voice vol. 12, no. 3

Between each class exchange, one hears talk of students leav-ing for lunch, skipping classes

and going home early. Students show up to classes tardy on a daily basis and still maintain their GPA. Discipline policies for skipping students seem to be arbitrarily enforced.

Every morning, each teacher with a first period class is required to take attendance on Teacher Access Center (TAC). From this, any teacher or ad-ministrator can view a student’s at-tendance and whether an absence is excused or unexcused. Teachers have

the option to login to TAC to verify a missing student’s status throughout the day. This is how, when it happens, students are caught skipping.

“I go through that list [on TAC] ev-ery day and if they’re not on the absent list, and excused, that goes in as a skip and then I immediately write up an in-dividual disciplinary action and send it in,” science teacher Tim Hall said.

Students are capable of leaving and entering the school through various exits, with little to no consequence.

“People just walk right out the door and nobody stops them or says any-thing,” senior Jenn Johnson* said. “I’ve even seen people just let them back in like it’s no big deal.”

Other students agree that there are few consequences for missing class. “I come in late [to school] and sign in

every time, and as many times as I’ve signed in, I’ve never gotten in trouble,” senior Sally Davis* said. “Supposedly you get in trouble after three tardies, but I’ve definitely surpassed that num-ber.”

Being tardy to school is considered skipping by attendance and will be counted as unexcused without a note from an authorized adult.

“Tardies to school: once they get to a certain level [four tardies total to all classes], we go into a detention, Friday school or in-school suspension,” assis-tant principal Jason Jackson said.

There are portions of the day in which the majority of skipping occurs; first, fifth and last bell. This enables late arrival, leaving school early and getting lunch off campus. When ar-riving late, students can sign in at the

attendance desk. They will be admit-ted to class, but it is unexcused unless they have a note. When leaving during seventh bell, a skipping student can go unnoticed in the crowd of students with early leave.

“It is harder for us to keep students in the building because we do have stu-dents walking out. I’m kind of a posi-tive person, I assume that they have permission to be doing so. Again, it’s very dependent on the teachers to take good attendance in those sixth and seventh bell classes,” Jackson said.

The consequence for skipping the first time is a Friday school; if a stu-dent skips frequently the punishment may escalate, even to the point of sus-pension on a case by case basis.

Despite of West opposing off cam-pus lunch, students often leave during

fifth bell. “I see people just

walk out all the time, and I assume they’re skipping,” Davis said.

Although those bells are the most popular to skip, stu-dents are frequently caught skipping throughout the day.

“[Students are caught skipping] ev-ery day; it’s pretty common to catch them, and I would imagine it’s prob-ably pretty common for them to get away with it,” Jackson said. Students choose to skip specific classes for various reasons.

“If it [a test] is later on in the day, I just won’t go to school that day, but if it’s early in the day, I come in af-ter that class. Even when the absence is unexcused, they [my teachers] let me make it up,” Davis said.

With 26 doors in the building, it is nearly impossible for administration to monitor all exits for truant students. The only way to truly en-

Sarah HelsingerEditor-in-Chief

Christy DeGraceOpinions Editor

2Lakota West Voice

News December 19, 2008

3Lakota West Voice

NewsDecember 19, 2008

force the consequences of skipping is with help from teachers.

“We [administrators] are really de-pendent on the teachers to take good attendance and report the students who are not in attendance when they should be,” Jackson said.

It is up to the teacher to determine if a student’s absence is un-excused and whether or not to accept the missing work. Some teachers enforce this rule, while oth-ers do not.

“If it’s [an absence] un-excused, they will take it [the missed work] but they don’t get credit. They’re going to take it because they’re going to be responsible for it at the end of the semester and so on, but I don’t give credit, even for tests,” Hall said.

If this rule was enforced by teachers, some students would make a greater effort to come to school.

“If they [teachers] didn’t let me make up my work when it was unex-cused, it would motivate me to come to school,” Davis said.

Once exam exemptions were dis-continued, students lost even more motivation to come to school.

“With exam exemptions gone, there is really no motivation for pretty much anyone to come to school,” Johnson said. “I mean, when we had the ex-emptions, there was a reason to come

to school

everyday, but with them gone, people feel free to take a ‘mental health’ day every now and then.”

Students enrolled are required to attend school a certain number of days of each year. Some people believe it is the school’s and teacher’s responsibil-

ity to make sure the students are com-ing to school, while others believe it is up to the students and their families.

“It’s all on me if I skip school. It’s my fault and my responsibility to get my work because I shouldn’t be miss-ing class in the first place,” Davis said.

School Re-source Officer Neil Schmitz believes the majority of the responsibility falls on students’ guardians.

“Parents need to be at the fore-front of the kids

and making sure they’re where they should be and that they get to

school and are staying in school,” Schmitz said. “Then it’s the

school’s responsibility once they’re here to try to keep track. But, we’ve got over 2,000 students; it’s hard for us to be watching for a student walking out, but pri-marily the parents need to be keeping track.”

Some teachers believe the responsibility falls on multiple people.

“It’s the student’s respon-sibility, the parents’ respon-sibility and the school’s re-sponsibility, including me. Because I need to design my class in a way that hopefully will make them want to come to class,” Hall said.

If a student is frequently being tardy or skipping, this is when the school’s re-source officer may become involved.

“I don’t really go after skippers unless it’s a chronic

problem,” Schmitz said. “If I’ve already made an arrest on a student for being consistently skipping or tardy then I’ll follow up with the reports to make sure they’re at school. If they’re not in school, then I’ll arrest them again for skipping or being truant.”

Some students will skip a class in the middle of the day, but will stay in school roaming the halls, sometimes with a blank passbook and sometimes without. However, some students are in the hall with teacher permission, just without a pass.

“If a teacher tells you you can be in the hallway, we’re not going to punish you for being in the hallway,” Jackson said. “Our students have to be able to trust that the teachers are going to tell them to do things they should be able to do. At that point we ask the teacher to please give them a pass so they can complete their mission.”

There is an amount of trust put into every person in this school to do what they are supposed to. This means teachers must take attendance, assis-tant principals must enforce discipline, students must come to school and even

parents must make sure their children are attending.

Some teachers do as much as they can to get students in their classes.

“I talk to them, I talk to their par-ents, I sit down with them and try to find out why they’re skipping and if they’re skipping because they say, ‘There’s no way I can pass this class.’ I try to come up with a way that they can come in with me, and we can work together so they can get to a point so they can, just to make it possible,” Hall said.

This is the last opportunity students have for a free education and some are not taking advantage of it. A fair amount of skipping has been noticed by all levels; students, teachers, ad-ministrators, and the School Resource Officer. The school is making an effort to bring students to school every day and keep them there, but there is only so much they can do.

*Indicates a name change in order to protect identity of individual.

Voice headline graphic and info graphics by Dylan Geiser

Throughout November, I tested the ease of skipping at West. My experimentation began with the

bells most commonly skipped by stu-dents: first, fifth and seventh bells.

For my first bell class, I left my house at the usual time of 6:40, but rather than turn into the parking lot of West, I continued to drive and went to Burger King for breakfast. When I returned to West after second bell had already begun; I was told to sign in and that a reason for my tardy was not needed.

In a recent poll of the West student body, 20% of the students said when/if they skip they do so fifth bell. I left my study hall early asking to use the rest-room and exited through a side door on the South side of the building. I was never questioned for being in the hall-way without a pass and no one said a word to me when I walked directly out of the building. Returning to West, I carried with me a lunch from Subway. The door which I had left through was propped open by students spray paint-ing a sign for main street and I entered the building through this door. The students outside never spoke to me or gave me a puzzled look, nor did any other person who saw me walk into the building with a bag from Subway.

Seventh bell was the easiest to skip without suspicion because a swarm of students with early leave were also exiting the building. I just walked out with the other early leave students and it was never a problem.

For the other bells of the day, I walked through the office and out the door without a single head being lifted. I decided to return for my sixth bell class, but I simply sent a text to a stu-dent fifth bell and they opened a door on the side. I exited the building again after sixth bell with early leave stu-dents and went home.

Total, I skipped six of seven classes with no consequences. Out of the six teachers only one checked to see if my absence from their class was excused. He/she found that I was unexcused and warned me that I could turn in my homework and make up my quiz this time, but that I should avoid making a habit of missing his/her class. As for the other teachers, my absence was not their concern, I turned in all my home-work and made up anything that need-ed done for the class for full credit.

Skipping at West is very easily done by any student at any time in the school day. It is improbable that the school would be able to monitor all exits in the building, but when students are able to walk out of the building in front of faculty and administration without being stopped, there is a problem.

Personal account: skipping at West

-Sarah Helsinger

After 37 years of coaching boys’ basketball, Coach Mike Mueller retired one week before basket-

ball try-outs. For 15 years he coached in Illinois at three different schools and came to West in 1997.

“I just felt it was in the program’s best interests [that I retire],” Mueller said.

Mueller’s son Scott Mueller has tak-en over for him and will be head coach this season. Scott Mueller played bas-ketball throughout high school and was the starting guard on the 1992 state championship team.

Mike Mueller is confident the team will continue to be successful under his son.

“I am sure the team and my son Scott Mueller as their new head coach will continue working hard and com-peting successfully in the always tough GMC Conference,” M. Mueller said.

The team has started their season under the head coaching of Scott Muel-ler. They are looking to have a success-ful season and not only be a good team, but a team with heart.

“This team has quality. My job is to facilitate it and let this team be what it is going to be,” S. Mueller said.

The team believes they will always carry a part of him with them even though he is no longer on the side-lines.

“He always knew what he was talk-

ing about and he helped us get through a lot, he had been coaching us since we were little kids in elementary school,” senior Brandon Candella said.

Mueller misses coaching with his father and hopes to bring as much emotion to the game as his father did.

“It was more than coaching when he [Mike Mueller] and I worked together. The two of us brought such great emo-tion to this game and for that I thank him,” S. Mueller said.

Mike Mueller made sure to make his son a huge part of the basketball program through his years of coaching. Mike Mueller made sure he did every-thing possible to prepare Scott Mueller to take over as head coach.

“He told me long ago he would make sure I understood the game inside and out before I took over for him,” S. Mueller said.

Scott Mueller learned not only the game from his father but learned how to be a father to his players.

“My dad taught me how to be a mentor and a coach to my players. He taught with words and by example,” S. Mueller said.

Mueller hopes to continue his fa-ther’s legacy through hard work, char-acter and determination. He believes his father created the team to be a strong team full of heart and he hopes to continue this tradition.

“You can’t put a measure on this at-tribute that separates the good teams for the really great teams, that’s heart,” Scott Mueller said.

4Lakota West Voice

News December 19, 2008

Abby PhillipsSports Editor

Sam TregliaEditor-in-Chief

Symptoms, prevention, care for influenza

Coach Mueller retires

In the winter months, common vi-ruses and illnesses once again have started spreading across students

and facility at West. Numerous pre-cautions can be taken to help decrease the chances of contracting the flu such as having good hand hygiene and eat-ing a well balanced diet. Doctors also recommend avoiding crowded places because airborne illnesses tend to cir-culate at a higher rate.

Influenza (flu) is a virus that attacks the respiratory system and as a result respiratory tissue becomes inflamed and irritated. The virus is most active in November through April because of the change in weather. Influenza is spread through air contact, so when someone speaks or sneezes the risk of contracting the virus is bigger. The flu is easily treated but can last up to several days. In most cases, ibuprofen can temporarily decrease the severity of the symptoms.

“Students need to watch how much medicine they take and what kind they

take because they tend to over medicate themselves,” school nurse Den Herd-er said.

The flu is not an ill-ness that is fully pre-ventable. Precautions can be taken in order to drastically re-duce chances of students and especial ly staff from contracting the virus. Hand sani-tizer can be used up to ten times to kill bac-teria, and then it is important to use soap and water again.

“ N o t h -ing works better than washing your hands,” Den Herder said. “If there

is a sink with water and soap around, there is no reason to

not wash your hands.”When sneezing, do

not stifle the sneeze with a hand, or a surface that will be in contact with other people. Sneeze

into a sleeve to help decrease the amount of bacteria that is released into the air.

“I have a w o n d e r f u l video to dem-onstrate the proper way to sneeze in the clinic. Anyone is welcome to view it,” Den Herder said.

