The days until the end of the year are dwindling down and students are anxious to get out. May is a month of many lasts for seniors and many want to go out with a bang, planning senior pranks or just something fun to do with friends.
For Pleasant Valley High School seniors, it is tradition that the Monday after prom is named PV’s “Senior Skip Day.” This event is not school sponsored, nor is it approved by administration that students are allowed to skip school on this day based on the mere fact that it is their last year of high school.
Many seniors take this day as a fun day off to hang out with their fellow senior classmates or just as a day to relax from their school work. Some with approval from their parents and others who fake being sick to guilt their parents into letting them stay home. High school administrator, Mike Peakin states, “It’s not supported by the school and it’s not excused.”
In order to ‘excuse’ students from school for the day, many parents call their student in as supposedly being sick or having an appointment, knowingly lying about their excuse.
“Our attendance policy states that any time a student is called out for a doctors appointment, we ask for a note to be submitted,” says Ms. Kracian.
Students think of this as just another day that they are skipping of senior year, but when such a large population intends to skip it has an impact.
First period is by far the worst for attendance, not just in senior skip day, but on any day because seniors often sleep in or have their parent call them out in the morning. “Three of ten students showed up today,” said Bill Myatt, public speaking teacher. “We are in the middle of an assignment, so students that were there continued with impromptu speeches and finished the assignment but had a smaller audience.”
Due to low attendance, teachers are unsure of what to plan for the day, knowing that in some cases the majority of their class will be absent. No matter what the case, it should be the students’ responsibility to make up any missed work as they are expected to do on any other day they are absent.
