This was not what Rebecca Black had in mind when she sang “Gotta get down on Friday.”

In this age of modern technology, Alan, a Garfield junior, learns about parties mere hours before they start.  His connection to these gatherings is often distant, and whether it’s the ex-boyfriend of a friend’s sister, or the cousin of a mutual acquaintance, Alan has often never met the actual inhabitant of the house.

Jeremy*, a junior at another local high school, has been in the position of “actual inhabitant” once before, and for Jeremy, once was enough.  Having had little experience organizing parties or opening his house to strangers, Jeremy decided to take advantage of the fact that his parents would be out of town by having a bunch of people over.  He saw it as “a fun way to get to know kids from other schools, and maybe some upperclassmen from my own school.”

During the week leading up to the party, however, he began to realize the potential hazards of such an event.  Word of the party got out days in advance as opposed hours, and Jeremy began to hear horror stories about uncontrollable numbers of kids, thefts, and property damage.  Succumbing to the peer pressure to hold the party, Jeremy did his best to mitigate the hazards he faced by locking valuables and fragile objects in his car and taking other precautionary measures.  “I thought for some reason that I could keep it smaller and under control.  I was wrong.”

Alan tells me that he never goes to parties intending to steal. “The opportunity just comes.  I’m never like looking for stuff.” In most cases opportunity manifests itself in the form of an iPod sitting unattended on a shelf or a cellphone on a table.  There is no motive, no malicious drive, just a spontaneous way to add thrill and excitement to his night.  Alan sets the scene like this: “I’m probably walking around, chilling with a couple friends, talking about stuff.  When you’re on some substances definitely, and you’re just off the mode.” All of a sudden, something catches his eye as it sits unprotected on a table and he thinks “hey, there’s some stuff right there – how ‘bout this?”

Other times the theft is the result of a chain reaction.  “Most of the time if somebody takes some stuff, that leads to another taking some stuff, you know, and then a bunch of people are taking stuff,” says Alan.

On the night of his party, Jeremy definitely suffered from the chain reaction effect.  “I became more and more panicked as the night went on,” says Jeremy of the increasing chaos that was taking place in his house.  “I gradually realized that there were just way too many people in my house to keep under control.”  Whether he knew it or not, things were starting to disappear, and a circling police car in the neighborhood did little to improve his situation

Existing law creates a number of barriers that prevent police from intervening in parties held at private residences.  Though complaints from neighbors and noise often make it easy for police to locate parties, it is usually difficult for them to enter without the express permission of the home owner or a 911 hang-up from inside the house.  Often just the presence of police in the vicinity is enough to scatter guests, but in Jeremy’s case it was not.  “The onus is kind of left on the individual,” says Seattle Police Department spokesman Mark Jamieson on why police have trouble preventing thefts before they occur.

In hindsight Jeremy reflects, “I probably should have called [911] myself late in the party; it was one of the few options I had left.”
When Alan wakes up in the morning, he remembers that he has a new iPod, and that it isn’t his.  To be sure, Alan already had an iPod, and he has neither the need nor the desire for another one.

Over the course of the following days, Alan’s stuck.  He feels bad about taking the stuff but has no way to return it.  “It’s hard to give stuff back because there’s all that guilt and you’re scared of the consequences.  Even if you want to [give it back] it’s easier just to hold on to it – or get rid of it.”
Most of the time the loot gets resold, though Alan is earnest when he says that the money that a used iPod can fetch isn’t a factor in his decision whether or not to take it.  If he’s unable to resell the goods, Alan says that sometimes they just get misplaced, “left in a car or something.”

Seattle Police spokesman Jamieson suspects that most of the theft that occurs at parties goes unreported to the police, especially when it occurs on a smaller scale.  Jeremy ultimately chose not to pursue those who took his stuff.  A few days after the party, a police officer came to take inventory of what had been stolen, but he admitted that there was little that the police could do to investigate further.  However, some homeowners go to great lengths to recoup their losses.  For this reason, Alan’s biggest concern is having parents try to track him down.  His fears are not unwarranted.  Following a recent party in Bellevue, parents hired a private investigator to track down those who had stolen their possessions.  After removing students from Garfield classrooms, the private investigator used intimidation and hearsay to question students about thefts that had occurred.

