The jocks, the bookworms, the cheerleaders, the nasties, the artists, the stoners, the hotties, the not-so-hotties, and the thespians: the social hierarchy of high school remains complex, different groups of people coming together with a common interest. The question remains though, do these so-called “cliques” create a problem at Placer?
High school is a time for teens to experiment—with their friends, their appearance, or their activities. It is a time for the youth of America to discover themselves and develop their own identities, establishing themselves as their own unique person. In return though, this may be the underlying cause of the formation of groups and cliques in high school.
Placer junior Gabby Orteza believes that most cliques come together over something they have in common: a sport, a good book, or a love for the arts.
“Groups are classified by what people are into, like music: it’s not racial or religious.”
She felt that it was much easier to make friends at Placer, coming from Lincoln, which she referred to as “a buncha haters.”
Codey Hancock, who is of the Morman faith, agreed with Orteza, said that compared to schools such as Del Oro, Placer is not very cliquey.
He agreed that he is not discriminated against because of his faith and said that the group that one is in is dependent on the interests that one has.
“Faith doesn’t have an affect [on who you hang out with] from my perspective”
The agreement that cliques do not have a noticeable affect at Placer is an idea that is widespread throughout our campus. Orteza stated that at Placer, everyone is always making new friends, and people don’t always have to hang out with the same group of people. But with every school, there is someone who will disagree and argue the latter.
How would a school cure a clique problem? Three sport athlete Placer junior Nicole Parrish related this concept back to MTV’s new hit series, If You Really Knew Me.
“Challenge Day. In the show they have it and all the cliques unite and share their feelings and by the end of the day, everyone is a family,” Parrish explained.
Whether one is a nerd, a hottie, or a larper, Placer is a safe refuge from the storm of cliques that other schools present. Placer, as a whole, is like a large family with all its flaws and perfections, but one’s brothers and sisters, or classmates, are expected to accept each other for everything that they are.