If you’re a Dover student of the past or the present, you definitely want to read this post. If you aren’t, I invite you to read it anyway, but you may miss some of the complexities of the topic.
I have dedicated my free time in the last few months to speaking out against Dover High School’s major problems. I’ve written about some of these problems in the past on the blog, but I haven’t spoken about some aspects. To catch everyone up, these are the two problems:
- Extracurricular activities are in a sad state of affairs. Although there are many successful activities right now, others are failing for two different reasons. Students seem to have no interest in several of the activities, but there are other activities that have a disgusting and unacceptable problem; many club advisors aren’t holding meetings or even trying to have a club. Even worse, no one is making them - there’s very limited oversight.
- Student behavioral problems are rampant. That is to say, everything changed this year after the development of local “gangs”. There are constant fights and rowdiness in school, especially in the lunchrooms. In my opinion, the school administration hasn’t taken the necessary zero-tolerance policy toward this ridiculous behavior.
I’ve been working my heart out on both of these problems. Let me explain the recent developments on this front.
After Dover’s Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent found the money to hold our traditional spring assembly, the Leadership Rally, Student Council’s new committee, Save Our School (SOS), set its sights toward the first problem I listed. We developed a list of recommendations to send to Administration to address the problem of advisors who simply aren’t doing their jobs. Administration took those suggestions into a meeting with the advisors, but from what I’ve heard, the main problem isn’t solved. There is no clear authority enforcing the rules for advisors, and until that is made clear, I won’t rest.
Dealing with the second problem is much harder. I attended my first Board of Education meeting this last Tuesday night in order to gain approval for a new club for the high school; this new club, the Green Team, plans to raise awareness about climate change and make the community greener. I’m very jealous that I won’t be able to participate in this noble effort. However, I digress.
At the Board of Education meeting, one of the members asked me if I have any perspective or opinions on the behavioral issues in the High School. Needless to say, I was more than happy to tell the Board how I felt. I explained the emergence of these “gangs”, who’s involved, and why I think they’re able to succeed in Dover High School - the lack of punishment.
I can’t singlehandedly change the direction that Dover is heading, that’s impossible. However, while I’m still here and able to have my voice heard - able to make a difference - I’ll try. Thus far, I think SOS has been successful in its efforts. We’re raising the awareness of the highest authorities in the school district that there is a palpable problem here and who is failing to respond. In response to my perspective, I’ve been given some deeply regrettable news.
After double-checking that I’m allowed to publish this development, I’m now able to divulge that a massive and sophisticated camera system will soon be installed in Dover High School. Things have gotten so bad that it’s now necessary to constantly monitor students. In addition to this truly depressing news, it was made public today that one of Dover’s greatest, youngest, and most popular teachers will not be coming back to Dover in September. I’m not in the position to say whether or not this has anything to do with Administration’s failure to respond to these two problems, but I’m willing to place a bet.
I have great hopes for the future of my high school. It’s natural to think that things will get better from year to year, that newer students will have more opportunities to grown and learn in school. However, right now, this isn’t the case; things are getting worse. My fears for the future of Dover High School are drowning out my hopes.
Can someone throw Dover a life preserver?
If you’re a Dover student reading this post, I want to hear from you. Please find a way to talk to me and tell me what you think about these problems. Anything you can offer helps.
You can enforce order to some degree by imposing it from the top on a group, and that’s necessary to handle the bad actors. The real question I have is:
Why can’t the students self-police to a degree?
Admittedly, I’m older than you by a generation, 33. When I went to high school, AOL was still a proprietary dial-up network, and the Web didn’t exist yet (that would take another 2 years after I graduated).
However.
Our student body was relatively self-policing against bad actors. Those folks who were ill-behaved did face disciplinary sanction, but more important faced the ostracism of their peers. There was a large majority of students who held a generally accepted behavioral code of sorts, and while it definitely had some wiggle room, for the most part, the student body self-regulated.
Were there fights? Of course. A few, here and there, but nothing as rampant as the picture you’ve painted. Were there disruptive students? Sure, but more often than not, one of the other students would just tell the bad actor to, “sit down, asshole!” - on several occasions.
In the 15 years since I graduated from high school, what’s changed so much that self-policing inside the community has broken down?