The Hawk September 2019

to Protect and serve

Local police shine light on job realities

the Hawk

In This Issue: Volume 13, Issue 1 September 20, 2019 Hendrickson High School 19201 Colorado Sand Drive Pflugerville, Texas 78660

Pay raises and district budgets, page 2 Mass shooting stats, page 9 Clubs, page 14 Off-campus lunch places, page 16

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News Volume 13, Issue 1

state of the

UNION • The Facts Landon Self | Reporter A new city ordinance in Austin took effect on July 1, which loosened the restrictions on homeless people being able to camp out on public property.

Before this law was passed, it was illegal for homeless people to sit, sleep, or lie on public property in Austin. Now homeless people can legally lie or sleep on public property, and police officers can only give tickets to homeless people who are blocking pathways.

There has been a lot of discussion from people in both political parties about this issue. Governor Greg Abbott disagrees with Austin’s new ordinance; he believes it puts public safety at risk and can devalue property in Austin. Mayor Steve Adler claims the new law will be there to help the homeless and give them more rights.

There is an estimated 2,200 homeless people in Austin, but that number could be higher because that number doesn’t include homeless people who are incarcerated, in hospitals, or in temporary housing. However, there are no clear numbers as to how many homeless people are in Pflugerville. When the law was passed there was concern that homeless people would be allowed to camp on private property, however that should no longer be an issue due to the new law.

New Homeless Law In Effect, Causes Controversy

• Your turn “I think it’s really good, i think it’s an opportunity to help people who are struggling so much and I think it’s good because it also allows people a little bit more freedom over territory that isn’t necessarily being used by the every day public i think them laying on the sidewalk is fine as long as they don’t take up all the space as the bill says and I like that they finally have a chance to not make their lives so hard hopefully they can use that space to work on their life and improve themselves.”

Max Garcia, 10 “I personally agree with the law I think it’s pretty good and as they stated its not causing blockage or anything so it should be fine. I still think thought that they should invest more money into homeless shelters to help support the homeless and get them back on their feet instead of casting them out of society.”

Graeson Davis, 11 “Personally I don’t like the law because they can set up anywhere and its kind of dangerous having Homeless people everywhere.”

• The Effects Seth Deaton | Asst. Editor The homeless population in Austin has grown 5 percent in the last year and 23 percent since 2015. However, the population of those living in homeless shelters has not grown. The shelters don’t have the funds needed to feed and house any more people. To fix that the city council unanimously voted to purchase an $8.6 million dollar building to help correct the problem. The new shelter will be built inside an existing building and the goal of the new shelter will be to get people into permanent housing after short term stays and will have fewer requirements on who can stay in the facility like marriage requirements for people staying together or bans on pets.

The new law is affecting more than just the homeless, as business owners have reported that the homeless camping on their property has caused problems.

One business owner said that they’ve had to call the cops more times in the past four months then in the last 15 years. According to the owner they make customers uncomfortable and drive business away.

The new shelter has also caused a backlash from existing members in the community where the shelter will be built, the public within the community has said they are worried about crime rates increasing within the community due to the growing number of homeless people.

The city council has also discussed meeting to narrow the city’s existing no camping laws to prevent people from camping in dangerous areas or areas where they are obstructing public property. Council member Greg Casar has said that the city needs to focus on getting the homeless back on their feet and not on arresting them because they camped in front of a restaurant.

Craig Solis, 12

“I think the laws are good because they are helping people, and they don’t have anywhere else to stay. It’s always good to help people out.”

Hazel Burton, 9

“I think the law is good, because I think no one wants to be homeless and so having a place where are allowed to be in the public is good so that they don’t have to move around so much like they did when the law wasn’t a thing.”

Peyton Childs, 10

News September 20, 2019

• By The Numbers

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State education bill leads to pay increases for teachers

The Bill A bill designed to improve the public school system in Texas was signed into law by Governor Gregg Abbott at Parmer Lane Elementary school Tuesday, June 11. The bill budgets $11.6 billion to pay for pre-kindergarten programs, career and

technology education priorities, and increases in teacher salaries across the state. It will also lower school property taxes in hopes of improving an education system ranked 34th in the country by US News.

How it affects Pflugerville In the deal, PfISD will be allocated up to $12.1 million, with $5.9 million of that contingent on the district maintaining its status as a “Fast Growth” district. In order to do that, a district needs to have either a growth of 10 percent or more or a net gain of at least 3,500 students. Districts were only required to use 30 percent of the funds for teacher raises, which would have resulted in 1.8 percent raises, however, the PfISD school board approved a minimum 6.7 percent pay raise for teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors and

2019-2020 Pay scale for teachers and librarians

licensed professionals. Starting yearly salaries for teachers will be $50,000 with a bump up to $51,450 for those with six or more years of experience.

A 4 percent raise for support staff and other district employees - including school bus drivers, janitorial staff, administrative staff, among others - was approved as well, and hourly workers will receive a 5 percent raise. These raises will cost the district $10 million, money the district may not have if their status as a Fast Growth district isn’t maintained.

Starting (Annual)

Six Years experience (Annual)

PFLUGERVILLE ISD

$50,000

$51,400

ROUND ROCK ISD

$49,300

$52,300

LEANDER ISD

$50,000

$52,701

AUSTIN ISD

$50,251

$52,136

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RAISE FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

RAISE FOR HOURLY WORKERS

*Figures per each district’s official website Money spent by Pflugerville allocated by the Education Bill, in Millions of dollars

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RAISE FOR SUPPORT STAFF SUCH AS BUS DRIVERS AND JANITORIAL STAFF

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$10 Million

3 2 1 0

7% 5% 4% TOTAL MONEY SPENT ON RAISES FOR THE DISTRICT

Raises for staff

Raises for staff, contingent on PfISD maintaining its fast growth designation

Other expenses such as lowering property taxes

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News Volume 13, Issue 1

Exemption policy changes for 2020 Hector Santos | Reporter Pflugerville ISD changed the final exemption policy to where only juniors and seniors can be exempt. Freshmen and sophomores must take final exams.

The reason juniors are allowed to be exempt is because they are required to take the TSI and AP classes, which are considered college ready.

“I think the idea was that there were kids that never took the final exams and because of this we found some of our kids unprepared for college,”

Associate principal Michael Grebb said “This way we are giving freshmen and sophomores a better idea of what it will be like in college.”

Juniors and seniors can still take the finals if they choose. Exemption is based on attendance and is considered individually for each course.

In order for juniors and seniors to get an exemption from a final they must have an 80 or higher in that class. For year long courses, if students have

anywhere between 80-89, they can have no more than two unexcused absences for that semester. If they have a 90 or higher they can have up to three unexcused absences. If the course is a semester course than they can have no more than two unexcused absences for 90, and no more than one for 80. Accommodations from the 504 such as extra time, an adult reading the questions, and going into another room with a small group of students

will be included in both midterms and finals.

Seniors must also complete the ApplyTexas Application and the FAFSA or TAFSA to be exempt. Juniors and seniors are also required to successfully satisfy at least one College-Ready, Career-Ready, or Military Indicator to be eligible for exemptions.

Bus shortage problem solved, through bus company change

Pflugerville ISD switches to new grade book system Landon Self | Reporter PfISD recently made the switch from using Focus to now using Skyward as the district program where all grades and attendance will be entered. The change has been a major adjustment for students and teachers, but the district has hope that after complete training with the program, people will become more used to it. A select committee was formed to search the market to find a product that would perform better, and have a variety of features to improve efficiency, and transparency.

“Their recommendation was brought to the board. Users of any program need training to become very familiar with maximizing the potential benefits that will impact student performance, achievement and outcomes,” School Board President Vernagene Mott said.

“With it being early in the school year, the district has not yet encountered any issues with the new program.”

There have been glitches on skyward

the day after Labor Day, where teachers attendance showed up as a B day when it was an A day. Another issue with Skyward was when teachers were locked out of their grade books the day the first IPR grades were pulled.

“There are a lot of good things about Skyward that we haven’t seen yet but that I know from knowing other people that do my job in other schools that have Skyward,” school registrar Cynthia Grochowski said. “If we ever have anything, once we get it all completely loaded and working with it, if there’s anything that we need and think would be an improvement for it, and we suggest it to Skyward, then there’s a higher chance they will actually make that adjustment, because there would be other school districts that would also want the change. I can see Skyward evolving much more in the future.”

Kaitlin Mackey | Co-Editor Ikram Mohamed | Photographer After weeks of searching, the district to ensure their child is taken care of has found enough bus drivers after while they’re on duty. giving a pay raise of $20.09 an hour In addition, the district has also plus benefits such as health insurance purchased new buses. Therefore, the and childcare. However, while the buses used throughout the district are district has enough bus drivers, no longer being provided by Durham. they’re always hiring to ensure that all These new buses are different, they all possible bus routes can be easily taken have seat belts and air conditioning, while the ones from Durham did not care of.

YMCA is offering childcare have seat belts and only some have for employees involved in the air conditioning. This helps the district Transportation and the Northwest because they no longer have to rely on Leadership Academy.

Therefore, another company to provide service to employees that have children are able our campuses in need of buses.

We Are the Champions

News September 20, 2019

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Special Olympics program earns Top 5 in Nation Hector Santos | Reporter This year the Unified Champions was recognized by ESPN as one of the top schools in the National Special Olympics. The award was given by Tim Shiver whose mother had started the Special Olympics.

The Special Olympics National School Recognition program allows schools across the U.S to be recognized for inclusion and their partnership with Special Olympics. Ten standards are developed by the national leaders in education and Special Olympics. Once these standards are met by a school they will be recognized and become a national banner Unified Champion School.

During the time principal Daniel Garcia sign the application for the Special Olympics the school had already met 8 out of 10 standards.

