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Royal Banner Edition 62, Volume 1

Fantastic number 5 Kailey Page becomes part of Fairview history

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CONTENTS 4-5

The Legacy of Gail Lessing and Her #5 Jersey

Banned.

Diversify Our Narrative

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An Interview with Betsy Gomez

The Need to Update Our School’s Curriculum

American Anxieties Why Can’t Knights Sleep at Night?

Under Pressure How College Culture Affects Fairview Students

High School IRL vs. Movies How Does the Fairview Experience Stack Up to the Movies?

Staff Favorites

Credits

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Front Row Player

What Movies You Need to Watch This Fall, According to Fairview Publications Staff

Staff Credits

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Passing on the Legacy The story of Gail Lessig and Her #5 Jersey story and design by isabel fisher

n 1993, Gail Lessig, a senior at Fairview, was the star athlete of the Volleyball and Soccer Programs. She was “so kind and beloved by everyone,” said her fellow classmate Karyn Dundorf, a member of Lessig’s varsity soccer team. “She was just so beautiful and she could fit into any group or clique of people at Fairview because of how beloved she was by everyone.” Jessica Reiss, a Fairview alumni and the current coach of the sophomore volleyball team at Fairview, stated that “You

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would never see [Lessig], like, get fired up in an angry way. She would just like, fire up in a confident way,” said Reiss. “She just knew who she was. She knew who she was so well that she didn't have to prove it to anyone. She just showed up as a kind woman. From the very beginning. I mean, it's amazing. She's just so mature, kind, and down to earth.” Tragically, in the spring of 1993, Lessig was killed in a car accident. After her passing, the student body of Fairview was crushed. During the volleyball season november

after her passing, one of Lessig’s friends wore her jersey in honor of her. “It kinda became a tradition of sorts within the first few years immediately following,” said Oddette Edbrooke, former head coach of the Fairview Volleyball Program. The tradition became more formal when the coaches started giving out the number to one of their senior varsity players around the year 2000. The jersey should be worn by someone who truly embodies the ideals and characteristics that Lessig

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Gail lessig with her fellow teamates during the 1992-1993 Volleyball Season

upheld and stood for during her life, according to a plaque in the main gym. Senior Kailey Page was given the honor of wearing the #5 jersey for the 20212022 volleyball season and has been recognized by the volleyball community for her extraordinary characteristics and personality. When the plaque was put up Page was there when the plaque was put up her sophomore year, and so was Lessig’s family.

“Gail Lessig’s family was there so we got to hear about her story, and who she was as a person, and when I was listening to that I realized that we had a lot of similar traits,” said Page. “We both came from Southern Hills Middle

“She’s so hardworking, and just such a great person and super grounded,” School, and we both had brothers, and almost right way I connected with her. Grace Andrews got [the jersey] my sophomore year and I remember just being like that is what I want to be; that is how I want people to look at me.” Page’s main sport has always been basketball, and it wasn’t until her freshman year of high school that she even started playing volleyball. “Kailey is super caring. She loves everyone, always wants everyone to do their best and have the best time while doing it. She’s so hardworking, and just such a great person and super grounded,” said fellow varsity teammate and friend, senior Devyn Berg. Berg has been playing volleyball for a

number of years and got to know Page when she tried out for the volleyball team her freshman year. The two have been inseparable ever since. “Even though we weren’t on the same team freshman year, we liked to lay on the benches in the gym before practice every day and just hang out and just talk, and then she swung varsity and I think that just brought us together even more,” said Berg. On August 18th, the volleyball teams had a parent athlete meeting in regards to the beginning of the season. During this meeting, the player who would be representing the #5 jersey for the 2021 season would be announced, and the coaches of the program ultimately decided that Kaliey would be representing the #5 for this season. Lauren Ollanik, the current Head Coach of Fairview Volleyball, said that she chose Kailey to represent the #5 jersey this year because “she is a player who, whether she is on or off the court, positively leads her team and is someone who changes the energy in the whole gym for the better. I think she is someone who her teammates trust and they can always turn to her for problems on and off the court.” After the news was announced, Page’s

