GLOBE issue 6, volume 88
T H E H E ROI N EPIDEMIC
The Globe investigates a phenomenon that is on the rise in St. Louis and across the nation clayton high school, clayton, mo. - march 2017
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GLOBE
march 2017
Sports
35
Graceful Goals
In-depth with CHS senior and girls’ soccer captain Grace Monshausen.
2 6 H o o k e d O n H e ro i n The Globe investigates patterns of heroin usage by high school students throughout the St. Louis area. 36
News 9
Spring Sports Preview
What to know before CHS’ spring athletes begin season on Feb. 27.
A Burger Back In Time
St. Louis cinema staple’s new extension brings novelty to Clayton. CONTENTS 3
F e at u re Review 18
Students Walk Out to Stand Up
CHS student protests occurred during school on Jan. 20 as Donald Trump took the oath of office.
39
Mod Pizza
42
State of Journalism
43
Pro/Con: Free Periods for Students
Opinion
CONTENTS 3
GLOBE editor-in-chief camille respess
chief managing editors kevin rosenthal ellie tomasson
managing editors noah brown nicholas lee mitali sharma max steinbaum
section editors madeline bale michael bernard daniel cho lucy cohen sean kim jacob lagesse zachary sorenson ashleigh williams tara williams
copy editors
charlie brennan harry rubin neel vallurupalli
webmaster nicholas lee
business manager
lucy cohen
photo editor alex gerchen
distribution editor grace monshausen
staff
editors
sophia barnes sophie bernstein lise derksen mariclare gatter olivia joseph nisha klein elise levy grace morris lauren praiss olivia reuter nikki seraji martin sharpe catherine walsh samantha zeid
reporters
madeline ackerburg sarah baker barrett bentzinger richard cheng daniel cohen theodore fehr leo gavitt beverly goode justin guilak katie he lucas hoffman cicely krutzch cody krutzch san kwon fiona mcguire kellan morrissey laura parvulescu katherine snelling grace snelling philip stahl sara stemmler junyi su lila taylor karena tse victor wei
photographers
synthia baer jennifer braverman daishanae crittenden ella engel sarah franzel akansha goel paige holmes catherine holtzman alivia jacobs xuenan jin areeba khan richard kuehn gabreille lask caroline marsden michael melinger grace monshausen mia redington alhan sayyed sarah schmidt claire schwarz eunice shin katherine sleckman emma weber
adviser
erin castellano
Professional Affilations: Sponsors of School Publications, Missouri Interscholastic Press Assocation, Missouri Journalism Education Assocation, National Scholastic Press Assocation, Columbia Scholastic Press Assocation
The lights begin to fade: down, down, down until darkness. Enveloping all stimuli, this darkness reduces me to a levitating unit of consciousness. Floating in a womb-like pod above 850 pounds of salt water impels higher awareness in myself than before. For 90 minutes I’m alone in a sensory deprivation float tank. No sights, no sounds, no phones. Nothing to smell except air. Nothing to taste except air. Locust St., a 15 minute drive from Clayton High School, contains the business, F. L O. A. T.: For Loving Anti-gravitational Timelessness. Sensory deprivation float tanks, or isolation tanks - first tested in 1954 on patients experiencing conditions of post-traumatic stress disorder - are my agents of choice to temper my anxiety that I am gradually falling into the insatiable mouth of Entertainment. Mindful of this fear, I also know how much I love my iPhone 6SE. I am in awe of my phone for delivering international friends’ faces to me, for its capacity to play any song, take any picture, wake me at any time. But the infinite opportunity for distraction that my iPhone offers can warp my definition of machine as machine. I can be dominated by the tweets, the glowing packages of entertaining information constantly at my fingertips, constantly regenerating. What if through peeking into my portal of virtual acquaintances and friends I could altogether avoid solitude? I began to think I could never give up my phone. So I did. The day after Super Bowl LI, I told my brother to hide my phone from me for one week. My phone-siesta reminded me that each technology is only an extension of our humanity, not synonymous. When we argue we cannot surrender our phones, we distort technology into our equivalent. Mark Twain wisely said, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed; if you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” This double bind is certainly relevant in 2017 and stretches far beyond the newspaper to myriad media. On Day One of phonelessness, I noticed
FROM THE EDITOR I missed such characters as Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Bannon and Sean Spicer. Unable to love to hate them, I felt a funny emptiness. I missed their entertainments. Drifting deeper into my disconnect past Day One, I confirmed my inkling that such figures are hand-picked entertainers, that they chiefly exist not to fulfill governmental duties but to create circus for citizens, that their steady ability to make me love to hate them had been leading me toward the very destiny I most deeply feared: I would be a hypnotized member of the audience at their lethally entertaining reality television show. Day Five of phonelessness: alone in a sensory deprivation float tank. No sights, no sounds, no phones. This session feels radically unlike any other I have experienced. Thoughts of every color burst from my head. Eyes opened in total darkness, I scroll through my mind, not my feed. Weird. I perceive every person and every atom as my tour guide, I feel ready and I feel able; I want to end all tedium and fade into the oneness. Through releasing control I gain control.
The float tank has become the mechanism that helps me navigate between my reality and my constructions of reality. In an era of endlessly swirling truths and untruths, choosing to find what is really real for each of us seems the first necessary step toward rightly viewing information on our screens. Float tanks, interesting vessels for my attempts at detecting truth, might be a worthless soup of salty crap for my neighbor. If you accept that the At-Our-Fingertips-Entertainment world is the unifying American source of information and can reject this authority when you chop tomatoes and groove to the tunes in your own head, here is your isolation tank. Seek renewal in this zone. Ultimately it’s personal, right? You have your phone and I have my phone. We all design an individualized flow of information. Now each of us must by our own means separate the superficial from the authentic, the machine from the emotion, the entertainment from the uncontrived.
Kevin Rosenthal, Chief Managing Editor
The Globe Newsmagazine exists to inform, entertain, persuade and represent the student voice at CHS. All content decisions are made by the student editorial staff and the Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. Not every story that our reporters write is published in the print newsmagazines. Visit www.chsglobe.com for additional stories and photos and for more information about the Globe itself. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement - for more information about advertising and subscriptions, please contact our office: Clayton High School Globe 1 Mark Twain Circle Clayton, MO 63105 (314) 854-6668
EDITOR’S NOTE 5
Senior Seth George visits the ARoS Kunstmuseum during his year in Denmark.
PA N O R A M A Quarterback Zach Louis looks to looks to complete a pass in the Greyhound's season opener versus Lutheran North. The Greyhounds lost the match. Photo by Alex Gerchen
PA N O R A M A ELI HAYWARD AS WILBUR AND DAVID BLAKE AS EDNA IN CHS’ WINTER MUSICAL, HAIRSPRAY. Photo by Eric Woosley
NEWS Blues Fire Head Coach
St. Louis Blues head coach Mike Yeo watches the review of a goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during the second period on Monday, Feb. 6, 2017 at the Wells Fargo Center. (Steven M. Falk/Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
N E Wa nSd
notes
Trump Tweets
POTUS has been very active on Twitter since his Jan. 20 inauguration. Here are his best tweets since moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Jan 20- On setting the tone: “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. From this moment on, it’s going to be #AmericaFirst” Jan 22- On the Women’s March:
“Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why don’t these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly.”
Jan 24- On Chicago gun violence:
“If Chicago doesn’t fix this horrible ‘carnage’ going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24 percent from 2016), I will send in the Feds!”
Feb 2- On UC-Berkeley protests:
“If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”
Feb 9- On the blocking of his executive order:
“SEE YOU IN THE COURTS, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”
Feb 18- On the media:
“Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media.The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it.”
BY MAX STEINBAUM / managing editor
On Feb. 1, the struggling St. Louis Blues fired head coach Ken Hitchcock. Hitchcock, whose six year tenure with the Note saw five playoff appearances, was replaced by Mike Yeo, former head coach of division rival Minnesota Wild. Since Yeo’s ascension, the Blues have gone 5-1, including a four-game win streak -- the Blues’ first of the season. As of February 22, the Blues are in third place in the Central Division, 12 points behind the second-place Chicago Blackhawks and 17 behind the division-leading Minnesota Wild.
CHS Athletes Commit On Feb. 1, three CHS senior athletes signed their letters of intent to continue playing sports in college as part of National Signing Day. Will Keller will play Division II football this fall at Clark Atlanta University. An offensive lineman, Joe Taylor signed his letter of intent to play football at Division II McKendree University. Harold Walehwa has committed to play Division III football and lacrosse at Coe College for the 2017-2018 seasons.
Super Bowl LI On Feb. 5, the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons took to the field at NRG Stadium in Houston in Super Bowl LI. After a scoreless first quarter, Atlanta took a commanding 21-3 into halftime, leading by as much as 25 points in the third quarter. New England rallied back, however, tying the game at 28 in the fourth quarter to bring the game to overtime. The Patriots scored a touchdown in their first OT possession, winning the game 34-28. The 25-point deficit is the most ever overcome in a Super Bowl, shattering the previous record of 10. New England quarterback Tom Brady was named the Super Bowl MVP -- his fourth such title -- in the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl championship.
NEWS
H A C K AT T A C K
BY JUSTIN GUILAK and JACOB LAGESSE
Photo by Michael Melinger On Jan. 19, 2017, the computers throughout all branches of the St. Louis Public Library system were hacked. This hacking prevented library patrons from checking out books, reserving computers and printing documents. The situation was quickly addressed, and by the next day basic functions like the ability to check out materials were restored. In the days following, the library has worked to make the rest of the features usable once more. Unknown hackers used a software called “ransomware” on the computer network of the library, shutting down the system and all computers completely. Ransomware cuts off computer functions until a ransom is paid, followed by the hackers disabling the virus. Librarians found a message demanding a ransom of $35,000 when they tried to open up the network for public use. Hackers demanded the ransom in Bitcoin, a form of online currency that is very hard to trace. Rather than pay the demanded $35,000, however, the library decided to reset the entire system. The reset delayed the time until the library returned to full operation, but avoided paying the ransom. On paying the ransom, Waller McGuire,
Executive Director of the St. Louis Public Library assures that “SLPL never considered it.” The recovery has taken a while, and more than a week later, the library was still not fully functional. In a notice sent out to library patrons McGuire said that he expects, “it will be several weeks before we feel we are completely restored.” In this notice, McGuire also assured all library patrons that no personal information had been compromised. While the hack did not access any personal information stored on the library’s server, such as names, addresses, and credit card information, meaning, it still had an effect on many patrons’ lives. “Thousands of St. Louisans depend on our computers and networks every day to access a world of vital information and services,” McGuire said. In an interview with CNN, library spokeswoman Jen Hatton said that the hacking had a profound impact on many residents of St. Louis. “For many, we’re their only access to internet,” she said. To restore the system and prevent against another attack, the library collaborated with
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the FBI and a local anti-malware company called Bandura. “Within moments of discovering it we were on the phone with the FBI,” McGuire said. The FBI helped the library identify the origin of the hack, the voicemail system, which, as of Feb. 22 is still currently shutdown. The voicemail system is four years old, and by accessing it the hacker was able to access the rest of the network. To prevent another attack, Bandura provided the library with a free security upgrade for the network. This free layer of protection could prove critical in keeping the library functional for years to come. “It has been a gift to us,” McGuire said. He added a reminder of the significance of this attack. “I feel public libraries are a deeply American idea,” he said. “Everyone in our community is enriched when anyone can walk through our doors and help themselves to the rich resources we offer.” He even pointed out that Bandura provided their support because of their belief in this idea.“This attack attempted to hold information ransom,” McGuire said. “That frightens and angers all librarians, and it should anger you.”
Photo by Michael Melinger
A BURGER BACK IN TIME CLAYTON PARENT OPENS RUSTIC DRIVE-IN RESTAURANT
“It just came to me in a dream,” said Sugarfire Smokehouse owner and Clayton parent Mike Johnson about the idea for the Hi-Pointe Drive-In, his newest restaurant on McCausland Avenue. “No, I’m just kidding. We really liked the location, and that’s pretty much it.” After more than two years of planning and construction, the Hi-Pointe Drive-In opened on Jan. 5, 2017, replacing the old Del Taco restaurant behind the Hi-Pointe Theatre. Johnson and his team had originally planned to open a fried chicken restaurant at the location, but these plans quickly changed when other fried chicken places opened in the area. In pursuit of original ideas to bring to the community, Johnson opted to open a burger and sandwich restaurant instead. Inspiration for the restaurant came from
Johnson’s past experiences learning from, working in, and owning several fancier restaurants. As Johnson’s friends from high school went on to earn their college degrees, Johnson was determined to create his own success. “I was working in a restaurant and I thought it would be fun to be a chef,” Johnson said. Soon after, he traveled to France to learn the trade. “It’s really high pressure in France. Before you go to high school in France, you take a test and they send you to a technical school to be an accountant or an engineer or something. And cooking is a really respected career there,” Johnson said. “Here, people probably think you’re not [very smart], but over there, it’s a high pressure career, and you can become famous and make a lot of
NEWS 10
money. There’s a lot of pressure and screaming, you know, because everything has to be perfect.” During his time in France, Johnson worked at many famous restaurants. After a little more than a year, however, he was excited to return to the United States and pursue his own cooking aspirations. “I used to do the really fancy stuff, but I learned after years of owning those restaurants that they’re not the best for me, and I can make more money with higher volume, lower prices, and more people,” Johnson said. “And I just like it better. It’s more fun to give people a burger and make them happy instead of having them sit there for three hours and have a meal.” Although Johnson prefers burgers and barbeque over any of the fancy restaurants
BY MADELINE BALE AND PHILLIP STAHL that he has owned, he has always made an effort to immerse himself in all different types of cooking. Throughout his career, Johnson has opened more than 20 restaurants, several of which grew into franchises. Johnson even owned a Chinese restaurant at one point, though he now looks back at the experience and admits that, “I’ve had some good ideas and some bad ideas. And that was a bad idea.” Johnson’s success in the restaurant industry has drawn attention from multiple food television shows. In February 2016, Johnson cooked with host Michael Symon in the second season of Food Network’s Burgers, Brew, and ‘Que. In that same month, the Sugarfire team traveled to Sydney, Australia and placed 12th at the Meatstock Music and Barbeque Festival. Three months later, Johnson competed in the Memphis in May World BBQ Championships. Sugarfire Smokehouse then catered for Snoop Dogg in August before traveling to Paris to cook at The Beast, Paris’s first authentic smokehouse.
