JOURNAL November 16, 2012 Issue 5, Volume XCI Southport High School 971 East Banta Road Indianapolis, IN 46227

Flashback to the ‘50s. Page 6the See the aftermath of the explosion. Page 10

by Caitlyn Jones and Rachael SammReporter and News Editor

The explosion that happened Saturday, Nov. 10, managed to destroy the homes and lives of those affected by the blast, but it also man-aged to bring an entire community together to help in the time of need. Mary Bryan Elementary School opened their doors to the families of the af-fected area soon after the blast. Hundreds of people immediately be-gan bringing supplies to the school for the families of Richmond Hill. Supplies like baby food, dog food, clothes, etc. were all donated to Mary Bryan for the families. The morn-ing after, volunteers came to the school and continued donat-ing supplies along with helping with whatever needed to be done.

Senior Rachel Dish-man was one of the many Southport High School students that volunteered at Mary Bry-an. She was very amazed by how many people volunteered. According to many of the volun-

teers, people were told to come back at later times because they already had more than enough people coming to help.

“Everyone keeps saying Southport strong and all that stuff, but it really is true,” Dish-man said.

Volunteers at Mary Bryan were packing supplies by putting them in boxes and bags to be sent to Southport Presbyterian Church (SPC). Dishman said that she was very sur-prised by the number of people who were there to help. She arrived at Mary Bryan at 1:00 p.m. and left at 1:12 p.m. to drop off sup-

plies at SPC because of how fast they were able to go with the many volunteers.

According to Sopho-more Andrew Cleveng-er, the supplies were moved from Mary Bryan to SPC in three moving trucks which were donated by Jay’s Moving Company, and volunteers managed to unload the trucks in under 10 minutes. The victims were brought into the Tony Cha-pel in the church and were given the option to sleep in the class-rooms of the church if needed. Clevenger and many other vol-unteers worked in the dining room moving

and organizing food, folding clothes and mov-ing tables throughout the whole day on Sun-day. Volunteers can still sign up to go to the church to help serve breakfast, lunch and din-

ner to the victims of the explosion. With tables overflowing with donated sup-

plies for the victims, the only thing that is needed now is money rather than supplies be-cause they have more than enough. Southport High School was more than happy to help raise some money for the affected families. Many fundraising ideas were already being proposed the Monday after the explosion, in-cluding a percentage night that was held at Orange Leaf on Thursday Nov. 15. However, financial aid wasn’t the only thing Southport High School was providing for the victims.

Volunteers from Indiana Crisis Assistance Response Team (I-CART) and U-Indy were present at Southport on Monday, Nov. 12, to be supportive and available for those who needed emotional support after the trauma.

“Everyone responds to a traumatic situa-tion differently, so we try to normalize those feelings and help them understand that what-

ever they’re feeling is normal and it’s OK,” I-CART volunteer Erika Swanson said.

Teachers were told to allow students who wanted to talk to a counselor to go down to the main office. It was also explained that this type of trauma can last weeks, months or even a year and to be patient with students affected by the explosion as everyone deals with things in a different way and pace. The volunteers also stressed that it’s important to get help if students are feeling depressed because it can be dangerous and there are numerous mental health facilities in the area for victims to go to for help.

With emotional and financial support be-ing provided by Southport, it’s clear that the victims won’t be alone in this. The community will continue to help the explosion victims throughout this troubling time, and students will have plenty of opportunities to reach out to the victims through Southport.

Citizens donate supplies to explosion victims and volunteer at the refuge sites

Community reaches out to Richmond Hill

{helpOUT}- Buy a T-Shirt for $10 or a “Southport Strong” bracelet for $5.- Wear sweatpants on Nov. 21 for $2.- Join your class (grade level) in an after-school clean-up day. - Donate money to your first period class during sweatpants day and win breakfast.

Devastation strikes at home

One of the houses burns after the explosion on Saturday, Nov. 10, as firefighters work to put out the blaze. Photo contributed by Billie Chipman.

by Kaitlin FallowfieldReporter

Sophomore Billie Chipman says that she was just 50 yards away when it happened. She was walking to her couch when a mon-strous sound sent her to the ground.

“I screamed bloody murder,” Chipman said. Numerous houses were leveled last Satur-

day, Nov. 10, at 11:07 p.m. by an explosion in Richmond Hill, a neighborhood off of Stop 11 Road and Sherman Drive. Other homes had windows blown out, and sources say they received responses to the sound miles away from the blast zone.

Chipman and her father ran outside to in-vestigate the source of the noise, and they were not the only ones. Chipman says she saw everyone in the area out of their houses looking for the cause of such a noise.

“The first thing I saw was smoke,” Chipman said. “Then my dad took off into the house.”

After that, they assisted their neighbors and stayed the night in their home. Though, when day broke, the scene was not much brighter.

“I went outside and no one was around. Then we spoke to a police officer who was like ‘You guys need to leave, it’s not safe,’” Chipman said.

Emergency workers evacuated residents, and utilities were shut off in the neighbor-hood due to suspicion of a gas leak.

First responders to the scene were told it

could have been an airplane crash, a gas rup-ture or some other type of explosion. Though the cause of this colossal event is still under investigation, the degree of devastation to the community is clear.

“It was like a war zone,” Chipman said.As firefighters and other correspondents

swarmed the site, houses surrounding the ex-plosion were on fire—some victims trapped under the wreckage--and families in the com-munity were advised to evacuate to nearby Mary Bryan Elementary School.

(To continue, see Explosion page 10)

Saturday Night

11:07 p.m., Saturday Explosion occurs. Police and �re�ghtersbegin to respond to reports.

Sunday Evening

1:00 p.m., SundaySouthport Presbyterian Church becomes the new headquarters for volunteers and supplies.

8:00 9:00midnight 1:0011:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 noon 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00

11:15 a.m., SundayResidents of Richmond Hill areallowed into homes with the least damageto retrieve pets and belongings.

11:30-11:40 p.m., Saturday Mary Bryan Elementary is establishedas a relief center for victims, volunteersand supplies.

7:23 p.m., SundaySuperintendent of Perry Township, Dr. Tom Little, sends out a mass phone message to the township, speaking about the explosion.

11:0010:00

5:00 a.m., Sunday Dana DeHart, principal of Mary Bryan Elementary School,leaves the school after �ve hours of coordinating.

9:00 a.m., SundayDeHart returns to Mary Bryan to continue helping in relief e�orts.

Supplies were donated by the community and taken to Southport Presbyterian Church for the victims of the explosion. Photo by Kaitlin Fallowfield.

Students and administrator share their first-hand accounts of the explosion

Graphic by Stefanie Maier

2 November 16, 2012 Foreign Language / Advertisements

Van Dawt ZiThong Thanh Tu

Sianginn nih a ngeihmi course pawl hi nang na thei dih ma? Cun diploma lak khawhnak ding ah a hreh mi requirement pawl tah na thei cang hna ma? Na theih lo asi ah cun a thanglei caa hi tha tein rel ve ko tuah law that hnemnak tampi an pek lai.

Khan na lak mi pawl hi biatak tein na ruah ngai a hau. Cawn a hreh mi cawn lo in maw, cawn a hreh lo mi lawng te cawng sual lai u cih zeicatiah, sianginn hngakchia tampi cu zei hi dah ka cawn a hreh ti hi theih lo in graduate caan a phak tik ah graduate kho lo in kum cheu a peh than mi hna an um.

“Schedule kong nan thei lo ah cun a thaimi le a hngal tak mi sin ah hal u! mah lo cun kei-mah bantuk in Kawlram ah ka cawn ciami,

credit zong ka ngai ciami Biology an ka pek than I mah bantuk nih cun harnak an pek hna lai,” tiah senior Za T. Hmun nih a ti.

A hrehmi credit ngeih lo ruang ah summer school siseh, night school siseh, online class ti pawl hawi cawn lo mi a cawng mi hna zong an um pah len. Cu caah hi bantuk hmun hma phak na duh lo ah cun tang kua lio tein na class lak dingmi kong ruah na thawk cang a hau.

Diploma hi phum thum in then asi I (1) Core Fourty Diploma (2) Teachnical Honor Diploma le (3) Acedemic Honor Diploma tiah then an si. Nang zei bantuk diploma dah lak na timh?

Core 40 Diploma Core 40 diploma cu credit 40 ngeih lawng

ah awn khawh asi. Cu lawng si lo in a hreh (re-quire) mi khan pawl lak piak zong a hau. Hi di-ploma in awn khawhnak ca i a hreh mi khan le credit pawl cu sianginn nih an pek mi signpost i catlap number 15nak ah khan a um lai.

Technical Honors DiplomaTechnical Honors diploma tu hi cu Center

Nine (C9) an ti mi singinn dang ah a kai mi lawng nih mah diploma in hin awn khawh asi.

Ni cheu hi Southport High School ah kai i, a tang mi ni cheu cu khi ka C9 sianginn ah va kai a hau mi asi.

