On October 3, 2025, BHA released a set of new policies for juniors and seniors due to the ongoing compliance issues with the existing open campus and phone usage policies. While the administration hopes that these new policies will cause change and benefit the students, many juniors and seniors feel that these policies affect their day-to-day activities. According to the administration, “These measures are necessary to protect student safety, reduce distractions, and ensure accountability.”
One major change to the open campus policies for juniors and seniors states that no student may leave campus without praying Dhur at 1:50 pm. in congregation. Some students claim that this policy doesn’t really make sense for those who have classes at the beginning of the day but not in the middle of the day, as it forces them to stay behind to pray Dhur salah. Senior Ahmad Kadiwala expresses his concerns when he says, “ I understand that the policy is for the safety and benefit of the students, but it restricts them in unnecessary ways. For example, students who have no classes after lunch and are required to stay after salah are restricted from going out to masjids and being able to fulfill other responsibilities outside of BHA that they may be able to do without the restrictions.” Kadiwala claims that this new policy doesn’t seem balanced for students with mixed schedules. According to this policy, if a junior is taking AP US history, which is from 8:00 AM to 9:20 am, and then has online dual credit classes during the middle of the day, then they would have to stay at school from 9:20 am until Dhur at 1:50 pm. Additionally, the administration has enacted a 2-week ban on the juniors from leaving the campus. This policy resulted from the fact that some students would leave campus during the day and skip school entirely. This ban acts as a punishment that should prevent future occurrences of this from happening again.
Furthermore, the new phone policy states that students may not use their phones anytime on campus, not even in the fishbowl. Before, juniors and seniors were able to use their phones in the fishbowl to study and submit assignments. Many students, however, would waste time on their phones by playing games like Clash Royale. Junior Wahaj Uddin elaborates on this as he says, “I know a lot of people don’t think of the phone policy positively, but I think it’s important for us to disconnect from our devices during school hours to make the most of our learning.” This policy also adds stricter consequences for phone violations in order for students to adhere to the system. The new policy can be seen as balanced, although it has caused some negative changes. For example, since many juniors have nothing to do without a phone, they have turned the fishbowl into a chaotic environment. Loud screaming, pushing, and reckless behavior in the fishbowl disturbs students who are actually studying on their laptops. While the new phone policy has reduced distractions, it has led to the addition of this issue.
The addition of BHA’s new open campus and phone policies has aimed to advocate discipline and responsibility, but it has had a mixed reception among students. Though it has solved problems like excessive distractions and skipping class, it has also led to new issues like chaos in the fishbowl and limits on students’ freedom. Hopefully, the implementation and enforcement of these new policies will contribute to a more positive student experience on campus.