This is my first year out of my alma mater, and from what I’ve heard at the church group on Sunday and in the news… wow.
OK. First there was the gambling club. Well, it wasn’t really a gambling club, it was a card game club (Texas Hold Em’? I think that’s it) and they were having a tournament for charity where you could win cash prizes–the whole thing was sponsored by the faculty. Someone misinterpreted this as real gambling, the principal got involved, it was reported on the local news (the anchor was really pissy about it, hyperventilating and ranting about immorality)… the whole shebang. Big stuff.
Then one of the students (a guy I knew from Grade 11) openly declared he was gay at the first assembly–he’s President of the Student Council, he has to stand up there and make a short little speech, and apparently he dropped the bomb–and has decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Yup. He wants to become a woman, he’s been dressing in skirts and dresses ever since.
(IMHO, I do know him, and he’s pretty wacky and offbeat–but he’s insanely cool, a very intelligent, rational guy, and he’s probably thought this out long and hard… so hey, whatever floats his boat. But that might be territory for Great Debates or (hopefully not) the Pit…)
Now two of the students have been arrested over the recent slaying of a 18-year-old boy at a party. There were armed guards patrolling the hallways for days afterwards, the police were there on and off through the week, the school sent home official letters and notices…
I can’t leave out the ruckus in the newspapers and TV stations when the school slammed down on an Israeli-Palestinian fellowship gathering of two clubs and their public screening of Jenin, Jenin in one of the classrooms… it was during my time, but still. Or the time someone dumped pepper spray into the air vents and the whole school had to be evacuated.
At the college I currently attend (UA), a basketball player was accidentally shot at a party (two other people got in a fight, and one pulled out a gun, aimed and missed, hitting the ballplayer). Also, a random patron was intentionally shot at a pizza place right off campus. Other weird shootings and fights have gone down this semester, and I’ve seen my friend almost get stabbed at a party. (Someone picked a fight with him, then brought in two gangbanger friends to gang up on him. Guy #1 pulled out a knife and thrusted at my friend, but my friend kicked him in the hand and the dude ended up accidentally slitting his own wrist.) Same friend got into two other fights at two other parties.
Also, if your friend has made the decision to be a woman, I believe you’re supposed to refer to her with feminine pronouns (she, her, etc.) although I have no first-hand experience with such things.
well when I came back over thanksgiving break, I found out that a kid from the wrestling team (I didn’t know him, but apparently he at one time had a thing for my sister) killed himself because the other wrestlers would urinate on him in the shower. of course, his friends mourned his passing by spray painting his name and some obscene words on the school. way to honor his memory, guys.
My junior high school brought new meaning to the word “High”–they should have renamed it Dope Central. Anyway, the main problem there was the population of budding arsonists. I saw one kid try to set another kid’s pants on fire. Several other kids witnessed the incident. The principal announced that “This is a very serious incident” and that anyone with information on it should come forward. Several students, including me, told the principal who did it, but he didn’t do anything.
Then someone set the boys’ bathroom on fire, and later someone set a kid’s locker on fire. And there was the time we had to evacuate the artroom because when the teacher stepped out some enterprising young performance artist decided to express his angst by dumping ammonia all over the floor. After I left that school it got a new principal (not surprisingly) but a couple years later the cops raided the school on a tip and found that several students had guns in their lockers.
Senior High School was a little calmer. There was the incident where the school pill dealer, realizing the security guards were closing in on him, swallowed his stash and had to be taken to the hospital. And there was a tragedy that occurred off school grounds in which a student and her mother got into a violent argument; the mother shot her daughter and then shot herself. Both died.
But that might be territory for Great Debates or (hopefully not) the Pit…)