The Harbinger Issue 13 2022-23

Don’t you have something else to do

the harbinger.

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS 66208 MARCH 27, 2023 VOLUME LXV

You’re pretty good for a girl.

ISSUE 13

You single?

Let’s gang up on the girl Why is there a girl in the party?

What’s your snap Send her back to the kitchen!

She’s gotta go...

Get off the game, girl Get this girl outta here You’re pretty good for a girl.

You single?

You play like a girl

YOU’RE A GIRL?

Female gamers play video games to build relationships and advance their skills and rank while also battling misogyny that causes them to conceal their gender or stop playing

GAME OVER.

02

INSIDE COVER

THE HARBINGER

d esig n b y k atie m ur phy co v er d esig n b y anna m itchell co v er p h o t o b y m acy cr osser

CROSS-COUNTRY CONNECTION See what’s happening at a different U.S. high school according to their newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief

STUYVESANT

STORIES

NEW YORK CITY

NEW YORK

HIGH SCHOOL

What current event are students and staff talking about?

SUBWAY SAFETY

MEDIA

Read reviews of Bloom Nutrition products and ice cube flavors viral on TikTok and more by visiting smeharbinger.net or scanning the QR code

students ride 75% ofsubway to school

THERE IS AN increased trend of violence and homelessness in the subway with Mayor Eric Adams. There was a shooting two stops from where I get off for school a couple of months ago, so I Ubered home that day. Especially as a woman it can be scary. But it’s sparked discussion at school, and new clubs have been created to promote safe transit, like Transit Club and Red Cross Club.

smeharbinger.net

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF OF T H E S P E CT A T O R SE N I O R MO MO CA MA IR A J

SENIOR MA Y A NE L S O N

political cartoon

- MAYA

SCAN ME WEBSITE Visit the website of Stuyvesant High School’s news publication, The Spectator

R I G H T According to a Spectator poll, over 70% of students ride the subway to school — including Nelson, who is worried about her safety on the subway. guest illustration by I ori mermelstein

staff list PRINT EDITORS Peyton Moore Francesca Stamati ONLINE EDITORS Lyda Cosgrove Kate Heitmann ASST. PRINT EDITORS Greyson Imm Katie Murphy ASST. ONLINE EDITORS Aanya Bansal Maggie Kissick PHOTO EDITORS Rachel Bingham Hadley Chapman Macy Crosser ASST. PHOTO EDITORS Liv Madden Riley Scott

The Harbinger

HEAD COPY EDITORS Caroline Gould Caroline Wood ASST. HEAD COPY EDITORS Aanya Bansal Greyson Imm DESIGN EDITORS Nora Lynn Anna Mitchell ASST. DESIGN EDITOR Bridget Connelly VIDEO EDITORS Abby Lee David Allegri PODCAST EDITOR Emma Krause SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS Mia Vogel Paige Zadoo

smeharbinger

ASST. SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Bridget Connelly SECTION EDITORS PRINT NEWS Addie Moore ONLINE NEWS Hassan Sufi ONLINE FEATURES Ben Bradley PRINT SPORTS Ava Cooper PRINT EDITORIAL Sophie Lindberg ONLINE OPINION Larkin Brundige PRINT A&E Veronica Mangine STAFF WRITERS Isabel Baldassaro Sophia Brockmeier Larkin Brundige

SME Harbinger

Maggie Condon Mary Gagen Avie Koeneman Libby Marsh Lily Simmons Gracie Takacs Connor Vogel Lucy Wolf Ada Lillie Worthington PAGE DESIGNERS Afa Akwanka’a Sofia Blades Adya Burdick Ava Cooper Grace Demetriou Elle Gedman Veronica Mangine Kai Mcphail Lyla Weeks STAFF ARTISTS Sofia Blades

Caroline Daniels Madi Maupin PHOTO MENTORS Riley Eck Julia Fillmore Claire Goettsch Caroline Martucci Emily Pollock Mason Sajna STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Paige Bean Kate Beaulieu Lydia Coe Audrey Condon Sabrina Dean Ryan Dehan Charlotte Emley Julia Fillmore Will Griffith Kenna Harrington Molly Miller

SM East Harbinger Clara Peters Tristen Porter Alex Sajna Lili Vottero MJ Wolf Amelie Wong Madi Maupin VIDEO STAFF Luke Beil Calen Domingues Ryder Hendon

ca r t o o n b y car oline daniels

EDITORIAL POLICY The Harbinger is a student run publication. Published editorials express the views of the Harbinger staff.

Signed columns published in the Harbinger express the writer’s personal opinion. The content and opinions of the Harbinger do not represent the student body, faculty, administration or Shawnee Mission School District. The Harbinger will not share any unpublished content, but quotes material may be confirmed with the sources. The Harbinger encourages letters to the editors, but reserves the right to reject them for reasons including but not limited to lack of space, multiple letters of the same topic and personal attacks contained in the letter. The Harbinger will not edit content thought letters may be edited for clarity, length or mechanics. Letters should be sent to room 413B or emailed to smeharbinger@gmail.com.

EDITORIAL

MAR C H 6 , 20 22

desi gn & ar t by sop h ie lin d b e rg

03

ON THE

HOOK

Online hookup culture is rising in popularity among high schoolers and exploits the vulnerability and loneliness of young people to trap them in cycles of seeking validation

FOR: 16 AGAINST: 0 The members of the editorial board who agree with the viewpoint of the editorial are represented by for, and those who disagree with the viewpoint are represented by against.

SWIPE LEFT. SWIPE left. Wait... swipe right!

*YOU MATCHED WITH NOAH* “Hi, what’s up?”

Deep breaths, don’t be nervous. Five minutes pass. Why aren’t they responding? Ten more minutes pass. It’s probably because I’m ugly.

They must’ve accidentally swiped right on me.

Why do I even—

“Hey ur cute, wanna meet up?”

This conversation, though seemingly innocent, can end very differently. They could end up like the 22% of dates arranged through a dating app that ended in sexual assault. Or the victims of sexual grooming when Tinder discovered more than 7% of their users were underage. Or the countless unreported cases of sexual assault as a result of dating apps. All starting with a simple right swipe.

Since their creation in the early 2010’s, apps originally intended for meeting romantic partners have been increasingly utilized by high schoolers for casual sex and hooking up. In an Instagram poll of East students who use dating apps, 42% said that their primary intention for using dating apps was hooking up or casual sex, as compared to the 32% who used it for emotional validation and 26% who used it for meeting romantic partners.

This rising culture of online dating and hookups among often underage high schoolers exploits the loneliness of alreadyvulnerable young people and traps them in cycles of low self-esteem and potential sexual violence.

This danger is close to home. 14% of East students in an Instagram poll of 145 said that they have used a dating app before.

Nationally, 24% of teens who date — and 8% of all teens — reported dating or hooking up with someone they first met online, according to the Pew Research Center. And according to an article in the psychology journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, it’s only increased postpandemic.

Dating apps can be appealing — where else can you meet hundreds of people with the same favorite movies and interests as you, with your desired appearance, curated by algorithm to be your ideal partner?

Despite the positives, dating apps remain a potent danger to teens. When large groups of vulnerable young people gather in one place online, they become easy targets for grooming and sexual violence.

Though most dating apps have 18+ age restrictions, they’re mainly only formalities to protect the app developers from legal trouble, and less for protecting users from danger. Many of the most-used apps — Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Grindr and more — only require a user to enter their “birthday,” which doesn’t stop teenagers from lying while using these platforms.

Not all teens are affected equally either.

Queer youth are more likely than their straight, cis peers to use dating apps because it expands the number of potential partners they could meet. A 2018 study of 219 U.S. 15-to-17-year-old teen boys who identified as gay, bisexual or questioning revealed that 70.3% used geosocial networking apps aimed at LGBTQ+ men. That’s young enough to be your sophomore classmates, potentially exposing them to unsafe situations with older, unknown men, both online and inperson.

It’s understandable that Tinder or Grindr is appealing to some when the gay dating pool at school is less than two or three.

What’s less appealing, however, is the sexual assault and grooming that occurs on these apps. A Brigham Young University survey found that 14% of the 1,968 rapes committed by acquaintances occurred during an initial meetup arranged through a dating app — real-world consequences from online sites.

Another group targeted is young women.

Already the primary victims of sexual harassment and assault, online dating

date rape

a term colloquially describing sexual assault by a person involved in a romantic relationship with the victim

exacerbates the too-prevalent issues that they face like harassing comments, physical violence and date rape. That seemingly innocent “Hey” after you match on Tinder could lead to much more unwanted and

dangerous attention. Twice as many women than men on dating apps reported receiving unwanted explicit pictures or messages, according to a 2019 study by Statista.

Sexual assault is alarming enough on its own, but it often also creates a lasting cycle by diminishing the self esteem of young, vulnerable people. Just one instance of sexual assault has the potential to snowball: wanting to prove that you’re more than what happened to you by searching out more relationships, but continuing to get hurt.

And all of this is not to mention the lasting effects on future relationships.

Dating online presents its own set of consequences to teens specifically, as this artificial connection during their formative years completely reshapes their view of love, connection and sex. When you learn relationship skills like communication and connection from your Tinder friendwith-benefits 10 years older than you, your sense of normalcy in romantic relationships becomes flawed before you get the chance to have a typical in-person relationship.

Teens on dating apps are inevitable — with rapid improvements in technology and social media, eliminating online dating altogether just isn’t realistic. If this is truly the future of dating, let’s build a supportive and safe future by informing dating app users about the dangers and empowering affected people to come forward when they witness or experience it.

04

NEWS

THE HARBINGER

news.

d esig n b y addie m oor e

s to ri es by con n or vog e l

WORRISOME WATER

Water fountains around East rumored to have a “weird taste”

SHAWNEE MISSION DEPUTY Superintendent Joe Gilhaus sent a district-wide message on March 2 about recent concerns after complaints about a “strange or odd” taste in the water.

This email explained that there should be no health concerns and the water was completely safe, according to WaterOne, Johnson County’s independent nonprofit public water utility.

This information came from WaterOne after the district made an inquiry into the cause of the change in the water. The change in taste was a result of the Corps of Engineers’ attempt to break up a 60-mile ice floe on the Missouri Rivers — one of WaterOne’s two main sources for water — that was blocking the natural water flow.

The floe was eventually broken up with a combination of engineers’ work and “unseasonably warm temperatures.”

As the water made its way down the river, a temperature change caused by the warmer surface temperatures of the and cooler depth temperatures, caused by ice from the floe, stirring natural organic material into the drinking water in a “river turn.”

WaterOne’s Director of Customer Relations Mandy Cawby explains that this “river turn” is completely harmless to the health of students since the water is verified to be safe to drink.

“The organics that created the taste difference pose no impact to health,” Cawby said. “Variation in river water quality is an everyday reality of water treatment. Our daily goal at WaterOne is to counterbalance whatever taste and odor elements come in from the river water to not only purify the water for safety but also ensure it’s the same, consistent flavor going out to customers.”

DO YOU BELIEVE THE WATER FOUNTAINS AT EAST HAVE A BAD TASTE? *Instagram poll of 255 votes

YES 72%

28%

NO

TAKING OUT TIKTOK

TikTok might be banned in the United States due to Chinese involvement

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION officially

demanded that Chinese company ByteDance sell their stake in the social media app TikTok on March 16.

If the company does not, a possible U.S. ban will follow, affecting over 100 million Americans on the app, according to BBC. The demand comes days after the White House gave government agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from federal devices and systems, preventing the potential abuse of user data, according to CNN. American officials have campaigned for years to have the app banned, including an attempt by former president Donald Trump in 2020 before the action was blocked by the Supreme Court.

Since then, the Committee on Foreign Investments, which oversees national

security risks, unanimously recommended ByteDance divest from TikTok. On March 7, the Restrict Act was presented to the Senate. The act would allow the U.S. Commerce Department to declare foreign-linked companies as national security risks and allow President Biden the authority to ban the app nationwide.

Sophomore Jaxson Terros believes this may lead to public backlash from the app’s users if it is banned in the U.S. “[TikTok] is something that is so important in pop culture that losing it would make a lot of people angry, including me,” Terros said. “But I understand that we should all be concerned about an invasion of privacy.”

