Reasonable:

Written by Libby Due

I would be quite surprised if anyone at this school could honestly tell me that our old electronics policy was working. Something needed to be done, and it was.

One thing that has always bothered me about South is the sheer number of students who text in class. While it doesn’t necessarily distract me from my education, it’s annoying, not to mention extremely rude. Texting tells the teacher and the other students in the class that you have far more important things to do than participate, and stopping or attempting to stop the inappropriate technology use wastes the teacher’s time and energy.

Most people know this, which is why it’s so frustrating. Students at this school know they are rude, but it doesn’t seem to bother them. While it’s true that people aren’t going to learn how to be respectful through forceful rules, it at least allows those of us who don’t constantly text in class to pretend we go to a school filled with civil human beings.

The policy of banning cell phones and other electronics isn’t new. It’s not as if they’ve stripped you of a privilege you once had, because it’s never been okay to text in class. The administration is just dealing with this problem in a new way, and a more effective one at that. They tried to be reasonable, having your phone taken away and giving it back to you at the end of that day, but in the end, that just didn’t work out. It’s not their fault that students refused to listen, and it’s not their fault that this policy is in place. Can you guess whose fault it is? I sure hope so: it’s yours.

There is no reason you should be using your phone in school. If there is an emergency, your parents should and would call the office, and they will be able to reach you. You don’t need to text your friend in class. On the rare occasion that you need to contact someone, many teachers will be happy to let you use their classroom phone. Some lenience should be given to students who use electronic calendars, but students who act inappropriately have taken away any distant chance at any kind of reasonable-use policy.

Until we get our act together and behave like the mature adults we want to be treated like, we both need and deserve every bit of this policy.

Ridiculous:

Written by Aeon Bollig

It’s the newest addition to South’s arsenal of policies and crackdowns, and I’m sure you all know it by its name – the notorious Bag and Tag policy.

It’s become clear in this past month that the new policy isn’t exactly enforced by the majority of teachers at South. If anything, this policy has been joked about more than it has actually been used among South classrooms – at least it’s managed to make small plastic bags intimidating to the average student. I believe that if this policy has done anything, it has scared the majority of students into submission.

Why? This policy makes everyone involved. You. The administration. Your parents. This is the key, upholding force of the policy.

So it’s not just us, the students, having to deal with this. Because of it, it has to cut into our parents’ time as well. This is a severe inconvenience to most families. There are jobs to be done. There are places to be. There is simply not time to deal with this.

Furthermore, why restrain use of technology or wearing of specific articles of clothing (note that those have been bagged as well)? Technology is constantly changing and culture is as well. Anything can be seen as distracting, violence-inducing, or what have you – but to be honest, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Most students don’t believe that a cell phone in class is going to start a riot, or that having your hood up will cause another student to fail their test.

High school is about preparing students for what comes later, whether it be work, school, or travel, so is this policy really necessary? It gives a false interpretation of what’s to come. Take, for instance, the policies regarding cell phones and dress at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), of which there are none.

According to senior Nick Petree, a full-time PSEO student at MCTC,  phones, computers, iPods, or any other devices are fair game – granted, of course, that they aren’t disrupting the teaching. Same goes for articles of clothing that would often be bagged here at South. “There are no rules regarding what you’re wearing, as long as you’re wearing enough,” Petree said.

Students need to learn how to balance the technological world with whatever else is going on, and we won’t get that lesson with something like the Bag and Tag policy.

All of this limits what we’ve done time and time again – adapt. The school administration should adapt to the increase of technological use, as it isn’t going to be slowing down any time soon. This refusal to accept the changing world is an error on the administration’s part – an error that needs to be corrected.