On May 24th, 2017, Arrowhead held an Honors Lunch, to commemorate the students who have received a GPA of 3.5 and higher. Doing so has caused an outrage amongst many of the Arrowhead students who did not attend this celebration, declaring that the celebration was degrading towards those who have worked diligently throughout the year but did not receive the GPA desired.

With the school year coming to an end, Arrowhead students are working to raise their grades. At North Campus, this is especially a stressful time for Arrowhead students who are about to apply to colleges, or are preparing for college. During this time period students, desire support from their school to know they are on the right pathway to success.

Jack Wiebusch, a junior says, “I understand the message of having a reward for those who exceed in their schoolwork, and I appreciate the message it is trying to give. However, I believe it to be a bit unfair to those who work so hard to exceed in school. I know many, many students who have less than a 3.5 GPA who work very hard to succeed academically. Just because they might not have an exemplary GPA doesn’t mean they haven’t experienced the many stresses that high schoolers have to face to succeed. Its embarrassing to and unfair to the people who don’t have an outstanding grade point average. More than rewarding those who did well, it sees those who didn’t make it feel stupid and embarrassed. All this is really doing is separating students, and giving a false sense of elitism to those who succeed. School does not define intelligence, especially with the modern school system, but that’s a whole other topic.”

“I, much like many other students and my friends, felt terrible about ourselves all of that day. I constantly wondered if I was going to be successful in the future and get into college. I know I can, however. not having a 3.5 GPA yet still working your butt of is not something to be ashamed of, but I am. with every honor student parading red wristbands around I felt like an outsider, an outcast, and simply just not good enough. it makes me believe that I’m dumb even though I have an above average SAT and ACT scores. Simply put, the Honors Lunch is not something I support and is confidence destroying,” Sydney Flynn, a junior at Arrowhead High School says.

Enraged Arrowhead students have come up with ways to allow other students to realize that their efforts have not gone unnoticed, and let the school board know their thoughts.

“All students should be rewarded with something for everything they’ve had to go through throughout their year. I think that the school board needs to acknowledge all of the dedication made towards the youth’s education. Arrowhead should simply reward the entire school, letting them know that their efforts have been noticed and appreciated. Sure there are students that don’t necessarily put forth effort, but allowing something encouraging such as that could allow them to push to do better. This school doesn’t make too much of an effort for its students unless you play a sport anyway, so I think it could probably afford to make an effort to reward all of its students,” Wiebusch says.

“If Arrowhead wants to celebrate, then do so as an event after school. Allowing students lower than a 3.5 to witness it, is degrading and frankly I would hope Arrowhead would invite everyone to show how proud the school is for the great amount of effort and hard work they’ve done to improve their GPA and grades,” Emily Peters, a junior says.
“I wish there was a better way to celebrate students efforts because a student could have a 4.0 and do absolutely no real work, and a student could have a 2.0 and do more work than anyone else in the entire school. While I’m grateful they’re trying to show appreciation for people’s efforts, they’re not showing it in the right way,” Abbie Stahl, an Arrowhead senior says.