Cameron Kritikos’ comments against me were inaccurate, hurtful and unwarranted (“Don’t let stunt speeches sink the impact of SA”), and I feel I must respond to his allegations concerning my speech for secretary of the Student Association Executive Board.

There were several misstatements. Kritikos gave people the false impression that my speech would sink S.A.—an institution I hold in high esteem, and , really, how could good old fashioned school
spirit and can-do attitude ruin this organization? He was inaccurate when he said “probably like most
of you, I left there a little confused.” Maybe he was confused, but I witnessed a very energized, spirited
student body and had a lot of people I didn’t even know come up to me to say they liked my speech
—clearly, most of the people in attendance were NOT confused. He mischaracterized my speech as
a mere “stunt” and called it a “mockery.” He insinuated that my well-thought out speech (which was
reviewed and approved by the S.A. moderator) was nothing more than an American Idol show entry.
Furthermore, and continuing this American Idol image, he wrongly stated that I sang the Titanic theme song when in fact I sang about my love for RB to the tune of the song—that’s a huge difference and depicts a different reality than what actually occurred.

I felt hurt by these misstatements and mischaracterizations of me and my speech, and I fear that my image and reputation were also hurt. Halfway through Kritikos’ piece he says “I am not angry at Kristin Tomecek, I am angry at the student body.” If this were really the essence of his piece, then
why does the headline and the first half of the article directly name me (several times) and describe my specific speech with disparaging remarks? With the inflammatory words and phrases against me, I feel the article violates RB’s pillars of caring, fairness and respect. As we all know, sometimes words can hurt.

Kritikos insinuated that I was pulling a “stunt” and “theatrics” to gain votes. I hold Student
Association and the executive board in the highest regard and I am offended and incredulous that
Kritikos questioned my sincerity as a candidate. I have tried my hardest to channel all of the spirit and
dedication I can muster into S.A. during my two years as freshman vice president and class officer. I
have spent much of my time working hard selling RB bracelets and pompoms in the rain at football
games, waking up early on Saturday mornings to sell RB t-shirts, overseeing bake sales, attending early morning meetings twice a week, painting murals, attending RB evening board meetings, helping with the Adopt-a-Family program, and fulfilling countless other responsibilities.

I am appalled that my attempt to revitalize and invigorate the student body was misconstrued
as “mockery.” He failed to grasp the point of my speech with its closing conclusion. My intention was
to “show” not “tell” my ability to “think outside of the box” and take risks as well as the qualities of
creativity, enthusiasm, and school spirit—the traits I feel that are needed to handle the responsibilities of being successful on the exec board.

Kritikos indicated that I was irrelevantly “breaking into song” to create some sort of distraction.
My main aim that he seemed to miss, but many others present that day obviously grasped, was that I
care about RB. I made a promise to be a dedicated Secretary, and I would NEVER LET GO of that promise, much like Rose from The Titanic.

Every day at school I work hard and I listen
Still my love for RB will go on…
I promise to fulfill my responsibilities
And be an awesome secretary
Oh my love for RB will go on
Blue, white
With all of my might
I believe in RB
And my love will go on and on…

Sincerely,
Kristin Tomecek

SPONSOR’S NOTE:  Clarion would like to correct Cameron Kritikos’ original statement in his column that Kristin Tomecek sang the lyrics to “My Heart Will Go On” during her SA speech.  While using the melody of the song, Kristin sang her own original lyrics, as printed above.

Like all of you, I was in attendance at the S.A. Officer speeches last Monday, and probably like most of you, I left there a little confused as to what was going on. Sophomore Kristin Tomecek, who ran for secretary, gave her speech in a rather unorthodox fashion. She began by stating emphatically that she was excited to be running for office and looking to make serious change in the school. She even threw in some pop culture references that seemed to get the attention of the audience.

Then she broke into song.

She began to hum the theme song to Titanic. At this point I began to feel uncomfortable with what was going on, but it didn’t stop there. Tomacek took it one step further by singing the lyrics to the song.

