issue 5

The Northmen’s LogFriday, December 11, 2009 Oak Park High School Issue 5, Volume 45

“I wouldn’t be here if it was just about

playing basketball,”see page 2.

by Alex Mallinsports editor

At age 12, senior Chris-tian Garrett bought a Toshi-ba Satellite laptop for $20. Infested with viruses and slower than a rusty type-writer, the computer ate up every afternoon of Garrett’s time for the next two years as he explored its anatomy.

Working through the “command prompt” func-tion, he figured out how to manage every part of the computer, learning nearly every way to put it together, even how to effectively melt the entire system.

ReleaseOn Wednesday, Oct. 7,

district technicians distrib-uted Hewlett Packard mini-notes to the student body. Deemed the pilot school, Oak Park pioneered the district-wide digitalization as an expansive test-run before they handed them out to the rest of the district’s students.

Within five minutes of opening his netbook, 18-year-old Garrett hacked deep into its system files and assigned himself the com-puter’s administrative rights. Five minutes before he had opened it, it was property of the North Kansas City School District; five minutes and 14 keystrokes later, Gar-rett made it his own.

While Garrett claimed credit for this incident, Skretta and other school of-ficials chose not to comment on particular students either in accordance with the Fam-ily Educational Rights and Privacy Act or in a decision that their comments on cer-tain students would not be

prudent.“We found out that

a few students had done something to the computers to circumvent or disable cer-tain things,” said Principal Fred Skretta. “It was due to the settings that we already had being too loose.”

The mini-notes included Lightspeed, software used to monitor student Inter-net use and filter content. According to Janet Herd-man, executive director of informational technology, a federal law called the Chil-dren’s Internet Protection Act requires school districts to filter Internet access for students.

Garrett, along with oth-ers, found ways to navigate around the filter and bypass the software. According to Garrett, just as he had done with his old Toshiba Satel-lite, he opened the command prompt and within minutes, shut off the restrictions put in place by Lightspeed.

“I went home and tested it because the servers here [at Oak Park] had Light-speed turned on,” Garrett said. “It worked.”

A student can log on to

the mini-note two differ-ent ways. The first way logs the student automatically into the North Kansas City School District server. The second option, “workstation only,” allows students to use their mini-notes when not connected to the main server at the school.

Garrett found when he got home and logged on to the “workstation only” set-ting he could access any Web site and even gain adminis-trative privileges. At school the next day, this worked the same as long as he continued to navigate away from the school server.

At this point, Garrett had broken the barriers which held his machine from complete Internet freedom. As far as he knew, only he had the capability of crack-ing Lightspeed. According to him, his worst mistake re-

mains as the expansion of his finding.

“It was an awesome gateway and created an amazing tool for those that would use it properly,” Gar-rett said. “But whenever I distributed it: that’s when it became reckless. What I did was wrong in that it made the networks susceptible. Although it wasn’t with mali-cious intent, it still had con-sequences.”

CaptureThe day after disabling

Lightspeed, Garrett’s name spread around the school as many students had already begun to look past the edu-cational purpose of the mini-notes and craved entertain-ment. In order to gain this entertainment, one would have to remove Lightspeed.

The second day, Garrett disabled Lightspeed on a few other computers. Over the next five school days, he and a few other students distrib-uted the Lightspeed removal to more than 60 students’ computers.

“It went from about two people requesting it to the next day about 50 people asking about it,” Garrett said.

Administration caught on to the students access-ing sites and playing games Lightspeed software restrict-ed.

“We got a parent phone call with concerns with what they were seeing their kids being able to access,” said as-sistant principal Gary Miller. “This got picked up on very quickly and there were sev-eral avenues where our folks were discovering one way or another that things were be-

ing altered.”The number of reports

grew.“It spiraled out of con-

trol,” Garrett said. “There were a lot of people running around with a lot of games. They found one of the kids playing a game and after in-specting his computer they found he had free Internet privileges and full adminis-trative power. They asked how he did it and the next thing I know I am walking down to the office with [as-sistant principal] Mr. [Mark] Maus.”

According to Garrett, Maus brought him to the office on Thursday, Oct.15. Upon seeing three of the people he had originally worked with in the distribu-tion of the code that could alter the mini notes, he knew

High school hacker cracks mini-notes

Adopt-a-Family campaign helps

less fortunateby Samantha Colhour

copy editor

Christmas time can be a difficult time for many fami-lies who cannot afford to buy presents for themselves or their kids. Oak Park par-ticipated in a program called Adopt-a Family.-For the past few years, Student Coun-cil participated by adopting only a few families.

“Last year we only ad-opted eight people total,” StuCo sponsor Carrie Mar-cantonio said. “We didn’t re-ally know how to incorporate the whole school in an orga-nized way.”

With the addition of ad-visory classes, StuCo saw a way for the entire school to participate if they wished to.

“This year we adopted six families, meaning 40 peo-ple in all. With advisories, we have a place to work through the process and raise aware-ness. We have gotten a great response so far,” Marcanto-nio said.

Those in charge of the activity include StuCo ser-vice committee members and senior mentors, led by senior Susan Leimkuehler.

“I like being able to be in charge because it helps out other people, and it helps put our school in the holiday spirit,” Leimkuehler said.

The program allows advisory classes to buy the common toys and fulfill the needs of those adopted.

“A lot of the kids want coats or hats and gloves and jeans. They also want some different games and toys,”

Leimkuehler said. “Some of the adults want hats and gloves as well, and some want diapers for their children.”

To increase the partici-pation in advisory classes, some teachers gave incen-tives to their students. Some teachers have offered to match the amount of money the class makes, while some have taken to offering up food such as donuts and piz-za. These incentives, along with the motivation students feel pushes the classes to raise as much as they can.

“It’s really great that the whole school is stepping up to help those that are less fortunate. I think that’s the motivation, to help those less fortunate,” Leimkuehler said.

StuCo set up a back-up plan for those unable to raise enough money.

