Although I have found confidence, the pain still lingers each time I share my story of the unfair and dehumanising experiences I have faced alongside other students at William Clarke College.
Strong evidence from scientific studies has shown that many back problems are inherited and that a heavy backpack can pull on neck muscles causing headaches, shoulder pain, lower back pain, cancer, kidney stones and/or neck and arm pain. You have already doomed the next generation, our children. Will you be the one explaining to my wailing child that the reason for their astronomically large back pains and bulging hunchback was because the school I went to didn’t cater for the needs of their students? I don’t think so. Implementing the rule that all students must come to school and leave school wearing their formal uniform and bring their sports uniform to get changed into is diabolical. Our backs cry out in agony and there is nothing we can do about it. Additionally, the sports hoodie is not allowed to be worn to and from school without the sports jacket on top.
On a cold winter’s day, this fiery combo of a hoodie and jacket is the perfect solution to battle against the bitter cold scraping against our skin. But when it is too cold for only the jacket and not hot enough for the daring combo, we have a loose, loose choice to make. Either we fight the sweat racing down our nose and forehead or the fierce cool air. I can’t find the logic behind supplying a hoodie but not allowing us to wear it on days when a hoodie would be the perfect soldier to brace against the weather. It has the school logo on it, and it is a part of the school uniform, so why should our backs suffer with the extra weight of 2 jumpers?
Right now, on average, a teenager’s anxiety levels are the same as a shell-shocked WW1 soldier returning from battle. Did you know that the Great Emu War of 1932 started because an Emu was expelled from William Clarke College for wearing their sports uniform instead of their formal? Australia is still recovering from this battle we can’t handle another civil war. The sacred text called “The Hunger Games,” by Suzanne Collins, reads, “If we burn, you burn with us!” Do not underestimate our power, we may not be Emu’s, but we will land on top, and we will win the war just like they did.
Sure, you want to teach us discipline and set us up for success in the future with the ability to work under the pressures of responsibility. But no. Go away. We are young, let us live. You aren’t teaching us discipline; you are teaching us to be liars. Restrictions on wearing the comfortable sports uniform to school creates unrest among the people. Forgery, lies, deceit, that is all I see. We scurry like mice into nooks and crannies to avoid the teachers’ unjust infringements for wearing a comfortable uniform. If your goal was to make us street-smart and vigilantes, then I’m proud of you.
Our education is at risk. We are up till demonic hours in the evening to finish assignments then ripped out of bed to go to school in the morning. Our brains are eating themselves because we haven’t gotten enough sleep. The added pressure of remembering our sports uniform is making us late for class, as we are rushing back home to get our uniform because we already have so much on our plate.
The itchy skirts and trousers and see-through blouses make it impossible to stay focused in class. Our beloved sports uniform is only one unzipped bag away, yet it seems so far. The longing for a more comfortable attire aches in our bones and reaches every crevice of our forsaken bodies, distracting us from our class work.
I have stopped 74 times while writing this to cry out in pain as I crack my back from the excruciating weight of carrying an extra uniform in my bag to school almost every day. But no more will we stay silent. We will fight for the day when no more will our wallets cry out in agony as we spare our last silver for a session with a chiropractor. We will also carry the burden of passing on our back problems to our children. Yet another weight we carry on our backs, and in this economy, we can’t afford to pay for a chiropractor for them too. Think of the children, if not for us, spare our children, for the next generation of younglings.
