Need A Book?
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Ms. Dean is doing something a bit different to encourage students to read over Winter Break.
Outside of her room, she left several stacks of books in the hallway. Above is a sign that encourages people to take one home over break.
The book genres range from sci-fi to romance.
Nearly 30 books are out there, so happy reading and happy break, Chiefs!
Kickapoo Journalism Wins Big in DC
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Journalism has done it again. While they do not like to toot their own horn as much as they would like, they have done very well at their last competition in Washington D.C. There were thousands of other yearbook and magazine students at the convention and KHQ was able to win over seven titles overall. There were over 20 different competitions and the students all won individual titles in all different categories. The competition went on for approximately five days and it was stationed in the heart of Washington D.C. Along with the competition was also a numerous amount of classes that the students could attend. There were writing sessions, photography lessons, and all of the above. Students were given the option to attend these classes before the competition began to help them later on with their publication. The next convention will take place in Nashville, Tennessee in the spring.
Winter Sports Updates: Winter Guard
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Color Guard is an award winning team on a local, regional, and national level. They will be performing along side of the golden arrow band in the annual Christmas Parade held downtown. On December 14th bands, volunteers, and floats will be marching around Park Central Square at two pm.
This year’s theme is Silver Bells: It’s Christmas Time in the City. The team is directed by Sherri Peterson and choreographed by Haley Davis.
“The groups have been practicing their routines during 4th block, next semester we will transition to winter guard,” Peterson said.
The team has been preparing for the winter sports assembly on December 16th.
“Their routines for winter guard are usually around two minutes,” Peterson said.
As the season approaches, the team hopes to have a successful season after their Emulation team competed in the world championship in Dayton Ohio this year.
Behind the Tournament
Behind the Tournament
Academic Team members practice for upcoming competitions.
Academic Team members practice for upcoming competitions.
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Academic Team, or Scholar Bowl as some call it, has been very busy this school year. Their teams have qualified for Nationals as well as preparing for their tournaments coming up soon.
“In two weeks some of the varsity players are going to a workshop at Mizzou to train. Hopefully, some of us will get on the state team. The Kickapoo Tournament is this week, we have about thirty teams in it. We will not be playing, we’ll just be moderating the groups,” sophomore CJ Wears said.
Democracy in Action
Democracy in Action
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Democracy in Action is looking for new members! The club focuses on political literacy and helping students understand and debate today’s current news.
“It felt good to learn more about what’s going on around me, when usually that gets muted out,” junior Katie Lynch said.
The club is for students of all political opinions.
“In my experience, we usually do have both sides of the spectrum. We have the left. We have the right. We have the very far left, very far right,” Lynch said.
Democracy in Action gives students a safe place to discuss various political ideas.
“It’s good because sometimes we will get into debates, but it’s always from a respectful standpoint. No one is ever saying my idea is better than yours, it’s always like we all have opinions and it’s good to come together and share that without it being a one party politics,” Lynch said.
Democracy in Action president senior Mike Owsley aimed for more involvement in the club and is hoping to further increase political involvement for all students.
Exploring The Medical Field
Exploring The Medical Field
Sign in front of Cox south medical center
Sign in front of Cox south medical center
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Medical Explorers is an opportunity to test if a career in medicine is the right fit for a student. The program is open to students between the ages of 15 and 20 years old. It is an opportunity to understand what being in the medical field is really like. The opportunity is open to anyone who meets the age requirements. You don’t have to be interested in going into a medical field to be apart of this program. It is also available if you just want a new experience.
“Medical Explorers would be great for any students that are thinking about a career in a medical field,” Counselor Shawn Wallace said.
According to Pat Long, a volunteer coordinator, open house is January 8th from 9 to 12 am in meeting room 2 at Cox South. Attendance is not required and it is a come and go event. More information and applications for the program are in the counseling center.
Adopt a Family
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Every year Key Club joins hands with classes to “Adopt a Family” for the Holidays. This is an opportunity for classes to donates money and buy christmas gifts for less fortunate families. The families are chosen by Cross Lines and sent to the Key Clubs Sponsor, Mrs. Stephens.
“For the families we provide christmas gifts to each member of the family and then food that the family requests,” Stephens said.
As the years go by, the number of classes signing up to help go down. The “Adopt a Family” can sometimes be the only way these families get the traditional christmas.
“Not many classes are signed up. We have a total of 13 families and only 6 classes have signed up. Our total of classes goes down each year,” Stephens said.
