As the school year comes to a close, announcements are made about staying focused and finishing the year strong. The focus has been on keeping students’ phones in their bags, getting to class on time, and the requirement of hall passes and school ID cards in the hallways. These rules, however, have always been a part of the school guidelines.

“These are not new rules,” Principal Darrell Echols said. “The problem is, when we came back from the pandemic, we were so happy to see everyone that we really did not enforce that.”

According to District Administration, 70 percent of high school students use phones daily during school. And according to Phys Org, the number of students scoring low grades increased from 14 percent to 55 percent, due to the use of smartphones in class. 

According to Echols, there is the issue of students using hall passes and bathroom passes to go to the lunchroom and other areas, other than where they were supposed to be.

“We brought everyone back from the pandemic, and we wanted our students to feel valued and respected being back in school,” Echols said. “If you are out in the hallway during class time, you need to have a pass which should be visible for us to see.”

Close to the end of the year, students are ready to relax as they await the summer vacation ahead. Some believe that at this time, such rules are not as effective as they would have been at the beginning of the school year.

“I think it is not really necessary near the end of the year because a lot of students are taking honors and AP classes, and there is not much to do at the end of the year,” junior Ananya Sampathkumar said.

Teachers believe that enforcing these rules now might benefit students and allow some to improve their grades and focus during final exams. Without the added distraction of phones, students will have time to study for final exams.

“I hope it will help raise some grades of students that are failing in classes, and also help to remind them that they are here to learn not to vandalize the bathrooms or hang out in the hallways,” Echols said.

School administrators hope to improve their learning based environment next year. Their goal is to help students concentrate in class, and it is believed that enforcing rules against phone use in class and better class attendance will help.

“We do have some things that we wrestled with this year,” Echols said. “But overall, I think this was a great year and we are finishing it the right way. Go Go Mustangs.”