April 2014 - Doherty High School

The
Doherty Spectrum
Spring Edition
PROM pg. 2
Meet Doherty’s New
Principal pg. 1
Photo by Laci Durham
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1
The Spectrum
News
Meet Doherty’s New
Principal
Story from The Spartan Spotlight
M
eet Doherty’s New Principal, Kevin Gardner. He
was born in Denver, moved
to Grand Junction when he
was five and graduated from
Grand Junction High School.
He went to college at Fort
Lewis College in Durango,
Colorado and earned his
Masters degree at UCCS. He
moved to Colorado Springs
to start his teaching career
because there was more opportunity on the Front Range
than there was on the Western Slope. His four children
are Colorado Springs natives.
He is excited to return to Colorado Springs because of the
great people and getting to
see Pikes Peak every day. His
favorite high memory? Typical
stuff: playing football, skiing
every weekend, laying baseball – they lost in the state
championship game. School
was the social center of his
like growing up. He loved every part of it. After high school
he went he went to Fort Lewis
where he was going to study
Business. He didn’t have any
money for a ski pass so he
got a job as a ski instructor.
He learned he loved teaching
so he changed his major to
History and got his teaching
certification. Best decision he
ever made. He loves teaching, coaching and working in
schools and couldn’t ask for a
better job. What is on interesting thing people don’t know
about him? When he was a
teacher in District Eleven and
his kids were very young, he
got up every day at 3:35 am
and delivered the Gazette
Telegraph to 300 houses. He
did it for 8 years, it kept his
kids out of day care, saved his
family money and allowed him
to teach coach and survive on
a teacher’s salary. It’s why he
still gets up and gets to work
so early, it’s the best part of
the day. What does he look
forward to most as the new
principal at Doherty? Being a
part of the amazing Doherty
tradition. Being the Principal
of Doherty High School is
pretty exclusive club. The one
piece of advice he would give
to students: have a positive
mind set, develop good habits, and hard work matters.
Sex
Trafficking in
Colorado
Story by Laci Durham
I
n the last few months, in
Colorado Springs alone, at
least three people have been
arrested on the charges of human trafficking; this statistic is
a major tell-tale of the extreme
status of human trafficking in
society today. Sex trafficking is
a major issue across the country and throughout the world,
and measures need to be
taken to further prevent these
dehumanizing actions.
There are 10-30
million modern-day slaves
in the world today, after drug
trafficking, human trafficking
(sex and labor) is tied with the
illegal arms industry as the
2nd largest criminal industry.
According to the Center for
Public Policy Studies, generating over 32 billion dollars
annually and this statistic is
only increasing year to year.
World- wide, there are over
161 countries involved in human trafficking, the top five
being, Thailand, Mexico, the
Philippines, Haiti, and India.
While the US does not make
it onto the top five list, it is an
increasingly serious problem.
In a study by the Urban
Institute of Underground Sex
Trafficking industries in eight
US cities including: Atlanta,
Dallas, Kansas City, Miami,
Seattle, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Denver, it was
found that the average value
of these illegal industries was
anywhere from 39.9 million
dollars to 290 million dollars.
Denver was found to be the
lowest of these valued; however, it was found that pimps
and traffickers in Denver alone
made anywhere from $5,000
to $32, 833 per month. These
statistics are frightening when
considering these people are
illegally making more than a
person with a $60,000 dollar
salary.
It was found that 54% of
recruiters for human trafficking
were strangers to the recruited, and 46% were known
to victims. In the US alone,
there are anywhere from an
estimated 100,000 to 300,000
children prostituted in the US.
Of these children, 41.4% of
these are repeat runaways,
46.7% of which ran from a
group home or other foster
care-like settings. In Colorado this threat to child runaways is especially frightening, in an interview with KRDO
news channel 13, Debbie
Manzanares, a board member
on the Human Trafficking Task
Force of Southern Colorado
gave an eye opening statistic
to the severity of human trafficking in Colorado:
“If a child runs away and ends
up on the 16th Street Mall,
they will probably be approached by a pimp in the first
24 to 48 hours,” Manzanares
said.
Sex trafficking is a major problem in Colorado, the US, and
worldwide; this dehumanizing
threat to adults and children
alike, is only increasing in
severity. To get involved in
the movement to end human
trafficking, there are several
places to check out. The Love
146 movement, seeks to end
child trafficking and exploitation, has many sources on
their site, love146.org, to get
involved. END IT is another
movement that seeks to ‘shine
a light on slavery,’ there are
various sources on how to get
involved on their sight enditmovement.com as well.
Sex trafficking can be stopped,
and the restoration of these
victims lives can be achieved,
in replacing the action of putting a price on human life, with
love and action.
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The Spectrum
Feature
Foreign Exchange
Student Recap
I
t has already been eight
months that I have been an
exchange student at Doherty
High School; my experience
as well as the academic year
is coming to an end. I can
honestly say that this year has
changed me a lot. It was the
most difficult, but at the same
time, the most interesting year
of my life. I received stronger
communication skills here.
This year transformed me
beyond recognition: not only
have I become more mature
and liberated, I also changed
my perspective on the world
and my own life: discovering
different ways of living and
thinking is what makes being
Editorial by Anna Kusakina
a foreign exchange student so
incredibly beneficial. It turns
out that everything is relative,
some things were weird and
incomprehensible for me, but
right now I could not imagine
living without them. It is ridiculous, but I will really miss dryers (in Russia we only have
washing machines), drive
thru restaurants and how the
people are nice and talkative.
