My name is Vishon Randolph and I am a 17 year old senior at Great Falls Academy. On behalf of the students, and I believe the staff too, at GFA, we would like to protest the fact that we have to continue to share a building with YES Academy.  We are in full support of the YES students protest yesterday [Oct. 5, 2015] at the Board of Education building and we would like to add our voices to theirs.

To begin with, sharing this building with YES causes us to merge 2 separate classes (a YES class and a GFA class) in the same room. There just is not enough room for both schools, especially since GFA is already a combination of GFA and Destiny. How would you like it if you were back in high school in class and there were 2 classes going on at the same time in the same room?  For example, my GFA Geo Science class has a YES Academy Music class in the same room.

In addition, the students and even some staff members from YES trash talk the students and staff of GFA. I don’t like having to hear their staff and students say things about my peers and my teachers that I don’t think should be said. It makes me feel unwelcomed and unwanted at school.

Finally, the mixture of the two schools there is too much commotion and bullying in the building especially in the hallways and stairs between classes. There are always students interrupting classes looking for their classroom, all kinds of noise in the hallways, the bathrooms are disgusting and lunch is complete chaos.

Therefore, please consider our complaints very seriously and take immediate action to move one of the schools. The YES staff and students can stay in this building at 47 State Street because the staff and students from GFA would love to move back to our school in Prospect Park where we fit and where we were learning.

Vishon Randolph is a student at the Great Falls Academy.