casady crier issue 3

the

Casady School, 9500 N. Pennsylvania, Oklahoma City, OK 73120April 4, 2011 Volume 58, Issue 3

Zainab ShakirOpinions Co-editor

Every year, Casady YAC (Youth and Adult Action Com-mittee) organizes special events and programs around Martin Luther King Junior Day. There are usually multiple events going on around campus, and several others off campus as well. Starting around MLK Day, YAC hosted its annual Habitat for Humanity house framing, an ongoing project that ends in late April.

On Jan. 17 the members of the winter sports teams, ac-companied by their coaches, and other eager students visited a house construction site at Hope Crossing to participate in its framing. They were assisted by various Habitat for Hu-manity volunteers, the soon-to-be homeowners, and Ameri-Corps volunteers.

“We’ve actually had the Army help us in the past, but that’s usually a rarity. They felt uncomfortable being banned from swearing in front of the students,” Mrs. Carmen Clay, Service Learning Coordinator, said.

Habitat for Humanity builds attractive new homes from the ground up, in partnership with qualifying families, com-munity volunteers, and donors, such as Chesapeake Energy. The homes are energy efficient, something Casady students can appreciate with the new green building on campus.

Volunteers like Casady students keep the cost of the homes low for families in need, helping with tasks such as hammering, painting, and landscaping. Habitat for Hu-manity instructors, such as Chris Hearn, the instructor for Casady volunteers, supervise the volunteers’ work. Casady students not only learned a great deal about construction, but also about the satisfaction volunteering brings to both the giver and receiver.

“The house framing was a really awesome experience be-cause we were able to meet the woman in need,” senior Liz Brindley said.

Brindley was also pleased to see the donations acquired from the coffee house Student Council and Logos organized used appropriately.

“It was great to see all the donations put to good use,” Brindley added.

Casady students also felt fulfilled helping other members of the greater Oklahoma City community.

“We made a difference in the lives of others doing some-thing we enjoyed,” senior Jonesha Hawkins said.

Even though the weather was harsh, Casady students not only warmed up through the vigorous exercise house fram-ing provided, but also by the gratitude and delight expressed by the homeowner.

“It was extremely cold but definitely worth it,” junior Maya Shiff said.

Regardless of the difficulties, discomfort, and physical labor the house framing brought, students enjoyed each oth-er’s company and the warm feelings from helping others. All in all, YAC’s house framing was for the most part a positive experience for all involved.

“I had a lot of fun with everyone,” Shiff said.[continued on page 2]

Casady provides helping hand for Habitat for Humanity

Eric KaplanEditor in-Chief

Oklahoma is usually due for at least one ice storm a winter, which tends to cancel a couple days of school. This past winter the weather had been relatively calm until the calendar turned to Febraury. Arriving with the new month was a monstrous, by Okla-homa standards, blizzard that shut down the entire state for days.

As the boys’ soccer team completed their regular season on a frigid Gorham Field, meteorologists urged Oklahomans to stockpile daily necessities and cozy up by the fire, preparing to be locked inside by Mother Nature. Students, teachers, and the administration awoke on Feb. 1 to find a thick layer of powdery snow cover-ing a slick sheet of ice, prompting school to closed.

As the week progressed, the weather and road conditions did not and Casady con-tinued to be closed. Classes were originally planned to resume at a late start on Friday Feb. 4; however, unsuspected flooding and flurries prevented that from happening.

“Weather was the main factor for the closing each of the days, but with the flooding in Primary and the W.R. John-ston Building, we needed to put all hands on deck to address those issues. We decided to keep school closed that Friday because of the flooding as well as the additional snow we were getting Friday morning,” Mr. Chris Bright, Head of School, said.

Following a weekend filled with sun-shine, the crunchy slush virtually disap-

peared. School re-opened Monday with a mixed, bittersweet reaction amongst stu-dents.

“At first I was really excited about the snow days because it was a nice break and fun to be out in the weather, but after a few days I was ready to go back to school and get into a schedule again,” senior Liz Brindley.

However, the brief hiatus from snow-storms abruptly ended in the wee hours of Wednesday morning Feb. 9. Classes were cancelled that day, totaling a likely re-cord fifth weather-related closing in eight school days.

“The snow storms were so big I got bored sitting at home,” senior Max Blu-menthal said.

The closings left a resounding impact on multiple facets of school life. First, whenever you have a closing, students and teachers loss valuable classroom time. Especially in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which have an exam already scheduled during early May, losing five periods can become an unquestionable disadvantage.

“The snow days made it even harder for my already behind AP classes to catch up. They just added more stress in the end…” senior Kelsey Jones said.

However, most teachers have designed sped-up yet thorough lesson plans, hoping to make up for lost time. As honors courses continue to inch closer to their AP test dates, many are planning on using the academic enrichment period and open

A winter blanketSnow covers virtually everything on campus after one of the two massive storms that hit Oklahoma City this past winter. The entire state of Oklahoma was hidden below record setting snow totals for days as frigid winds created snow drifts of multiple feet.

MYopinionWhat did you do during the snow days while stranded at home

I took care ofmy kid. It’s more work

to do so than to come to school.

“The snow

storms were

so big I got

bored sitting at

home.”

–Max Blumenthal,

senior

Storms throw rigid mass of snow, ice across state, closing school and impacting multiple events

I slept until1 p.m. and then

played video games until 1 a.m.

I pulledpeople out ofthe snow in

my car.I sat at

home andsledded.

Jennifer Cote,freshman

John Stickler,sophomore

Ben Bright,junior

Ben McCampbell,senior

Mr. Matt Pena,Dean of Students

[continued on page 5]

Get Microsoft Tag Reader for your smart phone and watch a video quote bar and more. Just scan this symbol throughout the issue to enjoy the Crier’s video coverage. The videos are also accessible on YouTube through searching ‘casadycrier’.

I watched threesilent movies in a row.

The General, Four Horsemenof the Apocalypse, and

City Lights.

2 April 4, 2011the CRIER

Chapel renovation enhances tradition of sacred building Nathan Prabhu and Michael WhaleyFeatures Editor and News Co-editor

For over a year and a half the Casady community has been eagerly awaiting com-pletion of the chapel reno-vations. These renovations have proven to be not only time-consuming, but also very expensive.

“On a per square foot ba-sis, this building is going to come out to almost triple the cost of the math building,” Mr. Nathan Sheldon, Chief Financial Officer, said.

The high price is due to the hand-carved limestone bricks that compose the ex-terior of the chapel, as well as the carefully constructed slate roof. However, these additions should be timeless, making them well worth the cost.

The chapel also differs from the math building in that it is not a LEED build-ing.

“What we’re doing is taking what we really liked

from the LEED buildings and incorporating it into the chapel, such as the geother-mal technology to heat and cool,” Mr. Sheldon said.

The building is made with a lot of non-LEED components. The walls are about twice as thick as what is necessary, and the limestone makes the whole building extremely heavy. The developers decided not to strive for LEED because it ran counter to the goal of making the chapel resemble the version built in 1949.

In keeping with this goal, the new doors of the cha-pel will be constructed to look like they came from the 1500’s. There will be a number of new stained glass windows that a Californian artist will paint, but the win-dows will not be finished until this summer. A feature already complete is the new bell tower. In addition to in-dicating the time, it will be used with the organ to play hymns.

Inside, a major new reno-

vation is the Great Room that the choir will use. The entrance to this room is on the east side, behind the or-gan. It is about the same size as the current choir room, but features additional rooms for Mrs. Nielsen’s of-fice, a practice room, and a

bathroom. The choir room is a good

foot lower than the main floor of the chapel, and so in order to comply with ADA regulations developers built a small elevator that will al-low paraplegics to go from the choir room to the main

chapel. The elevator costs $15,000.

The chapel will feature the same or-gan we origi-nally had with a few updates.

“We’ve cut the pipes that run through the ground that haven’t been used in a while, and we installed fiber-optic cables to transport the messages from the organ,”

Mr. Sheldon said.The organ pipes will re-

main on the west side of the chapel, but they will sit further back into the wall. The organ is the main reason that the chapel was behind schedule. There are over a thousand parts to the or-gan, ranging from the length of a few inches to a couple feet. These parts were stored in the Pool and Spa Ware-house. Because it is so old, there are only a few men around the country who can still build this type of organ.

Also, the front of the cha-pel has been enlarged; the space under the organ has been extended to provide another row of seats. The pews in which the choir and Student Council usually sit will be replaced with chairs.

“The reason behind the chairs is that so, for special events like choir and orches-tra concerts, the performers can have extra space by mov-

ing the chairs,” Mr. Sheldon said.

There are new offices for the chaplains, a changing room, and a room to store communion, called a sacris-ty. The sacristy has a special drain.

“In the Episcopal tradi-tion, once you take the wine and bless it, supposedly you can’t just throw it away,” Mr. Sheldon said. “So either the vicar has to drink it or they have to throw it down what’s called a piscina. The piscina doesn’t take the wine into the sewer system, but out-side into the grass.”

Since classes resumed af-ter spring break, the chapel has re-opened and been in full use for Upper, Middle and Lower Division chapel services. The graduation cer-emony will take place out-side the chapel this year, as-suming it does not rain. The new chapel will be a great addition to the campus.

Casady provides helping hand for Habitat for Humanity[continued from page 1]

Baring the cold for serviceOn Jan. 17, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a group of students and winter sports coaches participated in YAC’s annual Habitat for Humanity house framing project.

Adding to traditionOver the past year and a half St. Edward’s Chapel has been closed due to construction to complete the school’s founders’ original vision for the spiritual center of Casady School. Recently, the chapel re-opened its doors for chapel services.

One can worship God anywhere. At Casady School, we are

blessed to worship in a spacious and beautiful space made even more spacious

and beautiful by this renovation. How cool is that?

opinion

As many people know Casady School’s “sacred space” has been under construction for the last two years. Much like the people of Israel, who wandered

in the desert for 40 years and looked with hopeful anticipation at their arrival into the promised land;

we as a community have been within our own desert place and now we look with that same hopeful

anticipation as we arrive into our “sacred place”, St. Edward Chapel. We are very excited about the

re-opening of the St. Edward’s Chapel; it is the very heart of Casady Community.

Rev. Charles Blizzard, Head Chaplain

Mr. Sonny Varela,Assistant Chaplain

Why are you excited about having chapel services back in St. Ed-ward’s Chapel

YAC’s house framing project did not on MLK Day, though. It is an ongoing process that Casady students will continue to participate in. In early Febru-ary, students assisted with deck-ing, painting and sheet rock, moving on to interior painting and landscaping in the spring. With the Casady community on board with this project, the results are promising.

campusNEWS

MY

April 4, 2011 3the CRIER


Honors Chemistry is a class designed to intensely challenge each student willing to take on the daunting tasks of nightly home-work, constant quizzes and tests, and complicated labs and their write-ups. With a curriculum rang-ing from the basics of scientific no-tation and conversion factors to the more advanced concepts of elec-tron configurations, stoichiometry, and even organic chemistry, Ms. Julieta Zesiger not only prepares her students to become solid chem-ists, but teaches them multiple life lessons along the way, such as the necessity of strong study habits and the importance of paying attention to detail.

One element of the course that truly teaches and tests the student is the blue crystal lab. Implemented into the curriculum a while back, the lab begins with a tiny piece of copper sulfate and asks each student to create a large, beautiful crystal solely from his or her knowledge about heat and solutions.

“The blue crystal lab is a discov-ery lab where students can apply the scientific method. With mini-mum instructions given to start the activity, students will figure out how to grow the blue crystal. Students may have challenges like the crystal dissolves or the crystal breaks and they have to figure out what to do to solve the problems,” Ms. Zesiger said.

Students start the lab during one lab period and, after that, are allowed to work on it during cer-tain free periods for a few weeks. Each crystal is required to be at least a certain size, but many stu-dents choose to go above and be-yond this minimum, in hopes of constructing something Ms. Zesi-ger brags about for years to come and/or receiving extra credit to

boost his or her grade. However, achieving this requires

a ton of time, causing a student to give up another hour of valuable sleep and other time throughout the school day usually spent work-ing on homework or socializing with friends. Initially, a student hypothesizes and experiments with the ratio of copper sulfate to wa-ter in the solution and the tem-perature and amount of time the solution needs to be heated. After figuring this out, each student has to contemplate how long the solu-tion “feeds” or causes the crystal to grow for before needing to be re-prepared.

Ultimately, the process becomes a virtually never-ending cycle, which tests the patience and ques-tions the dedication of each stu-dent.

“The lab takes up a lot of time. At first, its really annoying going in the mornings, but after some time, you become oddly close with ev-eryone else who is experiencing the misery,” senior Olivia Branscum said.

Most students believe without devoting themselves to the lab and withstanding its multiple frustrat-ing mishaps, they would have never been able to discover the necessities for success.

“The thing I learned the most was persistence, which caused me to stumble across the right com-bination for a super saturated so-lution. If I hadn’t been quite so dogged in my pursuit of the perfect solution, I wouldn’t have created such a nice crystal,” junior Zainab Shakir said.

