FROM

SEPARATE

TO

EQUAL

Director casts cisgender female for movie about transgender male

page 24

South Carolina shooting ignites debate over Confederate flag

page 25

Teacher Tim Bjerke, husbandfinally able to wed in USA

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McCallum High School / 5600 Sunshine / Austin, TX 78756 / Oct. 23. 2015Issue 1 / Volume 63

WHAT’S INSIDE

the issueinsid

e

savethe date

oct.24

26

‘Sondheim on Sondheim’ @ 7PM in the MAC

Regional cross-country meet @ TAMU Corpus Christi track

28 Orchestra and Guitar concert @ 7PM in the MAC

31 Halloween!

31 Disney Princess Tea Party Fundraiser @ 11am in cafeteria

people

news

sports

0304

Teachers Daniel Myers, Dave Winter, among others, left old jobs to teach at McCallum.

New law decriminalizes truancy due to back-up of cases in the court.

1314

‘Sondheim on Sondheim,’ the fall theater production, celebrates Sondheim’s influence on musical theater.

With shootings become an everyday occurence, what are schools, like McCallum, doing to prevent them?

1718

Sophomore Will Loewen plays on the varsity football team, while also majoring in dance at the school.

Athletes discuss the strange things they do to get ready, pumped for their games.

7 Fall dance show, ‘connect: experimental works from the studio’ @ 7pm in the MAC

Above: (Left to right) Sophomore Tristan Tierney, seniors Ezra Han-kin, Kendrick Knight, Arturo Hernandez, and junior Max Corney perform in fall musical, ‘Sondheim on Sondheim.’Right: Senior Benjamin Hernandez flinches from the threat of an upcoming water balloon during PALS’ fundraiser ‘Peg-A-Pal.’ Cover: As the U.S. Supreme Court establishes a federal right to gay marriage and Americans protest the casting of cisgender actor in a transgender role, state officials across the nation are reconsidering the appopriateness of allowing state-sponsored display of the Con-federate battle flag. Cover illustration by Haley Hegefeld.

news03 oct. 2015 23

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Myers, Winter among the eight teachers joining the 2015-16 facultyStarting a new chapter

This year a few new teachers have joined the faculty. Daniel Myers is one of those new faces. He teachers the new debate class here at McCallum, as well as English 4. Be-fore moving here, Myers taught at Eastside Memorial High School in Austin ISD for three years.

“I’m a new teacher,” Myers said. “This is my second career. I was doing other stuff and got to the point where I was like, ‘You know, I should do some-thing else.’ There are people that go and do some-thing like their career, and they get to the point where they’re like, ‘You know what? What’s next?’”

Before he began his teaching career at Eastside, Myers worked as a deejay and waiter in restaurants such as Justine’s here in Austin. It was during his career as a deejay that he realized he needed a change in his life, and teaching was a perfect option.

Although Myers liked working at East-side, McCallum was where Myers had really wanted to work since becoming a teacher, so after three years, he transferred.

“This is where I wanted to be, coming out of school to be a teacher,” Myers said, “Mc-Callum’s the best school to be at. It has the coolest people; it’s diverse, and it’s the fine arts school. It’s where I would have come as a student if I had grown up in Austin. This is where I would have gone to school, where I’d be most comfortable. People get hired here, and they don’t leave because they like it. [At Eastside] we’d have teachers quit halfway through the year, every year. That’s a bad sign.”

The first day at a new school is an adjust-ment for everyone, teachers too. Because

he couldn’t give homework out very often at Eastside due to many students having jobs or not having places where they could really work on it, Myers felt odd giving out homework on his first day at McCallum. De-spite being new to things and a stranger to students, everyone stayed well-behaved and acted nicely.

“[The students] know how to treat peo-

ple,” Myers said, “Everyone’s just so nice, and they’re easy to get along with.”

Of course, Myers felt a bit of sadness in leaving behind his students at Eastside.

“I miss the kids. I think about them all the time,” Myers said. “I’m still having a hard time calling [McCallum] ‘us’ and [Eastside] ‘them,’ I still sort of consider [Eastside] ‘us’ and [McCallum] ‘them.’ I’m still trying to adapt to that. So yes, I definitely miss the kids. I miss some of the teachers, too, but I wouldn’t go back. I like it here. It is weird [at McCallum], but it’s a good weird.”

Another new face at this school is David Winter, who teaches journalism and pho-tojournalism and advises the yearbook and newspaper classes. Winter has taught for 23 years, most recently at Henry W. Grady High School in Atlanta.

“I would say it’s really very interesting to me how the two schools compare because there’s a lot of similarities and a few differ-ences, but in a lot of the really important ways, what was good about my old school is

just as good about McCallum, and it’s kind of neat,” Winter said. “I recognized things about my old school that are true here, too.”

Something that Winter felt was more of a similarity than a difference was the fine arts academy. Although here it’s a bigger deal and a bit more developed and larger, his old school had excellent drama and vi-sual arts programs. Something he did notice

was that here at McCallum and not his old school was that janitors come to clean the room everyday and even though students are allowed to eat anywhere, they typically keep the school clean.

Winter moved to Austin with his wife and kids before the school year started and while searching for a place to teach, he found McCallum. Principal Mike Garrison convinced him to work at the school.

Although it’s only been a month since the first day of school, it feels like a long time for Winter. He felt grateful to have the seniors, who knew how to run things, there to take charge of his yearbook and newspaper classes.

“It felt like the summer lasted forever,” Winter said, “I just wanted to get on with

it. I also just felt relief. There’s relief but also dread that there’s school starting.”

Leaving his former students was also hard for Winter. When interviewing the ris-ing senior journalists for editorial positions, he realized how great they would be and that he wouldn’t be there to see it.

“When you are leaving a school and you’re with the seniors in charge, it’s easy because you’re all leaving together,” Winter said. “When I did the interviews and they’re all just like the seniors here who are transi-tioning into being in charge and they were all excited and I had all these ideas for what they could do that I was wanting to imple-ment with them, but then you have that point-of-view shift and that was painful.”

Before deciding that he wanted to be a teacher, Winter attended the University of Texas at Austin and worked on The Daily Texan. Because of the great professors who taught him, he came to the realization that he wanted to be for someone what they’d been for him.

“This is a tough place to really establish yourself I think,” Winter said. “It’s a real challenge.”

English teacher Daniel Myers assigns students “the responsibility to essentially write the test” on Siddhartha, a novel by Herman Hesse.

I think everybody should have this life experience at one time where you just say, ‘We’re gonna move, we’re gonna go for it. We have nothing in place, we’re just gonna do it. That’s [my family’s] great adventure: Come to Austin and live.

“

”-journalism teacher Dave Winter

LAUREN CROSBYstaff reporter

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Truancy laws lighten, but questions about the effects still linger

Caught in the act

One of the largest stories coming out of the Texas legislation this summer has been the change in the truancy law. With the law has come endless speculation from the me-dia on how it would affect Texas schools, but that’s all it is-speculation. What students really want to know is, how will this affect McCallum?

“When I read about it in the paper over the summer, my initial reaction was that it would just eliminate some paperwork on our part,” principal Michael Garrison said. “[Un-der the old system] we accumulate the infor-mation and then we give it to our classified staff, who fills out the information and then implements the process whereby the letters go out, and then they’re charged with viola-tion of compulsory attendance laws.”

What Garrison is speaking of is the change in how truancy cases are handled in Texas. Under the old law, public school students who had unexcused absences at least 10 times in a six-month period could be taken to court, getting up to a $500 fine

Students discuss truancy and its ef-fect on McCallum. Photo by Sabrina Mejorado-Ugarte.

for their truancy. Of course, if that fine wasn’t paid, then it was possible for the high school kids to end up in jail for failure to pay the fine. In addi-tion, almost anybody could be charged for truancy, regardless of circum-stances. Under the new law, all that’s been changed. However, according to Mr. Garrison, this won’t affect McCal-lum as much compared to some other schools.

“We’ve always considered circum-stances, you know. We never did just file on students once they hit the magic number,” Garrison said. There’s lots of stu-dents that get three unexcused absences in a four week period, because, [for example], my daughter forgets to take her note, so she’ll get unexcused absences, and I wouldn’t want her to get that.”Even as menacing as those previous court dates may have seemed, they ended up being less a punishment and more of a nuisance, Garrison said.

“I never felt that the court consequences were consistent and were followed up on, with the punishment they gave the student,” Garrison said. “For example, a lot of times

PAUL GOLDstaff reporter

A rundown of some of the

changes to the law that will af-fect McCallum

students:•Students who have three unexcused ab-sences in four weeks can no longer be taken to criminal court.

•All schools must have some type of “truancy prevention program”, usually in the form of counseling.

•If the student gets 10 unexcused ab-sences in six months, then the school must first determine if the student is homeless, pregnant, orphaned, or are supporting a fam-ily through income. If so, then the school will have counseling for the student.

•If not, then students can be taken to court, where they can get up to a $100 fine and a loss of driving privi-leges.

I never felt that the court consequences were consistent and were followed up on, with the punishment they gave the student

“”- Principal Mike Garrison

they come in and they fine them $500, and then they defer it if they don’t miss any days for the next six weeks and pass their classes. And all that sounds really good, but the court doesn’t have time to monitor those things, so then they require the student to bring in proof of their attendance and their grades, but if the students don’t show, [then] it’s re-ally hard for the court to follow up.”

Indeed, the sheer number of court cases filed on truancy before the law change was staggering, and they must have clogged up the courts enough to have these types of problems. In 2013 alone, 115,782 truancy cases were filed. Texas was one of the last states to decriminalize truancy.

“I’m sure that they [the gov-ernment] just wanted to hold the students accountable and let them know how important it was, so they wanted them to make sure they had a severe consequence,” Principal Garrison said. “With the threat of something like that, then hopefully that will deter the behavior of skip-ping school.”

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Custodians give behind the scenes look at their daily routineBackstage pass

It’s 6 a.m. Unlock the doors, turn on the lights, walk through the halls, and make sure nothing is out of the ordinary. Head cus-todian Daniel Sena follows this morning routine every day. He makes sure the school is ready for the students and teachers.

“An ideal day is one where I come in and I do my normal walk through the school, and there aren’t any major issues like I have to pick up rain water or fix a ceil-ing tile or something like that,” Sena said.

Rainwater is a tedious task for custodian Telisa Lee as well. When it rains, custodians not only have to mop the hallways because of mud, but sometimes something else can happen.

“In the MAC building, we have floods underneath, and we have to pull buckets and buckets of water out from under the t h e a t e r , ” Lee said. “That’s the worst.”

F o r c u s t o d i a n Y o l a n d a Z e r t u c h e , the next t h r e e m o n t h s are her last ones at Mc-Callum; she has been a custodian for 16 years and loves every part of her job.

“I’m going to retire in Decem-ber, and I’m going to leave bawling

because I love each and every one of these teachers, and all the stu-

dents are good.” Zertuche said.Some things can make a cus-

todian’s job easier, one of those things is a clean classroom.

Custodians enjoy entering

some classrooms more than oth-ers. Each custodian has 11 class-

rooms to clean, and Sena thinks every cus-todian has a few very clean rooms.

“I think it’s Coach Fuen-tes; his room is a l w a y s spot less , it stays clean all the time,” Lee said about her clean-est classroom.

During the school year isn’t the only time the cus-todians are cleaning the school either. They get two weeks off in the summer time, and then they are here making sure the school is

Custodians spend more than eight hours together each day to keep the building running. Photo by Ashley Chamberland.

ZOE HOCKERstaff reporter

ready when students return in late August. They are here 24/7, custodian Yolanda Zertuche

said.“ W e

do the floors and scrub them, we clean furniture, and we have a lady that waxes [the floors],” she

said.Sena and Lee also do similar

things in the summer time such as detail cleaning the classrooms.

“We move the furniture out of each classroom, we strip the floors down and clean the entire room top to bottom.” Lee said.