D e c r e a s i n g physical contact

with others will also help keep bad bac-

teria away. If there is contact, avoid

touching the facial region and mouth because the bacteria can enter the body easily. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some viruses and bacteria can live from 20 minutes up to 2 hours or more on surfaces like cafeteria tables, doorknobs, and desks. The CDC also recommends that students get plenty of sleep and physical activity, drink water, and eat nutritious food to help them stay healthy in the winter and all year. If a student plays a sport, using their own water bottle is highly recom-mended.

“I don’t think athletes realize how much they share their water bottles,” Den Herder said. “It is safest to bring your own water bottle so you don’t pick up any illnesses.”

The organization also reported that nearly 22 million days of school are lost due to illnesses such as the com-mon cold or the flu. If you are sick, or you think you may be getting sick, please stay at home to recover

Voice illustration by Elise Maxfield

5Lakota West Voice

NewsDecember 19, 2008

Elise MaxfieldNews Editor

West Chorale performs at Feast of CarolsChristmas carols filled the Cor-

bett auditorium last weekend as the Cincinnati Conservatory of

Music (CCM) hosted The Feast of Car-ols. The carolers consisted of college level choirs, children choirs, the audi-ence members, and high school choirs, one of which being Lakota West’s own chorale. Each day, audience members heard different high school and children’s choirs while the college choirs per-formed Friday to Sunday.

West Choral was one of the four high school choirs invited to perform at this event.

“Dr. Earl Rivers, head of cho-ral conducting at CCM, chooses choirs from the general Cincin-nati area based on his experi-ences hearing them or on their reputation. In our case, we were chosen based on our reputa-tion,” Chorale director Anthony Nims said.

While the performance began at 5:00 p.m. West chorale was rehearsing and getting ready at 2:30 p.m.

Before the performance the lobby was filled with people, lining up to put their name on the waiting list to get

tickets to the sold out show. West was the fourth group to per-

form and they sung Bogoroditse Devo, Go tell it on the Mountain, and Cloria Patri from Magnificat. The chorale was praised by the Cincinnati Choral director at the end of the show.

“I was very proud of our students’ performance at the Feast of Carols. They rose to the occasion and per-

formed very well under a great deal of pressure. The audience was extremely appreciative, and Dr. Rivers was very

complementary following the perfor-mance,” Nims said.

The college groups that performed that evening were CCM’s Chamber Choir and Chorale, University Men’s and Women’s Choruses, Cincinnati Children’s Choir, and CCM Concert Orchestra. The Cincinnati Children’s Choir, and their satellite choirs, also performed along with West chorale.

Audience mem-bers were able to participate in this event, during the changing of choirs onstage. The audi-ence sang We Three Kings of Orient Are, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, Hark! The Herald Angles Sing and The First Nowell with organ music played by Jonathan Giblin.

The performance culminated when the choirs came on-stage, adding two

choirs each song, till the stage was full and the aisles were crowded with the children singers and then finally the

Concert Orchestra came into the au-ditorium on a rising stage. The final song, with all choirs performing, was O Come, All Ye Faithful and their voic-es could be heard outside two sets of closed doors.

“They [the chorale] were especially thrilled by the finale in which all of the CCM choirs, the CCM orchestra, the Cincinnati Children’s Choir, and our students combined in singing O Come, All Ye Faithful. With nearly 400 sing-ers on stage, a full orchestra, and an organ, it was an overwhelming experi-ence,” Nims said.

The West corale members were en-thusiastic about their performance.

“While I had told them in class that this would be like nothing they’d ever experienced before as a choral singer, it wasn’t until they were actually on stage, signing with all of the talented CCM students, that many of them fully grasped what I had tried to convey. There is something about singing great music with large numbers of talented people that can transcend the mo-ment and create an emotional, almost spiritual, experience like nothing else,” Nims said.

The choirs and concert orchestra were conducted by CCM grad student Elliot Smith.

The West Chorale rehearse their songs before the performance.Vo

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The Niederman family is hold-ing a Christmas display through December 30th on the Nieder-

man family farm in Liberty Township for the holiday season. It’s free and open to the public any night from 5:30 to 10:00.

Everyone is invited to see this de-piction of the Bible through thousands of lights and figurines as characters of each book of the bible starting from when God created the Earth to Jesus’ resurrection. There are excerpts from

the bible describing what is being seen in each nativity with its life-size figu-rines and props. Animals can be seen in the barns and music is heard all throughout the path. It’s meant to be an experience for people of all ages and walks of life.

“We want this to be an experience for everyone to learn of the true mean-ing of Christmas,” said Janet Nieder-man, who helps run the family farm and Christmas display.

The walk-through display includes free cocoa and cookies in the barn that serves as an event holder.

The family has been running the display for eight years and sees themselves as helping the area.

“We feel like were giv-ing a gift to the commu-nity this season,” Nieder-man said.

The family farm is very popular among churches and after school organi-zations and welcomes ev-eryone to share this holi-day season with them.

Niederman family farm decorated with lightsKrista ColemanStaff Reporter

A scene from the walk at Niederman farm.Vo

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Firebird Link is a 30 minute block of time set aside to develop school spirit and school cama-raderie. Its purpose is to help create a tighter bond between all grade levels of students. In order to fulfill its purpose Fire-bird Link Advisor Ashley McNeill believes the only way to generate that relationship is to have peers run the classrooms instead of teachers.

“Students have to pay

attention to teachers during classes,” McNeill said. “By having students as leaders during this time helps create a different dynamic than if teachers were

running it.”

Students relate better with

other students than with their teach-ers. Firebird link forms a more personal

relationship between peers rather than between the students and teachers. Even so, teachers want to be involved with the students and want to know what’s going on, so by letting them see

from a different view they can get a feel for what’s oc-curing around

the school.Firebird link

is designed to be a posi-tive program for students to learn key leadership skills while still hav-ing fun with fellow classmates.

Firebird link creates positivity

- Ashley JeffersVoice graphic by Dylan Geiser

School is not the most exciting

way to spend time in the eyes of the aver-age student. During time spent dreading class and complain-ing about homework, students rarely seem to take advantage of what our school provides for us. Few schools in our area are as exemplary as Lakota.

Every day students walk into an extraordinary building. We have large lockers, intact tile floors, sturdy stairs and an overall clean, safe environment. Inside other schools it is not surprising to find chipped and de-stroyed floors, holes in the stairs and puny, graffiti covered lockers. We are very fortunate to be attending Lakota West.

In addition to West’s interior, the grounds are well kept. We have cut grass and mulched trees and other

plants. The landscaping is maintained very well. Other schools have little to no landscaping; they cannot afford to maintain it. We have a large park-

ing lot that is freshly paved and our sport and practice fields are wonderful in comparison with other schools. We have the funding for upkeep and many extra benefits other schools may not be able to afford.

Most importantly though, our staff of administrators and teachers is out-standing. The staff genuinely cares for the students and their success. They are people whom students can approach in confidence if any problem is at hand. Our teachers are willing to come in before school hours or stay late after the final bell rings to give extra help to struggling students. Teachers are only required to be in the building by 7:05 and are not obligated to stay later than 2:40. Our teachers stay longer than ob-ligated in another way as well. Many of our teachers stay after they are eligible to retire for more than one reason. Some teachers stay in order to make sure an elective is still offered, and oth-ers just because they enjoy teaching at our school every day.

On the topic of electives, this is an-other great privilege we have. At La-kota, we are offered over 100 different

electives. Other districts may only be able to afford two or three electives. Lakota also has a huge number of clubs. School clubs must have a teach-er adviser to volunteer their time. So, once again, our teachers go above and beyond their necessary duties.

For such a large school we have ex-tremely small class sizes. This allows us for more individualized attention. To have small class sizes more teachers need to be hired, and for Lakota this is very expensive. From all of what we have mentioned so far, one can assume we have a wealthy school district. Our district has money because we have so many students in our district. But it is not that the school jacks up the school fees. Actually, compared to other schools, such as the ones we have been comparing Lakota to in every other aspect, we have very low, reasonable tuition prices.

We are not saying that we believe the student body is complaining about our facility or our staff. Instead, we just want to make our fellow students aware of the privileges we take advan-tage of everyday without realizing. We have such an incredible district with marvelous teachers and we would just like to say thank you. Thank you to all the people who make attending such an excellent school possible.

6Lakota West Voice

Opinions December 19, 2008

Almost every high school c l a s s r o o m

is run in a similar manner, where each lesson starts with a raised hand followed by “Will this be on the test?” If the answer is yes, about 20 pencils will scurry and scratch across

the lines of a wide-ruled note-book, but if the answer is no, eight of those could-be bril-liant heads fall to the desk while five others stare off into space, two sit in the back whispering, one doodles in the margins of a hand-out and maybe four students are truly learning something. Instead of teaching for tests, students should be taught to utilize their education in order to benefit themselves and those around them.

A prime example of this problem and potential failure of the education system is the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, implemented in 2001 by President Bush. This act requires ev-ery publicly funded school to test their students in reading and math every year from grades 3 to 8 and at least once from grades 10 to 12. This was to

be in effect by the school year 2005-06. By the school year 2007-08 schools were required to test their students in science at least once between grades 3 and 5; 6 and 9; and 10 and 12.

The results of these tests are used as data to determine the progress of indi-vidual schools. If a school is deemed “failing” there are drastic penalties.

The school may have to fire a considerable amount of its teachers, possibly the entire teaching staff. In a worst-case scenario, the school must close. With consequences like these, teachers are forced to teach specifically to pre-pare students for a test.

In order to truly learn and under-stand a subject, one must retain the information. This means they must be able to store it in their long-term memory and to retrieve it later. If a student can use the content learned in class outside of school, then a teacher has done his or her job. If a student can turn around and help the next

year’s students with that subject, then our educational system is succeeding. When a student goes home and shares what hap-pened in class with his or her parents, then something is right. There is currently a problem with our ed-ucational system, and as long as students are passing tests, no one is going to notice.

Students should not be memorizing

mere facts discovered by other people; they should be learning how to solve problems and discover truths for them-

selves and others in the future. We should not be teaching children

for tests now, we should be teaching them to improve their lives and to make an impact on not only our coun-try but the world, to leave it a better place than when they came into it.

Call for education improvement

Voice illustration by Elise Maxfield

7Lakota West Voice

OpinionsDecember 19, 2008

Austin McCarthyCopy Editor

Suffering patients deserve freedom of choiceThe meaning of

life is highly d e b a t a b l e ;

some believe that meaning lies within the hands of a higher power. Others be-lieve that we serve a purpose while exist-ing on earth but the purpose we live for is based on choices that we make. I have been

told to “live life to the fullest” many times in my life but what happens when a person is incapable of doing so? A terminally ill patient that has been diag-nosed to live for only six short months, while enduring pain on a daily bases cannot be ex-pected to find joy in their lives. When drugs no longer ease the pain, treat-ment progress fails and all hope is lost, physician assisted suicide can end the agony that a patient endures.

In the United States, Oregon and now Washington are the only states that have legalized physician assisted suicide thus far. A small fraction of our nation seems to be somewhat empa-thetic with terminally ill patients that

deal with excruciating fatal diseases. Pain and suffering fully consumes their lives and their souls fully yet peo-ple who do not experience the feeling of approaching death believe they have the right to tell a person that he must keep living because he should. The de-cision to withhold a person’s right to die with dignity is extremely inhumane and selfish. This may seem ironic to say that those who oppose physician as-sisted suicide are selfish because when it comes to suicide in general, society as a whole tends to think that a person who commits the act is selfish.

There is a substantial difference be-

tween physician assisted suicide and suicide. Physician assisted suicide is when a patient has tried to cope with a fatal illness but simply cannot live with the pain of a disease any longer. Sui-cide other than physician assisted sui-cide is when a person has given up on life completely perhaps without trying in the first place. Depression and other mental illnesses play into why a person commits suicide as well.

Something people do not under-stand about physician assisted suicide is that the legal process takes at least a month to complete, and the patient’s past and current mental health is eval-uated. Also, the patient has to request a lethal dosage of medication in front of two witnesses, and then has to wait another 15 days to make another ver-bal request for the prescription. The legal process is extensive for one rea-son particularly, time is needed for the patient to think over the decision they have made.

