Lately, school rules have become crazy. They’ve made me hate them. I hate school rules so much because some of the rules are compromising personal hygiene, while others just don’t make any sense. For example, some schools limit how many bathroom breaks you can take a day. In my former middle school, the students were limited to only 5 bathroom breaks a week. If you used all 5, you couldn’t go for the rest of the week. Also, all 5 trips had to be supervised by an adult. More dumb rules include having to turn your phone off, not being able to chew gum in class, a limit on how many times you can use the restroom in a day, a limit on how many times you can use your locker in a day, and no open-toed shoes. I also believe not allowing outside food is dumb, with some exceptions. Not having certain items like peanuts because of allergies is reasonable. If you know there are people with that allergy, it should not be allowed, but other than that, outside food should be allowed. In making this argument, I have considered that the purpose of these rules was to counteract the students who slack off in school. But they affect everyone, which isn’t fair because not everyone is like that. So I believe that those rules should only apply to those people. Having them for everyone is unfair.
These types of rules are a problem because students are urinating on themselves, causing parents to have to leave work and lose pay for little things that could have been prevented at school. Parents shouldn’t have to go to the school and ask why their kid peed themselves. And most of these rules are just dumb. An example of this is having a closed-toe shoe being mandatory. I just don’t understand what’s so harmful about wearing Crocs, sandals, or slides. I believe the school system should treat us students as maturing individuals and not just little children. And not being able to chew gum in class is one of the worst rules. Just because students put gum under desks in the ’70s through the ’90s doesn’t mean we’re going to do it. This new generation of children likes to be clean.
Also, the limit on how many times you can use your locker is quite idiotic. Imagine this: you have the strictest math teacher on earth. School started at 7, but you just arrived and it’s 9. You try to go to your locker for your books, but are stopped. The hall monitor says you have to go straight to class. Now you’re stuck in this predicament where you have to hear your strict, mad teacher ramble on and on about being prepared for class. What is the student going to do?
From personal experience, I can say that some rules have good reasons. One is the supervised bathroom break rule. At my middle school, other students would go to the bathroom to skip class, vape, and hang out. And because of that, they put that rule in place for everyone. This isn’t fair. Not everyone partakes in those activities, so not everyone should be punished for the actions of some.
A good solution to these issues is that the teachers could be more open-minded when making the rules. Another solution is that if the students could be less chaotic, then the teachers would be forced to lower the standards of the rules in place. And teachers could make certain rules for certain students and not the entire class/student body as a whole. An overall solution to dumb rules that are in place at your school is to create a student government, then that government could argue that the rules are unfair and offer alternative ideas. You could also start a petition to try to change the rules. A petition is a formal request to change something, which is often signed by many people. Some advice I can give you is to gather as many people as possible, so you can have a good chance of being heard and taken seriously. If you keep pushing for change, eventually it will come.
Dillon Mooney – Fenwick High School – DMSF Class of 2029
Photo Credit: littleny – Adobe Stock