The Shield Volume 68, Number 3 (McCallum HS, Austin, Texas) Feb. 26, 2021

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The magnificent freshmen seven COVID led Coach Campbell to combine her squads; her ninth-graders were up to the varsity challenge TALLULAH WILSON staff reporter Starting something new has always had an element of thrill and nerves associated with it, and in a year filled with new experiences for everyone, a growing sense of community has been created. This is certainly true for the McCallum girls varsity basketball team ? specifically, their freshmen.

Cate Thoden is one of those freshmen. While starting out being younger can be scary, she says having a team like the girl varsity basketball squad has made all the difference. ?I was definitely very nervous before I joined, and it felt like I didn?t really know anyone," Thoden said. ?I was kind of overwhelmed at first, but everyone on the team helped me out and now I feel super a part of the team.?

Thoden is one of seven freshmen on the varsity team along with Esme Barraz, Annie Bauld, Samantha Cowles, Isabella Cruz, Lily Hobbs and Samantha Shreves.

Because of this pandemic year, selecting who would be on the team was very different than it had been before. Coach Lorie Campbell had to combine her JV and varsity teams into one because of safety reasons and take much of the preseason into consideration when deciding who would make the team. ?We spent every day on Zoom from September to October building culture, talking a lot and getting to know each other,? Campbell said. ?Listening to them speak and be able to articulate themselves really well was another big reason [they stood out].?

For Campbell, this year was all about adapting and getting to know the new freshmen not just based on their athletic abilities, but their mental strengths as well. Coach Campbell sums it up in what can be called her three D?s? dedication, determination, and desire? all of which were what she was looking forward to seeing in the coming tryouts. ?Being on varsity as a freshman means you earned it because you?ve caught the coach's eye, and they?ve seen something in you. It might not be that you're the best scorer or something; it could be that you bring so much spirit , you're so intelligent or you just hustle your butt off,? Campbell said. ?You have to really listen and learn. I think that being a freshman you have to really have a tough skin and have that desire to want to play, not just be on a team and put on a uniform.?

Another big part of Campbell's decision for the freshmen was seeing how the teams and players adjusted to the changes made in practices and the class caused by the pandemic.

"This is a year of growth in general for pandemic reasons, and I?ve seen them take information and put it into play the next time that they do something in the court,? Campbell said. ?That was one of the bigger reasons why they were chosen. They adapted and responded really well and are all very intelligent.?

Though being on varsity as a freshman can mean you don?t have as many opportunities to play, according to Coach Campbell being on the sidelines is just as important. ?As a freshman, you have to realize that you're going to be playing against kids who might be juniors and seniors and there will be some games where you might not even get to play,? Campbell said. ?You just have to be that teammate on the bench that brings spirit, joy, hustle and culture, like getting up and clapping or giving reminders because that?s just as important. Especially having no fans this year because of COVID, it?s very quiet.?

When they are given the chance to play, the

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Freshman Esme Barraz scored eight points and four rebounds in the Knights' Senior Night win over Navarro. Photo by Dave Winter.

Freshman forward Sam Cowles scored six points in the win over the Navarro Vikings on Jan. 22. She also led the team in rebounds for the season.

Photo by Dave Winter. freshmen have been known to give it their all. ?When you get your chance to play, which might not be for very long you have to go at it with everything, which they do a really good job of," said Campbell. ?For instance, Esme Barraz, who was really aggressive on the court and attacks the basket or Annie Bauld, who was unafraid to play against the upperclassmen.?

Adjusting to the new environment and athletes has also been a difficult aspect for both the coaches and the players. ?It was kind of hard for me to adjust from middle school basketball to high school basketball because high school is so much more competitive," Thoden said. "It took me a week or so to get used to it, all the properly learning skills and techniques that I never learned in middle school.?

Campbell agreed that high school is a whole different ballgame. ?It can be a culture shock just because of the way that I run practices,?she said. ?A lot of coaches tell, tell, tell, do, do, do, but I havealwayspreferred asking them questions rather than telling them what to do and seeinghow they respond.?

And this year, that difference is magnified.

Campbell, however, focuses on the positive rather than the often-told negative. ?There have been some pros of just having

everybody on varsity, like how those freshmen are going to learn a whole lot of stuff a lot quicker," she said. ?It's always been about keeping the joy and love for the game alive, and COVID has changed their attitude and how we play the game.

