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The Marquee's March 2011 issue covering fights following basketball games, a preview of the baseball and softball seasons and a feature on a beloved Marcus teacher leaving the school to be with his new fiance.
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MARCUS HIGH SCHOOL [5707 MORRIS ROAD] FLOWER MOUND, TX 75028
[VOLUME TWENTY-FIVE] ISSUE SIX
T e MARCH 10, 2011hMA EEUQR
[3] Major state funding deficit forces substantial district budget cuts
[22] Staff editorial urges Flower Mound to reconsider its city planning
[19] Girls’ soccer attempts to keep title as number one team in the nation
tangledupincyberbullying
[table of contents] the marquee
entertainment/
sports/
feature/
news/[4] POSTGAME CHAOS Fights broke out following the Marcus vs. Lewisville playoff game. Police, administration say more security will be added in the future.
[7] MARCUS LEGEND LEAVES FOR LOVE Physics teacher Sohail Khan pre-pares to move to Austin with his new fiancée after 20 years of teaching at Marcus.
[16] TOP TEN STAYCATION IDEAS Tired of hanging out with your pets while all your friends are away on vacation? Try these ten ideas to have a great spring break.
[18-19] BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL With their spring seasons just beginning, The Marquee previews the top players on each team and key games to watch.
The Marquee newsmagazine is a student-generated publica-tion of Marcus High School. It is produced, edited and main-tained through the efforts of the school’s advanced journalism class. The Marquee is designed to serve the school and com-munity as a forum for open discussion and student expression. The Marquee encourages letters to the editor as part of its mission to educate, inform and provide an open forum for debate.All submissions must be signed. The staff reserves the right to edit all material. Editorials reflect the opinion of the staff, not necessarily that of the administration. Signed columns or reviews repre-sent only the opinion of the author. Advertising rates are $60 per 1/8 of a page, with discounts available. For more information call 469-713-5196.The Marquee is a standing member of ILPC, TAJE, ATPI, CSPA, NSPA, JEA and Quill and Scroll.
editor in chiefluke swinney
managing editorcarley meinersphoto editor
allison przybyszgraphics editornathaniel thornton
news editorluke swinney
feature editordevon miller
in-depth editorlauren rose
sports editorjasmine sachar
entertainment editormolly spain
opinion editorcarley meiners
business managerallison przybysz
reportersalex cain, alex mcginnis,sarah sauer, olivia tarlton
designersmaria heinonen, james hubbard,
jordan richards, breyanna washingtonphotographers
kyle anderson, peter iversen, aj lascola, jordan richards,sarah sauer, taylor thomas
adviserlajuana haleprincipal
gary shafferman
by olivia tarlton
by molly spain
by carley meiners
cover photo by allison przybyszcontents photo by allison przybysz
by lauren rose and molly spain
[newsmagazine]
page 14
p. 14
news
the marquee |march 10, 2011 design/art by nathaniel thornton 3
District threatened by large slash in fundingState legislature examines budget cuts to education
Texas is one of 35 states facing billion dollar budget shortfalls this year. Several states are looking for ways to tighten their financial belt. Cuts across the nation
A massive slash in education funding from the state looms over the heads of public schools, and sev-eral DFW districts are scrambling to cut their bud-gets. The Lewisville ISD school board and adminis-tration are examining possible changes while trying to avoid cutting teachers.
According to school board president Carol Kyer, the district is facing a $22 million budget deficit this year. The deficit will likely increase next year, as state legislators are propos-ing to cut $10 billion in aid to all public schools over the next two years.
“It all depends on what the legislature does,” Kyer said. “Say we have 50,000 kids. If they take away $500 per student, that’s a lot of money. You’d have to add that money to our deficit we have now.”
Other districts in the area find themselves with similar problems. Dallas ISD recently paid 500 teachers $10,000 each to retire early and could be forced to fire thousands more.
Plano ISD is facing a $60 million budget shortfall. Principal Gary Shafferman said that while LISD is not in as bad of a situation as these districts, it could be soon.
“I don’t think we’re immune to it,” Shafferman said. “It may not be this year, but definitely next year will be pretty tough. We may have a little bit of an
advantage because of the amount of money we have in our fund balance.”
The fund balance - the district’s emergency sav-ings - is estimated to hold around $102 million by the end of this year. The district will likely borrow from this fund to pay off this year’s deficit, Kyer said.
However, this means making cuts to next year’s budget, a job which was handed over to central ad-ministration by the school board at the February meeting. The school board recommended that admin-istration trim $10.6 million from next year’s budget,
but gave adminis-tration discretion on where to make those cuts.
Some cuts that have been dis-cussed include eliminating mid-dle school ten-nis and the STAR drug counseling
program, Kyer said. Cutting 10 percent of the athletic budget has also been recommended. The district will most likely continue its policy of attrition - not hiring replacements for teachers who retire or resign and not hiring any more teachers. Shafferman said he is concerned this might detract from classroom quality.
“Even if I don’t lose a teacher, we’re going to have 200 more kids, and I’m not going to get any more teachers,” Shafferman said. “The biggest fear is when you cut teachers, you have to increase class size and it’s a more difficult task for the teachers. Now you’re adding three to four kids per class.”
The school board is hoping that new superinten-
dent Dr. Stephen Waddell will guide the district to tighten its financial belt. Waddell began his contract on March 1 and is well-known for his role in incorpo-rating technology while superintendent in Birdville ISD. School board member Brenda Latham said she looks forward to what he will bring to the district fi-nancially.
“The district that he’s coming from is very stream-lined,” Latham said. “The central administration is very flat, and his teachers are amongst the highest paid. So he’s obviously figured out how things work.”
Latham reassures that teachers will not be fired, but she said that non-certified positions, teacher aides and para-professionals could be moved around.
“Plano and Dallas are much bigger districts, so the problems have just been amplified,” Latham said. “Right now there is absolutely no indication that we shall have to lay off a teacher.”
Until the state legislature settles on a budget, the district can only estimate how much to cut.
To help decide where to slash, Latham suggests the district undergo an efficiency evaluation.
“We can sit back and look objectively and say ‘Hey, here are things that our teachers and principals are spending time on that’s not efficient,’” Latham said. “The new superintendent will come in and he will give (administration) better direction.”
Shafferman said that even though budget cuts will “absolutely” make things more difficult next year, he’s not terribly worried.
“You know as educators, you go into it and you re-alize two things: you’re not going to get a lot of mon-ey for it, and you’re there for the kids,” Shafferman said. “I don’t think teachers will stop being there for the kids when this happens.”
story by jasmine sachar
”“Even if I don’t lose a teacher, we’re go-ing to have 200 more kids, and I’m not
going to get any more teachers.- GARY SHAFFERMAN, PRINCIPAL
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has announced that he wants to cut $1.25 billion from public education. Teachers are also on strike over lawmakers’ plans to cut their collective bargaining rights.
Texas is facing a budget deficit of at least $15 bil-lion. Most of the proposed cuts are coming from Medicare and education.
NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a budget plan last month that would eliminate 6,000 teachers.
march 10, 2011 |the marquee
news
story by carley meiners
story by alex cain
Academic Decathlon takes 10th at stateThe Academic Decathlon team was ready to return
to Flower Mound after their state meet when the dry, El Paso dust took over. Everything became covered in sand. Each breath the team took outside tasted of dirt, and the hallways leading out of the hotel became wind tunnels, making hair stick straight up in the air with gusts of wind traveling up to 70 mph.
The dust storm kept their airplane grounded that Sunday night, eerily resembling this year’s theme for the competition: the Depression and the dust bowl.
“It was pretty ironic because we studied the dust bowl, and we got stranded there because of a dust storm,” senior Zach Baumann said. “You couldn’t look across the street or see the buildings across the streets because of all of the dust.”
The team came into the competition after follow-ing a 3rd place finish at regionals behind Coppell and Irving Nimitz. Because the point margin was so close at regionals, they were hoping to get into the top six teams at the state meet.
