We are a small community. Although safety and security require fences, ID cards, pins, late passes, and the occasional permission slip, our campus is pretty free. But you are not invisible. We park next to you, sit at your desk the period after you, stand in front of the same bathroom sinks, and check the same portal for our grades every afternoon. Around here, no one can hide. So, it hurts us when you engage in actions that make us feel like we do not share the same space.
To those who smoke and vape; we notice you. We feel uncomfortable when we see you vaping, specifically in the restrooms. We worry that your new coping mechanism or distraction is becoming an addiction that is driving us apart. We urge you to rethink your source of comfort. We are here for you, so choose us before e-cigarettes and similar devices. If you think we don’t notice the damage you are doing to your developing mind and body, we do. We want the best for you, so if you need a way to quit, there are many sources that you can reach out to including the substance abuse hotline, 1-800-662-4357.
Smoking among high school students is a problem that cannot be ignored. Some students vape and smoke marijuana each day at school, thinking that no one sees or cares about what they are doing; but we do. Marijuana leads to students being unorganized and unmotivated to strive for greatness in the classroom. Vaping also contributes to the problem as the nicotine that is being inhaled by students can hurt brain development in areas that control decision-making, impulse control, and learning. Until about age 25, the brain is still growing so taking in these harmful chemicals into the body can hamper one’s ability to fully develop and obtain the necessary skills to succeed in life.
To those who don’t view their time in class as a real gift their parents give them, we challenge you to remember the spirit of the holidays and keep the magic alive for those of us who still believe. We notice you watching YouTube and sometimes dozing off. If you’re tired because we were texting each other late last night, just go to bed– we can continue texting in the morning. We know that you’re a better student than your BucLinks suggest, and we want you to understand the damage you are doing to our future by not paying attention. We want to be able to invite you out without worrying that we’re making you fall further behind. We want to be able to sit next to you in next year’s classes– whether that be in college or our next year of high school; we don’t want to be tutoring you in what we learned the year before. If you really feel like you physically cannot pay attention, seek help from your parents or counselors to set up a plan to improve your attentiveness.
School may not be where you want to be on a daily basis; you may want to be sleeping in your bed or playing a sport. We have those days too. But think of how much better your dreams, records, and high scores could be if you’d stay focused and absorb the material that our teachers are sharing with us; attention plays an instrumental role in memory and retention of information. In class, too many of you are playing games on your computers, watching YouTube, shopping online, or un-plugging yourself from our class without the teachers noticing. But we notice. It’s distracting. Your screen is a lot more colorful than anything else in the room. It’s making it tough for us to pay attention to what matters.
To those who may have considered cheating or not following the Honor Code; we urge you to reconsider your choices to not only help yourself but also the others around you. We’ve noticed you looking at other student’s papers in hopes that you will find the right answer and we want to tell you to choose honesty instead. You may think that no one sees what you are doing or even cares, but we do. We are sorry for what you are going through and our main concern lies in the harm it will cause to your mental and physical health if this behavior becomes normalized.
Academic dishonesty at our school is an issue that cannot be overlooked. When someone cheats or gets outside information on an assignment, it ruins the opportunity for all of us to learn and develop essential skills. Doing poorly on an assignment allows our teachers to know when they need to adjust their methods to help us all; if not, it hurts those of us who are struggling honestly. We all lose the ability to adapt and handle difficult situations if we continue this deception. You may think that doing this gives you an advantage, but in the long run, it puts all of us at a major disadvantage.
To those who have ever used AI or any computer technology to complete work; Big Brother is not the only one watching; we see you too. Many of us are writers and artists, and to see you claim mastery over the talents we’ve been trying to better devalue our hard work. It’s hard for us to show pride in our work if you can create it by simply logging into a website and prompting a bot. Alexa might help, but Alexa (the person) will suffer.
School can be challenging and juggling several classes with extracurriculars like sports or clubs is difficult. Using AI or ChatGPT is not a good way to get your work done because it simply does the work for us. It’s not working smarter, it’s just not working. We are losing our imagination, our originality, and more importantly our ability to think on our feet. You may think that you can reword what the website generates or just use its ideas, but you can’t. If you start using these sources, you will slowly become dependent on it and before you know it you will forget the necessary skills and tactics you need to succeed without outside help. You will forget how to trust your instincts and follow your intuition because you are used to relying on a website.
To those of you who have decided to disregard the school uniform; your actions have not gone unnoticed. We see that you have started to untuck your shirts in the middle of the day and we see when you have your ID’s in your pockets or when you are not wearing a belt or an appropriate sweatshirt. We worry that your violation of the rules is really an indication that you are not doing well emotionally or that you are unhappy. We strongly encourage you to seek help if you are struggling and hope that you will soon reach a better place. For those of us who do follow the dress code, your disregard makes us feel even more judged for what we wear than we already do. If we’re all in this together, let’s look like it.
If you are one of these people who have thought about or gotten in the habit of doing any of these things, there is never time to wait to reach out for help. Do not let mental health take over your life; there are many ways to seek help through family, friends, school counselors, and therapists. We want you to know that we are here for you and will lift you up from your lowest points no matter the circumstance. If you are reading this and you are one of these students, please seek guidance and use this as a call to action to ask for help no matter how hard it may be at the moment. We already see you, we can talk with you too.
