Globe Newsmagazine, November 2017, Issue 3, Vol. 89

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SHOW ME GREEN The Globe examines trends in marijuana locally, regionally and nationally. page 26

issue 3, volume 89 Clayton High School. Clayton, MO. November 2017.

T H A N K Y O U TO OUR SPONSORS! The Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. We receive no funding from the school district for printing. Each issue of the Globe costs approximately $2000 to print. We are deeply grateful to our sponsors for their support of our publication. They make our work possible. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email us at globe@claytonschools.net.

ISSUE SPONSORS ($2000 Level) Gail Workman

GOLDEN GREYHOUND SPONSORS ($200+ Level) The Respess Family Anne Glowinski and James Fehr Big Bend Auto Center Cit y of Clayton Center of Clayton S t. Louis Communit y College Integrit y DT L S La n d s c a p e A rc h i te c t u re The Family of Larry B a ker Subway Dale Avenue Pedia trics

WORLD TRAVELER SPONSORS ($100+ Level) Nor thwest Coffee The LaGes se S tanton Family The Sharma Khanna Family The Althouser Krutzsch Family The Kim Family The Higuchi Family

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contents november 2017 issue 3, volume 89

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Washington Park Cemetery Black Lives Matter COVER: Marijuana Opinion: Undermining Purpose

Seniors Josh Hagene and Lizzy Mills spoke to the Globe about their involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement. (Photo by Michael Melinger)

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CONTENTS

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STAFF

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EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

SENIOR MANAGING EDITORS

Noah Brown and M itali Sharma

Madeline Bale

CHIEF DIGITAL EDITOR

M ichael Bernard Charlie Brennan

Lauren Prais s

J acob LaGes se

PHOTO EDITOR

SECTION EDITORS

Michael Melinger

Justin Guilak, NEWS

COPY EDITOR

L i l a T a y l o r , F E AT U R E

N e e l Va l l u r u p a l l i

Daniel Cho, SPORTS

CHIEF VIDEO EDITOR

Olivia Joseph, OPINION

Sean Kim

Richard Cheng , RE VI EW

GRAPHICS EDITOR

REPORTERS

Lizzy Mills

BUSINESS MANAGER Daniel Cohen

PAGE EDITORS

Ashley Chung

William Redington

Cindy Combs

Leo Thoma s

J osephine Cross

Sophia Thompson

Camille Curtis

S a m Yo u k i l i s

S a m Ze i d

Ka t i e H e

Sam Fehr

Hongkai Jiang

Ca therine Walsh

Sophie Bernstein

Leo Gavitt

S a n Kw o n

N ikki Seraji

Maddy Ackerburg

J a n e Ka l i n a

Ke i l a n M o r r i s e y

Grace Snelling

Lise Dersken

Cody Krutzsch

Laura Par vu lescu

Ka t i e S n e l l i n g

Mariclare Ga tter

Paul Liu

Philip Stahl

Sarah Baker

Gracie Morris

James Malone

Junyi Su

Sara S temmler

Theo Fehr

Neema Naemi

Victor Wei

PHOTOGRAPHERS Synthia Baer

Fiona McGuire

Erin Brown

Alexandra Hardie

Barrett Bentzinger

Jovan Miller

Isabella Clark

Paige Holmes

Elizabeth Cordova

Mallory Palmer

Za ch a r y C o b l e

Xuenan Jin

Alex Darmody

Sophia Ryan

Cindy Combs

Caroline Marsden

Ella Engel

Saniya Sah

Ka t h r y n C o o p e r

Ka t h e r i n e O w i n g s

Catherine Holtzman

Annika Sandquist

Gwen Duplain

Mia Redington

I sheeta Khurana

Emma Siegel

Madison Gudmestad

Madison Rudd

Professional Affiliations: Sponsors of School Publications, Missouri Interscholastic Press Association, Missouri Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association

F R O M T H E E D I TO R When given a choice between living in an affluent society like the United States, or a third-world country like Nicaragua, the majority of Americans would choose - without hesitation - to reside in the preceding option.

When the American is asked why they would rather live here, they typically do not have an answer because living in America they believe - is the obvious choice. To me the answer is not so obvious.

Four of the past six summers, my family and I have traveled to a small community called Nejapa that rests within the walls of Managua: the capital of the poorest country in Central America, Nicaragua, according to the CIA. The town is filled to the brim with pride and joy, replete with Nicaraguans, full-time missioners and free-range livestock. The roads are dirt, and are hardly big enough for a standard school bus. We journey with a local mission group through a St. Louis church to build classrooms in a school, help the community by donating supplies to the local hospitals and spending time with the sick and elderly, and, of course, the kids and families.

In Nicaragua, a smile goes a long way.

Needless to say, one should not rely on the universal sign as their sole method of communication. It turned out that much of the group did not speak Spanish, the official language of Nicaragua. So, our group elected to solve this problem by hiring a local Nicaraguan to be the designated translator. Emilio, a medical student, was a cordial and eloquent young adult: an outstanding candidate for the task.

Emilio helped with essentially everything: from ordering the fried chicken at the local restaurant, to frantically explaining to the armed Nicaraguan military that we were in their country legally.

Emilio is now long past his translating days and currently heads a small medical clinic in a secluded mountain village to the north of Managua. The river water in the town is undrinkable to anybody but the inhabitants of the village, even Nicaraguan native Emilio.

For this reason, Emilio is forced to travel hours on horseback, foot and bus in order to purchase purified drinking water, which he must do every few weeks.

In addition, the village enjoys little variety in the food they consume. For all three meals, Emilio ingests rice with a side of beans. After the requisite two years in the village, Emilio will receive his degree and begin working as a doctor in a public hospital.

Unlike in the United States, being a doctor is not a very lucrative profession.

Emilio’s circumstances are, to many Americans, unrelatable. The lifestyle of this society is eye opening, even to a Nicaraguan native. But Emilio does not mind the situation in which he currently resides. He is grateful for the opportunity, and lives his experience in the fullest way possible. Emilio is giving back to those with less than him, even if it means delaying certain necessities.

Coming back into the states was more of a culture shock than leaving the country. In Nicaragua I experienced very limited access to technology, and was forced to socialize with others - an occurrence all too intimidating and nightmarish to many Americans.

As I walked from the airplane to the Dallas gate officially entering the United States, the very first thing that I noticed was the posture of the common American: head down, hands out, phone in hand. After a four hour flight free of Internet and service, the old me would have immediately dug his hand into his pocket to check social media.

Until seeing all these citizens holding what I previously considered a rectangular bauble, I did not think to take a glimpse at what I now realize is truthfully a luxury item. One week earlier, my head would have been down glaring at the object in unison with the majority of my fellow Americans. Now my head is up with the majority

of my Nicaraguan friends.

The eight days I spent without access to my phone were the eight days that I felt the most free of stress and anxiety during my whole summer. Most villagers of Nejapa, and all of Emilio’s villagers, have the luxury of constantly living with this drama-free mental state. To me, this seemingly trivial idea is enough to make me pack my bags and move straight to Managua, regardless of unimportant statistics provided by the American government.

Statistics from an affluent society have no say on whether or not a society is fit to live in. If I was asked where I would be most willing to live, I would, without hesitation, answer Nejapa.

michael bernard @mkevvb SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR

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LETTER

A displaced headstone among trees in Washington Park Cemetery in Berkeley, MO. Photo by Michael Melinger

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“He knew what he signed up for.”

Northern California Wildfires In early October, 17 wildfires broke out in five northern California counties, including Tubbs Fire, California’s most destructive wildfire.

50 mph winds quickly spread the flames to burn over 240,000 acres.

The fires have killed 42 people and left 400 missing.

A firefighter battles flames to prevent a fire from crossing Highway 29. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Read about this attack below

Eighth-Grader Wins ACE Hardware Award Wydown Middle School student Eliot Blackmoore recently recieved the “Search for the Next Hardware Science Star” science award from ACE Hardware stores. He presented a science project to a panel of judges before the 2017 National Science Olympiad competition, who then selected him as the Grand Prize winner. Fellow WMS eighth-graders Zach Wang and Daniel Love earned second place.

As Grand Prize winner, Blackmoore recorded a video segment for ACE Hardware stores across the nation. ACE Hardware also donated $750 to the WMS Science Olympiad team.

THINGS TO DO APPLE BUTTER FESTIVAL

28-29 OCTOBER CHS CHILI COOK-OFF

3 NOVEMBER ST. LOUIS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

2-12 NOVEMBER

12 against 50 4 American Soldiers Killed

ISIS Ambushes American Troops in Niger On Wednesday, Oct. 4, ISIS fighters launched an ambush on a 12-man team of American Green Berets in Niger. As the soldiers left a meeting near the Niger-Mali border in unarmored pickup trucks, the militants opened fire with small arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The Americans scambled for cover and began to return fire against the attackers. An official estimated up to 50 ISIS fighters were involved in the ambush, and the American successfully killed some of them when returning fire.

After a 30-minute firefight, French Mirage jets buzzed the battlefield with low passes to disperse the attackers.

The attack left four American soldiers dead and two wounded. Sgt. La David Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright died during the battle.

It took nearly 48 hours after the attack for soldiers to find the Johnson’s body after he was separated from the other troops during the fight. French and Nigerian troops aided Americans in a large search-and-rescue mission for Johnson after realizing one of the 12 soldiers was not accounted for.

The Americans were stationed in Niger to help locals combat terrorists.

Sgt. La David Johnson was killed in the October 4 ambush after being separated from the other soldiers. (US Army/Zuma Press/ TNS)

News and Notes

-President Trump to the mother of Sgt. La David Johnson, a soldier killed in an ISIS ambush in Niger

G L E N R I D G E : A M E LT I N G P OT F O R S T U D E N T S A N D FA M I L I E S

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Flags hanging in Glenridge Elementary School’s library (Photo by Isheeta Khurana)

olorful flags hover over the stacked bookshelves in Glenridge Elementary School’s library. These various flags represent the home country of each international student who has attended and currently attends Glenridge. The row of flags continues to lengthen across the bookshelves each year as more international students come to Glenridge.

This year, 50 students qualified for English Language Learners (ELL) service at Glenridge.

Alejandra Bergstrom, ELL teacher at Glenridge, explained that “word of mouth” created an interconnected network of international families, particularly in China, sharing their memories of the Clayton community to their friends and family.

“The word is out there, especially in China, that this is a nice community and a great school,” Bergstrom said. “Basically, there is a network of Chinese families that communicate amongst themselves and know before coming to the U.S. where to live and where the good schools are. I believe Glenridge is the school they prefer, mainly because of the affordable housing around and also because of an established, supportive network of other Chinese families already attending our school.”

In addition to the network of international families, Glenridge principal Beth Scott described how many parents are visiting scholars -- students or researchers -- at local universities, including Washington University, St. Louis University (SLU), and University of Missouri, St. Louis (UMSL).

“All of our universities are accepting the same number of one year scholars or two year scholars, but the belief is that the influx of social media has found Glenridge as their niche spot,” Scott said. “So, on an application called WeChat in China, families are

networking to say, ‘I’m coming to St. Louis, where should I land?

Where should I send my children?’ And the scholar might come first but then get the visa for [their] family member to come next.”

In fact, Ying Yang, a parent of a student currently attending Glenridge, explained her story that temporarily brought her to Clayton from China as a visiting scholar. ”I came to St. Louis as a visiting scholar doing research at UMSL for the full year,” Yang said. “I heard of Glenridge from my friends who are visiting scholars too. I heard a lot of good things about Glenridge and there are many Chinese friends around which can give a lot of support for us two.”

Glenridge is an attractive school for many international families because of the teachers’ support and guidance in helping students succeed.

“Everybody loves Glenridge,” Scott said. “So, word on the street is ‘Mrs. Scott you’re so nice, and I hear that Glenridge would be the best place to be.’ I think that our teachers are so good at what they do, but the stress level of a Glenridge teacher might be a little different than at Meramec and Captain. I don’t have any teachers complaining about that, nor do I have families coming to me saying ‘what’s this.’”

However, although Glenridge provides supportive teachers, the transition can be challenging and emotional for many international students.

“The beginning is hard because most newcomers don’t know any English,” Bergstrom said. “They have to get used to a new school, a new culture, and understand the language. Most students come with one parent, so the other parent is back in China. That is a huge adjustment for the whole family. Children are usually very adaptable, so after a few weeks and some basic social English, they begin to make new friends and feel comfortable in their new setting.”

CHS senior Eunice Shin came to Glenridge from Seoul and had to transition to the new system as well.

“I wasn’t the traditional immigrant -- I had learned English simultaneously alongside with Korean, so the language barrier thankfully wasn’t my biggest obstacle,” Shin said. “However, I was coming from a completely different culture -- I had attended an international school in Seoul -- and I was definitely nervous on my first day at Glenridge. I just remember a blur of faces, Mr. Hasler’s classroom, and was shocked at what school lunches looked like here. And I do remember that everyone was really friendly and it wasn’t too rough of a transition to make friends.”

Because of the welcoming atmosphere at Glenridge, ELL teacher at Wydown Middle School, Nancy Gamble, described how international students encourage other students to learn about different cultures and create new friendships.

“I believe having international students in our classrooms drives learning,” Gamble said. “Here’s an example of what I mean -- when you have the opportunity to meet someone from another country, at first it might feel awkward or uncomfortable because of differences in language or culture. But when you persist and get to know that person, communication gradually becomes easier and you begin to ask questions to learn from and understand each other. These relationships are rich learning opportunities.”

Not only do international students drive learning in the classrooms, but they also bring new perspectives and cultural diversity.

“International students bring to our community multilingualism, different perspectives and ways of thinking, excellent academic skills, cultural diversity, a way for English speaking students to learn how to communicate with students who speak other languages,” Gamble said.

“If students in Clayton are to grow in cultural competence so they can navigate in an increasingly multicultural college campuses and workplaces, having international students in their classrooms helps them learn how to study, communicate, work and develop positive relationships with people from all over the world.”

The influx of international students, however, has increased the typical class size.

“In Clayton, they ask that we maintain our ideal number of 20 students per class, that can be 18 [children per class in] kindergarten and 1st grade, but 20 [children per class in] second grade through 5th grade, so that’s in board policy,” Scott said. “Yet we push beyond there. [A] grade level last year went to 25 per class.

We didn’t have the facility designed to move them into a 4th section mid year, and you hate to do that as a principal for a school.

I’ve never had to, I’m not saying I wouldn’t, but you typically would make that move as a new year started.”

As a result in the increase of class size, interns have been employed to offer support.

“We started adding some intern support in the building … In fact, this year at curriculum night, [we] tried to increase communication about introducing [the interns], having them be a member of the conversation, so parents also got to know their faces and under-

stood that they are really viable members of our staff and help large class sizes break into smaller numbers,” Scott said. “So, the way teachers in the elementary school now teach, a lot of it is workshop model. A teacher might start at the beginning of a class period with some general whole group instruction. And then based on data, break students into smaller independent work groups and go into these differentiated groups, throughout the whole math hour and throughout most of all of literacy. So, that also personalizes educational experiences for children and also reaches a level of independence for kids in their own learning.”

