May 2022

News

Poster of MMIW awareness (Photo courtesy of Keaira Carr)

Missing And murdered Indigenous women: The ongoing problem

Indigenous is defined as “originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.” In this article, we will be talking about Native American women in the United States.

Though there are approximately 5,712 cases reported on missing and murdered Indigenous women in the National Crime Information Center, the U.S Department of Justice Missing Persons Database has only reported 116. There has been a lack of reports on these cases and investigations.

Most of these crimes are committed by Non-natives, and done in urban cities considering most natives don’t live on tribal lands. This is due to the “Indian Relocation Act” encouraging natives to live in the US, rather than their tribal lands. Though this may not seem harmful, due to natives being relocated they lack tribal law enforcement, which campaigns to report/help these missing women.

Murder is the third leading cause of death for native women, making them vulnerable to city settings. These crimes range from different ages, from a child to an 83 year old, so every native woman is subject to violence.

Not only do natives face the thought of being murdered, or experiencing violence, they are also more prone to poverty and homelessness. With these challenges natives face on a daily basis, it makes them more vulnerable than the average person.

Their lack of coverage in the media makes them even more vulnerable and I’ve asked people if they’ve heard about the MMIW violence that occurs in America.

“I've heard things about missing white people and other POC but not indigenous people”' junior Jayden West stated. He further went on to explain how POC in general don’t typically get much coverage in the news and that they should get more coverage.

Another junior Ross Smith stated "Sadly no, I've had to do my own research or look on TikTok. The media deems it as not important, so it is not really addressed," in an irritated manner, saying that indigenous women should get more coverage, but don't.

J. Graham Brown School’s tennis team

By Jamison Calloway

The J. Graham Brown School’s tennis team consists of 20-25 people. The season started on March 8th and the first school that they played was St. Francis.

The team practices both Wednesday and Thursday every week and the people who are on the team are in grades 7-12. Beginners practice one day a week while varsity practices two days a week and they practice at Stansbury Park. They practice for an hour and a half and the only thing you really need to bring to the practices is your own tennis racket.

When playing tennis the team must come up with a different strategy to try to win the game. Some higher level players will come up with certain strategies before and during the game while some lower level players just try to adapt to their current situation.

Chris Riley is a high school freshman who is on the Brown School tennis team. This is his third year playing tennis and his favorite part of it has been sportsmanship and multigrade mixing. He said that the hardest challenge that he’s had to overcome is “Dealing with frustration due to losing games”. He mostly likes the majority of people on the team and his least favorite part of tennis is losing games.

Vivien Englund is in the 7th grade and is also on the Brown School’s tennis team and she has been playing for about 4 years. Her favorite part about tennis is competition and winning, while her least favorite part is running a lot and losing matches. She said that the hardest part about playing tennis is “ staying focused”. She also said that she likes tennis and the players on the teams

The coach of the Brown School tennis team is Matt Davis. He has been coaching tennis for two years and really likes it. When asked how he likes coaching tennis, he responded with “I like it, it is fun and we have really good players”. When asked what challenges he had to overcome, he responded with “That I have never coached tennis and I have never really played that much, so I had to learn what to do while coaching. But I have coached a bunch of other sports before so that helped”.

Matt said that he has coached golf, basketball, soccer, and a couple of other sports, but never coached tennis. He said he played tennis before but only for fun. His favorite part about coaching tennis is getting to know his players and watching them play and get better.

Tennis team (Photo Courtesy of Jamison Calloway)

Sophomore Grace McAdams prepares to bat. (Photo courtesy of Ruby Guelda)

Softball kicks off their season against Southern and wins

Ruby Guelda

On Thursday, March 24th, the softball team won their first softball game of the season against Southern High on their field with a score of 17-12.

Within the first 30 minutes of the game, the pitcher was standing on the mound and threw the ball, the pitcher missed, and both the batter and the catcher went running for the ball. The batter and the catcher collided and the batter fell backwards, injuring her neck. She was on the Southern team, and ended up collapsing; after a few minutes, everyone on the field, both Brown and Southern, kneeled. It was to show a sign of support and respect, regardless of what team they were on. The girl ended up being okay, and was able to begin playing again.

During the game, Brown scored 13 points, batting and running, then decided to stop stealing bases, just to try to play a little more fair, and give the other team a chance. Stealing bases is when the players would run to the next base without the ball being hit, and they’d have to be able to run to the next base without being tagged with the ball. After scoring 13 points, the team decided to just let the game play, and stop stealing bases. Once the teams switched and Brown was pitching, they began with Layla Taylor, then ended up switching to a younger, newer pitcher. Southern was then able to catch up in points, therefore Brown swapped Layla back in, and she was able to strike two people out, and Brown gained enough points to win in a total of four innings.

Talking to one of the players, McKenzie Reasor, a freshman, she said that she joined the team because softball had always been a natural sport to her, and she has been playing for a while. She also explained to me that, though the team enjoys winning, if the other team's pitcher isn’t having a great day they always do their best to cheer her on. They have great respect for others on the opposing team and they have great sportsmanship/moral on their own team.

Another player, Joelle Shirley, an eighth grader, explained that she wanted to join softball because she had played the sport for years when she was younger, and it was the most appealing sport to stay active during the spring season. She said she really enjoys the team as well, everyone cheers each other on, and she has great connections with other teammates. Even though it's a mixture of grade levels, they are all able to share memorable experiences.

Shirley said her favorite part was the feeling of winning and the adrenaline/excitement through playing the game, the cheering, so mostly all of it. She also explained the sportsmanship between teams, again if the other pitcher seems stressed from all the attention on them, they all try to cheer, and enjoy the play of the game. Joelle had also explained that the kneeling for the girl on Southern was Brown showing respect for all of them as a team.

