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.
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.
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.
by Carlos Molina
Recent school threats have changed the way students want to attend sporting events. Some don’t feel safe being at school, let alone a high school game held after school hours.
So how is Jeffersonville High School taking proper precautions to ensure student safety?
“It’s re-evaluating what your safety procedure is,” Jeffersonville High School athletic director Todd Satterly explained. “Right now, we feel comfortable with our policy and the amount of security we have at events. I always have four officers at basketball games and six at football games.”
With football games being the biggest event attended by the community, safety is a major concern — not only for the spectators, but also for the players.
“Player safety, in any sporting event, is a huge concern. Whether its football or basketball, the crowd and students are more so of a concern,” head football coach Alfonzo Browning said. “I think it’s more so of an issue with the way things have played out here recently. There are so many people not being checked, you don’t know what they could be bringing into the building or game for that matter.”
Following the Parkland, Fla. shooting on Feb. 14 that claimed 17 lives, New Albany High School received threats the next day, leading to some frantic parents pulling students from school.
Despite the threat, that evening’s boys basketball game was not canceled, and proceeded as schedule. Satterly kept an eye on the crosstown high school, noting how they handled the situation.
“If (New Albany) still went on, then I’m sure they felt comfortable with continuing. Knowing (NA athletic director) Mr. (Don) Unruh well enough, I would believe as soon as a threat was made, that there was immediate action taken,” Satterly said. “It would be no different here, if we were initiated with a threat. The first phone call is to Mrs. (Julie) Straight, then central administration, and then get the police involved immediately to find out our options. (Finally) we’d notify the opposing school and notify our workers.”
With players being in the spotlight, though, their safety is the number one concern. Senior basketball and baseball player Hunter Schmitz doesn’t feel threatened, or in harm’s way during his games.
”I don’t worry about being safe at sporting events. You shouldn’t need to worry,” Schmitz said. “A precaution we could take is possibly adding more on-duty officers at these events.”
For future references, safety and security will continue to be a pressing matter. For now, spectators will determine the outcome for rules and guidelines.
“People won’t attend your event if they don’t feel safe,” Satterly said. “We plan for every possible scenario so our athletes feel comfortable. Unfortunately, we live in a time where those are things that we have to consider.”
all photos by Dylan Shupe-Logsdon
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by Tristan Jackson
Every day, he comes into the school.
As he walks by students, they nod their head at him in respect for what he does to ensure their safety. With his uniform cleanly pressed, and his mindset on protecting Jeff High, officer Rusty Settles will do whatever he may have to do to keep Jeff, and the students within it, safe.
In a time where gun control, and school safety, is a hot topic, Settles follows a routine each morning to ensure students can go about with a normal day.
“When I get here everyday, I try to walk the building and check the doors,” Settles says. “I make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be. Once that’s done, I always try to be visible throughout passing times.”
Being visible throughout the school can be tough, though, especially with a school as big as Jeff. Roughly 2,100 students attend JHS, and while the school is in a closed-campus setting, the building still spans a large area.
“I feel safe when I see Officer Settles in the hallways,” said senior Kip Jackson. “I love that I see him in more than one location in the school. He’s always checking up on me and my fellow students.”
Settles has been on the Jeffersonville Police Department for 25 years, as of June. When a position within the high school opened itself up, Settles found the job interesting and wanted to learn more about it.
Little did Settles know, though, that the job would be so critical for student safety years later.
Recent events at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 14 students and three teachers were killed, have brought jobs like Officer Settles’ into the spotlight.
“There are lots of factors in how people view how we do our job. School shootings have caused a lot of different things, a lot of different ways, a lot of different mindsets,” Settles says. “Just think of how students feel when the fire alarm goes off. (They) call mom and dad. (Their) mindset has changed.”
But according to Settles, recent tragedies have not just changed students and parents — his frame of mind has been affected, too.
“My perspective on what has just happened (in Parkland), yeah it’s changed. It goes through my mind, I can’t say it doesn’t,” Settles says. “But I can say, I know some students that would report to me. I, along with the school corporation, will take what they would report and investigate thoroughly to help keep you safe.”
While Jeffersonville High School is fortunate to have Settles on duty full-time, some around the country would like to see teachers armed, or having more guns within the schools.
“It would be nice to have someone else to help investigate certain things. I always reach out to my colleagues at the (police) department for some help with things,” Settles says. “I don’t want to get overzealous with it, but with where we are today and the actions taking place within the country, it may need to be looked at over extra security or people trained to use a gun.
“Ask me a week from now,” Settles continued, “it might be different.”
But even with everything going on, Settles finds one thing is more important than anything else: his relationships he has built along the way.
“I want to build rapport with you guys. You need to know me, I need to know you,” Settles says of students. “That, in itself, is the most important thing.Through the NASRO (National Association of School Resource Officers) training program, I learned the number one thing is building that rapport to help create communication between each other.”
Building trust throughout JHS helps make Officer Settles’ job smoother, and create for a more welcoming environment at Jeff High.
“People may ask me why safety and keeping guns out is not the top priority,” said Settles. “But it is. The talk and communication can help prevent such things from every happening. My job is proactive and reactive.”
Story by Tristan Jackson
Jeffersonville High School has a new state champion.
