INSIDE QUAD-CITY HIGH SCHOOL CLIQUES
By Ann McGlynn, QUAD-CITY TIMES (Iowa, 1999)
On a rainy Wednesday morning, just before the
school bell rang at 8 a.m., it started. One group of
students, some with hair dyed black, clothes to
match and earrings dotting lips, eyebrows and
tongues, stood to the right of the school doors.
Other students, some wearing jeans, jackets and
with hair up in ponytails, gathered to the left. In
between, teens from other groups passed by without
notice on the way to meet friends near their lockers.
This scene happened to play out at Bettendorf High
School last week. But it is replayed at every high
school every day: teens grouping with similarly
dressed, like-minded teens in cliques. The jocks.
The preppies. The Goths. The Mansonites. The
skaters. The thespians. The musicians. The dirties.
The computer geeks. The Quad-City Times
recruited 12 high school journalists to get first-hand
accounts of what unites and divides teenagers. In
interviews with more than 35 high school students,
the reporting team heard about different viewpoints.
Despite those differences, the reporting effort
showed one important point of agreement: everyone
must work harder to show respect to others. "We’re
failing there. We’re failing with respect. We’re
fixing the symptoms and not the cause," said
Lyndsay Deckert, a senior at DeWitt (Iowa) Central
High School. Cliques form in the junior high and
high school years because teens are working to form
their identity away from their family ó the first
social group, said Linda Petersen, assistant
professor of social work at Marycrest International
University of Davenport. "Kids need to do that.
They need to dye their hair purple of pierce their
tongue. We want kids to experiment with different
personalities," she said. Some kids go into a clique
that is opposite of their family’s personality. Others
join a clique that has the same characteristics as
their parents and siblings, Petersen said.
"Some cliques serve as almost another family, in
which people hold different roles, and offer an
alternative support group," said Meghan Smith, a
student at United Township High School. Y et
others cross the line between cliques and have
friends who are cheerleaders and gang bangers.
Some don’t reach out to a group; they reach out to a
teacher or pastor or another adult. It’s when teens
can’t reach out that many get into trouble, Petersen
said. "It’s good to feel like you belong to
something," Davenport North student Tania Derrick
said. However, cliques can be damaging, too,
Petersen cautions. "There is unneeded hatred
among the cliques," said Kim Frizzell, a student at
Pleasant Valley High School. "You don’t even
know each other, but you hate one another. "Mark
Vincent, a social psychologist at Augustana College
in Rock Island, agrees. “You tend to like members
of your own group and not like the members of
other groups... and think you are better than them,"
he said. Frizzell has been at the receiving end of
comments about the "other group." "Some would
say we are drug addicts, violent, racist, consumed
with death and darkness. They say we don’t
shower. They say we are psychos and gay. They use
very derogatory terms. "Vincent explains humans
do tend to believe that members of other groups are
all the same. At the same time, they recognize the
distinct differences among the people in their own
group ó physically, mentally and emotionally, he
adds. It takes a conscious attempt to break down
that thought process, as well as an opportunity to do
so, he said. And it’s the opportunity that may be the
hardest part. "People will tell me, I didn’t like you
before because of your friends. Now that I know
you, you’re pretty cool," said Bambi Suits, a student
at United Township High School. Vincent offered
one suggestion for students: ask to designate a day
at school to encourage students to talk to someone
they have never spoken with before kind of like a
dress up day for homecoming week. "You could
start a whole new dialogue," he said.