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Heading into a packed, all-white,andloudcrowd,theLewisCentralfoot-ballteam(2-2)lookedpumpedfortheirhomecoming battle with the AtlanticTrojans(1-3).Thatisexactlywhatthegamewas:abattle.

Defensewasthenameofthegamein the first quarter as both teams were held scoreless.However, fourminutesinto the second quarter Atlantic struck first with a 30 yard punt return for their first touchdown since the opening game of the season. The two-point attemptwas failed though,putting themup6-0.

Aftera56-yardpuntbyjuniorEricToole,pinningtheTrojansdeep,theTi-tansheldAtlantictoathreeandout.LCtook advantage of the good field posi-tion. After a short drive, junior quar-terback Chance Otto hit senior ZachPettepier in the end zone for LewisCentral’s first touchdown of the game. JuniorkickerBrandonWilsonaddedontheextrapointtogivetheTitansthe7-6leadgoingintothehalf.

Continuedonpage4Story by Steven Elonich

ExpressionsInside Look page 11

Here piggy piggy!The scoop on swine fluNews page 2

Friday, October 9, 2009

Issue 1

The Wire

2 News Page Design Chris Jensen

Vandalized Incidents from the PastThe Bell

Story by Taylor Kuhn

Rusty edges, lonely, silent, and rarely noticed by the hundreds of students that walk by it everyday. The bell sits on a big pedestal in front of the school, which is hard to miss. The bell lives one day at a time.

In 2000, it was stolen from its place in front of the school and taken to a party. The bell was thrown in a fire, beaten, and cracked. After all that, it was thrown over the side of the South Omaha Bridge and left to rot. The people involved were former students of Lewis Central. They thought they were pulling one of the best pranks ever, but in the end it was one of the worst.

All who were involved got caught and had to suffer the consequences, which in this case was community service and replac-ing the bell. The prankers had to pay for the stand which the bell sits on and serve their hours. The bell in front of the school is not the original bell that sat in front of the old high school. “An anonymous person donat-ed a bell that they had sitting in their back-yard,” Associate Principal Paul Massman

said. The old bell is still around, but no one really knows where it’s at, it could still be at the bottom of the river as far as we know.

Nothing had really happened to the bell for a few years until a week before school started. A student broke part of the stand that holds the bell up, but that was as far as they could get. The student was caught before he could do anymore damage, the bell was saved. Other than that the new bell has nei-ther been vandalized nor had any other life threatening incidents, but still gets noticed.

The bell still gets its attention by pos-ing in the yearly newspaper, yearbook, and senior pictures. “It gives shade for the people whose parents forget them,” junior Ashley Minnick said. Many stu-dents get saved by the bell everyday.

“The bell has and always will be there, in front of the school,” sophomore Shaylia Bar-ber said. The bell is important to Lewis Cen-tral; it shows the strength, effort, and pride that the students and staff put in our school.

Shining in all its glory outside the school, the bell sits front and center. In past years the bell has been used for such things as pranks, pictures, and shade.

Local Swine Flu DramaH1N1 Sweeps Students off Their Feet

Get your flu shots here! Flu vacci-nations for high school students! Protect yourself from H1N1! It seems like such a big deal, this new flu, this potential pan-demic. As if we don’t have enough to worry about already, now we have to fret over getting this mutated form of the flu.

Hospitals and clinics are tiptoe-ing around this virus, doing everything they can think of to prevent mass chaos. “We’ve been to lots of meetings and we get memos almost every day,” Melissa Ber-gantzel said, an x-ray technician at a clinic in central Iowa, where there was recently a confirmed case of the flu in the area.

As of now, the only way doctors can tell if someone has the flu is by swabbing the in-side of the nose. Until the threat of the flu is either confirmed or denied, the potential victims must wear masks. “If people in the

waiting room have a cough, we put a mask on them and take them back immediately to give them a flu shot,” Bergantzel said.

Lewis Central, however, has it under control. Although there have been several confirmed cases of the flu in Council Bluffs and a few in the district, Deb Blodgett, the school nurse, is not very concerned. “The threat is relatively mild,” Blodgett said. Lewis Central is still educating students and staff on the importance of hand washing, just to be safe. According to Principal Chuck Story, Lewis Central is one of the last school districts to come in contact with the flu. Most other schools had to deal with it at the end of the summer and beginning of the school year.

Recently, Lewis Central sent out a letter specifically addressing the H1N1 flu virus, informing parents that stu-dents should stay home if they have a

Story by Sara Rudolph

cough and a temperature. “It’s something we should take seriously,” Story said.

