 By Fiona Parnell
Chris Kuyper, director of security operations, former Roanoke county police officer and Army veteran gave remarks at the Veterans Day assembly on Nov. 11. Along with active duty Sergeant Trevor Poulin, they spoke about the national holiday including its history and importance. They discussed their personal experiences, and commemorated the brave men and women who have served and lost their lives fighting for our country. In an interview, Kuyper described himself growing up as a quiet, reserved, smaller kid who wanted to pursue a field that would challenge him both mentally and physically to prepare him for future endeavors of life. Kuyper had no interest in joining the military until an Army recruiter visted his high school in his junior year. After multiple discussions with the recruiter, Kuyper ultimately decided that serving his country was the correct path. The decision to serve did not just come from his own personal goals, but also from his admiration for the individuals who serve and have served our nation. Kuyper began his military career stationed at Ft. Hood Texas, recently renamed Ft Cavazos. Upon joining the military, Kuper’s family was shocked at his decision and swift transition to training camp. On the other hand his friends were not surprised as many of them had also enlisted. “We would usually take leave at the same time,” Kuyper said, “so it was not only great to see and hang out with them when we were home, but to also see the positive change in them. Literally, we felt we left for basic training as boys, but returned as men.” Kuyper served in the Army as a Signal Intelligence Specialist in the 504th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade. When asked about the purpose of his role, Kuyper said, “The mission of the brigade was to conduct multi-disciplined intelligence collection, exploitation, and analysis operations during contingency missions worldwide.” Kuyper served for three years until his enlistment period ended. Kuyper spent a few months back home in Buffalo, NY as he struggled with the choice to either reenlist or enroll in college. After careful consideration, in August of 1991 Kuyper decided that he would continue his military career and aspired to be a part of the Army’s Special Forces. Kuyper began filling out enlistment papers and taking tests to prepare for his next Army journey when a tragedy happened that would change his life path forever. On October 16, 1991, a mass casualty incident occurred at Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, TX. Luby’s Cafeteria was a restaurant that Kuyper frequently ate at while stationed at Ft. Hood. As a result of this horrific incident, Twenty-three people were killed and as a result Kuyper withdrew his enlistment papers. Subsequently, Kuyper began to search for a career in law enforcement to help prevent incidents like the one at Luby’s Cafeteria from ever happening again. In 1994 Kuyper moved to Roanoke County and was hired as a police officer and became a team leader on the Roanoke County SWAT. Upon returning home from service, many veterans experience various mental illnesses like PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction, etc. due to the high levels of stress and traumatic events experienced during instances such as combat. “I have been fortunate enough not to have struggled with mental health challenges throughout my military and law enforcement career,” he said. “I give full credit to help[ing] me get through the daily challenges and life as a police officer to my wife, who is my rock and a great support system when I needed her. Not everyone can be a law enforcement and/or military spouse and navigate the challenges that come with those jobs successfully. A study found that 65-70% of first responders’ first marriages end in divorce. We’ve been married for almost 25 years now” A favorite memory of Kuyper’s from the military is when he was in Army Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson, SC. One of Kuyper’s fellow platoon soldiers received a care package from his parents back in New Jersey. Once training day ended, he opened the package to find a Whopper from Burger King amongst the other goodies from home in the box. The soldier ended up cutting the burger into 12 slices and everyone in the room were able to take a bite. “I think I held that little piece of Whopper in my mouth for about ten minutes before I swallowed it. After being removed from the civilian world for months, you really learn to appreciate the little things in life.” During his time of duty as a member of SWAT, Kuyper was involved in many high profile incidents. An incident that haunts our community forever, the 2007 Virginia Tech school shooting, was one of Kuyper’s most significant endeavors while a part of the Roanoke County police force. As a result of the active threat phenomenon and Kuyper’s work in our community to prevent and respond to the threat, the FBI provided him with an Executive Fellowship position with their Active Shooter and Violence Reduction Unit in Washington, DC. Kuyper filled that position for two years until he retired on May 1, 2022. In June 2023, North Cross Head of School Armistead Lemon asked Kuyper to apply for the Director of Security position following several conversations with her about campus security. “I feel blessed every single day that I get to spend time building a robust safety and security program at the school and to engage and build relationships with our North Cross community” Kuyper said, as he reflected on his time at North Cross. For Kuyper, he sees Veteran’s Day as “a formal day that we, as a country, can honor our military veterans and make them feel as special as they are. To me, every day is Veterans Day and I find myself seeking those who have served no matter where I am, so I can take a moment from my day to thank them for their service.” “When I come across a veteran of a foreign war, I love taking the time to speak with them about their service and sacrifice,” he said. “Every veteran has a story (or three), and I feel honored to have them share their story with me and to build a bond with them. We live in an amazing country and I am beyond thankful we have people who would lay it all on the line to defend our Nation and for people they don’t even know” Although Officer Kuyper has only been at North Cross for a short period of time, he has made a substantial and lasting impact already. Kuyper’s dedication to keeping the student body, faculty, and campus protected while also bringing light and perspective to our curriculum and student life is admirable and truly amazing to see. The North Cross community thanks Officer Kuyper for his unwavering commitment to not only keep our school safe, but his fight for the safety of all Americans. See more of Commander Kuyper’s military story at www.willishallherald.org
