Special Features The Lantern January 2011 Edition Fair ... · Many of the larger businesses stay true to fair trade standards by buying goods from workers at a fair price. Fair Trade:

The LanternThe Voice of Strongsville High School

Special FeaturesEdition

By Aurora Winwood

Imagine how many times you’ve been at the local mall, Starbucks in hand, and toting around logo embla-zoned bags from your favorite stores stuffed with your most current pur-chases. Sure you know how fly you look strutting around with a steaming latte and tons of loot, but odds are, you haven’t got a clue where it all came from. And no, I’m not talking about the hot sales associate who sold you those new shoes. Then again, what does it matter to you as long as you’ve got the latest products?I n reality, it’s very likely that your wicked awesome sneakers were made in a sweatshop overseas by a child who probably still needs a babysitter. According to the International Labor Rights Forum, “Child laborers are of-ten exposed to conditions extremely harmful to their physical and mental well-being.” Companies including Abercrombie and Fitch, Hanes, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, Nike, and Starbucks have all been re-

but in fact, according to Global Ex-change, “The chocolate industry is bittersweet.” There are 284,000 chil-dren working under cruel conditions in West Africa’s cocoa fields alone. “It is one of the most labor inten-sive activities I’ve ever seen,” said Phyllis Robinson, Equal Exchange’s

“A lot of people have missed the point,” said Schmalzle, “Everyone helps in their own way; but you need the whole process to really be effec-tive.” Many of the larger businesses stay true to fair trade standards by buying goods from workers at a fair price.

Fair Trade: The Bigger Picture

“It means a lot to know where it’s grown, to see the

soil it’s grown in, and to meet the people that grow it,”Thomas Lussier, Equal

Exchange

how, and from whom their purchases come. With this knowledge, buyers have the power to help stop what Global Exchange, a member of the Fair Trade Federation, has dubbed “sweatshops in the fields.” Many corporations try to disguise their labor force by saying that they don’t abuse workers in factories;

Jacob, is fantastic because the church has the greatest perspective on how to help people and is so involved in grassroots projects. The main goal of the company is to help the tradesmen stand on their own two feet, as opposed to other companies who are less helpful be-cause they miss a crucial step in the fair trade process.

but according to Marianne Trausch, who sells fair trade products, people are willing to pay because they want to help the small farmers. “I think they’re excellent products,” she said, “People have been very supportive and it’s catching on.”

Inside the Village Market One local entrepreneur, Jacob Schmalzle, the owner of Village Mar-kets of Africa, is making his way in the fair trade industry. His company stands out from all others, in that it not only eliminates middle men, en-suring that they deal directly with artisans so they receive fair pay for their work, but also returns a percent of their profits to the artisans. Village Markets of Africa is part-nered with the Lutheran Church based in Kenya. This, according to

anything less than 50/50 is not truly fair. “You can teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. But what if there’s no lake, no fish?” Schmalzle said, “Then you dig a hole and fill it with water and with fish, and teach them not to catch too many at a time. Help them get to a point where they can help themselves.” By assisting workers to expand their own business, instead of making them dependent on a major corpora-tion, the country as a whole will con-sequentially begin to move forward as well, because as the quality of life improves for the people, they can contribute back to society.

Hometown Success Jacob isn’t the only local who’s be-coming an inspiration in the fair trade market. Strongsville High School graduate, Halle Butvin, has launched her own company, One Mango Tree, with the intent of creating work for women in need in third world coun-tries. “I saw lots of development projects in Uganda that didn’t seem to be doing any good – they had lots of money to spend, but people in Uganda were still poor and had little opportunity,” said Butvin, “They all told me that they really needed jobs.”Currently, One Mango Tree is cen-tered in Gulu, Uganda, where the company has partnered with tailors who have turned their lives around with the opportunities brought about by the organization.Halle said, “We buy all the materi-als and pay women for the work that they do, so they don’t have to worry about the money usually needed to do artisan work. One Mango Tree sells the products on its website, and also through a wholesaler called Global Girlfriend – they buy our products in bulk and then sell them to places like Whole Foods grocery stores, and Target.com.”

Halle, like Jacob, has added a little something special to the traditional fair trade model. One Mango Tree highlights a combination of market connection, job creation, and practi-cal social programs. The company offers continuous training, so the workers sewing is constantly improving, an on-site day-care with a teacher, for children, a nu-tritious lunch, holiday bonus, flexible work schedule and hours, and addi-tional training on financial literacy. “After working with us for 9 months, they receive a bicycle,” Butvin said, “And after a year, we start to provide support for school fees – we give $15 per term for nursery school, $25 for primary and $50 for secondary. This helps ensure that their wages go fur-ther at home, and that their kids are educated.” This design has been a savior, for war devastated Uganda, setting an ex-ample for the type of economic and social empowerment necessary to build a foundation for sustainable peace.One Mango Tree’s artisans hand craft quality items from clothing, to jew-elry, and even lunch bags and yoga mats. “I would love to see One Mango

What Your Peers Are Thinking Fair trade, as a global entity, is mak-ing a difference around the world, as well as getting attention within the halls of SHS. Junior, Mary Hess, is a strong ad-vocate of fair trade. “I love helping people,” said Hess, “Fair trade is not only good for the economy, but spreads cultural diversity as well.” Mary believes that by purchasing fair trade goods, anyone can make a difference. She said, “You’re help-ing people who wouldn’t normally be getting paid fairly for the work they do.” Of sweatshops, Hess feels very strongly. “They are highly unethi-cal!” she said, “There is no excuse to treat people poorly.” Another student supporter, Senior, Kevin Warman, has a slightly more lenient opinion of indecent labor practices. “I don’t support them. But when it comes to trade in developing countries, they need to learn to transi-tion their economies,” said Warman, “As our economy has grown, we’ve adopted policies that protect human rights.” This transition is exactly what com-panies like Village Markets of Africa and One Mango Tree are working to achieve. Both Warman and Hess are promoters of these organizations and hope to see their fellow classmates purchase fair trade items.

The Next Step Since its establishment in 1946, the Fair Trade Federation has been strengthening and promoting North American organizations who are fully committed to fair trade. With members like Global Ex-change, Global Girlfriend, and Or-ganic Exchange online, and Global Village Collection, Revy, and Cos-tello International located right here in Ohio, there’s no end to the good that can be done. By purchasing from these compa-nies, a force of change will be set in motion, headed down the road to a brighter tomorrow for a superior in-ternational economy.

ported to utilize these unfair employ-ment tactics and work ethics. Are those shoes still worth it? In response to this issue, fair trade has emerged as a beacon of hope for artisans and farmers around the world. Fair trade, a concept that sprang forth from The Fair Trade Federation, which unites countless businesses that follow the fair trade model, buys merchandise directly from workers in various countries who make quality goods, ranging from coffee to jew-elry. Equal Exchange, a fair trade com-pany, specializes in coffee, chocolate, tea and nuts that come from small farmer co-operatives in the U.S., Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Thomas Lussier, the lead coffee roaster for Equal Exchange said, “It means a lot to know where it’s grown, to see the soil it’s grown in, and to meet the people that grow it.” His sentiments reflect the very basis of what fair trade is about. That is, the consumer knows exactly where,

“You can teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. But what if there’s no lake, no fish? Then you dig

a hole and fill it with water and with fish, and teach them not to catch too many at a time.

Help them get to a point where they can help themselves,”Jacob Schmalzle, Owner, Village Markets of Africa

Education and Labors Manager. To buy fair trade is a step in the right direction on the road to fixing this problem. The price for these goods are a little higher than average,

However, when the profits they bring in are more than that of the producer, it really brings up doubt of whether the process is really fair. Village Markets of Africa attests that

“I don’t support them (indecent labor practices). But when it comes to trade

in developing countries, they need to learn to

transition their economies. As our economy has grown, we’ve adopted policies that

protect human rights,” Kevin Warman, senior,

Strongsville High School

Tree grow even more, to have better products at still affordable prices, and to expand to other places that really need jobs,” said Halle, “I’d like to see it made possible that fair trade shops are more the norm than the exception in malls in the US!” Under the direction of Halle Butvin, the organization is carrying out its mission of going beyond fair trade, and making Strongsville proud.