This Christmas it’s time for a change of pattern. The number of classes need to go up rather than down. These families rely on students and staff donations for christmas presents. Please spread the word, suggest to your clubs and classes to “Adopt a Family”.
Impeachment is Happening: Now What?
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On Thursday, December 4th, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that she asked the Judiciary Committee to move forward on articles of impeachment.
What this means is that, before the new year, Donald Trump and his lawyers will be going to trial in the senate. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will oversee the trial, where members of the House will act as prosecutors and members of the senate will act as a jury.
Senators now have to vote on an impeachment rules package, which would dictate all the small details of how impeachment would be run. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Senate Majority Leader, promised that if he couldn’t make a deal on rules with Democrats, he would push a rules package through on only Republican votes.
When Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, all 100 senators voted to approve of the rules package for his impeachment trial, which saw him acquitted. With such fierce loyalty to Trump, it is almost certain he will also be quickly acquitted, so Republicans and Democrats can go back to the campaign trail, before the Iowa Caucus.
Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who are all campaigning for the 2020 Democratic nomination will be forced to stay in Washington during impeachment trials. This leaves former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttgieg, and others an open path in early primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and could help decide the nomination.
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, announced the House Judiciary Committee would move forward on Impeachment. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Gearin’ Up For Graduation
Gearin’ Up For Graduation
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First semester is coming to an end and May 8th will be here soon. Cap and Gown information is now available in the counseling center if you did not receive it from your second block teacher.
Order forms were not included in the packet, but are also available in the counseling center.
A representative from Hoff Jones will be in the commons during lunch on Tuesday, 12/10, to collect order forms. They can accept cash, check, and credit or debit cards. Caps and gowns can also be ordered online.
For questions regarding graduation merchandise or caps and gowns, you can contact Hoff Jones at 866-238-5336 or email them at highschoolcs@herff-jones.com.
FBLA Hopes to Win Again
FBLA Hopes to Win Again
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FBLA has been competing and winning national awards for several years. The team recently came back after a long and vigorous competition in Denver, Colorado. These competitions include over 70 different events that students can compete in. The events can differ from taking a test about a certain topic, performing in front of judges, or creating projects using video and games. “There is a really good variety for everyone participating,” Mr. Wooderson, leader of FBLA said. The handpicked judges of these competitions are either business professionals of teachers from around the state. Students compete at districts, then advance to state, and to nationals if they’re lucky. “The top five in districts go to state. Top one in performance goes to state, and if they advance from state they actually get paid to go to nationals and compete,” Wooderson said.
This summer the competition is in Salt Lake City, Utah. The following year it will be held in Anaheim, California. Though FBLA just got back from Denver, their work won’t stop. There were 21 students who went to the conference in Denver and they plan on having at least that number or even more competing in Salt Lake. “In Denver they only went to conferences. They are now doing practice tests and practicing performances in front of me to prepare to compete,” Wooderson said. Wooderson plays a very large part in making sure his students are ready. He plans on taking about 40 or 50 students to state and hopefully around 20 students to nationals if they’re lucky. “We currently had 7 students make top ten in the country last year,” he said. The competition goes all spring.
While they prepare for competition, the club is still running as usual. Since the competition runs all throughout the spring, they also want to work with more volunteer organizations. They are doing valentine boxes in February for Valentine’s Day, which is a major project that they do almost every year. FBLA meets every other Thursday, and have been since the beginning of the year. While they are working on competition, and even after that, they plan on working just as hard to be successful in every competition that comes in the future.
Keeping The Peace
Keeping The Peace
Delaney Hutchins is a student involved in peer mediators.
Delaney Hutchins is a student involved in peer mediators.
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Peer mediation was organized to help students solve conflicts. The idea is to try and keep a peaceful environment here on campus. Anything said in the room will not get you into trouble. They are there in the hope students will come to them and solve conflicts with the peer mediators and that it will help fewer kids get in trouble with administration.
“We want everybody to be united and we want to spread more kindness among people,” senior Delaney Hutchins said.
Peer mediation is run by Diana Bernhard. The next meeting is on October 13th. During the meeting, it will be a practice on how the peer mediators can help solve conflicts people may have.
In order to join Peer Mediation, students must go see Ms. Bernhard. She will give you a form and based on your answers they will invite students to tryouts.
They do tryouts at the end of the year so if students go to tryouts their freshman year and they qualify they won’t become a peer mediator until their sophomore year.
“It’s a lot of getting to know you games and you train and they come and watch to see how you work through a conflict,” Hutchins said.
