An inside look into media sources that cause polarizing views
pg.8-9
Review of the locally produced goods at the Tiny Grocers shop
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THE DISPATCH FRIDAY, NOV. 5, 2021
CULINARY COOKS UP A FALL STORM
PHOTO BY Reagan Zuniga
SOUTH CONGRESS TINY GROCERS SHOP
PHOTO BY Lucille Price
ART BY Isabella del Nido
D
MEDIA AND ITS DIVERGING VIEWS
A Day in the Life of a Bowie Culinary student cooking fall dishes
pg.16
coming UP November 22-26 Thanksgiving Break December 1 Way-Back Winter Festival December 13 End of 2nd Nine Weeks
Vol. 34, Issue 2 www.thedispatchonline.net James Bowie High School 4103 W. Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX, 78749
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First Nine Weeks Teacher Shortages Emily Lowe Dispatch Reporter
It's Monday morning, and you wake up feeling sick. You don't know if it's COVID, but you know you can't go to school. You call in to inform the administration and that's when they tell you there might not be a teacher to take your classes for the day. As you put down the phone, you feel your stress levels starting to spiral, as you think of all the things that could go wrong in your classroom without a teacher there. Although you feel terrible, you have to ask, is it worth it to go into school to make sure the students are being safe? This is the life of many teachers right now due to the profound shortage of teachers in Texas. “There is a worker shortage everywhere, and admin has had a hard time finding enough qualified people who applied for the teaching jobs that we have had open," chemistry teacher Jeanne Westmoreland said. For the first few weeks of the school year, there were various classes, especially in the science department, without teachers. These said classes had no instructors, but plenty of students, so they were being taught by substitutes and other Bowie teachers. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT
thedispatchonline.net
Bowie's Incentive Policy is Back Alex Edwards Dispatch Reporter
For over half a decade, Bowie students utilized the school’s attendance incentives, but this year, until October 18, incentives were a thing of the past. With important factors changing leading up to the second grading period, incentives were able to make their return. At the beginning of the school year, incentives were halted to help prevent students from coming to school sick. Now, with the spread of COVID-19 decreasing throughout the city of Austin and the COVID-19 risk stage lowering from Stage 5 to Stage 3, it became safe to reintroduce the incentives for the second nine weeks. “We talked about what stage we would need to be at and we finally just decided to not put a number on it,” School Improvement Facilitator Ruth Widner said. “Instead we left it open so we could evaluate all the factors.” The incentives were resumed on October 18 with the introduction of the quarantine, or “QT” code. If a student has to quarantine the “QT” code is used, distinguishing the absence related to the pandemic from other types of absences and not counting against a student's attendance incentive. One worry for teachers is students not keeping up with work while quarantining. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT thedispatchonline.net
INDEX:
CONVERSATIONS SPARK: Senior Andie Garza, Keira Folkers, and Isabella Grahmann wear orange t-shirts to school. On Oct. 20, 2021, Bowie students and staff wore orange to show support in efforts against vaping. PHOTO BY Sage Epstein ART BY Isabella del Nido
Vaping conversations
Student Leadership's ‘No Vape October' encouraged students to quit vaping Arushi Sharma Editor-in-Chief
John Smith felt the urge. He was sitting in his algebra class, listening to a boring lecture about inverse matrices and he felt the need to go to the E hall bathroom to hit his vape. He knew this addiction was not something that was good for him, but he couldn’t control it. He couldn't even think of the last time he had made it through the day without vaping. Vaping had become a daily routine for him and he was unable to focus without it. While John Smith isn't a real student at Bowie, the story is one played out everyday in the hallways. Addiction is a problem across the country. In a recent report by the U.S. Health Public Service, between 2011 and 2015 e-cigarette use among high school students increased by over 900%. The same report states that young people ages 15 to 17 are 16 times more likely to vape than people aged 25 to 34. With the rise of this increase and the effects of vaping, Bowie’s nurse Shari Petersen and Student Leadership have spent the past month implementing ‘No Vape October’ at Bowie. “NoVapeOctober is an initiative that Nurse Petersen and my Student Leadership students are working on
this year to help Bowie students become aware of a program that can help students quit vaping in a teenage friendly way," Student Leadership teacher Vickie Benson said. In 2019, a poll conducted by the Truth Initiative reflected the conclusion that two-thirds of people aged 15 to 21 don’t know that the product contained nicotine. Moreover, despite an outbreak in deaths or lung disease cases because of vaping, more than 20% of 18- to 38-yearolds called vaping harmless and nonaddictive. “A lot of people think it's a safer alternative than smoking, and it's not," Petersen said. "In fact, it actually has the potential to make you more addicted and more dependent than actual cigarettes, because the amount of nicotine you can get in a vape is way higher than you actually get from smoking a cigarette. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 99% of the e-cigarettes sold in the United States contained nicotine. The article also conveyed the idea that various e-cigarette labels don’t disclose that they contain nicotine or mark it as having 0% nicotine, but actually contain this toxic chemical. “Through NoVapeOctober, I learned the facts about the various negative consequences that occur through vaping,” senior Camilla Cooper said. “I hope that Bowie
