The Rampage

Brooklyn Draisey  Columnist  Columnist Class Group Photograph. Brooklyn Draisey Photo.   Seniors got their senior photo taken during the special advisory on Thursday, September 3. The photo will take place in the gym and include the entirety of the class of 2016. The photo could be bought if students brought a photo envelope that they filled out. Senior Jared Harrington got his photo taken with the rest of the seniors on Thursday, and has some ideas on why the photo gets taken year after year. “I think we have to do it because it shows how big the school is growing, and it can be nice for us to look back on,” said Harrington. Senior year is often the most memorable for students, and there aren’t many chances to get a picture of almost every kid in the class. The senior photo is a way for both the school, family and students to remember their last year in high school. It is also seen as a very important tradition. “I think it’s just one more tradition to d...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 On Friday, May 15, sophomores and their parents attended the sophomore honors assembly. In order to qualify, students must have maintained a 3.5 GPA for two consecutive semesters. Academic letters were given out, as well as some special honors.                 One of the special honors was for National French Test participants that did very well. Ryan Johnson, Jillian Miller, Brooklyn Draisey, Laura Widman all got honorable mentions. Izzy Schrock won a bronze Laureate award for the first time in a decade for Southeast Polk. All of the honorable mentions received certificates, and Schrock received a medal.                Sophomores who got into the National Honor Society were also honored at the assembly. 13 students received membership and were r...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 In light of recent events at the junior high, students had the chance to voice their opinions in open discussions in advisory on Friday, May 8. The unplanned advisory session gave students the opportunity to talk about the culture that our school has and talk about possible solutions to the problems that our school faces.                 “We talked about how people being bullied are their own first line of defense, and how the school seems to take away students’ resiliency by offering too many opportunities,” said sophomore Jonathan Zaugg. His advisory focused on how students need to stand up for themselves and not rely on the school to fix problems that they might not even know about. They also talked about how students that are complaining about their voices not being heard might just not...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 On Wednesday, April 22, the University of Iowa hospitals celebrated the year of the hospital’s 5000 th transplant by planting trees. The event was organized by Greg Johnson, Jody Johnson, and other members of the hospital staff. They planted five different trees for the five different major organs, which are the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and pancreas. They also planted a tree in honor of the donors who saved recipients’ lives by donating organs. The types of the trees were Bald Cyprus, which were chosen for their beauty and resilience.  As of April 22, the hospital had successfully conducted 5,018 transplants. The most common type of transplant was for kidneys, and there have been 3,338 since 1969. There have been 785 liver transplants, 339 heart transplants, 146 lung transplants, and 69 pancreas transplants. There were also many people who required mo...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist             Starting Monday, April 13, the lunchroom is offering reusable silverware and tray options for those who want it. The plastic trays have been offered alongside the Styrofoam ones all year, but the metal silverware is new.              Sophomore Autumn Tallman isn’t planning on using the new silverware herself, but still thinks they’re a good option to have.             “Then students have the ability to not be so wasteful,” said Tallman. The trays are also larger and both are easier to use than their less eco-friendly counterparts. They aren’t as convenient trash-wise, since the Styrofoam trays and plastic silverware can just be thrown away, but the benefits outweigh the inconvenience. Students may like the new dishes and silverware, but it just increases the workload for...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist The Iowa Jazz Championship program. Photo courtesy of Molly Hart.             On Tuesday, March 31 the Southeast Polk jazz band competed in the Iowa Jazz Championship at the Civic Center and placed seventh out of fifteen bands. They competed in 4A category against bands from schools such as Dowling Catholic, Waukee and Linn-Mar, who Southeast Polk beat to get invited to the competition. A total of over 1,500 students and 60 bands in attendance.             “We’ve been practicing the pieces we played since the start  of the semester,” said sophomore Ethan Owens, a trumpet player in the band. The band played three pieces at the competition; Symphony in Riffs, The Beautiful, and What You Dealin’ With. The composer of The Beautiful is a teacher at the University of Northern Iowa.          ...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 The Southeast Polk school board announced on Friday, March 27 that passing times at the junior high and high school would be reduced to two minutes. The new rule will become effective on April 2, and there will be no grace period for students to adjust to the shorter passing time.                 “This new rule will create more time for classes to get things done without actually creating a longer school day,” said the new superintendent Mickey Mouse. This is his first announcement as superintendent, and he hopes that it will be received well by the student body. There have been complaints about teachers giving out homework as the bell rings, and hopefully this extra time will get rid of that.                 “...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist              On March 10, students from French one through four/five participated in the National French Test. There was a different test for each level, and testing went throughout the day in the multipurpose room.                 Students had an hour to answer 70 to 80 multiple choice questions, all in French. The first part of the test involved listening to people speak French and answering questions based off what they said. There were matching phrases with pictures, picking out answers from conversations, and figuring out the meanings of parts of a passage.              The second part of the test didn’t involve listening, so each student could go at their own pace. A lot of reading was involved in the last part, and students had to choose the right word to make the passage make sense. The last five ques...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 Two teams from the Southeast Polk speech team went to the All-State speech festival on Saturday, February 21. The festival was held at Iowa State University, mainly in Stephen’s Auditorium and the Scheman Building.                 The two teams that qualified for All-State were choral reading and short film. To qualify for All-State, the teams must get ones in both districts and state, then get recommended and selected to perform at All-State. The competition is fierce, and many people don’t make it, even if they get all ones at state. All-State is more of a festival than a competition, and the teams don’t get ratings or scores. They perform and are acknowledged for making it to All-State, and then the best performance in each category is chosen. The winner takes home the banner announcing their category. There’s also a tr...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 On Tuesday, February 10, the Southeast Polk girls and boys basketball teams faced off against Ottumwa in their last regular games of the season.                 The girls had a very good start, and had gained a lead of ten points in the beginning of the second quarter. They held their lead and had 35 points at the half. Ottumwa was trailing behind at 22 points. In the beginning of the third quarter, #10 got injured and had to sit out for a while. The difference in points grew as the game went on, and the end score was 62-43 Southeast Polk.                 Tuesday was also Senior Night, so the seniors from the boys and girls basketball teams were recognized, as were the seniors from the cheer squad. They were announced over the speakers, given ...

Written by Brooklyn Draisey Columnist I’m looking through my favorite magazine. I’m turning the pages when a full page ad shows up. A girl is taking up the entire thing. She’s wearing nothing but a bikini that leaves her boobs barely covered. She’s so skinny that her ribs are showing, and her arms look like sticks. I would call this girl extremely malnourished, but she’s part of the stereotype of beauty that society holds. This stereotype is formed by the media and negative people who have nothing better to do.  The media loves to show the stereotypical form of beauty. Wherever you go, billboards and magazines full of models can always be found. The women are tall, slim, and young. The men are muscular, hairless and can vary in age. People feel bad about themselves when they see that they don’t look like these pictures, but it’s impossible to compare yourself to a picture that isn’t even close to the original.        The photos are edited to make...