Lance Issue 6

March 6, 2015 In-DEPTH Check out our coverage of issues facing LGBT students beginning on page 9.

THE 8701 Pacific St. Omaha, NE 68114 Volume 59 Issue 6

LANCE

From left to right: Juniors Ben Frazier, Ellie Furchert and Jake Radicia show off what fields they are planning to study with Westside’s new CAPS program Saturday, Feb. 28. The three juniors are ambassadors for the program. Photo by Sarah Lemke

UNCAPPING POTENTIAL

Students help develop career readiness program LIBBY SELINE

COPY EDITOR The bed frame was lopsided and could barely stay together. Tree branches formed the legs of the structure, and a piece of cardboard formed the base. It was flimsy, but 4-yearold Ellie Furchert was proud of herself. The bed frame was able to stay together.

And then she sat on it.

The structure fell apart underneath her, and she fell to the ground. Furchert tried rebuilding it, but she gave up. She later tried to build a chair, but that also fell apart. So she made forts by gluing furniture together and also built a pathway through her garden.

Throughout the years, she continued to express an interest in engineering and construction, and when she was in high school, she enrolled in woods and welding classes.

Now, as a junior, teachers have noticed Furchert’s enthusiasm for STEM programs and have recommended her to be an ambassador for the Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS), a career readiness program coming to Westside next year. As an ambassador, her job will be to assist in the CAPS program’s development.

“I was really curious on what it was because [I was only given a] brief explanation of what it was,” Furchert said. “So, I was excited to see how it would come together.”

Furchert, along with juniors Ben Frazier and Jake Radicia, accepted the job as ambassadors for the CAPS program. The three students help influence the curriculum by

sharing their perspectives on the possible courses. This helps the staff creating the CAPS program make courses students would like.

“I feel honored, honestly, to help make decisions and just give my feedback,” Frazier said.

The CAPS program was created to help students prepare for the workforce and to emulate the work environment. According to CAPS program director Melissa Hansen, it is based off of a school called Blue Valley in Overland Park, Kansas. There, the students are treated like professionals. Students learn what it is like to work in different career fields through the different departments the program has to offer.

At Westside, a staff is working to develop health sciences, information technology and STEM fields for the program. As an ambassador, Radicia helps develop the Health Sciences field, while Frazier and Furchert help develop the STEM field. Frazier also assists in the development of the Information Technology division.

Hansen wants to use the program’s fields to give students a personalized learning experience. This could mean giving students job shadows, internships and letting them take classes for college credit or a project-based learning class through the program.

“We’re trying to help students develop that mindset that prepares them for the workforce,” Hansen said. “When you walk into your workplace, you’re not going to be given ‘write this paper, give me 500 words and it needs to have two citations’ and things like that. continued on page 2

2

CAPS program, cont.

continued from page 1 The boss is just going to hand you this project and say ‘go for it.’ So, we’re going to emulate that same environment.”

The ambassadors have helped the CAPS program by traveling down to the career readiness school in Kansas.

Hansen wanted to hear their opinion of the program in Kansas. All three students claimed they were amazed by this model program. “[Students in the model program] go to this amazing building and have this workshop where they can build whatever they want to and [a] giant robot that they built by themselves,” Furchert said. “It was the weirdest but coolest school ever because it wasn’t like school I’ve ever seen before.”

As the three students learn more about the CAPS program, they will also be talking to other

NEWS

students about this program and encouraging them to apply for the CAPS program. Frazier and Radicia are planning to be involved in the CAPS program next year as seniors. Radicia feels like the program sets up students for success.

“It gives the students opportunities to see what the field is about and [helps] them find a career field they will love,” Radicia said.

Furchert is only able to be an ambassador for the JUNIOR program and cannot participate in CAPS. However, she is still looking forward to the development of the curriculum.

“I’m still excited to see how it goes because it’s a really, really good idea,” Furchert said. “CAPS allows [people in the STEM program to] pursue what they truly love. [...] I am kind of upset I can’t do it.”

It gives the students opportunities to see what the field is...and [helps] them find a career field they will love.

JAKE RADICIA

WAN T T O K N OW MORE ABOUT C APS? Students have to decide by their junior year if they want to be involved in one of the strands of the CAPS programs.

Freshman and sophomores involved in the course will be taking introductory classes at the high school. Next year, seniors will have the opportunity to take classes through the CAPS programs at different businesses around Omaha.

Juniors will also have this opportunity during the 2016-2017 school year.

If interested in applying for the program, students can access the application form by going to Westside High School’s website and clicking on career education under the About Us tab.

For more questions, you can email Program Director Melissa Hansen at hansen.melissa@ westside66.net.

POSITIVITY IS THE KEY

School experiments with new discipline style CONNOR FLAIRTY NEWS EDITOR We see it every day. Trash in the hallways. Inappropriate jokes made too loudly. Kids sitting outside their dean’s office, awaiting that week’s punishment. It’s not exactly surprisng. After all, the need for discipline isn’t exactly new. It’s to be expected. Here at Westside, punishments come in the form of detention, In School Suspension (ISS) or any number of possible alternatives.

However, these punishments don’t always stop the behavior. Many see disbehaving as inevitable, but this year, Westside has began to implement a program that aims to minimize it. This program, called Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, focuses on rewarding good behavior rather than just punishing students who do not follow the rules.

It aims to create a more positive school environment and also puts an added emphasis on teaching students with disabilities more effectively. The program was created by the Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education and has been implemented throughout the country.

“What it tries to move away from is everything being so punitive,” said guidance counselor Vicki Londer. “Right now, instead of teaching kids the proper behavior, we simply punish. We want to move away from that.”

Westside is not the first school in Nebraska to attempt the new framework. In fact, Lincoln Southwest High School has already had a positive experience with the program. “[Lincoln Southwest is] in their third year implementing it, and their issues have drastically decreased,” Londer said. “The kids know their expectations, and the staff is more ready to award positive behavior then criticize negative behavior.”

According to Londer, getting used to PBIS will not be an overnight process, and if Westside wants to be successful in implementing the new framework, the entire Westside

staff will have to come together.

“It’s been a real team effort,” Londer said. “It’s been a real push through the teachers because if not all the teachers are on board, it will be extremely difficult. We’re trying to educate teachers as to what it is, and it is a real change in philosophy.”

English instructor Emily Hough is a major member of the committee dedicated to bringing PBIS here to Westside. For teachers like Hough and counselors like Londer, the system really serves as a change in culture.

“Instead of yelling at a kid for eating in the hall, [a teacher will switch] to asking them what the expectations of the hall are,” Londer said. “Just being a little bit more positive and nice about everything.”

For Hough, the biggest problem with Westside’s disciplinary framework in the past was that there wasn’t any.

“We don’t really have a system as of now,” Hough said. “The PBIS came around because staff was complaining about students, but we also had students complaining about staff, so the issue really goes both ways. We figured we had to do something about it.”

As a teacher, Hough has already noticed changes in her day-to-day interactions with students.

“Through collaborating with teachers and talking about it, [...] I’ve found I find myself changing what I say to students and how I say it,” Hough said. “Being aware of what you’re doing is really the key to the PBIS.” Though PBIS may not be implemented fully for a few years, Londer has firm beliefs that the system will prevail.

“Why is it okay to talk to kids negatively?” Londer said. “I believe everyone will benefit from the positive environment. Teachers will [feel] lighter because they won’t have to nag all the time, and I think the kids will respond well so that they won’t be constantly corrected.”

UPCOMING SCHOOl EVENTS

March 9-10: Play Auditions for Twelve An- March 20: Varsity boys and girls track at Nebraska Wesleyan University gry Jurors March 12: Show choir FAME competition in Orlando, FL

March 20: JV baseball vs. Millard West

March 18: CJB/Stage Band PSC Jazz Contest in Peru, NE

March 20: JV girls soccer vs. Omaha Benson

March 18: Career Cluster Fair for Health Sciences in the Warrior Walkway

March 21: Varsity and JV boys soccer vs.

Skutt Catholic

March 19: State DECA competition in Lincoln, NE

March 23: Varsity girls soccer vs. Omaha Benson

OPINION THE

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LANCE

The Lance is a school-sponsored publication of Westside High School, Westside Community Schools, 8701 Pacific St., Omaha, NE 68144. The Lance office is located in room 251.

Phone: (402) 343-2650. The Lance is an in-house publication.

The paper is distributed every month to all students, except in vacation periods. Subscription rates to others are $25 prepaid.

The Lance is printed by White Wolf Web, in Sheldon, IA. Advertising rates are available upon request. The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit all ads for clarity and grammatical errors. The editorial staff reserves the right not to publish any ads that are libelous or that contain non-factual information.

The Lance editorial staff also reserves the right to nullify contracts at any time without prior notification. The Lance also refuses ads that promote activities illegal to a majority of the student readership.

Reader response is welcomed in the form of letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words, signed by the author and sent to room 251.

Names may be withheld upon special request. Lance editors will decide whether to honor such requests.

The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and grammatical errors.

The editorial staff also reserves the right to not publish any letters that are libelous or that contain non-factual information.

The Lance is a member of the Nebraska High School Press Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and the Quill & Scroll Society.

The Lance staff recognizes that the administration of Westside Community Schools controls the curriculum and, thus, sets the parameters of the production process of school publications. The Lance staff also recognizes its own responsibilities to inform, enlighten and entertain its readers in a way that reflects high standards of journalism, morals and ethics.

Editors-in-Chief Estella Fox, Nata Ward; Managing Editors Grace Fogland, Jace Wieseler; Copy Editors Lia Hagen, Libby Seline; Design Editor Allie Laing; News Editor Connor Flairty; Opinion Editors Sarah Hermann, Eva Wetzel; Feature Editor Celena Shepherd; Sports Editors James Buckley, Jack Cohen; Arts & Entertainment Editor Elise Tucker; Staff Writers Abby Lang, Alexis Bergin, Audrey McMullen, Bella Radler, Connor Castleman, Nicole Degand, Kayla Kyle, Connor Tucker; Staff Designers Casey Arritt, Jenna Hynek; Photo Editor Mitch Francis; Photo Staff Jakob Phillips, Taylor Schendt; Media Coordinator Aren Rendell; WMG Photo Coordinator Sarah Lemke; Advis0r Jerred Zegelis.

Comic by Sarah Lemke

Program’s focus on positivity is effective This year, Westside is beginning the implementation of a new program called Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, or PBiS. The idea behind PBiS is a simple one. Rather than just managing individuals’ behavior one-by-one, the school will implement a system that rewards everyone for positive behavior. This doesn’t mean they won’t ever punish anyone.

Rather, it means they’re focusing on teaching kids to be good instead of exclusively punishing them when they’re bad.

To some, this may seem useless. Kids know the rules. We understand that we should do our homework on time and stay out of the hallways for the last ten minutes of the mod. It doesn’t seem to be about a lack of understanding; rather, it appears to be about an unwillingness to follow those set rules.

But even the people that believe this have to admit that the way we currently enforce these rules is not working. It’s reactionary. We don’t act before bad things happen. Instead, we frantically try to undo them after the fact.

If nothing else, PBiS is not reactive. It’s proactive. By making students feel like their good behavior is appreciated, it makes them want to be better. It helps them to feel more understood and welcome in the school environment, and, through these things, it creates a culture in which good behavior is the norm.

It’s also designed to help students with disabilities. In many ways, students with special needs are disenfranchised in our education system. It is difficult for many schools to provide for people with disabilities, and traditional curriculums don’t tend to account for students with special needs.

PBiS aims to change that, emphasizing the ways in which positive rein-

WARRIOR VOICE

forcement can help to better the social, economic and academic outcomes for students with disabilities.

And PBiS is working, on all fronts. In 2012, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department implemented PBiS across their programs and experienced significant improvements. The number of major and minor incidents in school decreased, including incidents involving students with disabilities.

Average daily attendance and academic performance increased. With this program, the lives of students and teachers were able to genuinely improve.

Other schools have experienced similar benefits as well. According to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), over half of the studies testing the effectiveness of PBiS in schools found that problem behavior was reduced by 90 percent. In 26 percent of the studies, problem behavior stopped completely. These effects also spread to students with disabilities. When implemented appropriately, PBiS helped to improve their communication skills and reduce problem behavior. Many of these studies also found that students throughout the school spent more time engaged in academic activities when PBiS was implemented. This is likely because school became a more positive environment for them. It became a place where they wanted to be rather than a place where they had to be.

And really, that’s the key to PBiS. It’s not just about buzzwords or empty attempts to fix a school system that is undeniably broken. It seems to come from a genuine desire to improve the way we learn and experience school, and that desire seems to be paying off. That’s why it’s something worth implementing across the nation, and why it’s something we can’t wait to see in the halls of Westside.

How effective do you think the school’s punishment policy is currently?

FRESHMAN

SOPHOMORE

TRISTAN M U R RAY AMYA FRAZIER “Not effective at all be“The school doesn’t follow through with rules like cause I could skip class everyday. The detentions zero tolerance policy.” don’t help.”

JUNIOR

SENIOR

SARAH ALEXANDER CHRISTIAN ARN OLD “Yeah, if you get Wednes- “It is ineffective beday night school or ISS. cause I get detention, you wouldn’t [misbehave] and it does not work.” again.”

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opinion

School limits students ability to learn from mistakes

Learn from your mistakes. It’s a lesson we’ve all heard a thousand times before. Didn’t read that book for English and now you have no idea what the test is about? Mistake made, lesson learned. Didn’t take the chance to try for a harder assignment and ended up missing out on an awesome opportunity? Mistake made, lesson learned.

