T h e y circulate through

the hallways. They circulate through classrooms. They even circulate through discussions in the locker rooms.

Rumors somehow always manage to spread quickly, especially around school.

Two rumors that seemed to be creating the biggest buzz caught the attention of the Image. Here is the real story.

Senior Final ExemptionsIt seems to be an annual rumor this time of year. Do seniors have to take exams second semester?

According to Rockwood School District policy, “Seniors, during their last semester of high school, may ex-empt from final exams in all courses in which they are earning an ‘A’ (90 percent) at exam time.”

“I see us still maintaining our policy of letting second semester seniors exempt finals in classes they have an ‘A’ in. I don’t see that policy changing anytime soon,” Principal John Shaughnessy said.

Senior exams will be held May 12-14, a week earlier than finals for the rest of the school.

This will accommodate for Graduation, which will be held on May 18.

As a result of these earlier dates, senior exams will conflict with AP exam dates.

Seniors taking an AP exam dur-ing finals should communicate with their teacher to make appropriate ar-rangements.

As of now, the senior final ex-

emption policy will remain the same.

Shaughnessy said it doesn’t look like that policy will change anytime in the near future.

Food CourtFollowing the Mezzanine and The-atre as the third part of the 2006 bond issue, $3 million will go toward remodeling the kitchen and serving area in the Commons.

The project will begin this sum-mer and will be finished by the be-ginning of the 2008-2009 school year.

In order to create a more user-friendly serving area, the traditional lunch lines will be taken out and in their place will be an open area with six serving stations and multiple cash registers.

Students will select food from these stations and then pay at one of the registers, making the cafeteria a food-court style serving area.

“The concept is to speed up the amount of people that go through in a much more efficient manner to provide more time for kids to actu-ally eat, not wait in lines,” Shaugh-nessy said.

In addition to the serving area changes, improvements will be made in the offices and restrooms located behind the serving area.

A freezer will also be added onto the back of the loading dock to store frozen foods.

Though the lunch schedule will have to be modified for the hybrid-block schedule next year will bring, Shaughessy said that lunch durations will remain the same and will still be held during 4th hour.

[the]imageLafayette High School 17050 Clayton Rd., Wildwood, MO 63011w w w.lafayettepubl icat ions.com

what’sinside

comingsoonFriday, Feb. 22, 2008 [Vol. 39 Issue 6]

[Feb. 23]Turnabout Dance 7:30 p.m.

[Feb. 25]BSU Meeting 3:15 p.m.Taste of West County 5:30 p.m.

[Feb. 26]Mr. LHS 7 p.m.

[Feb. 27]Last Day for Late AP RegistrationSTAR Meeting 6 p.m.

[March 4-6]Band/Choir Large Group Festival

[March 5]Staff Development Day-No School Students

[March6]3rd Quarter Ends

[March 7]Yearbook Sales End

[March 8]Mother-Son Brunch 10 a.m.Father-Daughter Dance 7 p.m.

[March 10]NHS Meeting 7 p.m.

[March 11]Academic Pep Assembly

[March 14-21]Spring Break-No School

[April 8]Sophomore Ring Ceremony6:45 a.m.

[April 10]Choice Awards7 a.m.

[April 8-10, 15-17]MAP Testing

Glenn selected as Teacher of the Year

Fact vs. Fiction

This past weekend, the Teacher of the Year award was announced

at the Feb. 15 faculty meetiing. Social studies teacher Susan Glenn

won the honor of the 2007-2008 Teacher of the Year award due to her impressive resume and the respect of her students and staff.

Glenn has taught just about course in the Social Studies Department ranging from Criminology to AP Psychology.

She is also involved in community service and countless other activities.

Steve Klawiter, who also teaches so-cial studies nominated Glenn for her influence as a teacher, department chair and head coach of Escadrille.

Klawiter said, “It is very clear that she has dedicated herself fully to help-ing students become successful learners, who take pride in themselves and their communities. I think she is very deserv-ing of the Teacher of the Year honor.”

Klawiter also said Glenn works tire-lessly throughout the year, which can be proved through her involvement in over 36 activities in her 22 years of teaching.

She is currently still active in 15 of these activities.

Glenn is involved in the American Psychological Association, Missouri Dance Team Association, the Social

Studies Curriculum Writing committee, Lancer Award committee chair and the New Teacher Orientation committee just to name a few.

Glenn is also responsible for the an-nual summer Pom Camp for 500-600 students from grades K-8 from 1991.

As the head Escadrille coach for 17 years, Glenn is loved and respected by her squad.

Varsity member and sophomore Chelsea Nazaruk said, “Miss Glenn just rocks. She’s such a great leader and coach. She encourages us to be the best we can be and we know we can talk to her about anything.”

Nazaruk thinks it’s awesome that she connects with her squad on a different level than just as a coach.

What is the best part of Glenn’s job? “Students are. Each class is different ev-ery hour of the day. Students keep me young and make me truly enjoy my job,” Glenn said.

“I am more and more amazed by my students and their accomplishments and that inspires me to continue teaching. I can’t wait to see how my students and my Escadrille girls continue to grow and spread their wings to achieve their po-tential,” she added.

Glenn recalls her most memorable moment as a teacher a few years ago

when she and her AP Psych class were discussing emotional intelligence and be-ing able to read people and understand yourself better.

“Students began sharing very person-al stories and emotions that they were feeling. The entire class seemed to bond together and was all supportive of one another in a very powerful way.”

Glenn continued, “The level of trust was very high that day in my classroom and I think that we all learned a lot about one another, but also about ourselves. I’ve never seen a class of 30 kids open up so much and risk sharing so much and the outcome was overwhelmingly emotional and positive.”

After being named a Teacher of the Year finalist in 1995 and 2005, she was selected as the winner this year after teachers voted at the Feb. 15 staff devel-opment meeting.

After hearing the news, Glenn said, “I’m really excited. We have so many tal-ented and dedicated teachers and to be chosen to represent our faculty is a great honor. It gives recognition and reward to what we (teachers) do each day.”

Other finalists were Mike Berenc, ROTC; Melissa Noel, language arts; Mandy Regina; FACS; Melinda Schjol-berg, language arts, and Jeff Tamaroff; foreign language.

minayu[staff reporter]

[Blood Line]Comforting senior Tyler George, Julie Ronzio watches over George as he gives blood. The annual Blood Drive, run by Stu-dent Council, was on Feb. 11. For more photos and a story turn to page 7. [sydneymiller]

erikdauster[assistant news editor]

As the winter sports season wraps up, spring sports are start-ing practices. Look in-side for full coverage of post-season play and previews of the spring teams. [see p. 13]

More seniors are choosing alternative Spring Break trips, such as Rockwood’s trip to Mississippi to rebuild the community, over vacationing in hot spots such as Cancun. [see p. 13]

“I feel very humbled

and honored to be chosen to represent

Lafayette.”-Susan Glenn,

2007-2008Teacher

of the Year

Don’t believe everything you hear: Rumors concerning senior final exams and cafeteria are confirmed & refuted.

LifesaversStudents donate in blood drive

[two] imageopinions lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]imagestaff[people & policies]

Ryan Bueckendorfeditorinchief

Brooke Thibodaux

newseditor

Erik Dauster asst.newseditor

Nicholas T. Elwood opinionseditor

Jared Anderson asst.opinionseditor

Nicole CastellanoSydney Miller

featureseditors

Aaron Casias entertainmenteditor

Alex Davis sportseditor

J.P. Bartmess asst.sportseditor

Sarah Calhoun admanager

Daniel Clutter asst.admanager

Nancy Y. Smith advisermje

Staff: mikebujnak karacampbell calebcavarrettaaustingoodman

bretthamlinadamharris

melaniehinzpetercourtneymcbay

drewstiehld.annevollmayerkathleenwaddell

ninawalters minayu

InformationThe Image is published 10 times a year by

the Newspaper Production Class. Subscrip-tions are $25. Free issues are distributed on

campus. The 2006-2007 Image received a rating of First Class with three marks of

distinction from the National Scholastic Press Association and was named a

national Pacemaker Finalist. It was also named an International First Place winner

from Quill and Scroll, and Gold Medalist by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

PhilosophyThe newspaper’s primary obligation is

to inform its readers about events in the school and community and of issues of

national or international importance which directly or indirectly affect the school

population. The newspaper, while serving as a training ground for future journalists as part of the school curriculum, recognizes all

rights and responsibilities under the First Amendment. Operating as a public forum,

student editors will apply professional standards and ethics for decision making as

they take on the responsibility for content and production of the newspaper. While

the student staff encourages constructive criticism of any part of the newspaper,

authority for content rests in the hands of the student members of the newspaper

staff. Students will not publish mate-rial considered to be legally unprotected

speech, or libel, obscenity, material disrup-tion of the educational process, copyright

infringement, or unwarranted invasion of privacy.

Contact Us We are located in Room 213 at Lafayette

High School, 17050 Clayton Rd., Wildwood, MO 63011. Our phone number is (636) 458-7200 ext. 2338 and our e-mail ad-

dress is smithnancy@rockwood.k12.mo.us Please visit us on the web at www.

lafayettepublications.com

PoliciesOpinions expressed on the editorial page

do not reflect the viewpoints or official policies of the school administration.

All editorials (unsigned) represent a major-ity opinion of the Editorial Board. Members

of the Editorial Board include all staff editors. Signed editorials, columns, edito-rial cartoons and reviews reflect the views of the author and not necessarily those of

the Image Editorial Board. Participation through letters to the editor by students,

faculty and the community is encouraged. Letters must be signed but names will

be withheld upon request and with the concurrence of the Editorial Board. Letters

should be limited to 300 words. The Image reserves the right to reject, edit or shorten letters. Letters may be submitted in writ-

ing to Mrs. Nancy Smith in Room 213, or to any Image staff member, or via e-mail to

smithnancy@rockwood.k12.mo.us.

Truth ryanbueckendorf

Truth bueckons

U.S. press forsakes political responsibilityFor several weeks now the nights have been

long. The weather’s possessed a fierce edge and the rapid barometric pressure changes have left my skull numb, but I’ve stockpiled plenty of fire-wood. I’ve hung anti-McCain flyers and an Ed-mund Burke quote that states, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of Evil is for good men to do nothing,” to which I attribute my tenacious defense of civil liberties.

I enjoy reading the papers during these season-al drags, but lately something sinister has gripped my outlook. Politics has been laid down heavy, but it seems each time campaign trail coverage airs, I see the same people: Obama, McCain, Clin-ton, sometimes Huckabee playing bass guitar in a local church band, and celebrity endorsers like Ted Kennedy and Oprah Winfrey.

So why all these motif-like images? Some may say the press is emphasizing the current frontrun-ners; I say that the press had chosen these men and woman from the get go. These were the next true American presidential breed, selected by the big suits smoking Cohibas in leather office chairs hassling their secretaries.

We, as Americans, face an ominous presiden-tial election in 2008, and I’ve grown anxious. It appears that many candidates have been swept aside, many deemed no-contest since they signed onto a third party ticket or under an ill-financed name in the eyes of the White House and the me-dia.

Since the establishment of the founding fa-thers’ democratic vision, something has gone haywire, and bad sectors have taken a powerful grip on the significant political corners. Under the guise of free speech, we see a nasty thing called Ballot Discrimination.

I disapprove of ugliness, the unfair handling of political candidates in terms of chance or op-portunity—inequality on the road to Washing-ton—just as strongly as I disapprove of voter dis-crimination. Unfortunately, it is prevalent. There are several key issues that haunt the success of the modern American democracy, all deplorable.

First of all, I deny that money should mean votes. Very often, politicians work off the money vein, born into wealth and with the right con-nections, using that inheritance (or general cash loads) to gain the upper hand. This is wrong. Poli-ticians should be represented by their views and political aspirations and plans, not legal tender or self-funded campaigns like Romney’s own $35 million donation to himself.

Second, I deny the sensibility that celebrity endorsements maintain such public influence, or even publicity; fame does not grant political cred-ibility.

Third, I am perpetually stunned by the political cheap-shots thrown carelessly, and the substantial (and questionable) campaign errors. Things such as Clinton’s criminal backer or Ron Paul’s failure to obtain a ballot position on the Republican tick-et in Nassau County, NY.

These names are merely for example, but how many readers have honestly even heard of the Texas congressman, Paul? Furthermore, the latter’s crucial flaw is the failure of post-error cov-erage. Imagine if it was Huckabee’s name that had not appeared; I’m sure the instance would have been widely reported.

The problem, overall, rests in irresponsible journalism. I’ve spent time analyzing the media before, but I feel compelled to defend righteous journalism from the Evil within Ballot Discrimi-

nation. Even the local papers have questionable means of displaying this year’s presidential pros-pects. The problem is this: by the time political frontrunners show an obvious advantage over candidates with lesser odds, the media is able to justify the emphasized coverage of those more sellable figures. The press has a nasty habit of ad-vertising politicians like some commodity.