“We only had to meet the 10 standards,” speech therapist and Special Olympics coach, Maggie Jashinsky said. “We weren’t really trying to get a top rank so this was a very big moment for us and it feels amazing.”

The Special Olympics sponsors came into the school at the beginning of last year to ask Garcia if the school would be willing to talk about applying to become a Unified Champion School.

They had given Garcia the application for him to consider the offer and think about him, but without a second thought he signed right away.

One thing that sets this school apart from other schools is that they set

Photo provided by Maggie Jashinsky

everyone who is a contender as an ambassador. In the Special Olympics schools typically place their contenders as either athletes or partners. Athletes are people intellectually disabled and developing while Partners are typically developing.

The coaches decided to remove that and start their own club. A Unified Champion School club known as the Ambassadors.

“We wanted to show that all of our students are equal,” Jashinsky said.

“We were mainly hanging out with them and teaching them to accept and include themselves and each other.

Our main goal is inclusion.”

The award means a lot to different people and Jashinsky sees it as moment to remember to the intellectual and developmental disabled students.

“One of our students Benji Garcia can take and remember scores of any sport you give him,” Jashinsky said.

“His dream is to work in sports. The softball team created the opportunity for Benji to call the entire game so this really means a lot to him.”

Several Texas schools who were looking to gain their 10 standards attended SXSW and most had more students in attendance, however, this school was noticed for its complete inclusion of all of the students and they spoke about how this has impacted them personally.

The Special Olympics Texas placed the program in the top 5 in the nation.

Sophomore Brett Dixon seniors Benji Garcia and Ari Licon, and sophomore Elena Chacon celebrate the Special Olympics Team's national recognition.

“I think recognition is good not just for Hendrickson, but for all schools throughout the district,” Jashinsky said. “It shows students from other

schools that no matter who they are they are capable of doing great things.”

FCCLA Member Earns National Gold

Elizabeth Monica and Maily Nguyen of Pflugerville High School captured awards at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) National Leadership Conference, June 30 to July 4 in Anaheim, California.

Ethan Tittle | Reporter Over the summer, recent graduate Elizabeth Monica won a gold medal at the Family Career and Community Leaders of America National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California.

Her teacher Kristen Sutphen, the Fashion Design teacher and leader of the FCCLA club says that Monica had been in FCCLA for only two years, and has put in a lot of work to get where she is now.

“FCCLA is a student led organization on leadership skills and various components of community; family, careers, friendships,” Sutphen said “We also do a lot of competitive events as well”.

The FCCLA members start meeting

around the same time clubs begin and they work all year long learning about life skills, relationship building, and developing a presentation that they will use when they start competing in conferences. At the conferences they show their presentation and then go to clinics and workshops throughout the day.

“The conferences are a number of things,” Sutphen said. “Once the kids will present their projects and compete. Another component is various workshops that train them for different skills whether it’s preparing for college, getting a job, enhancing leadership skills, building relationships, things like that”.

Monica did her presentation on life planning. Life Event Planning is an individual or team event that recognizes participants who apply skills learned in Family and Consumer Sciences courses to manage the costs of an event, such as operating a vehicle for one month, taking a school or personal trip, paying expenses for one grade level and many others.

“Typically, they would choose an event they would like to compete in,” Sutphen said. “There are quite a few, like 40 or 50 they can choose from. Then from that they have guidelines that they have to read and look into, then start preparing their presentations.”

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• Staff Editorial Lack of action to stop shootings causes fear, anxiety to rise Opinions Volume 13, Issue 1

The aftermath of shootings impact everyone, not just those directly affected by them. Across the nation, schools, businesses, and other public locations are now taking precautions to prevent future shootings, and along with these precautions an anxiety seems to have risen.

A mass hysteria was caused in Times Square on Aug. 6 when a motorcycle backfired causing the crowd to panic, thinking it was a shooter.

The crowd ran into buildings seeking cover and spreading the panic. In any other country, a car backfiring wouldn’t have caused this level of chaos by making citizens and foreigners believe they were in the center of a mass shooting.

Tragic events, such as mass shootings, have become almost common in America.

Since the start of 2019 there have been 17 major mass Vy Bui | Artist shootings as of Aug. 5, making it an average of one shooting every 12.7 days, and over the past three years the record for deadliest mass shooting has been broken twice. First in 2016 with the Orlando shooting, when 50 people were killed and 53 were injured, and then in 2017 with the Las Vegas shooting where 59 people died and over 850 people were injured. This year two of the deadliest shootings in America occurred in the first weekend of August. The first happening in El Paso where 22 people died and 23 were wounded, and not even a day later there was a shooting in Dayton, Ohio where at least nine people died and 27 were injured, and after a couple of days, a press conference, and a couple of speeches, these tragic events seem to have just been forgotten about.

The anxiety spreading across the nation is largely due to the fact that nothing is being

Hendrickson High School 19201 Colorado Sand Drive Pflugerville, TX 78660 http://www.pfisd.net/HHS (512) 594-1100 Student Population: 2,134 Staff: 180 Adviser: Kari Riemer Principal: Daniel Garcia www.facebook.com/HawkNewspaper

done to stop the shootings. Schools are implementing new policies to try to keep students safe, public places like stadiums are trying to minimize the likelihood of a shooting, companies are selling new products like bulletproof backpacks, which according to NBC news have flown off the shelves, but other than that nothing is really being done. No laws have been passed trying to prevent future shootings, no regulations of guns, nothing has been done.

In 1996, there was a shooting in Australia and the next week laws were passed making all semi automatic rifles and shotguns illegal and making it harder to obtain a gun.

Since then there hasn’t been a single mass shooting in Australia, but there’s been hundreds of shootings in the US since 2000 and nothing has changed.

Two years ago, Parkland high school students started the March for Our Lives movement. It was a series of walkouts, marches and protests trying to bring attention to the shootings on a national level and to try and get the government to do something about the problem that had been plaguing the nation. This movement grew and eventually the students from Parkland that started the movement met with the President to discuss what could be done, but after the meeting a few days of press and congressional meetings everyone moved on and forgot about it.

No laws were passed trying to fix the issue.

The fact that nothing has been done to prevent these shootings and save lives that are unnecessarily put at risk is the reason behind this paranoia and fear that’s been spreading, everyone is worried that they’ll be next. In order for this fear to subside something has to change.

The Hawk, the official student newspaper of Hendrickson High School, is an open forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions.

Opinions expressed reflect the beliefs of the student author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the entire Hawk Staff, the Hawk Adviser, the Hendrickson Faculty and Staff, or the Principal.

Letters to the editor are welcomed, and may be dropped off in E211. Corrections will be printed when brought to the attention of the staff.

The Hawk is printed monthly at Community Impact in Pflugerville, Texas. 1,000 copies are printed each run, and are distributed to the student body for free through an advisory period and on newsstands throughout the building.

Editorial Staff Co-Editors: Abigail Hill & Kaitlin Mackey Assistant Editors: Seth Deaton, Brisa Espinoza, Ikram Mohamed, Angelyna Rosales, Bryan Ross

Reporters

Hannah Brubaker Kaitlin Curtis Kaitlyn Nash Hector Santos

Artist Vy Bui

Landon Self Ethan Tittle Zachary Valdez Kyla White

• Your Turn How do you feel about recent shootings?

“I really think that our gun laws should be changed; I know they give background checks but they should be more in depth about requirements when it comes to guns.

I think concealed handgun license requirements need to be really specific and qualifications need to be met. They’re not making a big enough deal about it. They’re being exaggerated in the wrong way, as in victims are being too sensitive or that the suspects are being branded as victims of poor mental health. It doesn’t change the fact that they killed innocent people.”

Tatum Pruett. 10 “I believe that shootings across America are horrible recurrences happening every other month. Also I think it has citizens scared of owning guns or of just guns in general, and that fear is making people want to have stricter laws. Some people are making jokes out of them and some people are taking them seriously and it’s hard to tell which is which sometimes. I believe that making a big deal about it can make sense so that you can bring awareness to the situation, but some people do blow it out of proportion.”

Diego Franklin, 10

“They are obviously a horrific circumstance and that in addition to the unspeakable violence that they themselves are it’s also an assault on the institutions that we have been trained to trust in. The places that we are supposed to be safe, and that’s where a lot of these are happening and so a lot of the impact on people aren’t directly affected by or connected to these comes in affects their sense of where they could see it happening in a similar place that does affect them”

Sean Phelan, Assistant Band Director

Associations Interscholastic Press League Texas Association of Journalism Educators Journalism Educators Association National Scholastic Press Association Columbia Scholastic Press League

to Protect and serve

Honors

ILPC Bronze Star, 2014 & 2015, 2017, 2018 Columbia Scholastic Press League, Gold Medalist 2016, 2017, 2018 Silver Crown, 2017, 2018 Pacemaker Finalist, 2018

Local police shine light on job realities

the Hawk

In This Issue: Volume 13, Issue 1 September 20, 2019 Hendrickson High School 19201 Colorado Sand Drive Pflugerville, Texas 78660

Pay raises and district budgets, page 2 Mass shooting stats, page 9 Clubs, page 14 Off-campus lunch places, page 16

Design by Kaitlin Mackey Photo by Kaitlin Mackey

Opinion September 20. 2019

• Hit or Miss

• My Turn

School gets A rating from TEA

Don’t Shoot

The Texas Education Agency, TEA, has given Pflugerville ISD a B rating for Academic Accountability for the second year in a row. Only five schools in the district received an A with Hendrickson as the only high school to do so. The TEA uses three topics of which they base their ratings on: School Progress, Achievement, and Closing the Gaps. Social Studies was the subject the TEA awarded Hendrickson to have Exceptional Academic Achievement for and was noted to be in the top 25 percent of state schools for academic growth. Hendrickson receiving an A rating is a hit.

