One Student’s View

OPINION by Juno Rabinovici

As a highly-motivated student and a senior at El Cerrito High School, I feel that a lot of what’s happening to me and other students should not be occurring. Using my personal experience as a starting point, I have read many documents and conducted interviews with fellow students and school officials to try to understand the problems I encounter on a daily basis.

A Need for Shared Information

Probably the most fundamental issue is a lack of transparency and information being circulated to everyone at the school, which makes fact finding incredibly convoluted and difficult. Other important issues are academic success and safety.

Worry About a Strike

When the possibility of a teacher and staff strike is added to the mix, it creates a feeling of instability that makes it hard to focus on learning rather than school and district politics. Fellow students told me they feel that teachers are the most successful part of the school, along with the block schedule, but expressed concerns around the district and school site.

Accusations of Plagiarism

I am lucky to be a highly-motivated student. Especially one with parents who are very engaged in my education. But it doesn’t feel that way when I am accused time and time again of plagiarism, apparently because my writing is better than what’s expected. I have sat through lessons on writing a paragraph still in my senior year, and watched kids fail classes time and time again.

Curriculum Does Not Consistently Build Knowledge Over Time

Almost every teacher I meet seems to agree that students are not being taught what they are supposed to. Either they say it out loud (“that’s wrong!” or “you never learned that?”), or they imply it. A math teacher I had my junior year began with a review unit of Algebra 1 skills we may have forgotten. I had never encountered or learned to solve any of those kinds of problems before. According to the California Common Core Education standards, I was supposed to learn those math skills in 8th grade.

In a class of seniors this year, students “on track” to graduate were struggling to put together topic sentences for a simple four sentence paragraph, a skill they were supposed to master in 6th grade. This highlights a huge problem. Despite what curriculum standards may imply, not all students are not learning the foundational skills they’re supposed to know in order to progress to high levels of education and prepare to enter the workforce.

Impacts of AI

The introduction of AI into the education system has only exacerbated these issues. Now that kids have easy access to models like ChatGPT, a well written essay which may take a student several hours to write can now be accomplished in a matter of minutes. There is very little motivation to submit original work when it is easier to simply cheat; and students are getting good at doing so.

As a student who does submit original work, it is incredibly frustrating to get the same grade as students who are very obviously cheating. The school itself doesn’t even have an AI policy, instead leaving it up to teacher discretion. Basically, depending on the teacher you get, you may be able to openly cheat with no consequences. If it’s not against a teacher’s rules, you are in the clear for academic dishonesty.

Absences and Cutting Out Early

Another issue is that a lot of students don’t even show up to learn. Classes often have students you see twice a semester. Other students show up only to cut class immediately after attendance is taken. They grab their stuff and just leave, not saying a single word to the teacher or anyone else. These same students hound teachers at lunch as to why they are failing. With students often missing school, teachers are forced to reteach concepts which leads to confusion and disruption in learning for regularly attending students.

On Edge About Safety

Perhaps most concerning to my everyday life on campus, a slew of safety issues across the school has left many students (myself included), on edge for the next lockdown, lawsuit, or power outage.

Ongoing Power Issue

The ongoing power issue at our high school is a concern because it potentially affects our safety and the smooth operation of the school.

On March 18, 2025 power went out on campus when a bus bar exploded. On March 20, students returned to school. The district put in place generators, which we were reassured would bring the school back to full power.

The school has been running since then on power from these expensive leased generators and power delivery has not always been reliable. Concern about the situation has been amplified by a breakdown in communication between site/district leaders and staff/students.

The only information available online about the incident is a single Facebook post from school board member Leslie Reckler. In order to report on the outage I had to interview teachers and admin, find old emails, and dig through jargon-filled district reports. The lack of clear readily available factual information explains the plethora of rumors surrounding the issue (the baseball team hit it, water got on it, etc).

(Editor’s note: West Contra Costa School District administrators said in September that power would be fixed Saturday, Oct. 25. Reliable sources said work was expected to continue Sunday. Several students said they did not receive any information about the repair work.)

Generators are providing power to the high school.

Fire Protocol

Despite frequent successful fire drills, fire protocol is not followed during actual emergencies. When the fire alarm went off without a drill scheduled during the 2024-25 school year, the fire path door through which many students are supposed to exit the premises (and fire trucks are supposed to enter) was locked from the outside, leaving students stuck on campus.

Fights and Lockdowns

ECHS has had many fights and lockdowns. It only took 3 days into the 2025-26 school year for the first school fight to occur. So far this year there have not been other large-scale fights.

However, a particularly brutal fight made the local news in 2024 after non-students entered the campus and began fighting with ECHS students, resulting in a lockdown. Officials say there is “increased security” and an additional chain link fence, but in my opinion, security at the school should be improved.

Possible Campus Security Improvements

Despite it being school policy that all students and staff have their current IDs on and visible, students and staff are constantly walking around with expired IDs or no IDs at all, and entrance to the campus needs only a confident attitude and maybe a backpack, rather than the required visitor pass. There are no metal detectors, and multiple entrances are open at once, with only one or two security people guarding each one.

The Restrooms

The bathrooms are arguably the most secure place on campus, what with those accessible to disabled students being constantly locked and/or unavailable for student use. (I am disabled and it took me a year and a half to get a key.) Open bathrooms often have non-functional stall locks, no soap, and no toilet paper or sanitary products. Some bathrooms have fecal matter, urine, blood, or all three on the floor, toilet, and sometimes even the walls.

Questioning Some Special Ed Placements

In one of my classes, very severe Special Ed students are being put in Gen Ed classes that are in my opinion unsuitable for them. On one hand all students have the right to be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE) possible. On the other hand, when an environment is too unrestrictive, it leads to issues. A boy in my class defecated and urinated in his pants, leaving behind a severe biohazard and frankly disgusting smell.

Another kid has a habit of throwing things (he hit me with his shoe, threw a friend’s waterbottle, and kicked another student), and also has gotten completely naked on two occasions, exposing his genitalia to the class. Despite several direct complaints to the administration, these students remain in Gen Ed.

ADA Compliance

ADA compliance is also an afterthought. School elevators constantly break down, making it hard for disabled students to access them. Additionally they require a key to open, which may make them inaccessible in a way that violates ADA guidelines. As a disabled student, when the elevators are down I miss classes, as I cannot safely take the stairs.

Wanting the Full Story

A high school senior like myself shouldn’t have to worry about the state of my school. Every day I have to piece out what is true and what is not, as nobody seems to have the full story; not even the principal. I wish I could be focused on prom and college decisions, but until my fellow classmates and I have a safe school and a flow of information shared with us, I can’t be.