And true, they may defend their arguments with the First Amendment, but we must maintain perspective and context of those rights. Simply because one has the ability to do something, it does not mean that one is better off for doing it. Many of us should consider less what we can do, and begin wondering more what we should do. The press, therefore, should provide equal oppor-tunity to any candidate with the proper qualifica-tions, detailing their stance on issues with more emphasis than celebrity endorsements, funding, or sellability.

Be weary! We must use our freedoms to dig deeper and rediscover the essential wisdoms, and now we must be cautious with the media’s politi-cal fishing bait or we’ll all be hooked like trout and reeled in.

Kirkwood gunman’s worst victims? Us“The truth will win in the end.”Those were the last words that Charles ‘Cook-

ie’ Lee Thornton would ever write before ex-changing his pen—and his truth—for a high cali-ber revolver, pointing it at the innocent people of Kirkwood City Hall.

The bullets fired from Thornton’s guns would ultimately take five lives, but his most tragic vic-tim would require no gunfire. The moment he raised his gun, Thornton struck a crippling blow to the very truth which, in his rage, he had sought to uphold.

Now, as citizens of Kirkwood struggle to cope with their tragedy and make amends with those lost, officials of cities nationwide are moving to restrict the manner in which their residents may address their city hall meetings. This chilling re-striction of free speech is a crime far worse than anything accomplished with a handgun.

Already the city of Pine Lawn, MO, has en-acted an ordinance which would bar for one cal-endar year any citizens the city officials deem to be disruptive.

Other cities have already installed policies where individuals are banned at the discretion of the mayor for acting in such a way as to ‘threaten the proceedings’.

Who are these officials to decide whose speech

threatens them and whose doesn’t? Who are they to decide the speech that constitutes a danger to the proceedings? It would all be too easy for a mayor or councilman to stifle an opposing view-point by utilizing such an ordinance.

The public forums which for so long had been home to free debate would become home to nothing more than monotonous, droning, one-sided nothingness.

I have no issue with city halls protecting them-selves with metal detectors and guards at the en-trance. City officials should take every safeguard against those who would, as Charles Lee Thorn-ton did, step outside of the bounds of acceptable dissent and cause them harm. They are out there, and city hall deserves all the precautions taken against them by airports and courthouses.

When city halls cease to shield and start to sti-fle, however, it becomes another matter entirely.

Concerned citizens deserve the opportunity to voice their opinion and, just as important, the op-portunity to get animated about it without being deemed a ‘threat to the proceedings.’

The moment this ceases to be reality, a serious blow will have been struck against the institution of free speech, and the first amendment rights that protect it.

Thornton was not a textbook murderer. He

was, in a very real and very disturbing sense, ev-eryman: a normal individual imbued with normal passions stretched beyond the breaking point by normal aggravation. He wasn’t the first to get an-gry at a city council and he won’t be the last.

What he did in response to that aggravation was, however, in no way normal or acceptable or defensible. Regardless, should we be forced to pay the price and bear the brunt of his crimes by en-during strangling suppression of free speech?

The truth will win in the end. Thornton penned this as his last statement, and in a twisted perversion, was willing to die for it.

The question we must ask ourselves is this: in the wake of the Kirkwood tragedy, are we foster-ing a public forum where the truth can, in fact, win in the end? Or will we smother the truth, and with it our own rights to free speech within our city halls?

socialdecadence

nicholaselwoodopinionseditor

imageopinions [three]lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]

[stars & gripes]

stars to:

gripes to:

studentperspective

• The snow day on Feb. 1. Thank you to the Rockwood administra-tion for making the right call, and making it before sunrise for a change.

• Spring sports begin Monday. Getting out of the parking lot is never easier as 10 sports teams begin practice, and more students stay after school than ever.

• The Class of 2007 for donating the sophis-ticated clocks in the Commons and Flex hallway. The adminis-tration appreciates your help in the never-end-ing war on tardiness.

• The food cart upstairs. There’s nothing like a good morning snack of some pop tarts and an iced latte; now eating, not sleeping, will dis-tract you from listening in class.

• Taste of West County. For a mere $10, we can all stuff our faces with the best food from the area. Whoever came up with this idea is a total genius.

• Sami Dunger on be-ing named a McDon-ald’s All-American for girls basketball. Now if people would just show up to watch the team play...

• School wide epidem-ics of the flu, fever and cold. At least half the school has gotten sick at some point. Are you next?

• Bobby Knight’s retire-ment. Although a re-turn is not ruled out for the winningest coach in college basketball history, the sport won’t be the same without his fiery temper.

• 3rd Hour Basic and Intermediate Foods. Stop making food that we, the rest of the student body, can’t eat. Each day that you cook, we become angrier as you sample cuisine from what smells like heaven.

• Scheduling conflicts. State for Escadrille and Districts for boys bas-ketball are on the same evening as Turnabout. Good thing upper-classmen don’t attend Turnabout anyway.

• Charles Lee ‘Cookie’ Thornton. Though his frustrations may or may not have been justified, it’s never okay to vent frustrations by using a hand gun.

staff editorial[ ]

The Image

Editorial

Board finds

current

teacher

salaries un-

acceptable

and an insult

to the

credibility

and esteem

of the

teaching

profession.

You do it in class. You do it while you’re driving to and from school. You do it right before you fall asleep. You even do it without looking if you’re good enough.

It’s texting and it’s taking over the lives of modern youth culture. It’s also a disturbing social trend.

You know you’ve got problems when it takes you less time to send your friend a text than it does to brush your teeth. Yikes.

And for those of you who do have unlimited texting, stop sending one letter messages to those of us who don’t have texting at all.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, and I don’t want to spend mine pay-ing for text messages. Working retail is hard enough.

Recently while rotting my brain in front of the television, I watched one of the more disturbing com-mercial advertisements ever known to man.

A seemingly innocent Sprint ad-vertisement, showing two lovebirds texting each other from far away re-ally caught my eye. It’s perfectly okay that they were texting each other, but when an imaginary cloud above the woman in the commercial started raining red hearts of love, I lost it.

It baffles me that people can ex-press any strong emotion- even love- from behind the pixilated screen of a cell phone or a computer.

Actually, don’t get me started on websites like Facebook. I gave it up for Lent.

Back to texting. Maybe it’s more convenient than calling someone and telling them how you really feel.

Or maybe you don’t really feel that way if you’re hiding behind your cell phone screen. Maybe you do and you’re scared to say it per-sonally because it might be awkward. I can understand that, as I have ex-perienced this feeling. Tell them out

loud anyway.Another issue with texting: you

can’t detect sarcasm. Adding a sim-ple “LOL” just doesn’t cut it.

The odds are high that your good sarcastic intentions will turn bad, and your supposedly harmless joke about your best friend’s haircut will turn south. In a hurry.

Here’s the scary part: most of us do it anyway, pouring out our hearts and souls into 160 characters of black and white nothingness in the modern cyber world.

And I’m not just talking about happy love texts. We fight viciously using our cell phone keypads, too.

Again, what is said is completely meaningless. You’re not going to win a text fight. Ever.

You also won’t solve your prob-lems by texting. In fact you’ll prob-ably make them much worse.

Something still scarier: I’ve heard stories (and seen evidence) of seri-

ous conversations, like breakups or guys asking girls to homecoming on cell phone screens.

Texting is changing the face of American culture, and I’m sick of it. Have some guts and own up to the way you feel. Or at least stop wasting your friends’ sleep time and money by text messaging them late at night.

The words and feelings you ex-press on a screen mean nothing; grow up and say them in person.

Dear Editor,

I just wanted to express how much joy it brings me for the fine arts to receive attention in the newspaper.

After constantly being overlooked, we artists are ever so thankful that we could have a section completely dedicated to us.

I absolutely adore Kelly’s drawing and was elated to see it in the last issue. I just wish that I could have seen the whole drawing or that the resolution of the work was the same quality as the faces of your staff.

Hayley Olson, 12

Dear Editor,

I was glad to hear a few weeks ago that Lafay-ette is going to start recycling cans and bottles in addition to paper. Supposing there are 180 days in Lafayette’s school year, I have, in my full seven semesters as a student, thrown away about 630 lemonade cans from lunch.

I did some research to find out just how hor-ribly I’ve failed planet Earth: aluminum cans, if

not recycled, can remain on Earth’s surface for 500 years (bummer); recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours, and it saves 95 percent of the energy used to cre-ate aluminum from raw materials.

So I, for one, am thrilled that Lafayette will be able to relieve me of my guilty conscience…at least partially. We all should be thrilled. And I hope that when the new recycling bins appear, every student will care enough to use them – af-ter all, we’ve always learned that the little things make a big difference.

Alissa Heney, 12

Dear Editor,

I have heard that long, long ago, the average citizen of the United States had a strong sense of “patriotism.”

Previously, I would have laughed at this notion because, from what I’ve seen, everything from the Pledge of Allegiance to the very name of this country seems to spew hypocrisy.

However, I recently saw a glimpse of what it might feel like to actually have pride in my coun-

try – I went to a Barack Obama rally. I certainly don’t know everything about poli-

tics, but I do recognize a “practical visionary” – a true patriot – when I see one.

I realized that what this country has lost – what is absent in the eyes of most major politicians to-day – is hope. Hope: not the naïve fantasies of what merely “could be”, but that which allowed for the creation of our country – “looking ob-stacles square in the eye.”

Barack doesn’t intend to simply counteract the Bush Administration.

He sees that this “tug-of-war” strategy to American politics only causes stagnation and decay of morals which make up the constitu-tional foundation of the USA. “Nothing was ever achieved without hope,” I heard Barack tell a crowd of over 20,000 Americans all ready to ven-ture into a new chapter of rebirth in the history of the United States of America.

I would be proud to be a part of a country driven not by fear and governmental interest, but by courage and hope when confronted by the “fierce urgency of now.” Barack Obama.

Keely McCaskie, 11

It’s no secret: learn-ing expands your mental capabilities. It allows for greater comprehension of this world’s great wonders. To be educated is to have a flashlight in the vast darkness of our modern world, and to grasp the unfolded pathways behind you.

Schooling is a key component of educa-tion, a lifelong pursuit of experience and growth. After spending so many long hours and waking attentive moments within the schoolhouse walls, we the Image staff and all students included, invest a great deal of re-sponsibility, faith and trust in the hands of our teachers.

With acknowledgement or not, they work daily to provide the youth with something that people from countless nations would give anything to be guaranteed and granted. After all, when he wasn’t fishing or practicing car-pentry, Jesus was a teacher, and so was Hunter S. Thompson, and it takes a teacher to tell the difference.

But then why is it that teachers nation-wide are monetarily shunned comparatively? Sum-mers off aside—though the summer break is only a month in actuality after required train-ing—those entrusted with the transmission of knowledge share a workload just as heavy

as most, in many cases driven by passion and dignity to excel and contribute well-beyond whatever their income merits.

Whether from willingness or administra-tive pressure, many sponsor organizations or extra-curricular activities.

But even still, a teacher working a normal salary couldn’t hold a profit-based candle to the unjust economic slaughter of the big-busi-ness CEOs, grossing hundreds of thousands annually. Even in the education field, there’s a gross divide between the average teacher’s yearly income and the average $234,595 pay of a suited CEO, according to the 2007 Char-ity Navigator CEO Compensation Study.

This issue is particularly appalling when specifically reviewing Missouri, with an av-erage starting teacher pay (with a bachelor’s degree) at $35,490, a figure placing the region at a projected 42nd in the nation, according to the Missouri State Teacher’s Association, proportionally skewed when weighed against the district’s achievements and standards of excellence.

Furthermore, the wealth is ill-distributed according to a 2003 documented from the Missouri State Auditor’s Office which states, “The salaries of top administrators do not appear reasonable [in comparison to teach-ers],” continuing, “…the Chief Operations Officer’s $200,000 salary is 75 percent higher

than the peer district average.” Magnifying the scope even further, we find that the Rock-wood school district is especially crippling in regards to teacher pay. So why, in a region as wealthy and educationally sound as West St. Louis County, should teacher income be set so low?

The Image staff finds this notion unreason-able, a vice that creates bitterness and grief, and leaves many people short-changed of what they deserve and work tenaciously to earn.

According to infoplease.com, the United States’ president received over $400,000 in 2001, and although the president’s role is high-stress and of the utmost international responsibility, we the Image staff feel that surely those responsible for crafting America’s future deserve to be rewarded with more than they currently receive.

Sources and careful deliberation show that only a dramatic reworking of America’s social outlook will bring about the change necessary to fully fund teachers with what they deserve, but negotiations with the school board are un-der way for a wide range of reforms—from salaries to general contracts.