It's taught us to be resilient. So I think it?s been a blessing in disguise.?

Plus, combining the two teams this year has provided Campbell with an opportunity to grow her mindset and teach everyone what it means to be a team. ?Some of our kids didn?t even play this year because of COVID, but we?ve gotten through it together and believed in ourselves,?

Campbell said. ?I?m glad the freshmen got to see that nothing is easy. It?s not just let?s play and wear a uniform, you really got to work at getting better and we have been. We?ve just had to get together and execute.?

Through all of this change and trouble, the most important things have stayed the same inside the walls of the gym. ?One of the important cultural things that we do at the end of every practice is to celebrate one another telling each other we are proud of them for getting through a tough practice, or if they did something we thought was good,? Campbell said. ?I really try to make sure that I celebrate them. They celebrate each other and try to make each other a little bit better every day.?

The pandemic has also helped Coach Campbell reminisce and hold on to what she loves most about being a coach. ?I just love the sound of a happy gym, and to me that's the squeaks of tennis shoes and athletes high-fiving each other or celebrating each other regardless of if the drill went well or if it didn?t,? Campbell said. ?Just celebrating one another, growing together, playing to see what you can do, and then putting that all out on the court and coming together afterwards... it?s just exciting to be in that kind of environment.?

And as for scores and records, Campbell doesn?t depend on them to measure her team'ssuccess. ?I think success comes with other aspects than just wins and losses, and the team can get over that challenge,?Campbell said. ?It?s all about attitudeover execution and just thinking about how you measure success.

Sometimes you have to view it in different ways.?

Coach Campbell and the team continue to look forward to the oncoming games and are hopeful and confident that they will do well.

"I?m very proud of the group this year, and all the seniors and how they?ve grown,? Campbell said. ?I?m happy and excited to have seen how the freshmen have grown and how they continue to grow and improve. It's a really cool thing to get to experience and be an influence in.?

?I?m glad the freshmen got to see that nothing is easy. It?s not just let?s play and wear a uniform, you really got to work at getting better. And we have been."

-Coach Campbell

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Despite ice, Knights turn up heat MAC defeats Manor, 56-39, for first playoff win since 2006 to give Coach Fuentes his 100th win With his team's bi-district playoff win over Manor, varsity basketball coach Daniel Fuentes reached a career milestone: 100 wins as a head coach at McCallum. The playoff win was also Fuentes? first as head coach of the Knights. To commemorate these twin career milestones, the Knights signed the game ball for Fuentes. Senior forward Ed Johnson credited Fuentes' respect for his players as a key to his coaching success. "I like how he takes players ideas into consideration and also how he can build a good relationship with everyone,? Johnson said.

Photo courtesy of Randy Varela.

Senior Rob Wade shoots in the paint during the Knights ' 48-37 second-round playoff loss to Kingwood Park in College Station.

According to Wade, the Knights kept energy up the whole game, but after falling behind by 14 points in the first quarter, the Knights could not catch up to the "We played hard, but I missed too many shots," Wade said. "We were fighting an uphill battle the whole game."

Senior Ed Johnson lays it up in his last game as a Knight. "We didn?t get the result that we wanted, but it?s been fun playing with these guys, and they?ve become family to me," Johnson said. Photos by Kennedy Weatherby.

48-37

Senior John Wade passes the ball in the second round of the state playoffs against Kingwood Park in College Station. Putting the 48-37 loss behind him, Wade said he was grateful his time playing at McCallum. "I know I gave everything I had in my last game, and I?m good with that," said Wade, who scored eight points. "I became a much better team player as a Mac Knight. I learned hustle and to be a better leader."

Junior Noah Arnold drives to the basket in the playoff win over the Manor Mustangs. With 14 points, Arnold was the second highest scorer behind senior captain Rob Wade's 15. After trailing by one at half, the Knights pulled away from the Mustangs in the fourth quarter.

"We started out slow, but our experience helped us win this game," Wade said. "We didn't turn the ball over, and we had a few guys in double digits." Photos by Kennedy Weatherby.

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The senior varsity basketball players have secured their first playoff win in 15 years, led by captains Rob Wade and Albert Garza, who combined for 26 points.

Photo courtesy of Stuart Wade.

Senior Hudson Spradling looks to move the ball in the Knights' 56-39 bi-district playoff win against the Manor Mustangs.

