Every year there are rules but this year it might seem like those rules such as the cell phone and dress code policies are stricter.

“All rules are being emphasized. it’s not really things are being emphasized, it’s just there haven’t been any major rule changes, we’re just beginning the year, we’re all trying to get better,” Assistant Principal Jake Henning said.

Some schools in Kansas and around the country have been in the news for banning phones completely, however that’s not what’s happening here.

“Our cell phone policy in your agenda has not changed. I think just some individual teachers or departments are really trying to be stricter with cell phone use in their classrooms,” Henning said.

While the school policy has not changed, some departments have made changes.

“The social studies department, we’re all kind of adopting a no phone policy, to each teacher it’s their own idea of what they wanna do and I know that for us we’re just not gonna deal with them this year,” social studies teacher Karen Burns said.

The rules haven’t changed but the way a lot of teachers have been enforcing them has

“Each individual teacher has just raised their expectations for cell phone use in their classrooms and as an administrator, we’re supporting them in that and those expectations,” Henning said.

You’ve probably also noticed the random dress code checks.

“It’s just a way to ask for help from teachers to just get an eye on students and help us make sure that our dress code policy which has remained the same, the policy hasn’t changed, it’s just that we’re asking teachers to help us out and enforcing it,” Henning said. “Every teacher by nature is a little bit different on what they accept in a class so hopefully this provides a little bit more guidelines for teachers to follow and it kind of takes, they’re not the bad guy in the situation, it’s administrators getting on the intercom and just saying ‘hey let’s do a quick dress code check.'”

A large part of the enforcement of these rules is to have consistency throughout the building.

“It helps teachers, it helps students know what the expectations are, it helps teachers be consistent with enforcing them so just being very explicit about what our expectations are so students know what they are and so staff know and just so we can all be on the same page,” Henning stated.

However, many students feel that there are more pressing topics to focus on before cell phones and the dress code

“There’s definitely way more important things to focus on like the school violence and homophobia throughout the halls and racism going on and I definitely think there are way more important rules that should be set in place,” Arianna Reza (10) said.