SpotlightTheMay 2014

Thunder RoadThe proposed future of East and Manual

pages 12 & 13

What’s Inside

Photo credits, clockwise from top left: Harry Forbes, Harry Forbes, Harry Forbes, Zach Morris, Spencer Soicher, courtesy Alden Fiholm

News

6Parks and RecProposed community center stirs controversy5

Heads UpEast elects new heads. How they’ll work for you

Features

6One of ManyThe story of one student’s life after his family was torn apart by deportation

12The ProposalThe fight for Manual stu-dents and the Manual name: how they conflict

Center

15Sayanora, SeniorsThe Spotlight says goodbye to the Class of 2014. Where they’ll be attending next year

Opinions

22Respect My AuthorityWhere the blame falls in student/dean conflict20

SwampedMaddie Hughes on keeping your sanity

Sports

23Young GunsThe underclassman-loaded girls lax team makes a playoff run. What this means for the future

24Back to the Slopes

Why people keep skiing after injury

Culture

27Denver on $5 a DayHow to stretch your dollar this summer26

Juggalo PrideEast ICP superfans explain their lifestyle

23

EDITORS-IN-CHIEFHarry Forbes & Sean Price

MANAGING EDITORNoah Reynolds

NEWS EDITORJack Spano

FEATURES EDITORSCaroline Smith & Sabrina Paganos

CENTER EDITORMeredith Kelly

OPINIONS EDITORMaddie Hughes

SPORTS EDITORAdeline Toevs & Spencer Soicher

CULTURE EDITORLena Novins-Montague

REAR END EDITORJosh Lew

BUSINESS MANAGERAbby Sawyer

SPONSORMr. Mark Ajluni

PRINCIPALMr. Andy Mendelberg

STAFF WRITERSMorgan Brown, Ella Westerfield, Arden Gehl, Rhianna Herd, Davis Murane, Emma Buckwalter, and Zach Morris

East High Spotlight, Room 210A1600 City Park Esplanade, Denver, CO 80206

720.279.4629—articles@eastspotlight.com—www.eastspotlight.comSome material courtesy of the American Society of Newspaper Editors

and the MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service.

The Spotlight is published by the student newspaper staff of East High School. The views expressed are those of the individual students and do

not necessarily reflect those of the sponsor or the staff as a whole. Student editors, not the administrators or the Denver Public Schools Board of

Education, are responsible for the content published.

“Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...”

PRINTED BY SIGNATURE OFFSET

Cover by Harry Forbes

TheSpotlight“Nihil sacrum est”

Volume C, Issue 8

15

5 12

20

26

By Sean Price and Jack Spano

Thirty four year-old Charity Anne Johnson attended New Life

Christian School in Longview, Texas undectected as a six-teen year-old sophomore under the name Charity Ste-vens.

Argentinian paleontologists unearthed a 130 foot Titanosaur weighing 180 pounds making it the largest known dinosaur to date.

34 year-old woman goes undectected as high school sophomore

Michael Jackson hologram shocks fansMGM was able to bring Michael Jackson back from

the dead at the Billboard Music Awards, where Michael Jackson returned to preform a posthu-

manus song for his fans.

After three months of negotiations, Russian president Vladimir Putin agrees to order troops to withdraw

from Crimea.

Putin agrees to withdraw troops from Crimea

creds to Big Na$ty

Recent excavation of dinosaur breaks records

Proudly Supports

EAST HIGH SCHOOL 3201 E. COLFAX AVE.

DENVER CO 303.320.8635

The

Beginning next year, Mrs. Annetta Gallegos will be teaching Exploring Computer Sci-ence. this is a course designed on a national level and Denver is one of only 10 cities

offering the class. The class will be offered to anyone who wants to take it. Gallegos ex-plains the reason why this class was created, “[The demand for a computer science course] came from the industries saying that they don’t have enough people to fill these ca-reers. 2% of students go into computer science and 60% of jobs that are going to be out there are related to computer science.” This enormous disparity creates an extremely desirable career with a high pay scale. Another goal of the class is to get more minorities and females involved in the career path. “Just try it out, you never know unless you try it. I have some students every year in web design that they don’t know any programming and within 6 weeks they are developing a website,” advises Gallegos, “If you give it some effort and some time pretty soon you’re doing really cool stuff and even if you don’t go into computer programming you will still know something relevant and important in society today.” The future for the class is bright as in the next 2 years there will be an AP computer science class at East. It is also recomended for students to go onto www.code.org to ge an idea of what the class will be like.

Mark Ajluni, the current teacher of Media and Pop Culture, Newspaper, and Video Intern, will be teaching a new class called Broadcast Jour-

nalism. The only way for students to take this class is if they excelled in the video intern class the year before. However, if you didn’t take Video Intern, you can next year and learn the skills needed to go into Broadcast Journal-ism.The students will be mastering their craft and working on the bi-weekly video announcements Angels on Air. Ajluni is excited for the increased interest in Video classes, “I think the potential and the power of this medium of video is so fantastic and so ripe for use at East. The possibilities are incredible for building culture here and bringing students together and really chang-ing the school for the better.” Broad-cast Journalism will be a different class than most, Ajluni states, “Here, we are producing something that is going to be seen, ideally, by the entire East community. To me that is a thousand times more satis-fying than giving a homework assignment to a teacher from my perspective.” Ajluni is looking forward to teaching both classes next year, “What I’m excited for is the possibility of the collaborative, cre-ative process. When a student and I sit down together I put out ideas, they put in ideas, we throw it around and they go shoot it and we look at it and it’s just fun.”

Another class starting in the 2014-2015 school year is Art Craft. It will be taught by Justine Sawyer, who also

teaches Drawing and Painting and 3D Design, which will be enveloped into the new class next year. Art Craft is a relatively open class, “Art craft will essential-ly be an opportunity for students to explore both 2-dimensional me-dia and 3-dimensional media,” Sawyer explains, “It will also be a class that focuses on general topics and students will be able to express their general topics in the media of their choice.” The class is primarily an introduction for students who don’t know exactly which type of medium they are interested in studying in the future. “[This class] is an opportunity to learn the basics about drawing, painting, printmaking, sculptural techniques and then beyond that class you can decide where you want to go. But it’s an opportunity to try everything and not be pigeon-holed into just two dimensional or three dimensional,” Sawyer explains. The class will feature a trip to the Denver Art Museum and utilize group projects as well as individual work.

Jessica Taylor, who currently teaches Biology Honors and Academic Suc-cess, will teach Genetics next year. The class is a more in depth look at a

subject looked at briefly in most biology classes. “Genetics will be the first molecular biology class we offer here at East and we will study the history of the field of genetics and the important experiments throughout the history of genetics,” says Taylor. There will some extensive study of ethics in the profession of genetics including genetic engineering of foods. “I want to teach students some common molecular biology techniques such as how to use a micropipette, and use gel electrophoresis and PCR, which is a way to make many copies of a small amount of DNA and make analysis of it,” Taylor expresses, “That’s one of the key discoveries which led to the discovery of the usefulness of blood at a crime scene and match it to a particular suspect.” Another activity planned for the class is looking in soil and looking for phages, which are viruses in the soil. Taylor explains, “The field of genetics is probably one of the fastest growing fields in biology and is defi-nitely a 21st century science. This class gives the students a chance to understand themselves and we can focus on making a pedigree or a family tree to try to learn a little bit about our-selves.” The class has some advanced topics and is projected to be a success at East.

Exploring Computer Science

Broadcast Journalism

Art Craft

Genetics Honors

New Classes for Next YearBy Sean Price

East is always changing, especially when it comes to academics. Next year East will be host to a plethora of different classes, here are some of them.

Standing TallPenut butter and jelly. Bill and Hillary. Peyton and football. Sometimes, two

things just work together. Case in point: These two. Rising seniors Chris Dud-ley and Addie Glass, both longtime student council workhorses, have finally gotten their day in the sun as the new heads of East High School.

Getting elected head boy or head girl is no small feat, so The Spotlight decided to sit down with these two to talk about their predecessors, campaign promises, and the Based God.

By Harry Forbes & Spencer Soicher

Spotlight: What are you guys most excited for next year?

AG: To be a senior. I’ve waited for this for a really long time. But I’m excited to bring the spirit back to East. That sounds really cliché, but we’re gonna really try to refine the pep rallies, bring them back to the way they were.

CD: As for the school, I’m really excit-ed as for what I can do for it. I think we need to improve spirit and the sense of community.

Spotlight: How do you think we go about doing that?

CD: My freshman year, I remember we did something called “Make a Difference Week,” and we haven’t done anything like that since, but it was really cool. We got local businesses to participate and do sales, we had an all-star basketball game, and we took all the profits from that and donated that to an East family with a sick child. I really want to bring that back.

AG: We’re also trying to bring back some spirit type things, so a mascot, a drumline, because those are some things that were really fun in the past years and have kind of dropped off the face of the earth.

CD: I don’t think we necessarily have to do tons of big events all the time, it can be simple things. I promised a spir-it day at the end of every month during my head boy campaign. Also, I want to get more input from the student body because, right now, I feel like when people think about student council…

AG: It’s a joke. And the biggest dis-connect is the demographic, honestly. It’s misrepresented and we’re working on getting it to be more fairly repre-sented, as a student council, and try to get more input from all aspects of the student body.

Spotlight: What are the biggest differ-ences between you guys and past heads?

CD: Well, I’m definetly not as cool as Jackson Bock.

AG: (Laughs) I’m definitely cooler than Jackson and Tulley.

CD: As a head boy, I’ll be thinking about new ideas, and really pushing council to work.

AG: I think my difference is really my passion for the school, and making things fun. I’m not calling anyone out, but there’s been kind of a lack of passion for the heads in the past couple of years, and it’s something that really needs to be revived because that’s what makes East really exciting, is when you have heads that are really passionate about doing stuff for the school.

Spotlight: What are you excited for, working with each other?

CD: I’m really excited to work with Ad-die, she’s been my vice president for the past two years, and I feel like I’m more laid-back, and Addie is more hands-on and will really drive people. And of course you get the ideas from two people together. I just know her well, it’s easier to work with someone you’ve been working with, I feel like, and you can skip all the icebreakers that way.

Spotlight: What else does the school need to know about you guys?

AG: He’s obsessed with Lil B and it makes me slightly uncomfortable.

Spotlight: What is it about Lil B?

CD: It’s just all the based positivity that his music creates.

AG: (Laughs) The good vibes. The morals.

CD: It just really speaks to me.

Early talks of a new rec center near East leads to conflicting interests

Last month, on April 16th, a stake-holder meeting was held at the City Park Greenhouse where general details regarding the future recreation center were addressed. It was decided that the building to be at least two stories, contain an indoor aquat-ic center, fitness center, a basketball court and have available parking for members. An indoor track, one or two levels of un-derground parking, a competitive swim and dive pool, and a rock-climbing wall were other possible ideas from people who at-tended the April meeting. The dog park along with it’s park-ing lot will be removed to make room for the new rec center. The available twenty-three million dollars may seem like enough money to please everyone, but as Robb states, “Not everyone will be happy with every decision made here.” And of course the interests of East High School will have to be reasoned with the demands of the rest of the commu-nity. On June 3, another stakeholder meeting will be held in the East High au-ditorium where proposals will be discussed among district 10 residents and members of the East community. Robb encourages stu-dents to attend. Grant believes, “[The future rec center] should benefit everybody. But I do realize that it’s a true collaboration, so there will be a little give and take on both sides to reach that.”

For as long as the East High School swim team has existed, they have had to take

the bus down to Manual High School for practice. But this is all about to change. Starting next January, construction will begin on a new recreation center on the corner of 16th and Josephine in place of the closed Sun Mart convenience store and the dog park. A collaboration between Denver Public Schools, the Parks and Rec-reation Department and the rest of East High will work together to create a recre-ation center which balances the interests of East and the surrounding community. This means the East boys’ swim coach Sean Grant, and his team will now have a new place to practice. “I’m looking forward to something both East and the rest of the community can use,” says Grant. This isn’t the first time Denver Parks and Recreation has proposed a plan for a new recreational facility. In 2010, the City and County of Denver bought the land from Church in the City in an attempt to built but quickly ran out of funding. This resulted in a dog park and an urban garden was put in place on the site. All that remained on the lot was Sun Mart and the City was able to purchase the convenience store with an in-creased budget earlier this year. Now, con-struction on the new rec center is underway. “So far, there is no official proposal currently set in stone,” explains city coun-cilwoman Jeanne Robb. Despite there being no real blueprints, there are a few require-ments the future facility will have to meet.

I stuck to it because people told me I couldn’t,” Anna Noble recalls. Noble,

an East chemistry teacher who majored in chemical engineering at the Universi-ty of Wales, was one of only eleven girls in her major’s graduating class of two hundred.

STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. These are four of the fastest grow-ing and highest paying fields in the cur-rent job market. Furthermore, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, sixty percent of new jobs in the 21st century will require STEM education, which is possessed by only 20 percent of the current workforce. This alarming fact, along with many similar ones, has led to a significant push nationwide by lawmakers and educators, including those at East, to stir up inter-est in STEM education among students still undecided on their career path.

However, most of these efforts ig-nored a simple yet inescapable fact: only twenty-four percent of STEM jobs are held by women.

While sexism isn’t blatant in these fields, even at East the stigma is appar-ent. “You can definitely see the differ-ences in your classroom experiences and how you’re treated,” says sophomore Eleanor McSpirit. Regardless, she, along with a handful of other girls at East, is challenging the status quo and sinking their teeth deep into a variety STEM fields.

“The STEM and science and math classes at East are some of the hardest classes here,” says senior Grace Aro with a smile. “Our STEM teachers are really great.”

East offers a wide variety of STEM courses that range from different levels of rigor and difficulty. Aro has taken al-most all of the STEM AP classes, includ-ing AP Chemistry and AP Physics. “I think we have some great female teach-ers, particularly the Chemistry teachers, who are really strong with encouraging women to pursue the science classes, stick with the AP classes and take those higher steps,” Aro continues.

