On Friday Nov. 9, the senior class of 2019 participated in what is known as “senior skip day,” even though the majority of students were called out by their parents. Even though this was a harmless activity that senior classes have been doing for years, administration still had a problem with it and did everything they could to try and ruin it for the graduating class.

The staff went out of their way to email all senior parents and encourage them to send their kids to school. This bothers me because they were all seniors at one point in their lives and they more than likely had a senior skip day as well.

One of the primary reasons I think that the school overreacted about this is because all the seniors were doing was not going to school for one day. There are so many more things that they could have chosen to do, such as pranks on the school. These sometimes get out of hand and in my opinion, are much more serious than a day out of school.

For example, a school in Tennessee vandalized the entire school with inappropriate pictures and words, covering almost every inch of the inside with spray paint and marker. A school in Marin County, California released several chickens in the school at night. However, the next morning, eight of the chickens were found dead in the building. Seniors at McCluer High School in Florissant Missouri bombarded other students with firecrackers, cherry bombs, smoke bombs, and water guns filled with bleach and urine while dressed up in masks. They injured several other students as they were throwing firecrackers directly into the back of their heads.

Right here in Kansas, at Blue Valley High School, seniors baked brownies with laxatives in them and handed them out to students in the junior class. One student gave a brownie to a teacher who unknowingly had several medical problems including seizures and strokes, and he could have been severely sickened by the brownies. Luckily, he was fine. The class of 2019 could have chosen to do something like these, but instead just stayed home from school.

Many teachers also decided to do things such as pop quizzes or extra credit opportunities on that day for students who chose to go to school. I do not necessarily have a problem with this, but some teachers created deadlines for that friday and were in no way lenient with them.

That bothered me because administration just assumed that everyone who called in was just skipping and that is unfair. Many students went on college visits that day as a lot of universities were open for them. Along with this, some students may have actually been sick, but when called in, the staff just figured they were all making stuff up just to skip school. This was wrong of the school and teachers to do so because if a student really did have the flu or some other contagious illness, they were still being encouraged to go to school in order to not miss out on making deadlines or other assignments that were given in order to punish the seniors who skipped.

I have almost had all A’s throughout high school, so I do not understand why I should be ridiculed if I choose to not go to school one day. Some students are taking challenging courses, and every once in a while, a mental break is needed. Now this was definitely not the intention for all of the students that skipped, but again, if a student is making good grades, they should not be punished for missing a day or two of school every once in a while.

Attendance is an important part of school, but it does not always directly reflect upon the grades you make. The senior class of 2019 should in no way have been punished for planning a senior skip day because it is a normal senior activity that has been around for years, and when the students are being called out and not actually skipping, the school has no right to do anything about it.