Senior Privilege Opportunities Slowly Fading Away
Senior Privilege has been a thing seniors look forward to in the previous years. Seniors have gotten the ability to leave school during the resource period if their grades were up to standards.
According to the HUHS website, to receive the off-campus release privileges a student must “have all A’s or B’s, have citizenship grades of proficient or better, and have parent and administrative approval.”
Due to COVID-19 the school board decided to start the school year off with no resource period available to the students. Quickly the school realized the students needed time to get extra help and added a 25 minute Resource period when the second quarter started.
Along with senior privilege comes citizenship grades. This is a big deciding factor as if a student is able to receive these privileges. Having no off-campus opportunities is leaving the students to wonder if there is even a point to citizenship grades anymore.
At other surrounding schools, including Slinger High School the seniors are given off-campus opportunities.
According to the website Grown and Flown, students that show merit deserve to be given some sort of reward. “High school students need to learn time management and it’s our job to prepare them for college.”
Offering an off-campus opportunity at schools will help students maintain their letter grades and citizenship grades, take responsibility, and prove themselves worthy enough to want to succeed.
When given the chance to leave during the resource period, it may give students a breather from the stresses of the day.
Students that participate in sports may need a break just to go get something to eat or take a quick nap before returning to the high school for practice.
According to the website ConnectUs, some cons may come out of offering senior privilege like “creating an opportunity for students to make unsupervised or poor decisions and creating a safety risk for the school.”
The students need to have responsibilities put into their own hands and prove they are ready to go off to college and fend for themselves.
According to Education World, students need freedoms in the school to be able to develop and grow. “Your goals should be to empower the students to take part in their own learning while being held accountable for their behavior and work product.”
With a balance of freedoms and responsibilities, the students and teachers have the opportunity to develop respect between themselves, this will teach the students skills they will need in the working world as they interact with a variety of people.
As seniors who have already lost a lot last year due to COVID, including prom. Having this senior privilege taken away also is just adding onto the list.
