“Cyberbulling has become more of an issue over the past year and a half. This year  it has become more and more prevalent,” school resource officer Addison Morgan said.

Sure you may have the right to speak your mind about a person, but public harassment and embarrassment is, in my opinion, morally wrong.

Cyberbullying is widely overlooked nationwide, and definitely statewide.

“We do the best we can to keep an eye out on it, and we try to give out advice about cyberbullying through a Facebook page we have,” officer Morgan said.

Garden City High School takes cyberbullying very seriously, but can only get involved if it carries to the school or happens at school.

“We can get involved if it disrupts the school environment, and we can also tie comments back to school if they were made while on campus,” associate principal Tracy Leiker said.

There are many punishments that are involved with cyberbulling as well.

“A lot of times the counselors will hold an intervention with the students or you could be looking at ISS or OSS,” Leiker said.

Cyberbullying is a difficult and annoying thing to deal with in my opinion, and every case is different and handled as such.

“It’s a case by case basis. It’s treated the same on the school side of things,” Morgan said. “There’s not a whole lot of case law right now to charge someone with cyberbullying.

“Cyberbullying can be harassment, threats, just something that someone takes offense to,” Leiker said.

But when can police get involved? When has someone crossed the line and gone too far?

“We step in when the conversation gets physically threatening. Basically whenever a student’s safety is in jeopardy,” officer Morgan said.

I think high school students should be mature enough to keep their thoughts and comments to themselves. I think we all know what is appropriate to say and who we can joke around with and poke fun at, but it has to be a two- way street. If you feel the need to speak your mind, do what I do, make awesome raps out of your feelings.

Prieto, a Scott City native, graduated in 1986 from Scott City High School. He has fifteen years of experience as a coach that started when he became volunteer coach for his alma mater. He then became an assistant coach for Ulysses High School Tigers. Three years later he became the head coach of the Tigers, and after four years he moved to Garden City where he became an assistant coach under Moser and Martin Segovia.

“Mr. Segovia and I became really good friends and he wanted to pursue his administration degree. The plan was for me to step up some day and take over,” Prieto said. “Also, I had been in an automobile accident so my family didn’t want me to keep commuting back and forth from Holcomb to Ulysses on a daily basis.”

Going from a head coach to an assistant coach may seem like a step down, but not to Prieto.

“In my opinion, going from Ulysses to Garden was a step up.” Prieto said.

Prieto would be an assistant at GCHS for five years, but in between those years he would take a head coach position at Holcomb High School.

“I was hoping to establish myself as a head coach in Holcomb because my son would be going there, but that unfortunately did not work out, but I think it was for the best.” Prieto said.

Prieto described his goals as a head coach.

“My goals are the same as any other coach, I want to win, I want to win a state championship. That’s something that Garden City hasn’t done since the 90s, and I want to bring that back,” Prieto said. “I also want to continue to have an honored program here.”

Not only will Prieto be the head coach of the GCHS wrestling team, but he will also be the head coach of his son, who will be a freshman next school year.

“Having my son on the team will definitely be a big plus,” Prieto said. “But the main reason I coach and teach is because I love watching the kids succeed; that’s the biggest thrill for me. I want what’s best for them and I’m in it for all the kids.”

“It took me two years to win in the FHSU competition,” Kalie Bolin, a senior at GCHS said. “It’s definitely not easy.”

The contest, held on the FHSU campus, had a vast amount of other Kansas high schools competing. However, GCHS students came prepared, filling up four tables, part of the floor, and even blanket-decorate boxes with paintings, sculptures, drawings, and other art. Despite this, only certain pieces had the caliber for the competition.

“We look at creativity, craftmanship, work ethics, uniqueness of work, and application of art median,” Lisa Neeley, a GCHS art teacher said.

It takes some students the whole semester to create master pieces fit for the FHSU competition. Even pieces from last year were given to the teacher to await the trip.

” It’s an opportunity to tour the art department of FHSU as well as the show gallery at Smokey Hill (art gallery),” Neeley said. For some students that get to go and are interested in FHSU it is a trip they can not miss out on. There are many scholarship opportunities that are available for students throughout Kansas, and placing makes it look better on applications when applying for college. If one is chosen or witnesses the competition first-hand, it can be beneficial for their careers in the art business. It helps the students look at other  artists  work that they might not have been exposed to.

“The best apart about going to FHSU is going around and looking at the art from the other high schools,” Andres DeLeon, a junior at GCHS said. “I personally didn’t win anything.” Sometime students leave with nothing, but  48 students went home

as award winners. There was over 100 art pieces taken to the show. This is one of the most GCHS had taken home.

“I was not able to go on the trip,” Zaira Torres, a junior at GCHS, said. “I was not expecting to win, and I was really happy when all my pieces one, especially Garden won most pieces.” Not only was she happy about the outcome but all the art students that participated in the show as well. But while the results were good, the artists will  continue to look for improvement in the coming years.

“The program is a pilot program for the DOE (Department of Education),” Justin Reich, truancy officer at GCHS said. “We were chosen as a pilot school.”