I came to America
in search of something new.
The experience opened doors
to opportunities I would have
never thought possible, the
world now seems much more
approachable. My interests
and ambitions have increased
exponentially, and most
important, I have gained huge
confidence in myself and my
abilities. Back in September
there were a lot of questions
and uncertainty: right now everything is clear. The last very
important thing: I realized how
much I love my family and my
own country; I never thought
that I would ever miss it that
much.
So when there is
an opportunity to become
an exchange student, take
advantage! It not only opens a
new culture and lifestyle, but
it builds huge confidence and
gives an ability to solve problems and believe in yourself.
PROM
Story by Olivia Stinett
While the Junior
and Senior Prom at most
schools is still an extravagant event that upperclassmen look forward to, the
expenses that accompany
the big event may be the
cause of the decrease in
prom attendees. This year,
the foreseen average cost
of prom including tickets,
dinner, attire, corsages and
boutonnieres,
photography, and
limousine
rental is
$400$800.
Although
Doherty
tries to
keep
costs
low for
students,
there are other schools
whose ticket prices climb
from year to year. The
average cost of a prom
ticket is $75, not including
dinner, after prom, and the
infamous limousine that
can cost around $450 for
the night. Because some
students cannot afford the
ticket price, especially when
paying for a date, they will
forgo prom and instead find
alternatives to the dance.
The alarming danger to
these alternatives is the
lack of supervision. While it
is seemingly impossible to
keep kids from partying on
prom night, the probability
of underage drinking and
accidents sky rockets when
kids decide to throw a party
instead of attending prom.
The other chunk of
prom expenses is attire. The
average amount spent on a
prom dress is $195, which
is almost three times the
amount of the ticket itself.
Sadly, these extravagant
dresses will only be worn for
a night, which is why many
girls have turned to renting a prom dress as a less
expensive and more reasonable alternative. Even
so, prom dress rentals can
begin at around $70, which
is equivalent to the price
of one prom ticket. Tuxedo
rental can also be extremely
pricey– ranging from $87 to
$140 for a night of wear.
A high school in
New York found that the
average cost to attend its
prom was $807, which
some parents found to be
outrageous. Almost a quarter of the school did not attend prom this year because
the families just simply
couldn’t afford it. While
some parents are willing to
spend close to $1,000 on
“a night to
remember”
some families are not
in the same
financial
position.
While the
school is
able to help
students
with ticket
costs, they
cannot afford to pay
for every
student’s dinner, limo, and
formal wear.
Prom attendance
across the country is predicted to drop by 14% from
2013, simply because of the
high costs. Although prom
is a memory that every student should have a chance
to experience, not all families can afford it. Whether or
not one chooses to attend
prom, the after party, or
find an alternative, be safe
on the roads and enjoy the
night.
Five Seconds
of Summer:
“Are We Punk
Rock Yet?”
F
Story by Noelle Coultrip
ive Seconds of Summer, an Australian pop
rock band, is poised to take
the music world by storm in
2014, carrying with them an
extremely loyal fan base.
This insanely talented musical quartet consists of Luke
Hemmings, Michael Clifford,
Calum Hood, and Ashton
Irwin, all natives of West
Sydney.
The band originally
began its long journey towards achieving their musical dreams in 2011, when
then fifteen-year-old Luke
Hemmings posted covers
of bands such as A Day to
Remember and Blink-182 on
his personal YouTube channel, hemmo1996. Soon after
Hemmings began making his
increasingly popular covers of
punk-rock bands, Michael Clifford and Calum Hood joined,
to form a legitimate band;
later on, Ashton Irwin joined
the band as a drummer.
Despite Five Seconds
of Summer only being in existence since 2011, they have
proven themselves as a very
popular band after their first
EP, titled “She Looks So Perfect”, was released on April
1st in the United States and
on earlier dates in other countries. The EP contains four
songs: “She Looks So Perfect”, “Heartache on the Big
Screen”, “The Only Reason”,
and “Disconnected”. All songs
on the EP are pop-based, but
infused with an unmistakable
rock vibe that sets the band
apart from the stereotypical
boy band prototype that has
been all too familiar in the music industry in recent years.
Five Seconds of Summer’s
focus is to break into the musical world of punk-rock, citing
bands such as All Time Low
and Mayday Parade as their
musical inspirations, putting
space between them and the
pop music industry.
Starting on April
11th, 5SOS will be kicking off
their Stars Stripes and Maple
Syrup tour in San Francisco,
and travel through parts of the
United States and Canada until their final tour date on April
23rd in Wallingford, Connecticut. The Stars Stripes and
Maple Syrup tour will mark
5SOS’s first U.S. headlining
tour, and definitely not their
last. Later on in the year, on
August 1st, Five Seconds of
Summer will join One Direction on tour for the second
time in Toronto, ON.
Clearly, Five Seconds
of Summer are showing no
signs of slowing down. With
their recently-released EP and
two upcoming tours, Five Seconds of Summer are proving
that they have what it takes to
climb the ladder of the music
industry and ultimately come
out on top.