ENTORTheMManhattan High School Volume 101 Issue 21 April 8, 2014 page 3 page 5 page 4

MHS blood drive collects more than JC

Cheerleaders try out for 2014-2015 season SADD prepares for

annual Spring Fling Connor BlissFeatures Editor

It’s spring again, which means !owers are bloom-ing, grass is sprouting and for Students Against Destruc-tive Decisions, it means time for Spring Fling. Spring Fling is SADD’s big event of the year, which they start plan-ning for at the beginning of the semester. The event has been going on for nine years and SADD sees no end to it as long as attendance stays up.

“People love laser tag,” club sponsor Kari Quinton said. Laser tag is back after last years popularity but will appear in a slightly differ-ent form. This time around a computer program will be used to track the game.

“Last year was successful

and we had really good at-tendance and I’m hoping for the same this year,” Quinton said.

The dance is being moved into the commons and the carnival will be by the conces-sion stand. The gyms will be used for laser tag and open gym. The concession stand will be offering free pizza and drinks. The MHS Film Festi-val is also back, which will be hosted in Rezac auditorium at 7.

“The goal is to get as many people as we can into our building to have some safe fun so they’re not out drink-ing or making any poor choic-es. So, we just want students to come to the building and have fun on a Friday night,” Quinton said.

This years Spring Fling is on Friday from 6 to 9.

Science Olympiad earns second place at State

Chess club becoming activeBrownbag explores hospitality industry

Junior Payton Gehrt donates blood during the blood drive sponsored by student council and the Red Cross. The blood drive collected a total of 67 pints of blood defeating Junction City ROTC who totaled 59 pints. This year marked the first that such a competition was held between the two schools.

Liz Logback,photographer

Sarah ShiOpinions Editor

The Manhattan High blood drive received 67 pints of blood last Thursday, winning the "rst-ever competition against junior ROTC Junction City, which totaled 59 pints in an of-"cial count from the Red Cross.

Student Council, which partnered with the Red Cross to make the drive possible, aimed for 70 pints of donated blood on Thursday. This year marked the "rst time that MHS has competed against Junction City in the blood drive.

For the past three years the blood drive has been coordinated mainly by senior Han-nah Nelson.

“The hardest part about doing the blood drive is the publicity and making sure the work shifts are organized,” Nelson said. She also mentioned that the sign-up process to donate and the task of keeping track of the donors proved to be a dif"cult job. “It’s also dif"cult to make sure that we hit the quotas so we’re not over or understaffed.”

Next year, the blood drive will be lead by current juniors Megan Ochoa and Dheepthi Perumal.

“Dheepthi and I both wanted to do it. For me, I want to be a pediatrician so I thought that working at a blood drive would help me in my future job,” Ochoa said.

The blood, once taken by the Red Cross, is split into three parts: platelets, plasma and red blood cells. Each pint is divided into these three sections and therefore by donat-

See Blood Drive page 5

Retta LazarisStaff Writer

With the ending of an-other school year, clubs, teams and councils are rally-ing up on new members and leaders who will guide their groups into the next school year. Manhattan High stu-dents grouped together for a "ve-day-long tryout for the cheerleading Varsity and Ju-nior Varsity spots.

Kyla Caricato, junior, quali"ed for the varsity cheer squad for the 2014-2015 school year. She will be cheering during both football and basketball seasons.

“I think that tryouts went well,” Caricato said. “They kind of amped up more on jumps and made it a little bit more dif"cult for everybody, but it went well.”

Caricato has gone out for cheer ever since freshman

year.“The coaches really in-

spired me this year, because

they were a lot more passion-ate this year,” Caricato said. “Our double jump was a lot harder this year, and they really made sure that we did better technique.

Caricato has high hopes and determination for next

years cheer squad,“I’m really optimistic,

because its going to be my

senior year, and I just hope that the team in general can perform as well as we did this past year,” Caricato said.

Lauren Carlson, junior, is going to be cheerleading for varsity next year as well.

“I’m really excited to cheer

next year,” Carlson said. “I was in a group with two freshmen, and we worked very well together.”

The girls practiced Tues-day through Friday, with their "nal dances, jumps and chants scheduled to occur on Saturday.

“I think that the mix [of grades that tried out] is go-ing to be good, because I did cheer with some of them in the past years, and I’ve seen some of them cheer on the JV team or on the freshman team,” Caricato said.

“I think that cheerleading is really overlooked, but I don’t think we are the best,” Caricato said. “I think that it’s harder than it looks. To go out there, do a great per-formance and still look good doing it is challenging.”

MHS will welcome 55 cheerleaders next year.

Tracy LeGraphics Editor

Though the Manhattan High School’s Science Olym-piad team was aiming for "rst, they left the State com-petition in Wichita last Sat-urday proudly with second place.

“As a team, this was the closest to winning State we have ever come,” junior Dan-ny Aramouni said. “We were only 19 points away from winning, 18 points away from tying the "rst place team.” Along with scoring the high-est they have ever scored, all

members medaled in at least one of their events, which is another "rst.

“I do think we could have been "rst place, but that doesn’t minimize the fact that they did a great job and had the best "nish we’ve ever had,” coach and spon-sor Richard Nelson said. “I think the kids worked really hard and their success is well deserved. I’m very pleased that everyone got a medal.”

The "rst competition be-gan at 9 in the morning and by 4:30 p.m. the results were in and awards were ready to be announced.

“We thought that we were going to either place third or not place at all so when they called third and it wasn’t us, but then they called us for second and we were all in shock,” sophomore Mor-gan Martin said. “We were kind of confused because we didn’t know if we should be really happy or kind of like ‘oh, dang’ because we were only 19 points away form na-tionals, but it’s still the best we’ve every done. I feel re-ally good about it.”

Second place was some-what of a disappointment for the team, but they are still

happy with how they did.“They [the seniors] were

so stoked to winning State and go to nationals and we just didn’t quite make it,” Aramouni said. “But it is the best we’ve ever done, and we keep improving. We were re-ally surprised and very happy this year.”

Throughout the day, team members also went through some ups and downs. How-ever, though they thought they were doing terribly, it turned out to be the best they’ve ever done.

“Some events didn’t go as well as we hoped, so there’s

some discouragement,” Nel-son said. “Initially we were thinking ‘uh oh, we’re not do-ing very well here. We’re not doing very well there. Maybe it’s just not our day.’ We also had hope. We knew that we had some strong events com-ing up.”

