It was like a train wreck that is so horrible you can’t look away. As I was sitting in the auditorium seat, listening to the counselors try to give the junior class a presentation on scheduling for next year, all I could think about was how disappointed I was in my classmates.

From the second the juniors were sitting in the auditorium seats, the annoyances began. Somebody had the “mosquito” ring tone, which is so high-pitched that it is supposedly on a frequency that can only be heard by young people.

This ring tone made its debut somewhere around the middle school days when we thought we were cool and could secretly know when our phone was ringing in class.

So, as juniors in high school, some people thought it was funny to bounce this ring tone across the room during the counselors’ presentation, distracting everybody in the room.

Remember when I said the ring tone appeared in middle school? Yeah, it wasn’t funny then either.

Even when counselor Amanda Breeden called the mosquito-ers out by saying that she could hear the ring tone, it wasn’t funny, and to please pay attention, the immature excuses for students kept setting off the ring tone at the most inopportune times, effectively ruining the presentation.

As if this wasn’t enough, many juniors also thought it was funny to clap and cheer at full volume every time a slide changed or a technical difficulty was resolved, clearly mocking the work that the counselors put into the slide show and the scheduling for next year.

Seriously?

I have seen kids in my grade do a lot of dumb stuff, but I have never been as disappointed to be a part of the class of 2013 as I was on last Tuesday. The level of disrespect shown to the counselors made me want to melt into my seat so I didn’t have to look at Rebecca Puster – who has been my counselor since kindergarten and who is the sweetest, most caring, and most hardworking person alive – try to finish a presentation and be openly laughed at by the 16-year-old students she was trying to help.

This event made me realize how spoiled my class is. The counselors are literally hired to make our lives easier. They sat down with each person individually for 10-20 minutes to make sure that we could take the classes that we wanted next year. How many schools do you think give their kids that kind of individual catering? These people bend over backwards to make sure that we take advantage of every opportunity we are given, and we repay them by humiliating their hard work in front of our peers.

It was depressing. Grow up and show some respect, because that kind of behavior sure won’t be accepted anywhere else in life, and honestly, I wish it hadn’t been accepted at that assembly. I would have loved nothing more than for an administrator to get up on stage and lay down the law.

I realize that the majority of the junior class was not participating in this disrespectful behavior. And on behalf of those who were just as appalled as me by the behavior of our peers, I apologize to the counselors. I am sorry that some people have such a sense of entitlement that they have to degrade the work of others, and I am sorry that your presentation had to suffer because of it.

When all is said and done, I was ashamed to be associated with the junior class during that assembly, and I hope the offenders recognize that nobody thought they were funny, or cool. Perhaps like an ill behaved toddler a time out should have been called.