Figure 41. Aerial shot of O'Reilly High.
O’Reilly High School is located in a central, well-transited urban region of Mayagüez city. It is surrounded by government agencies, such as the local fire station and police headquarters (transit and emergency services), legal consultants or solicitors offices, a small supermarket, and neighboring two large blocks of council houses. The school was also a ten-minute walk from the city centre, and a five-minute walk from Puerto Rico Highway #2, the longest highway on the island (230 km long) which connected to city of Mayaguez to other big towns like Ponce and San Juan (the capital). For students, a number of small food kiosks were also available in the external surroundings, such as a food truck that served coffee and empanadas for the price of $1 USD each, or a nearby frappe shop in which some students helped run as part-time jobs. On the back of campus, there were two sandwich shops which catered to the student population in O’Reilly High and served food and snacks also for the price of one dollar. On my first week at O’Reilly, after having attended the Advanced English class for the first time, I bonded with one of the students over a $1 USD chicken pincho ‘ kebab’. The shop also served warm ham and cheese sandwiches, locally made soft-drinks like Malta
Rican pineapple soda), Old Colony (Puerto Rican soft drink in Pineapple and Grape flavors), together with recognizable American brands of Coca-Cola and Sprite.
During my first months at O’Reilly High it became apparent that ‘where you ate for lunch’ served as an identifier of peer group identity, as well as socioeconomic standing. Students that were given daily allowances (typically one dollar to two dollars a day), could be seen going to neighboring sandwich shops to buy their warm sandwiches, pinchos, and/or soft drinks. One of the sandwich shops La Cuevita ‘The Little Cave’, decorated with colorful graffiti, was frequented by members of the Jock CofP. Cambus,
a take on the English word ‘Campus’, was attended by members of the Rocker, Gamer, and Bookworm CofPs. Its decore was simple, white walls and café-style benches and tables. Most students went to the cafeteria, where food was supplied by the Department of Education and was free.
Figure 42. Buildings a and B in O'Reilly High.
The campus was composed of three wings and three levels: Buildings A, B, and C respectively. At the beginning of my ethnography, I was often told that Building C was the latest addition to O’Reilly High campus and that many classrooms remained unused.
Some of the classrooms, particularly in the older wings of campus, were in need of refurbishing and upkeep. For instance, students were prohibited from using the wooden stage in the school auditorium as it was to have drywood termites. Meanwhile, Mission High had a state-of-the-art indoor gymnasium powered by electricity and air- conditioning, with wooden bleachers.
Other campus facilities included a small shack located near the Marketing classroom, which students called La Cooperativa ‘the School Co-Op’, previously run by Marketing students but shut down as of 2013. In previous years, students from Marketing and Commerce programs would earn ‘community hours’ or horas comunitarias by participating in this shop. It previously sold candies, snacks, and drinks to the wider school community at a reasonable rate.
The school had a sports facility located just off Edificio C (Building C), used by members of the Jock CofP to play basketball. The gymnasium was outdoors, covered by zinc roofing panels. Few classrooms had access to air conditioning – often deemed a luxury in Puerto Rico – though most computer labs in the 3rd level had air-conditioning
units. The cafeteria was located near the school lobby and open during 11:30am – 1:00pm, hours which changed according to half or full days. Like the school gym, it provided another space in which students could socialize with others from different classrooms, though most students opted for friends from the same age group and community of practice. There was freedom to roam during lunchtime, and students were free to come and go as they pleased. During lunchtime most students sat around courtyards in the school. There were two courtyards: (1) one located in front of Edificio C, where students from 10th and 11th grade would interact, (2) the other located in between Edificio A and
B, where 12th grade students frequented.
5.3.4P
OLICING INO’R
EILLYH
IGHThere was one security guard patrolling the school hallways. Her role was to ensure that students’ safety and to instill an environment of quiet and discipline. She often put a halt to fights, examined students’ uniforms and ensured they were to dress code standards, and ensured that the third and second level of the school was unoccupied during lunch hours. Because of the large size of the campus, the security guard was not easily spotted. Students’ orientation to her as an authority figure was particularly enlightening for the
detection of communities of practice. There were school communities that were defiant of her mandate, and would engage in forbidden activities, such as bringing explosives to campus grounds. On one occasion, around winter time and end of term, I walked through the school hallways and heard a loud bang coming from a bin near the lobby area – some students from the Jock CofP were mischievously setting off fireworks (cherry bombs) inside school bins. Immediately, I spotted the school security guard running towards them and conducting a backpack search in that region (Observations, December 2015).
Other misconducts found in O’Reilly High involved the failure to comply with school uniform regulations. For instance, several members of the Japanese subculture community could be seen wearing beanies, some wearing band shirts or Pokemon attire during lunch time. Meanwhile, members from the jock community of practice often got away with wearing alternative clothing to the school uniform, such as sleeveless shirts or baseball caps, as they could use the excuse of ‘getting out of practice’ and having indecent and dirty attire. One of my participants, Dánica in my sample, was often brought to the principal’s office for misbehaving in classrooms, cutting class, and wearing non- designated polos as her school uniform that were not appropriately fitted and at times showed a tattoo she had on her lower back. Consequently, many members from different communities of practice referred to her as la nena del tatuaje (‘tattoo girl’). During one of my conversations with Dánica, the school principal intervened and offered her opinion on Dánica and her behaviour, assuring me that she was a “good girl”, and that her only problem was that she needed to abide by the school uniform rules and not show skin (Dánica’s interview, transcripts, pg. 18). During the small interruption, the principal also positioned herself as a caring, mother-like figure, who wanted what was best for Dánica. She went as far as to help Dánica adjust her school uniform during this conversation, all the while saying vamos a taparle la barriga “let’s cover her stomach”. She then said to me tu no puedes creer tanto que peleo con ella porque ella es una menor “you cannot believe how much I fight with her because she is a minor” (Dánica’s interview, transcripts, pg. 18). Therefore, emphasizing her position as a figure of authority, discipline, and wanting what was best for students, all the while inhabiting an almost mother-like stance by insinuating that they get into frequent arguments over this matter.
Phone Policing
In terms of phone usage, students were free to roam around the school with their phones, as long as it took place outside of the classroom. There was no policing on what they did with their smartphones or what content they viewed on them. Figure 43 suggest some content-specific policing that made reference to the usage of social media in the classroom. However, instead of prohibiting the usage of such applications, it appeared to be a message targeted at bullying through smartphone applications (e.g. Instagram,
iMessage, Google +, Facebook, Mail, Twitter, and Voice Call), in the phrase “before you…. THINK! Is it true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, kind.” In its flexible approach to phone use in the classroom, O’Reilly High stood in stark contrast to Mission High. During my observations of December 2015, for instance, when a student was giving an oral report, I noticed that one of their classmates held their phone up discreetly and was recording a close-up video of their friend presenting and uploading it to Snapchat (field notes, December 2015).
Figure 43. Locally-created poster by Advanced English teacher. Features referencing to social networking sites such as iMessage, Instagram, Facebook, Gmail, and others .