vol. 44 • issue 6Jan. 18, 2013

28/7Sophomore Kylee Winters dedicates almost 30 hours a week to dance.

The PursuitIn order to enter in a spring contest, a senior is building a full-sized motor boat.

/ pg. 18 / pg. 09

SEARCHING FOR SECURITY

/ pg. 12

After a national tragedy, security measures that the Shawnee Mission district is taking in

its schools are being brought into question.

photo illustration by Mikala Compton

05 • Northwest NewsUpdates about happenings at Northwest.

06 • CurrentlyPop culture and news from around the world.

10 • What we talk about when we talk about gunsA guest columnist discusses the controversies surrounding gun control.

11 • The stalls are not yoursThe graffiti that continues to cover the walls of the girls’ bathroom is simple disrespect.

11 • Realistic resolutionsHere are steps to successfully choosing and following through on New Years resolutions.

07 • Marching through FloridaCCC students are raising money for families in need during the holiday season.

09 • The PursuitSenior Eliot Alpert is building a full-sized motor boat as his final Wood Design project.

12 • Searching for SecuritySince many innocent lives were lost in the shooting in Newtown, Conn., safety precautions have been brought to the forefront of the school board’s concerns.

14 • Sweeping the restThe custodians do an immense amount of work, but don’t always get the respect they deserve.

16 • ReviewsGangster Squad, Home + Grace: A Memoir

17 • Panels to RememberIn addition to the graphic editor’s issue comic, check out drawn work from three other student artists.

18 • 28/7Sophomore Kylee Winters dedicates a large part of her life to dance.

21 • Sports GridSee stats and quotes from the most recent and future games for each of the winter sports.

22 • 35 Seconds to ShootA shot clock could make high school basketball games much more fast-paced and exciting.

Issue 6 • Vol. 44 • Jan. 18, 2013

NEWS /

OPINIONS /

FEATURES/

SPORTS/

ENTERTAINMENT /

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The purpose of The Northwest Passage is to relay important and interesting information to the community, administration and students of the Shawnee Mission Northwest High School. As a newsmagazine, The Northwest Passage will cater to the interests and concerns of the student body. Outside concerns and activities will only be covered if they somehow affect the school or students. The Northwest Passage is a 24-page newsmagazine. The paper will be distributed every two weeks during third hour. Subscriptions will be available to the community for $25. The Northwest Passage firmly supports the First Amendment and opposes censorship. The content of the newspaper will be determined and created by the entire staff. When questions concerning word choice, legal problems or ethics arise the editorial board and adviser will discuss the problem to find a solution. In these cases, the editor-in-chief will the have final say in all decisions. Letters to the editor will be accepted and encouraged, but will only be published if signed. The staff reserves the right to edit for grammatical mistakes, length and good taste. Letters may attack policy but not people. In no way will ideas or viewpoints be changed. The editor-in-chief reserves the right to refuse any letter.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

With tragedy fresh in our minds, safety is often a nagging thought when entering the school doors. I know that since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., I have been hesitant when walking through the hallways and worried when I am sitting in class. The thought of innocent first-graders being the victims makes the facts even more real: it really can happen anywhere.

While researching the safety measures that Shawnee Mission takes, I have realized that the administration is doing much more than I thought on first consideration (pg. 12). However, there will always be holes and ways to cheat the system.

The fact of the matter is no place is ever going to be completely safe. While we love to think that school is a protected haven for children, dangers are everywhere: that’s just the world that we live in.

For this reason, the focus of safety measures should be to prepare students for emergency events. It’s highly unlikely that something so tragic would happen here, but from what we saw on every news station in the country on Dec. 14, we should never say never.

The recent code red and fire drills are a step in the right direction. While you might think it is ridiculous to practice these things in class, and although it simply seems like a 15-minute pass from learning, every safety drill that is performed should be taken completely seriously. No one will ever truly be able to predict when, or where, these things will happen.

A heightened awareness of what is going on around you is also key in case a situation like the one in Newtown, or Taft, Calif. (a shooting which happened just days after the Sandy Hook tragedy), or Littleton, Colo. The most important thing that one can remember is to look for the signs that could lead up to a dangerous situation, and to take the drills and safety precautions at school seriously.

And you should always consider the phrase, “It’s better to be safe than sorry,” when it comes to entering the building during the school day.

Sincerely,Ashlee CraneEditor-in-chief

STAFFEDITOR-IN-CHIEF / Ashlee Crane

DESIGN EDITOR / Bailey Kopp

COPY EDITOR / Mac Cook

PHOTO EDITORS / Mikala Compton + Nate

Compton

ASSISTANT DESIGNERS / Grace Amundson +

Maddy Grimes

GRAPHICS EDITOR / Mitch Feyerherm

NEWS EDITOR / Brooke Courtney

FEATURES EDITOR / Atalie Black

OPINIONS EDITORS / Ashlee Crane + Aaron

Messick

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR / Sam Bellmyer

SPORTS EDITOR / Gabby Lorino

ADS EDITOR / Paige Waltman

STAFF WRITERS / Sarah Egger, Nina Gramajo,

Haena Lee, Davis Millard + Alaura Moore

WEB MANAGING EDITOR / Edelawit Hussien

CONVERGENCE DIRECTOR / Aaron Messick

MULTIMEDIA STAFF / Hope Kang, Davis

Millard + Crystal Osei

ADVISERS / Susan Massy + Wes Mikel

CONTRIBUTOR / Kirk Bado

News

STUDENTS REHEARSE WINTER PLAY

NORTHWEST DEBATERS COMPETE AT STATE TOURNAMENT

INTERACT CLUB TO HOST PANCAKE BREAKFAST FUNDRAISER NEXT MONTH

/ HAENA LEE/ ASHLEE CRANE

/ BROOKE COURTNEY

05

Interact Club will be hosting a pancake breakfast at the Shawnee Mission Parkway Applebee’s on February 16 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Tickets are available at the door or from any Interact club member for $7.

Club members travelled to Guatemala last summer as well. The focus of last year’s trip was the creation of a community garden.

“This year we are planning to install a few hundred water filters to provide safe drinking water for families,” Interact Club secretary Caitlin Beatty said.

