THE PRAIRIE NEWSKickapoo High School 3710 S. Jefferson, Springfield, MO khsprairienews.com twitter.com/khsprairienews (417)523-8781 December 22, 2009 Vol. 39 Iss.4

December brings many holiday celebrations . Learn about them on pg 10

Basketball season out-look on pages 16-17

Attendance in schools is important; consequent-ly administrators have turned to incentives to get kids to be here each day. However, over the years the guidelines have changed because they did not match up with school board policies. The incentive was if a student had 95% atten-dance the student could opt out of a semester fi-nal. The older policy was unfair to other schools on a seven block schedule. Currently, Kickapoo has an attendance incen-tive that gives students extra points on finals. Kickapoo website states: 100% At-tendance – If a student has 100% attendance in a class for the entire term, 20% will be add-ed to his or her final exam grade 96% Attendance (missing about 3.56 days) – If a student has 96% attendance in a class for the en-tire term, 15% will be added to his or her final exam grade. 92% Attendance (missing about 7.12 days) – If a student has 92% attendance in a class for the en-tire term, 10% will be added to

his or her final exam grade. The Student Recogni-tion Committee also recognizes excellent attendance through-out the school year by awarding prizes to randomly selected stu-dents who have 95 - 100% atten-dance. This means a student could miss no more than 4.45 days.

Students with all A’s, no absences, no tardies, and no referrals are honored at an off-campus lun-cheon during Memories Week. “I would rather have the op-

tion of opting out and not take [the finals],” junior Joseph Nance said. Nance believes the school has incentives “to get more kids to come, to give them a reason.” Senior, Casey Carroll said that she is a fan of the old attendance incentives. “Generally if you have good attendance, you’ll generally

have good grades so you should be reward-

ed for that,” Carroll said.

Carroll and Nance agreed

that more stu-dents would

come to school if the old policy

was reinstated. Nei-ther of them men-

tioned the money the school gets from

student attendance. However, schools do get

more money if they have higher attendance rates,

therefore incentives were created. The district takes

the attendance of each school and submits it to the state.

From there the state, depend-ing on how many students showed

Emissions from Leaf untraceable In a society that has been growing more and more de-pendent on fossil fuels and oils, new technology is a must have in the transportation in-dustry. Hybrid cars are one of the front runners in the rapidly growing “green” industry. The most recent addition to the group is the new Nissan Leaf. The Leaf is Nissan’s first ze-ro-emissions electric car. Even though it runs on pure electric-ity, the Leaf is still classified as a V6 and has the quality design

to seat up to five passengers. The prized feature of the Nis-san Leaf is the advanced bat-tery. It packs twice the power into half the size of a normal b a t t e r y and is de-signed to maximize drive time while minimizing charge time. The

battery has been said to allow around 100 miles of driving

before a re-charge is needed, which makes

it convenient for city and short distance driving. The price of the Leaf ranges from about $35,000 to $42,000, de-pending on the market and tax.

With a front plug-in the source of the Leaf’s power and

no need for gasoline, the Leaf is the ultimate “green car.” The Leaf is not yet available in the United States, but will like-ly hit showrooms in late 2010. It will only be available for pur-chase in major U.S. cities such as Phoenix, San Diego, and Se-attle when it reaches the states, but it is expected to branch out after some time on the market. What could be one of the big-

gest breakthroughs in Nissan, if not the automotive indus-try, is soon to enter American homes. It could be just a mat-ter of time before people start trading in their old gas guz-zlers, and cashing in on this car.

Rick Snyder, Kickapoo High School science teacher, has been named Outstanding Earth Sci-ence Teacher (OEST) for 2009 by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). The award defines its recipi-ent as being someone who of-fers “exceptional contributions to the stimulation of interest in the Earth Sciences at the pre-college level.” Ten national finalists are selected from different regions of the U.S. Snyder is the recipient of the mid continent section award. As a finalist, Snyder will receive a plaque from NAGT, compli-mentary memberships to NAGT and the Geoscience Education Division (GSA), travel expenses paid to a GSA meeting where he will be recognized, and $500 in classroom improvement funds, as well as several subscriptions to science-related magazines.

By Alex Brown

Daily attendance stimulates students’ scores on District FinalsBy Courtney Hamilton, graphic by Chase Snider

Photos courtesy Nissan Press

Kickapoo teacher wins national award By Chase Snider

Incentives, continued on page 2

2News December 22, 2009khsprairienews.com

Discovery of water on the moon could aid future space missions On Friday, November 13, NASA announced that water had been found on the moon. “The discovery opens up a new chapter in our understanding of the moon,” a statement released by NASA in a CNN.com article said. In the article, proj-ect scientist, Anthony Colaprete explained that about 48 gallons worth of water was found. As for the impor-tance of this finding, NASA goes on to ex-plain, “If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water and other compounds represent potential re-sources that could sus-tain future lunar explo-ration,” reported CNN. This will effect future exploration of space. “It is very significant in that because we have found water, we now have the ability to possibly terra form the Moon for fu-ture explorations (specif-

ically Mars) to other planets. The Moon is going to act as a “pit stop” for space exploration because we

Prevention leads to strong defense

cannot go straight to Mars with all of the materials we need,” science teacher Mr. Richard Snyder said.

Basically, this means that astronauts will be able to use the moon to stop and re-fill supplies to get to various other planets. In the way of sci-ence curriculum, Snyder explains that the curriculum is forever changing in the science field. The newest discovery just simply adds to the astronomy class that is to be offered next year. It also lends more discover-ies to the Lunar team sponsored by Snyder. This also gives way for “more ques-tions and feeds even more curiosity, which is what drives science!” he said. Water on the moon means a myriad of things beyond the reaches of the mind, and past all things previously imagined.

Attendance continued from pg 1

Over 350,000 instances of abduction, mugging, and assault occur in the United States every year. Judging by this, learning even the simplest forms of self-defense can seem like a worthwhile endeavor. Though many high school students think that “self-defense moves” are elaborate martial art maneu-vers, many are unaware that self-defense requires a multitude of skills including levelheadedness and avoidance. “The best way to defend yourself is to try and escape, but knowing self-defense really boost-ed my confidence and knowing the weak points on the human body also helped me better prepare my-self,” junior, and also second degree black belt, Amy Richter said, “but you should still always try and get away from an attacker; you shouldn’t just go into it and be like, ‘Oh I know martial arts!’ and immedi-ately act with violence.” On a similar note, junior “I think people should know a form of self-defense, but also be aware of how to restrain themselves and know when and where to use it.” Junior Colin Jus-tice, who is also a second degree black belt, said. To learn more tips on self-defense, vis-it khsprairienews.com and click on “Be-yond the Print” in the Navigation bar.

-Use your head People who immediately go on the offensive in the attempt of using physical self-defense actually risk making the situation worse. In a situa-tion in which a person is being attacked, the best thing to do is to try and get away from the attacker as fast as possible. Better yet is to avoid the situation altogether by staying away from an area that seems dangerous.

-De-Escalate a Bad Situation Attackers are not always strangers; often times they are people a person knows (for ex-ample, “the neighborhood bully”). In a situation such as this, “de-escalating” the situation can be useful, which is speaking or acting in a way that makes the mood less tense and pre-vents it from becoming worse. Things such as not losing your temper and remaining calm can effectively de-escalate a situation and help a person walk away from the confrontation.

-Reduce Risks The key in self-defense is prevention. Attackers can strike anywhere, whether it be outside a grocery store, at the mall, or even near school. No place is completely safe, so a person should always be aware of his or her surroundings. He or she should travel in a group (especially at night), stay alert, and make sure his or her body language shows a sense of confidence.

-Take a Self-Defense Class The only way a person can fully prepare his or her self to fight off an at-tacker is to take a self-defense class. A good class can teach a person how to size up a situation and help a person assess it with a level head.

up, will give that school money. The more students come to school the more money the school gets. Coordinator of Site Interven-tions, Mrs.. Tammy Quinn, said that this year Kickapoo won’t get as much money because of the flu. About 3.99% of kids have been gone from school this year due to medical reasons. In total, 5.8% of students have been absent this year. “It’s been ugly,” Quinn said. “It’s been a hard fall and truan-

4 Life

Savin

g Tips

By Ashley Dun

By Katie Battalia and Jessica Crowder cies don’t make it any easier.” Quinn said that there are incen-tives to help prepare students for the future. “If we let you pass and only come 50% of the time, and tell you did a good job, then throw you to the wolves at college, which costs money, and you flunk out, then we didn’t do our job,” Quinn said. Incentives have been laid down to raise money, help stu-dents with grades, and to pre-pare students for the future.

Illustration by Logan Voss

Looks pretty cool, huh? khsprairienews.com.

See it bigger. And in color.

3Newstwitter.com/khsprairienews

President Barack Obama promised change to the Unit-ed States when he took office and he has delivered. Con-troversial terrorist-holding prison Guantanamo Bay has been set to close as early as January 2010 following di-rect orders from Obama. One recent problem coming with the closing of Guantana-mo Bay has been the obliga-tion to put the detainees on trial and to move all the guilty to other prisons around the United States. This has led to a trying of five prisoners be-lieved to have taken part in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. This tri-al will most likely take place in a civilian court, blocks away from Ground Zero. Self-proclaimed 9/11 mas-termind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the five prisoners on trial and the most controversial. According to the LA Times, Barack Obama, himself, is pushing for the death penalty to be applied to Mohammed, yet recent history shows that this could be problematic. In 2006, September 11th par-ticipant and alleged 20th hi-

jacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, was not sentenced to death but, instead, life in prison as one juror in Virginia would not agree to put him to death.

The only terrorist sentenced to the death penalty in re-cent years is Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh. Also, the prosecutors in the

trial have stated that they will be seeking the death penalty for Mohammed. People op-posed to the trials have stated that the five prisoners should

be given a trial in military courts. In the military courts, the five detainees would have also faced the death pen-alty. However, in the civilian courts, the defendants will be given all of the due pro-cess rights of citizens, which has some people crying foul. “I believe that these men should be tried in a civil-ian court, because (Septem-ber 11th) was an attack on United States’ society, it was not during a time of war.” Kickapoo Speech and Debate coach, Ms.. Sparkman, said, While Mohammed has told investigators that he is in-deed guilty and will most likely not walk free, the four other detainees might get less than life sentences. Many are worried that these trials will serve as platforms for the ter-rorists to spread anti-Amer-ican rhetoric and highlight government abuses and er-rors within the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison. Ei-ther way, these trials will defi-nitely test the strength of the United States’ judicial system.

Political Update: Guantanamo Bay and what is happening now

Mother Nature vs. SPS : When Springfield Public Schools decides to throw in the towel against winter storms

By Sam Sherman

Crews begin to treat and prepare Springfield Pub-lic Schools’ lots by removing snow and place ice treatment.

