On September 12, during the annual Wellness Day, Assistant Principal Robert Hyman announced new school policies for the 2021-2022 school year. These include updates on the dress guidelines, as well as tardy and detention policies. 

Because this year is the first time the entire student body will return to the building in over a year and a half, both the Old Tappan and Demarest administrations decided to update the student handbook. During the summer months, Old Tappan and Demarest collaborated on the final changes in order to make a uniform district handbook. 

According to the new tardy policies, students will now receive ten detentions as punishment after their ninth tardy. The only difference is that students are given more leeway before receiving detentions. The previous tardy policy stated that students would receive one detention after 3 tardies 

One of the biggest changes this year is the new Saturday detention policy. “The nuts and bolts are still being ironed out,” said Hyman. “As far as tardies go, kids will get a Saturday detention on their 19th tardy, which I think many people will agree is excessive.” 

Some students are not on board with this new policy. Junior Ryan McManus said, “I believe morning and afternoon detentions are enough of a punishment. Plus, there should be boundaries. Punishments should be based on the situation at hand.”

Although there are no new additions to the dress guidelines, Hyman noted a shift in attention to the changing guidelines in recent months: “Some groups have brought it to the student senate to be changed, because that’s something everyone is interested in looking at. The student senate is continuing to have conversations like that so we can find out what works best for everybody.” 

Student Council President Ace Kim added, “Last year, topics like the dress code were discussed, and several class councils expressed their opinions on changing our school dress codes to make them more appropriate for our school’s culture.” 

The Student Senate is a student government group whose goal is to let the student body have input on important school issues. Anyone interested in joining the Student Senate should contact Ms. Hoffman for more information on how to get involved.