ARKLIGHT Volume 96, Issue 4November 14, 2014

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Emily FlickingerFeatures Editor

Britni PetersonFeatures Editor

Becca Prince Staff Writer

The graduation ceremony for the 2015 graduates will have a time alteration, now set for 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 16. It is expected that the cer-emony will be finished by 6:15 p.m.

Everything in graduation shall remain the same; the only major change is the time.

The time was altered because “for the first time, seniors are participat-ing in State tennis,” says Dr. Zumwalt, principal of Arkan-sas City High School. Zumwalt adds, “We want to support stu-dents in all activities.”

Arkansas City High School student, who wishes to remain anon-ymous says, “Even with the time change,

tennis players still may not be able to get back in time.”

The school board passed this idea that was originally pro-posed by the senior leadership class. There

were a lot of factors that had to be put into consideration when deciding the new time for graduation this year.

There had been several ideas in order to fit the sched-ule of the state tennis players but this par-ticular time alteration had the best fit.

There may be some con-flicts with trav-eling friends

and family to watch the ceremony.

Since there are many conflicting activities with the usual gradua-tion schedule, an al-teration had to be put in to play in order to accomodate everyone.

Have you ever been so sick with a cold you thought it would never end? Most of the time it does, though some-times it doesn’t, especially not for any of people who are suffering from virus Ebola and the Enterovirus.

Ebola and the Enterovirus have a few things in common.

“Both the Enterovirus and Ebola are just viruses. Viruses

cannot be treated. I mean, the symptoms can, but there is no medication for a virus,” stated school Nurse Bonnie Condit. “But Ebola can be cured.”

Ebola is a virus that goes into your bloodstream and was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in the Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo.

Enterovirus has caused large outbreaks of HFMD (Hand, Foot and Mouth Dis-ease) worldwide, especially in children in Asia. Some

infections from the virus have been associated with severe neurologic disease, such as brainstem encephalitis.

“Get your shots,” continued Condit. “I encourage every-one, even the teachers to get their shots.”

“If you are a healthy indi-vidual, you will fight it off,” stated biology teacher Tiffany Schandorf. “Our exposure to it is less likely than anywhere else. We have clean water and sewage; Africa doesn’t.”

Have you ever tried raising money for a foundation, team, person, etc. and not reached your money goal? Finding new and unique ways to raise money for any disease, person or organization is not the easiest thing in the world.

Three businesses in the Ark City area have parking meters inside the stores, raising money for cancer treatments, disease treatments and homeless people.

“We have been slowly getting start-ed, not many people recognized them so we’re trying to get the word out. All the money donations go to any disease. This wasn’t our idea, it’s a national idea.” said a

vari-

ation of Country Mart staff.

The businesses you donate to in our area are WB Meats, Be-tween Friends, and Country Mart.

Knowing this could possibly be the start of a different type of fundraising activ-ity, if Ark City High

School took part in this,

would you partici-pate?

ACHS athletics have proven themselves to be worthy to compete at a state level. See how our Bulldog athletes have represented on Page 7.

All Shook Up has shaken up the way ACHS does a musical. See how it went down under the stage lights this week on Page 3.

Opinions Volume 96, Issue 4November 14, 2014

Editor-in-Chief: Ally BurrManaging Editor:Alyssa BumpNews Editor:Ally BurrOpinions Editor:Alyssa BumpEntertainment Editor:Alyssa BumpFeatures Editors: Emily FlickingerBritni PetersonSports Editors:Ally BurrHunter Fullhart

Online Editor: Becca PrincePhoto Editor:Felipe Escalante Staff Writers: Danika Copeland Shey White Photojournalists: Benny RodriguezKiley HernandezAd Manager:Ashley KeefeAdviser:Kara Blue

ARKLIGHTthe

1200 W. Radio Lane • Ark City, KS 67005

The mission of the Arklight staff is to produce and distibute an accurate and ethical newspaper that informs

and entertains its readers

To contact an Arklight staff member, you may email us through firstname.lastname@usd470.com or through ACHSArklight@gmail.com. Don’t forget to check out facebook.com/

ACHSArklight and @ACHSArklight.

