Senior Bench Controversy

By September Brockett

January 26th, 2018 - Greenville, N.Y. Opinion

Before the first week of school an email from Ms. Greene was sent out stating that she was thinking about banning the senior bench. She stated that she was going to observe the activities and the amount of kids at the bench to see if she should keep it or ban it all together. Of course this began to stir up emotions within all the grades. Even though the 9th graders don’t have to worry about the senior bench for a couple of years they were still upset about the regulations that were put on the senior bench. Tristan Mason stated, “I feel like the seniors should use the senior bench when they please.” Coby Benning shared his thoughts as well, “I feel like the senior bench should stay because it has been here since my dad went to school and it’s basically a tradition in GCS.”

Sophomores also had a strong opinion about the senior bench seeing as how they are closer to have the privilege than the freshmen. Adam Park responded by saying, “I feel that regulating the times that seniors are allowed to migrate to a space named specifically for them, ruins the spirit of the location. Seniors have been able to escape from other grades, and congregate with those they know and are accustomed to. For this reason, restricting the senior bench is wrong and can be considered criminal, and I highly disagree.” Sydney Smith simply stated, “As long as the seniors aren’t creating a distraction, it’s fine.”

Oddly enough the Juniors were more offended by the senior bench regulations and the threat of it being taken away than the seniors were. Hailey Mason reacted by saying, “Since 6th grade I’ve been told that the senior bench would be a privilege that I could have when I'm a senior. I’m a junior this year and it saddens me that this traditional privilege has been ultimately taken away from us.” Kristian Thomas shared his thoughts as well, “I feel like any free period you should be able to go.” Even Greenville’s foreign exchange student, Johann Muller-Scheebel, stated, “My opinion is that it should stay. It’s very important to me. Meeting all my friends and knowing where they are.”

Senior reactions were more calm or they seemingly didn’t care. Nicolaas Reese reacted by saying “We should go whenever we want.” Cameron Baitsholts feels “the bench is there to be sat on by seniors, we should go when we want.” Nick Bucci frankly announced, “To be quite honest, I don’t care.”

Teachers are kind of happy about the regulations that are newly added to the senior bench. Mrs. Case stated, “I like the kids sitting on the senior bench, I don’t like the foul language and the mess they leave behind.” Other teachers such as Mr. Katagiri expressed the senior bench is “awesome and this is the best interview of my life. I feed off of children's tears.”

Overall, the student body was upset over the regulations that were put on the senior bench and they were also upset over Ms. Greene threatening to take away the senior bench when she hasn’t been at the school long enough to make such a drastic of a decision.