the dart: vol 75 issue 7

the DART the official student news source ofst. teresa's academy | kansas city, mo

senior makes her own prom dress | 8

students have psychic Experiences | 12

DIVIDEthe

GRADEThe Dart explores how perception influences the interactions between freshmen and seniors and how these relationships impact students now and for years to come. story on page 18

Dear Readers,It seems every year the same

conversations can be heard.The freshmen think they are so cool.The seniors are so scary. The class of 2016 heard these

comments as freshmen, and now as seniors. Their sentiments towards the freshmen echo those directed towards them by the class of 2013. Why is there this continuous cycle of hostility between classes?

Intrigued by these social patterns, The Dart decided to explore the relationship between freshmen and seniors. According to social cognitive theory, a psychological phenomenon examined in the centerspread, there is a recurring cycle of senior to freshman tension that should be removed by intentional action by both parties. How does this theory play out at STA? Is the strained relationship between freshmen and seniors unique to this year’s classes, or can we expect it every year, regardless of the individuals making up a class? Is this relationship typical for any high school, or is STA an especially negative environment? These questions guided Torie and staffer Madi Winfield as they analyzed the inter-grade social dynamics at play in the STA community. Read about their discoveries in this issue’s Centerspread.

Another typical convention of STA: everyone stressed about everything. On the Features pages, Zoe Butler gives an in-depth look into the culture of stress and its harmful effects. Find

out where stress comes from on a social and scientific level, and why you need to take a step back from the everyday chaos of being in high school. Sometimes, it’s worth sacrificing the need to be perfect to save our mental sanity.

To finish up this theme of STA norms, check out the Last Look pages for quotes from you, our readers and students, on how “you know you go to STA when…” From our obession with Bistro to lack of personal hygiene, our school certainly has qualities that are unique and definitive of the STA experience.

As always, continue to check DartNewsOnline daily for galleries, videos, blogs, and more content from this issue.

As we enter our last quarter of the school year, we want to hear from you, our readers. What do you want to see us cover? What is an important issue that deserves attention?

We appreciate your feedback and look forward to delivering another issue of the Dart to the STA community.

2015-2016DART STAFF

AdviserBrad LewisEditors-in-ChiefMary HilliardMaggie KnoxTorie Richardson

WEBManaging EditorAudrey CarrollScheduling EditorMadi WinfieldCopy EditorAlex DavisPhotography/Multimedia EditorKat MediavillaSocial Media ManagerBridget JonesSocial Media EditorsZoe Butler, Lily Manning

PRINTDesign EditorMackenzie O'GuinVisual IllustratorEleanor GreverPhotography EditorMaddy MedinaPage DesignersMaggie Knox, Alex Frisch, Anna Hafner, Katherine Green, Clare Kenney, Bridget Jones, Christina Kirk, Violet Cowdin, Mackenzie O'Guin, Linden O'Brien-Williams, Helen Wheatley, Meg Thompson, MaryMichael Hough, Torie Richardson, Madi Winfield

COPYManaging EditorMaryMichael HoughOpinion EditorHelen WheatleySports EditorElsa FeigenbaumFeatures EditorLinden O'Brien-WilliamsNews Editor Katherine Green

Staff PhotographersKate Scofield, Cassie Hayes, Libby Hutchison, Paige PowellStaff WritersMeredith Mulhern, Katie Donnellan,Jeannie O'Flaherty,Victoria Cahoon, Claire Molloy

2 the Dart | dartnewsonline.com | 7 April 2016

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

3cover designed by Maggie Knox | page designed by Alex Frisch

Monthly Question

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15 | Features | stress culture at sta

18 | Co

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22 | Ma

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23 | A&

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24 | Perspec

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compiled by CHRISTINA KIRK | page designer

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If you were president, what would you do

first?

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26

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If I were elected president, the first thing I would do would be to work on the homelessness and hunger in America, especially the number of children.Science teacher mary montag

I would reform police to be more aware of racial profiling. Freshman Katie GregoryI would pull funding from prisons and put it towards free/cheaper college, and also, eliminate the death penalty.senior Maddie Rubalcava

Buy lots of cats and name them after my favorite presidents.junior emma winfrey

28 | co

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ISSUE 7 7 April 2016

The Dart vol. 75

Table of

Contents

8


NEWS

EditorialPolicies

Ownership and SponsorshipDartNewsOnline and the Dart are created by the student newspaper staff and are maintained and published by general op-erating funds of St. Teresa’s Academy, a Catholic institution sponsored by the Sis-ters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. DartNew-sOnline and the Dart will not publish opin-ions that contradict the teachings and beliefs of the Catholic church, whether on a diocesan or world-wide level.

Editorial PolicyThe staff of DartNewsOnline and the Dart are subject to prior review by the St. Te-resa’s Academy administrative team in circumstances that concern Catholic doc-trine, student safety or illegal behavior. DartNewsOnline and the Dart will not publish reviews of student work or per-formances. Personal columns reflect the opinions of the writer, not necessarily the staff or school.

Letters & Reader Interaction Policy

DartNewsOnline and the Dart encourage the community to post comments on the website. Letters to the editors can be sent in the following ways: in person to Brad Lewis in Donnelly room 204; by mail to St. Teresa’s Academy, Attn: Brad Lewis, 5600 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64113; by email to [email protected] or to [email protected]. DartNewsOn-line and the Dart staff reserve the right to edit or shorten letters for publication.

Comment PolicyDartNewsOnline and the Dart encourage readers to comment on all posts. Howev-er, DartNewsOnline and the Dart reserve the right to monitor and edit all comments on DartNewsOnline. Comments that dis-agree with the editorial policy will not be published.

Photo Use PolicyPhoto illustrations are conceptual pho-tos that combine drawing and photogra-phy. All photos on the website are free for public use. If a reader is interested in high-quality copies of photos, please email DartNewsOnline at [email protected].

Corrections PolicyDartNewsOnline and the Dart will publish corrections as soon as possible after the error is discovered.

A Justin Bieber concert took place the same night as the Junior Ring ceremony.

The Junior Ring ceremony took place Wednesday in the M&A Auditorium at 7 p.m., the same date and time as a Justin Bieber concert here in Kansas City. Juniors decided between the concert and ceremony.

Principal of student affairs Liz Baker and junior class moderator Diane Hirner had been preparing for the Junior Ring ceremony months before it took place. The planning process included producing the ceremony program, creating a seating chart, organizing the musical contributions from students, arranging sound, ordering flowers, contacting Sr. Joan Tolle to bless the rings and working with parents to organize the reception.

“I organized the seating chart at the beginning of this year by last name,” junior class officer Madi Winfield said. “The seating chart for the ceremony will stay the same despite some absences for the concert.”

The Justin Bieber concert was announced in early November, a few months after the date of the ring ceremony had been announced.

“There is almost always a conflict - some years it is a spring sport [or]Confirmation, and sometimes even work,” junior class moderator Robin Good wrote. “The decision was to stay with the scheduled and calendared date.”

The ceremony is one of the few grade-specific events at STA, and one of the last times the class is together alone. Despite this, some loyal Bieber fans are not attending the ceremony in order to attend the full concert.

“I decided to go to [Justin Bieber]instead because my dad paid for the ticket and was on the site waiting for hours,” junior Nicole Snow said. “I am a pretty big [Justin Bieber] fan. I decided to go to the concert as soon as I heard he was coming to KC.”

Juniors decide between ring ceremony and Bieber

by KATIE DONNELLAN | staff writer

Not all of the people going to the concert are skipping the ceremony. Some have planned to go to the concert after the ceremony.

“At a class meeting we suggested girls with tickets have a plan in place to leave immediately after the ceremony and be dropped off for the concert since the featured artist does not typically open the concert,” Good wrote.

Students took this advice into consideration. “When I bought my [Justin Bieber] tickets I knew that it was the same night as Junior Ring, so my plan was always to go to both,” junior Catherine Parra said. “When I saw that half the class was also going to junior ring I was really hoping the night could be changed so I could go to both with no conflict. Even though that didn’t happen, I will still be attending both.”

According to Baker, the ring ceremony was started by CSJ Sisters to fully initiate juniors into the institution. The rings the juniors receive are unique to STA.

“The ceremony honors the hard junior year and parents commitment to Catholic schools,” Baker said. “The girls are named at the ceremony which is special because it recognizes that the person is special to God.” H

illus

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by E

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2% were going to the concert instead of ceremony

84% planned to attend the ceremony only14% were going to both

BY THE NUMBERS

*out of 80 juniors surveyed

5page designed by Anna Hafner

While sorting through clothes at their service agency, Seton Center, STA alumna Haley Sirokman, who was a senior at the time, pulled a long kilt-like STA skirt out of the donation bag.

“We immediately decided we needed to buy it and save it for a rainy day,” senior Rita Vittori said.

Current seniors Audrey Carroll and Vittori, who also volunteered at Seton Center with Sirokman, decided to keep the kilt just in case. The kilt cost about 50 cents, according to Vittori.

