The choirs will also perform group pieces from Lady Gaga. the Beatles, the musical Rent, and more.

The Kantori singers have put an enormous amount of effort into the production, spending every day of the past month learning music among with a variety of choreography created by senior Justice Harvey.

“This year’s performance took over two months of planning, commitment, creativity, and hard work.” Justice said. “I’ve been impressed with everyone’s talent and focus, and because of it, the performance is sure to be fantastic this year!”

The Kantori choir, along with the JV and Bel Canto choirs pulled an all-nighter on Tuesday in rehearsal and, although marred by technical difficulties, they still managed to get the job done.

With the group pieces, individual students will also get the chance to show off their talent during the show.

There will be 16 solos total, performed by hard-working singers from each of the four choirs.

“It’s a great opportunity to be involved in pop show because you get a lot of practice vocally and it helps you learn how to perform.” said Pedro Rodriguez, who is singing the hymnal “It is Well With My Soul” along with David Hernandez. “Personally it helps me in what I want to be in [music] music.”

The show will be held in Tom Jack Lucas Auditorium and is expected to last from 7 to 9 p.m

The listed swimmers competed in various events and did exceptionally well. The girl’s 400 free relay swam in the finals. During her individual performance, Humphreys swam and broke the school record in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley in the finals. Johnson also swam individually in the 50 and 100 freestyle during the finals and broke both school records.Lastly, the boy’s 200 freestyle relay placed in the finals and also broke the school record. This meet concluded the team’s swim season and Coach Stewart is well- pleased with the swimmers and their final meet. According to swim coach Andy Stewart, district competition is intense.

“The difficulty of advancing to regionals depends on which district you’re advancing from. The top 6 in each race go to the regional meet,” Stewart said. “ Our district is the toughest in the state, so placing in the top six is hard to do.”

With competition like the Woodlands, Conroe , and Klein, Stewart is proud of his team and how hard they’ve worked to get this far in the season. Junior Sophia Humphreys felt the intense competition among the different teams, but in the end she was satisfied with her final results of the season.

“There was a lot of competition out there, but I can happily say that I gave it my all. I was also so happy that I broke two more school records while swimming; it was a great ending to my school season,” Humphreys said.

Now that the season is over, Stewart claims the team will still remain busy with different projects and swim and land exercises during offseason.

“We’ll start building toward next year and do 2 or 3 community service activities,” Stewart said.

Therefore, it is not shocking that the fans of these movies made a National Star Wars Day. And with the saying “May The Force Be With You” sounding like May 4th, it was not a shocker that the National Star Wars Day was held on May 4th.

Since these movies came out in 1979, lightsabers were a major toy that companies made. These toys were popular when the movies came out and still are to this day. That’s why on May 4th, these toys are played with by many people, from children to adults. They react scenes and dress up  as some of the characters from the movie to honor this great film.

So on May 4th, get your lifesabers and your Darth Vader costumes and some friends and react some of the scenes of Star Wars.

Sent By Ravens is a Christian post-hardcore band from Hartsville, South Carolina signed to Tooth and Nail records. They formed in 2006. The band includes Zach Riner with vocals, JJ Leonard with the guitar, Andy O’neal also with guitar, Jon Arena with the bass, and Dane Anderson with the drums.

Riner, who writes in the band’s blog on the Tooth and Nail website, revealed that the main focus of this new album was his response to the acts of Westboro Baptist church.

“Groups like this are the ones you see picketing, holding signs which say ‘God hates Fags’,” Riner said. “These groups use their words carelessly and distort truth.”

The band tries to remind others that our words are powerful and that we should be careful on how we use it. Showing compassion to others and speaking sincerely with them is important, according to Riner.

“I want to be true to what I believe,” Riner said. “I’m fine if someone is offended or disagrees with me, but not if it was because I lacked compassion. I am no preacher, I only feel qualified to write songs and speak about what I believe and talk sincerely with people – that’s what I’ll stick with.”

Listening to the CD, I saw all of that. The lyrics in each song are so well-thought out and powerful. I definitely recommend this CD and this band to others.

“When I got the news I was very excited,” Jones said. “I think I really deserved it because I worked hard.”

Head basketball coach Winfred Simmons also thinks that the award was well deserved.

“Kassie averaged twenty-five points per game in district. The next girl closest to her averaged fourteen points,” Simmons said.

This accomplishment didn’t just come naturally to Jones though. Practice and dedication were two contributors to her success.

“I practiced before school and after school, and I also went to the gym for an extra hour to get a workout in,” Jones said.

