The Oracle Issue 1: This is Me

Volume 114, Issue 1, October 2018

Design: L. Christensen

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“This Just In” is a brand new comic strip that follows Ellie, Oreo and their friends featured every issue. For more, check dmnorthmedia.com! Illustration Credit: Nat Huber

Laura Christensen, Editor in Chief

DATES to REMEMBER • NO SCHOOL October 25 and October 26 • Thanksgiving break from Nov. 21 to Nov. 25 • Senior Photos due Dec. 10 • Yearbook orders due at the end of first semester ($50 to the bookkeeper in the main office)

Each year at Drake University, there is a National Council on Youth Leadership seminar held for students in the state of Iowa who have been selected by teachers for their leadership skills and their scholastic record. No one from North has ever been chosen to move on, this year that changed.

Students that participated well during the day and had a well-written essay, will be considered to go to St. Louis for a national town meeting in October.

Steven Phu, senior at North, was chosen out of 240 students that attended the seminar from 24 different high schools across the state of Iowa, on September 10, 2018.

At North this year, there were 12 students chosen to go recommended by teachers. The process begins in the spring of their junior year and the counselors send out an email asking teachers to send in nominations and the students with the most are normally the ones that get selected to go.

The students selected must turn in an application and also a written essay about how they

use their leadership skills in their daily lives and how they will use it in the future.

The day at Drake included a seminar where students listened to Jennie Baranczyk, head coach of the 2017-2018 Missouri Valley Conference champion Drake Women’s Basketball team, who delivered a keynote called “Leading with Integrity”.

Students who attended the seminar during the day were also encouraged to go to an induction ceremony where they were given medallions for their participation during the day. This is also when the four students were announced who would be going to St. Louis from Iowa.

Being the first North student selected, Phu said “Honestly, when they announced that it was a student from North, every North student was excited. I feel privileged to represent North High School and to have such an amazing opportunity to learn new things and how to be a better leader. It’s a great feeling”.

The trip to St. Louis will happen on October 20-23. To hear more about how the trip goes, go to dmnorthmedia.com after the event has happen.

Design: L. Christensen/C. Slater

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Tom Aheart, Superintendent of DMPS, changes the entire districts starting and ending times.

Laura Christensen, Editor-In-Chief It has been argued whether the new time change is a good or a bad thing for high school students. The old time had middle and high schools starting at 7:40 and ending at 2:40. The elementary schools used to start at 8:45 then changed to starting before the other schools at 7:30 and getting out at 2:25.

It has been up for debate for the past few years if the school board would change the times, since it would affect a lot of families and students. Most students have been saying they don’t like it for numerous reasons: getting out of school later, shorter lunch and not as much time for work after school, as some students provide income for their household.

But for some, this time change has been a good thing. Alyssa McDonald, one of North’s English teachers, said, “I love being able to see my kids before 4:30-5 p.m. I have the opportunity to get them ready in the morning and take them both to school for the first time in 13 years of teaching.”

Although students don’t like the later start time due to getting out later, the teachers seem to be noticing some differences. “Students seem more awake in the morning and more prepared to learn,” McDonald said. This would also be an advantage for students who don’t fo-

News

cus as well in the morning; the later they can sleep, the more focused they can be.

Although the times do start later, this is a problem for students involved in sports or activities outside of regular school classes.

Camry Upton, a sophomore at North, who is on the JROTC Rifle Team, has pratice every day before school at 7:05. The Rifle Team used to have practice after school, but now since they would be so late in getting out, they have it before school at 7:05.

“I do not get any more sleep than I did last year. In fact, I go to bed earlier than I did last year and get no more sleep than I did previously because of waking up for rifle practice.

I might even get a little less sleep,” Upton said.

Since other districts still get out before DMPS, students could be missing more class time at the end of the day to leave for their sport or activity.

“The start times have created some difficulties with activities like having to miss more school in the afternoon to get to events,” Jon Johnson, athletic director at North, said.

A problem with the new start times for many juniors and seniors is they cannot work as much after school hours if school runs late.

With many students preparing for college soon, they may not be able to work as much and make as much money as they did before.

Sky Holmes, a senior at North, works at Metro Kids, an everyday job for DMPS watching elementary kids after school who get out at 2:25, a whole hour before high schoolers do.

“The head of Metro Kids knows that most of their employees are high schoolers and are not accommodating to their schedules at all. They say if you can’t be at work by 2:25 when elementary school gets out then you are required to become a sub. What this means is you will get paid less and you will only be able to work when someone needs you, forcing some high schoolers to quit their jobs and find new ones,” Holmes said.

The counselors have also noticed a trend this year with students requesting more release time, so they can get to work on time and still get the hours that they need. Students are needing release during 4th and 8th block, which could be difficult if a class they need is only offered during that certain time.

One last difficulty of this new time change has affected students and parents in a huge way. Since younger siblings get out sooner than older ones, parents can’t depend on their kids to get younger siblings from school without having less school time and then this forces parents to leave work early.

