Rolla High School December 11, 2015 Print Edition

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Rolla High School - 900 Bulldog Run - Rolla, Missouri 65401- Volume 67 - Issue 3 December 11, 2015 - www.rhsecho.com

Funding Your Free Education

ECHO Editor in Chief, John Giesey, and reportes, Maria Pomerenke, Celia Parsons and Brynn Proffitt discover how expensive a public school actually is.

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Learn how to stay healthy this holiday season pgs. 14-15 It takes a lot of work to clean up after 1100 teenagers pg. 17 Bullying victims share their strories and the Bully Prevention team shares how to stop them pgs. 18-19

In this issue...

Student shares her battle with Crohns Disease.....................................3 Raise and harvest meat..........................................................................6 Rolla competes at Nationals in Grasslands...........................................4 For the love of sugar,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,...............................................................5 Take an online class for free, earn credit..............................................16 Athletes of the Month...........................................................................2 RHS By the Numbers............................................................................22

Letter from the editor

For those who do not know, my Snapchat is more fire than Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. And for those who are not well versed in the curricula of Karen Hammond’s AP Chemistry, we were covering overall rate reactions in a recent unit, which consists of adding the number “one” to the number “two”, which I did not find so hard. As such, I birthed a snap with such an equation with the caption “AP Chemistry, y’all.”

Great mirth was mine as I added it to my story; it was a knee-slapper for sure. But great was my dismay when a classmate of mine snapped me back pointing out that my answer was wrong. Of course I was embarrassed, but that embarrassment was magnified by the fact that I felt I had lost “smart-kid-cred”. I feel that amongst all the academic elite of the school, and any other school, which I would consider myself a part of, the objective of achievement is as much inspired by being better than the other smart kids as much as it is, if not more, about guaranteeing success. In my opinion, this is terrible, as it not only creates a bad atmosphere in the uppermost levels of students, and discourages kids who are not involved academically to increase their involvement, as they are scared of how cut-throat the smart kids are over their AP Chem problem sets. My message, students, is for us to care less about eachother’s grades/ACT scores and worry about our own. It’d be a lot less stressful. We’re all really stupid in different ways, and that’s okay.

ECHO Magazine Staff ECHO is an open forum for student expression. All letters to the editor must include the writer’s name, signature and class or position. Anonymous letters will not be published. ECHO reserves the right to reject any letters. Letters should be sent to ECHO, Rolla High School, 900 Bulldog Run, Rolla, MO 65401.

Editor In Chief - John Giesey, Managing Editor Chloe Myers, Copy Editor - Elise Mazzeo, Webmaster - Amanda Steineman Staff Writers - Brynn Profitt, Trustin Dinsdale, Celia Parsons, Emily Roberts, Maria Pommerenke, Adviser - Mary Gillis

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Visit www.rhsechonews for more news and features from RHS

Kaytylnn Mickelson:

A Life With Crohn’s Disease

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For Kaytlynn Mickelson, high school has been anything but normal. She has Crohn’s disease, which is a type of inflammatory bowel disease. Mickelson was diagnosed as a young child.

“Crohn’s is a disease that affects the whole digestive tract. It causes sores and sometimes even holes in your digestion system. I have had three surgeries to remove my colon,” Mickelson said.

Mickelson has been aware of the disease for three years.

“I knew about the disease when my parents were being told. I was in the hospital for blood loss and not being able to function because there was so much blood loss. The doctor then came in and explained it to us,” Mickelson said.

Mickelson has missed countless days of school because of her disease, yet through the help of the staff at Rolla High School, she will be able to graduate as planned.

“If it wasn’t for my parents and Mrs. White, then I would not have made it through my high school year,” Mickelson said.

The hardest part about having this disease is that it is currently incurable.

“People have been researching since 1996 but still have not found anything to cure it. I hope by raising money, the money can help find a cure. I am going to start doing fundraisers. I got shirts specially made for me and I am going to sell those and try to make money” Mickelson said.

Mickelson is selling her shirts for $14 at Leadership class sponsored events, or you can purchase one from her individually.

“The money raised with be donated to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America; CCFA is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization that is dedicated to finding a cure for Crohn’s Disease. It was founded in 1967, and is now the forefront of research in Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis,” Mickelson said. said.

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I never stand up for myself, and I am not the societal standard of a guy.

People don’t like it when you don’t conform to their society.

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Photo by Christina Bramer

‘Go Kill Yourself ’ These hurtful words are an example of frequently used verbal bullying. There are many steps that a student can take to discourage casual use of this and phrases like it.

Adrienne Pyeatt, Shannan Chan, and Christina Bramer

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ullying occurs in schools across the nation everywhere, even here, whether the students realize it or not. The truth is, bullying is not only harmful, but it is also avoidable.

“Unfortunately, in society as a whole, we have a lot of kids who are bullied from a very early age -not necessarily at school, but sometimes even adults [bully kids].

It’s not just something that we deal with at the high school level, or the middle school/junior high level, or even at the elementary school level, adults do it as well. And unfortunately, it’s just something in society that people don’t realize is a serious issue; it can make things very serious,” RHS Counselor Rodger Bridgeman said.