She believes, even with the institu-tionalized preference for males, there is support for women for those who are

willing to reach out for it. “There are definitely resources here that are avail-able to help you with those classes if you are willing to put in the extra time and take the heavier workload,” she says. “It pays off.”

“All of the technology we use, including computers and phones stems from STEM,” giggles sophomore Julia Kincaid. “It’s important to get [women] excited and interested about it because then we can move forward as a society and do really amazing things.”

Noble believes that the gender gap in STEM fields is due to gender stereotypes, which she believes can influence a stu-dent’s decision of favorite subject.

“You see little boys with legos and bricks and they’re supposed to be really good at science and math. Little girls are sup-posed to be creative and artistic because they draw,” says Noble. “I think that a lot of times, people just don’t expect girls to do that well.”

Sophomore Allison Forsberg sees gender inequality on a larger scale. “A huge part of gender discrimi-nation occurs in the workforce,” she says. “We see it in hospitals. A [female] doctor will walk in, and people will automatically assume that she’s a nurse, because in their minds doctors are men,” she says.

Women have grown from 9.7 percent of physicians in 1970 to 32.4 percent in 2010. Despite the growing number of female doctors, their wages remain uneven. Women earn only seven-ty-seven cents per every dollar that a male makes in a full time job.

“There’s this big thing about getting women into politics because a woman’s perspective is so important,” says Kincaid. She be-

lieves that the same argument should be fought for women in STEM careers. “We make up 50% of the population, so our voices need to be heard.”

Sophomore Josie Brady stresses the importance of taking advantage of STEM classes at East. “It’s important to know that it’s a challenge and strug-gle and your grades aren’t going to be perfect all of the time,” she says. “In the end, if it’s an AP class, you get college credit for it. You need to think about the things that you’re learning and see what opportunities we have [at East] versus what others don’t.”

Kincaid is a perfect example of the efforts of educators paying off. She found her passion for STEM, specifically aerospace engineering, after doing an in-ternship at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. “After spending so much time at the museum, I grew to love it and became really interested in working with other people who had the same passion as I do,” she says.

After her time at the museum, Kincaid wanted to take her studies to a new level. “I still work at the museum, and this summer I am doing this STEM

research program up at UNC, so I’ll be working with engineers for about a month and a half.”

“I think that STEM’s the way to go because clearly our future depends upon having good scientists and engineers,” Noble concludes.

“I don’t really think you could function in society if

you weren’t technology literate.”

"We make up 50% of the population... our voices need to

be heard.”

The National Push to Encourage Young Women to Pursue the Sciences

Steminism

Noble (left) and Forsberg pose with a chemistry experiment (Photo by Sabrina Panogos)

By Sabrina Panagos

By The Numbers

9The number of the ten fastest growing occu-pations that require extensive training in science and/or math

221 Size, in millions of people, of the STEM

workforce

241The number, in thou-sands, of more boys taking STEM-related

AP tests than girls

215Percent of female

college freshmen who plan to major in a

STEM fieldSource: AAUW

At 2:45, as the bell rings to release students from Martin Luther King

Jr. High School, most students will head home, do an hour or two of homework, then enjoy free time for the rest of the day. However, for MLK junior Victor Jara Ramirez, at 2:45, his day has just begun. After an exhausting day of classes, Jara makes his way to McAlister’s Deli in Au-rora to start a seven hour shift. He’ll be lucky if his shift ends before eleven.

According to Ramirez, the ordeal began when he was in middle school. “One weekend, during my 8th grade year, my parents were on their way to a family par-ty in Fort Lupton. I stayed home to read,” he remembers. “My aunt came bursting into my room, tell-ing me my parents had been stopped by the police”. It turns out that they were stopped for speeding, and they weren’t in the database since they are illegal immi-grants. This meant that the police officer had to call the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. As a result, they were immediately deported back to Mexico.

“Up until then I hadn’t thought of legal status much cause it hadn’t affected me,” says Ramirez. “Now I’m right in the midst of it.”

According to the Applied Research Center, Jara is one of roughly 5,100 chil-dren in twenty-two states who have lost parents to deportation. Some 15,000 more face similar threat in the next five years. The Center for Immigration Stud-ies notes that the Obama administration has stepped up enforcement averaging 396,000 deportations per year. According to the National Journal, Barack Obama is on track to deport 3 million immigrants...more than any other president. George W. Bush deported about 2 million over two terms as president.

The deportation of family mem-

bers causes many to work harder than the American populous can fathom, but Ramirez sees it differently. “I can honest-ly say that I have never had a hard life,” he says. “Just one filled with loads of work. My parents raised [my two siblings and me] to appreciate the things we had and not complain about the things we want-ed, which then I hated, but now I under-stand why they did that.

“It was this work ethic that they had instilled in us, that without today I’d be completely lost and suffering,” he admits.

This work ethic would be essen-tial for his sur-vival without the support of his parents.

Families like the Ramirez’s are referred to by

the government as “mixed-status fam-ilies.” Victor and his two siblings were born in the United States, making them citizens. And there are quite a few peo-ple in situations just like Victor: The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 340,000 babies born in the United States in 2008 were the children of unauthorized immi-grants.

After their parents’ deportation, the Ramirez siblings had to learn to live in a country without their parents. Victor remembers one such time at his eighth grade continuation.

“It kinda sucked that they weren’t there at continuation to celebrate with all the other parents,” he sighs. “My sister and I simply received our little certifi-cates and that was that.”

Soon after, however, Ramirez was faced with a choice between family and opportunity.

“We were faced with the question of whether or not we would like to stay in the US or go to Mexico. It was a big decision to put on a kid,” he remembers. “I chose to stay. I wanted to graduate, knowing that without college I really

can’t do much. Also it is time for me to give back to my parents for what they’ve given me.” Ramirez’s goal became giving his parents was a chance at citizenship.

The Ramirez children were able to stay with an aunt living in the country legally, but most children of deport-ees aren’t as lucky. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports that on average, seventeen children become wards of the state each day as a result of the detention and removal of immigrant parents.

V i c -tor must now play the waiting game. He knows that he likely will not be living with his parents for the next eight years while they undergo the citizenship p r o c e s s , and now he has the task of working a full work week on top of a full school week.

“The work I do is actually not too hard, but it is food service so its not exact-ly easy either,” he says. “I work at McAlis-ter’s Deli, but I actually just got a new job at a hotel where they are training me as an assistant chef practically. It’s all really good work, I mean I have it way easier than anyone who works in construction, as my father did. In essence, my work is fine. I just work a lot.”

For a regular high school student, getting home after midnight only hap-pens on the weekends, if ever. For Victor Ramirez, however, ending work at mid-

night is a common occurrence. “Right now my work schedule is

usually about 45 hours a week. Mon-day through Friday it’s from 4:00pm to 11:00pm, sometimes 12:00pm when I close,” he reveals. “Sundays I usually work a double shift, with Saturday being my only day off. I spend most of it doing school work [or] studying for AP Exams.”

Ramirez sees the work he does not as a burden, but an opportunity to help out his siblings in the US and his parents back

home. “When I think about it, I do make a decent amount of money for a teenager, but really I don’t do it for me, rath-er for my par-ents. I usually get paid twice a month, and out of those two checks I send my parents one of them,” he admits. “The other, I use for living expenses with my aunts and uncles, for my sister and I. I guess I don’t

really work to enjoy my money, which sounds terrible but it’s actually not too bad. It often trips me out how I make more money than a lot of people in our world. It makes me sick, but it gives me perspective as to how lucky I have it com-pared to the rest of the world. My life is nowhere near difficult.”

Ramirez, while embracing his pres-ent, looks forward to the future. “Beside college, I want to continue providing for my family, but also I want to make the lives of others easier as well. I want to make change for my people, which is eas-ier said than done, but I will get it done.”

A Family Torn ApartIncreasing Deportation Forces Some

to Grow Up Fastby Noah Reynolds

“My parents raised [my two siblings and me] to appre-

ciate the things we had and not complain about the

things that we wanted.”

Victor (left) with his siblings. (Photos via the Ramirez family)

Junior Tom Jackson has always loved the arts. On a typical afternoon one

can find him singing the melodic minor scale, or rehearsing a script for the next musical. He spends his days mastering the art of embodying different charac-ters and working on tonality. From the sanctuary Jackson has found on stage, his pre-calculus class could not seem further away.

“I have had the opportunity to play with some of the jazz greats. When you think about it, am I going to sit down and do ten math problems, or have an amazing life experience? I am going to pick the life experience every day. That’s just common sense,” says Jackson.

He asserts that missing school for extracurriculars is sometimes worth it, even if it means falling behind. However, many teachers argue otherwise, believ-ing that the class time missed for extra-curriculars is getting to be extreme, and that extracurricular activities are taking priority over their classes. Math teacher Caroline Kneppe is one of them.

Kneppe feels that some classes, such as math, are crucial to be a part of every day. She reports that most student athletes do not seek extra help, and fall behind in class. “With math if you miss a day you’re behind and if you miss two days you are super behind,” she says.

Geography teacher Jeffery Lacy agrees, “I’m relatively easy-going about stuff but [absences are] enough that it’s a really significant issue. For example, in the last month I can remember four days that at least twelve kids were not in class which makes it tough.”

Kneppe asserts that ideally, kids would have tournaments moved to later in the day or weekends, so that stu-dents do not have to miss an important eighth period class. Athletics director Lisa Porter, however, says, “if I can push the games to five-thirty at night then I absolutely will to avoid having kids miss school, but with daylight as a variable it’s not always a possibility.”

Kneppe stresses the importance of striking a balance between passion and school work. “I think your number one job, as a student, is to be a student. In the end the goal, of high school is to graduate,” she says. “I think there are definitely students who make it up and are fine because they come in after school or at lunch for extra help, but for the most part, when I find out that one of my eighth period students is an athlete, it doesn’t make me super happy.” Lacy adds, “I hate to sound old, but when I was a kid there was no question that school always came first.”

Sophomore and varsity tennis player Kate Wulf says, “My eighth period teach-er was most upset because I had missed a lot of class. It’s harder to make up work in classes where you learn something new each day. She was just concerned that I would fall behind.”

Jackson, active in theatre, choir, and jazz band. He is familiar with missing school for these activities., but does not regret missing class. “In my case I feel like I already know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’m pretty settled in with acting and music. So for me, the academic side is really just, ‘Okay, lets

get this over with so I can move on.’” Porter agrees in terms of sports.

“Varsity boys basketball never had any early outs.” Porter says, using the wildly successful team as an example. Howev-er, Porter states, “They had two tour-naments that they had to miss… that they were invited to. That provides an opportunity for those students to be seen and [to get] to the next level. Not just for athletics but for academics as well; to go to college.” Porter believes that when considering academics, the opportuni-ties presented at a national or universi-ty-based tournament are just as valuable as in class instruction time. “Giving our kids any opportunity we can is really im-portant. You can’t tell Mr. Murphy, ‘sorry, that tournament to Harvard- to go to Harvard and have that experience- is not as important as being in your classes.’”

On that note, many teachers realize that eligibility is key in determining a student’s ability to miss school. If a stu-dent’s grades fall below a certain percent-age, they are not permitted to participate in athletic games. However, the arts department doesn’t have an eligibility requirement, creating more friction be-tween passionate students and teachers concerned with academic performance. Lacy is a strong advocate for eligibility for the arts. “I’ve had a lot of students who are incredibly talented in the arts but they should be held to the same standard academically...” Kneppe adds, “Athletes have this really high standard of [academics] and we don’t necessarily hold that for all students, like the robot-ics team or students that have to take

the whole day off to be in the musical. I think that seems more equitable.”

Jackson disagrees, “You talk about putting eligibility on choir or band. Your entire grade is based on performances. If kids are already failing a class it would just make them fail another class.”

One thing that can be agreed upon, however, is that valuable lessons are learned both inside and outside of the classroom. As well as giving students op-portunities, Porter believes that invalu-able lessons such as “teamwork, depend-ability, working together, [and] being to work with people who you wouldn’t normally work with” are taught in the classroom and “on the athletic field.”

The majority of students are in agreement. Wulf argues while she missed five school days for tennis, it was well worth it to attend the regional maw-tch. “Do what you love. School is still important. You have to make sacrifices for both to be successful.”

Students and teachers both feel the pressure of reaching a middle ground. “Your classes and academics are more important than anything else which is why I always stress that with student athletes, the ‘student’ comes first.” Porter states. “You have to find a balance.”

As the school year winds down, no clear consensus has been reached, but balance seems to be the one underlying concept that everyone can agree upon. “Coaches have an agenda, teachers have an agenda, parents have an agenda, and kids have an agenda,” says Lacy. “Some-how we need to get everyone on the same page.”

While most students who are teach-er’s assistants, or TAs, are respon-

sible for grading quizzes and grabbing coffee, a dedicated few go well beyond the call of duty. For those who work in the special ed department, being a TA can be a life-changing experience. Soph-omore Carolina Calderon has had just such an experience.

“When you walk into the class-room, they all say hi to you, and give hugs and you can really click with each one of them.”

In the large, col-orful classroom shoved into a back hall-way, there are five full time teachers, one interpreter, two to four assistants, and twenty-eight special needs students at a time. In this classroom that feels like kindergarten, the eyes of general educa-tion students are opened to what actual-ly goes on back there. These students are no longer just kids who go around the school and pick up the recycling.

Senior Moriah Major began as a spe-cial ed TA at the beginning of the year. “When you first go in, it’s intimidating because you don’t know what to expect,” she admits.

As the year went on, however, she found her passion with the special needs department. “We take so much for grant-ed every single day and we don’t really realize or consider the small things im-portant. It’s given me new perspective.”

While a large amount of their time is spent with the kids, a significant por-tion of the TA’s days are dedicated to dis-pelling the misconceptions and stereo-types associated with special ed.

“People come in here with the ‘I feel bad for you’ look, and they are just look-ing at it the wrong way. You have to see what they can do,” says special ed teach-

er Sean McCarthy. These students are not given the support they deserve by their peers in general ed, even if they are giv-en it in ample amounts by teachers and a few dedicated teacher’s assistants.

