By:McKenzie Schwab LO’T Reporter
COVID-19 has impacted all of our lives in different ways. You may have been sep arated from your family, had to endure the fun of Google Classroom meetings, or you may have even caught the plague. Howev
cron. According to John Hopkins Medicine, “There is evidence that Omicron may cause less severe disease than the Delta variant.” Furthermore, these variants are very dif ferent from each other, varying in severity, contagiousness, and symptoms.
Though COVID-19’s affect on the ever
The Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 150 mph known as Hurricane Ian made its first appear ance over the central Caribbean Sea on the evening of Friday, September 23, 2022. It has now descended its path through Flor ida and onward, and the horrific death and destruction left in its path is unfortunately record breaking.
October 3rd and continues to rise as the search contin ues. In better news, 1600 people have been rescued as crews comb through wreck
week across different coun ties, and is subject to change as flooding continues.
er, as schools and society have grown ac customed to life with covid around with out safegaurds and mandates, students and staff are attempting to readjust to a “back to normal” school environment.
While most MHS students don’t wear masks, some still do. Many have stated that they don’t fear catching covid very much, but that it should still be some thing to be careful about. Through it all, COVID-19 still scares many people and they have shared their concerns that CO VID-19 will hit back in December.
As of September 2022, there are many different COVID-19 variants; some better known ones are Alpha, Delta, and Omi
day life of Americans has decreased, it is still ongoing and continues to be a threat to those who are unvaccinated or suffer from chronic diseases.
The CDC has a few reccomendations to keep COVID-19 from taking over the coun try again. For example, if you are exposed, instead of quarinting, wear a high quality mask for 10 days, and try to get tested on day 5. Other reccomendations include main taining sanitary habits, such as washing your hands often and covering your mouth when sneezing and coughing. Hopefully, if every one does their part, life can continue its way to returning to normal.
High winds have overtaken Flordians’ lives in many ways; a power outage af fecting over 2.5 mil lion residents leaving them with no ability to contact relief cen ters when bad gets to worse; flooding has consumed streets, homes, and cars leav ing victims trapped by water. From CNN News, Cody Fritz, a storm specialist at the Na tional Hurricane Center, warned that, “Water levels are quite high in those areas still and so it will take some time for the water to re cede.” The remaining Flori da residents who have been unable to receive help or evacuate before the oncom ing storm are still strug gling to stay afloat without the help from others.
CNN news reports the death toll has officially reached 100 victims as of
age in hopes of finding trapped survivors. Though some are lucky to survive, their communities are for ever changed. Certain is lands such as Sanibel Island have been deemed “out of commission” by the Coast Guard. US Coast Guard Commander Admiral Bren den McPhereson told CNN that Sanibal Island was “Hit very hard, they have no wa ter, basic infrastructure is wiped out.” Cleanup efforts are scheduled to begin this
The Red Cross, through Twitter, has urged Ameri can citizens to help the relief efforts by set ting up appointments and donating blood, platelets, or plasma to make sure that patients affected by the storm still have their neces sary variables needed in hospitals. Many hospitals are left with minimal medical care due to the onslought of patients who have been injured because of the storm.
If you want to help, it is important to sup port organizations that are aiming to provide relief to Hurricane Ian victims. Many can be found with a simple search but more popu lar ones like; Florida Disaster Funds, Feed ing Florida, Convoy of Hope, and CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) all wish to achieve the cooperation of the American citizens to as sist all of the victims who need all the help they can get in their time of need.
If you are wishing to sup port locally, ImpactLife is looking for volunteers to donate blood type O or any blood type to ensure the health of local and Florida patients.
As our 2022-23 school year begins, we are excited to introduce our new staff members at MHS: Ms. Sara Baker - Dean, Mr. Eric Birkmeier - School Psychologist, Ms. Regan Borman - Coun selor, Ms. Traci Bosold - SpEd, Ms. Heather Cous ins - Assistant Principal, Mr. Brian David - FACS Teacher, Ms. Chelena Henning - Art Teacher, Mr. Ben Holmes - Music Teacher, Ms. Amy Jackson - Administrative Assistant, Ms. Betsey JohnsonSocial Worker, Ms. Kristina Lukowicz - Admin istrative Assistant, Mr. Sam Maynard - BPAC Manager, Ms. Jozett Mccoy - SpEd Teacher, Mr. Matt Nevin - Social Studies Teacher, Mr. Ian New ell - Police Liaison, Ms. Amy Rea - Administra tive Assistant, Ms. Marina Stoll - World Language Teacher, Mr. William VanVooren - Social Studies Teacher, Ms. Lavanya Vijayaraghavan - Business Teacher.
New photography, digital art, animation, and Interior Design teacher, Mrs. Chelena Henning poses with her camera Photo by Jamileth Alonso :
very welcoming and I look forward to getting to know my students this year!”
As of the 2022-23 school year, the Moline School District instituted a new dress code that some students and teachers believe limits creativity and expression.
