This year, the number of disciplinary incidents has increased over previous years according to Principal Gary Shafferman. With the constant integration of more and more technology each year, Shafferman says he has found an increase in communication between students. He says this has caused more drug related incidents, distractions in the classroom and distribution of inappropriate content than he has in the past.

“It’s not that it’s unusual for me to have problems, it’s unusual for me to have such a large number of problems,” Shafferman said.

Whether it’s a confirmation text for a bathroom drug exchange or simply an app that is just a bit more captivating than the lesson at hand, faculty all over the school seem to find technology at the root of their disciplinary issues. Because of this, national internet safety consultant Katie L. Greer will give a presentation in the MAC on Wed. April 13 for parents in the feeder system regarding student Internet activity.

“I will tell you one thing I’ve learned over the last month at least is that we’re not this special group that’s having these problems. It’s happening all over,” Shafferman said. “It’s happening on every campus in this school district.”

Shafferman says it’s important for those who don’t participate in these activities to be leaders for their peers. He wants students to call others out and encourage them to better the school.

“If you see it, we all have a responsibility to not so much narc on each other, but report it,” Shafferman said. “If it’s a concern to you and you don’t want this school to be that way, you should let us know.”

English teacher Stefanie Napolitan says she has had some of her students approach her, fed up with the behavior of their classmates. She said students should be speaking up and having these conversations with their teachers when they witness behavior they don’t agree with.

“I think they should stand up and be a leader,” Napolitan said. “I actually challenge my students that are [well behaved], ‘Hey, you have an opportunity here to make a difference. To show them that this is a proper way to behave, to call them out when they’re acting up.’”

Sophomore Claire Hanlon knows this behavior well and has witnessed it in some of her classes. She says she’s not so sure that the sophomore class is necessarily worse than any other class, but rather doesn’t make as much of an effort to avoid getting caught. In one of her classes, she says she witnessed a student that would “blatantly” disobey the teacher’s requests and display a lack of respect.

“I feel bad for teachers at that moment because it’s like, what are they supposed to do to make them realize that what they’re doing is wrong?” Hanlon said.

Hanlon, an athletic trainer, says this type of behavior is not uncommon in her grade, especially within sports. She says this disrespect is not reserved only for figures of authority, but also extends to other students who may not fit in.

“I do think a lot of people in my grade, I don’t know why, but it’s like they just don’t have respect for people anymore,” Hanlon said. “It’s kind of sad honestly.”

Another area of concern for both Hanlon and Shafferman is the distribution of nude photos. In addition to abrupt texts filled with peach emojis (a not so subtle request for nude photos), Hanlon says her peers will sometimes approach a recently single male student and ask for the ex-girlfriend’s nude pictures. To further avoid having to ask a female student for these photos, she says some students will collect various girls’ pictures and distribute them to others.

“You’ll be talking to a guy, and you’ll be thinking, ‘He just wants to get to know me,’” Hanlon said. “The next thing you know comes the peach emoji.”

Since the fall, rumors have circulated the campus about students in the sophomore class. A stereotype has developed that labels this group of students as disrespectful, apathetic and even obnoxious.

“It was just amazing,” business teacher Elaine Berry said. “I’ve been at Marcus since 1983 and of course we’ve had a couple of other classes that have been a little out of sorts, but this one, I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”

Berry said that while she has met many sophomore students who are respectful, she encountered several problems last semester. Among the issues she faced, she found she was frequently talked back to when correcting students, they would tease and make fun of their peers and generally didn’t seem to want to follow the rules of the classroom. Berry said she had around four students in the fall semester go to the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) school. Others were sent to ISS.
According to Napolitan, Berry’s experience last semester wasn’t unique.

“The kids in the spring have been much better,” Napolitan said. “It’s maybe [because] they’ve gotten a whole semester under their belt on the big campus so they seem more mature than the behavior I was seeing in the fall.”

In her classroom, Napolitan has seen immature behavior similar to Berry’s and much of the same disrespect. In her almost ten years of teaching, she says her experience suggests the issues facing the school could be the result of combined factors.

“One year you just have a really rough year, and it’s just a group of kids that I don’t know for whatever reason seem to be badly behaved,” Napolitan said. “Some of it too can be just growing pains, not knowing what to expect at the freshman center. We want to have a more open approach to education and maybe some of these kids just weren’t ready for that yet.”

In the eyes of faculty and students, the problems do not reflect a majority of the student body, or even a majority of tenth grade students. School Resource Officer Thomas Fitzpatrick’s spent the past two school years in M9. While this is only his second year at the school, he finds it unfair to judge the entire sophomore class on the actions of a few.

“There’s I think 850 students that moved from 9th to 10th last year,” Officer Fitzpatrick said. “I would say of those 850 there’s a very, very small percentage I could probably count on one or two hands that actually caused problems.”

Both Shafferman and Napolitan agree that this kind of inappropriate behavior in the classroom doesn’t go unnoticed in the outside world.

“I do think you have to stand up for what’s right,” Shafferman said. “It’s not that we’re telling you what to do, but you’re hurting the team by doing that. You’re hurting Marcus High School.”