In addition to the help from teachers and interns, Clayton Connect -- created by Shin and fellow CHS senior Chenny Lee -- is a volunteer program designed to help new international students with homework at Glenridge.

“Clayton Connect stemmed from my own experience as an immigrant elementary student -- my mother wasn’t able to help me with my schoolwork, and although my father was, he was and still is in Korea due to his job,” Shin said. “And as the eldest, I had to help my siblings as well, and initially, it was just difficult for me academically to adjust to the new setting. Thinking back on my own experiences, I set the program up with help from friends and family -- Chenny as my co-president -- in order to perhaps minimize kids who go through what I felt when I was in their shoes.”

With the support from teachers and Clayton Connect, international families are continuously welcomed into Glenridge community.

“We get friendship and comfort and at the same time, it is also a kind of separation from full cultural experience in America,” Ying said. “If we have more chances to interact with American family and friends, it will benefit kids for sure.”

Indeed, Kristin Redington, President of the Board of Education (BOE), gladly welcomes international families with her yearly international coffees. Redington described how she enjoys hosting the coffees and creating a sense of belonging for these new families in the Clayton community.

“I think it’s very brave, because you know what you know, and you don’t know what it’s like to be in another country,” Redington said. “They’re entrusting their children, their dreams, with us, in our schools, and at Glenridge and Wydown, and CHS. I’m honored that they choose to come here. I feel like I’m giving something back when I can host them in my home and make them feel welcome. It gives them a familiar face when they’re over at the school, a sense of belonging.” .

“I think it’s very brave, because you know what you know, and you don’t know what it’s like to be in another country. They’re entrusting their children, their dreams, with us, in our schools, and at Glenridge and Wydown, and CHS.” - Kristen Redington, BOE President

lauren praiss @l.praiss CHIEF DIGITAL EDITOR liam redington @liamcarpediem REPORTER

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NEWS

Regions Bank @askRegions

8321 Maryland Ave. Completed: Winter 2017 Constructed by Musick Two buildings with ATM drive through Roads obstructed: Maryland Ave., Crandon Dr. This former parking lot on Maryland has, in just a few months, risen to a nearly completed pair of buildings. Regions Bank purchased the property to construct a new bank with ATM drive through, but also funded a separate building to be used for retail space. With 3,366 sq. ft., the building can be used for one tenant or divided into two, separate bays.

“I have not finalized deals with any tenants for the extra space yet but am actively prospecting and negotiating with tenants,” CBRE Retail Associate Nick Garavaglia said.

The Barton STL @thebartonapts

8500 Maryland Ave. Completed: Feb. 14, 2018 Constructed by Covington Construction 229 Apartments + three retail spaces Roads obstructed: Maryland Ave., Gay Ave. While this apartment complex just recently appeared next to Clayton High School, it is already deeply involved in the Clayton community. With one of the owners being a CHS graduate, The Barton works on giving back to the school and will sponsor the Clayton golf tournament in Spring 2018. The company extends its reach in the community even further by working with charities, adopting Salvation Army families, sending care packages to troops and working closely with the Clayton Chamber of Commerce.

The apartments are “more like custom built condominiums,” according to Leasing Manager Christine Whittaker. Nest thermostats, heated bathroom floors, custom shelving and granite countertops are just a few of the many amenities that make this local apartment complex upscale.

Two Twelve Clayton @twotwelveclayton 212 S. Meramec Ave. Completed: Aug. 17, 2017 Constructed by Paric 26 Floors, 250 Units

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This new luxury residential building challenges the existing skyline of downtown Clayton, towering as high as its neighboring competitors.

Inside the building, Two Twelve has a special concrete mix designed by “the Pope of Concrete” between every floor. The Two Twelve building is also a part of the Green Globes Program and meets special environmental regulations. Amenities include a rooftop pool and white glove service.

COMING UP IN CLAYTON A closer look at the current and recently completed construction projects in downtown Clayton.

All visuals were provided by the building owners. The map was provided by the City of Clayton.

justin guilak @jguilak NEWS SECTION EDITOR

Ceylon Apartments @LiveCeylon

25 N. Central Ave Completed: Oct. 15, 2017 Constructed by Opus Six Floors, 120 Apartments Located in the heart of downtown Clayton, this building is home to the modern, boutique Ceylon Apartments. These living spaces cater to the transportation forms of all residents, with a temperature controlled parking garage, bike storage and close proximity to the Metrolink. Private balconies along with the second floor terrace overlook the restaurant row of N. Central Ave. Other amenities include a fitness center and guest suite.

Centene Clayton Campus @Centene

Corner of Hanley and Forsyth Completed: Summer/Fall 2020 Constructed by Cushman & Wakefield, Clayco, HOK 27 Floors Roads obstructed: Forsyth Blvd., Hanley Rd. This expansion of Clayton’s skyline is also an expansion of Centene. The 27-story-tower is being constructed to hold 2,000 new Centene employees, half of which come from outside the state. The cost for the project is $770 million. However, the expansion will serve more than just Centene. In addition to bringing new consumers and taxpayers to Clayton, which will benefit the city and school district, Centene plans to provide for the public as well. Along with the tower will be green space available for pedestrians, new retail and restaurant areas and an auditorium for performing arts events. To learn more, read ‘The Centene Project’ on chsglobe.com.

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D R. P O W E L L - WA L K E R The next step towards Clayton’s “Whole Child”

Photos of Powell-Walker by Carson Holtzman

D

r. Powell-Walker taught me] that I had a right to speak up for myself, a right to do what is best for my mental health and a right to be safe, in every sense [of the word],” CHS senior Sabrina*said.

Sabrina is one of many students to benefit from the recent addition of social worker Dr. Sheila Powell-Walker to the Clayton High School and Wydown Middle School faculty.

Despite Powell-Walker’s recent start, it did not take long for her to start making a difference in the lives of Clayton students.

In Sabrina’s case, she sought to talk with a professional who could give her advice on how to handle her tumultuous home life, as well as potentially aid her in leaving.

“I went specifically right after a weekend where my parents were fighting with my brother because they found out that he smoked weed and burned his throat. They were saying they were going to disown him, and I just thought the environment at home was not fit for me. I wasn’t safe, nor happy, nor mentally stable, so I went to go check [in with] Dr. Powell -Walker,” Sabrina said.

Sabrina’s first few sessions moved rather slowly, serving as the objective was mainly to gain information.

“Around the third visit, that’s when she really started giving me programs and different resources that I could use to help myself.

She really validated a lot of the things that I thought were right; I just felt more empowered,” Sabrina said.

Walker’s extensive repertoire of community resources and programs was attractive to the district in that her connections would expand upon Clayton’s emphasis on the “whole child”, which refers to emotional, physical and intellectual growth. “[The Administration] wanted someone who can connect with the kids, who has done the work and has those established connections. [We looked for someone who] knows those resources and has established those relationships with various organizations to

FEATURE

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kind of hit the ground running, and then someone with a strong mental health background. We were very lucky with what we found with Dr. Powell-Walker,” CHS Principal Dr. Dan Gutchewsky said.

Gutchewsky believes that Powell-Walker’s extensive experience in social work will increase the impact she will have on students.

“She has a lot of experience as a social worker and so she’s worked with many families, so there is a lot of variety on what she can help us with,” Gutchewsky said. “She can help connect us with mental health [programs] as well as connecting families with whether it be energy assistance or food pantries, whatever the case may be. She kind of runs the show actually, in being able to provide a level of service that we just haven’t had before because it goes beyond what a school counselor would be able to do.”

Carolyn Blair, CHS Counseling Services Director, played a key role in the decision to hire Powell-Walker as the social worker and the guidance counselors work hand-in-hand. Blair admires Powell-Walker’s community-wide connections and ability to utilize resources from different local agencies.

“She had some ideas that she brought that we could use in the school already, [as well as] some outside agencies that she not only knows about, but had a connection to the inroads of that agency, so that we would be able to get help pretty quickly,” Blair said.

Powell-Walker views her role as School Social worker as having a “responsibility to work alongside parents, teachers, students, nurses, counselors and other specialists within the school setting as well as in the community to make sure that our students have all the tools that they need to be successful here at Clayton High School and beyond. Part of my work is that not only do [students] graduate college and career ready, but that they graduate socially and emotionally ready as well.”

Despite the official title, Powell-Walker feels that helping people transcends her daily responsibilities as a social worker.

“As far back as I can remember, I have always been a helper,” Powell-Walker said. “Even in school I was always one of those people that the friends would come to. I am also the oldest of three children, so I’ve always kind of been in that role of big sister. [My siblings] would always come and ask for support. I think over the years, the work I’ve done helping the people I care about grew into a passion, [and] it resulted in a career.”

In high school, Powell-Walker had her heart set on becoming a pediatrician. She felt that her desire to help would outweigh her difficulties in science and math.

Once in college, Powell-Walker did not have much luck with chemistry and biology.

“I did not get such good grades, but I was determined, I was gonna keep trying, I was gonna keep trying. But if I’m honest with myself, I really wasn’t really putting a lot of energy into trying to improve my grades in those classes because I just simply wasn’t as

*Name has been changed for student privacy

passionate about [the science], but I just kept trudging along,” Powell-Walker said. She met with her advisor, Mr. Moseby, who recommended she take an Introduction to Social Work class, as it was clear that medicine was not the right fit, but the desire to aid others was there.

Powell-Walker credits Moseby as one of the key sources of inspiration that paved the path to her becoming a social worker.

“One word from somebody can turn your situation around and get you moving in the right direction,” Powell-Walker said.

She had been skeptical of the idea, but immediately realized that social work was the right fit.

“From the very first day that I sat down in that class...I felt like I had made it home. I felt like I had found my people. They spoke my language, they understood how I looked at the world, and from there it was just ‘I’m where I’m supposed to be,’” Powell- Walker said.

Powell-Walker was integral in providing the support so that Sabrina could finally leave her home, although Powell-Walker never endorsed any decision or tried to sway her. “[Once] I had a plan [for] moving out, [Dr. Powell-Walker] was really good in not judging what I [was] doing, as she never put her personal opinions in our sessions, and she never stopped me from accomplishing what I wanted. She was very professional. When I said I wanted to move out, all she did was tell me how to do it safely and how to do it in a responsible manner,” Sabrina said.

Powell-Walker explained that Missouri school districts are ranked in terms of achievement, subgroup achievement, graduation rate, attendance rate and college and career readiness.

“The subgroup achievement is where I see myself most critically important as a social worker. The subgroup includes our kids who are African American, Latino, [those] who live in poverty, English Language Learners and kids who have disabilities that are being taken care of either by a 504 or an IEP plan,” she said. “The history of the performance of those children in education has said that they don’t always perform as well as their white counterparts on those tests. The idea is that school districts are being asked to put extra effort into making sure that they are being supported, that we do everything we can to lift the kids in the subgroup. Basically, the idea is that maybe there could be some barriers that are outside of their control. If we can make sure that you have all of your needs met, then it increases the likelihood that you can be present at school and fully access the curriculum.”

Sabrina credits Walker with teaching her self worth.

“Before, I was never really thought that I had a right to feel good, to feel like I’m worth something and valued, and she made a point to tell me that my rights were important, and that I didn’t have to be under anyone else,” she said. “I feel a lot better emotionally and mentally now, I don’t feel like I am doing everything wrong all the

time. I feel like I am actually treated more like a human where I am now than where I was, as opposed to having a family life that is always making sure you know that what you’re doing is wrong, and then pointing out the flaws over any accomplishments. It is still kind of hard, leaving your family, and there are times when I forget that I am not alone. But Dr. Powell-Walker...she just keeps me grounded, she makes sure I don’t get overly emotional, but she lets me have emotions at the same time. She makes sure I react with a cool head.”

Powell-Walker feels fortunate to have been able to help so many students already, but also feels the need to encourage other students to seek out a referral from their counselor if they are in need of additional resources or professional attention.

“High school students tend to take care of themselves more, they might not be so inclined to come in and say they need help, unless they get to a point where they really need help. I find that students tend to depend on each other...you must also remember that your friend is the same or close to your age, they can only give you the benefit of their experience. You have to keep in mind that while it is good to have friends to talk things over with, you might want to talk with someone who is older and wiser, who has walked your walk already, so that you can make sure you are on the right path and moving in the right direction,” Powell-Walker said.

Having transferred from the previously unaccredited school district of Riverview Gardens, Powell-Walker certainly felt the pressure of people not understanding why she made the move to Clayton. As an affluent suburban school district, Clayton has a reputation for lacking the problems which plague inner-city schools. However, Walker stands firmly in her belief that people are in need of help whether they talk about it or not.

“You should come to Clayton and you should hang out; you will find that people are people. While the problems might look different, they are still problems, and people still need help... Come and visit us,” Powell-Walker said. “You’ll find out that we have a lot of the same challenges that other people have, and don’t just assume that because it’s Clayton that kids don’t need help, because they do.”

samantha zeid @samstl PAGE EDITOR

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FEATURE

NEGLECTED MEMORIES One side resembles a traditional cemetery. The other side resembles a forest. Only amidst trees, foliage, and dirt, can burial sites be found.

This is Washington Park Cemetery. Not only is it the largest African-American cemetery in St. Louis, built during the Jim Crow era, but it is also the resting place of well-known figures including George Vaughan and Miles Davis, Sr. In the 1950s, Highway 70 was routed through the once sacred place. No bodies were disinterred and reburied during this process. In the 1990s, a MetroLink and airport expansion also intruded on the grounds; this time, the city bought the land, and the bodies were removed. These acts were the beginning of a history of neglect.

However, awareness is on the rise. In spring and summer of 2017, an exhibition titled “Higher Ground: Honoring Washington Park Cemetery, Its People and Place” was held at the Sheldon Art Gallery.

The exhibition is the product of Jennifer Colten, a photographer and WashU professor, Dail Chambers, a St. Lou-

mitali sharma @mitasharma EDITOR-IN-CHIEF photos by michael melinger is-based artist, and Denise Ward-Brown, who is a filmmaker and also a WashU professor. A book encapsulating this exhibition was made as well, including essays by Michael Allen, senior lecturer in landscape architecture and American culture studies at WashU. Here are three of their stories.

I. JENNIFER COLTEN // PHOTOGRAPHER Colten was looking for a project. She had just moved to St. Louis and was not familiar with the city.

“I was just searching around. I was introduced to the cemetery and initially I was really just drawn to the landscape itself -- the beauty of the landscape and the fact that it was really a place totally in transition, and I didn’t know why at the time. I was responding mostly for just for the way the lay of the land was speaking to me,” Colten said.

She soon learned about the history,which further compelled her to do the project.

