The theater department prepares to put on the fall production of “Peter Pan.”

PAGE 10

Concussions plague student-athletes and pose a serious risk to their health.

PAGE 8

Senior Kristi Ayre represents students as one of 15 state students representatives.

PAGE 3

COURIERCOLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL

INNEWS

THE

INSPORTS

INCULTURE

www.bully.comWith the growth of social networking,

students are experiencing increasinglevels of online harassment,

or “cyberbullying.”

see story on page 2

story by Danielle Sheehan, photo by Sevan Strait

NEWSNOVEMBER 20112

“The thing that I see happening more frequently this year is cy-berbullying,” Principal Frank DeAngelis said. In recent years, DeAngelis has noticed an increase in cyber-bullying because of the rise of social networking. He and the counseling center have been working this year to raise aware-ness and deal with this issue. “It seems like I have had record numbers of Safe to Tell alerts that I get on students who are harassing or bullying students through Facebook and through cell phone text messages and things of that nature, “ DeAngelis said. Safe to Tell is just one of the ways students can report harass-ment through an anonymous phone line. Another is Mr. De’s Tip Box, where students can slip a note in the box outside of the counseling offi ce anonymously. Some examples of the tips DeAngelis receives are of girls saying inappropriate things to each other, inappropriate pictures that have being shared or posted, and the more recent cases of students hacking into other students’ Facebook posting information that is not true about the per-son. “My biggest con-cern is that I don’t think people understand the seriousness of being in-volved with social net-working,” DeAngelis said. “Kids are at times very naive, because they think that no one can see it other than their friends but there are so many people who have access to Facebook.”

Columbine’s efforts to deal with cyberbullying are refl ective of heightened national awareness of the issue. According to a 2010 poll of over 4,000 students by the Cyberbullying Research Center, 20.8% reported being the target of some form of cyber-bullying. The students reported they had been the target of some form of harassment in the past 30 days, from having “mean or hurtful” comments or pictures posted about or of them, to threats given via a cell phone text, to someone pretending to be them online. Although social networking is one the leading causes of bul-lying, it is not the only one. A few more of them are name-call-ing, fi st fi ghts, making fun of, and just plain picking on someone for the fun of it. “If we are able to spread awareness of cyberbullying at our school then it might open people’s eyes to how people can be

affected by this,” Peer Counselor Kendra La-Fonte said. Cyberbully-ing is a symptom of the larger problem of bullying as a whole. To address this, DeAn-gelis gave a very pas-sionate speech at this year’s Homecoming assembly about treat-ing everyone the way each person would want to be treated. “I think what

inspired the speech is something that I be-

lieve very passionately that as principal of CHS. I want every student and every staff member and every person who enters this building at Columbine to feel welcome and not be left out or isolated,” DeAngelis said. “There were many notes that were put in my tip box that talked about not having that atmosphere here at Columbine, and that bothers me.” DeAngelis has made a huge effort in trying to make everyone feel at home at CHS. One of the ways is by giving every fresh-man a link, or carabineer, on their fi rst day of high school and hanging those connected links in the main hallway to symbolize that everyone is in this high school journey together. “I realize at every high school there are cliques and groups hanging out, but when those cliques are mean to each other, that bothers me,” DeAngelis said. “In our lives we have every op-portunity to agree to disagree, but that does not give me the per-mission to be mean to you or to others because you’re not my friend.” There are many opportunities to report or even get help with bullying or harassment at CHS. One of the most common ways to get help is through Peer Counseling. Peer counselors are ju-niors and seniors who are in the counseling offi ce every period of the day available to listen and guide other students. For example, Senior Tori Kelly, a peer counselor, said, “We have this new student come in, it’s not [harsh] bullying, but she just feels like people aren’t super friendly to her because she is new, and we are trained to help her out and give her more self-confi dence.” “People don’t understand the importance of a simple gesture, as far as a wave or smiling. They don’t see the difference that can make in someone’s life,” DeAngelis said, “and I want to create an environment where people are saddened by leaving Columbine. I want them to be happy to be moving on to the next phase in their life, but sad because they’re leaving CHS.”

comments? dsheehan.pub@gmail.com

Digital Bullying Raises Challenges

Danielle Sheehan

Students work to deal with harassment in texting and social networking environments

students hacking into other students’ Facebook posting information that is not true about the per-

“My biggest con-cern is that I don’t think people understand the seriousness of being in-volved with social net-working,” DeAngelis said. “Kids are at times very naive, because they think that no one can see it other than their friends but there

affected by this,” Peer Counselor Kendra La-Fonte said. Cyberbully-ing is a symptom of the larger problem of bullying as a whole. To address this, DeAn-gelis gave a very pas-sionate speech at this year’s Homecoming assembly about treat-ing everyone the way each person would want to be treated. “I think what

CYBERBULLYING Glossary

Flaming: Online fi ghts using electronic mes-sages with angry and vulgar language.

Harassment: Repeatedly sending offensive, rude and insulting messages.

Cyberstalking: Repeatedly sending mes-sage that include threats of harm or are highly intimidating; engaging in other online activities that make a person afraid for his or her safety.

Denigration: “Dissing” someone online. Sending or posting cruel gossip or rumors

about a person to damage his or her reputa-tion or friendships.

Exclusion: Intentionally excluding someone from an online group, like a “buddy list” or

a game.

Trolling: Intentionally posting provocative messages about sensitive subjects to create confl ict, upset people, and bait them into “fl aming” or fi ghting.

Impersonation: Breaking into someone’s account, posing as that person and send-ing messages to make the person look bad, get that person in trouble or danger, or damage that person’s reputation or friendships.

Outing and trickery: Sharing someone’s secrets or embarrassing information online. Tricking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information, which is then shared online.

from Nancy Willard’s An Educator’s Guide to Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats, 2008.

She sits at her computer, afraid of what kind of notifi cation she’ll next see on her Facebook wall. Already feeling heart-broken because she and her boyfriend broke up, she sees he has posted a video on her wall saying, “I wish I never met you.” He repeatedly keeps posting mean things like, “Put it in my mouth.” She decides to call this guy she used to be close to and talk to him about what is happening, and all he does is ignore her, no doubt because he knows it’s her by her caller ID. So she texts him instead and tells him to stop being so immature. She then posts something along the lines of “grow up” on her own wall. Her ex sees this and comments rude messages on it, and all of his friends then comment on it, only making the situation worse. After that he texts her over and over, saying rude and hurtful things. There isn’t anything she can do to stop him.

