The

HI-LINETiger

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Volume 53 Edition 26

Dancin’ the Night AwayStudents enjoy their special night at prom, page 3

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During November and December, Student Senate members visited class-rooms during Related Class Time, pur-suing student input to make the school a better place. They compiled the ideas into a list, with recurring issues receiving tally marks; this method indicated the most important student concerns. The student officers met with administrators and individually went through each con-cern students had raised.

One of the most surprising demands was a stricter dress code. After speak-ing with administration, senior and treasurer Hanno Fenech said, “Usu-ally parents want it enforced. It’s usually not students raising the concern. They [the administration] think that is a very responsible thing for students to have taken notice of.”

Senior Rex Ju said he thinks the dress code needs to be more strict. “It’d be more professional and therefore cre-ate a more focused atmosphere,” Ju said. Sophomore John Nicol also said our school needs a stricter dress code. “They need to enforce what we have, stronger. I see a lot of people who break the dress code and don’t get punished, so I think if we were to enforce our cur-rent dress code more, it would be more effective,” Nicol said.

Not all students think a whole new dress code is in order. “The school doesn’t necessarily need a stricter dress

code but instead needs to make sure the current code is made clear and is enforced by all staff,” senior Laura Sch-wickerwrath said.

Senior Madie Judisch disagreed. “High School prepares us for the real world, and in the real world, you have the freedom to do what you want. How-ever, you are also held accountable for your decisions, and that is something we high schoolers need to learn,” Ju-disch said.

Another suggestion students pro-posed to Student Senate was reading announcements over the intercom dur-ing the day. However, this will not be happening next year because it takes up class time. Announcements are on the high school website, and they can be tweeted or emailed daily to students who sign up for these features.

Students also stressed their desires for the school to enforce teachers park-ing in their designated areas. Although brought up every year, the parking situation will not change because even though it sometimes looks like there are empty spots in teacher lots, the lunch staff and traveling teachers need them for when they arrive.

The school administration is looking into two more student requests current-ly: offering Subway sandwiches in the cafeteria and a coffee bar. Junior Katie Meier said the addition of a coffee bar

would benefit the school’s atmosphere. “It would give people the chance to get coffee in the morning and help them be more awake during the school day and help them pay attention,” Meier said.

Other suggestions such as getting rid of the CPR requirement and the Healthy Kids Act cannot change be-cause they are state and federal laws.

But one suggestion that shows promise is more access to technol-ogy, such as iPads or laptops in class. Sophomore Arianna Mitra said students need more access to technology at Cedar Falls High School. “Technology is changing the way we learn and get information. Students should have ac-cess to computers, tablets and other various sorts of multimedia resources to do their homework and class work,” Mitra said.

Students requested an early dis-missal day of the week for next school year, but it has already been decided that there will be late start Mondays for Professional Development next year.

Students also want an outside stu-dent area with picnic tables. “It would give people an area to hang out,” junior Laura Ralph said. Senior Lex Redfern agreed it would benefit the high school. “Students are not allowed to eat on cam-pus except in the cafeteria, but when it’s nice out, some might want to eat out without having to leave campus,” Red-

fern said. Junior Alyssa Voung is enthu-siastic about the proposal. “With the lack of seating we have downstairs, we should definitely consider getting pic-nic tables. It sounds like a great idea. If we had those outside picnic tables, the number of students that eat in the hall-way would be less. With less students in the hallway, there’d be more room. It’s a win-win situation,” Voung said.

Another piece of advice from stu-dents was to have finals before winter break next year. This was already taking place after Superintendent Mike Wells and the school board set up next year’s school calendar.

Student Senate wants the dialogue between students and administrators to continue. Starting this month, the fourth Thursday of every month at 7:30 a.m. will be a meeting time between officers and administration to discuss student concerns. Students can go onto the CFHS website and pull up the tab “Be Heard. Get answers, get results.” Students are welcome to post ques-tions or concerns for the administration. All students are welcome to attend the Thursday morning meetings to make their voices heard.

By Editor-in-Chief MayaAMJADI

Administration hears students’ voices

Since the recent tragedies and growing number of school shootings and violence, many schools have been strengthening options to keep people safe. From local governments to the federal government, ideas from metal detectors to guns in the classroom have been proposed.