“If they aren’t able to raise the amount of money to get the presents for the family, then StuCo picks up the slack,” Marcantonio said. “We saved some money from Powder Puff for this pur-pose.”

by Gabrielle Youngeditorial editor

Teachers and students banded to-gether to help outside the community with Operation Christmas Child.

According to the OCC Web site, OCC started through The Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief and evange-lism organization. With OCC people have the ability to help children around the holiday season.

People who want to do so can fill up a shoe box with gifts; then they deposit the box at a local church participating in OCC. From there the boxes are sent to children around the world who have desperate needs.

Art teacher Jamie Curtis had the idea to become involved with OCC, through her art classes and advisory. Other classes soon started involving themselves with OCC, including physi-cal education teacher, Jason Fowler’s flex time and ELL classes.

“We wanted to do a community service project as a class,” Fowler said.

Curtis had heard about the organi-zation through her church. The church set a goal to have 75 boxes; Curtis had a personal goal of 50 boxes.

Since OCC is a Christian organiza-tion and Oak Park a public school, Cur-tis sought to present the organization simply as one giving to the needy.

“I had to introduce it so students wouldn’t be offended for it being Chris-tian-based,” said Curtis.

Although the organization has a Christian base this does not offend some students.

“I think it’s great that we have the chance to give little children all around

the world a Christmas for the first time and of course bringing the word of God to them,” said sophomore Abbey Fish.

Many items were placed inside the boxes, such as personal products, stuffed animals, makeup sets, candy, bracelets, paddle balls, dolls and toy cars. The number of gift-filled boxes came out to 53 total.

Curtis’s advisory alone spent about $60 toward the gift-filled boxes.

“I learned that little gifts go a long way, I would do this again,” said senior Jasmine Vasquez. “I never thought that I would put so much effort into help-ing a needy child; it showed me that I could give someone happiness and make their day.”

Advisories spread holiday cheer

Sophomores Caitlyn Carder, Elie Rodriguez, Valeria Espadas and Katie Retschulte wrap some of the shoe boxes for the OCC project. courtesy of Jaime Curtis, special to the Log

More than 50 boxes were filled for children around the world. Everything from daily neces-sities to toys were packaged. courtesy of Jaime Curtis, special to the Log

The classes that adopted a family from StuCo were named on this tree outside the cafeteria. by Ally Sansone, photographer

Students unite to deliver happiness

District technicians delivered about 100 netbooks to the tech office on Friday, Oct. 16, and over the course of the next week nearly 400 more were brought in for maintenance. by Ally Sansone, photographer

Technology coordinator Todd Beeck looks through the stacks of laptops to return one to a student after it was brought in for maintenance. Most of the laptops were returned after only a couple days in the technology office. by Ally Sansone, photographer

STORY CONTINUES ON PAGE 6

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

1A - regular class7:25-8:48

2A regular class8:54-10:17

Advisory 10:23-10:43BIR 10:43-!0:53

FINAL EXAM3A 10:59-12:51


1B-regular class7:25-8:48

2B-regular class8:54-10:17

Advisory 10:23-10:43BIR 10:43-10:53

FINAL EXAM3B 10:59-12:51




Advisory 10:23-10:43BIR 10:43-10:53

3A regular class10:59-12:51

4A -regular class12:57-2:20



Assembly10:25--10:45

“It went from about two people requesting it to the next day about 50 people asking about it,” senior

Christian Garrett

“

”

‘Final’weeks

of year arrive

by Ally Sansone, photographer

sportspage2

by Alex Mallinsports editor

Head basketball coach Fred Turner would like to make one thing clear in his 35th year as coach: he’s not here because of the games.

Since 1975, he’s been named coach of the year nine times by various orga-nizations including the Mis-souri Basketball Coaches Association, The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and various district and conference organiza-tions.

In 2006 his name en-tered in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. As of Tuesday, Dec. 8, in his 856 games he holds a 63 percent win re-cord and he led Oak Park in four out of his last 10 seasons to a victory in the district championship and a season with 20 victories or more.

“I have had a lot of suc-cess, but how I’ve gotten that success were the teams,” Turner said. “I haven’t won

a single game. The players have.”

In high school, Turner played three sports, track, football and basketball. In college, he received his his-tory major and pursued a law degree, but after find-ing himself too immersed in work, he decided he wanted to follow a different path.

After speaking to a foot-ball coach at Grandview High School, Turner received an offer to take a coaching posi-tion at the school.

“I always thought I’d be a football coach,” Turner said. “I was a defensive coor-dinator at Grandview High School. I wanted a head coaching job though so I went to Bishop O’Hara and coached football there. I was sure I would get the head coaching position on their football team. What they needed though was a head basketball coach so I jumped in on that. I decided that to give the proper amount of commitment to the players

I would focus on basketball.”Since taking his head

coaching job in 1974, Turn-er moved from his position at O’Hara to jobs at Lee’s Summit, Warrensburg and even coached college bas-ketball for 14 years at Fort Scott Community College and then Avila University. In 1999, he came to Oak Park where he has said he will stay until his retirement. He maintains a job as a mili-tary history teacher and said even after his retirement, he hopes to continue coaching.

Turner feels the build-ing of his teams, whether col-lege or high school remains one of the most crucial ele-ments to his success.

“I try and surround myself with good people,” Turner said. “Are they driv-en, do they want to make something out of their lives? They have to care about their fellow students, their teachers. When you step out on the basketball court you aren’t just judged as a player

you are judged as a person. So when you finally select your team those individu-als have to know that you care about them and respect them as a person.”

According to senior Mitch Stewart, gaining Turn-er’s respect gives the team a pride resounding with them on and off the court.

“To know you have the respect of coach Turner is not something to be taken lightly,” Stewart said. “My actions on and off the court are the same because every word I speak and every ac-tion I take could be seen as a reflection of the Oak Park basketball program.”

