Revelations

On Friday we received a notice from Casey's high school. Apparently, there have been some additions to the rules the new principal is enforcing. Casey thinks the new principal has devised all of these new rules to show the students who is in charge. But, as Kristie said, "They aren't new rules. He is just enforcing them for once, unlike the last principal (who thank God has retired)."

I was amazed -- a school with rules. How nice would it be to work in one of those? I can only wonder.

Here are the new additions --

Clothing -- Added to the list of unacceptable clothing are pajama pants and slippers. It is currently the fad to wear slippers to school and also pajama pants. The rationale behind the change is that this clothing is not appropriate in the educational setting. (How amazing is that? I can count on two hands the number of kids who wear pajamas or slippers on any given day here - and that's just in my hallway. And I won't even get in to the supposed bad on midriff revealing outfits. Oh yeah, our school handbook says they are not allowed, but the official policy is to just ignore them. Or when our administration is called on it, they come up with one of two rebuttals: 1) "I just don't feel right looking at young girls' midriffs, so I'm not going to check them all out for their outfits!" or 2) "We're not talking about showing a little tummy. We're talking about outfits that reveal a lot of the stomach." Just to be clear, I've seen girls dress as if they were in search of a pole and some rolled up dollar bills (Oh, wait that was just prom).

Headsets -- Actually this is a clarification of the current rule about no personal sound systems. With the increase in technology, headsets, MP3 players, and the like are being added to the list.

In School Suspension (What a concept! I wonder if that would work?) -- Starting on January 16, 2007, the second semester, ISS students will be required to be in school during the time of the ISS and will no longer be allowed to go home for lunch. Please make arrangements to have your student bring a lunch if they are going to eat school lunch. (When I went to this school - a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away - we too had ISS. And it was the worst form of punishment known to any of us. It was more like torture. Lon, my best friend, got caught skipping school. So our principal sat him in a small room with no clock or desk. Just a chair and four walls. He had to spend the entire school day like that. They brought him his lunch at noon, and that was it. The principal would unexpectedly check on him to make sure he wasn't sleeping. Lon said it was one of the worst things he'd ever been through. He'd think it was about lunch and then the principal would check on him and tell him that it was only 9:30. It was a battle to stay awake and stay occupied as he stared at those blank walls. He didn't skip again.)

Revelations - each and every one of them -- rules. What would this place be like if we actually had them?