"It's my first playoff win," Spradling said.

"It's a great feeling. My team and I worked hard, and it reflected in the score of the game." Photo by Kennedy Weatherby.

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For young girls, role models that look like them, such as Princess Jasmine, team USA softball player Natasha Watley, and vice president Kamala Harris, are important.

Illustration by Bella Russo.

' We want a more colorful media' Student Leadership guest columnists express the importance of increased BIPOC representation NAYA DOMINGO guest columnist I?m a young woman and a young woman of color. Society doesn?t make it easy to be either one of those things.

I?m proud to be who I am (don?t get me wrong), but think about all the odds stacked up against young women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), and people in poverty. It?s taken us way too long to finally get a woman in a position of power. It?s taken us way too long to address homelessness. It?s taken us way too long to give women equal pay.

And the worst part is, two of the three issues I named really can?t be considered ?fixed? yet.

Homelessness, especially among veterans, is still one of the biggest issues in the nation.

Seventeen out of every 10,000 people in the United States were homeless in 2019. Women?s homelesness is especially hard because of our menstrual cycle. This is often overlooked.

The women?s U.S. soccer team has been fighting extremely hard for years to get the same pay as their male counterparts. We do have Kamala Harris, who is the first Vice President to be a woman, be Black, and be South Asian. However, she wasn?t the one to bring herself to that position of power. A friend of mine pointed out that Joe Biden, a white male, brought her up to that position of power. It?s a step in the right direction for sure, but Kamala Harris should?ve been able to do that herself.

My point is simple: America is changing. And

it?s about time the statistics change too.

How do we address the issue of overlooked homelessness and unequal representation of women? That?s a great question.

Honestly, it starts with the media. How often do we see women?s sports on TV (basketball, soccer, f lag football, swimming, etc)? Not often, if at all. How often is a peaceful protest shown on the news? Never.

How often does the media (social media, the news, articles, etc) show the injustices of our criminal justice system? Never ever ever.

What?s shown instead of women?s sports?

Pro-football, all of them males. What?s shown instead of a peaceful protest? Riots, started by the very same law enforcement who are supposed to bring justice and protect us. How come injustices are never pointed out? Because no one has the guts to address the elephant in the room.

As a young woman and a young woman of color, I have dreams and goals. I want to see more ?Kamala Harris stories? depicted on the news. I want to see women?s college (or professional) softball played on ESPN. I want to see justice brought to the hundreds of black people who have been killed at the hands of law enforcement.

I leave you with this: When will the media start addressing simple issues like unequal representation or the thousands of homeless vets and women out on the streets?

These issues are sweeping our country, so when will they start paying attention and offering support?

Meet the author: Naya Domingo Naya Domingo is a currently a junior and is a second year member of the Student Leadership Team. Besides Student Leadership, Domingo is involved in Student Council, PALS, AVID, softball and is currently the school mascot. After high-school graduation, Domingo plans to go to college and major in kinesiology, hopefully one day opening up her own sports medicine practice.

Domingo believes that representation in media is the first step to empowering girls. She decided to write this column to help shed light on the significance on the importance of women being properly portrayed on all media platforms.

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OLIVIA NAVARRO guest columnist When I discovered Princess Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin, I immediately became obsessed. I dressed up as her for three years in a row for Halloween.

As a young girl, Princess Jasmine was the first representation of a brown girl who kinda sorta looked like me, being a princess. The discovery of Mulan and Pocahontas brought me the same joy.

Looking back on it , Princess Jasmine?s presence in my childhood was extremely important. For the first time in my young life, I saw a main character who resembled me. As an adult , when I watched Kamala Harris become vice president , I felt a surge of hope, pride and dignity. There sitting in the second highest position of power was a woman of color, someone I felt could represent me.

Growing up, I clung to any character who I felt could slightly resemble, me but was often left disappointed by the lack of representation

in novels and movies.

I read frequently as a young child. If a description of the characters had not been given by the author, I would occasionally picture the female protagonist to resemble myself or my friends. When film adaptations would come along, these same characters who I had imagined as BIPOC were cast as white, even if never specified in novels. Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson- these are all unfortunate examples of the normalized whitewashing in the media.

Seeing yourself in the media, in stories, in positions of power- all of it helps you shape a narrative of what someone like you can become.

