On March 19, Principal Richard Nash opened second period with an announcement over the intercom, expressing that a discriminatory action had taken place on campus. This discriminatory action “was a targeted effort to diminish the value of a group of students on campus; it wasn’t trivial. They truly engaged in something heinous,” Nash said.
At Poway, we have a basic set of standards to maintain order and dignity on campus. These standards are identified as “Respect, Integrity, Growth, Ownership and Responsibility” (RIGOR). Nash emphasized a lack of the first R, respect; respect for our campus, respect for our teachers, and respect for our peers.
In a post-COVID high school, there have been countless physical fights on campus that have resulted in students being suspended or even expelled. In the most extreme of cases, an ambulance was called to get a student medical attention beyond what a health technician could provide.
These fights happen for a number of reasons, many being that the involved parties had ongoing beef and wanted to continue to get a rise out of the other, resulting in punches being thrown, hair being pulled and people on the floor.
Potentially worse than fighting, some students witnessing the fights actively participate in them, by rooting for one of those fighting, or egg it on by saying “Fight, fight, fight,” or something of the like. Being a bystander is incredibly harmful because doing nothing to prevent an instance that can make students feel unsafe at school is unacceptable.
Going back to elementary school, we have learned that if we see something, we say something. Students need to understand that there are adults on campus who support their needs, including making sure this campus is one that we, as Titans, will flourish in for the duration of our high school careers.
While not all fights on campus are because of cultural differences, we still experience a high level of uneducated hate on campus. A possible solution to this problem would be to bring back assemblies that promote a positive and accepting school culture. Before COVID, these assemblies took place every year and offered sophomores an insight into other cultures and viewpoints. If we bring them back, ideally, it would allow students to understand different cultures and limit the offensive language they use.
We could also have assemblies that promote communication, rather than fighting. Students would learn to communicate their feelings with other students or trusted adults, which limits fights and toxic behavior.
While that high tensions leading to physical fights may never go away, with the proper education of varying cultures will help with discriminatory actions in the classroom and on campus, and by extension, a creates a safer environment outside of school.