As a tradition at STA, seniors pass around a long kilt from advisory to advisory. The kilt started out in the Prentiss advisory this year and progressed throughout the first floor of the M&A building. However, the kilt, a long version of the STA school uniform, was lost early on in the 2015-2016 school year.

According to senior class moderator Sarah Stranz, the tradition of wearing the kilt preceded her time as a teacher at STA.

“The passing around works some years better than others,” Stranz said. “It doesn’t always happen smoothly or get to every student.”

Around late September, senior class president Kat Mediavilla addressed the whereabouts of the kilt in an email sent to the 2016 class.

“There seems to be a slight confusion as to the whereabouts of the Kilt at the moment,” Mediavilla’s email stated. “If anyone has it/knows where it is please contact me so we can get things back on track.”

The senior’s Facebook page, created as a means of communication within the whole grade, had posts about the missing kilt also.

“I actually had offered the kilt when the first Facebook message requesting a search for the old one had gone out,” Vittori said. “I think my comment just got lost in the crowd. When the people were still discussing finding it, Audrey Carroll went ahead and voiced that I still had it available.”

On Feb. 24, Carroll posted in the

STA senior’s Facebook page offering the new kilt to to be used for the remainder of the year.

“I feel bad that we have a new one, but it needed to be done in order to carry on the tradition,” Mediavilla said.

The senior class plans to continue the tradition by passing the kilt once again from advisory to advisory. The kilt started in Blake’s advisory since that is Vittori’s advisory. At first, the kilt had a smaller waist than the previous skirt, so Vittori made adjustments to make it suitable for more girls.

“The morning before I handed the kilt in I added some buttons," Vittori said. "Granted, they don't match the kilt...It was originally really small. But we all come in different shapes and sizes so I figured every girl deserves a chance to wear the kilt. I hope it will work out for everybody.”

Seniors have continued to pass the kilt on since Vittori brought it to school.

“I'm just glad that the tradition can start up again and hope that the old kilt will eventually resurface,” Vittori said. H

by KATHERINE GREEN | news editor

SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING

KILTkilt life | Senior Rita Vittori models the new senior class kilt. photo by ANNA HAFNER

After the original traveling skirt was misplaced, senior Rita Vittori offered a new one to be used.


NEWS

Under the last tab of children’s bookstore The Reading Reptile’s website is a link to an old blog, entitled A. Bitterman. Dated May 2007, this blog post begins by explaining to the reader that he/she is in the author’s mind, a figment of the blogger’s imagination. Pete Cowdin, A. Bitterman, owner of the Reading Reptile and now the Rabbit Hole, de-tails in vivid language his frustration with the world of publishing, the consumer, and he himself as a bookseller. Cowdin was discouraged by the recep-tion of the children’s book back in 2007, but, along with wife Debbie Pettid, has ventured to change it. With large doses of creativity and paper mache, the two are cashing in 27 “weird and wonderful” years at the Reading Reptile for a new escapade down the Rabbit Hole.

The Rabbit Hole, located in the Crossroads, dubs itself as the world’s first explorastorium. It will eventually include immersive storybook galleries where guests can “walk, climb and crawl” through physical recreations of children’s books, along with a theater, a printing press and book bindery, a li-brary, archive, writing lab and bookstore, according to Pettid. The first immersive gallery grand opening is set for April 9; the rest of the programming and complete Rabbit Hole vision are still to come.

Currently, the Rabbit Hole office headquarters and immersive galleries are split up, but eventu-ally the team hopes to secure its own building to house the entire vision. The year ahead is a chance for the explorastorium to “show [its] muscles”. The Rabbit Hole will be many things for the community of Kansas City, but Pettid is focused on creating an experience that will inspire the audience itself.

“When people come here, we want them to have a whole array of emotions,” Pettid said. “We want people to say, ‘Wow, they are sick. They paper mache’ed all of this?’ We want people to go home and think, ‘I’m going to make a fort,’ or, ‘I’m going to do this in my kid’s room,’ or, ‘I’m going to read this book.’”

This objective is part of a very large, risk-taking operation. Pettid says one of her main frustrations comes from the fact that the Rabbit Hole is here to provide unique, unmeasurable experiences. If anything, the Rabbit Hole has been original in its pursuits-- through unconventional funding and work ethic that couldn’t be achieved without the community’s support.

“Creating that excitement and community and that desire for something new will overcome this embedded idea that the only way you can get

Former Reading Reptile owners Pete Cowdin and Debbie Pettid to open world's first explorastorium, the Rabbit Hole.

Down the Rabbit Holegraphic courtesy of the Rabbit Holeby HELEN WHEATLEY| opinion editor

7

Brazil’s largest political party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), announced March 29 it will leave the country’s governing coalition and pull six members of President Dilma Rousseff’s cabinet.

The Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets 4-3 Sunday at the Royals’ opening night. They also beat the Mets in game five of the World Series last Nov., winning KC the World Champions title.

Each issue, the Dart highlights groundbreaking events in the world, US, Missouri and KC.

the NEWS FEED

in the world

in missouri

in the u.s.

in kansas city

by MAGGIE KNOXeditor-in-chief

A pregnant Missouri woman tested positive for the Zika virus after traveling to Honduras, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) March 30. This is the second confirmed case of Zika in Missouri.

The Supreme Court voted 4-4, a tie, in a case March 29 over fees for a teacher’s union. The law required some California teachers to pay collective bargaining fees to the union, regardless of if they were a part of it.

page designed by Katherine Green

something done is to find 10 people with a million dollars,” Pettid said. “You can find something and drive it and support it with a million people with ten dollars.”

Not only are Pettid and Cowdin creating the Rabbit Hole for the community, but with the community. In the past five weeks, the nonprof-it has attracted 130 volun-teers to bring the project to fruition. This volunteer base cultivates a sense of pride in the audience and allows a vast network of people to contribute their different as-sets to the same project.

"This is an opportunity for people to see it all the way through," Pettid said.

While the Rabbit Hole’s core creative team is a “serendipitous meeting” of about five people, the spectrum of those who work with the Rabbit Hole on a regular basis includes 20-80 year olds, about 80% of whom are women. Many of these people are new

acquaintances, but a portion of them have also followed from the days of the Reading Reptile.

“The thing [The Reading Reptile] can bring to this is all those relationships with publishers and authors and illustrators that money can’t buy,” Pettid said. “So without the Reptile, there would be no Rabbit Hole.”

For St. Teresa’s students, the Reading Reptile has been an institution and bea-con of childhood memories. Junior Emma Swinney grew up with the Cowdin family and has been visiting the Reading Reptile for 12 years. Swinney had Reading Reptile birthday parties, joined the book clubs and attended the events when she wasn’t in the basement playing dress up or drawing all over the walls upstairs.

“Watching the Reptile close has been bittersweet,” Swinney said. “But I am so happy that children will have the opportunity to create

memories at a place like the Rabbit Hole.”

For 27 years, Pettid and Cowdin have pruned their skills and sailed the rocky seas of children’s booksell-ing, you could almost say in preparation for the Rabbit Hole. But Pettid doesn’t be-lieve you can separate a long term goal from a recently developed idea. We’re all in-directly preparing for these moments, she says.

“It’s not often in your life that you get to pursue something you really want,” Pettid said. “And I think that’s something that’s really special.”

And so, as one idea springs up out of the fresh dirt, a pair of passionate artist-booksellers appear with a watering can and shears. The world will watch as the Reading Reptile packs up its things and moves away to a more colorful world. For where one story ends, another begins. H

painting with purpose | A Rabbit Hole volunteer paints a paper mache tree at the immersive gallery in preperation for the opening of "The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau," an immersive experience that opened Wednesday. photo by VIOLET COWDIN


Star spotlight

Do you have a favorite fashion designer? Who is your inspiration?

story by TORIE RICHARDSON| editor-in-chiefphoto by PAIGE POWELL | staff photographer

"In fourth grade when I lived in Germany, my mom started teaching me how to sew. We had our own sewing room at that new house."

“I’d say Alexander McQueen because I love the 'out there' big stuff, but I toned it down because it’s prom and I’m not trying to look like a clown or anything but, yeah, I love the really 'out there,' lots of details type look.”

Sarah

“The first thing I do is, on the dress form I’ll tape out the silhouette so I know how it’s going to look and usually I start from the skirt and work my way up and trying it on. Every stitch I do I try it on, make sure it fits and make adjustments from there.”

Tell me about your process of making a dress.

When did you start sewing?

"I think that sewing is just as much of an art as painting and everything else. Because, paintings, you can see them hanging up on the wall and you can be like ‘oh she’s a good artist’ and stuff but like, you don’t really see someone who’s sewing and [say] 'oh, that’s an artist', you know?” H

What do you want readers to know about you?

"I’ve kind of always wanted to make my prom dress. I’ve planned on it for a long time. I made my eighth grade graduation dress and from then I knew that I wanted to make my prom dress because my mom helped me a lot on the graduation dress. I was hoping one day I would be able to make a dress completely on my own so that’ll be [my prom dress].”

When did you decide to make your prom dress?

GordenSenior Sarah Gorden discusses why she decided to design and create her own prom dress this year.