The decision of moving the school hours has been good and bad for both students and teachers. Whether or not it stays this way is up to the district. It took a while to finally change the times, but it did get changed.

Design: L. Christensen

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Tasha Brown, Reporter After the tragic death of Mollie Tibbitts, many people are worried about their children being out late at night. From being out late due to work or a school event, parents are worried about if their children will be safe on their way home. But they have reason to worry.

Children in schools are taught from a young age to not talk to or leave with strangers. However, they are not taught what to do when they are in danger of a perpetrator.

Usually, the first reaction is to scream and try to make a distance between themselves and the perpetrator. This usually includes the flailing of arms and legs, which comes from within the human mind.

However, there are other ways to protect one’s self from a kidnapper.

When walking alone, like in a park, try to stay in a populated and well-lit area. Be aware of your surroundings always. Lisa Klein, gym teacher, uses her knowledge of staying safe and even speaks of how she stays safe when she exercises early in the morning.

“I run where I know there will be other people, not isolated areas. I run the busiest roads, up on the sidewalk, where it’s safe or I go down to Grey’s Lake where I know there’s people down there doing the same thing I’m doing,” Klein said.

If you find yourself feeling like you’re being followed, keep calm and walk with your head up.

“There is always powers in numbers. So, if you’re running with friends or in a group, that’s best,” she said.

She also suggests not wearing headphones or anything that could block out the world around you.

If you are walking to your car after going to the store or after your shift at your job, walk with your car keys between your fingers, near the knuckles. Doing this will help you if a potential kidnapper tried to attack you from behind. If they do, you can use the keys as a weapon to stab your attacker. Once you are away, don’t run to your car; you might not have time to unlock your car to get in. Run back to your previous destination and immediately get help.

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Thankfully, Klein has never had to resort to self-defense when exercising.

“I have not had to defend myself. I’ve had occasions that things did not feel right, look right, seem right. I had to call 911 on a guy down at Grey’s Lake one time. This guy was obviously not there to exercise like the rest of us,” she said.

Staying safe is one of the most important things you should learn. Even when you’re not alone, you should be aware of what is happening around you. From walking home to exercising at a park; you should be smart about staying safe. Take into consideration ways to stay safe and how to defend yourself if the need ever arises.

Punchin’ Tips

Kickin’ Tips

Jab- fast and strong, aim for the chest and/or face.

Basic Stomp- thrust foot out and down, aim for the groin.

Cross- strong, straight, lead with your opposite hand, alternate hands with every punch.

Stick and Ground- if attacker gets you on the ground, kick back up at him. Aiming for the groun, knee, and/or ankle.

Hook- thrown with lead hand and directed to the side of the head.

Uppercut- vertical punch at the head and/or pit of the stomach.

To The Ankle- stomp on the ankle.

Basic Tips *Hold keys between fingers (close to the knuckles)

*Carry pepper spray *Keep cell-phone on you at all times *Remind family/friends of what time you will be home (they can call the police if you’re not back within a half-hour of planned time)

Serena Miller (in grey) and Alena MAylone (in green) have fun switching places to learn how to use different punches. Photo Credit: Tasha Brown

Sargent Brooks and Private Fox teaching the best ways on how to defend yourself. Photo Credit: Tasha Brown

Design: T. Brown

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What is Movement?

Itzayana Melo Garcia, Reporter Movement 515 is a group of students that come together in room 2171 to share and write poems. Movement’s leader is Words Taylor; he’s the CEO of Dream Builder Nation.

He leads Movement with his partner Brenda and teaches young poets to express themselves through poetry and how to improve their writing.

Students that work with Taylor would say he is caring and an energic individually.

Arts & Enterainment

One of his students Alyssa Oliver said, “He is very passionate about poetry and bettering his students. I love the way he motivates you to finish a poem and to work on adding to a piece like adding movement even if it looks dumb. He really can help you make your piece come to life.”

Something that Taylor wants to accomplish with movement 515 is “I want people to get a community that they can call home and feel liberated, I want them to find their voices.”

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An Empty Bottle Madi Rehor, sophomore at North It’s a broken system like broken bottles used in bar fights she’s too drunk to remember the nights, she comes from a broken home they say she has her mothers eyes and her fathers drinking problem but she would never know because he was never there for her they say home is where the heart is but what if your home is broken where does your heart lie well hers lays in the bottom of a bottle every drip she drinks she uses to drown out the sorrows with drinking when the glass is finally empty when she finally begins to feel full stealing vodka from her parents cabinet filling it back up with water her system is no longer pure for a girl her age she is more hung over than hung up on guys at parties she flies solo except for a red solo cup somebody come fill it up she no longer plays spin the bottle the bottle plays spins her mind unwind relax relapse She’s falling back into this whole or should I say the opening of a can, one can, two can three can can she stop will never know she drinks Aro

Preparing to Spit the Truth Something that movement is well known for are their slams like school vs school. Slams are competitions where poets read out loud a poem they wrote, without using any sort of prop or music.

