FHS has a Lack of Senior Privilages

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Photo by Regan Gastley

FHS seniors are upset by being forced to park in the gravel parking lot

From the time students enter the building as freshman, they patiently wait until they become seniors and they look forward to all the privileges that come with it. FHS has a variety of senior privileges such as school ending an entire two weeks early and…actually, that’s it! Seniors at FHS are let out early to give teachers time to finish grading, not specifically as a senior privilege. Seniors at FHS yearn for more privileges that make their high school experience complete. If seniors were provided with more privileges it could lead to a decrease in late arrivals and overall feeling of senioritis amongst FHS seniors.

While seniors are dismissed from school before the other classes, the unpredictability of that dismissal is problematic. This does not benefit seniors because they are only released around 30 seconds early, if that. If this was mended and allowed for the seniors to be released at 2:30 p.m. and underclassmen at 2:35 p.m., it would be in the best interest of not only seniors, but the entire school as well. For seniors, a five minute head start would often mean getting out of the parking lot quicker. Seniors exiting the parking lot sooner would lighten the traffic, relieving the crossing guards and other drivers of the heavy traffic after school.

In addition to the previously mentioned senior restrictions, parking passes are distributed with no regard to class. Seniors, juniors, and sophomores can be found in both the main lot and gravel lot. A privilege that upcoming seniors could look forward to is seniors getting first dibs on the main lot. Due to its proximity to the school’s entrance, the main lot serves a lot of privileges that showcase its superiority to the gravel lot. Designating main lot spots to seniors would surely
be a privilege underclassmen would look forward to.

Balancing academics, future planning, and extracurricular activities can be challenging. Seniors typically have more responsibilities and pressure than any other grade level. Often, this leads to the dreaded ‘senioritis’, or a decline in motivation that can be detrimental to a students’ academic performance and attendance. Senior privileges are a great way to reward seniors for all their hard work that got them to this point, and we need more of them.