After the first semester at Ritenour High School, the administration sought a change and adaptation to protocols, and now a district-wide policy change will continue to change the way life looks inside the building.

Along with the new addition of safety measures (clear backpacks, enforced ID wearing, etc.), policy KKB: Audio and Visual Recording has been put in place to try and diminish the number of physical altercations and the spread of them on social media. As a part of the policy, those who are caught recording a physical altercation are subjected to disciplinary actions from not being allowed to have a phone at school all the way up to suspension.

Students at Ritenour High are experiencing the pressures of stricter rules on a daily basis. 

“I don’t think people are going to follow the new policy. With all of the other policies being placed and still being ignored, I see this as another rule being disregarded and swept under the rug,” Junior Billie Ford said. 

Social Studies teacher Jason Spurgeon believes that the policy could have a positive effect on the school environment. 

“I believe that students will not be as distracted during instructional time by watching fight videos if students are no longer recording and sharing these recordings of altercations at RHS due to this new policy. Having consequences of being an ‘accomplice’ to exacerbate school violence through recording inappropriate student behaviors should also make the school environment feel safer for students and staff as well,” Spurgeon said.

Despite the theory of reducing violence within the school, no one is truly sure of how well the new policy will do its job. 

“I’m not sure if it will actually reduce the number of fights at school, but it should help to slow the further perpetuation of violence and popularize it all over social media sites,” Spurgeon said. 

Social media has become a hot spot for teenagers that holds positive and negative content of the school. The administration’s goal is to stop violence in our school, physically and digitally.

Roger Markl has been a student teacher at Ritenour High since January of 2023. As an observer, he seems to understand the reasoning behind the rules put in place. 

“From an aspiring administrative point of view, the policy makes sense to keep Rienour’s reputation high. Especially in the age of the Internet anything can negatively affect someone’s view on an institution with one video of one fight,” Markle says.

Social media has its pros and cons depending on how it’s used. Its abuse by teens has caused numerous issues that there must be a change. 

“Phones have become an epidemic in the classroom in some instances, so I suppose that removing a student’s phone entirely would give them nothing to distract themselves from doing their classwork throughout the day,” Markl said.