School board adjusts phone policy and dress code

The dress code and phone policy have been updated for the junior high and high school.

One approved change to the dress code means that when students wear leggings, they must wear a shirt long enough to cover their bottom.

“It’s kind of inconvenient because I don’t have a lot of shirts that are completely long enough to wear with leggings,” sophomore Chloe Hibbs said. “But I understand wanting students to dress modestly.”

Junior high and high school teacher Ashley Ridenour said spending so much time filling out dress code violations can be “frustrating.”

“It’s hard to catch some of the violations during passing periods, you just get busy and forget,” Ridenour said. “Also when it’s later in the day, you assume they’ve already been dress coded and given approval.”

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It is my hope that all of our policies create an environment where students are safe and can maximize their learning potential.

— Dr. John Sherrill

The update of the phone policy means high school students put their phones in pockets before each class and are not allowed to use them for class work.

“I think it helps students to not be able to see notifications,” Hibbs said. “But I sometimes I leave it in classes, and I’m scared to forget to turn it in and get in trouble.”

Dr. John Sherrill, high school and junior high principal, said smartphone and social media usage have an “adverse effect on youth mental health.”

“Locally, we’ve seen this when a phone goes off and it distracts the entire class,” Sherrill said. “Conversely, we’ve had so many conversations about the use of SnapChat and how it can affect the entire climate of the school on a given day. For these reasons and the wonderful technology provided by the school, we changed that policy to allow students to use district-provided technology but not cell phones throughout the school day for this purpose.”

Ridenour said the only negative to the phone policy is students not being able to use Pinterest to look for ideas.

“The policy hasn’t made a huge impact, but since they shouldn’t be out at all, it holds me more accountable to ensuring they’re not being used,” Ridenour said.

Sherrill said he believes if the district continues to preserve the learning environment, empower teachers and collaborate with students, “we will continue to build upon our many success.”

“It is my hope that all of our policies create an environment where students are safe and can maximize their learning potential,” Sherrill said.