A few weeks ago on the 12th of May, BHS seniors who had received the presidential award were invited to an academic luncheon with the Buffalo Chamber of Combers. Students were expecting the lunch in to take place at a public building like a town hall for example, so some were surprised to see that the location was a church. The location probably wouldn’t matter much to most people, but what about the people who weren’t religious, how did they feel?

Senior Shania Sinna doesn’t define herself with any religion at all and she was one of the students who attended this lunch in.

“Having the luncheon at a church was a little weird. I thought they could of found somewhere different, but for space it was okay,” Said Sinna. “Maybe the church was the only convenient and open spot at the time.”

Even though the location of the lunch in raised some eyebrows, it was when it came time to say grace that made some people a tad uncomfortable. It makes sense that since the luncheon was taking place inside of a church that this formal gesture would be done, but students should have been notified ahead of time that a prayer was going to be said. Though it’s safe to say that most of the students didn’t mind the prayer, the students who weren’t religious felt out of place, unprepared, and fairly anxious.

“If I had to give a yes or no answer about how I felt that we had to say grace before the meal, I would say that I didn’t like it,” said Sinna. “Because we shouldn’t push that stuff on to people. It’s just like in the Pledge of Allegiance we say in school. We shouldn’t say the words ‘under God’ because there’s more than one religion.”

Social Problems and Diversity Studies teacher Todd Manninen tells us what his thoughts are about this situation.

“This is a hard situation to be in because you’re in the presence of community leaders which will reflect on you. It’s a moment in life where we’re just better off taking in the moment and going along with the situation even if it doesn’t match our own views.” Said Manninen. “But I do understand how the kids who weren’t religious feel and I do think that they should have been notified that a prayer was going to be done.”

Although there was a mix of different views and religions during, and after the luncheon, the program turned out well.

“I just like to send out the message that freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.” Said Manninen. 

In Squadroni’s class he talked about how existentialism is the idea where there is a difference between existing and living. Existing means you’re just going through the day. Living means you’re actually engaging life.

Some teachers have the count down written on their white boards everyday telling everyone how many days until school is over. Not Squadroni though. Although he never counts down he holds no animosity towards them because they don’t bother him at all. He’s glad people enjoy them.

When asked why he doesn’t count down his response was, “You know what, we’re alive today. Let’s make the most out of this day instead of thinking about that day coming up ahead of us. Because sometimes what we do is we get so busy counting off the days that are left in anticipation of something that we don’t get to take advantage of those days and live them the way we should.”

Most people count down because they’re bored.

Junior Alexis Garcia is one who agrees. “I count down because I’m ready for summer, and I can’t wait until I don’t have to do homework anymore.” Said Garcia.

Sqaudroni wouldn’t disagree with counting down school days, but you having nothing to do so you decide to count down day isn’t any better than being regularly boring. He thinks that when people get bored or tired and they see no value in what they’re doing anymore because It’s become meaningless, we’re wasting a lot of life.

However when asked if he thought students or staff participate more in the count down, his answers were different.

“I believe that teachers count down more because teaching is a stressful job and summer is a wonderful time for teachers.” Said Squadroni. He would like to emphasize that we shouldn’t get so caught up in counting down the school days when there are more important things happening and going on around us.

“The more you count down, the less time you have to enjoy life.” 

Durham is getting upset now, that much is obvious based on the snide remarks one junior whispers to a senior, and the sophomore pushing their binder away onto the floor. Durham coaxes them into bringing out their assignments yet they still ignore her insisting on actually starting any of them. The remarks are getting increasingly vocal with each passing minute, pushing each other, throwing things, or swearing at their phones. Durham gets into an argument with one sophomore who refuses to move from his position laid out on the table.

“I don’t wanna do this,” he whines. “I’m tired and It’s stupid as hell.”

“You need to!” Durham says. “You have more than five missing assignments for math!”

“So what? It’s not like any of that s*** is hurting my grade.”

“Dear, I just don’t want you to get too far behind where you can’t catch up,” Durham says.

“I don’t give a f***!”

Durham goes to continue talking but another female LD teacher walks into the room, the student immediately notices her and asks if he could go to her room instead of being in Durham’s.

“I like you better,” he says.

