The Falcon Flyer

The National Defense Authorization Act for Year 2012, signed by President Barack Obama Dec. 31, has sparked controversy over its provisions regarding “indefinite detention without trial.”

Having passed through the Senate with a 98-1 vote, the NDAA “[authorizes] appropriations for fiscal year 2012 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,” says to the Act’s official text.

However, the NDAA is not without opposition, as some say the act performs in ways not covered in its description.

According to Alton Lu, writer at The Huffington Post, the NDAA violates rights guaranteed to citizens by the United States constitution by “allowing the government to detain [U.S. citizens] for no reason other than being suspected of terrorism.”

“The Fourth Amendment grants liberty from unreasonable seizures, while the Sixth guarantees every U.S. citizen a trial in front of a jury,” said Lu. “No matter what supporters of the bill might have said about the provisions being misunderstood, the simple fact is that it is unconstitutional.”

Nevertheless, others have come up in defense of the NDAA, claiming it benefits and better protects American citizens.

“A large factual gap has formed between what is being said about the bill and what provisions the bill actually contains,” said Representative Tim Griffin, a current member of U.S. Congress, in an article for The Daily Caller.

Despite the controversy, not everyone is aware of neither the NDAA’s existence, nor the possible implications surrounding it.

Madison Coit, junior, said “To be honest, I don’t know what it’s about, aside from national defense. I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“Really, I hadn’t heard of it,” said Vinh Vien, junior. “And it’s not like I haven’t been paying attention.”

Students who have heard of the NDAA, contrarily, tend to be critical of the powers it provides to the executive branch, and claim that it violates individuals’ rights.

Celina Clark, junior, said, “It’s wrong to detain someone like that… People deserve a fair trial before they’re imprisoned.”

Other students are worried about what future situations the passing of the NDAA could make possible.

Kyle Owsen, junior, said, “It’s a slippery slope, and it’s only a matter of time before the government will try to exercise this power if we give it to them.”

Regardless of the controversy, some students believe that the NDAA was not formed with malicious intentions, despite certain provisions.

“I don’t think their intent in passing it now is to get themselves a ludicrous amount of power,” said Owsen. “But… at some point in the future, the vague wording of the bill could come back to haunt us.”

Senior Beatrice Wambui was named winner of the school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition Jan. 30.

Poetry Out Loud is a series of poetry recitation competitions in which high school students compete in hopes of winning the National competition, held in Washington DC.

English teachers Susan Best and Jane Burns-Peterson brought the competition to Kentlake after learning about it in a workshop sponsored by the Arts Commission and National Endorsement for the Arts.

“We focus on reading and writing a lot, but we don’t focus on speaking as much. We ask the students to do a lot of presentations in high school … but we don’t really teach them how to go about doing it,” said Best. “I thought it was a good idea as we went thought this workshop to bring speaking techniques into the classroom. This competition makes it more of a real-life situation.”

Best started the program by having her Honors 9 English students compete in class, with a panel of parent judges. Those who succeeded in the classroom competition moved on to the school-wide competition. Students who did not have Best as an English teacher were welcome to compete as well; they engaged in an after-school competition, in order to proceed to the school-wide level.

Wambui was one of the students who competed in an after-school competition. Despite her love for poetry, Wambui says she is surprised with her success.

“It’s a big surprise, because I feel like I went against really good competition, so I was kind of scared and I was nervous. It feels good,” said Wambui.

Wambui performed the poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou.

“I really like the poet. Maya Angelou is one of my favorite people, so I wanted to do her justice,” said Wambui. “I feel like I can connect so much to it because the poem itself was talking about how… the poet was talking about how she was confined, and how she had so much to tell the world, but because of the stuff that she’s gone through, she felt like she was a caged bird, basically. I can kind of relate, because of my own personal things.”

As poetry has helped her with personal struggle, Wambui hopes that other students reach out to the art form.

“I feel like anybody could be a poet because everybody has a story… For my own personal things, I live my life through poems,” said Wambui. “I feel like it’s a really simple way to release a lot of stress that teenagers have. Instead of running off and doing drugs, write a poem. It really helps.”

Wambui will now move on to the regional competition Feb. 11 at the Tacoma Public Library.

Freshman Derek Steffen was awarded second place for the school-wide competition. Senior Emma Levine and freshman Steven Roberto were awarded Honorable Mention.