Mr. Lentini and the counseling staff keep their doors open for students who need help with issues, including cyberbullying. The Counseling Center also houses Peer Counselors, who have been trained to help students with a variety of problems. photo by Sevan Strait

3NOVEMBER 2011

NEWS

“At Columbine, we stress the aspect of family and the idea that we’re all Rebels, no matter what grade you’re in or wheth-er you do football or debate.” This was the central idea behind the speech Senior Sen-ator Kristi Ayre delivered at the CHSAA Fall Leadership Conference on October 21 and 22, in which she suggested ways that student senators can make their schools feel more like family. In eight different round table discussions, Ayre addressed a total of 48 student senators who represented high schools from across Colorado. “My topic [was] called ‘We Are . . . Family,’ and [I talked] to them about how to make their school feel like a family and feel more united, because our school is kind of unique in that way,” Ayre said. “I’ve talked to a lot of other people all over the state and their schools do not resemble [Col-umbine] at all.” Eight student senators from Columbine as well as senators from over 50 Colorado high

schools attended the confer-ence at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins. Ayre was one of several round table presenters at the conference who led discussions and gave advice on how to improve stu-dent senates at individual high schools. “Like all the other round table presenters, I really con-nected with some people and they absolutely loved my ideas, while others thought my ideas would be too diffi cult for their school because [their schools] are so small,” Ayre said. Ayre is one of 15 state senators who represent high schools across the state. They participate in a form of student senate at the state level. According to Harry Water-man, the CHSAA coordinator for student leadership, the job of a state senator is “to attend and fully participate in the CHSAA state conference and the state camp. State reps at-tend training for conference . . . and serve as facilitators and attend workshops. In addition, they must promote state proj-ects in their schools and across

the state.” Through a very selective process, the CHSAA Leader-ship Advisory Committee and Leadership Curriculum Co-ordinators appointed Ayre the sole student representative for Jefferson County. “Applicants must list years of experience, offi ces held in student council, state camps/conferences attended, lead-ership positions, honors and awards, community activities, school activities and leader-ship training,” Waterman said. “In addition, student applicants must respond to two essay questions and secure letters of recommendation for their principals and student council advisers.” Because the state senators live in different areas of the state, they mostly communi-cate and plan events via email. “We don’t meet very often, but we plan for the fall conference, and we do state projects,” Ayre said. This year’s state projects will benefi t the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Special Olympics.

“There is going to be a Make-a-Wish week for the state of Colorado and we’re trying to raise money to grant kids’ wishes,” Ayre said. “We want to try and get every sin-gle high school involved with that, and that’s going to be in April.” The state senators will also be working with the Colo-rado Special Olympics to

implement programs like the R-Word Campaign, which at-tempts to stop the use of the words “retard” and “retarded” in an offensive context, and Project Unify, which pairs a special needs student with an-other student to participate in activities and events sponsored by the project.

comments? aborchers.pub@gmail.com

Senior Acts as Representative for Schools Across State

Abbey Borchers Boettcher Scholarship

The Boettcher Scholarship process has begun, and Columbine has presented an unusually large number of candidates this year. “This is the fi rst year in many years that we’ve had this many students who qualify for Boettcher,” counselor Mr. Stout said. The Boettcher Scholar-ship pays for tuition, fees, and books for eight semes-ters at any four-year college in Colorado. To qualify for the Boettcher, students must be in the top fi ve percent of their class and have a mini-mum ACT score of 27. “This is the fi rst year in I would guess, at least six years if not longer, that ev-ery single student in the top fi ve percent has the cut off ACT score. It’s maybe even closer to ten years since we’ve had that,” Stout said.The candidates submitted their applications on Oc-tober 25. Students will be notifi ed by November 30 of whether they have made it to the second round. Two hundred semifi nalists will be selected from the initial pool of approximately 1300 ap-plicants, and 40 winners will be selected from those 200.

Trick-or-Treat Street

On Saturday, October 29, students and teachers trans-formed the halls of Col-umbine into Trick-or-Treat Street for children in the community. The annual event was put on by academic depart-ments and student organi-zations like National Honor Society, Student Senate, and Key Club. Each depart-ment and club decorated a portion of the school ac-cording to a certain theme. Key Club decorated their hall with the theme of “Tan-

IN BRIEFcompiled by Abbey Borchers

continued on page 4

Senior Kristi Ayre has a quick laugh during a weekly Senate meeting. In addition to being Columbine’s senior class president, Ayre serves Colorado as a state senator. photo by Trevor Ogborn

In March 2011, Columbine was approved to be an International Baccalaureate school. To be-come an IB school the admin-istration must go to countless meetings and training to learn how to bring the rigorous cur-riculum to CHS. Columbine has had to sub-mit two applications, one in 2009 and another in 2010 to ap-ply for the IB program. In Oc-tober 2010, Columbine hosted three visitors from the IB Orga-nization. During the visit the Site Team interviewed teachers, parents, and students regarding their understanding of the IB pro-gram and how Columbine High School would fi t into the IB philosophy. On March 2, 2011, Columbine High School

was offi cially notifi ed that it is authorized as an IB World School. A goal for all high school students is to get their high school diploma, but for 12 stu-dents in the International Bac-calaureate program, the goal is to achieve an IB diploma. Stu-dents who graduate with the IB diploma automatically gradu-ate with 24 credits toward any Colorado school; that means these students will start out as a sophomore in college. The credits are like AP classes however, they take a look at the body of evidence throughout a whole year or two years rather than just one test testing if you know the infor-mation or not, IB Coordinator Mrs. DiManna said. “Think of AP [classes] as kind of the buffet dinner, you

can pick and choose the classes that you really want to take and the ones that you are interested in, [but] the IB diploma pro-gram is more of a fi ve course meal, you have to take classes in all the areas, English, For-eign language, history, science, math, and music/arts, we have theatre and music, or you can take another social studies or science.” The IB program is chal-lenging but in a different way. “It’s more in-depth knowledge that the students have to be pre-pared to do well when the test-ing process arrives for the class because all of the tests are all written, it’s no multiple choice, so its either you know it or you don’t know it,” IB World Histo-ry teacher Mrs. Goldman said. According to the Interna-tional Baccalaureate website, the program is designed as an academically challenging and

balanced programme of educa-tion with fi nal examinations that prepares students for success at university and life beyond. For students and teachers the course has been challeng-ing so far. “I am driven to do well in IB by my hopes for the future, as well as my passion for what I am learning about,” Junior Lizzie Pittman said, “a lot of the times I am driven to succeed purely because I enjoy what I am learning about. When it comes to areas that I am not so interested in, I remind my-self of where I want to be in fi ve years, and push myself to put in the work to meet my goals.” “There is a lot of prep work because I’m using a new book, the book is a harder level of reading, and lesson plans have to be very different than what I have to do in my regular world history kids. [The prep work] needs to be stepped up and the

expectations are higher [which] takes me a lot longer to do so I spend a lot of outside time on the planning,” Mrs. Goldman said. Although the program is new this year, it is doing very well, according to DiManna. Pittman will receive The 2011 Dottie Lamm Award and Aca-demic Scholarship on Novem-ber 3.This award serves as an opportunity for young women to engage in social service work, honor their academic and community service efforts, and create future leaders. “The Dottie Lamm Award is important to me because it inspires me to continue to help others, and work towards helping other women and girls achieve their goals,” Pittman said. “It is important to me to give back to my community,

International Baccalaureate Program Puts Down Roots

Danielle Sheehan

continued on page 4

NOVEMBER 20114

NEWS

There’s no better place for drama than in high school, but instead of rumors circulating about the latest Facebook-offi cial relation-ship, the drama is about what is happening in the school next year–a block schedule. Here is the truth: there will be an eight-period block schedule next year. “The current plan is for each week to have a four-day alternat-ing block and a fi fth day of classes for all 8 periods, called a fl ex day,” English teacher and Leadership Advisory Team member Mr. Friesen said. The fl ex day will be used for some form of student access, and moved during weeks with an assembly, a school holiday, or school tests. On this day where students go to every period for a shorter

amount of time. Although this change may seem sudden, “We’ve been working on this process for two years now,” Friesen said. A common misconception of this sudden change is that it just because of the IB program. Principal DeAngelis acknowledges IB as a factor in the decision, but discounts this as the single motive for the shift. “It’s not just because of the IB program but by offering an 8-pe-riod day, it offers us more fl exibility and gives our students more choices for class selection,” DeAngelis said. Because Columbine offers so many different classes, students next year should be pre-pared to register for more classes because of this new schedule. This schedule will not just affect students. “Next semester teachers will be in extensive staff development on preparing les-

sons geared to a longer block period,” Friesen said. “With the IB program we have to have hours with the students. It will just be a matter of re-adjusting to how we teach the class,” IB Teacher Mrs. Goldman said. “I think [the block schedule] will be good and it will give us some opportunities to do what couldn’t do in a regular 50-minute class.” This new schedule will be a lot to get used to next year. “I don’t like the idea of a block schedule,” Freshman Olivia Ryck-man said. “I don’t have the attention span for it.” “I’m in favor of the block schedule because I want to take two science classes next year, so with the eight period schedule I can do that and still have an off hour,” Junior Jade Lang said.

