spokesmanWheeling High School 900 S. Elmhurst Rd. Wheeling, Ill. 60090

Volume 49 Issue 5

Engineering students work on Innovators Challenge pg. 2

Feb. 8, 2013

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news: Video of Or-chesis’s flash mob

sports: Polar cats work out in winter, stay in shapea&e: International Thespian Society promotes theater

Peterson improves, moves up to varsity level pg. 11

indexnews 1-2

arts 3feature 4-5

focus 6-7la voz 8

entertainment 9forum 10

sports 11-12

‘Pack the Place’ promotes school spirit, fundraising

Last week, students continued the tra-ditions of “Pack the Place” week through spirit days, the pep assembly, a basketball game and Honor Pack’s fundraising.

Sports, clubs and organizations nomi-nated students to become Honor Pack mem-bers. Honor Pack helped raise money for a WHS family in economic hardship.

Social workers help identify a family in economic hardship. This year, Honor Pack raised money for the family of Karen Delga-do, junior, and Perla Delgado, sophomore.

“She’s (my mother) no longer working. She needs to take medicine,” K. Delgado said. “She hurt her back and neck. She has

District plans improvements in technology, academic programs

During the week of Jan. 15, District 214 approved school and district improve-ment plans as required under the No Child Left Behind Act; some of the highlights within the plan include improvements in incorporating more tech-nology into the classroom, adding more intervention for struggling students and increased professional de-velopments.

“We have been trying to invest in bringing mobile devices to the hand’s of stu-dents that will help their aca-demics,” Dr. Lazaro Lopez, principal, said. “For exam-

ple, we will be holding iPad training sessions for teach-ers and already hold many iPad pilots throughout the district, which is helping develop digital curriculum and practices to support a connected classroom.”

The plans included new programs such as home-work clubs, literacy labs and extra support for non-native speakers.

“In many ways, the Dis-trict plans are a compilation of Wheeling. We already have a student resource cen-ter for English Language Learners to help them be successful,” Dr. Lopez said. “We provide other interven-tions to provide support through WHS; we use soft-

ware and additional staff for those struggling.”

District officials hope to recommend more parental involvement strategies and activities to ensure more academic success.

“We hope to bring all parents together, despite their background,” Erin DeLuga, associate princi-pal, said. “I want to bring the leaders of the PTO and the Latino Family Nights to-gether to plan how parents can get more involved in academics.”

While only 11 Illinois high schools made year-ly progress last year, all schools in District 214 ex-ceeded the state’s ACT com-posite score of 20.6.

Rosalie Chanweb editor

Megan Joneseditor-in-chief

to have surgery and take insulin.”According to Sandra Chico, student

council adviser, the tradition of having stu-dents raise money for Pack the Place week was already in place when she became stu-dent council adviser.

Usually, students raise money for a WHS family, but in the past, sometimes they have also raised money for a charity.

“We try to see if there’s a way to help our family first,” Ms. Chico said.

Lucia Arreola, senior, was nominated for AVID. She raised money by selling candy and asking for donations.

“It felt good. It made me feel like I had the part of a leader for my group, and it was also giving to a good cause,” Arreola said. “We raised a good amount of money, so I

hope they’re doing well with the money.”In total, Honor Pack raised more than

$6,351.08. Allie Talken, senior, was named “Leader of the Pack” for raising the most money, an amount of $700.

“I worried that we’re going to lose the home we live in because we do not have money to rent the apartment,” K. Delgado said. “I feel more relaxed now; I hope that Wheeling High School can help.”

As for the Pack the Place activities, stu-dent council decided to move lunchtime ac-tivities into the lunchroom and play music during lunch in hopes of more participa-tion. It also canceled the movie night after the game due to low turnout in previous years.

“I thought it (Pack the Place week) was

fun. I thought the spirit days were fun, but I wish more people did them,” Samantha Rude, senior, said.

The Pack the Place game took place Feb. 1. The varsity boys basketball team played against Prospect. The final score was 55-54, Prospect.

At a pre-game assembly, student council presented Honor Pack members with flow-ers and certificates.

Rude attended the game for cheerleading and for Honor Pack. She was nominated for her cheerleading team.

“It was nice that I got nominated by my coach,” Rude said. “The game was really fun. There was a lot more people than usu-al. On cheer, we did a lot more interacting with the crowd.”

Career Pathways: A Look into the FutureIn recent years, WHS has expanded through its use of creating career pathways, such as the medical careers pathway. Currently underway in-clude a communication pathway, which will feature the fine arts depart-ment, and a research and development pathway which will incorporate English, fine arts, social sciences and foreign language.

I am most excited to see that we have accomplished so much in terms of pathways to help students look at the school and use it as a step towards their future. Regardless of your area of interest, I hope students will be able to have the chance to earn an internship, college credit or a type of certification. To be able to add that to your resume can open up so many doors. That might be the quality that helps you get a scholarship.” -Dr. Lazaro Lopez, principal

“

Information gathered by Megan Jones

Above left: Michael Forst, Keith Cichowicz and Cameron Forst, seniors, go over the script for the Pack the Place Assembly on Feb. 1. At the assembly, they announced Honor Pack members. Monica Czuma, senior, was nominated for Italian Club. “I think Pack the Place is fun, and that’s really when the school gets together,” Czuma said. “I think it (raising money) was a good experience, but I regret not raising more.” Above right: Rocio Gutierrez, senior, dances at the assembly, where she and other students incorporated the use of umbrellas while dancing to the song “Singing in the Rain.” Left: Tia Allen, senior, and members of Orchesis perform to the song “Sweet Home Chicago” in a flash mob, which included staff and student participation. Far left: Jeremy Stephani, junior, guards a player on Prospect’s varsity boys basketball team. At the game on Feb. 1, WHS lost to Prospect, 55-54. “Even though we didn’t win, it was an exciting atmosphere,” Stephani said. “We outplayed them (Prospect) most of the game, although I thought the way it ended was unfortunate.”

Musto hosts guerilla fashion show pg. 3

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Kristina PiamonteRosalie Chan

2Feb. 8, 2013spokesman

news

Orchestra gains fourth director in four years

Orchestra welcomed its new director Sarah Strue-bing, current Orchestra di-rector, after the departure of Alex Meza, previous Orchestra director, in late January.

With the arrival of a new director, Orchestra wel-comed its fourth director in just four years. However, Jami Kahn, senior, felt Ms. Struebing represents “sta-bility and control” for the Orchestra program.

“She really knows what she’s doing and is extremely prepared to take the reigns of the program, which is great because we really just need some stability and con-trol right now. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but I’m definitely expecting great things,” Kahn said.

Despite an abrupt en-trance, Ms. Struebing aspires to help students “realize the tremendous po-tential that they have” dur-ing her time at WHS.

“We will consistently work hard to create great performing experiences that help us to improve as musicians and people,” Ms. Struebing said. “In the mu-

sic classroom there are a va-riety of techniques that we can use to improve our mu-sicianship. I look forward to learning new ways to overcome challenges with the students at WHS.”

Ms. Struebing is current-ly preparing for the upcom-ing Orchestra concert on March 19. As of yet, the set list is to be determined, but according to Ms. Struebing, it will feature a rendition of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.”

“I’m really excited for the concert. So far, the music we’re playing is really cool and challenging. I’m just excited. We hadn’t begun to prepare for the concert with Meza yet, so she came at a good time,” Katrina Gus-tafson, senior, said.

Although Ms. Struebing has only spent a few weeks at WHS, she feels “extreme-ly fortunate to be joining the WHS community.”

“I have never worked in an environment where stu-dents are as friendly and polite as they are here at Wheeling. The students and faculty all seem to be work-ing together toward goals creating a unique environ-ment that is not found in ev-ery school,” Ms. Struebing said.

Sarah Struebing, Orchestra director, does office work after school. Ms. Struebing was recently named the new Orchestra director, and she works with Orchestra on pieces like “Irish Legend.”

Students plan, design engineering projects

In order to help students learn vo-cabulary, the physical education classes’ curriculum will now incorporate learning commonly used words on the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE).

“As a school we always look at our data, and the one area we wanted to im-prove upon was reading,” Kevin Muck, division head for career and technical edu-cation and physical education, said. “We (the P.E. department) decided to help and came up with the vocabulary plan.”

All sophomore, junior and senior P.E. classes will learn a list of 100 vocabulary words to improve on vocabulary for stan-dardized testing. After reviewing data at the end of the year, the P.E. department will decide whether to teach vocabulary to freshmen P.E. classes.

“I was surprised because we don’t need vocab in P.E. classes. That’s why we have English classes,” Angelica Bahena, junior, said.

At the beginning of the semester, stu-dents had to take a pre-test, and for their P.E. final, they will take a post-test about the vocabulary words.

“While it’s unusual to do it in P.E., it’s the only class where everyone has the whole year,” Tim Falconer, P.E. teacher, said. “I think a lot of things we do with P.E. depends on how the teacher intro-

duces it.”Each P.E. teacher can choose how they

want to teach the vocabulary words and reward students for doing well on the post-test.

“Most of us are taking some time out of an activity to go over the words,” Ryan Schiltz, health and P.E. teacher, said. “I do think vocabulary is very important. I think the one issue we’re having is that with P.E. we have a variety of students with different levels of reading and writ-ing.”