“We lost to them by a small margin, only a thou-sand points to Coppell,” senior Stuart Weaver said.
The team placed 10th overall. Also, five individual medals were brought back; senior Jeffery Gershen-feld with a gold in speech, seniors Andrea Torres and Stuart Weaver with golds in interview, senior Richa Manglorkar with a silver in interview and senior Jen-nifer Mosely with a silver in speech.
“They only announced 10th through 1st, so when
we heard our school we were happy, because we were able to move up and get recognized at state,” Gersh-enfeld said.
The team studied at least two hours a day to pre-pare for the state meet. At the beginning of the se-mester, the team had to cut members from the class and only kept the top-scoring students to compete in the season.
“Our team is stronger this year than it has been in the past,” Weaver said. “Just the competitiveness of having to make the team this year has been harder.Not everyone in the class makes it, and it has really helped spur us on.”
The competition consists of seven tests: music, math, social studies, language and literature, geol-ogy, art and economics as well as three subjective tests: an interview, speeches and an essay. Some of the subjects such as art or music can be hard to mas-ter for every student because they are not core classes taught in the Texas curriculum.
“It has a lot to do with art fundamentals and pick-ing out elements in an art piece and simply how they portrayed the meaning to you,” Weaver said. “That is really difficult for me just because I haven’t taken the subject before.”
But the studying paid off. Now the Academic De-cathlon team has been recognized as a top ten team in the state.
“We knew we would do pretty well,” Baumann said. “We just didn’t know how big of a jump we would have.”
Postgame fights break out over rivalryfirst game set the stage for the second.
“I think the chants let the tension between us build up,” Smart said.
The first fights of the year were at the Feb. 17 game. After that game, four phone calls were made to the Lewisville Police Department concerning the al-tercations. Lewisville police Lt. Dan Rochelle said he understands the school rivalry, but students should be careful how they handle it.
“This shouldn’t come to physical scuffles,” Ro-chelle said.
Rochelle said there were six police officers on duty that night stationed in different areas like the gym, parking lot and hallways. Rochelle said students need to learn how to behave so the problem can be fixed.
“That kind of goes for both schools,” Rochelle said. “We could ramp up security. We do that every year though.”
Assistant principal Jason Mullin said that the ad-ministration made changes at the UNT game to pre-vent the scuffles but hopes that in the future things will become better between the two schools.
“Obviously it wasn’t perfect or we wouldn’t have had anything go on outside of the court,” Mullin said. “All in all it was better. But at the same time there is always room for improvement.”
4 design by jordan richards
After the last few basketball games between Mar-cus and Lewisville, fights have broken out as people spill into the parking lot.
At their last meeting on Wednesday, March 2, at the University of North Texas Coliseum, UNT Deputy Chief Police Ed Reynolds said multiple fights broke out as fans were exiting the game.
“One person was issued a citation for assault and no one was arrested,” Reynolds said.
Senior Colin Nicholas said he also saw a lot of fights as he and his friends were walking to their car.
“While we were walking a kid got hit with a rock in a sock,” Nicholas said. “When we got to our car they surrounded it so we had to fight back. We had to do it for self-defense.”
Reynolds said there were several police officers both inside and outside the Coliseum, but added that more police officers will be assigned at future events.
Also that night a fight broke out at the Sonic Drive-In on Morriss Rd. involving several Marcus students.
The fighting began after chants like “welfare ba-bies” and “trust-fund babies” were shouted between students from both schools at the Jan. 10 game. Var-sity player Marcus Smart said the chants from the
Future sporting events to add more police officers, security
From top left: seniors Stuart Weaver, Joey Bagazinski, Jeffery Gershenfeld, Zach Baumann, Rachel Walsh, Andrea Torres, Britt Ousley, Jennifer Mosely, Connor Pursell and Richa Manglorkar at the Academic Decath-lon state meet in El paso on Feb. 27.
photo submitted
design by jordan richards 5 the marquee |march 10, 2011
news
The Marquettes followed their Super Bowl half-time appearance with competitions in February at Grapevine and Timbercreek High School. The team placed in the winner’s circle in both competitions and is now preparing for their Spring Show in April. Varsity Director Alice Dack said that the dancers are focused on the show now that their competition sea-son is over.
story by alex mcginnisphoto by jordan richards
Graffiti. What may seem harmless and even an art form is in fact a Class B misdemeanor. With an es-timated $300 done in damage throughout the town of Flower Mound, police are looking for any leads or tips people may have concerning recent vandalism.
Captain Richard Brooks of the Flower Mound Police Department said that there are currently no suspects. They did not find any indications of gang activity at this time.
The graffiti is located on various drainage tun-nels, electrical boxes and trash cans throughout Flower Mound.
“We experience these incidents periodically,” Brooks said. “However, we have not had any addi-tional reports for several weeks.”
The Flower Mound Police Department is offering up to $100 to anyone with information regarding the recent incidents of graffiti around town. Anyone with possible tips is asked to call the Tip Hotline at 972-874-6504.
story by olivia tarlton
Marquettes look forward to Spring Show
Graffiti hits Flower Mound, police offer cash reward
JV Theatre put on two performances of “Triangle” on Feb. 18 and Feb. 19. The play commemorated the events of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which 146 workers, mostly immigrant women, died.
The play follows Malena (freshman Makayla Mitchell) as she listens to the ghost of factory work-er Sophie’s (junior Samantha Wierick) story of the events leading up to the fire. Director Kevin West-brook said the play is about how the past can lead to a better present.
“In our culture there are girls in factories produc-ing clothing like (the factory workers) were back then and they are also in unsafe working conditions,” Westbrook said. “I want (the audience) to realize that we, as the world, have the choice of speaking out to make things happen for the best of humanity.”
Theatre puts on ‘Triangle’story by devon miller photo by taylor thomas
The tree-tunnel surrounding Dixon Lane has been demolished in order to upgrade the current two-lane asphalt road into a four-lane concrete road.
• Start Date – January 2011• Estimated Completion Date – January 2012• Project Budget - $6,478,000• Construction will begin at FM 2499 and end
at Crestside Drive
Dixon tree-tunnel cut down, leaves room for expansionstory by luke swinney photo by kyle anderson
Legislation for the state that would soften the charges for a teenager caught sexting has been pro-posed by Attorney General Greg Abbott and Senator Kirk Watson. The new charges, however, would in-clude parents in the punishment. Currently, if some-one under the age of 18 is caught sending or receiv-ing nude photos of themselves or others, they face charges for possession of child pornography. This third-degree felony charge for sexting can result in prison time and possibly require the teen to register as a sex offender.
The newly proposed bill will change the punish-ment from a third- degree felony to a less severe
class C misdemeanor. Teens and their parents will be required to take educational courses on the dangers of sexting. The bill was proposed by Abbott and Watson so that sexting crimes can be punished and prevented without signifi-cantly damaging a minor’s record. With proper coop-eration and no further of-fenses, the teen can have the misdemeanor charge erased from their record.
story by alex mcginnis
Proposed sexting laws to soften consequences
Senior Hannah Crosby gracefully dances at the Marquette Show-offs on Thursday, Feb. 10. She was performing the officer modern dance.
“Our goal is to produce a fun and entertaining show that everyone will enjoy,” Dack said.
The three dances used in competition will be per-formed at the Spring Show and the four military of-ficers will each have a solo. Each officer also gets to create a dance and decide which ones they want to perform in. Senior Service Officer Katrina Zekulin said that her responsibility is to keep the girls moti-vated throughout preparation for the show.
“This is our last time to perform dances together,” Zekulin said. “It’s exciting and intense.”
graphic by allison przybysz
Junior Chase Cakmis (Max) performs a scene with sophomore Erica Dodge (Rose) at “Traiange”rehearsal.
march 10, 2011| the marquee
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His eyes protectively watch the handwritten card from his fiancée travel around the room and his body instinctively follows it.
