As most of the juniors know, the rising senior class was told heading into IGP meetings that early dismissal/late arrival was not being offered for the 2015-2016 school year. Then suddenly in Pointe Time this week, juniors received a red note attached to their course verification sheets for courses picked out weeks earlier. The note says that early dismissal/late arrival is now available to the upcoming senior class.

The problem is that students were told on a Monday they had to make final schedule changes by Thursday, including whether to request either early dismissal or late arrival, meaning they have had such little time to make important decisions.

But, late start/early dismissal always been an option for students at Rock Hill High and Northwestern. So why is South Pointe different? Other students had time to plan out their schedules while our students had only three short days to figure things out.

SPiN published an article last semester that South Pointe should not head off in its own direction with what should be a district decision regarding late start/early dismissal. Now the district is telling our school it really can’t enforce what it said in the fall anyway. We are glad for the reprieve; that’s what SPiN said to start with. But students should have more time to think about all their options instead of being forced to turn in a unorganized schedule that they can end up hating their last year of high school.

By Molli Helms, opinion editor