As for why the Moline School District added the new code, many people are unsure. Some believe the purpose of this new code is that students should keep a neat and clean appearance. Some of the changes include no hats with bills or brims (beanies and head-scarves are allowed); coats, backpacks, and sunglasses cannot worn in classrooms; and students’ mid-section must be covered. The most controversial change for many, is that clothing must cover your stomach, and as a result, clothing like crop - tops are not allowed.
Ms. Regan Borman, one of our newest counsel ors, formerly taught math at Wood Intermediate School in Davenport. Afterward, she was a counselor for 5 years and a math teacher for 4 years at Glenview Middle School. At Moline, she is a counselor for last names CUC-HOS and creates our SEL videos.
Ms. Borman says that “I have loved my first few weeks here at Moline. The staff and students have been
Mr. Brian David, our new FACS teacher started his career teaching food and nutrition classes at a middle school in St. Louis, MO. Then, he taught food and nutrition at Davenport West High School. At Moline, he is a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher.
Mr. David says that, “Moline has been very wel coming and I have enjoyed my short time here so far. Stu dents have been amazing and I can’t wait to get to know them more and share my love of cooking with them.”
Mr. Christopher Moore, our principal here at MHS, was previously our assistant principal. Prior to that, Mr. Moore has served at MHS as a Dean, a Department Chair in World Languages, and began his career in the classroom as a Spanish teacher.
After speaking with Principal Moore about his new position he said, “I really like the job, I do. I’m trying to get to know and understand what my re sponsibilities are in order to help people. But to be honest I love it very much, I’m very dedicated to this school and to the students here, so I’m just really honored that I get to spend the end of my career here serving as principal.”
Good luck to all of the new staff and current staff in new positions. Have a great year, Maroons!
A few students have spoken out about this policy. Sophomore Leslie Vargas is disappointed and said that “last school year, I saw countless students with amazing fashion sense. They felt confident about their bodies and you can see it because of how confident they walked.”
Vargas also stated that “the students should be al lowed to have a say in the dress code because it targets them specifically. It doesn’t affect teachers like how it af fects students.”
Finally, Vargas believes the new dress code is tar geting the students rather than the teachers.
Many share Leslie’s opinion about the dress code and have hope that the district will reexamine the code after getting more student input. She hopes others will join the cause by making their voices heard.
Throughout America there is an old but newly revived issue: Books are being banned by school districts, libraries, and leg islation for containing ideas and information about gen der, sexuality, and history.
This wave of out lawing books mainly targets children and young adult books and has a record for targeting books written by African-American as well as LGBTQ+ authors. PEN America, an organization dedicated to protecting free speech through litera ture, keeps an index of all books and pieces of pub lished writing banned in the United States and reports that over 2,000 books have been banned in 86 school districts across 26 states this year alone. The people who call for these books to be removed are usually upset about two main con troversies: books involv ing discussion of race or books containing LGBTQ+ characters or information. This is an attack on the first amendment and takes away the chance for millions of kids to learn and receive new ideas.
These bans are focused on censoring ideas from children and adolescents so that communities can weave their ideas into the heads of new generations before outsiders do. Arguably this is due to the ongoing po larization of political par ties in America. It reflects how stubborn Americans are about their ideologies,
and how they plan on mak ing the next generation the same. PEN America’s index shows a pattern of areas in the South with deep ties to Jim Crow Laws such as Al abama, Kansas, and Texas and how these places have a recent trend of banning books about interracial re lationships and books about race and history. In 2021, “Out of Darkness,” a book written by a white woman married to a Mexican hus band about an interracial re lationship between a Mex ican-American girl and an African -American boy, was one of the most challenged books of that year. Some of the people who decreed this book inappropriate claimed it was due to the sexual con tent. In a viral clip, a woman complains that the book ref erences anal sex. And while the book does make mention of sex several times, con sensual and nonconsensual, Perez explained on Twitter that it was more about de nouncing the objectification of women of color. Many readers agreed with this and said that is how they inter preted it. This leads me to believe it’s less about sex and more about interracial sex and sexual experiences a woman of color would have faced at that time.
Another book, “Mondays Not Coming” authored by Tiffany Jackson, a black woman, was being banned and challenged in many school districts for “spout ing’’ critical race theory. This story is told from the perspectives of the fam ily and friends of a missing
black boy whose disappear ance fails to gain the media attention it deserves. It is a novel many African Ameri cans can relate to through out the country because of the ongoing issue of under representation and cover age of missing persons of color. Still, it is being taken off shelves due to parents in white communities’ allega tions that it makes their kids feel bad for “being white”. This is definitely not the goal of this book, the goal is to relate to a shared feeling among black communities, and allow readers of other cultures to have a glimpse of this feeling. Reading books about other people’s experiences can be dif ficult and can invoke new feelings and understand ings, but it shouldn’t make anyone feel bad about their privileges. If anything, it should help readers see a new perspective and allow them to be educated about others’ struggles, increasing empathy by giving grow ing brains a chance to learn about others’ situations, ex periences, and ideas.