Sometimes things don’t go as planned while on the job. Sena had an out-of-the-ordinary experience a few years ago while doing his normal walk through the halls.

“Two raccoons fell out of the ceiling in the m o r n -ing, one o f t h e m went w a l k - i n g t h e h a l l -

ways and we chased

him outside, then the other

one, we couldn’t find. He had hid

and when we found him he had torn up the

classroom. That’s how we found out that the rac-

coons can take off the ceiling tiles and get into the ceiling.”

Though some things are un-controllable, students can help by doing small things around the school to make the custodian’s jobs easier.

“Especially when they are hav-ing lunch, if they could put their

trash in the trash can in would be helpful, vey helpful.” Lee

said.However, custo-

dians love their jobs and keep a positive

attitude towards them.“Everyday is a good day! We

just have to deal with it and smile and go home, life goes on,” Lee said.

I’m going to retire in December, and I’m going to leave bawling because I love each and every one of these teachers, and all the students are good.

“”-custodian Yolanda Zertuche

news06 oct. 201523

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assistant editorMARA VANDEGRIFT

A still from Diorio’s short film, ‘It’s Really Odd’.

Student wins top prize at Austin Film Festival McDonalds to serve all-day

breakfast“Breakfast is the most im-

portant meal of the day” is something everyone hears at least once in our lives. Breakfast provides us with much-needed energy to survive the day.

“Being a football player re-quires focus and energy,” varsity player Joseph Weathersby said. “Without breakfast I wouldn’t be able to perform to the best of my ability”.

As of Sept. 29 McDonald’s, even the one just a block from the school, offers breakfast all day and night. The coveted hash browns and delectable Eggs Mc-Muffin are now available 24/7.

“Personally, I prefer the breakfast menu at Mcdonald’s over the lunch menu so this news made me happy,” junior Erika Flores said.

Time management and con-venience are important to high school students. You can miss breakfast before school, and easily walk to Mcdonald’s at any time during the day to recharge your energy supply.

“I eat McDonald’s pretty often during the week,” sopho-more Makenna Mabon said. “The fact that it’s literally a min-ute away from McCallum makes it easy.”

Weathersby said he could not eat the lunch menu at Mc-Donald’s very often because he would get tired of it, so the new menu gives him more options. For Flores the breakfast menu has healthier alternatives than the lunch menu.

“Some of the choices at Mc-Donald’s aren’t all for me, but

the fruit oatmeal they offer for breakfast is not only healthy but really good,” Flores said.

If students ever find them-selves craving breakfast at 10 o’clock at night McDonald’s has become an option.

-by Mya Najomo

Film teacherproducesTV show

Film teacher Ken Rogers is producing a TV show Profes-

sor Isles Laboratory. He is the producer and director of

photography. “It’s about a professor who’s

stuck teaching fifth grade and he wants to change the world,” Rogers said. “He has all kinds of really weird neighbors and rela-tives and everything else to the picture.”

The script was written by Lance Burnett and some Mc-Callum film students work on the set. While working can be difficult, Rogers said that they enjoy it.

“It’s been a challenge in some places but I think most of them have had fun,” Rogers said.

A typical day on set is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Rogers said that dealing with kids on set can be very difficult.

“We had some shoots with a bunch of kids in the classroom and just keeping the kids from getting wild between takes and keeping them entertained was really hard work,” Rogers said.

The TV show has not been picked up by a network but Rog-ers is hoping it will be sold.

-by Mara Vandegrift (assistant

Senior Elisabetta Diorio won first place in the Youth Division of the Austin Film Festival for her short film It’s Really Odd. This is her first time winning the contest and the second time to be named one of the top seven finalists.

Diorio submitted the film to the festival earlier this year, and it made it to the final seven. She learned of her victory in an unusual way.

“I went in yesterday [Oct. 7] to drop off some DVDs, and I met the programmer for the first time,” Dio-rio said. “He was like, ‘Hey I was ac-tually gonna email you tonight. The judges met and you won.’ Then ev-eryone started clapping around me, and it was like a movie moment.”

Austin Film Festival is a festi-val that the AV Club goes to every year, and club sponsor Ken Rogers encourages his students to submit their films to it. Last year, Diorio’s film, Plastic Bag was one of the seven films chosen as a finalist.

“The inspiration for this film was just my experiences as a girl and all the anxiety around your first kiss or your first romantic encounter,” Diorio said. “I wanted to capture the comedy of that mo-ment as well as the excitement and youth that you’ll never really have again.”

She also said fellow filmmaker and former McCallum student Josh Leftwich inspired her to join AV Club when she came to McCallum.

“I had the choice between choir and AV and Josh actually was like, ‘No, do AV. It’s great!’” Diorio said. “And so I just fell into the class and then as a product of trying to get assignments in, I fell in love with film. I think the first film I made was Escape from Gray and it was a hot mess of course but by the end of it, I was like, ‘Wow! I have

this product and I want to do this again.’ I really just fell into it try-ing to complete assignments and just fell in love with it.”

According to Diorio a filmmak-er has its challenges. Directing can be stressful, but completing a film is rewarding to Diorio.

“I think the hardest part of making a film is having a specific vision and thinking about all the choices that you make in the con-text of that vision,” Diorio said. “There’s so much background noise when you’re filmmaking; there’s all these insane technical aspects of it and also social as-pects of it. You’re interacting with 15 different people at once, and so in that process, you can make an entire film and realize your vision was completely lost, so re-ally organization and preparation come into play so that when you’re on set, you can focus on making choices around your vision and not patching up all these holes ev-erywhere.”

Diorio said that directing and editing are very different.

“When I want to get out there, I direct; when I want to relax, I edit,” Diorio said. “Editing is a lot less stressful because you have all the time in the world, and it’s just by yourself. You’re not having to mediate between all of these peo-

ple or communicate; you can really be inside your own mind.”

Diorio is currently putting her filmmaking on hold while she ap-plies to colleges.

“The plan for me right now is to apply for schools that have real-ly great academic programs as well as film programs because I want to study the story and the different kinds of forms of a story and func-tions of a story before I make my own stories,” Diorio said. “I want to make sure that I have a good academic pool to draw from to cre-ate stories; I think it will help me become a better filmmaker, and so I’m trying to find a way that I can marry my love for academia and also my passion for filmmaking.”

Once Diorio is done with col-lege applications, she is going to start making more films. She has three films planned as of right now.

“After I finish [college applica-tions] I want to make at least two or three films this year,” Diorio said. “I have one planned that will hopefully come to fruition. That’s a movie based on a memoir piece Ms. Mota wrote, so I want to get that into gear. I have a kind of sci-fi, abstract, weird film I want to make, and then another romantic high school film planned. I have three projects I want to make and hopefully I’ll get them done.”

News in a FLASH

You just kind of have to learn to live with [my allergies].“ ”-senior Alexia Heinrich

“There’s a lot of those self-serve yogurt places that

have dairy-free options,” sophomore Aubrey Rowan said. “They’re always really good because they’re really fruity, [which]

I like.”Senior Alexia

Heinrich, who has 44 dietary and seasonal

allergies, said that you always have to ask for

alternatives to allergens whenever you eat out, and

check that it is certain that there is no cross-contamination.

P. Terry’s is a collective local favorite among people with allergies. The chain uses soy-free and nut-free cooking

oils and alternatives to a tradit ional bun such as lettuce allow a l m o s t e v e r y o n e to enjoy a burger and fries. This is just one example

of the many alternative options for people

suffering food allergies.

“A lot of people make lactose-free

milk, cheese and yogurt, and there’s a

million substitutions for ice cream,” Rowan said.

Restaurants may appeal to their customers who need

to avoid certain foods, and substitutions for foods such as

bread and milk may increasingly be made available. Living with an

like, ‘Mom, Dad, my throat’s closing!’ and they were like, ‘Just eat a piece of bread,’ and it got stuck in my throat. So we got the bread out, and I start to sneeze… and then I have a major throw-up fest.”

Some people have ways to deal with bad reactions. The

EpiPen, a life-saving device that reverses allergic responses,

is possibly the most well-known of these. It injects epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, through a needle,

which allows the person to breathe until he or she can receive medical attention.

“After I [have] the EpiPen, everything that comes with my

reaction to the nuts starts to go away, and I start to

shake because of the epinephrine,” Stone said.

For many o t h e r allergies, such as gluten,

having an EpiPen isn’t

as common, b u t sufferers still must adapt to what they cannot eat.

“It doesn’t affect my daily life much,”

said junior Nicholas Ryland, who is allergic to gluten. “What it does is give me alternative options for me to choose from local grocers, so instead of buying something with gluten, either my mom makes it, or I find something that is gluten-free.”

Many Austin restaurants have recently become conscious of people with allergies and provide other options to accommodate them.

Someone has to go to the ER every three minutes after an allergic reaction to food, according to the nonprofit organization Food and Allergy Research and Education. Ninety percent of food allergy sufferers are allergic to are gluten, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, shellfish, soy, fish, peanuts or wheat. Allergic reactions vary from the mild, such as watery eyes, to something as severe as anaphylaxis.

“I went to Chuy’s one time, and I had a tortilla; it was flour, I ate it, and for a whole three weeks I had excruciating pain,” sophomore Tryston Davis said. “My mom wouldn’t take me to the hospital, so finally the last day of three weeks I was screaming in pain at the dinner t a b l e , and then she took me to the h o s p i t a l , and they gave me this medicine, but it only helped just a little bit, but it just went away after three months.”

The second an allergy sufferer ingests an allergen, they are at a risk of a possible reaction. Their stomach could react violently, they could break out in hives, or their throat could close up, inhibiting or preventing breathing altogether. Some never have the same reaction twice.

“When I was 3, I ate my first nut,” sophomore Sam Stone said. “After, I was

allergy, however, is never easy as there are many things sufferers wish to eat but can’t .

“I really wish I could have rice, because basically everything that you buy at grocery,

your favorite cereals… that has rice, [and] that really takes a toll,” Ryland said

It’s difficult when food that everyone else takes

for granted is c o m p l e t e l y

off limits for you.

“Peanut b u t t e r . I wish I

could eat that,” Stone

said. “Nutella; everybody says

that that’s good.”People may learn how

to deal with their restrictions, but others around may be oblivious to how serious the situation is.

“I think sometimes [people] might get a little annoyed

when we are trying to find a place to eat,” H e i n r i c h said.

T h e s e s t u d e n t s may deal with having to check the label on everything, r i s k a n n o y i n g

friends when eating out, and

need to miss out on foods everyone else can have. Despite these obstacles, those with allergies try to maintain a positive outlook.

As Heinrich says, “You just kind of learn to live with it.”

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Students struggle with food restrictions, try to avoid judgement from peers

“What can you even eat?”

MADDIE DORANSOPHIE RYLAND

staff reporters

Illustrations by Sophie Ryland.

oct. 201523

people08 oct. 201523

shieldtheTechnology teacher Tim Bjerke, husband one of first male married couples in Travis County

A more perfect unionJOSEPHINE CLARKE

staff reporter

On June 26, 2015, the day the Supreme Court ruled that same -sex marriage in the United States is legal, graphic design teacher and Spectrum supervisor Tim Bjerke and his partner Peter Garcia were waiting in the Travis County courthouse with no thoughts of marriage on their minds. But when the person behind the desk told them that if they were there for marriage, they must go to a different room, they seized the opportunity.

“We knew the decision would be handed down, on that day, but we figured it would take a while for everybody to get in gear,” Bjerke said. “Travis County did it as soon as they possibly could.”

Mr. Bjerke and his partner were led into a special waiting room where they waited for hours as Travis County lawyers went over the ruling, making sure everything was ready to go. Once everything was cleared, they were brought in to get their license.

“Usually, as the clerk types stuff in, they share it with you so you see what’s going in, but, with all the cameras, they just had to turn the screen,” Bjerke said. “They couldn’t show it towards the press.”