24 states

7 countries India

BANNED TIKTOK ON GOVERNMENT DEVICES*

HAVE IMPLEMENTED PARTIAL OR COMPLETE BANS ON TIKTOK*

BANNED THE APP IN MID-2020*

*according to the New York Times

TRANSPORTATION TRANSFORMATION Construction to expand the RideKC streetcar started on March 2 THE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS on the RideKC streetcar expansion was officially approved on March 2, and is expected to be finish by spring 2024.

The new rail line will connect the River Market to the Berkeley River Front. However, the project still faces issues due to lack of funding.

This planned extension is part of a proposed budget project that will cost $450-600 million to expand the streetcar lines through the metropolitan area along with 6 million dollars annually to operate, according to a report prepared for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.

Now, the project will receive construction bids through their official websites with estimates from

different contractors to be used by the city council to hire a contractor.

Executive Director of the KC Streetcar Authority Tom Gerend believes the supplies will prove helpful to get the project up and running for summer construction.

“Delivery of our tram rail is the first physical sign of our plans to reconnect to our riverfront, and the early delivery will ensure our construction contractor can hit the ground running when they come on board later this summer,” Gerend said.

While the Riverfront extension has been fully approved, RideKC’s plans to expand the rail line all across the metropolitan area over the next three

years are awaiting the signoff from the Downtown Council of Kansas City.

The Council has not yet approved the final budget, citing that even with potential federal funding, they will have to find new funding to offset the deficit to fulfill the project according to RideKC. Gerend still holds a positive outlook on the project’s future as they seek federal funding to support this city project.

“We think the federal government will look favorably on transit investments that can accomplish multiple goals at the same time, including environmental, community and transportation benefits,” Gerend said.

B E L O W The streetcar stopped outside of Union Station. photo by I molly miller

NEWS

M A R C H 27, 2023

d e s ig n by bridget c on n e lly p hot o s co u rtesy o f k a rb a n k re a l e s t a t e comp a n y

05

REBUILDING

WESTWOOD s tor y by ada lillie w ort h in g t on

The City of Westwood voted on tearing down Westwood Elementary and the Westwood church, replacing them with a green space and business center

T

amenities.”

The city council chose Multistudio, a Kansas approved a plan on March 9 to revamp the former Westwood View Elementary City-based architecture firm, after requesting building and Westwood Christian Church proposals for the project from local firms. In an on Rainbow Blvd. into a green-space park and open house on November 5, 2022, the council presented various different layouts and plans for business buildings.

Karbank Real Estate — based in Mission Woods the park and business buildings to the Westwood — presented the plan two years after city council residents in order to receive feedback. Westwood resident and freshman Jordan O’Brien thinks and Westwood Mayor and East parent David that the current plan will help local businesses Waters began considering the remodel. if they choose to move into the area.

“I think [having] a park can become “I think that [this plan] could be a gathering place for our community,” I THINK [HAVING] a park in our good for the [selected] businesses Waters said. “It can be a place for community, it because it’s in the center of Westwood generations of people to be able to come and next to Westwood hills, so I think can be a place and all be together in the same greenfor generations of for those businesses, [it will] be a good space.”

Though the plan is halted until at people to be able thing,” O’Brien said.

The council’s approved funding least 2025 due to the former elementary to come and all school being occupied by a refurbishing be together in the agreement ensures that Karbank Real Estate will provide funding for the Rushton Elementary School, real estate green space. development of the buildings while agent Steven Karbank states that 3.5 DAVID W A T E R S city council will work on the park area, out of the elementary school’s 4.5acre property will be turned into a park MAYOR & E A S T according to Karbank.

PAREN T “We’re working on the design of the and green-space. The park will be used buildings, working on the layout of the to potentially host Oktoberfests and other family gathering events or become a Westwood Plaza, site and we’re working on a contract with the city,” Karbank said. “We’re planning various kinds of according to Waters.

Additionally, four multi-story buildings and an testing of the site to determine what can be built underground parking garage will replace the land and how it needs to be built.”

Although the construction of the site on where the Westwood Christian Church was located.

While plans are not finalized, the city council Rainbow Blvd. hasn’t even started, O’Brien has has also expressed desires to potentially move already seen the impacts of a newly built Westwood Westwood City Hall into one of the new business View building in the community, and she only expects more residents to move into the area once buildings.

“The needs that [Westwood has] have a balanced construction starts.

“There’s a lot of kids and [Westwood residents revenue source between residential property taxes, are] saying that [Westwood is] expecting a lot more sales taxes and other things,” Waters said. “Last fall as part of that [research] we did a city facilities kids to be moving here because of the new school,” study which identified some of the needs that our O’Brien said. “I think [the park and businesses] can community has for our municipal buildings and only bring benefits.”

HE WESTWOOD CITY Council unanimously

ABOVE A rendering overhead look at the four buildings that are being built.

L E F T A rendering view from Rainbow Boulevard that showcase’s offices and galleries/retail spaces.

R I G H T A rendering view from the courtyard housed inside the buildings.

BELOW A rendering view from a potential idea of the park that could be subject to change.

details THE PLAN General about the space

3.5 367 4 ACRES FOR A PARK AREA

TOTAL PARKING SPACES BUILDINGS

100 T 06

NEWS

HE UNITED STATES passed 100

mass shootings in 2023 on March 6 — a new record, surpassing the previous date by 13 days.

Last year, the U.S. hit 100 mass shootings on March 19. The number was reached in the last week of March in 2021, and it wasn’t hit until late May in 2018-2020, according to CNN. Reaching this milestone only 65 days in the year, the U.S. currently has more mass shootings than days in 2023.

mass shoot•ing a shooting in which at least four people are killed or injured, excluding the gunman, according to the Gun Violence Archive

For sophomore Hartley Graham, this rise in mass shootings created new fear in her day-to-day life. Checking for exit signs, carefully eyeing people around her in public places, constantly turning her head to check her surroundings and avoiding large events are all “normal” precautions Graham now implements in her daily life. “[The number of mass shootings] makes me nervous to go to things like concerts or even malls because you never know who will be there and when,” Graham said.

THE HARBINGER

TOO MANY.

d esig n & a r t b y gr eyson im m

s t or y b y e m m e r s o n w i n f r e y

The rise in mass shootings in the U.S. — which 100 in 2023 in record time — heightens fear and concern among students

Sophomore Mae Audus also feels the effects of this fear, constantly wondering if she’ll one day experience a mass shooting.

Audus never worried about mass shootings until the recent rise and publicity of them.

“It’s just been brought more to my attention,” Audus said. “Previously, it wasn’t talked about as much and since it’s been more talked about it’s just led me to feel more on edge about it. I mean sometimes I’m like ‘Oh, what if it’s today when [a shooter is] at school or the mall.’”

In 2016, there were a total of 383 mass shootings and in 2022 the U.S. reached 647 total mass shootings — an increase of 264 more mass shootings in six years — creating an average of 1.7 mass shootings per day, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

As of March 22, the U.S. has had 118 shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, equaling an average of 1.45 shootings a day.

Grandparents for Gun Safety, a local organization working with youths to help ensure guns are safely stored and used, by educating others

on how to safely store guns and providing gunlocks to the community. The founder Judy Sherry attributes this rise of shootings to the increase in gun accessibility with guns being sold on the street or not stored properly in houses as well as more people resorting to guns to solve personal issues.

“We’re a very angry population right now,” Sherry said. “We talk about our country being polarized.

People used to think that you could solve a problem with an argument or even a fist fight, but now, so many people carry guns with them. It’s how people solve problems.

A drug deal goes wrong, and instead of punching somebody, you shoot them.”

Grandparents for Gun Safety is partnering with SHARE’s Freshman Connection to help package gun locks which will be distributed to local doctors offices. They will be meeting in the cafeteria during Seminar on Tuesday, March 28.

S h e r r y b e l i e v e s we need more legislation to help counteract this rise in shootings,

THE BULLET POINTS

Statistics and figures about gun violence in U.S. schools

%

95

OF U.S. SCHOOLS IN 2015-2016 PRACTICED ACTIVE SHOOTER DRILLS, COMPARED TO ONLY 45% JUST 10 YEARS EARLIER

THE NUMBER OF INCIDENTS OF GUNFIRE IN U.S. SCHOOLS BETWEEN 2013 AND 2019, KILLING 129 AND WOUNDING 270

%

75

549

OF YOUTH AGES 15 TO 21 CITE SCHOOL SHOOTINGS AS A PRIMARY SOURCE OF STRESS *information from everytown.org

such as Ethan’s Law w h i c h would require gun owners to safely and securely store their firearms — even when unloaded.

“We are hoping and wishing that our legislators would pass legislation that would keep us safe, so that people like domestic abusers don’t have access to guns,” Sherry said.

She also believes people need to better ensure all guns are legally and safely owned by getting guns off the streets and making sure every gun is legally bought and licensed.

“Make sure that people who own a gun have every right to own a gun, make them have a permit, make them register their guns,” Sherry said. “Just whatever we do with cars, and do the same thing with firearms. You can’t drive a car without a license, why should you be able to own a gun without a license?”

NEWS

M A R C H 27, 2023

d e s ig n by kai m cph a il p hot o s by m j wolf

SPANISH STYLE

07

The Spanish department has three teachers for all six levels, each with their own way to teach students the language

s t or y b y a v e r y a n d e r s o n

A

T O P Señorita Lind reads a book to her Spanish class as students follow along. photo by I mj wolf

R I G H T Señor Finnie reads through a presentation in front of his class.

STYLE-SPECIFIC

they have to ensure everyone is FTER NOTING at the same level.

INCONSISTENCIES in “The Spanish reading [article] teaching styles within we found [is about] the NASSCO the foreign language A brief overview of each respective teacher and their teaching style lines that the indigenous people department, all language teachers built [and how] they think they are collaborating to create a more might be like aliens,” Lind said. cohesive program by combining each Señor Señorita Señorita “We created a whole rubric that of their individual styles and sharing goes with it and because of the their lesson plans. way that it’s set up and because Since classes like Spanish 3 and Thinks using Speaks to his Uses games as a of the rubric, the bigger point is, 4 are taught by different teachers, assignments and students from day way to engage ‘Did you get it or not?’” transitioning between teaching styles speaking are the best one, easing them students, not just They plan to continue curating can be challenging for students, way to learn with a into picking up on this assignment in Professional relying on according to Ava Daniels*. Some focus on pronunciation vocabulary and Learning Communities or classwork to teach teachers focus their lessons on text PLC which is the time given and grammar. grammar. comprehension and grammar, while them. to teachers during late start others prioritize speaking ability. to discuss lessons with their While different students might colleagues. If students in prefer one style of teaching over the different classes receive highly watch videos in Spanish and complete just need to hear it a ton.” other, a more cohesive program could Both of these teaching styles have proved varied scores on this assignment, they’ll allow students to experience the benefits comprehension assignments, as well as of diverse teaching styles, according to instructing students in as well as mainly to be effective for their students, according know there is a need for change and instructing in Spanish. to the Spanish teachers, but they’re trying improvement in the lower scoring classes.

Daniels.

Lind and Finnie plan to keep their classes “I’m always thinking about how students to incorporate aspects of each style into Teachers Kristina Lind and Jeffrey Finnie both instruct upper-level Spanish classes. can use the language and communicate each other’s lessons by sharing assignments at their current difficulty level — even with Though they cover the same material, their with it outside of the classroom,” Finnie and asking each other’s opinions on new any changes made to their instruction or preferences in introducing the content said. “We do school stuff, but I’m also techniques. Right now, they’re in constant lesson plans. They will continue evolving thinking about them using it wherever they communication over text and Google Docs, their teaching styles to improve the differ. sharing what they’re learning about the program and cater to multiple student “I, as a language teacher, am very nitpicky,” might be.”

Lind accredits their differences simply to effects of different activities and methods, learning styles.

Lind said. “I’m very grammar heavy. In Ultimately, Lind says that all students their own language professors in college. according to Finnie. order to understand the language, you have “Honestly, depending on what college you While both Lind and Finnie believe that are currently receiving the same basic to have the grammar to form it. On the flip side, I try to do more general things for the went to, you were taught a different way their students are receiving the same basic information, but there is always room for to teach,” Lind said. “Me, Senorita James material and knowledge, just in different the department to learn from one another’s people who do not like the grammar stuff.”

