Aspen High School’s administration has to deal with disciplinary actions each day, ranging from minor infractions to major suspensions or expulsions. The line between real problem solving and unnecessary action to combat student issues is frequently crossed by the administration. Regarding this issue, student voices are important to highlight and they should be given a space to share their ideas. This article is a place for that.

Easy problems, such as suspensions for drug use in school, will tend to move faster and be thoroughly attended to by administration. Yet, it seems that bigger issues, such as a cliquey and excluding culture at AHS, is either pushed to the side or requires action from students and parents when it comes to AHS addressing real issues.

Senior Elijah Goldman, a believed the AHS administration needed a push when it came to an incident regarding supporting LGBTQ students in a time of need.

“The school seemed unwilling to do anything [about the Firestarters for Jesus Podcast]. The administration was talking about how they can’t do anything under the law, but I continued to say they had the ability to say an announcement in support of the LGBTQ community and finally they listened,” said Goldman.

Continuing his point, Goldman spoke on how other schools deal with issues compared to AHS; “My uncle is a principal in New York in the Bronx where he actually has to deal with real problems, like assaults almost every week and kids bringing guns to school. So I’m flabbergasted by our administration’s lack of ability to do much of anything concerning any problems ever.”

Senior Nadia Debska remembers when the administration cracked down on one student but neglected to address a larger issue that also came with the incident she witnessed.

“I was in line for the cafe and someone cut the line, which I don’t think they should’ve done, so an administrator told them to get out of line, which I think was a perfectly reasonable response. This was until other students started jeering the student who cut, and the administrator didn’t do anything about it. This was frustrating to watch because the quick-fix issue of kicking someone out of line was addressed, but the larger issue of harassing another student was completely ignored,” Debska said.

Sophomore Clare Irvin has seen effective enforcement of school-wide initiatives to protect students but finds that they too are relatively easy problems to solve and enforce, while more complicated problems remain unaddressed.

“I know that the school has been pretty strict about wearing masks and trying to keep students and teachers healthy for the most part. I think enforcing this rule during COVID has been super important, but I do think it’s an easy issue to focus on. I think it would be harder for them to organize more complex regulations to combat the spread. It’s much less difficult and quicker to just make people wear masks,” Irvin said.