Strongsville grad Halle Butvin created One Mango Tree, a program to employ women in need of work in third world countries

Strongsville senior Kevin Warman and junior Mary Hess support fair trade

284,000 children work West Africa’s cocoa fields

A Guatemalan farmer working on a co-operative farm

January 2011

Feature StoryLife’s a Circus, Learn to Juggle

By Aleese Sarrouh As a teenager, life can seem like a circus, and you’re just not ready to perform. It can become hard to juggle family, friends, sports, and school all while balancing on unstable hor-mones and a search for self-identity. Thrown into high school, some teens aren’t prepared to handle all the stress. However, for those who have a very high emotional quotient, these four years could become less of a circus, and the stress may seem more like a chip on the shoulder than a boulder. What is Emotional Quotient? Throughout Strongsville High School, there are students who excel in their classes. Those people have a very high intelligent quotient, or IQ. Emotional quotient (EQ) is similar in that it’s a way to measure your intelli-gence, however instead of measuring your knowledge of facts; it measures your knowledge of morals. “Being able to be insightful and connect what you’re feeling in your heart to what you’re feeling in your mind represents a very good emo-tional quotient,” said Ms. Schemrich, the Family and Consumer Sciences teacher. “Some people are millionaires with everything in the world, and they could be very smart, yet they can’t keep a healthy relationship. Those kind of people may have a high IQ,

There’s just so much that I have to accomplish, and

I feel like everyone just expects me to do it

perfectly, and it becomes really overwhelming,

especially at the age that I’m at. I feel like I’m too young

to have all this pressure on me,”

Kimberly Short, junior, SHS

but a low EQ,” Ms. Schemrich said, “We wouldn’t say that they don’t know between right and wrong, just that they are ‘delayed’ with their emotional quotient.” This explains why some students seem to do really well in school, yet not so well in their personal life. “When you grow, you grow both cognitively and emotionally at the same rate. However, there is more of an emphasis on your cognitive growth than your emotional growth, and that’s where students who excel in school don’t necessarily excel per-sonally,” said Ms. Schemrich. Students learn and become knowl-edgeable about how to solve for “x” in the equation, but they never learn how to solve their emotions and stress and channel it in a more ratio-nal way, rather than breaking down or lashing out. According to Ms. Schemrich, the emotional growth of teens should be emphasized by their parents, but it’s hard. Some students come from a bad home life, and other parents al-ways worry about school and grades. This lack of emphasis leads students to not a very high EQ, and in turn not be able to handle stress very well. How Do You Determine Your EQ? Many psychologists and psychia-trists have made up tests to help de-termine how you rank on your EQ.

These tests involve in-depth ques-tions about your values, and “what would you do” scenario questions. Depending on the answers, one can determine how high or low their EQ is. Some even question whether you can take a test to determine how emo-tionally strong you are, and the idea of measuring your EQ becomes very controversial, especially with teenag-ers who are constantly developing mentally and emotionally, the results may change over time. Although controversial, more doc-tors have supported the theory of EQ, believing that it helps one real-ize where they are emotionally, and can help them take steps in the right direction. Stress and Your Emotional Quotient With the lack of emphasis on the emotional growth, students become extremely stressed very easily. Com-bined with unbalanced hormones, the smallest things could stress a teen out. “Guys always get me stressed, like if they don’t text back, or if they act immature,” said Amy Greicius, a ju-nior at Bay Village High School. Other students get stressed out over sports, such as Amanda LaMere, also a junior at Bay Village High School, whose balance of swimming and school is becoming extremely over-

whelming more often. “Most of the time after I’m done with swimming I just want to go home and relax, but I can’t because I have homework to do,” she said. Even stress from parents can be-come too much for students. Kimber-ly Short, a junior at Strongsville High School, expresses the feelings that most teenagers have. “There’s just so much that I have to accomplish, and I feel like everyone just expects me to do it perfectly, and it becomes really overwhelming, especially at the age that I’m at. I feel like I’m too young to have all this pressure on me.” However, stress isn’t necessarily bad, as Ms. Schemrich said, “When you’re planning your wedding, you have stress, but it works out. When you plan a vacation it can cause stress, but it works out. The stress now helps you build your character, and leads to a better reward in the future.” It’s not the stress that leads you to have a bad EQ, instead, having a high EQ leads you to understand how to handle your stress and manage it so it doesn’t become too overwhelm-ing. Stress only becomes a problem when you add in a lack of emotional coping mechanisms, which relates to your EQ. Knowing and learning how to de-velop a high EQ and managing stress is very important and crucial in life. According to Dr. Rainham, your EQ

is much more important than your IQ, because your EQ makes up of who you are, and your IQ just helps with what you know.

If it’s Important, Shouldn’t We Learn It? More of an emphasis is put on devel-oping your IQ, and your knowledge of understanding. However, some schools do give students the oppor-tunity to learn about managing stress and developing themselves in a hap-py, healthy way. The problem here is that the classes are optional, and due to budgets, not all schools offer them, Strongsville High School, however, does offer these courses. Another issue is that some believe that its parents’ job to teach their child how to become morally right and carry high values, and it’s not the schools job to impose. Ironically, the area where most stu-dents become stressed at is school, yet some schools may do a poor job at teaching students how to manage their stress and help develop in a pos-itive and productive way. Life can be a circus, and understand-ing how to develop your EQ is just the first step in leading to a healthier, well managed life. With a high EQ, we can learn to manage our stress, and when the spotlights hits you, you’ll be ready to juggle

The LanternJanuary 20112

3 The LanternJanuary 2011Feature Story

ELECTRONIC REQUIEM: Nick Gentry painted this mural on used computer disks (2010).

By Kelly Dobeck

That pile of old, dusty, and outdated electronics sitting in your basement is starting to grow. The common thing to do would be to throw out your items in the trash and forget about them. The problem is, throwing out your electronics is detrimental to our envi-ronment, and just because your elec-tronic device seems old to you, does not mean someone else less fortunate could be in need of it. Strongsville’s Youth Commission is well aware of this issue, and wants the community to get involved. “The SYC members think it is very important to keep these items out of landfills,” said Katherine Nykiel, leader of the Youth Commission. The “Lean, Mean, and Going Green” subgroup of the commission, with the help of The City of Strongsville, Jennifer Milbrandt, Strongsville’s Arborist, and the RET 3, a nonprofit organization that refurbishes and re-cycles electronics, have combined forces to bring awareness to the com-munity and to help out Northeast Ohio. The SYC sponsored a “Recycle Your Old Electronics” event January 15th, 2011 at the City Service Center in Strongsville, 16099 Foltz Parkway. The event ran from 10:00-2:00pm. “We decided to host this event af-ter Christmas to give people the op-portunity to properly dispose of their old electronics since many people get new electronics as gifts,” said Sarah Stalder, a junior at SHS and a SYC member. They collected a variety of items including old televisions, laptops, computer monitors, among other things. For more info on what is be-ing collected, you can visit The City of Strongsville’s website. “This recycling program benefits Northeast Ohio schools by refur-bishing and repurposing desperately needed computers and distributing them to classrooms around the re-gion,” Katherine explained. The items that cannot be reused will be remanufactured into raw materi-als and then resold as commodities. Profits made from these sales will go to support the RET 3 and their Green Computing Initiative Program. Items that are completely unusable will be recycled and unmanufactured into completely new products. “I hope that this event will bring awareness to the community that you can recycle more than just the typi-cal paper and plastic items and that there is an alternative to just throw-ing things away,” said Adrian Pa-din, a sophomore at SHS and a SYC member. Recycling electronics, or its indus-trial term, “Ecycling,” is spreading throughout Ohio. There are multiple recycling centers and facilities that will take your old electronics and in return, you might just get a little cash. If you drop off one an old comput-er’s Central Processing Unit (CPU), at the Ohio Drop Off in Columbus, you could get as much as $90 for one CPU. Many CPUs are gold-plated, making them more valuable. According to the United States Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA), “One metric ton of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times the concen-tration of gold ore mined in the Unit-ed States.” Every device given to the Ohio Drop Off gives you some profit in return, even if it is not much. For every laptop you give you get 75 cents, but the EPA said “Recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by

You Gotta Reduce, Reuse “Ecycle”

3,657 U.S. homes in one year.” Recycling laptops saves so much en-ergy because it takes more energy to produce new aluminum then to reuse and redistribute the aluminum from old laptops. LCD computer monitors can also be recycled in exchange for a profit, and the effects of these monitors laying in

products. According to the company, things like jewelry, plumbing pipes and faucets, cell phone accessories, patio furniture among other things can be made out of the materials recovered from cell phones. Another huge recycling trend spreading across the U.S. is recycling old batteries. Kinsbursky Brothers, a environmen-tal management company located in California, specializes in battery re-cycling. Kinsbursky recycles all major bat-tery chemistries including; Alkaline, NiCad, NiMH, Lithium and Lead-Acid batteries. “Batteries contain constituents that have been deemed hazardous to the health and safety of individuals in some capacity and therefore are re-quired to be recycled and managed in a way to mitigate these hazardous elements,” said Daniel Kinsbursky, a sales and marketing representative and Kinsbursky Brothers. NiCad batteries contain the hazard-ous chemical cadmium, while many of the other batteries, like the Lead-Acid battery, contain lead, another potentially dangerous chemical. “Lithium batteries are considered re-active, meaning if improperly stored or transported the batteries can over-heat and potentially catch themselves and surrounding materials on fire,” said Daniel when talking about the dangers of not recycling. When many of these batteries go through the recycling process, the re-

trieved lead and plastic from the bat-teries gets sent to a battery manufac-turing plant to restart the cycle. TOXCO Inc, another battery recy-cling center and a partner company on Kinsbursky Brothers, is one of the only companies the world that can re-cover lithium from batteries. Toxco uses a unique process by bury-ing the battery waste in earth-covered concrete. They have an 11-acre facil-ity which they entitled the “Toxco Trail.” On this trail they remove all of the batteries’ electrical energy and then store them at freezing

With the “Ecycling” trend grow-ing and legislation beginning to start initiating recycling laws, the future looks bright for our environment as well as our communities. So next time you see that pile of old electronics starting to rise in your basement, you may want to think twice about what you want to do with them.

