Volume 40 Issue 4 7309 Lazy Creek Drive, Austin, Texas 78724Feb. 25, 2014

L I B E R A L A R T S A N D S C I E N C E A C A D E M Y,LY N D O N B A I N E S J O H N S O N H I G H S C H O O L S

Austin Independent School District (AISD) cancelled classes for Jan. 24, Jan. 28 and Feb. 7 due to unsafe weather conditions, in addition to calling two bad weather late-start days. AISD superintendent Meria Carstarphen collaborated with an advisory board that included the head of transportation, head of police and the chief operating officer to determine the precautions the district should take to ensure student safety.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) requires school districts to allocate two bad weather make-up days. As AISD has surpassed this by a day, the district will appeal to TEA for a waiver to make up this day. AISD schools held their first make-up day on Feb. 17. The date of the second make-up day has not yet been decided.

“For the second make-up day, we may [review it], right now it’s scheduled for June 6,” AISD Director of Public Relations Alex Sanchez said. “I understand that that’s the last day of school, and graduations begin on June 6 [and] that some families might have some questions about that.

We are aware of it and we’re trying to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn’t impact students so as to not add a separate day beyond June 6.”

Carstarphen worked with neighboring districts to determine what action to take towards bad weather. Sanchez said working with the other districts is helpful for teachers who commute to school from different districts.

“When Austin closes, there’s an impact to–and vice versa–other school districts,” Sanchez said. “Their teachers live in Austin and drive outside of Austin to go teach, and so when we close we have an indirect impact to those school systems. When they close, they obviously have an indirect impact to us. If they can’t come to work we’re not going to have enough teachers to teach that day.”

The bad-weather cancellations have all occurred on B-days. With AP Exams beginning May 5, LASA English teacher Corey Snyder said the discontinuity has interfered with his AP English class.

“The due dates are total chaos,” Snyder said. “We’ve got assignments in the works, and [the students are] writing things, and they’re supposed to be reading stuff, and because it’s taken out a lot of B-days and not A-days, and I have more

lecture days, it’s very hard to keep continuity in the classes going. It’s put me in a bad mood, honestly.”

The Early College Start Program at LBJ High School, which allows Austin Community College professors to lecture on LBJ campus and for students to attend classes on ACC campus, was also affected by the weather. However, ACC closed the same days as AISD and students were able to work with professors to rearrange their schedule.

“Sometimes the teachers were like, ‘We have to stick to the plan’, and others are more laid back,” LBJ senior Melissa Zaleta said. “They said, ‘It’s ok, you can turn this in next week’ to give us time.”

The Austin Police Department reported that some of the bad weather days had over 300 car accidents in the Central Texas. Snyder said despite any safety precautions the city may take, Austin drivers are the main issue on days when there is ice on the ground.

“If this were Minnesota, people would know how to drive in this, but they just don’t.” Snyder said. “Maybe after a few years of this crazy weather, people will get better at driving this way, but the proof is there in the first freeze day with that many wrecks.”

By thebook

In a biology workbook used by some students at Travis and Lanier High Schools, the opening line of the section entitled “Origin of Life” closely mirrors that of another book: the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” the sentence reads, echoing the first words of the Old Testament. Though this sentence is immediately followed by several other theories on the origin of life, including evolution, the biology book has been criticized for presenting both creationism and evolution as plausible scientific theories.

The workbook is part of a curriculum used by Responsive Education Solutions, a publicly-funded charter school operator that is partnered with both Lanier and Travis. In January, ResponsiveEd was at the center of an investigation by Slate, who released their findings under the headline “Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism.”

ResponsiveEd receives roughly $92 million a year in state and federal funding and operates over 65 schools across Texas, Arkansas and Indiana. Austin Independent School District (AISD) policy prohibits activities that give the appearance of school endorsement of religion, and it is unconstitutional for a public school employee or curriculum to advocate one set of religious beliefs over another.

“As teachers, [we are supposed to] teach our discipline,” LASA history teacher Maricruz Aguayo-Tabor said. “Evolution is the discipline of biology and the science classes. Creationism, in all of its incarnations, is not. Somebody would not want me to teach, as a historian, that the American Revolution occurred in 1750 or that William the Conqueror comes to England in 900, because that is factually incorrect, and that’s like the same thing.”

In a Jan. 16 letter to partners in public education, ResponsiveEd CEO Chuck Cook wrote that he disagrees with Slate’s accusations that the material in the workbook is unconstitutional. However, ResponsiveEd no longer uses the workbook.

“We believe that we have had a meaningful contribution to the charter movement and we believe our track record supports this belief,” Cook wrote. “ResponsiveEd strongly disagrees with Slate’s implication that the Texas state standards requiring schools to critique and examine all sides

Local controversy over charter school textbooks latest in creationism debate

Breaking Down the Barriers host, Terry Russell, at the second broadcast of the 30-minute AISD sponsored radio show. photo courtesy of Russell.

see page 6

TUNING IN

See By the Book on page 5

phot

o by

Jam

ie R

odrig

uez

District copes with unprecedented winter weatherStephanie Park & Daniel ZimmermanEditors-in-Chief

SHOWING SPIRIT

The LBJ First Ladies Dance Team performed a novelty dance, a hip hop dance and a lyrical dance at the 2014 Crowd Pleasers competition in San Marcos on Feb. 15. photo by Abby Kappelman

Jamie Rodriguez & Frankie MarchanEditor-in-Chief & Staff Writer

see page 11

Ballet Afrique artistic director, China Smith demonstrates a barrel jump to teach the First Ladies a West African dance for Black History Month. photo by Stephanie Park

see page 16

IN STEP WITH HISTORY

When the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi is drawing comparisons to the 1936 Games held in Nazi Germany, you know the situation is going downhill faster than, well, a downhill skier. With the recent controversy and international criticism surrounding the Russian government’s choices to ban all “LGBT propaganda,” tensions have been high in regards to this year’s Winter Games. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) president Chad Griffin has pointed out that even kissing a same-sex partner or displaying LGBT symbols such as the rainbow flag could be illegal u n d e r R u s s i a n law. A call for the reconstruction of the Vancouver Winter Olympics’ “Pride House,” a temporary location which played host to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes, volunteers and visitors during the Games, was promptly turned down by the Russian Olympic committee. This amalgamation of harsh decisions has given birth to the most controversial Olympic games in at least a decade, as many of the athletes competing who identify as LGBT feel unsafe in Russia. This concern stems from an alarming rate of hate crimes in this year’s host country, in addition to its anti-LGBT laws.

Olympic sponsors such as AT&T, Chobani and DeVry University have spoken out against the lack of stability and protection for homosexuals in the Russian winter Olympic games. Other sponsors, however, have treaded lightly around the controversial topic and declined to comment. The balance between heeding qualms from the LGBT community and obeying the laws of Olympic hosts has proved more than difficult. The line must be drawn so that no one group is discriminated against, and to ensure that the cultures of the countries that dedicate their effort to

hosting the prestigious games are still respected. The games are intended to unite the world and spread different cultures, after all.

We, the Liberator, believe that for the Olympics, countries should unite as a world coming together to enjoy a rare event in which athletes from around the world showcase their unique talents and skills. In order for this to be successful, a balance between politics and culture must be found. While the Olympics were created to be an event that would

bring nations together, in the present day the political agendas executed by nations outside of the Olympic games are highly polarized. The public reaction to the Sochi Winter Games have proven that politics are a crucial part of the Olympics and must be considered when choosing a host country. Sochi was chosen over Pyeongchang, South Korea by 3 votes in 2007. The two-year voting process, conducted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), elected Sochi to host the Games through a series of evaluations, commissions and voting. For years, this process has ensured that the selected cities are capable and appropriate hosts. However, arduous and thorough as it may be, it needs more selective refinement for future years to avoid further international

conflicts. An Olympic host city should be chosen under the criteria that the country selected should be one that a) is politically stable, b) is capable of taking on the responsibilities of a host city such as managing transportation, safety, law enforcement, c) has a good human rights record and d) is in good standing with the international community. However, we must remember that the societal policies of a host country represent how the country may treat the community that attends the Olympics, and these societal policies should not be

neglected. W h i c h e v e r

country is chosen to host the Olympics should be able to express its culture without being

influenced by other countries. Culture is a

vital part of the Olympics and must be respected. The

host country is exactly that, a host. Visitors to the country need to

respect the host country’s customs and traditions,

and there must be a strict line between traditional

customs and outsider influence. While the host country’s culture

must be respected, however, they must abide by the Olympic policy in return. This policy includes acceptance of any person, no matter their race, culture, sexual orientation or any other characteristic that can be discriminated against. If these two are respected and balanced, the Olympics will maintain its reputation as the leading international major sporting event, a prestigious tradition since the 8th century BC. The International Olympics Committee (IOC) can be in charge of maintaining these limitations. The Olympic Games should be a celebration of the undeniable strength and skill of mankind, by highlighting the talents of athletic men and women, not pigeonholing them for where they come from, how they look or who they love.

STAFF STANCE

Have an opinion about a new school policy? Have a bone to pick with something the Liberator has published? Anything else on your mind? Write us a letter and drop it off in room 265 or in the boxes in the school offices.

Letters

Editorsto the

Dear Editor,

Dear Editor,

Dear Editor,

liberatedminds speak

Tristan HeinenLASA seniorPolitics should play the sole role in choosing; the games are one of the few, true non-governmental bodies that has an impact on international relations.

None. Well, I believe the Olympics should focus on sports and athletics and the people who compete at the peak of their physical ability, not on the social change issues at hand.

Pascal LegateLASA junior

I don’t think any politics should be there. The next games should be at Austin. If any city could be chosen I would choose Austin because it is beautiful and big.

Isaiah PennickLBJ junior

Chelsea Banawis, Chris Buffum-Robbins, Eliza Cain, Isabela Contreras, Corey Dillard, Chloe Edmiston, Alex Friedman, Mary Louise Gilburg, Nathan Humphreys Lucas, Gil Johnson, Will Johnson, Abby Kappelman, Adam Kobeissi, Aryaman Lamsal, Ana Lopez, Oran Lopez-Reed, Zia Lyle, Frankie Marchan, Hannah Marks, Kapil Mattay, Meris McHaney, Surya Milner, Joann Min, Carter Pace, Dresden Timco, Daniel Vega, Tristan Wright.

STAFFERS

David de la GarzaMadeline Goulet

Entertainment Editors

Sammy JarrarSesha McMinn

Sam Zern

News Editors

Isabel SaraleguiMeagen Allgood

Sports Editors

Basab Ghatak-Roy Mazie Hyams

Commentary Editors

Logan KramerBaltazar Zuniga

Life and Feature Editors

EDITORIAL BOARD

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Stephanie ParkJamie Rodriguez

Daniel Zimmerman

Editors-in-Chief

Chris JonesBusiness Editor

Adviser Kim Katopodis

Editorial PolicyResponsibilities of a Free Student Press: Serving the primary com-munication link within the Liberal Arts and Science Academy and Lyndon Baines Johnson High Schools and between the school and the local community, this newspaper accepts the responsibilities inherent in being a free press. The Liberator staff strives to produce a professional-quality publication that follows the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. The objective is to print the news in a fair and objective way with the utmost regard for integrity. Editorial Content:

1. The students on The Liberator staff will print articles which have been researched to the best of their ability to obtain most complete information. 2. The information will be presented in an objective, truthful and fair manner. 3. When personal commentary is given it will be in good taste on issues that have been researched, analyzed and where expert opinion has been sought, and then presented with the best abil-ity of the writer. In addition, all opinion or commentary will be clearly labeled as so. 4. No material which is obscene, libelous or that will cause an immaterial and substantial disruption of the school day, ac-cording to accepted legal definitions, will be printed.

The Editorial Boards and its Functions:The Liberator staff will be governed by an editorial board comprised of the following individuals: editors-in-chief, section editors and the business manager. The Editorial board will:

1. Determine the content of the publication (with input from other staff members). 2. Stress the editorial policy.3. Ensure the accuracy of the publication.4. Address disciplinary or other inappropriate behavior of staff. 5. Vote on removal of staff members.6. Change or add policy as necessary with three of four board members voting favorably.

Viewpoints:Printed material which is a view of a staff member or a contributing writer will be labeled as such. These views are not intended to reflect the view of the administration of Liberal Arts and Science Academy and Lyndon Baines Johnson High Schools nor the School Board of the Austin Independent School District. Viewpoints will be given in two areas in the newspaper.

Editorials: These will be determined by the staff consensus. The editorial will be unsigned and will represent the viewpoint of the publication. Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor are accepted for topics of general interest to the readership of the newspaper. Letters must be submitted typed or neatly printed in ink and must have the signature of the writer and the writer’s grade level. Editors reserve the right to determine which issue the letter goes in, with every effort made to print the letter as soon as possible. The editors also reserve the right to edit the letter for grammar, length and repetition.

Non-Staff Contributors: Bylined contributions are welcome.Correction of Errors: The staff makes every effort to print accurate information. In the case of errors, a written correction will be made in the following issue of the newspaper. Sources: In general, no anonymous sources will be used in reporting. Sources from within the school, as well as those not connected with the school, will be used. Under no circumstances will gifts, including coupons, etc., be accepted by the staff members from sources or advertisers. Note: The Liberator is an open forum.

The staff thanks: Christine Rodriguez, Lize Burr, Alison Kramer, Karen Donelan, Robin Zuniga

Victoria MycueGraphics Editor

Caitlin AndersonAudrey Halbrook

Willow Higgins

Web Editors

Saira Garcia

The rigor of the available electives at LASA is ridiculous. There are no easy classes in the subjects that I am interested in, so balance is hard. I already do a lot of work in my core classes, electives should be an escape for me to learn about the things that I want.

I have noticed an overwhelming number of requests from teachers for contact information for both parents, despite the fact that many students live with only one parent. Teachers should be more sensitive to their students’ situations and be more general when requesting this kind of information.

- Denice Reed, LASA senior

The halls downstairs are too crowded all the time. There needs to be a way to reduce traffic because it makes it so that some students are late to class just because they get caught up in all of the people in the hall

Dear Editor,

- Jeremiah Arias, LASA freshman

The school smells terrible. We need some serious air fresheners in the A/C units, because something’s going hor-ribly wrong.

-Elizabeth Mendez, LBJ sophomore

Should politics play a role in the International Olympic Committee’s choosing of an Olympic host country?

LBJ freshmanI think they should leave politics alone and choose the city based on the amount of people in the city and how it would handle it.

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

Corrections: Frankie Marchan contributed to the front page story, “Washed Up” in the last issue. Kyle Sheath is a freshman at LASA, not LBJ. Ms. Butler is the sponsor, not the president, of QSA.

- Eytan Bos Orent, LASA junior

Culture, politics should balance in selecting Olympic host

art by Abby Kappelman

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

When I meet a person I can do one of the following: I can awkwardly not say anything, I can shake hands with them like a gentleman and try to seem normal or I can actually try and fully participate in a conversation.

Once I commit to starting a conversation, then I have more choices. I can maneuver around any words that I’ll stutter on. I can stutter openly and let the person know. Or, I could just shake hands, let other people do the talking, and smile and pretend to be happy.

It’s funny, though, because life teased me. I spoke normally until second grade. During that time, I felt what it was like to speak without any barriers. I didn’t have to think about talking, or how to start my sentence, or how to substitute words so I could speak fluently. It just came naturally, like it does for most people. From what I remember, I woke up on a Monday morning and there you have it, I couldn’t talk to my mom. I sat there for minutes, staring at her half-grin, trying to say, “What are we having for breakfast?” Eventually, I gave up and wrote my question on a sheet of printer paper, but I knew that morning that something had changed forever.

Now that I’ve spent more time in speech therapy and around people, I’ve noticed that the situation above is about the worst possible combination. I had the liberty of speaking without restraints, and I took it for granted. But then one day, everything went away and my life gained a new aspect. People don’t realize how much they actually talk. We do it so much that it becomes second nature, and coincidentally we don’t think about it. But in second grade, everything became apparent to me. Ordering from a waiter at a restaurant,

speaking with my parents, talking with friends, even saying my own name,became very difficult.

Throughout my life, my stutter has morphed. Words that were not easy a long time ago are easy now. Instead of repeating sounds, I just sound like I’m having trouble thinking of what to say and, as a result, every word is very poorly spaced out. Now on occasion I can string more than 10 words together, if what I’m saying is relatively simple. Back in fourth grade I’d be lucky to get four. And to share an idea with a limit of four words is nearly impossible. That brings us to today. I have the choice of saying what I want to say, or saying what I won’t stutter on. Sometimes I can just change a word here or there for a synonym to avoid stuttering in a sentence. But then I’m stuck to a limited number of words and people who are around me a lot notice. I feel guilty when I substitute words just because of my speech disfluency.

On the first day of English, Mr. Sharp told my class about the

Occasional Paper (OP) we were supposed to write and then read to the class every six weeks. I very seriously considered taking the 50 and not having to read it. I was so worried about it that my paper was exactly 300 words, the minimum, and it wasn’t any good. As I was reading it to

myself, I would be

changing the better vocabulary

to words that I knew I could say. Paragraph after paragraph, I would

re-read it, and then have to go back and insert synonyms. Reading an OP in front of a full classroom of witty people is a tricky enough endeavor as it is. When you

have to accommodate for your non-stuttering words, it becomes

twice as difficult. Now that I’ve been around the block, its not so

bad, but I still fall on my crutch of choosing words based on my ability to say them.