Although the season is over, Jones doesn’t stop playing because she also plays on a select basketball  team, which is another reason why Simmons thinks she has improved.

“She improves because she plays AAU basketball in the summer, so her season is never over,” said Simmons.

Jones is looking to do more spectacular things in the 2012-2013 basketball season.

Jones was honored at the basketball banquet on March 26.

Senior Felix Juarez helped bring home a First Place Journalism Team award–the first in six years–by placing first in Editorial, Feature and Headline Writing.

“I have done it, writing since kindergarten,” he said. “I just love competing.” For Juarez the suspense in competition is a “killer.” “Felix is a very hard worker,” said Kathy Williams, UIL Academic Coordinator and UIL Science coach. ”I have watched him grow during the past 3 1/2 years. He is really starting to work at his potential.”

Junior Ceejae Molina placed first in Spelling and third in Headline Writing. Although she has placed in the top six many times over the past few years, this year’s district meet was the first time she placed first, according to Alison Hillis UIL spelling coach said.

Hillis is very proud of Ceejae and her accomplishment.

“She consistently works hard to achieve her goal: going to state.” Hillis said. “I cannot tell you how proud I am of her dedication to this competition.  She is so motivated and driven.  She has also been a real leader for our team these past few years.”

What makes  Ceejae’s accomplishment even bigger is her brother, sophomore, Mattheau Molina also placed at district for the first time–fourth in Spelling and sixth in Headline Writing

Sophomore Anchal Thomas won second place in Spelling.

Hillis thinks Anchal is an “amazing’ speller.

“Last year, she placed first at district and sixth at Regionals,” Hillis said.

Freshman Sarah Youssef, who had a personal triumph with her score placing 10th in UIL Spelling, plans on being on UIL team for a while.

“Spelling expands your knowledge,” Youssef said.

Hillis thinks Youssef did great at the competition.

“Even though Youssef didn’t place, she did better than any other meet this year,” Hillis said. “I am extremely proud of that accomplishment for her.”

Hillis says that the students must learn the pronunciations and definitions of 1500 words.

“The team works really hard each week,” Hillis said.  ”I am so proud of them no matter how well they do.  I know if they tried their best, as coach, I have nothing to be upset about.  Having said that, this is our team’s second year to go to regionals.  I am thrilled to be part of this wonderful group of students.”

Junior Nohema Mendoza, who made it to Regionals last year, came in first in accounting.

“It felt really good placing because it was my second time to win district,” Mendoza said.

Accounting
1st-Nohema Mendoza
2nd-Ruth Watkins
3rd-Andy Ly
8th-Terry Whitehead

Computer Applications
2nd-Joseph Calloway
3rd-Andy Ly
4th-Terry Whitehead

Calculator 2nd place
4th-Jonathan Gray
8th-Roxanne Chen

Journalism 1st place
1st-Felix Juarez in Editorial, Feature, and Headline Writing
2nd-Madison Zimmerman in News Writing
3rd-Ceejae Molina in Headline Writing
6th-Mattheau Molina in Headline Writing

Current  Issues and Events
Kendall Cole and Kyle Reed placed for their team

Informative Speaking
5th-Maubeen Ahmad

Persuasive Speaking
4th-Hunter Haltmar

Literary Criticism
6th-Lauren Hoepfner
7th-Marie Nickle

Social Studies
Fatima Youssef and Kyle Reed placed for their team

Spelling  1st place
1st- Ceejae Molina
2nd-Anchal Thomas
4th-Mattheau Molina
10th-Sarah Youssef

With the passing of head coach and athletic director John Outlaw, there was a gap left in Panther Nation. But after two months of looking at possible candidates, defensive coordinator Todd Quick was officially named the new AD and head coach.

“I was excited and blessed for me and my family and the kids that are still here,” Quick said after the good news. “This is probably the best job in Texas. Now, some may not feel that way, but we are here and we get to participate with the kids and the faculty and staff and we’re very lucky.”

Coach Outlaw and Coach Quick had a history dating back to when Quick was just a high school student.

“Coach Outlaw and I were together for 26 years. 1986 was our first season together,” Quick said. “I’ve known him since 1976. He was the coach at our rival school and I was the quarterback on my team.We played them two times that year and they beat us in the semi-finals. They went on to win state championship.”

With that kind of history, there is expected pressure on the new head coach.

“Everybody has their own legacy. You write your own legacy and you’re influenced by the people you surround yourself with,” he said. “There’s a pressure to make sure that the things that he built up and the tradition that he built here is carried on. That’s the pressure I feel.”