comments? dsheehan.pub@gmail.com

Block Schedule on the Way for 2012-13Danielle Sheehan Rumors of new schedule are true with work underway for an 8-block plan

As students’ cars line up to leave after school, a blue Honda juts out of the student parking lot into lanes of traf-fi c, nearly missing a large truck already going 40 miles per hour. With an accident like this waiting to happen the school resource offi cers enforce a law to keep stu-dents safe. In order to prevent acci-dents, as of Monday October 3, the school resource of-fi cers are enforcing the law stating that the solid white line requires you to stay within the lane. A small slip

of paper was placed on each car in the student parking lot stating: “Students who cross the solid white line when ex-iting the student parking lot will be cited for disregarding a traffi c control device.” This is a 4 point violation with a fi ne of $110. “Those white lines, they are everywhere and they are to separate two different traf-fi c fl ows, like coming on the highway, and when people just think, ‘Oh, I’m going to cut across [traffi c],’ well they are disrupting that whole fl ow [of traffi c],” School Re-source Offi cer Deputy Wil-liams said. “To me it’s not

worth someone being killed in a car accident for everyone to get to lunch easier. That’s why we are enforcing the law.” Senior Hannah Mosbarg-er, who was pulled over the day the slips were handed out, said, “He let me go with-out a ticket this time, but he said next time this happens I will be ticketed.” Another student, Senior Janie Spresser, was pulled over for the same violation a week later. The cop told her she must educate 10 students about the traffi c law and have them sign it saying they un-derstand the law, thus she

will not be ticketed. “I think that the line should be made longer to show that you shouldn’t cut it off. Because that is what I didn’t know,” Spresser said. “It would have helped to have an announcement go out the same day as the slips went out so that I would of known, because it has never been a problem before.” “It is my job to educate on driving safety, and I have no-ticed a huge improvement [in the way the students are pull-ing out of the parking lot],” Williams said.

comments? dsheehan.pub@gmail.com

Danielle Sheehan

gled,” while Student Senate transformed their hall into the world of “Monsters, Inc.” Senior Blake Naito, president of Key Club, said, “I par-ticularly enjoy handing out candy to all the kids who come to Trick-or-Treat Street because it’s great getting to see all of their costumes while knowing I hopefully helped make their Hallow-een even better.”

Senate Happenings

On Friday, November 11, Senate will host the Veteran’s Day Luncheon to honor any Columbine community member who has served in the military. There is also an open invitation for veter-ans to speak to classes about their experiences in the military if they wish. The Powder Puff football game will take place on Satur-day, November 12 at 8:30 a.m. at Columbine, and admission to the game will be one canned food item. The cans collected at the game will top off the donations collected at both Columbine and Chatfi eld the week leading up to the game, and the school that donates the most canned food will be deemed the winner of the food drive competition between the schools.

NEWS BRIEFS continued

and this award motivates me, and provides me with an oppor-tunity to do so.” ”What students don’t real-ize is that you can take one or two IB courses and achieve an IB certifi cate which still gives you college credit instead of the full IB diploma program, “ DiManna said. Even though the IB diploma program can take much of a students time up they are able to balance their schedule. Pittman said, “I still have time for lots of extracurricular ac-tivities. I am in Key Club and STAAYH club, and I plan on being in the musical coming up. I also dance fi ve days a week, and spend plenty of time do-

ing other activities Although IB can be time consuming, almost everyone in IB participates in extracurricular, so it can clearly be balanced.” The IB program is expected to grow next year, and with reg-istration coming right around the corner, freshman and soph-omores will have a chance to be a part of it too. Eighth, ninth, and tenth grade students interested in this program should come to the parent meeting November 3 to get more information. The meeting will be at 6:30 P.M. in the HOPE Columbine Memo-rial Library at Columbine High School.

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from page 3

photo illustration by Sevan Strait

5NOVEMBER 2011

RRebel

Kizz

le an

d T

izzle

10TopScorpio (October 24 to November 21)

Monthly Prediction: Good day, Scorpio. Congratula-tions on surviving the zombie apocalypse that occurred in downtown Denver on October 22. Unfortunately for you, you failed to realize that the zombie apocalypse was actually just the zombie crawl. As you receive this news, prepare for intense feelings of embarrassment on your part, which will be amplifi ed as you show up to a Halloween party with no costume. Everyone will point and laugh. Fortunately, your sugar rush from binging on Almond Joys will make you the life of the party and you will redeem yourself by impersonating Mr. Tonelli impersonating his son, Timmy.

Where You’ll Be in 10 Years: Halloween night, 2021. You will be sitting in an empty movie theatre watching Saw XXIII. A very tall man will come and sit next to you. As the movie begins, you will see that the man sitting next to you is actually Mr. Thom-as. But as the movie progresses, you will further see that it is not Mr. Thomas, but three midgets in an overcoat. Beware the midgets.

Horoscope

Rebel Yell: The newly-enforced traffi c law. . . Yay safety!

Rebel Hell: Someone should probably tell the parents about the law . . .

Columbine Salutes: Way to take off time hurting yourself to roast Charlie Sheen, Stev-o.

Mysteries of the Universe: There’s almost as many IB signs around the school as there are IB kids.

Cinema Secrets: Hollywood has been out of original ideas for about a decade. Everything is becoming a remake of a remake.

If you were the Broncos coach, what would you do to help them win? K: Hire coach Lowry and company! Duh. T: Tell them to draft Cameron McDondle straight out of high school.

How do you feel about Tim Tebow? K: There is a man named Tim in the Physics dept. at Hopkins, there is a

guy in the Bible named Timothy, Tim the Enchanter in the Holy Grail is a critical character. Do you see my logic? I thought so.

Best movie of the ‘80s?K: “Say Anything” hands down or hands up–holding a boom box!T: I don’t think there was a bad movie made in the 1980’s. Still, my favorite is

“Sixteen Candles.”

Would you rather be able to fl y or be invisible?T: I would pick fl ying because my mother-in-law already treats me like I am

invisible and it really doesn’t feel that great.

Tizzle: How did you and Kizzle become friends?T: I think he took pity on me. That is why I let Andres be my friend.

Kizzle: How did you and Tizzle become friends?K: You’ve heard of blind dates? Both of us were friendless and some people

fi xed us up--Blind Friends “date.” Yeah, I tried to run him over once, and yeah I can read his mind, but it’s just magic.

Who do you expect to be MVP of the Powder Puff football game?K: Um, the twin towers–Nina & Hoffman.T: Every girl in the senior class of OH-12. My prediction for the game is that

we win 1,345 to nothing. Doces!!!