Although it is not tolerated at RHS, bullying persists. Some students have shared their stories from the past. ”I remember all throughout elementary and middle school, kids would make fun of me for being fat. I remember a time when I was probably 11 and I was going to eat lunch, these kids were throwing food at me saying, ‘Here you go piggy, eat’. It’s definitely impacted my self image, confidence, and self esteem. I may look all happy and cheerful, but in reality I’m depressed,” sophomore Joseph Sweitzer said.

For some students, being bullied as a child gives them courage to stand up for others now.

“It made me a stronger person. I now know how to deal with bullies, how to help others who are being bullied, and that’s really what my goal is in high school. Primarily to help those who are being bullied because I know what it feels like to be bullied and be the victim. I want to help those who aren’t strong enough to stand up for themselves,” junior Libby Adams said.

The punishment for bullying depends on the severity of the case, but many bullied students feel like it’s hopeless to speak up.

“I don’t tell anyone, I tried saying something but things just got worse in the past,” Sweitzer said.

Not all issues can be taken care of immediately or resolved, but persistence can go a long way.

“I went to the school board, and I had initially talked to them and they didn’t do anything at first. I went back and I was just really persistent because I didn’t want to fight this girl to get her to stop. So I filed a formal complaint, which you can actually do. Just go to any principal who deals with the bullying aspect. I know here it’s Dr. Herrman. If you go to them and say listen, I need to file a formal complaint, I’m being bullied, I know someone who’s being bullied, or I know a bully, then you can submit a formal complaint and things will be taken cared of, because I know there is no tolerance for bullying at this high school, and Dr. Herrman and all the other principals make sure that it’s not an issue,” Adams said.

Getting rid of bullying at the high school is not a simple task, but a group of students from RHS are making an effort to help the younger students in Rolla understand why bullying should stop.

“We are just a group of student who go over to the elementary schools, and middle school and talk to the kids about not bullying other kids. We perform skits and talk to the kids. According to the teachers, it is pretty effective because the kids really admire the high school kids for getting along,” senior Ben Burris said.

Bullying is an ongoing issue, especially with high school students. Preventative steps can be taken in order to keep kids from bullying each other, but it all comes down to the individual responsibility of accepting each other.

“I think that what it has to go back to is people just being accepting of each other and of our differences. I think [we need to] just join hands together. I think that’s what we have to do as adults and students to make it work. Being positive is the biggest thing,” Bridgeman said.

Humans of Rolla High School:Drew Jones b y

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was born in America, but my parents are missionaries, so when I was two months old we went to do missionary work in the Ivory Coast, in West Africa. Sometimes we would come back to America and talk in churches about what we were doing with the people there, so I wasn’t totally alien to America, but I basically grew up there [in Africa]. When I was about nine we came back to America to live. Today, I can speak fluent French, because that’s the primary language there, although there’s approximately sixty-two spoken languages in the Ivory Coast. I look like a completely normal American kid, but growing up in a foreign culture has made me a little different: In Africa they're much more down to earth, very thankful for all they have; I’ve seen the purest faces of happiness coming from African kids playing with tin cans or bike tires, and things like that are what make me feel kind of different. I’d love to go back and visit, but not really to live because there’s much more opportunity here, but I definitely loved living there and the people I knew. One of my favorite things to do was to get attieke, which is like couscous, and was my favorite food, and go and sit in my treehouse and look at the jungle and local community from there. As for wildlife, we would see monkeys and birds and snakes all the time, but for bigger stuff, pretty much the only thing we saw was this local village’s resident elephant, because it would just come by and they’d give it food, but eventually it got poached, which was sad. One time when I was about six, I got a cookie at the local store and this man, about twenty, took it from me. So I went back home and told my mom and our gardener went out, found him and were talking to him about why he shouldn’t do that. He gave it back, but then our adopted son, who was kind of a pain; he’s in jail now. But they actually got into a fight and the thief knocked my adopted brother down and split his head open with a rock, then started chasing him with a machete, so

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that was a fun time. There were plenty of other experiences, and I look back on my entire time there as so much fun, and I loved it and miss it.

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ugar consumption among American citizens is a very talked about topic, but very few young adults actually know the side effects of sugar.

“Tooth decay is the obvious [side effect] we’ve heard about from birth. What happens is the sugar feeds the bacteria and then the bacteria puts holes in your teeth, irritates it, and causes gingivitis and that’s why sugar is bad. Behavioral issues some people say that sugar causes hyperactivity, but there’s no scientific proof there might be a tiny percent that, that truly happens, but for the most part it’s not. One explanation of why sugar could cause behavioral issues is because it messes with your hormones. Except for a small percentage of people cholesterol intake isn’t the issue, it’s the sugar and saturated fats intake that together support heart disease. We have kids with fatty liver, little kids, your age and younger. It doesn’t happen usually. This is the first decade where’s it’s been actually diagnosed, and that means your body is depositing fat within the liver. [The] onset of adult diabetes, type two diabetes, caused by more overweight than the pancreas failing.

