staley talon, march 2015, volume 7, issue 4

Opinion

Volume VI Issue IV | Talon | 1

2 | Talon | Volume VII Issue IV

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

(6)Lifestyles Social Anxiety

(10)

Bouchard and Lite

All Mixed Up

Lifestyles

(8)Trends

WorkingOverseas

(12) StateCelebrations

(4)

Playing Through the Pain(16)

(14)

Fashion

Sports

Sports

News

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Feature

Volume VII Issue IV | Talon | 3

Staff Page

TalonStaffEditor-in-Chief

Abbi Atwell

Managing EditorPaige Hawkins

MultimediaEditor

Bryttany HolovachPhotos Editor

Destiny WilbornLifestyles Editor

Sean Fender

Features EditorPaige Hawkins

Opinions EditorAbbi Atwell

Sports EditorSean Fender

Fashion EditorDallas Beaulieu

Copy EditorMarissa Hubbard

ReportersHafsa HusseinHannah Crites

Adrianna McLeanAmber Engle

PhotographersTiffany Thompson

Jamil Thom-as-Nunn

Logan DawsonAlayna Lopez

Graphic ArtistChase Vallejo

AdviserCherié Burgett

ARGUING IS NOT THE WAY TO USE SOCIAL MEDIAFights Behind a KeyboardWritten by Abbi Atwell

Dear Social Media Fighters, Your private life is personal and should be kept per-sonal. To tell your closest friends about the drama going on in your life is one thing, but to blatantly argue with someone over social media instead of confronting them directly is an-other. Social media is a tool to help people connect with their friends and maybe even follow a few celebrities to see what they’re up to. The purpose of social media is not to “call out” other people you don’t agree with, and yet people continue to fight on the Internet on a daily basis. While it might be annoying for you to see someone’s ignorant tweet, it’s annoying for everyone else to see your fights that don’t even use real words half of the time. If you want to share a cheerful post about your holidays or a new pet, or even share something about a loss in the family, your followers will probably understand. Don’t be that person who picks on someone else’s posts because you aren’t happy about what they have to say. Instead of engaging in pointless conflicts, just unfol-low them. Unfriend them. Stop paying attention to what they have to say on the Internet. It does you no good to curse at them in a tweet. As soon as you do that, you become the person who doesn’t know when to quit, and instead gets in-volved in silly fights, hiding behind a keyboard. Sincerely, Talon Staff

Cartoon by Adam Freese

Social Anxiety in the Classroom

More on social anxiety on page 6

Opinion


Displaying her project in sewing, junior Jil-lian Turner poses for the camera at the FCCLA state competition. Turner sewed a ball gown style dress for the competition, which she began during first semester. “This is my first time competing in my high school career,” said Turner. “It’s exciting to be a part of a team and competing when it’s only my first year.” Junior Stephanie Graviett also earned the top gold medal and will represent Missouri in the FC-CLA national competition. Senior Kayla Raus-ch-Santee, sophmores Lexi Taylor, Alex Smith, Erica Woolery, and freshman Mila Garza earned siver medals. Photo courtesy of Christian Winn

In a group outside of MCC Penn-Valley, the Science Olympiad team displays their first through fifth place individual medals after just having come in fourth place as a team. The team will be advancing to the state competition on April 18. Junior NiNi Troung and senior Stacey Bonderer took first place in the event Dynamic Planet. Partners junior Abigail Atwell and senior Dalton Nel-son were among the first place winners for the Science Olympiad team, taking first in Compund Machines. “State is just an awesome experience because it more than just going for a compe-tition,” said Nelson, who has been involved for two years. “You get to be there with your team-mates, like last year was one of the most amazing experiences that I’ve had.” Photo courtesy of Gregory Spiegel

State Celebrations Students Have Success at Competitions for Science Olympiad, DECA, FCCLA and DebateWritten by Abbi Atwell

FCCLA

Science Olympiad

News

Opinion


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Holding his second place award on stage, senior Nicholas Taphorn is recognized as one of the team’s state medalists. Junior Marissa Eismont, junior Joe Eller and senior Nathan Bass were also state medalists. Taphorn com-peted in Principles of Finance at the DECA state competition on March 17. “Being able to give students an opportunity that they might not otherwise have is what being an educator is all about,” said DECA sponsor Kelly Rule. Photo courtesy of Kelly Rule

