Sometimes you just can’t stay quiet any longer. Sometimes your voice and opinions inside your head get to be too much to handle and you must speak out. So I decided I would give people some way to express these feelings, some way to be heard, even on this small school newspaper. Maybe speaking our opinions, however insignificant they may seem, could have a huge effect on this school. Even if nothing changes, and this is just another article typed and posted on a website, nothing more than another group of edgy teens sharing their opinions with the world, it doesn’t change what our words mean. It feels good to be heard, even if no one is listening.

However, I would like to remind the reader of one thing. If you disagree with an opinion stated, good for you. I’m thrilled that you went through second grade and can form your own opinions. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with a statement and wanting to tell others why. But please, when you do, please be respectful and don’t act like a four year old.

I went around school and asked kids to tell me one thing they wanted to change, or disliked, about the way teachers did things in their classrooms. I picked through all of those who didn’t care to find those that had something genuine to say or had an idea of what actually bothered them about some teaching styles. I got some good answers. Some that I agree with, and others I do not. But that’s okay, because we are all entitled to our own opinions.

“When things happen to us, it would affect me differently than how it would you. Not to be rude, but you are all older than us, and have gone through different things than we have. We are a new generation with new problems and issues that we will face. Because we are younger than you, things affect us with more gravity because we haven’t been through many life changing events. So if our boyfriends break up with us and we turn into a wreck because of it, don’t act like we are overreacting,” said Taylor, a young individual here at Chelsea High.

“No exception for not having homework or class work done, really? What if someone in my family just died? What if I had a mental breakdown last night and couldn’t physically handle doing it? What if countless other things happened and I just didn’t have time? Sometimes there are excuses, and you need to understand that and deal with it, because I’m done having teachers interrupt me when I’m trying to explain why I didn’t have things done. Homework is, shockingly, not the center of my universe, and just because it’s high school doesn’t mean I still won’t have bad days where I can’t get my work done,” said an anonymous student.

“Why do you only let us go to the bathroom three times per trimester? That legitimately makes no sense. We can’t control when we need to use the bathroom. You expect us to get out of class, go to our lockers, get our things, go to the bathroom, and then get to class on time in just five minutes. That’s stupid, I understand why if the kids just go to the bathroom just to mess around, but punishing us for that doesn’t make sense. It’s like we are all kindergartners,” said a student who wishes to remain anonymous.

“Sending progress reports home to be signed is dangerous in my opinion. Certain parents, like several of my friends’, would be very upset with a kid for having anything less than an A. It puts a lot of kids in a bad place because they have to get it signed. Kids may not return the signed sheet because they don’t want to get yelled at or grounded. We know it’s our fault our grades are like this, but it’s not easy to get all A’s while still being happy and well rested. It’s also not the teachers fault for the parents acting that way. But it sure doesn’t help to make the students get a progress report signed,” said Luke, a student here at CHS.

“The amount of homework is ridiculous. I get having it once in awhile, but not every single night. I don’t think I even need to explain why,” said Noah Holton, a senior.

“I know you aren’t oblivious to what people say to one another. I’ve heard kids in dead silent classrooms call another a “faggot” out loud, so we could all hear it. Don’t act like you’re oblivious to what’s happening, because you notice this bullying and you don’t stop it. I’m done with hearing things like that in this day and age,” said an anonymous source.

Remember that they are people behind these opinions, so think before you respond to anything. Also, teachers probably have just as many if not more problems with the kids at this school and how they act, but that doesn’t make our complaints any less valid. Maybe if teachers explained why this happens or tweaked it a little bit it might make us all happier in this district. So leave any other problems or explanations in the comments, because I’d love to hear more.