Funds raised at this event will be used to help members pay their airfare to Guatemala where they will work with the relief organization Heart to Heart.

“We have about 15 people going and we are estimating that the cost is over $1,200 per person. We are hoping to cut that in half if not more,” Beatty said.

Club members hope that at least 100 people attend the fundraiser. If that goal isn’t met the organization would have to pay a fee to Applebee’s.

“Our goal is just to have as many people attend this event as possible,” Beatty said.

Varsity debate team members Amit Bhatla and Mac Cook competed at the state competition in Hutchinson this weekend.

In order to qualify, both debaters had to have a record of .500 or better in at least 4 regular season tournaments. Debaters advocated both for and against this year’s resolution, or topic, which was “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its transportation infrastructure investment in the United States.”

“It was a fun conclusion to a really great season,” senior Amit Bhatla said.

The team of Bhatla and Cook finished with four wins and two losses. They competed against other two-person teams from 6A schools across the state.

“Our debaters performed and represented Northwest well,” debate coach Jennifer Quick said.

This was the last competition of the year for the debate team.

The theater department will be putting on its winter production, The Diviners, at the end of the month.

The Diviners is set in a small town in Indiana where everyone knows everyone. The small town has not had a church since the last one burned down. Then the townspeople find out that a preacher is moving there and hope that there will be some kind of church after he arrives.

“I am really excited about how there are a lot of people [in the cast] who have not done theater before,” senior Amanda Gerber said. “It’s great.”

The rest of the cast list for The Diviners includes seniors Ethan Zolotor, Peter Campain, Paige Cook and Matt Styers, and juniors Olivia Broome, Cody O’Connor, Nick Smith, Kristoph Gies, Rachael Birt and Bridget Lynch.

The show will open on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. and continue through Feb. 2.

Juniors Olivia Broome and Kristoph Geis and senior Matt Styers rehearse for “The Diviners” on Jan. 8 in the Greg Parker Auditorium. Broome plays Goldie, the owner of the diner. “My character is not afraid to speak her mind and get a little bossy,” Broome said. PHOTO BY CLARA DAVISON

IN ORDER TO SAFEGUARD

NATIONAL INTERESTS AND GOOD RELATIONS

WITH THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, WE

ASKED FOR THE AMBASSADOR’S

IRREVOCABLE RESIGNATION AND MR RODRIGUEZ STEPPED

DOWN, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY,"

06

COMPILED BY AARON MESSICKGRAHPIC BY MITCH FEYERHERM

Jan. 18, 2013

THE INTERACT CLUB NEEDS TO SELL

TO THE PANCAKE BREAKFAST ON FEB. 6

TO REACH THEIR GOAL.

TICKETS

Two students are being charged with aggravated criminal mischief after painting graffiti and anti-semitic symbols in a middle school in Cumberland, Maine. Damages at the school and surrounding areas totaled over $2,000.

— The Honduran foreign ministry issued this statement after a wild party was held at the Honduran embassy on

Dec. 20. Police investigated the theft of several mobile phones and laptops

amid claims that two alleged prostitutes attended the party. bbc.co.uk

people attended the Capital Bowl game on Jan. 2. The marching band performed at the annual Citrus Parade the parade that comes between the Russell Athletic Bowl and Capital One Bowl.

THERE HAS BEEN ZERO ACTUAL CODE REDS AT THE SCHOOL SINCE IT HAS OPENED IN 1969

In the next hundred years scientists are predicting a global sea level rise of 3

feet due to melting glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. This rise will cause millions of people in low-lying cities such as Bangkok to relocate,

as well as cities such as Tokyo and New York that

will need to spend billions of dollars to build seawalls.

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creative director Grace Coddington

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News 07

T he Marching Cougar Pride traveled to Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 21, 2012 through

Jan. 1 to march in one of the biggest sports-affiliated parades in the nation: the Orlando Citrus Parade.

“[ I was] excited and thrilled to be in Orlando with my band family! It was definitely the greatest trip I will probably ever take in my life,” junior Kristy Gentry said.

Three days after arriving, the weather took a turn for the worse: downpours lasting all day made it harder for the Marching Cougar Pride and Cougar Classics to take the streets of downtown Orlando, joining 45 other high school and college bands, floats and other organizations on the mile-long parade route. The performance was shown live on TV.

“Our performance was really good, considering it was down pouring non-stop,” junior Courtney Saylor said. “Before I could play my clarinet, I would have to suck off all [of] the water that had gathered on it.”

The rain not only caused the players to have difficulties putting out a strong sound, but also caused some clarinets to stop playing completely because the rain had washed away some of their keypads.

“Marching in the Citrus Parade was so fun because it was pouring down rain, which made it all really memorable,” junior Sara Martin said.

While in Florida, the marching band had the chance to go to Disney World, the Space Center and to experience other things Florida had to offer. While visiting Disney World, the Marching Cougar Pride had the chance to march with other bands in a short parade around the park.

“The performance at Disney World was short,” Gentry said, “but it was so cool to get to march around Magic Kingdom.”

On New Years Eve, the students went back to the Disney World to view the firework display at midnight. The one downside to spending New Year’s Eve in the park was that the band did not get back to their hotel until around 1:30 a.m. Most still had to pack and be up by 5:30 a.m. to head to the airport.

“My favorite part was seeing the light show and firework display at Magic Kingdom. They showed all the Disney characters on the castle and it made you feel like a little kid again,” Saylor said. “The worst part was not ever getting enough sleep.”

The trip left the juniors and seniors with lasting memories.

“I [was] really excited for the trip and have been counting down the days since November. Performing made [the trip] even more exciting because it was doing something I loved with [my] friends in a really cool place,” Oszman said.

The Marching Cougar Pride flew down to Florida to march in the Citrus Bowl. /BY BROOKE COURTNEY AND NINA GRAMAJO

MEMBERS OF MARCHING COUGAR PRIDE PERFORM IN THE ORLANDO CITRUS PARADE IN DISNEYLAND. PHOTOS COURTESY OF KAREN SKILLET AND COURTNEY SAYLOR.

