Yes, we realize we’ve been hard on them in the past; we all have. No, we’re not taking any bribes or favors under the table, nor have our kneecaps been threatened with baseball bates by their infamous “Prefect Goons.”

We all remember the outrage when Student Council was joined with the Honor Board. We remember the endless naysayers in the student body who claimed it was unfair, only to have their complaints fall on deaf ears. As a matter of fact, the second break proposal was put in for consideration at the beginning of last year; however, it was sidetracked by Honor Board cases, and by the time Student Council brought it up again for discussion the FAC had already had their final meeting of the year.

We all remember the almost comically chaotic class meetings where the four class representatives went on stage and became sacrificial offerings for their peers, subjecting themselves to angry rants from classmates and opening the floor to suggestions to make school life better that never materialized in the long run. Next Tuesday, the FAC will take a vote that will determine whether or not the proposed second break will go into effect. If approved, the student body will receive an extra 25 minutes every week to try something new, do last minute homework or gather their thoughts and take a breather. School on days with a second break would not even run longer; rather, class time would be cut by five minutes. In those class meetings where the prefects were barraged with complaints, one of the biggest gribbles was that the students themselves don’t see the results of the prefects’ work. This will finally set the record straight.

The passing of a second break could result in two things. The desired result is that it paves the way for more things like it, since we now see concrete results. The other result is that nothing happens, and this small step is all the students get for a more unified community. Head Prefect Tessa Wick ’09 called the second break a “stepping stone to solving all the problems.” How many problems there are and how many stepping stones are needed seem yet to be determined, but for now the optimism is greatly appreciated, and for us, not to be taken with a grain of salt.

If all else fails, the prefects worked hard on this, and that alone warrants gratitude. We feel some appreciation has been a long time coming, because, frankly, being a class representative is a thankless job. So let’s cut our losses and give thanks to these overworked student mercenaries for this opportunity for which they’ve so graciously strived, just for us.

Now let’s see what they do next.