The Arklight is a limited public forum, a student publication used as a learning tool for building journal-ists and as an information source for students, staff and parents. While the newspaper staff does all it can to ensure accuracy and reliability, some errors may appear.

Editorial Policy:Signed opinions or cartoons reflect the opinion of the writer/artist and do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire staff.

Editorials/Letters:Reader response is welcomed and encouraged in the form of letters to the editor or editorials. Both should be kept to a minimum of 250 words in length and be delivered in per-son or mailed to the Arklight. If the subject matter of the letter warrants anonymity, letters may be unsigned. We reserve the right to determine whether unsolicited materials will be included in the publication.

2

Alyssa BumpManaging Editor

Ally BurrEditor-in-Chief

It is hard to find something that high-schoolers love as much as their social media networks. Something about sending a tweet, posting a picture, watching Vines and scrolling through a news feed is so addictive that the students of ACHS are finding their time robbed by these digital thieves. But somewhere in the time they spend with their eyes glued to the screen, the students of this school are finding it necessary to bad-mouth their teachers and peers.

Now, just by scrolling through a Twitter or Facebook feed, it is easy to spot posts from students about how much they hate their teachers, how terrible they think a teacher is or how stupid they think their class is. How are we, as decent people

and students of this school, allowing this negativity go on? No reason exists as to why this behavior should continue.

The teachers and administrators of this school are here by their choice. Teaching and working in a school is not the highest paying occupation available, so these people are not in it for the money. They are here for you, the student. It was their choice to commit to helping young people further their education. It was their choice to spend many years in college training themselves so they can train you. It was their choice to sacrifice their free time to grade papers and make sure students understand the material.

With all of this in mind, why should they have to deal with the disrespect of the people they have selflessly sacrificed so much of their

time for? They shouldn’t. Our teachers and administrators

deserve our respect, no matter how much we, as students, may disagree with them personally. It is no one’s right to talk badly or talk down on them for stupid reasons like not liking their personality or style of teaching.

High school is the time when students mature, so let’s start acting like we’re doing just that and keep the degrading, negative comments to ourselves.

Along the same line of thinking, neither our peers do deserve the petty, nasty comments on social media. Nobody gets along with everybody; part of growing up is keeping the petty disagreements to yourself.

ACHS students — if you can’t post anything nice, keep your thumbs still.

High school is supposed to be the four big formative years of our lives. Throughout these years, students are expected to participate in every possible extracurricular activity as well as have an after school job, get good grades, get a good night’s sleep, make sure they’re eating enough and maintain healthy relationships with everyone in their life. If we do all these things then maybe we’ll strike it lucky and our college applications will be full enough and we’ll get accepted at whatever school just to continue the cycle of stress they call life.

Not only do these expectations seem impossible, they’re impossible for your body to keep up with. Ac-cording to the Mayo Clinic, stress can affect your body by causing

things as simple as a headache and intense tiredness to things as severe as heart disease and diabetes.

However, the effects of stress aren’t purely physical. The Mayo Clinic has shown that stress can cause depression and anxiety as well as a lack of motivation, which would make it close to impossible to meet society’s expectations of the perfect teenager, which frankly does not exist despite how much our au-thority figures like to think there is.

Stress has also been attributed to addictive behaviors smoking, alco-holism, drug use and eating disor-ders, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Furthermore, the more stress that you put on your body, the more sus-ceptible you are to illnesses, which comes from your lowered immune system which is thanks to the lack of sleep you’re likely experiencing.

Also, as stress starts to take over your mind and body, your relation-

ships will become harder to main-tain. Most people in times of stress end up venting their anger on the people closest to them, whether that be blowing up at their best friend or picking a fight with their significant other. The people in your life want to help you but they can’t do very much if you won’t talk to them and let them know what’s going on; they aren’t mind readers.

Maybe the best decision for you is to drop an extracurricular or only take one AP class, maybe you need to drop an activity just for one semester or maybe it needs to be for a whole year. Maybe you need to take a year off before going away for college.

No one knows the best decisions for your life except for you, so do what will make you happy but also keep you mentally and physically healthy.