“T he first two things people say are, ‘Wow, it’s bigger

than I thought;’ then they ask, ‘Is it going to fit out the door?’”

Senior Eliot Alpert decided to construct a wooden motor boat as his last project in woodshop.

“My uncle has a summer home in New York, and we were on the lake, and some guy was building a boat,” Alpert said. “It reminded me of something I could do for an epic senior project. I really wanted a boat.”

Before Alpert could start construction on the boat, he had to buy blueprints. The blueprints included a set of full size cutouts of the frame for the boat and step by step instructions on how to construct the boat. Because the boat was going to take up a large amount of room, woodshop teacher Mark Schirmer decided to let Alpert build the boat in a separate room off to the side of the main wood shop.

“It was a storage room at the beginning of the year,” Alpert said. “The first week of school was pulling all of the stuff out, cleaning up, getting prepped, and getting all of the dust out. Then we had to build a frame that’s not even in the boat; it’s just a stand to build it on.”

Alpert plans on completing his boat in nine months when on average, others take around 24 months. He has three class periods down in the woodshop, and spends any extra time he has during the school day working

on his boat. He spends around 20 hours a week working on it. He is currently working on the splash rail, the trim, resin, which gives it a shiny look, and later painting the bottom.

“Hopefully by MLK day we are going to be ready to flip the boat over,” Alpert said. “We are going to get like 50 guys in here to flip it. That will mark the halfway point. We are a little bit behind schedule but we are going to get it done for R&D (Research and development).”

R&D, which will be held April 27, is a competition for all of the art projects, science projects, woodshop projects, architectural drawings, and other projects.

“R&D is why I’m building a boat. It’s kind of a combination of building it for amusement, building it for competition [and] building it to build an awesome project.”

Alpert purchased $800 worth of mahogany from Dayton, Ohio, which cost another $300 to ship. The finished boat will end up costing around $5000 dollars, including the motor, and will end up weighing around 550 pounds.

“I’ve got all of my summer money into this thing already, and you know, we’re not done yet, so my parents are going to have to spot me a little,” Alpert said. “We bought a boat to build this boat, if that makes any sense; we bought an old fiberglass thing we threw away and took all the parts.”

Because the boat is located in such a small space, there was some concern with how the boat was going to be taken out of the room.

“We have a demolition crew that is going to blow up the ceiling, helicopter lift it out of the school and put it down somewhere,” Alpert said. “No. We are actually getting it out that door.”

The door is 6 feet by 6 feet 8 inches, while the boat is 15 feet 11 inches by 6 feet 7 inches. If the boat does not end up fitting out the door, they will have to break down the wall next to it with sledge hammers. Although, Schirmer is quite confident the boat will fit out the doors.

“It’s going to be a relief [when I’m done with the boat],” Alpert said. “Especially if we get it done on time; it’s a time crunch.”

Alpert is naming the boat The Pursuit.

“It’s a project boat. It’s not about if it drives when it’s all said and done; it’s the journey to get there,” Alpert said. “I’ll probably take it to college or whatever on the back of my little broken car.”

PURSUIT/ BY SARAH EGGER

PHOTOS BY CARLEIGH WHITMAN

the

Senior Eliot Alpert is building a motor boat which he hopes to enter in a competition in late April.

(DOMINANT) Senior Eliot Alpert leans against the boat he is building in the Woods room on Jan. 7. Alpert spends 20 hours a week building the boat for his senior project.(ABOVE) Alpert began building his motor boat with the hopes of using it in the future. The idea was sparked in Alpert’s mind when he saw someone else building a boat over the summer.(BOTTOM) Power drill in hand, Alpert works on his boat. Alpert started working on the boat at the beginning of the school year and expects to finish in April.

Features 09

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT GUNSI

t seems like everytime a horrific tragedy transpires, the same motions occur. A tear-

stricken President addresses the nation; the Left calls for stricter gun restrictions; the Right argues for more armaments; and then, within two weeks, we forget about it until the CNN special.

Gabrielle Giffords is still partially blind and paralyzed in her right arm.

After the Jovon Belcher tragedy, Bob Costas disgressed during NBC’s football broadcast to acknowledge the previous day’s events. During his monologue, Costas quoted from a local sportswriter who noted, “If Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Perkins would be alive today.”

According to the American Journal for Public Health, access to firearms increases the risk

of intimate partner homicide more than five times compared to no access. Costas focused on calling America to discuss the gun culture permeating our psyche. Then the paradigm shifted. It was no longer about what Belcher did, but whether it was appropriate for Costas to make remarks at halftime about guns. He was called exploitive and naïve for thinking this was the right time

and venue. Gone was the focus on Belcher; Costas became the story.

Zoey Belcher is instantly orphaned.

This is the world in which we live where a stance on a serious issue like gun violence causes a bigger story than the actual issue; the same world where,

on a peaceful December day in Newtown, tragedy unfolded before our eyes. Twenty first grade children and six adults gunned down in their classrooms. Again, a tearful President addressing the nation, vowing to stop senseless violence. Again there were those arguing for gun control. The NRA remarked that schools needed to have armed patrols to be safe, despite the fact that Columbine and Virginia Tech were already “well protected.”

20 families are still waiting for their children to come home from school.

Perhaps this time things will be different. Already the NRA is losing support for their stance, and the Second Amendment has stopped becoming so black and white thanks to the power of the First. Maybe we won’t forget and move on.

To have this conversation, here are the bare facts: 99.8% of all U.S. firearms will not be involved with any criminal activity. According to Mother Jones Magazine, since 1982 in the United States, 61 mass murders were carried out with firearms. Nearly all of them were committed with weapons obtained legally. The Harvard Injury Control Research Center concluded there is substantial evidence that more guns mean more murderers. States with stricter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths. According to the Journal of Trauma, a gun in a home is 22 times more likely to be used in an unintentional shooting.

Ryder Spillman is resting in peace.One cannot limit these mass

murders to numbers, however. This is a multi-faceted problem encompassing with mental illness, media sensationalism and the

influence of violence on young men. Yet there is one aspect that we can bring under control - gun control/access/safety. There will be those arguing guns do not kill people but people do, just like we tend not blame spoons for obesity or disallow cars because drunk drivers kill people.