Despite the risks involved, one theme came up again and again in my conversations with Alan: fun.  Contrary to common assumption, theft for Alan is neither mean-spirited nor premeditated.  The fact remains though that stealing is a crime that hurts real people like Jeremy.  Beyond the damage to his house and the monetary loss of the thefts, Jeremy describes the loss of his parents’ trust as one of the hardest consequences of the episode.  “I felt pretty awful when my parents got home and I had to tell them what happened – they completely lost faith in me.”

While Jeremy vows never to host again, history teaches us that there will always be another party.  Where unattended iPods abound, opportunity will continue to present itself Alan or others.

*name has been changed to protect identity

Though my internet inquiries doubtlessly left me with countless viruses from some of the less reputable dating sites (in addition to the indelible stain of my accidental Adult Friend Finder chat), I picked up some good techniques.  Time and time again, sites from the BBC to AskMen.com mentioned the same basic strategies: make eye contact, control the tone and speed of your voice, and “mirror” the moves of your prey.  Surprisingly, what you say doesn’t actually matter.  According to the BBC, only 7 percent of our communication is through the words we use.  Small talk, in other words, was out of the conversation.  Armed with my new arsenal of lady-slaying techniques, I went to bed feeling like an alpha and couldn’t wait to drop some of my knowledge on a living, breathing girl.  In the name of science though, I would try each technique individually.

First on the table was eye contactI approached the first dime piece I could find with my eyes wide, hoping for the best. As we made eye contact for the first time, I felt a deep soulful connection developing between us.  From there on it was a waiting game; how long could she hold out against the raw seductive power of my eyeballs?  Turns out the answer is about fifteen seconds, and then it was over.  Before walking away she asked, “why are you being so creepy?” It was the only dialogue of the whole affair. Unfazed, I proceeded on to “mirroring” the target’s every move and later to trying out the slowest, manliest voice I could muster.  I even managed to “nonverbally leak” a little bit, which both I and the biddy being pursued invariably smelled. The end result: nothing.

The internet’s science of attraction had failed me, so I turned to find out why. What I found was the science of rejection—what could be standing between you and the buxom babe of your dreams. As it turns out, the reason for my  failure lies in a property called magnetism.

It is well known that magnets are the playas of the natural world—paperclips simply can’t resist them. What many people don’t know, however, is that magnetism also plays a crucial role in human interaction.  “Basically everybody has a magnet in their brain that affects how they make decisions,” says Garfield science aficionado, Melvin Scott.

There’s nothing that gets a female going more than a big magnet, but on a quick inspection of my small hands, I realized that I probably had a small magnet as well.

If you’ve ever played with magnets, you probably also know that some sides repel and others attract. Having been rejected while facing a girl, I realized that the key was in wooing her while I faced the other direction, or conversely, seducing her while talking to the back of her head. I also realized that if I ever wanted to have a shot with a nice piece of crumpet, I’d have to make my magnet both bigger and stronger. Science class has taught me that iron and electricity are closely associated with magnetism, and my new morning regimen of Women’s One-A-Day high-iron multivitamins, coupled with sticking forks in electrical sockets, is working wonders on my magnet.

Hopefully learning about the science of rejection has illuminated a possible reason for your failure to score the primo lady that you’ve been seeing in the halls recently, and will help you turn your game around. Even if things don’t work out, remember my last point. Rejection is never your faultand it’s always her loss, so next time things don’t work out for you, take from it the smugness of knowing that she just made a big mistake.

Originally conceived by Garfield History Teacher Hersh Mandelman, the idea behind the bill was based on what he saw as a lack of student participation in the fundamental goings-on of the school system. He says of students, “they organized dances, they did fundraisers, they did this, they did that, but students didn’t get involved in the nitty-gritty of school policy… or politics.”  However, Mandelman didn’t fault students for their lack of involvement. To him, the reason for it was simple and entirely out of students’ control. “It was because they had no voice.”

