What is it like to be a hero?

story and photo by Catherine H.

Officer Olson, the school resource officer, is a hero many people don’t think of. Whether his job is not the first thing you think about, it certainly is an important one. School officers are one of the most important. In my opinion, without them, school shootings would happen a lot more often. But with Officer Olson it has become a lot safer in school today.

School officers are also very valuable people if you need help finding something. Officers have even hosted fun events, such as Officer Olson. He hosted a car show at the school. Sometimes Officer Olson and all school officers are very helpful people, and we are lucky to have them. Officer Olson and School officers also try not to take days off unless it’s Christmas break, when they even have work. Officers sacrifice vacations sometimes just to protect their school or the county.

Yankton is lucky to be one of the first big schools that had 2 cops. School Officers enjoy their time here and love meeting the kids; we should help make that stay here at Yankton. So if you see a school resource officer, don’t forget to say, “Hi,” and wave.

Pep Rally

photo by Dr. Olson

by Aubrey H.

On September 26th of 2025, the Yankton Middle School held a pep rally for homecoming at Crane Youngworth Field. Due to the gym being unfinished, Crane was our only option. All middle schoolers walked over to Crane with their homerooms around 8:45. 

Each grade sat in a section. Dr. Olson asked if each grade and the teachers were here. Each grade would yell, and the rally had started. We played a series of games, from water balloon games to the farthest football kicks. Dr. Olson would pick a couple of students from each grade, including the teachers. We also did trivia, which the eighth graders got every time. 

We did this back and forth for about an hour and a half. We all almost lost our voices at the end of the rally. We did a dancing competition and an obstacle course with water balloons on a spoon that we could not drop without restarting. All the grades cheered, from cheering for their grades by doing cheers against the other grades. The one we did the most was Alligator and "We got spirit, yes we do, we got spirit, how bout you." We did that one the most. 

Everybody seemed to enjoy this year's pep rally. At the end of the pep rally, they announced the winners. The podium score was eighth grade first, teachers second, sixth grade third, and seventh grade fourth. 

After they announced the winners, they announced that all kids would come down to the field, and sixth graders would need to make a one, seventh graders would need to make a five, and eighth graders would need to create a zero for 150 years. After that, we all found our homeroom teachers and returned to the school. We watched movies, played games, and had lunch. This basically sums up our Yankton Middle School pep rally of 2025.

Homecoming Dress-Up Days Survey!

 by Saige N. and Josie A.

Please take a moment to fill out this survey for our story! Let us know what you thought of our dress-up days:

DRESS UP DAYS SURVEY LINK

This survey will close on Tuesday at 3:30. 

Get Reading, YMS!

by Slone H. 

Books are a very important part of education. They teach reading skills and writing skills; they quiz us on our memory, focus, and imagination. But most books are very specific, and sometimes it can be extremely hard to find the right book for the right person. You could look for hours in a library and still not find a single book for your liking. That’s why I, Sloane Hardy, sixth grader at Yankton Middle School (YMS), am writing a newspaper article to assist.

I’ll be talking about the three most popular (according to the YMS librarian, Mrs. Lange) types of novels. They are Sports, Horror, and Romance. All of which don’t have any pictures or graphics.

The authors mentioned in this article are Mike Lupica (sports), Robert Imfeld (horror), and Margarita Engle (Romance)

Mike Lupica makes reading one of his novels feel like going to a baseball or football game, sitting in the crowd, watching the game, and cheering like you're really there! The way he describes the character’s surroundings and point of view is just phenomenal.

His Home Team series is all the more interesting. With long, strong paragraphs, it feels rather poetic. The Only Game is my personal favorite of his collection, telling the story of a baseball player, Jack, and his teammates. I don’t even watch or play baseball, and I just loved reading this novel. The sheer athleticism and care Mike puts into his stories are what make them such great reads!

We are very aware that October is the time of Halloween. All the costumes, treats, and tricks, it’s such a fun holiday! And we can’t forget all the great activities, like carving, painting, or even smashing pumpkins. I especially like watching horror films, all the thrill and mystery.

Robert Imfeld is a great author of horror. He brings ghosts and spirits to reality with his bestselling books, A Guide to the Other Side and Baylor’s Guide to Dreadful Dreams. Both books tell the amazing story of thirteen-year-old Baylor and his dead twin sister, Kristina. Baylor has a unique ability to see and talk to the dead. They go on adventures and end up in all sorts of situations. Both books are very fun to read and only mildly scary.