New IDs provide advantages This school year started with a new requirement to wear ID badges at all times. Despite some controversy, the advantages seem to outweigh the harms. For example, there is going to be a new reward system in place ensuring that if people do something good, they scan their IDs and get a prize of some sort. They can also help people that are new to the school that don’t have a lot of friends. IDs make it easy to get to know people’s names and grades. Many students' complaints have been about IDs using last years school pictures, but they’re allowed to retake the picture for $5. Checking out a book is also much easier because you only need to scan your ID. It also presents the opportunity to have a sense of responsibility that many adults have with carrying around their drivers licences. IDs benefiting the school in other ways other than safety is a hit.

Lunch system stops disruptions Recently there has been a new system put in place where after ten minutes the cafeteria and POD are locked down and nobody is allowed to leave. This system was put into place to keep the halls clear and to limit disruptions to classes. Previously teachers had to try and keep their classes focused as noises and chaos in the hall caused their attention started to wander.

Even though this new system leaves very little time to get food from the POD and head back to the cafeteria it’s a necessary change to help limit distractions caused by groups wandering the halls, and if there’s not enough time to go to the cafeteria and head to the POD and easy solution would be going to the POD first and head to the cafeteria after. This saves time and allows for minimum distractions in the hallway. The new ten minute system is a hit.

Parking permits cause frustration Requiring parking passes to be purchased is not a Hendrickson exclusive process, nor is it an unreasonable ask. Parking is limited, and ensuring that everybody who parks in the student-designated lot is actually a student makes sense, while also providing an opportunity to make some extra money without charging very much. The problem with the current system is that asking students to purchase a new pass every year is completely unnecessary.

A senior or junior who had a pass a previous year should not be required to purchase a new one. They’ve already gone through the process to ensure that they are a current student, so there’s no need to charge them extra. If there are concerns about insurance or still having a valid license, a simple requirement would be to require those with passes to show the pass, insurance, and their license without having to pay for a new pass. Requiring students to buy a new pass every year is a miss.

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Editor responds to racial targeting Brisa Espinoza | Asst Editor

Vy Bui | Artist

Gunshots fired and were heard everywhere, as if the bullet was passing right by our ears. Twenty two people died in a shooting but this shooting was different; different as though it felt more personal than the other 250 shootings that have taken place since the start of 2019. The shooter’s goal was to kill and hurt the Hispanic people in El Paso, a predominantly Hispanic community in Texas. He was, through association, attacking me.

The shooter wrote in his manifesto expressing his beliefs and reasons for why he did what he did, or what he saw as “head[ing] the fight to reclaim [his] country from destruction.”

He wrote that he “can’t bring [him]self to kill [his] fellow Americans.” But victims in his attack were also his “fellow” Americans. He continuously says in his manifesto that he was targeting immigrants/ Hispanics and he is targeting them with means that will decrease the number of people using resources, prevent Texas from becoming a Democratic state, produce more jobs and prevent racial mixing.

When more and more of these attacks happen to non-white people, I ask myself, how can someone have this much hate in them? How can someone have such a strong resentment and hatred for a person that simply has a different skin color or skin tone? The shooter repeatedly said that he just wanted to kill the ‘non-Americans,’ but how does he know who the ‘non-Americans’ are?

Are the “non-Americans” the ones that are able to speak more than just English? You can’t tell who the ‘non-Americans’ are just based on appearance. I have tan skin and brown hair, does that make me less American than someone with pale skin and blonde hair? I was born in Texas, on US territory. Therefore I am American, but would I be shot just because I look like I’m a “non-American?’”

I was taught to speak Spanish from a very young age, and as I began to speak Spanish, my parents were still developing and learning English.

Spanish being a language my family understands, they’ve never hesitated to speak it, whether that be privately or in public. A language that my parents feel the most comfortable speaking to their children in is now frowned upon to speak in public since they are in America and you speak English. It scares me when my mom speaks to me i n

Spanish, if it’s As though I’m just waiting for someone to overhear the conversation and begin to bash us for speaking a language not native to others. But that is how society is beginning to mold this generation. They’re molding us to be scared to be unique and different. Knowing now that whenever I speak spanish, it’ll put a target on my back as the “nonAmerican” and the Hispanic ready to be shot, scares me the most.

When I want to leave the

house, I question myself about whether I want to leave and possibly risk my life. Nowadays you can’t go anywhere without thinking that something can happen to you. Shootings happen nearly everywhere. You can no longer go into a school, a church, a grocery store or to a concert without having the fear that you will get shot. The victims in the El Paso shooting were in Walmart buying their groceries for the week, their school supplies, and just their basic necessities when they were killed. No matter where you go in this world, there’s someone that has the intentions to hurt you.

Being a Hispanic young adult in a world that is full of hate and racism is a scary thing. I go through my life wondering what people think of me when they see me. Do they think I can only speak Spanish or have a thick accent when I speak?

Do they think my family is full of ‘rapists and drug dealers’?

Having a president that speaks lowly of Hispanics doesn’t help my situation or ease my fears. Trump is normalizing racism throughout the country as he speaks out, causing people to think it’s okay to lash out to people in public telling them to “go back to their country“ or that they’re “not welcome here.” America has been through a lot as a country and has grown, but with the racist attacks, it has set the country back over 40 years.

The shooter was a racist, a terrorist and a murderer.

Nothing will ever excuse what he did to the city of El paso, Texas and the fears he placed on the Hispanic community on August 3, 2019. He drove over 10 hours to kill people that have done nothing to him other than upset him that America is no longer just white. The United States isn’t a place for people to hate you because you’re a different race, when will we all learn that?

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Feature Volume 13, Issue 1

Down In History

Alumnus wins National Speech and Debate Tournament title

Abigail Hill | Co-Editor

Photo Courtesy of Nicole Jenkins

From barely being able to speak proper and clear English as an adolescent, to being the first African American national champion in Speech and Debate. Alumnus Rene Otero spent three years practicing Extemporaneous (extemp) speaking, and come senior year, his passion would become very clear.

“I didn’t even think I was going to finals, so not only did I final, but I won,” Otero said. “It was so strange because I told myself I was going to the be the first black finalist, and then I did it. Things really do happen when you set your mind to it. It felt like a band-aid was being ripped off and everything was just paying off finally.”

Otero grew up in Kyle, Texas and is an African American and Latinx, which he believes has been beneficial, but has also brought on setbacks in the speech and debate setting.

“I always felt that my story, or whatever I went through, was very much so accommodated when I moved to Pflugerville, and then I realized that there was a really big difference between me growing up as a black and Latinx child, to the majority white population in Pflugerville,” Otero said.

“In my upbringing, I was always lacking sympathy, I was always given pity, and that made it clear to me that there was a segregation of education attainment between my background and a suburban class background.

So, I needed to take advantage of the changes.”

Despite Otero’s success in debate, when he first moved to Pflugerville, he wasn’t planning on joining debate.

“The reason why I joined the debate team was because the first day of school, I didn’t do any of the required debate assignments, I didn’t go to the summer camp, but Mrs. Nash asked, ‘Does anyone want to join the competitive debate team?” And this one girl did it, and I thought she was

really cute, so I’m going to get know her,”’ Otero said. “So I joined, and three days later she left the school and I was already in too deep.”

After joining, Otero immediately began to practice the rhythm of speaking publicly.

“My first experience was when I was invited last minute to come to a debate tournament because one of our students got a chemical burn and couldn’t compete, so I went in his place,” Otero said. “I ended up winning the round, and the next round I brutally lost. I knew I had a lot of work to do, but what really empowered me

“

The fact that it meant so much to other people made me realize I was loved in this community, in one that I didn't think I was loved."

Rene Otero, Alumnus was my background. I didn’t really have an opportunity to educate myself about politics, but learning how my identity interacts with the greater society made me realize I wanted to educate myself about this and be able to defend myself later on.”

Leading up to Nationals, practice and consistency is key, Otero believed, and that it doesn’t come without trial and error.

“There wasn’t very many black people in the events that I did, and that made me work twice as hard,” Otero said. “If I messed up in a speech, you’re more likely to remember the black kid that messed up in a speech, than one of the

three white people that messed up. That itself really inspired to me start, not literally start debate, but start of me wanting to progress as a speaker, as an advocate because I wanted more diversity and plurality in the stories shared in the debate space.”

After successfully winning the title at the National Speech and Debate Tournament (NSDA) for International Extemp, Otero began looking to his future in speaking.

“I’m trying to decide if I want to do foreign or domestic policy in my future,” Otero said. “I love African studies, which would set me up to go to law school for international law and work for embassies, but I also know I have a duty here in the United States. And hopefully doing college speech will help me choose more specifically what career I want to go into. But speech has changed the way I think wildly, so I’m really excited to see how it will change the way I think even more.”

And, now that Otero has graduated, he believes the impact debate has had on him will always progress, and that he has learned more about himself than he would’ve if he didn’t take speech and debate.

“Now I know my worth, now I know my talent and capabilities,” Otero said. “When you know those kind of things you have a sense of confidence that allows you to want to break barriers. A high schooler winning extracurricular nationals has changed my life, and it sounds silly, but it has major psychological implications.”

Rene Otero, Aly Mithani, Kirsten Nash come together after Otero wins the National Championship at NSDA.

Feature September 20, 2019

Caught in the crossfire

9

Rise in mass shootings result in strict regulations, new policies

Angelyna Rosales | Asst Editor PfISD has recently enforced new safety changes in the district, including the clear bag policy at the Pfield and required student IDs. Associate principal Michael Grebb thinks that these changes will make things easier for everyone.

The clear bag policy was created at the end of last year, however the policy will be enforced starting this

year.