“Everything I do is for that number, and everything I do is for my teamates” teammate, Berg said, “I was so excited for her to get the #5, like I had no words. It was just like amazing, like I knew she deserved it 100%. [..] she just embodies the #5, she just has all of the royal banner

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characteristics that I expect a #5 to have and I want the #5 person to have. I think she represents who Gail was.” The next day, Kaliey and the other members of the Varsity Volleyball team had their first game of the season against Silver Creek Highschool. Along with being the first home game of the season, it was also the first time Kaliey would wear and represent the #5 jersey. The team won their first game of the season with a bonding event that the players would remember forever. “It was just like, so amazing cause we like, really had a tough season last season, and then being able to win our first game and wearing that number on my chest, I was just so proud and like I was so happy that I could help some of our younger players get their first win. Everything I do is for that number, and everything I do is for my teammates,” said Page. Page has just recently commited to Colorado Mesa University for basketball and the volleyball community couldn’t be prouder. Page’s commitment shows just how possible it is to be a multi sport athlete at Fairview. More than ever this year, the Fairview Volleyball Community has been able to come together and connect in ways they weren’t able to last year during the pandemic. The girls of the program have once again been able to be part of a family that loves and supports each other, lifts each other up, and allows each other to become passionate, strong women on and off the court.

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BANNED An interview with Betsy Gomez story by lily nobel design by tessa moskoff

eginning September 26th, and running through October 2nd, the 38th annual Banned Books Week celebrated “freedom to seek and express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular” (according to the coalition’s website) while protesting censorship.

“We should all keep conversing; information is essential to our existence as Americans and our right to read.” Banned Books Week itself is “an annual celebration of the freedom to read” that centers around education. Authors, often those of banned books, collaborate with educators to give talks and provide resources on literary censorship in the United States. Much of the programming during Banned Books Week is organized by the American Library Association (ALA), which keeps track of reports of censorship and advocates on the behalf of banned and challenged books, and their authors. On their website, the ALA defines a challenge to a book as being: “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group,” and a banning as “the removal of those materials.” Banned Books Week is run by a coalition of fifteen organizations, including the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. “[Some of these] groups work on intellectual freedom issues, first amendment rights, anti-censorship work, and some others work more generally on things like authors’ and writers’ rights,” said Betsy Gomez, the Banned Books Week Coali-

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tion’s communications representative. “[It’s] this big group of people with the core value that intellectual freedom is an important right to protect.” Early in the spring of the next year, the ALA regularly unveils the list of the most frequently challenged books around the country. The top three most challenged books of 2020 were George by Alex Gino, a children’s chapterbook about a young transgender girl, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds, a young adult narrative about the history of systematic racism in the United States, and All American Boys by Jason Renyolds and Brendan Kiely, a young adult fictional novel about police brutality. Overall for 2020, six books appeared for concerns relating to racism against Black Americans specifically, one for LGBTQ+ themes, and three for concerns regarding profanity. This marks a massive shift from previous years, where books with LGBTQ+ characters and stories dominated the top ten: in 2019, eight of the top ten were challenged due to LGBTQ+ presence, two for concerns regarding profanity, and zero for discussion of racism. “This emerging trend that we’re seeing actually isn’t much of a surprise,” said Gomez. “We’ve been noting for years that diverse material is often attacked. [...] The attack on books dealing with racism, police brutality, and anti-racism we’ve seen playing out on a local level, on a schoolboard level, in politics. And it’s alarming how some places are beginning to pass legislation banning this content. It’s usually under the guise of preventing ‘divisive concepts’ or indoctrination, but the laws are often written so broadly that [the ban applies to] any instruction relating to Martin Luther King Jr. in the education system as a whole. [...] The trend wasn’t a surprise, but the strength of it was.” In the longer list of 256 books challenged in 2020, LGBTQ+ content and

books about racism made up the majority. However, some books by conservatives were challenged too — namely, Crippled America by former president Donald Trump, and How to Talk to A Liberal (If You Must) by pundit Ann Coulter, ranked as “frequently challenged.” “It’s not just conservatives trying to censor books — we’re also finding people with more progressive political views trying to restrict books that depict sex, or violence, or drug use because all of their core values are that they’re trying to protect children from material they think is dangerous,” said Gomez. “But when they do that, they’re taking the right to decide from other people.” Also on the frequently challenged list are many classics. Of Mice and Men and The Bluest Eye, by John Steinbeck and Toni Morrison respectively, landed on the Top 10 List, and 46 books from the Radcliffe Publishing Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have wound up banned or challenged.

