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NEWS Electronic hall passes cause mixed reactions in the classroom from faculty and students along with new rules pg. 2
PHOTO BY Nick Forrest
PHOTO ESSAY Boys water polo captain Jacob Geldart splashes into new leadership role on team pg. 6 PHOTO BY Arlo Stockstill
THE DISPATCH FRIDAY, SEPT. 26, 2025
SPORTS Junior Rhys Moreno returns to football team as captain and starter after last seasons' ankle injury pg. 10
ENTERTAINMENT Easton Lewis and other student section leaders exemplify spirit and pride at games pg. 13
PHOTO BY Nick Forrest
PHOTO BY Ryan Zuniga
Vol. 38, Issue 1 www.thedispatchonline.net James Bowie High School 4103 W. Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX, 78749
Pride in Publishing
Phone-free classrooms across Texas
If you see something, say something Greg Abbott signed into law, personal devices banned in public schools AISD implements anonymous reporting system, providing students with a resource to help them feel safe Starting this school year, AISD has launched a new online reporting system, Safe Space. It’s designed for students to have a way to anonymously report information if they feel unsafe, if someone else needs help, or if something just doesn’t seem right. “I think that even if it helps one kid, or one case, then it’s purposeful,” Assistant Principal Octavio Angel said. “This program isn’t about getting people in trouble; it’s about keeping people safe. It’s not about surveillance, it's about support.” Students may report bullying, harassment, racism, someone threatening to hurt themselves or others, someone talking about fighting, a suspected weapon on campus, unwanted attention, mental health or personal struggles, or gang activity, drug use, or vandalism. AISD partnered with an online safety management program, Gaggle, to ensure that there was 24/7 monitoring by trained professionals, according to Angel. “So, if the concern is urgent, life-threatening, it immediately escalates to law enforcement or school administrators for an emergency response,” Angel said. “And those are like extreme cases, but if it's not urgent, it'll get routed to the proper AISD staff. This program is a direct and quicker way for students to report something, so that if something happens over the weekend, they don’t have to wait until Monday. When filing a report on Safe Space, a student can include the school where it happened, if they’re a student or staff member, grade level, what happened, where, if there are any witnesses, and students may add contact information if they would like. Senior Alison Milla feels that may open the door to a bunch of false reports. “I feel like people might use it to report people who aren’t even doing anything,” Milla said. “The way that you perceive things definitely matters a lot, and people might just report someone just because they don’t like that person. I do hope that this program will allow people to report stuff without feeling judged by other people because it's anonymous.” According to Angel, AISD reviews every system and program it’s implemented. Sometimes the district will do half- year reviews and so Angel feels that AISD could provide some data next semester about how the program has been working. While Safe Space has been sent out through Bowie’s newsletters, senior Amaya Boehman feels that the school could do a better job sharing this resource. “They could put posters around the school, and they could announce it on the announcements, or maybe on the back of the IDs,” Boehman said. “I would hope that a program like this would remove the fear around reporting bullying, because it's really important to report the bullying so that it can be stopped, and hopefully it will make bullying less prevalent in our school and make all the kids feel safe and protected.” STORY BY Katie Grumet
INSIDE:
Peyton Dorsey News Editor On June 20, 2025 Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1481 into law, prohibiting student use of personal wireless communication devices in Texas public schools. This law officially took effect on Sep. 1. The Austin Independent School District (AISD) board of trustees met on Aug. 21 to discuss the disciplinary measures that will be taken for violations of this law. The board decided PAULETTE WALLS that stuAssistant Principal dents who are seen with their phone or personal device will have it temporarily confiscated. After the first offense, the student will be able to pick up their device at the end of the school day. After the second offense, a parent or guardian must retrieve the device with the possibility of a suspension. On the third offense a parent or guardian can pick the device
up the next day, and additional consequences at the discretion of a campus administrator. After the fourth offense and for additional offenses after that, the device can be picked up by a parent or guardian 48 hours after it is confiscated, and additional consequences at the discretion of a campus administrator. “Bowie has always had the expectation of phone free learning, the law passing has made it easier on teachers to enforce having phones away because we now have the law to fall back on,” World History teacher Ross Anderson said. “Although it is a couple extra steps for us since if we see a phone we’re supposed to confiscate it, fill out paperwork, and take it to the office.” According to the AISD website, the devices included in this ban are: personal cell phones, tablets, gaming devices, smart watches, Bluetooth headphones or earbuds, fitness trackers that are capable of receiving or sending messages, non-district issued computers, two way radios, pagers, and any other device that is capable of digital communication. These
BOXED UP: Student's banned devices are collected in a labeled box in C hall. If a device is seen out by a staff member, they are required to collect it. PHOTO BY Sofia French
SOPHOMORE STUDIES: Sophomore Lulu Lampkin works diligently through her lunch. Some students are finding alternative ways to spend their lunches since personal devices cannot be accessed during that time. PHOTO BY Sofia French
devices must be shut off and out of sight. “We have had to redirect some students who were using their personal devices,” Assistant Principal Paulette Walls said. “However, overall this policy change is going over much smoother than I expected it would.” With stricter policies this school year, Anderson has seen less combative responses from students when asked to put their phones away. Most have complied with expectations when asked and respect the implementation of the phone ban. “I’ve only seen a couple phones, and I ask the kids to just put them away,” Anderson said. “I’ve had no problems with kids complying with that.” The administration was prepared for students to be much
“The phone ban is helpful more combative in response to in some ways,” Ward said. this law. They expected it to be “Students are focusing more on a much larger issue on campus their school work and are being than it has proven to be. more social during “We were exfree time.” pecting a big uproar SCAN TO Instead of or retaliation from the students,” SEE MORE! students checking their phones or Walls said. “We responding to mesreally haven’t seen sages during free much of that, evtime in class, Ward eryone’s been much and Walls have more cooperative both seen that stuthan we thought.” dents are interactSome students ing more with their are already noticing PODCAST BY peers and building benefits of phone Ava Weaver relationships with free learning, some classmates. reporting they are “It’s so nice to see kids just more focused during school. talk and interact with each According to sophomore Miley other again,” Walls said. “These Ward, she’s seen students are interactions are so important accomplishing more school for communication skills in life work and getting more tasks after high school.” done during the day.
