Culture

Catherine Chiang and Daisy Prom
Opinions Editor

Our school “culture” has been analyzed to death this past year, especially with the WASC team evaluation. But for most of us, all we know is that it’s flawed. Our panel brought up the main problems they saw in AHS’ culture, including the tension between Asians and Latinos on campus and lack of school pride and spirit, as well as the strengths of which we can be proud.
“There is not division as much as there is a lot of tension. People join groups with people that they are comfortable with and can relate with the most. As a result, we have cultural divisions through all ethnicities,” junior Daniel Castaneda said.
Ethnic identity is a pressing and very personal issue for many students at AHS because a majority of us are considered minorities in the larger world and face the stereotypes associated with our heritage. Therefore, it’s no surprise that there is a conflict between claiming one’s heritage and distinguishing one from societal stereotypes.
“Ethnicity shouldn’t be the issue; I hate being labeled as ‘that Mexican in AP classes,” junior Chelsea Cardenas said.
A large part of culture is respect on campus. The panelists agreed that respect among peers is important, but so is respect among teachers because they set examples for students.
The fact of the matter is that many of us do not take pride in being a Moor. Though there are innumerable things of which to be proud, the negative always stands out more than the positive. There are people spitting off the second story and throwing trashcans from greater heights; these people clearly see no purpose in preserving our school because they reserve no pride in our grounds. It depends on individual interpretation on how a person sees the school and how to treat it, and thus, it depends on individual participation to proudly embrace our school as a school.