The Fear of Being Exposed Leaves Cazenovia High School Endangering Their Greatest Assets

Cazenovia High School has again excelled at their greatest talent: limiting students and promoting delinquents. Now this may sound harsh, but in reality, this is a softening of the truth. Many view Cazenovia High School as a shining beacon of accomplishment in academics, athletics, and community. In reality, each view is a façade that the school works hard to maintain. The rigid rules prevent independence and education, they only seem to bend for the athletically gifted, and prevent some of the schools greatest assets from succeeding.

Once, being a senior at this school was the epitome of high school achievement as seniors gained new privileges. Being a senior meant that students could obtain the ability to leave during study halls and lunch, earning independence and freedom. Unfortunately, the administration cowers at the possibility of a car accident on a lunch break, or a student skipping a class because they don’t wish to return to school. Now, seniors are only allowed to have late entry or early release if they are so lucky as to have their study halls fall at the beginning or end of the day. Leaving at lunch is forbidden, and seniors are provided with a far too small classroom where they can eat separate from the underclassmen. This action has limited those who will soon be leaving for college. Instead of gaining a taste of the responsibility that is necessary for college, students are coddled. In the fear that they will be injured or forget to check a watch, they’re kept inside the building, safe and sound. This inability of the administration to aid students will hinder them when they do venture to college.

The lack of any student e-mail prevents students from being comfortable with a system widely used at all colleges. Every college provides each of their students with an e-mail address. Notifications, events, dining hall hours, assignments, homework, and anything else are sent using these addresses. Without understanding this system in advance, arriving at college and relying on an e-mail instead of morning announcements is a slow transition for many. This lack of an e-mail further hinders the ability of Cazenovia students to succeed at college.

The school does make an attempt at improving student chances at college. They require a minimum of forty community service hours in order to graduate. While this may look impressive on a resume, in reality, this rule again undermines a student’s ability to cope. As they venture off into the world, these requirements of extra work will not exist. Instead of a young man or woman willing to do a little extra for good will, they see no requirement and therefore no need to go above and beyond. This attitude that is cultivated injures each and every student. Instead of learning to strive, they learn to just meet the lowest expectations.

The most recent of the limitations is in the form of students’ actual physical behavior that is completely voluntary: dancing. Following in their big brother’s footsteps, Fayetteville-Manlius High School system, the high school has chosen to ban any form of inappropriate dancing. In the principal’s words “no sexual bending” or “grinding of the genitals” will be allowed. The following dance was almost cancelled. Teachers did not wish to chaperone. They were afraid of being yelled at for their lack of severity in punishment or of the students hating them for following orders. A record breaking low of 144 students showed up for the following dance and most were kicked out or left before half the night had passed. This lack of attendance hurt student government and Academic Decathlon, who both use these dances for their main fundraising.

When the waltz first appeared, it was considered scandalous. Flappers, the jitterbug, Elvis Presley, and rock and roll were all met with the same reaction. Many students wish their administration would just get with the times and skip the “shocked” phase. FM ended most of their dances due to a lurking threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit. First of all, if a student was uncomfortable at a dance, then they can easily stay away from that crowd of people or the dance altogether. There is no requirement that students attend these dances. The likely reply to that statement is that students should be provided with a safe environment. The note that should be made, however, is that students willingly choose to go to dances knowing the risk. That being said, in Cazenovia, no such harassment issue exists. Every person chooses to dance as they see fit, and it was always up to individuals about how far they wished to go.

A simple solution to soothe the fear of lawsuit would be the obvious but bureaucratic move of parent permission and waivers. The school requires permission for just about any of the other school events; why not require it for dances? Parents could easily be notified of the situation and choose to allow or disallow their teen attending the dance. A simple waiver would protect the school from any lawsuits that could potentially, but not likely, exist. Also, for senior privileges, a waiver would be easy enough to ensure that if a student were injured, the school would be ineligible for the blame. This may seem callus and indifferent on the part of the school, but in reality the chances of an actual incident where these waivers were necessary are slim to none. These waivers would allow the school to provide its students with a chance at learning independence while removing their own liabilities in the matter.

Unfortunately, Cazenovia enforces rules in all the wrong areas, and ignores them in reference to the most blatant problem affecting Cazenovia teens: drinking. The town was recently hit with a tragic death of a girl a few months before she could graduate. Julia Parker died almost two years ago. Why? She and her friends were just about as drunk as anyone can possibly be without dying when their cabin went up in flames. Fortunately for the other intoxicated teens, they were able to wake up and escape. Julia was trapped and died. The aftermath of this event was quite tragic, but a note should be made. A few girls in that cabin were excellent athletes who had signed an athletic code of honor. They were not removed from their sports teams, suspended, or even noticeably reprimanded. How did this stricken and unpunished senior class respond to this tragedy? The night of the senior ball, many students showed up drunk to this school event. Throughout the years, the high school has made it their policy to not discipline those in violation of the athletic code of conduct, because then Cazenovia might not win their next game. The school and coaches must ask. What is more important; a game, or a life?

All of these rules prevent a student from learning independence, common sense, and responsibility. The steps the school has taken for improvement have turned out to be catalysts for degradation. The rules they do enforce limit growth and those they bend send the wrong message. In the end, the high school imagines itself to be the parent. The school board and administration do all they can to shape and guide each student’s moral compass and behavior, with their own interests often at heart of course. Should a group of a few elected and hired individuals have that much power over hundreds of children? Schools are attempting to control every action of their students. They turn a blind eye to obvious problems and encourage dependency on strict guidelines. When these students become adults, they only have the high school system to thank for their failures.