When writers read their poem, they’re are judged by 5 randomly selected judges. The judges will rate the poem 0 – 10, 10 being the highest score a poet can receive.

Yes, this may be frightening to hear that you’ll be judged on something you worked hard on, but poets who choose to participate will train until the slam. Preparation for the slams can vary from training on how to project their voice, to learning movements to add more depth to their writing.

Members of Movement 515 help each other to improve their writing and the performance all together, so the poet can put their best work out to the judges. At Movement 515 they’re always doing something to prepare them for slams and other events.

They can vary from decoding songs or famous poetry. By doing this, they are learning how to improve their writing, the art of simplicity and how to create an image to your audience by only using your words.

As for memorization poets must do that themselves, here is one of the ways writers memorize their poems. Angel Doung, a member of North’s Movement 515, said, “I practice every day rereading/performing it on my free time and what helps too is especially when it’s

written myself and it’s my truth, it’s easier to remember if that makes sense.”

Other than doing activities to get better at writing, they also do things to help the atmosphere. The poets say their chants to make the atmosphere less tense. One of movement’s most popular chant that all schools use is “We love you, poet. We ain’t ever gonna stop loving you, poet “ They chant this to show that they care and hype the performer up, so they won’t be so nervous. Each school has their own chant to show who they are. North has two chants at the moment and possibly a couple new ones, but you’ll just have to wait and see for those.

From the two chants North currently has, the first one goes as followed, “From the ice brigs to the stages, we cold, we know, ahhhhh!” The second chant being,“Claws up, another one, claws up, what’d we come here to do? Eat. What? Eat mmmm.

Welcome to the Bears Den.” And once the day arrives when it’s time to perform at the actual slam, poets will tie all the things they learned from the days of training and tell the audience what their truth is.

Design: I. Melo Garcia

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Hamilton. North students arrive at the Orpheum Theatre for a Hamilton performance Thursday, Oct. 4. Photo Credit: Brianna Cobb

Caleb Slater, Editor-In-Chief I sat center-stage at the Orpheum in Minneapolis with my guitar and a microphone, performing for roughly 2600 people from across the mid-west. Not only was the Orpheum packed full of students excited to see the Tony Award winning musical “Hamilton”, but the audience also had a few special guests: cast members from the musical itself.

Crazy, right?

A few weeks ago, I was told I would have the opportunity to see “Hamilton” in Minnesota with 149 other classmates for the incredibly-low price of ten dollars. The only other qualifier was that I needed to turn in an art-related project on the revolutionary war, the period in which the musical takes place.

I decided to write a rap song on Shays’ rebellion, an event in 1786 in which a veteran named Daniel Shays thought taxes in Massachusetts were too high. In this rap song, I used direct quotes from both the musical and from historical documents provided from Gilder Lehrman, the organization that allowed my classmates and myself to take advantage of the opportunity.

I found out about a week before the show that I, along with 12 other groups from both Minnesota and Northern Iowa, had been chosen to perform my project ahead of the feature performance.

Arts & Entertainment

After the four-hour long bus ride from Des Moines to Minneapolis, I was escorted to the back of the Orpheum, separated from my classmates. Upon entrance, I was greeted by many backstage assistants and tech managers for the show.

And then I saw Thomas Jefferson himself.

Okay, not really. He’s dead. However, I did spot Kyle Scarliffe, the extremely tall gentleman who portrays the third U.S. President in the musical, along with Elijah Malcomb, who plays John Laurens, and Fergie L. Phillipe, who plays James Madison. They all personally introduced themselves to each student present and made sure we were comfortable and ready to perform.

Before going onstage, the three cast members had the students form a circle and join hands to do what many high school theater students know as ‘the pulse’. One person squeezes the hand of the next person in the circle, who then does the same with their own other hand, creating an intimate ‘pulse’ that circulates to ease nerves before a performance.

Malcomb spoke to us performers about being confident and being proud of ourselves for accomplishing what we had. One of the cast members pointed out that our generation will be the ones in charge one day, reminding us how important our voices are.

When it was time for my turn to go on stage, the stage manager in the back and another performer both wished me luck. I walked to

the center, taking a seat at the stool they had set for me, as I listened to the screams of my friends from the balcony.

“I’d just like to point out two things,” I said, “First of all, I’m not a rapper.” The audience laughed. I then pointed out that my song was not entirely historically accurate. “Snap along if you’d like,” I joked.

And then, for a minute and fifty-one seconds, I sat center-stage in front of 2600 people, singing and rapping about history.

The audience cheered as I left the stage. I vaguely heard someone from the cast behind me talking about how great he thought I did, although I couldn’t tell who said it. I was packing my guitar and rushing to my seat, so I could see the rest of the performances.

After the student acts were finished, the three cast members were joined by many other cast members and tech workers for a Q&A session, in which they talked about a wide range of topics: from the state of our current political climate, to what life is like as a touring performer.

The show itself followed later in the day and, as was to be expected, it was fantastic.

