The Mentor: Feb. 9

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Junior Savannah Cherms speaks to students about opportunities within Manhattan High’s journalism-related electives during the Elective Fair last Thursday. PHOTO BY LAUREN RACE

the mentor VOLUME 103 // ISSUE 14 // FEB. 9, 2016

Forensics competitors qualify for State Championships ELIZABETH UNDERWOOD

Features Editor

Having competed in its second weekend tournament, the Manhattan High School Foren-

#IAM

sics team kept individual scores high while qualifying for State Championships in April. Starting on Friday in Congressional Debate, senior Nathan McClendon, junior Sean

McGimpsey and sophomore Lily Colburn all broke to finals while senior Cathy Lei was elected as Presiding Officer. “We didn’t take as many people [as last time], so not as

many people made it to finals,” Colburn said, “but we still did all right.” Heading back to Washburn Rural last Saturday, competitors finished off the tourna-

ment by placing in multiple acting and speech events. McClendon placed first in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking

SEE FORENSICS PAGE 3

POETRY SLAM BSU debuts poetry slam in Little Theater SAVANNAH CHERMS

Entertainment Editor

Poets, rappers, and vocalists filed into Manhattan High’s Little Theater to perform and watch the Black Student Union’s poetry slam held by Key Club. The night was filled with snaps from audience members, along with tears and cheers. The night ended with senior Nathan McClendon taking first place with his piece titled “The Hardest Part.” “I’m pretty happy with first place. I was surprised. I didn’t think it would happen but it did and I’m very happy. I forgot some of the good bits of my poem halfway through,” he said. BSU President Jamera Ewing was happy with

SEE BSU PAGE 3 Senior Nathan McClendon celebrates his first place title at BSU’s first poetry slam. McClendon performed an original piece titled ‘The Worst Part’ alongside second place winner Elora Root (left), junior, third place winner Madeline Marshall (right), senior, and four other students. PHOTO BY SAVANNAH CHERMS

Varsity Scholars Bowl takes second, tapes QUEST Hoyt releases site council report ANDREA LU

Graphics Editor Last week, MHS Varsity Scholars Bowl team had a 6A North regional meet on Thursday at Topeka High, followed by their second and final taping of QUEST, a televised game show, on Saturday. Eleven schools attended the tournament that was set-up as a round robin, where every team competed with all the other teams there. “The hard part about Regionals is that, of the 11 schools there, we had seen four of them during the season,” Scholars Bowl coach Ted Dawdy said. “That was at the Lawrence Free State tournament where we played short handed and got thumped. [They are also] the top four teams advancing to the state tournament next Saturday.”

Out of the 10 matches played, MHS went 8-2, ultimately losing to Lawrence Free State and two-time defending 6A champions, Blue Valley. MHS was able to snatch second place with Blue Valley snagging the top spot. “We did really well,” sophomore team member Stephanie Fu said. “There was another faulty math question except this time Mr. Dawdy objected and we got the point.” Faulty questions have been a somewhat regular occurrence with the most recent faulty question occurring at a Junior Varsity meet at Jeff West on Jan. 14. As for QUEST, MHS traveled to Topeka the past two Saturdays -- Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 -- and completed their tapings. Due to confidentiality requests from KTWU, MHS Scholars Bowl

GLOBAL NEWS RICK BROWN Copy Editor

Global news is a vital part of news today and can directly affect MHS students. In order to inform our readers, The Mentor has compiled small summaries describing some of the largest happenings in the world today. We encourage the reader to read about these topics, and others, in greater depth.

Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton win Iowa Caucuses

Candidates cheered and wailed as the Feb. 1 Democratic and Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa officially kicked off the selection process for the nation’s next commander-in-chief. Texas Senator Ted Cruz won the most Republican votes with 27.6 percent of the vote, followed by New York businessman Donald Trump with 24.3% of votes and Florida Senator Marco Rubio with 23.1% of votes. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who received 9.3% of the vote, accused Cruz of spreading false rumors before the caucus that he was suspending his campaign, and the

could not release results and details, except to say that it was a 16-team single-elimination tournament and MHS will appear on four episodes throughout the series. MHS Varsity Scholars Bowl still has a league meet at Hayden that was previously scheduled and canceled on Jan. 21 due to heavy snow. The meet was rescheduled for this Wednesday and based on previous league meets, MHS Varsity should do well. “We have had very good success against league schools, so I am expecting good things Wednesday,” Dawdy said. “The league tournament is only in its fourth year, and MHS has yet to engrave our name on the traveling plaque. We have a good chance to change that Wednes-

SEE SCHOLARS PAGE 3 Texas senator later apologized for this. On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received 49.84% of the vote to Vermont Senator Bernie Sander’s 49.59% in the closest Democratic Iowa caucus in history. Following the results of the Iowa caucuses, Republican candidates Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum and Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley suspended their presidential campaigns. The candidates will next compete in the New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday.

Earthquake causes damage in Taiwan A 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook Taiwan’s oldest city, Tainan, on Saturday, Feb. 6, resulting in the collapse of an apartment

ANGIE MOSS

Trending Editor Kansas students can now worry less about the emphasis on test scores in the state. Last week, principal Greg

“Manhattan should lead Kansas in the success of every student.”

-- Greg Hoyt

Hoyt released his annual site council report to Manhattan High faculty. The report included student demographics, achievement trends, new or innovative programs, instructional methods, improvement plan priorities and diversity initiatives among several other things. building and the deaths of at least 32 people. According to BBC, about 200 people were rescued and 500 injured as of Feb. 7. Officials blamed poor construction for the collapse. “In this earthquake, it was just this building that collapsed, so it was definitely a problem with its construction,” Chen Mei-ling, Tainan’s secretary general, said during an interview with the New York Times. An earthquake survivor named Chien, who declined to state her last name, gave a frightening account of the earthquake during an interview with CNN. “I was trapped in a room in a building toppled by the quake,” Chien said. “The smell of gas was thick in the air and I was worried that I would be killed by an explosion if not crushed to death in the collapsed building.” Rescue efforts continued as of Sunday, Feb. 7.

“The vision that I see for Manhattan High School and the vision of the state is that Kansas leads the world in the success of every student,” Hoyt said. “And Manhattan should lead Kansas in the success of every student. So that’s a big, huge goal.” The state assessment has been revised and is now formatted in levels one through four, one being what was once called academic probation, and four being what used to be exemplary. These tests indicate college and career readiness and MHS still rises above the state average. “Our results said basically almost the same thing for math and reading and that is that 37 percent of our students are on track to be college and career ready upon exit from high

SEE REPORT PAGE 3

Crane collapses in New York City On Friday a large crane collapsed in New York City, killing one and injuring three as well as damaging many cars. Authorities are unsure what caused the crane to collapse, though many suspect that high winds were the cause. In response to this incident, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio issued restrictions on when large “crawler” cranes such as the one that collapsed may be used. “No building is worth a person’s life. We are going to ensure the record boom in construction and growth does not come at the expense of safety,” de Blasio said in an official statement.

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