In his career as the Northmen’s coach, Turner has coached four all-state, six all-metro, six all-district and 20 all-conference play-ers. From the large number of players he has coached, 10 went on to play in col-leges such as the University of Missouri, Pepperdine and various others.

“I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had some great players who went on to play basketball later in life,” Turner said.

Turner believes even

with the talented students he has coached, basketball remains a second priority to coaching them toward be-coming excellent citizens.

“Ninety-nine percent of the kids I’ve coached over the years don’t make their living playing basketball,” Turner said. “I wouldn’t be here if it was just about play-ing basketball. I was fortu-nate that I had coaches that cared a lot about me and they helped change my life and that’s what I want to do with each of my players.”

Stewart said he feels the influence Turner had on his life in high school reflects not only on his game but throughout his life.

“Coach always tells us that very few times in your life will you meet someone who expects greatness out of you,” Stewart said. “Be-sides myself and my parents, Turner is the only coach I’ve ever had who will push and push to demand the excel-lence he knows his players are capable of.”

Though Turner’s goal in coaching involves build-ing life lessons, life is hard. He hopes to push his team

to their absolute limits.“If you don’t consider

quitting at least twice dur-ing the year then we aren’t working you hard enough,” Turner said. “No matter what endeavor you’re on in life whether its on the court or in the class room, you think about giving up. Adversity is going to come, there is no choosing that. Self pity though, that is op-tional.”

According to Turner, in his 35 years he has not had a single player quit.

As he enters what could be his last years of coaching, Turner looks back on his ca-reer measuring his achieve-ments not in his number of victories, but in numbers of lives he hopes he influenced.

“Probably the thing I en-joy the least are the games,” Turner said. “I enjoy being in practice and being around the kids. If you ask me; ‘is this year going to be a suc-cess as some of your other years have been a success?’ I’d only be able to answer you 15 to 20 years from now to see how everyone grew up.”

Hall of Fame coach guides Northmen in 35th season

Over 35 years as a head basketball coach, Fred Turner developed a new understanding of the game, and with it crafted a vocabulary he uses in his perception of the game. The Log would like to thank Turner for his generosity in providing us with this list of terms.

Team PlayerBall HogMonsterPygmyRefereeDefensive StarPlaymakerBad PassFumbleGood ShotBad ShotCrazy ShotJump BallDefensive HoldingTraveling ViolationDefense

a player who passes the ball to mea player who wants me to pass the ball to him

a player half an inch or more taller than mea player half an inch shorter than me

a blind idiot who hates mea player who cant shoot

everybody’s friend (with a 2.4 average)a ball I fumble

another player’s muff of my perfect passany shot I can get off

shot taken by a team matebasket made by the man I’m guarding

holding foul by the defense that the ref didn’t callobvious jump ball

the ref’s way of getting evenhow’s that again?

Fred Turnerisms - a guide to basketball

Boys basketball coach Fred Turner listens as assistant coach Todd Marcantonio consults players. photo by Kim Shields, photographer

At practice coach Fred Turner talks to his players about being a team and working together on Thursday, Dec. 3. “I try to teach my players not just to become basketball players, but to try and be the best you can in life,” Turner said. photo by Kim Shields, photographer

by Kayla Smithwriter

In the past eight years, the Oakies volleyball has an overall record of 127-126-6, accompanied by the 2007 team’s capture of the schools 15th district championship. While most of this success came from the players, one might look at the man be-hind the team, coach Ken Corum.

This year, however, Co-rum made his last appear-ance as head coach. After eight years, having coached two All-Metro, seven MO-KAN All-Star, 11 All-Region and 32 All-Conference play-ers, Corum decided to step down in order to finish his doctoral degree.

Corum will enter his fi-nal year of an educational administration doctorate program from Saint Louis University. According to the press release from Corum, the year will involve a com-prehensive examination, internship hours, as well as completion of a dissertation

project. “I completely respect

and understand his deci-sion,” said Principal Fred Skretta. “At the same time it’s certainly a loss and dis-appointment for Oak Park. He’s helped lay the ground work for continuing suc-cess.”

This decision means Skretta and activities direc-tor Keith Ross will have to choose Corum’s successor.

Under Corum, the vol-leyball program’s annual success included the Ameri-can Volleyball Coaches As-sociation national team academic award for every season he coached. All var-sity and sub-varsity teams have received the Outstand-ing Scholastic Achievement Award every year as well, the highest academic award given by MSHSAA.

“I have enough faith in them getting someone good to maintain the success,” Co-rum said.

Along with the teams’ and individual players’ suc-cess, Corum had a bit of

success of his own. Corum was the president of the Mis-souri High School Volleyball Coaches Association, and had been the president of the Greater Kansas City Vol-leyball Coaches Association. He also served and will con-tinue to serve on the nation-al high school All-American team selection committee for the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

With his success with OPVB and his individual success, Corum also made quite an impact on the play-ers he coached.

“He made everyone work really hard and he al-ways believed in us,” said se-nior Blaire White. “He will be missed.”

Corum hopes to have installed teamwork and the importance of timeliness and hard work and effort into his team during his time as coach.

“I’m very proud of what OPVB is and my small part in that.” Corum said. “No matter what happens, I will always be an OPVB fan.”

Corum retires after eight years

by Samantha Colhourcopy editor

On many sports teams around school, the seniors step up to lead the team. While last year’s swim team had three seniors, this year’s team does not have any of

this leadership to rely on. Instead, the team relies on those underclassmen willing to take charge.

“The underclassmen have to really step up and take more initiative than they have ever had to be-fore,” sophomore Jackie Moore said. “We have a way bigger responsibility,”

While senior influence seems missing, the team still manages to come together. According to Moore, they’ve formed a bond not there in previous years.

“This year is going great so far. There’s been some sad things people on the team have had to work through,” Moore said. “We are way more trusting this year be-cause of it. We understand that we need to work hard, and we are able to help each other do that.”

While last year’s team

had to adjust to practicing with the Staley team, the teams now work together co-hesively.

