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Diversity And Reality Conflict In Beverly Hills 

      Diversity at Beverly Hills High School sure looks great on paper, with our off-the-roof statistics of students from abroad, and all over LAUSD, and the country, and blah blah blah. Reality at Beverly Hills High School, however, doesn’t always accurately reflect this rich diversity. The proof came a few weeks ago at Beverly’s first annual multi-cultural festival, where Heath Avenue, for a lunch period, was turned into a block party. Clubs that represented different ethnicities, cultures, and religions would have the chance to sell their ethnic food to not only fundraise, but also, attempt to remind everyone that there are actually other nations in the world besides our Norman nation.

      It was a fantastic idea, especially when Beverly has already floated so far away in its own bubble, that most Beverly students don't know what is going on in their school much less in the next city or across the country. There was an article in Highlights, when they last published a month or two ago, about February as Black History Month and that March was Women’s Awareness month.  It pointed out that very very few students, and dare I say it, teachers, at Beverly had any clue what was going on.  I really did love the idea of a multicultural celebration. I looked forward to it. I wanted to see my fellow classmates learn more about the world outside 90210. The sad thing, unfortunately, is that things don’t always turn out the way you want them to. Should have known. Doh!
 
      Panda Express was the only booth that sold out. It's not truly ethnic in the first place, according to authentic Chinese who will tell you that Panda Express food is Americanized hybridized sanitized crap.  The fact that it was sold out makes one wonder whether it evolved into "give the public what it wants" rather than staying true to its roots.  It was sold by JSA with the motto “Democracy is not a Spectator’s Sport,” and that just made it plain silly. Clearly JSA, a  political club, is not an ethnic representation of anything or anyone.  Clearly, there is little or no democracy in China, which made that whole scene even more of an oxymoron.  Not that I was expecting the Communism Club of Beverly to represent China, but the Chinese Culture Club would have been a tad bit more appropriate. 

      In-N-Out was another favorite. The Bahai youth club sold these famous burgers. I only found that out because I recognized its members. The club sign itself was hidden under the numerous burger boxes and In-N-Out stickers. I for one, upon seeing the double-doubles, failed to associate the burgers with diversity, let alone the Bahai faith.

      I also saw that the South Asian club, which sold traditional South Asian food, didn’t do so well at the party. Chipotle might have done well. I’m surprised that the Black Student Union didn’t think of that.  It would have made about as much sense for them to sell Chipotle as the Bahai Club selling burgers.  I think they sold Jamba Juice instead, a hybrid Americanized Hawaiian food, not exactly either Africana or ethnic Black Americana.  

      Maybe, if we had a Latin American Student Union, they would have sold Chipotle, but we don’t. Lets cut the bull, we don’t really have diversity on campus, I could probably count the number of Latin American kids at our school on one hand.  Moreover, when students gather after school or at lunch on the front lawn or in front of the swim gym, all you see is the black students in groups with their black student friends, white students in groups with their white student friends, and Asian students in groups with their Asian student friends.  We all come from diverse worlds only to find that we like to spend time with people exactly like ourselves.  

      Is that an aspect of human nature which seems to have evolved from Mother Nature something that is inalterable?  Should it be alterable?  After all "A bird may love a fish, but where would they make their home?" 

      I had a lot of fun that Friday.  There is no doubt that parties are fun. I just didn’t get why it was named “Multicultural Block Party.” Our school needs to stop pretending and examine reality. We have at least 123 different ethnicities on campus.  I don’t expect Beverly to be an enlightened paradise the day after this article, a week, or a month.  However, it would be nice if we evolved to just something more than what I got on that Friday. 

On the other hand some people would say that the American melting pot is what actually did occur on that Friday, and we should be thankful for that, since that might promote interracial interethnic harmony more than diversity.  Is that what diversity is all about, blurring the margins rather than keeping things pure?  If so, then the Multicultural Block Party was a success.  If not, it was a fraud.  What do you think?

-Peach Birchwood

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Nero Fiddled while Rome Burned
Are We Doing The Same?
 

      Imagine sitting in your math class, staring longingly out the window, praying that the bell will ring any second and rescue you from this hell. However, suddenly your reverie is disturbed by a much different noise. It's strangely familiar to your ears. You hear it at least once a quarter, maybe even more. It's a sort of ringing, with a not-so-subtle shrill and startling element to the sound. Your heart leaps up for a second and your shoulder tenses, but quickly you relax and feel at ease. You recognize this strange and foreign ring. In fact, its familiarity actually calms you. It's one of those fire alarms, or maybe even lockdown drills. Who knows the difference anyhow? You look to your teacher for guidance, just in case. You want to be safe, after all. 

      "Oh no. It's another one of those fire alarms. They're so annoying. When is this going to stop?" remarks your math teacher impatiently, before turning back to his blackboard and resuming his lesson like nothing had happened. The loud noise in the background continues. It's only mildly distracting, behind the drone of the teacher’s voice. Its purpose? To warn students and teachers of a fire, and to orderly march to a safe place until the all clear! However, no one moves a muscle.

