After finals were postponed less than an hour before school began on the morning of Jan. 12, the “GBN Parents” Facebook group was filled with anger towards district administration. Many were enraged that some students and teachers had to return home after arriving at school that morning, and others were upset that they didn’t receive any notification of the cancellation. Citing that the postponement impacted students’ mental health, some parents demanded no-harm or optional finals, and a few even called for the termination of district personnel. Some students used burner accounts to leave malicious comments on the school’s Instagram post that announced the postponement, while others simply allowed their parents to complain for them.
While the delayed cancellation notice reflected poor communication from the district, calling for modified finals or termination of administrators was completely unwarranted.The administration often receives numerous complaints from students and parents, yet many of those gripes are inconsequential and unimportant.
Rather than expressing frustration through complaints, students should focus on developing a resilient attitude when faced with an issue. Furthermore, having our parents come racing to the rescue over every problem or inconvenience is childish and ineffective, especially when some students are about to enter college and the professional world. To help set ourselves up for success later on, we need to stop complaining. Demanding extreme measures over a single incident is neither fair nor practical. We can’t justify our whining by claiming that every problem we face harms mental health or exaggerating inconveniences. Doing so is immature and diminishes serious mental health issues.
Unprecedented instances of adversity don’t give us an excuse to post malicious comments online or demand excessive consequences for issues we face. People shouldn’t lose their jobs just because we’re frustrated. When confronted with an issue, take a second to reflect on the conflict at hand and question whether what’s being demanded is necessary or appropriate for the situation. We should all know that sometimes, we just need to suck it up.