Crystals are categorized depend-ing upon their size and structure. Those that are extremely large tend to be poly-crystals comprised of many tiny, ridged crystals, causing them to be not as beautiful as those that are smaller, which are usually

better defined. Mono-crystals are rare due to the extreme persistence required in mak-ing a difficult solution.

This past winter trimester, multiple honors chemistry students lived out this expe-rience filled with trial and er-ror to create crystals of vari-ous shapes and beauty.

“This year’s class grew sev-eral large and beautiful crys-tals. More students this year compared to previous years spent their early mornings and B Blocks to “feed” crys-tals. No crystal this year is less than the minimum size. I think they did a great job,” Ms. Zesiger said.

Although none were as large as those grown by Luke Chaffin ‘09 and Jawad Cho-han ‘09 or quite as fine-look-ing as Clark Moehlenbrock’s ‘08 mono-crystal, many crys-tals stood out amongst those of recent years. Freshman Tsu Kreidler grew the largest crys-tal, weighing over 20 lbs., and junior Will Tilghman created a beautiful mono-crystal.

On Feb. 22, Ms. Zesiger and the Honors Chemistry classes hosted the annual Blue Day during B-block to celebrate the students’ hard work and display the crys-tals for the entire school to see. Past and present hon-ors chemistry students wore their class-designed blue t-shirts and everyone enjoyed an array of tasty blue snacks.

“Aside from enjoying the blue treats, the school community saw that the honors chemistry students can achieve their goal to grow crys-tals with hard work and they can have fun at the same time,” Ms. Zesiger said.

Like recent years, students en-

joyed participating in the lab.“Although it took several weeks,

the blue crystal lab was especially interesting because we grew large and colorful crystals out of noth-ing but liquid solution,” freshman Defne Altan said.

Students again liked learning how to create different copper sul-fate solutions.

“My favorite part of the lab was

experimenting with copper sulfate and discovering much about the substance and the various solu-tions,” sophomore Clark Higgan-botham said.

Hopefully, future students will continue to diligently work to cre-ate many amazing crystals and take away life lessons along the way.

Admiring hard workDuring the Blue Day celebration, sophomores Clarissa Jones, Hanna Kimpel, and Claire Vick look at the two largest crystals this year, which were made by freshman Tsu Kreidler and sophomore Rebekah Davis.

Tsu Kreidler, senior

Rebekah Davis, sophomore

Will Tilghman, junior

The Crier highlights three superb crystals picked by Ms. Zesiger

Crystal Weight: .17669 kg.38953 lbs.Dimensions:9x9x3 cmTime spent:B-block everyday,approx. 10 hrs

Joy Rizzo Fluffy

Crystal Weight: 5.52495 kg12.18043 lbs.Dimensions:15x15x17 cmTime spent:80 mins everyday,approx. 20 hrs

I like my crystalbecause it’s the best mono-crystal.

It’s very smooth and does not have many imperfections.

Crystal Weight: 9.14381 kg20.15865 lbs.Dimensions:20x20x20 cmTime spent:80 mins everyday,approx. 20 hrs

I spent somuch time on my crystal

because I wanted to get extra credit and Blue Day was something I’ve

been waiting for.

It was fun.You couldn’t tell much growth

from day to day, but frombeginning to end it was

cool to see it grow.

Blue crystal lab emphasizes challenging curriculum, teaches meaningful life lessons

campusNEWS

4 April 4, 2011the CRIER campusNEWS

Hands-on field trip teaches studentsKelsey JonesNews Co-editor

There is not much of anything when driving north on I-35. How-ever, the Geology and AP Biology students knew that after a three-hour drive with little scenery there was an exciting field trip to experi-

ence.Hutchinson, Kansas is home

to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum, a working salt mine that produces the majority of the na-tion’s salt used to de-ice roadways. Students were able to go 650 feet underground to a museum that was next to an active mine.

“I thought it was really cool how we were surrounded by salt on every side,” senior Aamina Shakir said.

The entire museum was com-posed of salt. Everything from the ceiling to the floor was all made of salt. The museum was originally part of the working mine that visi-tors could tour. However, the min-ers had to stop their work so that tourists would not get injured. The museum was then created so that workers could continue mining while visitors toured the museum.

Students and faculty alike en-

joyed all that the salt mines had to offer.

“The trip went very smoothly. Not only do I think that the kids enjoyed it but I also think that the faculty really enjoyed themselves as well,” Geology teacher Dr. Michael Lewchuk said.

It is obvious the reason why a Geology class would want to visit a salt mine, but not many people know that there is also a biological reason for visiting the mine.

“There are actually bacteria cells that live in the salt mines. These bacteria helped scientists to deter-mine the age of the Earth because they were the first evolutionary bacteria. This was the primary rea-son that I wanted the AP Biology students to go on this trip,” AP Biology teacher Ms. Julieta Zesiger said.

Students asked about the field trip gave overwhelmingly positive

reactions.“I liked the salt straws at the end

of the tour. I also liked that we got to choose our own pieces of salt to take home from the mine,” senior Tory Smith said.

Some students were also fasci-nated by the history surrounding the mine.

“I thought the history of the mine was really interesting because it goes back billions of years when Kansas was covered by an ocean,” Shakir said.

The Underground Museum also offered visitors a “dark ride,” a ride through the mine to see what the workers experience when min-ing for salt. The museum also had a gift shop where students could purchase souvenirs to remember their experience from the trip. The shop offered T-shirts, shot glasses, pieces of salt, key chains, and salt-water taffy.

“I got to go on a dark ride, and I bought Mr. Miano a shot glass! I really enjoyed the trip!” junior Klancy Brown said.

The trip to the Kansas Under-ground Salt Museum was a memo-rable field trip for all involved. It was a trip different than any other field trip that students have expe-rienced.

“It was a great experience for the kids because it was something that they wouldn’t normally do in a high school setting. I would defi-nitely do it again,” Dr. Lewchuk said.

Although there may not be much in Hutchinson, Kansas, the Kansas Underground Salt Mu-seum provided memories for the students that they will treasure for years to come.


When someone steps foot on Casady School, most likely one of the first thoughts that passes through his or her mind is about the beauty of the campus. Rang-ing many acres with numer-ous trees, a lake and multiple academic and athletic facili-ties, it certainly is no simple undertaking to maintain the campus at such a high quality. Yet, a group of of-ten unheralded heroes, the maintenance and grounds crew, thoroughly labors in order to put the school and its students in the best pos-sibly position to succeed.

Under the direction of Mr. Randy Fresonke, Plant Manager, the maintenance and grounds crew are re-sponsible for preparing vir-tually everything seen on campus.

“Our main responsibil-ity is to keep a good name and reputation for Casady. This begins with having everything available and ready for teachers, students and Casady events,” Mr. Fresonke said.

The crew breaks into three separate branches: maintenance, grounds cus-todial, and security. Each of these branches has spe-cialized workers focused on specific tasks assigned to them based upon their skills. However, although each de-partment has multiple rou-tine, or even daily, duties, the vastness of the campus and the immense amount of people present on campus each school day create new

necessities quite often.“Maintenance focuses on

work orders, such as repair-ing light fixtures, woodwork and wielding. In the sum-mer, grounds’ top priority is the irrigation of campus to keep it looking good and working well. They also take care of preparing for activi-ties through furniture mov-ing. Custodial cleans up,” Mr. Fresonke said.

Currently, there are three maintenance workers, five grounds keepers, eleven cus-todians and three in-house security guards on staff. Nearly all of their work, ap-proximately 99 percent, is done in-house, either in the Service Building or at site on campus depending upon the needs of the project.

“The job is so diversified. Plumbing, air conditioning, heating, electrical, physi-cal appearance and grounds maintenance and repair are all things that need to be tak-en care of each day,” grounds keeper James Lang said.

The maintenance and grounds crew is always ready to tackle anything nature throws at it. Recently in early Feb., when Oklahoma was covered by much snow and ice, they pulled out all available options to clear hazardous parking lots and walkways as completely and quickly as possible.

“In preparation for the storms, we did several things. The day before the first one, we rented an extra bobcat, the size of the walks for easier snow removal. We ordered two extra pallets of ice melt. We also pre loaded all the four-wheel drive vehi-

cles with shov-els, ice melt and spreaders. I also asked the Smith and Pickel construc-tion foreman to let us use his bobcat, which he did. The second storm was about the same except we hired a front end loader to clear the front two parking lots and part of the road,” Mr. Fresonke said.

After getting all the tools in place and ready for action, the job required many manual labor hours, es-pecially consid-ering the flooding in Primary Division and other problems in W.R. Johnston Building.

“Once the storms hit, it was mostly physical labor and trying to keep warm. The temperature for the sec-ond storm was lower, which gave us the most problems with Primary pipes freezing and also the fire system in the Johnston building. We spent at least 72 man hours and some contract help cleaning up Primary,” Mr. Fresonke said.

Many students have been impressed with the job the crew has done after snow and ice hit this year and throughout the past.

“The maintenance and grounds group on campus is really impressive because

they clear all of the side-walks and parking lots from ice and snow quickly so that we could get around safely. It’s really great to have them around to help,” senior Liz Brindley said.

The crew also performs a tedious, yearlong upkeep of all athletic fields and gyms. In preparing Hoot Gibson Field for a home football game, it becomes an entire maintenance and grounds crew team effort, considering the amount of painting and outlining numbers involved. Taking care of Perri Field, the baseball field, however, is more of a one to two man job supervised by grounds supervisor Mark Coate.

“There is a sense of sat-isfaction seeing kids playing

on a nice kid. I love being outside, not in an office. That’s why this job fits me,” Mr. Coate said.

Casady athletes notice the amount of time spent preparing the fields and feel the fields are amongst the best they play on in Okla-homa and SPC.

“Our grounds crew really does a great job keeping the fields nice and looking good. They spoil us too because our fields are nicer than most of the other fields we play on thanks to their work,” senior Connor Morrison said.

The maintenance and grounds crew feels this type of recognition helps them know that people truly do care about the extreme time and detail they spend around

campus.“It’s nice to see kids appre-

ciate what we do. It causes us to enjoy the place we work at and take pride in our work. It’s a fun atmosphere and a great place to work,” Mr. Lang said.

Ultimately, without peo-ple like Mr. Fresonke and his entire staff, Casady School would not be the beautiful place it is today.

“Our grounds crew and maintenance staff work harder than any crew I’ve had the pleasure to work with. Everyday you see the fruits of their labors and our campus is truly one of the most beautiful places in the city,” Mr. Chris Bright, Head of School, said.

Working to preserve CasadyBehind the scenes, maintenance and grounds crew keep the campus running

“There are actually

bacteria that live

in salt mines.

These bacteria

helped scientists to

determine the age of

the Earth...”

–Ms. Zesiger

Casady Maintenance and Grounds CrewFront Row: Mark Coate, Gerard Leon, Casey Stonestreet, Carmen Snyder, John Stonestreet, Jerry GalleglyBack Row: James Lang, Randy Fresonke (Director of Physical Plant), G, Troy Smith

April 4, 2011 5the CRIERcampusNEWS

Service demonstrates King’s impactCaitlin AndersonStaff Writer

This year, Casady students participated in volunteer projects to observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

“On MLK Day, many Cyclones turned a day off from school into a day ON ser-vice,” Mrs. Carmen Clay, Director of Service Learning, said.

This year the Youth and Adult Advisory and Action Council (YAC) encouraged activ-ity and awareness through a special speakers series as well as volunteer opportunities on campus. Leading up to MLK Day, Casady students had the opportunity to listen to inspirational stories and thoughts from four different sources in chapel.

Dr. Gloria Pollard described her experi-ences as a young lady during the Civil Rights Movement and asked students to imagine what this world would be like without the brave battles taken up by every day people. Dr. Cheryl Steele greeted students and ap-

plauded them in their volunteer endeavors and efforts to make a better world starting from within the school.

YAC also presented Ms. Amy Petty, a survivor of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing. Ms. Petty shared her ex-periences and memories of the tragic day and described the realizations the event brought her, encouraging students to seek to serve and live each day to its fullest.

To end the series, Casady welcomed Mr. Robert Henry, Oklahoma City University president. Mr. Henry focused on the signifi-cance of Dr. King’s final public talk, the fa-mous Mountain Top Speech.

When MLK Day finally arrived, students worked eagerly within each project that best suited their hopes and concerns.

“Even though I had to wake-up early in the morning and drive all the way to school on a cold morning, it was worth it,” fresh-man Salman Hamid, YAC facilitator of the Green Team YES opportunity, said.

The Green team met with experts to learn how to help make Casady’s campus more energy efficient and improve its classroom environments.

“We learned about our carbon footprint and ways I can improve it like having a com-post bin and a garden and recycling more,” sixth grader Emma Richmond said.

Casady Upper Division students also worked with elementary children in Gaylord Student Center to make healthy snacks for Boys & Girls Club of America. Many of these students also participated in reading for the visually impaired. Students were taught how to record tapes while reading stories. These stories will then be donated for the visually impaired to enjoy.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was certainly a success with an amazing effort by students in individual and group projects to work to-wards a better tomorrow.

