There is a new way of disciplining students at AHS, and it’s called the Discipline Matrix. According to the AHS handbook, there are three goals to the Disciplinary Point System. They are to improve the educational environment for students, teachers, parents, and staff, to inform students and parents of rules and policies, and to record discipline violations in a systematic way. The way it works is that if a student breaks one of the discipline violations, they will be given points. If they reach 100 of these points they will be expelled.

Mr. Oestman, the vice principal, commented on the new Discipline Matrix, and how it’s affected the school. When asked, “How has the point system worked so far successfully?” He responded with a great answer. He said, “It’s never successful when students get in trouble. The point is to not throw bids out. It’s to pick up habitually occurring acts. It’s never successful, but it’s been effective.”

When asked if the point system changed the way students act, he said, “To an extent. It’s going to be a process. It won’t change immediately, but it is one of the many important structures to set a more positive culture.”

The last question I asked him was, “ What rules have been broken the most?” He responded with, “The ones given the most are cell phones, being tardy, and skipping retraining’s.”

The Discipline Matrix is meant to give students a new way of disciplining that will help form a positive culture, and as the year progresses, fewer students may get in trouble because they know the consequences. It’ll be interesting to see how the Discipline Matrix works as the year progresses.