project by Ali Apman, Kristen Jacobs and Adley McMahel
Dogs Helping Heroes is a nonprofit organization that provides trained service dogs to wounded warriors and first responders to help mitigate their disabilities. On April 7, 2018, the doggos invaded the Big 4 Bridge to help Southern Indiana veterans.
video by Emma Ellis & Haylee Hedrick
At Jeffersonville High School, the baseball field and tennis courts sit within feet of each other. While the close proximity is useful for watching two sporting events at once, it also creates a safety issue with foul balls easily reaching the tennis courts.
Hyphen writers Emma Ellis and Haylee Hedrick look at the issue, and what can be done to ensure safety for all JHS athletes.
— STORY BELOW VIDEO —
In a society where prejudices and discriminations still exist, it makes it tougher and tougher for immigrants to live peacefully without being labeled as different. Coming from across the world, from a different culture, and from a different society is difficult, but not impossible — and 16-year-old Jojo Spio has proved that.
A junior at Jeffersonville High School, Spio excels in his classes, and though he appears shy, he is quite the opposite. However, Spio does not have a typical backstory, as he immigrated from South Africa when he was eight years old.
Adjusting to life in America isn’t easy for most immigrants, illegal or not, and Spio can identify with those hardships.
“Getting used to living in the U.S. was a challenge at first, and it took me months to adjust to certain customs and social norms. At first I didn’t really fit in because of how I dressed or the way I talked but over time, as people got to know me, I was able to assimilate to American culture. I was able to make new friends and feel welcome,” Spio said.
Spio’s family initially wanted to move to New York City, but instead they chose to move to the friendly and small city of Jeffersonville because they had a family friend living there.
Since then, Spio has adjusted to living in the U.S. and became a U.S. citizen in eighth grade when his parents completed the citizenship test. Spio is involved in numerous clubs and organizations at Jeff High, including class officers, student council, and National Honor Society. He has an exceptional G.P.A., and friends and teachers know him as owning a charismatic and amiable personality.
“He is an outstanding young man, both as a student as well as an asset to our school. He is very friendly and helpful to those around him,” AB Calculus teacher Shadd Clarke said. “He acts a leader in many ways, such as leading impact activities, student council, and acting as an Academy Ambassador for our corporation.”
Given his past and the extracurriculars he’s involved in, it should come as no surprise that Spio is politically involved and is passionate about politics and social issues.
“I’ve known Jojo since middle school and he’s always been extremely passionate about social and political issues, but also passionate in every other aspect possible,” said Kate Stinson, a close friend of Spio.
Spio is a fervent Democrat and was a strong advocate of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. When Donald Trump won the presidency and took office, hostility toward immigrants increased considerably. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that protects immigrants illegally brought to the U.S. as children, is in peril of being cancelled by Trump. Spio sympathizes with those immigrants, given his own background.
“Coming from a foreign country has widened my perspective in terms of immigration type policies,” Spio said. “Being an immigrant, I can sympathize with those wanting to become American citizens or those wanting to live in this country and live the American dream…DACA recipients are our teachers, students, leaders, doctors. They have contributed to this country as much as anyone else,” he said.
Spio has plenty of light at the end of the tunnel and has enough dreams and aspirations to fill the entire galaxy. His motivation for a future and grades will carry him a long way, which proves that any immigrant can be successful in America and offer much to the country.
America has a long way to go when it comes to hatred and discrimination toward immigrants, but many forget that the country was built by immigrants. These immigrants came from different countries and different backgrounds, and made the country what it is today.
Spio is on track to be one of these people, and will make the country even better than it already is.
written by Emily Tully
At the constitutional convention in 1787, our founding fathers came to the conclusion that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Many interpret this to mean that, literally, Americans have the right to practice any religion that we choose, but the government cannot force any religion onto you.
In recent times, or even since that amendment has been ratified, it has been misquoted and not followed as our founders meant.
Religion remains a topic not to be brought up with people, as most have a passionate opinion about it. Individuals follow the faith that they so choose and practice it in their daily lives to their discretion.
With that being said, there are some that don’t.
If things were as they were laid out in the Constitution, that would be fine. But companies, schools and other organizations have been shaming those who do not follow religion, or don’t practice the religion that they do, and making it institutional.
With the recent mass shootings in schools, there have been more calls for action as a means to stop the senseless violence and death that have been surrounding our society for over a decade. Solutions to the problem have been mentioned — arming teachers, stronger gun control, and even some unconventional ones, like adding more religion in schools.