From the pump-up-anthems like “My Shot”, to tear-jerkers like “It’s Quiet Uptown”, there was never a dull moment and I was never bored.

My classmates and I spent the four-hour drive home raving about what we’d seen. It was definitely a day to remember.

I’m glad I didn’t throw away my shot.

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ce on his performan late Caleb Slater tu bb ra Co ng a co nn rs ia be Cast mem oto Credit: Br off the stage. Ph while he walks

My shot. Caleb Slater takes his shot performing in front of 2,600 people at the Orpheum Theatre. Photo Credit: Brianna Cobb

Lights, Camera, Action. Students line up outside of the Orpheum Theatre to get into Hamilton. Photo Credit: Brianna Cobb

Up Close. Caleb Sla ter, senior, performe d on stage and then got to sit in the third row, giving him an experience to never forget. Photo Credi t: Caleb Slater

Design: N. Huber/L. Christensen

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Cassandra Contreras- Franco, Reporter Who’s your favorite music artist at the moment?

9th Adan Delgadillo – XXXtenticion 9th Sir’ra Brown- Drake 10th Amanda George - Bruno Mars 10th John Howe – JCole 11th Alizia Guzman - Shawn Mendes 11th Taylor Swinnell - Ella Mai 12th Austin Clearman- Tory Lanez 12th Kiran Adhikari - Juicy World

If you were stuck on an island, and can choose one person to survive with who would it be?

9th Vira Koc – Kevin Hart 9th Andrew Lyons – Tom Cruise 10th John Howe – A Doctor 10th Alyssa Oliver – Itzayana Melo Garcia 11th Janida Magallanes – Lauren Jauregui 11th Taylor S. - A billionare 12th Austin Clearman. - Jennifer Lopez 12th Vnqwa Itabelo – My Mom

Feature

If your life could be any movie genre what would it be?

9th Vira Koc – Action 9th Andrew Lyons – Horror 10th Sara Perdue – Melodrama 10th Alyssa Oliver – Bad Indie Film 11th Janida Magallanes - Romantic 11th TJ Garfield – Sitcom 12th Tasha Brown- Sci-Fi 12th Adrianna Campos - Drama

If you could be famous, what would you be famous for?

9th Vira Koc- being a CEO 9th Brooklyn Gruber- DJ 10th John Howe – Writer 10th Autrell Hinton - Acting 11th TJ Garfield - Getting ran over by a plane 11th Mackenzie Gonzalez – for being me 12th Vnqwa itabelo – inspirational speaker 12th Kiran Adhikari - Sleeping

Design: C. Contreras

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Delicia Oxenreider, Copy Editor This year we have many new staff, including two new Spanish teachers, one of whom is from Puerto Rico. Silmary Echevarria is one of the new teachers to North. She was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Silmary came to the U.S. in July of 2015. Many may wonder how long it took her to become a citizen or what the process consisted of to become a citizen.

“I didn’t need to go through the citizenship process. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. All Puerto Ricans are already citizens of the United States,”she said. She traveled to America by plane with her family. Even though this is her first year teaching at North it is most definitely not her first year teaching ever. She has been teaching for 23 years.

What about her family? Her mom, Milda Crespo, was a secretary. Her dad, Fernando Echevarria, was a business man and veteran from the Vietnam War. She has three sisters.

Lisi, a language therapist, Cristi, a doctor, and Mary, a manager. Her husband is a plastic artist and volleyball coach at Iowa State University. She has two daughters. Her youngest daughter, Andrea, is still in school and her daughter, Stephanie, is a contemporary dancer.

The biggest cultural changes for her whole family are the climate, food and language. It is very cold in America compared to Puerto Rico. A lot of the ingredients she used in her food before, she can’t find here and it makes cooking a little difficult because she doesn’t have all ingredients.

Foods that she loves from Puerto Rico she hasn’t seen here are pastelilos, alcapurrias and pasteles.

Pastelilos are just Puerto Rican meat turnovers, which is just dough stuffed with cheese, meat and other spices.

Alcapurrias are a classic traditional snack from Puerto Rico that are primarily made of grated yucca(masa) or both yucca and green banana, stuffed with picadillo – a scrumptious beef filling.

Lastly, pasteles are in Puerto Rico, pasteles are a cherished culinary recipe, especially around Christmas time. The masa consists of typically grated green bananas, green plantain, eddoe (yautía), potato and tropical pumpkins known as calabazas. It is seasoned with liquid from the meat mixture, milk and annatto oil.

What did her daily life consist of in Puerto Rico? “I worked as a Spanish teacher all day at a public school. During evenings, I visited my family and cooked fresh foods to my family.

During weekends, we went to the beach,” she said.

Where else has she been? “I visited Paris and Bordeaux in France, Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla.,Granada, Barcelona, Segovia in Spain.

Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Saint Thomas, New York, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, New Jersey, Kansas, Kentucky and Chicago,” she said.

Her take on the U.S. is that she loves it because of how organized and polite people are.

She loves to have fun in her class and do goofy things to get students involved.

