The Harbinger

The Harbinger The Shawnee Mission East community's number one source for breaking news and award-winning coverage. Dow Tate, the paper has won numerous national awards.

The Harbinger is the exclusive student-run newspaper of Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village. Staffed by approximately 70 dedicated super-students and overseen by adviser C.

Indivisible Kansas City — a grassroots political organization — along with other organizers, is holding “No Kings Day” p...
06/14/2025

Indivisible Kansas City — a grassroots political organization — along with other organizers, is holding “No Kings Day” protests across the Kansas City area today. The protests are part of the nationwide demonstration against President Donald Trump’s policies. 

The movement is purposefully set to oppose a military parade in Washington, D.C. on the same day. The parade is also taking place on President Trump’s birthday as well as Flag Day.
 
Thousands of demonstrators came to the four local protests taking place in Kansas City, Lee Summit, Lenexa and Overland Park.
 
To read more and view a gallery from the protest, click the link in bio.
 
 
 
 

The girls and boys Track & Field team will compete at state today and tomorrow at Cessna Stadium in Wichita, KS.
05/30/2025

The girls and boys Track & Field team will compete at state today and tomorrow at Cessna Stadium in Wichita, KS.


The boys and girls varsity track teams will compete at Regionals today. The meet will be held at Blue Valley Northwest a...
05/23/2025

The boys and girls varsity track teams will compete at Regionals today. The meet will be held at Blue Valley Northwest and preliminaries begin at 2 p.m..


East alumna Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were killed by a lone gunman last night outside the Capit...
05/22/2025

East alumna Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were killed by a lone gunman last night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

According to a report from Reuters, the gunman, Elias Rodriguez, yelled “Free Palestine” while being removed from the scene by authorities.

Milgrim was a member of the SM East band, Jewish Student Union, Senior National Honors Society and SHARE, and starred in multiple school-run musicals.

To read more, click the link in bio.


Photo courtesy of Emma Chalk

East alumna Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were killed by a lone gunman last night outside the Capit...
05/22/2025

East alumna Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were killed by a lone gunman last night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

According to a report from Reuters, the gunman, Elias Rodriguez, yelled “Free Palestine” while being removed from the scene by authorities.

Milgrim was a member of the SM East band, Jewish Student Union, Senior National Honors Society and SHARE, and starred in multiple school-run musicals.

To read more, click the link in bio.


East alumna Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were killed by a lone gunman last night outside the Capit...
05/22/2025

East alumna Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were killed by a lone gunman last night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

According to a report from Reuters, the gunman, Elias Rodriguez, yelled “Free Palestine” while being removed from the scene by authorities.

Milgrim was a member of the SM East band, Jewish Student Union, Senior National Honors Society and SHARE, and starred in multiple school-run musicals.

To read more of this story, click the link in bio.

Then-junior Carlie Foutch spent most of her jewelry and sculpture class at the belt sander, standing up from her wheelch...
05/21/2025

Then-junior Carlie Foutch spent most of her jewelry and sculpture class at the belt sander, standing up from her wheelchair. She was determined to sand the wooden pieces for her jewelry box even if she felt weak from her cancer treatments.

If she couldn’t figure out how to solve a math problem in her Algebra 3 class, she wouldn’t give up. She knew she was capable. And so she kept trying.

“She was gritty and tough,” Carlie’s uncle and psychology teacher Brett Kramer said. “If you told her that she wasn’t healthy enough to do her school work, she would take that as a challenge and say, ‘Watch me.’”

To read more of this profile, click the link in bio.



Journalism is my enemy.They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer — at least I’ve done that.Dow Tate would...
05/20/2025

Journalism is my enemy.

They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer — at least I’ve done that.

Dow Tate would say that’s cliché, trite, overused. I can hear him hissing, “that’s all you could think of for your senior column?” But it’s true. My enemy is so close to me we’re practically inseparable by now.

To read more of this column, click the link in bio.



The SM East theater department announced its 2025-26 season at its annual banquet on May 17. The upcoming season include...
05/20/2025

The SM East theater department announced its 2025-26 season at its annual banquet on May 17. The upcoming season includes the Musical R***e theme as “The Best of Broadway,” the Fall Musical “Bye Bye Birdie” and the Winter Play “Silent, but Deadly.”

To choose which shows the department will perform, English teacher Brian Capello read a plethora of musical scripts and assessed what other schools have done in the past.

“We just kind of talk about it one way or the other, and then get into what we feel is best fit for the season for the students we have,” theater teacher Tom DeFeo said. 

To read more, click the link in bio.



Photos courtesy of .closephotography

Sisters Evan and Lilah Platz have plenty of differences — Type A personality vs. Type B, two classes this semester vs. n...
05/19/2025

Sisters Evan and Lilah Platz have plenty of differences — Type A personality vs. Type B, two classes this semester vs. nine and buying new clothes vs. thrifting.

“I feel like I’ve picked up on a lot of what she does [over the years],” Lilah said. “And I would say we’re pretty similar [now]. The other day, my mom sent us a photo that was taken of both of us, and we’re doing the same head tilt, same smile, same everything.”

This year, their normal-sister bickering, movie nights, before-school car rides, competitive volleyball games near their childhood neighborhood Lake of the Forest and trips to the dog park will be coming to an end. The pair will be going to different places across the world.

To read more of this profile, click the link in bio.



Growing up in the town of Cremona, Italy, senior Martina Bernardi was always intrigued by the prospect of studying abroa...
05/19/2025

Growing up in the town of Cremona, Italy, senior Martina Bernardi was always intrigued by the prospect of studying abroad in the United States, describing it as her biggest dream. Once the opportunity came to her two years ago, she knew she had to book a flight.

Bernardi’s best friend had used the Rotary Youth Exchange program to study in France and recommended the program to her. After going through the five-month application process, which included two interviews and a weekend trip in Northern Italy, Bernardi chose the top five countries she wanted to study in: the United States, Canada, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

Last April, Bernardi was notified they’d found a place for her to stay: Kansas City.

To read more of this profile, click the link in bio.


Navy blue and bright yellow floats rode the streets of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Trumpets were blaring, students were c...
05/19/2025

Navy blue and bright yellow floats rode the streets of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Trumpets were blaring, students were cheering, cheerleaders were tumbling and senior Claire Rogers was standing on the sidewalk beaming. 

Augustana University was hosting their annual Viking Parade — their version of a homecoming parade. Rogers was thrilled her soon-to-be college would have a similar tradition to “Lancer Day.”

Rogers committed to Augustana University for what the National Collegiate Athletics Association refers to as a newcoming sport— acrobatics and tumbling. Currently, only 50 NCAA colleges offer this program in all divisions. 

To read more, click the link in bio.




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