“Every little thing counts, and if we do more things every day, we can change the

world,” sixth grader Cathy Zesiger said. With efforts from enthusiastic Casady

students, the world is sure to change for the best.

StuCo, Logos Coffeehouse proves successful for charityLiz BrindleyEntertainment Co-editor

With the holidays quickly ap-proaching and the weather taking a turn toward the colder side during the three weeks between Thanks-giving and Winter break, students and faculty were beginning to get into the winter spirit. Decorating buildings, bundling up, and taking naps next to the fireplace in the li-brary could be seen on campus, but

something new was also brewing. Student Council and Logos

teamed up to create the First An-nual StuCo/Logos Coffeehouse. The event was created to begin rais-ing money for Habitat for Human-ity, Student Council’s charity for the year, to give publicity to Logos, and to provide the school with a fun and relaxing evening before the holiday break. The Coffeehouse took place on Thursday, Dec. 16,

in Gaylord Student Center. “I loved that it was entirely

student-planned and that everyone showed up and was so supportive of the cause and the performers. That attitude really made it a great night,” senior Olivia Branscum, Logos Editor in-Chief.

Many students signed up to participate by playing their music or reciting poetry. Acts included freshman Jasmine

Shoureh reciting one of her poems, juniors Chandler Helms and Hilary Hamm performing Priscilla Re-nea’s “Dollhouse,” and seniors Ted Moock and Mitchell Manar doing a rendition of “Bad Romance” with piano and cello.

“It was great to hear the ap-plause and cheers after every act. I didn’t expect that many people to show up and I was really excited to see them all enjoying it so much,” Moock said.

Students from throughout high school contributed to the mix of acts.

“It was great to perform in such an informal setting, and delicious treats just made it better! It was a really fun way to help Habitat for Humanity,” junior Zainab Shakir said.

The students really did enjoy it, with many saying that they would love to have at least one more Cof-feehouse before the year ends.

“A lot of people seemed to re-gret being unable to attend, so I think we should have another Cof-feehouse for them—and of course, because it was the most fun I’ve had in a while,” Branscum said.

In order to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, there was a charge at the door as well as dona-

tion boxes. The coffee shop in the student center, Rich Beans, also donated its profits of the holiday treats sold that night to Habitat for Humanity. Overall, the event raised around $900, exciting both faculty and students involved with the planning of the event.

“I’m very proud of our accom-plishment, but I know this is just one step towards raising the amount of money we need to raise,” senior Nathan Prabhu, StuCo Secretary, said.

Other students were also en-couraged by the event.

“The money we raised was pretty amazing for a totally student planned event, and it seems like a great start,” freshman Elizabeth Branscum said.

So, after a night filled with two hours of wonderful music, perfor-mances, conversations, and holi-day spirit, StuCo and Logos have already discussed the idea of plan-ning at least one more Coffeehouse before the year is over in hopes of another success.

SNOWPOCALYPSE[continued from page 1]

“I think we’re all a little behind, but in my case a couple of doubles after the break and we should be where we need to be.”–Mr. Robert Wiley

Singing with passionWith senior Mitchell Manar on guitar, seniors Ryan Flesher and Cornelia Prior sing “It’s Christmas and I Hate You” by Paloma Faith and Josh Weller at StuCo/Logos Coffeehouse in Dec. Due to its success, the clubs are planning another coffeehouse for May.

Lending a helping voiceSenior Caitlin Anderson reads a story to some children as part of YAC’s MLK Day of Service.

Scan this tag using Tag Reader to view a video of

the coffeehouse.The video is also

accessible through YouTube by searching

‘casadycrier’.

time on Sundays in order to cover all necessary material.

“I think we’re all a little behind, but in my case a couple of doubles after the break and we should be where we need to be,” Mr. Robert Wiley, AP Government and AP US History teacher, said.

Still, some students feel the snow days will have little to no affect on their AP scores.

“We need more snow days because we will ace those APs anyway,” senior Filip Holy said.

Winter SPC Championships, held Feb. 11 and 12 in Houston, TX, was also affected by the snowstorms. Although Houston was not buried in snow, the threat of teams being snowed in Oklahoma

City by the second wave of storms, unable to travel to the tournament, caused them to depart earlier than originally planned.

“The reasoning was two-fold. If the second storm was as intense as the first we may never get out of the parking lot until it would be too late to compete in the season-ending SPC Tournament and it was the right thing to do, the right and proper way to finish the season for those participants and programs who had been held ‘at bay’ with cancelled games and practices from the previous storm,” Mr. Steve Shelley, Athletic Director, said.

Leaving after school on Tuesday Feb. 8 instead of the morning of Thursday Feb. 10, the basketball

and soccer teams spent an extra two days and nights in Houston, using this time to practice, study, and relax at the Houston Galleria.

“The trip was very fun with the extra days. We had time to relax and do some things around town rather than ride in the bus the day before. I think it allowed us to be more rested for SPC,” senior Mason Roberts said.

Preparation for the then-upcoming production of “Into the Woods” was also affected by the storms. Due to the lost rehearsal time, all involved initially feared the production dates would need to be pushed back, allowing more opportunities for the cast to fully master their parts. However, the

crew quickly organized and was still able to perform on the originally scheduled days, Feb. 17-19.

“The two weeks of snow days took away several days of crucial practice, so much so that we almost pushed the shows performance dates back until after spring break. But after weighing our options and assessing the show, we decided to go for it at the original dates and I’m very proud to say that we pulled it off!” senior Ted Moock said.

As the school year advances, the storms’ continuing impact begins to dwindle. Yet, those first weeks of Feb. will most certainly be remembered by much of the Casady community and Oklahoma for years to come.


Staff reveals survey dataNathan Prabhu and Eric KaplanFeatures Editor and Editor in-Chief

What’s Academic Enrich-ment? Are leggings in uniform? What does “honors” algebra mean? Why can’t I go off campus during my off?

These questions are the prod-uct of the turbulent state of the Upper Division handbook. The Crier staff chose to focus on four sensitive topics from the handbook: schedule, dress code, grading scale, and off campus. Although not every change falls into these categories, these issues play a crucial role in student life. More and more, the administra-tion has tried to institute change in these and similar policies that characterize life in the Upper Di-vision, and the upcoming school year will only follow the trend.

The Crier staff decided to conduct an anonymous survey to evaluate the policy changes made to the Upper Division handbook over the past two years. We used a simple random sample to poll twenty percent of the student body in the sophomore, junior, and senior classes, and we also polled all teachers who have taught for more than four years. These students and teachers have had the most experience in the Upper Division, and therefore we felt they were the most quali-fied to evaluate the changes.

With a 50 percent response rate overall, the results are as fol-lows: on a scale of 1–5, the survey asked how strongly those polled agreed with the administration’s changes over the past few years, one being the least and five be-ing the most. The average rating from students was 2.83, and the average rating for teachers was 2.33. The data reveal general dis-approval.

To further understand what faculty and students like and dislike about the changes, we asked them their opinions about specific policies. Also, in a series of multiple interviews, the Crier staff asked the administration for their reaction regarding these

opinions and their overall feel-ings regarding the Upper Divi-sion handbook and policy.

Exam weighting system. The number one most popu-lar change was the new exam weighting system that decreased the percentage of exams from 33 percent to 20 percent on a stu-dent’s trimester grade.

“I like the exam grading sys-tem because it doesn’t destroy your grade if you do badly,” one student said.

As of now, there are no plans to revise this new weighting system. However, a minority of those surveyed complained that lowering the importance of fi-nals does not prepare students adequately for college. Mr. Peter Huestis, Director of Upper Divi-sion, responded that many peo-ple would be surprised about the weight of exams in college.

“More and more college class-es don’t even offer an exam,” Mr. Huestis said. “I think that the process behind getting ready for an exam—the study skills, learn-ing how to see your teacher for help—are much more important than whether the exam is worth 33 or 20 percent.”

Other recent changes made to the grading system include the weighted GPA. For the follow-ing school year, even more classes will be weighted. As a whole, this new system seems to be designed to help raise the average student’s GPA.

Schedule. A touchier subject was the schedule. While students seem to be split evenly on the is-sue, it is the number one most disliked change according to teachers.

“It is the worst schedule we’ve ever had. It hurts academics, or-chestra, choir, and is leaving way too much time to do nothing for many students,” another sur-veyed person said.

With the lack of passing pe-riods, classes have shrunk from their set 42 minutes to approxi-mately 38 minutes. No second bell signals the start of class, and teachers are never sure about how to deal with tardy students. For

the most part, teachers have re-signed to waiting for their entire class to show up at the expense of wasting valuable class time.

Music classes especially feel the time crunch. The longer dis-tance students have to walk in or-der to get to the music building makes passing time close to five minutes. Also, because music is at the end of the day, many stu-dents make trips to their lockers to pack their bags. By the time all the students arrive, there is only 35 minutes left of class time.

Administrators are fully aware of the problems behind this schedule. Headmaster Mr. Chris Bright has formulated a sched-uling committee comprised of few key faculty members repre-senting academics, athletics, and fine arts. No students are on the committee.

“The committee will focus on giving the things that are pri-orities and part of the mission at Casady School the time they need to be successful,” Mr. Hues-tis said.

There is little chance that any major change will be put in place for next year, and any schedule this committee agrees upon would start in the 2012-13 school year.

Dress Code. The dress code was the second most disagreed upon policy according to teach-ers, while it was split evenly amongst students.

“In order to avoid fixing a dress code problem, the admin-istration has created an even big-ger problem by trying to change it when all they would need to do is enforce it,” a student said.

Enforcement seems to be the central criticism behind the dress code, and the fact that many of the rules are not clearly defined complicates the situation fur-ther.

“Rules don’t mean much without enforcement,” a teacher said.

The administration has heard these complaints, but they main-tain that they are keeping stu-dents in dress code. However, there is no one case that fits all.

“I might tell a person to tuck their shirt four times and not give a demerit, or I might a tell a person once and give them a demerit. There’s not a system in place,” Mr. Peña, Dean of Upper Division Students, said.

For girls, their entire outfit may be out of uniform, so Mr. Peña must decide whether to send them home, and therefore let them get a grade no higher than a C on any work they miss, or instead just give them a warn-ing. Plus, it can be embarrassing for a girl to be confronted in front of her peers. Most often they are told they are out of uni-form in private, and, depending on the time of day, a young lady might be sent home or just get a warning.

Off-campus policy. Students disagreed the most with the new off-campus policy.

“Being able to go off when-ever we wanted was a privilege, and we didn’t do anything to get that privilege taken from us,” a student said.

For a while at Casady School, juniors and seniors had been able to leave campus during any of their free periods. The admin-istration took this privilege away but gave all students an extended lunch period on their off-campus days.

“We took the teacher’s con-cern that kids were missing too much, and took the student’s concern that students were not having enough time to go off campus, and we synthesized it,” Mr. Peña said. “Personally, I think we gave the students a bit more than they realize.”

Last fall, representatives from Student Council brought a pro-posal to the administration, ask-ing if seniors in good academic standing could go off during their free periods. However, the proposal was ultimately denied. The administration seems pretty set on keeping a closed campus except for lunch periods on priv-ilege days.

POLICYchangesWhat administrative changes

do you most agree with?What administrative changes

do you most disagree with?

Rating for changes to the Upper Division Handbook.

(1 - least and 5 - strongest)

Students: Exam Weighting System Dress Code &

Schedule

2.9

Teachers: Exam Weighting System Schedule 2.3

WHAT THEY SAIDAnonymous

student and teacher quotes from the Crier editorial survey

“There was no discussion. 33 percent on final is actually a boost to many students’ grades.”

–Anonymous

Exam weighting system:

“Although I do like how my exams are only worth 20 percent instead of 33 and a third percent of my final grade, it is not beneficial in preparing us for college, since exams in most colleges count for a large percentage of a person’s grade. After all, isn’t Casady suppose to be a ‘college-preparatory school’?”

–Student “The 20 percent exam weight is more in line with most colleges. The exam grade should not overwhelm good daily work habits.”

–Teacher Schedule:

“Class time is too piecemeal; the schedule is designed to accommodate a lot but needs work.”

–Teacher

“I feel like the schedule is crafted to allow the most time for students to be well-rounded, and that is so important. Please don’t change it.”

–Student “It is the worst schedule we’ve ever had— it hurts academics, orchestra, choir and is leaving way too much time to do nothing for many students.”

–Anonymous

Dress Code:“Dress code regulations are not enforced.”

–Teacher

“The girls dress code is alright because they can get away with whatever but it’s not very fair for the boys.”

–Student“Good that boys don’t have to wear coat and tie to lunch.”

–Anonymous

Off-campus policy:“Increased structure and less off campus time leaves more time for student-teacher interaction.”

–Teacher “I hate not being able to go off during my off. As a senior I find it revolting.”

–Student

InDepthFEATURES


Students express mixed feelings about Valentine’s DayTory SmithStaff Writer

Valentine’s Day has tradition-ally been an opportunity for people to show their special someone how much they mean to them.

“It is a day of giving, to show how much you love your husband or family,” Basic Chemistry teacher Mrs. Lucila Taucer said.

