April 2021 USJ

Journal The Union St.

Assessing how Creek’s academic culture makes our choices for us

Brandon Raycraft’s journey from the military to the classroom

Sneakerheads: individuality on the basketball court

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16 - 17

10-13 Cherry Creek High School 9300 E. Union Ave. Greenwood Village, CO 80111

April 2021

USJ STAFF Editors-in-Chief Hannah Edelheit & Jane McCauley

Design Editor Madison Seckman

Opinion Editor Giovanni Machado

Staff Writers Lily Deitch Lydia Foster Breanna Medel Nathan Meredith Aila MonLouis Adam Nowlin Jane Parker Natalie Swyers Jonathan Trigg Izabella Urias Ramos Ethel Yagudayeva

Sports Editor Raegan Knobbe

Advisor Yoni Fine

News Editor Carly Philpott Features Editor Madison Seckman A&E Editor Bre Mennenoh

COVER PHOTO BY HANNAH EDELHEIT

Purpose: The Union Street Journal is a student publication distributed to the students, faculty, and staff of Cherry Creek High School. The paper serves as an information source and a two-way communication forum for both the school and the community. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of Cherry Creek High School or the Cherry Creek School District.

Letters to the editor are accepted and can be submitted via email to theunionstreetjournal@gmail.com Letters cannot be anonymous and they may be edited for clarity.

Letter from the editors After long discussions about how to convey our in-depth in this issue, one of our staff writers, Aila MonLouis, thought of the concept for the front cover. We wanted to emphasize the difficult choices many students are forced to make throughout their high school careers at Creek and thought this has been a very controversial topic that hasn’t been talked about or covered. We thought it was finally time to change that.

Our in-depth for this issue discusses how Creek is known to be one of the most successful schools in everything from the classroom to our sports teams, locally and nationally. However, that also means it is one of the most demanding schools for students, especially in terms of their time and mental health.

We hope we’ve covered every angle and perspective in our four page in-depth and displayed what it’s truly like to be a part of the Creek community here.

Throughout the rest of this issue, we wanted to highlight similar stories in the hopes that we’re introducing and creating stronger platforms for voices and stories to represent our student body as a whole.

Personally, we believe our writing and content for this issue alone has expanded and improved immensely. Even though our staff has been split into two cohorts until this point, we think our writers and editors have finally started to sense that excitement of working together again, creating that feeling of a fully working newsroom - a feeling we forgot about until now and a feeling we didn’t know we could achieve again this year.

Although our staff has mixed feelings about returning to full in-person learning for this final quarter, we’re all definitely excited to finally be together again before another year is over.

We’re beyond excited to distribute for a third time this spring, and we hope you find something in here that informs you, moves you, and allows you to consider new ideas and possibilities as a Bruin.

Peace and love, Hannah Edelheit & Jane McCauley

HUNDREDS A DAY: Used Pfizer syringes pile up in a biohazard waste bin at the Kaiser Permanente Lone Tree Medical Offices, where hundreds of people are vaccinated every day. “We have a pretty good process in place,” said registered nurse Kristen O’Keefe. “We’re able to see a lot of people through the vaccine clinic and we’re pretty proud of that.” All patients must wait at the clinic for 15 minutes after their shots due to risk of anaphylactic reactions to the vaccine. Medical assistant Le’ Cunningham said there was little risk of that happening, even though “people have heard horrible stories.”

Vaccine rollout

BY CARLY PHILPOTT News Editor

Back in-person

In the weeks leading up to spring break, the murmurs about returning to full in-person learning became a reality, as Superintendent Dr. Scott Siegfried gave the final word: students would be returning in-person, five days a week, two weeks after spring break on Apr. 5, 2021 – almost thirteen months after we left school the first time.

“Since July, I have said that our ultimate goal as a school district is to bring students back for full in-person learning as soon as it is safe to do so,” Dr. Siegfried said in an email to CCSD families on Mar. 9. “The data and science tell me we have reached that point.”

The announcement was not been met with all-around appreciation. The teachers’ union fought the decision, demanding more preparation time for teachers.

In addition, many students are worried for their physical safety. New CDC guidelines only require that students be seated three feet apart in classrooms, meaning that classes can return to full capacity. And even though every person on campus will still be required to wear a mask, that still isn’t enough for some students.

REIMAGINING NORMALCY: An illustration shows what we may expect the IC tunnel to look like at full capacity on a Friday afternoon.

PHOTO BY CARLY PHILPOTT

“I think it should stay six feet because there are more variants of the virus that are more infectious,” sophomore Giselle Marians said. “We still need to do our best to stop the spread, and three feet won’t do that as well. We also don’t have to clean desks anymore. It’s like they are asking to get shut down again.”

Mental health is the biggest concern among students. “I think that putting us in full in-person after more than a year is honestly the worst idea possible,” sophomore Smriti Madurai-Koothapiran said. “I’m worried for my mental health and how I’m going to balance everything out of the blue.”

Creek students were given the option to go fully online at this point, and 70 students chose to not come back in-person.

In 2020, COVID-19 vaccines were produced at record speed. Many Americans were able to enter the waiting list for the vaccine by Jan. 2021.

Early this year, CCSD announced that it would be vaccinating all of its teachers, partly in hopes of returning the district to full in-person learning. The state of Colorado, however, did not plan to put teachers in the first stages of vaccine rollout. Instead, teachers began to get their vaccines Feb. 8, and by the time we return to school Apr. 5, the vast majority of teachers who wish to be vaccinated, will be.

Students are also now beginning to receive their COVID-19 vaccines as well. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, which is two doses, is open to people ages 16 and up. The two-dose Moderna vaccine and one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine are open to people ages 18 and up. Creek students who are essential workers or have preexisting health conditions may be eligible for the vaccine.

Meanwhile, teachers who received the vaccine are just glad to have taken this step to normalcy.

“I was very happy,” said Castle View High School social studies teacher Sara Cady, who received her second vaccine dose Mar. 12. “As a teacher, this is the first step to get students back in-person full time.”

To read more about COVID-19 vaccines and what a vaccination site looks like, access the QR code.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MADISON SECKMAN PHOTO BY CARLY PHILPOTT

April 2021

College warning flags

PHOTO BY JANE McCAULEY

How the pandemic will permanently change the college application process

BY JANE McCAULEY Editor-in-Chief

The graduating class of 2021 confronted many pandemic related changes during their college application process this year. But many of these changes, whether positive or negative, could stay to influence future graduating classes for years to come.

According to counselor and postgrad coordinator Craig Wittgrove, one of the positive changes the pandemic produced that is likely to stay permanent is the switch to optional submissions of standardized test scores.

“Colleges are accepting at least half their class test optional, and that’s a pretty big deal, especially for it being the first time,” Wittgrove said. “So [the pandemic] did actually open some doors that people didn’t expect.”

For seniors like Kaia Schiff, this test optional trend provided a source of comfort this year during already “erratic schedules.”

“It was a stress reliever,” Schiff said. “But it didn’t affect me too much.”

However, some seniors expressed many challenges they faced from this adjustment.

For senior Leah Abrahamsson, the process only seemed to add more complications because she felt her entire high school career

was built around the importance of achieving good test scores. “[Test optional] actually confused me more because I wasn’t really sure what the right answer was,” Abrahamsson said.

“I’ve been preparing and taking these tests for so long, and now you’re telling me you don’t really need them? I kind of was like, that’s the pointless part of the application.”

senior Leah Abrahamsson

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And for some juniors already preparing for the application process, like Devin O’Connor, the test optional trend has made the process seem more daunting and nerve-wracking.

“I think to have [standardized testing] removed is essentially gutting a big part of who

[students] are and what they have to show for themselves and their academic careers,” O’Connor said.

For the UCs (Universities of California), half of the institutions are offering test optional while the other half are not considering the option at all. And for colleges like the University of Florida that did not offer test optional to students, application pools went down by 46 percent.

For students applying to colleges, many have taken these details into consideration.

Many students have also been taking into account the fact that there are more opportunities to apply to selective schools.

At Creek alone, there has been a major shift in these applications, with about a 14 percent increase to selective colleges.

Another major disruption: the pandemic will force many public colleges to consider is tuition.

“That’s the other part that’s going to change. I think we’re going to start seeing tuition go down,” Wittgrove said.

Many colleges are already facing budget cuts because fewer students have applied.

Nationally, there has been a 14% decline in applications to four-year colleges, so many universities will have to determine where money will be redistributed.

For example, CU Boulder had 1,000 fewer students apply this year, so it will take three

to five years to make up for the loss in tuition. Wittgrove believes many public colleges all over the country will also be forced to make similar “tough decisions.”

Already, this year’s graduating class is witnessing universities struggle with these cutbacks as many colleges are having to release admission decisions later and later.