The card is passed to girls who place their hands over their hearts lovingly and smile at the written words. To physics teacher Sohail Khan, this greeting card that would cost only a few dollars at the store is price-less. He cherishes her original poetry written inside just for him.
Khan rolls around in a chair at the front of the classroom wearing a grin that displays his happiness, while his students listen to him speak with adoring admiration about his recent fiancée, Kay Hutchin-son. For this woman, whose words fill the inside of the greeting card he cherishes, Khan will be leaving Marcus after this year and moving to Austin.
“Marcus is like a second home to me,” Khan said. “A very big part of my life was spent in this building, so it’s a really tough decision. But the choice is stay here or lose her, so I’ve got to go.”
This will be Khan’s first marriage. Taking care of his mother and other responsibilities took first prior-ity over marriage for many years, but after two years together, Khan and Hutchinson are tying the knot.
Building up to a special proposal on Valentine’s Day in the romantic city of San Francisco, Khan shared with Hutchinson exactly why he wanted to marry her on little red hearts. On each day build-ing up to Valentine’s Day, Khan hid one of the little hearts for Hutchinson to find.
“It was really a matter of describing the qualities that attracted me to her,” Khan said. “Like how beau-tiful she was, how sensitive she was, how caring she was towards people.”
Khan said Hutchinson was surprised every time she found one of the hearts, expecting each heart to be her last. After all of the red hearts were found and his reasons were revealed, Khan proposed.
Hutchinson and Khan met at a Chinese restaurant in Austin. He said it took one look for him to know
she was the one, literally love at first sight. “We saw each other and boom,” Khan said. “It
wasn’t a matter of dating or anything like that. It was just this huge connection between us. It’s like we’ve known each other for a very long time.”
They plan on marrying either mid-summer or on New Year’s Eve. Khan, who has lived in places like Pakistan and Europe, has developed a love for travel that Hutchinson shares. They plan to travel to India and Europe together in the future.
“We are actually thinking of going to a place in In-dia this summer,” Khan said. “She wants to go help some autistic children there, so we’re going to spend some time in southern India.”
Although Khan looks forward to his future, Mar-cus students and teachers will feel his absence. Af-ter 20 years of teaching at Marcus, Khan has made numerous contributions to the students and school. He started the district chess competition and the AP physics program. He is also the chief volunteer of a charity for abused children called New Horizons. Chemistry teacher Jan Hutley said Khan will be a big loss to the school.
“He’s done a lot for not just the academics of this school, but the personality of the school because he fosters a charitable spirit,” Hutley said.
One of Khan’s students, senior Daniel Volker, has been in Khan’s class for two years. He said he thinks the physics department will suffer a great loss when Khan leaves, because he is an exceptional teacher.
“Personally, he influenced me to go into mechani-cal engineering,” Volker said. “There are countless other students he has inspired to do their majors. He’s definitely helped people figure out what they want to do with their lives.”
Khan said he appreciates the compliments from his fellow teachers and his students, but knows Aus-tin is where he needs to be. He said there is a huge bond between him and Hutchinson and even when they were broken up for a few months, he always knew they would get back together.
“I just knew that she was it,” Khan said. “She was the person I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.”
story by molly spain
Q: If you could be one cartoon character, who would you be?
A: A cross between SpongeBob because he can morph into any shape or melt into things, and Batman because he’s ridiculous-ly rich and can fly.
Q: If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: The Wonka gum. It can be any meal.
Q: Who is your celebrity crush and why?
A: I love Alan Rickman. I’m a sucker for bored British accents.
Q: At the movie theater which armrest is yours?
A: Both of them are mine, or whoever wins the arm wrestling match.
Q: Since bread is square, why is sandwich meat round?
A: Animals are round.
Q: If London Bridge is standing why is there a song about it falling down?
A: It’s just a precaution.
compiled by sarah sauerphoto by sarah sauer
Morgan Andersen, 12
Love Khanquers all
photo by aj lascola
march 10, 2011 | the marquee
feature
8 design by maria heinonen
Junior Jeffrey Nichols jumps out of planes without a second thought.
Strapped to his cousin Joe Nichols, Jeffrey prepares for his first tandem jump. He peers out the side of the plane at the vast sky below him and readies himself for the jump. The excitement overcomes the nerves.
The cousins take a deep breath and jump out of the plane. The wind ripples their faces as they fall, preventing Jef-frey from expressing his happiness with a smile. Soon Joe pulls the ripcord and the parachute billows out, floating the two safely to the ground.
“I’m going to go again as soon as I can,” Jeffrey said. “It was really, really cool.”
Jeffrey also climbs mountains, back-packs through forests and camps in be-low freezing weather. To some, these might seem like extreme hobbies for a junior in high school. But for Jef-frey, it’s just how his parents, Kelly and Cheryl, raised him.
Environmental ExpeditionThe snow, gleaming in the morn-
ing sun, towers over his head. He looks around at his other crew members who are already hard at work shoveling snow. He wipes his forehead, grasps the handle of his shovel and digs in.
Jeffrey volunteered on a trail crew for the Student Conservation Associa-tion (SCA) over the summer in Crater Lake, Oregon, one of the snowiest plac-es in the U.S. The crew spent over two weeks shoveling through eight feet of snow to make a new trail to a waterfall.
They had finished shoveling snow and now the trail crew was on a recre-ational hike to the waterfall. After hik-ing all the way to the top, Jeffrey climbs over to the other side of the mountain and gasps as he sees the waterfall cas-cading down the side of the mountain.
“I am less environmental than the people I work with,” Jeffrey said. “They’re all there to save the world and I’m there to go camping and be in the outdoors.”
While Jeffrey is interested in nature, he said he’d rather pursue something more challenging, like nuclear engi-neering. However, Cheryl said she will support Jeffrey no matter what career choice he makes.
“You have all this intellect and this gift, but if what you really enjoy is working for the forest service, do it,” Cheryl said. “It’s so sad to see some-body that works all these long hours at a job they don’t enjoy and they come home grouchy.”
Chilly CampingJeffrey gives a small shiver as he un-
zips the bedroll and slips inside. The thick barrier of cardboard, tent, bubble wrap, thermalayer and bedroll protects him from the -8 degree weather out-side. He lets the warmth encase him as he drifts off to sleep.
“That’s a pretty big accomplishment for someone from Texas to go out and sleep in 8 below,” Cheryl said. “The re-ally big thing is to enjoy it and go back again.”
The Nichols family used to spend every spring break sleeping in tents in Colorado and also took backpacking
trips and vacations to the beach in the summer. Cheryl said the family is able to take more vacations than other fam-ilies because of her and her husband’s flexible schedules.
“We’ve had lots of time to do stuff as a family,” Cheryl said. “We get to do a lot of things together. Not every family has that.”
Cheryl also said she tried to instill values like personal integrity and not taking things too seriously in her chil-dren. Jeffrey said these values and his unusual upbringing have shaped who he is today.
“I think I have a pretty neat family,” Jeffrey said. “One of the best things is my parents don’t pressure me much at all.”
Even without the pressure, Jeffrey is still at the top of the junior class. While he said he doesn’t know what college he wants to attend yet, he said seeing the effect college has had on his brother Steven, who attends Colorado School of Mines, has helped him nar-row his choices.
Besides college, Jeffrey said he doesn’t have any set aspirations for the future except to continue doing what he is doing now.
“I don’t really have dreams of mak-ing history or changing the world,” Jeffrey said. “It’d be cool to discover something, but mostly it’s just to find something I really enjoy doing and hopefully make enough money to have fun hobbies like I do now.”
Junior Jeffrey Nichols (bottom) skydives with his cousin, Joe Nichols (top). It was Jeffrey’s first time skydiving.
photo submitted
story by devon miller
Junior’s family participates in extreme hobbies like
skydiving, expeditions
Domestic daredevils
design by maria heinonen 9 the marquee |march 10, 2011
feature
Bright colors flood the room. Groups of people with hair in shades of vibrant blues, pinks and yellows mingle through the crowd. Their outfits resemble those of their fa-vorite characters from anime and manga cartoons. This is not a strange dream, but a Cosplay Convention.