Most recently, Johnson earned the opportunity to compete on Beat Bobby Flay, one of the most popular cooking shows on Food Network. In order to compete against the famous chef Bobby Flay, Johnson successfully beat another chef on the show – the previous champion of Food Network’s Chopped. The victory then made it possible for Johnson to compete directly against Bobby Flay in the episode titled Country Boys in the Big City. Although Johnson did not particularly like the implications of the episode’s title and wasn’t quite able to achieve a victory over Bobby Flay due to overcooked rice, he was grateful for the experience. “It’s really awesome,” Johnson said. “They put you in a nice hotel and drive you around in a limo.” And Johnson has no hard feeling for Flay either. “He’s totally awesome.” Johnson has undoubtedly made a name for himself in the restaurant industry, but this was not always the case. When Johnson told his father that he planned to become a chef, his father’s response was something along the lines of, “‘Oh my god, that kid’s an
idiot,’” Johnson said. Remembering his shaky beginnings, Johnson admits that his parents certainly worried about him and questioned his choices. But as Johnson’s businesses began to succeed and spread, these worries vanished. “My parents have always been proud of me, [and] now I do really well,” Johnson said. “We do more sales than anybody in town, for sure. Not even close.” Johnson’s claims are certainly not unsubstantiated. The food industry is a very competitive industry, especially in St. Louis, but Johnson maintains close and constructive relationships with the restaurants that many would consider his competitors. In fact, Johnson does not even view the food industry as a competition. “We’re not competitors,” he said. “We hang out all the time. We share a lot of employees. We’re all friends.” As his restaurants continue to grow, Johnson looks forward to the opportunities that 2017 will bring. For now, he plans to travel and learn. “It’s all about research and development and eating,” Johnson said.
Johnson (right) and his co-workers in front of Hi-Pointe Drive-In. Photo by Syne Baer.
NEWS 11
bromine 35
oxygen 8
nitrogen 7
79.904
15.999
14.007
Br AD
O N
CHS Chemistry Teacher spent two months in the Navy. BY MICHAEL BERNARD AND SEAN KIM
Brad Krone (center) and two of his comrades stand outside a Naval Base in San Diego (Photos from Brad Krone). “I put on a uniform one day and all of a sudden [enlisted soldiers] were saluting me,” CHS chemistry teacher Brad Krone said. “I didn’t know how to salute.” In May of 1994, Krone was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy but was honorably discharged after only two months of service. “I had to do an application process,” Krone said. “I was commissioned into a chaplain candidate program to spend the summer as an officer in the Navy as a chaplain-in-training.” The Chaplain Candidate Program Officer (CCPO) is a two month long training program for those interested in becoming chaplains, or clergy members, in the Navy. While in seminary, Krone heard about the program from a friend and decided to try it out. Krone was then accepted and sent to San Diego to meet the other chaplains-in-training whose ages ranged from 25 to 40. For his two months, Krone was paid
$3,000 -- unlike other programs in which the military pays for education. “The reason they do it is because for doctors, lawyers and nurses, the military will pay for your education, and then you have to commit so many years to being in the service to pay them back. They don’t do that with chaplains because of the separation of church and state. [However], they still want chaplains, they serve a pretty important role. You have kids away from home and they want someone to talk to. So they came up with this system where you can check it out for two months. So they commission you, you become an officer, and you do it for two months.’ “The first day I got there I was very nervous. It’s such an unusual program. All of a sudden I am a lieutenant in the Navy,” Krone said. “I [was] supposed to act like that because I had the uniform. We were all in the same boat.”
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Unlike most recruits who are required to complete Basic Military Training (BMT), Krone spent his first month at Naval Base San Diego and his second month at Great Lakes Naval Base in Chicago, Illinois. Throughout his early life, Krone dreamed of obtaining a job in the armed forces. However, nobody in his family had ever worked in the military. “I always regretted that I never tried the military, that I didn’t enlist,” Krone said. Krone was also interested in joining the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in college. “I think I would’ve been pretty good at it,” Krone said. “When I was in college there were guys in ROTC, I envied them.” While taking part in CCPO, Krone was required to attend class to learn about the Navy. Similar to Krone, the majority of the other chaplains did not have a naval background. They were taught terminology, rankings and ship-life.
A “They usually took us on a little field trip to an aircraft carrier [or] to the SEALS base,” Krone said. Krone additionally traveled to the sick bay at the Marine Corps boot camp. “[The] young 18 year old kids were deer in the headlights,” Krone said. “They were clearly not prepared for what it was they were dealing with. They needed someone to talk to so they had us go in to talk with these guys.” While talking with these soldiers, Krone learned that they were not allowed to use the words “I” or “me;” they were only allowed to say “this recruit.” “We said, ‘how did you hurt yourself?’ ‘This recruit’s foot landed in a hole in the field,’” Krone said. “They had trained them not to use the word ‘I.’” While on base, the trainees were required to participate in physical training. The group would run and lift weights even though some of the chaplains were not particularly interested in this. The goal of a chaplain in the Navy is to promote the well-being, whether spiritual or personal, of the members of the Navy. The group Krone was with consisted of Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and Protestant chaplains. “They allowed me to do pastoral things like counseling. At one point, the chaplain had me counsel a woman who was having marital problems,” Krone said. “I wasn’t even married; I was getting married in a couple months. I felt completely ill-equipped.” Young recruits would often come to Krone or one of the other chaplains for guidance because discussions between recruits and chaplains were always completely confidential. “[Chaplains] serve a very important role,” Krone said. “It’s an important enough role that they actually brought us in and paid us, not even knowing if we would stick around.” Krone also preached sermons and led worships on Sundays. Krone did not only participate in spiritual activities; however, he also engaged in militaresque training. Krone especially recalls being lowered down on a cable onto an aircraft carrier from a Chinook, or double bladed helicopter.
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Even though Krone and the other chaplains-in-training were Second Lieutenants, they were not allowed to carry any weapons on the base. “Even when [chaplains] are in combat, they don’t have a weapon,” Krone said. “As a chaplain, you’re there to keep peace.” Despite all his time spent taking classes and counseling recruits, Krone did find time to socialize on base with his friends. “I walked into a bar on the base with my baseball hat on. There was a sign that said, ‘Ye who enters covered will buy everyone a round of drinks,’” Krone said. “I didn’t know what [covered] meant. I walked in and a bell rings. Everyone looks at me and points and screams.” On a military base, being covered means to have a hat on. According to Krone, men cannot wear a hat indoors on a military base unless it is wartime. “Don’t enter a space covered on a military base,” Krone said. “I had to buy every-
body a round of drinks.” Once Krone’s two months as a chaplain had passed, he had the option of serving in the Navy as a full-time chaplain or going home. “Two days after the two months were over, I got married,” he said. “My wife was having a tough time imagining me being away for six months at a time. We decided not to pursue it any further.” After being honorably discharged from the Navy, Krone went on to become a Youth Pastor in Reno, Nevada. After two years of preaching in Reno, Krone went back to school to become a teacher. “I still look back at times and wish I had somehow made the military happen when I was younger,” Krone said. 23 years later, Krone still looks back on his stint in the navy fondly. ‘’It was really cool. I loved it. It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s just one of those things I decided not to continue.’’
Krone in front of a military chopper
FEATURE 13
Photos of Boyd in IHOP by Areeba Khan.
B O Y D ’ S L O Y A LT Y
Before the sun comes up on the small blue hut on the corner of South Brentwood and Clayton, Betty Boyd is already at work serving her customers at the local IHOP, or as she calls them: family. Boyd has been apart of this family since 1965. For 51 years she has been taking orders and serving pancakes. “A friend of mine said that IHOP was looking for servers. I said, ‘could you tell me if I am going to make as much as I am making at the truck stop?’” To Boyd, getting as much money from her job as she could was a necessity as she had to support her one-year-old son by herself at the age of 17. At the time, Boyd had been married for one year. “We were too young,” Boyd said. “I thought I would live happily ever after, but of course it didn’t turn out that way.” That same year, the pair filed for divorce. “[My parents] hated [the father of my son],” Boyd said. “He was a wild child. They knew it was going to be a big mistake. They tried to tell me but I didn’t listen.” Boyd and her husband did keep in touch until he recently passed away. “If I wouldn’t’ve had a son, I would’ve gone on to college,” Boyd said. “I had him to take care of. It did affect my career, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Boyd made more than double at IHOP than the truck stop and was able to provide for her son. During Boyd’s first 25 years at IHOP, she worked at the now-closed Chippewa location. Considering the Chippewa location achieved a full star less on Yelp than the Clayton location, Boyd made the right call switching locations. Additionally, Boyd recalls the Chippewa location had poor management and service. “This store is more caring [than Chippewa].The people [in Clayton] are like family,” Boyd said. “I’ve seen little babies grow up. Then they have babies and they come in. It’s just a happy family.” When a customer passes away, Boyd always makes sure to attend their funeral to pay her respects. Throughout her time at IHOP, Boyd has had the chance to come across all sorts of customers. Boyd does not hesitate to treat each and everyone of them like family. “This one girl, she was going to Wash-U. She was studying to become a doctor. When you’re going to school you don’t have a lot of money,” Boyd said. “She was over on the
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bench and she was counting her change. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ She goes, ‘Betty, I’m trying to see if I got enough money to get the bus back to Wash-U and give you a tip.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m buying your breakfast today.’ She was so overwhelmed. When she graduated from Wash-U, she came in with a card and it had $1000 in it. She said, ‘This is for you, because I’ll never forget the day the you told me I got your breakfast.’” As Boyd has worked at IHOP for several decades, she has been given opportunities to improve her job status and become manager. However, she has not wanted to take those opportunities. Instead, she has kept the role of a waitress and has accepted the role of a crew chief, which includes training new employees. Demetrius Sims has worked at IHOP as a waiter for only three months and already feels he has a unique connection with Boyd, even though they only share a shift for 30 minutes a day. According to Sims, Boyd is a very honest and open worker; somebody that he and others look up to for advice. “I like working overnights to see Betty in the morning. I’ll be ready to go to sleep but when she comes in, I’ll be so excited,” Sims
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BY MICHAEL BERNARD with DANIEL COHEN Globe gets an interview with an IHOP worker that has been working at IHOP for 51 years. said. “[I intend to stay] as long as Betty: 50 years.” Sims believes that without the guidance of Boyd, he would just be an average IHOP worker serving average flapjacks. However, her presence has allowed him to grow immensely. “At first I used to half-do [my work]. But one time in the morning she wouldn’t let me leave until I did [my work] correctly. I stayed almost two hours over trying to correct my work,” Sims said. “As long as you do your stuff right, she is fine.” Even though Boyd’s level of experience often allows her to make sure every worker is doing their job exactly right, her 51 years of experience has taught her to hang loose every once in awhile. “She’s like everybody’s crazy grandmother,” Sims said. “She has her days when she wants to kick it up a notch and be very
funny and playful with us.” Not only does the staff feel a strong connection to the customers at IHOP, but the staff itself acts as a family. “My son got cancer back in 2000,” Boyd said. “I had so many people rally around me and help me, take collections for me to help. [They’re] great friendships.” Her son, who grew up in St. Louis with Boyd, now works at the Athletic Boys Club. Additionally, Boyd considers her boss as a close friend. Whether she is having a problem at work or financial issue at home, Boyd always knows that her boss will be willing to help her with any situation. “[For] my 50th anniversary, she had [the restaurant] decorated to the hill,” Boyd said. “She had balloons and signs, and she gave me a card with money in it. She was really appreciative.”
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Every morning, Boyd wakes up at two in the morning and drives an hour from Wentzville in order to get to her morning shift on time. “I had so many people say ‘don’t quit’ when I moved out [to Wentzville] three years ago,” Boyd said. “It’s not that far. At first it did seem like a little way, but I got used to it.” There is an IHOP in Wentzville, but Boyd could not dare to abandon her family. “I like my people,” Boyd said. “I’m gonna work here until I can’t do it anymore.” At 4 a.m., Boyd is already energetic and ready to work, and it would seem that she had been up for hours. “Everyday you thank God that you’re able to do your job. Thank God for the nice people that come in,” Boyd said.” [I’m] thankful for being able to work everyday and pay my bills. I appreciate things more now.”
