Top 10 stories of 2019

For most, marriage is a union between two people who love each other romantically and wish to legally bind their relationship. For senior Seaira Knight and junior Lana Hughes, marriage is the union and celebration of two best friends.  Knight and Hughes plan to wed in the theater at 7:05 a.m. Dec. 20. This wedding will not be legally ordained. “It’s going to be a comedic kind of thing...

“I've known since I was really little. I've just never had an attraction to guys. I've never thought of dating guys. Then I found out there was a word for that in fifth grade.” Freshman Rainier Neuwirth-Deutsch falls somewhere on the gender spectrum between male and female. They identify as non-binary and gay, coming out to their friends and family when they were 11 years old. “[After coming out,] it felt like a giant weight off my shoulders like nothing was going to like hold or push ...

At the beginning of boys swim season, sophomore Will Bonnett imagined he would be training for the first meet with his teammates, not in recovery after emergency ear surgery.  The surgery, originally planned as a postseason operation, grafted skin from behind Bonnett’s ear onto his eardrum to help his ear heal back together. This forced Bonnett to recover outside of the water for the first half of...

It all started with a lunch date in Madrid, talking about archaeology and boasting about raising chickens. Traveling and learning different languages and cultures brought Spanish teachers Francisco and Dominique Navarro’s journeys together. As a child, learning Spanish did not start out as an interest for D. Navarro as it did for her husband F. Navarro. Her family moved to Puerto Rico when she w...

During the second play of the varsity football game against Oakville, junior Tim Nelson began running to the left to get off the block. As he carried the ball to make a cut to the right, his foot got stuck in the turf. “When I tripped and fell, some people rolled over my knee,” Nelson said.  He knew it was a serious accident. “I was on the ground, and then screaming," Nelson said. "I was ...

Preparing consent and release forms, standardized test scores and recommendation letters, College and career secretary Lauren Rowe is bombarded with paperwork starting Nov. 1. Within the Parkway School District’s academic resources, West is one of two high schools without a college counselor. Rowe’s role is to process the application paperwork. However, Parkway Central’s college counselor ...

From owning an electric car to a home garden, the Gillespie family invests in reducing their carbon footprint. Freshman Ashlyn Gillespie and her family are taking the next step in helping the environment by having solar panels installed at their house. The 22 solar panels are expected to be installed by December. “Last week, we signed a contract, and they put in the order for the panels themse...

For many student athletes, high school careers leading up to college generally follow a similar process. Playing professional soccer added a unique twist to the process for senior Jansen Miller. Since eighth grade, Miller has been playing professional soccer for STLFC (St. Louis Football Club). Miller started out training with the academy team, playing alongside kids his age, but in September of 2018, Jansen was re...

Graduating in 1989 and continuing his baseball career into professional game, alumni Sherron Rives is now giving back to his community by teaching the game to youth players in the St. Louis area. “I was able to play professionally in the minor leagues for the Detroit Tigers organization. I wouldn’t change that experience for anything in the world,” Rives said. “I had a chance to play with so...