It seems that most working adults in Council Bluffs are not worried about con-tracting it, not even those who work in the most public-oriented businesses. Pre-cautions have been taken and put into ac-tion, such as disinfectants at every cor-ner. Hand sanitizer proves to be the most common form of prevention throughout Council Bluffs. “We have hand sanitizer at every register and entryway and are edu-cating employees on hand washing,” Sean Butterbaugh, manager of Hy-Vee said.

The Council Bluffs post office, howev-er, is taking precautions a few steps further. “They have given lots of talks. They clean all the door handles and doorknobs on a thorough basis and there is hand sanitizer everywhere. They even have automatic paper towel dis-pensers in the bathrooms and encourage peo-ple to take paper towels to open the doors,” Mark Allmon said, a mail handler at the post office. Allmon has his doubts about the pre-cautions. “We come in contact with so much mail, [catching it] is always a possibility.”

With these simple precautions in place, not many Hy-Vee employees are wor-ried about catching it. “We have sanitizer in every aisle. I use it all the time,” junior Kyle Ranney said. The disinfectants seem to be serving their purpose well. “Educa-tion and prevention are better than taking care of it after the fact,” Butterbaugh said.

As with all viruses, students and staff are advised to wash their hands regularly, use the hand sanitizer provided throughout

TASTEE TREET50 cents off any purchase

of $2.00 or moreFor Lewis Central Students and

Staff

(712)366-2892Located south of Lewis Central on Harry Langdon Blvd.

Editors-in-ChiefChristopher JensenLindsey LawrenceAssistant EditorTaylor JensenPhotography EditorBridget MulliganBusiness EditorsSteven ElonichKyla SpencerCopy EditorSara MarshallCartoonistTrever DanielsReportersAshlynn CooperBridget HallShelby KlepferTaylor KuhnSanjula MahathantilaCarrie MillerBrandon MyersStephanie RapierSara RudolphBianca Zerwas

The Wire Staff

Photo by Taylor Jensen

the building, and keep their hands away from their faces. When it comes right down to it, education on hand washing is the ulti-mate guard. Like Blodgett said, “Be smart; stay home if you are sick.” Nurse’s orders.

October 9, 2009

News 3Page Design Chris Jensen

IngredientinDietPopPossibleLinktoEarlyAlzheimers

The boxes were everywhere to help save the Earth. They were put out by pottery teacher Clay Cunningham, to try to make an example for the freshmen that were just starting high school.

“I just wanted to take care of it and I was the only one to bring it up,” Clay Cunningham said.

Now that those large white boxes are gone, there are things you could do to help get them back. “If you want them back you could petition Mr. Story, or maybe, if you used them correctly you would still have them,” said security guard Richard Vogelzang. If you petition you can take it to the student council, the stu-dent body, the teachers and the parents, and then give it to Mr. Story. Saying that we could use them correctly is not a slam, it is the truth.

Some students think that the school could still use them. “I think the school does what it can and recycling boxes are a good place to start, they should go in the cafeteria next to the garbage,” senior Nicole McGuire said. Junior Kait Mad-sen also thinks they are a good idea. “I think it is important for students to learn the steps to help the earth, and it is really easy to do.”

Now what about getting them to the plant? “Getting the bottles ready to take to the recycling plant was a hassle because I had to dig through the trash and food to get to the bottles. “Getting them in to the plant is easy all I had to do is pay a small fine.” Cunningham said.

There are a lot of recyclable materials at school still. “Yes because there are a lot of materials that should be recycled like bottles. They could be used for that instead of trash.” Senior Nicole McGuire said.

At the start of a normal school day, the taste of a crisp, refreshing Moun-tain Dew may sound tasty to you. Then as you’re at the pop machine, ready to put your six quarters in, you realize that there is just diet Mountain Dew! In a school filled with only diet pop machines turned on during the day, this change is a big difference for this school year.

This switch has upset students. Only two pop machines are left not diet.

“I think it’s stupid. Diet pop is worse for you than regular pop, since it has fake sugars in it and it is known to have bad side effects,” senior Jordan Harden said.

A main ingredient in diet pop is the low

LC Admin Takes Away Boxes

Story by Stephanie Rapier

Story by Shelby Klepfer

calorie sweetener aspartame. Being a contro-versial ingredient, it is linked to serious health problems. Alzheimer’s, a memory loss dis-ease, is rumored to be caused by drinking a lot of diet pop. But according to www.alz.org, aspartame can also cause brain cancer, but there is no scientific proof from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that this is true.

“I do not drink pop as it is useless and dam-aging to the body. Also, why put chemicals into your body that are completely foreign? Your body does not how to metabolize them,” a local practicing physician assistant said.

The reason for the switch is the Healthy Kids Act, which include students of Iowa get-ting more physical activity and being health-

ier. Though having only diet pop machines turned on during school hours in not includ-ed in the bill, law makers are working on it.

