Senior skip happened this year the Monday after prom, with some seniors skipping classes and meeting up at alternative locations, such as beaches, lakes, amusement parks and more.
In the past, seniors skipping their classes and then receiving un-excused absences, leading to receiving and serving a punishment as a class.
Students in recent years at Jesuit are still skipping class, but now some seniors call out sick or are excused by guardians, so fewer if any repercussions are faced for their actions of missing class.
Senior Maeve Thomas, along with many other students decided to call in sick.
“I am probably going to call in” she stated. Furthering that she did not want the unexcused absence.
Not all seniors called out for the day.
Senior Sohan Govindaraju attended school due to their extra curriculars.
Due to rules about needing to attend school to participate, many students still need to be present. Any athlete competing in spring sports and the school play production can not join in on the senior tradition.
“I will be at school, I have rehearsals. I’m a bit sad, but commitments are commitments. At the end of the day, you have to prioritize your commitments and what you need to do. But for those who are going to the beach or going with their friends, it’s certainly the right thing to do if they want to. It’s a good unifying thing” said Govindaraju.
The location for people to meet at is the beach, but now less than half the graduating class shows up, and for those who do activities are separate instead of unified.
“I’m going to the beach with all my friends. It’s a group of girls and boys, but it’s my smaller friend group,” Mary Doherty stated.
Teachers now expect and prepare for seniors being absent, but staff is still divided on if they should continue class as normal, or make their classes have study periods during the day so that students don’t miss important lessons.
Senior English teacher, Amanda Case, is conflicted about senior skip day and how to prep her classes around the tradition.
“I think senior skip day is a rite of passage for most seniors,” Case said. “I do think it’s an equity issue, because athletes and kids in drama or extra co curriculars can’t actually partake in whatever’s happening for senior skip day, and so I think that can be frustrating for some seniors. In terms of faculty, I think it is frustrating having to plan around it because we’re already on kind of a time crunch and a tight deadline, and so losing a day because you only have seven kids in class can be really frustrating. I personally do not continue on as everything is normal, because I don’t want my students to miss out on whatever we’re doing that day, wrapping up a novel unit, or senior projects or whatever it is. So I will have a study hall or preparation day, because I know that I’ll have a quarter at most of my students here.”
Math teacher Sarah Holman had a similar outlook.
“If I had a mixed grade level class, I would definitely continue as normal. When I have a class that is full of seniors, I tend to build in some flexibility into the schedule, and then, depending on how many students are here, I will do what seems appropriate based on the amount of students in class. As always, my work gets posted [ to canvas] so the students who don’t come will have the same access they would as if they were sick,” Holman stated.
