Skipping referrals on the rise
5/8/18
A student lies on a the seat of a picnic table near the media center on April 6 during class hours. (VIVIAN MANON | SNN)
BY SHAKERA THOMPSON
SNN Staff Writer
In the bathroom chatting it up with friends instead of being in class - some Lakewood High School students think this is the way to graduate. The statistics on skipping class this year are off the charts. According to senior data management technician Dianne Roth, in the 2015-2016 school year the number of referrals for skipping were at 110. In 2016-2017, the referrals dropped to 66.
This school year, however, the referrals shot up to 186 – through the month of April. That is a 182 percent increase. “If you are going to skip, you might as well stay home in bed. Why come here?” campus monitor John Darby said.
Getting caught skipping is not without its consequences. The first time students are caught, they get a two-hour detention. If they get caught again, it’s up to the assistant principal to hand out a consequence, such as suspension or alternative bell schedule (ABS). Darby and campus monitor Greg Hinton say they find skippers hiding mostly in the restroom.
Darby said he thinks they are wasting their time in school skipping and they don’t realize how it’s going to hurt them in the long run. Senior Dashun Gray said he skips because if he doesn’t like the class, he’s just not going to go until the last week of the grading period - when the grades go in. “It’s crunch time then,” Gray said.
When he’s skipping, he can’t go home because his parents are home and if they aren’t home, he doesn’t know when they are going to show up. So, when Gray skips he roams around school, goes to some other teachers’ classes or goes to a friend’s house. Senior Antuan Thomas said he skips because he doesn’t like school and hates going to boring classes.
Thomas said he doesn’t want to stay home because his mother will get in trouble and he will have to go through the whole truancy process. Truancy is when students have 15 or more unexcused absences in a three-month period without the knowledge of their parent or guardian. The consequences will then be handled by courts and can lead to the student and/or parent being arrested.
Skipping class by hanging in a teacher’s class also bothers some people. “The teachers are just as bad for letting the skippers skip in their classroom,” senior Terrijana Moore said. Moore said she thinks skipping is overrated. “Don’t skip just go to class, if you don’t like it just put your head down,” she said.