Party politics aside, Trump used his position of power to pressure Ukraine to discredit his Democratic political rival, Joe Biden. During this call, Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military assistance and a white house meeting. When Congress sought to investigate his phone call, Trump told his...

Senior Sarah Weissend stands on the empty, foreign stage and faces the panel in front of her. Her neutral clothes and the music sitting in her memory are all that accompanied her. She stares into the crowd of collegiate vocal staff and, as she sings her first note, hopes her performance will earn her...

Senior Harmoni Turner slams against the ground, knee first. Pain shoots through her body as she moves to the bench. However, the excruciating physical pain does not compare to the terror she feels as she realizes all of the opportunities given to her could have just slipped away. This fear propels her...

The scorching heat sears into the back of senior Mia Retnam’s neck as she lifts her racket and swings. She endures the heat to contribute to her team’s undefeated season.  After a month of summer practice and a new coach, the varsity tennis team remains undefeated for its fall season.  “As...



  StuCo will host the annual senior sunrise for the class of 2020 on Aug. 19 at 6:30 a.m. at the Legacy football fields. Students are encouraged to bring blankets, and StuCo will provide a cereal bar and donuts. This tradition symbolizes the start of a senior's last year of grade school. At the...

As students file into the PAC during second period on Thursday, Feb. 14, a screen above the stage displays a yellow and brown book cover titled: The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The author and speaker, Tim Madigan, stands below it and observes his audience of students...

I walk into the waiting room and grimace. A man fiddles with an e-cigarette and a lady smothered in tattoos engulfs the seat below her and a teenage girl drips in black clothing. They are the kind of people I would avoid on the street or in the hallway. But I am one of them. In the fall of 2017,...

Three adults sit in desks at the back of a bare classroom. Exhausted, senior Natalie Pixler walks in. The adults nod, indicating she can begin. She pushes back the wrinkles in her black pantsuit and gray blouse. She inhales the stale air, and begins her speech. Pixler competes in Original Oratory:...

The smell of warm cinnamon, sugar and icing fills sophomore Landry Parlin’s nose. Parlin enjoys the sweet aroma more than anything else in his business. Parlin began his cinnamon roll business last year. He sells them during the holidays to people in the Mansfield area. “I just like how everything...

Our generation loves to tweet about politics. People love to make jokes about republicans or democrats. Society loves the drama- heated debates and obnoxious tweets. But they do not love people. This mindset resembles exactly the message Suzanne Collins expresses in The Hunger Games. In the story,...

As a child, Pamela Jo* remembers chasing butterflies with her best friend in a field behind her house. She remembers the soccer and dance trophies on the dresser across from her oak bunk bed. She remembers watching Kim Possible in her living room with its bark-colored walls and grand stone fireplace.  And...

Theater started their mainstage season Oct. 18 with “Peter and the Starcatcher”: the prologue to Peter Pan. The show follows “a boy named orphan” who, through intense challenges and tough realizations, grows to be the well-known leader of the Lost Boys.   The story keeps the audience engaged...

Anxiety consumes freshman McKenzie Canton as she stares out the window. A white car pulls up, and an exhausted, worn-looking child gets out. Canton rushes to the door to welcome the newest member of her family. Canton’s family fosters children aging from a few months to four years. They, along...

Senior Ashley Owens stands in the small office– a white printer on her left, and a black bookshelf full of photography equipment on the right. As she answers the phone call, the words spoken bring tears to her eyes. She made it. Owens received a full-ride scholarship to attend the University of...

Four art students-- senior Ashley Owens, senior Destiny Boland, senior Emma Randall and sophomore Amiya Jenkins-- earned medals for their work at the state VASE, Visual Arts Scholastic Event, competition on Friday, April 27 in San Marcos. “I was really surprised when I got [to state] because everything...

In all of these tragedies, one thing stands clear: the answer to guns is not more guns. Armed teachers will not solve the problem of school shootings. As Assistant Principal Leonard Cousins explains, they would increase danger during regular school days and create more chaos during a shooting situation....

As Julia Atwood* holds the piece of metal to her lips, a rare sense of calm washes over her. But the chemicals she inhales only temporarily distract her from her current mental pain - and future physical deterioration. About one in 10 high school students have used electronic cigarettes. Despite...

The end of the day bell did not phase the students in the choir room. Instrumental music consumed the scene, the stereo bass shook the walls as poised singing and dancing made the room radiate with emotion and creativity. Within the space of an hour, a small group of students transformed a set of...

Each year, MISD spends thousands of dollars on technology, sports equipment and supplies. Yet, one of the most basic, and scarcest, commodities on earth costs more than all of them: energy.   In June 2012, MISD partnered with an energy conservation company to decrease overall utility usage and operations...

Walls of lab safety posters, countertops of beakers and lines of desks make Ms. Michelle Hurst’s physics classroom appear like any other. However, the upturned chairs, toy cars and strips of rubber which cover the otherwise mundane lab tables make the room radiate with a unique sense of enjoyment,...

In 2016, MISD pulled a speech credit from the debate class because the district receives money for each student enrolled in a Professional Communications class. Even though debate meets all the state-mandated requirements of a speech class, the class doesn’t receive funding. The decision fostered criticism...

Dads at Mary Jo Sheppard Elementary, Nancy Neal Elementary, Donna Shepard Intermediate and Linda Jobe Middle greet students with high fives and stickers as they walk through the doors in the morning. Mr. Chad Lovell, the lead volunteer of the program, stands at one of the doors with a smile on his face...

Christmas looms closer every day. A lack of cold weather, stress about upcoming finals and an immersion in Halloween and Thanksgiving can distract us from the most important part of the holidays: the Christmas spirit. Traditions, both old and new, exist to enhance the Christmas spirit and experience. 12...

On October 26th, the Center for Performing Arts held 117 colleges. The MISD College and Career Night offered something unique for each student--the promise of extra credit for some and the hope of clarity about their future for others. These students filed into the glass doors of The Center and teachers...

Sophomore JenniLee Johnson stares into the busy room in front of her. Fear of the large crowd, passion for what she does and ambition to do well all contribute to the adrenaline rush she feels as she begins her performance. Johnson performs hour-long singing gigs at local restaurants once a month...

The world gets worse every day. Even as someone who loves the news and loves politics, I recently got to the point where following current events became too disturbing to handle. It became painful to open twitter, painful to turn on the tv and painful to live in a world seemingly lacking any good. Then...

Seniors Logan Taylor and Austin Van Zandt took eighth place out of 217 schools at their first regional fishing tournament on Sept. 23. They plan to attend more competitions throughout the season through the club they founded last year. “[The tournament] was good it helped us be more [confident]...

Local gas stations have run out of unleaded fuel after rumors of a gas shortage because of  Hurricane Harvey. Mansfield residents hurry to fuel up as prices rise and local gas stations close their pumps. “People are flocking to get gas because it’s all over the news,” Juliana Lazarky, Manager...

Club/Sport Yearbook Why We Do It “I do yearbook to find the stories that are in the school and meet new people in and outside of the journalism room.” Abby Greenman, 12 Time/Days/Where We Meet Yearbook meets during 7th period in EO-102 What Other Students Think We Do “People think...

Club/Sport Choir Why We Do It “I enjoy choir because I am surrounded by an amazing group of people who all share a love of music like I do. Whenever I’m having a bad day, I know I can always find love and positivity in the choir room.” Jennilee Johnson, 12. Time/Days/Where We Meet Chamber...