June 2, 2017 hi line

The

ONCE A TIGER ...

Tiger HI-LINE

Friday, June 2, 2017

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Volume 57 Edition 31

Health Deficit Celeste Ki felt isolated when she attended the Cedar Falls High School.

She had few true friends, and the one she thought was by her side ignored her due to her mental health issue.

Peers found fault with her because she had “no curves,” and because of that, said she wasn’t a “real woman.”

Adults were nice enough about her issues. They comforted her but didn’t address her mental problem as much as she needed. Ki found it challenging to receive the services she needed to meet her needs.

“For me, people just didn’t really talk about it. I felt the high school counselors were really nice about it, but that was about as much support that I could receive at CFHS. While I was there, adults didn’t really address it or talk about it,” Ki said.

Some of the faculty members that interacted with students like Ki even lacked basic mental health knowledge.

“I received some counseling, which was good. I believe all teachers and faculty members that interact with students should have some basic knowledge of mental health issues and what they can do to accommodate their students,” Ki

Seniors say farewell to CFHS/ pages 8-9

Mental health resources available for students dwindling in Iowa

“We have a real problem in the state of Iowa with capacity. We don’t have enough beds for emergency mental health. We don’t have enough providers to even provide outpatient therapy and support services, and so we have all kinds of issues in our mental health system.

Adding services by school-based people can be really helpful to lower the burden on community based services.”

—Nicole Skaar school psychology professor in the Educational Psychology and Foundations Department at the University of Northern Iowa

said.

Suzanne Freedman, a professor of human development at the University of Northern Iowa, teaches her students who are going to be future teachers about mental health issues, such as eating disorders and depression. However, she said she does not think that most teachers have this knowledge, especially if they have been teaching for awhile. She said that teachers today are being asked to do a lot more than just teach their subject matter.

Ki is still currently suffering from an

borderline personality disorder, and she said she is recovered from anorexia nervosa. Her bulimic tendencies and restricting ways have lessened, but her BPD symptoms are just as prominent as they were in high school.

She has taken a different route to address her mental health issues as she is out of high school. She is now on medication and stopped seeing her psychiatrist during the summer of last year.

The toughest time for Ki was in ninth grade. “I was at my lowest weight. I

was about 88 pounds and really lonely.

All I could ever think about was calories, making sure I ate under 500 a day.

Nobody really seemed to care about me, and instead actually insulted my body,” she said. “I didn’t have anyone that I could reach out to for a long time, and when I finally did, this friend didn’t respond to me at all and acted like it never happened after that. This was when I felt the most alone I had ever felt in my life.”

HEALTH DEFICIT Continued on Page 4

Increasing nitrate levels threatening drinking water from three of Cedar Falls’ eight public utility wells Across the street and a few doors down from Meghan and Sean O’Neal’s Neola Street home in Cedar Falls you can see a small, nondescript one-story brick building. “I have seen that building before,” Meghan O’Neal said. “I never knew what it was.”

The building is Cedar Falls Utilities’ pump station 3, one of eight water wells that supply the city’s water system that has little identification except for a small sign attached to it that says Cedar Falls Utilities, the building’s address, and a phone number.

O’Neal and her husband are new to the neighborhood, but long-time Neola Street resident Rosann Good wasn’t aware of its purpose either, nor was Chuck Parsons, who has lived directly across the street from the pump station for two decades.

Knowing where one’s water comes from is one thing. Knowing what is in the water is another.

Three of Cedar Falls’ wells – 3, 9 and 10 – consistently have recorded high nitrate levels. All three are in the northern part of Cedar Falls and covered by a shallow layer of bedrock,

Sabine Martin Photo

Pump Station 3 by Neola Street in Cedar Falls is one of three wells supplying drinking water to Cedar Falls residents that has seen nitrate levels rising so much that Cedar Falls Utilities have had to shut it down at times. which allows more nitrates to infiltrate the groundwater.

They stand in contrast to Cedar Falls’ southern water wells, where

thicker bedrock layers better confine and protect the groundwater lower nitrate levels, a journalism collaboration of the University of Northern Science in

the Media, the Cedar Falls High School Tiger Hi-Line and IowaWatch showed.

“CFU presently is able to keep its water at legal nitrate levels by diluting the higher nitrate water from the northern city pump stations with the lower nitrate water from the southern pump stations in the pipes,” Jerald Lukensmeyer, gas and water operations manager at the utility company, said.

Reported levels in the city’s wells reached as high as 9.8 to 9.9 parts per million (ppm) in five different years from 1996 through 2016, Cedar Falls Utilities records show. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists 10 ppm as the limit of acceptable level.

Cedar Falls Utilities has records of nitrate testing levels dating to 1966, more than 50 years. In 1966, the highest nitrate reading at a city well was 4.2 ppm, far below the EPA’s 10 ppm limit. It wasn’t until 1992 that the highest nitrate reading exceeded 8 ppm. It has been between 8 ppm and 10 ppm ever since.

A 1999 U.S. Geological Survey CFU NITRATES Continued on Page 6

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The

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NEWS HI-LINE County supervisor has personal stake in equality rights When people think of LGBTQ activism in the Cedar Valley, one name will often come to mind: Chris Schwartz.

Schwartz is a founder and organizer of Cedar Valley Pridefest, the chairperson of the Iowa chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, and he’s currently serving his first term as one of five Black Hawk County Supervisors. Schwartz is the first openly gay elected official in Northeast Iowa, and the fifth to serve anywhere in Iowa.

The LGBTQ community and the issues thereof have been a topic of interest for Schwartz for many years. “I first got started in LGBT activism my freshman year of high school when I gave my first speech on LGBT rights. That was 23 years ago,” he said. “When I really got involved was after we had the marriage equality ruling in Iowa. I was working for Americans for Democratic Action at the time, and even though we are not specifically an LGBT rights group, we got involved in the lobbying effort to make sure there wasn’t a constitutional amendment was not introduced in the state legislature that would overturn that ruling. We lobbied very heavily and were credited with helping to deliver two of the final democratic votes that we needed to prevent that constitutional amendment from being introduced.”

He is also very concerned about proper education for LGBTQ people and for the broader community about LGBTQ issues. “We’ve [Americans for Democratic Action] organized countless educational events, whether on transgender issues or school bullying issues,” he said. “As one of the founders of Cedar Valley Pridefest, which we are now in our sixth year, we’ve really stayed true to our mission of not just having a celebration but also being a really educational event, so the areas I head up for Pridefest are ... the education series ... the teachings that happen at the festival, making sure that we’ve got the education/ advocacy component so that it’s not just a bunch of people getting together and having a good time. It’s advocating and furthering the state of our community.”

As a founder and organizer of Pridefest, Schwartz has a very unique perspective on what the festival brings to the

Friday, June 2, 2017

Submitted Photo

Black Hawk County Supervisor Chris Schwartz in an LGBTQ march in October 2016.

Cedar Valley. “I’ll never forget that very first Pridefest. We didn’t know how it was going to go, how people would react.

We thought we’d be lucky if we had 500 people there, and we had close to 3,000 people there,” he said. “The thing that really struck me was one of the shifts I was working at the gate as people were coming in and seeing all these young high school students. They were coming from not just schools here in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, but schools from all around. We were tracking their zip code, so we knew where people are coming from. I realized that this is probably the first time that they were in an environment surrounded by people like them or who supported them, where they could really express who they were and be comfortable and know that this was a safe place for them. It almost brought me to tears, thinking about what it was like when I was in high school, it was radically different; it’s changed really rapidly.

For me it shows triumph of our community but also resilience for our community and determination to keep fighting and moving forward.”