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Singer and songwriter, Taylor Swift, is a globally renowned star within the music industry. Swift is arguably the most successful artist in history due to her countless rewards, music versatility, and influence on society. Swift is the most streamed artist on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and Amazon Music making her the most streamed artist of all time. Swift is constantly topping the charts and regularly breaks records she sets. Swift has been hitting #1 and having world tours since her second album “Fearless” was released back in 2008. Swift’s current world tour “The Eras Tour” has sold out every one of the whopping 149 shows; estimated 12 million attendees spanning across five continents, and was recently named the highest grossing tour in history. The Eras Tour movie is the highest grossing box office concert film of all time and sold 2.2 billion tickets in North America alone. Swift is also the first artist to reach billionaire status solely from music. Not only is Swift widely recognized for her music, but also her actions within advocacy, philanthropy and shaping of pop culture. Taylor Swift's fans, often called Swifties, are known for their unconditional love and loyalty to Swift and her music. Although Swifties are technically just a fanbase, their passion for Swift goes way beyond that. Swifties have essentially created their own community through music. Swifties use Swift's music to spread ideals of positivity and kindness, to not only eachother but also the general public. Swifties create a safe space to relate their experiences described in Swift’s discography. The relationship between Swifties comes from the emotional and personal aspect of Swift's music. Swift dives deep into her insecurities and describes her emotions through descriptive imagery in storytelling, lyrics, and genre making her music relatable and healing for many. Despite Swift's unmatched success and prosperity within the entertainment industry, she and Swifties face large amounts of criticism on a regular basis. By some, Swifties are viewed as “dramatic,” “insane,” “annoying,” “obsessive” and “crazy teenage girls” to name a few. These types of comments have been especially circulating recently because of her current record breaking world tour called “The Eras Tour” The large amount of media attention surrounding the record breaking tour has sparked negativity on all social media platforms and political news channels. Concertgoers often post videos either at the concert or in support of Swift. Some users have posted videos online sharing their experience and reactions. Many of these videos are of the emotional whiplash many fans feel when Taylor first appears or when hearing their favorite song. These types of videos have provoked certain groups of people to lecture both Swift and her fans using the deemed stereotypes as an attempt to question the validity of the impact of Swift and her influence on fans, specifically females. The majority of Swift’s fans are women and majority of her “haters” are men. The most interesting part about this is not only failure to recognize Swift's success and impact, but also the disregard of other fan bases behavior, whether that be sports, music, or influencers, especially predominantly male ones. No one bats an eye when it comes to half naked men who have painted their whole body their favorite team's color to attend a game, but Swifties do when they plan themed outfits and put glitter on their face for a concert it's “stupid” Absolutely no concern about men repeatedly checking and memorizing their favorite players names, numbers, positions, performance, and stats, but when you know every lyric to her song it's “insane” There's no problem when Men camp outside hours before games to tailgate and get drunk, but getting to the Eras tour early to gather outside the stadium to trade friendship bracelets and sing is. It's fine when a grown man throws a temper tantrum because a player doesn't catch the ball, he is just “passionate” Or when their team loses they throw something at the TV or punch a wall. When they shout derogatory terms at the opposing team or fans, that's just loyalty right? There's no problem because they are just “passionate” about their team and having fun but when Swifties do it not only passionately but positively, unlike some men, they are cruelly ridiculed and put in a bad light. The truth is the problem does not involve the so-called “extremism” and obsessiveness of Swifties, but lies within the internalized sexism and toxic masculinty deeply integrated into society. Swift’s domination of the music industry is not acknowledged by the vast majority of males and they refuse to accept her achievements. They deflect their internalized misogyny onto Swift by undermining her achievements and diverting media attention using her “crazy” fans, dating life, and character assassin. From a young age, women are taught to accept male behavior as normalized in all aspects of life. Whether explicitly stated or not, sexism is integrated into the way society thinks about and views women, especially successful women, which is the reason why the “Swifties” face so much criticism. As Taylor Swift said in her 2019 album Lover: “If I was a man, then i'd be THE man”  Lillie Dearing ’26 transferred from Roanoke Valley Christian Academy to North Cross seeking a more advanced education to push her academic career further.