After shooting him down with a flat no she mentions how the student’s math teacher has mentioned that he could get the information he needed for class from the website provided in him syllabus. Durham instantly agreed, saying how she’d brought that suggestion up already but he’d said that they couldn’t. She was just trying to help him.
When both Durham and the other LD teacher leave the room the four students who’d been listening to the fighting turned to the sophomore and complained about how teachers changed when in the room with a fellow instructor. They continued voicing their harsh opinions of “two-faced teachers” and how they got yelled at for no reason even after Durham had returned. Nothing changes throughout the entire block up until the bell rings and each student files out at their own pace into the hallway for passing time.

This sort of behavior goes on to almost a day-to-day basis.

As writers on an online school newspaper we may not have the right to judge or have a say in how each individual student at BHS behaves during class. Everyone has their own routine of whether they do the work school is made to give you or not. Though what being on a newspaper, and fellow students, we are afforded a wonderful little thing called an opinion. Teachers, whether or not they’re an IEP teacher, and LD teacher, a social worker, or a regular class instructor, do not make enough money to put up with the type of crap kids can put them through everyday.

Let us explain a few things about teachers.
Teachers are some of the most disrespected people on this planet in their profession. Events all over the news of kids cursing at them, walking out on them, hitting them, spitting in their face. Here are some quotes from students that came up from more people than we care to admit:

“No one can tell me what to do; It’s my life.”

“At home I don’t get to do a lot of stuff, my parents are really controlling. So at school no one should be controlling me.”

“I simply don’t care what I do in school.”

“I do it because I want to see how teachers react, and it’s funny to see them get angry.”

This is ridiculous.

While this glimpse of a time in Durham’s class was not newsworthy, or the worst thing heard or seen that’s happened in a school, it is an unacceptable display of behavior from older people acting like little brats. Teachers are here to teach you, they’re here to help you, they’re here for you. Young people don’t understand that them walking out of a class like a child when they’re told to stop playing Candy Crush during a lesson. Or getting physical by throwing a trash can at their heads and scream in their face. These events are intolerable and it makes us as fellow students ashamed that we are lumped into the same group as they are.

“While I don’t condone the disrespectful behavior I’m shown by my case load of kids,” Durham said. “I don’t blame them. They can say whatever they want but I’m here to do a job. That’s how It’s going to stay.”

Art teacher Sheri Tamte explained that every mural in the school is an individual student project that has to be volunteered for.

“Each student is evaluated based on their skills in art,” Tamte said. “To make sure they have at least some ability to work with various paints and other supplies.”

Starting by making plans with the staff at any time during the year about what exactly the subject art will be, how long it will take, and what is needed. Even though it is a project for the school the time that each student puts into it is done away from the progression of a regular school day on their own time.

Senior Shania Sinna is one of these artists that created a mural of her own, that is currently hanging in the Media Center. Her painting was started in the summer of her Junior year, taking over the course of four to five months before it was completed and hung for display halfway through her year as an eleventh grader. With not only paint accenting this piece Sinna, along with other artists, placed a few things along the paints to make the art unique.

“The books in the painting are actual books I cut them out myself, along with the lace of her gloves and the sails of the boat behind her,” Sinna said. “We had a few other things but it messed with the proportions so we didn’t include them in the final work.”

Sinna’s painting still remains in the Media Center today, partly giving the view of how you can go into different worlds, live different lives, and explore through the pages of a good book, while at the same time keeping it safe from being damaged.

When asked about her thoughts on the painting she had mixed feelings.

“I think we could have done better, it started to drag on and it was just taking too long,” Sinna said. “And with the limited number of people we had working on it, things could get a little difficult.”

Once everything was finished with every piece in place along with all the other amazing works of students that give the school it’s artistic connection with it’s students.

“Every looks back on their art and feels iffy about it, but it’s something for the school, we worked really hard to make.”

Discussing this topic with art teacher Jon Holtz, he explained that being a part time teacher was no easy feat. Being someone who was a part time teacher himself he described how difficult it was to have the job he did, because sometimes it wasn’t enough, yet he didn’t stray from it.

“I barely made enough to survive,” Holtz said. “In fact I am sure I could have qualified for welfare and food stamps if I would have thought about it. But I never did, so it was stressful to live like that.”