Not only does he have the pressure to lead the Panthers to victory, but he also has wounds to mend with the players who lost not only a coach but a father figure.

“Every kid deals with it differently. Some it will take a little longer. Some will never get over it,” Quick said. “He had a huge impact on these kids. The good thing here is that a lot of the things that we are doing, we did before his passing. That’s a little bit easier on the students because there’s not a lot of change. They adapt pretty well and usually better than the adults.”

As usual, the community is never too far away to show their support.

“You really never realize until something happens. Normally you don’t take time to just say thank you and that’s one thing we should do more. We need to take the time and tell people we appreciate them. Whether it be your family or friends, we should not wait for something to happen for us to be grateful.”

Even with the passing of a great friend and mentor, Coach Quick manages to keep his head up high and to look forward to the future.

“Friday August 31 at John Tyler at 7:30. That’s what it’s all building up to.,” Quick said with a smile. “That first time. And we couldn’t be any more excited.”

The reason for parents having such a hard  for teens’ immature way of thinking is the way our brain is developing for our age group. So, parents, please have a  little mercy on the stress ball squeezing, risk taking, competition grabbing, self piercing, T.V dinner, fast driven young people of today’s world.

A report from FRONTLINE producer Sarah Spinks on new research suggests that teens process emotional information differently than adults and even use different parts of their brain to do so. Clearly this shows teens and adults are not the same when it comes to brain functions.

Usually between the ages of 12 and 25, teens’ brains goes through massive changes  that make the teens different from adults, causing them to act differently to situations.

Teens have a lot of energy, besides the occasional use of the classroom desk for a pillow for when teens run out of all that energy the night before. Teens put all that energy on trying to figure out who they are, while parents and adults have already gone through the same things teens have, and often forget what it’s like to be young.

Adults have already accepted the fact that they are who they are while teens try to gain independence and respect, often wondering about many things. This is the reason most teens and adults can’t understand each other and most of the time aren’t very agreeable with each other.

Adults have already asked the famous questions: Who am I? Why Am I Here? What do I want to do with my life? Is God real? What is the purpose of anything?

Parents play an important role in teens’ lives, and often teens take advantage of them. We as teens don’t stop and think about all the good things parents are doing: paying for our phone, driving us to work, buying random T-shirts for clubs we don’t even stay in, sitting down and talking to us, and wanting the best for us.

But to parents of teens, doing what they are doing is protection. Well, to us it’s called fun-squishing, suffocation.

A lot of parents put a lot of limits and controls on our life for a reason. I mean, come on, people, if we didn’t have that sort of control, how are we supposed to learn self-discipline without anybody teaching us about it in the first place? What kind of world would we live in without all the parents? I think if I didn’t have the self control my parents taught me, I would be found at an ice cream shop, shoving pounds of ice cream in my face, and the entire bench I’m sitting on would be leaning to one side because I would be to0 lazy to get up and do something!

We need to realize that someday we will be thankful for all the hard work our parents have done, forcing us to live in a protective sphere. We might not like that little ball we’re running in now, but once we “get it”, we’re going to somehow want to ignore feeling like a little spaced-in hamster and find some kind of little patch to get back into it.

For example, my grandmother will put her hand on her hips, stand over me and make for sure I do a good job with whatever horrible chore she has me doing. She will make sure every part is scrubbed, every little spec of dust is gone, and nothing but the shiny “wow-I -can-see-myself-through-this” kind of shiny is left. “Sometimes life has to be detailed and be the best, or it will never work,” she says to me.

She’s good at what she does: Making me a better person. Well, I mean, at least I think. I have never robed a store or killed somebody, so I guess that categorizes me as good person.

And don’t think I can’t see you shaking your head at me through this column. Try as hard as you want, you can’t deny that parents want the best for us. Sometimes they might be wrong about things, but is it really our job to criticize the people who are meant to do that for us? I mean, they are wiser, aren’t they? They work hard for us, so why don’t we give them a little break every now and again and say, “OK Mom, your right. I believe what you’re saying is the best thing for me, so I won’t argue.”

Parents play an important role in teens’ lives, and often teens take advantage of them. We don’t stop and think about all the good things parents are doing: paying for our phone, driving us to work, buying random T-shirts for clubs we don’t even stay in, sitting down and talking to us, and wanting the best for us.

So therefore, on getting along with your parents, try the best at doing what it takes to make it work. There have been so many heartbreaking, destroyed, relationships out there with parents and teens.  I know your pain and suffering. But hang in there… your not carrying as much weight as you think. The real weight comes when you are a parent.