One of the main purposes of school is to prepare us to be successful adults. And yet, after all of the math Madigan Brodsky theorems and literary GUEST WRITER devices that we memorize, how many of us will leave high school with the ability to handle mistakes? To learn from them or to pick ourselves up from a fall? I’m not talking about avoiding peer pressure or an argument with parents, but actual, legitimate conflict, like an argument with a boss, or what happens when we make a serious error at our job, or how to bounce back when we fail — for real.

We’re growing up in a world that often teaches us the only path to success is one with a straight shot to the finish line and minimal bumps in the road. From a young age, we’re told what we’re good at and what we aren’t. We aren’t told how to improve in different areas, but to just focus on what we’re good at. Basically, we’re taught to value talent over hard work. And when we fail, we’re never taught how to bounce back.

Instead, teachers spend time showing us how to avoid conflict. We’re told that how any problems we create will negatively affect us. If we fail a test, we’re almost always told that we could have done better. Our teachers and parents are the ones who are telling us to learn from our mistakes, and yet they expect us not to make any.

This contradiction is not only frustrating, it also doesn’t prepare us for our life as adults. Teachers, coaches and parents shouldn’t reprimand us when we take risks and aren’t successful. We need to be praised for trying and taking chances, instead of for our natural talent and ability.

Otherwise, we begin to avoid challenges.

We don’t push ourselves. We play it safe. We purposefully hide from mistakes we know are lurking around the corner, just because we know that there’s chance we could fail in the process of attacking it.

Instead of letting our fear take control, we should go out there and do what we’re afraid of.

We all have something we’ve always dreamed about, but we’ve never actually chased those dreams. If you’ve always wanted to play on the varsity football team, be a part of the debate or perform on show choir, there shouldn’t be anything stopping you. If you crash and burn, tomorrow’s always another day. Those are the real mistakes that we need to be making and learning from if we want to truly improve our overall chances for success. We will succeed in the world only by working hard and persevering after we fail — not because of innate talent.

When real problems arise, it’s helpful to know what to do, what not to do, and how to clean up the mess. Your teachers aren’t always going to be there to tell you that you messed up — you have to be able to figure that out on your own. If we want the most successful future possible, we need to start relearning the power, significance, and potential of the mistakes we make. If we’re afraid of failing, and take every preventable measure to avoid those failures, how will we ever truly learn from our mistakes? We have much to gain when we realize the value of learning from mistakes, but often our society’s overwhelming fear of failure blinds us from this truth.

Top 100 Men With the Best Abs

Get This Celebrity Body

Graphic by Jenna Hynek

Gossip magazines hurt self-esteem One night, after I had spent the past hour trying – and failing – to complete my homework, I found myself doing what I do best: aimlessly scrolling through Twitter. I quickly went through an influx of tweets about wanting to go to sleep and dreading school in the morning, but then I stumbled across something I couldn’t ignore. The headline to an article that read: “Meet The First Plus-Sized Model in Sports Illustrared Swimsuit Edition History.”

At first, this excited me. However, a wave of disappointment came over me when I saw that the model was a thin girl and not an kayla kyle accurate representation of a plusStaff writer sized body. Unfortunately, this is a common phenomenon in fashion. A size 12 would generally be qualified as plus-sized clothing in stores, but the average American woman is a size 14. This is something even this article addresses, and it’s something that leads me to believe the media has a backwards idea of how a healthy woman should look.

Gossip magazines have made money off ridiculing and picking at women’s bodies for years. I’ve seen them zoom in to point out the yellow tint in a singer’s teeth and create whole pages dedicated to making fun of cellulite. Women in the spotlight are constantly pitted against each other in every way possible: who wore it better, who has a better bikini body, who’s doing their makeup right. The list of things to judge them for never ends.

And while this may have an impact on the celebrities themselves, I believe that the people that buy and read the magazines are the ones that are hurt the most.

When a young person picks up a magazine or reads an article about how horrible a celebrity looks, that has an impact on how they view themselves. Accepting your own flaws is a hard enough feat to accomplish. It doesn’t help to have a writer on the Internet put out an article talking about how disgusting it is to have zits, cellulite and extra skin on your stomach, when it reality these are all normal things to have on your body.

What some people fail to realize is that there is no perfect body when it comes to Hollywood. You’re either out of control

with your eating habits or anorexic. You’ve gotten plastic surgery or you need it. Yes, you look alright in that outfit, but this other celebrity looked way better.

Most of the images you see in magazines are photoshopped to some degree. This is a known fact. The pictures of models you see in Victoria’s Secret shoots have been edited for hours, and that’s after three hours of hair and makeup. Achieving the same look as these models is impossible without a whole team around you. Sadly, this isn’t something that’s always apparent.

Low self-esteem is one of the most prevalent problems in high school, and I know the media has something to do with that. Although the idea of photoshopped images on the Internet should be an easy concept to grasp, it’s something that anyone can forget, especially when you’re comparing these models to yourself.

The main problem is that normal bodies aren’t the ones that are plastered all over television, advertisements, and magazines. The ones in the spotlight have been shaped to perfection — or at least society’s idea of it — and they’re hardly a realistic representation of the average human.

The obsession with “the perfect summer body” and flawless skin has got to stop. If we want to move forward as a society, we have to be interested in something other than tearing each other down. As a society, we need to stop making careers that are dedicated to harrassing and mocking celebrities.

Our focus should be on making ourselves the best we can be and I don’t believe that pushing ourselves to be stick thin is helping with that. Healthiness and happiness go much farther than being skinny. Although the media seems to think acheiving stereotypical beauty should be everyone’s main priority, it’s not even close to what matters in life.

There are more important things out there than how ugly that actress looked when she came out of the gym. People expect these celebrities to look the same on the red carpet as they do in their everyday life, and that’s when these magazines start to become dangerous. That’s when we start to have unrealistic expectations. It’s only when people understand how degrading it is to measure a woman’s success on how she looks in a swimsuit that the way women look at their bodies will change.

Until that day comes, it’s crucial that everyone remembers the media isn’t a correct representation of the people in this world. It enforces unrealistic and unhealthy expectations, and its negative impact on people should not go unnoticed.

PowerGrade A+

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Nebraska on Monday. By becoming the 38 state to legalize same-sex marriage, we’ve taken a great step in the right direction.

Read more in our in-depth about LGBT rights on page 9-16.

C

The controversial black and blue or white and gold colored dress was amusing and entertaining at first, but now the mere mention of the dress is irritating. It’s time to leave it behind and move on to the next fad.

F

The surveys sent during the week are distracting and excessive. While they are appreciated by Honors English 9 students, there are other ways to find out the information they need, which would not clutter everyone’s inbox with e-mails.

opinion

t rrit yA se Ca by hic ap

Ever since I joined the social media vortex in the midst of my sixth grade year, I’ve noticed one thing every website, app and fad has in common: People use it to be terrible to each other. So, this year, I decided to do something about it.

On Nov. 6 2014, I launched my campaign the Face Behind the Post. I hoped to highlight the positive aspects of social media while giving teens a positive outlet to talk courtney strayer about what they love Shield Editor-in-Chief most: themselves.

Each student was given a whiteboard. On the whiteboard they were given the opportunity to fill out their name, a social media handle of their choice and something they liked about themselves.

It showed the classes that they could use social media to compliment their friends and classmates instead of putting others down. For one day, the tables were turned. The whole day was spent talking about the positive aspects of social media and its users.

After all, whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay. According to a study done by the New York Times in the summer of 2014, over 500 million tweets are sent daily from over 1 billion Twitter users. On Instagram, over 20 billion photos have been posted since the popular app first launched, and the site has gained 50 million members in the past six months. Social media is taking over our lives, and my project aimed not to stop that growth, but to teach us how to use it responsibly.

The other purpose of the project was to show there is a face behind the social media accounts, which is where the white boards came into play. It was supposed to be like a giant red flag that said “Hey! Look, it’s me! I own this social media account, but I am more than just an avid social media user!”

This is especially important when you consider the rampant abuse that goes on behind brightly colored pixels. According to a study done by the Megan Meier Foundation, 88 percent of teens have witnessed cyber-bullying between other teens. 71.9 percent of high school students experienced cyber-bullying at least once in their high school career, and 3.1 percent of students reported being bullied every day. To put it in perspective, this means that out of the 1,877 students in this school, about 56 students are being bullied every day.

Now, I’m an avid social media user myself.

And with this much exposure, I’ve seen all ends of the spectrum. The problem isn’t social media itself. It’s that people seem to forget there’s actually someone behind the social media account that they are talking to or about.

Without the physical gestures and tone of voice that is gathered from an actual conversation, the true meaning of your words can be easily misinterpreted. You don’t know how someone really reacted and how they felt while reading it. That’s why, in the end, it all comes back to thinking before you speak.

We’re all responsible for our actions, and, if our words are going to be on the Internet forever, why not be positive? Take a few minutes to like a selfie. When you see someone feeling down, tweet them a photo of something you know will make them happy. Let an old friend know you’re thinking of them. You can start the change, and all it takes is 140 characters or less.

We appreciate you!

Gr

Social media should be used to encourage, not hurt

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Staff needs more appreciation from students

At some point in our high school career, we’ve all asked ourselves what we did to deserve the immense stress that comes with school. And it’s true: waking up at the crack of dawn after staying up until one in the morning studying or watching Netflix is definitely not an ideal situation.

However, we as students tend to forget we aren’t the only ones in a similar situation.

We forget to show the amount of appreciation to the staff and administration that they deserve.

These people we see so often put in years of effort in order to give us the education we need to succeed. Some of the choices they make in order to help us may seem irrelevant sometimes, but we forget that they make Sarah Hermann these decisions for our own good.

Opinion Editor The Warrior Hut taking junk food away was widely known as a “tragedy,” causing unnecessary commotion throughout the school. Even though this is old news, I hear at least one comment about how “empty” and “sad” the shelves look in the Café every time I enter.

I admit to making such remarks when entering the Café, but after considering the situation from the administration’s point of view, the Café seems a little less empty to me. It was disappointing when the delicious and popular “Jesus cookies” served last year, including many other snacks, were replaced with healthier solutions, and the alternatives may be less satisfying than the original treats. But the intentions behind these replacements are what we should focus on, and they are reassuring.

The people responsible for taking away our precious sweets are only thinking of what’s best for us. They’re dedicated to serving what students want, but it’s in our best interest for them to provide better solutions when they’re available.

Whole-grain cookies may not be what you’re looking for as a mid-day munchie, but you should at least acknowledge the administration’s efforts to provide you with healthy options.

Being in the awkward stage between childhood and adulthood, we’re just starting to realize we are becoming capable of making our own decisions. But, being that we are still kids, we need adult figures in our lives to give us discipline. One of our wonderful teachers’ many jobs is to be these adult figures that guide us.

Many of the rules enforced at our school may not make sense to us and perhaps even make us feel targeted at times. I definitely do not enjoy being asked to sit down after attempting to leave the cafeteria with 10 minutes left in the mod. I never really understood why teachers would do such a thing until I looked at it from a different perspective.

The staff is only trying to enforce rules to keep our lives structured and efficient. If our student body was able to do whatever they wanted, the school would turn into a complete mess. The ladies in the library don’t constantly shush you because they are taking advantage of their authority. Rather, they’re using their authority to teach you how to be responsible in the future.

The complaining about the rules at our school hit a high a few weeks ago. Our hopes of another snow day were shot down when we didn’t get that heavenly sound of our phones ringing, so students took to Twitter and other forms of social media to express their anger. Many students were tweeting harsh messages to the superintendent and local news reporters, telling them how they are “disappointed” and even accusing the district of purposely causing students stress.

It wasn’t fun going to school when we believed we wouldn’t have to, but the administration isn’t trying to bring stress into our lives. They only want to lessen our stress. After all, it was nice to have a couple of days off, but the amount of homework I had to do all at once in order to catch up was insane.

If we missed another day of school, our whole schedule would be even more thrown off than it was before, causing stress to both the staff and the students. It might not be what we were all hoping for, but again, you have to at least recognize the good intentions the administration had.

Finally, your teachers don’t give you piles of homework every night because they think it’s fun or because they are “against you.” They do it to prepare you for the immense responsibility that will be thrown at you when you leave the protection of high school. It’s okay to complain about how much homework you have every night. But in the future, at least consider understanding the reason why teachers assign homework in the first place.

Plastering a smile on your face throughout the school day is tough to do, considering most students are not exactly ecstatic about attending school for such a long period of time. Still, it’s worthwhile to make our wonderful staff feel good about themselves and what they teach.

IN CASE YOU’RE NOT TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT IT ALREADY

Comic by Sarah Lemke

6

opinion

RESPONSES TO

the PERIOD ARTICLE Last issue, the Lance ran an opinion article regarding the destigmatization of periods. The article can be viewed in Issue 5 on Westside Wired. The purpose of the article was to communicate the reality of having a period, to discuss how our society shames any discussion on the topic and to communicate the very real consequences of this stigma. It was not to conflate periods with womanhood, as there are trans women

who do not have periods and trans men and non-binary people who do.

When posted, the aticle garnered both criticism and support from readers. We would like to create an open space for our community to discuss these controversial topics, so we chose to showcase the reactions we received. Below are five responses from five of our readers.

