Dear Oakton Administration,

We would like to express our concern for the removal of Cougar Time. We feel that it will put all students at a disadvantage for these reasons:

1. Students will not be able to ask for clarification on homework or projects before the assignments are due. Asking all students to come before or after school is not feasible for either students or teachers.
2. Not all students can stay after school and go to teachers -- they have to ride the bus, have club meetings, etc. This will result in lower grades in classes. By removing Cougar Time, this puts a burden on parents to drive their children earlier or pick them up later, which will result in more time that students are unsupervised at school.
3. Cougar Time will no longer be able to be used for travel periods for Academy Students because they will be missing reviews or help from their teachers.
4. Students will no longer be able to be tutored or tutor students during 4th period, which will make it much harder to fulfill hours for multiple Honor Societies or for diploma seals.
5. Students who participate in extracurricular activities, such as clubs or sports, will not have the opportunity to ask for help after school from teachers even if the teachers are able to stay after.
6. Teachers cannot be available every day after school for their students. Some teachers cannot stay after any days because they have children they need to take care of. Without Cougar Time, it is practically required that they have these after-school "office hours" or risk their students failing. Also, even if teachers are available one day a week, teacher's after-school hours will overlap, forcing students to choose one class over another instead of achieving in every class.
7. Because there will be 45 minutes less to work on homework during school, students will be working 45 minutes more at home and therefore will have 45 minutes less of sleep.
8. Cougar Time is used for group projects. By taking this away, students who will not be able to drive will be at a disadvantage for projects because they will not be able to meet after school.
Although we feel that Cougar Time is necessary, we completely understand the safety concerns for students. We also want to keep the student body safe and accountable. Here are our solutions to this problem:
1. Have punishments for students who are in the hallways or outside of the school during Cougar Time. If students are found not to be in a class, they must report to a certain class each day and sign in.
2. Have a google form where students have to sign in at the beginning of Cougar Time. Computer Science students can help create a program that can label which students did not sign in. This can then be compared with the attendance for that day (based on the attendance form that students must fill out to sign in/out), and then the students who did not fill it out can have the same punishment as those walking in the hallway.
While these are our solutions, we understand that these are not perfect. We would like to work with you to create a better solution.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Concerned Oakton Students