The way the system is set up now, adult electors vote for school board members who serve for staggered four-year terms. According to the Washington State Office of the Education Ombudsman website, the primary functions of a school board are “to conduct strategic planning, hire and oversee the superintendent, adopt the school district budget, create policy for schools in the district […] and to represent voters.”  It was the final point that Mandelman took particular issue with.  “If you’re a member of a board of education right now, you’re not politically answerable to the people who are impacted the most, i.e., the students,” says Mandelman.  “As far as the electorate is concerned, you [the student] don’t count!”

In Mandelman’s mind, the only solution to the problem was to extend the franchise to students for school board elections, the only publically elected position in any school district.  As the advisor of the Garfield Chapter of the student-run Junior State of America club (JSA), Mandelman began to promote the idea to his JSA members. “It’s taken some time,” says Mandelman, “but finally somebody picked up on it and ran with it.”

The “somebody” that Mandelman refers to is actually a group of five Garfield seniors and graduates, Jesse Seidman, Alex Jonlin, Caleb Raible-Clark, Lucas Smith, and Tal Levy. From here on out, Mandelman insists that he gave up all stake in the project. “It’s their thing, which is the whole point of JSA, that it’s student run, student driven. It was just a question of could I have someone see the possibility that I saw.”

The students formed a project known as the “Campaign to End Education Without Representation” and worked to get their goal of lowering the school board voting age into law. The group advocated the idea on the basis that allowing students the right to vote would help them become involved in the electoral process on a smaller-scale, hopefully turning them into lifelong voters, while simultaneously giving them both an interest and an impact on the politics of their educations. Furthermore, by extending voting rights to students, both students and school board members would be responsible for changes.

“In my 13 years as a part of the Seattle Public Schools system, I’ve never seen school board member come to my school,” says Alex Jonlin of his experience with the Seattle Public School Board.  Were the franchise to be extended, Jonlin estimates that the bloc of student voters would comprise about five percent of the electorate.  As a result, he believes that the leverage that students would hold through their vote would force Board Members to pay more attention to the issues that really matter to students and impact them the most.  By the same token, students would be responsible for being aware of the issues present in their education and would be required to become more active members of their school districts.

In order to put their idea into law though, the group had to get their idea to a state legislator, who would have to write and sponsor the bill. Fortuitously, Jonlin had spent time working with former senator Ken Jacobsen on a separate project, and before Jacobsen retired at the end of last year, he agreed to have his staff write up an amendment to the current law.  The result was Senate Bill 5621. Upon his retirement, Jacobsen passed the bill on to his successor, Democrat Scott White, who agreed to sponsor the legislation. It reached the Senate floor on February 1st at the beginning of the 2011 session.

Since reaching the Senate, the bill has also received a fair amount of criticism from the public. People have cited the extra expenses of creating a second ballot for students, the smaller amount of life experience and education that 14-year-old voters generally have, the fact that most students don’t pay taxes, and the possibility that students would simply vote the same way that their parents do. When asked whether he thought that students would vote the same way as their parents did, Mandelman pointed out that for decades the opposition to women’s suffrage also focused on the idea that they would just vote the same way that their husbands did.  It is hard to find people who still contest that decision (the 19th Ammendment) today.

As of the date of publication of this article, Senate Bill 5621 has had its first reading by the Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections committee, where it has been referred to the Early Learning & K-12 Education committee without recommendation. Though it is still active for the rest of this two year legislative cycle, which ends in 2012, it is considered to effectively be “dead,” meaning that it is not expected that the bill will pass.

Still, Jonlin and others involved in the project believe that the bill has value even if it doesn’t pass. “It’s gotten a fair amount of press,” he says, and if nothing else, it’s provoked a conversation that’s caused some to reevaluate how we make decisions about education in this state. It’s also a great way for the politicians of tomorrow to get a truly inside work at the legislative process.

What’s great about the Teen Health Center is that it offers something for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you have a regular doctor that you see every month or you haven’t seen a doctor in years; whether you are feeling depressed or you just need a sports physical.

Though most people at Garfield know it as the source of fruity condoms, free acne medications and those pamphlets about drugs, they often don’t recognize that it offers services that apply directly to them.  Some, like one kid in my 4th period class, just don’t know what it is, confusing the Teen Health Center with the Teen Life Center across the front parking lot.

“Where were you during 4th period?” he asked.

“The Teen Health Center,” I responded.

