I’m writing this letter in response to your Feb. 5 editorial “High School Years: A Time to Serve.” I found the article very partisan toward the people in favor of requiring community service to graduate. I don’t feel that the arguments my fellow classmates and I have about the community service requirements have been fairly heard. I always thought that the job of the newspaper on issues such as this was to give both aspects.

In the article, you failed to mention that nearly 80 percent of Union Pines students dislike the idea of community service. It is not just that requirements to graduate are hard enough for some students, but the concept of forcing us to take part in something that has the majority of us students oppose. Forcing students to get involved in the community could have a negative effect in the long run.

We as students have a lot of our choices already made for us by the school system. It should be left up to the students to decide if they want to do community service to graduate. I strongly believe that community service would have a more positive impact on students if they choose to do it themselves. In our life it will be the choices we make that will make the difference. How are we to ever learn how to make decisions for ourselves if the school system makes them for us? I agree that community service will make you a better person and help you learn responsibility, but the decision should be the student’s to make.

I hope that in the future your newspaper will fully give both sides of issues such as this. It seems that you have failed to do that in this editorial. But it is what I have grown accustomed to reading in your paper: one side of an issue with just a brief sentence or two on the opposing side. It is the job of a newspaper to give information fair to all people and sides of an issue. Maybe in the future you will –– not just to satisfy me, but for the good of all your readers.

Ryan Sanders

Sophomore Class President

Union Pines High School

Cameron