To that end, could we just take away the means by which a man can kill 20 children in less than four minutes without having to reload? An AR-15 assault rifle (used in Aurora, Oregon mall and Newtown shootings) is not for sport or protection. It is designed to cause maximum damage in minimal time. While we do not take away cars because people drive drunk, we do enforce stricter blood-alcohol levels, educate people on the dangers and consequences of drinking and driving, hold bartenders who serve overly intoxicated people responsible, and enforce DUI checkpoints.

We have reacted to this potential harm, and stepped up measures to reduce its probability. We might not always be able to stop the bad people, but the least we can do besides our #prayfornewton is to take away the bad people’s means. While some argue the government will overstep its bounds with any gun control, it was not the founders’ intent that a “well regulated militia” carry a rifle that fires 76 rounds in 30 seconds. In the weeks to come, as laws are debated in Congress, one question prevails: are the lives of 20 innocent children in Newtown, the 19 dead in Arizona, and the approximately 11,000 Americans who will die by firearms in 2013, worth having that last “piece” in your collection?

THIS IS THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE WHERE A STANCE ON A SERIOUS

ISSUE LIKE GUN VIOLENCE CAUSES A BIGGER STORY

THAN THE ACTUAL ISSUE; THE SAME WORLD WHERE, ON A PEACEFUL DECEMBER

DAY IN NEWTOWN, TRAGEDY UNFOLDED

BEFORE OUR EYES.

Jan. 18, 201310

GUEST COLUMNIST / KIRK BADO

REALISTIC RESOLUTIONS

Let me preface this by saying that I love the idea that at every new

year we are able to start with a clean slate. The mistakes of the past are forgotten and goals are established for the new year. Nevertheless, I can not comprehend why we are limited to setting goals on the first day of a new year rather than at the moment we think of it.

Goals are quite effective, not just in the new year but every day. If we want to accomplish something, we should not use the “starts tomorrow” philosophy. People should aim to create reachable goals rather than plan when to begin them.

According to the University of

Scranton, nearly half of American make New Year’s resolutions. Of those, only 8 percent are likely to succeed. New Year’s resolutions are left unfulfilled because the benefits will take too long to see. This is the reason why smaller goals are more effective than big goals. As the new year begins, the all or nothing mentality dominate.. If one cheats on the goal, he will most likely quit. In order to be successful, we have to be able to accept setbacks and know that although it will be a difficult journey, there is a reward at the end.

There are several ways to make New Year’s resolutions last.• Writing down your resolution and

posting them somewhere you will be able to see it can do the job. A constant reminder will make these goals last.• Be prepared to cheat and make mistakes. No one’s perfect so accept setbacks and continue progressing on your resolutions.• Tell people your goals. By letting people know your goals, you will be more accountable to accomplish them.• Small steps. For example, instead of saying I will be healthy. You should make small goals like I will eat an apple once a day.• Schedule. By scheduling in

your reminders, you will be more successful• Do not overwhelm yourself with a laundry list of goals.• Do not become discourage. Nothing happens overnight.

After waiting for what seems like forever to get into a stall

in the girls’ bathroom, the last thing that I want to see is graffiti on the walls. To me, graffiti makes our school to seem dirty.

The graffiti includes conversa-tions such as, “I love him,” “No you don’t,” “Live Life,” etc. The positive saying on the doors are nice, making girls feel better about their lives. I liked it when the Girl Effect club wrote positive things on sticky notes. Sticky notes were not permanent and were able to make many girls smile when they read the encouraging messages.

Unlike the sticky notes, the worst stalls in the school are what the girls refer to as the “Jesus” stalls. It started out as one stall last year, after a girl wrote a Bible verse in the first hallway bathroom

on the second floor. That one verse started a chain reaction of girls ar-guing whether Jesus is real. This trend has since spread to three stalls around the school, with very little space left for more graffiti. I try to avoid these stalls as much as possible because the graffiti makes me uncomfortable.

What I don’t understand is why girls would want to sit in the bath-room to draw on the doors. Don’t they not have better things to ac-complish instead of creating mess-es for someone else to clean up? In elementary school we were taught not to draw or destroy someone else’s property because it was not ours. If we learned this when we were small children, why is there graffiti produced by high school students?

You would not want someone

to come and draw on your prop-erty, would you? We were told to treat others as we would want to be treated. We do not see the ad-ministration drawing on our prop-erty, so why do girls destroy the bathroom? I feel bad for the custo-dians who have to scrub the graf-fiti off, just to come back to work the next day to find more graffiti on their freshly cleaned stalls.

If you are attempting to find yourself by writing on the bath-room stall, stop and think about the custodians, who work hard to keep our school clean. Instead of writing in permanent marker, use a sticky note to get your message across; it is going to save the ad-ministration a headache and im-prove the overall appearance of our school.

THE STALLS ARE NOT YOURS

BY NINA GRAMAJO

BY EDELAWIT HUSSIEN

News 11

There are several things you can do to hold yourself accountable to New Year’s Resolutions.

The walls of the stalls are not a canvas for your beliefs.

12 Jan. 18, 2013

After 20 children and 6 adults were killed inside the seemingly secure walls of Sandy Hook Elementary

school, safety standards in school districts all over the nation are being scrutinized.

The Shawnee Mission School District is no exception.

According to a statement made by Superintendent Gene Johnson just days after the news that shocked the country, the district already practices many safety measures, including a “strong partnership with local law enforcement... attentive and aware staff and administration... visitor check-in requirements, locked doors during school hours with a designated single entrance... [and] surveillance cameras, which monitor doors, hallways and areas surrounding all school buildings.”

At its monthly meeting earlier this week, the Shawnee Mission board of education reviewed district safety policies Johnson, Board President Patty Mach and Overland Park Police Chief John Douglas shared their opinions.

“In times like this, it is a reaction to try and find the one solution and make the pain go away, and make sure that we never have to

go through that again,” Douglas said. “Unfortunately that reaction is often irrational and produces spontaneous and often ineffective results. Sometimes the best results come from taking a little bit of time to assess the situation and figure out exactly where we are since the events of Newtown.”