“I think we’re all okay with the fact that when we practice, we combine with Staley. In fact it’s nice to re-ally practice as one,” Moore said. “We still have to com-pete against each other at meets, but it just provides an extra push.”

Another new direction for the team involves not having any team captains named and finding a new motto for the team.

“We’re trying to focus less on the separation of the JV and varsity teams,” Moore said. “We really want to work more on bringing the teams together. A team’s a team no matter what.”

Lack of seniors allows younger leadership

On Friday, Dec. 4, during swim practice, sophomore Rochelle Da-vis swims with precision on her butterfly stroke. The ladies prac-tice every day along with Staley and Northtown. photo by Kim Shields, photographer

opinionpage3

Outside, cold air blows by while holiday lights hang from roofs and adorn bush-es in many neighborhoods. Festive music plays in the stores and in the hallways. Some parts of the school were decorated for the up-coming winter celebrations.

With all of the holidays in December, the month be-comes a time of giving.

Stores put up angel trees where shoppers can choose a child to buy a gift for. Some businesses and schools set up donation boxes for coats, blankets, and food, such as Salvation Army bell ringers.

The spirit of giving has been passed on to the stu-dent body. When Cingen

Hunt, a 2009 graduate, wrecked his motorcycle, stu-dents started pulling togeth-er to raise money to help his family pay the hospital bills.

HOP held a spaghetti dinner to raise money for the students in the school who may not have every-thing they need.

StuCo took families from the Adopt-a-Family program to buy gifts and necessities for.

As these events happen around the students they pull together, helping those in need.

The students show sym-pathy and compassion, as well as an interest in what goes on around them.

The HOP project gave students a way to help their peers, many of whom they see on a regular basis.

The students who helped to raise money for Hunt provided a glimpse of compassion towards people outside of the school.

The students have claimed the school. They seem proud of the school, their peers, and themselves.

As the school year con-tinues so should the caring. It should grow and students should still care about the people around them even after the holiday season has passed.

“Last year my entire fam-ily had the stomach flu but we were still together.”

-freshman Samantha Behen

“My dog, because ev-ery time I got home he was there.”

-sophomore Cody Fisk

“My X-box 360, all my friends had it so I got one, and played online.”

-junior Ryan Hull

“My mom once got me this telescope that I wanted all year.”

-senior Caitlin O’Donnel

“My mom gave me her mother’s jewelry.”

-foods teacher Ginny Stone

Your Views:What was your most

memorable gift or memory of the holiday season?

by Jessica Nichols feature editor

Facebook, MySpace and other social network-

ing sites have taken over hours of teenage life. Stu-dents spend time chatting with their friends or tak-ing the most random quizzes available. The time spent on these Web sites can seem like a way to get away from authority, specifically parents.

It seems some parents have taken up the “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude.

Now students may find their parents have signed up for the social networking site they use. With or without warning a mother or father shows up as a simple friend request. If their child ignored the first request a second follows.

Once the parent has finally become a friend some students may find embarrassing messages on their walls. Others may encounter tagged toddler pictures and promptly remove the tags.

These everyday activites become aggravating. The privacy teenagers thought they found

slowly dwindles until it has almost completely dis-appeared. Some have to warn friends not to use profanity when writing on their page. Many de-bate whether to put up a status their parents may try to find a deeper meaning from.

Although parents seem annoying and bring the level of freedom down, the social networking sites become a safer place as parents become mem-bers. As they watch what their children say and what others say to them, they learn things they may not have known before and see who their chil-dren have added as friends.

In the end, the irritating actions of parents bal-ances with the safety many of them try to provide by joining the social networking sites.

Teenagers still have their freedom, even if it may seem well guarded. Facebook and MySpace still have new, teen members even though the rate of adult members has grown. Students still chat with friends and change their statuses they just have to learn how to deal with the watching eyes of their parents.

Parents invade teen social networks to protect children

LOG’S VIEW: School gives back during the season of giving

“The Northmen’s Log” is published 10 times during the school year. “The Log” is a student forum for expression; it is pro-duced by students for students.

“The Log” accepts letters to the editor in rooms E133 or E134 or [email protected]. Letters cannot exceed a length of 350 words. We will not run letters that are libelous, obscene, or that may cause a verifiable disruption of the education pro-cess of Oak Park. Letters must be signed.

Advertisers may contact the business manager at 413-5352, or 825 N.E. 79th Terrace, Kansas City, MO, 64118.

Opinions expressed in “The Log” do not reflect staff endorsements of that prod-uct or service.

“The Log” is a member of NSPA, MIPA and Quill and Scroll International Honor-ary Society for High School Journalists. “The Log” is affiliated with JEA and JEM-KC.

The Northmen’s Log Staff & Policies

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by Courtney Kelleylifestyles editor

Among our students, thieves have risen. Many report cell phones, iPods and money as stolen these days, among other items.

“I was only upset that I didn’t have my phone anymore but also that I couldn’t trust anyone in a place where I should be able to feel safe,” junior Sa-vanna Peterson said.

The security cameras across the school inside and out can make it easier to figure out crimes that could happen in the future.

Students predominately report

electronics disappearing. Often these students don’t get to reclaim these.

“Students are not even supposed to have electronics in school, as said in the student handbook,” school resource officer Scott Archer said. “Therefore break ins and reports on stolen items are not the school’s responsibility.”

Students suffer from vehicle break-ins as well.

The Student/Parent Handbook states that if a car gets broken into OP and the North Kansas City School Dis-trict assume no liability for theft, acci-dental, or intentional damage to any vehicle or its contents while on NKCSD property. Persons parking their vehi-

cles on North Kansas City School Dis-trict premises do so at their own risk.

“Students are responsible for tak-ing precautions to protect their posses-sions from theft.”

If one hands out their locker com-bination to friends, the fate of their belongings falls to their responsibility.Also stated in the Handbook.

Be responsible and if you find something not belonging to you, return it to the office where it will be placed into lost and found, saving a lot of heart ache and creating a more trustworthy learning environment.

