New School Policies

By Manahel Shuja

With a new school year, comes new changes. This year in New Rochelle High School there have been many changes to the school policies. These new policies both apply inside the classroom and outside in the halls. Some of the new policies include: no visible cellphones in class, specific times you can go to the bathroom, and lateness to school resulting in consequences. 

This year, NRHS has become very strict with cell phones. Last year, students were able to have them out on their desks, and most teachers said very little. However, now cell phones should not be seen. Some teachers have also collected students' cell phones to make sure this rule is followed. Many teachers believe this to be a great policy because it allows students to be attentive in class, but many students disagree. 

“A policy that is more or less pointless is the ‘out of sight out of mind’ policy introduced regarding phones,” said Ellis Renwick-Archibold, a senior in NRHS. “As much as this may make sense it does not do a thing to stop students from using their phones in class.” Even though the new phone policy has been implemented there are still some students that don’t fully follow it.

Another policy implemented this year is the bathroom policy. Students are no longer allowed to go to the bathroom five minutes before or five minutes after class. Additionally, students now have to log in and out when they go to the bathroom and take out a large clipboard pass. On this pass, the classroom number is written and the text is in a specific color. Based on the color and room number there is a specific bathroom you have to go to. Each house has its own bathroom and you are only allowed to use the bathroom on the floor you are in. 

This has troubled many students, but has been complimented on by some teachers as well. Lauren Bryan, a junior at NRHS, stated, “The addition of clipboard passes is somewhat inconvenient, but I understand that they were implemented for security reasons.” Another student in NRHS, Aviela Lim, stated that “having both scanning and logging for bathrooms are unnecessary.”

With these new clipboard passes there have been many cases of people taking the wrong pass accidentally, which can cause confusion. While many students are saying the passes are “inconvenient” and are causing confusion, some teachers see otherwise. This includes Ms. Kopstein, an English teacher in NRHS.“I appreciate that all teachers now have standard passes,” she said. “The colors allow the adults in the building to identify where a student should be and to redirect if necessary.” 

Along with the cellphone and bathroom policy, there is now also a lateness policy where if you are late to school by 30 minutes then you have to enter the school through the Rotunda and get a yellow tardy pass. This is different from last year where the system was not as organized.

There have been many changes to the school policies with the hope to organize the school. Some of these policies seem to work while others don’t. Mr. Thompson, a business teacher in NRHS said the policies are “a step in the right direction for our school.”

 “Preventing unnecessary distractions during class time and keeping students out of the hallways who are supposed to be in class are both crucial to the success of students at NRHS,” he said. “It is difficult to manage a high school the size of ours, so hopefully these policies continue to be implemented and improved upon over time."