By Ana Perez, 10th Grade

By this point, you’ve probably heard of the change in the school rules. Now, students have to leave their phones in the lockers or face punishment (aka: a ficha). This shift in the school rules has not been well-received by the student body.

While not being able to use your phone during class is perfectly reasonable, students feel that not being able to use their phones at all – even during breaks or recess – is unfair. And being forced to leave them in the lockers is an annoyance. One thing that you might’ve noticed at this point is how almost none of your classes are located near your locker. So, it’s a bit annoying to get to school, go to homeroom, be told you need to put your phone in your locker, go up the stairs to your locker, go down the stairs to your homeroom, go to your first class in the other building and so forth, until the end of the school day. Unfortunately, your final class is not in the same building as your locker, so you have to either wait for the elevator or take the stairs to go to your locker, grab your phone, wait for the elevator or go down the stairs, just to finally, finally go home. It’s understandable why students would describe this as a pain – because frankly, it is. 

There are other concerns that students have related to leaving them in the lockers aside from the hassle of leaving them there in the first place. One concern is that if everyone knows where the phones are – or are supposed to be – then isn’t it possible for someone to steal them? There is a chance that you can open someone else’s locker with your own key; there is also a good amount of students that use ‘combination locks,’ where you only need to know the password to open it. And, sure, the chances of someone stealing a phone aren’t high – there are cameras at school after all – but it is still a concern students have. 

Another concern is… what if the school burns down? It has happened before and I doubt anyone would like to leave their phone in a burning building. Although, you could argue that even if the rule didn’t exist, phones would be in the backpack, which would stay in the burning building. But, at least you can get your phone out of your backpack and then rush out of the burning building with your classmates – you’re not really able to do that with the new rule. 

Another problem students have with the rule is that phones are not allowed at all during school hours – including breaks and recess. Not being able to use your phone in class is normal, reasonable, and expected… but during recess? It’s not as if there’s any lesson or teacher to pay attention to during this time. While you can argue that it’s so we can socialize with one another – let’s be honest, we already do that a lot during class time, and it’s not as if we’re going to spend our entire lunch break staring at our phones as zombies. Back when phones were allowed during lunch breaks, we were socializing just fine.

Most students, if not all of them, find it quite annoying. There was a lot of complaining about the change for the reasons mentioned above, and it’s not as if it’s unwarranted complaining. The fact that you can receive punishment such as a ficha simply for having your phone in your backpack because you don’t have your locker key is unjust.

But, the change of rules made lots of students closely examine the Disciple Code where they noticed certain interesting rules. For example, Piercings, portable entertainment items, magazines, and bringing more than 2K pesos to school is a ficha. So you better start leaving those at home. But if you’re going to bring them, hide them well. Another example is – joining a gang. That’s a white ficha. Why is joining a gang not allowed? It’s not specified in the rule book, but it might be because gangs are frequently associated with violence. Unfortunately, all students in a gang are going to have to quit their gang life. We haven’t heard reports of gang activity near school grounds though, so it’s possible all those students did quit after the change of rules. Another example is that kidnapping is a white ficha. If you were planning on kidnapping your classmate and/or teacher, you should’ve done so in December, because it’s not allowed anymore. And if you’re wondering… who is even going to attempt a kidnapping? Well, that’s an excellent question. And if you’re also wondering… doesn’t ‘kidnapping is bad’ go without saying? It does, but it seems that someone, somewhere in the school, needed a reminder. Yet, it’s hard to believe someone who is willing to attempt a kidnapping is going to stop their plan just because the school will punish them if they’re caught. 

Some of the rules at the school are perfectly reasonable – no cheating, no bullying, no phones in class. Yet, some are so specific that you’re left wondering ‘why is this even a rule in the first place?’ And, as of now, we have no answer for that. We also cannot answer if all these rules are actually enforced. But, we can answer the question of ‘what do students think about the new rules?’ Well… so far, no one likes them.

Disclaimer: The article isn’t meant to be taken seriously. It’s a satirical take on the topic.