Running for cover

[tabs active=”3″][tab title=”Providing for the future”] [heading size=”18″]Securing the future: memorization, application and a happy medium[/heading] [dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]I[/dropcap]t may have been 1776, but the founding fathers were ready.
Among the countless preparations they included in their new American government, the drafters of the eternally famous Declaration of Independence made certain their citizens, both present and future, understood their responsibilities as human beings. Near the end of the introduction, Thomas Jefferson alerts the American people of the obligation that they have to themselves for their future and their well being. In regard to the pressure that comes from preparing and managing the chaotic nature of life Jefferson penned “It is their right, it is their duty … to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Late adolescence is the prime period for students to begin the very task of stabilizing the rest of their lives. While the everyday happenings don’t often require teens to make life-altering decisions, the time in a young student’s life is rapidly approaching where instruction will cease and the responsibilities of day-to-day living will become the focus. There is hardly time to lose in preparation as students already lead busy lives outside of the classroom. With the amount of time teenagers spend in the classroom, it has long been the expectation that school is the place to mold teenagers into effective young adults.
The many teachers in the United States provide infinitely diverse teaching styles students interact with every day. Likewise, there is an equally large population of students to fit teaching methods to, which leaves wide open the long contested debate over what methods are most effective in the classroom.
A recent study by The University of Indiana Education Department compartmentalized teaching styles into three central categories: memorization, understanding and application. The trends are beginning to shift from the long established method of rote memorization and into the realm of real application which relies on students to be resourceful in their learning.
“You are seeing at the national level in the way tests are changing, and you’re seeing it happening right now,” RBHS social studies teacher Matt Dingler said. “In the next two years,  social studies and language arts tests will look more like this and actually the ACT will change to look more like this, but you will be given whatever prompt or whatever question is being asked of you and they then provide you with all the necessary resources that you will possibly need to answer that question.  So it’s no longer about having background information or information memorized. It’s what can you do with whatever has been given to you.”
Widely known in the education community as Smarter Balanced Assessments, the tests allow the student to be creative and freely express their personal ideas in a variety of methods. According to the testing services website, smarterbalanced.org, the company’s philosophy is based on an ideal where the memorization of material requires tests centered around right and wrong answers, yet modern teaching is headed toward enabling students to have the opportunity to explain themselves, defend their ideas and engage in self-directed learning.
“In every field there are facts people have to know and access quickly,” senior Megan Kelly, a proponent of fact-based learning, said. “Straight memorization helps people to know information. It is a starting point for gaining knowledge. Then you can use creativity to expand and synthesize. You use creativity to make the information meaningful.”
The varying styles of teaching appear to be divided across particular subject areas. Brought up in debates following the institution of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, the use of standardized tests, similar to those of math and science, rely on the memorization of facts. Opponents to the bill worried over the loss of a more creative learning, used primarily in social studies and language arts assessments.
Although there is a divide among the subject areas, junior Emily Vu, who plans on studying engineering after high school, believes it is necessary to have a mixture of both and that the balance between the more rigid ways of teaching sciences and the loose approach to teaching language arts is important.
“I think there should be a little bit of both,” Vu said. “There should still be things you have to know, but [there] needs to be some creative way to get it ingrained into your head. Like in math a teacher could give you all of these formulas to tell you how to use it to solve this problem, but if you don’t know how that formula is derived or what it means you are never going to remember it.”
Dingler agrees that in the transition to preparing students through a more creative style of learning, the educational community has reached one end of the spectrum, and it will be more effective when a middle ground is reached.
“I think what has been lost in shifting the emphasis for memorization to ability and skill is really it’s nice to have both. The people who can recall things that they have learned in terms of information and then use that, that’s a time saver,” Dingler said. “They don’t have to look things up, so I think in shifting the focus to skills and the ability to learn we have gone to one side of the pendulum, and it’ll be nice when it swings back a little and you have memorization and skills in both of those in a good proportion and then that’s when you have people who can be very effective.”
As the styles of instruction modify, the purpose of education has also seen drastic changes. Beginning in 1918, every state in the country provided free public education for all children and although not required past elementary school, able students continued through high school to receive job instruction. Now, with the fluidity of the job market, people aren’t guaranteed to stay in the same field of work forever and the ability to be versatile is invaluable. The pressure of instruction is now based on teaching students the proper ways to learn.
