4:15—this is the time every student looks forward to. But while some people go home and go on with their daily lives, many stay after school for other activities. So the question on many people’s minds is, what do students and faculty do after hours?

“Unless students are at school for a club, most of them are gone by the end of the day,” Associate Principal of Student Activities Randy Hayes said. “There are some students that play the card game Pokémon occasionally.”

Similarly, many teachers like to get ahead for the upcoming days, so they stay after school to prepare for class and end up leaving at seven or eight o’clock.

“The main reason teachers stay after school is because they are overwhelmed with the amount of grading they sometimes have,” AVID teacher Brittany Sullivan said. “They only have a 50-minute period to plan the whole lesson and some teachers also have multiple classes to teach and plan for.”

Some clubs meet at multiple times, such as during lunch and after school, to accommodate students who are not able to attend one of the meetings. Clubs such as Chemistry Club, Dancing for a Cause, Mu Alpha Theta and the Junior World Affair Council are some of the many groups that meet after school. The students in after-school clubs are usually the last to leave during the day.

“I participate in Dancing for a Cause,” senior Rhuda Brayner said. “We are people that come together under the common interest of dance, and through this we get to know each other and become a second family through the many performances we do throughout the year.”

Occasionally there are circumstances that allow students to stay after school for various social events. The school is open late for the students who stay the whole time and there are always faculty members or supervisors on duty.

“The latest I have ever stayed at school was midnight for homecoming and prom night,” Hayes said.

Staying after school is something that not many people really think about because they go home to work on homework or go out with friends, but there are many activities going on after hours.

“I think that students should be able to stay after school because it is a safe haven to meet with teachers and participate in clubs,” Sullivan said. “Teachers and students can stay after school to develop personally and academically.”