“I hope that this event (Recycle Your Old

Electronics) will bring awareness to the

community that you can recycle more than just the typical paper and plastic items and that there is an

alternative to just throwing things away,”

Adrian Padin, sophomore, SHS and a SYC member.

landfills could be severe. LCD monitors are made with chem-icals like lead and mercury in order for them to function properly. Ohio eWaste, another facility that recycles electronics located in Co-lumbus, said that “These hazardous materials [lead and mercury] are sealed to protect users, but they will leach out into a landfill and eventu-ally find their way into the public wa-ter supply.” Ohio eWaste is big on recycling cell phones because almost all of the materials they are made out of can be refurbished and remade into new

“Recycling batteries and electronics has become

more popular because the general public has become

more green, choosing to recycle their waste

whenever possible,” Daniel Kinsbursky,

Kinsbursky Brothers, bat-tery recycling program

temperatures. “Recycling batteries and elec-tronics has become more popular because the general public has be-come more green, choosing to recy-cle their waste whenever possible,” Daniel Kinsbury said. Pretty soon many states will not have the choice. “Many states and cities have instituted recycling laws that require companies and individu-als to properly recycle their electronic waste,” Daniel explained.

Feature Story The LanternJanuary 20114

By Morgan Blank Students can be creative when they need to get something. They may not go the easiest direct route, but they will usually get to their destination. With the intense pressure from par-ents to get good grades, and pressure from friends to keep up their social lives it can be a lot to handle. Some of these kids are trying to make a short cut and are using prescription drugs as a crutch in school. About 3% of all school kids (K6-th grade) are diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disor-der). Another 2% of kids are diag-nosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). ADHD symptoms can be classified as inattentiveness, impulsiveness and uncontrollable hyperactivity all of the time. They often produce messy and careless work. People with this are easily distracted by irrelevant things

ties. Both of these disorders can af-fect school, work and relationships. People with these disorders are of-ten labeled as slackers, goof-offs, or trouble makers. ADD and ADHD symptoms have to be noted and present before the age of 7 in order to be diagnosed. Get-ting diagnosed can be a long process between a patient and their doctor. Doctors need the patient’s history, family medical records and the pa-tient has to take a test that can be up to five hours long. Many kids get their hands on these medications by faking symptoms to their doctor to see if the doctor will just write them a prescription without doing any testing. They also steal the medication. But the most common way kids get their hands on this me-diation is by getting it from diagnosed pa-

and walk out with a prescription af-ter practically no discussion,” said Joe, a student at SHS who wishes to remain anonymous. Adderall is a prescribed medi-cine that is used to treat ADHD and ADD. Vyvanse, Concerta and Dexedrine are generic versions of Adderall, used mostly to treat ADD. Ritalin is used in higher doses to treat ADHD. Adderall and Ritalin and their generic forms are all classi-fied as controlled substances. These medications are con-sidered controlled substances because they are very habit forming and likely to be abused. When these drugs are pre-scribed to ADD and ADHD patients they deliver a calming effect for someone who is usually high energy, unresponsive and inattentive. If someone were to take these drugs illegally without ADD/ADHD, the drugs can have an adverse and po-tentially harmful effect. They may experience chest pain, excessive amounts of energy, heightened awareness or many other side ef-fects. A Kansas State University study showed that 10-15% of college students are currently taking un-prescribed medica-tion of ADD or ADHD. “I’ve been working here (at SHS) for about 18 years and I have noticed that within the past few years it has become more prevalent. You hear kids in the hall bragging about what shenanigans they got into that week-end,” said Mr. Tumino,

a Strongsville High School Psychology teacher. In 2009, over 2,000 teenagers ad-mitted to the emergency room con-fessed to using Adderall illegally. The majority of those visitors to the ER had been there due to overdoses and bad reactions, as a result of this medication. Illegal uses of these drugs have been known to cause many harmful side effects. Psychotic/hallucinogen-ic episodes, antisocial behavior and increased heart rate have been noted. It may also cause seizures, motor tics, tremors, migraines, blurred vision and paranoia. The most common side effects are light headed feeling, chest pain, numbness, insomnia, addiction, dry mouth, loss of weight and high blood pressure. “Another risk can be psychosis, so it’s not worth the risk to be play-ing with a drug with these adverse ef-fects. Addiction is not a pretty face,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse when interviewed on 60 Minutes. With such a spike in the “normali-ty” of taking Adderall (and medicines like it) it leads many to wonder why they do it if they don’t have ADD/ADHD. There are many reasons stu-dents are taking it and it varies from person to person. After the first two hours of taking Adderall loss of appetite is possible so some teens take it as a way to lose weight. They believe that taking this will help them drop those few unde-sired pounds. Adderall when taken unneces-sarily can produce immense focus and concentration. Many kids take it to study or take a test. Since the medicine prevents them from sleep-ing (for up to 16 hours after taking it) they also use it to pull all-nighters to

Prescription Nightmares C lspeople who stroll into the (doctor’s) office and say ‘I have ADD’

“I was diagnosed with

the long test too. At the

time I thought it was

unnecessary, but now I think

it wasn’t. The people that are

selling it are the people who stroll

into the (doctor’s) office and say ‘I

have ADD’ and walk out with a

prescription after practically no discussion,”

“Joe,” a student at SHS who wishes

to remain anonymous.

“Another risk can be psychosis, so it’s not worth the risk to be playing with a drug with these adverse effects. Addiction is not a pretty face,” Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse when interviewed on 60 Minutes

and have trouble remaining quiet. ADD symptoms can be seen as being late, disorganized, overly for-getful, distracted, finding it hard to remain calm, and often become overwhelmed with the responsibili-

tients that are skipping doses to sell the pills for cash. “I was diagnosed with the long test too. At the time I thought it was un-necessary, but now I think it wasn’t. The people that are selling it are the

study. The use of Adderall is seen most often in college students, which many believe to be because they are under so much pressure to get good grades. Students are told that their future depends on how they do in college. Although Adderall can help some, for the majority of people it won’t help at all. For those who it does help, it only provides a temporary fix to a long term problem. If someone is caught taking Ad-derall that is not prescribed to them or trying to give it away or sell it, they can be in for long term conse-quences.

At SHS, if someone is caught with these prescriptions at school and they don’t have a prescription, they get a minimum of a ten day suspension and recommendation for expulsion. Then they would be charged with posses-sion of a controlled substance, which is a felony. If they are caught trying to sell it, they get all of the above plus felony drug trafficking. Humorously, in one of the only cases of the selling Ritalin both boys got their consequences and a little bit more. One student (who was pre-scribed Ritalin) sold a few pills to one of his friends the week of finals. The other student had never taken it before and he fell asleep during his

final and failed. The medication had the adverse effect on him and not only was he punished in the school he failed the class, when it rains, it pours. In Strongsville, Officer Brian said what they mostly see is prescription shopping. This is when people go from doctor to doctor (or pharmacy to pharmacy, like CVS or Walgreens) with fraudulent slips to see if they can get their hands on this medication. Although to many students it may seem like we hear of kids taking pre-scriptions all of the time, in the past

two years Officer Brian stated there have only been three cases involving Ritalin and Adderall at SHS. “The problem is that kids are so wise and the pills are so small that they have gotten creative by putting them in pens and folder,” said Officer Brian. The only way that the police can put a stop to all of these drug abuse situ-ations is by help from the people in our school. The Strongsville Police depart-ment has a new tip line that student and teachers can text to help. The number is 847411; and text TIPSPD. They could use all the help that they could get, and if we want to help out the school and make it better for ev-eryone, it is all on us.

Teenagers are finding prescription drugs are easier to obtain than some popular narcotics

A teenager is arrested for illegal possession of prescription drugs

eep Into Sch

Feature Story5 The LanternJanuary 2011

“Another risk can be psychosis, so it’s not worth the risk to be playing with a drug with these adverse effects. Addiction is not a pretty face,” Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse when interviewed on 60 Minutes

By Meredith Kinder

A young boy came to Camp Cheer-ful without being able to speak. After participating in their therapeutic rid-ing program, he left with his voice. The first words he spoke were “walk on” while encouraging his horse to move forward. Remarkable successes like this hap-pen all the time at Camp Cheerful, lo-cated here in Strongsville. The camp is run by Achievement Centers for Children which runs many other pro-grams for the benefit of children with a wide range of disabilities. Their mission is “to work with children with disabilities and their families to strengthen abilities and create oppor-tunities for lifelong achievement in society.” Therapeutic riding is horseback rid-ing lessons for adults and children with all kinds of disabilities. The use of equine oriented activities and the horse are used to achieve a variety of goals that are based on the individu-al’s strengths and abilities. Therapeutic riding programs like the

Horses Make Excellent Therapists Horses work so well for therapy as opposed to other animals because they are perceptive. “Horses will re-act to a person’s behavior. The horse will teach you patience,” said Jennifer Stankiewicz, the manager of equine programs at Camp Cheerful. A horse can tell if you’re scared, an-gry, or tense. If a horse senses those

fidence transcends into the rest of a person’s life. Horses are also ideal for physical therapy as well as emotional. The shape and movement of a horse’s back imitates the motions of a human pelvis which can help relax spastic muscles. People that have physical disabilities are aided in the improve-

Jesse Gonzales, the theraputic riding center manager for Rich-mond State School is shown with one of his riding therapy stu-dents, 24-year-old Chris Williams

A young boy prepares to ride a horse at Camp Cheerful

one at Camp Cheerful exist all over the country, even the world. With the help of horses, people with almost any disability can achieve great things. Some disabilities and disorders that benefit from therapeutic riding are autism, cerebral palsy, muscular dys-trophy, multiple sclerosis, amputa-tion, paralysis, and spina bifida. Not only are horses providing therapy for the physically disabled, but also for people with psychologi-cal disorders and behavior problems. People with disorders like ADD (attention deficit disorder) or post traumatic stress disorder can greatly better themselves with the help of a horse. Even criminals can benefit from working with a horse.

