Carter High School has a lot of sports, clubs, groups, and teams. Each group has their own different thing they do, but some groups get more attention than others. One group is the CHS Dance Team. They perform during halftime at basketball and football games. This team consists of the following CHS students consisting of: Lexi Palmer, Katie Tolliver, Haley Smith, Chloe O’Conner and Abbi Lebow. These girls work hard to get all of their choreography down and ready to perform. CHS Dance team sponsor and special education teacher, Bailey Harrell says, “Right now there are no competitions, but I’d love to work up to that level to where they are competing.” The Dance team is still trying to find some ways to fundraise for all the different outfits they wear and the dancers fee they pay when they join the team. They usually fundraise by doing Homecoming, which CHS sadly did not have this year. To be a part of the dance team you have to keep a 2.0 GPA or higher, but if you’re failing a class, you will not be able to perform. When you get into a team like the dance team, you don’t just jump into it; you’ve had to have been doing it for a good couple years to stick with it throughout all your life. CHS senior Lexi Palmer says, “I’ve been dancing for 15 years so it was kinda just like nature for me to get into the dance team” Lexi is looking into joining her colleges dance team when she graduates from CHS. While being on the dance team, you create not only a team but a family that’s going to stick by each other’s side no matter what. Lexi states, “Yes, I have friendships with everyone on the dance team! I love them all so much!” The CHS dance team is a great team with such amazing people. If you’re looking into joining the dance team, it’s definitely a friendly and loving environment.

This school year, unlike past years at Carter, all students received a Chromebook in case school were to shut down and go virtual. Now, since we have these laptops, some kids seem to have become attached to them, and think we should keep them. I, personally, don’t think seniors should. I think at the end of the school year, we should turn in our Chromebooks so that the freshman coming in next year may also have their own. One of these Chromebooks could cost anywhere from $150-200, so letting students keep these, and buying a whole new set for incoming freshmen would be very costly to maintain. These Chromebooks are a helpful asset, and we should make sure we can pass them down to help newer kids, and save money.

We all are tired in the morning before class and throughout the day. It’s normal, some just don’t get enough sleep and some are just tired either way. We all need the rest. Consider a free class period to maybe sleep or get some work from other classes done. A 30 minute to an hour class period to get things done for other classes or get some rest, if you think about it it benefits all of us teachers, students, parents everyone. No one would be falling asleep in class because they got that extra time to sleep or they would be able to turn in their homework because they gog more time to work on it. Grades could go up, parents would be happier everything would be better because of nap time. Now yes it could take away time from other classes but we would have more time for that work to get done for those classes. Having the time to get any grade up or study for a test, having that extra time to get anything done. Studies show that kids who take 3 or more naps a days increase by 7.6% academically. Resting is one of the most important things because it affects you for the rest of the day and so on, drowsiness affects up to 20% of kids. So would naptime be a good thing or just a waste of time.

Now former Carter High School student Caden Booher, number ten on the high school soccer team, spent a good portion of his life playing soccer. He said “I’ve been playing since I was ten years old.” Caden has played not only for the Carter Middle and Carter High soccer teams but also for Knoxville Crush F.C, a competitive soccer club. In addition to his team winning state Caden has won various awards such as two time all region, two time golden boot winner,and being on first team all district twice. Caden has shown out in many ways for Carter from scoring 5 goals his freshman year to 30 goals his junior year. 

Caden recalls his favorite memory being, ¨The Gibbs game my junior year, when we came back three to two,¨ he said. After tearing his ACL and having to miss his senior season of soccer, Caden is now playing for his college team, the University of the Cumberlands. Caden talks about the difference between college soccer and high school soccer. He said, ¨The speed of play, bigger players, and better competition.¨

Tanner Henderson, a senior on the soccer team recalls playing with Caden. He says ¨He was always the loudest one on the field¨. This is one of the many ways Caden has been a leader for the team. Tanner also recalls good memories with him saying, ¨He would always make us laugh¨. After leaving Carter with various achievements, awards, and friends, Caden is now taking on a new chapter of his life both on and off the pitch.