Earlier this year I learned that I cannot be in any type of military or law enforcement. I can’t join the navy or the army. I can’t be a marine. Even if there was a draft and I was the most

robust and the fittest guy in line, I would be given a rain check and would be sent home. It’s just the sheer speed of communication

that I lack. I couldn’t give orders fast enough or relay data and information

fast enough. And I don’t think my speech will get good enough to

change it. So, what will I do when

I have to talk to my boss, or have to call a customer, or have to, basically, do anything

concerning other people? I can hide all I want in high school. If I want to I can not say anything in class, turn

in my homework, and get by. I hope I only look shy. I hope I

don’t look rude. Sometimes people think I’m being self-centered and

rude when I don’t choose to talk to them. Sometimes I just don’t want to

talk. What I want to do is stay under the radar and avoid vulnerability. But when I get older and have to start making money, I can’t hide like I do in high school. I’ll have to face the music and deal with it, even though I kid myself that I do now.

Aside from struggling to communicate in school, I’m still somewhat determined to go to therapy and fix my situation. In therapy we do everything from going up and talking to strangers to reading articles and giving large presentations. The strange thing is, I figured out I could talk perfectly. But only on my own. I can read anything and speak forever fluently when it’s just me, myself and I. However, if the tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, did it make any noise? Even if there was a recorder that I knew about in the room, I would go back to my normal stuttery self.

Lately I’ve been getting angry. I’m trying hard to fix my stutter, but to a certain extent, it will never go away. The thing is, nobody really knows what will happen. I can go to doctors and speech laboratories and specialists, but at the end of the day it might not matter what I do or how hard I work. I may grow out of it in a few years. Or I may not, but I need to find an answer before its too late to indulge in my new voice.

Gil JohnsonStaff Writer

Grappling with late-onset speech impediment, student adjusts,plans

Struggle for governorAbbott and Davis campaigns find focuses on border control, education as gubernatorial race heats up for November election

Mazie HyamsCommentary Editor

It’s the thought that counts

If my mom were a superhero, she would be Mrs. Democrat. She would ride around on an eco-friendly diesel hybrid super-donkey in a bright blue costume spreading the good will of liberalism, defeating the sexist conservative pigs who try to get tax cuts for the rich and limit the rights of women, gays, etc. My mom is that much of a Democrat. Honestly, she pretty much is Mrs. Democrat, minus the donkey. My mom has

always been involved in politics in some way - PTA president, campaign worker for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, environmental lobbyist, women’s advocate, you name it - and recently she’s been working more than ever. For two years, my mother was the president of the Capital Area Democratic Women, a liberal Texan organization, and her term ended in November. Over the summer, she was an organizer of the rallies at the capitol for contraceptive rights, working closely with Wendy Davis through her filibuster. There are about two weeks out of the year that my family doesn’t have some political sign proudly posted in the front yard of our house for a liberal candidate. With the gubernatorial race heating up, the cycle has begun again.

Though my upbringing has made it hard to be objective, I’m working to form my own opinions on the race. Abbott is a smart man and Davis is a smart woman. So far, they’ve done a pretty good job taking stances that are strong enough to make it seem like they mean what they say and gain the support of the members of their parties, but not too controversial as to completely alienate those who, like myself, are trying to find their way.

So far, Greg Abbott has focused much of his campaign on border security, appealing to his fellow conservatives. I, on the other hand, don’t find the issue that important (at least enough to be the first major topic I consider when evaluating a gubernatorial campaign). While the border is dangerous in many places, it has been improved over the past years. Also, having grown up in Austin, I’m not very near the Texas border, so I’ve never experienced the effects insufficient border control. Likewise, I don’t find myself having a passion for the issue. To me, it seems like this

pet issue of conservatives really should not be our number one priority. It does not apply to the greater Texas as much as many other topics of debate. Personally, much of the border control debate seems to be less safety-driven and more anti-immigrant. Many Republican politicians focus on the need to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into our state. This is nowhere near as significant as the safety of Texan citizens, as well as the safety of those trying to enter our country. I understand that we cannot let as many people illegally enter our country, but we should still work to keep them safe. I believe politicians should focus more on ensuring the safety of those near the borders, as opposed to stopping illegal immigrants. But, as I stated earlier, this issue really isn’t as essential as Abbott makes it out to be.

On the other hand, Abbott has mentioned that he hopes to work against domestic abuse if elected. I find this idea admirable, and I adore his sentiment. This shouldn’t be as much of a shock as it is. Domestic abuse is a very difficult subject, and definitely needs to be addressed in modern society. Politicians rarely run on a platform including the issue, but this could bring about some change. Domestic abuse is rarely seen as a political topic, but it may be helpful in order to increase education and awareness, as well as increase the funding for organizations that help those affected. It’s troubling, though, how little attention the press has given this part of Abbott’s platform, as well as his team. Abbott’s focus on domestic abuse is greatly underrated, as it is often only mentioned as an afterthought at the end of articles.

On the other end of the spectrum, Wendy Davis has concentrated on education. I love that this

is Davis’ first issue of focus, as I believe that success starts with education. Additionally, education is a perfect example of a topic that affects all Texans (unlike border control). As a student, it is obvious that there are many flaws in

the system, though I am lucky enough to go to one of the best schools in the

state. Furthermore, unlike border security, we need to fix education now. Texas is

consistently seen as having one of the worst education programs in the United States, and

nothing will improve until something is done. Davis wants to do this by focusing on the teachers. She has proposed a plan with increased teacher pay, grants and loans, and easier and more incentivised education to get more students to become teachers. I really admire this plan. A good education starts with teachers. For me,

teachers have a history of making or breaking a class, and my performance in it. So, in turn, I like Davis’ focus. On the other hand, though,

she needs to do more than just raise teacher pay. Don’t get the wrong idea, though: neither

campaign has been all peaches and cream for the respective candidates. Davis was criticized for “fuzzy math” and empty funding for

her proposed education reform plan, but Abbott’s border control proposal

has unclear funding sources. Additionally, both Abbott and Davis have been under fire

recently for comments on different issues. When discussing his border control plan, Abbot likened

corruption in the Valley to that of the Third World earlier this month, stirring up massive controversy. The comment was seen as offensive and insensitive, which I don’t entirely agree with. It really shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I mean, this is coming from the guy who is up to replace Rick Perry, who while running for President forgot his own three-point plan to cut down on the Department of Energy. While Abbott’s comment could have obviously been better articulated, to my generation, the notion of the ‘Third World’ is not as offensive as it seems to be to that of my parents. I read articles at school that use the phrase, and it seems to have become an official title for the area in a sense. Also, Abbott likened the corruption of the Valley to the Third World, not the people themselves. The area is in fact very corrupt, and while the situation in Texas is not quite so serious, it didn’t seem like he was trying to belittle anyone in my opinion.

Davis has been challenged for very different reasons. She supported open carry for registered firearms, which upset some of her liberal supporters. I personally don’t have a definitive opinion on the subject of gun control. I’ve never been in a position where I needed a gun, but I can understand why people feel they are necessary. Along with Davis, I agree background checks need to be more thorough when it comes to gaining a licence, as I feel stable people

have the right to own a gun for self defense. Here, I fully understand the controversy surrounding Davis’

stance. Open carry is a gray area for me. While it may be practical and in some cases useful, I find the idea quite troubling. I don’t know how comfortable I feel with someone just walking around with a gun. It makes me feel

like I may not be safe without one. And I don’t want to live in a world where everyone

packs heat. We should trust each other enough for that not to be necessary. Once again, background checks are key.

In many respects, the campaign for Governor is really just beginning. In the coming year, major candidates Greg

Abbott and Wendy Davis will more clearly define their stances on political issues in Texas. We’ll get a better idea of who

they are and what type of leader they would be. At this point it’s anyone’s game. But you can be sure this race will keep you on the edge of your seat, whether you’re

the child of Mrs. Democrat herself, or

someone who’s never watched the game.

art by

Mega

n Pratt

art by Mazie Hyams

As the winter season rolls around everyone starts looking for new hip pullovers in preparation for sweater season. Let’s be honest, everyone

wants the be a trendsetter, but we either lack the ingenuity or the courage to start one. But I suggest we revive a sorely-missed LASA staple: capes. Fashion is ever changing. The newest trend can easily be obsolete within the next week. From MC Hammer’s parachute pants to popped collars, fashion choices disappear, but capes have stood the test of time.

Every teenage boy can remember the time they pretended to be Superman or Batman jumping off their beds with a towel draped over their shoulder. The cape was an essential part in this fantasy. Pretending you were Superman or Batman without a cape on is pretty much a sin. The cape defines Superman and Batman, it is their symbol of power.

Capes were worn by royalty such as the King of Rock and Roll and The Godfather of Soul. They were worn by great entertainers such as Mr. Showmanship to everyone’s favorite daredevil Evel Knievel. Capes have always been in fashion and will

always continue to be fashionable. I am worried about the lack of cape wearers here at LASA. We have prided ourselves in being the only school that had students wearing capes as a regular occurrence. We are now losing that source of pride in our school.

Cape wearing should not just be restricted to conventions such as Comic Con or holidays such as Halloween. I feel that capes get a

negative

connotation when they are not in the context of “dressing up” to be a character. A person should not have to dress as someone else just so that they can wear an article of clothing. I think people are dissuaded from wearing capes in fear of getting laughed at.

There used to be a time where short shorts on guys were a sin, especially in elementary school. If a guys knees were visible they would be made fun of and called a girl. Now it is impossible to walk into a fraternity and not see a multitude of guys in short shots with vibrant colors. Guys who wear this shorts are no longer made fun of. This same thing will happen with our new cape revolution. Capes will be the new cool trendy thing to wear and the people who wear them will not be made fun of.

If billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne wears a cape in his free time then why can’t the rest of us do the same? Ask yourself this, Who is the single

most impersonated person in the world? The answer is simple: one of the greatest cape wearers of all time and another ladies man,

the aforementioned Elvis Presley. There seems to be a strong correlation between men wearing capes and their ability to attract women. Maybe us LASA boys would be best served trying out capes to see if we fare any better than we do now. I doubt we could get any worse.

It will take a brave soul, one that I probably don’t have, to bring back the cape trend here at LASA but I sincerely hope it comes back stronger than it was

before. It’s time to harness our inner child and become superheroes again.

Post Halloween stomachaches

SmallTalk

Thumbs Up

Thumbs DownAbove are the opinions of The Liberator staff and not the individual featured.

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

Changing the gameSomething that is

undeniable about me is that I am a gamer, or someone who plays video games as their primary hobby. Video games offer a kind of immersion and interaction that I can’t find in any other form of entertainment. That’s why I am the proud owner of a PlayStation 3, a Wii U, a 3DS and many, many games.

And I’m certainly not alone. From its beginnings with the

Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, the gaming industry has grown into a multibillion dollar institution. And with the recent release of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, now should be the best time to be in the industry, right.

Well, no. Actually the industry is in a lot of trouble.All three of the current console manufacturers- Nintendo,

Sony and Microsoft- are in a bad position. The 3DS and the Wii U are trailing far behind their predecessors (the DS and Wii respectively) in terms of sales. Many big name software developers have been getting a lot of flak for their business practices, and many have been having monetary difficulties. There’s no doubt about it; the industry is an unhealthy place.

This might be surprising to an impartial observer of the video game industry. Last generation gave us some of the best-received and most lucrative titles gaming has ever seen. Over 260 million consoles were sold last generation. Nonetheless, the industry is in trouble.

There are a couple of reasons why. One is the ballooning cost of developing games. The introduction of HD development with the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 prompted costs to rise rapidly. For a recent example, Grand Theft Auto 5 cost nearly $265 million to develop. To put that in perspective, James Cameron’s Avatar had a budget of $237 million. Now Rockstar, the developers of the GTA series, was fortunate enough to have gained enough notoriety to make a substantial profit, but many other developer studios were put under or were deeply indebted due to their bloated budgets.

These massive budgets have caused various other problems. Due to the high risks of developing a big name game, developers often try to emulate other famous titles or keep risks to a minimum by using older gameplay mechanics. This causes more expensive titles to lack innovation, effectively stagnating the industry.

Higher costs have also alienated independent developers, studios that are not owned by video game publishers.

Independent developers often lack the sufficient funds to complete their projects. Thankfully, the website Kickstarter has helped fund many current indie games by way of anonymous pledges. But the massive development costs still remain a problem for independent developers.

The second big problem facing the industry is a shrinking audience. Although there is still a demand for consoles, phone and tablet games have pulled away a large portion of the market. Before the existence of phone and tablet gaming, many casuals bought consoles and gaming handhelds. This is why the DS sold 154 million units over its lifetime. However, phone games offer a much cheaper and not as time consuming alternative for most casual gamers. As a result, countless casual gamers have practically exited the market, limiting the number of sales this generation. The 3DS, for example, is set to sell 70 million units; less than half of what the DS sold. Without casuals, the industry cannot hope to reach the numbers they sold in the last generation.

So with booming development costs and a shrinking consumer base, is there any hope for gaming? Yes there is, and his name is moderation. If developers can find a way to bring their budgets down to reasonable levels, they can start seeing profits again. Lower costs could allow developers to take risks again and we would see an increase in innovation. Developers could start seeing a profit again. Independent developers will not be as alienated and might jump back into the mainstream. Lower costs could even help developers stay profitable despite the ever expanding phone market.

The video game industry needs to slow down and bring budgets down to manageable levels. Otherwise, the once large industry may very well crash.

Fashion needs a new hero

Young driving age concerns student, should be changed

Every year millions of car crashes occur, and the age group holding the most car crashes are teenagers 16 to 19 years old. Teen drivers are 3.5 times more likely to crash than older drivers. So why do we still let teens drive when they are putting themselves and everyone else on the road in danger? Why do we put everyone in an age category of 16 and assume that they are

going to be mature enough to handle a device that can kill people? Teenagers should have to obtain 100 hours over the course of a year before they can even drive by themselves. This would give the teen a lot more experience actually driving on the road. Accumulating these hours over the course of a year would help teens mature into driving and get more comfortable being behind the wheel. The age to obtain your license should also be pushed back to 17. If you start your Driver’s Ed when you are 15 you would have two years of supervised driving. Preparing teens more for driving by themselves would drastically decrease the amount of unaware teens in my opinion.

Personally I have not started my Driver’s Ed yet but the ability to drive by myself coming up in a year is a bittersweet experience. I am excited to have the freedom and independence of being able to drive myself when I want and where I want. However, I am scared because of how reckless some drivers can be. Whenever you hear on the news “two teens die in a car crash,” it’s hard to think that that could easily be you. How do I stop other people’s reckless driving? How do I make sure I am not an inexperienced driver? I am really considering waiting until I am 17 to get my license. A lot of people are really excited to get their licenses and I know I will be too, I just want to make sure I am mentally prepared to handle difficult experiences when I am driving. I always want to make sure that I will never drive in a dangerous situation and be safe on the road.

Christian Youth Conference shows new world of acting and confidence for student

Bouncing on stage in a green shirt, waving my arms and feeling energy dance through every finger and every toe as Ben Walther plays the theme song, it is an exhilarating Friday night. The moment I so eagerly and nervously anticipated, the start of the conference, has passed. The rest of the weekend will be thrilling, filled with music, workshops and sacraments.

The Diocesan Catholic Youth Conference (DCYC) is an annual event for high

school students in the Diocese of Austin. It is a chance for spiritual growth and reflection as well as friendly interaction. From the St. Catherine of Siena quote, “If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze,” this year’s DCYC theme, Ablaze, encouraged teens to spread the message of love and hope throughout their lives.

High school teens who have previously attended DCYC can apply to a minor leadership role in the conference as youth animators. This year, I was one of sixteen youth animators who served as a leader, helping with transitions, prayers, skits, introducing speakers and leading hand motions for the theme song and other music. As an Animator, I experienced the same opportunities for spiritual growth as anyone at DCYC while also receiving a confidence boost in realizing I could speak in front of over 2,000 people.

I applied to be a youth animator because it was a leadership opportunity and a chance to grow and share in my faith. As the event drew near, spiritual growth was in progress, I had made friends with the other animators, and I began to get nervous. With a couple weeks left before the conference, the gravity of speaking in front of over two thousand people fell on me. I was extremely excited for DCYC, more so because I had spent four months preparing for it, and I had a better idea of what was going to happen. I was excited for 2,500 other teens to experience spiritual growth during a weekend I was helping with. However, as my excitement grew, so did my anxiety.

I was soon able to overcome my fears through preparation and companionship. I memorized my lines even though I was going to have a script in a black binder. Overcoming my fears boosted my confidence and revealed my own talents.

For me, the drama portrayed hope. The ending pose, with everyone lined across the stage in their quintessential outfit, represented modern people as an army for Christ. Alberto wore clericals and a mantle at the end, so that Jesus turned into a modern-day priest. I viewed this as a symbol of hope, since Christ is still in our everyday lives, even if he is no longer alive as a human.

My freshman year at DCYC, I learned that my greatest fears can become my greatest strengths. My experience as a youth animator for DCYC 56 (2014) Ablaze has been the greatest exposition of my fears becoming my talents.

Game of ThronesD-WalkSnow daysChivalrySherlock

Sleep debtMakeup days

Flappy BirdMondays

Murder

Aryaman LamsalStaff Writer

Dresden TimcoStaff Writer

Frankie MarchanStaff Writer

Evolution of video game industry concerning as costs outweigh benefits, industry seems doomed

Student analyzes the need for a revival of one of the school’s most sorely-missed fashion trends, capes worn with everyday schoolwear

Chris Buffum-RobbinsStaff Writer

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the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

Chin wins Teacher of Promise award for LASA

stories by Sesha McMinn and Mary-Louise Gilsburg

LASA High School will begin to offer newly developed ‘flexible schedules’ for the 2014-2015 school year, which will allow upperclassmen to take select classes outside of traditional school day hours.