The Image staff wishes them luck, hoping that society will be more appreciative of the services provided by these key figures—the teachers.

Too much texting?There’s a communication breakdown

Students express both cheers & jeers

Teachers deserve more appreciation

[four] imagenews lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]

newsbriefs

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Students eye jobs in varied fields Recall that horrid career day. Speakers

and presenters stuffed into a gym or auditorium tried to convince stu-dents to be an interior designer or an architect.

Whatever that dream job may be, consider the top 30 jobs that will continue to grow until 2016. Total employment for the decade is ex-pected to increase by 15.6 million jobs according to the Bureau of La-bor Statistics.

Positions in many industries are on the rise including health care, business, engineering and computer-related degrees. Further good news is the labor market will start to fa-vor job seekers due to a shortage of skilled workers.

Several students have caught the wave early as they aspire for careers that will in turn benefit them.

Engineering is one industry sev-eral students have looked into.

“I like math and science,” junior Alex Howard, who’s planning to major in engineering, said as a huge smile appeared across his face.

Another junior, Eric Wendt agreed. “What I’ve heard about en-gineering is that it’s a lot of work. You have to have a lot of training before you get a job,” Wendt said.

Wendt decided he was interested in engineering during his freshman year. He agreed that the prospect of a growing industry is helpful.

“You have to have an opportu-nity for advancement,” Wendt said.

Junior Brent Folan, shares the same interest of engineering, but is looking at business as well.

While his father presented him to the business world, he learned about engineering through Reserved Offi-cer Training Corp (ROTC).

“Last year ROTC sent me to the air force academy for an engineering camp and that really opened my eyes to it,” he said.

He wasn’t surprised that both are growing industries.

“It’s something that everyone needs, especially business with our economy right now,” he added.

Senior Cheryl Held also decided to focus on business, “Because I took a business class and I thought it would be interesting. And I really liked it,” she said.

She was unaware that the indus-try was growing but she was glad.

“Now that I know it does (give me comfort) knowing I will be able to get a job,” she said.

Surprisingly acting is one of these growing industries. Although acting does not have the best pay on the list and it is difficult to get into, junior Chelsea Range still is an as-

piring actress. “I know that it’s really, really hard

to get into. When you start off pay isn’t great and usually you have to audition all over, but that’s a factor. It has negative and positives,” Range said.

As a little girl, she would stand on the coffee table and put on shows such as monologues she had made up.

When asked why she wants to major in acting she said, “I would like to major in acting because it would

give me the tools to fully understand the art of acting. Its also a leg up on the competition when auditioning if you know what your doing.”

Another student looking into the theatre arena is junior Lexi Thoman. She’s torn between backstage light-ing and veterinary work.

“I’ve always really had loved ani-mals and my dogs have had a few problems that I’ve been able to solve and I really like figuring out what’s wrong and being able to help them,” Thoman said.

That veterinary work is a growing industry hasn’t affected her decision, but is motivation for her to pursue that career.

“It’s nice to know that I will be able to support myself in this pro-fession,” she added.

As of now she plans on attend-ing a good school that has a good biology or pre-vet program, as well has a decent theatre program so she can decide from there.

Another student interested in the medical field is senior Mayank Agar-wal. He’s looking into biomedical engineering.

“Well, I really got interested in biomedical engineering when I went on a thing called National Youth Leadership Forum for medicine,” he said.

He wasn’t surprised at all that it’s a growing industry.

“Medicine is becoming more and more advanced in technology. It’s not what it used to be where they just cut open somebody and see what’s wrong inside. A lot of tech-nology goes into it now. I just felt that would be a great way to help out,” Agarwal said.

Along with the technology route, junior Dan Riddick is looking at computer science, “Because I like computers and I like to mess around with programs and stuff,” Ridick said.

He decided in 7th grade when he first started working with Java.

His industry’s growth didn’t sur-prise him at all. “With all the out sourcing, it’s a lot easier to get the jobs,” Ridick said.

Junior Sean Collins, an aspiring defense attorney, agreed that indus-try growth is comforting.

“I think a job would be a really nice thing to have because being a lawyer is all fine and dandy, but being

an unemployed lawyer wouldn’t be that great,” Collins said.

“I’m not sure when I decided, but pretty much once I learned how easy it is for an innocent person to be convicted in the legal system. I think I wanted to try and help fix that,” Collins said about deciding his major.

Junior Anna Margherita was in-spired after watching the Wedding Planner.

“I want to be an event planner and I don’t just want to major in just event planning. I want to broaden my horizons,” Margherita said.

No matter what these students are planning to become or what their inspiration is, all will receive benefits due to growing industries.

They have the comfort of know-ing that their job will still be thriving when they’re done with schooling.

1. Network systems and data communications analysts Salary range: $46,360 or more

2. Personal and home care aides Salary range: Less than $21,220

3. Home health aides Salary range: Less than $21,220

4. Computer software engineers, applications Salary range: $46,360 or more

5. Veterinary technologists and technicians Salary range: $21,260 - $30,560

6. Personal financial advisors Salary range: $46,360 or more

7. Makeup artists, theatrical and performance Salary range: $30,630 - $46,300

8. Medical assistant Salary range: $21,260 - $30,560

9. Veterinarians Salary range: $46,360 or more

10. Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors Salary range: $30,630 - $46,300

Here’s the list of the growing industries...

brookethibodaux[news editor]

toptenHere’s the list of the best cities for jobs

1.Salt Lake City, UT2.Wichita, KS3.Austin, TX4.Atlanta, GA5.Fort Worth, TX6.Indianapolis,IN7.Houston, TX8.Omaha, NE9.Raleigh, NC10.Seattle, WA

information collected from <http://thechad.job.central.com>

RecyclingA new comprehensive recycling program is being integrated throughout school.

Beverage container collection bins are being delivered. These bins will be spread out around the school including, the cafeteria, halls and staff lunch areas.

Plastic bags, film and bottles can be recycled in these bins as well.

The paper pro-cess used now will not change. But all custodial, facilities and kitchen areas have been committed to re-cycle all paper, plastic, metal and cardboard. Recycling saves ton of energy and resources.

Class of 2002 Memorial ScholarshipA scholarship fund has been created by the Class of 2002 in memory of Eric Gabel, Bobby Maessen and Ryan Trigg. The Class of 2008 will be the first recipients.

Three students will be awarded three separate scholarships of $500. A Reserved Officer Training Corp student participant will be awarded the Ryan Trigg scholarship. A student who has attended Rockwood schools from K-12 will receive the Eric Gabel scholarship. And finally, a student who exemplifies Christian values through school leadership will receive the Bobby Maessen.

To qualify, a student must have a 3.0 GPA, a reccomendation letter from a staff member and a 200 word essay.

Applications are due by March 13 to Beth Brasel in Room 121.

With many industries booming, students keep their eyes trained on their dream jobs

imagenews [five]lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008] newsbriefs

3/22/08 3/22/08 3/22/08

Expires 3/22/08

A new f i n a n c e s y s t e m :

$1.2 million. Carpet and flooring maintenance: $1.5 million. An im-proved heating and cooling system: $5.5 million. The results of a $74.5 million bond issue? Priceless.

The Rockwood School Board has recently placed a no-tax increase bond issue on the April 8 ballot.

If passed, Proposition 3 will bring the Rockwood School District (RSD) funding to make improve-ments to all schools in the district.

The plan focuses on protecting, preparing and providing.

Associate Principal Jodi David-son said, “All things are for the fu-ture.”

If approved by voters, Lafayette will get an improved alert system, pool renovations, a new phone sys-tem, renovated child nutrition area, locker room renovations, roof re-pairs and a new media center.

The expansion section of the proposition allows for more build-ing space so students won’t have to learn on the Shelf or in the Com-mons. Also, with the seven-hour schedule next year there will be new classes like Culinary Arts, which re-quire special classrooms.

The elimination of temporary trailers will be another result of the new space added.

Principal John Shaughnessy said, “The money is going to improve crowded situations and improve fa-cilities.”

Parent Susan Buttram said it is necessary for the bond to pass in order for the schools to continue educating.

“If the bond does not pass I think the buildings will deteriorate and leave the students with nothing. These changes are needed to keep our schools nice,” Buttram said.

Superintendent Craig Larson said with student involvement the bond

will most likely pass; however, most students do not know much about the proposition yet.

Sophomore Riley Brown said he likes the changes the no-tax increase bond will bring, but he thinks there are better ways to spend money in the community.

“It’s really awesome for Rock-wood,” Brown said. “But, I think there are definitely some better ways to use it. Highway 109 could defi-nitely use more renovating than our floors and phone systems.”

If the bond does not pass, some classes will be forced to meet in ar-eas not intended for learning, like the Commons or the Shelf.

Junior Julie Kaprelian said, “I don’t think people would pay at-tention in the Commons or on the Shelf. The Commons echoes and there are too many distractions.”

Shaughnessy said without the bond issue, “The long term plan will be interrupted and there will be

many crowded situations.” Senior Cole Donelson said

the bond issue is needed because schools are not getting the funding from the state. He said he doubts the state wants to hand one of the richest school districts that kind of money.

“It’s not like the district has to have those renovations to survive, but if people want to keep giving the district money, why shouldn’t they?” Donelson said.

Also, because of plans for added space to current schools, this bond will keep Rockwood from having to add new buildings and redistrict homes yet again.

Lafayette administrators and par-ents are confident the bond will pass and are very optimistic about all the things it will do for the district.

“I like this one,” Lafayette par-ent Mary Knoy said about the bond. “It’s like your home, you must main-tain it.”

Bond generates positive overall response from students, parents d.annevollmayer[staff reporter]

Payton White, 9“It’s not really that con-fusing as long as I know where to go.”

Josh Lee, 10“[It’s] unnecessary, blocking hallways and running kids over.” (referring to teachers with carts).

Jamie Chapin, 11“I think it’s sad that the school isn’t big enough for teachers to have their own classrooms.”

John Hardin, 12“It’s probably going to be more difficult than this year. I feel bad for the teachers.”

Jolyne Heimann, parent ‘I wish there was enough room so each teacher could have his or her own class. It’s got to be difficult.”

ust

What do you think about teachers having to change and share rooms next year due to space constrictions?

Macaroni and Tuna SaladIngredients:

- 3 cups macaroni- 1/3 cup Italian-style salad dressing

- 1/2 cup sour cream- 1 cup mayonnaise- 1 onion, hopped

- 2 stalks celery, chopped- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

- 1 teaspoon salt- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

- 1(6 ounce) can tuna, drained

Directions:1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until done. Drain.2. Marinate macaroni in Italian dressing for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.3. Mix sour cream, mayonnaise, onion, celery, garlic powder, tuna, and salt and pepper into macaroni. Chill.

-LHS FACS Department

SchedulingGuidance counselors have been meeting with students for advisement and fixing problems with student schedules.

In March, after all course requests are in, a master schedule will be developed. Class sections will be decided whether or not they are blocked or standard. Next, the number of teachers that are needed will be determined.

The Department Chairs will then work with administrators to build a schedule that will work for everyone. Finally, adjustments will be made to the master schedule to allow students schedules to function. Counselors will then work with students to resolve any potential conflicts.

Board ElectionsSix candidates are run-ning for three seats on the Rockwood School Board. They include Darla Baker, Kim McGui-ness, Matthew Fitzpat-rick, Mary Battenberg, Rao Kaza, Sam Maraldo and Chuck Spohr. The election is April 8.

New Associate Superintendent NamedDr. Scott Spurgeon has been approved as the new Associate Superin-tendent for Rockwood. He will begin July 1.

Spurgeon was a principal in Joplin, MO, and Miami, OK.

He also served as the assistant superinten-dent for Northwest R-I School District. He also was an assistant prin-cipal for Union Public Schools in Tulsa, OK.

JAsking

photos by d.annevollmayer

[six] imagenews lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]clubnews

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Now it is final-ly time to ask the question: Has Academic

Lab really been useful for students?Sophomore Conrad Reuscher

thinks so. When asked if Academic Lab was useful, Reuscher said, “Ab-solutely. If I forget to do homework, it gives me time to catch up.”

Reuscher said he is happy it will not be involved in next year’s sched-ule in spite of how helpful it is to him for homework.

Sophomore Brian Turlington also says it is useful for homework, but he is also glad it will not be in next year’s schedule because, “(Teach-ers) pretty much just let people sit around.”

Both Turlington and freshman Ben Howard say that none of his teachers use Academic Lab time creatively.

When asked if it was useful over-all, he said, “It depends on the class and the teacher.”

Another freshman, Jake Stergos, agrees with Howards. “I like it when it is in classes I like, but that is about it,” Stergos said.

None of these students were able to name one of their teachers that has used Academic Lab time creatively, other than work time.

But, however, useful it is for

homework and the additional time, most students do not think that Ac-ademic Lab has been useful overall.

