Does seeing vandalism in your school bother you? We posed this question to a sampling of high school students during their lunch period, and across the board, we got one general result: apathy. Answers included: “No, not really,” “A little bit,” “Not at all,” “Sometimes it’s kinda funny,” just plain “No,” “It’s not really affecting me in any way,” and, “Not entirely, I’ve kind of gotten used to it.” You might think that with these answers the students had not encountered the vandalism that has, unfortunately, become a trend within the school, but in reality, almost everyone we asked answered that they see it just about every day. My initial reaction was one of shock and horror. Over the past week or two, I have learned a lot about the vandalism within the school, and just how damaging it can be on a number of levels. How could they not care about this issue? But when I thought about it a little bit, I realized that if you had asked me any time before two weeks ago, my answer would not differ much from those of the students at their lunch tables. Yeah, I’d seen words on the bathroom walls. I’d heard distant rumors about things being taken from lockers, and other cruel acts widely regarded as bad jokes. But I had never really taken the time to think about the impact of these acts. After consideration though, the issue is now stuck at the front of my mind, as I expect it should be for others, if we can take the time to look at the impact of this vandalism.
As high school students, most of us try to get through each day on our own, without paying too much attention to things we don’t need to. We take it one class period at a time, trying to remember during first period exactly what we have due second period. There isn’t a whole lot of extra room in our brains for things that don’t seem imminent. And I understand this. I do it too. High school is stressful. It’s tough to think about things we don’t have to. At the same time though, our school is our community. In many ways, it serves as a home. Would you allow this to go on in your bathrooms and walls? Mr. Ham, elementary school assistant principal, agreed with us on this one.
This is your home away from home. We spend eight and a half hours a day here together, and some of us see each other more than we see our families. If you take this type of action to your house where you had friends over and they defaced the walls of your bathroom where you live than that reaction would be, ‘Why are you doing that to my house? Why are you doing that to where I live?’ Students, high school, middle school, elementary, should have that same mentality here, saying, ‘Why would you want to do that where I’m coming to school, where I live during my school day?
Like we said, Mr. Ham is an elementary school administrator dealing with this. Yes, this means that the vandalism you see, is the same vandalism the third graders have to see. Think about the little kids that go to school here. Is it fair that they have to see these images? And then consider that people’s actual property is being destroyed. It may not be yours, but it belongs to someone within your school. How would you feel if it were yours? So, when you’re not the one committing- or directly affected by- these acts, it’s very easy to not give them a second thought. But I urge you to take a minute and think of everything your school and the people in it do for you. Consider the ways vandalism hurts the community here. If someone ever asks you if vandalism within your school bothers you, consider standing up and saying yes. If we all begin expressing our disgust at these acts, hopefully people will stop committing them. And if you don’t trust us, listen to your teachers who have been dealing with the issue. They had a lot to say about it- and definitely do not harbor the same apathy as students.
As one of the art teachers here at Avon Grove Charter School, Mrs. Biedrzycki has spoken about what other students are doing to their peers art work, saying, "They are damaging other peoples projects and writing things or scratching on other pieces of artwork, they are creating a lack of trust between peers."
Mr. Barber, a high school art teacher, has spoken his opinion about this as well, "I'm very concerned. I haven't been teaching for awhile, but I’ve never seen anything personally harming another persons project. Teachers are having to lock up things now, we can’t even let anyone go to certain bathrooms anymore. This is a big deal." Our school is an educational place where we house third through twelfth graders.
The younger students here should not be exposed by the different slurs written by the older students. Ms.Grimes, a fifth grade teacher, spoke aloud and said
This is happening after school hours, and if they are willing to destroy school property, then what else are they willing to do to our school? It was the talk of 5th graders the next morning. They don't need to be seeing this.
Mr. Barr, a math teacher in the 500 trailers, says, "I'm very concerned because they were in the trailer with 5th graders. It's not cool for them to see that kind of stuff. It's a level of maturity. It affects children because they aren't ready to see this."
Mr. Cotter, a drama teacher at Avon Grove Charter, said
It's annoying and disgusting; it's not very charter like.
Vandalism is an issue that is nearly impossible to stop, and many who vandalize do not understand the significant impact that they have on their surrounding areas. Have you ever wondered how much time goes into your administrator’s day when vandalism is reported? Do you know how out of control it has gotten? When the Student News Team met with Mr. Delfin we asked these questions, and his response goes as follows, “In the recent weeks it has been really bad. I’ve been here ten years and I haven’t seen as much of a problem with graffiti or vandalism in the school than I have in the past two weeks. I would say half an hour to an hour depending on my day is spent hearing about vandalism. This is too much.”
The administrators at the charter school find this to be ridiculous, and quite frankly, appalling. Vandalism is a huge issue, and has repercussions far greater than a member on staff to clean an ignorant student’s mess. When speaking with Mr. Brutto we discussed possible punishments for students caught defacing property and he said,
If you’re caught vandalizing a part of the school, an out of school suspension is almost automatic. It’s not just you being disruptive during the day, but it’s you destroying school property. Sometimes it can end up in that student, or their parents, paying for the costs of what was broken. I’m sure that a lot of student’s don’t think of those unintended consequences, but it can be very persuasive to stop when they realize that this wall will cost hundreds of dollars to be replaced or repainted.
If you go to school at the charter school than you have made that choice, no one forces you to come here. If you do not have enough respect for where you go to school everyday that you feel the need to deface property, than maybe it is best that you spend your time elsewhere. Take pride in your school.
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