Camyle Cain, a wrestler in the 138-pound weight class on the female circuit, won the Indiana state competition on Jan. 19 — just one year after the first-ever state competition for girls, in which she placed second against Alara Boyd, the second-ranked female wrestler in the world in her weight class.
“I’ve never felt something so exciting,” Cain said on her experience at the state tournament. “Everyone is so welcoming and nice. Even if you’re going against the girl, she’ll help you warm up.”
Cain was convinced to join the wrestling team by head wrestling and strength & conditioning coach Danny Struck, who has been coaching at Jeff for over 20 years. While she excels on the mat, Cain’s first love was the football field.
“I didn’t want to originally,” Cain said on joining the wrestling team. “Struck would ask me everyday to come. He would say ‘if you don’t like it, don’t come back. Just try it.’ I didn’t like it the first week, but I kept going, and a month down the road, I realized I really liked this sport.”
Cain joined the football team her freshman year, and played under head coach Lonnie Oldham. During her first year, she built relationships with her coaches, including Alfonzo Browning, who would eventually go on to become the head coach.
Cain’s wrestling coaches have helped pave the path to a state title, and her football coach would end up accompanying her to the state championship
“It meant a lot to me, especially after everything we’ve been through over the last four years,” said Browning, on taking Cain to State. “I was honored to be able to take her up there.”
While Cain enjoyed the experience, a high school athlete’s goal is to win a state championship. Her hard work got her all the way to the championship match after winning the first two matches in the competition.
Cain went into her final match with a 8-0 record against female opponents, including a first place finish in the USA preseason national tournament and regional champion.
In dominating performance, her first two wins of the tourney would come by the way of pin. As the favorite, Cain would eventually make her way to the championship round, where she would face off against Westfield High School’s Melody Barrows.
During the final, she continued her impressive display, pinning her opponent less than two minutes into the match.
“When I won I couldn’t even control myself,” Cain said. “I really didn’t know how to act.”
The win is not only a tremendous accomplishment for Cain herself, but a groundbreaking accomplishment for the girls who could potentially follow down the same path.
“She improved both physically and mentally,” Struck said. “She’s grown up and she’s much better at keeping her emotions in check.”
It’s safe to say the win brought a lot of attention to Cain, and she has received an abundance of support from the students and teachers around the building.
“Every time Coach Browning sees me, he’ll say ‘what’s up champ’,” Cain said. “Everyone is so excited for me.”
Although Cain won a state championship, there will always be people who doubt and hate excellence, especially as a female exceeding in a predominantly male sport. Cain is no exception.
“I do get some crap for it. Some people say, ‘You didn’t really win state because you’re a girl,’” Cain said. “I don’t really know why. I guess they are just jealous.”
Regardless of the naysayers, Cain shined on her way to a state title, utterly dominating her competition.
“She’s got a runner-up against the second-ranked wrestler in the world and a state title; that’s a nice resume for when she goes for the All-Marine team,” Struck said.
With the backing of her coaches, teammates and classmates, Cain made her championship dream come true.
“I can’t believe I won state,” Cain said. “That’s something every athlete dreams to do.”
Cain finished her high school career on top, but it’s not the end of the road for the outstanding Red Devil. Although she has yet to pick out a college, Cain fully intends on wrestling post-high school, and the school that she decides to attend will be getting a girl who is ready to work.
“I just want to get better,” Cain said. “Get better for when I further it.”
She seems happy at school. She talks to her friends, eats her lunch, and does her work.
Unfortunately, it all changes as soon as she opens her front door to return home.
She starts to take off all her makeup, then just stares at herself in the mirror. She sighs and walks to her room, where she just sits on her bed. She has a feeling she is about to cry, but no tears come out.
Instead, she just sits there, staring into the nothingness she lives every day.
This is a normal day for sophomore Riley Brown, who suffers from anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and depression.
“It feels like when you’re outside on the icy ground and you slip, but you catch yourself, except it keeps happening and it never actually stops,” says Brown. “The medicine helps. Instead of worrying 24/7, (now) it’s more like 12/7.
According to mentalhealthamerica.net, one of the nation’s leading websites on mental health, around 12 million (roughly one-in-eight) women experience some form of clinical depression every year.
Compared to their gender counterparts, women seem to experience depression at twice the rate of men. Specifically, girls aged 14-18 years have higher rates of depression than males around this age.
“Men often display their depression with anger and overworking, while women suffer in silence,” says Allison Puckett, a former Wellstone Hospital employee. “They do, however, seem to experience more support.”
According to Puckett, someone who shows signs of depression may just need someone to open up to.
“It’s really important to talk about depression. You won’t cause someone to commit suicide just by asking if they’re okay,” Puckett said. “If the signs are there, you should ask. People need to know to never give up. There’s always hope.”
Signs of depression include increased feeling of tiredness or insomnia, overeating or loss of appetite, excessive crying, loss of interest in activities, and outbreaks of anger.
“I encourage someone who is having negative thoughts to go to a trusted adult, coach, or counselor,” says Jeffersonville High School counselor Tyler Colyer. “If someone is showing signs, be supportive, aware, and tell a trusted adult.”
Now that Riley has started taking her medication she seems happier and less anxious. When she recognized the symptoms she confided in someone she knew cared about her.
That changed her life.
“I promise things do get better,” Brown says. “It might just take some time.”
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