Going to the restroom at Carter high school is definitely a journey and a half. The problem lies in the freshman academy. If a student were to be walking down the left side hallway, right across from Mr. Orucevic’s classroom is the first dungeon. 

In that bathroom the stall doors open backwards and the first stall in the lineup has a pretty big gap between the wall and the door, so any bathroom goer can either be scarred or try to take a peek. I don’t want people making eye contact with me while waiting for the next stall to open up. It’s awkward and uncomfortable. The second stall’s door is way too high up and if you’re angled just right you can probably see under it. This specific stall, I know from personal experience, opens inwards and the toilet splashes very aggressively at the student that chose to enter the stall. The third stall, which is the handicap stall, is massive and the door is a bit short. If someone was taller than the average height or genuinely trying to sneak a peek, someone could definitely see whoever is on the toilet.

Next is the women’s bathroom right outside Mrs. Parker’s and Mrs. Atchley’s classrooms. One stall works perfectly fine, but the other two are a different story. The middle stall opens inwards and the lock is broken. Whoever enters that stall has to be able to hold it closed or people will be able to enter your “workspace”. The third stall on the far right is almost okay. The only two problems are that the door is a bit too high and the toilet is just like the one in front of Mr. Orucevic’s classroom. It flushes like no other. The user is almost guaranteed to walk out with water splashes on their pants. 

Of course we all realize that the school would need funding to fix these problems, but between a new gym and safe bathroom stalls I think we can all see which one is more important. So while the school was renovating the gym last school year they definitely could have given better bathroom stalls. This is also the cheaper option of the two. It would definitely be a win-win situation. Students can feel safe and the school can be glad their students are safe.

The former Carter Middle School counselor Mr. Meade is now at Carter High School. He said there is a lot more paperwork, but he loves it here because the students from the middle school are now at the High School but there are different job responsibilities, there’s not a lot of one-on-one time with him and the students. He said it is a change of pace and change of scenery that change is good. He’s been consoling for 8 years and this will be his 9th year. He was at Helen Ross McNabb for 4 years and at South Doyle for one semester while he was in grad school for an interim as like substitute teacher only instead he was a counselor. He’s never had a problem with a student, but some students might have not liked him so much and he has never disliked a kid before. He also fishes, hunts, plays, golf, and blacksmith. He has made a 17 inch Michetti and a Bowie knife while he blacksmiths. He loves dogs but he really doesn’t like cats as much as dogs and he has two of his own and his wife has two cats that she rescued that they got to keep. 

Have you ever sat in a science class and thought, “this is absolutely pointless”? This is why I think all science classes should not be mandatory after middle school. If you aren’t going into a field where you are required to take science classes, then you shouldn’t be forced to take a long, boring class that’s going to be no help to your future. Math classes are required because you need to be able to add up totals later in life and do your taxes. English classes are required because you need to learn how to read and write and learn the proper ways to speak in job interviews. Social studies/history classes are required because you need to know the history of our country and the world to not repeat the mistakes of others. What are science classes supposed to be for? If you’re in high school, you need to start having ideas on what you want to be later in life. Science classes don’t help if you’re not going into the field of being a scientist or engineer.  Someone might say that science classes should be mandatory because you want to know how the body works and how your body works. But the keyword is want. If you don’t want to take the class and it won’t help you in the future, you shouldn’t be forced to sit in a class for an hour and a half or more when the class has no significant effect on your future. Adding to that, if you want to know how the body works, there are health classes that are optional in the school. All in all, science classes should be optional to everyone because they are no help to people who don’t use the criteria in the future.

