Throughout my four years at this school, I’ve been introduced to both the strongsuits and downfalls of Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

H-F has been consumed by a whirlwind of unwanted attention this year, including the gang scandal of fall the semester and now the blackface of spring.

H-F released an update on April 30 stating the following: “Longer term, our new strategic plan — developed by our school community last fall — represents a starting point that includes diversity and cultural competency training for all staff members and students.”

While this drama ran its course, seniors and underclassmen alike shared the same sentiment of being ready to graduate.

However, the issues that this school has does not lie in the academics or with the administration, for the most part.

As students, we’re offered electives and access to certain technology and software that most teens won’t experience in a school setting until they graduate.

We are a three time U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award for Academic Excellence winning school.

And we won our first Blue Ribbon within the first two years of the programs establishment, according to the H-F website.

Academically, our school offers more benefits than many of our neighboring schools and allows us to actually be prepared for the next steps in life.

The campus is also asthetically pleasing, aside from the quarter mile path between classes.

Multiple football fields, baseball fields and gyms allows for more avaliability for a variety of teams.

While there’s still work to do in providing an equal amount of space for other programs, such as music and theatre, administration is still willing to accomidate and recognize the needs and desires of the students.

They allow us to have a voice and contribute in making the decisions that will effect our high school careers.

We attend a school with two buildings, a pond, archery and so many opportunities for kids to figure out what they want to do after the leave the school.

So, when students say “I hate this school,” we’re all glossing over the privileges we’ve been given from being in this district.

We should keep in mind other districts, such as CPS that doesn’t get the same tax benefits as us or the same lunch or education opportunities.

From May 6 through 10, there were seven fights amongst the student body, according to an announcement from our principle Dr. Anderson.

That seems like an issue that administration cannot control nor predict.

We as students need to take more accountablility for the school environment we claim to hate and move passed the petty disagreements and childish attitudes.

If we’re going to continue chanting “We are H-F!,” we should at least try to give ourselves a better reutation instead of blaming teachers and administration for our shortcomings.