“There was this clearly beautiful and carefully designed place, but then the other things being reflected were that it had undergone a lot of neglect and a lot of real abuse like illegal burials. I was really interested in that contrast and paradox that is very visually present there,” Colten said.

Colten photographed the cemetery while bodies were being disinterred. The process pushed Colten to not only take photos of the landscape, but also photos of the coffins.

“During that time I was really clear that I had to make certain kinds of photographs. I usually don’t make direct narratives, or documentations. But I felt like these things needed to be in the whole body of work to really tell the story,” Colten said.

Colten finished first round of the cemetery in 1993 but the opportunity for an exhibition did not come. In 2013, the project was reignited and after Colten won a Sam Fox School Creative Activity Research Grant and WashU’s Ferguson Academic Fund, she was able to start putting together the exhibition she had hoped for.

Colten wanted the exhibition, which came down in August, to raise awareness on the prevalent issues afflicting the cemetery.

“What I see is that what has happened to the cemetery and even the current state of the cemetery is really symbolic of a much larger set of issues that some people are facing and some people are addressing: the ongoing systems that have supported racism in the United States. Had it been a white cemetery, the Metro-Link, the highway, and the airport would be been rerouted.”

II. DAIL CHAMBERS // ARTIST St. Louis artist Dail Chambers’ grandmother died when Chambers’ mother was a young girl. She is now one of three relatives Chambers has buried at Washington Park Cemetery.

Chambers’ interest in the cemetery began as a quest to remember and honor these family members. She went through the Missouri Genealogical Society to find her relatives’ burial site information.

“When they gave me the burial site and the section numbers, I thought it was going to be easy-peasy. I was going to go out there, put the flowers on the headstone, and be done.”

However, what Chambers came upon at the cemetery made finding the sites a much greater challenge than she anticipated.

“[The cemetery] was a wooded thicket with trash,” she said. “I was not able to physically get to [the sites] because it was so overgrown.”

Chambers made her first trip to the cemetery in 2012. By 2015, she was tired of constantly searching for something so deeply hidden. She decided to retire the quest.

“You hear all these comments about African-Americans who have family members in that cemetery who have just given up. So I didn’t want to totally give up but it was emotionally and physically draining,” Chambers said.

Although she stopped searching for her family’s sites, Chambers continued visiting and trying to help Washington Park. Here, she met Dan Newman, one of the volunteers who regularly cleans at the cemetery.

Newman was able to locate one of the Chambers’ family member’s sites. When Chambers took her mother to go visit the site, her mother broke down in tears.

“It was disheartening and very emotionally difficult to see how your family members are being maintained,” Chambers said. “I just really think that it’s a class issue and it’s a race issue. But in St. Louis, the lethargy surrounding it is just shameful.”

As an artist, Chambers decided to document her journey through art. This is, of course, how Colten came to know about Chambers’ story and why she invited her to be a part of the “Higher Ground” exhibition.

Chambers’ pieces in the project are abstract, meaning upon first glance, they would not look like race-based art. Actually, as she was growing up and on her journey to becoming a professional artist, Chambers did not think she was going to be making racebased art. She quickly realized that is near-impossible in this day and age.

“I thought somewhere in my process I’d be able to transcend these issues, but because I’m a black woman, it’s so hard for me to transcend these issues. How I talk about the issues can change but if it’s still an issue for me, it’s always going to be in my art,” Chambers said.

iii. MICHAEL ALLEN // HISTORIAN Michael Allen, who studies urban ruins and segregated landscapes, had not investigated the Washington Park Cemetery before Colten approached him about participating in the exhibition.

Still, on Allen’s first trip to the cemetery, the sight was sadly too familiar.

“I was kind of struck by how much it fits into these other neglected areas in the city. I mean, it looks the same. The same plant species, the same patterns of neglect. Which is sad because that commonality averts the sacred intentions of a landscape like that,” Allen said.

Not only was the cemetery similar in its overgrown landscape, but the issues underlying the desecration mirrored the systemic issues Allen has been researching in other segregated landscapes.

“It’s an artifact of a system of making -- a whole place into two places, at least two places,” he said. “There are other forms of oppression and discrimination. But the segregation of black and white people takes what could have been one landscape and man-

ufactures two different sets that ultimately accord to two different sets of care and two different ways in which the government protects or razes those kinds of places.”

Allen is adamant that this neglect of the cemetery shows how St. Louis locals need to do a better job remembering their history.

For example, the natural beauty of the overgrowth can be romanticized by people who do not have a “dog in the fight.” Allen caught himself making the same assumptions on his first trip to the cemetery.

“There’s also a strange beauty in the woods which I had a hard time writing about because my people aren’t there. I’m not feeling the same pain, but there is a little bit of a beauty to the natural order that’s emerging there but that isn’t seen as beauty to most people there. We appreciate some of what we’re seeing in nature but we’re not the keepers of the place and we’re not the ones who have memories,” Allen said.

He notes, however, that for the people whose loved ones are interred in the cemetery, the overgrowth is muting the memories of their family and their achievements, while the romanticization of the nature is symbolic of many Americans’ inability to truly connect with their history.

“Because Americans don’t really hold their history close -many people don’t know their local history -- we have a strange fascination with ruin and sights like that because of its allure: overgrown, it’s mysterious, it’s a message left by ancestors. It’s only alluring though because we’ve lost contact with that history.”

Nonetheless, Allen is hopeful that this attitude is changing and that the exhibition will have peaked public interest in local history.

“I think more and more Americans, even white, are more interested in knowing about Missouri’s black heritage and St. Louis’ black heritage. A lot of black neighborhoods have been erased but the cemeteries can build a tangible place to remember those stories. So I’m somewhat optimistic that in building the exhibition, the awareness is going to be something that transforms the total space. Although it is pretty hard to envision a total transformation.”

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FEATURE

CHINA er Riv lu a Y

H I L LTO P D O C Korean War veteran and Clayton resident Leonard Adreon shares his story .

A

man was carried into the battalion aid station, his face was all torn up and his body was covered with mud and blood, and the doc and I did our best to treat him but there was no treatment for him. The doc told me to just get him to the helicopter so we could get him to the hospital ship, because we couldn’t handle him,” 90-year-old Korean War veteran and Clayton resident Leonard Adreon said. “The next day as we were going over the list of names of people we treated I saw the name of my friend Darry. I told the doctor we didn’t treat him yesterday, but the doc said ‘Oh yes we did, you carried him to the copter yesterday.’ The ironic thing about it was that I didn’t recognize my best friend. He never made it to the hospital ship.”

This is the reality of war that Adreon wanted to depict through his newly released book, “Hilltop Doc”. After 60 years of silence about his service in Korea, Adreon finally decided to share his story.

“I wanted to write a book that tells realistically what the war was like. Not a Hollywood movie version, not a heroic version, but a realistic picture of what it was like to be there at the 38th parallel,” Adreon said.

Adreon was drafted toward the end of World War II at the age of 17. He did not see any action during this war, and spent the end of the war training at a camp in Illinois. However, after the war he signed up with the U.S. Naval Reserve after learning he could get $8 for attending a meeting.

Leonard Adreon3at 18 (photo from Adreon) CONTENTS

NORTH KOREA Sea of Japan Pyongyang 38th Parallel

Seoul Yellow Sea SOUTH KOREA

“I grew up during the Depression era,” Adreon said.

“I signed up because my dad’s Pusan words were rolling around in my head: ‘Never turn down an opportunity for a buck.’”

Adreon ended up serving in Korea from 1951-1952 as a third-class hospital corpsman, despite having no background in medical training. At first, Adreon embraced his call to service as an adventure into the unknown, like many young men did. However, his ideas soon changed.

“When I got there I was astounded to find out we weren’t there to win the war. We were there to take a hill and kill or maim as many Chinese soldiers as we could because the theory was in 1951 that we could force them because of the casualty rate to come to the bargaining table and make a deal to end the war,” Adreon said. “We didn’t take these hills to go north and take more territory. We took the hills to hold them. [The Chinese] did the same thing. I can’t tell you how many times we took the same hill.”

As a corpsman, Adreon’s job required him to treat wounded Americans on the battlefield. This would often require him to leave the relative safety of his foxhole and run across a field with mortar shells and bullets exploding around him to answer the call of a fallen marine.

However, corpsmen like Adreon often did not only aid Americans.

“When we found wounded Chinese, we treated them too. Our

Photo caption here

US Marine Corps Photo of a soldier being treated by Corpsmen like Adreon (Photo from Hilltop Doc) fellow marines never understood why we did that, but we did it, I years, my time in Korea, that was very vivid, very crisp, very mean a guy is lying there, bleeding, he’s going to die. He’s a human clear. I remembered everything that happened. I remembered being, a kid, he reminds you of yourself,” Adreon said. the faces of my friends,” he said.

Before the war ended in 1953, over 36,000 American soldiers Because of his memory and his experiences, CHS History had lost their lives. Despite these casualties and the impact of the teacher Chris Livingston has invited Adreon to come to speak war on many Americans, the Korean War is often referred to as with his class about the Korean War and his book when his class the “Forgotten War,” overshadowed by the preceding World War studies the Korean War in the spring. Students will be able to subII and the following Vietnam War. mit questions that they want Adreon to answer even if they are As Adreon was leaving Korea in 1952, he and other members not in Livingston’s class. of his platoon decided not to discuss Korea in the future.

“Like with any topic, I’ve read about it, but I wasn’t there.

“We agreed we’d put the war behind us. We felt it best to forget Learning from a first hand experience is a lot more interesting Korea, which also meant our friendship was over,” Adreon said. than learning from a secondary one, especially from someone For the next 60 years, Adrewho did such incredible things,” on remained unwilling to revisit Livingston said. his experience in Korea, even In the end, Adreon hopes with his close family. However, that, regardless of its financial “The book isn’t going to make a dime. in 2011 Adreon enrolled in a success, his book will serve to I lose money every time someone buys Washington University writing change people’s perspective on class in a program called Lifewar. a copy. But that’s okay. I didn’t write the long Learning. There, he was “The book isn’t going to make book to make a living. I wrote the book be- a dime. encouraged by students and I lose money every time cause I wanted to honor those who gave facilitators encouraged him to someone buys a copy,” Adreon write about his role in the war. said. “But that’s okay. I didn’t up everything in Korea.”

After thinking it over, Adreon write the book to make a living.

decided to write a short poem I wrote the book because I wantabout one of his experiences. ed to honor those who gave up - Leonard Adreon “The class surprised me everything in Korea.”vvvvvv with their interest in what happened at the 38th Parallel,” Adreon said. “People at the university strongly encouraged me to write about the realities of combat. jacob lagesse They thought too many young people were thinking of war in the @jlagesse95 heroic terms depicted in movies. To me, war is anything but heroSENIOR MANAGING EDITOR ic. It is brutal and ugly, full of blood, death and pain.”

Adreon began to write short vignettes about certain moments in the war. Then, after further persuasion, he started to compile these stories into the structure of a book.

19 FEATURE “What was remarkable to me was that I had a memory of those

B L AC K L I V E S M AT T E R The Globe examines the methods of the local Black Lives Matter movement for achieving their goals of racial equality.

“Two police officers came out and told us to get down on the ground. We got down on the ground, they were angry, they were mean, they zip tied us and put us in separate cars,” CHS Senior Lizzy Mills said.

Officers arrested Lizzy Mills and fellow Senior Josh Hagene on Sept. 17, while participating in a Stockley protest for the Black Lives Matter movement.

The protest, outside of the police headquarters, lasted from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“We gathered in a tight mass in front of the headquarters, chanting. Crowds of police officers were gathering within the building. Some didn’t know how to react, some were filming us, some were laughing,” Mills said.

As the crowd grew restless, they began to march.

“As we were walking through the streets, a few people decided to push over the pots and break things. The cops at that point were starting to surround us but we couldn’t see them yet,” Hagene said.

“Everyone around us just ran. Josh and I kept running and made it to the driveway of the Holiday Inn, and then this Dodge pulled up,” Mills said.

Hagene and Mills were arrested and charged with destruction of property.

“My arresting officer said that he saw me throw something in a window. What bothers me most about this is how confident he was,” Mills said. “I don’t think I’m even strong enough to throw something in a window to break it.”

At the Justice Center, however, their charges were reduced to “failure to disperse”.

Mills recently became involved in the movement when the Stockley verdict was released.

“I’ve been aware of [the movement] and have been keeping tabs on it but it wasn’t until the Stockley verdict that I personally

FEATURE

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became involved and felt the need to go down there and protest,” she said.

Hagene became involved in the movement after his Cultural Leadership transformation journey. “Cultural leadership taught me to take advantage of opportunities and actually fight for something I really believe in,” he said.

Their recent experiences and arrests have strengthened their passions and shaped their perspectives on the movement.

“I was definitely treated a lot better because I was white. [I got] a complete new perspective on my privilege. Josh and I both have white parents who can easily afford to pay bail. Also my mom is a lawyer so she has a functioning knowledge of how the justice system works,” Mills said, comparing herself to the individuals she met in jail. “There were people who were arrested who can’t afford a lawyer or don’t have family members in St. Louis to bail them out. Also while you’re in there no one tells you what you’re charged for or what the process is of you leaving.”

Protesting is one of the primary ways in which the movement brings attention to racial inequality. Clarissa Hayward, political science professor at Washington University, explained the importance of protesting in politics.

“It puts the issue on the political agenda and tells the democratic candidates in elections to address it,” Hayward said. “Public opinion and awareness have changed dramatically [since 2014], pretty clearly as a result of the protests.”

Protesting also causes individuals within communities to become more aware of the racial injustices pervading America.

“Look at how many more people wanted to get more informed on the matter because they saw people protesting,” Mills said.

“There are so many other people who have been killed by cops and have had similar verdicts, but because Stockley’s verdict caused so many people to go out and demonstrate, tons of people want to become informed on the matter and want to talk about it.”

Photo by Sophia Ryan Although the movement and the issues it touches are not unique to St. Louis, the extreme segregation in St. Louis exacerbates the racial inequity. One of the goals of the movement, especially here in St. Louis, is to create a safe environment for the black community.

In the political world, the Black Lives Matter movement has changed the agendas and campaigns of Democratic and Republican parties.

“If you think about Clinton and Sanders and look at their campaigns when they were starting out, they didn’t really address [racial] issues one way or the other,” Hayward said.

Conventionally, in a two party system, politicians do not tend to address controversial issues. They speak in vague terms and avoid addressing anything that might be divisive because they try to get as many votes as possible.

“But over time, both Clinton and Sanders started to adopt criminal justice and social justice platforms,” Hayward said. “The Black Lives Matter movement compels [politicians] to take a stance.”

As for Republican politicians, they have brought attention to the matters of the movement as well. Historically known as the Southern Strategy, this electoral strategy has been used by candidates such as Richard Nixon to gain political support. “[Republican politicians] get white people who are natural constituents of the Democratic party over to the Republican side by tapping into racial animosities,” Hayward said.