In fact, a student poll revealed that 86.17 percent of students think Academic Lab has not been useful while only 13.82 percent think it has been.

In an anonymous teacher poll,

teachers, by a large margin, said they do not follow a set plan for the time, varying from week to week depend-ing on where they were in class.

In fact, 73.8 percent of teachers who participated in the poll said they do not follow a set procedure during Academic Lab, while 14.3 percent said they use it only for independent

study time for students. The other teachers who respond-

ed said they usually just treat Aca-demic Lab as if it was an extended period and planned labs, videos or other work that could use extended time.

Oftentimes, these teachers don’t even blink as class time turns into Lab time as they continue with their lesson.

Some teachers have said they also use Academic Lab for extra time on ACT practices, student conferencing and grading papers.

Most teachers allow some wiggle room when it comes to how they utilize the lab. .

“It varies from week to week and for the different courses I teach,” a teacher said about class activity.

One teacher said, “It’s (Academic Lab) extra work with no benefit.”

But another teacher said, “I think Academic Lab has a benefit to my classes.”

Another teacher said, “(It is) not effective for my style.” The same teacher added, “Classes (are) not in sync. Sometimes (there is) not enough time for one period and too much time for another.”

Whatever thoughts of Academic Lab, next year’s hybrid block sched-ule will not involve it because of the schedule set up.

Teachers vary use of Ac Lab timecalebcavaretta[staff reporter]

[Picture This]Spanish teacher Brian Reed has his students play Pictionary with their vocabulary words. He is one teacher who uses Academic Lab specifically for enrichment activi-ties. An Image poll indicated that while some teachers do use the extra time for these special activities, most teachers do not have a specific procedure. [kristahines]

Poll shows student, staff opinion of Academic Lab

Wasted Time

86.17%

Effectively Used

13.82%

Teachers Indicate How They Use Academic Lab Students Offer Opinions Of Academic Lab’s Use

Scholar Quiz BowlThe Bowl is a competi-tion for academics run by Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSSHA). On April 12, Lafayette will host Districts from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. A team is made up of four students who answer questions and buzz in for points.

Amnesty InternationalThe organization is in the process of planning the “National Week of Student Action,” scheduled for March 31-April 4. The next meeting is March 4 at 6 p.m. in Room 180. Students and sponsors will be planning the NWSA events, obtaining speakers and pon-dering threatened human rights around the world.

EscadrilleAlthough the Esca-drille will be missing Turnabout on Feb. 23, they will be attend-ing State competition in Kansas City, MO at Blue Springs High School. At the St. Charles Invitational on Feb. 2 the team won first in Jazz and Poms.

Black Student UnionOn Feb. 25, Black Student Union (BSU) is holding a meeting with Diversity Alli-ance to discuss Teen Advocates For Sexual Health. The meeting will be in Room 180 at 3:20 p.m. For more information talk to Paula Vickers.The Black History As-sembly will be held on Feb. 27 to promote the importance of black history. Contact Vice President Tina Napper for additional information.

No set procedure

73.8% 14.3% 4.8% 4.8% 2.3%

Independent study

Scientific labs

Additional

activitiesTeach through

311 students polled42 teachers polled

imagefeatures [seven]lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]

Officer John Young“Be Safe”- Learn from Law Enforcement

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Rockwood Reading Week is coming up on March 3-7. Dur-ing the week, students are en-

couraged to read and talk about their favorite books.

While this event is focused more on the ele-mentary schools more so than the high schools, it’s presence is still scene.

All teachers will make students read books within the curriculum, but in asking a teacher what their favorite book is, rarely will you find it to be on that a student will read during their tenure at Lafayette.

“My favorite book right now is House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski,” language arts teacher Na-than Willard said. “But the book I would recom-mend to students is Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger.”

Catcher is a curriculum book for Rockwood students; most will find themselves having to read it around their junior or senior year.

Willard’s class does an intensive one month

study of the book, during which a secret guest speaker comes in to talks to the juniors.

Willard likes to maintain the secrecy of his guest speaker from year to year, so the identity of the speaker goes unknown until the day of the lecture.

The speaker comes in, puts on the tell-tale plaid hat of Holden Caufield, the main character of Catcher, and talks about the book, but more specifically his attempts to get in contact with its

author, who is now a recluse living in Cornish, New Hampshire.

One teacher at Lafayette has remained an avid fan of Salinger since she was in high school.

“I love the character of Holden Caufield, he tries too hard to not be an innocent, but he can’t help it,” Flex Aid Janey Whitaker said.

“The humor of the book attracted me to the book, I can go into a movie and laugh or cry, but to have a book do that is different,” he added.

“It will always be an important read for teen-agers no matter what year. It was written in 1951 and it is still just as strong, it sells around 400,000 copies a year.”

Senior Alex Johnson read the book last year in Willard’s American Literature Flex class.

“It’s a good book for high schoolers to read because it deals with what they’re going through. It’s about growing up, taking that next step from adolescence to becoming a man,” Johnson said.

“It’s about the decisions you make in life affect-ing you and the lives around you,” he added.

There Will Be Blood:Students save lives, donate blood

grammargeekEach issue, language arts teacher David Choate will provide some helpful hints to improve your use of the English language.

Pronoun and antecedent agreement:Do not use plural pronouns to refer to singular antecedents.

Wrong: The student performs at their best level when the lesson is engaging.

Correct: The student performs at his best level when the lesson is engaging.

Treat collective nouns such as committee, audience, class and team as singular unless the meaning is obviously plural.

As singular: The team granted its permission to rebuild.

As individuals: The audience applauded and rose to their feet.

bretthamlin[staff reporter]

“I can go to a movie and laugh or cry, but to have a book do that is differ-ent.” -Janie Whitaker,Flex Resource Aide

Two minutes before her ap-pointment at the blood drive, sophomore Nicole Weise ad-

mitted she was anxious about her first time giving blood.

“It’s a good cause [though] ,” Weise said. “It’s not that much pain for you to go through.”

She braved the process for the same reason all donors did- it will save a life.

Senior Kelley Hamrick has a “phobia of nee-dles,” but donated last year. This year she was unable to donate, so she comforted friend senior Sarah Garcia while she gave blood instead.

Garcia said, “I thought ‘why not? I have enough blood to share.’”

Weise and junior Sarah Weinhold admitted an-other incentive was “[that] you get a free cookie and a shirt.”

This incentive, however, was not enough to at-tract the amount of donors the sponsors of the drive, Student Council (STUCO), had hoped for.

STUCO sponsor David Choate said the goal for the blood drive was 143 pints.

By the end of the day, the American Red Cross had collected 124 pints of blood; however, Choate said over 150 people tried to donate, “but many people who were turned away were turned away immediately due to illness.”

Also, several volunteers who were going to work at the blood drive were also unable to par-ticipate due to illness.

Lafayette’s drive was important since American Red Cross blood banks are low on blood due to weather and sickness, with several blood drives have recently been cancelled due to winter storms, the American Red Cross said.

Senior Garrett Millman was one of only a handful who felt lightheaded after the process.

“I was pretty confident, felt pretty good go-ing in...[but felt faint coming out]. It was a little rough,” Millman said.

Besides illness, many potential donors were turned away during the interview process due to lack of iron in their blood.

According to the American Red Cross website, potential donors are required to weigh at least 110

pounds, be 17 years of age and have adequate iron levels in their blood.

“You wait in line, and talk to one of the nice medical assistants. They make sure you don’t have anything [in your blood] to put you at risk,” Jones said.

After medical assistants test the blood “you pick up a blood donor packet. You sit down and they strap you in, take your blood pressure. Once they put the needle in it just flows right out [and] it’s pretty painless,” he added.

Although STUCO’s goal was not met, Jones feels Lafayette has maintained the same turn out.

“Lafayette gives and gives,” Jones said.“You get to miss school and you give back to

the community, so it’s an overall good thing for you and everyone else,” Millman said.

Salinger’s novel keeps students, teachers reading 57 years later

sydneymiller[features editor]

[A Bloody Good Cause] As senior Sarah Garcia donates blood at the Feb. 11 Stu-dent Council (STUCO) Blood Drive, senior Kelley Hamrick lends some comfort. The 124 pints of blood donated was just 19 pints shy of the 143 pint goal. STUCO sponsor David Choate said several potential donors were turned away due to illness.

[A Good Read]

The New York Times recently compiled a list of 2007’s five most popular books for leisure. Here are the big winners:

1. Man Gone DownMichael Thomas

2. Out Stealing HorsesPer Petterson

3. The Savage DetectivesRoberto Bolaño

4. Then We Came to the EndJoshua Ferris

5. Tree of SmokeDenis Johnson

[Giving Life] Donning a purple bandage, Assistant Principal Tim Jones finishes donating. He participates in the blood drive every year and is impressed by the turnout at each drive. “Lafayette gives and gives,” Jones said. [sydneymiller]

[eight] imagefeatures lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]springbreak2008

TOWN AND COUNTRY

636-591-0222

Hwy 141 & Clayton RoadNext to Schnucks at

Woodsmill Plaza

Building more than memories

Instead of getting that perfect tan on the beach, students are using their Spring Break for

community service.For the second time, Rockwood School Dis-

trict will be hosting an alternative spring break. Students and volunteer staff will help to re-

build homes after Hurricane Katrina tore apart the area of Pearlington, MS three years ago.

Pearlington is an extremely small town about 60 miles from New Orleans.

The town is eight miles away from the ocean, which was a large factor in the amount of damage it received.

Eureka, Lafayette, Marquette and Rockwood Summit will send volunteers to participate in the alternative spring break. Marquette will be the only school allowing underclassmen to attend.

Assistant Principal Tim Jones said over 100 students from Rockwood are attending.

Students are not going only in order to help, and there are a few other benefits.

“I’m going because my girlfriend [Allison Krebs] is going. On top of that, it looks great on school records and résumés,” senior Gray Stamu-lis said.

Lafayette administrators, including Jones and Principal John Shaughnessy, will be participating with students. Superintendent Craig Larson will also be among the volunteers.

Jones said the trip to Mississippi was funded by sports fans.

“Donations were taken at every game, home football and basketball. A dollar was taken from the cost of every ticket,” Jones said.

“Most of the donations go to feeding the vol-unteers and the rest goes to building the homes. We get a lot of grants from groups such as the

Red Cross that also help to rebuild,” Larry Ran-dle, worker at the Pearlington Recovery Center, said.

Randle grew up in Pearlington and his volun-teer service is sentimental.

“It comes down to me wanting to see it back the way I remembered it,” he added.

Students will be involved in a variety of differ-ent activities including creating foundations for new homes.

As far as carpentry goes, volunteers will build wheelchair access ramps, decks and porches.

Inside the home, participators will be painting or putting up drywall.

“Last year students had to build bunk-beds and put up tents for the mess hall,” Jones said.

Groups from all over the nation have been sending volunteers. They range from churches and youth groups to firefighters and more. However, Randle said these volunteers are not enough.

“We have people volunteering from all over the country, but sadly it’s not enough. We can’t have too many at one time but we’d love to have some more. I expect us to be working for at least the next three to five years before this town is restored,” he said.

Stamulis said, “It’ll be really rewarding know-ing that I’m helping people instead of just myself. It’s going to be a good spring break, I can already tell.”

Randle said of his time with volunteers in Pearlington, “It’s not just about volunteering, it’s about learning and I think we all did a little bit of that.”

“Everyone is still going to have fun and get their tans, but on top of that they get to help out and volunteer,” George said.

Seniors embrace alternative trips

[Lending a Helping Hand]During last year’s school-sponsored trip to Mississippi, Caroline Hoover, Class of 2007, helps another volunteer cut wood in order to build a porch for a new home in Pearlington, MS. Volunteers were responsible for building foundations, wheelchair ramps, decks, painting and putting up dry wall for several of the 11,263 homes dam-aged from the hurricane. [timjones]

Freshman Danica Wessel is going to Orlando, FL with family. Wessel plans to visit Disney World, Cirque du Soleil and see musicals.

Sophomore Peter Hill will be visiting Hampi, India over spring break. “I’m going there to climb some sweet rocks and chill in the desert with my climb-ing peeps,” Hill said.

“The deep sea fishing tournament is the finals for my season after participating in Region-als, State and Nationals,” sophomore Landon Rohowetz said of his upcoming trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Seniors Felicia Rob-erts and Kate Strike are traveling for a weekend getaway with juniors Kelly Flynn and Kelsey Rogers to Chicago, IL. “I’m looking forward to [going to] Michigan Avenue, where all the shops are,” Rogers said.

Ellisville United Meth-odist Church is also sponsoring an alterna-tive spring break. “Our youth group is go-ing to Juarez, Mexico. I can’t go, but I am going to help out in Mis-sissippi” senior Tyler George said. According to George, 50 people from Ellisville United Methodist Church are par-ticipating in the trip to Mexico.