While Lind tends to focus more on and Madam Loosey have our masters from ways, they’ll be verifying this information teaching styles. games,assignments and grammar to build KU so we’re all pretty grammar-focused. through a comprehension assignment this a strong foundation, Finnie emphasizes Dr. Finnie has done some recent research quarter. Every student will complete the real-world application by having students where [in order] to acquire a language, you same assignment no matter what teacher

LIND

HALKS WORTH

FINNIE

08

OPINION

THE HARBINGER

opinion. d e si gn by nora l yn n

LET’S GET DEEP

TARGET HIT AND RUN

Asking a student their stance on heated questions

c artoon by adya burdick

IS AI-GENERATED ART STILL ART?

The perks of opting out of the senior assassins game

CIL H OCH J UNIOR

AS AN ANIMATOR , it’s hard to see AI being able to generate full animations in less than 30 minutes whereas it would take weeks and weeks for an actual animator. And I think part of what makes art art is the human aspect of the time that is put into it and the different flaws and the intent.

THIS WEEK

IN OPINION

Recent Instagram polls on this issue’s opinion stories

DO YOU THINK THAT SOCIETY PUTS TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON BEING ACADEMICALLY SMART OVER OTHER TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE? *Instagram poll of 212 votes

YES 85%

15%

NO

DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE TO CUSTOMIZE THEIR DAILY ROUTINE TO FIT THEM RATHER THAN FOLLOW ONE FOUND ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

YES

*Instagram poll of 212 votes

95%

5%

NO

DO YOU THINK THAT THE SCHOOL DAY SHOULD BE EXTENDED? *Instagram poll of 306 votes

YES 6%

94%

NO

TAKE OUR POLLS Follow the Harbinger on social media to participate in our polls @smeharbinger

@smeharbinger

@smeharbie

@smeharbie

OPINION

M A R CH 27, 2023

d es ign by gracie ta k a cs p hoto by liv m adde n a rt b y alex sanja

IT’S NOT ONE SIZE

09

SHOULD I BE DOING MORE...

FITS ALL sto r y b y p a i g e za d o o

Having an intense morning routine based off of influencer’s doesn’t benefit your health and your personal routine should be unique to you

4

:45 A.M. WAKE UP , journal, read.

Start an intense hour-long cardio workout by 6 a.m. Daintily eat meal-prepped oats and an artisan omelet before the sun rises and then head to an eight-hour school or work day. Finish a 64-ounce water bottle before school ends, just to go home for homework, laundry, crafting a handmade dinner and a 7-step skincare routine all before getting ready for bed.

As I intently watched my 10th “productive daily routine” TikTok of the day, I guiltily wondered “Why am I not doing this?” I thought I’d be more productive, feel less stressed and find more success if I followed one of those intricate, and unrealistic, routines.

On social media platforms, specifically TikTok, a rise of content is focused on these extreme daily routines to become the “it girl:” a girl who follows routines religiously and effortlessly. However, these routines are not one-size-fits-all, and a daily routine should be based on your needs, not the needs of this month’s most popular influencers.

Growing up with Type A tendencies, I absolutely thrive on routines. Completing

routine and habitual activities can reduce stress because it makes situations appear more controllable and predictable according to Piedmont Internal Medicine M.D. Indumathi Bendi. For me, routines mean stability and a sense of inner calmness.

But, my daily routine is for me and me only. It shouldn’t be based on what social media is telling you to do. My habits and goals are purely because they work for me in feeling productive and overall happy.

However, with the rise of the “it girl” and documenting daily routines on social media, I’ve still found myself and others wondering if these habits are key to being productive.

In an Instagram poll of 181 people, 57% said “influencers posting their daily routines on social media can create a pressure on viewers to copy/have that routine.”

On TikTok, the stereotypic “it girl” is often an influencer posting their daily lives, skincare routines, clothing purchases and even grocery runs and they just seem to have it all — effortlessly, of course. They pile their daily routines with tasks and habits one after the other making you feel lazy or believe that if you mimicked their routine, that effortless life could be yours.

But news flash, social media only

THE PERFECT ROUTINE

1

LOOK AT YOUR CURRENT HABITS INCLUDE THE THINGS THAT ALREADY WORK IN YOUR ROUTINE

2

highlights what they want you to see.

Plus this flawless facade displayed on social media is most impressionable on naive, young minds who may not know what really works for them. Shocker.

While waking up at 4:45 a.m. to head to pilates class or to journal may work for some, others are still deep into their Stage 3 REM cycle — the stage you’re in your deepest sleep and struggle to wake easily.

So when they attempt this extreme wake up, the rest of their day is filled with grogginess, agitation and basic exhaustion.

Hours of homework, working out and running errands before 9 a.m. on a weekend may work for these influencers. But, spending quality time with family during breakfast might be more worthwhile than that math assignment, doing 50 crunches and running errands at the crack of dawn on a Sunday.

Not to mention, there’s one huge commonality amongst these daily routine videos, they’re always positive. Not once have I seen a “stay in bed all day with me” video or “I was too tired to make my workout” vlog. Instead, I see non-realistic, overly positive routines practically mocking me for hitting my snooze button this

morning. Once again, routines that don’t fit for me.

Your ideal morning, daily or weekly routine should set these times up for you to be your most successful and happy self.

These routines are not a hack or instant sign of triumph and being productive — they should serve you a genuine purpose.

Maybe it’s getting a quick workout or yoga session in before school or work that energizes you and allows you to put forth your best self for the work you may have to do that day. Maybe it’s sleeping in later to complete your tasks and habits later in the day so you wake up with more sleep and energy. Maybe spreading out your to-do list over the span of three days versus one morning can allow you to put your 100% into what you have to do.

Whatever it is, your habits and routines should be for you — not based on your favorite TikTok influencer’s “day in the life” routine. Copying someone else’s routine is not authentic, it will not create your healthy, productive and happy routine — you have to learn your habits and boundaries that satisfy your day.

PAIGIE’S STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR ROUTINE

STRUCTURE ROUTINES TO FIT YOUR NEEDS Make your schedule, habits and routines revolve around YOU

3

LET YOURSELF BE FLEXIBLE Life doesn’t always go to plan, be okay with change

10

OPINION

THE HARBINGER

d esig n b y lily sim m ons p h o t o b y lydia coe

IT’S COOL DON’T CHANGE SCHOOL The number of school days per week shouldn’t change despite the current push for a shorter school week

W

HO DOESN’T LOVE

st o r y b y david allegr i

OPINION

M A R C H 27, 2023

d e s ig n by greyson imm p hot o by alex sajna

11

INCREDIBLE

TYPE? INTELLIGENCE

WHAT’S YOUR

Descriptions of each intelligence type based on Howard Gardner’s psychological theory

linguistic

ability to use words effectively

kinesthetic mind and body coordination

intra-personal understanding one’s own emotions

interpersonal understanding other people’s thoughts

naturalistic having sensitivity toward nature

existential

ability to work out deep questions

?

mathematical sequencing, logic and order-oriented

spatial

ability to reason and envision dimension

musical

sense of rhythm and sound in music

sto r y b y a v i e k o e n e m a n

A

People often hyper-focus on one type of intelligence while overlooking others despite their unique strengths

there are ways to be “smart” other than in traditional academics. Though I’ve always p.m, I spring up from my desk, rushing to get out of the school. understood what she meant, I didn’t start to truly understand it until recently when I I am exhausted from a day came across a study about intelligence by full of tests and assignments I get mediocre Howard Gardner. grades on.

His theory is that there are I am exhausted after spending a nine different types of day overworking myself just EACH BRAIN intelligence and ways that to get another low B on my processes each human processes data. geometry test over proofs.

These types of intelligence information I am exhausted from putting include Naturalistic, Musical, differently. But so much energy into trying to reach high expectations that I most of society is L o g i c a l – m a t h e m a t i c a l , Interpersonal, just can’t meet. stuck in the idea Existential, Bodily– Society places too much that you are only Linguistic, worth on traditional academic considered smart if kinesthetic, Intra–personal intelligence instead of other you are successful and Spatial.

Each type is different, yet forms of intelligence. with certain fields, all are proof of intellect in My whole life, I’ve dedicated like math and human brains. myself to relying on academic science.

The more I researched, the validation to have top-notch more I finally understood the true meaning self-esteem. I’ve spent so much time behind it. Each brain processes information getting down on myself, studying past my differently. But most of society limits a nd sitting with my eyes locked is stuck in the idea that you on the giant red B- at the top of are only considered smart my math test — looking small if you are successful with next to the massive A+ on my certain fields, like math friend’s paper with a smiley and science. face next to it. I’ve based This intellectual so much of my personal neglect can create success on my grades in p r o m i n e n t school. Every bad grade insecurities on a math or science test for some feels like moving down on the — intelligence scale.

S SOON AS the clock hits 2:40

?

As young as age 10, I’ve felt that I’m simply just not smart enough at times.

But my mom always tells me that

?

including me. Throughout elementary school I would lie about my standardized math test scores thinking that people would call me dumb if they saw my real scores.

The idea that you have to be intelligent in that specific way to be considered a smart person leaves others feeling like their talents don’t matter and aren’t as impressive as getting amazing test scores and being good with numbers and data.

nine in•tell•i•gence types a theory developed by psychology researcher Howard Garner that includes nine types of intelligence describing the different ways each human brain processes data

Some of the smartest people I know are not “book smart.” I know people who can analyze a person’s facial expressions, body language and true personality in a minute.

They can read a room before anyone speaks, but not all of them can master a complicated math equation — and this makes them less smart than the rest of society?

Influencer Emma Chamberlain has taught me so much about social dynamics and conflict handling with her podcast — she’s smart in a way that is more about people than numbers.

Listening to her speak about deep topics such as behavior, ignorance and temptation is educational to me, even if they’re not in school curriculum.

Some people have a unique outlook on life, nature and art. They see things differently than everyone else and are superior in certain topics — even if they aren’t the best standardized test-takers.

There is so much to learn about real world things that have nothing to do with critical academic-related knowledge.

Society needs to be open to people with all types of intelligence.

12

TUNIN

PHOTOSTORY

THE HARBINGER

G IN

S e n io r Ik e S heets g u it a r has s in h o p pent t es to h e la s p a r t ic p la y a t s ix m ip a t e s a li f in a c onths e t im e over b le a r n in hobby a n d in g and p the fu o s s ib ly ture

R I G H T Sheets decides to start taking lessons after being self taught for the majority of his musical career. “I got to a point where I felt like I could further my career more if I started taking lessons.

It’s definitely helped over the month that I’ve started taking them and it’s pushed me a little bit farther,” said Sheets. photo by I riley eck T O P R I G H T Sheets uses a computer system as his amplifier which gives him access to a variety of 50 different preset amps, all of which give the guitar a unique sound. “I want to get as good as I can, kind of just keep it as a hobby, but maybe at some point, join a cover band with some friends. That sounds pretty fun,” said Sheets. photo by I riley eck R I G H T Sheets plays his favorite song he has learned, “Me and Your Mama” by Childish Gambino. photo by I riley eck BOTTOM RIGHT As he plays snippets of his favorite songs on his electric guitar Sheets says, “I realized I had a bunch of guitars in my basement that weren’t getting played by anybody in my family so I thought it was a hobby that I could pick up. I just want to have fun with it. That’s my main goal.” photo

by I riley eck

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FEATURE

THE HARBINGER

feature.

p h o t o s b y will gr iffith

d esi gn by bridg e t con n e lly

JAZZING UP

JAVA

THIS WEEK IN

PHOTOS

A look at what’s happening inside the halls of East

The student-run coffee shop Columbia Brew allows seniors and staff create their own drinks

L E F T Senior Morgan Turpin discuss senior assassins with her classmates during lunch. photo by I lydia coe B E L O W Freshmen Lucy Brooks and Evelyn Holmes sketch ideas for an assignment on creating an animal to adapt to an environment in the Evolution Unit of Stephanie Valencia’s Honors Biology 1. photo

by I caroline martucci

“THE SANDSTORM” SENIORS THOMAS GOGEL & ALEX CARRENO

lemonade mango syrup

“THE LUC”

SENIOR LUC PRENDIVILLE

lemonade sprite blue raspberry syrup SCAN ME MENU A description of the Columbia Brew’s spring menu

A B O V E Freshman Maebel Hoover lifts the lid to check her group’s vegetables while making stir fry in Focus on Foods as part of a unit practicing different cooking methods. photo by I amelie wong

ONE LAST

TRIP Seniors share why they traveled with a large or small friend group for their last spring break

GRACE HASTERT

6

SE NIOR S PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

I’M GLAD THAT I didn’t go on the big trip because we got to choose what we wanted to do, and I loved being with my friends and having fun.

