From the print edition: To the rulebreakers of Northside Prep
Dear Northside druggies, drunks, cheaters, and immodestly dressed women,
Get it together and stop ruining the Northside experience for the rest of us.
You deserve every minute of that suspension, if not more, and every privilege that was revoked from you, so stop complaining. The rest of us have no reason to deal with the inconvenience of spending $12 on a new see-through coffee mug at Starbucks or test taking policies that treat us as if we did something wrong.
Common sense is something that comes naturally to most people, but since some Northsiders are clearly lacking in this area, we would like to point a few things out.
1) Anything involving school and alcohol is a bad idea.
In America, alcohol is illegal for all those under 21, so it should come as no surprise you will be punished for bringing it to school. Although The Hoof Beat does not condone underage drinking whatsoever, if you must do so, at least be smart and do it off campus, where you are much less likely to be caught.
The level of intoxication exhibited by some individuals at Northside dances makes even Zero Gravity look classy. There, people show up to dance and have fun – dry. If you cannot have fun without alcohol, do something else, or better yet, get help. We are too young to be alcoholics.
2) The same applies to drugs.
3) Garments that are sold at Lover’s Lane should not be worn to school.
Keep it classy. Northsiders should strive to be America’s future CEOs, not office hoes. Think of how awkward it would be if a teacher wore a mini skirt to class. They feel the same way about you. Even more so, put some pants on if it’s 30 degrees out. Donning booty shorts in such weather will cause your level of respectability to plummet.
4) If you must fulfill your (or your lover’s) fantasies, do it off camera.
AP Biology students know that the primary purpose of life on earth is to reproduce. They also understand that humans, unlike other mammals, have the ability to control their urges. If you cannot do so, at least keep your sexual escapades to yourself. That is, unless you are in fact preparing for a future career at Playboy Enterprises. Photos and video travel fast. Know that they may eventually get around to your mother.
5) Don’t cheat.
As Northsiders, we are offered some of the best educational experiences in the state of Illinois, if not the country. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of them. Pay attention in class, participate, and study for your tests. There are too many kids out there who would kill to be in your position. Cheating will not do you any good in the long run, and even if you don’t get caught, your moral compass takes a stab.
Please don’t compare Northside to any other high school, because we’re not like any other high school. Our reputation gains us instant respect in our communities, in our job hunts, and in college admissions. More importantly, the culture radiating throughout Northside is defined by our actions. The adults at our school have given us privileges that kids at other schools do not have. If we cannot keep their trust, expect that they will continue to slip away.
With good intentions,
The Hoof Beat Editorial Staff
This staff editorial originally appeared in the March 2010 print edition of The Hoof Beat, which can be accessed along with our other past issues in the print archives.
This article is highly condescending and unnecessarily uppity. Shameless.
@Alum:
Anonymous comments are anonymous. Claiming to be an alum adds no more weight to your statement then claiming to be a freshman would, while on the other hand, stating your actual name might (by at least showing you support your statement enough to back it with a name).
In my personal opinion, the article isn’t really condescending at all. It says (expressed here in a much condensed and hardly equivalent format) that students who break the rules shouldn’t complain about stricter regulations, and that the stricter regulations could be avoided by following rules that should be common sense in the first place. It doesn’t call out everyone, only the “druggies, drunks, cheaters, and immodestly dressed women,” or rather, those responsible for the rule-breaking.
great article
My main qualm with this editorial is that (as I see it) it starts out with a conclusion–Northside students should be acting ‘better’ and making ‘better’ decisions–and then works backwards to come up with a premise that justifies it, viz. the salutation. Perhaps there are some Northside students who have made poor choices with regard to drugs, alcohol, cheating, or dress (having graduated, my information on any of these is second-hand); but I would say that’s a far cry from people being “druggies” and “drunks.”
“Cheaters” is less ambiguous: if someone failed to demonstrate proper academic integrity, then yes, they deserve to be treated appropriately. I would hasten to emphasize, though, that just because someone is accused of (or even punished for) cheating, does not mean the original accusation was correct. The ’suspicion that cheating has taken place’ has never seemed to me an adequate rationale for condemnation and punishment of the suspected cheater.
“Immodestly dressed women,” on the other hand, fails for precisely the opposite reason. Whose [arbitrary, culturally biased] standard of modesty do you propose we use? Of course I’m playing devil’s advocate to prove a point–certainly some outfits are unequivocally beyond the pale for school or the office–but the fact remains that modesty is something everyone defines differently. I haven’t spent a substantial amount of time at Northside in the last two years, but I can’t think of a single instance when I was going to school here or when visiting since then that I saw someone dressed like an “office ho.”
Furthermore, if we’re going to get into the issue of inappropriate school dress, why are we only talking about women? Even if immodesty is a problem, slovenliness and unprofessional clothing are just as significant, and for both men and women. Unless there’s an epidemic of miniskirts and booty shorts (which again, I’ve seen no evidence of), this is simply a matter of students dressing appropriately–a matter that can be addressed on a student-by-student, case-by-case, basis.
I should throw in, if only because I suspect I may have come off a bit strong in my objections to the way in which certain arguments were presented in the editorial, that I certainly do agree that students need to take responsibility for their actions; that if students abuse the administration’s trust, then sometimes–very rarely, in my opinion–there may be nothing for it but to limit that trust; and that there is something special about Northside’s student body/faculty relationship, atmosphere, and community. However, the idea that Northside cannot therefore be compared to any other high school is absurd. The more students abuse the administration’s trust, the more comparable to any other school Northside becomes, but it works both ways: the less confidence the administration shows in the students to behave responsibly–and when they don’t, to learn from their mistakes and the consequences thereof–the more the same thing happens.
Sincerely yours,
Harold Jaffe
Class of 2008
@Alum:
Anonymous comments are anonymous. Claiming to be an alum adds no more weight to your statement then claiming to be a freshman would, while on the other hand, stating your actual name might (by at least showing you support your statement enough to back it with a name).
In my personal opinion, the article isn’t really condescending at all. It says (expressed here in a much condensed and hardly equivalent format) that students who break the rules shouldn’t complain about stricter regulations, and that the stricter regulations could be avoided by following rules that should be common sense in the first place. It doesn’t call out everyone, only the “druggies, drunks, cheaters, and immodestly dressed women,” or rather, those responsible for the rule-breaking.
@dylan nugent and @amy
I don’t think Alum was trying to add more wait to their comment by going under that alias. However it seemed to do just that since its what you implied. And one of you is obviously not who you claim to be considering you both said the exact same word for word comment. Maybe condemning someone for writing a comment anonymously is a bit hypocritical when you’re going under an alias aswell.
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