JUnior

Social Studies Instuctor

Savana Nawo jski

Derek Fey

I personally find the article inspiring to young woman everywhere. Periods are a natural and normal part of life. It should be treated in the same manner as any other body function such as sex, defecating or farting. These are NORMAL things, not things that should be shamed. There is no reason a young woman should be scared or sorry of her womanhood. I feel Lia’s choice in writing was bold and amazing. She took a risk in writing the article and got results. It was a great step to showing how young woman shouldn’t be embarrassed of this gift. It also unfortunately showed how intolerant people are to this common happening. I was truly appalled to overhear one of my teachers comment on the article, “It is disgusting and I don’t and won’t deal with it.” I was shocked because this certain teacher has a daughter who will eventually get a period. What will he tell her when she acquires it? Sorry, I won’t deal with it? I feel Lia’s article is nothing to strike down and is truly amazing. I give a big thanks to her and her attempt to knock down this stigma. Much love.

LANCE READER

P. Moo r e I have just read your “editorial” on destigmatized periods.”

In all of my 76 years I have never read anything more disgusting.

I feel sorry for you if you have to dramatize being a woman.

Everyone — man, woman, boy, girl — knows about a female’s monthly period.

If you have a mother, sister, grandmother or any other female peer who has taught you about your period, you should know by now it doesn’t come with any taboos or curses attached. It’s simply a way of life and something all girls get.

Whether you realize it or not, this is not a subject one discusses at the dinner table.

IT’S PERSONAL! You can walk the halls at school carrying your pads or tampons if you choose but I, for one, am glad to see most girls don’t care to broadcast their monthly time.

There is no reason for you to tell the world and the whole student body, teacher[s], bouncers, etc. you “bleed” every month, ‘cause guess what? Unless you are abnormal, everyone knows!

Descriptive writing is a skill that should be developed and certainly the article doesn’t lack in it. Clearly Ms. Hagen is talented in this area. Whether a student newspaper is the correct forum for this imagery is a debate this response won’t address.

I’ll preface this response with the disclosure that I support women’s issues and believe strongly in equal pay for women, maternity leave, access to birth control, etc.

And when there is true injustice against women, in my opinion there ought to be action taken.

The issue with this article on menstruation is it focuses on an issue that no one has control over. Moreover, putting an emphasis on an unfixable problem has the potential to shift focus from more important women issues - issues that actually can be addressed through legislation or social change.

Unfortunately for women, menstruation is here to stay.

But the argument presented in the article seems a bit misguided. It stated that when the first menstruation cycle hit, it was the moment the writer “began hiding my biology from the world.” And the insinuation is that it was society that forced you to do so.

In certain countries, the taboo of menstruation has REAL consequences, not just disapproving looks. Whether it be female genital cutting or inadequate access to sanitary menstruation materials, our society ought to be thankful for the access we have.

I’m not exactly sure what the writer hopes for as a solution. Statistics are brought up about the costs of tampons. The costs of $60 a year for tampons are nothing compared to the health costs if women did not have access to these. Also, it’s a ridiculously small price (on the list of recurring bills you will have as an adult each month, $5 is as cheap as you will get - cheaper than a month’s consumption of milk).

There are numerous women’s issues that need to be addressed by society, Congress, the President. Women’s pay ought to be destigmatized - they are paid 78% of what men are paid in the United States. Why? That needs serious investigation. Maternity leave should be destigmatized. The U.S. is the ONLY industrialized state that does not have mandated pay for maternity leave. We join the likes of Lesotho, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea. That’s a problem.

I feel terrible for girls in our society that struggle with their first experience with menstruation, especially if it is embarrassing for them.

But embarrassment is the least of our worries, the least of women’s worries.

JUnior

Bridget Boyce JUnior

Hadiah Kedwaii I think that there shouldn’t be so much controversy over this article. It was one of the writers expressing their thoughts and opinions in the opinion section, which is exactly what she was supposed to do. I understand how people can feel a little uncomfortable with it since it is very personal, but there have been many personal articles on other topics written before with no debates. If you didn’t want to know, you didn’t have to read it because it wasn’t like it was on the front page screaming out at you. At this point in high school, I think we should all be able to be mature enough to handle a topic like this.

The period article, in my opinion, was very well written. I enjoyed the personality of the article and the tone that is set from the first sentence. However, I understand how bodily functions are a regular thing and should be treated like a regular thing, but there is a reason we don't discuss periods. I mean it happens to all girls and we all know it, but blood coming out of your vagina on a monthly basis isn't exactly a conversation you have on a regular basis. It just makes people uncomfortable to read it, and I sensed that making someone feel that way was the goal. And if that was the case, then Lia did exactly what she set out to do. I wouldn't particularly care to read more articles about bodily functions, but more opinion articles about "irregular" (something people don't really talk about) is always welcome in my book (or newspaper....hahaha).

If you would like to write a response to an article in the Lance, please email it to Estella Fox or Natalija Ward.

FEATURE

FLIGHT OF LIFE

7

Student moves around due to mother’s career BELLA R AD L ER STAFF WRITER

Sophomore Colton Willnerd walked into Westside High School for his first day knowing exactly what to expect. This had been Willnerd’s twelfth school. He also attended schools in Britain, Tokyo, Hawaii and six other cities in the United States.

Willnerd was born on a military base in Britain, where his nomadic journey with a single mother began. “[My mom] had me when she was in her second year in the military and she was 19 at the time, so I don’t think she quite planned for me,” Willnerd said. “There were times when I felt like I just got stuck along, like she was focused on [her] career and I was kind of baggage.”

H a v i n g lived on military bases around the world, Willnerd’s lifestyle is unknown to most teenagers. The teenagers in his life while his mother was in the military however were all going through the same thing.

“The places [I had lived in] were pretty similar because they were all near military bases so you get a lot of kids who were like me, who traveled a lot,” Willnerd said.

Willnerd attended a school off his military base.

The cities he had traveled to were alike because other military students often surrounded him; these relationships are something all military students can relate to.

“We all knew that these wouldn’t be lasting relationships, that at any moment we’d just be gone,”

said Willnerd. “[This is] unlike Westside, where people have lived here for years and have friends they’re going to keep.”

Wilnerd’s inevitable transfers from school to school were comforted by the fact that his peers would be in the same position as him. Tokyo however, was different from the rest.

“In Japan I never quite knew what was going to happen next, the predictions you’ve built over the years simply don’t work, you have to learn new ones, and that’s basically what I spent my whole time doing,” Willnerd said. “[In Westside however,] I pretty much can tell what’s going on and get to live with people instead of beside people.”

W i l l n e r d picked up enough Japanese to get by throughout his stay there. The unique qualities of Japan were often confusing SOPHOMORE for him, such as the foreign social aspects and new culture.

After years of new culture, Colton can finally call Omaha home. Ever since his mother stopped working for the military, he has not had to worry about a foreseeable end to all of his friendships.

“I didn’t get to make very close friends, so I tended to do a lot of stuff on my own [when living with a mother in the military],” Willnerd said. “[Here] I’m getting to know people well.”

Willnerd’s ‘flight of life’ had finally reached its final destination when he moved to Omaha last year.

“It’s nice to have people there for me, I know I can always talk to them about anything, and that’s really the key isn’t it, just sitting down and talking to people and listening to what they have to say.”

There were times when I felt like I just got strung along...

COLTON WILLNERD

Above: Sophomore Colton Willnerd poses for a picture with his mother. Willnard has ived in Britain, Tokyo, Hawaii and six other cities in the United States. Photo courtesy of Colton Willnerd Left: Willnard poses for a photo Thursday, Feb. 26. Willnerd has attended 12 different schools across the world. Photo by Sarah Lemke

8

FEATURE

MEET THE BOUNCERS School staff shares life experiences

Westside bouncers, Linda Seals, Waverly Jones and Jake Pederson monitor the front entrance on Monday, Feb. 23. They also monitor other areas of the school. Photo by Mitch Francis

Linda Seals For Linda Seals, bring your kids to work day became every day when she took a job as a Westside bouncer nine years ago.

In 2006, now-Assistant Principal Jeff Wagner asked Seals if she was interested in a position at Westside. With her son Otis, now a teacher at Westside, in his senior year, she accepted the job. Soon, Linda was balancing being a disciplinary force at school and mother at home for her four children.

“My kids used to say that I would come home from school and yell at them and they’d be like, ‘Mom, we’re not at school anymore. Stop it,’” Linda said.

In the meantime, her sons made sure to stay out of their mother’s and the deans’ crosshairs while in the building.

“I have four boys, and three were good,” Linda said. “One was a little handful. He never skipped or anything. [He] just didn’t do homework, and [I] had to keep up on him and chase him around a lot. But they all were really good here knowing that I worked here and tried not to embarrass me.”

Today, after her youngest son Blaine graduated from Westside in 2013, Linda’s work as a bouncer is still affected by the time she had with her children in the school. She said she sees many similarities between her children and some of the students she works to discipline.

“Sometimes it’s kind of hard because I think of a lot of these kids act a lot like my kids, and I try to direct them in the right way hoping they don’t turn out like some of these other kids I see that are nowhere now,” Linda said.

Linda thinks she’ll be working for the district “until they fire me or I get too old to walk.” Of course, she’ll be working alongside Otis, which she says has been an enjoyable experience, until that time comes.

“I loved having my kids here when they went to school and I enjoy having Otis here as he teaches, because it’s great to see him and see how good he’s doing as a teacher,” Linda said.

Daryl Bunning To most Westside students, Daryl Bunning is known as the bouncer with the beard. After starting out as a bouncer last school year, Bunning began growing out his facial hair.

“I honestly didn’t know what it’d be like to have a beard that long, and I was like, ‘I’ll just see what it will do,’” Bunning said.

“I found a barber that was pretty savvy on trimming beards, and I just told him, ‘Hey, I’d like this to get kind of long, so just clean it up, but don’t cut it all away.’”

Over a year later, and a foot-long beard was Bunning’s signature look. However, at the end of November 2014, Bunning’s beard decreased significantly in length as a planned trim turned into a major cut.

While trying to fix a “weird” patch of his beard, Bunning’s beard began looking “ratty.” He decided to start fresh.

Bunning said his current beard is growing, but he hasn’t decided how long he will let it do so. While his beard grows, though, students can get to know the man behind the beard.

Outside of working at Westside, Bunning is a college student working to become a teacher. At 32, Bunning is finishing up his first year of college. He hopes his decision to return to college can serve as an inspiration to Westside students who take a non-college route after graduating.

“Don’t ever feel like you’re too old to go back to college for any people that might read this and decide not to go to college right after high school,” Bunning said.

Outside of the academic realm, Bunning is active in his church community, enjoys riding bicycles on trails and target shoots with firearms, something he says carries a lot of risks and responsibility.

“I used to work as an armed security guard at Offut Air Force Base, and I’ve got a lot of experience with small arms,” Bunning said. “For me, there’s a lot of fun, provided you’re in a proper area and a safe environment to handle firearms.”

Bunning said he will continue working part-time at Westside while he completes his studies. After college, Westside students could see him in the school as a family and consumer sciences teacher, which is his path of study.

Aren Rendel l WMG Coordinator Waverly Jones Don’t mess with Waverly Jones.

With a 15-year-old son in high school, an 8-year-old daughter in elementary school and a 3-year-old son, Jones says he’s in tune with all the latest high school trends, lingo and music.

“Whatever [students] know, I’ve been there done that,” Jones said. “Plus I’ve got a son their age too, so I’m pretty good up on it.”

While his children aid him in his work, Jones said they also take up most of his out-ofschool time.

“I feel like I’m a chauffeur when I get out of here,” Jones said. “My kids play a lot of sports — the two oldest play sports. I run them around and do a lot.”

To anyone that knows Jones, it should be unsurprising that his children are young athletes. As Jones puts it simply, “I love sports a lot.” He has coached little league basketball and football in the past, and makes it to a number of Westside’s football and basketball games. At the games, Jones often gives players tips and passes on motivational words.

“If I see stuff that’s going on, I know I shouldn’t do it, but I have to open up my mouth for the simple fact that I used to [coach], and you only have one set of eyes,” Jones said. “If somebody else can see something and…know what’s going on, it’s the input you need to give people sometimes.”

In the free time he has from working a second job as an Omaha World-Herald district supervisor, driving his kids to their activities and watching Westside sports, Jones said he likes to relax. Jones enjoys playing video games like Madden, watching TV shows like SportsCenter and watching the Food Network.

Jones started working at Westside in August of this school year. He said he plans to continue working as a bouncer as long as he can.

“As long as Westside keeps me, I’ll keep doing it,” Jones said. “Unless I win the lottery.”

IN-DEPTH

LGBT

issues you don’t hear about

9

I N - DEP T H DESI GN B Y ALLIE LAING

in-depth key: lgbt

transgender

gender system

non-binary

bisexuality

an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. it is the most frequently used umbrella term to describe people who are neither cis nor heterosexual.

an umbrella term for when your assigned sex (AS) does not match your gender identity (GI)

systems of gender roles in society

refers to any gender that is neither male nor female

gender binary

asexuality

an orientation characterized by attraction to the same and other gender identities

the gender system that classifies sex and gender as two separate, opposite forms of male and female

a sexual orientation in which a person does not experience sexual attraction to any gender

cis

describes people whose AG matches their GI

pansexual

an orientation characterized by attraction to all gender identities

opinion

Focus on same-sex marriage overshadows other LGBT issues LIA HAGEN COPY EDITOR This Monday, March 2, my Facebook feed was dominated by posts about one thing: the recent court case in which a federal judge struck down Nebraska’s same sex marriage ban. I couldn’t scroll down without seeing an equal sign or a banal “love is love <3.” My Twitter was full of it. My Tumblr was full of it. No matter where I went, I heard the story.