He goes on to say that he thinks part time teachers have it a lot tougher than full time teachers do, having less hours in school with their materials along with losing precious time with the students their there to help learn. It’s a difficult thing to bear.
While agreeing with this statement, point eighty three english teacher Heather Tierney pushes that you cannot just look at the negatives being here only half the time brings.

“I think that both part time and full time have advantages, and disadvantages,” Tierney said. “The only part I would see as easier is the paper load, on my part time schedule I only have to grade papers from 75 students, instead of over 100.
“The only thing I really regret is that I’m not here for AAA, so I miss that connection time with students. That AAA or Bison Time, kids have a hard time finding me on my part time schedule.”

Though having drawbacks, making the choice to be a point eighty three teacher was her own, Tierney explaining how all of was chosen revolving around her family and what balance they all needed to be happy.

“I do this because when we adopted our daughter, I didn’t wanna work full time anymore.” She said. “I wanted to be with her in the afternoons, but I still wanted to work so I worked out a schedule with the administration so that for half of the year I could get home earlier in the afternoons. The administration does check with me every year to see if I want to come back to full time, but as of now I really like the schedule and I would like to keep it as long as I can.”

What both teachers brought to the forefront of their talks on part time, and full time, was the equal amount of love each have for their work and the time they spend here. They both told in their own words how it doesn’t matter how much more time one teacher spends in the building compared to the other, they’re teaching here at BHS because it’s what the love to do.

“I love my job, I hope that it comes through in my teaching,” Holtz said. “One of my favorite things is really connecting with students and getting to know their stories. We all have a story to tell.”

“My favorite part of my job is, all of it, everything.” Tierney also said. “I love interacting with students of all kinds of back grounds. I really love it. Even though I miss some one on one moments during AAA or Bison time, I love the time I have in the 80 minutes of class with all of my kids.”

With all those added elements you’d think the right decision would be to back off and allow other students to go through boyfriends and girlfriends. Is it the smart thing? Or is sharing the experience with someone you care about more important, and could it possibly make things just a little bit easier that you have someone you can relate to.

From certain individual’s point of view it could be plain and simple, a black or white answer, as from the perspective of someone who has been in the business of teaching for twelve years. Special Ed teacher, and head wrestling coach Jason Maurer feels exactly that way. With the ban of any type of “canoodling” is his class he has a very clear opinion about high school student relationships.

“I think that if the individuals involved are genuine it can be okay, but sometimes they can get a little too clingy and they think their gonna get married.” Maurer explains.

“I’ve seen plenty of them dissipate after high school, going to college opens many peoples eyes to things, and people they didn’t have access to living in one town their whole life.

“They run into new people they’ve never met before, they’re lucky to last the summer after high school is over, thats just the way it works. It’s rare for anyone to marry their high school sweetheart anymore.”

But when asked the same question, and given the statement Maurer had given, what does an actual student’s perspective sound like? Do they agree with Maurer’s statement? Or do they think that’s too general of a way to describe high school relationships as a whole?

The answer given by the students asked was almost the exact opposite.

From a different perspective, and opinion to Maurer’s statement. There were students, as awkward as this conversation can be, who thought his views on the relationships of students in recent years was very different from six, let alone twelve years ago.

“I don’t think a lot about high school dating,” says Freshman Connor Black. “It’s alright if other kids do it, but I think it’s stupid. Especially if people are all over each other in the hallways.”

“Well, I’m pretty neutral about high school relationships.” Junior Kristin Jurgens jumps in, shooting a glare at Black.

“But I don’t agree with Maurer, a lot of people can be together and love each other for a long time, even if they’re still in school. It’s really sweet.”

It’s obvious, from the limited answers recorded from either side of the spectrum, that everyone feels differently about loving someone at a young age. Whether you be skeptical, or a closet romantic, it’s your decision.

“Love each other or perish.” – W. H. Auden

“We’re doing very well. Even though the season is getting to be a long one, the wrestlers are doing a great job and I’m very proud of them,” said head coach Jason Maurer.

