A new Kansas Senate bill exempting schools from state and county COVID-19 orders and allowing students, parents, or staff to request hearings to challenge COVID-19 regulations has forced the district to…

Countless students find themselves at a loss when it comes to figuring out who they are; to many of these students, the LGBTQ community provides a refuge that allows them to uncover more about themselves.
…

At four years old, senior Jon Pursell knew he loved music — but he didn’t know how to work a radio. Unable to listen to his favorite songs on repeat, Pursell noodled around on an old, rickety keyboard…

Planning and Distribution

To get to this point, the district had to collaborate with other schools and determine which teachers would receive the vaccine first

As Johnson County moves…

The Chang’s
In sophomore Sophia Chang’s home, the kitchen is part of the gathering place, a pinch experimental laboratory that has a dash of creativity and a large dose of inspiration. Chang’s father…

Science teachers Julie Roberts, Landra Fair, and Donna Riss explain their experiences while participating in the Moderna COVE Vaccine Study at Johnson County Clin-Trials in Lenexa.

Mill Valley…

With the election right around the corner, many have taken to social media to push others to vote. While much of this has been advocating for specific candidates, a broader push for voting has been the…

There’s no denying that COVID-19 has taken its toll across the country – costing thousands of lives, disrupting the economy and completely altering everyday life. However, in the face of these struggles,…

On March 17, Gov. Laura Kelly ordered K-12 schools across the state to close for the rest of the academic year and transition to remote learning plans. The district was forced to cancel prom and postpone…

Spring athletes stay in touch despite season cancellation

KSHSAA’s decision to cancel all spring sports due to COVID-19 hasn’t stopped athletes from using apps like Zoom and Strava to connect

For…

After returning from a typical Friday at work on March 13, Eric Goodman noticed that something felt wrong with him. Two days prior, he had returned from a business trip in Atlanta that had hosted over…

On Wednesday, April 1, high school students across the district embarked on an unprecedented continuous learning journey that will last for the remainder of the school year. Tuning into classrooms via…

Following Johnson County’s stay-at-home order, which went into effect Tuesday, March 24, students have been forced to stay home and limit their contact with others to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus….

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced an order to shut down all public schools in Kansas for the remainder of the year Tuesday, March 17 to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

According to an email sent…

Each of the four stories below details how the coronavirus pandemic will affect different aspects of life around Mill Valley. Since the virus, and plans to respond to it, are developing rapidly, information…

Culture of Cheating

Many external factors result in students to lean toward cheating to relieve the pressures they face

As time is ticking down, a whole page of the test sits in front of…

Johnson County development company Austin Properties, owned by Greg Prieb, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Shawnee for denying a $50 million project to build multi-family and single-family homes…

Ever since video sites started to take off, YouTube has been making more and more money at the expense of its content Creators and users (YouTube makes around $7.60 every one thousand views while Creators…

The Kaushals

Freshman Amit Kaushal’s family blends American and Indian cultures

Growing up speaking three languages has always been normal to freshman Amit Kaushal. Kaushal speaks Punjabi…

Sophomore Drew Morgan shares his personal story

Morgan sheds light on how racism and stereotypes have impacted his life

An elderly, white man approached the baseball field concession…

Representation in Politics

Despite recent strides, minority students and teachers feel underrepresented in politics

Imagine looking up at your community leaders, at your representatives…

While sitting through another day of AV Production Fundamentals last year, junior Beth Desta got into a heated argument with a boy sitting next to her in class.

Desta doesn’t remember what instigated…

When sophomore Deema Rashid moved to America from Iraq, she felt alienated and left out by an imaginary idea, something that separated her from everyone else. She felt isolated and alone because she was…

I used to hate basketball.

I didn’t understand the rules, or know the players or even really care about the game. I played one season of basketball in elementary school with a church-league team….

After performing in a show at the University of Kansas during his freshman year, senior Tripp Star met his modeling agent who was in the audience of the show. The agent approached Star after the show and…

Social pressures to ‘look pretty’ are part of the problem

With constant pressure to look a certain way from advertisers perpetuating the myth of a “perfect body”, it is no wonder that many students…

Though many STEM classes and extracurriculars have more males than females, junior Courtney Mahugu helped start the Society of Women Engineers while also being a member of the robotics team.

Women in…

Sophomore Derik Bandad has a passion for music and has been playing it nearly his entire life
Since the age of four, when he received his first guitar, sophomore Derik Bandad has had an undeniable love…

Four students in Engineering Design and Development began their year-long project Friday, Nov. 15. Students in this class are required to choose a problem in the world that interests them and find…

By day, paraprofessional Robin Roberts helps students with special needs do their classwork. By night, when many other professionals head home for the night, Roberts works her second job at Embellish Boutique,…

Mill Valley, along with the rest of the nation, faces a mental health crisis of massive proportions. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in six children between six and 17 experience…

The USD 232 school district was among the first across the nation to take such public and decisive action against e-cigarettes as its lawsuit against Juul Labs, Inc. However, the district’s objectives…

One July evening, while sitting in De Soto senior Chase Culver’s living room, senior Maddie Valencia and Culver discussed creating a public Instagram account to provide an outlet for people in the community…

After Olathe Public Schools filed a lawsuit against JUUL Labs, Inc. on Monday, Oct. 7, USD 232 followed in their footsteps. The USD 232 Board of Education authorized legal counsel to file a lawsuit against…

Walt Disney once said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” While this mindset was the driving force…

A classroom right before passing period can reveal a lot about the treatment of LGBTQ students at the school. Pro-LGBTQ stickers cover the laptops and water bottles of some students, while simultaneously…

The Kansas State Board of Education is discussing a proposition to replace the current Kansas-developed high school assessments with a required ACT and an ACT WorkKey exam for all juniors across the state.

The…

On Sept. 30, the California legislature passed a law that allows student-athletes to get paid for play. Finally, some steps toward improvement. This has been something that has needed to happen for years….

The Silver Stars dance team capitalized on the popularity of stickers by ordering Mill Valley stickers and selling them back to students for their fall fundraiser. Assistant coach Nicole Porter…

At around the age of seven, junior Jaden Ravnsborg was introduced to the sport of volleyball. After three years of playing recreationally, Ravnsborg has continued her passion for volleyball by playing…

Released on Friday, May 31, the Netflix Original “When They See Us” rattled the nation in its portrayal of the Central Park Five. The film enraptured its audience as the stories of five black men,…

On Saturday, Sept. 14,  sophomore Logan Pfeister medaled for the cross country C team with a 26:12 race time. Two and a half months ago, on Tuesday, July 2, she had open heart surgery. She practiced this…

Every Mill Valley student left enrollment with something a bit more interesting than just a schedule and parking pass this year: a personal, district-issued MacBook Air. The district’s new one-to-one…