The press was everywhere during this

whole process, Bjerke said. Cameras were pressed up to the glass window on the door. They were watching as Bjerke and Garcia re-ceived their license. Any free moment they had was filled with reporters pressing up to them, firing questions from every angle, and trying to get a good shot of them.

B j e r k e and Garcia were moved to a differ-ent location to see the judges. The first judge they went to simply e x c u s e d them to get married right away, waiving the typical 72 -hour waiting period. Next, they were shep-herded to to Judge Eric Sheppard, who mar-ried them.

“He had a poem he reads during mar-riages and some other sheets of things, re-ally nice and supportive,” Bjerke said, “And he puts the certificate in there and delivers it. He treated us like human beings and that was just so good. He was a judge, he didn’t have to do anything, he could have just said

‘Whatever, you’re married, bye!’”The couple had already been married in

Vancouver in 2003, but once they could, they immediately married again because they wanted their marriage, and their mar-riage rights, recognized in America. Now that they are married in the States, they don’t

have to carry proof of their p r e v i o u s m a r r i a g e w h e r e v e r they go, and they don’t have to fill out many legal docu-ments when trying to get m a r r i a g e benefits.

“ W e ’ r e not just their ‘friend,’ we’re their spouse, so we have full rights to help and that’s a big thing,” Bjerke said, “I get to participate in ev-ery decision, health or whatever else.”

It’s a big step for the LGBT community, with one of McCallum’s teachers leading the charge. And he feels very strongly about the progress.

“It’s such an important thing to so many people, and even if it’s just a state-

ment of your love, it doesn’t have to be religious,” Bjerke said, “just two people saying, ‘We love each other and we want to stay together.’”

And he’s been supported strongly. Not only by his friends and family, but people he doesn’t know. He has received congrats from people who recognize him from the news and love what he’s done.

“I don’t think that happens everywhere in the district,” Bjerke said. “I don’t think other schools are like that, where kids actually care about the teachers. I thought that was really cool, it made me feel really good.”

Mr. Bjerke teaches graphic design at McCallum, and sponsors Spectrum, Mc-Callum’s gay- straight alliance. He also runs a group for Social Anxiety and an-other for gender identification issues. So it’s completely in character that he and his husband became the first male same -sex couple to be married in Travis County. It’s possible, Bjerke said that they were the first male same -sex couple married in Texas.

Bjerke embraces the message that his ex-perience sends to other people.

“I hope it’s like I t Gets Better videos,” he said, “You can do this too! You can find someone and you can marry them and be together forever and nobody can pull you apart.”

Even if it’s just a statement of your love, it doesn’t have to be religious, just two people say-ing, ‘We love each other and we want to stay together.’”

“”-Teacher Tim Bjerke

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Students at McCallum prepare for Halloween

Everybody make a scene

In mid-September, big stores like Wal-Mart and Target start to s e l l Halloween merchandise, Starbucks brings back the seasonal pump-kin spice latte, and many kids at Mc-Callum start preparing for Halloween.

Every au-tumn, places like Halloween Ex-press, Spirit and Halloween Cos-tume Warehouse have their Hal-loween merchan-dise and costumes ready for the pub-lic eye. Some Mc-Callum students, like sophomore Io Hickman, enjoy making their own costumes.

“Last year I was Beck the mu-sician,” Hickman said. “Nobody re-ally got it, but I made it, and it was based on his mu-sic video for ‘Loser’ and I liked it a lot. It was exactly the outfit he wore, and I was so proud of myself.”

Others, however, prefer to buy their cos-tumes. 2014 National Retail Federation surveys show that 67.4 percent of Ameri-cans bought their costumes, the most in the 11 years that the group has conducted the survey. Americans spent an average of $77.52 on Halloween in the calendar

year; the total money spent on Halloween was $7.4 billion.

Sophomore Franki Alvarez contributed to that total by purchasing the exact cos-tume for the character she wished to be.

“I was Scooby Doo when I was, like, 6. He’s my main homie: why wouldn’t he

get the bid? I was pretty much set on Scooby Doo,” Alvarez said. “My mom wanted me to

be a cat, or a chee-tah or

s o m e -thing, and I was

like ‘No I want to be Scooby Doo.’”

The most popular Halloween costumes for all ages in 2014 covered a

wide range of genres. From movie, book, and video game characters, to costumes based off of real people and objects, the boundaries for costumes were endless.

“When people dress up as movie characters, I really like that,” Hick-

man said. “When people can actu-ally do face makeup, that’s im-

pressive to me.”Costumes aren’t the

only Halloween funda-mental; Some have annual Halloween parties and go

all out to get into the holi-day spirit.

“I used to have this friend in elementary school who had these re-

ally big Halloween parties,” Hick-man said. “They had this field

that went down into like a little cove thing; they would have all of our

older siblings down there, and they would try to scare

us, and there was like a little maze; they bought one of those

projectors that you put in your yard, and we all sat on the trampoline and watched Polter-geist, and it freaked me out. But that was one of my best memories.”

One of the main elements of Halloween is to scare people and to be scared. One of the ways to do that is watching horror mov-ies and going to haunted houses.

“I can handle all sorts of horror. I don’t really care for jump scares that much be-cause I feel like I could easily get an anxiety attack from it,” Alvarez said. “But if I know that there’s a slight trigger saying: ‘There’s going to be jump scares in it’ then I’m ready. I won’t be ready when it happens, but at least I know.”

Even though some kids love Halloween, they love to be treated not tricked.

The House of Torment is one of the bet-ter known haunted houses in Texas, attract-ing tens of thousands of fans every year from all around the coun-try. Not everyone, however can handle the Austin at-traction.

“I haven’t ever gone to a big one, be-cause I’m a chick-

en. I couldn’t do House of Torment, but I applaud the people who do,” Hick-man said. “I went to a haunted house that my friend was working at, and it wasn’t as well known, but it was still really scary, be-cause what you had to do was get down and crawl to get through, and people would grab you and stuff.”

Just like there are people who prepare for Halloween two months early, there are those who procrastinate choosing costumes and decorations until the last minute, or those who just don’t participate in Halloween. Hickman has advice for the people who like to prepare for Halloween

last minute.“For costumes, think of the year, think

about what was popular, you know?” Hick-man said. “I know a lot of people want to be the left shark or whatever, and a lot of people want to do memes and stuff, but it doesn’t have to be super popular. I think it’s a good time to express what you love, so be something you love; it doesn’t have to be scary.”

MEENA ANDERSONstaff reporter

people10 oct. 201523

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European students aim to discover themselves as they learn more about McCallum and America culture

Austin city limitless

Walking into a school in a new city where you don’t know anyone can be any teenager’s nightmare. Despite the fright-ening aspect of completely immersing oneself in a new language, however, some courageous students dare to confront that fear. Junior French twins Liam and Vincent McKenna said that coming from countries around the globe forces stu-dents to go outside of their comfort zones so that they can experience new cultures head on.

“[Leaving home] is generally hard,” Liam said. “You know 17, 16, leaving all your friends is kind of hard, but that’s life; it’s an experience of life. You need to live your life, not other people’s.”

It is no easy transition mov-ing from a high school in one’s home country to one in a new country that is almost three times bigger than the old one. Yet all of the inter-national students agreed that McCallum is by far the most eccentric school they have attended, but in a good way. Junior Elin Cam-pana-Wadman from Sweden claimed that McCallum, and Austin’s, welcoming quirkiness is something she would never find in her hometown. She found that teachers and classmate’s will-ingness to introduce themselves and people’s unique self-expression reassured her when arriving in Austin.

Junior Jacopo Bechaz, an ex-change student from Italy, also mar-veled at the individuality expressed by McCallum students.

“I don’t think that if a teenager has green or blue hair that means that society is facing a moral problem,” Bechaz said. “I just think that it’s really good for teenagers to be free to ex-press themselves as who they think they are, which is not so common in Italy. Actually, McCallum has such a diversity of people; it really sur-prised me because for some reason in It-aly we have more similar ideas than what happens in America. Because in my school there is no diversity so big, so important, and also so beautiful I would say.”

Despite the openness of McCallum’s staff and students, each of the juniors mentioned at least one aspect of their lives that made living in Austin difficult. While Campana says she struggles with speaking in English and fully comprehending lec-tures and assignments in class, the McK-

enna twins both said that getting out of their comfort zones and overcoming their homesickness is the most difficult part so far. Even though those personal struggles are a lot for teenagers to deal with in a new setting, all of them concluded that one of the most difficult parts of a new high

school is being outgoing enough to make new friends.

“At the beginning, [making friends] was really hard because I felt really inse-cure about my language,” Bechaz said.

“I didn’t know what people thought about me. So having lunch with some-thing like friends, during the first week and the second week I always had lunch with my host sister. I mean

I was really glad she was there, but I didn’t want to have her

same friends. I wanted to make my own friends, my

own American friends for my experience. So it

was difficult.” Despite the cul-

ture shock of ar-riving at McCal-lum and the daily

struggles each of the students have to

face, trying new things, is still the students’ number

one objective. Whether it’s having fun while becoming independent

l ike C ampan a- Wadm an wants to do, or gaining

a better understanding of the meaning of be-ing a global citizen like

Bechaz hopes to achieve, each of the students’ goals drive them to try their best at school and come to McCal-lum everyday with a smile on

their faces. “I want to test my limits

[through this experience], to dis-cover more than myself,” Vincent said. “Like I know myself, but I want to try to

discover a new part of me. Like what are my limits? How can I improve myself? I didn’t think [I could] leave my comfort zone in France

and go where we don’t know everything. [Liam and I] don’t know any-thing about Austin, ex-cept for my aunt, and we were kind of worried. But I think so far we

have pushed our limits. I never thought to myself that I could do this so young. I mean, 17 is quite young, but I’m already an adult. [So doing this can show me that] all limits can change.”

Photo and graphic by Hannah Ilan.

HANNAH ILANdesign editor

news09oct. 201511

shieldthe

Students discuss the difficulty of reconciling American values with traditions in their home

Caught between two contrasting cultures

Hemmat’s parents are Middle Eastern, making it difficult for them to understand American norms and expressions. Photo by Mya Najomo.

“My mom freaked out when she first found out I was dating. She assumed I wasn’t being safe and didn’t understand the point of a teenage relationship until I sat down and talked to her about it.”-junior Mikiela Dozier

“

”

Time can tick by for what seems like hours when explaining Ameri-can culture to adults who have lived their entire lives in a different coun-try and culture. The experience can be exasperating and at times an-noying. It makes it more problem-atic when those adults happen to be your parents.

Having two significant but very different cultures have a place in your life is something not every-body experiences.

“Having been born in America and not Iran where my parents are originally from has proven to be difficult in the sense that I have to go home to a completely contrast-ing culture from the one I live in on a daily basis,” junior Parinaz Hem-mat said.

The expectations and traditions of the Persian culture are vastly dif-ferent from the American culture when it comes to clothing, interac-tion with boys and education.

“A lot of Middle Eastern parents want their children to end up being either a doctor or lawyer, and it’s taken me a long time to push the idea of me being remotely interested in the arts,” Hemmat said.

Parts of American culture espe-cially youth culture are strange and out of the ordinary for people for-eign to it.

“My parents don’t understand American profanity or slang my sis-ter and I use when we communicate. I texted my mom ‘LOL’ and spent over 10 minutes explaining what it meant, and how it was used,” Hemmat said.

Traditional and conservative cul-tures have a thing in common when it comes to boys, dating and express-ing affection. Many girls in parts of Africa never get a chance to date and experiment because they are already arranged to be married. The idea of a physical relationship before marriage

MYA NAJOMOstaff reporter

“A lot of Middle Eastern parents want their children to end up being either a doctor or lawyer, and it’s taken me a long time to push the idea of me being remotely interested in the arts,”-junior Parinaz Hemmat

“

”can be horrifying to someone who has differ-ent values.

“My mom freaked out when she first found out I was dating. She assumed I wasn’t being safe and didn’t understand the point of a teenage relationship until I sat down and talked to her about it,” junior Mikiela Dozier said.

