Coronavirus Disease 2019. COVID-19. Both imply this was an outbreak isolated to 2019, but the pandemic continues in 2021, after hundreds of thousands of Americans have perished as a result of COVID-19…

She runs. She stabilizes her pole. She lifts her body upwards. She propels herself over the crossbar. She lands. She repeats.

“[Pole vaulting] is stressful, but it’s so fun and you have so much…

Editor’s note: This is part 3 in a series exploring today’s news media and the impact of distrust on its consumers. Read part 1 and part 2 here.

Youth and the media

As the torch bearers of digital…

Editor’s note: This is part 2 in a series exploring today’s news media and the impact of distrust on its consumers. Read part 1 here.

Deepening the divide

As trust in the media continues to falter,…

The first time IT professional Jo Ann Hill worked with computers was during her bachelor’s degree program at Mississippi Valley State University. With an affinity for numbers and math, Hill had chosen…

His daily scans of box scores, game stats and sports articles in The Dallas Morning News each day sparked his fascination for sports journalism. But, it wasn’t until joining The Sidekick did he realize…

What was intended to be a single weather day off school ended up being a week of power outages and bursting pipes for some Coppell High School students and teachers.

Coppell woke up on Monday morning…

This week snow fell for hours in Coppell and its surrounding cities. Eventually, many Coppell High School students and faculty started to lose electricity, Internet access and water due to the freezing…

Three weeks after the release of his song, “Na La Lenu,” Coppell High School senior Akhil Aitha woke up to find the music video had been viewed 3,500 times.

The song, released Jan. 10, is Aitha’s…

Four inches of snow piled on sidewalks, stores and houses in Coppell on Sunday, prompting a week-long closure of Coppell ISD. The record-low temperatures brought with them rolling power outages, rendering…

“‘It’s today in history!’”

This is Wilson Elementary fifth grade teacher Beth Brandenburg’s first year of teaching history in fifth grade after 19 years of teaching, 15 of those spent at…

As she approached the fencing strip, adrenaline and excitement pumped through her body. With a mental plan ready, she faced her opponent, ready to enforce the techniques and skills she developed through…

Hands clasped and kneeling in front of an idol of the Hindu god, Krishna, I refused to pray.

It wasn’t an act of rebellion, like my parents believed. Nor was it a phase. It was the result of years…

Competition vs. accuracy

Clickbait vs. quality

Fake news vs. journalism

Mutually exclusive or intertwined?

Information is a double-edged sword. As the wielders, journalists pick their…

How to be anti-racist. What’s happening in China.

As soon as I open Instagram, I am bombarded with the same taglines, captured in bubbly colors and fonts, attempting to draw attention to social justice…

It was during his sophomore year while playing on the varsity soccer team that now 2017 Coppell High School graduate Bishesh Manandhar realized how fortunate he was to play with cleats on his feet and…

Coppell High School senior and creator of Melodies for Math Swetha Tandri was a late talker, so at a young age, she used singing as a means of communication.

Tandri was previously featured for her environmental…

The hat slips.

She pulls it up and tugs it firmly over her head. A perfect fit. A blue lock of hair brushes against her dark, hard eyes.

All gazes turn her way.

Coppell High School senior Sneha…

In a sociology class the summer after my sophomore year, I learned the American Dream was dead.

Not explicitly, not definitively, but through a series of statistics and case studies of individuals who…

Close your fingers with your thumb on the side of your fist.

Move your thumb to the front of your fist.

Open your thumb and index finger and point them straight up.

A-S-L.

I grew up in a community…

Whether it is a dive into tranquil water at the Coppell YMCA pool or a flawless pass to a fellow lacrosse teammate, Coppell juniors triplets Jack, Scott and Luke Moyer possess a common attitude in their…

A cross-country road trip from her hometown of Coppell, Texas took Angela Almeida to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 – the day of the Capitol protest.

“We were walking from Union Station when we started…

It was meant to be the best of times, it was warped into the worst of times, it was the age of social activism, it was the age of polarization, it was the epoch of pandemic, it was the epoch of politics,…

From mental health advocacy to the importance of looking back, the eight speeches of the Nov. 7 conference captured major concerns of life in 2020. Of the eight speakers at the TEDx Youth @ ArchesPoint…

Elderly people in the community usually have warm-hearted, comforting smiles across their faces whenever young people greet them. They portray generosity and kindness through wisdom they share with youth.

