High School Drama

I woke up this morning with a sense of foreboding. After a fun weekend, and job-tastic search accomplishments (or somewhat) something about this Tuesday morning seemed amiss... and then I received this email from my Mom:

"I officially work in the GHETTO.
arrived at school just now, 6:50 am and the entire perimeter (good math word) of the outside of the school is majorly tagged. purple graffitti everywhere, tagged all the school vans, broke out the van windows, burned the snack bar out on the football field......i am sure there is more.

Perfect day for it too! ALL the VP's in the district are meeting here for visitation. This friday, 2 of our graduates, who are now pro-ball for the Giants and the Detroit Lions, are coming to dedicate the scoreboard they gave the school.

Welcome to the GHETTO!"

There was a time when Highland Highschool attracted the smartest teenagers and most gifted athlete's in the Antelope Valley. A time when teachers fought one another to teach here, when the houses surrounding the area were a worth a few more thousand dollars than houses a mile away. And now, we have a school full of taggers, miscreants, ruffians, gangsters, felons, and coke-heads. Nestled comfortably in this crowd stands the last refuge of hope for Palmdale's future. Amongst the I.B. and AP kids you find those working jobs afterschool, volunteering their hours, participating in sports, and NOT tagging school grounds and torching symbols of hard work.

What symbols of hard work? How about the Snack Shack that has apparently been burnt? It hasn't been there that long. In fact, it was brand new my junior year. The ASB class worked hard for that Snack Shack so that we might better serve the patrons of sporting events with nachos, hot dogs, sodas, candy, chili and team spirit paraphenelia as they cheer on our athletes.

MY hard work went into that place. MY blood, sweat and tears (and those of thousands of others) went into that school. I ran, swam, sprinted, studied, laughed, acted, sang, postered, orientated, and graduated at this school. And all it takes for my hard work to seem in vain is a ragtag group of cocky little assholes who have something against the institution.

What happened boys? Did you fail that math test? Get sent to S.O.S.? Not make the football team? Get blamed for being nothing more than a one dimensional gang member intent of hating "the man"? Well guess what, your actions against this school have proven you to be nothing more than that. Congratulations on holding up a time tested and proven stereotype. Go fuck yourselves.

One more thing, I'm no fan of "the man" and no fan of Palmdale, but in a world where some people have very little to be proud of, their alma mater is a tried and true monument to some form of success in their lives. And then some little assholes come screw it up. As for "the man", he sucks, but to succeed in life, some give and take is needed. And, as far as I'm concerned, the powers that be in the high school world can HARDLY be considered "the man". He's higher up than a high school VP.