Students have mixed feelings on the annual Academic Banquet, an event celebrating students on the A/B Honor Roll. This year, it was hosted by administration May 26.
Though this banquet is viewed as an honor by the administration, only 110 of the 272 students who received the invitations decided not to go for various reasons, some because they needed to do school related activities.
“My IRP for biology is due Tuesday, and I need to work on it,” freshman Joshua Eisner said.
Some students didn’t attend because they didn’t care about it.
“I thought is was stupid and that I could do better things with my time,” senior Matthew Langdon said.
Not all of the students are indifferent, however.
“I feel accomplished that I was able to get recognized for my good grades,” first time banquet attendee sophomore Amber Harris said.
There has been some questions about the fairness of the academic banquet.
“I feel that it’s not exactly the best way to set up academics as a whole, because it puts this threshold that you aren’t good enough if you don’t make good enough grades,” freshman Caleb Autry said. “I feel I make good enough grades, but they’re not the best at times.”
This is a disputed opinion, not only on the presence of the banquet, but on the criteria; if you get an A in a CTE course, then you are eligible to attend. If you get a C in an AP course, then you are unable to.
“There have been times in the past when I’m [irritated], because people are taking all these really easy classes, and they’re on the academic roll, and I’m not,” senior Lindsey Lucas said.
However, most students who attended the academic banquet support the criteria.
“I’ve taken a lot of AP classes, and I’ve managed to get an A in most of them and a B in some,” four year attendee senior Hudson Moore said, “It’s not impossible to do. You kind of have to balance whether you want high GPA or if you want to challenge yourself.”
The academic banquet means more to some students than others, but it is still seen as a reward for academic achievement.
“It’s a good motivation to get good grades throughout the year,” four-year academic banquet honoree senior TJ Olson said.
– By Emmy Robertson