Schwartz described his feelings in 2009 and 2015 when marriage equality was recognized in Iowa and across the United States, respectively. “It was a beautiful moment. I remember I joined an impromptu rally that took place at the University of Northern Iowa to celebrate it when it happened.

It was a great moment of personal relief for me because it’s not something I thought I’d see, but the dynamics started changing very rapidly,” he said. “And then in 2015 when we finally had the ruling that made marriage equality go nationwide, it was almost an overwhelming sense of pride,

and it really made me reflect all the people that came before me and fought so hard, literally fought and gave up their lives, people that died in the HIV epidemic and those that still continue to die, but also made me want to honor everyone that worked so hard for generations before we came along. I think it’s important that the people my age and people younger don’t take any of this for granted because nothing’s guaranteed.”

Even though marriage equality has been achieved throughout the United States, Schwartz recognized issues for the LGBTQ community that are still worth fighting for. “I think there’s still some 30 or so states around the country that don’t have those protections [for LGBTQ people written into the civil rights code]. Folks can be evicted from their home or apartment. They can be denied housing applications, denied jobs, fired from jobs, denied services, all because they’re a member of the LGBT community,” he said. “Transgender rights are still very much lagging behind, and it’s not just the legal rights, but also how transgender individuals are perceived by society. We need to be constantly educating people about that and opening people’s hearts and opening people’s minds. We still have issues like adoption rights in many states; same-sex couples are not guaranteed adoption rights in every single state, which is sad for all the children that are wasting away in the foster care system around the country. We need to eliminate those hurdles. Additionally, just because we have marriage equality now doesn’t mean we’re guaranteed to keep it.

It’s going to be hard for them to get rid of it. It’d be a big fight, but we’re seeing how de-

structive Supreme Court picks can be. The idea that [Trump]’s going to have an opportunity, if he’s not impeached first, that he could appoint one or two or three more, that would have a devastating effect on LGBTQ rights and really the rights of all disenfranchised and marginalized people around the country.”

It’s obvious that there’s still a long way to go in this country for the perception of LGBTQ individuals, and it was no more obvious than last October when Schwartz’s home was vandalized with gay slurs and anti-gay sentiments. “It was three weeks before the election. I came out of our house that morning where my fiance and I live, and I saw that some of the campaign signs had been spray painted with black paint. Then I got further outside, and I saw one of my campaign signs had the word ‘fag’ spray painted on it, which was really upsetting and shocking,” he said. “Then I turned around and saw this Leviticus quote referenced on our front door, which basically reads ‘a man who lies with a man shall be stoned.’ We took it as a death threat. The police agreed with us that it was a death threat, and they classified it as a hate crime. It stayed unsolved. Even today it’s still kind of unnerving knowing that there is someone or some group of individuals who would threaten our lives just for being gay. The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive, except from the hatemongers that incited that in the first place.”

Unfortunately for Schwartz, this was not the beginning of hateful acts against him at his home. “That wasn’t the first incident. That was the first incident that we reported. The May before that, I had two chihuahuas, and I had been on campus campaigning with one of them, the smaller one, Nico. I put a photo of her up on my campaign page. I get back home and her brother who’s a little bit bigger than her started acting weird. It was clear something was wrong, so I called our vet, and the vet hours were closing, so they said try to get him to drink water, try to get him to throw up. We searched our yard, and someone had thrown a bag of antifreeze into our front yard,” he said. “He chewed it up and ultimately he died that night. He made it to

the morning. we were waiting for the vet to open so he could get back in there. He was having seizures all throughout the night and he died that morning. We didn’t know exactly what happened. We didn’t want to sound like we were exploiting the death of my dog. It was already sad enough when it happened, but bags of antifreeze don’t just blow into your yard randomly. It was the same day I posted a picture of the other one, and it really seemed like we were targeted. I don’t know if we were targeted for being outspoken progressives or targeted for being gay or what happened.”

Regardless of the hate crimes committed against Schwartz, he pushes on in his fight for LGBTQ rights. As chair of Iowa Americans for Democratic Action, he has access to many resources which allow him to help the Iowa LGBTQ community even more. “With Americans for Democratic Action, I really feel blessed to work for such a historic organization. This is the 70th year of the organization, and ADA was actually the first organization that wasn’t specifically LGBTQ to speak out on behalf of gay rights,” he said. “It started during the McCarthy trials, when people who were either LGBT or perceived to be were fired from their jobs and barred from working in the government.

Americans for Democratic Action was the first to speak out against the persecution. We have a 70-year history of fighting for LGBTQ rights, so they give me the ability to work on all the rallies that I mentioned before, and to be that advocate that spends time lobbying on these kinds of issues since it’s something that’s been there since the start of ADA.” Schwartz also uses resources available to him as Black Hawk County Supervisor.

“I’m working with our county health department because Black Hawk County has alarmingly high STD rates, and those disproportionately impact the LGBTQ community, and so I’m really trying to help them connect with all the ways that they can communicate with the LGBTQ population and make sure the services that we provide at the county are reaching all the disenfranchised people out there, including the LGBTQ community.”

By Staff Writer Noah

WOLF

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NEWS Cedar Heights twins wage fight against cystic fibrosis Friday, June 2 2017

Wake up. Take medication.

Eat breakfast. Do treatment.

Go to school. Take meds. Go home. Do treatment. Go to practice. Take meds. Eat Dinner. Take meds. Go to sleep.

This is the normal day-today schedule for sixth graders Maren and Berne VanDenison.

These sixth graders were diagnosed with having a one in four chance of having the disease Cystic Fibrosis at birth. It is very different because both of the twins have the disorder, making life easier and harder at the same time for their parents Stacy Van Gorp and Chris Denison.

Maren and Berne are one of the 30,000 people living with Cystic fibrosis in the United States alone. One in 31 Americans are symptomless carriers of the disease.

“When I was pregnant with the twins, I found out I was a CF carrier. I was shocked. No one in my extended family had CF. In fact, I’d never known anyone with CF,” said Van Gorp on Fighting Twins Facebook page.

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease that is caused by a mutation on the seventh chromosome.

“This hereditary disease affects the exocrine glands. It causes the production of abnormally thick mucus, leading to the blockage of the pancreatic ducts, intestines and bronchi and often resulting in respiratory infection,” said Carrie K. Barker, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics - allergy, immunology and pulmonary at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. As of right now, there is not a cure for CF. The Cystic Fibrosis foundation was founded by parents in 1955 to advance understanding of the disease and the treatments with an overall goal to one day find a cure.

According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, “Our ongoing research is focused on developing new and effective treatments to improve key symptoms of the disease, including antibiotics and antiinflammatories to address CF lung disease and nutritional strategies to help people with CF of all ages stay healthy and thrive.”

To help the research of this disorder, every year the Cystic Fibrosis foundation holds “Walk for a Cure” in the Cedar Valley area. This walk is to raise money for the foundation and

Submitted Photo

Sixth graders Maren and Berne Van Denison have met with many health professionals as they address their needs in fighting cystic fibrosis. celebrate another year of life for these kids.

Maren and Berne, once called “Team Twinkie”, now “The Fighting Twins,” have raised upward of $15,215 this year alone. This money is raised through donations through the walk and the community. The team is currently in the number one spot for money raised this year, compared to all the other “teams” in the area.

The twins, now 12 years old, are finishing up their last year of elementary school and are getting ready to take on Peet Junior High. “I am really excited to start at Peet,” Berne said.

Dealing with school and treatment has never been an easy task for the twins. Between Iowa City treatments, as well as sports and balancing school, their daily lives can seem like a struggle.

Their principal, Brian Ortman, said he is inspired by the responsibility of the twins.