“The idea for a flexible schedule has been around for a long time,” LASA counselor Shannon Bergeron said. “Companies out there use it to be more flexible with people with kids, who want to work earlier and leave earlier or work come in later and work later in the workforce in general it’s been around. For school it’s a little more challenging because of the transportation and all the things that happen.”

The first step in planning which classes would be offered was asking the teachers who were interested. Next, was matching teacher interests with what was most practical. To gauge student interests, a survey was sent out to current sophomores and juniors with classes that could be offered.

“First the staff was surveyed then the students were surveyed, and enough students had to say they were interested in that for us to move forward,” Bergeron said. “Now it will go on the choice-sheet so that people can chose it and that will determine if the class will be offered, depending if enough students sign up,”

Having the flexible schedule available to juniors and seniors eliminates some of the issues of transportation. Freshman and sophomores might have a harder time getting to the morning classes in particular.

“Juniors and seniors, they still might have transportation issues, but there is the better chance that they can drive or can know someone that can drive them to bring them,” Crescenzi said. “And then with upperclassmen, too, hopefully by the time you are a junior you have enough of those organizational skills that you wouldn’t have to be here during the traditional school day.”

LASA sophomore Mica Mangibin thinks that there will still be transportation issues, even if she could drive. Much of the issue lies with family schedule conflicts and location.

“I live extremely south of LASA, and I would not like my parents to use up like $40 worth of gas picking me up and taking me back home. Even if I actually was driving, I wouldn’t want to use that much gas either. I have a freshman sibling that might come to LASA next year,” Mangibin said. “If it take a class, then my sibling will have to have a completely different schedule as me. And that, for my parents, is very difficult to cope up with.”

Crescenzi said working around obstacles such as transportation and student-teacher interests are some of the main issues with the flexible schedule. Evening classes would end before the late buses left, but no transportation would be provided for morning classes. Finding teachers who want to teach classes and students wanting to take them is also an

obstacle.“That came for surveying both staff to see which teachers

wanted to do that and also it have to be classes offered multiple times it couldn’t be singles in class meaning there in only one session of something, it couldn’t be outside the school day,” Bergeron said. “It had to be a class with multiple sessions so that students can choose to do that or not.”

Mangibin said a flexible schedule will help to juggle extracurricular activities and school work. It will get rid of some of the stress that comes with having a full

schedule. “I’m a really busy person with an extremely busy

family, so they’re always complaining of how I have no time to spend on other things,” Mangibin said. “I think

these before and after school are convenient because it gives me time to catch up on homework, get good grades and still do other activities.”

Deciding which classes will be offered must fit the criteria of teacher interest and student interest as well as who it will be offered to. Another important factor that needed to be looked at was how many classes were

taught altogether.“We then looked at … the teachers that were

interested who taught classes that sort of met that criteria”, Crescenzi said. “That’s why you saw classes on the survey like English 4, because I have eight sections of English 4, if I put one before school I still have seven sections left, no one’s going to be forced to go that way.”

There is some room for negotiation on the number of sections available with the Astronomy course. Enough students who took the survey were interested

in the class to have it be an option yet there are only two sections of it during the school day.

“Instead of saying there are two sections and one meets after school, there are still two sections during the day, none of that changes”, Crescenzi said. We’ll add a third section after school because again, absolutely, positively I don’t want any student who wants a traditional school day to not have that need met.”

The times that classes would meet before school was decided my Crescenzi, but the times classes would meet after school would differ. The teachers

of the classes would have the option of deciding between meeting four days a week for one hour or two days a week for two hours. Morning classes would meet five days a week from 7:15 to 8 am.

“For some people they learn better if they can have it in smaller chunks more constantly,” Bergeron said. “Breaking it up 45 minutes every day will benefit some more than others. Some kids are really going to appreciate having that option.”

Crescenzi said that the flexible schedule will not be a hindrance to anyone who wants to have a traditional school day. She said it is an option that is meant as a possible convenience some students.

“I never want this to be something that someone has to do and something someone isn’t excited about or want to do,” Crescenzi said. “Because my goal for this is happier, less stressed out teachers, happier, less stressed out students. In the end that’s all I want.”

Stress on schedules Isabela ContrerasStaff Writer

of scientific theories—including the theory of evolution—is unconstitutional. We also disagree that any reference to creationism in our science curriculum violates any state or federal law, including the United States Constitution.”

Dan Quinn is the communications director of the Texas Freedom Network, an organization that advocates for science and individual liberties in opposition to the religious right. He said that the creationist arguments in the textbooks used by ResponsiveEd, which include claims that many scientists question evolution, are false.

“That’s a blatant distortion of the facts,” Quinn said. “Evolution is established, mainstream science supported by nearly every reputable, responsible biologist in the world, not just in this country. To say that many scientists question evolution would be like saying many scientists question gravity. It’s simply absurd.”

Creationism in public schools has long been an issue in Texas, but the controversy came to a head during a series of State Board of Education (SBOE) hearings in 2009. That year, the SBOE approved new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), curriculum standards and skills that the state has deemed essential for students to learn. The new biology TEKS require students to “analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations” and examine “all sides of scientific evidence.” This language was met with harsh criticism by scientists and liberal activists, who claim that the wording could be used to justify teaching creationist arguments in public school classrooms.

“Creationists have interpreted [all sides of scientific evidence] to mean all sides of the teaching of evolution, meaning those who support it and those who don’t support it, even if those who don’t support it have no arguments based on science,” Quinn said. “We

realized when they were debating that that would be a problem, that it would be intentionally misinterpreted, and opened the door to teaching these kinds of arguments in classrooms.

On Nov. 22, the SBOE approved 18 new biology instructional materials, none of which cover arguments that weaken evolution. In the days leading up to the adoption of the new textbooks, crowds of people demonstrated in front of the State Capitol to show their support for science books that accurately teach evolution. However, Quinn said he worries that pressure from conservatives on the SBOE and across the state could reduce the quality of science education in public schools.

“The vast majority of teachers, of course, want to make sure that their students get a solid education to prepare them for college and jobs in the 21st century, so they want to teach sound science in their classroom,” Quinn said.

“I think they feel under siege. They feel pressured to water down the teaching of evolution, and in some cases you even see some schools just skip the teaching of evolution altogether because they just don’t want to put up with the political attacks from anti-evolution activists. And that’s an incredible indictment of the education system, when you have politics interfering with teaching students real facts that are based on sound scholarship.”

LASA Planet Earth teacher Tim Fennell said he presents science and religion as two separate things, clearly explaining the scientific principles he is teaching and not trying to alter any spiritual beliefs of the students.

“I expect everybody to understand the principles and the evidence behind evolution by natural selection, and how we see it operate in the natural world,” Fennell said. “I don’t think that [spiritual beliefs] influence how somebody understands evolution by

natural selection. I don’t present it as being mutually exclusive. They’re two separate things, in my view, and that’s how I present it.”

LASA English teacher Corey Snyder said he believes the controversy amongst members of the SBOE stems in part from a lack of education about both creationism and evolution. Snyder includes the Bible as one of the required texts for his English III class, not as a method of indoctrinating students, but instead in hopes of providing students with a more well-rounded understanding of one of the most influential books in Western civilization.

“The debates about what’s in the Bible and what’s in science I think are a moot point if neither side has read the other side,” Snyder said. “If the people who counter the ideas of evolution never read them, never understood them, then who cares about their point? And similarly, if the adherents of science

haven’t read the Bible, I mean, that’s hypocritical from a scientific perspective because scientists are supposed to base their findings on evidence, and how can anyone have an opinion on a book they’ve never read?”

However, Snyder said he does not believe creationism should be included

alongside evolution in science textbooks because of a lack of evidence.

“Presenting both sides in science is logically impossible, because that’s like simultaneously trying to play a football game with one team and a soccer game with one team on the same field at the same time,” Snyder said. “Science says you don’t believe it without proof, and faith says there are things that are true that cannot be proven scientifically. This is not an argument about creationism or science, it’s an argument about whether faith exists, and it’s not that science necessarily says there’s no such thing as faith or there’s nothing that science can’t prove, science just says if we can’t prove it we’re not gonna admit it into the realm of science. For creationists or other people of faith to storm the gates and demand that their faith-based beliefs are science is counter to the very definition of science.”

LASA chemistry teacher Robert Chin was awarded the Most Promising First-Year Teacher award for LASA for the 2013-2014 school year. He said teaching has been one of the greatest challenges he has to faced.

“I’m really humbled and honored that the administration would

consider me as an up-and-coming teacher,” Chin said. “I’ve done thesis defenses and I’ve been in front of generals and all sorts of different customers presenting and doing things, but [teaching] is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

Chin said that the most difficult part of his first year at LASA has been teaching in front of high school students.

“I have to present in front of teenagers every day and they’re the toughest to please and the toughest crowd because they don’t lie,” Chin said. “They’ll tell you if they don’t like it.”

According to Chin, the best part of teaching at LASA is the interaction he has with students, as well as being able to see students get involved in his class.

“What drives me is just [trying] to get better at communicating tough concepts,” Chin said. “[I want to] keep being a good cheerleader for my students [and] really try to encourage them to not give up and keep moving forward.”

Young Men’s Leadership Academy coming next year

Austin Independent School District (AISD) has confirmed that beginning in the 2014-15 school year, there will be a Young Men’s Leadership Academy at Garcia Middle School. According to LBJ Early College High School principal Sheila Henry, AISD is in the process of interviewing teachers for positions in the academy.

“I know the principal they are going to have over at Garcia,” Henry said. “He spent a lot of time with us at the beginning of the school year. We worked hand in hand, [and] he participated in all of my professional development.”

There have been multiple community meetings to discuss the plans for the academy with community members. The academy is built around a goal of ensuring that all students graduate ready for college, career and life.

“We are going to model it after [Grand Prairie High School] to capture some leadership within that building and turn those boys into fine young men,” Henry said. “[This is] the goal, so right now they are in the hiring process and making sure that they are getting out into the communities.”

According to the AISD website the goal of the academy is to deliver a focused, customized curriculum that results in academic success and opportunities to thrive socially and academically. Students will learn respect, responsibility and honor. AISD’s core values for the academy are to focus on children, excellence, integrity, equality, respect and health and safety.

“They have already gone to the board to determine what their uniform or dress code will be,” Henry said. “I think that it’s going to be fantastic.”

Sleepless in sweep-battle

Chin holds up his award, a house plant. photo by Sesha McMinn

continued from page 1

Broomball has been a LASA Latin Club tradition since most current students can remember. The event, hosted every year in the middle of the night, allows students of all different language classes a medium to interact and have fun.

LASA junior Vignesh Vasu, a Latin 5 student and returning Broomball player, said that the game, played like hockey but with brooms and tennis shoes, reaches beyond just Latin club.

“It’s a tradition we do every year, and it has gone on for years and years,” Vasu said. “You honestly don’t even have to be in a language class. Everyone should just come out and play.”

LASA Latin teacher Byron Browne founded the tournament many years ago in conjunction with an already established event. The participation he incited morphed it into an annually LASA hosted event. Since he no longer plays Broomball with all the students, Browne said his favorite part of the experience is watching the games

“The same thing kind of happens every year,” Browne said. “There is always some kid out there, and it is always a guy for some reason, you can tell he is not athletic. Finding that one kid that falls constantly but keeps getting up and doesn’t cry about it, even though his nose might be bleeding, keeps getting up every single time. That is always fun to watch, it is kind of like a test of character”

The tournament will be hosted Saturday, Jan. 22, at Chaparral Ice from 11:45 PM to 1:45 AM and it is the hope of the Latin club members that as many people attend as possible.

art by Anna Fredlund

art by Meris M

cHaney

By the Book

I don’t think that [spiritual beliefs] influence how somebody understands evolution by natural selection. I don’t present it as being mutually exclusive. They’re two separate things in my view.

-LASA science teacher Tim Fennell

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the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

LBJ Early College High School will host a college fair on April 6 to expose students to different options for higher education. Although LBJ students had the opportunity to attend a college fair last semester hosted at the Wilhelmina Delco Center, LBJ college advisor Jasmine Clayton said this one is going to be different in that it will showcase majors in addition to colleges.

“Not only will students be able to look at what college they want to go to, they can also see what kind of major they want to major in and the different things they can do,” Clayton said. “If you want to go into engineering, the engineering school can show you how to build a bridge with popsicle sticks and things like that.”

The schools attending include Texas Tech, Texas Christian University, Abilene Christian University, Louisiana State University and Tennessee State University. Additionally, the University of Texas will be sending representatives to talk one-on-one with students.

“They’re going to actually showcase different majors,” Clayton said. “We’ll have different colleges come in and we’ll also have different majors, like the Liberal Arts School [and] the Business School. The business school program will have students learning how to tie ties and things you can do with majors.”

LBJ principal Sheila Henry said the college and career fair will help the students understand what the process is for a getting into a specific school.

“What the criteria is to enter those colleges and universities is going to be important to our families,” Henry said. “Since we are an Early College High School, to talk about the transferable credits within the state of Texas, all of them transfer, but if I wanted to go out of the state, then a conversation has to be had about if these credits are going to transfer to Spellman or to Howard or wherever they want to go outside of Texas. Those are some of the conversations they are going to have during the career and college presentations.”

According to both Clayton and Henry, the college fair is about more than just introducing students to colleges, but about

helping students understand what they need to prepare for college and what to expect when they get there.

“[It’s] more so about giving information to the families about the dos, the don’ts, the rules in terms of financial aid and even coursework on the college campus,” Henry said. “What qualifies them for this or that and then also exposing them to the different colleges and universities out there.”

Clayton said she is also planning on opening the fair for both upper and underclassmen in order to begin exposing students to colleges in and out of state at an earlier point in their high school careers.

“What I want students to get from it is I want them to learn about the college access,” Clayton said. “Just to know that there are so many different schools out there. I think that especially living in Austin, I think

University of Texas starts to overshadow Huston-Tillotson and Austin Community College. I think they start to overshadow what goes on outside of Austin since Austin is such a huge college town. I want them to broaden their horizon and know there’s different schools, but I also want underclassmen to learn what a major is and the things you can do with certain majors.”

Creating a range of options and allowing students to freely discover what they want their college experience to look like is what Henry says is the most important aspect of the college visits and college fairs for LBJ students.

“I think all kids struggle with time management and organizational skills, so that’s part of the process and part of the informational sessions that the parents and the kids are going to hear, because that’s huge when they’re going off to college,” Henry said. “I think the more exposure, the more options that they have to look at different things in different ways, seeing it through a different set of lenses is really huge for parents to just understand and know, that yes, [their kids] can stay here in the state of Texas but [they] also have an opportunity to get outside of the state, and these are some of the things that [they are] going to be required to get done in order to do that. Several colleges and universities come out and share that kind of information with our families and our kids.”

LBJ-sponsored 5k supports anti-hate campaignThe LBJ Vertical Team will host a Walk Against Hate,

sponsored by No Place for Hate at LBJ on March 1. This walk is the final event in a series of three that will qualify LBJ as a No Place for Hate Campus, as determined by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

“It’s the first time from my knowledge that a walk has been held,” LBJ social services facilitator Joseph Dias said. “It’s my first year here at LBJ and I think part of the effort was not only to help the students and the school get recognized for No Place for Hate, but as the third and final event of the requirement.”

The term “vertical team” refers to all the feeder schools of a main high school. The LBJ vertical team includes all area elementary and middle schools that send students to LBJ High School. The walk is being started from Garcia Middle School. These elementary and middle schools are participating in the organization of the walk to satisfy their three anti-bias and diversity events to be considered a No Place for Hate school.

“There’s three events: the signing, the T-shirt design and the third event will be the walk coming up,” Dias said. “I thought it would be nice to have the community be more involved, so we contacted Garcia Middle School and Norman Elementary to see if we could get the local vertical team involved.”

The push for every school becoming a No Place for Hate-recognized school is coming from the district itself, who had 103 schools qualify in the 2012-2013 school year. LBJ high school itself qualified, and will qualify again after the completion of this school year. This year, all schools in AISD have qualified, making AISD one of the largest districts in the state to qualify as a No Place for Hate district.

“We did qualify for [No Place for Hate] last year,” Dias said. “If you notice when you walk into the front doors, there’s the big poster for 2012-2013. The events they did last year worked to get the designation.”

The No Place for Hate Initiative in schools targets not only the students and teachers themselves, but parents and

administrators, by hosting events that raise awareness for prejudice, bullying and intergroup conflict. The ADL supplies teachers and students with resources to increase anti-bias and diversity education in their schools. In doing this, schools are required to create a student-led coalition, sign the Resolution of Respect (which explains the purpose of No Place for Hate), and host at least three anti-bias and diversity related events. The No Place for Hate Initiative was started in Austin in 2004, with AISD making it a requirement for schools at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.

“No Place for Hate is sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, which is predominantly a program that speaks out against anti-bias and discrimination,” Dias said. “[The ADL] kind of bled into the schools for the purpose of awareness of bullying.”

LBJ’s first two anti-bias and diversity events were the very last tailgate for the LBJ football team at the end of October, and a T-shirt design contest in early January. These events were the brainchildren of the student coalition at LBJ, who said they recognized a lack of student involvement.

“The very last tailgate party we had for the football team was our first event, [where] we did a huge sign that was kind of like their commitment to No Place for Hate,” Dias said. “The students would sign their names on the sign that the students created and had two big ones made - one for underclassmen and one for upperclassmen - and then we laminated that, and that was our first event. The second event was a T-shirt that they’re going to be creating--which actually was due last week--to help promote the walk as well.”

The Walk Against Hate will be a 5K, stretching from Garcia Middle School to LBJ. Students, teachers and administrators of

the LBJ vertical team have worked to promote the walk to the surrounding community, giving out flyers to neighborhood families and sending home information about the walk with students.

