Changing a policy that has held up for years, the Sidwell Friends administration has chosen to institute a new Loss of Privileges (LOP) policy this school year. In past years, when a student earned eight points for different disciplinary violations, the student would have to report to the study hall during lunch for one week.
This method of disciplinary action was deemed ineffective over the past year due to the increasingly large number of points being doled out and the sheer number of students earning eight points and attending these LOP detention periods. In response, the administration has decided to change the consequences of receiving a LOP.
Due to students’ increasing reliance and focus on their phones, the school has implemented a new policy where, if a student earns eight or more points, they must turn their phone in for the entire school day and lose the ability to go off campus for lunch that week. However, Sidwell has decided to keep the policy of sitting in front of the Honor Committee if a student receives a LOP three times in one year.
This policy’s advantages for the administration includes decreased disciplinary action due to students being hesitant about facing the inconvenience of losing their phones for the day.
Additionally, the student body’s upsides include meeting with teachers or having a normal lunch with friends instead of being forced to sit in study hall for 45 minutes.
Conversely, the drawbacks of this change include students losing access to communication with family or friends outside of their computer or the inability to access certain apps necessary on their phones, such as TeamBbuilder or Canvas. Also, the downsides for the administration include the responsibility of caring for very expensive pieces of technology that they would be liable for in the event they are damaged, lost, or stolen.
Overall, this new LOP policy is much more effective than the previous policy, as it is less limiting to students’ social and academic lives during lunch hours. While discipline is important, academics are much more important. Turning one’s phone in is slightly inconvenient, but all necessary applications can also be downloaded on a student’s computer. The administration made this change rightly, as students are now free to socialize with friends and engage with teachers during all hours of the day while still facing disciplinary action.