Juvenile diabetes, now type two diabetes is from your pancreas failing to where your body can hardly make insulin on its own,” local dietitian Lois Hilgers said.

Between young adults there is a common source of sugar shared. It’s in every convenient store, and a common start to the day or a reward for getting through the day.

“Part of what is happening is what is available to kids. It’s easy to buy a can of soda, it’s inexpensive for the calories, but we shouldn’t have it period. It doesn’t matter how good it tastes. It’s filled with

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empty calories, some contain small traces of Vitamin C, but for the most part any sugary drink will have no value except in sugar, so to have just water is a better deal.

You can add flavoring if you really want flavor, but you should only have as little sugar as possible. If you say you have to have your Mountain Dew then what I tell people is that that’s your serving of sugar for the day,” Hilgers said.

The problem with sugar is it is a useful, multipurpose empty calorie.

“One of the problems with sugar is that it’s a flavor enhancer. Another problem is that moisture can be drawn to it. I don’t know if you’ve ever had gooey butter cake.

Part of what makes gooey butter gooey is that you have extra sugar over what is in a normal cake, so that causes moisture can be drawn to the sugar. Any food [that sugar] is added to has a nice little sweetness, but you don’t necessarily taste it. It’s used in sandwich meat, it’s a preservative complete with a flavor enhancer. They sometimes they use high fructose corn syrup on meats, but high fructose corn syrup is corn syrup and add more sugar to it. They do it because it taste good, and we want to buy it, but we don’t read the labels,” Hilgers said.

The solution to this issue is quite simple, but young adults should think ahead.

“Most people don’t think about their health ten years from now. They try to get through today, and it’s expensive to get fruit and vegetables, but we got to have some balance in what we choose, do better in general. Educating people on good monetary choices for food as well as good healthy choices it would be [the best] solution,” Hilgers said.

An easy trick to stop the erosion of your teeth. Eat cheddar cheese after every meal Eating too much sugar can cause an adrenaline rush About twenty teaspoons of sugar is in two average twelve-ounce sodas.

Overdosing on sugar only takes a hundred grams.

Sugar can reduce the ability of the white blood cells to do their job by forty percent.

Eating sugar makes you crave more sugar.

Cinnamon can help reduce the risks of blood clots, control blood sugar levels, improve insulin sensitivity, help prevent fat gain, and help prevent diabetes because cinnamon’s a potent antioxidant.

“I realize that some people went just because they get extra credit, but it was really nice to tell us that it was enjoyable. It made me really happy.�

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As the first semester of the 2016 school year comes to an end, many activities are wrapping up their season with senior nights and banquets, celebrating their successful seasons and hard work. Rolla High School’s drama department has ended its performance of the 1936 George S. Kaufman play You Can’t Take It with You. “The fall play was about Alice Sycamore, my character, whose family is very eccentric. They have many different quirks that would set them off as different and strange. It doesn’t become a problem until she gets engaged to the love of her life, and her fiance’s family comes to visit her family. It basically all falls to chaos and Alice decides to leave and never return because she’s so embarrassed and can’t stand her family anymore, but things happen and it ends up being that it’s all good in the end,” junior and the female lead of the play, Christina Woelk said.

The cast worked for two months on the play, during and after school in order to memorize lines, build sets, and put together costumes. The performances brought out the best of the group while allowing them to improve every day.

“Some of [the performances] were better than others.

Friday was pretty bad just because everyone was exhausted from an entire week of long hours of rehearsal and performance. I feel like we were kind of shaky on a lot of parts, but it’s okay because we made up for it on Saturday, and everyone who went on Saturday and they liked it. We struggled through it, we’re still alive. [The best day] was probably Saturday, because everyone was like, ‘Oh, this is the last day! We might as well make it good, remember our parts. This is the last time we can get it right!’ We all tried really hard on Saturday, and we’d all gotten twelve hours of sleep. We didn’t have homework to deal with or annoying people throughout the day… unless it’s your family members,” Woelk said.

The reception that the cast members got from the play was overwhelmingly positive from teachers and students alike.

“There were a lot of people who recognized me in the audience and would be like, ‘Oh, hey! I saw you in the play! It was so good!’ and I was just kind of like, ‘Thanks!

Thank you so much for coming!’ I realize that some people went just because they get extra credit, but it was really nice to tell us that it was enjoyable. It made me really happy. A couple teachers, they all thought everyone did such a good job. They really enjoyed it,” Woelk said.

Some of the toughest things to do when being involved in an activity that requires so much time from the members is to keep up with school work. Hours of rehearsal and set up can take away a majority of the members’ time,

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and the workload given may be difficult to keep up with.

“I’ll be honest, [the workload] killed me. I was dead by the time Monday was over, because you’re working long hours, and I was on stage a lot. I mean, there were times where I didn’t say anything, but I’d stand on stage and not do anything. It was tough, because I always feel that we get every piece of homework, doubled, during the week. I wish there was times that we could catch up on homework and sleep, or both. Some of the teachers really understood that. [Mrs. McNeven] would allow us a free class period, and I feel like we all really tried to get homework done. We didn’t always achieve it, but we certainly tried,” Woelk said.