“Oh yeah, I play basketball there sometimes, how’d you get to do that?”

In fact, Teen Health Center is a free clinic run through Seattle Children’s Hospital that offers sports physicals, vaccines, birth control, STD testing, mental health counseling, and diet and exercise counseling, in addition to treatment for any other medical problems such as asthma or mysterious stomach pains. Funded by a City of Seattle tax levy, the multitude of services offered is entirely free, requiring no co-pay or insurance.

To be seen for most of these services, you’ll need to register with the Teen Health Center, which involves filling out and returning a packet called a “full consent”  with your parents before scheduling an appointment. In Washington however, we’re lucky to have laws that allow minors to sign for themselves on a number of “confidential services,” such as mental health counseling, birth control, and STD counseling.

In the big picture though, treating illness is only a small function of what the Teen Health Center does. In addition, the Center employs a mental-health counselor, Rosie Moore, who does one-on-one counseling, as well as a number of groups such as the Boys group, Gay-Straight Alliance group, Latino group, and a number of others.

The third and final component of the teen health trifecta is the nutritionist, Linda Murtfeldt.  Murtfeldt can assist you in figuring out ways to improve your diet, help you find different exercise programs, and will even go out into the cafeteria with you to help you identify healthy options (no, not Garfield’s favorite bathroom-based restaurant, of course).   Murtfeldt’s assistence doesn’t end with the 2:30 bell though; she’s often willing to accompany you to the grocery store to help you pick healthier foods and teach you how to cook in any of her teen cooking classes.

In Seattle, we’re fortunate that all ten of our public high schools and four of our middle schools have teen health centers. However, teen health centers in schools are by no means universal, existing only in small pockets around the country.  The importance of having these resources in schools can’t be understated, which President Obama made clear by adding a clause calling for the expansion of school-based teen health centers to this year’s health care reform bill.

Nurse Practitioner Happy Salinas-Santos adds, “It really is the place to reach adolescents because many of them don’t see their primary care providers after they turn six or seven years old, and so to be in a place where they’re at every day is the best way to reach them.”

So if your stomach hurts, or you just want to talk to someone, stop by the Garfield Teen Health Center.  The staff members are warm and friendly and they’ll be more than happy to talk to you.

First, I’d like to start by saying that this is a very stupid question. Seven hours of my life just passed, one hundred thousand things just happened, and in no way can I possibly recreate its entirety over a plate of spaghetti. Luckily, I can usually deflect the stupid question with an equally stupid answer.

“Stuff,” I reply.

Sometimes though, I find myself in a particularly generous mood. I decide that “stuff” won’t cut it today and the fam deserves something more.

As I pick my mind for a bone to throw them, the special part of my brain designed to answer this question skips and censors past the bulk of what makes my daily school life interesting, the “stuff” that makes school fun: the lexicon of hallway greetings, the surreptitious haiku smackdowns in chemistry, and hitting on Haley in 6th period.  Finally, “math test” is chosen as the most suitable response.  I tell them that I got a “B” on the test and that it’s alright because I can do corrections to get an “A.”  Was that tidbit the most interesting or significant part of my day? Absolutely not, but for some reason I thought my parents would think that it was. Heck, I could probably even convince myself that it was.

What this dinnertime routine essentially boils down to is the question of why I go to school and what’s most important about my time there. The math test, which ranked low on the actual significance scale, was flagged as important by my brain because it represented the common reason we’re fed for why we go to school: to learn.  Another way of looking at why I make my pilgrimage to Garfield each day is that I have nowhere else to go.  My friends are at school and my daily routine revolves around it.  Take away school and I’d be stuck at home, which doesn’t sound so bad until you realize that daytime TV sucks and that none of your friends (in theory) will be on Facebook. Worse yet, I’d probably be forced to get a full-time job.  In fact, we don’t go to school so much for the math tests and timed writes as for the opportunity to participate in the Garfield community, and the possibility of a fist bump with Tony.

What I’m saying is not that you should blow off your chemistry lab, but that you should pay more attention to the little things that make up 90 percent of your school day.  Maybe the next time someone asks you, “What did you do at school today?” you can tell them about how your chemistry partner told you that you have bad hair and that you now secretly carry a comb in your backpack. It was 30 seconds of your Monday and one of a hundred things that made it worth going back on Tuesday.