9page designed by Clare Kenney

BITS & PIECES

fierce finale | Senior Connor Hodes, center, sings a solo during rehearsal for The Addams Family. Hodes played Alice Beineke, the mother of Wednesday's boyfriend. photo by MARY HILLIARD

My life sucks // My life rocks

“I had been looking forward to my trip to Cabo with my friends for 8 months, and then when I got to the airport, they wouldn't let me get

on my flight because my last page in my passport was a bit detached from the back page. Since you cannot get a passport within a day or two, my mom and I had to make other plans for Spring Break, while also losing money for our hotel in Cabo.“ - Grace Kitts, senior

“I went to Placencia, Belize with my friends over spring break. We visited my parents and my brother. It was so fun to relax and

swim everyday. I ate more ice cream in that week than I had in the past year. We went snorkeling and saw sharks and stingrays. Overall, it was an amazing trip and it was so nice to see my family again and show my friends around my old home.”

- Sal Scott, sophomore

compiled by VIOLET COWDIN | page designer

That’s whatshe said

SENIOR MADDIE TORTI@maddietortiThe sisterhood is alive and well everywhere and any time except 3 o'clock in the parking lot

Each issue, the Dart shares entertaining student tweets.

complied by BRIDGET JONESsocial media editor

PHOTO OF THE ISSUE

DAYS OF OURLIVES

Only 1 day until Prom.

Exactly 15 days until the Walk-of-Fame.

Precisely 10 days until Mother-Daughter.

About 20 days until Student Appreciation Day.

Exactly 45 days until Graduation.

And only 49 days until summer break. H

by CLARE KENNEY | page designer

Count down with the Dart to important STA events.

sophomore maggie prim@maggie_prim95% of the time i'm hungry and the other 5% i'm eating

senior annie alderman@amaldermansun: 1 Me: 0 Aloe Gone #Springbreak

Just 2 days until the Junior Ring Dance.


REVIEWS

by LINDEN O'BRIEN-WILLIAMScopy editor of features

More than a year after I broke open my piggy bank to buy tickets to see my favorite band, One Direction, the concert came around and I made my way to my nosebleed section seats dressed as the classic tweenybopper. When I got to high school, I traded my glittery posters for alternative bands’ t-shirts and my neon pink purses for ratty flannels around my waist. Nevertheless, when I learned Zayn Malik had really, truly left One Direction, I was shaken up, watching girls around me literally shed tears.

I got tickets to the July Arrowhead Stadium show, and from another set of nosebleed seats, couldn’t help but feel something was missing. Zayn Malik wasn’t just the (arguably) most modelesque looking member of the band, but had maybe the widest vocal range and brought the most unique talent to the table.

If you’re expecting “Mind of Mine” to be another bubblegum pop, over-produced album with impersonal lyrics and a set of five strained voices, you won’t find it here. The album, released March 25, fully departs from Zayn’s 1D days. Throughout the set, we are inside Zayn’s “Mind of Mine” as he pours his heart out with images of hazy nights, dirty thoughts and heartbreaking ballads.

The album begins with “MiNd of MiNdd (Intro),” a soundscape, calming yet exciting intro track, featuring a

1975-esque, almost muffled voice accompanied with echoes and a repetitive, hypnotic synth, previewing the muffled, foggy sounds to come with the rest of the album.

Next comes “PILLOWTALK,” the album’s first single, with the crispest sound to it. Malik holds on to the muffled background voices that worked for him on his intro track, while venturing back into the mainstream with the strong vocals about “seeing the pain, seeing the pleasure.” “iT’s YoU” begins with a melancholy gospel tone, reminding listeners of none other than Frank Ocean, as one of Ocean’s producers, Malay, worked closely with Malik on the album.

The next three tracks blend together in a swirly haze, best described as “unhappy artist on drugs longs for ex-lovers.” The songs, while similar to each other, represent the style that Malik has been striving for ever since his X-Factor audition that grouped him with four other aspiring boys, making One Direction, but abandoning Malik’s clear passion for R&B styles.

"If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop..." Malik told the Fader. "I just wasn’t convinced with what we were selling. I wasn’t 100 percent behind the music. It wasn’t me."

When “INTERMISSION: fLoWer” comes up, the muffled and swirly sound of the album is briefly interrupted with soothing but

melancholy guitar picking. Malik enters the track humming, singing the song entirely in Urdu to remind his listeners that he isn’t just an ex member of a commercial boyband -- he is an Asian artist, forging new ground for Asian artists around him.

The album’s next stand out track comes with the Weeknd-inspired “wRoNg” featuring American R&B singer-songwriter Kehlani, with strong vocals from both young solo artists. “fOoL fOr YoU,” depending on your level of emotional stability, may or may not make you cry, like it may or may not have done for me. The Lennon-inspired track features a simple piano line and presents a vocal gymnasium for Zayn, sure to make his target audience swoon.

And swoon they did. Zayn’s new fanbase - dubbed his “Zquad” by the artist himself - tweeted that they were “zlessed” by the new album as the album rose to number one shortly after release in the UK. “BLUE” is most surely Coldplay-inspired, but seems to never fully develop into more than an emotional intro.

Not every track on “Mind of Mine” is standout. But he pulled a few challenging songs off and incorporated enough to keep critics talking. After listening to Zayn’s album and following the artist’s Twitter sagas, two things are sure: One, Zayn will not be returning to a boyband anytime soon. Two, the artist with the new brooding, sexual reputation is going somewhere, and I don’t mean back to his 4 a.m. VIP section in a nightclub somewhere. H

H H H

A look inside Zayn's"Mind of Mine"

11page designed by Bridget Jones

by ELSA FEIGENBAUMcopy editor of sports

by MACKENZIE O'GUINdesign editor

H A girl in black clothes runs through

battle, her attractive feminist-sup-porting boyfriend right behind her. They tear through the corrupt govern-ment’s defenses, as apparently highly trained officers seriously need some more target practice. Racing through a technology filled building, they arrive face to face with their high-powered official nemesis. Playful banter ensues, followed by a brief scuffle in which the couple is victorious. Cheerful yet em-powering music plays, and the credits roll.

This is a description of every block-buster teenage dystopian book turned movie in the last three years. So while this may have been a summary of the movie Allegiant, who would have ever guessed?

This series has been doomed from its abysmal first installment, Divergent. An excellently written book following a society divided into five different per-

sonality types, its movie was an incred-ibly painful two hours of dullness. After movie number two unleashed a similar result, I was quite frankly surprised the third installment was in the works, let alone that I would be watching it.

And once again, a Divergent movie pitifully failed.

Granted, the movie was exceedingly better than its predecessor, Insurgent. It artfully captured its futuristic technology and radioactive wasteland setting. New cast additions such as Bill Skarsgård and Jeff Daniels offered brilliant portrayals of their book characters. The main character finally wore something besides all black, at least for a little bit.

But Allegiant suffered a fatal flaw, spending the entire film desper-ately clinging to every stereotype of its genre. It is still just another story of a girl discovering she is “special,” starting a revolution in another high tech world with another token boyfriend.

Allegiant merely falls seamlessly in line with every other teenage dysto-

pian drama attempting to mirror each detail of The Hunger Games, hoping and praying for some of its infamous success. Three years later, and the Dystopian genre is simply movies trying to outdo each other in portrayals of the same cliches. Allegiant was bound to fail, because it is stuck in a dead genre.

And to be frank, we are all getting tired of the “one girl defying all logic and changing the unjust society” bit. The Divergent series was published at a crucial time to the Dystopia game, providing the “next big thing” to The Hunger Games. Now, Tris Prior is just another shy girl that changed the laws of the world through some newfound confidence and some boy candy. Al-legiant missed its window of relevance by three years, and simply put no one cares anymore.

Divergent series producers, please spare everyone the time and money and do not make an Allegiant part 2. It is not worth the repeated heartbreak it will cause you or the Veronica Roth's dedicated readers. H

H H H H H

Another Divergent movie falls flat

SERIAL explores the full story behind crime

“This is a Global Tel Link prepaid call from Adnan Syed, an inmate at the Maryland Correctional Facility.”

This message, sterilely delivered in a manufactured feminine voice, marks the beginning of each episode of Sarah Koenig’s Serial podcast, a multi-install-ment series that “tells one story--a true story--over the course of a season,” allowing listeners to unravel said story at the same pace as Koenig herself.

Now, I am no seasoned podcast lis-tener. As a matter of fact, my discovery of Serial went something like this: I am bored whilst cleaning my room. What is this never-before-clicked app on my phone? Podcasts? Okay, let’s try one. Serial is #1 on the top charts. I locate Season One: Episode 01 “The Alibi.” I hit play. I proceed to spend 2 days entirely immersed in Hae Min Lee’s murder in 1999, the potentially wrongful convic-tion of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed, and everything occurring in between.

What captivated me about Serial is multifaceted. As a crime drama addict, my ears perked at the first mention of murder mystery. I spent the entire season-long binge session brow fur-rowed with the fretful consideration of a grand juror, attempting to answer the big “whodunnit” questions and piece together the provided evidence.