“I am going to be assigned to a community, and I will take me and my little team on out,” LBJ principal Sheila Henry said. “We are going to knock on doors and if we don’t get answers we are going to be hanging bags on doors with information in it, and then we are going to put them on car windshields.”

The plan for the walk is that at every mile (as a 5K is approximately three miles), each student will participate in an activity to demonstrate their commitment to standing up to discrimination. At the first mile, students will dip their hands in paint and cover a poster with handprints, signifying their promise to “stamp” out hate. At the second mile, students will dip their feet in paint, symbolizing their ability to “stomp” out hate. Finally, at the third mile (the granite Texas in the LBJ courtyard), students will color stop signs, promising to “stop” hate. The first one hundred finishers of the walk will receive the T-shirts produced in the contest held in January.

After the walk, LBJ will be declared a No Place for Hate school during the 2013-2014 school year. An end of the year celebration will be held to recognize the efforts of students and staff in creating a more tolerant environment for everyone at the school said Henry.

“We are inviting parents to come in at a later date to actually take a look at everything we have done,” Henry said. “We’ll pull it all together and do a powerpoint presentation on some of the things we have done with No Place for Hate and have a big end of season celebration.”

Chloe EdmistonStaff Writer

Daniel VegaStaff Writer

Chelsea BanawisStaff Writer

LBJ to host college fair

[It’s] more so about giving information to the families about the dos [and] the don’ts.

-LBJ principal Sheila Henry

““

Austin’s oldest community radio station is producing a new show with the Austin Independent School District (AISD). Breaking Down the Barriers with Miss Terry Russell premiered this December on KAZI radio with the goal of reaching out to parents in the Austin area with information on AISD’s policies, events and opportunities.

Under the direction of Assistant Director Perla Delgado, the district’s Department of Communications and Community Engagement partnered with KAZI in determining the focus of the series.

“The idea came from a group of parents who wanted more information about educational issues through vehicles that were familiar to their community,” Delgado said. “When the opportunity came up to work with KAZI in a community radio station, we thought that this collaboration would be important in providing the resources and information they need to further children’s education.”

Upcoming episodes will focus on issues such as literacy, summer activities, graduation programs and the impact of social media on schoolchildren. Breaking Down the Barriers often discusses topics aimed at the African-American community, which comprises the bulk of KAZI’s audience.

“Our focus for our Breaking Down the Barriers is primarily for African-American families in AISD,” Delgado said. “We focus on district personnel, from teachers to principals to department heads or individuals working on an initiative that we are trying to promote.

However, according to KAZI program director Marion Nickerson, the broadcast does not solely focus on district material.

“It’s not all AISD information,” Nickerson said. “Sometimes it’s general information about Texas and around the country [and] just different kinds of educational resources that are available.”

A 30-minute episode is hosted every month by Terry Russell, a community engagement specialist with 16 years of experience in the district. She describes the show as a resource for those who have questions about their children’s education but don’t know where to look for answers.

“My goal is to build that link between AISD and the community, and make people more comfortable about communicating with the district, because it’s not a big scary entity,” Russell said. “We want to continue to make sure that

AISD is seen as a valuable source of information.”

Russell is also involved in other initiatives,

including promoting events and offering

educational assistance to smaller African-American communities outside the schools that the district

usually targets. Despite her broad

experience, radio is still new to her.

“It can be intimidating,” Russell said. “But I’m getting a little bit more comfortable every show. The key thing for me is to make sure I don’t show that I’m nervous.”

Breaking Down the Barriers plays at 5 p.m. on the first Monday of every month on KAZI 88.7 FM. A website for the show is still under construction. Until its completion, recordings can be requested through an e-mail to the AISD Department of Communications and Community Engagement.

LBJ principal Sheila Henry supports the show’s efforts to bring the district and community closer and make public schools more public. She said the biggest barrier the show will be breaking down is the communication barrier between the school district and families.

“[The show] is going to be pretty interesting,” Henry said. “What we do should be an open book in public school. I don’t see why everybody can’t know what everybody is doing, because in the end of the day we are the same school district and we are one school as far as I’m concerned.”

[Russell]ing up the radio waves

art by Abby Kappelmen

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I thought it would be nice to have the community be more involved, so we contacted Garcia Middle School and Norman Elementary to see if we could get the local vertical team involved.

-LBJ social services facilitator Joseph Dias

““

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

Parent support specialists and parents from local Austin high schools have teamed up with the Department of Public Relations and Multicultural Outreach (PRMO) to encourage involvement within the African-American communities. The African-American Parent Involvement Conferences will take place on March 2 at the Wilhelmina Delco Center. At the conferences, keynote speaker Los Ellis will both give a speech and act as a communicator between parents and the faculty.

“My role is twofold,” Ellis said. “I will be doing one of the speeches, [and I am a] liaison between the parents of the students and the faculty, which will be the teachers, principals, and the Austin Independent School District.”

According to Ellis, the main goal of these conferences is to involve parents in the education of their children. Parents will work alongside teachers to create a plan of success for students.

“We want the parents to write out one or two goals for their child and share it with the teachers so the teachers know how to teach their child,” Ellis said. “What they learn in school can actually be supported by the parents when the child goes home and does homework. That’s one [thing]. The second is for the parents to find time to be active in the school [and] come back and really just take an active part in this child’s education.”

Studies have linked parental involvement with increased academic achievement, particularly when the involvement begins at an early age. Ellis said that involvement between parents and teachers also leads to higher grades and better behavior across the board.

“Statistics show that if a parent is involved at the school with their child, the child tends to be a letter grade higher each year,” Ellis said. “The child tends to have less disciplinary action, [and] they behave better in school.”

LBJ principal Sheila Henry said that this year LBJ will host the African-American conferences. Being the host school will allow Henry to talk about the what happens at LBJ and what it means to be an early college high school.

“This year we will be the host school,” Henry said. “I will welcome this time and talk about some of the things we are doing at LBJ, some of the projects that we have been working on, you know like our anti-drug program, some of the things that we are doing with No Place for Hate and of course I am going to talk about college, perhaps I may even do a session on what we are doing here in terms of early college high school.”

Henry said that the African-American Parent Involvement Conferences will expose parents to the different ways the district can help their children.

“We have different vendors come in, different people who are in public office and different people who own their own consulting businesses to come out and do workshops for our

parents on anything from parenting, to making tapes that they can utilize to help their kids at home, to just teaching them some of those employee ability skills, vocational skills, or leading them in a good direction,” Henry said.

According to Ellis, this conference has grown and changed positively since last year. This year parents will look at education from the viewpoint of teachers and be exposed to the liabilities and challenges teachers face.

“We put this [conference on] a Saturday, and Saturday is probably the one day that parents have off and can come without the need to be working,” Ellis said. “We saw many parents wake up early morning to meet at 8 o’clock which means that they woke up really early to meet us because they wanted to know how they could meet their child. You know, how can they help their child be better and more successful, and how can they understand the constraints or liabilities that teachers go under so that they can make it a little better for them as well.”

Ellis said that seeing parents of elementary school students attend the conferences is encouraging and promising.

“What’s even more promising is when you see the elementary level parents come because they want to get an active role in their child’s education,” Ellis said. “Really early they want to change habits and make it more positive. Everyone from the teachers to help aids to PTA leaders to principals as well as the superintendent were all in attendance, and that showed a really positive effect. Everyone who needed to play a role in this to make it successful was available and participated in the message we want to send across for the African-American conferences.”

This year the conferences will continue with aspects that were successful at last year’s conferences. Additionally, Ellis said that an important change this year is spreading the word about the conferences sooner.

“I think one of the things we’re doing is we’re really getting the word out a lot earlier,” Ellis said. “Last year we didn’t get the word out as early as we can to get as many parents involved. We made this very simple. We’re going to have transportation to the event, without having a cost to the families. We’re going to continue to provide breakfast and lunch to the families and actually have a reason to stay and listen because the food is provided. We’re also going to continue to have involvement from the local community.”

Ellis said that his long-term goal for the African-American Parent Involvement Conferences is to get the parents and the community more involved in their child’s future. Another goal of the conferences is to match the goals that parents and teachers have for students.

“See the big gap [is that] the teachers have a goal for the students but the parent’s goal for that child may be different,” Ellis said. “The teacher’s goal for that child is to probably get that child proficient, to be able to walk out into the world, maybe go to college, get a job. Maybe for that parent, it’s

probably something a little different. Maybe that parent wants that child to not just go to college but go to an Ivy League school. Now we can get those [goals] aligned.”

Henry said she hopes that after these conferences parents will be more motivated and interested in taking part in their child’s school by joining the PTA or the campus advisory council.

“What I hope to gain from this conference is a little more hands on, a little more parent involvement here on campus,” Henry said. “With parents coming out to the school, my hope is that they gain that knowledge and that they want to come out because they want to ask those questions and they will want to be a part of our campus advisory council where we make decisions about what goes on in the school.”

Gubernatorial race for educationDemocratic Sen. Wendy Davis has begun

releasing pieces of her formal education plan. Thus far, she has released three components, namely “Great Teachers: Great Texas”, “Great Pathways: Great Texas” and “Great Start: Great Texas”. The first deals with increasing benefits and incentive programs to create a stronger educational force, the second with student preparedness for college, and the third with Pre-K education.

Within the “Great Teachers: Great Texas”, Davis outlines her plans to increase interest in careers in education through multiple incentive programs, including increasing the funding for the Teach for Texas Loan Repayment Program. Lesa Moller, Director of Loan Repayment Programs at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said the 2011 budget cuts made it so the program had to cut down the amount of money given in each loan and the total number of loans given.

“During the 2010/11 there was $11.4 million for this program and in that time I think we received enough funding for approximately 1200 teachers to receive well payment,” Moller said. “We received over 6000 applications for those 1200 spots. We had to be very careful in crafting a plan for out paying the limited funds and priority goes to prior year recipients ... so we couldn’t accept any new applications for people who weren’t already in the program.”

The program’s purpose is to recruit and retain certified teachers in shortage fields by offering student and federal loan forgiveness. Davis plans to extend the program further than just service fields as well as simplifying the forgiveness program to one year of loan debt repaid for every two years of teaching.

“It’s a great financial benefit to teachers that otherwise probably don’t have this opportunity for advancement,” Moller said. “The salaries for teachers don’t seem to increase significantly with experience so this is why I want a tool for encouraging them to remain where they are. I think that if the award were significantly greater, then I would argue that you would be encouraging students that are in college to want to or to provide an incentive for them to want to go into teaching.”

Davis has stated an interest in meeting the funding needs of the program and allowing teachers to go back to school to meet needs in shortage fields, all as part of her plan to recruit and retain high quality Texas teachers. The second released part of Davis’s plan, “Great Pathways: Great Texas”, covers college preparedness among high school students. In it, Davis suggests doubling the number of early college high school (ECHS) campuses, doubling the number of college credit hours a high school student can get, allowing ninth graders to begin earning college credit and encouraging school districts to partner

with local higher learning institutions. Laura Gaines, Early College High School Coordinator at the Texas Education Agency, oversees the ECHS campuses in the state.

“We currently have 65 ECHS campuses and are in the process of designating new ECHS campuses for the 2014-2015 school year,” Gaines said. “Doubling the number of ECHS campuses would possibly mean adjusting the types and levels of support we provide these campuses.”

Gaines said that the original number of credit hours, 60, was decided based on research that stated that two years of college were required to put a student on track to a middle class income, and therefore that number puts the students over the 20 credit threshold that is considered the breaking point for finishing college. She said that earning more credits from a younger age could be beneficial to students.

“Earning additional dual credit hours is more rigorous for students, but many have found that by being more challenged they become more engaged and more committed to their school work and earning their diploma,” Gaines said. “Providing additional dual credit is a big commitment, both logistically and financially for administrators. But the payoffs in student achievement have proven worth that investment for many administrators.”

Davis’s main focus in her plans is to create a stronger educational base through increased funding and programs statewide.

“Teachers, like all other graduates, are facing significant student loan debt,” Moller said. “Personally I would like to see it funded at higher levels, but that is just me.”

LBJ to host African-American parent involvement conferencesSesha McMinnNews Editor

R

Texas Education Platforms

• Re-establish the Educational Aide Exemption

• Promotion of charter and online charter schools

• Less State involvement in education, specifi cally dealing with decreasing teaching to the test.

• Local control of education: empowering parents, teachers and principals.

• Expand the Teach for Texas Loan Repayment Program.

• Attract and retain highly-qualifi ed teachers by bringing Texas teacher pay in line with the rest of the country.

In the first open gubernatorial election since 1990, frontrunners Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis and Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott are going head-to-head for Texans’ votes, both putting a focus on education.

stories by Sam Zern and Sammy Jarrar

Although Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has not yet released any official education plan, the candidate has stated that he wants to focus on leaving education to genuine local control, with a focus on empowering local figures like principals, parents and teachers. In order to do so, Abbott said he would reduce state-level involvement, reduce ‘teaching to the test’, and promote charter schools and virtual schools in Texas such as the Texas Charter Schools Association (TCSA) and the Texas Virtual Academy (TXVA), respectively.

As current Texas Attorney General, Abbott defended nearly $5.4 billion in education budget cuts passed by the state legislature, the same budget cuts in which TCSA and other such organisations around Texas have filed a lawsuit against the state for. Because of these budget cuts, charters received zero financial funding and saw a loss in terms of equity. Tracy Young, Vice President of Public & Government Affairs at TCSA, said she believes that charters, such as those involved with TCSA, are underfunded and education and budget reform is necessary to solve that problem.

“We would love to see a focus on getting facilities funds and equitable funding for public charter school students,” Young said. “That would be the first and foremost, we think they deserve to see that from the legislature and to see that from whoever occupies the governor’s office.”

TCSA, which provides education to close to 90 percent of the charter students and TXVA, which provides online educations to nearly 7,000 of the 11,000 students taking classes online in Texas have both stated that although budget cuts have hurt them, seeing Abbott in the governor’s seat could mean significant growth.

“We have strong members in the senate and the house committee that are supporters

of online schools,” Jayme Ferguson, Marketing Director at TXVA, said. “So between the two (if he were to win and the strong supporters that are already in place) I would just think that online schools would only grow and offer more possibilities for the students. We just would probably see more of these opportunities shooting up and not just for an environment like we have but also throughout the district.”

Despite defending budget cuts, Abbott has appealed to numerous charter organizations in Texas because of the freedom and locality that they provide to students and their parents.

“I think as far as Attorney General Abbott, he’s definitely claimed to be a supporter so I think we would see continued support if he were to win,” Young said. “He’s been a strong supporter of public charter schools, he’s visited them and you know, charters are an important part of providing choice for students and parents within the public school system so I think they would have a fan.”

Unlike Davis, who has stated she would increase teacher incentives in order to attract more teachers to Texas schools, Abbott has said he believes charters are the key to bringing new teachers to the public school system.

“One of the differences between charter and traditional public schools is that teachers in charter schools can come from your local university, and don’t have to be certified in the regular manner that all other teachers are,” Young said. “They can be an engineer or a scientist at NASA, they come teach a couple of physics courses a week. They were meant to just add to the teaching profession.”

Giving genuine local control to principals, parents and students and freedom of choice is what all of this is aiming towards according to Abbott. Recent legislation has stated that students not previously enrolled in a Texas public school cannot enroll in virtual schools in Texas. Because of this, Ferguson said that she hopes to see the next governor address these issues and reform some of the legislation hurting charters, both traditional and online.

“We were able to support families who weren’t wanting to home school, or if they didn’t want to go to their private school anymore but their local public school is not a place they wanted to send their kids,” Ferguson said. “Now we really can’t, at least not very effectively.”

graphics by Alex Friedman

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

Sitting in Hyde Park Theater waiting to watch a FronteraFest performance means not knowing exactly what to expect. The theater goes dark and the actors on-stage have 25 minutes to do whatever they want, ranging from improv theater, to dancing to completely embodying a different person. The amount of variety that results from this free form type of theater is what has driven FronteraFest for the past 21 years.

This year, FronteraFest began Jan. 14, and continued for five weeks. Vicky Boone, Jason Phelps and Annie Suite first began FronteraFest in 1993 with the goal of crafting a theater festival that would showcase actors’ individuality at an economical price. Hyde Park Theater was chosen as the venue and FronteraFest was born. Boone ran the festival until 2001, when she left her position as Hyde Park Theater’s artistic director and producer of the festival. The current artistic director is Ken Webster.

“It was a lot of trial and error,” Webster said. “So the first year was probably a big learning experience for Vicky, Jason and Annie. They had never done a festival before or ever produced something with a showing over a three-week period.”

FronteraFest is co-produced by Webster and Christina Moore of Scriptworks. The two started planning the festival in August, putting in hundreds of hours of work to produce the month-long event. The festival is unjuried, meaning all play submissions are accepted.

“Every year, there’s a great combination of people who

have participated in the festival before, including established actors, writers and directors, as well as people who are brand new to the local art scene,” Webster said.

The general premise of FronteraFest is a month-long theater festival consisting of short fringe and long fringe shows. The short fringe component involves five, less than 25-minute plays each night, concluding with a Best-of-the-Week performance on Saturday. At the end of the month, there is also a Best-of-the-Fest performance, which is voted on by both the audience and a group of panelists.

“Every night at the short fringe you can see five pieces, some of which are going to be distinctly different,” Webster said. “It’s not all just theater pieces. People do dance, improve and stand-up. They can basically do anything they want for 25 minutes as long as they don’t break any laws or hurt anybody.”

The long fringe portion involves fewer, but longer plays which are performed at the Salvage Vanguard Theater and run from Jan. 20 to Feb. 2.