A healthy relationship with a horse is built on respect. If a person respects the horse, the horse will respect them back. This respect is why such a large and powerful animal will allow a per-son to ride on their back. Therapeutic riding programs ben-efit people socially as well. Through these programs, students learn team work and cooperation. They also learn to listen. Riding a horse can also help a per-son build confidence. Gene Lovasy from the board of directors for Valley Riding, located in Rocky River, and a usual volunteer at Camp Cheerful said, “Going through different rou-tines help a person become confident in controlling the horse.” This con-

Another agency is EAGALA (the Equine Assisted Growth and Learn-ing Association.) This agency has a team approach. The team consists of an equine specialist, a mental health professional, and a horse. EAGALA focuses on ground work so no mount-ed work is done, EAGALA has clients work with a horse to get through an obstacle course. The instructors let them fig-ure out solutions to the problems for themselves which improves problem-

s o l v i n g and en-c o u r a g e s clients to take risks. There are similar a g e n c i e s located in many other countr ies including Australia, F i n l a n d ,

South Africa, and France. Therapeutic riding programs such as the one at Camp Cheerful, or Valley

Riding run on one thing: teamwork. Stankiewicz said, “We work as a team to make things happen.” A huge part of the team consists of volunteers. Lovasy said, “You can’t run the program without volunteers.” The volunteers at Camp Cheerful and at Valley riding have achieved amazing goals with their students. “Things do happen if we envision it,” said Stankiewicz. Camp Cheerful, Valley Riding, and other therapeutic riding programs can always use more volunteers to join their team. Working with horses, whether it be riding, or just ground work, will cause a person to grow inside and out. Koch says, “Horses teach you compassion. They will reward you for hard work. They can teach you good judgment, patience and assertiveness. They will give you self-esteem. Horses have so much to give.” Horses can be therapists for any per-son, even those without disabilities or disorders. Riding a horse is a unique experience. When a rider and a horse really connect and move in harmony, it is an unbeatable feeling.

“Horses teach you compassion. They will reward you for hard work. They can teach you good judgment, patience and assertiveness. They will give you self-esteem. Horses have so

much to give,”Vicki Koch, horse trainer at

Baker Creek Farm, Columbia Station

emotions in you, they will be uneasy. If you are calm, the horse will be calm. Through working with horses, you learn to control yourself. In addition to teaching patience and self control, a horse will also teach you to be respectful, which is an im-portant lesson for anyone to learn. Stankiewicz said, “Horses are bigger animals. You automatically want to respect them.”

ment of their own movements. It also improves blood circulation and muscle tone. Balance, posture and strength also improve through riding a horse. Stu-dents can also gain flexibility and hand-eye coordination as well as vi-sual and spatial perception. “Riding a horse requires you to use all of your senses,” said Vicki Koch, a horse trainer at Baker Creek Farm in Co-lumbia Station. Riding a horse is a way to learn how to solve problems. Koch said, “Horses repeat behaviors,” therefore if a horse does something once, like breaking (when they stop without you telling them to), they will most likely repeat that behavior. This gives you the opportunity to figure out what you should do differently to prevent that behavior. And it also teaches you to watch the horse’s body language so you can prevent a behavior before it happens. “I have seen a kid that could only lay down on a horse sit up, or kids holding reins when they couldn’t be-fore. Also I see kids posting for the first time,” said Stankiewicz. (Post-ing is when the rider rises and falls in rhythm with the horse’s trot.) Therapeutic riding is popping up all over the country NARHA ( N o r t h A m e r i -c a n R i d i n g for the H a n d i -c a p p e d A s s o -ciation) is one o rgan i -zation that offers programs such as Horses for Heroes, a program dedi-cated to rehabilitating war veterans. NARHA has centers in many states.

6 Feature Story The LanternJanuary 2011

Holistic Medicine Helping Heal LivesBy Aubrey Sinclair

Misrepresentations of being witch-craft, a fad, and even ineffective are spread around about holistic medi-cine all the time. Until it currently became popular, these rumors have been overshadowing the truth and success of this growing practice. This form of medicine focuses on the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional elements of a person as they work as one to bring on total wellness. These ideas tend to be ne-glected in the hectic everyday lives of many people. As of late, holistic medicine has popularized all over the country. Ho-listic medicine has become almost a ten billion dollar industry. The reason for its popularity is be-cause it goes beyond what a normal prescription can do, taking all the components of the body and putting them together to create total well-ness. Holistic medicine is dated all the way back to the fourth century B.C., from Socrates. He looked at the body as a whole and how it could live in harmony with nature. With all of the technology and knowledge of the body today, holistic physicians can assist more patients in obtaining complete wellness in their lives. Dr. Tim Weeks of Backbone of Health in Medina, Ohio helps his patients by checking the nutrition-al, toxic, structural imbalance, and stressful aspects of their lives and bodies. “We don’t treat diseases, we treat the body,” said Weeks. Last month, Dr. Weeks had three children under the age of eight come in with Tourette syndrome. By us-ing the holistic practices of altering their diets and using nutrition, all three children now show no signs of Tourettes. He considers this one of his biggest successes. Regular medicine saves lives ev-ery day, but that does not mean that it is completely curing the problem. “Drugs just control symptoms. We’re not trying to control symptoms, but fix the problem,” said Weeks. Going to the doctor and receiving a prescription will just cure the symp-toms of what is wrong with someone. Holistic medicine is like solving a mystery. Uncovering what the cause

of the problem is and finding ways to treat that cause is what it is all about. Almost every prescription a per-son takes will have side effects to it. Many people have misconstrued ideas about holistic medicine and its side effects. “That’s the great thing, there are none,” said Dr. Weeks. The worst that could happen is that a pa-tient is not cured and leaves with the same thing they came in with. The aspect of many people’s lives that is put on hold is nutrition. It seems like food with less nutritional

value dominates in our culture today. “The word diet is kind of a depress-ing term. Eat real food, 100 years ago on a farm kind of food,” said Weeks. The health of America is spiraling downward. According to Bill Hen-

drick from WebMD, in 2009 about 63% of American adults are obese or overweight. Holistic medicine encourages every-one to eat all natural foods. In turn, these foods can change other aspects of a person’s life. “I realized feeling good and having energy is better than the satisfaction of eating junk food,” said Weeks. Some problems are not as easy as walking away from that slice of cake. Many people suffer from emotional imbalance which can be hard for the

physician to treat. An even harder part of the job for these physicians is when a patient truly does not want to get well. “Some people live for their disease,” said Dr. Weeks. These patients can cause the process to extend longer or be delayed. The patient has to want to get better be-fore they can be healed. If the patient is “living for their disease,” then they need to be put on the track of wanting complete wellness for themselves. Even the issues that seem incurable have a chance with holistic medicine. There are endless possibilities with this practice.

think will save them time and money, prescription drugs. “Over 60% of the population takes some sort of drug every day,” said Weeks. The world that we live in is all about what is most convenient at the moment. Most people think that it requires taking pills or painful in-jections to help them feel better. “A lot of people think it’s harder,

longer, more expensive, but it’s really faster than regular medicine and can be cheaper,” said Dr. Weeks.

“We don’t treat the diseases, we treat the

body”

“Over 60% of the population takes some sort drug every day”

So many people think it will take too long or cost too much money. People tend to opt for the option they

By getting to the root of the prob-lem, doctors can help heal these con-ditions with a holistic approach. Katie Sinclair, a 19 year old fresh-man in college has had outdoor al-lergies her whole life. She went through painful allergy injections and still suffered from being outside most summers. After taking a holistic approach to her condition, she began to suffer less and less from her allergies. “I used to think this was fake, but ever since I went through holistic medicine, I’m a firm believer in it,” said Katie. Success came to another person suf-fering from allergies. Sixteen year old Nicole Yambor found herself with a food allergy, specifically to fructose. “They gave me a vile of what I was allergic to and when he tried to push my arm down it was weaker than if I didn’t have it,” said Yambor. She began to feel better, and would go back weekly to do the same thing. Weeks turned into months, and even-tually she was required to go once a year. She now enjoys being able to eat the things she once was allergic to. Holistic medicine has come a long way from its days of being mocked. According to Jonathan Benson of NaturalNews.com and the National Institutes of Health, about 40% of people in the United States use treat-ments that are not taught in Western medical schools. Following the trend could be the difference between masking the prob-lem and living a life of total wellness. The only way to truly prove its suc-cess is to take on the holistic experi-ence.