“The worst thing about it is when we take them out in the hallway and kids look at us funny, and it makes me real-

ly sad to see that people think of them as ‘retard-ed’ or something,” Sophomore as-sistant Talia Most sighs. “I always call people out on it and I hate hav-

ing to do that. I hate social stigma around special needs kids.”

Sophomore Claire Koyle has also noticed this stigma. “Kids are afraid of what they don’t understand so they put up their guard a little bit.”

“You always hear little comments like ‘ew’ or ‘how stu-pid’ or you always hear the word ‘re-tarded’ go-ing around,” C a l d e r o n r e c o u n t s , “General ed-ucation kids look down on special ed kids a lot of the time.”

A commonality between the girl’s comments is the profound use of the word ‘retarded’. Although the word is used so much in society, the true mean-ing of the word has become lost and it has become a word to hold a stereotype to an entire group of people.

“It is a horrible word. I’ve said it in

the past, I will be honest,” admits Koyle. “I don’t think people understand how horrible it is. It’s offensive.”

Senior Maggie Anderman agrees, “It’s hard because people use it so often and about so many things that they don’t realize [how offensive it is].” Anderman has a sister with special needs, and so she is truly able to feel the sting the word has.

In order to dispel the stereotypes, Anderman suggests that we, “spread the word to end the word,” which would in-clude more of an education blend with the special needs students to spread awareness.

The majority of general ed kids feel it’s important to be integrated with the special ed students. “I wish we had more integration with them,” says Koyle. “We don’t know how to deal with them be-cause they’re not in our lives.”

If there were to be more integra-tion, Anderman claims, “we will learn so much more. So many people think of

special ed kids as being ab-normal. What I’ve learned is that there is no normal and no definition for that and that is something ev-eryone needs to learn.”

If this in-tegration were to happen,

maybe we could all be in the aware mindset similar to these teachers assis-tants.“They’re just like any other people,” Most declares. “They’re my friends.”

“I’m very much about looking for what makes you happy, [what] gives you passion and reason to get up every morning,” says Major. “The special needs department definitely filled that void for

Seeing Beyond the StigmaBy Emma Buckwalter

“Kids are afraid of what they don’t understand

so they put up their guard a little bit.”

Phot

os c

ourt

esy

of C

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ina

Cal

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Calderon and Abba Sharew are all smiles.

The 2014 Food Committee would like to acknowledge the local businesses that helped feed and hydrate the class of 2014 and their guests at After Prom. Without the generosity of these local businesses, we would not have had such a successful event. When you have the op-

portunity, please support these businesses.

So many thanks to:Little Pub Company (owner of Three Lions)Pepsi Co.Fat Sully’s on Colfax and AdamsUptown Tavern on Colfax and PearlCake Crumbs on KearneyMarco’s Pizza on ColfaxPapou’s Pizza on LeetsdaleArgonaut on ColfaxStarbucks on Colfax and MilwaukeeNoodles and Co. on Colfax Jimmy Johns on ColfaxRed Mango on ColfaxYogurt Guru in Cherry Creek NorthSteve’s Snappin’ Dogs on ColfaxEinstein’s Bagels (multiple locations)Peepers Optical on LeetsdaleSprouts on ColfaxTrader Joe’s on 9th and ColoradoMarczyk Fine FoodsCostco, King Soopers, Safeway and Target all donated gift cardsVoodoo DonutsHenry the Hot Dog Man

Also, many thanks to the families who do-nated time and energy, as well as money on our “Sign Up Genie”. We are very grateful for your support.Warmest regards,Nancy Jepson and Claudia HellmanCo-Chairs, East After Prom Food Committee 2014

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that catch your attention. Whether it’s from putting thousands of dollars and whole weekends into making a car be able to go 170 miles an hour, or from receiving a brand new 2014 model, some students really stand out.

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It’s a cold and dreary March day, but a group of Manual High School students

are still outside, armed with hoses and buckets. They’re washing cars to raise money for their school, and while they haven’t gotten too many customers, they remain optimistic. As a reporter parks a news van and approaches, the students get excited. “I thought they wanted to come ask us about the car wash,” remem-bers one Manual senior. “But they want-ed to talk about a [shooting] that had happened two days prior.”

“There’s a lot of perception of Manu-al, but it stops at the doors,” says Manual senior Anthony Ruiz. “We’re being por-trayed as failures. In order to see Manual for what it is, you have to come inside.”

As both communities struggle with the proposal at hand, the debate has reached a flash point. Tempers are flar-ing. Both communities have become des-perate. Both schools are at risk of being changed forever.

“Lost, Stolen and Betrayed.”Manual High School opened its

doors in 1896, the oldest high school in Denver. Five years after its doors opened, Manual’s Sephora Joseph became one of the first black female valedictorians in the country, and Manual in turn be-came a symbol of minority excellence throughout the region. It produced some of the most famous African-American and Latino leaders in the Western Unit-ed States. Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzalez, the legendary Chicano activist, poet, and

boxer, graduated Manual in 1945. The first African-American mayor of Den-ver, Wellington Webb, graduated in 1960. The first (and only) African-American mayor of Seattle, the first African-Amer-ican woman to serve on the DPS Board of Education, and renown folk artist and college basketball legend LaVon Williams are all Manual Thunderbolts. The current mayor of Denver, Michael Hancock, was class president of Manual all four years.

“Back in 1969, Bill Cosby made Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed,” says Manual historian Jim McNally. “I’ve been researching this, and I’m starting my own. Manual History: Lost, Stolen and Betrayed.”

How We Got HereIn 1995, a federal judge released

Denver Public Schools from the court-or-dered practice of busing, which mandat-ed where kids went to school in an at-tempt to racially integrate schools. There was no school of choice or neighborhood schools. The most controversial feature were satellites, places outside of a school’s boundary that served as extensions of the area that schools could draw from.

At the time, Manual was partnered with East. At the East/Manual Complex, while students could take classes at either school, they had fierce rivalries in athlet-ic and academic competitions. (“Angel’s can’t fly when there’s Thunder in the sky,” one popular t-shirt read.)

Following the end of busing, the districts for high schools were redrawn.

Manual, whose higher performing and wealthier kids had traditionally come from their Hilltop satellite, now had a boundary of three quarters of a square mile surrounding the school, located in a predominantly minority neighborhood. Minority leaders saw it as an opportunity to strengthen their community.

“Many prominent African American families still regarded Manual as their school,” wrote Alan Gottlieb in a Febru-ary article of ChalkBeat. “Busing had de-prived them of their school since 1973, and they wanted it back.”

What all had failed to realize is how impoverished the area had become. Housing discrimination in the pre-Civil Rights era had created a neighborhood filled with African-Americans of all kinds of income and education levels. But after laws ensuring fair housing were passed, the more affluent African Ameri-can residents of the neighborhood fled to the suburbs, leaving behind a communi-ty that, by the time busing was over, was rife with poverty and troubled students.

The redrawing of the boundary was an extremely controversial issue, creat-ing wounds that still haven’t healed. “The East boundary gets all the kids, and the Manual boundary gets pretty much no one now, because of the fact that you have Bruce Randolph [School], and all these other high schools in the mix,” explains Manual vice principal Vernon Jones. “The only boundary that’s been impacted is the Manual boundary.”

Manual’s student body, of whom

seventy-nine percent qualify for free and reduced lunch, started to struggle im-mensely after the redrawing of the lines. East, now drawing higher performing students away from Manual, saw a lack of benefits in a partnership and severed ties with the school. “The schools [went] dif-ferent directions,” reflects East principal Andy Mendelsberg. “They’re nine blocks away, and you couldn’t find two more different places in the world.”

By 2001, the entire nation had caught wind of the problems Manual, and soon the school was given a million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which created three separate schools within the school. As Katherine Boo wrote in a 2007 profile of the school’s troubles in The New Yorker, while “in these environments, students had a sense for the first time, that their teachers cared for them...the mutual affection came at the expense of academic rigor. Discipline was weak and the academic performance of the students barely changed.”

The principals of the three separate schools bickered constantly, the schools became divided by racial lines, and test scores descended even further. By 2005 the school board ordered that the school be closed for the next school year. “That was a gross injustice,” recalls McNally.

The school reopened in 2007 with new staff. The previous instability proved near-fatal for the school, however. In five years, a student body of over a thousand was cut in half. Parents refused to choose Manual. “Manual is now the fourth most

For Manual High School senior Jeffery Foster, being a Thunderbolt is much more than a label. It’s a way of life. It’s his last day of high school, and Foster could be signing yearbooks, working on a senior prank, or planning for Prom the next day. Instead, he’s fighting to

keep his school intact. “For someone above us to take our legacy away from us, it’s disrespectful. No one’s trying to listen to us, nobody’s trying to hear us out, everyone’s just trying to scoot Manual under the rug.”

Foster is one of many Manual students passionate about preserving Manual as a stand-alone high school, a task that is becoming increasingly difficult as many proposals are submitted in an attempt to help the school. One of the proposed plans, the one DPS is push-ing the most, involves moving East’s ninth grade class over to the Manual Campus in an effort to address Manual’s declining enrollment and subpar test scores, as well as East’s overcrowding. The district is still struggling, however, to find a solution that’s best for students at both schools, and to ensure that all voices are heard.

An East plan was developed in December, according to Principal Andy Mendelsberg, proposing a merging of East and Manual with a Ninth Grade Academy on the Manual campus and tenth through twelfth grades remaining at East. All classes that are usually offered to freshman will still be offered at the Manual campus, including electives.

Students who normally would have attended Manual would have the option of coming to East as sophomores, or, as proposed in recent discussions, staying at Manual to pursue a math, medical, and science-heavy track with Career Technical Education incorporat-ed. An engineering program will also be offered.

The Ninth Grade Academy would help decrease overcrowding and shrink the long waiting list at East. Explains Mendelsberg, “Even if we started out with that 800 students in the Ninth Grade Academy, by the time it plays through, this building at its largest will still be 250 smaller than it currently is.”

Mendelsberg maintains that nothing is set in stone, “It’s a plan. It’s not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination...this proposal has already been pushed back another year because we want to hear what people have to say.”

THE PROPOSALThe Fight for Manual High School

Special Report:

by Harry Forbes

popular school in its own district,” DPS superintendent Tom Boasberg admits.

Of the seventy-eight students pro-jected to go into the ninth grade at Man-ual next year, only fifteen listed Manual as their top choice.

Class sizes have dwindled. This year’s graduating class will only include fourty-two students. “They’re a 1A school in a 5A building,” says Mendelsberg.

“The current and projected future enrollment will not support a traditional, stand-alone high school on the Manual campus,” says community leader Karen Mortimer. “It’s not sustainable.”

Their Good NameThe current proposal would result in

a tiny number of Manual graduates. The only ones that would be Thunderbolts would be those who went through the STEM program, which deputy superin-tendent Greta Marteinez estimates would have less than a hundred kids total.

“We need to ask, what happens with the legacy of Manual?” poses Manual teacher Ben Butler. “We need to look at data and numbers, but we need to also fight for the faces behind those numbers.”

“If we want more opportunities for students who currently go to Manual, then this is a viable option,” says Mario Girardello, a former Manual teacher. “All the things we said we wanted, we can have, if we do a partnership with East.”

“The proposal has everything. You’d have your books, you’d have everything,” agrees Jones. “You just wouldn’t have Manual. Do you understand what Manu-al means? What it means to the black and brown community historically? Do you know what it means to all those people for whom this was the only place they could go because of the segregation in our city? To trample their history, their legacy, change the fabric of our story...to me that’s not worth it. That’s not the price I’m willing to pay.”

“There’s a huge amount of pride. People don’t step on the Thunderbolt logo,” says Giardiello. “I think we need to maintain that legacy to some degree. But the bottom line is, that’s not as important to me as all students getting a quality ed-ucation. I’ll throw away the logo before I throw away a kid’s education.”

It’s not just the Manual legacy at stake. “How does it impact the East lega-cy if it’s just the ten through twelve?” asks Jones. “How important are freshmen to the East legacy and the East tradition? Can they matriculate from a different campus and still act like Angels?”

“I think the disruptions have been downplayed,” agrees East alum Marchell Holle. “When I went to East, It took me two years to get my bearings. This idea that we’re going to send these kids from school A, to school B for a year, to school C for three years, so they’re really only going to understand where they’re at in

the school for one year, is a big deal to me. I think it could completely change the school.”

Others disagree. “I guess it depends on what you think East culture is,” argues Susan McHugh, a Manual graduate who teaches at East. “Do you think it’s a build-ing? It’s the people that make the culture, not the location of the building.”

“I have as much or more pride in this school than anybody I know, and there’s no way in the world I would let that fall into jeopardy,” says Mendels-berg. “I feel like, if you have a chance to help more kids, and increase the great-ness of a school, it’s a worthy risk. If you never take a risk, I don’t know that you’re challenging yourself, or a school or a community to be better. We’re trying to challenge ourselves to give more kids the same access that our kids currently have.”

“At the end of the day, I know how much our legacy means, but it can’t com-pete with what it means to have a qual-ity education for all kids,” concludes Giradello. “People’s emotions and expe-riences are tied to their legacy, but also these past few years have not been a good enough education for all our kids there.”

Where to Go from HereDenver Public Schools are evaluat-

ed using School Performance indicators, which are made up of eight evaluation criteria such as academic growth, enroll-ment rates, and college/career readiness. Schools are graded either blue, green, yellow, orange, or red in each category, with blue representing exceeding expec-tations, green meeting expectations, yel-low not meeting expectations, and so on.

Manual has not scored above yellow on any category since 2011.

“Some people are saying, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” relays 1972 Manual graduate Elena Watkins. “Well, it is bro-ken, and we keep breaking it.”

Everyone has a different idea of how to solve the issues that plague the school, however. Some believe that the change needs to take place at the lower levels.

“Of the seventy-six incoming fresh-man, only six of them are proficient,” be-moans one Manual junior. “Why are we here and not at the middle schools trying to change something?”

“Teach our kids at the lower level,” asserts Rita Lewis, president of the Den-ver NAACP. “Keep Manual intact.”