The hunt ended up eating much of my lunchtime. Although we went together and had a great time, learn from my experience and prevent your Tolo-asking from going awry. To make the process easier, I’ve assembled this how-to guide.   Enjoy.

Bedroom Window Brick
In the movies, tossing pebbles at a sweetheart’s bedroom window is a foolproof recipe for romance, but who has time for pebbles these days? In this fast and furious world, throwing a brick through the boy’s window with an amorous note attached is much more effective.  Direct and romantic, you can leave your true feelings to the note and let the brick do all the talking.  Now instead of having to open up with a passionate profession of your love as soon as your sweetheart opens his window, you can be long gone, ideally running before the police get called.

Phone Swap
Everybody fears rejection, but just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. This year, take uncertainty out of the equation and say “yes” for him with the phone swap. When properly executed, a phone swap goes like this: slyly take his phone and send yourself a message that reads, “Tolo with me?” Then, text him back with a response like “yes, I would love to.”  By the time your victim discovers that he’ll be accompanying you to Tolo, you’ll be on to bigger and better things, like what dress you’ll be wearing and how you’re going to wear your hair.  Best of all, this method can be used to go to Tolo with anybody. So what that you’ve never talked to Jonathan Frankel? He’s yours for the taking thanks to this method.

Manly flowers
It’s a well-known fact that girls like flowers. It’s also a fact that many boys just don’t care for them. So what’s a girl to do who wants to make use of this simple, but classy prop? The answer is simple: get him manly flowers, like flowers that eat bugs, play rugby, or can grill a mean steak.  Unfortunately, since rugby-playing, steak-grilling flowers don’t exist, you’re probably best off with a bouquet of flytraps (the bug-eaters).

Freshman Heart Crusher
This tried and true method requires a lot of confidence and a careful choice of accomplices.  Pioneered by Garfield graduate Sam Woestwin, the “heart crusher” allows you to test the faithfulness of your prospective Tolo date by forcing him to reject a gaggle of freshmen girls before proving himself worthy.

The technique works like so: round up twelve freshmen girls and give them each a rose (or flytrap). Instruct them to ask “Boy X” at different times during the day. With any luck, “Boy X” will reject them all and you can collect the roses and present them to him at the end of the day.  Weary from saying no, he should be happy to say yes.  Keep in mind though, that it is unwise to include Annie Rorick as one of your twelve as is unlikely your prospective date will make it to the end of the day. (Note: this method is not nearly as useful if you are a freshmen girl.)

Mt. Tolo
Basically, there’s a six-thousand foot mountain in Washington called Mt. Tolo. Get creative.

The Wait-and-See Approach
This is the most passive approach in the book.  It is very simple; all you do is wait and hope that a boy asks you.  This is great for people who dislike confrontation, but it’s not very effective.  One could conceivably have to wait for a year or more for it to work. (Note: the writer of this guide does not guarantee a “yes” from any of the above methods. However, if at first you don’t succeed, fear not. Simply pick a different method, a different boy, become more attractive and try, try again).

After giving me a moment to cool off, Jack explained that deactivating a Facebook account was, “like logging your profile off when you’re gone.”  While an account is deactivated, the user’s page and activity disappears from the site and remains that way until it is reactivated, upon which time all previous activity is restored.

Given time to ponder Jack’s decision, I began to think about my own relationship status with Facebook, which I decided falls between the lines of “it’s complicated” and “addicted.”  It was a grim diagnosis.  Emboldened by this epiphany, I decided to launch into the boldest social experiment that I could think of: to break up with Facebook.

Deactivation, as it turns out, is very easy to do.  Easily locatable under Account Settings, all a person has to do is to press the “deactivate” button.  Still, Facebook just wouldn’t be Facebook if they didn’t have some sleazy way to keep you in.  Before they let me leave, Facebook showed me five pictures of myself and various friends who I haven’t talked to in months and informed me each of them “will miss me.”  Facebook also required me to tell them the reason that I was leaving.  Resolute, I ignored the smiling faces, lied about my reason for leaving, and proudly clicked confirm.

