December 20, 2013

John F. Kennedy High School

Volume 47, Issue 3

December 20, 2013

The New Resume

What does your online resume say about you?

Torch explores how information found online can affect students.

page 10

the torch

the

torch John F. Kennedy High School 4545 Wenig Rd. NE Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 Volume 47, Issue 3

Mission Statement

The student staff and adviser are committed to producing top quality student publications, applying high standards of writing, editing, and production.

These media seek to fairly serve the Kennedy High School faculty, students, and staff showing no favoritism to any particular interest, individual, or group. Final decisions about content are the responsibility of the individual editors, and the Editorial Board.

Non-Discrimination policy

It is the Torch policy not to illegally discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, disability, religion, creed, age (employment only), marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and socioeconomic status (students/program only) in its educational programs and its employment practices.

Ownership

The Torch publication, website, official social media, and broadcasts serve as a public forum produced by the students in Journalism - Newspaper.

Student editors make content decisions consistent with the Torch Editorial Policy, Iowa law and the ethics of journalism.

Letter from the editor My sister and I have this running joke that when either of us die, the first thing we’ll do for each other is delete our browser history. After talking to Officer Charity for this issue’s feature, I know that won’t do much, but at least my mom won’t see it.

All joking aside, it seems like all there is on the news today are stories about teens messing up on social media. But what we don’t really see is how that information is found, and how information like public records can indirectly impact a person’s online resume.

When writing the feature, it really hit me how much changes once you become an adult. Once you’re 18, all your records become public.

You don’t have anyone to speak up for you, like your parents or guardians. Students don’t really realize how privileged they are until it’s too late.

Overall, I hope that students continue to make or start to make smarter decisions with social and digital media. Too often we hear stories about people losing everything because of content posted online, and it’s almost always young people who headline these stories. Mistakes made online are permanent, and I don’t think people realize that. And it’s too bad, because as young people, we are at that time in our lives where we’re making mistakes left and right. What seems like a good idea at the time won’t seem like a good idea the next day. To have one lapse in judgment affect a person for their rest of their life---well, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Torch Staff:

Bailey Zaputil Editor-In-Chief Alli Nemecek Managing Editor Amy Brause Photo Editor Ethan Divis Online Editor Norm Althoff Business Manager Michael Abramson News Editor Lydia Martin Profile Editor Hannah Bruns Arts & Entertainment Editor Morgan Schwab Arts & Entertainment Editor Elianna Novitch Health Editor Maddy Crist Sports Editor

Katie Wolfe Sports Editor Isabel Neff Copy Editor Macy Ripley Copy Editor Alec Mobley Writer Gabby Olejniczak Writer Zayla Mackrell Writer Emma Kieckhaefer Writer Abby Donovan Writer Elianna Novitch Writer Melanie Northland Writer Naomi Hofferber Writer Emily Sass Writer Xander Riley Writer Kendra Burmester Writer Stacy Haynes-Moore Adviser cover by Bailey Zaputil

Contents Editorial

Photo

04

Locker room quality should be equal for each gender

08

06

Close to home

News

Health 16

The impact of depression and how students cope

18

The latest

A&E

Profile 07

The balancing act

Cougars show off their pep

Feature

Sports

10

13 Two brothers, one team

The new resume

08

16

Staff editorial: Balancing time important with large amount of student activities In the profile section of this issue, we look into a student’s life as an all-star cheerleader and the balance that is needed to manage practice and school work. This is an important skill for people to learn, because balance is needed to do well in any activity.

As high school students, we are constantly put to the test with schoolwork, activities, social lives, family, work, taking care of ourselves, and a multitude of other activities that take up our time. The most important thing to do is come up with a plan to follow to manage your time. For

example, you could write out what you have to do and plan out how much time it will take. This will allow you to plan your time around any activities.

One thing that most of high school students skimp out on is sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers need just over nine hours of sleep. It’s difficult to do when you have to balance activities, but it is important to get as much sleep as possible.