Others see it not as the fault of the middle schools, but the inexperienced teachers that occupy many of Manual’s positions. Teach For America, an organi-zation that sends recent college graduates to teach at underprivileged schools, has sent dozens of teachers to Manual since the organization came to Colorado in 2007. “The educators, the people in the classroom...there’s no grey hair there,” complains Dwight Handling, a Manual alumnus. “There’s no experience.”

The majority, however, blame Manual’s poor perfor-mance on a lack of stability. “We’re not asking for much,” says an exasperated Foster. “We’re asking for a regular school, where we don’t have all these people innovating all the time. That’s what we’ve been go-ing through for four years. Con-stant change. Innovation after innovation. Failure after failure.”

“There hasn’t been stabil-ity at this school in a decade,” laments Jones. “East has been on stable footing. I would ex-pect parents to choose stability. You can’t say no one’s choosing Manual because it’s totally un-stable. I’m saying to stabilize it. Give it the same resources, and by resources I mean students.”

“I know East student’s class-room experiences are suffering because of class sizes,” advises Jones. “You don’t have to take away Manual to gain resourc-es. Share the population. Share the students. Just change one boundary.”

When asked the size of an East student body that he felt comfortable with, Mendelsberg figured 1,900. East’s current population sits at over 2,400.

“I’m saying if you have 2,400 kids, and you feel 2,000 is the max, let’s create a place for those four hundred kids that is comparable to East,” says Jones.

Thunder in the Sky

“I didn’t get into education to only help in one spot,” says Mendelsberg. “I got into edu-cation because I wanted to help every kid I possibly could, and when I watch [Manual]...it’s set-ting up three to four hundred kids a day for failure. If you fail at East, it wasn’t because you didn’t have opportunities, it was because you didn’t take advan-tage. [Manual students] aren’t even getting the opportunity.”

“Kids are supposed to come to our school black, brown, green, or yellow, whatever, and be offered a quality education,” laments a 1960 Manual graduate. “When our kids come through those doors, they should be ex-citied, and getting instruction from qualified teachers, not teachers that are just going to leave in two years. Let’s stop just sitting around and talking about it. I want to see something done. I don’t mean any disrespect, bu I am tired of discussions. I want to see some action.”

Scenes from Manual. Photos by Harry Forbes

WashingtonUniversity of Puget Sound: Nick Verfaillie, Poulami Wielga, Allie Lawrence, Ben ColsonWhitman College: Katrina UmbaughWhitworth University: Sydney IveyUniversity of Washington: Ian Franklin

OregonUniversity of Oregon: Hannah Rahe, Isabelle Gordon, Yin WuLewis & Clark College: Kaye Johnson, James DaleyWillamette University: Claire WileyOregon State University: Molly Downing

CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California: Jordy Bartell, Karolina SandgrenUniversity of the Pacific: Allie KonkolUniversity of California at Berkeley: Aubin FefleyChapman University: Maddie Spilsted, Kailey KrauseClaremont McKenna College: Bria SmithSan Diego State University: Carson StoltzSanta Clara University: Conor WulfUniversity of San Diego: Amy Brown, Linda Miller, Julia Dudley, Megan WoodyPomona College: Jeremy SnyderCalifornia Polytechnic State University: Maggie Anderman, Dillon Whited, Lia GarkieSanta Barbara City College: Bella MyronUniversity of Redlands: Helen CarrascoDominican University of California: Bail-ee ChristmasCalifornia College of the Arts (San Francisco): Samantha EspinozaUniversity of San Francisco: Moriah MajorHartnell College: Zachary HaningUniversity of California at Davis: Aidan NowellSaint Mary’s College of California: Jack RaymondCuesta College: Tanner Sasin

IdahoBoise State University: Calder FarrisIdaho State University: Diondre McBride

ArizonaNorthern Arizona University: Miriam Campana, Maxwell GollinArizona State University: Danisha Moore, Maddie Hudson, Xavier Monroe, Kalika JacksonThe University of Arizona: Brody Rastall, Jessica Friednash, Chad Hanna, Billy Betts, Devin Maes, Kaitlin SmithGrand Canyon University: Lauren Pottle, Garrett FlageolleArizona Christian University: Ryan Mi-chael

HawaiiBrigham Young University-Hawaii: Morgynne Tora

MontanaRocky Mountain College: Corey Hickman, Jalen BellaireMontana State University, Bozeman: Canton O’DonnellThe University of Montana, Missoula: Schuy-ler Diess

WyomingSheridan College: Jevon Griffin

Utah:Brigham Young University: Katie Krumholz

New MexicoNew Mexico High-lands University: Jaeleen GarciaUniversity of New Mexico: Sequoyah Copeland-Doyle, Ju-lio Chavez-Gonzalez

ColoradoUniversity of Colorado: Michael Moritz, Joey Cowperthwaite, Christel Benjamin, Hannah Bland, Garron Durocher-Harleman, Reed Gibson, Austin McCleery, Charly Mendoza, Brian Winstanley, Rahel Tilahun, Eliza Wagner, Preston Pollard, Madeline Pellicore, Kate Kane, David Kleckner, Maya Watson, Alex Shock, Keana Roath, Daniel Dilzell, Ryan Broida, Jean Marc d’Estree, Victoria Davies, Rachel Ford, Austin Glass, Matthew Williams, Ryan O’Keefe, Jackson Oliver, Patrick Carpenter, Ian Loefgren, Lucy Gale, Alex Johnson, Spenser Junik, Drew Meyers, Ian Aksland, Niesha Smith, Megan Davis, Nick Aldous, Jared Anderson, Alex Berg, Zaya Bunch, Dani Churchill, Dominique Collier, Gavin DeCamillis, Levi DeHerrera, Megan Diller, Olivia Finholm, Ibsa Gishu, Griffin Heller, Israel Jaramillo, Chris Jones, Melanie Kalin, Nadia Khorchidian, Mara Long, Hayden Rastall, Shayan Setareh, Sierra Smith, Chayanis Teawdeswan, Conrad Trybus, Sabrina UmbaughColorado School of Mines: Collin MacMillan, Sara Vlajic, Jax DownsColorado College: Harper Sherwood-Reid, Abbey Lew, Gabe Fine, Sophie Jonas, Augie Nuszer, Andrew Schwartz, Natalia DellavalleMetropolitan State University:Winter Tomas, Angela Wooster, David Anaya, Karina Orellana, Jose Palacios-Casillas, Guadalupe Gonzalez-Cer-vantes, Drake Wheeless, Sophine Worthington, Brigid Hogan, Jaeleen Garcia, Cole Saitta, Citlalic Bencomo-Perez, Ian Blakeslee, Jacob Brown, Vincent Calloway, Marcus Carrasco, Anastasia Fagins, Kayden Garcia, Edward Garner, Reino Harsh, Tyme Hills, Vanessa Linthicum, Alyssa Lovett, Nicholas Lowe, Isaac Martinez, Chase Miller, Rylie Newell, Alex Rucki, Dominique Valencia, Jordan WhitakerThe Colorado Film School: Sterling GilmoreUniversity of Northern Colorado: Jessica Chavez, Cady Cordova, Drew Erkelens, Katie Fletcher, Gretchen Frank, Ruby Garcia-Mendez, Destin-ey Terrones, Brenden Hudson, Savannah Jackson, Michael Crawford, Marcus Byrd, Jazmin Rodriguez, Calvin Henley, Alex Heitman, La’Nisa Gallegos, Na’gee Dural, Rachel Crosby, Allyssa Gallegos, Luis Cotto, Nadiyah DeGourville, Taelor Gant, Laniesha Rodgers, Derrick VaughnColorado State University: Misti Hobley, Viva Rase, Stevie Rees, Kenneth Steffman, Mary Bates, Ivory Starke, Courtney Kavanagh, Adam O’Con-nell, Jane Gill, Charis Lee, Kennedy Lindsay, Mackenzie Roberts, Zenon Kampman, Aris Moya, Demetrius Gold, DezJanay Collier, Haylie Burkhardt, Grace Cahoj, Lee Christensen, Najee Cradle, Maya Delancy, Cameron Grose, Nyree Henderson-Hayes, August Letcher, Cora Maring, Jasmine Reed-Bank-ston, Natee Tesfa

TexasTrinity University: Anthony Ab-shirePrairie View A&M University:Aurreana Pillow, Daijanae McConnell, Dailynn Walton: AllenTyler Junior College: Arnasya

OklahomaOklahoma Baptist University: Ezra PrattLangston University: Jordynn Pernell, Jalisa PerryOklahoma State University: Cerake Geberkidane, Caitlin Butler

KansasUniversity of Kansas: Savannah Ad-ams, McKenzi Davis, Tomnesha WilsonFort Hays State University: Nico Nintze

MichiganUniversity of Michigan: Eli Gol-din, Gabe Slater

Roll CallSeniors are going across the

country - some across the globe - for their college education

ColoradoUniversity of Colorado: Michael Moritz, Joey Cowperthwaite, Christel Benjamin, Hannah Bland, Garron Durocher-Harleman, Reed Gibson, Austin McCleery, Charly Mendoza, Brian Winstanley, Rahel Tilahun, Eliza Wagner, Preston Pollard, Madeline Pellicore, Kate Kane, David Kleckner, Maya Watson, Alex Shock, Keana Roath, Daniel Dilzell, Ryan Broida, Jean Marc d’Estree, Victoria Davies, Rachel Ford, Austin Glass, Matthew Williams, Ryan O’Keefe, Jackson Oliver, Patrick Carpenter, Ian Loefgren, Lucy Gale, Alex Johnson, Spenser Junik, Drew Meyers, Ian Aksland, Niesha Smith, Megan Davis, Nick Aldous, Jared Anderson, Alex Berg, Zaya Bunch, Dani Churchill, Dominique Collier, Gavin DeCamillis, Levi DeHerrera, Megan Diller, Olivia Finholm, Ibsa Gishu, Griffin Heller, Israel Jaramillo, Chris Jones, Melanie Kalin, Nadia Khorchidian, Mara Long, Hayden Rastall, Shayan Setareh, Sierra Smith, Chayanis Teawdeswan, Conrad Trybus, Sabrina UmbaughColorado School of Mines: Collin MacMillan, Sara Vlajic, Jax DownsColorado College: Harper Sherwood-Reid, Abbey Lew, Gabe Fine, Sophie Jonas, Augie Nuszer, Andrew Schwartz, Natalia DellavalleMetropolitan State University:Winter Tomas, Angela Wooster, David Anaya, Karina Orellana, Jose Palacios-Casillas, Guadalupe Gonzalez-Cer-vantes, Drake Wheeless, Sophine Worthington, Brigid Hogan, Jaeleen Garcia, Cole Saitta, Citlalic Bencomo-Perez, Ian Blakeslee, Jacob Brown, Vincent Calloway, Marcus Carrasco, Anastasia Fagins, Kayden Garcia, Edward Garner, Reino Harsh, Tyme Hills, Vanessa Linthicum, Alyssa Lovett, Nicholas Lowe, Isaac Martinez, Chase Miller, Rylie Newell, Alex Rucki, Dominique Valencia, Jordan WhitakerThe Colorado Film School: Sterling GilmoreUniversity of Northern Colorado: Jessica Chavez, Cady Cordova, Drew Erkelens, Katie Fletcher, Gretchen Frank, Ruby Garcia-Mendez, Destin-ey Terrones, Brenden Hudson, Savannah Jackson, Michael Crawford, Marcus Byrd, Jazmin Rodriguez, Calvin Henley, Alex Heitman, La’Nisa Gallegos, Na’gee Dural, Rachel Crosby, Allyssa Gallegos, Luis Cotto, Nadiyah DeGourville, Taelor Gant, Laniesha Rodgers, Derrick VaughnColorado State University: Misti Hobley, Viva Rase, Stevie Rees, Kenneth Steffman, Mary Bates, Ivory Starke, Courtney Kavanagh, Adam O’Con-nell, Jane Gill, Charis Lee, Kennedy Lindsay, Mackenzie Roberts, Zenon Kampman, Aris Moya, Demetrius Gold, DezJanay Collier, Haylie Burkhardt, Grace Cahoj, Lee Christensen, Najee Cradle, Maya Delancy, Cameron Grose, Nyree Henderson-Hayes, August Letcher, Cora Maring, Jasmine Reed-Bank-ston, Natee Tesfa

Colorado State University Pueblo: Paige Alvarez, Leah Pielsticker, Symone Smith, Joshua Spicely, Cheno RogersRegis University: Sam TaylorUniversity of Colorado at Denver: Itzel Santos-Casillas, Joe Schultz, Denisse Cardoza, Kathe Traore, Camille Estacio, Karim Kazemi, Aidan Ker-nan, Jacob Massey, Taneijah Mooty, Mark Nilov, Phillip WallaceWestern State Colorado University: Ravon Terroade, Courtney McVeighUniversity of Denver: Doug Todd, Rhian Finley-Ponds, Meagan Dizon, Alec Balstad, Tristan Andersen, Adrian Fraire-Vasquez, Sarah OstranderFort Lewis College: Ben Tucker, Alejandra Martinez, John Calhoun, Hunter Enright, Kayleigh RangColorado Mesa University: Caitlin Ryan, Colleen JobCommunity College of Denver: Shalique Haralson, Jesus Vasquez-Lara, Luis Zambrano, Stephanie Lopez, Judith Saenz-Escobar, Bianca Becerril, William Bowser, Aiden Carroll, Michileen Chapman, Awa Fofana, Dylan Gomez-Castillo, Andrew Gonzalez, Lennay Howse, Kyrianna Killingbeck, Blake McDaniel, Chloe Montgomery-Ingwersen, Joseph Montoya, Ulder Onditi, Citlali Ruiz-Jaquez, Marco Saucedo, Tiana Schimming, Desiree Smith, Max Trujillo, Derek Valdez, Dontanisha Williams, Arnold Zavala-RamirezArapahoe Community College: Karina Lujan-Ortega, Yoselin Silva-Bustos, Brittany SnowEmily Griffith Technical College: Estephanie Rodriguez, KoriJo Finn, Flor Ortiz-MorenoLincoln College of Technology: Angel AldanaNortheastern Junior College: Mildred Deras, Kristal Chapman, Mary Fernandez-Betance, Jasmine Grays, Marisha Lathan, Ashtyn Makonese, JauPree PeevyRed Rocks Community College: Lakewood Campus-Bellamy Arterburn, Zachary Keller, Hamadi Mganga, Isiah ThompsonColorado Mountain College, Alpine: Mari FenexUniversity of Colorado at Colorado Springs: Jocelyn Gadlin, Gemechu GishuCommunity College of Aurora: Gabriel GarciaFront Range Community College: Ailyn Iturra-AlvarezAdams State University: Sam O’Neil O’Neil

