Students’ Concerns For the New Policy and the School’s Reasoning Behind Them
By Elyse Mathews
A new policy draws questions of caution, convenience, and consequences to the forefront of the school’s mind. Recently, students’ proximity cards have been discontinued, and their entry points are under tighter control. The main entrance is open throughout the day, but only after students ring the front desk. In the morning, the back entrance facing the football field is available for students parking at Veterans Field or taking the school bus. During this time, the entrance near Gym 1 is also open for students walking down Beverly. However, these doors are locked once the school day begins. During lunch, from 11:55 to 12:05, the side door near the fitness center is open, but a staff member is posted there. In case of emergency, RHS also has a full-time Ridgewood police officer in addition to the two security guards behind the desk at the main entrance and patrolling the school. In reflection of the school’s shift towards safety and caution.
Principal of RHS, Dr. Nyhius, explained that “the reasoning is strictly about safety” since they are trying “to limit the number of access points… for strangers or intruders” and position security guards so that the school knows who’s coming in and out. Also, the school conducted a study around Bergen County and found that “no other schools allow [school] access to students using proximity cards.”
However, as soon as the change was implemented, students were unafraid to voice their opinions against it. Ava Fontus, the school president of 2025-2026, recalled how “over the summer, when they sent out this email, Oh my God. My DMs were flooded with so many people being like, ‘What did you do? What happened? Bring back the key cards!’… and we had no clue.” The student government hadn’t been consulted or told in advance about these changes. Many students, like Sonia Jimenez Galasso, a freshman, were “kind of confused because [we] didn’t see why they would stop them”. However, considering that the freshmen never experienced that perk, Sonia added that, “I guess it doesn’t bother me that much, because it’s not like I lost it.”
Nevertheless, the other three grades felt the change to a greater extent, and they immediately created a digital petition during the summer to end the new school policy. The petition was sent to Ava and her vice president numerous times by different people. Even if she didn’t agree with its application in this instance, she commemorated these actions that show how “the youth want to take initiative and be like, ‘hey, hey; we don’t want this, let’s try to change this’”.
While Dr. Nyhius never formally received the petition, he further confirmed that there was “pushback in the beginning from students,” but “we had conversations with them.” He initially predicted a greater response from the parents, but, during back-to-school night, the 300-400 parents gathered in the campus center didn’t give any signs of opposition to the new policy’s announcement.
Nevertheless, even after weeks had passed following the start of school, students still came to Ava and asked when the key cards would return, with impracticality being at the forefront of their concerns. Amtoj Goraya, a senior who attended all 4 years of RHS, brought up how “students typically enter through more side entrances than the ones open in the mornings, simply due to the location of their house.” She believes that students are also inhibited from taking more efficient paths between classes and have a harder time coming back from sleep-ins or trips downtown. Amtoj explains how they have to now “walk all the way around the building, [and] it’s not like a small walk either—a good 10, 15 minutes.” With all these factors, Amtoj worried about being late to class and receiving tardies on her school record.
In terms of general student dissatisfaction, Ava explained that “as a kid, I just wanted to have that freedom to just whip out my key card and just go inside.” Sonia, who heard about the previous key card policy from her older siblings, feels “it’s kind of unfair to [the freshmen] because… they’ve changed a lot of things that we didn’t get to experience.”
Dr. Nyhius agreed that the policy is more inconvenient, especially when trying to go from the science wing to the art wing. He states that the reason is simply that RHS “wasn’t designed the way schools should be designed now. There’s a lot of access points… and if you look at newer school buildings, they only have one or two entrances, similar to what we’re trying to do.” Overall, he claims that the school is “doing the best we can with the resources that we have.”
In response to specific concerns of tardiness, Dr. Nyhius asserted that he’s “not hearing that the kids are… getting to class late.” He further advised that when students return from trips or come to school later in the day, they should keep the policy in mind and leave a few minutes earlier.
Another topic for the school is how necessary these new safety precautions are. Amtoj questioned, “Who’s really trying to get into a school building?” since she maintained that “there’s nothing to steal or anything, unless you want kids’ books or expo markers.” She also described herself as feeling “mostly disconnected from [the idea of a school threat] because it’s Ridgewood. It’s a considerably safe town.” Other students, such as Ava, grant that America’s current climate, with its mass school shootings, is unpredictable enough to cause concern. In the case that “God forbid, something happens, people are going to be asking: ‘How were they let into the building? Who let them in?”
On another note, concerning the effectiveness of the policy, Dr. Nyhius advocated that it gives the school “more security and [the ability to] manage people who are coming in and out of the building a lot better than before.” If the key cards were being used correctly, a student would “swipe in, and then we have a record of you coming in the building.” However, in truth, kids would usually “swipe in, and five kids would walk in behind” them. Also, “kids were losing [their proximity cards, so] now you’d have a [missing] card that anybody could find” and use to get into the building. Dr Nyhius concluded that “over time we realized that this wasn’t the best system”. Ava contended that the new policy ensures that “everybody’s going through the process, especially if they’re not a student here.”
Others thought that this new policy will be just as effective as the previous one. Sonia asserted that it doesn’t make a difference how people are let into the school since anyone suspicious in the school will “just be stopped by nearby security guards since you’re not in the school system.” Dr. Nyhius agreed that the school has other security measures outside of limiting entrances to the school: “Our staff is our security, [and] our students are our security.” Similar to the mantra, ‘if you see something, say something,’ Dr. Nyhius believes that since “there are 2,000 people in the school,” if everyone is alert and vigilant we’ll be a safer and “better place.”
The last concern of students arose from Ms. Wood’s warnings of unspecified yet harsh disciplinary action following any violations of the policy. However, Dr. Nyhius explained that “We don’t go out of our way to discipline kids.” The school monitors everyone, but they would only consider issuing a punishment “if it’s a repeat offender.” Overall, however, he grants that “it’s always hard” to decide when students should be disciplined. He understands “opening a door for someone you know is a student.” However, if a student doesn’t know someone trying to get in, he advised them to “direct them around the building.” Generally, however, he believed that there are ways to enforce the new policy “without making this into a conflict”. Ava agreed that “the door opening has been happening less because I feel like the school has definitely been trying to stress that you shouldn’t be.”
The sudden change in school life also had students from every grade reflecting on the constantly changing environment of RHS. Dr. Nyhius asserts that “we’re constantly evolving and I think that listening to, you know, maybe this article [could spark] something… [or] we could put together a student advisory.” On the whole, he’s open to listening to the students and having a conversation with them, especially if they know “a better way, that’s safe, that could, you know, advantage the students.” He concluded that “I’m always going to listen to kids. I’m always going to listen to parents. But…it’s not just about convenience. It’s about something larger, which is safety.” On the whole, he thinks “that kids feel heard, even if the school doesn’t change [the policy] because of what they’re saying.”
Ava, speaking as the head of the student council and as a student, shares how she’s “sorry the key cards are gone, and they will be missed deeply… but we have to do what we have to do.” She emphasizes that if “given the option to do something about it, I don’t think I would… I think it’s for the best.” Also, she reflects on how “just the fact that the school is always changing. Honestly, I love it and the school’s just been on its ‘A game’ when it comes to staying productive.”