Seniors should be looked up to, not directly stared at. Seniors should be at the top of the hill, not helping others climb. Niles West slowly diminishes hierarchy and soon seniority won’t exist. The seniors here can relate, and I am sure they would love a change.

I’m not saying that the administration is placing rules on only seniors, but they are certainly not doing anything to help keep the seniors feel like seniors in my opinion. It’s a tradition. In movies and books, seniors are almost always depicted as the top dogs of their school. It’s a privilege, being a senior, you are allowed to things others aren’t and it makes you feel powerful having gone through four years of hard work in high school– the class of 2015 isn’t getting that treatment.

This ideal seniority is not the direct sense of actually being allowed certain things that other grades are not allowed, but a traditional environment in which upperclassmen are shown a certain level of respect. I am not asking for security to turn their back or the deans to not write Saturday detentions. I am telling the senior student body that if they stay timid and don’t walk through the halls with the air of confidence that every upperclassman should exude, they are going to be looked at as freshman, literally.

It’s not all on the administration for constricting seniors. Take the privilege of off-campus lunch, for example. How many people do you actually know that have off-campus lunch? How many of you just found out what it is? According to assistant principal Mark Rigby, our school’s upperclassmen, provided that they have a reputable attendance and disciplinary record, have at least a 3.0 GPA and have parental permission, they are allowed to leave the school’s campus during their lunch period to eat where they choose.

“Most kids– about 90 percent– receive off-campus that apply. It’s a privilege. If you are an average student doing what’s required of you, you will receive it,” Rigby said.

If being granted off-campus lunch privileges is as easy as the assistant principal says it is, I question why the majority of the junior and senior student body don’t pounce on the opportunity.

Seniors here aren’t feeling any type of power and senior Michael Ibrahim, angry with the lack of respect he feels seniors receive, said, “Seniors can’t do anything anymore. They used to be able get away with stuff, have off campus, feel special because they’re older and already went through what every other grade is going through.”

In a sense, it’s a way of carrying yourself. Seniority isn’t the right to break rules and get away from trouble, but the privilege of feeling in power and control. No student asks for special rights and passageways to cheat any system, only the right to celebrate their last year at school.

Privileges like ordering lunch from outside vendors and graduating before the rest of the school have been offered to seniors in the past and, unfortunately, this year’s top of the pack is deprived. Little gestures like these can make a difference in the level seniority we feel.

Not being forced to wear lanyards, or sent to the deans for eat during a study hall held in the cafeteria are perks as well! Certainly the administration is only doing its job, but I ask myself why they must enforce the rules so adamantly on the people who already lived through three years of the strict rules.

Seniority is established through experience. The class of 2015 should do a better job of showing it. I can remember my freshman year when the seniors here were big and scary. Why do the seniors today feel small and frightful?