Living Hell of High School
Jordana Willner
Originally published San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, April 28, 1999
TEENAGE TERRORISTS created a picture of hell at their Littleton, Colo., high school last Tuesday. But in their deranged minds, they were escaping one of the staple hells on earth: high school in America.
No explanation, justification or assignation of blame can account for the horror inflicted on Columbine High School and the nation. But while specialists of every ilk wonder why kids turn so violent, the question also emerges: Why is high school so hellish?
Cliques, cool kids, misfits, late bloomers. Public high school in America offers cruel and enduring social stratification. Kids know their rank and social placement like members of a military community. Those at the top rule with cruelty and disdain. Those at the bottom resent and withdraw with the apologist behavior of an inferior class.
High school, still the glory days of many adolescent sports heroes, social climbers and peppy overachievers, is for many others a four-year trek of basic survival. The long walk down the hall, the lone seat in the cafeteria, the exclusion from a more elite society is detrimental to self-esteem and to the opportunity we hope our kids have to belong.
The platitudes that kids will be kids, wait until you're older and life isn't fair do not appease young people who are consistently diminished by the contempt of cruel and judgmental peers. Likewise, the teachers who observe silently are no less guilty than the students and parents who passively allow high school society to segregate and deride.
Ten years ago, in a rich suburb north of Boston, the misfits in my high school were ridiculed, beaten and made unwelcome at every turn. After countless failed attempts to fit in, their only means of emotional survival was the formation of their own separate world. They latched onto various violent social movements -- from punk rock to skinheads -- in search of a larger, stronger community where they could escape the steady, degrading ostracism.
None of my outcast classmates turned their violent tendencies toward the school, but I would have hardly been surprised to see any one of them conceal a weapon and turn it upon the sources of their daily social torture. Their frustration in those days was palpable, and more disturbingly, they were so firmly entrenched in the misery of their teenage hell that they doubted the passing of time would change their lot as second- class citizens.
High school, most kids learn later, is not a microcosm of real life. Outside of lockers and lunch periods, a world exists with room for the unique contributions of all types of people. But when stuck in that noisy, intimidating four-year prison, many kids mistake this long detour for a more permanent inferno.
Adolescence is always tough. Most of us suffered through high school in one way or another, often using those unhappy memories as the motivation to excel later in life. But for those kids who lose their hope and now have a model for unprecedented revenge, we must acknowledge the ugly reality of teenage society and treat it far more tenderly than as a few tough years that kids must grin at and bear. High school heroes may tell stories of their glory days for decades to come, but someone should remind them that it's not nice to ridicule others, that throwing food and insults is unacceptable, and that everyone has their own version of hell.
Two teenage misfits escaped their hell by inflicting another kind last week, leaving the nation scarred and fearful. But as the numbers of violent American teens grow and we search for answers, perhaps, in addition to blaming the gun lobby, remiss parents and the violent entertainment industry, we should return to the scene of the crime. There, between football games and school plays, huddling on the fringe and looking for a way in -- or out -- we might find some of the answers we seek.
--Jordana Willner wrote a monthly "Next Generation" column for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999, 2000, and 2001
Originally published San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, April 28, 1999
TEENAGE TERRORISTS created a picture of hell at their Littleton, Colo., high school last Tuesday. But in their deranged minds, they were escaping one of the staple hells on earth: high school in America.
No explanation, justification or assignation of blame can account for the horror inflicted on Columbine High School and the nation. But while specialists of every ilk wonder why kids turn so violent, the question also emerges: Why is high school so hellish?
Cliques, cool kids, misfits, late bloomers. Public high school in America offers cruel and enduring social stratification. Kids know their rank and social placement like members of a military community. Those at the top rule with cruelty and disdain. Those at the bottom resent and withdraw with the apologist behavior of an inferior class.
High school, still the glory days of many adolescent sports heroes, social climbers and peppy overachievers, is for many others a four-year trek of basic survival. The long walk down the hall, the lone seat in the cafeteria, the exclusion from a more elite society is detrimental to self-esteem and to the opportunity we hope our kids have to belong.
The platitudes that kids will be kids, wait until you're older and life isn't fair do not appease young people who are consistently diminished by the contempt of cruel and judgmental peers. Likewise, the teachers who observe silently are no less guilty than the students and parents who passively allow high school society to segregate and deride.
Ten years ago, in a rich suburb north of Boston, the misfits in my high school were ridiculed, beaten and made unwelcome at every turn. After countless failed attempts to fit in, their only means of emotional survival was the formation of their own separate world. They latched onto various violent social movements -- from punk rock to skinheads -- in search of a larger, stronger community where they could escape the steady, degrading ostracism.
None of my outcast classmates turned their violent tendencies toward the school, but I would have hardly been surprised to see any one of them conceal a weapon and turn it upon the sources of their daily social torture. Their frustration in those days was palpable, and more disturbingly, they were so firmly entrenched in the misery of their teenage hell that they doubted the passing of time would change their lot as second- class citizens.
High school, most kids learn later, is not a microcosm of real life. Outside of lockers and lunch periods, a world exists with room for the unique contributions of all types of people. But when stuck in that noisy, intimidating four-year prison, many kids mistake this long detour for a more permanent inferno.
Adolescence is always tough. Most of us suffered through high school in one way or another, often using those unhappy memories as the motivation to excel later in life. But for those kids who lose their hope and now have a model for unprecedented revenge, we must acknowledge the ugly reality of teenage society and treat it far more tenderly than as a few tough years that kids must grin at and bear. High school heroes may tell stories of their glory days for decades to come, but someone should remind them that it's not nice to ridicule others, that throwing food and insults is unacceptable, and that everyone has their own version of hell.
Two teenage misfits escaped their hell by inflicting another kind last week, leaving the nation scarred and fearful. But as the numbers of violent American teens grow and we search for answers, perhaps, in addition to blaming the gun lobby, remiss parents and the violent entertainment industry, we should return to the scene of the crime. There, between football games and school plays, huddling on the fringe and looking for a way in -- or out -- we might find some of the answers we seek.
--Jordana Willner wrote a monthly "Next Generation" column for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999, 2000, and 2001
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