BROOKE THE BALLERINA Junior Brooke Terry sets her sights on a future in dance. BY MADELINE ACKERBURG, LAUREN PRAISS and CATHERINE WALSH There is nothing stopping Brooke Terry from leaping and twirling for the stars. Junior Brooke Terry, an avid dancer, recently made the switch from CHS to [colab], a school that offers a learning pathway with a lighter workload and online classes that students like Terry opt for in order to focus on other areas of interest. In this case, Terry has decided to focus the bulk of her time on dance. At the Center of Creative Arts (COCA), Terry spends hours upon hours each day in classes besides the core technique classes; she has had Conditioning classes, Tap, Hip-hop, West African, and Musical Theatre classes. Terry’s passion for dance stems from early childhood,“my mom’s best friend put her daughter into dance. She grew up dancing and my mom would always take me to watch,” Terry said. “As soon as I was finally old enough, my mom put me in classes. I was two years old, and haven’t stopped dancing since.” Kelly Ging, the Pre-Professional Division Manager and Dance Program Manager at COCA, who has been working with Brooke for six years, seems to know Terry better than many. “Brooke is committed,” Ging says, “it is hard to give up a social life and high school events, but Brooke is always in class and rehearsal, never complaining because she knows the work it takes to become a professional dancer.” Although it was a big decision, Terry is confident that the switch will be beneficial to her future. “It’s definitely gotten much better this semester because I can choose how much I do each night.” Terry said. “Last semester, and sophomore and freshman year, the stress of school and dance combined could be a lot at times, especially during shows or heavy rehearsal times. It almost seemed like during heavy times at dance, I’d almost always have lots of tests and quizzes as well.” Already, Terry has accomplished a great deal without the restraints of a rigorous course load. “I performed the lead role in Divining, a piece choreographed by Judith Jamison,” Terry said, reflecting on one of her favor-
ite moments as a dancer. “To get to the final product was a really hard, and rough road for me. But, when I finally performed the piece, it was such an amazing feeling to have my body completely take over and do everything it was supposed to do.” Terry’s intense passion for dance has given her the inspiration to pursue fine arts in the future. “I want to attend a conservatory for dance and earn my BFA in dance,” Terry said. “Then, hopefully I find a great job with a professional dance company. But, I may also have the opportunity to get a job with a company as a trainee before I even go to college. I’m not sure which I’ll end up doing, I’m just trying to keep my options open.” On the other hand, Ging is confident that she sees a fortuitous career in Brooke’s future. “Brooke has such a diverse range of skill and ability, she could easily be cast in a company that performs cross disciplinary work,” Ging said, “however, I foresee her performing professionally with a modern or contemporary company. Brooke loves to share her passion and give back, so on her days off of performing or after rehearsals you’ll see Brooke teaching and guiding the shy student
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Photo by Patrick Lanham in the back of the room.” It’s clear that Terry has not only arisen as an experienced dancer, but also as a leader. Between assisting children ages three to six to develop fundamental classroom practices and child development, to pushing hard on her own tasks when given a lead role, Terry seems to have a found a place that fosters creative and intelligent thinkers like her. “Brooke is a student that you will always remember,” Ging says, “I love seeing her progression of talent and drive, her understanding of the art world, her dedication to helping the younger students. I look forward to the day when I get to say, “I knew her when…”
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STUDENTS WALK OUT TO S TA N D U P BY MADELINE BALE / feature section editor
Kamal Lado, left, and Hannah Ryan, right, were part of the student walkout on Jan. 20 walkout at CHS. Photo by Alex Darmody. “I felt like I was part of something bigger than myself,” CHS sophomore William Bermingham said about his participation in Clayton’s Jan. 20 walk-out in protest of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. “I felt different,” he said. At 12:00 pm on Friday, Jan. 20, more than 60 students walked out of class and convened in solidarity in the center quad of the high school. Organized by CHS senior and Social Justice Club President Brooke Jones, the protest gave students an opportunity to exchange constructive rhetoric in an inclusive environment. “I’ve been involved in lots of Black Lives Matter protests. The walk-out was a lot less organized, but the energy was definitely there,” Jones said. After hearing about a national walkout through Facebook, Jones decided to spread the word and get CHS involved. Although she was ultimately not able to
participate in the walk-out itself, the event ran smoothly and devoted itself to progress.
“ I felt like I had to do something in the American way, and that way is to protest and utilize our first Amendment rights.” -Claire Millett
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“It was cool to see that, even though I was the one who spread the word, everyone still showed up even when I couldn’t make it,” Jones said. In Jones’s place, fellow Social Justice Club member Claire Millett stepped up to deliver a speech during the walk-out. “When I found out that Trump was going to be president, my heart dropped to my stomach. I felt like I had to do something in the American way, and that way is to protest and utilize our first Amendment rights,” Millett said. In very few words, Millett was able to express the frustrations of hundreds of CHS students. “I wanted people to know that we have the right to protest every single injustice – every single move that the Trump administration makes in the next four years,” Millett said. “We have the right to stand up in the face of injustice, and we have the right to say that Donald Trump is
not our president.” Despite the frustration and fear, the walk-out focused on promoting constructive dialect. “I tried to maintain a tone of respect in my speech because I didn’t want it to be a rhetoric of hatred, and I didn’t want protesters to be viewed as just angry liberals. I wanted to make sure that we stayed above all that,” Millett said. Millett’s speech did not go unappreciated by other participants. “I felt that Claire’s speech was the most empowering moment,” Bermingham said. “She is so well spoken, and it was amazing to hear what she had worked on.” While Jones has participated in dozens of other protests, the experience was new for many CHS students, including Millet. “During the Obama administration, there wasn’t really that much to protest because we were making so much progress,” Millett said. “But now, I feel very threatened by the Trump administration, and I had to stand up and do something.” The walk-out was also Bermingham’s first protest experience, and he was determined to attend despite the consequences. “The future of this nation is in the hands of millennials, and I felt that it was import-
ant that I be there,” Bermingham said. Although admittedly disorganized in planning, the walk-out came together and left participants feeling different as they returned to class. “The walk out gave me hope,” Millett said. “Clayton students are so focused on school, but then I saw such a huge number of people walk out of class to participate, willing to take the consequences. We’re not just going to become apathetic to the Trump administration. We’re going to stand up and fight.” As Millett gained a new perspective, Bermingham found determination. “We are our own people, and we should make our own decisions about what to fight for,” Bermingham said. As she heard stories of the walk-out’s success, Jones, too, reached an important conclusion. “Even though the man in office is someone who ran his campaign on pure hatred, we as a community need to continue to stand with one another in solidarity and to continue to support one another and be there for one another regardless of what is happening politically,” Jones said. “That’s democracy.”
CHS sophomore Saadya Shy. Photo by Alex Darmody.
CHS GETS
14 CHS students attended Close-Up in DC the week of President Trump’s inaguration. On Jan. 20, 2017, President Donald J. Trump was sworn into office as the President of the United States. People all over the country turned on their televisions and computers to tune in to this monumental event in American history. While millions watched the inauguration electronically, 14 CHS students had the opportunity to experience the affair up close. “When you have an election that is so divisive from both sides, it has the ability and the tendency to pin people against one another and make things much more challenging,” CHS senior Auriann Sehi said when describing her experience attending the Close-Up Washington D.C. trip this past January. Close-Up is a nation wide organization that allows high school students the opportunity to go to Washington D.C. for a week and explore Capitol Hill, museums and numerous monuments and memorials. In addition to learning about D.C., students meet with others from all over the country and explore different views and cultures while learning how to exchange ideas and facilitate polite conversations. CHS history teacher David Aiello has been chaperoning the Close-Up trip with CHS for the past 18 years. “[Close-Up’s] attitude is that you can learn a lot about government and politics by watching movies and taking a class, but when you’re in D.C., there’s so many things that make it so much cooler to learn, and it has a lasting impact,” Aiello said. “[CloseUp’s] current tagline is ‘what happens here can change your life,’ and that’s very much the idea. So instead of sitting in classrooms and getting lectured to by teachers and reading articles, they actually take you out into the city.” Freshman Sophie Axelbaum signed up for this trip in September 2016. Although the outcome of the election was not the one for which she had hoped, she enjoyed the excursion and learned a lot about American government and politics. “On the first day, we went to the archives, which is where the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are,” Axelbaum said. “The second day, we
went to the museum of African American History and Culture, and it’s new. It opened in September, and that was really amazing. Then we saw the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and I actually saw the band rehearsing for the presidential inaugural concert. We also saw the Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials.” Because 2017 is a presidential inauguration year, Close-Up students also got the opportunity to attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump. For Aiello, this inauguration was unlike the other six he has witnessed through Close-Up.
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“I’ve been to every [inauguration] since Clinton, and they’ve all been different and special in their own way. This one was really, really weird,” he said. Aiello compared Trump’s inauguration to Obama’s inauguration, and explained that the inauguration of former President Obama had a huge crowd of people cheering and dancing, and the mood was overwhelmingly uplifting and positive. “At this one, I didn’t get that sense. It seemed kind of low key,” Aiello said. In order to attend the inauguration, according to Axelbaum, CHS’ Close-Up group left their hotel very early in the morning. “We had to leave at 4 a.m. [to] catch the metro, and we didn’t need to leave that early because not a lot of people were there, but
CLOSE UP
BY OLIVIA JOSEPH and LILA TAYLOR
(Left) CHS seniors at the Women’s March in DC. (Above) Seniors at Capitol Hill. Photos from Maddy Vaughn.
the line was really, really long,” Axelbaum said. “We had to go through security, and people at the inauguration were crying. They were crying out of fear and sadness.” Many people across the nation have resisted accepting Trump as their president, and the students who travelled to Washington D.C. were no exception. A large range of political views and differences became apparent on the trip. Out of the 14 students who attended the trip, three were Trump supporters, and the other 11 were not. This called for very different perspectives from each person on the trip. “Some of the people on the trip were very happy, and some of the people on the trip were not very happy,” Sehi said.
CHS students signed up to attend the Close-Up trip last April, so they did not know whose inauguration they were going to attend. “I thought I was going to attend the inauguration of the first female president. That’s what I was hoping for,” Sehi said. For Axelbaum, being at Trump’s inauguration was challenging. “I always knew that he was going to be president, but seeing him stand there and be sworn in and give his speech really scared me,” Axelbaum said. “On inauguration day, he started taking down things from the White House website – things about climate
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change and LGBT rights.” While some CHS students were disappointed to attend the inauguration of President Trump, a few students were not. Some CHS students even got VIP tickets to the inauguration. “A lot of [students] were very upset and very pissed off, and then [there were also] people that were fairly passionate for Trump,” CHS senior Zachary Sorensen said. “As a fairly moderate person, I didn’t have a strong reaction either way. I didn’t have much of a personal [connection].” Amongst varying political views, students were able to handle their differences respectfully. “It was interesting to see the difference of opinions and see how people expressed themselves differently,” Aiello said. Although the inauguration was hard for the students who had not supported Trump, the women’s march in Washington D.C. the following day was more uplifting for the students. “The best part was the last day, and that was the Women’s march, which was absolutely amazing,” Axelbaum said. “The few blocks that were being marched on were completely full. It was like a sea of people. People were sitting on top of street lamps, and everyone was holding up really clever signs and chanting, and everyone coming together, for one purpose. It was just so cool.” For CHS senior Maddy Vaughn, being in DC for the Close-Up trip was an eye-opening experience. “In Clayton we live in such a bubble – a very liberal bubble,” Vaughn said. “Going out to see the inauguration and being surrounded by that much hateful commentary, it made me really sa and made me lose hope for the next four years. But going back again to the Women’s march and seeing everyone being so supportive of each other gave me hope. Just seeing so many people come together and being in Washington D.C. at the time was really impactful, and we would stand up on this platform, and you couldn’t even see the end of the street. I was just surrounded by hope.”
DOUBLE
The Snelling Twins recount their experiences in Washington University’s twin study.
Katie Snelling (left) and Grace Snelling (right). Photo by Elizabeth Cordova. When we arrived at Barnes Jewish Hospital, we were led into a large brick building by two research assistants (RAs). It was a Saturday, so the building was almost completely devoid of other people, but it was clear that the equipment inside was used often during the week by medical students and professionals. The halls were bare and the facility smelled like rubbing alcohol and cleaning agent. We passed several doorways, one of which our mom was led into one of the
RAs, Anya, while we were ushered into a separate room by the other assistant, Shayna. Inside there was an old-looking MRI machine and a dusty computer. Shayna explained to us that it was a practice room, used to help participants understand what being in the actual MRI would be like. Katie volunteered to go in first, stepping up unto the patient table and lying down with her head resting in the intended position. Shayna strapped a contraption reminiscent of a motorcycle helmet over her face,
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both to keep her head from shifting and to provide the mirror that she would need to see the projector behind her. My sister Katie and I are currently participants of a twin study that is being held at Washington University. Dr. Andrey Anokhin, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine, is the director of the study. Anokhin’s team is trying to isolate some of the variables that lead to teens and adults becoming addicted to substances.
