East High School is the home of the Wildcats. The school is run by the laid-back Principal Dave Matsui. It's a friendly school where the students work hard and play hard too. The school prides itself on its broad range of extracurricular activities, from sports and music, to arts-and-crafts.
In keeping with this vision, the school offers academically rigorous classes based on the curriculum, hold high expectations for all students, respond to individual student needs, and provide a safe and healthy environment for student learning. Some schools may also offer individual learning options for students.
At East High there is a unique culture that plays a part in the everyday life of the students. There are certain norms, values, symbols, and language specific to the society of the school that everyone understands and follows. There are hundreds of different norms tell the students what they are and aren’t allowed to do. Some of the norms are formal norms established by the heads of the school, such as no cell-phones in class and no disrespecting teachers. Violating formal norms at East High will result in different degrees of punishment ranging from a talk with a teacher after class to an afterschool detention. On the other hand, there are more informal norms established at the school that everyone understands should be followed. The informal norms are that students in one clique don’t interact with other cliques and they shouldn’t do things that “belong” to another clique. For example, the smart kids shouldn’t skateboard with the skater kids. If any of these informal norms were broken, it would create dismay amongst all students. Other informal norms have less significance and aren’t as big of a deal if they are broken. These folkways include walking on the right side of the hallway and wearing the school colors of red and white to school.
Another component that contributes to the culture at East High is the values that are established. People value sports at East High. Everyone gets very excited when the basketball team is doing well and they give special treatment to the athletes. Also, they value school spirit because the students and faculty place a great amount of importance in getting involved at school and cheering the school on in all competitions and games. The last important value at this school is conformity and resisting change. Everyone at the school fits into a specific place and others get thrown off when anyone tries to make a change. They don’t appreciate people trying new things and experimenting in different social groups. Another component of the culture at East High is symbols. An important symbol is the wildcat because that is their school mascot and it represents their school pride. Another symbol is the basketball championship trophy because it is the ultimate display of success for the school.
Lastly, there is specific language at the school that helps define the culture. Students use the phrase “Get'cha head in the game” to get an athlete to focus because the success of the sports team is so important to them. Also, students repeatedly ask, “What team?” and then reply with “Wildcats!” to show their confidence about the success of the school.
The school strictly enforces a zero-tolerance bullying policy, protecting their students from any kind of bullying.