The southern states with large popula tions of Christian religions, otherwise known as the Bible Belt, are crying out for bans against books that have LGBTQ+ characters. Children’s books include families with same-sex mar riage, and young adult nov els with same-sex love in terests, friends, and coming of age. Many of these par ents don’t want their chil dren reading things that are “anti-Christian” or in other
words, aren’t in line with their beliefs. Though it is reasonable that people who follow Christian beliefs may not want their children reading these books, that is an issue they should address within their own homes. It is unfair to restrict it from an entire district because it takes away yet another chance for kids to under stand themselves and those around them.
This censorship is un democratic in many ways. In WWII Nazi Germany burned books containing anything they deemed to be against their beliefs, and that portion of history is considered disturbing and horrible in a multitude of ways. Americans seem so attached to their freedom and shake their heads at communist countries such as China or Russia which restrict all of their citizens’ information. But the joke
is on us. Our country is plagued by a desire to do the same, and it is being allowed. Legislation has been passed in states such as Texas, Tennessee, Okla homa, Missouri, and more to allow for parental input to affect the books children can access in school, giv ing way for restriction to the material. While many of these parents feel they have a right to decide what their children do or do not know, it violates the First Amend ment right to receive and express ideas. The Supreme Court ruled against a school district in 1982 for banning books in a 5-4 decision, setting the precedent that books can be removed for being “pervasively vulgar” or incorrect for the curricu lum, but not simply because people or schools don’t like the ideas inside. This gives some subjectification in rul ing if a book is considered
“pervasively vulgar”, but considering that many of these books are written for elementary school children, it can be assumed that vul garity isn’t the problem. Books are the original internet, they were the first means of spreading infor mation and gaining knowl edge. Putting any type of re striction on them, let alone restrictions based on per sonal beliefs and partisan values, is authoritarian and pointless. I say pointless be cause these days books can be ordered or downloaded online, and if someone is looking for them, they can find them. Taking away children’s and teens’ chan cesto read, interpret and un derstand books about chal lenging topics robs them of gaining the empathy and awareness that is so vital to operating in the modern world.
The finals policy at Moline High School has fluctuated over the past 4 years due to Covid-19, but our current protocol has tossed students into an aggravating situation. Towards the beginning of the year, an announcement was made declaring the new final exam incentive policy, in which three prime requirements have been stated.
According to the MHS Staff and Procedural Guidelines, the following incentives have been established:
● A student must not have more than three absences, which include excused, unexcused, ISS, OSS, and mental health days.
● Juniors and seniors are allowed to have one college visit per semester.
○ Must be made during the final two weeks of a semester
○ Needs to be verified using Moline High School-approved procedures for verification
● Absences resulting from school-related activities or requests from administra tors or counselors will not count against a student’s attendance record.
● A student must not have more than five tardies per semester in the class.
● A student must not receive more than one major referral from the classroom teacher.
In regards to the guidelines, the absence incentive causes my greatest concern. To begin, every student is given a total of five mental health days for the entire year. There fore, students will not be able to use all five mental health days without taking finals for at least one semester. The mental anguish resulting from the absence incentive encour ages students to desire taking a mental health day. It’s counter-productive.
Similarly, knowing that missing three or more days at school will result in mandatory finals, many students at Moline High School have already been coming to school sick, exposing their germs to their fellow peers and staff. The halls are filled with the sounds of students and staff coughing and sneezing while they contemplate possible sick days.
Consequently, students and staff are at risk of deteriorating health due to the restric tion on absences. Currently, we are still amongst a pandemic, for a formal declaration of the end of Covid-19 has yet to be made.
Plus, with a country-wide teacher shortage, it’s nearly impossible to find substitute teachers for ill teachers, impacting student and teacher interaction and ultimately learn ing. According to Today, the teacher shortage has been occurring for years, but it has finally reached a tipping point.
Another point of view to consider is how the finals policy affects students’ views on final exams. Many colleges require students to take final exams at the end of the semes ter, and our school allows students who qualify for the attendance incentive exemption to take final exams that will only be counted if it improves the final grade. To deviate from end-of-the-semester stress, many students choose not to take finals, while some take the exam to review the entirety of the semester’s curriculum.
Now, with our school’s new final exam incentive policy, many students feel the need to go to school every day regardless of their well-being because they do not want to take finals. By extension, the final exam policy depicts final exams as a negative obstacle that is challenging to overcome, but in reality, they might help students review material from the previous semester.
Overall, a variety of students have presented their views to be against the current fi nal exam incentive policy. Senior, Jacqueline Raya believes that the number of total ab sences should be raised to five instead of three. This way, students would be able to use all of their mental health days. Likewise, senior Mason Myers believes that there is no
point in using all of the mental health days since they count towards unexcused absences, resulting in taking mandatory finals. On the contrary, junior Maverick Friederichsen has already missed three or more days of school due to illness, and he believes that missing more school would not affect him because he now has to take finals.
Ultimately, the finals policy has presented a new challenge amongst students and their well-being. While sick days and mental health days still count as unexcused absences, students will continue to go to school regardless of their health, escaping from the possi bility of taking finals. Furthermore, students may feel that finals are strenuous and decide not to take them by attending school regardless of their well-being, but unfortunately, final exams may appear beyond high school.
