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Courtney Bierman, a leader in the Millard South’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) celebrated and organized Ally Week this October. Be-ing relatively new, the GSA is not popularly known by most students of Millard South, so Ally week is not only a way to recognize allies, but it is also a way to bring awareness to the alliance so that interested students might start attending meetings.

“There are a lot of people that don’t re-ally thank allies, people that aren’t LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Asexual) but still support gay rights and are accepting of other life styles, for what they do or how supportive they are. Ally week is a week to celebrate them,” Bierman said.

Ally Week was Oct. 15-19. Since that week was a three day week, the leaders of GSA organized a theme for each day. The first day was No Slur Day which was a day dedicated to encourage students not to use offensive. These slurs aren’t exclusive to homophobic slurs, but also racist slurs, sexist slurs, etcetera. The second day was Speak Out Day which was a day to encourage students to speak out against bullying or slurs upon seeing them. The third day is Thank an Ally Day which encourages students to thank allies.

“It’s easy to just turn the other way, to ignore bullying and adversity when you are confronted with it but that doesn’t make either of those things go away at all,” Bierman said. “It’s just necessary to speak out and go against others when they are harming others in order for any change to happen.”

The Gay Straight Al-liance is a student lead club that aims to provide a safe and supportive environment for LGBTQ youth. The GSA isn’t just a club for gay students, it’s an alliance that advo-cates for the acceptance of everybody regardless of their identity. Meet-ings are every Tuesday after school in room 107A across the hall from the information center in Ms. Desjardin’s room. Desjar-dins is also the sponsor of the GSA. She began teaching last year and one of the first things she did was ask if there was a GSA in the school. When she found out there wasn’t, she talked to Ms. Baker, the head

of the drama department along with students Deven Muhammad and Anabelle Khim talked to administrators and soon got the ball roll-ing.

“Everyone was really supportive of the club. I had several teachers and students that

were more than willing to help out in what-ever ways they could. I couldn’t thank them enough for that,” Desjardins said.

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Ally Week celebrates diversity among studentsby Angel LePhoto Chief

Seniors Hannah Frasier, Tyler Hakes, sophomore Courtney Bierman and fresh-man Ben Froistad run the table to support the Gay Straight Alliance during Ally Week, which lasted from Oct. 15-19. Photo by Kayla Wilson

Winning games and taking names is all in a season’s work for the Patriots softball team, who took state for the second year in a row. By overcoming their initial struggles they fostered a team mentality seldom seen at the high school level.

“Honestly, I did not expect to win state at the beginning of the season,” senior first baseman Lauren Robertson said. “We were too separated but once we pulled together I knew we could do it.”

Most of the team knew each other prior to the season but transfer student Chloe Boeka not only had to push herself on the field but in a new school as well. She transferred from Gretna to

Millard South for the softball program and hasn’t regretted the move.

“I have been dreaming of winning state and when we did it was amaz-ing,” Boeka said. “I really want to thank everyone for reaching out to be and be-coming my new family,” she said.

After a rocky start up, the play-ers began bonding through team building exercises and gatherings outside of school. They ac-

credit their ability to the “Buy in” emphasized by Coach Kerkman. As the season started rolling the players gradually came together.

“My favorite memory was when we beat Millard West at

Metros,” senior Taylor Hufferd said. “If I could give any advice to next year’s team it would be to bond early and take everything to heart,” Hufferd said.

Softball earns 2nd state title by Keegan HagertyBusiness Manager

Millard South softball team huddles up for a photo after winning state for the second time in a row. Photo courtesy of Steve Kerkman

Current Events

Northeastern USA: Hur-ricane Sandy has caused the deaths of at least 50 people. President Barrack Obama suspended his cam-paign, “Due to deteriorating weather in the Washington area, the President will no longer attend today’s cam-paign event in Orlando,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a state-ment. While Mitt Romney dialed back on aggressive campaigning in Ohio.

Sudan: Two Iranian War-ships have docked in Port Sudan, carrying a message of ‘support and friendship’. They have arrived less than a week after a bombing at a weapons factory in Khartoum, which killed two people.

China: Sometime in No-vember the 18th Communist Party Congress will end and the new leader of the secre-tive party will be chosen.

Afghanistan: Two more coalition troops have been killed because of green-on-blue attacks. This has been occurring for the past year and has claimed more than fifty lives.

Pakistan: 24 civilians have died because of a crash that occurred cen-tral Punjab, a province in Pakistan.

USA: The election is about to end, November 6th is the day where all the campaigning that Obama and Romney will either pay off or fall short.

by Zach LucasManaging Editor