By Maddie Peloff ’16

After collecting the student body input in Advisory Period, the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT), which consists of heads of the departments and school administrators, finalized new expectations for students at lunch. Students are required to sit on only one side of the hallway or refrain from sitting in certain areas of the school all together during the lunch period. Posters have also been put up on walls, reminding students of appropriate behavior.

Social studies teacher Aileen Woolley, who is head of Advisory Period, threw her full support into the idea of hallway reform. She explained that these new expectations are not so much “rules” as reminders for students to behave in the hallway the way they would at home. That includes picking up after oneself, being considerate of others, and not clogging up hallways. Woolley explained that the new expectations will unify the student body and create a much stronger bond between students, security, building services and all other faculty members. “We’d just have an inner sense of responsibility and respect,” Woolley said. “We know the right thing to do and we do it.”

In Advisory Period September 23, students were prompted with the question “what grinds your gears?” Each classroom came up with a list of behaviors that agitates them in the hallways. The Advisory board reported that students seemed most frustrated with feet in the middle of the hallway during lunch, the large amount of trash, and people stopping to have conversations in crowded areas. Then, technology resource teacher Jason Daigle, who overall played a significant role in getting the school to address behavior in the hallways, and Media Specialist Joe Reiff took the most popular of these complaints and created posters. These posters serve to remind students of respectful behavior, such as keeping the noise level down and refraining from crowding.

Daigle proposed the idea of hallway reform earlier in the year, frustrated with the rowdy behavior exhibited by the student body at lunch. He explained that although there was never one instance that inspired his idea, students often partake in loud, disrespectful and occasionally dangerous activities during lunch. When students, teachers or other faculty members are attempting to focus in classrooms, the disruptive behavior outside is a constant distraction.
Assistant Principal Karen Rose has oversight of the Advisory Period and believes that the new lunch expectations are a necessity for Sherwood. She explained that she often has had to hound students in certain areas, particularly the locker banks of the downstairs C, D, and E hallways, to stop crowding and behave appropriately. One purpose of the new expectations is to reduce crowding, particularly in halls with the most adult traffic. For example, students are not allowed to sit in the hallway that connects the main entrance to the cafeteria.

However, Rose explained that she believes student behavior also would improve significantly if more activities were offered at lunch. “I would like especially upperclassmen to be more involved in making some decisions about what other activities happen during lunchtime that are productive, that are engaging, that are interactive,” said Rose. “It doesn’t always have to be educational as long as it’s enjoyable and entertaining … the fewer students in the hallways, to me, means that [students are] engaged in something that’s important to [them].”