Thieves snatch others belongings

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Senior Drew Blanton cooks for the HOP spaghetti dinner on Thurs-day, Nov. 19. This was a fundraiser for the club; people had to buy $5 tickets in advance or $6 at the door to get in. by Autumn Daugh-erty, special to the Log

Skipping threatens students future choices by Kayla Smith

writer

Skipping class has become completely normal for many high school students.

Students find any reason to skip a class they see as bor-ing or useless. This destructive decision can damage or other-wise ruin a student’s chance of graduating successfully.

The majority of students who feel the need to skip a class or two simply don’t care. They think the class or classes they

decide to skip have no real life value. Some think that since they will never use the infor-mation again after high school, they have no need to sit in a classroom for more than 80 minutes.

However, these people may find themselves making a big mistake.

While some of the informa-tion they learn may never come up again after high school, at-tending classes plays a bigger role for their future.

The greatest reason for kids

to attend school doesn’t center around only bettering them-selves mentally with informa-tion, but that they better them-selves as human beings.

In a school environment, students learn right from wrong and good character traits, and basically how to act like a re-sponsible adult.

While perfection lies in no one, and we all have things to improve on, these few individu-als who see class as not worth their time show that they may need the life lessons more than

most.Not only do classes prepare

students for the future, but not passing them can greatly af-fect their chances of landing a job as an adult. Many employ-ers will not hire someone with a poor high school grade record, because of the apparent lack of work ethic.

Skipping classes can dam-age a student’s chance at a great future. Many students, sit in a classroom and listen to lectures, pay a small price for a better and brighter future.

District mandates ‘mini’ use policy

by Johnna Hensley

Editor-in-Chief & Photo EditorGina Drapela

Opinion EditorGabrielle Young

Sports EditorAlex Mallin

Entertainment EditorMandy Nichols

Lifestyles EditorCourtney Kelley

Feature EditorJessica Nichols

Copy EditorSamantha Colhour

CartoonistJohnna Hensley

WritersCourtney LightKim ShieldsKayla Smith

PhotographerAlly SansoneKim Shields

AdviserChristina Geabhart

featurespage4


We have come upon that time of the year again, the season that covers all five of the senses. The sound of Christmas jingles, the smell of just baked Santa cook-ies, the sweet taste of candy canes, the sight of wrapped gifts under the tree and the touch of snow.

With this season of joy

and happiness, comes the controversy that still stirs up every year whether or not the appropriate saying will be “Merry Christmas,” or “Happy Holidays.”

I personally find the concept that a worker in the public field, like teach-ers have to say “Happy Hol-idays,” ridiculous.

They should be able to say whichever they prefer. The goal they set in place centers on being politically correct.

If being politically cor-rect means not saying “Mer-ry Christmas,” what about those who don’t celebrate any holidays? Have we still been politically correct by saying “Happy Holidays?” This purpose of being politi-cally correct has then been defeated.

People should have the

freedom to say whichever saying they want. The rea-son “Merry Christmas,” has to receive removal from public workers’ vocabulary, has to do with the fact the bases of the holiday Christ-mas, comes from the birth of Jesus Christ, considered therefore as a religious holi-day.

In the hallways Christ-mas jingles play throughout the day, seeming to scream out, “Merry Christmas,” but teachers still do not have the ability to freely say “Merry Christmas.”

The First Amendment gives the right to freedom of speech; this right should extend to those who want to say “Merry Christmas,” in the public field.

As for myself I’ll joyfully say “Merry Christmas,” to each person passing.

by Mandy Nicholsentertainment editor

Many people have turned away from the Lin-coln logs this year, opting to receive gifts with practical applications.

Some students look to-ward their future when scrawling down their wish list.

“I want some money to put into savings for college,” said junior Hannah Horow-itz.

Electronic gadgets help run the lives of many these days. Students and teach-ers alike look to such appli-cations to fulfill their winter needs.

Business education teacher Lesley Martin wants a video recorder for the yuletide season.

“I just always find other

things to spend my money on,” Martin said. “It’s a want, not a need.”

“I want a cellular de-vice,” said senior Kaylee Sto-ber. “Mine fell in the toilet.”

To combat the chilly winds of winter months, others look to comfort and warmth as potential prod-ucts of the holiday season.

“I would like a new coat because I like to stay warm for the winter,” said senior Susan Liemkueler.

“I want coats and warm sweaters, maybe some boots and warm socks,” said fresh-man Emma Kitelinger. “My coat is really bulky, so I need a new one.”

Senior Mitch Stewart en-tertains the idea of a “Snug-gie.”

“It’s comfy and has a pocket for my remote,” Stewart said.

There remain other sub-stitutes for toys as gift op-tions.

“I hope to get some point shoes for ballet,” Horowitz said.

“I’m saving up to get a car, so money would be good,” said freshman Con-nor Wolenski.

Students have found re-placements for game systems and movies under the tree, whatever purpose they may serve.

Political correctness defeats purpose in holiday season

Gifts provide more

Holidays Diversify

by Courtney Light

writer

The glow from the single lit candle of the Meno-rah in the foyer shines brightly through the front door a

neighboring Jewish family. The first day of Hanukkah has ar-rived. If one looked into the windows of the home they would see

a family enjoying its December holiday passed down from generation to generation.

According to http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah, the tradition of Hanukkah dates back to the second century B.C.E. when the Jewish army,

the Maccabee’s had to fight against the Greeks in the Holy Land in order to maintain for their religious freedom. The Web site is a religious Web site which specializes in Hanukkah.

A small present leaves the hands of mother and father only to meet with the warm, eager embrace of an awaiting child or teen. Among many traditions of Ha-nukkah, the Jewish people were taught each day brings an even more elaborate gift, however they also understand the cultural traditions as well.

Within all the traditions of the holiday, the Menorah remains a constant throughout all the years.

