San Juan Bautista. Anzar High School. The screeching bell
signals to students it’s time for lunch. And where do most students
go to enjoy their lunch time? The Anzar Quad.
The Quad is an area between the office and the 100 number
buildings on Anzar’s campus. There are benches and tables for
students to sit down, enjoy their lunch and talk to their friends
about the latest gossip. The Quad seems like the place everyone
would want to be.
San Juan Bautista. Anzar High School. The screeching bell signals to students it’s time for lunch. And where do most students go to enjoy their lunch time? The Anzar Quad.
The Quad is an area between the office and the 100 number buildings on Anzar’s campus. There are benches and tables for students to sit down, enjoy their lunch and talk to their friends about the latest gossip. The Quad seems like the place everyone would want to be.
Unfortunately, this is untrue. Some students choose to wander the campus with their high school sweetheart, hang out in a teacher’s room, or play soccer out at the playing fields. Is the Quad not all it’s cracked up to be or do these people feel out of place there? Are we seeing a trend of self-imposed segregation?
Mr. Wardlaw, a teacher who has been here for three years, runs a school club opened to all students called The Gamers Club. This association allows students to play games such as “Magic: The Gathering” and “Dungeons and Dragons” on campus.
Most of the students who play these games migrate here after two periods of grueling work, then sit down and have a nice, relaxing game with their friends. But is separation of interest what brings them here?
“It most definitely is,” Wardlaw said. “For example, if you walk outside and look around the Quad you are most likely to see a dominant population of white students, while most of the Latinos are over by Montoya’s room or somewhere else besides the Quad.”
“The same thing happens in the class if you give the students the liberty to choose their own seat,” he said. “The white and Latino students don’t feel comfortable or welcome inner-mixing between themselves. This is due to the excessive amount of peer pressure put on students to stick to what they know. These two groups are not mean or rude; it’s just that the students don’t go out of their way to make others feel comfortable within their clique. And I think students need to realize this and do something about it.”
“People hang out with people they’ve grown up with their entire life and those they feel comfortable with,” said sophomore Marjan Mclean, a Quad local.
Her associate and close friend Ian Faurot-Daniels commented, “Why expend the time and effort of making new friends, when you can just hang out with people that are already like you?”
And why would no one be OK with inner-mixing between cultures? Wouldn’t it be a cool experience to meet other people and participate in their activities? But it all comes back to the separation of cultures and the comfort level which people have chosen to adapt to.
“It’s a very natural thing. You find things you have in common with people and culture, ethnicity, gender and race just happen to be a part of that process,” said George Medland, a junior. “It also has a lot to do with peer pressure and when people aren’t with others they can relate with, they feel vulnerable and are pressured into staying with their original ‘posse.'”
“Sadly, students really don’t think about segregation, it just happens,” Medland said.
I walked over to Mr. Montoya’s room and spoke with a friend of mine, Justin Romero, who is a junior.
“Most of my Latino friends don’t hang out in the Quad. It’s because they like to have their privacy, but it also has to do with most of the kids in the Quad don’t speak Spanish. We can speak English, but it’s just more comfortable to speak Spanish. Plus, sometimes we feel embarrassed about our accents,” Romero said. “We like to be with our ‘own.’ Though it is a culture thing, I think we just want our privacy.”
So when I went out for my lunch break, I stopped and took a look across the Quad. The problem is as clear as day: People separating themselves because of ethnicity and cultural comfort. When will someone be brave enough to break through the barrier of indifference and inner-mix?
The next time you’re in the Quad or wandering the outskirts of it, remember you can make the difference. You can change the populous because all it takes is one person to start a revolution. Why can’t that person be you?
Nick Brown is a junior at Anzar High School.