The problem with teaching religion in public schools is that it is unconstitutional and hinders the process of students being able to form their own opinions.
Posts on social media from local high school students have claimed that the reason for these tragedies is ‘our country’s lack of morals and a relationship with God.’ Organizations have banded together to put ‘God back into public schools’ following mass acts of violence.
But what about those who do not practice any religion, or a religion that doesn’t have to do with God?
As a high school student, who isn’t particularly religious, I am absolutely in awe at the fact that other high schoolers want to blame this problem on something that is not based on fact. The fact of the matter is the average person, as young as 16 years old in Vermont, can purchase a gun. Eighteen-year-olds can purchase semi-automatic weapons that cause mass destruction. As many as 50 people can be killed in minutes, as seen in the Las Vegas shooting.
How long must this go on before our voices are heard? Why do these calls for action have to come from ‘children’? Why is being a ‘child,’ or a young person, a bad thing? Why do we imply that our youth is uneducated about this topic in particular; when, in reality, high school students are the ones who deal with this first hand?
As of print, there have been 82 school shootings since I started my freshman year at Jeff High, all of these resulting in injury and death. But my opinion doesn’t matter?
Students are faced with anxieties and fears that our lives will be potentially cut short, in a place where we are supposed to prepare for a life full of longevity and prosperity.
Betsy DeVos, the United States Secretary of Education, has been known for her Christian belief, although she has kept quiet since her nomination. In a 2001 interview, though, she offered a glimpse into her convictions.
“Our desire,” she claimed, “is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s kingdom.”
Isn’t this, by definition, unconstitutional?
DeVos is known for her support of private and Christian/Catholic education, supporting President Donald Trump’s call to fund families moving away from “our failing government schools” into their choice of charter or private school.
Why would the country’s Secretary of Education be focused on moving families out of government schools, instead of improving them? Is it because they cannot teach their religious agenda in public schools?
Public schools are not a place to push ideologies, whether they be religious, political or economic. Schools are supposed to be a place for us students to prosper and find ourselves — find our ways of thinking and ways of doing things in a manner that we so please. If I had listened to all of the principles that were pushed upon me, I would not be the activist and opinionated person that I am today.
It’s not just ‘liberals’ or ‘left-wing’ people who believe in teaching students in a way that they can learn for themselves. Most students that I have polled, from all walks of life, want to learn for themselves.
Junior Chris Sosa believes that, “If the government is funding families going into private schools, that’s wrong. They should be focusing on bettering our public schools, because not everyone is going to choose to go to a private school.
“It’s a bias within our government towards those who don’t follow the religion that they do,” Sosa continued.
In this time of societal divy of how to fix this nationwide dilemma of violence, does the answer really lie within amending the Constitution?
written by Tomi Clark
A school. A trigger of a gun. And the person behind the bullet.
With mass shootings, the assumptions that are frequently associated with those who stand behind the trigger are typical:
What is at the forefront of your mind when somebody mentions ‘school shooter’? Is it that the shooter is mentally disturbed and that is what drove them to burst?
Links between gun violence and mental illness have been the center of misconceptions, but labeling it as a misconception is only based on what you believe.
Abstractly, not only does mental stability come to mind when speaking of school shooters, but it brings to light other stereotypes and anxieties associated with gun violence.
More importantly, though, it brings up the ultimate question: Where is safe?
The stigmas of mental illness
The stigmas surrounding school shooters are only implications.
Do you picture someone who harbors telltale signs of loneliness, failing grades, a secret
vendetta, a broken family, and a history of mental illness?
From what is broadcast on the news, people tend to develop bias prejudices toward the mentally ill, and profile them as mass murderers. Thus, they make generalizations on the spectrum of the argument at hand.
The presumption that all mentally ill have a burning passion to shoot up schools just because of their mental state is only an implication. What did the mentally ill do to incur the wrath of harsh judgment and cruel discriminations?
Frankly, anyone can be an anomaly who commits the crime.
The assumptions that link gun violence and mental illness stem from some place, but where? Any correlation between the mental illness and gun violence is a fallacy, because not everyone who is mentally ill is going to conduct a shooting.
Anyone, not only those labeled as “sick”, has the capability to gain access to a weapon (whether by legal or illegal means), walk onto a school campus, and begin shooting at random. But the stigmas perpetuate the direction that all mentally ill are belligerent, and are simply waiting in the shadows, ready to strike.
