The mentor Vol. 102 Issue 20 | Manhattan High School | March 31, 2015
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NHS struts their stuff at fashion show
Right: Sophomore Angie Moss and junior Meghan Doll show off 2015 Prom styles. Top left: Seniors Kendrick Rivera and Abigail Githens show off Prom couple attire. Bottom Left: Seniors Michael Melgares and Dheepthi Perumal sport spring styles. PHOTOS BY JOHN ROCKEY Tracy Le Trending Editor Over 20 models lingered behind lush, velvety curtains at 7 p.m. Saturday. They had arrived at Manhattan High School six hours earlier to practice. As music blasted through speakers and lights illuminated the stage, the MCs took the stage and the models were in position to plunge into the second annual National Honor Society
Fashion Show. “[The fashion show] went so smoothly,” senior and NHS president Katie Bussmann said. “I was really proud of everybody who had a hand in it. Not only the models, but also everybody backstage, the techies, everybody who goes unseen...they really are the backbone of the show.” NHS held its first fashion show last year and since then, the club has become known for this event.
“Munisa [Khuramova], who was a foreign exchange student last year, came into National Honor Society and did a fashion show and it made a lot of money. So we were like ‘hey, we want to get in on the money too,’” Bussmann said. “The fashion show is [also] a great way to reach out to the community and showcase what they have.” The club worked to organize the show the past few months, working with businesses from
Dillard’s to Walmart. “It was a lot of preparation with the businesses that provided the clothing, in constant communication with them, and talking and making committees inside of our group and making sure everyone was doing their part,” Bussmann said. “The communities that provided the clothing for us were very kind and generous and really helped us. The week before was really stressful. This year, we had spring break the
Student shares State Assessment question, school faces consequences A quick picture can do a lot of damage. Recently, a Manhattan High student took it upon themself to take a picture of a State Assessment Writing prompt and share it through the popular app Snapchat. One of the viewers of the Snap soon recognized the prompt during their own assessment. “A teacher brought it to my attention that a student who had taken their test said that they had seen the question that was on the screen earlier in the day,” Assistant principal Angie Messer said. “The teacher sent the stu-
dent to me and I talked to the student and found out that we had another student who had taken a screenshot of a question he had on his assessment and snapchatted it out during the day.” The district has specific actions that they follow in instances such as these. “When a teacher learns about an irregularity around testing protocol, the infraction is treated as a disciplinary matter for the students involved as well as a situation requiring measures to re-establish the testing environment validity,” superintendent Bob Shannon said. The action was reported to the state. “I had to self report us for
breaking testing protocol to our district test coordinator and then she had to report that to the state of Kansas and we also notified Dr. Shannon so in case information comes down from the state he’s aware of it and obviously I had to notify Mr. Hoyt,” Messer said. The student who took the picture’s test has been nullified and will count against the school. “So the state is aware of it and what will happen is the student who took the picture, that student’s test will be invalidated and it will count against our participation rate for our high school,” Messer said. “The other student who saw the question earlier in the day, so benefitted from seeing
and I’m going to do it next year,” Diller said. “I think it’s cool that they do it so they can show what dresses you can buy and also the donations are nice.” The money earned from ticket sales and donations will go towards scholarships for students and other charities. “I think it’s a really good way to raise money, a really fun way,” junior and model Ethan Levin said.
SADD plans annual Spring Fling
Snapchat gone wrong:
Madeline Marshall News Editor
week before so a lot of people were gone so we weren’t able to fully put everything together.” Despite the stress, Bussmann had a lot of fun coordinating the fashion show and believes it is a great fundraiser. Sophomore Isabelle Diller, model of dresses from Weisners, Dillard’s and Walmart, agrees. “I thought it would be really fun to do it and they asked me to sign up so I was like ‘sure, why not’. It was really fun
it, that student has had their test reset and will retest with a different writing prompt.” Due to state participation requirements and the funding that comes with meeting them, the student’s nullified score harshens the burden of state assessments. High schools are required to have around a 95 percent participation rate. “I was very very disappointed because this is my second year here at Manhattan High, but in my previous job for five years I coordinated the state testing and I know how important it is and how difficult it is sometimes to reach your participation level that you have to See Snapchat page 5
Angie Moss Business Manager Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) will host the annual Spring Fling at 7 p.m. on April 10. There will be several activities for students to do including laser tag, dancing, carnival games set up by other clubs and a raffle for gift cards.
