High School Confidential

Resistance to frank discussion in schools misguided

by Susie Polgreen

	This week’s contributor, Carmel High School junior Susie Polgreen, 16, is a staff writer with her high school paper, Ram Report.

Are students and teens educated enough about choice?
Did you know that nearly one million teens in the United States become pregnant every year?

In 2000, there were 21,138 teens ages 15 to 19 who gave birth in New York State alone, according to Child Trends, a nonprofit social sciences research firm.
Being a junior in high school, I highly doubt that my schedule could get any more demanding.

Trying to maintain good grades by completing impossible amounts of homework and crash studying are only half of it.
With added clubs, sports, and work, the mere thought of having to raise and support a child isn’t even an option.

Teens have enough on their plate; why make them responsible for another life when they can barely maintain their own?
Of all the child-bearing teens in New York, how many of them do you think were educated about abortion and choice?

“I took a health class my sophomore year, but never learned about abortion in detail,” says Carmel High School junior Marissa Santomaso.
“A lack of knowledge has to play some part in why teen births have become such an issue,” adds Brittany Mayer, also a junior in Carmel.
And the problem stretches beyond state boundaries.

“My school doesn’t teach us anything about condoms, the pill, Plan B, abortion, any of that. Not knowing about any of these choices results in young teen pregnancy,” states Alexandra Hart, a friend of mine from Newton High School, which is in Danbury, Connecticut.

Educating students about this choice in public schools would immensely contribute to eliminating these problems.
Doing so would also allow teens to better focus on what should be their priorities: homework and grades.

A lack of insight
During a difficult time period where a friend of my aunt was suffering financially, she was raped. Though she could not afford to have a child, she was not permitted to abort.
Why?

My aunt gave one simple answer: “She was misinformed.”
The woman, in her early 20s when raped, was not aware about choice, not having received a proper education on the topic in high school, she believes.
“She was never told about the trimesters and how long someone could wait to abort before the government stepped in,” my aunt explained. “By the time she had wanted to, it was too late.”

Circumstances such as this could be easily avoided if everyone was more aware. What better place to educate students about choice than where they spend a bulk of their waking hours?

Court reigns supreme
The 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling was the turning point for a woman’s right to choose, with the Supreme Court citing the Constitution’s 14th Amendment – which deals with privacy rights – in issuing the decision.

The ruling legalized abortions with certain regulations — regulations my aunt’s friend was not aware of. During the first three months of pregnancy, or first trimester, it is strictly the woman’s right to choose. After that, the government is permitted to step in and object. It is imperative that everyone be made aware of these regulations.

Discretion of district
Carmel High School’s health teacher, Kathleen Briggs, states that “Carmel High School’s emphasis is directed on abstinence. However, teens should know all of their options.”

But when asked if she provides students with in-depth information about abortion, Briggs replied, “It is briefly talked about as an option. I am open to answering questions, but I don’t hold lessons on the topic.”

Briggs also explained that many parents don’t want their kids exposed to such a choice, due to beliefs their family may hold. There are no lessons on trimesters and limitations because it is such a controversial issue.
But I can’t help but ask the question: Shouldn’t protecting teens be more important than avoiding controversy?
The answer seems glaringly clear.

Contrary to popular belief, most jocks tackle the books

by Matthew Jenks

	This week’s contributor, 17-year-old Hendrick Hudson High School senior Matthew Jenks, is a contributor to his school’s literary magazine, Literary Underground, and has also published pieces in his student newspaper, The Anchor. Jenks is a member of the Hen Hud Sailor’s lacrosse and basketball teams.

There seems to be a growing sense of resentment towards professional athletes in today’s society.
People find athletes to be overpaid, obnoxious and to enjoy a free pass from the hard work the average person puts forth to make it through life.
Sadly, this sentiment has slowly boiled over from professional athletes to student-athletes in high school.In a survey of 100 non-student athletes I conducted for High School Confidential earlier this month, 82 of them admitted to feeling at least somewhat irritated by perceived unfair perks granted to some student-athletes in school and the college admissions process.

A high school student who prefers to remain anonymous said, “It is frustrating to see kids who are born with talents or physical attributes the average student doesn’t have get special treatment from everyone in school, including their teachers.”

Another student who took part in the survey contributed, “They simply have it easier than the rest of us and it isn’t fair.”
But here we have a case of perception trumping reality.
So is being a student-athlete a breeze?
Hendrick Hudson High School varsity football and lacrosse coach Craig Soloman described why the answer is an emphatic no.