Another factor that fuels a con-troversial fire over physician assisted

suicide is the idea that any type of sui-cide interferes with a higher power or God’s plans. If this is the case then why do believers of this ideology allow phy-sicians to operate,

treat or revive them if there is a problem that could potentially become or is fatal? That interferes with God’s plans. Or in another case, who are we to put humans to death for heinous crimes they have committed? Some of the same people who believe physician assisted suicide is immoral and unethi-cal believe in the death penalty for cap-ital offenders. Each and every day we do things that way interfere with god’s

ultimate plan.The most common argument

against physician assisted suicide is that the lethal dosage of medication prescribed to a patient may be abused and used to harm another person. Ev-erything is abused and there is no pos-sible prevention anything from being abused. For example, the use of guns is abused every day. Americans are allowed to buy guns even though the government and the sellers both know that there is a chance that the gun will be misused. Others say elderly termi-nally ill patients will use physician as-sisted suicide out of guilt to escape the financial and time consuming burden they place on their families. If the bur-den causes their suffering to increase in the final months of their life then why not let them end their life peace-fully and with dignity?

I am not promoting suicide; I am promoting the right to have freedom of choice when one is already dying only in the case of physician assisted sui-cide. . My life is one of my rights. There is no logical reason that someone should be able to tell me that I have to live, then it gives them authority over my own. My life is my choice and my death should be too.

Uno, dos, no trays:No means to carry lunches ridiculous to students

I am not promoting suicide; I am promoting the right to have freedom of choice when it comes to dying...

‘’

Voice illustration by Sarah Helsinger

Wa l k -i n g i n t o

the cafeteria is an infuriating experience. It has been the subject of stu-dents’ plights often. Many have been pushed to the edge, almost to

the brink of violence, thanks to the maddening perplexities enforced by our cafeteria staff. And, truly, there is no valid reason behind it.

The first noticeable problem is the over-crowding of certain lunch bells. Walking into the cafeteria, one must fight like a barbarian pillaging Rome; everyone is on their own. To many the sight alone is intimidating—some even skip lunch to avoid the stagnate lines, the pushing and pulling of the mob and the struggle to find an open lunch table.

This problem is intensified on Thursdays. The lunch schedules are morphed into a “Firebird Link Day,” which essentially combines four lunch-

es into three. As one can assume, the café becomes even more swamped with students. Tables are desperately flooded with extra chairs, pulled to dif-ferent tables in order to group friends together. Books are stacked precari-ously, sometimes spilling into food, due to the abundance of students.

However, for those who dare to brave the tumultuous throng, the checkout lines are just as dire. The whole situation is confounded by the ignorant use of ID cards. For some rea-son, it is believed that you need an ID card to properly check out in the line. Last year, this was understandable because they had ID scanners that im-proved the efficiency of paying. Those that had their ID received the luxury of a quicker checkout. This year, the scanners are broken, and yet for some reason, we still have ID only lines. In fact, we only have ID only lines, save for one “No ID line”. By the end of the semester, about half the students have lost their ID, so the sole No ID line is extremely overrun by students. Con-sider the poor lunch lady that has to work this line. Does she get paid more than other lunch ladies? It definitely is harder work.

But let’s say you do bring your ID everyday. But, you had to rearrange your wallet the night before, forgetting your ID at home on accident. You don’t realize this, so you proceed to step into an ID-only line. You get all the way to the front, when you discover your ID is missing. The lunch lady then forces you to go and stand in the No ID line for another 15 minutes, leaving you with no time to eat your lunch. Fair? I think not.

And, while searching for your ID, you may have a harder time looking for it because your hands will be full of all your food. That’s right. We no lon-ger are deemed “responsible” enough to carry our food with Styrofoam trays. After we supposedly misused the trays, the cafeteria administration decided that they would simply not give us any. Now students are seen carrying milk cartons, pizzas, fries, pretzels and oth-er foods. This leads to more spills in the cafeteria, and causes more trouble than it prevents.

The most exasperating thing, how-ever, is the food shortages. At certain points in the year, popular foods will merely vanish. Recently, there was a salt scarcity. This left many with bland

French fries among other annoying inconveniences where salt would have spiced the meal up. Also, the ever pop-ular cookie disappeared from the caf-eteria selection for a day or two.

No cafeteria is perfect. But there are so many infuriating aggravations about ours that we deserve some sort of change. We are constantly remind-ed to act like the adults we almost are, and we should be treated as such.

8Lakota West Voice

Opinions December 19, 2008

Alex MancabelliPhoto Editor

De m o -c r a t i c N o m i -

nee, Barack Obama’s vic-tory in the elec-tion sparked a mixture of emo-tions across the nation: the majority re-joiced and cel-ebrated, some

went to bed disappointed and still others were filled with an unneces-sary fear. Since then, wild accusa-tions have spread across America: “Obama’s a socialist,” “Obama’s a communist,” “Obama’s a baby-killer,” “Obama’s the Anti-Christ,” and my personal favorite, “Obama’s going to let the terrorists take over America!” All widespread, all ridiculous and all completely untrue. The truth is that, given the state America is in right now and the amount of work and planning it will take to start the creeping incline back to prosperity, President Elect Barack Obama was the best candidate this election could have offered for ini-tiating the first steps towards bringing America back to her former glory as a major world power.

To begin, Barack Obama is neither a Socialist nor Communist. Social-ism is a system of government where equality is the only option and there is no incentive or even possibility to bet-ter one’s social standing. Communism is a political system in which the gov-ernment takes everything from prop-erty to food to wages and distributes them evenly amongst all of its citizens completely eliminating the lower and upper class-es. Both of these sys-tems are impossible to achieve in America, by one person or by many, due to the mas-sive amounts of resourc-es that would be needed to do so.

As for the “baby killing,” abor-tion was practiced, long before it was ever made legal, by quack doctors with unsanitary, dangerous tools in dirty back alleys and basements. The majority of the women didn’t survive after contracting disease or losing too much blood. Legalizing abortion made it safe and sanitary for the citizens so that even those desperate enough to go

through such a dangerous procedure didn’t have to resort to such measures. Making it illegal again wouldn’t stop abortions for those who are desper-ate and willing enough to find anyone who calls themselves a doctor, it would just continue as it had before. When it comes to rights, there is no just doing away with them. There will always be people who find another way, illegal drugs and black markets being two ex-amples.

No matter how much talk is thrown around about the new leader, the mat-ter remains that America is in des-perate need of change. Sure, every politician with a microphone prom-ises change but empty promises made just to reel in votes does not make a politician a good leader. In the end, what America needs is a leader strong enough to listen to the majority of American voters and suggest changes backed by solid and well thought out plans, then to go a step further and actually make the changes. The plans and changes brought to the table by Obama during the campaign all have the potential to: first of all be done, and second of all to give back the rights and liberties denied by former presidents in an attempt to better the American population.

Barack Obama is a different kind of politician with different ideas needed to put America back on its feet again. If given the chance, Obama has the potential to be one of the best presi-dents America has ever seen. He’s been elected, now all that is needed is for those who say, “he’s a terrorist,” or “he’s going to drag us all down,” or “don’t worry, he’ll be dead in a month,” to open their minds to the future and allow change to happen.

PICK A SIDE:President-electFor necessary changes

Abby FordSurvey Dist. Editor

In honor of the new President-

elect, I move that we, here at Lakota West, institute some new policies. The first thing that needs changing is a “spreading the wealth” policy

concerning grades. The students who score in the top ten percent after ev-ery assignment should not be entitled to keep their high schores. Instead, it should be the teacher’s job to strip these over-privileged students of their points and redistribute them among the students whose scores were not quite as high. Laziness will now be re-warded while hard work and initiative will decrease. Now the lazy students will be able to get into good colleges just as well as those who work hard. A change we can believe in, right here at home.

Socialistic ideology wouldn’t go over too well here at school, in the same way that it will not work out with Barack Hussein Obama as our president.

What is unseen over the years is how many small businesses have ceased to exist. Obama’s tax plan will make it nearly impossible for small businesses to stay in operation. With many reliant on the smallest of earnings margins to remain in business, higher individual rates of taxation could constitute what is often the slight difference between success and failure.

Because many small businesses pay individual taxes on profits, it may seem that the Obama tax plan favors them. What’s too good to be true usu-ally is. The reality; however, is that an

increase in the top tax rate will harm the very firms Obama seeks to elevate. When the top dogs

get taxed m o r e , t h e y hire less p e o p l e .

When less people are hiring, less peo-ple have jobs. America needs business to stay in America; businesses have shown through recent outsourcing that they don’t necessarily need Amer-ica. Such ‘take from the rich to give to the poor’ ideology doesn’t even work in fairy tales; Robin Hood himself is silenced.

Also, Obama considers abortion to not only be ethical, but to be part of general health care. Why should some-one be forced to pay taxes towards such a controversial topic? Obama himself classified abortion as a mistake. I sure do not want to be responsible for pay-ing for the murder of another person’s ‘mistake’.

As far as U.S. involvement in the Middle East, Obama is betting on the Iraqi government to be stable before the time troops are to pull out. How can we trust a terrorist organization to just sit around twiddling their thumbs after our armed forces are out of the country?

There is a big difference in running a campaign and running a country. Obama has already begun to go back on some of the policies he supported during his campaign. Change is some-thing to believe in; however, Obama himself, is not believable. What change Obama promised, and what change Obama delivers may be drastically dif-ferent. Many have questioned Obama’s decision to nominate political ‘has-beens’ as members of his cabinet when his key word has always been ‘change’. With the cabinet resembling the for-mer Clinton administration, I’m not sure of what ‘change’ Obama intends.

Obama has repeatedly been com-pared to former President Abraham Lincoln. Obama apparently wants to model himself after Lincoln as a uni-fying national figure—a repairer of the breach. Ironically, had Lincoln been alive this November, I doubt Lin-coln would have agreed with many of Obama’s policies. Don’t take my word for it; take it from honest Abe himself.

“You cannot help the poor by de-stroying the rich. You cannot strength-en the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of a man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initia-tive and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves”- Abraham Lincoln.

Don’t buy free change

Voice photos contributed by Google Images

9Lakota West Voice

FeaturesDecember 19, 2008


Student teachers come to West to learn

Tori Grinberg is also completing her fourth and final year at Miami Univer-sity while student teaching Intermedi-ate Composition and British Litera-ture to seniors. G r i n -berg is i n t e r -ested in t e a c h -i n g English at a high school level upon graduating in the spring of 2009.

“I have always wanted to teach ever since I was a little girl,” Grinberg said. “I used to pretend that I was a teacher and my little sister and her dolls where my students.”

Grinberg grew up in Cleveland, but then moved down south to attend Mi-ami University. She participated in a tutoring program called High School Reading Buddies in order to gain knowledge for her future in teaching.

“My high school didn’t offer a teach-ing program so I volunteered instead,” Grinberg said.

Grinberg has also devoted her time to Adopt a School, a program at Miami University that helps aid local schools

in Oxford and offer beneficial educa-tion programs.

“This will be my fourth year vol-unteering for this program,”Grinberg

said. “Now, I do more executive ad-ministrative work.”

Megan Horncastle, head of the English department has been Grinberg’s cooperating teacher thoughout her experience at West. Grinberg decided to stu-dent teach British literature and Intermediate Composition be-cause both subjects closely relate to what she would like to do in the future.

“Mrs. Horncastle is the best teacher I’ve ever known,” Grin-berg said. “She is very knowl-edgeable and extremely intelli-gent. I could not have had a better teacher to learn from.”

On Grinberg’s first day teach-

ing at West she felt comfortable because she observed Marci Blamer’s teaching techniques last year for two weeks and had an idea of what to expect. Also, she

thoroughly prepared for what she would be teaching over the summer.

“I took home the E n g l i s h

book I would be teach-ing with and read all its

contents over and over again just to grasp everything,” Grinberg said.

After student teaching at West, Grinberg feels very confident and ready to start her career as a teacher. She

plans to stick to t e a c h -ing for a while however she is l e a v i n g her op-t i o n s open for her fu-ture in e d u c a -tion.

“ I am con-f i d e n t e n o u g h to hope-

fully start teaching next year,” Grinberg said. “Nothing is for cer-tain yet where I will be teaching, but I do know that I definitely want to stay in Ohio.”