Consequently, the recent election of Donald Trump has sparked more protests on the Black Lives Matter side.

“It is emboldened by members of Trump’s space to say things and behave in ways that are explicitly racist, ways which have been off the table for decades prior to Trump,” Hayward said.

The election of Trump has caused many people to openly express views regarding racial resistance.

“I think the current administration took us a few steps back and now we’re forced to fight even harder to work for equality,” Hagene said.

In addition to protesting, the movement also focuses on policy, as well as electoral politics.

“If you type into Google ‘Movement for Black Lives’, you will see a very detailed and thoughtful policy platform that they’ve developed. They’re trying to make change at a level of policy, and some of the protesters have won local offices in St. Louis,” Hayward said.

While police brutality has been a main focal point of the movement, Black Lives Matter also revolves around educational inequalities, health care and all the ways systemic racial inequality persists in the U.S. “The Black Lives Matter movement is democracy,” Mills said.

“This is the system that we’re supposed to be living in - where the people have a voice, and that voice matters and that voice can change things.”

Over the years, the movement has become more structured and efficient. There are clear leaders and organizers who come up with schedules and ideas to organize peaceful protests.

Compared to the raw protests in Ferguson, today’s protests are more organized and planned.

“Ferguson was the spark that set a whole fire blazing,” Mills said. “Michael Brown’s [case] pushed St. Louis to reach that boiling point where the black community just couldn’t sit by any longer. And I think since then, that awareness has reached the white communities and people like myself.”

The Black Lives Matter movement will continue to push for change at the local and federal levels. “We need more people to go out to the protests and raise awareness and not get tired of it.

We just need to keep going until things change,” Hagene said.

21 FEATURE

by NOAH BROWN

with reporting by NEEL VALLURAPALLI and JIMMY MALONE

*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.

Photos by Michael Melinger

I. intro CHS senior Ryan* used to smoke nearly a pack of cigarettes everyday.

“I was having a hard time breathing while I was running, and I still do sometimes, but it’s become easier at least. I almost smoked a pack a day for a while. It got really bad and I was like ‘alright, I’ve got to slow down. I’m only 17 and I’m about to have lung cancer at 25 or some shit,” he said.

For Ryan, smoking cigarettes was a practice rooted largely in his cultural and environmental influences.

“I started out [smoking cigarettes] with my friends. It’s kind of big for French culture; just everyone basically smokes cigarettes.

My entire family basically does. I started it and it became a habit.

For me, it was more of a cultural thing and I just kind of enjoyed the taste of cigarettes,” he said.

As his cigarette smoking became more and more of an addiction, Ryan realized he needed to find an alternative. He was introduced to the JUUL, a vaporizer, by a friend, and has been using it ever since.

“I’m quitting [cigarettes] so I asked somebody if [I could use their JUUL] because I knew those were at least better than cigarettes and “why not?” so I haven’t really bought any packs of cigarettes recently,” he said.

Like Ryan, CHS senior Bryant* was introduced to the JUUL by a friend. “[I was introduced to it] over the summer at a party. They said it was a new product, and I was like “Oh, I’ll try it” so I tried it and I liked it. I didn’t buy one until three months later and then I started using it pretty often,” Bryant said.

Bryant admitted that JUUL-ing became an addiction that even pervaded onto school grounds.

“If you are actually addicted to the JUUL, you’ll hit it when you feel the urge to. For me at least it’s every class period I feel the urge to hit it. But that doesn’t mean that I will get the head high.

Just the urge will go away,” he said.

The JUUL is manufactured by the company Pax Labs. The company asserts that the JUUL is for “adult smokers seeking a satisfying alternative to cigarettes.”

While the JUUL device was purportedly designed for adult users, it has quickly become a household name in the realm of teen drug use.

II. school Ryan and Bryant are not the only CHS students familiar with the JUUL device. According to a survey of nearly 200 CHS students, 20.9 percent of students have used a JUUL. The process of buying the vaporizer is not so black-and-white.

The same survey showed that 10 percent of students had bought a JUUL or JUUL pods before. Ryan explained that there is a kind of network by which Clayton students can obtain the device.

“There are a bunch of people who are already 18 so they go and get [JUULs] out in St. Charles. I get mine from a friend. Actually I have several friends who sell them,” Ryan said.

The JUUL functions with pods that are comprised of flavoring chemicals and, according to Pax Labs’ website, 5 percent nicotine by weight.

Bryant has developed a system for acquiring JUUL pods. “[I get them] simply because I would send someone their home-

work for a pod. Like if I just did their homework and they gave me a pod for free,” he said.

Bryant still worries about the ease at which students can not only get their hands on a JUUL, but use it during the school day.

He attributes the popularity of the JUUL to this high level of accessibility and convenience.

“It’s kind of scary how easy it is to get and it’s easy to one, do it in the school. And two, get away with it. So people who smoke cigarettes, they can’t get away with it because one, you can’t do it in school and two, it smells and you can’t do it at home,” he said.

“But with the JUUL you can do it anywhere you want, and it’s so much easier to get addicted because it’s always there for you.”

As Bryant explained, many JUUL users do not hesitate to use the device on school grounds.

“You can swallow the smoke and it won’t come out,” Ryan said.

“So I’ll take a hit in the hallways or JUUL in my car if I’m going to lunch or something.”

For Ryan, smoking, in general, has been a coping mechanism for some personal difficulties.

“Junior year is when it really hit me. I was smoking during school sometimes. I was doing it a lot. It was also because I was having a hard time at home, so it just made me feel better,” he said. “I remember in health class, they would talk about how this is not actually relaxing you but to me, it feels like it’s actually relaxing you. Just getting the buzz or letting the smoke just flow out, it just made me feel better.”

The JUUL allowed Ryan to quit smoking cigarettes while still providing him a similar kind of relief that he’d come to expect from cigarettes.

“It’s like a vape. A lot of people buy vapes because they want to stop cigarettes. That’s what the JUUL is for me,” Ryan said.

CHS senior Ella Engel believes that the popularity of JUULs has ultimately led to her peers developing new habits.

“At parties, I’ve noticed more and more people going out to smoke cigarettes and even using chewing tobacco. Before JUULs were a thing, smoking cigarettes [and using chewing tobacco] was looked down upon and it wasn’t really a part of the party culture at Clayton,” Engel said.

The CHS administration has become increasingly aware of the prominence of vaping in the past few years. Nearly 10 percent of CHS students have used a JUUL on campus and the district’s disciplinary policy has adapted to these kinds of trends.

“I think our policies need to reflect it and be responsive to it and that’s why we made the change a couple of years ago,” CHS principal Dr. Dan Gutchewsky said. “Going back two or three years we had a situation where we caught a kid with [an e-cigarette] and actually looked at the policy and it didn’t even talk about this.”

The ambiguous chemical makeup of the JUUL and comparable devices present a logistic problem on the administrative side of things.

“The other challenge I think with e-cigarettes and vaporizers is the various oils and waxes that you can put in them that make it difficult to detect because the odor isn’t as prevalent and it doesn’t linger on your clothes as it does with kids who are smoking a joint so it certainly makes it more challenging from an administrative standpoint,” Gutchewsky said.

Gutchewsky spent part of a recent faculty meeting discussing the JUUL device and seeks to continue to combat JUUL use at CHS. “I think I’ve learned a lot more about them in the past few months as we try to be proactive in how we’re dealing with it,” he said.

III. coalition Two years ago, CHS parent Beth Deutsch took the initiative to start the Drug and Alcohol Task Force. That initial initiative has since morphed into the formation of the All-In Clayton Coalition, a parent-led group that meets monthly. In an attempt to serve the needs of all of Clayton, meetings are open to the general Clayton public.

“The All-in Coalition is open to anybody in the Clayton community so whether you work at the school, are a student at the school, live in the school district, work in Clayton, it’s open to it,” Deutsch said. “All of the coalitions have one theme and that’s to prevent substance use among youth.”

The All-in Clayton Coalition partners with the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NCADA) in an attempt to reduce substance abuse among Clayton students.

“NCADA, at no cost to the Coalition, they’re there to help support and educate and drive the work in a research-based, factbased kind of way,” Deutsch said.

At the core of the All-In Clayton Coalition’s mission are the verbs prevent, reduce, educate and advocate. Deutsch believes that the educational component can be misconceived.

“The ‘educate’ part is as much educating parents as it is about the students. It really is a community effort,” she said.

Deutsch insists that Clayton being an affluent, well-off community doesn’t make it immune to problems associated with drug and alcohol use.

“The Clayton community is a very highly educated community with excellent resources but it doesn’t mean everybody is up to date on all the latest research, on the latest preventative techniques in every area of life so drug prevention is one area that we see as really important to educate, in the hopes that we will prevent and reduce drug use among minors in Clayton,” she said.

With the backing and continued support from the NCADA and the School District of Clayton, Deutsch is hopeful that the impact of the Coalition will continue to grow.

“Having the backing of the district really helps get the message out and get things done. We get awesome ideas and input from administration within the school district. We welcome anyone that is interested. The advice from NCADA was ‘let’s not try to force this. Let’s see how we can organically grow it,’” she said.

IV. health

“I don’t think anyone’s an expert on JUULs at this point,” Kelly Wieser, Associate Director of Prevention Education for NCADA, said.

Wieser attributes the rise in popularity of the JUUL to two main factors.

“When I talk with high school students in other schools, they like the hiding factor of it but they also like the fact they get a pretty immediate head rush from it so that’s leading them down the path to addiction,” she said.

The perception of JUULs as harm-free is, in Wieser’s eyes, a dangerous illusion.

“Supposedly, a pod is about equivalent to a pack of cigarettes in terms of the nicotine that’s in there,” Weiser said. “Sometimes when people vape, they might just take a drag off of it and then

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*Names have been changed *Subject of photo does to protect the anonynimity of not actually use JUUL products the individuals.

they put it down for a while. Other people, they just continually vape on it so there’s a risk of overdosing on nicotine.”

Ryan’s experience with using the JUUL to reduce his cigarette-smoking is not an uncommon experience.

“For smokers, there’s some indications in observational research as well as in random trials suggest that people who are using e-cigs to quit smoking or to reduce their smoking exposure, it can be a good thing. Certainly, thousands of people have reported quitting smoking with e-cigs,” Washington University Professor of Medicine Dr. Amy McQueen said. “There are plenty of people with e-cigs who downgraded their nicotine levels over time and some smoke them with zero nicotine. In that sense, it can be a new opportunity for smokers to attempt to quit.”

The ambiguous compositional makeup of the JUUL device is reason to be cautious, McQueen believes.

“With e-cigs, some of them come from China and you really wonder what’s in there. There’s no regulation and so it’s really unclear what’s in there,” McQueen said. “It’s not necessarily known what the threshold is that would then cause addiction in which case they’d try to increase their use.”

Gutchewsky seconds McQueen’s concern regarding the mysterious nature of the JUUL and other e-cigarettes.

“I worry just from a health standpoint for kids because I think e-cigarettes to the general public have been advertised as sort of a healthy alternative to cigarettes or a way to quit smoking cigarettes,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of unknowns regarding the

61.2%

of students at CHS know someone who uses a JUUL

Ryan insisted that smoking the JUUL was a better alternative for him, both on the financial and health side of things. He also mentions that the process of using the JUUL allows him to more effectively control his use.

“I save more money and I actually like the taste better than cigarettes. Plus, it is a better alternative although it’s not healthy either. It still ends up working out better,” Ryan said. “There’s chemicals in it for sure; there’s like 10 percent nicotine. But cigarettes have more. I typically buy one pod each time I buy because I can save and control it with the JUUL.” Wieser pointed out that the transition from vaping to smoking cigarettes may often be a natural one especially for Missourians, given the financial implications of the state’s low cigarette taxes.

“In Missouri we have really cheap tobacco prices. It makes our cigarette prices cheaper than other places. At some point, a $50 starter pack of the JUUL is a whole lot more than a pack of cigarettes,” she said. “In Missouri, a pack of cigarettes is potentially a lot cheaper to the point where people would move from vaping onto traditional cigarettes with those 7,000 chemicals and the cancer risks and everything else.”

McQueen believes that the popularization of e-cigarette devices like the JUUL may act to reverse the efforts made in the public health arena to advance anti-smoking rhetoric.

“A concern in the public health community is that we’ve done so much to denormalize smoking behavior in this country and that’s really helped us to reduce cigarette smoking in the adult

20.9% of students at CHS report they have tried JUULing at least once

health effects with the various vaporizers and I don’t know and it wouldn’t surprise me if down the road that we find they’re certainly not healthier than cigarettes.”

A main risk associated with teen e-cigarette usage comes from the prospect of building a tolerance for nicotine and the health implications of doing so.

“Tolerance to nicotine builds up fairly quickly in the brain to the fact that someone who is in high school might JUUL a little bit and have a full-on addiction to nicotine. In terms of what nicotine can do to the body, it raises the risk of heart attack, raises the risk of stroke; I know as a teenager somebody might think it’s not going to happen to them or they’re still young, you know, ‘I’ll quit at some point,’ but knowing that nicotine is very hard to quit, it leads them down a path [that is] very challenging health-wise,” Wieser said.

According to the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, “e-cigarettes with nicotine have the potential to more greatly affect addiction among youth than adults since brain development continues until the mid-20s. Decision making, impulse control, sensation seeking, and peer pressure are all examples of brain development activities among adolescents. Physicians are especially concerned that teens who vape will develop an addiction to nicotine.”

population and we’ve had some success with teens and young adults but this new perceived cool and perceived lower risk, perceived newer technology option might revamp the whole ‘smoking is cool’ social norm,” she said.

Wieser suggests that the ambiguous and nuanced nature of the JUUL product makes it an attractive option for teens. The perception, Wieser asserts, does not necessarily match the reality.

“JUULs are inconspicuous, easier to hide, adults don’t always know what they are, they have a flash drive appearance,” Wieser said. “On their site, they’re supposedly very upfront about the fact that these are for adults and not for teens. In terms of the marketing, in terms of the videos you see online and that kind of thing, it’s very enticing for teens. It’s kind of like how sometimes advertising doesn’t match the reality.”

Wieser hopes that education will serve as a vehicle to deter teens from using products like the JUUL. “In the moment, something like this is new or innovative, but I don’t think people think three years from now, or 10 years from now, what the ramifications will be. You’d hope that through education you could provide some information that would make people think twice and at least try to make some healthy choices,” Wieser said.

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FEATURE

Show

Me

Green

By Grace Snelling, Katie Snelling, Sara Stemmler and Lila Taylor with reporting by Michael Bernard and Daniel Cohen As of 2017, the psychoactive drug marijuana has been legalized in some way in 29 states and Washington D.C. Eight states and the capital have legalized the drug for recreational use. While cannabis is still federally illegal and not yet regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, many states are passing new legislation to legalize marijuana -- and Missouri could be next. The Globe investigates the facets of this controversial story and how it applies to Clayton as well as the rest of Missouri. This issue is one that hits close to home now more than ever.