“A lot of colleges have been gutted, so where they make cuts first is an admissions office because it’s not a direct impact on students,” Wittgrove said.

And this delay hasn’t gone unnoticed by students.

“The more I think about it, we are at a

disadvantage because the same things we’re feeling, burnout and exhaustion, is what these admissions [officers] are feeling too, almost on a heightened level work wise,” Abrahamsson said. “I feel like we kind of have the short end of the stick, and there’s definitely a disadvantage this year for us being reviewed fairly.”

For now, many students in the next graduating class are holding onto the hope that school will return normally next year and provide a more even playing field during their college application process.

“We’re in a very uncertain time, so by then we should have hopefully everything figured

out. That’s when I see [college] counting.

That’s when I see it meaning something,” O’Connor said.

But for the seniors graduating in June, many have realized that the pandemic forced their high school experience to end sooner than they expected.

“I haven’t really gotten to say goodbye to my high school. It’s this really weird dichotomy of moving on but feeling stuck in last March; that was our last really normal week of school,” Abrahamsson said.

“Overall, the process just felt really surreal.”

BY THE NUMBERS: 50% of college

classes have been accepted without standarized tests

15%

increase in Creek students who have applied to more selective schools

14% decrease nationally in students who chose to go to a four-year college after high school INFOGRAPHIC BY JANE McCAULEY

Graduation returning to an in-person ceremony

BY JONATHAN TRIGG Staff Writer

High school graduation is a memory that sticks with people forever. Last year’s online graduation was skewed from what a graduation normally looks like. However, this year Creek will be returning to an in-person graduation resembling some kind of normalcy.

“I applaud district leadership for allowing us to move forward with plans for an in-person ceremony,” Activities Director Dr. Krista Keogh said. “My hope is that it is a positive experience for the class of 2021 and that they

are excited that we are able to hold the ceremony.”

The Graduation will be held on June fourth, and all teachers, as well as students, who wish to go are welcome in-person. Other details are still being decided on, but the graduation should resemble a “normal” one from years past.

“Obviously, social distancing and masks will be important, but other than that, I hope the rest of the ceremony is similar to previ-

ous years,” senior Padmini Prabhu said.

Graduation this year will be an exciting time for the seniors who are able to finish off their high school experience. After a rough time for the past year of social distancing and cancelled events, an in-person graduation is something to look forward to.

“Graduation represents a step into a new type of curiosity and joy in starting adulthood,” Prabhu said.

April 2021

Social Media Blackouts

Internet presence influences students into “blackouts” where they lose track of time and their responsibilities.

BY ETHEL YAGUDAYEVA Staff Writer

Thousands of people open up social media every day and mindlessly scroll through hundreds of photos and videos. They habitually find themselves in a black hole of time where they forget about their goals, homework, and many other responsibilities. “[My blackouts] happened every week,” freshman Jennifer Oh said. “When I lose my focus on homework and decide to give in to looking at my phone or computer, I usually don’t realize how much time is passing and am shocked when I see that so much time has passed.”

Some people have successfully deleted a social media app, but only 53 percent of 110 students surveyed by the Union Street

Social media stats:

83%

Students habitually open social media apps Students considered deleting a social media app

53%

30%

Students never considered deleting a social media app

From a survey conducted of 110 Creek students.

INFOGRAPHIC BY JANE McCAULEY

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PHOTO BY ETHEL YAGUDAYEVA

LOSING TRACK OF TIME: Teenagers find themselves spending hours a day on social media just scrolling or messaging their friends. Students are challenged with finding a balance between helpful and hurtful social media usage habits. “I want to maintain some degree of social interaction - especially during COVID and social media makes that fun and easy,” senior Karen Baseves said.

Journal considered deleting apps. Those who haven’t know how to control their urges and negative habits. To avoid blacking out, about 83 percent of students avoid their devices by putting it on Airplane Mode or Do Not Disturb Mode, or keep their devices in other rooms.

Social interaction keeps students from deleting social media, even if they see side effects. “I used social media to post my drawings, and I deleted it because I started drawing just to post. Now, I have a lot more fun drawing what and when I want,” sophomore Selen Serdar said.

Drawing, cooking, and travel are all some of the many videos and posts that students scroll through all the time. Students claim that topics like these can better their lives.

“I think using social media for a good purpose, like spreading positivity, is good, but there are many negative things on there too; so, social media can definitely affect your daily mood,” Oh said. “For example, you could see a post that makes your day, but you can see a post that makes you angry or sad or other hateful comments that can ruin your day.”

Many users don’t realize that apart from the fear of missing out, the familiar existence of the social media apps is what keeps most users attached.

“I don’t entirely want to delete social media because I like the quick access to news and people afforded by social media,” senior Karen Baseves said. “I also want to maintain some degree of social interaction, especially during COVID, and social media makes that

fun and easy.”

In fact, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have ranked at the top three of the most time-consuming social media apps by Creek students according to the Union Street Journal’s survey. While these apps may be different, students enjoy them for their diverse content.

“Honestly, it was probably FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), or the fear that something would happen, and I would have no idea what it was about,” Kabeves said. “I like knowing what to expect, and the quick dispersion of information on social media makes it easy to stay on top of things and consistently know what’s trending, what’s ‘going on.’”

This familiar feeling of having the whole world at the palm of their hand gives many students the constant need to check what is going on around them. 79 percent of students agreed that this slowly progresses to the habitual clicking on the app, even without initial intent.

The majority of students use their devices between two to five hours per day, mostly during the weekends and remote days at home - enough time to lose track.

Even with the looming prospect of forgetting time, students feel that as long as they maintain healthy social media use habits, such as spending less than an hour per day on them or doing work before using social media.

“Use social media to the extent that you can still be productive and happy but don’t eliminate it,” freshman Vivan Prabhu said.

When change came his way

English teacher Brandon Raycraft spent his life planning to serve his country in the military but found himself serving in the classroom instead.

BY NATE MEREDITH Staff Writer

PHOTO BY MADISON SECKMAN

ENJOYING HIS TIME TEACHING: As a person who didn’t enjoy reading until later in his life, Brandon Raycraft makes learning interesting to grab the attention of his students. After traveling abroad during college, he had many stories that he now brings into his teaching to inspire his students to learn.

When English teacher Brandon Raycraft was in college, he thought he had his whole life planned out. But things didn’t go as he expected. He enlisted in the Army as a sophomore at UNC Greeley and planned on working his way up through the ranks, going from basic enlisted soldier to Rangers and then Special Forces.

It was an especially humid day when Raycraft and his friends, who just finished basic training, met in the “Chow Hall” for dinner. The humidity wouldn’t normally be a problem, but for Raycraft, it meant that his hands were covered in blisters. As he was tearing loose skin from his hands, hiding it the best he could, one of his buddies caught a glimpse.

“What the hell is going on with your hands?” the drill sergeant barked at Raycraft. And no more than a week later, he was sent home.

“I didn’t know what I would do,” Raycraft said.

The problem was a skin condition called Bullous Dermatosis, and it is the same rare skin disease that kept his father from serving in the Vietnam War. Raycraft found himself lost and directionless. He ended up back in Greeley, working on the college degree that he started before his short lived Army career. He wanted to find the quickest way out of college, and after a meeting with his counselor, he decided on History.

Raycraft knew he wanted to travel after college, and taking the advice of an old friend, he decided on New Zealand. With nothing to lose, and everything to gain, 24year old Raycraft bought a plane ticket.

To keep himself entertained on the 15 hour flight from CO to NZ, he picked up a copy of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club before he took off, and he was instantly sucked in. On that flight, he felt a passion ignite that he had never felt before.

“Fight Club invigorated a love for [reading],” he said.

He wound up in a town called Dunedin, and here, nearly all of his time was spent

outdoors - whether it was watching rugby, hiking, or nose deep in a book. As his love for reading grew, so did his desire to learn more about literature.

One night, after a strenuous day of backpacking, he sat down next to a small stream of water. And with the Milky Way shining down from above, he started to replay what brought him there, going over the good points and the bad.

“I started to accept the world as it was and what I could control and what I couldn’t.”

English teacher Brandon Raycraft “I’m okay with not being sure about everything,” Raycraft said. “I started to accept the world as it was, and what I could control and what I couldn’t.”

As he started to run out of money, he realized that traveling wasn’t a permanent solution to his problems.

He said, “life before New Zealand and life after New Zealand was completely different - I was a different person.”

Upon returning to Colorado, the experiences that he had in New Zealand pushed him to pursue a career in teaching.

After getting his teaching license at Metropolitan State University of Denver, he got hired at East High School, and it was a rough first year. They had him teach both English and Geography, and after a few years, he wanted out.

He applied to work at Creek while on a trip in Spain, and to his surprise, they got back to him right away. He had remote interviews in Lisbon and Amsterdam, and once he got back to the states, he got the job.