10. Secret Life of the Columbine Teenagers - “The prequel to 19 kids and counting!”

9. Columbine Ninja Warrior

8. SRO: Columbine - “Don’t cross the white line or else!”

7. Two and a half teachers - “Tonelli can be the half”

6. How I Met Your Teacher - “Let’s hope the teachers don’t say ‘How I Met Your Mother’”

5. That 21st-Century Show - “We need a modern day Fes!”

4. The Johnson Shore - “Mr. DeAngelis is our own ‘Situation’”

3. The 80123 - “Except we’re 16, not 23.”

2. Survivor: AP - “Mr. Webb, this is where you belong.”

And the number one TV show inspired by Columbine...1. Real World: Littleton - “We can all live at Andy Cole’s house!”

TV shows inspired by Columbine

adical

OPINION NOVEMBER 20116

COURIER STAFF

Editor-in-Chief:Abbey Borchers

Design Editor:Heidi Roberts

News Editor:Danielle Sheehan

Culture Editor:Celeste Renn

Sports Editor:Jordyn Voegele

Website Editor:Trevor Ogborn

Photo Editor:Sevan Strait

Staff Reporters:Grace Reader

Ian Scena

Guest Astrologist:Emily Partida

Adviser:Mr. Friesen

POLICY

The Courier is theoffi cial student newspa-per of Columbine High

School. Expression made by students in The Courier

is not an expression of Jefferson County Public School’s Board Policy, and the school district and its employees are

immune from any civil or criminal action based on any expression made or published by students.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

The Courier Letter Guide-lines: Please limit your

submission to 200 words. Letters may be edited for space and inaccuracies, and The Courier reserves

the right not to publish any letter. Please submit to the Publications Room, Mr. Eric Friesen’s mailbox

in the main offi ce, or e-mail to columbinehs.

web@gmail.com

EDITORIAL BOARD

Letters to the Editor

HEARD IN THE HALLS“You smell like an Asian gift shop.”

“How’s your cat doing?” “Funny dude, how’s your mom doing?”

“I’m gonna break your nose!” “That takes nine pounds of pressure.”

“This guy threatened me that if I broke his pencil he would kiss me, so I broke it.”

“Uh ya, hahahahahahahahahaha.”

“He was busting through his shirt, and he smelled like candy.”

Celeste Renn

Danielle Sheehan

Jordyn Voegele

Abbey Borchers

Warning: You need to make it to the end of this article before you are allowed to get offended. If you can’t do that, stop here. In the last issue of “The Courier,” there was a story written about cheer-leading and whether it was considered a sport or not. Although our intentions were not to offend anyone, the story received a very negative response, ironically from the group of people we were defending. Most students read the front page and only the main headline saying “NOT AN ATHLETE” and decided that was all they needed to know to complain about the story. Most of the students who were up-set or offended by the article never actu-ally read the it. In fact, Senior Samantha Chase, a cheerleader, was quoted saying, “Stunting is terrifying,” and then went on to add that putting faith into the hands of three other girls to catch her is what makes stunt-ing terrifying. Senior cheerleader Ashton Everly was quoted saying, “We work just as hard if not harder than any other sports team.” Many cheerleaders shared quotes on this story, yet none took the time or en-ergy to read the article. The cheerleaders had their chance to talk to the staff and the answers that were provided to us were used in the way the interviewees intended them to be. Not

once did we say that cheer does not take athletic ability, and the article had an un-derlying tone of support for the cheerlead-ers’ desire to be recognized as a sport. The front page of the issue was simply explaining that because CHSAA does not classify cheer as a sport, then to CHSAA they are also not athletes. To illustrate the injustice of this, the front page employed a mode of rhetoric known as sarcasm. The lines reading, “Teamwork? Strength? Endurance? Sweat? A uniform with your school’s name on it? Sure, but you’re not

an athlete,” were a sarcastic commentary on how even though cheerleading posses all the traits of a sport, it is not considered one by CHSAA. Though sarcasm requires certain level of risibility and intellect to understand, we assumed that most stu-dents would get it. Clearly, that was our mistake, and we will try to limit our use of advanced rheto-ric in the future. But even if those who were offended

didn’t catch on to the use of sarcasm in the text on the front page, the picture should have been enough to clue them in. The photo showed the cheerleaders in a pyramid formation, and it was selected for the front page because it displayed the strength, athleticism, and skill it takes to be a cheerleader. If we had been trying to make a point of diminishing cheerleaders and their athletic ability, this is certainly not the photo we would have chosen. It is pointless for “The Courier” staff to report on issues such as these if only the headline will be read and not the ac-tual article. To complain about something that was not actually read is very unfair to our writers. The story was well-researched and fair to all parties, and to know people only read the headline (that was not even written by the same writer who wrote the story) is a little upsetting and insulting. The people who did not read the ar-ticle are not informed and cannot possibly have an acceptable opinion on the topic. We have space in our paper to print let-ters that come to us regarding issues in the school, particularly ones we cover. If any-one read the article and was actually of-fended by its contents, write us instead of complaining about it and sending glares our way in the hallway. If anyone has an informed opinion, we would love to hear it.

We assumed that most students would get it. Clearly, that was our

mistake.

For Best Results, Read Entire Article

The fi rst snow of the season fell last Wednesday, followed by the fi rst accident of the year in the student parking lot. But the accident wasn’t caused by stu-dents, it was caused by parents. A common stereotype of teenagers is that we are poor drivers. We are described as reckless, inconsiderate and dis-tracted, and to some extent this might be true. There are plenty of statistics that would agree with these descriptions, and they are constantly thrown in teenagers’ faces. But what about the adults? Once adults age out of that 16-20 age group, they don’t magi-cally become perfect drivers. And as we saw just a few days ago, they cause accidents too. So why do they feel entitled to criticize our driving abilities as if we are the only ones who cause traffi c problems?

The newly-enforced traffi c law that is getting student af-ter student pulled over as they leave the student parking lot is meant to “educate students on driving safety,” according to School Resource Offi cer Dep-uty Williams. While that’s an admirable goal, what about the adults who drive in and out of our school’s parking lots? Parents and teachers alike can be observed pulling out of both the upper and lower lots and crossing the solid white line into lanes of traffi c. Did they get notes on their windshields telling them about the law? Do they get pulled over and told to educate ten people about the law? Do they get a $110 fi ne and a four point ticket? No. If our parents and teachers want to criticize the way we drive, they should really con-sider setting the example fi rst.

Teen Drivers Have Bad Examples

We’re still waiting.

7NOVEMBER 2011 OPINION

Great Fan Base? Check. Lots of money? Check. Get to play the sport you love? Check. The players of the National Basketball Association (NBA) have all this, and yet they re-fuse to give the owners and people that help direct the as-sociation more money to help hold it together. For those who don’t know the issue that’s causing the NBA lockout, it’s that the peo-ple that run the NBA (the own-ers) want a larger percentage of the money made. Currently, the players get 57% of the profi t while the owners make 43%. The owners think this isn’t fair. They want to make it 50-50. The players, however, think that they deserve more money, and therefore are fi ght-ing the owners with everything they have, imitating the recent NFL lockout. This is unacceptable. While at fi rst it may seem as if this is unfair to the players and that they are the product and there-fore should be making the most money, maybe this should not

be the case. They are already making millions of dollars, for doing something they love no less, so it shouldn’t really mat-ter to them that they are losing one or two million dollars (a small percentage of their sala-ries) to make sure the NBA doesn’t crumble and fall apart like the original basketball league (the American Basket-ball Association). This shows that the play-

ers are greedy. Just because they can’t “go out” and “make it rain” like they normally would, they can still buy huge million dollar homes, get the best of everything, and then still have money left over to buy more stuff they don’t need. They don’t need that extra few million dollars each. It could go to the better cause of help-ing save the association that they play for, or even expand it, because if the association

doesn’t survive, neither do the NBA players’ jobs. And then they won’t have any money. And all money aside, the players should think more about the fans, as without them, they would not have any money. After this idiotic lock-out that they are having, the fans will most likely be angry and will not wish to help sup-port the players who so know-ingly and blatantly disregarded them for the chance to earn a little extra dough. Furthermore, with the NFL going on right now, no one is going to care about basketball, so the lockout will have been for nothing. Even when the NFL season ends, basketball still won’t be in the picture as much as the other sports, as people don’t care as much about basketball as they used to. The sports in the spotlight are baseball football, and es-pecially this year the Summer Olympic Games. Nobody is going to care that the NBA isn’t on. They may miss the money, but we won’t miss them.