Academic Honors DiplomaAcademic honors diploma hi cu mah diplo-

ma pathum ah hin a sang bikmi awnnak asi. Mah awnnak ding caah hin a hlei in Math ah credit pahnih, Science ah pahnih, Ramdang holh ENL kum hnih le adang holh kumhnih asi lo ah holh phunkhat lawng in kum thum, le AP khan pahnih hna hi require mi a hlei in lak a hau mi pawl an si. Cun na GPA 3.0 le mark (C-) cung asi lo ah cun hi diploma in cun awn khawh asi lo.

Hi a cung lei kong he peih tlaih in nan fian lo mi a um ah cun nan councelor si hna seh, EL saya te si hna seh, cun nan u le a thei mi pawl zong hal khawh I zuam u. Hmai lei ah zei bantuk dah si ka duh ti hi a tu tein ruat law thawk cang. Nangmah le na life cu nangmah tein na sak lo ah cun a ho hmanh nih an ra lai i an in sak piak lai lo. Cucaah na caan, na ruahnak, le na thazaang cu sung lawi in le man ngei tein hman I zuam law cu nih cun thanchonak lam ah an hruai lai.

Diploma phun le schedule

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Siang hngakchia nih theih hrim ding mi diploma phun le a hreh mi schedule

{CaCawnBalnak}“An mah nih a kan pek mi ka lak ko lai ziah tic un lak ding zei hmanh ka thei rih lo.” -Anthony Bil,Freshman

“Mah duh mi te lak ziah tic un keimah caah midang nih timh piak lo in kei mah tein timh tuah ka duh.” - Za T Hmun,Junior

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November 16, 2012 3Student Life

Walls go tumbling down

{phaseONE}Construction has begun, but what does that mean? Here are the stages that ‘Phase One’ of Southport’s construction project consists of from now until May of 2013.

Q: Are students going to get the parking lot back?A: No. It’s not coming back. The west park-ing lot is going to be used as a staging area for heavy machines and equipment for the duration of the construction, so teachers need somewhere else to park. The parking spaces students have now are all their going to get for the rest of the year.

Q: Are students going to be safe?A: Yes. The Skillman Cooperation has many

rules and safety guidelines that the construc-tion workers must follow. Some students have said that steel beams being lifted over the school could potentially fall through the roof and crash into their classrooms while they are in school, however that is impossible because no heavy lifting will take place during the school day. “For safety reasons,” Tony Heath said, “There will be no steel lifted over the building while it’s occupied.”

Q: When during the day is this construc-tion going to happen?A: The normal work hours are from seven o’clock a.m. to about 3:30 p.m. So most work will take place during the day, and students will have to adapt to the noise during class.

Q: How long is this construction going to

last?A: The goal for comple-

tion is December of 2015. This is a two year proj-ect, so half of the students currently attending Southport will still be here to see the changes.

Q: Are the hoodies permanent? A: This semester is a ‘trial period’ for hoodies. If the hoods stay down, we get to keep the hoodies, however if the hoods are constantly up, we will not get to keep them. So, if you want to keep the hoodies, enforce the hoods-down rule.

Q: Will there be loud noises during class peri-ods and test periods?A: Yes. The construction is here, so the student body is going to have to adapt appropriately.

Q: Who is still going to be at Southport to see the end result of the construction? A: The construction is set to be completed in De-cember of 2014, so the current sophomores and freshmen are the only classes currently attend-ing Southport that will see the end result.

Q: Who will be roaming around our school?A: All of the construction workers have had ex-tensive background checks. They have also been instructed not to have any contact with students in the hallways.

Q: What emergency plans have been created for student safety during construction?A: Blocking off the English hallway for construc-tion equipment also blocks off some classes from the fire exits, so another fire exit will be created near room 146.

Q: What can students look forward to most?A: The cafeteria will probably be a favorite.

With the start of con-struction, many stu-dents have become curious or confused about certain aspects of upcoming events. Principal Ms. Barbara Brouwer, assistant prin-cipal Mr. Kirby Schott, Perry Township facilities and maintenance director Mr. Marc Westfall and Mr. Tony Heath of the Skillman Coopera-tion help to give the answers that students are seeking. Interview conducted by Jake Rose and Casey Smith.

{blueprintKEY}A - Cardinal Academy/Computer Labs B - Administrative OfficesC - General ClassesD - General Classes/SPTVE - CafeteriaF - Cafeteria/General ClassesG - TheaterH - Music/PublicationsJ - Music/PublicationsK - FieldhouseL - FieldhouseM - East GymN - Aquatics Center

{lookFORWARD}Once the Southport construction is completed, students and staff have a lot to anticipate. Look at the key to reference where new additions will be.

{getRENOVATED}K/L/M/N Renovations will be done to the pool, the baseball field, tennis courts, fieldhouse and track and field throwing areas. For more on athletics, see page 5.

{newLABS}Upper D The science labs will be much more experiment-friendly. There will be more space within the rooms, and it will be easier to experiment and teach in them.

Construction workers begin making the tunnel through the school and into the courtyard on Monday, Nov. 11.Photo by Becca Tapp.

The wall in the English hallway experiences the beginning stages of demolition. Photo by Jake Rose.

Boards are put over classroom windows.

A tunnel is constructed through the English hallway to the courtyard.

Construction questions answered

{cardinal ACADEMY}A A new and more specified area for the Cardinal Academy will be created. It will include a new computer lab and more space for students.

{grandHALLWAY}B/C Southport High School is notoriously difficult to navigate, so as a part of the construction, there is going to be a a large ‘Grand’ hallway installed to connect the school.

{movingMUSIC}H /J The music department will be moved to the current 400s hallway. The band, choir and orchestra rooms will be much larger, and they will get new storage space.

{bigCAFETERIA}E The cafeteria is going to be much larger. Along with more space, there will be bar-height counters and stools as well as charging stations for students to use electronics.

Banta Road

Tennis Courts

Student Parking Lot

Blueprint courtesy of the CSO Architects

Demolition of walls in the English hallway and the placement of temporary walls.

Staging of machinery in the courtyard and around the outside of the high school.

General construction be-gins, including construction of the Cardinal Academy .

Construction starts on the new 400s hallway and relocation of the music department begins.

Graphic by Breanna Bierod.

SHS CONSTRUCTION

QA& }

}

November 16, 2012 Features4

Can organic foods give a health boost?

by Tori UpdikeReporter

She was the last person anyone, including herself, expected to become ill.

A resident of Franklin Township and a mother of two, Mrs. Colleen Ablog had eaten healthfully for years. But in February 2011, Ablog found a small lump near her arm-pit. Not thinking anything of it, she didn’t have the lump inspected by a doctor until the summer of that same year. It was then that she received life-altering news: she had breast cancer.

“It felt surreal, as I was completely shocked,” Ablog said, recounting the mo-ment she had first been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. “Me, have breast can-cer? Impossible.”

Ablog is one of many women each year who are diagnosed with breast cancer and must go through severe chemotherapy to combat it. She, however, made genuine changes in order to take control and battle her cancer on her own terms. Ablog feels that by choosing to eat organic foods and switching to an all-healthy diet, she has fought her cancer into remission and is now healthier than ever.

Despite Ablog’s ardent praise, organic products have been neck-deep in controver-sy ever since they started gaining popularity a few years ago. As with any public debate, there are die-hard fans and there are skep-tics. Ablog herself is a recent convert.

“I didn’t really pay much attention to it at all until I got cancer,” Ablog said. “We didn’t realize at all. We didn’t have this information.”

Though Ablog had always eaten nutri-tiously, she drank a lot of inorganic milk. She believes that the hormones in the milk could have possibly contributed to her cancer.

Organic foods and products are grown or produced without the use of harmful chemi-cals such as pesticides, fertilizers or preser-vatives, and they aren’t genetically modi-fied. They are an alternative to the typically cheaper conventional products that employ the use of these chemicals.

Like Ablog had been, many people are still in the dark about the truth and benefits of eat-

ing organically. In September 2012, a study done by Stanford University’s Department of Medicine showed that sales of organic foods skyrocketed from $3.6 billion to $24.4 bil-lion within the last ten years. Though people are willing to pay the increased price for them, organic foods have been cast into in-famy as the study also stated that organic foods were not found to be any more nutri-tious than conventionally produced foods.

However, according to Mrs. Sarah Smith, a marketing specialist for Whole Foods Mar-ket, the focus of organic foods is not to be more nutritious, but to limit chemical expo-sure to the body and to the environment.

“We really need to remember that these chemicals are designed to kill things,” Smith said. “That is the entire point of why they ex-ist. It’s important to remember if we’re going

to be ingesting a lot of these.”

Because humans can’t properly flush these toxins out of their bodies, the chemicals are stored in their fatty tissue and accumulate over time.

“High school stu-dents should be eat-ing organic always,” Ms. Karen Langston, a certified holistic nu-tritionist, wrote in an email to the Journal. “There is so much go-

ing on hormonally and they need all the sup-port they can get ... In my practice when I switch my clients to whole organic foods and omit GMO foods, they get better.”

