Every business, school, and household is built off rules that keep everyone organized so things can run smoothly. Those rules to keep everything moving how it should are crucial in a school, they keep students of all ages safe and allow them to receive the best education they can. Every school is built from the ground up with needed rules to keep order so everyone can be happy, and Lakeland is no exception. But what if students had a chance to tweak and change some rules for their own benefit? Maybe changing the dress code, late policy, or how long lunch is. Would it make the school better or worse?
Logan Miller, a sophomore at Lakeland High School, understands the rules and obeys them but feels that the dress code targets more girls than guys. Typically when schools dress code their students, it’s for understandable reasons, although guys get more leniency than the girls do.
“The dress code should be consistent,” Miller said
Having a more consistent dress code between both girls and boys would be a rule Miller would change.
Another rule he would tweak would be the punishment for the students. Understanding that if rules are broken, that person gets punished is how the world works, but some punishments seem to be a bit more extreme than needed for the rule broken. A lot of the punishments given out are the same despite how different the problems are. Miller doesn’t see how that is fair.
Lakeland High School had a slight schedule change in their second semester, stretching the school days two minutes past their usual time and shrinking the passing periods between classes. Many teachers tell students to use that time to go to the restroom or fill up their water bottles, four minutes should be plenty of time. Kandice Molitor, another sophomore student at Lakeland, understands the schedule shift, though wishes it was back to five-minute passing. She had gotten lunch detention for being late to one of her classes all because she was trying to use the restroom before her math class right down the hall from the bathrooms, but because she didn’t have enough time, the fire doors that are locked when classes are in session blocked her from being able to get to her class on time.
“I’m not going to continue being tardy just because I have to go to the bathroom.” Molitor said.