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Senior Lounge in our Future?
by Caelem Pilkington
From a cubby full of junk to our own room! (Photos courtesy of c. pilkington)
Exciting news at Comsewogue High School. The senior lounge is making a return, and not only is it just a tight corner by the lunchroom, but an entire room for the seniors to enjoy! Mr. Mosca, Principle, stated that “Mr. Dornicik has been pushing for a senior lounge for years and believes that it is a good way to promote positive behavior and give the seniors some deserved downtime in their busy schedules.” According to Mr. Dornicik, assistant principal, the hope of this new lounge was to make its first opening during the second half of the year. “A fair estimate would be February,'' says Mr. Dornicik. This is a great thing for seniors and also the next upcoming seniors for years to come to look forward to.
This new lounge will be located this year in a temporary location called the “Auxiliary Health Office” which is also known as the old teacher’s lounge. This room is big enough to hold a potential capacity of up to 40 people! This is great because it aids in accommodating space for seniors to go on their free periods.
There will be supervision inside the lounge and also someone at the door who would be letting people gain access. Mr. Dornicik has explained that in order to get into the senior lounge, you will have to have good grades, good attendance, and be in good academic standing. The lounge will be a privilege to be in.
Something that has been in the works for the room is gaining new furniture. In a time crunch, this is hard to get done, but people are working hard to try and get the lounge new furniture such as couches, a ping pong table, and even a video game station. The student leadership committee was presented with the opportunity to brainstorm ideas for the senior lounge too. People brought up foosball tables, and other fun activities for the seniors to enjoy while spending their time there. The jukebox that was in the old senior lounge and TVs that we already have will be in the lounge as well.
The class of 2022 presented an idea of each senior class adding some sort of improvement to the lounge at the end of each year for the next people to use it to enjoy. This news is very exciting for the current and upcoming seniors with us now having a hope of having our own place to relax, play games, and eat lunch with our friends.
Preliminary mockup of what we hope the senior lounge will look like next year. (images courtesy of workplace interiors by office depot)
Image copyrighted by The World Health Organization- Google images
Covid HAngover
by Jake Buck
Ever since the first lockdown back in early 2020, students have started to slack off considerably when it comes to school. With virtual schooling being less rigorous and more flexible than in-person, many students have taken advantage of the leniency that educators and institutions have provided. Don’t get me wrong, times are crazy and things have been rough, but one could say students are on a “COVID Hangover”.
Back in February 2020, we all thought we were getting a nice two-week break. Little did we know that waking up late and handing in work at 11 o’clock at night would be the way we finished the 2019-2020 school year. Slight improvements in the conditions allowed us back in the classroom part-time, with live instruction taking place 2-3 times each week, alternating days with virtual schooling. This made it extremely difficult to get into a schedule and, almost a year later, is still impacting some students. I mean, when you practice poor behaviors for so long you're bound to develop bad habits–bad habits that are still haunting students to date as teachers have begun to notice students aren’t the same as they were before the pandemic. “Students have missed more assignments and more school than ever before,” stated Mrs. O’Hara. However, these problems are just the beginning. When combined with a little “senioritis” this “mutated” strand of “COVID Hangover” can be “deadly.”
If this isn’t enough evidence of the COVID hangover taking place behind the scenes, look at these past two weeks. When given the virtual option, a large number of students choose to continue their education from the comfort of their own homes, showing that many are longing for their days in quarantine.
Some students were unphased by the obstacles of the pandemic and have been able to get right back into the swing of things. However, as of today, most of us are hopeless to recover from this “COVID hangover.”
Image copyrighted by The Portola Pilot, January 20, 2022 Google images
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