To improve academic achievement and reduce distractions, school administrators have enacted stricter phone policies and begun conducting room sweeps. In addition, they have increased the consequences for student absences. To find out if students are using their devices in class, administrators now randomly inspect the classrooms. They enforce stricter standards and attendance policies to ensure that students are present and engaged. While some argue that these changes would provide a more focused learning environment, others think they are excessively intrusive and restrictive. As teachers and students adjust to these new guidelines, the effectiveness of these regulations is still up for debate. 

Here, at Olympia High School, they have implemented a new phone sweep policy that permits staff and administrators to visit classes at random and look for students on their phones. The purpose of this is to reduce distractions and maintain student focus. If caught, administrators will take the student’s phone, and it will be kept in a locked box until the end of the school day. The student will be sent home right away if they argues or refuses to cooperate. By reducing the temptation to use social media and text during class, our school administration hopes that this regulation will contribute to the development and fostering of an effective learning environment.

Along with the new phone sweep regulation, the school has taken more drastic steps to address attendance issues. The new crackdown imposes harsher sanctions for unexcused absences and tardiness. Students who are habitually late for class risk detentions, loss of privileges, or, in extreme cases, suspension. Teachers must enforce this new attendance rule by making sure they are marking late and absent students accordingly. This new rule is important to improve student accountability and avoid wasting learning time. At Olympia, there are consequences for absences and tardiness. Attendance policies were also implemented for different school events, such as prom, to enforce compliance.

“I’m usually not on my phone in class, so this new rule doesn’t affect me as much as it would another student. However, I don’t like the attendance rule because I feel like one unexcused absence isn’t fair to students who truly only miss school when they need to. I feel like the intensity of the consequences doesn’t match the rule,” senior Tra’Shyah Thomas expressed.

“I don’t use my phone in class a lot, so I don’t mind it, but it seems like it’s working because people are always scared of a random phone sweep. For the attendance policy, I feel it’s unfair that if you miss a certain number of days, you can’t go to events because sometimes we have to miss school and can’t do anything about it,” sophomore Amy Perez said. 

“Honestly, the new classroom sweeps don’t affect me as much because it isn’t a big deal. However, the attendance rule is more serious and affects us. It challenges us more because there are consequences for absences and tardiness. But sometimes you can’t even control if you can’t make it to school or not, so I feel like it isn’t fair,” junior Amani White stated.

A change toward increased accountability and focus within our school community is recognized by the implementation of the amended attendance policy and the new phone sweep rule. Even though some adaptation may be necessary, the ultimate goal of these changes is to establish a more effective learning environment. Here at Olympia, we strive to make our school better in any way, and we hope these new polices positively affect our students’ learning environment.