CATE H O LZBE I E R LE I N

80

S ENIORS

PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

IT WAS REALLY fun to see everyone. You kind of got to talk to everybody while you’re there. And I saw people that maybe I don’t have like classes with right now, but I got to hang out with them.

JAZZ

senior trumpet

12

RESHMAN NASH OHLUND was

confused as an email with the subject line: “Combo?” flashed up on his screen. Three upperclassmen whose names he recognized from the upper jazz band had a proposal: they needed Nash to play a few songs for their up-andcoming independent jazz group.

Assuming the invitation was for a class-assigned grade, he agreed. Little did he know, seniors Henry Revare and Delia Cashman and junior Ruby Wagner had been planning to recruit him for weeks since first hearing him play piano in the lower jazz band. He had talent they’d never seen from a freshman.

“He’s probably the best piano player in this school,” Henry said.

The three upperclassmen had already been playing together after connecting through the East band and a UMKC summer band camp in 2022. With Henry on trumpet, Delia on standing bass and Ruby on drums, they were missing a key component, one more instrument to tie it all together.

“The bass is walking, then someone is soloing, so we needed someone to do the chords behind the beat,” Delia said.

Though intimidated at first, Nash connected with the three not just as bandmates, but as friends. Delia never recalls the group being awkward, even at the beginning — their dynamic was almost an immediate fit.

Six-hour-long practices are broken up

years

years

NASH freshman piano

with Mario Kart breaks and a slew of inside jokes, like the mention of a “condensed sugar candy collection” that sends them all into laughter. On weekends, they’ve gone out to see local jazz performances, taken a jazz masterclass together and grabbed tacos for dinner.

Then they just needed an official name.

They tossed around names that didn’t feel quite right until they landed on Whitney Payne Quartet: “Whitney” from their matching Pink Whitney beanies they found while thrift shopping — another one of the group’s favorite activities — and “Payne” after Henry’s middle name.

With about two months of practice under their belt, the quartet debuted at the East winter band concert, performing fan favorite “Hey Ya!” by Outkast and “Black Orpheus,” a jazz standard by Luiz Bonfá.

A few weeks after, they landed their first gig at Rock Creek Brewery for two hours of Christmas classics. The gig was a success — one audience member even called for “one more, one more” after every song, according to Nash.

Three months later, they’ve compiled a setlist of nearly 30 songs, filmed a promotional video and launched an Instagram account @whitney_payne_ quartet to reach a wider audience. Their main goal for the immediate future is to book as many gigs as they can. Though the pay is a plus, it’s gaining more performance experience outside of school and sharing their music together that they value most.

The band has found encouragement and

15

Students form a jazz quartet, building a friendship around their passion for music

DELIA senior bass

RUBY junior drums

6

7

support from school band members who hang around after school to listen to them play. Band director Alex Toepfer is always around to offer advice on their pieces and make room in band concerts to showcase the “strong group,” Toepfer says.

The group attributes their successful dynamic to their natural ability to communicate and relax while performing. In jazz, Delia says, it’s vital that the musicians listen to each other and communicate non-verbally — a skill not every musician has. While Henry spins off into a blaring trumpet solo, eyes closed and foot tapping, Ruby keeps the beat on track while making eye contact with Delia, nodding on beat.

From his corner on piano, Nash scans his bandmates for any impromptu changes.

“We’re good enough to play with each other and interact with each other, which is on another level from a lot of the musicians in this school,” Ruby said. “It’s difficult to be able to interact while playing music with people who are struggling to play their instrument. Here, we don’t have to worry about that.”

Practices vary, but their dedication doesn’t. Whether it’s during seminar in the band room or on weekends in one of their basements, hour-long tune-ups or half-day jazz sessions unite them as often as they can in their busy weeks.

Though they’ve mastered a setlist of covers, they’ve begun writing some originals — a process Henry describes as “messing around.” It’s different every time.

Sometimes Henry comes with a piece he

years

AND ALL THAT HENRY

8 F

FEATURE

sto r y by lyd a co s g r o v e

years

M A R C H 27, 2023

d e s ig n by ann a m itch e ll p hot o s by paige be a n

mixed on LogicPro for the group to arrange into a jazz song, like he did for their original “Lucid Dreaming.” Other times they just play until something fits, a method used for “Whitney’s Pain.” Their recent piece, “Thank You for the Mercury,” came from an accidental tune Nash played that morphed into three hours of a “hot mess.”

“Henry masterminds it,” Delia said.

“The first thing we come up with is chords, so it’s all just [Henry] and Nash figuring it out. Then we just kind of add our own parts to it.”

With its collaborative music style, jazz allows each member to showcase their own musical talents, while still combining to make one collective song. The quartet doesn’t necessarily begin their rehearsals with a plan, they just play and see what happens.

“We don’t get very far because we do a lot of trial and error to see what sounds good,” Henry said. “But we make something in the end that I think sounds fun. We have to stop ourselves and move on so we can actually get through the music.”

Though Delia and Henry graduate in May, Nash hopes he and Ruby can continue Whitney Payne Quartet. Still, Nash doubts he’ll find another two people that fit the dynamic as perfectly.

“I think it’s gonna be difficult because we don’t know who to replace unless there’s some genius freshmen coming in,” Nash said. “We’ve formed a great friendship and I feel like we play together better because I’m more relaxed with them.”

16

FEATURE

MISOGYNY IN THE GAMING WORLD MOST OF SENIOR Anne Brown’s* girl classmates go home after school to binge TikTok or Netflix shows. Anne’s midday sanctuary? Flying sniper bullets, raging warzones and the threat of annihilation.

At least, it used to be. She’d queue “Call of Duty” or “League of Legends” matches after restaurant shifts, curling over her desktop and a grilled chicken salad. Sometimes Anne played with online friends — people she trusted to watch her flank and warn her about enemies. Sometimes she played with strangers.

That was until “Get off the game bitch” and “Quit whore” boomed louder in her headset than rapid gunfire and chopping helicopter blades. Sometimes the strangers — often men in their 20s and 30s — got too comfortable insulting her behind screens.

Back when she played mostly first-person shooter games, Anne battled those taunts at least once a day. Switching to offline games changed that. Offline games mean no more voice chat, and no more voice chat means no more male teammates intentionally losing matches or shooting her character to sabotage the team.

“A lot of these people are grown adults throwing little fits over having a girl in a game,” Anne said. “And half the time, you’re queued with them because you’re on par in skill, so it’s like, ‘What is the issue here?’”

Even if it’s just a 12-year-old boy screaming “There’s a girl in the party?” or “Send her back to the kitchen,” the words have discouraged girls from playing, so much so that Anne rarely hears another girl’s voice in online games.

But gaming isn’t that male-dominated.

Despite females being 48% of video gamers in the country, according to Statista, many live in fear that the other 52% will hear their voice. Online, they hide their gender. In real life, they don’t mention the hobby that keeps them up at night.

If a girl does reveal herself? Backhanded compliments and sexual remarks are practically inevitable, Anne said. Comments that sophomore Avery Foster is also used to hearing by now.

Disbelief is a typical first reaction to Avery turning on her mic — her teammates aren’t used to playing with girls. Players sometimes ask “Are you a girl or a little kid?” at the sound of her high-pitched voice.

Next, they might beg for her Snapchat or Instagram even when Avery says she’s just there to play — unless they’re the type to groan about how they’ll probably lose since

she’s on the team.

One time, a boy invited multiple friends to the party to laugh with him after finding out he was playing with a girl. His buddies couldn’t believe it.

“If the guys are like, ‘Oh my God, there’s a girl on my team,’ it’s really demeaning,” Avery said. “I’ll mute them. I’ll turn on music because I just don’t wanna listen.”

Those reactions are why Avery rarely enables her voice chat. Watching TikToks of female livestreamers, she scrolls through comments sexualizing the gamer’s body or accusing her of lacking skill.

Avery used to dream of playing professional esports — always wanting to be like her dad, a gaming fanatic since his first Atari — but girl players aren’t respected the same as guys, she said.

Avery knows she shouldn’t care. When she’s swapping the headset with her dad — who introduced her to the game “Apex Legends” — he tells her to speak up. Be mean back, that’s what he says. He raised her with a “girls can do anything” mindset, signing her up for a real baseball league, never softball, growing up.

So Avery overcomes it the best she can.

Mutes the insults. Plays harder. With the misogyny comes the pressure to represent all female players, she said.

“If I’m not doing good, it’s like I’m failing women,” Avery said. “It’s a drastic thing to say, but I don’t want this guy to go into another game with a woman and be like, ‘My previous experiences say that all women are bad at video games.’”

Freshman Nia Zugelder prefers to avoid that pressure and risk of mockery. Last time she played “Overwatch 2,” she muted her mic, even after eliminating more players than anyone else on her team and advancing the payload significantly — the end goal of the battle game. Her teammates called out “He’s carrying us!” She let them.

It’s better that way, she said. If Nia misses a shot or gets killed, she’s scared other players will discover her gender and target her because of it. But if she aims too well, they may scream that the game is rigged or that she shouldn’t be playing.

In both her and senior Lillie Dirks’ experience, people can forget their morals in multiplayer games. It’s why Dirks prefers single-player games — automated characters are less likely to verbally berate her.

“There’s a sort of mask effect where, being anonymous online, people are willing to say and do things that they normally wouldn’t,” Lillie said.

Female gamers are singled-out off the screen too. Girl players who livestream video games are seen as “eye candy” or labeled “attention-seekers” gaming for male validation, Anne said. It shapes the way all girl gamers are viewed.

In school, Lillie tends to not mention her gaming habits so she can dodge the stereotypes. But during one get-to-know-you project in business class, she paired up to present with a partner, sharing her hobbies — reading, cross-stitching, writing… and gaming.

“It was like an angel had descended,” she said. “He got up in front of the class and said, ‘This is Lillie. She plays Valorant.’ The other guys in the class, their faces, it was like when a cat smells the treat. Like, ‘We’re paying attention now.’”

Lillie wishes girls were embraced rather than fetishized or shunned as players — after all, games are meant to be enjoyed by all genders. But she feels powerless against the comments.

But what can she do to stop virtual bullies?

Boys should just act more appropriately online, she said. Some male players, like senior Roberto Galicia — who has gamed with both Lillie and Anne — may stand up for the girls. Even if it doesn’t really help.

Galicia has heard sexist slurs tossed around by teammates simply because a player has a feminine username like “Sparkle” or “Starlight.” But retaliation often just causes the bully to leave the game or aggravates them further, he said.

“Even if I try to argue with them, they’re just way too stubborn to even see the other side if you’re telling a guy to chill out,” Galicia said. “Guys like that don’t like to be commanded.”

Reporting other players for harassment is a direct solution he’s found. Still, many online games he’s played ban gamers for only a couple of days for offensive behavior.

It’s not enough, he said, but girls should play with mics anyway. Maybe then, they could fight two enemies at once.

For now, Lillie urges gamers to welcome players of all genders and experience levels.

Make gaming more enjoyable for everyone. If that means getting beaten by a girl, so be it.

“Gender doesn’t matter when it comes to interests and skills,” Lillie said. “If you’re playing online and someone in your party or in the call is a female, just move on.

Don’t make a big deal out of it, don’t start degrading her, don’t even praise her. If somebody’s interested in something, then they’re allowed to experience it.”

CYBER

st o r ie

STIG

While female gamers face mi during multiplayer video games, them to hide their gender or avoid games altogether, many still game to connect with others and improve their real-life skills

*name changed to protect identity

WHY GIRLS STILL PLAY

BEHIND THE CONTROLLER, they don’t feel like victims. They’re in control — for the most part.

Even though the gaming world is undeniably uncomfortable at times, they say that girls interested in gaming should try it.

Past the negativity are worthwhile perks — take it from seniors Anne Brown* and Lillie Dirks, sophomore Avery Foster and freshman Nia Zugelder. They’re some of the only female gamers at East.

Girls can be hesitant or embarrassed to download a simulation app or buy a console, Lillie said, afraid of being labeled as lazy or weird for the hobby. But she knows that there’s more to gaming than hunching over for hours and tapping computer keys in the dark.