Students will learn four words each week. The vocabulary words are also list-ed on the back of the fitness cards.

“They were hoping P.E. could incorpo-rate College Board’s words and help kids improve vocabulary for lifetime learning and job interviews,” Michael Tice, P.E. teacher, said. “Although many of us feel P.E. should relieve stress, we feel people can learn these words in a fun way.”

In order to promote learning these words, Media Technology plans to develop commercials about the meanings of the vo-cabulary words. P.E. teachers also plan to play these videos in the fitness center and hang posters about these words.

“I think it’s fantastic that P.E. is in-volved in this,” Megan Knight, English and fine arts division head, said. “It’s cer-tainly different, but it’s supportive of what happens in English classes.”

Robert Peralesa&e editor

Erik Hernandezasst. news editor

Rosalie Chanweb editor

WPAC sponsors ‘Jeans for Teens’

The Wheeling Political Action Club (WPAC) hosted a Jeans For Teens drive, in accordance with Aéro-postale, a clothing store, to collect jeans for teens in need within the township of Wheeling who would other-wise have difficulty purchas-ing clothing items.

“Even when life may seem stressful, we should be aware of the struggles of others,” Tyler Levy, senior, said.

There were bins set up

in the back and front of the school for whoever would have liked to donate their gently worn jeans from Jan. 28 to Feb. 8.

“It’s a simple and easy way to make a difference in the community,” Isabel Chan, sophomore, said.

Aéropostale’s website states that 1.7 million teens around the U.S are home-less. The program uses ce-lebrities to promote the is-sue. The jeans donated have totaled up to 2.5 million pairs of jeans since 2007.

Students around the U.S can also be awarded for

their efforts. Aéropostale offers a $10,000 award for whichever school donates the most jeans. It will also give out a $2,000 scholar-ship to a randomly selected school.

This charitable event is among many that WPAC has hosted. Other events included Shave For The Shore.

“These types of events keep us together,” Omar Joya, senior, said. “It helps us keep true to making a difference in the community and staying up to current events.”

Rosalie Chanweb editor

P.E. classes teach vocabulary

Nine students currently work on designing engi-neering solutions for the Positive Impact – Next Generation Innovators Chal-lenge, with projects ranging from a prosthetic leg to an operating room.

“Part of our project is how we can impact the world, so even if we have the smallest impact, that would be good,” Dan Crabbe, se-nior, said.

Participating students re-ceived problem statements, where they had to design a solution to the problem that followed the prompt’s criteria.

Crabbe and Christian Galvan, junior, received a prompt to create a prosthet-ic leg.

“We’re building a pros-thetic leg for a third world country. Right now, we’re in the design process,” Gal-van said. “We’re trying to make it as simple as pos-sible and as durable as pos-sible.”

Kat Dobrowski and Jordan Quiroz, seniors, re-

ceived a prompt about air-flow in a surgical operating room. They have done re-search about this topic, and they also visited the Chil-dren’s Memorial Hospital to examine hospital rooms.

“Right now we’re work-ing on the hospital room and finishing up designs,” Quiroz said. “It’s a good experience. It’s more of a hands on thing.”

HP, Intel and Autodesk sponsor this competition, and students will receive the opportunity to work with supercomputers and simu-late their designs.

“It’s nothing that we’re familiar with, so a lot of it is learning the whole process and system,” Dobrowski said.

They will present at the Midwest Research Com-petition: Positive Impact, which takes place April 12 at WHS.

“This is a fantastic exam-ple of a relevant high tech application of what our stu-dents can work with,” Dan Weidner, physics teacher, said.

newsflash

Spring sports tryouts begin after school on Feb. 25.

Orchesis will per-form its show “We Have Arrived” at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 21, 22 and 23 in the theater. Tickets sell at $8.

Student Council will host its annual crush sales, which take place in the Main Hall from Feb. 4 to Feb. 13. Crush-es are $1 each, and each color has its own meaning: orange, best friend; purple, secret admirer; and red, “I love you.” Crushes will be distributed during Block B on Valentine’s Day.

The AVID movie screening of “Boys in Peril” will take place tonight. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and the movie starts at 7 p.m.

SADD will hold pledges every Wednesday during all lunch periods to end the R-word as part of “Spread the Word to End the Word” until March.

The ACT will take place at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 9 at WHS.

Illinois’s primary elections will take place on Feb. 26.

Kristina Piamonte

Kristina Piamonte

For more news, like ‘WHS Spokesman Online’ on fand follow @WHSSpokesman on t

Feb. 18 is a non-attendance day, in observance of Presidents’ Day.

Latino Fam-ily Night will take place at 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 28. It will focus on FAFSA and scholarships.

Christian Galvan, junior, measures the units on the pros-thetic knee. For the Innovators Challenge, he works on the prompt for designing a prosthetic leg.

arts 3Feb. 8, 2013spokesman

Musto, models exhibit fashion show at Millennium Park

Left: The cast of models including Paige McCoy, freshman, Sarah Rabin, senior, Kaitlyn Nielsen, senior, Katia Bryhadyr, freshman, and Tegan Reschke, junior, assembled by Jess Musto, senior, line up for a photo shoot in the stadium. Center: Nielsen poses next to an elevator while wearing a necklace and an arm brace designed and created by Musto.Right: Reschke poses while wearing an award winning piece designed and created by Musto.

Jess Musto, senior, enlisted her friends to create a team consisting of models and a camera-crew to travel downtown and pres-ent a guerrilla fashion show at Millennium Park.

“The jewelry I designed fit the feel of Mil-lennium Park, and I knew Millennium Park was a public place that allowed filming,” Musto said. “Not many designers my age would be gutsy enough to ask a bunch of people to walk around in sharp jewelry that hurts and then wear it out in public. I just wanted to do something bold.”

The video created was published on YouTube and then submitted to Parsons The New School Competition, a competition that, if won, awards a full ride scholarship to Par-sons.

“At first I wanted to film a time lapse of me creating one of my pieces, but I wanted to make a bigger statement,” Musto said. “I think the video was important for the com-petition because it made a huge statement, showed what I wanted to do, how I could get it done and was really unique compared

to the other videos submitted.”Models Kaitlyn Nielsen, Sarah Rabin,

seniors, Tegan Reschke, junior, Paige Mc-Coy and Katia Bryhadyr, freshmen, strug-gled with the 10 degree weather as they wore tights and skirts, while the camera crew focused on filming angles to show off the jewelry.

“She called on so many people, and I didn’t expect that many to want to come

out and help in the freez-ing cold. Everyone helped out above and beyond their role call, like pho-tographers were helping out models take off their coats,” Nielsen said.

The crew traveled to four different locations to take shots before heading to The Bean for a jewelry fashion show.

“I was so amazed when I found out she handmade all of it,” Nielsen said. “She was able to fix it on her own, and it looked so amazing. I didn’t expect someone to be able to hand make jewelry like that and still have it look so amazing.”

On Feb. 20, Parsons will announce the top 20 finalists that are in the running, and on Feb. 28, it will call the winners. Musto’s video has received over 400 hits on You-Tube.

Students successfully represent WHS at IMEA After an extensive audition process,

the top placing students from Band were selected to compete and perform at the Il-linois Music Education Association (IMEA) on Jan. 24, 25 and 26 in Peoria, Ill.

Five WHS students were selected to compete at IMEA including Ronald Roth, junior, who placed fourth chair in the hon-or band out of 50 students.

“I’ve played the trumpet for seven years. I felt great with that standing, but I do wish I would have practiced more. It is harder to make it twice in a row, but I hope I have the chance to tryout again,” Roth said.

Like Roth, Matt Kulczak, junior, per-formed and placed in the top Honor Band but in the flute category. Kulczak was placed as the first chair flute in the Honor Band.

“I am very satisfied and could not be

more pleased with my placement at IMEA,” Kulczak said. “I think that the success of peers from D214 will encourage students to bring a stronger sense of responsibility and pride to their programs at WHS; the tangible dividends from the hard work of peers and staff alike will urge students to attain similar goals and strive for excel-lence.”

Three other students also performed and placed at IMEA including Chelsie Coren, Kaitlyn Nielsen and Adam Korber, seniors.

According to Korber, who also placed in the top Honors Orchestra, IMEA helped enforce his plan to major in Music Educa-tion and Cello performance.

“Making all-state only solidified my rea-soning for doing what I want to do. Work-ing with the director I worked with really showed me how rewarding and awesome it can be,” Korber said. “Sure, music requires a lot of study and work, but it is totally

worth doing what you love.”Coren placed eigth chair in the honor

band out of 84 clarinetists. While she felt “happy” with her standing, she had a dif-ferent approach toward IMEA.

“In the grand scheme of things, making all state will not really matter. Though it’s an honor, there are great musicians that didn’t go. So, the result definitely did not have an impact on my plans for the future,” Coren said. “This year was definitely an up year for D214, and Wheeling in particular. However, the audition process is pretty rigged, and some student who deserves to go did not get the opportunity. Still, even though people keep working hard and practicing, the audition results are out of their control.”

On that same note, Nielsen was unable to qualify for the Honor Band because her instrument kept her from entering the hon-or band.

