2009 Graduates Set Limits for 2010 Seniors
There has been some controversy as to whether the 2009/2010 seniors have gotten the same privileges as the 2008/2009 seniors. It has been said that both years are getting the same amount of privileges and that there has not been any removal of privileges. However, some members of the 2009/2010 class feel that the previous years were entitled to more freedom.
In researching, it was found that there were no such written privileges that were taken away from seniors this year. Seniors this year have access to the senior lounge in the Commons, they are entitled to parking spots, block scheduling, meaning they are allowed to leave school grounds if they have two or more free periods, early leave if they do not have any afternoon classes, and many students have been able to have late arrival. Senior students are also allowed to leave a few minutes early from some classes including P.E. if teachers approve. Checking up on the privileges that last year’s seniors had, it was found that they were the same but some students feel teachers and administrators have cracked down.
There are seniors who feel that seniors of previous years led administrators to be more harsh on this year’s seniors. This year, administrators do not like students getting food in the cafeteria if it is not their lunch period. Reasons for this could be that last year’s seniors caused a disruption for the younger students in their lunch periods and administration does not think it is a good idea for the older kids to be using some language around younger kids. Seniors are 17 and 18 years old and the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders are 12-15 years old. The seniors are much more advanced and middle schoolers and freshmen look up to seniors. There may be fear that seniors are teaching younger student’s bad habits. Also, since the seniors have a sense of knowledge that they are in control and the younger students look up to them, some seniors cut in front of the younger students when it’s the younger kids’ lunch period. In the beginning of the 2009 school year there was talk about seniors having passes that they could use if they wanted to go to the library and they did not need a pass from the teacher. The idea was that seniors could just show the librarian their senior pass and they would be excused. I am not sure what happened to this idea but now this year, seniors have to get passes and at the library, librarians ask seniors if they have passes and sometimes say even though they are seniors that they must have a pass from a study hall teacher.
I feel that even though set privileges were not taken away, administrators have become a bit more harsh compared to previous years. I feel very strongly that previous senior behaviors should not have had an affect on this year’s seniors, and 2009/2010 seniors should have been able to set their own quota. This way, if these seniors got privileges taken away, they know they had a chance and did it for themselves and they did not have it ruined by other classes.