3EntertainmentNovember 14, 2014Volume 96, Issue 4

Ally BurrEditor-in-Chief

Becca PrinceWeb Editor

Shey WhiteStaff Writer

Then vs now: Cartoons

The townspeople are not used to having fun but everything changes when Chad, senior Calder Klink, starts to play the guitar to the new town and shows them how to have fun.“All Shook Up” will show Nov. 14th and 15th at 7p.m. at ACHS.Photo by: Felipe Escalante

An earthquake might as well have hit the stage of Arkansas City High School Auditorium because 75 individuals have created a pro-duction that has shaken up the way that ACHS does theatre.

“All Shook Up” has gone be-yond past boundaries like a musi-cal at this school never has before.

With such a large cast, it might seem difficult to train every single member in the style of the ’50s “jiggly-wiggly” dance moves, but under the direction of Jade Gates, they managed to make it look effortless. Not only were the big group numbers perfectly in sync, but the solos and smaller numbers were equally impressive.

Senior Heather Utt and junior Lindzey Butler, both competitive cheerleaders, lent their flexibility to the show as they flipped and turned in tune with the music.

The cast has obviously worked harder than ever to shake up their knowledge of dance.

Aside from the Elvis-inspired moves, the vocals proved that these performers “ain’t no hound dogs.” Leads included senior Calder Klink as Chad and junior Hannah Klaassen as Natalie. Other

lead roles were filled by seniors Ashley Keefe, Jordan Fox, John Schwartz, Moriah Burris and Zach Wallace, junior Emily Flickinger and sophomore Josie Krout.

Klink rose above and beyond the call of duty as he assumed the role of a rough-around-the-edges, leather-jacket wearin’ biker boy. There wasn’t a moment in the en-tire production when Klink missed the emotion of a scene or song. His passion for theatre and music is obvious, as is his talent.

Klaassen was the yin to his yang, or rather, the hip-swiveling to his Elvis. Her vocals were spot on. This isn’t Klaassen’s first time in the spotlight — she played Annie in the 2012 production of “Annie.” It’s apparent that she has blossomed into the next level of her talent.

The cast gelled together and fit like a puzzle. A better group of students doesn’t exist to put on this production.

Of course, kudos cannot be forgotten for the directors, Chance Gates and Andrea Berthot.

Everyone will be wowed by “All Shook Up.” Tickets can be purchased by calling 441-2010 or at the door. It will show tonight and Saturday night at 7p.m. in the ACHS auditorium.

Ouija, a horror film written by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White. Ouija stars Ana Coto, Bianca A. Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Douglas Smith and Olivia Cooke.

Laine Morris’s (Olivia Cooke) best friend, Debbie Galardi (Shel-ley Hennig) discovers an Ouija board in her attic. Not knowing what was in her house, she decided to play. Alone. Not abiding by the main rule of play, you must never play alone.

I n t e r e s t i n g phenomena start-ed happening and suicide was com-mitted. To find out why, Laine and a few friends decided to play,

resulting in the discovery that the spirit’s initials are D.C. They de-cided to stop.

After a few more of the friends die, they decided to play once more. A lot more bizarre messages came through, and in the end they forgot to say goodbye. After doing some research, they found out that by playing in the graveyard, which was against the rules, they let loose a terrible being.

The movie its self was scary, but the acting wasn’t very good at all. Actually it was like the actresses and actors didn’t even enjoy play-

ing the part. The Ouija board was what drew every-one to the movie, and will admit that it was pretty star-tling. But wasn’t very accurate.

Cartoons have evolved signifi-cantly since the ’90s. The shows kids grew up with and adored have now altered positively, but have also turned for the worst.

“’90s cartoons are the best,” ju-nior Tyler Williams said. “The new-er ones have taken a different route. They’re not as good as they used to be.”

For example, the old classic Tom and Jerry, which was created and has been airing since the 1940s, has a reboot released earlier this year called The Tom and Jerry Show. However, there is a twist: it takes place when the characters are kids.

“The originals are better,” said freshman Drake Merz.

Another example is Disney’s

most memorable, eminent cartoon, Mickey Mouse, which was first aired in the late 1920s. Today, after an amazing count of 86 years, the characters have changed slightly in appearance, but their popularity has yet to die down.