“The clear bags are a safety thing that everyone is implementing to make it easier for people to get through the gates while still being able to bring things into the game,” Grebb said. “While at the same time making everyone feel safe that no one is bringing things that they shouldn’t into the stadium.”

While PfISD has always had student IDs, people are now required to wear them on a breakaway lanyard. This helps administrators and teachers identify people and make sure that they actually belong on campus.

“The IDs are also a safety issue,” Grebb said. “In the Parkland shooting report, it said that it would have been helpful for their students to be wearing IDs

because it was a former student who came into the school, and it just helps us identify people because sometimes there will be kids who graduated and I’ll still think they go to school here.

It’s just used to help identify people and keep everyone safe.”

Deadliest mass shootings in the us Abigail Hill | Co-Editor

Source: https://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/mass-shooting-data-bases-some-going-back-to-1966/

50

Las Vegas, NV (2017) Orlando, FL (2016)

422

Injured

53

49 17

32

Blacksburg, VA (2007)

Killed

27 1

Newton, CT (2012) El Paso, Texas (2019)

22

Killeen, Texas (1991)

22

San Ysidro, CA (1984)

21

San Bernardino, CA (2015)

14

Fort Hood, Texas (2009)

13

Binghamton, NY (2009)

13 4

Aurora, CO (2012)

12

24 20 19

6 32

58

Oct. 1, 2017:

April 16, 2007:

Las Vegas, Nevada, where more than

Sept. 16, 2013:

Blacksburg, Virginia.

50

Washington, D.C.,

32

12 people inside the

people at Virginia Tech were shot and killed before the shooter took his own life.

people died and over 200 were injured at a music concert at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

Washington Navy Yard were killed with a 12- gauge shotgun.

Dec. 14, 2012:

Newtown, Connecticut, when Sandy Hook Elementary School turned into a crime scene, leaving

26

people killed.

Feb. 14, 2018:

Parkland, Florida, when a former student entered Stoneman Douglas High School and killed

June 12, 2016:

Orlando, Florida, where

49

people were killed, and over 50 people injured at Pulse, a gay nightclub.

17

students.

Nov. 5, 2017: Sutherland Springs, Texas, where

26

people were killed attending church service.

August 3, 2019: El Paso, Texas where

22

people were killed at a Walmart located in El Paso before surrendering to the police.

10

Feature Volume 13, Issue 1

To Protect

Staffer interprets experience growing up with relation to officer Abigail Hill | Co-Editor My dad is a cop. He has been a cop for 22 years now. My dad is not evil. I refuse to believe cops are as bad as people make them out to be.

Not just because my dad is a cop, but because I know first hand how hard they work, and how they put their lives at risk every time they go on duty.

The crazy thing to me is, they risk their own life for people who resent them, hate them, scrutinize them.

Would you do that? You see all these videos on Twitter, videos of cops supposedly abusing their power, as well as their victims. But what you don’t see is everything beforehand, you don’t see what happens after, and sometimes you don’t even have the audio in the video. More importantly though, is you never see the good videos of cops, or the bad videos of cops being attacked, sometimes even killed by criminals.

Before I was born, my dad worked in the gang unit at the Austin Police Department. Where he was then shot at

and put in various situations where he came close to not seeing another day.

My mom, with my older brother being only two years old, would have panic attacks on the regular. Even now when my dad has duty from 5 pm to 3 am, I see her sleeping on the couch until my dad gets home, just so she knows he’s safe.

And that, that is the world we live in. Cops are no longer seen as protectors of our community, but they have fallen into the stereotype that cops are only out to get us.

Don’t get me wrong, I am aware of the corruption happening in a few police departments. Corruption is everywhere, in

Q &A

What is your job like?

What is your goal?

“It’s honestly lovely; from working the jails, patrol and school this is the best of the three. It’s very rewarding, getting to see someone grow from their freshman year to their senior year and seeing how they’ve changed. Some of them come back and talk about the impact we’ve had on their life; it’s the best job one can have.”

“My primary goal is to make sure the schools stay safe, enforce state law, education code and build the relationship with the staff and student body.”

and Officer Ray Hernandez

- Hernandez

What's the worst thing you have found?

“The worst thing is finding out that you have to arrest someone that you’ve worked a long time with because they’ve messed up.”

- Boyd

lack thorough and deep knowledge about various situations. Their window has narrowed to only social media. Our lazy intuition has caused us to be arrogant on too many problems going on in this world, and some ways to change that is by doing your own research.

To not believe everything you see on social media and to turn to reliable sources and unbiased news outlets.

I know there have been instances where the cop is definitely at fault, however it is wrong to assume all cops are at fault. It is wrong to spread hate on the people who save lives every day and serve our community. Without cops, anarchy would consume our world. There would be no one to call when you are in danger, and no one to go to when there’s a serious problem. So, all I ask is to reconsider your view on cops. Expand your knowledge on “police brutality” and take the time to consider all points of view.

With Sergeant Adam Boyd

Brisa Espinoza | Asst Editor

- Hernandez

every occupation. But to be frank, the majority of cops are not bad. My dad is not bad. My dad’s colleagues are not bad. I have lost count how of how many times I’ve heard my dad tell me another cop lost their life in the line of duty.

Unless one of your relatives is a cop, nobody knows the kind of fear that has risen inside of me for my dad.

I hear all the hate from my peers at school, from people I follow on social media, and it takes everything inside of me to not say something back and come to the cops defense. Because a lot of knowledge is obtained by just a click, or view on Twitter or Instagram, teens now

Have you ever been treated differently people find out that you're a police officer?

What are officers trained to do in certain events such as shooting?

“When people find out that I’m a police officer they usually want to know about their neighbor, or their friend that did something, if you’ve ever shot somebody. They tell us about how they just got a ticket and want to know how we can help with that

“The response to shooting has really evolved. When I first came into law enforcement, the norm was that if you were the first officer on scene, you’d wait for a three -man team to come and then you’d all go in together. Whereas now if there’s an active threat you’re going towards it no matter what.”

- Boyd

- Hernandez

Feature September 20, 2019

11

and Serve Police officers share thoughts, advice on different scenarios Kaitlin Mackey | Co-Editor

Police officers as a whole have witnessed years of hatred, cruelty, and judgement from society.

One officer makes a bad choice and all of the sudden, the law enforcement community is the bad guy.

“When I hear people criticizing law enforcement, I typically (unfortunately) have to think, ‘here we go again,’” Commander Mayo Neyland with Pflugerville Police Department said. “There’s an old expression that one bad apple ruins the bunch and that kind of holds true especially in today’s day and age where everything is immediately available in terms of the media and internet and how widespread it becomes. So, it’s very disheartening when we have to hear about that because we work so hard to diligently protect our profession and to do the right thing so when one officer does do something wrong it hurts [officers as a whole] and it’s hard to live with.”

In recent years, there has been an influx of violence between officers and civilians. With the help of new technological advances, viral videos of officers dealing with situations in which violence did not seem necessary would spread like a wildfire, hence the beginning of the “trend” of police brutality. There have been allegations against many officers mainly targeting the black community, starting the beginning of “Black Lives Matter.”

“I’ve got something that I do when I give a talk for the Citizens Police Academy or some type of training where civilians want to come and learn about law enforcement,” Lieutenant Tom Sloan with Round Rock Police Department said. “I ask them to ‘give me an idea of what professions we have in the room here today.’ For example, someone says they’re a doctor and I say ‘alright good deal. I’m not a doctor. I don’t

know anything about medicine, but I can assure you I can do your job better than you can.’ And it shocks people to hear that. And I say, ‘doesn’t feel good does it? That’s how we feel all the time as law enforcement professionals when you criticize us and Monday morning quarterback our split-second decisions.’ I do it in a jovial way where I’m not coming off as a jerk but in order to reach people, you have to shock them every now and then. When I see instances of police officers or the profession being criticized by the public, it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to because I can’t let it disrupt the way that I feel.”

A police officer’s number one job is to enforce the laws and punish those who fail to do so, and they do this for everyone else’s safety. Sometimes officers do not always go about enforcing laws the way that civilians want them to. However, many officers must act quickly and expect the unexpected for their safety and for others’ safety.

While many officers do act quickly, sometimes it’s not quick enough. On June 24, 2015, Sergeant Christopher Kelley with Hutto Police Department was killed in the line of duty after a suspect stole a patrol car trying to escape from police custody. On Feb. 25, 2018, Officer Charles Whites with Round Rock Police Department was directing traffic one morning after an accident happened on I-35. Whites was struck by a car due to an intoxicated driver while doing his job. A few months after the incident,

Whites passed away in the hospital.

“We all know as police officers what industry we’re in,” Sloan said. “We’re in an industry that requires a lot of promise and gives little in return.

We’re in an industry where bad things happen to good people and we witness that. Sometimes it happens to us, our friends, families, our brothers and sisters in law enforcement so it’s expected. We anticipate that something tragic is going to happen to officers just based on the law of averages.

Texas is usually leading of all 50 states of most deaths in the line of duty and we have been for a long time, so it’s an expected thing.

Tragedies happen.

The way I feel the next day is I’ve got an obligation now as a leader in the organization to check on my peers, check on my staff, and to confirm to them that they’re doing this job for a reason and it’s a noble cause and to not get bogged down in mourning the loss of an officer or mourning the tragedy of a near-fatal collision or shooting, etc., and we’ve got business to do. It sounds hard and harsh but it’s the right thing to do for them so that their mind is on their priority of staying safe and not feeling sorry for themselves because my job is to make sure they go home. If they are licking their wounds and are feeling bad about what happened, then their guard will be down and something bad will happen to them.”

At times due to the level of hatred

police

that has been produced by certain people in society, it has led to some people acting irrational in which they feel like they must express their hatred by injuring or ending the lives of officers. On Aug. 14, narcotics officers were serving a warrant at a house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Moments later, gunfire erupted in the kitchen.

