With the world language department already offering Spanish, French and Latin, the administration has announced plans to add a new class to that pool: Arabic.

“We are planning on having only Arabic 1 being offered next year to see how many students enroll and to see if it is really worth continuing,” Principal Rick Fleming said. “If you have a language such as Arabic on your college transcript, it looks very appealing to colleges, especially if you’re applying for certain scholarships such as an ROTC scholarship. We are always trying to help students succeed in every way we can.”

Fleming said the school has tried to add other languages such as Chinese in the past, but no teachers were available.

“It’s really cool for people looking to learn a new, unique language and for those who are already bilingual or fluent in the language,  freshman Daniah Jarrah said.

Jarrah, who is bilingual, said she doesn’t think there will be any negative association with this class and other controversies involving middle-eastern culture.

“It’s a language spoken by millions,” she said. “It’s too broad to relate to horrible events such as terrorism.”  

By Cullen Yarbrough