Anyone who knows senior Nick Arruda will notice that there is something amiss about his appearance lately. He has remembered to shower. Is he missing his pants? His shirt? His toe socks? His Dutch dancing clogs? His turban? No, it’s something far more important to Nick than pants.It’s his headphones.

With the arrival of new principal Kerry Lynch comes a new set of rules at DHS, including the no headphones policy, which dictates that headphones can’t be seen anywhere in the school except for the cafeteria during lunch.

Some students feel strongly about this new rule, having been allowed to wear their headphones during previous years at DHS.

“I think it’s dumb because I wore my headphones, but I didn’t always have music playing and I was listening at appropriate times," said senior Nick Arruda. "Having them out in school shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but if a teacher wants students to put them away, that’s the teacher’s prerogative."

Not all students feel as strongly as Nick does about the new headphones policy, such as senior Martha Powell, a new student from Alabaster, Alabama,where students were never allowed to have headphones or any other electronics in school. Ever.

“I think you are lucky that you were ever allowed to have them, period. At my old school, we weren’t allowed anything,” Powell said.

And she isn’t the only student who has never been allowed to have headphones in school. Incoming freshmen have nothing to compare this loss of headphones with, seeing as how headphones weren’t allowed at Dartmouth Middle School either.

“There’s really no big difference,” said freshman Jeremy Isaacs, when asked about how he felt about the no headphones policy.

Even students who have been allowed to wear their headphones previously don’t feel that strongly about the new rule. These students don’t see it as a big deal, and some believe that the irate students,as senior Jillian Cleveland said, “Need to get over it.”

It’s confusing to manage all the varying attitudes from the mixture of students.  According to Vice Principal Bob Taylor, he’s only had to confiscate one pair of earbuds, which is only the second offense.

Quick little review: the first offense is a warning; the second offense, Mr. Taylor confiscates earbuds; the third offense, parents come in to talk to Mr. Taylor about the student’s obsession with headphones. A fourth violation is so unimaginably heinous that the DHS Administration couldn’t even devise a fourth disciplinary action.

"I think it’s working really well. Ninety-nine percent of the students are complying with the rule. They may not like it, but they accept it,” said Mr. Taylor.

Clearly, being the first year and only the beginning of it to boot, the no headphone rule has not had time to foster and be tested and accepted. As the year progresses, the longevity of the rule will be shown and whether or not it will last and work this year.

The life of the rule lies with the administration. With some students flat out angry, and others regarding it with passivity, the DHS Administration has to enforce the rule across the board in order for it to work to show that all are complying with the new rule.

As for right now, the hallways in Dartmouth High School are music-less, and headphone-less, as students walk from class to class, their ears free from headphones, and their necks for that matter too.

As Mr. Taylor said regarding the impact of the new rule,“So far, so good.”