Even at midnight on a Thursday night, many students are still awake tediously painting posters or cutting out box tops. While finishing an essay or studying for an exam can keep students occupied, a new task is consuming students’ time. They are now working to fulfill the requirement for community service hours mandated by the Las Virgenes Unified School District for the 2012-2013 school year. Students will now be obligated to fulfill 15 hours of hands-on community service per year in order to graduate. Community service hours are impressive additions to college applications and can provide a student with a great sense of accomplishment; however, the mandatory hours will have many negative consequences. In addition to demanding course loads, students with after-school jobs have even less time than others to complete these hours. Because community service is now mandatory, students who have spent time and put forth so much effort in helping their community may not be recognized at graduation. Community service should be done out of selflessness and passion for the cause, not because it is required.
“Josh Stevenson, the Assistant Principal of Alice C. Stelle Middle School, visited schools in other districts that were participating in mandatory service learning, and he was very impressed with how it was benefiting the schools and the communities,” said college and career center advisor Robin Lutsky.
While the required service may be improving the communities of the specific schools visited by Stevenson, the new requirement will most definitely not benefit CHS. CHS should not conform to the same requirements as other schools. Because many students at CHS have rigorous academic schedules, are involved in a sport or an art and have paying jobs, they do not always have sufficient time to devote to volunteer work.
“I take three Advanced Placement courses, so some nights I have up to five hours of homework, and many times I will catch up on the weekend by doing a whole day of school work,” said senior Niamh Grunfeld. “On top of that I also work at Stonefire Grill about 12 hours a week, so community service is going to be very tough to fit into my schedule.”
Aside from the time constraint students with jobs face, these students are already serving the community by working at a given local business.
The new requirement will also negatively affect students without jobs. Many of CHS students have been investing great amounts of time and effort in community service for years. These altruistic students should undoubtedly be rewarded with a community service award during senior graduation. Without this acknowledgment, hard-working students are deprived of their much-deserved recognition, and there is no longer an incentive for other students to do community service out of their own desire.
Volunteering should be an act that comes from the heart, not because it is a graduation requirement. When regulations are enforced, motivation is likely to decrease. This will result in students attending fundraisers and events simply to earn hours rather than to help a worthy cause.
“As president of the Help a Soldier Club, I am worried about what mandatory community service will bring,” said sophomore Emily Eckstein. “I think it will attract volunteers that do not really care about the cause and who will do low-quality work just to earn hours.”
While LVUSD surely had good intentions, forcing students to perform community service is not the solution to increase the amount of community-oriented volunteers.
Photo above by Lauren Sloan – Photo Editor
