KevInfamous.com
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What They Never Told You
Your Rights
You have rights, despite what the school may tell you, you are no different from any other citizen in this country. Last time I checked the Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Nowhere in the entire document does it say that you are stripped of your rights once you enter a school building. As a matter of fact, they have another document preventing you from being stripped of your rights; it’s called the Emancipation Proclamation.
Bathroom
You cannot be told you can’t go to the bathroom. I know teachers love to tell you that you can’t go. After talking to several different teachers on the subject, it turns out that telling a student they cannot go to the bathroom is illegal. They can only request that you wait until the end of class. If they refuse to let you leave the classroom, sue the school district.
Scheduling\Attendance
Next time you are called down for scheduling and they tell you that you need at least 5 classes, don’t buy it. You do not need 5 classes, you only need the classes required to graduate, anything more than that I consider to be excess torture and useless. I only took 3 total classes my senior year, and for the first half of the year I only had one. There is no state law requiring you to be in school for a certain amount of time. The only problem you may run into is the school asking for a note from a parent or employer stating that you have permission to leave. This way if something happens to you during the time you “should” be in school, the district can prove that you were not their responsibility, therefore they cannot be held accountable. Remember that education is a multibillion-dollar business.
Gym/A.K.A Physical Education
Let’s be honest, is anything you do in Physical Education necessary or helping you? I’m sure you know just as I do, that it is completely useless. Isn’t it just a bit ironic that the school tells you to use your time wisely, then promotes a program that does nothing but waste time. All you have to do is examine how they grade you. In my school, 75% of your grade was attendance and it was a pass-fail class. So, if all you did was show up in gym shorts and stand there, you got the same grade as the kids who tried. Pretty sad. So why put forth energy in a place that you will not see a reward. A common argument you will hear against changing the Physical Education program, is that America has a weight problem. Logic alone would tell you that if American children have a weight problem and Physical Education is supposed to help students stay fit, that clearly something is fucked up here. Instead of making Phys. Ed. mandatory and treating it like a real class, why not just face the facts and accept that the class serves no purpose, and let kids make their own decision on whether to take it or not. If you don’t know the basic fundamentals of hitting a volleyball or kicking a soccer ball by high school, you probably shouldn’t be in high school in the first place. Physical Education should be an elective at best, and be treated as a relaxing class that can help relieve the stresses of being an everyday student. If you don’t have to take 4 years of math, music, science, or art, why bother making students take four years of gym. Are they really prepared to make the argument that learning how to square dance should be valued higher than mathematics and science? As “educators”, I like to think not.