Opinion

Is our slang destructive?

Maureen Scanlon ’27, Copy Editor

March 5, 2025

On Monday, Jan. 27, a school-wide announcement came over the PA. This announcement warned students against saying the popular slang “kms” and “kys”, abbreviations of “kill myself” and “kill yourself” respectively. This announcement from the new set of assistant principals, Katie Parent and Dr. Daniel Hyliard, detailed what would happen if this slang was caught online or in the classroom.

This slang referencing suicide is far from new. These abbreviations first appeared on Urban Dictionary in 2007 and have been popularised in the last three years by social media sites like TikTok. Although this slang suggests harm towards yourself or others, it happens to be the nonchalant slang of the generation and not the root of any real problems that South students face.

Sure, it isn’t good that the average student’s vocabulary pertains to suicide, but I don’t believe it needed to be the lone problem for admin to address over the PA. Everyone knows there are bigger issues than students’ use of slang. This announcement was not at all beneficial to students, and if anything it was harmful, as it increased the destructive and fatal stigma surrounding suicide. However, this PSA wasn’t for the students anyway, it was just fresh gilding, covering up the true issues at Grosse Pointe South.

What are the real issues facing the South student body? Is it the use of banter, however inappropriate? I might pose that some serious problems that plague and purge students’ mental health are things like racism, depression, anxiety, self-harm, sleep deprivation, substance abuse, extreme stress, academic pressure and more. So again, why the admin chose to take such drastic actions against something that relatively does not matter compared to what is actually affecting students is a mystery to me.

I believe that if the administrators of South actually care about the welfare of the student body, they should perhaps focus on one of the many issues named above rather than tackling our speech. This unnecessary and potentially harmful announcement should not have happened in the first place, because our slang is not what is damaging to us.

About the Contributors

Maureen Scanlon ’27, Copy Editor

As an only child, Maureen Scanlon ’27 was always pushed by her family to write for The Tower: being their only hope to have a literary genius in the family. Begrudgingly she signed up to start a journalism class her freshman year. Soon this mindless decision became a passion. This year will be Scanlon’s first year on staff and she is ready to take on new stories and challenges. “Journalism is just so raw,” Scanlon said. “I’ve always loved every aspect of literature, reading, writing, poetry, and I just think that journalism is so informational.” When she is not found reading classic works by Kurt Vonnegut or Toni Morrison, she is probably listening to Lana Del Rey or the Grateful Dead- she does consider herself a “deadhead”. “When I started learning about Journalism, I loved it,” Scanlon said. “Now I’m thinking about going into journalism as a career which I never thought of before starting Tower.”

Josh Sonnenberg ’25, Graphics Editor

Joshua Sonnenberg ’25, a third year staffer and graphics editor, loves the opportunity Tower gives him to create and work on art. He enjoys writing opinion pieces and running cross country. Sonnenburg is part of the poetry slam team and track and field. He likes listening to music: pop and classic are his favorite genres. He loves making graphics and the flexibility it gives him when drawing. His favorites are editorial cartoons, especially when he wrote the story himself. “I enjoy writing a lot of opinion pieces,” Sonnenberg said. “I have the opportunity to work on art, which can be stressful, but also a lot of fun.”

The Tower Pulse

The Tower Pulse

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Is our slang destructive?

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