By Khalida Sarwari
For a few moments on a recent Friday morning, Saratoga High School achieved something rare at an academic setting: the school transformed into a completely judgment-free zone. The school accomplished this by giving each student a glow stick and turning off the lights inside the gymnasium.
The students were gathered in the gym for an all-school assembly on Jan. 24 that concluded “Speak Up for Change” week at Saratoga High. Throughout the week, students had participated in various classroom activities that tackled topics such as the importance of sleep, and academic and peer pressure.
Sponsored by the leadership class, the goal of the week was to broaden awareness and provide practical techniques to students around areas that affect their lives, said Jennie Werner, one of three seniors who led the weeklong effort. Those areas could be anything from stress and stereotyping to making the most of bad situations, she said.
“Saratoga is a strong community that despite its socio-economic advantages often finds students struggling to find their place in the world,” Jennie said. “We want to embolden students to speak up for themselves, for others and for positive change.”
And so that’s what they did. At the assembly, teachers and students took to the stage to share their experiences at Saratoga High and about overcoming their personal obstacles. Attendance secretary Mandy Armes, for example, talked about a learning disability she’d had as a student and the importance of having a support system. Armes and music teachers Jonathan Pwu and Jon Jow also discussed their reasons for returning to Saratoga High to pursue a career in education.
Afterwards, a select number of lucky students had their wishes granted. The students had been given wish request forms earlier in the year and some of those wishes were granted in person while others were granted privately and recorded. The wishes ranged from the easy-to-fulfill to the not-so-easy. Senior Andy Chen was called down to the stage and told he’d be getting a free yearbook in the spring with two pages dedicated to him.
The last wish was reserved for sophomore Amanda Meserve. She ran onto the stage and announced her wish: “For my dad to come home from Afghanistan.” The crowd drew their breaths, as if in anticipation of possibly witnessing a miracle. While fulfilling that wish was beyond their abilities, the leadership class leaders did give Amanda the next best thing: a video from her father that they played for Amanda at the assembly. In the video, her father, Jeff, wished her luck on an upcoming trip to Haiti and reminded her to stay positive. “Amanda, you’re very special to me and I love you very much,” he said.
Andy and Amanda and everybody else were granted a wish from their teachers as well: no homework for the weekend. Instead, the students were asked to unplug, spend time with family and friends and take care of themselves.
At the end of the assembly, the gym went dark as organizers asked students to wave their glow sticks in the air if they had ever found themselves relating to any one of these challenges: “felt so stressed, you couldn’t think straight;” “been worried your parents would get a divorce;” “been bullied;” “gossiped about others;” “have problems at home others don’t know about.”
In the safety of the dark, just about every glow stick could be seen waving wildly in the air.
