Hello! I'm a sophomore at Rock Island High School, and I believe in my rights and my peers rights to advocate for our scholarly community.

This school year, a rule has been added which, in summary, states that students are not to have anything except water above ground floor, which, in some circumstances is understandable, as cans and open drinks are able to spill. However, what I don't understand is why it's becoming a problem just now. Sure, beverages get spilled, accidents happen. But that could happen with water bottles too. In fact, that leads me to my next point.

Today (August 19th, 2026), my 8th period teacher alerted the class that water bottles without caps that twist off will not be permitted above ground floor either. If we're talking realistically, that is, for a lack of better words, ridiculously nit-picky. 

I'm not sure what the big deal with straws is, but some students don't own water bottles with screw off caps. Actually, most manufactured water bottles today, such as Stanleys, Owala's, and Hydrojugs, have straws. You cannot expect students to sit for 8 hours a day without a water bottle. Sure, there are accessible water fountains, but you can only get water from them every so often. Some students may carry around water to prevent them from passing out. A common trigger for passing out is dehydration and overheated, crowded spaces, (HealthyChildren.Org), which is basically High School. There are scholars everywhere, crowding spaces easily. It may seem like I'm reading into this too hard, but you could never be too cautious thinking about the possibilities.

Concluding my statement, I've been in the Rock Island/Milan school district my entire scholarly career, the number one thing I've heard from my teachers is to advocate for myself, and that's exactly what I'm doing. Thank you for your time, and I hope you take me and my peers opinion into consideration.