After deactivation, I was taken to the login screen.   “I wonder if anyone posted on my wall during the time I was deactivating,” I thought, but I resisted the temptation and went to make a sandwich.  What was to follow would be an epic psychological battle between myself and I.

When I returned home, out of whack from my daily routine, I simply paced circles around the room, troubled by the new hole in my life.  To fill the hole, I turned to bullying small children.

Soon though, I concluded that I was only hurting myself in my removal from Facebook.   So ingrained was it as my go-to form of communication, that I was unable effectively share necessary information to people that I needed to talk to.  I felt cut out of the loop and was also starting to worry about my child-bullying habit.  Two days later, the battle was over.  Facebook 1, Ben 0.  I’d like to say that I learned a lot about myself in my radical three day hiatus from Facebook, but all I really learned is that I might actually be addicted.  I’ve been back on Facebook since, wasting more time than ever before.  Friend me if you’re so inclined, I’ll appreciate the notification.

The commercial, which aired for the recently released game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, went beyond the cliché and largely unproven argument that violent videogames create violent kids. By portraying normal people, even celebrities, having fun killing in a war zone, the commercial trivializes consequences of war and the professionalism needed to wage it.

“[The commercial was] one of the most irresponsible messages in the history of advertising,” said ESPN writer Tim Keown.

While the commercial received some critical response from members of the media such as Keown, the game achieved overwhelming success. Within 24 hours of its release, Black Ops sold over 5.5 million copies, eclipsing the all-time videogames sales record for that span. In large part, a successful ad campaign was given credit for the huge reception.

I’m sure the game offers new campaigns, crisper graphics, and novel maps.  What bothers me is the central message of the ad: that real war is fun, thrilling, and even sexy. The cavalier portrayal of war as a recreation for civilians wasn’t tactful.  Unlike in the ad, real war requires a willingness to risk one’s life for a cause or country. In real war, there aren’t smiles or respawns, and the pain and destruction that accompanies it reaches beyond the left and right trigger.  What’s upsetting about the commercial is that it takes the fantasy violence of games and added it to real people and realistic war zones, effectively blurring the line between fact and fiction.

Compounding the irreverent message of the ad was the proximity of the November 9th release of the game to Veterans Day.  Don’t for a minute believe that this wasn’t deliberate.  Previous titles such as World at War and Call of Duty: 3 were also released on or near the holiday.

Maybe there is a virtual soldier in all of us, but it is a select few who are willing to put their lives on the line to serve our country. Veterans Day is a day to honor those who currently serve and those who have served in the past, living and deceased.  Rather than honoring those who have served, the Veterans week release of Black Ops does the opposite, making a mockery of war and trivializing the consequences.

I will admit that even before the distasteful commercial or the untimely release, I had never been a huge fan of the Call of Duty titles, in part owing to the fact that I get my butt kicked every time that I pick up a controller.

While this dislike of war videogames lumps me in with pushy mothers and clueless strangers, it’s nearly impossible to overlook the fact that the ad and subsequent release crossed the line, no matter how much you like or dislike the game.

Congratulations to Treyarch and the makers of Call of Duty for the wild success of your game, but you should really hire a different promotion agency next time, one that respects the soldiers and wars that your making millions off of..

To be sure, AP classes certainly have merit that is hard to overlook.  When correctly taught, they cover an expansive amount of material through rigorous course work.  In addition, colleges look favorably on AP classes when reviewing applications, and in most cases provide placement or credit for high scores on the AP tests.

Dr. Robert Vaughan, the Head of Advanced Learning in the Seattle Schools, explained the motivation to expand AP’s within the district.

“Participation in AP courses has been demonstrated to increase access to college, success in college, and the likelihood of graduating from college with less debt, particularly among lower income students,” says Dr. Vaughan.

According to Dr. Vaughan, changes in science at Garfield reflect the District’s “commitment to offer a strong, aligned college-preparatory science program at every high school.”

Says Vaughan, “Students need at least to be given the choice to take AP science courses such as AP Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Environmental Science,” he says.