“We had to switch because of the Health Kids Act, and basically in July 2010 all pop will be taken out of school during the day,” Activ-ities Bookkeeper Charlotte Butterbaugh said.

Of course, there are other options from drinking diet pop at school. Located in the cafeteria, there are two machines that have sugary juice, Gatorade and wa-ter. The Titan Snack Shack sells a variety of drinks, from milk to juices. If all else fails and you have to have to the Mountain Dew, there is a gas station down the street.

Photo from weightymatter.ca

Sophomore Stasha Cannon and senior Janet Leaf-ty dump recycled paper into the big, green cart.

Photo by Stephanie Rapier

The Wire

4 Sports Page Design Taylor Jensen

Justin Toole, alumni of Lewis Central, recently graduated from the University of Iowa and went on to sign with the Cleveland Indians. While the Hawkeyes have lost one Toole, they have gained another.

After signing with then Iowa as a soph-omore, junior Eric Toole will be getting a full ride scholarship to play baseball for the Hawks . “I’m excited for the opportunity to follow in my brother’s footsteps and play for Iowa.”

The Hawkeyes should be excited too. As a sophomore, Eric Toole batted .492, crossed the plate 53 times, stole 29 bases, and made first team all-state in class 4A.

Toole still has two years left in high school before he joins the Hawkeyes in 2011, and is on track to only get better. As one of the leaders, Toole led the Titans to a 25-11 record.

The Hawks did not fair as well as the Ti-tans though, placing last in the Big Ten with a conference record of 4-19. “Hopefully I can go in there and help bring the program up,” said Toole.

From the Hawkeye Ten Conference to the Big Ten, anyone opposing this player better be on top of their game.

Story by Steven Elonich

Hawkeyes Acquire a New Toole for Success

Lewis Central came out of the gates fast in the second half, with junior Nate Connealy’s 90-yard sprint for a score, putting the Titans ahead 14-6. Atlantic was not out of it though, after a 53-yard passing touchdown that included two broken tackles and a missed two point conversion, they lowered the deficit to two; 14-12.

As the fourth quarter wore on, it seemed to be this would be an exciting finish, and it did not disappoint. The Trojans had the ball with about 3 minutes re-maining on the Lewis Central 31-yard-line. They ran a post pattern with junior Cole Johnson and senior Cole Jensen covering the

With a deter-mined expres-

sion, junior Eric Toole

prepares him-self for football practice. Toole

is a multi-sport athlete,

playing base-ball, football, and running

track.Photo by

Bridget Mulligan

Trojan receiver. “It looked well defended and like it was going to be batted down, but somehow he squeezed between the defend-ers and caught it,” junior Bobby Daley said about the play. “It was a disappointing end to an excit-ing game.”

A loud Titan fan base sud-denly went silent as they watched the Trojans celebrate after the shocking touchdown reception. The Titans still had three minutes but could not come up with a response to the Trojan score and they game finished at an 18-14 Lewis Central defeat, dropping them to 2-3, and 1-2 in confer-ence play.

Story by Steven Elonich

Homecoming Heartbreak

continued from the

front page

Senior of the Issue:Jessica Nightser

Senior Jessica Nightser has been a part of the Lewis Central swim team for all four years of high school, and has lettered each and every one. She is also involved in Lew-is Corporation and has been a part of such things as band, express, chamber choir and golf throughout her four years.

Nightser admits that she would rather be stranded in Antarctica than in a desert because she could chill with the penguins. Her favorite food is Orsi’s pizza and is in love with the color green.

The first thing Nightser does in the morning is hit the snooze button and when she finally wakes up, she slips on her favor-ite pair of shoes, her moccasins.

Instead of growing up to be Sailor Moon like she planned on when she was a young child, she plans to go to college and study pharmaceuticals.

Story by Bridget Hall

Showing off her breaststroke, senior Jessica Nightser swims outside the water. Nightser has been swimming for nearly nine years.

Photo by Bianca Zerwas

October 9, 2009

Activities 5Page Design Taylor Jensen

She walks out onto the field, sets up the equipment, and waits. She waits for 7 o’clock A.M. The groups of band members slowly trickle in bit by bit, and when the small hand hits the 7, practice has begun. Senior Kristina Kempton is a band girl.

“Go to target,” a formation used for warm-up purposes, is her first command of the morning and the band members follow like it was something they would do in their sleep. She raises her hands and gives the first down beat for the band to begin their ‘ultimate warm-up.’ Be-ing one of three drum majors in the band, Kempton helps lead the group through the rest of the practice.

Kempton is a first time drum major and has responsibilities such as setting up the band equipment before performances, and conducting and answering any questions students may have.