SPS recommendation crew drives the streets and checks on possible problem areas. The Recommenda-tion crew is made up of Tom Tucker, Director of SPS Police, an additional SPS officer, and Director of Trans-portation Charlie Ott, in addition to several transportation supervisors.

The recommendation crew meets together to de-cide on a recommendation to give to Peggy Riggs, Deputy Superintendent. Dr.. Riggs then establishes communication with Dr. Ritter, Su-perintendent of Springfield Public Schools.

Dr. Norm Ritter makes the final decision on wheth-er SPS students will be in session for the day or not. He communicates his decision with Tucker who then relays this to the recommendation crews.

The recommendation crew informs departments that arrive throughout the district early in the morn-ing, such as food services, of the closure. Local media is informed of the closing and the AlertNow system is activated to inform parents and students.

Story and graphics by Chase Snider

4News Feature December 22, 2009khsprairienews.com

"I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of Ameri-ca..." America citizens said, and have said many times over. Every US citizen has said this pledge at least once in their lifetime. Students and staff here at school have a much more personal con-

nection with these words, as they have family serving or have served overseas in times of con-flict. Our principal, Mr. Dave Schmitz has served, as did for-mer IT Specialist Lucas Wilson. Several other staff members are also veteran of the armed forces.

When a family member goes overseas to fight, the fam-ily members left behind feel a mixture of pride, joy, and fear. Senior Lisa Richards knows first hand what it is like to have a fam-ily member in the military. Sister to 2009 graduate Matt Richards,

she misses "arguing with him over stupid stuff" she said. Matt is due to go to North Korea in March, but is currently at the Air Force base. There are things that family members look forward to, most, for mother Ms. Dori Rominger it would include “Having a bunch of people over. What's he gonna fix for me?” she said. She and Lisa agree he is good at fixing things. Lisa would describe Matt as “Our homemaker Barbie fighting for our country. He fixes things in a really girly fashion,” Lisa said. However, as of November 19th not everyone knew if they would see their loved ones for Christmas. Rominger and Lisa no longer have to wonder if they will be seeing Matt. “Before he went to basic train-ing, we were apart, at most, maybe a month when I went to California. I just miss him so much,” Lisa said. This is simply one of many side effects of having someone who is fighting for the rights of others. While Lisa believes the mili-tary to be noble, she believes she would “miss everyone too much. Not only that but I'm too [girly]. It's an honorable thing,” she said. Rominger misses a different aspect of her son “tripping over his big shoes” she said. While she misses him, she also hears from him regularly. Now that Matt’s basic training is over “He calls every day,” Rominger said.

“Everyday? He calls like, every five hours!” Lisa said, in response to her mother. From a mother’s perspective, “It's scary, especially in the field he chose. First he wanted to be on the bomb sniffing force. Then he want-ed to do Raven, which is a force that flies into Afghanistan which I think is safer than bomb sniffing,” Rominger said. However, despite the fact that Matt originally chose these two fields, he is due to be sta-tioned in North Korea in March. Rominger does, however, feel better knowing that her son is in the Air Force rather than the Army, which was another first plan. “First he wanted to be in the Army. Anytime you have warfare going on, Army's always first in. Plus, Air Force takes better care of their soldiers,” Rominger said. “The Air Force treats Matt so well, but it is very tough. Matt has to keep his head high every day and try to do more than what is ex-pected because he really wants to be in the Special Forces . Also, he is in school and he tells me there is a lot of studying involved in or-der to become an SP,” Lisa said. While the holiday-celebrating Americans are having their feasts and celebrations, there are sol-diers alone fighting for the coun-try so often described as "home of the brave, and land of the free".

Gerry Broome/Charlottle Observer/MCT Campus

Reunited: soldiers return home for the holidaysBy Jessica Crowder

“Before he went to basic training, we were apart, at most, maybe a month when I went to California. I just miss him so much.”

—Lisa Richards, former student on her brother’s assignment to North Korea

Chuck Liddy/Observer/MCTJohn Fitahugh/The Sun Herald/MCT

5O P I N I O NKickapoo High SchoolDecember 22, 2009

A Movie a Month“The Blind Side” grabs great ratings and many hearts.

(Quinton Aaron), a homeless teen who is given a shot at his dreams—even if he doesn’t know what they are at first. Lost and living out of a plastic bag, Oher is taken in by Leigh Ann Tuohy, played by San-dra Bullock. After the monstrosity that was All About Steve, I’m pleased to announce that the genius actress most know and love is back. Aaron plays a very vulnerable and, at the same time, powerful Oher. The film fol-lows the big, quiet teen through struggles with school and his old life, as well as as-pects of his new one. Through the course of a year, he manages to not only turn his life around and find his purpose, but also give purpose to a well-off family and change their

lives forever. The fact that this en-tire climb to the NFL is true just makes it even more powerful. After getting over the fact that Leigh Ann reminded me of my journalism teacher, Mrs. Leslie

Orman, I found that I was actually supremely focused the entire mov-ie. Yeah, it was slow—in Hallmark style—and I honestly wouldn’t

jump back in and watch it again anytime soon for that fact. But for a first time viewing I never lost in-terest. That was mostly due to the cast and the writing. Leigh Ann’s husband, Sean Tuohy, is played

by Tim McGraw, her son, SJ, by Jae Head, and her daughter, Collins, by Lily Collins. The family was believable and—most of the time—hilarious. I didn’t expect to laugh as hard as I did. Most of this comedy came from the tiny SJ, who chatters and brokers deals like a wisecrack-ing adult.

Radically facing this light-heart-ed atmosphere were surprisingly deep, emotional moments. At one point, Leigh Ann speaks with Mi-

chael’s real mother, Denise Oher (Adriane Lenox), a drug-enslaved, life-bruised shell of a woman and it ends with Denise sobbing and Leigh Ann sitting next to her and simply holding her hand. Near the end, Michael goes back to the projects and has to fight his way back out again. Through the entire film were shattered flashbacks of Michael being ripped away from his family. All in all, it was heartwarming, but engaging as well. It wasn’t all sap and the hilarity and intense football scenes kept it interesting enough for an action/adventure junkie to stay awake. Also a plus: it recently dethroned New Moon at the box office. That alone should earn this film five stars, but in this not-so-humble critic’s opinion, it would have de-served its excellent rating even if it hadn’t.

It was almost time for school… and I was never going to make it. My car had died af-

ter I tried to start it in the Star-bucks parking lot, which meant I was going to have to push it. I decided to give it one more go and noticed that I had been trying, like an idiot, to start my car with my house key. Eventu-ally, I managed to pry the key from the ignition and start the car. I was in a hurry when I parked, hoping my car wouldn’t switch off again. By the time I entered the building and got to first block, I realized something. I had parked a little behind the no parking zone sign. I had forgotten that South Avenue was now off limits. Park-ing ticket for me!

I saw kids parked up as far as the telemarketing office on the corner of Primrose and South Ave. Why was an easily accessible and always available street now being blocked off? Assistant principal, Mrs. Sar-

ah Odom, courteously informed me that this had “strictly nothing to do with Kickapoo.” If it wasn’t the school’s decision then whose was it? Perhaps the businesses located right next to where the students parked?

“I don’t care what business it was,” senior

Turner Ashby said. “It still doesn’t mean they get to block off the road. And because of these limita-tions it restricts parking for other businesses. What gives them the right?”

Senior Sam Davidson, however, couldn’t care one way or another. When asked if a business had the right to block off a road he replied, “Yes. It is still their street. All it made me do was move from the right side of the street to the left side.”

It is true, Sam, that we were all forced to move to the left side of the street, but now both left and right sides are unavailable. I was (still am) infuriated at how we only have this 30-foot piece of street to park on and I was not pay-ing $35 for a parking pass. There was no way Kickapoo was going to manipulate me into that. We all know that traffic is much worse in the parking lot here at school, than the streets surrounding the school. Nonetheless, Jefferson is hard to get out of due to its unfortunate location and everywhere else is il-legal or too far away. On December 3rd, I discovered something quite interesting. Sec-retary for the Bill Beall Company had informed me that Kickapoo Corners had nothing to do with South Avenue. It was all the work of the Springfield Police Depart-

ment. Those dirty dogs. I was even more upset now that I had come upon this information and senior Courtney Coy obliged me in con-versation over the mat-ter.

“I’m extremely pissed. Not very many people park over on South Avenue anymore so park-ing is a little easier I guess. I’m not going to pay for a parking pass though! And how does us parking on the street effect any-thing? Maybe the police got tired of kids smoking cigarettes and pot down there. I could understand that,” she said. The Springfield Police Department has no comment. I wonder if they would have a com-ment if they knew that kids were walking five blocks in the freezing winter weather because there isn’t enough parking. Next to and behind the back forty there is a lot of land and I would like to know why this wasn’t in-cluded in the parking lot blueprints. And since it wasn’t, why isn’t it

by Lauren Miramonti

-photo by Ralph Nelson/Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures/MCT

I’m not a Hallmark kind of per-son. Ask anyone who knows me. Give me guns blazing,

blood and gore, mind-blowing plot twists, funny sidekicks, and kick-ass heroes, but tell me I’m going to watch a “heart-warming tale” and I’ll probably slide out the door with muttered excuses. When I looked at my list of op-tions for this month, three days after deadline—procrastination sucks—I was depressed to see that everything interesting was com-ing out after we go to print. So, with Avatar and Sherlock Holmes out the window and only Armored playing in Springfield (which any idiot could tell from the preview that there would be zero plot and probably some yawn-worthy ac-tion scenes), I sighed heavily and looked at the showtimes for The Blind Side. The film is based on the book by Michael Lewis, which is based on the true story of Michael Oher

Makenzie Oliver

being used now? Administration must know by now how bad traffic is in our school lot, yet they continue to do nothing about

it. Instead we get digital clocks, flat screen TVs we never look at, and fancy flags hanging off poles from the side of the building. I

wish that certain authorities would listen to the stu-dent body when making decisions that are going to affect us. Or cabi-net could have taken a vote to see what students

think needs improvement. How about our auditorium, huh? It’s looking pretty bad these days. All I’m saying is that we have rights under the First Amendment of the constitution. These rights enable us to free assembly, free speech, free press and choice of religion. We have the power to let our voices be heard. Thank you.

6 Opinion khsprairienews.com

Forks and Knivesby Lauren Davison

tropub is French Country with a little touch of randomness. Com-plete with a lounge area, banquet room, and moderately sized bar, this pub is a great spot for a casual date, special occasion, or a family

dinner. We were soon greeted by a smil-ing waitress who seemed to have no greater desire than to take our order. I ordered a bottle of Straw-berry Lemonade produced by Made, a company that makes or-ganic juices. It was not quite tart enough for me but it had a natu-rally sweet taste to it that made

it worthwhile. However, I was slightly disappointed because be-fore visiting Farmers Gastropub, I had been under the impression that their juices were freshly squeezed using fruit from the area.

