SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — Members of the Slippery Rock Area High School administration on Monday, March 24, presented handbook updates for the 2025-26 school year to the school board’s Educational Programming Committee.

Five changes to the handbook in total were presented by high school assistant principal Jesse Pattison and covered topics such as cellphones, artificial intelligence, technology misuse, profanity and the creation of a nonathletic student probation.

“(The policies) come from a collaboration with staff members from the high school, looking at some of the challenges we are seeing right now and trying to come up with some creative ways to solve some of those, and just general updates to student conduct in the handbook,” Pattison said.

For cellphones, the high school’s current policy requires students to store phones in a designated phone holder in the classroom. During lunch, the students are permitted to use their phones, with some restrictions.

Under the new policy, students are required to store their phones in their lockers for the entirety of the day, unless explicit permission is granted. The new policy will also cover smart watches, wireless earbuds, headphones and any other electronic communication device.

Pattison said the reason behind the administration’s choice to tighten restrictions relates to distractions, unsolicited pictures and videos, and the ability to spread misinformation among students. The administration also recognized societal challenges, such as increases in anxiety and depression, and struggles with forming connections.

Board member Greg Schiller raised the concern of parents being unable to reach their children as easily. High school principal Cory Hake explained a plan to set up an area where students could use their phones to contact their parents.

“We’ve talked about a ‘phone zone’ or ‘communication station’ where kids know that if they need to communicate with somebody at home, we want them to be able to do that. We always have, but we want them to do it appropriately,” he said.

Pattison also presented on the addition of a policy to address AI in the code of conduct to address usage in the classroom. Under the new handbook, students can only use AI with permission from teachers for specific assignments. Unauthorized use will be considered cheating.

“We’ve been enforcing on AI for years now, but we want to formalize it in this handbook,” Pattison said.

The administration also offered a new addition to the code of conduct defining profanity. The new guideline prohibits the use of profane language, including verbal, written and through gesture. The guideline also defines two types of profanity: incidental, or nondirected, and directed. Discipline for profanity usage will be updated accordingly in the school’s discipline chart.

Pattison also presented a new concept of nonathletic school probation to the committee. Students who are placed on probation are unable to participate in extracurricular and other activities such as dances and field trips.

“A lot of these activities are important to our students and will serve as a massive incentive to make sure students are trying their best,” Pattison said.

Students failing two or more classes, who have six or more unexcused absences or have a history of major disciplinary issues can be placed on school probation, at the discretion of the school administration. A student who is placed on probation due to academic performance will receive routine check-ins and, if grades improve, will then be removed.

Lastly, Pattison presented a technology misuse item for the code of conduct, to cover technology misuse outside of the computers and networks policy of the school. Using technology at school for illegal activities, disrupting classes, capturing others without permission and capturing fights fall under technology misuse. Discipline for misusing technology will be updated accordingly in the school’s discipline chart.

According to superintendent Alfonso Angelucci, now that the proposals have been presented to the Education Programming Committee, the new handbook will be voted on by the school board in coming months.

The next regular Slippery Rock Area School Board meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. April 14.