“I got a little nervous before the first home football game. It was my first time being a drum major. Now I think I will only get nervous before big competitions.”

Kempton is not alone in her worries, seniors Mark Hamilton and Ryan Penney share her anxiety as fellow drum majors. With a band consisting of mainly freshmen, practice is sure to get frustrating.

“The formations are the same concept every year, but sometimes it can be hard for freshmen to grasp. We have pretty good chemistry; we’re just a young group. We melt together pretty well by the end of the year,” explained Kempton.

After all the stretching, drills, and two-a-day practices are done, Kempton just has one thought left on her mind:

“We know what the crowd is like on game days. When we are do-ing set drills for 20 minutes at a time during practice, it might help if we knew we were going to get the kind of admiration dance team and football get.”

Story by Bridget Hall

Senior of the Issue:

Mark Hamilton

Confused as to what is going on, senior Mark Hamilton throws up his arms. Hamilton’s favorite chicken is Chicken of the Sea.

Photo by Sanjula Mahathantila

Senior Mark Hamilton is a student ac-tive in the drama department participating in such things as speech, band, choir and six productions including the one premiering this fall.

Hamilton says he can relate to the color black because it is dark and mysterious like him and tells that the best birthday present he has ever received is the book Fahren-heit 451. He also reveals that if he could have any magical power it would be su-per- strength so he could save the damsels in distress, but if he was not lucky enough to actually wield the power, he would be a dragon.

Hamilton plans to go onto Iowa State

University after high school and major in materials engineering instead of being a su-perhero like he planned when he was a kid.

“My advice to underclassmen is this: Life is like a breath mint, short. So you ought to leave a good aftertaste.”

Story by Bridget Hall

Senior drum major Kristina Kempton prepares to lead the Lewis Central band in their home-coming half-time performance. Kempton has worked hard since freshman year to earn her postition as one of the three drum majors.

Photo by Sara Marshall

Band Takes a Stand

Single file, sophomore Laura Lawrence, ju-niors Kyle Ranney and Zach Lang and senior Matt Colter practice their set. Part of the marching bands show includes an eight count silence where the drum-line takes control.

Photo by Stephanie Rapier

Belting out a melody, trumpet players seniors Matt Mouw and Steven Warner and junior Blake Deforest re-hearse for the half-time performance. During competitions the three boys join forces to make a trio.

Photo by Stephanie Rapier

The Wire

8 Opinion Page Design Chris Jensen and Steven Elonich

Hit and Run

When a dog gets hit by a car and the driver doesn’t stop, there is always at least two sides to the story. The first side is the person responsible and why they didn’t stop; and the second, the person who owns the dog and why they weren’t watching her.

Both people are responsible to some degree, even though the driver is obvi-ously more responsible for it. If someone hits a dog while driving, they should al-ways stop to see if she is okay. But the driver can always learn something from this. There are plenty of precautions you can take while driving so that you never hit a dog again. Like actually pay attention to the road, for instance. Put down your cell phone, iPod, or whatever it is that distracts you from the road, and focus on the road.

The owner of the dog can also learn something after losing their pet like this. The next time they get a pet, they can do things a little differently. If they never bothered to see if the gate is closed or if there were any exits to the yard other than a gate, they can start doing that. Or maybe they can even take a little time out of their day just to stay with their pet whenever she is outside, because it really does not take a long time for them to need to be out there.

The point of all this is that most peo-ple are way too busy to notice little things, like a dog running across the street or a hole under the fence. Sometimes we just need to take a break from reality and real-ize the things we want to get accomplished at some point, but never really do. For example, before I lost my dog, I always told myself that someday I would take her running with me daily, because she was definitely considered an overweight dog.

Since I never actually acted upon get-ting my dog exercise, I am always going to be stuck questioning whether she could have made it passed that car if she were just a little bit healthier. I know I didn’t have to lose my dog, but you don’t ei-ther. And this does not have to just be about an animal, it could be about any-one. Don’t procrastinate spending time with someone you love, or put off doing things you want to eventually do. You might not always get a second chance.

Taylor Kuhn is excited for the week-end. You would probably see this statement as my Facebook status. Facebook is a web-site where you make a profile, add friends, play games, and chat with people. Basically, it’s a place where you can be yourself and have fun, right?

Recently the social network has been changing from being used mainly by teen-agers to being used by all ages. Parents, grandparents, and even teachers have been getting a profile. Some teenagers think it’s awesome that teachers are getting Face-books and adding them as friends. It is okay if you are friends with them, but do you realize that they can see everything on your profile? That includes your status, informa-tion, and pictures.

Most teachers don’t want to be your friend though. Adults get Facebooks so they

can stay in touch with family and friends. They usually aren’t interested in what you and your best friend did last night, but there are some teachers who do. Teachers who do add students for communication like to ask questions about class or to find times for rehearsals. There are some pros, but there are also cons.