“I have a deep appreciation for the importance of the long fringe in the festival and in the community,” Moore said. “It is such a great opportunity for artists to get their work on stage inexpensively and with lots of support.”

Additional components to FronteraFest are Mi Casa Es Su Teatro, a one-day only event that involves short pieces performed in people’s homes throughout the city, and Bring Your Own Venue, in which a performance group or an individual can perform their play at any venue of their choosing. Bring Your Own Venue incorporates different parts of Austin as a prop or setting for the play.

“This year, we have six shows that are part of Bring Your Own Venue,” Webster said. “These six different groups have

all entered the festival but they are all performing at venues that they come up with. They range from a woman’s house to a bus stop on South Congress to a bookstore on Guadalupe.”

The variety of performances that are part of FronteraFest draw many people towards to unique festival. LASA teacher Rebecca Lyle has attended FronteraFest for the past 10 years and says it is this variety that keeps her coming back year after year. Lyle says she enjoys the surprise and intrigue each performer brings to the stage. Her favorite performance was four years ago as part of the short fringe portion of the show.

“A woman first began her performance by dancing and discussing geometry, which was odd enough by itself,” Lyle said. “But then she proceeded to squeeze herself into a three foot diameter collapsible ball and then got out of it. That was the whole performance.”

Lyle said that performances like this one define FronteraFest as a festival that welcomes individuality, creativity and odd performances. The producers say that they hope to see the festival expanding within the next few years. FronteraFest is already known internationally with performers coming from around the world to perform. The past 21 years have helped to define FronteraFest and Webster and Moore are hopeful that the festival will continue to expand and change in the future. Those who participate in Frontera Fest do so knowing that they have free-range in their performances, something that is different from the normal theater festival.

“[Moore and I] don’t limit them in what they can do and it’s totally up to the participant,” Webster said. “Audiences can look forward to experiencing people from the liberal arts scene, including award winning actors and directors and writers as well as people who are brand new to the scene.”

At the ring of the bell at the end of every school day, a group of approximately five to seven LBJ students gather inside the radio studio downstairs, its purple-walled exterior conspicuous from afar. Inside the space is intimate with barely the area of a janitor’s closet to stand- sitting is not an option. Here the members of LBJ radio and DJ club gather on a daily basis to curate content for the school’s online radio station, KJAG, as well as prepare music for the occasional performance in the cafeteria at lunch or other school sponsored events.

Having gained experience working in sound production and editing in Los Angeles, LBJ Audio and Video Production teacher Peter Brancaccio stands as the club sponsor. Involved since its inception, Brancaccio responded to interest at the beginning of the year to get the club rolling.

“There’s been a radio station facility at the school to do internet radio, but in the past years there wasn’t enough interest,” Brancaccio said. “This year we sort of started right out of the gate. LBJ junior Malik [Spears] wrote a letter to the principal and said, ‘I really want to do it this year. I’m really into radio..’ We found that there were a lot of people interested.”

Besides being the teacher sponsor for the club, Brancaccio also receives the benefit of apprenticeship in some ways. Despite his accomplished background in the fields of both audio and visual production, he notes that he’s been taught in part by the club members, too.

“I’ve been learning a lot about how to DJ because a lot of our kids have experience doing it, so I’ve learned a lot from them,” Brancaccio said. “I also enjoy coming in on a Saturday and

getting to put on a show, so that’s been a lot of fun.”

LBJ students Francisco Alcoser, Alex Walker and Andrew Crittenden, also known by their pseudonyms DJ Aspect, Afro and DJ Dr3w, respectively, compose the core of the group. Having produced music independently, junior Alcoser said he was excited about finally putting his material out there.

“I had seen the studio when I first came here as a freshman and I wondered why no one was using it because it must be here for a reason,” Alcoser said. “We just kind of talked to Brancaccio about it and trying to open it.” Alcoser said.

Although the studio for internet

radio has been around for three years, there had never been enough student interest to kickstart the club until this past year. With the advent of the club, members have been able to showcase their content at school functions, such as an impromptu Christmas party last semester and even a stunt during a LASA lunch.

“Sometimes the school will have a school celebration, like a barbecue on the weekend at LBJ, or Ms. Henry will be like, ‘Hey let’s have a Christmas party in the cafeteria’ one day and the whole giant crowd of students start dancing around,” Brancaccio said.

Throughout the process of spinning tracks and performing live, the club has seen a definite progression in the genres of music that they utilize for production. Crittenden attributes a large part of this evolution not only to

personal preferences but also greater access to suitable equipment.

“There’s been a big improvement since the beginning of the club,” Crittenden said. “We had some equipment, but we didn’t have a turntable or compressor, which equalizes our voice. I think all around, our music tastes have changed. Right now we’re getting into a little bit of techno. Also, the way we make our beats has changed for the better.”

Although live performance is a major aspect of the club, the members also spend a majority of time after school creating original content in the studio. With the club’s ownership of their own radio station that streams directly to the

internet, listeners are able to stream material to their cell phones 24 hours a day. The production of original and current content has become a priority for the club, as they look toward establishing a substantial online listenership as they move forward.

“We meet every day that we can, which is almost daily,” Crittenden said. “We’re trying to get [online

radio] up and going, but we don’t have enough music to do it. I want to see more people in it and for it to continue. We’re going to have stuff out there soon, but right now we’re just producing.”

With upcoming gigs at school functions and increased production of music in the works, KJAG is well under way in kickstarting the radio station and hopes to be able to incorporate talk radio in the near future.

“We started off with just music because that’s the easiest way to do it, but because it’s 24 hours, we want to expand the radio station and include more talk,” Brancaccio said. “One problem with just music is that it’s not enough for people to be tuning in to listen. People want to hear interviews and people want to hear a talk show and I think even a call-in game show would be fun. So that’s where we’re heading.”

LASA government teacher Ronny Risinger sits in Room 256, his right hand trained with years of experience placed on a small scanner. He makes precise adjustments, searching for a contact that could be from the other side of the globe. For the past 10 years, Risinger has directed the Ham Radio Club, helping students earn licenses that will give them the ability to speak to people all over the world.

“Noah Calish, a student back in 2004, was reading a book on electronics and thought that it was interesting,” said Risinger. “Then one thing led to another.”

LASA alumni Noah Calish first proposed the idea of an amateaur Ham Radio Club 10 years ago. Along with Risinger, they created the club and nurtured it into an established part of the LASA culture.

“He got his license, and as it turned out fortuitously at the same time, the astronomy teacher retired, and they found ham radio equipment in his closet,” Risinger said.

“We used that single radio to start making contacts and we’ve been in business now for 10 years.”

With only one ham radio at its conception, the club, under Risinger’s name, now owns thousands of dollars of equipment that can even communicate with space.

“Right now we’re in the process of establishing this rotator on top of the school that will track and allow us to speak on satellite, including people on the international space station,” Risinger said. “We did that in 2008 and we spoke with Richard Garriot on the space station.”

Even though they have reached the stars, they can still talk anywhere, having communicated with dozens of countries and almost every state. LASA senior Adam Iscoe is a member of the club.

“We’ve already talked to 45 states and more than 10 countries. I spoke today to someone in Sweden,” Iscoe said. “You talk to them and tell them your call sign and say, ‘Hey this is K5LBJ,’ and they say their call sign and hear static and it’s sort of thrilling to hear your name said by someone in Sweden over a radio wave.”

The entire club is led by the students, whom Risinger says are driven by their curiosity.

“All the things that you see on the roof as you come down to the LBJ or LASA campus, the students have put that together,” Risinger said. “They’re excitement to explore new horizons is what’s made the program keep moving forward incrementally such that it’s survived ten years.”

story by Oran Lopez Reed

Surya MilnerStaff Writer

Zia LyleStaff Writer

LBJ restores radio elective, reaches out to community

I think all around, our music tastes have changed. Right now, we’re getting into a little bit of techno. Also, the way we make our beats has changed for the better.

-LBJ junior Andrew Crittendon

““

FronteraFest performances embrace avante-garde theater, incorporate unlikely venues throughout city

Expanding the radio

ronteraFest

art by Stephanie Park

HAM Radio Club extends presence within community

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

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Austin ISD Invitational at UT AustinThe top LBJ sports statistics from the past six weeks

Is there a doctor in the house?Head athletic trainer Sue ‘Doc’ Torres translates years of experience on field to aspiring sports medicine students, teaches them to treat injuries

Holding ‘Js’ high above their heads, the fans in the stadium fall silent. Athletic trainer Sue “Doc” Torres runs onto the field, flanked by her students and aspiring athletic trainers. A fallen LBJ lineman lies on his back, grabbing for his ankle. The trainers check the ankle, then lift the player up, draping his arms over their shoulders. The crowd applauds and the game goes on, but on the sidelines, a flurry of activity continues.

“We get some bloody injuries,” Torres said. “That’s go time for us, though; we get excited. Some of the kids are still kind of ‘Uck’, but most everybody is like ‘Oh my God, that’s awesome!’ After they’ve seen a little bit of blood, they get used to that. And then the trainers go, ‘That’s a good one’ and everybody’s like, ‘Good?’”

Torres is the LBJ athletic trainer, which means she teaches and prescribes athletic medicine. She has worked at LBJ since 2007, and has taught many prospective athletic trainers. Torres said that she had always wanted to do something in the medical field when she was in school, but had not planned on working as an athletic trainer originally. Before she began studying sports medicine at Eastern Illinois University (EIU), she took the test to join the Army.

“I knew that my senior year of high school, I was going into the Army as a medic,” Torres said. “I did well on my HAZMAT test, but [the Army] said, ‘There’s nothing going on, you need to go to college.’”

At EIU Torres began studying to become an athletic trainer. She had always been interested in sports, but the idea of a career in the field came as a suggestion from her father and high school head football coach, Tony Torres, who told her about the high school’s trainer.

“I started to hang out [with the trainer] while in college and my dad got me in line with the athletic trainer at the junior college, and my start,” Torres said. “And then the next year I transferred into a good athletic training school.”

Torres’ first semester at EIU was mostly filled with taping ankles and taking care of smaller injuries, but her second semester, she said, was considerably more exciting. Torres was next up to bat at a softball game when her team called her onto the field.

“We were at an away game and our shortstop slide into second base,” Torres said. “It was just a perfect storm, with the angle of her leg hitting with the start to slide and the tag. She had a tibia fracture. The two lower bones in her leg were nice and lined up before, but now [had shifted]. It wasn’t compound, [where] you can see the bone; it’s kind of pushing like they wanted to come through the skin.”

Torres said that people often get uncomfortable when they see their first injury, and she was no exception. She said that she thought she was prepared for anything, but was quickly proved wrong.

“I had never seen any injury before that,” Torres said. “They call me out there and I almost passed out. It’s funny, because the first time student trainers see a bad injury, a lot of times they’ll get a little [woozy]. So she’s laying on the ground and her leg is definitely deformed, you can see that through her socks. And the other leg’s going [the opposite direction]. And I’m looking, like ‘what’s wrong’ and I’m like ‘woah’. They call the ambulance and I’m like ‘I don’t know what to do.’”

Torres said that she has seen many injuries, some of which occurred more suddenly and bizarrely than her first. She said that sometimes interesting and strange injures happen, like a compound fractured femur in cross-country or a nearly paralyzed lacrosse player, both of which she has seen.

“Lot of freak things happen,” Torres said. “You have to be ready for anything because a lot of freak thing happen.”

Torres said that her skills grew quickly after her first injury, leading her to be able to take care of these “freak” injuries.

Once she graduated from EIU, she took a job at what was then known as Johnston High School, now called East Side Memorial. The job at Johnston turned out to be a springboard position. Former athletic director and head football coach Demosesneeds Odems moved from Johnston to LBJ, and Torres quickly followed The two were later joined by current softball coach Pedro Moreno. Torres said that teaching at LBJ is exciting because of the large student interest in sports medicine.

“When I got here, I had all kinds of injuries that had happened in the past that had never been addressed,” Torres said. “This kid comes in and he says, ‘Can you look at my shoulder?’ [and it turned out] I had a surgical shoulder the very first day. It was from an old injury that had never been addressed. That was even before they hit the field. I was dealing with past injuries. I guess that would be my first injury.”

One of Torres’ students, LASA junior and sports medicine co-captain Riley Syzdek, began athletic training in her freshman year. She said that she has always wanted to study sports medicine.

“I like working with athletes,” Syzdek said. “In college, I’m hoping to continue in athletic training and then see where I

wanna go from there.”In her sports medicine class, Torres teaches the students

injury-specific details and how to dress injuries so they will know what to do come game time. In order to prevent having to deal with the injuries, Syzdek said that the trainers are also taught to take precautionary measures, such as stretching players’ muscles and replenishing their electrolytes. These measures are taken to prevent cramping and heat-related injuries, but due to the intensity of sports such as football, the actions do not always prevail.

“Everyone works football because there are a lot of players and a lot of injuries,” Syzdek said. “Then after football’s over, everyone kind of splits up and you can work a lot of sports and get hands on experience with all the teams. You can do whatever you’re interested in.”

Injuries differ from sport to sport, which means the trainers always have something new to learn from Torres.

Syzdek said that the this year she’ll be working on baseball and softball.

“I’ll probably get more throwing injuries with shoulders and elbows,” Syzdek said. “Whereas football is a contact sport, there are more concussions and bleeding.”

LASA junior Eva Lopez-Trujillo saw the athletic trainers at an LBJ football game and realized sports medicine combined her love for sports and her interest in the medical field. Lopez said she has enjoyed learning about sports medicine during the day then applying her skills after school.

“I actually wanted to be an actual athletic trainer; a professional one,” Lopez said. “I’d prefer to go into like professional football because it’s really rare for a woman to be an athletic trainer in professional leagues.”

Lopez mainly does athletic training and sports medicine with soccer. However, the trainers said no matter the sport there is no lack of gruesome injuries. Torres said at wrestling state a girl dislocated her knee, an injury that can cause permanent damage and most often ends in amputation.

“The lower leg was pointing in another direction. That’s an extremely emergent injury, because you tear all the blood vessels. If they can’t reconnect the blood vessels then [it has to be amputated]. Everything turned out fine, she dislocated but didn’t tear her blood vessels. She had a pulse in her foot right away. Trainers were everywhere. I got to take her shoe and sock off and someone was holding it and someone was splinting it and like, ‘We got a pulse!’ and everybody’s like ‘Yay!’ So that was a bad one.”

With seven years at LBJ alone, Torres said she’s seen a lot of gruesome injuries. However, despite the seemingly grisly injuries, she said she love teaching her trainers.

“It’s awesome,” Torres said. “I really like it when they get it; when they can put things together and all of a sudden they say, ‘Oh my, gosh, I know what’s wrong with this kid.’ They get excited, I get excited, and everything is coming together. [They] have learned how to evaluate and diagnose. They’re little things, but it’s nice when they can do it.”

Lots of freak things happen. You have to be ready for anything.

-LBJ trainer Sue ‘Doc’ Torres

““

Meagen Allgood & Isabel SaraleguiSports Editors

“When I got here, I had all kinds of injuries that had happened in the past that had never been addressed,” Torres said. Torres wraps LBJ junior CJ Jones’ wrist.

“Everyone works football because there are a lot of players and...injuries,” LASA junior Riley Syzdek said. Torres and Syzdek at an LBJ football game.

“[They] have learned how to evaluate and diagnose,” Torres said. Torres and LASA junior and athletic trainer Cristal Garcia listen and wait at the sideline.

photos by Becky Gdula

LBJ baseball coach Ruben Covarrubias calls encouragement from the sidelines of Bastrop High School’s Bear Field during a scrimmage on Feb. 4. In addition to facing off against Bastrop, the Jaguars have played against Manor and Hays in a series of preseason scrimmages. Covarrubias said that the team is already playing well and the three captains, LASA seniors Anthony Rasp and Tristan Burt, and junior Daniel Weinberg, are ready to lead.

“We scrimmaged [against] Bastrop,” Covarrubias said. “It was freezing out there, but we did a good job. We put up 10 runs to their three. Even though it’s a scrimmage, it was good to see.”

Rasp said that he expects this season to go better than last year’s, in which the Jags split their meetings with McCallum and finished third in district. Covarrubias has not yet solidified a starting lineup, and the competition for spots is ongoing.

“It’s Coach’s second year here coaching, so it’s just another year of experience with LBJ and the whole program,” Rasp said. “[It’s] another year to get things going earlier, so practice has been going really great, and the players look like they’re ready to go. I’m expecting to win district.”

Rasp said that the baseball team is younger this year than in years past, with more freshmen trying out than usual. There are currently six seniors on varsity. Burt said that he is confident in both JV and varsity’s potential this year due to the amount of newcomers.

“We definitely have a very young team here; the youngest team that I’ve seen in 4 years,” Burt said. “And that can be a good and a bad thing. Young kids are ready to prove themselves and ready to work hard, but they have also a lack of experience.”

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

My father is an avid fan of the Cleveland Indians. He follows all their games, keeps tabs on all their players and even has an Indians-related blog. But, while he is a big fan of the Indians, there are two less-than-positive things about his favorite Major League Baseball team that he will reluctantly admit. The first is that they just aren’t that good. The Indians haven’t won a World Series since

1948, and their attendance ranks among the lowest in professional baseball. The second, however, is not even

remotely related to batting averages or winning percentages, but instead has to do with the fact that their mascot, Chief Wahoo, is incredibly offensive.

If you haven’t heard of Chief Wahoo, let me give you a description. He is a Native American with a red bulbous head, a large toothy smile, triangular eyes and a feather headband. This may not sound so offensive, but once you actually see it, you can’t deny that it is a derogatory stereotype of Native Americans.