Cosplay originated in Japan and is a mixture of costume and play. Rather than simply dressing up like anime or manga characters, each person takes on personality traits and acts out situations as their character would.
Sophomore Tristan Rambo participates in Cosplay be-cause of what it has to offer.
“It’s really fun just to be someone else for a change be-cause you have to be you all the time,” Rambo said. “Cosplay helps you be free and since you’re not even supposed to be you at the moment, it doesn’t really matter how your portray yourself.”
While she enjoys representing different characters at conventions, Rambo said her favorite part of Cosplay is the community aspect.
“People that Cosplay generally are really fun, playful, loose people,” Rambo said. “It’s sort of well known for co-splayers to go up to someone that they don’t even know and hug them just after seeing their costume.”
Although bonds do form at these conventions, people generally attend them with a group of friends who are dressed in costumes much like their own.
“It’s more fun because you know people and also people dress from the same series. You essentially just make the costume based on characters and try to get as close as pos-sible,” Rambo said.
Finding a group of friends to attend conventions with has recently become difficult for Rambo. She moved to Flower Mound with her family from Vancouver, Washington only three days before the school year started.
Before coming to Texas, Rambo attended Vancouver School of Arts and Academics (VSAA), where she took part in visual art like drawing, painting and sculpting. VSAA is
also where she first became curious about Cosplay after attending an anime club meeting. Rambo said what really sparked her interest were the unique designs of the cos-tumes she saw.
“I see it as an art because you have to take something that’s two-dimensional and figure out how it works cloth-ing-wise and how to design it,” Rambo said.
Rambo began sewing her own costumes after learning some basic tips from her mom’s friend. She has created five complete costumes as well as bits and pieces of others.
“My favorite costume that I wore has to be Agito Wani-jima,” Rambo said. “He wears this bright orange straight jacket with these super long sleeves and pants with straps from them.”
Rambo said she often finds making costumes stressful, but still chooses it over buying outfits for conventions.
“It makes me nervous to buy costumes and I enjoy mak-ing my own even if they’re less quality than if I did buy them,” Rambo said.
Rambo said she owes her creativity and interest in art to her mother, Pamela Rambo, who colors comic books for a living. Mrs. Rambo is very familiar with Cosplay herself because she often attends conventions.
“Being in the comic book business, I’m used to conven-tions,” Mrs. Rambo said. “I used to go to the big one in San Diego every year, so it’s nothing new to see people dressed up as Storm Troopers, Klingons, superheroes or Anime characters.”
Cosplay is something that Tristan Rambo is very pas-sionate about. She plans on continuing to pursue art and hopes to someday sell the costumes she creates, maybe even as a career.
Mrs. Rambo said she supports her daughter in anything that she wants to do, including making Cosplay costumes for a living.
“I like fashion design and I might try to get into that, but I might just do painting or sculpting,” Rambo said.
story by olivia tarltonphoto by allison przybysz
featured artist: tristan rambo
march 10, 2011| the marquee
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the marquee |march 10, 2011
in-depth
design by breyanna washington 11
Log into a world of hatred
so, who’s the liar who said you were pretty?
WOW. you’re dumb.
get a life
You know no one really likes you, right?
i hate you so much
loser.
Go away...forever
you’re a habit i’d like to kick... with both feet.
you don’t matter
i’m not as dumb as you lookcyberbullying
12 design by breyanna washington
story by carley meiners
It’s the fourth day of the snow break. LISD students have spent the past three days sleeping, eating and watching TV. Because the roads are still too slick to drive on, hundreds of students are on their computers constantly refreshing their news feeds on Facebook hoping for something exciting.
Wall post from Autumn Hunt - Feb. 4 at 9:36 p.m.“I’m having way too much fun”
Comment from Kara Merkt.“Really cuz I’m bored…”
Freshman Kara Merkt’s eyes rolled over to another wall post about her. A couple of minutes ago Merkt and her friend posted a status saying “like this and we’ll post a video on your wall.” Senior Autumn Hunt clicked ‘like’ under the status. Moments later Merkt and her friend from Flower Mound High School post-ed a video calling her names and making comments that Hunt found hurtful.
After posting the video, multiple peo-ple got involved in the drama. Statuses call-ing Merkt immature and naïve got around 60 likes. Merkt said she didn’t understand
why she was the one getting all of the backlash. “My friend was the one
who was rude to her,” Merkt said. “I don’t know why everyone
blew up on me when I wasn’t the one who did most of it.”
Others posted notes defending Merkt and calling out other students
who weren’t involved in the situation.
Cyberbullying heats up as temperatures drop
the marquee |march 10, 2011
in-depth
‘Mean Girls’: Facebook style
Senior Sam Vongphachanh was one of the girls that was called out.
“It kind of caught me by surprise,” Vong-phachanh said. “That whole fiasco had nothing to do with me.”
Vongphachanh said the whole confrontation es-calated out of control.
Soon Merkt’s wall was filled with multiple com-ments and wall posts referencing the situation.
“I felt like I was living in the Mean Girls movie,” Merkt said.
In the future, Merkt said she is going to try to work things out with someone in person instead of using technology to solve the problem. Hunt also agreed that using technology to hurt other people can cause pointless drama.
“These days cyberbullying is not a joke at all, because there have been so many suicides,” Hunt said. “Not that I would be the one to commit sui-cide, but there are unstable people in high school and cyberbullying can turn into sticky situations.”
Counselor Tom Alsop said that he has seen a student experience one of these sticky situations. He said he had a student come to him who was be-ing bullied over a chat room, but the situation was eventually taken care of by the bully being blocked from the victim’s website. Alsop said that this is the only case that has been brought to his attention at Marcus.
“That one case is one too many,” Alsop said. “But with 3,200 students here we know that there are things that we don’t know about.”
Although Merkt and Hunt’s situation was never brought to the counselor’s attention, Alsop said he hopes that people who are cyberbullied would seek help from an adult. He also added that cyberbully-ing can hurt just as much as regular bullying can.
“The old saying sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me really isn’t true,” Alsop said. “People can be hurt by words es-pecially if they are not a strong person.”
in-depth
design by breyanna washington 13
“You’re a fat, ugly cow,” I typed.The adrenaline rushed through my veins as I hit
the send button. I was finally going to win. I was fi-nally going to shut her up. Emily had no idea what was coming to her.
***As an awkward seventh-grader in gifted classes
with stereotypical nerd glasses and braces, I was no stranger to harsh words and bullies, but I never
Harsh words lead to harsh results
Devon MillerI’m watching you
Do you think boys or girls are
involved in cyberbullying more?
Have you ever
cyberbullied anyone?
Have you ever been the victim
of cyberbullying?
Have you ever witnessed
cyberbullying on the internet?
compiled by lauren rose and luke swinney
No
71%
29%
Yes No
Yes 29%
71%
31%
No 52%
38%
10%
Both
With LISD Cyber Safety week coming to an end, The Marquee surveyed 300 students to find out if cyberbullying is an issue at Marcus.
the marquee |march 10, 2011
expected to hear them from my best friend. One day we were friends, the next she was throwing insults at me. She’d call me stupid, a loser. She wore down my self-esteem on a daily basis and it didn’t take long for me to get sick of it. I wanted to make her hurt like I was hurting. Soon enough I was typing out a list of all her flaws and sending it to her on Myspace.
She never talked to me again. A few mean words and all my problems disappeared. There were no consequences, so I kept doing it.
Most middle school kids grow out of immature things like bullying. I grew to love it even more.
Soon it escalated into other things like comment-ing on pictures about how ugly the person was, tex-ting people that they were stupid and bashing my friends on wall posts where I knew they would see it. I was out of control. Cyberbullying was addicting, and I couldn’t stop.
