Volume 4 Issue 2

The Lodge

Vol. 4, Issue 2 Dec. 12, 2019

Stop and Listen Hispanic and Latinx students struggle to be heard

What a Waste

The Collierville campus stopped recycling in September. When will it begin again?

Moving Ahead

After surprise departure of former head of school, Mr. Timothy Gibson takes over as interim head

About Us The Lodge and gryphonlodge.com are dedicated to serving as an authentic voice for the students of St. George’s Independent School. We at the Lodge strive to be an open forum for student expression, to act in the best interests of the student body and to embody the principles of journalistic excellence. The Lodge is affiliated with the Tennessee High School Press Association and the National Scholatic Press Association. The Lodge is funded by advertisers, donors and St. George’s Independent School and is published once every eight weeks during the school year by schoolprinting.com. The Lodge prints and distributes 300 copies of each issue to 700 students and faculty on the St. George’s Collierville campus. Bylines indicate the primary writer(s) of each article, and additional contributors are indicated in the shirttail. The Lodge provides free advertising for student clubs, events and activities and paid advertisements for local businesses. The Lodge welcomes letters to the editor and article submissions. To submit a letter, article or request for advertising, email our staff at thelodge@sgis.org.

Staff Co-Editors-in-Chief

Snowden Farnsworth ‘20, Owen Hewitt ‘21 Editorial Board

Spencer Cotham ‘20, Isabel Dlabach ‘20, Jacob Gettig ‘20, Callie Hollis ‘21, Miles Masters ‘20, Cary Robbins ‘20, Sierra Sellers ‘20 Staff Members

Keiara Baker ‘20, Shaun Burgess ‘20, Kennadee Carlton ‘20, Aiden Curran ‘20, E’nissa Golden ‘21, Sam Kuykendall ‘20, Allison Newman ‘21, Erin O’Connell ‘20, David Ogle ‘20, Kayla Sanford ‘21, Madeline Sisk ‘22 Advisor

Dr. Margaret Robertson Cover Photography by Callie Hollis

The Lodge

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St. George’s Independent School

News

New interim Head of School, Mr. Timothy Gibson, reads and replies to emails to start off his day. He was announced as interim head on Oct. 27 after the surprise departure of former Head of School Ross Peters. Photo by Callie Hollis.

MOVING AHEAD After surprise departure of former head of school, Mr. Timothy Gibson takes over as interim head

By Isabel Dlabach and Snowden Farnsworth

G

ood luck, Mr. Gibson.”

Just hours after the St. George’s community learned that Assistant Head for Educational Access Timothy Gibson would be assuming the role of Interim Head of School, senior Sam Tremaine was already wishing him the best.

Families were informed by email the evening of Sunday, Oct. 27 that Mr. Gibson would be assuming the role of Interim Head of School, effective that day. Former Head of School Ross Peters had been expected to step down at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, at the conclusion of a five-year contract, so a mid-semester departure was “

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unexpected.

“I was really shocked. My first thought was, ‘Is this a joke?’” senior and prefect Maggie Emmendorfer said. “It just seemed so sudden, and as a prefect I thought that we would at least get an email before, explaining.”

Her fellow prefect Silas Rhodes was not so surprised.

“I knew Mr. Peters was a finalist in searches at two or three other schools,” Rhodes said. “That was communicated [by Mr. Peters] with us [prefects].”

Mr. Peters was one of three finalists at Albuquerque Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the Save Albuquerque Academy website. An Aug.

20 letter from the school’s search committee chair published on the official school website said that all three finalists would visit campus and participate in open forums with the community. Save Albuquerque Academy confirmed that the three candidates, therefore Mr. Peters, did visit, though they later announced a different candidate had been chosen.

The abrupt departure still left questions for Emmendorfer.

“The confusion for me is why did he go, why was it so sudden, why didn’t he tell people. Just why was it so sudden?” she said. “One day he was here, and there was no question about him going until the end of the year. There were rum-

bles, and I was a little confused about them and [thought] ‘there’s no way it’s gonna happen.’ But it was just very sudden that he was here one day, gone the next.”

Without official communication as to why the departure was so sudden, there has been much speculation.

“I think that [his departure] is something that needed to happen for both him and the school,” Rhodes said. “I think everybody is better for it.”

Associate Head of School Will Bladt pointed to the school’s need to move forward as the reason behind Mr. Peters’ mid-year departure.

“The Board of Trustees deter-

News mined that [was] the best way for the community to be able to look forward and move forward in the timeframe that they needed. That [was] what we as a community needed,” Mr. Bladt said. “Now, instead of waiting until July, they made that decision and talked to Mr. Gibson about becoming an interim so that the community could switch gears and move quickly.”

Mr. McDuffie said that the decision was one that all parties agreed on.

“We felt very comfortable with [Mr. Gibson] at the helm, and the search committee, along with the Board and our search firm, concurred with that,” said Mr. McDuffie. “We talked to [Mr. Peters] about it. He was obviously going to be looking for opportunities in the future as well and we just felt like from a timing perspective, it worked for everybody. But most importantly, we did it because we felt like it was the best timing for our students and our faculty.”

Mr. McDuffie clarified that despite the sudden transition, Mr. Gibson was not immediately chosen. There was a process to selecting the interim head.

“When you have an interim, you’ve got a multitude of choices you can derive from. You can derive internally, you can talk to somebody externally, and we certainly considered all those prospects in it.

So it wasn’t just [Mr. Gibson] and that’s it. We really thought through what was best,” said Mr. McDuffie.

“Once we interviewed the faculty, the students, a lot of parents, and then looked outside and looked inside, it just came to a natural choice that [Mr. Gibson] fit the profile of what we needed right now.”

According to Mr. McDuffie, it is being seriously considered that Mr. Gibson will remain Interim Head through the 2020-2021 school year.

“We’ve got to understand where we think the best pool of candidates will allow us for the best choice going forward,” he said. “For the process extension, there’s more to come on that, but at the end of the day we’re going to do what’s best for, we think, the students and the faculty and the school overall. If we need to extend [Mr. Gibson] another year, that is something we’ll take a look at. If we have the opportunity to find somebody that would fit the mold of what we want in our next head of school, we will make that choice. I don’t think we’ve made a final decision either way on that.”

Student reactions to the announcement were overwhelmingly positive.

“I think the prefects, while we are sorry to see Mr. Peters go, we are very happy that Mr. Gibson is taking his place,” Rhodes said. “We all love Mr. Gibson, and we speak for the student body as well when we say that. Mr. Gibson is wonderful.”

Students of color like junior Alicia Hardrick have also expressed that they are pleased with Mr. Gibson’s being appointed.

“I’m really proud and excited that he got selected to be the interim head of school. It’s empowering to see a person of color in that position,” she said.

One quality Hardrick is looking for in the next head is approachability. “[I want] someone who is personable and open to building genuine relationships with students rather than just speaking to them in the hallway once or twice,” Hardrick said. “Actually connecting with the student body.”

Mr. Bladt agreed, seeing Mr. Gibson’s interim role as a chance for this approachability to develop.

“That has been the case,” he

I’m really proud and excited that he got selected to be the interim head of school. It’s empowering to see a person of color in that position – Junior Alicia Hardrick

“I hope that people know that my sole purpose in stepping into this role is to do what I can for a school that I love. So being a calming presence, helping lead where I can lead and follow where I need to follow and be supportive wherever I can possibly be supportive.”

– Mr. Timothy Gibson said, “with the degree to which people have been able to get access, to be able to be in conversations with the Head of School Office, for people to be able to start to talk about quick action moving forward.’

Part of moving forward is culture surveys, which St. George’s has not done for a few years.

“We want 360 [degree] feedback from the students and the parents and the faculty,” said Mr. McDuffie. “We used to do culture surveys, we’re bringing those back, and I think that’s a vital tool in the school to use and to lead the school going forward based on receiving that feedback.”

