Cheap and easily accessible, zip ties have become an enormous problem among students at RHS this school year because they disrupt classroom instruction.

Upperclassmen have been held responsible for the zip ties and since has been considered a form of hazing from administration. The zip tying started with the JV football players as a practical joke and spread to other students.

Students obtain these zip ties from students that sell them at school for about 50 cents apiece. Zip ties are originally used for binding electronic cables or wires together. However, students have used them to fasten zippers on backpacks together. Trying to unfasten these zip ties has caused disruptions in classroom and has delayed teaching.

They distract kids from learning, because either they are either sitting in class looking over their shoulder every ten seconds, or they are trying to figure out how to take it off. These distractions can delay classroom instruction and cause disruptions. The only way to remove zip ties is with scissors, and those are not always accessible in the classroom.

Victims of zip ties have been very distraught and are pleased that they are now banned. “I, like many students at Rockville, have experienced the pain and suffering that comes with being zip-tied. It’s a defeating feeling to know someone snuck up and zip-tied you while you had absolutely no idea,” said junior Peter Hailey. “The people who zip tie also cause psychological damage to their victims.”

Rumors have been spreading that the penalty for zip tying is a suspension. However, the only penalty is a parent conference and after-school detention. “Zip tying is an educational distraction and it’s annoying, I think students should be punished for it,” said junior Angela DiFonzo.