Certain Problems

I don't mind the lack of space in the hallways; I've never been late to class because I couldn't get through. I don't mind the bathrooms at school; I've never been in them. I don't mind the parking system; I don't drive yet and being an Academy student I'm put higher on the list for parking spaces next year. The biggest problem with Henry Clay that I have encountered (or will encounter) is the fact that next year I'll have to pay $700 per semester for the next level of math, and that's just because my dad works at UK and we get a 50% discount. It's ridiculous to think that because my fellow Calculus BC juniors and I excel at something that we have to pay almost $1500 (almost $3000 for my less fortunate classmates) to take the next level of it. We're all smart kids, so our lawmakers should have the sense to realize that most of us are not going to go college in Kentucky, and so our KEES money could be put to better use furthering our education while we are still in high school.

School-Parking

Ever since I started parking on the Hill out side of school I have wondered, Hey why can't I park down at the field house, I do play football. I think allowing football players to park at the field house, where there is plenty of space already would reduce problems around the school. I for one am tired of getting to school at 7 just for a parking spot. It is exhausting, and quite frankly it makes me mad. I get grumpy and Do not feel the need to do well that day. You mix this with sports and seminar in the morning, life just becomes hell. We have over 2000 students here at Henry Clay, and every day more people are gaining the right to drive, just causing more confusion than before and over all more problems. FIX THE PARKING

recesssss

Henry Clay's great and all, but it's definitely lacking in some areas.

One problem is this new change where teachers are supposed to turn on the TV during 4th hour to listen to the announcements. I'm almost positive that this does not happen in at least half the classes. It makes me feel extremely out of it because I don't know what's really going on at school, and there are no more daily reminders for me to turn in some application or something. I mean, it makes sense for announcements to be during 4th hour, it being the longest class hour of the day, but I think they should be done over the intercom because no one's really watching the announcements.

Another problem - when students interrupt class so they can celebrate Black History or Women awareness, or whatever. The idea is precious, and getting people more aware about history is good and all, but doing it in the middle of class is ridiculous. It disrupts our attention on the teacher and makes the teachers feel a little impatient. I liked it better when there were posters in the connector celebrating them instead.

Other problems include the smoking and the smell of it all. I swear I'm going to get lung cancer one day from secondhand smoking (I'm kidding, really).

There's the lack of trashcans in the bathrooms. Like, seriously? People throw everything in the sinks, and quite frankly, it's very troublesome for students who just want to wash their hands without the sink clogging up.

The lack of ROOM!!! Henry Clay needs big time renovations because this building can only hold so many.

I think the hallways need some benches or chairs because I quite dislike sitting on the dirty floor.

I also think there should be more light in the building, as in windows. Sometimes I feel like we're being educated in a jailhouse.

I want recess.

The last one was a joke. All in all, the things I have listed are only a few of the many problems at HC and we should start fixing them rather than buying flat-screen TVs!

School

I think that one of the biggest problems at henry clay is its size. There are over two thousand people here at henry clay attending school not including the teachers and staff and our school is just too small to hold this many people. This is mainly seen in the hallways between classes, because there are so many people its hard to just get around the school without being shoved into the lockers every two minutes. Also people clog up the hallways so much and they are so narrow that one cannot get to class in enough time. I also think that school should have breaks between two classes or so for student to socialize. The only time we have now is before school if you get to class early, lunch which lasts for thirty or so minutes or after school. The five minutes between class is barely enough time to drop by your locker and walk to your next class. I think that if students had this break, it would allow for them to focus more when class is in session and build friendships between people they would not usually talk to, allowing the school to be more of a community.

Yep.

It'd definitely be the superficiality. That's the only thing that I seriously hate about high school, people being so concerned with others' outlook on them that they let their image define their personality, rather than their personality define their image. Image promotes competition and ferocity. Image promotes selfishness and laziness. Image promotes self ruination. It is one of the most overlooked concepts of our school, yet one of the most detrimental ones as well.

I've known people to ditch friends in order to promote popularity. I've also known people to do stupid things in order to gain the approval of other students, and seeing these actions is always one of the most disgusting things I can watch.

I'm not saying that physical image is a bad thing (in fact, I like being able to look at attractive girls when I please). I myself worry about my physical image; it's what keeps me healthy. But people allowing physical image to control their personalities is a seriously awful thing. I've known people to allow friendships to end because they didn't want others getting in the way of their popularity. I've known people to do cruel things to others to seek approval of the masses. What's worse is that these traits in people that are revolting in their own manners translate directly to the real world in terms of politics, business, etc.

I've seen surgeons refuse to take on surgeries because they knew that the patient would die and didn't want it to hurt their statistical reputation, and the same with lawyers refusing to defend clients. I really think that's about all I need to say about that.

The Dress Code

One of the biggest problems I've always found with Henry Clay is the dress code and the way the administration reacts to it. It seems that people are always breaking the dress code and getting away with offenses that actually have a good reason for being just that, an offense, and that the less reasonable, but more obvious, dress code regulations are the ones that are enforced more. A good 50% of the girls who wear skirts definitely break the "mid-thigh" rule we have, but how many of them get called out on it? I hardly see it happen. What makes it worse, is that that rule is in place for an understandable, practical reason. The "no hat" rule, on the other hand, I honestly just don't understand. Maybe it has something to do with hiding drugs or weapons in the hats but if there's any reasonable suspicion, would that warrant a search of the hat? Maybe it has something to do with gangs, but wouldn't it be fairly easy to spot one if a large in-group of people were wearing hats with similar designs? The dress code certainly needs some re-evaluation. Either enforce all of the rules, or get rid of the rules that aren't enforced well enough already.

What do with our school?

In my time at Henry Clay I've noticed many things that need to be changed. Most significantly, the school is massively overcrowded, which makes traversing the hallways a much bigger ordeal than it ought to be, especially at intersections. There are two solutions solutions to this problem. The first option is to simply move some of the students to another high school (or to build a whole new high school to house some of the population), which would reduce the number of people and make the school less crowded. The other (and, in my opinion, more effective) option is to install stop signs at the intersections, which would moderate traffic control and provide an outlet to delinquent teens upon which they can express their thoughts (such as "STOP war" or "don't STOP believing" or any of the other worthless messages that one finds spray-painted on the numerous stop signs in the city). But shenanigans aside, the population problem is a serious matter which must be dealt with. It has reached the point that the school has to use portable classrooms to house all of the students, which is a clear indicator that there are far more students in the school than there should be.