On our campus, the two pillars of manners and common courtesy have, over time, been weathered away by the breakers of indecency and ignorance. The recent break-ins and vandalism are merely an exaggerated form of this impoliteness that has been expressed by the entire student body over the past several years. These recent vile acts of defacement have given us reason to consider how we generally behave in relation to our school. Our lack of common courtesy has existed far before the science room scandal; in fact, it has been growing for some time now.
We, as a collective student body, have not demonstrated the respect a school should deserve. From our interactions with our campus, our teachers or even our own peers, our behavior has just not been good enough.
Face it—we have a problem with picking up our own trash, yet our campus is still riddled with litter after lunch every day. If we didn’t have such kind and patient custodians and campus supervisors, our campus would look like one big compost heap. As easy as it would be to point fingers, we are all ultimately responsible for this mess.
These feelings of entitlement translate to the classroom as well. A vast majority of kids at LBHS are innately respectful to their teachers, but with even one moderately successful troublemaker in class, that majority of respectful kids turns into an minority. The educational value of an assignment is suddenly lost, as the teacher is now more focused on wrangling the stampede of misconduct than teaching. When there is a substitute teacher present, it is pure chaos from the start. The general lack of respect has festered for so long that most of us aren’t aware of what we are doing. From not saying thank you to writing inappropriate emails requesting a grade change to texting in class to even stealing a chromebook charger from an unknowing teacher, we collectively have forgotten our manners.
Unfortunately, our rudeness doesn’t stop there. We are unashamedly catty with one another. This impoliteness needs to be stopped—then we can get back to learning and a culture of respect.