La Vista

Staff Ed

Currently, the process used to select the students representing Mira Costa on the Board of Trustees does not suffice because it does not allow for the most accurate representation of the diverse Costa student body. ASB and the administration should seek alternative methods in order to choose those who will represent students’ academic and extracurricular interests.

The two Mira Costa positions on the MBUSD Board of Trustees are essentially the voice of Mira Costa in the community. They are responsible for conveying the students’ opinions at the semi-monthly Board meetings. Currently and in the past, these representatives have been effective in influencing the Board’s decisions; the students who have filled these positions in the past have represented Costa in a respectable way. However, the current process still limits a vast number of capable students.

One of the representatives is the ASB vice president who is selected through a school-wide election. However, only those who have previously served at least two years on ASB are eligible to run for the vice president position. The School Board representative is an interviewed position. The position is open to all rising juniors and seniors, but the panel selecting this student is not. It consists of Principal Dr. Ben Dale, Activities Director Lisa Claypoole, the current and newly elected ASB president and vice president, as well as the current Board of Trustees representative.

We are reminded daily that Mira Costa is a vibrant community, containing students with diverse extracurricular interests, but the selection process does not represent this. More organizations on campus should have input on the selection of both Board representatives, and the positions should be open to a broader number of students. This change would benefit the entire student body and give those representing Mira Costa on the board a greater incentive to vocalize the interests of students.

Two specific steps should be taken in order to accomplish the goal of more accurate representation of the student body. First, the elected position should be open to any upperclassman on campus who has served on ASB for at least one previous year. This will keep the position open to students who understand how ASB is run while also allowing a broader base of committed students to be eligible for the election.

For the appointed position, the committee interviewing potential Board representatives should allow multiple campus leaders to have input. Fortunately, this mechanism already exists in the Student Leadership Council. Rather than having only ASB students and administration members select the Board representative, utilizing the SLC will allow input from a more accurate cross-section of the student body. While the organization has problems, this responsibility would give it a greater presence on the Mira Costa campus.

Some may protest these changes, claiming that they will broaden the candidate base too greatly and result in candidates who may not be dedicated to the job. However, it should be the decision of all students, not simply faculty or students from one extracurricular, who decide what type of student will dedicate the amount of time needed to this important position.

These reforms will allow for a process promoting more accurate representation in the positions representing the entire Mira Costa student body.

Staff Ed

In the recent years, there has been a significant push for increasing technology within the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. The newly created Bring Your Own Technology Program, which provides students with the option of utilizing their own personal technology in the classroom, is not a reasonable program for Mira Costa.

Starting next year, the Mira Costa administration will implement the new BYOTP. It will allow all students to use their individual technological devices in the classroom. For students who cannot afford such devices, the administration will then theoretically provide respective students with the equipment if desired.

The usage of technology in the classroom will ultimately lead to distractions for students. With the additional devices in classes, distracted students will become more common. According to a survey conducted on high school students by the University of Haifa, 95 percent of high school students admitted to using technology during class in order to send emails or texts. Other major causes of distraction were social media sites which most students use daily, according to the survey.

With technology prevalent, inefficient multitasking while studying is inevitable for students. Ohio State University conducted an experiment with 32 college students for 28 days to test whether multitasking is an efficient method of completing tasks. Each student carried a cell-phone or other device and reported on their activity.

Results showed that when students used media while multitasking, their cognitive needs were not met due to the distractions of technology. Clearly, there is an inverse relationship between multitasking and student productivity that the BYOTP will bring to campus.

Along with distractions, the lack of full cooperation among teachers to integrate the current technology at Costa makes spending the money for personal devices not reasonable for parents. If students won’t use technology in all of their classes, the money spent on the devices will not be put to good use. There must be uniformity among teachers on how much the new BYOTP will be utilized in the classroom if parents are spending the money to buy their child a completely new device.

Despite the current issues, technology has the potential to benefit the classroom in the future. Instead of approaching integration with a blanket approach, the school should offer specific classes in which technology is encouraged, taught by teachers comfortable with creating a curriculum based on relatively new technology. Students could have the option to sign up for these classes during scheduling.

