By Shaniyah F, Christina N. & Mirka G. Staff Writers
Shaniyah F: Coming from New York City, being a new student at Galileo has been sort of interesting. Personally I feel like I’ve experienced a lot of changes not just with students around me but with teachers as well. In the beginning of the semester I stayed more to myself and was anti-social. The classwork was more challenging compared to the east coast and my grades were close to slipping from straight A’s to B’s. Most of my teachers were already in the middle of lesson plans so I had to play catch up to salvage my grades. As far as the students, everyone had their own clicks and mastered relationships. I didn’t feel left out because it wasn’t hard for me to make friends, I just felt slightly annoyed being surrounded by people I don’t know. I was always ready to go home.
Christina N.
I’ve noticed that this semester more students have stepped up and spoken out on issues that the school administration hasn’t done enough to fix. Mostly with how the school hasn’t done enough to punish the students who sexually assault and harass others. As someone who has gone through that in my freshman year, it hurts to see that the person who did terrible things to me will be able to get away with it. When the first protest happened back in November and the second one with all the schools in the district marching to City hall, it made me proud. It makes me proud to be a part of the generation that is willing to speak up against authority that isn’t ensuring our safety.
Another thing that I’ve noticed this semester is that the new students, the freshmans, and sophomores, act as if they’ve never been in a school setting before. They vandalize the walls in the bathroom and always disrupt ongoing classes when they run in the halls and slam the doors shut. Sure the last time they were in school was when they were in Middle school when quarantine happened, isn’t an excuse to act this way. I feel like the school or even the district should do something about this. I know that in the end the only thing they’re hurting is themselves and their education but it’s still annoying. Even when I was a freshman and sophomore, students wouldn’t act like this. And the ones that did, didn’t do it to this level or this often.
Mirka G.
This semester has been inspiring because many Galileo students stood together in solidarity to protect each other against the authority figures who failed them. I felt happy to know that my fellow seniors would rally for each other and the many other students in our district. And were willing to take a step further and gather with students from different schools to march to City Hall in order to hopefully pass a list of demands that would further ensure our safety. Overall, I felt disappointed and angry at the lack of action taken by staff to ensure the comfort and protection of the survivors of sexual assault in our school.
I find it disheartening, however, to see the new sophomores and freshman running and yelling through our hallways when the rest of us are in class. As seniors, we value the time spent at school as it is our last year at Galileo; so to witness the disruptions in the hallway from our classrooms and walk around the hallways and bathrooms to see demeaning writing and drawings on the walls and doors is frustrating and annoying. I remember as a freshman, there were rumors of fights between students from Galileo and students from other schools, and none of them took place anywhere near Galileo. The amount of writing on the walls back then was kept small, unlike the rude and offensive writing on them now.