“At IMEA I was the only English horn

there. I was automatically placed in the All-state band because they had no English horn parts for the honors group,” Nielsen said. “IMEA did not change my plans for the future. It only reaffirmed my plans for pursuing music in college,” Nielsen said.

In comparison to previous years, WHS continued to excel sending an additional two members to IMEA resulting in five to-tal members.

In preparation for the upcoming year, Kulczak will continue to practice and strive for excellence in order to remain in Honor Band next year.

“In preparations for next year, I plan to continue developing my technique by pre-paring several concertos and expanding my musicianship by continuing an active role in my youth orchestra, MYA (Midwest Young Artists),” Kulczak said. “I will also start preparing next year’s IMEA etudes promptly over the summer.”

Recieve 10% off by showing the advertisement and checkout Rockstyles Facebook for specials!

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VISCOM: DIGITAL MEDIA FESTIVAL

EVER WANTED TO CREATE A SHORT FILM?

HAVE IT PREMIERE AT A FILM FEST ON THE BIG SCREEN?ATTEND A RED CARPET AWARD CEREMONY?

Students have already begun submitting films! If you want to be a part of the festival, contact:

IT’S NOT TOO LATE!!!English Department

Mr. UhrikJohn.Uhrik@d214.org

Visual ArtsMr. Dyer

Kent.Dyer@d214.org

Megan Joneseditor-in-chief

Robert Perales a&e editor

The video will be submitted into WHS’s own Film Fest and can be seen before Orchesis’s main showcase on Feb. 21, 22 and 23.

Photos By:Megan Jones

4Feb. 8, 2013

spokesman

feature

“I like seeing everything from overhead, and I like the experience of doing something different, and seeing the city and every-thing from up above is re-ally cool,” Kaitlyn Debusk, senior, said. “When you’re in the air you can do what-ever you want, go where you want. All you have to do is talk to the control tow-er and it’s okay.”

Debusk attends flying lessons and works at the Chicago Executive Airport.

“Honestly, I never liked being on the ground. I like adventure, and I live right next to the airport, so I liked seeing it, and I wanted to try, and so I just fell in love with it,” Debusk said.

Her parents took her to an exposition where they found an informational booth about flying, and that was when Debusk’s journey to learn about flying took off.

According to Debusk the first time she flew a plane, “it was an incredible feel-ing, but I was disappointed because I wanted to go back up,” Debusk said.

According to Debusk, flying a plane is almost like driving a car since there are a certain amount of flying hours required, different tests at different periods of time, terms and techniques and several tests with an in-structor before flying alone.

In order to fly alone, she will need to get a license and pass all the ground school and flying tests.

“What really surprised me is that flying is easier than driving a car. A plane almost flies itself; it’ll stay going straight and stay do-ing what it’s supposed to do,” Debusk said.

Windy City sponsors the aviation group, called Avia-tion Post 9.

Debusk is part of and provides instructors for a group of high schoolers called the Explorers.

There is a $35 fee per month, which covers train-ing.

“Flying isn’t cheap. We actually wash planes to raise money for our group, so we don’t have to pay more for flying. We get credit for Windy City and that’s how we actually fly, which is kind of cool; we have to work for what we

do,”Debusk said.According to Debusk,

the hardest step about fly-ing a plane is the landing, mainly because the wind can be challenging and stressful.

“You have to time it right; otherwise, it can be a disaster,” Debusk said.

Debusk has flown a plane 10 times and a heli-copter a couple times, and she plans on enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“Her dream is to fly for the Marines, so I’d love to see her be able to do that,” Pam Debusk, mother of K. Debusk, said.

One time, K. Debusk and her instructor had dealt with irregular motion which caused difficulties while fly-ing.

“We got caught with re-ally bad turbulence, and we dropped a couple feet in a matter of seconds and that was scary. The instructor let me stall the plane, so I just pretty much made the plane go straight up. Then it just stopped, and it dropped, and then I recov-ered it, which was fun,” K. Debusk said.

Fred Debusk, father of K. Debusk, was in the U.S.

Army and has always en-couraged K. Debusk to do what her heart tells her.

“I would be very proud (if K. Debusk were to go to the U.S. Marine Corps). I was in the army myself from ‘77 to ‘80, and I just tell her she has to go with what’s

in her heart; if she feels the need to do it, she should do it; follow your dream,” Mr. Debusk said.

Additionally, Amy Marks, K. Debusk’s older sister, is in the U.S .Marine Corps and has inspired her to want to enlist in the U.S.

Marine Corps. “She’s my role model. I

want to follow her footsteps and I want to outdo it. She told me to follow my heart and do what I believe and just do whatever I want to do and do the best I can do at it,” K. Debusk said.

Dustin Marks, K. Debusk’s brother-in-law, Kaitlyn Debusk, senior, Amy Marks, ‘05 WHS graduate and sister of K. Debusk, and flying instructor check the aircraft. Inset: K. Debusk flies inside a plane at the Chicago Executive Airport with the aid of an instructor.

Used with permission from Kaitlyn Debusk

Frida Valdésfeature editor

feature 5Feb. 8, 2013spokesman

Viruet pursues acting career Kras aims for police career despite dangers

Used with permission from Mike Viruet

In response to the recent shooting at a school in Conneticut, Amanda Kras, senior, her interest in becoming a police officer in-creased.

“When I was watching on the news how everyone was there, like police, fire depart-ment and ambulances, and that just made me think, ‘Oh that can happen anywhere; it could happen here, and if that was my ca-reer, I would be able to be there and help people and investigate,” A. Kras, senior, said.

Ever since Kras went on a field trip to a jail during her sophomore year, she became interested in becoming a police officer.

“Whenever I would see a police officer chasing someone, I always thought that it was so interesting, and I always watched those kind of shows, like ‘Cops.’ I think it’s (being a police officer) really interesting, and I want to be there for people and keep them safe,” Kras said.

Kras graduated WHS early in order to get ahead in her career by taking a criminal justice law class at Harper, as well as to com-plete English classes.

“I’m glad she figured out what she wants to do for the rest of her life so soon. I think it was a really smart decision for her to grad-uate early and begin her career path,” Cayla Iwaniuk, senior, said in an e-mail interview.

Kras’s uncle, Konrad Svarlowicv, police officer in Poland, often gives her advice and tells her anecdotes to help her understand the career.

“He doesn’t give me perfect advice be-cause he’s in Poland, but he gives me gen-eral advice. He tells me over and over, it’s a dangerous job, and I should think about it really well,” Kras said.

According to Kras, she feels a duty to help others by ensuring people’s safety.

“People like that get put into jail are a danger to everyone else, and I feel like there’s no reason they shouldn’t be in jail because if they’re doing something bad, why should they not be in jail? They need to get punished for that, and I want to keep people safe,” Kras said.

Agnieska Kras, mother of A. Kras, wants her daughter to do what makes her happy; she said that her daughter would have an advantage on becoming a police officer be-cause police departments want to hire fe-male and bilingual individuals.

“I wanted to get a head start because I’d realize that I’d need to start thinking this stuff through and instead of worrying about high school I feel like I need to start think-ing what I want to do,” A. Kras said.

However, Mrs. Kras hopes her daughter will change her mind about becoming a po-lice officer after attending Harper College.

“It’s her own life and her own decision, I can’t really do anything about it,” Mrs. Kras said.

“My mom said I should be a pharmacist, but that doesn’t interest me whatsoever at all, and my dad’s just telling me to think it through, but I mean they’re (parents) say-ing, ‘If it makes you happy, you should just do it,’” A. Kras said.

Pawel Kras, father of A. Kras, feels wor-ried for their daughter’s safety along with Mrs. Kras, but he feels more worried.

A. Kras plans on going to the police academy to receive physical and mental training, but at the moment does not know which school.

“Let’s say I caught someone or there was some really bad fight, and I had to go to help out. Someone could get killed if they have a knife or weapon, but if I went there, by the end of the day I’d feel, ‘Oh, I probably saved a life,’” A. Kras said.

Frida Valdésfeature editor

Imagine waking up at 7 a.m. every-day and getting homeschooled. Now, imagine having to wake up at 6 a.m. and get ready to go to high school. It may seem like an abrupt change, but that is what Christie Ambrose, fresh-man, had to get used to.

Ambrose was homeschooled, and so was her older sister, Audrey Am-brose, junior, from 6th through 8th grade. This is C. Ambrose’s first year in a public school.

According to C. Ambrose, her par-ents gave her and her siblings the op-tion to attend a public school.

“They let me choose, but I didn’t want to miss high school; it seems like a good experience for most peo-ple, and I didn’t want to miss out on that,” C. Ambrose said.

Friends of the C. Ambrose’s family influenced Ambrose’s parents’ deci-sion to homeschool their children.

According to C. Ambrose, one of the advantages of being home-schooled is learning material at one’s own pace and having a more flexible schedule to work with. She also went on more field trips.

“I would do all my school work and get it done for the day and the rest of the day do fun stuff, so we were a lot more flexible because now I go to school, do homework and then go to school,” C. Ambrose said.

