Anita's Viewpoint

Anita, 14, joined at 14

-What was your first impression of the school when you joined?

I tried being cool, I tried being myself but I was pretty shy and I didn’t know whether everyone was going to accept me.

-And did they?

Yeah they actually did, everyone was pretty nice, they love me for who I am. Everyone's like a family and if you’re a new person here, everyone will be really friendly to you like they’re friendly to everyone.

-How do you decide what to do every day?

I usually play with my friends, if I didn’t I’d probably be on my phone or my tablet.

-What makes you excited to show up every day?

I’m excited to see my friends. This school isn’t really that bad and there’s so many things you could do. It’s not as stressful as my last school.

-What are the differences between here and your last school?

My last school everything was pretty hard, not a lot of people were nice to me, they weren’t as welcoming as here. [Here] people immediately open up to other people who join this school, but if you’re a tourist everyone’s just doing their own thing because they don’t know if you’re going to join or not. The last school I went to was Concord High and if you went there it would be kind of miserable. First of all I had to take General Ed classes, it was pretty hard for me and I didn’t really feel comfortable, nor fit in. I felt like I was the odd one out and I felt like everyone was different than me.

-Are there any similarities between DVS and Concord High?

Making friends is kind of the same.

-What kinds of things do you ask the staff members for?

If I need help on something, that’s what I did a lot my first day. I just tend to express myself. I just ask what my friends are doing, or what time it is when I need to sign in.

-What's something you're trying to get better at?

I’m trying to get better at getting along with people, socializing and all that. It’s kind of a big part of my day in this school.

-What's something you’d wanna tell to someone who’s thinking about coming here?

I’d wanna tell them that everyone's great here, everyone's very welcoming and I really think that you should go here. For those who’ve had problems with their last school who tend to not fit in, I really think this place is really good for you. Everyone’s like a family and you can find people who kinda get you. This school is highly based on community if that makes sense. The staff get equal punishments to the students, nobody has more authority over each other if that makes sense. Everyone’s really nice, everyone’s really great and bullying is highly forbidden in this place.