Category Archives: Community

Community, Front/Home

A gift to the community: Stows very own art lady brings joy to drivers passing by

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By: Trevor Ing/ Editor In Chief

Stow legend, known to the community as the “Art Lady,” sits on Graham Road in her wheelchair nearly everyday showing drawings with a smile on her face. 

     For the past six years, the Stow community or people who happen to be driving on Graham Road after the Fishcreek intersection, see Forty-seven-year-old Shauna Pope, who sits at the base of the Adult Living Facility holding up pictures of art.

Shauna Pope sits at the base of the driveway to the Adult Living Facility on Graham Road.

     Pope grew up on the north side of Akron, moving high schools frequently from North, to central, to Wadsworth. Her high school career was filled with positivity and activity, but her life changed on a random day in 1998. 

     “I was walking down the bridge, and I got hit by a vehicle in the back of the head. I fell 150 feet off the bridge, and the cells in my head got severed,” Pope said.

     Pope was a nurse’s assistant for Valley Vue Hospital and was simply walking home, when all of a sudden this accident caused her to enter a coma for 13 days. After she woke up, Pope began seeing visions, many of which would eventually come true.

     “I saw visions in my head, and I saw where I live right now, and it’s weird because I knew I was going to live here,” Pope said. 

     Pope continues to have these visions even today, and instead of just thinking about them, she now puts them on paper.

     “I see cars going by and these beautiful beautiful visions, and I just said, ‘Well, you know what? Let me copy these visions I see on paper and let me draw these people,’” Pope said.

     Funny enough, these people the Pope drew, eventually started to appear in front of her. As if she was seeing the future, almost everyday people who looked very similar to the person she drew that day would come up to her.

Illustration by: Shauna Pope

     “[One time] I drew a man with purple hair with a pink, green and yellow striped shirt, and the same man walked up to me. He said, ‘This is a nice picture, but how do you know me?’ I looked at him, and I was like, ‘Whoa, what? This looks just like him,’” Pope said. “I was like, ‘Woah, I didn’t know I was drawing you.’”

     This gift Pope was given is something she believes to be truly special, and she gives God credit for her ability, believing in the philosophy: “God gave me a gift, so I’m gonna use it.”

     “God gives you certain things that help you,” Pope said. “Don’t ignore what God gives you in life.”

     Putting her faith in Christianity, Pope lives to uphold one main part of her religion from the Bible: “Love thy neighbor.” Pope upholds this value in the best way she knows how–“just smile.”

     However this was not always the case. Throughout the past six years of showing off her artwork, Pope learned just how powerful a smile really is.

     “Maybe somebody else is going through a bad time or you’re going through a bad time, too. If you smile, it’s not going to go away, but just seeing you smile, you’re going to brighten up their day,” Pope said.

     Along with staying positive, Pope believes people are so caught up in the future that they start to forget about the present. She mentions how she will see people walking around that look like “zombies” because they are so stressed thinking about life. Pope believes this epidemic is starting to make the world a less positive place.

Illustration by: Shauna Pope

     “Everybody’s going through trouble. Everyone’s going through stress. The whole world’s not happy. The whole world’s down,” Pope said. “I just wish that people would work together. If people would just work together on things it would just make [the world] a better place.”

     In Pope’s perfect vision, she sees the world as one big amusement park where what you look like, what you wear or how you act does not matter at all. A place where everyone joins together to help each other, and where everyone “is their own president.”

     In her park, the color of someone’s skin or race they are does not matter. 

     “Who gives a whoot what color you are. I mean, just be happy with what you are and what you’re given. Life is a gift, so use it,” Pope said.

     Pope wishes for the day the world can become more together and positive as a whole. The one thing she wishes everyone would do is just simply “smile.”

     “Just smile,” Pope said. “Forget about yesterday. Forget about next year. Live for now, not in the past, not in the future but for now.”

Community, Front/Home

School shooting have long-lasting effects on staff and students

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By Jazmyn Coleman, Broadcast Manager

        When a school shooting happens thousands of miles away, the emotional impact does not stop at those school doors. Students who have never experienced school violence firsthand still feel the effects, whether it is through nonstop news coverage, social media or even lockdown drills.

   There have been over 420 school shootings nationwide, exposing many students to the reality of gun violence on school grounds.

    In recent years, school shootings have increased across the board. It has become a tragic reality in the United States, affecting much more than just the communities where they occur. 

   Beyond just physical danger, these events have lasting impact on students. For many, the constant mental battle of questioning whether their own school is safe.