If there is one thing I’ve learned during my high school career, it’s that being between the ages of 13 and 18 means you are automatically a criminal in some way, shape, or form. A few weeks ago, I went with my friend and his family to a really nice restaurant downtown. It was the most high-end place I had ever been to for dinner, and I was psyched to be going: I dressed up in my nicest party dress, did my hair, my makeup, and even thought about wearing heels. It was a Thurs-day night, when I am typically in lazy school mode, but I knew that this night would be one to dress as respectfully and nicely as I could. The friend I went with was also dressed nicely, as was the rest of his family. And from the minute I stepped into the dim lights of the gorgeous restaurant, I knew my fashion choices were fi tting. Which made it all the more confusing as to why I was treat-ed like I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was dressed the part, and I acted like my mom always taught me. For once in my life, all my fancy manners I never thought I’d use came into play. But the waiters’ blatant unkind-ness toward my table didn’t match everything I’d worked hard

to convey. It didn’t matter that I was doing all the right things; I didn’t match the age of typical customers, so I wasn’t treated like one. It seems like young people are only allowed to visit the stores, restaurants, and other recreational places designed to cater just to their age group. Adults enforce this unspoken rule all the time, whether it’s by a suspicious stare or a bad atti-tude.

I have an irrational addiction to expensive makeup, and I often go to high-end makeup stores to get my fi x every now and then. I save up from my paycheck in order to have enough money to pay for what I want to purchase, and I have never been short. However, some sales associates eye me as though they expect me to steal all of their merchandise in one fell swoop. I recall one time I was walking through a makeup store, looking for nothing in particular, with a wallet well-equipped for the day. I was so excited to be in my makeup heaven; how-

ever, that dream was quickly crushed after I was not-so-sub-tly followed around the entire store by someone who clearly thought I was up to no good. It was harshly uncomfortable, and to this day, I am still weary about shopping there. At the place where I work, I was taught from day one that customer service is number one priority, and that it is essential to treat every customer with the same respect. I have seen cus-tomers the ages of 5 to 85 come into the store, and every single one gets treated in the same polite manner by my boss. Age does not give any indication as to whether a customer will be respectful of the things inside the store. I understand why businesses may worry about teenagers coming into their establishments, particularly high-end ones, but it is unacceptable to show such disdain so blatantly. At the very basic level, it is annoying to be judged. But at a different level, it is very insulting that many businesses do not think it is essential to hide their disapproval. If an employee or business manager or any sort of person working at a store is uncomfortable with my being there, they should at least have the courtesy to not show it outright. But sometimes it’s worth it, just to see the look on the dis-respectful doubters’ faces; just to break the stereotype they en-forced so strongly, and actually be a decent member of society, like the great majority of teenagers are.

Kindness Has an Age Limit

Heidi Roberts

“Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican,” Ronald Reagan once said. This should serve to remind Republicans that the battle is not with each other, but with THE other. As elections are coming just around the corner, debates for the Republican nominee are getting heated. These de-bates are not looking good for the Republicans. They have been centered around two people: Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. During the Las Vegas de-bate on October 18, Perry and Romney went after each other. Perry accused Romney of being wishy-washy on the stances that Romney takes on issues. In return, Romney re-leased a web video saying that Perry lied about the fact that Texas has the most jobs and that under his terms as gover-nor, unemployment has gone up. Romney and Perry have been attacking each other, knowing they are the front-runners in the race to secure

the Republican nomination, but should they be doing this? Pointing out specifi c negative points about each candidate will ultimately hurt the Re-publican party. Independents or displeased Democrats may end up voting for a different Democratic nominee. Debates are meant to show the candidates’ stances and

opinions on issues. The candi-date’s job is to persuade voters to vote for him or her, not do dissuade a voter for voting for the other candidate. Now is the time for the Re-publicans to get their priorities straight. The most important job for the Republican party is to unite in order to get control of offi ce, not banter back and forth. If this type of petty fi ghting

continues and both candidates keep generating needless, divi-sive nit-picking like fi ve-year-olds, then the nation will be doomed to another four years of radical, far-left agenda and ideology. The irony of this all is the stances that Romney and Per-ry take on issues are very sim-ilar to each other. Romney is pro-life, as is Perry, who only supports abortion for mater-nal health or in cases of rape. Another issue is gay marriage; both candidates do not support marriage of the same sex. The same conclusion seems to be drawn every time. Perry and Romney are fi nding ways to argue with each other on issues they agree on. There is no productivity in this, and when both fi nally realize this, that is when the Republicans will have their chance on ousting Obama, which should be their main goal. This is where Reagan’s quote come into play: “Thou shall not speak ill of any fel-low Republican.”

Celeste Renn Ian Scena

Republican Civil War

Greed Gets Best of NBA Players

STAFF COMMENTARY

I didn’t match the age of a typical customer, so I wasn’t treated like one.

STAFF COMMENTARYSTAFF COMMENTARY

Now is the time for Republicans to get their priorities

straight.

The players are greedy.

SPORTSNOVEMBER 20118

As Sophomore Breezy Coyne walked out on the gymnastics mat and began to prepare for her fl oor routine, everything seemed perfectly normal. She had already performed this routine multiple times during the gymnastics season, so it was nothing new. Her music began to play, and she began to perform her choreography. But then, halfway through her performance, just as she was landing a round-off back handspring full, Coyne’s feet slipped and she went tumbling into the closed bleachers head fi rst. Her head hit with a heart-stopping thud, bringing the entire crowd and three other teams to complete silence. Coyne stumbled back up, fi n-ished the routine, and scored an impressive 7.8 and 8.1 She walked off the mat in tears. “I don’t remember exactly how I felt or remember fi nish-ing the routine,” Coyne said. The trainer and athletic direc-tor immediately rushed to her side as Coyne hunched over at the side of the fl oor. Her team-mates and family looked on, worry painted on their faces. “After she hit she got back on the fl oor and fi nished her

routine, but when she was done you could tell something was a little off and that she was in pain,” Senior captain Lau-ren Morell said. Almost immediately, ath-letic trainer Matt Hertz diag-nosed Coyne with a concus-sion. When the brain goes through the spinal fl uid that acts as a cushion between the brain and the skull and hits the skull, this is a concussion. “To check out and see if they actually have a concussion I usually check to see if their pupils are dilated, if they are nauseous, if they are dizzy, if they can walk in a straight line, and things like that,” Marrian Boyle, the school nurse, said. After her injury Coyne was told she had to take a two-week break from gymnastics. The memory of her actual in-jury remains a blur for Coyne. “I can’t remember too well, but I do know that I had a headache. I can’t really re-member the routine, and I felt kind of dizzy,” Coyne said. Coyne is not the only Col-umbine athlete that received a concussion this year. Colum-bine has already had 20 docu-mented concussions this year that have had to be cleared by physicians, and every year