However,…

One positive case.

One student, walking the carpeted halls of Coppell High School, sitting down for lunch and going home to siblings and parents.

One student, unwittingly spreading the virus…

Bags sealed.

Mask on.

Boxes delivered.

Community served.

Mission accomplished.

This is a frequent routine for Project Querencia, which means safe space in Spanish, a non-profit founded by…

Whether pushing off the starting block for a 500-yard freestyle or starting a 5K run alongside many others, distinct patterns emerge as long-distance racers compete using various strategies tailored to…

It is hard to be a New England Patriots fan in Texas. Sports are typically a connection point; people commiserate over the shared joy of a win and sit in silence together after a major loss.

How do…

With the subtle adjustment of a camera lens and the dedicated camera running alongside the ball, the cheer of the adoring crowd can come to life on a cell phone. Thanks to the KCBY-TV crew and special…

In 1999, a small, unused fire station was converted to Coppell’s first Center for the Arts. Twenty-one years later, in the midst of a pandemic, the first, brand new Coppell Arts Center had its opening…

Polling locations across the country opened for the final time in 2020 this morning for Election Day. In Coppell, seven locations: Wilson Elementary, Lakeside Elementary, Cottonwood Creek Elementary, Riverchase…

The smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the oven. The perfect pink dollop of icing on the top of a cake. The smiling faces of people who take their bite of a warm, soft, doughy cinnamon roll.

True…

Children are flowers, unique and a blessing to their families, regardless of their identities.

This sentiment was shared by Pope Francis on Sept. 16 after meeting with an Italian LGBT Christian group….

When the community calls, the ladies of the Coppell Senior and Community Center group called Knit Wits answer, whether it be in the form of crocheting baby products or making masks for a global pandemic.

The…

Since Oct. 20, GlobeLife Field in Arlington has been filled with swinging bats, shouting fans and good vibes.

But most importantly, competition.

The 2020 World Series is taking place at Globe…

The Coppell Middle School East course guide has expanded to include one new elective course: seventh grade science teacher Jodie Deinhammer’s gardening class. Deinhammer also leads the CMS East Sustainability…

The modern perception of football would not exist without linemen.

The thuds of bodies slamming into one another, the grunts and huffs of players as they grapple, the iconic row of squat poses as the…

Logging on to the popular social media platform TikTok, viewers are faced by a continuous stream of videos. With comedy, sports, dance and many other video genres, the app has more than 500 million downloads…

A decade ago, marching into the crowded football stadium at the University of Nebraska, the Colclasure family could be spotted cheering for the Cornhuskers from the stands. In these moments, the charisma…

As she waves goodbye to the beaches and swaying trees of Mexico, her eyes dart at the big red, white and blue flag. A tingle occurs, followed by a shiver.

Woman.

Doesn’t know English.

No paternal…

Discrimination.
“I can take a joke,” Coppell High School sophomore Faith Smith said. “But I can’t take racism disguised as a joke.”

Whether the intention behind acts of discrimination are…

I vote in every election because…

Each of the over 100 letters Coppell parent and former 2018 Coppell ISD Board of Trustees candidate Dan Koller signed as part of Vote Forward, a nonpartisan initiative…

Since the 1970s, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pioneered the fight for women’s rights through her work on equal pay and sex-based discrimination cases. At the time of her appointment in 1993,…

For six months, America has waited for the disaster of COVID-19 to be over. For six months, the steady rhythm of our daily lives has been warped and tampered with. We have locked our doors, closed our…

While the rest of the world is counting the days until COVID-19 is finally over, there are some who may never want it to end: pets.

As a result of isolation during the pandemic, many people have been…

The Milwaukee Bucks’ decision to strike on Aug. 26 – announced just moments before their game against the Orlando Magic – began a domino effect including every remaining playoff team in the NBA.

In…

For Coppell ISD students, the transition to remote learning means that the kitchen table, bedroom, and backyard all double as a classroom, making it increasingly difficult to separate home life from…

With each snip of the scissors, another lock of hair fell to the ground. As nearly six inches of black waves were severed, a small pile formed at my feet. It was my first haircut since May of 2019. 

Time…

The player scores a touchdown, and a tune blasts across the bleachers and field, sending adrenaline rippling through the roaring crowd.

Music is not associated foremost with sports, but the two intersect…