Design: D. Oxenreider

12 Emily West, Online Editor Amanda George, Reporter

Check these stores for more Halloween costume ideas.

Photo Credit: Emily West

Jokes: Q. Why didn’t the skeleton like the Halloween candy?

A. He didn’t have the stomach for it.

Q. Why do they put fences around graveyards?

A. Because people are dying to get in.

Features

Design: E. West/A. George

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Natalie Huber, Reporter From snakes to open water, phobias impact the life of more than 19 million people in the United States. That makes up around 10 percent of the population. But, what really is a phobia?

A phobia is an anxiety disorder involving fear that’s excessive and irrational to an object or situation. A phobia can also be medically diagnosed. Often, a phobia is confused with a fear. A fear is an emotional response that is involved with the potential development of a phobia. Nevertheless, a fear could be a stepping stone that could lead to a phobia.

According to Lea Minerman from the American Psychological Association, phobias can be caused by many things and are normally diagnosed before the age of 30. A common way a phobia is developed is through a traumatic event. For example, if someone were to wake up covered in spiders, they would be at a higher risk of developing arachnophobia, fear of arachnids including spiders.

Another way a phobia can be developed is through their parents. Although phobias are not genetically inherited. Because a child learned most of their life tips from their parents, if a child is fully aware of their parent’s phobia, their brain can get wired to think that everyone should be afraid of the same thing.

They are at a significantly higher risk of developing a phobia later in life because of that.

However, how would one know if their fear had grown into a phobia?

Doctors use a certain criterion to draw the line between a fear and a phobia. One large criteria point is the object or situation is actively avoided. This meaning, the person with the phobia would do anything to not see or interact with the parts of their phobia. The avoidance must last for more than 6 months.

Another common criterion is the disturbance cannot be explained by any other mental disorder. So, if you are diagnosed with a phobia, what do you do next?

Though some choose to live with their phobia, others choose to get treatment. The most common treatment option is a combination of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) and exposure-based therapy, according to Mayo Clinic.

CBT is a therapy to find the root of the phobia and see how severe the phobia is. Once that is done, the next step is the exposure therapy.

The individual gets exposed via virtual reality to their phobia. After many months of virtual reality, they slowly get introduced to the phobia in person. For a person afraid of spiders, the first step would be seeing one in a closed container. The goal would be for the spider to be held by the individual. These two combined therapies have a 60 percent success rate of neutralizing or completely diminishing the phobia itself.

WithHalloween around the corner, keep in mind that your fears may be someone’s phobia and have a Happy Halloween.

Most Common Phobias at North

We sent out a survey and with the answers we got, we pulled together the Top 3 Most Common Phobias at North!

What Makes or Breaks a Phobia?

One of the most commonly talked about and controversial “phobias” that has been going around online lately is trypophobia, or the fear of holes. This phobia however, is not medically recognized as a real phobia, as it doesn not meet the proper criteria to be one.

And according to medicalnewstoday.com, some studies have been done on the phobia, but none has weilded the results to classify it as a real phobia. So what does make a phobia? The criteria for a phobia is uncontrollabe anxiety, complete avoidance at all costs, unable to function properly, knowing the fear is irrational, unreasonable, and exxagerated without control of feelings.

Common symptoms of phobias include sweating, extreme anxiety, abnormal breathing, and chest pain or tightness. The studies done of trypophobia as weilded none of these results, thererore it is not medically recognized as a real phobia.

Most Common Phobias Worldwide According to the people at worldatlas. com, the following are the Top 5 Most Common Phobias Worldwide.

1) Arachnophobia - the fear of spiders and other arachnids 2) Ophidiophobia - the fear of snakes 3) Acrophobia - the fear of heights 4) Aerophobia - the fear of flying 5) Cynophobia - the fear of dogs

1) Arachnophobia - the fear of spiders and

other arachnids 2) Acrophobia - the fear of heights 3) Monophobia - the fear of being akone Translation: “kyuufushu “ (Japanese), meaning “phobia”

Design: N. Huber

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Fun Fact

Out of 1,493 students at North, there’s seven more males than females.

Fun Fact

Fun Fact

At North there are six Native Hawaiians and ten American Indians/Alaskan Natives.

About 30%, which is about 454 students being Hispanic/Latino, they are the biggest ethnic group at North.

El Salvador

23%

Freddy Cruz

Photo Credit: Tyler Sochit

of students are White.

Freddy is in 11th grade at North.

When he’s not at school he enjoys listening to various kinds of music, especially when dancing to them at parties. He hopes to be more involved with music next year, perhaps even joining choir.

Pyae Lin Pyae speaks two languages, Spanish and English.

He enjoys listening to music and plays soccer whenever he gets the chance.

30%

of students are Hispanic/Latino.

Photo Credit: Tyler Sochit

Features

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Fun Fact

9th and 11th grade have the most students at North, both with 379 students.

.5%

of students are two or more races.

10%

of students are Asian.