The biggest difference between NCS and her previous school, Dearing said, “[is] how relaxed it is compared to my old school. RVCA was strict on the rules.” Dearing is a member of the girl’s varsity tennis team and plans to play soccer in the spring. When she is not in class or on the courts, Dearing likes to spend her free time swimming, listening to music and going off-roading. Although we have only been at school for a short amount of time, Dearing has been making the most of her new academic adventure and enjoying school. Dearing’s favorite class is with physics, astronomy and college algebra teacher, Dr. Tim Naginey, or as students like to call him, “T-Nag.” “Here, you do your own thing, you feel your way through,” Dearing said, “and the teachers are always there to help.” Transferring schools can be tough, especially as a junior, but Dearing is navigating her NCS journey with ease and making her mark in the community as a valued member. Dearing has been enjoying the freedom awarded to students at North Cross because of their commitment to honor. Dearing offered some helpful advice to people thinking about coming to North Cross or being a new student in general, “Get yourself out there and talk to people,” she said, “because if you don’t have people you’re going to feel really awkward and alone. Make the effort to go introduce yourself.” Dearing describes herself as “unique, extroverted, and happy,” and hopes to one day be a cardiac surgeon. Lillie Dearing checks in with Upper School Administrative Assistant Anneliese Schlachter on New Student Orientation Day. Photo by Sarah Sledd. Girls Varsity Field Hockey player, Julia Cephas 28’, is tied as this year's highest scorer so far this fall 2024 season. Cephas has an estimated 12 goals and 8 assists within the last 2 months. The 2024 Field Hockey team has been extremely successful and has had one of the best years in North Cross Field Hockey history.
Field Hockey is 10-5 and have jumped from their rank in the state as 9th in the 2023 season to 6th and are currently sitting in 7th place in the state poll, which means that they are invited to play in the state tournament, as the top 8 are invited. This hasn’t happened in 8-10 years making this an outstanding achievement. They last won the BRAC Conference Titles in 2012 and 2014 and are going back the night of Halloween to try and redefend their title 10 years later. Field Hockey last went to the State tournament in 2016 and best result ever at State was in 2014 when they lost in the State Finals. This season Field Hockey beat their first ranked opponent Foxcroft (by a score of 2-0) since returning as a varsity program last year. The top 8 teams go to which means they are invited to play in the state tournament.. Field Hockey is 10-5 and has qualified for. Julia has been a part of the field hockey team since 6th grade and plays center right forward. Ever since the beginning of her Field hockey career, Cephas has been a key player and notably hard worker. Cephas success is certainly not without effort. Cephas intensity paired with her unwavering commitment to her sport is truly unmatched. The passion within her movement on the field is truly mind blowing to watch. Cephas meticulously moves the ball both skillfully and audaciously making her a crucial player on the team. In fact, Cephas moves so fast and stealthily, it is often hard to keep up with where she is on the field when watching. Varsity Field Hockey coach Andrea Carter says “Julia is a tremendous athlete who has great speed, possesses the ball well, and has the ability to shoot both quickly and to space. She's an offensive spark who plays beyond her years. Julia's work ethic matches her talent, and you can find her before and after practice in front of a cage taking shots. Her amazing play, work ethic, and tenacity on the field have been an incredible asset to the team” Cephas not only is a star in her game, but also her character. Cephas is an amazing example of sportsmanship and a supportive teammate. Cephas is extremely competitive but beautifully balances her ambition with integrity showcasing her honor both on and off the field. |
I am FionaI am a junior at NCS and this is my first year in journalism. In my years at NCS I have participated in extracurriculars like Lacrosse and Field Hockey, and I am also Help Save the Next Girl president. Archives
December 2024
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