D AT A
BY GRACE SNELLING with reporting by Katie Snelling “What makes people use it [drugs in excess]?” Anokhin said. These substances include both illicit (cocaine, marijuana, meth) and licit (alcohol, tobacco) drugs. Twins are especially useful in studies like these because they often have DNA that is either very similar or identical. Using an MRI, researchers are able to understand the brain’s reaction to different scenarios. When Katie was done with her MRI I could feel my heart rate speeding up; I’ve always been claustrophobic and was anxious to see how my body would react to being trapped in a dark tube. As the table slid back into the machine, the cramped room was filled with a loud hum that echoed from wall to wall, followed by a series of obnoxious clicks. I didn’t realize that I’d been holding my breath until Shayna asked me to click a button on the controller that I was holding. The MRI was much less constricting than I expected it to be and the only real downside to the actual experiment was the inherent boredom that comes with lying in the same position for two hours. 650 other twins, ages 12 through 18, all from the Missouri area, will be involved in this study for the next five years (or longer). In order to even be considered for the study, we had to take part in a 30 minute phone interview about our experiences with drugs and alcohol. In addition, we filled out a lengthy online survey about our personalities and our family history, as well as any traumatic experiences that we’d had. After we were determined to be eligible, we agreed to take part in several different ‘sessions’ with the researchers over the course of the next 18 months. Our first session included both a two hour MRI scan and a two hour intelligence and risk taking test. Inside the MRI, we played multiple games using a hand-held controller that were designed to gage the speed of our reflexes. In one game, several shapes would flash on the screen; as soon as the black shape appeared, we were supposed to click a button.
Each successful trial would result in a prize of actual money and each failure would result in a deduction from our total winnings. Another game was intended to measure our willingness to take risks. In it, we were instructed to blow up a virtual balloon by clicking a button on our controllers. A click would increase the balloon’s monetary value, but it was viable to pop at any time, even after two or three ‘pumps’. Our job was to choose when to stop pumping and collect the money at stake. I walked away with $50 (as well as substantial bragging rights), while my sister earned $30. The second session was a much more personal one.
Katie and I were separated and interviewed by two different RAs about suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and family dynamic. One question was particularly striking; we were asked to rate our relationships with each other and with our parents. I was hesitant to answer this question, shocked by the idea of rating 14 years of failure, success, love, loss and laughter on a scale from one to 10. It was a thought that I’d never considered before; mapping out my life as something tangible and concrete. Looking at myself that way, from the perspective of an outsider, I realized how lucky I am to be able to answer confidently, “10.”
33. 9 out of 1000 births in the U.S. are s e t s o f t w i n s . - Statistic from the CDC Identical twins are 3 times as likely to both abuse marijuana than fraternal twins. - Statistic from the National Institute on Drug Abuse FEATURE 23
JO CHS alumn Jo Firestone has achieved success as a comedian, with work appearing on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
It all started in the halls of Clayton High School. More specifically, though, for CHS graduate and current comedian Jo Firestone, it started in the CHS theater. This was when she realized her calling. “[Kelley Weber] let me direct the student run musical. She let me pick out the show and direct it,” Firestone said. “That was really fun and it gave me a sense of what I liked and what I wanted to bring out of people. I think that was definitely a big learning moment.” The unique opportunities Clayton High School’s theater department presented to Firestone opened doors that would ultimately lead her to where she is now. “I feel like just in terms of the arts there, there is a lot of emphasis on the arts relative to a lot of other high schools,” she said.
“There’s a chance to explore [the arts] and I took full advantage of that. I realized how much I liked doing the plays and from there it got me hooked.” Weber, Firestone’s theater teacher throughout her four years at CHS, took notice to her willingness to get involved which, according to Weber, was a byproduct or her daring personality. “Jo was up for anything. She was in all the shows,” Weber said. “There was not a drop of diva in Jo. She is fearless.” Looking back on the impact participating in theater at CHS had on her life, Firestone encourages current students in a similar situation to hers to be active and to
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embrace the opportunities that lie in front of them. “If you like or are curious about the arts, take a class or two. Try out for the plays if you like that kind of thing. It’s fun whether you’re the main part or in the chorus. It’s fun to hang out and do bits backstage and be around other people who like the arts and be inspired by what they like about it and figure out what you want to do in that world,” Firestone said. From Clayton High School, the lifetime St. Louisan left for Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she would continue her study and practice of theater. With her Clayton High School theater days as fuel, Firestone continued to broaden her horizons while in college. “I started doing comedy [in college] and then I made a show with a friend and we started going on tour with it,” Firestone said. “We did our own little DIY tour. We even went back to Wydown Middle School and did the show there.” The DIY tour – which would become a show called “Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite” – while not necessarily a household name, has received praise in the New York Times and The Washington Post and has been performed to sold-out crowds in New York City, Washington DC, St. Louis, and across New England. The transition from theater to comedy, however, proved an awkward one for Firestone. “When you do a part on TV, you mostly just stand around and each a bunch of snacks, and then they’re like ‘You have to be on set now,’ and you run there and do your lines like 16 times in a row, and you’re done for the day. You would never do that for a play; that’d be a crazy play,” she said. “I haven’t done a play in so long ... Sometimes I have nightmares about being in plays and not knowing any of the lines.” Although it took some getting used to, Firestone found that comedy was the profession her personality was most compatible with. “Being a comedian, it’s a little bit looser;
FIRESTONE BY NOAH BROWN / managing editor Photos of Firestone from Jo Firestone you can work when you want to work. You can sort of organize your schedule a little bit. I’m not great at focusing all the time, so it’s a better job for me in that way,” she said. Seven years ago, Firestone relocated to the comedy capital of America: New York City. After stints with the Chris Gethard Show among others, Firestone landed what, to many, would represent a dream job: she now writes for the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Although she recognizes the tangible benefits of her new gig, Firestone is just as appreciative of the life-applicable skills she gains from writing on such a platform. “You have to write so much. Most of it is probably going to be really bad but at least you’re getting it out of your system,” she said. “There’s something there where it’s nice to use your brain like that and understand the news in a way that doesn’t necessarily frighten you, and to learn how to interpret it in a way that could be funny. I think that’s an important tool in times like these.” While it may appear as a dream job, comedy, in general, – and the comedian’s lifestyle, is something that takes getting used to. “There’s not a lot of consistency in your work. There’s not a lot of stability. You could get a job and it could pay you for a little bit and you pay your rent and have food to eat. And then that job ends and you’ve got to get another job. Most jobs don’t last more than 6 months and the jobs that last for a while last like 5 years. It’s just a different [lifestyle],” Firestone said. In addition to the unorthodox lifestyle, being a comedian requires much more – it often requires extreme persistence and a willingness to fail. In spite of the adversity, Firestone keeps going. “It’s a very discouraging field. There’s so much rejection. One night will feel so terrible if you bomb on stage,” she said. “Ever since high school, it’s been a gradual ‘Oh, that play was fun. Let me do it again,’ or ‘I like being around these people. Let me do it again,’ or ‘This sketch went well. I’ll try another one.’ It’s a gradual small amounts of fuel that keep you going.”’
Being in the industry for several years now, Firestone has noticed that comedy often reflects the overall tone of American society and can serve to heal a divided society. To Firestone, this is the power of comedy. “I feel like it’s a really divided country and people are really scared on both sides. Comedy right now serves to satirize what people are afraid of or as more of an escape, depending on what you’re more into,” she said. “When I started, comedy was used more as an escape, more like ‘Let’s just
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distress from the day and go see a comedy show.’ Now it’s hard to escape the stress so it’s like ‘Why don’t we dig into this stress and why it’s stressful.’” From her years of teaching Firestone, Weber came to appreciate Firestone’s unique personality and outlook on life. “Jo doesn’t take herself too seriously. She’s a bit self deprecating and even a little shy. She’s also the nicest person you’d want to know - she cares about other people,” Weber said. “When studying comedy or clowning in acting class one thing they say about successful comics is that they ‘live close to their clown.’ Jo lives close to her clown.”
T H E H E ROI N EPIDEMIC
The Globe investigates a phenomenon that is on the rise in St. Louis and across the nation
by MITALI SHARMA and SAM ZIED
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I. an introduction
J
ust like many Clayton elementary schoolers, Jack Bernard was learning to play violin. Soon enough, his passion for the instrument blossomed and he became a violinist, participating in the school orchestra during his time at Wydown and CHS. As many passionate student musicians are, with hopes of stepping up their musical talent, Jack was in need of an instrument upgrade. Sarah Bernard, Jack’s mother, recognized the potential in her son and purchased a $2500 violin for him as a gift. She had no idea that he would later pawn the special gift in order to fuel his drug addiction with heroin and other opioids. Years into this addiction, and on the way to a rehabilitation center with his family, Jack told Sarah that he had pawned the violin. For Sarah, this was a shock. At first, her feelings were primarily anger that he had sold the precious gift. “I was really angry because I felt it wasn’t his violin because I had bought it, even though I had bought it for him,” Sarah said. However, she soon realized that the violin was a symbol of something more and worked endlessly to purchase the violin back. “I was on this quest to get it back because to me that violin represented the old Jack.” After a second relapse, Jack went to another rehabilitation facility. Sarah received a call from the facility staff, asking that she send Jack the violin. He missed his music and the counselors felt that this passion would be integral to his recovery. Thus, the violin has now returned to the Clayton alum, but any time he wants to use it, he must check it out from his rehab facility’s staff. Jack was a student on the same track as all the other Clayton kids. However, drugs, especially heroin and prescription opioids, steered him off course.
II. overview
Drug cartels know how to make money and addictive drugs bring in profit. When there is a large availability of drugs, more people get addicted. When more people are addicted, more people are continuously seeking another high. And when they can get this high for low costs, that is when sales skyrocket. It used to be marijuana that cartels focused on. But in 2004 and 2005, the United States started liberalizing its marijuana laws, and the drug cartels stopped producing marijuana. It was no longer profitable, especially as even stronger marijuana was beginning to be grown in the U.S. So, instead of marijuana, the cartels turned to heroin. “The [drug cartels] don’t care about the people, they’re just trying to get all the money they can. They make [heroin] very available because they know it’s very addictive and they make it very cheap,” Dr. Evan Schwarz said, a toxicologist at Barnes-Jewish hospital and a professor at Washington University School of Medicine. Heroin is an opiate that comes from the seeds of poppy (opium) plants. Just like opium and other opioids/opiates, it provides the user with a sudden sense of euphoria. Opioids and opiates both function as depressants and painkillers, and are often prescribed by doctors after surgery or other treatments to ease the patient’s pain. Commonly prescribed painkillers include Vicodin, morphine, and Percocet. These drugs are highly addictive and over-prescription can often contribute to a recovering patient heading down the path of becoming a heroin addict. Opioids and opiates are divided by what comprises the two. Opioids are synthetic drugs made of chemical compounds while opiates come naturally from the poppy flower. Heroin is derived directly from the poppy seeds and falls under the opiate category, whereas the prescription painkillers which lead to the heroin addiction often opioids. Heroin most often comes as a fine white or brown powder, but it can also be bought as a tarry substance (known as black tar heroin). Users can inject, smoke or snort the drug to feel its effects. Each time a heroin user shoots up, the outcome is unpredictable. There is no knowing what constitutes each different batch of heroin, or if it is what is called a “bad batch.” “You just don’t know who you go to or what batch they have, because we have people who have done heroin for years but [they] get a bad batch and it kills [them] instantly,” Jessica Burnham said, an emergency room nurse at St. Alexius hospital in downtown St. Louis who deals with heroin overdoses every day.
The number of deaths related to heroin overdoses has been on the rise. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), this number has quadrupled since 2010 and in 2015, almost 13,000 people in the U.S. died due to a heroin overdose. On a regional basis, the midwest was second to highest in the country, with a total of 3,959 heroin overdose deaths in 2015. Contrary to popular belief, heroin is not just an urban problem. After heroin became the drugs that cartels mass produced, usage rates in rural areas increased as well. Brandon Costerison is the public awareness specialist for Curiosity and Heroin, a campaign run by the St. Louis based National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (NCADA) whose aim is to raise awareness on prescription opioid and heroin use. He believes that the cartels’ shift from marijuana to heroin is primarily responsible for this spreading of heroin from the city to the rural areas. Yet, he also believes that the increase is due to a lack of awareness in rural locations. “It’s a combination of availability and perception of harm. Out there people don’t see much of a danger in it. They don’t recognize how dangerous some of these drugs can be,” Costerison said. Without a doubt, the heroin epidemic is spreading. There is a reason Costerison and his team at the NCADA have a campaign specifically targeting heroin use in the St. Louis area; the heroin epidemic has not skipped the river city in its destructive path across the country. In fact, many consider this epidemic to be one of St. Louis’s most pressing problems. “Last year, our preliminary numbers said there were over 460 deaths in the St. Louis region. That beat the old record of 455. We’re seeing continuous increase in the number of fatalities,” Costerison said. Not only is the rate of heroin related deaths rising in the St. Louis area, but treatment for heroin addiction surpasses many other drugs. “When you compare heroin to cocaine, heroine is more than four times the treatment rate for cocaine. It’s about 50 percent higher than the rate for marijuana,” Costerison said. “It’s a lot higher than the rate for methamphetamine and a lot higher than the rate for prescription drugs.” Although these facts indicate the rates of treatment rather than usage, they are indicative of heroin’s high prevalence in the region. CNN even did a special on the St. Louis heroin problem, stating that heroin deaths in the area were four times the national average. It seems that along with the Cardinals and the Arch, the heroin epidemic has also built itself into St. Louis’s name.