     Freshman, Kyden Pixely expressed how students who are not directly involved in these events still are affected.

    “It affects the way we think of how safe we are at school,” Pixley said.  

      Jason LePard, school counselor at the high school believes one of the biggest things students can remember is to focus on what we can control.

   “Students can remind themselves of the safety measures at their school and the steps they can take to stay safe, which helps reduce feelings of helplessness,” LePard said.

   School resource officer Bethany Childers says the school has many safety protocols that are in place to insure the safety of the students.

   “There are rules about propping doors and before people come into the school, everyone has to identify themselves, and then having me, and I walk the hallways both during and in between class times and at lunch,” Childers said. 

     Amanda Murray, head principal, emphasizes that a positive school culture plays a major role in preventing violence, adding that her goal is to make the high school a place where students want to be.

      “Where they feel cared for and respected, and that’s all students, not just some students, and to me, if we care about our students and we care about them as people, that helps prevent violence as well,” Murray said.

         Reflecting on school culture, is how students cope with fear and uncertainty. Especially in our generation, we cope with humor. As Senior, Kamryn Martin explained that she sees different coping mechanisms being used when the topic of school shootings were brought up.

      “Students definitely make jokes regarding school shootings and things. I think it’s just something that kind of became normalized within our culture, so then people feel like it’s okay to joke about,” Martin said.

   For some students, such as sophomore Miranda Dujanovic, safety is not just knowing the doors are locked, or knowing about certain drills–it’s about knowing someone will listen when things feel wrong.

    “The teachers and principles do a great job at making me feel safe in and out of the classroom, and I know if I am in an uncomfortable position to go and talk to them about it,” Dujanovic said.

     Murray emphasized the importance of the student body speaking up when they notice concerns, and she encourages them “when they see something, say something.”

    Murray stated as both a parent and an administrator, sending her own children to school each day means placing immense trust in the administration. She hopes parents show the same gratitude towards her.

    “I hope parents trust us here, too, to make sure that we keep their kids safe, and then I know this administrative team takes school safety very seriously,” Murray said.

      There are safety procedures in place that help train students into learning the safety measures in case an emergency happens at the school.

       Since school shootings are a national issue, their emotional impact extends beyond what we know.

       “I think anytime a school shooting happens within our country under the same laws and jurisdictions it can make any student feel uneasy,” Martin said.

     Murray explained how whenever a situation happens in the district regarding school violence, she and the administrative team sit down and talk about how they would handle it in case it happens at the school.

      “It’s definitely not a topic that we shy away from or that we’re afraid to talk about as an administrative team in this building or in this district because we know the more we prepare or kind of face the issue, the better off it would be if anything ever happened here,” Murray said.

      Martin emphasized the ongoing debate over responsibility in conversations about school shootings: “It’s constantly said school shootings are the result of the people and not the guns, and that we as people should change and get better when it comes to school shootings and gun safety across the country.”

      For school administrators, the threat of school shootings has become an unavoidable part of their role. Murray faces the problem instead of avoiding it; she has extreme trust in her team and herself.

     “It’s our job to make sure we take care of [our students] and [parents’] kids go home to them every day,” Murray said.

Community, News

Megan Keleman’s Way Out

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By: Zoey Davis/Editor

      A young life tragically ended in the drive-through of a Taco Bell, but with the family and community coming together, her legacy will live on.

     On August 14, 2024, a horrific incident involving a young woman and a man occurred at the Stow Taco Bell near the Route 8 expressway. Megan Keleman, 25,  tragically lost her life at the hands of a man who suffered from a mental illness. Keleman stopped at Taco Bell that day, and unfortunately was met with a strange man who would take her life and then his own. 

     Kelly and Nick Keleman, Megan’s parents, have been very active in the community after their daughter’s passing.  The Keleman’s have started a foundation, Megan’s Rainbow of Hope, to honor Megan and her legacy by giving out scholarships to support the same programs with which Megan was involved.

     “Education was very important to Megan…one of our scholarships is for [the CTE engineering] program. So the student has to be a graduating senior, who’s completed two years, and we give out the scholarship once a year,” Kelly said. 

     Megan was a high-achieving person; she earned a double major and volunteered at shelters to help animals or the less fortunate. In high school, she was in the CTE programs for engineering and then went off to Cleveland State University. Megan’s Rainbow of Hope now gives out scholarships for both. 

     “She was way more than we knew…She became the Editor-in-Chief of The Cauldron, a newspaper at Cleveland State University, while she was trying to do a double major. [She also] founded a sorority and was President [and] Treasurer,” Nick said. 

