2 T H E

tiger hi-lineVOLUME 51 ISSUE 19

1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

This year, juniors Sara Ga-briele and Alexandra Stewart have been chosen to represent Cedar Falls High School at the American Legion Auxil-iary Girls State this summer. Juniors Ryan Giarusso and Nate Hua have been chosen to attend the American Legion Boys State. They are both a week-long event that students attend to replicate what the government process is like.

Both Boys State and Girls State programs are parallel in what they do, but are held in different locations. The Girls State is held in Ames at the Iowa State University campus, and Boys State is at Camp Dodge. Boys and Girls

State are similar to a week-long camp where the students experience the operation of the democratic government and the organization of politi-cal parties where they learn about city, county and state government. They hold mock elections, form their own po-litical parties and participate in other political exercises. After the week is over, there are opportunities to be chosen to go to nationals and do the same thing, but on a larger scale with students around the United States.

“I think it’s a beneficial experience that leads to many opportunities in the future and is also eye-opening and allows you to get a broader view,” junior Alexandra Stewart said.

The students chosen are nominated by teachers, and

all final decisions are made by teacher recommendations. Each year, all the social stud-ies teachers pay attention to the juniors in their classes and see which ones have upstand-ing character and leadership skills. They look for those who are well rounded and who are most involved in class and in school activities, such as student government, Model U.N. extra curriculars, in addition to good grades, balanced lifestyles, good per-sonality and community in-volvement. The teachers also look for students that would be a good fit for the program and have shown potential in their social studies classes.

When the teachers come together and discuss who they all feel will fit the criteria, they nominate eight boys

and eight girls that they all feel would succeed with the program. The next step in the process is to interview all 16 of the candidates and choose which two boys and two girls will go on to State. In the interview process in each group (boys and girls), student candidates are all seated in a room, and are given an op-portunity to explain why they feel they should be chosen for Girls or Boys State.The boys are interviewed by social studies teachers Charles Blair-Broeker, Jeremiah Longneck-er and Bob Schmidt. The girls are interviewed by Louise McGinnis, who is from the American Legion Auxiliary. After the four are chosen, they all go to State with all expenses paid.

“At first, all the teachers

would nominate the students, but then we thought [social studies teachers] were more qualified to do it, and we started looking out for the students during second se-mester. The program is a great opportunity for these students to learn about our government we have today”, Blair-Broeker said.

Even being nominated is an honor, and the 12 other finalists that were nomi-nated include Lauren Bannon, Taylor Roberts, Megan Hahn, Rhydian Talbot, Elizabeth Kosmicki, Kaitlyn Trampel, Matthew Adrian, Ben Chall-gren, Karl Sadkowski, Adam Streicher, Nick Heth and Jesse Streicher. Last year, current seniors Austin Javallana, Sam Orvis, Tori Hurst and Sophie Lilja.

Aaron ParsonsStaff Writer

Cedar Falls High School, as well as all other Cedar Falls School District buildings, have acquired a new school resource officer. Former CF resource officer Katie Bur-khardt’s three-year rotation has come to an end.

When the resource of-ficer’s three years are up, they fade back into the regular police force. “The patrol schedule also works better for my family,” Burkhardt said.

“Even during my time as the school resource officer, I still had regular duties with the regular force. You are always a police officer, and when they need extra man power, I’m there. I was also on the investigative unit in the summer,” Burkhardt said.

Duties for school resource officers are also wide-ranging.

Burkhardt said, “I am the go-between for the Cedar

Falls School District and the Cedar Falls Police Depart-ment. Any cases that include kids, I am the officer that deals with it. I also patrol Division Street and hand out a lot of parking tickets. I also help teachers out and go into classes when needed for presentations and such.”

Regarding what she will miss most, Burkhardt said, “Students could always come talk to me with questions. I will really miss interacting with students and meeting all the new faces.”

With Burkhardt’s exit, the new resource officer is Mark Abernathy, who has been a

police officer since 2003, an investigator for four years and has been on basic patrol all three shifts.

“I applied for the school resource officer job, and then I went through the process of getting interviewed by faculty, staff and students,” Abernathy said.

Approaching the new job, Abernathy was somewhat nostalgic about his previous regular duties as a police officer.