“The best setting for that book is in a classroom.” Said Gomez: “A lot of the protests that are about language that is unacceptable now, but was considered acceptable at the time. [...] The best setting for that book is in a classroom, where it can be discussed alongside the social pressures and context surrounding the publication of these books.” Closing the interview, Gomez said: “If there’s an idea out there you don’t like in a library, suggest another book that conforms to your idea that you might add to a collection. If you don’t like a piece of art, make your own art in response to it. We should all keep conversing — information is essential to our existence as Americans and our right to read.”

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e v i t a r r a

Divers

ify

Your

The need to update our school’s curriculum story by tessa moskoff & sa steinbarth design by tessa moskoff

he push to include more diverse perspectives in language arts curriculums has been prevalent the last few years, with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Banned Book movement. One organization working to make this change is Diversify Your Narrative, a student-led organization founded in 2020. “Diversify Your Narrative BVSD is a student-led organization that works towards community power and racial equity, as well as racial representation, in high school curriculums,” said Kaviya Chidambaram, one of Diversify Your Narrative BVSD’s district leads and a junior at Broomfield High School. Students who are part of Diversify Your Narrative, such as Chidambaram, generally joined because they saw a lack of diversity within their existing school curriculums. “Overall, just seeing a lack of representation for people — both like me, and just other people in general who are BIPOC individuals — seeing a lack of representation for people of color in language arts curriculums, and kind of a misrepresentation in history curriculums,” said Chidambaram. “Since we did create the chapter during the Black Lives Matter movement, seeing a rise of tons of students coming together to work towards a similar goal and feeling, knowing that we can make change and do something bigger, really just drove us to create the chapter.” Within our community, teachers and students have also been pushing to diver-

sify the LA curriculum. “One of the things we were trying to work on is to be adding more writers of color and more female writers, and more writers of different experience, and from different parts of the world,” said Tracy Brennan, who teaches IB, AP, and College Prep LA to juniors and seniors. “So, we have added some works this year that we haven’t done in previous years.” This change is deemed necessary by students like junior Sydney Wu, who is in College Prep LA this year. “I feel like in your LA classes, you not only read the book. You have a discussion about it, and you think about it, and you try to apply it to the way you look at the world,” said Wu. “And I think that those discussions are very important, and so you should have a book from a person having a narrative that is not something that a lot of kids are exposed to.” The novels that the IB department has added over the past few years include There, There by Tommy Orange, Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, as well as essays and poems by Edwidge Danticat, Derek Walcott, and V. S. Naipaul. Changes like these are in line with the philosophy of Diversify Your Narrative BVSD, but more change may be necessary to create the diversity of curriculum that Diversify Your Narrative is striving to promote. “When we were first conducting interviews, we focused not only on problems royal banner

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with not showcasing different racial issues, we also brought up issues with not representing women, not representing people with both mental and physical disabilities, as well as LGBT students,” said Lainy Harper, another district lead for Diversify Your Narrative BVSD, and a junior at Broomfield High School. “So I think right now teachers are mostly focusing on racial disparities and that kind of stuff in our education, but in the future we really want to push to cover all grounds of different types of educational discrimination.” If you are interested in joining Diversify Your Narrative BVSD, you can dm them on instagram @diversifyournarrativebvsd, or fill out the google form in their bio.

Proportion of books written by BIPOC authors (in red) to white authors (in white) on the 2021/2022 list of books to purchase for LA classes at Fairview.