THE PRICE OF A CAPSULE OF HEROIN IS APPROXIMATELY $5 - $10 - According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (NCADA)
III. the scientific lens “With heroin, the first time you use it you’re addicted,” Burnham said. Although the addiction to heroin is a well known problem, few people truly understand just how little it takes to become hooked. Schwarz compared the irresistible draw to Heroin which a user experiences to a more commonly experienced addiction – candy. Although at first glance such an analogy may seem like over-simplification, a deeper look proves that the two processes really aren’t that different. According to Schwarz, “If you eat a piece of candy and you like the feeling the candy gives you -- that’s the same type of system that goes on in your brain and then your body is encouraged to eat more chocolate because you really like to have that experience again,” he said. “Heroin and drugs hijack that system so it makes the body want to continue to use them and over time you actually get permanent changes in your brain and in your brain’s chemistry, which make it even harder to get off the drugs.” Evidently, one use of heroin has devastating consequences, and as a result it is hard to understand what would motivate someone to do something so nocuous to themselves. “Whether they’re just experimenting or they’re covering up depression or something bad that’s going on in their life, it makes them feel better that first time,” Schwarz said. “Over time, you’re generally not using it to feel better you’re using it because you can’t stop and now just trying to not feel bad.” Often, people turn to drugs during times of personal struggle or even to just try it, but end up falling victim to the addictive qualities of the drug. Another primary cause of heroin addictions is something so familiar as doctor prescribed pain killers. “We are seeing more because it all starts with prescription drugs. A lot of the kids end up getting wisdom teeth pulled out, and the doctors will put them on Vicodin or Percocet ... and then they like that high they get, and people prone to addiction will seek out that high again,” Burnham said. “Prescription drugs are really hard to get off the street
now, a it’s really difficult to get refills bc states have new laws and stuff, whereas heroin is really cheap to get, so they go to heroin bc they want that fix.” Schwarz emphasized the biochemical influence of heroin on the brain. “Catecholamines that are released such as dopamine and norepinephrine and when those things are released they cause the people to start wanting to do that again to get that release,” he said. “The ‘reward’ center of your brain with the dopamine and norepinephrine start tricking your brain to want to do these things. It starts changing the way your body works, your brain works, and its chemistry works -- so you just can’t think straight ... so it makes it harder for you to make good decisions, in addition you have this stimulus that makes you want to to continue using even if you know that it’s bad for you.” When a person uses heroin to the point where their body shuts down, the drug naloxone is often used in the form of Narcan by paramedics to reverse the effects of heroin. During an overdose, a user will go into respiraAccording to the CDC tory arrest because of the way the drug stimulates the opiate receptors in the brain. Narcan works by blocking the effects of the drug on the brain. One of the most difficult parts of rehabilitation is the physical pain that comes with denying an addiction. Patients often experience difficult symptoms. “In addition to those physical nausea, vomiting, diarrhea; you also get these cravings of just really wanting to do it again which really makes things even worse,” Schwarz said. Ultimately, heroin addiction is not something that is easy to bounce back from, and the journey to recover has plenty of physical and emotional difficulties. Still, it is important to recognize that hope in recovery always exists in therapy, medicine, and rehabilitation centers. And, although it may be the toughest step to take, a big part of recovery lies in the addict’s own hands. “The best thing is realizing you have an issue -- which is hard to do,” Schwarz said.
THE RATE OF US DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS INVOLVING HEROIN HAS MORE THAN TRIPLED IN THE PAST 5 YEARS. -
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IV. heroin and teenagers Most locals remember the advertisement that came across St. Louis television screens during last year’s Super Bowl. The public service announcement, aired by the NCADA, depicted a heroin user throwing away her hobbies, her schoolwork, her dog, and even her family because of the brutal effects of heroin addiction and the constant desire to get high again. The girl, a Lafayette High School cheerleader, who started experimenting with pills at a party. 2016 was not the first year the NCADA had run an advertisement during this time when the majority of St. Louis televisions are being watched. In 2015, another clip portrayed a mother returning from the grocery store to find her son, a high school athlete, dead due to a heroin overdose. This announcement also highlighted the other common facet of heroin addiction; a myriad of users get their start from prescription pills. For the boy in the NCADA video, he had explored his mother’s medicine cabinet and eventually turned to heroin to fuel his dependence on the drugs. Heroin is not solely an “adult problem.” Not only does it crawl its way into the lives of teenagers, but it often waits down the road for adolescents who experiment with pills at parties or get hooked on prescribed medication. Jack’s story began during his time at Wydown Middle School when he started smoking marijuana. Coming into CHS, Jack began experimenting with other drugs in order to gain approval from upperclassmen. “I wanted to be approved in their eyes, wanted to be one of the cooler kids so that’s why when I was a freshman was when I started using speed -- more adderall or ritalin based drugs,” Jack said. It all became a vortex from there. Soon after, Jack started using Xanax, a benzo, and oxycontin, an opioid, which set him down the path of opioid dependence. Jack went to a rehabilitation center his junior year of high school, and was sober for all of first semester senior year. However, his addiction got the best of him. “Second half of senior year is when I got back into it and that’s when I started using opioids pretty heavily,” Jack said. “The urge to use inside of me became too big and I couldn’t control it anymore, so I started using again.” Opioids offer a sense of euphoria and relief from physical and emotional pain, and it is for this reason that they appealed to Jack. The
anxiety of college applications during senior year was a stressor that caused him to increasingly turn to the drugs. “When I started using opioids, they always made me feel a lot more confident. They took the stress off, took the edge off,” Jack said. Jack slightly experimented with heroin his senior year, but it was not until after high school that his penchant for the opiate escalated. After years of prescription drug use, the expenses grew to be exhaustive, leading Jack to turn to this new source. “[Heroin] was a lot cheaper than the pills and I could get the same high off of it for a fifteenth of the price,” he said. Jack was hooked on heroin. And he also realized that this was no longer him just using drugs recreationally. He knew he had a disease. “When the drugs were taken away, all I would think about is drugs and using drugs. When I was using drugs, I’d be able to see how I was never satisfied with how much that high was,” Jack said. “It was just no way to live. I was doing crazy stuff to get the drugs and everything in my life was pretty much stripped from me. I knew potentially I was going to die pretty soon.” Sarah had the same fears about her son. “When you hear that your child has been using substances that you can’t even pronounce, it’s a very scary feeling because you realize how close they are to death,” she said. Out of all the drugs he experimented with, Jack is adamant that his run with heroin shook his life the most. “I was impacted most gravely by heroin because when I started using heroin, the people that I associated with changed and a bunch of other drugs that I had always said I’d never do just started getting introduced through heroin.” Jack has recently completed a 12 month recovery program. Through sponsorship, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and a supportive community, he has been able to maintain a clean lifestyle. Nonetheless, the disease of addiction is still a battle he must fight everyday. Jack is not the only Clayton student who got tangled up with heroin. In fact, Jessica Burnham’s younger brother, John, who attended Clayton during the late 1980s, dealt with a heroin addiction as well. “They started out pot smoking [during] junior year. And back then, believe it or not, the high school had a smoking lounge right next to the commons. John would go out there because we always knew that’s where the pot smokers were that he’d hang out with, and it progressed from pot smoking that he started experimenting with
“[My brother] had cashed his paycheck that Monday morning, and threw a little laundry in, ate a bowl of cereal with my mom, and was dead by noon.” - Jessica Burnham
HEROIN USE HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED AMONG 18-25 YEAR OLDS OVER THE PAST DECADE - According to the CDC
heroin,” Jessica said. Progressively using heroin at parties, John’s addiction to the opiate worsened. Jessica and her family tried to place John in several rehabilitation facilities, but they proved to be unsuccessful in helping John get off his addiction. After years of dealing with this addiction, John died at age 27 in 1998 from a heroin overdose. He was at a drug house on Maplewood, right off of Big Bend. “I even have a picture, [my brother] is holding my daughter who was like two back then, from that Sunday, and Monday I was doing the ICU and my ex-husband called and said ‘your brother is dead at the ER at Saint Mary’s,’” Jessica said. “[My brother] had cashed his paycheck that Monday morning, and threw a little laundry in, ate a bowl of cereal with my mom, and was dead by noon.” Jessica spoke at CHS after John’s death about the dangers of heroin usage and told her personal story. However, she felt that at that time, the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Clayton administration did not respond well. “It was Clayton. You didn’t wanna talk about that it was county kids doing it,” Jessica said. Jessica’s own kids attended Webster Groves High School. However, they are not exempt from the St. Louis heroin epidemic either. John Raimondo, the assistant principal of Webster Groves High School, explained the situation in his community. “We really weren’t hearing much about heroin until about 6 or 7 years ago, and even that was just a small, very small group of kids, who were popular enough and connected enough with other students that it began to spread, almost like an epidemic,” Raimondo said. He has been insistent upon improving the state of the school by involving the community in the fight against drug usage. Raimondo highlights the necessity of providing education in school against drugs, while also emphasizing the responsibility of teachers to report rumours that they overhear regarding students using drugs, so that the school can immediately contact the parent and
prevent further damage. Raimondo points out that community contact is essential especially for kids who would be the least expected users. “It’s across academic achievement, students that we know are using are getting A’s, they are getting B’s. C’s, F’s. I think sometimes when parents see that their kids are doing well in school, they tend to think that [heroin usage] wouldn’t happen, but it does,” Raimondo said. “No parent wants to think, or deal, with the fact that their kid might be using, and a lot of kids are. It is so important for parents to be vigilant and not assume everything is ok, they gotta just keep having those conversations, if we can’t as staff just think they’re just kidding. We’ve got a responsibility to let a parent know that we are hearing things, and the parent has to make their judgement, and if they’re concerned then they take the next step.” Jack’s experiences, although they took place in Clayton rather than Webster, reflect exactly what Raimondo was referring to. “I was a pretty good student and I played sports, and people like me weren’t necessarily looked into by the administration,” Jack said. Although Jack and John both got their start with heroin through experimentation with other people or in parties, another factor often leads teenagers down the same path -- mental illness. The teenage years can be tumultuous times, specifically regarding mental health. “Sometimes teenagers are struggling and it can be a difficult time in life with all the changes and they can inadvertently look for (opioid abuse) as a way to escape and unfortunately what they don’t realize is that it’s actually gonna make everything worse,” Schwarz said. However, making it through the teenage years without an addiction is a good sign. Schwarz affirmed, “if you get through these teenage years and you’re not using this stuff, it’s less likely to get addiction down the road.”
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V. political lens
Students from Debra Wiens’ AP Goverment Class in Jefferson City lobbying for the 911 Good Samaritan Law.
Laws can save live and Missouri is lagging behind other states when it comes to creating these medically imperative laws and government programs. Out of all 50 states in the U.S., Missouri is the only one that does not have a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). Nevertheless, Costerison and his colleagues at the NCADA believe that prescription drug abuse is the primary cause for heroin addiction. “80 percent of the people who use heroin started with those pills because it works the same way on the brain and heroin is cheaper and more available so people who can’t get those pills move over to
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the heroin,” Costerison said. “We think that by raising the awareness about the prescription pills to start off with, that that will decrease the number of people using heroin down the line.” Having a PDMP would ease the process for both government officials and medical practitioners, as it allows prescription drug use and prescription to be monitored and abuse to be prevented. According to Safe and Strong Missouri, an organization promoting a Missouri PDMP, State Representative Holly Rehder (R) said, “the only fix for opioid addiction in Missouri is a prescription drug monitoring program.”
However, the database has been stalled in its journey through Jefferson City. Senator Rob Schaaf (R) has vociferously voiced his opposition of the bill on grounds of a privacy breach and stopped the program in making its way out of Missouri Legislature. Another approach is the passing of the 911 Good Samaritan Law which Missouri currently lacks. These laws are designed to reduce the amounts of heroin deaths and get people to recovery faster. Currently, many heroin users and dealers hesitate to call for help due to a fear that they will be arrested. Jessica sees this firsthand during her emergency room shifts. “What [users] do is a lot of times if you are at the drughouse and they stop responding to anything, the drug dealer will take the license plate off his car, take him to the ER, push him out of the door, and then run,” she said. It is for this reason that many St. Louisans advocate for the Good Samaritan Laws, as these would allow a user to take their friend to the hospital or call 911 without being immediately prosecuted, unless the caller is a dealer. The laws have the approval of doctors such as Schwarz, and have scientific evidence to back them despite opposition which has emerged. Many people worry that the laws will enable heroin users to continue with their drug abuse. However, Schwarz disagrees. “People with addiction problems are going to use. No matter what any of these things do -- Good Samaritan laws, clean needles, over-the-counter naloxone -- people are going to use whether you have these programs or not,” Schwarz said. “In the addict’s mind they’re not thinking ‘oh it’s safer.’ That’s not how their mind thinks. They know what they’re doing is dangerous they just can’t stop. So these things are actually very helpful because youre talking about saving people’s lives.” Schwarz also uses clean needle exchanges as an example of such programs’ merit. “If you look at data, for instance clean needle programs,” Schwarz said. “If people are going to inject, they can get clean needles. There is no data that they take more drugs. If they’re going to inject, they’re going to inject. They’re either going to inject with a clean needle or a dirty needle so it might as well be a clean needle so that there’s less of a chance that they get an infection and that the medical system has to deal with that infection.”
