"F A-It's an acronym." A student was recently overheard infonning Mr .Caffee of this obvious fact at a Student Council meeting. Ms. Derrick informed all of our parents of the alleged meaning of this acronym. F A may have once been a spoken, nonviolent form of protest against an oblivious ResLife staff. Now, it is simply an overused, immature, and destructive acronym.

I had a friend at a camp who said that people swear instead of creatively expressing their feelings about something. FA is a lazy method of protest, especially considering the large amount of creative potential the students here have. Think about it, is FA accomplishing anything other than giving " Admin" a reason to think of the student body as immature and irresponsible? We are creative people. Creative people should be able to come up with something better than FA to protest indiscretions such as the dress code. Creative protesting attracts the attention of everyone, including those who decide on the rules. If the " Admin" saw that we were constructively protesting the dress code, rather than cursing their name, they would be much more likely to listen to our complaints. This is analogous to a small child whining to his/her mother about some new toy that he/ she wants. The mother will disregard the whining because it is childish. If, on the other hand, the child submits to his/her mother a formal proposal with reasons for wanting the toy, the mother would be more likely to reward the maturity of the child with the toy. Submitting a formal proposal is not the epitome of epitome of creativity, but it is a breath of fresh air in the musty FA atmosphere. the only form of creative protest that I have personally observed was by a student who wore the most outlandish outfit he could find. This outfit was just within the dress code regulation. People, including teachers, questioned him about his outfit, giving him an opportunity to explain his cause. I challenge all of you to do something equally creative that will draw attention, not offend.

Finally, I would like to address the defacing of school property with FA. Once again I ask you to consider what this accomplishes. It does nothing to further our cause. As I said before, it just makes the " Admin" think of us as spoiled, immature brats who are incapable of expressing concerns in an adult-like manner. It also wastes money and YOUR energy. Money is wasted because FA scrawled across walls must be painted over. The painter, paint, and paintbrushes have to be paid for. Your energy is wasted if you have to scrub FA off of the walls for work detail. Wouldn' t you rather wash windows than scrub FA's?

In closing, a quote (or at least a paraphrase) to consider from one of our Seniors, Shige Kobeyashi. He said this when there was similar dissension within the student body, "Color in the lines, but think outside the box."

The author would also like to note that Admin technically consists of the Vice Presidents (Mr. Caffee, Dr. Bill, and Mr. Boyd) and the President (Mr. Lynn). The author seriously doubts that anyone has any problem with Mr. Lynn or Mr. Boyd since they don't actually make the rules here. The author would like to request that students be more prudent and specific when cursing, the names of authority figures, especially relatively innocent ones, but would also like to request that the cursing of authority figures be as limited as much as possible (see, above article).