Spending so much time with a group of people can be stressful, but they are ultimately working towards a common goal: to do their best to entertain others. A drama family is formed through the months of work.

“What I learned through the play is that you learned how to not kill everybody on set when they’re bugging you or being annoying backstage. You learn how to just let it go. Everyone is so stressed by the end of it, and we’re kind of just like, ‘You know what? We’ve spent two and a half months with each other every day after school for two hours’ it’s a love-hate relationship by then, but I’ve made a lot of friends,” Woelk said.

The play was open to the public from Thursday, November 19 until the 22nd.

“The turnout was okay. Because there were other things going on throughout the school there weren’t as many people as we’d hoped on some days, and the weather wasn’t permitting on other days, but it was pretty good in the circumstances. I do [think the school should promote it more]. It would be really nice if we could have more people interested in the fine arts programs. I would appreciate it a lot more involvement with the different fine arts programs, not just the drama department,” Woelk said.

The drama department’s next project is the spring musical. They will be performing the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

Auditions for the projects are open to anything, not only Mrs. McNeven’s classes.

“A lot of [the people involved in the play] were taking at least one of Mrs. McNeven’s classes, not just Drama, but like Public Speaking, just because she would advertise it more. I feel like a lot of the students don’t have time to look at the posters that we place around the school and, I’ll be honest, a lot of us probably do not listen to the announcements, either. It’s mainly the people who really are into it, we try to advertise it a lot. Even if you’re not, still audition!” Woelk said.

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Funding your education b y

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here are questions every student has likely wondered through their time at RHS involving funds: when one decides to wad toilet paper and put in a toilet, how much does it cost the school? The school lunches? The electric bill? All must come at a cost, but how much? As it turns out, there are a variety of methods in place for our school get these things funded, but the majority of school funding comes from two sources: state apportioned money, with extra wealth coming from the public school Foundation funding plan.

“The Foundation Formula Plan is a way for schools to acquire money.

For the Rolla Public Schools, about thirty-one percent of our funding comes from the Foundation funding. The way it works is that schools receive a ratio of state funding and Foundation funding, which comes directly from the area’s total taxable assets and is a way of measuring the area’s wealth. Now, for Rolla, our total taxable assets value is around $390 million. For Camdenton, it’s over $2 billion. Overall, it’s a pretty fair system, I liked its execution during the early 2000s, because we got more from that, but it’s biggest problem now is that it’s underfunded by about four million dollars. Ways to improve the value of Phelps county, meaning to get us more funding, is just to allow growth and bringing in businesses. For example, in Calloway county, they have a nuclear power plant which adds a huge amount to their total taxable assets, despite being basically the same size as us.

Then there’s schools in Northwest Missouri where the counties are nothing but fields, then they get a wind farm which holds the entire assessed value of the community. Rolla’s unique because we have lots of stuff, but the university and the hospital are not taxable so they don’t contribute. Essentially, the higher the assessed value, the lower the taxes the local people have to pay to fund the school. The state has cut some funding to the formula plan, so schools like us take a much harder hit than Camdenton, for example. Like I said, this formula plan, which is probably the third I’ve been involved with, wasn’t meant to be

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underfunded, which it curretly is, so that causes problems for school districts,” Superintendent of Rolla Public Schools, Dr. Aaron Zalis said.

Many students may be curious as to what the district spends money on, some may have concerns that the district wastes funding. Dr. Zalis, however, feels that the districts current expenses are “Every district is allowed to spend money on what it wants, and we choose to focus most of our money of staff and faculty salaries.

Eighty-one percent of all of our money goes to salaries. We do that to attract and retain the most talented teachers, and I think that works out well for us. The other nineteen percent goes to fuel, food, utilities, and whatever else we can cover. Some people might have concerns over if we waste money, and I would strongly argue that we don’t, as we’ve been reducing budgets for years now. Nonetheless, I believe that although we might not have as large a budget as other schools, we are still able to provide our kids with a quality education and consistently and effectively prepare them for college and the real world,” Dr. Zalis said.

If Rolla students do feel compelled to find ways to help their district, supporting new businesses and commerical growth for the area is the best way to do so.

“Primarily through growth. If a Walgreens opens up in town, then that’s a big chunk of money added to the total taxable asset value.

We’re looking forward to the new Price Chopper opening. They were talking about the Rolla West project, which would have opened new businesses in the area by Denny’s and Shoney’s, but to encourage businesses to come, they’re talking about giving them a TIF, which is Tax Increment Financing. Essentially, the city will tell them they don’t have to pay any taxes on the property above the initial cost for fifteen or twenty years. So, they’re essentially paying taxes for a big empty ditch, instead of a department store or whatever. Kohl’s has a twenty-three year TIF on it, I think,” Dr. Zalis said.

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Every student here in the Rolla School District goes to school absolutely free. Just to come here and learn there is no charge whatsoever. So, many people, my self included, don’t realize how expensive it is to run a district of schools. There are thousands of items that are paid for by the school’s budget that go unnoticed everyday. The costodial staff has their budget set up so that sixteen cents goes to every student in the high school to cover the cost when something breaks or needs replaced. Sixteen cents doesn’t sound like a lot of money but multiply that by the roughly estimated 1000 students just at the high school and it comes out to $160 even per year. Here are just some of the items and their costs used everyday in the Rolla High School. Now, some of these items don’t seem like they cost a whole lot, but the little things, such as paperclips, can add up to a pretty pricey total in the end.

