![During the 54th annual graduation commencement ceremony at St. Charles Family Arena, principal Jeremy Mitchell applauds cum laude students academic achievement. Mitchell has been the principal at West High for the past 12 years and plans to retire after the 21-22 school year ends. “Kids are good. I get irritated by news reports and friends [who say,] ‘Oh, I couldn’t do it, how do you put up with those high schoolers?’ Are you kidding me? I mean, you guys are great. Anytime I doubt that something happens, and boom. So I think thats the lesson that has been verified and reinforced year after year,” Mitchell said. “Its fun because I have my own children, and when Im with those kids, its kind of the same thing. I just think the teenage years are really interesting. Thats why I work here. I’ve been going to school since 1978, and its just so fun to see the growth in students. So I think my life lesson is learned from that enjoyment.”](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/powmay27.jpg)
![Wearing a bright smile, custodian Sean Smith sits on a bench greeting students in the morning. Smith believed that if the first thing students see when they enter the school is someone saying good morning, it will make their day that much better. “Now, if youre walking up that walkway with an attitude, I want [you] to see a cheery face that says ‘hey, Im glad to see you,’” Smith said.](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/IMG_1186.jpg)
![While taking a selfie, freshman Samir Shaik and his friends try on face masks. Skincare, a prominent part of South Korean culture, was focused on during the club meeting dedicated to the country. “[My friends and I] wanted to try something different in this club. They offered us facemasks and we were just like, ‘Of course we’d [try them]’. I had never tried a face mask and [neither had] some of my friends. So it was a mess trying to put them on, but it was so fun,” Shaik said. “I just love that this moment was captured in a photo.”](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/selfiephotoshopped-300x200.jpg)
![Guilty Pleasures performs at the Red Flag downtown in June. The band was competing in a battle of the bands, which they ended up winning. “There was a crazy crowd, a lot of fun. We got to meet some awesome people and cool bands. I honestly didn’t know if we were going to win — it was so up in the air [and] all the bands were really good,” junior Andrew Martin said.](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/guiltypleasures-300x200.jpeg)
![During the 54th annual graduation commencement ceremony at St. Charles Family Arena, principal Jeremy Mitchell applauds cum laude students academic achievement. Mitchell has been the principal at West High for the past 12 years and plans to retire after the 21-22 school year ends. “Kids are good. I get irritated by news reports and friends [who say,] ‘Oh, I couldn’t do it, how do you put up with those high schoolers?’ Are you kidding me? I mean, you guys are great. Anytime I doubt that something happens, and boom. So I think thats the lesson that has been verified and reinforced year after year,” Mitchell said. “Its fun because I have my own children, and when Im with those kids, its kind of the same thing. I just think the teenage years are really interesting. Thats why I work here. I’ve been going to school since 1978, and its just so fun to see the growth in students. So I think my life lesson is learned from that enjoyment.”](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/powmay27-900x600.jpg)
Save Women’s Sports, a term coined by those who oppose transgender women competing in women’s sports is becoming law. On March 2, State Senator...
![Board member-elect Tiffany Mapp Franklin was recently voted onto the school board as a replacement for Kristy Klein Davis. Davis was offered a job transfer in Florida and had to resign from her position. “I have been asked to run for the past two years, and I was considering it, but I also [was involved] with other activities that took a lot of time, so it wasn’t an ideal moment to run. When this vacancy occurred, it seemed like it was at the right time,” Franklin said.](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/unnamed-5.png)
After 10 years at West, choir teacher Brian Parrish will be transferring to Clayton High School. In Parrish’s last year at West, he and the...
![Sophomore Jade Senseney poses with her brother, sophomore Kayden Senseney and her mother, before attending the Missouri Botanical Gardens Japanese festival. Senseney’s mother wears a Yukata [a traditional summer kimono] as Senseney and her brother wear their Japanese school shirts. “One thing that brings me joy about my heritage and culture is going back to Japan and taking in how others’ lives are, how my grandparents live and understanding their way of life and what’s important to them,” Senseney said.](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/new.jpg)
Uncivilized. The singular word echoes through the heads of countless Middle Easterners, used yet again by the West against people of color. But,...