The lighting the Menorah was important in the daily rituals of the Holy Temple. When the Maccabee’s won the battle against the Greeks, they searched the temple only to find a small pot of olive oil for fueling the

Menorah. The story was that there was only enough olive oil to light the

Menorah only for one day, while it would take eight days to pro-duce new pure oil.

“That is the miracle of Hanukkah, because it stayed lit for eight days, which is also why they have the

eight candles. And that is why Hanukkah lasts that long,” said sophomore

Alex Stompoly.

Hanukkah

by Courtney Light

writer

Walking into many traditional African-American households between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1, one would see a sea

of red, black and green colors. Fruits and harvested vegetables such as bananas and corn on the cob add to the festive décor.

The word Kwanzaa originated in Southeastern Africa, and means “first fruits.”

The glow seen from the Kinarah, a cultural candle holder, contains seven candles - three red, one black which is located in the center and three more green

candles. According to www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org, each of the seven candles repre-

sents one of the seven principles in which Kwanzaa celebrants believe construct their lives.

Established during the Black Freedom Movement in 1966, Kwanzaa symbolizes morals, ethics, self-determination and unity.

In Kwanzaa, unlike most other major holidays, the celebrants have specific rules mandatory to follow to be traditionalists.

The Web site went on to say, profound respect for the values, symbols and practices are a must. A direct reflection of disrespect against the celebration includes violations of the integrity, beauty and expansive meanings.

Secondly, mixing the Kwanzaa holiday or any symbols, values and practices with any other culture violates the principles of self-determi-nation and thus violate the integrity of the holiday.

Lastly, celebrants choose what they believe to be the most appropriate items to celebrate Kwanzaa. Normally they take

their time to plan and select traditional objects of art, Afri-can cloth, fresh fruits and vegetables and many more.

By following the guidelines celebrants show their African culture and commitment to the

holiday in what they consider to be the best way.

Kwanzaa


The 25th of December marks the day of Christ-mas, a holiday celebrated by many dating back to A.D. 350.

According to thehistoryofchristmas.com, the story of Christmas started with the virgin Mary and Joseph. Mary was told

by the angel Gabriel that she would give birth to God’s son and name him Jesus. While Mary and Joseph journeyed to Bethlehem, Mary need-

ed a place to stay and all of the inns were full.They found a stable where they stopped to rest. Mary then gave birth to Jesus in the stable a few hours later,

wrapping him in strips of cloth and hay. The tradition of celebrating Christmas has not always been around. “The tradition of Christmas (like most ‘Christian’ holiday traditions) was actu-

ally introduced by the Roman Catholic Church around 350-400 A.D. under Con-stantine,” said Kent Liles, high school pastor at Kansas City Baptist Temple. “The basic idea was to marry pagan traditions with Christian themes in order to appeal to the masses. The actual term “Christmas” is simply the compound of Christ’s Mass.”

The celebration of Christmas continues today, adapting different traditions through the years to celebrate this holiday.

“Some family traditions we have watching football, having a too big dinner and Christmas Eve service at 11,” said sophomore Leah Frisby.

The Christmas holiday has transformed much over time. “Over the centuries, various traditions have been added to the holi-

day - and although the birth of Jesus is universally celebrated by the Church during this time of year, it is not taught in scripture nor

generally held as truth that Jesus was actually born in Decem-ber,” Liles said.

On Dec. 25,,many people will take the old and new traditions of Christmas and combine

them, to celebrate the holiday.

Chr

ist

mas

Wanted by students, practical gifts such as money or cell phones be-come acceptable splurges for some parents and adults. by Courtney Light, writer


Alvin and the Chipmunks, the

Squeakquel- Dec. 25

The chipmunks hit the books as they head off to school for the first time, dis-covering a female version of their pop-singing gang, the “Chipettes.”

The school’s music pro-gram has some financial problems, so the chipmunks strive to build up funds to keep it going by winning a music competition.

The Chipettes, Jean-nette, Brittanny and Elea-nor, voiced by Anna Faris, Christina Applegate and Amy Poehler will send some viewers back to the cartoon-

packed afternoons of their childhood.

One could see the movie simply for the novelty of see-ing such classic cartoon por-trayals in a feature film.

The new school setting of the film along with come-dic talents of Poehler might provide more than just a blast to the past, possibly bringing in a few chuckles and smiles from older kids rather than just the family that might drag them to see it.

Sherlock Holmes-Dec. 25

Legendary investigator Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his trusted companion Dr. Watson (Jude Law) set out on a crime-fighting ad-venture, as inspired by sto-ries written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Previews show a more modern twist on these classics, adding in substan-tial special effects. Roman-tic tension seems imminent, as Irene Adler (Rachel Mc-Adams), the only woman to have succeeded in tricking Holmes, appears asking him for help. A new adversary, Blackwood (Mark Strong) will make his appearance as well.

Holmes has his quirks in the tales Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, which most of

this generation may not re-alize. The tweed coat and pipe taint the general vision of this classic investigator, presenting a stuffier, more uptight version. While add-ing some action only mod-ern day technology can por-tray on screen, this film may change viewers’ perception of the multi-talented inves-tigator.

entertainmentpage5

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What actions did you initially take after high school to break into the in-dustry?

“I started breaking into the industry early on and throughout high school. I was continually writing, performing, recording all the time. I graduated a se-mester early my senior year to focus on my career.”

What progress have you

seen in your music and in your career recently?

“Every day there is something new. Promoting a new album is fun and inter-esting. I can’t wait to get out and tour next year.”

How do you believe OP helped you achieve your goals?

“I believe OP helped me believe that putting a good work ethic behind what you love makes a big difference and can mean all the world when you’re working on reaching your goals.”

What would you say to someone thinking about go-ing into the arts or music?

“Never give up and stay positive. If you have a talent and a passion and work hard, you will make it, one way or another. I say with enough preparation, that prepara-tion will meet opportunity and luck will factor in and will help you grow in your art.”