Revisions to emergency procedures of first responders, teachers and students were also discussed by Douglas in a plan referred to as the “Defense of Our Schools Project.”

“My hope is that sometime by the summer we will have a working document,” Douglas said.

Johnson also reviewed the entire district policy on school safety, including enforcing mandatory visitor check-ins, ensuring that

local law enforcement officials have blueprints of each building and dealing with the issue of secure entries. According to the superintendent, “12 out of our 33 schools have secure entries and 21 do not.” Johnson said that would be the focus in the coming months.

A major concern that was also addressed at the board meeting was the layout of Rising Star Elementary school in Lenexa. The school, which was built in 1990, was created as an open-concept school, or one without doors. The lack of doors further

decreases protection for students in case of an intruder.

“We are not only responsible for educating our children, but providing a caring safe and secure environment,” Rising Star teacher Jori Nelson said in the open forum

at the meeting. The school also has a “not at all

realistic” code red policy, according to Nelson.

“We have no first line of defense, should an intruder come into the building with the intent of harming our children or our staff,” Nelson said. “We are literally wide open.”

In response, the board has agreed to vote on these proposals at the next meeting, which will take place on January 28.

As for security at Northwest, administrator Eddie Lyday said

that only minor changes have been made.

“We did make a change in how we lock up the doors before [school] -- after the bell rings [to begin first hour],” Lyday said. “We always lock all the doors except for two on the

west side so that when people come in they have to come right next to the tardy table and the person sitting right there can see them.”

Principal Dr. Bill Harrington also sees the entrances as a main safety concern.

“The doors are a concern simply because there are so many of them,” Harrington said. “We do try our best to get around to every one of them several times a day to see if they are locked.”

Over the past week, there have been two drills at Northwest to

insure that students know where they are supposed to be in an e m e r g e n c y s i t u a t i o n . After the code red drill, H a r r i n g t o n a d d r e s s e d all of the

safety concerns that he had over the intercom. He stressed the importance of knowing the safest places to go if you are outside of the classroom during an emergency.

As part of the safety procedures, students who are in the halls or

After the tragedy that unfolded in Newtown, Conn., security measures are a major concern in communities across the country, including the Shawnee Mission school district.

/ BY ATALIE BLACK, ASHLEE CRANE, + SARAH EGGER

“WE DON'T HAVE A LARGE REASON TO BE CONCERNED, BUT WE SHOULD NEVER STOP BEING CAUTIOUS AND PRO-ACTIVE AND VIGILANT,” — DR. BILL HARRINGTON

west side so that when people come in they have to come right next to the tardy table and the person sitting right there can see them.”

Principal Dr. Bill Harrington also sees the entrances as a main safety concern.

“The doors are a concern simply because there are so many of them,” Harrington said. “We do try our best to get around to every one of them several times a day to see if they are locked.”

Over the past week, there have been two drills at Northwest to

insure that students know where they are supposed to be in an e m e r g e n c y s i t u a t i o n . After the code red drill, H a r r i n g t o n a d d r e s s e d all of the

safety concerns that he had over the intercom. He stressed the importance of knowing the safest places to go if you are outside of the classroom during an emergency.

As part of the safety procedures, students who are in the halls or

bathrooms should proceed to the nearest classroom. Teachers are strongly encouraged to check the nearest bathrooms for students if an intruder is not in the hallway. If a code red occurs during lunch, students should report to the kitchen or the gym.

Lyday also referred to the proper safety response as the laws of self preservation. He suggests that in a situation where a student is caught outside of a classroom, they should run, hide or, as a very last resort, “go out fighting.”

A teacher’s job is to make sure students are as safe as possible in the school building; however, Lyday wants to remind students that “no matter where you are or who you are with, you have to be aware of your surroundings.”

While Harrington doesn’t think that Northwest has an immediate security concern, he warns students and staff to always be aware of safety hazards and dangerous situations.

“We don't have a large reason to be concerned, but we should never stop being cautious and pro-active and vigilant,” Harrington said. “We should always remember those things.”

“WE DON'T HAVE A LARGE REASON TO BE CONCERNED, BUT WE SHOULD NEVER STOP BEING CAUTIOUS AND PRO-ACTIVE AND VIGILANT,” — DR. BILL HARRINGTON

PHOTO BY KATE JACOBSEN

PHOTO BY KATE JACOBSEN

Features 13

Q: SHOULD STUDENTS AT NORTHWEST BE CONCERNED FOR THEIR SAFETY?SENIOR LUCAS LOWRY: EVEN IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT TRAGEDIES, THOSE KINDS OF VIOLENCE ARE NOT COMMON. I DON’T BELIEVE THAT WE SHOULD BE TOO AFRAID ABOUT THOSE KIND OF THINGS HAPPENING AT OUR SCHOOL. BUT WE DO NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE SIGNS. IT WOULD BE IGNORANT TO THINK SOMETHING LIKE THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN HERE.

Q: WHAT SHOULD BE CHANGED ABOUT THE CURRENT SECURITY SYSTEM AT NORTHWEST?SOPHOMORE ZEB MARSHALL: NOTHING REALLY NEEDS TO BE CHANGED. I MEAN, NOTHING’S GONNA REALLY STOP IT FROM HAPPENING. PEOPLE ARE GONNA GET MAD IF THEY UP SECURITY BECAUSE THEY’LL THINK THE SCHOOL DOESN’T TRUST THEM TO BE RESPONSIBLE.

Q: DO YOU THINK OUR CODE RED POLICY IS EFFICIENT?JUNIOR CARLY BENJAMIN: I DON’T THINK THE CODE RED PROCEDURE WILL KEEP US SAFE AT ALL. LIKE, IN MY SPANISH ROOM, THE CORNER IS CLOSE TO A WINDOW, SO THERE IS NO SAFE PLACE. JUST LEAVING THE BUILDING WOULD BE BETTER.

