Students discuss lockdown, suggest phone-pouch change; school reports new clubs and advisory committee

Student representatives told the Community High School District 94 Board of Education that an inadvertent BluePoint system activation on Sept. 24 prompted a lockdown and surfaced student suggestions about the location of phone pouches during safety incidents.

Mason Ostapa, a senior and chapter secretary for Business Professionals of America, described the Sept. 24 event and said his first-period class generally accepted the district phone policy but suggested “moving the pouches out of the line of sight from the door can make us students feel secure if a real incident were to actually occur and phones needed to be accessed.” Mason said the event was a learning opportunity and urged consideration of the pouch location.

Principal Lumeris and student representatives also reported a successful homecoming (Sept. 29–Oct. 4), athletics highlights — boys’ varsity soccer went 5–0 in conference play and varsity football finished the season 4–3 — and other student activities. Rosie Quatley, a senior and the board’s student representative, highlighted school engagement and leadership roles she holds and praised the homecoming dance and related activities.

The principal reported that the mariachi club held its first meeting on Sept. 29 with about 30 students attending and that administration plans to offer a mariachi elective for the 2026–27 school year depending on student interest. The district also started a student principal advisory committee on Oct. 16 consisting of 20 students from grades 9–12 selected by application; the committee will elect officers at its next meeting and provide direct feedback to the principal and administrators.

Why it matters: Student reports offered both safety-related feedback for administrators and updates on new extracurricular and advisory programs that the district may add to its course catalog. Moving pouch locations, if accepted, would be an operational change affecting classroom procedures during drills or emergencies.

Board response and next steps

Board members heard the students’ report and asked clarifying questions; the board did not take a formal action on the pouch-location suggestion during the meeting. The principal and student leaders said they will continue the student-principal advisory work and pursue the elective offering based on demonstrated student interest.

Provenance: The student remarks and principal updates are recorded in the principal and student-report sections of the transcript.