“I used to think it was fake...”

By Justin Gentile

Imagine staying up all night wait-ing for nothing. You’re sitting on the desert sand trying to stay awake. Now imagine you’re driving your car with your friends when the front part of your car blows up and you’re sent flying in the air. To many of us, this would be just a nightmare. We would soon wake up and start a new day. But to Specialist Joseph Gentile, this was not a dream. On June 20th 2007 at 10:47 local time, Joe was patrolling in the Iraqi desert for the United States Army. “I was doing a normal patrol with my group when an IED (improvised explosive device, or roadside bomb)

hit the front of my car and blew up,” he said. This blast from the ground would change his life forever. It broke 95% of the bones in his feet and shines. Being able to do basic things, such as walking, become a struggle. Let’s start at the beginning of Joe Iraqi tour.

in life,” he said. In early January of 2006, Joe found more then he ever thought he would. He was flown into the small country of Kuwait to get into Iraq. He spent 11 months and 13 days serving in Iraq. He did jobs such as driving, cleaning, and even helping find wanted people in cities.

he said. “It felt like something out of a video game.” Besides the physical effects, some soldiers come back after the war with mental problems. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is on the rise for soldiers. Symptoms for PTSD are nightmares,

suicidal threats, flashes of anger, and guilt. Besides the physical problems, Joe says he is better then when he left. “Yes I have had physical problems from the accident, but no mental

War From a Different View

See View page 7

“Before I went into the war I viewed it as a job but knew that I couldn’t have a political view in it. Now I realize why I was there. It wasn’t about oil. It was about freedom. It was

important for us to be there,”Specialist Joe Gentile

Trying to find something to do with his life, he enlisted into the army at age 20. “I needed something to do with my life. I knew there was more

“My best story was when I was able to jump out of a helicopter in the mid-dle of a town, kick down a door to a house, and get a suspect we needed,”

7 Feature Story The LanternJanuary 2011

By Mike Chips

Is it better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all? This expression has been cast around for decades. Yes it is corny, cheesy, and a lot of other adjective. But de-spite it being one of the most awful clichés of all time, it still holds true today. People are everywhere. There are approximately 6.8 billion living on Earth at any given time, with hun-dreds of thousands being born each day. So it is only expected that after awhile, meeting that quote unquote significant other, is bound to happen. However, the reoccurring question many face is, “Where?” Obviously there are many potential avenues that can be easily accessed. Several of the most popular are as follows: school, work, a party, online, bars, out and about, or even through friends. So now the answer to, “Where?” has been answered.

Relationship Avenues: Broad to Specific Work has, is, and will continue to be a place where many people meet and form relationships. The work field is so vast that all possible options and opportunities are available. Take Mr. and Mrs. Lackey for example. Met at Strongsville High School and mar-ried thereafter. But, there is a downside. Especially in recent years, the etiquette that must be followed when interacting with co-workers has become increasingly stricter. This is just another example of American oversensitivity and is unfortunate for all. Parties, ranging from small get-to-gethers to raging bashes, are another good way to meet people. Smaller get-togethers typically emit a more intimate atmosphere; whereas, raging bashes provide a better opportunity to meet many different people in a short period of time. “Gary” (who wished to remain nameless) is a prime example. He benefitted from attending a smaller party by meeting his current fiancé. The only problem with this avenue is that party people are natural born. This meaning it takes a certain type of personality to be able to conquer and feel content in this particular en-vironment. A relatively new way people can meet is through the internet or online dating services. With each passing day this approach is becoming more and more popular. To be precise, per site, around ten to fifteen thousand new users register each day. There are also approximately twenty mil-

However, the recurring

question many face is

“Where?” But, which way is the best? That is a question that can only be answered by the searcher. As is apparent, all peo-ple are different, even identical twins. Everybody has their own unique as-sortment of likes and dislikes; there-fore the atmosphere one deems most comfortable should most likely be the starting point of the quest. For younger people, school is clear-ly one of the most impactful ways to connect with the social world. This is mainly due to the fact that it is a great collaboration of peers. Another reason is that school is in session ten out of the twelve months of the year. Schools have always been a safe place to meet others and form relationships, however short or long they might last. But, some believe they are not as reliant a place to base relationships off of anymore. A lot has changed over time. If com-pared to the past, more cliques within schools exist today than ever before. This then results in extreme diversity among personalities, which seldom leads to successful relationships.

A small get together may spark a relationship

A school-sparked relationship may be the best bet for teens

of 20-24 are most likely to split. All the numbers are available. So the only remaining question pertaining to online dating services is, “Are they worth the money?” And that question can only be an-swered by the paying customer and their standpoint on the whole ordeal. The bar scene has been around since the Wild West. It has consistently fluctuated and is truly an unpredict-able channel to relationships. “I’ve never experienced success at bars. But, there’s something about them that keeps me and others coming back for more,” said “Jon” (who wished to remain nameless). Random encounters while partici-pating in daily activities are another way people can meet. Romantics be-lieve that during this avenue fate, the universe, or some other sort of voo-doo takes over. This is probably the least reliable of all the popular paths, but still remains an option for those that aren’t necessarily go-getters. The final way to meet that so-called significant other is through a similar friend connection. T his can mean one of two things. There is always a person out there that likes to play matchmaker. At some point that person will either in-troduce the two people to one another or utilize the art of persuasion on both parties and convince them to meet for a blind date. The key to this method is the match-

But, how effective are these

sites?lion users per site. But, how effective are these sites? On average 236 members marry per day in the United States. But, when all the numbers are crunched the per-cent of people that marry in compari-son to the number of people that are set-up is a measly 0.00118%. Not to mention, 41% of first time marriages ending in divorce. Second time marriages go through divorce 60% of the time and third marriages is a brutal 73%. Numbers also show that men and women who marry between the ages

maker and their ability to correctly analyze similar or complimentary characteristics of people. The majority of avenues mentioned aren’t exactly paths that high school students are able to travel. And since this article is going to be in a high school newspaper it should have some relevancy to the student body. For those that talk during announce-ments instead of paying attention, in the past a makeshift matchmaker ser-vice was established. It involves students filling out paper

Interaction at the workplace might lead to meeting that special person

work and after an allotted period of time receiving recommended match-es. It hasn’t been a huge success in putting people together, but it’s still a fun program to participate in. There are a lot of options, but in the end it comes down to environmental comfort and priorities. Rushing into a situation is not advised. Patience is the key because someday that person will come around. There are 6.8 bil-lion humans on Earth and the possi-bilities are endless.

problems. I feel like I came back even more relaxed and mellower then once I left.” Even though the hardest thing for him while he was gone was getting hurt, he also said that not being able to finish his tour with his friend was just as tough. “I made friends with all the people in my group. Once I left I knew I wasn’t going to be able to help them. I wasn’t going to be able to keep in touch with them.” He said. He later went on saying that he had even lost a few people while out there, but continues to keep in touch with almost everyone who has came back from his group. Surviving the war was Joe biggest task, but it was not the only task. He went through boot camp and trained so he could survive. Now that he is out, he tries to find a way back into a civilized life. Almost four years after the accident, Joe finds himself going into college and looking for a new job. He does admit he took a lot from the war to better help himself.

His viewpoint from the beginning of the war to the end changed drasti-cally. “Before I went into the war I viewed it as a job but knew that I couldn’t have a political view in it.” He said. “Now I realize why I was there. It wasn’t about oil. It was about free-dom. It was important for us to be there.” Before he left the war, Joe said he seemed like his life was going no where and did not know what he should do. After his tour in Iraq, life seems sig-nificantly clearer for him. “Life is too short. You should enjoy it. Life is a gift not a chore,” he said. Joe has many hopes now that he is back. He hopes to go to college, get a job, and continue with his life. The last question Joe answered might have been the most surprising. Knowing what has happened through out the last four to five years, Joe said if he had the option to go into the war or not, he would still do it. “In a heart beat. I would do it again as long as I’m with the same guys doing the same thing. I miss it every day, I truly do,” he said.

