I’m Grace, your newsletter editor, here to provide you with a weekly line to all things The North Star and news. We’ll keep you updated about what’s going on in Naperville North, the local area and break down the big stories of the week.
Here are this week's local stories:
A Chicago Marathon runner breaks a new record
On Sunday Oct. 9, 31-year-old Emily Sisson broke the female American marathon record with a time of 2 hours 18 minutes and 29 seconds at the Chicago Marathon.
The marathon hosted over 40,000 runners from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. With optimal weather and a relatively flat course, conditions were ideal for record breaking times.. Although Sisson ran the fastest American time, she did not win the female race. Ruth Chepngetich, a runner from Kenya, won with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 18 seconds.
There were also teenagers from Naperville who ran and finished the marathon: 17-year-olds Sydney Philo and Megan Anderson who attend Metea Valley High School and Naperville Central High School, respectively. Both runners ran for Team World Vision, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing people with access to clean water, successfully helping 3.4 million people worldwide.
In NNHS news
- The Supreme Court recently announced changes to prayer in school. Read the timeline of the case and it’s relation to District 203 here.
- NNHS Cross Country teams hosted the annual Twilight meet. Read the recap here.
- Attention Seniors applying to college! If you want to change or adjust anything about your second semester schedule, do so by Friday, Nov. 18. You may have to reach out to the colleges you have applied to to make them aware of the changes.
District 203 will vote on the removal of Latin
The District 203 school board will vote on the phasing out of Latin language classes for the 2023-24 school year at the next board meeting on Monday, Oct. 17.
The decision follows the decreasing student enrollment in Latin classes throughout the district.. Currently, there are only 20 students enrolled in Latin 1 at Naperville Central High School, and 0 students at Naperville North.
The decreased enrollment have resulted in both NNHS and NCHS combining Latin 3 and 4 courses into one class ( 28 students and 13 students in Latin 3 and 4, respectively).
Another factor behind the potential removal is that Latin may not be as useful for future employability as other languages. Counselors at both schools have found that colleges would like to see more students enrolled in Asian or European courses.
If Latin is cut, the current students in Latin 1 would be able to cycle through the course up through Latin 4, but no new students would be enrolled into the Latin program.
Weekend Update: Your one-stop guide to a great weekend
- Looking for Halloween fright? Look no further than All Hallows Eve at Naper Settlement from 6:30 p.m. -10:30 p.m. It’s $20 per person or free for children under 4.3
- Do you enjoy horror movies or independent films? Come to Naperville’s Devil Dog Sci-Fi and Horror Fest on Oct. 15 from 4-11 p.m. at the Northern Illinois University Convention Center. It’s $25 per person to see all the frights you could wish for!
- Love to run? Join the Naperville Half Marathon and 5k on Sunday, October 16th. Registration packets for runners are available for pickup from October 14th to October 15th, up until 4:30 p.m. There is a $30 registration fee.
- Looking for some live entertainment this weekend? On Saturday, Oct. 15, the Illinois branch of the American Choral Directors Association will put on a performance by the Illinois Honors All-State Show Choir. The event will be held at Naperville North High School in the North Performing Arts Center. The show is set to begin at 4 p.m. and tickets cost $7 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens.
Spotlight: Creative Writing Club
Naperville North is home to a variety of unique clubs, classes, students and teachers. Each week, Polaris will be featuring one of the activities, individuals or events that make up North’s unique community. This week: Creative Writing Club.
Started in 2007 by Communication Arts teacher Brian South, Creative Writing Club meets every Friday morning to write, share and critique each other’s work.
The club was formed to provide more opportunities for students to experiment with different styles of writing. Although Creative Writing is a class offered to seniors, the opportunities for underclassmen to practice creative writing skills are limited. South started the club after noticing a persistent interest among his students.
“I know that a number of my students really enjoyed creative writing and especially as underclassmen, they really didn’t have a lot of chance[s] to do that in class, it’s mostly essays and non fiction writing…it’s just a chance to exercise different writing abilities,” South said.
With a weekly turnout ranging anywhere between eight to 20 students, the club has remained active and beloved by North students for the past 15 years. Senior and Co-President of the club Luke Lipien says that he learned about the club at Freshman Jamboree.Since joining, Lipien has found it to be a good way to relax and enjoy himself during the week.
“I have certainly gotten a lot of laughs and friends out of the club. It's also a nice general brain break and a way to exercise the writing brain that is built into my week,” Lipien said.
When the club meets, they often write flash-fiction, where members are given prompts and short spans of time to write about whatever they want. Some past examples are “Genre Swap” where members wrote a character from a horror movie into a romantic setting and “Terrible Product Pitches” where students had to write sales pitches for undesirable products. Lipien says he’s looking forward to this year’s rendition of the pitches.
“Everyone's terrible products are always hilarious, and I'm excited to see this year's iteration on the topic,” Lipien said.
If you want to experiment with your writing skills, Naperville North’s Creative Writing Club meets every Friday morning in room 248.
“We invite all sorts of people [who] are interested in all sorts of types of writing,” South said.
Here's what's going on nationally:
Amazon is facing a lawsuit for the death of two teens
Amazon is being sued due to the selling ‘suicide kits’ to children. The parents of 16-year old Kristine Jónsson and 17-year-old Ethan McCarthy are suing Amazon for selling sodium nitrite, a substance typically used at low concentrations to cure certain meats. If ingested, sodium nitrate can cause serious harm, such as trouble breathing, abdominal pain and death.
Sodium nitrate, like other household items, can easily be purchased. During the pandemic, teen suicide rates coincided with the increase of sodium nitrate sales.
A similar situation occurred in Washington state where a complaint was filed alleging that Amazon sold sodium nitrate to a teenage boy and a man in his late twenties. In a later statement, Amazon sent their “deepest condolences” and made it clear that they require all sellers to abide by laws and regulations of the site. Loudwolf, the company that produced the sodium nitrate, is no longer selling on Amazon.
This week's Polaris was written by Grace, Arden, Will and Bella
Encourage your friends to receive Polaris! Add their email to this form.
Suggestions? Email: geainger@stu.naperville203.org
Credits:
Created with an image by NotjungCG - "Night sky with stars sparkling on black background"