Officials showing preference

I am currently a sophomore at Mariner High School and I am writing in regard to the different treatment between Mariner and Kamiak high schools. I recently read The Herald Sept. 23 article, “Fall of discontent: Mariner High students, teachers protest cuts in staff,” about the layoff of 1.6 teachers at Mariner. The school board doesn’t see how much this affects not only the teachers at my school, but also us students. We are already packed into classes with a teacher-student ratio of 33 to 1.

This is ridiculous. When they have to get rid of teachers, that means they also get rid of classes.

There are socioeconomic differences between Mariner and Kamiak. The school district says it gives Mariner students all of the same opportunities as Kamiak students, but this is just not so. The school district plans to cut the German program because Kamiak doesn’t have German but the thing is, to make up for that, they have Russian. Also, many of Mariner’s advanced placement classes are going to be cut. Some of the classes will include AP Biology and possibly the Honors/AP English classes. I never hear anything about Kamiak’s AP programs being cut.

Recently, we had the “big game” against Kamiak. One thing that made everyone at Mariner very mad is that at our own game at Goddard Stadium Mariner fans were forced to sit on the visitor side. The Kamiak fans were given priority at our own school!

Why are Kamiak students getting better treatment than Mariner students? How come Mariner programs are in jeopardy of being cut, but Kamiak programs are growing? But most of all, why are Mariner students being denied the same resources and opportunities as Kamiak students? This is not only unethical but wrong, and I hope that something is done about it. Mariner is in desperate need. The question is: Who is going to help?

Mariner High School