When becoming a Chief Mentor, one of the benefits that come with it is getting to leave five minutes early from class each day. This year however, Chief Mentors had this privilege taken away.

   This benefit was created as a reward for their hard work that they put into being a Chief Mentor and to get more students interested in it. Senior Ethan Hoffman, who is a Chief Mentor, appreciated the early release because he could get through the halls and get to the parking lot without having to deal with student traffic.

   “This was beneficial for a lot of students, especially for getting out of the parking lot early,” Hoffman said.

   This early release would be useful because some students need to get to jobs immediately after school or they need to get home and cook dinner for their family. Senior River Hampton has to help out her family when she gets home and this early release would help her get home faster to help out.

   “My sister has two toddlers and she needs help taking care of them sometimes so I would greatly benefit from this if it were to happen.” Hampton said.

   The main reason why this was taken away this year is because students were sneaking out of class with the mentors that were leaving. This was also difficult for substitute teachers because they weren’t sure of who was a Chief Mentor and who wasn’t so they just took the students’ word for it and let students leave. Most students that snuck out of classes didn’t even leave the building, they would just hang around until their friends left class when the bell rang.

   “We were seeing lots of students were getting out of class. It looked like almost whole classes were leaving,” Assistant Principal Leslie Helfrecht said.

   I think that if we were to bring back the early release for Chief Mentors, that we should also expand it to seniors. The early release is a reward to Chief Mentors for their work, but seniors have been in school for over 12 years. I think that should be given to them as a reward as well.

   “Seniors have a lot of things going on like jobs, helping out their families, building resumes, and applying to colleges so this would definitely be better for them,” Senior Ryan Wolf said.

   If we were to bring this back and expand it to seniors, I think it would be a huge benefit, not only to the Chief Mentors and seniors, but also the other grade levels. It would reduce the amount of students in the hallway, so you don’t have to push through people and maneuver around them just to get out the door. There would be less traffic in the parking lot. I think anything that can make our parking lot less crowded is a blessing.

   I had a conversation with Dr. Bill Powers about implementing more rules and restrictions on the early release and what would be improved. 

   “Students should show their Chief Mentor lanyard to a teacher and keep it on them as they exit the school. Students who get caught sneaking out of class should face disciplinary actions.” Powers said.

   Their lanyard would be used to identify them in class and in the halls. To solve the problem with substitute teachers not knowing who is a Chief Mentor, I think teachers should put in their sub plans a list of the student(s) who are released early. I really think this could benefit a majority of the student body. Seniors have earned an early release as a reward for all of their hard work over the years they’ve spent in school.