In the Cedar Valley, Officer Chad Walderbach and Lt. Joe Tyler began teaching a training program at UNI for students and faculty to learn about how to be prepared in the event of a vio-lent incident. “The program Joe and I teach was created in Texas in 2000. It was created to provide a better solution to lockdown protocols after the Colum-bine shooting in April of 1999,” Walder-bach said.

With this new program, the goal is to get the public to feel more prepared in the event they are caught in a dan-gerous situation. “The training we offer is Violent Incident Defense Strategies. This training is not Gun Safety training. It

does focus on active shooter incidents, but this training can be applied to any type of violent incident. Lt. Joe Tyler and I began instructing the program in the fall of 2012,” Walderbach said.

In many ways, this program is very unique and stands out from the typical lockdown drill, which focuses on waiting for help. “The training is a more proac-tive approach than anything we have done in the past. Most of the training when it comes to active shooter inci-dents is how law enforcement responds where this training is focused on the public’s response,” Walderbach said.

Instead of just hiding under a desk, this program gives people more solu-tions when faced with a violent situa-tion. “I think the biggest thing people can take away from the training is there is more than one option when be-ing confronted with a violent incident. Furthermore, having options will allow people to make a choice given the cir-cumstances in front of them,” Walder-

bach said.While this particular training is only

open to students and staff at UNI, other Iowa colleges have similar programs.

Associate Principal Dana Deines and the CF District Safety Committee have discussed exploring a similar safety ap-proach for our school district. “The CF District Safety Committee has discussed holding a Staff Training/Active Shooter Training Plan,” Deines said. “We have been proceeding cautiously in making changes to our emergency procedures due to the controversial nature of the proposed ALICE response to active shooter plans.”

Since the beginning of the year, ad-ministrators have been discussing this option.

“Our school district administrators also attended a safety conference ear-lier this year to learn more and discuss our response to these types of emer-gency procedures.”

The committee has discussed a pro-

gram that involves taking action against a shooter, much like the UNI training. “One program being considered is call the ALICE program. We are continuing to discuss these ideas as an additional response to our district lockdown and evacuation plans,” Deines said.

However, it is a concern whether or not younger students should be in-volved with this type of program. “We are aware of the controversial nature of teaching (the ALICE Response to) our young students to engage/distract/fight any active shooter.”

The next steps in this plan will be discussed at a board meeting in early May.

By Staff Writer AmandaHARWOOD

School safety discussion continues

Tuesday, April. 23, 2013 HI-LINETiger

The

OPINION2Our View

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read during their RCTs fourth period.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is presented weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the major-ity of the editors listed below.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publi-cation in the following Tuesday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

Editor-in-Chief: Maya AmjadiNews Editor: Katherine MayhewOpinion Editor: Maya AmjadiSports Editor: Jared HyltonFeature Editor: Sandra Omari-BoatengEntertainment Editor: Lindsey DavisHi-Line Online Editor: Martha HallStaff Writers: Ana Cunha, Amanda Harwood, Alyssa Jensen, Lauren

Nickerson, Kaleb Bengston

Contact Us

After Prom was a huge success thanks largely to the time and energy the supportive parents of CFHS students put into it. It is im-pressive that our school has that many people willing to stay up until 4 a.m. so that we can have a safe, fun atmosphere to hang out in. Some favorites of the evening included the hypnotist’s show and the games that were set up including jousting, shooting free throws, bingo and casino games.

Part of the draw for students is the many prizes they can win at After Prom. Thank you to all of the businesses that donated gift cards and products. At the end of the night, students smiled through sleepy eyes at the surprise of winning iPods, Kindles and TVs. Girls’ makeup gave the illusion they were still wide awake, and the coffee and caffeine-filled soda helped that cause. Along with these drinks, there was plenty of food for the hungry dancers. Panche-ros burritos, sub sandwiches and cookie plates stacked to the ceiling were big hits.

Ultimately the evening was spectacular and could not have continued so smoothly without the hours both behind the scenes and on the surface. Something students might not know is there were many parents that donated their own money to be able to provide many of the attractions After Prom offered. Literally fund-ing and functioning the event, parent volun-teers deserve some praise and time to catch up on their sleep.

The night was a big success, and After Prom was a great way to end it. Without the time, energy and support from all the parents, the night wouldn’t have been as great as it was. Thank you to everyone involved.

