From the SAT, APs, PARCC, ACT, perhaps it’s time to consider if this barrage of academic acronyms is veiling a deeper issue.

Dulaney has little problem with academic opportunity. Walking down the hall students are exposed to a variety of language courses, internship programs, advanced courses and specialized art classes. Yet upon further inspection our school’s shield of aptness fades. Walls oozing mysterious liquids, recycling bins masquerading as regular trash bins and litter cluttering sidewalks surrounding campus. Most of these concerns go over administrators’ heads and consequently over the students’ as well.

How can we pride ourselves on forward thinking education with a backwards thinking school? It seems as if Dulaney just throws technology onto every problem that arises. Low SAT scores? Give them laptops. Brown water in schools? Water coolers with disposable paper cones that clutter up trash bins. Trash bins are now indistinguishable from recycling bins as students haphazardly fail to separate their waste accordingly.

The problem never seems to be addressed at its source but rather covered up with a temporary solution. Slapping on a Band-Aid onto issues that originate with either a lapse of educational teaching or crumbling building, is not going to prevent the problem from relapsing in another form. Our school needs to begin to recognize it isn’t taking the time to consider its environmental impact.

The relevancy of this issue is paralleled in the actions from the Trump administration, who sought to dismantle several laws supporting environmental protection. Trump signed an order at the Environmental Protection Agency to rewrite key Obama-era rules curbing U.S. carbon emissions, specifically the Clean Power Plan.

What this demonstrates is a clear choice to prioritize the economy and business over the environment no matter what the potential cost. This is echoed by the actions of our school where the last issue on the agenda is our environmental impact. Granted, a school’s mission should always be the furthering of education however a blatant disregard to sustainability shines through as an act of apathy. If we do not care about how our actions impact our local environment then we are sending a generation after generation of children forth with the impression that their actions don’t and will never have consequences.

If our school doesn’t put effort into assuring that we have a building that facilitates environmental conservation, then the students will carry these poor behaviors into their daily lives. In a time where the environment is at its most fragile, while our political administration seems the least concerned, it is beyond imperative that the rising generation sees environmental conservation as a priority rather than a second hand concern.

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