After being at the unfortunate, prison-like junior high schools, students are most excited about the opportunity to have other students hear their voice and to be treated as adults.
Student Coalition is just the place. The club has achieved many great things that have made RBHS better.
Student Coalition recently changed the grading scale, and after many long hours of work, the club persuaded the school’s administration to change the cell phone policy. The previous policy was a strict ruling of no cell phones allowed in the hallways or classrooms at any time. Now, the policies are relaxed so that the student will not have their phones confiscated and will only be written up. Many areas of the school are reserved for cell phone use by the students.
Sophomores come to RBHS expecting a student body that cares and wants to accomplish things, but sometimes they are disappointed. This year’s Student Coalition has been fruitless. The club had huge plans to make school-sponsored sports a P.E. credit, to put lampposts on so-called “Sophomore Alley” for early morning parkers and night practices, and to extend library hours. Little to no progress was made. Sure, many of these changes would take time and lots of effort by leaders, but Student Coalition has done it before.
Student Coalition has been a great part of RBHS since 1995. Middle schools and junior high schools give little power to students because they believe students cannot achieve much, but now they have the freedom of responsibility to look for. However, RBHS’ constantly repeated mantra of freedom with responsibility allows the high schoolers to break out of their kiddie jails and become adults where they matter and where change is possible. The students are usually responsible with this power; they all want change for the betterment of the school. But Student Coalition has disappointed this expectation.
The seniors are our leaders, the top of the chain, and they have failed to be the great commanders that we need and are supposed to have, especially when the end of the year rolls around. Seniors check out, and the underclassmen are left helpless. So the juniors need to step up and become the great leaders we hear about through siblings and alumni to make RBHS a better place. Sophomores could also rise up.
Lately, “senioritis” has been a growing disease and it keeps spreading. The laziness of the seniors is contagious.
If the leaders of important clubs like Student Coalition don’t fill in the shoes of the past leaders, other students need to. The juniors who are in the club should start planning and changing things when the seniors are being lazy. They could start changes around the beginning of the second semester and take the seniors place and start to learn from the roles and responsibilities that the seniors have.
By Katie Wheeler