Chief Wahoo, alongside the Washington Redskins’ Redskin, is the poster boy for offensive mascots around the country. From professional to high school teams, there are some mascots that are guaranteed to upset someone. For example, Coachella Valley High School has an Arab for a mascot. Yes, an Arab, complete with large menacing eyes, sharp teeth, a full beard and a head scarf.

The only thing worse than offensive mascots are the people who have no problem with them, and who will even fight to keep the mascots. One common counterargument I hear is “I don’t find it offensive. Why should I become a victim of political correctness?” If you say that, then you are missing the point on what makes something offensive.

Words and stereotypes have connotations and histories that invoke a certain time or sentiment. When someone is offended, they are remembering and reacting to what these implicate. To use a more tame example, take the word “retard”. You have probably used this word before, but the word itself recalls a time where the mentally handicapped were considered less than human. The same stands true for the N-word. The N-word brings to mind an era of our history in which enslaving blacks and treating them as less than a human was an acceptable practice. Derogatory words and stereotypes have histories and reputations that are invoked whenever used, even if that was not the intention. So having a vicious looking Arab as a mascot may not seem offensive to you, but it still has that stigma.

Besides, saying something like “I’m not offended and therefore its not offensive” is a selfish (and frankly, stupid) thing to say. That’s basically saying that everyone should think the way you do. So if you don’t like olives, clearly no one should like olives. Great logic, eh?

Other people often cite tradition as the reason for keeping an offensive mascot. Yes, I am aware that the Washington Redskins and its mascot have been around for more than 80 years. However, there is a difference between protecting a tradition and clinging to a prejudicial icon. Take the Confederate flag. It is a popular southern tradition to display the flag proudly. But like words, symbols have baggage. In this case, the Confederate flag is a symbol of slavery, even if that is not the intention of the owner of the flag. Some traditions carry prejudicial burdens, even if you don’t see it.

So whether you think so or not, Chief Wahoo and the Washington Redskin are offensive and need to be changed. The Redskins could easily be the Washington Warriors and the Indians could easily change Chief Wahoo to something more sensitive.

Now, I am aware of the slippery slope. If we change one offensive mascot, then any mascot that one person finds offensive could be changed. That’s why I think there has to be a threshold for change. If enough people find a mascot offensive, it needs to change.

Words and symbols carry meaning. It is in our best interest as a society to prevent invoking such baggage. That’s not called being “a PC police.” That’s called being sensitive.

Baseball begins season with second-year coach

LASA junior Courtney Garner hooks on her mask and submerges herself in the clear blue water of Hawaii’s off-shore coral reefs. During the summer of 2013, Garner traveled with students from an Anderson High School biology class to the islands of Hawaii to studying the environment of the state. She received her scuba diving license in Austin prior to the trip, learning techniques from her father Chuck Garner, a licensed cave diver.

“I really just wanted to be able go scuba diving and see everything up close and personal,” Garner said. “We would go during the day and see things in the light in that sort of atmosphere. Then [we would] go during the night to see the nocturnal environment.”

Garner expressed an interest in scuba diving before the Anderson Hawaii trip, due to her biology class and the exposure she received from her father. Chuck is a recreational cave diving photographer.

“[She] looked at some of the footage I’ve shot, and we talked about some of the stories and some of the things I’ve seen,” Chuck said. “She thought that that was really cool, and she’s always been a good swimmer.”

Garner’s process of becoming

a certified scuba diver included getting acquainted with the scuba equipment and learning the proper techniques for getting in and out of the gear. Garner was able to practice the steps of getting in and out of the water, as well as safety procedures for emergency situations.

“In the pool at home she would try out [my equipment] and learn how to use it properly, like how to clear your mask, how to share the regulator,” Chuck said. “I went through the basics of things she would do, which took some of the fear away.”

Garner took a class at Tom’s Dive and Swim in Austin. The written test Garner took for her license was accompanied by a practice swim at a lake created specifically for divers.

“It took two to three days a week for two weeks and then one weekend to go and actually practice in a lake [to get licensed],” Garner said. “We actually got to go to Athens, Texas to a scuba diving park where they have these big, man-made sunken airplanes and buses that you can

swim through.”After obtaining a license for her

Hawaii trip, Garner continued to practice her skills to become more comfortable under the water. The biggest safety issue with scuba diving is that when a problem occurs, people tend to panic. Since scuba diving involves people swimming much deeper than they are generally accustomed to, emergency situations have to be dealt with calmly, as to not make the problem worse.

“There are procedures for almost everything that can go wrong,”

Chuck said. “You just need to not panic, go through your training and go through the procedures, and you’ll be fine.”

If divers can get past their initial hesitations, the environments that they are able to visit contain diversity of life that most people are not able

to witness. As 94 percent of life is underwater, a majority of people will never experience the difference in environments in the ocean, where warmer and colder waters exhibit large differences in the type of organisms that live there.

“You can see things by scuba diving that just a small fraction of people ever get to see in person,” Chuck said. “You get to interact with the ocean and see another part of the world up close.”

I really just wanted to be able go scuba diving and see everything up close and personal.

-LASA junior Courtney Garner

““

LASA junior travels to Hawaii, studies biodiversity in ocean life

Softball aims for state after loss of eight seniors

The Lady Jaguars graduated eight seniors last year, but they only lost one infielder. LASA junior co-captain Annie Murphy said it will be a learning year, but the team still has their eyes on the district championship and state. LASA junior co-captain Desiree Moreno said their coach, Pedro Moreno, did a good job choosing new players.

“I think we were all worried that there would have been too many gaps to fill, but our coach did a really good job of picking girls that are really fast learners,” Moreno said. “I

think that we’re still going be successful this year.” Murphy and Moreno said the new girls

have a different view on the season and bring a different mentality. For a lot of the new girls it is their first season as a Lady Jaguar softball player, so they do not have as much of a rivalry with opposing teams.

“For all these girls, they are just coming out here to have fun, and they are just playing the game,” Murphy said. “It will be a lot less pressure but at the same

time, it will probably help us to just go and have fun and win.”

Murphy and Moreno said they think they will win against the teams they lost to last year, due

to the new girls’ team mentality. Moreno said that they aim to win every game, and will focus more on Crockett, a large rival for the Lady Jags.

“I think we’re still going to get the same number of wins,” Moreno said. “I think that with these girls coming with a different mentality about other teams, their attitudes going into games might change so I think it may result in beating Crockett this year. That was the team that we’d lost to for the past couple of years.”

Pedro said that the only the thing the girls need to work on is knowing their role

and where to go. He said that this comes with experience, and learning how to play the game with a logical mind.

“The only thing that we miss, is everyone knowing where to go at all times,” Pedro said. “That is really the key: that way everybody knows exactly what to do and at what point in the game. That is what we

will be working on.”LASA senior Anthony Rasp and LASA junior Annie Murphy. photos by Isabel Saralegui

Meagen AllgoodSports Editor

Isabel SaraleguiSports Editor

Teams show no change with offensive mascots

Diving deep

Chris Buffam-RobbinsStaff Writer

“You can see things by scuba diving that [few] people ever get to see in person,” Chuck Garner said. Chloe Garner snorkling in a reef. photo by Chuck Garner

art by Victoria Mycue

Chloe EdmistonStaff Writer

Jennife r Spradl ey Jones

5766 Balcones DriveSuite 101Austin, Texas 78731512-380-9090

Clinical Social Work and Th erapy

MSW, LCSW

1400 South Congress Ave.Suite A-170

Austin, Texas 78704www.kendrascott.com

Girls dressed in tights and dance shoes line up in choreographed positions, waiting for counts that tell them to begin. The LBJ First Ladies Dance Team have been preparing for their Feb. 15 Crowd Pleasers competition in San Marcos since the end of football season, choreographing and perfecting three routines. The team danced one novelty dance, one hip hop dance and one lyrical dance.

“Competition is by far the most intense part of First Ladies,” LASA junior and three-year veteran dancer Elena Cole said. “Most people think we are done when football season is over, but for us football season is just for fun. Competition gets much more serious and not everyone participates as we have tryouts for each dance.”

Dancers had to try out for each dance to fill a required number of spots for the large ensemble category, which the 52-member team qualifies for. The decisions for who would participate in the dances was based not only on skill, but also on who could actually attend the most practices.

“I had a lot of returnees last year for competition, and it’s usually easier for returnees to get back in the swing of competition,” Coach Tina “G” Hughes

said. “With the new girls, though, they don’t know what to expect, trying to get them into the contest mindset when they’ve never gone through it before – that’s always hard.”

Hughes said the biggest problem with competition this year was making time for practice around so many individual schedules. The three snow days that AISD called for all occurred on scheduled practice days when the First Ladies had reserved the gym, where the basketball team usually gets first priority. The dance room is too small

for the team to practice formations or do the dance full-out.

“Bad weather days, and no time to practice or space are our biggest issues,” Hughes said. ”We had a big practice scheduled on Friday but because of the weather, we weren’t able to do it.”

Despite setbacks, the First Ladies were able to complete and perform three different team routines at the competition. For novelty, the team performed a Bangladesh-themed dance choreographed by LASA junior Mehraz Rahman, a vet dancer and

LASA junior. Typically just for fun, the challenging new style of dance was said to be difficult for the girls to learn in shortened time. Despite this, on Saturday the First Ladies scored well and received the award for First Runner-Up. The team also won the Crowd Pleasers Audience, an award in recognition for the enthusiastic feedback they received from the crowd after their performance.

“Regardless of which teams compete in which category, we have typically come home with at least one trophy,” Cole said. “Last year we were

very excited to win Best Technique for our dances. This year we’re going into a pretty difficult competition and are not focusing too much on winning, but performing solid routines.”

In the large team category, the First Ladies went up against the Westlake, Crockett, and Belton dance teams. Despite their challenging competition, the First Ladies were able to

place in all their dances, receiving Best in Category in Hip Hop, and Second Runner-Up in Lyrical. Because the team scored above a 90 in each of their dances along with Novelty, they were eligible for and won the Team Sweepstakes award as well.

“We have the most fun getting ready with each other and watching all of the other teams perform,” Cole said. “The best part of competition is definitely just getting to spend time with your best friends and goof around in between dances.”

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

QuickHits

After working in the weight room with the football team for an entire semester, LBJ athletic director and head football coach Andrew Jackson had seen enough. The weight room at LBJ has not been updated since the school was built in 1975, and because of this, some machines were broken, the wooden floor had cracks and most of the dumbbells no longer correctly indicated how much weight they hold. Jackson said that he wants to fix this, and in order to make all the changes he has envisioned, he will need around $40,000. To raise the money, Jackson is turning to parents of athletes and asking for small donations.

“I’ve been asking each parent to donate 10 dollars a month,” Jackson said. “If we could actually do that, we could get a machine every month, but I don’t know if people really see the vision. The money that comes in, we [will use] right away, because I want people to see the visual.”

While accepting donations, the LBJ Athletics department has also applied for a grant from Muscle Milk. If the grant comes through, it would provide the school for with $25 thousand to use on remodeling the weight room.

“That $25 thousand grant would help a lot,” Jackson said. “If not we are going to build it as money comes in.”

LBJ junior Sidney Harrison said he felt the weight room was becoming a hazard to the safety of student-athletes. Harrison participates in many athletic programs such as football, wrestling and track, and said that he believes a renovation would be a welcome addition.

“[The weight room] is completely dangerous,” Harrison said. “The safety bars on the squat rack fall off all the time. Some of the weights don’t have names on them, and they’re different sizes, so it gets really confusing.”

Jackson said that he hopes to fix these problems quickly, but the athletics department has only generated roughly $9 thousand so far. Jackson said he wants to have everything complete in the coming months, but the department still needs $31 thousand for that to happen. Jackson added that he will be doing everything he can to make that happen, giving his players have a safe place to exercise and grow in their abilities.

“It’s all about perception,” Jackson said. “If the kids like where they’re at [in the weight room], you know they’re going to keep coming back. My job as athletic director is to bring back that perception.”

Athletic director raises money for new weight room

The first whistle of the preseason blows and the girls are off, sprinting down the track and trying to prove themselves to the new track coach and athletic director Andrew Jackson. Excluding the expected freshman, most new additions to the team this season are seniors. Jackson said that this makes him very optimistic for the season.

“Our numbers seem to be a lot better this year,” Jackson said. “We’re getting a lot of young kids, and I’m really excited about working with everyone.”

Jackson has experience coaching track, as well as additional sports, at other schools, and he said that he feels that he can use this knowledge to make the team stronger. He said that he is aiming to make the LBJ track team renowned, and that he hopes to bring skills he learned from coaching at other schools to do so.

“I’ve been around some good track teams in my career,” Jackson said. “I believe LBJ can be one of the top-ranked programs in the state.”

The track team has lost many of its top runners since last year, including LASA alumnus and current University of Texas track runner Macahla Wesley, who Jackson said is a notable absence. Wesley set a new meet record in the 200 meters last year, so the lack of her presence on the team means other runners will have to step up to fill her shoes, Jackson said. He said that LASA freshman Kendall Brice and LBJ Senior Dana Broadnax have the ability to take on that role.

“Kendall Brice and Dana Broadnax are really good.” Jackson said. “They are the ones who can run. I’m hoping they can do well at Texas Relays and take us to the next level.”

Texas Relays is one of the most important of the seven meets the team will compete in this season, according to Jackson. The girls will start the season at Hutto Hippo Relays to work their way up to this skill level.

“One of the most significant track meets we will have is the district track meet and Texas Relays,” Jackson said. “These are important, because from these you can have [runners] qualify for regionals and state.”

Although track is seen as a largely individual sport, the practices and races have a large team aspect to them. According to LASA senior Kendall Graham, the community of the track team plays a very large role in the morale of the team.

“Despite how much of the sport is done alone, track is really a team sport, too,” Graham said. “We practice together and we cheer each other on because at the end of the day, we’re really all in this together.”

New track girls aim to fill shoes of state runner alumnus

LASA senior and soccer co-captain Brett Gramann sprints across the field, throwing glances over his shoulder and dribbling the ball. He tramples the grass, slamming his cleats into the mud and driving the ball out of the defensive zone. Gramann shoots a look down line to the goal and starts running. Gramann and other co-captain, LBJ junior Hugo Vazquez now lead the team and said that they have the skills to do so. Gramann said that he plans to step up from last year, and win another title.

“We’re hoping to capture our district title for a fifth year in a row,” Gramann said. “We have a big target on our back and every team in our district is looking to take us down.”

With a four year undefeated streak in district under their belt, the LBJ boys soccer team began the 2014 season with a first place finish in the Marble Falls Tournament and third place finish in the Akins Tournament .

“I think the entire team played hard during the tournaments,” LASA sophomore Sebastian Tanaka said. “Everyone was really driven and was there to just play the game we love to play.”

The Jags lost to Travis 3-4 on Feb. 1, and they also lost to Crockett, ending their four year streak. Gramann said the team had some organizational problems throughout the game, but that he plans to train harder and keep the team focused.

“It’s frustrating,” Gramann said. “We definitely got outplayed in the midfield and we just didn’t play as well as we can. I don’t like losing, but I”m ready to play hard. It’s my last year playing for this team. I want to leave it being proud and I’m ready to do that.”

LASA junior Zach Wall said that he has high hopes for the players and the team as they head into the season, despite discontinuing the four year streak. He said that a lot of key players have returned to the team, and the up-and-coming freshmen should be useful as well.

“We actually have 11 returning to varsity of like 26, so there’s probably going to be a majority of open positions,” Wall said. “[That’s] why we want freshmen on varsity even if they won’t play, because they get to practice with varsity five days a week.”

LASA sophomore Milan Rivas said that the upperclassmen of the team have a good relationship with him and the other underclassmen. He said that the team members help each other if they’re having an off day and the team stays focused which helps everyone learn. According to Rivas, the upperclassmen are accepting of everyone on the team because they deserve to be there.

“The team is very accepting of underclassmen,” Rivas said. “It’s all about what you can do for the team and how hard you are willing to work.”

“We’re hoping to capture our district title for a fifth year in a row,” LASA senior and co-captain Brett Gramann said. “We have a big target on our back and every team in our district is looking to take us down.” photo by Becky Gdula

Meris McHaney Staff Writer

Chloe Edmiston & Abby Kappelman Staff writers

Most people think we are done when football season ends, but for us football season is just for fun.

-LASA junior Elena Cole

““

“Regardless of which teams compete in which category, we have typically come home with at least one trophy,” LASA junior and veteran dancer Elena Cole said. The LBJ First Ladies Dance Team competing at Crowd Pleasers, the first dance team competition of the 2014 dance season. photo courtesy of Abby Kappelman

stories by Adam Kobeissi

Dance team wins awards at competition, overcome weather-related setbacks

Boys soccer keeps the ball rolling after first loss in four years, rebuilding after loss of captains

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

the liberatornov. 12, 2013

During this year’s Super Bowl, a Coca-Cola advertisement depicted people of various races and ethnicities singing “America the Beautiful” in nine

languages: English, Spanish, Tagalog, Mandarin, Hindi, Hebrew, Keres, French and Arabic. The Twitter response was immediate and racially charged. By the end of the night, #boycottcoke and #SpeakAmerican were trending on Twitter. The controversy puzzled LASA senior Akshara Pillai.

“I loved [the commercial],” Pillai said. “But I found some pictures circulating in Tumblr that were screenshots of what people were posting on Facebook and Twitter about and I was surprised by the number of people who negatively discouraged it. To think a country that was supposed to be a melting pot of cultures wasn’t accepting an attempt at embracing everyone was astonishing.”

