By Krystal Torres ’25
A group of students was put together to talk about the topic of teacher favoritism at Derby High School, a topic of frequent discussion in the student body. The students were asked a set of questions and then they discussed amongst themselves. Before the group started, the students were told not to use specific names when referring to students/teachers/administrators. In total, there were eight students, two from each grade level. Participants were a mix of boys and girls, and from different social groups, races, and ethnicities to make sure it was all-inclusive. The students who participated in this focus group were: Rashiem McNeil ‘27, Vincent Nuzzo ‘27, Nedaat Masiat ‘26, Mikaila Rodriguez ‘26, Nicholas Sheridan ‘25, Lynnette Martinez ‘25, Joel Young ‘24, and Marnie Lane ‘24. English teacher Jessie Yanes was also in the room as a transcriber.
The first question asked to the group was to raise their hand if they believed that teacher favoritism happened often in DHS.
Everyone raised their hand.
VN: “I’ve gotten in trouble one time and me and my friend were doing the same thing, and I was punished way more and I didn’t think that was fair. I had ISS (in-school suspension) and he had nothing.”
KT: “What other experiences have you all had?”
ML: “I feel like especially with the discipline… something happened where a threat was said and it was reported, but they didn’t really do anything. But when the same group made a threat towards another party they immediately took action and so I feel like there was some favoritism with that.”
JY: “Probably the grading system. If they like something else more, they’ll give them a higher grade on an assignment. There was a project I did, and someone did the same thing as me but got a higher grade.”
MR: “I was in one class but me and my friend were doing something different and she got a higher grade than I did but we had the same answers. She’s been getting 80s and 90s and I’ve been getting 60s and 70s, and it’s been happening for the whole quarter and I don’t think it’s fair. For group assignments, we all did the same amount of work, and I got a 50 but everyone else got an 80, and it’s kind of weird because I looked at how much work they did.”
LM: “The discipline system is very biased. I’ve seen multiple situations where a specific group of people had done something, and they have their titles, but a group of people who were known for doing bad things would do the same thing and they would get very different disciplines, like suspensions that ruin their high school career. There was this one situation where I was disciplined less than another person, and it is what it is. It was my first time getting disciplined, but I didn’t think it was right.”
The group was then asked to raise their hands if they agreed with the statement: there is a lot of favoritism when it comes to the disciplinary system.
Again, everyone raised their hand.
One thing that the majority of the group agreed on was that there is a lot of favoritism and unfairness is when it comes to the dress code.
NM: “I think me and my friend group all dress relatively the same and I got ISS for getting dress-coded but none of my friends have ever been talked to.”
LM: “ I also agree with what Nedaat said. There’s this one specific person who at least every other day has a hat on, and just because she’s not part of a well-known friend group, she’s not really disciplined at all. I’ve never seen her disciplined for wearing it, but if anyone here were to wear a hat, they would immediately say we’re not supposed to have it on our heads. Just because she’s not part of a well-known friend group, teachers and admin are more lenient with her. But with others who are more outspoken the dress code is more harshly enforced and it’s simply not fair.”
RM: “I was going to say the same thing about someone wearing a hat every day, and I could come to school protecting my hair with a bonnet or durag, you know what I mean? That person wearing a hat and they’re not being disciplined because they’re quiet or very sheltered.”
KT: “Do you think favoritism is seen mostly in girls or boys?”
LM: “I think it’s more seen in girls because girls are more outspoken and boys are more quiet.”
ML: “The kids who are… I don’t want to say nicer… but friendlier, if they do something bad they don’t really get punished, but if a kid who gets in trouble a lot gets in trouble more. If someone is more firmly and soft-spoken… if I get in trouble, I feel like the administration wouldn’t really do anything about it.”
LM: “Piggybacking off what Marnie said about dress code and disciplinary action, I feel like the administrators are very quick to blame the first person they see fit to blame instead of looking into the situation. I’m sure we’ve all seen situations where a student has felt pressured and tried to stick up for themselves, and maybe caused a disruption, and they got disciplinary action instead of the person who was poking the bear all year.”
ML: ”I feel like they pick and choose, especially girls, I feel like the dress code is inherently sexist. There was someone last year who sometimes wouldn’t have a shirt on and there was nothing done about it, but if a girl wears a spaghetti strap it’s instantly, like, you gotta cover up.”
RM: “I feel like we can put a name to who Marnie is speaking of, or even if I had a shirt that had a slogan on it that was raunchy and risky, but the second Nedaat or Lynnette or anyone female can wear a two-finger tank top with no slogan, it’s instantly, I need you to change, but I can have a shirt that says ‘Live, Laugh, Love Milfs.’”
LM: “Piggybacking off what both of them said the dress code is sexist and discriminatory based off of someone’s body. I’ve seen one person who has very big breasts wear a normal tank top when it’s very hot in the school, and they get dress-coded simply because they have bigger breasts. I feel like teachers should focus on teaching boys not to use girls as a distraction or an excuse. I think it’s sexist and partially based on how the person is built. Again with the popularity thing, many girls who are not very [out]-spoken but very highly valued because they’re top of the class, wear very short shorts where you can literally see their butts out of their shorts, but because they don’t have a lot of form back there, the teachers don’t really say anything, but if I were to wear something that was too short, I would get dress coded.”
Other students in the group believed that the reputation of administrators was more important than enforcing the dress code itself.
NM: “They care a lot more about their reputation than actually disciplining people.”
RM: “Or the actual climate in the school.”