“You just gotta believe that it’ll get better,” Raycraft said.

April 2021

Fights on the Frontlines Student workers call out for customers’ kindness in uncertain times

BY MADISON SECKMAN Features & Design Editor

Every weekend, thousands of people head to their neighborhood King Soopers to buy groceries. Workers says that most shoppers don’t seem to realize the effects of the changes and sacrafices they have made for the pandemic.

Grocery stores, and many other public places, have changed due to the pandemic.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends only a certain amount of people in the store at once – some stores have oneway aisles, and almost everyone is wearing a mask.

Mar. 2020, when the pandemic started, grocery store shelves were seemingly empty. Smaller grocery stores had to wait for the larger stores to fill their inventories before given supplies, so stores ran out of peculiar items like graham crackers and margarita mix.

Now, the shelves are mostly stocked, but the workers are still feeling the impact of the pandemic and the customers who refuse to abide by the rules of the CDC. Some stores have someone sitting at the front doors telling customers to wear a mask, but without anyone there, many customers walk into the store without one. The amount of people in the store is also not strictly regulated. And when in the stores, many people do not wear masks correctly, instead pulling it below their noses - which has must less effect for preventing the spread of the virus.

Arapahoe High School junior and Courtesy Clerk Amity Taylor said she would prefer if there were “less people in the store at a time, like actually having a limit.”

Despite the few customers who disregard the law, the majority of people have settled with the mask mandate.

It took a lot of adjusting, but things are starting to settle into normalcy.

Gabe Manly, Creek junior and Courtesy Clerk, said “it really has become the new normal to, you know, social distance and wear a mask.”

The workers have been abiding by the mask mandate since May 2020 along with cleaning more frequently and attempting to social distance from customers. It’s al-

8 | Features

PHOTO BY MADISON SECKMAN

PUSHING CARTS: Courtesy Clerk Mazin Klapperich brings in carts at King Soopers store 096. On the busiest days, such as Sundays, clerks bring in up to 15 carts at a time. Klapperich also expressed sorrow for those killed at the Boulder King Soopers on Mar. 22. most been a full year, and masks are still being worn. The winter setting created new grievances regarding working and wearing masks.

“I just want the customers to be understanding if something goes wrong.”

junior Gabe Manly “I especially don’t like doing carts now during the wintertime,” Creek senior and Courtesy Clerk at King Soopers Mazin Klapperich said. “Like I have to come in to change my mask because it gets so wet, and it’s gross.”

The masks can get wet when outside, but the masks can also be hot when worn inside because the temperature is raised in the store to accommodate for the cold weather.

And there’s a lot of workers inside. One of the front-end jobs on the inside, and sometimes outside with carts, is that of the Courtesy Clerk.

Courtesy Clerks are front-end workers that bring grocery carts into the store, do

maintenance for bathrooms, floors, and trash, and bag customers’ groceries.

Occasionally, Courtesy Clerks will also work as cashiers. Some cart loads can be up to 80 lbs of weight, and this store, store 096, has four of six cart corrals on downhill slopes from the store. Meaning, the Courtesy Clerks push 80 lbs of carts uphill to the store in every kind of weather.

Even with all their hard work, there’s always that one bad customer who can ruin someone’s whole day. “[A customer] was complaining about the prices of the items that the cashier was scanning and totally thought it was the cashier’s fault,” Manly said. “So I kind of tried to stand up for [the cashier] and say that it’s not her fault, and that it’s a problem with the system.

It made [the customer] very upset.”

Workers say some customers can be really inconsiderate towards the workers who are sacrificing their lives to be working during a pandemic.

“It’s not a super hard job, but it becomes harder if the customer is not being very kind,” Taylor said.

It’s times like these that everyone needs to show a little more kindness.

“Just be understanding if something goes wrong,” Manly said.

These King Soopers workers feel that they are putting their lives on the line every day.

“I’m out here, on the frontlines, trying to make a living, and they should be sort of courteous towards me because I’m just trying to help them out,” Klapperich said. “I

Xcel Energy evicts prairie dogs Local rodents are temporarily displaced for a new gas pipeline

BY LILY DEITCH Staff Writer

Home. A word that has recently become a distant memory and unfamiliar for most prairie dogs in the Cherry Creek Reservoir area as they are forced to say goodbye to a place they grew up in.

Xcel Energy, a company that is responsible for powering and heating our houses, supermarkets, and buildings, is conducting a project to extract natural gas from the Cherry Creek Reservoir area. To do so, approximately 5.5 miles of steel pipeline, plus additional valves will replace the functionality of an old pipeline installed in the 1950s.

This project will secure the gas required to disperse throughout the entirety of the southeastern Denver metropolitan area.

Planning for this project started in the summer of 2020 and will continue being constructed through the fall of 2021.

For this duration of time, the prairie dogs in the area will be temporarily and passively separated from their burrows.

Reason for the project Due to federal regulations being updated, Xcel Energy was required to carry out this project. The earlier pipeline didn’t meet these specifications, so Xcel had to take steps to meet the new standards and keep things safe for citizens.

Xcel could not cut through buildings and tennis courts built near the pipeline over the years, so Xcel determined that their best option was to build a new pipeline and lower the production of the original one.

To comply with budding construction in the surrounding neighborhoods and promising areas where people would want to build on the pipeline (which would force Xcel to relocate the pipeline in later years); Xcel decided the best place to construct the new one is in the Cherry Creek Reservoir.

Effect on residents For the duration of the project, occasional public disturbances will take place. These disturbances include: elevated levels of noise, tail and sidewalk partial and PHOTOS BY LILY DEITCH complete closures, measures to control BARRIERS GALORE: Here’s a look at the one way door that traffic (ex: flaggers, specialist Sandy Nervig and her team set up on 1200 burrows. detours), and tem“This job is eight times the size of any passive relocation I’ve porary changes of ever done,” Nervig said. “But [the passive relocation method] access to site

has been an amazing kind of a game changer in being able to save more prairie dogs...so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Effect on the Prairie Dogs To comply with the project’s construction area, around four to six colonies are being moved into adjacent land.

Xcel knew that prairie dogs were in the area, but had decided that moving the colonies was still the best and safest option they had.

“We can’t win as a company,” Henley said.

“But we always choose the path that is going to be least impactful. In this case, being able to passively relocate the prairie dogs is the best thing for everyone.”

Unfortunately, prairie dogs have been fighting a losing battle for many years. The population of prairie dogs in this area is now less than one percent of the population from prior years.

Prairie Protection Colorado, a local non profit group, has been involved since the planning period of Xcel’s project, in an effort to try to protect the prairie dogs of this area.

“I love this colony,” Prairie Protection Colorado Executive Director Deanna Meyer said. “And I’m going to make sure they’re safe.”

Because of these efforts, this project was designed to “minimize impacts to prairie dogs while complying with applicable regulations and acknowledging public concerns,”

states Xcel Energy in the project plan.

Due to Prairie Protection Colorado’s consistent efforts, Xcel hired a humane extractor to temporarily relocate the prairie dogs, instead of removal of the prairie dogs through other means. Xcel hired Sandy Nervig, a specialist in humane relocation.

Here’s how it works: There are two stages. Stage one was completed after three months of work, and the second stage will start when the weather is warmer (for the safety of the prairie dogs).

Stage one: first, a black fence will be installed around the work area, with a one-way exit to show the prairie dogs a direction to move toward. Then, a poultry wire one-waydoor will be installed on top of the burrows to allow for an exit but not re-entry. Once all prairie dogs have left, the burrows will be safely collapsed.

After the collapse of the burrows, a fence will be placed to conceal the solitary side that allowed for prairie dogs to evacuate from their homes.

Stage two: this process will be repeated, and the prairie dogs will be pushed back even further.

“My job right now is to do everything I can to help save them and save the ones that are left,” specialist Sandy Nervig said.

April 2021

T H E P R I S ON OF E XC E LLE NC E

T

BY RAEGAN KNOBBE Sports Editor

he Cherry Creek School District is “Dedicated to Excellence,” but for many Creek students, achieving that excellence means giving up big parts of themselves, often their social lives and happiness.

Science teacher Lauren Sutton teaches all honors classes, and she sees these problems - and their consequences - firsthand.

“They’re very committed to getting high grades and doing very well and pushing themselves,” Sutton said. “But they will do that at a high cost to their mental health.

A lot of times they end up staying up very late, working very hard, pushing them-

10 | In-depth

selves, and just in general feeling a lot of pressure to succeed.”

Students give up things like their sleep because they feel it is worth getting a higher grade, but it still does not always work out.

“On a certain day, they might come into class looking quite down,” Sutton said. “If they got a test score that they weren’t happy with, or they feel like isn’t representative of their best work, then they come in, and they’re upset.”