The team practices every weekday, Monday-Thursday is focused on fielding and Fridays are reserved for batting at batting cages. Reasor explained they practice as much as possible, especially before games, and sometimes even after a game.

It is encouraged to have any people interested in playing to come out and support the team - anyone can check the athletics calendar for details on when and where the games will take place.

Inside the cafeteria kitchen

by Ruby Guelda

The Brown School cafeteria is always being rushed around in, whether it is being cleaned by custodians, or eaten in by noisy students. It has Josh Luttrell running between tables, talking to students, and watching kids before they get out of control. Robin sits in, gets peppered with students' questions wondering how to plan the next year of their life at school, and the lunchroom itself is decorated in an under the sea environment, animals on the walls, blue tiling, it's always an upbeat environment. But there is more to that environment: the people behind those double doors in the back, the cafeteria staff.

After talking with the manager of the cafeteria, Nikki Craddock, I got an inside look into what the job of a school lunch staff/cafe manager is. Craddock also works alongside Hope Roberts (Lead), Deedra Means (Assistant), Michelle Kestler (Assistant), and Dana Bowman (Assistant).

Craddock began working at Brown 6 months ago, she explained, “My daughter was at Kenwood Elementary, and was able to transfer to Brown, and so I began working here to stay close with her.” One of the main joys of working at Brown she said is, “I love working with kids of all ages, and it just makes me really happy if I can help feed them a warm meal.”

A typical workday includes food preparation, serving, setting up the food, cleaning, cooking, paper work, orders, etc. so a lot goes into being able to put food out for students. She explained they begin prepping food a day ahead; for example, they begin prepping food for Tuesday on Monday. They also have to get ready for breakfast in the mornings, then all three lunches throughout the day.

The main thing they wish more students understood is they do not control the menu. They have a menu given to them by higher ups, specifically 502 Food Works oversees schools to ensure the safety and nutrition of what students are eating. The staff have to follow guidelines, and therefore they have no control over what they serve. The restrictions are strict, an example being when a student asks for salt or pepper for their food, they are not allowed to hand those out because it does not follow guidelines. The same goes for a student asking to bring in a specific food, when students say, “Oh I really want…” if it is not on the menu they are given, they cannot bring it in because it is not within their control. The other main point she explained regarding the food itself, is they do cook. When there's sauce or chili, they cook that in the school kitchen. But a majority of the food comes ordered, prepackaged, ready to go, and they just heat it up. They cannot add or take anything away, any ingredients, or foods, sauces, or other foods kids may not want a part of their meals.

On top of having all the work in the kitchen, they have to do all the work under the same circumstances as a lot of places going through a pandemic. At Brown, there have been many staff shortages, and that included the cafeteria - they had to work harder to make up for the people missing. The staff also didn’t just endure staff shortages, they dealt with food shortages. Places they ordered from now only had sausage pizza instead of both cheese and pepperoni. There were fewer options to choose from, and they just had to make-do with what was available.

Overall, the cafeteria experiences many challenges, but Craddock noted that she would like to be able to bring in a kid's food of choice, especially if it is a recurring request, however it's just out of her hands. Craddock added that though working in the lunchroom can be tiring or even frustrating, she really enjoys being able to make kids happy.

Entrance to the cafeteria (photo courtesy of Ruby Guelda)

Sun (Photo Courtesy of Sabiola Caballero Bombin)

Things to do this summer in Louisville

By: Sabiola Caballero Bombin

School is out, that means summertime! Everyone is waiting to have a fun vacation off from school, with hot weather and long warm nights. What activities are happening this sunny season in Louisville, keep reading! School gets out May 26, 2022, we’re all waiting for the 2:40 end of the day bell to ring so we can have some summertime fun. But where, or how?

Obviously Kentucky Kingdom is always an option, 2022 gold season passes are starting at $79.99 that offer unlimited visits to Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay, FREE parking, Special Souvenir Cup with FREE soft drinks, exclusive gold events, and the largest discounts on food and retail. The 2022 silver season passes start at $69.99 and they offer unlimited visits to Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay, FREE parking, $1 soft drinks, and discounts on food and retail.

Regular day tickets are starting at $49.99 for 1-day admission this includes ages (10-61). And 2-day admission tickets are starting at $59.99 for ages 4 and up.Regular day tickets do not offer special amenities like season passes do. Military/First Responder personnel receive a discount. They also offer different prices for groups, etc.

Although Kentucky Kingdom might be on the pricier side there are also cheaper options for you to participate in.

You could go for ice cream at Panchitos (located on Preston Highway and Bardstown Road) or go to the farmers market located on Bardstown Road as well. Go on a picnic to Waterfront Park, attend a movie at a theater closest to you.

Going on a walk down Bardstown Road is a perfect alternative if you don’t have a ride. Bardstown Road, located in the Highlands, has many locally owned shops and businesses. There are vintage clothing stores, candy stores, restaurants, and even boba shops. If you ever go to Bardstown Road be sure to stop by Fun Boba Tea.

Families could go to the Louisville Zoo. General admission tickets to the Louisville Zoo range anywhere between $15.75-$24.75 for individuals ages 12-59 or for individuals ages 3-11 and 60 and up they range from $10.75-$19.75. Children ages 2 and under get in free. They offer military discounts and group discounts for groups of 15 or more, there is also a $6 parking fee.

Huber’s Orchard and Winery is also an amazing place to go to spend family time together, located in Starlight, IN. They have a Family Farm Park which includes fun activities like mountain slides, mazes, and much more – admission is $6 per person or $5 for groups of 6 or more. And they have their own Starlight cafe. They can host events such as weddings, birthday parties, company picnics, school field trips and more.

More cost efficient things could be spending the day riding bikes, going for a walk at a park with a friend or go thrift shopping.

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