The Harbinger Issue 13 - 2022

the harbinger.

S H AW N E E M I S S I O N E A S T 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS 66208 MARCH 28, 2022 VOLUME LXIV ISSUE 13

UNRECOGNIZED. A lack of social media promotion and stigma around attending girls sports games cause boys teams to receive more recognition and support from classmates and community members

02 INSIDE COVER

click for pics CHEMISTRY TARTRAZINE LAB S c a n t o v i e w t h e g a l l e r y f ro m t h e H o n o rs C h e m i st r y Ta r t ra z i n e L a b o n M a rc h 2 2

THE HARBINGER

design by cesca stamati cover design by sydney newton cover photo by elise madden

online preview

BOWLING BANQUET

S c a n t o v i e w t h e g a l l e r y f ro m t h e b oy s ’ a n d g i r l s ’ b o w l i n g e n d - of - s e a s o n b a n q u et o n M a rc h 9

BOYS JV LACROSSE

S c a n t o v i e w t h e g a l l e r y f ro m t h e b oy s J V l a c ro s s e g a m e a g a i n st M i l l a rd We st o n M a rc h 8

FOLLOW THEHARBINGER SMEHARBINGER SMEHARBINGER

art by bridget connelly

staff list PRINT EDITORS Celia Condon Sydney Newton ONLINE EDITORS Sophie Henschel Campbell Wood ASST. PRINT EDITORS Peyton Moore Cesca Stamati ASST. ONLINE EDITORS Lyda Cosgrove Kate Heitmann HEAD COPY EDITOR Campbell Wood ASST. ONLINE EDITORS Caroline Wood Caroline Gould DESIGN EDITORS Nora Lynn Anna Mitchell PHOTO EDITORS Elise Madden Maggie Merckens ASST. PHOTO EDITORS Rachel Bingham Macy Crosser Hadley Chapman VIDEO EDITOR Maggie Klumpp PHOTO MENTORS Emily Pollock Grace Allen Lily Mantel Julia Fillmore Riley Eck

Charlotte Emley STAFF WRITERS Madeline Funkey Christian Gooley Mia Vogel Gibbs Morris Ben Bradley Katie Murphy Luke Beil Maggie Kissick Emma Krause Maggie Condon Hassan Sufi Addie Moore Tristan Chabanis Emmerson Winfrey Lucy Wolf Blakely Faulkner David Allegri Avery Anderson Aanya Bansal Grace Allen COPY EDITORS Caroline Wood Caroline Gould Greyson Imm Katie Murphy Anna Mitchell Sophie Lindberg Paige Zadoo EDITORIAL BOARD Sydney Newton Celia Condon Campbell Wood Sophie Henschel

photo by caroline martucci

Peyton Moore Cesca Stamati Kate Heitmann Lyda Cosgrove Caroline Wood Madeline Funkey Nora Lynn Sophie Lindberg Greyson Imm Caroline Gould SECTION EDITORS EDITORIAL PRINT Madeline Funkey NEWS PRINT Caroline Gould ONLINE Luke Beil OPINION PRINT Sophie Lindberg ONLINE Maggie Kissick FEATURE PRINT Katie Murphy ONLINE Paige Zadoo A&E PRINT Caroline Wood ONLINE Mia Vogel SPORTS

PRINT Anna Mitchell ONLINE Ben Bradley PAGE DESIGNERS Katie Murphy Madeline Funkey Christian Gooley Bridget Connelly Luke Beil Emma Krause Marissa Liberda Greyson Imm Sophie Lindberg Maggie Condon Addie Moore Grace Demetriou Lucy Wolf Blakely Faulkner Ava Cooper Sofia Blades Elle Gedman David Allegri Maggie Kissick Gibbs Morris Paige Zadoo ART EDITOR Natalie Scholz ASST. ART EDITOR Nora Lynn STAFF ARTISTS Sophie Lindberg Bridget Connelly Marissa Liberda Mason Sajna

Grace Demetriou Sofia Blades Ava Cooper STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Audrey Condon Elle Siegel Jill Rice Kate Beaulieu Maggie Klumpp Sabrina Dean Tristen Porter Lilli Vottero Molly Miller Mason Sajna Rachel Condon Riley Scott Lydia Coe Claire Goettsch Caroline Martucci Seri Steinbrecher Liv Madden Clara Peters MJ Wolf VIDEO STAFF Abby Lee Jill Rice Lily Mantel PODCAST MENTORS Ben Bradley Emma Krause SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS Celia Condon Sophie Henschel

ASST. SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS Mia Vogel Paige Zadoo SOCIAL MEDIA STAFF Madeline Funkey Campbell Wood Sydney Newton Grace Allen Sophie Lindberg Ben Bradley Peyton Moore Lyda Cosgrove Marissa Liberda Bridget Connelly Maggie Condon Lilli Vottero Molly Miller Addie Moore Grace Demetriou Lucy Wolf Ava Cooper Elle Gedman David Allegri Avery Anderson Maggie Kissick ADS MANAGER Greyson Imm CONTEST COORDINATOR Peyton Moore CIRCULATION MANAGERS Maggie Klumpp Julia Fillmore

EDITORIAL 03

MARCH 28, 2022

design by madeline funkey cartoon by nora lynn

FAIR PLAY

Transgender high school athletes should be allowed to play on the team that corresponds to their gender identity as exclusion is unfair to the trans community

BROWSING THE NEWS, it’s hard to ignore the countless opeds claiming that including transgender athletes in the sport matching their gender identity is “the end of girls’ sports” or never-ending news claims that trans women have been “blowing out the competition” in women’s sports.

But the media claims aren’t just claims anymore — they’ve started to influence government policy. In 2021 alone, U.S. lawmakers proposed and passed bills forcing trans athletes to compete with members of their assigned sex at birth, despite gender identity and medical transition, from a whopping 32 states.

No trans youth, especially in middle and high school, should be barred from competing in the gender group of their choice.

Not only are these bills discriminatory, they aren’t supported by logic either. The alleged intent of these bills is to protect the integrity of gender-segregated sports by eliminating any sense of an unfair advantage held by trans athletes — especially trans

B Y D E P R I V I N G T R A N S s t u d e n t s f ro m t h e b e n ef i t s of s p o r t i n g a c t i v i t i e s d u e t o i s s u e s of a l l e g e d fa i r n e s s , t h e g ove r n m e n t i s c a u s i n g t h e m e n t a l a n d p hy s i c a l h e a lt h of t ra n s yo u t h t o s u re ly p l u m m e t . women.

But according to The New York Times, there are only about 50 trans athletes out of the estimated 200,000 NCAA athletes, and no widespread evidence of them dominating women’s sports either.

The media attention is focused largely on college swimmer Lia Thomas breaking records, track stars Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller winning races and cyclist Rachel McKinnon’s world championship win. Besides these four go-to examples, the majority of trans athletes are just middle and high school kids who want to play with their preferred gender group.

Additionally, the bills zeroing in on trans youth in middle and high school sports don’t make sports any more or less fair, as most athletes at this age have undergone medical transition, including hormone blockers and hormone replacement therapy — which in the case of trans girls, reduces muscle mass, redistributes body fat and generally decreases strength. And even if they haven’t medically transitioned, the physical differences of puberty are less pronounced at this age.

These proposed bills are concerned about leveling the playing field in sports but neglect how it would disadvantage trans athletes and their mental and physical well-being.

Competing in youth sports offers a wide variety of physiological benefits for participants including lower rates of obesity, anxiety, and depression, suicide attempts and drug use — benefits that trans youth are being deprived of.

Sports participation is also linked with increased self-esteem and self-confidence, improved academic performance, stronger feelings of school connection and wider-reaching social and community capital, according to the Center for American Progress.

Everyone should be allowed to reap these benefits.

Trans kids are already some of our most vulnerable population.

Trans youth and young adults are more likely to report worse mental health and substantially higher risk of depression, suicidal ideation as well as suicide attempts, also according to the CAP. Additionally, these bills invalidate trans kids’ identity, directly resulting in a deficit to their self-esteem and mental well-being.

By depriving trans students from the benefits of sporting activities due to issues of alleged fairness, the government is causing the mental and physical health of trans youth to surely plummet.

This is the furthest thing from fair.

In addition to the importance of trans inclusion, these bills will also result in a new culture of gender policing in athletics — an unintended consequence. When any girl — not only a trans girl — is viewed as being “too good” at a sport or is viewed as “overly masculine,” they can now be subjected to invasive and degrading tests to prove that they are female enough, such as physical inspections or records of medical transition. A prime example of this is the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in Florida, which allows administration to “physically inspect” students accused of being trans.

Forcing trans athletes to compete on the team corresponding to their gender assigned at birth can even contradict the rationale of fairness. In Texas, state law requires athletes to play on the team of the sex listed on their birth certificate.

Mack Beggs, a trans boy who was on testosterone hormones and thus physically stronger, had to compete in girls’ wrestling — which he has won two state titles in.

A perceived threat of a negligablysized population in high school sports not holding any real advantage shouldn’t strip young transgender athletes from their chance to participate in a regular, affirming and potentially life-saving activity that should be available to all.

WHAT’S THE

DIFF?

It’s important to understand the difference between gender identity and biological sex

gender identity

a n i n d i v i d u a l ’s p e r s o n a l s e n s e of h a v i n g a particular gender.

biological sex

the findamental distinction based on the t y p e of g a m e t e s p ro d u c e d by t h e i n d i v i d u a l

FOR: 9 AGAINST: 1 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.

EDITORIAL PO LIC Y 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.

04 NEWS

THE HARBINGER

design by caroline gould

NEWS IN

BRIEF Catch up on school, local and national news

A glance at the increase in national

INFLATION RATES inflation rates JAN 1 3.6%

MARCH 17 5.52%

Future freshman che e r le a d e rs a n d c u r re nt c h e e r le a d e rs p ra ct i c e fo r u p c o m i n g t r yo u t s .

PHOTO BY MACY CROSSER

NATIONAL by tristan c h aban is

THE U.S. HAS experienced the highest inflation — the rise in prices of goods and services — rate since 1982, spurred by an increase in rates from 3.6% Jan. 1 to 5.52% on March 17th.

According to an ABC News poll, 29% of Americans chose everyday bills or inflation as their primary financial concern. Americans are struggling with this surge in prices for everything from groceries to water bills.

Typically, as inflation rises the average salary rises too, however, businesses have struggled to raise wages as quickly as inflation has increased, according to The Washington Post. This has left many Americans, especially those living from paycheck to paycheck, in desperate situations unable to support their families.

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, after 2011, the number of student loan borrowers began to decline, since 2020, the number of student loan borrowers has increased steadily.

Senior Tongtong Yi said he too was considering taking on more student

Inflation rates have spiked within only months

LOCAL

A recap of the COVID-19 situation of St. Patrick’s day parade

KC POWER & LIGHT held their 48th annual St.

loan debt because of inflation.

“If the interest rate on loans is lower than the inflation rate, then I save a greater amount of money by kicking down the money I owe to future me,” Yi said.

I F T H E I N T E R E S T ra t e on loans is lower than t h e i n f l a t i o n ra t e , t h e n I s a ve a g re a t e r a m o u nt of m o n ey by k i c k i n g down the m o n ey I o w e t o f u t u re m e .

TONGTONG YI SENIOR However, the Federal Reserve is expected to increase their interest rates in the next year to combat inflation. Though rates will likely increase, rates will still be significantly lower than the previous decade.

Patrick’s Day parade on March 17, after a two year break due to COVID-19.

In the parade, there were nearly 130 parade entries consisting of floats, bag pipers and parade organizers were led by Grand Marshall Pete McCluskey under the theme of “Doing an Irish Dance.”

The parade also marked one of the first largescale events in Kansas City that would be mask optional. However, this caused concern for many, according to junior Harry Treml, he feared an event of this size had the potential to ignite COVID-19 in the community.

“I definitely think having attended the parade

EAST

was a risk,” Treml said. “People from all over are going to be packed together unmasked after traveling over spring break, COVID could easily spread.”

Despite this dilemma, many were simply happy to be able to take in the sights and sounds of the parade and celebrate their Irish ancestry for the first time in two years, according to junior Ryan Holland, who attended the parade with his brother Sean.

“It was nice to be able to go to the parade after it was closed for the last two years,’’ Holland said.

“I had a lot of fun.”

The cheer clinic gave freshman cheerleaders a space to practice

40 EIGHTH-GRADE girls came together to the East gym on Monday, March 21 to attend their first cheer clinic in order to prepare them for the upcoming team tryouts.

These clinics are led by current members of the cheer team and will continue until tryouts on March 31, where the freshmen trying out will be cut to a group near 12.

The purpose of the clinics is to teach the eighth graders what to work on in preparation for tryouts. Each incoming freshman is paired with one of the current cheer team members who taught them techniques and dance sequences they’ll need

to memorize. Some of the things they’ve learned include jumps and the East fight song, said eight grader Sarah Stein.

“The clinics have definitely had us feeling prepared and more confident going into tryouts,” said Stein.

The clinics are also instrumental in bringing all the potential future cheerleaders closer together. Because they practice every day for two hours, the eighth graders are able to meet many upperclassmen, allowing them to place the foundations of relationships they’ll build with everyone on the team.

NEWS 05

MARCH 28, 2022

design by greyson imm photos by hadley chapman

FROM

THE

HEART

Kansas City is hosting its first citywide “Parade of Hearts” this month to feature local artists’ decorated hearts by maggie condon ANSAS CITY IS hosting a three-month-

K

long Parade of Hearts to showcase the heart sculptures of 123 local artists and raise money for Mid-America Regional Council, AltCap, University of Kansas Health System, KC Foundation and the regional artist community, according to theparadeofhearts.com.

The parade contains 154 unique sculptures designed by artists with ties to the city who tell their own story, located outside of business, parks, etc. ranging from Lenexa to outside of Mosby. The “parade” will feature the hearts popping up around the city, for people to view as they pass.

The main goal of the parade is to spread love and strengthen the community while sharing the city’s rich history, according to project manager Jerilynn Burris.

Following the parade, there will be an auction where bidders have a chance to buy hearts. Additionally, throughout there is availability to donate to the various charities.

The donations will go specifically towards advancing local artists’ careers and those impacted by COVID-19 through the University of Kansas Health System.

The original pre-pandemic vision to create “hearts” sprouted from the cardiac unit of KU Health, according to Burris.

Local artist Kirsten Mims, submitted her application into a pool of roughly 700 other artists in September of last year. She discovered the parade through an Instagram ad and immediately knew it was something

she was interested in.

