Seniors need to forget last year’s mistakes and traditions by supporting this year’s policy

There are two ways to approach a new school year: one involves Facebook sta¬tuses begging summer to return and whining about every new rule the ad¬ministration enforces. The other is to count the blessings of a new campus and to cooperate in the best interests of the school.

As expected, there’s been considerable grumbling about the policies for the prelim¬inary breath tests, the potential suspension for poor fanmanship, and a crackdown on cell-phone use.

Of course there are inherent limi¬tations in the new policies, but they’re wholly necessary, legal and beneficial underneath their thick and ugly shell. They should be supported and not be excused as another reason to hate a “restricting” administration.

This year should be ap¬proached optimistically be¬cause this year, more than any year in recent memory, is peppered with positive changes for the school. Finally, seminar finishes even days, with the prospect of an optional senior semi¬nar starting second semester. There’s a spacious senior lot, a blessing com¬pared to last year’s construction-stran¬gled, limited blacktop. Heck, there’s even a shiny turf field now on school grounds.
It should be considered as an opportunity for supportive leadership, starting with this year’s senior class, but lasting through future generations of Lancers. If the Link program sustains and encourages new Link Lead¬ers each year, and JV players learn from and become var¬sity players each season, then the same leadership display¬ing benign behavior will last.

If the senior class supports these policies, then they’ll establish a cooperative environment that maturely side¬steps petty grumbles and works to make Shawnee Mission Wonderful live up to its name.

Principal Karl Krawitz utilized this trickle-down theory when he became the unofficial welcome wagon to the new policies of 2010 at the first seminar of the year. He called on the senior and sophomore classes respectively to be an example and to make the best choices.

“Don’t waste what you have,” Dr. Krawitz said at the se¬nior assembly. “The country’s looking for great leadership. It’s going to come to you.”

There’s hardly a reason to slough off the new policies as a “Whatever.” These new policies aren’t meant to be tran¬scribed kill-joys or a quickly ignored new rule. They’re an opportunity for a fresh start after embarrassingly immature behavior last year.

Costumes, baby powder, and childish Halloween boos were never meant to be a staple at basketball games or any sporting event. They should become a thing of the past, even without the help of a suspension policy. As Dr. Krawitz said, “It’s got to be about why we’re there, not why they’re there.”

The highly-publicized yellow poster campaign to dis¬courage cell-phone use is just as necessary. Stealing the bathroom pass just to crouch in a stall and text is rude, es¬pecially to the poor kid next to you who actually has t o go.

Even the PBTs, the most controversial of the introduced policies, is not a bad idea. It doesn’t infringe on personal rights, it just serves to provide a stronger sense of security to the community and to diminish underage drinking and its often inevitable consequences. In all good reason, pre-gaming the football game is not worth the MIP that ruins a college scholarship.

The graduates of 2010, and every class after them, are certainly entitled to all the privileges and freedoms of last year, but they have the potential to capitalize on them and not be indignantly bitter about what last year left with