Held annually on February 14, the day was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. Girls and guys alike receive candy, chocolate, flowers, and cards. The beauty of Valentine’s Day is that people of all ages can enjoy giving gifts to each other, not just the typical romanc-ers in their teens and twenties. And whether platonic or romantic, Val-entine’s Day incorporates all kinds of love.

Students around campus shared mixed feelings about what to do on Valentine’s Day. Some felt disheart-ened this past Feb. when they did not have a girlfriend or boyfriend to share the day with.

“It’s not fun to get separated on Valentine’s Day,” senior Man Chao Ding said.

Others were more amused than saddened by the idea of spending the day single.

“My favorite thing about Val-entine’s Day was when I went on YouTube and watched Cee Lo Green’s video, “Forget You.” All the comments said ‘This is going to be my new Valentine’s Day anthem’,” senior Aamina Shakir said.

Some felt in order to experience the true meaning of Valentine’s Day one needs to have someone to spend it with

“In my opinion Valentine’s Day can only be enjoyed if you have a significant other,” senior Kelsey Jones said.

However, some students’ plans to celebrate the day of love did not require a sweetheart.

“I’m gonna watch horror mov-ies with my friend,” said senior Ann Malherbe.

Others were apathetic about the

holiday. “Roses are red, violets are blue,

I don’t care,” said sophomore Char-lie Kuhalnl.

Some even viewed Valentine’s Day as not highlight-worthy.

“I don’t even remember what I did on Valentine’s Day,” senior Al-izay Paracha said.

Others appreciated Valentine’s Day for a reason other than human love.

“I wish it was on a school day so that I could receive chocolates!” junior Khadija Hamid said.

Senior Madison Lucas agreed. “I like having an excuse to eat

chocolate all day,” she said.Some had a different idea of

what makes for an enjoyable Val-entine’s Day.

“My Valentine’s Day was nice and sweet, but at the same time laid back. Like a relaxing day off,” senior Reshawn Lawrence said.

Others have various traditions associated with the day due their ethnicity or culture.

“Valentine’s Day in Korea is a similar celebration, girls give chocolate to boys. However, there is also “White Day” on March 14, when boys give candy to girls,” se-nior Leah Lee said.

Various symbols have come to be associated with Valentine’s Day and love in general. Perhaps the most well known is the heart. Busi-nesses have made good use of this, by manufacturing heart-shaped anything: conversation hearts, diamonds, cards, stuffed animals, confetti, streamers, and the all-important chocolate boxes.

“Love is like a box of chocolates. I’d say Forrest Gump would agree,” senior Rebecca Roach said.

Some would argue that com-panies have exploited these sym-bols, turning Valentine’s Day into a “Hallmark holiday” when people are expected to buy flowers and gifts to express how much they love each other. Jewelry stores in partic-ular have created lines of necklaces, bracelets and rings to appeal to

enamored shoppers. Kay Jewelers “Open Heart” collection is a well-known example.

While it’s true that people often get caught up in buying gifts, they do so out of love for others. Val-entine’s Day will always lend itself to those who love someone else and want to let them know.

MYopinionWhat do you most look for-ward to in the spring

Natalie Robinson, freshman

Meredith Mills, sophomore

Garrison Lee, junior

Hannah Denson, senior

Ms. Joanne Infantino,UD Academic Dean

I’m lookingforward to golf

season.

I’m lookingforward to the warm

weather and being ableto wear skirts and

dresses.

I’m lookingforward to the beautiful

spring weather that allows us togo outside and spread the joy.

It makes everyone so muchhappier.

I’mlooking forward toISAS because I’venever been before.

AP exams!I get to drive the golf

cart, and also, it meanssummer is almost

here.

Music ensembles demonstrate ability to comprehend, perform high level piecesTed MoockEntertainment Co-editor

‘Twas the week before Christmas Break, and all through the school, every musician was stirring, to put on concerts that ruled. While the majority of Casady students were enjoying the laid-back period in between Thanksgiving and Christ-mas break, the musicians were hard at work preparing for their winter concerts.

Orchestra was up first. On Dec. 7 the high school and middle school orchestras combined to put on an amazing concert, which wowed the audience and got everyone in the Christmas spirit. The high school orchestra played three songs: “Lul-laby” by William Hofeldt, one of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and “Christmas Eve (Sara-jevo 12/24)” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

The Brandenburg is a piece at a difficulty level of that of a 6A sized orchestra, and is even rarely per-formed by such big groups. How-ever, Mr. Larry Moore believed the

orchestra could tackle the piece, and tackle it they did. When the ensemble played that piece in Dis-trict contest, they achieved a supe-rior rating.

However, arguably the most exciting piece of the night was the popular Trans-Siberian Orchestra song.

“Christmas Eve/Sarajevo was sick. Ronnie and Mitchell sound-ed awesome on guitar, and it was great to ‘rock out’ on the violin for a change,” senior Nathan Prabhu said.

The crowd certainly thought so as well. By the end of the number the orchestra had the audience on their feet.

A few days later, on Dec. 12, the annual Lessons and Carols Christ-mas service allowed the choir to tell the Christmas story through traditional Christmas songs and hymns. Songs like “Once in Royal David’s City,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and “Carol From an Irish Cabin” put the audience in a Christmas mood. The Men’s

Quartet also performed an a cap-pella, jazzed up version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and the change on a traditional classic was a refreshing one.

The very next day, the poinset-tias and choir risers were replaced with marimbas, tympanies, and snare drums. The Winter Percus-sion concert took place on Dec. 13, giving the middle and high school percussion ensembles a chance to perform the pieces that they had been working on for the first half of the year.

Among the songs played were “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” by G.F. Handel and “Fanfare for Percussion” by Jeffery D. Grubbs. Both pieces were very difficult and intricate but the high school per-cussionists performed them very well. Under Mr. Adam Bruce, the ensemble will continue hard at work preparing new pieces for con-test, ISAS, and their end of the year concert.

On Dec. 15, the Casady Winds and Jazz Ensembles put on a rock-

in’ winter concert. The UD Winds Ensemble played five technically difficult pieces that really made the musicians work. The combination of trombone, trumpet, saxophone, flute, bass guitar, and occasional percussion makes the ensemble have a very distinct and unique sound.

Many of the members of the Winds ensemble also play in the UD Jazz Band, which closed out the night with awesome performances, such as “Don’t Change Horses” by Tower of Power, “Bloody Well Right” by Supertramp, and “Sun-day Morning” by Maroon 5.

“I think we played really well in the concert and I can’t wait to do more performances later this year!” senior Max Blumenthal said.

After all the winter concerts were over, the music did not stop. On Dec. 16, the Student Council held a coffeehouse in the student center to raise money for Habi-tat for Humanity. Over a dozen Casady students performed, and the performances included poetry

readings, mashups, duets, and even a piano and cello instrumental cov-er of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”

A large portion of the high school showed up to watch and support Habitat for Humanity, creating an energetic audience for the talented performers.

“Coffeehouse rocked my world!” junior Molly Brown said in a Face-book status update after the show.

It was an awesome week of win-ter concerts and performances and one of the best weeks of music that Casady has ever seen.

Scan this tag using Tag Reader to view a video collaboration of clips from winter concerts and chapel performances.The video is also accessible through YouTube by searching ‘casadycrier’.

“Love is like a box of chocolates. I’d say Forrest Gump would agree.”

—Rebecca Roach,senior

POLICYchangesWhat administrative changes

do you most agree with?What administrative changes

do you most disagree with?

Rating for changes to the Upper Division Handbook.

(1 - least and 5 - strongest)

Students: Exam Weighting System Dress Code &

Schedule

2.9

Teachers: Exam Weighting System Schedule 2.3

specialFEATURES


Maia KaplanStaff Writer

What do a princess, a baker, and a young boy all have in common? They were all characters in the Upper Division’s recent production of Into the Woods, an entertaining, enrich-ing tale created by Stephen Sondheim and Jim Lapine.

This play was written as a metaphor for life. In it the characters from the Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tales are used to represent various phases of life. Each of these characters chooses to go into the woods in hope of finding his or her heart’s desire. Along the way they encounter many obstacles that force them to learn from their mistakes and grow into better people.

The process of putting on a play becomes a collaborative effort between teachers and students. Thereby, the theater becomes a natural venue for representing various problems that one might encounter in life.

“The reason that I am a director in educational theater is because of the rehearsal process. Whereas, professional the-ater focuses on the end result, I enjoy the problem solving

and exchanges that occur as the play unfolds. Anything that requires you to solve problems and consider things in ways that you have not is good for you,” director Mrs. Stephanie Crossno said.

In rehearsal, each cast member has to fully take on the persona of his or her character and understand the role he or she plays in portraying the underlying message of the story.

“The whole reason for doing theater is because human beings were born to be storytellers and that is an enormous part of who we are. I feel that we are social creatures and that the stage is the perfect place to really look at life. I am always fascinated by people’s lives and how they face the problems that they encounter,” Mrs. Crossno said.

Through the guidance of Mrs. Crossno, Ms. Lynn Tay-lor and Ms. Jeanmarie Nielsen, the talented and enthusiastic cast thoroughly animated each character and the entire story in an exciting way for the audience during each of the three performances. Even though there were no visible lead roles in the play, each member displayed his or her amazing talents from beginning to end.

The narrator of the story was junior Brannan Cross-no. Like a parent, his char-acter provided the guiding voice of the story.

“I tried to bring all of the fascination and suspense good narrators possess into every single line I delivered,” Crossno said.

Junior Emma Sharp re-lated to the triumphs and tribulations of her character, Cinderella.

“I really connected to my character in the second act when she told Little Red Riding Hood that no one is alone, no matter how awful things are at that moment. That was my favorite scene because it connected to real-ity,” Sharp said.

After working and laughing with his fellow cast mem-bers for months, senior Ted Moock, who played Cinderella’s Prince, enjoyed looking back upon the entire process.

“My fondest memory of the show was really seeing the whole thing just slowly come together. This show had a ton of small ensemble work and during tech week it just all worked out and fit together beautifully, seeing everyone’s characters develop was a very rewarding thing to be able to watch,” Moock said.

Jim Lapine intertwined each character in the play from the original Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tale. The first act was filled with wishes and hopes. The second act was a result of achieving what you thought that you desired. Sometimes wishes don’t always turn out the way one hoped and then there are consequences that change and challenge us. Ulti-mately, the cast of “Into the Woods” depicted Lapine’s deep-er meaning while adding their own exciting twist throughout each performance, causing the audience to connect with the personal journeys of the characters.

“Into the Woods, like most good pieces of lit-erature, will leave you with something to think about,” Mrs. Crossno said.

opinion

What scene truly personified your character

Allison Denton,“Little Red Riding Hood”

Teddy Nollert,“The Wolf”

Scotie Conner,“Rapunzel’s Prince”

Melissa Davis,“Jack’s Mom”

Mitchell Manar,“Jack”

I was skipping throughthe forest when Jack admires my

cape. I automatically get defensive andpull a knife on Jack! “Stay away from

my cape or I’ll slice you into athousand bits!

When the wolf encounters little red riding hood,

he doesn’t even make an effort to hide his nefarious plans, but turns his charm

all the way up in pursuit of his meal. That’s the essence of the wolf right there:

evil, slimy, not too bright, but likeable too..

The scene when Ted and I sing. It shows just how

melodramatic and ridiculously funny Rapunzel’s Prince is.

I think the scene where jack’s mom dies shows her true character because it shows how much she loves her son - even if

she can be mean tohim at times.

The scene I shared with Allison as

Little Red personified my “Jack” because it really illustrated the little kid in both of our

characters.

Inspired by the famous fairy tales, Into the Woods provides fun for Casady

Playing the part perfectlySenior Natasha Sanchez, junior Sydney Hood, sophomore Eliza Robertson, and juniors Tracey Burbank and Dalton Parrack take their places during a scene of Into the Woods.

What the future holdsSeniors Alex Horton (Baker’s Wife) and Ryan Flesher (Baker) listen closely to the words of senior Olivia Branscum (Witch), knowing she has the power to prevent their dream from com-ing true.

specialFEATURES


Technology essential to students

Kelsey JonesNews Co-editor

Students today live in a world full of technology, iPhones, laptops, SMART Boards, and thousands of applications can help make learn-ing a more meaningful experience. All across the country, teachers are looking for ways to incorporate this new technology into the classroom to better engage their students. Casady is no exception.

The technology gurus on cam-pus, Mr. Larry Bruce and Mr. Lorin Swenson, continue to equip Casady with the latest advances. For example, every Upper Divi-sion classroom is equipped with a SMART Board. The Middle Di-vision will also possess the same characteristic by the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.

However, only a few teachers use the SMART Boards effectively. Although there is a learning curve, most teachers are beginning to re-alize some advantages and trying to incorporate the board into every-day use.

“Technology is great. I find that I’m using my SMART Board more and more,” Dr. Jon Powell, English Department Head, said.

The network infrastructure also continues to be improved by ex-panding bandwidth.

Keeping up with such a fast-paced world is quite a challenge, but Casady is ready to take what-ever comes its way. Modern tech-nology has created a global com-munity of which Casady strives to be a part.