But, entertaining as it might be, even that probably would have become tiresome after the first several hours. Hae Min Lee’s confusing case may have hooked me, but it was Koenig herself that kept me listening. A former journalist, Koenig’s narration is both beautifully illustrative and bluntly fac-tual, a fine balance of prose and reality. Whether capturing the bubbly teenage tone of Hae Min Lee’s diary or the sad-dening wisdom of jailed Adnan Syed, I felt I not only understood them, but that I had walked their very footsteps. I, too, sat in a lunchroom with my friends on some select school day in 1999 or witnessed the trial of a nervous 17-year-old Muslim boy. By the end of season one, I felt the same sense of

post-apocalyptic shellshock one feels after finishing an engrossing novel.

I especially recommend this podcast for anyone with an affinity for crime dramas, journalism, law, politics, exten-sive research, or storytelling. Odds are, at least one of those things applies to you, reader, even if by a stretch. Practi-cally anyone could find something to like in Serial. The only real condition for listening is to play each episode with an open mind. Throughout the series, you’ll be jerked violently between schools of thought or sides of court-rooms, the very turbulence that makes Serial so impactful. But, in that case, what’s the point of the series? Koenig asks this question frequently from epi-sode to episode. My answer thus far is as follows: sometimes, the law is wrong, people are impressionable, cases are messy, stories get lost, and things are rarely cut and dry. What makes this so wonderfully frustrating? There are no right answers or wrong answer, just the facts and utter ambiguity. What’s not to love about that? H


features

it's a sign | A psychic shop located off US-40 highway. photo by CASSIE HAYES

13page designed by Christina Kirk

Junior Allie McDill has always been very intuitive. Ever since she was little, she’s had a sense

of events before they occurred or has even felt a spiritual presence in the room. While looking at a house with her mom as a child, she knew without being told that the last residents had had a son die in car crash.

After beginning to wonder if she had psychic abilities herself, she vis-ited a professional psychic to explore her potential ability. Once she was there, the psychic told McDill to close her eyes and see if any names came to mind. The four names she came up with were none other than four of the psychic’s family members.

McDill is one of a handful of girls in the STA community who has indulged in her curiosity to visit a psychic in recent months, bringing about ques-tions from those who hear about her visit and surfacing curiosity in many.

McDill says that her psychic visit was both reassuring and fascinating, but clarifies that her “abilities” have definite limits.

“It was so weird, but in that mo-ment, it me feel so much better to know I wasn’t making it up something really was there…” McDill said, “It’s just little stuff. It’s not super specific, I can’t just sit down and tell you [the future], I just might be near you or someone in the room. It’s not a switch I can just flip. I have to focus.”

Both Allie McDill and Junior Meg Duffy had visited multiple psychics in past and had varying results but both of them had separately visited area psychic Laura Myer and had positive results.

Myer has a studio on Woodson

road in Missouri and has been a pro-fessional for about 15 years.

Myer said she has been having psychic experiences since she was about 14 or 15 but didn’t pursue it professionally until after experiencing a chronic illness.

“That’s not unusual because when you slow yourself down, that’s what meditation is,” said Myer. “I psychi-cally and mentally had to slow down. I was about 40-41 when someone just kinda turned on a bright light.”

According to Myer she started her career by first doing blind readings for people brought to her by her friends and family

“I started reading for friends first. I come from a big family…” Myer said. “There was a long time period where my family would bring what I call blind readings where you know nothing about [a person,] not even their first names and they come in and I do what I call a “reading” where you just sit and whatever comes, comes. My abilities go more towards pain and empathy. I concentrate on where the disharmony is where the pain is.”

Myer said that the first time she does readings they usually last about 90 minutes with about 30 minutes set aside for people to relax and become more open to the reading.

“ [The amount of time a reading takes] is getting less and less so I’m either being more efficient with the process or I don’t know what it is. It used to take me two hours.”, Myer said.

Myer said that she believes that all people have the potential to have abilities like hers, but that it’s some-thing that “takes practice” and that

comes easier to some people than others.

“Anyone can do it. We all carry our intuition differently,” said Myer “I use it everyday so for some people, it’s more natural. It takes practice and you can build that muscle...just quiet yourself and see what you see and be playful with it. It’s not heavy it’s sup-posed to be about joy and light.”

McDill said that when she visited Myer, Myer was able to tell her things like the name of her mom’s past boyfriend and about a miscarriage her grandmother had that even McDill hadn’t known about a the time, which made McDill really believe in the process.

“She would just tell me all this stuff about my life that she should’ve had no way of knowing,” McDill said.

According to McDill she was also able to get in contact with deceased family members through Myer.

“She told me that my cousin who had died when he was young still hangs around my family sometimes,” McDill said. “She said my uncle came through too. She described it that they hang around because they love the same people you love. It was re-ally interesting.”

Duffy also says she she and her family members were able to contact loved ones through the help of Myer who she says had known without being told the circumstances of her grandfather’s death.

“My grandma’s husband died and she wanted to talk to him and get some closure, so she went and talked to him through the medium and she got a lot out of it,” said Duffy. “She is seeing this new guy so it affirmed

From communication with the deceased to predictions for their futures, STA girls discuss their experiences with psychics.

story by ALEX FRISCH | page designer

GETStudents

PSYCHed


featuresthat she should be dating him that my grandpa was okay with it.”

Myer said that helping people heal their grief is a very important part of her job.

“Grief is not to be denied’” said Myer. “You can push it down and you can close that closet door it will just keep building up...By the end of your life nothing else will fit and you just feel heavy and stuck sometimes just con-necting with that energy makes them feel lighter.”

According to Duffy, Myer may be a good psychic, but that doesn’t mean that every psychic is legitimate or strong. Duffy’s results have not always been as strong as those she found with Myer, but she believes many variables have to do with the differences between ses-sions.

“I think it depends on the amount of time you go,” Duffy said. “I went for 15 minutes one time and they were just spitballing, ‘you’re healthy, you like these colors…’ Then I went to [Myer] and she was telling me about my family, my sisters and broth-ers and aunts and uncles. So I think you can tell a lot by how in-depth they go.”

Because she has visited a fair amount of psychics during her life, Duffy feels that she is usually able to pick out psychics that she thinks are “real” and the ones that aren’t.

“I’m not a very skeptical person, but I can always tell when it’s a fake psychic just trying to get money versus a real one with an ability to do it,” Duffy said. “I’ve been to four or five psychics.”

Duffy has also had patterns in her predictions from various psychics for her distant future, allowing her to believe in “psychics” as a phenomenon even further. According to psychics, Duffy will meet her husband at 27 and become as speech pathologist. She warns others, however, not to always

take every psychic’s words as gospel. “I recommend it because I think it

can really help you if you need closure with something but I don’t think people should go to psychics for major life decisions or base their whole life off of it, because they can get stuff wrong,” Duffy said.

Myer also says that skepticism is healthy because, like all professions, among psychics there will be people who are proficient and those that won’t be.

“I’d want details...I’m about details,” said Myer. “The small things that connect us all like a nickname. It’s in the details. If you don’t get a detailed

reading probably within the first fifteen minutes of sitting with some-body you need to say, ‘if this doesn’t proceed in a more detailed manner this isn’t what I was looking for.”

For those who feel curious about

getting to know themselves a little deeper, McDill recommends visiting a psychic if “you’re curious about the future.”

“If you’re not afraid to just know more about yourself or about your life or even if you're just curious I think it’s definitely something you should go do,” McDill said. H

If you're not afraid to just know more about yourself or about your life or even if you're just curious I think it's definitely something you should go do.

“ “ — Junior Allie McDill

1. A psychic shop, located on Westport road, displays a small

palmistry decoration. 2. Tarot cards set in preparation for a

reading in a psychic shop located on Westport Road. 3. A psychic,

sets up taro cards, a bible, and a small crystal ball to prepare for a reading. 4. A psychic shop's logo.

photos by CASSIE HAYES

1.

2.

3.

4.

pages designed by Christina Kirk and Violet Cowdin 15

CultureofStress

play practice

COLLEGE APPS

HOMEWORK

getting sleeppowerschool

SPORT S T RYOUT S

work scheduleeating healthy

FRIEND DRAMAPRESSUREFROM PARENTS

Sibling rivalry

SOCIAL ANXIETY

There was a woman who not only had a 4.5 GPA in high school, and acted as the president of virtually every club and an “outstanding” citizen, the type of person about whom people think, “she’s going places.” She was also a secret perfec-tionist, and once she got a scholarship to a school in the East she only lasted two weeks under the heavy duty classes. She ended up in her parents’ basement, depressed, truly believing her life was ruined.

This woman was a patient of clinical social worker and psychotherapist Mark McGonigle, and she is one of many who suffers from not having the mental strength to deal with pressing stress.

According to the American Psychological As-sociation, teenagers reported stress levels at 5.8 on a 10 point scale, compared to the healthy 3.9 in 2014. The study also states that in more recent years, the number of people dealing with stress is significantly increasing, and while there are many causes for this stress, the main cause is school work. Counselor Amanda Johnson and psychology teacher Ray Hain believe that a majority of stress comes from pressures put on students.

