By LYNN HEIDEN

How would you like to walk through the halls at school and have a switchblade put in your back? Or, have to make sure everything you owned was safely locked up, for fear it would be stolen? Or even, have to have several security guards walking through the halls, at all times, like a jail, to keep students in order?

These are some of the things that are going on in our neighboring schools. They are, not schools we read about in the paper and forget before we finish the article, but schools very close to here that we challenge in our sports events every week.

On Saturday, November 14, 10 Maine West students were able to attend the Northeast District Convention at Oak Park River Forest High School. I was lucky enough to be one of the 10 students who attended the Convention.

During one of the sessions of the convention, students attending split up into groups for discussion. In these groups representatives talked about their schools' program. How their Student Councils were run, things the students demanded, and the violence going on in their schools were the major topics of the discussions.

Washrooms are being blown up in one neighboring school because students are demanding a smoking lounge. Is this the way to approach your demands?

In another school the Student Council has been trying for 13 rears to get their dress code abolished. The administration has been holding it back because they feel it isn't necessary. One day last year students were able to wear what they wanted, but they had to pay $.25. Is this the way the administration should be? Shouldn't they work with the students rather than against them?

In still another school a physical education teacher hits the students when they fail to follow his instructions. Is this showing an example to the students, the way a teacher should be?

These are the things the Student Councils should be working on in these schools, but they don't. The Student Councils in these schools, it seemed to me, are either a clique of all the popular students in school who only care about themselves or a bunch of goof‑offs who spend time doing nothing.

We also heard about the things you hear about in the paper, but fail to take any notice of because it isn't happening to you. Schools where students are being beat up, slashed with knives, and knocked unconcious right in the halls.

I said before I was "lucky" to attend the convention because after I left I felt a sense of pride ‑ pride in the school I attend.