A new school year customarily has a few surprises in store, be it new faces or new rule changes. Our school definitely has its share of both this year, with some a little more unorthodox than others. The changes in policy for this school year come as a pleasant surprise to most of the students at Kerr, and I am no exception.

The main thing that everyone, including myself, is thrilled about is that we can FINALLY listen our music without getting in trouble. We don’t have to sit in corners with huge hoodies, trying to hide our headphones in oversized sleeves. I concentrate so much better when I can plug in my headphones and tune out the rest of the world. It seems that everyone in the center is much quieter than usual due to the fact that they can listen to their music. As an added benefit, those who don’t have mp3 players are more productive because of the silence.

Another change implemented this year is that there is no Phase System. As a senior who has been here for all four years, I’ve worked hard to earn my Phase 3 sticker just to have it taken away. In reality, the only privilege that a Phase 3 student had that the other two didn’t was off-campus and the privilege to skip others in the lunch line. Although the rule said you need to be Phase 3 to skip someone, that wasn’t always the case. The skipping always had, and probably always will happen. The seniors, however, won’t have to worry about that because they all have off-campus lunch. So, am I angry about the Phase System being taken away? Only for like five seconds! What’s really important right now is lunch. Subway, anyone?

For the past three years I’ve had the same locker. At first, I thought that it was really bad that it was near the English center when I had the math center for advisory, but I soon grew to love the location. It was not only convenient to all of my classes, but it was also near the bus ramp. Trying to get to one side of the school after fourth period is hectic enough, but trying to do so while having to stop at your locker and then push your way through the crowd is really aggravating. Not only did everyone get new lockers, but the seniors also got new IDs. I don’t really understand the point of getting them. Frankly, they seem like a waste of time to me.  

The last and final change made this school year is that the “minimum 50” rule is no longer in place. If any student should get anything lower than a 50 in a class than on his or her report card an automatic 50 would show up. I support it because it saved many people from humiliation. While I think that everyone should do his or her best to pass all classes, not everyone has the same outlook as I do and they might not care about schoolwork. Despite this, I think that it would be better to receive a 50 than anything lower than that.

The changes aren’t so bad, but I think that everyone will have to take some time to get use to it. Once we mold our patterns around these new changes, it’ll seem like such changes were ever made.