One of the new policies at FHS this year was that to be able to go into the tech center for anything, you needed to get a pass 24 hours in advance. If you didn’t have a pass from the day before the librarians would not allow you to be in the library.
Some students realized that this didn’t work for them, or they didn’t plan accordingly so that policy has been changed so that instead of going the day before, you must at least go get a pass from a librarian before school the day you need it.
This policy was put into place because the librarians noticed that too many people were using the tech center as a meeting spot for big groups of people during their classes. Too many people coming into the tech center to socialize with their friends.
The computers were being used for things that didn’t have to do with any school work, which would deprive other students from using the computers if they actually needed one.
“There was too much chaos going on in the tech center and a lot of people who came in to actually get their work done, weren’t getting much accomplished.” School librarian Ms Waite said when asked about why this policy was made.
Some students were not very happy with this decision. Sometimes students have things that are due the next day and they have a very busy schedule that same day after school so they want to use their directed study time to get their work done.
“I think it’s very inconvenient for people who may have something due that same day that maybe they had just forgotten about or they didn’t have time to get it done, and so now they can’t go get it done.” Says senior Ashley Danello.
There are many disadvantages to this policy. Sometimes you might not get your work done on time because you were busy after school. You might have to stay up really late or wake up really early to type or print something. There will be less net-books because instead of going to type things on the computer in the library everyone will have to get net-books.
“I don’t think its necessary.” Senior Michaela Shimkus states. “Or what if you have something due the next day, but you have directed study last period and so you don’t have it the next day and you cant get it done after school either.” Shimkus is one of the many people who don’t approve of this new rule.
You may not always know ahead of time that you need to go into the tech center for something. You might have something assigned and then have a directed study the next period, but you can’t go into the tech center because you didn’t get a pass that morning.
The good thing about this rule is that there will most likely be less people in the tech center so you can focus better on your work or you can actually have a computer to sit at.
There will also be more bean bag chairs open because less people will be there to just sit around and talk. Everyone always wants to sit on those bean bags so there is never any open, and now there will be.
A lot of people either don’t know about this new policy or they forget to go get a pass before school. Or some kids wait until the last minute to type whatever they need to type or to print something so now it will not be able to get done.
If you know you have to type or print something or you just want to sit at a table of bean bag to get some work done in a quiet place and you want to go to the tech center during your directed study, be sure to stop and get a pass before school or you will not be allowed in the library.