Emedi “Simba” Abahenya Interestingly nicknamed “Simba”, Emedi is an 11th grader at North, proudly speaking three languages including Swahili, English and Kibembe.

28%

Tanzania

of students are African American.

Photo Credit: Tyler Sochit

Tengeneze Birero Tengeneze is in 9th grade at North. Currently taking Algebra I, Tengeneze says she likes math more than the other subjects because it easily clicks in her head.

Photo Credit: Tyler Sochit

Design: B. Cobb / T. Sochit / L. Finch

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Sara Perdue, Reporter As you are scrolling down your Facebook feed, you see one of your friends has gone vegan. You look to see who it is, and it is, in fact, a woman. Then you start to think, “Well, most vegans I know are females.”

Was your assumption right about most vegans and vegetarians being female? According to a survey taken by 100 random students at North High School, your assumptions were correct.

Out of the 100 students, one student is a vegan and seven of them are vegetarians. One of the very few vegans in the school is Caitlyn Crane, a senior, she gives her input on the idea that vegans/vegetarians are more female than male.

“According to the internet, about 70% of vegans in the U.S. are female. I think that’s crazy. Guys can be vegan too. Toxic masculinity is definitely a thing, and I think it plays into it,” Crane said.

Crane has been a vegan since February 2018 and is now an activist with both Des Moines Animal Save and Anonymous for The Voiceless. She also volunteers at Iowa Farm sanctuary.

“I really think veganism is for anyone,” Crane said.

In addition to the 70% of vegans in the U.S. being female, a lot of surveys and studies show that feminism definitely plays a role in veganism.

There are a few reasons as to why a man wouldn’t choose to be vegan, such as fear in losing their masculinity, limited cooking skills, or even keeping meat as the healthy part of their meal.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Why would it take away their masculinity?” The answer to that question would be: history.

The past has always shown that eating meat was made for men for obvious reasons such as growth in muscles or even just in their health because essentially that is the “norm” for men.

As Crane said, veganism is for anyone. It shouldn’t matter what your sex is, veganism is to help animals or even keep a healthy diet, it shouldn’t put your masculinity in jeopardy just because you want to make change in the world.

Out of 100 random students at NHS

*Based off of the survey you might’ve taken in class

Caitlyn Crane shows her love for animals by feeding them their favorite food at the Iowa Farm Sanctuary, where she volunteers every weekend. Photo Courtesy: Caitlyn Crane

Crane kisses her favorite calf, Pumpkin, at the Iowa Farm Sancturay.

Photo Courtesy: Caitlyn Crane

Male: 15

Vegan: 1

Female: 68

Vegetarian: 7

(Disclaimer: not everyone answered this question.)

Neither: 92 Features

Vegan, Vegetarian, or Neither?

If you know someone who is vegan, what is their sex?

Design: S. Perdue

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Caleb Slater, Editor in Chief Everyone wants to belong to a cause. For some, that cause may be campaigning for a local politician. For others, that cause might be going vegan.

However, in my opinion, the cause behind the current boycott of Nike is simply ridiculous.

For context, Nike is a brand that has endured many boycotts over the years. From the early 1970s to the early 2000’s, the athletic brand fended off rumors that their world-famous products were created using inhumane child-labor techniques in sweatshops overseas.

These rumors were eventually proven to be true, despite Nike denying them numerous times throughout the late 90s. Why, you may ask, wouldn’t Nike own up to being caught in the act?

Profits.

After Nike moved its production overseas, they saw an immense increase in profits. Nike director Todd McKean mentioned in a 2001 interview with Tribune Business that their attitude at the time was, “We don’t own the factories, we can’t control what goes on there.”

Only after protests at over 40 universities (and massive boycotting) did Nike begin to monitor the factories, attempting to address the child labor issue plaguing their sales.

Despite this, there are still concerns about Nike’s practices in production to this day.

In early 2000, the New York Times reported that Nike had blocked a large independent worker’s rights organization known as the Worker’s Rights

Opinions

Consortium from monitoring its factories. Instead, Nike opted to allow a separate organization known as the Fair Labor Organization to monitor the safety of the work conditions for their employees.

The catch to this is that Nike co-founded the Fair Labor Organization.

Essentially, Nike denied independent investigations into their labor conditions in favor of an organization that may be much more lenient towards them.

You may be curious as to how any of this fits into the current boycott of Nike.

The current Nike boycott is based around outrage at Colin Kaepernick—the man who kneeled during a few football games as a protest of police violence—being signed to a longterm advertising campaign.

People are so angry that Nike would sign someone as ‘un-American’ as Colin Kaepernick, that they seem to forget that Nike has never necessarily cared about America in any way. Nike has always pursued what any business does, and that is profit—by any means necessary.

For about 40 years, Nike violated the human rights of children all over the world in sweatshops.

Only recently did they begin to change their actions (despite rumors still lingering claiming otherwise).

Only 46 of Nike’s 542 factories are in the United States, according to their official manufacturing website. While Nike was founded in America, its founder, Phil Knight, planned to outsource

production to other countries as early as the 1960s, as reported by Business Insider.

