After the start of the school year, many students have certain things that they are looking forward to. For some people, it could be the homecoming court, or it could be Friday Night Lights every week. However, for many of the seniors, they are just waiting for the moment they walk across the stage.  There are two events that come before graduation and get students excited for the end of the year: the reading of the senior will and prophecy.

Looking back at the creation of the will and prophecy, the two events were meant to be positive predictions about the future lives of students in the graduating class. The point of these activities was for the seniors to look 30 or 40 years into the future and envision what people would do or become. However, recent readings of the student led traditions have not upheld such lighthearted intentions.

“Last year’s senior class basically used it at as platform to bully each other. This activity is supposed to involve the whole class, but, instead, the will was mainly used for grievances and there was no [collective] involvement at all,” explained government teacher James Massengale, who administered the event for the past few years.

In previous years, the administrators would pick a representative from the senior class that they felt was capable of reading the documents to the entire senior and junior classes. For several years in a row now, that privilege has been taken advantage of in the eyes of administrators. The will and prophecy have to be approved beforehand, but the class representatives from previous years added things without the knowledge of faculty. These additions were typically degrading and hateful towards certain students.

When Senior Maggie Watts heard the news about the will and prophecy being taken away from the graduating class of 2019, she was disheartened.

“I feel that it shouldn’t have been taken away [since] it has always been a tradition for so long. It could have been monitored better instead of being taken away completely. I was looking forward to it, and I know a lot of the seniors were too,” admitted Watts.

A lot of students are fed up with the banning of the will and prophecy; it is not fair in the eyes of most upperclassmen.

“For it to be taken away this year is messed up because it is the one thing everyone focuses on at the end of the year. Everyone was ready and excited because we weren’t able to do it until our senior year,” stated rising senior Jaleesa Smith.

A lot of people are now wondering whether it will be taken away for good or if it will be brought back in the future for other classes.

“It just depends on the senior class and if it is decent or not,” concluded Massengale.