Saying goodbye

Elizabeth Payton, Staff Writer

April 10, 2020

While many students across the country are holding their breath following statewide orders for schools to remain closed, foreign exchange students are experiencing a different type of crisis.  Due to concerns about the decreasing safety of international travel and the possibility of countries closin...

“Clique” in to fit in

Cheyenne Brown, Staff Writer

March 4, 2020

Most people want to find a group of friends that they “click” with, whether they spend their Saturdays in detention or only wear pink on Wednesdays. These friend-circles, formed by the need to feel accepted, are known as “cliques.” “As humans, we have an innate desire to belong and be accepte...

Club spotlights

Daniel Smith, Staff Writer

March 3, 2020

While everyone else leaves school, these groups stay after, turning the otherwise empty halls into a grand stage where they come to perform their ideas. Likewise, while some may spend every other Friday just relaxing in a random classroom, these groups meet up and intently discuss their passions. Whet...

Grit: A solution to the average student’s greatest problem

Daniel Smith, Staff Writer

November 7, 2019

Many students, at Winnetonka and in high schools all across the country, are dealing with a serious lack of determination, an important skill needed to get them successfully through the school year. However, as part of an inclination to help her students, English teacher Be-Asia McKerracher p...

Safety & Style

Elizabeth Payton and Kaylee Renno

March 1, 2019

An impenetrable tension loomed over the building as students arrived to school on a late-December morning, just three days after the first incident of its kind. Preceding a school lockdown that lasted hours on Friday, Dec. 17, multiple gunshots rang out in the student parking lot during...

Distorted

Elizabeth Payton, Staff Writer

November 5, 2018

Before you read, test your knowledge. It was a typical spring Friday in 2013: birds were chirping, flowers were blooming and sex was selling right here in Kansas City. Unknown to the buyers in the area, Arizona State University was conducting a study to determine the potential percentage of adult males who wo...

To plug or unplug…

Nia Scaggs and Erica Burnett

November 1, 2018

Just last year North Kansas City Schools introduced the one-to-one initiative, allowing every one of their high school students access to a laptop. “We spend $2.1 million a year on 20,814 students. So, it works out to $100 a year [per student] is spent on technology in the classroom,” said Eric ...

Griffins soar into the world

Jessica Glaszczak, Print Managing Editor

May 14, 2018

A heart for medicine In a few seconds of silence, senior Rana Ekilah stands anxiously holding her mother’s hand. She scrolls through her phone looking to see if she made it into her dream college program. The silence quickly breaks as Ekilah screams “I’m accepted! I got in!” She cries and hugs...

Senior profiles

Staff

May 14, 2018

Arfon Abdi Involved in: Gold Medallion, Key Club, Medical internships, Muslim Student Association By Jason Hopkins In Kansas City alone, there are more than 30 well-equipped hospitals available for community access. But in other places around the world, there are none, and with no access to hosp...

Bullock earns spot on 2018 All-State Journalism Team

May 4, 2018

Junior Katie Bullock was selected as one of 10 students to represent the state of Missouri on the 2018 All-State Journalism Team. The Team recognizes those students who have proven themselves to be indispensable to their respective school media, recognizing those students who are "most valuable players" -- thos...

Truth be told

Jessica Glaszczak, Print Managing Editor

February 8, 2018

After more than 50 sexual-assault allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, after former Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to between 40 and 175 years in jail for molesting approximately 160 girls and after nearly all celebrities attending the 2018 Golden Globes wore...

Ending the candlelight vigils

Katie Bullock, Editor-in-chief

February 7, 2018

Kansas city and candlelight vigils “I believe in you.” “You are important.” “Everyone matters.” On the sidewalk outside of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, these are the messages on the signs held by students and parents. It is Jan. 25, a cold morning. The sign holders w...