Senior privileges out of control

by Ryan Hennigan

The last days of school for seniors always consists of pure chaos and havoc. This includes days where all the of seniors intentionally skip school, where they all as a group play “senior pranks” on the school, and where they do other rebellious things such as cut class to “chill out” in the senior lounge or walk around in the hallways with only their boxers on.
There is always going to be crazy seniors that cause trouble and don’t respect authority. However, the absurd part of the chaos is that it is all by design as the authority in the school chooses to turn their heads the other way and allow it to happen.
Although it is supposed to be a secret, everybody always knows when senior skip day is going to be and when the senior prank is going to occur. Even the principals, who are not as ignorant about the on goings as they play off to be, know, yet they choose to do nothing about it and allow it to happen.
This is in direct violation of the rules that the school agenda provides. Say, for example, a student knows that another student has a gun in his locker. He would be punished if he was caught knowing this information and not reporting it. The same applies for minor violations, including having knowledge of students skipping school and having water balloon fights in the parking lot where someone could get hurt (which happened last week).
Yes, we want our seniors to have some fun on the last of their days in high school. We want them to enjoy the senior lounge and yeah, I see no problem in giving them some privileges to enjoy. However, when the seniors clearly use these privileges to rebel and misbehave, then there is a problem and the authorities in the school need to step up.
Furthermore, the rebellion by seniors is contagious and spreads to all the classes. You start to see students in all different years acting up and causing trouble in class as well as outside of it. Teachers can not get their students to concentrate on their studies because they are so hyped up and rebellious. Something has got to give because the purpose of school is to educate in a safe environment and this is not being properly performed during senior week.
Here’s the solution. Instead of pulling senior out of classes and providing them with half days of classes and half days of festivities for a week, give them two full days of complete festivities and do it outside of school. Let them have cookouts and water balloon fights and all those other fun senior activities outside of the school in a designated area such as the parking lot or the playing fields. This would allow all the other students to receive a proper education and prepare for finals while all the seniors can still enjoy their privileges. This way, the principals don’t have to feel the need to purposely ignore blatant violations of senior privileges in the school.
This suggestion may not get rid of “senior skip day” or “senior pranks”, but it is all but sure to eliminate a great deal of rebellion from both the seniors and the underclassmen. It would be a clear step forward to a better, safer, and more orderly school with a more obedient student body.