One of the big things about being a senior are the privileges that come with it, the most important one being the ability to skip final exams. But it comes with strings attached. You must be passing the class with at least a C, and you have to have less than 5 unexcused absences throughout the spring semester. It seems reasonable, but this policy is full of flaws and false privilege.

First of all, our “unexcused absences” policy is not the greatest. I knew people who got terribly sick for more than a week and the school counted them as “unexcused”, so they had to take those exams despite the situation being beyond their control. Things happen that are outside of people’s control all the time that causes them to skip school such as family issues, college visits, sickness and medical issues but they are “unexcused”. While I understand wanting kids to be in class and learning the material, most kids who have to skip because of problems beyond their control make an effort to make up their work and learn the material they missed. I feel like we shouldn’t count situations outside of the students control for absences, especially if they make an effort to make up their work or do it at home.

Furthermore, most seniors take at least one or two AP, AICE or they’re in IB courses that already have end of course exams in order to get credit. Either way, we have to take an end of course exam, and the underclassmen don’t have to take the county at all! It feels kinda unfair that underclassmen get to skip as much as they want and not get punished, but seniors have to take an extra exam on top of the required one.

However, I do understand why the school chose to place this policy onto seniors. Senioritis is a real thing, and honestly, I would skip a couple days or leave a few periods early if we didn’t have this policy. I feel like seniors do need some incentive to keep up attendance these last couple months, but there are too many flaws in the system that should get fixed. While people would complain no matter what, I believe that making some small tweaks to the system would pacify the majority of the complaints and reduce the stress that contributes to senioritis.

Keeping seniors in school is important, but maybe allowing sick days and other incidents outside of our control would improve the overall attitude about this absence policy. As long as seniors keep up their work and don’t skip for no reason, we should let this policy be more lenient on us.