On Feb. 9, an announcement was made at the high school outlining new procedures created by building staff and administration. The procedures stated that students are not allowed to leave the lunch room with food, teachers are not allowed to administer passes in the first and last ten minutes of class, staff will conduct random hallway sweeps in the coming weeks, and bathroom passes will be color coded according to the floor.

According to principal Scott Meyers, the procedures were implemented to improve the classroom environment and to give administration insight into the daily experiences of students.

“It’s something that we truly believe will benefit students in the classroom environment,” Meyers said. “That’s where some of this has come from. It’s ‘let’s try this and see what we learn.’”

According to freshman Benn Katzovitz, the hallway sweeps would be more helpful if they occurred more frequently.

“I think it’s a good idea, but the hallway sweeps, I think they would need to occur every hour for them to really be effective,” Katzovitz said.

Meyers said the new procedures coincide with similar procedures implemented last year. After witnessing success last year, Meyers said administration hopes to gain further knowledge from the methods put in place this year.

“Our student office experimented with these sweeps (last spring), and we had some pretty good success. What I mean by success is not catching kids being bad, but really we found out some more information, “ Meyers said. “We also had some success with bathroom passes being more visible.”

Sophomore Raphaela Slager said she believes the 10 minute pass procedure will prove ineffective in the long-run.

“We’re all human and teachers aren’t machines. And they’ll eventually let kids out early even though they aren’t supposed to, or let them in early,” Slager said.

According to Meyers, the color coded bathroom passes is an attempt to help keep students in the classroom longer and make conversations between staff and students in the hallways more effective.

“There were a few times where we might see a bathroom pass, and (students are) maybe on the other side of the building. In a quick moment of interaction we didn’t say anything, but if we notice that now we can open up some conversation,” Meyers said.