What do you think of the work itself? How does it differ from what you thought it would be? “I love it. The music it-self is just who I am, so I don’t consider it work. I be-lieve I’ve been getting out what’s on my mind and it’s getting across to people and connecting with them, which I hope I will continue to do so through song for many years to come.”

by Tatyana Pekarskyspecial to the Log

Dutch singer Esmée Denters, 20, recently re-leased her new song “Outta Here” to the States. Discov-ered on Youtube and pro-duced by Justin Timberlake and touring the nation, her voice resonates with a me-lodic and pleasant tone.

However, Denters’ tal-ent doesn’t shine through to its full potential, as she sings with synthesizers in her, edgy, soulful pop-RB style.

Her song “Outta Here” remains catchy, but doesn’t reflect the girl’s true voice. Throughout the song, syn-thesizers and pop-effects mask her voice, which disap-points one who can see her

raw talent. When one hears the song, it’s hard to deter-mine whether or not she can even sing, or if she’s a phony covered in special effects.

“Outta Here” show itself as a generic break-up song with clever lyrics and word usage. From the first listen, one can bob their head to the nice beat and seemingly meaningful lyrics. Upon careful inspection, the song becomes less meaningful, es-pecially when one deciphers the message. The shallow words make the song lose its touch.

After many listens to Denters’ attractive voice, it becomes clear that she never really had any vocal train-ing, though her talent still shows through. She almost

seems to hold onto a certain collaboration of tones in fear of going any higher or any lower. There’s a small air of uncertainty coming from her music, whether or not she’s completely comfortable with it.

Overall, I give her two out of five stars. If Denters wants to hit the top charts, she’s definitely going to need to work harder, and maybe even change her game plan.

Dutch Youtube singer debuts

Alumna expands career

Winter releases offer variety

by Jessica Nicholsfeatures editor

In Fayro, Texas, the three Futrelle sisters prepare for Christmas. Honey-Ray, the oldest sister, took the di-rector’s position from Gene-va, the original director, and must keep the play from spi-raling out of control. Twink, the middle sister, wants to get revenge against an old boyfriend while out of jail. Frankie, the youngest sister, has missed her due date for twins and her husband, Dub, has horrible pain caused by kidney stones.

The Theatre III and IV classes performed “Christ-mas Belles,” a play co-writ-ten by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, on Wednesday, Dec. 9 and Thursday, Dec. 10 in the Little Theatre.

“I selected the show last year. I was reading various scripts that would work for a holiday show,” said theatre teacher Stephanie Siers. “I wanted to give them the op-portunity to do a published play from start to finish.”

Students had in-class auditions that consisted of a

cold reading. Once casted, the stu-

dents began learning their lines and taking over the technical aspects of “Christ-mas Belles.”

“All of the tech elements have been student-designed and have been student-col-lected or -constructed,” Siers said. “We have two students who aren’t acting that are our technical directors.”

The students had to rely on one another as they learned Southern accents and their lines, trying to pull the play together in 11 days.

“You count on other people to memorize their lines and bring their props,” said junior Schyler Tate. “You can do your job to the best of your abilities, but if others don’t do theirs then your show can still turn out horrible.”

The cast learned new things and made many memories together.

“The best part about the Christmas show this year is [senior] Kylor Greene kiss-ing a girl on stage,” said senior Tara Baumgartner. “It’s unusual for him.”

‘Christmas Belles’ plays to talents

New album showcases skill


Jillian Riscoe’s claimed professional singing status for a while, and it shows in her new album, “Eleven Eleven.” The 2008 OP alum-na presents a solid album which can appeal to a wide range of listeners.

One may classify the al-bum’s style a lighter rock, but she’s not strutting a banjo either. Songs present more substantial listening experience than many pop songs, but maintain relative-ly catchy lyrics. Every song contained within this work doesn’t bring up a problem with boyfriends and how one should get back at them.

Her voice doesn’t hide behind layers of synthesiz-ing. The background sound acts as real music should, providing beats, not over-powering Riscoe’s voice.

Her lower, almost smoky tone of voice provides a nice change from the repetitive bubbly pop albums other young “artists” dish out.

With each track, one can pick up the talent and prac-tice evident in her skillful,

more mature take on this genre tainted by toddling, high-pitched singers of ques-tionable gender.

Though all songs show skills in composition and performance, none really pop out as over-the-top amazing. The album has a relatively short range of song types, each similar in “mood.” One might listen to the songs while surfing the net, rather than belt out the lyrics at a party.

Riscoe needs to have that one song which gets the public energized before they can go back through her other songs to appreciate their substance.

Seniors Tara Baumgartner and Ryan Drapela rehearse “Christmas Belles” in the Little Theater on Monday, Dec. 7. Theater III and IV presents its holi-day production. photo by KIm Shields, photographer

Buy your yearbook today!

Only $70!Purchase in main office, or online at www.yearbooksforever.com.

&Q A

hack•er 1 (hāk'ur) n. Informal1. One who is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff.2. One who uses programming skills to gain illegal access to a computer network or file.3. One who enthusiastically pursues a game or sport: a weekend tennis hacker.

information from dictionary.com

Define ‘hacker’

exactly what was happening.“[School administrators] sat

me down and asked me how I did it,” Garrett said. “I received three days ISS [in school sus-pension]. I was facing possible expulsion.”

While Miller refrained from commenting on a specific situation, he said in the condi-tion of a student’s punishment regarding mini-note misuse, the response would depend on the event.

“I don’t think the intent of most of the things we have seen has been with the intent to damage data files or to steal and alter information,” Miller said. “I think the majority of things that have occurred since the roll out of the mini-notes including that incident [that caused the Friday, Oct. 16 update] have not been of that nature.”

According to Garrett, the district decided against expul-sion because the actions he and the other students took were without “malicious intent.”

RecoveryThat Friday, Skretta made

an announcement over the in-tercom that students were to bring their mini-notes to their first block classes and turn them on upon arrival. The district planned to push a new policy, resetting the computers through the server.