“I believe the main reasons I see most students stressed is pressure to be perfect in every aspect of their lives,” Hain said. “The American culture and education system backed by teachers and parents have often put unrealistic expectations on our children. These expectations are even further internalized and magnified by the individual.”

Students often feel stressed with the amount of work put on them from all aspects of their lives, and the pressure that follows.

“It’s stressful because you can have an amaz-ing grade in a class, but then you have to worry even more about keeping it there,” sophomore

Helayna James said. “Or if you have a bad grade, then all your effort is put into bringing that grade up, which makes your other classes suffer. Then you have to add sports, a job, volunteer work and extracurriculars.”

Johnson shares how the internal results of stress actually stem from a chemical process that can be very damaging for the brain and body.

“When we are stressed, there’s a hormone called cortisol that is released in our brain and when that is released at [high] levels because we’re stressed out, that actually causes chemical changes within your body and your brain, and that can be very toxic and dangerous,” Johnson said.

According to Johnson, if this happens over a long period of time, the chemical processes can cause chronic stress, which contributes to anxiety and depression.

These chemical changes are what produce the noticeable changes in our lives when dealing with stress and anxiety, which the American Psycho-logical Association describes as becoming easily agitated, fatigue, inability to focus, low self-esteem and much more.

As more and more people and institutions are recognizing stress as a real problem with students, many are trying to find ways to help stu-dents, including STA. This past summer, president Nan Bone, academic principal of affairs Barb Mc-Cormick and principal of student affairs Liz Baker met with McGonigle to discuss STA’s future with a “Mindfulness training” program to help students with stress.

Baker, among other reasons, decided to implement the problem because she realized not enough was done in past years to combat severe student stress.

Stress has become a large part of teenagers' lives, and STA has taken action by hiring psychotherapist Mark McGonigle to teach mindfulness to students.by ZOE BUTLER | social media editor


features“Initially, I think [STA’s] answer to [stress] was

to really beef up the guidance department in their tenure to have a capability of having coun-seling available on campus,” Baker said. “Then they also worked on formulating that yoga class.”

However, it wasn’t until talking to McGonigle that the administration decided to try out the Mindfulness curriculum.

Founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) Jon Kabit-Zinn, defines Mindfulness as “pay-ing attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment

and nonjudgmentally.” “That’s when we decided to initially train

teachers first, so we did a teacher's Mindfulness training retreat, [which] was right before parent teacher conferences in October.” Baker said.

According to McGonigle, STA teachers needed to be taught first so that they could get an un-derstanding of the idea they’re trying to teach. After the retreat, where teachers learned many mindfulness skills, the six week session for students started during activity periods, led again by McGonigle. He has been teaching Mindfulness since 1982, and since he is a therapist, he must approach it through a science based lens.

“Meditation in and of itself is not much different than a kind of a workout for your mind to develop inner strength in lots of different ways,” McGonigle said. “So it’s a way to build up the strength of your mind and really adaptability to whatever comes at you in life, because life will come at you.”

By bringing in these sessions, STA and Mc-Gonigle are working in conjunction to provide a “safety net” that will internally protect them from suffering the consequences of stress.

McGonigle and the students are using a program called “Learning to Breathe,” based on the novel by Patricia C. Broderick. In the acronym BREATHE, each of the letters represent what that specific session will focus on. The letters standing for body, reflection, emotion, attention, tender-ness, habits, and the last ‘E’ standing for empow-erment, which is the overall intention.

“It is to empower people to know how to care for themselves, in their mind and in their aware-

ness,” McGonigle said. “It’s kind of a weird notion, but somebody taught you how to wash your hair once, nobody’s ever taught you how to cleanse your mind of stress. So that’s what this is, is cleansing the mind of unneeded stress.”

In the first session on body, McGonigle and the students dis-cussed the overall principles of mindful-ness, and focused on how grounding awareness in the body has an im-mediate stress re-duction response. He gave students exercises in focusing attention

on one part of the body so they literally couldn’t stress about a test, since awareness can only be in one place.

“Mr. McGonigle has encour-aged us [students] to let stressful thoughts simply float away,” junior Emma Kate Callahan said. “This simple practice helps me let go of my anxieties by re-establishing myself in the present moment.”

McGonigle described this as avoiding the “automatic pilot” think-ing including fantasy, self criticism, self judgement and judgement of

others that is distracting from the present. “So all the different ways that our mind can

automatically create stress, you can interrupt that with body awareness, and that’s what we covered in the first session was just how to be-come aware of your body,” McGonigle said.

McGonigle is focusing on building inner strength for students, so that if they ever en-counter a stressful situation, they can overcome it.

“You can experience a wave of stress, but if you practice enough mindfulness, and you know how to surf those waves, it’s not a problem,” McGonigle said.

McGonigle discusses how the things that calm humans down are often very simple, like taking a walk or listening to music. He also says that these

"You can experi-ence a wave of stress, but if you practice enough mindfulness, and you know how to surf those waves, it's not a problem"

“ “

— Mark McGonigle, clinical social worker and psychotherapist

photo illustration by MADDY MEDINA print editor of photography

17page designed by Violet Cowdin

things are made a little better with some meditative practice. According to Baker, the administration is currently thinking

about how a Mindfulness program can be implemented in the curriculum. The hopes of Baker and McGonigle are to begin this training for students starting freshman year, so it can be carried with them throughout their entire high school career and life.

“If we do [the mindfulness curriculum] freshman year, then everybody at least has the knowledge of Mindfulness, then however they want to use it they can use it,” Baker said.

The good news is that practicing mindfulness and medita-tion, according to McGonigle, takes little effort and time.

“The scientific evidence is if somebody meditates for six minutes twice a day, and they do that in different ways for eight weeks, there would be a dramatic shift in the biology of stress in your body, even the activity of your brain would change dramatically,” McGonigle said.

While many approach stress in a desperate way, Mc-Gonigle describes a positivity of meditation that is often overlooked, which is that the human brain’s natural state being one of compassion, which calms everything down when cultivated.

“When you let go of judgement, what kind of fills in automatically in our mind and our being is a sense of compassion, for ourselves and for those around us,” McGonigle said. H

The acronym "BREATHE" was created by Patricia C. Broderick. LCSW Mark McGonigle is using it in his mind-fulness program at STA to raise aware-ness of stress and to make girls feel empowered.

BREATHE

o d ye f l e c t i o nm o t i o nt t e n t i o ne n d e r n e s sa b i t sm p o w e r m e n t

photo illustration by MADDY MEDINA print editor of photography

CENTERSPREAD


THEGRADEDIVIDE

by TORIE RICHARDSON | editor-in-chief & MADI WINFIELD | web scheduling editor

19page designed by Mackenzie O'Guin

GRADEFrom a survey of 191 STA students, 81.6% of freshmen and 86.4% of seniors

see the relationship between the two grades as either neutral or negative. Freshman survey respondents say the seniors “openly talk about how annoying freshmen are” and “tend not to treat freshmen with respect,” while senior respondents call the freshmen “rude,” “disrespectful,” and “cocky.” From here does this negativity stem?

According to senior Hayley Burgess, the relationship between the grades is best described as “hostile.”

“I don’t want to speak for all of [the freshmen], of course, but… there’s just kind of a weird lack of respect,” Burgess said.

Burgess considers many of the freshmen she knows to be “very polite and very nice,” but said she has heard stories from other seniors who have had a much different experience with the freshman class.

“I’ve just heard about freshmen cussing at people, freshmen texting se-niors and saying rude things,” Burgess said. “ Just a lack of, not even seniority respect, but just morality. That’s just a mean thing to do.”

Burgess attributes the main problem between the freshmen and seniors to behavior, but freshman Katie Gregory believes the problem has more to do with attitude.

“It’s kind of complicated because I definitely think some people have a seniority complex,” Gregory said. “[This] can definitely be frustrating because it’s like, ‘You don’t even know me and you’re making all these assumptions. It’s frustrating to... be accused of start-ing Twitter fights and being mean to the Sion girls and all these inappropriate and even illegal things.”

Senior Savaria Goodman is unsure about the origin of such rumors, but deems them irrelevant to the way the freshmen should be treated and be-lieves that seniors should express more empathy in their treatment of lower grades.

“It could be [seniors] judging based on who they were as a freshman,” Goodman said. “I don’t know, but I feel like it really shouldn’t matter. I mean, we all party a time or two so why would that matter? ... At the end of the day we’re all here to be sisters. It is a sister-

hood, you know? There’s no need to be the evil stepsister.”

Gregory agrees the actions of a few freshmen should not determine the way their class is viewed. Rumor and misunderstanding, she said, lead to a lack of communication and further misunderstanding.

“A fair amount of seniors probably think we’re really young and pretty naive,” Gregory said. “I think it gets in the way of talking to people and having an open mind about freshmen.”

Goodman considers these attitudes hindrances to good relationships between the freshmen and seniors, noting that seniors should be “leaders more so than rulers.”

“I think we’re right to correct them when they’re wrong,” Goodman said, “but I don’t think we have the right to kind of have that power hungry mental-ity. I think we take it too far.”


