Opinion

We met her at midnight, just as she asked. And she did not disappoint.

Taylor Swift released her tenth studio album Midnights last Friday, a sonically cohesive synth-pop collection of 13 songs inspired by 13 sleepless nights throughout her life. This culmination has been a highly anticipated release for fans since Swift announced Midnights at the MTV Video Music Awards this past August. The announcement came in her acceptance speech for Video of the Year, which she won for her self-directed All Too Well: The Short Film released last year.

The shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts School just down the street has stirred strong feelings in us: anger, fear, sadness, frustration, anxiety, and probably many more. There’s no other way to say it: this is messed up. Stuff like this shouldn’t happen. Anywhere. Period.

Earlier this week, the St. Louis area was heartbroken over the news of the tragedy that took place at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience. As we said in our email on Monday, our prayers are with the victims, the families, and all those suffering from the situation. We strongly encourage you to reach out to your counselor or a trusted adult if you need to talk to someone.

I leave my house at 7:40 each morning, and by the time I pick up my freshman carpool and make my way down Forest Park Parkway, Kingshighway, and Oakland, I arrive at the student parking lot right around 8. As a senior arriving 20 minutes before school begins, I expect each morning to find a spot in the first five rows of the lot, which are designated as Senior Parking. Throughout my entire junior year, I—along with the vast majority of my classmates—respected that rule, acknowledging it as a quintessential senior privilege that we would eventually get to enjoy.

Are you a bully? Most of us would answer by saying “of course not!”

I took a walk down freshman hall the other day and I heard some unsettling things:

“xxxxx is way better at basketball than xxxxx is.”

“I hate xxxxx.”

I was recently in an advisory room and asked the question of students: “Is there bullying at SLUH?” Sadly, a few students indicated that there was. I remember thinking: “we’ve got some work to do.”

To the editors, Robotics needs help from SLUH students. Simply put, we do not have enough members to continue sustaining a club which requires a team of freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. When I joined my freshman year, I joined a group of many underclassmen led on by a sizable group of upperclassmen. Now that I am in my senior year, I am left with a few of my own classmates. I implore and encourage anyone fascinated with engineering to join and stick with this club throughout the season so that it might live after we graduate.

The SLUH Counselors wrote a letter to the editors of the Prep News for Suicide Awareness Month.

An election is taking place in the City of St. Louis next Tuesday, Sept. 13, to decide on a new Board of Aldermen President. This special election is happening because former Board of Aldermen President, Lewis Reed, resigned after it was revealed that he took bribes in exchange for providing tax cuts to local developers.

“If nothing else, value the truth.” Every week, the Prep News masthead includes this small little phrase. It seems so insignificant, so unessential, yet those six simple words serve as the foundation for all that we have done and continue to do  at the Prep News. It’s a phrase that I have strived to live by for the past three years of high school. 

I’m sure every senior has heard that college is a period of excitement, freedom, and learning. In such an exciting time, I would encourage any freshman in college to not be shy in meeting new people and taking new classes. However, above all, the best advice I can give to any incoming college student is take ownership of your faith.

It’s a tale as old as time. Each year, SLUH students gather together to watch the big game, just like millions of other Americans. The play calls are scrutinized, the commercials are ranked, and the halftime show is either thoroughly enjoyed or berated for not living up to the hype. Overall, the night is fun, except for one thing: the looming threat of a Monday morning at school. Jr. Bills dread few things more than school. 

There are three things in life that are certain: death, taxes, and students loving snow days. Students from everywhere have their differences, but they bond together over their mutual love for these days off. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, students had their wish come true and got to experience their first real snow days in a long time.

Four days ago, I had left with my youth group to travel 15 hours on a bus to Washington D.C. for the March for Life, and to my disappointment that journey was coming to an end. I was confused, very confused: why did I not want to leave this cramped, smelly bus, and return to my home? Because I was surrounded by a community built on joy, and awaiting me on Monday was a community lacking joy.

“Who do you say that I am?”  

Of all the questions Jesus poses in the Gospels, this one might just be the most essential.  When a high school senior takes this question seriously enough to publish his response to it in the school newspaper, I see cause for celebration.  

The senior class’s mandatory first semester theology class titled “Christian Life Choices” had a reading that I felt was problematic. We had to read an excerpt from “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” by a New Testament scholar and Episcopalian named Marcus Borg. This excerpt is one of many homework readings that we are quizzed over. But even before I dive into the problems of the reading, it’s important to note the overall reason for this excerpt. This excerpt was supposed to help us explain the Catholic Church’s position of who Jesus is, and his relevance in our life for a project where we hope to explain exactly that. So we read this under the premise of taking the reading to be true. That’s especially dangerous when my classmates passively read, since it can lead to subconsciously absorbing falsehoods about the faith.

Last week, I concluded reading the Great American Novel in my American Lit class: The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is a riveting novel commentating on the culture of American society in the 1920’s and while it was written almost a century ago, many of those central themes still resonate in our current culture today. One such theme is love and marriage.

An often overlooked part of our masthead each week is a phrase that has become synonymous with the Prep News: “If Nothing Else, Value the Truth.” It may seem pretentious for a high school newspaper to be stressing the truth above all else, but it’s a standard we strive to live by. Even in our small(ish) SLUH community the difference between a true story and a ‘mostly’ true story can be significant. Take, for instance, the report of the first Covid case transmitted on campus last year. Accuracy on reporting that issue was important for students, faculty, and parents alike. 

My life changed the moment I stepped across the border in Nogales, Arizona. I knew I would return from the Kino Border Initiative trip with a better understanding of migrant issues, but I never could have anticipated how I would encounter God during my time there.

When students thank their teachers, the response is often "no thanks are necessary." The fact that it is not necessary is precisely why students and parents should express their gratitude for the work that teachers do for students.

Last week, I saw the article about the Jr. Billiken mascot taking a tour of St Louis and the USA over the summer. It brought back memories of a similar, yet less creative Jr. Bill mascot heist in the summer of 1974.