The Rampage

Clarissa Merschman  Staff Reporter      Students in Spanish two classes will give speeches about their favorite person or animal this Friday.             The speeches have to be one minute long or more. Notes are not allowed while giving the speech. If a student is caught using their notes or have them anywhere they will lose all of their points on the speech.             Visual aids, however are acceptable. A student can create a Powerpoint presentation with pictures on it, have pictures printed on a piece of paper, draw their own pictures, or they can create a photo library to use on their phone.             All of the words in the student's speech have to be conjugated correctly in preterite form which mean they have to be in past tense. If they aren’t conjugated correctly, the student wil...

Demi Muchmore  Editor and  Chief      On  Friday, February 5 th Southeast Polk band members got the gracious opportunity to attend Iowa State University Honor Band. Nine students from Southeast Polk got to participate, everyone that did go ranged very differently in instruments.             The students were given these certain music pieces just two months before this performance. They worked really hard to get it to their best ability.             The nine band members went to Ames on Friday February 5 th and spent the entire day rehearsing to perfect anything they could. Next they spent a good portion of Saturday February 6 th rehearsing and then it was show time. All of their closest family and friends could come join and share this special moment with them, the show lasted about 40 minutes.       ...

Jessica Rish Feature Editor  The news cast has a very wide variety. Photo credit Jessica Rish.    On Wednesday and Tuesday of last week various students grade 9-12 auditioned for the spring play, A Midsummer's  Night Dream.                 A Midsummer’s  Night Dream is a Shakespeare play that is comedy.                 Senior Payton Thompson has been casted as one of the starring roles, Hermia. Hermia She is a girl of Athens. The dialogue makes it clear that she is shorter than Helena. She is caught in a romantic accident where she loves one man, Lysander, but is loved by Demetrius, whose feelings she does not return.                 “I’m pumped for the play because it’s my last theatre performance of my high school career,” s...

Tori Hennick Arts and Culture Editor  With the snow days that Southeast Polk has been thrown, students are missing out on days not only to  enjoy themselves in the summer, but also days they could be using to work. Studies from NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) show that more than two-thirds of high school students were employed during their senior year. 22.7 percent of those students were working at least 20 hours per week. This study was done in 1992. Although the data is old, it is more than relevant today. If students back then were working 20+ hours a week, they must be working just as much, if not more in 2015. Most students 10-12 th grade have jobs, for example sophomore Joey Hupp. Joey is currently a busser at the Pleasant Hill Market Café. “If the school year is being pushed farther back all the time, I still have to work.”Like most students, Joey pays his phone bill, so every time he has to miss work it make that objective just a little bit ha...

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 ...

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 Pan...

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...