*

CLAYTON

“All of my money. All the cash that I get or steal from my parents goes towards marijuana,” CHS student Jane* said.

As the push to legalize marijuana increases across the US, the effect of this psychoactive drug on the student body at CHS has become more apparent. Based on a recent student survey conducted by the Globe, 69 percent of the student body know someone who has smoked or consumed marijuana.

CHS sophomore Hunter Chestnut Perry is among the 77 percent of Clayton students who have not smoked marijuana.

His declination to smoke is especially unique considering his roots in Boulder, Colorado. Perry moved to St. Louis from Boulder in August of 2016 to begin his freshman year.

While visiting Colorado for the summer before returning at the beginning of this school year, weed culture in Colorado and in Missouri became more astoundingly distinct to him.

“People talk about it a lot in [St. Louis], but I haven’t personally seen anyone do it here - I don’t really hang out with people who [smoke marijuana], but [in CO], it’s just in the open everywhere,” Perry said. “You walk down the street and there will be a bunch of people doing it on the sidewalk, or at bus stops, or anywhere basically.”

Perry is not the only one who has noticed the seemingly casual public use of marijuana in Colorado. In fact, many are concerned that the use of cannabis products, especially in teens, has become too casual, increasing the risk for medical repercussions in users.

It was certainly not always this way. Perry noted a palpable change in weed culture both before and after the introduction of Amendment 64 to the Constitution of the State of Colorado, or the legalization of recreational use of marijuana back in 2012.

“There were still a lot of people who still did it before it was legalized, but they tried to hide it a lot, where now, if you go there, I’d be surprised if I didn’t see someone doing it every day,” Perry said.

Although he has a history of being widely exposed to cannabis products, Perry continues to refrain from smoking due to both family history and the awareness of possible medical repercussions.

“It’s mostly because of basketball. A few of my uncles used to be pretty good at basketball, and they started smoking and kinda lost interest in school and activities, and just got super lazy, and I just didn’t want to go down that path, so I stay away from it. It’s mostly health related,” he said.

Although Perry himself does not participate in cannabis related activities, he is familiar with people who regularly participate in such activities, some even coming to social gatherings already high.

“I know one dude who, he was at a party, and he was underage so he wasn’t supposed to have it, and cops showed up, and he dove out of a two-story window, through the glass, and his stomach got all cut up so he has like 56 stitches in his stomach from the glass, and he got arrested for a night, but he was bailed out,” Perry said.

Perry attempts, however, to make sure his friends are not actively smoking while they are hanging out, a task that is becoming

nameS have been changed to protect the anonymity of the individuals

more difficult with students’ increasing exposure to marijuana products.

Similarly to Perry, Clay Butler, a junior at CHS, has watched his friends become more interested in alcohol and marijuana, and believes that use of these substances almost always has negative consequences. As someone who does not smoke or drink, Butler often feels like an outlier.

“If you go to a party and you don’t smoke or drink, most likely your friends are gonna be like, ‘okay, we’re not gonna peer pressure you but it’s always gonna be here!’ and they are obviously edging you towards it, they want you to do it, consciously or subconsciously they’re gonna try to push it on you,” Butler said.

At Clayton, Butler noted, drinking and smoking is somewhat normalized.

“I do think every high school has a unique atmosphere about it. What I’ve noticed is that in Clayton, the parties are usually in a

7 out of every 10 Clayton students know someone who has smoked marijuana. space where [drinking and smoking] is not frowned upon by the parents. It’s more like, the parents are trying to create that ‘safe space’ but whenever you have underage drinking, it’s never a good idea and stupid stuff is gonna happen,” Butler said. “I can’t really speak for every high school, just Clayton, but it seems like it’s very well known who does it and which groups do it together, and it’s very open. It’s kind of shocking how Clayton hasn’t had any type of [student-centered] drug prevention program at all, the most we get is a few times a year we talk about it. The people who don’t want to drink are afraid to voice their opinion about.”

To further educate his peers about the negative effects of substance abuse, as well as to show other students (especially underclassmen) that it is okay to avoid smoking and drinking, Butler has joined an initiative called Tri Putting Off Drinking (TRIPOD).

Students who join this initiative are taught an hour long lesson by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (NCADA) about substance abuse, which they are then able to teach to their classmates. Butler hopes that this program will help to increase awareness about alcohol and drugs in the Clayton community.

Although some Clayton students share Perry and Butler’s views on marijuana, Jane believes most students have tried smoking at least once.

“Everyone smokes. I do think a lot of people [at Clayton]

27

“

“

I smoke while I'Am walking down the street. I smoke at my house. I smoke anywhere.”

Photo by Michael Melinger smoke,” Jane said.

Jane has been smoking marijuana for about a year now, and smokes about once a day during the school year and four to five times a day during the summer. Although she was initially wary about being caught with the illegal substance, smoking and consuming marijuana has become a more casual experience for her.

“When I first started smoking I was so worried, I was so worried about where I was smoking, who I was smoking with, when I was going home,” Jane said. “Now I just like … smoke while I’m walking down the street. I do. I smoke at my house, I smoke anywhere.”

Jane usually purchases about five grams of marijuana once every two weeks, which she smokes in a group with her friends.

This costs her at least $100 per month, and she sometimes has to steal money from her parents to cover the price. According to Jane, because of the amount of money that is involved in these transactions, it is typical for dealers to over-price their marijuana, especially if the buyers are freshmen and do not know any better.

“What happens is either you get an unfair price, you get an unfair amount, [the dealer] is like … really bad about meeting you, and then lastly they take forever to respond to you,” she said.

For many dealers at CHS, the process of obtaining and selling drugs has proved dangerous. CHS alum Frank* began dealing at the age of 17, when he met a worker at a Clayton restaurant who offered to help him become a dealer by connecting him with other local adult dealers (he has since stopped dealing).

“I [moved] 2.5 ounces a week,” Frank said. “It’s pretty laid back. Nobody cares except the cops.”

While still dealing, Frank made approximately $500 per week only through drug transactions. Often, dealing put him in threatening situations.

“I was picking up from a dude. Then this guy pulled out a gun [on me]. He told me to give him all my money and weed. I told him to go away,” he said.

Although the gun was not loaded and Frank was unharmed, he was shaken by the altercation.

Other students recount similar experiences. Jason*, a student at CHS, is friends with multiple dealers who have been threatened by suppliers.

28

“Even in high school … even if you try to screw over like, a high school dealer, they might pull up to your house with a gun. [A dealer I know] pulled a knife on my friend,” Jason said.

The basic understanding of the Clayton drug trade is as follows: a student or recent graduate of Clayton or a neighboring St. Louis high school purchases in larger quantities from adults, and then resells that product to students at Clayton who they are in contact with.

“High school dealers buy from somebody in the area and they’ll ask for a hookup and the high school dealers try to buy in bulk, so typically they’ll buy a couple of ounces maybe so that they can just sell it and they don’t have to continuously keep buying,” Jason said.

Eric Selig, a criminal defense attorney in the St. Louis area, has an awareness of the drug culture because of his career in law.

He has sat in with Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents alike due to many of the clients he has represented.

“I’m aware that there’s a cartel in California, and there’s a cartel in Mexico, that do some supplying of drugs to the St. Louis area,” Selig said. “I’m aware of drugs coming in from California, and drugs coming from Colorado, and coming to this area.”

With the changing prohibition surrounding marijuana from state to state, cannabis products are coming into Missouri from places such as Colorado and California, which was not as common 20 years ago before any type of legalization had occurred.

Although the sources of marijuana may be changing, there has not been an influx of marijuana being brought into the state of Missouri due to legalization in other states around the country.

“I don’t think there’s an increase, like all of a sudden there’s more marijuana because, let’s say California and Colorado and Washington State, and Washington D.C have legalized recreational marijuana,” Selig said. “I don’t think that has led to more marijuana here. I think it’s possible that that has led to more sources where marijuana comes here from, it takes away some of the marijuana that came here to St. Louis from drug cartels in Mexico. So I don’t think it’s increased the amount, I think that maybe the sources are just a little different.”

Drug smugglers are finding more creative ways to smuggle

picking up from “ “ Iawas dude. Then this guy

pulled out a gun [on me].

He told me to give him all my money and weed.

I told him to go away.

“

marijuana products across state lines. While the transportation and distribution of cannabis may be legal in one state, as soon as a border is crossed, a felony could be committed by doing the same action.

“People have been caught coming to St. Louis with trashbags full of marijuana, others with a pickup truck filled with what looked like packages that looked like presents, and bags that look like luggage, and are coming into this area,” Selig said. “And because some or another got caught by the police because they claimed they smelled something, then all of a sudden, they are searching the packages and are finding drugs, and the guys with the trash bags came from Colorado, and the guy with the duffel bags and packages that were wrapped with vacuum-sealed bricks of marijuana, came from California.”

Sergeant Tim Ware, of the St. Louis County Police Bureau of Drug Enforcement, spoke of the legal process these drug traders go through when caught by the police. The St. Louis County Drug Task Force is responsible for investigating possible possessions and/or distributions of illegal substances, such as marijuana.

“Detectives assigned to the St. Louis County Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force use a combination of information/complaints from citizens, the area police precinct, informants or crime trends to initiate criminal investigations for the illegal distribution or possession of controlled substances,” Ware said. “The investigations can result in the execution of state or federal search warrants. After an investigation is completed, all evidence is then turned over to local or federal prosecutors for consideration of charges. Anytime a person is found to be in possession of a controlled substance they are arrested. ” Missouri follows the trend of other states that are sans marijuana legalization. Ware and Selig both agree that there is no increase in marijuana in Missouri; there is only a change in the sources from which it is brought to the state from.

“Marijuana distribution and possession occurs in the St. Louis area just as much in any other area of the country except maybe states with legalized marijuana,” Ware said. “The amount has not changed [due to legalization in other states], but legalized marijuana has allowed the same people to obtain it in a different location.”

While the Drug Task Force is responsible for marijuana possession investigations, they tend to spend the majority of their time focusing on solving cases involving other, more dangerous drugs.

“In Missouri marijuana is considered a controlled substance,” Ware said. “We investigate these cases like any other. Currently

due to the deadly impacts of heroin we have concentrated our investigations to the controlled substances that may be killing more people.”

The CHS Administration is aware that drug use, and especially consumption of marijuana, is a problem among high school students. However, according to Assistant Principal Ryan Luhning, finding marijuana in a student’s possession while at school is rare.

“I’ve been here 12 years, seven years of being in charge of discipline, and through our searches, we’ve only ever found small amounts of marijuana on campus, or prescription drugs, but for the most part, it’s usually not on campus. Clayton is a wonderful place, and we give you guys a ton of freedom with the open campus. I think most kids would be smart enough to go someplace else to do something like that, if they were to make a drug exchange, or if they were going to use, they would make sure it doesn’t come back on campus. Even the kids we have caught while under the influence, they usually don’t have anything on their person at the time,” Luhning said.

Although the School District lacks jurisdiction over drug deals or drug use that occurs outside of school, it does have the ability to perform searches if there is reasonable suspicion that a student has taken drugs unto the campus.

“If someone says they have a tip, that they saw someone smoking in the bathroom, okay, so if you saw this, if you visibly saw this, that would give me enough reasonable suspicion to search the locker, search the student, search the vehicle ... that’s all you really need is reasonable suspicion, is what the courts give,” Luhning

Photo by Michael Melinger

29

said.

If a student is caught with drugs in their possession, they can be given a maximum of 10 days of suspension. This suspension can be shortened if the student participates in a screening at the NCADA. Expulsion, according to Luhning, is very rare and always a last resort.

“I’ve been here 12 years, there’s been one expulsion. I think in the previous 100 years, there has only been one expulsion. That would be a last resort for the School District of Clayton. It’s very rare to expel anyone. The Collaborative School is always an option for us.”

In Luhning’s previous experiences working at Vianney, a private school, it was typical for students to be expelled if they could not meet the academic and behavior standards that the school set. In this sense, students at Vianney lacked the rights that Clayton students have.

“So a lot different in terms of rights for public school students

versus private school students. I like the fact that we allow you guys to be young people who learn and grow, and if you make mistakes, we try to help you through that. We’re not going to expel, we’re going to try to get you help with an alcohol or drug problem with the NCADA to rehabilitate and help people, not just shoo them off to the side. It’s just different, those two types of experiences in my administrative career.”

Although national attention on the use of marijuana has increased in recent years, data from the health surveys distributed

by CHS indicate that marijuana use is declining, Luhning said.

“National data says that teenagers these days are the safest.

They use less drugs, they use less alcohol, school’s more important to them, than any generation before. It looks to me like things are getting better, you know, statistically. My eye test tells me that there is still a lot of marijuana use, so it’s hard to tell what the statistics and data says. I do think this generation is more knowledgeable on alcohol, drugs, those types of things.”

Medical

Medical marijuana has been legalized in 29 states. In some circumstances, patients are turning to marijuana as an alternative treatment option. Marijuana used in non-medical cases still has effects on both the adolescent and adult brains.

Richard Grucza, Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University, explained the discrepancies between teen and adult use of cannabis.

“In terms of how the drug makes a person feel or behave, I don’t know that there are differences, but what we worry about is just the developing adolescent brain that might be much more susceptible to the rewarding or reinforcing effects of marijuana or any drug,” she said.

While Grucza and other researchers have not seen significant differences between teens and adults regarding behaviors evoked by the drug, the use of marijuana by an adolescent can lead to dangerous predicaments, because in many cases, teens are using marijuana in social situations.

“Teenage use, as well as, probably the combination of intense marijuana use and teen behavior in general, teens tend to be more impulsive than adults. I believe there’s a situation in Colorado where a young person, I’m not sure if it was a teenager, took much more cannabis than he had intended and wound up jumping off of a roof,” Gruzca said. “Those are the sorts of things, those sort of accidental behaviors that can happen incidentally to marijuana use. We tend to worry a lot more about teenagers, they’re usually using it not in the privacy of their home, but out where they won’t be caught, so that will tend to create more dangerous situations than if they were simply using it at home as adults.”

In terms of the effects of the drug and its addictive qualities, Grucza said, “It is definitely addictive and we’re seeing that more and more people voluntarily receive treatment, whether that’s because it is becoming more potent and more addictive or be-

30

cause the greater awareness of its addictive potential is open to question. There’s a self-help group created by marijuana users similar to AA, so certainly some abusers recognize that they have a problem. I would say it is comparable to or slightly more addictive than alcohol. It’s a hard thing to measure because we can’t do experiments on human beings to see how they react to long term exposure to a drug. It is true that it is nearly impossible to overdose on marijuana, that being said it can be a very impairing drug, especially for people who do not have a high tolerance and certainly that degree of impairment can put people into life threatening situations.”