The team left for Friday morning to get to Wichita University campus, where the competition was held, to have a tour of the campus, relax and have some fun, and study a bit more.

“That time we have there to do that, where we have ev-erybody together, is extreme-

ly valuable to us,” Nelson said. “On Saturdays when we practice, sometimes we have most of the students but there’ll be someone who has some sort of a con!ict and can’t come in.”

Team members enjoyed getting there a day before the competition and the time spent with each other.

“The car ride was a good time to bond with the rest of the team,” Aramouni said. “Even though we’ve been do-ing things with each other for the whole year, a lot of it is

See Science Olympiad page 5

Retta LazarisStaff Writer

Lorena Ingmire, the Culi-nary Arts teacher at Manhat-tan High School, hosted this month’s Brown Bag Lunch last Tuesday.

Students were given an inside peek at the Hospital-ity courses offered at Kansas State University by Colton Rohr, alumna at MHS and currently a junior at K-State specializing in Hospitality and Management .

While dinning on the freshly baked pizza made by Ingmire’s culinary classes, students enjoyed an array of topics from internships to scholarships to secret so-ciety symbols hidden in the crest of a $1 bill.

“I think that the Brown

Bag Lunch is pretty cool,” Rohr said. “I wish they had had it when I was here. Be-cause honestly, if someone had came up to me and spo-ken about hospitality in high school, it probably would’ve changed my whole career path and I would probably already be graduated.”

Rohr also thought stu-dents should take advantage of the opportunity while it’s here.

“It’s a great opportunity for the students,” he said. “It would be nice to see more show up.”

The culinary program at MHS aligns with the post-secondary program students will eventually be able to do in college, Rohr said.

“Something that K-State is looking into is trying to put

together an actual culinary program,” he said. “We have a couple ‘labs’ where you can bake and cook, that is required to take if you’re go-ing into Food and Beverage. I wish that we had more of a culinary side.”

However, the profession-al experience students get at KSU makes up for that.

“They do a good job of incorporating the necessary tools if you wanted to go out after graduation and start your own restaurant,” Rohr said. “I think that if you work hard enough at getting your degree at KSU, you could be successful as a chief, though you may be at a disadvantage going up against others who have a culinary art school in their background.”

Louis MelgarejoStaff Writer

Chess club is in it to win it -- attempting to become an of-"cial Manhattan High School club, that is.

The club is having a fund-raiser on April 18 during "rst and second lunch.

“We feel that in order to expand our chess club we need to buy more materials like boards and we also wish to support the community by teaching the youth how to play chess,” Chess club presi-dent Ben Stonebreaker said.

Currently the group is not an actual club but is classi"ed as an interest group. In order to meet the requirements to become a club at MHS, the interest group needs to ful-

"ll certain aspects of what a club does. One requirement

Grapic by Maddie Ross

is community service. Chess Club is currently eight mem-

bers strong and welcomes anyone to join.

“When I’m playing chess it feels like I’m play-ing a soccer game against Wash-burn but not real-ly. All I’m thinking is that I gotta get my pawns back,” sophomore Mu-hammid Cifti said.

Chess Club is also joining a city-wide chess tour-nament May 3 at the Manhattan Public Library.

Graphic by Tracey Lei

Opinions The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 2

There are far greater

things than senior

superlativesThe editorial is a compilation from a discussion held by the Editorial board.

Torn between decades of tradition and what’s turned into a popularity contest, the editorial board is split this week when facing the ever-important topic of whether the Blue M yearbook should print senior superlatives, and what they should include.

In our own little world of high school, superlatives -- “most likely to” or “best” statements about seniors -- seem to be one of the most important (and looked for-ward to) things about being a senior. However, our sister publication, the Blue M, is faced with the reality that se-nior superlatives cause more drama than good as they make the decision whether or not to continue on with the tradition. Our editorial

board has one Blue M staff member as well as repre-sentation from under- and upperclassmen. And when discussing the issue, we had editors on both sides of the fence.

From one vantage point, superlatives are a fun tradi-tion. They shouldn’t be tak-en too seriously and people should have a good time when voting for their class-mates. There’s no reason to be offended over an award won (or not won) and the tradition can continue to be something fun as long as stu-dents are light hearted about it.

But from the other van-tage point, we can see super-latives as something hurtful to the student body. Why would we continue a tradi-tion that promotes popular-ity contests? Superlatives seem like another petty way

to give the top 20 kids in the senior class some more face time.

We are torn, but there is one thing we can agree on: in the grand scheme of things, senior superlatives really don’t matter that much. We can get all up in arms in de-fending our position, but at the end of the day, being voted “Best eyes” or “Most likely to become an MHS teacher” doesn’t matter all that much.

Senior superlatives may be a fun tradition, but they can also be hurtful. It’s a sticky decision for the Blue M staff to decide if they want to continue on with them or not, but the advice from The Mentor editorial board is this: remember that there are far greater things and accomplishments in this life than senior superlatives.

Kristyn BakerDavid Clinkinbeard

Karl DrownPatrick Falcone

Karl HarmonJordan Hatley

Colten Kirk

Josh KohlsKasey Morris

Mallory MorrisMegan Ritthisorn

Jeremy RomigZane Smith

Austin Tatum

EDITORS:Liz Logback, Editor-in-Chief/Trending

Maddie Ross, News EditorSarah Shi, Opinions/Content Editor

Jared Gebhardt, Entertainment EditorGreg Woods, Sports Editor

Connor Bliss, Features EditorKennedy Felice; Danielle Cook, Copy Editors

Alan Brown, Multimedia EditorTracy Le, Graphic DesignerAllison Olsen, Photo Editor

STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS:Kristen BatsonGage BenneRetta Lazaris

Louis MelgarejoMadeline MarshallMadison Newman

John RockeyJoseph Sell

CIRCULATION:

The Mentor

OTHER:Gage Benne, Business Manager

Kristy Nyp, Adviser

The Mentor is published each Tuesday that school is in session at Manhattan High School, 2100 Poyntz Ave. Manhat-tan, Kan. Telephone (785) 587-2114. More than 1,500 Mentors are printed each week and distributed free of charge to all faculty members and students. MHS journalists are members of the Scholastic Press Association. The Mentor is an open forum that accepts contributions from the public. E-mail us at mhsmentor@gmail.com.

Week:Questionof the

What are you plans post high school?