The signing of Colin Kaepernick is a marketing ploy no doubt, and it’s clear they don’t truly care what Kaepernick kneeled for in the first place, based on their long history of blatantly ignoring human rights.

Kaepernick’s signing is a shock

to the many who have been paying attention to Nike’s history for sure, given the ironic circumstances of their past. However, the current boycott is based entirely on the false implication that Nike has ever been about anything more than profit.

They stand to make more money and will exploit whoever they can to do so.

The advertisement that caused the storm of controversy. Photo Courtesy: Nike Inc.

Design: C. Slater

18

We All Stand

Together Racial profiling case in Des Moines sparks debate on fair treatment from our people in blue.

Alizia Guzman, Events Director Des Moines Police Department is finally being brought to light on racial profiling.

The case begins with Montray Little and Jared Clinton vs. The Des Moines Police Department. A 2-man unit pulled Clinton and Little over by Union Park in Des Moines, Officer Kyle Thies and Officer Natalie Heinemann approached the vehicle.

Thies approached Littles’ driver side and proceeded to ask Little whose car this was, and Little told him that it was rental because his car was in the shop. Thies said that he smelled marijuana and seen shake (small pieces of marijuana) on the ground, he also said that “your buddy over there looks like he has a gun”.

Little asked why he was being pulled over on multiple instances and Thies said, “I told you to please step out of the car.” Officer Thies and Heinemann proceeded to handcuff and question Clinton and Little.

Officer Thies’ arrest records show he made “253 arrests in 2017 and over 50% were African American,” the Des Moines Register published on Aug. 16.

The leading associations in this case helping the defendant are the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and the NAACP (National

Opinions

Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

They both defended that the two officers had no probable cause to make the stop.

Tricia Kubicek Parizek, a criminal justice teacher at Central Academy, an officer of 12.5 years, said what she would have done in the officer’s shoes.

“I would have increased communication between the two and would have provided them with why I stopped them and tell them that I do this with everyone,” she said.

They both defended that the two officers had no probable cause to make the stop.

On the other hand, Kubicek Parizek said, police departments are untrusting because of 9-11, which caused them to lose trust in other individuals, which ended the era of community-based policing. Police get training on how to keep situations from escalating, which put the people at rest because every time they, a friend or a family member go out or leave the house, they pray for a safe return because police are unpredictable, and people refuse to trust the police.

It should not have to be like that you should be able to trust the cops to protect the community not hurt it.

A prime solution could be doing some more

community-based outreaches to be able to build a relationship between police departments and people of the community as they’ve done in the past.

Lastly, Kubicek Parizek said, “I’m glad that this is being brought to light, this is a good step to building relationship’s and increasing awareness.”

Statistics on incarcerated people: • African American: Make up 13% of population , 40% are incarcerated.

• Native American: Make up up .9% of the population, 1% are incarcerated.

• Caucasian: Make up 64% of the population, 39% are incarcerated.

• Hispanic: Make up 16% of the population , 19% are incarcerated.

• Other: 67% -Prison Policy Intiative website

19

Together

Design/Photo Credit: A. Guzman

20

Alyssa Bales, Reporter In reaction to the murder of Mollie Tibbets, an out roar of racist views has been projected onto Latino immigrants. The views were that all Latinos were violent due to the news coverage bringing up the irrelevant fact that the defendant, Cristhian Bahena Rivera was an undocumented Latino immigrant.

Immigration wasn’t started by other races it was started by early settlers of America bringing over slaves, and immigrants from events such as the potato famine and many earlier cases. We all bleed the same color and have the same insides; how light or dark our skin is it doesn’t matter.

Immigration welcomes in all different kinds of people from all the faces of the earth and makes the country more diverse something we should be welcoming with wide arms. The United States has always welcome immigrants

in, why did it change when the pigment in our skin got involved?

Let’s get down to the facts on homicides in America. According to the US Department of Justice, only 12.8% of homicide’s are committed by Latinos. Whereas 33% of homicides are committed by Caucasians. But still these percentages mean nothing. When you look at the whole percentage, many people of those demographics do not commit these crimes.

Only 12.8% out of 100% same with 33% out of 100%.

You cannot base your perception on an entire race or demographic around one’s actions as there are many great people who stay out of trouble and do the right things. Every person is different from their tastes in food, their opinions, and who they vote for. You cannot compare any one person to another and have them agree on everything. These views are outdated and just plain wrong.

Constantly we see broadcasted hate against immigration whether it be despairing ads, tweets, posts, videos and in political propaganda. In the events of the uproar, even our political candidates have been using Tibbets for their political agenda against immigration.

Rob Tibbetts, Mollie’s father, said, “The person who is accused of taking Mollie’s life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as a white supremacist are of all white people.

To suggest otherwise is a lie.”

Immigration doesn’t lead to more violence, unstable minds and bad actions, the person who commits the crimes do.