During this mass shooting, a total of six officers and three civilians were injured. While all of those involved were in stable condition when leaving the scene, the intention was critical.

“Do I ever worry about what could happen? Repeatedly,” Neyland said.

“It happens all the time. It could be responding to a medical call, where you’re not sure what’s going to happen with the patient. It could be like my latest one; being called as the administrator when the shooting was occurring in an apartment complex in town. Officers for the department were taking fire, and just all the things that go through your head in terms of wanting to be there for your officers and get there. You don’t know how bad the situation is. So, you just start thinking the worst from time to time with those.”

Officers are here to protect everyone, differences aside. They are a part of the community, as everyone else is. They are doing their part in society to try and keep everyone, including themselves, as safe as possible.

“I think the biggest misconception is again when one officer does something wrong that it’s all of us,” Neyland said. “Most times people forget that we’re human. We’re people; we feel just like everybody else, we make mistakes just like everybody else, and I think that’s often forgotten. I think that human aspect of being a police officer is sometimes forgotten about.”

12

Feature Volume 13, Issue 1

Out of the fire and into the Fire Academy

New teacher hopes to make lasting impression, prepare students for life

Seth Deaton | Asst. Editor The Fire Academy helps prepare those with an interest in becoming a firefighter. They practice working in the bulky heavy uniforms, they do drills made to simulate real situations as close as possible, and they work hard to condition and prepare themselves for a career in fire fighting. For the Fire Academy teacher Pedro Gonzalez, teaching this academy is more than just a job.

Pedro Gonzalez has been around fire fighting his whole life and when he became a teacher, getting to teach those skills, to him, was a dream come true. He previously worked at Austin LBJ high school and when he saw the Fire Academy he wanted to bring it back home to start it there.

“For me the Fire Academy allows me to live the best of both worlds,” Gonzalez said. “I’m teaching and I still get to do fire fighting and pass on my knowledge and experience to students so that they can move on into their

attention and they know they can be careers.”

Gonzalez says he enjoys teaching Fire straightforward with me too.”

Academy, and for him it’s about more Even though his class is about than just conditioning and learning preparing for real life situations, Gonzalez still how to spray a hose. wants to make It’s about teaching sure that his his cadets how to be a firefighter and class is fun For me the fire academy and enjoyable. making sure they allows me to live the It should be know what’s at stake best of both worlds. something you in this line of work.

I'm teaching and I still look forward to, “My goal is to get to do fire fighting but there still get my students and give my knowledge needs to be a ready for the real and experience to the certain level of world and make students so that they seriousness when sure they’re ready can move on into their for the workforce,” working with equipment.

Gonzalez said. “The careers."

“I was doing a fire and EMS, it’s Pedro Gonzalez, Fire Academy drill outside with real life situations. my first cadets We’re dealing with people’s lives and and there was one property so I don’t beat around cadet that was a comedian, everything the bush. I’m straightforward with was a joke to him,” Gonzalez said. them and usually that catches their “During the drill he started joking

“

around like he was struggling, or at least we thought he was joking.

We realized he was actually having trouble and ran over to help him. I guess you could say he was the boy who cried wolf.”

Preparing his students for a future in fire fighting isn’t the only goal on Gonzalez’s mind. According to him, even more important than fire fighting is helping his students grow as people and making sure they have someone to help them along the way.

“I like to build relationships with my students as to where they can come to me if they need anything, Gonzalez said. “I’ve had students from my past academies that still call me, e-mail me, ask me questions, and if they find me here they’ll probably come over to help out. That’s the kind of relationship I have with my students and I hope I can have that here as well.”

Up and Out

EMT class practices evacuation procedures using chair and board Ian Falkenbery | Photographer

Loading her teacher onto a backboard, senior Valerie Hernandez practices emergency procedures. "It’s good to learn this because its going to help us in our everyday as EMTs," Hernandez said.

"And the stretcher is helpful, because it's a fast way to transport people from and to places quickly for emergencies."

Using the stair evacuation lift, seniors Tiler Vickers, Molly McKinney, and Matthew Lopez practice how they would get a wheel chair bound person down the stairs in an emergency. "I do think the Stair Chair is beneficial because it's definitely easier than having to carry someone down manually," Vickers said. "The track lets gravity do the work." The chair was installed in the spring of last year. "I

think its beneficial to have this here because so we can have some real on site experience without danger so you know exactly what you're doing and doing it correctly," McKinney said.

Feature September 20, 2019

13

Vy Bui | Artist

Too Little, Too Much

Abnormal class sizes lead to difficult learning environments

Kaitlin Mackey | Co-Editor While the school population is lower than it has been in the past, with a total of 2,145 students, the sizes of the classes have been either fairly low or fairly high. For example, in the beginning of the year, AP English IV teacher Aaron Holman had nearly 40 students in just about all of his classes. Meanwhile, English I and AP English IV teacher Sarah Smith has a class with 14 students in her AP English IV class.

“My largest class is Pre-AP English I and there’s 36 students in that period.” Smith said. “Thankfully the freshman class in 2015-2016 had pretty large class sizes so it was nice that us teachers were able to get the experience of having a large class.”

The number of students in classes is a problem seen throughout the school in classes such as CTE classes and upper-level language classes.

However, according to Associate Principal Michael Grebb, there are always issues like this every year.

“Specialized classes like Spanish IV and Spanish V are separated because the students are being prepared for an AP test so they’re different but that often happens with upper-level language, upper-level CTE, etc.,” Grebb said. “We had [Sarah] Smith become an AP English IV teacher for one period because [Aaron] Holman was up to about 40 students in his class.”

Having a class so little or so big Whenever they’re trying to leave or can affect the learning environment, get their notebooks it’s this long line both physically and mentally. Classes that snakes around so it makes the can be big with a classroom so small, room feel really crammed and you giving little room to move around and can’t be as creative. And there’s cernot many ways to arrange desks in tain things we can’t do because of the a way that is not crammed. Addition- fact the class is so large which is sad.” ally, with so many, students can easily On the other hand, smaller classget distracted and it can be a difficult es are more spread out and can be learning experience more introvertfor them and a diffied. The classes cult teaching experican be awkward ence for the teacher. and group activi[Students] know “I’m never really ties are limited to sure if all 36 stuabout two or three that we aren't able dents are paying atstudents in each to get to know all of tention,” Smith said. group instead of “Sometimes you can having five or six them as well as we literally not hear students. So handscould if their classes any kids talking in on activities aren’t the back because always an option. were smaller." there’s so many “I feel like when bodies in the room. a class is really Sarah Smith, It’s challenging essmall, the teacher pecially because sometimes does too English Teacher there’s so many bodmuch or has a hard ies in the room so we time letting go,” can’t move around Smith said. “Having much. For example, I can’t have them such a small class can be pretty awkall stand up and say ‘stand on this ward sometimes but it’s not too bad.” side if you agree, stand on this side This dilemma is a result of havif you disagree,’ because there’s sim- ing a lot of students with not enough ply not enough room. There’s also teachers in certain area and stunot enough room to do a lot with the dent schedules not working out. desks besides this one configuration. While it’s causing some difficulty for

“

both teachers and students by affecting the learning environment, there’s not much that can be done.

“It’s a balancing act, but it doesn’t always work out,” Grebb said. “As you try to make another section, let’s say you have one class of 50 and want to make two classes of 25, it doesn’t always work out because of your schedule. What’s tricky right now is that the classes right now don’t really need a full teacher so we can’t just hire one person to teach one section, it wouldn’t make sense.”

Students with abnormally large or small classes are not able to get the same learning experience. Larger classes may have a hard time understanding because some students are too busy talking and the teacher doesn’t notice, making that class possibly fall behind compared to other classes.

Meanwhile the students with the smaller classes have a higher chance to get that one-on-one time with the teacher and classes will less-likely fall behind.

“I feel like most of the teachers are in the same boat,” Smith said.

“I went to go talk to Mr. [Bruce] Johnson and his classes are massive. Holman has about 38 students in his classes. We’re literally all in the same boat which is pretty sad.”

14

Feature Volume 13, Issue 1

A Place to Belong

Clubs offer opportunities for student involvement, new activities Queer Student Alliance UIL Academics Hannah Brubaker | Reporter

The UIL Academic organization is a competition between schools around the state where students engage against each other in educational extracurricular contests. UIL has an event in most fields of study that one can think of, people can join by talking to a coach or Kirsten Nash the coordinator of UIL academics to see what topic that person will bets compete in.

“My job as the coordinator is to make sure to get coaches that both are good in that topic and also want to coach the kids in that area,” Nash said. “ Once I find the coaches, I provide them with tools that will help them access students and to get the resources that they need.”

There are coaches all around the school that help with different events, and topics. Once a person who has found what event or topic they want to compete in, they are then put in a talon with that coach to practice and build with that subject. Students are exercising their knowledge against others, as well as competitively. Students get to work together

Best Buddies Kaitlin Curtis | Reporter Best Buddies is an inclusive club that is an international organization dedicated to advocating for the involvement of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They participate in games and activities that build ever lasting relationships for students with and without disabilities.

“A main lesson others will learn is spreading inclusion,” President of the club, junior Emily Lucas said. “In society today, often people view and treat individuals with disabilities as less than human. People place these rude and disrespectful stereotypes, which promotes exclusive thinking.”

One of the goals in Best Buddies is to eliminate harsh and rude uses of the R-word. They do this because it is a word that others take high offense to, and is not fair to them.

“Having a disability is just one of the

in an academic setting, while connecting people that enjoy the event.

“It’s learning, or building knowledge in that sort of way.” Nash said. “ UIL does try hard to give every single student a place where they kind find success competitively. When one does do well competitively, as in qualify for the state competition, they’re pretty much guaranteed a TILF scholarship.