Kent chose to get coffee (consid-ering how cold it was outside) and said that it was good. The waitress then brought our appetizer, the Welsh Rarebit. It consisted of five slices of a French loaf covered in melted cheese that had a mustard seed flavor to it. I have never had a better tasting ap-petizer. It had an unexpected taste

that Kent and I both en-joyed. Kent decided on the BBQ pulled pork sand-wich with fries while I chose the spaghetti with

meatballs. It took only a few minutes to receive our food and once we did, I was surprised to see the serving size. I do not enjoy going to restaurants and feeling like I couldn’t force an-other bite into my mouth. Farm-ers Gastropub makes it possible to eat your whole meal and not feel like you overindulged once finished. “My chefs are very clever,” owner Bill G r i f f i t h s said. This was defi-nitely true. The spa-ghetti, which is hand made in the kitchen, had an excellent texture and the meatballs

were spiced to perfection. The sauce was just creamy enough and although not your typical red sauce, it comple-mented the meat exquisitely. The meat, purchased from a ranch in Mountain Grove, had such a fresh, rich taste and it was cool to think that everything I was eat-ing had come from the area where I live. According to Griffiths, the restaurant strives to buy “fresh,

local, organic, and sustainable” products. The restaurant is “trying to have the lowest carbon footprint that we can,” Griffiths said. Kent claimed his meal was ex-cellent as well. He said it tasted like it had actually been barbequed instead of just slathered in sauce. Also, his fries were thick and not soaked with grease like some res-taurants’. Once we finished our amazing

meal we got our check and after two drinks, an appetiz-er, and two entrees we only owed about $25. Due to my own mis-take, we had a little trouble with

the credit card charge, but both the server and manager were more than helpful and patient with the situation. I was very impressed and pleased with the service. To sum it all up, the fresh meal was wonderful, the service top-notch, and the atmosphere casu-ally comfortable.

On November 5, 2009, Farmers Gastropub opened next door

to the Moxie, making it the per-fect stop before that movie date. This pub serves locally grown vegetables, lo-cally raised beef, pork, and chicken, and organic juices; not to mention a wide selec-tion of beers and wine for the adults. The menu is not large and is subject to change due to specials and ingredients’ availability. H o w e v e r , it features several in-credible ap-petizers and entrees. As I walked into Farmers Gastropub with my boyfriend, senior Kent Miller, I was politely greeted by a bartender behind the counter. In the classic style of a pub, you seat yourself, so Kent and I quickly chose a booth off to the side where I hoped I could dis-creetly snap some photos. At our booth, we were surprised to find a small fountain on the table. The atmosphere of Farmers Gas-

The interior of Farmers Gastropub has a homey feel. -photo by Lauren Davison.

The Welsh Rarebit looking good enough to eat. -photo by Lauren Davison

Take Your Pick

36% 31%24%

9%

CashElectronics

Entertainment (CDs,DVDs, and video games)

Doesn’t matter. I’m getting coal.

What’s on your holiday wish list?

*based on a survey of 10% of the student body as taken by Charmaine Larson

December 22, 2009

From left to right: Natasha S Johnson/Bellingham Herald/MCT, and MCT direct

7Opiniontwitter.com/khsprairienews

A Christmas Divided

love Christmas. It’s the best holiday, you get to give and re-ceive. It is a time centered around Christ. But for the kids of some families, mine included, it can be more like hell. Every year, since I was about two, I have spent Christmas Eve with my mother and then Christ-mas Day with my father. Yeah, it is nice to get “double” the presents, “double” the food, and “double” the love, but some-times it feels more like I am a bottle of cheap wine being passed around at a party rather than a human being spending the spe-cial night with my family. It feels more like a routine in some sort of twisted dance that, if I mess up by miscommunication or hiding things, can result in heartache. I know I’m not alone however. Junior Leah Snow-Counterman is in a similar situation. Her mother and father divorced when she was young. Snow-Counterman lives with her father here in Spring-field, having moved in with him about four years ago. Her mother lives near Gary, Indiana. Snow-Counterman spends ev-ery other Christmas with her dad and the other half with her mom. “It’s hard,” Snow-Counterman said. “I feel like it is unfair… I wish they lived closer.” Snow-Counterman and I both agree that it is difficult for kids

to deal with divorced parents, es-pecially on the holidays. When I have to pack to go to my mom’s for Christmas Eve it is dishearten-ing. Not only would I prefer to stay home and actually spend Christ-mas Eve at home, but I don’t want to go to different places to spend my holiday. I shouldn’t have to go multiple houses to enjoy all of my family, tears come to my eyes when I think about having to go to my mom’s then back to my dad’s. The drives back and forth with my mom are one of the hardest parts, it just feels so awkward. When I moved out of my mom’s house about five years ago for per-sonal reasons, for the longest time she wouldn’t tell me she loved me, even when I couldn’t stop telling her. Now, she can’t stop hugging me and telling me how much she has changed and how much she loves me. My mom will hug me for long, uncomfortable amounts of time, especially when I am about to leave her for my dad’s and after holidays are always worse. She will actually cry and try to make me feel bad for leaving her, but really, she left me. It is hard to push her away because I want her to know that I love her but that she needs to let go. She hurt me and was part of the reason that I no longer enjoy Christmas with a central family unit.

To me, the holidays are meant to be spent with my family, not being passed around like an ob-ject. It is hard to be the one in the middle with my parents say-ing you are mine today and theirs tomorrow, especially when they hate each other so much that they can hardly talk to each other. Where is the humanity in that? I don’t want people to read this and think, ‘Oh, poor Courtney,’ or ‘Poor little Leah.” That isn’t the objective. What I want to ac-complish here is to get people to realize that for some, the holidays aren’t great. I know I have it a lot better than some and for that I am eternally thankful. However, it would just be nice sometimes for people to think about the conse-quences of their actions, especial-ly the ones that will affect others later on. “Double” presents or two turkey dinners don’t make things all better. In this case I want others my age to really think. When the time comes for one to get married, make sure they are the right one. Don’t settle for anything less than what you truly need. Christmas is a family holiday; let’s make sure it stays that way, unbroken. I still love Christmas and it its still one of the best holidays, but around this time I am constantly remind-ed how hard this holiday can be.

i

Social networking is overratedKeeping in touch with

friends and family is a great thing, and so is

meeting new people and making new friends. This is what I thought I was going to do when I created my Facebook account in 2006. Unfortunately, hours that could have been spent on something positive were wasted on a website which I feel brings out the worst in human nature and encourages people to engage in negative be-haviors they would normally ab-stain from. I made the decision to deactivate my Facebook account about a month ago because, after a little self-reflection, I have de-termined that the website is inher-ently evil. The multi-billion dollar industry of social networking was

built by businessmen capitalizing on our innate human vices. I came to this conclusion after realizing that the vast majority of the cash cow Facebook’s content revolved around voyeurism, gossip, and narcissism. In my opinion, the worst part of social networking websites is that they appeal to the rubbernecking eavesdropper inside of all of us. A distinctive feature of most social networking websites gives users the ability to “browse” other mem-bers, to view full, detailed profiles of people who the user has previ-ously, probably, not had any real, face to face, contact with. I think most people would agree that it would not be socially acceptable to follow strangers around the mall

and stare at them, but I guess casu-ally browsing through strangers’ vacation pictures is okay. I realized the absurdity of this common activity a few weeks ago, when I was introduced to someone who didn’t know me, but because I had coincidentally read through her Facebook profile (thanks to the “Suggested Friends” feature) I could tell you all of her favor-ite movies, her relationship sta-tus, and even where she was last Friday night. As we talked more I had to hold my tongue at times during conversation in order to not reveal that I had previously read about what she was telling me on her Facebook profile. Despite how the website is designed to encour-age this kind of behavior, admit-

ting this publicly would have labeled me a “creeper.” The fact that I was in a situation like this, let alone that a situation like this was even possible, was enough to freak me out. When a website floods you with constant real-time updates on all of your closest “friends” changing relationship statuses, new friend-ships, new photos and videos detailing what he or she did the previous weekend, and publishes direct “wall to wall” comment streams, it becomes a breeding ground for gossip. I’m well aware that the gossip problem exists of-fline as well, but today’s social networking websites sure do make it easy to be a part of the problem instead of the solution. Some of the

wonderful ap-plications Fa-cebook users are encour-aged to use include “Top F r i e n d s , ” “ F r i e n d

Facts,” and the bluntly titled “Compare People” to name a few. These are all features of the popu-lar website the average American teenager spends hours a week on. What exactly is the point of con-stantly alerting my 500 friends to what I’m doing right now with a mobile status update? Am I really that important? Facebook would like me to think so. I get the im

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8AS “FACEBOOK”

In Lauren’s

ShoesEvery year the ball drops in Times Square and couples (and outgoing sin-gles) share a New Year’s kiss. Later that morning they wake up, that is, if they ever went to sleep, and embark on the beginning of their struggle to fulfill their New Year’s Resolu-tion. However, there is no point. In January, the amount of people purchasing gym memberships sky-rockets. It is unre-alistic that one of 365 days magically makes it possible for people to change their lives, but people con-tinue to believe it. There is no end to the amount of resolutions that are left in the dust. According to University of Minnesota professor Marti Hope

Gonzales, in an article on nytimes.com, 80 percent of New Year’s resolution makers break theirs by Valentine’s Day. This New Year, why not resolve to make yourself promises that you can keep? Have fifty pounds you want to lose? Decide to lose at least twenty this year. Want to become a vegetar-ian? Choose to limit your meat intake to twice per week. Want to find a significant other? Work on building up your relationships and meeting new people. For example, last year my reso-lution was to only eat chocolate once a week, which, for me, is the equivalent of trying to hold my breath for five minutes. This year I am going to come up with a resolution that I can keep. Maybe to exercise more often or save a certain amount of money to buy something I’ve been wanting. I want to challenge myself but that

doesn’t mean that I have to come up with some ridiculous feat. So whatever it is, find a realistic way to get it. Meet your goals. Other-wise you just keep dis-appointing yourself. It is important that people know they can achieve their goals. In order to have self-trust you have to be able to

believe in your goals and what you strive for. Make a resolution this year, but put more thought into it. What do you need to accomplish? Make yourself proud and go out and get your dream.

