Sequoia Gregorich, Law and Ethics Editor; Adri Yarkin, Copy Editor; Katy Sassara, Content Editor
In September, The Riptide sent out an anonymous survey asking for feedback regarding the newly adopted school policies.
As the survey results came in, a trend quickly began to surface. Overwhelmingly, students feel that the policies put into place this year were “damaging.” Students feel that the heavy enforcement pits students and teachers against each other, decreasing the level of respect in the school environment.
At the beginning of the school year, teachers and administration explained the policies students would be adhering to for the duration of the year. Some of the policies were ones from previous years being more heavily enforced, while others were completely new to the student body (see “New Policies,” page 7).
As the school year has progressed, students have had time to experience the impacts of these new policies, and many have formed strong opinions. Collectively, students have decided for a variety of reasons that these policies — in regards to SMART periods, phones, the dress code and eating outside — are harmful and should not be in place.
Students — in The Riptide’s anonymous survey, in the halls and even during the new Character Strong curriculum in SMART periods — have expressed that the new SMART curriculum and policies create a divide between students and staff, rather than emulating the unity they preach.
“Going to school and listening to our teachers lecture us about how we are going to be a unified community creates a further divide between us, because it feels as if our teachers still don’t think we understand the basic concepts and values that we have been taught by our mentors, parents and teachers [from] a young age,” an anonymous student said of Character Strong. “All of the greatest teachers I’ve had have shown these values in the way [that] they interact with their students.”
Students feel that trust, in addition to respect, is being lost particularly due to the new rules regarding student travel between classrooms and time management during SMART periods.
“I just find it really frustrating that as a 16-year-old that is trusted by my parents, teachers and friends to drive a car, buy groceries and get my homework done on time — [and] help run multiple student-lead groups and have a job, I can’t be trusted to go to the bathroom during my classes without a hall pass given to me by a teacher, eat lunch out of teachers’ sight, have a study group or get help during SMART or dress myself in a way that is considered appropriate for school,” an anonymous student said.
The reinforced dress code policies have also created an uproar among students who feel that it targets certain students in a particularly sexist manner.
“Girls wear clothes to school every day that they are comfortable having their teachers, parents and peers see them in,” an anonymous student said. “Every day, girls make a conscious decision of what to wear based on what makes them feel confident and happy; they are not asking for people to think of them as sexual objects or [to] get distracted due to them showing a bra strap or a little bit of cleavage.”
Many students have conceded that excessive phone use in class can have a harmful effect on their education. Across the board, however, students feel that the strict no-cell-phones-in-class policy teachers adhere to does more damage than good. Most students feel that they can responsibly manage their phone usage during class, and that the new phone policy has two undesirable impacts.
First, students say it wastes a significant amount of class time. While the school provides computers that are heavily used by students, sometimes it does not make sense to disrupt class to get a computer, log on, look something up, log out and put it away when it would take a fragment of the time to look the same thing up on a phone with no disruption to the class.
Second, some students feel it puts their teachers in an uncomfortable position. As observed by an anonymous student, though the phone policy is in place to help teachers with classroom management, “most [teachers] just seem like they feel pressured to be harsher than they would like.”
This litany of changes seems to cause distress among the students, waste valuable academic time, and serve only to divide staff and students in the face of preached unity.
In the words of one anonymous student, “I would hope that this would unify the student body, but because of such strict regulations, I’m worried this year will turn [into the] type of year where there’s no unification and trust between students and their