Becoming a senior Mountaineer has its perks. One of the best of these senior privileges is the ability to shorten the school day by leaving early or coming into school late.
At the beginning of the year every senior receives a late entry and early release form to complete. Once students fill out the form and have a parent or guardian sign it, they can leave early or come in late if their study falls first or last period.
The senior class takes full advantage of late entry and early release. Overworked high schoolers’ days improve due to more sleep and a change of scenery.
“I like being able to come in late because it gives me more sleep time. Leaving early is just nice because I beat the traffic. I personally work on homework better outside of school,” commented senior Dakota Hogan.
Many seniors have already applied to or have been accepted into a college, and may be catching senioritis. For juniors, it seems unfair not only because they sit in the same studies, but also because junior year is arguably the hardest year in school. Juniors are overworked, stressing about college, trying to improve their chances to get into their dream schools with grades, extracurriculars, and leadership roles.
“I feel like junior year was my hardest year because my schedule was core classes with larger workloads, those classes tired me out with their full year curriculum, on top of AP’s,” said senior Jared Andros.
While it may be good for these juniors to stay at school to get their work done for their core classes and long assignments, many of these students stay up late doing homework assignments the night before longing for more sleep.
“I would come into first period study last year and just sit there tired, not having any motivation to do work,” said senior Joe Raeke.
Giving the juniors the privilege of coming in late in the morning could boost their academic performance and help them catch up on sleep. The school should give the junior class an option to complete a late entry and early release forms so that if they do have a license or a parent to drive them in they can.
“I think I should be able to leave. I have a license just like the seniors and the majority of my friends do too,” said junior Luke Petit.
However, the parking situation raises concern if juniors have the ability to come in late and leave early. The school would not need to worry about that, however, because the majority of the juniors who drive either have sports passes or park off campus at the old bridal shop, or police station. Juniors also take advantage of day passes, so in reality, parking is not a concern.
With this option given to juniors, they will be free to choose whatever best fits their needs. Improving morale around the school, making life easier not only for students but for teachers too. Students being less tired will help them retain more content rather than fight to keep their eyes open.
A parent signature will take the liability away from the school, and allow for juniors to catch up on some extra sleep, and overall boost their well being. The students who abuse this privilege and cannot handle it should be handled just like any other student and given detention on their third offense. Administrators could brainstorm more severe consequences for individuals if tardiness becomes an issue.
The junior class deserves this privilege because of all the hard work that comes with junior year. Taking it even further and allowing for juniors to be able to park would strengthen the relationship between juniors and the administrators. With this great privilege, juniors would get more sleep and have more time to themselves, meaning mental and physical health would largely improve.
