Senior year is often considered the most stressful year of high school. With college applications, standardized testing, and pressure to maintain good grades, this is most certainly true. Despite all of the stress that comes along with being a senior, there are some things that help make it a little better, like senior privileges at PDS.
These privileges are solely for seniors and are a tradition that is highly valued in the PDS community. They allow seniors to take advantage of their free periods and have the ability to leave campus. Through these privileges, seniors have the ability to leave PDS for a period of time, sign in at 9:00 a.m. if they do not not have class first period, as well as leave at 2:45 p.m. when finished with class for the day.
Senior Madison Trend shared her appreciation for these privileges: “I really like senior privileges and think they are a nice break from the school day.” This satisfaction is shared by many other members of the senior class. Senior and Student Life Cohead Lea-Jade Richards adds, “I think senior privileges are good—I like having them because it gives you the option to leave school early.”
Although many Seniors enjoy their privileges, some express their desire for some of the conditions to be loosened. Senior and Field Hockey Captain Lily Ryan notes, “I think that senior privileges are a great opportunity for students to have some degree of personal freedom during the school day. However, I believe that these privileges can fall short on allowing students the necessary time to complete the activities they encourage, given a limit of one hour.”
As stated in the handbook, students are not permitted to be signed out for “more than one hour, unless the time overlaps with our lunch period, in which case they have 90 minutes.” This time constraint forces seniors to have to be mindful when leaving campus in making sure they are back within the timeframe enforced, as communicated in the rules. Senior Elena Sichel points out that “the principle of senior privileges is great … but if you have two frees you can’t combine them.” Sichel calls attention to the fact that if a senior has two back to back free periods, they are not allowed to be signed out for that whole time period. Sichel adds, “By the time you get anywhere, you have to get back to school. It makes things really rushed.” This idea of “feeling rushed” is a common notion among seniors, when considering the time frame that they are given to leave and come back to campus.
Another criticism of the privileges is targeted at the C&C policy. Although a senior may not have anything going on during this time, they are not permitted to leave until 2:45. Senior Colleen Mayer mentions, “Leaving at the beginning of C&C would work a lot better.” Richards also agrees with this, and further expresses discontent with the policy. “It’s just so late and at that point you might as well just stay until 3:20.”
Not every Senior is guaranteed Senior Privileges, however.In order to qualify for senior privileges, a student must have completed 30 hours of service before their Senior year, adhere to parking regulations, meet deadlines, and obtain parent permission. Failure to uphold these responsibilities results in suspension of the privileges. Richards shows support for these policies, specifically the service hour requirement. “I like that you can’t earn your privileges until you reach a certain amount of service hours because it encourages people to get them done.” In Richards’ eyes, this rule serves as an incentive to get service hours done, so they can take advantage of senior privileges. She continues, “Some people just had no hours but because of senior privileges, they started to earn them.”
Overall, senior privileges act as a great way for PDS to provide seniors with a sense of freedom and responsibility, but many students believe that they should be given even more prerogative.