Time management is never really taught in school, which is a shame, because it is something most of us struggle with. It

13

would be effective if, at a young age, we learn a few tips that could help us in the long run so we never have to feel extremely stressed to balance everything out.

No matter what activities you have to do or how stressed you feel, stay calm. Try to figure out a plan to manage your time and activities, and it should get better. A good thing to do when you have a lot of activities to do is take care of yourself and just do what you have to do stay as leaststressed as possible.

Editorial

Locker room quality should be equal for each gender I am not a feminist. I’ve never felt a reason to say that women are being treated unfairly. That was until one late night adventure into the Kennedy men’s locker room.

It was approximately 9 p.m. in early November when a fellow Torch staff member and I decided to go exploring and ended up in the men’s locker room. Much to my surprise, it was nice. Like really nice. The lockers are big, not rusted out and it looks like the whole room was recently updated.

Anyone who has been inside of the women’s locker room knows that a big, shiny, newlooking room is the furthest thing from describing it.

So how is this fair?

In general I think that our school does an excellent job of treating male and female students equally, so I am in no way trying to say we have a sexist problem at our school.

However, I do think that there is something

Amy Brause

wrong when the guys get a locker room like that and then I hear complaints and have witnessed problems with the girls’ locker room, such as toilet water all over the floor and items getting stolen due to girls having to leave their things on the bench because the lockers are too small.

I think that if we are going to make updates such as in the men’s locker room it needs to be an equal improvement. Equal improvements just as if we gave half of the school classrooms new desks, tile, and TVs. Something that doesn’t seem unbiased.

I’ve heard the argument that the reason the men’s locker room is nicer is because men’s sports are more popular. However, I have to disagree. There are just as many women’s sports as there are men’s; just as many teams utilizing the locker rooms. Why not make it fair? Either both should be improved, or none.

boys’ locker room

boys’ locker room

girls’ locker room 4

photos by Amy Brause

girls’ locker room

Editorial

Top 10 things learned from the Internet The Internet has taught me a lot factual and nonfactual things in the past couple of years. Mainly nonfactual, but I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t changed how I view certain things.

1st: Never judge a person based purely off of their Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram page. Because, according to my own judgment and statistics, 75 percent of everything us teenagers post is not usually what we’re really thinking. Now, if you’re a person who really does, I applaud you, but just remember, don’t depend on people actually listening to what you say. We are human.

2nd: Thissongissick.com changed my music taste for the rest of my life. I don’t know what else to say, other than it’s a site that posts new music from all kinds of different artists every day. It’s pretty neat.

3rd: CATS. You either hate them or you really love them. For me, it’s a definite love.

I’d consider it one of my favorite past times.

If you look through who I’m following on social media, I guarantee you’ll find multiple strictly cat pages. Not ashamed, apparently they’re trending, considering I see them in plenty of people’s bios. On top of that, they even have their own emoji facial expressions; do you see any with dogs? If that doesn’t make it an official trend, I don’t know what does.

4th: Pronouncing things is what the Inter-

net has (confused) taught me. Is it Gif or Gif? 5th: There are so many places cooler than Iowa. Like wow, every time I check Pinterest or Tumblr, I find a new place to add to my bucket list. Apparently whenever our state came about, we missed the whole mountains, waterfalls, volcanoes, or oceans thing.

We kind of missed everything except corn.

6th: Never underestimate the power of fan girls. I’m pretty sure Justin Bieber and One Direction would agree with me. There’s also nothing scarier than a massive amount of upset fans, especially beliebers. Anybody remember #cutsforbieber? I belieb that was one of the weirdest, and most confusing hashtags I’ve ever seen, especially being a fan of Justin Bieber.

7th: Stumbleapon.com is like a drug, and WILL consume a lot of your time if you let it. I’m saying this as a warning because I don’t think I could count up the hours I’ve spent on it, but it’s definitely a cool site to visit if you’re ever bored.