Mass shootings are a conundrum, and all society aspires to do is understand, and know how to prevent them. The first group of people in line to blame are those who have mental health issues, even if they do not act or show signs of erratic behavior.
The notions that proclaim mental illness as being the sole reason for any mass shooting, or that advanced physiatric surveillance could prevent a shooting, is unsensible because denouncing a substantial amount of the population on a topic as grand terror scale as this is unfair. And while the shooter may have personal turmoil or mental instability, throwing blame on an entire group of people is where the line is drawn.
No school is infallible and grand scale shootings are inevitable, but discriminating and associating murder mentality with all mentally ill is unjustifiable.
This is an extensive and imperative topic at hand, and in the end it’s in your hands to decide what you deem the reasons for mass shootings are.
written by Lisa Morris
How many?
How many more teenagers will have to die or be injured before there are stricter gun laws and better safety in schools? How many more threats will there have to be for our voice to be heard?
How many?
When my mom and dad went to school, the thought of them possibly dying never even crossed their mind. Even when I was a little girl on my way to third grade, I never imagined that I could very well take my last breath at a school.
For the kids and teenagers all around the country that go to school with the fear of being murdered along with their classmates, it is undeniably heartbreaking for me. There is no doubt that there has to be a change.
I believe that in order for this change to occur, we, as students and as youth, have to make a stand. A stand against bullying. A stand against hate. A stand against murder in schools.
Our voices deserve to be heard, especially since we are the ones most affected by this.
Change will never happen if we do not come together and act upon what we are promising, or what we are saying we want done. All over the news and social media are articles about how there needs to be better safety in schools.
Then why did Jeff High, by all accounts a safe school, have two threats within weeks apart? At what point will we stop talking and actually start doing?
Youth, we are so important. We are the voice of change. We have so much energy and we have so much potential. When we put that energy into good use and use it for what we believe in, nothing can stop us.
Simply put, we cannot sit back any longer. We’ve always heard our teachers and our parents tell us that our actions speak louder than words. Then why aren’t we acting upon our beliefs? Why aren’t we pushing for more safety in our own schools?
In order for this change to happen, we as youth have to make our voices heard to the adults. Yes, we have made many mistakes. Yes, we will make many more.
But we can come together and speak out for more safety in our school to those leading it. Our opinions matter, but we have to speak up to the ones who have the legal power to put this change into action.
The threats towards our school, and many other schools like our, from those who are infiltrated with hate and anger will continue to happen. However, the only way we will be safe is if the community hears our voices.
It is time that our voices be heard.
written by Kyle Sanders
photo by Sam Gatewood
In an era marked by tragic school shootings, school safety continues to become a hot button topic.
It started on April 20, 1999, when two teenagers at Columbine High School in Colorado planted explosives and shot students, killing 12 and one teacher in the process. This event in 1999 thrust school safety into the national spotlight, which has now grown into a wildfire almost two decades later.
After recent events at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School in Parkland, Fla. and multiple other high schools across the country, school safety has become a top-tier priority.
At Jeffersonville High School, there are multiple aspects and measures that go into every school day to ensure the safety of students. Take just a few steps into Jeff High, look up, and there is at least one camera in the area, maybe more.
“Having extra eyes in the sky would make me feel safer,” said senior Brennan Schansberg. “(It helps) knowing that there will be more evidence against the culprit if an incident does occur.”
Cameras allow for video surveillance that can be helpful in watching over staff, students and visitors in the building. The recordings help ensure the safety of people in the building, and can be useful in identifying illegal actions, and the perpetrators of those actions.
Additionally, the video surveillance gathered can be useful if the matter goes to court.
According to Assistant Principal Charles Marshall, Jeff High has “a substantial amount of cameras” in and around the high school, as well as additional ones that have been added within the past few years. But not everyone thinks they’re as helpful as they may seem.
“I don’t think the cameras help ensure the safety of students at all,” said teacher Mark Felix.”I think they help show which students are doing wrong after the fact. We don’t have someone sitting down there watching monitors at all times.”
In addition to cameras, locked doors are vital to the safety of students and staff. While all teacher classrooms lock automatically when the door is closed, doors that lead outside of the school can be crucial to the safety of students. Locked doors can lead to keeping the students and staff safe, while giving the perpetrator a more difficult task of getting into classrooms.
Just days after Parkland, principal Julie Straight took to the morning announcements to plead with both students and teachers to keep the outer doors closed at all times during the school day. Traditionally, the only way to enter JHS from the outside is through a key fob, or to have the front office buzz visitors in.
