After almost two years outside of school, reports of behavioral problems and faltering grades have been on the rise. Students have grown accustomed to the freedom of Zoom classes, and may have forgotten the fact that in-person school is far different.

A video of Principal Robert Bach was sent out to teachers on Nov. 15, instructing them to share it with their fifth hour classes. The video was a comedic, but informative reminder of old school policies.

“I think there’s just been an increased level of need. We’ve seen higher numbers of students struggling academically…higher numbers of low level behavior,” Bach said. “It was just a time to reinforce some of the basics to get that foundation in place so that learning can take place.”

The policies being more strongly imposed are the cell phone policy, the hall pass policy and the tardy policy. Students must now always keep their phone in their bag and “off of their person” during class time. They also must have a green e-hall pass in order to be in the halls during class time, and teachers can now assign detention to students who are chronically late.

“The rules have always been in place,” Bach said. To him, it is more a reminder or reinforcement of some of the pieces that they did not have to go out of their way to remind students of before.

There have been mixed reviews of what students see as the new policies, despite them always being in place. Some think that they are too strict, while others may not think that real problems are being addressed.

“I think the video just kind of came off to them as more like satire than an actual serious thing,” sophomore Henry Sween said. However, as a whole, he thinks that the policies “are definitely affecting people in a positive way.”

The updated tardy or late policy is one that has gained a lot of controversy from students. Many say that three tardies earning someone detention is far too few, and that the parking lot congestion should be solved in order to reduce tardies instead. However, there is no plan to implement a ‘grace period’ at the beginning of the day for normal road conditions.

“I feel like if it was fully enforced, and they discuss what happened…it could be beneficial,” Sween said.

Others do not necessarily feel the same. Senior Annika Berggren does not see it as a good thing, and thinks more tardies should be needed to get into detention as it seems like too big of a consequence.

Some never even noticed an issue with the old school policies in the first place. Students said that phones were often put away during class time, and people have been in class and ready to learn by the time the bell rang.

“Maybe there were a few freshman messing around a little bit, but other than that, it’s been pretty good,” Berggren said.

The amount of change people have seen in their classrooms varies. Classrooms with teachers who were already strict with the policies, requiring cell phones to be put away in a special caddy or not allowing people to leave without a pass, saw very little change. Though, there were also many classrooms that glossed over the rules, with some teachers sending kids out without a pass if their destination is nearby.

“I don’t feel like there are many to say that there has been a whole ton of change,” Sween said. “As the student body, some of us will take it more seriously than others, but I think that comes with every policy change,” he added.

Overall, the general consensus seems to be that the policies have been a positive change around the school. Though not popular with everyone, grades are rising, tardies have decreased, and things are slowly but surely going back to normal.

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