Here is a warning for all those students adding teachers as friends: Be careful of what you put on your profile. What you put on it can always be seen, especially your profile pictures. If you have some pictures from a party where people are drinking alcohol or playing beer pong, teachers can turn you in for underage drinking. You probably don’t want your grandma seeing you half naked or making out with someone either, so don’t put them on your profile.

It is also probably not the best idea to

be talking smack about an activity or your job. People do read statuses and do talk about them, including teachers and your boss. For example, Timmy Titan is so happy he skipped school today. The next day he gets called down to the office because of his status. Another is all work and no play, work stinks and the pay is horrible, might get you in trouble or even fired.

It doesn’t matter if the person is an adult or a teenager, but you should always know who you are adding as a friend. There are people who pretend to be who they aren’t and could be harmful to you. In the end it’s your choice who you want to be your friend and who you don’t. One thing to remember is that you control what they see and what they don’t see.

Facebook

Story by Taylor Kuhn

Friend Request Accepted

When you think about it more people have died in the name of religion or god than for any other cause. Wars begin because peo-ple cannot agree whose god is best, or kill another man because god told him to. Faith is an odd thing for me. It’s basically taking someone’s word, you do not know if it is true or if it false. I have faith in a few things such as family and friends but don’t have faith in an idea such as religion. A great example of a holy war or a war between religions would be the Thirty Years War.

A main cause cannot be found for the fighting. If you were Protestant you may have been killed. If you were Catholic you may have been killed. Before the war was over nearly 30 percent of the German population had been killed and those who survived were homeless as thousands of villages were de-stroyed throughout the empire.

People still criticize the actions of gays because the Bible says it is a sin to be with

someone who is of the same sex.The Bible is supposed to be the spoken word of god, per-haps god misspoke. A higher power should be more accepting. If you love someone, you should be able to get married, eventually all same sex couples will be able to marry each other in the United States. But that day seems decades away because people’s religious be-liefs triumph morals and rational feelings.

Possibly the worst crime in the history of the earth took place because of religion. That crime of course was the genocide of millions of Jews throughout Europe. Those who were not killed were sent to concentration camps where they were used basically as slaves and either died of exhaustion or disease. It is sickening that humans would do this to each other just because they have another religion. It baffles me; I would have given up my religion for my life. Others may have not been so lenient but I doubt even religion would change Nazi’s minds on whether you

deserve to live. A certain passage in the Bible supports

stoning children to death when they misbe-have, but Americans complain about spank-ing their kids. The Bible had two premises in my mind, to tell others what is right and what is wrong; which as a result controls them. We do not take things as far as we did hundreds of years ago. People are neither stoned to death for their beliefs nor burned at the stake. However, there is still the penalty of death.

I support the death penalty, which is in es-sence a childish action of retaliation. It seems natural to get back at some one even if it’s not a big deal, let alone murder. Generally humans need to let things go, but every once in a while there needs to be a consequence for those ex-treme actions. Technically a life sentence for a murderer would be more fitting but if it makes a family feel better for the other man be put to death, well then by all means.

Religion: Invisible Liberty

Story by Brandon Myers

My opinion on religion has never changed much. To me the Bible and a game of telephone are one in the same. Both are inconclusive and crucial details change over time. Therefore you do not know what is true or what is made up. This explains why I am an atheist, which means I do not believe in a higher power such as a god. Some of your friends might be atheists or even agnostic, but fear the repercussions of what you might say or what their family may say.

Column by Chris Jensen

October 9, 2009

Opinion 9Page Design Steven Elonich

You step into class and see that kid staring at you in the back. You ask yourself “Who is he?” and wonder what his problem is. You find yourself almost disgusted by his distinct difference that clings to him apart from you and your friends. You don’t know him, but you assume that he’s just some unpopular nobody.

In fact, he’s got autism; a rare brain dis-order that causes slowed brain development, severely weakened social skills, and slowed reading and writing comprehension. This is true in many autistic children, but for some the conditions can vary. My brother, Tayler Daniels, was born with this disor-der. He also has what is known as severe retardation. To some of you that may strike a laugh or giggle. If it does, you do not understand the severity of the disorder.

Tayler is thirteen, yet has retained the mentality of a three-year-old. He sees the world in bits and pieces. He sees only what his mind is able to slowly piece together. His world is a constant battle of distinguish-ing simple words and understanding what they mean.

I will often sit and watch Tayler from our couch as he watches “Blue’s Clues” and I see the pure joy in his eyes. The one thing he can totally comprehend is his favorite show, a show intended for kids ten years

The Worldyounger than he is. He sits and laughs in front of the screen, and I know what he must be thinking. He thinks about how great it is to be sitting with his big brother on the couch and watching his favorite show.