    
Hold mouse over picture to play sound   

      Not always, but usually, true to everyone’s expectations, many  minutes later, the intercom turns on, and you hear the familiar voice of your school principal. "Good morning Norman Nation. This is Dr. Stepenosky. Please disregard the fire bell. We are working to fix this situation immediately." Click. If this is a good day, the ringing will stop in five minutes. 

You turn back to your daydreaming, assured that it's another one of those false emergency alarms.

      All Beverly students have experienced this exact situation a countless number of times. Most students view the faulty fire bell/emergency bell system as simply the normal way that Beverly Hills High school takes care of their repair issues. Fortunately, there has been no need to take those alarms seriously, since no fires, no lockdowns, no biohazardous accidents, and no terrorist explosions have happened, yet! Why then are these false alarms so detrimental and dangerous?
 
      Is it foolish on the students' and teachers’ parts to assume that every fire/emergency bell is a false alarm? Is it really necessary for the teachers to constantly interrupt their classes and follow school and district policy and procedure? When these alarms go off, isn't it their duty to avoid or at least minimize harm to life and limb? How come there is no difference in their reaction when there is no overhead voice announcing it was a false alarm?  Why do they only follow procedure when they are notified in advance that a drill is going to happen that day?  Isn't' the lack of competent repair of the alarm system causing a case of "The boy that cried wolf?"  This could never happen in the private sector because building and safety and the fire department would shut down that building until proper repairs had been accomplished.  Why then is this allowed to go on year after year at a PUBLIC high school?

      The indifference of the student body is a direct result of the lack of reactions by the teachers to these alarms. This demonstrates clear negligence on the part of the adults that are supposed to be protecting us, since they won’t follow the written procedures they all know so well, when there is no immediate overhead message.  That is a direct result of the failure of the high school administration and the school district to solve the false alarm problem.

      Teachers say, "What is the purpose in acting according to policy and procedure when simply doing the right thing is a huge waste of time." It would take at least twenty minutes to lead their classes all the way down to the football field and then back up. They say, "Our first priority is to teach our students." Why then would they take away from class time simply to carry out the correct procedure to a bogus alarm? However, their first priority should be to keep the student body and themselves safe. Therefore, if every teacher did the right thing at every alarm that had no immediate overhead message indicating it as a false alarm, this would be assured. 

       Our parents entrust our lives each day to our school's administration, faculty, and staff.  Can you imagine the catastrophe and the outcry, if a real emergency were to happen, and students or teachers died as a result of this abject negligence? Also, if teachers wasted their time as a result of every false alarm, the pressure to fix the false alarm problem would be enormous. Perhaps, because of all that wasted time, a parent or teacher or student would complain to the State, which would enforce their rules on safety and structure of schools. Certainly our local district, Building and Safety, and the Fire Department hasn't enforced competent repairs.  In fact, isn't it interesting that the Fire Department almost never responds to these alarms.  Have they decided the same thing as the teachers that all fire alarms at Beverly Hills High School are false.  Perhaps a State official will read this article, and act on his or her own to ensure our safety. Maybe some well-deserved heads would roll. 

      Unfortunately, at the present time all we have is apathy by all, and a very dangerous situation keeps occurring as a result. That dangerous situation is the complete disregard of fire/emergency drills. These drills are extremely important because they help ensure the safety of the entire student body and staff. 

       Another dangerous situation is the complete disregard of lockdown drills as teachers continue teaching class, as if there was no alarm going off.  Worse, very often during these alarms, many students take out their cellphones and start texting their friends. Oftentimes, teachers are confused about what to do, only pretending to take the alarms seriously, but forgetting to close the blinds or lock the door. In short, no one takes these drills seriously. This false sense of security serves to teach nothing. When a real situation occurs that threatens the safety of the school, no one will know what to do. There will be chaos and confusion, thus risking the lives of all, needlessly. 

False Sense of Security

Notice that both cameras are pointing up to the cement ceiling in the parking garage, making them totally ineffective, as they are NOT properly focused on the area below.  This is indicative of rampant apathetic concern for our safety.  One wonders what they were thinking when they spent all that taxpayer money on a closed circuit camera system?  Didn't they already know what the parking garage ceiling looked like?  Why did they think that it needed 24/7 monitoring?

      The administration and the school district needs make our safety a priority and at the very least, immediately eradicate all false alarms.  They need to enforce the policy and procedures that are in place to ensure safety for all. Students will change their attitudes towards these warning bells, if authorities take them all seriously. Teachers must react to each and every drill in an attentive, mature, and appropriate manner. They must be educated on the process of each emergency procedure, and accordingly educate their students. Only then can both students and staff focus on the real purpose of learning, secure in the knowledge that if a real catastrophe were to happen, everything that could be done would be done, to ensure their safety.

-Sheri Pan
-Erich Sorger

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