Through the Living Questio

My school now forces us to go to pep rallies 

it’s always obscenely loud so I pulled up an online decibel meter

guys this thing isn’t OSHA compliant…

this may not be an occupational setting, however the highest dB recorded was 116.5 dB, with the average being 100.5 

OSHA standards require that decibels from 110 to 114 decibels be limited to thirty minute intervals, and 115 plus be limited to fifteen minutes. 

While it may not be constant, we’re still reaching over 110 dB very consistently over the course of the pep rally, which lasts about thirty minutes. Thus the lack of OSHA compliance. 

Also they only give the ability to skip the pep rallies to people with base access, and while I agree that they are the people who need it most, there are still a lot of people who are sound-sensitive that—for one reason or another—don’t have that. Maybe their parents don’5 believe in that, maybe the school denied it, maybe they just haven’t gotten it diagnosed yet, there are many reason why someone may need this, and they’re not getting it. Heck, maybe they have a 504 plan (or something like it) granting other accommodations, but they didn’t try for base access, or their parents didn’t think they needed it, or a hundred or thousand other possibilities. 

What i’m trying to say is that they should go back to letting people skip the pep rallies. Hearing damage isn’t the only problem. The school has these pep rallies to bolster and build school spirit. however, since they’re forcing attendance, it’s building resentment rather than respect. Many people I know hate the pep rallies because they’re loud and overstimulating, and since they’re forced to go, it makes them mad, and it makes them hate the school and the school’s choices. If they really want to build school spirit, don’t force people to do things they don’t want to do, let people do more things they want to do (within reason, such as letting 9th graders go to the main campus for clubs and vice-versa. I’m a senior, and there’s clubs on the 9th graders campus that my old teachers are running that I want to go to. (I’m a nerd so it’s obviously D&D club)). 

I dunno just my thoughts on this