Last year the school decided to change the attendance policy. Instead of implementing the rule that students should be allowed to miss three days of school and be exempt from their semester tests, students are now rewarded with extended lunch for being present every day for every three week period. Juniors and seniors are allowed to leave the campus in their own vehicles, but underclassmen are forced to find a ride with an older sibling or parent if they want to leave.

While the student body is generally enjoying this change, sophomores that can drive are finding it much too restricting.

Students learn a lot about responsibility their sophomore year. They go through the horrendous torture that is driver’s ed and for what? So they can drive themselves to school yet they have to interrupt their parent’s lives to get a ride for lunch? Sophomores should be allowed the responsibility of driving themselves and one other person under 21 to lunch, as the state law allows.

The state goes through a lot to ensure that the roads are safe. This includes limiting the driving freedoms of young drivers. It is the responsibility of the Department of Public Safety to restrict the drivers’ liberties, and the school board has certainly put a damper on the spirits of new licensed drivers.

Sixteen-year-olds are not by any means the only ones that are unchained when they get their license. Parents too, are relieved when their children are finally old enough to drive themselves to soccer practice. Gone are the days they have to worry about waking up at the break of dawn to act as a transport for their kid. However, once again the school’s rules snuff out the freedom of the adults. Parents of licensed sophomores are forced to revisit the past. They have to leave work or home to pick up their child for lunch once every three weeks.

The school administration thinks licensed sophomores would abuse their privilege, perhaps taking too many people and therefore breaking the law. However, they already monitor cars leaving the school and could check to make sure only one non-family member and under aged person is riding with the driver.

The school administration should change the policy to allow licensed sophomores to leave campus on extended lunch days. This will allow them to be more self-reliant and decrease the stress of organizing a meeting with a parent.