When walking into the elementary music room filled with little kids giggling and having fun in an activity led by their new teacher, Mrs. Ross, you would never expect that this same bubbly girl was into heavy metal music and bands like Memphis Mayfire. Mrs. Ross is one of the new additions to the Beechwood faculty this year taking on the roles of elementary music teacher, high school choir teacher, co-director of the musical, and color guard coach. With this busy schedule, she made time to answer these following questions and let the Beechwood community learn a little bit about her.
Mrs. Ross sitting at her desk.
Why did you choose to become a teacher?
Simple answer: I fell in love with music and when I was 11, my choir teacher helped me through a really hard time and that helped me decide that I wanted to do that for other girls when I was older.
Do you have a preference of teaching elementary or high school kids?
I just wanted to teach music. No matter what grade I'm just really happy to be teaching music. Where did you go to high school? Conner Where did you go to college? NKU What did you think of Beechwood before you came? Has that changed? I knew that the marching band was awesome and that has not changed. Play any instruments? The ones I play or the ones I play well? I play every band instrument, piano, all wood, all brass, violin, cello, percussion. Best concert you have ever been to? Bogarts. For Today, The World Alive, Memphis May Fire were playing. Favorite food? French fries *no hesitation Favorite restaurant? Friday's As the interview concluded, a few of Mrs. Ross's friends and colleagues came into her room. She joked with them how she was getting interviewed and "finally made it big time." Mrs. Ross is full of unexpected talents and hobbies and makes a great addition to the Beechwood community.
Lauren Suchanek, Junior
Senior Interview
Cooper Yelton and his close friend Holly Murphy
Senior year is the beginning of the end of high school. It's a time where you reflect back on your past years. Maybe you wish you did things differently or regret something you never got the chance to do. Soon your life will be very much different.
Camporosso is an upscale, up and coming restaurant located on Dixie Highway near Kokonut Joe’s—hoping to open its doors around Thanksgiving. Camporosso, which loosely translates to Redfield in Italian, offers authentic Neapolitan pizza cooked in a wood fired oven.
The pizzeria will be upscale casual. The restaurant’s founder, Eric Redfield, describes Camporosso as “a community gathering place—perfect for date night.” Not only will the diners enjoy the ambiance, but they can also watch “every step of the artisan pizza process” from the chef’s counter.
Redfield, a former corporate vice president for North American Healthcare and the Department of Defense, is no stranger to the pizza business. Redfield was certified while attending the United States branch of the Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli in San Francisco. Redfield’s wife, Amy, will also be attending the Associatione Vera Pizza Napoletana in LA—the most respected Italian pizza training school in the world—to obtain her certification in Pizzaoli.
The restaurant’s interior will consist of “a lot of wood and Italian marble” and boast an imported wood fire oven from Italy in the center. The unique oven will cook your made-to-order pizza in 120-150 seconds after being placed in 900-degree heat to ensure the fresh crispiness we all know and love.
The gourmet pizzas will consist of all fresh ingredients including hand stretched mozzarella cheese that is made on sight daily! Perhaps even more exciting than the aforementioned ingredients is that it will only cost $10-18.
After interviewing both the owner and his son, it appears that the main focus of the restaurant is to provide a one-of-a-kind dining experience coupled with a modern take on an ancient idea of making pizza all while staying in Fort Mitchell, KY.
Camporosso will offer a catering service and part time employment opportunities for local students. A job fair will be held about a month before opening day to learn more.
Lauren Ratliff, Senior
"Real" Haunted House
The chimney standing out of the remains of the Chambers house.
Chambers Road in Walton, Kentucky, is a long stretch of road lined by an odd mix of both subdivisions and farms, only scary if your fears include lots of grass and the occasional child. However, the road is said to have a very dark past, complete with it's very own haunted house. The Chambers Road House isn't haunted like Land Of Illusion or U.S.S Nightmare with people in costumes and fake saws to scare your girlfriend into huddling up close to you like in a horror movie. In fact, most people have no idea what is said to have happened in the house, or about the cold case murder than happened right on the street in front of it.
View of the still-standing house on Google Maps, Aug 2007
If you're not looking for the house as you drive down the winding road, you'll miss it. That's because right now it's less of a house and more of a hole in the ground with a chimney standing out eerily right in the middle. it sits right on what was 481 Chamber's Road, although there's no marking as to the address. It's obscured by tall but thin trees and grass from the gravel drive way. The house wasn't always this way, and on Google Maps you can see the way the house was nine years ago, still standing empty. It looks like something out of a horror movie, a small white house with a brown, red roof and dark windows. Rumors say the house burned down, but there's no mention of a fire in any news paper articles and it doesn't look burnt. It was probably just collapsed from age and lack of care, or torn down by who ever owns the land, tired of being bothered by ghost hunting teenagers. The barn is barely visible behind the overgrowth, and both buildings are sitting on a large plot of land - mostly dead grass with a few visible trees. of course, when you take into account the photo was probably taken some time in the autumn, its a bit less eerie and more natural. Joshua Smith, who has visited the house on three occasions but only been inside once, said, "The house doesn't feel haunted. There's no such things as ghosts."
