Last Monday, a tremendous amount of seniors were missing from Oakton High School. Yes, maybe some seniors were actually sick, but lets be realistic. The first day of second semester is a classic pre-arranged date for seniors to skip school. Many teachers were upset at the actions of the seniors; however, many other teachers were expecting it and didn’t care at all. So, should senior skip day be acceptable?

It’s been a tradition for years for seniors to have one day that the students take off to celebrate their transcripts being sent to colleges. Many Oakton teachers gave their students lectures saying, “You can’t let your senior skip day foreshadow your second semester,” or “Since you missed the day you have a lot of work to make up.” The teachers who said such things I believe took this one day off too seriously. Many of the students who skipped have excellent grades and college acceptances, and missing one day of school will not lead to a dramatic enough drop in their grades to result in college acceptances being revoked. Yes, students with below average grades likely skipped as well, but again, one day will not make a significant difference in their grades either.

Overall, skipping an excessive amount of days second semester is not okay, but one or two senior skip days isn’t going to be life changing or make a dramatic impact in the teacher’s agenda. Senior skip day is such a long-standing tradition, that there’s little teachers or the school can do to prevent it at this point, so they might as well embrace it.