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“Everyone’s thinking the same things, we just have to be understanding of each other.” Cami Bennett (12)

story and design by noah edelman

american anxieties

“It all comes back to that yearning for freedom.” Charlie Laham (12)

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hy can’t Knights sleep at night? Plenty of students have spent countless hours sleepless, but only recently have some of the reasons for this become public. Between the turbulent administration, tragic shooting at King Soopers, and tense social atmosphere, Fairview students juggle a lot by default. In an attempt to categorize and understand the unique anxieties at Fairview, The Royal Banner takes a page out of visual-essay masters The Pudding’s book. “30 Years of American Anxieties” is an anthology of advice-column letters to major newspapers. While not directly comparable, this article attempts to similarly identify the common denominator in the mind of a Fairview student. “[I worry about] where I’m gonna be in twenty years,” says Senior Coby Graves. “It’s just not in my control.” In fact, anxieties concerning life after high school dominate the minds of seniors.

This exact feeling is so prevalent, it’s covered separately in this issue of the Royal Banner. In more specific contexts, the coexistence of powerful anxiety and youthful hope is clear to see. Graves clarifies, “At the end of the day, it’s really just different kinds of work to do. But there are a lot of things that keep my mind off the stress.” Distractions from a stressful school life are typically few and far between, but students master striking a balance between effective work ethic and rejuvenation through relaxation. “I find myself doing the things I enjoy, but only to make me feel better,” Graves adds. Interestingly enough, students’ anxieties reflect not only their personal struggles, but also their peers’ struggles as well. “Sometimes I put on a face for other people, just to look smarter or kinder,” says Senior Cami Bennett. Anxiety, especially at school, revolves around image, and the things we do to protect an idealized version of ourselves. In the four years of high school, substantial personal development occurs. Some people completely transform and embrace a fluid state of mind, while others cling to familiar characteristics and secure

themselves in a singular identity. Students also emphasized the importance of distinguishing the difference between fear and anxiety. “I think what I fear, I’m just anxious about continuously,” says Senior Annessa Buggy. The larger-scale events that create mixed fear and anxiety in many students present such a monumental challenge in their lives that separating what’s to be generally concerned about and what’s to be genuinely feared becomes difficult. Senior Charlie Laham responds, “I have a good amount of

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of teens experience some kind of anxiety disorder of teens experience social anxiety disorders of teens experience severe impairment

Source: National Institute of Mental Health and Child Mind Institute

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confidence that we will find our way to something where we’re not chained down like that.” Laham’s optimism is shared by many students, who when faced with a life-altering situation, make spectacularly resolute decisions and divinations. “I feel like there need to be failures for everyone to know how to succeed, though,” counters Senior Vaughn Veenendaal. And while Veenendaal has a point, students (and humans in general) do not typically choose to suffer, even when a valuable lesson is to be learned. So what happens? Students feeling the pressure tend to crack a little, but there are many coping strategies to be discovered. A wide spectrum of activities populates this list. Graves cites “fishing with [his] buddies,” while Laham purports “writing… about freedom” as their respective outlets of choice. However, respite is

not always readily available to busy students, and claiming all students have adequate time to recharge would be outlandish. A majority work on weekdays after school, many are enrolled in advanced classes with considerable daily workloads, and almost all upperclassmen have a part of their brain constantly devoted to college applications and all they entail. All six interviewees mentioned college as the principal factor of their anxieties. “It’s easier for me to just not deal with [my anxiety]. I do better like that,” says Buggy; “Same here, [ignoring anxiety] lets me get through my day how I want,” adds Bennett. While not necessarily specific to Fairview, many students have found it more convenient to shelve their anxieties for more pressing matters. The highly academic culture of Fairview leads students to incentivize efficiency, leaving little to no room for self-care. Buggy continues, “People at Fairview tend to worry about the same things, like not being enough. This comes from places like thinking about who has the better test score than you, or who’s applying to a [more selective] college than you. It adds up.” royal banner

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In a backwards way, Fairview forges masters of multitasking out of overworked teenagers. There is no idea more American than this. The fear of falling behind, or “being stuck, miserable for the rest of my life,” as Laham explains it, is central to the idea of “American anxiety.” The failure of one’s idealized reality to come to fruition, contrasted with the everincreasing urgency to perform at a high level, creates a culture of burnout which all too easily leaves behind those who can’t keep up. What now? The situation may look bleak, but the students have impressively strong hope for the future. Not only are they backing themselves, but they stand behind their peers and lift them up when needed. They emphasize pride in their accomplishments, and fearless individuality in the way only an American would know how to do. Anxiety may be common, but the good part is that it is common. Many understand the struggle, and are willing to help those that do not. The biggest takeaway from a life with anxiety? Buggy asserts: “You shouldn’t be focusing on how to be other people.”

