WEB EXCLUSIVE

In reaction to numerous fights on campus over this past week, administration instituted a policy change, as explained by principal Joseph Trybus.

“The policy we now have in place is that there is no early release,” Trybus said. “Typically, it’s seniors are supposed to be released to lunch five minutes early and then they get released from 7th period minutes early. We’ve suspended that indefinitely because what we’ve seen is that every grade level–9th, 10th 11th and 12th–have all been getting out early, and it’s causing the campus to become unsafe because there are too many kids roaming around.”

The lack of supervision during the five-minute early release periods is a major reason for the policy change.

“All the administrators, security and police officers are out during the breaks, supervising the passage of kids from class to class,” Trybus said. “However, we feel like there’s no supervision five minutes before or after, and we’re not out directly in the courtyard. There’s indirect supervision, but we’re not all out there, so we feel this will make the campus a little more safer.”

After-school fights are another potential issue. However, Trybus believes that a policy instituted last month is helping with that issue.

“When we got back from break in January, we put in a policy that at 3 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, we put out an announcement that it’s time to exit campus (on Wednesday it’s 2 p.m.), so we’ve been escorting kids off campus at that time,” Trybus said.

The policy change is indefinite, so the five-minute early release period’s reinstatement date is unknown at this time.