![Staff Sergeant and U.S. Army recruiter Krystal Currin presents her recruitment station outside the cafeteria. Currin, who usually works in the IT field, has been in the Army for 12 years and hopes to retire in eight. “Im here to provide information [and] open up more career opportunities [for] students,” Currin said.](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/66B1385B-8077-4490-9528-4BA22BFBF752-900x675.jpeg)
![“The most influential people in my life would have to be my mom and dad. They have been through so much and helped me through so much. They inspire me every day, and I can not thank them enough. I don’t know what I would do without them. They taught me how to be a better person and how to survive in this world. When my grandma died, it left a big dent in my life, [making] me feel sad and upset. I felt like I couldn’t do anything. [So] I turned to my parents to help me get through it, and they talked to me and helped me. They are two of the most hard-working people I have ever met. They started a new business, and seeing them get through all of the bumps in the road and grow the business inspired me to persevere through everything.”
- Eva Frazer, 9](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image1-14-675x900.jpg)
![“Swimming has impacted my life because I am just in my happy place when I am at the pool. I could just be sitting on the wall, and I would be having fun hanging out with my teammates. I loved swimming [alongside] my school friends and meeting new people in different grades in high school swim. My favorite part of swimming is the feeling I get while diving in at a meet because my adrenaline is pumping, and all I focus on is how fast I can go to beat the person next to me. One thing that I have been working to achieve is my 100-meter individual medley. It is a few days after I get home from Florida, so I will not get to practice beforehand, which is scary. I have worked hard this season to train for this race.” — Ava Sticht, 9](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image2-6-900x630.jpg)
![“My biggest inspiration would have to be my father. His work ethic is amazing, and he never gives himself a break. He pushes himself to go further than he normally could. He always gives his best and tries to make my siblings and I lives as easy as possible. I admire him a lot because he is a contractor, which means he has a good amount of work to do. Whenever he works a little less on some days, he tries to push even harder the next [day] to make up for it. I try to teach my younger siblings to work just as hard and set a good example myself. I try to keep his lessons with me every day and apply them to my daily life. He is someone that I have looked up to for a long time, and he taught me to appreciate the smallest things in life.” – Tyler Grissom, 9](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image1-11-900x600.jpg)
![“The most stressful thing going on in my life is grades. Teachers put a lot of pressure on me, and they constantly challenge me with homework. I do track currently, and I did cross country during the fall and swimming during the winter. So just all of that can be stressful. There’s a lot of pressure on me from my parents because I feel like they compare everything I do to my [older sister]. Lexi was the first child, [she] was like their norm, and I have a completely different learning strategy than her. She gets things done five months ahead of time. Her room is always tidy and clean, and shes just on top of it all the time. I am the complete opposite. I do things at the last minute, right before its due. I dont keep [my room] clean until I have to. Like my life is unorganized but organized in my way. I’m happy I have my friends and family to help me with all the stress.”
— Sydney Etchason, 9](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image1-6-900x600.jpg)
![“[This season] my ice hockey team, the Rockets, won our state championship. This was my seventh year playing ice hockey, so it was very exciting to win. I remember there were just a few minutes left [of the game], and we were winning by two. The final score ended with 5-3. It was such a good experience with my teammates to play in the championships. My team and I celebrated our win by going out to eat pizza.”. Someone who inspired me to play ice hockey is my dad. [Growing up], he played roller hockey, a sport [similar to ice hockey] but instead, you are on wheels. Now, he is the coach of my ice hockey team and one of my biggest supporters.”
- J.D. Horenkamp, 10](https://PWestPathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image1-13-e1650735572582-900x612.jpg)
Senior Micah Harris’ feet pound quickly on the track, a gust of wind hitting his face. Time rapidly passes as he approaches his last 50 meters....
It’s safe to say our high school experience was like no other. We lived through a pandemic, political chaos and national racial movements....
Making her debut appearance as creator, Quinta Brunson’s “Abbott Elementary” is a show about the good, the bad and the in-between of educating...