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UNDER PRESSURE How college culture effects Fairview students story by eliana knode, design by lily nobel

owadays, teenagers are thrust into adulthood the second they reach their junior year — sometimes earlier. This is not simply a comingof-age story: there is a cultural shift influencing teens to make life-altering decisions faster. Parents, teachers, social media, competition with peers, and the basic desire to do what is socially expected are driving this shift. The COVID-19 pandemic has added another layer of confusion and tension for students and their parents regarding the security of the future. With so much pressure on teenagers, lots of students have questions on how to best address their future. Deciding on a life-changing education and career path is made up of many factors and inputs: financial, geographical, temporal, historical, lifestyle, cultural, and personal interests. For most students and families, finances are the priority. Rising college expenses and debt are a primary concern, but future job security is as well. COVID-19 highlighted financial disparity more than ever. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published a study of 22 27-year-olds showing that at the peak of lay-offs during the pandemic in June 2020, college graduates had a

much lower unemployment rate, 8.1%, versus young workers without a degree, with an unemployment rate of 21.9%. A 2019 study showed a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree earns a premium of $30,000 annually, more than those of the same age range without a degree. In addition to finances, teens are under an intense peer, societal, and parental pressure to have their future decided. “I want to go to college. I don’t know what I want to do after that yet. I do feel some pressure from the admin and parents to decide. It seems like everyone else has kind of figured it out,” said junior Elise Harless. Beyond the feeling that you are somehow behind classmates, pressures can be more specific, like a parent that has imagined a different future for you. “A lot of the time it’s parents who have a specific school they went to and/or a specific experience they had. For example, my mom is very cool and successful right now, but she didn’t have a choice to go out of state because her parents didn’t want to pay. So I think she is projecting that on me, to accomplish her desires back when she was in high school to go out of state,” said senior Claudia Rohde.

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With all of the pressure around deciding on a college, trade schools and alternative career paths are often dismissed, even though they are a good option for lots of people. “Well, it’s more of an indirect thing. Whenever you go to a doctor’s office, you will see their degree hanging on a wall. You see all of the colleges teachers have gone to hanging on the walls. You have the college center right next to you. It’s just kind of this expectation that you’re going to go to college after high school. If you don’t go to college, you’re not going to be able to get a good higher-paying job in society,” said Harless. No matter how early someone starts preparing for a major life decision, you can never be fully prepared. Most high schoolers feel this as early as sophomore year. Digging into the minefield of college and career options is daunting. Fairview counselors try to bridge this gap by offering resources within Google Classroom, the College and Career Center, junior and senior workshops, recommended tests, and directly through the counseling office. There is a disconnect between the many college and career resources provided and

what students actually take advantage of in their research. “That’s something where I think students attend class on that day and then think, ‘Oh, this is a lot, this is complicated.’ It is overwhelming,” said Rhode. Counselor Ashley Houston reassures all students.“We will guide you through this process. I don’t know if students realize how much expertise their counselors have in the college process. With that

said, counselors have almost 400 students that they work with. So that means that, no, your counselor probably can’t have a weekly meeting with you to develop your list and to go through all of your essays. We have to do it in different ways and in smaller groups.” The pressure on students considering college is intense. But, just maybe, it doesn’t need to be quite as daunting as we think.

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“This year [returning to in-person learning], the best thing you guys can do is just learn how to be students again, do your best in your classes, relearn how to do that process,” said Houston. “And then, on the side, start doing some research for college. Use Naviance. That’s the best tool out there for understanding admissions decisions for Fairview-specific students.”