Last year, there was a similar Twitter backlash after an 8-year-old M e x i c a n - A m e r i c a n boy sang the national anthem before the last game of the NBA Finals. While some tweets in response to the Coca-Cola advertisement called the rendition of “America the Beautiful” a disgrace to a patriotic song, the tweets in response to the earlier event insinuated the boy was an illegal immigrant and called the display “un-American,” even though the anthem was sung entirely in English. These Twitter outbursts are part of a growing trend of racist posts on social media platforms. A recent study by the think tank Demos revealed that there are, on average, 10,000 tweets containing racial slurs posted each day. LASA senior Akshara Pillai said that she has been a victim of online discrimination on Tumblr.

“I used to have an open tour site where I had my name and my picture so people could tell that I’m Indian and I had followers who asked me questions and I would answer,” Pillai said. “With Tumblr you get a lot of hate. [People] are told that they suck, or they are lame or whatever. Then one person was saying ‘Go back to India, go back to the slums, we don’t need poor people here.’”

After receiving the racist comments on Tumblr, Pillai’s best friend posted to get the cyberbully to back down. Although hate is prevalent on the microblogging site, these comments had a different motive than most that Pillai has seen.

“I was upset at first,” Pillai said. “I hadn’t gotten many things like that before and I thought that it was just another sign of hate. I realized that because they started going after my race and my religion it was a deeper kind of hate. It’s just that on Tumblr a lot of people get hate for your weight or being blonde or thinking you are cool but you’re not; that shallow kind of hatred. But when they start throwing racial slurs at you, that’s when you realize that these people are actually trying to hurt you and they have something against who you are.”

According to a 2013 poll of American teens conducted by the Associated Press and MTV, 52 percent of respondents said that it is never okay to use racial slurs or discriminatory language, even when they are meant as jokes. The percentage of disapproving teens has risen from 44 percent in 2011. Despite the growing rate of disapproval, the rate at which teens are exposed to discriminatory language has remained constant. Pillai said that she thinks people feel freer to voice racist sentiments anonymously on the internet because they know that they are shielded from the consequences they would face in the real world.

“[Racism on the Internet is] different because in person, they are less likely to say [racist comments] to your face,” Pillai said. “Nowadays, people don’t have the courage to come up and tell you to go back to the slums or that you are an illegal immigrant. They tend to just pretend to be nice to

you. Sometimes it’s really obvious if they don’t like you and then just go on and pretend. It’s different online because they can hide under any username, even anonymously, and when you receive hate like that you wonder why you deserve this.”

Like a growing number of American teenagers, LBJ junior Stephen Hunter said that it offends him to hear the N-word used, no matter who says it. When he was eight, he was playing with his sisters in the aisles of Wal-Mart when he bumped into a woman’s cart. She called him the N-word. His mother became furious and the other woman left. Stephen didn’t understand the significance of the event at the time, but later he realized that this was one of the two times in his life that he has experienced overt racism as an African-American.

“I realized [that I had experienced racism] after my mom told me about it,” Hunter said. “[She told me about]

all the struggle we’ve been through, like how our ancestors had fought for us to be free and to be away from all that racism.”

While a majority of teens now disapprove of the use of racial slurs, most hear them on a daily basis. LBJ junior Julius Calvert said that

he is often affected by these racist comments even if they aren’t directed at him specifically.

“I hear racial slurs almost every day,” Calvert said. “They do affect me, a lot, because I don’t believe in discrimination against any group of people.”

Unlike Hunter, LASA sophomore Leila Nyandusi believes that the N-word and other slurs can be used in some contexts, but only by the members of the groups that these words target. Nyandusi said that by reclaiming slurs like the N-word, she and other African-Americans along with other groups can revolutionize their meanings and reduce the negative impact that they have, but these efforts are undone when a person outside these groups misuses the words.

“I feel that it’s almost as if I have a duty to point out to other people that they’re not necessarily being sensitive to people’s cultures,” Nyandusi said. “I also feel like when we are learning something pertaining to race, like [Martin Luther King Jr.] Day recently came up, or even during World Geography, there are times where we would be speaking about race and I felt like the whole class would be looking at me waiting to hear my opinion, because my opinion is the one that matters. I don’t speak for all people of my race. So I don’t feel personally discriminated against but I do feel like there is weight put on my shoulders to speak up for my entire ethnicity, which I can’t do in high school.”

In 2010 an anonymous survey of 211 Jackson, Mississippi high school students conducted by the Clarion Ledger revealed that students believe the use of the N-word is increasing by a nearly two to one margin. According to the survey, most black students agreed that 90 percent or more of them used the N-word. Close to a third of white students put the percentage at 50 percent or higher. However, the N-word is only one of many racial slurs. Calvert said that he has heard other racial slurs used against people of other races as well.

“One time, it was me and my good friends like we were talking about Caucasian people and they referred to them as crackers and I did get a little offended by that because they were using it in a hurtful way,” Calvert said.

Today, racism has a different character that it did in the past because it now revolves around stereotypes, Calvert said. One of the ways that this type of discrimination manifests itself is in employment discrimination, which can occur before an applicant and an employer even meet. A study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) between 2001 and 2002 found that

having what the NBER called a ‘black-sounding’ name can affect the rate at which job applicants were offered job interviews. To study this trend, the authors created thousands of fake resumes of varying quality aimed at different segments of the job market and used them to respond to 1,300 employment ads. According to the study, fake job applicants with ‘white-sounding’ names sent about 10 resumes before receiving one callback, while those with ‘black-sounding’ names sent about 15 resumes before receiving one callback. Additionally, having a ‘white-sounding’ name yielded as many more callbacks as does an additional eight years of experience on a resume.

With information about job applicants also open to the public on the Internet, employment discrimination lawyer Scott Cook said that it’s not uncommon for employers to racially discriminate before they even meet an applicant.

“With the Internet, job providers can find out the background [of an applicant] including race, ethnicity, etc. as soon as a resume crosses their desk,” Cook said. “I think the discrimination that occurs in this regard is both conscious and unconscious. The [difficulty] with proving discrimination in the hiring context is that an employer can usually justify the failure to hire on a non-discriminatory basis even when discrimination is present.”

Cook deals specifically with cases of termination on the basis of race and with employees subject to hostile work environments because of their race, which are both crimes that employees can report to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In the 2013 fiscal year, EEOC received over 33,000 race-based charges against employers. While some employers that Cook battles in court have overtly discriminated against their employees, Cook said that many employers are aware that racial discrimination is illegal and choose to discriminate in more subtle ways.

“In my experience, the majority of discrimination that takes place today is more subtle than overt,” Cook said. “That being said, I still see cases where employment decisions and treatment are openly made on the basis of illegal reasons. The mindset is driven by biases within individuals and society at large.”

Studies suggest that those who hold racist views may not consider themselves racist or even consciously dislike other racial or ethnic groups. The Associated Press’ 2012 Racial Attitudes survey showed that while only 7 percent of respondents admitted to disliking blacks and 6 percent admitted to disliking Hispanics, a total of 61 percent of respondents said that the word “lazy” described “most blacks” either extremely, very, moderately or slightly well. 54 percent expressed the same views of Hispanics. The poll also revealed that similar percentages believed that words such as “violent” and “irresponsible” described these racial and ethnic groups. Only a small percentage of Americans may openly admit to racist views, but according to University of Houston law professor Michael Olivas, racism hasn’t disappeared or even entered a state of decline.

“There’s lots of examples that suggest that it’s a thriving industry with the increase in the ability to communicate broadly,” Olivas said. “Even under the strict definition of hate speech and hate groups that the [Southern Poverty Law Center uses to] monitor that, these [instances of racism] are actually increasing, and they’re increasing in part because the United States is more heterogeneous than before.”

Historically, racism and nativism in the United States have ebbed and flowed with the appearance of new immigrant populations. According to Olivas, much of the racist and nativist sentiment seen today is caused by fear of new immigrant groups like Hispanics and Asians.

“We don’t fear people from Sweden, we don’t fear people from Australia,” Olivas said. “We don’t fear people from white countries, but when [white Americans] look around and see that Asians do better than whites on many standardized measures, when they see the increasing number of Indians come in and get jobs because they’re trained and available, and when they see at the lower end the number of Mexicans who come in and do work that Americans aren’t willing to do… There’s an increased amount of hate speech.”

American Muslims have also been a major target of hate speech and xenophobia since 9/11. In 2001 alone there were 481 incidents of anti-Muslim hate crimes reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In 2012, the most recent year for which the FBI has collected data, there were 130 reported anti-Muslim incidents.

“I think anybody perceived to be Muslim is targeted for discrimination,” UT educational psychology professor Germine Awad said. “That includes Arabs or Asians or Indians. That includes anybody pretty much that is not classified as black or white or would [fit] a stereotype that people think is a Muslim. Pretty simply, I think the events of Sept. 11th and other [events] exotifying the Middle East in a negative way led to discrimination for this group.”

Last year, when two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Twitter users raced to the social media site to voice anti-Muslim sentiments. Fox News contributor Eric Rush tweeted ‘Everybody do the National Security Ankle Grab! Let’s bring more Saudis in without screening them! C’mon! #bostonmarathon’ just minutes after news about the bombings broke. When one of his followers asked if Rush was ‘blaming Muslims already,’ Rush responded, ‘Yes, they’re evil. Let’s kill them all.’ After Rush’s tweets, #muslims trended, mostly due to users tweeting in defense of Muslims. While offensive comments like Rush’s are easily posted online, Muslim LASA junior Mehraz Rahman said that she is also subject to offensive comments in real life.

“Some people will crack jokes sometimes,” Rahman said. “[They’ll joke] about Osama Bin Laden, like, ‘Oh, he’s your uncle?’ or just things like that. That’s silly but also not funny at the same time, but they think it’s funny.”

Offensive comments and discrimination can be frustrating for those who experience them, but according to Cook there may be hope. While he thinks work still needs to be done to fight discrimination, he said that the current generation of teenagers is more aware of their biases and less likely to discriminate.

“When I think of my generation compared to earlier generations, and my generation compared to your generation, I believe that the biases that cause employment discrimination are lessening,” Cook said. “I think that your generation will see more equal opportunities in employment and less discrimination than the generations before.”

Racism has changed since the days of the civil rights movement and earlier battles for equality. More and more teens now disapprove of racial slurs and Cook suggests that there may yet be hope for a better future, but in the present, racism is adapting as online platforms for discrimination expand and many American teenagers still face discrimination and hate speech on a daily basis.

“I don’t come into LASA scared out of my wits that I’m going to hear a racist comment,” Nyandusi said. “It’s just annoying. It’s frustrating. I don’t usually get emotional, but in some cases I have, just because it’s difficult. It’s a never-ending thing. I feel like people don’t understand that they can just make the comment and go on with their lives, but that comment that they made I have to deal with daily, 24/7 for the rest of [my life].”

The current generation of American teens relates to race in a way that sets them apart from others; they disapprove of the use of racial slurs at a higher rate than ever before. To find out what LBJ and LASA students think about the state of race and discrimination in America today, the Liberator took to the streets.

Tweets from the street

@Melissa ZalataLBJ senior

It definitely still happens at our school, like [in] modern days they say African-Americans are too loud. Mexicans listen

to certain types of music. So, it still goes on a lot. And then you always see...everything’s separated by ethnicity, like African Americans only hang out with these kind of people. Mexicans or Hispanics only hang out with them and white people with them, that’s how I see it.

How do you see racism and discrimination displayed at our school?

2/14/14

@Emma Rose Ackerman LASA sophomore

I think it still exists in a lot of places unfortunately, but for some people its still “they look different from us they

shouldn’t be equal to us” type thing but i think for a lot of people also, it’s kind of subconscious. They see someone who’s not their skin color. A white person who sees a black person is like, ‘they don’t look like me.’ So they have this kind of unconscious bias against them, maybe conscious, but it’s not deliberate.

2/14/14

What do you think is the state of racism today?

@Eric Resendez

It’s definitely not as bad as it used to be. I don’t really find problems with it ever, but of course it still

comes up in jokes. But as long as everyone is able to take it as a joke and point and make fun at it, I don’t see it really being harmful. So I think the fact that we can make jokes about racism is just showing how much it has declined.

LASA senior

What do you think is the state of racism today?

2/14/14

People look at people. They judge them by the way they look or dress. Then they go from that. Downstairs

if people have their pants are hanging down, I don’t think I should engage in a conversation with that guy. People upstairs with their glasses and shorts, I think they must be smart.

@Sidney HarrisonLBJ junior

How do you think people are discriminated against today?

2/14/14

Racism is something commonly used by a lot of people. It once stood by a majority, but it’s

something that sadly some people still have. De-spite past conferences and resolutions, it’s still a big topic nowadays.

What do you think is the state of racism today?

@Humberto VenancioLASA freshman

2/14/14

[Racism on the internet is] different because in person, they are less likely to say [racist comments] to your face.

-LASA senior Akshara Pillai

““

In my experience, the majority of discrimination that takes place today is more subtle than overt.

-Employment discrimination lawyer Scott Cook

““

Racism in 140 charactersTwitter, social media provide new platform for hate speech, discrimination as a growing number of teens reevaluate their attitudes towards racismLogan Kramer & Baltazar ZunigaLife & Feature Editors

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art by Alex Friedman

the liberator

Katherine Cooper’s bright blue hair reflects the electric atmosphere as her band takes the stage on New Year’s Eve. The Red Tent sets up their instruments on a wooden stage in front of a friend’s house and tune up before a 20-minute set. Unpacking their electric guitars, keyboards and drums, Cooper and fellow band members Rachel Efruss and Justice (Mupa) Joursia prepare for their second performance as a band at a New Year’s party in east Austin.

“Originally we started the band just because we were bored but then we realized we wanted to keep it going and continue to play music in front of people,” Cooper said. “We play for the punk rock indie kids with static hearts and electric souls. I think that for every kid, there’s this one band that comes along when they’re 14 or 15 that just changes everything. They’ve never heard anything like it. It’s like someone was writing songs just for them. They finally see music in a way they’ve never understood. I want The Red Tent to be that band. I want to save people with our music.”

Cooper and Efruss formed The Red Tent last October five days before they played their first gig. Cooper met Efruss last summer and Joursia joined the group after helping set up sound equipment at The Red Tent’s performance.

“We met at the Austin School of Rock, and became friends over our shared love of rock and roll and hatred of misogyny,” Efruss said. “When we first decided to form a band, I think we both kind of meant it as a joke. Then, we got an offer to perform at a Halloween party. That’s when the two of us got serious about The Red Tent.”

Despite the short turnaround between creating the band and performing for the first time, Cooper said that her previous performance experiences helped her gauge what to expect on stage. When she lived in New York, Cooper played in shows with an unnamed band and the performance program School of Rock.

“I live for performing,” Cooper said. “I love being able to connect with people with my music and look out and see people singing along to the songs you play and seeing people smiling. I think [that] the best part of performing is the way I get to connect with people.”

When describing the genre of their band’s music, Cooper and her bandmates said it was a new form of punk and riot. Efruss said they take inspiration from Mckinney Kill, a part of the feminist movement in music, and other bands like Nirvana, Metric and Weezer.

“I’m heavily influenced by the DIY ethic of punk bands, and a firm believer that you don’t need many technical skills to perform great music,” Efruss said. “My goal from the start

of The Red Tent has been to capture the passion and fun that fills the Austin music scene.”

On a recent Sunday afternoon, The Red Tent met at Cooper’s house to record original songs for a future album. Though the girls aren’t able to practice

together often because of their busy schedules, Efruss said that having bandmates to support her while balancing schoolwork and band practice has been helpful.

“The best part about having this band in high school is probably the support that I get from my bandmates, as well as our fans,” Efruss said. “Katherine and Mupa [Justice] are practically sisters to me. It’s a great feeling to have them by my side. This whole experience has definitely been fun. It can be stressful at times, and extremely time consuming, but the positives outweigh the negatives.”

So far, The Red Tent has performed at house parties and informal venues. However, the band looks forward to playing in other venues soon, such as Maria’s Taco Xpress and punk rock club Infest. Although the girls have faced difficulties booking shows due to their ages, Efruss said that overall, being in high school hasn’t been much of a constraint.

“I’ve never felt any pressure from being young,” Efruss said. “I think that most people

are excited to see teenagers putting out music, and most feedback we’ve gotten from others has been positive. Being a kid does have its challenges, though. A lot of venues, like bars, won’t let us perform since we’re minors. It’s also difficult at times to schedule practices and shows, because none of us have our own cars.”

Despite not having performed much yet, Cooper has high hopes for the future of The Red Tent. She said she imagines that one day, the band will reach further than its current Austin audience.

“I have this wild dream that someday we’ll be playing a show at the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn as the sun is setting and I’ll say something like ‘New York, turn around. Look at your skyline.’” Cooper said. “And there will be this moment of peace as all eyes turn to look at the horizon where the tip of the sun peeks over the skyscrapers. Just sharing that moment with so many people would be so phenomenal.”

The last latecomers settle in their pews as Eastside Baptist Church fills with gospel music. A band complete with a keyboard, drums and an electric guitar sits behind a middle-aged woman belting out the lyrics to the hymn. LBJ sophomore Jade Jeffries sings along with the rest of the congregation while members occasionally shout, ‘Amen!’

“[Church] is a large part of my culture because a lot of people go to church...and we like to sing and praise the Lord,” Jeffries said. “It’s huge because people always go to God when they’re in trouble or when they’re dealing with something. So the church is always their go-to place.”

Jeffries has grown up in the church surrounded by a supportive community. But her whole church experience changed four years ago when her father, Eric Jeffries, became an assistant pastor at Eastside Baptist Church. She said her dad’s new job hasn’t been an easy transition for her, especially when talking to friends about the change.

