Freshmen uncaged: put them back in

Sophia Bird | Writer & Arantza Villarroel | Writer

September 21, 2023

Age segregation is necessary for SCHS to bring peace to their honorable students. When the so-called “cages,” designated area for freshmen, were removed, they were pushed to overcrowd every place available. The established order of the school vanished in the process. The problem has worsened, argued by the rest of the students, leading them to an unspoken consensus that all freshmen should be pushed back into their designated spot.

Shouted at in the halls, shoved into each other, or being blatantly annoyed became daily experiences for every other grade. Now, they have all united to call to action: return the freshmen to a place where they can freely become their aggravating self once again.

The cages were closed-off due to hazardous actions from the previous freshmen (2022-2023), when they decided to test the boundaries of what the school would overlook. Fights of all kinds, ranging from verbal and physical, adding food and water balloons to the mix, occurred almost daily in the restricted four walls of the cages. They persistently ignored the shouts from proctors and overlooked the signs of actions staff members would later take. 

A two-week water balloon fight pushed the school’s staff over the edge to a rapid decision to close the cages. They removed all the tables from the inside, physically preventing the freshman from sitting. Now, the cages are a deserted wasteland where upperclassmen pass by, nostalgic of those times freshmen would not plague the whole school.

The school year has started with with a shock for everyone; the upcoming freshmen have a free space to run around, causing a long list of trouble.

Junior Tania Ramirez has fallen victim to the prominent harassment while working at Club Rush, promoting her own club, Cultural Unity. “Two eighth grader-looking kids, with skateboards in their hands, came up to me,” Tania described with an disgusted undertone. “They wrote their phone numbers on the sign-up sheet with a note saying ‘call me cutie.’” The so-called “freshies” walked away from her, leaving her with new traumas, leading to her PTSD diagnosis.

Adding an unnecessarily positive point of view to the discussion, junior Tessa Arciniega empathized with the freshmen, and suggested to “give them another chance to prove themselves… and let them show everyone they won’t cause chaos like last year.” 

Ignoring Arciniega’s opinion, the public agrees to throw freshmen back where they belong: their personal hell hole in the wall! Do not let them escape again!