TILF stands for the Texas Interscholatic League Foundation, that provide scholarship opportunities. Students also get to hangout with other people who are academically driven.”

UIL teams have been competing ever since the school opened and many of the teams have qualified for state and have advanced. The club has quite a couple of years under its belt as far as knowledge and the proper acts at a meet.

“Journalism, Calculator, Speech & Debate, and Accounting, have all advanced to state.” Nash said. “We also had a Social Studies Team that won the Championship and an Individual who won Social Studies Championship. Last year was the best we’ve ever done in the Academic Championship. We were fourth academically in all of 6A schools in Texas.”

many characters they have. One of the most important things you have to remember is that they’re human too,” Lucas said. “And that you must treat them like they are a human by being understanding and having respect.”

All Best Buddies events are outside of school.

This helps encourage a broad and diverse community in Pflugerville.

“During high school, social and emotional development can be difficult even for teenagers without IDD,” Lucas said. “Best Buddies has helped break through social barriers and help students with IDD become part of Hendrickson’s mainstream community.”

The organization has monthly meetings and events that are on Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings.

They meet on Wednesdays before school at 8:30 in Art Room 04. Best Buddies is open for anyone to join.

“Best Buddies creates an inclusive high school culture for all students,” Lucas said. “No matter if you have a disability or not.”

Kaitlyn Nash | Reporter

Since clubs are back in session, there are many options to consider before choosing, one of those being the Queer Straight Alliance (QSA). The leader of the club is English teacher Kathryn Gurganus. This unique organization meets on Wednesdays after school in room D207.

“Basically it’s like an all inclusive safe place for students to get to know one another, talk about struggles they may have, share concerns, and try to troubleshoot some problems that may arise,” Gurganus said.

In addition to being welcoming to everyone, QSA also hold many events and plans activities for each meeting. Sometimes it’s getting things done, and sometimes mental health is the focus. Both are seen as the first priorities in QSA. “Last year, we did a lot of really neat bonding activities like one day, they just came in and made friendship bracelets which is very soothing and therapeutic,” Gurganus said.

“We did a holiday party and watched movies. A lot of times students just got to share about what they were struggling with and we had a problem solve so that it doesn’t escalate to a fight or disagreement. They had a gay prom, so students got to go together to these different events.”

A strong point that Gurganus wants to shed light upon is that the club welcomes anyone and everyone. You do not have to conform to be accepted, since that is the opposite of QSA’s point.

“It’s open to anybody and so I think with the name Queer Straight Alliance means that we’re together,” Gurganus said. “No matter what you think, believe, associate with, it’s just anybody who wants to get to know other people and their backgrounds and their stories and feel like you have a place where you belong.”

Student support keeps the club running every year.

Gurganus understands that love for QSA is one of the many things that keeps the club alive.

“It’s more student based [and] student run,” Gurganus said. “Every year it’s just the interest in the students that keep the club going.”

Diversity is a key point QSA tries to incorporate in their meetings. Gurganus makes sure that everyone in the club knows and understands each other.

So, if you’re looking to mix your daily life up, maybe a rainbow is your cure.

“If everybody in your friend group looks the same and acts the same, then branch out and meet people that are from different backgrounds and different views,” Gurganus said.

“It’s 2019, everyone just get on board.”

Science Olympiad Bryan Ross | Asst Editor Science Olympiad is an organization where schools from around the country put together teams for various events that compete against each other at regional, state, and national competitions.

“Over the week we generally have one hour practices before and after school,” senior Science Olympiad officer Nick Arellano said. “It’s all student-led.

Students who are really passionate about certain aspects of science, whether it be building something or studying a specific species, lead their peers to understanding certain topics that various colleges look at.”

Science Olympiad competes in events based around different aspects of science and math, such as geology, chemistry, construction, anatomy, and more. Teams can qualify for state based off of results at regional events, and can qualify

for nationals by succeeding at state.

“I consider competitions to be very fun because it’s a day where you get to do a bunch of science, and for some of these kids it’s pretty much all they have passion for,” Arellano said. “So to have a day where you can let loose with a bunch of kids who have the same kind of passion as you is very exhilarating and fulfilling.”

Someone who would want to join Science Olympiad should talk to Ryan Kubicek or any other teacher in the science department.

“I am in Science Olympiad mainly to embark on certain aspects of the science field and to broaden my knowledge on certain aspects,” Arellano said. “I think more people should be involved in it because it’s a close community of people who are always there to help you no matter what, even if it isn’t science.”

Feature September 20, 2019

HOSA Hannah Brubaker | Reporter HOSA is a student lead organization and is one of the clubs offered, the club helps students acquire skills that are helpful and educational in the medical field.

Meetings are every other Wednesday in the ROTC building.

The club participates in competitions for events in the medical and leadership field.

Senior Kosi Otutu, the president of HOSA, joined last year in 2018 and competed at Internationals for Prepared Speaking in Orlando, Florida that same year. Many club members have advanced to Regionals and State in different events.

Competitors gain practice and more knowledge as well as to prepare for the professional environment.

“There’s a lot of things you learn, you get to see different people, like China was there since it’s an international organization.” Otutu said. “It helps you control yourself in a professional way, because you have to put on this good

business attire. It prepares you for what you’re going to see in the future.

You get to see how people present themselves, to seem appealable to whatever they’re saying.”

The club is also known for contributing their assistance to the community. Last year, members volunteered for Cystic Fibrosis and a non profit organization that funds type one diabetes known as JDRF. As club members are benefitting the causes, they are learning about the diseases and how they can donate their services.

“It gives a person the ability to do good for the community,” Otutu said. “People can be a local member of the chapter to volunteer and they don’t actually have to compete.”

The club also focuses on learning new things, and to build character.

The core values of HOSA are learning, leadership, service, and innovation.

The local chapter also offers public speaking from professionals that can inspire people to gain knowledge on the work environment.

“At our school we focus on people who want to learn,” Otutu said. “People who want to educate themselves and grow in leadership skills.”

Environmental Club Ethan Tittle | Reporter A new club focusing on improving the environment starts next month.

English teacher Liana Gonzales sponsors the Environmental Club on Wednesdays in room D209 every week.

“Last year a couple of my students did a research project and found out a lot of alarming things about global warming,” Gonzales said. “And how we can take small steps to make the world a better place.”

During the club, students will help out the environment by doing things like picking up trash, learning how to reuse and recycle things, and become more educated and aware about what is happening to our environment. They will make weekly

Dungeons & Dragons Kaitlin Curtis | Reporter

The Locker

Rotary Interact

Angelyna Rosales | Asst. Editor

Kaitlin Mackey | Co-Editor

The Locker is a student-led nonprofit organization that collects food, clothing, hygiene products and school supplies to provide to students in need.

The Locker hosts fund raisers at most sporting events where they collect specific items and donations. They also host events such as Christmas spirit week and Powder Puff to raise money.

“There are a lot of kids at this school who are in need or are not financially stable; so it helps to give students a sense of normality,” Locker president senior Madison Kusano said.

The Locker held their first meeting for new members on Sept. 17, and will meet the first A day of every week during Talon. The club will continue providing everyday items for students “As the new president I would like to continue the success The Locker has had in the past, and I would like to keep it stocked,” Kusano said. “I want to have more people aware of what The Locker is.”

Rotary Interact Club is an organization that allows students to participate in community service.

The club meets every second and fourth Wednesday of every month in the CCC. To become a part of the club, students should show up to the meetings, join the remind and sign in when you arrive to the meetings.

“I joined Interact because they had a table set up at Take Flight when I was a freshman and I wanted to join some clubs,” junior and president of the Rotary Club Allison Thompson said.

“I kind of already knew some of what Rotary did. The service projects and everything sounded fun so I joined.”

Joining this club is full of benefits for all. Students who join the club and gain service hours helps themselves by making their college resumes look better as well as help out those who are in need of service hours. While students are benefitting, they’re also helping the community become a better place.

If there are any questions, students can ask the sponsor, Leigh Ann Spradlin in the CCC or Thompson.

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The Dungeons and Dragons club is based on the 45 year old role-playing game. This year, the club will have 30 students this year playing across four games.

Dungeons and Dragons uses skill, logic, and creativity to get through the game, or campaign. First the students go through a character creation stage for who they role play as. In each campaign, there is a Dungeon Master that leads them.

Girl Advocates Brisa Espinoza | Asst Editor Girls Advocates is one of the many clubs for the student body to get involved with. The club began in 2016 and has been around since, growing its numbers throughout the years.

The club is led by senior Niya John as president, senior Ashley Lister as vice president, senior Alaina Chenault as secretary, senior Claire Martinez as treasurer and junior Isabelle Cano as volunteer coordinator.

“I love being the vice president,” Lister said. “I can represent a club that genuinely cares about the impact we make on the girls we mentor.”

The is sponsored by librarian Kara Johnson and English teacher Liana

public service announcements during the announcements on how we can help the environment. Another thing the club will implement will be stating a plastic recycle at school, starting a compost pile and using scraps from lunch and donating it to the Pflugerville Library, make bird feeders, plant trees, and other things like that.

“I want students to learn why it’s important to recycle and take care of the earth because is the one planet we have,” said Gonzales. “My main goal is just to make people aware because a lot of people aren’t.”

“My students in Dungeons and Dragons are eager to make friends and have fun,” Club sponsor Ashley Sullivan said.

The Dungeons and Dragons club has been going on for three years. A couple of students approached Sullivan and asked if she could help start the club.

“I had no hesitation to do so, they are a very welcoming group,” Sullivan said.

Even though the club doesn’t go outside of school for activities, Sullivan still has some goals in mind.

