School Rule Revamp
Updated: Oct 25, 2023
By Jaein Park & Anna Yue Sept. 28, 2023
With the goal of fostering a safer environment for the school’s community, Principal Harveen Bal collaborated with staff, students and parents to draft and introduce new and improved policies. All bring changes to the school year, already garnering both positive and negative feedback.
According to Bal, most of the new regulations previously existed at the school but were inconsistently enforced, leading to safety issues—Bal detailed problems such as students vaping in restrooms and strangers refusing to leave the school.
To solve this, Bal surveyed the campus and discussed student safety with staff members. As a result, old regulations have been cemented into new policies: to combat incidents of vapes and other substances used in bathrooms, bathroom passes are required; to attain a safe campus, students must purchase parking permits—which prevents strangers from parking on campus. Bal’s administration has also emphasized marking students tardy when late to a class.
Yet there are some new policies that have not been previously enforced, such as the SJUSD technology policy—which discourages personal devices such as personal laptops in the classroom and encourages students to use the Chromebooks provided by SJUSD. Additionally, many social media sites were blocked to avoid academic dishonesty at school. Some students, however, prefer personal laptops due to Chromebooks’ slow hardware.
“I want to use my personal device during tutorial because it is faster and has fewer restrictions, but some classes only allow Chromebooks. I have to bring both, which is very tiring,” Sophomore Saanvi Gunukula said.
Weekly Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) presentations—which teach students to develop social skills necessary for their future careers, manage their emotions and build positive relationships—have also been implemented into students’ schedules. The school requires all teachers to teach SEL presentations on the same day in tutorial so that every student receives the lesson.
“SEL presentations help students increase prosocial behaviors such as sharing and kindness. I like how they match my classroom sense of ‘Open Heart, Open Mind,’” Ying Zhang, Math Department, said.
Student feedback has also been taken into consideration. Students are no longer required to attend tutorials on specific days of the week; accessibility to all teachers, every day of the week, is ensured. However, mixed opinions have arisen regarding the policies as a whole: some students believe that they are too strict, while others understand why they were implemented. Parents and teachers, on the other hand, have given mostly positive feedback.
Through the new policies, Bal hopes to create an environment where students can be the best versions of themselves. She urges teachers, parents and students to share their opinions about the changes. This way, the school can continue to adjust to better benefit students, who are not only the target of the newly implemented policies, but also the facilitators.
About the contributors
Jaein Park
staff writer
Jaein Park is a freshman at Leland High School and is a new staff writer for The Charger Account. During her free time, she enjoys listening to NewJeans music, hanging out with her friends, and studying and learning something.
Anna Yue
staff writer
Anna Yue is a sophomore staff writer for The Charger Account. During her free time, she enjoys crocheting, sleeping, watching dramas, listening to music and reading web novels.
Sophia Ro
photographer
Sophia Ro, a junior, is part of the photo and media team for Leland High School's newspaper, The Charger Account. She enjoys playing soccer for her club team, as well as skateboarding, spending time with friends and family, and being a couch potato.
Kavya Desai
artist
Kavya Desai is a senior at Leland High School and is a new artist for The Charger Account. During her free time, she enjoys sleeping, playing video games, and going for long drives.
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