By Hannah Guida

This quote by Deepak Chopra, “All great changes are preceded by chaos” definitely applies to all the new changes that the school has experienced since the Farm got back from summer vacation.

Now, almost three weeks into school, the students have to wake up and be here. Not to mention, the bells here at Wheat Ridge. In years past, the bells have been off by a few minutes or just did not work. But this year, the district made a change to the bells. Now they are on time, but they sound different. “I noticed the bells are really quiet,” says history teacher Arik Heim, “and the tone of the bells don’t differ between the one minute bell and the late bell.”

Senior Melanie Bender says it sounds like a “muted train whistle,” and another senior ErLinda Perez says, “They’re so annoying, you can barely hear them.”

In other words, very few students actually like them. This is not just about change; this comes down to functionality and it is questionable if many students can hear them when they are embedded in swarms of people in our already crowded hallways, cafeteria, and social areas.

“This was an administrative decision because the bells were outdated and these were the new bells that were chosen,” says Dan Watkins who is the head technician here at Wheat Ridge.

Some teachers just do not care, such as Tim Slater, “I don’t really care, honestly, because this is my work place. It doesn’t matter if I like them or not.”

The administration heard the complaints loud and clear and worked to make sure the volume of the bells was increased. English teacher Landon said, “At the beginning of the year they were hard to hear, but now they’re loud in my room. I’d much rather have that than have bells that can’t be heard.”

In addition to the bell change, the Farm also has stricter security. The district decided, for security purposes, to lock all the doors during school hours except for the main front doors. This can make getting to class from the junior lot a little messy. It is rumored that principal Griff Wirth will put a timer on all the bells so that the doors will the open during lunches and the beginning and end of school. As it is, many kids are running late to their fifth and sixth periods.

No other school in the district has new bells, speakers or new security measures.