Courtyard Madness

The sun is shining, with the happy cheering of children running about! Friends everywhere are playing games together! However, all is not as it seems… Chaos has been running throughout the courtyard. It started off with dangerous behavior, snacks being smuggled, kids’ shoes being mugged, and offensive messages written on courtyard walls.

The “Courtyard Madness” started on the first day of school. Many students started telling each other about offensive words written on the courtyard walls. What are the courtyard walls? The courtyard walls are exactly what they sound like, but one of them represents peace, respect, and love for people of all kinds. When school started, several kids walked around the courtyard, but stood in shock as they noticed the words “f*** peace.” The news quickly spread, resulting in the first bit of the courtyard madness.

“I think that the offensive messages are bad for the environment (at school), and it's unfriendly and rude,” says 6th grade Student Council Advisor Noah Shacket (604).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

It’s almost winter, meaning the temperature has dropped to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius). But now, a crowd of kids are making attempts to get back down to the courtyard after leaving it. Students have a choice: Go to the courtyard, or go elsewhere. Many kids swarmed around the entry back indoors due to the cold weather, although they kept going indoors and outdoors which is against the rules. If a student chooses to go to the courtyard, they cannot go back inside until the bell rings. This new rule might be to teach kids that they can only pick one way, but they can’t keep going back and forth.

“To be honest, I think some kids should have a choice to go inside whenever they want,” says 6th grader Abou Ndiaye. “However, they can’t keep going back and forth! They should stick to one choice, but if they’re freezing, let them go upstairs, but don’t let them go back out.”

To finish it all off, people have been selling things like candy. Sometimes kids brought candy. Students quickly grabbed their money, and bought some candy. Once, during lunch, some friends wanted to sell things, so they asked their teacher if they could. The teachers restricted that from happening, but students are still selling things, and making about $5 per day. Fortunately, nobody does this anymore.

“I think kids should be allowed to sell candy,” says Cameron Glasgow (701), “but they should sell it outside of school, because it’s against the rules to use cash to buy things from students.”

Now you know that the courtyard is a place of happiness, but unfortunately, every place of positivity has negatives assigned to it as well. Annoying or restricted things can happen, like selling candy, getting stuck in the cold, and so much more, but it’s all a piece of what’s called Courtyard Chaos.