in the United States, there are 300,000 concussions. The highest percentage of concussions for Columbine athletes comes from the foot-ball team, but when hockey season rolls around they have the highest amount of concus-sions during their season, and sometimes repeated by the same student. In fact, according to concussion experts high school athletes are three times more likely to experience a second concussion if already concussed once in a season. “If an athlete gets two per season or three per year, they are usually removed from par-ticipation and undergo further medical care to manage their concussion,” Hertz said. The main reason for these athletes having to stop if they get two or more concussions is because they could become a victim of Second Impact Syn-drome. This is when an athlete has already received a concus-sion and gets a second one soon after. This can lead to very seri-ous brain injury, sometimes re-sulting in death. “Many times when an athlete suffers a Second Impact, we are unaware that they suffered a fi rst concussion in the fi rst place,” Hertz said. “The athlete doesn't report that they are hurt or hav-ing any symptoms because they don't want to be removed from the game or event they are in and they are not aware of the danger and severity of their in-jury.” It can be very dangerous if the athlete doesn’t report that he or she has a concussion, as this person has a higher risk of get-ting another, and another, and eventually becoming a serious threat to the athlete in question. “If you get a concussion and you then get a second one, it is very dangerous,” Boyle said. “If you get a second one close to when you have had another, we have to make drastic changes and take you out of your sport.” When athletes who have suf-fered concussions are taking the time off, they are often forbid-den from doing activities that require their brain to use any

serious strength.“It’s just like if you had a broken arm,” Boyle said. “You have to keep it immobile and not use it. This means you can’t watch movies that you haven’t seen before as they will require you to use your brain more, or text, or play the Wii or PlayStation or anything like that because you have to use your brain to say what you’re doing, how you’re going to get there, and what you are going to do.” If the recovery guidelines given are not followed, this gives the athlete a higher chance of re-ceiving brain damage or getting Second Impact Syndrome. It can take the brain twice as long to recover. “And you obviously don’t want for [the concussion] to take longer. That just eats up your life,” Boyle said. Concussions not only eat up time, they can ruin lives too.

Boyle cited a case from last year when a girl from Dakota Ridge was hit by a car. She was hit so hard that she received a perma-nent concussion that will never heal. “She is no longer able to attend normal [education] class-es, because the brain damage is so bad,” Boyle said. “She is go-ing to have these brain issues for the rest of her life.” While an injury of this sever-ity is not common with students at Columbine, concussions are still an issue. “I’ve had 13 con-cussions already and because of it I wasn’t able to play football this year,” Sophomore Tyler Mohr said. Since Mohr has had so many concussions, for every concus-sion he gets, the risk of getting another multiplies by three. The more concussions, the higher the chance that they will have permanent brain damage. “It was disappointing when

I didn’t get to play, but I knew it was coming so it wasn’t too hard. But I miss [playing] a lot,” Mohr said. Another downside to having a concussion is that the person in question is supposed to be wo-ken up every few hours and not sleep the whole night through, as it can cause more damage. “It was really hard to wake up. The fi rst day my dad couldn’t wake me up, so he carried me out of bed,” Coyne said. When playing a sport or even just hanging out, a light blow to the head can cause serious dam-age. Accidents happen, but pre-cautions need to be taken to be able to diagnose concussions. “[I’m not scared] because it was

just a freak accident. I don’t think it

will happen again, and it could have

happened to anybody,” Coyne said.

comments? iscena.pub@gmail.com or jvoegele.pub@gmail.com

Concussions a Constant ThreatHead injuries force athletes to take extra

precautions while playing their sport

Ian Scena and Jordyn Voegele

Sophomore Breezy Coyne performs a fl ip in the Columbine gym. Coyne received a concussion after slipping when landing a fl ip. photo by Sevan Strait

Yo Columbine, where you going for lunch?

Taste of Philly is now open at 8966 W. Bowles, across from the mall,and have we got a deal for you.

Come see us today!

We DeliverNow Open

303-979-6942“Home of the Real Philly Cheesesteak”

$5 LUNCH COMBO

6” CheesesteakSide of fries &Drink for $5

9NOVEMBER 2011

SPORTS

FootballThe Rebels captured the Big 6 Conference title last Friday, defeating the Mullen Mustangs 24-21 by blocking a last-minute fi eld goal. The varsity squad is averaging just under 40 points per game , with a 9-0 record (5-0 in league) and is ranked #2 in the state.

VolleyballThe girls fi nished with an overall record of 12-7 in league which allowed them to fi nish 5th in league. On Saturday October 29 they played in districts at East High School. If they placed fi rst or second they will continue on to Regionals Saturday November 5.

Cross CountryGirls fi nished 2nd in league and in regionals. Boys fi nished 5th in both league and regionals. They ran in the state meet Saturday October 29th.

GymnasticsCompeted in Regionals on Wednesday October 26. The girls received a 160.4 which was their highest team score and came in 7th. During their league meet, senior Lexi Cox fi nished 5th in league for the Floor exercise and came in 2nd all around and she will continue on to the State Meet.

GolfBoth Billy Ramsey and Greg Shelton went on to state. Ramsey shot an 83 and Shelton shot an 81.

Boys SoccerFinished with an overall record and 11-5-0. The boys fi nished 5th in league. Unfortunately, they lost their fi rst round playoff game on Tuesday October 25 against Fort Collins 2-1.

Boys TennisThe boys won both their league and their regionals. They then continued on coming in 11th place overall in state. Number 2 singles junior Kellan Iverson made it to the second round in the state tournament, as did Number 3 doubles juniors Kyle and Dane LaFonte. Number 2 doubles, sophomores, Galen Graham and Andy Wright made it all the way to the quarterfi nals.

SoftballFinished overall 10-12. Unfortunately the girls lost in the fi rst round of playoffs against Fountain Ft. Carson 6-5 in 10 innings.

IN BRIEF compiled by Jordyn Voegele

For nearly all high school athletes, having their fi nal season coming to an end is a sad affair. But for a group of select students, the end of the sea-son brings excitement for what is soon to come. After spending four years going to practice ev-ery single day and spending extra time in club sports programs, talented student athletes are going on to play sports on the college level. According to the Sports Scholarship Hand-book, only 1 in 25 students go on to play in the NCAA and only 1 in 50 receive a scholarship. Despite these odds, Columbine has many tal-ented senior athletes that have been recruited by major universities. Senior Danielle Kaufman, for instance, plans on playing volleyball at the Air Force Academy

next year. “I think ever since I was pretty young I was set on [playing in college]. That was my goal just because I kind of found a love and an outlet that is a big part of my life now and I can’t imagine giving it up,” Kaufman said. The recruiting process starts when the stu-dent enters high school. As freshmen and sopho-mores, students must develop their athletic skills as well as stay on task with their classes to be able to meet NCAA rules. “You have to be able to perform on their lev-el as well as perform in the classroom,” Senior Josh Croy said. Croy plans on playing football and participating in track and fi eld at either the Air Force Academy or the University of Ala-bama. To be able to be recruited by a Division 1 school the student must have taken sixteen core classes in high school and meet a minimum GPA of 2.0. “[The Air Force Academy] is big on time management and not only that but being well-rounded in general so that you can meet the cri-teria to get in there,” Kaufman said. Junior year is the time where most recruiters start looking at athletes. With the exception of football, NCAA coaches can make contact with the student in March of their junior year. Foot-ball recruiters have to wait until May. However, athletes must do more than excel on their school teams to be noticed by a college recruiter. “Most of it was through club and I had been reaching them and they had been talking to me,” Kaufman said. “Through my club, my coaches and I had invited them to come watch me at tour-naments and stuff and slowly as I got into the process I started going down there and watch-ing their practices and becoming more involved in their team and vice versa and it kind of just worked out that we both wanted each other.”