Preparing organic fare isn’t easy, however.“You have to prepare, and you have to

think ahead,” Ablog said. The way she normally gets her nutrients is by

juicing or blending large quantities of organic vegetables, usually with anti-cancer properties. She affectionately calls it her “pond scum,” refer-ring to the dark green shade and thick texture of the finished product.

Ultimately though, Ablog just wants to spread her story and try to help people understand the consequences of not eating organically.

“No one wants to get cancer,” Ablog said. “If you eat inorganic foods ... you’ve made a deci-sion that could possibly impact your future.”

People believe that organic foods make a difference in matters of illness

Vegan doctors: Vegetarianism as healthy as meat eating

by Moira McKinneyReporter

Vegans and vegetarians must be cautious in planning a diet that includes the neces-sary nutrients to stay healthy and avoid de-ficiencies. They must plan nutritious meals containing what’s needed for a balanced diet while avoiding too many unhealthy foods containing salt, sugars and even fats.

Meat products, like fatty parts of meat are linked to clogged arteries, heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. Not eating meat can lower rates of some cancers, build better cardiovascular health, protect against kidney disease, reduce vulnerability to type II diabe-tes and reduce risk of dementia.

“From a medical perspective, we really care about all the ways food can influence our health. It turns out when people get older, the things that they suffer from in America tend to be what we call chronic diseases,” Dr. Mark Berman said, MD, who’s been a vegan for 22 years. “So these are things like high blood pressure, type II diabetes or lots of other con-sequences of being overweight, things like strokes and heart attacks or cancers.”

Diets rich in foods like grains, beans, fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. According to Harvard Medi-cal School, most of the essentials can be found in a variety of fruits and vegetables. Protein can not only be found in meat, but be found in most kinds of seeds, nuts, beans and numer-ous fruits and vegetables.

“The common misconception about the protein they think that basically if (vegetar-ians) don’t eat meat then they’re not going to get sufficient protein in their diet,” vegan Dr. Walter Jacobson, MD said. “You can get ev-erything you need, in terms of nutrition, with the exception of (vitamin) B12.”

According to Dr. Berman, vitamin B12 is a vitamin that is made from bacteria that con-taminates an animal’s gut. It can be obtained by drinking milk or eating meat.

“There are more people who have iron deficiencies who eat meat than those who don’t,” Berman said. “There’s only a small handful of things that you really have to be concerned about when eating a vegan diet, at the top of the list is vitamin B12.”

Taking the extra steps necessary to be a vegetarian can be beneficial in reducing risk of diseases, and the diet can be healthy and nutritionally adequate if it is well planned.

“If you stick to a vegan diet, you are very likely to be healthy, to avoid cancers, to live a long life, and a better quality of life,” Jacob-son said.

Doctors say that vitamins found in meat are in other sources too

Meat, beef, poultry

and fish domi-nate the protein por-

tion of the food pyramid. But for some, like theater teacher Ms. Barbara Whit-

lock, the meat isn’t an option. Whitlock is a lacto-ovo vegetarian, meaning she consumes no meat at all

but allows eggs and cheese into her diet. Due to the absence of meat in her diet, she faces challenges like get-

ting enough protein, explaining herself and simply finding something she can eat.

According to Whitlock, the most difficult part of being a vegetarian is having to explain herself, though vegetar-ians also have more problems than what’s on the surface.

“Mostly explaining why I’m eating what I’m eating or why I’ve decided to become a vegetarian or being clev-erly told that vegetables are also living,” Whitlock said. “That, to me, at this point is the biggest difficulty,”

Earlier in her life, her specific eating choices and just locating food without meat was a problem, seeing as the soy products of today weren’t out. Once out of college, soy products came out and made her life “in-finitely easier.”

Whitlock said that this may be of equal difficulty as explaining about herself. From being somewhere like a pitch-in, a wedding, the teachers’ lounge to just being in a group that is going out to eat, there’s usually very little that she can eat.

In order to solve this she’ll either avoid it, or prior to going she’ll eat at home.

“I don’t know what’s in that little casse-role, so I’m afraid to eat it,” Whitlock said.

“Those are my daily difficulties. If I’m not preparing it, I don’t know that I

can eat it.”Since vegetarians are herbi-vores, protein can be an im-

pending predicament. Whitlock gets her

protein through soy products

a l o n g with cheese

and eggs.But at one point in life while

she was pregnant, Whitlock wondered if she should begin eat-

ing meat.“There was a time when I was convinced,

mostly because of my husband pressuring me, that I was probably doing something wrong,” Whitlock said.

But she remembered what a doctor had told her years ago. Since she hadn’t had meat, if she began to eat it she’d become ill because she hadn’t built up a re-sistance to the pesticides and other things in the meat.

As for reminiscing of meat, Whitlock doesn’t even know what it tastes like. To her, it must taste the way it smells.

Advice she would give to a potential vegetarian is pre-pare to have the soy and tofu products not taste like the real deal.

Junior Ashlyn Sears is also a fellow lacto-ovo vegetarian.She also struggles with getting enough protein in her

diet. To combat this, she eats things like peanut butter along with soy patties and tofu products.

As far as health differences go from becoming veg-etarian, Sears notices she’s thinner but not in an un-healthy manner.

For Sears, the most difficult part of being a vegetar-ian is the availability of things she can actually eat. “Sometimes going to certain restaurants that have only meat menus or if I go over to someone’s house I feel bad that they have to make something spe-cific for me,” Sears said.

A mutual feeling Sears shares with Whitlock is that she does not miss meat and also finds herself having to explain her choices.

Despite the various challenges on a dai-ly basis, Sears says it’s worth it.

“I know a lot of people who are like, ‘how can you do it like that?’” Sears said. “After you’ve been a vegetarian for four or five months, you just kind of tune it out.”

Mrs. Colleen Ablog,Breast Cancer Survivor {foodFACTS}

Did you know...That if meat consumption fell three ounces a day, it would stabilize all of the greenhouse gases produced by raising livestock.

Mark Bittman is the author of the book “Food Matters” and has several interesting facts concerning the carnivorous habits of human beings. Information from “Food Matters” by Mark Bittman.

Did you know...That Americans consume 10 times as much meat as people in many developing countries.

Did you know...That changes in government farm policy has encouraged meat productions for at least 35 years.

Minusthe meatSouthport students and teachers make the choice to no longer eat meat for different reasonsby Vanessa AbplanalpReporter

November 16, 2012 5Sports

Due to the high cost of turf, the township is choosing to stick with the grass field. The township has chosen to keep the focus on academics and not on the possibility of getting turf. Photo by Taylor DeHart.

by Nick HollandReporter

Despite all of the planned renovations to both the school building and athletic facilities, there is still the question of why the field in Perry Sta-dium has not received field turf yet and whether or not it is in future plans.

According to head facilities manager Mr. Marc Westfall, turf is not in the plans now and won’t be for the foreseeable future.

“Field turf is too expensive,” Westfall said. “It’s hard to validate getting field turf when we barely have money for academics. (The township’s) policy has always been academ-ics before athletics.”

Field turf can cost anywhere from $750,000 to $1 million because of the unique drainage system it employs. The system has three lev-els consisting of rock, rubber and then carpet. The turf that people see on the field is really just a big carpet. The money is really put into what is under that carpet. The whole field turf operation runs many feet deep under the field itself. There is rock that is piled under sand that is piled under rubber, which is piled under one final layer of rubber which is then placed under and on top of the carpet to not only drain the field when it has to, but also to replicate a grass playing surface.

But the price tag for this renovation doesn’t seem like a lot for a school district that only a year ago passed a referendum worth $50 mil-lion. But according to Westfall it is.

“We can’t just pledge money we don’t have to a project like this,” Westfall said. “Even though it doesn’t make sense for us as a township right now, we are actively exploring all options and possibilities in the area of acquiring field turf.”

Westfall believes that turf might happen, but there is no timetable at the moment for it being constructed. He says that he personally doesn’t disagree with the idea of field turf. But he ac-

knowledged that Perry Stadium is one of the most used fields in the state and that with field turf, the maintenance costs on the fields would drastically be reduced.

With turf you don’t have to groom the field, grass-wise. You only have to re-lay and spread rubber every so often. Unlike the grass that the field has now, which has to be constantly mani-cured and watered in order to keep up with the usage it undergoes almost every day.

The advantages of having field turf outweigh the disadvantages, according to Atheltic Director Mr. Pete Hubert. If the school invested in field turf, not only would the varsity and J.V. football teams be able to prac-tice together, but the practice fields would be able to get a break from constant use by the football team. With this break avail-able, there would be more room for the soc-cer team and the field would have less wear and tear so that the baseball team would not have so many problems with the field being uneven.

Hubert also men-tioned that the fresh-man teams and soccer teams could use a turf field instead of using the middle school field and the Mary Bryan Elementary School facility, re-spectively. Hubert thinks that also, if possible, the spring teams like lacrosse, baseball and soft-ball could use the turf in cases where there are drainage problems on the practice fields. How-ever, Hubert sees the only problem about turf is the only thing keeping it from getting put in place.