Being able to picture yourself as the hero, the love interest, the leader; it's vital. For BIPOC children, the experience of feeling underrepresented and unseen continues on with history textbooks, movies, media and even social media. Many BIPOC people have yet to see representation of themselves within the media. Instead, minorities are often portrayed as stereotypes, and many of these portrayals are sadly inaccurate and even harmful.

"Seeing yourself in media, in stories, in positions of power- all of it helps you shape a narrative of what someone like you can become. Being able to picture yourself as the hero, the love interest, the leader; it's vital."

Meet the author: Olivia Navarro Olivia Navarro is currently a senior and is looking forward to going to college next semester. As of now, she plans to major in leadership community engagement or political science. 2021 marks Navarro's second year in the Student Leadership Team, this year taking on the role of Logistics Officer. Other than Student Leadership, Navarro is involved with cheer and Student Council. Navarro believes a huge part of her identity has been shaped by her Korean and Hispanic background. She hopes that through her writing, she can share a new perspective on mixed race issues and representation that often overlooked.

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the

shield COVID-19 case triggers inflammation of organs

Surviving COVID The commonly held belief is that teens don't suffer severe cases if they contract the coronavirus.

Two staff members can attest that that's a myth.

TOBIN WINE staff reporter

illustration by Lucy Marco

Milder COVID case still frightening enough to scare a person senseless LUCY MARCO online co-editor in chief As a teenager, I was told that COVID for me would be practically symptomless, but I can tell you now, that was not the case. Although I was never near the brink of death, there were times when it felt like the end of the world. Even with the number of COVID cases decreasing recently, the probability of catching the virus, even taking the safest and most socially-distant precautions, is higher than you might think.

In my case, it all started four days after getting my wisdom teeth removed, when I was delivered the news that my stepbrother, who was living in the house at the time, tested positive for COVID on New Year's Eve. The last thing I wanted at that moment , at any moment really, was to catch the virus. I spent the next three days in bed recovering from my oral surgery, not knowing if I was infected or not. Eventually, I had to go to an urgent care center for another complication, a staph/ MRSA infection in my nose. Staph inside of the nose feels like a sharp rock stuck far up your nostril, except a little more dangerous. While I was there, they went ahead and did a rapid test for COVID, and shockingly, it came back positive. At this point , everyone who lives in my house was positive except for my younger sister, Chloe.

The day I tested positive was when I began to feel chills and pretty typical fever symptoms, but no actual fever. Also, I was still feeling a lot of pain and a little bit feverish from my wisdom teeth removal and staph infection, so it was hard to tell what was causing what.

As the days went by, I started to feel increasingly worse as more symptoms kicked in.

From what I?ve heard, for most people, COVID feels pretty similar to the f lu, and I can confirm

this was true for me. I felt very lightheaded, weak and achy everywhere, I had very little strength or interest in getting out of bed. I was also taking strong antibiotics for my staph infection that made me feel like a giant wooden spoon was stirring up everything inside me, and just generally not helping.

About four days in, my f lu-like symptoms started to fade away and now felt more like a cold, with incessant coughing and noseblowing. Lucky for me, I never really had any lung issues or shortness of breath? the coughing stage didn?t last for long.

Then the fateful day came: the day I lost my taste and smell. I had heard it was frustrating and sad losing your senses of smell and taste, but I now truly know how important those senses are to living everyday life. Everything is bland, even chocolate tastes like nothing. I first found out I lost my sense of smell while I was petting my cat, who usually smells very strongly of old books, and found he had no smell at all. I then smelled all my candles and was amazed at how even the strongest smelling ones were completely scentless. I discovered my lack of taste as I ate throughout the day and just thought that everything was a little bland, mostly just tasting salty. I finally put it to the test by trying a very old pack of Fun Dip, which tasted like a f lavorless, sugary powder that permanently dyed my mouth blue.

As the days continued on, my other symptoms started to calm down. I only felt constantly tired, still longing for my senses of smell and taste to return. The amount of mystery about the virus is unsettling while

"Although I was never near the brink of death, there were times when it felt like the end of the world."

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you?re infected. There?s no telling how long your symptoms will last, whether they?ll reappear in the future, or if some part of you is permanently damaged. Almost a month later, I still experience exhaustion parallel to when I had mono a few years ago. My sense of smell and taste is somewhat back, but notes of things are still missing.