“I have been very impressed with their knowledge of Cystic Fibrosis. Each year they meet with their teachers to share what Cystic Fibrosis is and how it impacts them. The meet-

ing is led by the two of them.

They are both so independent and have such a good understanding of the disease that the staff is involved very little.

They are both very responsible too. When they do need to be gone, they communicate with their teachers to ensure that they get their work made up.

They are an absolute pleasure to have as students,” Ortman said.

Berne admits his secret to keeping up with school work is that “when we are gone, I don’t think the teachers always give us all of the school work,” he said with a smile.

On top of school, it is very important for the twins to stay active. “By (staying) active, our doctors want to do everything that gets their heart pumping and lungs working. These types of activities can help keep the airways more open, longer,” Denison, their father, said. They are involved in many sports such as soccer, hockey, dance, T-ball, flag football and track. Maren also does band, despite her 80% percent lung capacity.

Maren and Berne also have to eat twice as many calories

as other kids their age. “Many people with cystic fibrosis need additional calories. Berne needs about twice as many calories every day as a typical kid. Why? In Cystic Fibrosis, many people have a damaged pancreas that does not produce the enzymes required to help digest food. People with CF take medicine to replace the enzymes, but the medicine isn’t perfect, so, they need extra calories so that they can absorb enough to stay strong and healthy,” Van Gorp wrote on their Facebook account, The Fighting Twins.

Maren has had a constant battle with weight gain since she was born just 12 years ago at four pounds. When she was just three years old, they made the decision for her to receive a feeding tube. This pumped in about 1,200 calories while she was asleep, keeping her at a healthy weight.

One thing that they always used as an encouragement for the kids to eat was ice cream for breakfast. They needed as much calories and fat as they could get, and ice cream was the perfect thing for their bodies to consume. Now a bit old-

er, Berne drinks an entire bottle of chocolate milk every day at school, but Maren is not yet convinced.

Berne has had struggles related to his digestive system.

Cystic Fibrosis not only affects the lungs, it affects most functions of the body. There are different side effects that come with the disease, and for Berne it has been with digestion.

When he was only an infant, he received multiple surgeries to help him have as close to a healthy digestive track as possible. Medicine also helps with smoother digestion along with taking enzymes with meals since his body cannot produce an adequate amount on its own.

The twins do not know what their future holds, but they are looking forward to the upcoming summer. “I am excited to go to Disney this summer and summer camp,” Maren said.

Heath is always a concern for the family, but constant positivity and support from family and friends help keep them on their feet, along with ice cream for breakfast.

By Staff Writer Rachel

SCHMID

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The

Tiger

NEWS

HEALTH DEFICIT/Continued from Page 1 However, Ki felt like the counselors at the high school could comfort her, but were not knowledgeable enough to address her issues on the level she was looking for. “I received counseling at the high school, but they were the only people that really seemed accepting of me. Talking to them helped me because I really needed people who could listen to me, which is sometimes enough to feel validated,” Ki said.

The limited resources Ki was able to access are typical of Iowa high schools, and the trend is sliding more toward greater limitations each year.

At the Cedar Falls High School the three main areas counselors are knowledgeable about and will address the students about are academic counseling, personal/ social and college and career options. “With less and less resources being available to be helped in schools, counselors have to try to take on the role of mental health counselors who treat BPD or anorexia.

“We’re school counselors. We’re not mental health counselors. Mental health counselors are going to be more in depth counseling, but I can still check in with kids. I can help them a little bit with moderating different behaviors and things like that. We’re just not trained enough to help with the BPD and the eating disorder,” counselor Susan Langan said. “School counselors sometimes end up doing things that aren’t related to school counseling. We can do personal/social counseling. We can do relationship issues, things that kids are going through with family and things like that, but anything long term, we refer out. We also do academic counseling and college and career things.”

For students who have mental health issues like anxiety, depression, etc., the high school has a mental health counselor come in twice a week who can talk to students about ideas that the school counselor is not trained to do. “We have been able to refer kids to her, and she has been able to help use when kids have been hospitalized. She is our connection there, but we need her full time,” Langan said. “It would be so much more helpful if we had her more than two times a week. We definitely have more kids we could refer to her if she was hear more.” With mental health needs increasing at

HI-LINE

Friday, June 2, 2017

other mental health centers in the community, the school district is at risk to lose their help. “I am nervous about this because Emily and the other mental health counselors go to elementaries, and they’re on a grant, and I am afraid with some of the cuts that are coming down the pike, they might not have the grant continued. They might also need more people in the Black Hawk Grundy Mental Health Center,” Langan said.

To add on to the problem of the lack of mental health resources, there is also an increase in students with mental health issues. “When I first started, maybe once a quarter, not even that, there would be a kid who is suicidal,” Langan said. “But it has changed, for a while it was once a week a kids that were hospitalized for depression or committing suicide or suicidal thoughts, between the four of us (school counselors).”

MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES Mental health issues among students in Iowa are increasing, yet funding for mental health facilities in and out of school are decreasing.

Resources are very limited in Iowa. According to the United Way of East Central Iowa, one in five children has a mental health disorder and less than half of those children are receiving mental health services in a given year.

Not just in Iowa, but schools across the country are left with little resources to help students, and are at a loss with what to do.

Nicole Skaar, school psychology professor at UNI and school psychologist at Belle Plaine High School, said, “I’m sure across the state there are small schools, rural schools, even large schools that are not sure what to do with kids who are in general education and have mental health issues, and there is nobody in the school to help them. It was happening in Belle Plaine before I started. I’ve heard from other principals across the state who are saying ‘I don’t know what to do with these kids.’ We really want to help them. We just don’t have the money or the capacity to do anything, so then they don’t get services.”

Most mental health services are provided by the Iowa AEA (Area Education Agency).

Iowa’s AEAs provide special education support services,

media/technology services, instructional services, professional development and leadership development. When mental health services are being cut from the budgets, which is happening more and more as years go by, the AEA is what is usually hit.

Skaar said, “One of the things we think about as school psychologists is that as budget cuts affect the AEA, which is how a lot of the services are provided to the schools. School psychologists and school social workers will have more and more students to serve, and when you have that caseload, you have to make sure you are doing your number one job, which is in special education: making sure the kids who need it get in special education and get matched up with the right services and those kind of things, and if we’re doing a lot of that, we’re doing less of our mental health role, so what has happened over time is that our caseloads have grown, and we are doing less and less mental health direct services for students. The focus is academics, so the first services to go generally are counseling, psychology services and social worker services and things like that.”

Resources are not just limited to those who are receiving services in schools. State hospitals are also suffering from the decrease in funding. In 2016, the Treatment Advocacy Center surveyed 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia and found cutbacks affecting options everywhere.

In the state of Iowa, there are a total of 64 hospital beds for mental health patients. This means two hospital beds per 100,000 residents. Iowa has the second smallest amount of hospital beds to Vermont’s 25 beds. For students who need emergency stays, this is an immense problem.

“We need more beds,” Skaar said. “In terms of emergency services, a student who has disciplinary kind of behavior issues at schools, such as being defiant and maybe even aggressive, they may have an emergency situation. This could be where they are being really, really aggressive to the point where that kid could hurt him or herself or someone else.

Trying to find them a place in a residential treatment for even a short period of time, such as a 72-hour emergency stay or in a hospital for an emergency stay is really difficult.”

According to Skaar, not

only is 64 beds for the state of Iowa, which has a population of around three million, not sufficient, but it is dangerous.

Iowa population is growing, but the number of beds available to students and adults with mental health issues is decreasing.

The number of beds in 2010 was 149, which means that 85 beds have been lost in seven years.

