Poll: On senior seniority (High School)

[Happiness Assassin]

My school wasn't really divided along age lines, but more along lines of perceived wealth. Historically, our school was generally where all the rich kids went, though due to changing districts, there was a sudden influx of those who were poor. This led to a clear line between those who were rich and those who were poor. And it made me sick.

Still better than my previous school where it was divided along ethnic lines and certain colored shirts weren't allowed.

 

[Arakasi]

Here in Australia, I've never seen any hint of this, so I assumed that it was primarily just either an American thing or a movie thing.
Interesting to see that it is real though.

 

[Eleuthera]

I can only reply from my own point of view as a Dutchman and therefore only informed of US highschools through television. It seems silly to me, the seniors (I assume these are the oldest students) do "rule" the school, but that would be a reason for them to no longer pick on the kids, especially the freshmen (these are the youngest yes?).

Over here the newbies get picked on by those 1 year above them, and after that "nobody" picks on anyone (not as a group anyway), if anything the eldest students will be the ones standing up for the youngest ones.

 

[loc978]

huh. I don't remember any such thing from high school, I was too busy working. I was practically one of the faculty by my junior year... didn't pay much attention to other students except to fix their computers. So I voted "too old to remember that shit". I think I was too old for that even when I was 16.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Here in Australia, I've never seen any hint of this, so I assumed that it was primarily just either an American thing or a movie thing.
Interesting to see that it is real though.

Same here in New Zealand. I have a friend over in the states and his son apparently has been getting a bit of crap due to this. So I think it is bullying, but with a license, so to speak.

 

[The_Echo]

In my high school, all of the classes existed on the same level and intermixed regularly. Almost certain there wasn't a single group of friends in the whole school that didn't span at least two grades. Hell, some of us were friends with the staff!

So I never experienced "senior seniority." To me, it's always seemed like a thing endemic to movies.

 

[aba1]

This was never a thing here in my area. I don't know anybody who ever dealt with anything like this.

 

[Mordekaien]

This was never a thing here in my area. I don't know anybody who ever dealt with anything like this.

This.
It's like Santa for me. I heard rumors, but never saw him.
That said, in my country it's not divided like this, we still have bullies, sure, but last time I checked, it wasn't because of someone being older, it was because someone was a big jerk.
Also, we have the opposite problem right now, younger kids tend to do shit to the older ones and then protecting themselves with, "You can't do shit to me, because that would be bullying."

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

And you wonder why you guys have so many school shootings... Okay, perhaps that's going a bit far but speaking as a non-American this concept just seems completely baffling to me. I mean is this genuinely a widespread thing? I'm really having trouble trying to grasp the words to adequately express how juvenile and idiotic this 'senior seniority' mentality is, so I guess I'll just say that Kata pretty much hits the nail on the head. No other kind of workplace/higher education environment would find this kind of behaviour permissible, so why the fuck would you expect the body of authority at a high school to pander to your ego trip? Contemporary culture isn't overly sensitive just because the administration isn't bending over backwards to let you act like an entitled abusive **** to younger students, it's just common sense.

Captcha: wax poetic

Fuck you Captcha, I'm aware I'm getting a little preachy here. >.>

 

[BoredAussieGamer]

High School's an already shitty time, so how would stopping some practically non-existent (atleast for me) bullying that seniors do change shit? Some other group will just come by and do the same.

EDIT: From the looks of it, this seems to be an almost exclusively American thing.

 

[aba1]

This was never a thing here in my area. I don't know anybody who ever dealt with anything like this.

This.
It's like Santa for me. I heard rumors, but never saw him.
That said, in my country it's not divided like this, we still have bullies, sure, but last time I checked, it wasn't because of someone being older, it was because someone was a big jerk.
Also, we have the opposite problem right now, younger kids tend to do shit to the older ones and then protecting themselves with, "You can't do shit to me, because that would be bullying."

Ohh god I remember putting up with that shit... when I was a kid I had teachers come up to me a few times giving me shit for beating up kids I had never seen in my life. I also had accusations of stealing based on being older as well even with the kid openly saying I wasn't stealing.

I never had good luck with the school system teachers hate me and I have no idea why either.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Having finished highschool in Australia, year 10 is about the most dickish that students become to new students (and even then it's only the ones who are dicks in the first place), in the senior years (11 and 12), people shut the fuck up and study, or if not, aren't interesting in picking on new kids.

 

[Mordekaien]

Ohh god I remember putting up with that shit... when I was a kid I had teachers come up to me a few times giving me shit for beating up kids I had never seen in my life. I also had accusations of stealing based on being older as well even with the kid openly saying I wasn't stealing.

I never had good luck with the school system teachers hate me and I have no idea why either.

Tell me about it. I was in the oldest class there from the start (Our high school just started out and I was in the biggest class there), and this sort of things happened from time to time.
And now that I teach children self defense as part time job, I hear it's gotten worse and worse, progressively.
You know what could help? Duels.
Like in the old times.

 

[Libra]

All I can think of when reading the OP is "glad I didn't go to high school in the US". Frankly, the whole 'this group of students is better than this one' or 'deserves to be bullied by this one' mentality scares me. Sounds more like an army base than a school.

 

[Abomination]

I remember my last two years of High School when they introduced this very policy... back in 2002 and 2003. Do you know what happened? A mirror situation. The younger kids, arrogant in their sudden immunity from any of the clout previously possessed by the older years, turned into right little bastards. Their high pitched mewling and insults are ignored or brushed off by teaching staff should they be mentioned by older children as something to be left alone.

That's right, an entire generation of dickbags was spawned.

Thankfully, in the last half of my last year of high school the policies were supposedly "active" but now no longer enforced. Many a young lad had a sore shoulder or thigh in response to mouthing off at their elders (our school specalised in that method of 'curbing', a solid knee to a brat's thigh or a swift jab to the bicep - you know, injuries always hidden under the sleeve or shorts of a uniform). And so the lesson was learned by all... the older students learned to not abuse their status less it be taken away and amount for nothing and the younger students learned to not poke the bear.

 

[Jamieson 90]

I'm not from the States so this phenomenon seems really strange to me, most likely because back when I was in my high school where the oldest students were 16 and the youngest 11, it was seen as really shitty and cowardly for a 16 year old to bully an 11 year old, and if they did a lot of the year 11's (16 year old) would probably get on their case and defend the younger kid. That's my experience from the UK anyway.

 

[Kathinka]

if you think seniors are bad, never join any army. never. ever.

besides that, what the guy above me said..the age in the highschool i went to was spread out even more, from 10 to 18.
now i went to an american highschool for a year as a foreign exchange, but it really wasn't THAT bad there..maybe i just didn't notice, or it's regionally different. who knows.

 

[BaronUberstein]

Just remind them that next year, they're freshies again.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Should the whole "Seniors rule the school" idea and practice still exist?

Unless they're student officials, no... and even then, their powers should be heavily regulated.

It's for the same reason why fagging no longer takes place... *shrug* Thankfully at my school, even though it positively reeks of 'traditional English public school', seniority by age was never an issue, students fucked about regardless of year and the sixth formers didn't impose themselves on the lower years, for whatever reason... not that I particularly care for any reason, just that they (and then I) didn't do it...