“Skyping” with other schools in

Turkey and France offers students unique opportunities to learn and interact with others.

As technology continues to progress, Casady must continue to find ways to stay current.

“I would really like to see Casady seriously look into getting laptops or iPads for their students. It would really reduce backpack weight, and students are much more comfortable with this type of device,” senior technology advisor Larry Bruce said.

Staying current in the technol-ogy sphere requires teachers to take the plunge and incorporate the ad-vancements in their classrooms.

“Some teachers are very open to the new technology, but some need more of a push to use it. I think that over time more and more teachers will stay current with the technology,” Mr. Bruce said.

While some teachers may find this technology baffling, others are thinking of new ways to incorpo-rate it into their classrooms in or-der to better engage students in a meaningful learning experience. Dr. Bonnie Gerard was among the first in the English Department to embrace the technology of this age.

Dr. Bonnie Gerard was inspired to use laptops in her classroom set-ting because she had an ample sup-ply available due to them being a necessity for Debate.

“I like using the laptops in class because the students are comfort-able writing in this medium. It is convenient for me, and it also saves paper,” Dr. Gerard said.

She now has her English classes write their papers on Google Docs, a word processor accessible on any computer through the Internet.

A handy feature of Google Docs is the option to share a document with another user, allowing them easy access to view and edit the document without needing to print it out. It also lets one post notes or comments in an organized, legible fashion next to the document. Sub-sequently, this allows classmates to group workshop and teachers to grade in a more eco-friendly, time efficient manner.

Students seem to enjoy the use of the new website.

“Google Docs makes writing papers for English much easier be-cause I don’t have to print out my paper,” senior Tory Smith said.

Another new website for writ-ing papers is turnitin.com. This website is designed to give teachers the power to check for plagiarism in their students’ paper with just the click of a button. Also, the site is also an eco-friendly solution to the alternative of carrying around a lot of paper that could potentially be lost.

The History Department de-cided to incorporate this website into the junior research paper pro-cess. Students were encouraged to use the site because besides scan-ning the paper for plagiarism, it of-fers students suggestions regarding their content and sources.

“I thought turnitin.com was a better way of turning in the re-search paper on time. The pla-giarism checker is great for the

paranoid APUSH student, who is afraid of being falsely accused of plagiarism,” junior Zainab Shakir said.

Although most students feel teachers would only use this to more thoroughly catch cheating, Mr. John Kelly, History Depart-ment Head, and AP US History teacher Mr. Robert Wiley also liked the new capabilities turnitin.com offered their students.

“A lot of technology early on was just for teachers or just for stu-dents. Now it is helping both sides of the education equation. Even with all the technology available, every student and teacher needs to be ready to learn new ones. We should figure out how to deal with technology and back the best use of them,” Mr. Kelly said.

Additionally, Mr. Kelly has used an online textbook with his junior US History classes, which is acces-sible from any computer with In-ternet connection.

While new apps and websites make schoolwork easier, technol-ogy can also be a hindrance to some students. The common cul-prit seems to be the popular social network Facebook.

“I get easily distracted by Face-book when doing my homework,” senior Scotie Conner said.

Computers can create a catch twenty-two because students need them to research and type papers, but can also easily cause students to become sidetracked.

“Facebook is really distracting while I’m doing homework and because of that I don’t use the com-

puter that much,” Smith said.Although technology can en-

hance students’ learning, it is im-portant to realize that it does not necessarily have to be used for a student to learn.

“A lot of learning happened with a pen and paper and it still can,” Dr. Powell stated.

Overall, new technology can greatly improve a students’ learn-ing experience, but only if used wisely.

“Technology can be a very good resource but if you don’t learn how to use it correctly it can be a big distraction,” senior Connor Mor-rison said.

While technology will continue to advance, teachers and students should discover how to harness its capabilities for the good of learn-ing.

APPLE OR PC?

Apple - 57%

Both - 3%

PC - 40%

HOw mAnY HAvE A PERsOnAL COmPutER?

Yes - 84%

no - 16%

students& tECHnOLOGY

wHAt smARt PHOnE DO YOu HAvE?

iPhone - 84%

Blackberry - 6%

Android - 8%

HOw mAnY HAvE A smARtPHOnE?

Yes - 84%

no - 16%

Other - 2%

I would really like to see Casady seriously look into getting laptops or iPads for their students.

–Mr. Larry Bruce

media&TECHNOLOGY


Michael WhaleyNews Co-Editor

This past boys’ basketball sea-son was highlighted by multiple high-flying, rim-rattling plays and events. After being intro-duced to new Head Coach Mr. Allen Dukes and quickly adjust-ing to his basketball principles and schemes, the team opened the season with a 9–3 record be-fore stumbling down the stretch. During their hot start to the season, the Cyclones boys’ bas-ketball team attended the Jersey Mike’s Invitational hosted by Luther High School Dec. 9-11.

The team took first place in the consolation bracket after a 61–47 victory over Seeworth Academy followed by a forfeit win against Classen School of Advanced Studies. During the forfeit game, two accidents took place in the first half of play. One resulted in a Classen player chip-ping a tooth, and the other re-sulted in a Classen player hitting

his head, causing it to bleed.Neither of the accidents was

called a foul, visibly infuriat-ing the Classen head coach. At the end of the first half after the Casady team headed into the locker room, the Classen coach began to yell at one of the ref-erees, obviously disagreeing with the lack of calls made. This re-sulted in a technical foul.

The coach was asked to back off, however, after a brief mo-ment, he went right back to yelling and received a second technical foul. By Oklahoma Secondary School Activities As-sociation (OSSAA) rule, a sec-ond technical foul issued to a coach or player results in ejec-tion from the contest.

“There are no perfect games. Refs will miss calls and that is just part of the game,” said Mike Whaley, Director of Officials for OSSAA.

However, the coach did not leave alone. He decided to take

his team with him. The bus had left the parking lot before the Cyclones were back on the court, leaving the fans and play-ers in dismay.

“Accidents are just part of the game. Things will happen and it isn’t always called a foul. It’s un-sportsmanlike to leave because of it. It’s just part of the game,” senior Cecil Ray said.

The OSSAA have clear-cut rules, which are set by the Na-tional Federation of High School Associations (NFHS), by which all participants are required to follow. In the rules, there is only one possibility in which a team can leave before the game has ended. This can occur when the coach has received two technical fouls and does not have another coach or school authority figure to sit in for him. The coach must leave and take the team with him in this case, therefore forfeiting the game. However, Classen SAS had an assistant coach at

the game, and therefore was not allowed to leave.

“If coaches were allowed to pack their teams up and go home because they don’t agree with calls, then there wouldn’t be very many finished games,” Mr. Whaley said.

Classen SAS was forced to punish the coach, suspend-ing him for the following five games.

Although this event should not overshadow the positives of this past season, such as decisive-ly defeating Heritage Hall 48–33 behind an all-around team performance highlighted by two ferocious dunks by junior Gra-ham Bennett, this will hopefully inspire a better attitude from the Classen SAS coach and deeper appreciation for superior sports-manship amongst all Casady coaches and athletes.

One on one with Coach WardenEric Kaplan and Matt SilverEditor in-Chief and Sports Editor

This past Feb. the girls’ basketball team wrapped up their second season un-der the direction of Mrs. Jen Warden. Although the team’s record was not what they were hoping for, it does not telling the entire story when examin-ing this past season.

The Lady Cyclones recorded the only SPC counter victory of all Casady winter teams, defeating Episcopal School of Dallas 30–29. This young ball club also gained immeasurable ex-perience, something that should translate to more victories in the future.

The Crier interviewed Coach Warden, discuss-ing her thoughts on the season and the future of her team.

Crier: Looking back, how would you assess your team’s growth throughout the season?

Coach Warden: The team grew this season in its ownership. The final product of our season was a team that could call its own half-time adjust-ments and evaluate its own strengths and weak-nesses in a half, a quarter, or in the last two posses-sions. The team could manage the game from the sidelines as well as it could manage the game within the playing area. Their adjustments and

intellect were among the best in the conference, as well as their ability to trust their gut and take a risk as most coaches do. Game management at the end of the season was very much a collaborative effort, to which the team deserves full credit.

Crier: How did you use your noteworthy coaching experience to help you coach this group of girls?

Coach Warden: Over the last two seasons, I have grown closer to them, as they have migrated to-wards me. I respected and understood the role of basketball in their life at Casady in a way I never had as an off-campus coach. At the same time, I think they saw how hard I was working to create a court experience for them that they would fall in love with the way I did. We communicated and worked very hard at our coach-player dynamic. I wanted to be the most effective for them that I could be, even if it meant coming out of my com-fort zone. The effort was clearly reciprocated, as I watched our team stretch and come out of its com-fort zone in its physical development and as tacti-cians.

Crier: What were the biggest struggles for your-self as a coach and the team as a whole?

Coach Warden: Win-ning. Every athlete wants to win. Wants to validate

its effort and commitment by winning. I think about that infamous line in Cad-dyshack when Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) is asked...”How do you measure yourself against other golfers?” and the 6’2’’ character replied candidly “By height.” But we don’t measure ourselves against other athletes ‘by height.’ We mea-sure our worth and our value and our mastery by wins. Win-ning is awesome. Powerful. Life changing. Any coach wants their athletes to ex-perience that as often as possible.

Crier: How did it feel to have as many wins earlier this season as you compiled all of the 2009-10 campaign?

Coach Warden: Just as our athletes under-stood the game, they had an even better compre-hension of their season. When we hit the heart of the SPC schedule and our last win seemed a distant memory; they continued to evaluate themselves by their own growth curve and by the wins they had against bigger, better teams in the non-confer-ence season. Harding Prep will run deep into the 4A State playoff, yet we played them to a posses-sion. Those performances

became our plumb line, and the players were com-mitted to evaluating their worth on those successes.

Crier: Do you feel the SPC counter victory vs. ESD and the SPC tourney win against John Cooper set the foundation for this program heading into next season?

Coach Warden: The ESD win was a perfect win that epitomized our team. That win came from an intrinsic trust in our team, our system, and absolutely perfect ex-ecution cerebrally down the stretch. Every single adjustment was executed flawlessly. That was an incredibly special win for every player and coach fortunate enough to be in that locker room.

The John Cooper win was one that showcased a team that respected and valued it’s opponent, and the contributions of ev-ery member of the team.

It was a perfect closing for our team—a team that had routinely gotten it’s teeth kicked in exces-sively in the SPC, and we clearly from the jump ball had an opportunity to do the same with John Coo-per. Our players avoided all the mistakes that had been made against them all year...the disrespect, running up the score, leaving starters in, exces-sive transition play...they knew instinctively how to play hard, celebrate the game, celebrate the freshman, celebrate their opponents, and define themselves as first class athletes.

Crier: With a major-ity of your contributors returning, what are goals for next season?

Coach Warden: I’m not there yet. It takes me a little while to settle emo-tionally from the season and to be objective and reasonable again. Win-ning our last game-that’s a big deal. Only two college basketball teams get to do that-for the NIT and NCAA tournaments. Ev-eryone else walks out after a loss. I know during the season, all I could think on the sidelines was “they are giving me everything they have...how can I help them be successful?” and that thought follows me into the post season. How do I put this team in posi-tion to be successful?


BY THE NUMBERS2010-11 Casady Boys’

Basketball season

WINTER SEASON ALL-SPCBoys’ Basketball:Senior Matt SilverHonorable Mention: jr. Casey Rob-erts, jr. Jason Shelley, jr. Graham BennettGirls’ Basketball:Junior Shelby CornelsonHonorable Mention: sr. Kendall Hall and jr. Molly BrownBoys’ Soccer:Junior Mac KatiganHonorable Mention: sr. Andrew O’Bannon, jr. Jack Bickford, jr. William CohnGirls’ Soccer:Senior Bobbe ChaffinHonorable Mention: sr. Emily Cox and jr. Chandler HelmsSwimming and Diving:Senior Shanna Schuelein 2nd place in one meter divingSenior Victoria Trang 3rd place in 200 yrd IMSophomore Survaish Khastgir 4th place in 100 yrd. backstrokeWrestling:Freshman Bobby Sanford 3rd place at 140 lbs.

(Stats collected from Casady statbook and The Oklahoman)

Record: 9-14Points per game (PPG): 52.71Opp. PPG: 51.33 Points by quarter: (Q1–Q2–Q3–Q4)

14.38–11.91–13.14–12.77Most pts in quarter: 34Most pts in game: 104Least pts against in game: 28

PPG leaders:1 Preston Sul-

livan, 13.582 Matt Silver,

11.073 Jason Shelley, 8.844 Graham Bennett,

8.275 Casey Roberts, 7.42

Highest individual PPG:

1 Matt Silver, 24 (vs. Hol-

land Hall)

1 Matt Silver, 24 (vs. ESD)

3 Casey Roberts, 23 (vs. Crooked Oak)

4 Preston Sullivan, 22 (vs. Harding)

5 Matt Silver, 22 (vs. OCA)

Junior GrahamBennett

Bizarre show ends game

“The team grew this

season in its ownership.

