On Jan. 27, the Law and Society Class taught by Cristina Trujillo posted a petition board by the south wing teacher’s lounge with the intent of teaching students advocacy. The petition board consisted of topics that students wanted to change about the school.
Trujillo states, “This was a project to help the students here have a voice in school. I assigned them to pick something on campus that they would want to change. They could have either done a petition, written a letter to the newspaper, created a PSA or made a brochure. All of them decided on making a petition.”
After receiving their instructions, the Law and Society students subsequently broke into groups, with each group discussing which petition idea to advocate. When decided, they typed up two pages of the pros and cons of each topic. For example the pros and cons of longer passing periods are that although we would have extra time to socialize and get to class, the administration might have to extend school.
Some examples of topics the groups proposed are open campuses, longer passing periods, multi-culture classes and more parking spaces at Aragon. A list was posted underneath each petition which students could sign if they agreed with the petition above. Several signatures have already accumulated on the signature sheet in the past weeks.
Of the proposal raised, one was an initiative to implement a “Diversity and Cultures” course. Students enrolled in the aforementioned course would be learning about other customs and traditions of different religions and races. Junior Lindsey Chen, who led the group behind the initiative, says that, “The goal is to enlighten students of what is going on around them. We don’t want students here to be stuck in an ignorant circle, not knowing what is going on and just caring about our own country. We want students here to be diverse, hence the diversity and cultures name.”
The Law and Society class considered bringing the petition to the administration to see their changes might be considered and enacted. Yet senior Brooke MacDevitt says, “My group did not bring our petition to the administration, but I think it would have been a great idea to try and see what the administration thought of it.
Senior Hailey Robinson agrees, “We didn’t have the actual intent to bring the petition to administration, but if we did get enough support, we might have. These petitions weren’t really supposed to become something big, but it could have been possible. We just can’t bring it to the administration with the amount of signatures we have now.”
In the past, students have brought their petitions to the administration. Assistant principal Joe Mahood says, “A group of kids wanted Aragon to become an open campus. I forwarded it to the school board. They said no.”
The class does not plan on taking down the board anytime soon. MacDevitt says, “There is not a planned date to take down the petitions. They are just there to have people look at and if they want, sign them.” Mrs. Trujillo agrees, “We probably won’t take it down until our next big project.”
