Lucas Hammerman ’10
News Editor 
Senior skip day fizzled this year due to complications in schedualing.
The day usually fell on the Friday before Memorial Day, which is during the middle of senior internships.
However, this year at Staples High School some seniors tried to break the tradition.
On April 30, 75 seniors were either absent or only attended school for part of the day, according to Attendance Secretary Patty McQuone.
This last minute skip day change caused confusion amongst the senior class.
“People weren’t sure what was going on,” Ilana Elias ’10 said. “It didn’t work out because a lot of people had tests.”
Not only were seniors confused, but so was the administration.
“The April 30 skip day was totally chaotic,” McQuone said.
Advanced Placement Economics, AP World History, AP Physics C, and AP U.S History all had major tests on April 30. AP Economics and AP World History had finals, while AP Physics C had a unit test that counted for a significant part of the fourth quarter grade. This resulted in many seniors ignoring the April 30 skip day.
“I really don’t think kids paid attention to the April 30 skip day. Plus teachers made it hard to skip,” A.J Kieffer ’10 said.
McQuone believes that senior skip day has lost its flare.
“Senior skip day should be that, a skip day. Parents should not excuse their kids because then there is no fun in it or suspense because everybody knows about it. Senior skip day, the way it is now, is just another day,” McQuone said.
The reason for the April 30 skip day was that it was before internships and AP exams. Last year some seniors skipped a day during their internships.
“The intern people were accommodating to senior skip day. However, it probably would depend on the person in charge of the intern if they would be flexible to prearrange a skip day,” McQuone said.
If seniors do not prearrange, there can be consequences.
“They made a commitment; it is irresponsible to skip,” Assistant Principal Richard Franzis said.
The administration does not condone any sort of ditch day.
“We don’t condone students taking the day off,” Franzis said. Franzis explained that when seniors skip school towards the end of the year, emotions are running high.
“A whole bunch of kids that are getting together and taking off from school, they have the potential to get in trouble, hurt, or both,” he said.
Some members of the class of ’10 believe that there should be two skip days.
“I thought having two skip days was the best solution. One during school and one during internships,” Michael Beispel ’10 said. “I think doing senior skip day during internships isn’t the best because you still have to make up the hours, but it is the best we have.”
Nonetheless, senior skip day is an important tradition for seniors.
“The seniors think it is important to goof on the administration,” McQuone said.
“I don’t necessarily think it is the most important thing to the senior class, but I do think after working hard for four years it is nice to take a day off to spend with your friends before you all go your separate ways next year,” Beispel said.