The final product of our

season was a team that

could call its own half-

time adjustments and

evaluate its own strengths

and weakness...”

–Coach Jen Warden

SeniorAndrew O’Bannon

casadySPORTS


Eric Kaplan and Connor MorrisonEditor in-Chief and Features Staff

Wrestling has always been part of Mr. James McHargue’s life. Af-ter hearing stories from his father’s wrestling career as a young child, Coach McHargue instantly became mesmerized by the sport.

“His detailed stories about in-dividual wrestling matches made me feel as if I was living them myself. By that time I had already grown to love wrestling because it was something we did everyday, way before I could even understand English well enough to sit through a story. I was doing push-ups, sit-ups, and single leg takedowns in diapers,” McHargue said.

Coach McHargue’s own wres-tling career began at Western Heights High School, the same high school his parents graduated from. Although he did not win a state title, Mr. McHargue nonethe-less compiled a quite noteworthy tenure, highlighted by being an OWCA All-Star and a member of the All-State team his senior year.

“I defeated 22 state champions in my career without ever winning one myself. I think that last statistic is the one statistic that most of the people that knew me then where really baffled about. Everyone thought I would win at least two state championships. I think God knew that I would be coaching other young men and he wanted me to experience everything that they would be experiencing, espe-cially the agony of defeat,” McH-argue said.

After high school, Coach McH-argue decided to venture out west to a small college in northern Cali-fornia to continue his wrestling

and academic careers. He ultimate-ly settled on that school over others due to its supreme trout fishing, however, after one year, he decided to move back closer to home. A few years later he began coaching at Casady.

“I began coaching at Casady, as an assistant, when I was junior in college. It has been more reward-ing than any honor I could have achieved on my own,” McHargue said.

The backbone of Coach McH-argue’s coaching philosophy is the “Wrestling Bible,” a guide to anything wrestling created by his father’s college coach, Virgil Mil-liron, Olympic silver medalist and a hall of fame coach at both the high school and collegiate levels.

The manual offers passionate advice on individual growth, wres-tling fundamentals, personal rela-tions, and tactical strategy. Coach McHargue distributes his version of it amongst his wrestlers at the beginning of each season, hop-ing that if his team adheres to its demanding yet essential plan they will fully capitalize on their poten-tial.

This past season was no differ-ent. Despite only having one junior and one senior on the team, Coach McHargue was still determined to push his team to the brink, hoping to not only prepare them for tough SPC competition this year but for the future as well.

“I think it is a lot easier to coach a team with a lot to learn because we can all work together learning new moves and techniques instead of having some guys wasting their time learning things they already know,” McHargue said.

Although no one medaled at SPC or received All-SPC recogni-

tion, the wrestlers gained much-needed experience that will hope-fully translate into more success next year and beyond.

“John Stickler and Parker Braw-ley are extremely skilled and show the overwhelming ability in the un-derclassmen that will ensure a good future and more to come,” senior Carpenter Parham said.

After strong performances in multiples meets this season, sopho-mores Stickler and Brawley will anchor the foundation of this pro-gram heading into the future.

“Wrestling is a very tough sport but really rewarding when you win. I hope to keep improving each year and eventually win SPC as well as lead the team to winning duels,” Brawley, who was the SPC 125 lbs. runner up his freshman year, said.

Coach McHargue continues to be confident in his team as he looks into the future.

“It has been a while since Casady wrestling has had so many young wrestlers with the amount of potential that this group possesses. In two years this group can bring an SPC trophy home if they do the off-season work that I know their opponents will be doing. My goals for next year are to finish in the top three as a team at SPC, with three champions, two other finalists, and three others in the top three,” McHargue said.

Mr. James McHargue was born to coach wrestling. His determina-tion to persevere coupled with his willingness to teach his wealth of wrestling knowledge suit this squad practically as perfect as possible.

“I love this quote from John Smith, the OSU head coach and most decorated wrestler of all time. When asked by one of our Casady parents why he always wakes up

at 4:00am to go running, John re-plied, ‘because my opponent isn’t’,” McHargue said.

This quote personifies the heart of Coach McHargue and his team. Hopefully, the team will achieve much success in the near future.

Born to be a wrestlerMcHargue’s background shaped him into a coach perfect for a youthful squad

Baseball:Trinity Valley School Festivalvs. Bishop Dunne W 15–8vs. St Mark’s W 8–4vs. (Championship) Oakridge W 6–2vs. OCS W 9–3@ St. Mark’s W 2–0@ ESD W 10–0Tennis:(Boys) @ St. Mark’s L 4–1@ ESD L 5–0(Girls) @ Hockaday L 6–0@ ESD L 4–1Softball:@ Hockaday W 15–5@ ESD W 16–10Track: (Bethany Meet)Katy Jacobs– 1st place 3200 meter runTiatjah Johnson– 2nd place 200 meter dash Long jumpBoys– 11th place out of 16Girls– 5th place out of 14

Spring Sports Center

Ready to attackSophomore Parker Brawley competes in the Kingfisher Invitational this past wrestling season, looking to capitalize on the right moment to take his opponent down. Brawley will continue to be a centerpiece of this team and influential towards its success for years to come.

SeniorMatt Silver

Sr. Trace McMurrain

Jr. Mac Katigan

Sr. TedMoock

Sr. Connor Morrison

Jr. Casey Roberts

So. MichaelMullins

Jr. Austin McCrimmonSr. Matt

Silver

Sr. Mason Roberts

2011 Casady Baseball

DH: So. TonyAnalla

Recent ScoresBaseball:4/1/11 @4:30pm vs. Trinity Valley4/2/11 @11:00am vs. Oakridge4/4/11 @4:30pm vs. Community Christian4/5/11 @4:30pm vs. Mt. St. Mary’s4/11/11 @4:30pm vs. Bethany4/21/11 @12:30pm vs. Cistercian4/21/11 @5:30pm vs. Holland HallTennis: (Boys and Girls)4/1/11 @4:30pm vs. Trinity Valley4/2/11 @11:00am vs. Oakridge4/4/11 @3:45pm vs. OCS4/5/11 @3:45pm vs. Bishop McGuinness4/11/11 @3:45pm vs. Harding Charter Prep4/18/11 @3:45pm vs. OCSSoftball:3/29/11 @6:00pm vs. Heat4/1/11 @4:30pm vs. Trinity Valley4/2/11 @11:00am vs. Oakridge4/2/11 @11:00am vs. Oakridge4/4/11 @4:30pm vs. Community Christian4/5/11 @4:30pm vs. Mt. St. Mary’sTrack: (Not at Home)4/2/11 @8:30pm vs. Kingfisher Meet4/5/11 @3:00pm vs. Piedmont Meet4/15/11 @ OU vs. John Jacobs Meet4/23/11 @9:15am vs. Chandler MeetGolf: (Not at Home)4/11/11 @8:00am vs. PC North Invit. (Boys)4/14/11 @7:30am vs. Del City Invit. (Girls)4/14/11 @8:30am vs. Carl Albert Invit. (Boys)4/18/11 @McGuinness Invitational (Girls)

Upcoming Home Games

casadySPORTS


Assange stirs politics worldwideDefne AltanNews Writer

WikiLeaks, a nonprofit media organization founded in 2006 with the purpose of distributing information in the form of original docu-ments from anonymous sources, came under scrutiny in late Nov. for its latest re-leases. The spokesperson and editor in-chief of WikiLeaks, Australian citizen Julian As-sange, has been both praised and censured for his involve-ment.

At the end of Nov. 2010, WikiLeaks began to release a series of 251,287 diplomatic cables obtained from an un-known source, following its “Collateral Murder” video in Apr. of that year and the release of Afghan and Iraq War logs the following July and Oct.

According to the Associ-ated Press, WikiLeaks turned over all of the U.S. State De-partment cables it obtained to various international newspapers: Le Monde (French), El Pais (Spain), the Guardian (Britain), and Der Spiegel (Germany).

The Guardian shared its material with The New York Times, and the five news or-ganizations have since been collaborating in order to map out the timing of their reports. WikiLeaks is now releasing cables daily in co-ordination with these papers as they report the content of the cables.

The Associated Press quoted U.S. Attorney Gen-eral Eric Holder as saying that WikiLeaks’ release of the material jeopardizes na-tional security, diplomatic efforts and U.S. relation-ships around the world.

“WikiLeaks has officially made state dinners far more awkward than they were be-fore,” junior Zainab Shakir said, expressing her differing view.

According to The Bal-timore Sun, on Dec. 5 WikiLeaks disclosed a secret cable that was “listing sites worldwide that the U.S. con-siders critical to its national security.” These locations include “undersea commu-nications lines, mines, anti-venin factories and suppliers

of food and manufacturing materials.”

The Sun also reported Col. David Lapan saying the release gives valuable infor-mation to adversaries.

However, there are Casady students that feel the released documents were far from the most dangerous.

“It’s really going to re-strict the number of memos that are written...this is not the worst stuff. There is probably way worse stuff at further classification levels. The memos at this level will become like ‘We love our friend Pakistan.’ The next level of memo, you don’t see,” senior Jake Patton said.

Some believe that the im-pact of WikiLeaks may not be as large as it seems, even that it might be relatively small.

“It’s not really a big deal. I don’t think it’s good, but it’s not going to actually cause any real damage to national security. Everyone knows ci-vilians in Iraq are being shot. I watched a video of them [U.S. soldiers] killing civil-ians and that was suppos-

edly classified information,” sophomore Macy Miller said.

On the other hand, WikiLeaks was nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, which underscores how much of an impact it has had in the global com-munity. Some believe that the leaks will have a benefi-cial impact due to their goal of promoting government transparency.

“It’s not like there are any active terrible secrets that are being kept, but I like the

idea of it. I like the idea of transparency, of people be-ing able to see what’s going on in the government,” said junior Catherine White.

Other students around campus feel this way.

“I love WikiLeaks be-cause they keep the govern-ment honest, or at least try to. Personally, I think that WikiLeaks is good, because otherwise the government can do whatever they want, and not have anyone have a say in it,” senior Jerry Le said.

Students are also enjoy-ing the compelling discus-sions WikiLeaks has created in some classes.

“It’s provided for some good conversations in Gov. class,” senior Caitlin Ander-son said.

Though the immedi-ate impact of WikiLeaks remains uncertain, Casady students find WikiLeaks an interesting topic for discus-sion regardless of their dif-ferences in opinion.

Safety procedures lead to negative response Eric Kaplan, Zainab Shakir, and Salman HamidEditor in-Chief, Opinions Co-editor, and News Writer

At least 7,000-8,000 commer-cial planes are flying about the Continental US every second, of-ten going over that average during holidays. Of course, each plane has to be safe and sound before ventur-ing into the sky. That is why Trans-portation Security Administra-tion (TSA) recently bulked up its security at terminal checkpoints, hoping to make sure nothing goes wrong.

In 2007, Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) was invented. All flyers are familiar with having to walk through traditional metal detectors, and like those, AIT of-fers TSA another vehicle in main-taining safety. However, unlike

the metal detector, AIT scans your body with technology similar to that of X-ray, supposedly allowing unauthorized items to be more eas-ily found.

After Advanced Imaging Tech-nology became more widespread, complaints quickly arouse, spe-cifically regarding health concerns. Nonetheless, TSA’s website states that AIT meets national health and safety standards.

Resistance to AIT increased, re-sulting in TSA providing an alter-native: heavily enforced pat-downs, which most of the more-recent complaints have originated from. These pat-downs usually consist of a professional TSA security officer firmly touching the body of a pas-senger, either in a specific area of the security entrance to the termi-nal or a back room.

“Once I had to go into a tun-nel where they had air blow on me but I’ve never had a full body scan or pat down. I think the pat downs are a little much for me, I like my space,” junior Katie Bennett said.

These pat-downs are only ad-ministered when a passenger turns down an AIT scan, or sets off a metal detector or an AIT machine, depending upon the airport.

“There’s gotta be a better way than a pat down,” freshman Chris-tine Luk said.

Some “horror stories” have been published across the web, show-ing people being virtually strip-searched in public, but the TSA policies have to be enforced for the safety of other passengers.

“I think it’s [body scans and pat downs] a bit invasive,” junior Charlotte Cheek said.

Some Casady students feel that these new measures make little dif-ference, causing more problems than they are truly preventing.

“I really don’t like going through airport security because you practi-cally have to undress and redress in a matter of seconds. It’s [airport security] the thing that makes me nervous, and every time I walk through the scanner I brace myself for a beeper or to be tackled,” ju-nior Katie Costello said.

Every company has its flaws and so does TSA, but since its cre-ation as part of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act in re-sponse to the Sept. 11, 2001 ter-rorist attacks, airport security has tightened. Many items have been deemed prohibited from flights and both carry-on baggage and stow luggage have been inspected

closer.However, the stricter rules make

security procedures an ordeal for passengers. These many policies create traffic in and around the checkpoints. Besides having to ar-rive at the airport earlier, ordinary travelers face the possibility of hav-ing to unwillingly experience a pat down.

“I find it perfectly fine that se-curity is needed because there are some crazy people out there, but there should be a way to do it without being exposed,” freshman Michael Lee said.