“First, to keep it going, which doesn’t look to be a problem, we will have approximately 30 students this year playing across four campaigns,” Sullivan said. “Maybe at some point in time, they could join tournaments.”

To join the club, see Sullivan after school in room E102 and get a character sheet to design your character. The club meets every Wednesday from 4:15 to 5:30.

“It’s a game for more than just gamers,” Sullivan said.

Gonzales, the club meets every other week. To be an active member of the club all that is needed is to participate and attend meetings and club events.

“We fund raise for foundations such as the Malala Fund for Women’s Education,” senior Niya John said.

“We mentor middle school aged girls, spread awareness about issues regarding girls and women. We also help Mrs. Carl with healthy relationship week in February.”

The club focuses on empowering the student body and mentoring younger students to eventually become important figures in the community.

“Students benefit by being a part of something that provides positive change in the lives of girls and woman all over,” John said. “Being a part of the club is a learning and growing experience that help you in life.”

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Entertainment Volume 13, Issue 1

LET’S DO LUNCH

Off campus lunch locations under review, timed there and back Art by Abigail Hill

FIVE GUYS

TORCHY’S

Five Guys is one of the newest additions to be added to Stone Hill’s extensive eating selection. Five Guys is a burger joint that allows you to create your own burger, giving you an array of toppings to choose from.

The establishment has four types of burgers to choose from; a hamburger, cheeseburger, bacon burger, and bacon cheeseburger. All of the burgers come in either a normal size, which is essentially two patties, and a ‘little’ size, which is one patty. I ordered a mini cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, jalapenos, and hot sauce, and I was not disappointed. Everything is freshly made in front of you, and the wait was no longer than ten minutes. Though, if a student were looking to eat here during lunch I would recommend utilizing the pick up option on their website. This allows you to place your order online and have it ready once you arrive. The only downside would be that the popular burger joint is a bit on the pricey side, with an entire meal (burger, fries, and a drink) costing about twenty dollars.

Though, other than the price, I would highly recommend Five Guy’s if you’re wanting to satisfy your cheeseburger fix.

Torchy’s was one of the most anticipated restaurants to open up in Stone Hill. Following the grand opening in early May, Torchy’s has received a lot of business, sometimes making the wait for food over 20 minutes but, the food is worth the wait. The Independent taco, which includes fried portobello mushrooms, refried black beans, grilled corn, carrots, cotija cheese, cilantro and avocado with ancho aioli on a flour tortilla, has a fresh taste and is full of flavor.

However, the price per taco is about $4.25, which is a little overpriced.

Overall, the new Torchy’s is a good restaurant, but it may not be the best choice to eat for off-campus lunch with the long wait.

Ikram Mohamed | Asst Editor

Angelyna Rosales | Asst Editor

MOD PIZZA Brisa Espinoza | Asst Editor

TEAPIOCA Abigail Hill | Co-Editor

For some seniors, lunch is 30 minutes, and for others it is 50. Either way, Teapioca provides quick and efficient service to drive there, pick your drinks up, and drive back to school. Not only that, but it is delicious and fulfilling. Considering that it is just a smoothie, the drinks actually provide just as much nutrients and fill you up just like a regular meal would. Also, students don’t need to worrying about finishing in time for lunch because Teapioca is only smoothies. To put it simply, Teapioca should be taken into consideration when deciding where to go for off campus lunch because of it’s quality and fast service.

MOD Pizza located in the Stone Hill Shopping Center specializes in good pizza efficiently. MOD allows the customer to create their own personal pizza and put as many different toppings as they’d like. Since the pizza is made right in front of the customer and they can witness the pizza going from the counter top to the pizza oven, the only downfall is the dreaded time having to wait for the pizza to be cooked. Though it does take a little time for your pizza to get made, the restaurant offers the chance to order your food online and have it be ready by the time you get to the restaurant. MOD is a perfect place to go off campus during lunch, it’s accessible, moderately priced and most importantly, delicious.

CHIPOTLE

WHATABURGER Bryan Ross | Asst Editor

Whataburger has been one of the defining features of Stone Hill and has been a constant for many years. A Texan favorite, it’s remained popular over the years even as more and more options have sprung up around it. And it’s popularity has been justified. It’s reasonably priced and all-around is as good as any fast food burger around. But it is not a good option to go off-campus for lunch during school. Unlike Chick-Fil-A, which is as fast and well-run during busy times as anywhere, Whataburger tends to be slow, a problem that seems to be getting worse over the past few months. While good food, the poor handling of large crowds and long wait times would make going off-campus to Whataburger stressful and rushed, which is the opposite of what lunch should be.

Abigail Hill | Co-Editor

Chipotle is an American chain restaurant that serves a variety of Mexican options, like burritos, salad bowls, and tacos. The one in Stone Hill, unfortunately offers less than spectacular service. Their poor customer service, and poor food quality make for a bad experience for lunch, and really any other occasion. Especially for off campus lunch, anyone would be in a crunch for time to drive there, eat, and get back. Because their food isn’t worth the rush for time, Chipotle ranks low on all the other places one could go for off campus lunch. In addition, the Mexican place does not provide a lot of variety in their selection of food, only appealing to a small crowd, ranking this place a two out of five stars.

Spreading the Word

Entertainment September 20, 2019

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Various forms of media show inequality, separation in society The Hate U Give

(movie)

Angelyna Rosales | Asst Editor

The Hate U Give, is a movie about a teenage girl, Staar Carter, who witnesses her childhood best friend, Khalil, get shot and killed in a dispute between him and a white police officer.

As time passes Staar is pressured to testify her side of the story in front of a grand jury to decide if the officer should serve time in prison.

After the court rules that they have no reason to arrest the officer, her predominantly black neighborhood starts violent riots by burning cars and shops. As the riots continue to get more and more violent, the police start to throw tear gas into the crowds.

At the end of the movie, her community comes together and stops the spreading of violence. The Hate U Give shows the reality of many police shootings, as well as how intensely they affect people and communities.

Endangered Species by Ice Cube and Chuck D Kaitlyn Nash | Reporter “Endangered Species” is a song about how police are “hunting” the black community and killing their people for sport, by Ice Cube and Chuck D. In the song, Ice Cube states, “Peace don’t make me laugh, that I can say peace and the gunshots will cease,” to portray the fact that even if they try and stand up for their rights, they will still be killed for the color of their skin. This song makes it clear how scared and angry young black men are due to them being preyed on. The only thing about this song that makes the message hard to understand is that the second verse talks about killing their own people. The artist doesn’t make it clear enough that the reason young people in the black community get caught up in gangs and drugs is because the police and everyone who discriminates against them keeps them at the bottom. The whole message of the song is to make it clear that the black community is becoming an endangered species due to the police.

The Hate U Give

(book)

Angelyna Rosales | Asst Editor Compared to the movie, The Hate U Give book has more main characters and detail than the movie reveals. For example, in the movie DeVante is only seen at the party in the beginning, however in the book he steals money from King to help his mom leave Garden Heights. Big Mav then helps to hide him and protect him from King, eventually, Carlos houses him and helps him get back on his feet.

The biggest difference between the book in the movie is the ending. In the movie, Staars little brother, Sekani takes Big Mavs gun after King set fire to Mavs store. Sekani points the gun at king and the police show up. In the book, Sekani never takes the gun and instead the Garden Heights community comes together and tells the police everything about King.

The book and the movie are relatively the same with only a few differences in the importance of characters and small differences in scenes. Both the movie and book also use Tupac’s song, T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E, to help move the story and show how society keeps minorities at the bottom.

Don't Die By Killer Mike Kaitlyn Nash | Reporter Beginning with a sample speech by Dick Gregory, “Don’t Die” fights to tell the story of a young man who shot a cop in his house because they tried to search it without a warrant and beat him up for refusing to let them in. After he realizes what he has done, he runs away and reflects on how much the police deserved it for labeling him before he ever did anything to them. Killer Mike makes many interesting points in the song and at one point states, “I’ve been labeled outlaw, renegade, villain, so was Martin King so the system had to kill him.” Throughout the whole song, the artist makes sure the world knows that people do wrong sometimes. But the answer isn’t killing them. In the end, Killer Mike leaves us with a verse to think about and act on. “I’ll be an outlaw before I ever behave, and die a free man before I live like a slave, nothing changes if they catch me today.”

When They See Us Angelyna Rosales | Assistant Editor

When They See Us is a thrilling and heart wrenching Netflix Original from the perspective of the Central Park Five, a group of five minority teenagers who were falsely convicted of the rape and assault of Trisha Meili in 1990.

The four part series shows how the police pressured the boys to give false statements about the rape, the ruling of their court cases, their experiences while being in jail, their lives after jail, and how they were later proven innocent.

The show represents how prejudice and stereotyping causes problems in the judicial system, because the Central Park Five were convicted based on their ethnicities.

Overall, When They See Us is a great show and does a good job of showing the perspective of the Central Park Five and how the conviction changed their lives.

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Sports Volume 13, Issue 1

Starting Fresh

New coaches face new challenges, expectations Hector Santos | Reporter

Q&A with Golf Coach Brian Westerfield What motivated you become a teacher?

to

When did you take an interest in golf?

How long have you been teaching golf?

“Before I became a teacher I worked as a Fed Ex employee at the office for 10 years until I went to see my wife teach in Hutto. When I saw her teach I just thought it was more rewarding.

When I was in business, one thing I didn’t like is that I didn’t see who I was helping. I’m a big ‘you help people’ guy, but it slowly became more about the money.”

“I took classes for four years and played in the field every spring. I had never played golf until high school but I had a general idea of the sport.

One day they announced tryouts for the golf team so I asked my parents if I could play. They bought me my golf clothes and equipment and I just learned as I went along.”

“This is my first year as the head coach. Over the past two years I was the assistant coach for coach Holub.