8th: Swag is not an adjective. It is something you possess.

9th: I’m going to dedicate this to my not so newfound respect for YouTube. The app and site has brought Kid Cudi, Chance the Rapper, Grace Helbig, Neature Walks, Turrets Guy, and even Sharkeisha into my life. The site has also prevented me from ever being

Hannah Bruns able to say “I like turtles,” in a normal voice ever again. If you don’t happen to know anything I’m talking about in this paragraph, please, feel free to search any of these terms on youtube.com.

10th: The final thing I’ve learned and am going to stress is that you can’t get all of your information on current events from Twitter accounts. Trutherbot is not journalism, and in my opinion people shouldn’t ever rely strictly on one place to get all of their information.

Since I shared my own experiences with the Internet, I’m going to end this with a little advice.

Be aware, be advised, stay open minded. That’s all.

There are ways to overcome depression Let me give you a story of my personal experience with depression. I know it may sound cliché, but you’re not alone. I was one of those sad, scared people that hid away from others.

It’s ridiculous but I didn’t want to let people in.

I covered my sadness with a smile. It was a genuine smile most of the time, but I was unhappy, and inside I was scared of what might happen if I accidentally hurt someone. What if they got close and I disappointed them? Because of what I thought, I didn’t have a lot of close friends growing up. I missed out on a lot by skipping out on friendships.

You’re probably wondering what I know about depression. I’ll just say it. I know. A LOT. I have depression, but I’m still here. I haven’t committed suicide, I’ve thought about it, but

I’m still breathing, and even genuinely smiling.

I have people around me that I know would be devastated if I were gone. They make me feel better when I’m low. They give me a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, and someone to make me smile. And it’s nice. Surround yourself with people that will stick around through the good and the bad.

A few of my fellow students and I have started a depression support club called Hold on, Pain Ends (HOPE). We meet every Wednesday, except half days, and Fridays in room 124 after school. During meetings we talk about things affecting us or making us depressed, do activities to express these emotions, and find ways to give back to the community.

Emma Kieckhaefer

PAGES BY Alli Nemecek

5

Close to home

News

Why many Kennedy students stay in-state for college An exciting adventure in very distant and mysterious place filled with new experiences. This is the idealization of college by many high schoolers. However, this idealization isn’t necessarily accurate for many Kennedy students.

Last year, roughly 87% (306 students), of Kennedy graduates who were college bound directly out of high school stayed in state for college, with the majority of the 13% who left the state for college staying in the Midwest. Some believe this statistic may be due to students’ wishes to maintain their Midwestern lifestyle while at college, while others believe financials play a very large role in the equation.

Weston Edwards, sr., is one of the former.

“Maintaining my values is very important to my family, which is why we chose to look in state for college.” Like Edwards, many students’ parents wish for them to stay in state so that they are close to

home. Edwards continues, “Out of state was never really an option.”

While values do play a strong role in student choice to stay in state for college, financial aid may play an even greater role argues Logan Reed, jr. “In-state tuition is a lot cheaper,” Reed said. Despite the financial advantages, Reed is choosing to go out of state for college in pursuit of the idealized college experience. “I believe the quality of college education outside of Iowa can be greater and I also want to meet new people,” Reed said.

Another factor to bring into account is quality of education in-state versus out of state for certain fields and how this affects students’ decisions. For Edwards, who is currently looking into engineering and wants, many Iowa schools provide sufficient coverage, including Iowa State, which is currently ranked 20th for US News’ best undergraduate engineering

amongst public universities, which Edwards is currently looking at.

Reed, however, is looking for a top tier all-around college education for good value and had to look out of state. “I’m currently looking at Vanderbilt for it’s excellent value,” Reed said. Vanderbilt is currently ranked 11th for US News’ best value national universities.

In the end, the reason many Iowan students stay in Iowa for college may not say so much about them, so much as it talks to the quality of Iowa schools.