“When students chose to break the acceptable use policy and take advantage of those privileges for uses they were not designed to be we had to make updates and changes to our set-up,” said technology coordina-tor Todd Beeck. “It may restrict some of the things we want stu-dents to do, but as long as they try and get around the system, we will have to keep cranking down the screws.”

During the advisory block on the recall day, Herdman es-timates nearly 20 district techni-cians visited each class to check the status of each mini-note in the school to see whether it had been tampered with and if evidence existed that the policy pushed on the computers suc-cessfully updated.

According to Beeck, ap-

proximately a third of the mini-notes in the school were diag-nosed as either being tampered with or not being successfully updated with the policy push. District technicians delivered about 100 netbooks to the tech office that day for re-configuration and over the course of the next week nearly 400 more mini notes were brought in for maintenance.

“ T h e r e were a large number of machines we believe were purposely altered,” Beeck said. “The goal was to get each and every machine back to the stu-dents so we didn’t have the time to scan every computer for evi-dence that a student altered it purposely.”

BumpsAccording to Garrett, he

served his three days of ISS and informed the district of the oth-er ways he knew to alter Light-speed.

“I had written about two

pages of the different ways you can crack Lightspeed,” Garrett said. “There’s about 30 differ-ent ways to do it.”

Though the district contin-ues to install updates in order to prevent students from mak-ing further alterations, Skretta said he believes taxpayers and students alike should feel se-cure despite the ways to alter approximately $2.06 million of machinery making it suscep-tible to virus infection.

“I’m not embarrassed at all,” Skretta said. “We expected to have bumps along the road and that was a bump. Again though it also illustrates the rea-son that Oak Park was chosen as the first school and having that as the model to go out and be a ‘pilot’ rather than going out and having 6000 students get them simultaneously.”

Beeck said he feels students have a mistaken perception on the purpose of the mini notes.

“The public did not buy the lap tops for entertainment,” Beeck said. “I think one of the things that students are forget-ting is that these machines are not owned by them. They are owned by the school district.

These ma-chines were never de-signed or pro-vided with the idea of giving students an entertainment device. These were designed to be like a textbook and the purpose of a textbook is for educa-

tional use.”

PrivilegeRegarding the future,

Beeck said he believes students should consider the advantag-es provided to students by the mini-notes and not abuse them further by disregarding the ac-ceptable use policy.

“In some school districts students are not allowed to use flash drives, they don’t get provided e-mail accounts, they don’t get to make any changes or rearrangements and some

school districts don’t even allow Internet access,” Beeck said. “I think when you go around to the classrooms, you will see some incredible activities go-ing on that would not be pos-sible without the lap tops. And so what we try to do is provide as open a machine as possible to allow as much flexibility for as many different classes and pieces of software as possible.”

According to Garrett, hack-ers like him threaten the sys-tem. While he said he may not have had malicious intent, oth-ers with similar abilities exist and the district should be wary of those who could endanger the digitalization.

“From day one, I knew I could reset the servers and I could change the hard disk. I mean there are many processes in which you can effectively melt the system and it would require full hardware replacement, but that wasn’t my intent,” Garrett said.

According to Miller, district technicians at both the school and district level and even stu-dents and parents continue to find ways to further secure the systems.

“No computer is immune to a really talented hacker,” Miller said. “I think it is consid-erably harder to get around the system than it was a month ago. The district is constantly watch-ing, monitoring and trying to figure out where there might be vulnerabilities and where they see them they are closing them up.”

In response to views that the inclusion of netbooks in a school setting as an unnecessary risk, Skretta still feels the only true mistake would be with-holding this tool from students.

“The technology that we have now needs to be a part of school and learning. That’s all there is to it,” Skretta said.

“We can’t continue going through life with students com-ing to school and not having ac-cess to things they have access to outside the school. We still have to have some limits and controls. We [the school district] know that there are bad things out there and we also have a duty to provide a healthy level of security that protects kids.”

newspage6District protects students, mini notes in future STORY FROM PAGE 1

District technology technician Spen-cer Cartwright, a 2006 Oak Park gradu-ate, works on one of the mini-notes brought in Friday, Oct. 16. “We had to log in a couple times on each mini-note and manually change the ones that didn’t successfully take the pol-icy,” Cartwright said. by Ally Sansone, photographer

with Assistant United States Attorney

Jeff Valentiby Alex Mallin

sports editor

Assitant U.S. Attorney Jeff Valenti works as the prosecuting attorney for the Western Missouri computer crime unit.

What type of crimes do you typically deal with involving hackers?

“We deal with all types of cyber crimes, computer hacking; people doing computer in-trusions like someone trying to gain informa-tion or take advantage of someone else. Iden-tity theft, intellectual property violations.”

What is the range of punishment along the lines of computer hacking?

“Punishments vary greatly. It could be as low as a federal misdemeanor which is some-thing that we may not even prosecute or it could be a federal felony that has a rate of punishment up to 40 years. The sentencing guidelines are based on the amount of loss or the amount of money that has to be spent to remediate the problem. If it involves theft of information it depends on the value of infor-mation that has been taken.”

Why are computer crimes involving hacking such a serious issue?

“The world has gotten more and more digital and more connected through high speed Internet, crimes become more preva-lent.”

What laws are in place that you most commonly use in the process of prosecuting hackers?

“We would use the Computer Abuse Anti-Fraud statute. That ranges from any type of inappropriate intrusion in to a computer or one beyond the authority that has been given to the user.”

How do you advise people to protect themselves against hackers?

“People should always use their anti-virus protections that you put in place, be respectful of the antivirus protections, keep your spam filters up, Keep your definitions current. It’s not smart to keep personally identifiable infor-mation easily accessible to others, to the extent possible, don’t make your information public. Anything you say that provides information about you, your family or anyone that’s made public is information that in the cyber world will exist forever.”

&Q A

issue 5

Documents

school server

school districts

pilot school

yearold garrett

districts students

particular students

oak park high school

certain students