Mrs. Coe: A bittersweet departure

By: Mackenzie Vogt

As the end of the 2019-2020 school year approaches, an essential figure to Northwest’s music department, Cindy Coe, has also decided to close a chapter. Coe has made the decision to retire at the end of this school year.

Having been at Northwest for over 20 years, she held various job titles. Her love for music began at a young age with piano lessons in the third grade and continues to this day.

“What don’t I like about music? I mean I turn the radio on in the morning and listen to the same things that you guys listen to on the way over here,” Coe said.

Coe’s career at Northwest started as an hourly job as an accompanist. That eventually turned into the two contracts she now has: one as a music teacher and the other to accompany the choir on the piano.

Jeff Vyhlidal, the current vocal music teacher who co-teaches with Coe, recalls how she has been an essential part of his welcome here. Coe has been a great team member to Vyhiladal, as this was his first year at Northwest

“[She has] really helped me gain an insight to how things have worked here in the past,” Vyhlidal said. “It helps me in deciding what to do moving forward.”

Coe’s presence also reaches out to touch the lives of her students as well. Junior Rylie McNelis, a student of Coe’s, elaborates on that fact.

“I’m gonna miss Mrs. Coe a lot, but I think that it’s good for her. She’s just a great person, and I’m excited to see where the Lord leads her.”

Coe explained that retirement was an unexpected decision, but ended up being something she wanted. With her husband also retiring at the end of the year, she’s looking most forward to having a less busy schedule. Coe also talked about the mixed emotions she had when announcing her retirement to her students.

“When I first told the kids it was hard, and I don’t know why it just kind of hit me,” Coe said. “I was excited to tell them, and I was happy about it, and then the tears started falling. There were both sides.”

Coe wanted to end on the note that she isn’t retiring due to any animosity towards the new changes to Northwest this past year. She also wanted to tell Vikings to “be good people. I think we should try to do our best, always.”

*Photo Courtesy of Tally Creative

The mentality of a safer gun community

By: Hailie Melton

Gun control. It’s a topic almost all Americans have an opinion on, whether it be that we should get rid of guns in general or that we shouldn’t have as many gun control laws. I believe that we should have more laws mentioning mental health and/or disturbances that gun buyers should have to abide by before even being able to touch or see a gun. Studies show that the highest rate of gun-related murders (per 100k inhabitants for all rates) is in our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., which has a rate of 16.5, compared to the average rate, which is 2.7 and the lowest rate being 0.3 in Vermont (all per year), according to a study done by Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Statistics show, via Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, that domestic violence and mental health issues have a positive relationship with criminal history. People with mental health issues or rougher backgrounds/criminal history are more likely to commit a crime. There are many people with mental illnesses who own a firearm. Now, not every mental illness is a danger when it comes to guns; the most likely mental illnesses, via NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), would be PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and other types of mental illnesses that include heavy hallucinations or alterations in perception of reality, such as schizophrenia, BPD (borderline personality disorder), bipolar disorder and MPD (multiple personality disorder).

Eighteen of our 50 states don’t have laws regarding whether a mentally-ill person can own a gun, 35 out of 50 states don’t have laws regarding whether a drug/alcohol offender can own a gun and 33 out of 50 states don’t have laws regarding whether someone with a criminal history, history of violence or a juvenile offense can own a gun, says Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. That needs to change.

Stronger gun control laws contribute to less gun-related deaths. Studies show that states with looser and weaker gun laws have more gun-related deaths than those with stronger and stricter gun laws. The top 10 states with the weakest gun control laws (AK, AL, AR, LA, MS, MO, NV, NM, WV and WY) average at 20.46 gun-related deaths per year. The top states with the strictest/strongest gun laws (CA, CT, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ and NY) average at only 6.37 gun-related deaths per year, says Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. This alone should clearly open up some eyes to show that we need to up our gun control laws in order to up our safety for future generations.

Reading behind the lines: The inner workings of the Viking Saga

By: Haili Luevano

Writing for a high school newspaper is an arduous yet rewarding task that can rival any other extracurricular activity. However, the actual process of writing these articles goes widely unnoticed.

