The Issue of Wandering Students at FOHI (Part 2)
Matthew Ramirez and Matthew Barrera, Staff Writers
Are you still left with questions about those students wandering around campus? Did our previous article about this issue leave you with more questions than answers? Well then here we are again diving deeper inside this prominent issue. We decided to interview more people and got an exclusive interview from a security guard, and here is the inside scoop.
During our investigation of “wandering students” we asked every security guard if we could interview them for the newspaper. All of them declined our request. Why had all the security guards at FOHI not wanted to partake in any sort of interview? The security even had an option to remain anonymous and still all of them chose not to say anything. One officer explained that none of them “do stuff like that”. Was FOHI security hiding something or was this just a common practice that all security had to partake in?
Is this a security issue?
Luckily in the middle of our investigation an anonymous officer reached out to us and agreed for an interview. The officer explained that their main priorities are staying on top of all students that do wander during class time, but they also explain that “with how short staffed we are, yeah it’s kind of hard.” Are there even enough officers on campus to be able to handle all the kids who wander around during class? Is there even enough security in general to be able to handle ALL of FOHI? And when asked if those wandering students ever give a reason to why they were ditching they replied that “generally it’s mostly that they don’t want to be in that certain class or maybe they have an issue with the teacher… and they just don’t want to be in that class for the day.” We also asked the officer with the reason for the students not liking their classes ever had anything to do with their counselors and they replied that they were usually quick to get those students to the counselors if they really needed to. This in an interesting point that is a sharp contrast to what two students we previously interviewed had to say.
Students’ Take
When interviewing two anonymous students about what they believed could be the cause of the ditching on campus, they said that “it’s like because they just don't like their classes sometimes; sometimes they like hang out with a significant other, or they’re just aren't doing good in their classes, they’d rather not be there.” We then asked the students if the counselors were to blame for these students stuck in classes they don’t like, they replied, “but like with kids with CP classes I often hear like they don't get the classes they want, yeah and when they try to talk to the counselor about it, they just get blown off.” One of the students also mentioned how they didn’t really have any problems with their counselor because they had been taking higher level classes. This student emphasized how the kids with CP and lower-level classes often had more troubles with changing their classes. They explained that the counselors “don't really pay attention to you when you talk to them.”
AND this opened a whole new can of worms-Is this a Counselor issue?
During an interview, a student mentioned how when he was registering classes last year, his counselor stood in the way of many classes that the student wanted to take. In his case, he did not want to take the “Art class” simply because it does not interest him. Thankfully, for this student he didn’t give in to counselor’s persistence, but this is not the case for every student at FOHI. Many did allow counselors to get their way, and they had to deal with those classes for the rest of their year. This effects the student, not the counselor, so why are they making the final decision? So, are the counselors not giving the students what they want? Now of course, these guidance faculty members cannot give every student what they want, but are they just flat-out denying some students classes purely based on the level of the courses they are taking? Are they valuing students who take AP and honors courses more than the students who take regular CP? Is it because those students are getting higher state test scores and in turn making more money for the school? These are questions that have been brought up through our investigation on this topic.
This is not to cast any aspersion on our counselors as they are dedicated and keep the best interests of the student in mind, but the question remains: is there a stereotype placed on students in FOHI dependent on the classes they take? We do know that the counselor’s job is to make sure students complete their A – G requirements to graduate. So, this may be what students are complaining about: not knowing that what the counselors are doing is necessary for their future. Regardless of the reason, this only seems to be a trend with non-honors/CP students - students who tend to take more difficult classes seem to get more love, assistance, and freedom from the counselor and teachers on campus. As they do not get the classes they do not want, they are not motivated to go to those classes. So, who is there for the students who don’t take these classes? Is that the reason behind the “wandering students”? Where do you stand in this situation? If you’ve experienced a similar scenario, reach out to your local newspaper kid. We’d like to publish your story and allow your voice to be heard!