2
THE
e n i l i h tiger
VOLUME 51 ISSUE 25 1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613
GSA modifies name to encompass students Maya Amjadi Staff Writer
The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at Cedar Falls High School has changed its name to Love Knows No Gender (LKNG). Although the two names offer different titles, the group is still the same in the aspect that it still works to promote acceptance and tolerance. Junior Falken Jaramillo, an avid participant and leader in the group, does not particularly approve of the name change. “It was changed to both get away from use of the word ‘gay,’ which will keep some folks from attending and also to include other sexualities, such as bisexuality, pansexuality, etc.” The group is working to spread awareness. Members attend conferences every month that are put on by the Iowa Pride Network. Another thing the group does is participate in the Day of Silence, which is the annual day of action to protest bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. It is a day-long vow of silence recognizing the silenced LGBT community. The group is for gay, lesbian or questioning students as well as heterosexual students who feel that there is a lack of tolerance and understanding. “I feel that CFHS is a tolerant place. I have never been harassed or accosted based on my sexual orientation, although I hear a lot of derogatory slang terms,” Jaramillo said. Junior Oliver Weilein said the group has two main focuses. The first is to do whatever it can to raise awareness about the
struggles that face the LGBT community and to help promote an open-minded and tolerant society. “[A society] where you can love whoever you may choose without the bigoted judgements of others — whether they be judgements expressed through individual intolerance or through government legislature,” Weilein said. The second main focus is to provide a safe and accepting environment in which homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders can express their emotions to others who don’t judge them based on who they are attracted to. “To some, it can be the sole place where they feel comfortable talking about their true sexuality,” Weilein said. Some people have said that the LKNG is only for people who are gay, but the focus is to bring all groups together. “There were people of all races who marched with the civil rights advocates a few decades ago. There were men who advocated women’s rights and were active in the movement. There were Europeans who stood with the Native Americans when the settlers took their land,” Weilein said. “And likewise, there are people who will march in gay pride parades and be fully supportive, who are, in fact, straight. I happen to be one of those people.” The group would like to relay an important message: when it comes to accepting people, it is important to make sure the conclusions drawn are not based on things out of an individual’s control, such as race, gender, age, disability, social status and, also, one’s sexual orientation.
Kaylee Micu photo
Drivin’ for Life
Junior Meg Lane waits to donate blood at the student senate-sponsored blood drive on Friday, May 13. The annual drive attracted many student and staff donors, and the blood is donated to the Life Serve Blood Center of Iowa.
Board approves late starts, adjusts school calendar Sandra OmariBoateng Staff Writer
A new policy that was approved by the Cedar Falls School Board on Monday night, May 9, will change the school year calendar and schedule for the 2011-2012 year. Next year, there will be a 90-minute late start every Tuesday for the secondary schools which are the junior highs and high school. In the past, there were about five to six professional development days about once a month in the year, but now the weekly late starts will let the teachers get together to confer and do professional development meetings once a week instead of spreading them out so much. Now that teachers will meet once per week, the school calendar will lose some professional development
days and half days. On the weeks of conferences, secondary schools will have a full day of school on Thursdays but still no school on Fridays. This system will add back a couple of days next year. “Change is always tough. The professional development days were too spread apart, so we needed to do something different to help the teachers get more out of it,” Principal Dr. Rich Powers said. With the late starts, the high school will be losing about 10 minutes of class every Tuesday but getting the class time back by staying in school for those professional development days. To accommodate the schedule, lunch will begin third period, but since the hours will be shorter, everything will stay on schedule. Because of the lost professional development days,
there will be one or two built-in snow days to help keep on track, so if those snow days are not used, the high school will get those days off. Of course, some CFHS teachers have concerns about the changes to come. “I’m a little concerned about the class time, and I’m not sure about what it’s going to look like. If I had a choice, I would keep school the way it is,” social studies teacher Jeremiah Longnecker said. “The reason the school year is changing now is to realign with the Iowa Core [Curriculum guidelines]-[this] helps us learn how to help some students adjust to what they are learning. [Students] could need help catching up to curriculum, or, if they’re ahead, [teachers could] start teaching them on a different level,” Powers said.