For the students behind the Northwest Viking Saga, the first step in publication is a content meeting. This is held at the beginning of every issue, allowing members to decide what stories are to be written and by whom. Each issue allows 17 to 18 stories, without taking into account any room that needs to be spared for ads.

“A lot of people, I feel like, think that [stories are] pre-chosen,” said Emily Krupicka, a sophomore. “Because I know I’ve had people come to me and say ‘Do you get to choose?’ It’s…free-range of what you want to do.”

The enjoyment that comes from writing, editing and publishing your own work is indeed rewarding, but it isn’t an easy task. Interview questions are expected to be written up and sources contacted within a day or two of the content meeting’s conclusion, followed by setting up interview dates. Photos need to be obtained in a timely manner and edited in Photoshop, which entails adding a black and white filter and lightening the image since the newspaper prints much darker than what it looks like on screen.

First-round edits are held roughly eight days after the start of the issue. During this time, students’ work is printed off and passed around to be peer reviewed. After three people have looked over and signed off on the article, Kirsten Gilliland, the newspaper teacher, adds her own edits before handing the papers back to their owners. Once the edits are applied by the writer, the process is then repeated at least two more times.

Close to the time of first-round edits, students begin transferring their articles onto Adobe InDesign. The program allows students to preview their work on the actual newspaper before printing.

“Sometimes I have to shorten my story even though I may not want to,” said Trinity Sossong, a sophomore. “To make it fit on the page.”

Spacing, alignment and font are also things that are looked at very closely at this stage in production. Compromises have to be made when more than one person needs to work on a single page, sometimes resulting in a conflict when two different versions of the same page are saved onto the server. This is why each version is titled alphabetically, with the furthest version reaching so far as M, and then saved as an entirely new document.

Once final edits have been made and the InDesign pages are deemed complete, the pages are sent off to be printed.

“We print through the Grand Island Independent,” Gilliland said. “Each month we create an issue, they print 800 copies.”

After the copies are brought back to Northwest, they’re distributed during advisement. Each student is given a stack of papers and a list of teachers to hand them out to. Newspapers are to be handed to each individual student rather than just left on the teacher’s desk, to ensure the most publicity. Despite this, there are always extras.

“After our first round of distribution, I would say that there’s half left, or a third left,” Gilliland said. “Even that stack goes down because I take tickets and run clock quite a bit, so I make sure that copies always go to ticket-taking tables and then parents and family members and adults in the community can pick them up too. That gets rid of a couple hundred more.” In addition, copies are handed out to board members during their meetings.

Of course, with the recent outbreak of COVID-19 and the shutdown of Northwest, all previous methods of publication were forced aside in order to produce quality content despite the setback. Adjusting to change and working around an altered time frame is something that the Viking Saga crew is currently handling with the help of multiple communal platforms.

A content meeting was held on Monday, April 6 at 1:30 p.m. via Zoom, a platform for video and audio conferencing. Gilliland led the discussion over the newspaper’s March edition. All articles pertaining to the issue had been put on hold due to the school’s closure, but were urged to be completed so that they could be posted on WordPress and shared with the community as normal.

The April edition was also discussed, leading to the conclusion that each member would write at least a single article for the issue. Interviews are expected to be conducted and transcribed as normal. With the constrictions of InDesign no longer applicable, students don’t have to worry about their articles surpassing a word limit.

All of this will be conducted while adhering to the safety regulations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the threat of COVID-19 presents many problems to the community as a whole, the Viking Saga crew will continue to provide the students, staff and the families of Northwest the best quality news in the most timely manner.

It’s not about shamrocks and snakes

By: Gabriel Lorenzo

March 17 is known for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, the day when many people celebrate by wearing green and getting pinched for not doing so. All around the world every year, people celebrate him. While St. Patrick is known globally, few people understand that he was an influential missionary who brought faith to the pagans of Ireland.

St. Patrick’s original name was Maewyn Succat. According to a 2017 documentary, he was born circa A.D. 385 on the west coast of England. At the age of 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders who were sent by Ireland’s King Niall. The raiders took St. Patrick to Ireland as a slave. He escaped six years later and studied in France before coming back to his homeland. 