Having a foreign parent/s is like having a child. You have to prepare them for what society is like and how the different genera-tions act. Not only do they have to under-stand a generation opposite of them but a whole entire culture which takes patience and consideration.

news12 oct. 201523

shieldthe

Artis

tical

ly S

peak

ing:

Sofi

a M

ock

The Shield: What do you major in?Sofia Mock: I don’t major

in anything, but I’m also in marching band. I love to play

music, but I appreciate how art is not as competitive. Everyone has their own individual style, and so it is less about meeting a certain standard and more about expressing yourself in whichever media and style that you choose. It is hard to balance my time between music and art, but I love both of them. TS: How did you become interested in art?SM: I have been interested in art since I was little. I don’t remember one specifically, but I have an aunt who makes art out of everyday things things that others would con-sider trash. And she makes art that makes a statement, so she is involved in lots of political stuff. That’s her way of making stuff. TS: What awards have you won?SM: In VASE my freshman year, I got a gold seal which means I was in the top 1 percent in the competition. And I have gotten top scores at VASE so far. TS: What is one of your greatest accomplishments?SM: At the end of my sophomore year I co-founded a small student-run nonprofit called Impart, an idea that was suggested by my friend Elisabetta. We sell student-made artwork, sculpture, ceramics and jewelry, and the proceeds go to charity. This has been a great way to share some of the fantastic McCallum artwork with the community. Collecting the art and organizing the sales has been a lot of fun, and we plan to have more sales this year. TS: Why do you enjoy art?SM: I really like art because it’s not competitive; everyone’s style is so different, but in band it’s all about competing against each other. With art, everyone has such a different style, so you can’t really compare people.

TS: Do you plan on going to art school? SM: I plan on studying art in college, probably not major-ing, but taking art classes. I really want to learn how to paint and just strengthen my abilities in different media. I’m considering applying to Brown RISD thing, so I would be art and something else, but if not, I’m probably not go-ing to go to just an art school. But I definitely want to take art classes. TS: Tell me about your Etsy store:SM: I have been making earrings for a really long time, and I’ve been meaning to sell them for a long time, but I just now started doing that. I have started making my own method of making them. I cut shapes out of wood, and I paint over them. I love making earrings. It hasn’t really been successful so far because I’m not that great at marketing myself, but I hope to get some money for col-lege out of it. TS: What do the earrings look like?SM: They are all blue. They are small circles or teardrops

or long rectangles. They all have dark blue in the back-ground. Then I would paint over them in light blue with little designs that are mostly triangles.TS: What do you do dif-ferently when making art for yourself verse for other people? SM: I’ve never made actual

art pieces to sell but for jewelry, I’m a lot more of a perfec-tionist because if someone’s going to buy it, I want them to like it. I make sure everything is completely perfect and that the quality is high and everything. Making it for my-self, I’m still definitely a perfectionist and really hard on myself. I work on it until it is as good as I think I can make it, but it’s not as much pressure but if I mess it up it’s not as big of a deal. TS: Do you plan on expanding what you are selling? SM: I would love to, I’ve been trying to sell my earrings in local shops on consignment. Also there are lots of art festivals that I could sell them at, so I’m working on that.

Sofia’s Gallery

photos provided by Sofia Mock

MAYA COPLINphoto editor

I really like art because it’s not competitive ev-eryone’s style is so differ-ent.

“”-Senior Sofia Mock

Earings from Etsy

Moc

k’s a

rtw

ork

people13oct. 201523

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McCallum theatre puts on first show, Sondheim on Sondheim.Sondheim is ‘Opening Doors’

Singing, dancing, acting and practicing, lots of practicing. These are the main ele-ments of McCallum’s first show of the year, Sondheim on Sondheim. Since August the cast and crew have been working on this show. It opened on Thursday Oct. 15th with three shows on opening weekend and a showing yesterday. If you haven’t seen it yet, three shows remain: 7 p.m. shows on Friday and Saturday and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday.

“ W e ’ v e worked almost everyday of the week after school, excluding a few days,” Said senior and MAC theatre veteran Meg Willimont who is playing a principal role in both casts.

“We finally got into our space like two weeks ago and we have been just working on cleaning and learning the mu-sic because it’s a really music heavy show.”

W i l l i m o n t was excited for the audience to see what they have been work-ing for a l l this t ime.

“I am excited for them to see the reactions to Some-

thing Just Broke in the gun song in par-ticular,” said Willimont. “Also, the tech for the show and the set are amazing so I think that is really going to stand out this time.”

Freshmen Mira French is in the scenic crew for Sondheim on Sondheim and feels the audience is going to be very entertained by the show.

“I think the set has a lot of different el-ements that are really interesting and the cast members are all very talented, which makes it very entertaining,” French said.

Sondheim on Sondheim debuted on Thursday October 15th. Willimont was ner-vous about the show but at the same time had high hopes.

“Opening night is a little concerning because allergies and people are getting kind of sick, and it’s is happen-ing right around the time opening night is supposed to happen,” said Willimont. “Hopefully everything goes ok but at the same time, you never know.”

Thursday was the first run of the first show of the year. Opening night can bring nerves, excitement, and can show how the next performances of the show are going to go. But the fears proved to be unfounded as the cast was pleased with opening shows for both casts.

“The shows went really well,” said sophomore Anna McGuire who plays a princi-ple. “We were all really tired from rehearsing all week but the excitement from the au-dience gave us adrenaline,”

The firsts shows gave the cast an idea of what to im-prove on and what went well.

“There are always ways

to make the show bet-ter and if we apply every-thing our di-rector told us to improve, the show will keep getting better and better,” Mc-Guire said.

T h o u g h the stress of the show, the actors try to keep a posi-tive fun atti-tude. Sopho-more Alex Escobar, who is in the ensemble, loves being apart of a big group of people working together.

“My favorite part [of being in a show] is honestly the people, getting to know oth-ers better and having fun doing something I love with my friends.”

Being together so many hours of the week for so long can cause some silliness.

“During a dress rehearsal, a few friend’s and I wrote a friends nickname that he hat-ed on 2,400 Post-it notes and stuck them all inside his car and while putting them in his car, he came outside. We were inside his car,” said Escobar.

S o n d -heim on S o n d h e i m will be at seven p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and

on Sunday at two p.m.“My favorite part of doing a show is

hearing the audience,” McGuire said. “It’s a relationship that you can really feed off as a performer. I’ve done three shows at McCal-lum so far and I’ve loved every one in a dif-ferent way.”

Senior Arturo Hernandez sings during the Sunday matnee show. Photo by Zoe Hocker.

Seniors Ezra Hankin and Kend-rick Knight sing with junior Riley Simpson during the song ‘Open-ing Doors’. Photo by Zoe Hocker.

Sophomore Anna McGuire and senior Ezra Hankin sing together during the song ‘Happiness’. Photo by Zoe Hocker.

ZOE HOCKERstaff reporter

in-depth14 oct.201523 in-depth15

shieldthe

Easier said than doneJULIA ROBERTSONphoto editor

#1 Jan. 1 5 injured, Memphis Tenn.

#25 Feb. 1 6 injured, Syracuse, N.Y.

#44 March 1 1 dead, 5 injured, Detroit

#73 April 2 5 injured, Baltimore

#91 May 1 2 dead, 3 injured, Milwaukee, Wisc.

#172 July 11 dead, 4 injured Newark, N.J.

#216 Aug. 14 injured, Orlando, Fla.

#216 Sept. 14 dead, Long Beach, Calif.

#296 Oct. 110 dead, 9 injured, Roseburg, Ore.

School shootings and publicshootings are becomingan everyday occurrence

“This is only a drill.” Students have heard this many times in their school careers. Everyone has done fire drills, tornado drills and the big elephant in the room: intruder drills.

It is necessary to talk about the issue; school shootings are becoming a disturbingly common occurrence. Sophomore Genevieve Temple can tell you exactly where she was when she heard about Sandy Hook Elementary shooting three years ago.

“The Sandy Hook shooting really scared me,” Temple said.

“I remember hearing about it when I was in seventh grade in art class.”

Senior Jack Vela said that Sandy Hook shook him up as well.

“When I heard about Sandy Hook, I didn’t really process it at the time,” Vela said. “But then that winter break, I was in New Haven, Conn.; we were visiting family. I think once I was there that it really sunk in.”

To Temple, it wasn’t just another news headline that passes and goes; she was worried that if it happened in

Sandy Hook, then it could happend to her. “I remember thinking, ‘What if this is

going to happen to me next?’” Temple said. “What if they came into my classroom right now and shot us.”

AISD chief Police officer Eric Mendez explained that the district has a procedure if an intruder were to come into any school.

“Austin ISD and the Austin ISD Police Department do have a plan which addresses campus safety,” Mendez said. “Included in the plans, are events such as an active shooter on campus.”

Vela says that the intensity of performing a drill depends on the teacher.

“During drills it depends on who the teacher is to see how much the teachers enforce them,” Vela said. “Most teachers just go about their business, and some just don’t take it that seriously.”

Temple said teachers are pretty calm for her drills as well.

“The teachers are usually pretty calm about drills,” Temple said. “The teacher’s classes that I’ve been in during drills for lockdown, basically just turn off the lights and lock the doors, but they say we can keep working. They didn’t make us do anything in the way of ‘hiding.’”

In the case of a real intruder coming into McCallum, Temple says she wouldn’t feel

safe at all. “If the real thing were to happen,” Temple

said. “I wouldn’t feel very safe at all. But on the contrary I feel like if the real thing were to happen, it would be more safe, and the teacher’s would be more prepared, even

though they aren’t exercising that caution in the drills.”

Mendez said that every campus’ security needs are evaluated. The security procedures are evaluated regularly.

Vela says he does not approve of keeping the doors unlocked if a school shooting were to occur.

“Certainly in the event of a school shooting, it wouldn’t be safe for us to keep the doors unlocked,” Vela said. “I don’t think that keeping the doors locked at all times, specifically during school hours is not as important as leaving them unlocked for people

getting into school late and so on.”

Temple thinks there are other ways to keep the school safer.

“I don’t think that it is very safe that the doors at school are unlocked all the time,” Temple said. “It seems like the most safe and efficient way to be safe is that we use our student ID and scan to get into school.”

Such security doesn’t come cheap. One interior security camera can cost

$500 to $700. An exterior camera can run up to $1,300. Those are on the lower end of the scale as well: the nicer the camera, the higher the price.

Mendez explains that whether a school is located in a rural or urban neighborhood, everyone should be equally prepared for a shooting to occur.

#130 June 24 injured, Anniston, Ala.

I would definitely say no to open carry laws. I don’t care if they want to prove their right as an American. It’s dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed.

-Genevieve Temple, sophomore

“”

“All schools, regardless of where they are located, should take precautions to ensure the safety of the student,” Mendez said. “It is a recommendation from the Austin ISD Police Department that all exterior doors be locked during the school day to limit access to the campus by unauthorized persons.”

Vela says he would rather have everyone know exactly what to do, rather than panic.

“I think it is very important for students to know what to do in the case of a lockdown,” Vela said, “because we need to know what to do in the case of an emergency, rather than everything being really hectic.”

Temple said that the threat of a school shooting makes her reject proposed open- carry gun laws.

“I would definitely say no to high school open-carry,” Temple said. “It’s so stupid that people are even thinking of that becoming a possibility. I don’t care if they want to prove their right as an American. It’s dangerous and should not be allowed.”

A new law in Texas for open-carry allows licensed Texans to carry handguns in plain view in belt or shoulder holsters. A provision was added that would prohibit police from stopping someone to check for a gun license simply if that person was carrying a handgun openly. Police groups demanded, however, that Gov. Greg Abbott veto the entire bill if

the provision wasn’t removed. Vela said that there was a lot of

commentary about the problem of gun control especially in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.

