Feature
Volume 94
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For coverage of recent STEP fundraisers, a look at a studentled business, and a breakdown of Model UN turn to pages 4 and 5 a
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Issue 4 Sports
Black Gold
2014 MIPA Spartan Award Winner
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December 16, 2014
Traverse City Central High School 1150 Milliken Drive, Traverse City, Michigan 49686
Olweus problems addressed
Photo: C. Brower
Turn to page 7 for basketball game coverage, profiles on new coaches, and a review of the girls’ basketball retreat
Festive Madrigal Dinner
Administrators work to bridge the gap between student apathy and a surprising number of bully victims
Kristin McLintock Staff Reporter
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ast year the anti-bullying campaign Olweus was introduced into TCAPS. Once a week during Advisory, advisors and their students participate in a series of activities focused around the idea of anti-bullying. Since its inception, student opinion towards the program has been overwhelmingly negative. “I don’t think it is effective because it doesn’t bring students together about bullying,” Elise Miller ‘17, “Teachers just talk to them about it, which doesn’t solve any problems. I think there should be more student to student interaction and more examples outside of the classroom instead of just teacher explanation.” Seeing lack in purpose and effectiveness, many students share similar, negative viewpoints on the program. “We are asked to set aside our apathy to discuss this vague umbrella term “bullying”, but a specific problem has been neither identified nor addressed,” Madison Campbell ‘16 said. “Nothing has been accomplished to actually decrease bullying.” A notable controversial issue is the fact that many of the activities done in advisory may not be mature enough for a high school audience. “It needs less emphasis at the high school level,” Math Teacher Hal Lalonde said. “At the high school level, you all do not act the same as middle school and elementary students, you’re more mature. So, we have to change the message to fit the audience.” However, teachers remain positive and hopeful for Olweus’s impact on students. “I think it has a positive impact,” Math Teacher Katherine Brege said “I know that there are a lot of negative thoughts on it from students—I hear it in the hallway—but then after the classroom meetings, after that day I think there is a lot of good that comes out of it. I think the positives of Olweus are the community building and
the recognizing, when you see bullying, what to do.” A recent poll issued by Olweus produced numbers of students who were bullied 2-3 times a month or more above national norms (see graph below). Administrators are skeptical about the sample size of the survey—roughly 46%— being accurately representative of the school’s population. However, if the survey is indeed an accurate reflection of Central’s populous, then the percentages would translate to approximately 200 of Central’s 1500 students being bullied at least 2-3 times a month. “I really hope that when the students see these graphs and tables that they see maybe there is something going on here,” Burden said, “that Olweus has a point.” Although the survey’s accuracy remains under analysis and scrutiny, as Central applies for a renewal of the Olweus grant they plan to continue to incorporate it into the program’s evaluation. “If we got a renewal on the grant,” Burden said,“we would undoubtedly continue on some level with the surveying and presenting of information.” The majority of survey results showed that students at Central reported they had been involved in bullying more than the national average was reported. “Just the word bullying,” Burden said, “everyone is sick of it, they are sick of Olweus and they are sick of talking about it. They don’t want to take surveys anymore and they think we should just get over it. But we’re not going to when we have responses like this, not until we empower the majority of students to take action in preventing bullying from continuing, we have to keep doing it.” The updating and improvements of Olweus, including trying to show students the program is not only focused on bullying but prevention and relationships, will hopefully shift student opinion on the overall program.
See Olweus, pg. 10
Photo: E. Simon
Photo: E. Simon
Photo: E. Simon
1. From left to right, Wendee Wolf-Schlarf, Mae Smith ‘17, Maddy Ross ‘16, Madelynn Brady ‘18, Sarah Storm ‘18, Taylor Bills ‘16, and Peggy Owens ‘18 participate in this year’s Madrigal Dinner. “The church does these dinners every year; this was the 48th annual Madrigal Dinner,” Ross said. “It is kind of like this play that goes on.” 2. From left to right, John Reicha ‘17, Lisa Brown ‘16, Spencer Kroupa ‘15, Robbie Shields ‘17, Claire Beutler ‘16. Lisa Brown ‘16 connected with the Church’s actors, “They all had very strong personalities and would have these little jokes and movements that we all couldn’t help but laugh about,” Brown said. 3. From right to left, Elijah Cobb ‘17 and Sam Smith ‘17 play the traditional “herald’s trumpet” for the dinner. “It’s basically the same thing as a normal trumpet,” Cobb said. “Playing it was exactly the same, only it’s bigger and louder.”