HALL By Online Editor Martha

Huge thank you to parents for making After Prom a success

Times can be tough for teen girls around the country. As they are constantly bombarded with advertisements tell-ing them that they’re not good enough, it can be hard to be confident and strong. Singer Lady Gaga’s wacky, reveal-ing outfits make some call her “the new face of feminism,” but Gaga has alienated herself from feminism, saying, “I’m not a feminist — I, I hail men, I love men. I cele-brate American male cul-ture, and beer, and bars and muscle cars.” How-ever, Gaga showed the misconception that femi-nism is anti-male, when most women view it as a celebration and push for equality between gen-ders. The world doesn’t expect all well-known females to be feminists, but what’s the point of hating on equality?

Julia Kennedy is a college senior majoring in French at Barnard Col-lege in New York City. She started “The Wonder Women Project” as an in-tern for the NYC-based Athena Film Festival. She started the website as her Athena Scholars proj-ect, found at http://the-wonderwomenproject.tumblr.com. “I wanted to start this project be-cause I was working on the Athena Film Festival, which is a celebration of

women and leadership on screen, and I realized that there was some at-tention paid to female characters on television, but not necessarily as to how female characters in-teracted with leadership positions and actions,” Kennedy said. Her web-site focuses on the quali-ties and strengths of fe-male leaders on TV.

Luckily, pop culture isn’t devoid of strong female characters. Head-strong women have been appearing on television, both in the past and pres-ent, but sometimes it’s hard to flip through the channels and find them. To make it a little easier, here’s a list of some mul-tifaceted characters.

NBC’s comedy “Parks and Recreation” focuses Pawnee, Ind., Deputy Parks Director Leslie Knope, an ambitious and over-excited optimist. Her job forces her to interact with the morbidly obese townspeople of Pawnee and deal with raccoon infestations. A die-hard workaholic, Knope’s en-thusiasm mixes with the deadpan humor of her fiance, Ben Wyatt. She works hard to cultivate female friendships, like celebrating “Galentine’s Day,” a yearly breakfast tradition, which is, ac-cording to Knope, “Lilith Fair minus the angst and plus frittatas.” Knope’s

girl-power attitude makes her a must watch charac-ter on television. As she said, “Uteruses before duderuses. Ovaries be-fore brovaries.”

Fellow NBC com-edy “30 Rock” recently wrapped up, ending its sixth and final season. The show focused on Liz Lemon, a nerdy comedy writer dealing with child-like stars on her show, TGS. Lemon can seem hopeless at times, but that makes her such a great character. “30 Rock” never seemed preachy or created impossibly high expectations for a wom-an. It showcased Lemon’s talents and faults, mak-ing her a down to earth, lovable character, even in her most unlovable of times. By using stereo-typical laughs — “OH MY PERIOD! You’re all fired!” — her character showed the ridiculous gender roles sometimes portrayed on television.

To the naked eye, teenager Buffy Summers seems to live a normal life, until you see that she’s actually the “cho-sen one” — the one and only vampire slayer. “Buffy the Vampire Slay-er,” aired from 1997 to 2003, focused on Sum-mers’ struggle to balance a normal life and the life of vampire slaying be-stowed upon her. She’s got extreme strength, a

Wonder women lead television strong heart and a great circle of friends with her every step of the way. Summers manages to function with the weight of the world on her shoul-ders, doing everything she can to live a normal life. She’s enough to make any girl want to go out and kick some vam-pire butt, stake in hand.

Veronica Mars is a teenage private detec-tive in sunny California. Sounds cliche, but Mars pulls it off seamlessly. She’s tough, but seems like the kind of girl that you’d want to be friends with. Well, maybe not be friends with, but at least admire. “Veronica Mars” aired from 2004 to 2007, drawing Emmy buzz but never winning. After her best friend is murdered, Mars struggled with a breakup and being kicked out of the popular crowd. Instead of wal-lowing in self pity, Mars jumped into detective work, searching for her friend’s murderer. Mars’ father was also a private investigator, but was of-ten overshadowed by her top notch investigative work.

This is a shout-out to all the strong women out there: there are role mod-els for you — whether geeky, overly optimistic or supernatural — even on television.

