“If I get COVID sorry y’all but you ain’t seeing me miss more than two days… Taking you all down with me,” A West Ottawa junior said in response to Assistant Principal Lindsay Cherry’s most recent email to the WOHS student body.
“Good Afternoon to the most amazing student body in West Michigan. We are so excited for all of the amazing events, activities, and memories yet to be made in the second semester at WOHS. With that in mind, our West Ottawa HS leadership teams have been meeting and discussing a plan to help encourage and motivate students to attend school in order to participate in those fun, extracurricular events. For all dances (Snowball, Prom) in the second semester, students must be attending 90% of all school days in the semester in order to attend. In the case of Snowball Dance, students may only miss two days of school (excused or unexcused) in order to attend the dance. If there is a special circumstance, then you will need to speak to your Assistant Principal.”
As I read the email, I was in disbelief. Truly I was speechless. As it set in, so did my anxiety. The same can be said for other West Ottawa students.
“I understand why the school needed to put the rule in place, but I was still upset and frustrated when I saw the announcement. I know there are a lot of people who choose to not go to school and it affects their grades, but I don’t think the rest of the school should suffer. And the two-day maximum for attendance to Snowball is even worse. It seems unfair to a lot of people at this school who are responsible and present when they need to be,” a West Ottawa senior said.
Though the fear of missing school dances is stressful, what a lot of the student body hasn’t considered yet is the fact that the WOHS leadership team is compassionate and open-minded. They want us to succeed and enjoy high school.
“Maybe it wasn’t clearly defined or stated that like this is a jumping off point for a conversation. The reality is that we’ve got kids who aren’t coming to school, and we want to really give them incentives for changing those patterns, right?” Principal Kristine Jernigan said.
A jumping off point for a conversation. This new rule seemed scary at first, but really, we know our administration. They are some of the kindest, most open-minded people. All of my anxiety melted away after a 15-minute interview with Jernigan.
We as a student body just need to stop and keep an open mind for a minute. We all were so quick to make ourselves the victims of this new rule. We are not victims; it’s going to be okay.
“What I want kids to understand is if you’re trying your best, if you have excused absences because you’ve been at the dentist, or you got sick at home, or you got COVID, or you had a really bad day, or you’re going through some medical issues, or some mental health issues, or what have you, we’re not going to keep you from going to the dance,” Jernigan said.