C. Ambrose did “co-ops,” which are methods of combining classroom-based education with practical experi-ence.

A typical day for C. Ambrose consisted of math, English, history and science for a total of about eight hours, although classes were not

Frida Valdésfeature editor

Homeschooling offers flexible schedules, education, strengthens family relationships

timed. C. Ambrose could get ahead in subjects that interested her the most, and she had the freedom to study a variety of subjects more in-depth.

Like C. Ambrose’s parents, Mike Hurley, English teacher, and Melanie Hurley, wife of Mr. Hurley, homeschooled their two daughters and currently homeschool their son. He plans on at-tending WHS instead of continuing homeschool-ing. When both daughters enrolled at Harper Col-lege, they were around age 17.

According to Mr. Hurley, Harper did not know how to validate his daughters work due to lack of experience.

“When we tried to enroll them they wanted to see their transcripts, and we showed them our list of classes, and they said, ‘well, we can’t accept this; this is an unofficial school.’ State law says anybody can start taking classes at 16; you don’t have to be home-schooled. Once we ironed all that out, they actually became very supportive and wanted to find more homeschooled students because home-schooled students tend to perform at a pretty high level,” Mr. Hurley said.

According to Mindy Hurley, daughter of Mr. Hurley, she feels she had opportunities she would have missed if she had attended a public school.

“I loved being home and the diversity of activi-ties that it allows as opposed to sitting in a class-room all day,” Ms. Hurley said.

According to Mr. Hurley, most of the material is self-taught.

“A lot of it doesn’t take tutoring, especially at the lower levels of school. Now, when they were in, let’s say 8th grade, 9th grade or around there, math got harder, and I’m not a math person, and my wife is not a math person, so at that point, we said, ‘You know what? We need to find a math person who can really walk them through,” Mr. Hurley said.

Family relationships develop more as a result of homeschooling, according to Mrs. Hurley.

“My girls were the best of friends, and I was incredibly close to them as well. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. We had the opportunity to travel

and do a lot of fun things that we wouldn’t have been able to do if they were in public school,” Mrs. Hurley said.

Another positive aspect of homeschooling is that the education provided to the children is more personalized; students learn what they want to learn at their own pace.

“We can also personalize their education so that the learning is occurring in a way that best communicates to that particular child. One of our daughters enjoyed a more literature-based curricu-lum, while the other preferred more of a workbook and test-taking kind of experience,” Mrs. Hurley said.

Homeschooling provides a one-on-one time with every single concept a child takes until he or she completely understands and masters it.

“Why would we turn the math page until they completely understood the page we were on? Homeschoolers have the luxury of time with a small amount of students that teachers do not have either in public school or private school,” Mrs. Hurley said.

M. Hurley took a few classes at Harper her se-nior year.

“The great thing about taking classes in high school is that it’s called concurrent enrollment and you receive simultaneous high school and college credit for the classes you complete. I felt totally equipped to tackle my classes. That first year I took chemistry, speech and microbiology and ex-celled at them all. This also enabled to start the classes for my chosen major sooner,” M. Hurley said.

Although some may think homeschooling “jeopardizes” social skills, M. Hurley says it has enhanced them.

“Being in a high school, you are surrounded almost entirely with your peers all day long every day. And that isn’t good preparation for the real world. Once you graduate and get a job, you will rarely be in a position that you are interacting sole-ly with people that are within three years of your age,” M. Hurley said.

Christie Ambrose, freshman, fills in her French 1 workbook during first period. Ambrose was able to previosuly study French by using Rosetta Stone software.

Q&A

with Mike Viruet, WHS graduate of ‘07

How did you first get interested in acting?

“My mom is the reason I became interested in acting. I used to watch her do the plays at church, and she was so natural at it. She also used to usher shows at the Des Plaines Community theater and bring my sister and I along to help out. We watched a production of the musical ‘Tommy,’ and I told my mom, ‘I want to do that.’ Her and my dad have supported my choice ever since.”

What did you do to get involved in professional acting?

“I auditioned for top agents back in Chicago, did a lot of commercial, print and voiceover work my freshman year in college.”

What have you been involved in where people may recognize you?

“The 2012 movie Pitch Perfect and the AMC commercial.”

How did you end up working in Los Angeles?

“In the summer of ‘08, I worked 90 hours a week and three different jobs to save $3,000. Once I made all the money, I packed my bags and drove to LA, not knowing a single person in town. I found a great agent and enrolled in school and got a job at a Vitamin Shoppe. Within the first 3 months, I booked the Coke/AMC Magic chairs commercial, which is still running. Ultimately, I took a giant blind leap of faith and landed on some pretty solid ground.”

Erik Hernandez

Graduates early to attend Harper

Interview by Kelly McKewin

6Feb. 8, 2013

spokesman

focus

Should the government have/need to intervene with shootings?

“Yes, because that way parents feel safe with send-ing their childern to school. Since school should be a safe haven, the government should try harder.”

Margarita Hernandez, sophomore

“This is the government’s country they should protect the people. If we use guns for all this violence, then there will never be peace.”

Josh Diaz, fresh-man

After the tragic event at Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School in Newtown, Conn., our nation went into a controversial frenzy over the banishment of certain types of guns.

Back in December, President Barack Obama directed a meeting with a Cabinet group to give recommendations on ways to tighten the gun regula-tions, according to the Chi-cago Tribune.

A tighter regulation on guns will only cause more issues.

People often find ways around the law, so what will prevent some hooli-gans from black market-ing guns to civilians? It’s these people who cause laws to change and new ones to be made. One bad apple in the pile will ruin the rest.

According to the 2010 Crime Rate by States, Texas has a smaller violent crime rate than Illinois be-cause its gun policies are less strict than Illinois’. Since 2012, Texas has had a 0.8 percent decrease in

crimes while Illinois has had a 1.54 percent in-crease.

If civilians feel safer with legally storing a weapon in their homes, work areas and so on, then fewer people would have the nerve to attack other people.

According to the 2nd Amendment, citizens “have the right to bear arms.” If the House of Representatives passes the bill, which bans up to 150 types of firearms, it will vi-olate the 2nd Amendment.

The Senate hopes to increase armed security in schools and public places through a theory called “more guns for the good guys,” as said in an article from “policymic.”

One can say that guns are the reason why vio-lence exists, but in reality, it’s people who are violent. If guns are banned, then people will find other ways to rebel against the law. Today, people can make homemade bombs, which I think is worse than a gun, and people turn just about anything into a deadly weapon.

The banishment of guns is an extreme bill to pass. It will only cause a public uproar.

Although I praise the government for respond-ing to the Sandy Hook shooting so quickly, they need to reconsider the bill and enforce punishments instead.

Current gun policy should not be changed

Dale Thal, security guard, looks up a visitor’s information through a program called Identysis. The program allows the security guards to look up any criminal records or other prob-lems that would disallow the visitor in the building.

WHS has not made any drastic changes in secu-rity since the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

“There haven’t really been any changes since the shootings. Everything is the same: we just need to be alert and pay attention,” Annette Ambrus, security guard, said.

Current security proce-dures include the Identisys program, used when visi-tors enter the building.

“Visitors need a state I.D. with a picture that we put through a scanner, which uses Identysis to check if the person is a sex offender or has any other offences,” Judy “Mama” Kraus, security guard, said. “We put down their destina-

tion, purpose of visit and who they plan to see.”

The visitor’s I.D. is kept at the security desk, and the visitor is given a lanyard to wear. This lanyard must be returned in order to obtain the I.D. Everyone, includ-ing previous graduates and inter-district administrators must go through this pro-cess.

All doors leading in or out of the building are kept on constant lock except for the front and back foyers to prevent unidentified visitors from entering the building.

“People ask me, ‘What would you do if someone broke into the building?’ and I tell them, ‘I’d duck underneath my booth, but first I’d call and alert the police and administration,’” Ms. Kraus said. “My first po-sition is to protect the stu-dents and make sure they are safe.”

WHS keeps current security policy

Stephanie’s Cartoon

Solinna Chong

Kristina Piamonte

Infographic by Nycole Garcia

Megan Provostasst. focus editor

8. California State University Shooting at Fullerton in 1976- 7 victims

5. Columbine in 1999- 15 victims

1. The Bath School Disaster of 1927- 45 Victims

2. Virginia Tech in 2007- 33 victims

3. Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School in 2012- 28 victims

4. University of Texas in 1966- 16 victims

6. Red Lake Senior High Massacre in 2005- 8 victims

7. Oikos University Shooting in 2012- 7 victims

9. Amish School Shooting in 2006- 7 victims

10. Northern Il-linois University in 2006- 6 victims

Top 10Worst School Shootings in U.S History

Information gathered byMegan Provost

focus7Feb.8, 2013spokesman

“Yes because it’s be-coming a big problem; it needs to become a bigger topic than what the government is mak-ing it.”

Mallory Schiferl, senior

“It starts within the community. First with family, then the community, then the states and ends with the federal govern-ment.”

Marcus Thomas,Special Ed. teacher

“They have to be in-volved but to the point where it is effective, and they just need to un-derstand that there are other recreational uses for guns.”

Steven Wagner, junior

The annual winter holiday as-sembly was canceled this year due to the recent scare of the Sandy Hook shooting and student ru-mors of weapon threats on Twit-ter.

