New year brings new motto, disciplinary action to school
One new change at Oxford High School this year that is the new motto, “Respect the O,” and the new policies that come with it.
OHS students have become very accustomed to the the “Love Your People” motto that was an important part of the school culture last year, but current students have now been introduced to a new motto.
“The ‘Respect the O’ is similar to what we had with the “LYP”, or “Love Your People,” but I just wanted it to be something that we could relate, in particular, to our high school,” Principal Bradley Roberson said. “It is really just about how we treat each other. Making sure we understand that we are one family. We are Charger Nation, and we treat each other that way.”
Many students believe that this motto really represents Oxford High School as a whole.
“It represents us coming together as a family and supporting each other in everything, whether it is athletics, academics, or anything else,” sophomore Abby Mounce said.
The new motto has a bigger meaning to it than just respecting others and educating students in school.
“It’s about teaching life-long skills, and how you need to treat other people,” Roberson said. “It is teaching you the behaviors in order to be successful in society as well. These are behaviors that we all need to implement in how we treat each other and how we treat other people.”
Roberson places a lot of new responsibility on the students this year with the changes that were applied and with that comes high expectations.
“I didn’t have the class meetings to list out a bunch of policies and procedures and rules to you,” Roberson said. “It was about setting a high expectation, a high standard, that we treat each other the right way. I know that all of our students here know the difference in right and wrong. It is just a choice we have to make to do the right thing.”
The school district has also introduced a new disciplinary program that changes the aspects of in-school and out-of-school suspension that students had been used to.
“The in-school study program is actually housed at the Oxford Learning Center, so instead of attending in-school suspension here, students will start their day here and be transported to OLC for in-school or out-of-school suspension, and then, transported back in the afternoons,” Roberson said.
The new in-school study program is believed to help students stay engaged and not let them fall behind in school work while they are suspended.
“Now that [students] are attending out-of-school suspension at the Learning Center, students can stay engaged with their lessons and not miss the necessary work to stay up to date in class,” Roberson said. “There is a full-time teacher at the Oxford Learning Center that is in charge of the in-school study program.”
According to Roberson, in-school and out-of-school suspensions are now being held off campus, so there is also a new on-campus disciplinary source that is run by five members of the coaching staff.
“Our main disciplinary source will be detention during the power hour lunch,” Roberson said. “It can be anything from one day of power hour lunch detention up to several weeks of power hour lunch detention, and the student is in the lunch detention the entire hour for multiple days.”
Coach Daniel Parrish is one of the coaches that is running the new lunch detention, and he believes running this new lunch detention is just a part of his job as a teacher.
“It is another duty post.It just so happens that mine is in the detention room vs. somewhere else in the building, “ Parrish said. “My job is to ensure those kids that have been assigned detention are safe. That they are taken care of, and that they get their lunch so that they can continue on with their day”
To uphold that Roberson’s expectation to do right is one of the two challenges that Roberson has for the student body. The other is to “Respect the O,” and while also respecting the O, students should respect each other.
“Instead of focusing on the things that make us different, we focus on the thing that makes us the same, and the thing that makes us the same is that we are a part of the Oxford Charger’s family,” Roberson said.
Yearbook staff hosts signing party for students receiving books
A great way to get people to gather in one place is to give them something they have been waiting for, let them socialize, and give them food.
Oxford High School’s yearbook staff did all three on Friday, Aug. 11 at their yearbook signing party in the courtyard of OHS to celebrate the 2016-2017 edition of the yearbook.
“It [the signing party] is nicer,” junior Hailey Lowery said. “There is a lot more stuff to do.”
There was one aspect of this year’s yearbook signing party that stuck out to almost everybody, and that was the Sno Biz snow cones that were given to the students that purchased a yearbook the previous year.
“I love snow cones,” sophomore Hayden Hubbell said. “It is fun. We all get to socialize and sign each others’ yearbooks.”
Students got to look at their yearbooks for the first time during the party, and many were very pleased with the outcome. However, certain complications made the process of getting the yearbooks a little harder.
“We were a little unorganized because the yearbooks were completely out order when we got them,“ senior Aubrey Kate Merrell, co-editor of the yearbook, said. “We were not aware of that, so that kind of threw us for a loop.”
Some students noticed that everyone was in a such a rush to get their yearbooks and snow cones, which made the party a bit cramped.
“That is kind of inconvenient because you have to wait in a long line to get snow cones,” sophomore Maria Jones said. “I wish it was more organized.”
After seeing the 2016-2017 edition of the yearbook, students are ready to see what this year’s edition will bring as well.
“I am super excited about that one [the 2017-2018 yearbook]. It is probably going to be my favorite because it is my senior year yearbook,” Merrell said. “We are doing it by season this year, so it will go fall, winter, etc. It is going to be awesome.”
Many students do not like having to wait over summer to get their yearbooks, even if the party was a big success, but the good news is that students no longer have to wait that long for their yearbooks or another signing party.
“It [the 2017-2018 yearbook] will come out at the end of this year,” Merrell said. “There will be another one, so we are going to have two [signing parties] in a year.