Breaking Badder
The
Tiger HI-LINE
Friday, May 2, 2014
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Volume 53 Edition 23
Cafe Class With the Coffee Shop open for business, it offers not only drinks and food for students and staff but also a chance to gain some skills and learn something new for its 11 volunteer workers. This year these 11 students are checking out of study hall. Next year it will be for a careers class credit that students sign up for, according to resource teacher Bridget Bukula. “The class next year will combine the coffee shop with curriculum to address employability skills.” CFHS junior Robert Novak is one of those pitching in to help, and he said, “There are things and perks [to take away]. I get to meet new people and its great friends making thing and more social skills. It im-
LT Shorts offers parady of teacher gone Bad. See it at http://www.hiline.cfschools.org/ broadcast-news/podcasts2012/
proves my social abilities and skills. I’m sometimes kind of shy.” However, it’s not just social skills being taken from this experience; responsibility and understanding how things work and mix together are two other major things the students are taking away from their experiences. Besides preparing and selling coffee and other drinks every day, students must also make sure that everything is always clean, that the counters are wiped down, coffee containers are refilled and the cash box is deposited and put back. Some students regularly deliver coffee to teachers and staff members throughout the morning, and some open the
Tiger Den serving up lessons for team of student workers
shop every day at 7:30 or close the shop right after third hour. Novak, like the other 10 students and workers, takes his job very seriously, but has had some previous experience helping and serving customers. “I worked at Hy-Vee before this, so it’s the same principle, and it’s the same thing helping customers out with a smile on your face. Just be positive and smile.” Bukula added that through all of these responsibilities and jobs the “students learn customer service, have gained confidence, how to better interact with peers, money skills, a sense of belonging, employability skills and it’s fun.” By Staff Writer MacKenzie
DALLENBACH
Swartdogs encounter setbacks at FIRST international contest The robotics team, known as the Swartdogs or team 525, finished with a 3-7 overall record in their group and could not make it into the elimination rounds in St. Louis last week at the world finals where over 400 teams qualified. The Swartdogs were placed into one of the most difficult groups at the competition and knew it would be tough. “I feel like we gave it our best shot. Our robot performed as well as we had hoped,” sophomore team member Jason Cheng said. “Luck just didn’t go our way, I suppose.” The game this year is called Aerial Assist. The premise of the game is that two alliances of three robots each try to outscore the opposing team in the number of yogaball sized balls into goals at the opposing ends of the 25x54 foot field. The more balls each team gets into the goal during the two minute and 30 second match, and the more each team works together to do it, the more points each alliance will receive. Each alliance is made up of robots from three teams, and each team must work together to get points for their alliance. The Swartdogs competed in two other competitions, or regionals, before competing in the world finals. Team 525 first went to Pekin, Ill., for the Central Illinois Regional, where the team won a host of awards including being part of the winning allegiance, thus winning the regional. In addition to that, the Swartdogs won the Innovation in Control award, which is given to the
robot that has the most innovative design. Perhaps the most prestigious award that the Swartdogs earned is the Woodie Flowers Award, which is presented to the best mentor at the regional. Mentors are adults on the team who look over and guide the team in the right direction. Mentor Jan Newendorp won the coveted award. “Receiving this award at the FRC Central Illinois Regional was even more special since Dr. Flowers came to Illinois and gave it to me. While talking with him afterwards it became clear why the award is named after him. He is very gracious. I am honored that our students nominated me,” Newendorp said. A few weeks after Pekin, the team travelled to Cincinnati for the Queen City Regional. There, the Swartdogs posted similar results winning the Innovation in Control Award. Unfortunately, the Swartdogs were knocked out in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati. Physics teacher Kenton Swartley is the “coach” of the team, and he said that the season as a whole went very well. “We had some great successes mixed with some challenges. The goal of the robotics team is to provide students with learning opportunities related to engineering. There were many great opportunities for learning, and students did a tremendous job throughout our design, construction and programming of the robot,” Swartley said. By Staff Writer Zuhayr
ALAM
MacKenzie Dallenbach Photo
Brad Elemr watches carefully as he fills up a fresh cup of coffee with a steady hand during his shift in the Tiger Den’s Coffee Shop.