Sutton likes to see students challenge themselves by taking an honors class. Even if they do not receive the grade they hoped

for, she views it as better than a student taking an easier route for the sole purpose of getting a very high grade.

“They’re challenging themselves, perhaps not getting an A, but working really hard and learning a lot of material,” Sutton said. “But people don’t really like to see that happen, they want the high grade.”

Students argue that the grade is more important than the knowledge because, at the end of the day, a grade is what goes on your high school transcript, not necessarily an accurate evaluation of your knowledge.

ART BY MADISON SECKMAN AND FAITH McCURDY

E

“Our system is based around grades,” sophomore Giselle Marians said. “You have to take an AP class at some point in order to get into a good college and for people to think that you’re smart.”

Junior Lorcán Boyd also feels the pressure around getting good grades, and he says it has a huge impact on how he views himself.

“When our grade drops because we can’t handle so much going on in our lives, we feel this pressure to be all-star students, because Creek is ‘dedicated to excellence’ and the top school,” Boyd said. “We have to be the best at everything, and when that doesn’t work for us, we start to fail because we’re just under so much stress.

It makes us feel bad about ourselves; we feel like we’re not living up to the standard that we’ve been told we need to live up to for our whole lives.”

Outside expectations of high performance, coupled with societal views of what makes someone intelligent, cause students to feel trapped.

“I don’t have to be taking the advanced classes to be myself, like so many people have told us,” Boyd said.

“It’s really more about the grades than learning.”

When students overload themselves with advanced classes, they try to cram multiple hours of work and information into very small time periods. Boyd and Marians agree that the way they deal with this is something that takes away from their learning: memorization.

“I think school is mostly about memorizing because the only stuff I remember is when I’m actually preparing for a test,” Marians said. “Maybe one or two units later, I’ve already forgotten everything from the past test, and I don’t really retain any information from any of it.”

Boyd says that passing is always the main concern, and learning plays sec-

ond fiddle to how well a student can utilize their memorization skills.

“When we are doing our homework, and when we’re studying, we don’t think ‘Oh I want to be learning this, I want to be educated.’ It’s just, ‘I have to do this because I have to get a good grade on the test.’ So, it isn’t necessarily learning, it’s using [the information] for the moment just to pass.”

Students feel this immense pressure to succeed, and in many cases it is because of one common reason - they feel like they must take all advanced classes to get into an elite college. Many edu-

to be in high level classes.’”

Students agree that there is a huge stigma at Creek around taking advanced classes, and going to a top tier college.

“We are told that in order to be successful in life, we have to graduate from Creek with flying colors and get into the best college,” Boyd said. “And then when we get into the best college, for all four years we take the hard classes and end up with better paying jobs. I feel like most kids are told that’s the only path.”

Boyd sees the danger in students only thinking they have one path: If this notion of an elite college being the only option is why students push themselves so hard, because the other option is absolute failure, and there is no in-between.

“I do feel like students should have the desire to get good grades,” Boyd said. “But Creek pushes it too hard on us that that’s what we have to do to succeed in life. And if we don’t, then we’re going to end up homeless on the side of the street.”

The advantages of going to a community college, such as incurring less student loan debt, get overshadowed by incorrect beliefs that people who attend community colleges are less intelligent. “[People think that] if you go to a community college, that’s bad and you’re not smart, and you probably don’t have enough money to go to a better school,” Marians said. “ It wouldn’t be very good to go there because everyone would look down on you.”

We have to be the best at everything, and when that doesn’t work for us, we start to fail because we’re just under so much stress.”

junior Lorcán Boyd cators and mental health professionals at Creek have had discussions about where this pressure comes from because they are concerned that it is not good for students’ mental health and learning.

“It probably comes from pressure at home, it comes from pressure from society,” Sutton said. “They’ve been told all their lives that they need to perform, and they need to go to these great schools, and they need to get scholarships to do it.”

Sutton says that because of this, kids sometimes push themselves over their limits because they do not want to be a disappointment.

“I have said to them, that if you decide to drop down to CP Biology next year as sophomores, you are still going to get an excellent education,” Sutton said. “But I still feel like a lot of them think that is a step down in some sense, or they’re going to be letting someone down, letting themselves down, or they’re not going to be living up to this stigma of ‘I’m smart, I need

For the full article, access the QR code.

April 2021

Q&A

Discussing Creek’s mental health with Principal Ryan Silva

BY CARLY PHILPOTT & RAEGAN KNOBBE

News Editor & Sports Editor

What do you want students to know about what Creek is doing to help students’ mental health?

Our goal is to definitely do our part in supporting mental health, because I know that it’s a responsibility that the school owns part of. We certainly want to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to uphold our part, so when there is a concern for a student, we want to make sure that we’re getting that process started in any way that we can at school, but then also making sure that we’re monitoring the students and supporting them.

Sometimes, that can mean that we are supporting the student very directly, and sometimes it’s behind the scenes – monitoring grades, behavior, all those things, so that we don’t see any signs that would indicate that there’s something bigger.

What resources and training does the school give teachers, regarding students’ mental health?

We do trainings, generally at the start of the school year, during the work week before school. Mental health support is one of them. And then, also, if something were to happen, and the teachers have a student who they need to support, then the mental health team can also provide them with some resources.

Why do you think there’s such a huge disconnect between student ideas on mental health and district and school ideas on mental health?

Our primary function in the school is to provide an education. We’re not a mental health facility, so there are limitations on what we can do, and maybe even should do. Maybe that’s where the disconnect lies, where sometimes the school’s role is thought

12 | In-Depth

is that this year, students are able to make up work throughout the entire semester, and then earn up to full credit. I feel like that has been made very clear and there shouldn’t be any confusion on that. And if people aren’t following that then we definitely need to address it because it won’t be supported.

How are students involved in mental health decisions and reformations at Creek?

The entire district has the Sources of Strength program.

That incorporates the student voice. And then the district has PHOTO BY HANNAH EDELHEIT also done different mental health to be different than what it actually can be. plans, and they have committees that include One thing that is changing is we are gostudent representatives from each school. So, ing to have our own CCSD mental health for example, one of the the Signs of Suicide facility. There’s an acknowledgement that videos that we do as a district, we created our the needs in our community are bigger than own instead of working are using outside rewhat schools and the state can support. There sources. We wanted to have the students inhave been times where we’re concerned fluence what that looks like. We show that at about a student, but then there are no outleast once a year, and it was CCSD students side resources to support that student. That’s who created that – half a dozen of those kids troubling. The district didn’t want to be dewere from Creek. pendent on outside organizations to support Is there anything else you want to add, or mental health, so that’s why we will have our that you want Creek kids to know? own mental health facility in our district.

The starting point is that we very much During my time in education, the things care about the overall student. We see you as that schools do to support mental health an individual student, who has needs apart have become more a part of what we do all from academics. I think there’s a lot of rethe time. Every single Monday, we start our sources that exist before you get to the limadmin meeting reviewing the students from itations of what we can do. the previous week who we had to conduct And then when we reach those limitaa suicide risk assessment for. We talk about tions, we always communicate with the famwho they are, and what their needs are, and ily– “we feel like your child needs more, and what plans we have that we could support at here’s some routes you can use to support school. them more.” There’s times where we know There’s a lot of confusion among stuthat the child needs more, and the family dents right now. We have a lot of policies isn’t doing their part. That’s pretty concernaround teaching remotely and in hybrid ing, and sometimes it can be because of schedules that aren’t being followed by money. But we have more partnerships now every teacher. Why do you think there is where we can get free support for families for still inconsistency in that? whom that’s the only obstacle in supporting The one piece that I think should be clear their child more.

Student Support Teams How staff is looking after students’ mental health

BY HANNAH EDELHEIT

O

Editor-in-Chief

n Mondays your dean, counselor, psychologist, and nurse meet to discuss different students. They then go through a list of students who are on their radar and need assistance.

Their time may take anywhere from a short few minutes if there is a quick solution to maybe a half hour if a student needs more attention. The Student Support Teams, or SSTs, allow for another level of response for anything from mental to physical health to dealing with an abundance of absences.

“Our SST, I would argue, is kind of like a way that as a school we try to triage based on the last name of a student’s alphabet,” school psychologist Andrew Russell said.

Every student has a student support team based on their last name, but not every student is discussed. This system tries to find the best solution to a student’s problems,

“U

ART BY MADISON SECKMAN

way that we can, so it’s always nice to just bounce ideas off of each other, even if it may not involve the dean’s office,” Dean Craig Blaser said.

Since no two students are alike, the SSTs work to meet each individual’s needs.

“We just go through the names on the spreadsheet and each student gets the discussion that they deserve until we can resolve their problems,” Peterson said. “Sometimes we spend a lot of time on one or two students, and sometimes it can move quicker, depending on the problem.”