Organizations around the country are trying to address the lack of funding for mental health issues, like the non-profit organization, Please Pass the Love. This organization is committed to increasing schoolbased mental health supports to improve the quality of life and educational opportunities for children, families and educators as well as offer culturally responsive comprehensive services and evidence-based supports to school systems.

“Since we are a non-profit, we seek to be sustainable without relying on money from the state,” said Jennifer UlieWells, executive director of Please Pass the Love. “While we would love to have access to endless grants, we recognize that at any time grants and government-sponsored money can be eliminated. That said, the need for school mental health is only increasing.

We work with thousands of young people, families, educators and community providers across Iowa and beyond. We are going to do everything that we can to be able to help schools implement effective school mental health interventions to improve the overall school climate and quality of life for everyone involved.”

But there is only so much the organization can do when funding is so tight. “There continues to be cuts in funding for education and mental health,” Ulie-Wells said. “This makes it very challenging to try to provide the necessary support to students when the financial resources are not available to do this effectively. It is also important to note that many children receive services through Medicaid. Unfortunately, Iowa does not have a very high Medicaid reimbursement rate, which makes it challenging for mental health professionals to make enough money to sustain business. It also makes it an undesirable field for medical professionals to choose when they can make significantly more money in other medical fields.”

SOCIAL MEDIA Social media is another growing contributor to the pressure teens are facing.

“I think there is a lot of pressure, pressure they put on themselves, but society also attributes. I think everybody compares everyone to each others lives. They see all the positives flashed up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, etc. I think social media definitely plays a role in the anxiety and depression,” Skaar said.

Chelsea Dean, a graduate of Dunkerton High School who has dealt with multiple issues within her life, agrees with Skaar that social media takes its toll and that is a lot easier for people to hide behind a screen, post pictures and tweets about how they feel rather than opening up and talking about it.

Dean graduated in 2016 from Dunkerton High School while struggling with numerous obstacles throughout her four years.

She has dealt with depression and started self harming herself in her freshmen year. She was diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia and attempted to commit suicide on April 12 of last year.

Social media has become a routine in daily lives, and students have become accustomed to checking statuses, begging for likes and searching for themselves within a screen.

In 2015, almost 3 million teens, ages 12 to 17, had had at least one major depressive episode in the past year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, According to co-director of Alive&Running Suicide Prevention Troy Belmer, social media contributes to children’s and teenager’s low self esteem and low self assurance. “Social media is a big factor because it’s behind a screen. Lids can write whatever they want or feel without explanation,” Belmer said. “I think there is a deeper stigma than there ever has been, and I would tie a lot of that to social media. There is just a lot less interaction. Kids aren’t as good at opening up and talking to adults who can help.”

The other co-director and founder of Alive&Running Suicide Prevention, Ryan Nesbit, is certified in Mental Health First Aid training. He is also co-chair of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Iowa Chapter Board.

NEWS

Friday, June 2 2017 “The main reason schools invite me to speak or teach health class is my reputation.”

Nesbit presents a program at high schools and colleges called “Talk Saves Lives” that is a Power Point covering research, education, prevention and what each audience member can do to “know the signs.”

He said he feels mixing the educational Power Point with his real life story seems to have a great impact on the students and staff at each school that he has visited.

“My reputation for presenting a powerful view of suicide prevention is what has allowed me to speak at so many different schools and events,” Nesbit said.

Nesbit has gone to visit and present to schools and faculty all around the state of Iowa in a total of nine schools, seven churches and a few workplaces, but some schools are less welcoming than others.

“I have schools contact me. No schools have officially told me ‘no,’ but based on events and meetings that I have attended, I 100 percent believe that many schools are not open to having a guest speaker/teacher talk about suicide prevention. I will not specifically name these schools, but many of the schools in the Des Moines area would not be open to a presentation on suicide prevention,” Nesbit said.

Nesbit said he believes that social media dips into the issue of teen pressure that can lead to anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

“Our overall society is suffering in the area concerning mental health. Life is fast paced for everyone, and we have lost the ability to just stop, relax and recharge,” Nesbit said.

“We have become a selfish society that won’t take the time or make the effort to support each other. People no longer communicate face to face, and I believe that is unhealthy.”

After the climbing concern of social media, Nesbit said he believes the healthier version of communication is physical, face to face contact. Nesbit is totally against social media and that it only produces negatives.

Nesbit also said that communicating in person also expresses care and emotion that means more to someone when talking in person than over the works of social media sites.

“I fear that many people live in constant fear of being made fun of on social media.

This is not healthy and can directly lead to anxiety and depression. I know the phones and social media are not going away. I also know that we need to control time spent on these devices and networks or bigger issues will soon follow.”

Belle Plaine High School Principal Todd Werner said he believes there is more than one source to the mental health issues such as anxiety or depression.

“I think technology contributes, but I don’t feel it is the only factor that is behind the difference in students now and maybe 10 years ago. Social media makes students and parents more exposed to issues that cause stress, and kids aren’t mature enough to manage these new issues,” Werner said.

Werner said that drawing attention to the issues, for instance, suicide, depression or anxiety, can lead to overexposure and results in making the problem of mental health issues bigger than it actually is.

“This year alone I have heard more students in my school talk about suicide or self harming themselves than the previous seven years I have been a principal. I think a lot of that is due to more exposure through social media and places where kids interact with other kids from all over. They’re more aware of it and talking about it more, so I think they are having those feelings.”

DISTRICT DISCREPANCIES With Iowa being so miniscule, it doesn’t get noticed, so it doesn’t get the funding or support that bigger states might receive.

Skaar said, “There are some big names in mental health research that have put together school clinics and mental health clinics and have really done a good job at relieving the gap between community based mental health care and school based mental health care. Those places and those people are located in really large urban centers, such as Baltimore and Los Angeles. Iowa certainly doesn’t have that level of capacity and resources. Even Des Moines, which is our biggest city, still struggles with those things within the schools. I used to work at a small district on the north side of Des Moines, and even though we had lots of resources in the Des Moines area, many of our students went without services.”

One of those bigger states

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Sophia Schillinger Illustration

As social media use has exploded in the last 10 years, pressures on teen mental health have also seen an increase, but resources available for assisting teens with mental health have seen a steady decline in Iowa. receiving more help and resources is Florida. Florida has 2,648 hospital beds compared to Iowa’s 64.

Urban and rural district mental health systems are addressed and funded differently. Rural areas tend to have less resources and less funding. Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) found that 60 percent of rural Americans live in mental health professional shortage areas.

According to two separate studies (a 2001 study in the National Center for Health Services and a 2005 study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), there is evidence that rural communities have higher suicide rates and individuals experience greater stress due to high poverty rates, high unemployment rates and low educational opportunities. (National Center for Health Statistics, 2001; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, 2005).

Professionals in school buildings acknowledge that there is a discrepancy between urban and rural districts regarding mental health services. “It’s hard, when you have small schools with very few resources, how do you do that?” Skaar asked. “One way I am trying to figure this out as a school psychologist and researcher is seeing if we can divert money from the local education agency to buy out time for a school psychologist or school social worker who

has great knowledge of school and training in mental health systems and direct service to provide services to students at schools. Thus, if schools are getting money to hire behavioral coaches or interventionists or instructional coaches, etc., then maybe they could use that money to directly purchase time from a school psychologist or school social worker, because those people already have great knowledge of schools and school systems.

I am actually working on a project for this upcoming school year that will actually do that.”

At some larger schools, they have extra help and are making the help available at nearby smaller schools. This is one way the discrepancies could be addressed.

