Photo by George Anton ’21 | Mikey Stehly ’21 and Christian Kelly ’21 (left) discuss classes while Charlie Cobb ’21 (right) plays Clash Royale with Noah Nuez watching.

By George Anton ’21

THE ROUNDUP

Two years ago, K10, a room in the Keating building, was transformed into a quiet room designated for students looking for a place to study without noise or interruption.

For the most part, K10 stays quiet in early morning hours and for students on flex.

Teachers often walk through the room and remind students to remain quiet and the dean as well. The dean has a stronger presence in the room because he is more likely to give a JUG for disobeying the rules.

Faculty often circulate throughout the room during the day and at break and lunch. However, teachers visit the quiet room far less before school, so many students can easily get out of hand.

The issue of the silence being disrupted happens when an influx of people walk through the doors. It all goes downhill from there.

Most students likely have the intent to work on homework when they enter the quiet room, but they easily drift away from those intentions when they see their friends and want to talk with them.

It starts with one or two people whispering, and then others whisper, and eventually, many loud conversations are happening.

Much talk starts with comparing grades, asking for help on a math problem or talking about an upcoming test. However, it soon progresses into Clash Royale battles, sharing Youtube videos or arguing about what started the Spanish-American War.

It is fair to say that it is very easy to be drawn into all of these noisy distractions. If other people around you are chatting and having a good time, then you might want to drop what you’re doing and join them.

A new addition to the quiet room this year has been a rowdy group of sophomores. A few trickle in around 7 to 7:30 a.m. and by about 7:40 a.m. a large group of sophomores students enter on occasion.

Most of them sit at the tables in the center of the room, and they tend to discuss shared classes like U.S. history and chemistry.

Without intending to disturb others, this group often gets very loud. Meanwhile, other students sit on the outer edges of the room and try to focus on their work, while attempting to ignore the noise.

The quiet room rules should not be disregarded, and all students should respect each other by keeping to themselves while in the room.

Loud people are often shushed by others and whisper for a few minutes before going back to being loud.

It would be beneficial if faculty came into the quiet room more often in the morning. A few JUGs given out to boisterous students would surely fix the problem at hand.