“Decision makers in Perry Township know the importance of turf and all the things it will bring to our school and community,” Hubert said. “I’m just waiting on a call from someone to tell me when (the turf) will be put in. When and if that happens in my lifetime, I don’t know.”

Even though there are no current plans to renovate the stadium and add field turf, there are other plans to renovate or build new athletic facilities in the district.

“(The township) has planned work on many of (Southport’s) other facilities,” Westfall said. “Most of it right now is scheduled to be com-pleted prior to the beginning of the spring sports season.”

The facilities that the school has made plans to renovate are the baseball/softball complex at Mary Bryan, (Holder Field), the pools at both the

high schools, the tennis courts and they at the moment have planned the addition of a hitting facility on the northwest corner of the practice field adjacent from the audito-rium, where the shot put circle is currently.

These renovations go from:

-Cosmetic changes to the pool that include total re-grouting and re-placement of certain tiles that are cracked or pose a risk to swimmers.

-Raising the level of the dirt line to even with the grass line as to make it safer for the players on the baseball field.

-A new set of tennis courts being con-structed with 10 courts in a straight line. Seven of the courts will be re-surfaced with cement and asphalt while three will be 100 percent newly constructed.

-In between are planned renovations to the Fieldhouse’s air condition system that will make it automatic and self-regulated.

-The moving of a donated baseball and soft-ball hitting facility from storage trailers in an un-disclosed location to a plot that will be taking the place of the shot put and discus area.

-The shot put and discus area will be moved to the opposite corner of the field where the freshman baseball diamond was.

Fieldhouse, pool and Holder Field to see upgrades, but field turf is not on the table

Some athletic facilities to see upgrades this year

1st and 10 with Taylor DeHartLuck’s on-the-field play and character should secure him the Rookie of the Year Leading up to this year’s draft, there was con-

troversy surrounding who the Colts would choose with the prestigious number one pick. Who could it be, Stanford’s quarterback Andrew Luck or Baylor’s Robert Griffin III?

“With the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Indianapolis Colts select Andrew Luck, quarterback, Stanford,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The controversy before the draft was only the beginning. Everyone knows that these two players’ careers will be compared for as long as they play. As of now, both Griffin and Luck are in the running for the NFL’s Rookie of the Year Award. Although their numbers are very comparable, Luck should be rewarded the honor at the end of the season.

Griffin, who led his Baylor team to the Alamo Bowl in 2011, has already been having a record-breaking season in his first go-around. After the win over the New Orleans Saints in week one, Griffin was named the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Week. This was the first time a rookie has been granted this honor in his debut.

Luck took his team to the Tostitos Bowl in 2011.

He has already broken records in his first year in the league and in week nine against the Miami Dol-phins, Luck threw for 433 yards, surpassing Cam Newton’s record of 432. The jersey Luck wore in that game has already made its way to Canton.

Luck and Griffin both have extremely compara-ble stats, but there are a few that make Luck stand out. Luck is in the top 10 for completions in the league with 208. Although Griffin has been more

accurate, Luck has almost 700 more yards than him. Things have also been said about how Griffin is a much better rushing quarterback. Griffin may have three times the amount of yards, but he also has six fumbles while rushing, to Luck’s zero. And the biggest stat so far is their records. Luck is sporting a 6-3 record while Griffin has a 3-6 record on the season.

More than the stats, Luck is just an all-around great guy off the field as well. He has just recently

become involved in a partnership with Riley Hospital. He has teamed up with Riley to do visits at the hospital, conduct sports camps for kids and hold guest speaking events for the hospital. On

top of that, Luck has the utmost support from his teammate and future hall of famer Reggie Wayne, who said that one reason he stayed in Indy was to help Luck build his legacy. He added that Luck has done things that Peyton Manning did not do in his rookie year. Having support from someone like Wayne helps Luck out because he knows he has support from someone who was also with Man-ning. It helps out that Luck has the utmost respect for people like Wayne. In an interview with Chan-nel 13’s Dave Calabro, he said that his parents gave him the advice to respect people, and they will respect you back. Luck seems to be acting like his parents expect him to.

Luck also showed support for his head coach Chuck Pagano by becoming part of the no-hair club. Luck, with other teammates, shaved their heads to help Pagano in his fight with Leukemia.

This just shows Luck’s support for things he cares about. In the interview with Calabro, he was quoted that he won’t be doing any en-dorsements until he has “earned it.”

“I figured I should earn it,” Luck said. “You know, earn it in this league and you will reap the benefits later.”

That says a lot coming from a 23 year old

who could be making millions just by saying a few words on a television com-mercial. Not to say that Griffin does it all for the money, but he endorses seven differ-ent companies from Adidas to Subway. Every time a set of com-mercials comes on, it seems as if he is right there on the big screen.

Luck really de-serves the Rookie of the Year award by much more than just his stats. He has proved time after time that he is a deserving man for the award.

by Kayla WalkerReporter

In the past four years, head coach Leah Enter-line has been rebuilding the girls basketball pro-gram into her own style of basketball. According to Enterline, limiting turn overs, rebounding, de-fense, taking shots when tired and an emphasis on staying in “game speed” in practice are the sum of what she expects from her players.

“We have a group of girls this year that we consistently see the 110 percent hate to lose mentally that we’ve been trying to teach,” En-terline said.

The team consists of three senior leaders, Grace Clark, Jabreena Gardner and Bria Wright. They have been on varsity for all four years of their high school career and have more experi-ence to show their teammates.

“We can also learn things from them and they can learn things from us,” Clark said.

Clark averaged 15 points a game last year. For this season, she intends to bring more in-tensity and strength down low due to the lack of size that the girls have.

According to Clark, the team may lack size, but they are all very quick. The quicker they can get the ball down the court, the quicker they can get shooters open. Clark also thinks that their size is some kind of advantage for them. If everyone blocks their opponents out well, then they can receive more “over the back” calls.

Wright is 5 feet 9 inches and plays the po-sition of a guard on the team. Wright wants to bring motivation to her teammates and guide them in a good direction in leadership. Wright believes that the team has a lot to of-fer for this season.

“We have a lot of potential to be good and hopefully, if we do what we’re supposed to and keep working hard, we’ll surprise a lot of peo-ple this year,” Wright said.

This is junior Molly Bridges’ first year on var-sity but she played junior varsity her freshman and sophomore year. Bridges knows that var-sity is a whole different game than J.V., but she doesn’t let it intimidate her.

“I know I’m strong enough and when I play my game, no one will be able to stop me,” Bridges said.

According to Bridges, as long as everyone is on the same page and works hard together on everything, then this season will be something no one wants to miss out on.

The girls are anxiously waiting to show their improvement on the court and they want a huge support system throughout the year to show this improvement to.

Enterline always tells the girls at practice and before games to “play hard for a purpose,” and that’s exactly what the girls are intending to pursue.

Senior Grace Clark brings the ball up the court against Center Grove. Southport lost, 65-47. Photo by Kaitlin Fallowfield.

Girls basketball team looks to experienced leadership for success

{qbCOMPARISON}Luck 2,631

159 6-3 77.6

vs. Passing Yards

Rushing Yards

Record QBR

Griffin

1,993 529

3-6

Is turf in Perry Stadium’s future?

{turfFACTS}-5 of 7 stadiums in Conference Indiana have turf.-Perry Stadium is used every Friday and some Saturdays during the football season.-Every square foot of turf costs approximately $5.-The life expectancy for field turf is roughly eight to ten years.

68.7

by Michael Curran Entertainment Editor

Starting the Monday before the first show-ing of the musical, cast, crew and pit involved in “Bye Bye Birdie” began a week of work that involved running the entire musical, all the way through with every scene, every day. The week causes such strain and pressure on the young actors that it has been named “Hell Week.”

The reason that the week is named such is that every day of the week before the first production the cast of the musical will run the entire show, beginning to end, starting at seven.

Director, choreographer and choir director Mrs. Emily McDuffee believes that starting late and ending late can help prepare the students for the actual production. McDuffee calls this belief “body clock” because running a musical at three

can feel different than running a play at seven.“It feels different to perform at seven than it

does at three in the afternoon...” McDuffee said. “If you don’t practice like that then it’s going to feel different on Friday.”

“Hell Week” is often very stressful on the stu-dents. Because of the length of the play, which is close to two and a half hours, students are often left with very little time to do homework or other activities that could be done on a weekday. Stu-dents are often at school until 10 o’clock or later.

“Everybody’s tired all week, especially because we start at 7:30 in the morning,” McDuffee said. “So it is kind of hellacious.”

Senior Jaime Robbins has been in the theater program all four years that she has been in high school. She appreciates the production week be-cause of its challenge and the cast bonding that happens during the long hours spent together.

“They’re a challenge, but they’re fun because you get to spend time with your cast members,” Robbins said. “Which helps us bond and get good stage chemistry.”

