The Brave News

by Joshua Lucero & Lucas Garrison

By attending St. John Bosco High School, students have to comply with the school dress code. The past few years these rules have been overlooked. So far in the 2018 school year, there has been a clear reinforcement to these rules.

School Vice Principal of Student Affairs Mr. Jaramillo has been tasked with the job to have the structure of the school run fluidly. A former dean on campus, Jaramillo is familiar with the rules and regulations on campus.

“My job is holding up the stage and making sure the lights work on the stage,” says Mr. Jaramillo.

These school requirements of clean shaving, tucked in shirts and belts are all major cultural changes on campus. Mr. Jaramillo is not trying to make the lives of students difficult, as he tries to bring equity and unification to the school community.

Jaramillo understands that there will be push-back by those students used to a laid-back set of rules in the past school years, but all students must be prepared to comply with these rules when coming to Bosco in the first place.

Push back is a great way to understand the students’ feelings about topics such as this dress code dilemma. This is a belief that is welcomed with open arms, as from this faculty can understand and try to make the student life a better experience.

The life of a brave is introduced to us early in our lives at Bosco, as incoming freshmen are told to imagine ourselves not in a school but in a house with your brothers. Experiencing this as a young Brave, students are excited of this idea but slowly lose this belief over time.

The sets of standards that were once the definition of a Bosco Brave are now being rebuilt to our everyday student life. Starting something basic like strict dress code policies can bring these standards back. 

“Walking into this year, we as a staff knew that changes were to come and that our help would be needed to enforce this. Walking into day one of this school year, I didn’t know that it would be this drastic in the sense that we are supposed to report every infraction that would later on result in some sort of disciplinary act,” said religion teacher Mr. Mestas.

Teachers, although informed beforehand, didn’t anticipate this kind of drastic reinforcement of the rules just like the student body.

“I can say that the changes are good. However,there could have been a much better way of handling this. It’s not fair to you – the student – that coming into this year you guys had no warning of what was to be expected of you and what was to come with this new school year. However, all of this change is not a new rule,” says Mestas.

Having these new enforcements are not unbearable, but it’s somewhat like waking up to water splashed in your face. We are going to be caught off guard, but students will soon understand what the administration is trying to do.

Being bull-rushed by these new requirements was a shock to all. Students believed these were not going to stick. After resisting, students were met with consequences. If not following the directions of the deans, the first warning was a lunch detention.

Dress code is not the only policy that has been reinforced, as if students show up late to school, they will also be given lunch detentions. There is no warning or pass, as that day you were late you have to make up.

Many students who live far from school have an hour to two hour drive in the morning to school. Being late to school is not something you plan to happen but happens.

Talking to those who are in charge of student life and seeing how this affects students first hand has cleared up a blurry vision. The reinforcement to these rules is not to contribute to the amount of stress already on the Bosco student but rather to show equity in the Bosco brotherhood. To be one and not divided and to slowly bring back the ideal image of the Bosco man.