She was ecstatic learning through an email that she and her five-foot-tall fiber glass heart designs had been accepted as one of many artists to participate via email on October 15, 2022.

Mims’ work is inspired by and dedicated to her fathers resilience throughout his experiences with strokes as he was always her biggest encourager in creating her artworks.

“When I was a kid, he’d give me his old canvases and let me kind of mess them up,” Mims said.

Another participant in the parade is former East parent Barb Mizik, whose heart will be located outside of the KU Cancer Center. This location — as well as the design — is special to her because recently her sister was diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer and underwent treatment at that very center.

In addition to the heart being located in the lawn outside the cancer center, the color of Mizik’s heart is coincidentally teal — the color representing ovarian cancer support — which she didn’t know until after deciding on the color.

“They didn’t know my story, so it just kind of happened, and that was just a really wonderful thing,” Mizik said. “I hope it can be something that uplifts [the] spirits of people driving down Shawnee Mission Parkway or going to the cancer center to be treated.”

Countless hours were put into the design

and execution of the hearts, according to Mims. Different artists picked up the base hearts on different days, depending on how long it was estimated to take to finalize the heart. However, they were all — for the most part — picked up from Dimensional Innovations, in early-mid December.

To paint the hearts, some artists worked in storage spaces while some worked from the comfort of their own homes. Mims, for example, had a friend, whose mom had a storage space where she was able to paint her heart with the help of her two-year-old daughter, Joy.

[ T H E H E R O E S A R E m e a nt t o b e ] f ro m t h e w e l l - k n o w n p e o p l e , t o t h e s u p e r m a r ket w o r ke rs , a n d of c o u rs e t h e m e d i c a l p e o p l e t h a t h a ve h e l p e d d u r i n g the pandemic.

BARB MIZIK EAST PARENT AND ARTIST For her, this meant crafting a cardboard heart for her daughter to design alongside her. Joy painted with Mims throughout the process and was one of the people featured in the heart.

In the painting, climbing over the “K” in “KC” is toddler Joy. The meaning behind the heart represents what Mims loved about her childhood, and what she envisions for her daughter. From playing at parks, getting to know other children and

creating friendships, she wants her child to do everything Mims loved doing in her childhood.

Mims heart, entitled “Mama Lied When She Said Outside Isn’t Going Anywhere” and featuring children playing in the clouds, reading and exploring, will be displayed on 548 Central Ave, just outside of Splitlog Coffee Shop.

As for Mizik, the heart symbolizes different places and people that make the city special. It’s blue, with a gold rim, and showcases stars representing the heroes in the city, a rainbow representing __ and a bright sun to bring an uplifting look to the piece. “[The heroes are meant to be] from the well-known people, to the supermarket workers and of course the medical people that have helped during the pandemic,” Mizik said.

The artists were able to talk with each other during the duration of designing but didn’t get to meet in person according to Mims. They first met at the showcase of the hearts, hosted at the Hyvee Stadium, where all the artists were able to see all the different hearts and meet one another.

The parade will not necessarily be an annual thing, but is hoped to continue. The future for the parade is being evaluated to see what it could look like.This year, it has been an opportunity for the city to enhance the community, and for local artists to share their art with the people of Kansas City.

CLOSE

TO THE

HEAR T

Details about three of the 154 sculptures, each installation within a few miles of East

“WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER” artist Dennis Stanton location

7301 Mission Rd.

“SPECTRUM OF LOVE” artist Matt Wegerer location 7400 State Line Rd.

“FOR THE CHILD IN EVERYONE” artist Evan Brown location

St. Line & Tomahawk Rd.

06 NEWS

Kansas Congressional districts are currently being re-drawn, which is receiving backlash because of citizens’ concerns about dillusion of minority votes and the seperation of communities of interest

CURRENT CASES Multiple lawsuits regarding the new congressional map have been filed this year

SCHWAB V KLAPPER ALONZO V SCHWAB FRICK V SCHWAB

THE HARBINGER design by mia vogel

DISTRICTS

REDRAWN

by sydney newton

K

ANSAS IS UNDERGOING the process

of redistricting — redrawing the lines that determine voting districts for political elections — for the first time since 2012 despite community backlash as part of a legislative process that occurs every decade.

The pushback from community and government members is mainly due to concerns about the delusion of minority voters and the seperation of communities of interest — populations which share common social and economic problems — within districts, according to Kansas State Sen. Ethan Corson.

SCAN ME • PDF T h e p ro p o s e d g u i d e l i n e s a n d c r i t e r i a fo r 2 0 2 2 Ka n s a s c o n g re s s i o n a l a n d st a t e l e g i s l a t i ve re d i s t r i c t i n g

“Kansans weren’t very well served by how we did the congressional redistricting,” Corson said. “It’s now being challenged. There are a lot of flaws in the map, and also in the process that we went through to get those maps.”

The process of redistricting began in August 2021, when Kansas Senate and House of Representatives committees visited 14 cities statewide in five days. In each city, they hosted a city hall where community members could share what they hoped to gain from redistricting.

Following the tour, the process for redistricting began with the creation of four different political district maps of Kansas: the congressional district map, the Senate district map, the House of Representatives map and the Board of Education map.

The congressional district map was the first to get approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, where it moved for final approval by Gov. Laura Kelly. However, the map was vetoed by Kelly for “not aligning” with the guidelines for redistricting due to it’s separation of communities with similar problems, such

as Wyandotte and Johnson Country, which are more focused on unemployment and foreclosures than rural counties who are more focused on highway and farming issues.

“Senate Bill 355, known as Ad Astra 2, does not follow these guidelines and provides no justification for deviation from those guidelines,” Kelly stated in a press statement. “Together, we can come to a consensus and pass a compromise that empowers all people of Kansas.”

The congressional map contained changes to Districts 1-3, which have caused pushback due to the belief that the map dilutes minority votes and are attempts to improve political influence, according to Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes. In District 3 — the district where Prairie Village, Kansas resides — Wyandotte County is split, with only half staying in District 3. Additionally, Jackson County, Anderson County and Miami County — primarily rural counties — were added to District 3. This changes District 3 from solely the KC Metro area, like it’s been in previous years, to a more farming-centered and Republican district, according to Corson.

“The third district has always been the KC Metro area,” Corson said. “But we’ve gone from having a district that was always on the Kansas side of the KC Metro into a district that is half urban and half rural.”

The other half of Wyandotte County was moved from District 3 to District 2, and Lawrence, Kansas was moved into District 1 — a primarily rural district — although the rest of Douglas County, the county Lawrence resides in, remained within District 2.

Following the introduction of the congressional map, two lawsuits were filed from Wyandotte County, both claiming that splitting Wyandotte in half dilutes the minority voter and overall influence of Wyandotte on the voting system.

Additionally, a lawsuit was filed from

Lawrence, claiming that moving Lawrence to District 1 was gerrymandering — manipulating boundaries to favor one political party — since the addition of Wyandotte in District 2 added Democratic influence, and moving Lawrence — another democratic city — out was an attempt which to increase republican influence in District 2.

K A N S A N S W E R E N ’ T V E RY w e l l s e r ve d by h o w w e d i d t h e c o n g re s s i o n a l re d i st r i c t i n g . I t ’s n o w b e i n g c h a l l e n g e d . T h e re a re a l ot of f l a w s i n t h e m a p , a n d a l s o i n t h e p ro c e s s t h a t w e w e nt t h ro u g h t o g et those maps.

ETHAN CORSON KANSAS STATE SENATOR If the congressional map is implemented, Corson believes that it will harm Johnson County and the more rural counties of Anderson, Miami and Franklin since those communities have different sets of interests, harming their representatives ability to address those interests well. “[Johnson County] has so little in common with those rural counties,” Corson said. “[Franklin, Miami and Anderson] have a different set of issues that they would like to see their elected representatives addressing that are totally different than what an urban suburban area like Johnson County has.”

The congressional redistricting guidelines require each district to hold around 734,470 people, recognize communities of interest, preserve social, cultural, racial and ethnic interests and not dilute minority strength.

The guidelines for legislative redistricting are similar, except that Senate districts should house around 73,447 people and House districts should house around 23,504 people. These guidelines are created so that redistricting benefits

the people by allowing them to have a say in elections, according to Sykes.

“We have guidelines that are put in place so populations are as compact and concise as possible,” Sykes said. “They look at current legislative districts and communities of interest. And you also want to make sure that minority votes are not discounted.”

The House of Representatives map has been drawn, and was approved by the House at their meeting on March 22, according to Kansas Rep. and House redistricting committee member Vic Miller. The population of Kansas has migrated from rural communities to the suburban areas of Johnson and Wyandotte County, which is what the new map accounts for. If it passes, it will move onto the Senate for approval, according to Miller.

As far as the Senate district map for the state of Kansas, it was approved by the Senate on March 17 and is currently waiting for approval from the House of Representatives, according to Sykes.

Once approved by the other branch, both the Senate and House map will require governor approval. Lastly, the board of education district map will be drawn once the senate map is finalized — since that’s the map the districts are based on.

AP U.S. Government teacher Benjamin Hendricks believes that the current redistrict plans favors higher Republican votes in each district, which will discourage people from voting. “[The new lines] hurt voter participation,” Hendricks said. “Why vote if there’s no chance that the person you want to win is going to win anyway?

People will disconnect from the political process, since they don’t feel like their vote counts.”

The timeline for all four maps to be completed is by the middle to the end of May, in anticipation for the primary election in August, according to Sykes.

NEWS 07

MARCH 28, 2022

design by sydney newton & cesca stamati information from CNN & US News

UKRAINE

A CONTINENT

AWAY

KYIV

A breakdown of the ongoing Russia-Ukranian war and how it affects the East community

Airstrikes hit apartment blocks in city outskirts with no casualties

2 3

ODESA

Rejected Moscow’s demand to surrender on March 21

MARIUPOL

BIDEN TRAVELS TO EUROPE

president joe biden plans to finalize measures to penalize Russia, aid Ukraine and show western unity

KEY

Regions invaded by Russia

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES RISE IN UKRAINE

902 civilians have been killed and 1,459 injured since the start of the invasion as of March 20

*according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

RUSSIA LAUNCHED HYPERSONIC MISSILES The Russian military claimed to launch hypersonic & cruise missiles in Ukraine on March 19 and 20

QUOTE

EVENTS

CRASH COURSE

1

Map of the war in Ukraine

Russian forces took over apartment buildings that had housed 560 families

I’M READY FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH [PUTIN]... IF THESE ATTEMPTS FAIL, THAT WOULD MEAN THAT THIS IS A THIRD WORLD WAR.

STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

Sophomore Finan Marien-McManus has Ukrainian relatives on his mom’s side of the family who evacuated their homes and fled to Poland fearing the drafting of younger family members. “ T H E T WO S O N S of [ my re l a t i ve s ] w h o a re p rett y m u c h my a g e . . . t h re e w e e k s a g o , t h ey w e re s i tt i n g i n a c l a s s ro o m , g ett i n g re a d y t o g o o n s p r i n g b re a k o r w h o k n o w s w h a t . A n d n o w t h ey ’ re r u n n i n g fo r t h e i r l i ve s . ”

volodymyr zelensky ukrainian president

WAYS TO HELP

DONATE

Donate to The U k ra n i a n Re d C ro s s , w h i c h a i d s ref u g e e s a n d t ra i n s d o c t o rs

SPEAK OUT S e n d a Tw e et t o s u p p o r t t h e U N ’s humanitarian appeal to garner support fo r U k ra i n e

“ A C O U P L E W E E K S b a c k , M rs . F o s s o h

LEARN

Learn about t h e i nva s i o n ’s impact on c i t i ze n s , t h e e c o n o my a n d fo re i g n p o l i t i c s

FINAN

w a s t r y i n g t o … ex p l a i n w h a t ’s h a p p e n e d .

A n d l i ke h a lf t h e c l a s s w a s j u st re a l ly j u st t u n e d o u t o n t h e i r p h o n e s , s i tt i n g t h e re , b l a n k l o o k , n ot p a y i n g a ny a tt e nt i o n . M o st p e o p l e … d o n ’ t h a ve a ny k i n d of c o n n e c t i o n o r t h ey ’ re l i ke , ‘ O h , i t ’s E u ro p e . W h a t d o e s i t m a tt e r t o m e ? ’ B u t I a l s o t h i n k s o m e p e o p l e j u st d o n ’ t l i ke t h e h a rd t r u t h . ”

MARIEN-MCMANUS SOPHOMORE

THROUGH THE YEARS DEC. 1 1991

APRIL 3 2008

MARCH 2014

APRIL 21 2019

DECEMBER 2021

After the Soviet Union fell, the Ukrainian people voted to become a sovereign state

NATO debated but didn’t offer a Membership Action Plan to Ukraine at a summit

Russia annnexed Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula with a large Russian population

Zelensky winspresidential election. His campaign promised the end of war with Russian separatists

Putin demanded that Ukraine never be admitted to NATO. The Biden administration rejected his demand

FEB. 21 2022 Putin recognized Donetsk and Luhansk (formerly Ukranian) as independent states, deploying troops to “keep the peace”

08 OPINION

THE HARBINGER

A look into student opinions and the opinion section

BE ST O F A P R I L F O O L S Two students’ best ever pranks

“ M Y U N C L E WO R K S FOR DAN CRUMB, WHO IS THE CFO FOR THE CHIEFS. THIS YEAR I WAS THINKING, ‘WHAT AM I GOING TO DO FOR APRIL FOOLS?’ SO I MANAGED TO GET MY UNCLE TO GO THROUGH DAN CRUMB, GO THROUGH ANDY REID, GO THROUGH MAHOMES, AND NOW I HAVE JACKSON MAHOMES IN ON A PRANK. I’VE BEEN SENDING THROUGH A PROXY TEXT ACCOUNT, VARIOUS FRIENDS SAYING LIKE, ‘HEY, IT’S ME, JACKSON MAHOMES’ AND WHAT THEY THINK IS THAT THESE ARE JUST RANDOM SPAM NUMBER TEXTS. ON APRIL FOOLS’ DAY, MY FRIENDS ARE GONNA GET A CALL FROM A RANDOM NUMBER AND HE’S GOING TO ANSWER AND SAY, ‘FINALLY, YOU PICKED UP! WHY HAVEN’T YOU GUYS BEEN ANSWERING MY CALLS?’”