Furthermore, 57.1% of freshmen believe the seniors treat their class poorly either some or all of the time, while 75.0% of seniors believe their grade is

disrespected by the freshmen at least some of the time. How does the idea of seniority and senior privileges influence how the grades view each other’s behavior?

Seniors receive “senior privileges” if they have completed the 90-hour service requirement, according to campus ministry director Meredith Snyder. Privileges include access to the senior parking lot, the opportunity to dress out of uniform once a week and the ability to leave school for the day during a ninth-period free.

94.8% of students agree seniors deserve senior privileges, including Burgess.

“I think it’s that we’ve worked for it, we’ve taken all the hard classes, we’ve faced SBRs, we’ve faced different teach-ers,” Burgess said. “We’ve just grown, we’ve developed here at STA and we know the ins and outs of the place be-cause we’ve spent so much time here. I think that makes us more capable and therefore gives us privileges.”

However, the idea of senior privilege does not end with school-sponsored freedoms. The idea of seniors deserve advantage over other students stems from social cognitive theory, according to Children’s Mercy child psychologist Dr. Rachel Moore. The theory states people learn how to treat others by the way they are treated.

“What is ideal for freshman is that they don’t know what to expect when they enter high school, but they typi-cally build it up to be worse than it is,” Moore wrote. “If they are treated well (shown respect) by seniors, they are likely to carry this over. Both groups are at different stress levels (e.g., adjusting to high school vs. preparing/adjusting to graduate and move on).”

This sentiment is echoed by Greg-ory, who attributes teachers’ leniency with seniors to the students’ place at STA.

“[Senior privileges] probably come from... just trying to let the seniors have a good time for their last year, whereas the freshmen are just getting started with their high school experience and the seniors are finishing it out,” Gregory said.

Though senior privileges are widely accepted at STA, issues tend to arise in the cases when senior privileges transition into seniority, as indicated by Prentiss.

“Though I understand the thinking behind seniority, I think it's just one more way that we [as a society] create a sense of entitlement in our culture,”

Prentiss said. “I think the idea that you are entitled to act a certain way just because you are older or have been in a place longer is counterproductive.”

Freshman Polly Johnson also cites this attitude of entitlement as an issue within the senior class.

“I feel like sometimes people can be a little entitled,” Johnson said. “I think [this entitlement would occur] if a senior were to start expecting certain things rather than being grateful for them.”

While Burgess sees a clear differ-ence between seniors and freshmen in terms of position and privileges, she does not want this difference to define how students interact.

“I think there’s a fine line between wanting them to respect you and want-ing them to fear you,” Burgess said. “I don’t want anyone to fear me and I want people to be able to talk to me, but I also want people to know that as upperclassmen, as seniors, we’ve been through all of this before and there’s reason that we have privileges that they don’t. It’s because we’ve earned it, and they need to earn it… It’s not age, it’s experience.”

SPEAK OUTSTUDENTS ADDRESS THE SUPPOSED RIFT BETWEEN UPPERCLASSMEN AND UNDERCLASSMEN IN OUR SCHOOL.

compiled by MARY HILLIARD | editor-in-chief

THAT'S JUST HOW IT IS. EVERYONE WAS A FRESH-MAN AT ONE POINT AND WILL BE A SENIOR AT ONE POINT. SOME PEOPLE MAKE BEING A FRESH-MAN SEEM A LOT MORE TERRIBLE THAN IT ACTU-ALLY IT. IT'S A LOT BETTER HERE THAN IT IS AT OTHER SCHOOLS.Onyi Oglibo, sophomore

WHEN I WAS A FRESHMAN, I FELT VERY SUPPORTED BY A LOT OF SENIORS WHO KIND OF TOOK ME UN-DER THEIR WING AND WERE REALLY VERY KIND TO ME WHILE TEACHING ME A LOT ABOUT STA AND LIFE IN GENERAL. Maura Graham, sophomore

21page designed by Mackenzie O'Guin

Finally, 96.6% of freshmen, sophomores and juniors predict that, as seniors, they will have good relationships with underclassmen. Is this realistic?

Can the freshman-senior relationship be mended? If so, how can current and future student ensure this takes place?

Goodman believes the relationship between this years’ seniors and freshmen could be fixed if the seniors changed their behavior toward the freshmen.

“We still have well over a month to mend it and make it right,” Goodman said. “And even then we’ll most likely come back in the future and see the same faces so I think it’s just important that we take them under our wing and let them know that they are just as much [a part of] the sisterhood as any upperclassman and just to accept them for who they are instead of who they think they should be. “

The way to fix the relationship, however, is not completely clear, according to Gregory.

“None of your teachers could ever be like, ‘go talk to the freshmen! Extra credit if you talk to the freshmen!” Gregory said.

Gregory also noted that the senior and freshman classes are more inclined to “just want to get through the year.”

“The seniors just want to graduate and they’re just trying to enjoy their

senior year,” Gregory said, “and the freshmen and trying to still find their ground. I think we just need to get more away from that and try a little bit harder to talk to other classes.”

Since social cognitive theory suggests a recurring cycle of senior to freshman tension, this tension should be removed by intentional action by both parties, according to Moore.

“I think that seniors need to engage in more perspective-taking strategies, focusing on how they felt and behaved when they were freshman, as opposed to who they are now,” Moore wrote. “Freshman need to be willing to participate in extracurricular activities to increase their exposure and familiarity with upperclassmen. Most of what the freshman-senior debate is about is a younger sister vs. older sister discussion. Older siblings will demand/want respect just for being older, and younger siblings rebel against this often, especially if they are not treated fairly or kindly.”

Drama teacher Shana Prentiss understands why seniors may misunderstand the freshman class

because of the age difference, but believes their attitudes could be changed if they tried to remember their first year at STA.

“It seems every year I have a senior witness a freshman doing something weird or silly and the senior will turn to me and ask, ‘Were we that annoying as freshmen?’ Prentiss said. “And my answer is always, "yes." I say this with nothing but love, but 14-year-olds are kind of annoying. They are still growing and figuring stuff out... If more seniors took a moment to remember themselves at that age, they would cut the current freshmen a break.”

Though “cliche,” according to Goodman, both classes could be guided in their actions by embracing the STA sisterhood.

“I think that’s the beauty of going to an all girls school is that we all relate on a similar level because we are all young women and we’re all here to get an education and to be great,” Goodman said. “That’s what STA teaches and we can’t do that if we’re constantly putting each other in boxes.” H

WELL, I THINK IT'S BECAUSE THERE IS A DISTINCT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEVELS OF MATURITY AND A FOSTERED RIVALRY OF SORTS. I DON'T THINK IT'S UNHEALTHY, BUT IT'S DEFINITELY NOT "POSITIVE."Maddie Rubalcava, senior

THE SENIORS ARE UNAPPROACHABLE, NOT NECES-SARILY SCARY. ALSO, THERE HASN'T BEEN MUCH REASON FOR ME TO HAVE MUCH A RELATIONSHIP WITH ANY SENIOR, EVEN IN MY ADVISORY.Isabelle Fleming, freshman

SENIORS USE THEIR SENIORITY TO THEIR ADVAN-TAGE, AND THE FRESHMEN THINK IT'S UNFAIR, DESPITE THE FACT THAT SENIORS HAVE GONE THROUGH THE SAME THING WHEN THEY WERE FRESHMEN.Liz Barton, junior

I HAVE NEVER HAD A SENIOR BE MEAN TO ME, NOR TO AN UNDERCLASSMAN. Karen Crouch, sophomore

I THINK IT DEPENDS ON THE INDIVIDUAL SENIOR AND INDIVIDUAL FRESHMAN.Mavis Spearman, sophomoreI DON'T NOTICE ANY NEGATIVE ACTIVITY AND THE SENIORS DO A LOT TO HELP THE FRESHMAN AND PREPARE THEM FOR THE YEARS TO COME. Abegail Hawley, freshman


FRESHMAN AND SENIORS MUST

ELIMINATECLASS PREJUDICES

STA students should put their differences aside in favor of stronger relationships between classes.

Freshmen don’t know what se-niors have gone through. Seniors have forgotten the struggles of being a freshman. Freshmen want to fit in and be accepted. And seniors want to be feared and respected. Why are we caught in this full-scale fight instead of lending our hands to our peers?

According to the Dart’s survey of 192 students, 21 percent of students (41) feel that the relationship between upper- and underclassmen is negative. Although it may seem small, this num-

ber should still be zero. Rather than increasing current hostility between the grade levels, all students should realize the greater importance of our STA com-munity.

This conflict Is only holding us back from what we could be as a school. This hostility stems from exactly what we’re taught to avoid as young women. We shouldn’t be tearing each other apart--we’re all in the same boat. All seniors were freshmen at one point, and fresh-men will get their chance at seniority in

a few short years. We should be using our school

setting to foster a greater appreciation of each other, not creating a greater hatred for our own.

What we’ve been doing recently--making snide remarks, talking behind backs, and perpetuating prejudice--isn’t working. But more than that, it’s not what STA is about. This prejudice is what’s limiting the power and success possible by our school.