I’m not a mean person. I can’t handle seeing people upset or crying. But it was easy through a computer. I didn’t have to see the person upset and I could always turn it off and pretend it didn’t hap-pen. I could crush someone and never see the mess I made. I never felt guilty about cyberbullying, only satisfied. I knew cyberbullying was mean and that I
should stop, but it was so easy to take down every-one who hurt me and have no repercussions.
Formspring changed everything.Last summer, another friend and I had a fight.
I went on to her Formspring to unleash my an-ger. I called her a slut and said that no guy would want to be with her. I hit post and waited excitedly for her to reply to my hurtful message. Soon, my words popped up on the screen followed by hers, “this is why I’m so glad we’re not friends anymore Devon.” Shocked, I looked below the message and my stomach dropped. I had forgotten to check “anonymous.”
Seeing my name there made everything real. It was like looking in a mirror and finally seeing the horrible person inside. On top of that, the girl’s words summarized what I had been subconscious-ly denying for so long: my cyberbullying was the reason I was losing so many friends. I deleted my Formspring and haven’t cyberbulled since.
Cyberbullying seemed like an easy way to hurt the people who were mean to me with no conse-quence, but in the end I got hurt, too. Now I know that I can’t fix my problems. It’s a never-ending cycle and in the end, nobody wins.
69%
Yes
Boys
Girls
march 10, 2011 | the marquee 14 design by nathaniel thornton
entertainment
“I started hunting when I was younger with my Dad. My family owns a lot of land that we go hunting on, so I do it a lot. There is nothing like the rush you get from shooting a big buck during deer season.” - Nick Nicholas , 11
“Mudding is just a way for me and my friends to have fun with-out getting into too much trouble. Ever since we could drive we have been mudding, and its just stuck with us since our freshman year.” - Tanner Bacino, 12
“We’ve been having bonfires my whole high school career. It gives us something to do other than being on the road. Bonfires let us be who we really are around friends.” - Cody Allen, 11
I’ve been fishing since I was born. It’s nice to go out, be with friends, put our poles in the water and relax.” - Garrett Bass, 10
1
2
3
4
1
2
34
photos by allison przybysz and aj lascola
compiled by lauren rosethe call of the wild
design/art by nathaniel thornton 15 the marquee | march 10, 2011
entertainment
All show, little substa
nce
New hibachi restaurant is a
feast for the eyes, not s
tomach
review by jasmine sacharphoto by allison przybysz
If nothing else, Mt. Fuji Hibachi Steak House, which opened its doors in January, is a dining expe-rience to remember.
What Mt. Fuji lacks in food, it makes up for it in at-mosphere. On any given Friday night, the restaurant is crowded, humming with culinary buzz. The inte-rior of the restaurant is a sleek spectacle. The lighting is dim, but pleasant. A majestic, golden statue takes its place elegantly in the entryway and the 6,000 square feet of dining space feels open and inviting. The glass floors are colorfully lit from within, almost like an optical illusion as diners are led to another room of 12 hibachi bars, separated by glass doors from the customary dining room and lobby.
But then there’s the food, which frankly lacks the liveliness one would expect with the captivating am-bience. There are a wide variety of hibachi entrees to order, notably steak, chicken and various types of fish. All cost over $15 each, a tad pricy for an average night out for a teenager. Each entrée comes with a sweet yet visually unimpressive salad and bland miso soup as appetizers.
The menu also has a large non-hibachi section (which can be ordered even while at the hibachi ta-ble) and the selection will satisfy semi-experienced
sushi lovers. The salmon roll and California roll are very decent, if a little small.
About 45 minutes after being seated, the show be-gins as the hibachi chef introduces himself to the ta-ble of eight diners. He is certainly entertaining, skill-fully wielding the knife over the large stove, playing tricks with fire and making jokes with the customers. He pays special attention to the younger kids. At one point, he pours oil over the stove and the diners gasp and flinch as the entire surface is engulfed in flames. He works his way around the table, flinging each cus-tomers entrée onto their plate hot off the stove. The portion sizes are by no means large, but will do the trick of filling the stomach.
What makes Mt. Fuji’s a must-go place is simply the experience. Located in the Shops at Highland Vil-lage, Mt. Fuji is unique compared to its neighboring chain restaurants Rockfish and Blue Goose Cantina. Mt. Fuji’s is a feast for the eyes - a dessert for the visual palate. The food may not be superb, perhaps since the restaurant is just getting off its feet. Mt. Fuji’s brings a charming, new genre of restaurant to Highland Village: entertainment cuisine.
Community service opportunities
GRACEful Buys Resale StoresWhat: Re-stocking of merchandise, help with displays, serve as sales associate, cashier and help customers in generalWhere: 201 North Barton Street, Grapevine, TX 76051-3205Who to Contact: gracegrapevine.org
Denton County Children’s Advocacy CenterWhat: Help with special projectsWhere: 1960 Archer Ave, LewisvilleWho to Contact: Sheree Cooksey - 972-317-2818 ext. 22
Lewisville Senior CentersWhat: Assist in setting up special events Where: 1950 S. Valley Pkwy, Lewisville Who to Contact: Teresa Milam - [email protected]
Briarwood Retreat CenterWhat: Maintaining grounds, organizing, kitchen helpWhere: 670 Copper Canyon Road, ArgyleWho to Contact: Kathy Naish - [email protected]
compiled by shannon mccauley
Rating
march 10, 2011 | the marquee 16 design by jordan richards
story by olivia tarltongraphics by jordan richards
It’s Spring Break and all your friends are in Cabo. What do you do? Watch TV? No way, I’m sick of Miley. Play with your cat? Nah, she’s boring, plus she doesn’t have thumbs. I can’t do thumb wars with her. So what do you do? Stayca-tions are the only answer. The Marquee takes a look at fun activities you can do during your Spring Break at home.
Top ten staycations
March 12-13: Attend the Pokemon Mall Tour
at Grapevine Mills Mall. Play a demo version of the
new Pokemon Black and White Versions or watch
a free screening of the new Pokemon film.
March 26: Attend Superstep 2011: The Ultimate
Step Competition, one of the largest step competitions
in the world with the best collegiate teams from the
United States at The Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas.
March 18: Watch a free outdoor movie at Town
Center Plaza in Coppell. The Blindside will be playing
beginning at dark. Bring your lawn chair or blanket
and munchies to enjoy during the movie.
March 19: Take a Kayak Power River Trip at
Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLE-
LA) at 9 a.m. Receive instruction and then kayak on
your own six miles down the Elm Fork. Registration is
required. Call 972-219-7980 or visit LLELA’s website.
Starting March 13: Watch March Madness, the yearly NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, from the comfort of your couch. Have a bracket tournament with your friends and enjoy plenty of salty snacks.
Any day: See “Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France” at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History Omni Theater for only $7. This is the true story of Australian Baden Cooke and his French teammate Jimmy Casper’s experience during the three-week bike race through Europe.
Any day: Visit Nana’s Pacas, a four-acre alpaca
farm in Flower Mound. Meet the 33 Huacaya and
Suri alpacas located there and explore the farm. Call
817-490-8899 to arrange a visit.
March 18: Take part in Acoustic Friday at Visual
Art League Gallery of Lewisville at 7 p.m. for free. All
acoustic instruments, levels and genres are welcome.
Jam out and meet some cool new people.
March 17: Explore the Spring Break Expo & Art
Slam at Double D Ranch. Check out over 75 vendors
with everything from fashion to health. There will
also be exhibits, live entertainment and an art contest
that anyone can enter. Admission is free!
1.
3.
2.
4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10. March 18: Watch folk artist Doug Burr perform at
Late Night After Hours Music Showcase at the Dallas
Museum of Art. He will be performing songs from his
new album, O Ye Devastator along with songs from his
previous albums. The show goes from 10-11 p.m. and
tickets are usually under $10.
entertainment
design by jordan richards 17 the marquee |march 10, 2011
sports
SPORTS UPDATEthe
Ranked number one in the nation by ESPN Rise, the girl’s soccer team is on the fast track to returning to the state tournament this year.
