PV is kicking off the next school year, and with it have come notable changes to school policy.
With the ongoing trends of in-school vandalism present on social media platforms such as TikTok, the school has devised a method to combat the strange trend of the destruction of school property, most notably in the restrooms.
The method entails the recent addition of a dedicated classroom computer hosting a Google Form, which students must fill out any time they plan to leave the classroom. The information from each form is compiled and stored for later observation, where any anomalies can be recognized and, in turn, serve to dissuade a potential source of damage.
Frequent fliers will need to be more careful this year, as signing out too often may raise suspicion. Remaining anonymous when leaving the classroom will no longer be an easy task.
The policy is a clear step up in restrictions compared to last year, likely in response to the destructive trends that took high schools across the country by storm— from damage to stalls to missing soap dispensers. Such factors have created a large inconvenience for students, and may have played a role in the addition of this new system.
Senior Colby Voss has witnessed damage to school property dealt by other students. “Once both a soap dispenser and a paper towel dispenser were missing. Some of them have whatever nonsense carved into the walls of the stalls,” Voss stated.
Many students have experienced these instances of missing items, and the quality of the restrooms have been lowered as a result. Voss continued, “I try to avoid them as much as possible.” These sentiments are shared among many students at PVHS. With the frequent issues regarding damaged school property, the new signout system might have seemed inevitable.
While the system appears to have good intentions, some students believe there are better ways to solve the problem. Senior Connor DeNike has interacted with the new signout system. “I don’t think the bathrooms are in very good condition. They definitely could have some work done, but I feel like the school tries to do too much with the bathrooms and not enough with other things,” he stated. Perhaps collecting and storing data for student activity may be too extreme for some, and there are other methods to address the issues which have yet to be looked into.
Signing out of class will become a regular occasion, but only time will tell if the new system will address school vandalism.
Mary • Sep 15, 2023 at 10:14 am
The article informed me on why the school uses hallway passes to better monitor these actions. However, I don’t believe this is the best way to combat this issue. The issue seemed to be just a small trend and by now, there is no need for the Hallway Pass sign out
Jalen • Feb 17, 2023 at 11:52 pm
This article greatly informs me that PV is taking action to fix these problems swiftly, instead of just letting it build up. The article lets us know that when the school sees a problem, they fix it, quickly and correctly.
ZuZu • Sep 30, 2022 at 12:06 pm
The way that they’re trying to prevent vandalism isn’t the correct way. This could encourage students to sneak out more and try to do things because they see it as a challenge. I feel that the staff should be focusing on preventing this kind of behavior because high schoolers should be more mature about things, and not have that destructive behavior. The journalism here is very good and very informative about why this system should be in place. Even though I don’t agree with it, I can see the points that they are trying to make.
Anthony • Sep 23, 2022 at 10:27 am
I think the way they are trying to combat vandalism is a poor idea because at the end of the year last year, the trend of destroying things died off and people have stopped doing it. It is just more of a hassle than anything now. I feel like it is also going to get kids to want to vandalize again because of the new rules. They will want to break the rules rather than follow them.
Caroline • Sep 19, 2022 at 11:50 am
Everyone already knows about the why’s to the system, and like it was pointed out, there could be other aspects to focus on. Rather than signing in and out we could focus on ways to prevent the behavior. Good points throughout the article!
Malayna • Sep 15, 2022 at 12:29 pm
yes this is true kids do have to be more carful now how many times they leave the classroom and not be suspicious and agree it wont be a easy task anymore.
Halle • Sep 13, 2022 at 12:32 pm
Great article pointing out some of the issues our school is facing, very informative.
Rusty VanWetzinga • Sep 11, 2022 at 11:26 pm
I think the whole google form idea is a terrible solution to the vandalism deal at PV. As the year went on last year the whole vandalism trend kind of died off and now that they came in with this “solution” its only gonna tempt kids to find a way to vandalize the bathrooms as a “joke”. This is a great article because I feel as if a parent or teacher were reading this they would totally support the saystem but as a student who actually has to use the disgustion laptops for everytime they want to use the restroom then they would definity see an issue with the google form method.
Savana Stalkfleet • Sep 9, 2022 at 12:07 pm
This article is a really good way of supporting this policy and is a good example of great journalism.