My senses aren?t the same as they were before, and the possibility that they?ll never be the same again can't be ruled out.

For many students like me who are split between two homes, the notion of ?staying at home? is a little more complicated when you are switching back and forth between houses, oftentimes filled with many other people.

The risk of being exposed and exposing other people increases by a lot. Luckily, I didn?t pass it on to anyone else to my knowledge, but I feel now especially is the hardest time for kids living in multiple households. This is a time of feeling like there are many things out of your control.

When I talked to the nurse in the urgent care clinic, she assured me that I practically wouldn?t even notice I was sick. Even though I was in a lower-risk age group, it was interesting to see that my mother and I were pretty much in sync as far as symptoms go, even though we both had mild cases.

Many people probably picture big gatherings of teenagers wildly passing COVID from one person to another, although I think everybody shares the blame, in every age group.

Even though wearing a mask, religiously carrying hand sanitizer and socially distancing are effective ways to prevent the spread, there?s really no definite way to avoid getting sick without moving to another planet. For kids and teenagers who don?t have very much control over their lives and independence, right now can be a really frustrating and an even more dangerous time for them.

"My senses aren?t the same as they were before, and the possibility that they?ll never be the same again can't be ruled out."

It was late May 2020, when I noticed that my tastewasn?t right. Soon after, I began throwingup and my fingers turned red. I developed a fever, and I hardly had any energy. On the fourth day of being sick, I told my mom to take me to the hospital. When I got there, I was immediately taken to intensivecare. My body wasn?t absorbing nutrients from food, and my gut was in bad shape. I was given intravenous therapy, so I wouldn?t die, and I had blood drawn for testing.

What I had was COVID-related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). I had been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, which inflamed many of my organs, causing my symptoms. I did not, however, exhibit symptomsof the original virus.

Because I wasn?t absorbing nutrients from Graphic LucyThe Marco. food, I was in extremely badby shape. more important sustenance was given to me through IVs, while others were given to me once I could consume. One potassium solution tasted so bad that I opted to have it through an IV, despite it causing a slight burning sensation. It was common for me to havetwo IVs at the same time, and eventually I was given a a peripherally inserted central catheter, or PICCline.

A PICCline is essentially a larger IV with a long tube that goes through a major artery to the heart, allowingfor medicineto be delivered to the body quicker as well as being able to draw blood better. At one point, I was taking in enough medication to make me feel cold, despitehaving a fever of 104 degrees.

Eventually though, I was able to drink water without throwing it up. Soon after, I was able to eat soup. As I started feeling better, I was able to stand up.

But even that was a challenge. I spent about a week recovering in the hospital, where I spent most of my time watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix or sleeping. The day I left, I had to be wheeled out in a wheelchair because I had become almost too weak to walk after spendingso much time in the hospital bed. About a week after I left, I returned for a checkup.

During that checkup it was discovered that my gut hadn?t been the only organ to be inflamed,my heart was too.

This discovery was potentially worse than my previously identified symptoms because when a heart swells, especially in the places mine did, it creates an area where the blood slows down and may clump up. This meant that I was at a big risk of a clot blocking blood flow somewhere in my body. If a clot formed and traveled to my heart, I would have a heart attack. If one went to my brain, I would have a stroke. If one made it to a limb, it would haveto be amputated.

Immediately, I was put on blood thinning medication as well as steroids to return my heart to its normal size.

At first, my parents were wary of the medication, due to its connection with mood changes, but it was the best option I had. I was allowed to go home that day, but I had to make frequent returns for blood tests, heart ultrasounds, an echo scan, a CT heart scan, a catheter scan and eventually an MRI. It took weeks, but my heart returned to as close to normal as it could get.

As of now, I am doing physically better. I have returned to living as normal a life as can be in the pandemic. My heart will be a bit weaker, but not enough to cause major problems. In the most recent test, the MRI, the results showed that there were no abnormalities. I still take aspirin daily, and I still have small scars on my upper right arm and leg from the PICCline and catheter scan, though the dots from blood tests and IVs havefaded.

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An unreliable reflection In-person STAAR test administration cannot accurately gauge how Mac students are doing SHIELD STAFF A strange paradox has presented itself: Despite nearly every facet of education changing this year, the way the Texas Education Agency will be testing student?s accumulated knowledge will not.