Congress is currently debating The Enemy Expatriation Act, H.R. 3166, which was introduced on Oct. 12, 2011 with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. This national security bill redefines what constitutes an expatriating act.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Enemy Expatriation Act “amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to include engaging in or purposefully and materially supporting hostilities against the United States to the list of acts for which U.S. nationals would lose their nationality.”

The bill was sponsored by Congressman Charlie Dent in the House of Representatives while lame duck Senator Joe Lieberman sponsored the bill in the Senate.

In a released online video statement, Dent said “[the Enemy Expatriation Act] calls for a pragmatic recognition that a person who is purposefully and materially supporting acts of terror against the United State is demonstrating that they have no intent in acting as a US citizen. If they want to engage in hostilities against the American people then they clearly no longer wish to be a citizen of our great nation.”

He emphasized the importance of protecting our country from terrorist forces.

“Simply put, this bill modernizes the process by which the citizenship status of an individual engaged in hostilities against the American people is examined,” said Dent.

There is concern that the ambiguous wording within the bill could allow the United States government to abuse the bill and strip Americans of their citizenship for disagreeing with the government.

The internet activist community Anonymous released a video in which they said, “What is a belligerent act? Is protesting a belligerent act? Is being Anonymous a belligerent act? Is simply having an opinion that differs from the government a belligerent act?”

Politically inclined students also showed concern over the implications of this bill.

Senior Steven Weier said, “Although the EEA’s vagueness–especially concerning the definition of ‘hostility’–does not prove that the legislation will indeed be abused, the fact that politicians would allow this dangerous aspect of the law to persist seems to indicate a worrisome lack of foresight; furthermore, it shows that lawmakers are unaware of the potential repercussions this ambiguity could entail.”

Dyer with fellow DECA members Sara Skinner and Kyle Strand / Photo courtesy of Tyler Dyer

DECA left the recent area competition with over 15 medals, ten state qualifiers, and the new Area Five president walking amongst them. After a lengthy application process, competition officials named junior Tyler Dyer as president.

The election process included a 33 page packet, a test, an interview, and finally the popular vote election. After combining the score in all four sections, the candidate with the best score took the title.

“I got to set up a booth at the conference and campaign. So what I did was give out stickers that had my slogan on it which was ‘Aspire Higher with Tyler Dyer’,” said Dyer.

As president Dyer will represent 19 different schools with about 1,000 DECA members. He will meet with the presidents from the other 19 chapters. Also, Dyer will help plan conferences and social events across the area.

“[I was influenced by] meeting state/chapter officers from 14 different states seeing what they have to offer and how DECA has shaped them,” said Dyer. “It showed me that I could make differences in my community, my chapter, and my state. From then on I planned to run for office and basically I thought about it until the moment I got elected.”

Dyer has participated in DECA since his freshman year, but it was not until attending an officer training camp over the summer that he officially decided to run for office.

“DECA’s something that I’m really passionate about and it’s what I’ve done my whole high school career. So to represent a thousand people basically and getting their points of views across to Washington DECA to make sure they things they want to happen actually happens is really inspiring for me,” said Dyer.

Fundraising strategies are undergoing changes to boost funds for each class. As of Dec. 12, the freshmen, sophomore, and junior classes all have no money in their accounts, while the senior class has $552.

In response to these numbers, fundraisers are being implemented to improve upon the class budgets in the future.

“Starting this year the freshmen class will host a hypnotist or magician show, sophomores will have Mr. Kentlake, and juniors will continue to have Tolo … If they are able to do those things each year, by the time they reach their senior year they will be in a much better place than $552,” said cashier Kathy Adderson.

The current senior class took a hit last year when Tolo was canceled; it was supposed to be one of the bigger fundraisers for the senior class.

“It was canceled due to lack of ticket sales and they [the seniors] weren’t able to make any money on that dance at all,” said Adderson.

Efforts to improve the senior budget are underway by means of various fundraisers.

Senior ASB member Olivia Sobczyk said, “We’re planning on having a dance party after the basketball game on February 3rd, designing t-shirts, and hopefully participating in a Drive One 4 UR School fundraiser.”

The money in the senior class account and money earned from the fundraisers will go directly to help pay for senior events.

“As the students make their money each year, it goes to offset senior prom tickets and senior brunch tickets. For example, last year senior brunch cost about $15 per student, but we only charged $10 to the students and we offset the rest,” said Adderson.

This senior class has a need to raise more funds than the years before it.