View from page 6

Feature Story8 The LanternJanuary 2011

By Brianna Horn

A Shock to the System On a routine visit to the school re-stroom, I found myself in a state of horror. Someone had scrawled a ma-licious declaration of hatred directed at one of my friends. I couldn’t be-lieve that one of my peers had taken the time to publicly decry someone that has always demonstrated kind-ness and compassion. However, this occurrence height-ened my awareness of all of the pre-meditated destruction in our school. In almost every restroom, one can find scrawled rumors, curses, and foul descriptions of bodily functions. They are often inappropriate for an R-rated movie, let alone a place for education. Besides being uncomfortable to read, these acts of vandalism are enough to lead to depression. One student explained, who wishes to re-main anonymous, “I was in the bath-room by the choir room when I saw “Becky* is a #@&$!.” It made me re-ally sad that someone would stereo-

The Writing on the Walla half hour every day cleaning up the vandalism in the restrooms. And while a half hour may not seem like a long time, this ends up being at least 123 hours or five complete days per year of cleaning up an unnecessary mess. And this half hour of cleanup time is

I was surprised to find that police of-ficers check into threats that are re-ported in the restrooms. Officer Brian Kadlec, who patrols the halls of the high school, explained that there are consequences for de-stroying school property. In this year alone, there have been about ten iso-lated incidents of criminal damaging that required students to pay for the

Messages like these are a constant problem in the bathrooms at SHS

type me. Whoever wrote it clearly doesn’t know me.” Psychologist and professor at Rad-ford University, Dr. Jeffery Chase, explained, “Vandalism to me is basi-cally anger. It can be displacement- displacement in the technical sense is that vandals wish to do something against a more threatening object or individual, so they vent their anger on something safer.” It is disheartening to think that stu-dents here at Strongsville High School have enough pent-up aggression to completely disregard and disrespect school property. It is a complete waste of time, money, and energy, and a poor way to release anger.

“I’m surprised that there is so much graffiti here, considering Strongsville’s reputation.

They are supposed to be the elite of the elite,”

Mr. Gary Adler, SHS Custodianonly taking into account that students have created vandalism that can be easily cleaned off. Tougher jobs re-quire a half hour of painting per spot. This time could be spent doing other things to make our school a safe and comfortable place to work and learn. Students need to remember that the condition of the restrooms and the way we treat our property dictates how visitors will treat our school.

Mr. Brooks and other custodians spend a great deal of time attempting to remove graffiti in rest-rooms

Messages like this are not only immature, but completely ignorant and embarrassing

The halls are always bustling with visitors from other cities be it sport-ing events or church services. The condition of our facilities is a direct reflection of our city and the student body. Budget problems dic-tate that we don’t have enough mon-ey to make all the renovations that we need; So why are students perpetuat-ing the cycle of destruction?

Got Confidence? Lead psychologist for the Strongs-ville city school district, Mrs. Kath-leen Fitzgerald, said that when some-one desecrates school property to put someone else down, they are, “Not standing behind what they are saying. It is a coward’s way out.”

replacement of the property. People who are accused of crimi-nal damaging can be, “Charged or arrested, required to appear in court, pay a fine or restitution,” said Officer Brian. The repercussions from dam-aging property are a waste of time for government officials and a waste of tax payers’ money.

Translation to the Cyber World And bathrooms are not the only places in the world where walls are vandalized. In 2009, the popular gossip site, peoplesdirt.com, was shut down because of the indiscretion of its users. The website, sponsored by Go-Daddy.com, was the target of much criticism, as it was intended to act as the bathroom wall of the cyber world. It allowed its three million viewers a day to search by city, county, and high school; so that students could victimize one another, and be sure that someone from their hometown would see it. The creators of the site asserted, “There is no avenue for people to ex-press their feelings, their emotions, and their secrets…anonymously.” However, does creating a site specifi-cally for high schoolers to attack each

other seem like the best way for stu-dents to release their anger? Debra Munk, the principal of Rockville High School, where many students suffered from comments made on peoplesdirt.com, explained, “There is no limit to what is said. People can say it’s free speech, but it’s just very toxic for our kids and their culture.”

Where is the Love? The reasons for acts of aggression have been contemplated and debated

“When a person doesn’t want to put their name behind something they wrote about someone else, they know it is not a positive behavior,”

Mrs. Kathleen Fitzgerald, Strongsville City Schools Lead Psychologist

“The moment we begin tolerating meanness, in ourselves or others, we are using our

authorial ower in the service of wrongdoing. We have both the capacity and

the obligation to do better,”Martha Bech, writer, Oprah.com

A Firsthand Look Someone who has certainly felt the effect of vandalism is Mr. Gary Adler, a regular custodian at SHS. He explained that there is always a lot more graffiti in the girl’s restroom than the boy’s. “It’s sad that these girls are constantly putting each other down.” Mr. Adler also reflected that, “I’m surprised that there is so much graf-fiti here, considering Strongsville’s reputation. They [the residents and students] are supposed to be the elite of the elite.” The custodial crew spends at least

She also explained that this form of vandalism is a way to escape the necessity of assuming responsibility for one’s actions. “When a person doesn’t want to put their name behind something they wrote about someone else, they know it is not a positive be-havior.” These actions are a way for students to bully other students without fear of repercussion. This form of indirect bullying is, “a really low and mean behavior,” Mrs. Fitzgerald adds. And not only does vandalism cause emotional turmoil in victims, but can result in legal problems for creators.

forever. Jacques Lucan, a psycho-analyst, dictated that, “Aggression results as a psychological defense against threats of fragmentation. Our first task in life is to develop a coher-ent identity which pulls together this

Sometimes writing on the wall isn’t enough. Some students feel it necessary to waste custodians’ time cleaning this up

fragmented confusion.” But it seems that what has been hap-pening at SHS is simple meanness. The vulnerability of the human soul creates endless opportunities for ag-gressors to hurt their victims. Martha Beck, a writer for Oprah.com, explains, “The moment we be-gin tolerating meanness, in ourselves or others, we are using our authorial power in the service of wrongdoing. We have both the capacity and the obligation to do better.”

This phenomenon needs to stop tak-

ing place at Strongsville High School. There are better ways to relieve pain and aggression than desecrating school property and degrading oth-ers. We owe it to ourselves and the community.

Feature Story9 The LanternJanuary 2011

By Chris Barth

The world of sports is more than just a game. It teaches athletes to build character, how to fight through adver-sity, and teaches life lessons. Emotions run wild in the heat of battle, sometimes for the good or the bad. When those emotions go from good to bad in a matter of one year, it’s all how the players and teams respond. Will they fight through adversity, or will they give up and throw in the towel? Five playoff appearances in a row, Eastern Conference champions, and in 2009-2010 NBA season, the Cleve-land Cavaliers finished as the NBA’s best team. It was a significant accomplish-ment that a Cleveland team has not achieved for a very long time. The Cavaliers and the city of Cleve-land were on the highest level, and felt invincible. With the best home record in the NBA, they became a powerhouse. With only 21 loses the Cavs became the most difficult team to play. The regular season showed that the Cleveland Cavaliers could not be stopped. With the amazing regular season the team was in the number one spot for the playoffs. It was Cleveland’s year to finally win a ma-jor championship. The Cavs hit a bump in the road against the Boston Celtics and then were eliminated from the playoffs in the second round. It was the be-ginning of the end for the Cleveland Cavaliers. After the loss to the Celtics the

Cavaliers would slowly watch the franchise decline miserably. The head coach Mike Brown was then fired along with the general manager Danny Ferry. The only thing to save the franchise was the hometown hero and two-time MVP LeBron James. What LeBron would do, would crush the hopes and dreams of the Cavaliers organization. He left the team and joined the Miami Heat. The Cavs had to look into the mirror and think, “Is it time to stand up and prove them wrong, or pack it in and call it quits?” Following the best year for the team, the Cavs slowly became the worst team in the NBA. It is one of the biggest turnarounds in sports history. In a matter of one season the Cleveland Cavaliers were the best team in the NBA in 2010 to the worst in 2011. In a two-year span, do the Cavaliers have the biggest collapse in sports history? The 1964 New York Yankees season was one of the best seasons the Yan-kees have had. The Yankees had made it to World Series year after year in that era. They created one of the best franchis-es in all of sports. The Yankees kept getting better and better every year. As the years went on the team start-ed to get old. The Yankee franchise could soon be coming to an end. The players put it all aside and knew there was still business to attend to. In the 1964 season the Yankees had one of their best regular seasons ever, finishing 99-62, first in the American League, winning their 29th pennant. With manager Yogi Berra the Yan-

From Best to Worstkees had all the components of a championship team. The Yankees did go to the World Series that year, but fell short losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. After the loss in the World Series the Yankee franchise started to go downhill. It was the end point of the “Old Yan-kees” along with the ownership. In 1964 the Yankees were purchased from Topping and Webb for $11.2 million. The Yankees organization began to fall. Finishing last in the American League for the first time since 1912. The Yankees declined so fast, but how? The change of the management along with the retirement of players. The chemistry had left and the Yan-kees had to start all over from square one. The Strongsville Mustangs have al-ways been a strong force on the foot-ball field. Strongsville has a great program and a lot of good teams. No team was bet-ter than then the 2008 football team. In 2008 the Strongsville Mustangs had their best season ever finishing the regular season 9-1. “This team had leaders, and guys who know how to win,” said Coach Jacques. The team was mature and knew how to play at the varsity level. Jacques said, “A lot of the guys have been playing on varsity since their sophomore and junior year.” The Mustangs had a lot of talent on the team. “We had no personal egos,” said senior Dave Kaminski. “The guys banded together, had the mind-set we would do great and we made it happen,” Kaminski said.

