Senior year is notorious for age-old traditions and the class leaving their legacy. But what happens when the traditions you hold close and look forward to indulging in are unexpectedly taken away?

The class of 2015 experienced this firsthand when they lost the right to eat lunch in the senior lounge.

“I think it’s unfair for our class. I think we take it more personally than the class below us mainly because this is a tradition that we were looking forward to for the past three years, and we put a lot of work into making the lounge,” senior Charlie Huff said.

According to School Resource Officer Scott Scoggins, a summer safety seminar sparked the change.

“We learned from a safety expert that it’s better to have a campus where you know where your kids are rather than letting all the kids go in and out of campus,” Scoggins said.

Principal Jeremy Mitchell said manpower was the driving force for the change.

“We came to the a realization over the summer that we didn’t have enough manpower to monitor the students that were traveling all around the school,” Mitchell said.

Some students are looking for a compromise.

“I think the intentions are good and there are a lot of pros for keeping the students in the cafeteria, but I still think it’s possible to work around that and still let the seniors use the lounge. We should meet somewhere in the middle with the students, because some of the rules are a bit too restrictive. It shouldn’t be free reign for the seniors, and let everybody else suffer, but there should at least be a few privileges exclusively for seniors,” Huff said.

Although the new restriction are for safety purposes it leaves the question, are the new rules too protective? Leave a comment below.