“I’m going to miss some of the excitement of being on the streets and the adrenaline rush that comes with that.”

Abernathy will work for the six area elementaries, two junior highs, the high school and the alternative school for a grand total of ten schools.

“I go wherever there’s a problem, and I deal with any-thing crime related, including theft, and truancy issues.”

Overall, Abernathy hopes students will be able to put the negative “cop” stigma behind them and see him as a regular person.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with the youth. I want to get to know the students. If they’re having an issue, I want students to be able to come to me for help.”

Sandra Omari-BoatengStaff Writer

Cedar Falls Officer Mark Abernathy (top left) has recently taken over the Cedar Falls School Resource Officer Position. Officer Katie Burkhardt’s (top right) three year rotation has come to an end. She will rotate back into the regular police force.

Allyson Vuong Photo CFPD Photo

CFHS Girls, Boys State participants selected

New resource officer replaces officer Burkhardt

Contact the Tiger Hi-LineThe Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes of

Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division St., Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.co.nr. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read in their DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Hi-Line or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial staff view is presented weekly in the editorial labeled as Our View.

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 publication the follow-ing Tuesday. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Include address and phone number for verification.

Editorial StaffEditors-in-Chief: Sara Gabriele and Ellen Gustavson

News Editor: Ben Olson and Sara GabrieleOpinion Editor: Meg Lane and Kaylee MicuSports Editor: Ben Olson and Allyson Vuong

Feature Editors: Ellen GustavsonEntertainment Editors: Meg Lane and Kaylee Micu

Photo Editor: Tracy Lukasiewicz

T H E

tiger hi-lineApril 5, 2011

2 opinionour view

Minerals mined for some cell phones are cause for global customer concern

Tiger Tracks offers students stylin’ looks

Karl SadkowskiStaff Writer

In the past two decades, dependence on cell phones has exploded into what ap-pears to be an international phenomenon. They increase mobility, reduce the need for landlines and provide access to widespread communication for underprivileged popula-tions. In June 2010, the CTIA (International Association for the Wireless Telecommunica-tions Industry) announced that Americans have close to 293 million cell phone contracts. With rising popularity, cell phone production will not slow any time in the immedi-ate future.

Should this be a hot issue? Not for the majority of the world. But in eastern Demo-cratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a lucrative smug-gling business conducted by rebel militias and Congolese soldiers is exporting countless tons of minerals vital to the production of cell phones and other electronics. By forced labor, starvation, disease and rape, more than 5.4 million Congolese civilians have died, spawning the worst conflict since the Second World War.

By illegally exporting and selling these pricey minerals, rebels are being paid millions

Tiger Tracks is a clothing sale put on by some of our students that started a year ago because resource teacher Kris Brimm noticed the need for free or inexpensive cloth-ing for students at Cedar Falls High School. Brimm had been bringing clothing her daughters outgrew, and students were choosing items that they needed. Others wanted to donate also, and the idea of collecting clothing and offering them for a sale was born. Due to the lack of a permanent room to create an ongoing clothes closet, the group decided to hold sales on the afternoon of the early out conference days. Clothing is available to students who need it on an as-needed basis; they just need to contact Brimm or resource teacher Bridget Bakula, and they will help them out.

Proceeds from the sale go to cover incidental expenses to support special education programs. Some of the items purchased from the money earned so far have been to pay for field trip expenses, purchase supplies for classroom ac-tivities and to purchase items like shampoo, deodorant and safety glasses for students who can’t afford them.

Donations of clothing are accepted in the main office. Students then sort the clothing, donating items that they don’t think will sell to St. Vincent DePaul or to GoodWill. Some of the more expensive items are taken to Main Street Exchange as consignment goods. Main Street Exchange also donates clothing to the Tiger Tracks.

The students involved have formed an organization with elected officers. This year the President is Steven Worm-ser, Vice President is John HuChen, Treasurer is Amanda Bunkofske and Secretary is Oriah Johnson. All decisions about pricing, sales, donations and spending of the profits are made by this organization.

Tiger Tracks is planning its spring sale for April 7 from 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. in the main lobby of the high school. A bake sale will be part of this event.

Students, parents and staff should support and shop at the Tiger Tracks sale since this is going to a very good cause and many of CFHS students are involved with it, so take some time out of your afternoon off and stop and get some good clothing items for a good cause.

of dollars and buy weapons and ammunition from Rwanda to continue forcing thousands of Congolese civilians to work in mines.