If you are not open to horror or sports books, try YMS’s romance collection. We have quite a large variety from many great authors, such as Mary McCoy or Kelly Gilbert. Another great romance author is Margarita Engle. She wrote Wings in the Wild, Wild Dreamers, and Singing with Elephants.

All are greatly authored books, but my favorite part of her collection is Wings in the Wild! It tells a wonderful story of 16-year-old Soleida and 16-year-old Dariel. Soleida has parents who have a nasty habit of committing feral art crimes by making sculptures of endangered birds. She runs away to Costa Rica and meets Dariel. Dariel’s family had their fair share of fame, so did he. He has an amazing singing voice that makes animals rush to listen. His grandfather invites him down to Costa Rica, and Soleida walks into his life.

The words and paragraphs are aligned beautifully in a poem on every page. Spanish words are sneaked in the story every couple of pages, easy to understand, but very frequent.

There’s no way to love books without visiting a library, but of course, we all have questions. Mrs. Lange has been so kind as to answer some of my questions about books, libraries, and the YMS library.

According to Mrs. Lange, the most popular books in the YMS library are Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I Survived (graphic novels and fiction versions), and books by Riana Telgemeier (like Smile, Guts, sisters, Drama, and Ghosts)

The number of books checked out last year, according to Mrs. Lange, is 2,962. Right now, however, over 100 books are checked out each day by YMS students.

It was so fun to make this article! With the help of Mrs. Andrews and Mrs. Lange, this went so much faster! Most of the statements here are my personal opinion. If you want to check out any of the books mentioned, go to Yankton Middle School Library and check them out!

Huber's Big Move!

Story and Photo by Peyton K. 

This month I interviewed Mr. Huber in his new room. I also interviewed Ms. Buechler on how she feels about Mr. Huber's move since she has been in the same hallway with him for her years of teaching at YMS. 

Starting with Mr. Huber's interview: Because Mr. Huber now teaches 8th graders I asked him how he felt about that, Mr. Huber does enjoy teaching 8th graders and he believes that they are easier to talk with. Mr. Huber also believes that 8th graders have stronger opinions on different topics in history. They were currently learning about the industrial and economic growth from 1865 through 1914. Moving on to the room itself, I asked how he liked it, Mr. Huber said it's a lot different from his old room and smaller. But a pro to the room is his hall mates. Mr. Huber said that he likes all the great teachers in the hallway which makes it better. His favorite part of the room was that he's right next to the water fountain and doesn’t have to walk to the end of the hallway like in his old classroom. On the bright side of teaching 8th graders, Mr. Huber is excited to teach the Cold War. But on the other hand, he isn’t very excited to teach the late 90s. Mr. Huber feels it wasn’t a very interesting time period and not a very positive time. And if you know Mr. Huber personally, you know he's a very happy person. As our interview came to an end, Mr. Huber wanted everyone to know that his room is always open to talk, and history is the best subject.


Moving forward to Ms. Buechler's interview with her opinion for how she felt about the new arrangement. I asked her how she felt about Mr. Huber's big move and because Mrs. Anderson took his old room she missed not being next door to her. But most cons come with pros, she was happy to be friends with Mr. Hohn. Ms. Buechler also did miss Mr. Huber, and Ms. Savey. The three teachers used to be called the North Wing legends, and that was sadly broken with both teachers moving. I asked her if she could have anyone move into Mr. Huber's room, who would it be and why. She chose Mrs. Blaha because they're friends, and it would be nice for a few reasons. Ms. Buechler likes social studies and she enjoys the fact of more female teachers in the same hallway. Next I asked if she liked who was in Mr. Huber's old room. Ms. Buechler and Mrs. Anderson have a long connection, Mrs. Anderson taught Ms. Buechler and they still talk a lot. I asked her how she planned to talk to Mr. Huber and if it would result in more or less communication. Ms. Buechler said it would likely be less just because of distance but it's also just harder to see him because of different subjects and now grades. She also said that she would talk to him through the teacher group chat and after school with Mrs. Anderson. At the end she just wanted to remind everyone that even though we had teachers leave there are now two new teachers in the 6th and 7th grade and come say hi!