“My kids love the older car-toons,” commented ESL para Me-lissa Venegas. “My youngest still watches the newer ones, but he en-joys the classics.”

“Cartoons today are okay, but not as funny,” junior Alyssa Looney said.

Senior Ivey Richards added, “Nowadays they are just spin-offs of the older ones. The classics rock.”

While cartoons continue to prog-ress extensively today, the classics from our childhood will always re-main in our hearts.

Kiley HernandezStaff Writer

Features November 14, 2014Volume 96, Issue 44

Ashley KeefeAd Manager

Hunter Fullhart

Sports Editor

Preparing vehicle for winterStaying healthy during the season

Grading with the 80/20 scale

As the weather gets colder, it seems like illnesses become more abundant and easier to catch. It is because of this the winter months are known as “cold and flu season.” So the big question is what can be done to avoid getting sick?

Having good hygiene is always of importance, but during the winter it is even more so. People are typically indoors more during these times, carrying a horde of germs with them.

According to the National Library of Medicine, hand washing can help prevent the contraction of colds and flus. Brushing your teeth also helps by killing the bacteria and other such germs in your mouth. How-ever, if a person does not replace their toothbrush monthly brushing will be counterproductive because germs will grow on the bristles of the brush.

Another tip for staying healthy in winter, according to the New York Times, is avoiding excessive time in the cold is another great

way to prevent illness. While, indoors the concentration of germs is greater, but outside, in the cold, the germs live longer.

Hearing the dreadful sound of your car not turning over is the worst sound for anyone to hear when attempting to start their car. Luckily, there are many precautions that can be taken to be sure this doesn’t happen and that you don’t end up stranded without transportation.

Cody Morris, FFA advisor, states that students should check their ve-hicle’s “windshield washer fluid, oil, and radiator fluid.” Morris also advises students to stock cars with “blankets and an extra pair of clothes.”

Robert Onelio, Assistant principal, recommends checking the “antifreeze, bat-tery, and the heater.”

Israel Ortiz, biology teacher, encour-ages students to “change the

coolant and pack rope, an air pump, and snacks.”

While driving in the winter, there are many factors to watch out

for; Onelio advises everyone to watch out for “ice and drive very slowly” while Morris strongly cautions to “prepare for the worst and to not text and drive.”

Both, Onelio and Ortiz agree that the worst type of weather to be driv-ing in is “torrential downpour.” This is Ortiz’s least favorite because it is “easy to hydroplane.”

So, this winter, when you’re on the road be safe, take precautions, and con-

sider the other drivers on the road.

Arkansas City High School takes prides in its students striv-ing for success. Students’ grades are among the most important topics. In order to accomplish this, the school must enforce some sort of grading scale in order to make things fair.

ACHS’s grading scale is an eighty to twenty setting, which means that it is weighted. Eighty percent for tests and projects and twenty percent for daily work and quizzes.

Junior English, creative writing and musical theater

teacher Andrea Berthot said, “We use it in Junior English and the whole English depart-ment.” Although most teach-

ers use the eighty-twenty grad-ing scale, not all teachers use it in their classes. Some teachers weight grades seventy-thirty, sixty-forty and even fifty-fifty.

In order to succeed in the classroom, students must study for the tests that are a part of the eighty percent portion of their grade. Tests and quizzes make up most of the grades and not performing well on them on the them, a student may suffer.

Senior Abrianna Turner

said, “I like that it focuses more on what we know by test time, then the work that we’re doing at home and not in class. It could benefit a student’s grades [be-cause] if they do well on the test, then it will re-ally benefit their grade.”

Turner also said she likes it because “it shows more of what you know instead of going through the motions and not actually learning what you’re doing.”

Depending on a students efforts and how they choose to perform in the classroom, the

eighty part of the grade could make or break them. By study-ing, students can get used to the different weighted system and thrive in the classroom.

Photo illustartion by Felipe Escalante

Features 5Volume 96, Issue 4November 14, 2014

Felipe EscalantePhotojournalist

Emily FlickingerFeatures EditorPhotojournalist

In elementary school students are introduced to the historic context of the Thanksgiving holiday. They are taught that the holiday was the product of a joy-ous occasion in which the Pil-grims and Na-tive Americans feasted together and gave thanks for the bountiful harvests they received.