While the beginning of this year was rocky, Mr. McDuffie is excited about the potential for St. George’s in the future.

“We’re trying to build leaders and entrepreneurs and scientists and doctors and lawyers and nurses and you name it, and in order to do that across a multitude of different cultures, you’ve gotta be really thoughtful in the way you approach it. We just can’t be excellent in one certain area,” he said. “We’re gonna have bumps in the road, but there’s a foundation built here to just take off. And our three-campus model touches a lot of different areas, and I want to see us continue to progress...in just really seeing the output with our students that we’re touching and what they become and how they contribute to society... I have nothing but great hope for the school going forward.”

Mr. McDuffie also expressed that the Board specifically is ready to guide the school in these positive directions.

“If there’s one huge takeaway I would give our parents, our students and our faculty [it is that] the board has been informed, enlightened, and we have a sense of responsibility, and we also have a sense of accountability to move forward and make this school the best school it can be. That’s what we’re emboldened to do and that’s what we’re gonna do,” he said.

“The school is a body of work, it’s not one head of school, it’s not one priest, it’s not one student, it’s not one faculty member. We all make up the school. This school’s had a rich history in the past, and we’re going to do everything we can to make that history even richer going forward. And I realize these are just words. There needs to be definitive action, and I’m excited about [Mr. Gibson] leading the school through this transition along with the leadership team.”

Mr. Gibson said he wants to reassure the St. George’s community in this time of transition.

“I hope that people know that my sole purpose in stepping into this role is to do what I can for a school that I love,” Mr. Gibson said. “So being a calming presence, helping lead where I can lead and follow where I need to follow and be supportive wherever I can possibly be supportive.”

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News

MORE CHANGE

Ms. Pamela McCarthy is appointed Interim Director of Collierville Campus

By Isabel Dlabach and Snowdem Farnsworth

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r. Timothy Gibson is not the only interim in the administration right now. Recently-appointed Interim Collierville Campus Director Pamela McCarthy is working with former Middle School Director Traci Osterhagen-Brock to bring the middle and upper school divisions closer together.

“I think change is sometimes scary and often there are bumps, but I like a challenge,” Ms. McCarthy said.

St. George’s families were informed by email on Nov. 13 that Ms. Osterhagen-Brock would be leaving her role in the middle school administration. According to the letter, she will “continue to serve the school by conducting educational research and writing

grant proposals.”

Associate Head of School Will Bladt explained the mid-year decision.

“Ms. Osterhagen let us know that she was going to be pursuing something different and not returning next year,” he said. “We want to take that opportunity to immediately work towards being forward-facing and putting our energy into moving ahead, as opposed to waiting on leadership.”

St. George’s and its head of school search firm, Resource Group 175, are searching for a new middle school director.

Mr. Bladt said the potential timeline for hiring a new middle school director will be expedited.

“We’re moving aggressively with applications,” he said. “Those are being screened by an advisory

group of faculty members and administrators on this campus. And they will look at all the applications that come in, they’ll conduct interviews with candidates that they’re interested in, and then they’ll decide on which candidates will actually come to campus for a visit day.

At that point in time then faculty, students, parents will be able to be a part of the process of meeting the people who are the finalists who come to campus.”

The timeline for a hire is not final, but a new middle school director is expected by this summer.

“If we feel like we need more time because we want to fill the pool with more talent, and we feel like we need more time for that talent to find us and for us to find them,” Mr. Bladt said, “then it would be shortly after the winter

break, but somebody beginning July 1, 2020.”

According to Ms. McCarthy, her role will be “not so different from what [she does] in the high school, but now at a different grade level.”

Ms. McCarthy is eager to know and support the middle school students, but do so without disrupting academic life.

“I don’t want it to be about me,” Ms. McCarthy said. “I want it to be about them [and to find] appropriate ways to do that without saying, ‘everybody come during x-block so I can tell you all about me.’”

“I wasn’t necessarily expecting it,” said Ms. McCarthy, “but I’m always ready to step in and help to serve the school and our students however I can.”

Testing It Out

St. George’s modifies exam schedule

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By Sam Kuykendall

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t the same time that Mr. Timothy Gibson became the new Interim Head of St. George’s, students and parents were notified of a change to the exam schedule beginning with this semester’s exams that are set for the week of Dec. 16.

Exam days will begin at 8:30 a.m. and let out at 3:15 p.m. Lunch will be served during the day. Students that do not have an exam will not be required to come to school.

The new structure will feature an exam in the morning, followed by structured study time for students to prepare for their next exam.

Emma Clayton, a member of the St. George’s Student Government, is supportive of the new system.

“I think it’s a good system because it really takes care of everyone’s needs, whether it’s you can’t

get a ride or because of a parent’s schedule or your own schedule,” Clayton says, “I think it really accommodates everyone.”

Junior Latimer Stoddard voiced mixed thoughts about the new exam system.

“I don’t really mind it because I feel like, and this is for most other people too, they still only have one [exam] a day,” he said.

However, Stoddard voiced a few concerns about the new system.

“I do kind of wish there could be time in between the exams to where I could go out to get lunch with my friends instead of being trapped,” Stoddard said.

He says he is wary of the process of getting checked out to leave school after an exam.

“I feel like that is going to be a hassle for everyone because a lot of people only have one exam a day and will probably want to get

checked out [instead of] staying for the study time,” Stoddard said.

“Having to call your parents and having Mrs. Taylor go through everyone, I’m not really sure how they’re going to work it.”

AP Government teacher Emily Metz remarked that the change in schedule is “good and will be an adjustment” for the teachers.

Mrs. Metz said she understood the reasons for the changes.

“I know that it makes it easier for families in terms of pickup, childcare, and all kinds of other things.’’

That said, the new schedule poses new challenges for her.

“It definitely impacts the types of exams that I can give because it’s such a tight turnaround. I can’t give longer writing on an exam,” she said. “I really can’t see myself getting through 100 essays, so it’s going to be more short answers. It’s going to be more multiple-choice

driven, more fill-in-the-blank, things that can accurately reflect the learning that my students have done without placing a burden on me to crank through 100 essays in 72 hours.”

However, Mrs. Metz also supported the new schedule because it allows for more teaching time.

“It is great to get back some instructional time and to not have almost two full weeks of exams.

Two-a-day will do better to simulate the types of exam situations that students might encounter in college,” Mrs. Metz said.

The new schedule will certainly take some adjusting to for students and teachers alike, and only time will tell if it is ultimately successful.

Advertising

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By Snowden Farnsworth and Miles Masters

Collierville campus stopped recycling in September.

When will it begin again?

WHAT A WASTE

Features

T

he recycling program on the St. George’s Collierville campus is in a state of confusion after the departure of Mr. Bill McClain in September.

Until late August this year, Mr. McClain operated as the director of environmental programs in addition to his role as a biology and environmental science teacher.

When he left St. George’s to work with the sustainable agriculture business Indigo Ag, which is opening a new commercial operations headquarters in downtown Memphis, St. George’s was left to divide up his numerous responsibilities.

In the email announcing Mr. McClain’s departure, former Head of School Ross Peters detailed who would fill Mr. McClain’s roles. Mr. Smith Ferguson became the leader of the St. George’s Great Outdoors program [SGGO]. Dr. Shelby Montague was hired to teach AP Biology, and Ms. Pam McCarthy took over Mr. McClain’s advisory.

Recycling, however, was not initially addressed.

“I would say that the top priority that we determined was how do we make sure that we have course and class coverage,” Associate Head of School Will Bladt said. “The second thing was SGGO, so we engaged Mr. Ferguson in the middle school about having a purview to SGGO across middle school and high school. And then the third priority was living things: bees and chickens, make sure that those were cared for and covered, which they were. And so now it’s trails, the gardens in the spring when it’s time to start planting again, hoop house, recycling – the things that are not living.”

Recycling was placed in the lowest tier of priorities, and visibly so.

