On Tuesday, January 23, Mead students were blessed with an advisory that was not only twice as long as usual, but disrupted the usual schedule, placing lunch between second and third blocks, instead of after third period. Few, if any, students were happy with the advisory. A riot would have started if not for the fortunate shortening of each class to an hour each. Furthermore, many students didn’t even know what was going to happen during the extra long advisory.

Senior Will Stoneman only knew of the plans for the underclassmen. “Because of registration, maybe?” he said. The Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors were all required to attend a presentation about registering for the next school year. Each of the three classes was allotted about a half-hour for the presentation, and the rest of the time was spent in their advisory classes. Students were instructed to fill out four surveys on Schoology during class, and teachers were instructed to give their classes a presentation on changing laws regarding sexting. The new bill, legally known as HB17-1302, defines what sexting violations are punishable. More information regarding the bill can be found here.

The Senior class, however, had less of a reason to show up at all. “I really don’t want to be here,” said James Kirkeide, a Senior who could not get out in time. “I was intending to ditch,” he said, although he was unable to leave because “the doors were blocked [by administration].” The remaining seniors had a small list of things to cover, including the same in-class activities as the other grades, but also to decide on which song and quote would represent the graduating class.

Some seniors managed to escape. One such survivor, who preferred to be anonymous, felt no remorse for spending the two hours of advisory getting food and spending the extra time with fellow escapees. “It’s a worthless waste of time,” he said about advisory. He confidently added “[Ditching was] the best decision I’ve made all year. I don’t feel like I missed anything, I know I didn’t miss anything.”

Much like the officers patrolling the Berlin Wall in the 1960’s, faculty members prowled the halls, just hoping to catch the poor souls trying to escape the monotony of the lengthened advisory. “I was scared for my life,” said Junior Conner Henman.