Columnist opens her mind to a different side of Los Gatos High

I had always thought of Los Gatos High as uncharted enemy territory with a superior sports program and a rowdy student body. I envisioned it as a place where people were better looking and academics ran second to athletics and the social scene.

I guess we all could use a little wake-up call once in a while to disprove stereotypes and open our minds.

I got my wake-up call at 7:30 a.m. on March 10, when I arrived at Los Gatos High School and pasted a visitor’s badge on the front of my shirt. I was there to shadow, to go behind enemy lines and find out if my perceptions were true.

The fist thing I noticed was the campus, huge and beautiful, with hallways that look just like a high school should look—with wide, indoor corridors lined on both sides by lockers. Yet for how big and crowded the school was, the office seemed surprisingly small and empty.

I was struck by the contrast to the office at Saratoga High, where students and adults mingle; there is always a crowd at assistant principal Karen Hyde’s office, a sign-up sheet or donation box and a line in the guidance office.

At Los Gatos all of the offices are spread out, giving the campus a sort of disconnected feeling.
Although the office at Los Gatos may be more efficient and less chaotic, there is something about walking into the office and feeling welcome that cultivates a closer relationship between administration and students and brings a feeling of belonging.

When junior Isabelle Monahan, the girl that I was shadowing, arrived, I was surprised to find that she was not the stereotypical Los Gatos party girl that I had envisioned. Small and dark haired, Monahan takes AP and honors classes, she studies during tutorial and is a section editor on the school newspaper, El Gato.

Suddenly, I was introduced to a side of Los Gatos that I never knew existed. There were kids who focused on their education. They studied during tutorials, took advanced classed and didn’t party.

As I sat in advanced classes like AP Language, Spanish 4 Honors and physics, I noticed a different energy in the air. When someone didn’t understand a topic or made a mistake, no one laughed. When they took a quiz, kids weren’t predicting their own epic failures.

No one discussed grades, Aeries, SAT or college. Even though the classes seemed hard, people were more relaxed. Some students who I talked to said that there is a sort of unofficial buddy system, where people at the top of the class will help those who are struggling. They said that they feel like they have each other’s backs; there is no judgment if someone forgets their homework or bombs a test.

The El Gato newspaper staff is very different from the Falcon staff, which has two periods and 74 staff members. By contrast, the Los Gatos paper has only 27 staff members and each new member is hand-picked by the staff. Monahan told me that the staff is comprised of some of the most interesting people at the school and it is a great honor and very competitive to be chosen to be on staff.

While there are students who are studious, students said that there are plenty of people who party at Los Gatos and girls said that there are definite cliques. Looking around the front lawn at lunch, one can see a campus divided by cliques and social barriers. According to students, boys are more cliquey, hanging out based on sports teams.

Looking around, whites are the majority. Although students are open minded, they admitted that some students are naively ignorant when it comes to racial differences. One Asian student said that a boy asked her what Asians eat for breakfast—she told him that she eats cereal.

Early in the day the adviser of El Gato, Doug Garrett, had urged me to open my mind. At the time I thought nothing of it, but by the end of the day I had a new perspective on our sister high school. Turns out, it’s not so bad after all.