Focusing on the positive at Hempstead High

Editor's note: Delmy Valle is a senior at Hempstead High School. She wrote this piece as part of Hofstra University's new Community Journalism Program, created by Herald Senior Editor Scott Brinton.

Hempstead High School is called a “failing school” and has been so for the past 10 years, according to the the 2015 State of New York’s Failing Schools. With a graduation rate of 37 percent during the 2014-2015 academic year, it is hard to believe that the district is doing much to support its students. That is not at all true.

Hempstead High is looked down on by the media and the public because of academic performance, neighborhood crime and the lack of stability on the Board of Education.

Rarely, however, does the media take into account the effects that these negative messages have on students and the community.

Douglas Davis is a guidance counselor at Hempstead High School who has seen the psychological effects that bad publicity can have on students. “If you hear something over and over, you start to believe it; it becomes a self-fulfilling-prophecy,” says Davis. “However, there are students who are able to make the distinction from what the media conveys and the truth. Those students are usually the higher achievers and understand the reality.”

Davis also noted the effects that negative press can have on the school faculty and administration. “There have been times where, in a public conference, people asked me, ‘Where do you work?’ and [because] the answer is Hempstead… they give you the look,” Davis says.

The media do not appear to understand how the lack of positive exposure drastically affects morale at Hempstead High School. As students, this is our home.

At the start of the 2015-2016 school year, CBS published an article on the “reported administrative chaos at Hempstead High School.” It shed light on the scheduling conflict students faced when starting the new academic year. CBS reported that the incident “reflected the abysmal 37 percent graduation rate” of the school.

It is important to show students and the community the good things that are going on in the school that they do not hear in the media. There is a significant number of students who are serious about their educations and take pride in their school.

With a recent change in district administrators, Hempstead High School has implemented programs and extracurricular activities to give students additional support.