We have all heard the rumors about students leaving early when having a study last block, The stories of kids sticking pencils in the doors to get back into the school. But truthfully why can’t we leave school and what are the consequences? The Triton Voice spoke with some of the administrators and fellow upperclassmen about this problem and what we can do to fix it.

I sat down with Mrs. Dawe our vice principal to talk about this problem.

“During school hours we are in place as your parents. We are responsible for your safety.”

Dawe later explained that this is called “ In loco parentis” which means “in place of a parent,” or “instead of a parent,” and refers to situations in which someone other than a biological parent takes on the role of parent to a minor child without formally adopting the child.” according to legaldictionary.net. This allows teachers to have authority over us without taking away some of our civil liberties, even if they aren’t our real parents.

So what if we do leave school? Are there consequences for this?

“If this does happen obviously we call home and talk to the parents. It’s more of a warning the first time,” said Scott Brennan, assistant principal “If it does happen again we will not allow you to have a car on campus for a week or so, and you will have to make up the time lost during that day from the time you left until the last bell.”

The Massachusetts Student Learning Time Requirements states that, as students we are scheduled to have a minimum of 990 hours of in school learning time for every school year.  So if we leave early by law we need to make up the time lost.

We are also told the consequences in the school Student Handbook: “The privilege of bringing a car onto school grounds may be lost for the following… 2. Use of vehicle to leave school grounds without permission”. This can result in not being refunded for your current parking pass for the school year. But what do other people think about this

I talked to junior Onica Mooney about her views on this problem.

“The upperclassmen should have special privileges for leaving early. It would be better than just sitting in a study having nothing to do at the end of the day.” Mooney said. “Many other schools allow students to leave early and Triton should be the same way, but ya the consequence is fair because the school is responsible for our safety.”

Some solutions to this problem are bringing it up with the students council and talking about making it an upperclassmen privilege, or having your parents write you a note that allows you to leave early.

“It won’t be a quick fix,” said Brennan, “but maybe in the future students will be able to have the privilege of leaving school early when having a study.”