At this point, I began to feel angry.  Angry at what, though?  Was it because the speech had been turned into a mockery?  Was it because it seemed as if the student body had become judges for American Idol?

I took a few days to think about it, and I think I have come to the root of the problem.  I am not angry at Kristin Tomecek, the other candidates, the teachers, or Student Association.

I am angry at us, the student body.

It is the role of Student Association to represent the opinions of the student body and do everything in their power to make the high school experience a more enjoyable one through their numerous fundraisers and the planning of prom. Why is it, then, that the beneficiaries of their great work do not care about who is in office? We see this assembly as a thirty minute break from class rather than as about being informed students and becoming a part of student government. It is our responsibility as students to look out for the best interests of the school, not only for ourselves but for future classes that will be affected by our decisions.

It is the job of the candidate to gain the attention necessary to attract votes and appeal to the different groups to whom he or she is speaking. In this case, because we as students are more interested in what stunt a candidate can pull while speaking rather than their position on a topic, these candidates must feel obligated to do these things.

Tomecek  isn’t the only one to have done this. RB has had several class officer speeches over the past few years that included these theatrics. The problem, then, obviously does not lie with one particular person or one group of people. The issue has to do with our society and the culture we have at school.

Voting for class officers is really something that should be encouraged more at RB. Voting takes place during lunch, and the voter turn out from what I saw, was minimal. It’s disappointing to know that a large majority of our school couldn’t care less about who is in office. Student government is something that should be taken more seriously within the confines of RB.

SPONSOR’S NOTE:  Clarion would like to correct Cameron Kritikos’ original statement in his column that Kristin Tomecek sang the lyrics to “My Heart Will Go On” during her SA speech.  While using the melody of the song, Kristin sang her own original lyrics.  Her lyrics are re-printed in her letter to the editor, linked at the top of this article.

In the past, one of the things I admired most about RB was the fact that it was so easy to get involved. The fact that there were no fees for clubs and sports made it a great opportunity to try new things. Extracurriculars and athletics have always been such a focal point at RB, and charging hundreds of dollars to participate really takes away from the character and mission of the school. I think this increase in pay to participate fees will take away many opportunities for students, especially incoming freshmen and those who are just starting to learn a sport.

As it stands this year, students on the free or reduced lunch program will get fees waived for participation in athletics.  However, what this plan doesn’t take into account is that, even though a family might not be receiving aid from the school through free or reduced lunches, they still might be facing financial trouble. I feel that these new fees with not only sports, but also certain clubs, will put unnecessary pressure on students and discourage participation in extracurricular activities.

Moreover, this plan cuts the athletic supply budget by 30%, meaning we will be paying more money for sports with equipment of lesser quality. I think that because of this, the predicted amount of revenue the school plans to gain from this is overestimated, as many students will probably forgo participation in athletics, or will simply not be able to afford it.

A good question is also posed when considering whether or not the school board made the right decision in saving the four sports originally thought to be cut.  Of course, we can be glad that students in the four sports on the cut list will still have the opportunity to participate in RB athletic programs, but this does come at a high cost to the entire student body. Many students feel that it is unfair to make every athlete share the cost of these four sports, and it’s easy to see why they feel this way. In many senses, I agree with them. However, I know we would all feel differently if it was a sport we participated on that faced being eliminated.

In addition, this new plan still leaves the current budget with over $400,000 in deficit. RB needs to do more to solve its budget problems, but imposing more fees on students is not the best way to do this. We need something more sustainable that will work to solve problems in the long run, and though this will be difficult to find, it must be accomplished if we want to have equal opportunities for all students, despite their economic backgrounds.

Later that day, someone slapped a sticker on my chest and I also stayed quiet. But no one that day actually told me why there was a Day of Silence, why it mattered.  I didn’t know any of it, but I took part in it, and I thought it was a great idea. This year there have been morning announcements talking about the Day of Silence which I think has taught a lot of people about it.

