Whether someone’s a freshman or a senior, most would know the unwritten rules of high school. Right?

That’s what I always thought until I finished the first whole week of school this year. There is a group where 50 percent of students are lacking this knowledge. Not that it’s bad or shame-able, it’s just time to educate the ones who don’t know.

While on the topic of freshman and seniors, the first rule can come into play: Seniority is key. To be honest, I think this rule is broken a lot, and most do not care, but some still care. Seniors always come first, then juniors, sophomores and ending with freshmen. I don’t think freshmen should have a say in some things like seniors do, nor should they get treated the same as a senior. That’s always how school works, and I don’t know if it’ll ever change. I doubt it would.

While I believe that this rule is completely valid, and will be for a long time, that doesn’t mean upperclassmen should make underclassmen’s school life awful. There are also things that people cannot change, and that’s the burning hatred most upperclassmen have for underclassmen. I don’t condone the hatred and teasing, but at the same time it’s a ‘tradition’, and I don’t think it will be changing any time soon.

There’s a rule everyone talks about: Do not stop walking in the middle of the hallway. But there are sister rules to that, that might as well create a bigger sentence, or even paragraph, of the same rules. Such as, don’t walk slowly in the hallways, or don’t do the waddle walk instead of the normal right foot left foot forward. [That one is where people ‘waddle’ or step side to side instead of stepping forward.] In no way is this meant to make someone self-conscious of how they walk, just more especially aware of the fact some people have places to be. Personally my schedule is back and forth the whole day on varying floors. Getting stuck behind a person taking their time with only a minute left on the clock, and I still have half a building to cross is a big no-no. It’s always nice to be conscious of peers and their schedules.

Although in no way is this an excuse for people to start shoving each other because someone is walking slower. If someone is slow, don’t complain and cuss in the middle of the bridge, walk around if possible, or even nicely ask them to walk faster. Chances are they’re just avoiding their next class, or have no idea they’re being slow. Also take into consideration heights have a small role in how fast someone walks. I walk with my friends who are very much taller than me, and sometimes it’s hard to catch up with them.

Now that the biggest, but most commonly ignored rule is out, the next one is equally as annoying. Be nice to substitutes and kind-hearted, generous teachers.

Some people, if not most of the students at Altoona, have had a teacher who was so tremendously nice and generous with literally everything. To be honest, it probably was an English teacher. But 75 percent of the students here take every single one of these teachers for granted and abuse their kindness until they lose their patience.

I don’t care what people do as long as they don’t ruin the kindness for everyone else. Some kids genuinely appreciate teachers, don’t throw it away for them.

Honestly, nothing is more saddening in a school environment than when favorite, super sweet, teachers go the opposite way because of a student testing their patience too much. Do not walk over teachers in general but especially not the kind ones.

Another thing that really messes with my brain is the music blaring. I adore music, I really do. But if someone is blaring country music through their speakers at 7:30 a.m., I start losing my sanity and questioning why I wake up so early just to hear that. That’s the next rule. Don’t blare music using a speaker in school. Literally the only exception to this is if someone has special permission to have their phone and play music for the class. I cannot think of any other valid reason to play music in the halls at 7 a.m. and at the end of the day. I suggest to all students to wait until they reach their car.

No one wants to hear blaring music that early, or even during the afternoon. The only exceptions to this are only that person’s friends or some random passerbys. But the end of the story is that it should be common human decency to not blare music, because after all, maybe not everyone enjoys what is being played.

Next, homework, the thing nearly every student absolutely despises.

If someone’s asking for help on homework, always help and never remind a teacher about a homework assignment.

Sometimes students, including me, get into a little bit of a pickle. Those pickles being someone didn’t know how to do the homework, they forgot to do it, they fell asleep before doing any of their homework, etc. When a student is in need, always help them out. I wish more people were nice about it, but I can understand if someone never does their work and is asking for help every day, that definitely is an issue, and I wouldn’t be giving help.

Then never remind a teacher about homework. I feel like the second someone starts to remind a teacher about homework, they instantly become hated for that day. It’s annoying when someone reminds the teacher about doing the homework in general. If someone did their homework and the teacher goes to collect it, they’re not affected. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on the people who do remind the teachers because now they have to deal with angry classmates and maybe even a newly cranky teacher. To save everyone the issue, just follow the rule and don’t remind them until the end of class, alone or if the teacher remembers.

So the unwritten rules of high school aren’t too awful, but people don’t know them, or refuse to abide by them when they should.