Staff Editorial: Study Hall Lockdown

Lion Staff

Last Friday, Oct. 3, the usual laid back rules of North Campus study hall were stripped away from all seven periods. On Thursday, someone vandalized a desk and then stupidly put it on the popular app Street Chat. With the administration monitoring the anonymous picture app, the period after the picture was posted, they quickly came and searched for the damaged desk.

The next day, the mood in the NC study hall changed. There were two monitors, one in the front and one in the back, who walked up and down the aisles, to make sure the study hall was silent and no one was moving. Anyone who went against these intense rules was sent down to the assistant principal’s office.

Even though it was understandable that the administration looked for the vandalized desk and punished the person who did it, it was not fair to then punish every period of study hall in the following days. As someone who is absent often, I use study hall to ask my fellow classmates what happened in class the previous day and catch up even before the class starts.

However, when I came after from being sick for three days, I was now in a lockdown study hall where if you even opened your mouth, you were sent to the principal. South Campus kids might be asking what the big deal is, because what happened is similar to how their study hall runs. It is a big deal when the rules for the year and years prior have been so relaxed. Students get used to the relaxed ways, and they get in a routine of either talking to their friends, working together on projects, or asking someone in their class a question about last night’s homework. When this routine is created and then taken away in one day due to one kid’s stupidity, it becomes very unfair.

If the administration wanted to show everyone that this is what happens when someone wrecks school property, then they did it completely wrong. All it caused was a really angry group of students who wanted to “Free LT Study Hall”, and not understand the reasons behind why it was done. Instead the administration should have explained to everyone what happens when someone damages school property, what will happen to them and that they had been warned. With the actions that were taken, all they have now are angry students who just want their normal study hall back.