A win for the common good

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH - With all the violence erupting in schools, the most

worrisome to Newport Harbor High School senior Shirin Oskooi is that

which students inflict upon themselves.

“It’s there. Everyone feels it,” she said. “You can’t get anyone’s

attention unless you are thin. You can’t get any respect unless you are

thin.”

The gravest problems facing her peers, Oskooi said, are the eating

disorders that are a ruthless master to emaciated girls and the rampant

binge use of drugs and alcohol to “fit in.”

Tired of seeing these issues swept under the rug, the 18-year-old

bluntly described them and her efforts to abolish them in a scholarship

essay that earned her $5,000 for college last week.

“I compared our school, with its eating disorders and with its drug

problems, to the Columbine shooters and Charles Andrew Williams,” she

said. “They were troubled and couldn’t fit in. They solved their problems

by hurting others, unlike the kids at my school who hurt themselves.”

Oskooi competed against seniors from four other Orange County high

schools last week in the final round of competition for the Safety

Scholarship from Hitachi Ltd.

Each student walked away with at least $1,000 but only one could

capture the grand prize. For that money, students had to make a

presentation as to how these school safety issues might be solved.

The piece of Oskooi’s presentation that captured the judge’s attention

was what she called the “Hi Program”, said Rachel Martin, a spokeswoman

for Hitachi Ltd.

It is as simple as it sounds and something Oskooi and one of her

friends have been doing for three years now, she said.

Since their sophomore year, Oskooi and Laura Kauth have declared one

day a month “hi day.” On that day, they say “hi” to everyone they pass at

school.

“We feel detached from our peers,” Oskooi said. “All it takes is a

simple hello to make everyone feel better. We’ve met so many people

because of it.”

This simple unstructured and accepting gesture among students could

help them resist the urge to conform to potentially dangerous societal

pressures, she said.

She also suggested putting together a high school assembly version of

the DARE program that would reinforce the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

“It’s a great program, but by the time [students] get to high school

they’ve forgotten all the values they learned in that,” Oskooi said. “On

the high school level, there should be an assembly less about drugs and

more about peer acceptance.”

Oskooi’s teachers reinforced the judge’s decision, saying these are

issues she has long been interested in and has taken to heart.

“This is real,” said Martha Topik, Oskooi’s advanced placement English

teacher. “This is something that compels her personally.”

Oskooi hopes to put the $5,000 toward her tuition at either Columbia

or Brown universities next fall, she said.