Despite the ordeals security pro-cedures make passengers endure, TSA hopefully provides travelers with a safer flying experience.

WikiLeaks: Like state dinners weren’t awkward enoughBy Zainab Shakir, Opinions Co-editor

MYopinionWhat do youthink aboutthe additionsto TSA proto-col

Tory Smith,senior

Mr. Peter Huestis, Director of Upper Division

Taylor Brown,junior

John Stickler, sophomore

Wesley Throgmorton, freshman

I think it’s necessarybut I also think it’s an invasion of

privacy because they can see what’s under your clothes. If you’re a threat and set off

the alarm then I think it should bedone but if you don’t I think

it’s unnecessary.

If youare going to complain

about it, don’t fly.

I feel verystrongly about it.

I’m worriedabout the new policy

because I don’t completelyunderstand it. I don’t want

to get a patdown!

If it trulymakes us safer then I am

willing to deal with that muchinvasion of personal space. My

concern is that it doesn’tmake us safer.

specialFEATURES


Debate develops life skillsEihab KhanOpinions Co-editor

A common misconception about debate is that it consists of just two people arguing back and forth over a random subject, end-ing with a judge deciding the win-ner. Fundamentally, this is what debate is, but it is a lot more com-plicated than that in practice.

The process starts in the sum-mer when the topic is released. This topic is what all high school policy debaters nationwide will focus their time and research skills upon in order to construct a qual-ity argument to debate the entire school year. This year, the topic is whether or not the U.S government should pull out military forces from various countries throughout the world, including South Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan among oth-ers.

A large number of debaters then go to summer camps hosted by various colleges and universities throughout the nation. These de-baters spend weeks there, research-ing the topic, learning new debate skills, and improving at debate in general.

Once the school year starts, debaters get together with their school squad and start to plan out what tournaments the team will attend over the course of the year. There are dozens of debate tour-naments that take place over the year in various locations, including prestigious universities, colleges and high schools throughout the

country. Tournaments offer debate teams

the opportunity to showcase their knowledge and skills against other teams; through these, teams can win medals and qualify for more prestigious tournaments, such as the Tournament of Champions in Kentucky, one of the largest in the country.

Tournaments also offer vari-ous levels of competition for dif-ferent debate squads to compete at, such as novice and varsity. The novice division allows new teams who do not possess much experi-ence to compete with other similar level teams, so they can better learn the intricacies of the sport. Most Casady teams are competing at the novice level since Casady’s debate program just started and the debat-ers need experience.

There are many benefits to de-bating. Debate helps build com-munication skills; to be a successful debater, one must be able to speak eloquently and be able to get one’s point across. Debaters must also be able to speak at very high speeds in order to be able to get all their ar-guments across in the allotted time frame.

“Debate affects you in many ways. It makes you speak more clearly, think more logically, and be more confident,” senior Jerry Le said.

Debaters must be able to think fast, formulate arguments on the fly, and arrange their evidence quickly in order to present a case.

Researching is a big part of debate, because the point of policy debate is presenting evidence in order to prove your point.

Despite all the work and time involved with participating in de-bate, it is a very rewarding and en-joyable activity for nearly everyone who participates.

“Debate is fun and we get to go to McDonald’s at 2 in the morning during tournaments,” senior team captain Jake Patton said.

Recently, the debate program got a unique chance to compete when it received sponsorship for two of its teams to travel to one of the most esteemed tournaments in the country at University of Cali-fornia, Berkeley. Both teams that competed had winning records.

“The tournament was very fun and we got to compete against some very good teams,” Patton said.

Traveling to the tournament also allowed the debaters to appre-

ciate the Berkeley campus.“The campus was very beauti-

ful,” junior Catherine White said.Casady debate still has a long

way to go to reach its full potential, but the strides that have been made in less than a year are monumental. Casady debaters will continue to improve at debate and have fun at the same time.

Post apocalypse journey sure to enwrap readerZainab ShakirOpinions Co-editor

In Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, the United States of America has collapsed, presumably from states’ infighting and ultimately nuclear war. A new country, Panem, arose from the ruins of the United States, divided into the capital city and twelve districts.

In Collins’ post-apocalyptic world, Panem demands a tribute from each of its districts: two children from each territory are to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death. The hero of the series, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, is chosen as a tribute when she volunteers to take her little sister’s place in the games.

Katniss, a likable character with a lousy name, is similar to Theseus or Sherlock Holmes, cold and calculating but still likable. Once chosen for the games, Katniss focuses completely on survival at any cost to get back to her family.

The love triangle Collins presents is pretty standard fare; Peeta Mellark, the other tribute from District 12, is the likable town boy who has had a crush on Katniss since childhood. Gale, her hunting partner and lifelong friend,

further complicates matters for Kat-niss.

The first book has less focus on Kat-niss’ romantic involvements, allotting more time for fast paced action, but for the lovesick aficionado, the following books have more than enough, rivaling even Twilight.

It’s no accident that these games are presented as pop culture. Every generation projects its fear: runaway science, communism, overpopulation, nuclear wars and, now, reality TV. The State of Panem—which needs to keep its tributaries subdued and its citizens complacent—may have created the Games, but mindless television is the real danger, the means by which society pacifies its citizens and punishes those who fail to conform.

What happens if we choose enter-tainment over humanity? It isn’t just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity; all who watch run the risk. Katniss struggles to win not only the Games, but also the battle for audi-ence and reader approval.

Collins’ dystopian state, combined with jarring violence, intrigue, dry humor, and tons of action generates constant suspense, quite possibly con-troversy, and a little disappointment. Reviews generally pump the book up

sky-high, so the repetitive violence and action scenes and the eventually cheesy romance is a bit of a letdown. Over-all, The Hunger Games deserves a B+ to an A-. Flaws aside, it’s a fairly grip-ping book, and the reader will eagerly devour it in as few sittings as possible, hungry for more.

Formulating their argumentA group of Casady Debate members bounce ideas off of each other, hoping to devise an argument that will knock out their upcoming competition. This past Feb. 18-22 Dr. Bonnie Gerard and four students traveled to California to participate in the Cal Berkeley Debate Tournament.

Summarizing the storyThis is Tim O’Brien cover for awarding-winning author Su-zanne Collins’ Hunger Games, the first book in the Hunger games trilogy.

Book Review

Collins’ dystopian state, combined with jarring violence, intrigue, dry humor and tons of action generates constant suspense, quite possible controversy, and a little disappointment...

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Magic Carpet RideSuzanne ReevesStaff Writer

It was the night after Christmas. I found myself traveling to an arid, sandy place with air filled with a mixture of smoke from to-bacco and incense and the distinctive smells of spices and perfumes from the mar-ket place. It seemed I was on a “Magic Carpet Ride” to a movie set from Narnia.

Soon massive architec-ture from ancient limestone boulders surrounded me as I rode in a camel caravan to the desert. Deep in the dark, a sandy camp was set up with woolen woven car-pets and robes of cotton. We dined on food with herbs and a Mediterranean taste I had never experienced.

The air was filled with the dry odor of an ancient des-ert. There were rug dancers and belly dancers. Music came from primitive flutes and drums. The camels lined up around us like majestic gods of the desert of a time gone by.

Egypt is an exotic and ex-citing place filled with some of the oldest history known to man, and my family was lucky enough to visit this land during Christmas va-cation. Together with my cousins from Houston we visited the ancient cities of Egypt, experienced the Nile delta and cruised much of the historic river.

After arriving in Cairo we exchanged our money for Egyptian pounds but found the people only wanted “new money.” The Egyptian banks would not take any dollar bills with more than a few folds.

We rapidly went through cash like it was water— speaking of water, one has to make sure you only drink bottled water as some water is still pumped from the Nile with shadufs not too differ-ent from thousands of years ago— but luckily, we found modern ATM machines, so we didn’t have to end up on the street selling items to tourists.

Egypt’s primary industry is tourism, so we found the people quite friendly, always wanting to sell us some-thing. I particularly remem-ber many saying “NO hassle, NO hassle,” as they would try to corral us to their goods lining the street. They would have many catchy phrases such as “Welcome to Alas-ka,” or “Didn’t I go to school with you?”

Although the primary language is Arabic, every-one seems to have a working knowledge of English and many other languages. Thir-ty percent of the population is noted to be illiterate but everyone we encountered had no problem with com-munication.

Many homes in Egypt are “unfinished;” meaning that the top floor still has rebar sticking out or one room is totally empty without win-dows. Apparently there is a law that lets families with unfinished homes go with-out paying taxes, so all new homes are unfinished. Ev-eryone, however, does have a satellite dish.

It also seems like every-one smokes in Egypt and water pipes or hookah are quite common. I do not think there are any “smoke

free” restaurants. I was amazed at the num-

ber of temples and tombs we were able to visit. The hieroglyphics are absolutely fabulous. Many places still have the original colors that were used in ancient times. I learned how to spell my name in hieroglyphics. There are also hundreds of other characters used besides the alphabet.

There are ruins of ancient hospitals where instruments that actually look modern are inscribed into the walls. We also visited a papyrus institute, which still makes papyrus paper similar to techniques from thousands of years ago.

I saw the mummy of Ramses II at the Cairo mu-seum and the mummy of King Tut in the Valley of the Kings. The solid gold mask of Tut was one of my high-lights. In Alexandria I saw the site of the great light-house, which was one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World.

Another of the Seven Wonders was the Great Pyr-amids of Giza. Built 4,500 years ago by pharaohs to inspire awe; these great pyra-mids are still just as awesome in today’s space and tech-nological age. Walking on some of the massive stones from the largest pyramid is something everyone ought to experience.

All over Egypt one hears the call to prayers from mosques five times a day. Although Egypt is primar-ily a Muslim country Chris-tian or “Coptic” Churches also exist. I saw St. Sargius Church, which was built on

the site visited by The Holy Family when they fled from Israel. I also got to visit a synagogue built on the site where Moses was found on the Nile. The day after we visited Alexandria terrorists bombed a Coptic Church. After that there was a signifi-cant increase in security in the area.

Egypt is an ancient coun-try with an existing ancient culture and exotic places. History and wonderment abounds. It is unlike any other place I have ever ex-perienced. While in Aswan, however, my cousins and I met an Egyptian family from Cairo. This was also their first time to Aswan.

They were swimming in the pool at the hotel with the rest of us. They were not there to take in the history or to see the enormous dam. They were there for one of the son’s karate tournament. They also have to travel the country for soccer games. Their lives seem to parallel our own lives here in Okla-homa. Maybe the Magic Carpet Ride did not take me as far as I had thought.

Addendum. Since my return home I think every-one has heard of the tur-moil surrounding the dic-tatorship regime of Egypt. Many Egyptians have be-come more educated and informed. They would like

some form of a democracy, which is truly elected by the people. Unfortunately, about 30 percent of the popula-tion is illiterate and they go by their religious teachings. Many families basically want three meals for their family and a better way of life. Re-ligious fundamentalists can sway the uneducated and extremely poor easily.

No matter what the out-come is in Egypt the one certain thing is that there is going to be a new form of government and leader-ship. I hope my new made friends can find their way in the “New Egypt” and still preserve the “Old Egypt” for the rest of the world.

A time traveler’s paradoxesNathan PrabhuFeatures Editor

Time travel is fascinating, partly because many scientists say it is impossible. Even so, the plethora of science fiction media, like Back to the Future and Lost, have made time travel a well-known topic in our cul-ture. Although there are many different theories on how time travel works, one difficult as-pect is whether or not a time traveler venturing into the past can change the future or rewrite the past.

For the sake of argument, we will say that there is a fixed his-tory, set in stone and unchange-able by any determined time traveler. Thus, any perceived meddling the time traveler does is not in fact meddling. Rather it has already happened; what-ever was done in the past has already contributed to build-

ing the present. Even though the time traveler’s actions have already happened, it will be the first time for the time traveler to experience them.

When we accept this prin-ciple, we run into a couple of paradoxes.

First there’s the grandfa-ther paradox. If you wanted to go back in time and kill your grandfather before he fathered your mom or dad, could you? The answer is no. If you killed your grandfather, then you could never be born, and there-fore you could never go back in time in the first place.

Well, what if you stub-bornly defied all logic and did so anyway? Would the universe explode? Create an alternate universe? Though debatable, the answer here is that there is no “what if.”

It would be impossible to

kill your grandfather because it is a fact, written in the history book of time, that your grand-father lived simply proven by your existence. Any attempt to kill your grandfather would never work. Further, any of your murder attempts would have already happened, so your grandfather would have already experienced them.

Another more confusing paradox is the ontological par-adox. Here’s a scenario from Wikipedia: a man builds a time machine and steals a cool gad-get from the future. He then travels to his own time and mass-produces the object as his own.

Eventually, when he reaches the year he time traveled to in the first place, he’s a multimil-lionaire inventor. His past self will also come to steal the gad-get in order to fulfill the past or

close the time loop. Essentially the man has stolen his own in-vention, but the big question is where did the original idea come from?

Another example: a man is locked outside his house. His future self appears and gives him the keys so he can let him-self in. Once inside, he imme-diately goes back in time to let his past self in, completing the time loop.