GRIFFIN KING

SOPHOMORE

“ I T WA S F O U R YEARS AGO. MY BROTHER WOULD HAVE BEEN SEVEN OR EIGHT. I’M NOT SURE WHERE MY BROTHER WAS, PROBABLY DOWNSTAIRS. I JUST SNUCK INTO HIS BEDROOM AND STOLE ALL OF HIS PANTS OUT OF HIS DRAWER. I THINK I HID THEM IN MY ROOM. HE NOTICED PRETTY SOON AFTER, PROBABLY 10 MINUTES, AND MY MOM MADE ME GIVE THEM ALL BACK. SHE MADE ME PUT THEM ALL BACK I THE DRAWER. SO I HAD TO CLEAN UP AFTER MYSELF.”

MALLORY WILKERSON FRESHMAN

TA K E O U R P O L L S @smeharbinger

Follow us on social media to participate in the polls

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W H E T H E R YO U P R E F E R STA N DA R D T I M E O R DAY L I G H T S AV I N G S T I M E , R E M E M B E R T H AT T H O S E W H O D I S AG R E E A R E N OT T H E E N E M Y. T H E D U P L I C I TO U S S U N I T S E L F, H OA R D I N G I T S LIGHT WHILE WE FIGHT FOR SCRAPS, IS THE TRUE E N E M Y.

BRADLEY BABENDIR

3/15/22

I F T H E A P P R OA C H I N G # B A 2 WAV E WA S A L E A K I N G H O L E O N A B OAT R I G H T N OW, F I L L E D W I T H S I N K I N G B OAT D E N I A L I ST S A N D M I N I M I Z E R S . Y E S , W E H AV E H I T R O C K B OT TO M D U R I N G T H E PA N D E M I C .

ERIC FEIGL-DING

3/20/22

T H I S PA S T W E E K E N D , O U R G O O DW I L L A M B A S S A D O R DAV I D B E C K H A M H A N D E D OV E R H I S S O C I A L M E D I A TO I RY N A , T H E H E A D O F T H E P E R I N ATA L C E N T R E AT A H O S P I TA L I N K H A R K I V, # U K R I A N E .

T H A N K YO U I RY N A A N D H E A LT H WO R K E R S I N U K R A I N E F O R S AV I N G L I V E S .

JONAS BROTHERS

T A K E S

HIGHLIGHTS

T HI S WEE K Opinionated tweets from this week IN TWEETS

S T U D E N T

OPINION

design by sophie lindberg photos by rachel bingham

1/1/21

East students’ thoughts relating to this issue’s opinion section

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT SCHOOL CURRICULUMS SHOULD BE UPDATED TO TALK MORE ABOUT CURRENT EVENTS? * I n st a g ra m p o l l of 1 6 5 vot e s

YES NO

94% 6%

DO YOU THINK THAT ONLINE SCHOOL HAD LASTING EFFECTS ON YOUR LEARNING STYLE AND MOTIVATION? * I n st a g ra m p o l l of 1 9 0 vot e s

YES

89%

NO

11%

DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN APRIL FOOLS? * I n st a g ra m p o l l of 1 76 vot e s

YES

62%

NO

38%

OPINION 09

MARCH 28, 2022

design by bridget connelly photo by kate beaulieu

STAYING

CURRENT

by peyton moore “BREAKING! RUSSIA

INVADES Ukraine.” “Can Ukraine Recover?” “NATO will not be joining the war.”

In the span of one morning, the tragedy 5428 miles away of Russia invading Ukraine filled every platform on my phone. I felt ignorant as the years of historical tension came to the surface, crowding my mind with questions. How is the US going to help? How are surrounding countries going to deal with a surplus of refugees? How can I help?

I ran into my APUSH classroom thinking surely someone had to know the answers. But when I asked m classmates, all I received in return was blank stares.

No one even seemed concerned. The only thought that seemed to occupy my classmates’ minds was why their ForYou page was infiltrated with ‘newstok’ and if they would be drafted to fight in the next week.

I R A N I N TO my A P U S H c l a s s ro o m t h i n k i n g , s u re ly s o m e o n e h a d t o know the answers. But when I a s ke d , a l l I re c e i ve d w a s b l a n k st a re s .

Looking for anyone that might have an inkling of information, I asked my teacher. The answer was short and sweet because there was no time to talk about the complexities of Ukraine and the Soviet Union’s history. We had to cover the remnants of the Progressive Era by the end of this week.

That’s the problem. Our school system relies heavily on a fixed curriculum that gives teachers little time to talk about current events that are affecting us and our futures. We end up learning about hundredyear-old events like Reconstruction instead of the thousands cramming into shopping malls as mortar shells demolish their homes.

Interested students should research the war

East teachers should include current events in class lessons to prepare students for real world conversations

on their own, but all students could benefit from discussing relevant worldly events — and not through a screen.

Learning online can spread misleading information from teen to teen, and Our generation finds its news fix through their everyday Tiktok. And sadly enough, some might not realize that just about anyone can create and post spoofed news on the app — rendering our main news source unreliable. If schools mixed real-world issues into the daily classroom talk, then students would learn real facts in a safe setting instead of on social media.

There isn’t one person to blame for this knowledge gap. Yes, teenagers, teachers and all parents are responsible for learning about the world outside of the KC suburban bubble, but there should be time to learn about current events at least once a month. Why are we still spending weeks on outdated books and material? It’s constricting, and a waste of time.

At East, teachers aren’t stuck to a certain curriculum, but do have certain material they must cover. If the national school system had a less structured curriculum, then we could have compelling conversations about significant events like the first black women Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

It’s as simple as Winston Churchill’s famous phrase, “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Yes, we need to learn about 19th century history, but our current decade will soon be history — one that some might’ve never learned. Learning about breaking news in school can allow students to learn about history authentically and from the right sources.

And saying there is nothing to discuss or that an event is too far away to affect us is simpleminded.

I’m not saying the school system needs to ditch the curriculum entirely, but integrating current events

into class every day could be simple.

In Environmental Education, we could learn about the Saharan Dust Cloud depositing through Europe due to climate change over the years. In English, we could debate the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill proposed in Florida that would restrain conversation on gender and sexuality. Economic lessons could cover the newaged dollar — crypto currency. Why are we stuck learning about systems that are outdated or topics that are over taught?

And this comes into question almost daily here at East. Students maintain that we’ll never use calculus integrations, the biology of a soybean or the symbolism of a 400-page book in the real world, but if the system changes and integrates current events, we will be learning, growing and potentially advocating for change in the real world. Learning how to explore and develop opinions on relevant headlines is a reallife skill that can be used outside East.

Core classes don’t have to be the only outlet where students can learn about what’s going on today.

YouScience to a conversation about the intricacies of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill or watching a five-minute news update instead of a Crash Course video on the printing press are a few out of a thousand ways for schools to be socially responsible.

Individuals share the responsibility. Insert yourself into the conversation. Follow the New York Times on Instagram to get updates throughout your feed on the war in Ukraine, tune in to NPR on your drive home from school or even download the Apple News widget on your phone.

Whatever gaps you might miss when following along, school should do a better job of filling you in with thought-provoking discussions and seeing all points of view, not just the one on your feed.

EDUCATE YOURSELF

Links to credible sources with information about current events

SCAN ME • WEBSITE R U S S I A A N D U K R A I N E WA R J a ve l i n m i s s i l e s a re h e l p i n g U k ra i n e w re a k h a vo c o n R u s s i a n t ro o p s , ex p e r t s s a y

SCAN ME • WEBSITE AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS P a k i st a n A i r F o rc e A i rc ra f t C ra s h e s , K i l l i n g Tw o P i l ot s

SCAN ME • WEBSITE GUN CONTROL S p r i n g B re a k s h o ot i n g s : M i a m i B e a c h e m e rg e n c y b r i n g s c u r fe w

10 OPINION

THE HARBINGER

design by caroline gould photo by tristen porter art by sophie henschel

ATTACHED TO

NOSTALGIA It’s unrealistic to make fun of someone for having an attachment item or ask them to get rid of it

W HY THE T R U ST ?

How such a strong attachment to an object is able to form

are able to help reduce levels of anxiety and stress can boost the confidence levels of young children offers a way to stay grounded as a constant and trusted object in a chaotic world

by madelin e fu n key AKING MY BED — an integral part of

M

my morning routine. When I turn off my alarm each morning, I go through the process of fluffing my pillows, pulling up my comforter and tucking in my sheets. In this process, it’s become a habit to place my childhood stuffed elephant and blankets behind the largest pillow in hopes to avoid the humiliation of someone seeing childish items I still sleep with each night.

I refuse to retire my faded gray elephant with a hole in its nose and my white square blankets that could be mistaken as dish rags.

Just because my 18th birthday is around the corner doesn’t mean I automatically have to say goodbye to my nostalgic tokens — and neither should anyone else.

At some point in your early childhood, you may have received a certain comfort item — a blanket or stuffed animal that hasn’t left your side since, giving you that unexplainable joy from twiddling it in your fingers or using it as a pillow.

It’s a common misconception that allowing a child to keep their “lovey” or attachment item past their teen years will harm their growth and development by possibly creating a lack of independence or judgment from peers. But this shouldn’t be the case — security objects can be used to cope with anxiety and shouldn’t be considered embarrassing.

A child’s security blanket or beloved teddy can actually be a good thing, according to an article by Preschool Inspirations. Research shows that when a child is younger, their

TYPES OF

T ET HERS Security objects can come in many shapes and forms

stuffed animals security blankets passed-down family heirlooms

blankies and lovies can boost confidence levels and self-value. Children’s lovey objects are like “the first training wheels for telling themselves ‘you’re all right,’” said Psychotherapist Anna Walters. With that built-in sense of security, children feel safe enough to take small risks when trying new things, explore on their own and grow.

Sure, relying on a piece of fabric to cope with problems loses its practicality when you transition from elementary to high school. However, these items can still be under a blanket or tucked in a closet as an extra warm hug when you’ve been broken up with or just failed your Anatomy exam.

The days where I feel like nothing is going my way would be more difficult if I didn’t have the consistent comfort provided by my blanket and gray elephant. Yes, it sounds childish, but there’s something about these handheld, pocketable items that provides a calming reassurance of anxiety. It isn’t my only method of coping with the chaotic emotions of my teenage years, but when I’ve had a bad day or did poorly on an Algebra exam, my blankets are something that can make it a little better on top of texts from my friends and hugs from my mom.

Even seemingly-common items like a worn-in water bottle or raggedy T-shirt can provide feelings of safety and familiarity.

Leaning on these specific items for support over time creates consistency during changing times — the same comfort that a baby blanket gives.

Such security objects are “rooted in

sensorial elements that lessen the stress of separation, while they soothe and comfort the child,” according to Psychology Today.

Each aspect of the item — like its smell, faded color or worn-out spots — is part of the unique relationship between the object and the child. Not only does the security blanket or lovey act as a comfort, but it has become a physical keepsake of memories and nostalgia.

These objects can bring a sense of home anywhere — from sleepovers to your workplace, to school.

I T I S N ’ T M Y o n ly m et h o d of coping with the chaotic emot i o n s of my t e e n a g e ye a rs , b u t w h e n I ’ ve h a d a b a d d a y o r d i d p o o r ly o n a n E n g l i s h exa m , my b l a n ket s a re s o m et h i n g t h a t c a n m a ke i t a l i tt l e b ett e r o n t o p of t ex t s f ro m my f r i e n d s a n d h u g s f ro m my m o m .

Sleepovers, for example, can provoke anxiety due to the separation from home for some kids. In these cases, bringing a lovey can help with sleep because the scent reminds them of their home and family. The truth is we all, adults and children, use and benefit from comfort objects even if we don’t realize it. It may be obvious items like a blanket or stuffed animal or it may be your phone, wedding ring, family photo or a torn up pair of sneakers.

Security objects make us feel connected and grounded to the world around us , according to therapist Mark Brenner.

Without your trusted object you could feel lost, confused or out of sorts. So stop being the person I fear when I place my elephant behind my pillow. And let’s try not to comment or make fun of people that still love the comfort their stuffed animals bring them.

As a little girl, I would rely on the feeling of holding my stuffed elephant and blankies as a method to soothe my stress and anxiety.

Now, I have learned other mechanisms as a young adult such as different sports and listening to music to cope with anxieties.

Transitioning into a teenager, my lovey has shown me how to find that trust within other outlets such as people and activities.

Even if you think it’s immature or foolish to still own and use your beloved stuffed animals, it doesn’t harm anyone. There is no shame in keeping it until you’re an adult as long as you know it’s just an item, and your anxiety doesn’t rely on it. Finding security in the familiar scent of your childhood or the feeling of the texture is normal and shouldn’t be shunned. Whether it’s a silky blanket or a Star Wars water bottle that brings you comfort, you shouldn’t be ashamed of the attachment you have to it.

OPINION

MARCH 28, 2022 design by peyton moore art by talie scholtz

by so phi e henschel

A

FTER ALMOST 11 years of brushing my teeth, doing my hair, grabbing some coffee, eating a granola bar and arriving at school all before 8 a.m., the “extended spring break” hit. Everyone knows what came next. When SMSD sent out the email that school was optional, I decided to spend my fourth quarter with lake days instead of precalculus — after all, I had all A’s and didn’t think it would affect me that much.

But I was wrong. It did affect me that much.

Six months of laying in the sun without a single educational thought led me down a path of slacking off in school and later using remote learning as a way to coast through my junior year, barely taking the time to actually retain what I was learning.

Then senior year hit. Now, I barely remember how I most effectively studied “back in the day,” or what my learning style even was freshman and sophomore year.

Don’t get me wrong, I have academic integrity — I wasn’t just cheating left and right through online school. But if we’re being real, students and teachers both knew online school was a totally alien experience that nobody knew how to handle.

All of my motivation was gone.

And it seemed like everyone I turned to was feeling like they no longer knew how to study or learn.

Cut to senior year and we’re back in person — having only experienced three months semi-in-person last year. Waking up early to sit in a bland classroom every morning again, getting “back to n o r m a l ” didn’t feel right.

But after

LEARNING

friends in passing, a packed journalism room — all no longer normal. I was sitting in a classroom but I didn’t remember how to learn. Should I take notes or just listen? Do I like Quizlet or paper note cards better? I couldn’t remember anymore, but I didn’t feel alone because all my peers seemed to be feeling the same.

So what did this amount to? Confusion. Loss of motivation.

Stress. Anxiety.

Every student that had a hard time coming back from online school should take a learning style quiz in order to promote healthy, effective learning and combat the issues that online school caused.