Junior Melina Loggia is going to London and Paris with her family and best friend. “I get to go shopping and ride a double decker bus,” Loggia said. She was supposed to go to Mexico but because of the Natalee Holloway Aruba incident in 2005 her parents said no.

“I am going to Mexico because I’m 18 and it’s my senior year. I went to Cancun last year and wanted to go somewhere different. Cancun is overrated,” senior Emily Leeker said.

[A Sign of Hope]A sign outside the devastated area of Pearlington, MS reads ‘Keep Hope Alive’ as a reminder to those 510 families whose homes were destroyed in Hurricane Ka-trina. This is the second year Rockwood has sponsored a Spring Break trip to the area to help with rebuilding. “It’ll be really rewarding knowing that I’m helping people,” senior Gray Stamulis said. [timjones]

mikebujnak[staff reporter]

Where are students planning to go for break this year?

2008 Legend Sales End March 7Order Forms available:

www.lafayettepublications.com

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Scars of bullying felt even onlineIt has left its mark on the playgrounds, and has come into the homes of children

worldwide. Bullying in person has become a

thing of the past, and it now occurs through cyberspace.

Cyberbullying is when a child harasses someone through the inter-net, by interactive and digital tech-nologies or mobile phones. There are two types of cyberbully-ing: direct and by proxy.

Direct attacks are by instant/text messaging, stealing passwords, send-ing pictures through e-mail and cell phones, internet polling, interactive gaming, sending malicious code and impersonation.

Cyberbullying by proxy is when a cyberbully gets someone else to do their dirty work, with out them having knowledge of what they are actually doing.

“Warning” or “Notify wars” are examples of cyberbullying by proxy.

Kids can click on their warning or notify buttons on their e-mails or chat screens and alert the service provider that the victim has done

something to violate their rules. Service providers are aware of

this abuse, and check to see of the warning is justified. After so many warnings, the victim can lose his or her Internet Service Provider (ISP) account.

All a cyberbully has to do is make the victim say one rude thing, and then they warn them, making them look like the victim started it.

“It is one of the most cowardly and destructive forms of bullying because the person who is the bully never has to look the victim in the eye,” Rockwood’s Director of Guid-ance Services Shari Sevier said.

Students don’t see cyberbullying as a problem, but admit it happens. Sophomore Emily Duncan said, “It’s really bad and it needs to be stopped immediately.”

“Since August 2006-April 2007 freshmen have had 10 cases, sopho-mores five to six, juniors seven to eight, and seniors two,” Counselor Deborah Parker said.

Still, although Parker said cyber-bullying does occur here, but it is not a “huge problem.”

Joe Laramie, director of Mis-souri’s Internet Crimes Against Chil-dren (ICAC), said, “Don’t respond

to it, if you do it will just escalate. By not responding you are not giv-ing that other person that satisfac-tion they want.”

“Do not take to heart what is be-ing said, it is just someone who is jealous or insecure,” Sevier said.

Laramie said victims should not keep quiet about being bullied. Tell any authority figure, including par-ents, friends, principals, a pastor or coach. Laramie suggests using abuse lines available.

With more kids being educated about the internet, they must now take a stand against cyberbullying; whether it’s helping a friend who has become a victim or reporting a cyberbully before its gets bad.

In October of 2006, there was a local case of cyberbullying that has got national attention and led sever-al municipalities to change or create laws about cyber bullying.

Her parents believe that 13-year-old Megan Meier’s suicide was the result of a cruel cyber hoax involv-ing the website MySpace.com.

Megan had been talking to a fake internet friend ‘Josh’, created by a former friend’s mother. The artificial account was created to see if Megan would gossip about her friend, but

things took a turn for the worst. In the past Megan had suffered

from depression, so the compli-ments from Josh were flattering.

After several weeks the messages became abusive. A day later she re-ceived another brutal message. Her mother came home to find Megan had attempted to hang herself in her closet. She died the next day.

“I think it was totally wrong and sick that someone would do that to a teen, especially when they knew that she was insecure,” freshman Dominic Manno said.

Although not as severe, occur-rences similar to this are not uncom-mon, which is why it is important to be aware of the internet.

“I hope to see it brought to the light, and letting kids know it is not tolerated. Neither is passive accep-tance-being a bystander in the situa-tion,” Laramie said.

“Kids should stand up with their friends, but don’t because they are afraid they will become a victim as well,” Laramie added.

Junior Sean Siebert said, “Words can go a long way and even the lit-tlest things can hurt anyone. That is why cyberbullying should be stopped immediately.”

nicolecastellano[features editor]

adamharris[staff reporter]

There are different forms of cyberbully-ing, and sometimes victims is not even aware that what is happening to them is considered by experts to be cyberbullying. The following are the most common forms:

Flaming: Online fights using electronic messaging with angry and vulgar language.

Harassment: Repeatedly sending nasty, hateful and insulting messages.

Denigration: “Dissing” someone online. Sending or posting gossip or rumors damaging one’s reputation and ruining friendships.

Impersonation: Pretending to be someone else and sending or posting material to get that person in trouble.

Outing: Sharing someone’s secrets, pictures orembarrassing information online.

Trickery: Talking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information online.

Helpful Resources:

• www. stopcyber-bullying.org

• www.mcgruff.org

• Cyber Tipline: 1-(800)-843-5678

• Missouri School Violence Hotline:1- (866)-748-7047

• National Hopeline Network:1-(800)- SUICIDE

My friend, Brittney*, and I got into an argument over the

typical “he said-she said” high school drama. In the past she

and her recent best friend, Lindsey*, were arguing over a

Lindsey’s boyfriend, Mark*. When it came time to decide

who was on whose side, I took Lindsey’s side, considering

the fact Mark was her boyfriend. Brittney and I had already

gotten into little fights, but the fights turned into one huge

fight over Facebook. Through the messaging and wall posts,

words were thrown around and everything was blown out

of proportion. Our fight over Facebook raged uncontrollably,

and was completely out of hand, ending in very threatening

and rude comments toward one another for everyone to

see on the internet. It was embarrassing and immature, and

without a doubt it didn’t make matters any better between

us. Brittney and I have been able to put aside our differences

and were able to forgive one another. We both decided the

fight was neither of our faults, and we both played a role in

the internet fight. Brittney and I both realized our faults and

deleted the things that should have never been said.

I started off this year on good terms with everyone, until the drama started. I managed to find myself at the bot-tom of an extremely deep hole that I had dug myself into. I sacrificed a lot of my relationships with my good friends in order to date a guy who I thought was just perfect. I ended up losing the majority of my friends through the drama. It started with dirty looks, then being shunned from the lunch table and finally cyberbullying. I went through a period of time where I just wanted to give up and die. The shame was unbearable, and I just wanted things to go back to the way they used to be. I got to the point where I would refuse to sit in at lunch. My depression got so bad that I hated the world. As the days passed everything slowly got better, and the attention that was focused on my fight was now being focused on the new drama. In the end, Jennifer* and I were able to put aside our differences and try to make things work in the sake of our friendship. Even though you might be angry at someone threatening and cyberbulling them solves absolutely nothing.

The Bully:The Victim:

Although cyberbullying is not common at Lafayette, students Jennifer* and Brittney* were involved in a cyberbul-

lying incident on Facebook this year. They give their personal account about what occurred between these former

*Names have been changed

[ten] imagefeatures lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]charitysites

World aid is just a click away

Hollywood Tan

Prom Specials: 6visitsplusabottleof

EmeraldBayEverclearElixerorDarktillDawnlotionfor$35

30DayunlimitedplusabottleofEmeraldEverclearElixer

orDarktillDawnfor$45

1MystictanplusapacketofHyperMoist,Hypertan

orMysticLifefor$13

Must have school I.D.

The word ‘charity’ today inspires thoughts of hard work, long hours of volun-

teer work and dedication. But with the birth of the internet, who figured charity could be so easy, or so much fun?

When bored and sitting at the computer, there are a few options to entertain and help others. GoodSearch.com, Apple.com and MacCosmetics.com are all websites which help AIDS victims in Africa survive daily.

This is Project (RED) and Product (RED) which helps 12 million children in Africa with AIDS each year. By visiting the website World-Vision.com one can learn what the AIDS situation in Africa is really like. Sponsor a child with AIDS, one whose parents suffered from this disease and learn more about what AIDS really is.

GoodSearch.com, similar to Google.com, but this site donates money to a charity of choice when you log on.

Another choice is all about the rice. For Amer-icans, rice belongs as a side for orange chicken. But for third world countries in parts of Asia, Africa and South America, it means life. Freerice.com is a place people can go to help world hunger while expanding a vocabulary.

FreeRice.com features a vocabulary test. For ev-ery vocabulary word correctly matched with the description, 20 grains of rice is donated to the United Nations for free. For every five words, 100 grains of rice get donated, and so forth.

“The 50 levels of vocabulary make [FreeRice] versatile,” math teacher Cindy Slama said.

But, before anyone participates in an online

charity, it is important to verify the site’s authen-ticity. The website www.snopes.com is a place to check for scams and urban legends.

Slama finds “The FreeRice phenomenon fas-cinating. I have watched the numbers since the first month, and they have increased at a mind-boggling rate.”

The first day the site opened, 830 grains of rice was donated. To date, on the highest traffick-ing day 195,105,860 grains of rice were donated.

There is one question that Slama has which has not been addressed on FreeRice’s FAQ sec-

tion. “I wanted to know how

many grains of rice make up a cup,” Slama said.

The website and rice is paid for by advertisers. Websites to help people for free are easy to find.

Freshman Lauren Moll was looking around on Facebook and saw a group

about FreeRice and decided to check it out. She said, “I think FreeRice.com is a fun site to

learn new words and help people. It only takes a minute to donate food”

FreeRice has two main goals; to provide vo-cabulary to everyone and help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Other teachers agree on the site’s practicality.“[FreeRice] provides good practice and imme-

diate feedback for the improvement of vocabulary skills,” language arts teacher Paul Jaycox said. “The site also nurtures the philanthropic needs of the good-hearted students of LHS. I usually will time it and give additional bonus points to the student with the highest level or amount of rice at the end of the session.”

Regardless of how students decide to help, the internet offers multiple solutions. The results, however, are undeniable, as the effects are felt in all corners of the globe.

[Nice Rice]For students interested in charity, websites such as FreeRice.com allow them to do so while simulatneously building vocabulary. Teachers have found fun ways to integrate the sites into their lessons. [logo used with permission fromFreeRice.com]

“I think FreeRice.com is a fun site to learn new words and help people. -Lauren Moll, 9

karacampbell[staff reporter]

Students, staff use various websites to find fun methods of donating to charit

CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) is an organization whose sole purpose is to en-courage participation in other charities. CAF provides money to sev-eral charities over the year and helps people find the cause which suits them best.[www.cafonline.org]

The Animal Rescue Site is 100 percent free and sponsors of the site donate a bowl of food to an animal in need for each click of the mouse. Between July to Dec. 2007, over 21 million bowls of food were donated because of a simple click of the mouse.[www.theanimalres-cuesite.com]

At the Rainforest Site, like the Animal Rescue site, visitors can con-tribute to preserve the rainforest simply by a click of the mouse. On average, 35 thousand people visit the site and contribute. [www.therainforestsite.com]

&

Salutes Lafayette High

School!

When picking a college, there are many things to

look for. For instance: the amount of money they are willing to of-fer, the population, whether or not friends are attending and types of education they offer.

On Feb. 6, Matt Brewer (Navy), Cheryl Held (William Woods), Mike Izuchukwu (Rice), Kelsey McCowen (Missouri State), Nikki Rivera (West-ern Michigan) and Caleb Welchans (Vanderbilt) signed to the college of their choice.

“They gave me [scholarships], which was the number one reason why I picked Western Michi-gan,” Rivera said. “I re-ally don’t know

what I want to do tomorrow, so picking was really hard.”

Not only does picking a college take a lot of time, it comes with a lot of stress.

“It is not as stressful if you can find the school you like right away,” McCowen said.

Finding what school is truly right for you and taking the

time to go visit each school piles up the amount of stress the athletes have.

“I just took it week by week.

I looked for s c h o o l s with my m a j o r

and what coaches were like and what they could offer me. Then I narrowed it down,” Held said.

Some athletes take it week by week, while others let stress out in a game.

“I don’t let stress overwhelm me. I took it all out on the football field,” Brewer said.

For athletes the whole process of just getting out there for colleges to see you is stressful.

Getting noticed is the hard part, but once an athlete gets their atten-tion, showing well is even harder. Not only playing well, but never having a dull moment.

“I just went to a lot of show-cases and marketed myself as well as I could. The hardest part for me was working up the nerve to contact schools. I tried to contact them be-fore they would contact me to show that I was interested in that school,”

Rivera said.Another way to get noticed is attending a camp or going

on an official or unofficial visit.

