The Preuss headphone policy states that no headphones are allowed on school campuses at any time. The policy was put in place so that all the scholars remained focused while school was in session.
“There was always a headphone policy at the school, but for the last two years it wasn’t enforced very well, so at the beginning of this school year, the staff and administration made the decision to enforce the behavioral code more strictly,” said Dr. Steitz.
School administration noticed that when students have their headphones on and have their music on full blast, they are not conscious of the things that are happening around them.
“You want to be aware of your surroundings on the trolley because we know that the trolley can be a dangerous place sometimes,”said Dr. Steitz.
Dr. Steitz referred to a professional study conducted at the University of Wales that investigated if music really can help a person focus better on what they are doing. The study concluded that a person cannot focus on the work they are doing because they are multitasking. This study concluded that music can disturb the mind from focusing on certain study tasks.
“While music makes us feel like we can do our work, if you really timed how much work you got done while listening to music and how long it would’ve taken you to do it without music, you would do better without the music then you would listening to the music,” commented Dr. Steitz.
There were a variety of reactions from students about the reinforcement of the policy.
“The headphones policy helped the students socialize more because now they don’t have their headphones in all the time,” said Ikhlass Mohamed (‘25).
“I mean in my opinion they should just let students use their headphones because it’s a way for us to just get away and relax for a while before getting focused again,” said Briseyda Young.
Although students had different points of view on the headphones policy it was overall beneficial to the student body.