Text Books

Paper Towels

Soap $60-$150 each

$1,825.20 per year

Toilet Paper Trash Bags $944.56 per year A Box of Paper Clips $1,269.60 per year

$3,467.10 per year

$.6 per box

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Highly Involved: (Lunch, gas, one cheaper sport, three clubs, Band/choir, two charity drives) sums up to around $1400 More involved: (Lunch, gas, more expensive sport, 3 clubs, 1 charity drive) also around $1400 (The expensive sport is really most of the cost here) Regularly involved: (Lunch, gas, two clubs, one charity drive) comes out to $830.

Minimum involved: (Just gas and lunch; keep in mind many students don’t drive, and qualify for reduced lunches) $750.

Highly Involved: (Lunch, gas, one cheaper sport three charity drives) again, sums up to around $ More involved: (Lunch, gas, more expensive spo $1400, most of which was the sport.

Regularly involved: (Lunch, gas, three clubs, on Minimum involved: $750.

Sophomore Year

Junior Year

Life can be expensive, as many high schoolers know.

In addition to fast food, clothes, and buying lunch boxes for Fallout Shelter, being involved at the school can actually put a real drain on a student’s resources; lunch, club T-shirts, instrument rental fees, gas used driving to and from school, the ACT, sending ACT scores, cheerleading warm ups; no matter what, all can seriously act to make one question the “public” in public schools. All costs are estimates gathered from anecdotal evidence, so they might not match with every student’s experience.

Because different students may be involved at very different levels at the school, there are multiple different costs reflecting this.

The Price:

A Cost-Timeline of A Student at Rolla High Schoo feature

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t, five clubs, Band/choir, one ACT, $1400 ort, 3 clubs, 1 charity drive) also around

ne charity drive) comes out to $850.

Highly Involved: (Lunch, gas, one cheaper sport, six clubs, Band, one ACT, four charity drives, five college applications, sending ACT scores, cap and gown) around $1800 More involved: (Lunch, gas, more expensive sport, 3 clubs, 1 charity drive, three college applications) around $1600.

Regularly involved: (Lunch, gas, three clubs, one charity drive, cap and gown, three college application) comes out to $1045.

Minimum involved: (Lunch, gas, cap and gown) $800.

Senior Year Average club: $15 (For T-Shirt; students can be in multiple clubs at once) Club charity drive: $20 (Includes Christmas drives, driving to events) Lunch: 46.55/month. $465.50/ yr. ($2.45 per school day, not including reduced-lunches) Gas for driving to/from school: $50/month. $500/yr.

Taking the ACT: $39.50 ($56.50 with writing; students might take

it multiple times as well. Sending your scores is $15) Participation fees: $50 Band instrument rental: $100/ semester Buying one’s own quality instrument: $1500 Choir: $300 School Play: $10 (Just a T-Shirt, making plays a good, cheap way to get involved.)

FFA: $150 Sport: $100-800 (Highly irregu-

lar; many RHS athletes have to buy pay for their uniforms, warm ups and other paraphernalia. For some, it won't amount to much; for others, not really.)

Stuco: $30 Lunch/gas is $765.00 Cap and gown: $65 College applications: $50/college Sending ACT scores: $15/college

Sports: Sport costs: Here we have gathered the costs of dif-

ferent sports offered to students.

Again, all prices were based on participants estimates, and therefore may not apply universally.

Golf: $700 Volleyball: $200 Soccer: $150 Cheerleading: $700 Cross Country/Track: $100 Football: $50 Wrestling: $50 Basketball: $250 Color Guard: $900

Totals: Highly Involved: $4,600 More involved: $4,400 Regularly involved: $2,725 Minimum involved: $2,300

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Stay Healthy this Holiday Season

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is the season of snow, holidays and lots of family time, but along with all of those good things, the sniffles also become a part of everyday life. Whether it’s sickness or allergies it seems like everybody gets them at some point or another over the holiday season.

Tracy Fair-Parsons, a physician’s assistant at Mercy Clinic, gave some insight into seasonal sicknesses and allergies.

“Seasonal allergies are typically considered fall and spring time problems. Usually allergies in the fall are due to ragweed and tree pollen in the spring, however some people have year round allergies especially if they’re allergic to dust, mold or pet dander. Most allergy symptoms can be treated with over the counter medications such as the long acting antihistamines like Claritin/Zyrtec/Allegra and the now over the counter intranasal steroids such as Flonase and Nasacort AQ,” Fair-Parsons said.

Sandy Van Aken, the Rolla High School Nurse, offers a way to tell the difference between allergies and sickness.

“Allergy symptoms consist of a runny nose, red eyes, coughing, sneezing, sore throat and no fever. However, some of the other respiratory illnesses will have the same symptoms but will generally run a

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fever,” Van Aken said.

