THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994                    TAG: 9406100050 
SECTION: DAILY BREAK                     PAGE: B13    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY HOLLY WESTER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940610                                 LENGTH: Medium 

IT'S FINALLY SENIOR YEAR - WHERE ARE THE SENIOR PRIVILEGES?

That's what teens at Cox High School said last week when asked how many senior privileges seniors get.

{REST} ``We don't get jack,'' said senior Leah Gurganus, 17. ``Your whole life, you look forward to your senior year, and once you get there, you find out there aren't any advantages.''

So when asked ``If you had the power, what privileges would you grant seniors next year,'' students had a long wish list of liberties for the class of '95.

Fast food and car rides topped the list of requests. All six students agreed that seniors should be able to skip school cafeteria lunch and make a run for the border.

``We should be able to go off and eat somewhere,'' said junior Winston Stewart, 16. ``We're older and more mature by senior year, but we still get treated like freshman.''

Students said that would give seniors a sense of responsibility.

``Seniors are going to be going off to work soon and I think they are old enough to know right from wrong,'' said sophomore Shannon Roberts, 16.

Besides leaving school grounds, students said having a special senior lunch period would be another cool privilege. ``You wouldn't have to sit next to annoying people in lunch who throw food,'' Leah said.

``You wouldn't have to sit around immature kids,'' Winston added.

Students said seniors do not have enough time to spend with their friends, so a senior lounge would give them a place to socialize. ``It's our last year to spend with our friends,'' Shannon said. ``We might not ever see them again.''

Another suggestion was a new attendance policy that would allow seniors 20 absences per semester instead of 10, the schoolwide rule.

``Ten days a semester just isn't enough,'' said sophomore Craig Reed, 17. ``There's not enough time to do anything.'' Taking day trips with fellow seniors to Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion and the beach were some reasons students gave for the extra days off.

Others said they needed days off for other reasons, including college visits, studying for tests and writing term papers. ``It's a stressful year and seniors need time off,'' Craig said.

Senior John Sellers, 18, said the privilege of extra days would have saved him the trouble of staying up until 4 a.m. finishing homework. Ten free days ``would let me go to sleep and work on it in the morning,'' he said.

John also made his own rules for seniors taking final exams. ``All honor grads should be exempt, no matter what,'' he said. ``If you're not an honor grad, and you have a `B' in your class, you should be exempt.''

Another new rule, invented by junior Michelle Morgan, 16, would allow seniors to take only the classes they need to graduate, and then leave for the day. ``It's pointless to stay somewhere you don't need to be,'' she said.

Without senior privileges, students said they have nothing to look forward to, as well as nothing to look back on.

``It's not fair that seniors have to spend their last year of high school all stressed out,'' John said. ``We're supposed to be making memories, not working our brains out.''

by CNB