There are four minerals that especially contribute to this conflict and are in high demand by cell phone companies: tantalum (which stores electricity), tungsten (which causes vibrations in cell phones), tin (which solders circuit boards) and gold (which coats wiring). Because eastern DRC is so rich in these resources and so poor in supervised govern-ment and law enforcement, it is an excellent place for min-eral smuggling to thrive; this bloody business is currently a major seller of minerals used for cell phones in comparison to the rest of the world.

The process of bring-ing minerals from DRC and into handheld devices occurs between numerous countries: rebels collect minerals mined by civilians; these minerals are run across the Congolese border into Rwanda and Uganda, which are then sold to Asian smelting companies in China, Malaysia, Thai-land and India. The smelting companies mix these minerals with other minerals from around the world, making the conflict minerals difficult to

identify, and the minerals are finally distributed to other countries, ultimately reaching electronics companies in the United States.

While American electron-ics companies are currently working to reroute their min-eral supply chains, this is a daunting task. It will take years to disband the rebel groups in DRC, bring about a stable government in the area, and find ways to safely extract minerals without the violent endangerment of civilians.

Approximately 85 percent of American teenagers ages 15-18 own a cell phone. Of this number, chances are that a great deal of these cell phones contains conflict min-erals mined by people who do not know that they are being forced to work for.

It is far easier to replace a cell phone than to worry about who is suffering for its pro-duction. Raising public aware-ness for the conflict in some way is extremely important, even if that means making the most out of a single cell phone before buying a new one.

In an age of fast com-munication, the world would struggle without our beloved handheld devices. However, they hide a scarred history not enough people know about.

How Will You Conserve Gas This Summer?

“This summer I plan on riding my bike more often in-stead of driving to get around town.”

—Natalie Rokessophomore

“Recently my friends and I have been Rollerblading not only to get in shape but to save gas money. I plan on Rollerblading a lot more this summer.”

—Megan EvensSophomore

“I wanted to buy a moped for this summer because gas prices this sumer are going to be extremely high, and I’d rather conserve gas and ride my moped instead.”

—Sara WyssSophmore

T H E

tiger hi-lineApril 5, 2011

3sports

Men’s Soccer4/14, vs. Linn-Mar @ home, 5 p.m.Men’s Track4/12, Quadangular @ home, 5 p.m.4/16, Ames “Hi-Covey” Invite, 2 p.m.Men’s Tennis4/12, vs. CR Washington, 4 p.m.4/14, Dub. Senior @ home, 4 p.m.Women’s Soccer4/14, vs. Linn-Mar @ home. 4:15 p.m.4/15, North Scott Tournament, Women’s Track4/12, Ames Invite, 5 p.m. Women’s Golf4/12, MVC Triangular @ Dub. Hempstead, 3:15 p.m. 4/13, Metro Meet @ home, 3:15 p.m.Women’s Tennis4/12, vs. CR Washington @ home, 4 p.m.4/14, vs. Dub Senior, 4 p.m.

Tigers

in Action

1. What’s your goal for the season?“My goal for this season is simple: to win State!”2. Who’s your biggest motivation?“My motivation is to prove to everyone we can do it, if that makes sense.”3. What are you looking forward to?“I’m looking forward to playing West and holding the state trophy in my hands.”

Athleteof

the Week

Muhommad ShehataMen’s Soccer

Senior

Donkey ball set to rasise money for athletics Jessica Dally

Staff Writer

During the Harlem Wizard game last month, CFHS assis-tant women’s basketball coach Gregg Groen turned to math teacher Ethan Weichmann and said, “How fun would this be if we played on donkeys?”

That’s when the idea took off for an event involving four-legged animals and com-petition among staff, students and community members who are pulling together to have a good time while raising money for.

Weichmann couldn’t shake the idea, and before spring break, there was a committee that collaborated to decide

where the money would go in the ath-letic de-part-ment.

The event itself will take place at the Cedar Falls High School gymnasium on Monday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. The game is expected to run until 9 p.m. There will be two games and then a champion-ship game. The games will be teachers vs. high school

students, and the second game will be community celebrities vs. elementary and junior high faculty. The championship game will be the winners of each round. The half-time show is going to be nine stu-dents playing musical donkey.

