Students voice concern over school policies

By Molly Jackson, Staff Writer

10/15/26

ROCKLAND- High school students often complain about homework, school lunches, and school rules, but some students are hoping that changes are made that will help improve the learning environment for students and teachers.

As freshmen settle into a new environment, some are voicing concerns about school policies and challenges.

Freshman Lily Nee said she feels pressure to maintain good grades while balancing the stress from extracurricular activities. 

Nee said, “If I have practice right after school, and then a student council meeting, I could be here until [almost] eight o ‘clock at night, and have to go home and stay up all night doing homework. When I do stay up late, I’m always lacking energy at school the next day, which can affect the way I work [along with] my productivity in class.”

She said that honors homework routinely drains her energy, leaving her exhausted before the next school day even begins. She also she can feel discouraged by staff, which can make her feel unmotivated to do school work .

Nee added, “I am in all honors classes, so I definitely do get a lot of homework constantly. At the beginning of the year, a lot of my teachers were telling me that I was going to fail or do badly on the tests, and I just don’t think that that’s a good thing to tell your students. I feel that teachers need to be more encouraging.”

Meanwhile, older students are pushing back against heavy rules that treat them more like adults rather than high schoolers.. A sophomore student expressed her concern about the strict policy of locking cell phones away for entire periods.

Ella DeMore said, “I think that I would change the fact that our phones are taken away for the entirety of a class period. Especially during times of emergencies, I think  it’s important that we should have complete access to them. I don’t think that schools have enough rights to take away our phones like that, and I find it completely unfair.”

Phones are placed on wall cubbies or in an accessible place in classrooms, so in an emergency, students would have access to them. 

DeMore also talked about the school's schedule, particularly the final period known as L block. Student athletes are routinely forced to leave this last class for early sports dismissals, leaving them scrambled and struggling to catch up. 

Some students and faculty are hoping for the school to rotate the block or turn it into a dedicated study period, in order to restrain chaos.

DeMore said, “I wish that instead of having L block, everyone could have a study period at the end of the day. It would be nice to have that time to yourself to get work done from other classes, without having to stay up at night and work on it after getting home late from sports and clubs.”

Ms. Amanda McDonough, an English teacher with 27 years of experience, observed that honors students are putting dangerously unhealthy amounts of pressure on themselves. She is advocating for a built-in weekly catch-up block to act as an academic safety net where students can breathe and receive direct help.

Ms. McDonough said,  “I can see the pressure that students put on themselves, and I understand it because I was the same type of kid myself. Building in opportunities for students to improve their grades can be important so they learn that the goal is to actually learn the material, not just to get a good grade .”

She added that its important to know everyone is on the same team, and that teachers want students to succeed just as much as they do.