The tradition of the Day of Silence started in 1993.  Two students that had been homosexual dropped out of school.  They had been bullied in school about their sexual preference, and in turn they filed a lawsuit against RB.  While RB ended up settling out of court with the students, part of the settlement had to do with teachers having to be taught how to identify bullying and how to deal with it.

A few years later the club GSA was started.  Many RB students know about GSA or Gay-Straight Alliance which is a club that supports L.G.B.T. (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans-gender) students.  When the club started, they also started to participate in the Day of Silence, a nationally recognized dedicated to stopping bullying towards L.G.B.T. students.  With rare interruption, they have been doing it ever since.

The Day of Silence is also to emphasize the day to bring attention to the many students who are bullied but the bullying often goes unreported. You can hear terms in the hallways around RB all the time.  Two friends might be messing around and one calls the other gay. It happens every day, but if there is a kid that isn’t open about their sexuality and they hear that, they can become offended.  The person saying it might not be aware that they are hurting someone when they really are.

I strongly believe that the Day of Silence is a great idea. I get that some people don’t like it, that’s it’s not part of their beliefs, but I think that for one day they can put their beliefs aside and focus on the bullying that goes on towards students in general. That one day, no matter what people think about it, can make a difference.

The Day of Silence is a great way to spread awareness about bullying that goes on towards L.G.B.T students and a lot of people do take part of it and I encourage that.

And for anyone who really enjoys the Day of Silence and wants to help more, you could always join GSA, or talk to anyone who is gay, or lesbian, or bi-sexual, or trans-gender and get to know them a little more, be friendly and accepting to help make a better school.

I believe that students need to understand their bodies and healthful behaviors.

Nevertheless, taking students out of their normal PE classes so they can sit in a classroom for another period is hardly something I’d call healthy. And yet that’s what happens for almost every student in the building for a whole semester in Health class.

We can do better.

Along with classes such as Fine Arts Survey and Economics, RB students are required to take one semester of Health. Most students take this during their sophomore year in place of a semester of PE. The purpose of Health is to teach students about how their body works and how to take care of themselves.

However, in my opinion, the design of Health class is somewhat hypocritical.

One of the first things you learn in Health is that teenagers should be doing physical activity every day, preferably 60 minutes of it. Activity promotes healthy body weight, the immune system, muscles, bones, and just about everything else. And yet we’ve been taken out of PE for a whole semester to take notes on how we shouldn’t be sitting around taking notes. In addition, we never get to go outside during Health, while we sometimes would for PE. On top of all that, Health is another class that assigns homework, albeit not a huge amount, that still forces students to spend more time after school being sedentary.

I feel like a solution would be to merge Health and PE and make a year-long class for sophomores. Students have to take a year total of Health and PE and combining them would have many benefits.

For example, units in gym could correspond to units of health. For example, students could visit the weight room the week after taking notes on muscle groups, or have a day of yoga during the mental health unit. The combined class would give each aspect more relevance. In addition, alternating the type of class would reduce stress on students who have trouble with either PE or Health.

What then are the reasons behind how Health class is set up now?

One of the reasons is scheduling. The State of Illinois mandates students to take seven semesters of PE and one semester of Health during their high school career, and a combined class might cause problems with the standards.  In addition, there are scheduling conflicts within the school. In a year, there are twelve sections of Health in addition to normal PE classes not enough gym space for all of those classes.

In addition, since Health classes contain a variety of students with different learning abilities and motivations, Health teachers believe that it is best practice to teach the information in condensed chunks, so students have a better chance of remembering the information. With this strategy, taking a day off for even a related activity would make it harder for students to retain information.

The situation has changed since last year, also, because students no longer have the option to use the Wellness Center and weight room outside of school hours due to financial cutbacks.

Despite the practical difficulties of putting together a combined Heath class, I still believe that such a class would be better for the students. I think that adding physical activity from the class, far from distracting students, would make the lessons more meaningful in regards to their own lives, which should be the entire point of the class. The well- being of the students, which is the core goal of the class in the first place, should not be shortchanged just so they can be fed information quickly enough that so they won’t forget it before the test. For the good of the students, the school should try to find a way to make health class even healthier.