Book club incorporates social media
Central’s book club uses Instagram to promote reading in an effort to improve test scores while finding the balance with technology in the educational system
Hayley Scollard Staff Reporter
This year at Central, Kerrey Woughter and her book club are promoting reading through TCC Reads, a social media reading competition. By posting a picture of a favorite book and hastaging it “#tccreads”, participants’ names are put into a hat for a drawing. So far, the winners have received gift cards from Family Video, the State Theatre, Horizon bookstores and Brilliant Books, but the real award is in creating passionate new readers. “Books give an escape of reality and an exciting new world,” book club member Jonathan Felton ‘15 said.
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By incentivizing students, Woughter hopes to encourage students to fit reading into their schedules. “I don’t think it’s a cool factor, I think it’s a time factor,” Woughter said. “There’s so much competition for time.” Woughter understands the heart of the issue; highschoolers constantly face the challenge of managing time. “I think students get really stressed out a lot of the time, and don’t really have enough time to read,” TCC Reads contestant Abby Green ‘16 said. “But I think TCC Reads helps because it’s a good reminder to keep reading.” Woughter acknowledges that it is especially hard to create reading incentives for this age group.
I don’t think it’s a cool factor, I think it’s a time factor. -Kerrey Woughter
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“At the elementary school it’s easy, it’s like ‘We’re going to try to read 20 pages a day and whoever gets the most pages read is going to get something,’” Woughter said. “It doesn’t work that way at the high school. Doing reading incentive programs is difficult.” A reading incentive is crucial to improving Central’s performance on reading and writing portions of the ACT. The average 2014 ACT test score at Central was 22.2 for reading and 21.4 for English. Only 48 percent of students met college readiness in reading last year. Test scores repeatedly remind Woughter of the importance of reading. “When you’re testing just ‘okay’ on a state test and reading, that’s a real issue,” Woughter said. By using Instagram as a medium, Woughter hopes to combine the captivating power of electronics and the learning potential of books. She is taking advantage of technology by encouraging
See Reading, pg. 11
Briefs
TCAPS deals with FERPA
Students earn place in math finals
Recent complications occurred when East Middle School surveillance video footage was released of an incident which required disciplinary action. Despite the fact that TCAPS themselves did not release the video to the public they have taken heat for the video’s publicization because of its conflict with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). “FERPA is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records,” TCAPS Interim Superintendent Paul Soma said. “Under the law, school districts can share information contained in education records with a student’s parents; however, school districts may not provide that information to an external party, including media outlets.”
Every year students have the opportunity to take part in the Michigan Math Prize Competition. The competition consists of two tests in a series of rounds. “It’s the multiple choice test at the first level that the kids take that is pretty challenging,” Math Teacher John Failor said. “If they can score a 50% on it they are doing pretty well.” This year there was a total of 12 students who qualified
Community members accused TCAPS of the FERPA violation after a parent released the video to media. “TCAPS did not release the video to the media,” Soma said. “A parent requested the video, which was part of their child’s education record, and then that parent provided the video to the media.” After the accusations, TCAPS took a further look at the law. “TCAPS has done a thorough investigation of the law, in consultation with the district’s legal counsel, and has determined the video is not releasable to the media or other third parties,” Soma said. “TCAPS is committed to protecting the safety and security of our students.”
for the second test, which was held Dec. 10. “I did have a lot of kids who took it last year take it this year so hopefully they will do better this year,” Failor said. One of the qualifiers this year was Rayna Archibald ‘18. “The first part I didn’t really have any idea what it was,” Archibald said. “For the second test my motivation was just to represent freshmen and
girls. I felt proud that I was a freshman and that I made it that far.”
Graphic H. Lancashire