NebraskaChadron State College: Chelsea StarrCreighton University: Ronnie Harrell

MinnesotaCollege of Saint Benedict: Ke’ave Taylor

MissouriSouthwest Baptist University:Taylor LogueUniversity of Missouri Colum-bia: Keil Young

IowaThe University of Iowa: Evan HullBuena Vista University: Sam Reum

WisconsinUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison: Madison Burdt, Olivia Arthur

IllinoisNorthwestern University: Claire How-ard, Paige HellmanColumbia College Chicago: Bessana KendigUniversity of Chicago: Lizzie LindbergLake Forest College: Kailey Gonzalez, Meghan BellamySchool of the Art Institute of Chica-go: Griffin CallahanSouthern Illinois University, Carbondale: Sierra BrownRoosevelt University: Quetzalli CortezDePaul University: Willow Turano

FloridaBethune-Cookman Universi-ty: Eshe Walker, Jayana CrowleyCentral Florida Community College: Kadeeja GriffinEmbry-Riddle Aeronautical University-FL: Ian Mason

Georgia:Spelman College: Damaria JacksonClark Atlanta University: Lamaria Ritcher-son-Smith

Tennessee Tennessee State University: Michelle CoxVanderbilt University: Ciella Sfirri

North CarolinaUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Sonia GomezElon University: Natalie May

IndianaVincennes University: Deja West

VirginiaUniversity of Virginia: Izzi Kornfeld, Mary AertkerHampton University: Chinasa Abiakam

OhioKenyon College: Adelaide Sandvold, Alma Urbano TorresOhio Wesleyan University: Joelle TrubowitzOberlin College: Ellie Lindberg

MarylandJohns Hopkins University: Su AtamanGoucher College: Gabe Anton-elli, Gwynneth Hannifin

DelawareUniversity of Delaware: Mikala Koenig

PennsylvaniaPennsylvania State University: Yuqian ShiBucknell University: Maddy CrawfordDickinson College: Tulley ShofnerTemple University: Emily NicholsonDrexel University: Dakota Peterson

New JerseySeton Hall University: Alex

New YorkSyracuse University: Efrem Sharew, Grace CrummettColumbia University: Julius WilsonHartwick College: Charlie Feher-PikerCornell University: Sarah DeMoullyBard College: Mehgan Abdel-MoneimHamilton College: Cale WagnerUnited States Military Academy: Jess RandolHobart and William Smith Colleges: Jake Sawyer

ConnecticutTrinity College: Kellen Self

Rhode IslandBrown University: Zoe Wohlgenant

MaineBowdoin College: Hannah Berman

MassachusettsNortheastern University: Tate O’Brien, Conor MesserWheaton College: Livie RayAmherst College: Chris CoyleBoston University: Ally SternBoston College: Clare BerzinsWilliams College: Grace McCabe, Maddie WalshTufts University: Grace AroBerklee College of Music: Bruno Cavecchi

VermontMiddlebury College: Jackson BockMarlboro College: Kristian Marker

Washington DCAmerican University: Alessa BartonThe George Washington Universi-ty: Ali Oksner, Rachel Hendricks

International: University of London: David Fried-man The University of Western Ontario: Hannah Wilcox, Olivia ArbessTrinity College Dublin: Eleanor RawlinsonUniversity of British Columbia: Laura Palombi, Gabe O’ConnellUniversity of Cape Town: Esther Spence

United States Marine Corps: Leon Shields

Roll CallSeniors are going across the

country - some across the globe - for their college education

I’ve been really sheltered my whole life, but I’ve been sheltered in a cocoon of

alcohol,” junior Oktobre Axtell explains. As a seventeen year old, she’s been living with an alcoholic family since she was born. Her mother and stepfather are both heavy drinkers, and Axtell ex-periences the effects of their drinking constantly.

“I don’t know if it’s the alcohol that makes my parents so controlling over my life, because they can’t live their own lives because of the alcohol,” she says. “There’s nights when I have trouble even being at home. She doesn’t like to leave her room. “I don’t want to go down there and see them drunk.”

Axtell’s parents used to drink a couple of times a week, until they got jobs and, despite claims of improvement, now drink “almost every single night.”

This unpredictable home life is diffi-cult for her. “I stay upstairs. I try to stay away from them, and as far away from the situation as possible. There’s been times when I’ve sat there and screamed at them to stop or shut up, and they don’t even pause. It’s like they don’t even hear me. They’re in their own world and I will be screaming at the top of my lungs and it’s so scary. I just start shaking and I can’t handle it.”

Axtell is not alone in her struggle around alcoholism. “Statistically, one in four students under the age of eighteen is in a family with alcoholism, or some-body who abuses alcohol. It affects a lot of people,” says East’s Project SUCCESS facilitator Debbi Philips.

Alcoholism is defined as chron-ic problems with alcohol, including con-trol, preoccupation, and continued use despite problematic outcomes. Living with or around this disease is taxing for anyone, particularly students.

Sophomore Mia Whitt* also strug-gles with alcoholism in her family. “My experiences around alcohol when I was little are awful, scary, uncomfortable and

unhealthy. A lot of my memories from when I was younger are of [my mom] being drunk or embarrassing me.”

Since she was young, Whitt has been experiencing the personal effects of her mother’s alcoholism. “One night, we were at a family reunion, and she had been so drunk. That night I was crying really hard, and I asked her to promise me that she’d never drink again. She did, and then the next day she was drinking again because she was too drunk to remember that she had ever promised [to stop].”

Senior Felix Gomez* has dealt with similar familial alcoholism. Since he was seven years old, his mother has been drink-ing every night. “When she’s sober, I love my mom. I can talk to her about pretty much anything because she’ll accept it and she’ll give me good ad-vice. But when she gets drunk, I’ll tell her something, and she’ll just get mad about it and yell at me.”

Axtell’s relationship with her parents has also diminished over time. “I don’t want to talk to my parents anymore,” she says. “Even when they’re not inebriated, I have trouble looking them in the eye and telling them what I did that day, or acting like I’m happy when I’m around them. I just don’t want to be with them anymore. I feel so disgusted by them.”

The effects of such a chaotic home life can be profound. Axtell has experi-enced the impacts of an alcoholic family, emotionally and physically. “I used to be a cutter. I was fifteen when I realized that I needed to stop cutting. It was scar-ing me because I kept doing it deeper and deeper, and bigger and bigger. Final-ly, I went to my therapist, and I showed her my arms.”

Gomez has also found his mother’s drinking to be harmful. “It’s gotten to the point where I feel like I can’t depend on her for anything and I can’t trust her with my life at all.”

Whitt experiences the damages of her mother’s drinking in a similar way as Gomez. “The whole trust thing [has been really hard]. Now if she’s gone and I don’t know know where she is, I think she’s doing something really bad,” she describes. “I just don’t have a good relationship with her, and that’s really hard. I’ve only realized that recently, and it’s a really crazy thing to come across.

Finally I’m under-standing that my childhood wasn’t what it should’ve been. The reason there are flaws now is due to [her drinking].”

Despite the flaws, Whitt’s fami-ly has been making

progress. Nearly three years ago, her mom decided to confront her problem and seek help in becoming better. She attended group meetings at her church, as well as Alcoholics Anonymous with the intent to become sober.

In contrast, the alcoholism of Ax-tell’s parents isn’t improving. “They have never sought out help. They’ll claim they [are getting better] and they never do. That’s just part of the spell of alcohol,” she says.

Through her family and her own experiences, Axtell has seen the hin-drance that alcohol can become. “I used to get really mad when they drank, but then I thought maybe if I tried it and tried to drink with them, it’d get better and I’d understand why they were doing it. I guess I never really did. Maybe one day I’ll drink again, but I enjoy get-ting drunk too much and I’m afraid of becoming my parents, so I don’t touch

alcohol.” Axtell is smart to stay away from

liquor. According to Philips, students with a family history of alcoholism have a much greater risk of addiction than those who don’t. “If you start drinking before the age of 15, your chances of having an addiction in your lifetime is four out of ten. If you have a genetic fac-tor through your family, that [risk] goes even higher,” warns Philips.

“I feel more at risk in terms of any addiction,” reveals Whitt. “I know that I have to think about any bad be-havior and stay far away from it because it can become an addiction.”

Staying away from this behavior can be difficult in high school, as Axtell has experienced. “I used to drink at school all the time. I used to sit there and drink Jack Daniels in class. This was in eighth grade.”

She attributes the start of her own drinking to her mother’s problem. “I’ve always wanted this connection with my mom, because she raised me, and I always wanted to be as much like her as possible. It’s just kind of screwed me over again and again.”

However, Axtell believes there can be a happy medium when drinking, as long as people use caution. “You need to be careful of your intake. It’s okay to want to have fun with your friends every once in awhile, but if you’re super depressed and you know you’re super depressed, alcohol isn’t going to do anything. A lot of us have tried it, and it never does do anything.”

Whitt agrees. “I think kids need to be more aware of the long-term reper-cussions,” she states. “It’s definitely fun to have fun in high school, and I think it’s important, but students should be more careful about developing habits that can be terrible for them and for others. I don’t think students realize what they’re doing, and all of its possibilities.”

*Names have been changed

“I’ve been really shel-tered my whole life,

but I’ve been sheltered in a cocoon

of alcohol.”

By Meredith Kelly

The crippling effects of alcohol and its prominence at East

Nine dollars and ninety nine cents. That is the price for a bottle of Bur-

nett’s pink lemonade flavored vodka. For high schoolers, drinking is illegal, but all it takes is a phone call to one of many students with a fake ID and minors have themselves a party in a bottle. It is easy for students to obtain the alcohol, but taking it too far is an occurrence that can happen to any student.

It’s common knowledge that high school students experiment with alco-hol, however, what most people don’t realize is the quantity that students, especially East students, are ingesting. Students at East have adopted a culture of excess, with students drinking alcohol in copious amounts. Not just at parties, but at sports games, when they’re just hanging out, and even in class.

“It became this universal acceptance that everyone drinks,” explains junior Ian Rudiger. Rudiger has had several run-ins with authority due to alcohol, but has been able to learn from it. He’s now engaged in a bet with several of his friends that he won’t drink until at least his 18th birthday. He still laments the current climate. “The culture at East is a lot more accepting of alcohol consump-tion and how drinking is not that bad. That [attitude] promotes it more than anything,” he says.

Senior Brandon McCartney* dis-agrees with Rudiger’s statement that East is more accepting than any other school. “It isn’t more of a problem than any-where else,” he states. “I think there are only a few people that really abuse it.”

McCartney has had his own trou-bles with alcohol. After the state cham-pionship basketball game two years ago, McCartney discovered a darker side of underage drinking. “After the game, I decided to get out of control. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision but it was more so that I hadn’t experienced [alcohol] at an extreme amount before,

so I was curious in a way. I also think it came by surrounding myself with older people that expected that out of me.”

McCartney was given an MIP, a misdemeanor that stands for Minor In Possession. That night, an officer found him and some of his friends intoxicated. “I woke up in my grandparents’ house in Boulder with a hospital band on my wrist,” he explains. “That really freaked me out. Then I was told stories that I didn’t even remember.”

This experience shed a new light on alcohol for McCartney. “Everybody

around me helped me. They really helped me focus on where to go from there.” The MIP was expunged from McCartney’s record, but that didn’t stop him from drinking in the future. “From then on when I decided to drink I told myself to use moderation.” McCartney sees his run-in with the law as a sort of blessing in disguise because it helped him understand his body and how he can use alcohol more responsibly. “Experiencing it is what taught me how to do it right, and going into college I think that is a huge thing that I am glad I learned early on.”

McCartney, however, cautions the

use of alcohol amongst the younger students of East. “It is a problem when freshman and sophomores are doing it a lot,” he affirms.

McCartney first started drinking as a sophomore when he became friends with members of the class above his. “As a sophomore I started to become friends with juniors, I started drinking, then my junior year is when the big steps hap-pened and I started abusing it.”

Acceptance starts with the culture being built throughout the student body. The underclassmen tend to look up to

upperclassmen, they’ve learned how alcohol affects their bodies and are typi-cally better at drinking quote-end-quote “responsibly.” It’s when these upperclass-men decide that they look old enough to pass for twenty-one that things get taken to a different level.

Fake IDs are common amongst the seniors and juniors of East, and are the main supplier of alcohol to the rest of the student body. ‘Fakes’ are easy to get. “This is what I want my age to be, this is where I want to be from, this is what I want to be, and then you pay a hun-dred dollars to China and they come,” explains senior Jacob Barnes.* “I just gave my [info] to my friend and they did it for me.”

Even those who should be--and say that they are--stopping kids from drinking are often the enablers. Not just the shopkeepers who look the other way when a kid uses a fake, but parents and other role models as well. “My parents know I have [a fake ID], and they don’t care,” shares an anonymous junior.

Things get problematic when younger students realize they can easily obtain alcohol from a person with a fake. “Kids my age have fake IDs and are the ones supplying alcohol for young-er kids,” says Rudiger. “The worst part about the whole fake ID thing is when the older kids are buying alcohol for younger kids who [don’t] know the ins and outs of drinking or the effects of it. That’s when it can lead to bad stuff.”

