High School Bear Highlights

Face It, Love It FCS

                          By Zoe Chitester

Recently, students in grades seven through twelve had the opportunity to hear Ben Cecchini talk at an assembly. 

Cecchini was a graduate of Jamestown High School in 2009. He now lives in Costa Rica, but travels back towards his hometown to meet with highschoolers. He also has a nonprofit named Give N’ Grow, where he helps bring together two of his favorite things, basketball and mental health. 

Integrating mindfulness and social emotional learning with fundamental basketball skills, Cecchini helps many young athletes. 

When Cecchini was in college, he lost a really close friend, but felt at peace with it, knowing his friend was in a better place. Eight months later his Dad died from a heart attack. This was really hard for his family, not knowing how to deal with and understand their grief. 

Cecchini says that and all of his family just sat with their pain for eleven years. He has found ways to help himself with the loss of his father. Last August, he lost his mother to a brain bleed, but because of what he has learned, he is able to cope much better. He Facetimes with his family every week to talk about the loss of his family members. Cecchini says he can already tell that he is recovering better this time. 

Cecchini talked about how humans work, the different things we do, without knowing, to protect ourselves. He showed three videos of himself when he was younger, all of them about three or four years apart. In the first video, his mother asked him to sing a song, and when he didn’t sing the one she wanted, she asked for a different one. Cecchini would not sing after that  

because his confidence had been brought down. In the next video, he was singing in a low voice, completely serious to him, but his family thought it was funny and were laughing, so again he refused to continue. In the last video, he was lip syncing because he didn’t want to sing, and he was acting goofy to try to make his family laugh. He used these examples to show how the body decides to change to try to protect a person’s feelings. 

Students were asked to participate in comfort challenges, different ways to push kids out of their comfort zones. 

The first challenge, students had to tell the person next to them an answer to one of two questions, “Who in your life has the biggest influence in your life?” or “What is something you have never told somebody before?” Then, they had to gaze into their neighbors eyes for one minute, but the hard part was trying to keep a straight face and be serious, not covering up their emotions by laughing. The last challenge entailed students standing up and shaking their body to release nerves and tension, a practice that Cecchini does regularly to help with his anxiety. All students willingly participated, becoming more comfortable as we continued. 

The students really enjoyed the assembly. One said, "I loved his rapping, and he made me confident to speak up." 

Another stated, "He was great!!! I felt like I could connect to what he was saying, and it was cool how he “got vulnerable” with everyone." 

Other students said they wish we could have more speakers like Cecchini: "I think he was very uplifting and encouraging. You should have more people like that coming in to talk to us every so often," and another stated, "I wish the school brought someone in like him more often. He was engaging and made us feel seen."

The Cafeteria Scandal 

By Cordelia Rodgers

What’s probably been on your mind while eating your lunch: where did the cafeteria cookies go? After much deliberation, I decided to get the scoop from the cafeteria manager herself, Janett Bennett. On Friday, November 22, 2024, I interviewed Bennett and got the entire layout, from planning to regulations. 

While deciding what they will be serving for the next month, the cafeteria staff must keep in mind the sodium, sugars, fat limit, and vegetable subgroups. This is called the Smart Snack Goal, the goal all school lunches have to hit to serve students. This was originally issued by the USDA ( the United States Departments of Agriculture). One of their main missions is to provide leadership in food for all schools in the United States. After all the planning,  the next month is created,  and the paperwork needs to be filled out. Bennett indicated that it does, in fact, take an absorbent amount of time to fill it out and count all of the Smart Snack goals that are inputted into the system. Another factor to remember is that there will be more paperwork if something isn’t from the U.S. Items that are not local, take more paperwork, with more grueling details to work out. Bennett stated, “We try to use locally sourced items. For example, we try to use ground beef that's 90% from New York.” Let’s be honest, no one likes to do that much paperwork, so props to her. 

Now, the time you’ve all been waiting for, the cookie information. It is well known that the cafeteria staff love making baked goods for the students, including cookies. Unfortunately, the cookies will not be coming back until further notice. The cookies are too high in sugar, sodium, and calories to be served. They go against the USDA policies previously mentioned. All lunches must have under 100 calories and a limited amount of sugar. Cookies break both regulations. As for other baked goods, there is still a good chance that they are served. The pumpkin squares are less in sugar and calories, being better for you than the cookies, so that’s why we can have them. Now, you're probably wondering the same thing I am. Why are the students allowed to buy and consume prepackaged foods, such as chips and ice cream, but not homemade desserts that are far better for you? Well, here’s your answer. All of those items are not made by the schools, and they can’t force the kids to make it a part of their lunch, which means they can’t count it as a part of their Smart Snack Goal. Keep in mind, that all of these things are what keep our lunches free at the moment, but if our school decides not to be a part of the Smart Snack Goal made by the USDA, Bennett says, “We would have to pay about the same amount as the Dinner Bell,” which is expensive for everyday lunch. So, the cafeteria staff has to keep everything “highly regulated” according to Bennett. 

The main question that I have is: does this actually decrease the obesity rate in children or does it not even make a dent? After much research, I found the National Library of Medicine website says, “In the past 3 decades, the prevalence of childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents.” This means that through all of these cautious measures, it hasn’t even been working. The decrease in food given, the prices, the calories, and the Smart Snack Goal haven’t even shown to be successful in any of the student's diets. So, why do we still have to follow these regulations if they aren’t even working? 

Lastly, something I never thought about was the crime rate in the Frewsburg Central School cafeteria. According to Bennett, the rate of kids stealing food such as chips, has gotten even worse over time. That’s why they have to use measures of moving the chips behind the counter. They are trying to reduce the amount of stolen items. This way the staff can keep the crime “contained” in a way. Bennett says students can help. If anyone sees or hears about anyone stealing the chips or ice cream, she says to notify a teacher or someone in the cafeteria. This is a serious problem that should be resolved with time. Remember, stealing, even if it’s from the school cafeteria is still a crime, and a punishment will be given. 

To sum it all up, the cafeteria’s famous cookies will not be coming back until further notice. The obesity rate throughout these school lunch obligations has never been shown successful in any of the student's nutrient goals. Lastly, the rate of stealing in the Frewsburg Cafeteria has increased but is trying to be contained. Look out Frewsburg, I think we have a new mystery column!