by Courtney Hamilton

Lauren Davison

Bryce Craig

by Bryce Craig, guest columnist and journalism 1 student

8 Opinion December 22, 2009khsprairienews.com

Poverty Will

You’re sitting at home on the couch, flipping through channels. A

World Vision infomercial flashes across the screen, bearing images of immense poverty, starving chil-dren, dead bodies, pain, suffering, etc. Whatever. It isn’t like you haven’t seen those kinds of things before. The pictures soon fade to black and something like, “25,000 children die each day in the world due to poverty” appears on the screen in bold font. Oh well. You’ve been hearing statistics like that your whole life. Who cares? Let’s change the channel. This is the attitude of many peo-ple in our country today: unfazed by the rising numbers of poverty and human crises in the world. Many times I find it hard to face this desensitization, mainly be-cause I have been in several situ-ations in which it was impossible for me to “change the channel.” Both of my parents were born in Myanmar, a country located in Southeast Asia. My grandmother

on my father’s side and many of his relatives still live there. As a result, I have traveled to the coun-try multiple times to visit extended family. Myanmar is one of the most impoverished nations in the world. It is governed by an im-mensely cruel and corrupt military dictatorship that cares little for the welfare of its people. No matter how many times I go back, I can never get over the utter injustice and tragedy that I see. I can never get over seeing soldiers walking around on the sidewalks, machine guns in hand, ready to punish any-one who decides to rebel. I can never get over being stuck in traf-fic and watching children as young as seven flood into the streets, beg-ging for money. The whole nation is like a lion in chains—something that could be great and prosperous if not so brutally tied down by oppression. The Nazi-esque propaganda plas-tered onto billboards reading things like, “…cooperate and crush all those harming the union” is dead

serious. Military officials will not hesitate to bludgeon someone to death for speaking out of line (say-ing anything negative about the government is punished severe-ly), but that’s if you’re lucky. If they deem your “crime” heinous enough, they might rape your wife, kill your children, and lock you up in a jail and torture you for days. My father has told me several sto-ries about situations like these, and I’ve seen countless photos of the victims of these atrocities. At the same time, I’ve also seen how the military officials use govern-ment money to build extravagant hotels and corporate offices next to slums and ride their Hummers through the streets while the poor, which happens to be more than 80 percent of the country, try not to starve. So for me, that infomercial flashing across the television screen isn’t just a snapshot of some unfortunate place far away; it’s a reminder of a very harsh real-ity I’ve faced many times. This is

why I find it hard to deal with the apathetic nature of many people when it comes to issues such as poverty and human rights. How-ever, that isn’t to say that I don’t understand. One of the main reasons people are drawn away from these issues is society’s crude generalization of the topic. Somehow, we have come to think of the “disadvan-taged” as one giant blob: all grun-gy, uneducated, unmotivated, and in a nutshell, below us. We fail to humanize them and see them as individuals like ourselves, with in-dividual needs. Now, I’m not trying to make you feel awful for not caring about suffering children in third world countries and force you into an outlandish regimen of charity work. I know that in the midst of an economic recession and other troubles it’s hard to focus on things like this, and let’s face it, when you’re a teenager you have a tendency to just not care about anything. You feel like you just

don’t have the time or resources to make a real difference. That’s okay; it’s natural. Not everyone can be a Mother Theresa. We’ve all got a lot of stuff to deal with at this point in our lives, but that doesn’t mean our sense of com-passion has to wane. All I really want to do is encour-age a certain change of heart, as nauseatingly corny as that sounds. Instead of mentally brushing off all those pictures of starving chil-dren, genocide victims, and others, we should acknowledge them and try to exercise compassion. Try and say, “That’s important. It’s real. It’s happening right now and it matters.” You don’t have to do anything else. It might sound silly and ineffective, but it’s better than not caring at all. It’s a simple shift of thought, and though it’s not something you’re physically do-ing to “change the world,” it could be the beginning of the process. Great actions come from the birth of single ideas, after all.

Burmese (nationality of Myanmar) children are stuck in limbo at the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand. To find out more about Myanmar and how to help, visit uscampaignforburma.org/.

Photographer: Y RENA PEDERSON/DALLAS MORNING NEWS/mct

pression that some Facebook us-ers try to use the website as a way to define themselves. As a way to shout to the world, “This is me, LOOOK!” This becomes annoy-ingly obvious when one takes a minute to scroll through the news feed, which is usually littered with intimate information these us-ers are essentially shouting at the world.

Advertising. It’s everywhere, that’s a part of life, I can accept that. But what disgusts me is that Facebook regularly (and LEGAL-LY) collects information on its us-ers, bundles it, and sells it to adver-tising agencies who run it through their focus groups and create those wonderful little banner adds that seem to fit your interests just a little too well sometimes. Take a look at your Facebook profile from the perspective of someone trying

to sell you something. Here, neatly displayed, is a list of all of your fa-vorite music, movies, books, inter-ests, and activities. Also noted is your political affiliation, religious views, sexual preference, age, work experience, and the list goes on… It is an advertiser’s dream. Never before has such a complete database of information on a con-sumer class been so readily avail-able. Oh yeah, and the government has access to all this stuff too.

Draw your own conclusion here. I’m not advocating for anyone to retreat from society, or build a cabin by Walden pond, but I hope that you at least take away from this article a better understanding of the role that Facebook plays in our society and the unnecessary ethical burdens it places on its users. I still have my cell phone, instant messenger, multiple email addresses and a smorgasbord of other ways to communicate with

my friends. I know that me deacti-vating my Facebook account isn’t going to solve any of the social problems I talked about above, but it’s one less negative influence on my life. Forty years ago computers helped us put a man on the moon. Today’s cutting edge technology is Twitter. The internet is the most revolution-ary invention of the 20th century, and we use it for this crap.

CONTINUED FROM PG 7

Facebook

Guest column by Ashley Dun

Waste Away

9Opiniontwitter.com/khsprairienews

Q: Dear Joel, What is the best dinosaur ever? Why?

A: The best dinosaur ever is, with-out a doubt, the Stegasaurus. The “Stego” is the best ever because they used to hammer on other di-nosaurs with their spiked tails and those big plates that stuck up off their back were pretty impressive.

Q: Hey Joel, Why was there no “Ask Joel” in [the last] edition of the Prairie News?

A: I got way too much fan mail. It was impossible to choose a few questions to answer, so I took a bye month to try and let you guys cool off.

Ask Joel

Q: What’s the best Xmas gift for my crush?

A: Getting a crush a gift for the holidays can be risky business,sometimes you can overwhelm. But if you insist.. I recommend[censored] . . . A nice dinner out.

Q: Can I get the privilege of get-ting a date with you?

A: No doubt, my phone number is 350-6160.

Q: What is the best way to get a guy to like me?

A: Play hard to get—lots of scowl-ing. Make fun of him, get his digits and text him up, then don’t reply,. Arrange dates then stand him up. If you follow those steps, you are bound to have your guy on lock.

You asked and he answered.

Publication Policy The Kickapoo Prairie News operates as an open forum and intends to infrom students, teahers, administrators, and other citizens of the communitry of the school and to publish news on the basis of news value. The Prairie News, printed by Kick-apoo High School, the District of Springfield, MO, is issued monthly during the school year. Students and fac-ulty receive a free copy of each edition. Editorial Policies This publication reserves the right to edit all letters and quotes to insure that they contain no libelous material and no vulgarities. All letters submitted must be signed by the author, but names may be withheld upon request. Letters will be ed-ited for grammatical errors. A chance for fair reply will be granted if necessary. The need for reply will be determined by the

Prairie News Publication Policyeditorial staff. Letters may be dropped into locker 2001. Opinions presented on music albums, movies, the theatre pre-sentations, books, television programs, art work, etc. represent the opinion of the writer only and not neccessarily that of the Prairie News, or Kickapoo High School. Likewise, all material in col-umns is the opinion of the columnist. Errors This publication strives for fairness and accuracy. The Editorial Board will print a correction in the following issue if it is determined neccessary. Comments or questions may be directed to: Editorial board, KHS Prairie News, and placed in locker 2001 outside of room 201, or you may contact Mrs. Leslie Orman, adviser, at 523-8781.

THE STAFFEditor-in-Chief - Lauren Davison

News Editor - Chase SniderFeature Editor - Jennifer Myers

Opinion Editor - Lauren MiramontiSports Editor - Jared Fenstermacher

Copy Editor - Jessica CrowderDistribution Manager - Joel Farris

Business Manager - Seth Seely

Columnist - Makenzie OliverSports Columnists - Sam Sherman and Seth Seely

Staff Reporters:Michael RotheKatie Battalia

Megan MeluginCourtney Hamilton

Alex BrownAshley Dun

Molly Greene

Pollster - Charmaine Larson

Adviser - Leslie OrmanPrincipal - Dave Schmitz

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone was color blind? Perhaps then the years

of hate, violence, and discrimination due to racial tensions would have never oc-curred. Even in America, a country that was built on principles of equal oppor-tunities to all, racism has tarnished the country’s history. It is an impossible fact to ignore: slavery did exist in America. Most of the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, kept slaves. In today’s society, we see this mentality of “we’re better than them” as ludicrous, but it was the popular belief once upon a time. Now let’s talk about the world today. I know that not everyone holds the same values, and the world is not a perfect place full of peace and tolerance wher-ever you go, but I like to think that there are certain moral standards that most at-tempt to maintain. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but it makes me feel a little bet-ter inside. I would like to get this important point across right now before I go any farther: I am not a racist, and I do not think any act of racial discrimination should be al-lowed in schools, the work place, or any other public domain. Over the past few decades, the phrase “reverse discrimination,” sometimes known as “reverse racism,” has been coined. Its definition encompasses any act of favoring a historically advantaged majority. In other words, when someone provides an unfair advantage to a minor-ity group over a majority, it can be con-sidered reverse discrimination. For in-stance, there have been occasions when

colleges have offered scholarships to Af-rican American applicants because they believe that they need to have a certain percentage of black students enrolled, or they think favoring those members of a minority would somehow make up for the Middle Passage, slave trade, and Jim Crow laws. I am all for African American citizens and any other minority group being given equal opportunities, the same chances as every other person. However, the whole point is to have equal opportunities; that means everyone is treated the same, with no regard to race or religion. Whichever student or employee is the most qualified should receive the position, whether they are white, brown, yellow, or black. Why does the color of one’s skin mat-ter so much? Shouldn’t little details such as grade point averages, ACT scores, or experience be considered as determining factors instead? Every person is capa-ble of fulfilling their ambitions to bet-ter themselves, regardless of skin color. Maybe society is not as civilized as I like to think, and maybe racial prejudices haven’t been overcome in some places, but it seems like mankind has evolved since the Holocaust and the days when Rosa Parks had to fight for her seat on a bus. I think we, in America, have come a long way since then. It is not neces-sary to deny a white male the same po-sition a black female applies for simply because of the fact that she is a member of a minority group. Decisions such as that should be based on the merit of each individual and not on the desire to some-how atone for previous discrimination.

Judge by the individual, not raceby Jennifer Myers

Q: How can I get a date with Chase Snider? He is so hot.A: Use the word, “credentials” a lot, talk about how you’ve got them, name drop a lot of famous people that you’ve met. Give him a call, tell him you want to “touch base.” But he’s probably already got some important stuff to do, so don’t get your hopes up.

10F E A T U R EKickapoo High SchoolDecember 22, 2009

visit to synagogue opens eyes to chanukah By Jessica Crowder

Tradition of Kwanzaa honors universal human values

By Jessica Crowder and Jennifer Myers

Believe it or not, Kwan-zaa does not substitute Christmas. It is an Afri-can-American tradition

to reiterate the African customs. These customs include family val-ues, community involvement, and self-betterment. It is not a religious or political holiday, but a holiday to celebrate a heritage of people.