College is a different level of play. It is a more vigorous, where in some cases practice time doubles and there is more competition for cer-tain spots making it even more necessary to practice on your own. Columbine students has a large base of graduated students that have or are experiencing this on the next level. “The speed of the game changes–it’s way faster. Also, you’re playing against grown men and everybody is a lot stronger,” Tony Camp-ton, class of 2011, said. Campton is now playing noseguard for the CSU Pueblo football team. Class of 2011 graduate Branden Harbough is playing lacrosse at Hendrix College. “Everyone is dedicated to the sport in college and its much more competitive. It truly becomes a lifestyle,” Harbough said. For the athletes who are good enough to play on that level, the new competition is good for them.

“One thing that has always bothered me is when my teammates don’t take soccer seriously because it is what I love and I am so competitive, and in college that won’t be a problem since you have to want to be there. So I am excited for that,” Senior Abbey Roelfson said. Roelfson has been offered a soccer scholarship by the Univer-sity of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. “My schol-arship is 95%. It breaks up to about 75% athletic and 20% academic,” she said. Student athletes must make sure they have fulfi lled all class requirements and kept their athletic abilities up to the college level. Accord-ing to Fastweb.com, a scholarship website, about one billion dollars worth of athletic scholarships are awarded each year to about 126,000 students out of the over three million that will graduate. “I am hoping for a full ride–who isn’t?” Croy said. The average athletic scholarship, however, is nowhere close to a full ride. The average NCAA scholarship is around $8,707 a year when, ac-cording to the College Board on average college costs over $20,000 a year. But athletes are often awarded based on their skills in the classroom as well as on the fi eld. College is a step up from high school. With the new level comes new experiences. “[I’m] most nervous for the bigger stadium and fan base,” Senior Justin Brown said. Brown has several schools on his list that he is hoping to play football at, including the Air Force Acad-emy, CU, CSU, Columbia, and Drake. Kaufman expressed fears about playing in college as well. “I’m nervous because the com-petition will be better than here, and I think I’m just hesitant of the unknown just like anybody else. You just don’t know what to expect, so you just have to dive in and hope that all goes well,” she said.

comments? jvoegele.pub@gmail.com

Taking Your Game to the Next LevelVarsity athletes take their talents to college, prepare for new challenges

Jordyn Voegele

Abbey Roelfson goes to kick a ball during a high school game last season. Roelfson plans on playing soccer at the University of Sioux Falls next year. photo courtesy of Abbey Roelfson

Senior Danielle Kaufman goes to hit a serve during a league game. Kaufman plans on continuing playing volleyball at the Air Force Academy next year. photo by Sevan Strait

CULTURENOVEMBER 201110

For Stieg Gilbert, sophomore, being involved with Columbine’s speech program boils down to one thing: “I love debating.” When wandering past LA-11 dur-ing fourth period, you will probably hear nine very opinionated students discussing subjects such as the late BP oil spill, WikiLeaks, and other current events. This little-known activity at Columbine is none other than forensics. So what exactly is speech and debate? It’s essentially forensics. Ac-cording to Columbine’s speech and debate website, “The skills associ-ated with public speaking and debate are the most important skills for a citizen of a democracy to acquire. In the United States, we make deci-sions about ethics, beauty, morality, and good through public debate on television, radio, the Internet, and in print media. Debate, both written and spoken, is the basic tool of our legal and educational systems.” In total, nine students participate

in speech and debate. Four of these students are varsity debaters and fi ve are junior varsity debaters. “Varsity means they are experienced, and novices (are) J.V.,” Gilbert said. “Our head coach is Mrs. Stevens, who is replacing Mrs. Calderone who is on maternity leave,” Gilbert said. History teacher Mr. Welsh is also a coach for the team. The team has had several success-es so far this year. At the Jeffco Nov-ice Speech and Debate Tournament on October 21, Conrad Robinson, senior, was given a Superior ribbon for going 2-1 in Lincoln Douglas De-bate and Sophomore Christine John-son earned an Excellent ribbon with a cumulative score of 8 for her three debates. According to the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA), speech and debate is an offi cially sanctioned activity. Partici-pants can letter for competing at the varsity level. There are many types of forensics, such as extemporaneous speaking, original oratory, dramatic interpre-

tation, and humorous interpretation, among others. Gilbert competes in Lincoln-Douglas debates. This kind of debate is described in the CHSAA speech handbook as “a more philosophi-cal than policy debate and has less emphasis on evidence than policy debate. The negative position can be anything that is not the affi rmative. The negative is not required to sup-port the opposite of the resolution.” CHSAA also offers a schedule for how much time both the affi rmative and negative have to debate, ranging from 3 to 7 minutes at a time, adding up to 16 minutes for each debater. The majority of the workload in the speech and debate course aims to prepare students for success in week-end competitions. “You craft about one to two essays every two months, so it doesn’t really take that much time,” Gilbert said. “I don’t think anything is taken out of my day or taken out of my school work. It’s re-ally manageable.” In fact, the most time-consuming portion of speech and debate is the tournaments. “We arrive there any-

where between eight and 11 in the morning, and we will stay until six [at night],” Gilbert said. At a tournament participants are put into classrooms with anywhere from 3 to 8 students in a room. De-pending on the debate type, they pick or get assigned a side and are given a few moments to collect their ideas. “You get a side that you’re assigned before debate, or according to your debate type, you choose your side before,” Gilbert said. The class is not planned; it is de-pendent upon what the students need in order to prepare for their debates. “In class you’re going through all of the things that have to do with these tournaments,” Gilbert said. “It’s pret-ty free-fl owing.” The subjects are assigned to the students through the National Foren-sics League, a website which posts a subject that can be debated by everyone for about two months at a time. However, many of these topics will not be very controversial. Top-ics such as abortion or immigration laws will usually not be posted on the website.

“Usually the topics will have something to do with current issues,” Gilbert said. Unless in extemporary news de-bate, students are allowed to relent-lessly research their topic for about a month. “In every other type of debate ex-cept extemporary, you are pre-writing cases and you are researching those topics you are assigned, then you just get up there and read your essay and debate,” Gilbert said. According to Columbine’s speech and debate website, by studying phi-losophy, current events, and policy, students in the Columbine debate program will be able to understand and live in a world in which the play-ers are increasingly from other cul-ture. For students in speech and debate they tend to fi nd that the skills acquire are worthwhile. “You learn a lot of background information, it gives you a lot of public speaking skills, [and] you learn how to logically reason,” Gilbert said.

comments? greader.pub@gmail.com

An Inside Look into Speech and Debate

Grace Reader

This year’s fall play will be like none other before it, in that it will be perhaps one of the most techno-logically advanced plays Colum-bine has ever put on. The upcoming production of Peter Pan will include professional fl ying, something Columbine’s theater department has never done before. The play has contracted the help of Flying by Foy, a company which does theatrical fl ying effects for musicals, plays, movies, and concerts. Flying by Foy has helped actors soar in several famous productions, most notably in three Broadway productions of “Peter Pan.” “We’re using the same people as Broadway!” Director Mrs. Schwartz said excitedly. Sophomore Ben Beuscher, who plays the lead role of Peter Pan, is looking forward to fl ying. “I’m just excited to be above the ground!” he

said. “And to wear tights!” The play will also have special-ized lighting for Tinker Bell, as well as specialized sound effects for certain characters. Between this and the fi ve different sets, the tech crew will have their work cut out for them. The show will be held Novem-ber 3 and 4 at 7:00 p.m., and on