I didn’t even know how to study for a test anymore, so I resulted to dropping classes — highly unlike my Type-A self. I didn’t figure this was much of an issue, and I’m only going to be in these columbia blue-filled halls for a few more months.

The first step for us students is to find our learning style again. Online tests can differentiate between visual, kinesthetic, reading/writing and auditory learners. Maybe your learning style evolved over quarantine. According to bau. edu, visual learners learn best with maps, graphs, diagrams and charts; kinesthetic with hands-on activities; reading/ writing with words whether that be writing or reading them and auditory when the curriculum is heard or spoken.

After finding learning styles, students should take the time to talk with each of their teachers in order to implement these in the classroom as well as self-reflection on their learning styles to apply them to their studying.

The only reason I could find any motivation to work hard again was for my future. I’m going to college, I have to know how to do this again. And college or not, everyone else does too.

Whether it be to pass high school classes, join the workforce, take a gap year or anything else, everyone needs to have an active learning mindset. Learning isn’t going to stop just because I’m not in high school anymore, and it won’t stop for any other student either. Whether it be the practicing of social skills we went without or the work ethic we began to lack, we need those skills on an everyday basis, and we must utilize our time in inperson school to get back on track.

High school flies by, everyone says it, and senioritis makes it that much worse, but we can’t let our last years before adulthood leave us unmotivated and confused.

that year, what is normal?

Lack of motivation and Sitting in a classroom was actually far from normal.productivity Getting are lasting results of to ask a teacher a question in person, getting to say hi to my

TO

11

online school that can be mended by implementing a student’s learning style

LEARN AGAIN

12 PHOTOSTORY

THE HARBINGER

design by maggie merckens

SHARE hosts the annual Mr. KanSAS to collect soap and shampoo for Giving The Basics, a non-profit organization L E F T Senior Finn Sullivan walks out on stage as the SHARE execs announce him as Mr. IB after he was interviewed by Jack Rhodes and Ryan Ward. “My favorite question was definitely what my favorite shoes were,” Sullivan said.

“They are crocs.”

PHOTO BY RILEY ECK

SHOWCASE

A B O V E S e n i o r B ra d y Smith ta ke s i n t h e applause a f te r h e w i n s the kiddy p o o l ra c e a s Mr. Swim . “ I j u st h a ve to thank al l my f r i e n d s for bring i n g a s m u c h shampoo a s p o s s i b le , ” Smith s a i d . “ T h ey wanted to g u a ra nte e a win th is ti m e . ” PHOTO

BY MACY CROSSER

SCAN ME • PHOTO Use this QR code t o p u rc h a s e p h o t o s f ro m t h i s eve n t o n H a r b i e Photo

A B O V E S e n i o r C h r i sto p h e r A l ka , w h o wa s re p re s e nte d a s M r . B a n d , plays t h e t r u m p et fo r h i s ta le nt . T h e ot h e r p a r t i c i p a nt s sto o d b e h i n d h i m wa ving the i r a r m s a nd ph o n e f las h li ght s . P HOTO BY RILEY ECK

A B O V E Senior Brady Smith’s swim team brought over 100 bottles of shampoo for Smith to be crowned Mr. KanSAS, winning th e p a g ea nt. PHOTO

BY MACY CROSSER

A B O V E Senior Jack Rhodes, one of the SHARE execs running the annual Mr. KanSAS, interviews senior Tommy Moreland, who was represented as Mr. Golf at the pageant.

“It was really fun to have a combo of being around my good friends and while also being able to give back to the community,” Rhodes sa id . PHOTO BY MACY CROSSER

S T E P H A N I E WA R D E N , D . D . S

(SME Class of 1989)

(913) 825-2500

wardendds.com

2200 West 75th Street, Suite 101 Prairie Village, Kansas 66208

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WE DIDN’T.

14 FEATURE

THE HARBINGER

design by katie murphy photos by riley scott and liv madden

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS F R E S H M E N I N P H OTO S

A CT S O F K I N D N E S S

A look into a typical day for East freshmen

*in partnership with Homegrown Kitchen Be chosen for doing an act of kindness to be awarded a gift card from Homegrown Kitchen — nominations via Instagram poll

THIS WEEK’S WINNER: PAU L W U SENIOR TOP LEFT F re s h m a n Ava S e a y h o ld s a f ro g a s s h e o b s e r ve s i ts s k i n fo r t h e di s s e ct i o n u n i t of B i o lo gy .

PHOTO BY CAROLINE MARTUCCI TOP RIGHT F re s h m e n M a e A u d u s , E l le n B ows e r a n d M a e B le d s o e c h e c k s o c i a l m e d i a w h i le ta k i n g a q u i c k b re a k f ro m wo r k i n g o n t h e i r p re s e nta t i o n fo r J u n i o r B o a rd i n t h e l i b ra r y d ur i n g W IN s e m i n ar t i m e .

PHOTO BY CLAIRE GOETTSCH BOTTOM LEFT F re s h m e n H e n r y D u c h e n e , L a n d o n Ro m e ro a n d N i c k Tr u e j o ke a s t h ey wo r k o n t h e i r H o n o rs B i o lo g y a s s i g n m e nt .

PHOTO BY CLARA PETERS

F E AT U R E D U N I Q U E TA L E N T JACK KESSLER S O P H O M O R E J U G G L E S TO I M P R OV E H I S L AC R O S S E - G OA L I E GA M E

WHY DID YOU LEARN HOW TO JUGGLE? I wanted to become a better lacrosse goalie. That’s the only reason. It helps with hand eye coordination. It’s more of a warm up. I started playing lacrosse in eighth grade because I heard that the East team was in need of a goalie. Every good lacrosse goalie juggles, so my coach was like, ‘Go juggle.’ He definitely encourages it. I learned on YouTube. I can juggle three balls with two hands or two balls

SURPRISED A FRIEND BY BRINGING THEM LUNCH ON A R A N D O M S C H O O L D AY

RUNNERS UP: CHARLIE MUEHLBURGER SOPHOMORE HELPED FRIENDS WITH A D I F F I C U LT H I S T O R Y ASSIGNMENT

M A D DY ANGELL SOPHOMORE SPENT FREE TIME H E L P I N G A C L A S S M AT E WITH A CHEMISTRY WORKSHEET

M A E AU D U S FRESHMAN COMPLIMENTED A C L A S S M AT E ’ S H A I R

with one.

WHERE DO YOU JUGGLE? Just on the fields before games, not really at home. At most, for like five minutes. Sometimes it’s a weird competitive thing with the goalie on the other team. When you’re staring at the goalie all the way down on the other end of the field, it can be like, ‘Who’s going to drop a ball first?’

HOME

GROWN

C h e c k o u t H o m e g ro w n K i t c h e n ’s menu and website to see what the local daytime eatery with t h re e l o c a t i o n s a ro u n d KC h a s t o of fe r

FEATURE 15

MARCH 28, 2022 design by celia condon photos by lily mantel

STOCKIN’ GRIFFIN

INVESTED

$40 IN MADE G A M E S T O P.

$1,000

by a n n a mi tchel l PATIENTLY SITTING

sophomore Griffin King taps his foot as he waits for the routine buzz that comes every 15 minutes to update him on his 20 shares in Nestle stocks. Buzz.

Buzz. King looks down at his watch to see if Nestle’s stock price has spiked or plummeted. Good news. They’d only gone up.

King has been tracking these profit increases since 2019 when he opened his account under his parents account — due to legality with age. He first invested in Nestle — a nutrition, health and wellness company that engages in preparing food and medical goods — marking the start of his stock market career. King carefully

JUNIOR MICHAEL NEWBOLD grew up overhearing his parents discuss their profiting shares in businesses and constantly talk about the stock market. The talk of big businesses and their market sparked little to no curiosity in Newbold. Freshman year, Newbold took Introduction to Business and was introduced to the “Stock Market Game,” a simulation taught in the class. He finally began to grow interested, and with the help of his parents, he opened up an account under their name. “[The game] made me think ‘That’s pretty cool, this is a pretty good life skill, I should learn [more about] this,’” Newbold said.

Prior to the class, Newbold strictly thought “green good, red bad” after seeing the stock

JACK

INVESTED

$2,000 IN MODERNA.

MADE

$15,000

AT at his desk,

UP

watched social media posts and news outlets praising the good work the company had been doing in Africa with giving them condensed milk since the 1880s, employing locals and trying to solve poverty and HIV/AIDS. King fell in love, wanting to give back to Nestle.

“I thought, ‘How do I support them?’”

King said. “You can support them by buying Nestle products, or by Tweeting at them but what I thought of doing is [buying] some of their stock.”

King has now made over $1,000 off of an initial $40 investment. King also invested in GameStop in January of 2020, making an additional $100.

With the market closing at 3 p.m. here, King has his own superstition of only

market charts of rising and falling stock prices on National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations — an American stock exchange based in New York. However, after finally sitting down at his kitchen table and investing his own $2,000, Newbold began to dig deeper into how the market works and now watches not only those green and red lines, but more closely watches his money fluctuate throughout the day.

“It’s rewarding to just participate in it, and it’s even more rewarding when you actually make money,” Newbold said. “That incentivizes me and probably many other people to participate.”

Newbold invests in Pharma — the pharmaceutical industry — and some defense DURING THE PANDEMIC lockdown, senior Jack Rhodes quickly grew tired of spending all day at home on his phone or searching for a new show to binge watch — he wanted a better way to spend his time. He had seen all over the internet and social media that the stock market prices had dropped immensely, which

Highlighting students who are invested in the stock market, how they got involved and what it means to them

contractors and oil companies due to those being easier for him to track.

Since he picked more steady companies for the most part, Newbold checks his stocks weekly or biweekly. Although, if something hits headlines he quickly checks up on his investments.

As Newbold grew up, he watched the online stock market grow in popularity with not only the interest of adults but the interest of everyone.

Now, Newbold has made at least $1,300, following in his parents footsteps.

spiked his interest. Then it hit him: he should take hold of the opportunity.

Always looking for a way to make a few extra bucks, the stock market stood out to Rhodes. After seeing the market all around him on the news, social media and enjoying researching businesses’ growth and numbers, this was the perfect opportunity for Rhodes. With the help of his parents, he opened up an account and began his stock market journey.

“I’ve watched movies and stuff like ‘Wolf of Wall Street,’” Rhodes said. “I feel like I’m a very numbers-oriented person. I’m really interested in that type of stuff. I’m always trying to find a new way to make extra money.”

purchasing shares after 6 p.m. The purchase doesn’t go through until the next day when it opens, giving the business more time to possibly have an increase in their stock price, proving to benefit King tremendously so far.

Although King is keeping a close eye every day on not only his Nestle stocks, but all his shares through Yahoo Finance. He does an indepth evaluation of his investments monthly with the “stock calendar” to see which stocks are worth keeping and which to sell.

As a part of this strategy, King withdraws money from his Nestle stock, reinvests the majority and buys Nestle products with the other remainder of his jackpot. He continues to monitor his stocks and turn profit, keeping it all at the tip of his fingers with his devices.

MICHAEL INVESTED

$1,300 IN

PERSONAL

MADE

$14,000

Rhodes invested $2,000 for his first time with the hopes he would get to make easy money and fill his boredom. He invested in Moderna — which with luck was before they made the COVID-19 vaccine — as well as Apple, Tesla and some smaller companies along with a little bit of crypto-currency.

Now having made over $8,000, Rhodes stays invested in the stock market as his own kind of side hustle. He uses an app called Robinhood to track his stocks anytime and anywhere when the stock market is open. His goal is to keep investing for years until he retires, using his stacks of money made off stocks to live lavishly.

16 FEATURE by caroline wood FTER HALFTIME AT the girls basketball game against Lawrence

A

High School, East’s “crowd” consists of a handful of admiring middle schoolers and parents rushing from work to make it in time to catch the 5:30 p.m. game all in the parent and family section — the student section was almost completely empty. The Lancers were down 27-1.

Then third quarter ends. East is down 40-33 with an empty student section. As the game slips away, the girls resort to building off of each other’s energy to hype the team up.

They’re used to not typically having a student section to help with that, anyway. Within the last minutes of the game, the girls pushed each other to take more shots and defend from Lawrence’s drives. With six minutes left in the game, the girls are up 43-31, five junior boys — the first actual students in the student section — trickle in and sit down on the bleachers in the untaken front row.

The stands begin to fill with students dressed in per-theme flannels hoping to save themselves a good spot to watch the boys basketball game starting afterwards at 7:30.

Bolstered by their growing fan base, the girls went on a 10-1 run and ended up winning 64-63.

“Even though [girls basketball] didn’t really have that different of a record in the end [from the boys this year], it’s just kind of disheartening,” varsity basketball player and senior Tess Roman said. “I’m not saying as an excuse or anything, but I do feel like our girls teams, especially with basketball, play better when we have a crowd behind us, especially more at home.”

Girls sports receive the same amount of funding from the district as their male counterpart team and the girl athletes report matching the effort of the boys when practicing and playing. However, the girls teams receive visibly less acknowledgement and recognition than the boys, in both the crowd sizes and promotion on school social media accounts.

In an Instagram poll of 346 students, 88% said they attended a boys

basketball game this past season, while only 51% of 337 students went to a girls game. In a survey asking East students the reason for this disparity, the two most frequent answers were that the boys team was simply “better” or that there was less advertising for girls games than boys. This lack of attention comes from inadequate promotion and prejudices that the girls’ games aren’t as good as the boys’ and can cause girl athletes to feel added pressure and like their efforts don’t matter.

The game played on the court or the field is influenced by the crowd size as it determines the energy of their cheering, according to yell leader and senior Finn Sullivan. Sullivan tried to lead cheers at as many games as possible for both boys and girls basketball, but he’s noticed how the crowd sizes affect the cheering styles.

“If you go to basketball games, obviously, there’s a lot more people at the boys games and it’s a little more rowdy, because you [always] have the Pep Execs,” Sullivan said. “But really, at the girls games, there’s just not too many people there, so you can’t really do chants or anything like that, so it’s just kind of yelling. Which is still fun, it’s just a different type of crowd.”

Beyond the boys’ team’s standings in their seasons, another reasoning from the survey for why people didn’t go to the girls games is that boys are physically “better,” making for more entertaining games. According to “Sports Illustrated” senior writer David Epstein, due to testosterone, men are generally heavier and taller than women, which can lead to higher athletic performance.

Though there are athletic disparities between boys and girls, Associate Principal Dr. Susan Leonard believes that watching games should be about supporting your classmates and school rather than which game will be more fast-paced.

