While Fairfax County is among the wealthiest counties in the nation, the opportunities offered for students vary greatly by school. McLean is notably wealthier than other schools—including Justice High School, which receives Title I funding to help improve student conditions.
“We get opportunities like the Justice Scholarship Fund, which fills in for financial aid that a student didn’t receive from a college to bridge the gap between us and other schools,” said senior Yohannan Gugsa, Editor-in-Chief of Justice’s student news publication, The Verdict. However, these programs are often not enough to address the disparities.
“Before we were a Title I school, it was harder for us to get funding for basic things. For example, we ran out of paper and ink,” Gugsa said. “There are a lot more resources that [McLean has] in classes that would be good to have in Justice.”
Even in wealthier schools, students of lower-income families can feel overwhelmed by their surroundings.
“At McLean, a lot of the kids are really well-off, so it’s harder to access resources since I’m coming from a lower-income background when a lot of my friends at school have tutors and private counselors,” senior Daniel Campos-Morales said. “I have to put in twice the work to get the same results, which is the most challenging and frustrating part.” Some McLean students hope changes will occur for improved student support.
“My teachers and counselors [at McLean] have done a much better job than the administration in addressing [opportunity] issues,” Campos-Morales said. “I hope to see changes in the future with more diversity and opportunities for minority groups.”
ZAKAREYA HAMED, McLean HS student
On the morning of Friday, March 14, at around 7:30 a.m., I stepped foot onto Justice High School’s campus for the first time. The main entrance was lively; music was playing in an apparent Friday morning tradition as a counselor got his head shaved by the front door.
The diversity in students was great to see—students of all backgrounds were speaking a variety of languages in the hallways as I walked to the first class of my exchange, IB Environmental Systems. Having taken AP Environmental Science last year, I expected something similar. Justice exclusively offers IB courses, and this was my first time getting a glimpse of the IB system as an AP student. After the bell rang, the teacher announced the day’s plan: a Socratic seminar on population growth. The idea of a Socratic seminar in a science course struck me as unique, with IB putting a special emphasis on writing and discussion, even in STEM courses. Only 17 out of 25 students were present in that class. Although the school does notably have twice as many chronically absent students as McLean, that morning’s attendance could have been a byproduct of senioritis, considering the class was all seniors. As the day progressed, I took an IB English course as well as journalism, which I take at McLean. Justice’s journalism program is underfunded, though the students work hard in spite of it. Speaking with their new principal, Sean Rolon, who was an assistant principal at McLean in the past, I learned that most differences between Justice and McLean lie in the image of each school. Talking with Justice students truly felt like meeting a drastically different community, so close yet so different.
Yohannan Gugsa, Justice HS student
Walking into McLean High School, I immediately felt the difference. The walls were lined with trophies, and the classrooms were filled with new technology. It wasn’t that Justice lacked spirit or ambition, but the gap in resources was undeniable. I later learned that much of what McLean had came from community donations. At Justice, where most families are low-income, those kinds of contributions are hard to come across. The first class I went to was AP Biology. The difference between AP Biology and IB Biology was interesting. The class had a substitute teacher, but I learned that it mainly consisted of independent self-paced work. In IB classes, we always have group projects and interactive classes. As I went through the day, I noticed another stark difference— diversity. At Justice, I’m surrounded by students of all backgrounds. But here, the student body was noticeably less diverse. I struggled to find students who looked like me in most classrooms, which was new to me. It made me think about how economic disparities shape entire communities. McLean students sometimes have Highlander Time Flex, which is similar to Blue Day Fridays at Justice, except McLean students can be anywhere on campus without a pass. The next class I went to was journalism. The abundance of resources was evident with many cameras around the room. Exploring the broadcast journalism room, I was again surprised by the amount of cameras and microphones. The Justice administration and community work hard to bridge these gaps, from after-school programs to the Justice High School Scholarship Fund.