“It was because of the con-text during that time. With the devastating incident in Newtown, Conn.; it really had the effect of

putting everyone on edge across the country,” Dr. Lazaro Lopez, principal, said.

According to Dr. Lopez, stu-dents at WHS and neighboring schools were tweeting and creat-ing a threat to the school.

“This was not the real case, but everyone was still in a heightened sense of fear,” Dr. Lopez said. “What I was worried about was that during the assembly, some-one would say or do something,

intentionally or not, to cause a panic.”

Dr. Lopez had already planned to increase police presence for the assembly.

“However, many students and staff members were concerned with having the whole school population in the gymnasium at once,” Dr. Lopez said.

WHS was not the only high school to cancel events; Bar-rington High School, a part of

District 220, canceled its school dance after hearing rumors about someone planning to bring a gun to the event. While no credible threat was found, officials wanted more time to investigate before the dance.

“I was really upset that the assembly was canceled,” Breton Spiller, sophomore, said. “Orche-sis had worked really hard on the piece we were going to do, but I do understand the concerns for it

because it was the week right after the shooting, and it started at the same time, so there could possibly be panic.”

Dr. Lopez sent out a mass e-mail to the staff members, letters to parents and ran an annouce-ment to explain the situation about the gun threats.

“It was an awful decision to have to make, and I feel bad for all students who were preparing to perform,” Dr. Lopez said.

WHS takes action by cancelling annual winter assembly

Seniors cheer during the 3-point shootout on Friday, Feb. 1 at the Pack the Place pep rally. In contrast, the winter assembly was canceled on Friday, Dec. 21 due to gun threats during the as-sembly. Dr. Lazaro Lopez, principal, decided to cancel the assembly because of parent and teacher concerns about a large group of students conglomerating in one place. “A lot of rumors of fear were amongst students and parents. The week of the assembly, students at our school and neighboring schools were tweeting and creating a threat to the school,” Dr. Lopez said.

School’s Weapons Policy

Q&A

with Adam Sherman, school resource officer, about the current security system at WHS and any changes that have been made after the recent shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

After the shootings at Newton, are there any new rules that the school is enforcing to protect its students?

“Guests have to register with security in the front or back of the school with an I.D. through a program called Identysis. This program makes sure that the guest is not a registered sex offender or has a criminal record not allowing them to enter the school.”

“No, our policies (at WHS) are already mak-ing sure that students are safe. Schools in Illinois are required to have crisis plans; it’s a state law.”

Some schools have enforced a new gun drill, similar to a hard lockdown. Is this something that all schools should practice?

“I think it’s good practice. Hopefully no one would have to go through the drill, but it is good practice to have.”

Why do you think soft and hard lockdowns are important for students to practice and know?What is the current security policy

that is used when guests visit the school? “They are required by law but are very help-

ful, especially to new kids coming in from ju-nior high. (The lockdowns) It teaches where to go and to be ready in case something were to happen. When students are under stress, they will be able to act appropriately when taught something over and over again.”

Interview by Solinna Chong Infographic by Solinna Chong

Kristina Piamonte

“A student who is determined to have brought one of the following objects to school, any school-sponsored activity or event or any activity or event that bears a reasonable relation-ship to school shall be expelled for a period of at least one calender year but no more than two calender years.” (Student Handbook pg. 9)

The following are prohibited:1. Firearm: any gun, rifle, shotgun, or weapon as defined by Section 921 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 1.1 of the Firearm Onwers Identification Card Act, or Section 24-1 of the Criminal Code 1961.

2. A knife, brass knuckles, or other knuckle weapon regard-less of its composition, a billy club or any other object if used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm, including “look-alikes.”

Exceptions:

1. The expulsion requirements may be modified by the Su-perintendent and the Superintendent’s determination may be modified by the Board on a case-by-case basis.

2. Students in theater, cooking, ROTC, martial arts and similar programs, whether or not school-sponsored, provided the item is not equipped, nor intended, to do bodily harm.

Megan Joneseditor-in-chief

8Febrero 8, 2013

spokesman

la voz

Hector Juarez, senior, descubrió su talento en la carrera que quiere, el arte culinario.

Cuando Juarez era joven, su mamá trabajaba tarde en-tonces él hacía comida sen-cilla que su mamá le había enseñado.

“Me acuerdo que cada vez mi mamá cocinaba, yo tenía que estar en un esca-bel porque no alcanzaba a ver,” Juarez dijo.

Juarez continuó coci-nando afuera de su hogar,

y tomó niveles uno y dos Foods y actualmente esta to-mando Pro Start, una clase que da crédito para Harper College.

Pro Start es una clase avanzada de cocina donde los estudiantes provéen comida para la escuela. Cre-an su propio menú.

“Él siempre está moti-vado y entusiasmado. Él siempre quiere hacer lo me-jor para si mismo y se enor-gullece de lo que hace,” dijo Jennifer Cederberg, maes-tra de Ciencia de la Familia y del Consumidor.

La comida favorita que le gusta cocinar es la comida

asiática, “me gusta comerla y cocinarla. Me gusta la lla-ma alta en donde se cocina y la técnica rápida.”

La mamá de Juarez es su inspiración.

“Mi mamá me ha enseña-do todo lo que se. Cada se-mana nosotros cocinabamos la cena y ahora yo ayudo a mi mamá aprender diferen-tes recetas de otros países,” Juarez dijo.

El estilo de Juarez es cocinar en vez de hornear comida. Le encanta poner su comida en porciones pequeñas y hacerlas elegan-tes y tener su comida llena de color.

Juarez planea ir a Harper por su programa culinario y después ir a una escuela culinaria más especializada como Kendall College ó Le Cordon Bleu.

También desea aprender nuevos platos y como oper-ar una cocina porque quiere ser jefe de cocina.

Juarez aspira a algún día poseer su propio restau-rante.

“Quiero que la gente sepa que soy hispano y que nací con una mamá soltera y quiero hacer algo que amo como mi trabajo. No es un trabajo si lo amas,” Juarez dijo.

Lizbeth Lopez, estu-diante de Harper College, llegó a los E.E.U.U. como in-migrante ilegal, y con paráli-sis cerebral.

Este año, graduará lista para trabajar como asis-tente de fotógrafo, con un permiso de trabajo legal.

Lopez tiene una herma-na mayor que también nació con discapacidades.

Debido a esto, su mamá no pudo proveer para todos sus hijos y puso a Lopez para adoptar.

Desde entonces, sus pa-dres adoptivos han hecho el mayor esfuerzo para sacarla adelante y mejorar su fu-turo.

Jill Amati, asistente ad-ministrativa, ha conocido a

Lopez desde que estaba en el grado ocho, cuando la Sra. Amti fue su “one-on-one.”

Esto ayuda a los estudi-antes con discapacidades completar los trabajos esco-lares que no pueden hacer solos.

La Sra. Amati describe a Lopez como una persona quien es trabajadora, perse-verante y positiva.

Lopez también tiene dis-capacidad de aprender, más que nada para las matemáti-cas.

De acuerdo a la Sra. Amati, cuando Lopez tenía problemas con una materia, se esforzaba hasta llegar a una calificación de una B o A.

Debido a sus logros per-sonales, el United Cerebral Palsy of Chicago pagó por

su educación universitaria completa.

Gracias a la Acción Difer-ida, Lopez puede trabajar legalmente.

“Siempre he tenido ga-nas de trabajar sin miedo de que me vayan a decir algo,” Lopez dijo.

Su historia sirve como inspiración para varios estu-diantes.

Este año, Gabriella Me-dina y Bertha Sanchez, coordinadoras del Club La-tino, tratarán de que Lopez visite al Club Latino para compartir su historia con los miembros.

“Solo siento que ella es toda una inspiración,” la Sra. Sanchez dijo.

La Sra. Sanchez dijo que quiere que Lopez sirva como inspiración para los estudiantes de WHS.

“Muchachos lo toman por un hecho. Esa mucha-cha era ilegal, tenía tantas discapacidades,” la Sra. San-chez dijo.

Actualmente, Lizeth está a punto de completar su educación universitaria.

Está estudiando diseño gráfico y fotografía. Su es-cuela le está ofreciendo un trabajo en diseño gráfico.

Después del próximo se-mestre, Lopez buscará un trabajo como asistente de fotógrafo.

La Sra. Amati dijo que quiere compartir la historia de Lopez en todas ocasio-nes.

“Sabes, cuando yo tomé la posición, solo era un tra-bajo. Ahora siento que fui tan bendecida porque ella estuvo en mi vida,” la Sra. Amati dijo.

Arriba a la izquierda: Hector Juarez, senior, describe este platillo de pollo a la naranja. “Mi estilo de pollo a la naranja encima de arroz blanco con limón y con salsa picante roja.”Abajo a la izquierda: Juarez cocinó un platillo asiático con su propio toque. “La otra es carne de res con brócoli y al lado es el pollo frito con arroz, guisantes, zanahorias y elote,” Juarez dijo.Arriba: Juarez cocina una variedad de platillos con carne y sin carne. “Una ensalada de espinacas con aderezo de aceite de oliva y junto a ella es una hamburguesa vegetariana con espinacas, tomate y aguacate en pan de molde,” Juarez dijo.

