After finding themselves $40,000 behind in fine collections

last year, the administration needed to find a way to recuperate the lost money. To remedy this, they presented the school population with forms that were necessary in order for students to buy tickets to dances. They had harsh effects on the dances in the process and the student body in the process.

Student council, which put together the doomed snowcoming dance last year, is claiming more than $4,000 in losses and a 50 percent decline in attendance from the previous year. This meant less money for them to spend on other events.

There is no doubt the forms will have negative effects on homecoming. Many students don’t want to go out of their way to get a form for the tickets, get them signed by three separate people and have them approved by the student council. Homecoming is a higher profile dance, which may help to draw in more students to get the forms signed, but it will still have a poor effect.

And the necessity of the forms is questionable as well. The administration already collects fines from parking, student activities and at registration. Having no outstanding fines is a requirement for sports. Seniors don’t get to walk at graduation until all of their fines have been paid. And at that point, the one’s who haven’t paid are the one’s who can’t afford to. It seems unnecessary to force students to sign a form in order to go to a dance, when there are many different ways of collecting and enforcing fines as it is.

Even if the administration chooses to keep the forms, there are ways to keep the system more efficient. The school can distribute forms to students so that those who want to go to the dance don’t have to go out of their way to get it filled out. Or just make them more accessible around school- down by the gym, in the commons, in the main office. The checkpoint for all fines can be one person instead of three separate people. If the administration makes the effort to meet the student body in the middle then the student body may reciprocate the cost. Students may put more effort to pay off fines. The school would regain all of its losses and the forms would become unnecessary. Compromise makes everyone’s lives easier.

Logan Ponche