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga as the first specifically African-American holiday. Karenga originally in-tended for it to replace Christmas; he believed C h r i s t -mas was a solely caucasion h o l i d a y . However, Karenga altered his opinion in later years so as not to offend Christians. Those who celebrate Kwanzaa light a kinara every year, which is similar to the Jewish tradition of lighting a menorah. The celebra-tion of Kwanzaa lasts for seven days, starting on December 26th, one day after Christmas Day. The seven days of Kwanzaa stand for seven principles: unity, self-de-termination, responsibility, cooper-ative economics, purpose, creativ-ity, and faith. On each of the seven days, one candle is lit to symbol-ize one of these seven principles. “Kwanzaa celebrations provide an opportunity to focus on the im-portance of family, community,

With winter holidays just around the corner, Jews will cel-ebrate Chanukah. What is Cha-nukah? It is the burning of can-dles on a menorah. A menorah is a candle holder that holds nine candles, one that lights the oth-ers, and eight that are to be lit. Each day, starting at sundown, one more candle in the Menorah is lit. The candle must burn from dusk to dawn. On the first day, one flame is lit, on the second two are lit, and so on until the 8th day. The first candle to be lit is the Shamish, which, is the “helper” candle. The story be-hind the helper candle is the ba-sis that no candle should be jeal-ous or proud. Therefore, to avoid this hierarchy, the candles are placed in the Menorah from left to right, and lit from right to left. During the eight days, accord-ing to chabad.org, Jews perform customs such as “eating foods fried in oil -- latkes (potato pan-cakes) and sufganiot (dough-nuts); playing with the dreidel (a spinning top on which are in-scribed the Hebrew letters nun, gimmel, hei and shin, an acro-nym for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, a great miracle happened there); and the giving of Chanukah gelt, gifts of money, to children.” For Chanukah traditions, in or-der to celebrate the burning oil, all food is fried. Before the fried foods are eaten, however, three blessings are said. The first is the “commandment mitzvah”, which is thanking God for the

mitzvah lighting candles. The second is thanking God for the miracles given to Jewish ancestors. Basically, this is a prayer of thanks for the help given by God to the ancestors. The third prayer is said “only on the first night [of Chanukah], for happy new beginnings,” Temple of Israel Rabbi, Rita Sherwin, said. In ad-dition to these prayers, the Jewish population eat bread and say blessings with each meal they partake in. The first night service consisted of: the three blessings, din-ner, the donation, and ser-vice. The dinner included: brisket, applesauce, potato latke, and broccoli. The po-tato latke is also referred to as a potato pancake, the latke is dipped in either applesauce or sour cream. With the food came water, wine, and various juices. The synagogue’s Chanukah service, which was Friday, December 11, at 6:00 p.m. was almost completely con-ducted in song, and consist-ed of the lighting of the Sha-bat candles (lit every Friday night by the children). There was prayer, singing, and sto-ry telling. Many ceremonial events took place as well. One such ceremony included the To-rah, or Jewish Bible. The Torah was uncovered and taken around the room, to the end of each row

of seats. When the Torah passed, members of the congregation touched the scroll, then touched their fingers to their lips. The service ended with a prayer for the souls of departed ancestors.

A traditional domestic Kwanzaa arrangement. Photo taken by Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/MCT

and history,” former President George W. Bush said in his 2004 Presidential Kwanzaa mesage. Kwanzaa is primarily celebrat-ed in the United States, and many Christian African-Americans cel-ebrate both Kwanzaa and Christ-mas. For the duration of the seven days, famillies usually decorate their homes with colorful African cloths and fresh fruits, which sym-bolize African idealism. Kwan-zaa ceremonies sometimes entail drumming, a reading of the “Af-rican Pledge”, and a big feast .

Kwan-zaa was m u c h m o r e recently c rea ted t h a n

Christmas or other winter holi-days, having only been invented in 1966. Because of its short his-tory, Kwanzaa has sometimes been criticized as being irrelevant to African culture and heritage. According to the official Kwan-zaa website, Kwanzaa is a living cultural tradition which reflects the best of African thought and practice in its reaffirmation of the dignity of the human person in community and culture, the well-being of fam-ily and community, the integrity of the environment and our kin-ship with it, and the rich resource and meaning of a people’s culture.

“Kwanzaa celebrations provide an opportunity to focus on family, community, and history.”-Former Pres. George W. Bush

From lighting candles to herding cats, the season of giving is more than the man in the red suit and presents under the tree

11twitter.com/khsprairienews Feature

visit to synagogue opens eyes to chanukah

Cat Herders Day is day set aside for people with stressful jobs. You know, the jobs that feel like herding cats. This is a day when employees and employers are encouraged to sneak out of work and go to the nearest bar, or in the case of students, to the nearest Starbucks or mall. This day is celebrated December 15. The expression “cat herding” refers to a task that is extreme-ly difficult or impossible to do. This day conveniently comes at the time of year while people are in the midst of preparing for the holidays, when people feel like they are chasing after a bunch of difficult, single-minded cats. The holiday was started by a couple in California, who have come up with many other whim-sical holidays. It has since grown into a national holiday, which is not widely known. “No, no idea at all,” at what Cat Herder’s day is, Speech and Debate coach, Mrs. Teresa Sparkman said. Sparkman said her job was like herding cats after a speech and de-bate tournament. “Trying to leave

and trying to get everyone in the same place to count them and try-ing to get on the bus,” is like herd-ing cats. Sparkman said they are great kids, but “they won’t stay still and are doing their own thing. I guess knowing there is this holiday makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, glad to know I’m not alone,” Sparkman added. Art teacher, Mr. Steve Fielding thought that Cat Herder’s day “goes along with the Superbowl commer-cials,” for EDS, an HP company. “It’s probably a good thing [teachers] have the cat herd-er’s mentality,” Fielding said. “We get paid to do this.” Coordinator of Site Interventions at Kickapoo, Mrs. Tammy Quinn, also had no idea what Cat Herd-er’s Day was. All she said was, “I know it must be very difficult.” Although happy to be here, Quinn said that “rounding up kids for truancies,” is like herding cats. “I think it’s kinda funny, every-one thinks their job in life is hard-er than everyone else’s,” Quinn said about Cat Herder’s Day.

The cat is out of the bagBy Courtney Hamilton

Among thousands of Latin holidays is December 12th’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Day. In Mexico this day celebrates the country’s patron saint. Dancing, music, and a spe-cial mass are held in her honor. As with all Latin holidays, there is a lot of history behind the celebration. The legend says that on December 12, 1531 Juan Diego was walking near Mexico City, Mexico and Our Lady of Guadalupe (or the virgin Mary) appeared. However, the reason that her appearance is so spe-cial is that instead of the pale-skinned Mary that was depicted by the European settlers, she had an olive complexion and spoke to Diego in his native language. She instructed him to build a church. Diego then went to the bishop to ask permission. “After politely refusing several times, the bishop finally asked for proof [of the sighting]. Our Lady of Guadalupe then produced roses for him to give to the bishop (it was winter),” junior Arandi Lo-pez said. When Diego tried to show the roses to the bishop, they fell from his tilma, or cloak, and a beautiful image of the vir-gin appeared upon it. The bishop

then agreed to build a church. The tilma with the miracu-lous image is still on display in Mexico City’s Nueva Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The original church structure, the An-tigua Basillica, still stands, but due to increased congregation size and aging foundation the main sight is the Nueva Basilica. The cloak is incased behind bul-letproof glass above the church’s altar. There are moving walk-ways underneath the image to al-low visitors to pass by as many times as they like. Phillip Serna Callahan studied the cloak in 1981 using infrared rays, and claimed that the image seemed to have been painted in one stroke. There are other interest-ing facts about the image online. Diego became a saint in 2002, making him the only Mexican to be a saint. Each year, thousands of believers make a pilgrimage to the basilica to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Some of these pilgrims travel for miles crawling on their knees in hum-bleness. There is much prayer, and the virgin is said to cure illness, attracting many hopeful believ-ers. This day is very important to the heritage of Latin Americans.

Mysterious Latin legend draws millions of pilgrims to shrineBy Lauren Davison

All photos from MCT campus and cartoon illlustration by Logan Voss

The prayer is said at every ser-vice, and is in remembrance of any death anniversaries that might have occurred in the week. The songs were all a variation of God’s love, his grace, his re-

demption, and obeying his laws. Though there was a distinct divi-sion between songs and prayers, most of the service was sung. The small time frames without singing were when the congre-gation would answer the Rabbi in either He-brew or English. Not all tra-ditions start at birth, how-ever, as some of the Jewish population are not born into the Jewish reli-gion. “My mother was Jew-ish, my father was a funda-mentalist, my father made my mother go to a fundamentalist church. When I was about 14, I went to the Jewish temple to [know my Jewish roots],” OTC freshman Chelsea Hottel said, who lives with Sherwin. Hottel is not the only one who joined the temple at a later date; OTC sophomore Josh Jurin has been attending since he was about five. He most enjoys “lighting the candles each night and say-ing the blessing. It reminds me of when I was younger,” he said. Jurin and his sister grew up under both the Jewish tradi-tions and Presbyterian tradi-tions, as his father is Jewish and his mother is Presbyterian. The Temple’s rabbi closes the service by inviting every-one to the dessert. The kids “love [Sherwin], they abso-lutely love her. She lets them

do so much,” communication arts teacher, Mrs. Nancy Bright-Kaufman said of her rabbi. Due to it being Chanukah, there were menorahs on every table, with at least one for each family. In comparison to the tra-

ditional me-norahs there were also some shaped like play-ing children, singing an-gels, candle

holders, even paint sets and crayons. Some even held the Star of David, another Jewish symbol. The Star of David is, according to one legend, mod-eled after King David’s shield. From the times of B.C. to present, the beliefs are still the same, and so is the prac-tice of celebrating that fate-ful night many years ago when the oil, which was supposed to last only one day, lasted eight

From lighting candles to herding cats, the season of giving is more than the man in the red suit and presents under the tree

...the practice of celebrating... when the oil, which was sup-

posed to last only one day, lasted eight.

12 December 22, 2009khsprairienews.comFeature

What does the year 2012 mean for planet Earth? Will it be the end?