The team that played on Friday nights was made up of mostly seniors who have played with one another since freshmen year. The team put aside it personalities and joined together as one person. It worked out in the Mustangs favor by finishing 11-1 and making it to the third round in the playoffs. With the best team in Strongsville history the seniors graduated and now came the turn for the guys who watched on the sideline. As the 2009 season kicked off the Mustangs went into the season on a high note. The team played two pre-season games, at both played good football. “If there was one thing I can change about that year is the teams we scrimmaged,” Jacques said. The team came into the year thinking that the luck was going to continue. The Stangs started out the season 0-4. It was the first time in school history that a football team was win-

less the first four games. “It seemed like some of our guys thought just because we were good previously, that we would be handed greatness again,” said Dave. The team continued to practice hard and believe in the coaching. Al-though the team ended up winning an all time low three games Coach Jacques was pleased with the team. “The guys on that football team never quit, they always prac-ticed hard and fought through adver-sity.” Jacques continued saying “they kept fighting and scratching, and that will help them later in life.” Sports play a big role in lives of many. It teaches how to fight through adversity, and builds character. The hardest thing is to go from the best of the best to the worst of the worst. That’s the thing that makes sports great; never know what’s going to happen next.

The Cavs had a lot to celebrate in 2010, winning 61 games

There’s little to get excited about this year’s Cavalier team. The team is forced to watch their season slip away each and every night.

By Keli Smith

Sit down. With your feet flat on the ground, you watch the light go back and forth. Left, right, left, right. Go inside your mind and inside your soul. Visit yourself in that very memory, the one you just cannot forget. Notice it. Feel it, taste it, touch it. Let your feelings free. Your breathing gets heavy. Your hands start shaking. It brings you to tears. You visit yourself in that very moment. Talk to yourself. Help your-self. Times up: You are healing. Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (commonly known as EMDR) is a newer therapy technique that specializes in helping people with Post Traumatic Stress Disor-der. It treats conditions such as anxi-ety, loss, and insomnia, and handles trauma from events like violence and abuse. It was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro, PhD in the late 1980s after she noticed that eye move-ment patterns relieved the amount of anxiety in her patients. Since 1989, psychologists from around the coun-

try have been using EMDR success-fully. Eye Movement Desensitization Re-processing involves rapid eye move-ment from left to right, stimulating both sides of the brain. While this happens, the patient is forced to think about the unresolved experiences that are stuck inside of them. They are to think about the past, present, and fu-ture of the experience while noticing the feelings and sensations that they are exposed to. Feelings and memories are brought out during this process. Depending on the memory, EMDR may take several sessions. It has been known to move people in many different ways. “I came home from my first ses-sion and cried for hours. I was so depressed and emotional that day. I hadn’t thought about the divorce in a long time. I just kept it bottled up and letting it out was the hardest thing ever,” said a 21 year old living in Strongsville. The young lady (who wishes to be anonymous) has been scarred for about a decade since her parents’ di-vorce. Although the event happened when

she was ten years old, the memory and feelings associated with it have been magnified over the years, hold-ing her back from almost everything “Everything leads back to that day and it’s hurting in areas of my life that have nothing to do with divorce like my own relationships and the way I look at myself,” she said. Along with the intense emotions brought out in this process, there are also several positive results to the re-processing. “The first day was the hardest, but every session gets easier because I’m letting everything out, one little event at a time. My head is clearer and I’m happy with how I’ve been handling everything so far,” said the young lady with a smile. The young lady started EMDR just a few weeks ago. Although she has not quite finished her sessions yet, she seems to be satisfied with the success so far. Dr. Leneigh White is one of the many psychologists turning to Eye Move-ment Desensitization Reprocessing as a treatment for her patients. She sees it as a positive break from tradi-tional therapy.

“It takes patience and strength, but it looks at the mind from a whole new approach. EMDR causes people to feel equal to their problems and not like they are overpowering them. I’ve seen so much success in so little time,” said Dr. White. EMDR has been known to help sev-eral conditions, but the conditions that will benefit the most from this technique are High anxiety, Depres-sion, feelings of guilt, and Relation-ship problems. The biggest candidate for successful EMDR is Post Traumatic Stress Dis-order (PTSD). PTSD consists of too many negative feelings from a specific experience. 57 year old Jeanne Urban from Med-ina, Ohio knows all about PTSD. Her son has been fighting in Iraq on and off for about four years. “I slept terrible for the first couple years, and then it turned to me getting sick to my stomach every time Ryan came into my mind, which was very often,” she said. Jeanne started therapy with hesita-tion. She thought the idea of therapy depending on eye movement did not make sense.

“I’ve never really been into that intense therapy stuff, but I gave it a chance. I thought the worst that could happen is that it won’t affect me at all, so it’s worth trying,” she said. Seven months and close to 100 ses-sions later, she is treated. With her son in her heart and mind, Jeanne is able to function properly from day to day, while hoping for the best. “I’m proud of myself for letting go and letting the doctor do her thing, because it turned out being something that changed the way I see things. I don’t want to sound corny and say that it saved my life, but it definitely saved me from something,” she said slowly but surely. EMDR has worked for a majority of the people that try it- 84-90% to be exact. Recent studies have shown that EMDR is twice as effective as tradi-tional one-on-one therapy. This has been a breakthrough tech-nique in the world of psychology. A simple visit or two back to a memory can make a world of difference in the emotional healing of an individual. Let the healing begin.

Open Your Mind: The New Psychological Technique Rapidly Growing

Feature Story The LanternJanuary 201110

By Olivia Regotti

You have just been diag-nosed with a serious heart condi-tion. You do some research and find out that the procedure will leave you bedridden for several months. Dur-ing those several months you plan to watch TV and play video games. But did you know that those video games could help you to a faster re-covery. Da Vinci surgery is a new type of minimally invasive surgery. With the use of Da Vinci, surgeons can now perform minimally invasive surger-ies for very intricate surgical proce-dures. Da Vinci surgery got its name from Leonardo Da Vinci because he in-vented the first robot and in order to make his artwork come alive he used three-dimensional details. The Da Vinci system is two parted. While you doctor is sitting at the Da Vinci console he views a 3D image. Simultaneously, “state-of-the-art robotic and computer technologies scale, filter and seamlessly translate your surgeon’s hand movements into precise micro-movements of the da Vinci instruments.” The machine does not operate on its own, so there is no need to worry about the system taking control. Da Vinci needs the surgeon’s approval to actually perform the surgery. The system replicates the move-ments of the surgeon making the inci-sions more precise through real time control. Also, the system gives the surgeon some force feedback, which is much like a game controller rum-bling. Because the system uses “minia-

t u r i z e d wristed in-

struments and a high-definition

3D camera” surgeries a r e more accurate and less pain-ful. This leads to a faster recovery. So where do video games come into play? Well the images that the doctor sees on the screen while using the Da Vinci tool have been developed by video game technology. When first being developed the im-age was just flat, but with the help of video game technology, Robert Howe, PhD developed the idea to split the flat images in a way so the image comes up as a hologram. Not only are video games making an impact in medicine, they are also impacting education. Many gaming companies are pushing to release educational video games. “Video games could affect learning in the classroom in a positive way. Most children spend more time play-ing video games then they do watch-ing TV, so why not incorporate their interest into the curriculum. Children will really want to learn if their inter-ests are met in the classroom,” said Sheree Simrak, an early childhood student teacher. Having video games in the class-room could grasp the students’ atten-tion, allowing them to have fun and learn at the same time. However, video games in the class-room could be a distraction to some kids, but Simrak believes that they would only be a distraction if over used and if instructions were ignored by the students. “I am unsure if I would want to use video games in my classroom. They sound like a fun idea but I would not

want the students to become depen-dent on them. However, incorporat-ing them into my curriculum would allow the students to have a lot of fun while learning,” Simrak adds when asked if she would use video games in here curriculum. “If it was a way to teach children, and I know they are learning and re-taining information, I would have no objections. But, I think I would use it as a reward and not have it embedded in everyday curriculum,” answered Jessica Cramer, also an early child-hood student teacher. Although video games are making contributions to medicine and educa-tion, they are still causing some issues in some people’s lives. Video games can be a fun way to relax, but when they start to take over your life, they become very dangerous. Some negative effects of video gam-ing include obesity, violent tenden-cies, social isolation, and drops in school performance. The longer you sit playing video games the less likely you will get up and exercise. This leads to possible obesity. People begin to isolate themselves. All they want to do is stay home and play their games. But when they fall back into reality they often do not know how to act. Since they are sit-ting in front of a TV all day they start to lose their social skills. Also, video games can cause you to have a drop in work performance. In-stead of concentrating on work peo-ple are too busy with their games. “I’ve stayed up past midnight play-ing a game,” admits Lexi Cardella. When people play video games for too long they tend to not realize the difference between the here and now

to the game. Games can be deceiving; for example, you do not respawn after getting shot in real life. When people get entrapped in their game world they lose their sense of reality. This loss of reality contributes to violent tendencies. There have been several accounts in which someone has died because of video games. For example, a Philadelphian man murdered his daughter in a fit of rage over his broken Xbox. Gamers may also feel dependant on the games. Daniel Petric, an Ohioan teen, shot his parents after they took away his Halo 3 game. Not everyone has a serious addiction to video games, but that doesn’t mean you cannot be sucked into one. “As with anything, I think that you will have some kids who will abuse

them and not want to do anything else or you could have kids who just will play sometimes and others who will never want to play. It depends on the person,” Cramer said. Games have there pros and there cons. If you have self control and can determine when you need to stop playing video games can be fun. Video games, although dangerous to some people, are still helping our world. If games enter the world of ed-ucation, they will help students have fun while learning. Da Vinci is another example of video game technology helping. So when you are sitting in bed with less pain, thanks to Da Vinci Surgery, makes sure to the video games for allowing the development of such a breakthrough process in our time.

