Student views at Sealth have 'fallen on dear ears'

By Duron Jones

I'm sure this opening is something that sounds familiar to the Seattle Public School board, as it should since I have spoken to them in public testimonial on several occasions. However I feel that my voice and opinion has fallen on deaf ears as well as the voices and opinions of every single student who let their voices be heard via survey and polls.

The first attempt to gain student body voice resulted in 278 against the co-location of the schools and 5 were for the co-location of the schools. To prove that these results weren't a fluke we recently surveyed the students with a survey that allowed them to state their concerns and what they believed to be the positives of a co-located school, a survey in which John Boyd himself looked at and fixed up, might I add. That survey resulted in 70 percent of the students being opposed to option 2, 19 percent being neutral, and 11 percent being for option 2. However, when it came down to option 3, 25 percent opposed it, 16 percent was neutral, and 59 percent were in favor.

This shows that the Chief Sealth student body may not agree with every aspect of option 3 but we believe it to be in the better interest of the students compared with option 2. Might I also add the students will be the ones who have to deal with the fallouts of a merged campus and not the Seattle Public School board.

I'm sure you as well as the board are wondering why there are not masses of Chief Sealth students standing up to speak their voice as they do on surveys, but they do not wish to stand up because they fear the consequences such as suspension, something Principal John Boyd has threatened me with on several occasions. Then when they do decide to get involved they are lied to or pushed aside.

Take for instance a peer of mines, by request of me, went to Principal Jeff Clark so the teachers may be asked their stances and reasoning. Jeff Clark told the student he would do as they asked and send it out via e-mail, however that was a blatant lie because he never sent out the e-mail and a week later he conducted his own staff survey, never shared the results with the student who asked him to help them and we were forced to find out the results via the West Seattle Blog.

But my reason for writing this is not to air Sealth and Denny's principal's dirty laundry. I am writing this to air the opinions and stances of the students. It has been stated that the board believes violence wouldn't increase with option 2, safety wouldn't decrease with option 2, and more students would apply to Sealth via option 2.

The life blood of Chief Sealth High School, being the students concur with their thoughts as 67 percent of the student body believes violence will increase with option 2 as 8 percent believes it will decrease and 25 percent believes it will stay the same. When it came down to students applying to Chief Sealth if option 2 was to happen, only 20 percent believed more students would apply and 54 percent believed less would apply as 26 percent believed it would stay the same.

Before I get into the commentary of the students I believe it needs to be stated for the record that when it came down to the academic benefits question, a horse the board has rode to death for why it's a good idea to combine the campuses, as well as the question of what positives come from option 2. No students who were in favor of option 2 were able to answer those questions however students who were for option 3 were able to answer those questions.

But when they were asked what academic affects would option 2 have they responded with middle schoolers imitating the high schoolers' actions thus doing terribly in class, the drop out and skipping rates will increase, as well as a new building placed next to Sealth causing distractions and animosity. But there was a positive comment in the crowd and that was there would be more options for what you could do in classes, so the board should pat themselves on the back for that small achievement.

When it came to the question of what are your concerns about BEX III option 2 we received countless statements about the safety of Denny's students, the negative influences of high schoolers to middle schoolers, the loss of identity for both schools, Sealth students admitted they wouldn't receive Denny students with open arms, fears about it becoming a repeat of Pathfinder, fears about it becoming an exclusive international school, as well as concerns about being targeted due to us being a colored school. Also one of the biggest concerns addressed was the loss of a great group of teaching staff. However when asked about some of the positives this project holds we received replies of and I quote, "Nothing that truly couldn't be done with the schools staying on their own separate campuses," so the board should give themselves a hand for that one.

As I looked over the boards reply to the meeting on Feb. 4, I realized we truly don't have the option to pick an option as we are stuck with option 2.

Something that truly disturbs me is when a member of the design and construction team answers my question of, "Why aren't there any drawings or figures of option 3?" with "We were told to do drawings of option 2 only and not option 3," Now I love money as much as the next but when you compare it to the well being of a child and it's future they don't equal out.

Then I listened to one of Steve Sundquist replies for the meeting at Sealth on Feb. 5 where he talked about this project is being used to stop the drop out gaps from eighth to ninth, well maybe it hasn't made it to the board's doorsteps yet but there is an excellent program currently in Sealth called Ignite Mentors where we the students aid Freshmen through their Freshman year and make sure they do what they have to and I'm sure any of my colleagues or mentored would speak and say this program has worked so far and will continue to work and with that statement, if you haven't processed it yet, my point is the drop out rates are covered.

I used to believe the board to be the protectors and justice seekers of the students however now I see they are no different then the men and women who currently hold office in the United States of America. I asked them to prove me wrong on that thought and actually listen to us. However we will see if that falls on deaf ears as everything else has.

Duron Jones a sophomore at Chief Sealth High School and may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnew.com