Students Want to Make a Change
If only everyone could fight to want to go to school everyday. Maybe then we could all work out a better system. Maverick Stow is a high school senior at William Floyd High School. He vowed to himself this year that he would go to school every day of the week until a change was made in the school system.
Little did he know how big of a problem he was starting. He was originally just suspended for his actions, then he was arrested and charged for trespassing on school grounds. The school then proceeded to threaten to take away in person learning for the “foreseeable future”, if Stow continued to show up to school.
A few days later, Stow went to school on the opposite day again, and Suffolk County officers arrested him. Stow was then charged with third-degree criminal trespassing. Stow just kept repeating that he just wanted to go to school, and that his school was taking away his privilege of going to school and he wanted to do something about it.
He said he knew they would call the police if he went to school again, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by this. "If Mr. Stow continues to try to access school grounds each day that we are open, we will close the high school — and its approximately 3,000 students — to all in-person learning and it will be all virtual for the foreseeable future” The fact that this school has 8,800 kids, and they get to have 3,000 in the school a day is unreal to me.
Considering Harborfields has about a thousand students, and we all can’t be in school at the same time. Many students at Harborfields wish we had a different system, Brooke Buda had recently said, “I feel like I’m missing out on my senior year not having the full experience”. I think she speaks for most of the senior class when saying this. If all students fought like Maverick did, maybe a change could be made.
Obviously we are still in a pandemic and we can’t just go back to normal classes and normal lunch tables and gym class, but if we could all at least be together, I think students would be more inclined to go to school. If one student could make this much of an impact in just a few days, imagine what could happen if other students tried to make a difference. The hybrid system is popular in a lot of different schools all over the country, including colleges.
What Stow wanted to do was protest the hybrid system. He felt that being in school five days a week would be the most beneficial and then students would be able to have extracurricular activities. The hybrid system is used all over. Personally, I am separated from my best friend in school now, in our last year of high school together. We have both discussed how we wish school was different. Recently she (Brenna Dorsam) has said to me, “I personally wish we were all together especially for senior year, but I also think the hybrid system is a smarter system because it will help ensure that we’re all safe and it will slow covid in our community”. The hybrid system is well used, but if other schools have thousands of students in a school at once, why can’t smaller schools have all their students attending everyday?
Many students are missing out on their last season of high school sports, or clubs they’ve waited to get a leadership position in for years. I’ve spoken to students from different grades, and everyone seems to be in agreement when we say we wish we could all be together. Dean Bouchard, who is a junior, said he thinks it should be “all or none when it comes to going to school”. He then said “I suppose the social aspect of being in school is necessary, however, at what cost?”. The students are in agreement when we say we all want to be together.
We keep hearing that, “it might change throughout the year”, from teachers, parents, and other students, but we all would love to know for sure if we’ll ever actually get to go to school again. If only students all over could be as brave and determined as Maverick Stow, maybe not so brave they all get arrested, but brave enough to make an impact no matter how big or how small.