“I think any job that you enter into in any field, they provide the training,” Dingler said. “The first portion of the time there is learning how to do the job. So they provide all the  … information you need. So the big thing is, are you trainable? Are you someone who knows how to learn? Are you someone who has learned how to learn?”
While individual instructors often debate the purpose of teaching, teachers remain set on their purpose, written subtly in their mission statement: “Where learning is life.” As a whole the school attempts to create not only effective people in future society, but also effective learners who continue evolving outside of the classroom.
Regardless of instructional method it is still the responsibility of the student to take control of their individual learning. As the founding fathers once imagined, the power ultimately falls to the people to secure their desired future. Always changing styles of teaching are just a means to the end.
“It is ultimately the students’ responsibility to make the most out of the classes they take,” Kelly said. “Not all teachers will teach the way you want them to. So it is the student’s responsibility to seek help from either the teacher or others if they need it. It just makes it a more enjoyable experience when students like the way a teacher teaches.”
By Brayden Parker
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[tab title=”Watching web activity”] [heading size=”20″]District watches over student internet activity[/heading] [dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]M[/dropcap]ore than 15,000 bullying-related tweets are sent every day, according to a 2012 study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The “Confessions” Twitter accounts increased dramatically in number in recent months, and many school districts enforced strict disciplinary policies against students operating accounts that violate their cyberbullying policies. Among those such districts is Columbia Public Schools.
CPS is in its second year of contracting with Meltwater, CPS Community Relations Director Michelle Baumstark said in an email interview, and the district pays $6,000 each year to the company. Baumstark said the company’s software searches the internet’s publicly available documents for any keywords she requests. Public sites on the internet include tweets from unlocked accounts, conventional media like news sites and blogs.
“Some examples [of keywords] are school building names,” Baumstark said. “Names of key people like [Superintendent] Chris Belcher or [School Board President] Christine King, name abbreviations such as RBHS or terms like bully.”
Meltwater is an online ‘Software as a Service’ platform that helps businesses monitor their brand in traditional online media and social media, Marc Cowlin, Meltwater’s public relations director, said in an email interview.
“Meltwater analyzes billions of digital documents daily to help organizations and business like CPS to better understand our brand, customers, and social media,” Baumstark said. “We also have an added bonus of using the system to help provide more insight into how our students are behaving or what they are posting online.”
Baumstark added that the monitoring reaches to posts made from every device, not just school-provided devices like iPads and school computers. This expands the district’s watchful gaze to more than traditional systems of surveillance.
The purpose of this advanced cyber-monitoring is student safety and Meltwater helps the district prevent cyberbullying and other harmful online activities, Baumstark said. CPS is using the company’s services to deal with a problem Baumstark said is a violation of district policy.
“A good example is the current problem with anonymous Twitter accounts,” Baumstark said. “For every one that we have pulled down another pops up. This monitoring service helps notify me when we have another one that students have created.”

Some of these anonymous accounts are against CPS’s policies regarding harassment and cyberbullying, Baumstark said, and the district has identified 23 of those such accounts. She said the district often takes action against these types of offenses. Discipline, according to the district’s policy on hazing and bullying, “includes, but is not limited to, suspension or expulsion from school and removal from participation in activities.”
“These accounts are being used as a means for students to harass and bully other students without being accountable for their actions,” Baumstark said. “They are completely inappropriate.”
School districts across the nation have disciplined students during the past year regarding anonymous Twitter accounts, especially “confessions” accounts. More than 20 students from McKay High School in Salem, Ore. were suspended recently for retweeting a tweet alleging that a teacher at the school flirted with her students, according to USA TODAY.
“We report [the accounts] to Twitter for removal and then work to identify any students involved [and] contact parents,” Baumstark said. “Also, in some cases students may be subject to disciplinary action as defined by board policy.”
Although the district assures that the program’s purpose is benign, senior Maaz Muhammad believes that this type of monitoring is outside the district’s reach.
“The school district’s job is to keep students safe within the school, not outside of school,” Muhammad said. “That’s not the school’s job.”
