Jessica Martinez
Staff Writer In the past years, upon arriving to school, the students would head straight to division. Division was a place of comfort; a place to mentally prepare ourselves for our classes, and get important information from our division teachers. We bonded with our division. Although we still have division numbers, that's all they are now. After the first two weeks of school, we were informed that there would no longer be division. NO DIVISION? Yeah, you read correctly. Now you may ask yourself, why don't we have division anymore, right? The main reason we don't have division is because there's no time. Ever since the 2012 strike, teachers have certain instructional minutes that they must fulfill. "Considering the fact we don't have division this year, it’s affecting us as students because of the lack of time we have to get prepared for our classes. Especially for us seniors. We’re missing out on the important information that we need to graduate high school,” said Erika Vargas, Div. 408. Others believe that we don’t need division. According to Luis Gonzales, Div. 402, “It’s just a waste of time, and personally I didn't even listen to the teachers when they announced stuff.” “Division had its ups and downs.” said Jose Soto, Div. 406. There are different alternatives in order to have our divisions back. We can always shorten classes or shorten passing classes, but none of these suggestions would work. This is why the Hubbard's staff has chosen to not have division any longer. As to giving us the important information we need to graduate, Hubbard does it through announcements and meetings during our lunch periods. Now announcements are really important! It's sad that nobody really listens to them because at the end of the day, students are too eager to leave school to even bother to listen to the announcements that are given during 8th period. As to the meetings we have before our lunch periods, those are kind of helpful, but then again they put us all in the same room and it is obvious that no one will listen. Overall, as I interviewed students and staff about their opinions on the matter, many agreed that division was something we needed. In my opinion, I personally think we do need division. I loved division because I would come to school unprepared, and I had a full 15 minutes to do my homework. Now instead of having a full 50 minutes of lunch, I’d prefer having 30 minutes of lunch and have division instead. It's understandable that we can't have our divisions, but it's something we all really need and miss. Now all we have left are division numbers.
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By Fernando Cuevas
Staff Writer This year, many new rules have been made: one of them is getting detention for coming in after 8:15 a.m. Regardless, many students still come in late, and it has no effect on them. Even I have come in late a few times, yet I have only served one detention. Only 5 students attended detention after school when I was there. Other students see in-school suspension as a vacation, rather than a punishment. Not only do they see it as a day off, but they also lose precious learning time. Sometimes the teachers don’t send work for the students to do. So why are so many students coming in late? Some of the students who frequently come in late are usually those who live in a different neighborhood and rely on either their parents or public transportation to get to school. Since this is a big city, there is often heavy and unpredictable traffic, especially on days when the weather is harsh. A few students also ride their bikes to school which is sometimes a slower means of transportation. I am a student who takes the the bus to school almost every morning, and it takes at least 45 minutes without traffic to get to school. There are also times when the bus is late, and it takes me even longer to reach school. Is it fair if a bus or train breaks down and detentions are given indiscriminately to students who would have otherwise been in class early? This has happened recently. Even for the students come to school on time, there is a long line to get inside. Sometimes students hold up the lines because they don't take their phones out of their pockets, or they don't take off their belts so they have to go through the metal detector multiple times. All of this takes up so much time that even if you're inside the building, waiting for these people to go through the metal detector causes some students to be late. Since the new policy requires you to swipe before 8:15, the people who were being held up by the line are late even when they made it to school on time. The fact is, there are many students who don't have control over how they get to school, either because they live too far to walk and can't rely on their parents to give them a ride to school. There has to be a better solution to curbing morning tardies than giving out detentions. Although students have to be more responsible and serving detention is a good way to help them learn that coming late has its consequences, the extent that Hubbard is punishing the students seems excessive. Maybe instead of punishing students so harshly, they should consider making it clearer to all students when they should be in the building or even bring back division or institute a study hall for 1st period. |
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