Plainfield South High School

I just graduated and it's been quite a ride. By "ride", I mean the kind that gets stuck in the middle of the corkscrew and leaves you dangling upside down.
I was an honors student in high school, with a high GPA and a clean record for all 4 years. For some reason, the school believed I was this truant delinquent or something upon me being absent FOR ONE DAY OUT OF MY FOUR YEARS THERE. I unfortunately had to attend a funeral my senior year on the last day of homecoming week and, when I got back that Monday, I was accused of truancy even though I was called in before school started that day. I was reprimanded, interrogated, and utterly humiliated in the midst of grieving, and I would go on to be accused 35-40 times that year--I was, and still am, so humiliated upon having to say I went to this school.
However, like most things we perceive to be bad in this world--taxes, authority, other people--I feel like I did gain something from Plainfield South. It wasn't confidence or dignity or anything cheesy like that--this is what they would want you to say and, in fact, Plainfield South took these things away from me. Despite this, I still had passionate and caring teachers and loyal friends I bonded with inside those damned iron-clad walls. I still had valuable life experiences that will stay with me for a lifetime, though "valuable" is not always synonymous with "pleasant".
Exhibit A: All of our senior incentives were taken away or seriously compromised, though at no fault of our own. For example, they said we couldn't have a senior eating area outside the cafeteria due to the wear and tear of the floors. Their solution was to put tables on the same floor they said was so bad they couldn't put tables on it, smaller tables that were still used daily, but tables nonetheless.
Exhibit B: I was a drama geek in high school as well and I performed many a show on the old stage. It, like every other part of the school, had not been replaced for 15 years when the average lifespan of a stage like that is 12 years max. Chairs and doors IN THE AUDITORIUM ALONE were on their last legs, making interactive shows and concerts a hell of a challenge for our audience and performers.
Exhibit C (Yes, there is an Exhibit C): As honors and AP students, we were pushed significantly harder in order to achieve the school's "college-or-nothing" agenda. They promised us all this crap and they delivered it indeed. It came in the form of scholarship search engines that only really contain expired scholarship offers; lapses in communication between staff, students, and parents; assemblies meant to remind us that we're not hot shit and assemblies that reminded us that we never would be unless we did exactly what they said. Coming from a school that is "all-inclusive," this is quite appalling. With an average ACT score of about 20.3, what do they expect? We won't all be Harvard graduates at the end of this, and that's more than OK.
In closing, I deeply apologize for coming off so brash, but these things need to be addressed. And the "valuable" token of my unpleasant experience? It can be summed up with 3 words:
-Don't
-trust
-anyone.
Go Cougars....

I couldn't wait to graduate from Plainfield South. As the years went on, the quality just kept taking a nosedive and attending this school became too overly cringe-worthy to withstand.

Simply put, the quality in everything -- from the facilities to the resources -- is exceedingly poor. The administration struggles to enforce school policies and is largely ignored by the student body. The cafeteria food is repulsive and is on par with what's served in prison. The social scene is too overly dominated by technology, and the majority of students are ignorant and obnoxious, never going out of their way to include others in their social circles.

Outside of a handful of good teachers, there's plenty here who are so bad that students lose confidence in themselves, feel misguided, and fail. The teachers also have their favorites, and tend to help only those who they like and do well. The school receives so little funding that the resources are slim, and the ones that ARE available show their age and constantly remind students of the school's abysmal financial situation.

On top of all this, students here really feel the stigma of attending a lesser-quality school, especially when rivals -- such as Oswego East -- have significant advantages in quality over them. Plainfield South has been regarded by some as the "worst" high school in the district, but despite that, the school will do anything to look pleasing in the eyes of parents. At the same time, however, they largely ignore student feedback, placing less attention on the problems running amok every school year.

Perhaps Plainfield South's most critical and serious issue, however, is its educational outcomes. The curriculum -- outside of a few specific AP and Honors courses -- does more coddling than challenging, and moreover doesn't prepare students for college. The consolers are horribly incompetent, never going out of their way for students and tending to make screw-ups like leaving transcripts sent to colleges blank (I've heard many stories about this). This is especially frightening because one consoler's mistake could severely ruin a student's chances of attending a specific college. They're clearly disorganized and unprepared for properly helping students get ready for the future.

Plainfield South claims that there's "excellence" in "all" they do and "excellence for all they serve, but I couldn't disagree more. It's clearly behind in quality and truly doesn't live up to its motto, and students are being put at a disadvantage here for the future. I strongly suggest for people to avoid this school. Being a Plainfield South Cougar became less of a privilege for me and more of a burden that I'm now happy to have left behind me now.

Plainfield south is a horrible school to go to due to the lack of cleanliness and poor mantainance. For example, in the school's fieldhouse you can still see dry blood stains, left over food, and molds growing out of the floor. Also, when you enter the building, the first thing you see is the dilapidated celling where there is water stains and missing celling tiles. Food in plainfield is the most disgusting food i have ever tasted, there are times that the chicken patty is undercooked and sometimes the milk is either frozen or expired. The school itself is full of jerks, biggots and incompetent people who brought shame to the intellectuals who had worked hard to succeed. To the students who happens to be a gang member or a drug addict that goes to this school you are a shame to yourself and society.