Meanwhile, he saw a vision that consisted of a common man who came to him. The man invited him to go to Ireland to teach Christianity to the people there. After he saw the vision, he went and landed at the same port where he escaped as a runaway slave. Most people believe that St. Patrick was sent by the Catholic Church and that he was a Catholic. He had the desire to share the good news to the people and wasn’t obligated to go.

Even though St. Patrick’s Day is a common holiday, there are also many well-known myths about him and what he did. One of the most common myths is that St. Patrick banished all the snakes from Ireland. According to an article called “Did St. Patrick really banish all the snakes from Ireland?”, in Ireland, the supposed “snakes” are actually lizards that have no feet. An article published by Ireland Calling, entitled “St Patrick myths and legends,” stated that the “snakes” were more of a figurative way of saying that Patrick was trying to expel the corruption of paganism that happened in his time.

Another myth mentions his walking stick. According to Ireland Calling, in the article “St Patrick myths and legends,” every time Patrick preached to the people, he would shove it into the ground. The myth states that one time, the walking stick became a living tree. The most common misconception of St. Patrick is the iconic symbol; the shamrock. According to Ireland Calling, in the article “St Patrick myths and legends,” the people didn’t understand the idea of the Holy Trinity. St. Patrick used the shamrock to help people understand the concept of the Trinity–the idea that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit exist as one.

There are other parts of St. Patrick’s Day’s story that could be included in this article. The only first-hand accounts from the fifth century are found in Patrick’s writings. St. Patrick died circa A.D. 461. Now, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated with leprechauns, gold under the rainbow, wearing green, parades and many other events. At least, the influence that St. Patrick left will be remembered because of his desire to tell the good news.

An old system risks young lives

By: Haili Luevano

“The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez” is a true crime documentary that was released on Netflix on Feb. 26, 2020. It takes place in Los Angeles, California and covers the story of an eight-year-old boy who was tortured and murdered by his mother and her boyfriend in 2013. Directed by Brian Knappenberger, this six-part documentary depicts graphic images of the physical and emotional trauma that Gabriel went through leading up to his death. If you choose to watch this show, viewer discretion is advised.

Each episode focuses on a different aspect of the Fernandez case. The show’s exposition introduces Gabriel as a happy, caring little boy who lived with his great-uncle and his partner. When circumstances changed, Gabriel was placed under his grandparents’ custody before being re-homed with his biological mother, Pearl.

The inadequate care that Gabriel received under Pearl and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, is quickly exposed. He was both physically and verbally abused by both of his caretakers, while his two siblings, Ezequiel and Virginia, were forced to watch or participate in the abuse, while never incurring it themselves.

While Gabriel’s death is the main focus in the documentary, Knappenberger also branches off and delves deep into the inner workings of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) as well as the involvement of the LAPD. While the police visited Pearl’s household multiple times, they rarely conferred with the boy himself and on occasion would threaten him if he continued to lie about his injuries.

The evidence of abuse and neglect regarding the Fernandez case is simply overwhelming, bringing to light the deficiency of care and regard the DCFS put into Gabriel’s conditions, as well as the conditions of countless other child abuse victims.

The last two episodes encompass the trials of Pearl and Isauro in full, as well as the four DCFS social workers entrusted with Gabriel’s well-being. The strive for justice displayed throughout the film impacts the viewer on an extremely emotional level.

While not for the faint of heart, “The Trails of Gabriel Fernandez” is an enrapturing show that reveals the blatant evil existing in the world, with the educational aspect urging scrutiny over the way the government runs the DCFS. The trial’s results will offer you a mixture of closure and devastation, with a final conclusion that will rock you to the core.

If you or another is suffering from any type of abuse, please contact 911.

Senior Spotlight

By: Gabriel Lorenzo

Jack Butler:

Q: Who has given you the best advice? What did they say?
A: “Last year’s seniors, and they all told me, obviously ‘worry about your grades, get some work done, don’t spend too much time, enjoy your senior year.’”

