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As a Syracuse City School District senior, I’m concerned that I won’t be walking the stage with the peers I began my high school journey with because they have dropped out. According to CNY Vitals, in 2020, SCSD had a dropout rate of 11%, over double the national dropout rate. There are three critical issues that are causing this barrier to success: poor attendance, lack of guidance for students from school counselors and lack of safety for students attending school.

First, poor attendance is a key factor for dropouts among high school students. Many SCSD students are living in poverty conditions which forces them to work to support their families. Unfortunately, their priority isn’t their education but making sure they have food on the table. Repeated absences are hard to make up.

Even while sitting in the classroom, students who aren’t native English speakers are missing out on understanding information. English is the primary instructional language in school, making it hard for non-English speakers to keep up with the teacher. Unfortunately, only 46% of English Language Learners graduate.

The pandemic made learning more challenging for students. Online learning was an arduous task to navigate; many students faced a challenging time figuring out how to use tools like Clever, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. COVID-19 affected students’ mental health as trying to learn by themselves made students feel isolated. Post lockdown, it was also a struggle to shift from learning virtually to learning in person again.

Morgan Sample | Presentation Director

I have personally developed social anxiety during the pandemic and going back in person after two years of virtual was hard to adapt to. I lost my necessary communication skills and was unable to learn properly with other students around me. Students were pushed back into academics and SCSD has not done anything to properly transition students from the pandemic times.

“We don’t even know how to be in high school because of the lack of experience; as many of us spent high school staring at a screen — you kind of forget how to learn normally,” said Gabrielle Phillips, a SCSD senior.

Secondly, I believe that the lack of communication between students and their counselors is another important factor because many students struggle to maintain structure and balance. Counselors should meet with students to make sure they are on track for graduating prior to their senior year. It should be mandatory to meet with your counselor at least once a year throughout high school to discuss progress and plans to graduate and ensure students are on the right path towards graduation or their future plans.

The lack of safety is also a factor in why students are dropping out. Last year, there was a stabbing at Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler. I remember being in my Advanced Placement English class during the incident and being terrified, along with many other students. It’s a traumatic event to live through as a highschool student. Knowing that a knife could easily enter school property was an uncomfortable thought and I couldn’t stop thinking about much worse scenarios. I truly feared for my life and didn’t want to go to school for a few days to process what had happened. The lives of those involved in the stabbing were forever damaged, and since that day, they haven’t returned to school. It pains me how traumatizing our high school experience has been.

It’s time that SCSD recognizes these issues and work towards solving them rather than implementing more suppressing rules that are pushing the students away. SCSD needs to listen to our needs and work towards building a better relationship with the students. We deserve to be heard. High school should be a fun experience where we grow into young adults, not feel like prisoners. The most impactful solution is to listen to students’ voices.

Alaa Laila, Syracuse City School student

Published on November 7, 2022 at 1:38 am