Is it really that hard to be quiet when a teacher is talking?  As all of us have found out one way or another, it apparently is.

    It is the best feeling when you are watching a movie only to miss the entire thing due to people around you talking through it.

    “During movies people should just be quiet,” senior Marina Velo said.  “Read a book, do your homework, or even just be on your phone if you have to, because we all know we do that.”

 It’s even better when you are in your hardest class and can’t understand what the teacher is saying because the student sitting next to you decided their instagram is the most important thing in the world.

    Our school environment would improve if students would actually pay attention in classes instead of ignoring everything and creating their own plans for the class.  Not only would people actually learn more, they might even enjoy their classes.

    James Andrews, the only American Sign Language teacher, commonly deals with disruptions in his classes.  Contending with an average of 43 students can be difficult, and he has already confiscated 26 phones.

    “We would learn so much more and there would be more time to develop the social interaction between teacher and student, instead of just academic,” Andrews said

    For some classes it’s been so bad that teachers have just given up on trying to get the class’ attention and silently go through the lesson plan, which in turn leads to some students not understanding what is going on or how a teacher is doing something.

    Precalculus teacher Dow Stewart has seen and dealt with it all.  He is generally okay with phone use so long as it’s for the right reasons, like checking math homework with the key, and doesn’t lead to noisy students.

    “People that I note are failing, I try to get off their cell phones,” Stewart said. “Especially when they are doing work.”

    Even I have noticed students that spend all class doing whatever only to ask loads of questions a few minutes later about material we already went over.  It would have been easier to just listen to the first time.

    Some days it can feel like everyone and the world is out to make school hard for you. Over 75% of students that were asked agreed that it’s a pain when others disrupt a class.  If so many of us agree, then why don’t we say something to the person that’s ruining class?

    Taking a stand is never as easy as it sounds.  Some people feel that they are in the wrong for asking someone to be quiet, or others just don’t care enough.  There’s no need to feel that way.  Odds are others around you will appreciate the person being quiet too.

    We as a student body need to form together on this issue of people disrupting classes.  By being courteous and asking people to be quiet in class we can rejoice in having one less thing to stress about during school.