BY LOGAN BLEDSOE
This month’s student forum was held last Thursday January 9th. The meeting, primarily focused on the controversial topic of the implementation of the chromebooks at Benicia Highschool. According to recent polling conducted at BHS, most students like Chromebooks and want them to stay. The biggest problem is how teachers have implemented them into their lesson plans. Depending on the teacher, the usage of the Chromebooks varies widely. Some never use them at all, while others have switched their lesson plans entirely onto Google Classroom.
The polling continued in the meeting revealing, that while students like the Chromebooks, the forced implementation is not widely supported. In other words, the majority of students like Chromebooks just the way they are.
However, the school has made it clear that there is a 4-year long plan in place, to almost fully convert all lesson plans onto the Chromebooks, and/or Google Classroom.
The last major issue that was brought up was the issue of dangerous driving in the upper and lower student parking lots. Many students, across almost all grades have complained of students speeding, peeling out, doing burnouts, and driving down the wrong side of the road in order to cut traffic. There have been many complaints about parent drivers driving recklessly, but the forum mainly focused on the problems in the student parking lot associated with student drivers. The administration wants all student drivers to keep in mind that the speed limit in both student parking lots is 10 MPH. Many students brought up stories, of coming within inches of being hit by speeding student drivers, because of the low visibility of pedestrians walking in between the parked cars.
As a solution, more stop signs and speed bumps were popular ideas. Benicia Police Department, has also been informed and talks of a checkpoint-like speed trap in the parking lot have been planned.
Vice Principal Sean Thompson urges all students to report other student drivers who are speeding or driving recklessly. All that is needed is the license plate and/or description and model of the car. This is where as a student, you can actively make your campus safer, by anonymously reporting dangerous student drivers to the school.
If you are someone who likes to press the gas a little too much in the parking lot, or enjoy showing off in front of friends, I beg you, please at least wait until you are off campus where there are less pedestrians and potential for collisions. Many names, and license plate numbers have already been reported to administration. More are surely to follow. Benicia Police will start to take action if the problem continues.
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