Snapchat interruption draws ire When Snapchat service was blocked early Wednesday, students quickly and angrily looked for someone to blame, but as it turns out, district officials were equally surprised by the development. Supervisor of technology services of the Cedar Falls School district Shane Paige said, “I can assure you no app or service was banned or removed by the district. In those situations, it takes more than one person to make the decision to blacklist or whitelist something on the network. We have been discussing another issue with our firewall provider that we believe is related to an update done about a week ago. The support reps are looking into that issue right now. Our suspicion is that both issues
are related to each other. We hope to have this resolved soon.”
Final music concerts lined up for May The orchestra is performing on Thursday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium. The group will perform “Danse Infernale” and “Berceuse” and “Finale” by influential composer Igor Stravinsky. Symphonic band, under the direction of Kyle Engelhart, and wind symphony, under the direction of Gerald Ramsey, will perform on Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium. The vocal concert is on Tuesday, May 13 at 8 p.m. in the auditorium.
The concert will feature all three choirs: concert choir, women’s choir, and men’s choir. They will perform a wide selection of pieces sure to please all music tastes. All three sections of the music department will be performing at the state large group music contest on Saturday, May 10, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The contest is being held at Cedar Falls High School. Class 4A and 2A bands, orchestras and choirs from across the state will gather to perform.
2
The
Tiger
OPINION
Armed Insight A Johnston, Iowa, family is head to head with Iowa lawmakers on yet another gun dispute, but this one is in our backyard. Natalie and Meredith Gibson, 8 and 10, love shooting guns with their father, Nathan. They went out to a shooting range last week, and after Natalie had fired 20 rounds out of her .22 handgun, they were informed of a long forgotten Iowa law that persons under the age of 14 cannot shoot a handgun, even with parental supervision. The girls were clearly distressed, as they are allowed to shoot their dad’s .308 AR-15 hunting rifle. That’s clearly too big for them, and much more “dangerous” than any said handgun. Natalie was in tears when the rangers came to tell them they can’t shoot. “I thought I did something wrong,” she said, worried that after all the training and safety protocols their dad taught them they handled a gun wrong. Natalie, a young 8 years old can be seen in a YouTube video disarming a weapon; clearing the chamber, hitting the safety and discharging the clip. That alone shows that she can handle a firearm better than most people anymore, as guns are publicized as a weapon of death rather than a tool of self defense and security. But, as always, there are two sides to this story. Kathleen Adams, a psychiatric nurse, said she would be less concerned if the issue were simply that of target practice or hunting. To her though, handguns are not about hunting; they are
HI-LINE
Friday, May 2, 2014
By Kaleb
BENGSTON about personal safety and killing people. Teaching them, she said, implies that there may be a time to use it. That is inherently true; nobody knows when a dangerous person or persons may break into your home and try to injure you. “We should teach them ways to solve conflicts that don’t involve guns,” she said, “and it’s really important for kids to have confidence that the adults in their world are going to keep them safe.” And what about conflicts that do involve guns? Try talking reason into a distressed man with a gun set out to do harm. It’s not reasonable, and you should be able to defend your life with equal force. Aaron Dorr, executive director of Iowa Gun Owners, offers no apologies. “You teach them guns are a tool just like anything else,” he said. “I’m not a revolutionary guy. I’m not trying to overthrow the government, but I’m trying to teach them that guns have a purpose and why they’re important.” The comment that he’s not trying to overthrow the government is both bad and good. It’s good because it goes against what most of the media decides gun enthusiasts and Constitution lovers are: mercenaries
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 fifth 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.