Some of the worst seasonal sicknesses are upper respiratory infections and influenza. Winter is the best time for these illnesses to pop up.

“Upper respiratory infections, AKA the common cold, are caused by viruses. Symptoms usually start with a sore throat, then nasal congestion and cough. Low grade fevers early in the illness are not uncommon. Usually the first four days are the more symptomatic days, but a common cold typically runs its course in 10-14 days. Over the counter cold medications can help relieve symptoms but do not cure the illness. Common colds are spread by respiratory secretions, so the best measures to avoid spread are by covering your mouth with tissue or arm sleeve when coughing and not sharing food/drinks. Good hand washing also reduces the spread of many germs. We are also entering “flu season”. Influenza is caused by a virus that causes usually higher fevers. Symptoms usually start with fever, body aches, headaches, and then a cough and sometimes nasal congestion/sore throat. Sometimes nausea and vomiting but influenza is a respiratory flu and not the stomach flu. Fevers can last 5-7 days with cough and congestion symptoms lasting 10-14 days, sometimes longer. Influenza can lead to pneumonia and even death particularly in young children and elderly.

There are antiviral medications that can be used to slow the course of the illness, but it generally just has to run its course. Unlike the com-

Vaccines are really important, I can’t stress that enough.

We have people in our school that are not medically able to get vaccines and so we rely on the people that can get vaccines to provide ‘herd immunity.’

mon cold, influenza can be prevented by getting vaccinated. Vaccination protects not only you but also others in the community who have weakened immune systems,” Fair-Parsons said.

Vaccines are extremely important for not only your own health, but for other people’s health as well according to Van Aken.

“Vaccines are really important, I can’t stress that enough. We have people in our school that are not medically able to get vaccines and so we rely on the people that can get vaccines to provide ‘herd immunity.’ We rely on the people around them to stop from bringing those illnesses to school. Some people choose not to get vaccines and that’s fine, that’s definitely anybody’s choice. However, ‘herd immunity’ is really important. I would say that we have very few children at school that are not vaccinated. So you should get the flu shot. I’ve heard that the flu shot is very close to hitting the strains that will hit people. If we have an outbreak of influenza, that turns into a health concern because we get to the point where we have to figure out if we close school or if we keep it open. Do we have enough students present to educate and teach and do we have enough staff members here or are they out sick?

So you just can’t go wrong with a vaccination. They are very safe,” Van Aken said.

If people are worried about finances or safety there are a lot of differ-

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ent options for them to explore, and vaccines are a very safe, preventative way to combat sickness, according to Van Aken.

“You can get them at Walmart, Walgreens, Kmart, CVS, the health department and many community clinics that will have them that people can go to. Many of the fee’s are covered by insurance and there may not even be a copay. So there isn’t a reason financially to not get one. There are people that are allergic to certain components of the vaccine and if you are one of them, you just tell the person who is administering the shot what kind of allergies you have and they can make the decision to whether or not a particular vaccine is going to be hazardous to you,” Van Aken said.

Van Aken has some advice for students in order to help keep the high school an illness free place.

“If you have a fever, stay home. Don’t come to school because chances are you shouldn’t be here in the first place and if you come to me with a fever over 100 degrees I’m going to send you home, so do yourself a favor and just stay home,” Van Aken said.

Fair-Parsons also has some advice for students.

“Get vaccinated against influenza, wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough and try to avoid being around others when you are ill,” Fair-Parsons said.

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Online Classes b y

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As the first semester winds down to a close schedule changes are on many people’s minds. But what happens when you need more credits but you don’t want to give up any classes that are already on your schedule? Rolla High School has a solution for that problem, for English at least.

The english department at RHS offers two online classes that don’t take hours out of your school day. These classes are journalism composition and digital literacies. Both of these classes are half credits of English. Digital Literacies examines media and the messages that different commercials and ads portray. Students will read into movies and television shows to discover the subtle meaning that is trying to be shown. In Online Journalism Composition students will be introduced to journalistic writing and how to use it. This course can be taken along side print and digital publications or yearbook publications as journalism is the prerequisite for both of these.

These convenient online classes are not to be overlooked when you’re trying to get your credits.

1100 North Rolla Street Rolla, MO 65401 Dan Collier, Agent Get your license Get a car Call Dan Collier for a great rate

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Office: 573-364-4133 Fax: 573-364-2531 Office Hours Mon-Fri 8:30am to 5:00pm After Hours by Appointment

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The Rolla Grasslands team journey to the national competition

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uture Farmers of America, or FFA, is an intercurricular organization for students interested in agriculture and leadership. It’s not just an organization for students wanting to pursue a career in production farming. It also welcomes students who have a desire to become teachers, engineers, doctors, scientists, business owners, and more. The Rolla High School FFA team competed in a Grasslands competition and placed fifth in state, qualifying them to go to Nationals.

“The grasslands competition is a 4-H and FFA competition.

There’s four different sections to it, you have to identify 25 plants and there is a list of 100 plants that they could be. Then you have to evaluate a field for wildlife and take a wildlife test, you have to find yourself on a soil map and read soil tests, and you have to evaluate the field for how it would be for cows, so grassland condition. You answer questions about what kind of a pasture it is and how animals would do on it,” senior FFA member, Emily Roberts said.