The barn of the chamber's road house
Depending on who you ask, the Chamber's House story can take a few different turns. In the most popular version, a man came home from World War Two to his little Kentucky home, complete with his wife and his three daughters. His wife and his daughters were not excited about his return - because either they had been living with a different man, or because he was an abusive alcoholic (again, depending on the story) - and made a plan to leave in the night. The father, rather than lose his family, decided to kill them. He shot two of the daughters in their bedroom, and the wife and his third daughter downstairs, before hanging himself in the bar. In other versions, he kills them one by one in the barn, and one of the daughters escapes, and is then caught and killed in the tunnel under I-71. However, no amount of searching can turn anything up abut a murder in the house. While the story is interesting, and a fun way to scare your friends, there is no police report or even a newspaper article to verify the story. It's nothing more than an urban legend.
The tunnel under I-71, where one of the daughters was rumored to have been killed.
The lack of murders inside the house doesn't necessarily mean that it's not haunted. According to Kentucky State Police, the remains of a Dixie Heights High School Student were found on the road. The student's name was never released, but the remains were found in 1976, forty years ago. The case went cold, the murderer was never found. "I feel like it has something to do with the person who killed his family. It will never get solved," Josh said. That's probably true enough, the case is 40 years old and has mostly been forgotten. Whether or not it has anything to do with the last residents of the house, though, is debatable. The rumor carries that the house was abandoned in the late 80's, nearly ten years later.
All that's left standing of the house - the basement walls and the chimney
It's safe to say no one was murdered in the Chamber's house, despite pictures and blog articles claiming to have seen blood in the kid's room, bullet holes, and angry ghosts. At the best, it's people trying to scare their friends. People like to be scared, we devote holidays to it and no place is more suited for a myth about the wrongful death of bitter ghosts than an abandoned house. Slap on some red paint and you have a believable ghost story, it no one bothers to fact check it. Cincinnati has hundreds of haunted attractions, both real places with real murders - like Bobby Mackey's Music World - and totally made up attractions like Land Of Illusion. But if Cincinnati is already crawling with ghosts, why lie about a new one? "To scare their friends, and have fun," was Josh's answer, "The adrenaline rush is kinda cool. You might find something in a real haunted house instead of a fake one."
Katrina Campbell, Junior
Seven-year-old Bana tweets her life in besieged Aleppo
A screenshot of Bana's twitter
Over the past days, bombs have rained down upon the ruins of eastern Aleppo – the besieged districts of Syria’s largest city. Negotiationed by Washington and Moscow, a ceasefire fell apart in mutual recrimination when Russian or Syrian jets bombed an aid convoy to opposition-held areas that had been approved by Damascus. Since then, an arsenal that includes powerful power buster bombs, barrels filled with explosives, phosphorus and cluster munitions have been deployed on civilian neighborhoods in an apparent bid to force their surrender ahead of a ground operation. Seven-year-old Bana al-Abed broadcasts her daily life on her and her mother's Twitter account, @alabedbana, which now has more than 4,000 followers since they began tweeting on 24 September with the singular message: “I need peace,” Bana and Fatemah offer snippets of life under the bombs, and images of the carnage in their city interspersed with videos of Bana drawing with her friends or learning English. After reading the tweets and seeing the pictures of the family, Matt Pugh had comments on the issue: "It's easy to forget that these big political decisions affect real people and seeing how people react really puts you in their shoes."
Lauren Reed, Senior
Teen Space: Out of This World Every Monday and Wednesday from 4:30 to 6pm, the Kenton County Library hosts a program called Teen Space. Teen Space is an after-school program that encourages both kids and teens to go to the library to play video games, do their homework, and hang out with friends. Students from Beechwood, Dixie, and Lloyd go to Teen Space meetings
Kenton County Library entrance.
The meeting room for Teen Space is very spacious, with folding tables and chairs set up, a video game playing on the projection screen, and snacks splayed out on a nearby table. The whole room is split in half with a fold-able wall separating Meeting Room A and B. Backpacks and purses are splayed on chairs or dropped onto the floor. A cart with tubs of supplies, board games, and books balanced on it is near the door. When you walk in, someone who works at the library says hello and helps you feel at ease.
Some members of Teen Space: Chase Reynolds, Marie Adamick, Aaron, and Donovan.
The most notable part of Teen Space is the video games. Every meeting, a group of 8 girls and boys, ranging from 8 to 19 years old, will play Super Smash Brothers. They often become loud and rowdy after just a few rounds of the game. The video games most often selected are Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Bros, and Just Dance. The most popular is Smash Bros. While Super Mario Bros and Just dance are hardly ever played.
Super Smash Bros. One of the most popular games at the library.
Grapes, Cookies, soda, and water are the most common snacks offered at Teen Space. Sometimes, especially if there's anime club afterwards, they offer Japanese treats; These treats can include Pocky and Ramune soda and are offered near the end of the meeting. The soda bottle is very interesting because there is no twist-able cap, like American sodas. Instead, there is a glass marble in the top that has to be forced into the bottle. It also can't be resealed, which is very unusual.