November 16, 2012 Entertainment6

by Zack Kennelly Reporter

During the 1950s, life was completely dif-ferent from how it is now, but society has come a long way. People no longer use the spin dial phones: they have been replaced by handheld smartphones. High-waisted slacks have been rak-en over by sagging jeans and dances such as the “mashed potato” have been replaced by dances such as the “Wobble.”

But this year’s musical, “Bye Bye Birdie,” is shedding the modern times and bringing the fashion, mannerisms and atmosphere of the ‘50s back.

Mrs. Emily McDuffee and Mr. Sam Hanley are the directors of the musical. Hanley has a past with the musical “Bye Bye Birdie.” He helped di-rect the very same musical in 2003.

Along with directing, McDuffee is also the cho-reographer, which means she is in charge of all of the dancing that takes place on stage.

McDuffee hasn’t directed “Bye Bye Birdie” be-fore, but she is not a stranger to the fifties feeling on stage.

“I was in ‘Grease’ in college, and that took place in the ‘50s and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ in high school,” McDuffee said. “But I have never di-rected a ‘50s show.”

Because of her past experience in musicals she brings her prior knowledge of the ‘50s to help teach the students that are participating in the musical.

McDuffee suggested students watch “Grease” to gain insight on how people dressed and the way they acted. She has even used some of her own resources to help out the cast with their out-fits.

“One of the members of the cast is actually wearing my dress from ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’” McDuffee said. ”I actually owned that and wore it for ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ It’s the fun upbeat, rock’n’roll, poodle skirts and pony tails stuff”

With her experience, McDuffee is able to teach the kids how to move about the stage and has influenced cast members to use their resources to learn exactly how they should act and perform on the stage. Not everything could exactly be taught just through telling or explaining how to do something though. A visual reference to the cast is another way that students are able to un-derstand what to do and how to do it.

One of these cast members who had the task of getting the real grasp of the ‘50s was junior Joseph Morris, who plays Conrad Birdie in the musical.

Conrad Birdie is a fictional adaptation of Elvis Presley, so in order to act out the role correctly, Morris had to find videos of Elvis Presley. He has watched them and mimiced his actions and man-nerisms.

“The hardest part of it was to interact with my inner bad boy,” Morris said. “I have to move my body in the way that he does and take on the whole sort of swagger that he has.”

Despite learning the movements, actions and demeanor of Elvis, Morris had to color his hair and eyebrows as well as wear outfits that epito-mize Elvis.

The musical brings back the feel and fun of what the ‘50s had. The choreography and man-

nerisms brings the whole ‘50s appeal to life and makes the audience feel like they’re in that time period.

But what would the musical be without props and a set?

The set is one of the many aspects of the show that brings it all to life. Ms. Barbara Whitlock, her classes during the school day and the crew af-ter hours spend their time building the sets and props in order to further the suspension of disbe-lief and create a truly ‘50s atmosphere.

Whitlock uses many resources to better know the atmosphere of the ‘50s and get everything correct in the context of the time period.

“(I do) a lot of antique shopping at antique malls and calling my mother,” Whitlock said. “And a lot of googling to find the right everything, from the refrigerator to the patterns of the cloth.”

As far as the set goes, the crew and tech theater classes created a two story set that encompasses “The Ed Sullivan Show,” The MacAfee house, the Ice House and Maude’s Roadside Retreat.

“The Ed Sullivan Show” set was one that re-quired a large amount of research and time.

“We researched his show and made an exact replica, color and all of the sign for his show,” Whitlock said. “The hardest thing we had to do was research the 1958 TV cameras, and the styles in what they look down to the color.”

All in all, building these sets required a lot of labor and a massive amount of material. While some materials were recycled from past musi-cals, others had to be retreieved or bought.

The 50s brought many acts such as Elvis Pres-ley to the world. Although the pedal pushers and the mashed potato may never come back in style, the musical attempts to bring those things back to life, even if it is just for a couple of hours.

Musical cast, crew bring 1950s to life on stage

To be in a relationship. To go out. Make her your girl, ya feel me?

A grainy powdery beverage that was often drank instead of coffee.

{knowtheLINGO}“Bye Bye Birdie” has some ‘50s lingo that you may not understand. Good thing your friendly neighborhood newspaper is here!

To tell someone to wait while talking to them on the phone.“Yo,dog, mom just called me. Hold the wire.”

It’s what they used instead of freezers when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Just kidding, another name for freezer

Production week instrumental in the creation of the musical

GETTING PINNED

ICEHOUSE

HOLD THE WIRE

The cast salutes Conrad Birie in the song “Healthy Normal American Boy” on stage on Mon-day, Nov. 12. Conrad Birdie is loosely based off of Elvis Presley. Photo by Jesse Roller.

A week-long event so infamous that students have given it the name ‘Hell Week’

The musical crew and cast work hard to portray a defining decade in history

BYEBYEBirdie

Student actors swoon over Conrad Birdie, played by junior Joseph Morris. Photo by Jesse Roller.

POSTUM

Comic by Breanna Bierod

by Sarah FowerbaughReporter

Disney is at it again, attempting to crank out another family favorite movie that will warm

the hearts of toddlers and seniors alike. But with the movie “Wreck-It Ralph,” Disney failed to reach the status quo of other ani-mated comedies.

The idea behind “Wreck-It Ralph” was sol-id. It contained a lovable protagonist (Wreck-It Ralph himself, voiced by John C. Reilly) and an endearing sidekick (Fix-It Felix, voiced by Jack McBrayer). Add in the annoyingly sweet Vanellope Von Schweetz, voiced by Sarah Sil-verman, and you’ve got a pretty stellar movie. Not to mention Jane Lynch’s character, Ser-geant Calhoun, spits out hilarious one-liners every fifteen minutes. One-liners like, “All right ladies! The kitten whispers and tickle fights stop now!”

But amidst all these amiable characters, Disney still lost its way and managed to turn a potentially great idea into a sub-par animation.

One of the several problems I discovered when watching “Wreck-It Ralph” was the nu-merous product placements that were scat-tered throughout the film. Disney dropped names like Nesquik, Laffy Taffy and other merchandise that barely managed to fit in the film. Then there are the product placements expected for a movie that deals completely in video games, such as the names of popu-lar characters like Sonic, Mario, Pacman and

others. Even the famous DJ Skrillex makes a quick cameo appearance. Yet, the charac-ters that I really wanted to see didn’t show. Sonic made a quick appearance towards the beginning of the movie. Mario was men-tioned, yet sadly, never shown, and ome of the well-known video game villians that made up Wreck-It Ralph’s support group had one line, if they even spoke at all. As a lover of all video games, I expected to see all kinds of familiar faces on the big screen.

Something I discovered after investing two hours and $8 into the movie was that “Wreck-It Ralph” takes place mostly in the racer game, “Sugar Rush.” (Think “Candyland” mixed with “Mario Kart.”) I was disappointed that Disney didn’t explore more of the possibilities that a gamer movie could have unlocked.

However, Disney still managed to pull through. “Wreck-It Ralph” still had a good laugh every once in a while, and the ending still managed to touch the heart in the way only a Disney movie can.

Although Disney could have appealed to several different audiences, it failed to en-rapture me. “Wreck-It Ralph” still had those breaks of childish humor, but not enough to save the movie from the evident problems. This just goes to show that Disney should stick to things more its speed and leave the animating to Pixar.

A

BX

Y

by Katie HinhFeatures Editor

When I first sat down to listen to, “A War You Cannot Win”, the new album from “All That Remains,” I was re-

laxing on my couch and my back was hurting. As I relaxed and settled down to ease my aching back, suddenly a male voice began screaming, scaring me almost off my couch. Then I realized that not only was my back going to hurt, but my ears just might be hurting too.

Fortunately for me, my ears weren’t hurt-ing for the entire album. My ears just got, well, bored. “All That Remains” has been around since 1998, and I honestly don’t know why. Every song on the album seemed to have the same basic heavy rock/metal guitar line, and when I was listening I could just say, “cue gui-tar solo,” and one would be there.

This album, “A War You Cannot Win,” had a balance of both songs that screamed and songs that were sung. To be honest, I some-times have a hard time understanding words in songs, so imagine how hard it’s for me to understand screaming. But “All That Re-mains” did do well with that aspect, because I could understand about two thirds of their screaming. However if I had to pick two fa-vorite songs out of the album they would be “Calculating Loneliness” and “Intro,” both of which happened to be lyric-less and acous-tic. But they were sadly the shortest songs on the album.

“Calculating Loneliness” does a great job of showing off the band’s acoustic side and tal-

ent for different types of melodies, and I wish that it would have translated to the other songs.

Another point I have to make is that some-times I just didn’t understand the meaning of the words. I know they clearly have a “deeper meaning” but I was lost sometimes, and I had the words RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.

I tried, and honestly maybe I’m just dense, but I didn’t get it. I seriously want someone to come and find me and answer these questions. I’m in room 400 first period. Leave me a note, talk to me, anything. Even “All That Remains,” you can come talk to me. I welcome the challenge.

