Ever since my parents moved to Mount Vernon when I was born, my father had sworn I would never go to MVTHS. It was too violent, too unhinged, too volatile of a school to let his only daughter go to.
Growing up, I went to St. Mary’s catholic grade school, which, as many know, is a very small school with only about 100 kids. My upbringing was very sheltered, and for this I am grateful and ungrateful. I am grateful of course that I was put in such a controlled, safe environment, but on the other hand, I believe there is such a thing as being too sheltered.
When it came time to go to high school, I had two options: Mater Dei Catholic High School, or, of course, MVTHS. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to take my chances at MV; my dad, however, didn’t like this idea. After much convincing, I was allowed to come to MV, and for tha,t I am eternally grateful.
Education at MV has great potential and what you put into it, you will get out of it. MV is one of the few schools that offers AP classes and has the largest range of classes and career-specific electives I’ve seen. After meeting students from our surrounding rural high schools, I am confident that MV students are leaps and bounds ahead in their education and are given far more opportunities to reach these levels.
So why does MV get such a bad rap? It is surprising to me how often I meet someone from a small high school such as Wayne City or Bluford, who, upon finding out I go to MV, will ask me with anticipation: “I heard there’s fights every day there, is that true?”
The truth is, I’ve seen some crazy things at MV, but I’ve never once felt unsafe. The “fights” are few and far between, and the staff is always quick to de-escalate the situation. I believe that the product of MV’s violence can be chalked up to nothing more than the immense number of kids under one roof, who come from all walks of life. When you are a part of a school this size, the door of opportunity opens for you, with more active clubs and societies, and more useful and challenging classes, but with that, you must also understand that with so many hundreds of kids, there’s bound to be a few bad apples.
For any parents or students thinking about MV, I couldn’t recommend it enough. MV has done so much for me, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities it has given me to get ahead, build social skills and work ethic, and learn to share space with people with different needs and temperaments. MV is not a dangerous school, quite to the contrary, MV is a place of opportunity.