With the multiple categories of information that the FFA is tested on, it requires a lot of training.

“We practice for two or three hours everyday and we’re either doing cow problems, which is where you find out how much grass the cow needs and whether or not the farmer has an adequate amount, or we go and do some plant identification. We drive around and try to find each other on a map, and we go over different wildlife scenarios,” Roberts said.

The team spent a considerable amount of time training. The countless hours of training paid off when they took fifth place in the state competition, but not without some added stress. “[At] the state level, they messed up our score. Whenever the scores came out, we were checking [our scores because] we had missed going to nationals by two points, and of course we were all really devastated because we thought we could have done it this

year. Our Rolla FFA has [missed going to] nationals for the past five years now. We used to be state winners at every contest, so we were really hoping that this time it would be the time that we get to go. We were checking all of our scores, and we were like ‘they did this wrong.’ Then, we [started] freaking out and our [agriculture] advisor was calling people trying to figure out when they could look at it and check it to see if it was wrong, [in hopes that it] would boost us up to nationals. It did by fourteen points, and we were ahead of the last team by fourteen points,” senior FFA member, Sabrina Morris said.

Sophomore Hannah Strain, a Rolla High School FFA member, discussed the details of the 2016 Nationals competition. “[The nationals competition will] be June 7th-8th. It’ll be around Springfield, Missouri. You have a meeting place and disperse so no one knows where the exact location is,” Strain said.

Although Grasslands is not only a competition that the team members love, it also allows them to gain and use the knowledge they learn in real life situations.

“I love how much you get pumped to go compete against other teams. You get to use your knowledge for that contest [in real life], and then everyday you learn something new from [Grasslands]. I get to use that information everyday, and that is the most rewarding part” senior FFA member, Isabelle Vankirk, said.

Right: seniors Isabelle VanKirk, Emily Roberts, and Sabrina Morris, and sophomore Hannah Strain.

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They have the meats RHS students and faculty harvest and kill their own meat b y

A large part of American history includes people killing or harvesting their own meat. Some raised cows, chickens, or pigs to slaughter.

When these animals were not available, people would hunt deer, rabbit, or even squirrel. However, in recent times Americans tend to buy the popular meats such as beef, poultry, ham, and turkey at grocery stores. Although it is less heard of for one to eat animals such as squirrel and rabbit, or even to harvest or kill their own meat, there are still some who do just this at RHS. “My family raises and slaughters rabbits. We don’t name them or play with them, so it’s not like we are eating our pets,” senior Caroline Victor said.

Although the furry creatures are typically adored rather than eaten in recent times, Victor explains why they chose rabbits to raise for slaughter.

“We got started because my uncle breeds rabbits too. Mainly my dad’s just a big do-it-yourself person so that’s why he likes doing it,” Victor said.

Although Victor does not consider the rabbits to be pets, she says her family still keeps them in good living conditions.

“We feed them well and keep them in a good cage. When it comes time, we kill them as quickly as possible,” Victor said.

According to Victor, her family only keeps about four females and one male. Because of this, they only eat them about once every few months.

Taylor Hance, another senior at RHS, family kills their own meat to eat as a special treat and does not leave any of it to waste.

“We kill our deer and turkey on my uncle’s farm. We kill squirrels at our barn. We also go frog gigging in our pond,” Hance said.

Although Hance says she does not care for the frog meat, she does enjoy deer. Hunting different kinds of animals is something of a tradition in her family.

“Five people in my family hunt and my brother bow hunts so there’s always some kind of meat in the freezer whether it’s deer, turkey, or squirrel. We eat it probably once or twice a month. We still buy meat from the store,” Hance said.

When it comes to the reactions of others, Hance claims that her peers think some of the meats they eat are a little odd.

“When I tell people my Dad’s cooking squirrel legs for dinner they freak out and think it’s so gross, but it’s actually way better than it sounds,” Hance said.

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While some families only eat this fresh meat on occasion, others find it much more beneficial to eat it instead of store bought meat.

“My family raises a hog and a steer every year to go into our freezers.

You can also find deer meat, rabbit meat, squirrel meat, and vegetables from our garden in them as well. We never buy any kind of meat from the store, after eating your own farm fresh meat it’s hard to go and buy it at the store. It never tastes nearly as good,” Sabrina Morris, a senior at RHS, said.

Morris’s family also finds it more humane and healthy to harvest their own meat.

“When you butcher your own meat you know exactly how well that animal has been taken care of throughout its life, what it was fed and the quality of animal it was before being processed,” Morris said.

Lea Hickerson, an RHS English teacher, was raised in a family that slaughtered their own meat and cannot remember the last time she has eaten store bought meat.

My dad raises [all the meat we eat] or my husband hunts deer and turkey. But other than that my dad raises rabbits and chickens and ducks. We have had lambs in the past, but not anymore. They got to be too high maintenance. Typically we have turkey and rabbits every year. We usually end up slaughtering about 50 a year. I honestly don’t remember the last time we did [buy meat at the grocery store],” Hickerson said.