On Friday Jan 31, 2014 the wrestlers had a conference match at Monticello High School where 10th grader Adam Treptau took second place. Treptau has been wrestling for seven years. His favorite move is called the Two in One Series. This wrestling move is when you are able to get both your hands on the opponent arms and take them down from that position.

Treptau has a total of 99 wins throughout his career. Just this season he has only lost three times out of 30 matches and he wants to take first place at the state championships coming up at the end of February which takes place in Rochester MN.

“The season is going well, I wanted to win every single one of my matches but I’ve lost three already which isn’t so bad. I want to take first at state,” said Treptau.

As a team, the wrestlers best match was against Kimbell High School during a meet here at BHS.

“It was the match where the wrestlers worked the hardest and they did a great job,” said Maurer.

The team hopes to win a match a section so they can go to state. We wish them the best of luck on the rest of their season.

“I just thought it looked pretty cool, so one day I went on Youtube and searched how to DubStep dance, and from there on I taught myself.” Kuhlman stated.

His interest was further sparked when he came across a video of a dancer by the name of Marquese  Scott on YouTube; this particular video having over one million views, who is known for his popular Dub Step dances.

Kuhlman has  been dancing for over a year now; he’s even created his own YouTube channel where he posts all of his various dance performances, and on Feb. 8, 2014 he decided  to show off his unique talent at the Buffalo High School’s Tri M Variety Talent show. His amazing dance; described by other students as being so smooth he seems almost boneless,  to a DubStep mix of Igor Stravinsky’s piece called Firebird, which received quite a lot of positive feedback from the audience.

“I wasn’t very much nervous, but more excited to do my performance.”

One of his  biggest supporters is his girlfriend Senior Sierra Varner, who is always there for him making sure he shows off all his skills in every performance.

“It’s almost like he was born with this talent, he always gives 100 percent when he’s dancing, and I’ve never seen him  happier than he is after he  performs.” Says Varner.

He plans to continue on as a dance teacher, even though he might not teach the dance he has this passion for it’s still his long time goal for the future.

The idea of selling flowers to the students was brought up by the Students Stepping Up (SSU) executive council, a small group of seven students; including senior Katie Glen; under the advisory of social studies teacher Tracy Hulley.

The members of SSU had expected to sell possibly close to 100 carnations, but after interviewing Hulley on the matter the total carnations sold had racked up to a total of 640.

“I think it’s a nice thing to offer,” explained Hulley. “I did not expect it to be so successful.”

Students from all grades bought an average of one flower; some students buying increasingly large amounts; as much as 10-20. The most popular had been the red carnation meant for love, then pink for friendship, and white meant for a secret admirer.

The carnations were prepped and ready to be handed out Thursday; where they would be delivered to the students through their first block class in small containers filled with water to keep them from drying out.

“This is a great thing that the upperclassmen can share with the younger kids,” principal Mark Mischke says. “Some students may have not experienced it before now.”

Former social studies teacher, and current assistant wrestling coach, Mr. Gerry Bakke is known for his strong opinionated views of the American society.

Bakke, a long time favorite of many students in the social studies department returned on Friday, January 29 to talk to Todd Manninen’s Diversity Studies Class. His energetic discussion typified the way he rad the class in the past.

Wrestling Coach and EBD Teacher Jason Maurer is a former Bakke student who now teaches at BHS. He pointed out how, even if students weren’t in his class, they knew who he was. Giving one of his well known, and feared speeches for an unsuspecting first block high school class.

“He’s larger than life in the best way,” said Maurer. “Though his teaching style is very unorthodox.”

Splitting the room in three groups, he moved about the front building your opinions up and tearing them down piece by piece. Throwing all the different questions: what, how, and why, getting the true reasoning for their straightforward explanations.

“During a point in one of his speeches I ended up hitting a ruler against the wall,”Manninen explained, as he paced back and forth around the room during his first block class. “It was getting out of control!”

Never shy about sharing his opinion of various topics brought up by student and teacher alike, he is the definition of spontaneous. Moving student to student getting up close and personal in an attempt to rile them up enough where they were yelling in his face just as loud as he was in theirs.

When sitting through one of his exuberant speeches, students were never disappointed. With politically incorrect videos, to directly shouting obscenities while mocking the stereotypical views voiced in incompetent statements. It’s a free for all many students wouldn’t want to miss.