New policies involving phones and clothing have been implementated by DRHS administration for the 24-25 school year.
Dress Code
Girls are no longer allowed to wear uncovered sports bras or bralettes to school. In addition, boys are not allowed to wear their pants around their thighs and must ensure they cover up their underwear. These rules address the idea that a student’s underwear should not be visible while at school.
And there’s another clothing rule in place this year: no pajama pants allowed.
The new dress code was enforced, according to Principal Kim Keller, because of the old habits students developed during the pandemic.
“It’s kind of like that habit of, ‘I’m just gonna roll out of bed, and whatever I slept in for eight hours, I’m gonna wear to school,’” Keller said.
Mrs. Keller says this new rule won’t change the fact that there will still be spirit pajama days. To be clear, though, that does not apply to sweatpants. The difference between the two? Pajama pants typically have a thinner, fleece fabric that’s smooth, loose, and stretchy. Sweatpants are thicker and often made of cotton, wool, or another heavier fabric.
Phones
Phones are no longer allowed during academic class time and must be put away, either in phone holders or backpacks. However, phones are allowed during off-blocks, lunches, passing periods, and before and after school.
The new phone policy has been met with mixed reactions, including students who are upset about the rule and others who are not bothered by it at all. There are also students who don’t mind the phone policy, they just dislike it when teachers make them put their phones at the front of the class.
Before the new phone policy, some teachers already had a rule that phones had to be placed within some kind of holder at the front of the classroom. Keller explained that phone holders are not required, but teachers do need to have students put phones away, either collected or stowed away in backpacks. However, Keller says she allows teachers to decide how they want the phones to be stored within their own classrooms.
The argument about phone use varies. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) stated that “In the last decade, increasing mental distress and treatment for mental health conditions among youth in North America has paralleled a steep rise in the use of smartphones and social media by adolescents and teens.”
That idea is explored in Jonathan Haidt’s recent book The Anxious Generation which was brought to the attention of the DRHS administration. Haidt’s arguments convinced administrators to put these new rules in place in order to limit phone usage in classrooms.
DRHS administrators aren’t the only ones who believe in a cutback on phones. According to The Harvard Gazette, a Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness study showed how social media can help people who feel like outliers find their group. However, that doesn’t mean free reign policies are a good thing.
And while NIMH explains the downfalls of phone usage, they are also willing to acknowledge the benefits of phone and social media access, “…and potential benefits of online access to productive mental health information – including media literacy, creativity, self-expression, sense of belonging, and civic engagement – as well as low barriers to resources such as crisis lines and internet-based talking therapies.”
However, in The Anxious Generation, Haidt explains: “Identity, selfhood, emotions, and relationships will all be different if they develop online rather than in real life. What gets rewarded or punished, how deep friendships become, and above all what is desirable-all of these will be determined by the thousands of posts, comments, and ratings that the student sees each week.”
Keller says that the new Dakota Ridge rules weren’t applied to control students, but rather to make the school a better, happier, and more social place to be, and she hopes that, with this new rule, Dakota Ridge will become a more open and welcoming place for everyone.
