Most Recent

Staff and Student Views on Jeff High Dress Code Changes

This school year, Jeffersonville High School implemented small changes to the student dress code. The most significant change involves shorts and skirts. The new rule is that they should be longer than fingertip length. Previously, they needed to be knee length. The same fingertip rule applies to holes in jeans. The dress code was also changed to allow exposed shoulders if the shirt has some kind of sleeve. The JHS Student Council, working with the JHS Administration Team, then clarified that students cannot wear completely off the shoulder tops.

“The new dress code is definitely a positive step forward for the student body but could still be revised to include more, still appropriate, changes.”

Alexa Roach, Senior

“You don’t come to an institution to be fashionable. You come to learn skills to better you in the working field.”

Sean Hyatt, Junior

“I think it’s okay, but it’s never been a problem for me because I don’t understand the thing about kneecaps or shoulders.”

Kaitlyn Hill, Freshman 

“I like the change to the dress code and I really like that the students got a say in it. But I feel like this dress code is harder to enforce, because a lot of outfits are borderline.”

Mr. Esarey, Social Studies

Story by: Leia DeGeorge

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

by leiadegeorge

Diversity Among Student Leaders

Diversity has become an important thing around the Jeffersonville community. The amount of diversity in our student leaders has been growing in our community and across America. As individuals, we might not always think about the diversity in our community — but across America, it is becoming more important to people’s everyday lives.

Jeffersonville High School has over 2000 students, giving us the chance to have more diverse leaders in different positions of different clubs. Since our school has so many students, I believe it is important for diversity to happen because diversity helps bring different backgrounds and cultures to our community. People from different backgrounds can bring new ideas to the table that we haven’t thought of before due to their different perspective on the world.

That is why having Amelia Epperson, who is from Australia, and Bethia Busingye, who is from Rwanda, as our student leaders on Student Council is so important to our community. They’re both from different countries, so they both have experienced different things and can offer some great new ideas to Student Council. As someone who ran for office myself (I ran for Class President for the class of 2022), I understand what might motivate someone to seek a school leadership position. I wanted to help make students’ voices be heard, help change things in the school and apply my life experiences in a way that would help others.

The fact that Bethia and Amelia are doing that, while also bringing cultural diversity to our student leadership, is icing on the cake. Some people are on the opposite side and don’t like the increasing diversity in America. The opposite side is the people who want America to stay the same and not change. One person being our president, Donald J. Trump, who has been attacking people of color in America and telling those people to go back to their countries. Diversity should not set us apart; diversity should bring us together. Schools are becoming more diverse because of the changes that are happening. The changes that are happening involve different people from different cultures that are coming to America.

As schools are becoming more diverse, the students’ leaders have become more diverse — here and around America. Increasing diversity is why Jeffersonville High School is one of the best schools in Indiana, in my opinion. We have many diverse leaders who can help the school and change the community in a big way.

The topic of diversity is becoming more important every day to us as individuals and us as students — as it should be, because it is a very important topic. Having diverse leaders is not only going to affect our community but the world as a whole. All in all, having diverse leaders is not only going to help change our community, but change the world for the better.

Opinion by: Nana Spio

by Nana Spio

Leaders From the Other Side of the World

Staff Photo

Student Council co-presidents Bethia Busingye and Amelia Epperson are not only from different countries, they’re from different continents. Busingye immigrated to the United States from Rwanda, Africa four years ago, and Epperson moved to the United States from Melbourne, Australia about three years ago. 

Epperson and Busingye joined Student Council together when they were sophomores and now run the club together. 

“It’s good that we’re already friends, because we already know how to work with each other,” Epperson said. “Look at us, (Student Council) presidents, three years later.” 

Despite being in the United States for several years, the two seniors have had challenges, especially adjusting to life in a foreign country. “Well, I have family here,”  Epperson said. “I came here once before when I was 10. So I kind of have a feel for it. I wasn’t terrified, but it was still kind of scary and, it’s a new school, it’s way bigger than any school I’ve ever been to. It was a little culture shock.” 

“People have different, really weird questions to ask you,” Busingye said. “And I had to make a lot of adjustments, like with my accent. I had to start putting on an American accent in order for people to understand me, because kids would (be) like ‘That’s not how you say that.’ So it was kind of a big difference, and people were a lot less nice.” 

Epperson agrees with this, saying, “I feel like there was a little bit of discrimination with us. Like, your (Busingye’s) accent, people are like, ‘Oh my God that’s weird, what are you saying?’ and (with) my accent people are like, ‘Oh my God it’s so great.’” 