“Having open-carry laws allowing people to carry guns in schools was a hot topic,” Vela said. “I know in Texas we recently passed SP1, which allows people to carry guns openly on college campuses.”

He said that there was a lot of argument about the certain bill because it would be “easier” to tell who was a threat and who isn’t in a crowd of people.

But Vela does not agree completely with the logic behind that idea.

“I don’t think that is necessarily true because if there is one gun in a true shooting then it is tragic,” Vela said. “But if there are two guns, then it would be hard to track the actual shooter.”

Vela figures there will probably not be a serious school shooting at McCallum, at least while he’s not here. He thinks, however, that everyone should be aware of what to do during a school shooting. He also said that society has to be careful not to become numb to mass shootings.

“You know what they say, the death of one human is a tragedy,” Vela said. “And the death of 1,000 is a statistic.”

1. Ashooting occurs nearly every day in America.

2. Nearly athird of all U.S. households own a least one firearm.

3. Active shooterevents have become more common recently.

4. All ofthe deadliest shootings have happened in the past eight years.

5. Americais unusually violent, but has improved in the past few years.

10Truths

about Gun control

and shootings

Timeline of the first shoot-

ing of every month in 2015.

Graphicby Julia

Robertson

6. TheSouth is the most

violent region in the country.

7. States withmore guns tend to have more homicides.

8. States withstricter gun control tend to experience less gun violence.

9. Playingpolitics with gun control is becoming increasingly unpopular.

10. Americanswant stricter gun-control policies.

Photo by Julia

Robertson

in-depth14 oct.201523 in-depth15

shieldthe

Easier said than doneJULIA ROBERTSONphoto editor

#1 Jan. 1 5 injured, Memphis Tenn.

#25 Feb. 1 6 injured, Syracuse, N.Y.

#44 March 1 1 dead, 5 injured, Detroit

#73 April 2 5 injured, Baltimore

#91 May 1 2 dead, 3 injured, Milwaukee, Wisc.

#172 July 11 dead, 4 injured Newark, N.J.

#216 Aug. 14 injured, Orlando, Fla.

#216 Sept. 14 dead, Long Beach, Calif.

#296 Oct. 110 dead, 9 injured, Roseburg, Ore.

School shootings and publicshootings are becomingan everyday occurrence

“This is only a drill.” Students have heard this many times in their school careers. Everyone has done fire drills, tornado drills and the big elephant in the room: intruder drills.

It is necessary to talk about the issue; school shootings are becoming a disturbingly common occurrence. Sophomore Genevieve Temple can tell you exactly where she was when she heard about Sandy Hook Elementary shooting three years ago.

“The Sandy Hook shooting really scared me,” Temple said.

“I remember hearing about it when I was in seventh grade in art class.”

Senior Jack Vela said that Sandy Hook shook him up as well.

“When I heard about Sandy Hook, I didn’t really process it at the time,” Vela said. “But then that winter break, I was in New Haven, Conn.; we were visiting family. I think once I was there that it really sunk in.”

To Temple, it wasn’t just another news headline that passes and goes; she was worried that if it happened in

Sandy Hook, then it could happend to her. “I remember thinking, ‘What if this is

going to happen to me next?’” Temple said. “What if they came into my classroom right now and shot us.”

AISD chief Police officer Eric Mendez explained that the district has a procedure if an intruder were to come into any school.

“Austin ISD and the Austin ISD Police Department do have a plan which addresses campus safety,” Mendez said. “Included in the plans, are events such as an active shooter on campus.”

Vela says that the intensity of performing a drill depends on the teacher.

“During drills it depends on who the teacher is to see how much the teachers enforce them,” Vela said. “Most teachers just go about their business, and some just don’t take it that seriously.”

Temple said teachers are pretty calm for her drills as well.

“The teachers are usually pretty calm about drills,” Temple said. “The teacher’s classes that I’ve been in during drills for lockdown, basically just turn off the lights and lock the doors, but they say we can keep working. They didn’t make us do anything in the way of ‘hiding.’”

In the case of a real intruder coming into McCallum, Temple says she wouldn’t feel

safe at all. “If the real thing were to happen,” Temple

said. “I wouldn’t feel very safe at all. But on the contrary I feel like if the real thing were to happen, it would be more safe, and the teacher’s would be more prepared, even

though they aren’t exercising that caution in the drills.”

Mendez said that every campus’ security needs are evaluated. The security procedures are evaluated regularly.

Vela says he does not approve of keeping the doors unlocked if a school shooting were to occur.

“Certainly in the event of a school shooting, it wouldn’t be safe for us to keep the doors unlocked,” Vela said. “I don’t think that keeping the doors locked at all times, specifically during school hours is not as important as leaving them unlocked for people

getting into school late and so on.”

Temple thinks there are other ways to keep the school safer.

“I don’t think that it is very safe that the doors at school are unlocked all the time,” Temple said. “It seems like the most safe and efficient way to be safe is that we use our student ID and scan to get into school.”

Such security doesn’t come cheap. One interior security camera can cost

$500 to $700. An exterior camera can run up to $1,300. Those are on the lower end of the scale as well: the nicer the camera, the higher the price.

Mendez explains that whether a school is located in a rural or urban neighborhood, everyone should be equally prepared for a shooting to occur.

#130 June 24 injured, Anniston, Ala.

I would definitely say no to open carry laws. I don’t care if they want to prove their right as an American. It’s dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed.

-Genevieve Temple, sophomore

“”

“All schools, regardless of where they are located, should take precautions to ensure the safety of the student,” Mendez said. “It is a recommendation from the Austin ISD Police Department that all exterior doors be locked during the school day to limit access to the campus by unauthorized persons.”

Vela says he would rather have everyone know exactly what to do, rather than panic.

“I think it is very important for students to know what to do in the case of a lockdown,” Vela said, “because we need to know what to do in the case of an emergency, rather than everything being really hectic.”

Temple said that the threat of a school shooting makes her reject proposed open- carry gun laws.

“I would definitely say no to high school open-carry,” Temple said. “It’s so stupid that people are even thinking of that becoming a possibility. I don’t care if they want to prove their right as an American. It’s dangerous and should not be allowed.”

A new law in Texas for open-carry allows licensed Texans to carry handguns in plain view in belt or shoulder holsters. A provision was added that would prohibit police from stopping someone to check for a gun license simply if that person was carrying a handgun openly. Police groups demanded, however, that Gov. Greg Abbott veto the entire bill if

the provision wasn’t removed. Vela said that there was a lot of

commentary about the problem of gun control especially in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.

“Having open-carry laws allowing people to carry guns in schools was a hot topic,” Vela said. “I know in Texas we recently passed SP1, which allows people to carry guns openly on college campuses.”

He said that there was a lot of argument about the certain bill because it would be “easier” to tell who was a threat and who isn’t in a crowd of people.

But Vela does not agree completely with the logic behind that idea.

“I don’t think that is necessarily true because if there is one gun in a true shooting then it is tragic,” Vela said. “But if there are two guns, then it would be hard to track the actual shooter.”

Vela figures there will probably not be a serious school shooting at McCallum, at least while he’s not here. He thinks, however, that everyone should be aware of what to do during a school shooting. He also said that society has to be careful not to become numb to mass shootings.

“You know what they say, the death of one human is a tragedy,” Vela said. “And the death of 1,000 is a statistic.”

1. A shooting occurs nearly every day in America.

2. Nearly a third of all U.S. households own a least one firearm.

3. Active shooter events have become more common recently.

4. All of the deadliest shootings have happened in the past eight years.

5. America is unusually violent, but has improved in the past few years.

10Truths

about Gun control

and shootings

Timeline of the first shoot-

ing of every month in 2015.

Graphicby Julia

Robertson

6. The South is the most

violent region in the country.

7. States with more guns tend to have more homicides.

8. States with stricter gun control tend to experience less gun violence.

9. Playing politics with gun control is becoming increasingly unpopular.

10. Americans want stricter gun-control policies.

Photo by Julia

Robertson

oct. 201523 photo essay16

Serving it upLady Knights beat the Ann Richard Stars 3-0.

1. Senior Brittny Claton-Mitchell scores winning point in the first game of the set against Ann Richards. The Kights beat the Stars 3-0.

2. Junior Anaiah Green blocks set from Ann Richards. The game against Ann Richards is the biggest volleyball rivally of the year.

3. Junior Andrea Janss serves the ball in the first set. Janss scored 15 kills throughout the game.

1.

2. 3.

4.

5.

4. Lady Knights huddle before the game. Because the game was during Pink Week , players wore pink ribbons in their hair and pink socks to support breast cancer research.

5. Libero junior Greta Colombo prepares to set the ball while teammates watch. It is Colombo’s first year on varstiy.

Photos by Maya Coplin

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Livin’ the double life

The Shield: Is it hard balancing both those sports on top of school?

Will Loewen: Oh yeah. They’re both really time-consuming, so it takes a lot. They’re equally physically demanding so it takes a lot of physical, athletic ability to do it. By the end of the day, I’m worn out from doing both of them all day. I usually just go one step at a time though. So after dance class I do my homework, and after football practice I do my homework. So I try to focus on one thing, whether it’s football, home-work or dance.

TS: What’s your normal week like? WL: Well, in the mornings I have

to go to football to work out and watch film. Then on B-days I have dance class sixth pe-riod. Then I have football every day after lunch. Then I have foot-ball practice after school every day. Then on every Tuesday I have dance class at Tapestry Dance Studio with Di-verse Space Dance Theatre and then I go home, and do my homework around 9 or 10. Then every weekend, every Saturday and Sunday, I have dance rehearsals at Tapestry.

TS: Do you ever have to make sacrifices?WL: Yeah, right now the dance majors

at McCallum are starting to perform during halftime shows. Since I’m on varsity, that’s like physically impossible for me to do. So it’s really hard, and we’re still learning all the half-time show dances during classes even though I won’t be able to perform them. Then some-times I have rehearsals later in the year. Like last year during football practice I would have to leave early and go to dance rehearsals for shows and stuff, so that was very hard. But my teachers and peers totally understand.

TS:What’s the most demanding part of each sport?

WL: Honestly, it’s just keeping going. Like even when you’re tired, and it’s the fourth quarter or you still have five more minutes of practice and then dance class, you have to do it one more time; you have to do the phrase one more time. You just have to keep on going. Even when you’ve already done football and you have to go dance, or you’ve already done dance and you have to go to football, you just have to men-tally and physically prepare yourself to keep going.

T S : I s o n e more ner ve-racking than the other?

WL: A lot of times in dance I’m usually one of the only guys, so I feel more pres-sure. More people and parents are looking at me and noticing me. With my football team-mates, I feel like we are more together. So dance can be very individual some-times. But football you have to work more as a team.

Photos by Maya Coplin Illustration by Hannah Ilan

TS: How does the feeling of waiting for a game to start compare to the feeling of waiting for a show to start?

WL: They’re actually pretty similar because you can’t forget any of your as-signments for football, and in dance you can’t forget any of the movements you’re supposed to do. You know there are tons

of people watching you, and if you mess up, people will know. In football if

you miss a tackle, people will see that. In dance if you fall down

or drop the person you’re lift-ing, people will notice. So it’s

kind of nerve-racking but also super exciting.

TS: Are there any lessons you learned from dance that you can apply to football or vice versa?

WL: Well in dance there’s a lot of doing

positions very spot on and super correctly. In

football you also have to do certain plays correctly.

So they are both very [fo-cused on accuracy], and

you have to be very sharp about what you have to do.

In dance you have to be pretty flexible, so compared to all the

football players, I’m more flex-ible. Then in football you have to

be pretty strong because of all the working out we do, so compared to

all the dancers, I’m stronger.

TS: So does that help you at all? WL: Oh yeah because when I have to

lift girls, or even other guys, it’s easier for me because I know how to lift them.

Then in football when you have to do stretches, or just keeping my body right and healthy and not getting hurt, all the dancing really helps. After football prac-tice, it feels really good to go to dance class or rehearsal.

