Over the last couple of years, the BBCHS administration, faculty, and student body has had to adapt to a lot of policy changes, especially in the height of and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, not all of these changes have been met with positive reactions or obedience from the student body.

This has been proven true most recently with the introduction of a new disciplinary policy in the 2022-2023 school year. A slideshow was presented by Boiler Block teachers, within the first few weeks of first semester, in which the administration announced that any student who could provide “information leading to the identification and disciplinary action of a guilty party” would receive a 25-dollar gift card. Students had varied reactions to this policy change. 

Adrienne Chinski, a senior at BBCHS, referred to the new policy as “unethical and not an effective method of discipline.” When asked for further elaboration, she said, “rewarding students for turning other students in does not encourage anyone to change their behavior.” 

Many faculty members don’t speak on new changes and adjust as the changes come along. However, when a faculty member was asked in an interview about how they feel about this new policy, they stated, “It feels very inappropriate to me, to bribe students to rat out other students.” Although, while elaborating, they said they “know they just can’t afford to have security guards in every place where students make bad decisions,” shedding some light as to why this policy was introduced in the first place. When asked about the effects they think this policy could have on the student body, they stated, “my biggest worry is students with vendettas against other students falsely accusing them of stuff.”

This is not the first time that a new disciplinary policy has been critiqued or received negatively at BBCHS. For example, a new attendance policy was introduced during the 2021-2022 school year, and was widely met with criticism. 

The attendance policy states that in an attempt to curb chronic tardiness or absences, the school gates would be closing at 7:55 a.m. as opposed to the start of first period, at 8 a.m., allowing students to be in the building before the start of class. There would also be random sweeps of the hallway after one unannounced period , and any student caught would be sent to a kiosk located around the building.

There were varied opinions at BBCHS among students, many feeling as though some policies made them even later, but some faculty did see an improvement in attendance. When Adrienne Chinksi was asked if she believed the policy was actually improving attendance, she responded “I don’t think so.” Then when discussing the effects of the change of the time that school gates closed in the morning on students, she said, “I know of some students who got to school after the gates closed and were tardy because they had to go through the main office, even though they could have made it on time if the gates were open.” 

When asked about how the attendance policy affected the faculty member previously mentioned stated, “In all honesty, I forgot about the sweeps,” but when asked about any improvement in attendance that was noticed, they said, “A little bit. There was some, like mass lateness to first hour was definitely quelled a little bit. But it was really only first hour that I saw a big difference.” 

Ultimately, with a large student body and entire faculty that have all dealt with massive change over the last couple of years, there’s bound to be opposition to any and all changes made, even if some improvement is seen.