Faster Than The Buzzer
Faster Than The Buzzer
Academic Team prepares for competition with a Friday morning practice.
Academic Team prepares for competition with a Friday morning practice.
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Academic Team meets every Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning. The members have been working tirelessly to get ready for upcoming competitions.
As a part of Academic Team, students answer trivia questions. The object is for your team to answer more questions correctly than the opposing team.
“For meetings, we go over what we’re trying to get better at as a team and individually. Meaning we read practice questions,” sophomore Roman Taylor said.
Their confidence in going into the competition is high.
“I think we’re going to do pretty well this year. We have some good freshmen who came in. The middle school had a really good division,” senior Kim Tieu said.
The members are having a good time preparing for their competitions and tournaments, as well.
“The people are pretty great. It’s pretty fun. I love Ms. Odom, Momma Odom for the win,” Tieu said.
Around the World
Around the World
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One of the many trips being offered this school year is an educational based trip to Peru.
Two of the Spanish teachers, Mrs. Nunez and Mrs. Stennett, organized an eight-day trip in order to teach students cultural diversity and the history behind Peru. This trip was open to any student and family member and currently has ten students traveling with a few chaperones.
“I haven’t visited South Africa before, so I want to see that part of the world,” Stennett said.
Students will leave early July 9th and will start their adventure almost immediately. Visitations to the Castle of Lima, Machu Picchu, and the capital of Peru will be on the student itinerary.
Multiple trips to an elementary school will be included in the trip and will encourage students to interact with children and look at education through a new perspective.
The basis of this trip is to encourage students to travel and experience new cultures and to develop a different perspective on the world.
Students will be having authentic cooking classes, conversations about food and contrasting cultures, and will be cramming in information about the country.
“Even if you can’t go on these trips, try and travel in your lifetime. It really does change your life and perspective on the world, it changes who you are,” Stennett said.
GSTA Goes to Jefferson City
GSTA Goes to Jefferson City
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The 2019-2020 legislative session will mark the 21st consecutive year that Missouri legislators were presented with the Missouri Non-Discrimination Act (MONA).
Currently, Missouri’s Human Rights Act offers protections based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age and disability. MONA would add protection for sexual orientation and gender identity.
Equality Day takes place on August 10th and is a statewide event where students and adults make the trek to their state capitals to speak to their legislators about LGBTQ+ legislation like MONA.
This year, the Gay Straight Trans Alliance (GSTA) was part of the hundreds of people in attendance.
“There were people from GLO, there were people from Central, there were people from St. Louis and Kansas City,” freshman El Backus said.
Despite bipartisan support, the bill currently remains unassigned to a committee and is not predicted to pass before the legislative term concludes at the end of May.
Getting Vaccinated
Getting Vaccinated
Vaccinations are an important part of staying healthy and happy in both school and real life.
Vaccinations are an important part of staying healthy and happy in both school and real life.
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The end of the school year marks the beginning of the next. It also marks a new requirement for all new seniors for the 2019-20 school year.
“All incoming seniors must have received one dose of the Meningococcal vaccine after their 16th birthday in order to start school in the fall,” the Kickapoo high school website stated.
Meningococcal is better known as meningitis. Incoming seniors can get their meningitis shot at walk in clinics such as HyVee and Walgreens or their family doctor.
Students need to bring documentation of their vaccination to the school nurse as soon as possible.
Meningitis is a serious disease. All incoming seniors need to get their shot at the earliest convenience.
Come next year every senior must have their shot to attend classes and graduate.
Smarter Than The Book
Smarter Than The Book
A member of Scholar Bowl quizzes another member for their upcoming competition.
A member of Scholar Bowl quizzes another member for their upcoming competition.
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Scholar bowl is a club where students compete against other schools and try to answer trivia questions as fast as they can. It is a very competitive club. They meet every PLT in room 230 with Ms. Odom to practice for upcoming competitions. Members quiz each other from a binder of questions that may be asked at the competition. They never know what questions will be asked it is different each competition. The students must attempt to memorize as much as they can.
They won their most recent competition against Carl Junction.
“The first game Scholar Bowl won by 420 to 390 and the second game we won by 430 to 290,” junior Robson Dasilva said.
On friday, May 3rd they are going to Columbia to compete against Parkway South and other schools. Scholar Bowl hopes to win and the members will leave school at 1:20 and spend the weekend in Columbia. The competition is going to be held on the Mizzou campus.