“Last year coaches started talking to me. After

the season I decided to go on official visits to figure out where to go and what I didn’t like about schools,” Brewer said.

Not only does picking a college deal with what the athlete wants, but what the family wants for them. The family affects the athlete’s decision by trying to help find what is best for them and so do the coaches.

“My family was very supportive and encouraged me to do what I wanted to do. They truly wanted me to do what was right for me,” Mc-Cowen said.

For Held, the coaches just kept calling every weekend and sent in-formation.

“The coach called almost every-day and asked me to come spend a weekend with the girls and get to know the team. And my par-ents helped me narrow down what school and education was better for me,” Held said.

Finding the school with all the correct criteria is key.

In the end, Brewer, Held, Izu-chukwu, McCowen, Rivera and Wel-chans picked their colleges and put the stress aside.

imagesports [eleven]lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008] wrestlingconditioning

Signing Stress: After a year of thought, six athletes make their decision

It’s a simple q u e s t i o n with a com-

plex answer. Why are there never any fans at varsity girls basketball games?

The varsity girls basketball team has a solid record of 18-6 and the team expects to make some noise this season. However, the roar of the crowd is lacking at the games.

“That’s just how it’s always been. There’s no good reason,” junior Ty-ler Sellers said.

It seems that the lack of fans has little to do with the talent of the team, but rather it has to do with the expectation that a girls game won’t be as exciting as a boys game.

“I don’t like girls games because it is slower paced and a lot of the teams don’t run offenses well,” se-nior Ryan Conde said.

Despite his disinterest for girls games, this season has been im-pressive for the Lafayette girls var-sity team, beating teams like Howell Central, Eureka and long-time rival Marquette, all of which maintain a winning record.

The girls varsity team started off the season with a win at the Randy Perkins Memorial Tournament.

This triumph was followed by four straight wins before the Visita-tion Academy Tournament, where the team went 2-2, placing six out of 16 teams.

The seniors, Sami Dunger, Nata-lie Emro, Meg O’Connell, Sarah

Pitkin and Michelle Pregler, have displayed leadership in almost every facet of the game, giving the team the first seed in the District tourna-ment which started Feb. 20.

To add to the overall success of the team, Dunger was recently an-nounced to the Ronald McDonald All-American Girls Basketball team.

She was one of 28 players from Mis-souri to receive this award.

Ronald McDonald himself was supposed to present this prestigious award to Dunger on Feb. 11, the night of the Oakville game, but in-clement weather caused the game to be postponed.

But the success that allowed

Dunger to be nominated for this award, relates right back to the core: the team.

Contrary to the boys’ packed houses at games, the girls do not see as much support.

“There’s definitely a larger stu-dent support for boys games. No question,” Activities Director Steve Berry said.

But even the pep band doesn’t play at many girls games. They usu-ally play at several varsity boys bas-ketball games, but only on rare oc-casions will they show up to a girls game.

“We went once [this year] be-cause it was a double header so we played at both games,” freshman David Aslin, Home Court Advan-tage member, said.

Aslin said last year the band went to a few more games, but all of those games were double headers where they where able to play at both the boys and girls varsity games.

Berry said the band has an idea of which games they will play ahead of time, but it all depends on sched-ule availability.

“To be honest, I’m definitely dis-appointed in fan support, even at boys games,” Coach Denise Meyer said.

However, Meyer put it in per-spective, saying, “So many things are going on with students that it’s hard for them to get to the game.”

The District championship game is tonight at Francis Howell.

melaniehinzpeter[staff reporter]

On any given day of the week, you will find the girls swimming team in the pool, but in the 80 degree heat and intense humidity, you can also find the wrestlers running the steps in sweatsuits, jackets and hoodies, all bundled up, sweating away their weight.

“Running in the pool is the worst, especially when you don’t have much time to lose anywhere from a half a pound to two and a half pounds. I just put on as many layers as I could,” junior Sean Siebert said.

“I believe the wrestling conditioning is as good as any with a sport,” Coach Scott Sissom said. “You mix resistance training with cardio conditioning at the same time.”

“We can have kids come into the wrestling room with shorts and a T-shirt on and lose six pounds in a day; that’s just how hard these kids work,” he added.

“Once we’re into shape, the condition-ing gets far worse. It’s all so we can have bet-ter endurance out on the mat,” Siebert said.

“By this time in the season, everyone is al-ready down to weight, so there won’t be too many kids running up in the pool anymore. We try to have them get within two pounds of their weight class and keep them there,” Sissom said.

The wrestlers mix up their conditioning, using exercises such as the mountain climber.

A mountain climber is when the wrestler is in a push-up position with their hands on the mat, and brings their knees up to their chest as if they are climbing a mountain.

All of these exercis-es are done consecu-tively to keep the heart rate going.

All the condition-ing has paid off for the Lancers, however, as six wrestlers qualified for State earlier in the month.

Four wrestlers were seeded in the top four during the District tournament as well.

bretthamlin[staff reporter]

Basketball enjoys success, suffers poor turnout

[Dead Air]In front of the empty stands, senior Natalie Emro looks to pass the ball down low. The 18-6 varsity girls team has had a phenomenal season, but the Lafayette fan support base is lacking. [ryanbueckendorf]

ninawalters[staff reporter]

[AlexErdman]Senior Matt Brewer

[twelve] imagesports lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008] VerbalCommitment

Athlete Month:ofthe Tony Meier

austingoodman[staff reporter]

To put a spotlight on the student-athletes, the Image sports staff

will select one athlete to be the Athlete of the Month.

These athletes represent the finest La-fayette has to offer, in terms of their ath-letic prowess, their leadership presence and their unstoppable will to win.

An Image sports staffer will interview these athletes in a Q and A format to intro-duce those individuals who represent the Lancers in athletic competition.

This month, senior basketball player Tony Meier is in the hot seat. He has been a huge asset to the Lancer basketball team.

This 6’8, 210 pound senior forward has helped to propel his team to the forefront of the Suburban West Conference.

Meier has not only made himself a great basketball player, but also has helped in the progression of all his teammates.

Averaging 11.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg he has been a great leader both on and off the court.

As the team continues the season, Meier will add a huge component in the Lancers’ dynamic attack.

Q. What has been the highlight of the season?A. It was when we beat Washington last month. It was a really big game for us main-ly because we had lost to them earlier in the season at their place.Q. What do you do in your free time?

A. In my spare time I do things that every-one else does, I enjoy going to the movies and hanging out with my friends mostly. My friends are really important to me and I just love being around them, no matter what we are doing.Q. What has been the biggest difference between last year and this year?A. Being a captain this year has been the biggest difference. I love the responsibility of leading our team night in and night out.Q. Who is your biggest Rival?A. Marquette by far. Being so close to La-fayette makes the games seem a little bit more interesting. I even went to elemen-tary school with a few players on that team. Playing in games against rivals means rep-resenting your school, it’s pretty sweet to be a part of it.Q. Who do you admire most?A. My dad. Not only is he a successful man in the business world but he also has taught me mostly what I know. He is always there for me and he is always looking for ways to make me better.Q. What are your plans for college?A. I’m still deciding where the best place for me is, but I am debating between St. Louis University, Illinois State, University Wis-consin-Milwaukee, Evansville and Iowa.Q. If you could play a one on one game with any former basketball player, who would it be?A. Definitely Larry Bird. I grew up a big fan of Bird and have watched him play a lot. He also has the style of play that I play with.

[Pregame Readiness]Senior captain Tony Meier warms up before the game against Francis Howell Central. Adding to a 12-0 run following halftime, Meier’s four point, three assist half pushed the Lancers to a 63-48 victory. [bretthamlin]

State of Winter sports address

alexdavis[sports editor]

It’s common knowl-edge to most students that junior basketball player Tyler Griffey is definitely not new to the game of basketball.

Most realize he is in fact a Division I college basketball player, and over the past month, that became a fact.

“My family and I talked about it, made it comfortable. I slept on it, and I decided on Illinois,” Griffey said.

In the fall of 2009, Griffey will be able to call the University of Illi-nois home, as he learns and plays for Coach Bruce Weber.

His current coach won’t soon be forgot-ten, however.

“He helped me a lot, helped with talking to coaches, helped me with seriously thinking about it,” Griffey said about Head Coach Dave Porter. “We sat in his office to think about it.”

Porter played a big part in Griffey’s ultimate decision, but none other than his father could have been Griffey’s biggest influ-ence.

“My dad said it was my decision when I talked to Coach Weber and [Asst.] Coach Price,” Griffey said.

Griffey also said that he would talk to Coach Price every other day.

Up until recently he has been talking to Price frequently, but this decision has been a year in the making.

“Over the past year, I have had a good relationship with them and they have had a willingness to help,” Griffey said. “They pro-vided me with honest answers.”

This decision is nearly 100 percent final, barring two un-foreseen possibilities.

“There are only two reasons [why I would de-commit], if Coach Weber leaves or if there is another Indiana type of recruiting scandal,” Griffey said.

Griffey has been do-ing a lot of talking with his future teammates around the country that will be signing in the 2009 recruiting class along with him.

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15440 Manchester Rd. Ellisville, MO 63011

2007-2008 Record: 17-8The Lancers ended the season with a disappointing loss at Parkway South, 70-68 in overtime.

They now will be co-champions in the Suburban West Conference along with Parkway South, who lost to Kirk-wood earlier this month.

Senior Tony Meier led the Lancers in scoring that game with 23 points and junior Tyler Griffey had a team high 10 rebounds.

Overall, Griffey leads the team in scoring (17.3 ppg) and in rebounds (8.8 rpg).

Sophomore Michael Messer leads the team in assists (3.32 apg).

Playoffs start this week for and the Lancers are seeded number one. The District Championship game is tomor-row night at Francis Howell.

The wrestling season came to a close this past weekend as senior Robert Cotton, juniors Robby Campbell, Zach Hagy, and Andrew Olejnik, sophomore Andy Early and freshman Dan Wrocklage fin-ished their season at State.

Campbell, Cotton and Olejnik all placed in the top eight. Early, Hagy and Wrocklage lost early in the tournament, but overall the weekend went well.

Aside from the successful weekend at State, the team had a winning season. With losses only coming from Parkway South and Northwest, the team finished with an overall record of 8-2.

The team is only losing two seniors, Cotton and Aaron Piggee, so a strong varsity team will be returning for the 2009 wrestling season with very high expectations.

BoysBasketball Wrestling Girls Swimming

GirlsBasketball

2007-08 Record: 18-6The Lady Lancers basketball team has held their ground this year, tallying up a total of 18 wins and only six losses. The record they have made as helped them ex-tremely going into Districts, which began on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Big moments this year for the Lanc-ers have been a victory at the Randy Per-kins Memorial Tournament, and a six out of 16 placing at the Visitation Academy tournament.

The team’s largest win streak this sea-son came at the start, when they started off 8-0. Their first loss came to Parkway South, by seven points.

Unfortunately, the Lancers met up with the Patriots again, however, a 42-60 loss let hopes down.

Districts began on Tuesday and, will end Feb. 23.

At the State Tournament, Lafayette fared well in the pool of teams, ending up third overall.

Their 200 medley relay team finished fourth, 200 freestyle relay finished sec-ond, and the 400 freestyle relay finished second too.

Sophomores Jessi Holz placed fifth and Shannon McCoy placed seventh in the 100 freestyle. McCoy also finished fourth in the 100 backstroke Sopho-mores Ashleigh Grammar placed eighth in the 200 freestyle and Samantha Wright placed eighth in the 200 individual med-ley; she was sixth in the 100 backstroke.

Other members of the State team include seniors Amanda Grammar and Alexis Myers, junior Rachel Dotson, sophomore Hannah Witzig, and fresh-man Taylor Paskoff

The Image asks:

imagesports [thirteen]lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]

Flash focus into spring sports

Last year’s record: 14-10

Much is expected for the Lancers this season. Coming back from a Conference Championship, the team will return only two starters from the field, senior J.P. Bartmess and junior Nate Goro.

Bartmess led the conference in steals last year and Goro filled in as the Lancers everyday third baseman.

Helping in the team’s success will be juniors Kyle Grana, Jordan Kreienkamp and Luke Voit.

Not only is the team filled with many juniors but sophomore Jeff Kammer will add to the team’s bullpen.

Coach Steve Miller plans on putting a strong team into the mix in hopes of winning back-to-back Conference titles.

Girls: Last year’s record: 11-3

After going deep into the playoffs last spring, this year’s lady lanc-ers lacrosse team bring in a squad with little experience.

They lose top scorers in Caro-line Heitkamp, Katie Martin and Erin McFerson to graduation; as well as 18 other seniors

Head Coach Dee Wilkinson will look for girls to step up and play a major role to fill in the shoes of last year senior class. Junior Jackie Henke will lead the mid-field line along with seniors Kayla Brubaker and Christy Yoon.

