That's an Infraction!

by Laszlo Stein

Sequoyah High School, Pasadena, CA

There are three things I would ask God to do if I ever met him: 1) end world hunger, 2)

create peace on earth, and 3) explain the Sequoyah infraction system to me in a simple and understandable way. Between my interview with the Dean of Students for Community Life and Arts Department Chair Viviana Palacio and consultation of the Student Handbook, I can confidently say that I now understand about 60% of the infraction system.

But if, unlike me, you feel well versed, I encourage you to skip my patronizing dumbing down of a complicated system and read about Ethan A.'s and Atticus A.'s experiences with the system. My understanding of the infraction system and the updates to the infraction system are as follows.

So first, what are the changes that have occurred to the infraction system in the past year that we've been hearing about in Morning Meetings? In short, “More than it being a change of the system, it's more a change of the communication of the system,” said Palacio. In the past year Sequoyah has worked diligently to be more transparent with students when an infraction is given. Last year, students were unaware of their infractions until an undetermined amount of time passed, whereas this year students are immediately notified via portal about their wrongdoings. Or, at least, the ones that Sequoyah manages to discover.

According to Palacio, last year, information was not intentionally being hidden. “We were not trying to hide anything last year. I think it's just like with any new system, it requires training, understanding it better, seeing what are some of the pitfalls, et cetera,” said Palacio. Another change admins have pushed for, for sake of clarity, is scrapping the acronym SASSy which stands for Student accountability support system. But if you're like me, and your confused as hell about what the infraction system is to

begin with, here's everything you need to know:

First, there are four levels of infractions: level zero, level one, level two, and level three.

Each level results in varying consequences from a “check in” which can fail to happen and does somewhat often, to an either internal or external “support group” intervening.

Second, the first three levels of infractions are almost never seen by college admission

officers. According to Palacio “Colleges do not see at the infraction level” however when “you're leveled up, then there's a greater chance [of an infraction being added to an official transcript". Meaning… a level three is normally is a probation that is reportable to colleges.

Third, infractions don't always have to start at level zero. “There are moments in which you may skip a step up if the norm violation is serious enough… but normally it's a ladder system,” said Palacio.

Fourth, infractions aren't decided based on other categories of infractions. Meaning that “the spirit of things is that apples and oranges don't get mixed,” said Vivi. However, if larger patterns emerge, bigger steps may need to be taken.

Fifth, when a student is given an infraction every teacher is notified. Vivi admits that this might cause a teacher to be more likely to give that student an infraction after being notified about an infraction in a different class. However, she also feels the need to be transparent with teachers. When asked if telling all teachers about a student’s infraction might affect whether teachers give that student more infractions in the future (either consciously or unconsciously) because they know about the student’s past behavior, she said, “That is one of the questions that I have, too.”

In the 2023 to 2024 school year there were 170 incidents reported. 42% of those were

"constructive participation" concerns, 20% were "acceptable use of technology" concerns, 20% were "stewardship" concerns, 5% were "honesty and academic" concerns, and the other 13% was split between, "bias incidents", "safety and wellbeing" incidents and other categories. Even though these stats are from almost two years ago they give us a pretty good understanding of where most infractions emerge. Of course, since the new phone ban has gone into effect many more of the infractions are now "acceptable use of technology" concerns.

In fall of the 2025 - 2026 school year, there were a reported 209 infractions among 98

students. The number of people with one Level One infraction was equal to the total number of people with Level Two, Three, and Four infractions combined. Nearly 50 percent of all infractions reported were from the ninth grade implying that newer students need time to get adjusted to system and school rules. The most infraction one student has been given this semester is 10.

On the whole, the Sequoyah infraction system seems to be working. However, not all students agree on that. Ethan A. ’26 (whose interview for this article was pushed off by a day because he had a meeting to discuss an infraction) has gotten only three infractions throughout his high school career. Most memorably, in his freshman year, Ethan was a member of the Safe Mobility SIP (Social Innovation Program). During a SIP period, he and his group left for a trip. “My group and I went down a street near campus to one of those digital speed limit things that says, ‘Oh, you’re too fast! You’re too fast!’ And we were looking at cars going by.”

At this point during our interview, Humanities teacher Craig Schuetze walked by and was beckoned over by Ethan. Ethan recounted how, after hanging out by the speed limit meter for a little while, a male biker passed. “I cheered ’em on,” Ethan said. “However, Craig takes it as a catcall. So Craig gives me an infraction for catcalling a biker.” Schuetze interjected and denied using the word “catcall.” He noted, “What I did say is that you all were all representing Sequoyah and SIP.” The consequence was that Ethan had to write an apology letter and got an infraction. Ethan thought that Schuetze shouldn’t have given him an infraction. According to him, even his parents agreed. “I mean, do I regret it?” said Ethan. “No, I guess. But yes, because I got an infraction."

Meanwhile, Atticus A. ’26 has gotten somewhere between 15 and 30 infractions—closer to 30, he believes—since he started high school. He got his first infraction on his first day of school for blowing kisses at the previous Dean of Academics: “He thought it was sort of sexual and inappropriate and wrote me up,” Atticus said. Atticus got another infraction for spraying an entire bottle of perfume in a classroom, causing the teacher to have an allergic reaction and the class to evacuate to the field. Atticus said that many of his infractions are from Schuetze, who he is now in a Fashion Club with. One infraction Schuetze gave him was for kicking one of his friends in the head during a yoga class. “He’s a good friend of mine. It wasn’t an angry kick. It was a loving kick,” Atticus related.

Another time, Atticus knew that his class would be taught by a substitute, so he airplayed Lord of The Rings on the television. When the substitute teacher walked in, Atticus convinced the sub that he was the teacher and that the sub was in the wrong

room. “It was sort of like a Catch Me If You Can, Leonardo DiCaprio moment,” he said. Atticus recalled that the previous Dean of Academics “didn’t like that… He gave me a lot of infractions.” Atticus also got an infraction for bringing a cane to school and hitting a student across the face with it.

Recently, Atticus got an infraction for AirPlaying on a television in his classroom. “I like to share play air whatever the f*** it’s called… clips of stuff behind the teacher’s back when they’re facing the class and then turn it off the second they turn around. And Laura [Saenz] caught me doing that this year.” In 11th grade, Atticus got fewer infractions than he did in ninth or tenth grades.

What I took away from reporting this story is that most low level infractions are no big

deal. Colleges never even see them. Now that I know this, I’ve decided that I’m going to start living dangerously. I’m not just going to start occasionally swearing in class. I’m going full Eric Cartman.