By Alex Cichowicz ‘23

Water is an everyday necessity.  Our bodies are mostly made up of water, and we can’t survive without it.

This year Brother Rice enacted a rule that if you need to bring a water bottle with you, it must be a Brother Rice issued water bottle. Water bottles are such a simple item that you wouldn’t think they would have to make a rule for them. At the end of the day, we all know that rules are made because somebody found a way to do something out of the ordinary.

The new water bottles were a response to students acting out and not cleaning up after themselves. Although the water bottles somewhat help and unify students, some still found ways to disregard the rules.

When a bottle hits the floor, the cap flies off and water spills everywhere, which can cause a safety hazard. When water is spilled all over the floor, not only can one slip on it, but it also wastes time in class for the teacher to stop a lesson and clean it up. Because of this, some teachers still continue to not allow them in their classrooms.

Since all the water bottles look the same, students must write their names in Sharpie pen on the bottle. If a student loses the water bottle, the Sharpie can easily be rubbed off and the bottle stolen. That poor kid must pay $10 for a new one that might either break or be stolen again.

Dean of Student Life, Mr. Prunckle stated a good point that switching to the new water bottles will help the environment. Plastic water bottle waste will be reduced due to the reusable water bottle mandate.

This cause seemed like it would have a good outcome, but I think we should just go back to allowing any sort of water bottle in classes.