Line O’Type is the official school-sponsored paper of Moline High School. The paper is published by the students under the supervision of faculty advisors for the Moline High School community. The staff will strive to accurately report school, local, state, and national news that affects high school students. Line O’Type Signals is also a forum open to students, faculty and administration to encourage the airing of opinions respresenting all sides of an issue.
All submitted material must be signed, due to a code passed by the school board. All responses or questions regarding editorials should be directed to your Editors-inChief, Sophia Brockway and Siri Chintala and faculty advisors, Heidi Norcross and Heather Breidenbach
From September 15 to October 15, we celebrate the independence of many Latin American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras. This also includes Mexico and Chile, which celebrate their inde pendence on the 16 of September and the 18 of September.
According to hispanicher itagemonth.gov, Hispanic Heritage month started when President Lyndon Johnson signed Hispanic Heritage Week, but was extended by President Ronald Reagan 1988. This meant that instead of receiv ing one week of observance of Hispanic heritage, it increased to a whole month! This change was made to encourage more celebration of the culture and contribu tions of American citizens
whose ancestry comes from Latino and Hispanic coun tries.
During Hispanic Heritage month, we cel ebrate Hispanic and Latin people in various ways. Thus, we learn about dif ferent cultures and tradi tions while appreciating those who went above and beyond.
A great example of a person like this is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC. AOC is a Latin American, her ancestry is that of Puerto Rican descent, and she has become the young est woman ever elected to the U.S Congress at 29 years old. According to her website at ocasiocortez. com, she speaks on issues such as support for Puerto Ricans and their economic and environmental crisis, and legalization for the undocumented and support
for minority groups with social and economic strug gles.
People like AOC are recognized for being a part of the Latino pride where people show that there is more to their background and heritage than what meets the eye. This pride unites their community and offers to show that representation is important to appreciate accomplish ments made by the Latino/ Hispanic community.
It’s the pride of being able to pass on the culture to future genera tions. It’s the pride of hon oring the diversity within the community. It’s the pride of understanding the struggles and advance ments hispanics have made and gone through. That is what it means to celebrate the Latinos and Hispanics of our commu nity.
By: Itzel Herrera LO’T Focus Editor
It’s National Hispanic Heritage month, and what better way to celebrate than with shar ing and educating others about Latino/Hispanic culture?
Latinos Unidos is a club where students get together to celebrate Latinos/Hispanics and to share their very own Latino/Hispanic culture.
Earlier this week, Latinos Unidos held a competition where stu dents from the club would bring their own homemade salsas, and Moline staff would assist as judges and pick two grand winners. This engaging activity is one of many led by stu dents that want to share
their voices and culture.
During this event, staff members including Ms. Nache, Mrs. Baker, Mr. Youngblood, Mrs. Valladares, Mrs. Thompson, advisors including Mr. Castro and Mr. Masterson as well as officers C. Lopez
and I.
Newel all partici pated in this spicy event. There were six salsas, and the two peo ple with the most votes won a prize. The lucky winners were Itzel Martinez, a junior who won first place, and Romina Garcia, a fresh man who won second place.
The engagement of teachers describing what would go best with each
salsa during the competi tion demonstrates how important it is to have inter actions and exposures to different backgrounds, as this provides an opportunity for the students in this club to show that their Latino/ Hispanic heritage mat ters and create a sense of belonging and pride.
Students in this club do many different inter active activities. One of these activities would be the ofrendas they have done, which is the signifi cant concept where offer ings such as personal items and traditional and favorite foods are used to connect with deceased family and friends.
This tradition is celebrated during Dia de los Muertos, or Day of
Winners show off their slasas. Romina Garcia (left) and Itzel Martinez (right).
the Dead, which is one of the many distinguished and important cultures in Mexico, as well as all over Latin America.
Latinos Unidos is what its name means: “unity.” It’s “open what the stu
dents want, it’s student directed, it’s what ever they want,” says Mr. Castro, the advi sor for the Latinos Unidos club. It’s “the support to the stu dents to do whatever they want to accom plish,” he continues.
Joining this club means that students should be able to feel comfortable with themselves and dem onstrate the pride for being Latinos.
On Saturday, October 22, Mercado on Fifth is plan ning on hosting its debut Día de los Muertos parade in the streets of downtown Moline, beginning at 2:30 pm.
Mercado on Fifth is a non-profit organization that is focused on preserving and inspiring Hispanic cul ture by helping small busi nesses and entrepreneurs grow.
Typically, Mercado on Fifth hosts markets every Friday night during the sum mer. These markets include events for all ages, includ ing food trucks, live music, mobile retail stands, and
general children’s activities. However, this year, they are planning on opening a new indoor center for year-round activities.
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1-2 every year that focuses on the signifi cance of the dead and the remembrance of ancestors.
According to Mexican folklore, the dead will awak en for a couple days in the beginning of November to reconnect with their liv ing family and friends. Typically, people will cre ate home altars for the dead or cook traditional foods to celebrate the holiday.