“They started to get scared because they thought my dad was going to judge them in a different way because he’s a pastor,” Jeffries said. “He’ll be strict on me and stuff like that, but life still goes on no matter if he’s a pastor.”

Even so, due to new expectations from the church, Jeffries said her dad has to be on his best behavior wherever he goes.

“The best thing about [my dad being a pastor] is he’s always in a good mood,” Jeffries said. “A minister always has to be in a good mood because if a church person sees them outside of church acting different, then they’re going to assume that he’s a fake.”

However, the same goes for Jeffries. She said there is a lot of pressure from other church members, and especially her dad,

to do everything right. A study by the Barna Group found that Jeffries is not alone, and 28 percent of pastors said they believed the reason their children struggled with their faith was due to the unrealistic expectations placed on them.

“I really don’t have special privileges,” Jeffries said. “But since my dad’s a preacher there, [church members] always look to me to be top kid of the church.”

Additionally, the Barna Group found that 37 percent of pastors introduced their children to Christ and kept a Bible-

focused home. For Jeffries this holds true, as she said she has grown in the Christian faith recently due to her dad’s teachings about God. This informal Christian education continues outside of the home with Jeffries’ dad’s sermons on Sunday mornings.

“Most of his sermons are always on Youth Sundays, so he tries to relate life things, things that are going on in the society now, to the Bible,” Jeffries said. “If I have a question, I can always go to him and ask him about the Bible.”

Similarly, LASA sophomore John Walters, whose mom is also a pastor, said his faith has developed alongside his mom’s. His mom, Laura Walters, recently switched from practicing law to being an assistant pastor at Westminster Presbyterian

Church. “Before, there was nothing really driving us to go to

church,” Walters said. “And then my mom became a pastor, and it became a part of our schedule. Her faith has grown through seminary school and so in turn she pushes that on us–to grow in our faith.”

Even with the added benefits of her new job, Laura said Walters is finding it hard to fit in time for Sunday School, church, youth group and homework all on Sunday.

“I think it’s a matter of number one, having to manage our time and number two, recognizing that we can’t do everything,” Laura said. “...I think our faith has to extend in all the things that we do. We have to learn about it and practice it… Our real goal is to be able to live it out wherever we are. The church kind of extends beyond the walls.”

Laura said she thinks the new church experience has given her kids’ a new way of thinking about religion. She said her journey through seminary school has helped them in ways that weren’t available before.

“They were freer to ask questions, and so it made them think about things a lot more,” Laura said. “And whenever you ask questions, and you’re thinking more, it does help you to grow. And each of them has a different faith perspective. We try to allow that and allow their doubts.”

Both Walters and Jeffries said they will try to continue attending church after high school. Jeffries said that although sometimes she just doesn’t feel like going to church, she continues going because of the sense of community it offers.

“I will continue to go to church because it’s a good thing to go,” Jeffries said. “They can help you when you’re going through something. You can talk to the pastor and he can give you good advice. At our church we’re all family. And we welcome anybody to come into the family.”

It’s all in the (church) family

Chelsea BanawisStaff Writer

photo by Isabel Saralegui

Feminist rockers paint the town red

LBJ and LASA students experience religion differently as pastors’ childrenEliza CainStaff Writer

[My dad will] be strict on me and stuff like that, but life still goes on no matter if he’s a pastor.

-LBJ sophomore Jade Jeffries

““

art by Nina Newman

I love being able to connect with people with my music and look out and see people singing along to the songs you play and seeing people smiling.

-LASA sophomore Katherine Cooper

““

feb. 25, 2014

Fresh Prinz of student filmsSurrounded by a paper kitchen, a girl coos as she feeds her

ragdoll baby. Across the kitchen table, LASA senior Ronan Melomo watches apprehensively, unable to understand his mock-wife’s insane love for their baby. In this film, what began as a student art project to create a model house transforms into a story about life for a couple who moves into the paper house they created and live out a 60s-style love story.

LASA senior Chris Prinz’s short film, “Non Sequitur”, is about two students who conform to a domestic lifestyle in a paper house, all the while experiencing love, jealousy and despair. The film was accepted into the South by Southwest (SXSW) Texas High School Shorts Competition and will be shown on March 8 as part of the SXSW film festival. While shooting, Prinz created the set with the help of other students and the art department. He said the technicalities of doing so, such as how to hang the paper and design the house in context of the film, proved difficult.

“The whole scope of the project was difficult,” Prinz said. “I thought I would have this cool visual of having these giant structures made of Styrofoam, cardboard and paper. In the end we did have things made of Styrofoam, cardboard and paper but it wasn’t to the scope that thought it would be. I definitely have a problem imagining things which really aren’t feasible in a high school environment without teams of paid professionals.”

The crew created the set and shot the film in a classroom within the span of a day. LASA senior and assistant director Morgan Eddolls said she wished they could have had more time to film, but was nevertheless impressed with the amount of work they finished within the timeframe.

“We set the entire room up and when you walked in, you were inside of this house,” Eddolls said. “It was really crazy. We started during class and afterschool, we worked on filming. We only had one day to do it, because the next day, we had to take everything down. We had to have everything really organized because it was really, really quick. All the actors had to know their lines that day. So it was really intense but it was really fun.”

“Non Sequitur” was the only film accepted into SXSW this year. LASA Audio Video Production (AVP) teacher Vanessa Mokry said although the quality of the film was limited by the time constraint, the premise of the story was not lacking.

“I think it’s a great, great idea, but if [Prinz] had been able to execute it in the way that he imagined, it would have been absolutely amazing,” Mokry said. “So it’s just a testament to how interesting the characters in the story and the performance is by the fact that it still got in [to SXSW], even though there still are quite a few little things that could have been worked on.”

LASA alumna Alina Vega is the female lead and Melomo played the male lead. Both Vega and Melomo have had experience with AVP and theater, which is one of the main reasons why Prinz wanted them involved in the film.

“Alina has been part of the last two SXSW-winning films,

and I thought that Ronan would be a great counterpart

to that,” Prinz said. “He definitely had the whole ‘60s vibe of outward emotion. I knew I wanted two theater actors and as far as that goes, I think I chose the best.”

In the film, the character played by Vega is completely absorbed in her mock familial lifestyle, and as a result, the storyline veers off from its initial love story plot. Mokry said the other AVP students and the art department completely supported the short film because of its unique premise.

“It was a creepy kind of idea,” Mokry said. “There’s some really nice moments. My favorite shot is when they fall asleep on the floor with the baby and they cut in the camera kind of slowly rises above and you cut to the next morning. It’s just a really nice little part. Chris has got a really good eye, visually. I think Chris is an exceptional cinematographer. So we have Chris’s cinematography combined with Alina Vega’s acting talent, and you have a winner.”

Prinz’s idea for “Non Sequitur” initially centered around experimenting with lighting a set and using unique cinematography. Eddolls said the film’s focus on cinematography is one of the main reason why it appeals to her, and will appeal to audiences.

“Something I’ve really liked about films is a focus on cinematography,” Eddolls said. “I thought the film was really

pretty. But I also knew the story really well, and I know a lot of people were unsure about the story, just because it was kind of different. It was a really interesting story and a really interesting concept. We completely changed a room to show one house and a girl’s imagination and just made it so surreal.”

Prinz credits his skills as cinematographer to the lessons he learned and experiences he gained in Indroduction to AVP at LASA. He said that the class taught him how to tell a story through a visual medium and provided him with hands-on experience with cameras.

“I feel that people take for granted the skill sets they get in Intro to AVP,” Prinz said. “I feel like you really learn a lot as far as film production goes. AVP definitely taught me everything I needed in order to make this short film.”

Prinz was accidentally placed in an AVP class his sophomore year, and the mistake allowed him to realize he wanted to continue filmmaking. He plans to continue filmmaking during college with plenty of experience writing, producing and directing films under his belt.

“As a filmmaker, you get to this point where you stop cringing at the little things you did wrong and start looking at the things you did right,” Prinz said. “I think that is the most rewarding part—when you can look at your film and understand why people like it and why you like it as an artist and a filmmaker.”

the liberatorfeb. 25, 2014

The Paramount Theater on Congress Avenue has been a quintessential Austin landmark since its construction in 1915. The theater hosts events ranging from film premieres, to Broadway shows. The Paramount began celebrating its 100th anniversary on Jan. 29 with a film series that will last until the summer of 2015. This series, called Paramount 100: A Century of Cinema, celebrates the history of the Paramount and film, with a chronological journey through film history stretching from silent films to the modern day.

“We’ll be looking at the evolution of cinema, how the art and craft of making movies grew over time and how different styles and genres changed the movies in each era,” said Paramount Theater film programmer Stephen Jannise.

With screenings occurring about once a week, Paramount started with showings of early silent films such as, “A Trip to the Moon”, “The Great Train Robbery”, D.W. Griffith shorts and many other iconic pieces. These films and

shorts were part of the early silent cinema portion of the Paramount 100, and this specific compilation of films portray the Nickelodeon Years.

“In the very early days of cinema, theaters called nickelodeons would only charge five cents for admission to sit and watch a bunch of really short silent films on a loop as often as you wanted,” said Jannise. “We wanted to recreate that vibe for the Nickelodeon night.”

The Paramount plans on hosting more of these theme nights as part of the event series with the hope that people will see a new side of film history. The challenges with showing older films is that copies are harder to come by and the films are harder to screen. Some of the films are 35mm copies, which can be difficult to find. However, Film programmer Stephen Jannis said he has experience with 35mm films, making showing them less difficult. Other challenges he faced also include planning the event.

“Trying to figure out how to manage a series that will theoretically run for a year

and a half is quite daunting,” said Jannise. “You just have to figure out which details you need to firm up now and which can wait until later.”

The silent film era of films will continue throughout January, February and March, until the next era of film history is scheduled. Paramount 100 is one component of how the Paramount Theater plans to celebrate its 100th birthday. In addition to this film series, there will be other celebrations and a special annual gala. This hundredth anniversary reflects the history of film as a whole as well as the changes Austin has experienced in the past century.

“Every big city deserves its own historic movie palace,” said Jannise. “The Paramount has played host to countless major red-carpet film premieres over the years, while also continuing to show old films on 35mm when no one else in town was really doing it. With each passing year, seeing a film at the Paramount just becomes more and more of a special experience.” story by Zia Lyle

Zia Lyle & Stephanie ParkStaff Writer & Editor-in-Chief

LASA/LBJPOWERCOUPLES

Many couples find their true love for each other through a mutual interest. Both Mr. Eeeephram and speed bumps pashionately keep driving high schoolers safe single day. Yes, there are some strains in their relationship, seeing as speed bumps are immobile objects. But just because a speed bump cannot move, does not mean it cannot love. Every time a speed bump in the parking lot shatters a

student’s suspension on their car, Mr. Eeephram remembers why he fell in love with speed bumps all over again. With a subtle mona-lisa smile and a twinkle in his eye, he returns to his post in the parking lot, to serve and protect the students of LBJ from the feral cats and band kids in the parking lot.

MR. EPHRAIM & A SPEEDBUMP

MR. MOODY & DR. PAIGEWhile many couples this Valentine’s day find that they love their partner for their charming ways or their pretty smile, the love between these two faculty members is a love based solely on survival. Mr. Moody’s hair grows at uncontainable rates, and he is at any given moment only one chest hair away from becoming a full blown wolf-man. On the other end of the spectrum, math wiz-kid Dr. Paige’s stage 50 alopecia requires him to

undergo a human hair transplant every few minutes. Together, these two work as a symbiotic being. Mr. Moody’s excess chest hair is enough to power Dr. Paige so that he may one day solve Galois’ final super-duper secret theorem. Their love is an admirable work of nature.

Undoubtedly the least real and meaningful relationship on this list. These two definitely only got married for the fame that comes with being a teacher couple. Either that, or Mr. Jibladze’s beard formed a sentient conscious and seduced Mrs. Jibladze on its own. Either way, one has to admire their commitment, because Georgian weddings are definitely no walk in the park. Instead of the traditional

European wedding ceremony, Georgian tradition calls for the couple to be placed into a stainless steel cage with a bear and a liter of vodka. If they can finish the vodka before the bear kills them, they get to live the rest of their lives out as high school teachers.

THE JIBLADZES

Mr. Risinger has a wife, and a daughter, but at the core of his libertarian heart, he loves nothing more than the land of free and the home of the brave. This great nation and Mr. Risinger have a relationship like none other. Loyal and dedicated, their love for each other is undying, stronger that the torrent of the Mississippi River, grander than the Rockies, and

as beautiful as a Walmart. Sure, America had a troubled relationship with Britain, but Mr. Risinger is a shoulder for America to cry on. An original Norman Rockwell hangs over his mantle, where he smokes his Native American peace pipe and reads the constitution each night. His pet bald eagle, Washington, roams the skies above his ranch house, protecting his family from inner city hoodlums and communism.

MR. RISINGER & AMERICA

Many couples found true love this valentine’s day on AISD property. Here we will introduce you to some of the happy faculty couples of 2014. The Liberator staff used next-century technology and all of the computing power available to blend the faces of the couples to see what their babies might look like once adults.

Melomo watches as Vega spoon-feeds their ragdoll baby in the short film entitled “Non Sequitur”. “Alina has been part of the last two SXSW-winning films, and I thought that Ronan would be a great counterpart to that,” Prinz said. “He definitely had the whole ‘60s vibe of outward emotion...I think I chose the best.”

Years of Movies

5Top

They’re the head honchos, the big cheeses, the queen bees of the school. These two princi-pals are TBFLs (Texting Buddies For Life) and run the schools of LBJ and LASA effortlessly. When shenanigans ensue and trouble breaks out, they text each other to figure out what their next move is. Some people even think that they might be real-life superheroes, but that rumor

has neither been confirmed nor denied. They are the greatest principals in the world, and LBJ and LASA are the best schools in the world with the best principals in the world and the best students in the world and we have the best Texas statue in the world and the best cafeteria food in the world. This message has been brought to you by Ms. Henry and Ms. Krazzizzle.

MS. HENRY & MS. CRESCENZI

LASA senior’s film selected to be showcased at SXSW high school video competition

the liberatordec. 19, 2013

1

1807 Congress bans the im

portation of slaves from

Africa. The law w

as largely ignored in the South.

1820 The Missouri

Comprom

ise bans slavery north of the southern boundary of M

issouri.

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Mem

bers of the LBJ Choir performed in the auditorium

for the celebration. “W

e did a couple spirituals: ‘Little David Play your H

arp’ and the other one w

as ‘Elijah Rock’.” LBJ choir teacher Cory Denena said. “They’re

very upbeat, and they’re related to the theme of the program

which w

as Black H

istory Month celebration.” photo by Jam

ie Rodriguez

Black History Month

1831 William

Lloyd G

arrison begins publishing The Liberator, a w

eekly paper advocating for the abolition of slavery.

1850 Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, w

hich requires all runaw

ay slaves to be returned to their m

asters.

1861 The Civil War

begins.

1863 President Lincoln issues the Em

ancipation Proclam

ation, legally freeing all slaves in the Confederacy.

1865 The Civil War ends.

President Lincoln is assassinated tow

ard the end of the w

ar.

1868 The Fourteenth Am

endment is ratified,

proclaiming all individuals

born or naturalized in the U.S. Am

erican citizens.

1870 The Fifteenth Am

endment is ratified,

preventing the federal and state governm

ents from

denying a citizen the right to vote based on his “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

1909 The National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People is

founded in New

York, led by W.E.B.

Du Bois. Its m

ission is to secure the equal political, educational, social and econom

ic rights and to elim

inate racial hatred and discrim

ination.

1919 The Harlem

R

enaissance begins. This literary, artistic, and intellectual m

ovement fosters a

new black cultural

identity.

1948 President Truman issues

an executive order integrating the U.S. Arm

ed forces shortly after W

WII.

1963 About a quarter of a million

people participated in the March on

Washington, m

aking it one of the largest civil rights dem

onstrations ever seen. H

ere, Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his “I

Have a D

ream” speech.

1965 Malcolm

X, a black nationalist and founder of the O

rganization of Afro-American

Unity, is assassinated.

1965 Congress passes the Voting R

ights Act of 1965, m

aking it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote by preventing literacy tests and poll taxes.

1992 The first race riots in decades erupt in L.A. after a jury acquits four w

hite police officers for the videotaped beating of African-Am

erican Rodney King.

2009 President Obam

a is inaugurated as president, becom

ing the first African-

American to hold

the office.

1947 Jackie Robinson is signed to the Brooklyn D

odgers, breaking M

ajor League Baseball’s color barrier.

1849 Harriet Tubm

an escapes from

slavery and becom

es one of the m

ost well-

known leaders of

the Underground R

ailroad.

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Students and faculty at LBJ participated in Black History M

onth celebrations throughout February. LBJ hosted a Black H

istory Month celebration in the D

on T. Haynes Theater on Feb. 12, w

here the choir sang spirituals. In addition, students read poetry and donned costum

es to recite short biographies of famous African-Am

ericans.

Artistic director of Ballet Afrique China Smith teaches incom

ing First Ladies a dance to Kuku, a traditional W

est African piece. “[If] you have a deep understanding of w

ho you are and your roots, once you get to the part of history that is not so great, like slavery, none of that stuff m

atters,” Smith said. “I think that approaching our culture through the

arts, is a way for everybody to appreciate it. photo by Stephanie Park

feb. 25, 2014

LBJ assistant principal Reggie Terrell dances in the LBJ cafeteria as part of a celebration. “For the m

ost part, since it was the first tim

e LBJ has had a Black H

istory program during school it w

ent really well,” LBJ

math teacher R

honda Thomas said. photo by Jam

ie Rodirguez

graphic by Stephanie Park