Juarez aspira a ser chef, trabaja hacia sueño de poseer su propio restaurante

Usadas con permiso de Hector Juarez

Educational math and logic puzzles

LOGICVILLE<www.logicville.com> Horchers Flowers

847-541-3276Buy a corsage get your boutineer free

910 McHenry Road Wheeling, IL 60090WHS students can recieve a discount by showing ID

Cambios en legislación sobre inmigraciónOcho de Enero 2013: La Cámara de Representantes aprovaron las licencias sin documentación con un voto de 65-46.

Licencias sin documentación solo faltan ser aprovadas por el governador de Illinois, Pat Quinn.

29 de Enero d 2013: Presidente Barack Obama habla en Las Vegas sobre aplicar una reforma migratoria en el año 2013.

Secundaria de Wheeling 21 de Enero: ICIRR vendrá a Wheeling High School para un taller acerca de la Acción Diferida.

Vendran abogados voluntarios a WHS para llenar y mandar las aplicaciónes de la Acción Diferida. Estarán en la escuela desde las 6:00 hasta 8:30 p.m.

Para más información, contacta a Bertha Sanchez, abogada estudiantil.

Lopez es aprovada para Acción Diferida

Este año escolar, el Club de Baile Latino fué creado. Eliz-abeth Delgado creó el club para que funcionara como un des-canso para los estudiantes.

“Trabajamos, trabajamos, tra-bajamos toda la semana,” la Sra. Delgado dijo.

De acuerdo a la Sra. Delgado, el club recibe entre 20 y 30 estudiantes regu-larmente.

Jorge Alba, junior, y miembro del club atiende el club la mayoría de los vi-ernes. Alba dice que atiende el club porque le gusta bai-

lar, y ahí puede disfrutar por un rato con sus amigos.

Actualmente, el club consiste completamente de

bailar. Los estudi-antes van para di-vertirse sin preo-cuparse de sus clases o tareas.

La Sra. Del-gado dice que planea continuar el club mientras siga recibiendo la misma can-tidad de estudi-antes.

“ P e r s o n a s nuevas a veces son tímidas. Yo fuí tímido al

principio. Trato de bailar con ellos para que se sientan cómodos,” Alba dijo.

Alba dice que le reco-mienda a todos estudiantes que deseen aprender a bai-lar que asistan el club.

Sra. Delgado crea el Club de Baile Latino

Rossy PeraltaAsst. Ed. for La Voz

Perla Jiménezla voz editor

Perla Jiménezla voz editor

Colabora con Club Latino para presentar a estudiantes locales

“Me gustaría ver más inicia-tiva y que siguiera siendo solo para diversión, pero me gustaría añadir algún elemento de coreografía”

Elizabeth Delgado, patrocinadora

With the distribution of Jus-tin Bieber’s latest re-release, “Believe Acoustic,” the question of whether or not the original re-lease was good enough to even get a re-release arises. While the answer might be a simple no, “Believe Acoustic,” does much more for its audience than first anticipated.

Although some tracks bene-fit from the different instrumen-tal breakdowns - “Boyfriend” and “Take You” - the majority of the re-released songs repre-sent dry and depleted versions of the original tracks.

The opening track, “Boy-friend,” is the only track on the album to fully display Bieber’s immense potential through an acoustic track.

The original version uses a majority of computer enhanced synths and beats to create more of a radio friendly track, but the electronics negatively affect the track by making it sound more juvenile and geared toward a much younger age group.

On the other hand, the stripped down acoustic version displays Bieber’s flexibility as an artist as well as his continuous

growth in terms of his matu-rity. The rearrangement aban-dons the computer enhanced elements and allows listeners to hear the fragility and tone in Bieber’s voice, which has obvi-ously grown since the release of “Believe” last year.

Aside from “Boyfriend” and “Take You,” the rest of the re-released tracks on the album fail to make much improvement from the previous versions. Some tracks have even man-aged to lose a sense of what has m a d e t h e m s p e c i a l , including their dy-namic in-strumen-tal beats.

T h e h i t s i n g l e s “Beaut y and a B e a t ” and “All A r o u n d t h e W o r l d ” perfectly exemplify the tracks that are no longer considered standouts. The original tracks were evidently refreshing tracks to mainstream music, but the acoustic versions abandon their powerful elements.

However, the album is sal-vaged by the inclusion of three original tracks, two of which are some of Bieber’s strongest

tracks. The first original track, “Yel-

low Raincoat,” allows listeners to adapt to Bieber’s evolving sound. Although the lyrics and melody are simple, the track arouses a nostalgic aura.

T h e s e c o n d track, “I Would,” r e v o l t s back to B iebers juvenile at tempt at music making.

“ I f I could t a k e a w a y the pain and put a smile on your f a c e , baby, I would ,”

Bieber sings as the chorus of the song.

The tracks lyrics and in-strumental break down, while they’re simple and unflattering, will garner widespread attention from Bieber’s largest fan group, teenage girls.

On another note, the album closes with one of Bieber’s strongest tracks released to

date. The self-penned track, “Nothing Like Us,” is rumoured to be about Bieber’s past rela-tionship with Selena Gomez. Nevertheless, the track displays Bieber in his strongest element.

As the closing track, “Noth-ing Like Us” rounds out an over-all lacking album and allows it to conclude in the brightest way possible.

Despite lacking in multiple categories, “Believe Acoustic” serves as a major step forward for Bieber’s career as it demon-strates his potential to grow as an artist in the future.

The album debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with over 120,000 copies sold according to Nielsen Sound-scan, which is the tracking sys-tem for record sales in the U.S. and Canada.The latest release marks Bieber’s fourth number 1 album on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Bieber will continue to em-bark on his 3rd worldwide tour, the “Believe Tour,” in order to promote his two previous re-leases before finally making an appearance in Chicago on July 9 at the United Center.

This event will mark Bieber’s third appearance in Chicago since the release of his debut album “My World 2.0.” His cur-rent tour has garnered over 85 million dollars worldwide.

entertainment9Feb. 8, 2013spokesman

Hollywood lacks originality with movies

What to look forward to in 2013: sequels, sequels and the occasional 3-D remake. Is it the audience’s unconditional love for these movies or the lack of original ideas in the cinematic industry that keep these same ti-tles returning to the box office?

Tired Plots

The Hangover Part III Release date: May 24

It was funny the first time...and the second...and the third? It’s already hard enough deal-ing with the same relentless plot consisting of drunk friends and crude humor almost every com-

edy out there today, and now do we have to watch the same three drunkards, and their same stu-pid antics for yet a third movie? A plot twist, please.

Paranormal Activity 5 Release date: Oct. 25

The lamp fell, the girl screamed, they caught it on tape and now we’re on movie number five. While it’s true to say that we (especially teenag-ers) enjoy being scared, these movies have just become bets on which piece of furniture is going to move first.

In Your Face3-D Disney Remakes

(“Nemo,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Monster’s Inc.”) - Please, just don’t mess with the classics. Belle was just as stunning when her dress wasn’t swooping across the au-dience, and Boo melted their hearts when she was a figure on a screen. “Nemo” was just as good in 2-D as it was when

Nigel was grinning right in my face. Though out of these re-makes, this may be the most sensible because of it’s beautiful undersea 3-D effects. “The Little Mermaid 3-D”, which was set to release in September, has been canceled due to decreasing suc-cess in 3-D reissues.

Jurassic Park 3-DRelease Date: April 5

The fate of these remakes rests on the success of “Jurassic Park 3-D,” coming out on April 5. Who knows, just because these beasts couldn’t save them-selves doesn’t mean they can’t save Disney’s 3-D endeavor.

...Part 2“Despicable Me 2,” “Cloudy

With a Chance of Meatballs 2,” “The Smurfs 2” - I must admit, I am a child at heart, and these movies were cute the first time around. Why risk ruining the first by attempting a second? I feel that sequels to the movies that kids loved the first time only take away from the initial and really, they get old.

We have to keep up with the times; they’re changing rap-idly, and we can’t keep extend-ing the same movies over and over again, especially in terms of movies based on books or shows, such as “The Smurfs.” It was fun to see a familiar story on the big screen, but let’s just leave it at that. Don’t ruin a childhood favorite by wearing it out with relentless sequels.

The Smurfs 2Release Date: July 31

I laughed during “The Hang-over,” I can’t watch “Paranor-mal” without hiding my face half the time and I can quote “Finding Nemo” without skip-ping a beat. Just because the audience responds positively to something doesn’t mean you feed it to them all over again. It becomes bland... Spice things up a little, Hollywood.

If I really have to listen to little yellow Minions mumbling nonsense for a third movie, I might as well spend my movie nights at home with the origi-nals, thanks.

Picks of the MonthBieber releases ‘Believe Acoustic’ALBUM:

Latest release abandons computer enhanced beats for acoustics

Tegan and Sara’s latest effort, “Heartthrob,” combines elements of indie pop, rock and new wave. The album has been positively reviewed from fans and critics. The album’s singles, “Closer” and “I’m Not Your Hero” are sure to be hits among T&S fans.

The widely renowned multi-player app, “Fun Run,” follows a group of woodland creatures that must overcome an obstacle course set up by opponents. The App is currently one of the highest grossing apps at the iTunes store.