Other students disagree with Muhammad’s opinion, however. Freshman Kailey Miller supports the district’s use of the program and said CPS’s motives are good.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Miller said. “I mean, if they’re not invading anyone’s privacy, and it’s for the good of the students, then yeah, it’s fine.”
Mid-Missouri American Civil Liberties Union Director and attorney Dan Vites said this monitoring does not constitute any privacy violations, rather, he believes it is “just a big waste of public money.” Baumstark said that students have the right to free speech, saying CPS is not “encroaching” on those freedoms.
Despite the questions on privacy, Baumstark reminds students that no matter the anonymity of the account, those who post on it must keep accountability in mind. The monitoring serves to provide discipline for violations of district policy, Baumstark said, and the identities of those who follow the accounts in question are not hidden.
“I think the important point here is that students are using these accounts to attempt to avoid consequences and to say things that they wouldn’t normally say to someone,” Baumstark said. “If you wouldn’t say it in person, you most definitely shouldn’t be posting it online. Additionally, those that follow these accounts are not anonymous. Students need to think about that when they click the follow button on these types of accounts. It is important for students to be responsible and make good choices when it comes to the use and abuse of social media. These accounts are inappropriate and reflect poorly on the students and their schools.”
By Brett Stover
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[tab title=”iPad protection “] [heading size=”18″]New iPads covered under District Technology Agreement[/heading] [dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]S[/dropcap]chools across the nation are eager in their pursuit of raising educational scores and standards, according to census.gov. Part of this education is technological use in this 21st century world, which is why schools are incorporating computer and tablet usage into curriculum. RBHS uses computer labs, allows cellphone use during school hours and starting this past August, advance placement students own iPads.
Junior Prarthana Patel says she uses her iPad for about an hour a day, using apps like Dictionary and Quizlet to study. She also enjoys gaming apps in her spare time after school.
With the new abundance of school-owned, personal iPads, student privacy in reference to technology has become a concern as more schools are issuing these educational components like iPads and laptops, especially since they are equipped with microphones and cameras. In 2010, Pennsylvania schools monitored students via their school-issued laptop camera. This became a law suit, Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, had the district pay $610,000 to two families in compensation for invasion of privacy.
Rare but memorable cases such as this prompt questions about the privacy for students in Columbia Public School district. The school district has the ability to view iPad locations, school email messages and times the computers are used, but with more than 2,000 students in the school, it is impossible for administrators to monitor all activities. Administrators only look into technology usage when a concern arises of a students’ safety Media Specialist Dennis  Murphy said. Student privacy is a big concern, especially for students.
“In my opinion, schools should monitor the use of technology to an extent,” Patel said. “The staff should not monitor the usage of phones and iPads during students’ free time, passing periods or lunches. However, if a student is using an electronic device frequently without teacher’s permission, the teacher should have the right to take away the device for the rest of the class. Also, the staff members should understand the importance of technology in students’ lives and should let them use it if necessary and appropriate.”
RBHS has freedom as an important value, and that includes freedom with technology. As long as students use their devices appropriately, then  there are no problems, Murphy said. He also says the technology license agreement form has stayed the same through this year, even with the introduction of iPads.
“An iPad is just like any other technology, a computer here at school or your locker or your server space. So the only time that someone would actually take your device and look at it would be if they thought there was something that they needed to see for some reason,” Murphy said. “I really don’t know of any instance where anyone looks at an iPad for any reason other than to help someone that needs help with it.”
Suspension of a device would occur in instances such as cheating, cyber bullying or usage after told by a teacher not to according to the technology agreement. Many students use school technology for gaming or social media, but as long as this is done outside of school hours or with teacher permission, there are no problems, Murphy said. Administrators can view activity on technological devices, as long as it’s not on a personal account.
Junior Jett Ballou-Crawford admits to movie-watching on her iPad using Netflix outside of school, along with her studying uses.
“The only trouble I have heard of with iPads is teachers getting mad at students for having them out in class at inappropriate times,” Ballou-Crawford said. “Or gaming on them instead of doing work.”
These instances are nothing new, however. Students for years have found ways to be distracted in class, even without school issued technology with the passing of notes and whispering to friends. Although some distractions may have increased with the introduction of cell phones and iPads, with the NY Times saying this digital age is “wired for distraction.” These distractions may be a cause for teachers to take away your device, but generally teachers don’t need to look into students’ files or applications.
