In this column I
’m supposed to write about fun, exciting things that are coming
up at Live Oak High School, but I thought that before I start
writing about that stuff I have to get some other things about Live
Oak off my chest.
In this column I’m supposed to write about fun, exciting things that are coming up at Live Oak High School, but I thought that before I start writing about that stuff I have to get some other things about Live Oak off my chest.
It’s only about the fourth week of school and all of the students seem to be a little confused. Everything that was OK at Live Oak last year is unacceptable this year. Without warning, students are being sent to the office or talked to in an offensive tone by counselors. Students have enough going on during the first weeks of school, let alone being sent to the office for what they’re wearing, or brushed off by a counselor when trying to change a class.
At Live Oak we’ve always had a dress code. Most of it I’ve totally agreed with, I do not want to see boys sagging their pants too low or see girls having their entire stomachs hanging out either.
Although, this year I could not say how much I disagree with whatever point the advisers are trying to get across by sending students to the office for wearing a tank top on a hot day. When I asked a vice principal what the need was for a stricter dress code I was told “Well, when girls wear things like low cut tank tops it distracts boys and makes them more likely to verbally sexually harass girls.”
I found her answer upsetting me even more than the dress code itself. In my opinion boys should know what is appropriate and what is not, no matter how a girl is dressed. A girl should not be punished for being verbally harassed by a boy who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. So yes, I think the dress code is a topic that students and teachers will always disagree on, and I doubt anything will change this year as much as we students protest it.
Another change at Live Oak that I was surprised by was the counseling office being very unhelpful to students. Students have been sent away from the counselors crying, one of those students being myself. I don’t cry a lot at school, but I think that I can get things done by myself so when I was treated the way I was by the counselors it upset me very much. They’ve made it very hard for students to see them. Their receptionist will not make appointments for students and is very stubborn when students try to compromise a time with her. I myself was never given an approved meeting time with my counselor but was told I could come in at brunch or lunch but that my counselor was never in at brunch.
Irritated, I came in at my lunch hoping to have a meeting with my counselor. After waiting half way through lunch my counselor finally showed up with his lunch and sat down to eat it while I tried talking to him. After getting out all I had to say he simply just said no and turned me away, all without even looking up from his sandwich. Eventually, I made the changes to my schedule that I needed, but it took having to bring my parents with me to school for the counselors to take me seriously.
I love my school and understand that it takes rules, and a lot to run a high school, but at the same time I think that students should be treated with respect just like the teachers and counselors expect to be treated. I am a senior, almost 18, I’ll be going to college next year and would like to think that I’m ready for it when I get there.
However, so far all my senior year has taught me is that I’m only a kid and as long as I’m a kid, adults will never take me as seriously as I’d like. So as the year goes on all of us students will have fun with school events and I’m sure all the other girls writing for this column and I will write about them, but right now this is “What’s going on at Live Oak.”
Lauren Devine is a Live Oak senior, Commissioner of Clubs and plays varsity field hockey. She will be writing the weekly Associated Student Body column, alternating with Megan Hamilton, Elicia Perkins and Jessica Towner and Katie Kenyon. Lauren can be reached at ed******@*************es.com
