When freshmen Shainna Orecklin and Jessica Tuchin got home from school one day, they were “excited” to see their razor scooters had arrived.

They purchased the scooters so they would have a fun way to get to school and to classes within the new Classroom Village faster.

However, on Wednesday, Jan. 17, an email was sent by Dean of Students Jenn Babin regarding the school’s no-scooter policy.

“Students have never been able to ride scooters bikes, or rolling vehicles on campus,” Babin said. “This email was sent to remind students that this rule also applies in the Classroom Village.”

Orecklin and Tuchin had just started riding their scooters to school and had been riding them across the village pavement in the morning to store them in a math classroom. Until the email came out, they were unaware of the rule prohibiting scooters.

“We were just riding our scooters to school and figured we might as well ride our scooters to get to our first class,” Orecklin said. “It was just a fun way to start our morning.” 

Babin said the policy existed formerly, however, it is not directly stated or alluded to within the Archer Parent-Student Handbook.

“The Handbook would be quite long if we included a specific rule for every potential mode of transportation,” Babin wrote in an email. “Instead, the stance on scooters (bikes, skateboards, etc.) all stems from a general safety concern. In the same way that a bicyclist would be expected to store her bike on the bike rack, a scooterist is expected to store her scooter throughout the school day.”

According to Babin, the administration will consider putting an explicit policy for scooters in the next edition of the Student Handbook.

“It does make sense that it would be a safety concern,” Tuchin said. “Some people find it to be a distraction, but we really miss riding them in the village.”