Studies have revealed that impairment from the drug can lead to unsafe driving, but the extent to which the drug effects driving has yet to be fully discovered.

“It’s really hard, actually, to measure the degree to which marijuana impairs driving because when you do a blood test on somebody for marijuana, you don’t know if they are impaired, you only know that they have used in the past 24 hours, you don’t really have a precise measure of how impaired they might be,” Grucza said. “They [people under the influence of marijuana] don’t drive sort of recklessly like people under the influence of alcohol do, but there tends to be a lot of sway in and out of the lane. So they’re certainly not driving as intently under the influence.”

Regarding the legalization of medical and recreational, Grucza explained that legalization of medical marijuana has, in some instances, been a back door to recreational legalization.

In California, prior to the legalization of recreational marijuana, “two percent of the adult population had medical licenses and there were literally more medical conditions that were approved to be treated with marijuana than there are medical conditions period,” Grucza said. “It was really more of a means of just getting the industry established and allowing people to use it if they so choose.”

Grucza emphasized that the spectrum of legality is not simply the opposition of legal and illegal, but the extent to which states choose to regulate the cannabis industry.

“Just by studying what we have, with respect to marijuana we can see that it is not just simply the question of legal versus not legal,” Grucza said. “It is the question of how much we’re going to regulate it and how easy we’re going to create that access and how much we’re going to allow for profit industries to develop to supply.”

Marijuana not only affects the human brain, but also the economy and criminal justice system. According to Grucza, the enlargement of the marijuana industry could lead to disparities in punishment depending on the state.

“As far as recreational use, [. . .] I think about 95 percent of people in the research community are concerned about how we treat marijuana users or any drug users in our society, not only the severity of the punishment but the arbitrariness with which it is met, the racial disparities and so forth,” Gruzca said. “For example, one option that a number of states have implemented somewhat quietly in the last five or ten years is the criminalization where, instead of going to prison or even getting something on your criminal record, that person gets something equivalent to a traffic ticket. Personally, I think adults should probably be able to use if they so choose.”

Though research mostly supports that marijuana is, for the most part, a less harmful drug than alcohol.

“There might be a few areas where we can make exceptions to that rule, but we can’t really say we have a policy based on evidence that alcohol is readily available and cannabis is completely banned,” Grucza explained. “But I also share the concern that most researchers have, which is do we really want another industry like the tobacco or alcohol industry that becomes such a powerful entity that it becomes impossible to regulate?”

Julie Knost from the NCADA shared a similar perspective to Grucza in terms of effects of cannabis on the teenage and adult brain.

“All substances impact teens differently than adults, because the teenage brain is still developing. Risk of addiction is greater for teenagers and for marijuana 1 in 6 teenagers will become addicted,” Knost said. “Marijuana binds to many areas of the brain and some of the areas most impacted are memory, learning and coordination. Marijuana reacts with the reward center of the brain, making the brain have a pleasant reaction, initially. Prolonged use of marijuana changes the brain and causes the brain to become dependent on the substance for reward.”

However, the view of the NCADA regarding legalization was different.

“Drug and alcohol misuse—especially among young people—are major public health concerns. Legalizing marijuana and selling it the way alcohol or tobacco are sold would increase its availability, normalize its use and lead to increased negative health consequences, especially among young users,” Knost said.

“NCADA is concerned about any policy change that would lead to an increase in teen use of marijuana, so we are opposed to any legalization plan that would allow for marijuana’s commercial sale.”

The NCADA is troubled that legalization of marijuana

could lead to more access to the drug in the adolescent community. The NCADA has community and school based lessons to educate the public about the effects of marijuana.

Medical marijuana is a controversial mode of alternative treatment, as organizations such as the Food and Drug Administratio, have not approved any form of botanical marijuana.

Although controversy surrounds the legalization of medical marijuana, many people benefit from the drug’s legalization.

Eight-year-old Grace Bruno has been one of many patients to use and benefit from forms of the alternative treatment. Bruno has, according to her mother, Jamie, “thrived since starting the oil.”

“Grace was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms when she was five months old,” Jaime said. “Her condition is now called Intractable Epilepsy. Before moving to Colorado, she was having 500-1000 seizures per day. We moved to Colorado four years ago and Grace is 8-years-old now, even though she looks really small.”

Tetrahydrocannabinol(THC) is the active chemical in marijuana and cannabis products. This compound is responsible for the psychological effects that marijuana has on the brain.

“Grace is on a high CBD oil called Haleigh’s Hope,” said Jaime. “It is whole plant, but only contains 3 percent THC. We also give Grace THC and CBN oils for sleep.”

The forms of THC based oils Grace uses were never recommended to the Bruno family by any medical professionals, however, after researching alternative treatment, it was decided that CBD oil was the best option for Grace.

For the Bruno family, it was difficult to obtain this alternative treatment.

“We had to leave our lives, sell our home and move our family to Colorado to legally access the oil for Grace,” Jamie said.

“Fourteen prescription medications had failed to control her seizures, so this was our last hope.”

Photo of Grace Bruno from Jamie Bruno.

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Economics Economics

The controversy surrounding marijuana has captured the public’s attention for the past decade, if not longer. Many have considered the political issues revolving around the passage of the law itself, as well as the social issues involving the use of marijuana for students; even the medical effects the drug has on the body should one choose to ingest it. Few, however, have considered the vast affect that legalization would have on the economy.

In states where recreational marijuana use is legal, dispensaries are highly regulated in terms of who has the ability to purchase cannabis products and the process by which they are able to make these purchases.

Highland Health is a dispensary based in Trinidad, Colorado that sells marijuana for the sole purpose of recreational use. The company receives their product from a variety of outside growers sourced in Colorado.

“As far as the customers go, when a customer comes into our store, they have to present us with a valid state-issued ID, such as a driver’s license, an identification card or a passport. It has to be valid and not expired and they have to be over the age of 21. After that, we can let them into the restricted area in the back where all of the product actually is. Once they pick what they are going to purchase, they present their identification again to the person that actually sells the product and then they proceed with the sale,” Highland Health employee Jessi Smith said.

If customers do not follow these guidelines, they are quickly turned away.

“Personally, I have never had anyone who was under the age of 21 come in and try to get in the store,” Smith said. “We have had to turn people away because they did not have valid identification.

That’s a daily thing.”

Products at Highland Health vary from multiple strains of cannabis flower to edibles and shake (pieces of cannabis and stems which is most often used as a topping on blunts). Prices vary based on the type and quality of the product.

“Our price range is anywhere from $7 dollars for shakes to $15 for our top-shelf,” Smith said.

Prices are also affected by the taxes that are in place in the city or county in which the cannabis is purchased. In Trinidad, the tax on recreational marijuana is 24 percent. This amount varies throughout Colorado and in other states where marijuana is legalized. Taxes on medical marijuana are typically much lower than taxes on recreational marijuana. In many parts of Colorado, the tax can be as low as four percent. The influence of these taxes can be widespread.

Peter Rudy of the Oregon Department of Education believes in the importance of tax revenue derived from marijuana purchases to fund education.

Oregon operates on a biennial budget, meaning that every two years, lawmakers appropriate funds to wherever they see fit. In the 2017 legislative session, a budget was approved for the 2017-2019 biennium, including $74.3 million in funds from the sale of marijuana to go towards the Oregon Department of Education.

Because marijuana sales are a big source of funding for Oregon’s schools, the Department of Education has an intuitive system that distributes these massive funds into categories of education that need it the most.

“Districts receive money based on a formula that takes into effect the number of students plus factors that can increase the cost of educating those students,” Rudy said.

Irl Scissors, a Missouri lobbyist, has a much more philosophical view on the economic benefits that are correlated with the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana.

“If you look at these other states, you see the economy that has been created,” Scissors said.

He found that major revenue is being brought in from the marijuana market, in states such as Oregon and Colorado, where medical and recreational use of marijuana has been legalized. Revenue is being drawn in from sources as little as taxes placed on the consumption of marijuana in states where it is legal.

“If you look at Oregon, if you look at the state of Colorado,

Photo by Michael Melinger

32

the taxes that are brought in by people purchasing it for whatever the law is in that state, you’re looking at millions if not billions of dollars in tax revenue that’s generated.”

A contrast was also noted between the state of the economy in states where marijuana is legalized and states where it is not.

“A lot of states are having trouble balancing their budgets to cover health care, to cover the people who are employed by the state, or need benefits from the state,” Scissors said.

The aforementioned massive tax revenue brought in by the exchange and intake of marijuana is mending major sources of deficit in state programs that would otherwise appear unaffected by the marijuana trade.

“When you see other state’s tax on marijuana consumption, and you see all of the money that it’s generating, those states are able to put the money towards education, things like that which states like Missouri really struggle with,” Scissors said.

Furthermore, Scissors reflected on the internal growth of the marijuana trade itself, and what is has done to improve to socio-

economic status of many citizens in states where it is legal.

“Jobs and the economy are one thing, the number of dispensaries, what goes in with regard to these dispensaries, all of the product, obviously, but then you have the companies that manufacture all of the packaging for the product, and all of these different businesses because of this new development in the state,” Scissors said.

Although admitting the medical and social issues that would arise with the legalization of recreational marijuana in Missouri, such as underage use and overuse, Scissors believes the ends justify the means in terms of economic repair in Missouri, specifically the increase in educational funding.

“In my experience, in Missouri, where we struggle every year to balance the state budget, to fully fund the education formula, which basically funds our schools in urban areas, in rural areas, it doesn’t matter,” Scissors said. “The schools require funding. If there are opportunities to generate new revenue in the state that would increase funding for schools and help programs and things like that, then I’m up for giving it a try.”

Legalization

Twenty-nine states have legalized marijuana to be prescribed by doctors for patients. Eight of those states have also legalized the drug to be used by adults recreationally, much like alcohol or cigarettes. The remodeled drug culture and climate surrounding marijuana in the United States is one that is fueled not only by new generations with different perspectives, but by revenue brought in by cannabis sales, along with changing prohibition acts throughout the nation’s states. Will Missouri be next? What should Missouri citizens be looking for on the political horizon?

Marijuana was a drug brought over to the new world by Spanish settlers back in the 1500’s. After the Mexican revolution in the 1910’s, the United States saw a large influx of Mexican immigrants coming across the border, who, unsurprisingly, brought some of their culture with them. One of these customs was cannabis, which was used as a natural medicine and relaxant.

In the 1930’s, negative propaganda paired with a surge of nationalism caused many Americans to associate cannabis with Mexican immigration, and began to criminalize it. The term “marihuana” was used by politicians in order to associate this increasingly unpopular and controversial drug with Mexico and its immigrants.

The media and “yellow journalism,” or the embellishment and exaggeration of facts in journalism, played a large part in the criminalization of marijuana. False claims were made the stated that cannabis caused men of color to become violent and sexually target women. Other false propaganda was used to scare the public and deport Mexicans, such as the connotation that Mexicans brought their dangerous and disruptive behavior over the border with them, which included marijuana.

States began to criminalize cannabis one by one, and by 1933, 29 states had banned the use of marijuana.

In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, which effectively prohibited marijuana sales in the U.S. through an immensely high excise, that of which applied to recreational users, patients, and physicians alike.

Throughout the rest of the 20th century, marijuana became know as a gateway drug, stereotypically used by “hippies” and college students. The Reagan Administration as well as the “Just Say No” movement created even more negative connotations surrounding the drug in the 1980’s.

It wasn’t until 1996 when California legalized the medical use of marijuana that the decriminalization movement began to take hold.

Today, the laws surrounding marijuana vary greatly from state to state. In one state, an adult over the age of 21 could purchase marijuana at a store that merely asks to see identification. That same adult, just across the border in a neighboring state, could be fined up to $150,000 and receive a maximum of two years of incarceration for the same transaction. In other states, the punishment surrounding possession of marijuana resembles that of a parking ticket.

In Missouri, the possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana or less is considered a misdemeanor and for a first offense, punishable for up to $500 in fines. A second offense or a larger quantity may result in incarceration for up to a year, as well as a larger fine.

But for how long will this be the case?

For many states in the U.S., it is not. For instance, California has legalized marijuana for both recreational and medical use.

While many are supportive of this action, there is also a large population which opposes the legalization of marijuana and cannabis products. Carla Lowe, of the Citizens Against Legalization of Marijuana, also known as CALM, has been fighting the legalization of

33

Photo by Michael Melinger marijuana for 41 years.

“A grave concern of our group is the damage that it is doing to to undeveloped brain,” Lowe said. “The known impact of THC on undeveloped brains, especially students, has shown to result in a lesser IQ. And you don’t get that back.”

Lowe and other volunteers were able to halt the legalization of cannabis back in 2010, but in 2016, they were defeated. Recreational marijuana was made legal in the state of California.

“We fought valiantly, all of us volunteers seven years ago in 2010 and decided we needed to organize as a political action committee and we raised some money and we tried to tell the people that we worked with locally why legalizing marijuana would be bad, and we won,” Lowe said. “But then last year, we couldn’t fight $28 million. That was the money that was spent on radio, TV, and buying votes. You can’t compete against that.”

Jack Cardetti from New Approach Missouri–an organization that is working to legalize medical marijuana in Missouri– is confident that the drug will be available for medical use in the near future.

“Twenty-nine other states allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients with debilitating illnesses,” Cardetti said. “What our campaign, New Approach Missouri, is doing, is trying to make Missouri the 30th state that would allow for this.”

There are two different ways that a bill can become a law.

New Approach Missouri is currently going through the initiative process, as opposed to having the Missouri Senate, House, and Governor vote on the bill.

“Currently we’re going through the initiative petition process,” Cardetti said. “The initiative petition process allows citizens to gather signatures, six out of eight of Missouri’s congressional districts, and place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. We’re out in the field getting signatures right now; we hope to be done getting signatures in January, well before the May 6 deadline.

That would put this issue on the November 2018 ballot in Missou-

34

ri.”

Once an issue is placed on the ballot, it’s up to the people to vote.

“There’s overwhelming public support,” Cardetti said. “If you look at all of the public polling done in the state, we’re up in the 60s and 70%. Really getting it on our ballot is our biggest hurdle.

Once it’s on the ballot, we feel confident that Missourians will rally to support this.”

This isn’t the first time that medical marijuana has tried to be legalized. Most recently, a bill was proposed and voted upon in the House of Missouri Representatives in Jefferson City. The bill was shut down by the House before it was able to reach the senate or the governor.

“Two years ago, there was a very serious effort in Missouri, not by our group,” Cardetti said. “It got through, and actually got a vote on the House floor and it was defeated on the House floor.

Even the House is more supportive of this issue than the Missouri senate is. Getting something through the legislature, that’s just not probable at this point.”

In addition to that failed effort, New Approach Missouri has tried in the past to legalize medical marijuana, and have been unsuccessful.