Epperson and Busingye feel that it’s important to have an example of foreigners running a school club. “It makes other students (feel) like they are welcome to come,” Busingye said. 

“I’ve seen many students who are foreign, and…they don’t join any clubs, (because) they feel like they’ll be out of place. (But they’ll) be like, there’s two foreigners running Student Council.” 

Natalie Bronson, the sponsor of Student Council, feels that Epperson and Busingye represent Jeff High well. “I truly feel that Amelia and Bethia, both being from different countries, genuinely and accurately represent the dynamics of Jeff High,” Bronson said. “We have a diverse group of students and it is not only shown in the student body as a whole, but in the leadership roles we have throughout the school that students hold.”

Story By: Greta Reel

by Greta Reel

Three… Two… One… Bing! Mario Kart Tour Sets Off Suddenly

Popping into all Apple and Android devices has come a new game that almost everyone has downloaded already. Mario Kart Tour, since its release in App stores around 12:00 a.m. today, has been the talk amongst the folks of Jeffersonville High School and many other places. 

Though an hour after its release, it was taken into maintenance. This causes some people to freak out for a good second, but thankfully they were quickly able to put it back up and working again — letting people calm down and be able to keep enjoying it. 

Mario Kart Tour has become a fast growing addiction with the younger audiences (12 years and older). Many teens can be seen playing the game during their free time. 

Even though the game does not have the option to play with friends, people have created fun little competitions amongst each other. Seeing who can get this many races done first in a certain amount of time, or who can finish the most tracks done by the end of the week. 

One of the ups of this game, is that it gives its players a sort of nostalgic feeling. Those who had played the Mario Kart games as kids, whether on the Wii or nintendo devices, can now relive those fun moments through  the simple tap of a finger. 

Mario Kart Tour, only being out a few hours, has certainly made a wide fan base. And will no doubt be argued as one of the most popular games of the year. 

During 2017 and 2018 Fornite took over the video game industry. Now it’s time for an old family favorite to take over the reins for the remainder of 2019 and through 2020.

 

Written by Lydia Church

by jhshyphen

New GCCS Five-Year Plan Proposes Investments in Jeff High

On Sept. 17, 2019, Greater Clark County Schools Superintendent Mark Laughner presented his five-year strategic plan to the school board. Some of the proposed expenditures for Jeff High include:

  • Year one – 1 million dollars for a new football turf, 300 thousand dollars for a new track, and 2.4 million dollars for new football bleachers and press box.
  • Year two – 75,000 dollars for Radio and TV lighting
  • Year 3 – 2.8 million dollars for new locker rooms and weight rooms and 750,000 for HVAC

Jeffersonville High School Principal Julie Strait believes the bleachers are smart investments, saying, “Take a good look… it would be a much wiser investment, and something we could take pride in if we replace them.” She also was supportive of the new turf saying, “We’re the only high school in 6A without a turf football field. It’s part of pride in your community”

These proposed expenditures were part of a larger plan to support the school district’s goals in four focus areas. 

The first area is climate and culture, and the primary goal being to increase trust and communication. The district proposed many tasks in order to achieve this goal, including releasing a newsletter, providing more professional development, overhauling the website, increasing the marketing budget, and increasing many other forms of communication. 

The second focus area is community partnerships. The first goal is to engage diverse partners. The district hopes to implement a more formal tracking process to acquire more diverse partners that better represent the community. The second goal of this focus area is to make sure that these partnerships have mutually beneficial results. 

The third focus area is financial stability and responsibility. Within this focus area, a primary goal is maximizing and sustaining enrollment. The district proposed many solutions including creating more options for dropouts and homeschool children, adding a bus on Salem Noble Road to stop migration to other districts, transporting more students to their school of choice, redrawing school lines, and sending letters of intent to all 5th-8th grade parents. The second goal being reducing costs of programs and facilities. Some solutions proposed include a restructuring of the preshool system, a changing of instruction with elementary related arts, closing the River Valley Middle School Pool, and a possible retirement buyout. The third goal of this focus area is upgrading and updating facilities. The tasks of this goal include keeping the tax rate steady, implementing a five-year facility plan, reducing energy costs, and completing a five-year facility and demographic study. 

The fourth focus area is quality academics. The first goal is to improve student achievement by increasing the percent of students above their grade level in math and reading. The second goal of this focus area is to reduce the achievement gap in literacy, numeracy and PRIDE by transforming teaching and learning to increase student achievement. 

The school board will meet next on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m.