Although Rudiger and McCartney have had trouble with alcohol in the past, they don’t see it to be that harm-ful. “Even though I’ve had some really horrible experiences with alcohol, I’m not that against it,” he explains. Rudi-ger believes that, even with the current lifestyle of excess, the culture can be changed. “I think that you can drink in moderation, even at our age, and it’s not that big of a deal.”

*Names have been changed

By Chad Hanna

Rudiger (center) may not drink, but he still knows how to party. (photo by Mackenzie Mathias)the upperclassmen, and when juniors and seniors are drinking large quantities of alcohol, freshmen and sophomores want to emulate that behavior.

Rudiger experienced this as a freshman, when he saw his friends’ older siblings--seniors at East--drinking and supplying alcohol. Rudiger still remem-bers the party his freshman year that first exposed him to East’s party culture. “Older kids came and brought the alco-hol,” he recalls. “Then you just step into their shoes.”

At a young age, the shoes that East students are trying to fill are hard to fit. As students get older and become

The crippling effects of alcohol and its prominence at East

People ask me if I am ‘One of those crazy PETA people.’ I can’t help but

scoff and shake my head. I tell them no, not every single vegitarian on the planet is crazy, there is a certain interest around what I eat and why I make these choic-es. It not like I mind terribly if they ask questions, I am glad they are curious. However, sometimes those questions spin into judgment and I frankly don’t need it.

I became a vegetarian almost three years ago, towards the end of my eighth grade year. It wasn’t in hope that I would stop any animals being killed or the world to suddenly stop eating meat, but just because I felt healthier when I wasn’t eating it. The change was drastic and almost uprooting for me at first; I would walk into a restaurant and my eyes would scan the menu, mentally check-

ing off the meals I could and could not eat. Meat used to be my favourite food, I loved the juicy aroma of a cooking turkey on Thanksgiving, I used to order some type of meat at every meal. Now I can’t stand the smell of it. However, this is my choice to make. I don’t need anyone telling me that I should eat meat or am crazy because I don’t.

People are told more often then we think that they shouldn’t eat this food or that. Food shaming is surprisingly common with teenagers. One person shames the other for the food they are eating, making them feel confused and hurt. Some may feel that it’s their job to tell others what they should and should not eat, au contraire- I feel that less feelings would be bruised if this stopped. What one person eats should not shape the lives of those around them, it’s like

anything in life. If it’s not affecting them directly, why should they care what oth-ers do? It seems like a rediculous notion to me.

Food is something that we all have in common, yet so many people eat different things. Certain cultures avoid certain foods and so fourth. I find it al-most comicical when people think they can tell each other what to eat, Espically when so many teenagers have problems eating today. The way I see it, I am a responsible person who is completely aware of what I want and do not want to eat.The conflict comes from a place of opinion. They eat one type of food, while I eat another. Personally, I do not care what people around me are eating, just as long as they don’t shove it down my throat.

I believe that myself and many other

vegetarians would agree when I say that the opinions or judgments of the people around me don’t want me to pick up a big ol’ steak and just start eating it again, just because they told me it was good. Their inquiries about my eating habits don’t make me feel forced to eat something I normally do not, but mostly make me to feel uncomfortable.

I also get where the critics are com-ing from. They are just looking out for the people they like- however I do not need to be told what I can eat and why I can or cannot eat certain things. This is my body. My life. The food I eat is my food.

I would advise against judging others on what they eat. The world is so chalk-full of judgments, that I believe people are beginning to look in the mir-ror and see judgments reflected back.

By Rhianna Herd

I admire the individual. The person who challenges the status quo to fit

who they want to be. I admire that confi-dence. Yet, as I have discussed before it’s difficult to merge outside that comfort-able pattern of everyday life, especially in high school. As the end of the year approaches, I question the true purpose of high school. My theory: The purpose of high school is to find what you love, and not be ashamed of who you are.

The social expectations of high school often attempt to place individuals in boxes. Most kids succumb to the pres-sure exerted by parents, colleges, friends, and refuse to listen to what they want. High school is a time when kids don’t have to worry about taxes, paying off debt, or finding stability. High School is the catalyst for the rest of your life and should be considered a time to explore every interest.

This year I decided to take News-paper and Social Problems, both non honors classes. I worried that they would not reflect the type of student that colleges look for. Then I realized how wrong that mindset can be. I want

to attend a college that wants me for my accomplishments and passions. I do not want to play the “check the box” game. This involves enrolling in classes I don’t even find interesting, just to satisfy colleges.

Students are far better served by taking the history of rock and roll thereby discovering an appreciation of music. Taking classes that you are passionate about have benefits that last a lifetime, far outlasting a college acceptance.

I don’t want the story of my life to be summed up to achieving goals just to please others. Say you make it into that elite college, what then? Life does not become easy, and happiness is not gained with more money and a fantastic education. This is not to say that if you love biology you should not take AP Bio. I am simply saying that one should take the classes they love, no matter what

those classes are. They should only be working to impress themselves.

Take my friend for example. I recently accompanied him to a Jazz performance where a guest artist was playing the saxophone. As I sat in the

brightly lit choir room and let the music flow through me, I no-ticed the smile of my friend. It was one of complete happiness that he could share his passion with us. It

was at that moment that I was proud to be an angel, proud to support my friend.

But, finding a passion is only part of the problem. The dilemma of embracing that passion remains. Students are often afraid to break out of the small range of classes which are deemed socially acceptable. High School is tough. I know that I often feel the pressures of popularity and pleasing my peers, but at the same time want to stay true to myself. The other piece of this over-

whelming High School puzzle, is not being ashamed of who you choose to be. I can not count the number of times people have taunted me for not playing sports in high school, because somehow spending eighteen hours a week being a rigorous classical ballet dancer does not make the cut. Dance is not considered cool. But in the end, identifying myself as a dancer and as someone uniquely me made it much easier to find true friends. The friends which I made only for their image made me feel like a fake. I was constantly pretending to be a person I am not. The friends who make me feel most accepted are those who support me for my passions, and love me for me.

The choices I make in high school, and the people I choose to be with effect the person I become for the rest of my life. It is time that I take my needs and interests into consideration while I have the time. In the end, I have to face myself each morning, and be able to live with that person. And, as Michael Jackson once sang, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror.”

Seeking a Higher Purpose

The Purpose of high school is to find what you love, and not be ashamed of who you

are.

By Maddie Hughes

The Hard to Swallow Truth about Food Shaming

I was kind of bummed when I didn’t go to that warehouse party. It was

supposed to be in a huge warehouse, with tons of friends going. Although people had been talking about carpools, taxis, and uber cars: I remained silent, half-heartedly saying how crazy that party would turn out. When it came down to a legitimate decision, I chose to stay in my basement. I felt obligated to melt into my couch and watch Cartoon Network. Maybe it was laziness: an over-whelming tiredness after a long week of school, plus daily Frisbee practice.

My sleep-deprived brain couldn’t handle the act of planning a schedule, and couldn’t commit to any type of social outing that night. I also knew my curfew would restrict the amount of movement I made, as I would always have to keep track of the time. I felt like I was socially missing out, thanks to my dreaded curfew. But I realized I was actually happy to be alone melting my brain with Adventure Time. An unex-pected side effect of my curfew: my real-

ization of the importance of moderation.I’ve been to some parties. They can

be fun. I enjoy meeting unexpected friends and seeing my classmates cele-brate like it’s their twenty-first birthday. With or without my slightly anti-social views, or my somewhat awkward party experiences, raging too consistently takes the fun out of partying.

Parties are fun when they’re special occasions. That’s the idea of a party: to observe or com-memorate an event with ceremonies or festivities. When parties begin to happen every single weekend, it becomes less and less satisfying. Though they are alluring, the thought of making memo-ries out of school with classmates can be done in other ways.

There’s many who sacrifice their free time, money, and important relation-ships in order to get a group of kids

together out of school and drink hard liquor. Most of these people understand the risk of breaking rules, yet continue with an almost immature party behavior. “Forget about the MIPs, tickets, sus-pensions, or consequences altogether. What’s important is that I sneak out of my house, go to this house party for an

hour then proba-bly get caught.”

Do these peo-ple attend just to say that we were there? Does this happen because there is an un-deniable, human

desire that pushes each person to feel included, and not left out? Yes. There has been times where one would go to a par-ty for a while, then the next day explain how amazing the party was.

Sacrificing key high school expe-riences simply isn’t worth a night of stumbling around a stranger’s house. Life is important to live, and some

people tend to forget that. High school is four years in a long lifetime. The long, dramatic story of our lives does not end in an awkward breakup, a bad test, or a mistake. Move on from the little things, and think about the big picture. Focus on parts of your life that will benefit you later in life, not just for a few days.

Be satisfied you can still have a good time without the need for intoxication or giant social blowouts. Happiness can be found in other ways than a bottle, a ziplock bag, or in that one sketchy house with a strong bassline coming out the windows and barf on the curb.

Having a good time is an important part about high school. However a night on the town isn’t the only way to do it. All your high school memories do not have to be developed at a party. Find a group of friends you’re comfortable with. When the parties aren’t popping, or the decision was to not go, have a backup plan: go outside, throw a foot-ball, make music, watch a movie. Life is a party: party isn’t life.

All your high school memories do not

have to be developed at a party.

PARTY HACKBy Josh Lew

Why taking a break from partying can be a good thing

GetOutAlive

By Arden Gehl

So, I had a panic attack yesterday,” she mentions casually. Her friend looks

back, “Oh. That sucks, I’m sorry.” She sympathizes briefly before going back to scroll through her Instagram photos. The conversation ends and the girl sits back to continue what she was doing. No one asks her if she’s okay. No one asks what caused her panic. And, sadly, no one wonders if she needs help.

I’ve started to see this trend in my daily classes and surroundings. Many high schoolers are not comprehending the severity of mental problems and the pain they can have on the individual.

In high school kids are exposed to situations that place them in awkward positions. There is the constant strug-gle of not having the freedom of an adult, but not being a dependent child either. High schoolers are awkward, stressed, and often frustrated. There is the academic pressure of getting good grades. People constantly say that our success in the future relies on the grades we make in high school. On top of that, students are faced with even more social pressures. When you mix it all together it’s frightening. Add in the fact that our brains haven’t fully developed and you can wonder how anyone survives high school.

Anxiety and panic attacks are com-mon symptoms of high school. With the amount we have going on and the things we have to do piling up in our undeveloped minds it’s not uncommon to just lose it. Those ten minutes can be frightening and depending on how often it happens, they can be really damaging. So we self medicate, we turn to other ways to keep ourselves under con-trol. Some students decide to give up, and not focus on, one of the pressures. They choose not to care about their academics, their social lives, or themselves. By not focusing on one of these pressures they leave more time to focus on the other pressures that they deem as important. It seems to be the only way they can survive. Stress is never simple, but when it becomes unbearable that’s when there’s an issue.

In the past five years the number of

anxiety disorders in high schools have increased by an staggering amount, and yet it seems as the more common they become the less help there is for stu-dents. I have had friends struggling with anxiety go talk to their parents and the only comfort they receive is, “You’re over reacting, just calm down and do your

homework.” Adults seem to think that the stress kids have is just in our minds or apart of our dramatic tendencies. It seems they can’t take us seriously,

because we’re just teenagers, what do we know? Students know what they feel but they don’t know how to treat it or deal with it. This is a toxic combination. As much as kids like to think they can manage the stress, and do everything without help, it is impossible.

High school will always be stressful; it’s how we deal with it that is import-

ant. While it’s important get support from each other in times of difficulty, everyone should learn how to care for themselves when that help is not there. There will never be less homework, and we can’t always make excuses. Instead of breaking down, exaggerating for attention, or blaming other people, kids need to focus on themselves. When we manage our stress we function at an unbelievable rate.Focus on the import-ant things, and the part of life you enjoy you’ll find the life is a lot easier to live.

Try exercising, or a calming ac-tivity, and I know it sounds stupid, but take a couple deep breaths. Try to avoid stressful situations or people when you can. If your stress is more serious I urge you to talk to a counselor or a teacher because unlike we are led to believe, panic attacks, and anxiety is serious and the sooner you get help the better you’ll feel.

Focus on our friends, be there for each other when we can, and try to deal with the stress we have. Recognize when we have problems, and try to find healthy solutions. We will always have a source of stress, it’s just a symptom of the world we live in, but if we can learn to manage it in a healthy way, we might just make it out alive.

The girl sitting next to me in first period leans forward to talk to her friend.

Instead of breaking down, exaggerating for attention, or blaming

other people, we can fo-cus on ourselves.

ing a hand to remedy other problems with hall sweeps, what a classroom based policy solves more than anything is the inconsistencies in hall sweeps. A student who is late multiple days in a week may never run into a hall sweep due to sheer luck, but a student who is late once or twice a year may have an unlucky day in which they are swept. Classroom based policies add much needed consistency to the tardiness policy.

Attendance is important. We get it. However, in a school which offers an off-campus lunch system, where a multi-tude of variables out of a student’s control could make them late, hall sweeps aren’t the right answer. The classic pilgrimage of students sprinting into the foyer with looks of ‘will I make it’ plastered on their faces are hardly to blame for the fact that there was a traffic jam on 17th that made it difficult to get back on time. The fact of the matter is that hall sweeps operate on the premise that the numerical value of attendance is valued more than learn-ing itself or the climate in which stu-dents learn in. And that is what needs to change.

Complete anarchy. That is how The Spotlight Staff would describe hall

sweeps. Students awkwardly sprint to class with their backpacks bouncing be-hind them. Half full cups of soda from lunch slosh across the floor as kids skid into their classrooms. While the news-paper staff realizes that hall sweeps are meant to serve a purpose, it seems they teach kids to value exercise rather than teaching them the repercussions of tar-diness.

The East High School Spotlight be-lieves that the hall sweep policy should be revisited. Most students loathe the hall sweeps. They say hall sweeps are an in-convenience at best, and at worst count-er-productive. The counter productivi-ty lies in the fact that while hall sweeps were created to reduce tardiness, in real-ity a student who would have missed one minute of class ends up missing thirty.

We realize that hall sweeps are meant to solve a difficult and complex problem. Namely, students come to class late. The first problem with hall sweeps is ineffi-ciency in protocol. The light at Josephine and York that took an extra minute, should not cost thirty minutes of class.

