A fun-filled spirit week, an exciting homecoming, a great basketball season, and tons of snow days! It is safe to say it has been a great year to be a senior.

After being in school for 13 years, with many of the same friends, seniors should be able to celebrate one last time. A senior banquet would allow all seniors to have one last hoorah! Awards would be awarded, chit-chats would be chatted and food would be eaten. A senior banquet is the perfect casual setting for students and teachers to interact before the big day, Graduation.

We have had many fundraisers and events cancelled due to lack of participation. In order to have a great senior year, everyone needs to be involved. It seems that communication was a huge problem this year and many students did not know when fundraisers were.

“A senior banquet is always an option; the only problem is that not many students are willing to come out to fundraisers to raise money,” senior class advisor and child development teacher Aimee Hawkins said.

The main reason many high schools do not have certain events such as senior banquets and picnics is due to money issues. Students cannot complain about their school not having these events because schools do not have infinite amounts of money. In order to have an amazing year of fun-filled events, student participation is needed!

“A lot of clubs and the SGA organize tons of fundraisers for events that will affect seniors, such as After Prom or prom, but we need students to come out and support,” senior and president of Model UN, Shalini Jain said.

Many students complain about schoolwork being a reason to not come to fundraisers and other events such as games. Are teachers giving out too much work? Should they cut the load of work on the day of a big event? Speaking from personal experience, teachers did cut down the workload the day of our basketball semi-final game but not all teachers did.

“As a senior, I can’t slack now because colleges will see that. I wish I could get less work on big days but many times that’s not the case,” senior and AP/IB student Samiza Palmer said.

With that said, a formal banquet is not necessary. We could have a senior picnic or even rent out a park. Paint Branch High School has a senior banquet along with other senior events. Although their banquet is a little pricey and fancy, that does not mean ours has to be similar.

So rising seniors, get on a roll, show your school spirit, and begin planning the events so your senior year can be even better than our fantastic year!