How would you like extra days off for Christmas break and summer break? The days we take EOCs are preventing these extra days. When thought about, EOCs are actually useless if a student is already passing the class. With EOCs still scheduled, it can cause students to fail the class when they were not before; because of this it can cause stress on teachers and it can cause stress on students. Taking out the EOCs would prevent these effects and allow students to have extra days added to their breaks.  Students take finals in each class for two days before their Christmas break and summer break. They take first and second period finals one day and the next day they take third and fourth periods finals making that two half days before their breaks. EOCs could cause passing students to fail if they make a bad grade. This forces students to retake the class for no reason. Teachers seem to always be rushing to make sure grades are in on time but if students do not take the final then they will not have to worry about grading it last minute. It causes teachers to stress when there is a deadline to put grades in. When the time comes, students are stressing themselves out by studying and making sure they know the material. If EOCs become unnecessary then students will be stress free, not worrying about their grades. Seniors Aashna Desai and Ploomie Messer can agree that they are easily stressed out a couple days before their finals. They can strongly agree about how stressed out they become when they are studying for their finals. Although taking the EOCs can benefit the students’ grade, EOCs are useless when the student is passing the class already. If a student is already passing a class, they should not be forced to take an EOC in that class. This causes stress, an eventual failing class, and more stress on teachers to get student’s grades entered.

The Carter High School Physics Class won big a few weeks ago when they won a countywide physics competition. The competition was called the Rube Goldberg Machine Competition and the students had to create an effective machine of some sort and submit a video of the machine to UT. The students worked very hard to accomplish their goal and even beat schools like Farragut High School, which came in second place, and Anderson County High School, which came in third place. Students like Kylee Condra who was in the class, feel ecstatic that they won this hard-earned challenge. Condra stated, “We split up in groups and designed our own parts of the machine. We eventually put all the parts together and recorded every trial until it worked properly. I know, as a class, we were all very excited when we won because we all worked extremely hard on it.” According to I’ana Roberts, another student in the class, “I am super proud of my classmates and me. I’m just excited to see what else we could and can do.” Condra and Roberts volunteered the information that when they submitted their video of their machine, they put the song “Waterfalls” by TLC in the background. They jokingly admitted that this was the reason they won. No matter how they won, they are very proud to be winners of this competition. Condra and Roberts are excited to see what they do next in Mr. Adamson’s physics class.

You walk up to the vending machines after a long day of school. You put your $1.75 in the slot and listen to the whirring as you choose your drink. It falls down, and you pick it up, desperate for hydration. As you bring it to your lips, all you taste is disappointment: it’s Diet Cherry Coke. Diet Cherry Coca-Cola can be found in the vending machines at Carter High School, but it doesn’t taste like cherries. The label on the bottle even says that it has cherry flavoring in it, but you will never taste it. First introduced in 1986, Diet Cherry Coke used to be good, but it only got worse. The idea for diet cherry coke was supposed to be to reduce your calorie and sugar intake but taste good as well. It doesn’t taste good; from what I’ve tasted from stores and Carter vending machines, it’s just carbonated dirty water with no flavor. Diet Cherry Coca-Cola has 0 calories and 0g of sugar- which is probably why it tastes like bricks. As everyone knows, all vending machine drinks are $1.75, so I definitely want my money’s worth. $1.75 is already a steep price for a vending machine drink, and  I always regret buying the diet cherry coke- it is not worth that much. I would rather have a Sprite than the Diet Cherry Coca-Cola. I hate Sprite, so there is a HUGE problem. Diet Cherry Coke’s taste reminds me of the artificial sweetener, Splenda. This is a low-calorie sweetener with no taste. Turns out, Diet Cherry Coke actually does use Splenda; which would explain A LOT. I used to be able to taste the sweet cherry flavoring; now I have no love for this drink. I miss the nostalgic taste of this wonderful drink, but sadly, it has turned rotten. I would not recommend this drink to anyone because of the fact that this drink does not meet expectations, it tastes terrible, and isn’t worth its price.