“If there was something bad going on or something that [administrators] thought you might be involved with … then they can take your iPad or your computer or your server space and look at what you have,” Murphy said. “Or your email and look at that. One exception to that would be your Gmail account or your Hotmail account, which is your personal account, so they can’t see that without a court order because that is your personal account that is not given to you by the Columbia Public Schools.”
Even though administrators have the ability to view student technology activity, they often don’t have the time or the interest to look, Media Center Specialist Gwen Struchtemeyer said. Every school is different, however, such as in the case of Robbins v. Lower Merion School District.
“I don’t think school administrators should be allowed to monitor students’ technology use at all. I feel that by entrusting us with technology they have paid for, they should also be able to trust that we will use it responsibly,” Ballou-Crawford said. “Besides, I think that if students are planning on being irresponsible with technology, they would end up using their own technology or finding other methods, so monitoring school equipment would not really solve anything. But I do think that if schools are planning on monitoring usage, students have the right to know.”
By Sophie Whyte
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[tab title=”In the event of violence”] [heading size=”25″]Ready in the event of violence[/heading]

RBHS plans to install buzz-in system to create more secure, safe campus, cut down on possible threats

[dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]I[/dropcap]n light of incidents of school violence, such as last year’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. and the more recent Arapahoe High School shooting in Centennial, Colo., security is becoming a priority for all types of educational institutions. As reforms are being made to change school security systems, RBHS still stands by its traditional “Freedom with Responsibility” motto.
In RBHS’s situation, students have the freedom to move in and out of the building any time of the day as part of the open-campus policy. However, security measures are always in place to keep students and faculty safe on campus. School resource officer Keisha Edwards said the school is alert in order to keep the students and faculty safe. One of the ways the students are prepared for any emergency scenario is through the ALICE model, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate and helps students react to an active intruder scenario.
“There’s always safety [measures] around the school to prevent school violence. One of the things that we do is we practice drills,” Edwards said. “We do the ALICE model, for how we train you guys in case something happens around the school. We practice with you guys because it’s not just the staff members that are going to be involved in … an emergency situation; it’s going to be you guys too.”
Edwards said she and other school personnel are ready to handle any situation that might arise. School personnel constantly monitor campus activities throughout the school day, and they take care of any disruptions easily because of the easy accessibility of administrators. Edwards said her job as a school resource job is to stop disruptive behavior that might occur on school grounds.
“I walk the halls a lot. [Assistant Principal] Dr. [Lisa] Nieuwenhuizen walks the halls a lot. We have a parking lot attendant that walks the outer grounds a lot,” Edwards said. “We have one of our assistant principals, Mr. [Brian] Gaub, who walks the grounds a lot.”
The presence of a school resource officer at RBHS keeps the school much safer, though not all schools are required to have an officer present, according to The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting, issued by the U.S. Department of Education. This handbook outlines rules and regulations for schools and other educational institutions. These “immediate, ongoing and annual requirements,” as stated in the handbook, help keep students safe and prevent more incidents of violence from happening on school campuses.
According to the handbook, “The Clery Act requires all institutions to collect crime reports from a variety of individuals and organizations that Clery considers to be ‘campus security authorities.’” Any individual who is part of the campus security department has some responsibility for campus security but are not part of a security department, receives school security reports or has a significant amount of responsibility over campus activities can be considered a campus security authority.
“The function of a campus security authority is to report to the official or office designated by the institution to collect crime report information,” the handbook said, “such as the campus police or security department, those allegations of Clery Act crimes that he or she concludes were made in good faith.”
The handbook also points out that “any institution, regardless of whether it’s public or private, that has a campus police or security department, must create, maintain and make available a daily crime log.” This log helps keep track of any criminal activity happening on campus, and this information is used to help keep the school safe for others students in the future.
“The purpose of the daily crime log is to record criminal incidents and alleged criminal incidents that are reported to the campus police or security department,” the handbook states. “For example, if a student tells your security office that he lost his wallet in the parking lot behind a dorm, it is not a criminal incident, and you aren’t required to record it in the log. However, if a student tells your security office that his wallet was stolen from his dorm room, this is an alleged criminal incident which must be recorded in the log.”