HIGH SCHOOL IRL VS MOVIES How Does the Fairview Experience Stack Up to the Movies? story by lily nobel design by macy friday

k, so if we’re going to talk about high school in movies, we’re going to talk about High School Musical, circa 2006. Seemingly ubiquitous in the childhood of every American kid born from 2000 on, Troy, Gabriella, and the epic battle of East High’s cliques ran on repeat on my cousin’s hand-held DVD player. I must’ve watched it 20 times growing up, weaving it as deeply into the fabric of growing up as popsicles and scraped knees. When I walked into Fairview for the first time (sixth grade; musical matinee), all of those red looked just the same as in the film, and those hallway dance routines came back to me. Even as a little kid, I never expected the singing to be real, but when I recognized those red lockers, I projected the structure of the movie on to my life after middle school, the light at the end of the Southern Hills tunnel. In High School Musical, high school is the setting, the medium, the mover, the motivator. High school was the catalyst and the end-all be-all. No one was really in school 24 hours a day, I knew, but those hours were the only ones where any real life went on. Outside of the emotional arc of the romance, the entire physical plot-- not just the setting-- is defined by high school. And the premise was successful: enough so for two sequels and a 2019 TV show, and, more importantly, a cemented place in popular culture. As I got older and moved past High School Musical just as every kid

sees disavowing the things they used to love as the only way to grow, my next high school movie watched was Mean Girls (2004). Candy-colored and acidic, plasticky and iconic, if you claim you can’t recognize a Mean Girls quote, you’re either too old, too young, or lying. In Mean Girls, high school isn’t the plot, but sets the parameters. The physical containment of the building serves as a sounding board for social hierarchies as teachers play not just background characters, but secondary characters and comic reliefs. Homecoming, prom, and the talent show are the school-approved key events of the movie. After Mean Girls, I watched The Breakfast Club (1985) and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) with my family-- the same cousin I used to watch High School Musical with explained to me that the 80’s were the golden age of high school movies. In these movies, the strain high school puts on kids is far more evident. In High School Musical and Mean Girls, the stress and rigidity is just a part of the world. In The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the students want to escape. Naturally, this is played off as comedy: every student hates school and every teacher is content to torture the students.

Whatever cliche clique you’re in, in these movies, school is a corresponding struggle. “Nerds” collapse under the weight of ten AP textbooks while “popular kids” fail classes trying to have a social life. “Slackers” have given up on academics under the pressure while the artists and athletes have to forfeit their classes due to lack of time, hoping their respective talents will carry them to college. This is, of course, all funny and normal. After the Breakfast Club, after Ferris Bueller, that’s when my high school movie watching career got dark-- Heathers (1988) and Carrie (1976) are brutal. I don’t want to spoil either; they’re both worth a watch. In summary: now there’s blood, now there’s bombs. Yet, they’re really just the same as High School Musical on catastrophe steroids. School is still not just a building, but a labyrinth. Not just the setting, but the entity writing the plot.

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At Fairview, the pressure of college climbs as a counselor in every LA class reminds students that the sooner they can make a life-changing decision, the better. Keeping up grades and completing advanced classes are stronger driving forces than any personal or emotional occurrence. If you can’t take all IB or AP, then get all A’s, then join NHS or graduate with the IB Diploma, how are you going to get into the best college? And if you can’t get into the best college, how will you get the best job? If you can’t get the best job, how will you have the best life? Or so the spiral goes. It’s dizzying, depressing, exhausting. And it’s getting us nowhere. So there’s no burn book, no poison in the coffee cup, no bucket of pig’s blood, no spontaneous song and dance, but in the end, I think the high school movies did get it right in one big way: high school is life consuming. Through societal twists and turns, school has been turned from parameters into a definition. As the pressure grows every year, we have to start asking ourselves how we can change this culture back into a liveable one, taking real life back from high school movie territory. If we can’t change how we think and talk about school, what’s going to happen when the credits roll?

