Senior year is the year to remember. Once the college applications are submitted, seniors can relax for the first time in four years. After reaching this milestone, many SHS students look forward to their senior privileges. Unfortunately, in the past few years, these have been slowly disappearing as a new administration takes the stage.

In previous years, seniors could come to school late or leave the building early if their first or last class was a study. This privilege was revoked due to the importance of each student’s education. Mr. Wargo, principal of SHS, explained why seniors are no longer allowed to check themselves in or out of the building. Wargo said, “We really can’t allow that privilege to take place. We would be jeopardizing our ability to report to the state that we have students for 990 hours of school time.”

Many students, including senior Courtney Song, are not in favor of this decision. Song backed up her point that senior privileges should remain when she said, “If there was something wrong with it, then how was it allowed to happen every year before this?” Questions like this one are running through the minds of many SHS students.

According to Wargo, being on school grounds will hopefully encourage students to take more challenging courses, other than a study. With this privilege no longer available to seniors, when choosing classes for their schedules, students will be open to taking more rigorous classes. This is true for some students such as sophomore Shannon Donahue, who said, “If that privilege was still there, I would take a study, but now that it’s not, it would not be my definite choice.”

Other underclassmen think differently. Junior Devon Smith said, “It probably won’t affect my choice in classes that much because I will still take a study.” Many students need studies because of the number of extracurricular activities in which they are involved. With a study, students are able to catch up on homework before going to extracurricular activities, sports or work. The administration knows this is true and deems it unnecessary for seniors to leave school during their studies. Studies simply give students an opportunity to catch up on their work.

To give seniors a sort of “peace offering,” tables and chairs have been added to the foreign language hallway. This is yet another place for seniors to eat lunch, for teachers to do work, and for students to relax after school. Seniors now have four spots where they can eat lunch: the newly added tables in the foreign language hallway, the Senior Cafe, the main cafeteria, and outside on the grass.

Although the additional lunch area was a good idea, senior Olivia Higgins said, “I sit at the tables, myself, but I think there were probably better things to spend money on than those.”

Seniors are no longer allowed to leave early or come to school late during study halls due to state requirements and school purposes, but many equalizers have been put in place, such as the tables in the language hallway. Seniors may not have exactly what they want, but the administration has only been making these improvements to improve the academic performance of students.