Seniors Jillian Caron and Kodi Thornton will have to step it up this year if the team is to remain on top as one of the perennial powerhouses in area as they have in the past.

Last year’s record: 13-5

Following a second place finish in the conference last year, the ten-nis squad should bring some great players to the courts this spring.

With an underclassmen domi-nated squad, sophomores Cam-eron Aho, Kevin Cui, and Adam King, the Lancers will also return key players, including senior Ryan King and junior Brent Folan.

Ryan King will play as the num-ber one player this year. He has signed to play tennis at Northern Illinois University.

This will be King’s second sea-son at LHS since his move from Chicago.

Head Coach Brian Fish hopes the team will improve from an 8-2 conference record from last sea-son.

Last year’s record: 19-1-1

Not only is the girls soccer team planning a season to remember, they are already setting their eyes on a State championship.

Seniors Nikki Rivera and Emily Leeker look to lead a team return-ing a majority of their starters.

Leading the team with 12 goals from last year, junior Korie Klos-terman will be a key contributor to the success of the Lady Lanc-ers.

Junior Nina Walters will also add to the dynamic attack after leading the team with 14 assists last season.

Led by Coach Tim Walters, the team will hopefully put last year’s disappointing loss in the playoffs to rest and focus on bringing back another Conference title.

All nine sports are previewed and there are some interesting surprise

The boys team this year looks to return to the top of the Suburban West Conference. Led by Head Coach Randy Seagrist, the Lanc-ers finished fourth in the Confer-ence Meet last year.

Senior Michael Izuchukwu returns as the conference’s best triple jumper and one of the top sprinters.

Along with Izuchukwu, seniors Jordan Lenoir and Gene Westfall look to lead the sprinters along with junior Ian Moore.

Key distance runners will be seniors Cole Donelson, Eric Lutz and Drew Stiehl. Lutz finished sixth overall in the 3200m run last year. Senior pole vaulter Jeff Mar-tens returns after finishing second in conference last year and quali-fying for state, where he finished 13th overall.

As returning Suburban West Con-ference champions, this year girls track team plans on staying on top of the conference.

Senior Kelsey McCowan re-turns as one of the state’s top high jumpers and triple jumpers. She was 10th overall in the high jump at last years state meet. She has signed with Missouri State University to do track and field.

The team returns last years top distance runner in senior Cheryl Held as well. The William Woods signee finished 14th overall in the 3200m event at the state meet last year.

Senior Andraya Olander re-turns as the conference’s best shot put and discus thrower after an impressive campaign last year in making the finals in both events all the way to Sectionals.

Last year’s record: 7-17

After finishing at the bottom in nearly every offensive and de-fensive category in the Suburban West Conference, Head Coach Ja-mie Waeckerle will try to redeem his team this year.

They lost their two top goal scorers from last year’s team; Ste-phen Noce and Morgan Dodge.

Junior Steven Grott is the re-turning top scorer in points from last year.

He along with sophomores Connor Peters and Taylor Foye look to play in as major contribu-tors for the team this year.

Seniors Cami Bird and Ryan Maddox will be looked at as lead-ers this year as having the most experience on the team which re-turns only three seniors this year.

The Lancer golf team is anticipat-ing a great season with the return of juniors Josh Day and Zeke Di-eckhaus.

Day leads the returning golfers with a 2007 average of 42.5 round per nine holes.

In addition to these juniors, key sophomores will include Ryan Donnell and Ian Davis. During the Conference Finals last year Day carried the team shooting a 39. along with Dieckhaus’ 43.

Last year, the team produced only graduating seniors Tony Bono and Brian Holthouse to the State Tournament.

The team will look for golfers to step up their game this year.

Coach Gaylen Laster aims on bringing a handful of golfers to the State Tournament later on in the year.

Boys Track Girls Track Water Polo Boys Golf

boysvolleyball

Last year’s record: 31-4

With the most memo-rable season out of all the spring sports last year, the Lancers and Head Coach Doug Ell were runners up in the State Champion-ship last May at Vianney.

But the team isn’t satisfied with last year’s result and is expected to bid for the State title again this year.

With the loss of eight seniors from last year, including Mike Horton, Mike Swigunski and Jor-dan Winters, the current seniors will have to step up to fill in the lost shoes.

But the team also lost something else when those seniors graduated: their defense.

The lancers lost 4 defensive specialists to graduation, including libero Chris Kottwitz.

The team does expect to win state, but the de-fense may be different for the team this year.

Senior Nick Batten-berg, a 6’5” middle blocker, says that the passing will be the biggest question this year because the team lost those 4 impor-tant seniors.

But, Battenberg says that Coach Ell is a good coach that will be able to change due to the loss of players.

Ell keeps his practices competitive and challeng-ing, allowing every player to work on what they most need to.

According to his play-ers, Ell relates to them and knows what they struggle with. He then takes this and applies it to practices and games.

For the upcoming season, seven now-se-nior varsity players will be returning, including Battenberg, Carl Dick and Tony Meier.

Battenberg averaged 1.60 kills per game and 1.22 blocks per game. Dick averaged 1.89 kills per game and 1.25 blocks per game. Meier aver-aged 1.00 kill per game and 0.73 blocks per game.

The players who played a significant role in the defense are all gone, so Elliot Corwin and Chris McCoy may be stepping in to lead the defense this season.

But for now, the players are looking for a successful start to the beginning of their season. Boys volleyball starts on Feb. 25.

Baseball Girls Lacrosse Boys Tennis Girls Soccer

[fourteen] imagesports lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008]

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Foreveralexdavis

ESPN falls victim to business integrationOn my TiVo at my house, my mom and I both have our share of shows that we set to record, and we share the amount of memory that the DVR can hold.

My choices of recorded shows are riddled with comedies such as Seinfeld and Two and a Half Men. In-cluded in the mix are shows like PTI, The Sports Reporters and SportsCenter.

My mom’s choices are quite the contrary. She elects Oprah, Entertain-ment Tonight, Extra, and I have even seen an Ellen DeGeneres appear every now and then.

Making a conscious effort to be courteous to others in the room, af-ter watching a SportsCenter one day, I then asked my mom if she would like to watch one of her shows.

She responded with, “okay, I’ll put on an Entertainment Tonight.”

I walked away and overheard something that sounded strangely familiar. The headlines that I was hearing from the heart of pop cul-ture were almost identical to what I had just been watching: Roger Cle-mens and his ‘steroids scandal.’

This opened my eyes to the fact that, as an alternative to just receiv-ing raw sports stats, my hour of SportsCenter has transformed into how Roger Clemens is handling

whatever lie he says is being told about him, or Shaq and how many houses he is going to own when he moves to Phoenix.

That hour of the Disney-owned SportsCenter has become quite redun-dant, and heading over to ESPN. com to see the Mitchell Report’s star Kirk Radomski on the front page doesn’t help its case.

Who knows, maybe I should get used to these as norms, seeing as to how conformation of our informa-tion is going to be more and more prevalent with an oligopoly of Mi-crosoft, Google and Disney.

With the soon-to-be buyout of Yahoo, Microsoft is now leading the surge of information to our society, so I would not be surprised to see a cyber war ignite between those three companies.

I am digressing. The point of what I am trying to say, is that the information on SportsCenter these days does not seem like it used to be. I want the days of SportsCenter when the news was the sports, not the players.

I really don’t care much for the players. Yeah sure I care about their stats, and anything that pertains to the game, and no, I don’t feel re-sentment towards them in any way,

but their own lives are their own business.

So, leave Britney alone!Well, I guess it would be Andy

Pettite or Tom Brady, but as we have seen the torment of indi-viduals begin with the paparazzi, it ends with an outsource that doesn’t seem to pleasant for either end, just the middle, the ESPN’s or Entertain-ment Tonight’s that get the cash.

I want to be able to watch PTI without hearing about Radomski, and then McNamee in the ensu-ing topic. My interest level is not up there; I would much rather hear about how the Shaq trade has af-fected teams like Cleveland, Orlan-do and LA.

Let’s please not become star struck. Okay, Schilling’s next surgery is a headline, but how about instead of making the headline something that pertains to how he his going to handle it, something that pertains to the BoSox-Yankee rivalry, or the spring season.

I just don’t want to one day turn SportsCenter on and see Britney Spears somehow overlapped into this news capacity, because slowly that’s what’s happening.

Slowly and slowly people’s expec-tations of journalistic authenticity

have been vanishing, and they have been accepting any kind of news in the form of print, online or broad-cast media.

So, I guess the issue is that Sportscenter’s topics of discussion have slimmed down extremely, but I am also expressing my distaste for big business oligopolies as previ-ously stated.

Originality of presentation is al-most completely gone, and with it goes the very essence of capitalist competition within the media.

What makes this country so great is that capitalism and free business enterprise allow for variations of different products.

An example is now that Disney owns ESPN, you perfectly can see how different the end product comes across now, compared to then.

The entire fabric of sports me-dia is now universally controlled by Disney, and doesn’t allow for much variety. Well, not entirely Disney, Mi-crosoft will soon have control over Yahoo.

Cameramen in sports: A necessity with flawsThey film it. They capture it. They bring it to my 72-inch big-screen in my basement. It can be close-up, overhead, or aerial view any day, any time. What more could a man ask for?

The revolution of the camera-man in sporting events seems to have peaked in advancements to this point, but there is still one error that needs to be fixed: the safety of the players.

I know the players say it’s all about the fans and the cameramen bring it to our households, but there shouldn’t be any problems between the two. But there have been.

Sometimes cameramen are just in the wrong place at the wrong time and professional athletes just can’t control themselves. What else is new?

Kenny Rogers had a run in with a cameraman during a pregame work-out in which he shoved not one, but two of them to the ground. This re-sulted in a 20-game suspension and a $50,000 fine by the MLB against the five-time Gold Glove pitcher.

Sure the cameramen might have received the worst of it (actually one went to the hospital), but why get in the face of a pitcher before a game even starts? He wasn’t even schedule to pitch that day.

With that said, let’s look at the other side.

I am a huge col-lege basket-ball fan. It doesn’t mat-ter what team is playing at anytime of the day. It’s fun to watch players play hard every second of the game without getting paid; play-ers like Tyler Hansbrough for North Carolina.

It was a Monday and North Car-olina was playing at Rutgers. With the Tar Heels up 77-56 and less than six minutes remaining, Hansbrough tried to take a charge. It resulted in a put back dunk by the Scarlet Knights, but Head Coach Roy Wil-liams wasn’t worried that his team didn’t box-out the opposing player.

His star player was on the ground, knocked-out cold.

Hansbrough was only uncon-scious for about five seconds, but the whole stadium went silent as the future NBA star laid on the floor and the trainers rushed onto the court.

After a couple of minutes, he got up on his own power and walked off the court. The classy crowd, along with me on the couch, clapped as he left the arena. I later found out that the diagnosis was a mild-concussion. The cause: a cameraman.

Kneeling right next to the basket, only a couple of feet off the court

was a cameraman for ESPN covering the game. As Hans-brough fell backward, his head slammed on the man’s knee and onto the floor.

As Hansbrough was suffering in excruciating pain, ESPN switched to that man’s camera and showed a close-up of Hansbrough’s face while he laid on the court.

It’s like saying, “Hey, look at the TV everybody, this is the guy whose neck I almost broke.”

Hansbrough didn’t suffer any long-term injuries, but it was a close call. I wonder what the media will do the day that a cameraman did cause long-term injury to a player. What if he ended an athlete’s career?

There have been some pretty hilarious sports injuries in the past. Anybody remember when two sneezes caused Sammy Sosa to miss a game back in 2004 because of back spasms?

Or when outfielder Glenallen Hill, teammate of Sosa while he was on the Cubs, fell through a glass ta-ble and received cuts due to a night-mare he had about spiders?

Luckily neither of those injuries ended the athletes’ careers. But I don’t want to have to figure out the consequences of when a freak cam-eraman accident occurs, causing the

athlete his life.If I had to, I would invent camer-

as that can be placed into the court to get close up shots instead of us-ing big, heavy cameras by the court. They already have them in baseball where cameras are placed right by home plate. Why can’t basketball and all other sports use the same thing?

It is a good view for the view-ers and media guys would be able to control in some room within the arena to change camera angles.

With the era of technological ad-vancement upon us, I can’t believe we haven’t taken this to the next level.

We have the aerial view camera in football, the mini camera located in hockey nets and snowboarders who wear cameras on their helmets dur-ing the Winter X Games.

It is tight to see what snowboard-ers see when they do a backside 1080. Makes you a little dizzy, but it’s like you are right there with them.

That’s how I want to feel when-ever I watch anything on TV.

I understand all the sacrifices me-dia cooperations have to go through to get it to millions of viewers.