Richard Fritz, also known as Mr. Fritz is in his final year of schooling at Miami University. Fritz taught two periods of Govern-ment and two pe-riods of Econom-ics to juniors and senior with Diann Adams as his co-operating teacher. His student teach-ing experience was cut two weeks short because of academ-ic plans but he got the opportunity to observe classrooms and utilize differ-ent methods of teaching.

“Mrs. Adams ac-cepted me with open arms,” Fritz said. “I was nervous going into teaching but now I feel confident standing in front of and teaching a class of my own.”

Fritz did not always know he want-ed to be a teacher; in fact the deci-

sion came in his senior year of high school. After his freshman year at NKU, Fritz decided to enlist in the United States Army after a few

set backs during his college career.“At that point in my life, I needed

discipline and I needed to grow up quickly,” Fritz said.

Fritz was deployed and stationed in coun-tries such as Germany, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo. He also was on active duty in Kansas and Georgia while in the United States.

“I was an infantry squad leader and a drill Sergeant,” Fritz said.

Fritz does not plan on taking an aggres-sive and disciplinary

approach to teaching in his future al-though he does have high expectations

for students that cross his path.

“I live by s t a n d a r d s that I set, and I will

expect my classes to live by, abide and meet the same standards,” Fritz said.

Although Fritz aspires to teach high school seniors, he hopes to work his way up while teaching and land a spot in school administration. His wife also works as a middle school teacher for Centerville’s school district.

“My wife has influenced my ways of teaching,” Fritz said “We always help each other grade papers and come up with academic instruction plans.”

Fritz’s last day in the building was yesterday, December 18 and he is scheduled to graduate from Miami to-day.

Mr. Fritz is a student teacher for Mrs. Adams.

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Teachers are people who choose to devote a portion of their lives to educating in order to benefit the future generations of our coun-try. Each day, teachers share things that they have learned and assist students in expanding their own knowledge. However, the path to becoming a teacher is not easy and it requires a substantial amount of time. Student teaching is one of the final steps that

is to be accomplished before receiving a teaching license. For the past nine weeks of school, Richard Fritz and Tori Grinberg have been student teaching. While the journey may have been tough at times, teaching at West is an experience they will never forget.

Richard Fritz: From military man to high school teacher

Tori Grinberg: From ambitious volunteer to devoted teacher

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Ms. Grinberg is a student teacher for Mrs. Horncastle.

I live by the standards that I set.‘ ’-Student teacher Richard Fritz

My high school didnt have a teaching program so I volunteered instead.

‘’-Student teacher Tori Grinberg

10Lakota West Voice

Features December 19, 2008

Justin SharpBusiness Manager

Two celebrations for one unique family

Katie ShephardStaff Reporter

Now that the holiday season is here, there is one question that festers in our brains:

what gift should I get for my boy-friend, girlfriend, best friend or family member? You could always get them the very bland and boring gift card or, you could get them something that they could actually use and enjoy.

If you’re a girl, shopping for your boyfriend or guy friend can be a diffi-cult task. You’re not a boy, so how are you supposed to know exactly what they would want?

“It’s really hard for me to pick out gifts for guys,” sophomore Katie Wick-emeyer said. “I never know what they would want.”

In order to find a great present for your guy without actually asking him, ‘what do you want?’ do some research. Find out who his favorite sports teams and players are, then go out and get a jersey, sweatshirt or hat. If he’s not a ‘sports guy’ then find out what else he’s into. If he likes music, buy him a poster or T-shirt of his favorite band. If all else fails and you cannot for the life of you find anything he will like, settle for cologne.

“I think buying for a girl is easy if you know her well enough,” junior

Vincent Bartos said. If you’re a boy, and you are buying

for a girl, your job isn’t hard at all. If the girl you’re shopping for is just a friend and her favorite thing to do is watch movies, stop by a movie store and get her one with some candy. If you’re shopping for a girlfriend though, stop at the mall and get her some jewelry; that always works. If you can’t afford going to expensive places in the mall, go to a department store. They have great jewelry for a much lower price.

“I love shopping for my friends,” Wickemeyer said. “It’s so much fun and it proves how well you know them.”

The easiest job of all: coming up with a gift to get your friends. Try get-ting them a present that’s simple but has meaning. If you have an inside joke that you say whenever you’re around each other, give them a gift that represents that. Or, if you met on the kindergarten bus, buy them some-thing fun like a school bus keychain. Department stores are probably the best place to find cheap but cute pres-ents.

Although going out and buying a gift is easier, homemade gifts are usually a hit. Go to a craft store and get materials to make fun things like scrapbooks. They are really outside the box. Fill out the pages with fun

pictures and little memoirs of your time with that person. A little tip for all the guys out there: your girl will love it if you give her something you made yourself. It shows you care and you don’t mind spending time on her.

Giving gifts to family is a chance to get creative. Parents gush at home-made gifts and anything you have spent time on, so the scrapbook idea would work for them too. Siblings on the other hand would probably prefer something bought. You probably know your sibling better than anyone, so buy him or her something that you know they will like. A great advantage that comes with buying for siblings is the option of borrowing the present later on. A great idea for a brother or sis-ter is a movie that you both love. That way, you will both get use out of it. If buying for a younger sister, a Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana poster would probably go over well. A broth-er would go crazy for a new game for his Xbox or a CD and if you’re giving to an older sister, perfume or makeup is the way to go.

Remember, giving gifts can be easy if you know the person you are giving to well enough.

Voice graphic by Dylan Geiser

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Leana Massimini celebrates Hannukah by lighting her menorah.

Leana Massimini, a junior at West, gets the best of both worlds when it comes to celebrating the

holidays. She celebrates both Hannu-kah and Christmas. Her dad was Pres-byterian, but converted to Ju-daism when he married her mother. When she was little, her family would travel down to New Orleans and celebrate Christmas with her grandpar-ents on her dad’s side.

“I think I always knew that I wasn’t really celebrating the real meaning of Christmas, but rather that my Hannukah presents from my Christian family were under the Christ-mas tree,” Massimini said.

After her grandparents died, Massimini and her fam-ily rarely visit New Orleans to celebrate Christmas with her extended family. With her dad’s work schedule and her brothers currently living in other states it is hard to coor-dinate going down to New Orleans to visit her family.

She does not view it as “celebrating both holidays,” but that they bring her family and her together, and that they just get to spend time with each other.

“Holidays to me aren’t about the

physical gifts that you receive, but I find it as a gift to be able to see my family that lives on the opposite side of the U.S. as often as I can,” Massimini said.

She feels that Hannukah is a more unique holiday then Christmas. She thinks this because most people don’t celebrate it, and she enjoys having the opportunity to do something different.

“And to quote Adam Sandler, ‘One day of presents? We get eight crazy nights,’” Massimi-ni said.

Massimini and her family also have many traditions relating the holiday of Hannukah. They light the menorah every night, and when she and her brothers were little they would fight over who got to light the menorah nightly.

“On one night of Han-nukah, we drive up to Co-

lumbus and have pizza with my mom’s side of the family. I have no idea why we do it, but we’ve been doing it for years,” Massimini said.

When she was younger she felt jeal-ous over kids who celebrated Christ-

mas, because they had Santa and elves, so her parents created a fictional char-acter to make up for the void.

“When I was little, my parents made up Sam the Hannukah Man and his Hannukah Bears,” Massimini said.

Also, her mom made her family bags, which were kind of like stockings but were shaped like dreidels, and the Hannukah Bears would put dreidels and gelt (chocolate coins) in them.

“I don’t know if anyone besides Jewish people know this, but there is absolutely nothing to do on Christmas. My family always goes to see a movie or two or three, then we go out to eat,” Massimini said.

Massimini gets to celebrate Christ-mas and Hannukah. Her family has many special traditions that are re-kindled every year. With some of their traditions being goofy, and some be-ing serious and sacred, the Massimini family really knows how to celebrate the holidays.

Holiday shopping guide for dummies

11Lakota West Voice

FeaturesDecember 19, 2008

Shannon BreenStaff Reporter

You have probably been thinking about what fun things you are going to do during the upcom-

ing holiday season. From personal ex-periences, I know the problems or thoughts that pop up into your head while planning to do something different and memorable. Between, “It costs way too much” or “it is too far away”, there is always a spe-cific reason not to do it in the long run. After reading a few of these ideas, you will not even think about any of these ex-cuses. Out of all the things to do in Ohio, these are just a few ideas of ways to get out and have a blast.

When you think of the Beach Water Park, surely you think of a place to lie out and tan or to go on the adventur-ous water rides. What you probably

did not know is that it is turned into the North Pole during the holidays as well. Holiday Fest at the Beach Wa-

ter Park opened Novem- ber 28.

Tickets are only $5.00 per student, se-niors (50+) are only $6.95 and all kids are free (48” and under) Go and en-joy ice skating on the huge wave pool, race your friends on the water slides

on sleds, go on a carriage ride, and sample kettle corn for free and drink hot chocolate at a very low price which won’t include you digging through your piggy bank.

If you are the type of person who is more into the “scenic beauty,” more than the “active activities,” The Festival of Lights located at the Cincinnati Zoo

is just for you. This event opened Friday November 28 from

5-9 pm and is closed De-cember 24 and 25. Gaze at all of the blinking, flashing, colorful lights with all of your friends to get yourself into the hol-iday cheer. The animals

that can bare the cold weather are also out so be-

sides for looking at the lights, go and take a peak at all the differ-

ent types of animals as well. So spend a night or two, walking around the zoo looking at all of the magnificent lights and creatures.

Last but certainly not least, is a free

event at Fountain Square, in down-town Cincinnati. This event is called, Light up the Square. Ice skating and hot chocolate will get you into the holi-day spirit with your family and friends. Not only is there an ice-skating rink, but there is also a huge Christmas tree lit up at night time to sit around. Mix things up a little and take a day and ex-perience downtown Cincinnati, differ-ent than what it would be during the summer time.

Don’t be stuck inside all holiday season thinking of what you could have done. Don’t hold regrets. Get out of the house and bring along family, friends, boyfriends or girlfriends, and enjoy some holiday fun, with memo-ries that you will remember for years to come!

Voice illustration by Christine BrewerVoice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

12 Lakota West Voice 13CenterspreadDecember 19, 2008

Alex RiceStaff Reporter

Erica ZaccagniniFeatures Editor

Christine BrewerFeatures Editor


Elise MaxfieldNews Editor

“Probably just to lose some weight.”

-Mr. Hamilton

“To get in better shape and be a better father and husband.” -Mr. Card

“To regenerate a full head of hair. I’m hoping it’ll look like a 17-year-old girls’ hair with a squishy on top.” -Mr.Shaffer

“To start coming to school on time.”

-Senior Yonny Beyene

“To get my cholesterol down.”

-Mr. Jackson

“To volunteer more.”

-Senior Corinne Barnes

“I want to work harder in school.”

-Junior Brian Abrams

“To get a passing grade in government.”

- Junior Andrea Glazer

Every year, we go out on December 31 with our friends and family to celebrate

the past year we have all spent together. We nostalgicly reflect on old memo-

ries and laugh at old jokes. But not only is New Year’s a time to look at the

past; it’s a time to look forward to the year ahead. We think about how we’re going to

make ourselves better people by setting goals that we like to call New Year’s resolu-

tions. So when the clock strikes midnight this year, are you going to know what your

resolutions are?

“My New Year’s resolution is...”

The song they play when

the ball drops is called “Auld Lang Syne” which is Scot-

tish for “good old days.”

New Years is the oldest

recorded holiday, dating all the way back to ancient

Babylon.

New Years

is the only holiday that is celebrated by every country in the

world

In some countries people

go around throwing old dishes at the houses of family and friends, the more dishes in front of your house, the more

friends you have.

Because of their circular shape,

donuts are thought to represent another year “com-pleting the cycle”. The Dutch believe that if you eat donuts on New Years day, you will

have good luck.

Top Ten new Year’sresoluTions

10Be more organized

8and drinkingQuit smoking

7Get a job

9Always be on time

6Be more honest 5Save money

4Get better grades 3Quit procrastinating

2Volunteer more 1Lose weight

Happy New Year!Voice graphics by Dylan Geiser

Voice headline graphic by Dylan Geiser

1I will stop procrastinating when it comes to schoolwork

and studying for quizzes.