Adderson said, “Prom is going to be at the Columbia tower this year, which is a more expensive venue than it has been in the past, which means the ticket prices will be more.”

The senior class is working to offset the price and keep it reasonable for students.

Debate Club competed in a tournament Nov. 18 and 19 at Tahoma High School.

Juniors Michael Raybuck and Kyle Owsen were Novice Public Forum finalists. Senior Steven Weier and junior Dylan Lasher were Open Public Forum Champions.
The team has still more tournaments to come, which will take place almost every weekend until the end of February.

Weier, a longtime debater and president of the club, said, “Overall we are improving. We have started with some strong Novice competitors.”

Practices for the club are Wednesdays in David Moore’s room, where the members partake in discussions, practicing speeches, and researching topics.
According to members of the club, there is not any competition within the club, and everyone helps each other out.

“There are lots of new members in the club. Meaning lots of new talent, but also people to be taught. This is where the senior debaters come in,” said junior Brandon Wilson, a club member.

Lasher and Weier have both been in Debate Club for several years. They both believe this year’s Debate Club is its finest.

“We are doing excellent this year in both the novice division, and the open division. I attribute this to our fantastic coach, Mr. Moore. KL has become infamous in our competitive divisions to other schools, and we will continue to make a name for ourselves as the year goes on,” said Lasher.

The Falcon Nest is undergoing some changes that are aimed to help improve the student store’s service and combat competition.

“The biggest student store competition would be the lunch room. The other competition is seniors going off campus for lunch… There is nowhere really close besides Subway, so that’s why we tried bringing Subway into the store,” said senior Brett Kenney, co-store manager.

Senior Mitch Krassin, also a student store manager, sheds more light on their competition.

“The only reason they ever take business away from us is because of the free and reduced lunch. Obviously, we cannot do that in the store. It’s a district policy,” said Krassin.

In an attempt to compete with off-campus venues, the Falcon Nest introduced Subway sandwiches. They also added Subway cookies to their menu to replace the loss of the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies.

According to Krassin, their efforts to compete with Subway failed.

“Subway has not been selling at all. In fact, we are going to be cancelling Subway orders starting in a week. We’ve barely been selling an entire footlong a day,” said Krassin.

The Falcon Nest has already reintroduced bagel sandwiches. The store is also planning on reintroduce last year’s Otis Spunkmeyer cookies to compensate for the sales lost due to Subway orders.

“Bagels have been really interesting because, this year we don’t have as much of a prep period as we did last year, the bagels have been a lot harder to produce here because we don’t have any marketing kids in that period who run that … So making the bagels is a little bit slower and every once and awhile we have to make some during store hours, but that actually have been going back to regular sales. I think once we reintroduced those the Subway sales went down,” said Krassin.

Besides reintroducing Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and bagels, Krassin says they have more plans.

“We are actually starting a spirit-wear programs, starting in couple weeks and we also have a current person, Trent [Maniulit], who is part of a research and development project … would like to see a new product on our shelves at least once a month,” said Krassin.

Kenney also adds a few things they would like to try and change in the student store for this school year.

“We are going to try and do everything fresh. So we’re going to try to make the bagels fresh for you guys when you come in, were going to make Caesar wraps fresh instead of having them premade, so it will be your Caesar wrap that will get made and then we’ll bring it to you,” said Kennedy.

These multiple changes are scheduled to be implemented over the next few months.

Gary Melton was an assistant principal at Kentlake until the end of the 2008-2009 school year, when he moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to become the middle-high school principal at Mont’Llara International School. The Falcon Flyer recently conducted an interview with Melton about his experiences since accepting that position.

Spencer Transier: Could you explain your role as middle-high school principal of Mont’Kiara?

Gary Melton: My role as middle-high school principal at Mont’Kiara is very similar to your principal’s role at Kentlake. I am responsible for the curriculum and quality of instruction provided to our students, maintaining the rules for appropriate conduct at the school for both staff and students, and supporting strong and positive community relationships so that our educational goals are understood and supported by everyone in our learning community. As international schools are typically much smaller than U.S. public high schools there are many smaller tasks that I am more closely involved in…

S: What exactly does it mean by “middle-high school”?

M: Our middle school includes grades 6-8 and our high school consists of grades 9-12 [about 500 total].

S: What is it like being an administrator there?

