by Anonymous ’23
Throughout my tenure as a student at AMHS, I have been able to observe the drastic changes that have occurred in the school, and none are more disheartening than that of the school’s depreciating infrastructure and our dwindling student resources. To preface this open letter, my blame is not directed towards any particular staff members, nor is it directed at Mr. Lewandowski and the facility maintenance staff.
Firstly, it is important to note that as a student here at AMHS, I take pride in our school’s library. Many students at our school, as well as teachers, take great pride in our library as well, which is why it comes to me as such a tragedy that it is now being used as a classroom and shuttered to the student body at almost all times of day. There are likely thousands of books in the library that are, at this moment, sitting collecting dust and wasting away between the neatly organized shelves. Books are the core of our humanity – we started recording time the year that writing was invented. This is not just the closure of the softball fields or the upper parking lot; this is the closing of the entire idea behind school and the importance that lies between the covers of books and textbooks.
Secondly, I can’t discuss our school’s infrastructure without mentioning the boys bathroom and locker room situation. Almost every single bathroom in the school has endured substantial damage to the stalls and sinks. Additionally, the kinds of faucets being used in the bathrooms are not conducive to the hygiene standards many national health organizations expect of us. I cannot speak for the girls’ bathrooms, but I am sure that the conditions are similar. The boys locker room is the worst of all. Not only are the lockers themselves dented, broken, and outdated, but they are dirty to boot. On more than one occasion, I’ve gone into the locker room when there would be Odwalla or lotion splattered all over the lockers, flooring, and or ceiling. How does that even happen? I believe Mr.Lewandowski is a hardworking faculty member who takes great pride in his work. To the school’s credit, the school is kept extremely clean, the parking lot is routinely maintained and all of the plants and trees on campus are kept to the highest standards year round, among other things.
However, do not let this distract from the condition of our school’s most basic infrastructure, of which our students require. For a public school this would be more than conventional for bathrooms and locker rooms, but for the money that our parents sacrifice for us to have the best education possible, we should simply not stand for this. Our tution could easily fund a whole four years at some colleges or universities, but cannot assure privacy in the bathroom or the high standards we expect at a private Catholic school?
Unfortunately, I can only describe the trend of our school’s quality over the past 3 years as a gradual degradation of what it has been in the past. For this and other reasons regarding the pedagogy and staffing of certain departments, I can say that I am thoroughly disappointed in the direction that our school is going. I hope that the school and the administration can realize and revise this oversight so that our student body can get back to using the library and bathrooms in the same manner that they once had.
Into the Jungle 