Photo controversy shows deep class divide

While the entire school and community knows by now about the controversy involving a picture tweeted by some Barrington High School girls, many people still argue over what should be done about them and who to blame. It's a tough question that isn't easy to answer in a world saturated with information, real or fake. However, if there's one thing for sure, this scandal as a whole outlines a stark economic, and possibly, racist divide between upper-class and lower-class students attending Barrington.

The Barrington Community Unit School District 220 houses students from 10 different towns and villages. According to City-Data, the median household income in one of them, South Barrington, was $178,679 in 2015. That compares to the Illinois average of just $59,558. Meanwhile, at another community that feeds BHS, Carpentersville, the median household income in 2015 sat at a mere $58,008, according to the the U.S. Census Bureau. It's also worth mentioning that Carpentersville has a poverty rate of 16.7 percent, compared to the national average of 13.5 percent.

We must ensure that a culture of acceptance is built and maintained, a goal that is hard to recognize among the recent posts by Barrington students themselves. The district, however, can help aid these efforts by funding programs to equalize access to key technologies and resources, something that has been done in the past through initiatives like Project Horsepower.

But we cannot and should not stop there. It is time students at Barrington recognize the bubble we live in and figure out a way to break past it for a better, more positive future.

Zach Tufenkjian

Hoffman Estates

Arlington Heights