My G-High - By Kemon Lucas '09

To many students, school is a home away from home, but Germantown High School resembles something closer to an abandoned house. The present state of the building conveys a disgusting neglectful atmosphere for students. Is it surprising that the efforts of the students to succeed in school coincides with the effort of our city to replenish our public schools. Our school is not only visually disgusting but also contains danger around the corners of the hallways, down the steps, and in the classrooms. The building we come to 180 days out the year, 5 days out the week, for 8 hours at the least a day evokes tone of worthlessness and dismantling that echoes in the minds of everyone who is a part of the school.

As you walk down the halls look for the compartments where a fire extinguisher would be and count how many fire extinguishers you see. Is this a clear and present danger? One teacher recalls an incident where a fire took place in close proximity to her classroom. The absence of fire extinguisher, led the people in pursuit of the fire to come to her room, ask for her bottle of spring water, in hopes of dousing the flames. In this your excursions of the school watch where you walk and what you touch. The colors on the walls are a collage of milk, mold and mildew. A Pieces of metal protrudes from the wall were a railing should be. Patches of ceiling are missing and wires dangle dangerously in reach of students in crowded hallways. Heaters are not correctly covered and display jagged pieces of metal that are just waiting to harm a student. The paint on the walls is peeling for reasons unclear to me, but I’m sure it cannot be anything good for our health.

Should our health be an issue when we go to school with intent to learn? We can see the mouse holes, dirt, grime and an obvious infestation of roaches bigger that your pinky finger. This is the product of a building that has bathrooms with toilets that flood the floors and some that flush without command. This is an outcome of an institution with trash in every crevice which has been there longer than I have attended the school. Paper and wrappers stuffed in the heaters just waiting to spark. Newspapers and magazines dangerously lay on top of light fixtures with broken and missing covers.

The hearts of people in higher places, who have the power to make our community beautiful and prosperous place, show no compassion to the needs of everyone who is a part of this institution. Our school needs grave and hasty attention. As far as I have seen, we hold a great, extensive staff, but we lack the resources to prepare anyone in this school for a career in the science fields. We sit in classes with broken windows, and the only thing keeping us from the frigid winter cold is a thin plastic sheet secured by tape. We know we are not seen as beautiful in the eyes of outsiders, but we hold great pride in what we accomplish in these walls and we want nothing more than for these walls to resemble our perception of Germantown as a school, and for some, an oasis. We want change, but we can’t do it alone.

BY,

Kemon Lucas, Germantown High '09



AND NOW THE REAL STORY! After Kemon wrote this piece for the sophmore season of the schools returned newspaper, the clipper, the piece made its way into the hands of the head of the Alumni association, who brought it to the SRC meeting, and new CEO Arlene Ackerman. For the past week there have been workers at Germantown REPAINTING CLASSROOMS!!!
From voice and expression we see change, keep sharing the good word!