If you’re not like me, here’s a summary. Susan and Sally Waters are a lesbian couple with children who were the lead plaintiffs in a case challenging Nebraska’s same-sex marriage ban. Sally has stage four cancer, and she wanted the state to recognize her marriage so her family would be protected when she dies. They, along with seven other samesex couples, received their decision Monday. Nebraska is now the 38th state to legalize same sex marriage, though the state has already filed an appeal. Same-sex couples will not be able to marry until the appeal is heard.

I’d like to make one thing clear: I think this is awesome.

After all, legalizing same-sex marriage means more than legitimizing the love between LGBT couples. It means add-

ed tax benefits. It means helping LGBT immigrants. For people like the Waters, it could mean being able to see a loved one on their death bed.

It’s not that same-sex marriage isn’t a good step forward. It’s just that it’s not the only step. While the response to this case on social media was encouraging, I’m tired of it being the only issue I see on my Facebook feed. The way people talk, you’d think LGBT discrimination came down to a simple case of liking it and putting a ring on it. Of course, it’s not that easy.

In reality, anti-LGBT discrimination is just as prevalent and wide-reaching as other forms of discrimination in our country. In fact, for many people in the community, samesex marriage has no influence on their quality of life.

The most obvious example of this comes with the problems faced by trans individuals. Trans people struggle with one of the highest suicide rates in the country. According to the Williams Institute of Law, one half of openly trans or non-binary people have attempted suicide. The same study found that over half of trans individuals reported being physically or sexually harassed at work, school or by law enforcement.

And this doesn’t even touch on the housing discrimination and high rates of homelessness faced by all LGBT people. Or the fact that we can legally be fired for being lesbian, gay or bisexual in 29 states. Or that an HRC study showed that 42 percent of LGBT youth live in a community that does not accept their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Or that... Or that...

The point is, there’s a lot of “ors.” There’s a lot of forms of oppression that LGBT people experience, and there’s at least as many possible solutions for these problems. So it’s time to stop acting like same-sex marriage is going to end homophobia. It’s not. And pretending it will is only hindering progress.

That’s why, this issue, the Lance decided it was time to look at LGBT issues in a new light. We aimed to look realistically at the problems faced by LGBT individuals and the ways in which we can all make change. We tried to understand homophobia, biphobia and transphobia as the complicated issues they are because these problems exist, and they exist in our school. We have to take responsibility for the ways that we add to that oppression, and we have to begin engaging in the myriad of potential solutions available.

10

IN-DEPTH

LGBT ROUNDTABLE We brought together 12 LGBT students at Westside and asked them about their experiences with coming out and discrimination at our school. Check out their answers in the interviews below.

Do you feel like you experience discrimination at Westside for your sexual orientation/gender identity? participants: senior Becca Erdman sophomore Ali Dassner sophomore Heaven Ewerdt sophomore Lily Spier freshman TJ Sheibal senior Ellie Bruckner

senior Cal Caudell

senior Kristin Udhis sophomore Sadie Wilson sophomore Kara Osborne sophomore Sarah Beckenhauer freshman Sam Sweeney sophomore Tyler Douglass

Lily: I sort of have a background of thinking that people will judge me because of my identity.

Like, people being like ‘oh, you don’t know what to choose or you don’t know who you are? That’s messed up.’ According to reactions I’ve seen other people have, I get nervous. Maybe it’s just an assumption I make, but [I do.]

Sarah: Well, I mean, I’ve only come out to my friends, so my sexuality isn’t well known. I did face discrimination today with one of my other friends. So, yeah, if I came out to other people, because they’re very prejudiced against [asexuals].

Kara: At school, there’s been people who are like, ‘oh, that’s not legit,’ because [...] I identify as pan[sexual], […] or at least that’s the word I use, and there’ve been people who are like ‘oh, that’s not legit.’ But it’s more like adults who are like ‘that’s a mindset. That’s not legit.’ [...] I think teenagers are more accepting just because we use all the social media that’s like ‘yeah, go for it,’ and we have National Coming Out Day that GSA publicizes, […] and teenagers are like, ‘live how you want to live.’ The way our minds are set in this generation, we accept sexualities more than adults do because when they were growing up, they weren’t taught ‘live how you live.’ They were taught ‘follow what everyone else is telling you.’

They’re less accepting than teenagers are.

Cal: So, I’m not necessarily out to many people, ple still generally tend to assume I’m a girl. It’s always strange. […] I don’t feel like I directly face that because it’s not “obvious,” but it’s strange to hear other people being discriminated against.

Like, ‘oh my god, did you know that so-and-so’s gay’ or ‘that’s so weird,’ and I’m like ‘can you not do that.’ It’s awful. I always hear people talk-

ing about how they don’t actually believe in gay rights, and I’m like, that’s very strange. I always talk to and hang out with people who are very open and accepting, so sometimes I tend to forget that there are people in this world that are very ignorant and bigoted. It’s sort of shocking to come from places where the mindset is ‘be who you are’ and ‘own that’ to ‘I don’t even think queer people should have the same rights as straight and nontrans people.’ It’s very jarring a lot of the time. It’s weird. [...] I don’t think it ever crosses anyone’s mind that the people around them might not be straight unless you’re not straight.

TJ: Being a guy, […] I feel like guys tend to be [like] ‘be straight! Go for girls!’ to go along with the societal norms. As a bisexual, I think people tend to judge me about not existing in general. They claim I’m ‘confused’ or I just want to be like everybody I just don’t know what I want and I’m just trying to be like every other teenager that’s not the same sexuality as everyone else.

Becca: I think the discrimination in our school varies on where you go and what cliques you involve yourself in. […] I’m very involved in music, show choir and choir, so my friends tend to be in show choir and choir, and when I came out to them, it was very normal. They were extremely accepting of that. But as I started to tell other people outside of that group at Westside even, discrimialways there, but depending on where you go, it’s a lot more accepting. I think that’s how Westside runs. […] We’re very lucky to be at Westside because it’s so much better than other places, but there’s a lot to work on, and I think [people at] Westside [think] ‘oh, we’re so accepting, we don’t need to work on that,’ but there’s discrimination everywhere, no matter where you go.

Kara: middle school, I came out […] as bicurious. […] I was friends with some of the ‘popular’ girls, and when I said that, [...] they’d avoid me, and they’d hide because they thought I was checking them out, and I was like ‘uhhh, no, not my type. Excuse you.’

And then when I got older and I came out as bisexual, some of them were like SENIOR ‘okay, I get it, you’re BECCA E RDM A N not checking me out so we can continue to converse.’ But then other ones were like ‘oh, you’re going to hit on me.’ Some people make the assumption that when you like the same gender, you immediately like them.

[People at] Westside [think] ‘oh, we’re so accepting,’ [...] but there’s discrimnation everywhere.

Ellie: I have experienced a lot of homophobia at Westside surprisingly. I’ve lost a lot of friends from it. I was working at one of the booths for [Ally Week,] and I had a lot of people coming up and asking me if I was gay and ‘they’re ‘it’s a sin’ and ‘you guys are disgusting’ and blah blah blah. I’ve had a couple kids say that to me.

I was like ‘okay, you can believe what you wanna believe, this is who we are, and I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to deal with that.’ And they were just like ‘I’m so sick of you queers, blah blah.’ It was really quite disturbing to hear that from the mouths of people who are in our school.

Yes, our generation is a little bit more accepting, but there’s still a large group of people who still are disapproving of who we are.

Sadie: [That’s true because] in the past, I have had people who [when I come out to them] are like, ‘oh, so you like me,’ and when I say ‘no, I don’t like you,’ they get all defensive on it. Like ‘oh, well why don’t you like me?’

Kara: like you, what are you doing?

Sadie:

11

IN-DEPTH

How did you come out?

Kristin: People talk about coming out to their in middle school, that I was bisexual. Then I told didn’t believe me. Then, earlier this year, I actually came out as a pansexual because I found that out and also bigendered, and I haven’t come out to my parents as that yet because I feel more comfortable around my friends. […] I just think it’s easier for us to talk to one another instead of telling our families because they’re not as accepting.

Kara: On what you said about coming out to your friends but not your family— […] When I came out to my mom, I could just see her face [fall]. She was so disappointed in me. And my sister, from the backseat of the car goes, ‘don’t worry mom, I only like boys.’ And my mom, since that day, I can see […] my mom treats me less than my sister.

Ali: ‘Are you going to a sleepover? Will people be there? No, you can’t go.’

Kara: Yeah, my mom won’t let anybody, other than like my three closest friends who she knows I have no attraction to, spend the night. She constantly questions who’s gonna be at a sleepover. […] When I came out to my friends, they were like ‘yeah, that’s cool,’ and then my mom was like ‘Well, I’m not gonna even try to accept that in my house.’ And just the other day, I came out to her as pansexual because I was like ‘you already hate me, I might as well.’

She told me it was just my “mindset,” that I wanted to “believe” that I liked everybody, not that I do like everybody. [She said that] ‘I was trying too hard.’ That’s really hard to hear from the one person that’s there to support you who you think is going to support you all the time. It’s like… I’m getting really emotional. She constantly is like ‘it’s not real. You’re not bi or pan.’ It’s really, really hard to hear from her. She’s supposed to be that person. She’s supposed to take on the roles of both parents for me because my dad’s never been around, and when she says those things, it’s like pushing me to lying and to deceiving her and

deceiving myself into believing that I’m something that I’m not. She wants me to believe that I’m straight, and I know I’m not straight, but when I’m in that house, I must be. My mind has two modes. I’m around people I’m comfortable with, ‘cool, embrace the sexuality.’ I’m around my mom, ‘let’s not. Let’s push it out. I have to be straight, I have to like guys.’ […] I don’t know what to do around my mom because it’s so uncomfortable. […] Some people push religion; my mom pushes sexuality.

Sadie: Yeah, when I came out to my parents, I didn’t actually come out to my parents. I told someone I trusted, and they told my parents.

Cal: Oh, I’m so sorry.

TJ: That’s how it happened for me too.

Sadie: wasn’t ready to come out. I was itty-bitty. I was in like seventh grade, in the beginning of seventh grade. Through the years, they have supported me, but every once in a while, my mom will say something […] kind of strange. Like ‘hey Sadie, is that girl cute?’ And I’m like ‘I don’t know, mom.’ […] I’m just not sure how to respond to my mother in that situation. But my dad’s a completely different story. I told him myself when I knew it, but I wasn’t completely honest with him either. Neither of my parents know that I’m not just a girl — I’m not really either. They just think I like girls.

When I came out with my dad, I knew that part

When I came out to my mom, I could see her face fall. She was so disappointed in me.

SOPHOMORE

KARA O S B O U R N E

part. It actually took like three months for him to kind of ‘settle down,’ but that’s because he lives all the way in Wisconsin so he doesn’t see me all that much. […] But my grandma knew before everyone else. I don’t

know how she knew, but she did.

TJ: I was also going to respond to what [Kristin] said earlier about how they’re more open to their friends. The way I see it, I don’t care what your opinion is of me if you’re not supportive. Because if I listen to it and accept what you have to say, it’s just looking down on myself. So I’m open and fabulous to everybody because, if you have a problem with it, you can just walk out the door.

Cal: [knowing who you are immediately and not knowing who you are]. Like, some people in the LGBT community, they’re like, ‘oh, I always knew.’ And some people had their identity shoved down their throat, and they didn’t realize they were trans or nitely, when I was younger, I never felt like a girl.

When my parents would buy me girly things, I didn’t even want to start wearing a training bra because I was like ‘isn’t that for girls? I don’t want to do that.’ That was my mindset back then. […]

I never felt completely comfortable with calling myself a girl, and I only did because other people did. But then again, I never felt comfortable calling myself a boy either. I was like ‘what do I do’ because I knew trans people were a thing when I was younger, but I didn’t know about ‘oh, let’s break the gender binary.’ Then there are some their sexuality.] There’s one person, and I’m not going to say their name, but […] they were very ways knew their sexuality, so it kind of came as a shock to them, but the longer they were out, and the more they realized it was their identity, the more comfortable they felt with it. And then you hear stories about people in their thirties. […] It’s sort of strange that sometimes our society is so heteronormative that we never even think that we might not be straight.

Ali: Yeah, I identify as an asexual person. I’ve only told a couple of people about it. Not because I’m something I’m ashamed of or I fear their reaction, it’s just like ‘oh, this isn’t really important for you to know as my friend because it doesn’t really factor into anything.’ It’s just like, ‘eh, if you ask I’ll tell you, but aside from that, it’s not a big deal.’

But I’ve only told a couple of people, and it’s starting to get to the point where I almost fear their reactions. Because I told my best friend, and she was like ‘oh, you just haven’t found the right perokay,’ ’oh, you don’t know what you want,’ ‘you’re delusional.’ It’s just like, okay, thank you, rude. It does really hurt to hear those sorts of thing from people you really trust, especially people who are really really close to you. Like, with Kara and her mom, it just really stinks. I also feel like my parents are kind of like that. Like, my mom is really really chill. She said, right away, […] I’m totally okay with [you being LGBT,] just let me know so I can support you. And my dad, he nods, but you can kind of see it in his eyes that ‘if you are, I will skin you alive and burn you. I will disassociate you completely, and you will go to church every you.’ I can’t stand that at all.