“Mrs. Burley was the type of person that would joke around, was always nice to people, and treated everybody the same,” said Virginia Burse, former student and current receptionist at Lufkin High School. “She always had a since a humor and would always teased us that  make us laugh in PE.”

Her teaching career spanned a total of 41 years as PE, science and health teacher, basketball, track and cheerleader coach and pep squad sponsor.

She volunteered in hospitals and was a member of the Top Ladies  of Distinction.

Burley served six years as a school board member and board secretary for the LISD.

In 2006, the Texas Board of Education named Burley “Hero For Children”. The board made the award program in 1994 to recognize individual contributions to public school education in Texas.

The district name an elementary school after her husband, Ecomet Burley, a longtime LISD teacher and principal.

Well, that’s how the media and a number of angry community organizers say it happened anyway.

When Zimmerman and Trayvon’s pictures were first revealed to America, Zimmerman was shown in an orange jumpsuit while Trayvon had a nice, smiling, 7th-grade picture that just tugs on your heartstrings.

Zimmerman’s photo was from an unrelated crime that took place three years ago, but you have to wonder if the media has already shown bias in who the real criminal is here.

George Zimmerman has been portrayed from the start as a villain; an evil, racist, black-hating killer who got the lucky shot on Trayvon Martin.

He was convicted from the very start. But I thought American citizens were innocent until proven guilty? Not anymore, apparently.

The public outrage of the incident has been gigantic. Crowds of angry mobsters (yes I said it: mobsters) have been terrorizing Zimmerman, his family, and anyone else who stands in their convoluted path of social justice.

Take for example the incident in which film director Spike Lee tweeted the address of
Zimmerman’s family and called for “Justice for Trayvon.”

Lee had the wrong address, and the elderly couple that lived there had to move into a hotel after receiving numerous death threats.

I understand death threats to the Zimmerman, although they’re still illegal, but to the PEOPLE THEY THOUGHT WERE THE FAMILY? INNOCENT BYSTANDERS?

I’d say that directly reflects the caliber of the people who are protesting for Trayvon.

So what really happened on the night Trayvon was shot?

In the 911 call, Zimmerman told police that he saw a kid with a hood on at a late hour walking around in a neighborhood that had been burglarized several times in the weeks before.

As a Neighborhood Watch officer, it was Zimmerman’s responsibility to report to the police what he saw.

After hanging up, Zimmerman continued to follow Trayvon despite being told by the dispatchers not to before he lost sight of the kid.

The events that occurred after his 911 call are in stark contrast to the media’s hyped up portrayal of a hate crime.

Witnesses, third party viewers who watched what happened, said that Trayvon approached Zimmerman and asked, “Do you have a problem?”

When Zimmerman said no, Trayvon was reported saying, “You do now,” before attacking Zimmerman.

Witnesses also say the boy bashed Zimmerman’s head into the concrete before being shot.

But wait, wasn’t Trayvon an innocent sweet little kid?

Unfortunately for the public, their hate-crime poster child is having his true character brought to light.

In one of Trayvon’s more recently discovered Twitter accounts, he tweeted “Plzz shoot da #mf dat lied 2 u!”, and his Twitter photo showed him extending his middle finger to the camera.

The link for that story can be found here.

That is the exact opposite of the smiling young picture that the news and protesters like to show to America.

But all of this evidence has been previously ignored. Why? It’s all about race.

On St. Patrick’s Day there were 49 shootings resulting in 12 deaths; all black on black crime.

But a white (actually, not even white, hispanic) man shoots one black kid, and it is a public frenzy.

And it’s such a big deal because people WANT TO MAKE IT A BIG DEAL.

The only reason that this story became such a public fiasco is because of the victim mentality that’s been shoved down our throats by people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, both national public figures who have poured fuel on the fire of this whole case.

And what about all of the protesters who preach “Justice for Trayvon.”?

Why not, “Justice!”?

Since when did justice bias itself for one person and against another? It’s supposed to be fair, balanced, and logical.

But these protesters aren’t thinking logically.

Their battle cry continues to be anti-racism in an event that wasn’t even racially motivated.

Their means to achieve “justice” are intimidation, death threats, and yelling as loud as they can in every media outlet available.

And the media have been more than receptive of their hate and twisted justice, as it was the media who lynched Zimmerman on our TV screens without ever hearing his side of the story.

Zimmerman has been accused of being a racist, but the real racist of this story isn’t George Zimmerman, it’s the segregationist mob that insists that this was a race-motivated hate crime despite the massive amounts of evidence of the contrary.

The real racists of this story are all the people who don’t want justice for the situation, but justice for their favorite color–no matter what shade.