For example, “A Call to All Non-Believers” uses the line, “Perpetuate, deception deeply the grind, subjugate the vulgar...”

Yeah I got nothing. I don’t know exactly what we’re perpetuating, but I’m guessing it’s... bad?

Don’t even get me started on “Just a Moment in Time,” because all I can say to sum it up is, nothing. They only repeat that word 21 times, then jumble it with other words like, “decimate,” “conviction,” maybe another nothing... I honestly wanted this album to be anything, even a “One Direction” album. I would rather listen to attrac-tive Brits sing about “getting some” than this.

So after listening, attempting to relax, while staring out my front window and tediously watch-ing cars drive down my street, I realized that my back still hurt. But I can say with some pride, mostly with apathy and just a generous dusting of regret, I listened to an “All That Remains” CD.

All That Remains is an aching ear

‘Wreck-it Ralph’ won’t wreck the box office

1 2 3 4 5

November 16, 2012Reviews 7

{thejournalTHROWBACK}

1 2 3 4 5

‘Some Like it hot’1959

A 1950s classic. Cross dressers, Marilyn

Monroe and crazy adventures are all

included in this classic film.

it’s an oldie, but a goodie

November 16, 20128 Opinion

Unwritten laws of the passing periods

Now let me start this off by saying this: I am not innocent, completely, from doing any of these things. Over my four years here at Southport, there have been times that I have had to walk on the left side of the hallway, stand out into the hallway to talk to a friend and there have even been times that I kissed my boyfriend in the hallway. But the amount of people in this school that don’t understand the rules of the hallway or know them but don’t follow them amazes me. So with that being said, let’s review what these rules are.

Walk on the right side of the hall:When you are learning to drive you learn that

you drive on the right side of the road. Believe it or not, this same logic applies to the hallways. If everyone were to walk on the right side of the hall, we wouldn’t be running into people all the time. Also, you wouldn’t be getting mad that peo-ple are bumping into you while you are trying to

get to class.Obstacles in the middle of the road:This includes standing in the middle of the

hallway. If you are going to stand there talking to friends, then stand against the lockers. This doesn’t mean in a circle near the locker. No, this means by the wall. The halls are small enough as it is. We don’t need students congregating around lockers with friends and standing out in the middle to do so. Trying to dodge people walking the pace of a snail and walking around the people on the side of the halls is unnecessary. You all have phones. Text each other if you want to talk. That, or meet up after school or somewhere that people can get around you, and you aren’t in their way.

The snails slither-ing through Southport:

That leads to my next point. We have exact-ly six minutes to get from class, to our lockers and then to our next class with the occasional stop at the bathroom on the way. We don’t

have time to get stuck behind someone walk-ing like he/she has 15 minutes to get to class. People need to move. It gets annoying when you have a class in the 400s and have to get to the math hallway. That is a long walk as it is, but it gets worse when you get stuck behind people going as slow as a snail.

Blasting music in halls:

If you are going to listen to music, be my guest. I love listening to music. I understand that when you are at school and you are having a stressful day, music can help you escape to anoth-er world. But when you are blasting your music to the point where every-one can hear, it can get annoying. That’s what headphones are for. Not everyone likes your kind of music, so why make

them have to listen to it?This isn’t recess:Okay, this is the part that I don’t get the

most. What makes you grab your friend’s book bag and “jokingly” throw them against

the wall? That ranks up there with the standing in the middle of the hallway. The hallway isn’t a playground. We aren’t in elementary school anymore. If there are people trying to walk, goofing around probably isn’t the best solution.

PDA:Now, I know that senior Kayla Walker al-

ready wrote an editorial about PDA in the hall-ways, but you can’t talk about rules and not bring this up. Not only is it unnecessary, but not everyone wants to see you lovingly kiss your boyfriend or girlfriend for five minutes in the hallway. A simple kiss will last you until you see them again after class. Trust me. Take it from someone in a long distance relation-ship. You will live.

Wall decorations:Lastly, we come to the thing that you can see

during each passing period. You know of that one teacher that stands there at “their place on the wall,” each day, everyday. But hey, at least they are against the wall instead of standing in the middle of it!

Also, to the people who take down the signs on the wall, what is the point? They are just go-ing to put more up. It does not make you a rebel.

So now that you’ve had the review of the rules and remember them, maybe try follow-ing them. You will make everyone’s lives 1000 times easier at school if you do.

by Becca TappPhoto Editor

“I don’t under-stand Jesse’s obsessions.”

When I think of America, I think of opportunity. People of various races, religions and backgrounds come here for prosperity and for the rights that they deserve. Here, we have the right to think what we want, to say what we want, to write what we want and to do whatever it is our mind compels us to do to further self-greatness. No other empire in the world can compare to America. But in order for our government to stay great, they must remember the most critical job in being in the American government, and that is the preservation of our rights.

President Barack Obama made strikingly curious decisions in his first term. By his second term, we are learning even more of his efforts to sign the United Nations Arms Treaty which will take away the second amendment. The treaty explains how the United Nations will manage “complete disarmament” of the American people of both small and large weapons. The treaty was stymied by the Bush administration, but President Obama’s administration shifted direction on the treaty to forward the motion. It is odd to find a government like ours so ethical, until you take into consideration its presence of armed citizens. And when powerful figures try to take that right away, we must seriously investigate their agenda.

In Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary film “2016: Obama’s America,” D’Souza puts together pieces of Obama’s past that have been exceedingly unavailable to the public. The tag line stands strong underneath the movie title as it represents the film directly, “Love him. Hate him. You don’t know him.” It analyzes the question, “If President Obama is reelected, where will we be in the year 2016?”

D’Souza was introduced to President Obama at the 2004 Democratic election. He became further interested in what Obama’s compass was due to his curious policies.

D’Souza believes we are provided a big clue in Obama’s autobiography, entitled “Dreams from My Father.” I was curious the day my own father stopped me in our kitchen hallway and presented to me this unfamiliar piece of literature. What struck me first was the misleading title. If you notice it says, “Dreams from My Father,” not Dreams of My Father. So we can rationally infer that these are not Obama’s father’s dreams, but the dreams that he inherited from his father. This leaves me with a couple questions. Who was his father? What were his dreams?

Barack Obama Sr. was vocal on third world views. He was an anti-colonialist, a term alien to modern day. Anti-colonialism was a reaction against the Western countries (Great Britain and the United States) that supported a theory that argues that Western countries did not earn their wealth. In Obama’s first term, he returned a bust of Winston Churchill, a gift from the British. We can make sense of this. Churchill was a colonial leader and Prime Minister to Great Britain, the colonizers of his father’s homeland. The anti-colonial theory simply fits with all of Obama’s policies. It can explain why Obama has slowly decreased America’s nuclear arsenal, meanwhile failing to mediate Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. It can explain why he is the first president to back Argentina, not Great Britain, in the battle of the Falkland Islands. It explains why he restricts oil drilling in America, but gives billions to Brazil, Columbia and Mexico to drill at taxpayers’ expense. It can even explain his efforts to abolish our second amendment, a right that has prevented the government from forcing dictatorship on us for all these years.

Since Obama was abandoned by his father, it may feel like a stretch to believe that Obama would idolize the man. He left his son and wife, was unemployed, failed in politics, was a wife-beater who married several women and had many children and a habitual drunk with multiple episodes of drunk driving. In one, he killed a man. In another he injured himself so badly his legs were amputated. Drunk driving then took Obama Senior’s life. You could argue that there’s no way Obama Jr. shares the same dreams as this man, but he did dedicate his autobiography, “Dreams from my Father,” to his father. So I must conclude that this man made some sort of an impact on our presidents life.

by Julia WeberReporter

“I am a quiet genius.”

Students at Southport are in school 35 hours a week, just five hours short of what would be considered a full time job. We are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities. Some of us have part time jobs, play instruments or have other hobbies. A lot of times we are overwhelmed with nightly homework.

Students are too busy as it is. They should not be bombarded with nightly homework and teachers should consider giving longer-term assignments.

L o n g e r - t e r m assignments would give students more time to study the material and ask questions in class. It would help students practice time management skills and it would better prepare students for college. I am not an expert, but I can add.

The school day is seven hours long, 35 hours a week.

In the MSD of Perry Township Student Handbook under the High School Guidelines section it states that a student should not be given any more than 30 minutes of homework per class. In my opinion, 30 minutes per class and three hours a night is an understatement. However, for an average student with six classes, that is about 15 hours per week.

Senior Jacob Smith says that if he did everything he is supposed to each night to prepare for all of his classes the next day, it would take him between four and five hours each night. He agrees that the maximum of three hours of homework is an

understatement. Also, enior Riley Canner, for example, works six hours a day, three days a week, and she says if she got everything done for school it would take six to seven hours.

Also in the Student Handbook it says that students should practice a band or orchestra instrument for an extra one to five hours a week. According to Southport practice schedules, the average Cardinal athlete spends two and a half hours a day practicing. They are dedicating 12 and a half hours per week to their team. According to Sleepfoundation.org, teenagers should get at least eight and a half hours of sleep per night. Sleep deprivation can limit your ability to learn, listen and remember things. Lack of sleep can cause inappropriate behavior and cause illness.