12

Equation for acceptance

IN-DEPTH

Partners use coming out experiences to help students Grace Fo g l an d Managing Editor To math instructor Michaela Schaben’s parents, the girl she brought home from college was just a friend. But to Michaela, Laura was more than that. After they met at the University of Nebraska Omaha, they both realized they had found the person they wanted to share their lives with.

However, neither Michaela nor Laura had been open about their sexuality before.

The two kept their relationship a secret for a while for fear of being judged, but this wasn’t always easy. Eventually, they decided their relationship was too important to hide.

“It’s very, very stressful keeping it a secret,” Michaela said. “And I knew it wasn’t healthy to keep it that way. I had fallen in love with somebody, and it [was] hard not to share that with everyone.”

Michaela’s family was very accepting when she came out, and they told her they would support her. They understood that sexuality wasn’t a choice and were willing to love their daughter the way she was.

“I felt like the biggest weight ever was lifted from my shoulders,” Michaela said. “I felt like I could be myself.”

But Laura’s family had differing reactions. Her mother struggled for religious reasons, and she still struggles today. This led Laura to find solace with her dad and stepmom.

“I really feared how [they] would react, but they

have been 100 percent supportive and accepting since the day I told them,” Laura said. “They felt bad that I felt I had to keep it a secret for so long.”

It’s because of the hardships they’ve faced coming out that both of them have been open with their students. Michaela and Laura have been together for 11 years and have two children together.

Both teach at Westside schools: Laura at the middle school and Michaela at the high school. They say they’re happy to help their students with the challenges of being LGBT. At school, Michaela stresses that the words used in her classroom need to be appropriate and nondiscriminatory. She places a safe-space sticker at her desk to help create an open environment, and she is one of the few openly gay teachers at the high school.

“I think it’s important that [students] know they have an advocate, that they have somebody they can talk to,” Michaela said. “There’s somebody here who understands.”

However, while Michaela believes many people know she is gay, few LGBT students have come to talk to her or ask for help.

“I think [it’s] interesting,” Michaela said. “A lot of students don’t ask me questions, [but] I’m an open book. I don’t mind talking about it because I want people to know that it’s okay and there are people who are relatively normal who are gay or lesbian.”

Laura also supports her middle-school students by making sure her classroom is a safe space. She knows from experience how it feels to

be a student without one.

“I was very lonely and kept everything to myself,” Laura said. “I was very miserable for a very long time and wouldn’t wish that on anyone. [Instead,] be true to yourself and find a support system.”

Math instructor Michaela Schaben poses in front of the cafeteria Monday, Feb. 23. Photo by Taylor Schendt

creating community Students use club to make safe space, educate school Estella Fox Editor-in-chief For one week every year, as students rush to the cafeteria, they notice a difference in the Warrior Walkway. There’s a booth set up in front of the art gallery, with posters spread across the glass behind it. This week is Ally Week, an annual celebration dedicated to showing support for the LGBT community. Around Westside, it’s best known as the week where everyone wears rainbow ribbons. These ribbons are passed out by our school’s GayStraight Alliance (GSA). Some people wear them on the strap of their backpack; others clip them onto their shirts. The ribbons show acceptance. They show that in our school, you can be who you are without fear of prejudice or discrimination.

And at the end of the week, they litter the floor.

This is the annual struggle faced by the GSA. It’s about more than making students care for the day, or for the week. They want to educate them.

To make them care for the rest of their lives.

This is because GSA is a studentled club that focuses on providing a safe environment for anyone in the LGBT community as well as their straight allies. There are four different types of club meetings: discussion, lecture, fun and preparatory meetings. The discussion and lecture meetings are all about education; topics range from identity to current LGBT news and are led by the two presidents, seniors Lia Hagen and Matt Gagne. Fun meetings typically happen towards the beginning or the end of the year and are meant to create a sense of community in the club. The preparatory meetings are for planning school-wide events like National Coming Out Day, National Transgender Day of Remembrance and the Day of Silence. As a whole, however, the club is about two things: affirmation and education.

“Affirmation is affirming that it’s okay to be LGBT, affirming that [Westside is] an accepting community,” Hagen said. “And this is really important because, regardless of whether or not we really are an accepting community, seeing people with rainbow ribbons on their backpacks still makes people feel more comfortable.”

Not only that, but it’s also for affirming LGBT people’s own identity and letting the school know there is an LGBT community at Westside. In the past few years, there’s also been an increased focus on education. The club has tried to make their events more informative by passing out fliers and including statistics on posters. Unfortunately, this goal has not always been successful.

“Regardless of students’ position, they think, ‘We’ve been at school all day. I don’t want to deal with this. Don’t try to make me learn in my open mods,’” Hagen said. “Regardless of how accepting they want to be, they just

don’t want to read a flier about it.”

However, neglect isn’t the only thing members of GSA face at these events.

They can also face harassment. This is why, every time the club plans an event, the presidents are sure to warn the participants of the dangers.

“When we have people who are are rude or offensive, we usually, if anything, we just say, ‘go somewhere else’ or ‘we don’t need your negativity here,’” Gagne said. “We don’t like to snap back at people because it gives off the wrong impression of the club.”

While the school as a whole might not feel safe for LGBT students, there is one place they are always welcome: GSA club meetings. The club’s sponsor, Sue Stehly, knows the importance of creating a safe place.

“Everybody that is there realizes there is not a stupid question because we’re all trying to be happy and part of the process is asking questions,” Stehly said. “These people have been through it before, or they know someone who has been through it before so I think that particularly is an important reason that they’re safe. They’re safe to talk about things they feel.”

For many LGBT students, this is a valuable tool. According to the 2013 National School Climate Survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), students who have a GSA in their school are almost 15 percent less likely to hear “gay” used in a negative way and almost 20 percent less likely to feel unsafe due to their sexual orientation. However, this senior study found only half of students matt gagne said their school had a GSA or a similar club.

For Gagne, the effects of GSA have been clear. He was bullied during middle school and didn’t know a lot of LGBT students like himself — until he got to GSA. “It was a really cool place to meet people who are like you,” Gagne said.

“You just feel a sense of community and safety, and I think it is really important to feel that especially if it is hard for you in a normal school setting if you don’t have anyone to support you or talk to you. It just gave me a way to express myself more and make new friends.”

Although the presidents agree there isn’t a lot of explicit anti-LGBT discrimination around school, they both say there’s still a lot of work to be done.

They hope that GSA has and will continue to help deal with the issues that LGBT students face at our school, including micro-aggressions, or small, unintentional forms of discrimination. Hagen has a simple solution to prevent these: think before you speak.

“It might not seem like a big deal if you say one tiny homophobic thing, but if you’re an LGBT student, you can hear those things 10 times a day,” Hagen said. “You can hear those things all the time. You can hear those things across the dinner table. You have to remember that not everyone at your school is straight, not everyone is cis, and that you have to act as though someone LGBT is in the room because for all you know, there is.”

[In GSA,] you just feel a sense of community and safety.

t h e facts These statistics compare schools who have a GSA to schools that don’t. They were taken from a study conducted by GLSEN.

8.1

The percentage of increased likelihood that a staff member will intervene when hearing a homophobic comment

13.9

The percentage of increased likelihood that LGBT students won’t hear the word “gay” used negatively

18.4

The percentage of increased likelihood that an LGBT student will feel safe within their school

IN-DEPTH

13

Support network

Student shares experiences with transphobia KATE

AL S TO N

SHIELD WRITER For a long time, senior Cal Caudell was expected to be a girl. Their mother asked Cal to get a training bra, to go shopping for dresses and to wear make-up. She didn’t understand that Cal wasn’t a girl; they were agender.

“I just didn’t feel right in dresses,” Cal said. “It wasn’t part of my identity, and I didn’t feel comfortable with being called either a girl or a boy.”

As an agender person, Caudell doesn’t fit typical gender roles. Agender individuals are defined as having a gender identity neutral to or not associated with either male or female, and they typically use ‘they’ pronouns rather than ‘he’ or ‘she.’

“When I try to tell people I’m agender, they think it’s weird,” Caudell said. “They don’t see it as something that could be possible because they’ve been told all their lives that there’s only two genders: male or female.”

Caudell has never found that to be the case.

They’ve known for the majority of their life that they didn’t fit under the typical idea of ‘boy’ or ‘girl,’ and they’ve grown to understand how that can be.

“A lot of people equate your gender with your genitals, but gender, when you get down to it, is a societal construct,” Caudell said.

Caudell was 13 when they discovered the term pansexual to describe their sexuality on Tumblr.

A few years later, the internet also helped them discover the term agender, which helped them to understand their gender identity.

“When I found the words that described how I felt and [realized] other people identified the way I did, I was so relieved,” Caudell said. “I honestly felt like crying.”

Having discovered they weren’t alone, Caudell began sharing their newfound label with others, including the students and teachers at school.

Some people were accepting of their gender identity and sexual orientation, but others were uncomfortable with the idea and avoided Caudell for the rest of the year.

“Some people are really open about it, but some people just don’t understand it,” Caudell said. “I usually test the waters by talking about it and telling people that these things exist and see-

ing how they react.”

Caudell is comfortable with their label, but they feel the need to be cautious with who they share it with at school. This is due to the possibility of bullying or harassment from peers who either do not believe in or do not accept agender people.

“I’ve been sort of in the closet about my gender because I don’t know how well teachers or other students will understand,” Caudell said. “When I hear stories about people who come out and get murdered because of their identity or committing suicide because of the abuse, it does make me afraid of who I share it [with].”

They haven’t come out to their parents, but they do have plans to do so after graduation, when their living conditions don’t rely on their parents’ acceptance.

“I don’t think they’ll fully grasp the concept,” Caudell said. “[When you’re agender,] you don’t feel like people would ever understand, and you don’t feel like people care enough about you to try and understand. It’s hard sometimes.”

Although they haven’t shared it with their parents, Caudell continues to tell people at school their label. Some people are accepting; however, not many are able to empathize. Fortunately, Caudell has other outlets. They were able to find people who understand in the same place they were able to find a label that fit who they were: the Internet. Through Tumblr, they found a group of five friends across the globe who have also struggled with gender identity. The friends talk through seperate blogs where they can make posts and reach out to people who understand their situation.

“It’s not that my friends at school are inadequate,” Caudell said. “Most of them just don’t understand what I’m talking about half the time.

Talking to people who’ve been through the same situations as you tends to migitate the stress of it a lot more.”

Because they have similar identities, they’re able to offer support and open ears through the rough patches. They’ve talked about the need to cut “toxic” people out of their lives, and sometimes they just share the frustrations of living in a heteronormative society.

“Sometimes just talking about how frustrating these things are with these people is enough to get

me through the day,” Caudell said. “You can always feel comfortable knowing that you can reach out to someone and they’ll respond.”

The Tumblr users are from all over, from California to Singapore. Through sharing their experiences, Caudell has been able to discuss the gender roles in other countries as well.

“It’s really interesting how gender is constructed in other countries,” Caudell said. “There’s a lot of stress everywhere on women to be a certain way and men to be a certain way.”

Caudell has seen the benefits of having a strong support network first-hand, and they recommend it to others.

“Finding a support network of other people in the LGBT community is really important,” Caudell said. “Experiences can be universal, and that’s why we’ve all been drawn together.”

Senior Cal Caudell poses for a photo in front of the school Monday, Feb. 23. Photo by Mitch Francis

Opinion

School needs equal sex education for LGBT and straight students ALEXIS BER GIN STAFF WRITER During the sex education unit at Westside, we’re told that every time someone has sex, they’re at risk of getting pregnant. Unfortunately, my ninth grade Healthy Living class was not exempt from this lecture. I sat there twirling my thumbs for a while before I raised my hand and said, “Ma’am, you aren’t going to get pregnant if you do it with the same sex.”

This was a common occurence for me during that class. The teacher made a generalization about sex, and I attempted to make it clear that not everyone falls under those golden rules. And it’s not just me who experiences this. For LGBT students, finding inclusive sex education can be almost impossible.

Naturally, this is unfair.

The benefits of sex education should not be limited based on who you love and decide to have sex with. A good Casey Arritt education can help stuGraphics by

dents learn healthy, effective ways to prevent STDs and STIs, and LGBT students shouldn’t be exempt from that.

When this opportunity to learn is taken away, teenagers with raging hormones go out into the world with little to no idea about what they’re getting themselves into.

This is especially dangerous for LGBT youth, who are more prone to STDs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men who have sex with men accounted for about 19 percent of all new HIV infections and 72 percent of new HIV infections among youth ages 13-24. According to Women’s Health from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, women who have sex with other women are also at a higher risk for bacterial vaginosis than their peers.

In many ways, these high STD rates are caused by a lack of sex education. It’s a vicious cycle in which undereducated LGBT people contract STDs because they don’t know how to prevent them, and then other uneducated LGBT students grow more and more likely to contract STDs. With this in mind, it’s clear that LGBT students could really benefit from the open communication of a sex ed class.

We should not be denying them the extra knowledge that could help bring these statistics down in the future.

After all, when we’re afraid to talk about “non-traditional” sex, myths about intercourse spread. The reason for sex ed is to distinguish between fact and fiction. If you have to try to sort it out yourself, you could end up being completely misinformed.

Better sex education is a genuine remedy for this. The United Nations Population Fund found that it increased the use of contraceptives during sex. They also found it reduced sexual activity as a whole. In general, good sex education programs reduced risky sexual behavior by one third. When students are not getting properly educated,

they are not able to gain these possible benefits. Instead, they have to sit there twirling their pencils and memorizing facts that might not apply to them.

