Caitlin Taffe El Cerrito Highschool '10

1. An average day at my high school varies a TON depending what group you are with. My school is about 60% black and it makes a huge difference in the attitude and dress. Many of the students are from the hood, the school is very urban. A typical day at my high school involves lots of laughter and at least two collisions with people in the halls, it involves seeing or hearing about a drug transaction and figuring out who is carrying the best weed.

2. My school taught me a lot about a world I didn't really knew existed except for on tv. I think I understand a lot more about a lot of the stuff that happens in the world especially outside of the areas I spent my younger years in. I think that ECHS teaches you a lot about the outside world, because we get a huge variety of people because we are a public school and students are coming from lower, middle and upper class (Richmond, El Cerrito, Kensington). I think that the classes offered at ECHS do help with my immediate needs but I wish there was more help towards getting to college.

3. I think that it would be really helpful to have ECHS students taking a class that taught about the options after high school and what you need to do to get to whichever you want to get to.

4. Students respect each other for the most part, but we do have fights and sometimes students don't understand each other because they come from such different backgrounds. There is respect between students and teachers, but AP students do not respect teachers as much as the other students. Parents tends to be fairly uninvolved at ECHS, those involved tend to be of white or asian background.

5. If I could change one thing about my school I would give the students off campus lunch.