Commentary:  Where Are You  in the High School Food Chain? By Robby Clipper (April 19, 2004)

This can also be said about George Mason High School or any high school for that matter. It can be said about almost every institution in which humans interact with one another. Those two rules are followed very closely by people, students in particular. 

In our school there are many cases of persecution towards others, the weaker or less cool of the group. It has become a way of life, a way of survival. If you are not picking on someone you are in turn being picked on. Because of the respective cliques of our school there are people being picked on. 

All of the picking on and being mean to starts with the top clique, the cool kids, and filters down to the less cool until it reaches the bottom. It’s almost like a food chain, with the cool kids at the top. They determine who gets picked on and who doesn’t, they are the predators. In our grade there are cliques such as the "jocks," "preps," and "partyers" rolled into one and it makes up nearly half, if not more, of the student body. This is this clique that is at the top of the food chain.

This clique is constantly picking on someone; usually it is one of the pack-less students (the ones with no set clique who just wander in and out aimlessly through the days of high school.) These are the select few that do not even have enough social skills to come into a clique. These people are the weak and sick waiting to be preyed upon. These people are exclusively picked on time and time again. This seems odd though, to me at least. We as students are picking on them because they don’t belong and because they have no friends, when we aren’t giving them a chance to prove they belong. We break them down until we are satisfied, bringing their self-esteem and their view of their own social skills to a minimum. It seems a little contradictory when you think about it. People don’t even think about why they are picking on them, they just do; it’s a natural instinct to do so.

It’s terrible when the persons being picked on defend themselves. They are condemning themselves to even more torture and don’t even know it. It’s like the scared prey running wildly into a pack of hungry predators without realizing it until it’s too late. The whole pack then will swoop in and come to the defense of the member who was picking on them and then as a group make the person’s life a living hell for the rest of the period. The weak simply cannot win, it’s a sad truth.

I can almost guarantee that if given a chance many of these people can and would be accepted into a clique but since we as teenagers are so narrow-minded it will never happen. It is survival of the fittest and the cool kids won’t allow any others to become more fit. They don’t allow anyone to challenge their authority and to progress in the food chain. It is this way now, it has been this way for generations, and it will be this way forever. There will always be a struggle for power and survival in high school and in nature.