Editors-in-Chief: Austin Anderson, Martha Hall, Mallory Vallentine and Ellen Wallingford Staff: Zuhayr Alam, Kaleb Bengston, Kaitlyn Brocka, Mackenzie Dallenbach and Abby Young
Education trumps regulation in preventing gun violence
that keep their guns in case of an overthrow. Which is absurd. Bad because it passively confirms that those people do exist. Guns are for many uses. Hunting is a main one, which is why anyone in Iowa, as well and 8 year old, can shoot long guns. Pistols and handguns are for “killing” people, which is true in a sense, but without proper context it sounds like purely a murder weapon. What it is is a tool for self defense, used only in situations that call for that amount of force to be used. Teach these children at a young age the reason it is important to defend your person and property, and that guns should be used for that and only that, and we won’t have so many kids growing up seeing guns as a way to solve any problem. Teach the kid how to disarm a weapon, when to leave a gun alone and when the use of one is appropriate. The media is making guns look bad. It’s that simple, as gun crime has gone down 39 percent since 1993. Non-fatal gun crimes have dropped 69 percent in this same time, but turn on CNN or MSNBC, and you see another shooting, an AR-15 being shown as if it’s a military grade weapon. A Pew Research poll revealed that a majority of Americans believe that gun crime has gone up. They cite this as an “unknown reason”, but Eric Holder, Obama’s appointed district attorney, back in 1995 made a scary statement in a public speech. “I’ve also asked the school board to make a part of every day some kind of antigun, anti-violence message. Every day, every school, at ev-
ery level, we just have to be repetitive about this and really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.” Politicians have been known to make these unnerving comments. “When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly. When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.” Bill Clinton said that, calling our Founding Fathers radicals and saying that government has the right to determine if Americans are “abusing” their rights, and therefore limit rights. That goes against the very meaning of rights. The media and government are slowly trying to change the meaning of rights to be synonymous to privileges. “I don’t care if you want to hunt. I don’t care if you think it’s your right. I say ‘Sorry.’ It’s 1999. We have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison.” Rosie O’Donnell said this, and there are many more from many people. The basis of this is we have to teach the youth how to be safe with a gun and the uses of them. To ban a gun on basis of a “murder weapon” is purely absurd and should be changed. It’s all about fear and pushing away facts. Gun crime is going down, and the media are demonizing the guns. Let’s teach young people the uses of guns, how to be safe and how to learn for themselves.
Do you favor more or less regulation of gun ownership?
Miriam Queiroz Sophomore
“I think there should be more gun regulation because we have a gun problem, and it would make me feel safer.”
Noah Miller Senior
“Everyone should have access to guns. However, there needs to be an increase of high quality gun safety education from both private and public institutions. Sadly, we live in a world where guns are necessary, but that doesn’t mean we need to be stupid about them.”
Kelli Dekutoski Senior
“In terms of regulation, less is better because present regulations are ineffective and interfere with Second Amendment rights. It’s better to have fewer regulations that are more effective.”
Our View
Pure Party: Let’s keep prom drug, alcohol free Prom can be a fun event for everyone, but it is possible to make bad memories with the influence of alcohol or drugs. Alcohol and drugs are absolutely not permitted at prom, and anyone caught with them is escorted out and receives a form of punishment determined by the school. This tempts those who wish to drink or use drugs it to conceal this in a creative fashion. However,
the question begs: is it really worth it? Odds are, if you bring alcohol or drugs to prom, you will get caught. If you get caught, all of the money, work and time you spent will have been for absolutely nothing. Depending on how much you drink or use drugs, you may not even be able to remember exactly what you did at prom, so you have no good memories for the future to look back on. Drinking alcohol or using drugs may
seem “fun,” but you would be surprised at how much fun you can have without it. We at the Tiger Hi-Line urge you to make smart decisions and not drink alcohol or use drugs. Everyone deserves to have a fun, safe prom, and it would be a shame if anyone ruined that. Follow all of the regular prom traditions, maybe even make a few new traditions of your own, but please, leave the alcohol and drugs at home.
The
Tiger
HI-LINE
Feature
Friday, May 2, 2014
Top of the Class
3
Student explore interests with Alpha projects
In the midst of music concerts, sports events, and studying for finals, ALPHA students have yet another thing on their plates: the semester ALPHA project. ALPHA is the talented and gifted program here at Cedar Falls High School, and it encourages students to work independently and explore their personal interests. “I like that ALPHA is a welcoming place to bounce ideas off other people,” senior Martha Hall said. “It’s nice to be in an environment like that during a stressful school day.” A core part of the ALPHA program is the project every student must complete. ALPHA projects
Kelli Dekutoski
Martha Hall My project is world building for a fantasy world. Obviously, worldbuilding is the process of creating the culture and history of a fantasy world. It’s necessary for a fantasy story. You have to have aspects of history, which may develop over time, having a creation story, which forms the core of what your characters believe happened. The biggest part is the races of the characters and their cultures. Must be distinct and authentic. Language is harder to create, and it involves knowledge of linguistics and syntax. I’m skipping that it would take too much time to create a language, but if you can come up with your own language, go for it. Favorite thing about ALPHA projects: The complete freedom that you have. You can literally do whatever you want, wherever your interests take you. Hardest part of ALPHA projects: There is a danger of procrastination.