“The last election cycle, the 2016 cycle, was really the most serious effort to get this on the ballot,” Cardetti said. “Our group did try to get signatures, but we fell just short of the signature collection goal. So this year we started a year earlier in the cycle so that we can be assured that we make the ballot.”

This year, New Approach Missouri plans to succeed.

“Missourians want to have this medical treatment option,” Cardetti said. “For instance, with a drug petition, there will be 4 percent retail tax on medical marijuana from dispensaries, and those funds will go towards veterans and health care in the state of Missouri, which is something that is really underfunded in the state of Missouri.”

MedicalLY legal in 29 states RecreationalLY legal in 8

Photo by Michael Melinger

As well as veterans health care funds, the legalization of medical marijuana will change the people in control of the drug; that power will shift from politicians to physicians.

“The primary [benefit] is that it puts control of healthcare and medical treatment options back exactly where it should be, and that’s between a state licensed physician, an M.D. or a D.O. and a patient who has a debilitating illness,” Cardetti said. “Right now we have politicians and bureaucrats deciding what medical treatments should be, and we need to put doctors back in charge and that’s exactly what this initiative petition should do.”

While New Approach Missouri is working tirelessly to legalize medical marijuana, there are no serious or apparent efforts fighting for the legalization of recreational marijuana at this time.

“From experience from the other states, is if Missouri was ever to go to that step, it would likely have a medical marijuana law in place first,” Cardetti said. “Are there people, activists, that really, strongly believe that we should have it? Yeah, absolutely. Are there active groups out there working to make that happen? Not really. The sole focus right now is making Missouri that 30th state that legalizes medical marijuana.”

The first step Missouri must take to legalize recreational marijuana is to legalize medical marijuana. While the benefits of the legalization of medical marijuana may be more obvious, the legalization of recreational marijuana has its advantages as well.

Dan Viets, the Board President of New Approach Missouri, supports the legalization of adult, non-medical use of marijuana, yet the organization he is a part of is solely focused on medical legalization.

“The main benefit of the legalization of adult non-medical use of marijuana is that we stop treating millions of our fellow citizens as if they were criminals,” Viets said. “This is very similar if not the same as repealing the prohibition of alcohol. It was a federal crime in all but one state, and it led to a tremendous increase in crime and a tremendous disrespect for the law with people who were otherwise law abiding. They thought they had the right to drink a beer or a glass of wine if they wanted to. It also led to far more dangerous forms of alcohol. People were repeating being crippled, blinded, and in some cases killed by alcohol that was in no way regulated or under any kind of control.”

The legislation regarding cannabis products in Missouri has

resulted in over 107,000 arrests from 2008 to 2012. With over 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States today, Viets and his team are very concerned with how the criminalization of marijuana is doing nothing but increasing those numbers.

“The prohibition of marijuana has a great deal to do with the mass incarceration problem in our country,” Viets said. “People are going to prison for smoking a joint. Large numbers of people are going to prison for selling marijuana to other adults or for growing marijuana and that makes no sense.”

These arrests affect our society in more way than one. Racism is apparent in marijuana arrests, which directly mirrors other issues in the St. Louis community today.

“Statistics show that white people and black people use marijuana at the same rate,” Viets said. “Yet black people are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white people.”

Viets also commented on how legalization has been affecting teenagers and other minors in these legalized states.

“Young people already report that it’s harder for them to get marijuana and that it’s less available than it was before legalization. One of the reasons for that is that illegal drug dealers never card people. But people who have a license and are legally selling marijuana to adults, they are very, very careful not to sell to minors. And that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to minors to get marijuana, just harder. The states that have legalized have already shown reductions in use by teenagers.”

According to Viets, in addition to a decrease in the usage of marijuana among minors, there has been no increase in marijuana use by adults in states that have legalized the drug for non-medical use.

“There’s no increase in marijuana use. That’s so fundamental to understand. Like in the state of Colorado, not only is teenage use down, but adult usage has not increased. And this is counterintuitive, most people just assume otherwise. If you understand that basic, simple fact–there’s no increase in use after legalization– then there would be no increase in any other problem associated with use, and that includes driving.

“The goal is to get rid of criminal prohibition for adult non-medical marijuana,” Viets said. “End the the criminal prohibition of responsible marijuana use by adults.”

Legalized for medical use Legalized for recreational use Illegal

35

TWIN T E L E PAT H Y The Globe sat down with CHS’ assistant varisty volleyball coach, Kyle McCord, to get the scoop on a new addition to the team: a set of freshman twins. McCord discussed the impact that both Angela and Annie Xiao have had on the team.

Q: A:

What is their role on the team as freshmen?

They came to the team as defensive specialists. We went to a tournament early on in the year and we had a bunch of players who hadn’t reached eligibility yet. So, Annie and Angela joined us. They were promising freshmen on the JV team. But, we didn’t know who they were. They didn’t come to any summer stuff because they had just moved to [St. Louis]. And they played really, really well so we asked them to join us on varsity as defensive specialist. So they play back row for our outside hitters.”

Q: A:

What is their dynamic like since they are twins?

So between each other, it is very much so that they are sisters. It’s kind of funny. They’re sisters in the fact that they bicker all the time. But at the same, I can use one of them to communicate to both because they talk to each other a lot. With the team, they’re very much so individuals. They have their own conversations with individuals on the team. But, sometimes they get lumped together when the team talks with them. They’ll be talking to the ‘twins’.

“They are very good. Whenever you put a freshman on varsity, there is always a worry with the mental aspect. You have to be mentally strong in volleyball, it’s very important. And I’ve seen it happen many times where you put a freshman on the varsity team and they just break down. They have the athletic skills to play there, but they don’t have the confidence to play there.

And you make a couple of mistakes because of your lack of confidence and then beat yourself up. So, while there are a handful of freshmen that could’ve played varsity based on their skills, they need to have that mental game. So not only are they skilled, but they’re generally mentally strong enough to handle playing with juniors and seniors and not get to beat up on themselves.”

SPORTS

36 3

Angela Xiao serves the volleyball to the opponent. Photo by Mallory Palmer.

Q:

How do you expect them to impact the volleyball pro-

gram?

A:

Between them and another freshman, Lexi, our defense will probably continue to be one of the best defenses in the area.

We are very, very talented as far as a passing group. Our serve receive and our defensive passing ability is going to be very strong.

And that’s part of the issue with putting freshmen on varsity because you worry about breaking them down. But the twins and Lexi have already been exposed to this high level of competition and have shown that they can hang. They’re only going to get better.“

Q: A:

Have they adapted well to the community?

I think socially, very much so. I don’t see a whole lot of issues at Clayton where new students come in. Our community is very welcoming. It’s almost as if you get celebrity status if you came from somewhere else. Socially, absolutely. Academically, there’s more of a learning curve that they’re trying to figure out.”

Q: A:

Are they competitive with each other?

Oh yeah. They’re sisters. They’re definitely competitive. But not in a bad way. It’s interesting.

They totally beat up on each other and it means nothing to them.’

Q: A:

Have they shown leadership?

I think it’s been tough for them to show strong leadership since they’re still trying to figure their own way out. I think they’re learning a lot more about leadership and how things work at Clayton.

Like they’ll bring up things they’ve done in Pittsburg in their club team. In that regard, they’re bringing a new viewpoint to the team.”

Q: A:

Can you see their motivation?

They just want to play. That’s all I see. They always want to progress and get better. They just love the sport.”

Q: A:

What is their best attribute?

They’re very fun. They have great, positive attitudes -- that ability to roll with the punches. I don’t think a lot of people talk about the mental aspect to play volleyball, particularly at their position. There is no opportunity to have a game-changing play other than you prevented the ball from hitting the ground. They have the ability to not bring themselves down. At least with them, from game one to game two, things are dropped.”

Annie Xiao waits between serves.

Photo by Mallory Palmer.

daniel cho @cho__bani SPORTS SECTION EDITOR

daniel cohen @danielc_52 BUSINESS MANAGER

37

SPORTS

TO P 5 A L B U M S O F SEPTEMBER A Moment Apart by ODESZA A Moment Apart is Odesza’s third full-length project, the electronic duo are known for their trappy percussion, euphoric melodies and unique atmospheres that they bring to every song. Their ability to direct a wide cast of vocal artists to fit their sound is also apparent in this long play(LP). The songs flow seamlessly through with one another whilst maintaining their own uniqueness and style.

From the ambiance and gravitas of Line of Sight, to the more commercial and latin style of La Ciudad, this hour long album never lost my interest and surpasses the already high expectations that Odesza has set for themselves.

Brick Body Kids Still Daydream by Open Mike Eagle Open Mike Eagle’s album, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is an emotional and solemn tribute to the Robert Taylor housing projects that were destroyed in 2007. His tone and delivery jump around throughout the album which is refreshing to listen to. The jazzy and contemporary instrumentals complement his vocals without overpowering the song. His lyricism is astounding on this album, weaving in pop culture references to his experiences growing up in the projects.

Overall this album is a refreshing and chill listen that should not be overlooked.

Harmony of Difference by Kasami Washington In a dwindling genre Kasami Washington continues to stand out, his raw talent as both a saxophonist and a composer is something to behold. Kasami

REVIEW

38

has been featured on albums such as To Pimp A Butterfly, Run the Jewels 3 and DAMN for his iconic jazz and guitar instrumentals. This solo release, Harmony of Difference, is a textured jazz piece layered with funky sax, 70s drum beats and graceful piano melodies. Kasami’s performance on the saxophone is impressive but this album truly stands out in its composition. The entire extended play (EP) is expertly constructed and composed, creating one of the few captivating jazz compilations this year.

Aromanticism by Moses Sumney Moses Sumney is a slightly newer name in the R&B world, with his first release only dating back to 2014.

Aromanticism is his first full length LP and it is an album commenting on today’s loveless society. He captures this on Plastic and Lonely World where he tells stories of living in a world where physical appearance is more important than who you are, and how as a society we are obsessed with what is on the surface not the deeper meaning.

This album also speaks to millennials who feel directionless and numb towards what they need to feel. Regardless of the dark tone and grim lyrics the falsetto vocals provided by Moses and the moving instrumentals are still groundbreaking for such a relatively new artist.

Neo Wax Boom by IglooGhost

This experimental electronic artist has been producing mixes, remixes and original music for around three years. Neo Wax Boom is his first full length album that refuses to slow down. This LP is fast, fun and full of surprises. The futuristic synths blend well with the 808s snares and kicks and a constantly shifting bass-line. This album feels influenced by SOPHIE and Shawn Wasabi in the way he uses vocal chops and melodies but still original it’s own light. Overall a very experimental piece that may be off-putting to some but something new for others.

zachary fisher @zach_t._fisher REPORTER

IT Pennywise the Clown (Bill Scarsgård), holding a balloon. (Photo from MCT Campus)

Without having read the lengthy novel, nor having watched the original television movie, I went to see the highly anticipated horror film ‘IT’ last weekend, believing it to be a scary clown movie.

My expectations were shattered and I was absolutely blown away by what I witnessed.

There are spoilers ahead, so be warned.

When Pennywise, the creepy clown, sinks his many rows of teeth into the arm of a young boy in the opening sequence of the film, it becomes instantly apparent that he is not just a clown. He is in fact an extremely powerful being that captures children, brings them to the sewers, and consumes them every 27 years. His true form is never quite shown; he is capable of changing his appearance to look especially frightening to whomever his target is at any given time. I believe this film is an excellent horror story, because Pennywise (who eventually is referred to as IT) is basically the living essence of fear. He takes on many forms, and is truly terrifying. At one point, he chooses to take on the form of a woman in an extremely creepy painting. When this happens, it is absolutely horrific. I had never seen such a frightening and unsettling face in any horror movie scene before. This face was not masked by darkness; it was brought into the light, and it was like something from a nightmare.

This film was not reliant on jump scares, gruesome killings, or unnecessarily dark rooms. It truly explored the full potential of a horror movie with a high budget, by bringing in many scary forms of IT. The movie put nightmarish themes on the big screen in a way I have never seen done before. Another reason that I loved

this movie was because of the characters. It unexpectedly focused heavily on the individual lives of the main cast of kids, as well as their interactions with each other, away from all the horror. Their personalities were genuinely accurate to many kids of that age, and the scenes in which they spoke back and forth with each other were highly entertaining. There is a three-way romantic subplot within the central friend group, as well as many other subplots regarding the relationships of the kids and their parents. The main girl has an abusive father, one boy has a strict religious father, and another has an over-protective and dishonest mother.

The character-building made for an excellent story, and the many terrifying and well-animated forms of IT exceeded the modern standards for horror movie monsters. I greatly enjoyed this film, and I even paid a second visit to the theater to watch it again.

Now I have purchased the book, and I will observe the similarities to the film as I read. ‘IT’ was a phenomenal horror movie, and I recommend it to anyone who is a true fan of horror, or simply wants to watch something terrifying.

keilan morrissey @keilan_morrissey REPORTER

39

REVIEW

food trucks of stl STORY BY richard cheng, justin guilak and sean kim Photos by michael melinger

INTRO For the past five years, Sauce Magazine has hosted their monthly Food Truck Friday event in Tower Grove Park. Over 20 different trucks gather to offer a wide variety of cuisines, from Italian to dim sum to french fries on these days. On Oct. 18, we decided to take a look at some of St. Louis’ most popular food trucks for their quality and price.

FRANKLY SAUSAGES The first stop was Frankly Sausages. With a simple menu that only gave a couple gourmet hot dogs and fries, we asked for a recommendation and were referred to a sausage with avocado, lime and queso fresco. While we were waiting for our food, we also noticed the food truck workers scraping melted cheese off a cheese wheel onto piles of fries, which was completely mesmerizing to watch. After finally getting our food, we were surprised by how aesthetically pleasing the hot dog was. The sausage was beautiful; the dog itself was slightly charred in some spots that made it pop, and the green of the avocado was vibrant. Excited to dig in, we all took a bite.

While the sausage was juicy, the char offered an interesting flavor, the sausage offered a nice snap and the bun was nice and buttery, we felt that the dog was lacking. It could have used more flavor profiles--maybe adding some corn and sriracha would make the experience considerably better. Instead, we judged Frankly Sausages as average: good, but could easily be improved.

essentially fries Food Truck Friday’s newest truck, Essentially Fries, provides spectacular, handcut fries for an outrageous price. The Classic, the most basic item on the menu, offers perfectly cooked fries paired with chopped garlic, grated grana padano and truffles paired with smoked ketchup and truffle aioli dip. The fries have a satisfying golden brown crisp and boasts great seasoning and a strong truffle flavor. Although the garlic was a bit overpowering, the vast variety of ingredients along with the fries and dip never has a dull moment, maintaining its extravagant flavor. However, at a price of $9, one could spend their money on a full meal rather than a basket of fries.