Why does Lillie game? To transcend reality.

“I certainly cannot fight God with the power of Satan in real life, but I can do that in ‘Persona 5,’” she said.

For Lillie, games are a creative outlet to explore alternate realities and limitless storylines. In “Persona 5,” she can enter “mind palaces,” acquiring special powers by fighting people’s inner demons, eventually creating a “persona” — a physical embodiment of her

THE HARBINGER

d esig n b y peyton m oor e s by f r anc e s ca stam ati

GMA

isogyny leading certain e

s t or y b y f r a n c e sca stam ati

This is Poppins Light Italic used for all subheads. DO NOT change the size it should always be 10 pt. with 14 pt. leading and NO PERIOD AT THE END

character’s personality. The game’s complexity and emotional exploration amazes her.

“The themes within ‘Persona 5’ are pretty cool because it gets pretty dark,” Lillie said.

“It does get a little cheesy from time to time, but your connections with other people and how you view reality can change what your truth is in the game.”

For Anne, it’s strategizing plays and raising her rank that keeps her gaming. Nia loves connecting with other gamers equally eager to boost their dexterity and reflexes.

Avery says playing improves her emotional perseverance, staying calm when she gets frustrated.

Gaming goes beyond entertainment.

Playing video games — including violent shooter games — can enhance children’s learning, health and social skills, according to the American Psychological Association.

Still, only 42% of students consider playing video games a productive use of time, according to an Instagram poll of 207.

YouTube yoga or self-help podcasts may seem like better time-killers to some girls. But Lillie thinks playing “Minecraft” or “Stardew Valley” is more beneficial than social media apps that consume the screen time of many other teenage girls’ phones.

“I’m arguably being more productive because I’m doing something,” Lillie said.

“I’m raising my level or I’m getting more money or I’m decorating my house or I’m getting a promotion in ‘The Sims 4.’ What have you gained from scrolling through social media or TikTok or even just watching YouTube?”

Gaming can also build relationships, the girls say. While gender differences can ostracize female players, a father or brother introduced all four girls to video games, creating a pastime with family and friends.

In elementary school, Anne started watching her brothers play “Call of Duty,” cheering them on and eventually picking up the controller herself. Nia’s older brother pointed to the trigger button and let her test

his violent games — when their mom wasn’t home, of course.

Lillie’s fondest childho o d memories are of soaring through space in “Super Mario Galaxy” and beating her dad and brothers in “Just Dance” battles.

It was Avery’s dad who showed her video games. When she was a little girl, he’d sometimes hand her the headset and controllers to play with his buddies.

Now when she plays with her dad, they push each other to improve. If he asks “Why are you aiming downside?” then she’ll remind him to “Pick up that loot!” Some fathers and daughters play puzzles or grab lunch together.

Avery and her dad blast down enemies.

Her dad has taught her virtually-learned skills that are applicable to real life. While playing “Apex Legends,” he tells her to visualize a mental map of their opponents and battle grounds. Learning to drive was no different. “Think of it as a video game,” he said, training her to map out the pedestrians and surrounding cars.

Besides making driving more fun for

A v e r y, v i d e o games may have helped her learn to make quicker maneuvers and driving decisions.

Improved spatial skills and perception can also be benefits of gaming, according to the American Psychological Association.

And gaming doesn’t have to involve pointing a gun. Some players like Lillie prefer life simulation and farming games to wind-down instead of getting ramped up by warfare. From high-speed racing to solitaire, there are over 5 million games that exist today, according to National Today.

Compared to the magnitude of options and benefits, enduring ignorant remarks and online idiocy is an obstacle worth overcoming for Lillie and the other gamers.

“It’s absolutely mind-boggling how vast the [video game] world is,” Lillie said.

“There’s something for everybody. There’s games where you get to be active, there’s games where you get to really think, games where you have to stay on your toes because you’re in this world of crazy demons. There’s so, so, so many different games out there.”

18

FEATURES

THE HARBINGER

d esig n b y k ate heitm ann p h o t o s b y m adi m aupin

LANCER LADIES IN

LEADERSHIP s to ry by libby ma rs h

Three East staff members are starting their own chapter of Women in Leadership, a club inspiring confidence in young women and helping them prepare for their futures.

S

OPHOMORE

JORDAN

FULLER

sees herself studying shipwrecks in a scuba suit to support her family surrounded by only guys.

She wants to be a marine archaeologist, a primarily male-dominated profession and knows that she will be one of, if not the only, female in her workplace. Even some of the most obscure fields are male-dominated, with 50% of women in the workforce feeling undervalued, according to HR Dive.

This is why Shawnee Mission West’s Associate Principal Kelley Capper pitched the idea of a club dedicated to growing the confidence of young women to push past societal pressures four years ago, and the Women in Leadership club will officially be offered at East next school year.

The club aims to empower young women through conferences, book studies, mentorships and speakers. This year Associate Principals Susan Leonard and Emily Demo and Instructional Coach Kelsi Horner are expanding the club to East.

“What we see on TV and in magazines and in society, the societal expectations of young women, ‘Oh to be quiet,’ ‘sit nicely,’ ‘sit like a lady,’ shouldn’t be the norm, but only we can change it,” Capper said. “We have to retake over the narrative, and that’s what this program does.”

MEET THE

MEMBERS:

Short descriptions of three of the 10 members nominated by faculty

Staff members were given an opportunity to expand the program to East when Capper invited them to a Women in Leadership conference on Feb. 16.

East teachers nominated students in their classes they thought would be best suited for the program. These students then filled out a Google Form, and 10 were selected to attend the conference based on their responses. A panel of female leaders — from a hairdresser who owns a trucking company to a civil engineer — came to speak to the group of girls about their careers, obstacles they faced and how to pass them.

Junior Eve Benditt was one of the students that attended the conference.

“A lot of them talked about how they got into [the field that] they got into and how you don’t necessarily have to commit to what you’re majoring in college,” Benditt said. “They talked about how to talk to a boss about a difference in pay between male coworkers and just a lot about their life stories.”

After getting a glimpse of what the program is like, Benditt is looking forward to assisting with the program next year.

She wants to help females at East learn how to take leadership roles both inside and outside of school.

Fuller is also looking forward to helping

A B O V E Juniors Ella Howard, Marin McElhinney and other club members meet to discuss how positive leadership has impacted them.

the program grow. As a confident person West or it might look different, but I want it herself, she believes it will help young to be ours,” Leonard said. women with confidence to go into whatever Aside from attending conferences to profession they choose. She also wants to discuss being a female in the professional learn how to work in a male-dominated field. world, West’s program also pairs members “Learning how to navigate [working with mentors — professional women in a male-dominated environment is] working in the job field that matches the really important,” Fuller said. member’s interest.

WHAT WE SEE “That really hit home, don’t “I meet with every student to on TV and in let the men tell you what you discuss what career field they magazines and in want their mentor to be in or should be.” society, the The program won’t host what they hope to learn from societal meetings for the rest of the year it,” Capper said. “Then they get expectations of because it’s still in the planning set up with their mentor. They stages. Leonard intends to young women, ‘Oh have online communication to be quiet’, ‘Sit use the fourth quarter to or in-person meetings and job communicate to students the shadows.” nicely’, Sit like a new opportunity. Next school lady,’ shouldn’t be Leonard hopes the program year, they will start meeting the norm, but only will also include book studies, monthly to plan the structure of we can change it.” coffee and breakfast meetings the program. and community service.

K E LLY C AP P E R “We’re trying to move slow Leonard expects the group enough to do it right, so our goal S M W A S S O C I A T E to attend some district-wide in the fourth quarter would just be meetings each year, but otherwise PR I N C I PAL to publicize that this is gonna be most events will be held within an opportunity,” Leonard said.

East.

The growth of the program is slow “Women supporting women, women because Leonard hopes to get input from promoting each other but also being both Capper and club members about what encouraged to be leaders in our school or the program should look like. community in the world,” Leonard said.

“It might look just like Shawnee Mission

MARIN MCELHINNEY

ELLA HOWARD

MIA STAMOS

JUNIOR • Varsity Lancer Dancer captain, SHARE Chair

JUNIOR • Varsity swim captain

JUNIOR • Organized blood drive, leads SMSD HOSA chapter

OPINION

M A R C H 27, 2023

d e s ig n & art by nor a lyn n

THAT group of kids laughed when I walked by in this

that one kid said he could see my blubber in this one

PASSING

she said this looked lumpy last year

REMARKS RE MARKS

T

19

sto r y by s o p h i e l i n d b e r g

*name changed to protect identity

HEN-SIXTH-GRADER

Reagan Solenberger was rehearsing one of the then-popular Fortnite dances.

But by the time she stopped dancing, a few boys from her class were already laughing over the slo-mo video they took of her.

They laughed at how her thighs jiggled.

So Reagan stopped wearing leggings. They highlighted her thighs too much.

She became hyper-aware of how her legs moved when she walked, and still looks down at her legs anxiously whenever she sits down, hoping no one thinks to themselves, “that girl has big thighs.”

It’s a kind of story that’s told while crylaughing — even she admits it’s a little funny that her insecurity rose from a Fortnite dance.

Even though it’s five years later, nowsophomore Reagan still is on her path to accepting her body but with over 66% of students saying they have witnessed or experienced fatphobia at East according to an Instagram poll of 173 students, the issue certainly hasn’t gone away with time, Reagan said.

For her and some of her peers, she faces

fat•pho•bi•a the irrational fear of being fat or hostility and disdain towards being around fat people

and witnesses fatphobia on a regular basis, often starting with comments made in elementary and middle school that affect students beyond poor body image.

Senior Maren Hunn* finds that common

Students who have experienced fatphobia share their stories and hopes for change

stereotypes can exist for big people — that they’re unhygienic, lazy, unathletic and, most impactful for Maren, lonely. Skinny girls get boyfriends. Bigger girls don’t. Any negative trait is only amplified by their weight.

“When I’m talking to someone and they don’t like me, it’s always about weight first,” Maren said.

Senior Delia Cashman notices that what is often overlooked in these stereotypes, and bullying in general, is that many people don’t see the potentially permanent cause of a person’s figure. For Delia, this is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS — a condition in which hormone imbalances impact hair growth, fertility, acne and weight. According to Harvard Health Publishing, genetics could account for up to 80% of obesity causes.

“When doctors see, ‘oh, there’s actually a reason you’re bigger, not just that you’re lazy or you don’t exercise,’” Delia said. “And I think a lot of the time people overlook that some people are just built bigger. Everyone’s built different.”

Before her diagnosis, Delia often experienced doctors putting off larger problems to address her weight. Only when her diagnosis came through did she stop having doctors breathing down her neck about ways to “fix” her weight.

Most of the discrimination is subtle and indirect, but there’s always times that it’s blatant. For Delia, it was when she finally decided to wear a crop top to school and got called “piggy” by some boys walking down the hall. Though Reagan hasn’t experienced much blatant body shaming

since elementary and middle school herself, she’s seen others suffer in silence.

In Reagan’s health class freshman year, she vividly remembers her teacher going over the BMI unit. When discussing how to calculate it and what the categories mean, all eyes turned to the fat girl in the class when they got to the last category — very obese.

“I knew that she knew that everyone was looking at her,” Reagan said. “And I know what it’s like to feel the silent eyes.”

Reagan, being a competitive swimmer, finds that lots of her insecurities come from

HAVE YOU EVER WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED FATPHOBIA AT EAST?

*Instagram poll of 318 votes

YES 66% 34% NO and are amplified by her sport. In 2017, when she first joined the City of Mission Swim Club, she saw no one else with a similar body type. Before swimming, she had even gone far enough to join sports like soccer purely to lose weight, a decision she made for herself at only eight years old.

Even now, as early as last week, Reagan finds it hard to put on her swimsuit and look in the mirror. Like how Maren can’t say out loud what size she needs for her uniforms in soccer, she has to whisper it once her teammates have left. When she changes her shirt after a game, she can feel her teammates’ eyes on her.

Delia partially attributes judgment to the very nature of East’s student body.

With a well-known reputation of being mostly white and upper-middle class, many students grew up in an environment in which they could afford healthier — and more expensive — food, playing sports and doctor’s visits. In a study conducted

by Ogden and others finished in 2015, conclusions found that family income is related to childhood obesity.