“We have worked really hard for it, and we are reaching our potential to do better,” senior Reilly Fetzko said.
Fetzko was also named by ESPN Rise as one of the players of the week. Com-peting with players from around the na-tion, she was first just nominated, and then officially announced as player of
the week on Feb. 16. The higher district record a team has,
the higher playoff seed they will receive, which means they will face weaker teams early in the playoffs. This is one of the team’s goals.
“We play rough teams sometimes, and it’s hard to get where we have got-ten to at our level,” Fetzko said. “But we feel confident. We are pretty good. We play hard as a team and we get along.”
The team’s record this season is 16-0-2 at presstime. They play Allen tomor-row night and playoffs start March 25.
Girls’ soccer ranks firststory by alex cain
Boys make Final FourIt’s been a year since the boys’ basket-
ball team made it to the state semifinal game. It’s been a year since their Cin-derella story, led by then-sophomores Marcus Smart and Phillip Forte, ended in a 45-43 heartbreak. It’s been a year since the ultimate underdogs fell just short of a state championship.
But now they’re back for redemption.“Last year we were just happy to be at
the state tournament,” Forte said. “This year we know we still have two games to go and have some unfinished business
to take care of.” Tomorrow they play Fort Bend
Hightower, a team originally projected to place sixth in their district, in the state semifinal game. The Marauders earned their second consecutive trip to the tournament in Austin after defeat-ing Cedar Hill last Saturday 46-38.
“Winning that game meant the op-portunity to go to Austin again,” Smart said. “We had the chance to do it last year, but we fell short. We knew what we’d be missing out on if we lost and we know how it feels to lose. But Austin here we come.”
story by luke swinney
photo by jordan richards
photo by kyle anderson
Junior Marcus Smart prepares to shoot at the second play-off game on Feb. 26 against Lewisville at the University of North Texas Coliseum. Marcus won the game 56-50.
After recovering the ball, senior Reilly Fetzko punts the ball at Marauder Stadium on Feb. 22. ESPN Rise recently named Fetzko a national player of the week.
22QTR
8:00compiled by devon miller
QTR
Senior Dylan Powers placed fifth at the UIL state wrestling tournament in Austin on Feb. 25-26.
Wrestling Cross CountrySenior Craig Lutz will travel to Punta
Umbria, Spain for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships on March 20.
Tennis Boy’s SoccerThe boys’ soccer team has a record of 12-2-
5 (5-1-4 in district) at presstime. The team will face Allen at home tomorrow tonight at 7:30.
At the Grapevine Invitational last Friday, junior Madison Carr and sophomore David Wittkower placed second in Mixed A Doubles .
18 design by maria heinonen
sports
march 10, 2011 | the marquee
games to watch:
Even with the arrival of new head coach Dustin Sykora, the baseball team is maintaining its same philosophy. Sykora, who has worked previously with the team, said he hasn’t changed anything the team does or believes. The previous two years, the team has placed fourth in district. Sykora plans on mak-ing the team work to at least maintain this spot. They have a current record of 8-2-1. The Marquee focuses on three key players that will help carry the team this year.
New coach, same swing
MASON SALAZAR
MARCH 15, 7:30 p.m. home MARCH 18, 7 p.m. away MARCH 29, 7 p.m. home APRIL 1, 7 p.m. away
MICHAEL GILL
#21MICHAEL GILL
pitcher and outfielder
Grade: 12
Height: 5’11”
Strength: “Pitching my slider. It starts on the
right side of the plate and ends up on the left
side of the plate.”
Weakness: “Off speed pitches, the curve-
ball.”
Contribution to the team: “Being captain,
I’ve got to teach the younger guys the ropes
and how to carry yourself.”
College signed with: Howard College in Big
Springs, TX
#13CAMERON McMAHEN
centerfield
Grade: 11Height: 5’9”Strength: “I’m a really good hitter on average, and I get on base a lot. I’m a good lead-off hit-ter, and I’m pretty fast on the field, so I play good outfield.”Weakness: “I’m over aggressive at the plate sometimes, and I’m not patient enough as a hitter.”Contribution to the team: “I bring my good leadership role in the outfield, and I can keep my cool when the situation gets tough.”
CAMERON McMAHEN
#05MASON SALAZARshortstop
Grade: 12Height: 5’8”Strength: “My defense is pretty good. I don’t
make very many errors.”Weakness: “I’m kind of off speed at hitting the curveballs.”Contribution to the team: “Being on varsity
for two years, the young guys don’t know what to expect so I teach them.”College signed with : Navarro College in
Corsicana, TX
compiled by molly spain photos by sarah sauer
the marquee | march 10, 2011 design by maria heinonen 19
sports
games to watch:
With the spring season comes the scent of fresh cut grass. Dugouts begin to fill with players and softball season begins. The Lady Marauders are currently ranked second to last in District 8-5A, with a record of 6-6-1, just ahead of Flower Mound. The team takes on Plano West, who are ranked third in district, tomorrow tonight. The Marquee decided to take a deeper look into some of the key players.
HANNAH NULL
APRIL 1, 7 p.m. away
#16DEVON WALLACE
1st base
Grade: 12Height: 5’9”Pregame Ritual: “Running on the field, pray-ing and doing a cheer to pump up the team.”Strengths: “Hitting is my strong point.”Weaknesses: “If I had to say anything it would be improving my speed.”Contributions to team: “Keeping it fun for everyone, especially teammates who are un-derclassmen that may not feel accepted to the family yet.”College signed with: University of Arkansas
DEVON WALLACE
#18HANNAH NULL
pitcher
Grade: 10Height: 5’9” Pregame ritual: “Going to a teammate’s house before home games or going out to eat before away games.”Strengths: “Making sure everyone else on the team is positive, even if I’m not feeling that way.”Weaknesses: “When I have a bad day, that affects my game performance.”Contributions to the team: “I always go out of my way to be supportive to teammates when they need it.”
#08TANNER PIPKIN
catcher
Grade: 12
Height: 5’8”
Pregame Ritual: “Eating captain crunch,
blaring Ke$ha, doing make up and eye black
with Jen [Beardsley].”
Strengths: “Hitting, catching.”
Weaknesses: “Speed.”
Contributions to team: “Leadership, catch-
ing and hitting.”
College signed with: University of Texas at
Tyler TANNER PIPKIN
Climbing the district ladder
compiled by lauren rose photos by peter iversen
MARCH 15, 7 p.m. home MARCH 22, 7 p.m. away MARCH 25, 7 p.m. home MARCH 29, 7 p.m. away
march 10, 2011 | the marquee
opinion
Spain, like the countryMolly Spain
I can’t say that my older sister has changed my life because I have never known a life without her. She is always there for me when I need her the most. Now, it’s my turn to buckle down and support her.
About one year ago at age 19, Emily was diagnosed with a disease that is part of the “bad gene pool” in my family – ulcerative colitis. Similar to Crohn’s dis-ease, it causes inflammation in the small intestine and colon. The disease took its toll on her, causing her to take pills that drove her body through a roller coaster of weight gain and weight loss. But Emily en-dured it all with a smile that fooled me into thinking she was fine.
Emily, you weren’t fine.You spent two weeks in the hospital after you were
diagnosed. I wish I was by your side every day. I wish I held your hand through the pain and spooned food into your mouth when you couldn’t. But I didn’t.
After seeing your skeleton body lying on the hospi-tal bed helpless, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t see you so vulnerable. I couldn’t watch you become more pow-erless every day as more medications were pumped into your body through veins in your bruised arms.
So I didn’t watch. I didn’t visit you after the first day because you weren’t my older sister anymore. You couldn’t be there for me and I got scared. I was selfish.
It wasn’t until you collapsed on the bathroom floor of the Texas Presbyterian Hospital at 3 a.m. un-able to breathe, unable to speak and unable to move or function, that I realized you were strong because you were still alive.