Principal Todd Werner of Belle Plaine said, “Some of those larger schools should be based on need. Maybe someone working at one school who doesn’t have that many students in need should also be available to another school in the area whether it’s a larger school or a smaller school to kind of spread out the support. Some of the AEA agencies need to play a role in that, to make sure staffing is based on need — kind of like special ed services, trying to keep the number of teachers that work with special ed students balanced, but clearly it differs from district to district.”

Accessing mental health help in districts where resources are not close by can be very tricky for some students. This

is especially true for students whose parents can’t financially afford it. “It’s hard,” Skaar said, “because we are a rural area, and we don’t have a lot of community-based mental health providers, and parents have to drive a really long way.

It’s also really hard to do when parents are working, and when you have parents who are struggling to make ends meet in the first place, taking time off work isn’t always possible.

Taking three hours out of the student’s school day and the parent’s work day once a week or twice a month or so is a lot of time lost. Having those services in the school can save the family a lot of time and money and a student a lot of instructional time.”

Celeste Ki and Chelsea Dean are still suffering from their mental health issues and the symptoms are still relatively the same. “I definitely do still suffer, all the symptoms are the same as they always have been, but I have learned to cope with them without medication now. However, this is not an easy option,” Ki said.

The two are able to make through dark days with love and support from her family, close friends and advice from professionals; the opportunities for Iowa teens to find the resources they need to directly address their mental health issues continues to become more and more limited.

By Staff Writer Sophia

SCHILLINGER & Staff Writer Tehya

TOURNIER

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CFU NITRATES/Continued from Page 1

study on Cedar Falls water supplies blamed the increasing application of nitrogenbased fertilizer to farm fields as the main cause of high nitrate levels. A 2013 Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship report, “Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” said 92 percent of nitrates in Iowa’s water come from runoff largely from agriculture land. The other 8 percent come from wastewater treatment plant discharges, the report said.

“As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and groundwaters,” the study explained.

“By definition, nitrate is a salt or ester of nitric acid, containing the anion no3-. Nitrate dissolves easily in water and is part of the nitrogen cycle,” said Peter Weyer, Interim Director of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC) at the University of Iowa.

Nitrates can appear naturally in drinking water at low levels. The EPA’s allowable drinking water nitrate level of 10 parts ppm is the same as 10 milligrams per liter.

NITRATES’ SIDE EFFECTS A major side effect of high nitrates is blue baby syndrome, known in the medical world as methemoglobinemia and affecting infants who consume a high concentration of nitrates in a short period of time.

The body in instances like that converts the nitrates into nitrites. The nitrites then react with the oxyhemoglobin, or oxygen carrying proteins in the blood, to form methemoglobin, a protein that cannot carry oxygen. The body becomes deprived of vital oxygen if a large enough concentration of methemoglobin builds up in the blood, giving skin a blue hue. In severe cases, this can lead to digestive and respiratory system malfunction.

An average of more than nine of every 10 babies survive blue baby syndrome for at least 20 years after corrective surgery. Less than 1 percent of patients diagnosed with blue baby syndrome don’t survive after 30 days.

“Some birth defects have also been associated with a mother’s exposure to nitrate in

Science in the Media

Since the early ’90s, nitrate levels have experienced increasing spikes in the well water provided by Cedar Falls Utilities.

“... the cancer studies we have conducted show that the risk increases for long term consumption of drinking water that has nitrate concentrations at or above 5 ppm, or half the drinking water standard.”

—Peter Weyer Interim Director of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC) at the University of Iowa.

drinking water. These include neural tube defects, limb deficiencies and cleft lip and palate,” Weyer said.

Other health concerns related to long-term nitrate exposure in drinking water studies conducted in Iowa have included bladder, ovarian and thyroid cancers, Weyer said.

Despite the side effects of high nitrate intake, many argue the acceptable U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 10 ppm standard for a safe nitrate level should be raised, Weyer said. Because blue baby syndrome rarely is diagnosed, the argument could be that perhaps a 15 ppm or 20 ppm standard would be acceptable, he said.

“However, the cancer studies we have conducted show that the risk increases for long term consumption of drinking water that has nitrate concentrations at or above 5 ppm, or

half the drinking water standard,” Weyer said. He added that other contaminants in water make it difficult to evaluate how contaminant mixtures in drinking water affect people.

The Cedar Falls water system’s eight wells are linked to an underground aquifer.

These wells supply the water that all citizens drink. Cedar Falls Utilities tests drinking water nitrate levels quarterly.

Wells consistently high in nitrates are tested more frequently.

Lukensmeyer, at Cedar Falls Utilities, said well 3 has been shut off at various times so that its nitrate level doesn’t exceed 10 ppm.

Despite the potential nitrates threat in Cedar Falls’ water supply, residents have faith in the water system.

“I kind of trust Cedar Falls Utilities that they are doing a good job with that,” Neola

Street resident Rosann Good said.

CHEMICALS FROM FARM RUN-OFF Some states have passed laws with bipartisan support to curb farm chemical runoff.

Minnesota requires buffers that aid the growth of perennial vegetation as far as 50 feet along rivers, streams and ditches, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource’s website.

However, new water quality management has failed to gain serious footing in the Iowa Legislature, even following a recent federal lawsuit filed by Des Moines Water Works, an independent utility that provides clean water to 500,000 people in the Des Moines metro area.

The lawsuit said drainage from three Iowa counties in the Raccoon River drainage district contributed to high

nitrate levels in runoff that the water company had to clean for drinking. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in March saying the state had to resolve the problem, not the drainage district.

“I was very disappointed with what occurred this year,” said state Sen. Bill Dotzler, a Democrat representing Waterloo, Evansdale, Elk Run Heights, Raymond, Washburn and Gilbertville. “We’ve been working backwards.”

Various pieces of legislation related to water quality have been introduced in the Legislature in response to the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit. One example, House File 316, aimed to eliminate the Des Moines Water Works board and give control of water quality to the local level through the creation of regional utilities rather than independent companies. The bill did not advance in the 2017 legislative session.

The Republican-controlled Legislature argued that House File 316 would give cities direct control over their water, but opponents of the bill and Des Moines Water Works supporters said they believed the bill was a power move to protect commercial agriculture and suppress water quality concerns due to finances.

“Farmers are trying to up

NEWS

Friday, June 2 2017

7

Sabine Martin and Tana Gam-Ad Photo Illustration

Because nitrates are invisible and tasteless, this illustration is a way to visualize it. By adding food coloring powder to one-liter containers of water to represent nitrates in water, the containers of water range progressively from 0 to 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 milligrams of food coloring. One can see increasingly how much the dye affects the visual quality of the water. their production, which you can’t blame them for, and they’ve basically been ignoring the Federal Water Protection Act for a long time,” Dotzler said. “Now they’re realizing people are getting more serious about water quality, and they’re afraid that any structures that they put in is all going to come out of their pocket.”

The question plaguing Iowans and their legislators is how to find a balance between protecting constituents and protecting Iowa’s bustling farm economy. According to the Iowa Farm Bureau, agriculture and its relative industries contribute $112.2 billion into Iowa’s economy and create one in every five jobs in the state.

Republicans overwhelmingly have jumped at the opportunity to protect the industry, while various groups such as County Conservation Commissions promote sustainable agriculture and pollution prevention. County Conservation

Commissions have been working with farmers across Iowa to stimulate the installment of cover crops, establish buffer strips and implement no-till farming methods to improve the conservation of soil and the quality of water.

“We know that the amount of tiling has gone up across Iowa at an incredible rate, which draws the water down and accelerates the amount of nitrogen that is leached out of the soils into the watersheds,” said Dotzler, a 1966 Cedar Falls High School graduate who received a biology degree from the University of Northern Iowa before becoming a legislator. “You can’t blame a farmer. Tilling will give you about a 5 percent yield increase.”

