8 E Prospect St
Hawthorne, NJ 07506

I graduated a few of years ago, and I am now a junior at the University of Pennsylvania. I was nervous entering college, but I was well prepared for the challenge largely because of my time at HHS. I feel like it's a school that allows you to shine if you allow it to. A lot of my friends coasted by and got a good education, but where HHS excels is allowing those students who are willing to go the extra mile reach their full potential.

I'm going into 8th grade and I have experienced a lot of good things, but also a lot of bad things. I love my teachers so much, they're amazing, so funny, but also know when to put their foot down. They try their best. But the students are so misbehaved that I doubt they're getting any punishment at all besides sit in the office during lunch. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the teachers, I'm blaming the principal and vice principal. My friend was threatened in front of her locker once, the kid said he was going to rape her, and he barely got ANY punishment. In my personal opinion, that deserved AT LEAST two weeks of suspension and a week of detention. This school also isn't the most inclusive despite teaching about race and LGBTQ+. As a transgender child, I do not like going to the bathroom because there is only one gender neutral bathroom in the whole school, which is locked most of the time. I also experience a lot of verbal harassment in the halls, and nobody has done anything. I get that teachers are busy teaching in their classrooms, but there are cameras for a reason. As for special Ed students, I do not have any personal experience because I'm a high honor roll student, but my friends who are special ed have not improved at all. I constantly have friends asking me for help because they have no clue what's going on. Although, I can say that this school does help out physically and mentally disabled students very well. Onto another topic, phones. I can understand why staff don't want phones in classrooms, but many parents tell their kids to keep their phones on them at all times no matter what teachers say because they don't want their kids in danger or some other predicament without being able to reach them. These kids very often get their phones taken away because they just forgot to turn off notifications or something similar. I can think of many situations that if I were in, I'd definitely want to be able to call my parents without going to the office and having the whole conversation in front of staff. At the very least, send out papers at the beginning of the school year that require a signature from parents to allow students to carry their phones around but also take it away if and ONLY if they're using it to watch tiktok or play games. Overall, I love the teachers, bullying situations could be handled a lot better, and they have to edit some rules.

This school felt like family for both of my children.