“I’ve heard some of my friends’ parents or my own [parents] just laugh at a big person when they’re running and actively trying to better themselves toward their appearance when they wouldn’t ever do that with someone that was skinnier,” Delia said. “Whether they were skinny and fit or just skinny.”

Associate Principal Susan Leonard has also noticed the discrimination against bigger students. She recognizes that she can’t place herself in the shoes of students but is aware of the concerns some students have — it’s impossible to know everything that happens within East’s walls — and hopes that with future efforts, administration can represent all perspectives of the student body and create a greater positive environment for students that feel judged or bullied.

“Over and over again, we’re putting in our mind that if you’re overweight, you’re lazy.

And that’s not the case at all. We’re putting those associations together,” Leonard said.

“We can’t control everything that’s coming in [to our heads] now. But we can control the way that [it’s] interpreted.”

20

FEATURE

PAINT THE HALLS

Senior Evyn Roberts is painting murals for the English hallway windows for her International Baccalaureate Creativity Activity and Service project

PEELING BACK THE LAYERS

O

N HER FIRST day of winter break, senior Evyn Roberts sat on her couch, sketching and painting little yellow stars for her International Three of Evyn’s rough drafts for her muralsBaccalaureate Creativity Activity and Service project with the movie House of Gucci echoing in the background.

This everyday winter break routine was just the start of a multi-month project — creating literature-related murals for 10 different English classrooms.

Evyn has been fascinated with art her whole life. Growing up in an artistic family, she has been influenced creatively by her grandma.

Whether that meant them using leaves or flowers from nature to turn into art pieces or her grandma sharing her next innovative project idea to entertain her. When Evyn was younger, she’d go to her grandma’s house and practice art for days on end.

“My grandma was the type of person who just had art scattered all over her walls and throughout her house,” Evyn said. “So my love for art definitely started with her as well as being creativity inclined all throughout my life, always thinking and creating in an artistic way.”

It wasn’t until high school that Evyn found her own art style and the proper outlet for her art to be recognized.

When Evyn isn’t painting murals for her CAS project, she’s cutting out magazines and collecting stickers for her collage business where she makes and sells phone cases and prints.

The rest of her free time is filled with

GLASS CASTLE

JANE EYRE

s t or y by lucy wolf

sketching and doodling little people they would want represented in their and patterns as well. classroom’s mural as the books taught When English teacher Kristin in each class are different depending Anderson voiced that she desperately on grade and level. Since first starting wanted something instead of the dusty the murals during Thanksgiving file boxes filling the English hallway’s break, Evyn has been spending time windows above the lockers, Evyn sketching and painting the boards had just the idea to fix the situation: with her acrylic paint alongside the murals. help of some of her IB classmates.

“I was sitting back at my desk, “I’ve known Evyn for all four listening and I said to the years of high school, class, ‘Or someone could but we didn’t really talk MY GRANDMA make something to cover until junior year when we was the type of up the [cluttered mess],’” joined IB and naturally person who just became close,” Senior Anderson said while pointing to the windows. had art scattered Caroline Gorman said. all over her walls “She is a very creative “And Evyn immediately and throughout person and when I heard called dibs and I thought, ‘Yes, that would be her house. So my her CAS project idea I love for art defi- thought it was brilliant glorious.’” nitely started At first Evyn wasn’t and I knew I wanted to be sure about her plan of her second-in-command with her as well action for her artwork as being creativ- painter.” in the English hallways.

This time-consuming ity inclined all Painting was the art form throughout my life, process has been easier Evyn does the least due to for Evyn with the help always thinking the large amount of time and creating in an and support of her peers. that goes into it for her She’s relieved that she artistic way. to enjoy the final product. can use art as a positive E V YN RO B E RT S She juggled with the idea of outlet on the daily, now S E N I OR painting the windows directly making the English hallways but found it would be inconvenient brighter and more colorful all because as she could only work on the 32-inch of the passion she picked up as a little tall by 19-feet wide windows while at girl. school. Considering the project would “I think everyone’s CAS projects be such a big undertaking, finding a are super interesting, getting to see way to do the project at home seemed what everyones passionate about,” like the most logical and best idea, Gorman said. “The murals ended up according to Evyn. just perfectly aligning with Evyn and Evyn decided to create insertable her creative personality.” poster board murals for the windows.

Evyn asked each teacher what book

large ammount of products Evyn is EVYN’S NUMBERS The using to complete her murals

THE GREAT GATSBY

10

MURALS TOTAL

50

BUCKETS OF PAINT

110

POSTER BOARDS

THE HARBINGER

d esig n b y sophia br ock m eier p h o t o st o r y b y r achel bingham

SCAN ME PHOTO Use this QR code to purchase photos from this event on Harbie Photo

A B O V E Finished posters were stacked on the table near the paint as Roberts and her friend continued to work on spelling out book titles related to the English class. “I think I bought at least 100 dollars worth of poster board just for this,” Roberts said. photo by I tristen porter T O P L E F T With posters laid out across the kitchen table, Roberts paints a poster board which will be a part of the final mural for her International Baccalaureate Creativity, Activity and Service project. “IB forces you to think outside the box all the time so it’s very heavy on your brain,” Roberts said. “For me art is kind of like an outlet. It’s the exact opposite of what I do all day in school.” photo by I charlotte emley

A B O V E Roberts mixes yellows and reds to create an orange color that will be a part of the rainbow in the mural. “[Sketching the poster board out] would take me 20-30 minutes because I had to lay the posterboard out super long and it’s hard to see the whole thing all at once,” Roberts said. photo by I charlotte emley T O P R I G H T Senior Natalie Anderson squirts yellow paint to darken an A she had painted.

For the last few months, Roberts has invited other IB students to her house to help paint the murals. photo by I sabrina dean L E F T Senior Marin Bryant laughs with Roberts as they talk about assassins. “When I had everybody over to paint, they were all getting kind of tired of the painting because it’s very repetitive but they all have been super nice about it and very supportive.” photo by I charlotte emley

22

LOCAL LANCER

THE HARBINGER

d esig n & co p y b y car oline wood p h o t o b y clar a peter s

the

Y U g o yo-y

JORDAN BLACK Junior Jordan Black has a passion for yo-yoing and practices his tricks in the halls and the cafeteria during school

top tricks THE TRENDY TRICK:

DNA

the yo-yo spins on one finger while the string swirls above it, creating the look of a doublehelix

HIS FAVORITE:

BARREL ROLL

the yo-yo flips in a loop along the string as it is held with both index fingers

HIS NEWEST TRICK:

INVERTED GT by twisting the string, the yo-yo bounces against the top string when tossed to make an inverted triangle

Q&A

HOW DID YOU GET INTO YO-YOING? I THOUGHT IT’D be just a really fun thing to do around middle school. I remember having this automatic yo-yo toy when I was a kid... and I really liked using that thing.

WHAT ABOUT YO-YOING DO YOU LIKE SO MUCH? THE CONCEPT IS very simple, but it’s the fact that the people who play yo-yo, they’ll take this concept and they’ll play their own style to it, so it’s like an art medium.

HOW DO YOU LEARN YOUR TRICKS? I ENDED UP learning slowly through YouTube different tricks I could do... and I transitioned from using the plastic yo-yo to an unresponsive one... Since then, I’ve been using an unresponsive yo-yo and have been trying to add to my repertoire of tricks.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT PERFORMING TRICKS FOR STUDENTS? IT TICKLES MY inner showman.

I get to show something that I’m passionate about and I’m interested in, and people will just eat that up and I love that constant positive feedback loop.

A&E

M A R CH 27, 2023

a&e.

p hoto s by spotif y, IM Db & cla ire g oe t t s ch

d esi gn by v eronica ma n g in e

MOVIES

RECENT RELEASES

dangers of reading while tanning TERRIBLE TAN The during spring break c a r t oon b y c a r o l i n e d a n i e l s

Movie: John Wick: Chapter 4 Genre: Action Rated: R Release Date: March 24 Movie: Air Genre: Drama Rated: R Release Date: March 31

ALBUMS

23

Endless Summer Vacation

by Miley Cyrus 13 Tracks Pop So Much (for) Stardust

by Fall Out Boy 13 Tracks Rock

Red Moon in Venus

by Kali Uchis 15 Tracks R&B/Soul

WHAT TO WATCH WHAT MOVIE IS BETTER THAN THE BOOK? NA T A L IE CA R R E NO

C LAI RE S C H U DY

SO P H O M O RE

J U N I OR

‘THE SUMMER I TURNED Pretty’ TV series is better than the books. The music adds to the story. I like the soundtrack a lot, which you don’t get in the book.

‘WHERE THE CRAWDADS Sing’ movie was better than the book. It followed the book very closely and I think that the character casting was accurate. They were spot on.

WHAT SEQUEL IS BETTER THAN THE FIRST MOVIE? A L E X T IE D T

C H RI S M I N T O

J UNIO R

J U N I OR

‘BLADE RUNNER 2029’ is better than the first ‘Blade Runner.’ You can see what they are going for, but besides the ‘tears in the rain’ speech, it just wasn’t there for me. But the second one is just perfect.

‘TOP GUN: MAVERICK’ was better than the first one because the plot wasn’t too much of a copy and was pretty good. The cinematography was well done. I liked the action scenes better in the sequel.

24

A&E

THE HARBINGER

d esig n b y peyton m oor e p h o t o s b y clair e goettsch

OH While the side dishes at Mother Clucker don’t match those of Chick-fil-A or Raising Canes, it’s spicy tenders are worth the drive

s t ory by m aggie kis s ick

T

HIS MONTH, I’VE spent $52 on chicken tenders and fries alone.

But it’s not my fault — I blame Chick-fil-A and Raising Canes conveniently being five minutes from my house.

While I don’t regret funding my addiction, my taste buds hardly salivate anymore when I’m biting the same old waffle fries or Texas toast from these chains. I need a change.

Mother Clucker, a new Nashville-born chicken restaurant located on 5930 Nieman Rd., offers a twist from the classic chains.

If you’re bored of the everyday fast-food restaurants, thankfully Mother Clucker doesn’t sell just a traditional battered and crusted chicken tender. They offer Nashville hot chicken — fried chicken dunked in seasoned hot oil and dusted with their signature spice blends.

MOTHER CLUCKER LOCATIONS: 1707 LOCUST ST., KANSAS CITY, MO 64108 5930 NIEMAN RD, SHAWNEE, KS 66203

When I entered the restaurant, I wasn’t initially impressed. The quaint interior was crammed with around 15 tables — a small amount of seating space considering it

was packed with hungry customers. Thankfully, I snagged one of the last tables.

I ordered a two-count chicken tender with mild spice, along with a vanilla milkshake, an Oreo milkshake and a side of fries. Keep in mind, I can’t stomach one Taki without downing a glass of milk, so just reading the spice options on the menu labeled “CLUCK YEAH” and “WHAT THE CLUCK?!” made my palms sweat. Still, I yearned for the Nashville hot chicken experience, so I settled for the “WEAK STUFF,” the second lowest spice level on the menu.

The food took 25 minutes, a whopping 20 minutes longer than my average Chick-Fil-A order — even during a rush.

But holy cluck, this chicken was worth the wait. My tenders, fries and two milkshakes cost $28.68 — even if I didn’t order an extra shake, it still would’ve cost $15 more than tenders, fries and a shake at Chick-fil-A. But it was worth the extra cash considering the size of these tenders.

Packed with savory and tangy flavors, the mild spice was just enough to get my eyes watering without forcing me to regret my meal choice. And Mother Clucker’s unique sweet and citrusy Cluck sauce was a refreshing change from Chick-fil-A sauce, pairing well with the tenders.

The tenders also came with a piece of toasted and buttered bread. While I appreciated the initial crispiness, it was practically drenched in olive oil and butter that overpowered the toast. I couldn’t taste

the bread at all and set it aside immediately.

Then I tried the $3 crinkle-cut fries. I expected these thick fries to also pack a spicy punch, but I’m sorry to say they’re exceptionally bland. Dipping the fries in the Cluck sauce helped, since there wasn’t even salt and pepper on the fries, but I wish the fries weren’t so boring on their own.

nash•ville chick•en traditional fried chicken dunked in seasoned hot oil and dusted with signature spice blends

I thought the side dishes couldn’t get worse after that, but my $7 vanilla milkshake was even more of a letdown. Taking my first sip, I gagged when this so-called vanilla shake tasted like lukewarm water. I couldn’t look at the drink after that — if only it had as much flavor as their chicken.