From right to left: (1) Mr. Wozniak wears pink on Wednesdays!(2) Mean Girls wear pink on Wednesdays! (3) Jordan Rechel celebrates (4) Troy Bolton stars in a basketball game (5) Ferris Bueller celebrates being a senior with a day off (6) Fairview seniors cheer for their football team royal banner

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Fall Edition “Completing puzzles with my family. It started a few years ago, now it's a tradition.” ---Anika Dieter-Shambaris

“They don’t make movies as honest as this anymore.” What movies you need to watch this fall, according to Fairview Publications staff

“I love watching scary movies and picking pumpkins” ---Isabel Fisher “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown It’s the perfect Halloween nostalgia.” ---Annika Aumentado “My favorite halloween movie is IT I love this movie because the cast list is so fun.” ---Haven Selby “It’s not really halloween themed but it just hits the right spot. The song is adagio for strings. Sounds of fantasy and a deep dark balance.” ---Aaron Talala “Ghost Duet by Louie Zong. This video is bootiful.” ---Tessa Moskoff

Sorry to Bother You Noah Edelman

The Fog Lily Nobel

A Quiet Place Pt. 2 Jasper Hale

North By Northwest Macy Friday

This movie isn’t that new, but the themes are still important. It’s weird, colorful, emotional, but somehow intensely real throughout. The movie itself is playful, but serious about its political undertones. The strongly prounion message is accentuated by cartoonish corporate tycoons, perfectly painting the picture I imagine the director and writer intended to paint.

This movie, within the first ten minutes, tells you exactly what will happen-- zombie pirates will come out of the fog. Without much else, it delivers on its premise, which absolutely SLAPS. They don’t make movies as honest as this anymore.

I liked it because provided a good wrap-up of the first movie’s intense ending, and set up new plot points that could be interesting for the next movie. I especially like the development of characters in relation to new environments and the implications of the first movie, and I thought many of the scenes were just as intense as before.

This is, in my opinion, the best and most underrated Hitchcock film. It’s extremely thrilling and suspenseful, with a score that contributes wonderfully to the plot. I’m inspired by a lot of the cinematography. Cary Grant is an extremely talented actor as well, lending to the timelessness of this movie. It will never get old.

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Editors-in-Chief

Julia Frank Julia is a senior and this is her third year working with The Royal Banner. Along with journalism, Julia enjoys skiing, social activism, and working at a local puzzle shop.

Contributors Tessa Moskoff

Lily Nobel

Macy Friday

Sa Steinbarth

Eliana Knode

Aaron Talala

Noah Edelman Noah is a senior, and this is his third year with The Royal Banner. He enjoys making music, taking photos on his disposable camera, and spending time with friends.

Not Pictured: Isabel Fisher Website Feature

Section Editors

Business

Politics and World Affairs Lily Nobel

Business Manager: Claire-Maria Broaddus For Subscriptions: Send $25 to Royal Banner, Fairview High School, Room 339, 1515 Greenbriar Blvd, Boulder, CO 80305, or contact us at fhsroyalbanner.com/contact

Arts, Culture, and Media Annika Aumentado Student News Farah Ahmodava Opinion Eliana Knode National Sports Zev Cohen

Welcome, Mr. Gillach. An Interview with the Interim Principal

About the Cover This issue's cover was created by Noah Edelman. He was inspired by the new styles of design being worked on at the Banner this year.

Copy Editor Tessa Moskoff

Read this article at fhsroyalbanner.com

About Us

*Disclaimer:

The Royal Banner is a 16-page news magazine. The Banner is written primarliy for the over 2000 students attending Fairview High School and is ditributed free of charge to all members of the school community. Accurate reporting of fact is the goal of the staff. Commentaries, opinion columns and letters to the editor are the expressed opinion of the author and not of The Royal Banner and its Editorial Board or adviser.

Under Colorado law, no expression made by students in the exercise of free speech or freedom of the press shall be deemed to be an expression of school policy. No school district, employee, legal guardian or official of such a district shall be held liable in any criminal action for any expression made or published by a student. The Royal Banner sells advertisements for publicity and to pay for printing costs. We reserve the right to refuse to run any advertisement deemed inappropriate to the Fairview community.

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Seniors enjoy pancakes on the curb of the parking lot during Senior Sunrise.

photo by aaron talala

Scan to follow the Banner staff’s Spotify playlist!

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