Along with the title of senior, there are perks to the job, one of which being senior skip days.
When presented with multiple senior skip days this school year, students and teachers have mixed reactions on to how to spend them.
“It’s my last year of high school, so I have to do as much as I can,” said senior Grant Odom said.
Social Studies teacher Samantha Phelps said that she would feel slightly less opposed to students skipping if they were using this time to get to know each other.
“I think it has a good history, but I think that it is being misapplied now,” “ Phelps said. “That’s concerning to me as an educator and also just as a citizen.”
Senior Emmie Baldwin said that she is less inclined to participate in senior skip days partly as her parents are stricter about school and because of the level of difficulty in her classes.
“Since I’m taking a lot of HL classes, and they move pretty fast, it would take a lot of effort to try and catch up if I missed a day, even if I’m sick,” Baldwin said.
However, Odom said that it would personally not be difficult for him to complete missed work from the skip days, as he is only enrolled in four classes. He said he welcomes the break.
“It’s no different from taking a sick day off of school,” Odom said.
Baldwin said that teachers would likely prefer if seniors didn’t skip, but that teachers have accepted that some students would. Phelps agreed.
“[Skipping] is going to dilute the effectiveness of the senior class in terms of being taken seriously as the burgeoning adults that they are,” Phelps said.
She also said that senior skip day affects the junior class as well.
“Seniors are supposed to be leaders on the campus,” said Phelps said. “When they arbitrarily decide a random day for senior skip day, and then that gets around, the juniors tend to follow suit when they really shouldn’t.”
As seniors enter adulthood, Phelps said skip days do not prepare them for it.
“Our job is to help you transition into [adulthood],” Phelps said. “But if it appears as though you’re just skipping just to skip, that hurts that.”