NM: “Our school, they try a lot to cover it up, and kids that are seen as ‘bad’ they try really hard to put them in the spotlight a lot to make it seem like they’re better even though I don’t think they deserve it. A lot of my friends are in the top 10 and we get in trouble for stupid reasons, but other kids who aren’t in the top 10 wouldn’t get in trouble for the same reasons.”
LM: “The people held higher academically are held to a higher standard.”
JY: “Bad behavior isn’t expected from top 10 kids, but it’s expected from RAISE kids.”
LM: “And then say you put a top 10 student-athlete and there’s a situation between the two, [the school] is very quick to assume it’s all the RAISE kid’s fault. Like Nedaat was saying, the school tries to cover up a lot.”
ML: “If someone were to do something and they were considered a smart kid and they were to do something really heinous, they wouldn’t get punished that much. They would get a slap on the wrist. If a RAISE kid were to do that same thing, forget it, suspended. There’s so much favoritism when it comes to those popular top 10 kids. Let’s say a hypothetical. What if a top 10 kid does something with a RAISE kid, and it wasn’t the RAISE kid’s fault, but I feel like they would pin the blame on the RAISE kid.”
LM: “Back to what Marnie was saying, some people are more friendlier with guidance counselors and principals, people who are more friendly with the important people who decide disciplinary action, they don’t tend to get disciplined at all which one isn’t fair in general, and two, isn’t fair to the kids who are shy and not friendly with those well-known people.”
The group was then asked if they agreed if that the more friendly a student is with guidance or administration the less likely you are to get in trouble.
Everyone nodded and agreed once again.
NS: “You also have to think about how many times someone has done something. If someone does something once, but another person did it five times, I feel like the person who has done it five times should get punished worse because how many times can you get a warning.“
On the day of the focus group, one of the members was present during an incident that took place in the school. She shared her experiences with the group.
MR: “Today, I was in my advisory and my advisory teacher saw a vape on the floor and she said the vape got thrown. It came from where I was sitting, and she called [an admin] and was making statements about it, and me and my friend group wouldn’t have that, and someone started yelling at our side and singling my group out. She was talking to me making me seem like I was the one that threw it, and it’s not fair because she didn’t even know what happened. It’s not right. We wouldn’t do that. The fact that she did that in front of the class, everyone saw us walking out and it was embarrassing, and she was making such a big scene in front of everyone. I don’t think it was fair that we were singled out and she didn’t go attack the people that do smoke. It was kind of ridiculous.”
ML: “They just like to single out people. They’ll see something happen, they’ll scan the classroom, they’ll pick from the selection of students and pick out the person most likely to do it even though they have no evidence. They just assume they’re the most likely.”
The group was then asked if they believed teacher’s pets were a real thing in the classroom.
RM: “I personally think that they are things. They come in all shapes and varieties. There’s this girl in my math class who, she waits outside the room, she sit there waiting trying to sweep people out the door, and say the teacher calls on someone, she calls out the answer, and she knows she won’t get in trouble because she kisses the teacher’s behind continually. He’s over her!”
LM: “I also think depending on the teacher. It used to be heavy a lot in the past, I could tell, because there were a lot of situations where someone who was the teacher’s pet could have an empty pass and wouldn’t get in trouble because they were the teacher’s pet, but had it been anyone else, they would have checked and been questioning them, but now I guess, there’s some teachers that are doing better with favoritism.”
ML: “It’s about categories. You can win teacher’s pet as a senior. I know there are people out there who act a lot like teacher’s pets. It definitely exists. I’ve witnessed it occasionally. I have a friend that jokes about it, but he’s not a super brown-noser, but he does a little bit.”
LM: “A lot of time it’s not even the students acting like the teacher’s pets, it’s the teachers picking favorites and making them their pets.”
RM: “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a teacher, it can be an admin. There’s this one freshman who kisses up to a particular admin, and whenever he gets in trouble he tries to call on her for backup, and recently she’s started not to give him that backup, so people need to not give that backup.”
LM: “Kinda like what we were saying earlier, if you’re friendlier with admin, you won’t get as in much trouble.”
KT: “Do you see favoritism more commonly in younger or older teachers?”
Younger teachers, four students raised their hands
For all teachers, five students raised their hands
LM: “I also think that just because the older teachers have been here for so long that they’re tired of kids trying to be teacher’s pets. It’s 50/50 because if you get one of those teachers and they do have a teacher’s pet, their favoritism weighs heavy on everyone else.”
NS: “I was in a class last year that was a very social class, and at the end of class I got called somewhere to get an assignment I missed, so I had to go back to class, and my two friends were like “oh you’re screwed, we just got yelled at,” and they got more work done than I did, and I got told ‘thank you for being a model student.’ “
KT: “What change would you like to see?”
LM: “I feel like again with the disciplinary thing, as a team, if one person messes up, you all mess up, but I feel like to a certain extent, that’s not fair. Especially with newcomers, if they are fooling around and completely breaking the rules, I don’t think all of the teams should be punished for it.”
NS: “I don’t know what our disciplinary system looks like now, but I feel like it should be a list of things kids can get in trouble for and then what the punishment should be based on how many times they’ve done it.”
JY: “That is how it is set up.”
NS: “So it’s a matter of if it’s being enforced.”
This focus group brought up topics such as how being more friendly with administrators gets you special treatment, how the dress code isn’t as enforced in certain groups and is mainly targeted towards girls, and how students feel their school is unfair and not treating everyone the same. Students should not be feeling like this at their school. DHS needs to come together and fix this problem.
The Raider Press 