The Students are Watching

            “We are our brothers’ keeper.” Something we Schreiber students need to keep in mind. Most of us go through school doing whatever we want, oftentimes without realizing that what we do affects our classmates. Specifically, when we misbehave everyone’s eyes are in our direction. They will watch you, and react in various ways. Sometimes they will turn their heads away, other times they will copy you. We cannot force each other to misbehave. However, we need to remember that “the students are watching”. Therefore, it’s imperative that we change our selfish attitudes and start acting like good citizens creating a better school community.

            When students copy each other, misbehaving in the same way, we become desensitized to the severity of the action. This is especially true if the action is performed repeatedly and becomes common. When this happens, we lose our ability to judge whether or not the action is right or wrong. Due to situations like these, the difference between right and wrong appears to become blurry. Along with this blurriness comes tolerance of the action. Now it’s more acceptable to misbehave in this way, encouraging other students to do the same.

            One example of this spread of bad behavior is cursing. It’s likely the most common act of misbehavior seen at Schreiber. Cursing is something that is very easy to overhear, so it’s easier for us to become desensitized and tolerant. Cursing is so tolerated at Schreiber, it almost seems inappropriate not to participate. What we don’t consider is the fact that some students find cursing offensive. When placed in an environment where every other word out of our mouths is a curse word, students like these are left without a place of refuge where their innocence cannot be reached.

            Another example of bad behavior at Schreiber is vandalism. It’s common to see a few doodles on our desks, sharing with everyone who sees it what goes through our minds during class (usually stick figures, complaints of boredom, curse words, and male genitalia). As it is with cursing, the more often we see these doodles and other forms of vandalism such as people’s phone numbers in bathroom stalls, the more desensitized and tolerant we become of it. Recently, someone defaced Schreiber by writing the following on the building: “class of 2004- we are the $#%&”. This proves that students are pushing the extent to which we can misbehave. If vandalism wasn’t so customary, it’s likely that this event would never have happened.

            We have a responsibility as students to keep one another in mind. We need to be sure that the things we do and say encourage our fellow classmates to be their best as citizens of Schreiber. A great way to begin would be to think before we act. We must watch the things we say, the things we draw, and show an overall respect to our classmates and school. If we do this, Schreiber will become free of the most contagious disease, a negative attitude.