From doctors appointments to sickness, there are many reasons a student may be absent or tardy. In some cases, students skip a class to take a break and hangout with friends. Junior Keithan Spelhaug (he/him) started skipping class freshman year and generally skips his fifth period astronomy class because it’s right after lunch. 

“I get something to eat, get some McDonald’s, get something to munch on,” Spelhaug said. Similarly, sophomore Daphne Guibert (she/her) leaves her marketing class with the hall pass when the students get a work period. 

“I would rather walk around than be on my phone,” Guibert said. “I meet up with people from the other lunch and hang out in the cafeteria, but it’s usually not for very long, just 10 minutes to 15 minutes.” 

Friends can be a big motivator for students to skip class, but not all students are skipping to hang out. Junior Mathieu Gioanni (he/him) said he skips because he needs to catch up on sleep and schoolwork due to his overwhelming IB schedule. Similarly, junior Arman Alexander (he/him) said he skips class to do school work. Alexander mentioned that he doesn’t skip his core classes, and only skips on days when he doesn’t believe the coursework is useful. 

“For marketing, we watched ‘The Lego Movie’ last week. That was pointless. Why do I need to be there for that?” Alexander said. “In my core classes, usually we’re learning something new, so I’m not dipping.” 

When skipping, he usually goes to a class he has friends in and does homework there. He says his teachers generally don’t care, but he has received some repercussions for not attending class, such as a zero on an assignment. Likewise, Gioanni said he has received a detention for being tardy and Spelhaug said he received lunch detentions for skipping. 

Attendance secretary Michelle Bergley (she/her) said multiple unexcused single period absences can lead to detention, and 20 or more consecutive full day absences — excused or not — can lead to the school withdrawing the student. 

“Once a student you know comes back, the days start over. They could be absent 18, 19 days and then come in on the 20th day, set foot in the building and go to their classes and then that clock starts over again,” Bergley said. “But we try to figure out what’s happening, diagnose why you’re not here. What can we do? Is there something else that might work better for you? So that’s where [the school is] so amazing at helping the students and the families.” 

Most students are aware of the risks that come with skipping classes. But for some students, the increasing workload as they progress through high school acts as motivation to skip class. 

“Unfortunately, it’s the reality, because not every student is going to want to show up to these classes; you’re not going to have every kid ready to learn, so you just have to face that reality. And I think that at this age, it’s make or break. You have to make sure that you know what to do and what to get done,” Alexander said. 

The campus has cameras that catch students trying to skip class. Along with students skipping classes or arriving significantly late, there is a history of students forging their excuse notes. Bergley said she has caught students pretending to be their parents in order to excuse their own absences. 

“If I get a note that doesn’t look like parents signed it, I, by all rights, can reach out to the parent and say ‘I’ve got this note, I just want to confirm that it was you,’ and most of the time it’s ‘yes,’ you know, maybe ‘I don’t speak English, my daughter filled it out, my son filled it out and it’s my signature.’ Or you’ll get, ‘No I did not, that was not me that excused my son or daughter,’” Bergley said. Bergley mentioned that attempting to be excused by someone who isn’t a parent or guardian will lead to detention. She has also gotten phone calls from students trying to excuse themselves or their friends. If it sounds like a student, she checks the phone number and references the number to the parent/guardians’ numbers on the student’s file; if it doesn’t match, she’ll reach out to the parent/guardian to double check. Student Laura Bush (she/her)* said that she logs on to her parents’ email to forge her excused absences as they are unaware that she skips. 

“I actually go into their email and then I excuse myself,” Bush said. She skips to go to the library and study for upcoming tests or complete homework that is due.

Students who skip said they can catch up on work through Schoology because their teachers usually post the class work there. This is a convenient way for students who are absent from class to catch up on work they missed. But they aren’t just missing classwork when they skip. 

“The development part and the camaraderie in the classroom and just the learning is so huge. I can’t tell you enough because when you graduate and you go to college, your brain kind of clicks into another mode and goes, ‘Gosh, I don’t have my parents telling me to do my homework now. I can go to bed whenever I want. But I have to have this homework done because I’ll get kicked out of college and I don’t want to be.’ You all of a sudden grow up so fast,” Bergley said. 

Life during college introduces sudden independence to students’ lives. Skipping classes in high school is more significant than it may seem as this is the time preparing students for their future lives through discipline and routine. Alexander said that students haven’t gained a mature perspective yet.

“At this age, a lot of kids don’t realize how important it is to have good grades. They need to learn how important it is. It sucks to learn math, reading, all these core subjects, but you need these for stepping blocks in life,” Alexander said. “Because when you’re in the workplace, you’re gonna have to get stuff done that you don’t want to do, and [high school is] basically training you for that.”

*Name changed for anonymity