Editor’s note: Sequim High School’s Rachael DeAngelo, who teaches Spanish and English, gave her students an assignment to write and submit a Letter to the Editor to the Sequim Gazette on a topic that is important to them. We are happy to publish the students’ letters in this issue and over the coming weeks.
A later start
As a student, I have been going to school my entire life all the way since preschool, five days a week, typically seven to eight hours a day with only two days off on the weekends. Only as I have gotten older, I have wanted to go hang out with friends or go to work and make money. Except it is hard to manage seven hours of school, work and leave time for my personal life while still having to worry about getting passing grades and finishing my homework.
Doesn’t everyone like to spend time just relaxing? Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate school, I love it. But not at eight in the morning. It takes me about three hours after school starts to begin really enjoying and engaging in the classes, which states my point: I think school should start later in the day. Many news articles talk about how, due to biology, the sleep part in teens doesn’t allow us to naturally wake up before 8 a.m. So, what is the point of coming to school so early when our brains are not even working properly?
Teachers would not have to waste time teaching when the kids aren’t even mentally able to focus, and students would start understanding the lesson and hopefully getting passing grades more often.
So, in conclusion I think it would be beneficial for students and the teachers if school started later in the afternoon.
Zayn Cronin
Sequim
Drivers’ Ed
I’m writing to the Sequim Gazette as a student at Sequim high school and someone who is currently in drivers’ education.
When I turned 15 and my parents and I started talking about drivers’ education, my mom (a Sequim High School graduate) said that she took drivers’ ed as a high school class during the summer.
The only way to take drivers’ ed in Sequim is to attend a private school that costs around $500 and takes about two months to complete. As a student, juggling schoolwork, extra curriculars and drivers’ ed can be overwhelming at times.
Instead, the school district could make it a required class, (which) would make getting a driver’s license and permit accessible to all students and relieve the parents who can’t afford sending their children to drivers’ ed or students who have to cover the cost themselves.
Some people may say that adding a drivers’ ed program to Sequim High School would cost the district too much or that some students can’t be trusted, and to that I say, everyone deserves that right to independence and getting a driver’s license can be a good first step to gaining that Independence — and if you don’t put any trust in us, then how can we prove that we are trust worthy?
Aidan Danielson
Sequim
Skate Foundation
Who’s going to revive the Sequim youth Skate Foundation? Skate parks around the world since the ‘90’s have been visited by pro skaters who represent the culture and lifestyle, bringing to the parks opportunities and awareness. The Sequim Skate Park was built in 1998, with the idea for expanding the park basically as soon as it was built.
Skate jams (were) held to raise money to expand the park and to match with the Tony Hawk Foundation. The skate jams, held by certain representatives who are no longer here, sad to say, caused the skate jams to go cold for lack of someone stepping up. Donations to expand the Sequim Skate Park (have) gone dry, and hopes to skate a park that’s up-to-date have fallen.
I, who have been skating there for nearly a whole decade, generations who have skated and kicked it before me, all engraved our own grinds and carves into that park, with hope to see the expansion for the next generation along the line. Why should we expand the skate park? Kids who skate are nothing but delinquents, lazy, extreme individuals that don’t fit into society, right? That was a stigma believed by many individuals in (the) early history of skating.
As a skater, I can tell you that first off, skating is a way to get out (of) your house, to go exercise physically, but also you’re exercising social skills. Not only that, skating can bring you creativity, a way to disconnect, and it teaches you that when you fail at something, it’s not the end of the world. A real skater always gets back up after failing an attempt at something and charges at the challenge again and again, until they find a way to complete what they are attempting. That alone can take you very far in life. Plus, it’s a safe space in the town for kids to go after school and keeps them out of trouble. It’s an outlet.
I understand with the circumstances being given above, the jams can’t be run by the same individuals. So, I, a skater of Sequim, am hoping to find a way for the torch to be passed down to the next generation of skaters to complete the goals of the brothers and sisters who are no longer here. That way, the upcoming generation can have a safe space in town that’s not run down, outdated, and to hang out and stay stoked!
Now, to answer the question in the beginning, it’s going to take a community to get the recognition and support for the Sequim Youth Skate Foundation.
Ezekiel Davis
Sequim
Youth need more
As a resident of Sequim for six years now, I think that the youth need more to do. Apart from the trails and landmarks to explore, there is very little for young people to do.
Growing up in a bigger city myself, I can attest that more things to do contributes to a better childhood and keeps you happier in general.
Wouldn’t you want your kids to be happy? Me, too. This is why the addition of arcades, another skate park, possibly escape rooms, or a trampoline park would benefit our youth a lot. Webmd.com states that “these activities can keep them mentally engaged and, depending on the activity, physically active, but the advantages don’t end there.”
In conclusion, more activities can bring happiness to families and individual kids in the city of Sequim.
Riley Downs
Sequim
Immigration issue
Have you ever thought what would you feel to get separated from your parents or your kids? Well, that is what is happening around the world right now and I think it’s cruel that the government is choosing to separate families because they think they’re criminals.
Because of their skin color, they say that Mexicans just come here to sell drugs or do criminal stuff, when all we want is a better life. Maybe they could understand better if they knew what it’s like to live in Mexico and not have a good economy. Maybe they would understand if they knew the stories behind all the people who immigrate and why they do.
When American people travel to our country, we don’t treat them like animals or some type of criminal, we are kind to them and don’t discriminate regardless of whether they look different from us. Some Americans commit crimes in Mexico, and we don’t send every white person to a camp. You cannot base an entire population off one person’s wrongdoings, and that is what is happening.
This is not making (things) any better for our country because we are not the ones causing trouble; we come here to work and we are increasing your economy. We pay taxes to the government, too.
Immigration is not only a fundamental part of the history of the United States, it is an inherent part of the social and economic fabric of the USA and is a key to the future of the country. The greatest deportation in history is going to have consequences for this country.
Andy Garcia
Sequim