“Keeping doors locked is extremely important for the safety of individuals within the school,” said senior Haley Adams. “It is essential that students stop opening side doors for outsiders to enter into the school without going through the safety system school has in place.”
But even when all of these precautions fail, JHS has taken to more direct practice to ensure the safety of all.
A few times a year, the school practices lockdown drills, where students and staff must find the safest way to stay hidden in case of a school shooter.
These practices, though, aren’t only at Jeff High. Lockdown drills are very keen at Southwestern High School in Shelbyville, Ind., which has been dubbed the Safe School Flagship and “Best Practice Solution” by the Indiana Sheriffs’ Association.
Southwestern has implemented an emergency fob, which sets off a school-wide alarm and notifies local law enforcement. Students are taught to barricade themselves in a corner, out of view of a potential shooter, behind a locked, bullet-proof door.
“I guess everybody does it (the lock down drill) differently,” Felix said. “Basically you use common sense and make sure you can get to safety. If you can get out of the building, get out. If you have to fight back as a last resort, fight back.”
And still there is one more important aspect to school safety: a school’s resource officers. In the case of Jeff High, that is officer Rusty Settles.
The National Association of Resource Officers (NASRO) is made up of school-based law enforcement officers, school administrators and school security/safety professionals working as partners to protect students, faculty and staff, and their school community. School resource officers, like Settles, are in the school all day, watching the hallways and watching the actions of students.
As school tragedies continue to occur throughout the country one thing will continue to be of utmost importance, making sure students return home safely each and everyday.
written by Emma Ellis & Haylee Hedrick
photos by Dylan Shupe-Logsdon
Loud pops rung throughout the halls of Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999.
At first, students thought the sounds were firecrackers being lit on the lawn outside.
The reality: shots were being fired from semi-automatic handguns at students outside eating lunch.
The shooting, which would later be known as the Columbine shooting massacre, lasted 49 minutes and spanned most of the school. Senior Rachel Scott, a 17-year-old who was known around the school for always spreading kindness, was the first victim shot and killed.
April 20 of this year will mark 19 years since the first mass school shooting occurred. Since Scott’s death, her legacy of positivity lives on within JHS through the Friends of Rachel club, which has been actively working to make sure that her and her legacy never fade.
“There’s a sense of unity that comes with the student body being against bullying, knowing that it’s a dangerous thing within any school environment.”
Friend’s of Rachel co-president Neh Thaker
“It’s definitely become more prevalent, as the presidents, to continue a positive movement throughout the school, ” Friend’s of Rachel co-president Keith Asplund said. “We need to use her story to prevent bullying and stop escalation of violent situations.”
On that fateful day, 13 lives were lost — 12 students and one teacher — and 21 more were injured. But through all of the despair, a legacy of gold was gained.
Following the shooting, Rachel’s father, Darrell, created the “Rachel’s Challenge” program to honor his late daughter. His hope was to carry out her goals by showing the impact that minimal acts of kindness can have in a high school setting.
Eventually, the club would reach millions of high school students nationwide every year, encouraging safety and positivity in schools.
“The club gives students an outlet to share and discuss things they might be embarrassed about or going through,” said one of the club sponsors, Taylor Troncin. “And (we) respond (with) something to combat the negativity going on.”
At the beginning of each school year, the JHS club encouraged members of the student body to sign an “anti-bullying banner” to pledge their agreeance to keep the school from being a place of violence, bullying and discrimination.
“There’s a sense of unity that comes with the student body being against bullying, knowing that it’s a dangerous thing within any school environment,” said Friend’s of Rachel co-president Neh Thaker.
Scott paved the way for a positive movement that has grown to a larger scale and can continue to grow by each person affected.
“It’s really a simple message that she (Scott) was trying to spread,” Asplund said. “It isn’t big — it just starts with some students in school, day-to-day, hour-to-hour, spreading positivity.”
For our March 14 issue of The Hyphen, we polled 462 students on how safe they feel at Jeffersonville High School. Below are our findings — some of which can be found on page 9 of the latest issue.
all photos by Dylan Shupe-Logsdon
by Gabby Bishop and Greta Reel
In America, the average gun homicide rate is around 13,000 a year, which is over 25 times the average of other high-income countries. Since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, over 400 people have been shot in more than 200 school shootings nationwide.
To students in today’s society, school shootings are no longer the tragic massacre of peers — people with lives and families — but another statistic in their common world.
So the question is: are Americans becoming numb to the consistent violence, and is the media unintentionally glorifying shootings with constant coverage?
