Views From HHS Students

Nissim & Ahmed: Hackensack High School is a public school that can be the model for diversity. The building is full of kids from different backgrounds and cultures. I’m sure whatever ethnicity you feel like searching for inside these walls, you could find. The diversity extends farther than ethnicity. The wealth of students ranges greatly. The school parking lot is an interesting place when you realize it’s full of vehicles ranging from expensive 2015 M5 BMW’s to mid 90’s Toyota Corolla’s. Hackensack is impossible to generalize so simply as a “black high school” or a school for “the stupid kids.” & a huge reason for this is where these students are from.

The “Maywood Kids” are stereotyped as the type of kids who enter Hackensack and try to be down with what they think is the hood. The kids who never touched a blunt in they life until they entered those doors. Kids from Maywood swear Hackensack is the ghetto and as soon as they file through those doors, they try their hardest to fit the stereotype as the “typical Hackensack student.” Maywood kids tend to be seen as the “prude, law abiding” type of people and seem to actively show that is not the case. If Maywood kids could forget about their “reputation” maybe they would see that Hackensack is not about reinventing yourself but embracing who they are fully and without a care about what others may think.

The “Hackensack Kids” are the kids that seem to try the hardest to embody that inner city toughness. Kids who want to make Hackensack similar to the hood. Kids who wanna be gangsters but seem to forget they live in the suburbs. The kids who settle for less and take the great opportunities they've been blessed with for granted. The type of kids to succumb to the foolish idea of the ‘trap’ lifestyle that essentially leads nowhere. Hackensack kids need to abandon this epiphany that they are the toughest kids in the school. They feel this way because they are originally from Hackensack, while all the other students are from “white towns”. They need to focus on what’s truly important; they would see they have as much potential as any other person in the school to be a great and successful student.

The “Rochelle Park Kids” are the kids that may seem “weird” to an individual. Rochelle Park kids have a bad reputation but clearly are the special sort. The kids that are often identified as weird because of their quiet mannerisms. A number of kids from this town tend to enjoy anime and other things that attract a certain crowd. Majority of them are unique in their own way, but aren’t given the chance to express and be themselves in the culture of Hackensack High. They remain to themselves and stay in their closed-friend groups. They are generally misunderstood and when someone takes the time to know one, they always say “I would have never guessed you’re from Rochelle Park.” They might not be the most social but they are important to the makeup of Hackensack High School regardless.

The “South Hackensack Kids” are usually the kids with high goals in high school. The kids who enter as a freshman with the mindset that they are going to keep their eye on the prize of graduation and beyond. These are the kids who come off as a little uppity and snobby as usually they solely focus on school or sports. These are the kids who challenge themselves with loads of advanced courses knowing the benefits it will result in. South Hackensack kids could benefit from relaxing a bit. Of course, no one wants them to relax to the point where they taking their eyes off the prize but to relax and not act like their better or smarter then the next person.

*Of course these are our personalize generalizations and not everybody who comes from these towns are as typed as above. These are just the stereotypes everybody uses involuntarily (or voluntarily) as they attend this school. Don’t catch feelings, everything written above was in good humor.

Nissim & Ahmed.