An additional way of celebrating Día de los Muertos is a parade.
Mercado on Fifth is very
excited to be hosting its first Día de los Muertos parade in Moline, sponsored by R3 Roofing and Exteriors. “We
are so ecstatic that we can hardly contain our enthusi asm!” Mercado on Fifth wrote on their Facebook. In addition to the parade, Mercado will have a food truck party in the Vibrant Center park ing lot at The MARK (formerly known as the Taxslayer Center) starting at 4:30 pm, which will include a couple food and retail vendors in the parking lot with music from Chicago’s Tamborazo Chanillos.
This will be followed
by a performance by Mexican-American singer Luis Coronel at 7:00 pm. Admission is free for all except for the concert fea turing Luis Coronel. The route for Mercado’s parade begins on 4th Avenue and 12th Street in Moline, heads west on 4th Avenue, and headsnorth on 4th Street on 5th Avenue.
The food vendors par ticipating in the food truck party include Cocina Verde, Raulito Tacos, Tacos al Vapor, and more. Retail ven dors will include Adolfos Imports, Yaya’s Boutique, Rosarios, and more. Come join this cel ebration of Hispanic culture.
Many “Cobra Kai” fans have been patiently waiting since December 31, 2021, for a new season of the popular show “Cobra Kai,” the spinoff of the previous “Karate Kid” trilogy from the 80s. Just this September 9th, the 5th season of the show came out, revealing a lot of long-awaited answers
that will be answered when you watch.. “Cobra Kai” is currently a Netflix original show for streaming and is on Netflix’s’ top ten list with 95 million hours viewed.
“Cobra Kai’s” first sea son was an immediate hit as many younger people have started to follow the saga. People who grew up with the popular movies were ex tremely excited to see a new
show that continued with the original characters. The original characters within ”Karate Kid” have made many appearances with big roles in “Cobra Kai” such as Johnny Lawrence, the bully, playing a massive part. If you are a big fan of the show, this new season will reveal whether Johnny and Daniel can get back the dojo and also explains how
Miguel deals with the loss of his family in the new epi sodes. “Cobra Kai” was no doubt, a hit being able to reach 95% Rotten Tomatoes within just a couple weeks.
The new “Cobra Kai” season has 10 episodes in total and according to Net flix, is probably the second to last season. The show is great and I rate it a 4/5 stars, you should watch it too.
Image courtesy of The OuterhavenOn September 21, 2022, “Andor” was released by Disney. The show had been in the works since 2021, but due to Covid-19, the show was delayed. “Star Wars” fans across the globe have been surprised by the num ber of episodes released on the airdate as Disney usu ally releases one a week, but they decided to release
three episodes on the pre miere. Disney has been at tempting to make spin offs of the original Skywalker saga as it ended when “The Rise of Skywalker” aired on December 20th, 2019.
Although the series is re ally new, viewers have criti cized the story for moving a little slowly. Disney said that the pace was purpose ful since this first season will offer more informative
scenes than action scenes because of them already planning on a second season to continue the storyline. Although “Rogue One” was a controversial movie with lots of hate and love, many are excited to see the main character, Cassian Andor, get a bigger role within the “Star Wars” franchise. Cas sian Andor’s point of view in the series will be him ex ploring the infinite universe
to see if he can make a dif ference “in a galaxy far, far away.”
The show currently has five episodes out and will continue to release new episodes weekly until it has reached twelve. “Star Wars” has followed this same con cept for many past shows on Disney+ The show is a great series and although a tad slow, it still holds an impact in the “Star Wars” world.
After 13 long years of waiting, “Avatar” fans are finally getting the longawaited sequel to the worldrenowned movie.
Set to hit theaters this December, “Avatar”: The Ways of Water”:, follows Jake, Sully, and Neytiri as they must leave their fam ily to explore Pandora while facing an ancient threat causing Jake to fight in a
war against the humans.
Starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña, this movie is expected to be actionpacked and adventurous.
This long-awaited film has not come without its challenges, according to James Cameron, the di rector of the film. At the 2020 Austrian World Sum mit, Cameron said during a video chat the movie lost “about 4 and a half months” due to Covid. This also
pushed back the release date for the film, making viewers anxiously wait another year before the movie would be released.
Through all this excite ment, this movie has a lot to live up to. “Avatar 1” (2009) collected $760.M at the box office in the US alone, making it the highest grossing movie of all time according to Rotten Toma toes. According to NewsJournal, The original movie
also had an inflated cost of 319 million making it one of the most expensive mov ies of all time, up there with “Avengers: Age of Ultron” at 445.2 million and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at 355 million.
According to Forbes, “Av atar” is expected to go big in theaters, rivaling even “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was one of the biggest movies of 2022 so far. But the movie’s success might have to be
shared, as “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” comes out just one month before the release of “Avatar 2”. With two very popular fran chises going head to head at the box office, it is unclear who is projected to come out on top.
