Staring at the clock, minutes ticking slowly away, gearing up to sprint out the class room door as soon as that bell rings at 4:15, students bolt to get to their cars and buses. The parking lots become filled with congestion with escaping cars and angry students speeding through the campus grounds looking for a cure to this outrageous escape method. Now for the first time in Raider history, the junior and senior classes are allowed to leave early during EAST time.

            Students are allowed to leave during EAST time as long as he or she meets the criteria stated to have that particular privilege. In order to qualify for early release, he or she must be passing all their classes, have less than two unexcused absences, and have no ISS or disciplinary discrepancies.

            “EAST time was moved to the end of the day to avoid overcrowding in the parking lots, we wanted to make it easier for students to leave campus so they weren’t waiting just to get out of the parking lot because of all the traffic,” Principal Williams said.

            It was decided to give the upper classmen the option of early release rather than off campus lunch because there are no restaurants nearby to get to and from during a 30 minute lunch period. Off campus lunch would also require students to get on the highway to reach their food destination, so off campus lunch was voted out by the administrators.

            “The goal was to avoid overcrowding in the parking lots and keep students off the highway during school hours, so to make everyone happy, early release was given to both upper classes,” Principal Williams said.

            Seniors feel that it is unfair for juniors to have early release as a privilege, since they didn’t have it their junior year. As seniors, they are entitled to special privileges for being the top class, but the heavily filled parking lots were taken into account.

            “Both classes got the option of early release to free up space in the parking lot and to make it easier for everyone to leave,” Principal Williams said.