Thankfully, Mother Clucker redeemed themselves with the Oreo shake — even though that’s hard to mess up. The chocolate and vanilla flavors paired well with the Oreo chunks mixed in the shake. I don’t usually like chocolate, but the chocolate ice cream wasn’t too rich so I could still enjoy the cookies and cream.

While the side dishes were subpar, if you’re looking for chicken from somewhere other than Chick-Fil-A or Raising Cane’s, Mother Clucker is certainly worth the title of Nashville hot chicken heaven. Just stick to the tenders if you plan on dining here.

WHAT THE

LUCK?!

C NO CLUCKS GIVEN MOTHER CLUCKER

SPICE -O-

METER

The restaurant’s heat levels offered for their chicken

MOTHER CLUCKER

INFERNO HEAT

CLUCK YEAH BLAZIN’ HOT

KICKIN’ IT UP HINT OF BURN

WEAK STUFF

OG

TEENSY HEAT

PLAIN NO HEAT

THE

NON-CHICKEN

Other menu items besides tenders and wings

CLUCK FRIES CRINKLE FRIES, SLAW, PICKLES, CLUCK SAUCE, CHICKEN

CRAZY SHAKES CAMPFIRE S’MORES

OREO OVERLOAD

CAP’N CRUNCH MADNESS

Daisy O J ones THE Flix

A&E

M A R C H 27, 2023

d e s ig n by caroline g ou ld p hot o by riley scott

story by mia vog e l

&

Review of new Amazon Prime show “Daisy Jones and the Six” — an adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s popular book

The show dramatized events like NE OF LIFE’S eternal lessons that I still Camilla’s reaction to her husband struggle to accept: the and lead singer Billy’s behavior on book is always better tour and needlessly added interband affairs. While this flashy than the movie.

The same goes for “Daisy retelling of the story no doubt Jones and The Six” — a mini made for entertaining television, it series adaptation of author Taylor distracted from the realism of the Jenkins Reid’s popular novel, which subtly brutal events from the book. premiered on Amazon Prime Video These events were so outrageous they overshadowed the on March 3 with new episodes that emotional effects on the characters. dropping every week. The story The characters just aren’t as deep follows an up-and-coming rock or complicated as they are in the band in the 1970s.

I needed to read the book before book. Novel Billy is depicted as an watching the show, and it’s no impeccable frontman who glows on exaggeration to say that I binged stage but in the show I only saw him this book. I devoured it. I inhaled as one of the band, not a standout by any means. Similarly, Daisy is it. This wasn’t a surprise written as an ethereal, dazzling though since the same can being but in the show be said for earlier this she was almost too year when I read Reid’s I NEEDED TO normal. And Camilla, renowned bestseller read the book who’s supposed to “The Seven Husbands before watching of Evelyn Hugo.” This the show, and it’s be the serene rock of woman’s ability to no exaggeration the group becomes a jealous and passive construct a narrative to say that I and the complexity of binged this book. character.

All that to say, the her characters is simply I devoured it. I cast was impeccable. unmatched. inhaled it.

Aside from how However, try as it certain aspects of their may, the show doesn’t fully reflect the layered beauty of characters were written, almost everyone looks just how I pictured the novel.

Right off the bat there were the them while reading the book. Riley obvious inconsistencies such as how Keough as Daisy and Sam Claflin the band formed, Daisy’s young life as Billy stole the show with their and — most frustrating of all — the surprisingly spectacular voices and show didn’t include the character undeniable on-stage chemistry.

Pete, who was the sixth member And Suki Waterhouse as Karen, of The Six, but they still called the the keyboardist, added a level of band The Six. Mathematically, are superstardom to the show as she’s a real life musician. you joking!?

What I most appreciate about Then there were the more covert changes, primarily the relationships the series is its authenticity. The and personalities of the main actors are really singing and playing their instruments on stage — even characters.

Shop Amazon’s curated selection inspired by the show’s characters

shop the

Look

Images courtesy of IMDb and Amazon

scan for Billy’s look

b il l y

ka

25

recording a studio album as the fictional band that’s available on Spotify. They also recorded at The Record Plant, the same studio Fleetwood Mac recorded their infamous album “Rumors,” which the story is undeniably based on.

And of course the fabulous costumes which, according to Variety, included an abundance of vintage and reclaimed pieces, encapsulating the wardrobe of a true ’70s hippie. It’s these seemingly small details that really bring the show to life.

Regardless of my rage at the inconsistencies between the book and show, the aesthetic was accurate and impeccable from the minute I hit play on the first episode.

The wardrobe is truly what had me binging the series. It’s exactly how I picture the Flower-Power era, with VW vans, round sunglasses, suede fur coats paired, bell sleeves and high waisted everything — seriously, it’s no surprise that brands such as Free People and Amazon are curating “Daisy Jones and The Six” inspired collections.

The sets were the perfect blend of earthy and modern and the soundtrack was unsurpassed — they’d span the decade, cutting from Violet Hall to Queen without skipping a beat.

Overall, while there were some holes in the plotline, “Daisy Jones and The Six” is worth a watch as the few aspects not to love are those only obvious if you’ve read the book.

re n

daisy scan here for Daisy’s look

26

A&E

THE HARBINGER

EXTREME KINDNESS sto r y by ka t i e m u r p h y

d esig n b y k atie m ur phy p h o t o s b y am elie wong

INTRO I RESERVE ALL my good deeds for National Say

Something Nice Day, Good Samaritan Day and Kindness Week.

OK fine, that’s not completely true. But the principle of designating specific days to be more kind than other days is silly. Shouldn’t we be practicing kindness no matter the day?

In protest, I decided to ramp up my altruism on a holiday-less week of March — choosing

four over-the-top acts of kindness to determine how much embarrassment I can endure in the name of good on an ordinary day.

Maybe my excessive do-gooding will remind others to be selfless on more than just National Random Acts of Kindness Day, even if it’s less extreme than holding the door open for 15 minutes.

Performing over-the-top acts of kindness on a random week of March to practice altruism and inspire others

DOOR HOLDER HOLDING THE MAIN door to the school with

a “Good Morning!” poster at 7:20 a.m. on a Monday isn’t something that I normally do. But I welcomed at least 200 students over a span of 15 minutes on March 6.

I timidly told the first lucky person who I held the door for that I hoped they were having a good morning. But as a constant stream of

students walked in, my embarrassment faded, and I settled into rapid-fire greeting mode, exclaiming “Enjoy your first hour!” and “It’s a great day to be a Lancer!”

It was amusing to make my friends laugh in shock, while also getting strangers to crack a smile. Plus I only received one sassy eye roll in my 15 minutes of greeting — not too bad.

TEACHER GIFTS TEACHING IS A thankless job most days, so imagine the surprise on my teachers faces when I gave them flowers and a “Thank You” note on a random Monday.

One said the gift “made his day” and another carried the flowers in the halls because she

LUNCH ON ME I THOUGHT I couldn’t be more embarrassed after my first three extravagant acts. Until I was ordering food in the cafeteria and asked to pay for the person behind me, and the lunch lady stared at me dumbfounded.

Thankfully, she understood that I was “paying it forward” for the stranger behind me

liked them so much, making this my favorite act of kindness. I’d definitely recommend showing gratitude to a teacher, even if it’s just a free handwritten message.

The sad part is that one asked me if it was Kindness Week — we really should be extending kind acts beyond holidays.

after my second explanation.

Though the free-lunch beneficiary was grateful, this act of kindness was overall too painfully awkward to repeat. I’d recommend buying a friend lunch outside of school instead of perplexing the already-overwhelmed cafeteria staff.

VIP PARKING WRAP-UP SURE, IT WAS

entertaining to plot elaborate, good-samaritan, homemadeposter-involving schemes for the week — but it’s unsustainable. I can’t buy everyone lunch every day. But I can listen to others and check in on my friends. Please’s, thank you’s and smiles to friends and strangers matter — whether or not it’s a scheduled day for kindness.

PART OF ALMOST every East student’s morning is the high-stakes hunt for a parking spot.

To ensure that at least a few students would secure those coveted front row spots and relieve some stress from their morning, I reserved spots for them — standing in parking spaces with a sign saying, “Reserved For You.” This was undoubtedly awkward to

execute, as I spent minutes waving the sign and getting passed or ignored by drivers. But ultimately, I helped direct four lucky students between the lines while complimenting their maneuvering skills.

Then I gave them a smiley face sticker for their excellent parking jobs — because why not?

Their genuine chuckles and smiles — despite confusion — were worth my momentary cringe.

SCAN ME VIDEO See the extreme acts of kindness on film in their awkward and altruistic glory

28

SPORTS

sports.

THE HARBINGER

d esig n b y ava cooper p h o t o s b y rachel bingham, caroline martucci & sabrina dean

Updates, schedules and pictures from the spring sports season this far

ALL LAX NO BREAKS Boys lacrosse has four games in six days GAMES ON MARCH 22, 23, 25, 27

Parents and coaches are concerned that the team is more prone to injuries and could be overworked from such a packed schedule, but the team feels confident.

Highlights of a few noteworthy players from girls spring sports

11

SWIM PIPER BENJAMIN

YEARS AT MISSION HILLS COUNTRY CLUB

I AM EXCITED TO PUT OUR endurance to the test and show the league what Lancer Lacrosse is about.

GRACE HASTERT

6 YEARS ON KC FUSION VARSITY CAPTAIN

2

11

SME GOALIE SENIOR

LACROSSE CLAIRE SCHUDY

SUNFLOWER LEAGUE HONORABLE MENTIONS

COMMITTED TO UMSL

SENIOR

2

I THINK OUR TEAM IS READY... this will be a great test for our team, and I’m excited to see how we handle the challenge.

SOCCER

MHCC SWIMMER OF THE YEAR HIGH POINT AWARDS

C O L E J AC KS O N SENI OR

YEARS PLAYING

2

VARSITY LETTERS

SME GOALIE

JUNIOR

SPRING SPOTLIGHT

JACK K E SSLE R J U N IO R

IMPACT PLAYER

24:22 SECONDS

2021 DEFENSIVE 2022 PLAYER

100 FLY

&

BEST EVENTS

50 FREE

MIDWEST TOPGUN GIRLS

58.08 SECONDS

BRACKET MADNESS Students comment on March Madness B RA Y DEN RE Y NOL DS S ENIOR

I WAS CONFIDENT... but the teams I had going far ended up losing, and my bracket is not looking good.

KANSAS CITY LACROSSE CLUB DID YOU MAKE MORE THAN ONE BRACKET FOR MARCH MADNESS? *Instagram poll of 209 votes

YES 32%

68%

NO

DID ARIZONA LOSING IN THE FIRST ROUND OF MARCH MADNESS RUIN YOUR BRACKET?

YES

*Instagram poll of 175 votes

45%

55%

NO

UP & COMING

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Don’t miss t he se e ve nt s

MARCH

APRIL

1

APRIL

3

APRIL

6

Varsity Baseball

Boys Tennis Invitational

Girls Varsity Soccer

Varsity Softball

location: CBAC location: CBAC location: SMSC location: SMSC time: 4:15 p.m. time: 7 p.m. time: 5:30 p.m. time: 3 p.m.

SPORTS

M A R CH 27, 2023

d es ig n by lyla week s p hoto s by julia fillmore & rile y s cot t

29 29

NEW KIDS ON THE Seven freshman place onto the Girls Varsity Swim team after the spring sports tryouts

*Clara Brenneman not included in group picture

Seven freshman place onto the Girls Varsity Swim team after the spring sports tryouts

mission hills CC

kcsa 5 years

11 years

indian hills cc 10 years

milburn cc 8 years

kcsa 9 years

blazers 2 years

blazers 3 years

kcsa 2 months

pv pool 1 year

kcsa 2 months

hallbrook 6 years

blazers 1 year

KCSA 9 years

A

st o r y b y addie m oor e RE YOU READY to drown this morning?”

That’s the start of freshmen Clara Breneman and Lila Kimmel’s conversation before each Kansas City Swim Academy practice. Since joining the club in January, they’ve continued to almost drown three times a week with one main goal: make varsity at East.