MHK airport has chance to

impact community’s economy

When I think of third world countries, I immedi-ately think of things like their lack of fresh water or food. But the more I read into the problems of poverty stricken countries, the more I realize that at this point medical at-tention is what they need most.

The most current medical scare in the world is taking place in Western Africa right now with an outrageous Ebo-la epidemic. Ebola is one of the world’s most deadly viral diseases and there have been numerous cases con!rmed in Guinea, Africa.

The problem with Ebola is that 90 percent of people who contract the virus die. These people are getting Ebola from handling infected chim-panzees, gorillas, fruit bats,

monkeys, forest antelopes and porcupines found ill or dead in the rainforest. The virus is then passed through close contact with bodily "u-ids such as blood, saliva and sweat of an infected person or animal.

Ebola was !rst discovered in 1976 by two outbreaks in Nzara, Sudan, and Yam-buku, Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, no known cure has been found for the virus, which is why this is creating such a panic.

Symptoms of Ebola con-sist of sudden fevers, intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches, and sore throats. Intense symptoms like bleed-ing from the ears, and the popping of blood vessels are recorded to be some of the most horri!c symptoms.

West Africa is having troubles keeping the virus under control without hav-ing a cure. Ebola has started spreading from remote vil-lages in Guinea’s rain forests to the more bustling African capital of Liberia. At this point, 90 deaths in Liberia have been recorded and the number is still climbing.

As much as the govern-ment and health centers are

doing their best to keep the civilians from panicking, angry southern Guinean citizens recently attacked a health center where patients were being treated. An un-avoidable panic has started rising. Senegal has closed its border to Guinea. Morocco has increased their border control and neighboring countries are being asked to keep watch for more spread-ing of the virus.

Of course, we can assume that these African countries are working to !nd a cure for this virus, but I can’t help but think if there is any more that people can do. If they haven’t found a cure in 30-plus years, how do we know that there is even hope of one? With America’s many organizations that do things like build wells, send sup-plies, or care for orphans, we should also focus on help-ing countries with a lack of water and food. In order to stop something that could eventually be threatening to the entire world, we should be adamant about helping countries with limited medi-cal attention.

AllisonOlsen

Halsey Camera, cartoonist

“You can’t !ght !re with !re.” It’s one of the oldest sayings in the book, yet we still can’t quite grasp it. And whether we’re !ghting the "ames of hell Phelps claimed we would all likely burn in, or just !ghting the pure wrath that came from him and his followers, protesting the “an-gry bigot that thrives on con-"ict” is perhaps bringing us closer to our own !re.

And there’s the eye roll.

Before you throw the pa-per down, stick with me here. I haven’t talked this issue (or how it should be affecting your moral judgement) to death just quite yet.

My message is always love. Those of you who have been kind (and patient) enough to follow my columns this year know that I always root for the underdog and this case is no different. Fred Phelps was pretty infamous, but still the little guy.

I have the most compas-sion on those who are never able to experience real love in this lifetime. The greatest joy and insight comes from being loved and then sharing that love. It is truly sadden-ing to think Phelps may have died without ever tapping into that cycle.

So when I am faced with article after article, Facebook

status after status, celebrat-ing the death of Phelps and wishing the possible worst for him, I am hurt. When did it ever become acceptable to celebrate the death of anoth-er human being? (A human being with feelings, with a family, with a story.)

I’ll be the !rst to agree that Phelps did some terrible things. I hated what he stood for and the image he gave Christians, but here’s the thing; I’m choosing the high-er road. I’m choosing to em-brace all people, wherever they are at. It’s easy to care for the poor or the weird kid, it’s not so easy to care for the public enemy.

I truly believe that the world can be changed through the mindset that all people are to be cared for and loved deeply.

LizLogback

Prepare for takeoff. At Manhattan Regional

Airport, this is not always be the case. While many in the community are encourag-ing each other to “"y MHK”, there are many issues with this airport that I have ex-perienced. Until these prob-lems are solved, it is simply not worth "ying from our lo-cal airport.

Flying local is a very im-portant if we plan to build our economy. The more peo-ple that "y MHK, especially those from other communi-ties, the more money that the city will receive from taxes. More importantly, increased traf!c to the air-port will increase the need for businesses to move into the west of Manhattan. The region is our little wild west: it’s currently only contains scattered businesses, and it

is unclear to them whether or not they should consider themselves as an of!cial por-tion of the city. Increased airport traf!c, together with soldiers at Fort Riley pass-ing through the region to get to work should attract more convenient businesses. If enough build locations here, it may become worthy of being an of!cial part of our city.

It’s important to note that the airport has come a long way from its days of strictly "ying to Kansas City. It replaced the slothful US Airways with American Airlines, adding Dallas, and Chicago as "ight destina-tions. These connections allow convenient access to nearly every location in the country, resulting in an enor-mous upgrade. The airport is also currently expecting to expand from 12,500 square feet to 42,000 square feet. This is more than three times the original footage. There have been talk of having res-taurant and other facilities.

While these are all posi-tives, the airport still needs to improve in consistency and travel friendly facilities. MHK recently attempted to add "ights from Phoenix, which resulted in a complete

failure. I experienced the ef-fects of this !rst hand. Just in the previous month, my fam-ily gambled with MHK and booked a "ight to Phoenix for my grandmother. Allegiant Air, the airline supported by the airport for these "ights, went bankrupt and the ticket was returned. We ended up booking a "ight from Kansas City.

There is also a risk of being trapped in Dallas be-tween "ights. About a year ago, my father embraced the convenience of a local airport and took a "ight to Houston. Even after switching planes from Dallas, all went smooth-ly. The "ight back, however, took a turn for the worst. When a thunderstorm can-celed a "ight from Dallas to Manhattan, my dad was left with the option to rent a car and drive back home or wait one to two days for a "ight back home. My dad drove back eight hours.

If the airport expects to spark interest, problems like these needs to be addressed. By pushing for improvement and gaining the trust of pas-sengers, the airport can make an enormous impact on the community’s econo-my.

AlanBrown

Embrace all people, change your mindset

Focus more on countries with

limited medical attention

“LA and New York for sure.” - Kayla Marienau, sophomore

Next edition’s Ques-tion of the Week: What should next year ’s prom theme be? Submit answers to mhs-mentor.com or tweet us at @mhsmento-ronline

Entertainment The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 3

The Bad Suns are rising.In their debut EP, “Trans-

pose”, Bad Suns break through the clouds and be-gin paving their path to rele-vance. Widely viewed as one of the up and coming bands in the indie scene, the band shines in large part to excep-tional vocals, instrumental diversity, and production.