The students have to get a signed waiver and buy their tickets early to be able to par-ticipate. Whenever a donkey does its business, the admin-istration will be the ones who do clean up.

Criteria to be on a team include being 16 or older and less than 225 pounds. Par-ticipants must meet an hour before the game to become an expert on donkey riding.

Some athletes include Principal Dr. Rich Powers, restaurant owner Darin Beck, Iowa Representative Walt

Rogers, math teacher Barb Koble, Kris Boettger from Barn Happy and many more.

The school and the com-pany both provide insurance for participants. The donkeys are completely trained, and the people who are participat-ing will be riding the donkeys bareback. The game was originally created for a fun activity and night, but to pay for the donkeys, the commit-tee made the tickets as cheap as they could.

Weichmann said, “The school isn’t worried about the money. Our goal is to have fun, get the commu-nity together and get people involved.” He said he hopes that all the tickets will be sold out and that everyone who can come will get the chance to come out and enjoy the show.

Men’s tennis competes in Waterloo invite, first match of the season The men’s varsity tennis team competed in the Wahawk Invitational Saturday at Byrnes Park in Waterloo. Sophomore Rex Ju

(featured left) played number two for CF and placed second in the singles round. His doubles partner and brother, sophomore Roy Ju (featured middle) played with him on the number one doubles team for CF, and they placed third to first place Columbus and second place Kennedy. Freshman Brennan Ashwood played number four for CF and placed second. He also competed as number three for doubles with his partner freshman Max Su. The pair of them placed second in their doubles round. New coach Brian Suiter led the team for a second place overall.

Our goal is to have fun, get the com-

munity together and get people involved.

—Ethan Weichmannmath teacher

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Tracy Lukasiewicz Photos

T H E

tiger hi-lineApril 5, 2011

4feature

Lucas Hamilton Staff Writer

As technology continues to influence popular music, it is also making it easier for people to create songs.

As it happens, there’s an app for just that.

BeatMaker, cre-ated by the company Intua, allows users to create songs from their iPods and iPads. The company states that the product al-lows opportunities for creative minds that have minimal to no equipment to translate their ideas into variet-ies of multimedia.

The success of BeatMaker is due largely to the fact that anyone, given enough time to figure out all the small tricks, can

use it effectively. Us-ers can sample certain audio effects from songs in their music library and import specific drum sounds from their own songs as well.

Junior Jack Van Gent uses BeatMaker as well as several apps for creating synthesiz-er melodies. “Beat-

Maker allows you to create multiple tracks to play all of your melodies you’ve cre-ated in different apps and allows everything to mesh well and sound awesome. It is semi-confusing until you actually delve deep into the inner workings of the app.” With some determi-

nation, BeatMaker can easily become one’s friend in music creation.

Students are tak-ing advantage of apps such as these. Van Gent’s first full-length album of 10 techno songs is now circulat-ing through the halls.

Van Gent said, “It has been 1.5 years

Creating music? There’s an app for thatin the making, not a constant project, of course, but more of a activity in my free time.”

The album, entitled I <3 Cats, is being sold by himself and friends for $5.

“I have an excel-lent marketing crew and the hype is spectacular. People are amazed at the sounds I’ve produced through my iPod, and I am too. My iPod has become a studio to create sweet beats.”

As music becomes more of an accessible way of expression, these apps continue to grow more and more popular. With a little music knowledge and patience, now all someone needs to create a full length album is an iPod and some free time.

SupportStudent Press

The list of businesses and individuals included here are backers of the real world educational opportunities made possible by all the publication and broadcasting programs at Cedar Falls High School. Check out their links at our website: http://www.hiline.co.nr

Gold Star Sponsors ($250)•Sandee’s Silver Star Sponsors ($180)•Cedar Falls Community Credit Union

To find out how you can be a Journalism Backer, call 553-2590 or email hiline.winkel@gmail.com

Bronze Star Sponsors ($100)•Ruth N. DeHoff•Glass Tech•Larry and Judy Timmins

Lucas Hamilton Photo

Junior Jack Van Gent had created his own full-length of al-bum of 10 techno songs using his iPod. The album, I <3 Cats, is being sold in the halls for $5.