According to CNN about 15% of the student population, or 7 million students, are out of school 18 or more days of the year. And most students who skip don’t think it will affect their future. Students who skip 10 days or more are roughly 20% less likely to get their high school diploma, and roughly 25% are less likely to enroll in college. This statistic is way too high in my opinion.

I’ll be the first to admit my freshman year, I fell victim to the habit of cutting class. I’m now experiencing the repercussions of my bad decisions, like retaking two freshman classes; all because I made that initial choice to skip with my friends behind the Agriculture Barn and the Trades building. I believe now that skipping class is an incredibly unintelligent decision that has long-term effects. Ditching class becomes a vicious cycle that many students unfortunately fall into. Students who skip class tell themselves regularly, “I’m going to class tomorrow, I’m not skipping,” but the very next day, they’re not at school with the same group of people.

Assistant Principals and our SRO are cracking down on skippers nowadays. Unfortunately many of these students end up having lighters and matches, tobacco and even marijuana or some form of paraphernalia in their pocket or in their backpack. Illegal use of tobacco, drugs or alcohol have ties to students skipping school. Considering a student is skipping school, there’s a good chance they’re doing something illegal. Not all of those who skip are drinkers and/or smokers, but a good percentage of them are. Possession of any illegal substance can result in a couple of weeks of ISS or up to 55 days in LEO, including a record with the police.

Almost half of the parents of the students who skip don’t even know it’s happening or know that it’s happened before. And another 25% of parents (according to CNN) know it happens “sometimes.” I think parents should keep their phone number updated with the school and keep their email addresses updated and on file so that way, parents will have access to their students’ grades and attendance whenever they want. It’ll keep a lot more students from skipping as well.

A student is required by law to attend 90% of classes from Kindergarten through 12th grade, and if a student misses a certain amount of days, they will owe hours. If a student doesn’t make up these hours, they will not receive credit and they will be required to retake the course(s).

I think students should focus on their academics more instead of their social life. School should always come first no matter what. Students shouldn’t be skipping in the first place, but I think it’s wrong to immediately punish them with ISS or LEO. There are more ways to handle a student who skips class other than immediately sending them off to another campus or exile them from the rest of the school for a certain amount of days. I feel like if we had mentors or some form of role models that helps students stop their bad habits rather than the APs immediately punishing them, attendance would improve so much more.

If the school set aside one day every couple of weeks to have 95% of attendance or above, and students were rewarded for showing up, attendance would more than likely start to exceed expectation. School might be boring sometimes, or uninteresting, but students don’t seem to understand you need every bit of information you learn at high school. Students should want to come to school everyday. School is more important than ditching class to hang out with friends. Nobody is ever too cool for school.