Declaration

We the students of Grosse Pointe South High School believe that we have not been treated fairly and just. Our rights have been neglected and trampled over. Grosse Pointe South students all have specific rights and freedoms that are allowed. We are entitled to the best possible education, meaning that we have the freedom to get the extra help in school if needed.  We are also responsible for our own learning. We have the right to learn when we want to, and not learn when we want to, but we will be responsible for our actions and own up to them. Every GPS student is entitled to be respected and treated fairly along with everyone else. The students also are responsible for their own actions. We are told to be responsible for the choices we make and the things we do. But we in turn would like the same from our school and faculty. We the people of this 2^nd hour class in turn right down these complaints as an attempt to abolish the problems set forth in our mind.

10 Complaint

I. Staff should no longer lock the doors at 9 o’clock for school dances. People should be able to come and go as they please. If the students bought a ticket they should have the right to do what they want. Students spend a lot of time and money in preparation for dances if they get to the school after 9 o’clock then they should be allowed entrance. It is a silly rule and should be forgotten about.

II. All class rooms at South High School should be changed into green light classrooms. A green light room doesn’t mean you are texting or calling people the whole class period it just means students are allowed their phones for educational purposes. Phones today are equipped with so much technology that they are very helpful and give easy access to information one would not normally have in class. Most students have their phones in red light class rooms anyway they are just forced to be more sneaky about it witch actually causes them to pay even less attention. As long as they are not being disruptive or being distracting to other students there is no problem caused by having a phone in class.

III. Selling items should not be forbidden on school campus. As long as nothing illegal is being distributed or shared among the students there would be no issues. Selling things could actually make our school better. The students could hold bake sales to promote different clubs. School groups could sell whatever they wanted too. Or individuals could just hold sales. If everyone was allowed to then it wouldn’t become unfair it would just create healthy competition.

IV. The schools tardy policy should be eliminated. It states that each student is responsible for their own education. If that is true then students should be able to arrive when they want to for class. There should be no additional punishment after students have been late to class a certain number of times. Being late to class is already punishment enough because students miss part of the lesson and it is harder for them to catch up. No additional detention is necessary.

V. There should not be certain classes that are required for graduation. Some courses like English, mathematics, science, and history are reasonable classes to be required because those have basic information that one will need for college. Others like an art course and health should not be required. Not all students will go onto doing those things in college so they should be spending their time taking classes that will benefit them and help them in the long run. English, mathematics, science, and history are obvious classes that should be required but all other electives should be optional.

VI. Students are not allowed to eat in their cars at lunch or they can lose their parking rights.  This rule is pointless and students should not have to follow it.  If they are allowed to drive their cars at lunch and leave campus they should be able to eat in their cars too.  It is stupid to not allow them to inside their cars and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.  We declare that the rule should be abolished because it violates student rights.

VII. Most teachers will not accept work if it is turned in late and will give the student a zero for the assignment.  A zero on even a small assignment can greatly hurt an overall grade.  I do believe points should be taken off for not turning an assignment in on time but it should not result in a zero.  If effort is put into the homework and it is not too late the student should still get credit for his/her work.  Sometimes you forget or you are too overwhelmed with other classes to get it done on time and you should not be punished so severely for it.

VIII. Many students and staff at Grosse Pointe South are a legal age for smoking.  It is not against the law and it should be allowed.  Earlier generations actually had smoking lounges within the school.  It should at least be accepted on the campus.

IX   In Mr. Provensano’s class it is required for all students to post nearly all their assignments on the class blog.  This is a hassle for a lot of students and it is a waste of time.  Why is it necessary to post something online?  It is much easier to just print the assignment out and turn it in like we have been doing in all of our past years at school.  Also some kids may not want their work read by other classmates.  They might be afraid of getting made fun of or something else but either way they should not have to do it in the first place.

X. When in the course of a school year you are bound to lose your id at some point.  It does not happen as much anymore since we are not required to have them on us at all times but they are still missed placed.  If you lose your id you cannot get into dances and you would have to pay to get into football games.  It cost one dollar to buy a new id and another dollar for the lanyard.  We are living in tough economic times and should not have to pay this fine.

If our independence is not granted, in the fullest extent the students will boycott all incoming assignments and classwork. We need these to be granted in order for Grosse Pointe South students to be as effective and productive as possible. If these demands are met all students will have a more affective education in order for us to succeed.