We’ve been taking small numbers of students and seeing them as the entireties of their grades. We’ve been making judgments on whether we like a class based on tiny samples. Shouldn’t we know better?

We do. No one is valid in saying they dislike

a class if they don’t know all the mem-bers. No one can make judgments of those they don’t know.

Most importantly, though, is that, regardless of grade level and age, we all have one thing in common: we’re all sisters, and it’s time we start acting like a family again. H

MAIN ED

7 of 9 editors voted in support of this editorial[ ]

A & E

pages designed by Mackenzie O'Guin and Linden O'Brien-Williams 23

“The Addams Family,” the spring musical for Rockhurst High School, featured not only Rockhurst students but many from STA as well. During this busy season, some found it hard to keep the balance between schoolwork and a demanding extracurricular such as this - up to 5 rehearsals each week - but they still managed to have fun while producing the show, according to STA's senior participants.

“The Addams Family” is a musical based on characters from Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons published in the 1930s. The characters were later used for a well known sitcom in the 1960s, then adapted into a musical. The musical focused on the lives of the children as they grow up. Wednesday Addams, played by senior Hayley Burgess, is the daughter of the heads of family, Gomez and Morticia. Wednesday falls in love with Lucas Beineke, played by Rockhurst senior Henry Nickerson, who comes from a completely opposite, more “normal” family from Ohio, contrasting the bizarre, grim Addams family. The story is about the two families coming together and getting to know each other in entertaining ways.

Although the musical was “a lot of work,” the best part for seniors Connor Hodes and Liz Countee was the people.

“I think, honestly, the people that I get to work with are so cool,” Hodes said. “I love the [Rockhurst drama teacher and director Ashley Christopher] and it’s so much fun. I like getting to do a show with all my friends.”

Despite all the fun, the stress of rehearsals “can catch up with you,” mixing with school, work and other

STA students performed alongside Rockhurst students in Rockhurst's spring musical March 31 - April 2.

The Addams Family

activities, says Countee. Her key to keeping stress under control is time management.

“I’ve been using my frees a lot,” Countee said. “I’m always doing homework and usually after rehearsals, I have to force myself to just sit and finish things before I get distracted. So I guess it just has to do with being determined to get stuff done so you don’t get behind.”

For Hodes, the change of atmosphere from performing at STA to Rockhurst is different in the fact that each school has “a bit of a different personality” but in the end there’s “always a great connection.”

“I think when you come from the all girls environment that we have and then step into an all boys environment it’s just automatically different,” Hodes said. “But then it’s similar in the way that you get introduced to a lot more guys there that do theater because they’re in the choir program, or

they feel comfortable being there or because they want to do it with their friends and you get that aspect of it that you don’t get here. Here you only get the girls' side of it.”

Nickerson believes that the “girls allow a more free-flowing expression of creativity in the theater.” He also added usually Rockhurst students are more “toned-down around other Rockhurst guys, but the more prevalent female presence tends to allow guys to be more open and creative.”

The director, Ashley Christopher, enjoys the girls' company as much as the girls enjoy hers and says STA students are always welcome in Rockhurst productions.

According to Christopher, STA students are "always willing to undertake any task given to them for a production,” are "a joy to have around" and she "couldn't imagine doing a show without them.” H

by VICTORIA CAHOON | staff writer1. wacky witch|Senior Lily Cosgrove and Rockhurst High School freshman Eamon Shaw rehearse for The Addams Family. Cosgrove plays Grandma Addams and Shaw plays Pugsley Addams.2. poison problem|Senior Hayley Burgess, from left, RHS senior Henry Nickerson and senior Connor Hodes rehearse a poison-gone-wrong scene in the Addams family dress rehearsal. photos by MARY HILLIARD

A frightening fraternity meets a spooky sisterhood:

1.

2.

These women have not been blindsided, they filled out an application and went to casting calls. They were completely aware of the nature of this dating game, and the fact that it is a game with other players and a final winner. Contestants know they are signing up for months in a spotlight filled with uncomfortable dresses and

meaningless camera drama. These women have had no severe injustice forced upon them, this is a well informed decision that they make to place themselves in these conditions.

Because really, how dare a young woman take advantage of an opportunity to see the world? How dare she place herself in a situation where she is forced to live in

a mansion and make life long friends? How dare she search for love in an unconventional way?

Yes, The Bachelor is about a bunch of girls allowing some guy to pick them based on their looks. But at the same time, it is about a bunch of women confident enough in themselves to know that their worth does not depend on some guy’s opinion of them.

So I will continue to pursue equal rights at my feminism-filled all girls school, and I will love The Bachelor all the same. H

the Dart | dartnewsonline.com | 7 April 2016

PERSPECTIVES

24

You stand in a ridiculously expensive dress, spotlights beaming down on you as a microphone digs into your side. A flood of camera men are perched opposite you, waiting for you to break down in the stress filled moment and provide them with some of those tv-golden tears. He struts into the room, attractiveness radiating from him as he stops beside a pile of roses on a table. This is it, everything your life depends on is on the line. Ben calls the first name...

...and it isn’t yours. Your heart shatters into smaller and smaller pieces as he calls other girl after other girl up to hear that perfect question and get that perfect red rose. Why is he not calling you up? Did you not flirt enough with him today? Does he not like the dress you are wearing? Has your hair gone flat? Did you forget to reapply your makeup?

Chris Harrison walks into the camera’s view. You hear those dreadful words, “Ladies, this is the final rose tonight.” You stare at the only other girl without a rose, knowing you are way prettier than her. One of you is going home, how will you ever survive if it is you?

I am obsessed with The Bachelor, I am not ashamed to admit it. I am

proud to announce I knew Lauren B. was the one for Ben the second she came on screen, and spent the entire season patting myself on the back for my fantastic psychic abilities. However, I am also obsessed with women’s rights, as I imagine every woman should be.

So the question is, how can

someone support equal rights while watching a man sit there and pick and choose girls like they are inanimate objects for the sake of reality TV?

The answer is simple. Feminism is not judging women for their actions, but supporting them. The entire basis of feminism revolves around the principle of women supporting each other. It does not matter if you agree and would replicate said decision, but you cannot diminish her and her beliefs on the basis of her actions not being woman enough for you.

I can be a feminist and love the Bachelor

by ELSA FEIGENBAUMsports editor of copy

you cannot diminish her on

the basis of her actions not

being woman enough

"

"for you

page designed by Helen Wheatley 25

The girl community is a funny place. We are all (hopefully) well-aware of the struggles we face, whether it be in the workplace, politics, religion, homes, relationships, media, I could go on, and probably so could you.

In a world where women are so often viewed as the lesser, we - as girls - still have the power to strengthen each other and our community as a whole. St. Teresa’s is an amazing cultivator of sisterhood. But this isn’t about STA, this is about the world at large, our sisters on the street, not just in the halls.

Girls have a particular way of separating ourselves from each other. This is not totally our fault - media has conditioned us to be competitors, to find imperfections in ourselves and each other, and to constantly be separating ourselves from each other.

These comparisons have created a whole new glossary of terms we use to point out ‘imperfections’ and distance ourselves from each other.

When we throw insults at each other, we’re putting one another down in a world where we are already under-respected. We’re making our community toxic and disconnected. We’re setting the example for others - particularly men - that we are perfectly okay with degrading other girls. These insults shouldn’t even be insults in the

first place. Here’s a few things to remember

when you are presented with comparison:

A girl’s sexual life is not the deciding factor of her worth. Respect a girl’s sexual life, regardless of what it is. We don’t know her inner-workings, and we don’t need to. Let that be, and love her no matter what.

Being fat is not a flaw. When fat is used as an insult, it’s perpetuating the idea that skinny is the norm, or skinny is somehow better than fat. A girl’s

body is her body, and maybe she loves it or maybe she’s extremely insecure, but either way, she doesn’t need anybody to make comments on her appearance. Tell her how beautiful she is, how much you love her style, tell her how on fleek her eyebrows are.

Words synonymous with vagina should not be used as insults. (Sidenote: there are a LOT more insults that we need to eliminate in our society, this is only a few to start with). The vagina is an incredibly impressive

reproductive organ that most women have. Why is this spectacular body part such an insult? These words seem to be reserved for occasions to really want to offend someone (especially boys). If you call someone one of these terms, you really want to get a reaction. You know what my reaction is? Upgrade your vocabulary! I take no offense at being deemed the title of vagina, heck I’d take it as a compliment! My body is powerful, my body works magic! So yeah, sure, go ahead call me that because I will keep walking with my

head high knowing that I emulate the same traits as the very organ that brought you, and the entire human race, into this world.

Our girlhood is so important, but there are a lot of factors that have convinced us that we need to find differences between each other and magnify those differences. My challenge to you is to do the opposite - ignore your first instinct to compare, rather find something you have in common with any and every

girl you come in contact with. Lift your sister up! If we aren’t advocates for each other, who will be? It’s pretty well established that men are plenty comfortable with their position in society and don’t have plans on making room for us at the top.