However, the first true Thanksgiving occurred much before that. According to the Smithsonian Institute, the first documented Thanksgiv-ing that occurred in North America happened May 27,

1578 when the colonists gave thanks for safe arrivals New-foundland, as north America was once called.

Although this was the first official Thanksgiving celebra-tion, the story regarding the harvest celebration is the ba-sis from which the modern

thanksgiving was built.

According to the Library of Congress,

the harvest was low and the winter was harsh in

the year 1620, killing off about half of the pilgrims

of the Plymouth Colony. So when the harvest was bounti-ful the year after, the pilgrims of Plymouth celebrated with the Native Americans who helped them survive with a three-day feast.

Every year, on the last Thursday of November, families gather and reflect on everything to be thank-ful for. The very next day, however, is Black Friday; a day dedicated for mass consumption of stores.

“[Black Friday] is crazy! People die because it’s so chaotic,” says sophomore Sara Mort.

It is thought that the term “Black Friday” originated from stores moving out of red ink, (meaning they were in debt), into the black ink (showing profit). This is a misconcep-tion. It actually originated in the 1950s and 60s in Philadel-phia.

The police officers of Phila-delphia coined this saying because the day after Thanks-giving there had been terrible traffic, therefore, giving it a negative name.

Senior Emily Lawson said, “On one day, everyone is say-ing how thankful they are for all of the things [they have]. And the next day, there’s all of these sales and people are rac-ing to buy everything.”

Photo courtesy of: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times/MCT

6 Sports November 14, 2014Volume 96, Issue 4

...Misc.

Britni PetersonFeatures Editor

Danika Copeland

Staff Writer

The NCAA (National Col-legiate Athletic Association) is a worldwide organization that sets strict rules for college bound athletes. This organiza-tion’s guidelines include ev-erything and anything that has to do with school and sports. These rules allow the NCAA to pick and chose who has the best eligibility for their stan-dards and requirements.

The main focus for the

NCAA is grades. Having the right grades in the right classes is very important. If you have taken the wrong classes for your career path, you may be forced to go back and take the right classes for the career you are looking into.

You have to have at least a 2.0 GPA, meet the minimum score of 86 on your ACT or the minimum score of 1020 on your SAT. These two scores are combined together and calculated on the sliding scale. Meeting these grade require-ments is the major part of

being eligible in the eyes of the NCAA.

You will also need to meet the requirements of your ama-teurism status. This just verifies that you have never been paid to play any type of sport.

The NAIA (National As-sociation of Intercollegiate Athletics) is also another big college sports program. You must have a minimum score of 18 on the ACT or a mini-mum score of 860 on the SAT, as well as a GPA of 2.0 and graduate in the top half of your class in order to be eligible.

Qualifying for state is one thing but medaling or even winning the whole thing is an-other. All sports have at least one state competition.

“I knew at the end of my freshman year that my main goal was to get a state medal before getting out of high school, and I knew it was

going to be a great challenge and lots of hard work, because with girls golf there is a lot of competition and you never know who is going to have a really good day or a really bad day.“ said senior Kacee Camp-bell.

Becoming a state champion one time is one thing, but two times is something athletes only dream about. Seniors Ally Burr and Makenna Gonzales

came close with a second place finish last year and first place this year.

“It was also really overwhelm-ingly amazing to win after being so close last year and this being senior year,” stated se-nior Ally Burr

It’s not only seniors represent-

ing their talents but juniors and sopho-

mores as well. “The journey was hard. I’ve

been working for the past two years just to make it to the varsity team and then try for state, so I was very happy that Bailey and I started playing together this year so we could reach our goals and make it to regionals and state together,” said junior Hannah Klaassen.

Also qualifying for state for cross country was sophomore Erianna Palmer.

Above, left to right; senior Ally Burr, Coach Aaron O’Donnell, senior Makenna Gonzales stand with their state medals and the team trophy at the Emporia High tennis complex. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Burr

Above, left to right; senior Kacee Campbell, sophomore Erianna Palmer, junior Hannah Klaassen, sophomore Bailey Benton are all fall state qualifiers. Photo by Benny Rodriguez

...Boys’ Basketball

Fall Musical 7p.m. @ ACHS Auditorium

Fall Musical 7p.m. @ ACHS Auditorium

First day of winter sports practice

Debate @ Home

ACHS Band @ Chicago

Scholars Bowl @ Home: 3:30p.m.

