On Friday Feb. 12, senior Jono Robbins read an original Valentine’s Day themed poem on the morning announcements. Just minutes later, emails were circling through the staff, complaining and commending the poem and its length.

“From hearsay, I’ve heard some teachers were upset because it was too long,” Robbins said. “The announcements were short that day, so they said it was ok if it was a longer poem to balance it out. I also got [the content] approved by Mr. Patterson.”

While poetry reading sponsor Patterson calls the conflict over the poem, “no big deal”, some teachers saw the poem as an intrusion into their class time.

History teacher Lori Flippin said she does not like hearing poems on the morning announcements.

“Honestly, I don’t even listen to them,” Flippin said. “I think morning announcements are for announcing school events and news pertinent to the function of school. Other forums are available for student expression.”

Senior Kim Oyler disagrees.

“Teachers can’t complain about wasting class time because there is time built into second hour and seminar for announcements,” senior Kim Oyler said. “I like hearing things people at our school have created.”

Patterson said he is excited to know that the poem has created such a buzz among the student body. Robbins was unscathed by teachers’ negative reactions.

“They have the right to say what they want,” Robbins said. “I was just expressing myself. They were right that it was too long, but that time should have been taken up by other people speaking and expressing themselves.”

Sewing teacher Shannon Wilson said she enjoys hearing the poems on the announcements in general, but the Valentine’s Day poem was just too long.

“I listen to the poems, and I think they are interesting,” sewing teacher Shannon Wilson said. “But last week, some of my kids spaced out for a while and stopped listening. There was some good stuff in [Robbins’ poem] though. The part about why girls stay with guys who are jerks … I liked that.”

Robbins said the message of his poem is that “bad things happen to good people”. Robbins’ goal is to inspire other students to read their poetry over the announcements so that students will still be expressing themselves after he graduates.

“It’s not like I personally deserve to have my word out,” Robbins said. “Everyone deserves to have their words out on the intercom. That is one of the main problems at this school or any other school, I’m sure. We don’t share about who we are and how we feel.”

He sees poetry as the perfect medium.

“The thing about poetry is that it expresses emotion,” Robbins said. “If you go through your life on a schedule, you are like a machine. I am trying to remind people they are not machines: they are people with emotions and feelings, and they should be able to express that and not feel bad about that.”

Patterson said there will not be any more poems on the announcements until National Poetry Month in April.