Kellyn's+Position+Paper

Senior Privileges Senior year is supposed to be the best time in a teenager’s life. Unfortunately most seniors have the thrilling task of senior paper and filling out college applications, but even when most are done with those tasks seniors can not enjoy being the oldest in the school. At North Kingstown High School seniors do not receive many senior privileges. Most of the student body at North Kingstown High School tend not to know what privileges they gain when they become a senior besides being able to park and drive to school. Unfortunately seniors only receive one more privilege above parking and that is being able to eat lunch in the school’s spine on benches or in the court yard when the weather is nice out. Upon looking at the senior privileges, our group realized that the seniors do not really gain many privileges especially for being upper classmen in a school of over 1600 students alone. Our group would like to see the students of North Kingstown High School to be able to go off campus to get lunch if they are a senior. As of this time there have been no attempts to change the privileges, only few complaints over the years. While researching the topic we interviewed several of North Kingstown High School’s administrators who had various opinions on the subject. All of the administrators raised the issue of student safety and being responsible for the students even though they won’t be on the campus. Principal Mr. Foley found the idea very promising but still raised some concerns about it. He said that his ideal schedule would be to have lunch for one hour so that clubs could meet; students could studying, and even socialize more with fellow students. Mr. Lalli, an assistant principal, does not feel like this policy needs changing and that the current policy is the best decision safety wise. Mrs. Sironen, another assistant principal, commented that although she would like to see the idea of having clubs together during lunches, the size of the school and ability to get the schedule coordinated would not work because of how the teacher’s contracts are run for their lunch time. Finally, we interviewed our student activities and athletic director, Coach Kenyon. Coach Kenyon agreed with what Mr. Foley had said and also added that the seniors need more privileges then the spine and parking. After discussing the pros and cons of each point of view, I believe that the best solution will take time, but ultimately would work with the idea that Mr. Foley had. This plan could work because seniors would receive more privileges, clubs would not have to meet after school, and lunches would ultimately be more relaxing for the students. Our interviews with Principal Mr. Foley and Coach Kenyon have influenced me the most. I propose that we change the lunch schedule so that the seniors gain more privileges and are allowed to leave during the lunch time.