When you were finally released from the hospital, you were weak from losing 27 pounds in two weeks. Swallowing 17 pills a day and watching your diet now consumed your life. We went back to our usual rela-tionship when you were released.
After a severe kidney infection landed you in the hospital a few months later, you just cracked jokes about what illness would attack you next. You made me discover that only the strongest people in this world truly live.
I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to watch as you lay helplessly in pain. I’m sorry I was too selfish to drag myself to the hospital for you. But most of all, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me the most.
I can’t stand to think about what I would do with-out you. Because not only are you my older sister and mentor, you are my best friend.
This could get me in trouble.But let me just say, I was sick of being the des-
ignated goody-two-shoes of the 11th grade, the “straight edge,” never-does-anything-wrong Indian girl who gets good grades and tutors middle school-ers on Tuesday afternoons. Enough was enough.
So last weekend I decided to let my hair down. I called up my friends and we decided we’re all down for a crazy night. Life in Flower Mound is so bor-ing, we agreed. There’s only about 10,000 miles of shops, restaurants and parks to entertain ourselves with, and my gosh, that gets so old.
Here was the plan: My friend (no names this time) would provide the crib. Her parents were out till 9:30 p.m. Her fridge was stocked with mountains of caffeinated soda. She had a closet full of board games and an iPod full of Justin Bieber, providing the perfect wild house party atmosphere.
We laughingly said bye to her parents at 5:30, waited five minutes and then started calling people. I said I’d call the UIL math team while she‘d call the Science club. And she hadn’t exaggerated at all. Her fridge was loaded with the goods. I was astounded. There were the beginner’s drinks, the Fanta, the Sprite, the Juicy Juice, and then the harder stuff, Dr. Pepper, Coca Cola and even a six pack of Monsters.
Bieber’s hypnotizing tunes were blasting on her stereo as people started swarming through the front door in massive numbers and one or two sodas lat-er, the kids started getting pretty crazy. I had heard
about games of Apples to Apples turning risqué, but this one was getting really chaotic. Me and my friend each had four green cards, and this last round deter-mined who would walk away champion. Some of the more experienced partiers were off to the side play-ing Scrabble, the new 27th edition Merriam Webster Deluxe dictionary open beside them for reference. The hardcore hoodlums were far off in the corner, concentrated on an intense game of Trivial Pursuit.
I woke up groggily Sunday morning. The pictures from last night were already on Facebook, and all my nocturnal craziness floated back to me. There I was, downing my third can of Dr. Pepper, jumping on the sofa, teaching some UIL Science kids how to Dougie. As I quickly attempted to untag myself from them, I thought “What kinds of colleges will want me now?” The house was a mess, all the soda cans were in the regular trash can, not the recycle bin, and no one had picked up the Scrabble board.
But I felt this strange sense of pride. I had made a name for myself. I had proven I was too cool for The Shops at Highland Village or Friday night din-ners at Mooyah. I was no longer a nerdy, overlooked wallflower. When people asked about my weekend, I could now truthfully brag about my wild night. And even though my parents were going to kill me, my GPA was going to drop and my prospects in life were looking pretty dull, it didn’t matter.
Because I had ventured into the land of the cool. *as always, this piece is purely satirical social commentary
What I remember from my weekend
Apology necessary for my absence
It seems that Texas only has two seasons - summer and whatever happens in February. Five days in a row of going sledding, drinking hot chocolate, baking cook-ies and building snowmen was a fantastic pre-Super Bowl party.
Snow is spectacularMoney doesn’t grow on
trees, and we’re glad that the school understands. The free SAT/ACT vouchers are so convenient for juniors to take their placement tests. We like to keep our money so that we can buy random stuff, so this rocks.
Free vouchers rock Ice cream might be the
best food on earth. And having that nice lunch lady give it out without the per-sonality traits of a creepy ice cream truck driver is an added comfort. She’s the only one who sells ice cream with a smile.
Nice lunch ladies
photos by taylor thomascompiled by alex mcginnis
“It doesn’t really affect me because I don’t have my li-cense, but I can see how it would annoy other people.”
Tommy Leever, sophomore
What do you construction
20 design by james hubbard
in THINK
let’s get controversialJasmine Sachar
the“It takes a lot
of time to get places now, but it will be better in the end because the roads will be wider.” AustinAllmendinger,
freshman
march 10, 2011 | the marquee design by james hubbard 21 the marquee |march 10, 2011
opinion
America’s sweetheart Sarah Sauer
“The Media Arts Academy will provide opportu-nity and 21st century learning that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. This is an opportunity that can help shape your future and allow you to pursue your dreams.” The booming voice of the principal echoed through the crowded conference room filled with 50 or so students and their parents.
Everyone had assembled to register for this new charter school that would kickoff during the second semester of the school year. After taking a tour of the recording and media arts studios it was easy to see all the kids at the orientation knew this was where they belonged.
With dreams to be aspiring movie directors, song artists and graphic designers, this seemed to be a perfect fit to escape the routine of public school. I couldn’t help but imagine myself at this new school, getting to do the things I love most like playing the guitar, singing and writing music. If I was accepted, it felt like a clear decision to take the risk and give this new school a try.
Two weeks later when I got my acceptance letter, the reality sunk in. For almost three years this tall, white bricked building had been my whole world. Although this was the first test run of the Media Arts school, the shiny new possibility seemed to be ex-actly what I was looking for.
Never really being a big risk taker, I had almost convinced myself to go just to prove that I could. My parents were unsure about the switch but said they would support me no matter what. Gathering and turning in the student information packets to the of-fice of the new school, I thought I had made my final decision. I thought this was it.
Then came the day I had been thinking about all week - I had to formally withdrawl from Marcus. As I walked around the familiar hallways, I realized how truly happy I was here. Getting a taste of something that I had always envisioned was almost enough to make me forget about all the things that were keep-ing me here.
At the last minute I decided to stay. Thinking about changing schools showed me how much I ap-preciate being at Marcus. I’m sure the kids at the Media Arts Academy love getting to chase after their ambitions, but there’s not a day I regret staying. Maybe it would be good for me to be there getting to pursue the things I’m wishing for. But I know one day, if it’s meant to be, it’ll be, without a doubt, ex-actly how it should.
New opportunities not always better
Walking into the library is an intimidating experience. We might actually want to plunge into profound litera-ture if we weren’t so afraid of getting scolded for breaking the rules. The library might be open, but we definitely don’t feel welcome.
Walk into the darknessWe love talking for an
extra fifteen minutes ev-ery class period while our teachers struggle with smart boards and document cam-eras, but spending money on “innovative technology” is a waste if it’s defective and nobody knows how to use it.
Unusable technologyThe TV screen congratu-
lating the teacher of the month seems more like an insult than an affirmation. The message is just copied every month. We actually like our teachers, so some originality on why we like them would be nice.
Need for creativity
“I hate it. My bus route is earlier and I have less time to get ready. And it’s harder to go with friends or ask your parents be-cause they don’t want to deal with the traf-fic.”
McKenzie Pepper, junior
“Even though it’s a pain it will benefit everyone later because the community is booming and the roads have not kept up. ”
DorrieLoughborough,
teacher
“I think it’s really necessary because when you’re trying to get to school on a one lane road the chances of being late are higher.” Aiman Tinwala,
senior
I just wanted friends. I just wanted someone to like me. I just wanted someone to talk to. But when peo-ple want something badly enough, they sometimes end up doing some regrettable things. At least, I did.
It was freshman year. I didn’t really have a lot of friends to hang out with, so I usually spent my time on the computer at home. I played games, did home-work and created a Myspace account. It was fun at first. Everyone at school added me. But they weren’t my friends. They usually spent their time asking me about school—nothing important. I realized that I was just as lonely online as off.
There was a feature on Myspace that I decided to try out—Browse People. By typing in different char-acteristics, I could find people to add and talk to. Be-ing the person who really couldn’t afford to be picky, I checked all the options and added just about ev-eryone. After months of searching, I found a guy. He was 18. He was 6’ 2”, single and loved anime. Finally someone here is someone that seems to be my speed.
