Most students carry grudges against people from other schools. It’s only natural. For example, it’s not considered strange if a Garfield student grimaces at the name “Franklin” or snarls at the school’s students when they walk by. (Advice: Don’t actually do this.) And it would be considered normal if a Franklin or Ballard kid were to do the same. But remember: when you’re looking at some girl from Ballard, wondering about that nasty chlamydia rumor or thinking “God, that eyeliner,” they are looking back. And, it has been discovered, they’re probably thinking something worse.

Although it is widely acknowledged at Garfield that the school has lost a lot of the attitude and spirit it had before the move to Lincoln, it seems that no one else has realized it yet. Students at other schools have stretched the famous Garfield atmosphere into hyperbole.

“At Roosevelt, I heard a lot of things that made me slightly uncomfortable, and made me wonder just how naïve and prejudiced it is possible to be,” said a former Garfield student who transferred to Roosevelt. “I got asked what it was like to go to school in the ghetto. I also had some people presume that I would know tons of drug dealers as a result of going to Garfield. I found this ironic because I knew more dealers at RHS than GHS.”

While Garfield students are by no means innocent of generalizing about and dismissing other schools, they also seem to have gained an incriminating reputation, even with other Seattle schools.

“I’m on a basketball team with all Roosevelt kids, and they think all we do [at Garfield] is skip class and smoke weed,” said Garfield junior Frankie Pavia.

Sports are another area where Garfield is the subject of misconceptions. GHS teams play in leagues that are made up primarily of Eastside schools, against students who often deeply misjudge Garfield. Pavia plays on the Garfield tennis team, which forms deep rivalries with other schools.

“I’ll be honest, when we roll up at a tennis match, the dudes we’re playing are a little scared of us, especially if we act crazy. Slash ghetto,” he said.

This feeling of trepidation was echoed by two Newport High School graduates, who recalled great apprehension before sports matches with Garfield. The students of the Bellevue high school did not know how to react to the “crazy” Garfield kids coming out of what some of them believed to be a dangerous city.

“Some people at our school were scared to go into Seattle at all. Interacting with students who not only went to school there but were kind of scary themselves was quite the experience,” one graduate said.

“Other schools think we’re way more ghetto than we are,” said Pavia. “Although all the other tennis teams know we’re more hood than them. They think we’re cocky bastards.”

Those who attend smaller, alternative schools may also fear Garfield, though not for the same reasons (it’s not like they have sports teams).

“There are a few kids at my school that are terrified of Garfield. Alternative ed kids don’t seem to have much of a grasp of what individual mainstream high school is like, other than being overwhelmed by the sheer size,” said one Nova student. “I think the fear there is mostly of the unknown.”

There are many untrue stereotypes of GHS out there, just as there are many untrue (maybe) stereotypes of any other school. However, though some may fear or ridicule Garfield, there are still others who know the truth.

“Almost everything I’ve ever heard about a school from people who’ve never gone there is without merit,” said former Garfield student and current Nova student Fiona Collum. “Precisely for its megalithic size, Garfield can’t be pinned down. No accurate generalization can be or should be made about a GHS student.”