Not having a proper education for LGBT students could also leave them feeling like they can’t talk about what they do behind closed doors. It’s important to make sure young adults are being safe, but without any communication, there aren’t many ways to do this. When a student feels open to speak, they can get the answers to important questions they might have.

We need a curriculum that includes LGBT students. The purpose of school is to educate and prepare the next generation for life. Sex is something nearly everyone is going to engage in during their life, so we shouldn’t limit our education to traditional male-female sex and alienate a part of the population.

After all, acting like something doesn’t happen doesn’t make the situation go away. If we continue to ignore that there are many people in the world who love different people in several ways, we will only set up part of our school’s population for failure.

14

IN-DEPTH

the lives of

lgbt people info graphic by

ALLIE L a i ng

homelessness Homeless LGBT youth have higher risk of substance abuse

stats from An Epidemic of Homelessness a report by Nicholas Ray

1.6

1/5 transgender youth need a homeless shelter

million homeless youth

20%-40%

50%

of which are LGBT

of homeless lgbt teens EXPECT to one day be hiv+

26% of lgbt students are

homeless lgbt youth are

kicked out of their homes after coming out

7x

more likely to be victims of a crime

school experience stats from gay, lesbian & straight education network

65%

hear homophobic language like “dyke” or “fag” often

18%

28%

couldn’t bring a same-gender date to a school dance

85% students are more likely to have lower gpa’s and self esteem when feeling unsafe

30%

punished for PDA with someone of same sex

missed school in the last month because they felt unsafe

have been verbally harassed in the past year to wear clothing 19% notbecauseallowed their school felt it did not fit their assigned gender

15

IN-DEPTH

<

LGBT RACISM stats from advocates for youth and The National education association

78%

1 2

of lgbt asian/ pacific islanders experience racism in the lgbt community

one half

of trans people of color have been raped

44%

60% TRANS PEOPLE

have been verbally harassed due to sexuality AND RACE

OF COLOR HAVE TRADED SEX FOR RESOURCES

13% THEYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE ALSO MORE LIKELY TO HAVE low self esteem

report being physically harassed due to their sexuality and race

of black lgbt people agree racism is a problem in the lgbt community

JOB DISCRIMINATION omaha has a city ordinance preventing job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity

stats from HRC, city of omaha, american progress and catalyst

29

in states

there are no laws that prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation IN 31 STATES THERE ARE NO LAWS PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION BASED ON GENDER IDENTITY

of lgbt people hear 9%anti-LGBT comments from supervisors

sports

trans

individuals are

2x

more likely to be unemployed

trans 97% of people report

harassment in the workplace

58% report hearing derogatory comments about LGBT people

stats from ESPN, sports illustrated, gallup, outsports and glsen

today lgbt lgbt lgbt lgbt gay nfl players mlb players nhl players nba players mls players 60 42 34 16 26 there are: 86% 65% of people are less likely to of nfl players said they would be okay with having a gay teammate

purchase a brand endorsed by a gay athlete

6.1% of LGBT ATHLETES HAVE HAD A CAPTAIN ROLE

23.2% of LGBT STUDENTS PLAYED A SCHOOL SPORT

63%

of nfl players have had coaches that used homophobic slurs

62 nfl

players made statements showing support for gay teammates and the lgbt community

IN-DEPTH

16

LGBT & Suicide almost

1/2

gay and lesbians are

2x to 6x

stats from S.P.E.A.K. & mental illness america

of gay youth attempt suicide near the age of 15

of gay/lesbian teens state they have attempted suicide more than once

30%

37% of lgbt youth describe themselves as happy

suicide is the leading cause of death

more likely to commit suicide than heterosexuals

among gay and lesbian youth nationally

Students attempt suicide due to harassment, prejudice Ward

Education Network (GLSEN). Since she first came out as

Cierra* had a split rib, dislocated shoulder and multiple cuts and bruises. She sat on the edge of her chair, not able to process the conversation her mother was having a few feet away.

It began: “Ma’am, your daughter was in a fight.”

The school had called her mother an hour earlier. Now, she was hearing how four students had attacked Cierra after lunch.

Cierra was used to it by now: the comments in math class, profanity in the hallway, words like “that’s disgusting” and “you’re never going to be able to get married.” But when they pushed her up against the wall and called her a “fag,” she shot back.

That’s when the fighting began.

Her opponents left relatively unscathed, while Cierra limped alone to the middle school guidance office. Her guidance counselor said her mother needed to know the reason behind the bullying and the attack. All Cierra could think was that she wasn’t going to understand.

Seeing the disgust on her mother’s face and her immediate silence, Cierra knew she was right. Cierra’s mother didn’t understand that Cierra was bisexual.

Cierra had always liked boys, and it wasn’t until seventh grade that she realized she was also attracted to girls. It “scared the s*** out of [her].”

“I got really…depressed,” Cierra said. “[I thought,] you’re supposed to like guys, I’m not supposed to be this way, something is wrong with me. Seventh grade is the first time I attempted suicide…The reason was because I had feelings for a girl.”

Cierra is not alone in her suffering. 76.1 percent of LGBT teens have been verbally harassed and 36 percent physically assaulted, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight

because of her identity.

“It was mainly the boys, and I don’t understand why,” Cierra said. “The girls acted like it was some kind of disease, like they could catch it or whatever, but the boys would actually be the ones who said something…They do it to this day.”

Cierra was warned not to come out to her teachers because she didn’t know if they would treat her differently in the classroom. Her parents called her “bi-curious,” not allowing Cierra’s sexual identity to be anything more than a phase. Cierra felt ashamed. Every time someone made fun of her identity or didn’t accept her, it felt like proof that no one ever would.

“You feel very lost part of the time,” Cierra said. “You want to be who you are, you know that you like the same gender. You’re like, ‘This is who I am.’ You don’t know that if you were to tell people, if they’d [accept you] or if they’ll be like, ‘Get the f*** away from me.’”

Many other LGBT students share feelings of isolation and confusion. For Nick, another LGBT student at Westside, telling people about his sexual orientation also brought some negative reactions.

“People stopped being there, and people just weren’t as open to talk to me,” Nick said. “There were people that were really judgmental and looked down at people who were flamboyant in any way.”

In the beginning, Nick also struggled with suicidal thoughts. He believed that because he was pansexual, or attracted to all genders, he was no longer important to people. This is a common feeling amongst LGBT teens, who are four times more likely to attempt suicide than straight teens. And although Nick was able to talk himself through his hard times, it is often not the case. Suicide Prevention Education Awareness for Kids (SPEAK) estimates 1500 LGBT youth die by suicide each year.

Nata

Editor-in-chief bisexual in seventh grade, Cierra has faced harsh criticism

For Cierra, the road to recovery was long. The first time she attempted suicide, she was 13.

“I did not want to be me,” Cierra said. “[I thought,] ‘I can’t trade lives with someone else,’ so [I choose the] second best option: let’s just not have one.”

She went into therapy, but her first therapist did not believe in homosexuality and told her to suppress her feelings for the same sex. This led to a second suicide attempt and a different therapist. She fought past episodes of self-harm and anorexia. Eventually, she was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder. She attempted suicide a third time over Christmas break. “[I thought,] ‘I still can’t do this,’” Cierra said. “I had just come out, and people were being really, really rude as s***.

[I thought,] ‘This is how anyone that I ever meet is going to react.’”

Gradually, Cierra found people who accepted her for who she is. Those people also tended to be LGBT. Cierra’s exgirlfriend, Rose, was one of the strongest influences in her life. Cierra says that Rose is the main reason she is still alive.

“This is a good generalization: if you know someone who identifies as [LGBT], immediately be like, ‘I support you,’ because they are going to be like, ‘That is such a relief,’” Cierra said. “…[Rose] was the first one to be like, ‘I support you. I got you. I got your back.’ And that turned everything around.”

Cierra has also told some of her teachers about her sexuality, and she says it helps to have an adult on her side. She has also researched her sexuality and found that she identifies more strongly as pansexual than bisexual. Both of these things have caused her to gain confidence in herself.

“For me, it’s easier now than it was then,” Cierra said.

“I’m older now. I understand it more now. I still get very insecure about it, but I haven’t been suicidal because of [my sexuality] in almost a year, [and] that makes me very happy.”

Athletic programs often seen as accepting, not perfect james

b uckley

sports writer In sports, a team is supposed to be a family. Through every win, every loss and every obstacle, they are meant to stick together and works towards their common goal: winning.

It is intended to be a positive atmosphere for everyone. Together, they aim to stay focused on the game and get better every day.

This is what coaches preach. What players advocate for. Regardless of the sport, this tends to be the goal. However, for many LGBT athletes, this is not the reality.

According to ESPN, 63 percent of NFL players have had a coach that used homophobic slurs, which creates a negative atmosphere in the locker room and the practice field. However, there have been steps to change this. These changes have been made by openly LGBT professional players like Michael Sam, Jason Collins and Brittney Griner. They came out in the NFL, NBA and WNBA respectively, and they’ve seen support from players like Lebron James and Deion Sanders.

In high school, things aren’t always welcoming either. According to a 2011 national survey by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, only 23 percent of LGBT students participate in school sports.

Here at Westside, many believe progress is being made. Although no one has come out, junior football player Jack Connelly has seen an accepting environment during his three years on the football team.

“More often than not, I think the football team is welcoming and very open,” Connelly said. “I don’t think we’re judgmental or would think differently of anyone [who came out.]”

Although Connelly did say there are some offensive remarks made, he claims they are few and far between and only made by a select few. His teammate, junior Jake Stacy, says the same.

“I definitely feel like if someone were serious about their comments, they would be called out right away,” Stacy said. “Everything would be addressed and made sure it doesn’t happen again.”

According to a Lance survey taken by 426 student athletes at Westside, 88 percent say they would accept an LGBT teammate as part of the team. These athletes played a range of sports at Westside, including non-school sponsored sports like lacrosse and hockey.

Head girls soccer coach Nathan Moseley has seen this on his teams, and he doesn’t see coming out as a big deal. Over the last six years, Moseley has coached four LGBT athletes.

In his experience, a student coming out hasn’t affected the team.

“I think there’s a whole deal made that there’s these big moments where players come out and it’s this huge revelation, but usually it’s not,” Moseley said.

According to the same survey, 62 percent of student athletes feel that it’s not important for LGBT athletes to share their sexuality with their teammates.

Although 88 percent of the Westside athletes surveyed said they would accept an LGBT teammate, only 64 percent said Westside’s athletic environment is accepting of LGBT athletes currently. One athlete, Cramer*, has seen this side of our sports. Cramer has played baseball, track, basketball and football while at Westside and has seen evidence of Westside athletes’ offensive behavior.

“Nobody would be so against it that they’d go out of their way to make that person’s life bad, but I think that behind their back there’d be a lot of talking, and they just wouldn’t fit in,” Cramer said.

For District Excellence in Youth coordinator Kristen Job, this is a familiar ordeal. She had to decide whether or not to come out to her club swim team growing up. From the age of four until she was out of high school, Job competed in club swimming but never came out to her teammates.

EY COORDINATOR She didn’t decide this without regret, though. kRISTEN JOB “In hindsight, 20 years out of high school, yes [I regret not coming out],” Job said. “But you don’t know…until after the fact that…people who support you will always support you.”

Although she personally didn’t come out in high school, she believes that in today’s society, it’s important for LGBT athletes to come out.

“I think more and more people need to be out and honest,” Job said. “If you’re not truly who you are, it’s just not worth it. People will respect you so much more if you are who you are and are honest about who you are.”

Job has also seen firsthand how accepting Westside is of the LGBT community.

Through her experiences, she agrees with the students that said Westside’s athletic environment is accepting.

“For the most part, I think the high school definitely [is accepting]” Job said. “…Once you get to the high school people are like, ‘Oh my god, nobody cares anymore, be yourself…

There’s more freedom up here.”

More and more people need to be out and honest.

*names have been changed to respect students’ identities

FEATURE

17

TURNING POINT

Student shows the benefits of turning to God through senior project JACE WI ESEL ER

MANAGING EDITOR To senior Kevin Roman, worship isn’t something practiced once a week on Sunday mornings.

It isn’t something that just runs in the family or taken lightly.

It’s a way to live.

Seventh grade was a hard year for Roman. He was bullied because of his race. They called him ‘beaner,’ ‘illegal,’ and ‘Mexicano.’ When he went to the administration, nothing was resolved.

“No one was really there to help me,” Roman said. “It made my life terrible.”

Roman didn’t know who to turn to.

One week during Roman’s freshman year, his friend senior Donald Flatt Jr. took him to his youth group meeting at the Liberty Christian Center. “[At first] I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go or not because I wasn’t really into that stuff,” Roman said. “Afterwards, I felt what I had been missing in my life. … I felt there was more in life that was waiting for me.”

He continued to go every Wednesday with his worship team made up of members of his church to sing, dance and talk to God. “[It gives] us a moment to show God that we care about Him, that we love Him, by singing songs about Him,” Roman said.

Music in his worship group has helped him stay happier by listening to the lyrics and understanding that he’s not alone.

Because Roman was able to be happier through

God, he wants to make sure everyone else had that option. For his senior project, Roman is making a documentary to show people that in times of need, God is always there for them to help.

“I think this project will help encourage and inspire people dealing with struggles in their life,” Roman said.

He says instead of turning toward drinking or drugs, looking towards God will help give people who are struggling the answers they are looking for.

In his documentary, he will be explaining his experience through sharing his story and an interview with his pastor, explaining her story and how worship has changed her life.