“As someone who really loves basketball, I think sometimes girls are more fun to watch because there’s a lot of strategy involved,” Leonard said.

“They aren’t just gonna power through the lane and dunk on someone for example, they’re gonna have to really match up and think about, ‘Okay, so

that player is really good so how are w find that really fun, but a lot of peop They just see the power.”

Varsity tennis player and junior Br finding that even if the players’ spee same, it’s still the same sport — it ca gender.

“With high school and professiona men’s sports because it’s more intere thing for the girls,” Langford said. “Ma or slight differences in how they play a game, and I think that if you enjoy a sp the female and male teams.”

Heated rivalries or not, girls g recognition as boys teams in Langfor school level either.

In 2019, it was recorded that 92% news and SportsCenter covered men by professors of Sociology and Gende Council, Maria A. Mears and Micha sports only aired a mere 5.6% of the ti “It just goes back to [the fact] that to take girls sports as seriously,” Fem player senior Ella Heide said. “The sc don’t — and like the world, the count girls sports as seriously as they do guy On top of biological differences, depending on the success of their sea the boys’ turnout for their top sport affected by how well they play, while t many games they’ve won.

SOMEHOW NEV 02

SME

BASKETBALL

e gonna play defense on her.’ You can le don’t know a lot about basketball.

ryson Langford agrees with Leonard, d and actions don’t look exactly the an be enjoyed no matter the athlete’s

al athletes, a lot of people watch only esting, fascinating, but it’s the same ybe they work on different techniques a certain sport, but it’s the same basic port, you should be able to enjoy both

ames have never gotten as much rd’s opinion, and not just at the high

of sports broadcasting done by TV ’s sports, according to a study done er Research Cheryl Cooky, LaToya D. el A. Messner. Meanwhile, women’s me. it’s hard for a group of teenage boys minist Club leader varsity basketball hool as a whole, in general, they just try, in general — no one really takes ys.” girls sports viewership also varies ason. Sullivan and Langford find that s of football and basketball isn’t as the girls’ crowd heavily relies on how

MARCH 28, 2022 design by celia condon

“For girls sports, it’s one thing to be an athlete, and then to have all this extra pressure on trying to perform just to receive the same amount of attention as guys,” Langford said.

E V E N T H O U G H [ G I R L S b a s ket b a l l ] d i d n ’ t re a l ly h a ve t h a t d i f fe re n t of a re c o rd i n t h e e n d [ f ro m t h e b oy s t h i s ye a r ] , i t ’s j u s t k i n d of d i s h e a r t e n i n g b e c a u s e , I m e a n , I ’ m n o t s a y i n g a s a n exc u s e o r a ny t h i n g , b u t I d o fe e l l i ke o u r g i r l s t e a m s , e s p e c i a l ly w i t h b a s ket b a l l , w e d o p l a y b e tt e r w h e n w e h a ve a c ro w d b e h i n d u s e s p e c i a l ly m o re a t h o m e .

TESS ROMAN

SENIOR

Heide believes that the disparity in this attention on boys sports compared to girls sports is also caused by the lack of promotion through social media and announcements of the girls games.

“I think the issue is, and one of the main differences is, everyone knows about our big boys rivalries,” Pep Exec and senior Maeve McGrath said. ”South has a huge rivalry and Rockhurst has a huge rivalry, so people get really excited for those games. Of course there are [girls] rivalries, but name a girls rivalry that we have, no one really knows about them.”

Despite the lack of natural hype around the girls team without intense rivalries, McGrath thinks a solution could be including the girls in the promotion of boys games and having a student section theme for both games to encourage the same energy at both.

Heide thinks that, although it was an issue at the beginning of the season, Pep Club and other promotion platforms did a much better job at including in the girl’s game times for the later games and hopes that next year’s Pep Execs continue to do so.

One of the most frequent ways athletes — high school, collegiate and

professional — garner more attention is through self-promotion to advertise times and locations of games.

When it comes to students promoting their games over the years, Leonard has noticed how the guys are more eager to advertise on social media and verbally, while the girls don’t speak up about it as much. Leonard noticed that she has to ask girls about upcoming games more often than boys who are generally quicker to bring it up.

“Women are just not going to be comfortable saying, ‘Oh, look at me,’ and I don’t know that I want to change that about women,” Leonard said.

“I think that that’s what makes us great; a strength with a lot of humility too. So I don’t want to change who we are, but I think we could bring each other up.”

Not only should girl athletes promote each other, but varsity soccer player and senior Maggie Nottberg feels that the boys should also put effort into promoting the girls teams as well rather than just their own.

“I think it’s just more kind of like a guy community type deal, which is not a downside,” Nottberg said. “It’s great to hype your friends up and hype people you know up, but I think it also needs to be a priority to hype your girlfriends up and everything and have your friends do it. We’re a community at East, and I think it’s important to cheer on everyone because everyone is working just as hard.”

Even with factors of promotion and gender stigmas playing into their turnout, Leonard challenges students to consider why they go to the games.

“I think we need to remind people or ask them a question: Who are you cheering for and why?” Leonard said. “Is it really for your entertainment value? Are you cheering for the Lancers because you love your friends, love your school and it’s a good way to spend your Friday? And I think most people would answer that it’s the latter, that we want to be good friends and we want to celebrate our friends doing things that they love.”

VER ENOUGH EAST

Girls sports teams are less recognized than boys teams on social media and in the bleachers, causing female atletes to feel under appreciated and pressured to perform

18 FEATURE

THE HARBINGER

design by lyda cosgrove photo from jason domingues

THE MAN BEHIND

THE CAMERA Shawnee Mission North sophomore Calen Dominguez has taken up video production and creates hype videos for East sports

by david allegri

N

IKON 80D CAMERA and press pass in hand, SM North sophomore and filmmaker Calen Domingues braced himself for the crowd of ripped shirts and white face paint at a classic rivalry game: East vs. Rock.

After attending Prairie Elementary and Indian Hills Middle School, Calen went to East as a freshman, but transferred to North because he wanted to experience a different atmosphere. He got involved with video production at North through filming and broadcasting their basketball games but was soon drawn to film other schools for the experience and fun of it. His videography brought him back to East — he couldn’t stay from the eccentric buzz of the Lancer student section brought him back to East.

Calen first filmed an East game when he decided he wanted to capture the infamous energy of the East vs. Rockhurst basketball game.

That crowd will be crazy.

The game’s gonna be wild.

I need to get in there.

“I picked up my camera bag and pretty much just walked in and started shooting,” Calen said. “I would have to say East [is my favorite crowd to film.] The crowd is just better there.

When you hear the crowd erupt with noise after making a shot, [it] adds to the hype of it all.”

SCAN ME • INSTAGRAM

C a l e n ’s I n st a g ra m a c c o u nt w h e re h e p ro m o t e s h i s hy p e v i d e o s fo r va r i o u s sports and teams

Calen displays his work through his Instagram account @calen.films. His East vs. Rock video has gained the most traction, amassing over 3,700 views and 181 story reposts as of March 23 from players and fans. This grew his name not only with East students but to other people in the community.

With all the recognition from that one video, he has been able to gain 430 followers in less than three months from filming videos for Bishop ward, North and East. and has even begun making money from filming collegiate/club sports teams.

“I’ve made a lot of connections and a lot of people have reached out to me wanting to film for them,” Calen said. “I’ve had Kansas City Community College reach out to me. I went out to shoot a scrimmage that they did, and I’ve also had Bishop Ward reach out to me for filming.”

As the notorious “man behind the camera,” he’s earned many fans in the East gym, including East’s basketball players themselves including junior and varsity basketball center Will Alexander.

“We’ll see him at the games and we’re like, ‘Oh Calen Films is here, we got to put on a show,’” Alexander said.

Senior and small forward Emmett Hill recognizes the effort and the amount of time that Calen puts into each video.

“Every time we got out of the locker room, he was always sitting there hyping us up before the game,” Emmett said.

Though most of his Instagram comment section is filled with praise from East’s student section and players, Calen still gets compliments from his friends at North.

“The North kids like it,” Calen said. “I’ve actually gotten multiple compliments. They really love my Rockhurst video, and I haven’t gotten any hate about filming other teams.”

Despite his growing social media following and newfound fans at East, Calen’s dad Jason Domingues, will always be his greatest support.

Jason can relate to Calen, being a photographer who takes pictures of anything from concerts to weddings. But although Calen creates content in a similar field, it’s not under his father’s influence despite being inspired by his overwhelming support.

“I’m really proud,” Jason said. “It’s really crazy he just landed. I want my kids to learn on their own and he just picked it up. I don’t know how he did it, he just taught himself.”

Jason loves Calen’s newfound independence, but it wasn’t always like this. Everything that he has created has been 100% using resources the school provided, and he learned how to use it solo through trial and error.

Calen’s work has also reached other professional photographers, who have reached out to Jason about the impressive quality.

“As soon as he posts something, I’ll know it,” Jason said.

“I know that he posts something because all my friends will text me ‘Calen did this,’ ‘Calen did that,’ ‘Calen’s awesome.’”

With his filming and editing style, he tries to be different by keeping his videos action-packed and intense.

“I like close-up shooting,” Calen said. “I like getting up close and personal. The shake definitely adds to the movement and hype of it. When watching a basketball game on TV the camera is still the whole time and kinda boring, but my footage is way more intense.”

Though Calen has natural tech-savvy abilities that allow him to pick up on the ins and outs of editing softwares, it still takes him up to five hours to finish a video — two hours to film and gather his content, then another three to compile each clip and edit it down into a 50-second video.

As for the future, Calen wants to increase the amount of film he shoots and experiment with filming other sports — specifically looking forward to football. He also wants to grow his business through his Instagram account, using it to spread his name. Calen used to be extremely dependent on others, but according to Jason, something clicked in him and he became independent very fast.

“Send it,” Calen said. “That’s what I did. I got no help. I just picked up a camera trying to do it on my own. Just do whatever you want to do. There’s no harm in messing up or not liking your work.”

EQUIPMENT CHECKLIST

Calen rents his equipment from Shawnee Mission North and works with whatever is available

canon eos 80d

can adjust lighting and exposure to his liking in any location

premiere pro adobe video editing software free on student macbooks

movo VXR10 microphone R10

external microphone for iphone, androids, cameras, camcorders, tablets and laptops

FEATURES 19

MARCH 28, 2022

design by campbell wood photo by riley eck

PUTTING HIMSELF ON

THE PAGE

AP U.S. History and Health teacher Alex Henton wrote a fictional novel with allusions to his personal experiences as a teen and shares his draft were estatic to eventually read his novel.

Henton was hesitant with the idea of sharing his book with his pupils. But after some thought, he decided he wanted his students to read it — after all, they are the target audience.

“I wanted to write things that would appeal to the kids I was teaching,” said Henton.

He finally relented to student requests and sent out a Google form. This included details to a meeting that students could attend if they were interested in reading the book. After finding that group of students, he shared h i s draft with them, along with a survey questionnaire to fill out — making it clear to the students that it wasn’t a requirement. It was the first feedback he’d receive on his story since starting it in 2018 One of Henton’s biggest influences in writing is his uncle, a writer and author.

His uncle gave him vital advice when he started taking up the side hobby — when you have a writing block, distance yourself from your writing.

STUDENT SURVEY

Thoughts from one of Henton’s students who read his book I CAN TELL that his b o o k i s d i re c t e d t o w a rd s h i g h s c h o o l e rs .

P ro b a b ly m o re u p p e r classmen because the b o o k re a l ly d o e s m a ke sense to me.

MARY CRONIN JUNIOR AND HENTON’S STUDENT WHAT IS THE BOOK LIKE SO FAR? MYSTERY/ACTION FAVORITE PART? GRIPPING PLOTLINE

“You gotta just let it breathe a little bit and then you have to go back and read it again,” Henton said. “So that’s what I did.”

Because he’s never had a deadline, Henton has never been in a rush to write, making it easy for him to try out different plot lines and leave time for the world around him to give inspiration. This also allows him time to meet with agents and potential publishing companies.

The book’s storyline is heavily inspired by real life — many of the characters and mini stories are widely based off of himself, with parallels to events and people from his past.

For Henton, this allows him to form a deeper connection to his book.

“The main character is me in an alternate universe, almost as if I had a different personality growing up,” Henton said.

While Henton is older than the character in his novel, it’s easier for him to think like a teenager and remember what it’s like to be a teen since his career surrounds him by them. Hearing stories and experiences from his students helps him understand how teens act in the present day.

Growing up, Henton

wasn’t as outgoing as his main character is — creating him was his way of creating the social version of himself he wishes he was. It was a way for him to inspire teenagers who don’t have as strong of a voice as they wish they did.

T H E M A I N C H A R ACT E R i s m e i n a n a lt e r n a t e u n i ve rs e , a l m o st a s i f I h a d a d i f fe re nt p e rs o n a l i t y g ro w i n g u p .

ALEX HENTON HEALTH & APUSH TEACHER Henton discusses mental health, learning and physical disabilities throughout the novel, in the hopes to bring comfort to teens who struggle with those challenges. By including characters who deal with real world issues, he believes it can bring awareness to struggles he can see students having.

“The people I was creating for my book were based on real people and not just 2D characters that don’t do much,” Henton said.

The publishing date for the book isn’t set, but Henton plans on publishing within the next two years — collaborating with publishing agents can be time-consuming and Henton takes inspiration as it comes, after all. But students look forward to reading about his adventures when the time is right.

PUBLISHING PROCESS The main steps Henton must complete to publish his book

1 2

WRITING A DRAFT FIND AN AGENT

3 4

REVISE EDITS PUBLISH NOVEL

BY THE NUMBERS Statistics on Henton’s book WHEN HENTON FINISHED HIS FIRST DRAFT OF THE BOOK

106

A

2018

by ma rissa liberda P U.S. HISTORY and health class teacher Alex Henton had a tab open on his MacBook titled “Beginning-of-the-year ice breaker questions” on the first day of the semester — right next to the tab that had been favorited and bookmarked on his desktop for four years: a Google Doc holding his 106-page novel.

So when the ice-breaker question he chose was “What’s a fun fact about you?”, he had his answer prepared.

“I’m currently writing a novel, and it’s almost finished.”

Henton’s novel hits close to home for him.

Titled “So Cold Down Along the Beach,” the young adult novel highlights his own high school experiences along with sharing stories from his teaching career.

The book follows a 16-year-old boy who has his life set out from the get-go.