He looks over at me and grins with his hands stretching out for a hug. It’s then that I understand there are things far beyond our comprehension that we can never change. These things take seniority over homecom-ing dates, texting, and finals. These are things my brother will never know.

The point of me telling you all this is that I want you to look twice at the kid that stands at the tray counter washing dishes. He smiles as the silverware falls into the large metal bowl splashing water on his apron stained with ketchup that was flung at him a few minutes previous.

As individuals I don’t think we appreci-ate these kids enough. Next time, instead of laughing at the kid behind the counter, pat him on the back because it isn’t hard to un-derstand people with these disorders. They are just like the rest of us, but they see the world in bits and pieces. In a way this isn’t bad, because sometimes I wish I could see the world a bit simpler. Right now though, I’m going to sit with my brother and watch some TV.

in Bits and Pieces

If you could swim in any food...

What would it be?

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Aly

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Cai

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“Chocolate syrup! It’s not too cold, not too hot, just delicious!”

“Fruit roll-ups! They’re delicious and then I would smell fruity!”

“Macaroni, because I LOVE cheese!”

“Cake! It might be difficult, and I would probably have to eat my way out, but I LOVE cake!”

“Jello, I want to get jiggy with it!”

“Sweet corn, because it’s creamy and Iowa is the capital of corn!”

Sophomore

On Tuesday, September 8, President Barack Obama made a presidential address aimed towards students ranging in age from kindergarten to high school seniors. The top-ic of the speech was that students are respon-sible for their own education, and it is their responsibility to make sure that they gradu-ate. The address was directed right at the student population, however, many students throughout public schools were not allowed to watch it.

Many parents of students attending Council Bluffs and Omaha schools called in and threatened to pull their kids out during the time of the speech to ensure that their child would not watch it. At Lewis Central, Principal Chuck Story received about ten phone complaints himself. He feels that it is, “Very unfortunate that it escalated to that point,” and believes there was a lot of mis-communication. Story handled the issue by allowing teachers to decide for themselves whether or not the wanted to take time to watch the president, although the speech needed to fit into their curriculum. The ad-dress was also shown at eleven o’clock in the media center, which drew about fifteen students away from their lunch hour to hear the speech. There were copies of the address available for students to obtain from their teachers.

Still, I cannot help but wonder exactly where the controversy is here. Was it over the subject matter? I have never known that graduation from high school was a contro-versial issue. When did it become the opinion

of only Democrats that teenagers should re-ceive a proper education? Perhaps it was just unacceptable for President Obama to speak directly to the student population. Since when is it controversial to be able to hear the President of the United States speak?

I am not by any means saying that ev-eryone needs to believe in what the president says, but we owe him the right to be heard by his country. As an American high school student, we all should have had the option to watch the speech. Perhaps we should even have been forced to watch the speech and be involved in a follow-up discussion over the material.

I did not see any reason for parents to make such a commotion over this one speech. If the president should choose to mo-tivate the student population to take charge of their own education then by all means he does have the right to do so. How can we develop our own opinions and become func-tioning, independently-thinking members of our society if we are not allowed to partici-pate in that society?

No one asked the student body what their opinion of the Presidential Address was. No one even asked us if we were inter-ested in watching it. As citizens of America, we should have the right to listen to the pres-ident of our country speak about the issues relating to us. What exactly were people so afraid of? Are we not responsible enough to decide for ourselves what we should see and hear? Story by Kyla Spencer

President Unheard?

Story by Trever Daniels

The Wire

Inside Look 10 Page Design Sara Rudolph

A bus ride took her to a vast abandoned desert and a plane ticket took her to a sea of chil-dren just waiting to be talked to. Though complete opposites in themselves, senior Kaitlyn Connealy’s life was changed by both.

In the last year Connealy has taken part in three mission trips, two of which were lo-cated in Mexico and one that took place in Romania.

“My first Mission trip was during the summer of 2008. I just really enjoyed help-ing people that couldn’t help themselves.”

Connealy, the only teenager on the trip, set out for Romania earlier in the summer of this year, only knowing she was going there to help children and teach bible school. What she found when she arrived was much more.

The two and a half hour car ride after

the flight only fazed Connealy a small bit. The first day was spent getting to know the translators, but with no knowledge of the Romanian language, Connealy had to get ex-tremely close with her own translators. The second day was spent walking to the first vil-lage and when the group crossed over the hill a stampede of 200 plus kids stormed the field and rushed to greet the Americans.

“I had to tap one of the kids translating for me because we couldn’t see them at first and I thought it was a riot. I had no idea that many kids were going to be there and this was only the first village.”