Where it all began

Design by Snowden Farnsworth and Kennadee Carlton Photography by Callie Hollis

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The story of recycling on the Collierville campus began in 2008, according to Mr. McClain, who responded to questions via email.

“There was a group of students that wanted to start recycling on campus,” he wrote. “[They] spray-painted some cardboard boxes and placed them in classrooms. They would go around once

a week and fill a large green army duffle bag with paper and drive it to Shelby Farms to dispose of it.

From this effort, the school committed to sustaining the program.”

This initiative spread across all three campuses, but the Collierville campus always faced challenges.

“The issue at the Collierville Campus is that we could not find a suitable location for a dumpster,” Mr. McClain wrote. “This meant that I had to load the bins up in my truck and drive them to Germantown every week. It was very labor intensive, but I was willing to do it because I recognized the importance of a successful recycling program at a school committed to environmental sustainability.”

When he left, no one picked up the task of hauling the recycling to the Germantown campus.

“When those bins would fill up, [Mr. McClain] would physically load them into his own truck and drive them to the Germantown campus and dump our recycling into the bin at the Germantown campus,” Mr. Ferguson said. “So he would actually have to, through manual labor, take the full bins from here over there. Since he’s left, there’s not someone doing that.”

With classroom bins spilling over, some teachers, including History Department Chair Dr. Marianne Leung, starting taking recycling into their own hands.

“The cans outside were so over-flowing, and my recycling bin at home was not full,” she said. “So I just brought my big IKEA bag up, and I took whatever [recycling waste] I could find.”

Even though teachers have stepped up in addressing the avalanche of backed up plastic and paper, the problem with the recycling system remains unsolved.

Sophomores McKinley Farese and Bess White have seen the challenges first hand. They are co-leaders of the recycling club, which has been responsible for collecting the recycling from each room in the building with the aid of a corps of ninth graders.

Once a week, they would collect recycling from each classroom’s small bin and place it in the larger rolling container that they would use to transport the recycling to the

Features bins behind the kitchen.

“Those little bins get taken out to those back bins, but it’s kinda overflowing” Farese said. “It’s just building up, and it’s not as efficient as when Mr. McClain was here.”

With the Collierville bins full, the recycling club has been unable to operate. As a result, the recyclables that aren’t taken home by teachers are thrown out with the trash.

Ms. Ann Garrett, who works in housekeeping and is known affectionately to the community as Ms. Ann, said she has had multiple conversations with students who want to recycle but don’t have the ability.

“I know in the middle school they’re like ‘Ms. Ann, we don’t have any recycling?’ and I’m like ‘We don’t have recycling anymore.

No one is picking it up,’” she said.

“All we can do is throw it in the trash now. We don’t have recycling bins.”

Because there is no working dumpster on the Collierville campus, the recycling club has had to seek alternate options.

“We have a bit of an obstacle because we don’t have somebody to drive all the recycling to the Germantown campus anymore,” Farese said. “We’re trying to get that organized, and we’re trying to get some of the cheerleaders to start driving it over because our practice is at the Germantown campus.”

But they said the recycling club is not able to solve this problem on their own.

“We’re just coming up with temporary solutions right now,” White said.

For guidence, they’ve been looking to English teacher Zack Adcock, who became the new sponsor of the recycling club this year.

“Bess and McKinley and I have talked about things that might be temporarily sustainable like filling empty paper delivery boxes with recycling and delivering full boxes and having people take them to the Germantown campus to put them in the recycling bin there for now as a temporary [solution].”

He made it clear that the Collierville campus needs permanent solutions, though.

“The big push is to try to get a concrete pad poured so that we can either buy or rent a large recycling container that a recycling truck

would be able to come through and [pick up],” Mr. Adcock said.

“A recycling truck would come by someone’s house separately from the trash truck, but they won’t just come and pick up loose bins. You have to have a formal container for them to do that.”

The Germantown campus has the dumpster necessary for pickup, but Collierville hasn’t had one because it lacks a pad that is suitable for a dumpster to rest on.

But creating a pickup pad in the right place has become a challenge. While sources have named a variety of possible locations for the container and pad, Mr. Bladt explained that the material used is also an important factor.

“You can’t put it on asphalt or dirt, it’s got to be on concrete because of the way that pickup happens with a truck because you put so much pressure in trying to lift the container up to put into the truck,” Mr. Bladt said. “If you put it on asphalt, particularly in the summer, it’ll dig in holes into the asphalt or sink it down. So by putting it on a concrete pad, which is much harder, you can get that leverage to then pick it up and it won’t damage your asphalt.”

At the time of his interview on November 25, Mr. Bladt said he expected the pad to be laid “quite soon.” But by the time of this printing, it was not yet done.

Even without the pad poured, a recycling dumpster could still be utilized, only less efficiently because it would be further from the main buildings.

“The big things are getting the dumpster and then getting the location for the dumpster, hopefully close to the school,” Mr. Ferguson said.

What’s the hold up?

“We actually had contracted to have the dumpster here by October,” Mr. Bladt said, “but the company that we contracted with has not delivered on time and has not been incredibly responsive in terms of when they’re delivering.”

CFO Mrs. Beth Porter confirms that the plan for permanent recycling is in motion, and the school has placed an order with Republic

Several recycling bins sit, full to the brim, by the Dining Hall. Mr. McClain used to take them off-campus every week.

Services.

“We are still waiting for delivery of the dumpster,” Mrs. Porter said.

“I don’t know the expected delivery date but do know that it should have been here by now.”

Mr. Ferguson said he hasn’t been able to get a firm date for the delivery either.

“Right now, we are still waiting for our dumpster to come. I’ve followed up multiple times to see where we are in that process, but here we are. It’s getting ready to be December, and we don’t have our dumpster yet,” Mr. Ferguson said.

“So recycling really has been on hold pretty much since the beginning of the year. Moving forward, I can see the plan being very student driven, and I’m excited about that possibility.”

Mr. Bladt feels that this shake-up may be an opportunity to reflect on other recycling shortcomings and how we can improve more than just recycling in the academic building.

“One of the things I feel like we have not made progress on is recycling for football games and fall [sports],” Mr. Bladt said. “I think there’s room for creative thinking about how to create dual-stream recycling for athletic events.”

Both Mr. Bladt and the recycling club are enthusiastic about student involvement.

Farese had recommendations for

what to do in the meantime.

“Be mindful of what you’re recycling.” Farese said. “[You can] help out by taking home just a little bit of the recycling to your [home] recycling bin.”

The future of recycling and sustainability at St. George’s is still not clear, but Mr. McClain had some words of advice for St. George’s students.

“Find places that are special to you and do whatever you can to protect them,” he wrote. “While protecting the planet is a noble goal, we can all start with places we see, feel, touch, and smell every day and we can work to make them better. The 250 acres that make up the Collierville Campus are special to many of us, and for those that explore the trails, swim in the river, work in the gardens, and fish in the ponds, it is particularly special. Global issues can be overwhelming for some, but local issues are manageable. So start with the small things you can control and work to protect the places that are special to you.”

Reviving our recycling program may be a good place to start.

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Feature

STOP AND LISTEN

Eighth grader Jennifer Lopez poses looking through her locker. In the whirl of everyday school life, students can feel overlooked.

Hispanic and Latinx students struggle to be heard

By Cary Robbins Design by Snowden Farnsworth and Jacob Gettig

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emphis is a majority-minority city.

According to the United States Census Bureau, 63.9% identify as Black or African American.

However, just because there is such a large minority group, that doesn’t mean all people feel included or treated equally. People who identify as Hispanic and Latinx make up only 7% of Memphis’ population, and at St. George’s many of the Hispanic and Latinx students can only name a few others who go to the school.

Features

Photography by Callie Hollis

Sophomore Iris Delahoussaye, whose mother is Puerto Rican, said that sometimes she feels underrepresented because of how small a minority group she belongs to at St. George’s.