“He’s got plans for the future, but he’s getting to that junior year of high school where you start to really buckle down and think about what you want to do,” Henton said. “He’s got this master plan, but then, throughout the summer before his junior year, certain things happen to him.

At first, his students only nodded and asked questions about the plot on the first day of the semester. But after winter break, when talk of his book filled discussion of teenage struggle and summer, the curiosity turned into fascination.

H i s students

NUMBER OF PAGES IN HIS DRAFT

20 FEATURE GEORGIE THE FARMS INSPIRATION

40

oney!

OH,

THOUSAND BEES

BLACK FARM

6 PER JAR $

SHARE sponsor Sheryl Kaplan is a beekeeper at her farm, Blackdog Farm

by ma g g ie k issic k

Z

IPPING UP HER head-to-toe bee suit, white rubber gloves and polka dot rain boots, SHARE sponsor Sheryl Kaplan was ready for the first hive check-in of the season.

For the last few months, Kaplan’s bees had spent the winter sealed in their four hives, staying warm and protecting their queens. But with the warm weather approaching, it was finally time for another bee season filled with checking on the hives, collecting honey and, of course, getting stung a few too many times.

Beekeeping is fairly new to Kaplan — she started five years ago. After wanting to spend more time outside of the city, she and her husband decided to purchase 80 acres of land in Mound City, Kansas. But with all this newfound space, Kaplan decided beekeeping would be the perfect hobby.

“Bees are very important to our environment,” Kaplan said. “Without bees, if the plants aren’t pollinated, then the plants won’t replenish themselves. Whether it’s vegetables, flowers or fruit trees, everything is pollinated. So having bees, I think it’s exciting that I get to somewhat be a part of that.”

Kaplan started her beekeeping journey by taking a class where she learned more about the lives of bees, their different jobs and how to manage a beehive. Then she purchased five frames of bees with a queen that had already mated.

Kaplan knows each hive has a hierarchy. Everyone tends to the queen, the leader and one who lays the eggs. There’s only one queen per hive and the strongest queen will persevere — after fighting the other prospective queens to the death. The rest of the bees can collect pollen, nurse the baby bees or haul out the dead bodies — a “beautiful system,” according to Kaplan.

Beekeeping itself takes three to five hours of commitment

for Kaplan every weekend.

“I really tend to kind of have a more hands-off approach [to beekeeping],” Kaplan said. “I don’t get into [the hives] if I don’t see a big need. So I really just check to make sure that they’re all living and I will occasionally take the whole hive apart and kind of explore the lower frames to make sure that the eggs are being laid correctly and see if there’s signs of the queen.”

Kaplan has four hives that she checks periodically.

Checking on them requires the same thing in each hive — making sure they’re not overcrowded and making sure the patterns of the eggs and nectar are correct on the frames.

Managing each hive is pretty routine, but that doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong.

I H AV E N ’ T G OT T E N b ett e r a t n o t g ett i n g st u n g . T h e b e e s t y p i c a l ly st i n g yo u w h e n t h ey ’ re p ro t e c t i n g t h e i r q u e e n o r t h e i r h o n ey . I ’ ve b e e n st u n g o n my h a n d s a n d fe et a f t e r h a r ve st i n g h o n ey , t h a t i t c h e d l i ke c ra z y .

SHERYL KAPLAN

SHARE SPONSOR

“The other day one hive had blown over and I noticed there were a lot of bees up by our house,” Kaplan said. “[The bees were] kind of pissy and very angry, and I had to set up the hive and rebuild it for them. But most of the time, if nothing’s wrong I don’t have to do much.”

Kaplan wears a protective bee suit to reduce the amount of times she gets stung. With her rubber boots, hooded suit and leather gloves, she’s able to somewhat protect herself from getting stung, but stings still happen almost everytime she handles one of her hives.

“I haven’t gotten better at not getting stung,” Kaplan said. “The bees typically sting you when they’re protecting their queen or their honey. I’ve been stung on my hands and feet after harvesting honey, that itched like crazy. I’ve been stung on the inside of my nose and my whole face kind of swelled up. That was not a good look. But getting stung is part of the process.”

Towards the end of each bee season in September, Kaplan is able to take her “rent” and harvest honey that the bees have produced. Kaplan harvests towards the end of each season so she can collect as much honey as possible — around two to three boxes of 60 pound honey.

With the honey, she’s able to make different flavors like spiced, cinnamon and lavender. She also discovered how common beeswax is in different products, so she collects the wax cappings inside the hive and makes candles, soaps and lip balms.

Being part of the Northeast Kansas Beekeepers Association, attending classes and going to bee stores allows her to interact with fellow beekeepers who have the same passion — interactions she wouldn’t get outside of beekeeping.

Kaplan is grateful for all of the benefits of beekeeping, and grateful that she gets to be a part of such a process.

Kaplan didn’t realize the impact of owning bees until she owned some, a hobby she stresses to anyone curious about beekeeping.

“One little bee can have such an impact on the world,” Kaplan said. “Whether on the environment and in the pollination of all the different plants to the things that we create, giving us the honey, the soap making, making all the different products from that one little one little being and also just the hierarchy of how they run their community, it’s taught me a lot.”

MARCH 28, 2022

design by peyton moore & elise madden photos by elise madden

A B O V E Kaplan u s e s a hive tool to push a p a r t the frames to pul l t h e m out to check fo r t h e queen. The quee n la ys her eggs in the lowe r box. “I was check i n g to see that there were s i g n s of the queen an d t h a t there was larva i n t h e frames and the e g g s , ” Kaplan said. The q u e e n can be hard to s p ot someti m e s . ” R I G H T Kaplan p u t s o n one of her three bee s u i t s .

She bought them o n l i n e an d f rom beeke e p e rs . com, which is loca te d i n Lenexa, Ka n s a s .

B O T T O M R I G H T Ka p la n uses the hive tool to p u s h apart the frames to c h e c k for the q u e e n .

A B O V E Three of Kaplan’s bee suits hang in her closet. “Sometimes the bees slip in a little space in the hood near the zipper,” Kaplan said.

I’ve gotten them in by my ankles inside my boots and caught in my hood before.”

LEFT Kaplan scrapes the honey and wax off of the frame into a bowl.

She has been saving up the wax for five years to create a candle.

22 A&E

THE HARBINGER

design by caroline wood photos from Amazon and IMDb

A&E HIGHLIGHTS Check out a student book review, upcoming shows and movies, Taylor Swift’s newest project and concerts students went to over break

BOOKS

BRIDGERTON SEASON TWO AU T H O R | MADEL INE MILLER

R E L E A S E DAT E | M A R C H 2 5

G E N R E | FA N TA SY

P L AT F O R M | N E T F L I X

PAG E C O U N T | 4 1 9

OLIVIA RODRIGO: DRIVING HOME 2 U

A n a d ve nt u re ret e l l i n g t a l e s of G re e k M y t h o l o g y , m o st ly f ro m “ T h e O d y s s ey , ” f ro m t h e p e rs p e c t i ve of C i rc e , a g o d d e s s of s o rc e r y

R E L E A S E DAT E | M A R C H 2 5 P L AT F O R M | D I S N E Y +

T H E L A N G UAG E I S ve r y a c c e s s i b l e .

I t r i e d t o t h e O d y s s ey a n d I d i d n o t g et p a s t t h e f i ve p a g e of i t , b u t [ C i rc e ] w a s re a l ly e a s y t o re a d a n d I fe e l l i ke i t ex p l o re s s o m e t o p i c s t h a t a re n ’ t re a l ly as mentioned

MOONKNIGHT SEASON ONE R E L E A S E DAT E | M A R . 3 0

in

P L AT F O R M | D I S N E Y +

MARIAM SUFI FRESHMAN

sw i f t ’s s o n g fo r t he s creen

up co m i ng a i r i n g s

b ook c lu b rev i ew

singers of

SPRING BREAK

Students’ thoughts on concerts that happened over spring break

DA R I U S R U C KE R I T WA S A M A Z I N G — o n e of t h e b e s t c o n c e r t s I ’ ve eve r been to — b e c a u s e h e j u st s o u n d e d t h e exa c t s a m e a n d i t w a s j u s t re a l ly f u n a n d t h e e nv i ro n m e n t w a s g re a t .

LULU MCKEE SOPHOMORE

D UA L I PA S H E R E A L LY P U T o n a c ra z y g o o d s h o w .

E a c h d i f fe re nt s o n g h a d a c o m p l et e ly d i f fe re nt t h e m e a n d s o m a ny c o st u m e s a n d b a l l o o n s fa l l i n g f ro m t h e s k y a n d c o n fe tt i .

EVAN PLATZ FRESHMAN

DO DIE I T WA S E XC I T I N G a n d e n e rg i z i n g a n d s h e h a s a re a l ly g o o d st a g e p re s e n s e .

ANNA WURST JUNIOR

MARCH 28, 2022

design by nora lynn photo by sophie lindberg and nora lynn

BILLIE LIVE

A review of Billie Eilish’s performance at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Ne. during her Happier Than Ever tour by sophie lindberg FTER HER 2020 tour was rudely interrupted after

A

only three shows, Billie Eilish went on to release several singles and an album entitled “Happier Than Ever” — a major contender for one of my favorite albums of all time. Though on the surface everything seemed to be changing — going from baggy clothes on the runway to a ballgown and a new take on her style of music — Billie’s concert definitely set the story straight.

She is the same energetic, free-spirited person.

Seeing her in concert was everything I wanted (pun intended) since getting tickets to her original tour in 2020. My expectations of an emotional performance, fully-invested crowd and completely unique and authentic show were exceeded instantly.

As I walked towards the building I could feel the bass from the opening band, DUCKWRTH, rattle the sidewalk below my feet.

Nobody ever goes to a concert for an opening act, but I have to say, DUCKWRTH’s vibe made it the best opener I’ve ever seen. The energy was contagious — the combination of partly Spanish influenced rap and pop created a soft yet intense sound.

When Billie first took the stage, I was close to tears.

The tension from the siren-like instrumental intro playing built up the anticipation of seeing her — for a split second — standing high in the stage rafters and provided me with the mind-numbing combination of excitement and the best kind of anxiety I’ve ever experienced. It went on for close to two minutes.

I was immediately blown away by the terrifying visuals of a dememted creature and black and white flashes spewing from the stage as “bury a friend” blared and the cheers morphed into thousands of voices singing in perfect unison.

The eye-catching, meaningful visuals carried on throughout the show and are seen especially in “all the good girls go to hell.” The song itself calls out humankind for mistreating the planet, and that was reflected perfectly through the videos of the effects of climate change taking up the whole stage.

I loved that she wanted an intimate connection with her fans, and for everyone to be truly present in

the moment to let go. Billie was fully transparent throughout the concert, her true self showing in ways I had never seen in any other artist. She seemed like a real person, not just an artist I’m a fan of — “Getting Older” displayed vulnerability as home videos and snapshots of Billie’s childhood flash across the screens, most of them never seen previously. During “when the party’s over,” she requested that everyone put their phones down for the song and be in the moment with her — she wanted to “see all of us.”

The true connection she has with her fans, or as she refers to them in several interviews, “friends,” is clear as daylight — especially in her performance of “Overheated.”

The secondary stage used a crane to raise her above the crowd, and while she sang, she looked down at us with what appeared as love and devotion.

And it’s not all show either — she took several breaks throughout the show to check on the crowd members and made sure that security was giving water bottles to those who needed one. None of this being is new to her philosophy of performance.

The message of her concert could be perfectly summed up by the conclusion of the show, the iconic “Happier Than Ever” guitar opening rang in the ears of the crowd only to be deafened by the voices. The crowd’s emotion while singing along to this song was unmatched by any other concert crowd I’ve been in — a definite ode to Billie’s ability to cater to her audience. As the song reached its climactic transition into the rock-inspired second half, the room erupted with the iconic line, “just f***ing leave me alone.”

We were all there to just have fun and let go. And I couldn’t imagine the concert going any other way.

TOP OF THE PERFORMANCE Sophie’s top five favorite songs from Billie’s performance

12345 Happier Than Ever

everything i wanted

Oxytocin

No Time To Die

Getting Older

A&E 23

24 A&E

THE HARBINGER

design by celia condon & gibbs morris photos by caroline martucci

EARRINGS

$14

*** * *

TRANSPARENT RESIN EARRINGS WITH REAL COLORED FLOWERS AND GOLDEN SPECKS THROUGHOUT.

* ****

KC LATINA SHIRT

$25

COTTON, LIGHTWEIGHT PINK T-SHIRT WITH SOFT AND FLEXIBLE FABRIC.

TOTE BAG

$ 30 *****

SOFT, PILLOWY LIGHT BEIGE BAG, THE PERFECT SIZE TO FIT A LAPTOP. STABLE AND CUTE.

LOVIN’

LUX by Mitsi is a newly opened jewelerybased business that sheds light on the Kansas City’s Hispanic culture

by lucy wo lf T’S EASY TO miss LUX by Mitzy — a hidden

I

gem of Latino culture in KC — in a row of red brick buildings on 6124 Johnson Drive. The small business with a Hispanic culture customer base had its grand opening on Feb. 22. The owner of the local boutique Mitzy Romero is hoping to spread the word about her shop that specializes in jewelry and knick-knacks that are perfect for gift-giving.

You’ll need to keep an eye out for the golden and baby pink lettering reading “LUX” on the storefront glass — the store doesn’t have an overhead sign for street and car viewing yet. A display overflowing with pink roses and green vines, along with a few pairs of Mitzy’s earrings, that welcomes shoppers who will likely be greeted by Romero herself upon entering.

The store is packed with homemade earrings, KC Latina shirts, souvenirs, tote bags and more.

Soft elevator music playing and scattered plants creates a calming shopping environment.

Romero clearly works on showcasing other small businesses with a large wooden table covered in varieties of handmade jewelry from local vendors — creating a refreshing change from large chain businesses. According to Romero, she values displaying the creations of other vendors and using her storefront to help them. Her next batch of vendors will start their collaborations with her this April.

I chose a gold hoop dangle with a transparent heart-shaped earring made from resin out of the options of acrylic, resin or wood earrings. All resin earrings by Romero are made with real preserved flowers and have a small number of golden flakes throughout. The earrings are priced from $12-14 and didn’t disappoint — they look like they were pulled straight from my Pinterest board.

The back of the store features a special Kansas City collection with shelves filled with KC earrings, small tacky pins, scented candles, tote bags and even stuffed gnomes dressed in Chiefs gear.