Gamingis

Taking over

More and more surgeons are utilizing the benefits of the Da Vinci

Feature Story The LanternJanuary 201111

By Michael Monachino

In early May of 2010 a contract was signed to build a cell tower in Strongs-ville. Not knowing were or when it was going to be built, Strongsville’s City Council was a bit iffy about the idea at first. The original cell tower was going to be 190 ft and somewhere near the post office on Pearl Rd. The City Plan-ning Commission and City Council did not vote for tat idea though. When the issue was first brought up City Council did not want anything to do with the tower. Out of seven peo-ple not one voted for the Cell Tower. Having a 69.9 million dollar budget in the city, Strongsville’s Mark Don-nelly kept pushing the issue, knowing the city could get revenue out of the project. (And also better cell phone reception.) As the location was moved around to a better spot, so did the height of the tow-er. Subtracting 30 ft from the tower was the move that got the ball rolling. At the next meeting h e l d b y the

Board Of Education the new options were discussed and City Council was all for the idea than. Of seven voters it was a 100% yes all around the table this time. “I don’t know how the voting went from 0-7 to 7-7, I guess the height was the biggest factor,” said Mark Donnelly. After the contract was signed every-thing was all set and done, Strongs-ville was going to get a cell tower. It is now going to be located on school grounds between the

soccer and baseball field. It will also be on a 2,500 sq ft platform.

You may be asking yourself why is the

city actually getting a cell tower, do we actu-

ally need one? Maybe there is nothing wrong with your cell phone com-pany and it’s reception. The reasoning for the tower coming to our city is because there are so many people. Having over 40,000 people in this city there are calls and texts al-ways being made. Because of all the phones being used at once there are times when calls and text messages don’t go through. You may also be asking yourself, how does a cell tower help this problem? Well, for starters ra-diofrequency signals are transmitted and received.

These are what give us signal, and in Strongsville many carriers don’t have enough signal. This is why it was go-ing to be so tall at first, so that it could cover more area. Radiofrequency waves are different from other types of radiation such as gamma rays, x-rays, and ultravio-let light, which can break chemical bonds. This means the radiation from the cell tower cannot cause cancer, which relieves some civilians that disagree with the project going on. This was a big concern to a number of Strongsville citizens. Some people that live on Lunn Rd. were concerned about the radiation leading to cancer or other health problems. Yet some civilians are just bothered by the tow-ers height, light it gives off, and just the fact that it is being built close to their backyard were they can see it. “You can never please everybody, but were trying to do the best job that we can,” said Mark Donnelly. In early February construction is going to begin on this huge project. It is said to take a couple months. It might be done as early as May, but can also take as long as July. So far it is a work in progress though. Although the cell tower is going on school grounds it will not increase cell reception inside of the school. Because of the cinder block walls that are everywhere, the High School may never get good reception, depending on your cell phone network. Not to mention the florescent lighting in the building is not a big help itself. Is this a good thing that the school does not get good reception? Is it not a big deal? Does it help the kids in school pay attention more in class?

By TandaraeMcEachin

A sudden blackout followed by a hard fall to the ground. It becomes hard to breathe as your eyes roll to the back of your head. It feels as if you are wrestling a 300 pound man. Twisting and turning all about, grasp-ing for air as saliva runs down the side of your face. With a jerk you awaken, clueless to what just happened. Most people wouldn’t know what to do or who to call in a situation like this. I met up with Cheryl Bizub, who is a special educations teacher here at the high school, to find out more on what the seizures mean and what to do if this were to happen in your presence.“I see these types of seizures multiple times a day” said Cheryl. The first step would be to roll the person onto one side; this prevents choking if they vomit. Step twois to put something soft under the persons head, during most seizures the person will experience head trauma from the fall.

Step three would be to loos-en tight neckwear. Some precautions to take while handling someone

who is having a seizure are: do not try to restrain the per-

son, do not attempt to rouse the person by shouting at him

or her. The most important step would be to time the seizure. This lets the doctors know how serious the seizure is. “Epilepsy is the most common neu-rological syndrome. 1 in 10 people will experience a seizure in their lifetime, 1% will be diagnosed with Epilepsy” said Dr. Joseph Hanna, a neurologist at MetroHealth Hospital in Cleveland. “Epilepsy in America is as common as breast cancer, and takes as many lives” said Newsweek. A mysterious and widely misunder-stood affliction, epilepsy is a disorder in which the brain produces sudden bursts of electrical energy that can in-terfere with a person’s consciousness, movements or sensations. 125,000 Americans are diagnosed with Epilepsy each year. The type of seizure varies from person to person. “At least two unprovoked seizures are required for an Epilepsy diagno-sis” said the staff from Mayo Clinic. Epilepsy can affect anyone. 2/3 of people who are diagnosed with Epi-

lepsy, the cause is unknown. The mortality rate among people with epilepsy is two to three times higher than the general population and the risk of sudden death is twen-ty-four times greater. There are 200,000 new cases each year, and a total of more than 3 mil-lion Americans are affected by it—more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Par-kinson’s disease combined. Between 1 and 3 percent of the population will develop some form of epilepsy before age 75 “Fever, lack of sleep, infection, fa-tigue, dehydration, poor systemic ill-ness control such as diabetes” said Dr. Hanna are some contributing fac-tors to Epilepsy. Suffering from seizures can cause many complications that can lead to death or serious injury There are other neurological prob-lems associated with Epilepsy such as Meningitis, encephalitis, trauma, hypoxia, stroke and cancer. If you are an athlete it is more likely that you can obtain epilepsy without proper head gear. There is also a rise expected in the incidence of epilepsy among the vet-erans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq who have sustained traumatic head injuries. A fatal fall can also damage the brain

causing it to send excessive electric charges which in end cause seizures. A girl, who wishes to remain anony-mous, suffers from epilepsy. The seizures have damaged her brain a sufficient amount causing her to have a lack in communication. Unannounced seizures can cause a person to get into a car accident or get hurt by a dangerous object. People who have two seizure that have no cause to them go through a ton of testing to see if they have Epi-lepsy. Testing is done using an EEG, CT, or an MRI machine is used to determine if a person is epileptic or not. When asked if there has ever been a case were a person has been mis-diagnosed with Epilepsy, Dr. Hanna responded “Daily – the diagnosis requires both clinical manifestations and electrical confirmation that is sometimes difficult to obtain.” Once a person is diagnosed with Epilepsy there are a lot of different types of treatments. “Lifestyle modification – sleep, good eating habits, exercise, avoid-ance of stressors. Medications for the most part help manage epilepsy.”Said Dr. Hanna. Along with the U.S; India, Switzer-land and Ireland are all joining to-gether to help find a cure.

Epilepsy receives little attention, ei-ther from the medical community or the public at large. Why? One reason is that advances in drug treatments have created the popular impression that epilepsy is now an essentially manageable condition. “The frequency of seizures indicates that everyone knows someone with epilepsy. The more that we are aware the safer it becomes for the individu-als and the less prejudice that is prop-agated by myth” said Dr. Hanna. Epilepsy is all around us. This is what people fail to see. Knowing the precautions and hav-ing knowledge of it can help when encountered with a person who has epilepsy.

Or should the school make changes about the lighting and walls just so we can have signal? It is somewhat ironic that the cell tower is going on school property and it will not affect the signal literally 500 ft away at the most. Whether the teacher’s, principals, lunch aids, or even your own friends tell you not to text in school, a major-ity of the students are still going to text. So this is not the big issue here. The real issue is the fact that Strongs-ville can make at least $1 ,500 a month by bringing in the cell tower. That is at least $18,000 a year going towards new text books, bussing, or what-ever it may be. If all goes well, and the cell tower brings in good prophet, the city of Strongsville can make $50,000 a year off of this idea. Like it or not, that helps the city and there is no denying that. The only reason City Council de-nied the contract in the first place was because of the height, and because of complaints. Like Mark Donnelly said, you cannot please everyone. It is just im-possible. But the city is doing the right thing, and that is what is important. There are bills to pay and what better way to help the cause out. This

cell tower may bring in much more money than expected if big names companies want in on it like Verizon, or even Cingular. The big picture is that City Coun-cil is doing very good things for the city like bringing in revenue. A 160 ft tower is not the end of the world, and it cannot cause health problems therefore it is not a big deal if you are against the tower. Hopefully the project brings in a good amount of money, but regard-less of that Strongsville, Can you hear me now? Good! Because like it or not, the cell tower will be up soon and our cities reception/signal will be much better.

EpilepsyA Storm in the Brain

Cell Tower Issue Resolved for Strongsville