Formed in 2012, the Cali-fornia based group is rela-tively young, composed of members in their late teens and early 20’s. The group began their careers tour-ing behind the likes of The 1975 and The Vaccines, and have only just recently found themselves rising to promi-nence. When the Bad Suns

release their !rst album al-bum, many expect them to have a surge in popularity similar to what Bastille expe-rienced two years ago.

In the meantime, the band incorporates an impressive amount of unique sounds into their debut EP. Lead singer Christo Bowman admits to being heavily in"uenced by rock bands of the 70’s and 80’s, and it shows. On title track “Transpose”, the band supplies a healthy dose of traditional guitar and mixes it into the modern popular indie style. This type of melt-ing pot innovation is compa-rable to that of The Cars in the late 70’s. The Clash and Cure are also noted as major inspirations.

Bowman’s smooth vocals are an ideal !t for the group’s wavy, dreamlike melodies. This complementary duo is especially successful in the track, “Salt”. The lyrics on the CD are also quite impres-sive for his experience level. While most novice songwrit-ers lean on clichés or simple

Social media makes a statement as technology takes a leap into a new world of virtual reality.

A recent $2 billion pur-chase by Facebook snagged them the company Oculus VR, makers of the upcoming Oculus Rift headset. With the prospect of an interac-tive, digital world at our doorsteps, it isn’t that sur-prising to see companies like Facebook jumping onto the VR bandwagon. However, this purchase has stirred up the waters considerably.

Developers have been joining the Oculus team since its initial kick-starter campaign left the ground, but one of its most support-ive benefactors has recently parted ways with the group.

Markus Persson, known as Notch, creator of the popular sandbox game Mine-craft, has made the choice to cancel a set of plans he had in store to include a virtual real-

ity version of his game when the headset released. His reason, according to a blog post he made, is his dislike of the social media giant Face-book’s new ownership of the hardware.

Notch’s skepticism rings true in more than one way, Facebook has been known to make changes to its own site that users !nd less than satis-factory, so what’s in store for the Rift? With technology as new as the virtual reality headsets just coming into the limelight, any sort of mess-up this early in the lifespan could mark an untimely end for further development of the tech.

Where it is now, most companies have their pri-mary focus on the games industry, where the player fan base has been hoping and asking for virtual reality for years, and while a social aspect may be something implemented into the future, it should be done delicately. With Facebook’s current track record not being one of the best, perhaps it’s better if another company leads the charge in the virtual indus-try, someone who can bring forward this innovative piece of technology in a way that is less scrutinized.

Madeline MarshallStaff Writer

This past Saturday, more than 1,600 participants, di-rectors and judges took over Manhattan High School for the regional Solo and Small Ensemble Music Festival. This music festival was a competition in which band, orchestra and choir students could perform solo or in a small ensemble in front of a panel of judges. Judges !lled out rubrics and based on the compiled score from the judges students received rankings on a scale of one (outstanding) to !ve (ineffec-tive), with one being the high-est level achievable. Those who received a one at re-gionals will have the chance to perform at the state level in three weeks.

Overall, Manhattan High did very well, receiving many division one and two rankings.

“I feel ecstatic. I really look forward to performing at State,” sophomore Evan Heger said after receiving a one rating on his alto saxo-phone solo.

“It’s very satisfying to be rewarded after putting in a lot of work to prepare,” se-nior Alex Brase said. Brase received a one rating on his

violin solo piece. Freshman Chloe Dorst,

cellist, got two one ratings yesterday. “I’m very ex-cited,” Dorst said. “My goal was to have both my solo and ensemble get ones.”

“I’m so so happy with both of my scores, actually,” sophomore Emma Galitzer said. Galitzer received a one for her vocal ensemble’s per-formance and a two for her solo. “Even though I got a two (excellent) on my solo, which doesn’t allow me to advance to state, I know I did the best I could and I hon-estly I was expecting it. I was a little nervous and I started getting a cold, so I think I did the best I could under those circumstances.”

Students have been pre-paring endlessly for this com-petition and will continue to do so, especially if moving on to State. While their practice methods differed, their hard work paid off this past Satur-day.

“My accompanist (Kelly Smith) and I each practiced our parts separately and we would meet together oc-casionally to put our parts together,” Heger said. “The same will go with preparing for state except with more strict expectations for my rehearsals. I also had a band

director (Nancy Monical) lis-ten to my solo to get further critique. The thing I need to work on most is exaggerat-ing the dynamics and using and practicing vibrato.”

“I picked my solo piece about two months in ad-vance and I’ve been practic-ing it daily ever since,” Dorst said. “My ensemble has been playing the piece we played today for a few months now, so we just used these last few weeks to polish it and get some coaching from my cello teacher.”

“I started preparing for my K-State Orchestra au-dition in August, and this helped me also prepare for the regional festival,” Brase said. “I’ll continue practicing and try to keep my focus.”

“Manhattan High Orches-tra did really well today,” Dorst said. “State should be a great experience for all of us.”

The students have yet to see the judges’ rubrics and anxiously await their arrival as they are one of the best sources of critique they can gain.

“I would recommend any-one in the music programs to participate in this event be-cause it really helps your per-formance abilities,” Heger said.

Bad Suns on the horizon

Virtual reality moves into

real conversation

MHS shows off talent at Music Festival

rhyme scheme, Bowman’s work is in a world of its own. This creative leap brings sub-stance to Bad Suns’ music, which is rare to !nd today.

Speaking in terms of in-dividual tracks, “Cardiac Arrest” separates itself as dominant. Led by midnight guitars, a forceful beat, and a chorus bursting with sound, the song seems destined to make a strong presence on alternative radio. The other three songs could also make the case to be quality singles, forming valuable consisten-cy.

“Transpose” is one of the most spectacular releases of early 2014. While the band does not severely challenge the status quo of today’s indie, it manages to !nd creativity within the given bounds and excels in all mu-sical categories. If the band is able to continue creating such quality work, do not ex-pect the Bad Suns to be set-ting anytime soon.

Members of MHS choir preferom in an ensemble group during the music festival on Saturday.

Maddie Ross, photographer

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is the best Marvel sequel yet. Well, that’s not saying much con-sidering what it’s competing against, it still is truly a fun movie to watch.