Q: DO YOU THINK THAT SOMETHING SO VIOLENT COULD HAPPEN HERE?FRESHMAN AMELIA HOELTING: I DON’T THINK THAT SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN BECAUSE WE LIVE IN A GOOD AREA, AND WE HAVE PLENTY OF POLICEMEN ALWAYS READY TO COME HELP US. I THINK WE’VE REALLY EQUIPPED OUR SCHOOL WELL ENOUGH.

studentREACTION

5:30 a.m. The first car in the parking lot pulls up to the school.

It’s pitch black outside, students are just now waking up to start their day, while the custodians clock in to begin their shifts.

Some custodians walked around the mall to make sure everything was picked up from the lunches from the previous day, while maintenance custodian Troy Allen starts repairing the doors and checking the air conditioners.

“I really like the hours,” Allen said. “At 5:30 a.m. there ain't nobody here.”

Allen looked to the floor to find an empty bag of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies.

“I don’t know why the [students] sit on the floor [to eat lunch],” Allen said. “It drives me nuts. I wouldn’t sit on the floor to eat my lunch. But hey. When everybody gets here in the morning, we don’t sweep. But I know everybody has their own little groups.”

The custodians do not clock out once the building is ready for the next day; they are required to stay until the gyms and cafeteria are presentable for all of the events held at the school after hours. They start by cleaning the classrooms, then on to the bathrooms, hallways and locker rooms; finally, they set up for the events.

“We do everything from Home Owners Association, where parents just come in and meet,” lead late-night custodian Jeff Stockwell said. “[We also set up for] the different team parties that take place here as well. Every friday night after the game, the football team comes back and has a pizza party. That’s just some cool things people don’t all know about.”

Even though the janitors have the keys to every single lock, they simply can not do everything a student or faculty member asks of them; doing one thing for a student could result in the loss of a job.

“There are some things we just can’t do,” Stockwell said. “[We can’t] let a student into a classroom without a teacher present. There are just so many things that can happen and be blamed on the student or the custodian that we can’t risk.”

In the basement, late-night custodians Mike and Shirley Richardson who are not only married but also work together to clean the band area, locker rooms and art wing. Although they do not have the most sought-after job, they still continue to clock in every night at 5 p.m.

“I see people that have those glamorous jobs,” Shirley said. “[But] they might be out there the next day hunting for a job I told [Mike], we might not have a glamorous job, but we have a job. It pays our bills. We have a roof over our [head], and we don’t have to have the finer things in life to be happy.”

Head custodian Joe Ketcham has a different point of view.

“I work for my family,” Ketcham said. “I work because that’s what God asked me to do; I’m going to continue and be happy doing it.”

The custodians work endlessly to make the school presentable. Sometimes, they are forced to deal with disrespectful students and faculty belittling their jobs after they make the school look spotless.

“Walk a mile in my shoes and see if [you] like it,” late-night custodian Ann Foster said. “I do come here to do a good job; that’s my goal. If they do have a complaint, all they have to do is tell me, and I’ll try to correct it. I’m human, and I do make errors.”

1:30 a.m.The last custodians clock out of work while most

students and faculty are sleeping. It’s pitch black outside. The school’s lights hum to empty halls as the final car pulls out of the parking lot.

Custodians work endlessly to make the school clean and presentable.by Brooke Courtney and Sarah Egger

TH

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2ND FLOOR

“I wish they would walk behind us one day to see what we do. They think that because we are here we are their maids. If they went

behind us one day I think they would change their minds, because we have to do setups and still get our area done, and sometimes we barely get it done.“ − ANN FOSTER

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UPSTAIRS. THAT WAS

FUN." − JIM JONES

"The [band] kids are really good. We find a lot of them that thank us for what we do, and that right there is a plus just

by itself. Everybody likes to have some appreciation or thank you. I mean, you don’t got to say it everyday, but everybody

likes to be recognized." − SHIRLEY RICHARDSON

"All the band area people, they treat us great. The kids all great. They help out a lot

they really do. Some nights without their help we

wouldn’t even get done." − MIKE RICHARDSON

"I love my job, I really do. I love my job because number one I see you guys all day, I get to see you guys. I go ‘hey how are you doing today? How was your day? Do you have homework?’ Same questions I used to ask my kids everyday. And a lot of the kids, even if they have a problem, would tell me about it. She asked me how my day was. I have a lot of them who come back and ask was you interested or was you not? And I really am interested." − TINA GOODFACE

GANGSTER SQUADGangster Squad, directed by Ruben

Fleischer, suffers from a major case of being out

of place. Based on Tales from the Gangster

Squad by Paul Lieberman, Gangster Squad tells the story of the fall of Mickey Cohen and the Los Angeles Mob. Cohen controls all of the crime in L.A. with bribed police and judges. Nobody can touch him until the police chief grants Officer John O’Mara and a small group of cohorts the power to go outside of the law to bring down Cohen. It’s easy to see why everybody wants Cohen dead or behind bars. In the first moments of the film, he splits a police officer in half and feeds him to pack of coyotes.

The film was originally slated for release in September of last year, but due to a controversial scene of the gangsters shooting up a theater, which resembled the shooting in Aurora, Colo. a few months prior, the film’s release was moved to January and the scene reworked. This puts the the film’s release date alongside Oscar contenders such as Argo and Lincoln, making the film look comparatively shallow.

The film has plenty of excellent moments and outstanding special effects, ranging from slow-motion gun fights to freeze frames every time a gun is fired. These effects could

have made the film feel gimmicky, but their limited use actually makes scenes seem fresh and interesting.

Cohen is a the type of villain rarely seen outside of comic books. The only way villains like The Joker or Magneto is because they can play off of an equally over-the-top heroes like Batman and The X-men. Unfortunately, Gangster Squad only delivers a collection of sidekicks. All of the characters fall short of their potential. No character is fleshed out beyond the basics. At best the characters get a cliff note summary of who they are and what skills they bring to the team and that’s it.

Gangster Squad is a mixed bag. On one hand, there were superb action scenes, fantastic effects, great costumes and excellent set design. On the other hand, there’s a lack of emphasis on characters that makes film feel hollow and unfinished. As the credits rolled, I wondered if I had fallen asleep somewhere and missed several scenes. If you can handle style over substance and don’t mind one-dimensional characters with an action-heavy third act, Gangster Squad is for you. But if you want a smart, well developed, character-focused gangster movie, do yourself a favor and go see L.A. Confidential.