The community members were fully aware of what they were voting no to. The school board and administration had posted online a proposed list of cuts that would take place over three years. In theory, the public would have the ability to vote every year to a referendum. Unfortunately, the current board has completely changed everything about the promised situation.

I understand that the new board brings new ideas and different changes, but I can’t grasp the idea that the community has no say in the future of the school from now on. The board is faced with the difficult task of balancing the budget, but the way they are approaching it does not seem to be fiscally responsible.

The board is cutting aspects of RB that make it such a great unique school that we students are proud to be a part of. As senior who recently applied for colleges, I have a firsthand experience of seeing how participating in a wide variety of clubs set me apart from the crowd. This board is now trying to cut clubs and sports in order to save money.

Yes, these cuts will obviously save money, but what do they propose to do after everything is cut? Once a club is cut, it is extremely hard to start it up again. What are the students supposed to do? When Student Association, the student representatives of the school, tried to share the feelings of the student body with the board, we were literally ignored by a board member who was reading a book.

“Isn’t the board supposed to be looking out for our education and our best interests?”

My main concern is not letting RB lose the reputation we have worked so hard to maintain. We are outstanding when it comes to academics because of the amazing staff. We never used to be the school that didn’t let kids play sports, and there is always a club for kids to join. RB made a niche for everyone. Losing that aspect of the school would be devastating.

All I want is the board to give another chance for the community to think about how their decisions are affecting the students. Yes, it is very tough, but we elected them because they tried convincing us they were capable of positive change.

Now, I want them to prove it.

Let’s face it.  For the most part, high school students aren’t very concerned about politics. In many cases, even those who are 18 don’t take much of an interest.  I know politics may not seem very important to us now, but we are the ones who will have to live with the actions of those elected for the rest of our lives.

“How could [students] not care about their futures? Democracy only works with an informed and involved citizenry,” said Jan Goldberg, a social studies teacher at RB who is very well known for her interest in politics.

Of course, this isn’t to say today’s young people are completely lost when it comes to politics. Many students and members of the community take place in the political process and vote. In addition, others at RB work as election judges or help register other students to vote.

RB usually does a fair job of fostering an interest in politics and government. This is mainly done through social studies classes such as US Government and Politics or US History, which all RB students are required to take. In my experience, I have never felt that we could not have class discussions over current political issues just because they were controversial.

Yet the problem of voter apathy among youth still remains, and RB could definitely do more to combat this. “It is great that we have so many involved students. But to get to the masses, we need more speakers, more assemblies, more clubs devoted to political discussion. Kids need a place to speak their mind without worrying about a grade or what a teacher thinks,” said Goldberg.

Due to budget cuts, Forum Club, RB’s club devoted to discussing politics and other current events, is no longer running this year. I feel that this was especially inopportune timing, since this is an election year and being involved and informed is more important than ever. It is vital that RB makes combating voter apathy a priority.

Not only does it harm our country when young people choose not to be involved in politics, but we must also remember that it wasn’t so long ago that young adults could not vote. It wasn’t until 1972 when eighteen year olds gained the right to vote, after years of fighting and campaigning. And before youths, women and African Americans fought vigorously to earn the right to vote. It seems to me that it’s unfair to take their sacrifices lightly by not voting.

With a presidential election on the horizon in November and our country facing pressing economic and social problems, it is vital that we, both individually and as a school, become more involved in politics. Even if one cannot vote, simply staying well informed is a step in the right direction.

“Most of the tragedies in history came about with a population that was not paying attention,” said Goldberg.

I’d like to begin by saying that I have no problem with Young Life, and I do not believe the club is at fault for anything stated in this story. I just find it interesting that a religious club is allowed to be so promoted within a public school, and I felt the issue should be explored.

