Stuco and admin host first public forum

by Toni Bullough, Ted Hyngstrom, and John Monette

For the next nine episodes of the TJT podcast on the Bulldog Press channel we'll be discussing the first Judge Memorial public forum, which was held after school on Monday, December 6. After each audio segment, we’ll give you our takeaways.

Stuco and the administration held its first-ever public forum after school on Monday, December 6. In late November students were surveyed on their most important issues. From those survey results Stuco prepared 10 topics that were answered by Mr. Lambert, Dean Douglas, and Ms. Hendrickson. Mr. Baron and Mr. Shaw also answered questions about how clubs are formed at Judge. Other topics included the dress code, diversity, the Pledge, Catholic teaching, sex education, and drug testing.

"As a student council representative, it is our job to represent the students and advocate for them,” Stuco president Kurt McLaughlin said. “We often get a lot of questions about certain things that are kind of bigger than our council. And we wanted to make sure that the students' concerns and needs are being addressed to the fullest extent.

"Arual Deng and I had this idea for a ‘builders of a more just society forum’ last year in May of 2020,” Kurt continued. “We wanted to collaborate with a variety of diversity clubs originally to put on public forums to address larger issues of inclusion and equity at judge, and that has now shifted more towards a diversity Administration and Student Council." 

Each topic had a time cap of 10 minutes with Stuco advisers Ms. Healy, Ms. Landau keeping time. Members of Stuco then asked a question to the panel who gave a one- to two- minute response. Then the floor was opened up for the audience.

The Public Forum was divided into ten sections in the following section. We will break down the main message from each. If you would like to hear the complete questions and answers, we have provided the entire Public Forum's audio for your listening discretion. 

Spirit wear 

According to the Dean of Students, Mr. Douglas, and Mrs. Garside, the head of the spirit shop, Judge is currently working on making new crew neck sweatshirts and sweaters that students would wear over their uniform. 

Dress code

In January, when we come back to school, Dean Douglas is going to put in a new uniform philosophy. This philosophy will hopefully make sure of two things. The first is that both students and teachers will understand why we wear a uniform. The second is to make sure that the dress code rules are universalized between all staff members and students. 

Diversity and the Pledge

One of the most significant parts of the Public Forum was the discussion between students and the Administration about the pledge. Judge administration allowed students to sit last year for the Pledge, but they no longer allowed students to this year. Their reasoning was that students were not doing it for a reason but were abusing the privilege and were spending time on their phones and talking to other students. In addition, these students were often asked why they were sitting. The administration felt that students should not have to explain why they were sitting and that instead, they should do a better job at teaching social justice issues. The Black Student Union, LatinX club, and peer ministers are planning a social justice assembly for January.

Club formation

The new director of activities, Mr. Shaw, explained the process of club formation. First, you need to have at least five people interested in your club and a teacher willing to help. Next they need to present to both the student council and the administration. If both approved of your club you can go ahead with the creation. 

Bulldogs for Life club

Mr. Barron and a couple of students created a club that reflected Catholic teaching. Mr. Barron and Mrs. Poppe explained that it was a club based on the "cradle to grave" philosophy that the Catholic Church has and not just antiabortion.

Sex education

The administration explained in this section that currently at Judge students would get sex education course in Dr. Dasch's regular biology class. They are currently changing the curriculum to ensure that all students get good sex education at Judge. They are trying to also combine it with the theology and health department. 

Drug testing

Dean Douglas went over two things in this section of the forum. The first was that in the past, deans may have said that it was "random" drug testing, but it was not. This year his goal is to make it random by putting students' names in a spreadsheet and randomly choosing ten of them. 

They will still test students that they have evidence to believe are taking drugs, but it will be apparent that it was not random. The second item that he mentioned was that this year Dean Douglas is going to take the drug test with the students and go through the process with them. In addition, students will not immediately be kicked out if they do not pass. Instead, they will be put on a contract. This contract means that the student will have to attend addiction counseling and pass another drug test later down the line. 

Communication

The issue of communication was a shorter topic. It boiled down to the Student Council wanting to be more open with communication. They are working on not just using their Instagram (@Judge_Doghouse) as much as they do now. They are currently working on sending out more emails and using their website. 

Social media

Recently there has been a variety of Judge Instagram accounts: "Judge Bad Parking," depicting students bad parking, "Judge Sleep," an account that posts pictures of students sleeping in class, and the worst one, "Judge Bathroom Feet," which as the name apples shows pictures of students feet under bathroom stalls. Mr. Lambert is currently working to take all of these accounts down. One reason is that if a college looks up Judge Memorial, they want the college to have a good impression and for them not to see students' feet in the bathroom or sleeping. Also, these photos could be considered an invasion of privacy.

If you missed this Public Forum, we have been informed by the Student Council that there will be more in the future.