Senior privilege: Seniors want to wear masks from their colleges

Archbishop Carroll students look forward to senior year for a number of reasons, like being starters on their varsity teams and leads in the plays, picking out gowns and planning prom-posals for the senior prom, and preparing for graduation and moving on to college or the military or the work force.

Another reason Carroll students look forward to senior year is for senior privileges. For example, seniors can wear a specially designed senior fleece instead of the school sweater when winter arrives. Senior boys also used to be able to wear any tie they wanted when they weren’t wearing their senior fleeces. This year, however, Carroll students are not required to wear the winter uniform because of COVID. That means the senior privilege involving the tie no longer exists.

Perhaps another senior privilege can be put in place to replace the tie privilege.

To stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, students are required to wear masks. School rules call for those masks to be plain. However, once seniors commit to a college, some students say they should be allowed to wear masks that are branded from their school. 

“Yeah, I’d definitely wear my college’s mask if I got in the school,” said senior Nicholas Waldmann.

This privilege might not last very long because most seniors who haven’t decided  between schools wouldn’t commit to one for a while, so this may only leave them with two or three months of this privilege.

“Yes, I would absolutely wear my college mask, and since we have to wear masks, why not make it festive and something we can enjoy wearing around,” said senior JT McNally, the vice president of the student council. “Another factor would be we can see where everyone is going to college.”

Senior Jasmine Vega, the student council treasurer, said wearing a mask from the college she plans to attend would allow her to display her emotions surrounding her post-Carroll life.

“I would wear the mask that’s from the school that I’m committed to because in a way it just shows how excited I am for a big step in my life which is going to college,” Vega said. “It’s a great way for everyone to support one another, especially with everything going on.”

Here are some additional privileges that students have suggested they would like the administration to consider giving them. 

• Vega suggested the seniors could go off campus for lunch. 
• McNally said he wants the seniors to have a week or two with all of the seniors in school at once.
• Waldmann wants the seniors to have more freedom to responsibly plan events on campus.