When I first started this story, my feelings towards Young Life were not exactly positive. I felt confused that a group that is widely advertised as a Christian and accepting group could have views that were so discriminatory. Along with that confusion, I felt as though such a group doesn’t exactly have a place in a public school. After much research and many interviews, I found that, while my opinions haven’t really changed, Young Life is, in fact protected by law that allows it to operate in public schools.

According to the Equal Access Act of 1984, religious student organizations must receive equal treatment and use of facilities as any other student organization. This act protects any student driven religious group, so long as non-student leaders of the group do not attend or direct meetings held on school property.

Regardless of the law, my biggest problem with Young Life is that in their mission statement states: “We do not in any way wish to exclude persons who… practice a homosexual lifestyle from being recipients of God’s grace and mercy… We do, however, believe that such persons are not to serve as staff or volunteers in the mission and work of Young Life.”

As a non-RB activity operating outside of a public school setting, that is their way of life and opinion to not want homosexuals to serve as staff.  At the same time, it feels like they should be separated from a public school.

However, in discussion with Assistant Principal John Passarella, he said, “You have to be careful when denying a group their civil rights.”

So, as it turns out, even though there is some level of discrimination within Young Life, it’s still a club that is granted equal access to all of RB’s facilities, given that the space isn’t already in use for a club that is directly related to RB.

Even though the Equal Access Law states that they should have equal representation, I just don’t think it’s right.

RB is supposed to be a school of acceptance. Groups funded by the school include the Association of Students for Tolerance and the Gay Straight Alliance, which are clearly groups that aim to treat everyone equally regardless of differences. Young Life is clearly not a club that supports those same values, at least if you read their mission statement. I’m not saying that Young Life shouldn’t exist or shouldn’t be able to use the school’s facilities (provided they pay for it), but I’m saying it shouldn’t be promoted as much as it is. I understand the good points of the club: the students involved love it, they have a place to go to have fun with their friends, they do service projects, and they also have the Christian aspect of it, if that is the religion they wish to practice.  

But the fact that this club’s statement is based on discrimination proves to me that there is really no place for it in a public school. I feel as though the Equal Access Act should only go so far. If it was up to me, I’d change the act. And I wouldn’t just change it to exclude Young Life. I don’t think that if a Jewish group wanted to make multiple announcements per week that should be allowed either. This act also would protect a Neo-Nazi group assembling and conducting meetings at RB. I just think if church and state are to be separate, they should really be separate.

Again, my point is not to condemn Young Life. I think it’s great for the people involved. And even though there are laws and acts that protect the rights of a religious club, it seems as though Young Life is growing so fast and taking over life at RB. I feel like the club may be going down a path that will become so prominent within public schools that something may have to be done in the future.

For example, students have only taken half of their classes for the school year. Imagine a student who is signed up for a semester-long elective, such as photography, that he will take second semester. If he has to register for classes before winter break, how will he know what to sign up for? He might end up loving photography, or hating it. If he is forced to make a choice that would be difficult to change, how will he know what to sign up for?

In addition, year-long classes will only be half complete, and as a result, the teachers may not know each student well enough to recommend them for appropriate classes. In addition, a student’s success in a class could change throughout the year either positively or negatively. With early registration, it is more likely that a student will end up being placed in the wrong class.

Early registration this year made me feel rushed because I felt like I had only just gotten used to my schedule and next year seemed terribly far away.  Also, it would be worse for freshmen and students recently transferred to RB because they wouldn’t really know what the school has to offer.

I can understand how early registration can be good for the administration in the school, because they will know earlier which classes will run. And I can see how a teacher of an elective would like to know as early as possible if their class has enough people enrolled. However, I think that the pressure and confusion on the part of the students is a lot to sacrifice for that. In addition, students who are unsure about their decision will be more likely to change their classes later, so the numbers may change even after registration is complete. Giving students more time to think about their choices will likely make those choices less likely to fluctuate.

Obviously, there’s nothing that can be done for this year, since a good chunk of the student body has already been registered. However, I would hope that next year the administration decides to hold class registration a little later; at least after winter break.