Dear Editorial Board of The Vanguard,

Constructive criticism can sometimes be a tough pill to swallow. But it’s when the criticism turns to “jokes” verging on personal attacks that our school-wide community suffers. Writing an editorial aimed at the entire freshman class, one-fourth of our school, only creates more of a divide between grades. And yes, our grade has come into the Upper School and gained a slight reputation for “shaking things up.” However, if this has bothered the senior class, send us an email, talk to us in private, give us advice, and help us be better at mentoring future classes. In fact, the small acts that you mention don’t represent our whole grade, and mislabel many students who were in reality, just being students! The freshmen will work on what we need to work on, but the rest of the school can also make improvements. While you “joke” about the impact Covid-19 had on our class, coming from first-hand experience, the pandemic stripped away almost two years of development—both socially and academically. It was a challenging time when everyone experienced different struggles, including you. And to downplay the role Covid had on two of our key school years is helping no one whatsoever. We understand you might feel angry about a new class rolling up to the Upper School filled with many large, loud, personalities, but we also imagine the seniors when you were freshmen felt the exact same way. The bottom line is, at least from our grade’s perspective, there was no need to put an entire grade in the spotlight for actions seemingly insignificant to the greater culture of the school, and that this letter only moved things backward instead of forwards in terms of intergrade community. As we move forward, we should all focus on how we can better respect other grades, keeping in mind our motto, Honor, Scholarship, and Kindness. To the seniors graduating, we hope you have fun being freshmen next year. Have a great summer!

Sincerely,

The Freshmen Grade Council