This March, What Kids Can Do had a chance to meet several times with a group of Central High School seniors and to hear their thoughts on a number of topics, from school safety to dropping out to teachers who've made a difference. Student participants included Jonathan Sanchez, Joel Sanchez, John Jimenez, Johanna Castillo, Joysmar Adames, Kevin Joaquim, Edward Goins, Cindy Polanco, Kayla Nicol, Tiffany Torres, and Juan De Los Santos.
Here we present excerpts from these discussions.
What makes a school feel safe
As seniors, we basically feel like we know everybody, we know our way around the school. We have people that we can go to. It's really not a bad school: there are barely any fights, no bullying, no prejudice. It's just who and how the students are that makes the school safe.
I think it's all about the environment, like who the people are. If we had a school full of gangs and a lot of violence, then we obviously have an unsafe school. This place is a pretty good environment where people can just go up and make friends easily.
It's also about how people present themselves. Some people have a style that's different than the rest of the school-those people might feel as though they have to watch their backs to a certain extent. It's a question of whether you feel safe around other people to show them your true self.
Safety is also based on a comfort level. If you feel comfortable, you feel safe. If you're going into another school that doesn't support the same kind of things you're into—like going to a suburban school after attending Central for a while—it's going to be a totally different atmosphere. That might feel uncomfortable, which might lead you to feeling unsafe. If you're the minority in a school, or anywhere in life, that affects your comfort in a situation. It's like going into a business meeting wearing a pair of jeans and everyone else is wearing a suit. You're going to be uncomfortable; and I relate that kind of comfort to a feeling of safety, especially at school.
I think there are many schools where you can feel physically safe, but there isn't one school in America where you can feel emotionally safe. That's because no matter where you go, people will always ridicule you, there will always be bullies who will pick on you.
As one of the only white kids in my class, it makes sense that I might feel unsafe. But this is what I've always grown up with, this is what I'm used to. I feel safe, I have no problem with it. But I think race has a lot to do with feeling safe.
Coming into high school you feel unsafe, and right before you leave you also feel unsafe. But in the middle is the time where you feel like you're in a comfort zone. On the first day it's a ton of new people. You don't know who's going to like you and who isn't. And then you get accustomed to people and you make friends and get settled over the course of your four years. Then just before you leave people start to feel unsafe again because they don't know what the future holds, where they'll be, and whether they'll still be friends with the people they knew in high school.
Where you come from also has a lot to do with your safety. Like if you're from the east and you come to Central, but there are a lot of people that come from the south—there's a good chance that there will be a conflict there. And you don't have a choice about that, it's just about where your parents live. You're just labeled as being from one place, and that follows you.
Personal connections with teachers
The teachers that show that they like their jobs, that they care about us, those are the ones that are approachable and that we can connect with. There are some teachers that you can tell are just doing it so that they have a job. But the teachers that show me that they care and that they want to be there, I'm going to show them the same commitment and care just as much as they do.
One teacher in particular I got to be really close with. Even that I'm not in that class anymore we keep in touch with each other.
One of my teachers lives on the street next to me, so she knows my whole family and my sisters and brothers.
You don't just see them as teachers, but as friends also. It doesn't affect your schoolwork or anything, but you just connect with them and become friends.
When it comes to sports, my coach has influenced me a lot; outside sports as well. When I started track as a freshman I was scared because I'd never done anything like that before. But by the end of the year I'd established a relationship with the coach and I felt like I could go up to him. He convinced me to keep coming out, so I've kept at it every year.
My football coach is really important to me. We've had a lot of outside conversations. I've hung out with him outside of school. He's a big influence on me. Some coaches only pay attention to the kids who can run fast, to the top athletes. They don't really get to know you as a person, they only try to help the people who will be the big stars on the team.
Staying in school versus dropping out
Drop out? After twelve years of this? No, that would be stupid.
Money kept me in school for the most part. Knowing that dropping out meant I could only get certain jobs that wouldn't pay nearly as much as ones that require a high school diploma.
As a high school dropout, you really don't have any opportunities in life. If you look at the statistics, what can a high school dropout really do? Compared to people who actually have a high school education and a college degree, you'll make so much more money than someone who doesn't even finish high school.