Debra Wiens, an AP American Government teacher at CHS, is a vehement supporter of the Good Samaritan Laws and has been pushing Missouri legislature to pass the laws. In her AP Government class, students can choose an issue to focus on and lobby for in Jefferson City. Last year, the students decided to follow Wiens’ path and pursue the passing of the 911 Good Samaritan Law. The students thoroughly researched all aspects of the bill and realized that this law was essential to saving lives and helping stop the drug epidemic in its way across Missouri. “We contacted legislators in other states and asked them about their 911 bills and how they got it passed. We talked with lobbyists, legislators, college professors. We had Robert McCulloch, the county prosecutor, come in,” Wiens said. “So we really understood that this is a crisis, it needs to be dealt with.” In her fight for the laws, Wiens has been in contact with State Representative Steve Lynch (R), sponsor of the 911 Good Samaritan bill. However, Lynch has been unsuccessful in convincing his fellow Republicans to pass the bill. According to Wiens, this failure is due to the deliberate organization of the legislature meetings. Lynch’s bill was the last to be discussed during the sessions and due to late timings, many of the witnesses who were going to testify ended up having to leave. Nevertheless, both Wiens and Lynch are hopeful for the upcoming legislative season which has just taken off this past month. Wiens and her students made a trip to Jefferson City where they met Lynch. He was grateful for the student support and interest and wanted them to return for the 2017 legislative session. “He was thrilled to have Clayton High School kids that expressed such interest,” Wiens said. “He said we should get in contact with him at the beginning of the legislative session, which would be now, and work with him to help get publicity and testify about the bill.” Wiens encourages politically active students to get behind this bill and take action. She feels that this bill, if passed into law, would dramatically help save lives. As far as what students can do, Wiens suggests calling the state representatives and even lobbying. As young members of the American democracy, she pushes students to use their voices to make a difference.
OUT OF ALL 50 STATES, MISSOURI IS THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION DRUG MONITORING SYSTEM
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VI. stigma “Clayton was really small back then, so you knew everybody ... the [administration] knew he was in treatment. Back then, I guess it was taboo, you didn’t talk about it,” Jessica said, regarding Clayton at the time of her brother John’s death. Heroin had a stigma at Clayton High School in the 1980s, and that attitude remains today. However, medical professionals and researchers of this epidemic have declared heroin as a mental illness, as addiction is a disease regarding the brain being taken over by chemicals. With the societal opprobrium that exists today, one poor decision can ruin a person’s life and one addiction defines a person. “This is a disease, it’s not just someone choosing to make poor choices over and over again. This is a disease just as diabetes and high cholesterol and high blood pressure are all diseases as well,” Schwarz said.
+ 9 out of 10 people who used heroin also used another drug
While addressing the dangers of heroin, it is imperative to remember that the users are real people. Jack and John were both regular Clayton High School students who simply “got sucked into the wrong crowd,” according to Jessica. It cannot be denied that someone who chose to use heroin made that decision for themselves. However, the medical classification of addiction as a mental health disorder proves that the ignominy which society shows users needs to be re-examined. One bad decision can lead to irresistible neurological chemicals, regardless of a person’s desire to quit. “It’s because addiction physically and mentally takes over the body, and without getting proper help they just can’t stop,” Schwarz said. No matter how much a person wants to quit, the chemical damage to the brain has been done, and as a result they should be treated with care and not ostracized. “I wouldn’t be able to stop once I started– no matter how badly I wanted to,” Jack said. After years of experience dealing with heroin addicts and the negativity that surrounds the drug, Costerison has also found it hard to push through the stigma that surrounds heroin addiction. He is still advocating to the public today to encourage looking at heroin addiction as a mental illness rather than characterizing it as an identity flaw. “We talk a lot about how dangerous heroin is. We talk a lot about how it’s destroying our communities,” he said. “But there’s two things that I think are really important to recognize. The first thing is that we’re dealing with a mental health disorder. Substance abuse disorders are mental health disorders. We can’t have societal prejudice against people with these mental health disorders, it’s just going to push them into worse and worse places. It’s like having prejudice against one for having bipolar disorder or depression, it’s ridiculous.” “The second thing is that there’s a lot of negativity that’s around us. But we have to remember that there is hope. People do recover. And with support and treatment, recovery is possible and we fully support getting treatment.” Heroin does not define a person. It is something that happened to them and something that will impact their lives. Nevertheless, it is the public’s duty to support the victims of this drug, because contrary to popular belief, they are not According to the CDC the perpetrators.
People who are addicted to: + Alcohol are 2x as likely to use heroin + Marijuana are 3x times + Cocaine are 15x times + Prescription painkillers are 40x times + Street names for heroin: Brown Sugar, China White, Dope, H, Horse, Junk, Skag, Skunk, Smack, White Horse -
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ATHLETE PROFILE
GRACEFUL GOALS Monshausen during a CHS girls’ varsity soccer game. Photo from Monshausen. Grace Monshausen is the type of person who knows exactly what she wants. And what she wants, she will pursue. Since the age of five, Monshausen has been sprinting down fields as fast as she can with a ball at her feet, striving to succeed in her sport. As Monshausen remembers, her days as a forceful soccer player have existed since she was a member of a kindergarten recreation league soccer team. “I used to tear people apart and kick the ball as hard as I could because I was a really aggressive child,” Monshausen, CHS senior and girls’ varsity soccer captain, said. Twelve years later, she still holds this determination on the field. According to Monshausen, every soccer game she plays serves as an opportunity for her to push herself both mentally and physically as an athlete. “[Soccer games are] 90 minutes of the most exhausting thing, both physically and mentally,” she said. “So when you come back from a soccer game, you feel like you’ve accomplished something really big.” And in these games, Monshausen often plays the position of center midfielder, which gives her the ability to lead her team on the field. “Being a center midfielder, you control the pace of the game,” Monshausen said. “I shift everyone with me.” In the eyes of CHS girls’ head soccer coach Tom Redmond, Monshausen has a commanding presence on the field. “She is the type of player that can dominate the game,” Redmond said. Monshausen’s passion for soccer has come from the lessons the select soccer
BY CAMILLE RESPESS / editor-in-chief
coach she has played for since third grade has taught her. “My coach has instilled in me that soccer is the most beautiful game that exists,” she said. “It is mentally so challenging. You have to be really good to stand out, and be an exceptional athlete to keep going. I think it’s the whole package.” In addition to being a four-year member of the girls’ varsity soccer team at CHS, Monshausen has also played field hockey for the Greyhounds, and swam her freshmen year on the girls’ varsity swim team. For Monshausen being a standout athlete is something she consistently desires to be. “Personal fulfillment is my biggest motivator [as an athlete],” she said. “I always want something to work towards something and always want to compete with other people.” For her teammate, CHS sophomore and girls’ varsity soccer player Eliza Coplevitz, Monshausen’s commitment to the sport makes her a positive contributor to the Greyhounds team. “Grace’s drive and humor make her a good teammate,” Coplivitz said. “She is dedicated to improving her personal fitness and soccer skills as well as her other teammates’.” On the girls’ soccer squad, Monshausen is going into her second year as a captain of the team. For Redmond, Monshausen’s leadership is clear. “She is an extension of the coaching staff
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on the field,” Redmond said. “She’s one of those players we look to to take charge of the game in the ways she plays and also being vocal and leading her teammates.” As a leader, Monshausen gains the most fulfilment from mentoring other, often younger, players. “It’s really rewarding when I feel like I help other players on my team,” she said. On the Greyhounds soccer team, Monshausen has been awarded Second Team All-Conference for both her junior and sophomore year seasons. “Grace is an amazing soccer player, she knows how to move the ball on the field and is aware of the different angles and passing opportunities while under pressure,” Coplevitz said. In December, Monshausen committed to play DIII Women’s Soccer at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois, where she will attend after graduating from CHS in June. “I cannot imagine not [playing soccer in college], I don’t know what I would in college if I weren’t playing soccer,” she said. Monshausen believes the love she holds for the game of soccer is what fuels her desire to keep going, to keep playing in college, and to keep working at her skills. “If you are going to do something without passion then why are you doing it?” Monshausen said.
S P R I N G S P O RT S PREVIEW by CHARLIE BRENNAN / copy editor
Girls’ Soccer
Players to watch: Emma Marquis-Kelly Grace Monshausen Katherine Owings 2015-2016 Record: Goals: To bond and work together on and off the field, to become better athletes and to build endurance.
Boys’ Golf
Players to watch: Daniel Cho David Cramer Tyler Mitchell 2015-2016 Record: 6-3 Goals: To reconstruct the team after the loss of two strong seniors and to cultivate new golfers in the program.
Boys’ Lacrosse
Players to watch: Naaja Kirkland Chase Lopata Riley McDermott
2015-2016 Record: 5-7 Goals: To reconstruct the team after the loss of two strong seniors and to cultivate the new members of the team.
Senior Madeline Droege Boys’ Baseball
Players to watch: Max Hunter Drew Phelan Bryant Thompson
2015-2016 Record: 8-16 Goals: To improve everyday, and to maintain a fine focus over a period of time. They want to treat every game and practice like it is the biggest one of the year.
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Track
Boys to watch: Keyonn Hall-Baker Lucas Hoffman Alex Szabo Girls to watch: Mary Kate Gelzer Jessica Navies Janae Pembrooke-Ward Goals: To make each member of the team to have a positive and rewarding experience, to compete at every meet tp the best of their ability and to represent CHS with respect.
Girls’ Lacrosse
Players to watch: Erin Elliott Pierce Sams Maddy Vaughn 2015-2016 Record: 11-8 Goals: To have a fun and winning season. With a new coaching staff that is very excited and a team full of leadership, they want to make it past the first game of playoffs.
Senior Ricky Kuehn Water Polo
Players to watch: Jaime Befeler Tiger Chen Daniel Soares 2015-2016 Record: 8-7 Goals: To have a winning season and to get a few players onto the all conference teams.
Rivalry Schedule
Boys’ Tennis
Girls’ Lacrosse April 12 @ 4:15pm
Players to watch: James Aslaksen Noah Brown Angelo Vidal 2015-2016 Record: 6-8 Goals: To cultivate a young team this season with just three returning varsity players and to make sure everyone feels like they belong. 3-9
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Boys’ Tennis @ Ladue April 18 @ 4:15pm Girls’ Soccer @ Home May 2 @ 4:15pm Boys’ Baseball May 2 and May 4 @ 4:15pm
Junior Noah Brown. Photos from Globe archives.
REVIEW
MOD PIZZA
BY LISE DERSKEN and SOPHIE BARNES / page editors
“Hello, welcome to Mod!” A friendly faced manager makes a note to welcome me as I walk through the door. A warm scent of bubbling pizza sauce and fresh dough drifts around the store. Since the stores beginning in 2008, Mod Pizza has been a friendly, and fresh environment. At the Ladue location, manager, Marshall Henderson has been here since the opening in early November 2016. “My favorite part about working at Mod is the environment. This place is so relaxed, everybody is super friendly, including the customers and management, and nothing is very strict. You won’t find that at any other job,” Henderson said. The location of this Mod Pizza has been a great new addition to the tons of downtown Clayton and Ladue restaurants. The location is highly accessible to many in the area. On weekdays, CHS students and people working in the downtown Clayton area head over to Mod. What makes Mod Pizza different from any other place is picking your own options. This is a build your own type of place, so you can craft the pizza and salads how you really like them. There is an option of nine different pizza and salad combos that you can choose from, or you can build your own,
with all of your favorite toppings, that do not cost any extra. Pizza and salad are not the only options. Garlic and cinnamon strips are offered as a popular appetizer, as well as milkshakes and a variety of drinks. Moreover, Mod charges customers by the size of their pizzas or salads, not by the amount of toppings on their meals. Mod has been a brand new location in Ladue. This Mod Pizza location has been really popular for CHS students. It is walking distance and is quick enough for the lunch period to get a good bite. Mod has a lot of great options for students in Clayton. Since there is such a variety it’s great for anyone who wants their food to be just the way they like it. It is a very modern place, with new tables, and in general the place is taken care of very well. What really draws the customers attention after they sit down with a delicious meal is the wall with a mural of pictures. There are hundreds of pictures of families and friends enjoying Mod Pizza. The CHS logo even made it up on to the wall. It is a very fun and creative piece of Mod that is unique only to Mod. This wall perfectly describes the restaurant, fun, creative, and containing a feeling of comfort.
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Photos of Mod Pizza in Ladue by Madison Gudmestad.