Campus continually covered by construction Thia Betts Dispatch Reporter
Tinted windows, new umbrellas, and front office renovations improve Bowie as construction encompasses the campus. Bowie metamorphosed this year, several projects were completed over the summer with some still in progress. Current construction on campus is mostly related to the track and field, converting it to a turf field with funds coming from the 2017 bond initiative. According to AISD, this bond was about $1.05 billion dollars towards the district. The field is expected to be completed this winter break. “In addition to having a competition field with AstroTurf, it's also going to include bleachers, a press box, a score board and lighting for that field,” Principal Mark Robinson said. “Which is going to be marked for football, soccer, and lacrosse.” With non-district individuals working during school hours, there is more activity on campus. Construction is often loud with people working and
moving around, which can distract students in a learning environment. “Work during the school day is always problematic because a student's school day is when most people have their work day," Robinson said. “We've asked the contractors to be considerate of the primary purpose for why we're all here, which is student learning.” The track and field renovations caused a rift in athletes' normal routines as construction continues. Teams have had to move practice to different locations and have had to change their regular workouts to adapt to a different area. “The cross country team has had to move practice to the tennis courts and the football team has had to move to Burger stadium where they then have to take buses to school from the stadium,” junior track member Clover Murray said. “This has interrupted the teams’ ability to practice fully because we’re not able to use our normal facilities.” The athletes are looking forward to having an improved practice space. Although Murray has some doubts about
BULLDOZING BULLDOGS: Construction covers the track and football practice field. Multiple sports have been relocated to accommodate for construction circumstances. PHOTO BY Arlo Stockstill
NEWS 1, 2, 3 FEATURE 4 , 5 IN-DEPTH 7, 8-9
SPORTS 10, 11 ENTERTAINMENT 12 REVIEW 13
SHADED FROM SUNSHINE: Students sit together during their lunch under umbrellas in the courtyard, keeping them out of the harsh sun. These umbrellas were put up over summer to provide shade for tables in the courtyard. PHOTO BY Sofia French
the field being completed in time for the season. “This work order has been in for five years, it's unfortunate that they decided to start in July because of the disruption of practice,” Murray said. “I'm worried that we're going to start the track and field season with no track and field.” AISD’s 2022 bond initiative allowed for many changes across campuses with $2.44 billion approved by Austin voters. According to AISD; this went towards the addition of secure vestibules as a safety enhancement. Secure vestibules are an extra set of doors to provide visitor verification in the office. “I have been requesting a secure vestibule at Bowie for as long as I’ve been here," Robinson said. “I asked that the district create a secure vestibule, but in interest in equity and not making one school more safer than others, they said that that would need to be a part of a bond initiative.” Bowie’s HVAC is known to be unreliable so an alternative was needed
COMMENTARY 14, 15 PHOTO ESSAY 6,16
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for the students and teachers comfort. Assistant Principal Sam Cabrera and Robinson came up with a new solution of tinting the windows. “One thing that Mr. Cabrera and I have talked about is how the second floor in the summer is hotter than the first floor because heat rises,” Robinson said. “We had to come up with a solution to cool the classrooms.” Teachers in the upstairs E hall and B hall classrooms already see differences in temperature according to Robinson. In the future, Bowie plans to modernize older facilities such as the academic building and the G&H building. These improvements are still pending but according to Robinson they are on the horizon. “At some point we’ll want to modernize the academic building and the G&H building,” Robinson said. “I think it will make a big difference when people see it. I think that it will feel good, when you're walking up to school, a little bit of school pride.”