By Anndrea Vasquez and Marlene Cazarez

Your day drones on like the past few months have, class after class, teacher after teacher, four years in a single school. Stress overwhelms you to the core, drowned in the work of AP and Honors classes, and your following semesters continue to consist of sleepless nights. The lingering thought of dropping out persists. The thought is quick and you attempt to quickly brush it off, but you begin to wonder what would happen if you did drop out. What would you parents say? Your friends? How would they react?

We asked a student to perform an experiment to see how their family and friends would react and this is what happened.  When senior, Isaac Jimenez, sat down with his parents to have a “serious” talk in which he mentioned to his parents about him wanting to drop out. What was mentioned to us was that his parents did not react well to the idea of him dropping out and said, “They (his parents) looked at me like, ‘What?’.” He also stated that “They went off on me and said, ‘No you’re not your three 

older brothers dropped out and I (his mom) don’t want you to drop out. You’re going to be the first one to go to college,’ and I’m like ‘No Ama, I already decided I’m going to drop out.’” Once Isaac noticed things started to get a bit out of control he decided to tell them that he was kidding.

When Isaac performed this experiment on his friends he received two different responses. A couple of his friends weren’t really bothered by the idea of him wanting to drop out. The reason for this was because, “You know if you want to then go ahead, we’re gonna do it anyway.” But others were like, “Nah bro, it’s your last year like you know and then that’s it.” Overall, Isaac was bummed with his friends’ response because he thought that they actually cared for him. The other’s response actually made him feel better and realize who his actual friends were.

We also questioned students if they’ve ever considered dropping out at a point during the school year and you’ll be surprised by the responses we got.

According to sophomore, Maya Wence, dropping out crosses her mind, but she said it’s not something she would do. She also said, “It’s not that the work is hard but it’s the amount of work that overwhelms me.” We also asked Maya what she thinks her friends would say if she were to express her feelings of dropping out, and she said, “They think a good education is important.”

The thought of dropping out has crossed many students minds, including another sophomore, Braulio Urena who when asked the question responded that he has considered dropping out and that, “There are points where you feel there’s too much (work) and you get stressed out.” When asked if his friends would care if he dropped out, Braulio said: “My friends would tell me not to do it.”

Sophomore Adrian Valle said, “They (His friends) would tell me to educate myself so I can get ahead in life.” But when asked what he would say if his friends said they wanted to drop out, Adrian said he would tell them “Go ahead.” He also said it “.depends on where they are now if they’re failing and there is like no hope then might as well.

When we asked senior Daniela Grajeda what her friends would say, she said: “They would get mad, and would help me, and wouldn’t let me drop out.” Many seniors thought dropping out would be dumb when they only have one year left, which is an evident conclusion.

To conclude, being minorities in South LA, we are demanded of with many expectations and in APB the drop-out rates are not nearly as high than in other high schools, which may be the cause of dedicated teachers and our staff. The thought of dropping out is unavoidable and has crossed our minds at one point, fortunately as a student of APB dropping out is easily avoidable with resources like Guided Study, teachers and good friends. So, even though it get’s hard, stay in school and go to college.