“Besides myself, I can really only name three or four who are Latinx or Hispanic, and if I do see them, it’s just passing in the halls, so I feel like it’s not much representation there,” she said.

Junior Luis Lopez, who identifies as Hispanic of Guatemalan descent, has noticed the same thing.

“Every school year, my dad always asks the same question, ‘How many Hispanics are there?’

And I’m like ‘Dad, still two. Still two in my grade,’” Lopez said.

“The most that I’ve seen in a

grade is my sister’s grade, which has like five.”

Although some people may use Latinx or Hispanic interchangeably, these two words have different meanings. Hispanic refers to any person who speaks Spanish.

It also refers to anyone who is from or has heritage from Spanish-speaking countries; however, Latinx, which is the non-binary form of Latino/a, refers to people from Latin America or those who have Latin American heritage.

According to Interim Head of School Timothy Gibson, St. George’s racial makeup is approximately 30% people of color.

Though exact numbers were not readily available, anecdotal evidence suggests that students who identify as Latinx/Hispanic make up a small fraction of the overall school enrollment.

Race is not as transparent as some might some might assume, so it is not as easy to recognize students who identify as Hispanic or Latinx.

“Puerto Ricans and Hispanics and Latinxs in general come in all various looks. Some have lighter skin, some have darker skin, blue eyes, blond hair, brown eyes, black hair. We look like everything,” Delahoussaye said. “I feel like the only big reason why we haven’t been horribly targeted is just because we’re hard to spot, which I’m appreciative [for], but at the same time, I want to be noticed that I am Hispanic. I am biracial.

But, at the same time, it’s kind of like a survival thing because if we can’t be spotted, we can’t get targeted, so it’s an odd trade off.”

The comparative invisibility of Latinx/Hispanic students can sometimes leave some people feeling left out of conversations about diversity and racism.

Though the controversial chapel talk at the beginning of the year specifically targeted African-Americans with racial stereotypes (for which the speaker later apologized), Lopez said he also felt demeaned.

“If you do that [referencing the chapel] to the biggest minority, what do you say about me?” Lopez said. “What do you say about my culture?”

In an interview with the Lodge last year, former upper school Spanish teacher Julián Guzmán, who now teaches at the University of Memphis, wondered whether Hispanic and Latinx students felt as fully included in the life of the school as he did.

“St. George’s is diverse. We have students and teachers from different cultures,” Mr. Guzmán said. “We have different languages that are represented in this school. We have different points of view about life in general, different religions, and that makes us a good community. But I always wonder how do [Hispanic/Latinx students] feel? Do they feel represented in the school?”

Mr. Guzmán encouraged all students of St. George’s to make sure that people of all backgrounds feel included and heard.

“You [the school as a whole] know that they are here,” Mr. Guzmán said, “but how many times do you stop yourself, and you talk to them and you connect with them and you understand how it is to be Indian, or Hispanic, or Asian, or African American?”

An Uphill Battle with Ignorance Sometimes that lack of connection can lead to hurtful stereotypes, particularly when the subject of immigration comes up.

On one occasion, eighth-grader Jennifer Lopez, who identifies as Guatemalan and is the younger sister of Luis Lopez, said she even hid in the bathroom to get out of a civics discussion about immigra-

tion.

“The book didn’t say, ‘Hispanics are all immigrants’, but it said, ‘the most’ [immigrants are Hispanic]. It said, ‘Of people who come to the United States, it’s mostly [from] Mexico.’ And so then whenever we talked about immigrants, everybody just stared at me,” Lopez said. “They don’t notice that immigrants are from all over. They’re not just Hispanics.”

Lopez said that some teachers and students have made assumptions about her being an immigrant because she is Guatemalan, and some students have made jokes about her crossing the border.

“I’m not that good at swimming. I mean, I can do it to save my life, but I’m not really good.”

Lopez said. “They’re like, ‘Jennifer, you can’t swim, but you’re Hispanic. Didn’t you go through the water?’ I was like, ‘I didn’t. I was born here.’”

Her older brother Luis Lopez said he has not faced the same conversations, but he also understands that people can get touchy with the topic of immigration. He feels that people may assume the worst of immigrants before they know the full story.

“OK,” Lopez said. “My parents are immigrants. What’s the big deal?”

Lopez would like people to be more sensitive about the topic of immigration for those who have seen its effects.

“People in my family have been deported for being here illegally,” Lopez said. “Not people close to

“Whenever we talked about immigrants, everybody just stared at me” – Eighth Grader Jennifer Lopez 13

Features me, not my [immediate] family, but an uncle or cousin. They’ve been deported. It’s sad seeing the aftershock of that, and that’s what a lot of people don’t think about when they say, ‘Get rid of them.

Don’t abolish ICE,’ stuff like that.

They don’t see the damage that it leaves behind.”

Immigration is just one of many controversial topics Hispanic and Latinx students feel they have to contend with. Delahoussaye said she has encountered people that have a misconception that all Hispanics are Mexican, and all Mexicans are illegal immigrants.

“Sometimes I do get the whole prejudice behind being Hispanic of, ‘Oh, you’re Hispanic. Your family must be Mexican, and someone in your family must deal with drugs,’” Delahoussaye said.

“A: I’m not Mexican. B: No one in my family deals with drugs.

And then C: not all Mexicans deal drugs, so that’s just layering stereotypes on at once.”

In addition to stereotypes about Hispanics, Delahoussaye said that many people do not even know that Puerto Rico is a United States territory.

“I have heard, ‘Oh, your mom’s from the country of Puerto Rico,’” Delahoussaye said.

“Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, which means we’re technically still the United States. Meaning no, my mom’s not an immigrant.

No, Puerto Rico is not a separate country, and no, I do not need a passport to get there because it’s part of the U.S.” Junior Luis Higareda, who identifies as Latino, said he has encountered similar geographic confusion and that he did not like how many people have made assumptions that Mexico is the only Hispanic country in the world.

“Not only Mexicans speak Spanish,” Higareda said. “There’s other Spanish-speaking countries.

I feel like people when they think of Spanish, they immediately

think of Mexicans. Mexico is right under the United States, so it does kind of make sense why they would think that, but there’s other countries that are Spanish-speaking.”

Jennifer Lopez said she has also encountered people who misunderstand the scope of the Spanish language.

“We went to English mass, and this girl, she was like, ‘Can you speak Mexican for me?’ I was

like, ‘Can you speak American for me?’” Lopez said. “And then she just looked at me. I was like, ‘You see what it feels like.’”

Owning an Identity Lopez said that at first she did not stand up as much for herself and her culture, but she now has more confidence in doing so. At first, when she started introducing

“No, Puerto Rico is not a separate country, and no, I do not need a passport to get there” – Sophomore Iris Delahoussaye

Sophomore Iris Delahoussaye poses sitting on the stairs while being passed by fellow classmates. She said she thinks Hispanic and Latinx people can be easy to overlook.

14

Features herself, she would always say that her parents are from Guatemala, but after a while, she grew confident in herself. “‘My parents are from Guatemala. I’m Hispanic.’ That was the thing,” Lopez said, “but then I was like what’s the point of being embarrassed of it? Does it matter? So they’re like, ‘What are you?’ I’m like, ‘I’m Guatemalan.’

They’re like, ‘Oh, OK.’” For Lopez, reconnecting to her culture came through music.

When she forgot how to speak Spanish for a time, it was music that helped her learn even more than she knew before about the language.

“I don’t like to listen to music in English I guess,” Lopez said. “It’s just a thing because my mom and my dad, they listen to music only in Spanish. So I guess I just adopted that too, and I forgot how to speak Spanish for a long time, and music helped me build my Spanish up again.”

Although it took her awhile before she started to feel comfortable in her own skin, this helped Lopez see how unique she is. She knows that her confidence has grown in just a few years.

“I’ve gotten to the point where I was like you know what? If no one accepts me, who will? It hurts so bad,” Lopez said. “And then my mom, she was like, ‘Niña, no matter what happens, people won’t accept you. Every day is a battle for you, and just know you’re going to end up winning it.’”