I think the more school you go to, the easier your job gets. As you go to school more, you get to sit back and let other people with less schooling do the work that you don't want to do.
I've stayed in school because I want to be someone in life, because I want to make myself into something. My parents have always told me to stay in school because they dropped out early and haven't had the chance to do a lot of the things they've wanted.
Sometimes people come to school just because they're in an after school activity, like basketball. They come because they can't play on the team if they don't have good grades. That's a kind of a motivation to get people to come back to school.
Even if school is boring sometimes, it's a free education. What else are you going to do during the day? School's not supposed to be just fun. It's supposed to be educational, it's school. People need to get over it. We pay for school through taxes so we should take advantage of it while we can.
The role of race and ethnicity in student relationships
It's everything at the same time it's nothing. Some people consider race and ethnicity to be huge when they think about you, when they think about hanging out with you. But it shouldn't be like that. We are similar as much as we are different. And our differences shouldn't keep us apart.
I'm very open, I'm accepting of other things. I'm Hispanic, but a lot of people think I look White. I don't just talk to White people, I don't just hang out with Hispanics. I talk to anybody who is going to open up his or her ears and listen.
Our country of origin matters a lot in identity as well. It happens with Hispanics and the same is true with Asians. If you call someone who is Asian "Chinese" and they're not Chinese, they'll make sure you know right away.
Everyone makes that separation about what country you're from really clear, even though I don't think it should exist in the first place. You've got Dominicans that are running around together, and then Puerto Ricans get intimidated and feel like they have to talk back or something. And then you have the Mexicans who don't want to get left out. It's sad that people try and make themselves different from everyone else, when we should just be coming together and helping each other out. We shouldn't be pushing each other away. That's what causes violence, and that's what makes people feel unsafe.
I think I'm more mature and more responsible now than I used to be. I'm a much different person than I was before high school. I was always around the same kind of people before, and I thought that I only wanted to be friends with those kinds of people. But since there are so many different kinds of people at Central, I want to get to know a lot of people. And I'm always trying out new things to see if I'm interested in them.
What I'd like to change...
I'd try to change how people view our school. People vandalize our school, they think that it doesn't matter, but I'd like that to change. The dropout rate increases and the education level goes down, and so people criticize us. It's just like we're giving into those people, we're not showing them that we're better than that and rising above the negative reputation.
It starts with the students, not the teachers. Some students don't want to be here, and then they influence other students. That's when the teachers start to give up, because so many of the students don't want to be there. If you started kicking out the kids that were a bad influence, then a lot more students would start straightening up and doing their work, just so that they don't get kicked out.
I think there are too many teachers considered bad teachers just because they do their job. Teachers who aren't lenient get criticized because they're not helping their students. But actually, that's just what they're supposed to do. The students are supposed to have done it themselves.
But honestly, if the teachers that are lenient and let us get away with stuff were actually fired, we'd be really upset. Those are the teachers that let us get away with not working in their classes. If I have a teacher that everyday I go into their class and take a nap, I'm going to be upset if he leaves. That's the honest truth.
I'm not going to lie. I wish I had been able to go to one of the other schools in the district because they have so many more opportunities than here at Central. Last year I took part in a Shakespeare competition, but that was the only thing like that we could be part of. At other schools, they may throw 20 things at you at the beginning of the year and ask you what you want to be a part of. And the teachers are more on you all the time, even with your relationships with your parents. They make you feel like you need to get your stuff done. That's a big thing this school lacks. No one wants it to be stricter, but at the end of the year everyone is complaining about grades or passing classes. If you had the strong guidance that a lot of kids at other schools have from the beginning of the year, then you wouldn't have these problems later on.
It would also be great to have teachers that believe in you, teachers who take the extra time after school to work with you on. Here, most of the teachers don't push you that much. If you're sitting in class doing someone else's work, most of them won't even stop you or say anything. If you're struggling and say that you have other issues going on, they don't take the time to understand your life. Last year I had a lot of stuff going on and not a single teacher was there for me. As my grades were falling down, no one asked me what was going on. I'm not asking for leniency, but I want teachers who give me a chance to do what I need to do. Only one teacher took the time to figure out what was wrong with me.
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