Nick Sherrard ’15
The arrival of the new school year at St. Edward High School is always accompanied by new rules and policies.  While students are still waiting for the return of early Mondays every week, there were still notable changes that bring improvement to the school day.  The most prevalent of these is that every student can now wear a backpack throughout the school day to accommodate the new 1-1 program (Check out my article from last spring on that for more details).  There are the obvious benefits to this; no more carrying books, fewer trips to lockers, and more time in the hallway to talk to friends.

For freshmen, this not only completely eliminates the risk of getting booked, but also makes the transition into high school easier. “I think having backpacks makes the transition into high school much easier for lots of freshmen. Some people are still learning how to get around the school and not having to go to your locker makes that easier,” said Jordan Akey ‘18. “Without them I bet a lot of kids would carry half of their books around with them all the time so they don’t have to stop at their locker as much and risk being late for class.”

Of course, there are regulations that go along with this new rule, specifically constricting the size of the bookbag. “The backpack dimensions should be no larger than 18” (h) x 13” (w) x 6” (d)” (39 SEHS Handbook).  Students who previously owned backpacks that did not comply with these dimensions have the option of purchasing the SEHS approved backpack from the bookstore. However, after walking around the halls the first few days of school, it seems as though most students had no issue with this. When asked if he had any problem with this, Collin Richards ’15 said, “It’s kind of annoying. Some kids can’t fit their books in it and have to have a second bag. Hopefully teachers will start to use less paper so it’s not a problem.” However, he added, “At the end of the day even though that’s a problem, backpacks still make getting from class to class easier.”

Not sure what to do with the extra minute you have since you no longer have to stop at your locker?  Check stedsman.com in the coming weeks for our video “20 Things to Do with Your Extra Minute between Classes” which will kick off the return of the Herbsman, the shortlived but greatly loved humourous section of our student newspaper.