“I think my sister is a good role model because she’s blind, which is something I think would be considered strange in our society. It’s cool that she’s able to over-come that. Most people would think it would hold her back, but she doesn’t let that happen to her.”

Senior Zach Fuller

“Beyonce, starting from the day she came onto the scene. She really showed women what it means to be a strong female minority leader in this country. From ‘a diva is a female version of a hustle’ to ‘let me upgrade you,’ she’s constantly telling women to move up in the world and break that glass ceiling.”

Seniors Raud Kashef, Isak Knivs-lnd and Luka Zdilar

“I think the First Lady Michelle Obama is a great role model because she’s really involved in the country and is a good representation of a well-rounded woman in the public.“

Media Specialist Kristi Anhalt

Tuesday, April 23, 2013HI-LINETiger

The

CAPTURED3

At left moving down, students “sleep” during their hypnosis and get cozy with their peers. Junior Dane Geerdes and his date Monica Anton use their mad skills to raise the roof. Senior Matt Fedro gets in the zone and shakes it like he just doesn’t care. Under hypnosis, se-nior Josh Ochoa believes the broom is actress Emma Stone and gives her a longing look as they dance together. CFHS students enjoyed grooving out at prom, watching their peers get hypnotized at after prom and winning awe-some prizes like iPads.

Dancing under Chicago Lights

Kaleb Bengston photos

Tuesday, April 23, 2013HI-LINETiger

The

SPORTS4Athlete

Weekofthe

Sophomore Natalie Shimp got a record 102 on the pacer.

What were your goals for the pacer? The record was 97, and I was three short of it last year. Mrs. Youngkent wanted me to try and go for it this year.

Did track help with the pacer? Yes it did. I didn’t re-ally train for the pacer, but it wouldn’t have been possible without track practices.

Were you really tired af-ter the pacer? I wasn’t really tired. I was just hot.

TigersActionin

Women’s GolfNext up: Linn-Mar on April 23 at Linn-Mar at 12:30 p.m.Women’s Track & FieldNext up: Drake Relays on

April 25 at Drake UniversityMen’s Track & Field

Next up: Drake Relays on April 25 at Drake University

Women’s TennisNext up: Marshalltown on

April 26 at home at 4:15 p.m.Men’s Tennis

Next up: Ames on April 23 at home at 4:30 p.m. Women’s Soccer

Next up: Waterloo West on April 23 at 4:15 p.m. at West

Men’s SoccerNext up: Waterloo West on

April 23 at home at 6:45 p.m.Baseball

Next up: Oelwein on April 27 at Oelwein at 10 a.m.

SoftballNext up: Waterloo East on

May 21 at home at 5:30 p.m.

NickersonStaff Writer Lauren

Cedar Falls graduates at Boston Marathon

More than 28,000 people from around the world gathered to run the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15. At about 2:50 p.m. the first explosion went off, shocking the world. Just about 10 seconds later the second explosion erupted. Ev-erything was in chaos. Families whose loved ones participated marathon, went into a state of panic. Not knowing if they were hurt or even alive was, to say the least, terrifying. This became a reality for a couple families from Cedar Falls: the Sevciks and the Hallorans.

The Boston Marathon has been THE race to be at for many years. The race is like the Superbowl of all marathons. It is a huge deal for the runners because they have to qualify for the race. That in itself is a huge accomplishment which these runners can spend years of training to reach. Former CFHS student, JP Sevcik, had family running in the presti-gious marathon. His two broth-ers, David Sevcik and Daniel Sevcik, ran for their 3rd time at Boston.

When the explosions went off in Boston, Sevcik remem-bers exactly where he was at that moment. “I was walking into the library here at Loras when I first heard about the bombs. It was about 2:27. I was walking to a class that was meeting at 2:30, and a group of my friends was talking about it at a table nearby. I casually just said hi and walked past and realized they were talking about something. Curious, I asked what it was, and one of them said something to the tune of they didn’t want me to tell you this, but there were two explosions at the finish line at Boston,” Sevcik said.

Sevcik’s friends knew that his brothers and some friends were running the marathon. “They all knew that I had family there. I was receiving text alerts throughout the day on all of their times, including Andrew Halloran, and I was certainly bragging about it to everyone I saw, so that’s how they all knew. Needless to say, I really wasn’t really all that present in class that day,” Sevcik said.

