By Jodi Carmen
Editor’s Note: Jodi C., a senior at Randolph Union High School took time off from her classes to participate in a student organized sit-in at R.U.H.S. on December 2nd, 1988. The following is her solicited interpretation of the days events and repercussions.
“Are you going to this ‘sit in thing?”
“I don’t know. What’s it all about?”
“I’m not sure, something about a teacher hitting a student. I’m just gonna go see what’s up.”
“Well, I’ve got a test so I’ll see ya later.”
“O.K. There are some kids from my second period class going, too, so I won’t be the only one missing. Maybe my teacher will understand.”
People were moving towards the lobby. Some were strutting. Some were more timid, glancing over their shoulders with hesitant looks on their faces. Some looked determined but shaky. The hallway was a one-way street towards the senior high lobby of R.U.H.S. with a few baffled students going the opposite direction.
The boldest of students would shout to those heading away from the lobby:
“Come on, it’s a sit in! Come with us.”
The calls enticed some to join the flow while others rolled their eyes and kept walking.
In the lobby, confusion was. A bunch of kids sat very close together on a long bench against the wall. The faces told all: fear, wonder, excitement. Others sat against the wall facing the bench and two groups stood at either end, unsure of whether or not they would stay.
For the first few minutes nervous laughter and questions about the situation filled the air.
“What’s going on anyway?”
“What are we asking for?
“What happened?”
As kids pushed through the group to study hall or gym class, kids in the group would urge them to stay. Some would stop and join in while others walked away.
Eventually junior Sara Margison pushed her way through the group to a central point along the wall. She asked everyone to quiet down and said she’d been talking to Principal Miller. The purpose of this meeting, she said, was to make a list of everything that students believed to be wrong with R.U.H.S.
A lot of kids demanded that the topic of discussion should be about the problem between the student and teacher involved in the “rough” incident. Several expressed that since the person involved was a student, too, they had the right to see that justice came to pass. Unfortunately the group was assuming the teacher’s guilt.
Several people who had seen the incident described it. The student involved gave a brief recap. However, the exact happenings still weren’t clear to the majority of the students. So far Mr. Miller and Mr. Kenealy, the principal and asst. principal respectively, watched the group and kept their distance. At this point, Mr. Miller tried to step in and suggested that not enough was known about the incident to make a judgement or to make any “demands.”
Many kids suggested strongly that the teacher involved come give his side of the story. This demand became more and more aggressive as the day went on. Understandably, the teacher never came. The student, teacher, and several others including administration and witnesses, met after the demonstration and apparently worked it all out.
Gradually, through Sara’s urging, the attention turned to the general problems at the school. It was not a calm collection of complaints. It was immense anger and frustration that came spurting out brainstorm fashion, while Sara wrote it all down.
The group would go off on tangents when someone hit on a sore spot. Several students continually would react to this by pushing towards just getting everything out rather than looking for solutions or concentrating on any one problem. However, the discussion had a life of its own and drifted from policy problems to teacher behavior to student vs. student attacks.
The day was frustrating for those students who didn’t know how to deal with the haphazard complaining and instead desired an organized assembly. Still, the students tended to “go with the flow” and none wanted the two administrators to control the meeting and this was made quite clear to them. When the bell rang for classes to change, everyone decided they weren’t finished. There was too much left to say, too many feelings that had been held in for years to end the meeting. All decided to continue until “it” was “over.”
Some new faces joined the group while some went to their third period classes. Mr. Miller asked the students to move the assembly to the auditorium, because the lobby was becoming crowded and it wasn’t a practical place to do this.
Everyone moved to the auditorium. There they decided on Sara Margison as the moderator. The discussion continued.
The focus of the discussion became school policy. To most students the present policy seemed biased, lacking of trust and respect, and it was considered by the group to be rather outdated. Specifics on Sara’s list were many and included inconsistent passes and punishments, lunch length and size, parking problems, detention policies, sexual discrimination, and other problems. According to the students, in general school is a negative place and the good qualities of the students are not rewarded.
Although most of the time was spent discussing issues relevant to all students, several problems came up between students. The role and productivity of the Student Council was a major issue, and often criticism turned to personal slams. The problems between student “cliques’ came up equally often.
Unlike the White River Valley Herald reported, the clique issue was not what was discussed most often. In fact the students tended to discuss policy and the treatment of all students in general by the faculty. Each time there was a conflict between students at the meeting someone would remind everyone that they were all in this together and to respect all people in the assembly. Brendan Kinney and others continually stressed that: “We are the student council.” The general feeling was a push to become united.
Upon leaving the meeting, some kids felt depressed and had a feeling of being attacked. These people included members of the student council who, while being accused of not taking interest in student concerns, had taken three periods out of their day to go to the assembly. These people took their zeros and so on just as all other students present and didn’t get credit for their caring.
Still, many others were elated and hopeful after the meeting, including some student council members. One could hear a lot of: “It’s about time something like this happened.” “We should be proud.” and so on. For students who had been at the assembly an “important step” had been taken. The ice was broken.
The assembly was for some the only way of communicating frustrations, to get their feelings out. The group support meant they didn’t have to be afraid to speak out. It is intimidating and frightening for just one student to challenge the system of a school set in its ways like R.U.H.S.
Admittedly, some students went to the assembly to “get out of class.” None of them stayed for that reason. People from all different “cliques” and social standing had something to add to the day and everyone was listening, everyone was concerned. No matter what happens next or what judgement is passed, that day everyone was there, really there in body and mind. Which, unfortunately, is rare at R.U.H.S.
Since the assembly, there has been progress. A group dealing with and calling itself “Student Concerns.” has started meeting on Tuesdays after school. The group is open to all faculty and students. The charge of this group is to “look at establishing a process to communicate concerns in the future and to insure that there is a forum for voices to be heard.” The group is going through Sara’s list of concerns in hopes of solving some of the problems therein.