She was the head coach at the time.”

What challenges do you think you’ll have to face now that you’re the head coach and some of your seniors from last year are gone?

Of all the schools in Austin, why did you choose Hendrickson?

“One of the biggest challenges I have to face is rebuilding the golf team due to the fact that all the seniors from last year are all gone. My goal is to rebuild the program.”

Kaitlyn Nash | Reporter

“After retiring from Fed Ex I went to a job fair where I met the assistant principal at the time, Mr. Malina. He offered me an interview to work at Hendrickson right there on the spot. I took that offer and I’ve been loyal to this school ever since.”

How do you plan on doing that? How do you spread the word about the golf team?

“We’ve posted flyers in the hallways about tryouts, and we have our experienced students recruit freshmen kids that may be new to this school. We are also continuing the middle school golf tournaments.

In these tournaments the high school golf students go to teach the eighth graders in middle school. They would practice for a few days and middle schools would compete against each other.”

How do you feel about your students passing your teachings to other students?

“One of the best things about the tournaments is that I get to see my students interact with the eighth graders and to see my kids become the teachers to these kids feel accomplishing.”

What do you think the hardest thing about teaching golf is for you?

“The hardest thing about being a coach for me is teaching my students to forget the last shot, whether it was a bad shot or an amazing shot, it’s in the past you have to forget about it and focus on the next.”

Photo by | Rachel Schulze

Q&A with Swim Coach Cale Borne to

What message do you want to send your students?

“I have been looking at schools all over the Austin area for a few years now. I found Hendrickson kind of on accident but compared to all the other schools that I was going to, it seemed a lot better for a lot of reasons. The campus is really nice, Pflugerville is a really cool town. It seemed like a really good community.”

“Enjoy this time when you’re young.

Don’t look at it like a place where you’re stuck, look at it as a place where you get to meet other people, you get to have opportunities to be better. When you’ve moved on from high school, look back fondly, and look forward in a determinative way.”

What are your goals for the team?

“Learning has obviously always been fun for me and I love learning new things so I wanted to give people those moments where they felt the same way. When I can help them find those moments, it’s very fulfilling.”

Why did you Hendrickson?

come

“We have a lot of new swimmers and I want to get them to the competitive level. We’ve also got some good competitive swimmers that have been doing club swim for a while and I want to get them to the podium. I definitely want to at least have some regional qualifiers this year and I’ve got a few that I think are already close.”

What got you into teaching?

What’s your best coaching advice?

“No matter what you do, success takes focus and hard work consistently.

Period.”

Junior Paula Kossorz practices with the swim team in the early morning.

Sports September 20, 2019

The Final Countdown

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Returning varsity senior football players discuss changes, new season Brisa Espinoza | Asst Editor

Abigail Hill | Photographer

As the class of 2019 hung up their cleats, the class of 2020 were still putting theirs on. They were now the new leaders of the football team hopeful to follow in the footsteps of the path set before them.

The returning varsity seniors would have to step up and lead the team into another season bound for playoffs.

The class of 2019 led the football team into the first round in the state playoffs where the team lost to Cypress Ranch 24-10. The team ended its 2018 season with an overall score of 7-3. The 2019 class made up a large majority of the football team, leaving only about 15 players returning for the next season and many open starting positions.

“They (class of 2019) gave the team a lot of depth,” senior DJ Mays said. “Now that they’ve graduated, we don’t have that as much as we did before. We’re trying to recreate all that we’ve lost as much as we can.”

Positions were left open following the class’ graduation, the team looked for underclassmen to begin to step up and prove that they were ready for to join the team on varsity.

“The newcomers feel a lot of pressure,” senior Ravaughn Morgan said. “They have a lot to prove of themselves. But I think they’ll be fine as long as they keep practicing and letting themselves be coached.”

With only a handful of players that have already experienced the rush of playing in varsity games,

Elizabeth Drost | Photographer they were left with the responsibility of having to get the newcomers prepared for what varsity has in store and what is expected from the players.

“The returners are stepping up a bunch to help t h e newcomers adj u s t , ” senior Mike Ike said .

“We h a v e We're the best team. to show t h e m the right No other school t e c h niques has the type of a n d w a y to do things brotherhood and so they can be supportiveness we ready for the season. have for each other. P l a y i n g on varsity is way different t h a n playing JV, so they’re going to have to get used to those changes fast.”

The UIL district alignment changes every two years as schools change in population. Because of the realignment many schools can be placed into a new conference as well as new district. Hendrickson is currently in District 13 and in the 6A conference, but after the class of 2019 graduated the

Preparing for a tackle, senior Mike Ike plays against Smithson Valley, the team lost 15-43. "Our team is strong in technique, heart and physical ability but we lack in the mental aspect," Ike said.

“

DJ Mays, 12

Coming out of a play, senior Ravaughn Morgan looks for the coaches call for what to do next. "This year our goal is to do better than last year and continue to stay disciplined," Morgan said.

school’s population decreased. The new alignment takes place this year and Hendrickson is likely to be moved down to the 5A conference and placed into a new district for next season.

“Going down to 5A will make it fair when it comes to sports,” Ike said. “In the 6A division, we’re playing schools that have a bigger selection than us.

We can’t really compete with schools that are bigger and have the upper hand.”

Despite the team having to continue play in the 6A district for the rest of the season; the team will continue to strengthen their skills and techniques.

“We’re always positive and look out for each other like a real team,” Morgan said. “Sometimes we just get into our heads but as a team we have to learn to block out what people say about us and only worry about what we need to do. The goal that we have this year is to do better than how we did last year and stay disciplined.”

Though the team is smaller than they were last season, they continue to have their hearts in the game and hope to do the best they can to continue the playoff legacy that has been left.

“Other schools are going to look down on us or think we’re underdogs,” Morgan said. “But we’re just as good as any other team in the district and everyone should be prepared for a fight when they play us. It doesn’t matter what division we play in or how big our team is. Hendrickson will always be Hendrickson and we’ll play to win and be the best.”

Following the ball, senior Gabe Hunter starts in the first district game against Westwood, the team lost 27-28. "The returners are trying to step up as much as we can, but we're still learning as we go," Hunter said.

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Back Page Volume 13, Issue 1

Blast from the Past

Teachers, faculty reminisce about their first day of high school

Kaitlin Mackey | Co-Editor

Brisa Espinoza | Asst Editor

Ikram Mohamed | Asst Editor

Cassandra Jackson

Michael Grebb

Joshua Colvin “My piece of advice is to get off to a great start, it will help for the middle and end to take care of itself. Get involved: Athletics, Band, Choir, Clubs, Committees etc. Being involved in activities and building that community early helped my transition to high school be a smooth one. It provided me a home base for when I needed stability. Many of the teachers in high school had already known me because when I was in middle school I had an opportunity to be in the High School’s One Act play. No one could fit into the wishing well and I won the part.

I was involved in Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Track. I was also my class president for four years.”

“I would tell freshman to have fun, but remember you are in school. Don’t get behind, because if you get behind now it’s going to be hard to get caught up. On my first day of high school, I walked to the wrong school. Where I lived, there were two high schools that were pretty close and we were told that I was supposed to go to one high school, but in fact it was the other. My parents dropped me off at one high school, I went in and they told me that I didn’t go here and that my school was down the road. So I had to walk about five miles to the next school, by myself.

The school that I went to had these long stairs. I had gotten off the bus, and I was walking up the stairs. I guess I was maybe walking too fast, and I fell up the stairs. I had these real cute pants on that day, and when I fell I made a hole in the knee.

I had to walk around all day with a hole in the knee of my pants. It was embarrassing Freshman year, I played volleyball.

Senior year, I was the secretary of my school’s business association.”

Leigh Ann Spradlin “I would tell freshman to work hard in your classes! More opportunities will open for you the better your grades are! I remember on my first day of high school being so excited just to be there! I loved everything about high school. One time, I got a Saturday detention for being late to ONE class.

That was the rule, one tardy means Saturday detention. Because I didn’t have anything to work on I decided to memorize my ABCs backwards. I can still say them backwards. I was involved in Softball, Band, and Student Leadership.”

Andy Harvey “Some advice I have for freshman is to get involved. There is something for everyone here, but it is also very easy to get lost in the shuffle. The high school experience will be much more fun if you share it with others. Join a club. Meet new people. Eat lunch with that kid that looks lonely. Smile at someone. Eat your vegetables. Dance like nobody’s watching. In high school I was the most uncool kid on the planet, but I still had a fun group of people that I hung out with. The cafeteria felt huge. I was in choir and athletic training, so that is where I met the most people. Everyone was awkward as a 9th grader, but I certainly felt out of place at times. It got easier as the year went on, I learned to quit caring so much about what other people thought. I had so much hair!! That is honestly what I miss most about high school. Having a full head of hair.”

“Take school seriously, it is important to do well. It will dictate the choices you have as an adult. I was nervous and excited about the first day, I couldn’t wait to get my locker and meet new people. Everything was smooth, but I also realized it was a whole new world with all of the homework I had to do the first night. I played football my freshman year and baseball all four years. I also served on student counsel. I ran for treasurer for 12th grade year, we had to do a speech in front of the whole school before everyone voted. I walked up with two pieces of bread and said the students and the school were the bread and that I am the meat that will complete this sandwich, any questions. The crowd went nuts and I won in a landslide.”

Wresha Torres “My advice to freshmen is to do your very best this year because what you achieve during your freshman year sets the foundation for the next three years. Your GPA and Class Rank are established your freshman year and it becomes increasingly harder to rise as the years progress.

My sister was a senior when I was a freshman, and we were both in band.

I asked her to sign me up on the band bus and she wouldn’t, so I got mad.

We got into a little fight down by the band hall and our friends broke us up before we got caught.”