A girl seated in the back of the class, pencil in hand, just trying to listen to the lecture being given by her teacher and take notes. The rest of the class, though, doesn’t care – everybody is shouting over her teacher, who is awkwardly trying to lecture over the many conversations. Her notes are horrible, but she can’t do anything about it, and she’s greeted with a lovely D- on her next test.

It’s not just this student who experiences the killer combo of disrespect and lack of authority in classrooms. Students are no longer acting with the level of respect that they used to and teachers don’t have the authority to combat it. Countless classrooms are filled with rude, chatty students who talk over the teacher who can’t muster the courage to effectively stop their conversations.

It’s not just MCHS either. In a Harris Poll survey conducted in 2014, it’s stated that participants who believed students respected teachers dropped from 71% to 39% in one year. The lack of respect has impacted schools around the country and made it difficult for the few respectful students to learn properly.

Disrespect isn’t reported to be directed at just teachers, though. “I see more disrespectful behavior between students,” says Belinda Flynn, an English teacher at MCHS. “Even like on the whiteboard, sometimes people write things that are not very nice to one another, which is always surprising to me.”

Flynn has taken on a very laid back and chill role in her classroom, giving students lots of freedom. She states that while she could be an authoritarian, she chooses not to. The lack of such control, even if it’s a choice, allows students to get away with disrespectful behavior.

“I feel like teachers have situations where kids are taking advantage,” says English teacher Marla Currie. She expressed that she feels her students can sometimes take advantage of her work time, prioritizing other classes over her work. Some kids don’t care as much about school and can become disruptive because of it.

It’s easy to dismiss the disrespect as “being a teenager,” or “having fun in the class.” However, classrooms were made for learning – if students are given too much freedom and not controlled, their learning is impacted. Choosing to have a more chill classroom has allowed students to be more disruptive than in other classes.

There are teachers who choose to be more laid back, and there are teachers who aren’t. Both classrooms should be treated with respect of all forms, students to teachers, teachers to students and students to each other. There’s a time and place to have fun in class without becoming disruptive. Make sure to think about that girl who’s taking notes during the lecture – let her, the conversations can wait.