* following video was played before the speech
Manifesto by George Sternlicht
I think everyone in this room has at least one idea about how we can change Pomfret. I hear complaints about this school everyday. “The points system sucks” or “The food tastes so bad.” Well, we should all be happy with what we are given and just accept Pomfret for the way it is. Absolutely not. Be the change you want to see at Pomfret. Stop whispering about how useless the tell programs are behind closed doors and do something about it.
The teachers are taking away your freedoms as a human being in return for what, the privilege to keep a fridge? “Hey, lets try to strip the students of any fun by trying to eliminate their favorite dance, and lets change the two strike policy to one strike so that any student who has an issue, we can expel, instead of helping them.” The teachers have wronged you all. They force student couples into the woods because teenagers having sex in a bed is preposterous. They force us into dress code and take away our individuality and freedom to express ourselves. And lastly, if, by some miracle, we get free time during the week, they force us to go to an assembly focused on breathing and mindfulness. They serve us dried out chicken every other day to take away any energy or happiness that we might be clinging on to. Worst of all, they separate the students with form competitions and assigned seating in order to take away our power. And what are you, the students, going to do about it? Lets wait for student government to fix it because they have a tremendous amount of power at this school.” Or, you can sit in your chair staring at me like I’m crazy when deep down you want change as well. So what can you do? You can join me and other supporters as we occupy Mr. Richard’s office until we get the results we deserve. Occupying Mr. Richard’s office is the only way that we can accomplish our goals to better this school. But actually, will that really help our cause? Will standing here for hours with our signs really convince the faculty to listen to us? What if they don’t listen. Will we then eliminate the faculty and take over the school ourselves? No. We have to work together to solve our issues as a community. Students and teachers, hand in hand, (not really though because that’s a little creepy) but you get the point. We need the teachers on our side. So what is the real solution?
We need to work together as a community to create a system that instills higher privileges among all students. Allow all students to start with full Internet access during study hall. If a student’s grades drop, they lose their Internet privileges until they start getting better grades. Create a closed-door intervis policy, but when students get points, restrictions or bad grades; they lose their intervis privileges. Start the students with more incentive, instead of restricting their basic needs as teenagers that can be found anywhere else outside of Pomfret. Change the meal plan; let students vote on the topics or activities they want to discuss during tell programs. Create goals that the school has to strive for together, instead of pinning different factions against each other. I believe that we can make Pomfret a better school for us, and for the thousands of students who will attend Pomfret in the future. Make a difference. This may be your only chance.