“I demand a lot of my players,” he asserted. “They are expected to work year-round for the sports I coach, which includes weight room training and out of season leagues.”

“I also require my athletes to perform in the classroom, and I believe any schools interested in them or scholarships that are offered to them are earned,” Soloman continued. “These kids aren’t handed everything on a silver platter like some kids assume. They work extremely hard and earn every bit of what they get.”

Hard work
While it is easy to understand the frustrations of students who don’t participate in high school athletics, it is clear that the scholarships and accolades their student-athlete classmates receive are certainly earned through hard work.
High School senior Robert Bosco will be attending Colgate University next fall and will be receiving a scholarship to play lacrosse.

“Becoming a college athlete had always been a dream of mine and I knew from a young age it would take hard work and dedication,” Bosco said.
“It meant being in the weight room everyday and working on the fundamentals of the game,” he added. “I used to lift at 5:00 a.m. before school in eighth grade just to get stronger for high school lacrosse. I feel like I have earned everything that has come my way.”

As for class, Bosco said, “I am just like everyone else.”
“If the teacher wants five typed pages I’m not handing in four,” he relayed. “I know my sports career has nothing to do with my expectations in the classroom.”

Perks? What perks?
It is obvious that student-athletes like Bosco put forth great efforts to earn attention from colleges and possible scholarships.
No evidence, from my investigation, could be found of teachers favoring student-athletes or cutting them slack.

Hen Hud Advanced Placement U.S. history teacher and assistant varsity football coach Rajesh Kumar correctly observed that “student-athletes truly deserve the respect of their classmates.”

“They work very hard in school and have practices and games that can go to all hours of the night,” he elaborated. “I have never given any student-athlete of mine any perks in my class. I don’t believe that they get any perks in any other classes either. They are special kids who deserve everything they get out of athletics and academics.”
These student-athletes work long hours to perform on the field and in the classroom.

Classmates may only see these athletes on game-day and resent them for their perceived unearned accomplishments.

Well, tell that to kids like Bosco.
That is if you can get in touch with him.
If so, be sure to check the weight room.
At 5:00 a.m. sharp.

Pitfalls of panning political correctness

By Lingbo Li

	This week’s contributor, 17-year-old Somers High School senior Lingbo Li, is co-editor of her high school paper, The Tusker Times.

Some lavish praise on Mr. X for being a man of irreverence.

Not me.
Last year, about 100 students participated in my school’s Day of Silence, a vow of symbolic silence to mirror the silence of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) teens in schools. Some students decided it was a game of trying to get participants to speak.
And one teacher, who I’ll call Mr. X, did the same.
Another teacher, who I’ll call Mr. Y, brought up the idea of irreverence. Not necessarily a pejorative word.
He defended the other teacher with the idea that irreverence should be applied to everything in a very positive sense.
Irreverence for tradition and political correctness, irreverence in the sense that nothing was sacred.
Question things. Challenge ideas. Offend people, if need be.

All well and good, but, in some instances, callously challenging something like a student-organized Day of Silence – which some might view, derisively, as wrongheaded political correctness – is offensive.
Especially when the challenging and mocking is conducted by an authority figure.
Irreverence can be a wonderful thing, but I was struck by how inappropriate it seemed in this particular context.

Irreverent? Sure. I’ll give him that. Appropriate, especially for a teacher? Definitely not.

It’s a perfectly valid and common opinion that Day of Silence doesn’t help those it supports. And I’m sure this teacher didn’t mean it any malicious way.
But when the topic came up in the classroom, Mr. Y and some other classmates defended him. A lot of people, even those who had participated in Day of Silence, remained silent. I was the only one defending my position: that this wasn’t appropriate for a teacher to do.

Irresponsible irreverence

If Day of Silence taught me anything, it was the difficulty in losing my voice that classmates seem to give up out of apathy.

And in reporting on an article, scheduled to run in an upcoming issue of North County News, on the struggles and experiences of LGBT teens in Westchester schools, I kept hearing the same sentiment from educators, such as from George Bobino, assistant principal at North Salem High School: ” I really think that safety is very important and acceptance is very important in schools so kids can be successful.”

Which brings me back to irreverence. No one should sand themselves down into a colorless symbol of political correctness. No one should seek to become the least offensive person possible and then proceed to lose all their personality.

But some teachers take irreverence a little too far. Some things are sacred. No one would ever tolerate racial slurs or off-color jokes about the Holocaust in the classroom.

