Since the beginning of the school year, it seems like there has been a lot of negative talk about the senior class among staff members. Threats to cancel the moving-up assembly or talk about how “they don’t want to be united with the rest of the school” are a few of the things that have been going around the first few months of this school year.

It seems as if everyone has forgotten about Liberty’s golden days, before construction, when seniors were the privileged rulers of the school. When I was a freshman, I looked at the senior class of 2010 with an awe and envy. I had such a glorious vision of how my senior year would go, and now that it’s here, it doesn’t seem to be how I imagined it at all.

They had senior parking, there was a pep rally almost every week in the fall, all four classes attended the assemblies, they had a commons, they had their own table in the library, they had planners, they made the sports video, they did funny announcements in the morning, they were allowed to get rowdy (within reason), they were allowed two waivers without application, they had a place at school to practice powder/buff puff and bod squad, they could dance the way they wanted at school dances, they were involved in the Grease Lightning dance, they ALWAYS won all assembly and spirit competitions (even though we all knew that sometimes they really didn’t win), and they were consulted upon more often by staff on school issues.

Obviously, many of these things can’t be helped, as the effects of remodeling are inescapable. But it seems like nothing has been attempted to make it up to us.

And of course, the reasonable response to that would be that we haven’t earned it. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to turn our backs to the freshman at the opening assembly or to dress up differently on spirit days, but it isn’t like either of those things were ever intended to be malicious. Last year’s seniors also conducted their own construction-themed football game, and what other incidents of freshmen hazing have happened since the first assembly? I haven’t seen any unwelcoming attitudes towards the freshmen since.

My freshman year, the seniors were allowed to do so much more, as long as it didn’t break the lines of reasonable behavior. I remember one sunny fall afternoon during my freshman year; two senior guys filled up a pickup truck with shaved ice from Castle Ice, parked it by the entrance of the school (which was senior parking at that time) and threw snowballs at people as they exited the building. Everyone seemed to just laugh it off, like “hey they’re just senior boys, let them do their thing.” In fact, the event repeated several times. It wasn’t like they were trying to be mean; they were just trying to make an otherwise dull school day a little more fun. I doubt this would ever be tolerated nowadays.

Senior year used to be about having fun and being different, but now it seems that staff wants to conform more with the rest of the school on top of dealing with construction. In fact, my freshman year the school was more united than ever. Does anybody remember the “We Are One” chant?

We’re all just trying to make the most out of construction, and still enjoy our last year in high school.

But I mean maybe I shouldn’t complain, this year’s juniors will have it much worse; they’re going to have to deal with portable city in the front lot.