jesse library edit

It has been called “unpleasant”, “inaccessible”, and “inflexible”.  It is avoided by some but feared by many.  This is, of course, the Miami Beach Senior High School Media Center.

The library opens at 7:00, and closes with the 2:30 afternoon bell.  Therefore, assuming that calculations are correct, students have a total of zero minutes after school to work on homework or projects, meet with study groups, or change the backgrounds of the school computers to something a little more fun.

“We can’t go in to study at any time or the librarian will kick us out,” explained a frustrated Mark Zavala, sophmore.

It is true.  Upon entry, it is not uncommon to be shooed away by Frances Sciurba, [Job Title], because of meetings, seminars, or just plain spitefulness.  If you don’t proceed with caution… Well, good luck.

“She could use some hospitality training,” expressed sophomore Alex Rennert.

The policies are strict, and the enforcement is even stricter.  But the library has been so heavily rumored about, so blown out of proportion, that students have become incapable of looking beyond the surface.

Beach High, like other public schools of its kind, is not exactly a conglomeration of morality or discipline.  Though Sciurba goes about keeping order in an undesirable manner, the school ultimately benefits.

“She has tons of kids,” expressed senior Carina Grazutis, “and kids in this school can’t always be respectful towards all the equipment they have in there.”

It isn’t easy running a library of the Media Center’s size, and it’s even harder to do so singlehandedly.  Sciurba used to work alongside another full-time librarian and two clerks in charge of administrative work.  Due to budget cuts, however, Sciurba has been left alone to fill all of those positions herself.  Nobody can deny that she gets the job done (or at least a big part of it) and, according to Sciurba, she only enforces school rules.

“I do think she’s misunderstood a lot of times,” sympathized Grazutis.  “She has a big job taking care of the library by herself.”

There is no denying that her methods are incredibly unorthodox and frightening or is there rationalization for the magnitude of severity that is brought through those sullen gray doors each day at 7 am. “I’m just scared of her,” said Shantell Meneses, senior.

Fear may be the one way to ensure peace and order in a school, class or in a media center full of expensive computers and valuable books. But as long as the library doors remain somewhat inaccessible, students will continue their ill-disposed rumors and undesirable attitude towards Sciurba. Those computers do need more colorful backgrounds, after all.