Let’s Stroll Around the Campus - the Issue of Wandering Students at FOHI
Matthew Ramirez and Matthew Barrera, Staff Writers
Have you ever left your class during class time and noticed several students wandering the campus? Do you ever wonder how these students are always outside roaming around? We decided to ask 3 teachers their opinion on the matter.
One teacher - who we will refer to as Teacher Z- leans heavily on the fact that there are not enough security officers to keep up with the number of students ditching all around campus. Teacher Z has been teaching at FOHI since the campus taught 4,500 students daily. Teacher Z states, “Well, but you have to remember, when I started our campus was 4500, [now] we are barely 2600. We used to have like 20 portables over there in the soccer field. Yeah, this campus used to be huge.” During this time, they believe that there were about 10 security officers and have a strong understanding that the school during this time seemed to have much more control over students compared to how it is today. Teacher Z believes that if FOHI increases security similarly to how it was then, the number of students ditching classes would decrease: “I think there should be a security guard in every building.” They also mention that the blame is not entirely upon the security officers, but they did not give any more context to this.
Mr. Perez, a FOHI history teacher, believes that there should be a consequence for the students who ditch because if not dealt with now, these students will – and I quote – “suffer the consequences of their actions in the very near future.” Mr. Perez does believe that the security is doing the most that they can, but he does clarify that he has a very mediocre understanding of what is going on outside of the classroom; he stays within his room most of the day. He further goes on to say that an increase in security would not solve this issue.
Mr. Alexander’s solution to the issue is to push the involvement of 5 star with every student and teacher. Mr. Alexander has been a FOHI teacher for over 20 years and has seen how the school has adapted to handling students in the changing world. Unlike Teacher Z, he believes this has been a consistent issue rooted in FOHI since he began teaching here. Back then, the only way to check if a student was ditching or simply using the restroom was by using physical passes or by trusting their word, but now with the implementation of “5 star” – an app dedicated to making school flow smoothly – every student can be checked if they were allowed to leave these classes by their teacher. This brings another issue, which being that many teachers still don’t implement this app all the time. So, without every teacher’s involvement, this “solution” does not help.
When we started this research, we began by asking many teachers in a desperate attempt to find a solution to this issue, but most gave us the same surface level answers which brought us to the understanding that all the teacher’s had small views on the matter. Knowing how little the teachers seem to be involved in the matter lead us to question of why should the teachers even care if students wander? It doesn’t necessarily affect them, they’ll still teach the same class, with or without one or two students. So, we began to interview students and came to a quick realization that the real effect is on the students, both the students who wander and everyone else who doesn’t.
During every student interview the students tied the wandering on school property as something indecent, and expressed a very poor view of the students who do it, but along with their opinions of the students they also had formed an opinion of the school, in which the school was viewed as so much less than it truly is.
One of our first interviews comes from 11th grader Jacob Corona who had an interesting take on the issue, but not farfetched from what presumably most students think when it comes to their peers ditching. In a response from a question of how he feels about these ditches he states how he “couldn’t care less about it”. If he’s not ditching with them, then these students don’t really interfere with his education. He says as long as it does not affect him, he has no real issue about it - just wasted opportunities. Jacob also agrees to certain students being very “friendly” with security officers. Bringing up this point he said, “I do see a lot of people who communicate with the officers in a very friendly manner, and it just makes me feel like if they were to get caught ditching or smoking or something they would get off with a warning”.
Another student, who we will refer to as Anon, gives their opinion on the matter. They explain how eventually the problem will sort itself out naturally. The students who are ditching are “Setting themselves up for failure.” Anon feels that if they choose to ditch, they will eventually be sent to Citrus where ultimately they are not FOHI’s problem anymore. They also go further into the issue by stating that they do not feel security really does anything about these students. They say it is more of a hassle for them to stop and check every student for a pass since some teachers don’t even give out passes to their students anymore. Anon also agrees with the point that Jacob made with how security may be lenient to students who they know. They see that security is very friendly with some students.
Is this problem, that has been seen with many generations of past FOHI scholars, ever going to be resolved? Is security doing their best towards this issue? Do these ditching students ever face real consequences? These are questions that we still do not have an answer to. This problem as said by many teachers has lasted in FOHI for generations. Would increasing security within the school help? Is the question that security officers are too friendly with our students to ever do anything about the ditching students relevant to ask? So, who you gonna call?