We’ve waited three long years to finally drive ourselves to school. No more waiting in the frigid cold and waking up at the crack of dawn just to sprint outside in time for the infamous yellow school bus to arrive. At last, we can park in the senior lot and enjoy the privileges that come with it.
The only drawback of driving ourselves to school, however, comes once the clock hits 2:35 p.m., and it’s time to exit the parking lot. The rush of seniors fighting to get through the doors first, praying to get out of the parking lot before the long line of buses, is, to say the least, overwhelming.
This can all be avoided with one simple solution: letting seniors out of their last period a mere five minutes early. Without the stress of potentially waiting behind the buses, seniors would be much less likely to break a sweat (or a hip) running from their last period class to speed out of the parking lot.
It feels like it’s been years of West Essex seniors begging for mere minutes of class time to be sacrificed all so they can reach the senior parking lot faster. But with every graduating class, September rolls around, and yet again, the first car crash of the year happens within a week.
As much as I hate to be the one to say this, it must be made clear—the last five minutes of each school day are spent doing nothing more than anxiously waiting by the door, staring down the clock ticking ever so slowly. Realistically, no learning time is being lost. Even if there was a test or an important lesson, no one is stopping students from taking the extra five minutes to finish up in class. After all, we’re 18 years old—I think we can differentiate between an important lesson that requires the whole period from a day we finish early and stand around for the final few moments of class. Having the option to leave when we can would, to put it simply, be nice.
It may seem like five minutes is too little time to make an impact on how late we get out of the lot, but it’s hard to truly comprehend the chaos of the lot until you’re actually there—arms flying through the air, horns blaring, people screaming. Simply being in the 800s wing means getting stuck behind the buses for an extra 20 minutes of what should have been freedom. We work hard during the day and uphold school rules—I don’t see why it is unreasonable to ask to leave five minutes early to guarantee a calmer and less chaotic parking lot for all.
