Editor #7
You put it well, Dalai Lama. Last week was a crazy one, for sure. It is definitely possible for the students and the administration to coexist peacefully. The problem is that students are stuck on using the administration as their scapegoat for their wrongdoings. The main job of the administration is not to breathe down students’ backs and point them in the general direction to the discipline office. No, its main job is to be a support system for the students and to ensure that Poly is a safe, structured and welcoming place to learn. However, when students decide to have food fights and cannot think of a reason for doing it, the first thing that comes to mind is the familiar but rather overused “F—Authority” cause. Teens will be teens, forever reserving the right to think they are walking victims of the public education system. Poly students take advantage of this especially, considering the laid-back vibe that Poly often gives off. Kids are used to staff and administration being on a friendly basis with them; for example, some kids address teachers by just their last name without the preceding title of “Mr.” or “Mrs.” Understandably, it is easy to practice this kind of familiarity, but when conduct changes in any way, kids are shocked and react angrily to it.
Peace is possible, but it requires a change of attitude on both sides. The administration needs to realize that in creating a learning environment for teens, there should be more freedom. Making Poly an open campus at lunch would be the first step for this. Perhaps there would have never been a food fight if kids were free to leave campus for lunch.
The students on their part need to acknowledge the administration as fellow human beings. It’s simple enough to say, yet so difficult for you and I to understand why they can’t do it.