The !rst “Captain Amer-ica” was a direct synonym of the word awful. It was a truly stupid movie !lled with boring origins. Luck-ily, “The Winter Soldier” leaps beyond its boring roots and backstory and rushes forward to tell a somewhat meaningful story. In fact, one of the few places this movie struggles is when it makes callbacks to its predecessor. Sadly, this happens to be one of the emotional backbones of the movie.

The plot isn’t out of this world but it tells a solid story -- if you know going in that you’re watching a superhero !lm.

“Captain America” is back after saving the world, and is tipped off that Shield has been in!ltrated by Hydra. At this point, the entirety of Shield turns on him, as he "ees with Black Widow.

I could see a twist coming in the second act, but didn’t expect what it actually turned out to be. The plot does its job and does have some meat to it, even if it is just a vehicle between epic action scenes. The action scenes are incred-ibly exciting to watch and are beautifully shot, drawing the audience in even more.

The “Winter Soldier” is the big villain in this movie, who is actually one of the more interesting ones com-pared to the rest, but pales in comparison in to Loki. There is also a major death in the movie, which was a little emotional, but what Marvel has taught me is that death doesn’t matter. While this is

a staple of comics, it’s a big turn-off to any emotions I will ever have during any super-hero movie in the future.

One of the themes the plot does bring up is the timely theme of a surveillance state and what that does to society. Its interesting and the movie does a good job of getting its point across, although it might be a little overbearing, as it shows the far extremes. It also deals with Steve Rod-gers’ struggles, as everything he knew was gone. One problem with Steve is that he doesn’t appeal to me. This isn’t a problem with the writ-ing (which has its great witty moments), it’s a problem with me, who just doesn’t dig the whole American excep-tionalism, big, bold, brash, those-damn-commies image.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” while it has its stumbling blocks, is a fun ride of action with great witty moments. It is one of the few superhero movies that tries to present a theme, and the fact that it does successfully is even more impressive.

‘Winter Soldier’ impresses

Maddie RossNews Editor

Manhattan High School’s Drama two classes per-formed their play “After-math” last week. The play took place in the Black Box theater and served as a learn-ing experience for students. It was directed by Tatyana Turner and Summer Nolden and featured the students of Drama 2. The course allows students the opportunity to experience playwriting, di-recting and stage-managing, and emphasizes the applica-tion of these skills.

“I loved it. They did a won-derful job,” Drama teacher Linda Uthoff said.

The play also served a more important purpose. The 30-minute play dealt with issues of the person who

Madeline MarshallStaff Writer

Joel Gittle, current band director at Manhattan High School and winner of the 2012 Bob Srack Excellence in Teaching award, is now one of the more than 30,000 who has been nominated for the 2014 GRAMMY Music Educator Award.

This award was estab-lished to recognize current educators who have made a

signi!cant and lasting contri-bution to the !eld of music education and who demon-strate a commitment to the broader cause of maintain-ing music education in the schools. One winner will be selected from 10 !nalists to be recognized for their note-worthy impact on their stu-dents’ lives. The second an-nual award will be presented during GRAMMY Week in 2015, and the winner will be "own to Los Angeles to ac-

is commonly overlooked at school.

“They did such a great job, so much that some teachers and faculty members want us to perform it again, and an alternative activity dur-ing Tribe Time,” Uthoff said. “It just speaks to a different kind of aspect, the forgotten kid,” Uthoff said.

The drama department is busy with more than just classroom performances. The Thespians are gearing up to host the MHS Thespian Film Festival during the an-nual spring "ing this Friday. Entries vary in genre but all must be under 30 minutes.

In addition the drama department is also prepar-ing for the spring play “Bus Stop,” that will take place at 7 p.m. on April 17-19 in Rezac Auditorium.

Gittle nominated for GRAMMY award

‘Aftermath’ shows different side

of school life

cept the award and attend the 57th GRAMMY Awards, as well as receiving a $10,000 honorarium.

All current educators in the U.S., who teach music in public or private schools --kindergarten through col-lege -- are eligible to be nomi-nated. Music Educator appli-cants will be evaluated based on the demonstrated evi-dence that they have made a measurable difference in the lives of students, made a sig-

ni!cant and lasting contribu-tion to the !eld of music edu-cation, are exemplars of the best in the !eld, have shown a commitment to the broad-er cause of maintaining mu-sic education in our schools and have made a signi!cant impact on their school and community.

Quarter-!nalists will be noti!ed by email no later than May 1.

Connor Bliss

Alan Brown

Jared Gebhardt

Junior Thom Billam acts out on stage during ‘Salute to Boradway’Maddie Ross, Photographer

Apply now for 2014-2015 staff of The Mentor and Blue M. Details available from Mrs. Nyp in C107

Sports The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 4

Baseball completes sweep of TopekaGreg WoodsSports Editor

Perfection.That’s what senior

pitcher Jesse Steinbring achieved Friday night in Topeka, throwing a perfect game against Topeka High. Steinbring struck out nine with just 73 pitches over the course of seven innings.

“I honestly wasn’t even thinking about it till the sixth [inning],” Steinbring said. “I had a song stuck in my head till then.”

The Indians played two games while in Topeka on Friday, both against Tope-ka High in a doubleheader. Steinbring’s perfect game came in the second game, a 2-0 victory over the Trojans. Manhattan defeated THS 7-0 in the !rst of the duo.

“[Pitching a perfect

game] takes a great team be-hind me,” Steinbring said. “I credit my nine [strikeouts] to Tyler Wohler behind the plate; he had to pick up my slider constantly and the other 12 to my in!eld and out!eld behind me.”

“[The perfect game] was kind of fast and surprising because !rst thing you know, the game’s over and every-body’s jumping on Jesse [Steinbring],” senior Bret Fehr said. “Some people were asking, ‘what just hap-pened?’”

While the Indians man-aged just two runs of sup-port in Steingbring’s per-formance, MHS was able to plate seven in the !rst game, shutting out the Trojans.

“I would de!nitely say [the 7-0 win was because of] the pitching performance,” senior Jacob Biller said.

“Ethan Fabrizius in the !rst game, I think, threw a two-hit shutout, and followed up by Jesse [Steinbring]’s per-fect game, which is hard to go up against. They both, as pitchers, pitched an amazing game.”

Senior Ethan Fabrizius was on the mound in the !rst game and set the tone for Steinbring’s perfect game. Fabrizius threw a two-hit shutout and received plenty of run support in comparison to the second contest against the Trojans.