Ramune Soda
Sometimes, the meeting starts off on a calmer note, crafting tissue-paper flowers or making buttons. The video games are turned off and put away, and the supplies are put out on the tables. Last week's meeting had everyone making tissue paper flowers and drawing. Blue and yellow tissue paper and green pipe cleaners were the supplies used to make the flowers.
"My favorite part of Teen Space is hanging out with my friends!," declared Chase Reynolds, a student at Beechwood High School. Chase goes to the meetings as often as he can, however, sometimes his play schedule won't let him go to the library. He has made a lot of new friends and always encourages students at Beechwood to participate.
Chase Reynolds dabbing after the interview
Sam Lewis, another student at Beechwood, loves going to Teen Space. He likes to play the piano in the back of the room, yesterday he was playing Hallelujah on the piano while he sang. His favorite part of Teen Space is playing the piano and hanging out with his friends.
Sam Lewis playing the library's Piano. (Picture taken by Chase Reynolds)
"Teen Space has been around since at least 2008," LeAnn Combs speculated. LeAnn Combs is one of the primary Teen Space curators, she helps make sure that everything runs smoothly. When asked if the job was difficult, she said, "It can be difficult to manage, especially with twenty or more kids here. Sometimes they run around and jump onto each other." Her favorite part of working at Teen Space is that she can meet new people and that it's not forced or stilted, like a classroom usually is.
Teen Space is a fun place to hang out with your friends, and make some new ones after school. Teen Space is where you can get your homework done and is a good place to hang out for two hours on a Monday or Wednesday. Everyone should go at least once, and experience the weekly activities.
Alicia Lueke, Senior
Hillary Vs. Trump
Last Monday, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump finally went head to head in the first presidential debate. Expectations were at an all time high, and CNN’s promo for the event definitely showed these expectations.
Even before the debate, the candidates were trying to psych each other out. Clinton invited another billionaire, Dallas Cowboys owner Mark Cuban, to sit in the front row. Trump, not to be outdone, invited a woman who had previously had an affair with Bill Clinton.
As the debate went on, it became quite obvious that Hillary had prepared, and Trump had not. Hillary was poised, smiling, and each answer rolled off of her tongue like she’d said it a thousand times. She rarely spoke out of turn, and through the debate she had one misleading statistic and one flat out incorrect fact. Trump wasn’t the exact opposite, but he was fairly close. He was friendlier than usual in the beginning, but he quickly resorted to getting his two cents in whenever he could. Sometimes they made Clinton look bad, but they usually made him look worse.
When Clinton said that he’d hoped that the market would crash in 2008 so that he could buy cheap property, he said, “That’s called business by the way.”
When Clinton said that he paid nothing and federal taxes, with nothing to soldiers, veterans, or education, he said, “That’s smart.”
If Trump is trying to convince the middle class that he represents them despite being a billionaire, then he’s not doing a good job. The fact that he saw the biggest economic crash in modern history, one that caused thousands of people to lose their jobs, as an opportunity to increase his wealth won’t make a good impression on voters.
Clinton didn’t stumble, and the Trump’s complete denial of things he’s done in the past made it hard to make her seem unreliable, but there were several times when her comments were misleading. For example, she compared her and Trumps economic plan and said that hers would create 10 million jobs, while Trumps would lose about 5 million. The report she based these figures on also said that the economy would grow by 7 million jobs without her, but that under Trumps plan, the country will still lose about 3 million jobs.
Trump also got one fact right about New York crime, specifically the murders. In the past two years, the murder rate went slightly up. However, the rate is still far below what it was 20 years ago, and this spike is anomaly of the overall downward trend that crime has followed since the 90’s.
A Beechwood Trump supporter who watched the debate thought that Hillary Clinton won, due to Hillary's "lack of full on attacks of Trump. However, they also think the debate was unfair. Trump wasn't asked about his policy so much as he was about his various scandals, while "Lester didn't even ask Hillary about Benghazi." People who don't like Trump can also agree that it did seem like Trump was being attacked more, but the Hillary supporter explained it away. "Trump has more scandal, more controversy, and to be fair, his policies aren't very clear either."Economically, "The wealthy are the back bone of this country, they're the ones that pay for everything." and so the trickle down plan makes sense. The Hillary supporter was happy with the debate. "Hillary got her points across, she showed her experience, and her preparation paid off."
In summary, Hillary was prepared. Her words were carefully chosen, her points were carefully made and clear. Trump, albeit the most composed he’s been, forgot to reiterate the traits that make him so popular with his base. His lack of PC, and his middle classed targeted message were lost.. Hillary was smiling, laughing, and not coughing. She was confident. Trump was frowning; he was gulping down water, and sniffling. At the end of the day, Hillary is experiences, she knows how to present herself, and if Trump wants to beat her, he’s going to have to step up to her level.
