The declining attendance at Lake Shore High School has been astonishing, let alone the seniors. Attendance has always been a big problem for the school but it’s very obvious now. Walking through the hall it feels like a desolate wasteland. A good portion of the students are just not coming to school for no reason. 

It doesn’t feel right that people are still passing and not coming to school. The classes are getting smaller and smaller as the year goes on. This happens every year too; it’s horrible. 

Currently, there are very few consequences for skipping. According to the school handbook, if you accumulate more than 12 absences you are at risk of losing credit for that class. This will result in your grade not being a letter grade but a credit recovery grade (CR), but it’s very easy to appeal if you earn more than a C grade. 

The school has their robot call the student that skipped parents and tells them that they are late. But since most assignments are online, they can just turn their work in without even attending school.

One group of students in particular that is making up most of the absences is the senior class. With the whole class coming into adulthood, school is starting to feel like a chore instead of what it was meant to be. 

Senior, Jose Escobar, said, “I love to wrestle, and I really couldn’t this year. Wrestling has always been my motivation. I broke my wrist so I honestly couldn’t do anything about it. I never really liked school but sports always kept me coming, and without wrestling there was no point.”

Escobar’s viewpoint is very common. Some seniors who play sports don’t find joy in going to school anymore because they realize that sports are the only thing keeping them working hard. It’s very hard to convince yourself to wake up in the morning just to go to school, especially for an athlete. 

School is obviously very important, but for some it’s just something their parents make them do, and since they’re near adulthood they get to make their own decisions. Sadly, most of their decisions are going to be to not attend class.