(May 24, 2011) — As more and more love spreads amongst high school students, it may be the primary cause of their grades dropping. According to Nancy Khalish, a retired professor of psychology, love can be so ruthless at times that at the very minimum, students’ grades will drop. “The fact of the matter is that what students believe is love can and will break them down eventually,” said senior Dion Banoian. “As soon as they accept this, they’ll be one step forward to taking education more seriously.” According to recent studies by Syracuse University, love affects emotional functions such as mental representation and body image. Love also evokes the same ecstatic feeling that cocaine does, according to these new studies. With love possessing the power to alter one’s ability to think clearly by filling it with joyous feelings and thoughts, junior Sevan Hacopian agrees with Banoian and claims that love plays a big role in determining a student’s grades. “I used to stare at the clock during class and anticipate the arrival of snack and lunch,” Hacopian said, “for it was the only time I’d get to see her.” Hacopian also added that due to his constant day dreaming in class, he failed geometry and was forced to take it over the summer. Supporting Hacopian’s and Banoian’s beliefs, a recent Clark Chronicle poll shows that 92 out of 100 randomly chosen students have been in love before. Seventy-one of these 92 students implied that what they thought was true love resulted in a broken heart, or two. In opposition to this belief, sophomore Christina Martirosyan says that based on her experiences, love has not only given her butterflies every day and night, but has actually resulted in better grades. “Me and my boyfriend used to organize study sessions,” Martirosyan said. “I definitely benefited academically from my past relationships.” Martirosyan said that although love can be beneficial in the area of academics, it can also tear them apart emotionally. “It’s impossible for a couple to concentrate on a test if they just fought,” she said. “The student needs to have his/her priorities straight; there needs to be that balance.” According to Martirosyan, a student’s mind should devote 50 percent of its energy towards school, 25 percent towards its family and the remaining 25 percent towards love. In response to this idea of balance, Hacopian once again brought up his personal experiences and claimed that it’s impossible to devote only 25 percent of your mind’s energy towards love. “True love demands all 100 percent of your mind’s commitment and so does school,” he said. “Students can’t afford to waste their time worrying about something as silly as love, when they have to dedicate themselves to something much bigger than that—their future.”