
They say it will never happen to us. Our fears are silenced; worries reassured. But they have scared us from turning our backs in an open room....

Slurs and hateful words are spray-painted across colorful pride murals. Articles flood news sites as another LGBTQ+ club shooting is announced....
![Tilting their head patiently, senior Macy Ziegler gets their face painted in the library in preparation for the Spring Pep Rally. The library invited students to come in during lunch and paint each other’s faces West-themed for the event. “[The event] sounded fun. [Face painting] is a thing I havent done since I was eight, and I had a friend who wanted to go, so I figured, why not? Its free,” Ziegler said. “I hung out in the library before school a lot last year with my friends, and I enjoyed it.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/DSC_0061-1-900x600.jpg)
In late March, Missouri’s House of Representatives motioned and approved to allocate $0 to public libraries in the next state-operating budget....

They say it will never happen to us. Our fears are silenced; worries reassured. But they have scared us from turning our backs in an open room....
![Missouri residents gather to protest the signing of an anti-trans bill proposed by the Republican Senate. The proposed bill would ban transgender girls from participating in youth sports on girls teams. “At least in the past, laws have only tried to prevent transgender [students] from participating in certain activities, which is already scary,” senior Quinn Gilles said. “Transgender minors barely have any rights, [but] when you thought it couldn’t get worse, now laws are preventing us from being ourselves.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/FeaturedPhto-900x600.webp)
Living one's truth is a fundamental right, but for many transgender youths in our community, this prerogative is becoming a privilege. Stigma,...

Disclaimer: This article mentions diet culture, mental illness and eating disorders. It is as simple as “normal” actions: a teen finishing...

In 2022, 424 Parkway West students took 801 Advanced Placement (AP) examinations, meaning that most took two or more tests, and over a third...

Disclaimer: To protect student identity, certain sources have been given different names. We see the happy-go-lucky attitude daily in our...