But like the movement of sub-oceanic tectonic plates or genetic mutation and change within a human population, the shift towards AP occurs slowly by most standards.  The newest development in the shift is that starting next year, ecology, genetics, and marine science cannot be taken for science credit.  Instead, they will be assigned elective credit. The intent of the move is to push Garfield students into the more traditional progression of “AP friendly” sciences that Dr. Vaughan describes.

Losing science credit, combined with a likely future increase in the number of science credits needed to graduate from two to three, will divert students away from marine science, ecology, and genetics, and will threaten the future of these programs.

For years, freshmen coming out of biology have been given the option of choosing between marine science, genetics, and ecology.  For most students, the opportunity to choose a science class sophomore year presented a novel opportunity: the chance to step out of the core class track that they’ve been stuck in for the entirety of their educational experience and to choose a science course that interests them.  It was this true freedom to choose, no strings attached, that marine science teacher, Walter Spangenberg credits as the key to the success of the programs.

“Why I think we were so successful is that kids were excited about the classes,” Spangenberg says.

The other benefit of these classes is that they provide a less regimented type of learning that the AP’s couldn’t dream of offering.  Gone is the textbook-driven style of learning that most AP courses provide.  In marine science, genetics, and ecology, students are able to interact with the world as it is, whether it’s gathering leaf samples for a project, or hunting for ctenophores.

“It’s something out of the box,” says Spangenberg. More than in any other classes, the sophomore sciences bridge the void between classroom learning and the outside world.

As Dr. Vaughan sees it, “Rather than construing AP courses as potentially pushing out non-AP classes, why not see them as genuinely appropriate options against which the non-AP classes would have to compete for student interest?”

In truth, however, the loss of science credit for the sophomore sciences forces them to compete on an uneven playing field. If the move away from the sophomore sciences is successful, we at Garfield will have a school more driven by the College Board’s AP system.  The school will be ranked higher as a school that offers more AP’s. But while there may be some benefits to AP science choices, they will come at the cost of some of the most interesting and unique classes that Garfield has to offer.

The “responsibility voucher” system is unfair because it academically punishes kids who have to pee a lot. As it turns out, not only is my red sheet of paper good for exactly six trips to the little boy’s room, but it can also be redeemed for a three percent grade boost at the end of the semester.  Personally, I’ve been blessed with a bladder of steel, but like the students who need to urinate frequently, I suffer under this system as a forgetful person. In this year’s 11-point grading system, the importance of three percent should not be underestimated. This begs the question: should students with small bladders be punished for their anatomy? Should Jenny get a B+ while her partner gets an A– just because nature calls her name more often than his? The answer is no. I believe that Jenny should be given an equal opportunity to get the same grade.

Second, the system is incredibly inefficient. In the time that it takes to fill out the sheet, find scissors, disrupt class to get it signed by the teacher and rush out the door, I’ve spent nearly as much time as I would’ve just in going to the bathroom, peeing, and returning.  Left out of my time estimates are all of the minutes spent with my legs crossed, debating whether or not to forfeit my extra credit and save the discomfort.

Ultimately though, my biggest gripe with the vouchers is that they show that we’re not trusted to manage our time properly. As high school students at Garfield we enjoy an open campus for lunch, we’re allowed to drive to school, and many of us are eligible for enlistment in the military, yet teachers are still telling us that they don’t trust us to be accountable for going to the bathroom in a reasonable manner. This paradox sends the wrong message to students, many of whom are less than a year away from the “real world,” where nobody holds your hand.

The lack of trust demonstrated by this system didn’t resonate well with a good friend of mine.  Last year he angrily told me that nobody in the professional world had to ask permission to use the bathroom and that he shouldn’t have to either. To him, responsibility vouchers represented something more: all of the babying and patronizing that he detested in high school.

“It’s a bunch of bullshit,” he regularly told me, and to a large extent, I agree. To avoid the system, he decided to quit, which meant dropping out of high school and entering college.

As for me, I’m not considering cutting short what has been an amazing two years at Garfield, but I would like to see the freedoms that I’m been given extended to include the ability to judiciously administer my own use of the bathroom. So far, all of the rights that I enjoy have been given to me because I’ve demonstrated that I can handle them without abusing them.  So please, let me prove that I can handle using the toilet, a privilege that I’ve been taking care of on my own for 15 years outside of school.