In 2018, we should not still be dealing with such racist views, especially in those who run our country, states and cities. We should be moving forward in the trend of having everyone treated equally and not dragging ourselves back into the past.

Homicide Rates Based on Race in America

Latinx 12.8% Opinions

Caucasian 33% Black/African American 55% -US Department of Justice website

Design: A. Bales

21

Adrianna Campos, Photo Editor On Tuesday, September 11, a fundraiser was held to help raise money for the North High volleyball team.

The fundraiser helped raise money by the general public paying to get in, along with students who planned on playing, and if someone decided to donate money to the volleyball program.

The team also sent out thank you cards to the Alumni, teachers and students who were involved in the fundraiser.

The fundraiser consisted of four games to help get Alumni and students involved in the sport. The four games that were held included a game of School Staff VS. Alumni, Alumni VS. Varsity players, 9th grade boys VS. 10th grade boys, 11th grade boys VS. 12th grade boys and the winners of the 9th/10th grade game VS. Winners of 11th/12th grade game.

Carissa Harrington is one of four coaches who helped put together the fundraiser on Tuesday. This year’s volleyball roster is made up of 35 girls, which for some coaches, could be hard to control. But for Harrington, her bond with her girls makes things less stressful,

“I always tell my girls that my main focus is to make them better young women and to prepare them to be an active member of our society,” Harrington said.

To Harrington and the other coaches, this

Volleyball is not just a sport to Harrington, it’s a way for her to share her love of the sport, and to teach the girls how to be “leaders for a lifetime.”

She said just like family, sometimes there are disagreements.

“There are times they do not always agree with me, but I really do have their overall best interest in mind,” Harrington said.

This year was the first year that the volleyball team decided to do this type of fundraiser and all together they made more than $400.

The money that the program made is being used to go towards new uniforms, free gear for the team, which would include warm up gear, knee pads and new equipment.

According to Harrington, this year’s fundraiser idea came from Christa Kordik, another one of the Volleyball coaches.

Harrington said this is hopefully not the last time that they do a fundraiser like this.

The idea turned out to be a success for the program and was a fun experience for everyone involved.

“I always tell my girls that my main focus is to make them better young women and to prepare them to be an active member of our society.”

Sports

fundraiser was not only a way to get the entire school, along with the Alumni, excited for the sport, but to allow her girls to be able to “take pride in our program and get excited to get people here to help support us,” Harrington claims, which is exactly what they did.

Design: A. Campos

22

Taylor Sinnwell, Online Editor

Mya Alexander (Previous Captain of the class of 2018) Q: What college do you attend?

A: Iowa Central Community College.

Q: What is it like being a student athlete?

A: Very very tiring and busy but like a good kind of busy.

Q: What is your favorite part about being a student athlete?

A: Being able to make friends before school even starts and having something to do as well as being apart of a team while going to school is just a cool experience.

Q: What is a pretty big change you’ve had to make a normal routine now that you’re in college?

A: You have a lot more freedom, but at the same time, you have so much responsability so just making sure you’re doing you’re own laundry, feeding yourself etc, etc. Not only that, but your teachers arent going to remind you about assignments and homework, you just kind’ve have to pay attention and do it on your own.

Sports

Yeraldi Nabor (Present captain of the class of 2019) Q: What is it like being captain?

A: I feel very excited about it. its a great opportunity and i cant wait for the season to start!

Q: Have you thought about playing in college?

A: Coach Lisa has been telling me about some of the different schools that are interested in seeing me play but it kind of depends on scholarships. Overall, I’m not 100% sure.

Q: How does it feel knowing that 4 of your previous teammates are now off playing college soccer?

A: I’m so happy for them but also sad that they left. They had a tremendous impact on all our previous seasons. they were the ones who started the leagacy and now its our responsibility to carry it on.

Jessica Hernandez (Present captain of the class of 2019) Q: What is it like being captain?

A: I have responability so being able to represeent not only my team but north high just makes me proud.

Q: Have you thought about playing in college?

A: I do hope to play soccer in college, but at the moment I’m not too sure where i would like to go yet.

Q: How does it feel knowing that 4 of your previous teammates are now off playing college soccer?

A: Im so proud of them. seeing them do these things really motivates me to do the same and makes me believe that what they are doing is achiveable

Design: T. Sinnwell

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What do ghosts drink at breakfast?

Mali-boo

Coffin drops!

What do vampires take when they’re sick?

A living room!

What do you call a fat pumpkin?

A nectarine What’s a vampire’s favorite fruit?

2. Flip paper over, so blank side is up and fold all corners to the center

Who won the seleton beauty contest?

A plumpkin!

1. Cut along the black line that outlines the entire cootie catacher.

BOO-ties!

No body!

Where does What room does a ghost go on a ghost not need? vacatio n?

Coffee with sugar and scream!

What do baby ghosts wear on their feet?

3. Flip to the other side where the folds are not from the previous step and fold corners to center again.

4. Insert thumbs and index fingers under color name tabs, pinch together and play!

Design: L. Christensen