Many students at the high school do not enjoy the “new rules” implemented by the administration this school year. When, in reality, they’re mainly the same rules, but simply put into focus more. Some of these rules include: cell phone usage in class, getting called out of school, tardies, and filling out an E-Hallpass.

“The school board revisited cell phone usage last year. They really wanted to track that and see how much of an issue it was. In the handbook, we have a section for nuisance items. If [these items are] a nuisance, they can be dealt with accordingly,” Clay Frigon, assistant principal, said. 

Absences have always been absences. If someone is gone from school, they’re absent. It’s a pretty cut-and-dry rule in the district’s handbook. 

“Absences have always been in our handbook; for doctor’s appointments, we need doctor’s notes. It was hard during [the peak of COVID-19] and everything else with that, so this was the year where we felt like we were past the [COVID-19] period and we felt we needed to reinforce this expectation,” Marc Williams, principal, said. 

This school year, a new software was implemented in hopes of successfully reinforcing this expectation. 

“In the past, we’ve always told teachers they need to create their own passes. As an administration, we never completely knew what each pass looked like from the teachers. That was just another thing to add to the teachers; to come up with a pass. I visited with a lot of principals that use E-hallpass, and it kind of helped us to see who’s out in the hallways,” Williams said.

Last year was a rougher year for the administration. Students were often wandering around in the hallway when they were supposed to be in class. Students would also be stealing things from the bathrooms or vandalizing them because of trends they would see on TikTok.

“Last year we dealt with a lot of vandalism in the hallway, so that gave us the idea of, ‘oh, these kids were in the bathroom at the time where this could’ve happened’,” Williams said.

Because of prior events, the school administration simply had to adapt. 

“More importantly, it gives us a pass system that is universal to the whole school,” Williams said.