Missed any detentions lately? Well, here is the problem: if you have missed detention, you most likely have community service. Each community service requirement is one hour and it adds up the longer you push it off. If you have community service, you will not be allowed to get into prom. After talking to Mr. Waters, Mrs. Fontenot, and Mrs. Jones, Etched in Stone confirmed these rumors. Jones stated, “You can not go to prom if you have community service hours to make up.”

This week is the perfect opportunity to get our hours in, seeing as the deans need lots of help around the school. You may also ask teachers if they need help and get your hours in by helping them. To find out more ways to get your hours in, talk to Mr. Wulff or Mrs. Jones in the east wing offices.

Many students who have been affected by this new rule shared their thoughts and feelings on this new idea of students making up their missed detentions.

Senior Chloe Greer stated, “ I think it’s really dumb, sometimes you can’t control if you’re sick or not and if your parents call you in but it doesn’t go through then it is really unfair. I honestly think community service should affect your graduation requirements rather than affecting your prom. You only get two proms in high school and it is supposed to be the best years of your life but with this rule, it’s not.”

Junior Jack Blomfelt said, “I’m not even going to Prom so I don’t even mind but I still think the community service is dumb. It’s not gonna help the kids who have trouble getting to school on time. So I really don’t understand the purpose of it.”

Senior Kyle Mary explained, ”I think it’s dumb because the majority of hours that I have is from tardies. I still show up to class so i don’t understand why I’m being punished the same amount if I were just not to go. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Others who have not been affected by this also shared their thoughts on this new rule.

Senior Andrew McClave stated, “Well to me it makes sense, the school needs to punish people in some way. They are just punishing people for something insignificant though like tardies.”

Junior Sofia Wojtal explained, “I honestly think it’s pretty dumb because it’s not gonna change anything but I do think it is a good opportunity for kids to learn from”

Sophomore Maya Fishburn said, “I think it is good, for some kids who do not want to go to prom will not care but for the ones who do care, it will help push them to go to detention or make up their hours.”

Students from other schools also shared their opinion on the Fossil Ridge High School’s new policy about community service and prom. They told us a little bit about how their schools handle students who miss class or get a lot of tardies.

Emmie Sohler from Windsor High School explained, “For ditching class, I don’t think they do anything unless kids miss a lot of class but they usually do detention if you are tardy a lot. I have also never heard of the school taking prom away and we don’t do community service at all. The only thing we do is help the security at lunch to help get the traffic out of the parking lots.”

Kyle Dempsey at Fort Collins High School said, “Well I don’t think making them not be able to go to prom will do anything to make them do their community service. Their punishment is to do community service and to not go to prom. If you got community service for breaking a computer then it might not be your fault and you should still be able to go to prom.”

Vanessa Rivera from Poudre High School explained, “ Honestly it depends on how many times the person decides to ditch detention because if its once and the person does their community service then they should be allowed to go to prom because they “paid it back” but if the person keeps on ditching then it’s understandable that the person shouldn’t be allowed to go to prom.” Poudre’s rules state that if you have 20% or more absences then you cannot go to prom.

Drake Griffin at Rocky Mountain High School remarked, “They either kick us off campus or suspend us for a day if we miss a class.”

Hearing about this new community service policy before prom has already stirred up a lot with Fossil’s students and even students at other schools. Though it sounds strict to kids from other schools and annoying to Fossil students,  the deans are just trying to help out students by keeping them in class.