My Journey; Fighting for the Student Body

Here at Ralph C Mahar, things are done a certain way. Students follow certain schedules, lunch is planned ahead of time, teachers teach classes in a certain order, it all seems perfect… Right? I believe that much can still be done to improve this school to make life easier for students and teachers.

My name is Tommy Martin and I am a junior that goes to Ralph C Mahar regional school in Orange Massachusetts. I am not the most active student in my grade, but when I was given a chance to write an article about whatever I wanted for the school newspaper, I took my chance.

One of the biggest things that students always ask is “What’s for lunch?” At Mahar, we have multiple ways to find out what lunch during the school day which includes morning announcements online and even a whiteboard that informs students on what lunch is. Knowing this I ask you, If there are multiple ways to find out lunch is, then why do students always ask what is for lunch? Another question is “Is there any way to make getting information out about lunch to students easier?” That was my goal, I believed that I could find a way to get information about lunch out easier to students. Then I remembered that a couple of years ago the school used to say all the announcements out loud over the loudspeaker to inform students about everything that was going on before we said the pledge. That’s what gave me the idea to try and get the school to say lunch over the loudspeaker again before the pledge.

The first thing I did was email the High School Principal Scott Hemlin, asking if he would allow the lunch to be said out loud again. Hemlin was fine with the idea of saying the lunch over the loudspeaker again.

Then I went to speak at the most recent Student Council meeting to see if the head of the student body would want this change to happen. I sent out a survey to every Student Council member, and over 85% of the members who answered said they would rather have lunch said out loud again. The other 15% had no preference. 0% said no.

Taking these results, I then went to speak with the people who serve lunch and ask them a few questions. I asked most people questions about their opinions on this issue and they all agreed on the fact that saying lunch out loud would benefit the students. I talked to Doug Jillson who is one of the lunch staff. Doug told me that “The more information we can give to the students, the better.” He also told me that around 450 to 500 students get school lunch every day.

Having everyone’s support on my side, I went to speak with Marie Cole who is the Director of Curriculum at Mahar. Cole informed me about where the school wants to take technology in the future, eventually ending up at the decision that saying lunch should not be said out loud because it does not create change. What Cole means is that knowing what the lunch is at school won’t change what you will be eating.

My last meeting was with the Middle School Principal Eric Dion. Dion informed me of why the announcements being said out loud were taken away, and what students will do in college that we could help them prepare for right now. We also talked about how the decision to not say them out loud was not a one person decision and it was multiple efforts. In the end, we were able to agree on that saying the lunch over the loudspeaker before the pledge would not take away class time and would be quick enough where it would be ok.

With both Dion and Hemlin on the same page about having lunch said out loud, we agreed to say them the next morning before the pledge. Then on Wednesday, September 25th, They informed the students that lunch was pizza before the pledge was said. I did it, I accomplished what I set out to do… is what I thought. The next day, the lunch was not said out loud, apparently someone anonymous did not like it being said out loud and requested for it to stop. From then on, it doesn’t say the lunch out anymore. I was able to convince them to say what the date is and what color day it is, but not lunch.

This was my journey trying to fight for change for the student body, but you can do better. If you believe that something needs to be changed(within reason) then you can do it. I didn’t think that I could do this, but in the end, I made some changes. Yes, I didn’t get lunch said out loud, but I still tried my best and got some changes done for the school. “Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.” Gillian Anderson