By Ana Billotti
Round Table reporter
Driving to school, Josh, a tall, well-built senior, is listening to his favorite song of the moment. It’s by Cee Lo Green and contains plenty of expletives. He starts singing along, feeling like today is going to be a good day for him. When Josh gets into school, he greets his friends on his way to class with a nod, still singing the lyrics under his breath, not thinking twice about the words. A teacher catches his arm. “What did you just say?” the teacher asks. Josh is completely thrown. He was just singing a song to himself and now here he is, face to face with a very angry teacher. The teacher yells at Josh for a good five minutes about the type of language students in this high school should be using and what trashy music kids these days listen to. Good mood ruined, Josh heads to class, unable to believe that he got in trouble for simply singing a song. On his way, he hears another student curse out loud. It’s the same word that just got Josh in trouble.
While walking down the hallways, sitting in the cafeteria, and even in the classrooms, one can hear vulgar language coming from students and sometimes even the teachers’ mouths at Middletown High School. Vulgar and profane language is becoming increasingly more common in not just today’s schools, but in today’s society, as well. Parents already have very little control over what their children hear, and once students are in high school, the fight is practically out of reach.
“People are more comfortable with stronger language today,” said Daniel Mullins, MHS assistant principal. “Vulgar language is not okay, but society is constantly changing.”
“It has been put into everyone’s heads that you can use vulgarity whenever you want, which is wrong,” said Abby DeLauter, MHS sophomore.
Vulgar and profane language is still thought of as highly inappropriate in school and MHS is no different. According to the Frederick County Public School Handbook, vulgar and profane language is any “language that is inappropriate, disgusting, or repulsive to the senses” and students using such language can be suspended for up to 10 days from school.
“I feel it is inappropriate to use vulgar language when you are with your family, around elders and in school,” said Danielle Williams, MHS freshman.
Students hear vulgar language virtually everywhere today; it is hard to watch a reality television show without having at least one cast member be bleeped because of language the Federal Communications Commission deems inappropriate. In addition, offensive language litters the everyday conversations people of all ages in all walks of life.
Jerry Donald, MHS philosophy of knowledge teacher, said that use of such language is not an effective means of communication, but even understanding that doesn’t stop people from uttering the words.
“We’d be better off if we never use vulgar language for it rarely clarifies what we are saying,” said Jerry Donald, MHS philosophy of knowledge teacher, “but it would be hypocritical of me to say I never use it.”
MHS has students who never use vulgar language and students who use vulgar language frequently, which makes it both difficult to control the use of such language and impose disciplinary actions.
Student’s beliefs on the type of punishment they should receive for using vulgar language differ.
“Students should first get a warning and then get a detention [for using vulgar and profane language in school],” said DeLauter.
MHS junior Krysta Twigg disagrees. “Nothing should happen; it’s the choice they are making,” she said.
The full effect of the disciplinary actions for vulgar language is rarely enforced at MHS because students, in most cases, do understand that they can get in trouble for the use of such language. A mild warning from a teacher is enough to get the student to alter their language; for a few minute anyways.
“When a student uses vulgar and profane language, you need to tell the student that is not acceptable and other consequences may ensue if they do not alter it,” said Donald.
The reality is that most students do not indefinitely change their behavior and language; they revert back to using the same words that got them in trouble with the teacher in the first place. And when discipline does not go past a warning, many students do not alter the behavior for the better. They continue to use profane language amongst friends, regardless of whether they are in school.
Society as a whole is changing; students who once never used profane language slip a few vulgar words into everyday conversations, especially when they are mad or upset about the particular topic of conversation. Vulgar and profane language is becoming a normal part of speech for students
“I would say that definitely my biggest exposure to profanity is most certainly in school. Unfortunately, it seems the majority of teenagers seem to use them as if it were no big deal and as if there were no other words that they could possibly use to express an idea or feeling,” said Caleb Wilson, MHS junior.
That constant exposure to such language makes even those students who were once uncomfortable with saying such things more inclined to do so.
Holly Scarpignato, MHS freshman, said that the vulgarity of today’s society has affected her own use of language. “Hearing other people curse has made me use those words more often.”