Reich was chosen to help operate the experimental system, which has several components to it.

“It tracks upon different categories that lead to graduation from total credits earned, GPA, and attendance,” Reich said. “We can assign interventions to a student (in the program) if necessary.”

Greg Lambert, a math teacher at GCHS, is also part of the committee for the early warning system. James Mireles, principal of GCHS, was unavailable for interview.

“Basically, it takes data on students based on attendance and grades and shows who is at the highest risk of dropping out,” Lambert said. “My role is to take the information from Skyward and get it to fit the program that we’re using (Microsoft Excel).”

According to the Garden City Telegram, the current graduation rate is 76.8 percent. State standards require at least an 80 percent graduation rate.

Lambert voluntarily joined the committee.

“I volunteered for the committee,” Lambert said. “I’ve used Microsoft Excel before, so I know what to do.”

The system will hopefully help to lower dropout rates through interventions and early detection.

“It will target kids that are having specific problems,” Reich said. “It pinpoints problems kids are having so we can address them.”

The system is in place in cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia and has seen success in those cities. The system will be implemented at GCHS next school year. Despite the lower than average graduation rates, GCHS is soaring when it comes to academic scores. According to the Garden City Telegram, 90 percent of students scored proficient or higher  on state assessments, far beyond state standards.

While dropout rights might not drop immediately, in the long run, Lambert is confident in the early warning system.

“I believe it will help,” Lambert said. “One of the good things about the program is that we can track whether interventions are working or not, and we can make adjustments if we need to.”

While it may take a while, the early warning system will likely have an impact down the road.

“We definitely had our ups and downs as a team. Right now we are just searching for consistency, which is a tough thing for us,” junior forward Haley Brennaman said.

The Buffs entered the stretch featuring a record of (3-2) with two straight victories against WAC opponents Great Bend and Liberal. The momentum carried the Lady Buffaloes to a 6-1 demolition of Wichita Southeast . Senior Deydi DePaz scored four goals and junior Haley Brennaman tacked on two more to give the Buffaloes an early lead that they never relinquished throughout the match.

To go along with Garden City’s six goals, senior goal keeper Maddie Silva again held the opposition to minimal scoring, allowing just one goal to go along with seven saves on the day.

After experiencing major success in the previous three games, the Lady Buffs faced a rare loss against a Western Athletic Conference foe. The Hays Indians inked out a 2-1 victory over the Lady Buffaloes, to hand Garden City their first loss against a WAC opponent on the early season, and their second WAC loss since 2005.

DePaz scored a goal early in the match, but Garden City was held to no scoring, after experiencing the stout defense of the Indians.

The loss moved the Lady Buffaloes to (4-3) on the season.

Finally, in the most recent match-up, which pitted Garden City vs. the Great Bend, Garden City found their redemption, defeating the Panthers 2-1.

Struggling early the Buffs got a boost from sophomore Lauren Walz, who scored a goal at the 33-minute mark, to give Garden City a 1-0. But Great Bend quickly answered scoring a goal minutes later to tie the game up at 1-1.

After a failed penalty kick attempt by the Lady Buffaloes, DePaz fought through a cluster of defenders to knock the ball into the goal, to hand the lead and the game to the Buffs.

The victory moved the Lady Buffs soccer team to (5-3) on the year, with a (3-1) record in Western Athletic Conference play.

The Buffaloes next game will be against Wichita Northwest at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Memorial Stadium.

“I am definitely excited for the challenge. We really want to show what we can do,” Brennaman said.

SUGAR BEET

In what feels like just another day in Kansas, the year of 2012 saw it’s second major tornado outbreak.

A storm started developing on the lower Central Plains of the U.S. on April 13^th, and began weaving through the Midwestern United States. Damage was first seen in lower Oklahoma and most notably Norman, Oklahoma, home to Oklahoma University.

What set this storm apart was that it developed for multiple days, and on the 14^th of April, the second day of high risk weather was being forewarned, for only the second time in recent history, affecting the central parts of Oklahoma and Kansas.

This is the day most of Southwest Kansas was on watch, as storms managed to stay just East of Garden City, and narrowly avoided Dodge City. EF1’s were reported north East of Dodge, including slight damage to Spearville, Kansas.

Greensburg, KS a town that was famously leveled by an EF5 in 2006, had an EF3 confirmed just west of town with no notable damage, to the recovering city.

EF4’s were reported in Lyons, KS just some 20 minutes from Salina, where a home and some roads were destroyed along with damage to plants and trees in the area.

Kansas was struck hardest in Sedgwick County in Wichita and El Dorado with EF3’s being reported and damage to Wichita’s metropolitan areas and McConnell Air Force Base. Damage was estimated at $283 million and the path of the tornado was shockingly similar to an EF5 that struck Wichita in 1991.

Woodward, Oklahoma, a town 3 hours south of Garden City, and a town we frequently play in football, was struck the hardest during the storm outbreak, with six people being killed as an EF4 ripped through the town.