The hardest part of leaving was saying goodbye. Connealy had grown extremely close to one of the girls on her trip who she had met in a hospital. They had spent almost an entire day talking with each other.

“I thought there would be a language barrier, but she could speak English and hadn’t told anyone. We just talked about life, Romanian versus American. Oh my good-ness, it opened my eyes to other people’s situations. It might sound really cheesy, but

here in America we have it really good. It’s really eye-opening.”

After arriving home from Romania, Connealy packed her bags once again, this time shoving a hammer and an air mattress in the bottom of her suitcase. Destination: Tijuana, Mexico.

The goal of the Mexico mission trip was to build one house for one family over the course of 4 days. The group she went with slept in tents and made their own meals. The trip to them was not about luxury, but about giving a helping hand. She was chosen to hand over the keys to the family her group had built the house for. With a speech pre-pared and tears in her eyes, all that she was able to force out was “Welcome home.” She had witnessed what it was like to live with so little and still persevere.

“The conditions are different but the families could not be happier. Even though what they have is small, they love each other just the same. They are just happy to have each other. They don’t look at what they don’t have.” Story by Bridget Hall

K a i t l y n ’ sM i s s i o n

Story by Carrie Miller

Open up your bag. What’s in it? There are probably the usual things: notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, and a few textbooks. Don’t forget about the occasional stale sand-wich or discarded pop-tarts wrappers.

Is your backpack heavy from all the things you carry around with you during the day? Well, carrying around bulky bags can cause spinal problems. If your bag weighs more than 15 percent of your body weight, or if it makes you lean forward when you have it on, it’s too heavy. Spinal problems are no fun, and they may need to be fixed through medical care.

There are some pretty weird things that add to the weight in those bulging bags you see people walking with down the halls. Would you believe that a complete change of clothes or remnants of food lurk in one of those pockets?

“The weirdest thing I’ve ever carried [in a backpack] is a pair of my friend’s un-derwear,” junior Erica Frain said. “I swear it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, though.”

Then, of course, there are the funny sto-ries that go along with huge backpacks (and freshmen). “My bag was super heavy, and I was in the hall weaving through people. My bag kept hitting other people, and their bags kept hitting mine. It was like bumper cars,” sophomore Ashlee Lindner said.

“I was with one of my friends when we saw another one of our friends. My friend dropped her bag and ran over to her to give her a hug. I took off after her, but I forgot

about her bag; I tripped over it and went fly-ing. It was embarrassing, but pretty funny,” junior Kellie Skipton said.

How many times have you been wait-ing to get your food, when someone carrying a bag that sticks way out from behind them hits you in the stomach and takes the breath out of you, or when the bag knocks you hands loose from your tray and you drop it? It can get pretty irritating, especially when the person does it day after day.

“There was a freshman [in the lunch line] who had a big bag on, and when he turned around he sent a tray of pizza flying. It was hilarious,” sophomore Shaylia Barber said.

There are ways to lighten up your bag, believe it or not.

• Stop at your locker and drop off your books and notebooks.

• Don’t carry around things that you don’t need, such as old papers or spare ten-nis shoes. They can go in your locker or car if you need access to them, but it’s not a ne-cessity to have them on you.

• Clean your bag out every now and then. You’d be surprised what you’ll find lounging about on the bottom of your backpack.

• If you have a lot of textbooks and your locker is on the other side of the school from your classes, take a few out of your bag and carry them. It takes the strain off of your back and you’re working your arm muscles ( a sneaky little way to build up your biceps).

What’s in Your Bag?

Above: Walking in the bus-tle of the cafeteria, sopho-more Ashley Zerwas leans slightly back to accommo-date her bag.

Photo by Ashlynn Cooper

Below: 13. Sport-ing at least two bags each, three students enter the crowded cafeteria. Using one strap for a backpack

Photo by Ashlynn Cooper

Brett Ford - Science“Most people wouldn’t know that I won awards for my pho-tography.” Photo by Ashlynn Cooper

Derek Archer - Consumer“I’m actually a relatively good singer and I’ve sung at about five weddings.” Photo by Ashlynn Cooper

Maria Melby - Math“I still play volleyball all year round and softball in the sum-mer.” Photo by Ashlynn Cooper

Rachel Wragge - Choir“From grades 3-5, I had a mul-let.” Photo by Bianca Zerwas

New Teachers

October 9, 2009

Inside Look 11Page Design Sanjula Mahathantila

Expressions In-Depth

Every day people are finding out what they are good at and how they shine. Despite every curve life has thrown her, senior Ali Almazan has found her life’s calling in her passion for art.

“In the sixth grade I had my first brain surgery. Afterwards I wasn’t allowed to do much, so my mom bought me a drawing book and I’ve been drawing ever since.”

