Oceanside may be kind of a mess sometimes, but I would never have wanted to grow up anywhere else. I’ve been a member of the Oceanside community since before I was born, and 21 years later, I wear my own senior shirts today with pride, three years after graduating. Senior year is a time for reflection, celebration, and graduation. Senior shirts are supposed to be funny, cute, and things you want to look back on years down the line with pride – not shame and regret.

A member of the high school graduating class of 2014, and an alum of the middle school, Boardman elementary, and the kindergarten center, I’ve been in the Oceanside education system for the majority of my life. I’m proud to be a sailor, and you should be too.

Recently, there’s been a little bit of an uproar throughout the Oceanside community, centered around one specific senior shirt made by a small group of students. Before I go further into details, I want to emphasize the point made by many current OHS seniors, parents, and alumni. This shirt is in no way, shape or form a reflection on the entire senior class, Oceanside High School, or the Oceanside community. This shirt was created solely by a small group of students, and there is absolutely NO REASON why the entirety of the class of 2017 should be blamed when the majority of current seniors are just as outraged and disgusted as the rest of the community. When I asked my cousin, a member of this years’ graduating class what she thinks of the whole issue, the first thing she said was

“I’m just really sad that it’s being blamed on the whole grade. It was just a small group.” - Emma Rev, class of 2017

As a 21-year-old, I can honestly say I have absolutely no idea what the majority of words and phrases on this shirt mean. Many parents, as well as former and current Oceanside High School students, have resorted to searching the words on Urban Dictionary and were ultimately disgusted and horrified at the results.

“I was really proud to go to Oceanside High School, especially since we seemed so accepting of kids with special needs, but I look at this shirt and wish I had graduated from somewhere else.” - Alex Pearl, class of 2015

Oceanside is a district of diversity. We have an incredible special education program with a teacher who won the Regis and Kelly Top Teacher 2011 award. We have incredibly successful programs like Best Buddies, which pairs up a student with special needs and a mainstream student for all four years of high school, as well as programs to help special needs students to learn skills relevant to careers and life once they graduate high school. As a student with ADHD, slightly on the Autism spectrum whose been around kids and adults with special needs such as downs syndrome, Asperger’s, Autism, and many more for her entire life, I personally take offense to the phrase “spednation.” Not only is ‘sped’ an offensive term in general, but the fact that the students who made this shirt either use ‘sped’ as an insult with each other, and/or use it as an insult in general, is disgusting. Urban dictionary defines “Sped” as

1. One who attends special education classes
2. The special education program
3. An insult used when someone does something stupid.
4. A derogatory term meaning retard comes from the phrase special education.

The fact that both “an insult when someone does something stupid” and “a student in special education classes” are both definitions for the same word to begin with basically proves the point that it’s a disrespectful and derogatory term. The fact that any 17 or 18 year olds think that it’s ok to go around using the word ‘sped’ in any context is appalling. Calling Oceanside “spednation” is offensive and disrespectful.

“I f****** hate it. It’s the single most stupid thing a [small] group of Oceanside seniors have done in a long time.” - Evan Swerdloff, class of 2019

The majority of the phrases on this shirt are about drugs, alcohol, sexual acts and other things of that nature. That’s not the point. The fact that the last four years of your life can be entirely summed up by derogatory terms, sexual innuendos, slang that makes absolutely no sense, and pride in your drug and alcohol use is sad and disappointing. Words like “meeping,” “sauced,” “morphing,” and “quaf” shouldn’t even be in your vocabulary in high school. I, along with many, many others had to look up what “meeping” was. I don’t recommend it. However, I do have some questions for the people that decided to include that word on this shirt.

1. How the heck did you come across this word?
2. Why would you ever feel the need to partake in this act?
3. Why is meeping even a thing?

I saw a screenshot of a post...

...that states, “…And I’m even more positive most have taken part in an inappropriate joke in their life.” I’m sorry, but what about this shirt contributes to being an ‘inappropriate joke’? We’re beyond inappropriate, sorry. “…And nothing about these shirts define these kids as individuals.”

Considering most adults in their early twenties had literally, NO idea what words like ‘meeping’ meant and high school seniors who are 17 and 18 years old do is a reflection on the individual. Put aside all the drug and alcohol references, and even other sexual references, this one isn’t something kids need to be doing. A former classmate of mine said,

“Make an example out of [this] and maybe people will stop justifying behavior like this.” - Will Shargo, class of 2014

People should not be justifying this shirt. Sure, it was a mistake. It was stupid. But it’s also offensive and disrespectful. The students who designed this shirt are 17 and 18 years old, not 7 and 8. They need to be held responsible for their actions and learn that shit happens, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and deal with it like an adult.

I shouldn’t need to point out the obvious, but “n****” is NOT a word that should even be in your vocabulary, especially not your daily vocabulary. Also, fun fact: saying you have “African American friends” that do not take offense to it at all because you’re “not degrading their culture in any way or form” does NOT make it OK for you to use it.

Just because they “know it’s my intent and it’s not personal” makes it worse. What does that even mean? PLEASE enlighten me: what was your intent?

I’m the type of person to look for the good in everybody. I give people second chances. I hope that the people who designed this shirt genuinely did not mean any harm, and until proven otherwise, I will choose to believe that. However, you need to stop defending your word choices, and just own up to it. Accept the fact that it wasn’t a smart decision. In a few weeks, you’ll be graduating. You’ll be on your way to college and adulting. Being an adult means being responsible for your actions and owning up when you make a mistake or a not so great choice. It means accepting whatever consequences may happen from that choice or mistake. Stop defending the use of “n****” (saying your black friend wasn’t offended is not a solid defense anyway), and “spednation”.

“Even though Oceanside can sometimes be a big mess, the whole senior class, nor the entire high school should be represented by the actions of a singular student/group of students that do a dumb thing.” - Evan Swerdloff, Class of 2019

I want to reiterate one more time that this shirt was the creation of a small group of friends, NOT the entire senior class. Most of the students didn’t even know about it until someone posted a picture of it on Instagram. This shirt has disgusted each and every student I have spoken to thus far, current and former. The design is NOT a reflection of the entire high school, the Oceanside community, or the senior class as a whole, just this one small group of friends.