Assembly Shows Effects of Bullying
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Assembly shows effects of bullying BY CASSIE WADE By educating kids, programs like The- Skits reveal options students can use ater for Outreach can make a difference and Sticks and stones may break my bones a secondary education major at Concordia. can escalate into violence.” Besides being someday put an end to bullying. but words will never hurt me. “They need to be made aware of that and disruptive, bullying can have a profound “I think in the long run I am making Students at Yutan High School attended what better way is there to do that than with impact on a student’s self-esteem. a difference,” Wendelin said. “I think in an assembly Oct. 30 where they learned that education?” “When people are making fun of you or the long run kids will stop and think about this old adage does not always ring true. Yutan has a no tolerance policy when teasing you, it will make a person not feel what they are saying and doing to other The Theater for Outreach program, it comes to bullying. Students can report good about themselves,” O’Malley said. people.” which is a class taught at Concordia Uni- a bully by talking to a teacher or they can versity, performed several skits on bullying. remain anonymous by using the bully box in The skits dealt with common issues such as counselor Becky O’Malley’s office. peer pressure, the consequences of spreading “It has to be a continued thing and not a rumors and teasing that goes too far. Each one-time teasing, and if there is a continued skit had multiple endings and the students harassment, then there is disciplinary action were able to interact with the actors to come with Mr. McNamara,” O’Malley said. up with solutions to stop the bully. According to the school handbook, bul- The first skit, which dealt with spreading lying is defined as any ongoing pattern of rumors, was about a group of friends who physical, verbal or electronic abuse on or were hanging out before school. One of the off school grounds. boys was going to go talk to a girl in his With technological advances, bullies can Spanish class, but his friend told him not to now target victims on social media websites because of something she did. such as Twitter or Facebook. This type of The second skit explained how there are bullying is known as cyber bullying. two different types of peer pressure: positive “It’s (cyber bullying) something that re- and negative. ally can’t be controlled, but it’s hard to solve The final skit was about a group of because there is no emotional tie with it,” friends whose teasing went too far and gave junior Jayden Rannels said. “When you are examples on how to defuse the situation. online, you can write whatever you want.” “I think educating kids is important The handbook also states that “bully- because a lot of them aren’t aware of their ing disrupts a school’s ability to educate SECRETS DON’T MAKE FRIENDS - Eighth grader Bryland Menicucci listens as Nick Butcher tells behavior and how their actions and words him a secret about another student. The secrets were part of a skit performed by a Concordia University students and threatens public safety by creat- student group during a bullying assembly Oct. 30. Photograph by Jessica Wade. can hurt other people,” said Rory Wendelin, ing an atmosphere in which such behavior MAP tests BROTHERS IN ACTION replace ITBS in assessing progression BY CASSIE WADE Number two pencils and bubble sheets are no longer required to complete standard- ized testing at Yutan High School. With the administration switching from ITBS to MAP, tests can now be taken online. Students used to take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which was a test used by schools across the nation to gauge the academic proficiency of students. The test consisted of several different categories including math, English, science and social studies. According to principal Tim McNamara, MAP testing (Measures of Academic Progress) is sponsored by the Northwest Evaluation Association. It covers the same subjects as the ITBS, but it is taken online. It can be taken multiple times throughout the school year and results can be viewed FBLA PUMPKIN PAINTING - Junior Christopher Stevens (middle) and his eighth grade brother Kyle assist an elementary student with pumpkin painting as part of an FBLA project. The Stevens brothers are in a family of 13 kids, with their ages ranging from 17 years old to two and a half months. Four of immediately as opposed to several months them attend Yutan Junior-Senior High School. Photograph by Lilly Kult. later with the ITBS. Stevens family thrives with 13 children Continued on Page 5 BY LI ll Y KU L T same thing (for dinner) because we run out,” vacations. See What’s freshman Ashley Stevens said. “Last vacation, we piled into the van, Inside............ When people think of family dinners, the The family consists of five girls and turned on the TV’s and drove to Colorado,” first thing that comes to mind is the whole eight boys. The majority of the children Michelle said. “We stop every two hours Pages 4-5: family sitting around a table, passing the participate in extra-curricular activities from for snacks and bathroom breaks and keep In-Depth on Grief food and talking about their day. But what if sports to boy scouts. driving.” your family can’t fit around one table? “One day, we spent five hours driving Even with 13 kids, Christopher, who’s a Pages 6-7: The Stevens family, which has 13 kids them around,” said Michelle Stevens, the junior, said that discipline isn’t an issue. Sports/Activities with the oldest being 17 and the youngest mother of the 13 kids. “I was hoping we “(We’re) usually well-behaved, which is being two and a half months old, uses two wouldn’t get a flat tire.” weird actually,” Christopher said. Page 8: dinner tables to fit everyone. The Stevens own a 15-passenger van If the children misbehave, they are Feature - Twins “Most the time we don’t even have the with TV’s in it, which they take on their Continued on Page 3 Problems with sportsmanship arise The score was tied in the third set of observed in a successful school such as once we earn a bad name for ourselves. students, it looks bad for the administrators, the volleyball game against one of Yutan’s Yutan - but it was. During the first quarter of the school teachers, parents and community as a whole. biggest sports rivals, Ashland-Greenwood. The success high school students have year, all of the juniors and seniors were Being loud and obnoxious in the stands may The players were working hard, diving on goes hand-in-hand with the kind of character called to the gym after lunch to be lectured seem like a good idea at the time because the floor for every ball they could reach. they develop and the way they present them- on sportsmanship. At this assembly, super- it distracts the other team, but it ends up It was a home game, so there was a large selves. If we do not have good sportsman- intendent Kevin Johnson informed the stu- distracting our team as well. crowd in the red and black bleachers. ship, what we do athletically, scholastically, dents that they were voted the worst school Showing unsportsmanlike conduct musically or artistically does not matter. Our in the East Central Nebraska Conference for while playing in a game of basketball is poor sportsmanship will overpower our suc- sportsmanship. punishable by ejection from the game or Student cess, and there will be no way to recover it Not only does this reflect poorly on the Continued on Page 3 Opinion Between the hitters’ kills and the ace serves, something was going on every mo- ment the girls were on the court. However, the attention of the crowd, coaches, players and officials was not on the game itself - it was on the sea of students in Yutan’s student section. “Number nine! Hey, I know your boy- friend, number nine! Don’t mess up! You suck!” Comments such as these could be heard from a number of students throughout the game. As the administrators began to notice the demeaning comments being said to the opposing team, they made their way to the student section. Even though the administrators told the students several times to quiet down, the students continued their defiance. Eventu- ally, one of the boys who continued his ranting was escorted out of the gym and told STUDENTS ENJOYING SOME FUN AT VOLLEYBALL - Freshman Jayden Graham leads the student body section in a movement cheer during a volleyball that he was not allowed to come back. match earlier this season. Students have shown good spirit by cheering at football and volleyball games, but some behavior has crossed the line of good sports- This kind of behavior should not be manship, according to administrators. Photograph by Sarah Pogue. Obamacare website sparks controversy BY EZRA J. EFFREIN new healthcare will cost only to have the president’s speeches) claiming that forc- “Hey, check out what else this thing is going website go down without giving them a ing insurance companies to provide for to do wrong.” With the healthcare website starting out proper estimate. everyone regardless of current health or In fact, not long after the website started to be buggier than a bug bugging it out in Worse yet, the recent crash of the web- preexisting conditions will ultimately bring showing its issues, the Secretary of the De- a dune buggy, many people are starting to site’s data hub may have nullified some prices down.