Roman made his project about his experience because he felt that by showing people he was able to get out of what he was going through, others could do the same. By telling his story, people that SENIOR are struggling with the same types of situations will know someone they can to turn to and how to get out.

“Lately I’ve been noticing that many people in this world aren’t as happy,” Roman said. “Most people try to hide their true feelings behind a fake smile. For me, God can help you feel better.”

Although he hasn’t given it much thought, Roman thinks he wants to continue the work he’s doing with his senior project after his senior year.

“If I continue on making people smile and helping them maybe it will show the world that there’s still hope and that we can all get past anything negative,” Roman said.

Afterwards, I felt what I had been missing in my life.

Senior Kevin Roman poses in the courtyard February 20th during an open mod. “I think this project will help encourage and inspire people dealing with struggles in their life,” Roman said. Kevin expresses his belief in God through his senior project. Photo by Taylor Schendt

KEVIN ROM AN

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DISTRICTS

SPORTS

Girls win, boys fall in championship game Aren Rendell

wmg Coordinator After posting a 19-4 regular season record, the Westside girls varsity basketball team hosted the District A-5 basketball tournament Tuesday and Thursday, Feb. 24 and 26.

In the opening round of the tournament, the top-seeded Warriors beat the fourth-seeded Lincoln Southeast Knights. Senior Regan Johnson had a standout performance, scoring a game-high 18 points, to help Westside to the 63-47 victory.

Westside then moved on to the district championship game, where a trip to the Class A State Basketball Tournament was on the line, to play PapillionLa Vista South. Johnson had another solid performance, with 13 points, but senior Jay Bridgeman led the Warriors this time. She scored 21 points while pulling down 15 rebounds to give Westside a 68-57 win, the district title and a trip to Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.

For information about Westside’s state tournament opening round matchup against Millard West, visit westsidewired.org.

On the boys side, the second-seeded Warriors battled through a District A-4 opening round matchup against Fremont, pulling out a 56-51 victory over the Tigers Saturday, Feb. 28. Westside’s star trio of sophomore Anthony Bratton and junior cousins AJ and Trae Meeks combined for 49 points. Trae led Westside with 20, which put him in a tie for the game-high with Fremont center Ryan Williams, who led his team with 20 The victory advanced the Warriors to the championship game Monday, March 2, where they faced off against top-seeded Omaha North. This time, Westside’s star trio scored 47 points, led by 19 from Trae. But 47 wasn’t enough. Omaha North star and Creighton recruit Justin Patton scored 23 points while corralling 22 rebounds to lead Omaha North to a 75-60 victory.

Patton stands at 6 feet 11 inches, and his height simply proved to be too much for Westside.

The loss ended Westside’s season. It finished with a 12-12 record. Of course, Westside will return the Meeks cousins and Bratton along with multiple role players for next season, so the team should garner preseason hype.

Above Right: Sophomore Anthony Bratton scores a basket during the District A-4 championship Monday, March 2. Westside lost 75-60 againt Omaha North, ending its chance to compete at state this year. Straight Above: Freshman Quinn Weidemann cuts down the net after the girls varsity basketball team’s win against Papillion-La Vista South. The Warriors won 68-57 against the Titans.

Right: Seniors Forrest McQueen and Tom Ashford try to fight around Omaha North players after a free throw during the varsity basketball game Monday, March 2. Photos by Sarah Lemke

SPORTS

19

Left: The girls varsity basketball team celebrates its district trophy after the victory over Papillion-La Vista South Thursday, Feb. 26. Below Left: Senior Jenn Poots catches her breath in the arms of her teammates after Westsideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 69-52 win against the Titans Thursday, Feb. 26.

Photos by Sarah Lemke

Above: Senior Regan Johnson gets around a Papillion-La Vista South guard during the district game Thursday, Feb. 26. Left: Junior Sam Frankel shoots during the district game against Omaha North Monday, March 2. Photos by Sarah Lemke

20

SPORTS

MAJOR LEAGUE LEGACY Student continues father’s baseball tradition Jack Co hen Sports Editor Having a father with over 30 years of professional baseball experience gives freshman Bronson Hosey a background unlike any other high school athlete.

Bronson’s father, Dwayne Hosey, was born on March 11, 1967 in Los Angeles, California.

Dwayne grew up a huge football fan and wanted to become a professional football player.

“I loved football,” Dwayne said.

“I always dreamed to be an NFL player.”

Early on, Dwayne’s dream was sidetracked.

“Over the course of growing up in Los Angeles, I got in some trouble in school,” Dwayne said. “With gang life and stuff like that.”

Dwayne got his life together, graduated high school and went to Pasadena City College, a junior college, to play football. It was there where Dwayne recorded seven interceptions in his first season and became an All American. Dwayne’s great plays attracted the attention of Pac 10 schools, including USC. As spring came around, Dwayne seemed to have his mind set on playing football for his hometown school, but then the course of his life changed.

“That spring I went out for baseball at Pasadena City College to stay active,” Dwayne said. “I had a great baseball season, and when the MLB draft came around in June, I was offered a professional baseball contract.”

Dwayne was now faced with a decision: to pursue his childhood dream of being a football player or to be paid to play baseball. Ultimately, he made the decision best for him.

“After I decided to play baseball, I never looked back,” Dwayne said.

Over his years, Dwayne played for multiple clubs, including the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers. He also spent a few seasons in Japan before returning to the MLB with the Expos.

After Dwayne retired from baseball, he became a hitting coach.

“I still loved the game, so I went into coaching,” Dwayne said.

“First with the [Anaheim] Angels, [which] was a great experience. I got to work with the younger guys and show them the ropes.”

This was a new beginning for Dwayne.

After his time with the Angels, Bronson’s Father he countinued to instruct baseball with the Milwaukee Brewers.

“I really started to mature and get a deeper responsibility in Milwaukee,” Dwayne said.

After five years with the Brewers, Dwayne ended his work in professional leagues by finding a connection from his previous playing years and using the connection to make a baseball instructional facility. His time as a player and coach made him the perfect candidate, and, after moving to Nebraska, Dwayne’s vision was clear: to create the best baseball program in the Midwest.

Years later, the Ultimate Baseball Academy has become that. The 2-story facility holds the most features of any building in the region. One of the highlights of the facility is a 150x150 turf field.

Out of all the students educated at UBA, however, one student has had the most opportunities.

This person is Dwayne’s son, Bronson.

“Bronson, his situation is unique,” Dwayne said. “He’s been blessed to have been around professionals and locker rooms. He’s grown up

[Bronson’s] been blessed to have been around professionals and locker rooms. He’s grown up in it.

Dwayne Hosey

Dwayne Hosey's

BASEBALL STATS GAMES PLAYED............... 52 BATTING AVERAGE....... .274 RUNS BATTED IN............. 10 ON-BASE %................... .342 AT BAT............................. 146 in it.”

The guidance has been a constant presence for Bronson.

“He had me start off when I was four,” Bronson said. “I’ve been working really hard since I was young.”

Having this knowledge and experience is extremely important for athletes. However, Dwayne knows that a work ethic ultimately makes a player.

“He has the god given tools,” Dwayne said.

“He has the ability to do great things. I would like to see him continue to work at it.”

Bronson certainly has the guidance to get there.

From being held in the arms of World Series winning baseball player Mike Napoli to his first opportunity in high school, Bronson has has Dwayne to guide him his entire life.

Above Top: Freshman Bronson Hosey gets some late night practice with his dad, Dwayne, Thursday, Feb. 26 at the Ultimate Baseball Academy. Bronson has been working with his dad on baseball since he was four. Photo by Mitch Francis

SPORTS

21

Injury stops runner from reaching full potential ABBY L AN G

STAFF WRITER As sophomore Megan Algya sprinted around the school, one leg striding in front of the other at the speed of lightning, a sharp pain began stabbing at her knee with every right turn she encountered. It became something she couldn’t ignore.

She consistently works hard and rises up be a leader for both the cross country and track teams.

Yet, when she was sprinting around the building this winter to prepare for the upcoming track season, her knee started to fail her.

“Right now, it’s terrible,” Algya said. “I was running 6 to 8 miles a day but since my knee started hurting, I can barely run which is frustrating.”

When rest and ice wasn’t enough Algya went for professional help. She received a diagnosis that’s common among long distance runners: pronation. When Algya pronates, her feet cave in, resulting in her knees not going over her feet as they should. This means being pulled one huge step back from where she wants to be when track season starts this spring.

“This track season, I’d love to make state,” Algya said, “But now with my injury, I just don’t know. That’s definitely a huge goal of mine and I feel like my coaches are counting on me.”

Her injury has hindered her from being able to reach her maximum ability. When she doesn’t run, she doesn’t feel like herself, which has made her period of recovery that much harder.

“If I don’t run, I don’t feel very good both physically and mentally,” Algya said. “On the days I don’t run I think about my team and how far I could get if I [would have] went out and ran.”

Running takes up an important part of her life and while it seems to her that it’s been like that for a while now, she’s only been competitively running since freshman year. What started as a way to become involved in high school and hang out with friends, resulted in a passion to become a stronger athlete and continue to break personal records.

“Last year in cross country, at my last meet, I dropped over a minute off my time, which was really good for me back then,” Algya said. “It gave me this feeling like, ‘Woah, maybe I could keep

doing this. Maybe this is something I could get really good at.’ ” This mentality and her dedication has led her through two seasons of cross-country and one track season. With running being such an important part of her life, she has continued to train year-round because she wants to keep leading her teammates, something that cross-country coach Theresa Gosnell says Algya never fails to do.

“She’s became really dedicated and puts in a lot of miles,” Gosnell said. “This year, she became a huge leader. Everyday in the summer, she was out running, and she also helped everyone else pick up the pace.”

As Alyga has become one of the top athletes on both the cross country and track teams, she’s continued to run 50 miles a week during the offseason to stay in shape. She was the only girl who showed up at 8 a.m. practices throughout the summer and she continued to train by herself. The highest extent of her commitment to the sport was when she continued to run through the throbbing pain of shin splints during track season her freshmen year, solely because she had the motivation to keep running faster. But as Gosnell said, she not only improved herself, but she also pushed her teammates to reach their full potential as well.

“I want to recover so I can continue getting better and keep seeing my times drop,” Algya said, “But I also want to make other people want to do it. The freshmen [on cross country] this year kind of looked up to me because I’m always running, but I want to encourage everyone else coming in to keep running and put in the mileage. I just want to be a leader for them.”

Even though she’s been able to slowly get back into the swing of things, she knows she won’t be at her best by the beginning of the track season.

However, she hopes to be back again by May, just in time for districts and the state meet. Algya wants to move past the injury and continue to grow as an athlete, because she wants to reach her full potential and simply be able to keep running.

“I always want running to be a part of my life,” Algya said. “I always want to be able to go out and be able to run. If I didn’t run, I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”

Above Top: Sophomore Megan Algya prepares for one of her final preseason workouts after school Friday, Feb. 20. Algya is prepared to be a huge leader going into track season. Above Right: Algya runs south down 87th street from the high school Friday, Feb. 20. Algya conditions regularly to prepare for her spring track and field season. Photos by Taylor Schendt and Jakob Phillips

Returning Westside graduate helps wrestlers CONNOR CASTLEMAN

STAFF WRITER Two years ago, as 2013 graduate Erick Vargas put on his headgear and stepped into the ring, he realized that he loved wrestling.

While For many, a high school sport is merely a way to stay active, try something new, and be with friends outside of school. For Vargas, wrestling with his teammates was a passion, a passion that allowed him to develop many relationships with his teammates that lasted throughout the rest of his high school career.

As a high school wrestler, Vargas, just like wrestlers now, worked as much as he could to be able to compete in the lowest weight class, have fun with friends, and ultimately win matches.

Vargas enjoyed wrestling for Westside enough to take time out of his own schedule to come back and help wrestlers competing this year.

Vargas taught wrestlers in a one on one environment to help them and their specific needs.

“I went and wrestled with them one on one and showed certain individuals advanced technique,” Vargas said.

Vargas’ dedication to the sport of wrestling and Westside High School is what brought him back.

“I knew some of the wrestlers from back when I was a senior,” Vargas said.

He knew that he was interested in doing the same thing that other wres-

tlers did when he was a younger wrestler.

“I thought it was awesome when I was taught by those who knew a lot more about the sport, so I wanted to give those guys my knowledge of the sport,” Vargas said.

Vargas consistently attended Westside’s after school practices and mainly focused on helping wrestlers in the 125-152 pound weight class by teaching them moves they had been trying to perfect throughout the entire year.

“I could relate best to those wrestlers because they were in the same weight class as myself,” Vargas said.

It was easy for wrestling coach Michael Jernigan to see Vargas’ connection to other wrestlers.

“Vargas mainly helped Isaiah Peerman, Casey Schroeder, and Aeneas Renfro improve this year on skills that they were working on perfecting,” Jernigan said.

Although Vargas focused his knowledge on the 125-152 pound weight class he was always looking for another person to help.

“It’s great to see one of my returning wrestlers be able to spread what he has learned to the younger class,” Jernigan said.

Vargas’ coaching has helped wrestlers Darlondo Hill, Drew Sorrell, and Joseph Wiles get to the state tournament. Although Vargas would like to help the three wrestlers competing in state, he is working on preparing his brother, who wrestles for Burke, for state.

As Vargas continues his life it’s clear that his love for the sport of wrestling will draw him back to the game again.