The people in the support teams want to analyze a student’s entire history, not just one bad day.

“We advocate for our students,” Peterson said. “We bring up the concerns and we try to make sure it’s holistically discussed so we can bring the best options to our students.”

School Psychologist Andrew Russel

Dean Craig Blaser

Counselor Nick Peterson

sually, it’s the counselor that’s bringing these options forward to the student and helping with whatever logistics are next, whether it’s dropping a class or whether it’s connecting them to proper accommodations or sending the family with outside resources or things like that.”

whether that means outside help or a course adjustment, the SSTs can provide a space where students’ needs are met.

“I think anything that’s impacting a student’s success in school can come up in the student support team, and we do our best to solve those issues with our expertise,” counselor Nick Peterson said.

The purpose of these teams is to decide whether or not a student needs help from the school or if they need outside aid.

“It’s a way for us to kind of filter through and then we can get it to the right level of response,” Russell said.

The teams are not meant to simply talk about students behind closed doors. They allow the people who are available at school to come together and collaborate to meet a student’s needs.

“We truly do want to support kids in any

Nurse Darcy Miccio Pace

“A

ny kids that pop up on our radar that may have arising disciplinary action or typically attendance - that’s usually one of the warning signs that a kid might need some more support.”

“I

try to flag if things come up that sound like a [mental health issue. I have a] pretty good knowledge of diagnostic categories when it comes to mental health.”

What tive do c perspe g to r in you b Support nt Stude s?

Team

“I

may be able to identify a chronic health condition that the student is dealing with. Usually we’re the first place that they come.

Sometimes we have kids who just have chronic stomach aches.

Over time, you start to have to think, ‘is it really a medical condition or is it anxiety?’”

April 2021

BY JANE PARKER Staff Writer

1: “No Body No Crime” by Taylor Swift ft.

HAIM Taylor Swift has built a reputation as a fearlessly unique songwriter, unafraid to seek success within the pop genre after rising to fame as a country singer. 2020 surprise album Folklore’s sister album, Evermore, was released Dec. 11, and from it came “No Body No Crime,” which gained popularity almost immediately after its release, peaking at #4 on Billboard’s hot 100 list.

The murder mystery song is a sinister one, with combined elements of folk and country music. It opens with the lyrics “He did it,” and describes a series of criminal predicaments following a cheating scandal. The song features the band HAIM, consisting of sisters Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim.

2: “Leave the Door Open” by Silk Sonic Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak have not only released a new collaborative love song, but have also formed a new music group named Silk Sonic. “Leave the Door Open” is the new group’s first single, and combines the individual styles of both artists in an unsurprisingly satisfying way.

The song has a vintage feel with charming lyrics promising romance in a mansion.

The single was heavily anticipated before its release,and has already earned a position in Billboard’s top 40. Variety has referred to the

Page 14

song as one that “sounds like an R&B Grammy winner from 1974.”

3: “Missing Out” by Syd As the lead singer for the band The Internet, Syd has serenaded listeners since 2011.

Her new solo single “Missing Out” was released on the Feb. 11. The break-up track consists of a fluid melody with vocals that are light and heart-piercing at the same time.

With the lyric “As far as I can see, you and me could never be,” Syd controls listeners’ emotions directly in alignment with her voice, which seems to be flawlessly on the brink of breaking. Lines like “You’re missing out” and “Hope you’re finding what you need” still float on the cold subject of separation, but they are also upbeat and hopeful rather than downcast and mourning.

“Missing Out” is a comfort song that shines a bright light on hope and fulfillment after difficult and exhausting situations. Accompanied by the unmatched beauty of Syd’s voice, its lyrics and melody are effectively uplifting for a breakup song.

4: “People, I’ve Been Sad” by Christine and the Queens Christine and the Queens is a french singer-songwriter known primarily for her song “girlfriend.” The Guardian named her debut album, Chaleur humaine, one of 2014’s best albums of the year. “People, I’ve Been Sad” is her most successful track since then, collecting a title in TIME Magazine as the number

one song of 2020.

With a somber and nostalgic tone, the new synth-pop single shines a spotlight on common feelings associated with quarantine. Even with lyrics half in French, Chris is able to communicate directly the loneliness and sorrow that is an inevitability in the world of quarantine. Her voice communicates a feeling of yearning that matches life before quarantine.

5: “Good Days” by SZA With a distinctive, ethereal style, SZA, has been a Billboard chart climber since the release of her 2017 debut album Ctrl. Her newest single, “Good Days,” has an introduction filled with floating guitar chords and hushed bird calls opens the hit, setting a tired but restful tone. The lyrics can be read alternatively as a need for perseverance through the events of 2020 (the year it was written) and even the already distressing predicaments of 2021 (the year it was released).

As usual, SZA doesn’t hesitate to touch on the dual realities of hopeless and hopeful themes in relationships and, in turn, situations interpreted by her listeners.

SZA has begun the new year with an attitude of determination for a better future, and seemingly wants her listeners to actively do the same.

For more songs, scan the QR code.

The Social Dilemma: beyond the screen

BY BREANNA MEDEL Staff Writer

NETFLIX

The Social Dilemma, a new Netflix documentary directed by Jeff Orlowski, views the ways social media has a manipulating and addicting dark side to it and the strategies that these platforms use to keep us drawn in; and it’s not unintentional.

In The Social Dilemma, former employees of social media platforms explain that the manipulation and the addicting side of social media is not an accident waiting to happen, but instead a purposeful social networking feature. The platforms and creators claim that the manipulation is just a human concept. In reality, it is the way that these big apps make a profit off of the notifications, the constant scrolling, and the personalized recommendations that have us all hooked to the internet.

The Social Dilemma introduces facts that some people may already know, but they go the extra step by using real people to display the issue. A fictional modern day family is shown to struggle with social media addiction in order to illustrate the consequences it causes.When the documentary introduces the aforementioned family, the audience sees the silent dinners, the teenage daugh-

ter who suffers with social media addiction and is constantly checking her phone, the teenage son that is obsessed with scrolling on his feed and checking others’ profiles.

Certain broad spectrum issues like critiquing self image are displayed as well.

How many hours we spend on social media, how many ads you view while scrolling through your phone, how many interactions you have with people online – they all create profit for social media and tech companies.

The Social Dilemma proves that our minds are being twisted by social media from the way we think to the way we look at ourselves. The media today has put standards into our heads, telling us how we should look, the way we should talk, and even the way we should think.

Overall, The Social Dilemma is a remarkable documentary that could lead to big changes into these big social media companies, as people can now know what is happening behind the scenes of our screens.

This documentary is a mind-changing movement and it is most definitely a mustwatch.

WandaVision: a new reality for the MCU

BY CARLY PHILPOTT News Editor

I watched Avengers: Endgame (2019) in theaters three times before it hit me that I’d never see something like it again. What I’d considered to be the greatest cinematic collaboration of all time was splitting into pieces, throwing characters back into the farthest reaches of the galaxy. It was the start of a new era.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why, exactly, WandaVision has been so good. On the surface, it’s full of extraordinary writing, acting, and visuals. But the reason it’s so important to me goes beyond that. In short: it’s the beginning of an era much anticipated.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is full of mini-storylines, dozens of characters with their own backgrounds and their own reasons for being heroes. Few of these characters get their own moments, and even fewer get their own movies. And so, understandably, some characters fall behind.

Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) was one of these characters. After she was introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014) as an enemy-turned-good, not much was known about her. Other than some small moments that gave us limited insight into

what kind of a character she truly was, we didn’t see much of her and what made her, her.

It has been a general trend in the MCU, too: female superheroes, no matter how interesting, tend to get fewer minutes onscreen than their male counterparts – think Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who, after 13 years in the MCU, is only just now getting a solo movie. Right now, for the first time, female heroes are being recognized and represented, and WandaVision is a huge step towards inclusion.

The pioneering nature of WandaVision is extended beyond that, though: nearly everything, right down to the basic structure of the show, is completely new. Based on family sitcoms from the past eight decades or so, WandaVision takes an approach to a superhero story that is yet unseen, but still it makes sense – this is Wanda’s story, and sitcoms are her idealized reality.

The MCU is constantly evolving, bringing in new characters and saying good-bye to old ones.

But as we close out the most influential phase of the franchise, the magical innovation of WandaVision is an unexpected step towards something new. And as we all sit at home, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

MARVEL STUDIOS

For the full story on our website, access the QR code.

April 2021

PHOTOS BY RAEGAN KNOBBE PHOTOILLUSTRATIONS BY MADISON SECKMAN

BY RAEGAN KNOBBE Sports Editor Humans have been wearing shoes for thousands of years, but at some point in history, they became much more than something people used to cover their feet. Shoes grew to have huge cultural significance, with ties to the Civil Rights Movement, hip-hop culture, and the emergence of some of the NBA’s greatest players.

