By Dakota Gunnare, Editor in Chief
The second floor at the West Bend High Schools, usually swarming with students before school, has been unusually quiet.
Site administrators put a new before-school supervision system into place Oct. 5, one day after an altercation on the second floor required a police presence. The new system, which had been in the works even before the altercation occurred, at first asked students arriving at school to stay in one of three designated and supervised areas until 7:10 a.m. Since then, students have been allowed to also walk the main hallway on the first floor and stand in supervised hallways. The plan is for the system to continue to adapt to meet the needs of WBHS.
The goal of increasing supervision before school is to maximize school safety, according to David Uelmen, associate principal. Uelmen says that safety must be WBHS’s first priority. It wasn’t feasible to supervise every corner of the school on two floors, so it was necessary for WBHS to limit the areas students could be in. Some faculty have volunteered to help administrators supervise in the morning for a bonus stipend.
Jennifer Potter, executive principal, says that the building is returning to a system that was in place before COVID-19. During the pandemic, the rules were relaxed, enabling students to spread out across the building before school in order to reduce close contact.
Many students aren’t happy with the new restrictions. Some are avoiding the designated areas by just not entering the building until the last minute.
“In the West parking lot everyone sits in their cars until 7:08 and then they all leave at the same time,” East junior Bella Multerer said.
When the system was first introduced, the West and East cafeterias, two of the original locations students could be in, became more crowded than usual. For those who previously used time before school to study or do homework, the cafeterias have become more stressful places. Some students, like West senior Lilia Gierach, feel the new supervision system has harmed their ability to focus.
“I understand why the policy was put in place but I think the implementation could’ve been smoother and more coordinated,” Gierach said.
Uelman and the rest of the administration have heard student concerns and will continue to adapt the system to fit the needs of WBHS. Uelmen says the administration will be flexible and the new system will be malleable.
“For instance, originally we said just the two cafeterias and the fieldhouse, but now students are kind of walking and doing laps down the main corridor,” Uelmen said. “We’re fine with that.”
Uelman says that because students have been requesting passes to go to classrooms and the second floor, the administration will soon announce a new system for before-school passes.
“It wasn’t a punishment,” Uelmen said of the changes. “This was honestly a school safety piece, and more of a supervisory piece.”
(Top image: Students keep their cars running before school in the WBHS parking lot. Photo taken today by Dakota Gunnare, Editor in Chief.)
The West Bend Current 