TS: If you had to choose between foot-ball and dance, what would it be?

WL: I know all the football coaches are gonna get mad at me but honestly, dance. It’s more unique, and I like the whole idea of expressing an art form through your body through space. I just think that’s re-ally cool. But that’s IF I ever had to choose.

Sophomore Will Loewen balances a busy schedule of football & dance practices

HANNAH ILANdesign editor

sports18 oct. 201523

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Athletes explain their pre-competion ritualsKeeping with tradition

Most athletes and performers have some ritual they practice to prepare for their event. It can be anything from a team chant, to a pair of lucky socks or even a group dinner. Some are so set in their rituals that they can’t live with-out them, whereas others do them just for fun.

“I eat peanut butter; OK that’s not a good one,” sophomore volleyball player Amanda Biscoe said. “I wear the same scrunchie every game. I just do it because it’s cool to have a con-stant, but it doesn’t really matter. I’d be fine without it.”

They always yell and play Little Sally walker to get pumped up before the set. Biscoe ex-plains that before playing, she and her started their pregame ritual last year.

“It was actually at a tournament,” Bis-coe said. “It was really early in the morning I think, and we were not feeling it. We were tired; we all didn’t want to be there,

MADDIE DORANstaff reporter

The JV volleyball team huddles before the next set. Photo by Halli Neff.

it was Saturday; no one wants to be there on a Saturday.”

A pregame ritual often serves to put the team and the athlete in a good mood before playing or performing. Every athlete has a dif-ferent way of reaching this goal.

“I tend to switch between bouncing and jumping around a lot and getting really excit-ed, but then I will also go sit down and be re-ally quiet in a corner,” sophomore dance major Ruby Dietz said. “Then I’ll stretch and just be by myself. So I get really into it, but I also try to relax.”

Before going on stage, Dietz likes to make sure she gets some positive energy backstage

before performing.“We all gather to-

gether and hold hands, or we put our hands on each others shoulders and tell each other that it is going to be OK and [that we] can do it,” Dietz said.

Rituals can be right before the game or performance, but some even start the night before.

“We always have a pasta dinner the night before,” junior swimmer Gillian McDonald said. ”It is really good for the team to connect.” Some rituals are traditions that occur before the game or event; others are spontaneous.

“It was the first race of the year,” McDonald said. “This was my freshman year, one of the seniors was trying to hype up our relay team. He gave this really emotional speech that was really not ex- pected from him.”

Some pre-event happenings are truly unex-plained, yet still help the athletes or perform-ers relax.

“In the spring show last year, we had a fla-menco dance, and we had to walk out doing these flamenco arms,” Dietz said. “I’m not go-ing to say who the person was, but as we were walking out, someone farted really loud, and we were all laughing during the performance. We composed ourselves, but later on in the dance, we were all in a circle and we all started laughing on stage, and we got in trouble, but it was just a rehearsal.”For Dietz and other student performers and athletes, rituals can be serious business.

“When I did gymnastics, I had a lucky bra,” Dietz said. “It was my last meet, state, and I didn’t wear it, I fell twice on beam, so you never

know.”

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Fall sports highlights and previews

The Cross Country team competed at the district meet held Oct. 16th at Decker Lake .Junior Noah Savage and Freshman Lily Myers both advanced to the regional Cross Country meet after finishing in the top ten of their catagories. Savage finished eighth in the boys race with a time of 17:55.5, which is a pace of 5:45 mile. Myers finished sixth in the girls with a time of 20:46.6, which is a pace of 6:39 per mile. Both will compete at the regional meet on Monday Oct. 26th.

Savage says he was in disbelief at his time for the meet.

“Qualifying for region at the district meet made me feel accomplished. I was in disbelief at the time because I’ve never run a 5k that fast,” Savage said.

Savage says his goals are always the same no matter what kind of race he is running.

“My goal for the regional and every meet in general is to beat my best time,” Savage said.

The regional Cross Country meet will be held on Monday Oct. 26th in Corpus Christi.

The Lady Knights have a playoff spot in their sights as the sit third atop district 26-5A. Through 15 district games the Lady Knights have encom-passed an eleven and four record, with two of those losses coming to district leader Bastrop.

Senior Defensive Specialist Ana Marrero says this team is very different than last years.

“We’re a lot smaller size wise, which means we have to work harder and be a scrappier team. A majority of our team is new to varsity this year, so there have been a lot of learning moments. New members have had to work through tough games, but they’ve all proven themselves,” Marrero said.

The Knights accomplished something they haven’t done in two years in beating rival Ann Richards.

“It was awesome to beat them. Last year they beat us twice, which was really discouraging. But this year having beaten them in 3 straight sets was a really great feeling,” Marrero said.

Marrero said the team is ready for the playoffs and they want to make a deeper run than in years past.

“We want to make it past the first round of the playoffs this year, I know we’re good enough to do it,” Marrero said.

The Knights next game will be at McCallum Friday Oct. 23rd against Lanier

Four games into district play McCallum is off to a record of 2-2. The Knights started 2-0 with wins over Crockett and Lanier. But have stumbled as of late with loses to rival LBJ and Bastrop, by scores of 27-6 and 40-16. The Knights are now tied for fourth in district with Bastrop. Although they are not seeing the success they have in years past, the players are still staying positive.

Junior Linebacker Luke Whitefield says the team is determined to bounce back and make a playoff run.

“Coming back after two losses is hard but we haven’t quit. The Bastrop loss has only motivated us more. We will continue to work hard and prepare for the rest of the season,” Whitefield said.

Whitefield said even though a fourth straight district championship maybe out of reach they won’t quit.

“We are determined to make the play-offs. We obviously want to try our hard-est to win the rest of our season matchups against Reagan, Travis, and Cedar Creek. If we win out we will be in good shape,” Whitefield said.

The Knights will take on the 3rd place Reagan Raiders Friday, Oct 23rd at Nelson Field.

Junior Noah Savage races towards the finishline in root to a top ten finish at the district meet Photo by Sarah Lightfoot

Senior Jojo Hardaway races towards the endzone as Sophomore Jack Switzer blocks an oncoming defender against Crockett. Photo by Cristina Beck

Junior Margeaux Brown tries to finess the ball over the net against Cedar Creek. Photo by Haruka Gerald

Knights football

Lady Knights volleyball Knights Cross CountryBENJAMIN BROWN

sports editor

District 26-5A roundup

opinion20 oct. 201523

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Out With the Old, in With the—Well, Old“Thrift Shop” by the hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is so three years ago, but thrift shopping isn’t. If you’re looking to save more than a few bucks on name-brand clothes, head over to one of Austin’s many thrift-shopping locations. Sometimes buying things second hand can get a bit sticky (literally), so bring your hand sanitizer and an open mind. Here are some stylin’ outfits I’ve found at Savers for less than $20, because that’s all I had in my pocket.

Models from left to right: Sara Neel, Charlie Holden, Caki Rebeiz.

Poppin’

Blouse: $5.99Pattern skirt: $3.99Red heels: $5.99Headband: $.99TOTAL: $16.96

BOHO OUTFIT DAPPER OUTFIT

GRANNY OUTFIT

PINK LADY OUTFIT

DUDE OUTFIT FARM GIRL OUTFIT

Tank top: $1.99Green pants: $4.99Pink slippers: $2.99Ugly sweater: $3.99TOTAL: $13.96

Black shirt: $2.99Black jeans: $5.99Dress shoes: $7.99Flower vest: $2.99TOTAL: $19.96

Shirt: $2.99Jeans: $7.99Nike Air shoes: $6.99Sunglasses: $1.99TOTAL: $19.96

Pink dress: $5.99Pink wedges: $7.99Pink purse: $2.99

TOTAL: $16.97

Yellow blouse: $5.99Overalls: $2.99Straw hat: $4.99

TOTAL: $13.97

CHARLIE HOLDENstaff reporter

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A newtaste for fiction

Fiction is like ice cream. There are lots flavors and they are all delicious.

Three recent releas-es are there own fictional flavor: contemporary, sic-fi/fan-tasy, and histori-

cal.

oct. 201523 21 opinion

Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram

Another piece of fiction I chose is a con-temporary fiction by Kelly Oram, Cinder & Ella. From the title you can assume it is a Cinderella story, but before you dismiss it, let me tell you what it has to offer.

The story focuses on Ellamara, a blog writer who is still in high school. Eight months before the beginning of the novel, Ella suffers a terrible car accident. The right side of her torso and both of her legs are burned when the car catches fire. To make mat-ters worse, she has to move in with her dad who abandoned her for his new “perfect” family.

The silver lining to her difficult life is her old friend Cinder, who chose Cinder as a screen name to represent the main character in his favorite book The Druid Prince. His real name is Brian Oliver, the up-and-coming movie star. The two of them met three years before the be-ginning of the book when he commented on her blog. They got in an argument over the plot and the cast list for the movie adaptation. It was love at first comment.

Their meeting was accidental at the con-vention for the movie. Cinder/Brian was the star, and Ella attended to meet the author. Both Cinder/Brian and Ella realize they’re talking to each other after getting into their classic argument about the ending the book. For both of them, it is the surprise of a life-time, and it blows up in their faces.

I typically only read fantasy novels, but Oram is such an amazing writer that I want to finish, then start over again and again. She had amazing character development, especially when Ella’s new family goes from disliking her to loving and accepting her. What I loved most about this book was the fact that even with Ella’s scars, she is not a victim to be saved by her prince. The book focuses more on her personality, her intelli-gence, her sharp tongue and her selflessness than her appearance.

The first time I read this book I didn’t eat for eight hours because I couldn’t put it down. She puts so much genuine emotion into her books you will laugh and cry along with her. I highly suggest this book but only if you have tis-sues next to you.

SYDNEY AMELLstaff reporter

The first book I chose to review is Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. In this book Barnes manages to mix fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian all in one novel.

The book begins with Kali D’Angelo as a normal human: she gets hungry, feels pain and has frequent headaches from pep rallies at her school. Other days she is something entirely different. She has no idea what she is; all she knows is that she needs to hunt and kill the supernatural (called preternatu-ral in the book).She is also perfectly capable of doing so. Within the first few pages she has her arm almost completely ripped off

by a hellhound, then goes to school with two perfectly functioning arms a few

hours later.Things then take a turn for

the worse when a girl in school is marked for death by a mind-sucking parasite. Kali sees an easy solution to this dilemma: lure it, trap it, and wait for tomorrow to kill it. But when

this parasite doesn’t weaken her, but rather makes her stron-

ger, things take another turn. This parasite, Zev, starts to tell her

about a facility that is genetically al-tering preternatural beings. He also explains why she got stronger, people like her benefit from this parasite.

Her job of killing these creatures is already hard enough, but now they’re making more advanced crea-tures! Then Zev lets it slip that he has

been trapped there for two years. To save her friend and find out who or what

she is, she has to take this otherworldly organization down.

In this novel Barnes mixes fantasy with hellhounds and dragons, the dystopi-an world with the big bad corrupted gov-ernment and an alternate reality (only in this novel the alternate reality is present time), and sci-fi with all of the scientists, studies, experiments and weapons scarier than guns.

Want to find out what she is? Read the book.

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

For my third and final book I chose the historical fiction novel Grave Mercy by Robin LeFevers based in the late 1400s. While this is a work of fiction, most of the events that occur actually happened. The only things that are made up are the two main charac-ters, Duval and Ismae, and the convent of St. Mortain. Everything else is completely true, even the 12-year-old duchess, which is why this book is so amazing.

After Ismae is recued from her abusive husband, she is sent to the convent of St. Mortain, the patron saint of death. The nuns welcome her with open arms. Their lifelong mission to aid His work by killing those who have been marked for death by Mortian. For the next three years Ismae is trained in poisons, hand-to-hand combat, and with various weapons. Because of her training, and her being of proper age, she has been assigned to be personal bodyguard to a very important person.

