Head dance coach Brooke Parlin advanced to the semi-finals for the annual Texas Dance Educators Association (TDEA) Director of the Year award in the last week of August. Parlin originally received the nomination for the award at the TDEA convention in January 2023 and progressed to the top nine dance coaches in the state of Texas.  Parlin’s former assistant...

High school students often have questions about endorsements and what purpose they serve. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) determines an endorsement as a set of courses that allows a student in high school to explore areas of interest they might have. Mansfield ISD requires all eighth-grade students to take a semester-long Career Pathways course, in which they are introduced to and pick their future high school endorsement. At the end of the course, they meet with lead counselor Dana Vorsino and other counselors to secure their endorsement and establish their schedules.  “An endorsement is kind of like picking a...

Men and women competing in the same sports is nothing new, dating back to the 1900 Olympics. Back then it arose as a controversy, and today it remains a controversy. People have continued to debate this for a while, but now we ponder the question of if they should exist. No, they should not, and it’s seen throughout sports, including the fairness of the sports, the health of the participants, and the overall effect on the sports. According to the National Institutes of Health, biological males have more testosterone, muscle, and mass while females are generally smaller, less muscular, and hold a higher percentage of fat. When analyzing these factors it is unsafe for a woman to compete with a man in a physically demanding sport, for example, boxing. When women acquire and consume/take testosterone to compete with males, many adverse side effects heavily affect the female body including an agitated mood, bloating, pelvic cramping, increased estrogen levels, and much more. When presented with factors such as these, the health risk is no longer worth the reward of a win in...