After much anticipation, “Warm Bodies” saw a worldwide release on Feb. 1. The film was met with positive reviews for its crude humor and originality. It has already grossed over 88 million dollars, deeming it a box office hit.

Infographic by Robert Perales & Chris Nush

TV SHOW:

MOVIE:

APP:

“The Americans” follows a group of Soviet Spies impersonating American families during the Cold War. The TV series has sparked interest from both critics and fans. The third episode of the series will air on Feb. 13 on Fx.

Robert Perales

Megan Provost

Thumbs Up...

Thumbs Down...

10Feb. 8, 2013

spokesman

forum

To the Certified Nurse’s Assistants (CNA) who took the State exam during finals. After three years of hard work they finally got the opportunity to get their certification.

To the Wildcat staff and local retailers for contributing $16,156 for the United Way Contribution Cam-paign for 2013. The amount was more than double any other school in Dis-trict 214.

To some of the athletic coaches for never updating Athletics 2000. The community takes an interest, but is denied updates.

While Spokesman commends the physical education (P.E.) teach-ers for incorporating vocabulary into more departments of the school besides English, the terms need to be incorporated in more meaningful ways and be used more often to cre-ate a lasting impact on the students.

The P.E. classes’ curriculum now incorporates learning the 100 most commonly used words on the Prairie State Achievement Examina-tion (PSAE). After looking through WHS’s test scores data, the idea seems genius. Only 42.4 percent of WHS students met reading stan-dards on the PSAE.

However, the idea lacks in one major area: overestimating students’ ability of memorization.

Though the vocabulary words

on the announcements are a great idea, they only stay on the screen for 30 seconds before flashing to to-day’s lunch menu. In addition, some some P.E. teachers only repeat their words right before activities. While short can be deemed “sweet,” it doesn’t help in education.

In 1885, Hermann Ebbing-haus, psychologist, proved that we will forget up to 90 percent of what we learn without the use of rep-etition and the quality of memory representation.

Ebbinghaus calls this the forgetting curve and shows that it helps when people relate what they know to something that is important to them because connecting ideas allows for

better memory retention. By adapting more holistic learn-

ing, the students will hold a better retention for the vocabulary words. Instead of pounding information into the students’ brains before the badminton lesson, we should focus on weaving the knowledge into

other things we already un-derstand.

The P.E. department has started this pro-cess by hanging post-ers around the gym and printing the words on the back of fitness

cards. However, Spokesman

would like to see more of a bridged gap into incorporating words into conversations through-

out the workout rather than just stating them. It is also highly impor-tant for students to take learning the vocab words seriously; learning these words could help their future greatly, whether it be incorporating them into cover letters, resumes, job interviews or receiving higher test scores.

The process laid out by the P.E. department has been an excellent step in the right direction to help our school. We have always strug-gled with lower testing scores, but this gives us a higher chance to im-prove as we look at vocabulary all throughout our day at WHS.

We have had a great start with this new program, but the terms need to be incorporated more for a lasting impact.

editorialP.E. vocab requires retention for impact

7 out of 8 members of the editorial board agree.

keira’s kartoons

To the custodians for taking the extra time to search for Sandra Gruen’s, English teacher, diamond that fell out of her engage-ment ring. Not only does that require extra work, but the fact that he returned it after finding it is a feat for mankind today.

Spokesman Staff 2012-2013This is the official student

newspaper of Wheeling High School, 900 S. Elmhurst Road, Wheeling, Ill. 60090. Written, edited and distributed 8 times a year by advanced journalism classes, independent studies and other interested and qualified students. Produced by using desktop publishing and is print-ed by Son’s Enterprises, Inc., Skokie Ill. Mailed subscription $15 per year.

Letters- Spokesman is a lim-ited public forum and welcomes a free exchange of ideas from all readers. Readers are encour-

aged to contribute letters to the staff in room 137 or mail them in care of WHS. All letters must be signed. Letters may be edited for length, style, possible libel, clar-ity, and adherence to our pub-lication policies. Spokesman’s mission is to report the news ob-jectively and truthfully. We will print any known errors here in the issue following our gaining knowledge of the error.

Advertising- For infor-mation, call (847) 718-7114 Monday-Friday 7:25 a.m. to 2:50 p.m.

Corrections-None.

*Staff members with asteriks are on the editorial board.

Editor-in-Chief*Megan Jones

Web Editor*Rosalie Chan

Associate Editor*Solinna Chong

News EditorRosalie Chan

A&E Editor*Robert Perales

Feature Editor*Frida Valdés

Focus EditorSolinna Chong

La Voz Editor*Perla Jimenez

Forum EditorMegan Jones

Sports EditorMegan Jones Photo Editor*Kristina Piamonte

Advertising ManagerMegan Jones

Broadcast Editor*Mark Tannous

Staff ArtistKeira Skenandore

Asst. Web EditorKelly McKewin

Asst. News EditorErik Hernandez

Asst. A&E EditorChris Nush

Asst. Feature EditorPaige McCoy

Asst. Focus EditorMegan Provost

Asst. La Voz EditorRossy Peralta

Asst. Sports EditorKelly McKewin

Asst. Advertising Manager Erik Hernandez

Staff ReportersAntonia ArismendisKatia Bryhadyr Megan BrezkaMike Pink

Graphic DesignersHenry GonzalezNycole Garcia

AdviserJohn Uhrik

For many years, the Chicagoland area has been home to dozens of danger-ous gangs. Gang violence and representation has been a recurring concern in our area. WHS has had issues with gangs, and it has main-tained a strict dress code to discourage students from getting involved in gang ac-tivity.

Like many other high schools, WHS has to keep up with the changing color combinations, numbers and symbols of gangs. Deans and security guards must constantly keep watch to stop students from using certain clothing and rein-force WHS’s intolerance of gang activity and image.

It is not difficult for the deans to identify the people who are involved in gangs. Shockingly, by the time students become freshmen, WHS’s administration has already been informed of who is involved in what gang.

“We have meetings with the middle schools. Kids rarely get involved in high school; it starts in middle school,” Ramon Williams, dean of students, says.

The deans have a four-page long, handwritten list describing each gang

and its fashion trends. The never-ending list shocked me; I realized how oblivi-ous I was to a lot of fashion trends that belong to the culture of the area’s gangs. It is handwritten because it is constantly changing, and it seems that many of the items of clothing that gangs are wearing could be in any student’s closet.

“The kids who cannot wear these things already know. I have meetings with them and their parents, and I review the list with them,” Dean Williams said.

He mentions that he finds it important for the deans and security guards to be proactive about new trends and not leave it up to teachers to recognize trends.

“I want them (the teach-ers) to focus on their jobs,” Dean Williams said.

It is really important for the administration to re-main educated in the fash-ion trends of gang members to be able to effectively en-force a dress code that does not tolerate gang represen-tation. However, gangs have employed so many color combinations and symbols to represent their gangs that a gray area has been created that the deans and other students must deal with.

“Recently, I’ve caught onto the MLDs using Bulls jerseys to represent their gang,” Dean Williams said.

Not all students are for-bidden from wearing Bulls jerseys, but students who have been identified for hav-ing been involved in gang activity must follow a strict-er dress code.

“I was told to take off my Bulls jersey once,” Jocelyn Cruz, senior, said.

She was approached by a staff member for wearing a Joakim Noah jersey earlier this year.

“I am not involved in any gangs at all, I am just a huge fan of Noah. I was re-ally mad when I was told I could not wear the jersey,” Cruz said.

Despite Cruz’s claim to not be involved in gangs, she has chosen to refrain from wearing her jersey since then to avoid confron-tation with staff members again.

“During Pack the Place week, I saw a couple of peo-ple wearing Noah’s jersey. I asked myself why I was not allowed to wear my jersey, but they were. I want to be able to wear mine again, too,” Cruz said.

The misunderstandings between students and staff in regards to gang related fashion trends could result in unfair punishments. In Cruz’s case, she was singled out for representing a gang that she did not even know existed.

Although the adminis-tration does its best to only apply stricter dress codes to students who have already received violations, they should also respond to situ-ations like Cruz’s in a differ-ent way. Because some of the fashion trends are not obvious to people who are not involved in gangs, like the Bulls jerseys, the WHS staff should be more aware of who has already been identified as a gang member and who is simply rooting for their home team.

Gang representation creates gray areas, unfair judgment

Jacquelin Camacho

Moving to VarsityComing into a team of

seniors, Maryssa Peterson, junior, has “fit in well” with the rest of the varsity girls bowling team.

She scored her highest game ever, a 242, a high series of 531 and averaged between a 150 and 165 the entire season.

“That 242, I’m really proud of that. Before my high game was like a 225, so I re-ally did improve,” Peterson said.

This year was Peterson’s first year on the varsity team, and according to Beth An-derson, bowling coach, she has improved immensely.

“Her average from last year went up by 32 pins, so she’s varsity’s most improved player,” Ms. Anderson said.

Peterson says she’s grown closer to the girls this year and met more people, which was one of her goals coming into the season. Ms. Ander-son agreed, saying that Pe-terson fit in really well with the chemistry of the team of seniors.

“It (the season), was fun, and we’re all friends so it was nice,” Heather Hok, senior, said. “Everyone had a good time and enjoyed it.”