The members that are going to state are Dylan Morris, Katie Lynch, Anna Weiner, Taylor Cobb, Josh Lawson, Chase Sponenberg, Roman Taylor, CJ Wears, and Mike Owsley.
Although, all these members are going only four members will be competing. These include Taylor Cobb, Josh Lawson, Chase Sponenberg, and Mike Owsley.
A Trip Around Ireland
A Trip Around Ireland
The Credo mass is an example of what students will be preforming in Ireland.
The Credo mass is an example of what students will be preforming in Ireland.
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The Choir Department was given the opportunity to perform in the Limerick music festival in Ireland. This festival is made up of orchestras and choral groups from across Ireland and America.
This trip allows musically inclined students to perform in a international festival and experience different cultures at the same time.
Not many schools get the chance to travel to a foreign country and participate in a musical festival among Irish and American Cultures. Students attending this trip will be performing a mass by Mozart at the Limerick university and Christ Cathedral Church in Dublin, Ireland.
The trip is from June 5-13, and five of those days will consist of rehearsals and performances for the festival. The rest of the trip will be spent touring the land of Ireland and touring coast lines, cliffs, and castles where students will get a chance to kiss the famous Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle.
“My favorite part is sitting back and watching my students perform in all of these wonderful places. During the festival I won’t need to sing or direct or do anything, I just get to sit back and watch them perform,” Choir Director Nathan Cornelius said.
Students on this trip will get the chance to build a passion for traveling internationally and witness other cultures through music. Not only is this a trip for students but it helps build the reputation of the Choir department and allows further opportunities to occur.
Parking Lot Changes
Parking Lot Changes
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When The Votes Are In, Change Could Be Coming
When The Votes Are In, Change Could Be Coming
The Missouri flag stands tall outside of school.
The Missouri flag stands tall outside of school.
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Laws and new bills get passed all the time and high school students rarely know about them. Even when these laws and bills affect students in their everyday life. Three bills are on their way to being passed either in Missouri or other states that might affect Missouri very soon.
The first bill is the Phillips-Hill’s bill. This will allow students to work from home on online assignments during snow days instead of extending the school year.
The would be called “flexible instructional days” and would work the same as a normal day of school. The only difference is that students would stay at home during days where the weather is too bad to travel.
With the addition of Chromebooks in schools adding days where students worked from home online would be an easy adjustment.
“Flexible instructional days are a valuable tool for schools because they offer an opportunity to meet the educational needs of students without having to extend the school year too deep into the summer,” Senate Education Committee Chairman Ryan Aument said.
The second bill is the Cronkite New Voices Act, more commonly referred to as the New Voices Act.
“In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that censorship of certain articles in a student news publication didn’t violate the students’ First Amendment rights,” Editor and Chief of The Standard, Cortlynn Stark, wrote.
This bill would allow Missouri student journalists to have more freedom with what they write for school publications.
“Censoring student journalists actually hurts the future of journalism. When you take away their First Amendment rights to publish, you damage their trust in the system that supports journalism,” Stark wrote.
Many people seem to agree with Stark as this bill has been being pushed to pass since November, 2017. If the bill passes a whole new era of student journalism could take place.
The third bill would cause the school year start date to be in late August. Due to high rates of tourism in Missouri a change such as this would affect many groups of people.
“The proposal by Rep. Jeff Knight, R-Lebanon, would set the starting date no earlier than 14 days before the first Monday in September,” Kurt Erickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote.
The sooner the school year begins, the sooner families have to end their summer vacations. This means Missouri is making less tourism money than what is wanted. Pushing the school year back even just two weeks would give students more of their break while also giving the state an income boost.
Keeping Up With Scholar Bowl
Keeping Up With Scholar Bowl
Scholar Bowl meets in room 230.
Scholar Bowl meets in room 230.
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Scholar Bowl is a club where students answer questions faster and more accurately than the opposing team. Scholar Bowl is very busy right now.
“We have the Trivia Night, Wednesday (February 28th) we have Reed Springs, we have History Bowl on Tuesday (March 5th), after spring break we have two big competitions, and then after that, we start districts,” sponsor Mrs. Odom said.
This isn’t all the club is doing. Scholar Bowl is intent on helping both themselves and others with some of their events.
“We have Trivia Night on Friday (March 1st). It’s our big fundraiser where we’re raising money for our trips and travel but we’re also raising money for Mrs. Moran in the counseling center because she’s in heart failure,” Odom said.
The members of Scholar Bowl are enthusiastic to be helping out while participating in a club they love.
