As of this school year, many things around DHS continue to change. Along with the cafeteria makeover, the doors remain locked at all times and students must ring a bell to enter the school. These changes, made mostly for safety purposes, make up the ones most obvious to students.

Many students find the new doorbell a nuisance. The district administration placed the doorbell on the side doors, while most students enter through the front. The doors remain locked from 8:00 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. Most students wave for someone else on the inside to open the door, instead of ringing the bell. The bell adds little safety if students continue to open the doors for anyone on the other side of the glass because it prevents people from checking in through the main office . Along with the locks on the doors, the gates to the student parking lot stay locked until 4:00, making things harder on student drivers moving their cars after athletic practice.

To go with the new doorbell, the principal now enforces a new rule: no staying in the school after 3:50 p.m. Last year students stayed past 3:50p.m. when waiting for a ride or working on homework. Now, without teacher supervision, students must leave the building at 3:50 p.m. This becomes inconvenient for students whose rides arrive later than 3:50p.m., especially during cold winter months or hot summer months, but the discipline issues experienced in previous years has dramatically declined.

The most difficult changes for students seems clear; the campus no longer allows kids to leave the school for lunch. Instead of two lunches, the district created three lunches to accommodate the amount of students who used to eat off campus. The lunches also decreased 10-12 minutes. To many, especially those who looked forward to eating off campus, these changes only worsen the school experience.

These new rules emerged to help students and provide safety, but they only hinder the social experience in school. While the need for increased school safety remains a clear priority, we need to figure out a way to enforce it without detracting from all the things that make high school special and exciting.