But the head-honchos of each sport and their media relations team need to find a solution now on how to bring it safely with no risks.

That’s right. I said it.

bigleaguesstats, standings

& stories[Cardinals

Rams

Blues

MizzouFootball

MizzouBasketball

On National Signing day, the Tigers pulled in their best recruit-ing class in the seven years Gary Pinkel has been at Mizzou. Led by five-star recruit Blaine Gabbert, quarterback from Parkway West, the Tigers landed the 25th best recruiting class in the nation according to rivals.com. The Tigers got 8 out of the 12 best players in Missouri, too.

The Blues have received points in five of their six games since the All-Star break. They are 3 points out of a playoff spot. Paul Kariya leads the team in points (50) and assists (35). Brad Boyes has scored 31 goals which is tops on the team.

Two time AL MVP Juan Gonzalez has been invited to play with the Cards for spring training. He, along with the rest of the team have started full team workouts. They play their first game next Wednesday vs. SLU.

The team has hired Al Saunders as offensive coordinator and Bill Devaney as executive V.P. of player personnel. Also, tickets for next year are supposed to be below the NFL’s league average for the price of one ticket.

Guards Stefhon Han-nah and Jason Horton have been charged with third-degree assault after a fight in a bar back in Janu-ary. Hannah has been kicked off the team and is suffering from a broken jaw. Horton, along with senior for-ward Darryl Butterfield, was suspended for two games before coming back for the Feb. 4 game against Kansas. Junior forward DeMarre Carroll leads the team in scoring (13 ppg) and rebounds (7rpg). They play against Colorado tomorrow night.

]

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imageentertainment [fifteen]lafayette high school [feb. 22, 2008] facultyrecs

$1 Off Any Smoothie Expires 2/23/20082432 Taylor Rd.

Wildwood MO636-458-3443

This month’s faculty recommendations come from the Family and Comsumer Stud-ies Department.

Musical Group:“I have always listened to Aerosmith and I am crazy about Steven Tyler. Classic rock is my favorite music.”-Becky Lawrence

Books:“The Notebook and The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. The way he writes puts you in the story. His books are books that once you start you can’t put down.”-Mandy Regina

Movies:“I am too busy to watch a full movie, but I do go to the Muny, which is more fun and has more culture.” -Julie Spina

Misc. Activities:“I ride a Harley Trike motorcycle. Students should try this only after they complete the motorcycle safety course.” -Lori Sanders

Each March, Lafayette puts on one of the

largest school-sponsored events of the year: The Renaissance Academic Pep Assembly.

While the actual production only takes two hours, the planning pro-cess lasts nearly the entire school year.

Starting at the beginning of the school year, the Renaissance stu-dent steering committee, consisting of about 20 students, began plan-ning for the March 11 event which will take place during 5th and 6th Hours.

Even before the cast of about 40 people knew about their involve-ment in the assembly, steering com-mittee members spent countless meetings in Becly Lawrence’s class-room deliberating over the logistics of the assembly.

Apart from the assembly, the committee plans out all of the year’s Renaissance events such as T-shirt giveaways and Renaissance Tues-days, where the staff-person of the month is chosen and Renaissance Radio submissions are taken.

All of these things considered, it is truly remarkable that these stu-dents find time to plan out arguably the most complex production in the

Rockwood School District.The committee began its plan-

ning of the Academic Pep Assembly at its first meeting in August when they began researching and narrow-ing down possible themes.

Up until last year, the assembly was more of a lip-synching perfor-mance, but last year’s performance marked the begin-ning of a more skit-based show.

Senior Charlotte Gaw said the change was “because last year’s SNL theme was such a huge hit. We thought it was really funny and refreshing, so we decided to do some-thing similar to that [again this year].”

The new format requires the com-mittee to carefully pick themes that they can base enough brief skits on to fill their allotted time.

They finally decided on the “game show” theme in September, after passing on a “board game” theme among others.

Once they had the overall theme picked, the committee divided into classes to determine the class-spe-

cific themes.“There’s a lot of seniority,” said

senior Megan Drissell of the selec-tion process. “The seniors pick what they want first and then they go from there, and the freshmen usu-ally just get what is left over because we don’t have any freshmen on committee.”

The Senior Class ended up choosing Nickelodeon GAS, while the juniors and sophomores chose Trivia shows and reality shows respectively. The freshman theme is Game Show Net-work shows.

The committee then began choos-ing and writing the skits for the assem-bly, which junior

Alex Mace listed as “the most chal-lenging part of the process.”

“We have to do so much before [the assembly]: planning out what is going to happen in each skit, and writing out all of the scripts word for word what’s going to be said [among other things],” Mace said. “It’s definitely the hardest part.”

After months of editing scripts,

the Academic Pep Assembly began to take shape in early February when the skits were finalized and steering committee members began to comb the student body for potential cast members.

“A lot of people ask me ‘Oh, can I be in the Academic Pep Assem-bly?’ and I always just tell them that I’ll try,” Gaw said. “But I always feel bad because it usually just goes to the person who fits the part best.”

Drissell and Gaw both said cast members were to be picked from the student body on the basis of who they expected to work the hardest on perfecting their lines.

How close the person looks to their character and previous involve-ment in Assemblies are also factors in the process.

Shortly after the production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown end-ed, the steering committee and cast planned to begin practicing for the assembly. Full rehearsals are sched-uled to begin the week before the as-sembly all the way up to just before the assembly begins.

The steering committee mem-bers said they are confident that this year’s production will be the best in recent memory, and they are excited to see their brainchild introduced to the school.

Renaissance steering committee members select theme, cast for annual Academic Pep Assembly

Jack John-son has an i n c r e d i b l y

recognizable sound. Most people can hear one of his songs and think, “Hey, that’s Jack Johnson.”

He’s just one of those artists. But it seems like if he has such an identifiable voice and sound, some of his music could vary from album to album.

Sleep Through the Static has that “I swear I’ve heard this before” feeling. It has the signature Jack Johnson

sound, but so much so that it seems like the exact same album as all of his others, just with different lyrics and song titles.

For people who love the “clas-sic Jack” sound, you’re in luck. Sleep Through the Static does have one very different quality other Johnson al-bums do not; it was recorded using 100 percent solar energy and printed on waste recycled paper.

That alone earns Johnson props for his latest release, even if its sound is eerily similar to all his others.

drewstiehl[staff reporter]

courtneymcbay[staff reporter]

In Simple Plan’s most recent, self-titled album

they grasp for a new sound in songs like their lead single “When I’m Gone.”

This new sound is the addi-tion of a hip-hop beat mixed with Simple Plan’s traditional pop/punk template. This is mostly due to the collaboration with beat doctor Dan-jahandz which was probably a mis-take on the band’s part.

Not only this, but the producer

for this album is Max Martin who has worked with Brittney Spears and Kelly Clarkson.

You can definitely hear the Amer-ican Idol style with a little teen angst which strange because these guys have been out of their teens for a long time.

So, with what could have been a chance to switch things up, Simple Plan swings and misses as they aim for revolutionary; and get just the same annoying sing-along songs that you try to get out of your head.

danielclutter[staff reporter]

“We have so much to do before the

assembly. It’s definitely the hardest part.”-Alex Mace, 11

Some old favorites offer up new releasesJack JohnsonSleep Through The Static

Simple PlanSimple Plan

A Behind The Scenes Peek

flagthese

onArt

[info]tainmentFriday, Feb. 22, 2008 [Vol. 39 Issue 5]

A Gass With ClassStudent produces his own ceremony to celebrate Oscars, appreciate films

The Pageant

Feb. 28 at 6 p.m.Angels and Airwaves$25

March 1 at 7 p.m.Ludo$10.57

March 5 at 7 p.m.Sick Puppies$10.57

March 9 at 7 p.m.N.E.R.D.$23 Advance/ $25 Door

March 10 at 7 p.m.Dropkick Murphys$22 Advance/ $25 Door

Creepy Crawl

Feb 22 at 9 p.m.Novella w/ The Lush$11 Under 21/ $8 21+

March 3 at 7 p.m.Secondhand Serenade$12 Advance/ $14 Door

Pops

Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.Horrorpops$15

Feb. 27 at 5 p.m.Emery w/ Mayday Parade$15

Cicero’s

March 6 Treeheart Orchestra$8

The Loft

Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.Mailbox Baseball w/ Five Across the Face, Music for Dogs, Highland Circus$5 Door

In Theatres as of 2/22

Be Kind Rewind

Charlie Bartlett

Witless Protection

Vantage Point

New Releases as of 2/26

Goldfrapp: Seventh Tree CD

Ludo: You’re Awful, I Love You CD

30 Days of Night DVD

The Darjeeling Limited DVD

Beowulf DVD

Nancy Pappas is a junior currently taking AP Art Studio. She has been interested in art and taking classes since grade school. Since starting high school, Pappas has become more interested in graphic design and studio art. Next year, she will be taking five art classes: Drawing I and II, Painting I and II and AP Art Studio again, as well as AP Art History. She is looking at Savannah College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, The Art Institute of Chicago and Kansas City Art Institute. Pappas wants to go into graphic design and advertising and also to stay involved in stu-dio art on her own time.

With Oscar night this Sun-day evening and the writer strike over just in time to ensure a short, poorly put-together cer-emony, people have resorted to other means of producing an en-joyable Oscar weekend. Among these creative minds is senior Nick Gass.

Gass began his unique Oscar tradition in 1999. He decided he wanted to create an awards show with winners selected by mem-bers of his family.

“The Gass Awards as we know it, began the week after the Academy Awards in March 2001; March 31 to be precise,” Gass said.

The process is simple. Gass and his family members includ-ing his mother, father, brother and dog (Yes, even pets are in-volved in this tradition) all re-ceive a ballot which Nick creates himself from the Oscar nomi-nated films he’s seen (this usually includes all of them).

To create the ballot, Gass simply takes these films and puts them into categories of his own. These picks usually mirror those of the Academy.

Once the ballots are created, Gass distributes the ballots to be filled out in late January of early February.

Gass collects them to tally the votes and deter-mine the winners. He supervises all of the voting and records the winners on cards, putting them in envelopes to be read the night of the awards.

“I, of course, am the only person to know the winner until the envelopes are opened. I’m really into all of this. I print off envelopes with the cat-egory on the front and small cards with winners

name on them.”Nick admitted the Gass family is not as enthu-

siastic as he.“My parents call it a waste of envelopes, but

I call it an authentic interpretation of an awards show…the more I [talk about] this, the more I comprehend the utter insanity of this process,” he said.

The Gass awards don’t just select the best

movies in their respective categories, but also the fam-ily’s favorite restaurants and sports teams.

“All the best sports team nominees have won a cham-pionship or experienced great improvement or success in the past year,” Gass said about the eligible teams.

“In order to be eligible for the best restaurant, everyone in our family has to have eat-en there at least twice in the past year,” he said.

With the Gass Awards be-coming one of the family’s fa-vorite traditions, and with all the envelopes, printed ballots and ceremonial aspects one would assume that the awards show at the Gass household gets pricey.

“It doesn’t cost much-downloading Apple movie trailers to my iPod, hooking up a few cables, and poster board with the generic Gass Awards logo that I hang every year,” Gass said.

He said the awards cer-emony generally occurs the Friday or Saturday before the Oscars, depending on the fam-ily’s schedule. Last year’s Gass Awards ceremony took place the night before the Oscars.

“This year, I’m not quite sure of the date,” Gass said,

“but, thankfully, I have no strike holding up my show.”

Gass also added that he does put a substantial amount of effort in to making the awards show run smoothly.

“Do I exert myself ?” Gass said, “I guess you could say that, but it’s important to me, and it’s something I love. So why not?”

aaroncasias[entertainment editor]

And the Winner Might Be...Nick Gass may already know the big winners of the Gass Awards. However, winners for Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony are still a mystery to all but the Academy.

Thankfully, along with shar-ing his unique Oscar tradition, Gass was also kind enough to grace us with his insight into who the big winners might be at the Oscar ceremony.

Having seen nearly all the major contenders this year, Gass is prepared to share his selections.

Best Picture:No Country For Old Men“I think it has the most momentum out of any of the films nominated.”

Achievement in Directing:Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men“I think they are due to be hon-ored. Also, No Counrty has a lot of buzz right now that the other movies don’t have.”

Best Actor:Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will be Blood“He has won all the precur-sor awards. It is a performance that people will remem-ber for years to come.”

Best Actress:Julie Christie, Away From Her“At this point it is Julie Chris-tie. However, Ellen Page (Juno) might surprise.

Best Supporting Actor:Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men“Duh. He’s one of the creepi-est villains to come out of Hol-lywood in a long time,”

Best Supporting Actress:Undecided“It’s a four-woman race right now. The only one I could not see win-ning is Saoirse Ronan (Atonement).