Now, Lopez finds ways to push past the stereotypes.

“I wear big hoop earrings, and whenever I put them on, I don’t know, I just feel like nobody can stop me,” Lopez said.

Sixth-grader Melissa Villa, who identifies as Mexican, can relate to the struggle to stay strong and positive.

Villa’s role models are her big sisters and her mother. Their own triumphs through adversity has given her the courage to overcome the obstacles she may face.

“It’s just crazy to me how far people go in this school,” Villa

said. “It’s so advanced, and it’s so stressful. [Her sisters have] had problems, and they still make it to the next grade and the next grade.”

Within the school community, Villa also has upperclassmen like Luis Lopez to look up to. As a leader in the MySpace Alliance club, whose mission is “to provide a safe space where students from all walks of life can share their experiences,” Lopez understands how hard it is to be a minority at school.

“I kind of feel like I’ve taken it upon myself to talk about diversity and be a leader for diversity,” Lopez said.

But he expressed some frustration at how long it has taken for the school to recognize the need for support for diverse students.

“It’s like now [the school is] starting to realize how important color is, how important having people of different genders and sexuality and socio-economic status and just everything that makes us different [is],” Lopez said.

“Now [the school is] just starting to realize after I’ve been here for 14 years, after I had cousins who came here before me, after I have siblings now that [will] come here after me, after we’ve had graduates of color. It’s like it’s taken this long to realize how important diversity is in this school.”

Although there are many obstacles to being a minority, Lopez works hard to show off his Hispanic culture, and he wants others to be proud of their culture as well.

“Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not important because of your skin color. You’re beautiful the way you are,” Lopez said. “And I just think it’s important that you realize that being a minority isn’t something that should tear you down. It’s something you should be prideful in. It’s something you should be proud of doing, and it shouldn’t be the line between us.

It should be the thing that helps us connect with each other.”

Junior Luis Lopez stands on the stairs unacknowledged by the people walking past him. He can only name a few other students who are also Latinx or Hispanic at St. George’s.

“Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not important because of your skin color.

You’re beautiful the way you are.”

– Junior Luis Lopez 15

Curl at a Time

One Features

Keiara’s journey to her natural hair

By Keiara Baker and Kayla Sanford Design by Kayla Sanford

Relaxed hair is chemically straightened to avoid the natural curl pattern.

Protective styles are styles that tuck away the ends of the hair in order to prevent breakage.

Some examples of protective styles include but are not limited to braids, twists, extensions and wigs.

Natural hair is hair that grows from the head naturally without being permanently straightened.

16

2A

2B

2C

3A

3B

3C

W

hen I was eight years old, my mother relaxed my hair, and I jumped at the chance to make the change. I knew nothing of what a relaxer meant, other than that it would make my hair straight. A relaxer for black women is a way out, a way to make our hair not only manageable, but acceptable to society.

While my parents relaxed their hair to be more accepted in society, I relaxed my hair to get rid of my naps without having to go through the pain of combing my hair. For me, relaxed hair was a weight lifted off my shoulders.

It meant that I got to show off my length.

When I got older, I realized the consequences that came with relaxing my hair, like the damage it caused and a loss of confidence.

Because I hadn’t loved my natural hair, I had a hard time discovering my complete self. My hair has a huge impact on the way I carry myself. It impacts how I walk out of the house, how I act in school, how I interact with my friends and in dozens of other ways.

In middle school, my mother said I could begin managing my hair on my own. I struggled with taking care of it. I was searching for the perfect look. Being unstable in my identity, I didn’t know what to do. In 2016, the release of Solange’s “Dont touch my hair” had a huge affect on my decision.

Watching her and other celebrities walk the red carpet wearing their natural hair showed that I could be just as beautiful wearing my natural hair. I finally decided to go natural.

Many of my family members were in denial of my decision because when they were born, everyone relaxed their hair for acceptance. But I wanted to change.

I wanted to nurture the hair that I was born with. I wanted to feel authentic.

As soon as I made the choice, I went through a period of transitioning my hair. During this time, I really relied on protective styles in order to cover up the imperfections of my hair and let it grow.

When I wasn’t wearing protective styles, it was hard to show off the growth because the ends of my hair were so damaged by the heat from years of processing my hair. This left me with one choice: to complete the big chop.

The management of natural hair includes finding your hair type and hair porosity. I found that I have low porosity hair. My hair pattern is a mix of both 4A-4B. When trying to find hair products and tools, I soon realized that it can be really pricey. I struggled a lot with being not only patient but confident in the process. The hardest thing that I had to learn in my process is that everyone has a different journey. All hair responds to products and processes in completely different ways.

If you are struggling with the decision to do a certain thing to your hair, don’t be discouraged.

It is a journey. Do what you want, and be who you want to be. All people have different textures to their hair, so I sat down and asked people about their journey. Now that you know my story, we can hear theirs.

Transitioning is the process of letting the natural curl pattern of the hair grow out without chemical processing or heat styling.

Processing hair is the use of heat on the hair to change its natural state.

The Big Chop is when relaxed hair is cut off to begin the journey towards natural hair.

Low porosity hair is a different form of hair texture, and it means that your hair could be prone to dryness due to your curl pattern.

4A-4B is the tightest curl pattern of hair.

Let’s Talk Hair

By Cary Robbins Illustrations by E’nissa Golden

Sam aine Term “I just shampoo and condition,” senior Sam Tremaine said. “I don’t put any stuff in afterward.” He says that his hair is light and thin, and he only uses products such as Old Spice body wash and Pantene conditioner. Since he has so much hair, it gets hard to manage especially in humid weather. “We just got done with summer, and it’s hot out, and it gets really terrible having long hair,” he said. “It’s like wearing a fluffy hat all the time so especially sweat messes it up. It gets all frizzy.” He acknowledges the good and bad of having luscious mane. “It’s just always there and in my face, and I don’t like putting it up,” Termaine said. “It’s nice, and I’m okay with people touching it. People touch it all the time.”

iya r a D s Jone Junior Dariya Jones is known for her braids, but she wants people to know that she loves her natural hair. “Whenever I wear my puffball, my hair is not that short. It just looks like that because of shrinkage,” Jones said. “Also, don’t touch my hair.” She mostly wears protective styles, like braids, because it is hard to manage her natural hair texture of 4A-4B. “If it’s hot outside, I’m not gonna have my hair straightened because the humidity is gonna make the hair swell up, so usually if it’s hot outside, I wear braids,” Jones said. She recommends products such as Wild Growth, Ebin edge control, and Garnier Fructis moisturizer.

Features

ana y i K ne y a F “I wish that [people] knew how hard it was to set aside time to actually do my hair in the morning,” freshman Kiyana Fayne said. It takes her about 30 minutes every day to style her hair, which she calls very loose kinky curly hair. “For my curly hair, I wet it and then detangle it,” Fayne said, “then put my products in. Then, I have to wet it again and then let it dry.” She recommends styling gel products such as Shay Moisture and Camille Rose. When the weather changes, Fayne finds it difficult to manage her hair. “If my hair’s straight and it starts raining, it’ll go curly,” she said. “If it’s too humid outside or too hot, my hair gets really poofy, and it gets really tangled.”

ie d n a Th reaux d Bou Senior Thandie Boudreaux has a head full of curly 3c hair. “Before I go to bed I braid my hair and in the morning, I will spray it and then put leave-in conditioner in it,” Boudreaux said. It only takes her about 15 to 20 minutes to style her hair, using leave-in conditioner and edge control. Sometimes, however, it gets difficult to manage. “When it’s humid, I will probably just keep my hair in braids because it gets really frizzy,” Boudreaux said. Because of all her hair, she knows it takes her much longer to manage her for the next day before she goes to sleep at night. “I definitely have to take more time detangling it and preparing at night than a lot of people,” she said.

ire Cla rson e Epp “If I come to school kinda looking like a rat, it’s not because I didn’t try,” senior Claire Epperson said. “It’s because my hair doesn’t like to cooperate sometimes.” Epperson is a swimmer, and so she says her hair dries out fast. She recommends to anyone who has dry hair to use a shampoo brand called Maui Moisture. Being a swimmer and having wavy hair can be difficult, but the shampoo that Epperson uses is her life saver when it comes to managing her hair. Sometimes, however, the humidity of the summer makes it hard to manage her hair. “Typically in the summer when it’s like kind of dry, it gets really poofy, so I have to usually put stuff in it to make it not like frizzy,” she said.