Anne is the daughter of Duke Francis II of Brittany, though the ongoing struggle with France and her many suitors prevent her from taking the title of duchess her-self. But because of the Treaty of Vergers, which gave all marriage rights over Anne to France, France has control of her marriage.

During Ismae’s stay in court Anne is al-most assaulted, killed, and comes very close to losing her crown and country forever. While fighting various enemies she also has to fight her growing attraction to Duval, Anne’s half-brother and most trusted ally. She knows most of the threats but doesn’t know who wants to kill Anne and Duval.

Take a trip through history, and try to see if she can figure out who the real enemy is before it’s too late. LeFevers is wonderful writer because she puts in so much detail without slowing down the story. She also took her time to make this mostly histori-cally accurate. To read this you have to have some interest in history, but even if you don’t you will still like this book, if only for the nun assassins who almost steal the story.

Grave Mercy by Robin LeFevers

Try this if you like: historical fictionTry this if you like: romanceTry this if you like: sci-fi

Staffer recommends novels for book lovers searching a good read

opinion22 oct. 201523

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Summer withdrawls felt by staff member

HALEY HEGEFELDeditor in-chief

JULIA ROBERTSONphoto editor

Fall, to me really doesn’t mean cooler weather, falling trees and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks. I don’t even like the pumpkin spice lattes! I just don’t see the appeal, which so many others see. The weather doesn’t even become “let’s go for a walk”-like until now, if we are lucky. Plus it is always associated with going, “back to school”, which just, butchers fall’s name. During the summer, you can do anything you want. You aren’t restricted with homework or sporting events or even projects that stress you out.

Summer is also the season for vacations. I went to the Florida Keys, which I definitely associate more with summer than fall. Plus- you simply cannot fit a week of swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing into the small five-day break we get for T h a n k s g i v i n g break.

Summer is also the season for reconnecting and reuniting with family. I got to be with the entire side of my dad’s family for a week in North Carolina, which we only get to do about once a year. We made homemade ice cream and had barbeques nearly every night. Not to mention the delicious ice cream we made a lot of at the beach.

Ice cream just isn’t as “grab that off the

With boots on my feet, a sweater in my bag and a chai latte in my hand, I am one of the many Texans who count down the days to fall. I check the weather every day, just waiting for the high to fall below 90 degrees once in a week while New York and Connecticut are enjoying 60 degree days. But for me, the love of fall runs much deeper than just the cooler weather.

All of my most treasured memories come from the fall. There are football games and pep rallies to go to, honored events to any Texan. There are hay rides and trunk or treat booths. There are fires to sit around and talk.

And most importantly of all, holidays are in the fall. Despite what corporate America has done to most of our holidays, my love for them is not held in the consumer parts of the holiday, but in my family traditions. Every year since I was 4, I have gone to Ballet Austin’s production of the Nutcracker with my grandmother. I have seen it so many times I c o u l d p ro b a b l y do some of the dances r i g h t along with the cast (but don’t hold me to that).

This is just the tip of the i c e b e r g for my traditions though. When I used to trick or treat, I went with the same friend

Julia Robertson snorkeling in the Florida Keys. Photo by Julia Robertson

Haley Hegefeld picking a Hal-loween Pumpkin. Photo by Amy Hegefeld..

During the summer, you can do anything you want. You aren’t restricted with home-work or sporting events.” -Julia Robetson

“”

Love for Fall is in the air for staff member

All my most treasured memo-ries come from fall. There are football games and pep rallies to go to, honored events to any Texan.” -Haley Hegefeld

“”

every single year. On Thanksgiving Day, I wake up and watch the Macy’s Day Parade with my family, then I make my family’s pumpkin muffin recipe. During December,

I go to the Zilker Christmas Tree and spin beneath the lights. My family chops down their own tree at the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm and then gets barbecue. The three months of fall hold so many of my most precious m e m o r i e s ,

something that I look forward to the entire year.

freezer shelf.” In the fall, it is not as appealing as during the summer. During fall, my desire for a delicious cup of chocolate ice cream melts. It’s so much more rewarding when you eat something so, so cold in summer during a blazing hot day.

The first few days of summer will always be superior to any other time of the year. In those first few days of summer you wake up in the morning and say, “Great. I don’t have school today. I’m going to go back to bed.”

Do you fall for fall or savor summer?

opinion23oct. 201523

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Students should put away their costumes when they turn eighteenHow old is too old?

Healing a broken heart

A favored tradition of the Halloween holiday is trick-or-treating. While often con-sidered childish, there remain many teens and even adults who still wish to take part in

this annual collection of candy. High school is a gray area, with some people who have given up on the fun festivity and others who continue to partake in the spooky sport.

Child is a loose term that is up for in-terpretation. It can mean people under the age of 10, since 10 is the technical age of a pre-teen. It can mean people under the age of 13, which is when you are a teen. It can also mean anyone under the age of 18, which is when you are legally considered an adult, because that is when you begin fending for yourself.

Let’s focus on the third definition. When you go off to college at age 18, you are an adult since you are now providing for your-self. But, if you are still under 18, if you’re still in high school, you are being provided for. Even if you have a job, you aren’t living off of your paycheck. You are still, techni-cally, a kid, a youth, a minor. So, YOU, can trick-or-treat!

JOSEPHINE CLARKEstaff reporter

HALEY HEGEFELDco-editor-in-chief

Trick-or-Treating started as an ancient Celtic tradition, where people would dress up in disguise to ward away evil spirits.

The “treat” portion came into play in the Middle Ages when children and poor people would dress up and sing and pray in exchange for sweets.

Americans purchase approxiamately 600 million pounds of Hal-loween candy per year.

DID YOU KNOW?

Students at McCallum, especially se-niors, take advantage of trick-or-treating now, before you go off to college. Get an awesome costume (I mean awesome, don’t throw a sheet over your head and say you’re a ghost) get some friends, and go get some candy!

That being said, you actually need to trick-or-treat. Put time into a costume and get into it. Don’t walk around as a toilet paper mummy, or some other five-minute costume. And DON’T walk around in your everyday clothes. The point of trick-or-treating is getting treats FOR your trick (costume), not just getting free treats.

Once you reach 18, or if you are against trick-or-treating at your current age, there are other ways you can show your spooky spirit. Go to Halloween parties, decorate your home, carve pumpkins and get a cos-tume. No one is too old for the holiday itself, so get out there and get spooky!

Every girl has been there. Your best friend thought things were going amazing with her new boyfriend. Only problem- he didn’t think so. It can be difficult to know what to do for your friend to mend her

heart. The last thing you want to do is make it worse, but how do you even know when you are making it worse? I could’ve used some guidance the first (or second) time I went through this, so I decided to offer some advice for you out there going through this. My tried and true method:

Step 1. Drop everything. When you see the text “He broke up with me” from your best friend, prepare to stop everything you were doing and everything you were plan-ning on doing. Every second of the next few days or weeks or months or however long it takes, you are going to devote to rehashing the minute details of their conversations.

Step 2. Listen. In the first few hours after a break-up, no girl wants to hear the “he probably just…” or the “maybe it was because…” She just wants someone to sit and hear her perspective, with lots of nods and “mhmmm’s” thrown in. Sure, you might have thought they were a bad fit all along, but now is not the time for your sharing.

Step 3. Comfort and probably watch lots of television. Once she has given the whole, long, tearful version of their break-up, she probably won’t want to think about it for a while. You should give her a few words of en-couragement and remind her how amazing she is with or without a man. Then settle in, because it’s time to watch John Tucker Must Die.

Step 4. Give your opinion. Yes, it is final-ly time for you to tell what you think. Help give some logical feedback, while always staying on your girlfriend’s side. Your job is to help her understand, because she proba-bly doesn’t yet. She just doesn’t see how the artistic hipster who only likes underground jazz and her didn’t work out. Gently point her in the right direction.

Step 5. Make her un-friend him on all social media. This one’s self explanatory, right?

Step 6. Laugh at his new haircut. Or nose ring. Or tattoo. Or, most fun of all, new girl-

friend. This one is my personal favorite. Now is the time you get to say all of the things you have been keeping in the back of your mind for the past 6 months. It’s a cathartic exercise for you and her. Note: You may have to repeat steps 2-4 many times before you get to this step.

Step 7. Remind her it’s okay not to be okay. By now, most of the school has prob-ably forgotten this ever happened, but your friend is still upset. You have to be there to remind her it’s okay if she still thinks about him or misses him sometimes. More impor-tantly, you have to be there whenever she still needs to talk, regardless of whether it’s the thousandth time.

Step 8. Let her heal. She has to work things out on her own sometimes. The final closure is something she has to reach on her own, not on anyone else’s time. Just be there for her when she needs you to scoff at his new girlfriend’s most recent Instagram post or to lend her a shoulder to cry on.

8-step process guides friends on what to do after another friend’s breakup

opinion24 23

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By casting a cisgender actress in a transgender role, director, film misrepresents minorities

Elle Fanning stars as Ray in About Ray. No trans actors were considered for the role. Photo from the Weinstein Co. film trailer.

oct. 2015

Helen Keller said, “the highest result of education is tolerance.” Tolerance must be taught because people can’t be accepting of a person they don’t understand. This goes for nearly any minority community, and the transgender community is no exception.

When I first saw the trailer for About Ray, a movie featuring a transgender (a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person’s sex at birth. Usually refers to individuals who are female to male or male to female but may refer to nonbinary individuals.) teenager as the main character, I was ecstatic. This was going to mean representation! Representa-tion would lead to education, and from there tolerance would blossom. This was going to be a huge step forward for the community.

My enthusiasm turned to disappoint-ment, though, when I saw that Elle Fanning was playing Ray, a teen transitioning from female to male. It’s not only that Fanning is the very picture of femininity, it’s that she is cisgendered. A cisgendered (a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their biological sex; not transgender) actress playing a trans charac-ter gets complicated fast, as does the conver-sations surrounding such miscastings. Fan-ning isn’t to blame for accepting this role, at least not entirely. After all, if it wasn’t her, it would be another young woman. Why? Be-cause auditions for the part of Ray were not open to transgendered actors.

An interview with the director of the movie, Gaby Dellal (who is cis) revealed that casting a cis actress was her intention because, “this isn’t what my story is about.” Wait. Hold up. A film about a trans person isn’t about a trans person? Where did our representation go?

Jugding by the interview, which was published by Refinery29 in August, it’s obvious that Dellal is still ignorant about transgender issues, and therefore was prob-ably not the best choice for the director of a movie about the struggles of a trans boy. After all, she refers to Ray as “she” instead of his preferred pronouns “he” and “him.” Del-

lal also not only called her main character the wrong pronouns, but the wrong gender as well: “The part is a girl, and she is a girl who is presenting in a very ineffectual way as a boy.” No! That’s so wrong!

Let me say it loud and clear: a trans boy does not have to present as a boy, dress like a boy or have medical procedures to be a boy. A trans girl does not have to dress like a girl, wear makeup or have any medical proce-dures to be a girl. No matter what a person looks like on the outside, do not tell them that who they feel they are on the inside is invalid. Explaining the sensation of being in a body that is not yours is so difficult be-cause according to a study by the Williams Institute, nearly 99 percent of America has never felt it. Even if Dellal’s intentions as a trans ally were good, she has unintention-ally done harm by misunderstanding and misrepresenting what it means to be trans-gender.

Now, don’t misunderstand, allies are not just important, they are essential to the LGBTQA+ movement. Being an ally is a wonderful, brave thing to be, but it does

not in any way mean you may speak on be-half of those who can speak for themselves. Many people in the LBGTQA+ community aren’t in a safe place to advocate for rights, to boycott problematic views in movies, or even to come out as who they are without being physically or emotionally attacked, but when they are in a position to speak out, to write, to act, to advocate, to demonstrate, they are often pushed into the background while cisgender allies take the spotlight. When it comes to promoting the transgen-der media, producing it and siding with it, cis people are welcome and within their right to participate. Cisgender people cross a line, however, when they don wigs and makeup to make a movie successful at the box office, trying to become the people they are claiming to defend. This crossdressing perpetuates the idea that trans women are just men in dresses (wrong) and that trans men are just women who don’t shave and wear baggy clothes (wrong). Some casting directors argue that there aren’t established trans actors who will bring in revenue. There are holes in this logic, especially in the case

of About Ray. Susan Sarandon and Naomi Watts—who have a combined net worth of $70 million— are Fanning’s costars. Even if the role of Ray was filled with an actor who had never played a legitimate role in their life, the movie would still be star-studded.

