Mt. Eden High School has no formal reporting system for students to access and receive a response. If students are having an issue with a student on student concern there is a district anonymous reporting system. At school if you have an issue with facilities or complaint at the local level the only thing you can do is take your concern to a staff member.
Students are losing out on class time and are feeling unsafe due to issues on campus that are difficult to report. The anonymous student reporting that is available to students is limited to student conflicts. Issues such as unfit bathrooms or broken chairs or desks require students to walk further, losing class time without a way to find resolution.
“There’s not a formal process,” said Assistant Principal William Wright.
Wright was not aware of any formal complaint system available to students, reporting that staff have the walkie talkie system to broadcast and resolve issues around campus.
“I would immediately put a work order in and call M1 [maintenance one],” said Wright, commenting on his response if he received a report of a campus issue.
“I always tell students their first option is their most trusted adult,” said Wright. “Usually the guardian or whoever the parent is, will alert the school.”
A comment request was sent out to various high schools and middle schools in the HUSD school district asking if they have implemented systems for their students to report such issues, but no response was received.
Since there is no formal way at school to report these types of issues, students are left to report to a third party such as their parents and or teachers, hoping to get the message across.
When they don’t report they find other ways to manage their school day. “They didn’t want to go to the [B Hall] bathrooms because it was unsafe, so they preferred to go through the whole campus to the other building, the STEM building. They are spending a lot of time going to the restroom.” said Martin Conizales, a Spanish teacher at Mt. Eden.
“I filed a request for a work order for the bathrooms, I verified that one of the doors was totally broken. I waited for three or four weeks,” said Canizales.
He reported a bathroom issue that his students have been talking to him about.
“I don’t know if the problem was solved, but at this point in the school year, students are still afraid about going to the [B Hall] bathrooms,” he said.
With no confirmation that the work order was acted upon, Canizales was unable to confirm if the issue was fixed.
A prominent issue among interviewees was the concerning situation with available bathrooms.
“J Hall bathroom is terrible,” said Mt. Eden sophomore Khloe Packnett. “The roof is messed up.”
“Toilets have been clogged, so the floor has been wet, and the ceiling too, you see the installation missing tiles for the top,” added Mt. Eden sophomore Jordan Iosefa. “If I say there’s no soap … or someone calls the office, it usually doesn’t get fixed until the end of the day.”
“Usually the bathrooms will be completely dirty, there would be a lot of people throwing [paper] towels on the floor, sometimes the toilets would be purposely clogged,” said Mt. Eden junior Hamza Khojazada.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable using the bathroom there.”
Khamari Lewis, a junior at Mt. Eden, pointed out a formal complaint form that exists at the district level—the Williams Complaint Form. Lewis is glad that the system is there, but wishes it was more effective.
“Some of these issues have been present since my freshman year, which was 2022,” said Lewis. “It’s 2024 now, and some of those issues are very much present.”
The Williams Complaint Form is available on the district website, designed specifically for issues with instructional materials, conditions of facilities, and teacher mis-assignment. Available in both Spanish and English, in a fairly easy format to fill out. The form is then submitted to the principal of the school, and a response would be sent back if the complainant filled out the contact fields.