Secretaries shouldn't ruin my day

Most of a student's time at Scotia-Glenville High School is spent in class learning or spending time with classmates. However, there is also the occasional interaction between students and the administration. If a student is lucky, these interactions are kept to a minimum.

There are many reasons that one might be find himself in the office dealing with the staff. Sometimes a student is called down for a note or because he is in trouble. Other times a student may have a question to ask the secretray or dean. In my experience, no matter what the reason for being there, I leave the office much less calm and much less happy.

For starters, I usually walk in to the office to be greeted by. . . well, nobody. The deans are usually off in their offices dealing with other students and the secretaries seem content to ignore me and hope that I will go away. After seceral seconds of awkward silence and creative body language intended to draw attention to myself, I often have to speak up to get any attention. If I'm lucky, the secretary will look up on my first attempt to speak. I use the term "lucky" loosely because our interaction is usually less than enjoyable whether I'm answered on the first attempt or not. After someone looks up I usually get a "What do you want" spat out at me in a less than friendly tone. Regardless of what I say and how politely I say it, the next response is usually brief, rude and often not helpful.

Now I know that secretaries are just one part of the school's staff, but they are usually the ones (besides the teachers) who interact with students the most. Perhaps if someone is interacting with students every day of her career, she should learn to have decent, polite exchanges with the teenagers. The workers know that applying for a secretarial position at a high school will involve interacting with students, so maybe the job should go to a person who is more respectful to students.

Teenagers do not enjoy being treated like babies. The school secretaries have a tendency to talk down to us and treat us like we are ignorant. The office is the equivilent of my homeroom because I am not in school in the morning for regular homeroom. Several weeks into the school year I brought in a permission slip to a secretary who is supposed to act as my homeroom teacher. She looked at me with disgust as she said "I won't take this, it's supposed to go to your homeroom." I opened my mouth to try to explain that the office is my homeroom but she beat me to it and added that I really should pay attention to the directions. Perhaps she should pay attention to her own homeroom students. When I finally was able to tell her that she is indeed the person I should be giving the permission slip to, she grabbed it from me and said "Oh, ok," without a hint of apology or remorse for treating me so rudely.

Situations like that anger me because they are so unnecessary. I left the office that day, as I often do, in a bad mood. Had the secretary smiled to acknowledge my presence, used a friendly tone and listened to me I would have left the office feeling much better. A few simple changes would make all the difference. Why is it so hard for a person to be decent to another person?