If a student is not as involved with extracurricular activities regarding school, they most likely are working a part time job that takes up approximately 10-15 hours a week.

So in a 24 hour day, an involved student would spend eight and a half hours sleeping,

seven hours in school, possibly three hours doing homework, possibly an hour practicing instruments and two and a half hours practicing a routine or sport. That is 22 hours every day in school activities. Not including getting dressed,

showering, eating breakfast, transportation, eating dinner or spending time with family. I guess free time doesn’t exist. I don’t know when a guy is supposed to shave his face.

I understand and agree that being a student comes before all extracurricular activities. However, one night to thoroughly learn and understand six lessons is unfair. Teachers should work on pushing due dates back a couple days instead of next-day assignments.

Although Southport doesn’t use the block schedule anymore, we should still practice the same ‘every other day’ routines with homework assignments. Students will have better chances to practice their time management skills, while they have more time to thoroughly understand lessons.

by Jake JohnstonOpinion Editor

“I eat at Waffle House on Sunday nights.”

Nightly homework can be overwhelming

{head SCRATCHER}

Taylor Manuel,Freshman

Alex Cooper,Freshman

“The snail walkers.”

“When people are clowning.”

Haley Smallwood,Sophomore

Taylor Woodson,Junior

“People cussing.”

“When I fall down the stairs.”

Natasha Gill,Senior

Brice Koetter,Senior

“The people who bump into me then say, ‘move.’”

“When people eat in the hallways.”

Mr. Isaiah Cousins,Coach

“PDA. It is gross, man.”

What is your biggest pet peeve during passing periods?

Thirty minutes per class and three hours (of homework) a night is an understatement.

“ “{HallwayRULES}1. Walk on the right side. 2. Don’t text and walk.3. No U-turns.4. Keep the music down.5. Pick up the pace.6. No PDA.

Obama inspired by his father’s belief system

by Andie Rose ReinhartManaging Editor-of-Content

Have you ever looked at your family and thought about how absolutely dysfunctional they are? Have you ever thought, “Only in my family does this happen.” Well, you are not alone. We are all dysfunctional.

But there is beauty in dysfunction. There is beauty in that crazy rag tag bunch that we call our family, and no matter what happens, they will always, always be there for you, and sometimes we need to be reminded of that fact. Our families are here for us, regardless of how crazy they may seem.

So in order to better cope with the craziness that accompanies family oh so often, I have compiled a list of family archetypes that almost every family consists of. Read them, laugh at them and think about them. Think about who in your family epitomizes this, and embrace them. Because they love you, even with all of your flaws, they love you and are there for you. That is what families are for.

The MamasRegardless of whether

they are your mom or not, they are the mother figure. They are someone who is always thinking of others and taking care of the little ones. They love kids and kids are drawn to her.

The ArguersOften yelling very loudly

and sweating a lot. They enjoy stirring the pot and getting others riled up. They like to bring up politics, religion or other hot button issues but rarely stay in the argument. They usually stir the pot, leave the room and then interject their opinion at will.

The Political OnesSometimes the same as The

Arguers. They are always talking

politics. This also stirs the pot. They are always talking about the news and their political views. Their are the cause of many arguments in a multi-party household. They are often close-minded, but not always.

The Problem ChildrenThe poor members of the family who

just didn’t turn out as well as their parents wanted them to turn out. These people usually have some type of problem, whether it be financial, alcohol or other substances. They may be a great person, but they just weren’t as successful as they could have been.

The Crazy OnesWe all know these ones. We tend to stay

away from these people, and they usually get talked about and gossiped about when they are not there.

The AcademicsThese people think that they know it all.

They have read all of the books and watched all of the movies. They can’t wait to point out when you are wrong, and they love to teach you something. Lots of times, these people

look down upon others, but not always. These people always win during Jeopardy.

The Hard Shell Old GuysThese people may be

grandpas or any other of the men in the family. He looks grumpy on the exterior (kind of like Carl from “Up,”) but he is a real softie on the inside. He loves his grandkids (or any other kid in the family that brings out the fatherly instinct in him), and this is usually where his exterior is cracked and the soft side comes out. He has a heart of gold, it just needs to be uncovered.

The Religious OnesWe all have on of these people in the

family. They know the Bible like the back of their hand, and they are always sending prayer cards in the mail. They have a love for God and everyone knows it. They usually give

the most heartfelt gifts.The Emotional OnesThese people are easy to find. They usually

cry all the time. They are the most teased one in the family because of these emotions. These people are usually the baby, but not always.

But when The Emotional Ones cry, The Mamas come to the rescue.

The TeasersThese people are juvenile. They never

really grew up. They love practical jokes and making little kids cry. They will stick their finger in your green beans or give you “wet willies” when you aren’t looking. They have a good sense of humor, so don’t be afraid to tease back.

The Super Competitive OnesThey make board games about as fun as

jury duty. When they sit down to play a game, you tend to cringe because you know that a fight is going to happen. Don’t challenge these people with anything, you will regret it.

The Playful OnesYou know these ones because they are the

ones always singing or dancing in the middle of the room. During Christmas time, they sing Christmas tunes all night. They laugh a lot, smile a lot and rarely shut up. They lighten the mood in a tense room.

The WorkaholicsThese people rarely show up to family

events. They are always at work, and when they find time to attend family events, they are on a cell phone or laptop the whole time. They keep to themselves because if they aren’t working, they are thinking about working.

Though I can’t possibly encompass the beauty and craziness of every family in a simple list, these personalities and more make up who we are and where we come from. They create the times and places that we hold most dearly to our hearts, and we so often take them for granted. Our families are so very important to who we are. They make us who we are, where we come from and who we will become. These personalities make you and shape you, and they are the most important aspect of our lives, even if we don’t always realize it.

So take the time to look at your family. Take in those differences that make you and your family who they are. Embrace who they are, because whether it is for better or for worse, for good or bad, they are ours, and they are the one of the very few things that nothing, not even life itself, will ever take away.

November 16, 2012 9Opinion

The beauty in dysfunction: It’s what we call a familyThrough {Rose} colored glasses

Southport High School is rated much like students are. Ratings are determined strictly by grades and numbers.

The Journal staff disagrees with the methods used by the Department of Edu-cation to rate not only Southport, but all schools in Indiana.

On Wednesday, Oct. 31, the Indiana De-partment of Education released the grades of every school in the state. All schools in Indiana are graded on a four point scale, which is similar to a student’s GPA. Our 2012 report card shows a 2.70, which is a high C grade.

Four areas are considered when grad-ing a school, but they are almost all based upon test scores of the previous year’s

sophomores. A portion of the grade con-sists of test scores from the Algebra I ECA and English 10 ECA. Graduation rate and College or Career readiness are also con-sidered when a school is being graded.

This is the first year grades have been considered this way, and the system forces schools to teach on a thin line between learning the skills and teaching to a test. These grades cause administrations across the state to focus on the test scores, rather than the students themselves. Schools are defined solely by a number and not by the students within the school.

A representative from the DOE is not sent to evaluate a school. Instead, test scores are sent and graduation rates are

averaged. After that, principals may print off their report online to look over. If they feel scores were miscalculated, they can appeal.

The ECA tests play a large role in grad-ing a school. 60 percent of the grade is decided by those scores. Sophomores aren’t made aware of their impact on the school either, passing an ECA isn’t even a prerequisite to graduate. There are not any special tests for English Learners either. A language barrier may affected the overall score of certain schools.

The DOE uses an unfair method to rate schools. If a representative were to see the strong values our students have, South-port’s score would be much higher.

Schools misjudged by Department of Education{journalADDRESS}

{thumbsDOWN}{thumbsUP}Musical

We love you, Conrad!

Indiana AthleticsThis is Indiana.

Jay’s Moving Co.Thank you.

#SouthportStrongSuch an amazing community.

ExplosionPraying for Richmond Hill.

TwilightIs it over yet?

Cold Weather Bundle up.

Slow TextersCome on now.

*These are opinions of the Journal

{re- weeted}SHS Card’s Soccer@SHScardssoccer“I ordered 500 Southportstrong bracelets to sell for $5 for relief effort. I will let people know when they are in. Should be about a week.” (tweeted Nov. 11, 2012)

Sophomore Kyle McAtee@_JustCallMe67“Props to @PatMcAfeeShow for being a true Hoosier and helping out today!”

Junior Mike Haupt@HauptMike“We are #southportstrong”

*These are the Journal’s favorite retweets

{theJOURNAL}CONTACT INFORMATION

The Southport High School Journal971 East Banta Road

Indianapolis, IN 46227shsjournal@class.perryschools.org

317.789.4827

MISSION STATEMENTThe mission of the Southport High

School Journal is to inform the student body of timely events and issues that affect their lives while being a voice for the faculty, staff and community.

