Morton West High School is generally a different school from Morton East High School in many areas. Morton East High School was built in 1894 and is the first Morton building, Morton West High School was built in 1958, 64 years after Morton East was built. 

I, Sebastian Mantilla, spent a day at Morton West High School following Anthony Lopez’s (a Morton West student) schedule:  1st hour civics, 2nd hour Human body systems, 3rd Journalism, 4th Lunch and Supervison, 5th hour CrossFit and 6th hour College Algebra. It was a dramatic difference from Morton East. The hallways were full of diversity:  way more white students, way more black students, as well as Hispanics.  Fashions were more diverse as well, with more students with dyed hair – purple, pink, bright colors – different hairstyles, backpacks and shoes.   

And, there were service dogs.  (I saw a service Chihuahua that really caught my attention more than anything.) 

The school was full of surprises. 

The hallways were full of color and had some life.  The sports photos and event photos put up on the walls and the aesthetics made Morton West truly feel like the home of the Mustangs — you can truly feel the spirit of being a Mustang. The hallways felt very social and the work environment was very studious, but during passing period, navigating through the hallways felt chaotic.  

Morton West’s hallways weren’t spacious. 

The bathrooms were clean, and there was quadruple the number of stalls and toilets. 

This was nice.

The cafeteria had more life and light thanks to huge windows in the front letting in sunlight.   The windows made if feel like more of a typical high school cafeteria, less like a windowless prison than ours.  The food was about the same except students don’t get to select what type of meat they want on their sandwiches – there was ham.  Apparently, every day they change the meat, but students don’t have options.  East’s PB&J outshines; West’s peanut butter and jelly is pre-packaged Crustables.  West’s ice cream made up for these:  delicious and refreshing vanilla soft serve ice cream for only $1.50!   The café overall was much nicer — but our food is better. 

The teachers were very welcoming and enthusiastic. Mr. Rush, the journalism teacher, met us in the freshmen academy, introduced us to the staff and gave us a quick tour and breakfast donut before 1st hour. (Mr. Frankfother said he did NOT feed the West reporters.)  The classes were full of engaged kids who looked like they loved their classes and wanted to learn. This passion was especially apparent in the elctive classes.  Unlike the standard square- and rectangular-shaped classrooms at East, classrooms at West had sort of a half-hexagonal shape – and their desk chairs were more comfortable to sit on, with wheels.   

Morton West students had a lot of enthusiasm and passion.   

CrossFit class was held in the stadium gym; it was a bit of a walk to get there, but we were given a “free day” to do whatever we wanted as a workout.  Anthony’s college algebra class had an atmosphere that felt very studious.  

The after-school environment was a dramatic difference. Navigation through the halls was a nightmare. Everyone was going in different directions, and the hallways were very tight not allowing much room. But, there were many exits – more than East. There was a ton of students hanging out having conversations and others getting picked up. There were a lot more police than I would’ve expected after school as well. After school, a lot of students headed to the many stores and restaurants around West – Cermak Plaza, Chik Fil A, and Riverside Mall to name a few.   

Overall, my day at Morton West was a great experience. It was a drastic difference from Morton East. It felt more like the kind of typical American high school experience you see on tv and movies.