Whether you’re an “Ava tar” fan or not: head down to the theater starting De cember 16th to catch this highly-anticipated, history making movie.
“Don’t Worry Darling” is the latest film by director Olivia Wilde, and follows the tale of a young woman, Alice (Florence Pugh) and her husband Jack (Harry Styles) as she navigates the deceit and lies of the socalled utopia they live in. But lies and deceit are not exclusive to the film itself, as the drama surrounding the film’s cast, specifically Wilde, Pugh, and Styles, has almost grown larger than the actual film.
All the drama started when Pugh expressed she felt uncomfortable around Labeouf, the actor origi nally casted in Style’s part, who has had many allega
tions of being an abuser. Pugh brought this concern up to director Olivia Wilde, who allegedly did nothing.
Labeouf ended up leav ing the movie during pro duction. Eventually, he exposed Wilde, who had originally claimed to have fired Labeouf in a video begging him to stay in the movie while knowing that Pugh had felt unsafe around him.
After Wilde was con fronted, she found another actor to play Jack, conve niently enough, her boy friend at the time, Harry Styles. During filming, there were rumors that Wilde and Styles had ended their relationship.
It appears that due to Wilde and Pugh’s constant
clashing on set, Pugh was not present for the movie’s press tour. She only showed up at the film’ s first screen ing at the Venice Film Fes tival, where she absolutely stole the show in a purple mono-chromatic Valentino gown
Styles and Pugh were never seen standing next to or talking to Wilde, con firming the drama has an air of truth to it. While we’ve yet to see if this contro versy has had a positive or negative impact on the ac tual movie’s success, it will certainly have an impact on the careers of Wilde, Pugh, and Styles.
Much of the commu nity has taken the side of Pugh and oppose Wilde, most likely resulting in the
respective boost and drop in their careers. However,
where it will go for Harry Styles, in terms of an acting
career as well as his rela tionship with Olivia Wilde, it is still too early to tell.
Since the lockdown began in March 2020, the performing arts at Moline High School initially took a heavy hit to the number of people within the classes, but this school year finally started to see people return to pre-covid numbers. With this years fall concerts right around the corner, the band, choir, and orchestra are prepared to show it takes a lot more than that to knock them down.
The Orchestra is return ing with the Philharmonster Concert, for it’s third year, coming up on October 26th. As tradition follows, the concert will feature the 5th
through 12th grade orches
tra groups playing pieces of increasing difficulty, a cos tume contest, prize give aways, trick-or-treating, and spooky music at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center. The orchestra will have as many as 100 string players on stage.
As for the rest of the band and orchestras, Fresh man Band will be play ing “Great Locomotive Chase”, which is based on a train chase during the Civil War, and Concert Band will be featuring a piece called “Metrix,” which deals with multiple time and meter changes that cause it to be very difficult. The Sym phonic Band will be playing “Coral and Shake Dance”,
together. I want every stu dent that enters this program to leave with a huge appre ciation for music and what it means for our community.”
High School Choir Festival on the weekend of October 10th with two other choirs from the Chicago suburbs. This gives them the oppor tunity to work with college level conductors, and im prove their abilities.
From spooky music to concerts to water balloons, the performing arts center has a lot going for it this year.
Mr. Morton, Band and Orchestra Director, and Mr. Holmes, Choir Director. Photo by Renny Fillingham which is based on a shaker melody, and on par with the Philarmonster concert, the Orchestra is playing “Danse Macabre”, which translates to “dance of death”. This year also welcomes Mr. Holmes, the new choir
teacher for Moline High School, who previously taught at Wilson Middle School. When asked about his plans for this year, he said, “My biggest goal for every year is to get students excited about making music
The choir is always ac cepting new students, and Mr. Holmes wants as many students as he can get. He also said, “For each choir that gets at least 10 new members by the semester, I will allow each student one water balloon that they get to try to hit me with...IN JANUARY!” With that in mind, be sure to encourage your friends to join!
The choir concert will be held on October 18th in the BPAC, which will feature music from each choir class. Concert Choir will also be taking part in the Augustana
All are invited to join choir, and with every new member comes the hope that this January we’ll see Mr. Holmes pelted with countless water balloons.
And although Mr. Morton has made no such promise, our band and orchestras will certainly continue to pros per, water balloon aside..
As we begin the new school year, one of the most thrill ing events is just around the corner. We are here to provide you with more information about all the activities sur rounding Homecoming.
To provide you with this information, we interviewed Ms. Harding; she is a Moline High School teacher and coadvisor for Student Congress.
Ms. Harding revealed to us that this year’s homecom ing theme is New York and was chosen “by students who were in attendance at Student Congress meetings in April of last year.”
She also informed us that “the homecoming week themes were also voted on by Student Congress a couple of weeks ago” at their first meeting.
In the video “Homecoming SEL Lesson September 21st, 2022,” we can see the various events that are planned throughout Oct. 10th-14th.
• Oct. 10th - Adam Sandler Day.
• Oct. 11th - Tourist Tuesday
• Oct. 12th - Class Colors
• Seniors wear blue
• Juniors wear red,
• Sophomores wear purple
• Freshmen wear green.