November 5 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets will be six dollars if

purchased at school, online, or

by calling 303-982-4455. Tickets

will be seven dollars at the door

and fi ve dollars for students and

seniors.

comments? aborchers.pub@gmail.com

NEW

REL

EASE

S 1

1/1

- 11/

8

In Theatres

Five Star Day

The Other F Word

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas

Tower Heist

Another Happy Day

The Son of No One

Young Goethe In Love

On DVD

Cars 2

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Trespass

Water for Elephants

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2

The Change-Up

On CD

“Long Live the King” - The Decembrists

“Four the Record” - Miranda Lambert

“Under the Mistletoe” - Justin Bieber

“God Forgives, I Don’t” - Rick Ross

OUTWEEKTHISPeter Pan Flies Into Auditorium

. . . and has the blessing of Broadway on its side Abbey Borchers

Behind the scenes of battle for this proud team

Sophomore Ben Beuscher soars above the set of the children’s room during a rehearsal for the upcoming production of “Peter Pan.” The show runs this week, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. photo by Sevan Strait

To appreciate all that the Taste of Denmark, a small bakery in Lakewood, has to offer, you must fi rst have been to a Star-bucks. Starbucks has tried since its conception to be every neigh-borhood’s neighborhood coffee shop. Each individual Star-bucks tries to be a one-of-a-kind place, but their hands are tightly bound by corporate control that dictates everything from what they serve to the light fi xtures they use. This is not the case for The Taste of Denmark; they are a privately owned business with only one store, so they have unlimited freedom to be whatever kind of establishment they want to be. This allows them to be the truly one-of-a-kind place that no Starbucks can ever be. The Taste of Denmark is purely a bakery; it has not at-tempted to cash-in on the fancy coffee craze. There are no java chip frappuccinos or peppermint white chocolate mochas to be found on the menu–if you want coffee, the craziest you can get is adding cream and sugar. They focus on what they do best–baking. The sample of the menu I received included an enormous cream puff, an elephant ear, and a chocolate croissant, and all of it was incredible. The cream puff, easily six inches in diameter, contained custard and raspberry fi lling and was topped with choco-late. The cinnamon-sugar-covered elephant ear melted in my

mouth, and the chocolate croissant put all other breakfast foods to shame. The homey feel of the Taste of Denmark contrasts sharply with the assembly-line manufactured atmosphere of Star-bucks. The bakery, housed in what could pass for a temporary

building, is surrounded by a dirt parking lot and a patch of grass on which someone had parked their tractors and riding lawn mowers. Inside, the atmosphere is warm and cozy (which may have been a result of the large amounts of people confi ned in the very small quarters). There clearly aren’t corporate guidelines dictating how the interior should look, as an empty Pampers box sat on the ra-diator and sodas were spilling out of cases sitting next to the coffee cart, which held a single pot of coffee and a stack of Styrofoam cups. None of this bothered me, though, because it means that the people behind the counter are more concerned with making great pastries and connecting with their customers than orga-nizing and decorating everything. While my dining companion and I ate, people continuously came in and out–there was never a lull in the fl ow of custom-ers. It seemed like everyone knew someone else that walked in, and it occurred to me that this was something of a meeting place in the community. The Taste of Denmark is a place where old friends meet for breakfast, families straight from a soccer game greet each other, and regulars come and go. Even though Lakewood is by no means a small town, in this little pocket of the city, it is. If you want to experience this sort of atmosphere, I highly recommend visiting The Taste of Denmark.

comments? aborchers.pub@gmail.com

Taste of Denmark1901 S. Kipling St.Lakewood, CO 80227

11NOVEMBER 2011 CULTURE

The Grizzly Rose, a country music club just off of I-25, has become a popular locale for Columbine upperclassmen. The club, opened in 1989, is self-acclaimed on its website as “One of the best honky-tonks in the world.” The Rose, as people call it, is a bar that has live country music six days a week, and it is draw-ing people in from our high school. The club is open all days except Monday. It runs ev-ery week with line dancing on Tuesday, dance lessons on Wednesday, an 18 and up la-dies’ night on Thursday, 18 and up concerts on Friday, 21 and up classic country concerts on Saturday, and an all age party on Sunday. The Rose is also very bud-get friendly, with cover charg-es at around $5. For many students, the budget-friendly pricing, music and atmosphere are a huge draw. “It’s cheap and buckets of fun!” Emily Partida, senior,

said. “I love the Grizzly Rose,” Partida said. “It gives me something to do besides just sitting at home and watching television on a Sunday night.” The social aspect is also something that students enjoy about the club. It’s a place to meet and interact with new

people. “I go almost every week of the summer and a few weeks during the school year, I like meeting new people and it’s a lot of fun,” Senior A.J. Armstrong said. Other students, rather than interact, choose to people watch instead. “The best part about the Grizzly Rose is defi -nitely the people. It’s interest-ing to see who dances and how. Also, what people wear is really ridiculous sometimes,”

Partida said. Not everyone is a fan, how-ever. Senior Tyler Kukuchka, was not completely satisfi ed with the club. “I think that the Grizzly Rose is somewhat a fun place to go to dance. The only prob-lem that I have with it is that it comes off as a dirty hole-in-the-wall bar rather than a simple place to dance. I’ve only been to the younger than 18 nights, but from what I saw I was not impressed,” said Ku-kuchka. And you defi nitely have to have an enjoyment for the cul-ture that goes with The Rose. “I don’t like country music, so it’s not really the kind of place that I like to hang out,” Senior Lexi Cox said. Nevertheless, The Grizzly Rose attracts regulars like Se-nior Austin Parr, who usually goes to The Rose every week during the school year. His big reason for going frequently? “To hang out and meet new people,” Parr said.

comments? togborn.pub@gmail.com

Best Honky-Tonk in TownGrizzly Rose attracts a large number of patrons from Columbine Trevor Ogborn

Taste of Denmark Delivers as a Hole-in-the-Wall Winner Abbey Borchers

iTunes-Can get most songs you would like to hear

(those that Apple has a contract with)-Most songs cost $0.99 or $1.29 -You can download music to an iPod and take

it with you wherever you go-An application that downloads on your PC-Not available on non-Apple phones-No ads-Movies are downloadable-Includes a feature called “Sound Check”

which automatically adjusts the playback volume of the music to the same level

-225,000,000 iTunes accounts with credit cards attached to the account

-15 billion songs have been sold through iTunes

-18million songs are in Apple’s iTunes library

Grooveshark-Most songs are available to hear-No cost to stream online-Not able to download music to an iPod-To remove advertisement is 6 bucks a month,

this feature is called Grooveshark Plus-9 bucks a month for going mobile this feature

is called Grooveshark Anywhere-GrooveShark Stereo is a feature which

streams music automatically for you similar to songs that you play

-13,000,000 registered users -30,000,000 monthly active users-300,000 artist promotional plays per month-1.2 billion streams per month

Battle of the Brands iTunes and Grooveshark go head-to-head

compiled by Celeste Renn , photo illustration by Sevan Strait

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