By Jennifer Myers

Graphic by Rick Nease/Detroit Free Press/MCT

“It’s the end of the world as we know it!” sings R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe in the 1980’s hit with the same title. Will the world as we know it really come to an end in the near future? Mention the word ‘apocalypse’ in any public place, and heated de-

bates will undoubtedly rise. The end of the world is a pretty dif-ficult concept to wrap one’s head around. Nobody knows exactly when it will take place, but there have been many speculations and theories as to the date of earth’s impending doom. According

to the ancient Mayan calendar, the world’s scheduled demoli-tion day is December 21, 2012, three years from this December. So how did the Mayans, an an-cient Mesoamerican civilization, develop this theory? The Ma-yans kept records of time based on three calendars, one of which contained the “Long Count,” or the period of the beginning of time to the end. Based on this calculated number of years, the end will come on the 21st of the twelfth month of 2012, which also happens to be the date of the annual winter solstice. With their mysterious per-ception of time, the Mayans found ways to predict linear re-lationships between events that would occur in time. Their vast knowledge of astronomy and su-pernatural beliefs passed down from generation to generation combined to help them predict important celestial events. Their findings told them that on that day in 2012, the Sun would come to a place between the Milky Way and the equinox, making the galaxy perfectly aligned. For years many scientists, historians, and religious fanat-ics have wondered about the re-liability of the Mayan calendar; they were an incredibly advanced civilization, but some, like Ian O’Neill, from universetoday.com have serious doubts. “The Mayan Prophesy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out,” O’Neill said. “When something

ends (even something as in-nocent as an ancient calendar), people seem to think up the most extreme possibilities for the end of civilization as we know it.” Historians and scientists have tried to analyze the ancient prophesy for centuries, but it is unclear exactly what the “end of the world” as predicted by the Mayans would entail. Some

photo from MCT direct

believe it to mean that it will be the C h r i s t i a n J u d g m e n t Day, the day of Je-sus Christ’s return to Earth. Oth-ers believe that a nu-clear war or some natural disaster will eradicate the human race. Still others think the universe will just cease to exist. Exactly what the M a y a n s meant when they proph-esied the end of time is unclear. In the new film 2012 based off the Mayan

prediction, solar flares disrupt the Earth’s core, and destruc-tive earthquakes ensue and wipe out a vast majority of the population. Whatever the twelfth month of 2012 holds, at least Hollywood has made some bucks off of the concept.

How to make a seasonal job a permanent oneBy Seth Seely

With the economy in the toilet, it might seem like a blessing just to be hired for a seasonal job, but what happens when the holidays are gone? The holidays have a 100% chance of leaving us every year, but a seasonal employee has a far less chance of keeping their jobs once Santa goes north and the New Year’s ball drops in Times Square. So, how can someone keep his or her job after the holidays are over? Well, minding your p’s and q’s will go a long way in your com-pany considering you for year-round employment. Obviously, if

an employee comes to work run-ning on energy drinks, looking like a dirtball, and tells a customer to mind his own business, he or she is not likely to retain their job for 20 minutes, let alone all year. However, that might not be enough. The fact of the matter is, your employer hired you for one reason: extra help for the holidays. So, in order to even be considered for re-employment you need to go above and beyond in the work-place. Most people have a generic image of what a teenager is like, and most times it is not good.

Adults usually assume that teenag-ers are rude, immature, and sarcas-tic. Going out of your way to help a customer, doing tasks before they are assigned, and always having a smile on your face (at least while your boss is around) could be ex-tremely influential in putting a positive image in your boss’s head. Another way is treat the job is like an audition. Act like you must prove yourself and earn your job everyday. Your ultimate goal is to be re-hired, so treat the seasonal time like it is a try-out for the actual thing, sort-of a

minor league for shelf-stockers. All in all, in no way are seasonal employees guaranteed to be re-hired after the season is over. However, putting a smile on, sucking up your pride, ask-ing granny if you can help her with anything, and go-ing the extra mile are things that could help you once the New Year rolls around. And if you do not get re-hired, at least you put in good work, hopefully got a good future

reference, and picked up a few bucks along the way.

Graphic by Craig White/Bra-denton Herald/MCT

13Featuretwitter.com/khsprairienews

Bethlehem also decorates the town with Christmas lights and flags, and at every Chris-tian home they paint a cross on the door. Also, each home has nativity scenes on display.In Switzerland, they start the celebration of Christmas on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Eve. They use the Advent Cal-endar, which is an important part of the Swiss Christmas tradition. Other popular traditions are the Advent wreath, which has green spruce garland and four candles on it that stand for the four Sun-days before Christmas Eve. In Switzerland, they have Christ-mas dinner where the whole family is gathered together to feast. They then gather around the Christmas tree to sing songs,

Unseen, unheard, and unknown: the struggle of Africa’s invisible children

By Ashley Dun

A child from Uganda is forced into ah horrific war. Photo by Sven Torfinn/MCT

A child has tender hands. They denote innocence and pu-rity—a life yet to be touched by the evils of the world. One would never think to describe a child’s hands as tools of murder. Every day in the African nation of Uganda, children as young as the age of seven are abducted from their homes and forced to take part as soldiers in Africa’s longest run-ning war. Their kidnappers are known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that trains the children to be killers in their war against the Ugandan government. These abductions in turn force children to com-mute in order to avoid the troops, walking for miles at night on foot. In 2003, three young film-makers from Southern California journeyed to Uganda and cre-ated a documentary that told the story of these commuting chil-dren. They titled their film Invis-ible Children: Rough Cut. The film garnered an overwhelming response nationwide, and since it was released millions of people have viewed it, including students and teachers here at Kickapoo. “Heart-wrenching was the first thing that came to mind,” said English Teacher Ms. Bright-Kaufman of the film, “These children aren’t really children anymore…they’re just like little adults. They travel at night, sleep in ditches during the day…and the only way they get through it

all is by trying not to cry.” Senior Ashley Demster, who is President of Amnesty International here at school, was also deeply moved by the horrific images in the movie. “The same number of people who died on 9/11 are dying every month in Uganda because of this.” Demster said of the casualties caused by the use of child soldiers. In response to Invisible Children teens in the United States formed an organization of the same name to give compassionate individuals a chance to respond to the situa-tion. They also created an exten-sion movement called “Schools for Schools” that raises money for war-torn Ugandan schools. Here at school, Amnesty In-ternational became involved in the program and signed up to support Gulu Senior Secondary School. In addition to this, the club also host-ed a book drive, in which all the donated books were sent to Gulu to be used by Ugandan students. “The whole idea of this program is to supply Ugandan students with a better education and prevent them from getting pulled into the military.” Demster said. Bright-Kaufman also explains that the troops target the younger children because they are the most mal-leable and would be easier to train. In the past six years, the orga-nization “Invisible Children” has hosted over 5,000 screenings of the film in schools, churches, and other venues. As a result, there has

been a massive effort to help the cause, with over 200 cities lend-ing aid in more than 10 countries. Between June 2006 and March 2008 the United States set up sev-eral peace conferences in Juba, Sudan between the Governor of Uganda and the LRA. This sparked the longest period of peace in Northern Uganda’s 23-year war, but the leader of the LRA, Joseph Kory, did not appear to sign the final peace agreement. As a re-sult, the LRA has become active

in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and southern Sudan. Thousands of kidnapped children still remain dis-placed and are forced to take part in the LRA’s activity as soldiers. “Children in the United States can’t even imagine what it would be like to be trained to kill at such a young age, and of-ten times take their childhood for granted.” said Bright- Kaufman. Demster also said that people tend to gravitate away from the

situation because they believe that it is, “so far away from us.” “But just imagine your little brother or sister holding an AK-47 and forced to murder people in cold blood.” Demster said. The struggle of the Invisible Children is an ongoing one. To find out how you can get involved, con-tact Ms. Bright-Kaufman in room 219 or visit invisiblechildren.com

By Charmaine Larson

It is that time of year when everyone is spreading holiday joy. When everyone is looking forward to their own traditions , as well as ways of celebrating the holidays around the world. In Australia, they celebrate Christ-mas in the summer, so they never have a white Christmas. How-ever, most of the Christmas cel-ebrations are similar to those we celebrate in the United States. Since it is summer time, they go camping, to the beach, and enjoy lots of outdoor activities. Also, in Israel, in the town of Bethle-hem, which is the birthplace of Jesus, they have many different religions that are of Christian denomination, but they have a celebration of Christmas on dif-ferent days than December 25th.

much like families do in the U.S.In Romania, Christmas is known as “Craciun”. They celebrate Christmas on Dec 25th. In the Romanian villages, they practice “lgnatius” which is the sacrifice of a pig. In every home, they kill their fattest pig which can weigh up to 300 pounds. They go out five days before Christmas with a very sharp knife, and they cut the throat of the pig. They perform this ceremony in their back yards with the family and everyone watching. Next, they start with a small portion of the pig that they cook very soon after the ceremony. Other than the sacrifice of a pig, they celebrate Christmas the usu-al way with singing songs of joy and decorating the Christmas tree.Senior Vito Palmietto, who is a

Catholic and also of Italian heri-tage, has a long standing tradi-tion in his family that starts from Christmas Eve to Christmas day.“We have a big dinner of nine different kinds of fish, and we go to church catholic mass on Christmas Eve,” Palmietto said.Sophomore Brett Taylor, who is a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a unique family tradi-tion on Christmas Eve. His family has a big dinner with 15 people.Christmas is a Christian holiday, but includes different religions in the world that also have holi-days around this time of year. For example, Islam celebrates Ramadan, a special month, usu-ally December, in which many Muslims throughout the world

fast and have inner reflection devoted to God. Ramadan lasts for 30 days. They fast during the day and then break their fast around sunset. A Ramadan day is about 13.5 hours from sunrise to sunset. Senior Sayeed Choud-hury, who practices Islam, cel-ebrates Ramadan with his family. They prepare foods such as roast beef, camel, chicken, and others.Judaism celebrates the holiday of Hanukkah, which is an eight day celebration in which they have eight candles that represent number of the days that the flame burned in the Temple when there was only enough oil for one day. Hanukkah celebrates the rededica-tion of the Temple in Jerusalem after it was destroyed in 200 years B.C.