Hickerson and her family have found that they save a surprising amount of money from harvesting their own meat. She estimates that they save around $1000 a year, taking into account parties as well as normal every-day meals.

As far as slaughtering the animals goes, Hickerson’s family tries to make the animal’s death as painless and quick as possible.

“If they have a sense of panic or fear before you kill them it actually taints the meat and makes them not taste good. The last surge of adrenaline does not make them taste good,” Hickerson said.

Hickerson also had an opinion on those who may day that it is cruel to slaughter one’s own meat.

“You want them to have a more quick and painless death. I find that interesting because you don’t know anything that happens in a slaughterhouse, not that I do either, but they don’t know anything that goes on there, so I don’t think it is fair to assume that we are bad people,” Hickerson said.

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Cocoa and Cram Sunday, December 13 2-4 pm Library Sophomores can come study for finals with Link Leaders

NO School December 19January 5 for Winter Break

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Dupes has been playing basketball since second grade.

“I’ve been playing basketball since second grade. I started out playing Upward, which is a club basketball league for when I was younger,” Dupes said.

Dupes started playing for one reason and that same reason has stuck with her and just grown.

“It is a lot of fun. I have always loved and I still do. I love the competitiveness because I am a very competitive person. But I also love the teamwork part,” Dupes said.

Dupes loves the game, but, like all athletes, she still has struggles.

“Probably the fact that I’m not as athletic as other people, is one of my biggest difficulties. Compared to some of my Kelly Dupes other teammates, I don’t feel as athletic and Grade: 11 especially compared to other teams because they are all tall and fast,” Dupes said.

Sport: Basketball But basketball is not all about physical and athletic ability. When you break it down, basketball is very much a mental game.

“I’d say it was more of a mentally strenuous sport because physically, you don’t really have to tackle anyone or anying like that.

There’s just a lot of running, but it’s a lot of mental thinking. Like what offense and defense you’re going to run, where everyone has to be, and the plays. So much thought that has to go into it,” Dupes said.

But through thick and thin, hard work pays off and last year Dupes time and effort led her to one of her proudest moments as a high school athlete.

“Last year at the beginning of the season, the time was running out the fourth quarter and we had to score because we were down by six.

They passed the ball to me so I took a dribble and my defender backed off and I shot a three-pointer and made it. The crowd went crazy. And then coach pulled me up to varsity after that game,” Dupes said.

Although Dupes does not want to continue playing basketball on the college level, she doesn’t want ot give it up completely, “I’m probably not going to play in college, but I plan on playing intramural,” Dupes said.

the Month Brainard has been wrestling since first grade, making this his ninth year. He has really come to appreciate that experience now that he is in high school. When asked why he loves it so much, he responded, “I love how tough it is. I like to feel good when I actually do well in it because I worked so hard for it,” Brainard said.

Brainard strives to get better every day and knows there are things he can work on to help him reach the goal of the athlete he wants to be.

“If I could improve something about my game, it would be my aggressiveness. I need to be meaner as a competitor. I feel like I am too nice and if I was more aggressive, I feel like nobody could stop me,” Brainard said. even with all the confidence in Coleman Brainard theButworld, there is no denying that Grade: 10 the pressure of succeeding can get to anyone.

Sport: Wrestling “I think wrestling is more mentally straining because it is one on one. If you mess up you can’t say my teammate lost me the game because it is all on you. I’d definitely say mentally because you’ve got to pump yourself up,” Brainard said.

There are always bumps in the road though and one of the biggest struggles many athletes have to face is time management.

“Balancing between wrestling practices and matches and homework is one of the toughest things I deal with as an athlete. I’m really busy and trying to make time for everything can get really stressful,” Brainard said.

But obviously Brainard does a fantastic job at it because as a freshman, he excelled far more than what would be expected of him. Last year, Brainard competed in the state tournament and took second in state overall. In addition to this, he also received the awards of first team all conference and first team academic all conference.

“Probably my proudest moment so far would have been last year when I took second in state as a freshman. When I took second, it pushed me harder as a wrestler. It makes me want to win the whole thing thing and not just take second, even though I was really proud of second place,” Brainard said.

Advice to future players: “Don’t blame everything on the coach. It isn’t always the coach’s fault,” Dupes said.

Advice to future players: “It’s gonna be tough, but you’re gonna need to work through it because it will pay off eventually,” Brainard said.

Who do you look up to, who inspires you?

“My father because he is always there for me. He has been my coach since I started playing basketball and he continues to coach me to this day. But he doesn’t just coach me in basketball, but in life as well,” Dupes said.

Who do you look up to, who inspires you?

“I don’t really look up to anyone per say, but I do respect some of the qualities of the best wrestlers in the world and I want to be able to do what they do and more,” Brainard said.

What other clubs/activities are you in?

Cross country, Pep Club, Link Crew, Vice President of Spanish Club, and Key Club.

What other activities/clubs are you in?

Student Council and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

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Participants in Pep Band and it was a win for the bulldogs!

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Boy’s Basketball victory over Rogers Heritage

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