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Profile

Q&A

WITH

Peter Ilott is the director of the telecommunications section at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). JPL is the center for development of most NASA probes, from Voyager to the Mars rovers. Peter worked on Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, CloudSat, Deep Impact, the Phoenix Mars polar lander and InSight. He is currently working on the next Mars Rover and the Europa Clipper.

Peter Illott

By Jacob Gettig

Q. Can you tell us about your current projects?

A.

We’re building the next Mars rover which is called “Mars 2020.”

It doesn’t have an official name yet, although there was a contest to name it. You have to write an essay on why the name is good.

It lands on February 18, 2021. It’s like sending a geologist and a geology lab to another planet. The geologist is the robot itself talking to the geologists here, and the lab goes along with the rover. There’s a suite of instruments and cameras. There’s also a sample return aspect of this mission. We’re gonna grab some samples and cache them on the surface, and in 2027 we hope to go with a lander and pick those samples up and bring them back to Earth. It’ll also be a robot. They’re all automated, but they’re still controlled from the Earth. We send commands up every day and get data back every day, so that’s pretty much it.

Q.

So recently NASA has released plans for the Lunar Gateway. Is that going to mean anything for JPL?

A.

JPL is always involved in these things one way or another. Either through communications or with instruments or navigation, JPL is one of the prime navigation centers for space missions for the world. Other organizations use us as well. Our navigation people know how to do it, and our Deep Space Network is very much involved in all these things.

Q. Can you explain what the Deep Space Network is?

A.

18

It’s a set of three complexes around the world – one in Madrid, one here in the desert, and one in Canberra, Australia. And there are several deep space stations at each one of these network complexes. They’re used to communicate with spacecraft around the solar system and outside the solar system. And positioning these three locations around the earth means we can always have a station looking at some object out in space. There are other stations around the world, but the Deep Space Network is the most famous and probably the most capable.

Illustration by Sierra Sellers

Q. A.

To someone who isn’t super into or invested in spaceflight, how would you convince them that JPL is an important place?

We do fundamental research. We’re not in the business of building communications systems or satellites except at the very beginning when nobody’s done anything like that before. If it gets to the point where it’s routine, we get out of the business. So by doing a lot of fundamental research we enhance and expand technology and science. The stuff that we do contributes to basic scientific knowledge which is invaluable to understanding our position in the universe and why certain things are important. We survey the earth and other planets to understand better where our planet came from and how it developed. It’s all fundamental and it’s all invaluable.

Q.

When you were a younger person in college, what sparked your interest?

A.

I was always into science and space, and when I went to college, I did physics. Actually in my first job after I got my PhD, my job title was actually “applied physicist.” I was at a company that developed instruments for measuring temperatures inside kilns. But then I ended up working for an aerospace company in Montreal. So I worked on the commercial side for eleven or twelve years. I ended up at Hughes Space and Com here in California, and then I came up here to JPL and got out of the commercial side. That was nineteen years ago. So I just got into the business because I was in science and technology. I did physics bachelors, physics masters and electrical engineering for my PhD. I was already involved in things that are related to space exploration, telecommunications, stuff like that. From there I just kept going up and doing other stuff. It’s nice to have a broad spectrum education. I would certainly recommend going into physics if you want to get into the business, but make sure you keep your hands in engineering as well. Or you can do the other way around. Do engineering but keep your hands in physics.

Want to read the full interview?

Scan this QR code or visit gryphonlodge.

T here ’ s

more at gryphonlodge . com

By Aiden Curran and Callie Hollis

Video

By Erin O’Connell

By Snowden Farnsworth

Arts Sports 19

Entertainment

What Kind of Christmas Elf are You? Designed and Illustrated by Madeline Sisk

Start No

Do you like Christmas?

Yes

Are you ambitious?

No

Yes

Do you like to spend time alone?

No Yes

Yes Do you think you are opportunistic?

No

Do you have a one-track mind?

No

Are you creative?

No

Yes

Yes Yes Are you artsy?

No

Yes

No

Do you get bored easily?

No

Do you like animals?

Are you a hard worker?

No

Do you like to sing and dance?

Yes

Yes Yes

Are you a people person?

No

Yes

No

Yes Are you a moody person?

Yes

The Grinch

20

The Off-Season Elf

No

Are you outdoorsy?

Do you like celebrations?

No

Foodie Elf

No

Reindeer Caretaker Elf

Toy-Maker Elf

Yes

Party Elf

Reviews

DAVID OGLE REVIEWS CHRISTMAS ALBUMS Trans-Siberian Orchestra “Christmas Eve and Other Stories”

“Christmas Eve and Other Stories” is a classic Christmas album recorded by Trans-Siberian Orchestra in 1996. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is known for their theatrical Christmas music and flamboyant live shows.

This Christmas album is fantastic for anyone who loves the sounds of both energetic rock and calming orchestral pieces, as Trans-Siberian Orchestra does an excellent job of merging the two together. The album also has both vocal and instrumental compositions, producing a more diverse tracklist.

Overall, if you like dramatic music, this is definitely a Christmas album that you will love!

Bowling for Soup

“Merry Flippin’ Christmas: Volumes 1 and 2” Who could imagine that a punk rock band known for hits “1985” and “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” could put together not one, but two Christmas albums? This album gives fun, dynamic twists to Christmas classics like “Feliz Navidad,” “All I Want for Christmas is You” and “Frosty the Snowman.” If you are particularly a fan of punk rock and want some Christmas music to listen to, Bowling for Soup delivers a quality holiday album for you!

Mariah Carey

“Merry Christmas”

Did you know that Mariah Carey’s most streamed song on Spotify is “All I Want for Christmas is You?” Her next most streamed song doesn’t even have half as many! This album is much more than “All I Want for Christmas is You,” though. It showcases Mariah’s unique and excellent vocals on other songs such as “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World” and “O Holy Night.” This album dates back to the twentieth century, but it is definitely a timeless holiday record. If you are a fan of pop, this is definitely a Christmas album that you will enjoy!

Elvis Presley

“Elvis’ Christmas Album” Elvis Presley’s Christmas album is not only a great holiday album, but it is also the best-selling Christmas album in the United States. This album is composed of fine classics such as “Silent Night” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” that have a 1950s sound and is the oldest Christmas album on this list. Elvis’ popularity skyrocketed in the 1950s when he became famous for his smash-hits “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Jailhouse Rock,” and even his Christmas album became one of his best-selling albums. This album showcases Elvis’ sweet and soothing vocals as well as his background singers and musicians. If you are a fan of the old 1950s sound, you will enjoy Elvis’ classic Christmas album.

LaFace Family

“A LaFace Family Christmas” The LaFace Family Christmas album provides a hip-hop feel to classic Christmas songs. The album is composed of multiple well-known hip-hop artists such as TLC and OutKast along with plenty more. Released in 1993, this album features some of the earliest known published work from Usher. If you are a fan of 1990s RnB and hip-hop, you will enjoy these renditions of Christmas hits from popular hip-hop artists.

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Reviews

I WATCHED HALLMARK MOVI

By Spencer Cotham

N

o matter how hard you try to escape, Hallmark movies still pop up every Christmas and spread their cheesy holiday spirit. For this issue, I was tasked with watching 10 out of the 28 Hallmark Christmas Movies released in 2018. Some might call me a sadist for forcing myself to watch over 15 hours of staged holiday romances, but I didn’t have a choice. You do! Here are the ones to skip and the ones to see.