My personal favorite was the light beige tote bags, large enough to hold a laptop with a bolded black swirly font reading “Kansas City” plastered across the front of the bag. The soft, pillowy material with the lengthy tote shoulder straps makes the bag way more comfortable to bring around town than your average handbag. This collection allows buyers of LUX by Mitzy to display their KC pride all throughout the year.

Nearing the left of the large, center jewelry table are the faux green grass-covered walls with brown

LU X wooden shelves of decor upon them. Among the walls were racks of pink, black and gray cotton t-shirts made by a local artist who also makes other merchandise items in the store. The shirts on the racks include a group of soft pink “KC Latina” shirts, black “Yo Soy KC” shirts and seasonal green St. Patrick’s Day “Lucky” shirts.

Grabbing the soft pink “KC Latina” shirt off the rack to feel it, the smooth cotton t-shirt had five white and pink alternating rows of the bolded words “KC Latina” running down the shirt. The $25 shirts shows love to Kansas City and pays homage to Hispanic culture in a cute and universal way.

Adding to the Hispanic culture of the shop, items such as small “Latina” mugs, Day of the Dead KC art and colorful sewn homemade masks from Mexico are placed on display throughout the shop.

The way Romero effortlessly combines local KC pride and her Hispanic roots is nothing short of inspiring.

T H E K A N S A S C I T Y H i s p a n i c c u lt u re a r t t h ro u g h o u t LU X by M i t z y m a ke s t h e e nt i ret y of t h e s h o p fa l l i nt o p l a c e by b r i n g i n g o n e of Ka n s a s ’s p e r fe c t e l e m e nt s t o t h e st o re — t h e c i t y i t s e lf .

The Kansas City Hispanic culture art throughout LUX by Mitzy makes the entirety of the shop fall into place by bringing one of Kansas’s perfect elements to the store — the city itself. Tall glass office buildings, the Kauffman, Union Station, the Western Auto sign and even the large white and orange ‘Birdie’ from the Nelson-Atkins Museum all drawn into a Kansas City coffee mug in a white wooden frame brings the heart and soul of KC into her store.

As you make your final way around the store, a rose-themed photo wall featuring a light-up yellow and blue “LUX by Mitzy” sign and a ring light hangs for all your Instagram photo-ops to top off your shopping trip. It’s the perfect way to capture a photo of your recent purchase — I couldn’t help but get a shot to remember my trip.

Leaving LUX by Mitzy with a satisfied bag and heart, the newly opened jewelry-based business left me in awe wanting to make another trip back to the shop soon.

A&E 25

MARCH 28, 2022 design by paige zadoo

WELCOME

HOME Review of the new restaurant OurHouseKC, owned by East Alum Maggie Zahner and husband Joe Zahner

by avery an derson ECAUSE MY PARENTS, siblings and I

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are constantly busy with school work, jobs or extra curricular activities, a sit-down family dinner is something of a fantasy.

But when we heard about OurHouseKC, founded by East alumni Maggie and Joe Zahner, we decided to set aside the time in our schedules to experience the music and food of their increasingly popular restaurant at 1815 W. 39th St. in Kansas City, Missouri.

Upon stepping inside the tall, old building, I instantly felt comfortable and “at home.” The owners planned for the space to be an appealing atmosphere for friends, family or strangers to bond through food and song, which was a definite success. The exposed brick and wood gave the space an almost rustic feel while maintaining the warm and welcoming feel the red front door hints at.

Above all, the smell of the barbecued meat and the sound of the classic American tunes felt nostalgic — almost as if I was in a neighbor’s backyard on a summer night.

There were a considerable amount of people spaced out at tables throughout the open main level. A bar draped in calming pendant lights sat to the left of the majority of the seating. My family sat in a large booth beside a mural of a park painted by a local KC artist. On the lower level was a small bakery and coffee shop open Tuesday through Sunday — the perfect place to order a sit-down brunch or take a pastry to-go.

Sadly, the rooftop deck accompanied by a bar and mini-restaurant was closed, but odds are I’ll be back to see it this summer.

ABOVE The OurHouseKC mural painted on the back of the restaurant. PHOTO BY RILEY ECK LEFT The ordering area inside of the OurHouseKC restaurant.

PHOTO BY RILEY ECK

A B O V E The O u r H o u s e KC s p e c i a l B u rge r w i t h baco n .

PHOTO BY RILEY ECK

Both owners came from a background in barbecue-style cooking, so the menu is directed more towards meat-based entrees, but they made sure to incorporate items for many different tastes. As a family of six, we have a wide variety of preferences to say the least. Thankfully, Zahner took different diets into consideration when crafting the menu.

When ordering, I was pleasantly surprised with how many options they offered. There was everything from a classic Brisket Sandwich to a personalized pasta. I eventually settled on the OurHouseKC Burger. It consisted of fresh tomatoes, lettuce and onions which tasted unbelievable paired with the perfectlycooked patty and melted cheese.

Despite the normalcy of the meal, the burger had a more homemade taste than any burger you would find at Q39 or Jack Stack, adding onto the home-like feel.

Family is incorporated into every aspect of the restaurant, including the menu where names of the Zahners’ kids and parents are used as names for dishes. A drawing of the two co-owners, their four kids and dog is also on the menu under their slogan, “The perfect harmony of good beats, great eats, and smoked meats. Step out of your house and into OurHouseKC.” The table markers encapsulated colorful drawings of artists like Jimi Hendrix opposed to typical table numbers, adding a fun touch. Other tables had similar signs on them with celebrities like JAY-Z, Beyoncé and Dave Matthews. Once I noticed this little detail, I could hear Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” playing in the

background — tying it all together.

After finishing my burger, I moved onto the skinny fries. Each individual fry was perfectly seasoned — not too salty or too bland — and perfectly cooked — crispy but not dry.

We couldn’t leave without ordering a to-go meal which we enjoyed together the next night. The Smoked Chicken Pot Pie had just as much praise as our meal in the restaurant did. It was a tasty twist on a classic American dish with smoked meat and a flaky and buttery crust.

“Every day I see my friends, their families, my family and our regular customers creating these great friendships,” Zahner said. “And it has become just like a home.”

Although my meal didn’t require it, hot sauce called H Sauce from a local supplier was placed at each table. I found comfort in knowing they were supporting local businesses.

Even though we weren’t sitting in our dining room, it felt homey and conversation flowed in the comfortable environment.

When we realized just how long we had sat there just conversing, we all agreed to come back as soon as possible to get away from the distractions that home provides and enjoy a long dinner together.

My family and I all had incredibly high praises for the food, atmosphere, music and overall experience. Anyone looking for a night out with friends, family or colleagues would enjoy the food and benefit from the easy-going nature of OurHouseKC.

UPCOMING

EVENTS

*according to ourhousekc owner

APRIL 17 MAY

1

EASTER BRUNCH

no reservations, 10AM-3PM

LIVE MUSIC starting in May every Tues, Thurs and Sat

OURHOUSE FUN FACTS *according to ourhousekc.com

FAMILY-OWNED

husband & wife, Maggie and Joe Zahner founded it

BEST PATIO IN KC voted in the KC Star as one of the best patios in KC

LOCAL SUPPORT at each table sits sauces from local businesses

26 LOCAL LANCER

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? AND WHY IS IT YOUR NAME? My name is Charlie Muehlberger. My birth name is Charles, but my mom, ever since I was a baby, just wanted to call me Charlie. There’s not really any significance to Charles. But my middle name is Robert. My dad has an uncle who was his favorite uncle, and his name was Robert but they called him Bob. He was just a funny guy. The whole family liked him a lot. I’m named after him.

HOW DID YOU START PLAYING THE SOUSAPHONE? WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT IT? For marching band and at basketball games, I play the Sousaphone. My band teacher was in class talking about the next marching band season at the beginning of the year. He was talking about how they need more Sousaphone players. And I was like, ‘I’ll do it.’ I’ve been playing brass instruments since fifth grade, and I’ve always thought it was a cool instrument. I like being able to stand out. It’s an instrument that’s kind of hard to miss. When I stand it on the ground, it probably goes up to my neck. Attention always feels good. Usually I’m not in the student section, and all my friends are since all of them are in band. They always wave to me. And I can wave back to them.

WHAT’S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE PART ABOUT PLAYING IT? It is definitely very heavy, especially at 7 a.m. before school at marching band practice. It’s heavy, and that early in the morning I don’t want to be carrying it around and playing it. But I still enjoy it.

WHAT’S YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT? I’ve definitely ran into a few door frames. Also, in the band hallway, there’s a ramp that slants upwards, but the ceiling stays the same height. There’s a couple times I’ve ran into that too, and I’ve definitely dinked my instrument a few times.

WHAT’S YOUR GO-TO JOKE? I like to say your mom jokes a lot. When people ask things like ‘Who are you talking about?’ or ‘What are you talking about?’ I say your mom. I think it’s kind of funny.

WHAT WOULD A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE BE CALLED? “Short Kid, Big Ambitions.” With lot of my friends, I’m known for being shorter. They like to joke about it a lot. But I also like to think that I have big goals in life and I want to do big things.

IF YOU COULD BE ANY CELEBRITY, WHO WOULD YOU BE AND WHY? Timothee Chalamee. I like acting. Plus all the girls are obsessed with him. Or I would be any famous musician because I like music and it would be cool to be well known in the music industry.

THE HARBINGER

design by sydney newton photos by rachel bingham & charlotte emley

BERKOWITZ OLIVER LLP. “Litigation with a fresh perspective” 816.561.7007 berkowitzoliver.com

28 SPORTS

THE HARBINGER

design by anna mitchell

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS

SP ORT S IN ACTI O N

A look at East’s sports, March Madness and a featured athlete

BRACKET TIME Junior Charlie Duske’s bracket he created and its details

$10 ENTRY FOR EACH PLAYER WITH A JACKPOT OF

$410

A FEW OF THE PARTICIPANTS I MADE IT because I

ABOVE F re s h m a n C h r i st i a n B refo rd st retc h e s o n t h e f i e ld b efo re h i s b a s e b a l l t r yo u t .

PHOTO BY LILI VOTERO L E F T Junior Will Feagans lo o ks b a c k a t h i s d efe n d e r s e n i o r B re c k M c G u i re a s h e d efe n d s t h e s h ot d u r i n g p ra ct i c e .

F e a g e n s wa s u n a b le to s c o re o n M cG u i re .

PHOTO BY CHARLOTTE EMLEY

A B O V E Senior Jord a n J e n k i n s s e r ve s t h e ball during warmup s w i t h h i s p a r t n e r to p re p are to play. PHOTO BY LIV MADDEN

CHARLIE DUSKE JUNIOR

I JOINED THE

CATE HOLZBEIERLEIN JUNIOR

FE AT U R E D AT HLETE G UND E RM AN S E NI O R VA R S I T Y SWIM CAPT AIN

Q A

W H AT I S YO U R M A I N G OA L A N D P R I O R I T Y F O R T H I S SW I M S E A S O N ?

I re a l ly w a n t t o w i n S t a t e b e c a u s e w e ’ ve h a d g o o d c h a n c e s i n t h e p a st a n d w e h a ve a re a l ly g o o d c h a n c e t h i s ye a r .

Q A

A S S E N I O R VA R S I T Y T E A M C A P TA I N , W H AT A R E YO U D O I N G TO L E A D T H E T E A M ?

I ’ m j u s t m a k i n g s u re t h a t t h e t e a m i s u n i f i e d a n d eve r yo n e i s t a l k i n g t o eve r yo n e a n d m a ke s u re t h a t w e a re i n c lu s i ve w i t h t h e e n t i re team.

Q A

b ra c ket b e c a u s e [ my f r i e n d ] Re e s e B i rc h w a s i nvo lve d . . . a n d fo r t h e m o n ey o bv i o u s ly .

I J O I N E D B E C AU S E

photo by rachel bingham

MEG

l ove M a rc h M a d n e s s and college b a s ket b a l l . I ’ ve b e e n a b i g fa n s i n c e I w a s a l i tt l e b oy . I g ot my i n s p i ra t i o n f ro m my g ra n d m a b e c a u s e s h e d o e s a fa m i ly o n e eve r y ye a r .

THOMAS GOGEL JUNIOR photos by riley eck

I fe lt l i ke I w a s g o i n g t o w i n . U nfo r t u n a t e ly , I a m n ot d e a d l a st , Charlie is, but I’m ve r y c l o s e . F o r s o m e re a s o n I ’ m s o b a d eve n t h o u g h I c a re s o m u c h .

W H AT H A S B E E N YO U R FAVO R I T E PA R T O F B E I N G O N T H E T E A M AT E A S T ?

THEIR BRACKET NAMES: CHARLIE

39TH THE NEW FIRST

H o n e s t ly , m e et i n g t h e p e o p l e I h a ve . T h ey ’ re a l l s o n i c e a n d i t ’s j u s t f u n [ t o h a ve ] t e a m spirit.

CATE THOMAS

SLAY TROPHY FOR TEHAN

SPORTS 29

MARCH 28, 2022 design by addie moore photo by julia fillmore

FAMILY

G ALS Competitive sibling bond pushes sophomore Claire Schudy to excel as the starting varsity lacrosse goalie

by katie murphy

B

ROWN AND PURPLE. A four by fiveand-a-half inch bruise streaking down freshman Topher Schudy’s thigh — he’d just measured.

It was the best one yet.

“You have to come see this one.”

Ogling the lacrosse battle scar, sophomore Claire Schudy rolled her eyes.

As usual, her little brother’s blemish was bigger than the ones dotting her legs.

They’d been comparing bruises since fourth grade when they switched from lacrosse defenders to goalies. She was used to his being more impressive — she knows boys play a different game, shooting harder and faster and from longer distances.

Still, she wasn’t going to admit anything, pulling her pajama pant leg up with a smirk.

“Well, look at this one.”

The playful competition with her brother Topher — in more than just bruise comparison — has shaped the girls’ varsity lacrosse goalie, Claire.

Claire and Topher have always competed. First it was Corinth basketball.

Then, math assignments at Kumon. Getting to pick the takeout restaurant for dinner. If Topher got a football trophy, Claire had to get a spirit award to even it out.

So it was no surprise that when Claire didn’t have to compete for the starting varsity goalie position, she competed anyway.

The first thing she noticed at lacrosse tryouts her freshman year was that she was

the lone player fully geared up. The absence of the returning varsity senior goalie, who decided to drop last-minute, was apparent.

Claire was quite literally East’s only option — no competition. But the thought of slacking didn’t cross her mind.