Susan Duncan, editor for the Evening News and Tribune doesn’t believe the news is causing romanticization. However, she agrees that gun violence isn’t as surprising anymore.
“You’ve lost the shock factor,” Duncan explained, referring to shootings. “There’s an initial shock, but then there’s also that ‘Oh my gosh, here we go again.’
“But I think to point to the media as unintentionally glorifying, I think that’s a falsehood,” she continued. “If people are getting desensitized, it’s not because we’re writing stories about it — it’s because these things are happening.”
Jeffersonville High School radio/TV teacher Tim Dench thinks teens are becoming desensitized to gun violence.
“Teenagers nowadays think nothing of shootings,” Dench said. “Years ago, when there was a robbery, a shooting, or some crime, it usually involved a 30 or 40-year-old adult…. Now (it’s people) in their young 20s and a lot of times even into their teens; and the younger generation, they think nothing of using guns.”
Dench believes constant coverage of massacres may glorify guns, but the media has to cover it due to First Amendment rights.
“It is news. It’s not good news, but news is news, and it’s the job of the media to report the news,” he continued.
Jeff High sophomore Hailey Lathan believes she, too, is becoming numb to consistent violence.
“So much violence is going on in today’s world it seems as if the world wouldn’t be normal without it,” Lathan said. “I think media is bringing somewhat more awareness to school shooting, though some kids find it as an excuse to make a joke of it.”
According to Duncan, though, the news media should not be seen as the only blame to this desensitization. With most of the world on social media apps like Twitter or Facebook, being able to argue is easier than ever.
“There’s an anger that you see on social media that if it were one-on-one interactions, you wouldn’t see. It has empowered the worst in us…. People feel that they can just go after people,” she said.
Even though media could be considered a major factor for desensitization, it can also be seen as a way to show people the terror of these shooting. For example, videos of the Parkland FA. shooting spread like wildfire through social media. This first person point-of-view insight showed the true horror of what it is like to be a victim in a school shooting.
“You saw it, heard it, felt it from the inside that time. You could hear the terror, you could hear the screams, you could hear the gunfire,” Duncan said. “I remember seeing one angle of a student who had clearly… dove to the dirty, dusty floor to try to stay alive.”
School shootings have become a national epidemic, though one that people have the power to stop. It’s up to Americans to resolve it, and Duncan thinks the recent shooting in Parkland, Fla. will mark a change.
“I think (it’s) kind of a different dynamic that we’re seeing this time,” Duncan said. “This time it didn’t happen to little kids; it happened to kids who can think for themselves and take actions for themselves.”
by Bella Bungcayao
Leadership and discipline are two of many attributes JROTC students are taught to uphold in their schools.
Yet this program has been both criticized and praised nationally because of the recent Parkland, Fla. school shooting, and the involvement of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School JROTC.
Nikolas Cruz, the Florida school shooter responsible for the death of 17 students and staff, was, in fact, an ROTC cadet at Stoneman Douglas.
This rogue member, however, did not reflect the practices of the entire Parkland program.
As more details of the shooting started to uncover, many stories were told about JROTC members, and their heroism for protecting their peers. Some of these students even lost their own life, including 15-year-old Peter Wang.
According to witnesses, Wang was pulling students from the hallways into safety before he was killed by a single bullet.
Because of Wang’s selflessness shown on Feb. 14, he was honored with a traditional military funeral.
Two other JROTC cadets who were killed, named Martin Duque and Alaina Petty, were also said by fellow students to have been ushering their peers out of the halls.
These stories touched JROTC members nationwide, like Victoria Southern, who is the Corps Commander for Jeff High’s JROTC program.
“I think that the individuals in JROTC who took those life-threatening risks showed true leadership and service before self,” Southern said. “Which is something that is taught in the program.”
Southern and her JROTC peers took class time to write notes of encouragement and praise to these students, and sent them to the cadets in Parkland.
Retired Colonel Robert Benning, one of the two advisors of Jeff’s JROTC program, hopes his cadets feel encouraged by these stories of heroism, if the school was in the event of an active shooter.
“I would hope my students would feel the urge to protect their peers,” Benning said. “That type of bravery is what is taught in the program. However I wouldn’t want any of them to run out and confront an active shooter.”
These three students who lost their lives during this tragedy let their legacies live on accredited to their JROTC teachings. Their practice of service before self, leadership, and dependability, unfortunately, would lead to their cause of death.
However because of their heroics, it’s safe to say many other lives were saved.
thehyphennews.com 