Study hall: Out of Control or Under Control?

Study hall is a time for catching up on homework and a time to “decompress” and do what we need to do as students to get our grades higher and to get help on our work. Coming back from Winter break some changes were made to study hall to help keep fewer students out of the halls and in the classroom to cause less trouble. But these changes brought other opinions of conflicts and questioning if this new system is actually necessary and if it will really work and stay in place for long.

Some new changes that were made to study hall is a five-minute “free time” after 30 minutes of reading on My On and watching announcements. This break includes the students being able to go do what they need to do such as use the bathroom or go see another teacher for help, only if the student has a pass or just walks around to see friends and stretch. Every student is allowed to leave their classroom to do these things but if you walk in late you will face the consequences such as going to in house for lunch detention if this issue continues then you will face more severe consequences.

When getting back to your classroom you are not allowed to leave that classroom again to do anything only for emergencies. If you leave to go to another teacher when having a pass you are also not allowed to go back to your assigned classroom, you must stay where you are for the remainder of the day. Quite a few students were lost and confused with these new changes and why they are being implemented into the system. “Study hall does not give us enough time to do what we need to do and make it back on time to our classes so we don’t get lunch detention. Simply this just isn’t fair to anyone, and who is this really benefiting?” says Cristian Aldecua, a junior here at PVHS.

Aldecua pointed out some of the problems that he sees in these changes. “I feel like juniors should be able to leave if they have no work and have really good grades and are able to get a ride home because most of us can drive.” Cristian also feels like “Overall study hall is very crazy and not monitored or planned well at all as of now. Study hall should not be meant for rushing and feeling scared to get in trouble or being sent to in-house. If it is meant for what our principal says is being a decompressed time then why are we being rushed the whole break time given.” Confused was the word used most often when the topic of these changes was brought up and what all we could do to understand these better and get a better feel for why our administration has set these rules in place.

Walking through the halls almost every student was out of their class during the break and going wherever they wanted to go. This did lead to a massive line for the bathrooms making it so that students barely could get a space to wash their hands and make it back to class one time. Tiler Ledford a sophomore here at PVHS imputed her own opinion on the bathroom situation during this break saying “There is simply no time to use the bathroom and to wash your hands while trying to make it back to class on time. The other day I went to the bathroom half of the girls upstairs were in the bathroom with a long line coming out making it to where I could not use the bathroom because I was scared to make it back late.” Says Ledford. Time management is what it is all about when it comes to study hall, using your time wisely is what study hall is teaching you to learn how to do your work productively and to have your resources open to you for help.

As for new information on improvements to study hall, administration is working on getting more hall monitors to help make the bathroom situation go a little faster and make it so that everyone gets to use it before heading to class. Although the administration is trying to help keep students out of the halls and in their classrooms this system is seeming to be more of a hassle than bringing any new positive changes for the future as of now.
No matter what administration does to study hall there will always be conflict and opinions on what should be done and implemented during the period. Have a voice and speak up for what you feel and see is wrong with your education, this is the only way change is truly made.