“I didn’t want people to be like, ‘She’s our only goalie. She sucks,’” Claire said.

“I knew I had to prove myself and put in extra effort because I didn’t want to be the pathetic freshman that they didn’t want but just had to have.”

Before she knew she’d be the only freshman starting on varsity last year, she’d attended Rockhurst University Coach Sean McNamara’s “Team Tendy” goalie-specific practices with 10 other local goalies that past winter.

Originally, only Topher worked with McNamara. Claire didn’t have to spend those three extra hours a week practicing — she was going to be on JV, after all.

But Topher was doing it, so Claire joined practice one month later to work on footwork, stick handling and clears.

“At those practices, we were always put with the younger groups,” Claire said.

“But, I didn’t mind because I wouldn’t do it if Topher wasn’t there anyways. It’s nice to know that someone’s there with you and you’re not roaming around alone.”

Out of McNamara’s 23 years of coaching goalies, the Schudy’s are the only siblinggoalie pair he’s ever met. He believes that the special case of an already-rare position creates a unique advantage.

GOALIE

#"()

Goalies shout out unique sayings to communicate to the rest of the team

“As goalies, they only watch the ball so it’s hard for themselves to evaluate how they’re playing during games,” McNamara said. “They help each other understand the good and bad habits that they’re forming without watching hours of film.”

After those practices, Claire drove them home as they discussed the new technique of the day or joked about which goalie “ate it” the worst while snacking on postpractice apple slices. At home, they still practice drills in their backyard or driveway.

Not even their parents understand all of their “goalie talk.”

Despite playing the same position, Topher is more aggressive, secretly longing to make it out of the circle and down the field to score one day, whereas Claire likes to take her time watching the game and getting in stance early, according to their dad Chris Schudy. He’s proud of the way they’ve rubbed off on each other out on the field.

“The other day, Claire’s team was winning by almost 15 points and her teammates were saying to slow down,” Chris said. “But she was like, ‘No, keep it going,’ which was a little bit of Topher’s aggressiveness coming through.”

Her mom Brandi Schudy gets choked up talking about Claire’s growth as a goalie, especially the time Claire got injured and taken out of the championship game last season. The crowd started chanting, “We want Claire!”

“She ran back out on the field with

*+",-

EVERYONE LEAVE YOUR PERSON AND DEFEND THE PERSON WITH THE BALL

her goalie stick up, pumping her arms,” Brandi said. “She belonged there more than anything, even though she was a freshman on varsity.”

Topher, smiling from the stands, was still proud of his practice partner and number one competitor even after her team lost the game.

“I’ve never been in a situation like Claire was then,” Topher said. “It was a cool moment.”

Claire’s growth goes beyond just getting up after being hit down — she’s also emerged as a team leader. East Coach Lance Turpin noticed Claire call a timeout to say “Hey, we need to get it together” during a tough game last season.

“Coaches normally call the timeouts,” Turpin said. “So I was really impressed with the leadership from a freshman. Most girls would worry about calling that time out, let alone a freshman girl.”

This season, Claire is looking to take care of “unfinished business,” the team slogan, after losing that championship game last season as the returning varsity goalie. This summer, she’ll travel with Top Gun — a top high school club lacrosse team. Topher will be starting his first high school season as the JV goalie.

When Claire walks past Topher’s room, sometimes she peeks in to compare the grandeur of the trophy case on her dresser to the one above his bed — it’s a reminder to keep competing.

!"#$%#$&' *(!"+ GOALIE GETS HIT WITH THE BALL WHILE BEING

GOALIE HAS THE BALL AND NEEDS TO GIVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE

IN A

30 SPORTS

NEW C LUB

THE HARBINGER

design by christian gooley

Sophomores Jack Kessler, Sam Streiler and Connor Bykowski started the Fly Fishing club after spending years fishing together.

by ka te heitmen “SALMON SAM” “Halibut Hayden” “Jackall Jack” The members of the Fly Fishing Club went around in a circle introducing themselves. Their task was to add a type of fish in front of their name that starts with the same letter.

It was a special day — they’d be casting their fly fishing rods and lines for the first time. With the lack of rivers or lakes nearby, the football field was their best, and only, option for the meeting.

Sophomore Jack Kessler started the SME Fly Fishing Club in February. They’ve had four meetings so far, where they practice tying flies — which act as the bait in fly fishing — and casting.

Kessler along with sophomores Sam Streiler and Connor Bykowski have been fishing since they were 3 years old.

However, they just started fly fishing together three years ago. Together, they take float boats and tents to go on fishing trips in Arkansas, often dedicating two full days to fishing.

When school was canceled due to inclement weather in February, they went on an impromptu fishing trip, waking up at 6:30 a.m. that Saturday to make the drive to the White River in Arkansas — their favorite fishing spot. They’ll go out in their float boat, which they crafted out of a canoe, one time staying up until 5:30 a.m. to mouse for brown trout.

They’d spent years spinner-rod fishing — what most people think of when they hear “fishing.” However, once they discovered fly fishing, they couldn’t go back.

“We were the only people that I knew that were really into fly fishing,” Kessler said. “We started a club to see if anyone else is interested in it, and a couple [of] people started coming.”

They want to be able to not only share with others the technical aspects of how to tie a clinch knot or a surgeon loop but also lead them to experience nature.

“Through fly fishing, me and my friends, we spend tons of time outside in nature fly fishing, and I think it’s really special to be able to be outside all the time,” Kessler said.

“A lot of people would really like the opportunity to interact with nature, but without an avenue to fly fish, they wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity and be stuck inside.”

At their March 22 meeting, 12 students attended — their largest group yet. They’ve started an Instagram account @

smeflyfishing where they post their latest individual catches.

“Right now it’s mostly just kind of teaching people about fly fishing but people are getting into it,” Kessler said.

At their first meetings, Kessler brought tying materials and the club followed along YouTube tutorials to tie a fly.

At their latest meeting, they went out onto the football field armed with fly rods. Each member practiced casting a line out onto the turf (minus the hooks, of course). According to Kessler, the movement of the line, often between 50 or 100 feet long, is all in the wrist.

“A lot of people see people cast it on the air but don’t realize how hard it is,” Kessler said. “So there’s [a] surprise

W E W E R E T H E o n ly p e o p l e t h a t I k n e w t h a t w e re re a l ly i nt o f ly f i s h i n g . We s t a r t e d a c lu b t o s e e i f a nyo n e e l s e i s i nt e re st e d i n i t , a n d a c o u p l e [ of ] people started coming.

JACK KESSLER

SOPHOMORE

but then also they found out how fun it was when they can actually get the line to go where they want it to go.”

The satisfying moment when the line was cast all the way across the field made the difficulty worth it even for those inexperienced with fishing or who normally spinner-rod fish.

“We hadn’t been casting before so I think that really brought in more people,” Streiler said. “People just saw us casting out on the field and just wanted to try it out.”

With the weather warming up and hosting their first successful casting event, they plan to increase their meeting times from once a month to every other week. They hope to eventually be able to take the club to Shawnee Mission Park or a pond or river nearby to practice the skills they’ve learned during seminar on a real pond — not just a turf field.

However, all fishers over the age of 16 must have a fishing license, posing another challenge for the club. Until then, you can find the fly fishing club out treating the turf field like a fish-filled river in Arkansas.

Jack Kessler and Sam Streiler celebrate their fish after a big catch on the lake. PHOTO FROM JACK KESSLER

GET PACKI N G

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SPORTS 31

MARCH 28, 2022 design by elle gedman photo by rachel condon

BRACKETINGAND BONDING Senior Luke Audus started a March Madness bracket for seniors to as friendly competition for the last few months of school

by luke beil

M

ARCH MADNESS. THE of chaotic watch parties, big upsets and even bigger bets — all revolving around one’s luck and strategies. In other words, it’s bracket season.

Senior Luke Audus, the current organizer of a bracket of 38 seniors, knows it better than anyone.

Audus started watching college basketball at around 10 years old, surrounded by the March Madness from his dad, an avid University of Kansas basketball fan. Once Audus started watching the tournaments, he got involved in March Madness brackets, and started making small family bracket challenges each year.

“There is just a lot of heart in it, it’s huge and chaotic and I just enjoy watching the games and my bracket,” Audus said.

After seasons of bracket challenges with close friends and family, Audus decided to bump it up a level by creating a larger and more official bracket with a group open to anyone in his senior class.

“There is more at stake and more competition with a bigger bracket, so I just asked if any of the seniors wanted to do it and have a good time with it,” Audus said.

Luke’s bracket group includes a mix of seniors who watch college basketball and some who don’t. In order to recruit members, Audus sent the link to join his bracket in the senior GroupMe as well as the assassins GroupMe. All seniors have to do is pay $5 to buy in — the pot currently stands at $115. Audus’s ultimate goal is to bring the senior class together despite varying levels of commitment to basketball.

I’m just here to get as many people to have a good time with it,” Audus said.

For Audus, filling out his bracket is a combination of knowledge and favoritism. While he fills out his brackets using his prior information

BRACKET FACTS Facts about the brackets in the senior pool

PRICE TO PLAY

he knows about the teams, he still favors Kansas — being a lifetime fan. He’s been picking them to win since he was 10, it’s a nonnegotiable.

Although Audus takes filling out his bracket seriously, he also fully encourages other seniors to use fun ways of making a bracket, such as favorite mascots or team colors.

He believes that keeping brackets lighthearted is the most valuable mindset in March Madness, far more important than having the winning lineup.

“I help my sisters who are five years old fill out their brackets,” Audus said. “I’ll ask questions like, ‘Blue or red?’ or ‘Blue hens versus wildcats?’ which they get pretty excited about.”

Senior Sam Huntley joined Audus’s bracket because he thought it’d be a good way to have friendly competition with people he wouldn’t

$5

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

usually have a bracket challenge with.

“I watch a lot of March Madness, but I’m getting beat by people who probably haven’t watched a single college basketball game,” Huntley said

T H E R E I S J U S T a l ot of h e a r t i n i t , i t ’s h u g e a n d c h a ot i c a n d I j u st e n j oy w a t c h i n g t h e g a m e s a n d my b ra c ket .

LUKE AUDUS

SENIOR

Huntley hopes that other senior classes in the future do a bracket challenge similar to what Audus has done. He thinks it brought a good group of seniors together because a wide variety of students joined in on the fun.

Senior Maeve McGrath is also competing in Audus’s bracket and has been a big college basketball fan her whole life. McGrath’s favorite part of the bracket challenge is trash talking her fellow seniors.

“It’s just fun to see how other people’s brackets are doing and have bragging rights when you pick up on an upset,” Mcgrath said.

McGrath agrees that this bracket challenge becomes a tradition for seniors at East in the future.

“I’m all about doing things as a school and a grade and a community, so this is just another activity that’s fun and brings people together,” McGrath said. “And it will be even more fun when I win it.”

When Audus started this bracket challenge, he had no intent of it becoming something that the senior class would do each year. However, he’s by no means against having this friendly competition be carried for future classes.

“It’d be really cool if the seniors got together and did this year after year, or maybe even the whole school could do a bracket pool,” Audus said”. But that’s up to whoever would want to carry this on.”

38

AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THE POOL

$ 115

32 ALT COPY

THE HARBINGER

design and copy by celia condon

HARBINGER

THINGS

WANT TO SEE your name

on this byline? This April, take the opportunity to become a part of East’s highly-regarded journalism program and join the award-winning and nationally recognized Harbinger publication.

While we all love seeing our

TO LOOK FORWARD

TO IN 4TH QUARTER It’s officially the last quarter of the year, and debatably the most eventful. Here are a few things you have to be excited about:

ASSASSINS

9,

REMEMBER

participating seniors. Keep your eye out for updates on Twitter and Instagram, @smeassassins22.

THIRD LIP DUB

G R A D U AT I O N

MAY 17 is only a month and a half away. Our seniors are beginning to make final decisions about their plans for next year — work, college, a gap year and any other adventures in between are in store for the Class of 2022. At Shawnee Mission North’s stadium at 7 p.m., they’ll turn their tassels from the right to the left and sing the school song with their class one last time.

SOMEHOW,

APRIL

PROM

a significant other, a best friend or a new crush, put on your finest ball gowns and tuxedos and make a night of it. Grab a hamburger and fries from Winstead’s and drive over to Union Station to dance your heart out to a live band and DJ.

YEARBOOKS

A WEEK AGO, one of the highest

stakes traditions started at East — Assassins. Involving water guns, stealth and a whole lot of drama, this game is one of the most competitive events at East. The last standing survivor wins a $1,050 prize, pooled by the rest of the

East’s upperclassmen will be invited to the last dance of the 2021-2022 school year.

Themed “Enchanted Forest,” prom will take place from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., and tickets are priced at $40 a piece.

Whether you’re bringing ON

names attributed to these designs, stories, photos, videos and more, the behind the scenes work is where the real fun happens.

Pay attention to announcements around school r e g a r d i n g applications.

THOSE

TIMES

you were pulled out of class by a Hauberk staffer for an interview about your sport, club, unique talent, interesting story or even just a funny personality trait? It’s almost time to see those stories come to life on Hauberk’s distribution

day, date to be determined. If you didn’t pay for one at the beginning of the year, be sure to bring a check made out to SME Journalism for $70 to snag one of the extras. Be ready to reminisce on this... almost... normal year.

LACROSSE SCAN ME Scan h e re t o watch the 20172018 Lip Dub

EIGHT YEARS AGO, East’s student

body came together to create a “LipDub:” a music video intended to embody that generation of East. Four years later during the 2017-2018 school year, when our current seniors were in eighth grade, the video was remade. This once again showcased the generation of students. And now, the time has come again. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for announcements regarding the video on StuCo and Pep Club’s Instagrams.

IF YOU’RE A student section junkie and were sad for basketball season to come to a close, never fear. Boys and girls lacrosse is in full swing, and games are happening every week. Home games occur at

Westridge Middle School with themes organized by the Pep Club. USA, camouflage, blueout, tropical, western, neon: expect to dress if you intend on joining the boys and girls LAX student sections — no slacking allowed.

G R A D PA R T Y AFTER

WALKING

ACROSS

the stage and throwing their caps in the air on May 17, East’s graduating class will make their way over to the East gym to celebrate their diploma.

The “After-Grad Party” is full

of games, prizes and overall nostalgia for the Class of 2022.

Seniors, make sure to check for updates and announcements from @smeptsa on Instagram, and get ready to give some big hugs to your new fellow alums.