Displaying their awards, junior Jacob Har-ris and sophomore Sumaiya Alam pose for a photo at the state tournament for debate on March 14, where they qualified for nationals. Seniors Kenna Stark and Kylee Nissen qualified as alternates for national competition. Alam and Harris were in the Lincoln-Douglas debate, which focuses on writing a case that supports the resolution for a situation and a case that is against the resolution. “I didn’t think I was going to make it,” said Harris. ”I’m just excited that I get to be able to represent Staley and myself at the national tournament in Dallas." Photo courtesy of Shiloh Dutton

DECA

Debate

News


Lifestyles

Social

wLiving With Social Anxiety Students Open Up About the DisorderWritten by Hannah CritesPhoto by Destiny Wilborn

Meeting someone new. Be-ing in a room full of people. Answering the phone. These may seem like sim-ple concepts, but to someone with so-cial anxiety, it’s not always so simple. These seemingly simple tasks can cause them to feel extremely awkward and uncomfortable, and they become unable to commu-nicate normally because of their anxiety, according to psychologist Sandra Laughlin “Social anx-iety isn’t unusual or uncommon, and it’s not the same for every individual,” said Laughlin. “It can develop after a bad experience in a social setting, but many are born with it.” It was very easy for senior Jamil Thomas-Nunn to overlook his anxiety until he arrived at Staley his freshman year. Thomas-Nunn said he had been homeschooled most of his childhood, so there was never

much of a push for social interaction. Going from a school of one to a school of more than 1,400 students took quite the toll on his anx-iety, and his life in general. “When I first got to this school, I couldn’t even con-centrate in class because my anxiety was so powerful, and I had so many other thoughts running through my head,” said Thom-as-Nunn. “It was so hard to make friends because I couldn’t talk to anyone. I felt invisible.” After over-coming social anx-iety, junior Nick Barbeau said he has made it a per-sonal mission of his to help people like Thomas-Nunn not feel invisible or ex-cluded. “I’m very ad-amant about trying to make someone feel included if they look shy or left out because I’ve been in those situations countless times before, and it’s not fun,” said Barbeau.

“The trick for me was to always re-mind myself that it’s all in my head; those people prob-ably aren’t laughing at me, and those people probably aren’t staring at me. My anxiety was causing me to make these assumptions. It’s amazing how much of a difference it has made in my life once I got the help I needed.” Even with people like Barbeau around to lend kind words and helpful advice, a lot of the struggle for people with social anxiety comes from within the classroom. “Sometimes the hardest part is getting the teachers to understand what I have to deal with in a classroom setting,” said Thomas-Nunn. Some teach-ers, like Scott An-derson, choose not to single students out in class who look like they may be more reserved or shy. “My job is to try and draw stu-dents in, call on

them in class or something, but I don’t think it’s right to do that if it’s go-ing to put them in a weird spot,” said Anderson. “I’ll wait until after the les-son or in between classes to make sure they know what’s going on without making them un-comfortable. I think that if they get more comfortable with me, they’ll get more comfortable with their classmates.” According to Laughlin, it’s very important to let peo-ple with social anxi-ety come around on their own. “I show kids how to help them-selves because ultimately that’s how they’re going to overcome social anxiety, not by being pushed into social situations unwilling-ly and unequipped,” said Laughlin. “It’s about mental con-fidence, and after you practice it for a while, you’ll start to believe it.”


Lifestyles

Social

Social Anxiety by the Numbers

36% of people who suffer from social anxiety wait 10 or more years before seeking help

75% said social anxiety affected their ability to do ordinary activities

58% of people were embarrassed about their disorder

12% of American adults suffer from social anxiety

Source: Anxiety and Depression Association of America

BEFORE SCHOOL AFTER SCHOOL

Written by Destiny WilbornPhotos by Destiny Wilborn

Purchasing one 32 oz. drink from QuikTrip every morning before school adds up to about

$200by the time school is out for the summer.