Why you failed: This explanation is simple. World of War Craft, Facebook,

Myspace and your iPod have taken over your life. Photo comments and bumper stick-

ers are to blame for a large majority of the procrastination that occurs at West and

the average student will forget about quiz-zes and small homework assignments.

2I will stop speeding, especially in the school zone outside of West.

Why you failed: You want to beat the buses before they all leave

at the same time and cause a ten minute wait at the railroad track.

3I will get a gym membership with my friends and lose weight!

Why you failed: Gym memberships are expensive and you or your friend can not afford one. So instead, you run on the

school’s track then hit up Panera after-wards. Those chocolate chip cookies from

the cafeteria are not helping either.

4I will stop drinking soda on a daily basis.

Why you failed: The vending machines are stocked weekly at West, and that is just setting you up for fail-ure. Whether you go upstairs for class

or not you know where those machines are when you need a sugar fix.

5I will not skip any part of school, including 1st and 7th period.

Why you failed: It is so easy to skip or leave school; therefore you are doomed from the start. Even though you risk get-ting a Friday school, temptation is always

there considering the circumstances.

6I will not abuse il-legal substance such as alcohol or drugs.

Why you failed: You have no will power or morality, end of story.

7I will pass all of my classes this year.

Why you failed: You started out motivated but then things may have gotten hectic in your life.

For example your Facebook time expanded, you found yourself searching random things on Google when you should have been doing your Chemistry

homework and your lab partner never comes to school anymore, so you can’t copy his/her work.

8I will not lie to my parents any-more about my whereabouts on Friday or Saturday nights.

Why you failed: You already know where your parents will let you

go and where they will not, so why would you ask when you know the an-

swer; it’s so much easier to lie.

9I will not text when I am driv-ing, or at inappropriate times,

such as when in class.

Why you failed: There is no way that you could possibly wait till you get home to make plans to do the same exact thing

you did last weekend. It’s just urgent.

10I will save my money in-stead of spending it on useless material items.

Why you failed: Money is frivo-lous and it just so happens it burnt a huge hole in your pocket. New tech-

nology is released nearly every month and it taunts you and your growing bank account causing you to give in

at the drop of a dime (literally).

Many Euro-

pean countries leave out their house shoes on

New Years Eve. The idea is that a saint (it varies from country to country) leaves

candy and small toys for the children.

Voice photos by Alex Mancabelli, Christine Brewer and Jaymee Heineke

Since November 10, both the East and West gymnastics teams have been practicing together

and prepar-ing for their upcoming s e a s o n . Their com-p e t i t i v e season will began on D e c e m -ber 13 and will run t h r o u g h March 7.

West ran into issues finding qualified people willing to commit themselves to the timely obligation of head coach. To fix this problem, Mardi and Margi Sam-mons, who have been coaches at East for three years, stepped up to become the coaches of both the East and West

teams. “They are still considered two com-

pletely separate teams when we go to competition. We practice together two times a week and separately two times,” Margi Sammons said.

West’s team has grown from having about four members last year to hav-ing nine at the beginning of this sea-

son. The coaches are excited about their chance to coach West’s girls and are focused on reviving the

team.“We are rebuilding the team from

having around four members last year to being able to compete as a team again,” Mar-gi Sammons said.

They hope that their commitment to rebuilding the team will pay off in the end. Their expectations for the upcoming year are high.

“Our expectations this year are to place in the top five at Districts

and hope-fully have the team or some individu-als qualify for States,” M a r g i Sammons said.

The La-kota West D a n c e

Team entered their season with a boom, shake, drop. With no seniors and two new coaches the dance team has started working on their new dances for this year.

“I love having a young team. It means I have a few years to work with the dancers,” Dance Team coach Tara Dilley said.

Due to last year’s senior class grad-uating the dance team lost many of its members and took on more freshmen and sophomores.

“We don’t have any seniors but we’re working really hard and we’re doing really well,” Dance Captain Maddie VanBensho-ten said.

Some of the songs that the team is working on include: “Breaking Dishes” by Rihanna, “Boom, Shake, Drop” by Pitbull featuring DJ LAZ, “Walk this way” by Aerosmith featuring RUN DMC and more.

“My personal favorite dance is the 80’s hip-hop dance that we do just because its so fun and crazy,” VanBenshoten said.

The styles the girls are working on this year are: jazz, hip-hop and pom (a style consist-ing of sharp-

er dance moves).

The team p r a c t i c e s on Mon-days and Wednes-days from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and

dance at all of the West

boys basketball

games on the sidelines and at half time. Their first perfor-

mance is on December 7. Along with the bas-

ketball games, the team danced at

one of the f o o t -

b a l l pre-games this year.

“We’re trying to get more football games for next year,” Dil-ley said.

Normally, the team learns five songs plus their traditional Christmas kick line, but this year

they are going to be performing more. The girls on the team are also going to choreograph routines for two songs.

“The dancers are going to come up with a dance rap and the choreogra-phy would be made up by us,” Van-Benshoten said.

The dance team will not be attend-ing competition this year.

“It just depends on what the danc-ers want to do. We have a vote on

it [going to competition or not] each year,

and what ever majority

is that’s what we go with.”

V a n B e n s h o t e n said. To fund their

uniforms, choreogra-phy and their shoes’ the

girls participate in a few fundraisers. These fund-

raisers include: working at the pro-shop at the Bengal’s

games, holding a dance clinic in January and selling Chocizzias

(chocolate pizza) at the craft show.Try outs for next year’s dance team

will be held at the end of the year.

Lakota West dance team practicing

14Lakota West Voice

Sports December 19, 2008

Lakota

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Voice Photos by Erica Zaccagnini

Lakota West dance team kicks it upJessica DukesAds Manager

Erica ZaccagniniFeatures Editor

Voice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

Mallory Brim performs bar routine

Stephanie Powers performs split leap on beam

Voice photos by Alex Mancabelli

The men’s varsity basketball team started their season the week of November 10 with tryouts. The

team had their first game Tuesday, December 9 where they hosted Bell-brook High at 7:30p.m and won.

This sea-son there will be a new, yet not so new face, leading the F i r e b i r d s . Coach Scott M u e l l e r , who previ-ously had been the ju-nior varsity head coach, will lead the F i r e b i r d s this season as varsity head coach after Mike Mueller an-nounced his retirement on November 4.

Last season, the Firebirds finished with an 11-9 record. They had made it to the State tournament and lost in the second round in overtime, 44-42 against Edgewood. The team hopes to have a better season this year with their young, fast-paced team.

“ [ T h e r e won’t be] a whole lot dif-ferent this year,” head men’s basket-ball coach and math teacher at Plains Ju-nior High Scott Mueller said. “From a struc-tural stand-point, it [the program] is almost identical. Primarily, the differ-ence will be on the court. I’m going to try a few things that I don’t think my dad would have tried.”

In order for the team to play better this year, Gerry Weisgerber, Athletic Director and Assistant Principal, be-lieves the team will follow what’s been done in the past with a few variations.

“There won’t be a dramatic change in style,” Weisgerber said. “They’ll play hard and may try to get the ball up and down the court more. They’re athletic

this year.”This season the Firebirds are re-

turning most of last years team mem-bers, including captains: seniors Brandon Candella and Brennan Wild-er and juniors Jordan Hicks and Obi Nwankwo.

“I think this should be one of our best teams,” Hicks said. “We have a lot of talent. We only have two seniors [this year] so we’re a young team. We

have a lot of good chemistry so we should be pretty good.”

The league has gotten tough-er and tougher over the years with teams getting faster and stronger.

“The GMC [Greater Miami Conference] is littered with Di-vision I athletes,” Wilder said.

Some big competitors for the Firebirds will be Princeton and Middletown.

“Preseason polls have Princ-eton either number one or two in the state. Middletown will probably be preseason top six in the state,” Weisgerber said. “So right away you look at those two as the top favorites in the league.”

As a player you like to play in big games and that’s no different for the team captains.

“[I’m looking forward to] Princ-eton, Middletown and East, especially since we only play (East) once this year,” Candella said.

The team is expected to do about the same this year as last year but

some of the players have higher ex-pectations.

“ [ W e ’ l l be] at least second in the GMC,” N w a n k w o said. “I’m (going) to try to be a realist and say at least final four

[in the state tournament].”However, the goal for Coach Muel-

ler this year is to just make this year special and memorable for both se-niors, Wilder and Candella.

“I want them to feel proud of them-selves when they leave here,” Mueller said.

The team is looking good this year and all the school can really ask for is to have a good season and preferably a good turn out at the games to root our Firebirds on to victory.

After last year’s State Champi-onship run, the women’s var-sity basketball team is looking

forward to a successful 08-09 season. With head coach Andy Fish-man entering his 12th season of coaching at West, and the strong core of the varsity team return-ing, hopes for this year’s team are high.

“My expectations are for the girls to work harder than they thought humanly possible prior, to see evidence of improvement, to hold above a 3.0 GPA and to win every game,” coach Andy Fishman said.

After a heartbreaking final-second loss in the state finals last year, the varsity team gradu-ated eight talented seniors. Now, the team is left with big shoes to fill, and a number of new players have been added to the roster.

“We have to do more teaching in practice, and we need to make fewer assumptions as to what the girls know, due to the fact that not as many girls have played with us [be-fore],” Fishman said.

The team members also have to get used to a new team. Many of the members have never played together before, but they believe that they can

bond together and learn to play with each other in the end.

“Adjusting to playing with them will be hard, but we’re all close friends, and we all want the same thing, which is to win,” senior Tessa Elkins said.

There are many opportunities for players to step up this year due to the loss of so many seniors, and Coach Fishman is looking for girls of any grade to step up as leaders for the team.

“There are many opportunities for new leaders to emerge, as well as girls

who had l e s s e r r o l e s to step up and become m o r e g o - t o p l a y -e r s , ” F i s h -m a n said.

With t h e i r success-ful sea-son last y e a r , m o s t p e o p l e

would view West as having a big target on their back this year. But Fishman doesn’t see anymore pressure being put on his team than in previous years.

“We put the same expectations on the girls each year, so there’s no more pressure on this year’s team than there was on last year’s team,” Fish-man said.

Key returning players such include seniors Tessa Elkins, Brittany Har-riel and Alexis Rogers. All three have signed with Division I schools to play basketball at the college level next year. Another impact player is Brigit Reder, who is returning to the basket-ball court for her senior year.

“We are recognized as a great pro-gram not because of how many games we win, it’s how are girls are prepared to be successful and play at the next level,” Fishman said.

The West varsity team kicked off their season on December 2 when the Lady Firebirds took on St. Ursula, winning with a score of 53-26. On December 6 they pulled off a 62-27 victory over Hamilton. December 13 they played mason and won with a score of 66-46.

With promising newcomers and a veteran coach, the West women’s varsity basketball team is setting their goals high for this season.

15Lakota West Voice

SportsDecember 19, 2008

Staff ReporterAshley Jeffers

Staff ReporterJaymee Heineke

Lakota

West d

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Voice photos by Ashley Jeffers

Basketball team before game against Bellbrook

Jordan Hicks during lay-up


Alexis Rogers shoots lay-up

Tessa Elkins prepares to shoot

Voice photos contributed

NFC EastExperts called this division the best

division in football coming into the season, and they were almost right; each team has a winning record. The Giants (11-2) have proven that their Super Bowl win over the highly favored New England Patriots was not a fluke. Not only do they have the best record in the NFC, they have already secured their division. The odd thing is, their losses have come against the Browns (4-9) and the Eagles (7-5-1), neither of whom are considered elite teams. Their strong rushing attack combined with an excellent pass rush has led them to the forefront of the NFC. The only concern is that they may become distracted by the legal investigation surrounding wide receiver Plaxico Burress. The Cowboys (8-5) managed to survive a spell without quarterback Tony Romo, and are in the hunt for the Wildcard. After defensive let downs and offensive woes, Romo is back and ready to lead the team to a turnaround. The Eagles will give them some competi-tion. After two strong wins in a row ver-sus the A r i z o n a Cardinals and the New York G i a n t s , the Eagles look to culminate their season with a Wildcard spot. Their success may rest on the shoul-ders of their versatile running back Brian Westbrook. The Redskins (7-6), too, have a winning record. Quietly, they have achieved one of the stron-gest defenses and running games, but are all but out of the playoff race.