“I tried to !ll up the zone, and if they’re going to hit it, just let them hit it,” Fabrizius said. “The !rst game we hit the ball a lot better than we had been.”

Manhattan’s next game will be Friday at home versus Hayden.

Louis MelgarejoStaff Writer

Friday’s tennis meet in Abilene was canceled due to rain but the sun did shine on the tennis meet on Saturday at Salina with Manhattan High School boys tennis tak-ing third over-all.

“Right now we need to improve on our serves. Double fault-ing is an issue with some of our newer players. The problem is we haven’t had much p r a c t i c e . Last week we played on Tuesday, then We d n e s d a y and Thursday it rained and then Friday we had to focus on the doubles tournament for Saturday,” head coach Joyce Allen said.

The top performers of the most recent meet at Salina were Bryce Easton and soph-omore Bryan Armbrust, go-ing 4-1 and taking silver.

“Tennis is a physical and mental game and that’s why I like it, especially when you are playing singles and it’s just you against your oppo-nent,” sophomore Varsity tennis player Kirkland Lam-bert said.

Boys tennis has currently completed two meets this sea-son with the !rst meet being hosted by Washburn Rural in Topeka.

“ W e just took third and I feel like it’s a pretty good start to the sea-son and more wins are yet

to come,” sophomore Ben Turnley said.

Boys tennis is having another meet on April 8 at Washburn Rural. The Abilene meet that was can-celed on Friday has been moved to April 29.

Joseph SellStaff Writer

The girls swim and dive team managed to get sec-ond place at the home tour-nament they hosted last Wednesday. The girls scored a 366, !nishing behind Law-rence Free State, who scored a 465.

Top !nishers for the team were senior Amanda Buck-walter, who took !rst in the 200 Free and second in the 100 free, freshman Kelly Wichmann, who took second in both the 200 IM and 500 free, senior Alana Bucholtz, who took third in the 100 back and fourth in the 100 free, junior Tara Schroller, who took second in diving, and junior Lauren Carlson, who took third in diving. The

ATHLETE OF THE WEEKJUNIOR JESSE STEINBRING

200 free and 400 free relay teams also took second.

“It’s a good way to start the season, just to have some con!dence to get me !red up for later,” Buckwalter said.

Buckwalter, along with Wichmann and Bucholtz, has already received State cut. In order to get state cuts, a swimmer has to swim un-der a certain set time for that particular event.

“I would look at the paper like last year and see how I placed last year, and I was kind of expecting to do pretty good,” Wichmann said.

“We’ve got a really good group of girls, and a pretty good number of girls, around 50 there abouts, and they’re working hard and we’ve had a good start to the year,” head coach Jerry Carpenter said.

“We’re starting our training to start to intensify, starting to get harder and when you start training harder, the kids tend to be a little more tired because of the work-outs we’ve been doing. So our more experienced kids are swimming a bit tired now and the kids that are newer are starting their strokes are getting better and they’re starting to get into better shape so they’re starting to swim a lot faster.”

The rest of the season ahead looks bright with the number of good swimmers and divers. The next meet will be today at Emporia for the diving team and then Thursday at Salina south for both the swimmers and div-ers.

Swimming takes second at home tournament

Golf swings into second

Chris KlugStaff Writer

You never know what to expect in the season opener with a young team. The In-dians softball team split the !rst double header of the season with Topeka High, Friday night at Anneberg Park, with very different re-sults. The Indians came out hot and beat the Trojans 8-7, but did not play well in the second game, falling 3-9.

“The !rst game Aubrey [Jung] did a really good job at shutting their offense down, so they didn’t get very many hits and we didn’t have many !elding errors,” junior Sydney Bannister said. “We all were hitting well in the !rst game.”

The Indians were able to stay ahead for most of the game after giving up a four-run inning that the Trojans

put together early in the game.

“I struggled a little bit ear-ly and it was dif!cult to come back and keep throwing hard and keep getting people out,” Jung said.

Giving up a few runs early did not hurt the team in game one, because the offense was able to give the team a spark.

“I was really impressed with our offense in the !rst game,” Jung said. “We really hit well as a team.”

The second game was a different story, however. The Indians offense struggled to hit the way they did in game one and the defense did not play as well.

“The second game we didn’t hit as well and I think we had four errors on de-fense and that’s never good,” Bannister said.

Although the Indians

dropped the second game of the double header, they have a lot to look forward to. The Indians are set to face Hayden this Friday for the team’s !rst true road test, and are working hard to get them prepared for the dou-bleheader.

“We just need to keep working and be more consis-tent at the plate,” Bannister said.

Softball splits doubleheader with Topeka

Tennis takes third in Salina

Junior Katie Bussman competes in the Indians’ tournament last Wednesday.Tomas Nocetti, photographer

UPCOMING MATCHESApril 8: Varsity/JV -- Washburn Rural QuadApril 10: JV -- Topeka HighApril 15: Varsity/JV -- Junction City/High-land Park/MarysvilleApril 18: JV -- Emporia Quad

Joseph SellStaff Writer

Golf started the season swinging for success. Last-Tuesday, the Junior Varsity boys golf team opened up the season with a second place at the Shawnee Heights tour-nament with a team score of 380.

T o p f i n i s h -ers were freshman T o m m y Ekart and s o p h o -more Trev-er Dillon, with soph-o m o r e F r a n k F e l b e r and soph-o m o r e J a d e n Cady !n-i s h i n g strongly also.

“I personally did good. I could have done better than I did,” Felber said.

In general the team seemed to agree with what Felber said, consenting that they could have done better and weren’t shooting their personal bests.

“It was a good way to start if off. A couple of these guys hadn’t played in a high school tournament before, and the other three were returning sophomores. But any time you can get !rst or second in an opening tournament is a good way to start off the year,” J.V. coach Craig Ack-

e r m a n said.

T h e J.V. boys also com-p e t e d Thursday at Cypress Hill. Soph-o m o r e Cole Grit-ton was the top f i n i s h e r for the I n d i a n s , coming in s e c o n d . W h e n

questioned about the tour-nament however none of the athletes wished to com-ment.

Varsity competed yester-day at Salina Central and the next tournament for golf will be on Thursday at the Wamego country club.

Soccer falls at Trinity

Steinbring fanned nine en route to a perfect game Friday against Topeka.

