From the juniors being booted from the library to the sophomores posting Snapchats mocking the juniors’ misfortune, the library showdown has been endless. The situation has recently escalated, creating a rift between the two classes. The argument over who occupies the area of the library outside the archivist’s office has been an issue since the first day of school. While the sophomores believe it is finally their time to claim the library, the juniors, as the upperclassmen, believe they are entitled to this area.
Tensions began the second day of school, when Mr. Josh Ramey, Dean of Students, sent an email to the entire junior class. The email stated juniors were no longer allowed in the library due to the “excessive noise, excessive amount of trash being left in the library, and multiple complaints from different faculty and staff.”
Many juniors, including Ben Lewis, immediately wrote back to Mr. Ramey. “Even if all these accusations are true,” Lewis wrote, “we should have been warned at least once to leave less trash or be quieter, especially considering it was the second day of school.”
While the juniors were angered by not being given a warning, the most common complaint was about seniority.
“There are privileges that come with being older,” Margaret Oster (11) explained, “like going off campus for lunch, which is only for seniors.”
While I understand sophomores hoped to claim the library as their grade-level spot this year, I believe it is the junior’s choice whether or not they will sit there, and the sophomores should defer to seniority and respect their decision.
At this point, the juniors were then forced to relocate to the “Junior Cove”, and while this is a great area during free periods, before school and during lunch, chaos often breaks loose. There are books strewn across the floor, people bumping into one another trying to access their lockers, and a mysterious stench lingering in the much-too-small hallway.
“I cannot think of one benefit of the Cove,” Lewis said. “It’s the same amount of people in a smaller space, making it even louder. It doesn’t solve anything.”
As the vast majority of the junior class attempted to cram into such a small, humid, and crowded area, there was no avoiding being rowdy. This understandably aggravated the teachers who have classrooms in junior and senior hall, causing a new influx of complaints to Mr. Ramey. From the library to the Cove, the juniors cannot seem to win.
Mr. Ramey offered the juniors the solution of hanging out in the Dining Center: “They can be loud, eat, sit at big booths, and talk to their friends, and that is a good place for them to do that.”
The juniors as a whole believe the Dining Center is a place for eating, and only eating. Simply, it is not the library, and if anyone should relocate to the Dining Center, it should be the sophomores. It is not an issue of there not being enough places for them to go, as the Commons is another spot where they could potentially hang out. The issue is their insistent encroachment on the junior’s territory. As much as the juniors respect the sophomores, they want the library to themselves, and will settle for nothing less.