REVIEW

40 3

Doughboy’S

Guerilla StREET FOOD

This pizza truck serves small, personal pizzas for $7 each. The slices lacked the stretching strands of mozzarella as they were pulled apart, but the cheese did not slide off the top with a single bite as with cafeteria pizza. The smokiness of the bottom crust created a bitter taste which was counteracted by the sweet tomato sauce layer. However, the sauce was a little too sweet and the outer crust tasted too bland. Doughboy’s provides decent pizza, but one could expect something more exceptional for seven dollars.

While all food trucks are technically street food, Guerilla Street Food (GSF) styles their options after actual Filipino street food. Offering all meals as a burrito or in a bowl, the truck sells a variety of meat dishes. The “800 Pound Guerrilla” includes pork, chicken, a one hour egg and various other ingredients over jasmine rice. The barrage of flavors in one bite is overwhelming but delicious. The hoisin and sriracha sauce bodes well with the savory meat, while the egg adds a little bit of runny texture to the rice. It costs $12, but provides the most food and flavor per dollar of any of the food trucks. GSF also has a brick-and-mortar restaurant neighboring Tower Grove Park.

SLIDE PiecE The final location we visited was Slide Piece. The menu offered a list of intriguing and creative burger concepts, so the group was excited to dive into the classic American bundles of joy. However, the only thing we bit down on was disappointment. Not only was the burger dry and the patty bland, the buns attacked our taste buds with a powerful cinnamon flavor that was strangely reminiscent of Bread Co. No price cheap enough would justify the horrendous tastes of these sliders. The entire group agreed that this was the easily the worst food we had ever received from a public establishment in all of 2017.

41

REVIEW

UNDERMINING PURPOSE A commentary on the Black Lives Matter Movement With the announcement of Officer Jason Stockley’s acquittal, talks of demonstrations arose and St. Louisans geared up for a potential repeat of Ferguson. Three years ago, violent protests besieged St. Louis in the wake of Michael Brown’s shooting.

Not six hours after Judge Timothy Wilson announced his decision, hundreds of protesters had taken to the streets of downtown St. Louis. After marching around downtown for several hours, the crowd stopped at the intersection of Clark and Tucker, outside the old police headquarters. There, one man threw a brick at a police car window and one woman began jumping with a toddler on the car’s hood.

Within a few minutes, at least a hundred uniformed officers equipped with bicycles, riot gear and pepper spray approached the crowd. This move incited people further. Protesters threw plastic water bottles and police began to force protesters off the street and sidewalk. When the mass did not move, the police began to use pepper spray.

More water bottles were thrown. The police declared the protest unlawful, and arrests, they warned, would be made if the crowd did not disperse.

While most were peaceful, a small faction of object-hurling protesters caused officers to become more forceful.

If the crowd had specific objectives, it did not make them clear through slogans such as “Black lives matter,” “No justice, no peace,” “Whose streets? Our streets,” and “The whole damn system is guilty as hell.” This rhetoric proposed no tangible solutions.

So where are we after weeks of protests?

St. Louis City Alderman Megan Green, with the help of the ACLU of Missouri, has proposed a bill to limit the ability of police to disperse a crowd and their use of pepper spray. While Alderman Green is determined to protect the protesters’ First Amendment rights, it is important to remember 30 officers have gone to the hospital, six in ambulances, as a result of the “peaceful” protests. So far, there have been no reports of a single protester going to the hospital. Moreover, many forget blocking roadways is illegal and not protected under the First Amendment.

Alderman Green might tell her cohorts that smashing windows and vandalizing police cars is not the correct path to affect change.

But what is the correct path? How about a change in behavior?

Protesters have stalled their own progress on multiple occasions whenever demonstrations became violent or when they have vilified their own supporters, e.g., Mayor Lyda Krewson, a proponent of the Black Lives Matter movement, tried start a dialogue, but was shouted down at a public forum. Also, protesters vandalized her home in the Central West End by throwing bricks and red paint.

Additionally, many people demonize police for racial profiling.

Race is just one factor along with gender, physical size and age in the life-or-death, split-second profiling police perform everyday.

OPINION

42 3

While it is never optimal to use stereotypes to draw conclusions about people, officers enter every situation without knowledge of the persons involved and must rely on probability and statistics, to guide their actions. In 2016, blacks made up less than 50% of the city’s population, and according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, over 90% of the homicide suspects were black.

This year, as of September 29th, every suspect of the city’s 155 homicides is black. This certainly is not an indictment of all blacks, but it may account for the tension between the police officers and the African American community.

The death of Anthony Lamar Smith was tragic, but let us not forget he was a four-time convicted felon, who according to his fiancé carried illegal firearms, was a member of a gang and in his final moments led police in a dangerous 87 mph chase through residential neighborhoods. The best way to avoid fatal encounters with law enforcement is to abide by the law.

Also, when using Anthony Lamar Smith as a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement, protesters mistakenly apply Michael Brown’s “unarmed-black-teenager-killed-by-racist-white-cop” narrative to Smith.

130

770

of the people killed by police shootings were black

Many forget or choose to ignore the truth about officer-involved shootings in the United States. According to the Washington Post Police Shootings 2017 Database, out of the 770 people killed in shootings by police this year, only 130 were black.

Out of the 770, 37 were unarmed; of those, ten were black.

Moreover, members of the Black Lives Matter movement often disregard the 2015 Department of Justice report revealing Michael Brown, a major symbol of Black Lives Matter, did not have his hands up in surrender and Officer Darren Wilson was legally justified in his actions.

In truth, few if any of the protesters sat in the courtroom and listened to all the testimony in the Stockley trial. It seems as though many have substituted public disruption of the peace for careful examination of the facts. Taking ownership of the solution requires more maturity and reflection than making accusations.

Furthermore, protesters have a mixed set of demands which are unrealistic and place the entire onus on the city. “The People’s Demands” include “all charges against protesters be dropped immediately, Mayor Lyda Krewson resign, and Judge Timothy Wilson be removed from his seat.” Rather than attempting to remedy the core issues in our city, many protesters take the easy way out by blaming others.

Above all else, protesters must come together to create a clear message. They must look beyond the protests and articulate specific goals, whether that be education reform or decreasing the violent crime within the black community.

It is clear that the problems in St. Louis, no, the country, will not be solved in a day, a week or even a year, but the responsibility rests with everyone to attempt to reform themselves and the system they live in before pointing fingers at others.

Photo by Michael Mellinger Note: 51.5% of the Globe staff supports the contents of this piece

Charlie Brennan @charles_brennan SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR

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OPINION

LE GALI ZI N G MARIJUANA

Reporter Zachary Fisher challenges the historical basis for Marijuana laws.

In 1970, Nixon placed marijuana under a Schedule 1 drug, which John Ehrlichman who was assistant to Nixon for Domestic Affairs stated,”The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Under the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 illegal drugs were placed into a classification system ranging from 1 - 5, each level based on the drugs medical promise and potential for abuse. The most abusable drugs, with the least medical promise are placed in the Schedule 1 Level -- this includes heroin, LSD, and surprisingly, marijuana.

Despite no reported deaths, and limited side effects, cannabis is still illegal in some parts of the country, but alcohol and cigarettes are legal despite having a reported 568,000 annual deaths in total according to the CDC and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

A way a drug can be placed at a lower schedule is if it is medical potential is shown in a large clinical trial, but schedule 1 drugs can only be used in small clinical trials, so marijuana is locked as a Schedule 1 drug until the DEA or FDA reschedules it or its illegal status is removed.

Marijuana’s initial illegalization dates back to the early 1900s.

During this time, the US was having a large influx of Mexicans immigrating as a result of the aftermath of the Mexican revolution.

With them, they brought a native plant called cannabis, more commonly known as marijuana, which was used as a relaxant.

The US was reluctant to include these immigrants into their society and needed a reason to deport them. They used marijuana.

The media spread false rumors about the drug, such as an ar-

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ticle in the Los Angeles Times claiming someone who smoked marijuana had gone on a murdering rampage, and that people who smoke marijuana go insane and lose their mind.

Today the FDA refuses to reclassify the cannabis to a lower Schedule despite the fact that it is not dangerous, even the extracts of marijuana, such as cannabis oil which cannot get you high and shows medical promise is still a Schedule 1 drug despite Cannabinoid oil being used successfully to treat seizures and epilepsy.

Marijuana has shown promise in reducing the effects of diseases.

Patients with epilepsy have seen a 50% drop in seizures after being administered according to the NYU Langone Medical Center. Cannabinoid oil has also been found to reduce joint pain in people with arthritis and reduce antisocial behavior with those afflicted by Alzheimer’s.

Even disregarding its medical applications marijuana is safer than many legalized drugs, it is a healthy alternative to cigarettes, and studies by the National Institute of Drug Abuse show that alcohol and cigarettes have the same effect on the brain that marijuana has that prime the brain for harder drugs. The economic benefits of the drug are numerous to say the least, Colorado collected $135 million in tax revenue in 2015 by taxing the sale of marijuana.

Although blacks and whites have about the same rates of using marijuana, blacks have been arrested 4 times as much as white people for using or possessing the drug.

The benefits and uses of this drug are numerous, so why should we restrict the use because of laws based in racism?

Zachary Fisher @zach_t._fisher REPORTER

62 percent. That is the increase in the number of fatal accidents in Colorado involving marijuana since its legalization in 2012.

Given that intaking marijuana can impair thinking, memory and body movements, it seems counterintuitive to allow this behavior in our community. Legalizing marijuana sends the message that an altered state of mind as a result of substance use is acceptable.

The detrimental effects of marijuana on an individual’s mind and body should provide a compelling enough argument against marijuana usage and legalization. A New Zealand study reported that chronic marijuana use starting in adolescence resulted in an average of an 8-point drop in IQ in mid-adulthood. If marijuana can be legally marketed to young adults, there will be serious intellectual impacts on future generations.

Physically, marijuana use can affect an individual’s posture, coordination, balance and reaction time. Furthermore, smoking marijuana irritates the lungs, leading to breathing problems and a high risk of lung infections. Marijuana use also increases the heart rate, leading to an increased risk of heart attack. In fact, since marijuana legalization in Colorado in 2012, marijuana-related hospitalizations increased by an average of 30 percent each year.

No, marijuana does not have any directly fatal side effects, but perhaps that is the exact reason why recreational use of it should be illegal.

The lack of side effects causes users to believe it is safe, when in reality they cannot go about their life under the same conditions as if they were not under the influence of marijuana.

Unlike alcohol, which can be tested through the use of a breathalyzer, there is no definitive way to test individuals under the influence of marijuana. As they get into their car or attempt

to go about their normal lives, it is difficult to prevent accidents from occurring.

Supporters of marijuana legalization often compare the effects of alcohol with the effects of marijuana. However, there is one key difference between the two: with the exception of medical marijuana, every time someone smokes marijuana, they are abusing the drug, whereas alcohol users are not.

When a marijuana user starts smoking, his intention is to get high. This is abuse.

Alcohol consumption, on the other hand, provides the option to the user whether or not they want to get drunk when they start using the substance; many people drink alcohol simply because they enjoy the taste but have no intention of getting drunk. This is simply use.

As a result, it makes sense that drugs that gives users the option of abuse are legal, whereas drugs that force all users to abuse them should remain illegal.

No society is better off with marijuana use. The mood changes and hallucinations that marijuana provide contribute to strained relationships and detachment from society. In order to maintain engaged members of society, marijuana must remain illegal.

Ultimately, marijuana should not be underestimated. While it may not have the same severe side effects as drugs such as cocaine and heroin, it still causes detrimental effects to both the individual and society.

Gracie Morris @graciemorris827 PAGE EDITOR

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PRO/CON

S TA F F E D : N AT U R E OF JOURNALISM

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For this issue, the piece, “Undermining Purpose” on page 42 was intended to be the Staff Editorial. The Globe staff encountered difficulties reaching a consensus on that piece. In the process, the staff learned an important lesson about the nature of journalism.

very Tuesday morning at 7:25 A.M., the full on whether or not they agreed with its message. If staff members staff of the CHS Globe meets to discuss weekdid not agree, they were given the option to write in what they ly news, as well as progress on the current wanted to be changed. month’s Globe issue. This Tuesday mornWe plan on adopting this method of utilizing online voting for ing, however, was somewhat different. every staff editorial written in the future. Even though we don’t The meeting began as usual, with all of us taking a always write on such controversial topics, we now more fully unshort quiz on the past week’s events in the world derstand the value of seeking everyone’s opinion, as, again, the and then discussing the answers. But when we approached the staff ed is meant to express the overall view of the entire staff. topic of this month’s staff editorial, the meeting slowed down.

As journalists, we value disagreement over issues. Even more The original editorial, “Undermining Purpose” (appearing than that, we value discussion about those disagreements. on page 42) concerned Black Lives Matter demonstrations and People will naturally have varying opinions on all subjects, similar protests, especially those following the acquittal of Jason especially controversial ones. By creating an environment that Stockley, the St. Louis police officer who fatally shot Anthony Lacelebrates those civil debates, we can improve the way we write. mar Smith in 2011.

While we don’t have to be ambivalent, it is important to recognize It is unusual for the staff to spend so much time discussing a sinthe many facets of the issue about which we have chosen to write. gle article, but the staff editorial is intended to express the views Another matter we must realize is that Clayton is a place of of the whole staff, and there was relative privilege (not to say a clear divide in the group’s opinthat each individual student ions pertaining to the piece. Some does not face struggle), and of us disagreed entirely with the we must acknowledge this in message, while others were more We do not see the original staff editorial as our writing. accepting. The closest the staff We have always strived to a failure. Rather, we see it as an opportuni- recognize came to reaching consensus was the historical sigty to discuss the nature of journalism.” that many of us felt that the staff nificance and context of the editorial should be written with modern issues we explore in more careful, less blunt wording. our writing. Because some of This subject is not only controus felt that the original staff versial, but also sensitive; a hued did not take these matters man being was shot, and no matter how any of us feel about the into consideration, we are now even more aware of the imporcircumstances, that death is a tragic event. tance of this background and framework.

Originally, we planned to run the editorial after simply having Our difficulty in reaching consensus for this issue’s staff editomade some changes. But after the discussion, which took up the rial gave us the opportunity to discuss the importance of noticing vast majority of our morning meeting, it seemed as though there our own privilege, considering context, and incorporating that was simply too much disagreement around the topic to use the into the tone of our articles. original editorial.

These disagreements have opened our eyes and sharpened The events surrounding this staff editorial will affect the way our skills as journalists. we will write for The Globe in the future -- in a positive way. For Despite the disruption to our normal writing process, we do instance, when we planned on using an altered version of the orignot see the original staff editorial as a failure. Rather, we see it as inal staff editorial, a survey was sent out to each member of the an opportunity to discuss the nature of journalism. staff, and writers were encouraged to read the editorial and vote

Note: 94.7% of the Globe staff supports the contents of this piece

OPINION

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