My advice to you is simple: just don’t see the movie. If your family would like to see it, if your friends invite you, tell them you don’t feel like it. Or even better—explain your rea-sons for skipping out, and educate them.

We have to ensure that by boycotting About Ray and other movies like it we don’t send the wrong message to Hollywood. Some may say that beggars can’t be choosers because after all, this movie was born from good intentions, but when it comes to rep-resentation, transgender people deserve to be portrayed positively, dynamically and ac-curately. We must speak up and make it clear that we’re skipping out on the theaters not because we aren’t interested in LGBTQA+ stories, but because we can’t settle for half-hearted representation.

Cisgender people are the clear majority in all parts of the world, so much so that many people don’t know any transgender people personally. They may start to won-der, how does this affect me? Why do I care? For a time, it may not affect you. You may not see the struggles of a trans person up close for many years; it may be a fight that is pushed in the dusty bits of the back of your mind. But one day someone you know, someone you care about dearly, might tell you that they feel like they’re in the wrong body. Transgender people have always exist-ed, and they will never cease to exist. Trans-gender people come from all walks of life, all races and all social classes. You can’t tell someone’s gender identity and pronouns by looking at them; for all you know your bus driver, the kid next to you in history class, or your friend’s parent could be transgender. And that’s OK. You don’t have to know, and for God’s sake you shouldn’t ask rude (yes, rude) questions like, “Are you a boy are a girl?” or, “Have you had any surgeries?” Ask about pronouns, but don’t pry about gen-der. Associate with people because of their hearts, not because of their genitals or the name they would like you to call them by. Spread tolerance wherever you go.

CHARLIE HOLDENstaff reporter

About Ray isn’t really about Ray

opinion25oct. 201523

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MEENA ANDERSONstaff reporter

My mom is a 5-foot-2 130-pound, white woman, and my dad is a 6-foot, 225-pound black man. That leaves my brother, sister and I in difficult situations at times. We’ve been to restaurants as a family, and we’ve had people look at us strangely when my parents pay for something together. People have asked me on some occasions if I’m my sister’s mother even though our actual mom is with us. When I go out somewhere with just my mother, a lot of people think we’re not related. We’ve had people ask my parents if they were together, even though it’s clear that my siblings and I are related to both of them. Ever since moving to Austin a year ago from London, many Americans label me as black, just because my skin isn’t “all the way” white. Since coming to America a year ago, I’ve been struggling with issues involving racism. Why do people think it’s OK to dis-criminate against others because of the color of their skin? People have yelled things at me on the street about how I’m an idiot because I’m black.

I feel fear when I see certain police of-ficers in public, and sadness and anger when people yell ignorant comments about the color of my skin. I feel silenced when there’s a lack of representation for part of my heri-tage in the media and in the cinematic world; theyse feelings are a weight on my shoulders, and that weight is put there by the remnants of systematic racism in America.

One manifestation of that racism is the persistence of Confederate symbols in American culture. I’ve seen people on the freeway with Confederate flag bumper stick-ers. I’ve seen seen people flying flags with the “heritage, not hate” slogan and a picture of the Confederate flag. The argument that these symbols have to do with heritage and

Confederacy of duncesIt shouldn’t take a mass killing to rejectthe rebel flag and the racism it represents

not hatred rang hollow last June when a white man murdered nine black people dur-ing their prayer meeting at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. The killer had a website where he posted pictures of him-self burning the American flag and of the Confederate battle flag, along with a mani-festo declaring that he wanted the killings to ignite a racial civil war in America. In the wake of this tragedy, many public officials have taken down or are considering remov-ing Confederate symbols or memorials.

The tragedy may have caused politicians and school officials to take action, but these symbols don’t just suddenly appear when a racist event happens. The symbols have been a problem from the beginning. Slavery was abolished in the U.S. on Dec. 6, 1865, only after a prolonged civil war, which was fought between North and South precisely over the question of whether or not slavery should be abolished.

The Confederate battle flag is direct rep-resentation the South during the Civil War, a white South that opted to secede from the county in order to “protect” their right to own slaves.

Let’s stop right there; the Confederate states did not want to be a part of America. They left the United States so they could still have slavery. This is the first reason the “heritage not hate” argument is invalid. I’ve heard multiple people drone on about how proud they are to be American, celebrating their American history and heritage by fly-ing the Confederate flag. If the Confeder-ate states didn’t want to be American, then that heritage isn’t even American: it’s Con-federate, and by definition anti-American. And, guess what? The Confederate states were racist. They were pro-slavery. Slavery was a racist thing that happened. Glad we cleared that up.

Another reason the “heritage, not hate” argument is invalid is because that heritage was hateful. The Confederate states wanted

to continue the dehumanization of black people. Beating, overworking and commodifying people because of the color of their skin is racist. Rac-ism is a form of hate. This means the Confederate heritage that people are defending is rooted in hostility. It’s a hateful heritage. Maybe that’s why Confederate symbols always resurface when racism does. Many state flags incorporated Confederate symbols into their design in the 1950s as a symbolic opposition to school integra-tion. Some of the states removed the Confederate symbol from their flags, and others have kept it. Voters in Mis-sissippi voted on Tuesday to keep the Confederate flag in the upper lefthand corner of the state flag.

Another argument I’ve heard is that people are trying to “erase history” by taking down Confederate memorials, like the statue of Jefferson Davis in the South UT Mall and or by renaming schools that honor Confederates like AISD’s own Robert E. Lee Elementary

School. I don’t think we should have things dedicated to honoring people who were pro-slavery. I don’t think we should consider Confederates to be he-roes. I don’t think we should have good things named after people with bad intentions, who had no motivation to change those intentions. Taking down monuments dedicated to people

who were racist is not “erasing history.” What I would define as erasing Confeder-ate history would be not teaching people about it in school, just pretending like the Civil War never happened. Everyone should know about what the South stood for in the Civil War, and how that’s affected racism in our society today. I want people to learn about why, even though the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, we still have news of unarmed people of color being brutally killed by white police officers, why minori-ties only have slightly less that 25 percent of representation in Hollywood movies, even though only around 15 percent of the world population is white. A lot of the problems in society stem from ignorance, and if people could be educated, by school, by their par-ents, by the environment they’re in, then I really think that we could help put an end to the killing of innocent people, to the lack of representation, to the fear in the face of oppression. But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take education. But first, everyone needs to be willing to make chang-es that are way past overdue.

ducted an interview with The New York Times and was asked for a reaction on the feud. She responded by criticizing Minaj’ for bringing up the issue of race, and even her character, calling Minaj “not too polite”.

Today if you search “Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus” on Google, almost every article for the first, I don’t know, 100 pages feature some sort of headline describing Minaj’s “beef with Miley,” “explosion on stage,” “insult,” “blast,” or “outburst.” And many of these articles will feature a paired image of Minaj

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opinion26 oct. 201523

More beef from the mediaNews coverage of racial conflicts between celebrities needs to incoporate equal representation

Nicki Minaj accepted the Best Hip-Hop Video award at the annual MTV Video Music Awards, or VMAs, on Aug. 30, and gave a speech with a conclusion she felt was much-needed. Af-ter thanking her pastor and encouraging independence among young girls from “snotty-nosed boys,” the rap artist unhappily handed the stage back to the ceremony’s host Miley Cyrus. But before leaving the stage she took a jab at comments Cyrus made about her to the press, ending with the taunting phrase, “Miley, what’s good?”

One can imagine the media’s reaction.Hundreds of articles and broadcast pieces have been re-

leased detailing the incident, and so many of them invoke the “angry black woman” or “catfight” stereotypes as a way to grab viewers, placing subtle blame for the “fight” on Minaj. Yet very few recognize Cyrus’ forced moral superiority at the VMAs, showing that the deeply rooted problems of our news and en-tertainment media have not left us.

Most articles covering the incident went fairly in-depth on its cause.

This July Minaj posted a series of tweets expressing her frustration when her music video “Anaconda” was overlooked for a VMAs’ Video of the Year nomination. She attributed-her assence to the fact that she was not white and skinny like the performers who were nominees. Fellow pop artist Tay-lor Swift quickly took the comment personally and sparked a small feud with Minaj. Just days before the VMAs, Cyrus con-

and Cyrus, typically showcasing Cyrus with an amused or vic-timized expression, and an angry Minaj to her side. The not-so-subtle blame that these articles put on Minaj turns the image of a young woman of color standing up for herself and her right to address issues of race in front of millions of viewers into some catfight sparked when a crazy black girl started stirring up trou-ble again. One particularly horrible article came from Hollywood Life, which featured the headline: “Nicki Minaj: Miley Cyrus’ Parents Fear For Her Safety After Nasty VMAs Outburst.”

Instead of focusing on the wrath of angry black women stepping over their boundaries, the media needs to address the causes of these conflicts. The right questions need to be asked. Why was Minaj frustrated that her video wasn’t nominated for Video of the Year? Could it be that there are some racial and body-type biases that go into the decisions for MTV’s VMAs nominations? Did Cyrus try to claim moral superiority in a con-flict about race that she wasn’t originally involved in? Not only does this questioning need to happen, but the media needs to exercise balance in covering this argument and others like it. The job of news articles and broadcasts, whether over celebrity gossip or politics, is to share stories with the public as well as to present all sides to those stories.

If the media wants to capture the trends of events in this information age, it needs to stop dismissing racial conflicts as nothing more than moody women of color lashing out against poor, scared white girls.

shieldthe staffA.N. McCallum High School 5600 Sunshine Dr. Austin, TX 78756

(512) 414-7539 fax (512) 453-2599contact.macshield@gmail.om

editors-in-chief HALEY HEGEFELD AND NATALIE MURPHY

adviserDAVE WINTER

assistant editorsMARA VANDEGRIFTRACHEL WOLLEBEN

sports editorBEN BROWN

design editorHANNAH ILAN

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photo editorsMAYA COPLINJULIA ROBERTSON

SYDNEY AMELL, MEENA ANDERSON, JOSEPHINE CLARKE, LAUREN CROSBY, MADDIE DORAN, PAUL GOLD, MILES HANSEN, ZOE HOCKER, BRYNACH HOGAN, CHARLIE HOLDEN, MYA NAJOMO, SOPHIE RYLAND

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Gallery: Pink week festivities

THERE’S

BUT WAIT

photo essay28 oct. 201523

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Pretty in

pink

1.

2. 3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

PALS celebrate

annual Pink Week with week-

long festivities, raise over $1,200

for Cancer research.

1. On duty: Sargent Pickford creates a video to share on the Austin Police Department Face-book page to raise money for breast cancer research. The video explained the project and showed Officer Andrew being hit by water ballons.

2. Take your aim: Senior Andrea Lopez Garcia fills ballons with water to prepare for the Shooting Pallery the next day.

3. Friendly fueds: Seniors Dominic Curry and Maddy Ghazi fill water ballons. Three ballons could be purchased for $1. Stu-

dents could throw ballons at PALS.

4. Duck and cover: Ghazi gets hit by water ballon on the final day of Pink Week.

5. Stepping up to the plate: Freshman Charlie Dover throws water ballon at PALS.

6. True colors: Alex Donavan paints a pink ribbon on sophomore Ruby Dietz’s face. Students could pay

$1 for facepaint and stickers.

7. Brain freeze: Seniors Ezra Hankin and David Ruwwe make and sell pink snow cones that

were sold for $1 each.

Photos by Maya Coplin