This spring, students in Texas public schools will be expected to take the STAAR test in-person, as normal. According to a Feb. 3 article published in The Austin-American Statesman TEA ?will not grade districts based on these results.? The article also states that while grade promotions have been waived for fifthand eighth-graders, seniors must pass all their exams to graduate. TEA leadership argues that administering the STAAR will still help illustrate how students are doing. Closer scrutiny reveals that simply is not possible.

2020-2021 is by no means a usual school year and shouldn?t be treated like one. Given the circumstances, any data accumulated from the STAAR test this year will be skewed. TEA has one logical and correct option: cancel STAAR testing completely.

There are two main reasons why any possible data collected from STAARs this year will be skewed: both the circumstances in which students will be testing and the sampling bias.

In theory, the purpose of standardized testing is to measure the knowledge acquisition and improvement of students on a year-to-year basis. A student?s score on these tests, however, reflects more than just their knowledge and skills; these scores are inf luenced by their environment, how stressed they are on a given day and even what they ate for breakfast.

Despite the option for virtual students to opt out, there is a looming pressure coming from TEA for parents to send their students in-person to take the test. Because seniors still cannot graduate if they haven?t passed all their tests, students in younger grades are forced to choose between taking their tests now or having to take them at a later date, when they may have forgotten material or have to double up on the tests. Even with the option to opt out, the alternative is so inconvenient that for many, the decision feels like it's already been made.

For students who have been virtual since March, the STAAR test cannot possibly be a fair indicator of what they have learned.

Remote students coming to campus to take their STAAR will be stepping foot in a physical classroom for the first time all year. This is the first time they?ll get to see some of their classmates in-person. Students are also kids, and no doubt will be far more distracted by seeing their peers than they would in a normal year. On top of that, students may be worried about the possible health risks of going into school. Together, these factors will ultimately prevent students from performing their best, making these tests an inaccurate reflection of student knowledge and improvement.

Another factor that contributes to the inaccuracy of any accumulated data is the inherent sampling bias. Assuming that some parents will keep their students home, any data that TEA would collect from these tests would not be a reflection of how all students are doing, but a select group. If TEA wants to use these scores to measure how students are progressing this year, this data group will only be a ref lection of in-person and a select group of remote learners.

Further, forcing in-person students to take the test while virtual-learners have the ability to opt out raises serious equity concerns. In many cases, those coming in-person to learn are doing so for access to Wi-Fi or school meals.

From a moral standpoint, it isn?t right to place the burden of taking a four-hour long test only on this select group of students who are often only at school because they need to be.

TEA has yet to announce whether remote high school students will be able to opt out of taking the five mandated end-of-course exams this spring. If TEA is going to attempt to administer the EOCs in the same fashion as the STAAR, the same issues of circumstance, sampling bias and inaccuracy will no doubt arise.

So what can TEA do? Simply just cancel both STAARs and EOCs for the 2020-2021 school year. It?s time to accept we?re in a brave new world. If we know going into these tests the data will be skewed, why conduct them in the first place?

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shield staff

cartoon by Ellen Fox

A.N. McCallum High School 5600 Sunshine Drive Austin, TX 78756 (512) 414-7539 fax (512) 453-2599 contact.macshield@gmail.com

editors-in-chief ELLEN FOX AND BELLA RUSSO assistant editors advisers ALYSA BIJL-SPIRO, EVELYN GRIFFIN, LUCY MARCO, ANNA MCCLELLAN, GRACE NUGENT, MADELYNN NILES, SAMANTHAPOWERS,THEOROE, ELISHA SCOTT JENA WEBER DAVE WINTER reporters MARLEY ANGLE, EVIE BARNARD, KATE BOYLE, JOSIE BRADSBY, OLIVIA CAPOCHIANO, THOMAS MELINA-RAAB, CALEB MELVILLE, ESME MORENO, JESSICA MONTOYA-MORENO, CARRIE ANNE MURFIN, LILY PRATHER, SOFIA RAMON, LYDIA REEDY, ALICE SCOTT, JAVIER VELA, LOKI WILSON, TALULLAH WILSON The Shield is published by journalism students in the newspaper production class.

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Students may not publish material that is obscene, libelous or that which will cause a ?substantial disruption to the educational process.?Content that may stimulate heated debate is not included in this definition.

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Letters to the editor are encouraged and must be signed. Positive identificationmay be required when a letter is submitted. Letters may be edited.

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