Scheduled to start Aug. 17, the hall sweep system will start again, but it’s much earlier than in previous years.

Students receive hall sweeps whenever they are late to class. They may receive one each semester without punishment, but two sweeps per class result in a detention, three in a suspension and four in community service. The second, third and fourth hall sweeps restart every six weeks.

“The hall sweeps were originally designed to assist teachers so that they could maximize their classroom efforts and instructional time,” Assistant Principal John Newton, who is in charge of the hall sweeps program, said.

“I think hall sweeps are effective because of their harshness,” junior Rohan Arora said. “I mean, if (the school) wasn’t strict about its rules, then what would our incentive (be) to follow the rules in the first place?”

While hall sweeps normally begin the second or third week into the school year, this year they begin much earlier.

Newton said this is because one week is enough time for students to find where their classes are. Arora said he disagreed with the change and said the school should give students at least two weeks.

“Veterans to the school won’t have too much difficulty finding classes, but freshmen probably will, seeing as they are coming from a much smaller environment,” Arora said.

In addition to the hall sweeps during the school day, teachers will also be stricter in keeping students out of the hallways after school.

“We’re gonna ask teachers, administrators and aids to step out into the hallway about 15 minutes (after school is let out) and ask students to be out of the building if they are not in a club or organization,” Newton said.

Exceptions include students who are seeing a counselor, tutor, teacher or for any other academic purpose. In the past, Newton said, teachers noticed students staying behind for no reason, and thus, the school is becoming stricter. Newton also said this is a safety precaution and will make the students less likely to get in trouble.

Although there is no set punishment, students will be told to leave. If they fail to comply to the request, a variety of punishments could happen, Newton said. By Yameen Hameed <[email protected]>