 

Written by Maxwell Fisher

by Max_Fisher

Chris Moore takes the top coaching spot for Jeff High Boys Basketball

New head coach has experience at the college level

 

chris-moore-coach-announcement-submitted
Moore (in blue) is announced as head coach at the GCCS board meeting on Sept. 17, 2019. (Photo: @JHSRedDevils on Twitter)

During the Greater Clark County Schools board meeting on Tuesday night, Chris Moore was announced as the new head coach for the Jeffersonville boys basketball team. Moore joined Jeff High this fall as an assistant coach. Prior to that, he coached at the college level at schools including Indiana University Southeast, Bellarmine University, the University of Cincinnati and Wright State University. Most recently, he served as an assistant coach at Southeast Missouri State. 

Because so many players who helped the team secure a 2019 sectional championship are expected to be back this year, expectations are high for the upcoming season. Moore acknowledges that taking over as head coach under those circumstances is stressful, yet exciting. “A lot of both,” he said. “I’ve taken over teams before,” he added, “but this one has the talent and potential to go a long way.”

jacob-jones-kyle-tincher
Senior point guard Jacob Jones (Photo: Kyle Tincher)

Jacob Jones, a senior point guard for the Red Devils who recently verbally committed to playing college basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, is pleased with the coaching decision. “He’ll be a good coach,” said Jones. “He has a lot of experience coaching at colleges.” 

Moore holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Kentucky State University and a master’s degree in sport administration from the University of Louisville.

Moore succeeds Joe Luce, who joined the Red Devils as head coach in 2015.  Luce resigned from his position as head basketball coach and principal of the Engineering and Manufacturing Academy on Aug. 29, 2019.

sectional-2019-kyle-tincher
The Jeffersonville boys basketball team celebrates their 2019 sectional win. (Photo: Kyle Tincher)

by jhshyphen

PDF: Sept. 17, 2019

September 2019 Cover Image

The Hyphen is back with a new staff and fresh views. Download the September issue to read:

  • An in-depth report on how the American immigration system works, featuring real-life stories of people who are caught in it
  • A profile of this year’s student council co-presidents, Bethia Busingye and Amelia Epperson
  • Opinion columns about pronouns and terminology in the LGBTQ+ community
  • Student views on dress code changes and E-learning days
  • And more …

Download PDF

by jhshyphen

Saying “Bye” to Our Old Friends

There has been a wave of panic settling over the people of America (and other countries, as well) as Netflix revealed their most popular shows, The Office and Friends, will be taken off as of the year 2021. This has caused a lot of fans to worry and scramble to binge all the episodes again one last time, before they’re taken off.

Both shows have a fairly large fan base, full of loyal watchers who are most likely heartbroken about this news. So, obviously, they weren’t happy when this news was announced. Jeff High sophomore Elyse Hoessle, a faithful Friends fan, says “I don’t see the point in even using Netflix anymore!” Alex Metzing, another sophomore here at Jeff, replied, “I am deeply saddened to no avail. The sadness I feel inside, the sheer, raw emotions whirling around in my head are those that carry heavy negativity.”

netflix logoAn article on CinemaBlend.com by Will Ashton talks about the loss of these two shows and how it will affect Netflix’s subscriber count. Ashton states in his article that “Netflix will be dealing with two giant losses to its catalog. And the streaming service will need to fill it with something worthwhile.”

On the other hand, some think the change is well overdue. They believe it will be a great opportunity for people to expand their vision and try new things.

Although these two shows are leaving, there are plenty of others still left, such as Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, Black Mirror, etc. Last year, Netflix made a similar move when taking off many 80’s classics from its service like The Breakfast Club, Ghostbusters, Bruce Almighty, The Little Rascals, etc. That itself caused quite a quarrel in its own way. But, thankfully, the majority of those upset about that have moved on with their lives. And a lot of people believe the same will happen with this situation as well.

Does that change the fact the shows will be missed by many? No. Netflix, for most, is the main service for watching their favorite shows. Due to its stripping of any and all ads, people find it more efficient for watching shows and movies. People have found that watching the same show on Netflix only takes around 20-30 minutes, opposed to regular TV which takes around an hour due to what some say is a “ridiculous” amount of ads.

What can we do before these two shows leave? Whatever we desire. If that’s bingeing them 20 more times, or leaving them be and watching as they leave.

 

Written by Lydia Church

by jhshyphen

Coaching with Confidence

Isaac Parker Headshot

Isaac Parker takes over as the new JHS Football Head Coach

The Jeffersonville High School football team recently introduced Isaac Parker as the new head coach. Parker was the assistant coach for the team for four years before becoming the head coach.

