I believe that the current dropout rate is not anything to worry about. Oak Harbor High School is not a dropout factory. The 40 percent dropout rate that was quoted in the recent Johns Hopkins University study would be something to really worry about if it was true.

The real dropout rate in Oak Harbor is only about a third of the 40 percent that was reported. I think that we should stop focusing so much on the numbers and start paying more attention to the students, regardless of how many there are.

You can’t convince a student to stay in school if all they are to you is a statistic. They can tell when they are being ignored, which just fuels their lack of drive to stay in school.

So my advice is to stop paying so much attention to these false statistics and real statistics to focus on the students who need motivating. Kids can’t do it alone.

Amanda Polhamus

Oak Harbor