].”
The holidays are near, this is the time of year when families come together and cherish all that they have been given. Some people, especially children, don’t always have the same opportunity during the holidays. That’s where Battle Corps wants to come in and help. The club’s primary motive is to volunteer in the community and change the lives of others. The school sponsored volunteer organization routinely helps with the Boys and Girls Club. The current Toy Drive is being held to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Columbia. Boys and Girls Club was founded in 1860. It was established by Mary Goodwin, Alice Goodwin and Elizabeth Hammersley from Hartford, Connecticut. Initially, it started as Boys Club of America to keep young boys off the streets by giving them a place to do positive things. As time went on, the founders began to realize that young girls were also in the same situation and the club named was changed to Boys and Girls Club of America in 1990. The Boys and Girls Club is usually a place for kids from low socioeconomic households. Some parents of the children that attend Boys and Girls Club work full time and struggle to keep up with bills and other finances. These circumstances sometime interfere with their children’s holiday experiences. This year for the first time ever, Battle Corps hosted a holiday toy drive for Boys and Girls Club of Columbia to ensure every child goes home with a gift for the holidays.
Sydney Livingston, sophomore, organized the toy drive. Livingston said, “I wanted to organize the toy drive because I know how great of an organization Boys and Girls Club is. They work hard every year to provide the kids there with a present and stocking for the holidays, and I figured that with their huge new expansion they would appreciate any and and all help collecting presents for the kids.” To contribute to the toy drive was very simple. Set up in the lower admin office, there was a christmas tree with cards. Written on each card is a gender and age of a child. To donate, students would pick a card and purchase a gift that suits the card’s description. This year Battle Corps managed to collect 90 presents. Guidance Secretary Sharla Hyler who contributed into making the event said, “I was pleasantly surprised of the number of toys we collected. There were so many gifts we had to move some of the boxes somewhere safe so that more people could place them in the office. It’s great to know that students here are becoming more selfless and can identify when they can help others out.” The number of gifts collected allowed Boys and Girls Club of Columbia to provide each child with at least one gift this holiday season. Livingston also exclaimed, “I would love to make the Boys and Girls Club Holiday Toy Drive annual; and I look forward to planning it with my fellow Battle Corps members in the future.”
Stay Woke
Wake Up! campaign strives for education By: Neila Bates The Wake Up Campaign is working to add more social justice curriculum in social studies and freshman advisory classes, including a focus on equality, social healing, and speaking out. The Wake Up Campaign began after the second round of riots in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of Michael Brown. The topic became widely discussed, and students wanting to discuss the matter felt the topic inappropriate for discussion. Graduated alumni Elaine Miller and current junior Trenton Marks, wanted to create an open environment for safe discussions and thus were core founders of this campaign. In the campaign’s first year they partnered with MAC Scholars and Concerned Student 1950, a similar group from the University of Missouri, to hold an open discussion forum. Concerned Student 1950 visited Battle multiple times in the 2015-2016 school year to discuss activism. Leuchtmann also mentioned working with other community members. He said, “We worked with Sarah Reed, a retired conflict negotiation attorney. She taught our students to engage in dialogue rather than debate. She taught them to listen to understand and not to listen to interject or argue.” The term “listening to understand” is a widely used phrase among the Wake Up members. The program focuses a majority of their work in dialogue. Marks said, “Debate is often a win-lose situation, compare that to dialogue you have a situation where people actually talk about their opinions on things. The most important piece about dialogue is listening to understand, because by listening to understand you are not only acknowledging the person who you are conversing with, you are also working to gain an understanding of why they feel the way that they feel about something.”
The Wake Up campaign directs attention to social injustices and how students can conquer issues. Members of Wake Up are even working to make a social justice curriculum in social studies and freshman advisory classes. Marks explains how the curriculum plays into students’ normal classes. Marks said, “For the Wake Up campaign right now, the main thing we’re rolling out is social justice based curriculum to not only the social studies classrooms but the freshman advisories as well, and in tangent with that we also have a community dialogue piece.” Leuchtmann added, “It goes out and challenges people to pay attention to their own biases and their own prejudice and their own choices they make every day when perceiving other people.” “Many topics within the realm of equality and social justice especially are stigmatized to the point where people don’t really want to talk about them,” added Marks. Wake Up would like to move for a “community forum” where people can talk about the difficult topics all across the school district. The Wake Up members have also gained attention outside of Battle. Senior Wake Up! campaign member Taija Shelton said, “We’ve bonded with administration and Dr. Stiepleman.” Shelton also mentioned they had Superintendent of CPS Peter Stiepleman’s full support for raising awareness and streamlining social justice education and awareness. The Wake Up! campaign is continuing the fight for equality throughout the school and the district. They also hope to reach out and recruit more members, they meet every other Monday in J210 after school.
Sydney Livngston, Joe Lee, Claire Hager, and Harrison Keller pose next to the collection tree. (Picture provided by Sydney Livingston)
Global News Bites By: Madalynn Owens President Trump Declares Jerusalem Israel’s Capital On Wednesday afternoon the president made an address from the White House. President Trump said, “I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel .” The president also authorized the State Department to move the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Airlines make suitcase restricts on “smart luggage” Three major airlines, American, Delta, and Alaska announced “smart luggage” would no longer be able to fly. The safety concerns are because of the lithium-ion batteries in the suitcases. The suitcases have many features such as device charging, GPS, remote locking, built in scales, and motors. The batteries must be removable for to be able to fly. Volkswagen executive sentenced to prison Oliver Schmidt, a high ranking U.S. Volkswagen executive has been sentenced to 7 years in prison and ordered to pay a $400,000 fine. In August, Schmidt pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding the federal government and violating the Clear Air Act with diesel cars.
Russia banned from 2018 Winter Olympics Russia is banned from being represented at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The games will begin in February of 2018. The ban was put in place after the International Olympic Committee found Russian athletes cheating through performanceenhancing drugs. Russian athletes are allowed to compete as neutral Olympians. Massive black hole discovered Scientists have found a black hole that appears to be 800 million times larger than our sun. The black hole was formed at a very early age, when our universe was just 5% of its current age. The discovery was made by Eduardo Bañados. Protesters in Honduras after Presidential Election A dusk to dawn curfew was made in Honduras. Protesters ignored this curfew and marched on the streets in response to their recent presidential election over a week ago. The protesters are calling for a recount of votes due to the small lead the incumbent president holds. Some police officers are refusing to enforce the curfew.