CON: Students are entitled to NHS benefits

By TJ Ford
Arts Editor

Although the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers’ Association negotiations have led to the cancellation and postponement of NHS meetings, among other things, NHS members should still be able to receive all the benefits of membership to this prestigious national organization.

The Costa staff is paralyzed by the unresolved qualms with union negotiations. This has led to the suspension of NHS seniors’ recognition – a travesty for deserving seniors who are being unreasonably denied distinction.

The process for scholarship nominations begins with the faculty advisor who evaluates the graduating class and picks select students to be eligible for the scholarship. However, because the current advisor, English teacher Nicole Wachell, is not holding NHS meetings due to negotiations, she was unable to nominate seniors for the organization’s scholarship.

The absence of nominations is unjust for students who could have received financial aid from NHS scholarships that pull from a pool of nominated high achievers across the nation. Students who might have had the opportunity to lessen the huge financial burden of college through the honors society were left without the chance to be recognized on a national scale.

The lack of diploma seals and graduation cords is also an outcome of the dormancy of NHS, which is less impactful to students’ futures, but still a point of contention for hard-working NHS students. One of the promises used to entice members to join the society is the accolades on graduation day. Even though the society does not solely revolve around the gold tassels worn by members on graduation, the extra material goods for NHS seniors symbolize years of dedication and achievement. Graduation day and the induction ceremony are the two opportunities for students to be publicly recognized for being a part of NHS. However, because of the feuding faculty and school district, NHS students will lose the opportunity to be visually distinguished as high achieving students on graduation day and ultimately not reap all of the benefits of joining NHS in the first place.

The paralysis of the society and consequential lack of opportunities for members could have simply been solved had an administrator simply taken action and stepped in as the advisor. Then, students would have had the same scholarship opportunities as all other NHS members across the nation, and diploma seals and graduation cords would be available. Members would not have been wrongfully excluded from the honors society that they worked incredibly hard to join, as denying the students the slightest chance at aid or recognition is a travesty that stems simply from negotiations.

Even though fair salaries and a fair contract for members, the crux of the union-administration conflict, are clearly significant issues in MBUSD, they in no way benefit the student body. As unfair as some teachers’ circumstances are, the cancellation of NHS meetings solely punishes high-achieving students in a situation that they personally have nothing to do with. The district and teachers’ union should work to compromise in a way that does not jeopardize the futures of the students. Teachers should shy away from using the student body as pawns, as their job is to foster the growth of students.

With the lack of meetings and inability to reap the benefits of the organization, NHS members deserve to be given the same opportunity as those who have been a part of the organization in the past as well as members across the nation.