The opening of the Sonic at 152 and North Oak gave an oppurtunity for students to stop by after school for food and drinks.

$450is what it would cost to buy a medium shake every day after school.

1

Top Picks

2

Top 6 PicksTrends Define The Year

Top Beverages

Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars‘ “Uptown Funk” is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and on iTunes. According to Nielsen Music, total U.S. sales for Taylor Swift’s album 1989 were 4.5 million as of the beginning of March, making it the most popular album of her career. It is currently the second best-selling album on iTunes.

Bright hair colors set the tone for hair fashion. Juniors Anna Schuetz and Eden Nielsen and sophomore Taylor Dunn like to show their individuality with unique hair color.

The top three apps

around Staley include the recently debuted Mr. Jump, Trivia Crack and Candy Crush Saga. These apps all have an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars on the Apple store.

Top Apps 3 Top

Songs4

5

6

Brightly Colored Locks

Founded in 1993, the restaurant has become popular with many teens because of their quick, reasonably priced and healthy menu.

Favorite Quick Bite

Fashion



Fashion

All Mixed

UpA fun, fashion-forward trend that we have

seen a lot of for the new season is mixing

prints. While it may be difficult to do, when

done right, mixing up prints makes for an

amazing outfit.

When waking up in the morning and look-

ing in your closet, once again trying to

decide what to wear, mixing up prints is

a great solution. One important tip to re-

member when mixing prints is to make

sure there is one cohesive theme or color

scheme to the outfit. Depending on your

personal style, you can choose to mix

these prints in a bold, adventurous way or

enjoy it in a subtler look.

Mixing these prints is a great trend for any

occasion or style that shows your true,

personal style.

Written by Dallas BeaulieuPhoto by Keirceten Nelson


Lifestyles

Risks of Working OverseasSTUDENTS, TEACHER TRAVEL ABROAD FOR MISSION TRIPSWritten by Abbi Atwell

Hugging a child close and carrying a baby on her back, senior Taylor Hartman poses for a picture. Hartman travelled to Guatemala in July 2014 and plans to return this summer. “I went with a really clear mind so I didn’t experience a lot of culture shock,” said Hartman. Photo courtesy of Taylor Hartman

With unrest in many parts of the world, working over-seas can be incredibly dangerous but still offer many ways to grow as an individu-al. Through breaking cultural barriers and experiencing a new culture, many villages have received as-sistance from teams traveling around the world to help in a myriad of ways from building to volunteer-ing in orphanages. Senior Taylor Hartman broke down some of those cultural barriers during a trip to Guatemala in July 2014. Hartman and her youth group vol-unteered to help build a church building in the Chuaxan village. “While we were there, we built a foun-dation of a church and a playground for the kids,” said Hartman. During a trip to Honduras in July 2014, senior Madison Ferrara helped a local church with running their children’s pro-gram and helped the village of Carpintero with construction ef-forts to install the first septic tank the village had seen, bringing the first working toilet to the area. The experi-ence left Ferrara with a sense of how much excess she is used to in her life in com-parison to what the Carpintero people live with every day.

“I’m more con-scious of how much I use certain things,” said Ferrara. “I’m more careful about how I spend my mon-ey and my time.”Hartman was also impacted in her home life by the trip that she took. She went on the trip with no cell phone and no access to social media. Upon returning, Hartman stopped using social media for several months. “Not using social media as much made me more aware of what was important and what wasn’t,” said Hartman. “I have a better self-discipline and awareness of when it is a distraction an when it is appropri-ate.” Hartman wasn’t the only person who learned some help-ful perspective from her time volunteering abroad. Engineering and Intermediate Al-gebra teacher Jeanella Clark was part of a trip to a Haitian or-phanage over winter break. Clark said she was kept awake at night during her re-cent stay in Haiti. “I’d wake up to someone yelling in French creole and think it was an emer-gency,” said Clark. “They were just mak-ing a political state-ment.” Culture shock came in many forms

for Clark. She said that the housing in Haiti isn’t what is nor-mally expected in the United States and that people do not follow normal rules of the road. Despite cultural differences, Clark says that she was not con-cerned for her safety during the trip. “I really felt like God asked me to go,” said Clark. “I thought that if he was asking me to go, he would protect me.” Clark has been a part of previous

trips to Haiti, during which she said there were armed men guarding the hotel in which she stayed. The week before Hartman traveled to Guatema-la, a group of Amer-icans was robbed. Hartman and her group were given a police escort from the airport to their hotel and told not to travel at night. “We were con-tentious so we stayed safe,” said Hartman. Ferrara said she felt safe during her