Although lacking overall top tier schools, with the exception of Grinnell College, ranking 17th amongst liberal arts schools, colleges in Iowa can provide excellent coverage for many fields.

Michael Abramson

The quick statistics:

87%

Only 46

of last year’s Kennedy graduates who were college bound directly out of high school went to college in the state. That is equal to 306 of the 352 Kennedy graduates who went to college directly out of high school.

of last year’s Kennedy graduates students who were college bound directly out of high school went to college out of state. That is only 13% of last year’s graduates who went to college directly out of high school.

6

Page By Michael Abramson

The balancing act

Profile

One student balances a busy schedule of all-star cheerleading, challenging classes, getting the right amount of sleep and just trying to find time to see her friends. in large sr. coed level four which is the second highest level.”

Rivera’s team has been successful this year. They have gotten first place at every competition they have been to so far.

Rivera is not only a good athlete she is also a good student.

This year she is taking nine classes, including three science classes and other AP courses. Rivera says she tries to balance homework and cheer as best as she can but often needs to stay up late to finish homework.

“I typically get less than four hours of sleep each night because I have to do Unlike most teens her age, Megan homework until 2 am,” Rivera said.

Rivera sr., has little time to hang out Cheerleading has taught Rivera to trust with friends on the weekend. Rather, herself and other she is often at all“I typically get less than four hours people and it has star cheerleading competitions. She of sleep each night because I have taught her to do more than she also has limited time to do homework until 2 am,” thought she was during the school - Megan Rivera, sr. ever capable of. week because she “Even though practices around 15 cheerleading is hard work, that’s what I hours per week, with even more practice love about it,” Rivera said. “When you hold time during the weekend. Rivera says that up the girls, you have to have complete there is always a lot of misconceptions between high school cheerleading and trust that they are going to do what they competitive All-star cheerleading. The are supposed to do. Otherwise that is how latter form of cheerleading is much you end up breaking something like a more time consuming, physically collar bone or hand.”

Even though balancing everything can demanding, and at a much higher skill be difficult sometimes, “It’s all worth level. Rivera has been cheering since she it,” Rivera said. was a freshman, but this is her first year

Kendra Burmester as an All-star cheerleader, where she primarily cheers as a base.

“My sister was a cheerleader and she wanted me to do it my freshman year because she was on varsity her freshman year, and I tried it and I ended up liking it a lot,” Rivera said.

This talent led her to become an All– star cheerleader. “In my All-star cheers team there are 22 teens and we compete

photos provided by Kristyn Wright (instagram _allierose_), Joan Felton (instagram jenna_nicole_starr), and Isabelle Tompkins (instagram isabelletompkins).

Pages By Lydia Martin

7

Photo

Cougars show off their pep

Photos by Hannah Bruns 8

Photo

PAGES BY Amy Brause

9

Feature

How much can people find out about you online?

An exploration on how people’s information is seen by the world and what it means for students

Jobs & Legal

According to a study done by Careerbuilder in 2012, about 37 percent of employers in companies use social media to check out potential employees. While the number is still small, the survey reported that the number is projected to grow in coming years.

Dawn McGuire, senior Human Resources Generalist for Global Mobility at Rockwell Collins, said that while Rockwell does not use social media in hiring decisions, she still advises applicants to keep their social media page clean. “Remember the saying, ‘would you want your grandma to read it on the front page of the newspaper?’ Well, that still applies,” she said. “Once it’s posted on electronic media, it’s a lot harder to delete and reaches a lot more people.”

While not all companies actively use social media to research a person, many use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to get into contact with customers or clients. Because many track their tags or name, they can indirectly come into contact with applicants.

For example, about three months ago, Hannah Meyer, jr., who, after applying for a job at Hy-Vee, accidentally slept through her orientation and then tweeted about it. “I tweeted about it in a joking manner and Hy-Vee, their twitter account, tweeted at me and was like, ‘Oh yeah, probably not going to get the job then’, or something like that.” Meyer said that she thought it was fair for Hy-Vee to see her tweet.