Which is why I find it in extremely poor taste, as a person who helped organize my school’s Day of Silence and who is sensitive to the discrimination and hostility my LGBT friends face, that a teacher would treat the day as a joke. It points to another problem: sometimes teachers will also let homophobic slurs slide, just because they’re so common.

Sensitivity
One teacher at North Salem, George Cores, advised “non gender specific language in the classroom and a definite policy against any kind of discriminatory action in classroom.” This isn’t just about LGBT students, but all students.

If area schools are trying to be those bastions of tolerance they claim to be, it is so, so important to show respect and sensitivity.
My friends and I will mock each other about everything. They’ll make Asian jokes (I’m Chinese-American) and I’ll make Jewish jokes and it’s understood that no one’s feelings are hurt.
That’s our student-student relationship, and we know when to be serious. But the teacher-student relationship is inherently different. As one anonymous gay teen at Eastchester said, “None of [my teachers] would ever say anything [about my sexuality], because it’s their job, and it’s not very professional. ”

When I saw students literally kicking participants, declaring, “You can do anything you want to them and they won’t talk!” I found it ignorant and sad. When I had to deal with a teacher being disrespectful, I was disgusted.

Question everything, but question those who question everything. It’s only fair.

Teens to school officials: wake up

By Nathalie Tadena

	Ossining High School senior Nathalie Tadena, 17, is editor-in-chief of her high school paper, The Current.

In his junior year of high school, Aman Sarup slept an average of two to three hours on school nights.

“Waking up in the morning was not an easy thing to do,” said Sarup, now a senior at Ossining High School.
Sarup is one of many high schoolers who, with a heavy academic workload and a laundry list of extracurricular activities, are sleeping less and staying up later at night.

Amanda Huang, a student at Briarcliff High School, says that she never goes to sleep earlier than 11 p.m.
Unfortunately, students like Huang and Sarup don’t have the luxury to catch up on sleep in the mornings because they have to wake up early to get to class by 7:45 a.m.

According to an attendance officer, between 70 and 100 students arrive late to school every morning at Ossining High School.
Many of these students are tardy simply because they wanted to get a few more minutes of sleep.
“Being able to sleep in could make a big difference in my day,” says Sarup.

Tired eyes
Students often have difficulty paying attention in morning classes.
“Kids are quieter in the morning because it’s early in the day,” said Kelly Purdy, an English teacher at Ossining High School. “They’re not always fully woken up and aren’t able to stay alert in the morning. Afternoon classes tend to be much livelier.”

It is not uncommon for students to bring drinks to class to help them stay awake.
“In Briarcliff, it seems like most students are wired on coffee,” says Huang. She agrees that students participate more in her afternoon classes “once the coffee has kicked in.”

Everyone needs a good night’s sleep, especially teenagers.
Scientists at Brown University found that the levels of melatonin, a sleep promoting hormone, are highest in adolescents between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Simple solution
To alleviate the lethargy among students in the morning, high school administrators should consider pushing the school day back.
Reports confirm that students in Minneapolis schools were happier and saw an upward trend in grades when classes were moved to 8:30 a.m. from 7:25 a.m.
Edgemont is one of few high schools in the area that starts the day at 8:30 a.m.
“Although some people are still sleepy in the morning, they stay awake for the most part in classes,” says Edgemont senior Samantha Jayawickrama.
Even school officials recognize that students need to get sleep.

“[Pushing back the school day] is an issue that has been discussed before with the district superintendent and other principals,” said Joshua Mandel, principal at Ossining High School. “It would improve academics, help students retain information, and there would be fewer tardy students in the morning.”
However, there are several outside factors that affect the timing of the school day.
Many officials worry that a later school schedule will impact extracurricular activities.

Athletic teams, for example, need enough time to travel to other schools for games without missing class.
Additionally, many teenagers have the responsibility of taking care of younger siblings after school.

Concentration
In the Ossining School District, high schoolers start school an hour and fifteen minutes earlier than elementary students to ensure that older siblings arrive home early enough to pick up their younger siblings.
According to Mandel, pushing back the high school day could be made possible, but only if there is a regional effort among different schools.
“If the northern Westchester school districts could get together and decide to push back the school day in all of the high schools, we could then go to day care programs, bus companies, athletic departments and make plans to accommodate a later school day,” said Mandel.

“It’d help us concentrate better for sure,” agrees Huang.
“I think the real problem has to do with students’ work load and time management,” contributed Jayawickrama.
Hopefully school officials will wake up to the needs of sleep-deprived students.
Until then, shut off the computer and get some sleep.