The student body displayed a rather rude behavior in the gym during Alter Weiner’s speech on Mar. 31. People tried to tell other students to stop talking so they could listen, but it did nothing to change their behavior.

I sat on the floor with my back to the crowd just so I could listen, and had to go talk to adults about this and two of them stood where a majority of the talking was, ironically the side of the room where the speakers were projecting Weiner’s speech.

I think it even more ironic that the side of the room with all the chit chat was where sophomores and other upperclassmen sit.

Even though this group of people was not in the auditorium where Weiner spoke, it still imposed a high amount of disrespect and even ignorance. I spotted people on phones, talking gossip, and other bull cocky things. I understand that some people left before the assembly for their own reasons, either because of appointment or simply just not wanting to be there, but I feel more strongly on the people in the assembly that outside of it because of one key point.

We were given the chance to meet, listen, and learn from an eyewitness who lived and worked in the concentration camps. We were given the ability to learn just how far the Nazi’s influence stretched before it was finally cut down.  We were given the knowledge that “Every Jew was a victim, but not every victim was a Jew.” We were shown actual documentation and photographs of the aftermath and actions of the Holocaust. We were told that people say that “the Holocaust never happened.”

And all of this was met with ignorance by many in our student body.

This is how people will begin to agree that “the Holocaust never happened.”

There’s not much I can say other than I’m highly disappointed with the student body that was in the gym during Weiner’s speech. Not even a speech; It was his life story. We were hearing it from the horse’s mouth. We were hearing the truth and how not everyone was evil during that time to the Jew. That one person saved his life by risking her own by means of hiding sandwiches for him, and that not every German at that time was evil.

If someone at our school told their life story, and was met with the same setting in the gym, what would they feel? They wouldn’t know that the student body was acting like they did for Weiner, but if they knew what do you think they’d do?

What if it the person speaking was you?

I hope for a better performance should another mandatory assembly pop up this year.  The speaker and the audience both deserve it.