A Chaotic New Year at NHS

Needham High School rang in 2023 with a series of three emails from our principal, Mr. Sicotte. Each email contained vague information about a string of crimes committed in and around the school. First, a racial slur written in Sharpie was discovered on some electrical equipment installed on Memorial Field, followed by anti-Semitic graffiti in a bathroom being found and finally, the most recent email received by the NHS population on Friday, January 13, notifying the community that a student brought a BB gun to school.  

While the school assures us that these crimes are unrelated, there is little-to-no other information being shared. The emails seem to commend various members of the community for reporting these misdemeanors and the Needham Police for assisting with the investigation, but no other concrete knowledge was  shared with the NHS student body. Of course, the specifics of the investigation cannot be shared due to privacy issues, which is understandable, however, the school doesn’t share with the student body what preventive next steps are being taken to ensure these offenses are not repeated and what punishments the students who committed the crimes are receiving. While perhaps this can all be classified as sensitive information, doesn’t the NHS student body have the right to know how we are going to be kept safe in our own school? Don’t we have the right to know that we are coming to a school that is actively preventing such misdemeanors from occurring?

The emails do read that “​If we do confirm the individual(s) who did this, they will face very clear and appropriate disciplinary actions” (January 11), but according to many individuals at the school, these statements are unsatisfactory and leave many students feeling uneasy not definitively knowing if there are repercussions and what those repercussions will be. In other words, some students are feeling unnerved that the students who have committed the crimes will not be dealt with in a way that ensures these crimes will not happen again. 

Furthemore, although the email from January 11 states that the school “will also continue to work closely with the School Council and with the Jewish Student Union to support the students most directly impacted and to explore appropriate steps in response to this incident,” no real, concrete steps are mentioned. This leaves minority students with the knowledge that some of their fellow students may hold such hateful beliefs towards them, and that those students are roaming the halls amongst said minority students. Fellow students have shared that this leaves them feeling vulnerable.

Needham High School is a school that is “ A caring community striving for personal growth and academic excellence.” These offenses do not reflect the true values and morals at NHS, and it is our hope that the students who committed these offenses will be reprimanded accordingly and that preventive measures will be taken in order to ensure that NHS remains the safe, caring and inclusive community that it is.