Free From The Fee

Sophia+Davie+%2811%29++posses+with+some+cash+for+a+picture+in+the+halls.

Photography, Faith Borum

Sophia Davie (11) posses with some cash for a picture in the halls.

Parker Barden

Writer, Reviewer

Article, Faith Borum, Editor/Writter

What if you didn’t pay your Netflix fee for the month? If you attend Herrin High you’ve probably heard about the forty dollar fee issue in the last few months.  Students are being told that if they don’t pay their school fees they may have to miss out on all kinds of things.  Is it actually helping our school as a whole?

Back in October the forty dollar fee began to become an issue for some students when they were told that homecoming was an option until their fees were paid.  Many kids rushed to pay their fees to prevent letting their date down and others had no option or forgot.  The board has also said that not only homecoming but Prom and field trips (academic field trips or not) were all events that students may not attend until their fees are paid.  What about us, the students of Herrin High? How do we feel about missing out due to a fee? I spoke to student Gina Wagley(10) and asked how she felt about the fee. “ I think it’s silly, it’s not always the kids responsibility it usually falls on the guardian.” I think it’s safe to say most teenagers don’t pay their book fees and other fees themselves. In some cases kids may be responsible for fees but for others, it is the parents responsibility.  Maybe the board didn’t consider this or that maybe some parents wouldn’t be able to afford that at the moment, books can be expensive and for some households it may be difficult. Should students not be effected by a few that they can’t afford or a fee that is not necessarily their responsibility to pay?

If you don’t pay your Netflix bill you get booted of.  You no longer get to binge watch Stranger Things until it’s paid. There is no lenience. Should it be this way in the school too with our fees?  By preventing students with unpaid fees from going to extra events the school is encouraging people to get those fees paid.  While it may really suck for the students who don’t have that fee paid I’m sure that homecoming season had more than just one student running to the office to pay their fee to prevent letting their date down. This year the school has been paid back more than two thousand dollars from the forty dollar fee rule already.  That’s money that the school can use.  Like most schools it’s no shocker the school is already in debt by thousands of dollars.  Unpaid fees from students can really add up.  Some family’s had over two hundred dollars in fees to pay the district and some still owe that much.  That can set our school back a lot.  Think of all the things we could do with the money, new books, new computers, New Jersey’s, even using the money to make the school a safer environment, there are endless options, if the school had the money.

Maybe in certian situations the school should be understanding of financial situations and not hold students back from academic field trips due to a fee.

So maybe the next time you go to pay that pesky fee before a field trip or see it on your mid term, think about what it actually does for our the school and students.