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FEATURE Junior Corbyn Haley sets off across open waters as a student sailor pg. 4
PHOTO BY Will Olenick
PHOTO ESSAY Boys basketball sets themselves up for success in early season victories pg. 6 PHOTO BY Arlo Stockstill
THE DISPATCH FRIDAY, DEC. 12, 2025
SPORTS Girls lacrosse participates in Texas Best tournament in preparation for season pg. 10
ENTERTAINMENT Stellar Starlight Theatre students compete at Thespian Festival pg. 12
PHOTO BY Andrew Covert
PHOTO BY Elizabeth Yowell
Vol. 38, Issue 3 www.thedispatchonline.net James Bowie High School 4103 W. Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX, 78749
Pride in Publishing
Can-tastic food drive results
Slaughter Lane work zone sets Student council doubled annual food donation program goal up speed trap Peyton Dorsey News Editor
Austin Police presence increase with construction near Bowie, students receiving speeding tickets The stretch of Slaughter Lane from Brodie to Mopac has been under construction to expand the lanes since the beginning of the school year. Throughout the day, construction workers are working along the side of the road and in the median. It’s customary to have a new speed limit in construction zones to protect the workers. Typically this change drops the speed limit by 10 mph. Originally 45 mph, Slaughter’s new speed limit, near Bowie especially, is now 35 mph. This has essentially created a speed trap along the stretch of Slaughter near Bowie, where police officers and constables are waiting to stop people who don’t realize the speed limit has dropped. The officers are present from around 8 a.m. to well into the afternoon. “At the beginning of every day, I see around three cops on motorcycles and maybe one constable,” junior Raylie Soliz said. “At least one of them is sitting on the entrance of Bowie at Slaughter.” There have been many instances of students being pulled over, as well as students seeing other students get pulled over. It happens more so in the morning when people on their way to school and drive through Slaughter. Because of this, it's become something students have started to witness more frequently. “I’ve seen two cars pulled over,” Soliz said. “I saw a Tesla on Monday at the light when you’re about to enter Bowie; and I saw another car a month ago at the beginning of Wolftrap.” More than just seeing someone get pulled over, senior Cameron Tishgart was in the car when her friend got pulled over for speeding. They were on Slaughter, heading to 7-Eleven, when an officer had her friend pull into the parking lot. “I felt so bad when she got pulled over,” Tishgart said. “But I was so thankful that I wasn’t driving because I know I would have sped and that would have been me.” The officers have been stationed on motorcycles at the exits of neighborhoods and near the school entrance. This has caused stress and inconvenience for many of the student drivers around Bowie. Students have been avoiding Slaughter due to the cops frequenting the campus area in the mornings. “I cut through the neighborhood because if there’s a cop I can avoid them and I feel like it’s a bit faster,” Tishgart said. “It doesn’t feel as awfully slow as driving 35 on Slaughter.” The speed drop is necessary and routine when a work zone is active to protect the workers on the road. Although the increase in police presence has been perceived as an inconvenience, they are enforcing this speed drop and increasing the protection of these workers. “That’s the price of construction, It's for the safety of the construction workers,” AQR teacher Edward Day said. “ People go faster than the speed limit, but they won’t if the cops are there; and we don’t want to lose a life.” Overall, the increasing number of cops on Slaughter and the fact that there is enforcement of the 10 MPH speed limit drop now has also increased student drivers’ caution with it. To students it may be inconvenient, but it does make Slaughter safer for the construction workers. “Ever since my friend was pulled over I’ve been so much more aware,” Tishgart said. “I feel bad that happened to her, but I feel so much better now that I know.” STORY BY Eliza Williams
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Junior Denisa Cotiga collects canned donations that have been spread across campus in overflowing boxes and brings them back to student council sponsor Alejandro Garcia’s classroom for the annual canned food drive. Cotiga worked alongside student council to boost donation encouragement. “During the drive I’ve been gathering food from the teachers who have donation bins in their classrooms and then sorting the food,” Cotiga said. “I’ve been trying to advertise this drive to my friends, and post flyers around the school. Student council has really been trying to get a lot of donations in.” Promotion of the food drive ranged from printed REED WATTS and painted Senior Student Coun- posters taped cil Co-President around school, to social media posts and reposts. This year was the first year monetary donations were made possible, which provided those who didn’t want to bring in physical donations to still contribute to the cause. Garcia took the money donated online to the grocery store and bought canned food to add to the physical donations students and staff brought in. “I figured some people would rather donate $10 for 10 cans than go to HEB or drag in a lot of heavy cans,” Garcia said. “That’s fine