Lifestyles

Holding two young girls, Intermediate Algebra and Civil Engineering teacher Jeanella Clark smiles during a trip to Haiti in December of 2014. Clark traveled with a student group to volunteer at an or-phanage. “We did Bible stories in the morning, and in the afternoon we did a sports and dance camp,” said Clark. Photo courtesy of Jeanella Clark

During a volunteer trip to Honduras in July of 2014, senior Madison Ferrara gathered together with a group of kids for a picture. Ferrara said she did not experience much culture shock in traveling to Hon-duras. “I speak enough Spanish to have a conver-sation and be able to hold my own,” said Ferrara. Photo courtesy of Madison Ferrara

trip to Honduras, de-spite the high crime rates. Honduras has the highest intention-al homicide rate in the world, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The three were unharmed during their travels. It was an ad-justment for each of them to return to their everyday lives. Clark said that even after that experience, the most culture shock she experienced was when she came back to the United States and began to realize how lucky she is. “I made the mistake of going to Target the day after

we got back,” said Clark. “I was really overwhelmed.” Clark addressed some of the challeng-es she faced during the trip when she said that the new language was a shock to her. “The heat is stifling,” said Clark. “Water is your best friend, but you can’t drink water from the tap because you’ll get sick.” After facing the challenges and dan-gers that linger during a volunteer trip to un-derdeveloped parts of the world, Clark, Ferr-ara and Hartman each expressed a desire to go on another trip, knowing that traveling

to these areas is not always safe. Hartman said she was able to gain some perspective on what is most import-ant to her because of her volunteer work in Guatemala. “Seeing the people there inspired me to be a doctor,” said Hartman. “I wantto send medical mis-sion teams to Guate-mala.” Based off of their previous experi-ences with volunteer-ing overseas, Clark, Ferrara and Hartman each said they would like to go on a simi-lar trip in the future. Hartman plans to return to Guatemala

this summer and help finish building the church, as the congre-gation in Chuaxan has continued to work on building it since Hart-man and her team left Guatemala. Clark said she will probably go on a trip to another country entirely. Ferr-ara said she would like to return to Honduras. Overcoming cultural differences and the possibility of being put in danger-ous situations did not stop Clark, Ferrara or Hartman from volun-teering to help strang-ers. Each of them had an opportunity to gain perspective on their lives and to help peo-ple.


Sports

Bouchard Takes Central Office Position

After being as-sistant principal and head football coach for seven years, Fred Bouchard is say-ing his farewells to students and staff. Bouchard will start a new job as Executive Director of Human Resources and Op-erations at Central Office for the 2015-2016 school year. “I’ve been considering Central Office positions the past few years and this particular one allows me to stay in the NKC Schools and still coach one more season,” said Bouch-ard. Bouchard has been a key play-er in the growth and development of the football team since the school first opened. During Bouchard’s coach-ing career, he has lead five teams to a victory in the state championship, Staley being one of them in 2011. “Coach Bouch-ard is a man of integ-rity, high character, kindness, and joy,” said former player Trent Hosick. “And because of these things, it’s made him a suc-cessful man. He was destined to be a suc-cessful coach.” Bouchard said he plans on making his last season as memorable as he can for the seniors and up and the next team. The coaches said they are antic-

ipating a successful season. “It’s really not about me, rather a lot more about this upcoming team and this group of seniors having a memorable season,” said Bouch-ard. “We’ll continue to do business in a high level manner.” In the 2016-2017 school year, Bouchard’s position

as head coach will be taken over by physi-cal education teach-er and multi-sport coach Phil Lite, who has been the assis-tant head football coach and defensive coordinator for the last seven years. Over the course of his coaching career, Lite has been part of winning three state titles; two for Harri-sonville High School in 2006 and 2007 and one for Staley in 2011. “Football is my passion,” said Lite. “I feel extremely honored and grateful for the opportunity to become the next head coach.”Lite will be working closely with Bouch-