Sweptexplained away.

The students who are caught in hall sweeps usually do not feel guilty about being late. Instead, they are more angered at the system and frustrated that they have to go in after school to make up for thirty minutes of instruction time. The educational climate perpetuated by hall sweeps creates a prison-like setting. As the gates close, wide eyed and dismayed students are herded into a line where they punch or scan in an ID and are met with several disapproving glances before the gates open and they trudge back to their sixth period classes. The hall sweep creates a grim environment of overall distrust.

The solution? At the moment, the most successful tardiness policies na-tionwide are ones that are classroom based. What East High needs is a system in which teachers are responsible for marking a student tardy, but stringent repercussions put into place by the ad-ministration punish students who ditch or are late numerous times. Whether the repercussion involves detention or revoked rights to off-campus lunch isn’t important. What’s important is punish-ing students for their tardiness without adding insult to injury. Aside from lend-

Many of the Newspaper staff mem-bers recount stories of spending thir-

ty minutes in a line of almost a hundred kids during a hall sweep. So a student ar-rives five minutes late to class, only to be drastically tardy to class as a result of hall sweeps, even with the sped up process of ID scanning. This student has learned nothing, in fact they are probably thank-ful to miss class. Obviously, something is wrong here.

It is ridiculous that hall sweeps rein-force tardiness by making students even more late to class then they originally in-tended. But what’s more, hall sweeps fail to punish students who ditch class. Most of the kids caught in hall sweeps, running to class with sandwiches in hand, are not the ones that deserve punishment; they’re the ones who would walk through their classroom doors at 12:06, only one minute late. However, the students who ditch entire class periods, do not feel the repercussions of the hall sweep; if they ditch the whole period, the hall sweep will be over and they can simply go to their next class. These are the students who would benefit from the consequence of a hall sweep, but they experience lit-tle consequence except for a message on their answering machine, which is easily

By Maddie Hughes and Caroline Smith

We’ve all spent a lonely Friday night watching the cult classic high

school movies. A huddle of huge, six-foot tall linebackers drop a pasty fresh-men into a nearby trash can, while the Prada adoring Barbie lookalikes munch on their Caesar salads (hold the crou-tons) and giggle. When I came to East as an innocent freshman, this is what I expected to see. All I had to go off of was what I’d seen in the movies, but the dif-ferences between what Molly Ringwald

and Anthony Michael Hall taught me and reality were outstanding.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off de-picted classes to be strict rows of forward-facing, gum-ridden desks, with ninety-eight year old teach-ers. At East, teachers can be crazy, but in the way that you don’t mind class because you want to see what

shenanigans they’ll pull next. East has a teacher that you can watch hop

around the school in a bunny suit, another teacher who’ll proudly show his (strangely extensive) assortment of foot-long knives he bought in Africa, and one that has attempted opera singing in front of me. I’m glad how crazy our teachers are. I don’t think anyone could survive with the sheer mundacity that’s shown in the theaters.

Once again, I saw the vast differenc-es between film and reality when I ex-perience the first school dance. We don’t really dance at Homecoming anymore. Gone are the coordinated streamers and balloons hanging around the gym. The Homecoming King and Queen positions aren’t as desirable anymore. Having a glittery tiara placed on salon curled hair was something that ten-year old girls fantasized about. But now these titles

have become a dismissed, glazed over tradition that barely anyone pays much attention to. Not having a date to Home-coming is unheard of in the movies, unless you’re a ‘punk’ rebelling against society. Nowadays, having a serious date to Homecoming is rare. What I notice is that the majority of the time the only display of affection are sweaty hands gripping some poor girl’s waist.

The Plastics were a notorious, power ridden clique in Mean Girls. There’s a hierarchy of the students. A pyramid ranking of the combination of your looks, how much money your parents have, where you live, what you drive, who you’re dating, what you wear, how athletic you are, and how many parties you throw. I don’t think this is the case at East. There are definitely kids who have more popularity than others, but could you instantly rattle off a name of a single clique that truly runs the school? I think that us not having a group like The Plastics is something we should be glad about. In the movies, the cliques are clearly and strictly set. There’s an unsaid rule that you don’t mix with anyone outside of your circle. The only interac-tions that can happen are a man-child slamming a skinny kid into a locker,

or a gaggle of girls mocking a turtle-necked nerd. In reality, most people have friends in many circles. Everyone has their few close friends, sure, but they roam through many other friend groups too.

Appreciate the awkwardness of freshman year, appreciate those late nights with your best friends, appreciate your first heartbreak, and appreciate your time here. Maybe you’re always running into your ex with that uncom-fortable eye contact, or you have to force another small talk with that girl you can’t stand during passing period. Everyone goes through these moments, and everyone can relate to those feelings. Movies can capture the essence of being a teenager. We might not hang out at the mall for hours every day like they show, and we might not say ‘totally’ as often as it seems, but the movie producers have gone through the same things we’re go-ing through right now and capture our feelings to an extent. There are differenc-es between film and reality, but in the end we’ll always enjoy a night to collapse under a pile of blankets and watch those awful hairdos on screen because we love being able to relate to exactly what the characters are going through.

Why hall sweeps are not useful in the war against tardiness and what East should be doing insteadAway

Don’t make me send you down to room 128.” From the moment I

walked into high school freshman year, I was terrified of the deans. I had heard horror stories of students being chas-tised for their wardrobe choices and interrogated about the contents of their backpacks. I figured the less interaction I had with them, the better. This thought of mine has been mirrored by every teacher I have had since, as they have issued gentle threats of the deans office to students. I have forever been told that the discipline system at East is too stern, but both students and deans are to blame.

Within the student body, I have experienced that many feel frustrated toward the amount and type of authority at East. Some students feel that there is an abuse of power in the administra-tion, where deans discipline only to feel powerful, while others feel that deans lack kindness and compassion. The deans, however, feel they fairly disci-pline students and do all they can to create a good environment, with student misbehavior driving an occasionally harsh atmosphere. The truth: neither the students nor deans are doing everything right in order to promote a pleasing environment.

When I first set out to write this article, my first stop was the dean’s office. I walked into Room 128 with outward

confidence, but I was secretly terrified. I felt that I knew the student opinion on authority and agreed. I stepped in the of-fice and was immediately asked, “What are you doing here?” in an accusatory tone. I calmly explained myself and went further into the room to request an in-terview. The deans answered me cordial-ly enough and we set up a time to meet. I got a chance to talk with East Dean Eric Sinclair, whom primarily repeated over and over that the answer to the dis-cipline controversy was simple: students should just “be good people [and] follow the law.” At first, I thought that this was only a self-boosting response, but soon I realized the deans were right.

Students don’t follow simple and harmless rules that are set for their own well being. Teenagers are consistent-ly complaining of “mean” deans and overbearing discipline, yet many of them are also unnecessarily acting out and defying boundaries, which only perpet-uates a stereotype that teens are reckless. These few students that are acting out are ruining the reputation of the whole student body in the minds of the deans and we as students, need to recognize what effect these small actions can have.

It is this “recklessness” that deans are reacting to. Sinclair said that he first and foremost “care[s] about East’s stu-dents being successful and feeling safe and secure here.” He pointed out that he

only strives to make students lives better, and I believe him. If students could recognize that there are certain rules that are worth following, they could radically change the dynamic between deans and students at East. I am by no means saying that all students are a part of this provoking attitude, or that there aren’t some rules that are meaningless, I am instead saying that if we, as a student body, could try to follow the rules set forth, while still having fun, we could dramatically improve our chances of mutual respect with the deans.

That being said, there are also times when the deans can go over the top in discipline. Teens need to have fun, but when they make mistakes, we should be disciplined in a way that makes us feel respected. My peers and I don’t respond well to belittling and authoritarianism. Listening to the side of the student body is extremely important. Some of those horror stories that I heard before high school and still hear now are not entirely untrue. Students can be chas-tised for simple wardrobe “mistakes”. Teens who act out on a bigger scale are often completely destroyed by criticism from deans, instead of receiving help they may need. We exist in a school where administration can sometimes go a little bit overboard in punishment and the way we are treated, taking small situations and blowing them out

of perspective to prove a point about who is in charge. If deans consider the results of their actions of students, take the step to reflect on why students are acting out and what each student needs, the dean-student relationship could be greatly improved.

So students, next time you break the rules, think about the effect of your actions, and deans, when you inter-act with students, treat them with the respect they deserve. Next time I go into 128, not only will I give the deans more credit than ever before, but I will con-sider the students that are in there with me, and how they affect me everyday. As Mr. Sinclair sums up perfectly: “Be good people. Follow the law.”

A Happy Medium By Ella Westerfield

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Girls Lax

At East High School, athletes follow a common path. Most play on a “C”

team their freshman year. As sopho-mores, most progress to the Junior Var-sity team. If all goes well, they’ll make varsity during their junior/senior year. But it doesn’t work that way in the East girls Lacrosse program. Loaded with 10 underclassmen, the girls lacrosse team is banking on youth to lead them to a state title in close future.

Ranked 6th in the state of Colorado, the girls have become one of the stron-gest teams in the state in a short amount of time. And with their first win against Cherry Creek High School in twen-ty-nine years, the East High community is starting to take notice.

Built with the perfect combination of veteran leadership and young talent, the Angels cruised through the regular season and made it all the way to the state quarterfinals. There, the Angels fell to Chatfield. But talent wasn’t the only reason they played well this season. The team has worked hard to get where they are, “There is a lot of unity on the team and we hold each other to a high standard. Our team has so much talent and we have been able to channel it while working together. Our momentum has really built up,” illustrates junior and captain Shelby Parks.

Junior Addie Glass attributes the

winning atmosphere to an increase in team chemistry. “In the last couple of years, there has been a lack of trust,” she admits. “But this year, our team has been really strong because we trust each other to make good decisions and take care of the ball.”

The Varsity team includes six freshmen and four sophomores, but the upperclassmen don’t mind having a few younger kids on their heels. “I think its a good thing,” says Glass. “They are all really strong players and I try not to look at them as freshmen. They are my teammates and we all have something to contribute to the field.”

Even though they shared the field with the younger girls, the seniors and juniors still excelled. Senior Julia Dudley was fifth in the state in scoring and Parks was tied for twelth in assists.

The freshman aren’t just on the team to sit on the bench, they are big contrib-utors to the team. Freshman Kate Bur-ney was the fifth leading scorer on the team, and fellow frosh Thyra Hermann was sixth with ten goals.

Success at this level is new for the Angels. A year ago they compiled a 10-7 record. But this season, under first year head coaches Chris Romer and Mallory Cleveland, the Angels finished with a 14-3 regular season record before falling in the quarterfinals.

The players understand the impact made by the coaching staff. “It has been really good for us to have a male coach who the girls take seriously because in the past the coaches haven’t pushed us to our full potential,” says Parks. “Chris and Mallory have different coaching styles, and come together to provide a challenging but fun environment at practice. They both invest so much time and energy into lacrosse which undoubtedly helped our season.”

Despite Cleveland and Romer’s impact, Romer credits his players for their success this year. “These are real athletes who had their mind set to something, and we’re just facilitating and following their lead.”

As for carrying a young team filled with promising freshman, Cleveland says, “We definitely do a good job of getting the freshman in there. They have a lot of skill and its exciting to see.” Romer adds, “We trust them. They have great sticks and they’ve been brought on like varsity players. We tell them you don’t need to play like a freshman, you need to play like you’re on varsity. “

Going into next year, the girls are confident and know that their coaches have faith in them. Second leading goal scorer, junior Sarah Nick adds, “They believe in us.”

Getting Their Feet WetBy Spencer Soicher

Young Girls Lax Team Makes Splash in State Tournament

East Girls Lacrosse

Season Recap Record:14-3

League Record: 4-2

State Rank: 6

National Rank: 207

Top Returning Scorers:

Sarah Nick (Jr.)- 54

Shelby Parks (Jr.)- 37

Alex Searles (So.)- 25

Kate Burney (Fr.)- 17

Coach Mallory Cleveland instructs freshman Thyra Hermann from the sidelines. (Photo by Spencer Soicher)

As many East athletes know, leading an athletic team to the state cham-

pionships is no easy feat, but usually, fans from the school show up to help cheer their team to victory. With Girls Golf, however, the fans are few and far be-tween.

Although the girls team qualified for state, many students were unaware and didn’t show up to support the team.

Golf is a sport that is seldom recog-nized for its difficulty and intensity, and it is well worthy of the acknowledgement it isn’t getting.

Head coach and new Social Studies teacher Quinn Hornecker’s season thus far is indicative of just how passionate he is about golf. “I started playing when I was four or five years old,” says Hor-necker. I played all the way through high school and into college, and then as soon as I got out of college, I knew I wanted to coach golf.”

Under Hornecker’s leadership, the team recently won the City Cup Cham-pionship and became the best team in the DPS league. With that success under their belt, four players on the team are off to capture the program’s first State Championship win.

In addition, East golfers prove age is not a factor in qualifying for State. Three of the state qualifiers are freshman, with one junior also qualifying. Part of this has to do with the heavy recruitment of freshmen this year. Senior Karolina

Sandgren says, “It’s good if we can start the girls younger, as freshmen, and then they can grow up through golf.”

One aspect of the sport that is often overlooked is the context it brings to all facets of life. Senior Keil Young believes that golf “teaches you honesty and integ-rity. Its a very good life sport.”

For Sandgren, golf is an athletic out-let that has also affected her life in more ways than one.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunities pre-sented to me through golf. As the team captain this year I’ve been able to hold another lead-ership posi-tion, and I’m working at the golf course now, so a lot of what I do has stemmed from golf. I hon-estly think this will be something that will help me in the future,” says Sandgren.

Not only has golf been a driving force in Sandgren’s life, it’s become an opportunity for scholarships and a com-petitive sport to which she is quite devot-ed. “I think my freshman year there was something like two million dollars that went unused in golf scholarships, so if [girls] become really passionate about it there are a lot of opportunities.”

