Opinion

“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.

Overcoming Covid-19 has been the singular focus of the SLUH community since March of 2020. We have endured strenuous Zoom calls, uncomfortable masks, and painstaking sanitation for an entire school year. Our collective goal is to bring an end to this pandemic, and the easiest way to accomplish this is vaccinating the entire SLUH community.

Editor’s Note: Features Editor Sam Tarter hopes to be a teacher one day, so as a “Thank You” to all the inspiration the teachers of SLUH have given him, he wrote this reflection piece to share with the SLUH faculty.

SLUH is amazing, but at its core, it's the teachers that make it so special for me.

Four years ago, the Editor in Chief of Prep News 81, Samuel J. Chechik ’17, wrote a final reflection on his time with the newspaper. I have felt a connection to Chechik for some time. He too was someone who had a fierce love for the tradition of this great institution and the history it represents. It is the same love that every editor feels. It’s what keeps one going during the late Thursday nights, in the midst of AP exams or, in the unique case of this year, a global pandemic. Even though the pandemic stole four papers that we otherwise would have made, forced two papers to be produced virtually, and caused us to be distanced for the entirety of the year, in a twisted way, it has made the Prep News even stronger. 

I recently came across Jack Figge’s opinion piece published on Dec 1, 2020: “Pornography is a teenage male epidemic; let’s do something about it.” I would like to commend Jack for writing a much-needed piece. In my three years with the Prep News, I had always hoped to write a piece like Jack’s. I sometimes tell myself I was too busy or the issue wasn’t that important to me. In reality I was ashamed because I was a habitual pornography user. I would like to supplement Jack’s piece with my own journey with pornography and giving encouragement and advice to current St. Louis U. High students, faculty, administrators, and parents. It is my assumption, and I believe a valid assumption, that many, if not most, SLUH community members have an experience similar to mine.  

We, the undersigned LGBTQ+ alumni of St. Louis University High School, would like to extend our appreciation to Jacob Sprock for the thorough reporting and thoughtful commentary he has provided throughout the Ongoing Conversations Series. While our experiences as LGBTQ+ students at SLUH vary widely, of course, we share Mr. Sprock’s affection for the school while recognizing the challenges that students continue to face—made particularly evident by the insight and observations of those who shared their stories within these pages. 

Over the past couple of weeks, I keep hearing a common complaint from my own classmates, from seniors, freshmen, and sophomores. It is not that Junior Ring and graduation are outside, it is not that masks still have to be worn, it is not about exams or the stress of fourth quarter school, it is that we can’t have dances this year even though I and many others believe they can be held within a safe environment.  

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s hard to put into words the mixed bag of feelings I carry with me now as I write what will be the concluding article in the Ongoing Conversations Series. What a journey it’s been. To recap, following a brief introduction to the series in December, we covered harmful language, representation in curriculum, mental health, and solutions to these problems, focusing the scope on their effects on the LGBTQ+ community at SLUH.

In my admittedly limited time alive so far, I’ve noticed two things when it comes to activism: 1) there will always be something that needs to be improved upon (basically a general fact of life) and 2) it’s much easier to complain about issues than it is to do anything about them. So far in these articles, I’ve been talking about the LGBTQ+ community and the difficulties they face at SLUH without offering much help as to fixing those issues, so in this penultimate article of what I’m calling the “Ongoing Conversations Series,” I’d like to address some of the things I and people I’ve talked to have concluded could be helpful on the path to greater acceptance.