NFC NorthThe NFC North is one of the most

unpredictable divisions in football. During the preseason, many picked the Minnesota Vikings (8-5) as their Super Bowl favorites; however, af-ter several disappointing losses, they have not lived up to potential. With running back Adrian Peterson having another year under his belt to mature, and quarterback Tavaris Jackson set-

tling into the system, the Vikings hoped to make a Super Bowl run. Now, they are on their third quarterback of the season, and they are hoping that they can simply make the playoffs. The Chicago Bears (7-6) hope to give them a run for their money, be-ing only one game back in the division title race. Quarterback Kyle Orton has replaced the former quarterback, Rex Grossman, giving the Bears their first valid passing threat in years. The once formidable Bears’ defense is going to have to step up their game, though, if they want a chance at the playoffs. The Packers (5-8) have flashed bril-liance at points and ineptitude at oth-er times. Several injuries to the Pack-ers’ defense have left them vulnerable to exploitation. Regardless of how poor Green Bay’s play has been, the Detroit Lions (0-13) have been worse. Like the Vikings, the Lions are on their third quarterback. Unlike the Vikings’ quarterback, Daunte Culpepper, came back from retirement to play. In addi-tion teams score an average of nearly

32 points per game against them. The Lions have a legitimate chance to go winless this season, and most Lions fans are al-ready looking forward to the first draft pick of the

’09 season.

NFC SouthThe NFC South is the best division

in football. The Carolina Panthers (10-3) lead the division, and with a signifi-cant win over the division rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-4), they have made a statement. Jake Delhomme has been superb after returning from his elbow surgery. Not only is their pass-ing game solid, their rushing attack is ranked fourth in the league, and their dual threat of running backs has con-founded defenses across the NFL. All of this, coupled with the fourth rank rushing defense, has led Carolina to hold the second best record in the NFC. The Buccaneers have looked ef-ficient this year, winning with defense rather than flamboyant offensive an-

tics. After an embar-rassing loss to Carolina, though, the Bucs are looking to clinch a Wildcard spot. They have been plagued by in-juries this year, but should be able to coast into the p l a y o f f s . The Atlanta Falcons (8-5) are also working for a Wildcard spot. Rookie quarterback Matt Ryan is managing the passing game; wide r e c e i v e r Roddy White is making catches in the second-ary and run-ning back Michael Turner the second leading rusher in the NFL. A playoff seed would be a great step for first year head coach Mike Smith to move on past the Michael Vick era. The final team in the division, the New Orleans Saints (7-6), is still above .500, but doesn’t look to be in playoff contention. Their season has been characterized by last minute losses and the inability to win short yardage situations. Quarterback Drew Brees has had individual success, and is on track to break the single season passing yardage record. However, this must translate into team success; else they will not have a chance to play in January.

NFC WestThe NFC West, sim-

ply stated, is pathetic. The Arizona Cardinals (8-5), the division win-ner, has consistently been a laughing stock of the NFL, under succeed-ing annually. However, the revival of quarter-back Kurt Warner has led them to their first division title in decades. The outstanding play of wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin has led the Car-dinals to the second best passing offense in the league. The San Francisco 49ers (5-8), the second ranked team

in the division, are pitiful. The quar-terback play has not been noteworthy, running back Frank Gore has under-achieved and the wide receivers are of minimal significance. The only dia-

mond in the rough is line backer Pat-rick Willis, who is second in the league with 117 tack-les. The other two teams in the division, the Seattle Seahawks (2-11) and the St. Louis Rams (2-11), should be ridiculed. Head coach Mike Hol-mgren of the S e a h a w k s

announced his retirement before the season, and this had a terrible effect on the morale of his players. Injury woes have troubled the team, and the 2005 NFC Champions have been for-gotten by NFL headlines. The Rams, too, have failed to impress. Injuries are not to blame as much as poor play is. Running back Steven Jackson held out for a contract in the preseason, missing most of training camp, and this obviously has affected his play. Both teams need to start recruiting for next season if they want to have an impact.

*Story statistics accurate as of 12/10/08

16Lakota West Voice


Copy EditorAustin McCarthy

Voice graphics by Dylan GeiserVoice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

The average West student has probably been ice-skating a few times over the course of the last

13 years; perhaps going once or twice a year. But for senior Katherine Roach, it’s a different story—ice-skating is her life, and has been since she was four years old.

“I got into skating at a really young age because my baby sister was a skat-er,” Roach said. “I went to see one of her shows and it was like love at first sight.”

Although her true passion is figure skating, Roach tried a variety of different sports before giving the sport all of her time. She was on a swim team for four years, ran track for two years, played soccer for five years, and was a gym-nast for two years. In eighth grade how-ever, Roach quit all other athlet-ics to focus solely on ice-skating. Roach’s mother, Pat Taylor-Roach, has sup-ported Roach throughout all of her skating career.

“It [skating] is crazy and awesome all at the same time,” P. Roach said. “The ups and downs, successes and failures; but when she gets that spin and nails that jump it is truly an inspi-ration for me.”

Roach skates year-round, practic-ing six to seven times a week. She has been an individual skater for most of her life, but recently decided to join a synchronized ice-skating team, The Oxford Skating Club Intermediate Team.

“It’s amazing how different they are, but I love both sports,” Roach said.

Because she is on both a team and is a solo skater, the level of commit-ment Roach donates to the sport is remarkable. On an average Tuesday for instance, she isn’t finished with her ice-skating practices until 9 p.m. Af-ter getting out of school at 1:30 p.m., Roach is at the rink by 2:30 p.m., skates until 5:30 p.m., and then goes to practice at Miami University from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“Balancing school, skating, etc. is utterly impossible,” Roach said. “I always joke that I man-age to fit it all in because I simply don’t sleep. Sadly, it’s kind of true.”

Her parents and friends agree that most of her life is consumed by skating. Although it can be difficult, Roach’s mom agrees it is worth it.

“I don’t mind the amount of time it takes but we had to prioritize,” P. Roach said. “Sometimes it is hard to fit everything in and that can be stressful; but we do what we can to keep a bal-ance.”

Not every skating practice is on the ice. Conditioning is a large part of skating practice. Roach runs t h r e e miles a week,

takes a weekly Pilates class, and lifts weights. She also works on her flexibility almost every day, if not twice a day.

“Stretching is so important for us to minimize the chance of injury,” Roach said.

Before figure skaters are able to decide what c o m p e t i t i o n s they are going to attend, they must first dis-cover their abil-

ity level. This is determined for Roach by her participation in “test sessions.” Test sessions are designated on spe-cific days of the year, and on those days, three official judges come and watch each skater perform all of the skills for their level. If Roach performs at her level satisfactorily, she is able to compete at that level. Roach’s mother enjoys the entire experience.

“My favorite thing is watching a completed program, knowing how many hours were dedicated to getting it to that point,” P. Roach said.

There are eight skill levels; the highest-level skaters are the ones seen competing at the Olympic level. Roach believes her team has a chance to take home a first-rate award this year.

“My synchronized skating team has a large chance of competing in nation-al’s this year,” Roach said.

Within each level, there are three genres of skating. The first genre is Moves in the Field—footwork and fancy turns. Dance is the second genre, and it consists of ballroom dancing on ice. The third genre is Freestyle, which is the most common. Freestyle con-tains all of the tricks, jumps, and spins most universally seen.

“Currently I have passed my Senior

Moves in the Field, my Senior Dance, and my Junior Freestyle,” Roach said.

Skaters’ often times focus on per-fecting their “tricks” when working on a routine. “Tricks” are giving particular point val-ues, and af-ter skaters complete a trick, they are given the point value of it and the judges then add or subtract points depending on how well the skat-er performed it. Most frequently, skaters use ten to eleven “tricks” in one routine, and the female with the highest amount of points wins.

“[My favorite trick is the] double flip. It’s a jump, where you get a lot of speed, and launch yourself into the air,” Roach said. “You spin twice, so in essence completing a ‘720 degree’ turn, then land on one foot.”

When at practice, Roach and her fellow team members are allowed to wear anything they like, with the only guideline being their clothes must be form-fitting and tight while still allow-ing range of motion. For competitions however, all skaters are required to wear an outfit that is considered fan-cy; something that matches their rou-tine music. Hair is in a bun or ponytail, and stage makeup is applied heavily. With skates how-ever, they do not have as many regulations.

“As for skates, there are 5 or 6 ma-jor brands of skates and skaters sim-ply wear the brand they like best,” Roach said.

Present-ly, Roach is working on a routine to the music of “La Nuba”, a song that Roach claims sounds like dark and demented circus music. As well, she is working on a routine to the song “Believe” by Josh Groban, and her skating team is working on a routine to a mix of five different songs.

When Roach was a child, her skat-

ing goal was to make it to the Olympics. However, after tackling some physical setbacks due to an injury, she realized this goal was unrealistic.

“I won’t ever make it anywhere big in solo skating,” Roach said. “I do that mostly for my own enjoyment now.”

Although her skating future may not be go-ing in the direction she wanted, Roach is proud of her achievements thus far. Her greatest skat-ing accomplishment was during her freshman year. She competed in Regional Championships in Indiana and ended up winning the gold in her level. In skating terms,

this means Roach won the top spot out of skaters from Ohio, Michigan, Indi-ana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Wis-consin.

“I was the number one in my level,” Roach said. “It’s a huge accomplish-ment in skating.”

Roach plans to pursue skating throughout her educational career. She plans to attend Miami University and try out for their second-in-the-world Synchronized Skating team.

“If [I make the team], I will be trav-eling around the world, skating, and will possibly be part of a World-win-

ning team,” Roach said.

Regardless of where Roach’s skating career will take her, her family and friends will remain proud of her.

“There are many proud moments; it is hard to choose one,” P. Roach said. “For skating I would say when she passed her gold level ice dance or when her team won gold in Ann Arbor.”

At this time Roach skates at Sports Plus in Evendale and also at the Goggin Ice Arena

in the Miami University Campus. For her, these places are not just ice rinks, but places of comfort and security.

“The ice rink is seriously like my second home because I feel so at ease there,” Roach said.

Voice photos contributed by Katherine RoachVoice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

Jessica SchmidtStaff Reporter

17Lakota West Voice

SportsDecember 19, 2008

The girls’ bowling team is hoping to start their season with a bang. After graduating four players last year, it’s time for the new seniors to step up and set the pace.

“I think our team will do well this year,” Balchunas said. “We did well as junior varsity last year and have im-proved a lot.”

The girls explain that the competi-tiveness is high during matches, but they also have fun. The girls are not all about wins and losses, but the re-lationships they have with their fellow teammates.

“It’s really more fun than any-thing,” Balchunas said. “Everyone tends to get along really well.”

The girls usually practice as a team once or twice a week at Fairfield

lanes, and some of the girls practice by themselves on the weekends. Their matches are also held on a schedules set randomly.

The girls play both singles and as a team. They play two whole individual games, then they come together as a team to play. They don’t really have huge opponents, but they certainly have teams they would love to defeat.

“East is obviously our biggest ri-val,” Balchnas said. “But we don’t like Oak Hills either.”

The girls are all excited for their

season to begin. They are ready to not only work hard and become successful as a team, but to unite as one and for friendships that will last a lifetime.

“I can’t wait,” Mer-chant said. “By the end of the season, we’re like family.”

18Lakota West Voice


The judges. The lights. Months of practice have led up to this mo-ment, which could be messed

up with one minor error. The world of gymnastics is stressful, physically and mentally draining, but Cincin-nati Gymnastics Academy’s gym-nast Acacia Cosentino, a junior at West, makes it look easy as she balances competing at the na-tional level with staying involved with school, family and friends.

Cosentino has been doing gym-nastics for about nine years, but it was almost by chance she found this sport.

“When I was little I just started it randomly at a YMCA and I liked it and was good at it, so I changed over to club gymnastics and it just stuck,” Cosentino said.

Despite Cosentino’s light-hearted choice to become a gym-nast, this glamorous sport is actu-ally very serious.