     Megan contributed abundantly to her community, friends and family. She was greatly educated and giving; her death not only struck the entire town of Stow, but also surrounding communities. Megan’s tragic situation raised awareness of the dangers that can come from cramped drive-throughs.

     “When I got to the situation, it was very apparent she couldn’t get out. When you see two ambulances, one on one side of the building, one on the other side of the building…she was trapped. 
There was no way out. So the only thing we can control is…we need to advocate for a safer drive-through–safe accessibility,” Nick said.

     The Keleman’s worked with a large number of people to navigate through the legalities and give a name to Megan’s Way Out. The family made the idea, a bypass lane in drive-throughs to allow an easy way out or in when in an active emergency. They then brought the idea to the Mayor of Stow, John Pribonic, alongside Ohio’s State Senator, Casey Weinstein.

     “Mayor Pribonic reached out to us first, and I had a conversation with him–this was within 24 hours after the incident that we already [spoke]. Mayor Pribonic helped with this, and then Casey Weinstein was at our house two days later talking to us in our kitchen, crying with us, discussing what we need to do [in order to begin] a drive-through law,” Nick said.

     In hopes this kind of tragedy will never occur again, Pribonic played a key role in helping the Keleman’s implement the new law in Megan’s memory. The Megan’s Way Out Law has since been passed in Stow and is currently under review in neighboring cities. 

     “They approached [me] and said, ‘Is there a way that we can go ahead and make a bypass lane in our drive-through restaurants, or just even drive-throughs,’” Pribonic said. 

     Pribonic said that many establishments in Stow do not have immediate exit access due to the rarity of situations like Megan’s. Freak accidents happen every day, but this was very unusual, especially for Stow. People were looking for answers as to why or how someone could do something to this degree.

     “What was interesting [with] this was, there was never really any resolve to it. That being the case, because there was no explanation, many [rumors]  surfaced out there…All the film footage suggested something totally different: It was just a person who was really mentally incapacitated,” Pribonic said. 

     Pribonic also said that there seemed to be no reason for the attack; investigators claimed this man went out with the intention to hurt somebody. It is impossible to predict what situation will happen where, so he feels it is important to have an escape plan in place just in case. 

     “[Any place planning on building] a drive-through in our city is going to have a way to be able to get out [of a lane] if necessary,” Pribonic said. 

     Pribonic went on to say that many businesses are remodeling, or plan to renovate, including companies currently under construction or intended to be built. Megan’s Way Out Law requires businesses with these plans to include a bypass lane in their drive-through; however, they cannot force firms to remodel structures currently in place. Businesses must already have the means and intend to renovate and will have to decide for themselves whether they want construction done at their place of work. 

     “[The Kelemans] came to us at a local level, then I reached out for a state level to Casey, and now we’re even working at a federal level. [This] isn’t just centric to Stow. This is something that can happen anywhere,” Pribonic said. 

     Many cities surrounding Stow are also working to pass this law. Cuyahoga Falls has already passed Megan’s Way Out, and others, including Ravenna and Tallmadge, are also looking into passing this law. Megan’s story has influenced many cities and states to make their business establishments safer. 

     “Cuyahoga Falls heard about it because the incident happened right on the border of Falls and Stow. So Falls came alongside us and also passed Megan’s Way Out and updated their codes to include bypass lanes,” Kelly said. 

     It is difficult for the Keleman family to go to every city and state to advocate for Megan’s Way Out. Although they have been very active in talking to new outlets, especially when founding Megan’s Rainbow of Hope, the Keleman’s goal is to stay active in their community by speaking out, raising awareness about being involved and sharing Megan’s story. The family aims to inspire the younger generation to speak up and use their voice.

     “If they feel this is something that has connected with them, and it’s touched their heart, and they find that they support it, call the governor’s office or your state representative. Call them, and tell them how this is important to you because things happen in numbers. You don’t realize how loud your voices are,” Kelly said. 

     Megan’s passing raised awareness among other drivers on the road to encourage caution. Her death highlighted the troubles that arise in having a drive-through unable to be quickly exited and how important it is to be aware of every situation. The Kelemans have fought through grief and advocated for safer drive-throughs to ensure an emergency situation will have immediate exit options. 

        “Ultimately, our goal is that we want to [honor] Megan. That’s what this whole thing is about–Megan’s Rainbow of Hope. honoring her senses in her name. 
Megan’s Way Out, and hence, it’s in her name. It’s about her making the changes. It’s not about us. 
It’s about her. What we want to convey to people, without her. She can’t talk to anybody anymore,” Kelly said.