Meyer said that since then, she has been a little bit more careful about social media, but overall it’s been about the same. “I thought it was kind of funny, but it also made me think that you should watch what you post online sometimes, [because] jobs can go look at that stuff.”

Officer Charity Hansel said that many colleges and employers are hiring people that are experts on computers and Internet to come in and find stuff about people. “I would hate to have a student apply for college, or a job, and then one bad decision that they did over digital media come back and haunt them,” Hansel said.

Hansel also said that even when people delete their files on their computers, it is still possible for the information to be retrieved.

She uses an undercover account on Twitter and Facebook to find information about illegal activity from the hundreds of people who have friended her. “There are a fair share of students from every school that like to post themselves [using drugs and alcohol]. More of what we get at Kennedy is kids posting themselves with drinking or with marijuana,” she said. “From time to time, not really at Kennedy, but we do see students posting pictures of themselves with guns.

And what they don’t realize is that as a police department is that we retrieve a lot of that. It’s good enough to start an investigation.”

10

College

A growing number of colleges are looking at applicant’s social media. In a survey from Kaplan, about 31 percent of counselors who responded said they used Facebook to learn more about an applicant. The Torch emailed surveys to several colleges in Iowa, including Grinnell, Wartburg, Cornell, University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa and Iowa State, about their stance on social media and applications. Each college stated that they did not research college or scholarship applicants. Many said that they used social media in a purely communicative manner.

In fact, the only time a college ever looked at a student’s information was when deciding whether or not to tweet at or retweet a student who tweeted at the college or tagged them in a tweet.

Tina Elfenbein, Coordinator of Communications & Assistant Director of Admission at Grinnell College, said that the only time they pay attention to students’ social media accounts is when students engage with them, though it isn’t really considered in the admission process.

“When prospective students choose to engage with us on Twitter and Facebook, we are certainly are aware of how they choose to do that, but we don’t then look at that particular student’s Twitter feed,” Elfenbein said.

Ryan Puhrmann, Admissions Counselor for Electronic Communications at the University of Northern Iowa, said that he hesitates to retweet or respond to students who use profanity or make crude posts regularly. “I love retweeting students who want to talk about their visits to UNI or about becoming a Panther, [but] I just can’t do anything if it includes anything like that.”

Many students are using websites and apps to help clean up their content on their social media. One popular app used is Facewash, which allows users to login into their Twitter or Facebook accounts. The app then goes through their history and finds curse words or words that may be inappropriate.

Samantha Hunter, sr., is one of many students who has begun using this applications. “I’m not typically the kind of person that does the kind of stuff on the Internet, so it showed me a few times on the internet when my friends got on there or anything,” Hunter said. bailey zaputil

19%

Feature

@

of Kennedy students have admitted to posting content or pictures about drug, alcohol, or illegal behavior on social media.

!!

35%

17%

have admitted to getting into trouble with either parents, school, and/or authorities because of something they posted online.

say they worry about who will be seeing their online content or about getting into trouble for content posted online.

#

Information from 132 surveys distributed to Kennedy students.

Pages and graphics done

by Bailey Zaputil

PAGES BY Bailey Zaputil

11 11

How to find your loved ones’ public court records

Feature

Ever wondered how employers do background checks? Once a person turns 18, their record becomes public information. Here’s how to check out your friends’ and family’s records in six simple steps.

1.

2.

3.

Google “Iowa Courts”. It’s the first one.

4.

It will take you to the main page.

Click “Start a Case here!”

On the next page, you’ll get your choice of appellate or trial court.

Generally, you’ll want trial. Click “Case Search”.

5.

6.

Use Name Search to find the person.

Type in the last name and first name.

Click “Search.”

For this part, you need to know the Date of Birth (DOB) and middle name to find the right person.

Click any of the cases on the left.

Congratulations! You have now searched your first court record up. Share with your friends and family this valuable resource and use responsibly.