SADD has had to raise money by selling popcorn at all of the home basketball games to cover the cost of Spring Fling so it can be free for everyone. “It’s just to have a fun safe night for kids at school and a way for SADD to have some fun planning it too,” president Alyssa Frey said.
SkillsUSA prepares for car show Darian Foga-Frehn Staff Writer The SkillsUSA club has started to prepare for their spring car show. “This is going to be our second annual Steve Barnes memorial car show,” senior Tristen Kleinbeck said. “What we do is raise as much money as we can for the Skills program, and use half of it for our schol-
arship.” The scholarship goes toward a SkillsUSA student that wishes to continue their education in the automotive field. “What we do [with the scholarship] is send one of the tech people so they can get an education and learn about auto, diesel, whatever they want to further their educaSee Skills page 5
Brownback’s actions on education invoke student response AP Bio class tours Wichita Zoo Madeline Marshall News Editor Governor Sam Brownback, recently took further action against public education funding by signing Senate Bill 7 into law. The law repealed the current school finance formula and has replaced it with a block grant system. The block grant system is meant to be a temporary funding measure while Kansas legislature deter-
Global News Madeline Marshall News 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.
mines a new funding formula. “Together we will build on our past success and not jeopardize funding because of flaws in the previous formula,” Brownback said in a statement regarding SB7. Many MHS students see the bill as a way to compensate for Brownback’s earlier tax cuts. “It’s a farce of an attempt to fix Kansas’ budget. Brownback dug us into this hole by making major tax cuts and now
is doing more damage by undermining the schools that are preparing the future members of the workforce,” senior Miranda Hairgrove said. “He’s not doing his part to ensure Kansas has a bright future. He just seems to care about making Kansas be an experiment for Republican ideology in the present.” Other students feel similarly about SB7 and other education budget cuts.
“I am in disbelief on his school finance policies,” junior Krista Burton said. “There are hundreds of different ways to eradicate a deficit and cutting social services is definitely the worst way. I have heard rumors of how class sizes will rise at MHS, and that certain electives will disappear, but that is all just speculation. We will just have to wait to see
Tunisians march against terrorism
said in response to the Tunisian’s defiance. Only hours before the march, Tunisian authorities announced that they had killed one of the three prime suspects in the attack.
First Officer Andreas Lubitz, intentionally brought the plane down while his captain was locked out of the cockpit and banging to be let back in. All 150 people who were aboard the plane were killed. Mass murderer Lubitz is said to have been depressed at the time of his action and had been declared “unfit to work” by a doctor. The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a recommendation that cockpits always be staffed by at least two crew members and further safety precautions are being considered by major airlines within, and outside of, Germany.
In response to gunmen storming the Bardo Museum in Tunis on March 18 and killing 22 people, 21 of which were tourists, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Tunis for an anti-terrorist march this past Sunday. “The Tunisian people proved today that they do not bow to terrorism, and that as one man and one woman, they defend the nation. When Tunisia is targeted, the whole nation stands as one,” Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi
Germanwings plane crashed intentionally, killed 150 Passenger plane Airbus A320, Germanwings Flight 9525, was crashed in a remote part of the French Alps last Tuesday. The copilot of the crashed Germanwings plane,
See Brownback page 5
Angie Moss Business Manager Last Tuesday, 15 AP Biology students traveled to the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita with teacher Pat Lamb to finish off their zoology unit. “We got a special tour by a friend of [Lamb’s] and we got to feed several of the animals and also hold several animals that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do and
then later on we filled out a worksheet,” junior Mackenzie Gwinner said. “We chose a reptile, a bird, an amphibian and a mammal and we wrote about its habitat and special adaptations about it.” The AP Biology class has gone on several field trips this year to learn about other units. Students have gone to Konza Prairie for the ecology unit as See Bio page 5
New Indiana law sparks ry. The argument is one that has been fought for years: at controversy what point is religious freeLast Thursday, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a new “religious freedom” law into action. The law, which allows businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers if serving them contravenes with the business owner’s religious beliefs, has rallied up a massive social media storm. Supporters of the bill say it protects their right to believe as they choose, while its opponents argue the bill is nothing more than thinly veiled bigot-
dom no longer that? The tone of this law directly opposes the LGBTQIA+ acceptance that has been gaining support in many states across the country, and the social media outbreak of “#BoycottIndiana” and its opposers have led to many questions about the direction in which the US is headed.