Lisa Sevcik, mother to all the Sevcik boys, was down at

the Presbyterian Church set-ting up the ice cream machines for the CFHS women’s track team meal when the explo-sions occurred. She didn’t have to wait and wonder if her sons were OK. “They were waiting for all the members of the Iowa State Running Club to finish. When everyone from the run-ning club came to the meeting place, they went to the subway to go back to the hotel. The blast occurred at 2:09 p.m. My son Joey called me at 2:17 to tell me that two bomb explo-sions had just went off but they were OK,” Sevcik said.

She was just happy for her son’s accomplishments at the race. A bomb going off was the last thing Sevcik thought she would hear about. “My reaction was one of disbelief. When Joey called, I started to talk about the race and tell him what a great job he did. That there were two bomb explo-sions was the last thing I would have ever thought he would call about,” Sevcik said.

JP Sevcik was also com-pletely surprised over the bombings. “I was shocked. Sometimes you get a pit in your stomach when something bad has happened, and that certainly happened on Mon-day. Thankfully, they had sent out a text saying they were all alright, so I didn’t have to wor-ry for all too long, but none-theless I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the next couple hours. Last year, I could guar-antee I would’ve been within a quarter mile of the bomb that went off since we (Mom, Dad, my brother Timothy and my sister Brenda) were watch-ing the race. It took a little bit of time for that to sink in, but hearing about the explosions scared the living daylights out of me,” Sevcik said.

Another former CFHS stu-dent, Andrew Halloran, was also there running the Boston Marathon. “I was planning on running Boston ever since I qualified for it last summer at Grandma’s Marathon in Du-luth, Minn. I wanted to run it because it is THE marathon to do. It attracts the best runners from around the world every year. Boston celebrates Patriot Day the same day, so none of

the schools have classes and many businesses are closed for the day, which leads to a lot of people going out and sup-porting the runners every year, which is the best part of any marathon,” Halloran said.

Halloran’s sister Sarah also ran the marathon. However, he crossed the fin-ish line before Sarah did. She was just minutes away from where the bombs exploded. “When the two bombs went off, I was in the family meet-ing area, about a block and a half away from the finish line. Before the race started I asked my sister, Sarah, when she was planning on finishing so I could try to get there to see her. By her prediction she was about 15 minutes away, so I was just about to get up to head to-wards the finish line,” Halloran said.

Since Halloran finished be-fore the bombs went off, he didn’t find out about them right away. “When the bombs went off, there wasn’t an immediate reaction. I heard it and wasn’t sure what it was — it wasn’t a rolling boom like thunder, it was more like a large dump-ster being dropped by a truck (which I wrote it off to be). Five to 10 minutes after the bombs, I was still sitting and a lot of people started walking by with worried looks on their faces, and I didn’t make the connec-tion with the bombs immedi-ately, but I headed towards where everyone was walking from, and the race authorities and police stopped the crowd a block away from the explo-sion and told everyone to head back to the waiting area,” Hal-loran said.

After finding out what had happened, Halloran had no idea if his sister was OK. He tried desperately to get ahold of her. “ eventually overheard someone say there was an ex-plosion and some people were injured — I had no idea to what extent. I tried calling my sister

to see if she had finished, but

no calls were getting through and she didn’t respond to my texts (I later found out she didn’t have her phone on her). I was pretty worried because I thought she might’ve been right around the explosions, and I started to hear a few deaths reported. Finally I heard the bomb was in the crowd, which although this may sound selfish, I was so happy to hear it wasn’t on the course,” Hal-loran said.

Finally, Halloran got news about his sister. “After about an hour of trying to get hold of/find her, my dad got hold of me and told me she was at a friends house and for me to catch a cab back to her apart-ment, which was a giant relief. My words can’t do justice to how relieved I was finding out she was safe, then actually see-ing her later that night,” Hal-loran said.

Even though this happened in Boston, JP Sevcik won’t let this awful event stop him from future marathons. “I will say that despite this tragedy I still plan on running Boston in 2017. Despite the bombings, Boston is still one of the most prestigious races in the world, and people like me will still be drawn to run it. While events like this can take away our sense of security at big time events like Boston, the aura of the race will never change,” Sevcik said.

Cedar Falls graduates Sarah Halloran and Andrew Halloran pose before the Boston marathon.

Submitted photo

Natalie Shimp