Rio Americano has recently introduced two major policies. The new rules include the restriction of cell phone usage in the classroom and the induction of tablets to keep track of individual bathroom passes.
The majority of students at Rio have been obeying the new cell phone policy. They’re turning in their phones at the beginning of class without any reminders from the teacher, they are turning off their smart watches, and are not wearing earbuds in the middle of class.
So far this new rule seems to be thriving. Behaviors in classes and student’s attention spans seem to be improving. Many teachers appreciate having their students turn in phones since it reassures them that students are involved in educational courses.
Although teachers are pleased with the new policy, numerous students have objections. Ben Suggs, a junior here at Rio argued that, “it’s good to focus on classwork in class but I don’t think it’s okay to take away phones since it only makes people want to use their phones more.”
In addition many students worry that in the event of an emergency they may not be able to contact their parents. Moreover, students tend to feel more comfortable having their phones on them since it’s an essential link to their friends and families.
There are also objections in regards to the new bathroom policy. Paul Smith, another junior, stated “I think the new bathroom policy is helpful in keeping track of who is going in and out of class, however the bathroom policy doesn’t completely help to pinpoint someone if they’re doing something they shouldn’t be doing.”
The system of using tablets to keep track of students is not very effective, at least for the first couple of weeks of school. The majority of the tablets would not accept peoples logins or would not turn on at all. Multiple teachers have expressed their frustrations over this.
This caused many teachers to let their students out of class even without a physical bathroom pass. Additionally the tablets have a timer that tracks how long the student is out of the class and must be turned off by the student when they return. If this doesn’t happen the teacher will mark them down for being out for more than 5 minutes.
The benefit of using tablets however is that they don’t get lost like conventional hall passes. Furthermore, they can keep track of how many students are out at one time, which can be of great advantage in the event of an emergency.
Although there are negatives for the new policies that have been enacted, I believe that these are the right steps towards the future of this school. They will improve each student here by making sure that they are present and attentive in every one of their classes.
