9-28-17 Villager E edition

Page 1

FIRST BELL

Littleton Public Schools may hit the snooze button

LOPEZ TONIGHT

LOCAL | PG 6

FLEURISH | PG 13

Lebanese foreign minister makes local visit

SCHOOLS | PG 3

S O U T H

BEIRUT LANDING

Comedian to emcee famed Carousel Ball

M E T R O

VOLUME 35 • NUMBER 45 • SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Since 1982

www.villagerpublishing.com

TheVillagerNewspaper

@VillagerDenver

To win for losing weight In an era in which sedentary electronic “devicing” may be among the greatest obstacles to fitness among young people, leave it to Eesha Sheikh to toss a common assumption into calorieburning headstands. “Why fight the tide? Just move with the tide,” the 26-year-old entrepreneur said. Sheikh means “move” quite literally, by winning one for personal health in the same gaming world that birthed a new generation of cellphone-dependent teenagers. A study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity says electronic devices have had a significant and negative influence on cardio-respiratory fitness among college students, concluding “highfrequency users were more likely … to report forgoing opportunities for physical activity in order to use their cellphones.” Sheikh, a Centennialbased millennial, is running circles around such studies, hoping to prove that the answer to such problems as childhood obesity and poor fitness might be found in the same device that houses such apps as time-consuming Facebook, Tinder and Minecraft. But first, Sheikh is playing another game, crowd-

Childhood obesity prompts young entrepreneur to create fitness gaming app

Entrepreneur Eesha Sheikh is preparing to launch a Kickstarter campaign for Keeko, a fitness game she is developing at Innovation Pavilion, a high-tech co-working center in Centennial. She was inspired to create the app by her own difficult battle with childhood obesity. Photo by Peter Jones

funding Keeko, her in-development game app designed to help players reach new levels of health and fitness through their own behavior

and that of a personally designed onscreen character. “It’s all about making exercise fun,” she said. “You’re doing it in a way where your

focus is the game. The right balance of psychology, game design and game theory— that is what is going to set this apart from all the other

apps out there.” And it isn’t just exercise at play. Eating habits and Continued on page 7

LPS takes on bullying and bigotry Superintendent’s letter comes after two suicides and several racially-charged incidents

After a rough start to the 2017/18 schoolyear, Littleton Public Schools

Superintendent Brian Ewert is striving to make clear that the district’s schools should be safe and welcoming places for everyone. “In LPS, we are committed to the ideal that all means all,” he wrote in a Sept. 15 letter to the community. “All students—regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability … stu-

make a formal dents who are giftproclamation ed, immigrants, on the matter English-language soon, accordlearners, LGBTQ, ing to board homeless, poor, President Jack affluent and those Reutzel. who may have so“We’re trycial, emotional, ing to emphabehavioral or acasize the point demic challengto our stues—matter.” - LPS Superintendent dents, to our Ewert’s letter Brian Ewert c o m m u n i t y, went out to parents the day after the LPS Board to our teachers that this kind of beof Education informally affirmed havior is abhorrent to us,” he said. its commitment to inclusion, in the “We strive to give everybody a great wake of two back-to-back student education experience and we’re not suicides and several reports of ra- going to tolerate this type of conduct cially motivated harassment in just from anyone.” the first month of the new schoolyear. The board was expected to Continued on page 14

We are committed to providing learning environments that are physically, socially and emotionally safe places for all.


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