What makes Weston High School Unique?

Contributed by Sam Weyrauch

Free periods. Everyone has them from time to time throughout their high school careers, but does everyone know what to do with them? Here at Weston, we have a unique opportunity unavailable to students in many other towns. From sophomore year on we have open campus privileges, which allow us to leave the school grounds during our frees and go do other things. As freshmen, we, too, have study halls, and depending on the teacher these can range from just sitting quietly at our desks doing homework to playing games and having fun together as a class. But once we get back to school after that first summer of high school, we are allowed to leave the campus for our frees – just as long as our parents sign a waiver form.But what do people at Weston do when they walk out the doors and leave the building? you may ask. As you may or may not know, Weston does not have very much to offer in terms of stores or restaurants like other towns in the area have. Because of this, our two eateries become very popular in the middle of the day, since they’re about the only places we have time to go to during our half-hour lunch periods. When we have full periods free though, many Weston students go to places in Westport, Wilton, or Norwalk to eat, which is nice because it gives us so many options and because we have the ability to drive there easily. Another advantage of our open campus policy is the opportunity to go home for frees. If you have a free period at any time throughout the day (including first period when you get to sleep in), you can go home for the hour, so you can a) do homework without the distractions of the school library, b) take a nap, or c) just hang out. It really is nice to be able to leave the school, and if you have back-to-back frees it’s possible to even go to places like Compo Beach during the spring.One of the things that our administration assumes regarding our open campus is that we act responsibly while we are out of the school. This right, just like many others, can be taken away if it is abused, so it is in all of our best interests to respect it. I know many other schools in the area have closed campus, or just limited open campus, but in part because of our small size and less urbanized location, we do not have to stay in the school all day. This is just one of the things that make me happy to be a Weston Trojan.

Freshmen Study Hall at Darien High School

Contributed by Blair Pelley

The new freshman class has been denied the privilege of having frees during the second semester. The long, boring, no-talking- or-you-will- get-detention study halls are here to stay. Last year’s freshmen were promised frees second semester but when the second half of the year came around students' schedules didn’t change. The reason that the freshmen are stuck in their study halls is because the library was becoming overcrowded with the plethora of students flocking in second semester. The lack of tables and space to put backpacks has become the reason freshmen have been stripped of the promised frees. Back in the old days freshmen would get free periods after first semester if they obtained a letter grade better than a “C” in each class. But now no matter how good their grades are the freshmen class will be stuck in study hall. As a freshmen, I think a good compromise is having half frees and half study halls. This way the library wouldn’t be as crowded. But the freshman class has different opinions on having frees. Freshman Paxton Voigt said, “I hate it! It’s not fair that other grade got frees their second semester but we didn’t.” But other freshmen like Parker Hamill appreciate the full-year option. “I like having study halls; I actually get my work done.” Whether the freshmen class likes it or not, we will be sitting in silence for the rest of the year.