M: As was my experience at Kentlake, it is very fun and rewarding to see our students striving and achieving at academics, and after school activities and athletics. Watching students learn, grow, and mature is very exciting … [The] students represent 54 different countries … It is a very international student body. It is a U.S. based curriculum and most of our teachers are American with about a quarter of our 103 teachers being Canadian … All of our curriculum except world languages is taught in English. We offer the IB Diploma Program in grades 11-12. About a quarter of our students are sons or daughters of diplomats and the rest our children of large American or European companies…

S: How did this opportunity come up and why did you choose to pursue it?

M: … After our two sons finished college, got married and were well-settled in good jobs my wife and I decided a little world travel combined with an education position would be interesting, so we took the plunge and I connected up with some international school educator search organizations, attended a recruiting fair in Bangkok in early January of 2009, got three interesting offers and selected what we both felt was the best “fit” for us. My wife, although an American citizen for 40 plus years, was born in Thailand which is right next to Malaysia…

S: How long will you be working there?

M: I am in my third year of a three year contract and I have just finished negotiating another two year contract following the completion of this year, so we will be here at least five years before we consider moving to another international school or back to the United States.

S: How has this experience affected you personally and what have you gained from it?

M: This experience has given me a much broader world view. A better appreciation of other cultures and more openness of others views – how and why they see things differently than we do. I am more patient with others and have worked past the normal frustrations that go along with adapting to life under different rules and expectations … Malaysia is unique among SE Asian countries it that it is a very diverse and mixed culture as well…

Principal Joe Potts is focusing on hosting two new programs, Challenge Day and Change Day, this upcoming spring. These programs are focused on bringing the school together.

The programs, which are planned to occur late March to early April, are similar to a well-known program, Breaking Down the Walls.
Challenge Day will occur first.

“Challenge Day that will involve about 100 students, [to] be selected by the Faculty, [as well as] 25 community members, teachers, and assistant principals …About 125 people will spend the day in Challenge Day,” said Potts.

Faculty will select students who they believe to be leaders, and who make a difference.

Change Day will involve the entire school. It will be on a late start day and students will be able to choose if they want to go into break-out sessions, where they will talk about emotions and tell personal stories with a group of students. There will be a focus on bullying and anti-bullying.

“The theory is that if you know someone’s story and know who they are as a person you recognize that they have a soul and feelings, and will have a harder time mistreating that person if you know that person’s story. And that’s the theory behind a Challenge Day,” said Potts.

During Challenge Day there will also be opportunities to go and listen to community leaders, including pastors and policemen. Students will hear how these figures make a difference in the world every day.

Students have a mixed reaction to the proposed programs.

“[It] seems like a really good idea, I would go,” said sophomore Laylan Tahir.

Sophomore Dylan Hatfield has a different reaction.

“[I’m ] not sure how we will benefit from it. [I’m] not too excited about it,” said Hatfield.

However, Potts truly believes the program will be beneficial.

“The focus will be on making the world a better place. That’s really what I as a principal want to be known for at this school. We make the world better,” said Potts.

photo courtesy of Rick Chance

Through a program called KaBOOM!, Leadership helped rebuild Tudor Square Park Oct. 19. KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization that works with communities and funders to build playgrounds across the nation.

Tudor Square Park was originally built in 1994 and then inherited by King County, in need of renovations.

This project was a joint effort between Kent Parks Foundation, the Tudor Square Neighborhood Council, KaBOOM!, and funding partner Humana Inc. This park was the first of eight multi-generational playgrounds that KaBOOM!, in partnership with Humana, planned to build over the span of eight weeks.

Of approximately 200 volunteers from the community, 60 came from the two Leadership classes. Students were focused on various tasks throughout the day.

“All of us were doing different things. I was actually one of the only [people] from Kentlake that was building the park benches. We probably had 20 or 25 people that were on landscaping; they were digging holes and planting new trees. We had some kids that were on concrete; they were the ones in charge of mixing the concrete and pouring the concrete for all the poles that were on the playground. We had one girl that was in charge of the video camera; she took the video camera and just filmed all day long,” said Leadership teacher Rick Chance.

The students arrived at the park around 8 a.m. and did not stop working until the ribbon was cut around 2:30 p.m.

“[The volunteers] built the whole thing from the ground up. We worked hard and were able to finish it in one day,” said Chance.

According to Chance, this was a great opportunity for the Leadership class.

“They got to be a part of something that’s going to be there for a long time, and they got to give back to the community. That’s what we want Kentlake to start getting some recognition for,” said Chance.