Multiple players on the Creek Boys Basketball team have cultivated large collection of shoes, and sneaker culture is something very important to them.

Senior point guard Myles Purchase explains how sneaker culture can bring people together. “[Collecting sneakers] is something that people love doing,” Purchase said. “It’s a community where people from all over the world, and people who live all types of different ways, can share a love for sneakers.”

Senior power forward Arden Walker has a long-time love affair with his sneakers.

Growing up, he noticed people wearing cool sneakers, and he wanted to be like them.

“I love chasing the collection,” Walker said.

“I think my love started when I was in first or second grade. I would see some of the big

Carey Booth 16 | Sports

kids wearing their shoes, and that was some of the stuff I really wanted to wear.”

So where do these athletes actually go to buy their sneakers?

“Usually before I shop for shoes, I know what brand and color I want,” sophomore point guard Christian Hammond said. “I look on my phone and see whenever they are about to drop and try to get them when they come out.”

Buying sneakers online is a route that a lot of people take due to the vast amount of shoe apps available, some of the most popular being StockX, GOAT, Nike Sneakers, and KicksOnFire.

“I don’t really shop in stores anymore,” Purchase said. “[I buy sneakers] online, so I basically already know what I want.”

The sneakers that players wear on the court are different than what they wear in public, for reasons such as a need for ankle mobility and the fact that they don’t necessarily have to match their sneakers to their uniform.

“I’ve been wearing these KDs that I bought,” Walker said. “In terms of being on the court, it’s more of a business standpoint

Blake Purchase

Christian Hammond for me and I want to get the job done, so I feel like it’s okay to mess those up or wear them for a while.”

Hammond says he personally doesn’t like bright colors, but he will wear them on the court, and save his more neutral shoes for when he’s out and about.

“I don’t usually wear a lot of blue off the court, and I wear blue on the court,” Hammond said. “For basketball, I’ll wear something that I usually won’t wear when I’m just going out or chillin’. I don’t like bright colors, and I only play basketball in bright colored shoes usually, like the red and the blue.”

When he is out in public though, Hammond pays special attention to how he takes care of his sneakers.

Trevon Chambers

“Do not crease them,” Myles Purchase To many people, sneakers are Hammond said. “You have to an extension of their personality, watch where you walk, watch a statement, and something that how you walk, and you don’t is a huge contributor to their perwant to wear the same pair sonal style. of shoes too many times be“Sneakers are important to me cause they will wear out.” because you have to look good, Sometimes Walker just and you have to dress good,” likes to avoid this issue altoHammond said. “I’m laid back, so gether by keeping his shoes I don’t go for super crazy shoes. in the box. His logic is that I’ll go for a more bright colif you never wear your ored pair of shoes every now People make shoe shoes, they can’t possibly and again to change it up.” contact before they make get messed up.

Certain sneakers can “People say you should eye contact sometimes. convey different things about rock your kicks, but I keep someone’s personality. For my shoes in my boxes for Walker, his sneakers represent a reason,” Walker said. “I his mood on a given day. think [you should] try to “I feel like I make a statement preserve them and keep no matter what shoe I wear,” them looking nice. I keep the paper that comes Walker said. “It depends on how I feel, and my inside the shoes and I’ll put it back in every mood for the day. If I have on some running time I wear my shoes. I also clean out the insole shoes or some athletic wear, then I’m going to after I wear them, and I have some shoe wipes.” be chill that day, but if I have my Jordans on, I’ll And do they drive in their nice shoes? They want to dress up that day.” say that there are no stupid questions, but acSneakers, while they are a big part of somecording to Hammond, Walker, and Purchase, one’s style, aren’t the only contributing factor. this is definitely not something you should even Walker says that to complete the look, you have ask. to coordinate a good outfit.

“No. There’s no way, I couldn’t do that,” Ham“I got to at least look somewhat decent when mond said. “If I did, I would take the shoe off of I leave the house,” Walker said. “Lately, I’ve been my right foot.” into cozy fits. I have some sweatpants with dePurchase keeps his beloved pair of Crocs on signs on them, it’s kind of what’s been trending hand for situations like this, and he switches lately, and then I put on a vintage shirt that I to his sneakers once he gets out of the car. But have in my collection.” don’t think the danger ends there, because he Purchase also tries to put stylish outfits tomust be vigilant in every situation where his gether because he wants his clothing to speak sneakers could possibly get damaged. for itself.

“I walk differently when I have shoes on that “It’s a way to express myself without even I don’t want to crease,” Purchase said. “You don’t having to say anything,” Purchase said. “I care bend your knees, you just walk with your legs about the way that I look.” straight.”

Does having good shoe game make you a Hammond agrees that if there is even a better basketball player? Head Coach Kent Derchance of getting your sneakers dirty, creased, tinger probably wouldn’t think so, but maybe it’s or ruined in any way, they must be protected at true. all costs.

“Not necessarily,” Walker answered via text.

“If it came down to it for real,” Hammond “But I think it’s a potential way to stay competsaid. “I would take my shoes off and walk in my itive haha.” socks.”

Arden Walker

Christian Hammond

Chase Penry

Got Shoe Game?

Q: How many sneaker apps do you have on your phone?

A: Nine: The Nike sneakers app, the regular Nike app, Goat, StockX, Footlocker, Finish Line, Champs, East Bay, and Kicks On Fire.

-Arden Walker Q: What shoes would you buy your mom if you wanted to help her up her shoe game?

A: I would probably get her some Obsidian Jordan Ones. I like those a lot, and I feel like she could wear those well.

-Christian Hammond For the full article and Q&A, access the QR code.

Arden Walker

April 2021

New Coach. New Look. New Team.

BY ADAM NOWLIN Staff Writer

As the regular season was coming to a close, the playoffs were looking great for Creek. Varsity went 7-2 to close out the season and they were on fire.

Creek started the playoffs by winning back to back games against Vista Peak Prep and Chatfield, handily winning by sets of 3-1 and 3-0.

Fresh off of two straight wins, they kicked off State with a match up against Fort Collins.

It was looking like the momentum and hard work would set them up for a win, but, Fort Collins bested them 3-1. And the very next game went awry, as Grandview beat them 3-0 in an elimination game. The championship run was over.

First year coach Steve Huntingdale plans to “focus on applying [his]methods and achieving any success [they] can during such an odd season” Offseason recap Due to the restrictions from COVID, coach and player contact have been limited during the offseason.

“The only time I’ve truly been able to coach and be in contact

CARTER BOOTH PHOTO BY RAEGAN KNOBBE

18 | Sports

with Creek players was in August for a one week camp”, Huntingdale said. “The pandemic has undoubtedly made it more difficult for contact with players.”

Still, players have found numerous opportunities to be able to improve and prepare for the season, from outside organizations, trainers, and independent exercises.

“I’ve been preparing for the season by playing with my club team CVA”, senior Emory Stamper said.

“I also run track so that keeps me in shape.”

And the freshmen have also worked hard during the offseason to ensure a great start to their high school sports career.

“I’ve been able to play club this offseason and get multiple practices in per week,” freshman London Muhle said. “I also have a trainer and have been able to work out so that’s helped me prepare for my first season.”

Players to watch As the new season begins, Huntingdale and other players on the team have recognized senior Carter Booth as a key player who could be the leader of a team hoping to win it all this year.

“She’s definitely a player that will be a leader and help us advance far”, Huntingdale said. “(Carter) is one of our strongest middles and she’s definitely a leader out there,” Van Wynk said.

“She’s had a lot of experience and

she’s a really strong player.”

Season goals After a frustrating loss to Grandview during the State Playoffs, varsity wants to focus on the development of players for the foreseeable future.

“The most important goal for me is for the players to understand my style,” Huntingdale said.

“My voice and implementing my ideas and philosophies that I have as a coach is important, and the challenge is getting them to fully understand my coaching. There’s such little time for them to learn from me and me from them.”

The players have also set goals that provide improvement for their own game as well as positively impacting the team.

“I’m transitioning to a new position for Creek”, Van Wynk said.

“I was a hitter for my club team but now I’m becoming a setter for Creek. My goal is to become more comfortable as a setter and be able to be there for my team.”

And the connection between players will be important during a season where connections are limited.

“During a season like this with limited opportunities, my main goal is to make more friends”, Muhle said. “Having friends and being able to have fun in a season like this is what’s most important to me.”

Girls Swim and Dive Wins State

BY LILY DEITCH Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF KATIE COHEN

Creek Girls Swim and Dive dominated the pool on March 11, taking back the title of State Champions.

“The competition was definitely very close for the whole meet,” sophomore Katie Cohen said. “We were seeded to win, but Fairview was also putting up a good fight. It was

really down to the last few events.”

This was especially exciting considering Creek knocked Fairview off of its two-year reign as State Champion.