I promise, spreading love to other girls will make our girl community so much stronger and united in a world that wants to tear us down H

by JEANNIE O'FLAHERTY| staff writer

LET'S TERMINATE GIRL HATE

we're putting one another down in a world where we are already under-respected

"

"

Spring sports began their seasons, using last year's results to motivate them to achieve their goals.

stories by MARY HILLIARD | editor-in-chief


SPORTS

Last year, the varsity soccer team won the 5A State championship. This year, before the season started, the soccer team was ranked second in the nation. They returned all but two starters, and “picked up two strong freshmen,” according to captain Alyssa Seitzer. Their goal is to win State again.

“Winning State last year is my favorite memory from St. Teresa's,” Seitzer said. “Going out with another state championship would be the perfect end to my time [here].”

According to head coach Jeremy McElduff, the team's victory adds pressure this year.

“Winning last year puts more pressure on the team, pressure that comes from outside especially,” McElduff said. “As coaches, we try not to put that pressure on the team.”

Expectations are another challenge the team will have to face this year.

“You run the risk of expectations that are too high and you run the risk of complacency,” McElduff said. “It takes very special leaders on the team to get a team ready to win two titles in a row...There are a lot of people around now who just expect that we will get back to the Final Four every year.”

Replacing last year’s senior class, which included two-time Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year Dorian Bailey, will be another challenge.

“We have to find a way to replace players that graduated who really aren't replaceable,” McElduff said. “This team, like every year, has to discover the player or players that they will rely on. The team hasn't figured that out yet, though I think I know who they will be.”

Leadership will be an important component to the team’s success this year.

“Now that I'm a senior, our class is going to have to be the leaders and role models for the younger girls,” Seitzer said.

Achieving their goal of winning State again will be difficult, according to McElduff.

“There are even more very good teams on our side of the state that we will have to fight very hard against if we want to get back [to State] again this year,” he said. “We have a large target on our backs in every game we play this season.” H

STARS SHOOT FOR STATE

SOCCER1.

2. 3.

4. 5.1. The varsity soccer team warms up March 30 before practice with stretch-ing and running drills. 2. Senior Maddy Russell, front, tries to keep the ball from senior Alyssa Seitzer, left, during a drill at varsity soccer practice. The two helped lead the team to the State championship win last season. 3. The soccer team stretches and warms their muscles March 30. The Stars have had several teammates struggle with injuries this season, so warming up is a precautionary measure for the team now. 4. Junior Elexa Pierson, left, tries to take the ball from senior Alyssa Seitzer during a drill at varsity soccer practice. 5. Varsity soccer players prepare to head the ball at practice March 30 after school. photos by MAGGIE KNOX

Last year, the track team finished 16th out of 42 teams at the Missouri 5A State championship track meet.

“This year we are hungry for a state title and to break our record from my sophomore year,” senior and varsity captain Machella Dunlea said. Dunlea is a sprinter and runs the 100, 200, 4x100 relay, and 4x200 relay.

One of the biggest changes for the track team this year is Coach David Green transitioning from assistant coach to head coach.

“[The transition] enables me to instill even more competitive drive and contribute more to the Star Track and Field program,” Green wrote in an email.

According to Dunlea, he is knowledgeable about all areas of track.

“We have already began focusing on changing our form and becoming a closer and more skilled team in all events,” Dunlea said.

Green wants to “make major improvements” in the STA athletes’

progression throughout the season. Ultimately, his goal is to win districts, sectionals, and eventually State.

“We have some very promising freshmen and it will be difficult to pick just four girls to run the relays, which is not a bad thing at all,” Dunlea said.

Green is confident in the returning members and freshmen.

“Even though we lost the exceptional talent of [STA alumna] Ann Campbell due to graduating, this year we have several returners and freshman that gives STA Track and Field optimism for great success this season,” Green wrote.

Dunlea is “impressed” by the freshman class and believes this is the year the team will make it to Sectionals and State.

“I want every STA athlete to step on the track in practice and at a meet and have an ‘I'm going to win’ mentality,” Green said. H

1. Senior Kristina Coppinger, practices a drill at varsity lacrosse practice March 30. 2. Sophomore Olivia Matlock, left, teaches junior Olivia Jackson to hold the goalie stick at practice March 30. 3. Senior Gabby Clemente, center, waits for a pass from junior Meggie Mayer, right, as sophomore Hannah Steen, left, looks on at varsity lacrosse practice March 30. The STA lacrosse team is the reigning State runner-up. photos by MAGGIE KNOX

27page designed by Meg Thompson

Last year’s results serve as motivation for the lacrosse team in two different ways, according to head lacrosse coach Jessie Hanna. The team was more successful than ever before in the State tournament, finishing in second place. However, they fell short of expectations in the Metro tournament, losing in the finals after going undefeated in the regular season.

“Both of these experiences should drive the players to be better and work harder,” Hanna said. “The team now knows what they are capable of and what hard work can bring.”

According to senior and captain Kristina Coppinger, the team’s goal is to play to their full potential every game so they can make it back to State.

“Getting second in state last year was great, but it only makes the team want to get back and win even more,” Coppinger said.

The team is more experienced this year. Many girls played on off-season teams, and the returning varsity players have now faced the level of teams they will have to beat in order to win State. This is an “advantage” according to Hanna. However, the team also has some challenges to overcome. Last year, seven seniors graduated, three

of whom went on to play lacrosse in college. A few varsity players decided not to return, and there was a much smaller freshman class than ever before.

“Everyone will have to step up their game to be equal to the strong attacking team we had last year,” Coppinger said.

According to Hanna, the coaches have had to be “creative” and have placed players in different positions. Her goals for the season include developing the younger players for the future and using the senior leaders to motivate the team.

To face these challenges, Coppinger says the team needs to rise above what they know they are already capable of.

“[We need to push] ourselves to the brink because that's what it's going to take to win.” H

LACROSSE

TRACK & FIELD

1.

3.

2.

jumpman | Sophomore Adeline Kreigh-baum takes a jump during her pole vaulting practice April 3. photo by KAT MEDIAVILLA


COMMUNITY

by ALEX DAVIS | copy editor of web

NEW SHOPSON THE

BLOCKThe Dart compiled information about stores popping up east of the Brookside shopping district.

29page designed by MaryMichael Hough

1. Heirloom Bakery located on Oak and 63rd Street has a variety of breakfast and dessert foods. Every thing is made daily and with local produce.2. Desserts and pastries on display at Heirloom Bakery. They sell a variety of baked good such as breads, muffins and scones, salads and soups, sanwiches and cookies and bars, pies and pastries. 3. A view down Oak street from 63rd street. Some of the shops and restauants on this street are J'adore, BKS Guitars, the Clock Shop, Season and Spice, Lampatuer, and Plate.photos by LIBBY HUTCHINSON

1.

2.

3.

6205 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO, 64113

Tuesday - Thursday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.Friday - Saturday: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Season + Square is a local spice and home decor shop offering more than 100 natural spices, artisan products, home goods and much more, and is centered on providing the community with “something worthy of buying, something you can be proud to own, something of the highest quality, and above all, something tasteful."

401 E 63rd Street, Kansas City, MO, 64110

Tuesday - Friday: 7 a.m. -6 p.m.Saturday: 7 a.m. - 4 p.m; Sunday: 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.Closed Monday

Newly established bakery in East Brookside that offers freshly made baked goods and treats daily made from locally and seasonally grown ingredients.

408 E 63rd Street, Kansas City, MO, 64110

Lunch Tuesday - Friday: 11 a.m. - 3 p.mDinner Tuesday - Saturday: 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.Sunday: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Brookside’s local bistro, Oak 63 offers a wide range of foods and drinks, including reubens, gyros, salads, seafood, brunch items and much more.

As Kansas City continues to develop and flourish, Brookside is doing its part by establishing new and interesting shops and boutiques for all of its residents. However, there are a few lesser known shops that are doing their part as well. Varying from guitars to spices to home decor, the Dart profiled the following East Brookside establishments.

SEASON + SQUARE

HEIRLOOM BAKERY & HEARTH

OAK 63 BISTRO

LAST LOOK

the Dart | dartnewsonline.com | 7 April 201630

5 signs you attendTHE ACADEMY

StarFeed

by LILY MANNING | social media editor

“You know you go to STA when the correct words to ‘Party In The U.S.A.’ are actually ‘Party in the STA.’”

- junior Claire Franey

“You know you go to STA when you can’t remember when you last brushed your hair.”

- sophomore Sloane Smith

Whether it’s wearing a dirty skirt to school or having extremely long leg hair, there are many aspects of STA that make it unique. Here are a few quotes from students that prove how special life at STA really is.

photo illustrations by KATHERINE MEDIAVILLA | web editor of photography

w 31page designed by Torie Richardson

“You know you go to STA when your leg hair is so long it shines across the quad.”

- freshman Lily Farkas

“You know you go to STA when everyone is orange a week before spring break.” - senior Genevieve Wiedeman

“You know you go to STA when you gain 25 pounds in two weeks from bistro chips.” - freshman Camille Begnaud

Despite these sometimes peculiar experiences, we all know STA is our home and there’s nothing quite like it. H

32the Dart | dartnewsonline.com | 7 April 2016 | page designed by Madi Winfield

In the DNOThe Dart Vol. 75

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