ard in the 2015 foot-ball season to learn and prepare for the coaching position be-fore taking over the following year. “Coach Bouch-ard is a coach that has brought a high level of expectation to our program, our players, our coach-es, our school and our community,” said Lite. Lite said he plans to continue the success that Bouch-ard will leave the team with by prepar-ing athletes mentally and physically. “My entire goal right now is to prepare our kids mentally and physi-cally for the up and coming season,” said Lite. “There is nothing more that I want than to see the seniors and coach Bouchard to come out on top.” The last sev-en years have been successful for Staley High School’s Foot-ball team, and al-though Bouchard will be moving to Central Office, the success is sure to continue with Lite’s excitement and enthusiasm for the new head coach position. “Football teaches many life lessons,” said Lite. “Football is a lot like life; the more you put in the more you get out.”

Written by Paige Hawkins

“I’ve been blessed to be sourounded

with great as-sistant coaches and wonderful players who cared deep-ly about our team’s suc-cess,” said Bouchard.

Administrator Leaving After Seven Years

“Football teach-es many life

lessons,” said Lite. “Football

is a lot like life; the more you

put in the more you get out.”

Coach Phil Lite-Has been a part of state titles 06, 07, and 11-Has been an assis-tant head football coach and defensive coordinator for the last seven years -Coaches football and track-Prior to Staley opening, he coached in Harrisonville, Mo.-Has won district coach of the year three times


At Fort Osage High School on Sept. 19, coach Fred Bouchard talks to a referee. He’s been head coach for the football team since the school opened in 2008. He is leaving his administrator position after this year, but will remain head coach for one more year.

Coach Fred Bouchard yells across the field on Sept. 19 at Fort Osage High School. Bouchard is known as a big personality on and off the field.

Coach Phil Lite will shadow Bouchard for the 2015-2016 season and will take over as head coach the following school year. File Photo by Jonny Greene

Working on over-coming the obstacles of a rare disease, sophomore Ryan Walker has to fight through Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy. Since he was born, it has been a struggle for Walker to be able to run for a long period of time or do rigorous activi-ty. Despite that, he still plays on the sophomore base-ball team.“It limits me from pitching because sometimes my legs get really sore and tight to where I can’t even walk on the field myself,” Walker said. “I’ve had my coaches carry me on the field before during a game.” This is the rarest kind of muscular dystrophy. It is very similar to Duchene Muscular Dystrophy,

except that it gets worse at a much slower rate, and it is less common. This happens when the genes in legs cut off too soon and they don’t produce dys-trophin, according to the National Library of Medicine. This

disease can restrict people from many activities—even walking.“Most people are in wheelchairs by age 18,” said Walker.The rare case of Becker’s works at a slower pace so Walker will be able to walk and run for a lot longer than most people with this dis-ease. Walker’s girl-friend, sophomore

Nicole Gravett said he pushes through it and works hard even though he can’t run as much as his peers.“He says it doesn’t bother him that much; it’s just rare occurrences that it hurts,” Gravett said.

The varsity baseball coach, David Wilson, said he appreciates how hard Walker works. “What is awesome about Ryan is he won’t make any ex-cuses; he just jumps in and does pretty much everything everyone else does. He’s a very diligent and hardworking kid,” Wilson said.Even though it is

more difficult for Walker than many people on the team, he said that he likes it and it makes him more determined. “If I can, I plan on playing baseball all four years,” Walker said.He said he would rather be pushing through and still playing sports than sitting in a wheel-chair by age 18. Walker takes med-icine three times

a day, once when he wakes up, once after lunch and once right before he goes to bed. He has been doing that for about seven years. “I think it’s made me more determined to not give up because my legs are stron-ger to be able to go through it, and not to sit around and play video games all day,” Walker said.

Playing Through The PainAthlete Battles Rare Disease

“What is awesome about Ryan is he won’t make any excuses.” - Coach Wilson

By Jacqueline Anzalone

staley talon, march 2015, volume 7, issue 4

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