it's really school again...

Thursday, September 02, 1999, at 08:11AM

By Eric Richardson

It's that time of year again... The time of year where I rant often about how much I dislike school and how I think it could be better. I know you look forward to 'em all year 'round...

I think this year set some sort of new record. I've only been back four days and I'm already back to the levels of utter distaste I had at the height of last year. It's definitely the school's fault. They just didn't start my year off right.

Even before school started, I found my first thing to be upset about. New for this year, North Muskegon has a policy that once you're at a football game, you can't leave and re-enter (if you're a student... no one else is affected, of course). Supposedly this is to keep students from leaving at half-time to go smoke or something... They also justify it by saying that they want to have students watch the whole game. Now, consider this: Fairly soon after half-time, the gates are left unmanned and people are free to come at will. So what's to keep someone from leaving towards the end of half-time, going and having their nice little smoke, and then returning during the third quarter? Absolutely nothing. Right off, that makes the smoking prevention argument void.


Now, they also want students to see the whole game, and think preventing them from leaving will encourage this. Frankly, it does exactly the opposite. Think about this situation I encountered last Friday night: I came to the game in shorts and a t-shirt, as it was rather warm. By the end of the second quarter, though, it was getting a little on the chilly side. I figure, "no problem, I have a jacket in my car. I'll get it during half-time." WRONG! NM won't let me leave. So what do I have to do? Go out to my car during the third quarter, causing me to miss some play. The no re-entry policy has just been completely counter-productive.

I have more, but frankly, it's time for school to end. I'm taking off...