Treating water for nitrate levels is costly but ignoring the contaminant, which comes at no immediate price, threatens the long-term quality of Iowa’s water, those arguing for water quality legislation said. “We need to address the

water quality issue. Each year that we wait, we will just kick the can down the road, and the costs to fix the issue will continue to increase,” state Rep. Bob Kressig, a Cedar Falls Democrat, said. “Funding is very important, and we can create partnerships with cities, counties and farmers to make this possible. We have the expertise to work on the issue, but lack of funding is preventing them from being done.”

Little public awareness of water quality in the Cedar Valley may be preventing changes, too. Conversation about nitrates is minimal, as are public calls for reform or pressure on elected officials to make water quality a hot-button issue in the Iowa Legislature.

“Having clean water is very important to Iowa’s growth opportunities. We will have a difficult time attracting families to consider living in Iowa if our water is not viewed as not safe for drinking,” Kressig said. “We can do more to con-

vince legislators that we need to make this a priority.”

The Des Moines Water Works federal court case and ruling should not affect how Future Farmers of America chapters in Iowa teach safe and healthy farming practices, Scott Johnson, Iowa FFA executive secretary, said.

“For the purpose of teaching the principles of science behind plant fertility, soil fertility and water quality, it shouldn’t change how this is taught as scientific principles behind the education should not be influenced by litigation,” Johnson said. “What does change is how current events such as the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit make this instruction more explicit — the instructor will/should connect students to current events as to help support why these principles are important to know and apply.”

Des Moines Water Works gives an example of where higher nitrate levels could lead. In 2015, it cost $1.5 mil-

lion for “denitrification” of drinking water to remove nitrates and bring them down to a safe level for Iowa’s largest city, the utility reported. The utility is planning to spend $80 million on new denitrification technology in order to remove nitrates.

Dotzler said better education about water quality in Iowa is needed. He also said finding solutions should be a shared process. “People who live in cities need to work in a cooperative way to find alternatives for farmers,” Dotzler said.

“The Native Americans have a saying,” Dotzler said.

“A frog does not drink up its own pond. What they’re trying to say is don’t use up your resources and farming practices with the high amount of runoff.’”

By Staff Writer Elise

LEASURE

& Staff Writer Sabine

MARTIN

& Staff Writer Katie

MAUSS

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Once a Tiger, Always a Tiger Seniors say farewell to CFHS Photos by Molly Johnson, Aimee Robisky and Bells Schlarmann

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OPINION

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Friday, June 2, 2017

Alternative school providing essential assistance for some

I have never had concrete plans for my life, but I never thought I would be attending the alternative program for my sophomore year of high school. The year had started off great — I was in the musical, I was preparing to audition for All-State choir and I was involved in a variety of extracurricular activities at Waverly Shell-Rock High School. I had great friends, a fantastic support system and many wonderful opportunities, but I was struggling.

I had been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder two years prior. I began taking medication in 2013 to keep my depression and anxiety under control. I was also seeing a therapist once a week to talk through my emotions and learn healthy coping skills.

During October of my sophomore year, it became more difficult to me to manage my mental illness. I was more depressed than I ever had been before; my anxiety was spiraling out of control, and it was getting harder and harder for me to stay in school. I was taking online classes, and my parents were talking to the administration about options for schooling.

Life was becoming so much harder.

One of the administrators mentioned an alternative program, and I was very skeptical at first. I was worried of what my friends and classmates were going to think of me. It was a surprise to many people that I was struggling so badly with mental illness because many people weren’t able to tell. If I hadn’t have transferred to the alternative school during my sophomore year, I’m not sure how I would

have finished, and I’m not the only one.

Isaiah Sigler, a graduate of the Cedar Falls High School Alternative Program, said that alternative programs were the best option for him as he was finishing up schooling. “I wasn’t really going to school, and the alternative school seemed like the best option.”

Sigler wasn’t attending school because of mental health struggles. “I’ve got social anxiety. Crowds really freak me out I guess.”

After meeting with his counselor, Sigler decided to make the transfer to the alternative program. “Mrs. Denholm was a huge help. It was off of her recommendation that I go to the alternative school that I actually started giving it serious thought.”

After thinking about whether to attend, Sigler made the decision to transfer.

“I transferred about halfway through the first semester of this year, my senior year.”

Students who transfer in the middle of a semester may have to start their courses over again. “It’s a lot more self driven,” Sigler said. “You’re just sitting there at your own pace, but if you fall behind it’s all on you, but I feel like it made it easier. I felt more of a drive to do my work.”

The alternative program is very independent based and is hard to keep up for those who fall behind or don’t keep up with their work. “I would walk in, I’d sit down at my desk, I’d do my APEX for about an hour, we would read for an hour, I’d do my APEX for another hour and then I’d go home,” Sigler said. He took four APEX classes, which were core classes that were set up online. “The alternative program was most defi-

Contact Us

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org.

The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Fridays to read during their third period classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is presented weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the majority of the editors listed below. Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Monday for publication in the following Friday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

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nitely the best fit for me,” he said.

Sigler was at first worried about the stigma that comes along with attending the alternative school, but by the time he started, his worries were gone. “I know there’s a stigma that goes along with going to the alternative school, like you feel like you’re going to be looked down upon for going there, but it’s a lot better environment for those with high anxiety,” he said. “If you need a different type of schooling, don’t feel bad about it.”

Dan Weichers, the counselor at the alternative program, was first a counselor at the Cedar Falls High School and then transferred over to the alternative program.

“Our alternative program is designed to offer an educational experience to progress toward graduation for high school students in a small setting,” he said. There are typically 10-15 students in each of the two sections, and with a session in the morning and a session in the afternoon, students can either attend one session or the other.

“There are several educational opportunities available to students depending on the day and time of the year,” Weichers said. “For example, most of our students spend a good portion of their time learning math, science, social studies and English (core classes) through an online learning system called APEX.” As well as working on APEX classes, students take part in field trips, listen to guest speakers, participate in PE and share life experiences in group time.

“Students are provided a schedule that may better fit their needs. Some students find the mostly online curriculum works well for their learning style, and the smaller scale learning environment is preferred by some,” Weichers said. “Some potential disadvantages could be less course offerings (electives), less ‘hands on’ learning, less social opportunities during the day and less direct instruction.”

As Sigler mentioned, Weichers also said that these advantages and disadvantages are also based on personal preference to learning styles.

Chris Wood, a counselor at the high school, helps students make the decision to transfer to the alternative program. “Typically the alternative program is for students that the regular high school environment isn’t the best fit for them,” he said There are a variety of different reasons why the high school isn’t the best fit for some students. “Academically, socially, emotionally, for whatever reason, sometimes the high school doesn’t work, ” he said, and if the student is struggling at the high school, an alternative option is available. “There is a full staff out there that is willing to work with students, and the curriculum is all online.”

Because the learning is online based, it is up to the student to stay on top of their school work and make sure they’re on track. “When students make the transition out there, we let them know that it gives you the ability to finish your diploma, but it’s going to be a different educational experience,” Woods said.

A few years ago, students that weren’t struggling with the regular high school environment were wanting to transition over to the alternative program, but that’s not the process of how transferring to the alternative program works. “This, (the high school), is the number one place we want you to be, but if for whatever reason we get to a point where this isn’t working, then we start looking at what the transition out there looks like,” Woods said.

Although people do attend the alternative program for full days, there is the option of going for half days and the other half attending the high school. “We try and take steps to get to the point to go to the alternative program,” he said.

Typically, students don’t automatically transfer to the alternative program right away.

