Cherry Hill High School East - Eidolon Yearbook (Cherry Hill, NJ)

Page 95 text:

Students at Cherry Hill East are fortunate in being able to benefit not only from the excellence of this institution and its faculty, but also from the diversity of its student body. The students acquire a second education, separate from that gained in the classroom. With over 2900 stu- dents, East contains a mixture of many of the iworld’s cultures. As students share individual ■cultural backgrounds with their friends, they gain insight into a world far different from their own. Quite often this enrichment stems from everyday occurrences. They taste new foods and learn phrases in different languages. Seemingly trivial facts such as different terminology or dai- ly customs present an exposure that may produce a greater impact than the most brilliant lecture or book on the same culture would produce. These tangible parts of a culture are really un- derstood and thus enlarge the student's world, opening his mind to new horizons. In the process of sharing cultures, the students create a bond that grows ever stronger. That is the nature of sharing. Sharing is more than ex- changing information. It is a revealing exper- ience with the respect and trust that only true friendship can claim. Both the friendships and cultures have enriched Cherry Hill East. The school is international and presents students with a rare glimpse of the diversity and richness of life.

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Once upon a time, and not a very long time ago, we lived in a world without THE WALKMAN. The Walkman Back then, it was a simple, nat- ural world. As we jogged along the park trails we heard the sourd of our feet hitting the gra 1. As we hurried through the halls of EAST we heard hoot s falling out of lockers, frier ds giggling, huhhle gum cracking. And sometimes, when we s.it in our classrooms, if everything was perfect, we even heard our teachers. But now our world is different. Our world is on tape. We pop it in. turn it on and create our own world. Ah. progress. There's nothing else like it'

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In The Course Of A Normal Day . . . . . . And Attention all teachers: Execute Proce- dure 19. Please make a visual search of the immediate area.” When this omi- nous message is broadcast over the loudspeaker system, teachers and stu- dents alike are startled. Pencils stop scribbling, chalk is held poised in mid- air. The test which seemed so crucial a moment ago has now vanished from the students’ minds. The only thought mixed among the students’ and teach- ers’ fright and anger is the idea that somewhere in Cherry Hill East there could be a bomb ready to explode! Procedure 19 is the procedure the ad- ministration has devised to handle bomb threats. Cherry Hill East’s bomb threats began in 1981 when a student placed a pipe bomb in a locker. Fortu- nately, the bomb did not explode but the community was extremely upset and school was forced to close for a day and a half. Since then several people, ignoring the true gravity of the situa- tion, have phoned in fake bomb threats to East. While they thoughtlessly laugh over their irresponsible and immature 92 Pran Cherry Hill East is temporarily paralyzed. When Procedure 19 is an- nounced, teachers make a visual search of the classroom, looking for a con- cealed explosive device. Then comes the frightening part — the waiting. The school is not evacuated because of the possible danger posed to passing stu- dents and teachers by the possible ex- plosion of a locker or any metallic ob- ject. Instead, everyone sits in the class- rooms and waits, praying that there is not a bomb hidden in the locker outside the classroom or in the trashcan down the hall. As the threat is discovered to be false and school slowly returns to life, there is much anger in East. The needless in- terruption caused in the learning pro- cess is reason enough to be angry; yet, when weighed against other reasons, it is not a very important one. Far more anger is generated as administrators, teachers, and students realize that somebody is toying with their lives. Bomb threats are not harmless pranks. They involve a potential loss of life; the possibility of death has been ushered into the school. Cherry Hill East is transformed from a world of friend- ships and intellectual growth to a nightmarish world in which the most harmless object gains the potential for injury. The innocence and trust com- mon in most teenagers is pushed aside, abandoning them to distrust and fear. It becomes a very scary and insecure world for everyone involved. Those people staging the pranks either fail to realize the emotional implica- tions of their actions or are indifferent to them. Their actions are, at worst, acts of bitterness and cruelty, at best, acts of immaturity. In either case, the bomb threats must stop. Students and teachers cannot afford the distractions. As professionals, they cannot spare the time consumed by the threats. As peo- ple, they should be spared the emotion- al upheaval of such an incident. Those people placing the threats must learn the value and blessings of life. For when they respect life and other people’s de- sire to lead a normal, stable life, the threats will stop — as they should -and Procedure 19 will cease to exist.