With mediocre skills — slow turns, lagging behind because they’re tired, bad technique — they often found themselves falling behind their peers. After two months of persevering and barely making intervals, Breneman and Kimmel along with five other freshmen, fastened their goggles and hopped into lane three of the Wiley Wright Pool for the first day of varsity swim tryouts.

Although it wasn’t as intimidating as their first KSPA practice, varsity was comfortable for the incomers due to coach Chris Copeland’s style — heavily focusing on pace work and technique with an emphasis on rest time — easier than the grueling club practices, according to freshman Sloan Meyer.

Their first activity with the team on the Friday of tryout week, included new members being surprised by upperclassmen waking them up and taken to room 315 for donuts with the whole team. Later that day, instead of practicing like normal, the team participated in a game of sharks and minnows and cannonball contests.

According to freshman Izzy Hunter, the upperclassmen have welcomed the freshmen with open arms. Whether it’s leading workouts or encouraging her Hunter is very appreciative of their awareness of how scary it can be joining a team with mostly upperclassmen.

Since the practices are relatively easier than club, the girls are able to joke around with each other by cracking inside jokes in the fitness room, sharing the latest gossip during the social kick at the end of practice and competing against one another during particular sets.

“It’s not super competitive to the point where you’re like ‘holy crap I can’t do this,’” Hunter said. “It’s more like a fun [type of] serious where we all want to do really well.”

Their competitiveness has only brought them closer together. The teasing, splashing and messing with each other helps them bond during the substantial six-days a week practice schedule. According to Kimmel, the dynamic is very supporting and helpful to one another.

“I always thought about [swim] like an individual sport,” Breneman said. “[East swim] is more of a team aspect.”

dry•land Dryland is the time during practice when swimmers train outside the pool. Typically, this workout is done in the weight room or around the pool deck.

Varsity captain and senior Piper Benjamin tries to include freshmen by organizing team bonding events like breakfasts, games and gift giving among swim buddies. While the freshmen are new, Benjamin says that their work ethic and attitude have pushed them to improve quickly. One of her goals for the year is to make sure the freshmen feel comfortable with the rest of the team.

“I think a lot of them are still in the nuances of varsity sports,” Benjamin said. “They’re a little bit afraid to come out of their shell unlike me and [the other upperclassmen].”

Benjamin, along with Copeland, have recognized promise in not only the freshmen’s swimming skills, but in leadership as well.

“These freshmen will become seniors at some point,” Copeland said. “I want them to start watching the older kids and maturing and beginning not only to manage themselves, but become leaders.”

30

SPORTS

THE HARBINGER

SWITCHING UP

d esig n b y lar k in br undige p h o t o b y sabr ina dean

SOFTBALL

Coach Mallory Dittemore takes over as the new head softball coach and hopes to promote stability and accountability s tor y by hassan su f i

L

[as] we were one win away from a state AST SPRING, BUSINESS championship.” teacher and former pole vault After learning that the previous coach Mallory Dittemore coach wouldn’t plan practice in advance watched her athletes fly 10 feet in from physical education and assistant the air relying solely on a thin pole to coach Maggie Archer, Dittemore has land them on the mat — something that put together a structured practice she felt unqualified for. schedule. Along with an organized Meanwhile, former athletic director routine, Dittemore has placed a Debbie Katzfey knew this focus on mechanics, especially coaching position wasn’t the right the fundamentals of hitting and fit for Dittemore. When baserunning.

Katzfey asked Dittemore “[Practice used to] SOME GIRLS if she’d want to take over always be a curveball as the new softball coach thought practice at them everyday and after the old coach was was optional [last [they] would show up year] and they fired, Dittemore promptly everyday and do whatever,” [only] showed up Dittemore said. “The girls said yes.

Trading in poles for when they wanted [now] know the set routine bats, Dittemore entered to. This year, she of what we are going to do the season ready to puts more pres- [for two hours].” improve the team’s 1-13 sure on us — you Dittemore acknowledges have to talk to record. But her main focus that the team lacked was on building a program [the] coach [if you accountability in previous miss practices]. years and hopes to with accountability and consistency, something not change this. There weren’t BRIANNA BOIL EAU punishments for missing present in past seasons.

Dittemore played competitive SOPHOMORE practice, being late to practice, softball from the beginning of not working hard and being bad middle school through her senior year, teammates. stopping in college to run track at “Some girls thought practice was Rockhurst University. She has taken a optional [last year] and they [only] lot of inspiration from her high school showed up when they wanted to,” coach on how she wants to run her team varsity sophomore Brianna Boileau — with passion and stability. said. “This year, she puts more pressure “We had a great coach that [knew] the on us — you have to talk to [the] coach game, but he was really good at building [if you miss practices].” a rapport with us and cultivating a Besides accountability and stability, positive team atmosphere,” Dittemore Dittemore hopes to improve team said. “He definitely knows his stuff and coach chemistry. She organizes

team meetings, dinners and brunches, fundraising and media day along with social events with just the coaches.

“We [take] pictures and even though I don’t know where they go, [media day helps us bond]” senior Paige Keedy said. “We connect with the coaches by laughing while doing something [I’ve never done before].”

And her methods are working — players are already beginning to buy into the program. Although the season is just starting, the morale is much better with players focusing on practice instead of “lollygagging”, according to Keedy. With stronger emphasis on the little things such as soft toss and machine hitting, there has already been improvement. “[Last year], it was very slow watching the improvement, but this year it’s speeding up,” Boileau said.

“Last year we never had a good practice, but this year it’s getting us excited to see what we can do in a game.”

Throughout this season and next, Dittemore hopes to build East softball into more of a “brand.” She hopes to use a strong social media presence through her account, @coach-ditty to get the word out about game times as well as organizing camps for younger kids over the summer.

“We aren’t a big softball school and where I come from softball was a pretty big deal,” Dittemore said. “Consistency is key. We will start with this group and get word out about teen summer camps and we can build our program from there.”

THE PLAYERS

Athletes at East who have been part of one of Dittemore’s teams

AN N A H O LLAN D V AR S I T Y S OF T B AL L

SHE MAKES IT a precedent for everyone to be included and for everyone to give their all no matter what you’re doing or who you are.

S LO AN M E YE R FRESHMAN GIRLS B AS K E T B AL L

SHE PUSHES YOU with her words, she knows what you’re capable of and pushes you to the best you can be.

RYLE E RO T H RO C K JUNIOR VARSITY C R OS S C OU N T R Y

SHE HAS A really positive energy and it makes us more of a team. You can talk to her about anything She makes you want to work harder.

SPORTS

M A R C H 27, 2023

d e s ig n by elle gedma n p hot o s by ryan deh a n & w ill g rif f it h

31

METHOD TO THE MADNESS s tory by m ary gag e n

March madness brackets come in many shapes and forms - some do it for fun, and some base statistics

W

HILE OTHER STUDENTS make their brackets, tracking who’s the and staff spend their spring most accurate throughout the tournament. breaks basking in the sun Kopp’s family competes for a pot. On his on the beach or skiing own, he bets from $5 to $10 depending mountaintops, math teacher Christopher on how confident he is in a game. On the Burrows and his family have a different contrary, Weaver’s family competes for bragging rights — which is considered idea for break. For 37 years in a row, high stakes, especially in their he’s stayed home over break with competitive family. the same plan — crafting a While Weaver doesn’t bet, March Madness bracket with BOTH OF MY his family. His son, Jackson parents are teach- he tries to create the most Burrows says it’s the perfect ers. We can all be accurate bracket.

“I usually make a bracket opportunity for family time. home for the first with two groups — family and “Both of my parents are two rounds, so friends,” Weaver says. “I like to teachers,” Burrows said. “We that’s the best. watch all of the games with my can all be home for the first two J ACK SON BURROW S friends at a friend’s house.” rounds, so that’s the best.”

March Madness consists But Burrows isn’t the only SOPHOMORE of intense competition — both on March Madness superfan in the East area — freshmen Vince Kopp and Hudson the court and the couch. Game days with Weaver spend all 31 days of March glued to the Kopp and Weaver families consist of connecting through their common interest their TV. Each year, the Kopp and Weaver families while they cheer for their chosen teams with snacks and drinks galore — typically

VINCE’S PICKS

the classic tortilla chips, guacamole and various sodas.

However, not all families get as invested as the Kopps or Weavers in the competition.

Sophomore Elizabeth Starr completes a bracket with her family, but doesn’t put much thought into the results. Family time is what she values most about making the brackets — being the eldest of three means she only has so long with her siblings, and she wants to enjoy every last minute of it.

“My little brother gets very excited about the brackets every year,” Starr said.

“I enjoy trying to compete with him.”

Even more laid back is sophomore Jordan Fuller, who entirely wings her bracket by choosing her winners based on her favorite team logos.

“I hate yellow and green, so teams with those colors usually lose earlier on,” Fuller said.

Despite her controversial selection process, Fuller predicted the two losses that shocked many fans — two of the #1 seeds

March madness brackets come in many shapes and forms

PURDUE OUT EARLY

ARIZONA OUT EARLY

KSTATE LOSING IN 2ND ROUND

UCLA GOING FAR

KU TO ELITE 8

getting out in the second round: Purdue and KU. Despite her seemingly careless approach, she’s currently winning in her bracket. Fuller says her dad was frustrated with her naive success, saying he gave her a “very hard stare.”

While many people have different methods to their Madness, March Madness is something enjoyable for everyone.

H U DS O N W E AV E R F R E S H M AN

MY BIGGEST SUCCESSES WERE I was in the top 98% of brackets after the round of 64 because I only missed 5 games. Also I have Texas winning the whole thing and they are still in it.

THE WINNER’S RANKS Comparing past winners to their ranks in this year’s bracket

2022 2021 2019

KANSAS

BAYLOR

VIRGINIA

Lost to Arkansas in the second round Lost to Creighton in the second round Lost to Furman in the first round

32

ALT-COPY

THE HARBINGER

DON’T BE

d esig n & co p y b y peyton m oor e p h o t o s b y r iley eck

A reminder to keep your eyes closed and your friends closer this April Fools’ Day

IT’S TOO E A S Y

Easy pranks that could be coming your way April 1 — unless you do them first

FRIENDS O R FOE

Watch your back — during April Fools’, friends may become foes

DON’T GO

HOME

Senior Griffin King’s prank on senior Eero Alber last April Fools’ Day “SO EERO ALBER is a big ‘Home Alone’ guy. It’s his favorite movie.

The night before April Fools’ Day, he was out spending the night somewhere else, and I went into his house and set up various traps from the movie. There was an electric heater on the front door, nails on the ground and the

bowling ball tied to a string like the physic experiment where it swings but doesn’t hit the person. It was set up to be a joke, but it turned on somehow, and so he opened the front door and gets seconddegree burns on his hands... So I am terrified to see what he pulls this year.”

Before April 1, it’s best to hide all saran wrap. It can be used to conceal a door, a window and even a toilet.

Unless you have a limitless bladder, it’s not worth the embarrassment — or mess.

SUD-LESS?

Why isn’t your archaic bar of soap sudding up in the shower? The answer is clear nail polish, the killer of suds.

Either grab a new bar or join the new generation of liquid body wash like the rest of us— bars are gross anyway.

“PURPLE” SHAMPOO If you wake up on April 2 with streaks of purple in your bed head, know we warned you. Before using any hair product, check its color — it’s surpisingly easy to slip some dye in a opaque bottle...

A FA M I LY

AFFAIR

Senior Libby McShane and freshman Emily McShane started a family prank war

“SO MY SISTER and I took all of the underwear out of my dad’s underwear drawer and taped it up to the ceiling of his and my mom’s walk-in closet. We taped one pair to the door handle so when he walked in, he just laughed. We barely eat that day because now

ALL WRAPPED UP

TOOTHPASTE & OREOS

[April Fools’] is a pretty big deal for him and he puts hotsauce on almost everything. He always does the toothpaste oreo trick or hot sauce. At lunch that day, we have to be really careful to not eat our hot-sauce sandwich or minty oreos.”

Don’t let your pesky siblings get the satisfaction of watching you bite into this minty mess.

No matter how bad your breath is, no one deserves a mouthful of toothpaste.

SALT FOR SUGAR This mix-up might be an honest mistake — but when your cupcakes taste like a mouthful of salt water on April 1, know that it probably wasn’t just due to your own forgetfulness.