Q: What is the worst thing about being a senior?
A: “I would say just how fast it’s going. I don’t think there is anything bad about it.”

Q: Describe your senior year in four words.
A: “Fast, fun, simple and eye-opening”

Q: What is the most creative excuse you’ve ever used to get out of a homework assignment?
A: “I dropped it in the sink. It got all wet, and I threw it away.”

Q: Describe senioritis.
A: “Just being lazy. I’m not doing track. I dropped Sports Performance. Just don’t feel like it anymore.”

Layla Ford:

Q: Who has given you the best advice? What did they say?
A: “I have to say my chemistry teacher, Mrs. Verba. ‘Some things are going to be harder for other people than others that you can do to be successful.’”

Q: What is the worst thing about being a senior?
A: “That the year goes by so fast”

Q: Describe your senior year in four words.
A: “Awesome, wonderful, fun, fast.”

Q: What is the most creative excuse you’ve ever used to get out of a homework assignment?
A: “I don’t think I have one.”

Q: Describe senioritis.
A: “They say that senioritis is getting lazy to do homework or some of them start slacking off. I don’t have that, and I don’t think I know anyone who does that.”

Ean Simmons:

Q: Who has given you the best advice? What did they say?
A: “My dad. He said to save up money.”

Q: What is the worst thing about being a senior?
A: “The fact that you are going to be done after this year. You got all your friends left behind. Flies fast.”

Q: Describe your senior year in four words.
A: “Easy, speedy, slow, different.”

Q: What is the most creative excuse you’ve ever used to get out of a homework assignment?
A: “It flew out of my truck, flooring it.”

Q: Describe senioritis.
A: “I don’t have it.”

The cost of representation

By: Emily Krupicka

For the past century, Former Slave and Abolitionist Harriet Tubman has served as a powerful symbol of women’s rights. As a result, her portrait was set to appear on the $20 bill in March 2020, marking the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. This, however, will not occur.

According to an NPR article, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the delay last May during a hearing before the House Financial Service Committee. In his statement, he revealed that the release would be deferred for almost a decade. Although the exact reason for the postponement was not revealed, many speculate that it was in effort to avoid a confrontation with President Donald Trump, who has spoken out against the idea.

The idea to put Tubman on the bill was first coined in 2016 by former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew under the Obama administration in an attempt to honor the Underground Railroad hero and provide greater representation for females and African Americans. Trump, however, has derided the suggestion as “pure political correctness.” Instead, he has proposed putting her face on the $2 bill in an attempt to compromise, as stated by an article in The New York Times.

A BBC article reports that, as of last June, a leaked prototype of the bill has been circulating the internet. The chosen picture displays a familiar image of Tubman wearing a buttoned coat and a light smile. In a series of street interviews that the BBC conducted, it was revealed that many see her soft expression as something that “portrays emotions of both contentment and determination.”

In contrast, the current face on the bill is Andrew Jackson, whose blank face appears unfeeling. Jackson’s placement on the bill may be ironic, as he strongly opposed the national bank and paper currency during his presidency. However, despite many advocating for the change, others have spoken out in favor of keeping the seventh president on the bill.

If a change were to occur, Jackson would remain on the bill but would be placed on the back side.

In the upcoming years, it is unclear on whether or not we will see real change reflected onto paper money. However, there is one fact that remains clear: as of now, America is not willing to pay the price of representation.

Photo obtained from the New York Times.

Miss Americana: Looking at fame in a different limelight

By: Emelia Richling

In the opening scene of Netflix’s biographical documentary that aired on Jan. 31, Taylor Swift seems completely comfortable, sitting at the piano as her cat lazily crawls across the keys. However, from that point on, the artistically-crafted documentary is packed with a raw honesty that Swift has previously not shared because of how uncomfortable and vulnerable she feels when exposing her opinions and the way she truly feels.

As the audience follows Swift’s story from the first song she wrote to the present day, the documentary does an incredible job of exposing how the media makes an everyday person into an icon, stripping them of their emotions and allowing them to be judged by other people while only showing one side of the star’s life.

