A lot of things have been bothering me this school year, one of the biggest being the golden rule of respect.

It’s something simple that we should have learned in Kindergarten, but something about high school makes kids think it’s cool to be mean. They don’t feel the need to listen to teachers or their peers. They think they are funny for interrupting every two seconds and making fun of others, but the fact of the matter is that they are not.

Typically everyone thinks of freshman as immature and the cause behind disrespect, but that is nothing more than a cop-out. Juniors and seniors can be and are just as disrespectful, if not more disrespectful than freshman. While freshman can use the immaturity excuse—a thin excuse at that–, juniors and seniors cannot. There is no reason for disrespect, especially as you get older.

While high school popularity may reward disrespect, the real world does not. So while respectful kids are sitting quietly in the back of a class room regretting signing up for the class they are in, just remember that there is a whole world waiting for them after they walk off the stage with their diploma.