OPINIONS

FINDING COMMON GROUND

A solution for student behavior lies in collaboration
to pass until relatively recently.
The staff editorial represents the That lack of experience does not,
opinion of the majority of however, justify the way students act.
The Highlander editorial board Leaving trash in hallways and showing up
to class late with no explanation are as bad
School isn’t just a place to learn content.
It’s also a place where students learn how to
interact with authority figures, make friends
and form relationships, deal with people they
don’t like, navigate excessive stress, maintain

S tarting with the e-hallpass system in early

2022, McLean’s administration has been
looking for a behavioral silver bullet for years
for students as they are for admin and other
building staff. Now is an important time for
the cycle of student negligence to be broken.
a healthy lifestyle and so much more. It is
the responsibility of students themselves
to learn these lessons. Even something as
now. Policies to keep students in check have Yet, behaviors which undermine education simple as knowing when to use your phone
included mandating physical hall passes, are becoming normalized. is important for the future.
restricting where students can eat lunch and “Regular attendance is important because “I put my phone down when I go into a
threatening detention for kids with too many if you get into the habit of not coming in, meeting as an adult,” Reilly said. “We need to
tardies. it becomes a reoccurrence,” Principal Ellen teach juniors and seniors these skills before
The administration is finally facing one of Reilly said. “[Students think], ‘I don’t have heading off to college.”
the most prevalent questions of the COVID to go,’ and then you fall further and further Temporarily losing privileges like
age: what is the end result when kids spent behind.” Highlander Time Flex and early releases
their formative educational years cooped up After all, habits become harder and for seniors, both of which were recently
on a computer? One of the biggest flaws harder to break once they’re established. earned back, is frustrating as a student.
of the administration’s approach to the Students should realize that doing what they Criticizing admin for the way they handle
behavioral issue is the assumption that the are told isn’t just a meaningless sacrifice of bad behavior, though, doesn’t do justice
problem purely stems from local sources. your autonomy—it has lasting benefits. to the task they are facing. There is no
We’ve become all too used to listening to “It helps you in the future, too. When you absolute solution to McLean’s behavioral
announcements telling students to “do go to college, it’s easy not to go to class,” woes. Students should avoid dramatizing
better” and that their behavior isn’t up to Reilly said. “I learned that my freshman year, administration’s regulations and do their best
Highlander standards. There’s an implication and then I paid for it later. You have to get to understand the motivation behind them.
of a student mutiny; every communication into that good habit of coming because it By working together, the student body and
from upstairs indicates that students are will help you perform.” the administrators can find a solution.
acting up on purpose, as if out of spite for
school staff. This is not the case.
Post-COVID schooltime behavior is
an epidemic that everyone saw coming but
nobody took the time to prepare for. It’s a
byproduct of the one and a half years that
most American students spent calling into
class from beds, bathrooms and moving cars.
Our day of reckoning is here.
According to the National Center for
Education Statistics, over 80% of American
public schools reported that the pandemic
had a negative effect on student behavior,
which is no coincidence. School plays a vital
role in childhood development, especially
when students are in their formative teenage
years.
Our pre-COVID standards put our
students through a lot. They grew up quickly
and developed socially acceptable behavioral
responses to the stimuli they were facing
every day. Now, there is a new generation
of students who didn’t have their first mean
teacher, first toxic friendship or first class
that forced them to pull constant all-nighters

32 | OPINIONS | OCTOBER 2023 Cartoon by Lev Gu | Reporting & page design by Philip Rotondo