“When a student transfers in the middle of the semester, you start the classes there,” Woods said.This means that the student could be starting the course over, and this is something that is discussed between the counselor and the student on deciding which schooling option to take.“We try to do what’s in the best

interest for the student, but also work well with the setting that they’re in.”

The alternative program provides a more one on one setting that works better for the student.

“The alternative program is pretty structured,” Woods said. “You have a time you need to show up every day, and if you don’t show up by that time, it counts as an absence. The attendance policy is pretty cut and dry.”

Just like the high school, Wood said it may or may not be a good fit for students. “I would say that the alternative program is more strict there than at the high school, but they are more lenient once you’re there,” Wood said. The staff works with the students, and it is a flexible program that is meant to help benefit the needs of the student. “It’s a small learning environment, but they do some great things because they adapt to the needs of the student.”

Because of the smaller learning environment, the staff is able to focus and cater to each of the students needs.

“When a student attends the alternative program, they are still a member of the Cedar Falls High School,” Wood said. The program is through the school, and is called the Cedar Falls High School Alternative Program.

It’s important that everyone understands that just because some students attend the alternative program rather than the traditional high school doesn’t mean that those students are unintelligent. The alternative program is a type of schooling that works better for some students, and it is unfortunate that there is a stigma surrounding this type of learning.

I hope that in the future, people will understand that alternative programs provides a one-on-one learning environment, offers flexible classes and acknowledge that mental health problems or other challenging circumstances are valid. The alternative program is a great resource for students who don’t feel comfortable or struggle in a traditional learning environment.

By Staff Writer Emma

GRAENING

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ENTERTAINMENT

Valley’s punk legacy still lingering Over the years, the Cedar Valley has hosted a surprisingly large punk scene that has been thriving for over 40 years.

Now thanks to social media it is easier than ever to find and experience that scene.

One of the first bands was Ziploc And The Incredible Sandwich Boys, which formed in the late ’70s. They did not play punk music but instead played and composed classic rock and roll. A big reason why they are important is because they are one of the first electric bands to play at Steb’s.

Steb’s was a bar on the Hill that played music from the underground scene. This bar was super important to the scene because of how many bands played there, but the bar was bulldozed in 2000.

In the early ’80s some bands with heavy reggae influence started to form. One of these bands was The Beverage Men, which was active from 1982 to around 1984. They had a lot of shows at Steb’s, and most of the bandmates loved the band Bad Brains. This band’s hard-

core sound eventually made the band reform as one of the biggest punk bands in the Cedar Valley.

Drednex was active from 1984 to 1988 and was a lot more influenced by punk than before. They released two cassette tapes when they were active. The first one was called “Co-op,” which released in 1985 and had 12 songs. The last cassette was released in 1987 and called “No Class Project.” Many of the themes that Drednex had were political in nature and laced with irony.

Many punk bands including Drednex didn’t only play at Steb’s; they also played at Dean’s Parkade Lounge.

This bar became well known for playing many great punk bands during it’s peak. However like Steb’s, it was closed down in the ’90s.

Drednex, however, is not considered the largest punk band in the Cedar Valley. That award goes to the band House of Large Sizes, which was formed in 1986 and broke up in 2003.

They were the most successful band in the scene with up to eight albums to their name. A good amount of their is music is made of heavy grooves, and one can still find multiple albums from this Cedar Falls band on Spotify.

According to CFHS graduate Donald Halbmaier, the Valley punk scene is still alive.

After he was introduced to the scene in junior high and went to his first show in 2009, he has been involved ever since.

“There is a band called Megapunch, which borderlines punk and metal,” Halbmaier said. Megapunch is a mix of hardcore and stoner metal, which is quite the unique sound. They are also made up entirely of CFHS alumni.

According to Halbmaier, the scene is not dominated by one genre of music. From heavy metal to somber acoustic ballads, the scene is quite diverse. There is even a band called Shutup, which is an all ukulele band that he plays bass in. He said, “It’s really tested me as a bass player because

“Deez Nugs” was released by the Cedar Falls punk band Megapunch in December 2015. you are expected to go up and play along with three chords.”

The punk scene has been around since the ’70s, and it is not dying down anytime soon.

In fact, those who are inter-

ested in the scene and going to some concerts can like the “Cedar Valley DIY” Facebook page and ask a punk where a concert is.

By Staff Writer Alex

TEMPLETON

Punk classics offer tips for growing up

“What’s My Age Again?” - blink-182 - “Enema of the State” (1999) Blink-182, bless their hearts, were actually in their early to mid 20s when they wrote this song. However, all members are now well into their 40s, and fans don’t seem to find the fact that they haven’t lost their adolescent charm the least bit questionable. That’s a pretty strange case of Peter Pan Syndrome, my friends.

Though Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker are still getting rich off of two-minute songs about fart jokes and prank calls, and if I had to connoiseur their catalog (for example, “Adam’s Song), “What’s My Age Again” still takes the cake.

“Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year” Fall Out Boy - “From Under the Cork Tree” (2005) “The best part of believe is the ‘lie.’” Take a moment to flash back to the seventh grade, folks, because before Fall Out Boy went electronic, Pete Wentz had all of your teenage angst covered. “From Under the Cork Tree” itself was a metaphorically golden record, from the singles to the B-sides. However, despite all of the other choices of comically long song titles and tongue in cheek digs, there’s nothing quite like “Sophomore Slump.”

It is possibly the most lyrically intricate song that they ever produced during the span of their 15 years within the music industry. It’s the kind of song that forces you to believe that they could last 15 years more.

“I Was a Teenage Anarchist” - Against Me! - “White Crosses” (2011) Nostalgia, oh, glorious nostalgia. Who would’ve ever thought that the band that cranked out “Thrash Unreal” and “Baby, I’m an Anarchist” could have the emotional capacity to look back in utter candor? Laura Jane Grace herself validates the veracity of most performances by prefacing the song with “this is a true story.” Nevertheless, nobody forgets that feeling of wanting to set the world on fire and finding out the revolution was a lie. There are so many different points of view to analyze the song in that it’s going to stick with you until the day you die.

“Jesus of Suburbia” - Green Day - “American Idiot” (2004) If there was ever a song that I could call my favorite, this nine minute ballad would be it. “Jesus of Suburbia” is divided into five chapters that explore the basic muses of life: angst, existential fear, apathy, rage and love. Most importantly, it is from the point of view of somebody who is trying to find the delicate balance of those things, and it is not totally directed toward an adolescent demographic. Those emotions are easily accessible at any age. They only reincarnate themselves in different manners, and that’s what makes “Jesus of Suburbia” so special. No matter what age or what stage you are at in your life, this song is relatable. It never gets old, even after 13 years.

“Knowledge” Operation Ivy - “Energy” (1989) This is possibly and arguably one of the most iconic songs about growing up that has ever existed within the punk scene ... the entirety of Green Day’s “Dookie,” aside.

“Knowledge,” perfectly encapsulates that feeling of not quite knowing what to with your life. This is subsequently why the song continues to get continually covered by bands like Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers almost 30 years later.

“Teenagers” - My Chemical Romance “The Black Parade” (2006) Somehow, My Chemical Romance managed to channel The Offspring with this one and produce something even more confused and foreboding than anything else within their short career. It’s a song that everyone can get down to: cringeworthy middle schoolers, high schoolers that are in denial about their cringeworthiness and the adults that are expected to teach them how to be functioning members of society.

By Staff Writer Halie

FRAHM

12 ‘Extras’ becoming essential to athletes’ success The

SPORTS

There are many things that play role in exercise such as apparel, health and equipment.

Some athletes swear by these; whereas, others don’t even know these exist.