He called himself Neko Itachi, but his real name was Luis. We talked every chance we got. He com-mented on every picture I posted of myself, calling me adorable and cute. He played games online with me and we shared secrets through messages. He was the person I had been searching for. He lived all the way in California, but I felt as if he was with me all the time. Everything was fine at first, but I guess first impressions can be deceiving.
We had been friends for a month and a half,
enough time for me to notice some changes in our friendship. He would message me, “Why aren’t you talking to me?” whenever I was busy. He sent mes-sages like that every afternoon, and when we did talk, he got angry. “Do something besides waste my time.” I wanted to get offline, but I knew that would make the situation worse, so I would stay up all night on Myspace until he fell asleep. I tried to tell him that I had a real life outside Myspace, but he didn’t care. Right before I signed off, he would message me: “You better be on tomorrow.”
I would cry with every word I would type. I felt so trapped by someone I couldn’t even see. Luis used to be so nice until a wave of difference washed over our friendship. He had changed in the worst way pos-sible. I would post a picture of myself and he would tell me how ugly I was. “Do you have any real friends, I wouldn’t think so looking like that.” His insults in-creased and my self-confidence vanished. I cried my-self to sleep and a little more when I woke up, know-ing he was waiting.
The first day of sophomore year, I deleted that ac-count. I was done with Luis. I was done with tears. I was done with the control. I can’t remember what stopped me after a year of mental torture. I guess I just couldn’t take it anymore. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have relied on the Internet for friendship, especially when dealing with strangers who couldn’t care less about my well being. I don’t need them. Some people aren’t worth crying over - especially strangers.
Strangers can be just as cruel
foxy chocolateBreyanna Washington
march 10, 2011 | the marquee 22 design by james hubbard
staff editorial
Internet filter fixes nothingTried using Yahoo! Answers on a school computer
lately? Or downloading an attached file from a Ya-hoo! email account? After a new Internet filter was installed by the Network and Technical Services de-partment in February, many features that students have become accustomed to using have been blocked. The Lewisville ISD technology department needs to unblock these features and revert back to the previ-ous Internet filter which successfully blocked inap-propriate websites without being too strict.
For fine arts classes like photography and journal-ism, students download photos and Microsoft Word documents from their emails regularly. Now that the feature is blocked by the new filter, students have to find new ways to get these files to school. Also, many teachers have students email their assignments straight to the teacher, but now that’s impossible. There’s not a safety concern since all files are scanned for viruses and spyware, so blocking this feature does nothing but make turning in assignments difficult for both students and teachers.
Another main problem with the new Internet filter is that it’s the same for all of LISD whether it’s an elementary school computer, a high school computer or even a teacher computer. Googling words like “les-bian” might be inappropriate for a naïve third-grad-er, but blocking this web search for high school stu-
dents who write papers on gay/lesbian rights makes researching impossible. The new filter even blocks image searches for words like “anonymous,” which shouldn’t produce any scandalous or racy photos. Even if an inappropriate photo did pop up, the old filter would have simply blocked that photo instead of blocking the entire search altogether. Even linking to our newspaper’s website, which is paid for by the district, is blocked. Perhaps the technology depart-ment could implement different filters for different age levels and block single images instead of an en-tire search.
The technology department does have a plan to give every student their own email address which stu-dents can download files from among other things, but this email system is likely to have just as many bugs as the new filter. If it worked, it could be a good alternative, but reverting back to the old filter would be much easier.
Anyone noticing a non-inappropriate website be-ing blocked should email the technology department and explain the problem which should hopefully get it unblocked. Still, we shouldn’t be forced to contact the department about every unnecessarily blocked website, especially ones that weren’t blocked with the old filter. What we had wasn’t broken, so fixing it just causes more problems.
Too much construction at onceFor the past three years multiple main roads have
been under construction in Flower Mound. Such roads including FM 1171, FM 2499 and FM 407 have started or will undergo total transformations. Out of those three roads only one is complete: FM 2499. With almost every road under construction the amount of time to get to point A to point B is nearly doubled at peak traffic times. City officials should or-ganize the remaining construction better so all the main traffic areas are not congested.
One of the worst roads is FM 1171. For months the neighborhood exits of Glenwick Estates, Bridle-wood and West Chester had red lights that would only sometimes work. On a bad day a person could sit at a light coming out of their neighborhood for ten minutes before being allowed to turn left. Also the lanes are constantly changing from one side of the road to the other which causes drivers to get con-fused on which lane is which. The city should inform drivers as to which lane is which by putting signs on the intersection lights. At previous times entrances to Bridlewood, Glenwick and West Chester have been closed causing its residents to find an alternate route just to get out of their own neighborhood. FM 1171 is scheduled to be completed in May 2011, but the Glen Thurman construction company should have better organized this long process.
Another main traffic problem is FM 407. At rush hour, or on a typical Saturday, slow moving traffic fills the road from the intersection on Morriss and 407 all the way to the intersection of FM 2499 and 407, where the Shops of Highland Village are located. People from all over the metroplex come to Flower
Mound to shop, but they are turned off by the amount of traffic in town. FM 407 should be the next road the city fixes after all other roads are complete.
Not only has the construction caused more traffic, but also the city looks trashy. Hundreds of orange cones fill the streets around every corner. The smell of concrete being poured constantly fills the Flower Mound air. When people come to visit our town, good impressions are difficult with all the piles of dirt lying around. Flower Mound is a gorgeous town, but the construction is not showcasing that. The city should complete the roads that have already been started without beginning any new ones. This way the town looks cleaner.
While almost every main road in the Flower Mound area has undergone construction, some may say it is necessary because of the 14,000 increase in population since the census in 2000. The construc-tion is necessary, but doing it all at once is not. Also the town could have hired the same company for all of the roads so the project would be well managed. By hiring multiple companies for each road, chaos forms while every road is being finished. The flow of traffic would improve if the cities would complete one road entirely before starting a new one.
As the start of roads such as West Windsor and Morriss we urge the city to reconsider how it organiz-es construction. The city could hold off on such roads and wait until FM 1171 and FM 407 are complete. The Morriss and FM 407 construction currently overlap each other. In order to make for a better town that is pretty and traffic free, Flower Mound must recon-sider the way they handle road construction.
Letter to the EditorDear Editor,What makes me mad is the rivalry between Mar-
cus and Lewisville High School. I just think it’s stu-pid for people to not like each other just because they go to different schools.
For instance, dances, UIL or public places to go to are okay to be at, but games between the rival schools are the worst in my opinion. I think there are some people that joke around to tease the other school in a funny way. But there are other people that’ll take it across the line. So what if they boo our team down, I mean after all it’s just a school game. Some students think it’ll be the end of the world if they lose.
Rival games aren’t just for teenagers to see. Grown-ups and families come also. Sooner or later things could really start happening and it’ll end in a horrible way.
Bottom line is to show respect. We should repre-sent our school better at all cost, because in the end, we’ll be making ourselves proud.
Sincerely,Ambri O’Leary, 11
the marquee | march 10, 2011 design by maria heinonen 23
McAuliffe Chili Cook-off
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1. Juniors Dalton Dallas, Hanna Neff and Courtney Cooley take some time to sing while they help out by by the stage at McAulliffe Elementary’s annual chili cook-off. 2. Juniors Emily Dombrowski and Emmy Buck try out all the different types of chili while working the cook-off for National Honor Society.3. Swirling cotton candy, juniors Katelyn Gackle and Katelyn Warner have a good time making the treat to benefit McAul-liffe’s Parent/Teacher Association.4. Junior Chase Tucker worked outside monitoring the gate of a ride for the chili cook-off.5. Sophomore Brooke Burton and junior Hanna Mundy had a table at the chili cook-off promoting the cancer walk for the cure that they will both be participating in.
spotlight
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