/ AARON MESSICK

Created, written, and coded by relatively unknown independent developer Benjamin Rivers, Home is possibly the greatest horror game of the last few years. Games like this don’t show up once every year, or every cycle; games like this popup once in a console generation. The horror experience rivaled in atmosphere and subtlety only by games like Silent Hill 2. Developed in a style comparable to the comedy-horror shareware Half-Life 2 mod The Stanley Parable, this game features a highly complex story where only bits and pieces are revealed in any given playthrough. Attempting the game multiple times is the key to understanding what happened between Rachel, Norman and the unnamed protagonist.

Atmospheric sound design make this game a horror to behold, even though the highly-pixelated graphics don’t convey horror as well as a more advanced game might. By understanding what he couldn’t do, Rivers was able to mimic the resourceful skirting around of hardware faults seen in

the original Silent Hill, with object obscuring fog that makes the game more graphically powerful.

The game is best played with headphones and all the lights turned off, just like the opening screen suggests. This is not a game that will make you scream or freak out. This is proper horror. This is horror that makes you grasp a baseball bat in the middle of a stormy night, but your hands still shake because you’re not sure exactly what you’re scared of or if the baseball bat can do anything against what’s lurking.

Home does what so few games can do: it stays with you. This is a game that’s playable in every sense of the word. It’s a game that you will want to tell all your friends about so you can talk about what your endings were. It’s the game you play through over and over again to complete your own plot flowchart. This game, at $3 for a digital copy, is worth the $60 that you would pay for any other half-hearted, jump-scare horror game.

/ SAM BELLMYER

HOME

Grace: A Memoir, the biography of Grace Coddington, the creative director for Vogue Magazine since 1988, is a must-read for anyone interested learning about one’s journey to global success.

Coddington first sprung into fame after the release of J. Cutler’s 2009 documentary The September Issue, an insider’s perspective of the leading American fashion magazine Vogue. Although Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor in chief, was the subject of the film, viewers were captivated by Coddington’s charm, creativity, and bluntness. The film highlighted Coddington’s ability to create whimsical and larger-than-life stories through her styling of Vogue fashion photoshoots.

The memoir takes the reader on a journey through Coddington’s childhood, modeling, travels and styling career. She candidly discusses growing up in the English countryside during World War II

and the tragic car accident that ended her modeling career. She documents her youth adventures in the ‘60s, ‘70s and so on in addition to her legacy at Vogue.

The book also includes comedic doodles of close friends and colleagues in addition to some photographs of her best styling work for British and American Vogue. Coddington is the unsung hero of Vogue. Her work with the world’s most sought-after photographers including Mario Testino, Annie Leibovitz, Bruce Weber and Craig McDean has created some of the most well-known photos in the art world.

An interest in or knowledge about high fashion in unnecessary for readers to enjoy this comical and fascinating book exploring the highs and lows of achieving one’s career goals.

Grace: A Memoir

/ EDELAWIT HUSSEIN

sudoku DIFFICULTY:hard

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LRSKY COMICS WITH SKYLR HECK

SPIRIT OF NORTHWEST WITH ISAAC COLEMAN

FELIX GOODMAN WITH PETER CAMPAIN

WORDS AND INK WITH MITCH FEYERHERM

Saturday Morning Breakfast CerealBY ZACH WEINER

AARON MESSICK:

Beetle BaileyBY MORT WALKER

BAILEY KOPP:

Calvin and HobbesBY BILL WATTERSON

MADDIE GRIMES:

Pearls Before Swine

BY STEPHAN PASTIS

SAM P. BELLMYER:

ArchieBY BOB MONTANA

PAIGE WALTMAN:

Favorite comic of all time

Panels to rememberStudent artists present their paneled works. Do you have comics that you want to publish in the Northwest Passage? If so, contact Mitch Feyerherm at mitchfeyerherm@gmail.com.

STAFF PICKS

28/7PHOTO BY SARAH DEAN

18 Jan. 18, 2013

28/7Everyday after school sophomore Kylee Winters stretches out her legs on the cool marley floor at the PowerHouse Dance Studio. She gazes at her reflection on the mirror going across the wall to observe every movement she does to get her dance routine the closest as perfect it can be.

Ever since Winters enrolled in the Mommy and Me ballet class when she was two she has been inspired. She then enrolled in a dance class and started competing when she was six years old. Winters has been dancing for 13 years and is planning on to continue.

“Dance is pretty much all my life,” Winters said. “It’s all I do. I go to school, I go to dance, then I sleep.”

Winters dedicates 28 hours of her week to dance. Winters dances everyday except Friday from 4p.m. to 10p.m. On Saturdays she dances all day from 10a.m. to 7p.m. Then on Sunday Winters dances from 9a.m. to 7p.m.

The way she feels dancing is what keeps Winters going. Winters does also various types of dancing from hip-hop to lyrical.

“My favorite type would be a tie between lyrical and jazz.” Winters said, “ I like jazz because I can do the tricks and the turns and I like lyrical because I can tell a story.”

Even though dance is what she wants to do in her future, it comes with a sacrifice. Winters has given up time with friends and birthday parties for dance. It is all because, to her, dance is an art.

“You can communicate through dance and tell a story,” Winters said. “You can make your body match the music.”

Just like in many sports Winters has received many injuries.

“I got a callback and we all ran up to the stage and I broke my heel and got a hairline fracture on my shin getting trampled.” Winters said. “There has been numerous times where I just twist my ankle or my back’s sore.”

Winters has occasionally thought of giving up dance.

“I thought about it before because it takes too much time, and I just want to have more of a social life,” Winters said. “[But] I love it so much, I couldn’t think of giving it up.”

All of her work pays off. At every competition her dance studio places. Sometimes Winters wins a title at the competition.

“Last year I won Miss Teen Dance for Kansas and that was exciting,” Winters said.

Dancing in front of a crowd may seem intimidating to others but to Winters it does not bother here.