All in all some 43 tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in the outbreak that dissipated on the 15^th and finally ran out of gas on the 16^th including about 30 in Kansas on the 14^th.

AJ Dome, class of 2010 at Garden City High School, chased these violent storms to photograph and document the tornadoes that came from them.

Dome and his chase partner, Mira Lee (of Lawrence), started the day off in Topeka.  They packed up everything they needed, which included cameras, a laptop, first aid kits, and search and rescue equipment (cans of food, a hatchet, and respirators).  They then drove to Salina and bought an iPad while they were waiting for the storms to build.

The two had made up their mind to go storm chasing a few days earlier because of the severe tornado warnings that the Norman (Oklahoma) Storm Prediction Center had put out on Thursday (two days before the storms hit) for the central Kansas area.

“We didn’t have to do too much planning because all the forecasters knew two days in advance that the weather was going to be a big deal,” Dome said, “we bought weather and forecasting apps for the iPad and updated people through Facebook and Twitter.”

Their next step was to choose which storm to chase.  Storms were building north of them near Concordia, KS, so they sped north to try to catch the storm, but it petered out near Beloit.  The team  drove south to Chase, KS, where another storm was building.

“We parked on a dirt road on top of a hill and watched the storm come to us,” Dome said, “It produced a tornado outside of Lyons and it traveled from the town of Marquette to Kanopolis Lake.”

They then traveled east on I-70 past Salina to Solomon, KS, where they found another twister.  This tornado was more photogenic and provided good pictures for the team.

Once the two saw that more storms were in the Wichita area, they sped down the highway to warn everyone that they knew in the Wichita area.

“The storms that hit Wichita started in Oklahoma.  The tornadoes started traveling up the highway from Wichita to Emporia, and the tornadoes were on the ground for over 100 miles, which is unheard of,” Dome said, “the weather conditions had to have been just perfect for the tornadoes to stay on the ground that long.”

After the drama of the twisters hit Wichita, Dome and Lee thought the storms near Lawrence could produce a few tornadoes, so they ended their night with some friends at KU, but the storms produced no twisters.

Whether you were affected by the twisters of April 14 or not, it was a signiificant day for weather in Kansas.  While many towns were hit by these dreadful tornadoes, there were no deaths in the entire state, which is a miracle in itself.

“I think as a team we did very well finishing top three. It’s always good and we did it without a key player. A lot of the players on the team stepped it up. Blake played well and Evan played well, for playing singles. Also Brevin and Sebastian played great. It showed that we have to hang with more of the top well known teams and we need to recognize and capitalize on that,” (Denton) Keller said.

The No. 1 singles player, senior Blake Stucky went 2-2 in the tournament and placing sixth out of a 16-player singles draw. Stucky started off strong defeating Aldo Tovar of Arkansas City, 8-0. He then advanced on to play Max Pyle of McPherson whom he lost to, 8-2. He then gained another win against Skylar Stacy of Independence, and lost his final match with a tie breaker, 8-7 (7-4) to Cody Person of McPherson.

“I played a lot better in this tournament. I was able to play more on the offense rather than defensively. My last match I shouldn’t have lost. It got pretty windy and I think that had some effects. But in the end both my opponent and I had to deal with it. I should have adjusted better,” Stucky said.

Junior Evan Riggs switched up to the No. 2 single player. Riggs went 3-1 in the tournament and coming out with the ninth place medal overall. Riggs lost his first match to Clay Holden of Wichita Collegiate, 8-4. He then gained three big wins against Lane Schicke of Independence, 8-6, Levi Koster of Maize, 8-4, and Christain Raftopoulos of Maize, 8-3.

“It felt pretty good. It’s a lot different not having somebody out there to rely on and talk to like in doubles. I think this will help Brian and I in the long run because I finally started playing like my old self,” Riggs said.

Competing in the doubles division was the Keller brothers, Brennan and Denton at the No.1 slot. Overall the Keller’s got sixth place, going 2-2 out of a 16-player doubles field. They started off strong against Hilge and Hardy of Independence, 8-5. Keller’s lost to Davidson and Schafer of McPherson, 8-3. The boys came back  defeating Bigler and Grant of Salina Central, 8-4. But then lost their final match to Rohr and Vargas of Arkansas City, 8-4.

“We were able to play our best tennis when we were relaxed, we communicate, and we hit smart shots. Overall, we were pleased with our finish in the tournament and we feel we were able to accomplish what we set out to do,” (Brennan) Keller said.

Competing for the second pairs of doubles for the Buffs were freshman Sebastian Kyaw and junior Brevin Irwin who went 2-2. The Buffs lost their first two matches to Rohr and Vargas of Arkansas City, 8-1 and Pihl and Smith of Smoky Valley, 8-3. They gained two wins over Fangman and Techmann of Hutchinson, 8-3 and Pfeifer and Burlie of Maize in a tie breaker, 8-7 (7-3).

The Buffaloes will host their own tournament Saturday, April 21 starting at 9 a.m. at the Grimsley-HarmonTennis Complex.