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High School Reflection Paper

Decent Essays

When I consider my high school experience I think about the many social interactions, group dynamics, and relationship building that took place between me and all the other social actors at my high school. I ended up at Escondido High School (EHS) because of the family history that had been cultivated at that school. My older brother Hugo had graduated from EHS, and my older brother Carlos was next in line. Carlos, was a senior when I arrived at EHS (September 3, 1996). It was comforting knowing that a family member was on campus especially during my first few days of school. I recall, encountering Carlos and some his friends during lunch time as I walked around the campus with my some of my friends. Here, I was introduced to other Latinos/as (“this is my younger brother”), tease by some of them (“his so cute”), and left with a feeling that I was liked within that group (“big smile on my face”). By the time Carlos graduated from EHS I had acclimated to high school life.
As my educational trajectory continue, I noticed an increase in security on campus. For example, random visits from the drug-sniffing dog became a common spectacle in the classroom. Also, before students could enter the school grounds they were scan with a metal detector by one the security guards. This morning ritual appeared to be geared toward the students who walked to school from the neighboring barrios. I never saw any of the students being drop-off by their parents or the students who drove themselves to campus being subjected to this morning ritual. Moreover, I never saw any of the students who played sports (mostly white) being harassed for hauling around golf clubs or baseball gear such as a bat around the school.
After the school campus was fenced off permanently, students (and/or family and friends) could no longer use the racquetball courts on campus, which many of my friends and I had been using for daily recreational activity such as playing handball before class, after school, and on weekends. The heighten security on campus was also accompanied by a strict gendered dress code. Many of my Latina friends were prohibited from wearing anything too revealing such as spaghetti straps and/or short skirts, yet, female students who

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