“Once the last relay touched the wall, we knew we were all State Champions.”

Team members also pointed to two other returning pitchers, senior Zach Herrick and junior Codi Trebelhorn, as players Creek should be watching, as well as senior first baseman Cameron Yuran (left).

“This year I’ve been working a lot more on the mental game,” Yuran said of how he was preparing for the season.

Most of all, Creek should be watching Dorighi, who recently committed to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania for baseball.

“I’m looking to step up as a leader for the team, kind of help some of the younger guys out,” said Dorighi, who also mentioned that he spent time on his hitting this offseason.

“I want to set the example of what kind of culture we’re creating for Cherry Creek baseball.”

CAMERON YURAN

BY CARLY PHILPOTT News Editor

Creek baseball had only played a few scrimmages in Mar. 2020 when COVID hit.

They were about to travel to their first tournament of the year when they were told their season was being put on hold indefinitely.

“We figured out, actually, during practice that we were going to get out of school because of COVID, and then the rest of the season was kind of on hold for a little bit,” senior shortstop Carter Dorighi. “We were kind of left a little in the dark for a while and then they eventually canceled the whole season.”

This was extremely disappointing to the team, who had big plans for the 2020 season.

“It was decimating for the players,” said Varsity Coach Marc Johnson. “The majority of the team was returning as seniors, and so it was very hurtful for them that they lost their entire season.”

Over the winter and spring season, the baseball organization played and practiced together, and now they’re ready to return to normal baseball – or as normal as it can be.

Baseball doesn’t even get to start tryouts until Apr. 25 this year. CHSAA scheduled the sport for Season D, the final season of the school year, which runs into June, much later than a normal baseball season.

And because of COVID-19 regulations, the four baseball teams can’t practice at Creek, so they’re currently using the Slammers facility near the Centennial airport, practicing only two days a week and late at night when the building is available.

“It’s been hard,” junior pitcher Cooper Katskee said. “The juniors and seniors only get about an hour, from nine to ten PM. In one hour you can’t hit and throw a full bullpen.”

Still, the team is putting the work in and is prepared to win this season.

Players to watch Much of the team’s stars graduated last year, but with few returning players and multiple eligible underclassmen, this is the year to start watching Creek.

“We’re returning a couple of players who got some pitching time,” Johnson said. “But each of these jobs are open, so it creates a competition where everybody has a chance to try to win a position.”

Even among the new faces, there are also older players to look out for.

Katskee (right) was on varsity last season before COVID canceled it all.

But this year, he’s been preparing.

“I want to be the best teammate I can be,” Katskee said. “Go out, put my best on the field, and help my team win.”

C O O P E R K A T S K E E

Season Goals Creek baseball has often been promising in the past, and this season is no different.

Although the team is made up of many new players, they still have high hopes for the year.

“Our main goal, same as every year, is to try and get to that championship,” Katskee said. “Win games, play baseball.”

Teammates echoed Katskee’s sentiment.

“We really don’t know what the season’s gonna look like,” Dorighi said. “But I know we’re playing lots. So our focus is just to kind of dominate our conference.”

This year, like many years in the past, Creek’s main conference rivals will most likely be Grandview and Mullen. In order to make it to the late playoffs, Creek will need to perform well against those teams and others.

Johnson said that his focus is less on championships and more on continuing to build the culture of the team. “I’m an oldschool advocate of, ‘we’re not worried about tomorrow, we’re worried about today,’” he said. “We’ve got to take care of our business today, and try to be as good of a team we can be today, and then tomorrow we’ll take on tomorrow.”

Overall, the team is mostly just glad to be back on the field after months away. And with big plans for the season, Johnson expressed gratitude for the coaching staff that make it all possible. “[The coaches] don’t work for me, they work with me,” Johnson said. “I can’t even tell you how important they are to the success of our program and the successes we’ve had in the past.”

PHOTOILLUSTRATION BY MADISON SECKMAN PHOTOS BY RAEGAN KNOBBE

April 2021

Schedule change: USJ staff discusses latest adjustments to in-person

BY BRE MENNENOH AND AILA MONLOUIS A&E Editor & Staff Writer

Bre Mennenoh: Okay, so I think I speak for all of Creek students when I say that this year sucked. The inconsistency of scheduling and lack of overall class time was detrimental to mental health in the midst of worldwide chaos. Having a set plan for the rest of the year, for me, would bring a sense of consistency and organization to my life that I’ve personally been needing.

tal health is so important these days, especially among high school students, and I feel like it’s vital for the school to cater to those needs before it’s too late.

AM: Not to mention, a full week of school and having to turn in homework every day is going to be challenging. Many students in cohort A are not doing Aila MonLouis: I agree, this school year was not what I expected as well as the students in cohort B simply because we as a freshman. This was not the experience I was planning for but it have remote synchronous learning on Mondays and the definitely was something I will not forget. This next day, cohort A needs the homework they year has been challenging for us all, and I bewere just handed to be done in a little less “Jumping into a full lieve that jumping straight into full in-school than 24 hours, while group B students have learning will be extremely scary for both stuhours to complete their work. This may in-person learning envi- 48 dents and staff. just be me but looking at the number of sturonment will be healthier dents in Creek, the number of total students BM: I completely understand. I can’t even incoming workload feels overwhelming, for students, who can final- and imagine what it was like having this type of especially for the teachers and the limited introduction into a huge school in the middle ly adapt to a full on ‘Creek time for planning they may get. If we really of a pandemic (of all things). However, I beare going fully in-person sometime in spring, experience’ of sorts.” lieve that jumping into a full in person learnI think we need a period of time as to where A&E Editor ing environment will be healthier for students we are steadily getting into, or back into the to finally be able to adapt to a full-on, “Creek significant mass of students and feel a sense of Bre Mennenoh experience” of sorts. Absolutely nothing could familiarity. have prepared anyone for this past year and If this was the administration’s way of slowthe year ahead, but we’ve grown up learning to process and retain ly leading us back into a five-day in-person learning environment, I information over the course of a full week, in a full classroom. think it is failing us. With the eight different schedule changes in the With that being said, I think five days a week would be a lot easier past seven to eight months, this school year has been extremely diffor students. Creek admin has been “leading into” the multitudes of ficult and I know I would not do well with five days a week so soon. hybrid schedules since the beginning of the year and we continuous- It’s frustrating to have to adapt to all these learning models and then ly never seem to be close enough. It just feels never-ending and hon- hear about a possible new one. I agree we will have to get back into estly really trapping. A close friend of mine, Kiaya Mauldin, who’s the normal school schedule prior to the pandemic, but the two days in the Limon school district, describes it that way too and prefers in school is not preparing us for it. We are learning only about 60 her four-day school week. “I’m more of a social person, and I really percent of the curriculum this year, what about the other 40 percent? didn’t enjoy being alone, trapped in my room, when we went online,” she said. “In-person is a lot easier for me to learn and stay focussed.

BM: Yeah, I think that the way that the district has been handling With online, I felt pretty disorganized and I was just so lonely.” Men- the whole adjustment thing has been so unnecessarily complicated.

20 | Opinion

But at the same time, I feel like we’ve already wasted so much time in the process trying to figure out how to go about the whole, “phasing into” stages. There needs to either be a set plan, and soon, or we should just jump right in because it’s personally so exhausting, like you said, trying to constantly adapt to all the different learning models. I know it’s worked well for a lot of the other districts in Colorado so it’d be nice to just give it a try?

Take the Littleton public school district, for example: their students were given the choice between in person school for 2-3 days a week and or opting out of school. “I think having the choice in the first place is really cool,” Joshua Federico, a Junior at Heritage High told me. “I personally decided to have the in-person experience. It’s easier for me to learn that way, and as much as I don’t like school, it’s nice to have some type of normalcy still. I can’t wait for going fully in person.”

prepared us for full in person learning. Through this, they can plan their next steps. Sooner or later, we will have to get back into the normal experience but right now, it is very unclear to us.

BM: I like the idea of more structure, that’s something that everyone needs right now for sure. What I’ve noticed as well was the fact that there seems to be differing opinions depending on the courses students are taking. I know for a lot of upperclassmen students, this is a year that they’ve purposefully been loading on AP and IB classes to help their GPA and relying on ACT and SAT scores for college.

Like I said, the school system, in general, has trained us to work best in a traditional five-day-a-week learning environment so it seems only natural to feel especially unprepared for these important academic aspects of high school, nonetheless in the middle of a pandemic. Having actual class time and test preparation would really help ease tension for a lot of students and teachers.

like you said, what’s the set plan? I would like to give it a try but the idea of it is just so scary.

I know I am not the only one feeling like this either. Vivianne Hartford, a junior at Littleton Public Schools, told me this: “I chose online because I felt it was overall safer and also because it seemed like less mental strain than going to school in real life. The online program goes at more my own pace, which is why I prefer it.”

