District Newspaper Goes Digital
The 411 has now become part of the world wide web.
For the past year, the high schools of USD 500 have been collecting stories from their individual newspapers and combining them to create the district-wide newspaper known as The 411.
This year, things will be a little different. The name was changed from The 411 to The Loop. The Loop is a more catchy title and it ties into the informational web page of Schoolloop, which is used by all schools in the district. Furthermore, The Loop is no longer a printed newspaper. To read The Loop you now will have to go to the Internet. The reason for this change is so that it is more accessible to everyone, and people may look at it as often as they would like.
“I think digital might be better, because if you have digital you can easily update it,” said Schlagle junior Kayla Simpson. “I also think the graphics emphasize the stories and make the page look cooler. More students will eventually see it because, if it gets popular, then students will be on the site all the time.”
Harmon Scholars Help Harvesters
Harvesters is an organization that distributes food to the food pantries all over Kansas City. On Tuesday, Nov. 20 th four busses full of Harmon Scholars and National Honor Society students went to the Harvesters Food Distribution Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The distribution center is where all of the Harvesters donations are collected. Here, they are then packaged and made ready to be shipped out to the distribution spots or pantries.
The scholars helped out by repackaging bags of noodles, cleaning off donated soda cans, and separating canned goods and spices into different categories and flavors. The scholars also were able to get a tour of the factory and an overview of the company’s operations. Harmon Scholar Charles Humphrey took the tour and commented, “the most amazing thing about Harvesters is the enormity of their freezer section. I mean…it’s just so HUGE! more
Schlagle Choir Wins Big
On Jan. 11, the F.L. Schlagle Chamber Choir/SUAVE (Schlagle’s Universal Alacritive Vocal Ensemble) won a national competition – the First Sunday Gospel Challenge contest – under the leadership of Choir Director Mr. Darryl Ammons, Sr. Schlagle won a $10,000 cash award and will be featured on the new movie First Sunday.The Gospel Challenge was a nation-wide competition in which singing performances were taped and submitted. Then, top scorers from each city advanced to the second stage of the competition. That is when Schlagle (and other competitors) showed their performances online. During the second stage of the competition, people cast their votes nationwide.“I told students that I felt real comfortable we could win locally,” Ammons said. “It really took the entire community and all of our friends and relatives to come together for us to win.”Mr. Ammons was quite confident in winning the local competition but had doubts about winning the national competition against such large cities. more
Sumner's Mr. Lane Battles Lymphoma
February 28, 2008, started out like any other school day, with the long list of Thursday morning announcements. However, one announcement stood out among the rest. Every other day that week, the 
Key Club was going around during fifth hour, trying to raise money for the Pennies for Patients foundation. On this particular Thursday, however, the usual announcement from Key Club was said, and then a special announcement told us all (roughly 1000 people in the building that day) that our own Mr. Lane had been diagnosed with lymphoma, a type of cancer.
Mr. Lane has been at Sumner Academy for 29 years. He got his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas, and he has always had a passion for learning and teaching. He has taught Latin, etymology, humanities, speech, freshman English, and composition and literature. He has also sponsored clubs like Latin Club and Students Driving Sober. He is an active participant in the theatre department. Mr. Lane also formed and participated in the faculty ensembles that perform more
Minority Aids Initiative Finds Progress
The AIDS virus is on the rise. It is estimated that one to two people in every high school have the virus. It can be contracted through sexual intercourse, sharing needles, and from the mother. In 2004, 81% of the AIDS population were people ages 15-24. In the past year, 6,000-7,000 more teenagers have also been diagnosed.
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. AIDS stands for active immunodeficiency syndrome. The virus attacks the immune system. Although many drugs have been created to slow the virus, a cure has not been found.
The virus is more prominent in minorities. A new plan has been set up; Minority Aids Initiative. Its purpose is to provide information and to explore ways to reduce and eventually eliminate the virus in communities made up of minorities. more