REVIEW
MONSTER TRUCKS
BY HARRY RUBIN / copy editor There are a few scenarios in which one would enjoy watching “Monster Trucks.” Most of those scenarios involve being a 7-year-old boy. The film is built on the premise of monster trucks being actual monsters, an idea that - no joke - came from the mind of the 4-year-old son of a studio executive. To bring the toddler’s vision to life, it took a team of four middle-aged men--Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Matthew Robinson, and Derek Connolly--to craft what can loosely be deemed a story. In North Dakota, at a drill site for the oil company Terravex (Latin: ground shake, and this plotline is built on very shaky ground, indeed) there is some kind of explosion or something, and three monsters living underground are released. These monsters, grey tentacled blobs, live of a diet of regular, unleaded, and premium. Overnight, the monster eats the gas tanks of every car in the area, but somehow these cars are all properly functioning the next day. In the town of the drilling, a high school student named Tripp (Lucas Till) works in a junkyard, on the side fixing up an antique truck. One of the monsters seeks refuge in Tripp’s junkyard, feeding off of the yard’s oil barrels. Tripp tries to convince authorities of the monster in his presence, but even his sheriff stepfather doesn’t believe him. The most problematic part of the film is the relationship between Tripp and Creech (the name Tripp has given to his monster). After Tripp inexplicably makes the sudden change from trying to get rid of the monster to risking his life to return it to its home, he forcibly confines it to his truck and adds modifications to keep it in. It’s never shown that Creech enjoys life in the truck or even gets any benefit from helping Tripp go offroading. In fact, it’s more likely that Creech hates living in the truck, for the first chance he gets, he escapes the truck and runs away from Tripp. There have been actors older than Lucas Till, 26, to play 16-year-olds in the past, but Till is laughably unbelievable as a high schooler. There are other actors in “Monster
Monster Trucks movie poster from WikiCommons Trucks” besides Lucas Till. Rob Lowe is the main villain as the greedy Texan oil CEO who wants nothing else but the death of Creech. Danny Glover is the wheelchair-bound paraplegic junkyard owner, who literally just sits there. Jane Levy is Tripp’s biology tutor and love interest, whose vocabulary is confined to “Tripp!” Even if the storyline of the film made even remote sense, there would be plenty of other issues to worry about. The “North Dakota” of “Monster Trucks” is filled with massive mountains, alpine forests, and skyscraper-filled cities, whereas the actual state of North Dakota doesn’t have much more exciting than plains. After Tripp smashes an entire dealership worth of cars and causes massive accidents on a highway, he faces no consequences. The largest reaction elicited is one driver’s “hey, get back here!” During the final chase, several villains clearly meet their demise, but the only concern for human life is an “I hope they had their seatbelts on.” “Monster Trucks” was clearly made for
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seven-year-olds, but unlike the usual films made for seven-year-olds, “Monster Trucks” lacks any reference or humor that kids’ movies usually include to reward their parents for succumbing to their tots’ tantrums. At this point in a Globe movie review, we usually discuss cinematography, or soundtrack, or sound effects, or something technical that may have in some way assisted in making you enjoy a movie. In the case of “Monster Trucks,” when you have a movie based off the idea of a four-year-old, there’s not much some inventive camera angles and creative lighting can do to change your opinion. What was even the point of reviewing “Monster Trucks?” It’s the rare case where you know whether or not you’ll enjoy it simply by hearing the title. If you’re reading this sentence, chances are you are either thinking, “Wow that sounds really bad,” or, “I enjoyed reading this entire review to see how bad it is” or you’re thinking, “This Harry Rubin, what does he know about monster trucks?” That movie sounds great to me! If you fit the second category, by all means, go ahead and watch it.
REVIEW
JOHN WICK: chapter II BY JUSTIN GUILAK and SEAN KIM
Keanu Reeves in the film “John Wick: Chapter 2” (Wikimedia Commons) From killing people with anything from guns to pencils, John Wick: Chapter 2 has it all. The movie follows Wick (Keanu Reeves) shortly after the events of the first film, coming to a Russian gang leader to reclaim his car. Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), an Italian kingpin, comes to Wick, asking him to kill his sister. Wick declines, and D’Antonio blows up his house. With nowhere to hide, Wick is forced into doing the job, exposing himself to the underground assassin world once more. The film provides an interesting setting for viewers to consider. Wick lives his life as a member of an international underground community of assassins, including a network of beggars and carrier pigeons throughout NYC, centered at the official safehouse, The Hotel Continental. This unique universe stands out from all other action films, not only giving viewers something cool, but also something to think about. The sequel outdoes the original in terms of action. The film brings back the franchise’s renown style of gun-fu. Centered around
Reeves, the choreography is seamless, letting each move or shot done by his character to lead into the next kill. However, this style never gets repetitive as the movie finds an endless amount of creative ways to kill a person. Another nice addition to the action scenes is director Chad Stahelski’s choice to show that Wick is vulnerable, introducing two new characters that have the skill level of Wick, providing a heightened sense of suspense for the audience, but occasionally, the fights between the Wick counterparts does drag out the movie a bit, but ultimately, the movie’s main action occurs when Wick slaughters a countless number of goons, and it’s gorgeous. Despite the exceptional action choreography, the film lacks a key element: plot. While the story does provide reason for Wick to begin his adventures again, it is pretty evident that the only real purpose of the movie is the fights. This being said, it stands out to some viewers for its blatant action and violence. Before seeing John Wick: Chapter 2, you
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might want to watch the original movie. Since the plot does not play a crucial role in this movie, the events of the first film can be skipped, but certain information from John Wick does appear in the sequel. Additionally, certain scenes from this motion picture were produced outstandingly well. The cliché loadout scene, with Wick’s weapon and suit selection, prepare viewers for the strongest firefight of the film. The assassination of D’Antonio’s sister and the shootout that follows in the catacombs of Rome. The final fight, between Wick and an army of goons, takes place in a maze of mirrors. While not as great as the catacombs scene, this fight demonstrates Stahelski’s abilities. What separates this film from most action movies is its cinematography. It’s use of colorful, neon lights allows the viewer to easily see the action, and plus, it’s nice to look at. The camera also rarely takes close ups, letting the audience see the full carnage and skill of Wick’s gunplay. Ultimately, John Wick: Chapter 2 is every action-lover’s dream, providing the audience with some of the greatest shootouts they have ever watched. iiiii
REVIEW
Why Him? BY MAX STEINBAUM / managing editor
James Franco, Bryan Cranston, and Zoey Deutch in the film “Why Him?” (Wikimedia Commons “Why Him?” is a film of total polarity. The movie centers around Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston), a small-business man from Detroit, and his college-age daughter Stephanie, who has entered a serious romantic relationship with the overwhelmingly vulgar app-making mogul Laird Mayhew (James Franco). When Fleming, his wife, and his son travel to northern California to spend Christmas with Laird and Stephanie at the former’s Silicon Valley estate, Fleming receives some surprising (and unwelcome) news: Laird intends to propose to Stephanie. Fleming is dumbstruck that Stephanie has become enamored with Laird to the point that engagement is now in question, and is stunned Laird’s seemingly complete lack whatsoever of filter and refinement. When he refuses to give Laird his blessing to propose to Stephanie, Laird promises to win him over by Christmas.
To Fleming, there’s no way that would ever be possible. You see where this is going. If the plot sounds dumb, that’s because it really is. Nevertheless, “Why Him?” could very well go down as one of the most hilarious films of 2017. The shamelessly vulgar humor, while at times excessive, will make some audience members hurt from laughter while others blush and drop their jaws. The first scene, for instance, features Fleming’s birthday lunch at a local Applebee’s, with friends, family, and coworkers in attendance. During a slideshow Fleming’s son prepared for the event, Stephanie appears on a webcam from her Stanford dorm room to wish her father a happy birthday. Unbeknownst to Stephanie, Laird enters
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the room, promptly undressing and flashing everyone watching the webcam inside the Applebee’s. Naturally, Ned is extremely shocked, embarrassed, and flustered, and in the moment of chaos and confusion quickly shatters the laptop to halt the presentation. While Cranston played the concerned father ably, he’ll never be able to top his performance as Walter White, the iconic protagonist of the TV show “Breaking Bad.” Additionally, he was overshadowed by Franco’s outstanding and hilarious depiction of the ludicrous yet essentially caring Laird Mayhew. Despite the pedestrian nature of the plot, the film is uproariously funny, thoroughly entertaining, and ultimately even mildly touching. While not necessarily a must-see, “Why Him?” is perfect for those who enjoy the lewd and the crude. Just don’t go with your mother.
OPINION
Tr u m p ’ s
HUGE
Inauguration Section Editor Zach Sorenson offers his take on Donald Trump’s Inauguration and calls for us to fight for our voice as a new era begins. BY ZACHARY SORENSON / opinion section editor Trump has painted a disturbing picture of the American present. He has described this country as reaching a 47-year-high of murder rates (it hasn't); he has described China as “raping” our country when it comes to trade, and he has formed a call to action based on mending the divisions in our country through “A new national pride”. Unfortunately, Trump’s first few weeks in office have done nothing to mend our divisions - unless you count uniting the formerly embattled leftists against him. His actions have only seemed to embarrass our nation, weaken our credibility, and undermine our institutions. Since the first day he took office, the world has witnessed an international spectacle as Trump, a fat old man armed with a 6th grade vocabulary and a spineless Republican Congress, lurched from day to regretful day. Witnessing his Inauguration first hand wasn’t particularly rousing, but rather depressing. The event itself was rainy, a little muddy, and the 1.5 million people in attendance seemed closer to a third of that. The speeches by Roy Blunt and Chuck Schumer flew by, as did Pence’s squinty-eyed acceptance, but Trump seemed to slow everything down. His speech, which many hoped would represent a tempering of his agenda, was a fiery dismissal of the establishment and harked a return to rule by the people for the
people. Except for the millions more who voted for Hillary over Trump, this event was not for them. In reality his speech represented something far different, it represented his vision of the world and our place in it. Trump’s vision of the world is that of winners or losers, of the strong or of the weak. He has, in his mind, the understanding that“it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.” It is this understanding that motivates him, America was not great when America was helping the population - but it can be great, it need only throw off its shackles of responsibility. It is only through this that “America will start winning again” that America can be great, wealthy, strong, proud. For Donald Trump, America can only win when it is in first place, and so from this day onward it must be “only America first, America first.” He views himself as the deliverer of this great providence, the “voice” of the American people and the liberator of the “forgotten man and the forgotten women” from a corrupt system that put the needs of the world before the people of this country. In an effort to impress his audience, the assembled masses of the nation, he invoked
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long dead men who had lifted America closer and closer to world power, borrowing the “Forgotten Man” from FDR and hinting at Theodore Roosevelt's new nationalism. Regretfully, Trump is not a great man, he isn’t FDR, Reagan,Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln, or George Washington; he merely wants to be. However, Trump also made a commitment to us, the people who populate this nation. He stated that he “will never let you down”, he will “fight for you with every breath in his body.” Trump is now past his second vacation to Florida since he took office a few weeks ago. He is vacationing from a near endless onslaught of resistance from the people of this country as he attempts to accomplish a massive agenda, which has and will continue to stretch the capacity of executive power in this nation. The view that Donald Trump has of America as it stands in a state of “carnage” is a view that could very well shape the country and the world irreversibly. We must hold Trump and his appointees accountable for their actions and we must fight to ensure that they fight for us. Thus far, Trump has shown a disregard for the voices of the American people and a disregard for the institutions and ethics that guard us from tyranny. We have to question how far Trump is willing to take his predatory world view, and unfortunately, we may find out.
OPINION
S T AT E O F JOURNALISM BY NOAH BROWN / managing editor
It is 2017 and George Orwell’s classic novel “1984” is the best-selling novel in America. Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here” has surged into the top 10 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Some signs held by protesters in January’s Women’s March made reference to Margaret Atwood’s famous dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” This is not sheer coincidence. It can happen here. For the first time in recent American history, it is happening here; the plots of dystopian novels have transitioned from distant fiction into the brutal reality. “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing,” Orwell writes in “1984”. President Trump has – as Orwell warns of a dystopian-like dictator – used his platform to blur the line between what’s true and what’s not. Perhaps the most obtrusive commonality between President Trump’s administration and the aforementioned dystopian novels is in their handling of the truth, and for their disregard of the free press. Since his initial thrust into the political spotlight, Donald Trump has shown, in bold letters, his aversion to the truth. Trump led the Birther movement in an attempt to disprove the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Trump suggested that the father of his Republican rival Ted Cruz is responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In his presidential campaign, Trump claimed that Barack Obama founded ISIS. It is not only major fabrications of the truth like these that are worthy of America’s concern. In his first days in office, Trump exaggerated the number of people that attended his inauguration to unprecedentedly high numbers. Moreover, Trump made the claim that
millions of illegal voters voted in the 2016 election – a claim debunked even by the majority of his Republican colleagues. Consequently, phrases like “fake news” and “alternative facts” have already become commonplace in the first month of the Trump presidency. With a few dozen months left in Trump’s term, many nervously contemplate the inevitability of this getting worse and more consequential – that, instead of falsifying the crowd size at his inauguration, Trump will falsify an international economic crisis or a terrorism threat. Trump’s willingness to lie – and his utter disregard for the truth – make Big Brother and “1984” comparisons hard to ignore. Orwell describes the consequence of Big Brother’s control of the media in Oceania, the dystopia represented in “1984”: “And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain.” Although some may consider this an exaggerated parallel, it is hard not to consider Trump America a quasi-”1984” shadow-world. After all, facts are no longer facts, but “alternative facts.” Negative news is not news, but “fake news.” The legitimacy of the journalism industry, as a whole, has never been as threatened as it has become under Trump’s rule. Gaslighting – a term that originates in the psychological manipulation of a victim by the main character in the 1938 play “Gas Light”– is no longer merely a Hollywood plotline, but instead a topical reality of our political institutions. Frida Ghitis of the Miami Herald gives Trump his most deserving and hard-earned of titles: “America’s gaslighter in chief. The poignant argument is essentially that, through his treatment of the press and
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his utter disregard for truth, Donald Trump is gaslighting the American people. In other words, Trump’s media-denouncing rhetoric is an attempt at a systematic consolidation of power. Of “The 307 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter,” a New York Times collection, Trump’s criticism of journalists and news outlets makes up no small percentage. Trump’s denigration of individual journalists and the process of journalism does not begin or end with any one criticism. He calls Mort Zuckerman, the Owner of The New York Times, a “dopey clown,” urges journalist Megyn Kelly to “get a life,” and warns people against purchasing The Washington Post. He criticizes the Associated Press for its “terrible” and “horribly inaccurate reporting.” Better yet, Trump’s transition team has even considered evicting the press from the White House entirely. “They are the opposition party,” a senior Trump administration official was quoted saying in Esquire, “I want ‘em out of the building. We are taking back the press room.” In a tweet, President Trump called the news media “the enemy of the American people.” Since America’s founding, the freedom of the press has been a core pillar of American democracy. Thomas Jefferson insisted that, “...were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” If nothing else, this paranoia of journalism externalizes the administration’s fear and vulnerability and serves as a call to journalists everywhere to keep doing their jobs – to keep chasing the truth, to keep being the “opposition party.” Orwell reminds us that, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” This revolutionary act will mean more to journalists than it will to anyone else; it has and will continue to be their daily calling.
