Jennifer Berkshire, author of the EduShyster blog, interviewed Match Charter Public School senior Rayauna Moss-Cousin:
My name is Rayauna Moss and I attend Match High School, a charter school in Boston. I’ve been in the Match system since middle school and I have a love/hate feeling for the school. I love that Match is so helpful with the college process. We have classes dedicated to doing college applications and applying for financial aid. I appreciate that the most because I feel like I wouldn’t be too far in the college application process without Match.
Often school can feel like a prison to me. When it comes to discipline, my school is very strict. We have a demerit and merit system that tries to teach us to be professional and get us ready for college. However, we are often given unnecessary demerits for offenses like hugging too long in the hallways, or not being in uniform. We aren’t treated as young adults. I’ve been given detention for not having a uniform, for being late, and for chewing gum. If you are not in uniform, you have to trade in your phone or T pass as a rental for Match’s clothes. But many students need their phones to contact their parents and a T pass to get home safely. I don’t understand how demerits and detentions prepare us for college. The school doesn’t have a valid answer about how their strictness relates to college but I have stopped questioning Match because my questions are never answered.
The school doesn’t have a valid answer about how their strictness relates to college but I have stopped questioning Match because my questions are never answered.
In the past few years, a little less than half of my original class left Match because they just couldn’t take the unnecessary rules and regulations anymore. I feel like students should have equal rights, no matter what kind of school they attend. My main question is why do charter schools have to be so strict? All Massachusetts charter schools should be held to the same standards that public schools are and shouldn’t rely on harsh punishments to teach students.