Although RBHS does not need to worry about thefts and other criminal activity occurring in dorms or residential halls, the parking lots are an area where thefts and car damage can cause problems for students and faculty. Darryl Heaton, the school parking lot attendant, said he tries his best to make sure everyone who utilizes the parking spaces does not abuse the privilege and follows basic rules.
“The main function of the parking lot attendant, No. 1, is that faculty or staff and students have safe and adequate parking, and everyone’s parking in a designated area,” Heaton said. “And then the second thing they like the parking lot attendant to do is, because it is against state law to smoke on campus, so I monitor that too. And then of course, if I see drug activity or anything like that, I report that and we take care of that.”
Heaton said there are cameras monitoring parts of the parking lots, but he is mostly in charge of physically patrolling the area and constantly monitoring for any suspicious activity. He also pointed out that in any circumstance, a vehicle’s owner can be tracked down by looking through the computer data base. When students register for a parking pass for the RBHS lots, they enter basic information about their car and insurance policy, including their license plate number.
“Through our computer systems, all students that have bought a parking permit are in our system,” Heaton said. “So we can either look them up by their parking permit hangtag number, or by the license plate. Or if we know who owns the car, we can look it up three ways. We can look it up by student’s name, parking permit number or the license plate. So we got traceability three ways.”
There are many ways students can further ensure the physical safety of their cars and other belongings in the school parking lots, Heaton said. He stressed that using common sense and not being too rowdy while driving around in the lots will prevent any incidents from occurring between vehicles and will keep personal belongings safe.
“Well the main thing I think they should do is, No. 1, park in designated parking spots,” Heaton said. “And No. 2, they should always keep their cars locked. And also, just like any other time, any of your belongings that are valuable, keep them hidden. Cover them up or put them in the trunk. And for students, another way to be safe out there they shouldn’t be driving more than 10-15 miles an hour in the parking lot. Be slow and obey the right of way.”
Besides the various methods that keep students and faculty safe during the day, the school building is kept saecure at night by an alarm system that is activated once everyone leaves the building around midnight, Edwards said. This prevents any vandalism or break-ins that might endanger school property.
Even though several security measures are in place to keep violence off of RBHS’s campus, some changes will soon occur in school security in the coming years. RBHS is scheduled to have a buzz-in system installed, just after other schools in the Columbia Public Schools district have gone through the same transition.
“Rock Bridge is on the list to receive that buzz-in system,” Edwards said. “However, I do know that the way Rock Bridge is run with freedom and responsibility, and it’s run just like a college campus, I don’t know if that’s why our school wasn’t one of the first few chosen to get the buzz-in system. I think that they wanted to get some of the schools that didn’t have a [school resource officer] inside the school, [like] the elementary schools and middle schools that don’t have a police officer there. They’re going to get those schools first.”
Edwards pointed out that adopting a buzz-in system would bring some drastic changes to the school atmosphere, and some new rules and regulations would come into effect. For example, school IDs might be mandatory for students and faculty in order to ensure maximum security on campus.
Having a buzz-in system “would change a lot. Like right now, no one carries a school ID. Rock Bridge High School spends a lot of money to get those pictures so they can make the IDs, but no one seems to carry them around at all,” Edwards said “I think that that’s when you are required to wear your student ID at all times, kind of like the staff members are required to wear an ID at all times. If you ever notice, most of the teachers have some sort of clip on ID they have on their person … so you know they’re teachers, and they’re employees inside the building.”
Although potential changes might threaten the current freedom RBHS students enjoy, Heaton said the security measures in place help prevent anything unfortunate from happening on campus. The security at RBHS is in place to ensure the physical safety of its students and faculty, Heaton said, and he believes that is why the school is relatively safe, even with an open campus policy.
“You have somebody like myself, the parking lot attendant, constantly patrolling the lots, and then we have a school resource officer, then we have cameras,” Heaton said. “I would say since I’ve been here, and talking to the principal and everything, I’d say everything is relatively safe. I haven’t heard of any thefts from cars and I think it’s pretty safe.”
By Afsah Khan
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