Families celebrate holidays with unique traditions

14 December 22, 2009khsprairienews.comFeature

By Megan Melugin

As the leaves turn into snow and the weather gets cold, one of the best ways to spread Christmas cheer is to help someone in need. There are people and families hop-ing for a meal to celebrate with their families and presents to give their children and spouses. Many clubs at school are working with organizations like Victory Mission, The Sal-vation Army, Isabella Cri-sis Nursery, and United Way. Recently, National Honors Society (NHS) has worked with United Way. This organization gave NHS the name of an elder-ly couple incapable of keeping up their yard. “The husband just had a stroke and the wife has arthritis,” NHS President Rebecca Senn (12) said. NHS members raked up the leaves in the couples yard and cleaned out the gutters. NHS has also been doing a T.P. drive for fam-ilies who have suffered from some type of violence. This consisted of collecting toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, and any other maintenance pa-per available. They are also bell ringing for the Salvation Army at the new Sam’s Club on South Campbell December 5, 2009. Pay it Forward is helping the Isabella Crisis Center. The club is making fleece blankets for the kids at the center. Their goal is to make 60 blankets to give away. The Isabella Crisis Center is for kids who have a rough home life. They can be taken to the center for a few days until situations get settled at home. This is just a safe, temporary home for the boys and girls. Pay it Forward is also working with first graders at Wanda Gray to make the hol-idays feel as real as possible. The first graders write letters to Santa Claus and the members of Pay it Forward write back and deliver the letters to them dressed up as elves on the day of their winter party. “We try our best to not promise anything to the kids because some of them ask for crazy things like a mil-lion dollars and a game boy,” the club’s sponor Mrs. Deana Butcher said. Pay it Forward is participating in Key Club’s holiday baskets, in which Key Club receives names of fami-lies that need help providing food and presents for their fam-

Through the flesh: body piercing is expressiveStory and photos by Hannah Arnzen, Journalism 1 student Anticipation rises as the artist, whose face is nearly covered in metal studs, spikes, and bars ster-ilizes the needle. Sitting, sweat-ing, cringing, waiting. Now lean-ing back, one, two, three, and it is through. Skin breaks, and the anticipation is over. Body pierc-ing is a new fashion statement. “But why? I just don’t under-stand,” science teacher Mrs. Bern-hard said in reference to seeing a student with a nose piercing. By talking to many adults about the action of piercing a body, many do not understand the reason for the action. On the contrary, a son influenced by his father decided to get a tongue piercing. “My dad had is, so I wanted to get one just like it,” sophomore Mike Baker said. So, is it rebellion? Is it for fash-ion? Is it to make a statement? All of these answers are correct, de-pending on the person. Body pierc-ing is a stereotype of the rebel, bad

and Hearts of Fire Tattoo, the em-ployees do not need to know why. They are just satisfied with incom-ing customers, and all give a wide

ily from the Holiday Center. Cabinet members are also participating in the seasonal spirit of making those around them feel special. They will be bell ringing for the Salvation Army and participating in the Ozarks Food Harvest. Cabi-net will be having Christmas with the men and women in the Maples Nursing Home on Sun-day, December 6. There will be games, food, and music provid-ed. They are also helping out at The Kitchen, located on Com-mercial Street. “Last year we sorted food and I am not sure what we will be doing this year, but we are there to help,” cabi-net’s administrative sponsor Ms. Lori Brusherd said. They are also participating in Key Club’s holiday basket drive. No one has to be in a club or group to help out those in need this year. Many organizations in Springfield are dedicated to helping others. One of these groups is Victory Mission. This organization strives to prevent homelessness by providing emergency services and educa-tion programs for those in need. On their home page, there is a catalog that lists prices for hol-iday meals for families, ways to help provide a home for the homeless, and ways to provide a full education for someone who cannot afford it. It states prices for each item and a de-scription of how the money do-nated will be put to use. They also sponsor The Cook’s Kettle Restaurant, which doubles as a learning opportunity for stu-dents and a public restaurant. Another organization is The Salvation Army; their big char-ity during the holiday season is the Red Kettle Campaign. This campaign consists of a volunteer located at the en-trance of a store ringing a bell, opening doors for customers, and collecting change that is distributed into a red kettle and then given to those in need. There are many ways to give a little to make some-one’s holiday really special, whether that is helping some-one through a club or helping directly with the organization.

Giving help to those who need it most

girl, bad boy, punk, or emo, trashy, junky, and many more. “It makes a statement about my personal style,” sophomore Kori Chrismer said, as she showed the rhine-stone in the right side of her nose. Considering some students to-day are getting body piercings as a fashion statement, or in relevance to his or her “style” those state-ments do not hold their justice when it comes to looking at teen magazines. People do not see a model with a nose ring in “Teen Vogue” or “Seventeen Magazine.” Why? It may go back to stereo-types, or it may just be “play-ing it safe” in hte fashion world. “Although I was disappointed with my child’s decision, I did grant permission for him,”a par-ent said. The big question seems to be “why?” Why this? Why that? But is that not a question with an infinite number of answers? Why? For places such as Next Genera-tion Tattoo, Miller Cotton’s Tattoo,

selection of piercing rings and studs. Next Generation is located at 1231 E. Republic Rd. They put

high value on being sanitary. Someone under the age of 18 needs a parent to fill out a consent form before the needle hits the skin. Hearts of Fire Tattoo also needs

parental consent depending on what kind ofpiercing if under the age of 18. Hearts of Fire Tattoo is located at 212 W. McDaniel Street.

Miller Cotton’s Tattoo, locat-ed at 1447 S. Glenstone, is strict on parental consent. Children need a parent with them at the time of the piercing, both with ID’s and birth certificates, as pr-rof of being child and guardian. These stores are strict when it comes to parental consent because “there are several risks (such as scarring and infections) when get ing a body piercing,” Next Gen-eration employee, Shane Sparks, said. When taking a piercing out, scarring varies, depending specifi-cally on the person and their skin. Also, a person may pass out due to an adrenaline rush. “Almost 90% of people who pass out from a body piercing is from build-

Junior Chenoa Gwynn

Freshman Colton Hughes

ing up a lot of adrena-line, thinking it will be the worst feeling in the world, and then after it is over, the adrenaline is still high after being re-lieved, making a person pass out,” Sparks said. Junior Ellie Weaver had a first-hand experi-ence seeing one of her friends pass out from a nose piercing before getting her nose done as well. “Seeing her pass out right in front of me made me feel a little nervous to get mine done,” Weaver said. With parental con-sent, for anyone under

18, and about $20-60 to pay, a person is well on their way to get-ting what they want.

Sophomore Kori Chrismer

15Featuretwitter.com/khsprairienews

Top 10 indoor activities for winter breakBy Katie Battalia

1. Get a big group together and play a board game. There are plenty of board games out there made for an older age group. Try Apples to Apples to create friendly competition, Taboo for some laughs, or Scene It to show off your movie knowledge.

2. Have a movie night. Pick a theme for the night, such as scary movies or every mov-ies your favorite actor/actress has starred in. You can go all out and decorate your house to match your theme or make it a simpler event. And make sure you have plenty of popcorn!

3. Have a Wii Sports com-petition. Find a friend that owns a Wii and make up your own bracket. Each participant pays a couple dol-lars to enter, which goes towards purchasing a prize for the winner.

4. Have a dinner party. In-vite a large group of people over and have everyone dress up. Cook the main dish and have each of your guests bring a side dish. Make sure to use good dishes and decorate the dining table. Or if you want a simpler dinner, buy several loaves of French bread and make pizza. Let each person pick his or her toppings and enjoy!

5. Have a girls only (sorry boys) spa night at your house. Do homemade facials, mani-cures, and pedicures. Buy sev-eral magazines for ideas and tips.

6. Go ice-skating with your significant other or a group of friends at Jordan Valley Ice Park. Even though it is a tradi-tional winter activity, it is still fun!

7. Make a time capsule. Have each one of your friends put in an object that means a lot to them, such as a trophy or old jersey and write where they see themselves in 10 years. Bury or hide the cap-sule and agree to open it in 2019.

8. Join an aerobics, yoga, boxing, or dance class with your friends. You will get ex-ercise and have fun at the same time. By joining a class with a friend, it will keep you motivated and encourage you to not quit.

9. Take a few hours out of your busy day and volunteer at a food or clothing bank, an animal shelter, or a retirement home. They need a lot of help in the winter, and you will feel good helping others.

10. Have a clothing swap party. Each person brings clothes and accessories they don’t want anymore and trades them with friends for things they do want. It is like free shopping!

From top left: photo by Eric Paul Zamora/Fresno Bee/MCT;photo taken by Tom Wallace/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT;photo taken by Dan Rosenstrauch/Contra Costa Times/MCT

W a y s t o s p e n d N e w Ye a r ’ s E v eBy Joel Ferris

Winter is here, which means goodbye to the nice, crisp days of fall and hello to heavy jackets and scarves. Sometimes winter seems to drag on and on, but there are several fun indoor activities you can do with your friends to pass the time away.

1. Stay at home and study for finals.

2. Work on a petition to lower the minimum drinking age.

3. Read up on the healthcare reform (all 98,721,371 pages)

4. Make a plan of action for the end of the world in 2012.

5. Actually do those quizzes on facebook.

6. Spend your night on You-tube.

7. Try to spend the day watching your entire DVR collec-tion.

8. Ac-tually read a reading assignment from your AP class.

9. Read The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Graciano...what a great book.

10. Work on your New Year’s reso-lutions. I will; for ex-ample, I might only stop to admire how good-looking I am 4-5 times a day as opposed to 9-10.

photo credit MCT direct

16S P O R T SKickapoo High SchoolDecember 22, 2009

Coach RippeeBoy s ’ Ba s ke tba l l

When watching the boys’ basketball team take the court this season, you’ll no-tice something very different. No, its not new uniforms, nor is it the lack of former star player Alex Hall. What will catch your eye is the man calling the plays. There’s a new boss in charge of Chief basketball, and that’s coach Dick Rippee. Rippee is a 1985 graduate of Kickapoo (where he played on former coach Roy Green’s first two teams his junior and senior years,) and a former coach at Jarrett Middle School, Parkview High School, and Evangel University. This not being his first time in the big chair, he knows what he wants and how to get it. “I’m trying to do the same things I have always done in coaching: trying to help our players become the best person and bas-ketball player possible.” Rippee has no doubt of the success possible for his new set of players, however the only worry might be the lack of expe-rience at the varsity level. “Graduating six seniors last season, we only have four players with valuable var-sity playing time. However, we had a very talented JV

team last season and many of those boys are stepping up to the challenge,” said Rip-pee. “Trying to learn a new system is difficult, but the boys are adjusting well and learning the things we want them to do on a daily basis.” With the loss of six senior leaders, someone is going to have to rise up and fill the shoes. Seniors Brandon Helsel and Brandon Ridder both started some games last season and saw varsity time, as did Juniors Brodie Wingert and Cody Ander-son. Besides those four, Rip-pee says his top newcomers will be Senior Todd King, (coming off of a two year hiatus,) Juniors Chris Under-wood, Tyler Hall, and Pay-ton Reed, and Sophomores Ryan Thornhill and Ryan Rippee, all of whom played at the JV level last season. “Obviously the expecta-tions are high for any sport at Kickapoo, and it’s no differ-ent for basketball. We expect our boys to compete for an-other conference champion-ship as well as another district title, and expect them to play harder than any other team on our schedule,” Rippee said. According to him, the coach-ing staff expects their players to ‘Live Right, Act Right, Play

Right, and Prepare Right.’ “This is our emphasis for them on a daily basis,” he said. “I have been to near-ly every high school gym in southwest Missouri and have never seen the student support that Kickapoo stu-dents give to their teams. The student body provides so much energy to the play-ers and I want them there for every game, supporting and cheering on our boys in the right way and hav-ing a great time doing so.” With wins and losses al-ready under their belt, boys’ basketball is definitely in full swing. Some definite highlights this season that you won’t want to miss in-clude their appearance in the Bass Pro Tournament Of Champions, and non confer-ence games at Branson and at home against Ozark and Nixa. Either way, it’s going to be an exciting season for Chiefs basketball, so mark your calendars and come out and cheer on your chiefs!Catch Coach Rippee and his Chiefs in their next match up in the Blue & Gold Tournament, held at Hammons Student Cen-ter, on December 26-30.

by Jared Fenstermacher

Brandon Helsel (12)

Brodie Wingert (11)

Tyler Hall (11)

Brandon Ridder (12)

Chris Underwood (11)

“I think we’ll be pretty good this year. We just need to get used to a

new system.” -Brandon Ridder (12)

ferent ending to this season. All in all, I would say we can expect a good run from the Lady Chiefs this season. And not just the kind where they’ll have a good record and nothing else to say about it. I think they will surprise a lot of people who aren’t expecting a lot from them and will of course draw big crowds. With support from the community and from the student body, the girls are certain to carry on the suc-cessful tradition of Lady Chiefs Basketball. And with a reputation of being part of exciting nail-biters, fans are certain to be given a good show. Catch Coach Phil-lips and her Lady Chiefs in their next match up at the KTXR Lady Classic, held at Drury University’s Weis-er Gym, December 28-30.