To add to that thought, the school should observe the shift in cases, similar to what the district did in November of 2020. Creek should also list out possible scenarios and prepare for what is to come. If we do go fully in-person, looking into the trend in grades and mental health can tell us a lot about if these hybrid models have

AM: That leads to the topic of vaccines.

Many teachers at Creek have received their vaccines, but few students have. Though cases have gone down, there is still a chance of students and faculty catching COVID with everyone crowding the campus. There have also been new strains of COVID-19 lingering on the west and east coasts; people may travel to those areas and catch it. Junior Ethan Kress said this in a recent interview about safety concerns on campus: “I hate how we have handled in-person learning because no one really cares about or enforces the masks...I see way too many people with exposed noses, chin diapers, and some without a mask at all, instead choosing to wear a smug look on their face. It makes me irrationally angry, I have no clue why it bothers me so much,” he said. “I really hope teachers and staff decide to actually start enforcing rules. I want fewer days in school because of this.”

Students haven’t stopped hanging out with friends, and with spring sports and after-school activities like prom, people will be even more at risk. The likelihood of people quarantining is low and generally speaking after spring break seems too soon to return to school.

“We will have to get back into the normal school schedule prior to the pandemic, but the two days in school is not preparing us for it.”

AM: I do agree we should give it a try but Staff Writer Aila MonLouis

BM: I am also very apprehensive about people quarantining, or rather, the lack of quarantining. I have one concern with this though.

Because as important as young people staying safe and quarantining is, COVID cases, especially in young people, have been on the decline. We’re seeing fewer and fewer outbreaks in schools now so I personally think it’s fair to say that going back to school, at least at this point in time, would be smart. We need to take advantage of the fall if that makes sense.

Ultimately though, whatever the district decides to go through for the rest of the school year should hopefully be in the interests of students’ safety. Getting a handle on this pandemic should be a top priority no matter what and administrators should keep that in mind.

It’s been a hard adjustment for all but, hopefully, through utilizing the correct preventative measures, we can begin to return to a state of normalcy and consistency for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year.

ART BY MADISON SECKMAN

April 2021

“SIMP!”

BY LILY DEITCH Staff Writer

Simply a joke or a symbol of fragile masculinity?

Simp. A word that has commonly taken a place within the day-to-day speech patterns of a typical high schooler.

I see the word everywhere. It’s on Tiktok’s “simp nation,” (a group of boys who compliment their crushes without being in a relationship with them). I see it in rap and music.

And I hear it at school. I’ll often pass a group of boys in the hallway and see them making fun of their friend for just talking to a girl.

Honestly, I know I hear it among groups of girls too. But I hear it much more with boys.

And it’s viewed as a joke.

In reality, though, It’s not as innocent as it seems.

This phrase comes from the word “simpleton” which means an ignorant, silly, or foolish person.

Below the joking nature, the phrase reveals some disturbing truths about the way boys mentally develop and want to treat each other.

“It’s a dead joke, it’s just not funny,” junior Griffin Terry said.

There is an idea that if boys are “overdoing it” then they deserve to get made fun of. It isn’t silly or ignorant to compliment someone or be nice to them. So, what is too much, and why is there even a “too much”?

I guess if a guy totally abandons his other friends for his crush, that wouldn’t be nice; but there are better ways to deal with that situation than making fun of him.

It’s discouraging. It implants insecurity in the mind of a developing teenage boy. It makes them think they are not masculine if they don’t act in any way other than as a tough-guy. It makes them think that they need to hide their emotions.

According to The Children’s Society, a London-based charity, “Growing up should be a time of exploration and expression. Not a time to fit into a predesigned gender-specific box.”

After looking through the interviews with

Creek boys, I was surprised with the responses, though.

When asked if this word makes them hesitant to show affection toward a crush in front of their friends, all responded with no.

Frankly, it made me feel optimistic. This is the community I would hope for, one where boys aren’t afraid to be openly interested in the person they like; it is just not the one I see around me.

When I’m out and about, at school and with my peers, I hear simp all the time. It’s possible that since I’m not actively part of these conversations, I could have it wrong.

And maybe there is hope for our world after all – maybe this is just people’s public veneer. Maybe my views were too “simp”le.

A place where boys treat everyone kindly. Isn’t that the type of world that we want to live in?

I was raised to think that kindness is the most important skill to have. If everyone is kind.

Expression should be applauded, especially since it is so hard. It’s unexpected, but boys might actually be comfortable with themselves, despite all the jokes.

GIRLS

GUYS WANTING TO TREAT GIRLS WITH RESPECT

THEIR FRIENDS CALLING THEM A SIMP

PHOTO BY JANE MCCAULEY

22 | Opinion

STAFF EDITORIAL

How Creek culture encourages fading mental health At such a uniquely rigorous and demanding school like Creek, many students have been known to struggle with balancing their work load and mental health even before the pandemic.

But now that the pandemic has forced teachers to slow down the pace of many classes, more people are becoming aware of the exposed problems and flaws within the foundation of Creek’s academic culture.

And more students and staff understand just how difficult it has been for students to try to stay afloat mentally.

Still, it’s not as if Creek has completely ignored or avoided confronting the relentless mental health issues it’s been known to have.

The administration did implement and promote outlets such as advisory and Sources of Strength last year in the attempts to change the system, and they had the potential to support students and remain in place for a long time.

But unfortunately, they weren’t able to gain a lot of momentum, because the school year ended in March, and the pandemic hasn’t allowed them to return to an extent where they can make a substantial impact on students.

But it’s also difficult to promote effective resources for students when Creek’s entire culture is based around the idea that academics come first and mental health comes second.

While these resources are productive and important first steps to be taking, they will never successfully fix the entire system in the long run. Because rather than solely focusing on what resources Creek can provide for students who are struggling, the administration really needs to be concentrating on how to restructure a system that just isn’t func-

ART BY JANE McCAULEY

tioning.

It’s the atmosphere of constant academic competition between students and their peers that needs to be diluted, so students don’t feel weighed down or pressured during their daily school life.

And the number of AP/Honors classes per student should be monitored in order to make sure students aren’t feeling pressured to take difficult classes. Students should be required to meet with counselors if they want to take more than five AP classes and discuss what their schedule could look like throughout high school more thoroughly.

The idea that students should only take classes because they “look good” and because it allows them to feel equal to other students, rather than because they want to and can handle it, is harmful and damaging to students’ perspectives of what high school should be.

The notion that school is all about winning, competing, and comparing oneself with peers and friends can be overwhelming in most Creek settings, and it’s why Creek has such a disproportionate number of students with mental health problems.

Students should feel as if they can breathe and not be overwhelmed by the idea that school is the most demanding aspect of their lives.

Although Creek has created resources that can help with these issues, the real change needs to come from the administration that school isn’t all about the rigor and appearance of what the “excellence of education” could look like. If there’s going to be a significant change in the mental health of students, the culture itself needs to be readjusted.

April 2021

On returning to full in-person learning Two USJ staff members sat down to have a conversation about this school year and the return to in-person learning.

Regular text indicates Staff Writer Aila MonLouis.

Bold text indicates A&E Editor Bre Mennenoh.

Bre Mennenoh: I think I speak for all of Creek students when I say that this year sucked. The inconsistency of scheduling and lack of overall class time was detrimental to mental health in the midst of worldwide chaos. Having a set plan for the rest of the year, for me, would bring a sense of consistency and organization to my life that I’ve personally been needing.

Aila MonLouis: I agree, this school year was not what I expected as a freshman. This was not the experience I was planning for but it definitely was something I will not forget. This year has been challenging for us all and I believe that jumping straight into fullin-school learning will be extremely scary for both students and staff.

How do students feel about returning to school full-time?

“I don’t think it will be too dangerous, at least now that the teachers are vaccinated. But I have my own concerns, like the hallways because they’re already pretty crowded.” senior Victoria Haynes

“I don’t think it’s smart at all. I feel like we’re all going to come back, and everyone’s going to get sick because a lot of kids here don’t wear masks and go out and party.”

junior Alexia Horton

This opinion preview can be continued on pages 20 and 21.

“I’m nervous because I don’t want to go back five days. But I’m excited because I get to see my friends in other cohorts.” sophomore Brianna Goettsche

“While I like the idea of seeing my friends and having something to occupy me, it feels like a bad idea to begin school in the middle PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS BY HANNAH EDELHEIT, LILY DEITCH, of the year when both students and teachers LYDIA FOSTER, & MADISON have adapted to the current format.”

SECKMAN ART BY MADISON SECKMAN junior Peregrin Hunjan

“It’s a good idea to get everybody back together. But this is the fourth or fifth time they’ve changed the schedule, so it’s something to get used to all over again.” senior Precious BautistaAlexander