PAGE BY Bailey Zaputil

13

Sports

Jordan Schultz (right) and Colton Schultz (left) have been playing together for 13 years.

photo provided by Colton Schultz

Two brothers, one team

Twins, Jordan and Colton, share experiences being teammates on Rough Riderses

Jordan

Colton

Q:

What good or positive things come out of being teammates with your brother?

A: Jordan: He’s my best friend and we just work well together.

Q: Describe your practice and game schedule.

A: Jordan: We have practice four times a week and they go

till 10 o’clock at night. It’s very time consuming and you have to be committed. And for weekends you have to be all focused on hockey. You miss out on all the parties and you can’t really hang out with anyone because you’re just focused on playing the game.

Q: What makes hockey a unique sport?

A: Jordan: It’s not as popular here in Iowa as it is in northern

states or out east. We started playing when we were four years old. I love it and never want to give it up.

Q: How do you feel about playing hockey with your brother?

A: Colton: Its kind of fun, we really get into it. We sometimes

get in fights at home but once we are at practice, we are a team.

Q: What challenges do you face when playing with a sibling?

A: Colton: We are very competitive in everything and being

teammates just brings that out. During practice we sometimes get into it with each other but it is all fun.

Q:

How does being teammates with your brother effect your relationship?

A:

Colton: It gives us something to talk about and something to relate too. We are involved in different things but we play together.

Elianna Novitch

Q: What are your future plans for hockey?

A: Jordan: I want to play junior hockey and go to college next

year. Junior hockey gives me a chance to get looked at for a scholarship. And I’m just playing the game too; I love it.

PAGES BY Maddy Crist and Katie Wolfe

13

Ads

14

Ads

PAGES BY Norm Althoff

15

Health

The impact of depression and how students cope 16 18

Health

One student’s struggle with depression, and the fight to overcome it

F

or Taryn Erbes, sr., having depression led to a more serious issue, prescription drug abuse. “I first started using them to get high, they were easier to get and I could take them whenever.”

It wasn’t until a few months and two hospitalizations later, due to the medication she had been taking, that Erbes finally reached her breaking point.

“The breaking point for me was when my mom came to visit me in the hospital and couldn’t even recognize me.” Erbes said.

“I didn’t take care of myself and looked really sick. “ After that event, Erbes agreed to get the help she realized she needed and entered the Area Substance Abuse Council (ASAC) rehab program. She stayed there for five and a half months and was released on Dec. 9.

Erbes is ready to get a fresh start by finishing school and starting college.

School nurse, Connie Trautman, RN says that she has seen more cases come through her door over the past couple of years.

“I don’t know if the amount of students with depression and school anxiety has increased or if I’m just seeing more because they are more comfortable coming down here.”

One of the main things that Trautman looks at when it comes to identifying depression in high school students is their attendance record.

“What I see a lot is absenteeism,” Trautman said. “I work closely with our school attendance facilitator, Mr. Goodlove to identify the students who call in a lot due to illness. We then call home and ask why the student is missing so many days of school and it might be because the student is too anxious to come to school and so they stay at home and they are worried about coming to school because they are so far behind and then they get further behind and it runs in a cycle.”

If someone feels like they are depressed or anxious, Trautman says that the first step that individual should take is to talk to an adult and have that adult help determine their next step.

“I do not hesitate to recommend professional counseling and leave it up to the professional to determine if the student would benefit from medication.”

If students need to talk to someone, there is a resource through school called Same Day Access. This is a service through

“My mom came to visit me, and couldn’t even recognize me.”

-Taryn Erbes, sr.

If you feel that you may be dealing with depression, substance abuse, or any other mental health issue, here are some resources available to help.