“It is very painful all of the time and you get injured a lot. There is a lot of fear that you have to deal with and overcome, and you have to learn to deal with failure in a positive way,” Cosentino said. “Your coaches can get on you a lot and sometimes you just don’t feel like doing it because you are tired or had a bad day, but you have to learn to block it out.”

Practices are five days a week for four hours each time, and then some-times a sixth day for about an hour. These practices consist of stretching,

conditioning and practicing skills.“[Acacia] works really heard, she’s

there every day,” fellow CGA gymnast West sophomore Jordanne Calvin said.

All this hard work is in preparation for competition season, which is Janu-ary through May. The team competes once or twice a month on weekends.

“It’s tough, but it becomes a life-style,” Cosentino said.

Putting aside all the long practices, late nights and sprained ankles, gym-nastics is overall a rewarding sport for Cosentino.

“I have made friends from all over the US who I would have never met. My friends in the gym are like my fam-ily and I don’t think you can get any closer than we are, which is a bond that I never would have had without the sport,” Cosentino said.

Many other values can be learned from gymnastics, which Cosentino ap-plies to all aspects of her life.

“I have learned determination,

work ethic, respect, perseverance, the power of desire, teamwork- even how to deal with failure,” Cosentino said.

Traveling is another positive aspect of gymnastics. Cosentino’s gym travels all over the country for competitions, going as far as LA.

As a level 10 gymnast, Cosentino competes at the national level and ex-cels. In the state, she is second in the all-around, vault and floor and first

on beam. Regionally, Cosentino is eighth in the all-around, fifth on bars, fourth on floor and sixth on beam. She has also qualified in the Level 10 Junior Olympic Nationals in 2007 and 2008, where her team placed first both times. Cosentino has won numerous other awards as well.

“I won Team Spir-it Award in 2006. I am the

team spirit leader now,” Cosentino said.

Looking to the fu-ture, gymnastics is defi-nitely something Cosen-tino hopes to continue, especially in college.

“[I want to] com-pete in college and go to NCAA Nationals. That’s my main long term goal right now,” Cosentino said.

Cosentino definitely isn’t a slacker when it comes to schoolwork.

She has a 4.3 GPA.“Gymnastics takes up so much time

so it’s sometimes hard to stay awake to do homework, but I work hard at school and that pays off,” Cosentino said.

She hopes to get a full college scholarship through gymnastics and wants to go into kinesiology, physical therapy or business.

“I am working on [a full scholar-ship] now and I just have to decide which college, out of the ones that have offered, I want to go to,” Cosen-tino said.

But after all the long hours spent practicing and late nights catching up on homework, Cosentino and her team hope to have another great season.

“I want to be ready to have a good competition, individually and as a team right from the beginning,” Cosentino said. “My team and I want to start this year off better than ever before.”

Staff ReporterKatie Johantges

Voice headline graphic by Dylan Geiser

Bowling team starts strongChristine BrewerFeatures Editor

Cosentino warms up before floor event

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Is it really Christmas time with-out Christmas movies? Every year around December, in addition to

having our precious TV time wasted with the same old reruns, moviego-ers are forced to endure the annual Christmas flop. Out of all the holiday films out there, here are the five worst films that can make anyone’s holiday season a little less cheerful.

The Polar ExpressBased on the classic children’s sto-

ry, it tells of a young boy and his jour-ney to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus . While this is a children’s movie, there are some parts that are very scary for little kids: such as when the pup-pets start yelling at the boy and all the elves look like they belong in prison. The character development was pretty flimsy as well, since none of the char-acters even had names. This might have been to make the characters more relatable, but since we never learn any-thing about the characters, they are still hard to connect to. There are also a lot of bizarre concepts that were left

unexplained as well: the hobo on the roof of the train, the conductor and the train itself. You can tell that they are trying to add a magical feel, but it just comes across as weird and you get the feeling that they just made these things up at the last minute.

Jingle All the WayArnold Schwarzenegger (Termina-

tor) at his finest in a heartwarming classic that deals with the true mean-ing of Christmas: material goods. The movie tells the story of a workaholic father and the various struggles he goes through to get a toy for son. Not only does this have two of my least fa-vorite actors in the world, Sinbad and Schwarzenegger, but it also lacks any direction whatsoever. It’s just a string of semi-funny events put together, with the plot occasionally mentioned so that we have some reminder as to the point of all this.

Fred ClausMany people, like me, will be drawn

to this movie because of Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers); sadly, they are in for a major disappointment as this is without a doubt his worst movie ever. The story follows Fred (Vaughn) San-

ta’s much less successful brother who ran away from home in order to get away from his family. Fred runs into trouble with the law and must go live with his brother, Santa (Paul Giamatti, Shoot Em Up) in the North Pole where he learns to overcome his bitterness just in time to save Christmas. Vince Vaughn plays his usual, cynical frat boy self; though, being a PG movie, this came off a little forced and was prob-ably not the best choice for a children’s movie. Giamatti was probably not the best choice to play Santa; his character was almost as sarcastic as Vaughn and failed to capture the jolly nature that is Santa Claus.

Black ChristmasA remake of an equally terrible

1990s horror film. Black Christmas tells the story of a group of sorority girls who are brutally murdered by a crazed lunatic. While there was a de-cent amount of gore and enough sus-pense to keep any slasher film lover happy, Christmas is just not a good time to come out with a horror movie. It’s a time when people are filled with goodwill and cheer not horror and fear. In addition, the plot was extreme-ly predictable, pretty much the same as every other serial killer film, and the acting was so bad that you were actu-

ally glad the murderer killed the main characters just to shut them up.

Santa Claus Conquers the

MartiansThe name pretty much says it all;

this is one of those rare movies where it’s so bad that it’s actually funny, until you realize that they’re not trying to be. It’s Christmas time and the children of Mars are rebelling, so the Martians go to earth and kidnap Santa Claus to spread a bit of Christmas cheer to the red planet. Right from the incredibly annoying credits, you can tell this mov-ie is going to be garbage. I realize that they didn’t have the technology that we have now, but the special effects were just awful. The Martians looked like they had made their costumes from common kitchen items, and it seems as if the entire film was on a budget of about $20.00. No one ever showed any real emotion throughout the entire film, it was like they were just looking at the script for the first time. Overall, there is no redeeming value to this movie, even among other B list movies this one is a stinker.

Walking into the 26th annual PNC Festival of Lights is like walking into a winter

wonderland filled with holiday carols, festive characters and of course a bril-liant light display.

Throughout the zoo there are many different light displays such as these, for guests can to enjoy. There is the “Wild Lights Show”: a 21-foot tree is synced to the beat of popular holiday songs, a 35-foot tree in Santa’s Holiday Village covered with over 20,000 col-orful lights and the dancing snowmen who are also synced to holiday music.

However the lights are not the only sights to see. Guests can visit the 4-D special FX theater, that makes the

viewer feel like they are in the movie, featuring the popular holiday movie Polar Express. Effects include being able to feel wind when the train is rush-ing down hill, and smelling the sweet scent of cocoa when the train passen-gers in the movie are being served hot chocolate.

In addition, there are many activi-ties that the whole family can enjoy. The new “Winter Wonders” show by the Madcap Puppet Theatre, where puppets are brought to life under black lights and feature many different holi-day themes throughout the shows, is one such activity. Visitors can also stop by and see the Nativity scene where live animals are displayed, or even take a stroll over to Santa’s village to see the reindeer. At the holiday post of-fice, children and adults alike can send their letters to Santa in a special mail

box next to the building,not only is it entertaining, it is convenient. Patrons can also visit Mrs. Claus’ Cottage where Mrs. Claus tells holiday stories.

In addition to being entertaining, the festival is also eco-friend-ly. This year, in an attempt to go green, the Festi-val of Lights has switched over from incandes-cent light bulbs to energy-sav-ing LED light bulbs. This will help the zoo save up to 85% on their electric bill, as well as brighten up the

festival itself. The Festival of Lights will take place

from November 28 through January 4, from 5:00 pm-9:00 pm.

19Lakota West Voice

EntertainmentDecember 19, 2008

Alex RiceStaff Reporter

PNC Festival of Lights brightens up holiday Jessica DukesAds Manager

Voice graphic courtesy of Warner Bros.

Voice art by Erica ZaccagniniVoice graphic by Dylan Geiser

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Santa’s post office located at The Cincinnati Zoo.

The new game installment from the fallout series is here. Fall-out 3 takes place in post-apoca-

lyptic war in Washington where ev-erything has been destroyed, pillaged and radiated. You play the role of a character you create who has been living in a “Vault Tec” Vault, an un-derground civilization that has no ac-cess to the above world. It’s a Futur-istic shoot em’ up RPG (Role Playing Game) with a new game feature called the V.A.T. System.

First off, the map, or playable area, is surprisingly huge. You can venture almost anywhere, and raid almost every building and caves, vaults, and subways expand the map even fur-ther.

The RPG system is pretty big and works nicely. There are a lot of options to choose from every level and might find yourself at the stat screen, won-dering on what to raise. Don’t worry about the leveling speed, the game is supposed to level slowly, as there are only 20 levels. Once a new level is fi-nally reached, be careful on which stat to raise. Certain quests can’t be done unless a stat is raised to the re-quired level. Perks are another good thing about leveling up. One perk can be chosen, which can do a number of

things. Perks can give you extra dam-age with specific weapons, all the way to another complete level up right where you stand.

The game play of Fallout 3 is really nice. The animations aren’t half bad, in third person and first, and it’s very fun to just travel the wastelands. Third and first person can be cycled at any time. It’s pretty fun to look at your character and see how he looks, but traveling in first person can make it easier to see things. The view can be adjusted on how close it is on the character in third person.

T h e V.A.T.S, or just Vats for short, is a unique and very cool new feature I h a v e n ’ t seen in any game yet. It’s pretty basic, but it can help in a lot of situations. The main function of Vats is to either find e n e m i e s , or to give

yourself an edge in battle. When Vats is activated, gameplay stops, and a menu appears which allows you to choose any body part on an enemy and fire at it. This can come in handy in all battle sequences. The fiercest of all en-emies can be humiliated if Vats is used correctly and skillfully.

All in all, Fallout 3 is a fun RPG to play. Though its max level is limited, it’s not as short, with all of those stats to choose from. Plenty of download-able content is available for the Xbox 360 and the Computer versions of

Fallout 3. Unfortunately, the Playsta-tion 3 cannot receive any new content. It’s worth the money, and a fun game to play.

20Lakota West Voice

Entertainment December 19, 2008

Zac SanderStaff Reporter

Voice graphics courtesy of official Fallout website.

Fallout 3 takes over the video game world

When it comes to social issues, the major problems such as economics and global warming stick out most in the media, but a more widespread, of-ten times overlooked, issue is that of stray dogs. Dream Works Pictures’ up-coming film Hotel for Dogs, based on the book by Lois Duncan, sheds light on this problem in hopes to motivate viewers to take action.

Hotel for Dogs starring Emma Rob-erts (Unfabulous) as 16-year-old Andi and Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Wa-verly Place) as Andi’s younger brother Bruce is a comedy following two kids on a mission to find a home for their dog Friday. When Andi and Bruce’s parents forbid pets, the siblings reno-vate an abandoned hotel for Friday, and eventually all of Friday’s friends. Bruce uses his mechanical talents to make inventions that make life for the dogs as great as possible without need-ing a human to be there.

As a part of making the movie, Aus-tin learned how prevalent the issue of stray dogs is.

“Doing this movie has really opened my eyes to how many strays there are in this world and what can be done,” Austin said. “I think that if there were more people like Bruce and Andi in this world, then we’d have less stray dogs... defi-nitely it [the movie] has inspired me.”

Austin, in reflect-ing on what he has learned from the movie, hopes view-ers will take away at least insight into the problem of stray dogs.

“I think it’s a film that really makes people aware of what’s going on in this world with all the dogs that are being abandoned and I want them to walk away with a motivation to help more dogs out and to adopt and to get more dogs off the streets.” Austin said.

Stray dogs is an issue close to heart

for Austin and therefore was a deciding factor in his choice to play in this mov-ie. But, above all else, Austin hopes the movie will promote an inspiration for viewers to be more proactive.

