Booker T Washington High School - Hornet Yearbook (Tulsa, OK)

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Hall traffic, respect, racial polorization, cutting cafeteria lines and attendance were only five of the top fifteen problems at our school in January. Following locked bathrooms and a few fights, tensions between blacks and whites were at the boiling point. So we held student-teacher workshops in first hour to encounter these problems head-on. Many of the sessions had good results, but, of course, we had some that didn't put too much into it. A nice surprise we did find, however was getting out of school two Fridays in a row at one o'clock so teachers could have workshops. One thing dampened our view of this happening though. One of the local TV stations called to inquire if we were dismissed early because of the racial riots we were having. But fights do occur everywhere. We couldn't imagine a school without its fights! Why, that's almost un-American! lt would be like a baseball game without hot-dogs, apple-pie without vanilla ice cream or even Los Angeles without smog. But don't get us wrongg we had some fun and games, too . . . 15

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Then, some possible answers were introduced to ease our minds concerning these things. We looked ahead at solutions to problems like asphalting the area between the girls gym and the cafeteria, lwhich is usually a mud-hole after it rainsl, paving the smoke hole, and fencing in the parking lot. Others were smaller ones, like painting the halls and Iunchroom, replacing the twenty-five year old master clock which malfuntions and throws off practically every clock in the school, touching up rooms defaced by installation of air conditioning and looking for a new PA system. These were all some things to look forward to and whether they were taken care of or not, identifying them and trying to solve them was the first step of getting things our way. 17