“I’ve been competing a long time, so I don’t get nervous anymore, but I still get an adrenaline rush which helps me on stage.” Winters said. “Usually I just tell myself you’ve done it in the studio a billion times, you can do it onstage.”

Winters dream is to attend Pace University in New York City to major in dance. Then she would like to to perform in a show and even travel. She even would like to pass on her passion to others and teach dance.

“I’d like to eventually settle down and open up my own dance studio.” Winters said. “I pretty much want to dance forever.”

Sophomore Kylee Winters dances 28 hours a week to pursue her dreams.

Sophomore Kylee Winters

dances both jazz and ballet; her jazz shoe on her right foot, and wooden ballet shoe on her left.

1 2

2

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Winters performs

an arabesque on pointe, a classic, yet difficult, ballet move.

Winters performs

a front aerial by throwing her body into a full-frontal rotation without touching the floor.

Winters does a split

leap, a move she has learned to perfect over her 13 years of dance.

PHOTOS BY REAGAN KEY

Features 19

3 4

21Sports

LAST GAME

JAN. 11SCORE: 35-54vs SM SOUTH

JAN. 14PLACE: 2ND

JAN. 10SCORE: 55-41vs SM SOUTH

JAN. 17TOURNAMENT @ST. AQUINAS HS, 3PM

DEC. 7@PRARIE TRAIL, ?PMvs OLATHE NORTHWEST

JAN. 16TOURNAMENT @TRUMAN, TBD

NEXT GAME

QUOTE

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

BOYS’ SWIM + DIVE

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

WRESTLING

BOWLING

JAN. 8PLACE: 5TH

JAN. 5GIRLS’ PLACE: 16TH

BOYS’ PLACE: 24TH

JAN. 21-22@BLUE VALLEY NW, 10PM

JAN. 23@PARK LANES, 2:30PM

“We’ve really bonded as a team and that’s a very important thing is to be one of the team so we can push each to practice harder and do better in tournaments.” — SENIOR JORGE AMUNATIGUI

“I honestly hope to come out with another championship title” — SOPHOMORE ARIELLE JACKSON

“I feel like we set the pace with the energy we put into it, but since you’re improving all year long, it’s almost like things get a little more serious as we get farther into the season because we really realize what we’re up against” — JUNIOR CASSIE QUERAL

“Personally I think everyone on this team has done extremely well because every meet someone is breaking a personal record in a relay or individual event. Coach has been working us real hard but despite leaving practice completely dead the meets have really shown that hard work pays off. Everyone is tired but we know this is what we need to get us to state.” — SENIOR AARON BULLARD

“We’re doing pretty well, We could be better though. We’re definetly improving together. It’s a fun team to be on, everybody likes each other a lot, so it’s a lot of fun” .— BRENNEN STROHM, JUNIOR

FOR DAILY UPDATES ON NW

SPORTS, VISIT SMNW.COM

High school basketball teams have played with the same strategy for a long time. When

a team is up at the end of a game, they hang onto the ball and force the other team to foul. What if they couldn’t do that? What if they were required to shoot the ball in 35 seconds and, if they didn’t, they’d lose possession of the ball?

A shot clock is used in college and professional basketball, but very rarely in high school. The National Federation of High Schools rulebook allows a shot clock on the high school level, but doesn’t require it.

The most compelling reason not to have a shot clock is financial. A pair of shot clocks from Daktronics (the leading scoreboard manufacturer) would cost nearly $2000.This cost excludes the price to rewire the gym’s scoreboard system, which

isn’t cheap. The school would also have to pay somebody to run the clock during games, which would be more money out of the school’s pocket.

Putting money aside, would a shot clock make the game better? If your definition of better is more points scored and a faster pace, then yes, it would make it better. A small number of states use the shot clock in high school. Kansas, unfortunately, doesn’t use a shot clock on the high school level, but California schools do. I was fortunate enough to spend the first semester of this year in a high school in California, and I attended a few basketball games while I was there. The games were higher-scoring, faster-paced, and overall more exciting to watch because of the pace.

The talent level here at Northwest, and in the Sunflower League, is much higher than it was in California, but they somehow managed to have higher scoring games there. How is that possible? Oh yeah, I forgot, they were forced to shoot the ball every 35 seconds instead of running offensive plays for three or four minutes. Not only would a shot clock increase the offense, but players could learn solid team defense. It would also prevent players from trying to foul someone in the final minutes of a game, which is a safety issue.

I understand that coaches want to teach players how to run the offense and take their time setting up a good shot, but the players won’t be able to do that in the collegiate level; they’ll be forced to run an offense and shoot the ball before the shot

clock expires. Yes, you could argue that most high school basketball players won’t go onto the next level, but isn’t it the job of a coach to get a player ready for the next level, in case they want to continue playing after high school? So why isn’t every coach begging for a shot clock to be used in high school?

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest basketball fan on the planet, but I support my school on Friday nights. It’s still exciting to see players that I know, but when it comes down to it, I get extremely bored watching teams hold onto the ball for extended periods of time. Our team doesn’t do it very often, but others do, and it makes the game seem to drag on. Fans want to see a fast paced game with a lot of points scored. A shot clock would give them both.

BY DAVIS MILLARD

35 SECONDS TO SHOOT Should high school basketball

have a shot clock?

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10 Jan. 18, 2013

WHAT’S NEW ON

A bullet from the blue UNDER COVERWe all have our insecurities: mine just happens to be all over.

by Haena Lee

While such regulations would be hard to enforce, state and federal governments must tighten the reins when it comes to owning semiautomatic and automatic weapons. by Atalie Black

Find out what students have chosen as their New Year’s resolutions, and how they plan to stick with it.

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR

Multimedia:

PHOTO BY BELLA TUNISIby Crystal Osei

“[Performing was] so surreal. I felt

pressure and the need to do well

no matter what. It was JV’s first time

competing, so we had to represent

Northwest well and show all the other schools we’ve got

what it takes,” — SOPHOMORE MAGGIE MARX,

ABOUT THE DRILL TEAM COMPETITION HELD ON JAN. 2

AT OLATHE SOUTH.PHOTO BY CARLEIGH WHITMAN