• Oct. 13th - BBQ Dads Vs. Soccer Moms
• Oct. 14th - Maroon and White day.
During this week there will also be many activities and events. On Monday the 10th, Moline High School will have a hypnotist at 7 pm in the Bartlett Center.
On Tuesday, there will be a Home Volleyball game at 7 pm.; The superfan theme will be announced that week.
On Wednesday, Oct. 12th, the High School will have a half day, and later that evening there will be a Powderpuff game. You will need cans to enter and a permission slip in order to play.
On Thursday, there will be a movie night at Wharton showing “Night at the Museum.” It will be free entry, but you do need your school ID.
On Friday, Oct. 14th, we will get to enjoy the Homecom ing Parade that begins at 2:00 pm, and after that, there is a home Football game against Sterling; the superfan theme is Maroon and White.
Finally, on Saturday, Oct. 15th, the Homecoming Dance will be at Wharton Field House. The dance will be from
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The Dance theme is New York Fashion Week/Met Gala.
2022-23 student body president, Haley Petersen, stat ed that her favorite part about Homecom ing is “see ing ever body excited about it.”
She says, “It means we planned re ally well.”
Stu dents and staff should get excited for a lively Homecom ing week to kick off the year
By: Morrison Fry LO’T Reporter
6th, 7th, and 8th at 7 pm in the Bartlett Performing Arts Center.
“Scapin” is about two young men, Octave and Le ander, who enlist Scapin, played by Josef Bodenbender, to help them after they pledge marriage to women their fathers wouldn’t approve of. Little do they know, Scapin is a schemer who con stantly lies and tricks people to get ahead. So, as Scapin navi gates through tricky situations for these two men and their love lives, he has his own plan up his sleeve.
“Scapin” was originally written by French playwright, Molière, as one of his many comedies. How
ever, the version Moline is using is a modernized ver sion originally produced by The Seattle Repertory Theatre in Seattle and the Roundabout Theatre Com pany in New York.
One important aspect of Moline’s version of “Scapin” is the use of color. Angela Rathman, the direc tor, is implementing color through the set and the cos tumes.
The stage features two crumbling houses and a green staircase laden with flowers and sparkly, gold fabric. Additionally, many crew members have elect ed to be part of the cast to brighten the show with their energy and colorful, patterned costumes.
play as “crazy and funny.” Diego Lopez, who plays Leander, says that it is “very comedic,” and he’s “excited to see it all come together for the students of Moline High.” Josef Bodenbender describes the play as “very fast paced and ludicrous,” and he “is most excited to hear the audience laugh at the quips that are made!”
Other characters include Hyacinth, Octave’s love interest, played by Katie Rhea; Argante, Octave’s fa ther, played by Rue Rohm; Geronte, Leander’s father, played by Gabe Thompson; and Zerbinette, Leander’s beloved, played by Winter Roland.
MHS Theatre invites ev eryone to enjoy this produc tion and get involved in the next one.
By: Mckenzie Schwab LO’T Reporter
As the girls tennis season begins to wrap up, Romi na Sanchez, a varsity girls tennis player, told us that she enjoyed practing and playing tennis with her team. “My teamates kept me going throughout the season and every practice. I won all of my matches during the season, and I think I did very well.”
Siri Chintala, a varsity girls tennis player, also thinks her season has also gone well. “I liked the bus rides and enjoyed bonding with the team both on and off the court.” Siri enjoyed her four years of tennis at MHS and is excited to see what the future offers.
Although the season went by quickly, coach DeVol said that “the season has been fine so far. We’ve been undefeat ed in conference dual meets. All of the schools are bringing their best. I don’t want to let nerves get the best of us and
try our best.”
This season, the girls went 7-2. The girls were able to pull off a 9-0 victory against Rock Island and United Township. Coach DeVol has increased the amount of con ditioning this year, which has lead to improvement within the team since last season.
If you are interested in joining the team next year, coach DeVol’s advice is to play tennis as much as you can throughout the year. You can also come join the open court sessions during the summer, or take some lessons to keep your tennis skills sharp. Coach DeVol is excited to see how the hard work pays off at the upcoming conference tournament.
The tournament will be held at Quincy Highschool on October 7th and 8th.
Whether it’s waking up early in the morning or practicing late into the night, the girls swim team works hard during practice and gives 100% during races and events. The girls started their season at the annual Peoria Notre-Dame Invite. They placed 2nd overall compared to the other teams at the invite.
This meet set the tone for the rest of the season. Coach Colleen says, “The girls give it their all in and out of the water and prove to be exceptional student-athletes.
I can’t wait to see what the season brings.”
Not everything was so smooth sailing though. A few weeks ago, the pool was vandalized and some of the scoring pads were trashed, which put the girls’ first home meet on pause for a while.
The team went on to the Sterling Invite and Varsity placed first out of eight teams. This was a huge win since most teams were from the WB6 Conference.
Team Captain, Erin Fixen explains, “I felt proud of our team that we were able to pull off a win at the Sterling Invite, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.”