PRO/CON
We Need Lunch
The school administration should take steps to ensure students have a break in the school day. BY CHARLIE BRENNAN / copy editor
Charlie Brennan (Photos by Michael Melinger) Two identical-looking golden crowns: one real, one fake. The mighty Hiero II has ordered you to determine the real one-- an impossible task in the first century BC, an age before computers, analytical balances and chemical glassware. Despite the daunting assignment, you take on the challenge, working day and night, for the answer. After hours spent deep in thought, you decide to take rest in a steamy Greek bath. Slowly, the answer seeps into your head and you hurry to the king. You quickly use your newfound displacement method to discover the true makeup of the crown and astound the world with a new scientific breakthrough. Archimedes, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, solved that unworkable problem through the essential utilization of leisure time. His teachings appear to CHS students every day in Chemistry, Math and Engineering classes, yet Archimedes’ most important lesson is often overlooked Lunches and free periods often disappear in the push for academic excellence.
With only eight periods in the day, many students believe they must cram just one more AP class into their schedules. These students are misguided. Rest is most important when recalling information and performing under high stress situations. According to the Ohio State University Memory Tips, “When you’re relaxed, you absorb new information quickly and recall it with greater ease and accuracy.” But this is not new information and Clayton is an exception to many other schools, allowing students to have lunch free schedules. Homer Turner, Junior Grade Level Counselor, said, “Coming to Clayton, this was new to me seeing students without lunches built into their schedules. Then I found out there were even some students who not only did not have a lunch period but also did not have a free period in their schedules. I feel like it is an unhealthy situation to be encouraging.” Turner, a newcomer to CHS from Newton South High School near Boston, MA, said, “At my old school, which was very similar to Clayton, the students all had lunches built into their schedules. And the rigor was just the same. They were just as high achieving. However, the way they used that period was up to them: whether they used the period as a free period, to seek help from a teacher, to make up a test, or to just have some down time.” In addition to the free period, the absence of that fifth AP course will lighten a student’s schedule providing more time for sports, personal interests and, most importantly, sleep. Sleep is essential in retaining information. The consolidation of the day’s memories occurs during sleep making it essential
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in creating long term memories. Moreover, physical recovery, growth and development are all stimulated during sleep. According to the National Institute of Health, “A common myth is that people can learn to get by on little sleep with no negative effects. However, research shows that getting enough quality sleep at the right times is vital for mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.” Still, one of the main concerns students have is the fear of falling behind the competition. High achieving students raised in the competitive Clayton environment are taught these detrimental lessons before positive ones can be instilled. As a long time counselor and observer of the college admissions process, Turner testifies, “I reached out to some deans of admissions of some very selective schools (the University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University, Harvey Mudd College) and I threw the question about students having lunches to them and not one came back and said that was fine. Colleges are interested in kids coming to their campuses with a healthy predisposition about what education is about.” The high achieving Clayton mindset must shift its focus from the relentless pursuit of transcript building AP classes to the true learning for learning’s sake. Turner said, “Colleges feel that kids who believe they are okay and don’t need a break come to their schools with the wrong type of mentality. They want kids to come to their schools who have balance: good, healthy balance. Balance means rigor plus a down time.” Ultimately, students are still growing. Their brains have not fully developed, and, although Clayton leniently provides many opportunities for students to exercise their independence, mental and physical harm should not result from that freedom. If students take the time to enjoy high school, they will be not only enjoying better mental health, but they will also learn to manage their spare time. Opening their minds to the possibility of a break may result in their own “Eureka” moment.
PRO/CON
Let Students Decide
The school should let students exercise their individual independence when it comes to their schedule. BY NICHOLAS LEE and CATHERINE WALSH
Nicholas Lee eating lunch in class (Photo by Michael Melinger) On the Clayton High School website, the mission statement is listed as follows: “We inspire each student to love learning and embrace challenge within a rich and rigorous academic culture.” Given this mission, it seems both contrary and counterproductive to discourage students from taking the most rigorous classes they believe themselves to be capable of. However, this past year, Homer Turner, junior grade level counselor, implemented a new policy that nearly requires each student to have a lunch or free period built into his or her schedule. While it is still possible for students to go without a free period, Turner is requiring students to first write a paragraph explaining their choice and justifying why it is absolutely necessary. Additionally, the student’s parents must call and make a similar argument. Granted, Turner’s policy does not prevent any truly determined student from taking their desired courses, but it does provide an extra obstacle that will likely deter many students. As an educational institution that prides itself on teaching students to embrace challenge, CHS should be supporting these students’ efforts and initiative rather than
discouraging them. Furthermore, CHS’s core values include promoting student independence that will better prepare students for their futures as citizens. CHS embodies this value by giving students freedom and responsibility unusual at many public high schools. This spirit of trust should be extended to students’ schedules as well. Effectively managing commitments is a valuable life skill and students would benefit from practicing this skill at the high school level. Students know what they are capable of better than anyone and if a student feels they are not being challenged, they should be supported, not discouraged, in their efforts to better their learning. And while these requirements ensure that those who decide to fulfill them are completely passionate about the course, those who have an interest but are not dedicated to the class may decide it’s not worth it to go through the trouble to write an essay about something they are not yet sure they have interest in. The wide range of courses offered at CHS is a unique opportunity, which could be significantly diminished as a
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result of the new policy. Moreover, many courses students take in lieu of a free period, such as AP Bio/Chem, are those which students often take in consideration of their future. Additionally, many of these upper level courses are only offered one period a day, leaving students little choice in electives if they reserve period four, five, or six for a lunch period. However, if they elect to have a free period at some other time of the day, they risk being assigned a time when the vast majority of their peers are in class, leaving few opportunities for socialization, making the free period little more than a study hall. For many students fulfilling their rigorous work in classes such as these, taking an elective history classes they are truly interested is far more desirable than having a free period. While some students undoubtedly forfeit their lunch periods to take courses they deem necessary to their college acceptance, these students would likely enroll in these courses regardless. However, if it becomes more difficult for these students to fit such courses into their schedule, they may be forced to drop the less rigorous classes they are truly passionate about, such as fine or practical arts courses. Although Mr. Turner has the best intentions with his new policy, his hope being that students will relax with the addition of a free period, there are plenty of students that would prefer to relax in a more conventional way, such as in an art class. Not only do students fulfill credits by taking an art class, many consider it a mental break that is much preferred to 47 minutes of unstructured free time. Those who are forced into having a free period are the ones who are likely to be working instead of relaxing. Students who are willing to forego their free period already demonstrate a passion for learning that embodies Clayton High School’s core values. These students that want to challenge themselves academically should not need to justify their choices. Rather than discouraging these students, the CHS administration ought to support them, and do what they can to help.
OPINION
S T A F F E D : T H I S I S W H AT D E M O C R A C Y LOOKS LIKE
Hundreds gather in front of Senator Roy Blunt’s office in downtown Clayton on Feb. 1. Photo by Erin Castellano. “F--- Trump.” These two words were the first to be spoken and rang out throughout the quad as the walkout began, similarly followed by, “Not my president.” On Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, a group of Clayton students participated in a walkout protesting the swearing in of Donald Trump to the position of President of the United States. While we understand the frustration and anguish behind the recent elections, we would like to extend a word of caution. Though these words may represent how some students feel, it certainly does not represent all. Plenty of students took this walkout opportunity to make this walkout a positive experience, sharing thoughts on civil disobedience, injustice and democracy. Yet, how long can we continue to chant, “Not my president?” How long can we deny the existence of a new political leader? Donald Trump is our president. Yes, it is true. This has been the reality since Jan. 20 and the question at hand is, can we accept it? Denial is damaging. Negativity is nocuous. Hatred is harmful. When we say “Not my president,” we are only retreating back into a corner. We are becoming close-minded. We are submitting to negativity with no solution. This rhetoric is counterproductive. David Frum, writer for The Atlantic,
in his article “How to Build an Autocracy,” clearly comments on the dangers of this negative rhetoric and how it may be produce the opposite of the desired effect. He warns, “civil unrest will not be a problem for the Trump presidency. It will be a resource. Trump will likely want not to repress it, but to publicize it... The more offensively the protesters behave, the more pleased Trump will be.” Rather than asking if we can accept it, we need to accept it and focus on what we are going to do about it. We have been given rights to freedom of speech and assembly and we need to use them to our advantage. We need to use them to create positive change. The day after Trump took oath, an estimated 470,000 people attended the Women’s March on Washington. Crowd scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University found this number to be nearly three times the number of people atthe inauguration the day before. 672 other marches were held across the globe, with a total of 4,956,422 participants worldwide. These marches, one of which took place in downtown Saint Louis, were permeated with positivity. The marches provided hope for the future, rather than inef-
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fective negativity reflecting the past. Supporters sported slogans such as “Our Bodies, Our Minds, Our Power” and “Love not hate makes America great.” Student and Close-Up trip attendee, Lauren Aiello, commented on the contrast she felt between the inauguration and the women’s march. She said, “Everyone there, male or female, Black or White or Asian or Hispanic or Muslim or whatever, were all united with a common desire for equality and it was so positive. Being at the march oddly felt a lot more historic and meaningful than the Inauguration.” People are ready to have their voice be heard and spread hope and positivity. As citizens of a country based upon the people’s voices, daily actions can be taken to incite change whether it be organizing a local protest or lobbying for local legislature. Talk to your senators. Donate to organizations that reflect what you would like to see in the country. Care for the environment. Spread the sentiments of hope and kidness within your community and beyond. Politicians can ignore denial but they cannot ignore a multitude of voices pushing for change. If you want something done, there is no better time than now. Trump’s election has already served as fuel for new momentum and motivation for change. Let’s come together and take action for the future. Our voices cannot be ignored.
Q&A
Q & A : C U RT I S S I T T EN F E L D Author Curtis Sittenfeld lives in Saint Louis and is a working literary fiction novelist.
BY ANNE GOODE/ reporter
St. Louis, which is when this sort of pseudo-scientist who predicted that there would be a major earthquake in the St. Louis area. And even though I think most scientists did not think it was plausible, a lot of people who live around here became alarmed. I didn’t grow up here. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. When someone told me that story I was like “Oh an earthquake prediction would be a really great premise for a novel.” It’s funny because a friend of mine who grew up in Jefferson City who told me that story in Iowa in the summer of 2008. But, I don’t think he would have told me the story if I weren’t living in St. Louis. My book Eligible, is set in Cincinnati, and Cincinnati is very much like St. Louis. I do feel like a strong part of my identity right now is midwestern and I think that does influence my writing.
Q: Tell me about yourself.
Q: Several of your books have been optioned for movies. What is that like?
A: I write what’s considered “literary fiction.” I write novels. I’ve written five novels. My first one came out in 2005 when I was 29. It’s called Prep. My most recent in April, 2016 and it’s called Eligible.
A: If a book is optioned, what is basically means is that a person or company is paying the writer. It’s usually not a huge amount of money. And they’re saying, “for the next 18 months I have the right to turn your book
Q: Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? A: My middle name is Curtis, but my parents decided to call me Curtis at birth, so everyone who knows me has always called me Curtis. My legal name is Elizabeth and I feel like in retrospect, actually, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably be published under Elizabeth Sittenfeld for two reasons. One, a lot of people think I’m a man based on me being called Curtis. Two, my first and last name together is such an unusual name that I sometimes wish I was a little less googleable.
Q: Has living in the Clayton/St.Louis area influenced or impacted your writing? A: My fourth novel takes place in 2009 in St. Louis. It was published in 2013 and it’s called Sisterland. But it actually is based on something that happened in the 1990s in
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into a tv show or into a movie. If I start that process, I have to pay you much more.” And four out of five of my books have been optioned. And in some cases, the 18-month option has been renewed multiple times. But nothing has ever made it to the next stage. So, scripts have existed. Like, for Sisterland, ABC was developing as a script, and I read the script for the pilot tv show, which was never shot. There’s been a script for American Wife, there’s been a script for Prep, but they’ve never been filmed. There have even been actors attached at various times, but it’s never happened. The truth is, I feel like writers whose books have been optioned, you can talk about it in such a way that it sounds glamorous and exciting, but there’s a very wide variety of places that a project can be along the development continuum. I feel like I’ve had a lot of phone calls over a lot of years. I’ve been meetings, I’ve had great enthusiasm, it’s fun! It’s nice when people are excited about your book, telling you how smart you are. In a sense, you’re getting money for nothing, even if it’s not an enormous amount. But, I’ll say to people I know, “Don’t turn on your tvjust yet,” or “Don’t buy your movie ticket just yet.”
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