Journal staff members will observe the same legal responsibilities as those imposed on all news media, thus will refrain from production of material that:

1. Is obscene, according to community standards;

2. Is libelous, according to the legal definition;

3. Creates a clear and present danger or an immediate material and substantial physical disruption of the school.

The Editor-in-Chief is solely responsible for all content.

Views found in the Journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions the Journal staff as a whole, or of the staff or administration of Southport High School or the Metropolitan District of Perry Township.

STAFF LISTEditor-in-Chief

JESSICA DE LA CRUZ ‘13

Managing Editor-of-ContentANDIE REINHART ‘13

News EditorRACHAEL SAMM ‘14

Student Life EditorCASEY SMITH ‘14

Entertainment EditorMICHAEL CURRAN ‘13

Features EditorKATIE HINH ‘14

Opinion EditorJAKE JOHNSTON ‘13

Sports EditorTAYLOR DEHART ‘13

Photo EditorBECCA TAPP ‘13

Staff ArtistBREANNA BIEROD ‘13

Business ManagerHARSHIL PATEL ‘13

Graphics EditorSTEFANIE MAIER ‘12

StaffKAITLIN FALLOWFIELD ‘13

NGIIKA FATORMA ‘13ZACK KENNELLY ‘13PAOLA PADILLA ‘13

RACHEL PATTERSON ‘13KAYLA WALKER ‘13

JULIA WEBER ‘13VAN DAWT ZI ‘13

MOIRA MCKINNEY ‘14JESSE ROLLER ‘14

VANESSA ABPLANALP ‘15CAITLIN DYE ‘15

SARAH FOWERBAUGH ‘15NICK HOLLAND ‘15CAITLYN JONES ‘15

JAKE ROSE ‘15TORI UPDIKE ‘15

AdviserMR. MIKE KLOPFENSTEIN

PrincipalMS. BARBARA BROUWER

ARE YOU OPINIONATED?Students, staff and community

members are welcome to write a letter-to-the-editor that will be published in The Journal when space is available. Letters-to-the-editor must be received five days prior to publication date. Submissions should be short and concise, not exceeding 300 words. They are subject to editing for content, grammar and length. All letters must be signed. Personal or unfair attacks of businesses or individuals will not be published. Bring all submissions to room 400 or address an envelope to Mr. Mike Klopfenstein and take it to the Main Office. Submissions also may be e-mailed to shsjournal@class.perryschools.org.

The Journal reserves the right to reject any advertisement or Letter-to-the-Editor. Anonymous letters will not be published.

Comic by Breanna Bierod.

November 16, 2012 Photos10

Through their eyesThese are photos and personal experiences con-tributed from the victims of the explosion in Richmond Hill. Along with these photos are the contributors’ personal accounts and what they ex-perienced when these photos were taken.

My photo editor said, “Get in your car ... it’s big.” After Joe Vitti told me that, I was on my way. He gave

the address of the explosion, but I really did not need it since you could see the glow of the fire in the plumes of smoke. Getting around the many gawkers driving the same direction was a challenge, but I guess I was gawk-ing with them. I parked my car just south of Richmond Hill subdivision.

I got out of my car, ran toward the entrance, but slowed up to not draw attention from the police who were not letting media into the scene. Getting past them, I made a beeline toward the fire. I walked between numerous homes, through the backyard littered with broken glass and shredded siding.

Once I got to the street, I saw no homes, only a field of “house debris” on fire. Firefighters were crawling over mounds of burning debris looking for any possible sur-vivors as they worked to douse the fire. Huddling next to a home, my biggest worry was being seen by the police or firemen.

Then I started taking photos. After a couple hundred frames, I switched and made two video clips with my Nikon D3s. Then an iPhone photo to send back to the office since the deadline for the Sunday paper was like right in three minutes. I ran back to my car then back home for a frantic edit of hundreds of photos and a quick video for the online.

Photo contributed by Matt Kryger.Photographer for the Indianapolis Star

The principal of Mary Bryan Elementary School, Mrs. Dana DeHart, received a call about the explosion and was told to unlock the school for displaced residents.

“Originally when I heard there had been an ex-plosion in the neighborhood behind our school, I was anticipating that we could have had fatali-ties of children or parents,” DeHart said. “And that was very frightening, knowing and expecting to have empty seats today in school.”

At Mary Bryan, victims received medical atten-tion from the Red Cross and staple items. Accord-ing to DeHart, staff of the school also executed an emergency response plan very effectively.

“We were the command center,” DeHart said. “We were just trying to meet the needs of the families that were coming here.”

Freshman Nicole Smithers and her family went to Mary Bryan the morning after the explosion.

“We went to Mary Bryan that morning be-cause we didn’t know where to go,” Smithers said. “There was stuff everywhere on the walls. From baby diapers to clothes to canned food ... our friends, the DeHarts, came up and hugged us.”

Smithers discovered the explosion through

social media, her friends checked on her to make sure she was okay. She and her family live just five houses down from the blast and are all safe.

“Physically I’m okay, but emotionally I’m a wreck,” Smithers said.

After further assessment of the wreckage, the Public Information Office reported two dead. Also, out of the 125 houses in the addition, 81 were affected by the blast to some degree. Of those 81 homes, 50 were reported to have mi-nor damage and 29 received major damage. Of-ficials investigated homes and marked their dam-age level by color. Many homes around the blast area are yellow, meaning they may be accessed with police escort. Other homes in Richmond Hill are labeled red, those homes are not safe to visit and may be demolished. As of Wednesday of this week, the Public Information Office reported that potentially 10 homes will be demolished, as they were deemed uninhabitable within the red zone.

One of those houses belongs to the Salas fam-ily. Former Southport student Cecilia Salas is affected by the event, even from her college in Rhode Island.

“A house is a house, I’m just relieved my family

is okay,” Salas said. Salas said she saw a tweet from her neighbor

about the explosion. She then called her family to make sure they were safe. Salas was even associ-ated with the one of the two fatalities, Mr. John Longworth, 34. According to an IMPD report released Monday, Nov. 12, the man and his wife were discovered in the basement of their house, which was very close to the blast.

“It’s so hard to believe. I would see him walk-ing his dog every day and now he’s gone,” Salas said. “Everything is so hard to believe. I mean, my house was on the cover of The Wall Street Jour-nal. It’s crazy.”

Freshman Andrew Maple was away from home as well when the blast occurred. He was at a friend’s house when his mom called him, and she said she wanted to see him as soon as possible. Immediately, Maple got in the car with his friend’s parents, who then started driving him home.

“Every road remotely close to my neighbor-hood was blocked off,” Maple wrote in an email to the Journal.

So Maple and his friend went to another

friend’s house to rendezvous with Maple’s family. “We got our bags and had to leave,” Maple

wrote. “We sat up and watched the news for a while and eventually went and spent the night with my uncle. We are now in a hotel until fur-ther notice. My stomach is still shaky. It’s crazy how something can be gone just like that.”

Maple said the situation has taught him to never take anything for granted and that his prayers go out to anyone involved.

“I shake most of the time. Every time someone makes a loud noise in the hallway or there are a lot of people by me I get really scared because that’s how it was that night. There were people everywhere and it was just chaotic. And I didn’t like it,” Chipman said. “So now I’m really nervous, I feel like I’m going to get sick every second.”

Chipman and other victims say it’s hard to sleep at night. She fears being by herself and the eeriness that remains in the place she lives.

“There’s really no way to get over it, you know. I guess it just takes time. And the neighborhood is slowly going to heal but it’s never going to be like it was before,” Chip-man said.

Devastation strikes at home (from page 1)

It’s hard to describe the range of emotions that flood over you when you see your home destroyed. It was shocking to see first-hand the level of damage. Windows shattered with glass covering nearly the entire bottom floor, kitchen cabinets torn from the walls and doors blown completely off the frames. Then sadness to think of all that has been lost and may never be the same. Next, relief. Relief that as bad as things seem, my family is safe. Relieved to know how much worse this truly could have been. Finally, pride. Pride in my community and in my neighborhood. To see our neighbors come together to help one another. To watch Southport and the surrounding area step forward in such a time of need was remarkable. Thank you to everyone that has came forward to assist the families of Richmond Hill. From donations of time, money or resources to simply a kind word and a smile, you are what make Southport great.

Photos contributed by Brett Cocherell.Southport Alum, Lives in Richmond Hill

As a resident of Richmond Hill, the neighborhood has been very quiet with all of the resi-dents working with the officers to make sure the investigation goes as smooth as possible. These five houses are all in the plans to be demolished. The cars you see in the bottom right photo are Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) vehicles along with bomb squad ve-hicles. Some of them (belong to) Southport High School and Middle School alumni or (to kids) currently attending one of the two schools. Many houses on the middle street (Field-fair Way) or houses that backed up to the houses (Alcona Dr.) will have to be demolished and rebuilt. Most residents have returned home if possible. This explosion will never be forgotten by anybody living here.

Photos contributed by Bradley Davis.Sophomore, Lives in Richmond Hill