John RockeyStaff Writer

The past week marks the Lady Indians’ !rst win of the season and the !rst time they competed against Trin-ity Academy out of Wichita last Friday.

Last Tuesday’s home game against Topeka West was the !rst win of the sea-son with both the Junior Varsity and Varsity soccer squads winning their games. The JV squad pulled off a 3-0 win having just comeback from the tough mercy-ruling against Blue Valley West the Saturday before. Varsity came out and !nished the game with an 8-0 win after making a total of 31 kicks total to Topeka West’s two kicks.

Last Saturday, the team travelled out to Wichita to face Trinity Academy, a 4A school that made it to the State semi!nals the previ-ous year. For the past two seasons, inclement weather has prevented the teams from competing against each other.

“I thought we were capa-ble of beating them, but we didn’t play to our full poten-

tial,” junior Molly Fiser said.The JV was unable to

score and they ended up !n-ishing 5-0 at the end of the game. Varsity faced an ag-gressive Trinity Academy as they would lose the game 4-2, despite having come back from Trinity’s 3-0 lead going into the 2nd half.

“There were very aggres-sive and they were good at getting up the !eld in their counterattack,” junior Kelli Stockton said. “[Sanchez] was telling us to stay tucked in more because they were going man [to man] on us in the !nal third and he told us to just connect our passes.”

This week, the team has its second home game of the season on Thursday against Washburn Rural and go to Blue Valley-Stilwell this Sat-urday. With three total days of practice this week, the team is looking for every op-portunity to come back and compete in their games for the rest of the season.

“We just need to come out strong right off the bat, not just part way through,” ju-nior Kelsey Schroll said.

“Any time you can get first or second in an opening tournament is a good way to start off the year.

-Craig Ackerman

Q: What’s it like to pitch a perfect game?A:It’s more of a team effort because [the po-sition players] had to make plays.

Q: How long have you been playing baseball?A: I’ve been playing baseball since I could walk.

Q: What do you enjoy most about it?A: I like striking people out. It’s fun.

Kennedy FeliceCopy Editor

Despite less than ideal con-ditions and various cancel-lations, the Manhattan High track team opened their sea-son strong last Thursday as they traveled to compete at the Washburn Rural Invite.“We had some really out-standing marks considering it was the beginning of the year and I was really pleased with everybody, from top to bottom,” head track coach Jesse Woodard said.The Indians brought home 10 gold medals and were able to boast multiple top-three !n-ishes.“This meet was there to just kind of get everybody marks. They had unlimited entries, so we took a few extra people that maybe wouldn’t normal-ly run on varsity,” Woodard

said. “But I think if they had done team scores we would have done quite well.”Manhattan swept the 3200m, with junior Michael Melgares placing !rst with a time of 10:11, followed by se-nior Jack Keeley, junior Isa-iah Koppes, and senior Nick Bandy.“We didn’t really expect that we would run very fast just because of the weather,” senior Chris Melgares said. “We just went out there and tried to compete, against other schools and the team did really well.”Chris Melgares took !rst in the 1600m with a time of 4:32 and also placed !rst in the 4x400 alongside sopho-more Brandon Religa, junior Josue Alvarado and junior Chris Martin with a time of 3:35.67. Martin also placed !rst in the 400m.

“This is a really exciting year. I think we have the chance to break some school records and do some things that have not been done before,” dis-tance coach Susan Melgares said.Continuing the running tribe’s dominance, senior Alaina Schroeder ran a 4:32 1600m, earning her a !rst place !nish, followed by ju-nior Megan Ochoa in third.“Every kid sets their own individual expectations, but track isn’t only an individual sport, it is de!nitely a team sport as well,” Woodard said. “As a team, we expect to win League, we expect to win Re-gionals and of course we are looking for a top three !nish at State. That’s our goal any-way.”The Indians will travel to compete at the Topeka High Invitational April 11.

Track brings home 10 gold medalists

UPCOMING GAMES

Hayden

Rossville-

nee Heights

Features The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 5

Maddie Ross News Editor

Seniors Faith Janicki and Macy Lanceta will be enter-ing into some of the most prestigious theater programs in the country. Janicki will attend Ole Miss University in the fall, and Lanceta is al-most positive on her choice of Florida State.

The two have been very active in theater here at Man-hattan High School, Lanceta the president of Thespians. They have made their marks here at MHS and are ready to make their marks at their respective universities.

“I am so ready for the intensive programs,” Lan-ceta said. “I’m ready to be challenged from a different angle.”

The process to receive ad-mission into these programs is different than that of the standard college applica-tion.

“You prepare two mono-logues at least,” Lanceta said. “And if you are doing musical theater you do a song as well. The monologues usually add up to about a minute or so.”

“It’s very similar to the mu-sical auditions at the school, but a little more intense,” Janicki said. “If you are do-ing musical theater there is sometimes a dance section as well.”

These auditions are in-timidating to even the most experienced actors and ac-tresses, but in the spirit of acting improvisation has its place.

“The weirdest thing that happened to me while I was on an audition was I was done doing my two mono-logues,” Lanceta said. “They asked me for my third one, and I didn’t prepare a third one. So I was like sure, I had one but hadn’t practiced it in like three months. That was de!nitely a curve ball for

Danielle CookCopy Editor

Inspired by Food Net-work’s popular “Cupcake Wars,” Manhattan High School’s culinary teacher Lorena Ingmire organized an “end-of-cake-unit” project for her Baking and Pastry class-es. This project, also called “Cupcake Wars,” was ori-ented much like the TV show it was modeled after, meant to be an outlet for students’ presentation, !nancial, bak-ing, decorating and creative skills and abilities.

“I thought it would be a fun way to wrap up our cake unit, which was mainly les-sons over cake-baking and

cake-decorating with frost-ings and fondants,” Ingmire said. “I just hoped it would be a chance to let them [the students] use their creativ-ity and oral presentation skills.”

Using their new knowledge about all things cake, Ingmire’s !fth and seventh hour stu-dents broken into groups and began their plan-ning and inspiration-seeking on last Friday, working to produce original theme ideas and to !nd recipes that could be used in their baking to help portray their themes. Monday, af-ter all their ideas and ingre-

dients were gathered, the teams were ready to bake their cup-

cakes, and by Tuesday were ready to begin decorating.

