Azaa Battsogt

Students laugh and act immaturely at the Veteran’s Day Assembly, displaying overall disrespect.

Every school likes to talk about “honor,” “character,” and “respect.” Those words printed on posters in the hallways and painted on school walls in bold letters fade a little more each year. But the truth behind these values is harder to believe when you watch how our peers behave when respect is needed most.

This year’s Veterans Day assembly was supposed to be a moment of reflection. It’s the only day of the year we dedicate to acknowledging the people who gave everything, their homes, their families, their dreams, so the rest of us could go on living ours. But what happened during the assembly felt like something out of a satire, except it was real, and it wasn’t funny.

When guest veteran Robert Patterson spoke, his voice was steady but lined with grief. He wasn’t reading facts out of a textbook or telling a distant historical story, although they remain important. He was talking about his son, his son who died in active duty. A child he raised, loved, worried about, and ultimately lost. His son gave his life so we could live ours. Yet, so many students barely looked up.

Behind me, students were talking about homework, and across from me, kids were playing “Tap-Tap Shots.”

Rows of glowing screens lit the auditorium like a galaxy of disrespect. Some students were playing games, others were scrolling through social media or chatting about homework, college applications, lunch plans—anything but listening to the man standing before them, bearing a wound he will never fully heal from.

It was revolting. And worse: it was normal.

We’ve reached a point where paying attention for 10 minutes, not even out of admiration, but out of basic human decency, seems to be too much to ask. If someone can’t put their phone down or even pay attention while a grieving father talks about losing his child in service to the country, then what can get their attention? What does respect even mean to people who think courtesy is optional and empathy is inconvenient?

The issue isn’t that high schoolers are incapable of compassion. Many are thoughtful, kind, and attentive. The issue is that a growing number simply don’t believe respect is something they owe anyone unless it benefits them personally. And that mindset spreads fast. The fact that this now feels like too much to expect is honestly disturbing.

Respect isn’t about rules, assemblies, or school announcements. It’s the foundation of every community. All over the world, every society honors those who protect it. 

If we can’t muster even the bare minimum— a moment of attention, a bit of silence, a break from our screens—then the issue isn’t the generation, the technology, or the school. It’s the mindset we’re accepting as normal.

There have always been distractions. But there used to be lines you didn’t cross. One of those lines was: when someone speaks about the dead, especially someone who died so others could live freely, you listen, you quiet down, and you honor the moment.

Not because you’re forced to.

Not because you’re patriotic

But because you’re human.