Columnists: If high school is not like ‘Mean Girls,’ what is it really like?

“You can’t sit with us!”

Gretchen Weiners’ famous line from the 2004 teen comedy film “Mean Girls” has defined, or perhaps stereotyped, the high school experience. Although entertaining, this movie and other similar films that depict teenage life skew people’s views on what high school is actually like.

“Mean Girls” portrays high school life as survival in a pressure cooker, though not in terms of academics. Rather than illustrating high school as a place where students are focused on studying and learning, the movie portrays high school as completely centered around the latest gossip and judgmental cynicism, completely ignoring the educational and positive sides of it.

From what we’ve seen, bullying is not as prominent at SHS as depicted in “Mean Girls,” in which one dominating and popular clique called “The Plastics” control and manipulate the rest.

We do, however, maintain a myriad of small “cliques” around the campus; each small group of friends is very close-knit by common interests and its members are often wary to break out of their friendship circles. Although some cliques are more willing to interact with others, the vast majority of students — divided by race, academics and athletic interests — keep to their own circles.

The bullying in “Mean Girls” is exaggerated. Students do not make “burn books,” nor do they write verbal assaults about “making out with a hot dog.” The school-wide physical fights seen in these movies are less than likely to ever occur. At schools like SHS, hearing cynical and judgmental comments is common, but not on a large scale as seen in movies.

Of course, SHS is not free from bullying. In 2014, a student made a Gossip Girl account, targeting many people on Instagram, a popular social media platform. There was once even a Confessions Facebook page, which exposed many students’ secrets. All of these were eventually shut down, but not before it hurt and embarrassed many students.

Most troubling of all was what SHS sadly experienced in 2012 with the death of Audrie Pott. (See the documentary “Audrie and Daisy” for a heart-wrenching account of this episode.)

Most of the bullying that occurs at the school is not met through face-to-face confrontations as shown in the movies, but instead occurs online behind internet anonymity, quite possibly making the situation worse.

In addition, rather than physical aggression, students placed under academic stress also sometimes passively make fun of one another, comparing intellect and appearances. In academically competitive schools such as SHS, students who earn worse grades than others are at times the target of derision.

The segregation shown in “Mean Girls” places a hierarchy of groups based on race and economic standing. It places the wealthy “Plastics” at the top of the social pyramid, sending the message that happiness and success in high school can only be achieved through appearance and money. This presents unrealistic images and social expectations that people may be tempted to think are accurate interpretations of high school society.

Although movies and television shows may not be the sole influence creating false perceptions, they do help perpetuate the idea of a toxic high school culture.

Movies like “Mean Girls” are not documentaries of the lives people are living as high schoolers. The dangerous obsession of fitting in with others often forces people to change their images so that they match the unrealistic ones shown in these movies.

Although some aspects presented in these movies, such as bullying, do occur, we’ve found high school to mostly be a place where students learn in a positive environment along with supportive friends and teachers.