Area Substance Abuse Council - ASAC www.asac.us (319) 390-4611 National Suicide Prevention Helpline 1-800-273-8255 (1-800-273-TALK) Abbe Center Counselors (319) 398-3562 The National Institute of Mental Health (301) 443-4513 Planned Parenthood (877) 811-7526 Teen Line 1-800-443-8336 the Abbe Center that provides an assessment with a mental health professional on a first come, first serve basis. Through Same Day Access students have the option to utilize an Abbe Counselor who is at Kennedy twice a week.

If students are feeling like they want to get services here from our Abbe counselor, the first thing that students have to do is go with a parent over to the Abbe center to Same Day Access and fill out paperwork and then you can either see a counselor there or choose to see the counselor here at school and they can arrange that.” Trautman said.

Both Trautman and Erbes agree that talking to someone is the first step to learning to manage. “My advice is that there are many people willing to help. What I learned is that 10% is what happens to you and 90% is how you react to things that happen,” Erbes said. “Changing the way you act things can help you get through the hard times “ amy brause

photo by Bailey Zaputil, model Olivia Zaputil

PAGES BY Elianna Novitch and Ethan Divis 17 19

Arts and Entertainment

The latest

Inside scoop on this season’s most popular video games

Call of Duty: Ghosts Call of Duty: Ghosts is set in 2026, when the United States is at war with some South American countries which, joined together, call themselves the Federation. The war has raged on for 12 years, during which the Federation has decimated the southern United States with their superweapon, ODIN. ODIN is a satellite that stores tungsten rods that have the power to impact Earth with the force of a small nuclear bomb in a matter of minutes.

The few special forces soldiers that are left, called ghosts, are fighting to protect the Federation from launching its final attack and taking down the US. Seven new multiplayer modes were added to Ghosts, along with a four player co-op mode, Extinction. Some players didn’t like the changes made to the options, like Jimmy Gofton, fr., who said, “Domination is the worst. It’s too different from the Black Ops version.” Multiplayer also has new features such as female character customization and no level requirements to unlock items.

Uniquely to Call of Duty: Ghosts is a new character who is not only efficient in military combat, but is also loyal. Players can control Riley, a german shepherd Special Forces dog that is able to protect his team by sneaking around to find hidden soldiers and sniffing out explosives. While Riley is only available at certain times, the third mission, No Man’s Land, is centered around Riley’s gameplay.

Most of the reviews for Ghosts mention that the story mode seemed too much like the previous Call of Duty games.

Tabitha Mally, fr., displays her dislike of story mode by saying, “The story is so boring! I like multiplayer better, specifically Infected mode, because it is more of a free for all and it’s way more challenging.” The lack of people invested in the story may be what caused Ghosts to have a lower revenue compared to the other Call of Duty games.

Zayla Mackrell

18 20

Arts and Entertainment

Batman: Arkham Set in a holiday time themed Arkham, Batman: Arkham Origins is a single player open world combat game where users can play as a young, unrefined Batman as he fights the forces of evil keep Arkham city safe. Players can kick the crime off of the streets using martial arts and custom weapons like batarangs and batclaws to defeat the villains of Arkham.

Arkham Origins explores the backstory of how the Joker and Batman first met, while also including other villains such as Bane, Black Mask, and Deathstroke. The Joker has been shown to be the favorite villain of the game, as told by Kyara Simmons fr., “The joker is awesome! I love how insane he is.”

Players get to experience what made Batman the introverted superhero he is today. “The Joker is so unpredictable, that he changes Batman’s perception of criminals entirely.” TJ Lewis, sr., said.

The Joker forces Batman to question everything he knows about fighting with his chaotic ways, such as kidnapping Black Mask for his own evil purposes.

Zayla Mackrell photo by Hannah Bruns

PAGES BY Hannah Bruns andBY Morgan schwab PAGES Hannah Bruns 19 21

John F. Kennedy High School 4545 Wenig Rd. NE Cedar Rapids, IA 52402

“The torch has been passed to a new generation.” - John F. Kennedy www.twitter.com/KennedyTorch www.facebook.com/KennedyTorch

www.kennedytorch.org kennedytorchmedia@gmail.com