As schools across New Hampshire welcome back students, Somersworth High School gave freshmen a day to themselves Tuesday.
Just before 8 a.m., about a dozen freshmen got their first look at high school in math teacher Josh Tabor’s room. Once they settled in, Tabor ticked off his pet peeves — being lied to is one — and circled the class up for an ice breaker game.
“I want you to tell me your name and something that's about you,” Tabor, who has taught at Somersworth for several years, told them. “Like, if you play guitar, that would be a really cool thing. It's something you like or that you identify with.”
No one complained, and everyone learned something about their classmates. One student has a YouTube channel, another collects records, and several others named sports or video games.
Here’s what else these ninth graders learned: High school comes with more privileges, like eating lunch outside, and a stricter cell phone ban that prohibits phones, even at lunch. Somersworth implemented a classroom cell phone ban last year, but allowed them during lunch.
Assistant Principal Michael Blouin said problem behavior dropped last year following the new policy.
Upperclassmen return Wednesday, but several came back early as tour guides, including senior Vaughan Larson. He still remembers his first day of freshman year.
“I walked in and then they redirected me to go take my school photos and I was completely, like, unprepared,” Larson said. “And they still haunt me to this day.”
This year’s freshmen were spared school photos.
Junior Michael Baidal Obando said the teachers and staff make Somersworth High a “home away from home.”
“They're really helpful here,” he said. “And since it's a small school, you get to . . . do one-on-one with teachers, which I think most kids really enjoy.”
Somersworth offers something for all students, said Jack Rossiter, a senior. Students can help run a school store, take college prep classes, or graduate with a certification to work in an auto shop or fire department.
“It's not necessarily even college prep anymore,” Rossiter said. “It's future prep in general.”
The upperclassmen weren’t thrilled with the new state law banning cell phones from the first to last bell, but said it won’t be a huge adjustment, given the limits Somersworth adopted last year. Sophomore Calvin Day uses his phone to monitor his diabetes, so he’ll continue to carry it.
“I can't do any of the fun stuff,” Day said. “I try to keep it away anyway, and not be on it all the time so I don't . . . make people jealous. I just use it as something that I need.”