“Mingle All The Way” Movie Poster

Let’s start with a movie I didn’t hate! This one had one of the most realistic plots, but too many events happen in just the right way to make a happy ending. I call that “Hallmark Logic.” Just so I’m clear, that isn’t a compliment. She’s serious, but he’s goofy!

How original!

Rating: 5/10. I truly did like some parts, but the plot felt incredibly redundant and predictable. It felt like a boomer’s idea of a millennial romance.

“Christmas Made To Order” I know it’s wrong, but I could not stop seeing Carmen from “Spy Kids” and Aaron Samuels from “Mean Girls” during this movie. She’s a party planner (again), and he suddenly needs a party planner. They fall in love! The end. Who pays for these movies?

Rating: 5/10. I wouldn’t actively look for this movie, but if it just so happened to come on, I wouldn’t turn it off. I like the actors.

“A Gingerbread Romance”

Points for being one of the only movies to have black leads! This movie wasn’t terrible, but I could not get over the signature Hallmark logic. She’s an architect, and he’s a baker/single dad, and they have to make a life-size gingerbread house! Because Christmas! Everything falls into place at just the right time, and they live happily ever after.

Rating: 6/10. Having diversity is the sole reason this movie makes above a 5. Only three out of the 28 movies released this year had non-white leads.

“Homegrown Christmas” The gods of Hallmark force the main characters to rekindle a high-school romance, and it has, of course, the signature coincidences of all Hallmark movies. I can’t get over how convenient all the plot points are.

Rating: 2/10. It felt so forced, almost as if Lori had something else on her mind. Let’s hope she wasn’t bribing the writers to let her stay in the movie!

“A Midnight Kiss” Movie Poster

22

The only reason I watched this movie through the end was because Carlos from “Big Time Rush” was in it. I genuinely had to fight to keep myself awake. Watching a serious party planner fall for a goofy guy while trying to throw a rager for a bunch of old people put me to sleep faster than Ambien.

Rating: 4/10. I got bored, but I do think an effort was made. They tried! Which is respectable.

“It’s Christmas, Eve”

Terrible. The acting in this movie was some of the worst I’ve ever seen. Honestly. A superintendent and a music teacher encounter problems and solve them. That’s it. How profound! A random person off the street would be a better actor than all of the characters in this movie.

Rating: 2/10. The sad excuse for a storyline is the only thing keeping this rating barely afloat. Nothing else about this movie was worth seeing. I wouldn’t wish this movie on my worst enemy.

Humor

IES SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO “Christmas Everlasting”

Movie Poster

Diversity! Yay! I might regret saying this, but this might have been one of the best Hallmark movies I’ve ever seen.

Patti LaBelle is in it, the Allstate guy is in it, it tackles actual issues, what more could you ask for? I genuinely enjoyed watching it.

Rating: 7/10. It scares me how much I liked this movie, but watch it! Then you can decide if I’m crazy or not.

“A Shoe Addict’s Christmas” One of the most ridiculous premises for a movie I have ever come across. It’s kind of like “A Christmas Carol,” but with shoes and a main character with too much Botox. It was set in a big city, but it felt unreasonably Caucasian. There was one black character that spoke in the entire movie, and I don’t remember seeing any people of color other than that.

Rating: 3/10. I laughed, but it was to keep myself from crying.

“A Majestic Christmas” Apparently, women can have one of three jobs in the Hallmark universe: party planner, some type of teacher or nurse/caretaker. This one is an architect!

Groundbreaking. She falls in love with a guy that owns a building. The end.

Rating: 5/10. Points for diversity! It wasn’t the best, but not the worst!

Just a tad bit lackluster.

“Christmas At Graceland” If we could put the vomit emoji in print, I would use it right now. I had high hopes for this movie! It’s set in Memphis, but the Memphis it takes place in is not the Memphis I know. Kellie Pickler can’t act, the plot seems redundant, and the execution of the story was terrible. Recipe for disaster.

Rating: 2/10. It just fell flat. They didn’t feel like they even want to be in the movie. It was weird. Just weird.

Satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particulary in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

New Movie From Hallmark:

White Christmas!

In the latest story idea from the Hallmark redundancy machine, we set our sights on an unnamed city that has a large population, but surprisingly, no people of color! The story focuses on Mary-Anne who adds too much salt to the Christmas turkey and causes her grandmother to go into anaphylactic shock! While at the hospital, she meets Carl, a happy-go-lucky doctor who helps her learn the true meaning of Christmas - having a montage of wrapping gifts and baking cookies while listening to “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.”

Illustration by Spencer Cotham

23 19

Opinion The debate over the long-standing rule that the NCAA doesn’t condone the paying of college athletes has become a hot topic of late. The debate was sparked when the Fair Pay to Play Act was introduced on the floor of California’s senate, and its eventual passage into law by the Governor. Recently, the NCAA held a meeting in which they agreed that college athletes could make money from their likeness starting in 2021, but that each division would be responsible for coming up with their own guidelines for that compensation. The NCAA also reaffirmed during that meeting that the athletes could not be treated as employees of the school, and that there must be a “clear distinction between college and professional opportunities.”

It’s All About Their Bottom Line

By Owen Hewitt

I

wish that I could say that the NCAA cared about the athletes that play under it. They don’t. Plainly and simply, the organization that claims to protect the amateurism that has been gone for nearly a half-century exploits young men and women out of their market value as an effort to support its own bottom line and the bottom lines of the programs that it props up. Here’s why they finally bent on their firm stance ‘supporting amateurism,’ allowing players to profit off of their own likeness.

The NCAA realized that it cannot exist without big-name players.

Why shouldn’t players like Zion Williamson or Kyler Murray, who helped make their respective sports must-watches on national TV, have profited from the value they provided to the NCAA, or even their own market value?

The NCAA has devised a system that exploits athletes that dedicate twenty hours of physical practice (not to mention the hours and hours of film review, workouts, etc.) out of fair compensation for their hard work and their personal value, as well as the value that those athletes provide to the NCAA and the corporations that support it. Many make the argument that scholarships the athletes receive serve as payment for the

players. Colleges paying athletes with scholarships to that college is equivalent to McDonald’s paying their employees with McDonald’s gift cards, and not allowing them to earn anything else. The athletes that dedicate their time deserve to be paid for that dedication.

The NCAA is also letting themselves get so caught up in making sure that some players and some programs stick to amateurism, that they’re forgetting to take care of some of the issues that they were established to take care of. The Memphis Tigers took on Alcorn State in November, sitting star center James Wiseman as a result of the NCAA revoking Wiseman’s already approved eligibility over assistance he received from the then-head coach at East High school Penny Hardaway. According to Geoff Calkins of the Daily Memphian, Alcorn State did not have a trainer traveling with them to the game. When an Alcorn State player went down, he was taken to the Memphis bench and treated by the university’s trainers.

The NCAA has become so caught up in policing the thin veil of amateurism that still exists within the sport, they’re forgetting to make sure that small programs have the resources that they need.

Tua Tagovailoa has been one of the biggest names in not only

collegiate football, but the sport of football in its entirety since he came out as a backup during the College Football Playoff final for Alabama in 2018. Now, Tua is out indefinitely with the same injury that ended the career of all-time legend Bo Jackson.

The difference between the two? Bo Jackson got paid, and got long term compensation from the NFL, thanks to the work of the player’s association. Tua’s already lost a lot of potential earnings, as his NFL future is marred now that he’s considered damaged goods.

But to quite literally add insult to injury, since the NCAA does not qualify Tua as an athlete, he will not receive any healthcare or compensation from Alabama or the NCAA if his injury lingers.

Another argument that seems to resurface often in opposition to the fair compensation of college athletes is that there would be differences in how much money they would be receiving through endorsements, which would create locker room tension, as one player would be worth more than another. That already exists.