T H E facts 3

The number of wrestlers that made state this year

17

The number of meets Westside’s varsity wrestling team participated in this year

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NOTEWORTHY

A&E

Student uses talent for singing to tell story AUDREY M CM U L L EN STAFF WRITER The TV screen goes dark and there is no visible light the room. Freshman Maddy Stark’s face lights up as she finds boxes of home movies. As the fuzzy image becomes clearer; memories of her childhood flood back to her mind. Her sisters could be heard from behind the camera as 3-yearold Maddy comes into view. She takes a gulp of air and begins to sing at the top of her lungs. She strings notes together, one after the next, and creates a song off of the top of her head.

“I guess I’ve always been singing since I was really little, but I didn’t know I was that good,” Stark said.

She basically came into the world singing and hasn’t stopped since. She aspires to be like people such as actress Lea Michele or Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth. Her grandmother was a music teacher, and her dad had produced albums and songs on iTunes while in multiple bands.

“In elementary school I always had the little, tiny solos,” said Stark. “Then I did Sing Around Nebraska in sixth grade. That was when people were telling me that I was actually really good.”

Sing Around Nebraska is a program run through Nebraska American Choral Directors Association. 120 to 150 fifth and sixth graders from around the state of Nebraska come together to learn and create music. Stark doesn’t take voice lessons regularly, but she makes sure to set up a lesson before an audition. In eighth grade she landed the role of Audrey in the Westside Middle School’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Over winter break, she was also in the Rose Theatre’s production of A Christmas Story. Stark firmly believes that music has a big impact on a person’s life.

“Music can change somebody’s personality so much,” said Stark. “If I wasn’t musical and if music wasn’t such a big impact on my life; I wouldn’t

A

be the person I am.”

Another big aspect of Stark’s life began in sixth grade when she was first introduced to the world of show choir. She watched in awe as people danced in sparkly dresses and voices sung out. She couldn’t wait for the day she would get the chance to be a part of it. Her two sisters hadn’t been involved with show choir but that didn’t make her want to audition any less.

“Ever since I knew what show choir was, I knew I wanted to be in it,” Stark said. “[The show choirs] would come to the elementary schools and I wanted to be in [them] so bad,” In middle school, Stark was one of the girls to be selected for Westside Connection Show Choir for seventh and eighth grade. As a freshman this year, she is involved with Freshman Choir along with Warrior Express Show Choir. She was able to land a solo in their show’s ballad, True Colors.

“I’m always trying to tell a story to the people sitting down,” Stark said. “I want to make them feel like I’m actually talking to them.”

During her solo, many thoughts race in her mind. She likes to imagine that she is singing on Broadway or she is in a movie. Stark makes it a goal to try and improve her vocals every time.

“I always want to go back and do it again, better,” said Stark.

Earlier in the year, Stark auditioned for a solo in the school’s annual Cabaret. At Cabaret, all of the choirs and show choirs perform along with a few selected soloists to songs that coordinate with that year’s theme. This year, it was Broadway Magic. Stark chose to do “Journey to the Past” from the movie Anastasia. She liked it because it was more upbeat but had some contrasting, slower moments too. She was very thankful to find out that she had not only gotten a solo, but was the only freshman to. Stark has many hopes for her future and focuses on making every performance has count.

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Freshman Maddy Stark warms up her voice during freshman choir class Friday Feb. 27. Stark first joined show choir in seventh grade. Photo by Sarah Lemke

A&E

MEAN(ISH) GIRLS

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Movie attempts to convey message of individuality, is too cliché Elise Tu ck er , Kayla Ky l e

A&E Editor, Staff Writer The Duff is the newest movie aimed to attract teenage girls. It has all the high school clichés with cliques, a group of mean girls and the love story between the jock and the outcast.

The movie is about a high school girl named Bianca (Mae Whitman) who is realizing that she’s the odd one out of her friends. They start calling her their Duff or Designated Ugly Fat Friend. The Duff follows her journey of coming into her own true self and realizing she’s more than just a label.

The humor in the film was witty, and it felt like an accurate portrayal of teenagers. The storyline was also timely and relatable. Every person goes through times when they don’t feel like they fit in and this movie could be very comforting to them.

One of the main things the movie did right was the casting. Mae Whitman, Bella Throne and Robbie Amell all brought out something special in each of their characters. Whitman brought emotion, comedy and spunk to the story while Throne was a more exaggerated version of your average mean girl.

The chemistry between Bianca and Wesley also shined through as well. Witman and Amell did an amazing job with emotions during the “Thinking Rock” scene and the dressing room scene.

The movie makes it clear that its message is the importance of individuality and being proud of who you are. Bianca’s journey to find her place is one that many people will take comfort in. In that aspect, the movie achieved what it set out to do.

However, there were some things in the movie that could have been improved. The storyline felt cliché and overdone. We feel like we’ve seen this plot in multiple movies before. Despite the positive message, this movie brought nothing new to

the table. You could find many other movies that have the same exact moral.

We went into this movie knowing exactly how it was going to end. It was wrapped up in a nice package just like any other chic-flick. It was ultimately a very predictable story that didn’t take any new angles on the classic high school story.

It followed the teen movie formula exactly and added no new twists and turns.

If the movie had twists and turns, we think it would reach a demographic instead of the teen girl audience. Parts of the movie were very corny as well. The last thirty minutes were wrapped up too perfectly and didn’t feel accurate to real life at all. Real high school doesn’t have a dramatic mean girl or a clean-cut plot, so if audiences are looking for a true high school movie.

When Bianca and Wesley teamed up to try to get Bianca’s image from dressing like a guy to looking like a girl, the scene included a dressing room montage. The scene was funny, but it was very cliché. Almost every movie has done this about a million times.

There were also some effects that looked tacky and out of place. We think if they had left them out, the movie would have been strong instead of silly and awkward. When Bianca finally finds the courage to ask her crush out, she stands in the middle of the hallway with her arms out and CGI fireworks explode behind her. This distracted from the moment rather than added to it.

For people who loved the book, this movie will disappoint as well. The movie is an incredibly different story and one of the main characters in the movie wasn’t even in the book.

The Duff had the potential to be a cult classic and a story that people would remember for years to come, but sadly there were many flaws that covered that up. Overall, it was a fun movie that sent out a positive message, but unfortunately, it’s one we’ve seen too many times before.

The Duff premiered on February 20 and is currently in theaters. From the left, Ken Jeong, Bella Throne, Robbie Amell and Mae Whitman pose for the movie poster.

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FIFTYGREY

24

A&E

SHADES of

Movie album starts strong but lacks power Rating:

ELISE TU CK ER

A&E EDITOR Listeners are “Crazy in Love” with this soundtrack. The “Fifty Shades of Grey” album hit number one as soon as it was released on Feb. 10 it is one of the top selling soundtracks of the year so far. It is all about the “passion” that the protagonists Ana and Christian have.

The album has a slow and sexy sound. From song to song, the album brings out a sort of passion.

The soundtrack has two instrumental tracks or orchestra tracks from the movie called “Ana and Christian” and “Did that Hurt?” Both of the songs add more variety to the album, which already has a lot of different artists and sounds.

They both tell stories about Ana and Christian’s relationship.

Sia’s song ”Salted Wound” is a soft ballad that has an acoustic background. Sia does a lot of runs with her voice to help the song move with each lyric. The song adds a heartfelt sound to the album.

AWOLNATION’s track “I’m on Fire” is very different from what they are used to be writing and singing. It is the complete opposite of their hit “Sail,” but not all of their work, which is still in everyone’s head. The song brings a mix of Imagine Dragons and electronic sounds to the album, which makes this different.

The rapper/singer The Weeknd brought a

Opinion

modern pop sound to the album with the song “Earned It”. The song has a slow beat with passionate. “Earned It” encompasses the theme of the album (which is about passion).

Ellie Goulding’s song “Love Me Like You Do” is the anthem for the album. When Goulding sings, “Love me like you do…touch me like you do,” the lyrics explain the character’s passion. The song is all about Ana’s passion and her desire for Christian. Her voice makes it the most powerful song on the soundtrack.

My personal favorite track is “Undiscovered”

by Laura Welsh. The song has a cool, blues-like vibe to it. The slow, smooth sound captures everything about the album and it’s danceable as well.

However, the soundtrack contains a few poor performances, which have me torn. Some of the songs almost made me fall asleep while I was listening. Contrasted with “Crazy in Love,” Jessie Ware’s “Meet Me in the Middle” falls very short.

The song is supposed to sound sexy and smooth, but it sounded more like a lullaby.

The Frank Sinatra song also felt out of place.

“Witchcraft” is a great song--just not for our century. Especially not for a movie as, um, “modern” as this.

Each song told a story about Fifty Shades of Grey. With each song I listened to I wanted to hear more. Overall, the album has put everyone “Under a Spell” and will be “Haunting” listeners for a long time.

Fifty Shades supports unhealthy relationships EVA WETZEL

OPINION EDITOR During its recent advertising blitz, “Fifty Shades of Grey” has been heavily criticized by women’s rights organizations. The one thing I knew for sure before reading the book myself, however, was that “Fifty Shades” was inescapable. Ads ran on every website. News sites analyzed awkward interviews with the two main actors, and there were rumors of fights between director Sam Taylor-Johnson and author E.L. James.

For the few who don’t know, “Fifty Shades” is a book about a dominant/submissive relationship. CEO Christian Grey asks the young, totally inexperienced Anastasia Steele to sign a BSDM contract with him. They then get to the erotica that enticed most people to read the book in the first place.

There’s a lot more to it than that, though. Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey have a “love story.” It’s a love story with the delicate, poetic subtlety of a jackhammer, but a love story nonetheless. The movie was even released on Valentine’s Day, emphasizing the purported romance.

However, the relationship in this book is completely dysfunctional. It is not safe, sane, or — most importantly — consensual. The relationship should never be imitated in the real world.

Halfway into the book, Christian is over at Anastasia’s, and she rolls her eyes at him during a conversation. Christian, incensed by the disrespect, says that he is going to physically punish her. Anastasia has not yet signed the infamous dominant/submissive contract and does not want to comply, but she does anyway because she is afraid he will leave her.

Christian strikes her multiple times. She describes the painful experience as a “merciless assault”; she also calls it “demeaning.” What she does not do, however, is give her consent. Christian then promptly leaves, and she begins to cry. Her concerned roommate comes home and Anastasia lies about what happened, saying that she just injured herself after falling.

If this sounds like an abuse scenario, that’s because it is. Ana hardly knows what will set Christian off – he’s beaten her for being sarcastic, but sometimes he tolerates it. Sometimes he’s open, but other times he turns cold and

aggressive. There’s just enough of a pleasant lull between the controlling behavior to keep Ana coming back. This is a commonly recognized cycle of abuse. Violent outbursts are followed by “honeymoon periods,” where the abuser showers their victim with affection or gifts.

Christian buys Ana a sports car, a phone and a MacBook. This has the added effect of making her dependent on him.

Anastasia eventually brings up her sense of degradation with Christian over e-mail.

Disturbingly, he tells her that she “[wasn’t] supposed to like” what happened. He questions the validity of her feelings and asks her to “deal with them for me,” reminding her that she didn’t use their safeword.

In this way, Christian casts the blame on Ana and does not acknowledge her emotions. This is a real form of mental abuse called gaslighting. It’s when an abuser makes a victim question their reality or memory. In this case, Christian makes the self-conscious Ana doubt her own perception, and she acquiesces.

The only counterargument to accusations of abuse would be that Ana enjoyed all of it “deep down,” but honestly, that doesn’t matter. He surprises her in her home and ties her up, without consent, before she signs the contract. This is not a story of two consenting adults. Rather, it is the tale of a nervous, self-conscious young woman and a predatory man.

Christian seldom asks for consent throughout the book, other than a vague “do you trust me?” By definition, he sexually assaults her multiple times. She is afraid of his anger.

He gets her tipsy on champagne to disinhibit her (and admits it.) He regulates how she dresses, eats, sleeps and exercises. He constantly tracks her location and doesn’t hesitate to drive straight to her door if she doesn’t answer him.

He continues the relationship even though he knows she’s

unsure, inexperienced and self-conscious. She breaks their relationship off at the end of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which I thought was a cause for celebration, but spoiler alert: she goes on to marry and have two children with Christian in the sequels.

Throughout the first book, Christian’s controlling behavior is made out to be sexy. The relationship only works because he is a mythical, perfect Adonis who knows exactly what Ana wants at all times. In this fantasy world, people don’t have to communicate with their partners as long as one of them is “experienced enough” to know what they’re doing. This is, obviously, untrue.

The foundation of a good relationship is communication and mutual support. There’s a risk that girls who see this movie will be lead to believe that, no matter how controlling he may be, they need a powerful man to whisk them off their feet and catch them when they fall/faint/clumsily stumble into the path of an oncoming bicycle (ridiculously, all three of these things happen in the first couple chapters.)

Maybe “Fifty Shades” was mostly harmless in its original state as an obscure Twilight fanfiction written under the pen name Snowqueens Icedragon, but now it’s much, much more. It’s a New York Times bestseller. Popular romantic tales shape our social consciousness and what we find desirable.

How much do we idealize the image of a guy holding a boombox over his head, blasting a love song outside his girlfriend’s window like in “Say Anything?” How often have couples tried to imitate the “Jack, I’m flying” scene from “Titanic?” The abuse in “Fifty Shades of Grey” should never be added to this list of romantic ideals. People may see it as justification to harm their partners. Even worse, it might condition someone to believe that abusive behavior is permissible. It’s never permissible — and neither is “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Maybe “Fifty Shades” was harmless...as an obscure Twilight fanfiction...but now it’s much, much more.