Parker attended Jeffersonville High School and played for the football team for all four years. He went on to play for the University of Louisville for one year before becoming a police officer for the Jeffersonville Police Department.

For Parker it was an emotional experience becoming the coach. “It was emotional at first, I contacted my wife and then my parents, let them know,” Parker told WAVE 3 News, “I went from just that pure excitement, to a little bit of anxiety and I’ve pretty much lived with that over the last month,” he continued.

DSC_0163

Nolan Schultz, a sophomore on the team, says that the team is extremely happy about their new head coach and that they believe this year’s season will be much better than last year. “He’s a great coach,’’ said Schultz.

After losses against Fern Creek and Seymour to start the year, the team secured their first win of the season in a 32-13 victory over New Albany in the Sept. 6 Homecoming game.

Written by Kaitlyn Monroe

Parker Photo: Submitted, Practice Photo: Kyle Rider

by Kaitlyn Monroe

Student Views on E-Learning: The Pros and Cons

Over the summer, Greater Clark County Schools announced that instead of adding make-up days for school closures, the district will begin to use online learning. Other schools in our area have already adopted E-Learning.

Jeffersonville High School students’ views on E-Learning are mostly supportive, but some students have their doubts about it. On an Instagram poll made by a Hyphen staff member, 67% of people supported E-Learning and 33% did not support it.

Jade Worrall, a Jeffersonville High School sophomore, said, “We don’t have to make up any days, so our breaks are longer, and you don’t have to work that hard.”

Chaela Austin, a Charlestown sophomore, says that her hometown, Scottsburg, has been doing it for years and that it works and it will probably be very beneficial to Greater Clark County Schools. This could also inspire other schools to start E-Learning by hearing the positive feedback from schools like Jeff.

On the other hand, a Jeff High student who did not want to disclose their name for this story thinks it won’t work: “Kids aren’t going to do it and take the F,” Others expressed concern that students could struggle with connectivity issues at home or other home-related issues that may interfere with getting the work done.

This feedback mirrors what other school districts have reported after implementing E-Learning. According to studyinternational.com, there are both pros and cons.

The pros are: not having to make up snow days and also having easier work for the students on those days. It can also be useful if a student misses a day of school because they are ill. The E-learning site is also accessible offline.

The cons are: you still need the internet if you need to contact a teacher. If a student’s Chromebook is broken and they don’t have another device at home, they can’t do their work. Younger students who don’t have Chromebooks may not be able to do these activities, though, which will put them behind.

 

By Marni Scholl

by mscholl252

An open letter, to whoever wants to read the probably not so wise wisdom of an 18 year old

By Emma Ellis

High school has flown by and after three-and-a-half years of saying I’m so ready to get out of here, now that I’m finally here with the last day of my high school career just days away, I can’t seem to put the brakes on. I keep trying to put off things that I probably shouldn’t be putting off, like this article for example. My brain is somehow reasoning if I don’t do my end-of-high school stuff then I can push back the end of high school.

Surprisingly, that’s not how it works. Life carries on with or without you, the trick is to not get bogged down by stuff you don’t want to do. Look on the bright side. Play the hand you were dealt. No use crying over spilled milk. As stressful as it is to be graduating, to be leaving the safety of home and family, school has been preparing us for this since kindergarten. Which is an encouraging thought, or maybe not, depending on how well you’ve been paying attention these past 12 years.

Have fun in high school, make sure your involved like a sport, club or even a class like newspaper. Don’t worry if it’s all going to work out, just do your work, don’t push it back or take a shortcut — you get the most out of life when you participate in it.

My plans for after high school? I plan on going to IUS for a year or two to stay close to home until I get my own footing, then transferring for a history degree that I still am not quite sure what I’m going to do with. I hope to become a New York Times best selling author if I ever get around to finishing a book. I plan to keep playing tennis until I can’t play anymore.

I would like to use this time to send out a thank you to all my teachers in my life for teaching me and inspiring me. I want to thank my coaches for always pushing me to go the extra step. A special thanks to my grampy, for always supporting my tennis career. I want to thank my family, my dad who is always there when I need him and wanting to help however he can, my mom who has picked me up and dropped me off at every practice, lesson, match, whether it be 5am for morning practice or picking me up past midnight, and last but not least I want to thank my sister for always being her bright smiling sweet self that brightens my day no matter how much of my stuff she breaks. There is no point in stressing over something you can’t do anything about, so just say ok and move on with your day.

by jhshyphen