Many “Swifties” feel as if they may know a lot about Swift, but this documentary reveals how little we really know about the lives of famous icons. Swift reveals a vulnerable side of herself, expressing her insecurities, fears and political viewpoints. For so long, Swift felt as if being a traditional “good girl” meant that she had to seek validation through praise and couldn’t express her political viewpoints; however, “Miss Americana” shows Swift coming to terms with herself and what she believes. Anyone can relate to Swift’s story as we all struggle to come to terms with our opinions in a hyperjudgemental world.

Before watching “Miss Americana,” I only saw Swift as a famous musician. In 2018, when she didn’t receive a Grammy nomination, I didn’t think twice about the incident, but I didn’t realize how much it hurt her until I saw a clip of her struggling to contain her tears on the couch. This isn’t just the story of Taylor Swift; this is the story of the superstars that we judge, even though we don’t truly know who they are.

“Miss Americana” documents the story of someone discovering herself and her opinions while being influenced by a world that wants her to be perfect. Just like how Taylor Swift won’t be stepping out of the limelight anytime soon, “Miss Americana” won’t be leaving Netflix for a long time, profoundly impacting everyone who watches the empowering documentary.

Taking Shots at Gun Control

By: Emelia Richling

Advertised as a panacea for the mass shootings heard around the world, gun control is widely advocated for by those who believe that guns don’t have a place in our society. For many years, the topic of gun control has been under fire because it fails to provide citizens with the safety they seek.

If gun control actually stopped criminals and made the world safe, there would be no controversy. However, the reality is that gun control laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns illegally. If someone is already committing a homicide, the minor gun control laws will have no significance to them.

According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics study, in the 62 mass shootings in the United States from 1982 to 2012, 49 of the guns were obtained illegally through means such as the black market or from stealing the firearms from friends and gun stores.

There is a problem, but it isn’t what we think it is. Many citizens have no knowledge of the massive black market that has allowed criminals to easily obtain guns. The black market is the exact problem that we need to address.

The problem is not the guns themselves but how the users obtain the weapons. Controlling the mass majority of citizens by implementing gun control isn’t the answer; we need to address the few citizens who are illegally obtaining firearms and murdering people with them.

Statistically, however, it may appear that states with the harshest gun control laws have the least number of deaths per 100,000 people, as a study from the World Population Review found in 2019. If the statistics are dissected, it proves that the numbers are very misleading. The study considers suicide death rates, which account for more than two times the homicide death rates.

If just the homicide death rates per capita are considered, states with the harshest gun control laws, such as Nevada, New Mexico and California, suffer from high rates of homicides. States with less strict gun laws, such as South Dakota and Maine, have lower rates of homicides. To support these statistics, a study from the Applied Economics Letter, an academic journal, found that “assault weapon bans did not significantly affect murder rates.”

However, if these statistics are used to disprove gun control, it is imperative to note that states with loose gun control laws and high rates of homicide deaths by a firearm have other factors that influence the alarming number of deaths.

Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi follow the atypical trend of high homicide rates and less strict gun control, but their numbers are influenced by socioeconomic factors, such as lower-income households and worse education. Therefore, the high number of deaths by firearm are not related to relaxed gun restrictions, meaning that gun control is fairly ineffective.

For so long, we have been taught that gun control is the solution to the staggering gun violence rates in the United States, but the problem is deeper than what we have been told. Our freedom and our rights don’t need to be taken away in order to solve this issue. If we focus on the root of the problem, it becomes apparent that the solution does not involve taking away the people’s means of protection.

An article published by The Atlantic, entitled “A Case Against Gun Control,” stated that we continue to blame “an inanimate item instead of the user.” In the simplest terms, the argument against gun control is derived from the fact that guns aren’t the problem, so placing restrictions on the object won’t stop the people from being the issue.

Since such a large number of people who commit homicides are obtaining guns from the black market, change has to happen at the source. A federal program needs to be funded that undergoes further investigation into the black market. Putting an end to this market is the only way to control homicide rates.

Implementing gun control doesn’t control guns and certainly doesn’t control criminals. If homicide rates are going to fall, the black market has to fall first.