“I think that the more people that see this movie, the more they’ll be mo-tivated to take the rescue dogs off the

streets,” Austin said. “I own two dogs myself, one of them which

is a rescue, so that’s another reason why I chose to do this movie. I felt that the moral and the lesson was very im-portant.”

Hotel For Dogs raises society’s awareness

Jake T. Austin and Emma Roberts in Hotel For Dogs.

Sarah HelsingerEditor-in-Chief

21Lakota West Voice


Voice graphic by: Kyle Kearns

When it comes to comedy in American culture, a few names come to mind auto-

matically: Dane Cook, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle-- but for those with a taste for the funny outside the main-stream line, the exciting world of com-

edy offers countless gems of hysterics for any and all who wish to seek them out.

The very definition of comedy comes from the act of comedian Dan Mintz. Although famous for his use of one-liners, he originally entered the comedy business writing sketches for

the television show Crank Yankers as well as The Andy Milonakis Show. His first comedic appearance was on Late Night with Conan O’Brian and from there he boomed as a comedian and re-leased his first album, Comedy Death Ray. He know works closely with his friend, famous comedian Demetri Martin.

Demetri Martin is a genius… liter-ally. Becoming a member of Mensa at a young age, he decided that when he grew up he would be a lawyer. But al-most as soon as he started law school,

he dropped out to become a comedian in New York City. His acts are filled with intelligent, but funny jokes guaranteed to make the listener laugh, cry and think really hard about life and how simple it is. His act includes a 225 word palindrome (a word or phrase that can be spelled the same backwards and forwards) poem and an-other poem written from all the words taken off of a beer bottle entitled, “All the words on a bottle of Rolling Rock beer in a dif-ferent order.”

“’Sort of’ is such a harmless thing to say. Sort of. It’s just a filler. Sort of - it doesn’t really mean anything. But after certain things, sort of means ev-erything. Like after ‘I love you’ or ‘You’re going to

live’ or ‘It’s a boy.’” Demetri Martin from Comedy Central Pres-ents: Demetri Martin.

Another such gem is the hysterical Mitch Hedberg. Mitch Hedberg’s style of comedy is best described as utter nonsense mumbled to the audience without making eye contact. During all of his acts Mitch Hedberg spends

the entirety of the show staring at his feet, only looking up to push his rose-colored glasses back up on his face. Despite the lack of visual connection, his routine is filled with topics rang-ing from be-ing a “race car passen-ger” to re-telling how he hit a guy with his golf ball during one game instead of making a hole in one. His jokes are known for their wit and the fact that it takes a minute or two to catch on to why ex-actly it’s fun-ny. Despite his death in 2005, a new album Do You Believe in Gosh?, recorded a few weeks before, was released on September 9 of this year, following his post-mortem gain in popularity.

“I want to get a vending machine, with fun sized candy bars, and the glass in front is a magnifying glass. You’ll be mad, but it will be too late.” Mitch Hedberg from Comedy Central Presents: Mitch Hedberg.

But when it comes to intelligent, though slightly insane comedy, British comedian Eddie Izzard is the way to go. His wide range of jokes spanning from history to inventions of the future in-spired by science fiction novels added to his unique style of dress and warm

but critical view of… well, everything, proves that every now and then it’s all right to have a good laugh at yourself and the world around you. Making his

debut in A m e r i c a with his show en-t i t l e d , Dressed to Kill, Ed-die Izzard has slow-ly been c l i m b i n g in popu-larity not only as a comedian but as an actor, hav-ing ap-peared in such films as Across the Uni-verse (Mr. Kite), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (Professor

B e d l a m /Barry) and

Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen (Roman Nagel).

To find more funny, though little known comedians check out the Stand-up section at www.comedycentral.com and more information on each of the above comedians can be found on their homepages.

Abby FordSurvey/Distribution Editor

Ha Ha Ha not Ho Ho Ho for holiday season

Demetri Martin performing an act on stage.

Eddie Izzard leaning back in a chair.

Voice photos courtesy of Photobucket.

22Lakota West Voice

Entertainment December 19, 2008

When it comes to Christmas movies, one usually expects to find presents, family gatherings and, of course, a heart-warming ending wrapped in a moral. Four Christmases, starring Vince Vaughn (The Break Up) and Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blond), encom-passes all of these elements with a fresh approach in an attempt to pull away from the mainstream Christmas movie without losing the traditional aspects. While a movie about quirky families and self-discovery does not seem all that unique, as with most good movies, it’s less about the ending and more about

the journey, and the journey taken by Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) in Four Christmases is definitely worth movie ticket price this holiday season.

When their plane to Fiji is cancelled due to an unnaturally think fog, Brad and Kate are forced to stay in the states for the holidays. It would seem like nothing more than a disappointment, but Brad and Kate are caught off guard by a news team covering the depressing fog story. Their interview is broadcasted nationally and within the hour their cell phones start ringing with calls from their families, wanting them to come home for

the holidays. The problems: Brad and Kate are both from broken homes, they haven’t spent a Christmas with either side of their family in years, and it’s just been announced nationally that they were going to Fiji and not to Burma to immunize dying children as they each told their parents, and have told their parents for the last few years to get out of suffering through family Christmases.

The next few days become a whirlwind of meeting new family members and ad-justing to their parent’s new spouses as well as attempting to heal the wounds of the past in order to find a way to initi-

ate Brad and Kate’s future family. Four Christmases has the perfect balance of comedy, drama and holiday delight that makes it easy for any member of the family to find something to enjoy.

-Abby Ford

Four Christmases

On November 20, at 11:30 pm, the masses of teenage girls, myself included, entered theatres across the na-tion to see if Catherine Hardwicke could bring the famous novel Twilight, written by Stephanie Meyer, to life.

Fans were interested to see the contrast in how they imag-ined the book compared to how Hardwicke depicted it on the big screen. The low-budget movie had its good moments, but as a diehard Twilight fan, the movie lacked in performance and storyline. It seemed as if the actors were chosen because their looks fit the description of the characters, but their act-ing skills lacked. Even though Robert Patterson (Harry Potter) is a beautiful representation of Edward Cullen, his lines were short and did not feel as meaningful as they were portrayed in the book. Crucial scenes came across as overdramatic, and the actors were trying too hard. The audience had to make connections through their previous knowledge from the reading and put the puzzle pieces together themselves. Had I not read the book and seen the movie, I would have been confused and would not have known what was going on. Frustrated and a little disappointed, I left the auditorium.

As with every movie based on a novel, movies al-ways seem to come up short to expectations.

-Christine Brewer

TwilightQuantum of Solace

In Quantum of Solace, Bond is not the smooth talking slick man we once knew. This is a more determined and venge-ful Bond as played by Daniel Craig (Casino Royale). This lat-est edition to the Bond saga is much more action packed than the previous movies. This particular movie has less of Bond’s sexual antics, although there is still some.

Quantum of Solace picks up about an hour after the end of Casino Royale. Bond’s lover Vesper Lynd (Eva Green, The Golden Compass) was killed by a crime organiza-tion that made Vesper betray him. Bond decides to ex-tract revenge from the organization that killed his lover.

This movie was different form all of the other Bond movies because this one had little plot that I could follow. It was all about making someone pay for the death of his lover and had no char-acter development. This film was all about action and nothing else. The producer (Mark Forster, Stranger than Fiction) and writer (Paul Haggis, Letters from Iwo Jima) in my opinion tried to appeal to the younger audiences so much with all of the action that he didn’t quite connect to the former Bond movies that a lot of us fell in love with. This movie had almost nothing that you could relate to the old movies which were the “real” Bond movies such as Goldfinger and Diamonds are forever. Forster and Haggis absolutely killed this movie and will hopefully never touch another Bond movie again.

I would recommend this movie to those who don’t care about plot or scheme but only for action and nothing else.

-Karl Cunic

Remakes of movies can go almost either way. Some are good, and some are bad. The recent release The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of the many bad remakes. The new film from 20th Century Fox starring Keanu Reeves (Street Kings) and Jennifer Connelly (Blood Diamond) had the potential to be a good movie but lacked the substance to support it. Hidden under the flashy special effects and commercials that fool you to think the movie is good, lay

the horrible acting of Keanu Reeves, the terrible plot, and the awful theme. The plot itself can be summed up as aliens came to destroy the life on earth because man is polluting earth. Telling you the plot almost ruins the ending of the movie showing just how predict-able it is. Throughout the whole movie, I felt as though I was being told to go green, to stop polluting the earth; which to me is a theme I am sick of seeing in Hollywood. For those of you expecting

a movie filled with action and suspense please, do your self a favor and do not see this movie. If overdone special ef-fects, remakes of old movies, or Sci-Fi flicks featuring Keanu Reeves are your thing then this is the movie for you. For a movie about the end of the world, The Day the Earth Stood Still, really disap-pointed. I for one, would much rather the world end in a much more cool way, with explosions and chaos, instead of some environmentalist aliens taking the

world over. Overall, save yourself some money over break, see a better movie, you are not missing out on anything.

-Kyle Kearns

The Day the Earth Stood Still


Austin McCarthyCopy Editor

Kyle KearnsEntertainment Editor

23Lakota West Voice


Day & AgeThe Killers

FearlessTaylor Swift Voice graphic by Dylan Geiser

For some reason, The Killers have always had a strong fan base. I never have understood the basis for their idolization of them; The Killers just aren’t good. Day & Age continues this underwhelming tradition. The syn-thesized wall of sound that resonates from the ear buds sounds fake and forced. The vocals are also strained, and are almost appalling to listen to because the singer has a weak voice. Another pet peeve of mine is when lyrics do not have coherent meaning. The single “Hu-man” is confusing at best, repeating “Are we human?/Or are we dancer?” The song is simply bizarre. None of the songs stand out on the album as different from the strange style of The Killers. It’s hard to tell if anything is actually a real instrument; is the drum really a drum? Is that voice real or computer-generated? Unless you are one of the blind followers of The Killers, do not buy this CD, or you will be left feeling bamboozled.

Taylor Swift’s album, Fearless, is probably playing on thousands of girls’ iPods this very moment. Coming in with a double bias, against both country music and such mainstream girl music, I was quite skeptical of the lyrics that dominate Facebook statuses. However, I’m forced to admit that, while some songs were as expected, with banjo ringing out and lyrics with the word “tractors”, the majority of songs were surprisingly good. The instrumenta-tion is nothing too fancy, though she attempts to vary her songs with piano and sometimes solo acoustic guitar. The most touching song is a tribute to her mother, “The Best Day.” While other songs are about teenage love and the angst it causes, this song is about the love of a mother. Swift is able to relate fairy tale allusions, like Romeo and Juliet, to the average person. Overall, even if you have the same bias as I do, you should give this CD a shot. Some songs will inevitably be skipped more often than not, but others are quality and well worth your time.

The newest release from The Killers, Day and Age, is a dif-ficult album to review. Since The Killers, were a big hit in the charts with previous releases such as Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town, I was excited to review their newest release. After listen-ing to Day and Age, I found myself very confused about what to think about it. With incredibly weird lyrics and an over used synthesizer, at first I didn’t like the album. After awhile Day and Age grew on me, the synthesizer became less annoying and more relaxing and I started to hear The Killers that I knew from their previous hits. Although the theme of the album, which is related to space travel and the future, still bothers me, the music has overpowered that. My first negative impression of Day and Age was due to their horrible hit single, “Human.” The album improve with other songs such as “Spaceman” and “This is Your Life.” For previous Killers fans or anyone look-ing for a new CD, Day and Age will come across weird at first, but give it some time because it will slowly grow on you.

Fearless, one of the biggest releases of the year, is a CD that I never saw myself listening to. Being a fan of almost everything but country I was sure that I would be sick of Taylor Swift’s album after the first song. That first song “Fearless” was surprisingly good. Unlike other artist, Swift has created a consistently good album. With intelligent lyrics and music to match, Fearless doesn’t have a dull moment in it. Although I wouldn’t normally find myself listening to Fearless, I cannot say anything bad about the album. With a genius mix of many different genres such as pop, singer/song writer, and some rock, Swift has made an album that will appeal to more than just teenage girls or the average country fan. Fearless has a good blend of acoustic guitar, well done vocals, and piano, a little something for everyone. Coming from someone who had despised country, I suggest getting the Taylor Swift CD because no matter your taste in music you won’t be disappointed.

voice vol. 12, no. 3

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