For many years at Mallard Creek High School, Seniors have had the option of having Late Arrival, Early Release, or both if they had already obtained most of their class credits required to graduate. This policy was recently changed last school year when our new principal, Ms. Dean, began working at the school. This upset many students, upper and lower classmen alike. The reasons administration gave for this change was that they thought it would reduce the amount of students coming to school late, or using late arrival as an excuse to skip. This makes little sense; some students are going to skip school and be late regardless of whether or not they have late arrival.

Everyone knows that many student drivers at the school come to and from the campus and skip their classes during the day, but has admin banned student driving? No. Because students who are essentially adults should have the right to be able to provide their own transportation. And they should also have the right to not have to take unnecessary classes that do not benefit them in anyway, and be able to choose to do something more productive that will actually help them in life, such as working a job or doing schoolwork for other classes.

By punishing a handful of students who have abused late-arrival privileges, MCHS admin have forced the rest of Seniors who are good hard-working students into taking classes that they are not required to, have no interest in, do not want to take, and that are not beneficial to them. This creates an unnecessary additional workload for these students and more unneeded stress for upperclassman who already have so much on their plate. 

Having this option would be incredibly beneficial to seniors in many ways. I, for one, am in 2 AP classes and work a full time job. I would be using this time to get work done for my other AP classes before I have to go to work, so I can be able to turn in my assignments on time. Even just having this time to sleep in would be more beneficial to students than taking an unnecessary class and unwanted class, in which they will learn little. This would increase students mental efficiency for the rest of the day and in their other classes. I know many other seniors who are in the same boat as me, who would love to effectively utilize this additional time towards something important in their life.

Not allowing seniors the option of late arrival decreases the quality of their other work. If seniors are in important classes, such as a core class, an AP class, engineering, etc., forcing them into other classes that are not as important creates an additional unnecessary workload that in turn decreases the overall quality of all students work. When we are being forced to do assignments for a class that doesn't matter and in turn can not devote as much time to other assignments in classes that are actually important, it decreases the quality of our work that actually matters and is significant.

The students of Mallard Creek demand that the administration reinstate the Late Arrival option for the Spring semester of the 20'- 21' school year. Seniors do not want to be forced into classes that serve no actual purpose other than "filling a hole" in their schedule. We ask that the administration of MCHS allow seniors who are one step away from being full blown adults to make more efficient use of their valuable time rather than taking a non-beneficial class for no reason at all.