alongside Garcia with the final donawith me, I figured if we’re able to get tions, and took them support in ways other than to the Central Texas physical donations then we Food Bank. Bowie’s might as well do it.” SCAN TO food drive broke the The 2025 student counrecord for the season cil food drive ran from Nov. SEE MORE! at the food bank with 3 - 21. Canned food, rice, the most amount of and peanut butter were all food donated from a accepted as donations. This program. year’s goal was to collect “The food drive 2500 pounds of food, this is probably Bowie’s number was more than biggest event of the doubled with a grand total year when it comes of 5305 pounds of food doVIDEO BY Eva Sweeney down to helping the nated to the Central Texas community,” Garcia Food Bank. said. “Anyone on cam“We set a school record pus can help this year,” student council co-presiwith this one, dent senior Reed Watts said. “We've even finding never donated that much from our a single can food drive before, I’ve been helping the food drive for three years now, and for less than a dollar helps the I’ve never seen anything like that.” cause.” The Friday before Thanksgiving These break, during eighth period, student donacouncil members loaded up their cars
tions will be used by the Central Texas Food Bank to provide meals for those in need and stock mobile food pantries. The location of these pantries can be found on their website under ‘find food now.’ In addition to food pantry locations, the website provides information on which food program(s) the pantry supports. Most pantries in the area have an open food distribution system, allowing anyone to walk in and receive food during operating hours. “I feel like we’re making a difference in our community with this food drive,” Watts said. “It’s really satisfying to be a part of.” READ MORE “Canned food drive sets Bowie records” pg. 3
LINING UP THE DONATIONS: Student Council sponsor Alejandro Garcia's students Caleb Galvan and Liam Crowley helped student council members gather all the donated food at the end of the drive to take to the Central Texas Food Bank. Members filled up roughly twelve cars to transport all the donations. PHOTO BY Gus Abbott
LBJ Fire Academy sparks future opportunities Charlotte Schwarte Executive Objective Editor
Hands outstretched before him and crouching low, junior Lucas Geleitsmann works his way through the smoke-filled building. Panic briefly fills his chest as his thickly gloved hands lose feeling of the wall alongside him, and his vision is obscured by dark plumes of smoke. Steeling himself, Geleitsmann crosses one last stretch of emptiness, and then… finally he can remove the wax paper from his goggles, and look across what was not an active fire, but simply a classroom. Geleitsmann is currently the only Bowie student enrolled in the LBJ Early College High School’s firefighting program. He spends his 5th and 6th period at LBJ, taking on the intensive coursework necessary to be certified as a firefighter and EMT right out of high school. “The firefighting program is important to me because it is giving me an opportunity to meet and interact with people who share a similar interest with me, and I am
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being exposed to a career that I might genuinely follow,” Geleitsmann said. “I think I'll mentally get better at my leadership, and also teamwork.” The LBJ Fire Academy is a course available to all high school students in the Austin independent school district (AISD) through the Student Sharing program, in which students are able to travel to other campuses for career and technical education specific courses. This includes classes such as Cosmetology, Video Game Design, and Automotive/Collision Repair. LBJ has the resources to offer students real interactive fire fighting training, including instruction from firefighters, authentic gear, and fire exposure. “The most challenging part of the course so far has honestly been studying,” Geleitsmann said. “We get around two chapters every week or so, and then a test at the end of each. It’s a lot of studying, but then it’s also a lot of mental stuff, where we get to put on our gear, and they make us follow a path or go through obstacles.”
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FIGHTING FLAMES: Students at the LBJ Fire Academy stand preparing to put a fire out. Participating in such activities allows them to work towards earning their firefighting certifications. PHOTO BY Ava Weaver
The Fire Academy has two pathways, the EMS and Fire classes, which start in junior year. Geleitsmann is in Fire I, and plans to attend Fire II, which upon completion of 728 hours guarantees Firefighting and EMT certifications. “Lucas really enjoys the
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class, and he’s always talking about it,” Geleitsmann’s girlfriend Citlalli Garcia said. “He’s always very excited when he gets to take his equipment home, and he tries it out and runs in it, everything. He had the strength to be able to participate in ac-
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tivities over there because he trains a lot already, and he’s also very studious, he already knows how to prepare for the tests they give him.” READ MORE “Student stokes the flames of ambition in Fire Academy” pg. 4