With the first month of the school year finished, many students have noticed a change of implementation concerning school rules. With these new regulations come stricter enforcement and consequences compared to the 2009-10 school year.

Whether it be through a dress-coded shirt, or a demerit for being in the parking lot when it is off-limits, students are slowly encountering these new restrictions.

The new enforcement policy began at the end of last year, when Principal Todd Bennett met with Superintendent Debbie Siebert and teachers to discuss needed changes to the student handbook. The faculty members came to a conclusion that parents wanted students to be better instilled with discipline and an understanding of the school regulations.

“At the end of last year we put out a survey, and overwhelmingly, students and parents said that we needed to do a better job with discipline,” Bennett said. “So … we looked at our rules and our handbook and we discovered the rules were already there; it’s just that we had not done an effective job enforcing them.”

Bennett believes the reason teachers had trouble directing students last year was due to a lack of understanding of the student handbook. Instead of rearranging the handbook, faculty members agreed that all the general requirements were there. What was necessary, Bennett said, was to engage students with a more structured disciplinary system.

“We [the faculty] found the kids didn’t know where the boundaries were,” Bennett said. “Just because it was written down didn’t necessarily make it a rule. When there’s no consequence for breaking a rule, then people are going to keep crossing it over and over again, so it soon became a disruption to the learning process and to the teaching process.”

Maria Montejano, ’11, attended Fresno Christian for her freshman year, and was home schooled for her sophomore and junior years. Montejano says that compared to three years ago, the rules have become stricter.

“Even though there aren’t very many new rules, it’s definitely different,” Montejano said. “I feel that they [the administration] are more strict with them [students] this year as opposed to my freshman year.”

Student body president Justin Wilson, ’11, holds differing opinions on the school’s developments. Wilson agrees with most of the rules, but finds the rules concerning the parking lot to be an annoyance.

“I don’t agree with the rule saying we can’t go to our cars during breaks,” Wilson said. “Sometimes we need to get stuff like food or drinks from our cars. It’s not like anybody could leave, anyways, because there are always teachers around; so, I don’t really agree with it. I don’t disagree with anything else, and I think the school is doing a fine job with everything else.”

While some students are irritated with changes to the normal routine of the school, others are unaffected by these adjustments. Chloe Duerr, ’14, lacks a car and has never been dress-coded, so she takes a disinterest toward the recently developed constraints.

“The new rules don’t really affect me because I don’t wear different styles