The massive amount of media coverage that the NCAA obtains through its various television deals that totaled a billion dollars in revenue for the organization last year created a gap in the locker

room via media coverage a long time ago.

In all likelihood, Drew Swinney realizes that he is less valuable to not only Clemson’s football program, but also to the university itself and the football community at large than his teammate Trevor Lawrence.

The big names of college basketball, football, hockey, etc. are always going to be more valuable than the rest of the team.

It’s the same reason why Drew Brees gets paid $6.8 million, and his Saints teammate Dan Arnold gets paid just over $350,000. Drew Brees is more valuable to the Saints, the City of New Orleans and the NFL than Dan Arnold, and their respective compensations reflect that. Why should athletes, who are spending much of their physical prime competing and working in the NCAA, not be allowed to collect their value based on how much demand there is for their likeness?

OPINION POLICY: The Lodge opinion section is a venue for the free expression of the student views at St. George’s Independent School. The opinions represented in this section are those of the authors alone and do not necesarily reflect those of the Lodge staff or of the St. George’s community at large. The Lodge strives to be an open forum for the thoughtful and deliberate exchange of comment and criticism and therefore welcomes letters to the editor. Letters to the editor will be printed in the opinion section of the newspaper, should not exceed 300 words and must be signed and accompanied by a verifiable email address. These letters will not be printed if the content is judged obscene, violates the privacy of others or encourages physical disruption of school activities.

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Opinion

More Money, More Problems

By Sam Kuykendall

Y

es, I agree that it would be great to see the return of an EA Sports NCAA football, as I have been a Madden fan for many years.

However, I don’t think that allowing the change brought on by California’s new law is a good idea. Sure, the realm of college athletics is a business, pure and simple, but performance in a sport is a team effort, so why should some popular players get paid when their peers on the team don’t? After all, the most popular college players who would profit from this law are likely going to be high draft picks anyway where they will make millions right off the bat. While the NCAA doesn’t pay players directly, it provides a fair platform for players to prove that they should be paid in the pros.

The new law in California will not only cease to keep things fair, but it will cause a cascade of issues that will have unintended consequences farther down

the line. The status quo has been working for years, and if something works just fine, why try to change it?

People need motivation to do anything, and for professional athletes, it’s that the better they play, the more money they get. If college players also get paid, then that takes away from what makes it so special on draft day when an athlete becomes a professional and realizes their dream. I watch the NFL Draft every year and would hate for part of the magic of that night to disappear because players are already getting paid coming into their professional sport. Plus, they may become more complacent if they think they don’t have to earn the money by giving their all at every practice. No one wants to watch a lazy player on their team, fan or coach. I’m concerned that players would become complacent and distracted if they were being handed money and told how great they were because of that.

In addition to this, aren’t college players getting paid already through their scholarships?

Getting a free ride to college is essentially getting indirectly paid to come to a college, with D1 athletes getting special benefits such as tutors. These academic services cost money, and the players getting

paid more doesn’t make any sense.

Besides, I am sure that many players get under the table deals anyway to come to certain top athletic departments.

Isn’t it kind of absurd that athletes are paid millions because they can play a game better than others? So this new law will go ahead and pay these kids money now when they will get deals will eventually go pro and make millions anyway, because the ones who would profit from their likeness are the ones who are popular, talented and shoe-ins to get drafted. The passage of the law only throws more money at this system that on a fundamental level doesn’t seem to make much sense.

To add to my financial issues with this law, it would allow players to draw money away from the revenue of the college athletic department. One misconception many people have is that the athletic department receives all of the revenue gained from the advertising and ticket sales from its games.

According to Ben Kercheval’s article on Bleacher Report, Chris Smith of Forbes.com said, “While many athletic departments have to take loans from their parent universities just to break even, Alabama’s athletic department sends money the other way. Last

year it contributed around $6.5 million to the university to provide for faculty support and non-athletic scholarships.” Based on Smith’s data, sending money to individual players would draw money away that is actually benefiting the academics of the university, making it harder for schools to provide services and scholarships on the academic side of things.

And finally, these laws would shift students’ attention from academics. How do we know that they won’t devote all their time to sports and then be left with nothing when they don’t get drafted?

This shift of focus could be an unintended yet dangerous side effect of the passing of the law.

I don’t know for sure what will happen when this law goes into effect, I don’t think anyone really does. But the way things play out will have significant ramifications for not only the college athletes themselves, but the college community as a whole.

Illustration by Sierra Sellers

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Are You Ready to Vote?

Results based on a survey of St. George’s junior and seniors. Fourty responded.

of eligible students said they are planning on voting in the coming year.

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Download, print and mail the National Mail Voter Registration Form (eac.gov/voters)

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Editorial STAFF EDITORIALS represent the opinion of the editorial board. Letters to the editor in response to the editorial are encouraged. The Editorial Board: Spencer Cotham, Isabel Dlabach, Snowden Farnsworth, Jacob Gettig, Owen Hewitt, Callie Hollis, Miles Masters, Cary Robbins and Sierra Sellers.

Seize the Disruption

T

By Editorial Board here’s been a lot of change recently, from the administration within our own school to the rapidly changing world, and with this change comes disruption. But sometimes, disruption is necessary.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the cacophony this change brings about, but during this time we must remember to keep our heads up in spite of the noise.

On a larger scale, we are feeling the effects of the potential change taking place in our nation’s capital. Impeachment trials loom and have become impossible to ignore. Regardless of your political beliefs, seeing this affirms that it’s possible to question authority and pre-existing systems, leaving an atmosphere of instability but also endless possibilities.

The St. George’s community has also undergone signifi-

cant change over the past few months, most visibly within our administration.

We have a new Interim Head of School, and we have our first-ever Interim Director of the Collierville Campus.

But changes go beyond administration. We also have a new part-time college guidance counselor. We have a new exam schedule. We have new options for SIS. We’ve had a significant amount of teachers come and go. We’ve lost our recycling program. We’re gaining a Diversity Equity and Inclusion Student Task Force as well as a Student Health & Wellness Task Force. The list goes on.

Some of these changes were initiated by students. Some occurred without any student input, but regardless we, the student body, feel the effects.

Each of these changes results in disruption. But disruption isn’t inherently negative. Inno-

vation can’t happen without the old system being disrupted.

We’ve seen that here at St. George’s, and we at the Lodge see this disruption as an opportunity.

The St. George’s student body holds many diverse beliefs, which can at times be polarizing, but overall, our differences make us stronger. We challenge each other, and as a result we’ve made some noise.

Student voices are being heard and occasionally responded to this year. We need to take this time of disruption to assess what we would like to keep and how we would like to improve.

We think the best way forward is to capitalize on what we all have in common: we’re all a part of Generation Z. Gen Z has grown up in a time where it is much more acceptable to voice discontent about situations than past generations. We’ve grown up in the time of lockdown drills and

climate crisis and polarizing politics. But we’ve also grown up in the time of technology that allows us to connect with people across the globe, when anyone can be an activist and when real change is possible.

So let’s go forward with conviction and hope. If we’re angry, let’s use that passion for good. If we’re anxious, let’s channel that towards creating solutions. If we’re feeling like it’s all too much, let’s lean on each other.

Seize the disruption. Join the recycling club. Support the new diversity task force.

Run for student government.

Register to vote. Pay attention to the news. Make your voice heard. We live in a changing world, but we can be part of that change.

CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS: The Lodge strives for accuracy in all articles. However, mistakes are sometimes made. When this happens, you will see corrections here.

Issue 1, Page 11: We mispelled D.J. Loynes’ name as Lyons.

Issue 1, Page 13: We incorrectly explained the acronym DPS. DPS stands for Damage per Second.

Issue 1, Page 13: We incorrectly explained the role of a “tank” character. A “tank” is used as a shield.

FOLLOW US @NewsGryphs on Twitter, NewsGryphs on Instagram and find us online at www.gryphonlodge.com

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