17Sportstwitter.com/khsprairienews

Coach PhillipsGi r l s ’ Ba s ke tba l l

When the buzzer sounded and the game was over, the entire gym was in shock. The Lady Chiefs had lost the dis-trict championship to the Nixa Lady Eagles by a mere point, and their season was over. That was last year, and the Lady Eagles would go on to win the Class 5 Girls State Championship. Now looking back, Head Coach Stephanie Phillips is opti-mistic when looking into the ‘09-10 season for her girls. “We’ve lost senior lead-ers, and some other girls for personal reasons, but we are definitely filling those spots,” said Phillips. And with for-mer standout Hana Haden, (now playing for Oak Hill Academy in North Carolina,) no longer leading the team, someone is going to have to step up and assume that role. After going to a few of the games they’ve had, I’ve been able to make the assumption that senior Amanda Landolt and junior Jordan Graham (when she returns from a knee injury) will be just the girls for the job. Landolt’s quickness and Graham’s ball control will balance out nicely as the Lady Chiefs continue towards the end of the regular season.

by Jared Fenstermacher

The only real concern I’ve noticed is the young age and the fact that not all of the girls playing together on the court have actually played together on the court. But when needed, leader-ship shines through seniors Casey Carroll and Macken-zie Smith, (signed with Co-lumbia College). Carroll’s strength inside and out and Smith’s power down under are able to pull through for the team in sticky situations. Phillips says that she and her assistant coaches are “pushing the girls each and every day to get better and work as hard as possible.” And if you ask me, that’s all that really needs to happen. They have it together. They just need a little more time to get used to their new lineup. I was told by a fan in the stands that Phillips gave her four senior players each a 2nd place district champion-ship plaque, (all from the last four years,) to carry around with them as motivation to not get another 2nd place finish, but instead walk away as district champions this year. Well, that’s all the mo-tivation I would need, and watching them play it’s obvi-ous they’re hungry for a dif-

Amanda Landolt (12)

Casey Carroll (12)

Jordan Graham (11)Mackenzie Smith (12)

“I’m ready to prove to everyone how good of a team we can be, and how hard we’ve worked

in the off-season.”- Casey Carroll (12)

18 Sports December 22, 2009khsprairienews.com

Girls’ swim and dive team have a positive look into the 2009 season

Ah, the sweet smell of chlo-rine is just one of the many perks of being on the girls swim and dive team. There is also dry skin, waking up at 4:30 am for morning prac-tice, and the lovely feeling of being wet and cold. As the girls swim and dive sea-son starts up, the pressure to

live up to last year’s success is setting in. The girls are working twice as hard this year with many practicing twice a day, four days a week. “I expect every girl to find success, and I expect us to be able to be second in the area, (with Glendale in first) and for it to be the first year that the girls place higher than the boys did at state, eighth place,” Coach Jason Hite said. The girls this year are not only stepping it up in the wa-ter, but on dry land as well. Pull-ups, sit ups, crunches, and squats are just a few of

by Molly Greene

the dry land exercises that the girls do either before or after practice as a team. With expectations high, the girls worry that they will not be able to hold their sec-ond place spot in the city. “The girls are pretty com-parable to last year’s team, there is a lot of depth and power.” “We also have a strong group of begin-ners who are showing a lot of potential,” Hite said. With a strong freshman group this year, who is step-ping it up, during practices and at the meets as well, the

senior swimmers are start-ing to realize that it is their last year to be a part of a team that is truly connected. “I’m going to miss my team so much, because we are all like a family,” se-nior Jessica Avey said. The girls are not only com-petitive with other teams, but with each other as well. At practice Hite has the girls doing sets that include arm core, and leg strength, this is all a master plan for the girls to be ready to compete on a whole different level. “We’re going to be

BCS Championship: Politics as Usual

working our tails off this year, and going all out, all out, all out!” Hite said. The girls are also competing against teams from St. Louis and Kansas City this year, as well as local teams. Being competitive is not the only thing the team thinks about. “I love bonding with my team mates and getting in shape,” junior Hallie Roach said. The expectation to try their hardest and to be that best that they can be is what the girls swim and dive team lives by.

Picture, if you will, four people all vying for the same job. All four of them have the same credentials, and there is really nothing huge to set any of them apart from all the rest. However, one of the prospective employees has been dating the boss’ daughter for quite a long time so he gets the job with absolutely no consideration given to the other three peo-ple. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? Well, welcome to the situation that Boise State, TCU, and Cincinnati are in. After barely beating No. 22 Nebraska in the Big 12

Championship, head coach Mack Brown knew exactly where Texas was going. “The system put us in the game. We were told for the last three weeks if we won, we’d be in the game. We did that.” Good job Texas, you took care of business rather poor-ly against a decent Nebraska team (nothing to write home about, though) and were then guaranteed a championship berth. Texas was pretty much born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Not only were they barely the champions of a surprisingly weak Big 12 Conference, but to make it to the National Champion-ship all they had to do was beat all the mediocre teams on their schedule. Now how can the BCS justify an auto-matic bid to the big game? Let’s look at the other unde-feated teams in college foot-ball. First, there’s Cincinnati. The Bearcats had major wins over Oregon State, South Florida, West Virginia, and

Pittsburgh to win the Big East title. Then there’s Boise State, who opened up the season with a win against a tough Oregon team. Boise State then went on to win the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). There’s also TCU, who proved themselves against Clemson, BYU, and Utah, and won the sur-prisingly strong Mountain West Conference (MWC). So, what makes Texas so much better than these other teams? It might be the fact that they’re in the Big 12, which is seen as one of the six “power conferences”, yet Cincinnati’s conference, the Big East, is also one of the six so that can’t be it. The reason that they gained this almost automatic bid to the national champion-ship is politics. The fact that they’re the Texas Long-horns and went 12-0 puts them in the title game. No eyes were drawn to their ex-tremely weak schedule, nor

their inefficiencies against Oklahoma and Nebraska. The only times they have had to prove themselves, they’ve barely squeaked by. You’d think that would gar-ner at least some thought towards the other schools. This situation is the same reason why Boise State quar-terback, Kellen Moore (who has thrown for 39 touch-downs and a mere 3 intercep-tions), is not being consid-ered for the Heisman trophy. Voters fail to respect teams and players who aren’t on the big-name teams like Florida, Texas, Alabama, and USC. I’m not saying that Texas doesn’t deserve a national title berth, because they do. They’ve had a great sea-son and went undefeated. All I’m looking for is some consideration towards the other schools. The same logic that puts Texas in the national championship puts all the other schools in the national championship also.

However, according to Mack Brown, Texas was told if they won, they’d be in the championship and I guess the BCS couldn’t go back on their word. Never mind that Cincin-nati has a debatably harder schedule than Texas. Don’t worry about TCU knocking off big names like Clem-son and BYU. Let’s forget about Boise State’s 19-8 win over an Oregon team that still had All-American hopeful Legarrette Blount. Texas beat all of them with their wins over a Sam Brad-ford-less Oklahoma team and a weakened Oklahoma State. There was no thought to this decision, because, after all, Texas is made for the national championship. To have the Bearcats or the Horned Frogs in the big game would just be crazy. Sorry guys, your perfect just isn’t perfect enough.

by Sam Sherman

19Sportstwitter.com/khsprairienews

WAYS TO GET KICKED OUT OF A HIGH SCHOOL

BASKETBALL GAME!It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, I’m not talking about the holiday season, I’m talking about high school

basketball season! Both boys’ and girls’ basketball are in full swing, so I thought I would leave you all with my opinion on ways that you as a fan can be removed from the stands and most likely the game. So if you want to be

there for all four quarters, just refrain from the following...:

35. Sing Bart Simpson’s version of the National Anthem.

36. Pull out a slip-n-slide and play on it in-between quar-ters.

37. Intercept a pass and run out the door with the ball.

38. Bring a beach ball and start pass-ing it around in the air.

6. Give the team ex-lax brownies as spirit treats.

7. Using a megaphone, ask the coach if he’s wearing boxers, briefs or going commando.

8. Throw sausage links into the opposing team’s student section.

9. Throw sausage links into the tubas.

10. Attempt to play the xylophone with sau-sage links.

11. Attempt to re-arrange all of the fans in alphabeti-cal order.

12. Announce to the entire gym that you’re taking them all to Waf-fle House after the game.

13. Walk up and down the stands repeatedly and ask everyone what Santa Claus is bringing them this year.

14. Bring a 10 ft. tall cotton candy and sit in front of a short guy.

15. Get on the announcer’s mic and question the players’ sexuality.

21. Slap the reff every time he makes a bad call.

22. Start a sack race around the perimeter of the court.

23. Be the guy who continues cheering and talking after ev-eryone else stops.

24. Order a pizza and have it delivered to the team after the 1st quarter.

25. Deflate all of the balls at half time.

26. Yell “Bomb!” and throw a box on the court.

27. Take the white board from the coach and call a time out.

28. Bring a squirt gun and squirt the adminis-tration with water when they aren’t looking.

29. Pop lock & drop it after every free throw.

30. Yell profanity during free throws.

31. Take off an article of clothing for every time out that’s called.

32. De-pants the refs.

33. Clap out of time with the band.

34. Pretend you’re a dancer and dance with the poms during half time.

by Jared Fenstermacher

20 News December 22, 2009khsprairienews.com

Sights of the Giving Season

Visit khsprairienews.com during Winter Break to see pictures from the holiday basket deliveries.

Kickapoo students spent thousands of dollars to provide a special holiday season for local families. Many of these donations come in the form of pocket change which adds up rapidly. Both daily household items and holiday presents are provided during the process. Student volunteers spend nu-merous hours provid-ing personal touch-es by wrapping and decorating the gifts.

Photos and text by Chase Snider