Students caught wandering the halls without a pass may find themselves spending the rest of the class period in the Reset Room, a recently added program designed to reduce hall wandering and class skipping. Unexcused tardiness and absences have remained an issue, prompting administrators to create this program as a way to keep students in the classroom and reduce the number of late or missed classes.
The Reset Room operates during every class period and switches locations as the day continues. To keep track of where students should be sent, staff members and security personnel have a schedule attached to their lanyards. If a student is caught in the halls without a pass, a security staff member will escort them to the room. Students remain in the room for the rest of the class period under teacher supervision. While there, they are tasked with completing a reflection sheet that asks them to look back on their behavior and make better choices in the future. It asks them to answer questions such as why they were not in their class, where they were supposed to be, and where they were instead.
“What was going through your mind when you chose not to attend class?” is one question students must answer.
“This was a stop-gap measure to make sure we have safe hallways,” explained Mr. Brian Bishop, Dean of Students. “The number of students wandering the halls has gone down significantly.”
A total of 415 instances of students being sent to the Reset Room have been recorded since the start of the second semester. According to Mr. Bishop, most students have only been escorted to the room once, although there is a small group of students who have been referred multiple times. 19 students have been sent four or more times, with three students being brought as many as eight times.
“I’ve been to the Reset Room before, it was so boring and I never want to go back,” Brandon Fair, sophomore, said.
Despite these efforts, the issue still persists. Throughout the day, several students are seen wandering the halls without a pass, sitting on the bathroom floor, under the stairs or near the lunchroom. Yet, the Reset Room sometimes remains empty.
“I see kids in the halls all the time,” Leonna Socci, freshman, said. “I didn’t even know the Reset Room existed. I had no idea that was a thing.”
Although the room has decreased the number of students in the halls, it is not a permanent solution. Administrators are currently planning changes for next year. Moving forward, the goal is to keep students in the classroom instead of another room.
“Next year, we want to completely overhaul it. We don’t want to have a room like we have this year,” said Mr. Bishop. “We would prefer to get students in the classroom.”