Many different aspects of the new Bring Your Own Technology Program must be considered before the system is fully carried out. The issues of distraction, lack of uniformity of the usage of the program and unnecessary parent spending need to be taken into account.
The program presents the future promise of a more collaborative classroom, but as of right now, there are still glitches that need to be worked out.

Eighteen men ages 21 and above were arrested in a recent gay sex sting operation by the Manhattan Beach Police Department for offenses ranging from lewd conduct to indecent exposure in the public Marine Avenue beach bathroom. While the MBPD cannot be criticized for releasing the mug shots, it was unethical for media sources to spread them any further.

Regardless of their charges, which include “engaging in lewd conduct in a public place, loitering, utilizing a peephole in a restroom and indecent exposure,” the offenders’ crimes were victimless, and the media publication of the photos serves no journalistic or public safety purpose.

The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center expressed its concern over the publication of these photos, with chief of staff Darrel Cummings calling the release “shocking.” Other gay rights campaigns have expressed disapproval as well.

The MBPD should not be blamed for its actions. Those who speak out against MBPD should realize that police departments have the right to release the names of any suspects over 18 without regard to the crime.

Subjectively choosing which pieces of information to release for different crimes would be unethical for the department. It was only logical for the MBPD to be consistent with the release of the photographs and treat them similarly to other crimes.

Police policy aside, news sources should have used much more discretion in the further publication of the victims’ information and photographs. Police departments act according to established standards, but the publication of the photographs by outside news sources was unjustified and extreme.

Furthermore, the birthdays and cities of residence were also published, making the offenders susceptible to hateful and malicious attacks. In light of recent gay bullying suicides, such as that of 17-year-old Tyler Long, the media should have more respect for the suspects’ well-being. Long killed himself after being bullied when information about his sexuality was released, and the same could happen to any one of the 18 men arrested.

Though nothing can be done about the already-released newspapers with the men’s mug shots within, major online news sites must take down the men’s photos out of respect. There is no way to ensure that the photos will be gone forever once taken down. However, something must be done as a gesture of respect and to set a precedent for similar future cases.

It is unfortunate that such personal information was unnecessarily and unethically published by news outlets, but the MBPD cannot be held accountable for its initial release. This scandal will hopefully serve as a learning experience and similar, future affairs will be treated with more care.

Recently, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District and the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association met for negotiations to create an updated teacher evaluation program. This initiative would foster a productive learning environment across the district, greatly helping teacher development and improving on the ambiguity and irregularity of the current system.

The Teacher Evaluation Committee will propose necessary revisions to an evaluation process that hasn’t changed in over 30 years. These revisions would not only provide teachers with key analysis of their work but also give constructive tools for professional development.

The joint committee has met five times since its creation last year. It was created as a response to growing national attention regarding teacher evaluation. The MBUSD and the MBUTA also agreed an update was long overdue while discussing its contract renewal, according to district Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews.

This proposed program would build on the current system by instituting specific standards for performance instead of the nebulous, broad reviews that are currently employed for evaluations.

One of the more crucial parts of the program is encouraging teachers to independently evaluate and assess their own classrooms and student progress. This component will lead to increased student achievement by having teachers work toward bettering their own learning environments and adapting to changing conditions outside of standard evaluations. This is a vast improvement over the previous system, which did not stress this continual improvement.

The majority of proposed evaluation techniques, although based on standards, would be qualitative evaluations. Teacher-administrator conferences would be held after analyses, and written feedback would be provided by evaluators to aid in improving students’ learning experiences.

This type of approach would be more beneficial than a generalized performance review. The proposed system successfully reinforces specific areas where teachers are already performing well, in addition to providing helpful, comprehensive improvement strategies.

As for the evaluation visits themselves, the committee should seek to create a combination of announced and unannounced observations. This approach would give a holistic view of the classroom, allowing evaluators to see key performance differences when teachers are given notice to prepare and when observed spontaneously.

An improved teacher evaluation program would prove beneficial to MBUSD students and staff. Codified standards for assessment as well as comprehensive improvement strategies would ensure Mira Costa and the entire school district both maintain and raise current standards of academic excellence.