Apparel might not seem like that big of a problem at first, but many things are included in this category, such as shoes.

Runner’s flat worker Sam Schillinger said, “Wearing the right shoe is so crucial to staying healthy. I can’t stress enough how much finding the right shoe and going through that process really matters. Fixing the pronation reduces chance of injury greatly. When you pronate, it throws off the body alignment and can cause injuries with ankles, knees, hips and really anything. It’s important to note that the whole body works together and needs to be aligned. We are rooted in our feet and ankles, so when our ankles roll in and collapse, it throws everything else out of line, and that is why it’s important to get in the right shoes to keep you aligned.”

Athletes commonly don’t realize that they are in the wrong shoe until it is too late and they get shin splints, pain in the knees, hips, ankles or back.

Schillinger loves working at the Runner’s Flat because it hits so close to home with his love to run.

Schillinger said, “I wanted to work there because I could help people and have an impact on the community of Cedar Falls while also learning more about what I love to do.”

Although the path to finding the perfect shoe may be time consuming, Schillinger said it is well worth it for athletes.

Tiger

Lily Becker Photo

Sophomore Tjaden Petersen and her 2015 Louisville slugger LXT softball bat have already connected for seven home runs.

The process that they go through to help people find the right shoe starts with a gait analysis.

They have the clients run, walk or jog on the treadmill as they videotape their strides with a tablet for about 15 seconds. They then slow down the video and watch the motion of the individual’s feet as it strikes the ground and comes back through the cycle. Their goal is to see how the force is being absorbed and how the foot is responding.

Another big part of exercise is the health portion, and it can play a huge role in performance.

Paige Kvale is one of those few

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Friday, June 2, 2017

athletes that really pays close attention to her eating habits during the sports season. She focuses mainly on cross country and track season because any unnecessary food could add weight and time.

She really tries to cut out all unnecessary sugars and candy. While eating healthy throughout the whole season is her goal, she likes to focus strongly on two days before and the night before her competitions.

Two days before the competition, Kvale loads up on pasta and red meats. The night before the competition, she likes to eat greens and maybe a little more pasta.

She eats this way to provide her body with the needed iron.

Kvale said, “When you are working your body as hard as we are in cross country, you need iron to help your body. Once you get low on iron, it’s hard to run and improve. You initially run out of gas at the end.”

While Kvale might not eat healthy religiously, she really hits it hard during her sports because she wants to be the best she can be while also remaining a kid and not asking this lifestyle her life.

Kvale said, “I really don’t eat all that great in my off seasons, so I really try to fuel my body to do my best during these sports seasons.”

A small accomplishment for Kvale in addition to other achievements this year would be her starting to eat broccoli. While to some of this won’t seem all that substantial, she said she considers this as an accomplishment because of all the nutrients and benefits that come from this vegetable. Broccoli is a powerful antioxidant that is best known for its abundance in Vitamin C. Kvale said, “I didn’t really like it, but with this new eating habit, I decided to try it again to add a new green. It wasn’t as bad as I thought.

I plan on eating it year round to keep vegetables in my everyday eating.”

Her advice to other athletes is that it isn’t all about eating strictly healthy all the time. It’s about knowing when it is appropriate and what specific diet will be beneficial in one’s unique lifestyle.

Another outside essential to athletes is the growing influence of gadgets to assist in training. Equipment in exercise may vary from sport to sport. Some things such as Fitbits or

rollers can apply to almost all sports.

One piece of equipment that is key in sophomore Tjaden Petersen’s softball career is her 2015 Louisville slugger LXT softball bat. She has currently hit seven home runs with this single bat, including one just last Thursday, May 25, against the Dubuque Hempstead Mustangs, and it continues to be her claim to fame.

The LXT bat model is a threepiece bat that has a longer “sweet spot” and less vibration than comparable bats. This allows the ball to initially come off the bat faster and harder while going further. The threepiece barrel technology gives the bat a lighter swing weight, allowing for maximum control and confidence at the plate. It is also a composite bat with a zero friction double wall design this allows the barrel to reach its maximum flex without resistance.

The LXT is becoming one of the hottest bats on the market due to its outstanding design and its cool appearance.

Petersen said, “I like my bat because of the new technology and how much harder the ball comes off the bat compared to previous bats I have used. I also really like how it looked, which helped me initially pick it.”

Whether athletes rely on new gadgets, new diets or new clothing, in the end, the non-negotiable key to success still rests with the athletes’ efforts.

Petersen said, “I usually go over to the park across the street to hit off a tee whenever I can to get as many reps as possible.”

By Staff Writer Lily

BECKER

CF public transport resists discriminatory trend

Compared to other cities more than twice its size, Cedar Falls has a few less barriers for disabled people attempting to access public transportation. Local taxi cab companies such as Dolly’s Taxi do not charge disabled patrons a luggage surcharge for transport of their mobility assistance devices regardless if they use the wheelchair/stretcher service or nonadapted cabs. They also charge the same basic fares for both services for all customers. In many major cities like Chicago or New York City (even though it is illegal), this surcharge is customary for many disabled patrons.

In these cities, it is also customary that disabled patrons call days to weeks in advance in order to ensure basic accommodation, although equal and safe access is already legally mandated by the Americans With Disabilities Act; whereas, able-

bodied patrons can take any mode of transportation they please: metro, city bus, cabs with little to no prior contemplation or extra charge.

In the past few years there have been many lawsuits over lack of accessibility and the (illegal) surcharge, one of the most prominent being the case of Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago and Uber. The popular cab service was sued on grounds of “insufficient adaptation.” Uber provided nearly two million rides in Chicago in June of 2015 alone. Only 14 of those rides were accessible to motorized wheelchair user patrons.

The company has previously stated that it should be exempt from the ADA due to the fact that it is not a cab corporation, but instead is merely an app service for cheap and quick transport. Uber has since attempted to abridge its statement by educating drivers in regard to legislature in

the transportation of service dogs, providing no information regarding legal obligation of appropriate transportation for users of mobility assistance devices. The company has never admitted to breaking the law or violating Title II of the ADA. In a world where technology is drastically changing the way people function, including the ways in which people commute, equal access should be at the forefront of modernization. It has been 27 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act has been passed, and today, even though some accommodations bear the blue accessibility sticker, that doesn’t necessarily mean that these public spaces are “accessible.”

Approximately 5.67 million Americans have some form of disability, or one out of every five people. Disabled people within the United States are twice as likely to

live in poverty than an able bodied citizen, and, on average, only one in five disabled adults is employed due to a lack of a niche job market.

The process of becoming certified to drive while disabled is a lengthy and economically straining one. Average sessions with a specially trained occupational therapist to teach drivers how to properly use their adaptations cost between $100-$200 apiece. The average driver needs six to 12 sessions in order to become comfortable and fluent with the adaptation, and most insurances consider this an “unnecessary luxury charge,” so all sessions are usually paid out of pocket. The average adaptation for a driver who is a wheelchair-user costs between $3,000 and $10,000, which is also not covered by insurance. There are charities that can cover some of the cost, like Vocational Rehab, but their services come

with terms and conditions. The most common of which, having to be in high school to obtain assistance. This can result in the potential driver not getting their licence until the age of 18 or older, leaving them significantly behind their able bodied peers.

Therefore, many disabled people rely upon public transportation due to other ableist barriers. Metro, subways, city bus and cabs are all vital to independence and functionality. Former CFHS graduate Megan Hermanson, who relies upon public transportation to get to occupation due to her disability, said “I like not having to rely on my parents. [If I did not have the city bus], it would be inconvenient for my parents and I would feel less independent.”

By Staff Writer Halie

FRAHM