HERMANN – The office of Hermann High School Principal Andy Emmons was a busy place this school year. For many students, a lot of those trips weren’t pleasant.

In his year-end report to the Gasconade County R-1 School District Board of Directors Thursday night, Emmons reported 316 visits related to discipline issues, a sharp increase from the previous high number of 268 in the 2022-23 school year.

The number of trips in the principal’s report might be a bit misleading in that it does not equal the number of students making the dreaded journey to the principal’s office. Indeed, Emmons explained that some of the visits involved a student facing more than one breach of the discipline code.

According to the principal, the spike in this school year’s number revolves around infractions of the cell phone ban. While cell phone use during school hours in past years has been strongly discouraged, this year thanks to state legislation a prohibition on cell phones was put in place — from the opening bell to the end-of-school-day bell. Emmons explained that the number of cell phone policy violations resulted from the classroom teacher no longer issuing a warning as in previous years. Rather, a student seen violating the policy was sent straight away to the principal’s office.

In the past five years, the lowest number of discipline trips to the office was 210, posted in the 2021-22 and 2024-25 school years. In the 2022-23 year the number was 268; the number dropped to 241 in 2023-24.

Here are the reasons for the disciplinary visits this year compared with last year:

Academic dishonesty – 4, 4; aggressive behavior – 4, 4; alcohol – 1, 1; auto/vehicle misuse – 2, 0; bus/transportation behavior – 7, 0; bullying – 0, 3; cell phone – 67, 28; dishonesty – 2, 0; disruptive behavior – 11, 9; disrespect – 31, 17; disruptive speech – 17, 10; drugs - 0, 4; failure to serve – 2, 0; inappropriate items – 0, 1; inappropriate conduct – 29, 11; Non-compliance – 35, 19; other – 12, 1; sexual harassment – 1, 0; public displays of affection – 1, 8; tardies – 62, 73; technology misconduct – 1, 0; threat – 4, 3; tobacco – 0, 2; truancy – 2, 5; vandalism – 6, 0; vaping – 7, 1; violent act without injury – 1, 2.

Emmons, displaying a month-by-month bar graph of incidents, illustrated that February, March and April were the most active months for discipline code violations.