The team consistent ly succeeds, and at the Normal Invitational, the ladies placed well, earning a top 3 spot. It was nice for the team
to see some competition around the state. The meet was a good learning experience for the girls and made them more of a team.
The next meet was a dual meet against Dunlap. The ladies did not come out on top but learned from their mistakes going into their next Rocky dual meet.
The girls had a chance to meet up with Rocky, this time coming away with a win and showing great sportsmanship. This was the girls’ first home meet. Fresh man phenomenon Olivia Gustafson has blown her compe tition out of the water and continues to lead at the top of the conference. We are happy to see such groundbreaking potential in the pool. Sophomore Skyler Chandlee has also shown her speed in the 100-yard freestyle by going 57 sec onds. We are proud of all the girls and their successes.
In addition to swimming, the divers have also had a series of ups and downs this season. Diver Daria Delelie has done well, placing in the top 3 each time. Divers Elle Spence, Gigi Terpetis and Darrien Sanders also continue to improve.
The girls look forward to many memories and wins in the future. Team Captain Avery Daniel says, “I want to see the girls reach their greatest potential. As a senior I want to leave the team knowing that we earned a confer ence title for the 5th year in a row.” The girls are excited to fly through some upcoming dual meets and move up in the Conference.
Good luck Motown Swimming! We can’t wait to see what you all accomplish this season and in the post season.
The boys golf team just had one of its greatest sea sons in a long, long time.
They just won their conference meet for the first time outright since 1998, with a score of 305 strokes.
In addition to this excel lent team accomplishment, Jack Curnyn and Greer
Peters earned first team all conference honors and Braden Thatcher was hon ored on the second team.
The team had won a total of two invites during the season, with their most recent one in Sterling.
Curnyn added, “We’re focused on the Post-Season now and we’re hoping to return to state.”
Unfortunately, the team nor any individuals quali fied for state this season, but that doesn’t diminsh the other outstanding ac complishments the boys achieved during the season.
Congratulations to the boys golf team for an amaz ing season!
The girls golf team had a season with many ups and downs, which is understandable since the team was adjusted to new-coming coach, Tom Quinlin.
One of the highlights of the season came at a home meet against Sterling in which Senior Sarah Spur getis shot an astonishing hole-in-one on hole 8 at Oakwood Country Club. Spurgetis remarked, “We mesh well together and memories have been made and that’s what makes it more enjoyable.”
The team earned third at the conference meet, and the girls shot in the
Regional meet just a week later. The team earned 5th in regionals, and individu als Spurgetis, Junior Becca Cramer, and Paige Melton
went on to Sectionals. c
Though no individu als moved on to state, the girls are happy ending the season on a strong note.
Squeaky sneakers ring out. The stands are filled with fans. And countless amazing plays, the result of lots of hard work, indicate that the MHS volleyball team is off to a fantastic start.
Both the Varsity and Ju nior Varsity teams are play ing well against the confer ence teams, with varsity’s first game against Newark, which was a bittersweet win after last year’s tough loss. And the next day they had a game against Orion where the team won by a landslide.
The team continued its streak, winning against Sterling in a closely con
tested 3 sets, with Moline coming out on top in the final set with a score of 25-17.
The girls’ first Con ference home game was against Rock Island, and Moline won the final set with a score of 25-19. Senior Caylee Brandes ended the game with 21 kills, resulting in a crowd that went wild.
Brandes reflected, “It felt unreal. I didn’t even know how to feel when it happened. All I knew was I was getting close to 15 and the next thing I know, I got 21 kills! My teammates jumped and screamed and supported me. It was a great way to start my senior year.”
And although Rocky put up a good fight, the Lady Maroons were unstoppable.
The varsity team re mains undefeated in confer ence play.
Captain Sam Veto of fers, “It feels great. We all work really hard in practice and that’s what leads us to be successful in games. We have a lot of trust and con fidence within each other, which creates great team bonds.”
The Maroons’ current record is 16-8 and 9-0 in the conference. The team has a conference streak of winning its last 29 games in a row in conference play..
New Head Varsity Coach Jenna Laxton offers daily positive motivation that has contributed to the
ladies’ success.
Junior Hannah Schim mel states, “Coach works us hard at practice and it prepares us for all the tough competition in the postseason.”
Team Captain Megan Depoorter says inspiring words about team bonding and future goals, adding, “I think our team has a very close knit bond this year, and I think we all get along very well! For the future of our team, I hope we finish our conference strong and make a good postseason run to show all of our hard work.”
We are very proud of our Lady Maroons and offer them the best of luck as their team approaches the postseason.
Seniors Caylee Brandes and Sammi Veto go up for a block against Rock Island.
Photo by: Sophia Brockway
Soccer vs. Washington Sat., Oct. 9 @ 1 pm
Soccer vs. Sterling Tues., Oct. 11 @ 6 pm
Volleyball vs. Geneseo Tues., Oct. 11 @ 7 pm
Soccer vs. Pekin Thurs., Oct. 13 @ 6 pm