students were able to educate themselves on the harmful effects of these e-cigarettes and have taken some form of help from the program.” Last year during the pandemic, Petersen took a course where she researched information on vaping and its side effects. She found a program called ‘This is Quitting’ that assist students in understanding the risks that are associated with vaping, especially risks that are overlooked. “The program is 100% private and anonymous, and it's free,” Petersen said. “Essentially, a student types in 88709 to their phone, and to that they text the keyword ‘NoVapeBowie’ and that starts them down the road to quitting. Once they text that it'll give them prompts to respond to such as tips to quit, helpful age-appropriate information, and responses to ‘SOS texts’.” The ‘Truth Initiative’ organization, utilized by Bowie, has been directly responsible for keeping over 450,000 teenagers from starting to smoke. Moreover, in 2020 alone, the program has seen more than 41,000 young people subscribe to the service. Between 100-150 people sign up each day. “The program been proven through research to be really effective to help teenagers quit," Petersen said. “It communicates with them on a way they understand through their phone. The information that the teens receive back through the text
messaging platform has been shown to be really helpful as it communicates with teenagers and helps them learn ways to fight those cravings and urges to vape." Petersen emphasized the need for utilizing students as the best way to spread awareness and information. Benson's Student Leadership class has spent the month of October making posters, writing messages for the morning announcements, playing no vaping videos in English classes, and encouraging students to wear orange in support of the initiative. “My favorite activity that we've done in Student Leadership for NoVapeOctober was making the posters for campus that advertise the program,” senior Goretti Lopez said. “By implementing these activities to support the initiative, I hope students recognize that vaping is bad for you and it’s something that they should stop.” While October is over, the ‘This is Quitting' initiative isn’t ending. Benson shares her thoughts about the impact that she hopes the program will bring to Bowie's campus. “I’m hoping that something resonated from this campaign and people start to mature as they think ‘I do need to quit vaping,’” Benson said. “If even one person on campus heard the message from NoVapeOctober and started going through the program to get help and stop vaping, I think that it was worth it.”
Model UN club makes a comeback after nine years Claire Scott Dispatch Reporter
The clock is ticking. Two more minutes till the countries have to vote on the bill in question. Will they vote in his favor? Sophomore Ma-
son Lilley has spent the last two months researching and thinking like a citizen in another country to learn about their political beliefs and views. Since 2013, Model UN hasn't been a extracurricular
FIT MEETINGS: Junior Ashley Fuselier and World Geography and debate teacher John Mast discuss information during the ModelUN meeting. The club meets on Thursdays every week. PHOTO BY Angela Le
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activity that Bowie students can participate in. After nine years of dormancy, the club has made a return under world geography teacher Charles Stampley and debate teacher John Mast. “Model UN is a competition where students roleplay countries and political figures, and they are graded on how well you represent the country or figure,” Stampley said. ModelUN is a collaborative activity that involves multiple participants who act as delegates, namely a representative of their assigned country. Throughout the conference delegates voice their opinions for various bills and are allowed to form alliances with others. Eventually their plans are brought to a vote, like the actual United Nations. “I chose to participate be-
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cause I thought it would be interesting,” senior Ethan Young said. “Additionally, this is Bowie’s first time ever doing Model UN after a while so I thought it would be a good addition to Bowie’s debate program.” In a report by BestDelagate, the article states that ModelUN fosters creativity and out-of-the-box thinking into students in a way that regular academics doesn't. It also increases student's communication skills as they're able to engage with other delegates throughout the conference. “Being in Model UN club has helped me in my world history class by expanding the way that I understand different topics and how countries react to different issues," Lilley said. This club is often confused with other electives
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such as debate and mock trial, which are also Bowie organizations. Although these activities are alike, they have different motives behind their conferences and competitions. “While both of the clubs are very similar in style with each other, Model UN focuses on international relations and representing an entire country while the other does no," Stampley said. With the excitement to bring back this club to Bowie, Stampley reemphasizes the target audience for the club and encourages all students to join. “Anyone interested in international relations should join," Stampley said. "It’s not a big time commitment and we participate in competitions frequently. Also, colleges love to see this club on college applications."