LEGACY WALK

03

GRAFFITI
08

Set to be completed with the new

addition, The Legacy Walk will
honor alumni as well as create a
more professional and appealing
campus.

LYDIA KANG
15

Local author visits Central

to discuss the new release
of her sci-fi book, Control.
Kang doubles as a
physician as well as an
author.

Taggers with good intentions

should not be branded as
criminals. Graffiti adds a
personal touch to the
community.

REGISTER

the
SAFETY ON STANDBY

Omaha Central High School Volume 131, Issue 2 November 5, 2015

Ambulances parked outside local high school football games will no

longer be provided in order to better assist emergencies city-wide

@CHS_Press
The Central
High Register
@chs_press

omahacentralregister.com

Proposed changes
to health curriculum
cause controversy
A l ec Ro m e
web editor

A N N A K A M I N S K I The Register

C ho t e a u K a m mel
executive editor

igh school sporting events, more specifically

football games, can often be very dangerous places. Not to mention the physicality of
the game itself, the packing of hundreds of
adolescents into a compact space carries with itself innate
dangers. To help mitigate these risks and to be prepared for
all contingencies, OPS has benefited greatly from the complementary provision of a waiting ambulance and EMT crew at
many athletic events, however, following this school year, this
service will be terminated and the bill then passed on to the
school district itself.
For the last two decades or so, the Omaha Fire Department (OFD) has placed ambulances on standby along with
EMT crews and firemen at high school sporting events and
games. Recently they were called into action at the CentralCreighton Prep football game in order to evaluate an injured
player. Although this service has been complementary for
around the last two decades, it was revealed in September that
the OFD would no longer provide the service beginning next
year.
This announcement did not come as too much as a surprise, as in the last year OFD had begun to share the service
provision with the private firm Midwest Medical Transport, in

preparation for it taking full control.

The largest reason for OFDs termination of service is
that providing staffed ambulances to sports games diverts
resources away from where they could be needed. In the article detailing their announcement on Mayor Jean Stotherts
website, Fire Chief Bernie Kanger said, Our primary mission
must be to respond quickly to fire and medical emergencies in
progress. As the 911 call volume increases and the requests
for standby service grows, it became necessary to re-evaluate
our policy, apply it consistently, and recommend alternatives
that provide even greater coverage for high school athletic
events.
Amongst these alternatives being considered is a proposed payment system similar to OPSs use of Omaha Police
Department (OPD) personnel. Security from OPD is provided
by off duty officers whose services are exchanged for a fee paid
for by the district.
Along with that proposal, Central Athletic Director Luke
Dillon said, it has been talked about having one ambulance
strategically located between sporting events and different
schools.
With such an overhaul less than a year away, naturally
there were many fears about how athletic emergencies would
CONTINUE TO AMBULANCE
ON PAGE 4

WHATS ON THE WEB

This senior does it
all as co-captain of
the varsity volleyball
team, president of
the O-Club and future
teacher.

ISABELLA MARTELLO

BIAGGIS
REVIEW

This Italian restaurant, just off

of 144th and Dodge, offers
great service and quality meals
that cannot be beat.

omahacentralregister.com

he current curriculum for OPS Human

Growth and Development program has not
been updated since the 1980s. It had drawn few critics until a recent community forum over the update
garnered local headlines. Over 1500 concerned parents
and community members filled the TAC auditorium
to voice their opinion, some more loudly than others.
Now, the school board is taking steps to try and calm
the nerves of a tense parent community.
The community forum that took place on October
20 was expected to be nothing more than a normal
board meeting, planned to take place inside of the TAC
boardroom. After everyone showed up, it had to be
moved to the auditorium, where parents yelled back
and forth for most of the meeting. Karen Spencer-May,
one of the curriculum supervisors of OPS, believes
that the disagreements were largely due to misinformation and differing beliefs. One of the greatest
parts of living in this country is that everyone has a
right to their own beliefs, Spencer-May said. But, it
would also would have been nice for everyone to listen
to each other and to be open to new ideas and beliefs.
This was not present at the forum.
As a way to combat some of the rumors and
misinformation about what the updated curriculum consists of, OPS has posted a frequently asked
questions section on the district website to clearly
state what the standards are planned to be and how
they will be implemented. The district plans to hold
a parent review night in the winter of 2016 to review
some of the possible updates. However, the district
has stayed firm in making sure nothing is final, and
that parent input will remain a key focus for the school
board. There was a community forum that took place
in April 2015, a parent survey was administered by an
outside consultant, as well as what the district claims
to be multiple individual parent meetings and phone
conversations about the updates before October 20s
community forum.
Exactly how these standards will be implemented
into the classroom has not been determined yet, according to Spencer-May. After we receive input for the
proposed standards, we will make adjustments and
begin the next phase of figuring out how to teach it,
Spencer-May said. Once these adjustments are made,
the school board must approve of the curriculum
before it starts being implemented into classrooms. It
may take another few months at least before any real
updates to the existing material is seen by students
and teachers alike. However, once the materials receive
approval, they will be posted on the OPS website for
parents to review.
Abstinence-based education is the foremost principle of Human Growth and Development. But in the
parent survey, 93 percent of those surveyed said that
both abstinence and prevention of pregnancies should
be taught in schools. With Douglas County having one
of the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the
country, an update on ways to prevent pregnancies
is needed and will be a positive experience, according to Spencer-May. Most of the current curriculum
standards cover prevention topics such as condom use,
but other prevention methods such as the Plan B pill
are proposed to be taught about. Those topics were
met with a more mixed response, with 65 percent of
CONTINUE TO HEALTH
ON PAGE 7