I first and foremost want to say that during my time in high school at Mt. Carmel Area some of the only things that kept me sane while taking hard AP courses and making stressful decisions about my future were my extra curricular activities. While I played my fair share of sports, the musicals are what completely stole my heart from the very beginning and gave me a true purpose. They are what brought joy to my life in the times that I thought happiness was just something you read about in a book or saw on the TV. That was my reality through high school and I wouldn’t have been able to make it through if I didn’t have the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful program that was supported by many.

Just imagine this- you’re a junior in high school and you’ve been told by your basketball coach during your last game to give it your all because next year they have decided to cut the sport you care about the most, the thing you’re actually good at, so they have room and money in the budget to keep all of the other sports going. You become teary-eyed and there’s a deep deep sadness that weighs down your heart because you finally come to the realization that this is it, there’s no more room for improvement. Your hopes and dreams finally end here.

“But there’s other sports to play!” People tell you to make you feel better. But you’ll never feel good again as long as they take the one thing that you had to be proud of away from you. The other sports will never compare to the way you felt when you played the sport you were good at, and nothing will ever be able to mend the huge hole that is now where your heart used to be.

This was obviously a hypothetical situation- Mt. Carmel Area is too caught up in all things athletic to even consider cutting out a sports program. But tonight at the school board meeting this situation was sadly the harsh reality for those students who fought hard to try and save the arts program.

Considering I graduated from MCA, I don’t know all of the details that the students that still attend do, but here’s my rundown of the situation. MCA currently has two magnificent and caring art teachers who, between the two of them, are responsible for teaching general art for grades 7th-9th and every elective class that the school offers. After the school board made the decision to cut one of the two teachers tonight, this leaves all the responsibility for one teacher.

Without having two teachers in the school teaching art, something that MCA has had available for around 40 years, there is no way for the school to possibly offer all of the different courses they currently have for the years to come.

This may not seem like a big deal to the people who aren’t involved. They’ll argue “at least they didn’t cut the whole art program, you should be happy!” But what happened tonight in that auditorium room was far from right- it was unjust and unfair to all of the adults, students, and teachers in the room that made valid points as to why it shouldn’t be cut.

To the people that couldn’t attend the meeting or just didn’t care to- you should have seen the looks of sorrow on the faces of those poor kids. The amount of tear stricken faces and shaky hugs that were exchanged throughout the room would have made you think that you were at a funeral. And for many of those people, it basically was the death of their freedom, their expression, and their dreams.

I’m about to get real right now when I say this- shame on the school board members who I watched absentmindedly stare off into the distance when students, parents, and teachers stood up in front of the whole room of people to make their case. Shame on the school board as a whole for not discussing the decisions in front of the people who attended the meeting and walking out of the room to make their decision instead. Shame on the president and announcer of the meeting for sneaking in their decision to cut the program, so well, that most of the people in the room didn’t even know they did until the whole board left.

And most importantly- shame on every single board member for cowardly exiting the room as soon as they could so they didn’t have to witness the after effects that their decision had on a whole group of people. You made your bed and then you were too afraid to lie on it.

When is this area finally going to get a grip on the true reality of the world and realize that sports are not the end all be all of regular society? Art, much like athletics, has the power to bring all different people together, but instead of being judged about how fast you can run or how well you can dribble a ball, art is something that will never discriminate.

Art is a form of expression, it's a form of passion, it's a form of dreaming, and most importantly it's something that will never ever die no matter how hard you try to extinguish it. By cutting part of the arts program you're not doing anything productive- you're eliminating an enriched exposure of culture for students at a young age and neglecting to give them the full education that each and every one of them is entitled to.

Some kids don't have the best home lives in our area. Some of them aren't good at math or science or even english. These are the kids that get excited on the days they have art classes and look forward to coming to school, rather than dreading it. It's their escape and they should be given the opportunity to have the same chance to find their true passion in the same way a kid who plays a sport does.

Believe it or not, there's a big world outside of Mt. Carmel and by continuing to cut these programs that matter to so many people, you're not preparing them for that big world full of diversity, but rather shielding them from something they shouldn't be afraid of. My fear is that now that this part of the art program is gone, what will be cut next? The band, the chorus, the school musicals, the whole art department in general? There's no stopping the snowball effect from here if we don't take a stand now.

Before the decision was made to cut part of the art program, one board member in particular said something to the effect of, “We appreciate the turnout tonight and it’s great to hear so many students come out and use their voices to speak up.” Out of all of the things that came out of his mouth that night, that was the only thing I can say I agreed with him on.

So that’s what we have to do and that’s really what I’m trying to do as I’m writing this article. I want to use my voice and this platform to speak up for something good, something worthy of my time, so I can say I made some kind of difference in the high school I graduated from. We should always try to leave a place better than how we found it.

So to anyone reading this article- that’s exactly what you have to do to. Get mad, get rip-roaring angry and use that voice of yours to stand up for the things you believe in. Use social media, use any kind of resource you have to let it be known that you’re not going down without a fight.

Don’t ever let someone else who knows very little to nothing about what you love make you feel like what you’re doing doesn’t matter. They don’t know how you feel, but it’s your job to make sure that you never give up on trying to help them understand.

Art can’t and never will be expendable- it is an embodiment of feelings, a portrayal of expression, a unique type of communication, and most importantly, it is a sacred form of hope for so many different people in this world. And with hope, even the smallest armies have the charisma to win the war.