A solitary worker, Almazan draws anything from M&Ms to Hommies, and even does nails. “If I see anything in-teresting, I draw it,” Almazan said.

Along with drawing in her sketch book, Almazan is a member of the school’s art club, where she is working to paint a memory in the newest mural that is com-ing to life. “She is very creative and a re-

ally big asset to art club because she is dependable, and always there when we need her,” art teacher Kari Lewis said.

Almazan is also an advanced pottery student, and is planning to enter her work in art contests. Almazan has entered her art-work in several competitions, including the Hawkeye Ten. She hasn’t won yet, but this year she is determined to make an impact.

This creative artist hopes to put her tal-ent towards a rewarding career as an elemen-tary school art teacher, “because then you can teach them anything you want,” Almazan said. She has even considered becoming a finger nail technician or designer, since she enjoys finding new ways to decorate her own nails. Although, undecided on where to pursue her dreams, her dedication is set in the field of art.

Story by Bridget Mulligan

The man. The Titan. He walked these halls and he cheered on our teams. Things have not changed much in 30 years.

Most students do not even know who he is, but Ray McManus is the man who has worked behind the scenes of Lewis Central football and girls basketball for over 35 years, spend-ing countless hours devoting his free time to filming heartbreaking losses and nail-biting victories. The amount of money he spends on the athletes can only be justified by McManus’s true love of the school. “He is a die-hard Lewis Central guy,” football and girls basketball coach Chris Hanafan said.

Throughout the years, he has filmed virtually every football and girls basket-ball game, and even filmed graduation ceremonies. He has treated the athletes to various things such as sweatpants for the girls basketball team, pizza before a long drive home, and dinner at the girls state basketball tournament. “The final answer is it’s just for the kids,” McMa-nus said, giving a huge smile. He even went as far as to get small roses for the girls basketball team. “He was always into making everybody feel good,” former Activities Director and former head football coach, Steve Padilla said.

Building “Ray’s Nest” at the top

of the old high school (now the middle school) gym, which was his designated spot to film for basketball games, was one of Lewis Central’s attempts to tell him thank you for all he has done.

When McManus first started film-ing for Coach Padilla in 1978, video-cameras were a lot bigger; they had to sit on the filmer’s shoulder. “You could always tell when Ray was eating a Snickers candy bar because the cam-era would shake up and down every time he took a bite,” Padilla laughed. “I still joke with him about that.”

When the annual football jersey auction rolls around, you can guarantee that McManus will be right there in all the action. On average, he buys five or six jerseys, paying about two to three hundred dollars each. “I am usually competing against girlfriends of the players, so I just give the jerseys back to the girls, and the rest, Cindy [Brockman] hands out in the office,” McManus said.

He can be spotted at sporting events year-round, whether he is film-ing for football, basketball, or standing on the fence at the track cheering the Lewis Central runners on with his wide school-boy grin. “He has a true love for Lewis Central, no doubt about that,” Pa-dilla said. “Ray certainly bleeds blue.”

What is his motivation for all of this? “I think he just cares about the

kids that much; he wanted to give back to the school that he went to,” Hanafan said. That much is true. McMa-nus graduated from Lewis Central in 1974, and was always full of Titan pride, serving as the manager for the football team after he shattered his knee in his sophomore season. “There is nothing he wouldn’t do for Lewis Central,” Padilla said.

After all these years, McManus’s favorite mem-ory was from 1996, when the football team went un-defeated. “We beat Har-lan,” McManus smiled, not trying to hide his sense of pride for the team.

Even though he is not helping film football this year, he still plans to film for girls basketball. It is amaz-ing to think that he has so willingly volunteered for so many years. “He wouldn’t have done it this long had he not enjoyed it,” Hanafan said.

In the words of Marc Os-borne, “It would be hard to find somebody to replace Ray – there isn’t anyone like him.”

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Ray4LC

Molding a creation out of clay, senior Ali

Almazan forms her next masterpiece.

Almazan is currently working on mak-

ing M&M mugs and plates.

Photo by Bridget Mulligan

Palms together, color guard members junior Michaela

Sutherland and sophomore Lindsey Rollins stretch out their

legs. The girls regularly warm up and do stretches before every

performance..Photo by Bianca Zerwas

Cartoon by Trever Daniels

Spraying a fans hair with spirit, senior Colette Berding works her magic with hair dye. Art students have been painting faces and dying hair to fundraise for the upcoming Eurotrip.Photo by Bridget Mulligan

LC v. GlenwoodPhoto by Bridget Mulligan

Will Welter and Steven Warner

Photo by Sanjula

Mahathantila

Emily Morgan, Jordan Morgan, Taylor TurgeonPhoto by Sara Marshall