When they arrived to class on Wednesday, teams were

instructed to put any

f i n -

ishing touches on their cup-cakes before facing the judg-

Janicki, Lanceta make top drama schools

‘Cupcake Wars’ proves to be educational experience

me.”With the process of appli-

cations and auditions over, the girls are excited to pur-sue their passions for theater and musical theater.

“One of my favorite quotes that sums up my love for act-ing is along the lines of ‘the-ater is beautiful because it is immediate, it is live, there is no such thing as doing it over and over again, and it touch-es the soul,’” Janicki said.

“I have always loved it, and I really can’t imagine myself not doing it,” Lanc-eta said. “I know that it is an unrealistic goal for some people, but I believe if you have passion for it you can do it. It’s not like it won’t get you anywhere. A degree is a degree, theater can open a lot of doors for other things as well.”

“I am most looking for-ward to getting to see outside of what I see here,” Janicki said.

es, MHS staff members Joan Hetterbach, Mark Aherns and Trista Farley and MHS junior Krystyn Winiecki.

After tasting and evaluat-ing the presentation of each team’s cupcakes, the judges chose winners from both hours.

In !fth hour, !rst place went to a team consisting of

juniors Rose Gruenbacher and Kayla Wowakowski, and senior Megan Knuds-en, who’s cupcakes had a “lemonade at the beach” theme.

“It was fun and I really liked being able to come up

with our own theme ideas,” Gruenbacher said.

First place in Ingmire’s

seventh hour class went to senior Bryce Rincon and ju-nior Jacob Denney for a set of fruity, strawberry-topped cupcakes.

“My partner and I were on the same page, so it was good for us as far as work-ing together. It was a good experience. The judges gave some good constructive criti-cism,” Rincon said.

Ingmire feels that students that participated in the “Cup-cake Wars” gained extra ex-perience in decorating and presentation and hopes that they felt it was a good fun use of the skills they’ve acquired in her class so far.

Seniors Faith Janicki and Dan Schneiders perform in the Thespian’s annual Salute to Broadway. Janicki plans to pursue a career in musical theatre at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi.

John Rockey, Photographer

 

 

Restaurant

ing a pint of blood, a person can save three lives.

Ochoa believes that Stu-Co will continue to run the blood drive similar to how

Blood Drive from page 1 Science Olympiad from page 1it has been running the past couple of years. Like Nelson, Ochoa thinks the hardest thing about blood drives are the organization with the Red Cross and the workers needed to run them. How-

ever, Ochoa thinks the blood drives are still fun.

“I like the blood drive. It think it’s fun just knowing that the blood you’re donat-ing can help people around the world,” Ochoa said.

studying. And the few hours to talk and play, it was really nice for bonding.”

Martin agrees.“We had all this time to

study and you really bond as a team and I think that makes you feel more con!-dent,” Martin said.

Already, there is excite-ment about the next school year.

“I’m excited for the class [Honors Science Investiga-tions] next year and also, Anthony Middle School had

a team this year and they came to State also,” Aramou-ni said. “So I’m excited for next year with all the fresh-man.”

“The coaches helped us so much,” Martin said. “I think all our coaches are re-ally amazing and they really helped us get there and we really couldn’t have done this without them.”

“I’m very excited for next year,” Nelson said. “Of course, with the new class…that should help us improve even more.”

Apply now for 2014-2015 staff of The

Mentor and Blue M. Details in C107

Graphic by Tracy Le

Trending The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com

Autism Awareness Month shines light on special needs at MHS

As many as 5 out of every 100 children in school may have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD). Boys are three times more likely than girls to have AD/HD.

Madison NewmanStaff Writer

It’s that time of year again to spread the word around the globe and try to make a difference. It is National Autism Awareness Month when people take time to recognize those with spe-cial needs. National Autism Awareness Month has been around as late as the 1970s.

Senior Adelle Sloan is very open about her autism.

“Some people don’t un-derstand, but it’s very impor-tant for people to be aware,” Sloan said.

Sloan feels that people don’t really treat her nega-tively at Manhattan High School.

“Autism is everywhere. It happens all over the world. If people think it is a silly thing then they are wrong. It’s a se-rious thing,” Sloan said. “Ev-eryone should have a friend with autism.”

Junior Kurtis Rich is a part of the growing percentage of those who care and gladly shows his support to those who have special needs.

“They’re humans, you know? They can’t always help what they do and de-pending upon the severity

of their problem, they are really just like us. They need love, too,” Rich said.

When talking about a sen-sitive issue that allows for negativity, “the best you can do is just ignore them. Per-sonally, it changes my out-look on a person who says that stuff, and I don’t have the time or patience to waste with that kind of negativity,” Rich said.

Junior Kendrick Rivera smiles at the thought of his autistic little cousin, Justin.

“He’s about 12. When-ever we go out shopping or whatever we take him along, people aren’t really rude but sometimes they stare,” Rive-ra said. “I wish I had the time to participate more, but I’m busy and I can’t do a whole lot. I do wear the blue and my family always does their best to spread the word.”

Para-educator Jamie Sch-nee has been working with students with special needs program for a time now and also participates in Autism Awareness month.

“It’s good to shed light on autism. It is a worldwide thing. It’s becoming more common so people are be-ginning to accept it more. It’s almost like when they

hear the word ‘autism’ they get scared, but really, there is nothing to be afraid of. These kids are just as loving as any others,” Schnee said. “It’s like when people think of autism they think of one speci!c person they have in mind.”

“They think of ‘Rainman,’ which isn’t even accurate,” para-educator Chris Blanton said.

“Autism is on a spectrum,” Schnee said. “The way that I would de!ne it is as people using their brains different-ly. There are certain senses that are just heightened. It’s all about how you process in-formation.”

“It’s like an umbrella. Everybody’s got some little mannerism that would clas-sify them as on the spectrum. It’s just to what degree and if it interferes with the learning process,” Blanton said. “Like I said, it’s all about how you process things. It is just that some things are more sensi-tive. It’s not a matter of be-ing slow. There are so many variations and that is what people don’t understand,” Schnee said.

13%children with down syndrome are born in the U.S. every year

. 4,000 4,000

Approximately

and 1 in every 42 boys

1/68

1/42

Autism now affects 1 in every 68 children

of K-12 students receive special education services.

About two million Americans have epilepsy; of the 125,000 new cases that develop each year, up to 50% are in children and adolescents.

50%About 500,000 people in America have some form of Cerebral Palsy. Each year 8,000 infants and nearly 1,500 preschool-age chil-dren are diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.

Autism Awareness

Month