One of the new freshman recruits and state qualifiers is Julia Baroth. Play-ing since she was around ten years old, she’s been able to structure herself around the sport, and it has become an integral part of her day to day life. “It has really shaped who I am, my social activities, my schedule, and really when I have time to be with my friends” says Baroth.

As a young state qualifier, there is enormous pressure to bring home a win, but Baroth seems to be coping with

the stress as gracefully as possible. She says “it’s pret-ty exciting, but also nerve wracking be-cause you have all this pressure to do well, play well and to make a

good competition for the other team.” The other teams seem to have a lot to

worry about in going up against East. A typical high school golf match is played in 18 holes with a group of four people from different schools competing against one another. Baroth seems to think that with this up-close rivalry, golf becomes more about mental than physical fitness.

“Physically you have to get all the motions and all the right nerve pathways down, but mentally you really have to

stay concentrated. If you let your mind wander you can easily end up with a ter-rible score and that can ruin that whole round for you” states Baroth. “Its more of a mental game than most people would think.”

With the State tournament having happened on May 19th and 20th, Baroth prepared her mind for the tough compe-tition. Her plan was to “stay focused and do the best I can because that is all they’re asking. That is what we all did at region-als to get here. We all just did the best we could do and luckily our best was good enough.”

Although the rivalry is strong, the East student body is often not there to cheer on the talented athletes. “In schools [golf] is a little mistreated and it can re-ally affect who you are as a person and make you ashamed of who you are” says Baroth.

Although East may lack in enthu-siasm for the golf team, Baroth and her teammates don’t seem to mind. Baroth’s philosophy is that “life is kind of like a game of golf. You want to make the best of it, still have fun, but also have kind of a competitive edge.”

With all the amazing talent circulat-ing throughout the golf team, it is shock-ing that there isn’t a wider fanbase in the sport. While basketball and soccer get all the recognition, the golf team is quietly putting their way to the top, one par at a time.

Up to Par Angels Girls Golf Works Their Way to

RecognitionPhoto by Maggie M

okros

By Adeline Toevs

“Life is kind of like a game of golf. You want to make the best of it, still have fun

but also have kind of a competitive edge.”

Going Out On Top

Riski Business It was a windy morning, first run of

the day and I was following my friend into the pro line at Keystone [jumps], as soon as I took off a big gust of wind blew me back and since I didn’t have enough speed I undershot by about 10 feet and hit the knuckle. I felt my entire knee explode like scrambled eggs. I knew all I had left to do was fall. I ejected forward and ragdolled down to the base of the landing.”

Senior Griffin Callahan has been skiing since the age of four. Even with five concussions, a torn ACL, MCL, meniscus, and several broken bones he continues to ski.

Last season, 54 skiers and snow-boarders died at ski areas within the United States, which saw a total of 51 million ski visitors, according to the Na-tional Ski Areas Association. This raises the question, why do people continue to ski if there is so much risk?

The reason that people continue to ski after an injury is almost always uni-form: the love of the sport. “I keep going because its a very liberating activity. You can have fun with your friends. It’s not a team thing, you can just be an individu-al.” states Callahan.

After Callahan was injured he strug-gled in school. “I was really screwed up after my concussion. It took around a

month before I could do school work again. I was recovering until I got another concussion. I was four weeks out of school in the dark and physically couldn’t do anything because it gave me migraines. When I came back to school I couldn’t even read. I couldn’t focus on text because it gave me the worst head-aches. I couldn’t sit through an entire day of school.”

Sophomore Max Obmascik became a ski patroller at Winter Park Resort this past winter. “On a Sat-urday in the middle of the ski season we will have 15 broken bones, 5 people with altitude sickness and I will be tending to an injury every 30 minutes. It really opens your eyes to how dangerous skiing really is.”

Far too often skiers don’t take the necessary precautions before a day on the slopes. “The biggest mistake I see people make is not wearing a helmet,” says Obmascik. “It’s such an easy thing to do and not wearing one can really

mess you up. Especially concussions, if people would wear helmets they would be nearly stopped.”

While many people think a family trip to the mountains is a safe activity, they often end up unprepared and get hurt. “You have people come out skiing who think it is safe and they don’t know what they’re doing and get hurt,” warns Obmascik.

After suffered from a broken collar-bone three seasons ago, Obmascik didn’t

stop skiing “I think the risk is worth it which is what a lot of other people think too. Skiing is so much fun, it is a great way to get outside,” he says. “Skiing is part of being a

Coloradan. Skiing is great for the whole family, you can ski when you are five or when you’re eighty. It is not restrictive like other sports are. The risks are defi-nitely worth the payoffs.”

“I’ve seen some terrible injuries, stuff I wish I hadn’t seen.” remembers Callahan. “Last year I saw a man die at Keystone. He had hit a tree and they had

to sled him down to the base and try and pump his heart but it was very obvious he was dead. It was awful, he was lifeless. They had to have flight for life come in but he lost his life.” Callahan recounted.

Obmascik provides a very inter-esting insight on the common places injuries occur. “There are a couple ‘hot spots’ where we see the most injuries. One of the common nicknames that we have on patrol for the terrain park is the Trauma Park because so many people get injured. It is to the point that we just keep a patroller in it at all times because every five minutes there is an injury that they can respond to immediately. Tree runs are another hot spot because people go too fast and hit trees.”

Participating in sports comes with the inherent risk of injury. However injuries can often times be a blessing. “The injuries have changed my life and made me the person I am. It made me step back and gain more perspective. It made me realise what I wanted to do with my life.” stated Callahan. “It puts a lot of perspective into your life realising that you just watched someone die doing the sport you love. People die very often skiing but once again you cannot think about the risks when you’re trying new tricks. You just have it do it and the risk is inherent.”

Why Some East Students Risk Life and Limb for a Day on the Snow

Natalia DellavalleGirls Tennis

#2 Singles State ChampionColorado College

“It has been such an honor to represent my school and my team and to be able to perform well under pressure and to be able to pull out a win in the finals. I was just so elated and it

has just been a great couple of weeks.”

Cerake GeberkidaneTrack

3200m, 1600m, 800m State ChampionOklahoma State University

“I train everyday, I’m really focused on that and I really take my running serious. That feeling that you’re the fastest distance run-

ner in the state of Colorado is a phenomenal feeling.”

Chyna RiesTrack and Field

Long Jump State ChampionChoosing between Oregon and Kentucky“It felt really good because last year I didn’t compete so I just wanted to come back and get my name back on the books and get that

state title.”

By Davis Murane

By Sean PriceEast Seniors Win State Titles

“The injuries have changed my life and made me the person I am. It made me step back and gain more

perspective.”

Photo by Willa ZaragozaPhoto by Claire Koyle Photo courtesy Chyna Ries

Are you Down With the Clown?By Lena Novins-Montague

“Juggalos have that love. They’ll have your back. It’s

all about the music, the family, and the people.”

East Juggalos talk misconceptions, family, and what it means to be a Juggalo.

Phot

o by

Zac

h M

orri

s

A “whoop, whoop” call fills junior Isaiah Bustamonte with a sense of

family and belonging. The warm feeling that comes from hearing this greeting is something only he and a few other East High School students can understand.

Juggalos are fans of the musical-genres horrorcore and underground hip hop music, mostly artists signed to Psy-chopathic Records. The Insane Clown Posse, a band from Detroit, is the most prominent of the bunch. They are most commonly known as ICP. The term jug-galo was coined in 1994 during an ICP concert, when a member of the band referred to the audience as “Juggalos”.

Bustamonte, a Juggalo says the key to being a Juggalo is to “Just be yourself, don’t front, don’t hide your emotions, don’t be fake.”

Juggalos wear shirts and other paraphernalia with their favorite bands on them, like ICP, Twiztid, Brotha Lynch Hung and Tech N9ne. The shirts are often black, and show the artist wearing clown face paint. Juggalos also

paint their faces like clowns, and they’re known for drinking and spraying Faygo, a soda from Detroit that Insane Clown Posse sprays during their shows.

Juggalos greet each other with the signature “whoop, whoop!” calls, which are the equivalent of “Hey, what’s up, homie?” Oktobre Axtell, an East junior and a Juggalette (a female Jugga-lo) says, “If I see someone wearing anything that has to do with ICP, I’ll say ‘whoop whoop’ and they say ‘whoop whoop’ and it fills me with elation, ‘cuz it makes me feel like I’ve got somebody on my side.”

Axtell says of a typical Juggalo, “A lot of the time we’re outcasts. People

who others wouldn’t take into their groups.”

Juggalos are faced with constant judgement from their peers.

“We get a lot of dirty looks for the clothes we wear,” Bustamonte says.

Nate Romero, another junior and Juggalo, adds that he tends to get a lot

of, “Your shirt looks evil, are you a Sa-tan wor-shipper? You guys go to the circus?”

When East Angels

were inquired about Juggalos, many had no idea of their existence. “You mean a gigolo?” one student asked.

But a certain level of dislike is clear. “There’s just a really negative conno-tation with [Juggalos]. [They’re very]

vagrant and vulgar,” remarks junior Isiah Kaleth.

Historically, Juggalos have been classified as a gang by the FBI. They refer to themselves as a “family” but are constantly linked with violence. “If you insult a group of Juggalos, they’ll get vio-lent. It’s almost a guarantee,” Kaleth says.

However, Axtell asserts, “There ar-en’t any Juggalo gangs. There are people in gangs who become Juggalos, and are still in gangs, but not all Juggalos are in gangs. I wouldn’t ever be in a gang.” Bustamonte maintains that, “Don’t just assume that every Juggalo is like that, ‘cuz it’s not true. Not every Juggalo is the same.”

The three Juggalos at East all stress that the most important part of being a Juggalo is the idea of family. Romero says, “Juggalos have that love. They’ll have your back. It’s all about the music, the family, and the people.” Bustamonte says, “We’re just a Juggalo, which is a fan of the music. We watch out for each other. We’re one big, happy family.”

Museum of Contemporary

Art Admission to MCA is always free for anyone

eighteen years old or younger. Go for a visit and see artist Matt Barton’s work in “I Think I Feel

Something.” The exhibit includes color and crystal therapy, a space to stimulate the chakras, and pineal

gland activation stations. You’ll have to see it to believe it.

1485 Delgany StMatt Barton Exhibition: July 25-October 5

Tuesday—Thursday: noon-7pmFriday: noon-9pm

Saturday & Sunday: 10am-5pm

Swim in the Confluence

No pool? No problem. Lodcated by Confluence Park, the cool water of the Confluence provides an oasis from the summertime heat. Not in the mood to swim? The surrounding beach serves as a perfect

place to enjoy summer at its best.

Confluence Park2200 15th St

Denver Bike Night

Pictured above, Denver Bike Night has rides every Wednesday night this summer. It’s a true Denver tradition. All you need is a bike and a helmet to

take part in this themed, semi-organized bike ride throughout the Mile High City. The themes range

from Bible Belt & Panties to Halloween in July.

Starting locations vary by week:http://denvercruiserride.com

Wednesdays, May 15-September 28Ride starts at 8:45

City Park Jazz

Spanning a total of ten weeks, free shows will be

held every Sunday at the City Park Pavillion. Come and watch a wide variety of local artists perform. This years lineup includes artists from all genres.

City Park PavillionSundays, June and July

5:00-8:30pm weekly

PrideFest Denver is home to one of the top pride events in the country. Every year, 250,000 people gather to listen

to music, march in a drag parade, and celebrate Denver’s LGBTQ community.

Civic Center Park101 W 14th Ave

June 21st 11:00-7:00June 22nd 10:00-6:00

Photo by Zach Morris

Capitol Hill People's Fair

This two-day carnival celebrates Denver’s diverse community. You can catch some street theatre and

listen to live music while window-shopping for jewelry and paintings.

Civic Center Park101 W 14th Ave

June 7-June 8Saturday: 10am-8 pmSunday: 10am-7pm

Things to Do in Denver

By Lena Novins-Montague, Jack Spano, and Zach Morris

You know what they say, the best things in life are free. Summer can leave students with empty hours to fill. For the next three months, save your pennies and take advantage of the wallet friendly events that can be

found. Read on to discover six completely free things Denver has to offer.

When You're Broke

Top 10 Things to Find on

the GroundFrom Sean Price’s 8th grade blog, The Salad

Aries: March 20-April 20:Go to the graduation party. But don’t eat the dip.

Taurus: April 20-May 21:(See Pisces)

Gemini: May 21-June 21:You will develop a taste for Fanta Peach. Yummy.

Cancer: June 21-July 23:You will step in something really gross.

Leo: July 23-August 23:You will accidentally walk someone’s dog.

Virgo: August 23-Sept. 23:You could be drinking whole milk if you wanted to.

Libro: Sept. 23-October 23:You will find a quarter. But it’s actually a shiny penny. Dang.

Scorpio: October 23-Nov. 22:Drop the soap.

Sagittarius: Nov. 22-Dec. 22: Don’t eat those brownies.

Capricorn: Dec. 22-January 20:Hug that guy for great results.

Aquarius: January 20-Feb. 18:Wear goggles.

Pisces: Feb. 18-March 20:(See Taurus)

HOROSCOPESBy Squash Stew Help! Mr. Ajiluni’s bunny

suit became aliveand ran away! HelpAjiluni get it back!

10. Secret Service Earpiece9. A little dog shoe8. Rice (How would that even happen?)7. House Keys6. An unopenedpizza box (!)5. Water gun4. Jump Rope3. A comfy office chair2. Andy Rooney’s body (too soon?)1. A half used dispos-able camera (just to see how this person lives their life)

What’s in thefountain? Draw and share your picture

on the East Spotlight Facebook or Twitter.

Get the mostlikes/retweets and

you’ll win a

The nonsense included in the Rear End section does not nec-essarily represent the views of the Spotlight staff, the editorial board, the sponsor, old man voices, summer<3, free water, Señor Junior, or tornadoes. The point is, the Rear End is intend-ed for comedic effect and is not to be taken seriously.

May 2, 2014 Rear End Page #

Not including money ordead bodies. Eh, we’ll

include dead bodies, why not.