Skylines Seniors of 23’ are officially leaving the nest on June 2nd, but graduation being set on a Friday this year raises concerns for the students’ safety, as well as the schedules and plans of teachers.

Skyline is among the latest to do their graduation ceremony. There are some schools in the valley that hold their ceremony as early as the 25th of May. The past few years Skyline has held their graduation ceremony on a Thursday, which gave teachers more time and less stress. English teacher Morgan Del Grosso says, “It makes the day feel so long if you have it at 7, especially if you’ve been working all day that day. In terms of getting summer started, it’s really nice to not have it on [Friday], then you feel like your summer starts truly on the weekend. ”

Students and teachers have to hold their breaths until Friday, which can seem very far away. At the same time, students may still need to turn work in until Friday, putting extra pressure on them to get their grades up, and teachers to get their grades in, and ensure they can receive their cap and gown, after which grades are locked in. Having Graduation on a Thursday would allow students to plan ahead better, and give teachers more time to grade the influx of assignments.

Putting graduation day on a Friday evening can also expose students to risks. Graduation begins at 7pm and usually lasts 2-3 hours, but can lead into the late night. Del Grosso says that despite the ceremony taking a couple hours, it still took around an hour to get out of the parking lot last year. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety states that 31% of fatal drunk-driving accidents occur on the weekend, and the highest number of drunk drivers on the road is between midnight and 3am. The risk of fatal accidents are also four times higher at night than during the day. Driving around at this time puts extra stress on the young drivers out at night. During a day of celebration, it can be easy to get distracted on the road. “The U is right by really popular college bars, and college kids are not very responsible, so it just seems terrifying to unleash all these high school kids from all over the valley, on Friday when there’s already people out. And it’s the first weekend in June. It seems like if it was on Thursday the number of drunk drivers over all would be lower,” Del Grosso says.

“I always tell my students at the end of the year, don’t drive tonight.” Del Gosso suggests that students should go to the party, and if not, not to roam the roads. Students planning on going to graduation should be cautious while driving at night: have fun, but not at the cost of your life.