The final bell rings to signal the start of class. All students have found their way into their assigned rooms, getting started on their classwork. Several students leave the same class to go work in the booths on their group project. Another pair of students are making their way down to the library to pick a new book. One more student goes to talk to another teacher about an assignment that they need to turn in.
At least this is what it looked like last year.
This year, the Stockbridge Jr./Sr. High School has taken on a new system to monitor the students going in and out of classrooms. Administrators and faculty are enforcing a new rule this year that prohibits more than one student out of the classroom at a time.
And the thing that lets them out? A trophy.
This rule change has led to different feelings related to these trophies, which differ within the grades. Some students dislike having to carry around a trophy anywhere they go. Sophomore, Zoey Horstman believes that students are irresponsible with them and they don’t end up serving their purpose.
“People are irresponsible with them and they get broken quite often from everyone dropping them on the floor when they go into the bathrooms,” Horstman said. “Some trophies were destroyed after only a couple of days of school.”
Students also think that carrying a trophy can be unsanitary even if they are supposed to stay outside of the bathroom. Junior JayLee Chapman has a distrust of her classmates and their hygienic practices.
“I don’t think it’s sanitary and it’s kind of disgusting,” Chapman said. “ I would rather have a sign-in/sign-out sheet, something that I don’t have to touch.”
While there is a lot of pushback on the trophies, some people don’t think they are as bad as others. Senior Finn Coffman thinks that limiting the amount of students in the hall is a good thing for the school.
“I think it’s a pretty smart thing that they did,” Coffman said. “They can control the number of people going in and out of classrooms.”
Staff’s opinions on this topic vary depending on their ages and classes. Some of the teachers working with younger kids are positively seeing these trophies. Mr. Langone, the high school art teacher, likes the idea of the trophies.
“I don’t mind using old trophies for a pass, I did think it was weird at first,” Langone said. “The nice thing I guess is that it’s easy to see and not hard to carry around.”
Other staff members see things a little differently. Librarian Debbie Lopez isn’t seeing the results in front of the students she was expecting with these new hall passes.
“Students are not reacting positively and many people think it’s gross,” Lopez said. “I don’t think there’s any student that’s happy with it”
Regardless of the opinions of whether or not these trophies should be used, they all were once someone’s measure of grit and perseverance that were supposed to last for generations to come, yet many are broken and lost. Most of the trophies used are from the 1994-97 Science Olympiad Team. Stockbridge alumni, Dan Johnston, was a part of the 1994 Science Olympiad Team and was completely unaware that the trophies were being used as hall passes, yet isn’t completely unhappy with this idea.
“Having these awards displayed in the trophy case instilled a sense of pride and accomplishment for all of the team members after the hard work and dedication they put in,” Johnston said. “But I’m happy that the trophies are still around and caused people to ask about them.”
Team member Paul Fanson is happy that the trophies are finding a new purpose and bringing attention to the history of Stockbridge.
“I think that this is awesome. It seems that it stimulated some fun discussions about some of the past successes of SHS students,” Fanson said. “I am proud to be part of that history. It brought back some fun memories and I am glad that they are getting used for a fun purpose.”
