Comfort vs Respect

I mentioned this my discussion board post but it has intrigued me all week so I am writing about it again. Earlier this week, my coworker sat down across from me and began talking about how frustrated her seniors were becoming. This was mostly due to the comfort level they had after having the same teacher for two years in a row. At this point, the comfort was become outright disrespect towards her. There were complaints whenever work was assigned, challenges of her authority and comments made that were upsetting. I, on the other hand, was dealing with a much more passive disrespect where the seniors were walking in out of dress code, addressing me as if they were my friend, and not doing anything I assigned them. This coincides with break coming up, seniors beginning to be admitted to college, and workload burnout.
What is most interesting about this discussion is that my girlfriend noticed the same complaint from me the last two years regarding how much easier the juniors are to teach than the seniors. During this upcoming department meeting, this other teacher and I are going to brainstorm with the rest of the department about the possibility of a switch after the first year. The other class is a science class that I could easily teach, and the other teacher has taught environmental science in the past. This could be a very interesting solution. However, I am going to attempt to manage my seniors in a bit more of a structured setting over the next two weeks to see if the students will change a bit. This will take significantly more planning on my part, but I am hoping for the best.