Medeiros Responds to Student Rally

Following up on his letter to students in response to the Pep Rally Protest, families and staff, Principal Jason Medeiros met with the journalism class on October 16 to discuss issues that concern the student body.

“If students want to use their space to have a voice, good, that’s why you have it,” said Medeiros. “It’s not fair to you as a student body for me to be silent as your principal. My goal was to acknowledge, validate and make a commitment to working together moving forward.”

During the October 10 pep rally, students voiced frustrations through the traditional five H.A.W.K.S. banners as Kat Santos explain what H.A.W.K.S. really stands for to the students.

In his email response, Medeiros expressed that he “Firmly believes that students deserve a platform not just to have a voice, but to have a meaningful role in shaping the school they want for themselves, their younger siblings, and all future Hawks.”

Medeiros felt it necessary to address the Hudson High community promptly. With these concerns being brought to light also came an opportunity for Medeiros to listen to the students and answer some questions posed by our student body. 

Overall Medeiros clarified “I am totally open to students having a voice within their school.” Even saying “It was clear to me that students were asking questions or wanted a response from somebody.”

Medeiros also made it clear how important communication is to the functioning of the school and that he has been reflecting on the issues the students have with changes that have been made. Having time to reflect on how he could have approached the school year.

Medeiros, being new, is still trying to learn the ropes.

“Once the school year starts you try to keep the pace of all that’s happening in the building along with you trying to learn along the way. So a lot of it is just listening and learning so that then we can work together as a community to start building the school that we want for the future.”

During the pep rally, students vocalized their opinions and concerns coming into the new school year.

One of the concerns brought to his attention during the rally was the students’ concerns about world travel, Medeiros explained: “That took me off guard in terms of being canceled, I’m not aware of anything being canceled by at least the administration.”

He even furthered his statement saying, “I’m curious where some of those perceptions come from. I worry that some of the concerns expressed by students are based on inaccurate or incomplete information.”

Medeiros brought up that the change to the Sao Tome trip “Was more personal than institutional,” and wasn’t his decision.

Another topic Medeiros addressed was the issues and lack of communication from the administration surrounding ARC and the concerns from the students.

“Unfortunately I really can’t say more than what I said in my statement, that it’s an issue of negotiation, the faculty, and the school committee are working on it, every time we meet we get closer, but everyone’s doing the best they can to make it happen.”

One other problem Medeiros spoke about was the student body’s confusion over October’s spirit week ‘All around the World Day’.

This came after most of the student body had growing concerns after the original spirit committee’s idea for America Day was changed.

Medeiros cleared up the confusion around his choice, “The way it was phrased, and I’d have to go back and read the email that was shared with me, it was called USA open parenthesis and other nations closed parenthesis day. So for me, I found that- I was curious about that because it made it seem like the other nation part was sort of- almost felt like less than or secondary to the USA theme day.”

Responding to this  misinformation about spirit week, freshman Caitlyn Gogan “I was upset like everyone just told me he [Medeiros] just changed it.” 

She furthered, “I don’t think he’s that bad anymore. I think everyone got upset because he was new and we weren’t being told anything.”

Another freshman, who wanted to remain anonymous said, “Before I didn’t really have a problem with him”

In response to the protest and Medeiros’s email, that student said “I just think he is very careful and cautious now”

Both students and Medeiros agree communication needs work. Medeiros understands transparency is a necessity for the community.

“School is a community, and community is one of the values I care about most as a leader, so that means we need to be clear about what our needs are and how we meet those needs,” Medeiros said. 

This was also a clear point in Medeiros’ email, stating “We need to find a better mechanism for communicating as a community. I will work towards finding a system that helps students receive the information that they need and gives them a platform to ask questions and propose ideas.”

Reassuring students and the overall Hudson community that we can work towards making our school a better place, and making sure students are being heard.

“As long as we have lines of communication open I think we can move forward.”