Erik Muetherthies I am focusing on marketing and social media work for my mom’s business, Kate Brennan Hall Illustration. I helped with the creation of her website, katebrennanhall.com. The marketing of a business is a lot of behind the scenes work. Right now, we’re focusing on expanding the business’ reach in more stores, which means compiling an expansive list of possible vendors to contact. We’ve become a team working together, and it’s really fun to work creatively with her. Favorite thing about ALPHA projects: I love that the ALPHA projects give you a sense of independence. It’s self-directed work, and I think that’s really important to learn before we’re released into the real world. It forces you to focus on time-management and personal goals. I look forward to working on my project every day. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to do an independent project — I’ve learned so much from it. Hardest part about ALPHA projects: Sometimes it can be tough to stay motivated. But at the same time, it’s almost a strength. I learned how to manage my time. I set a schedule for myself to work off. Before I get to ALPHA each day, I think about what needs to be accomplished and hold myself to it.
To find out more about the ALPHA program, ask your counselor or contact ALPHA teacher Tim Kangas in room 147 (between the library and the language rooms) for more information.
I am making the senior video that is shown at the senior breakfast every year. The video is done by Senior Leadership, but I decided to take it on by myself. It will be somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes, and I have to come up with a theme, do interviews, find B-roll footage and edit it together in a way that accurately reflects the characters of the students here. The main premise was to get experience in documentary production and editing, and I learned a lot more about that field as a whole. Favorite thing about ALPHA projects: I’d have to say the independence it gives me. Around the school there are not a lot of opportunities for that. It lets me manage time, which is a worthwhile skill. Hardest part of ALPHA projects: I’d have to say freedom and independence is a double-edged sword, with an entire semester to do a project, it gives me a false sense of how much time I have to do the project. By Editor-in-Chief Ellen Wallingford
4
SPORTS
The
Tiger
Friday, May 2, 2014
CF track joins international legacy of excellence at Drake Relays The 105th annual Drake Relays wrapped up last weekend in Des Moines at Drake Stadium. The world renown event collected competitors from all over Iowa, the United States and even the world. Bruce Jenner, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and Jesse Owens are a few of the hundreds of Olympic medalists to compete on the historical blue oval, including 25 Olympic medalists just last year. The CFHS men’s and women’s track teams were able to compete with high schools all over the state of every size. “It’s an amazing feeling knowing that you’re competing on the same track as some of the best athletes in the world, and the overall atmosphere of Drake makes you feel like you’re just as important as they are,” senior Sprinter Kaz Brown said. Brown was joined by senior Melanie Stoss, senior Symone Robinson and sophomore Alicia Harrington in the 4x100m relay team that took home a sixth place finish. The men’s 4x100m relay team also fared well as they finished seventh. The young relay team consists of sopho-
mores Michael Abbas and Denison Harrington, junior Matt Turcotte and senior Conner Riehm. The biggest controversy came in the men’s 4x400m relay after the Tigers won their heat and qualified for the final with the fourth fastest time. The team was disqualified after officials ruled that lead runner Sam Ahrenholz took a step out of his lane. The voluntary officials originally ruled that it was the third Tiger runner that stepped out before concluding that it was in fact Ahrenholz. Despite reluctant and avid attempts by head coach Dirk Homewood to have the officials look at a recording, they declined to review the tape and made the disqualification final. Ahrenholz was upset, but his team and head coach took a big step closer despite the adversity. “It was disappointing, but it was also really encouraging to see our coach fight for us, seeing that we were disqualified unfairly. There was a silver lining in it because my coach told me a story, talked to me after and really encouraged me in my faith as well as with my track career.” Ahrenholz turned his anger into motivation in the 4x800m relay where he
