Pete Moye’
Opinion Button

“Silence is golden” is a term that the movie industry uses to request that people are quiet when watching a film in a movie theater as to not disrupt others. Apparently, the students of Cerritos College failed to get that memo because they yell, laugh, use profanity, and just about anything else they that want to do in the campus library.

Exercise some common sense. There are a few sacred places in which you are expected to be quiet. Church, professional work related environments, classrooms, and libraries among others.

Why do some Cerritos College students have such diarrhea of the mouth that they insist on bothering others? Be quiet, zip it, put a sock in it, silencio por favor [Spanish], se taire [French], den Mund halten [German], Opsluiten [Dutch], zamknij się [Polish], houjou fokin bek [Ghanaian].

The proverbial powers that be at Cerritos need to actually exercise some of that power and put a stop to this.

If students can’t control their tongue in the library why not fine them or in the very least disable their use of the lab computers. Do something!

If students start seeing a trend in how much money they are paying as a result of their mouth, it is a very high possibility that they would start to think twice.

Unless something has changed over the summer, the library is not a Laker game where you can perform various versions of “the wave” in an attempt to be caught by the cameras and make the jumbo-tron.

The library is not half time at a Charger or Raider game where we all willing participates in fun filled conversation as we await the start of the second half.

No student that comes to the library with intensions to study for a test, or write that all-important paper cares about what you did over the weekend.

No student that actually cares about their education wants to hear about how you almost lost an eye while drunkenly playing around with friends.

There is not one single person attending Cerritos College who goes into the library to study that wants to hear about what guy or girl you find attractive.

This is getting out of hand. People are taking over the few remaining places that serious students have to retreat to. What has happened to our inside voices?

The problem is that the vast majority of this younger generation was not taught the basic respect related etiquette that the older generations were taught to adhere to and to live by.

Most of this younger generation says what they want to say when they want to say it without regard for the people around them.

Anyone from that older generation can attest to exactly what would have happened if they as a youth even for a second gave serious thought to running around a library, church or classroom.

It wouldn’t have mattered what race or “color” they were because they would have gotten that color slapped off of them. Some of us can even remember a time when complete strangers would have been the ones to do the slapping.

The sad thing is that regardless of ones upbringing, we know the difference between right and wrong. No one really NEEDS to be told to pay attention in class.

The complete and utter disrespect for the professor that causes someone to talk, gossip, pass notes etc is why they make the choice to not pay attention. Much in the same way, no one NEEDS to be told to shut up in a library.

Most of the students that attend Cerritos are technically adults even if only by the number “18” that denotes their year of age, but if that is true then act more like the adults that you say that you are and not less like one.

Maybe Cerritos should adopt a similar philosophy to that of the popular 60’s singing group “The Beatles” and tell students “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

Does the Cerritos administration need to physically treat so called adults like children, or can we show that we are much more adult than just a number?

Cerritos is not a place to be used as a playground. It is a highly regarded and well respected educational institution. If you want to go play why not visit the McDonald’s play land. You can go there and be as loud as you want to be, but then again, you would still need to exercise basic respect because the small children don’t play around when it comes to the slides and ball area.