Varsity @ Derby 6p.m.

...Girls’ Basketball

November 14th

November 15th

November 17th

November 22nd

November 25th

December 2nd

December 6th

...Wrestling

7SportsNovember 14, 2014 Volume 96, Issue 4

Danika CopelandStaff Writer

Hunter FullhartSports Editor

Many of the players have already started practicing for the upcoming winter sports season. There is a combination of Coach Smith, Coach Kmiec and Bucher the athletic director on the com-mittee that runs the winter condi-tioning program. There are voluntary lifting ses-sions on Mon - Wed - Fri. There is lots of circuit training and some cross fit exercises to supplement what players are currently doing in the athletic conditioning classes during the day. Being able to provide a lifting and exercise dur-ing the school day lets the players have extra practice and condition-ing. Having theses voluntary prac-tices and lifting classes allows the players to get a head start on the upcoming season and an edge on the tough competition. Even though these sessions are volun-tary the coaches really encourage players to attend and even do a little weight lifting or even run-ning or conditioning on their own time.

Basketball practice and workouts started on November 17, they started with two practices a day one in the morning and one in the afternoon right after school. Be-fore practices started athletes were shooting, conditioning and weight lifting to prepare for practice. The wrestling season has already started as they are prepar-ing for competition and working to reach new goals and objectives for the new season. They are ready to work hard and do whatever it takes to make regionals and state. Being able to have a head start in all sports and being able to get used to the conditioning workout and knowing what you are capable of is giving the whole team an edge on the seasons expectations and goals. On Tuesday and Thursday, Coach Kmiec runs the players through a speed and running form workout, to prepare them for conditioning. The coaches will all meet soon to put together a solid plan for all conditioning workouts. All of the coaches are excited and ready for all competitions and ready to see how their team and players will perform.

With playing a sport comes sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is defined as a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fel-lowship with one’s competitors. It’s just one of many things that come with being involved. Students must respect the other team and the other players or else they risk the consequences. Being respectful to the other team is just one half of sportsman-ship. The other half comes from reverence towards the athlete’s own team mates. They deserve just as much, if not more respect than the other team.

Senior athlete Mace Metcalf said, “A good team player is someone who doesn’t play to highlight themselves but does it to highlight the team. The player knows their part and knows it might not be as important as oth-ers but still does their job to the complete potential.” Good team players could potentially be great role models for their peers, their teams and ultimately their school. “To be a good team player...you gave to do everything to benefit the team” said senior Ashlynn Brake. Students can shed new light to what it means to have great sportsmanship respect towards their own team.

Kansas State High School Activities Association, otherwise known as KSHSAA, has sched-uled boys’ tennis regionals to be at the same time as graduation. This has caused major problems for the students who are graduating this year. “The senior tennis players are expected to qualify for the state tournament, which means they would miss out,” explained prin-cipal David Zumwalt. “We want all of our students involved. The student council thought it was the best option.” Many students and staff mem-bers have different viewpoints on the change. “It would be a shame if those seniors couldn’t make it to gradu-ation,” added senior counselor

Karen Cornejo. “The schedule change was a perfect solution.”In the past, KSHSAA events have conflicted with school events. Last spring, prom and small ensemble state for band and choir were on the same day. For those who at-tended prom, this was a big prob-lem. “It was really stressful,” said se-nior choir student Emily Lawson. “For choir, it was a very close call. It took forever getting ready for prom. Plus, I didn’t get home from state until three and the pictures for prom started at five. The whole process was slow and stressful.” Senior jazz band student Jordan Fox said, “I didn’t go to prom, so it didn’t really affect me.” In order to address this issue, the school board has altered the schedule for graduation to be at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 16, 2015 instead of at 10 a.m.

Shey WhiteStaff Writer

Photo by: Felipe Escalante

Ads November 14, 2014Volume 96, Issue 4

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