‘Family Time’Peterson started bowling

with her family after watch-ing her parents bowl in a work league. She has bowled for eight years now.

“My family bowls almost ev-ery Sunday to-gether, and my sister wanted me to bowl (for Wheeling),” Pe-terson said. “It means a lot; it’s family time and family is every-thing to me.”

Pe t e r s o n ’ s family attends every meet she competes in.

“It’s so im-portant to me, and they know it is,” Peterson said.

Team StatsThe team’s record this

year is 3-11, and they placed 10th in the MSL league over-all.

Cailey Markiewicz, se-nior, had the highest average of a 155.85. The team placed 10th out of the 18 teams that were at Sectionals.

Aline Bardak, senior, came in 34th place out of 112 bowlers and was WHS’s

highest scorer, with a 1,078 six game series. Hok had a 995 series and came in 50th, while Peterson came in 60th, with a 982 series for six games.

While WHS had no state qualifiers, ac-cording to Ms. Anderson, the season ended on a high note, with most girls bowling above average.

Teachers vs. Bowlers

For Peter-son though, the best part of the season was bowling in a match

against the teachers as a part of a bet they had.

Five of the top varsity bowlers (Peterson, Hok, Markiewicz, Bardak and Sam Nowry, senior) bowled against Brent Pearlman, football coach, Kevin Muck, physical education division head, Donald Rowley, social science teacher, Joe Wolin-ski, physical education teach-er and Rocco Teiri, athletic trainer.

The bowling team won in a series total of 1,519 pins to 1,329.

“Mr. Pearlman was my gym teacher, and we were in the student activities office. He didn’t know I bowled, and he said, ‘I challenge you,’” Hok said.

The match took place on Dec. 19, 2012, and a rematch is being planned soon. However, the teach-ers want to verse the JV team instead this time.

“I knew we were going to kill them. They just be-came a team and we’ve been bowling everyday,” Peterson said.

sports 11Feb. 8, 2013spokesman

Right: Maryssa Peterson, junior, bowls during varsity practice. Next season, she hopes to improve by “increasing my average and getting better with spares.” She improved her average this year by 30 pins.

Peterson moves to varsity level, stands as most improved playerKelly McKewin

asst. sports editor

Used with permission from Lair

Wheeling, Hersey and Buffalo Grove High Schools “typically” never get along, especially in athletics. Fans taunt opposing players and schools whenever they play against each other resulting in bad blood throughout the conference. That is all forgotten about on the ice.

The three schools have combined forces to make a powerhouse of a hockey team, nicknamed the “Stam-pede,” which is coached by Bob Wagner, head hockey coach.

The Stampede competes in the IHSL High School Hockey League where its biggest rival is Warren, ac-cording to Austin Lock-wood, senior and junior var-sity player.

“Warren is our biggest rival because they get a lot of penalties, and so do we. They also like to fight, so

we don’t take it and fight back,” Lockwood said.

Drew Downey, sopho-more, and Alex Marriner, junior, make up the WHS section of the varsity team.

“It would feel good if the school would sponsor a team to represent that school because a lot of people don’t really know that the school has a team, and more people would come out and see us play,” Downey said.

The Stampede is a non-school sponsored team, un-like all of the other Wheel-ing sports teams. The team relies on profits from dona-tions and players’ parents.

“Things were tough the past couple years money-wise because a lot of our parents struggled, but we are in great shape moving forward,” Coach Wagner said.

While many are now just tuning back into the world of hockey with the National

Hockey League (NHL) lock-out ceased, this hockey team has practiced since September.

The team currently stands at 26-1-2 and ranked second in the State bracket. The Stampede is starting to become a dynasty with the great seasons that they have been having.

The Stampede team from 2010-2011 made it to the Final Four in the state before losing to Rockford.

“John Cappuccitti is our best player by far,” Lock-wood said.

John Cappuccitti, ju-nior, attends Hersey and was recently elected to the All-State team along with Andrew Cole, junior, and Josh Guertler, senior, who both attend Buffalo Grove.

“Our future looks bright with young players; we’ve always had enough players for a junior varsity and var-sity team,” Coach Wagner said.

‘Stampede’ stands strong despite school sponsorshipMike Pink

staff reporter

“She’s involved in a lot of stuff and she’s done a really good job of balancing everything and being there when we need her.”

Beth Anderson, bowling coach

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Boys Basketball; 7:30 p.m. today at home vs. Hersey HS

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Wieder: ‘We haven’t reached full potential’Despite the one game win

out of last year’s season, Ja-son Wieder, new baseball coach, plans to change the whole program and keep a positive attitude for the fu-ture and the players.

“The team is made up of some of the best players I believe haven’t reached full potential, and I‘ve also seen great senior leadership and some good underclassmen talent,” Coach Wieder said.

According to David Sha-piro, senior and varsity cap-tain, Coach Wieder knows what he is doing and con-nects with his players.

Coach Wieder also wants to improve the team chemis-try and promote leadership in his players.

“He puts team chemistry as a priority, and that’s im-portant for winning,” Shapiro said.

A team Twitter account was made so the players “can be motivated and proud of what they do.” Through the account, Coach Wieder will post practices, team meetings and game statistics.

Ryan Bendewald, senior and varsity captain, thinks that the Twitter account “is great because it relates to us high school students and makes it easier to communi-cate.”

“I want to build new tradi-tions, a culture based on hard

work and make the sport year-round,” Coach Wieder said.

Ian Gilliam, senior and varsity captain, said that Coach Wieder gets all the players to come together, “work our hardest and push other players to do their best.”

Coach Wieder is not the first to take on a new coach-ing position this year, he is one of three new coaches, who include, Brent Pearl-man, football coach, and Anthony Como, basketball coach.

“It’s been really good for us because we can bounce ideas off each other so that we can turn the programs around, and it’s really been exciting taking on this new role,” Coach Como said.

Coach Wieder has played sports since age 4; he began playing T-Ball and grew to travel baseball. He gradu-ated from WHS in 2002 and played as a four year varsity starter for the baseball team.

“I grew up here, went here, and now it’s great to be back.” Coach Wieder said. “It’s always been player and team development, so that I can lie down a foundation for future years and for the ath-letes to look back at their ac-complishments and progress over the years.”

According to Coach Wie-der, he enjoys that through baseball “you have to think your way through the game.”

Kristina PiamonteRyan Bendewald, senior, practices his pitching for the upcoming season. “We have a legit chance to compete in any game that we play in,” Bendewald said.

Jason Wieder • Graduated from WHS in 2002• Attended College at the University

of Illinois • Majored in health and physical

education• Hobbies: Attending sporting

events • Fan of: Cubs and Blackhawks• Previously coached: Eighth-grade

boys basketball at Northridge Prep in Niles, high school golf, high school baseball and the Buffalo Grove Bills Youth Football.

• While attending WHS, he was a four-year varsity starter in base-ball and also played football and basketball.

• Last year, he coached WHS’s sophomore baseball team with a record of 13-20.

• Last year’s varsity record: 1- 24.

Chris Nush

Jean Pabonstaff reporter

“I wouldn’t really care, since it’s their life and it doesn’t impact me.”

Daisy Guerrero, freshman

The recent discoveries of Lance Arm-strong getting caught for doping along with Manti Te’o getting “catfished” sheds a negative light on the integrity of sports and strays from the true meaning.

In this day in age, seeing a major athlete get in trouble for performance enhancing drugs (PED) is not uncommon. Alex Rodri-guez, Barry Bonds and Shawne Merriman are a few of the major athletes who were caught. The younger generation of athletes are coming in faster and stronger. The older athletes need to keep the competitive edge, so they resort to PED’s. I don’t blame the older generation for using PED’s because the current atmosphere of sport’s leaves no other option but embarrassment.

Armstrong was the best cycler in the world for over a decade; not many Ameri-cans liked cycling before Armstrong rose up into the elite ranks. The “Lance Armstrong situation” is the only one that will hurt its own sport. Cycling is going to become for-gotten about in the United States.

On the other hand, Te’o was lied to about his online “girlfriend.” I feel bad for the guy even if you hate Notre Dame. The spotlight was on Te’o for weeks and he couldn’t do anything about it. If anything, the Te’o situ-ation will hurt online dating sites instead of football.

The media blew these situations out of proportion. It was annoying to only see sto-ries about Armstrong and Te’o for weeks after they happened.

Mike Pink

Heard in the Lunchroom: How would you feel if your favorite sports athlete was involved in a scandal?

“I’d feel upset, like he’s not re-ally a good athlete anymore.”

Ryan Schatz, sopho-more

“I would feel disappointed, like they were lying to me.”

Aaron Jung, junior

“(My favorite athlete) was Tiger Woods. We idealize sports athletes more than anyone, but we shouldn’t.”

Jack Ferguson, senior

MANTI TE’O: The Notre Dame linebacker was caught in a lie after the news spread that his alleged girlfriend (a woman who Te’o said died during the BCS national championship game) never existed. Ronaiah Tuiasosopo admitted to posing online as Te’o’s girlfriend.

Sports scandals shed negative light

LANCE ARMSTRONG: In a personal interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong, a seven consecutive Tour de France winner, admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs.

Photo Opinion by Jean Pabon, Chris Nush and Kelly McKewin