High school is more than just the classroom experience. Yet the administration is slowly restricting Stuyvesant’s non-academic features.
This year, the school may not host its annual student blood drives due to a lack of available space. In the past, drives have been held in the gyms and the first floor lobby. This year, however, the physical education department has refused to open up the gyms—it is more concerned about losing three days of exercise each year.
Students have shown their dedication to planning and participating in blood drives. In 2007, Stuyvesant students donated between 110 to 160 pints of blood for each of the three drives. In 2005, Stuyvesant in one of the top three donators in Manhattan.
While students can donate blood at local hospitals or other facilities, bringing the drive to Stuyvesant encourages more people to donate by making it more accessible to busy students. Stuyvesant’s inability to participate this year would significantly decrease the New York City Blood Center’s supply.
In addition to giving back to the greater community, Stuyvesant must help its own thrive. The Bengali, Indian, Chinese and Korean culture clubs boost Stuyvesant’s cultural appreciation through their respective culture nights.
This year, the administration combined each of these festivities into one night. While the clubs have accepted this, hosting all four events together will reduce the attention individual events enjoyed before. The administration is not making cultural celebration a priority.
It is also rejecting other enriching experiences. Earlier this year, English teachers Kim Rober and Jennifer Choi began planning a sophomore class trip to Europe. The classes would visit homes of writers and the sites of their books to help students better understand and appreciate the books in the European Literature curriculum. Principal Stanley Teitel forbade the trip because the trip was not worth the threat to security.
This is not the first time the administration has used security as justification for decisions. The justification is weak when considering the administration allows the foreign language department trips to Spain each summer. School trips have proven to be safe, and any school trip has the potential to enrich a student’s learning experience.
The administration must be willing to endorse cultural and community experiences, even if it does not see a direct correlation to academics.