The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room

Maya Singhal | Spread Editor

 

The April issue of Palo Alto High School’s Verde Magazine was released a few weeks ago, along with a disclaimer, a disclaimer that was important because the magazine’s cover package was about rape, and not just rape in the general world; it was about rapes that occurred within their student body. Although there were some negative responses from a few members of the student body, ultimately the controversial articles were seen by students and the school administration as kindling for productive discussions on how to end the horrific culture of rape in our society.

Last year, the Coat of Arms did a spread about sex—attempted, I should say, because when the spread survey was sent out to the student body, many parents were outraged, calling the school, and even calling the former spread editor’s house, to complain. According to some parents, asking their children if they were willing to be honest about their sexualities constituted sexual harassment. The Coat of Arms faced heavy scrutiny from the school administration, as well, and we ultimately ended up changing the spread so that it addressed the reasons behind the uproar, rather than focusing on the initially intended topic.

When I became Spread Editor after the whole incident, I had to wait for a few issues to pass before I could even use online surveys again, and this time, every survey had to be carefully checked by our advisor, a fact that had to be communicated to the administration before we could even send out the survey. My first issue as Spread Editor was, following tradition, the last issue of last school year. I wanted to begin my term with a strong, controversial statement: a spread about Menlo and the law. This spread was comprised of a survey that we had painstakingly administered in person to almost a hundred students, as well as articles regarding Menlo’s disciplinary process, drinking culture, and an interview with the Atherton Chief of Police.

You might be thinking, “I don’t remember seeing that spread,” and that’s because timing was not on my side. The issue fell right at the same time as some disciplinary issues involving Menlo students came to light. The Coat of Arms agreed to give the affair only limited coverage, and so, even though the spread never mentioned these occurrences directly, it was cut from the paper.

After having spent hours interviewing, writing, editing and designing the spread, I was absolutely heartbroken. However, the bigger problem was that Menlo seemed not to want to discuss the problem on campus. As a reaction to what had happened within the student body, a spread that discussed how Menlo’s discipline works, that opened the floor for conversations about the law without disclosing details about specific and sensitive incidents, would have been incredibly valuable to the community. The school could have used the issues as a way to engage in a dialogue with students about the law; however, the administration, in general, seemed (and seems) much more interested in talking at students than talking with them; doing things like bringing in a police officer to tell students about how much drinking could hurt their parents, rather than talking to students about how they think drinking affects themselves and their community.

When trying to prevent illegal activity, many schools automatically jump to telling students what not to do. On the other hand, when dealing with discipline issues, they want to cover it all up and get proceedings over with as soon and as quietly as possible. Using disciplinary issues as a jumping off point for conversation is never a consideration. However, as the reception to Verde’s cover package illustrates, discussion about internal problems can often be very cathartic. Rather than reflecting poorly on the school, it portrays them as honest.

As a school, Menlo is obsessed with how it is perceived. Often, this means that the school shies away from controversy, not wanting to have discussions about things that might sully its reputation. And perhaps to the outside world, Menlo appears a paragon of virtue, unsullied by disciplinary scandals. That is what the administration of any educational institution would want. But from the inside, this lack of discussion within the community just seems like an evasion of the truth, a lie. And really, it’s more than that because, without honest, healing discussion, all that happens is a perpetuation of the unfortunate affairs that plague the community. It’s a cycle that only ends if you can talk about it.

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