By Caitlyn Freeman 

On November 14th, Arundel High School administration announced that there will be no Pride Period until December 4th.

An announcement from administration was made to teachers on the morning of November 14th, before students entered the building, instructing them to inform their students of the schedule change. Teachers were also reminded during the morning announcements to inform their students.

On November 13th,  A picture of the updated schedule, presumably from a teacher email, circulated on multiple social media accounts with students voicing their frustrations with the change. The original post, found on Snapchat, was captioned “no pride period til Dec. 4th…spread the word.”

Some Arundel students have expressed negative reactions to the updated schedule. Sophomore, Laci Chermak, said that she is “annoyed” because when Pride Period is active “we can use it well.”

Emily Hamilton, Sophomore, shared similar thoughts, saying she’s “annoyed because I used it to redo tests. Teachers won’t always give you time in class.”

In an interview with The Pulse, Mr. Ryan, Assistant Principal at Arundel, said, “Pride Period was not taken away. Pride Period is temporarily on hold for the beginning of the marking period because in the beginning of the marking period, grades are new, there’s not a ton of redo’s and assessments in the very beginning, so a lot of students are not utilizing the academic portion which is its intent.”

“The purpose of Pride Period is academic recovery or enrichment, so we want students in a classroom. So, that’s why we’ve utilized the Cafeteria and Auditorium for other purposes,” he said.

Ryan also stated that, “as administrators we like Pride Period and know its value. We also know that in order for it to be valuable, students have to use it appropriately. Students using it appropriately, great. If they’re not, then we have to reevaluate.”

Ms. Mandrich, Spanish teacher and sponsor of the Interact club at Arundel, says that she’s disappointed.“I host a club, but I understand why it happened,” she said.
“Once [Pride Period] is back it’ll be good, but now at the beginning of all marking periods, I bet its gonna happen again,” she added.

The updated bell schedule is listed below:

1st: 7:30-9:00

2nd: 9:06- 10:36

3rd: 10:42-12:42

(A-lunch: 10:42 – 11:02, B-lunch: 11:20 -11:50, C-lunch: 12:16 – 12:42)

4th: 12:48 – 2:18