We all know about Sciences Hill’s recent additions to rules. Last school year, it started with the requirement of wearing school IDs. This year along with IDs, the addition of AirPods and Bluetooth headphones are prohibited on school property, and cell phones are not allowed during lecture times.

Before writing this, something that piqued my curiosity was, how does our principal think about the new rules? I was able to speak to our principal, Dr. Josh Carter, who gave me some insight into why he and the board decided on these new rules for Johnson City Schools.

IDs

So I asked him, “Why did you and the Board Of Education decide to enforce these new rules?”

Dr. Carter replied, “IDs are specifically for safety. We have about 2,460 students, and it is hard to know who everyone is. So, in order to ensure that the only people on campus are folks who are supposed to be here, we wanted to go with students wearing their IDs to help ensure that we can monitor that more closely and ensure that the only people in the building are people who are supposed to be in the building. So all students and staff wear an ID, and that helps us with that.”

Cell Phones

Dr. Carter continued to say, “With cell phones, I mean cell phones are a big distraction in the classroom, or at least they can be. It can impede student learning and can impede the teacher’s ability to teach. So we certainly want to take away any kind of distraction that we can. But then also, all kinds of research talks about just the mental health of students and cell phones. Now, clearly, cell phones are a tool that everybody uses, not just teenagers. But, if we can help with that and help students learn to manage the cellre are appropriate times to use it and inappropriate times to use it, we want to try to do that also. But, the cell phone has become such a distraction for some, not for all. That it became imperative to us that we want students to put that away during class. And earbuds the same way, if you have earbuds in your ears listening to something while the teacher is trying to teach, there is no way you are going to be able to learn at the same rate that you would without it. So, primarily the distraction in the classroom, we want to give students the best opportunity to learn. And then secondarily, there is just a lot of evidence that cell phones and especially the social media that comes on the cell phone just isn’t good for students to have all day, like phone, that the just unfettered access. So we try to just create the best environment we can for students.”

His Opinion

After stating the facts, I wondered what his opinion was. Dr. Carter said, “As far as I can tell it’s going pretty well, students still have the opportunity to use their phones in between classes and at lunch. And I think in the classroom, you know, putting the phone away and doing your classwork that seems to be going well, I don’t think we have been having any real issues. Students have complied really well with that which I am not surprised about, (and) done a great job, so it seems to me that it’s going well.”

In addition to his opinions, I asked a few more questions to know how difficult and impactful it’s been to our Hilltopper community.

Difficulty

 “Is it difficult to enforce these new rules?”

His response was, “You know, primarily it is on teachers because it is in the classroom. But I haven’t heard a lot of issues out of that, we have not had many cell phone issues at all. So students have been very compliant.”

Improvements

“Have we as students, as a whole, improved?”

According to him, he told me, “I think teachers feel better about the classroom. You know, I feel like students are interacting in the classroom. And that there are fewer  distractions in class, so yeah, I think it has been good.”

Conclusion

Now we know the reason and the thinking of why Science Hill has these new rules. The real question is, is it working? How long will the rules last without a riot or outburst from students? And will we see actual results from these new rules?

There is a lot to think about with these implements. I think that these rules are a great opportunity for us all. We know the why, but what about the teachers?