All over the country, schools are struggling to deal with the issue of cyberbullying. This relatively new form of harassment is defined as bullying that takes place through the Internet. Social networks have not only become more prominent means of student interaction, but platforms for cyberbullying as well.

Although many civil rights advocates would disagree, schools should be allowed to regulate online conflicts between their students, especially if those conflicts affect students’ lives on campus. Students may criticize the administration for overreaching, but as soon as one student begins to impair the learning ability of another student, the school has the right to act responsibly and respond appropriately

According to Principal Ben Dale, the Mira Costa administration generally intervenes in any bullying situation that occurs outside of school when the learning environment of the involved students is affected by the harassment or if the bullying is discussed on campus.

Some have claimed that the school’s regulation of cyberbullying amounts to a violation of free speech. However, the Costa administration is justified in taking a cautious stance toward the matter, as it is responsible for protecting its students while they are on campus to ensure a safe learning environment.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 746 into law this past July. The bill strengthens anti-bullying laws and broadens the powers public schools have in addressing the issue.

The bill theoretically gives schools the authority to regulate any student disputes on social networking sites that could be considered bullying. The scope is broad, and it’s unclear whether the bill will prove effective or not. Its constitutionality remains untested in a federal court case, but Dale has rightly chosen to not strictly enforce the bill’s guidelines until clarification is provided.

The administrators’ application of the law is a step in the right direction, though, because it gives the school flexibility, but Costa’s administration should only use that flexibility to protect the learning environment. The school should neither take the place of law enforcement officials nor create a police state through abuse of the powers granted by the bill.

The safety and security of each Mira Costa student needs to be the administration’s top priority, and by keeping a broad, somewhat unspecified set of standards for what constitutes punishment for cyberbullying, the school does just that.

Costa effectively focuses its efforts on maintaining a productive learning environment by only exercising control over cyberbullying that directly affects the learning environment or is discussed at school, instead of policing all students’ actions outside of school.

Mira Costa High School’s disciplinary policy needs specification and clarification on matters of detention. The current policy, outlined in the 2011-12 Mira Costa High School Discipline Matrix, suffers from a lack of distinct appellate guidelines.

According to Principal Ben Dale, teachers themselves do not act with the authority of the discipline matrix. A detention is only a “referral” to an administrator, and it is ultimately the administrator who is responsible for giving the detention.

Both Dale and Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said that teachers are given ample discretion when it comes to assigning detentions. Mancilla added that teachers cannot exceed the severity of punishments stated in the discipline matrix.

Dale went on to say that he is unconcerned with fixing small matters of unjust punishment unless he sees a direct correlation with academic success at the school.

Although difficult to quantify, academic success, if not tied in directly with disciplinary policy, is affected by student-teacher relationships. A 1997 study by the Journal of Educational Psychology shows a direct relationship between academic success and student-teacher interaction; students responded positively to clear, well-established expectations for behavior.

When a student feels that a teacher has punished him or her unfairly, the trust between the student and his or her educator is clearly impacted negatively. As the study reaffirms, a lack of comfort and trust between students and teachers has the potential to harm academic performance.

Under the current discipline matrix, guidelines for detention criteria are broad. While it is reasonable that teachers be granted authority to run their classrooms how they see fit, students should have a codified method of appealing potentially unfair detention issuances.

The discipline matrix does not give specific guidelines for students to follow if they believe a detention is unjust, but Mancilla said students can appeal detentions to administrators if they wish. However, Dale said the administration will stand by teachers in most if not all situations.

Mancilla said he would be open to any discussion involving a student-teacher conflict regarding the issue of a detention, but a uniform process should be established on campus. In this process, a board of either administrators or specially-designated staff members would hear the perspective of the teacher, the student and other witnesses of the issue before making a final decision on what disciplinary action should be taken.

The system of discipline at Mira Costa seems to work well, but there are areas that require improvement. If the administration established and enforced a standard process for appeals between students, teachers and administrators, the discipline matrix for Mira Costa would be clearer and with that more effective.