The Rampage

Sydney Sears  Staff Reporter  Students can attend speed and agility at 6:15 am in the high school gym. This is encouraged by high school coaches and other athletes. Sydney Sears photo.  Students interested in Track and Field will be happy to hear that Speed and Agility will be back on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6:15 am in the gym, and will also have open indoor track on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. Going to this will help all athletes in conditioning a bit before the season and to train with whatever work outs they have.             Sophomore and Track athlete Kaylee Tiffin has gone to several of these “classes” and hopes to go to more in the future.             “They really help me in getting fit over the winter,” said Tiffin. This opportunity can give athletes the option of getting in shape over the winter for any activities in the spring or upcoming sports they might participate in. Tiffin knows this, and is grateful of taking advantage of the class.           

Tori Hennick  Arts & Culture Editor   Not everything about finals week is bad. Students at Southeast Polk are given a wonderful privilege during finals that they aren’t during normal school days: open campus. Open campus means that students are able to take their lunch break, 55 minutes, to go anywhere they would like for lunch as long as they are back in time to take their finals.             Junior Abbie Lane is one of the many students who will be taking advantage of the open campus during finals. Abbie plans to go to Pancheros with her friends and enjoy the small break she is given during the stress of finals.             “I have to take all of my finals and I’m not happy about it so getting to leave the stressful environment for a few minutes feels relieving” said Lane.             “I picked Pancheros because their burritos are very good. My friends and I are really happy that we get to spend some time together technically during school hours all while getting aweso

Sammi Springer  Staff Reporter   Schedule for finals. Photo credit Sammi Springer.  t’s that time of year again! Finals are Wednesday through Friday, with first and second period finals on Wednesday, third through fifth period finals on Thursday, and sixth through eighth period finals on Friday, followed by what will be a much needed weekend after that. With the gold and silver cards that are handed out as a prize for good grades and attendance, most students are going to be able to opt out of more than the usual two that you’re allowed to opt out of if you’ve been absent for four or less days. One of these people, who will end up opting out of four finals altogether, is Hannah Waskel, a sophomore who has a gold card from last semester’s good grades.             “I’m really glad we get the option to opt out of some of our finals, because then the ones that we do have to come to don’t seem as bad and it doesn’t feel like were at school for ten more hours than usual,” said Wask

Ethan Edvenson Cartoonist  Students need to get more involved, and receive financial aid.  Tonight is Financial Aid Night. You might ask what is that and why is it happening? Basically, our counselors, representatives from the Iowa College Access Network, and a Dollars for Scholars representative will be giving a presentation on the information you might need on completing the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and what to do with it. This includes the type of money you’ll need and receive for it, what to expect when doing it, and the information on what else you’ll need for it. It also goes over the most important processes on going to college and will help parents and students understand that procedure.             Not only that, but the event talks about scholarships in general since it is about that time for students to turning them in for college. This will go over local scholarship options that are available to everyone including the ones that are on the

Demi Muchmore  Editor & Chief  Even though it doesn’t seem like it, spring is right around the corner. That also means that softball season will begin.             The girl’s varsity softball players returned to the winter workouts the first Sunday after winter break. The practices are divided into two different practices between the pitchers and catchers. Everyone practices on Sunday between noon- two. Pitchers and catchers practice on Saturday mornings.             The practices include a multitude of things. These workouts are here to help the players get ready for the upcoming softball season. They include; hitting in the batting cages, hitting grounder balls, practice their throwing, and they do quite a bit of conditioning.             The whole team is very excited to start up the season in the end of May and their season is looking good.             “I started playing when I was little and I have grown up playing it. Almost everyone in my family also plays eith

Kailee Ammons Feature Editor  Students went to the Shining Stars kids development preschool as a field trip. Photo credit Kailee Ammons.   Southeast Polk students in the Parent and Child Development classes are going on a field trip to Shining Stars Daycare to observe and learn about child behavior on Thursday, January 7. There will be two groups going, one in the morning and the second in the afternoon.             While at the daycare, students will be expected to interact with the children and apply the knowledge that they have gained in class. In class, students have learned about children from ages of infancy to elementary. The students have also been making toys and planned activities to participate in with the children.             Students of the Parent and Child Development classes think that this experience allow them to see how children behave in certain situations. They also believe that it will help them in their futures when they go into a life or career invo

Anna Zelenovich Columnist  Students have until Friday, January 8th, to gold or silver card out of their finals. Gold cards are awarded to students who got at least a 4.0 GPA the previous semester and it allows them to opt out of two additional finals. Silver cards are for students who had a 3.5 GPA last semester and let students opt out of one additional final. Many students work hard for either a gold or silver card so they don’t have to take as many finals.             Junior Cassidy Oberbroeckling has had a gold card the past 4 semesters. “The free Ram planned day is nice to have as well as opting out of finals,” said Oberbroeckling. Many students take advantage of these opportunities to make finals week less stressful. Oberbroeckling is taking some of her finals but is able to opt out of four because of her Ram Plan sheet and gold card.             “I am taking my Communications, World Issues and P.E. final but not my Pre-Calculus, Spanish, American Experience and Ch

Ashley Vannoy  Staff Reporter   Science teacher Mr. Busch’s snowflake display is one that everyone takes joy in. Taped against his window are tons of hand-cut paper snowflakes. All different sizes, each are different and unique. “I don’t know if it’s a love for snowflakes,” said Busch. “It’s like the best kind of stress relief, trying to figure out what cuts and folds will make the best flake. The movie, ‘Elf,’ inspired me, particularly the scene where Buddy the Elf turns Gimbel’s Toy Store into a Winter Wonderland. If it wasn’t a fire hazard to do so in a chemistry lab, I would definitely do that!” Busch says that the secret to making snowflakes is nice, clean cuts. “Sometimes I’ll look at snowflakes online for inspiration, but it’s really all in the head. A simple snowflake with a splash of detail makes for a wonderful design. Sometimes I open them up and they look gross. Other times, I open them up and they accidently rip, but I just keep doing my thing,” Busch says. Ev

Jessica Rish  News Editor The meninist twitter account has been notorious for  putting out hateful content on  twitter regarding social justices like, gender, sexuality, race amongst other thing    Twitter is one of the biggest platform used in the social justice world. Twitter famous social justice accounts dedicate their feed through the use of hashtags, retweets, and tweet threads to educate and inform others on social issues.     Twitter does a good job of supplying a multimedia platform for educating thousands of people and raising awareness with the click of a button, but there is one main problem that can  often be seen  in social justice Twitter: “Dragging” or hateful conduct, can even be considered bullying or attacking/harassment. If you’re vocal about your beliefs or activism, then it is more than likely that you have received some kind of hate or backlash for it.    Many people can see people be attacked on Twitter because of their gender, sexuality, race, or d

Claire Strickland  Design  Editor               French III students had a guest visitor today from the DMACC Culinary Arts program. Junior Bailey Peterson participated in the event. “We had a student from our class who is in the culinary arts program make us French Desserts,” said Peterson. Student Nicole Jenkins is a student at Southeast Polk and also takes the culinary classes at DMACC. “I think it was beneficial because it let us have a little taste of what French cuisine was like and now we know it is not as hard as we might think to make it,” said Peterson. Any French III student was allowed to participate during fourth or fifth period if they would have liked to. “My favorite part was eating the food because who doesn’t like to eat food,” said Peterson. Ms. Cox, the French III teacher, set up the entire thing with Jenkins, and her and her professor came and set up and demonstrated the whole thing. Students enjoyed this because they got to eat free French Desserts, an