ran a blistering 1:56 half mile in just his third ever competitive attempt at the race and had the Tigers in the lead after the first two laps. With senior Jared Failor missing Drake for the national robotics competition, sophomore Hunter Lavallee and junior Dylan Southall were joined by freshman Seb Gearhart, who replaced Failor, in the fifth place finish. “Seb did really well. Seb ran the best race he could have run. He’s going to be a stud in the next coming years,” Senior leader Ahrenholz said. Even after having a rollercoaster of emotions fill the weekend at the Drake Relays, Ahrenholz still recognizes that things work in mysterious ways, and they often have a weird way of working out for the best, “Nobody knew it would take one of our dreams getting shattered to really grow together as a team, but I guess that’s life.” With the State meet coming up on May 22-24, life still has plenty of time to run its course. By Editor-in-Chief Austin
ANDERSON
More NEWS Students make their own prom dresses Prom preparation is busy enough, but two students took it to another level by creating and making their own outfits for the big night. Senior Jordan Caruso and junior Charlotte Brandenburg both decided to accept the challenge and had to first design and gather materials to create their handmade dresses before even beginning the actual construction of each dress. Caruso let her imagination take control and had many sketch ideas, but “The first sketch I made was pretty different from what I ended up with, and I actually changed my mind right before making it, so I don’t even have a sketch of the actual dress.” As for Brandenburg, she knew exactly what she wanted and stuck to her plan. She said, “I came up with a design about a year ago that I really wanted to make and wear, so it didn’t take much to persuade me [to start creating my dress for this year].” Both girls started on their dresses back during spring break. Caruso finished her dress this past week, and it’s ready to go for this Saturday night. Brandenburg said, “I have a few decorative details to add, but the dress would be wearable as it is now.” The amount of time that each girl put into their dresses would be hard to calculate, but both agreed that they would definitely go through this experience again.
Far Left: Junior Charlotte Brandenberg designed and assembled her prom dress by hand. Near Left: Senior Jordan Caruso used her creativity to make her one-of-a kind dress. She used this opportunity as practice before heading to New York to study fashion design in college.
Caruso had a considerable amount of experience beforehand with creating dresses and designs and styles for herself. She added that one reason she even created her prom dress in the first place was because “I’m going to school next year in New York City for fashion design, so I wanted to have the practice, and I really just wanted something that you couldn’t buy in a store.” Brandenburg has also had a good amount of experience with designing and creating things. “I started out mak-
ing costumes for cosplay, then made a ball gown last year.” Unlike Caruso, Brandenburg does not have plans for going into a career dealing with fashion and clothes. “I am planning on pursuing a career in architecture, so a lot of design skills and experiences will hopefully carry over,” Brandenburg said. Look out for these two girls and their beautiful and creative dresses at this 2014 prom night on May 3. By Staff Writer MacKenzie
DALLENBACH
HI-LINE Athleteof
the
Week
Ariana Mitra Tennis
Junior Ariana Mitra is helping lead the Tigers to an impressive 8-2 start to the season. She is usually paired with fellow varsity returnee, Sophie Mallaro in doubles matches.
How is the chemistry between you and Sophie? We love each other; we get along great. We’re always laughing on and off the court. We have inside jokes and stuff. Who is your biggest inspiration on or off the court? Probably my brother. When I was a kid, I thought he was the best tennis player in the world, and I wanted to be just like him. He coaches me and always helps me with my game and knows exactly what to say. How did you get into tennis? I started when I was six years old. I kind of copied my brother. He started and I wanted to be like him, so I started taking lessons and got really into it. Do you want to continue with tennis in the rest of your life? I want to try to play club tennis in college, and when I’m older, maybe try to join an adult league or something like that.
Tigers in
Action
Men’s Track May 8 MVC Divisionals @ CR Prarie 5 p.m. Women’s Track MVC Divisionals @ CR Washington 5 p.m. Men’s Tennis May 3 Vs Dubuque Wahlert 8 a.m. Vs CR Washington 12 p.m. Women’s Tennis May 3 @ Iowa City High 8 a.m. @ Iowa City West 12 p.m. Men’s Soccer May 9 @ Dubuque Senior 4:15 p.m. Women’s Soccer May 2 @ Ames 5:30 p.m. Women’s Golf May 5 MVC Super Meet @ Hunters Ridge 9:30 a.m.