Students deserve better organization, extra curricular involvement, freedom of expression, improved discipline, decent bathrooms

By Elise Guillen and Agape Alfaro

Many who care about Steinmetz have noticed with each passing year that Steinmetz is slowly decreasing in value. This editorial is not meant to bash Steinmetz, but rather criticize the school in order to improve it. We love Steinmetz and have a deep concern for it.

It’s also worth noting that there is no specific group to point out and to blame why Steinmetz is going in a bad direction. It is rather a combination of people, thus proving there needs to be a group effort from students, teachers, staff and CPS to make sure Steinmetz has the future it deserves.

Lack of organization. When planning events, there is disorganization due to the lack of communication. For example, this year the seniors had no idea when graduation practice would happen or when they would receive things such as caps and gowns or even graduation tickets because no one was telling them anything. Also, when there are events happening at the school, students rarely hear about them until they happen.

Lack of involvement from staff and students. There are only certain staff and students who are constantly involved at Steinmetz and it’s very easy to pick them out.

The Star encourages more students and staff to get involved at Steinmetz to allow other people to see the great things Steinmetz offers and to get even more people to be excited and involved in the school. There’s so much to do besides academics. Since there’s not enough student involvement and even lack of teacher involvement, this leads to the next point.

Extra curriculars diminishing. Lately, since people are not getting involved as much, clubs are dying. There are barely any extracurriculars besides sports. There used to be drama club and a school play every year until this year. Four years ago the school was alive and buzzing with various activities to do after school, but now everyone just rushes out of the building and many clubs and sports are told to leave by a certain time while other schools are open late for students.

Funding to improve Steinmetz- There’s a difficulty getting funding from the school in order to get materials for club since administration doesn’t allow things like fundraisers, which could really improve and benefit Steinmetz. Even sports struggle because of lack of money for buses.

Uniforms.  The Star has covered the uniform issue plenty of times and every time that we do, we always come back to the same consensus: Get rid of it.

The uniform is inconsistent and it’s ridiculous that the school has it. The way that the school enforces it is confusing considering it can only being enforced part of the time instead of all the time. One person could get called out for wearing jeans, but then the five people who are also not in uniform don’t get in trouble.

Then, the school makes a big deal of being out of uniform like it’s the worst thing ever. It isn’t. There are other student behavior problems that should be focused on, but get less attention since people are focused on the uniforms.

It also gives the community something to think about. Why did the other high schools in the area drop the uniform? Why is Steinmetz the only one left with it? Many think that the uniform gives the school a bad look because it’s associated with controlling bad students.

Having the uniform, despite many students being against it, shows that the students aren’t being listened to and they’re the ones being forced to wear it. When in reality, it’s limiting students’ creative expression and causing more problems than fixing them.

We understand the reasons for uniforms,  but they do nothing for student safety. We highly suggest requiring students to always wear their IDs as an alternative to identify Steinmetz students.

The high standards of rules yet the lack of enforcement of them. As stated before with uniform, there is a lack of proper discipline. One day staff with be on your case with being in proper uniform and the next day  everyone will turn a blind eye. Sometimes detentions will be handed out, but very few actually attend. And when people do show up to detention, it’s relaxed. People are talking or on their phone and will be able to leave after thirty minutes. Another issue is how teachers are told to write up students who misbehave, yet then they receive no discipline. At most, they receive a call home but that isn’t even proper discipline.

The quality of the bathrooms. This is not a bashing on how they are being cleaned. The cleaning crew has improved and works really hard. But the lack of fixing the overall bathrooms over the course of several years is deeply concerning. The murals outside the bathrooms make a student believe the bathrooms are just as nice inside but that’s not the case. Most of the bathrooms have damaged mirrors and some even have none. This is something students always complain about, but nothing has been done to fix the problem. As for the graffiti and quality of the stalls, there is not much to do about that. Except to possibly open the school up during the summer and let anyone from the community or even students help paint over the graffiti before the start of every school year.

The topics discussed have not only contributed to the population of Steinmetz decreasing, but have also made Steinmetz students less enthusiastic about school and not proud of where they attend.

There are other serious problems that are now beyond administration, students and staff’s hands, such as the lay-offs of our librarian Ms. Eshoo and amazing teachers Mr. Foster, Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Meunier, as well as new schools being built nearby which will further decrease our enrollment and funding.

But there are many things that everyone at this school can work on. It truly starts with the people who attend or work at Steinmetz to create change and to make others aware of what Steinmetz is capable of.

If you’re reading this and you’re like us and care and worry about the future of Steinmetz, reevaluate what you could personally do to help give Steinmetz the future it deserves.