An infinite cycle has emerged, but how did it start? How was the man originally let in, and where did the key come from? Also, won’t the keys even-tually rust?

In these examples, cause and effect have become intertwined. Like the chicken and the egg question, we cannot deduce what caused what or the origin of the event. Thus, the paradox occurs.

Reaching for the skyFreshman Suzanna Reeves poses for an memorable picture, surrounded by the mysterious pyramids, during her trip to Egypt over winter break.

Commentary

Past, present, and futureIf one should wander into any state of time, what obstacles would he or she face?

http://www.psychologytoday.com

Egypt is an exotic and exciting place filled with some of the oldest history known to man

studentOPINION

April 4, 2011 15the CRIERthe

Editorial PolicyThe Crier is a publication of Casady

School, produced, written and de-signed by the students of the Casady Upper Division. The Crier staff believes in maintaining editorial integrity, plac-ing importance in sound journalistic principles of truth, fairness and ob-jectivity. In so doing, The Crier will not purposely show disregard for facts nor proceed with malicious intent in any item contained in its pages.

Editorials, representing the newspa-per’s opinion on issues, are unsigned and will appear on the Opinions page. Columns, representing the writer’s personal viewpoints, are by-lined.

The Crier recognizes that as publish-er of the newspaper, the administration has the legal right of prior review, but we will endeavor to conduct our report-ing and coverage to merit the ultimate trust of the Casady community.

The Crier will not knowingly print anything libelous or obscene, nor will we engage in personal attacks against members of the community.

LettersReaders are encouraged to use the

open forum provided by The Crier to exchange ideas and thoughts which af-fect the School and community through the submission of letters to the editor. All letters should be sent to The Casady Crier, Casady School, 9500 N Penn-sylvania, Oklahoma City, OK 73120 or emailed to [email protected]. All signed submissions will receive con-sideration for publication. While letters may be edited due to space limitations, their original intent will be honored. Letters must be signed; however, the writer may request anonymity.

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vertising. However, the editors reserve the right to refuse any advertisement deemed inappropriate for high school students. Inquiries should be directed to Sam Effinger, 405-749-3161.

DistributionThe Crier is distributed freely to the

students, faculty, administration and staff of Casady’s Upper Division. Sub-scription is offered to all Upper Division parents (and others requesting it) at $10 per year.

Staff

Editor in-Chief Eric KaplanNews Co-editors Kelsey Jones Michael WhaleyNews Staff Defne Altan Salman HamidFeatures Editor Nathan PrabhuFeatures Staff Tory Smith Connor MorrisonSports Editor Matt SilverOpinions Co-editors Eihab Khan Zainab ShakirEntertainment Co-editors Ted Moock Liz BrindleyCartoonist Ben McCampbellContributors Mr. Jeff Schmidt, Caitlin Anderson,

Tanner Hanstein, Matt Herskowitz, Katy Jacobs, Maia Kaplan, Suzanne Reeves

Adviser Mr. Sam Effinger

Looking into Upper Division policy changesAfter examining survey results and conducting extensive inter-

views with the administration, the Crier Staff has come up with a few suggestions on how to improve life in the Upper Division. While some suggestions may seem a bit critical, we would like to emphasize that none of our commentary is meant to be malicious.

With any conflict over the policy changes discussed below, there may seem like there are bitterly divided sides with irreconcilable dif-ferences. However, we should know that, on any issue debated by us as students, the faculty, or the administration, all parties involved solely strive to create the best atmosphere possible at Casady.

So instead of having the debates tear us apart, let this common link unite us. Then we will be able to broaden our lenses to see situations in perspectives other than our own.

Careful analysis of the policy changes in recent years has led the Staff to address some of the unnecessary problems on campus. We feel we could fix a majority of the problems by clearing up the ambiguity. The ambiguity encompasses not only specific policy changes, but also the way in which we go about making change (i.e. revising our hand-book). Finally, we take a step back to look at the direction in which our school seems to be heading.

Unnecessary problems. In some areas, we believe that there is sim-ply more that could be done. For example, the dress code could be enforced better, and the institution of the demerit system has not really improved the situation from last year.

The Upper Division Handbook clearly states, “Tights, leggings, and form fitting pants are not permitted unless covered by a skirt or dress that is of regulation length.” Nonetheless, Upper Division girls continue to wear this clothing.

“Even though I know it’s out of dress code, I continue to wear leg-gings because it’s not enforced,” an anonymous girl said.

Although the administration claims they are in fact handling the situation by addressing those out of dress code privately and individu-ally, we feel that it’s still a problem that, from a student’s perspective, we see so many girls continue to come out of dress code. If college representatives come to campus, wouldn’t they see the what students see? We would like to see more enforcement and/or stricter punish-ment for repeat offenders because the current system does not seem effective enough.

Another area that needs improvement is the schedule for next year. A major problem about this schedule is that academic classes do not have enough time for real substance, and the lack of passing periods only cuts down class time further. In fact, the biggest complaint from the ISAS evaluators from last fall was that Casady students do not spend enough time in class.

Administrators are fully aware of this problem, but they have told us that any consensus from their scheduling committee will only be put into place for the 2012-13 school year. Thus, they envision next year’s schedule looking very similar to the current one, causing classes to once again be too short. The administration said that the sched-uling committee was formed too late in order to formulate an im-proved, long-term schedule for next year.

However, we feel that there needs to be at least some temporary adjustments for next year. If a company knew they put out a defec-tive product (such as the Taco Bell meat scandal), it would instantly recall the product or do everything in their power to fix the problem in order to save its business. We feel like the schedule is a defective

product, and the administration should consider doing more to fix it. While it may be difficult to ascertain where to take time away from, we are confident that the administration can find a way to give neces-sary time to academic classes.

Ambiguity. Many issues within the Upper Division deal with un-necessary ambiguity. The administration has told us what qualifies as girl’s tights or tight fitting pants differs from person to person, and this discrepancy often complicates enforcement of the dress code. The schedule also involves ambiguity; without passing periods, no bell in-dicates the start of class. Further, when we as students hear stories about how some of our fellow classmates never show up to chapel, we believe that there must be some ambiguity on how those people have not received loads of demerits, considering that after three cha-pel misses, a student should receive a demerit for every subsequent absence.

It seems that all of the above problems just require clarification, a purge of the ambiguity. If the rules can be enforced as they stand in the handbook, things will most likely run smoother. A big question, then, is why the rules in the handbook do not receive the respect they deserve.

Handbook as the Supreme Authority. For the past few years there has been a lot of administration turnover. Within three years we have had a new headmaster and a new director of upper division, and next year we will have a new dean of students. Also within the past few years, we have seen new schedules, a new grading system, and more discussion about the dress code than ever before. Sometimes changes are necessary, but it seems plausible that the problems in the schedule or the controversy over the dress code and grading system may have been avoided if change was hard to come by. Perhaps there is a way that change would only come about if and only if it was felt neces-sary by not just administrators, but also teachers, students, and the board.

At the moment, it’s ambiguous on how exactly one makes a change to the Upper Division Handbook. If however, the handbook became a supreme authority, like a Constitution, perhaps less controversial change would occur. The upper division needs a standard to stick by, one that students, faculty, and administrators will respect, so that certain principles will hardly ever change. If students have respect for a set of rules, perhaps they will be less likely to break the rules.

One might argue that this standard is in the mission statement, but we feel the handbook is more concrete than that. A mission state-ment is ideally a concise description of the fundamental beliefs of a particular institution. However, it does not get into specifics on how the institution implements those beliefs. With so much ambiguity on campus, a concrete description in a constitution could really solidify both what are tenets are and how we implement them.

The handbook as a constitution would differ than what it is today because it would create authority; the handbook currently seems like a turbulent set of guidelines that changes every year. With a specific set of rules in writing, students will more easily follow the handbook, and amendments will be less controversial.

In order to truly construct the handbook like a constitution, fu-ture amendments would have to be hard to come by. Any change to it should involve the approval of faculty, students, alumni, the board, etc. If all parts of the school work together, they could come up with less controversial policies.

Editorial

[continued on page 16]

studentOPINION

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What the math department thinks about...

Who is your favorite music artist/group?

What asymptote areyou approaching?

What was yourOscar pick for Best Picture?

What did you doover spring break?

Who is your favoritesuperhero?

Mrs. RuthMianoDepartment Chair

My current favorite music groups are Casady orchestra, choir, jazz, and percussion. Their music gives me hope and makes me happy.

If you mean what’s my limit as my age increases, then I’ll have to hope I don’t have one.

The King’s Speech. It’s a story of great success through struggle and hard-work. Don’t miss it.

We went to Rome, Italy. We climbed many steps, saw many sites (famous and not so famous), and ate way too much delicious food. A trip of this kind lasts a lifetime.

Zorro. Man, that guy could do anything. And what a signature: “Z” sliced into his “work” with a sword? Can’t get better.

Mr. ChrisHalpernPre-Calc/Calc AB/Statistics

Beatles, Beastie Boys, and John Mayer have to be at the top but I love variety.

“To infinity and beyond...”

Inception. I went to Colorado and snowboarded. We had a great time but I impaled my hand on a tree branch in the Royal Elk Glades and left a blood trail all the way to the bottom of the mountain. All in a day’s work, I mean a day’s fun!

Spiderman.

Dr. MichaelLewchukGeometry

Prince Rogers Nelson, the best musician on the planet right now.

Zero growth, excluding waistline.

No idea. I hadn’t seen any movies.

My family went to Florida. We attend a Tigers’ spring training game, Downtown Disney, Universal Studios and NASA. My kids thoroughly enjoyed their first ever trip to an oceanfront beach! Needless to say we have a bag full of fowl smelling shells

Batman. He is a night guy and I’m an insomniac. In theory, we could hang out together.

Mr. DanielCalderonAlgebra II/Algebra II Honors

I really do not have one, but I’ve been to hundreds of concerts, recently Psychedelic Furs and Depeche Mode.

An oblique asymptote. True Grit. I don’t think any of the Disney movies I took my kids to see qualified for Best Picture nominations.

We decided to tour Oklahoma with the kids. We stopped at state landmarks, ate in small town diners, stayed in local hotels and really tried to get a taste of the land. It was a fantastic trip for the family, Oklahoma is a beautiful state.

My father. He can fix anything and he’s the smartest person I know.

Mrs. DianneDawkinsAlgebra I/Geometry

So many—depends on my mood —but lately Michael Buble.

Not really sure but I know it might be oblique.

King’s Speech.

My friends’ husband blew out his Achilles, so I got to go to Italy. We explored Rome and met up with the Mianos.

Batman. One of the only ones that doesn’t have super powers but is still a superhero...

Casady Culture Grid

[Continued from page 15]How do we amend now? Cur-

rently change is made by consul-tation. Mr. Bright consults Mr. Huestis who in turn consults Mr. Pena, Mrs. Warden, the depart-ment chairs, and the faculty. Ul-timately Mr. Bright has the final say.

What about students?It’s funny how decisions made

on many of the policies that affect student life the most virtually have no student input. The scheduling committee has no students. The dress code committee has four students from the sophomore and junior grades, but there are no se-niors. The four students, however, were arbitrarily chosen, which

brings up a question of selection bias. Why not select students that the student body has elected?

With student organizations like Student Council and Discipline Committee, it seems strange to not have students as consultants. Look-ing at the Discipline Committee, they have not met all year because no disciplinarian infraction has oc-curred. While it’s good that no ma-jor infraction has occurred on cam-pus, the lack of meetings makes a discipline committee member’s job pretty useless.

In order for them to take away something useful from their posi-tions, students on discipline com-mittee need power; they need the ability to actually do something.

We suggest that they help enforce the demerit system. They can help reduce the number of chapel ab-sences and dress code violations.

The golden question. Why is everything changing? We have dis-cussed the effects of these changes and how they were instituted, but we wonder why they were institut-ed in the first place.

One possibility is that Casady is trying to become a school in the 21st century. With the recent tech-nological emphasis in student life like SmartBoards and school web-sites, there is certainly an emphasis on making school more modern. These innovations as well as the changes to the grading system may reflect a new age of education.

A second possibility is a re-sponse to the loss of kids to other schools such as Heritage Hall. Since their freshman year, eleven students have left the senior class to go to Heritage, and six students have also left from each of the ju-nior and sophomore classes.

Retention of kids is rightly a major concern; we need students to have a school, and their tuition helps with the school’s finances. Nevertheless, how much should we sacrifice from our school’s tradition in order to attract students?

Changing our grading system so that GPAs can go up may look good on the college transcript, but how much learning will be involved in getting that grade? It seems like

many of the recent policies to the curriculum and the grading system have made Casady resemble Heri-tage Hall.

While it is good that our school is willing to embrace new ways of education, we must also remember our identity. Among other things, Casady is a school of academic excellence. Whether these new changes reflect this motto or not, we must always challenge and en-rich the minds of students no mat-ter what.

Conclusion. While this edito-rial might sound overly critical, the Crier Staff hopes that the adminis-tration and all readers understand that we love our school and want what’s best for it.

Editorial

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