The number of absences at Pasco High School has skyrocketed. Currently, the school is witnessing a never-before-seen number of students skipping their classes. An issue that has both administrators and teachers confused and frustrated. To fight this, the school has decided to put up alarms at every exit and guards at every exit. This has even affected lunch. The rule is if you’re late to your class after lunch 3 times, then for the next week you can’t leave campus. Why do students still choose to skip? Many reasons such as dealing with bullies or being bored. Lots of students choose to skip classes or stay home out of fear of being picked on and harassed. Other students just have a disinterest in being at school. No matter what school offers many will always hate having to come to school. Many students do it because of their home life situations. A lot of students have strict parents who don’t allow their kids to go out. The growing skipping crisis is bad but just how bad is it really? 

Bullying has been a huge issue in all schools. It can affect students in different ways. One of those ways is skipping or just not showing up. An article on Stopbullying.Gov stated ‘’Decreased academic achievement-GPA and standardized test scores-and school participation. They are most likely to skip, or drop out of school’. The fear of being harassed can make students want to skip and fall back behind in grades. The article went on to say ‘’Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy’. Being bullied in school can and has put students in dark places that can make it hard to focus on school. The article also read ‘’Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide’. Bullying has extreme consequences such as leaving people in a suicidal state. It’s important to understand that if you do feel this way, to try to get some help. Whether that means telling an adult or a teacher you trust. Health direct has an article ‘’Bullying – why people bully and how to stop it’ that gives good information on how to deal with both negative emotions and bullying. 

Many students just think that school’s boring. No matter what the school tries to do to fix the issue lots are just waiting for the final bell to ring and go home. This lack of care and motivation can cause students to skip regularly. An article on Very well family said ‘’For some children, being bored at school is an occasional occurrence, but for others, it’s an ongoing complaint, one that causes real distress, apathy, or frustration, and can even lead to school avoidance or school refusal behaviors. It’s true that boredom is a huge problem with students. Boredom can make skipping seem more exciting than sitting in a class for an hour. The article also said ‘’The reasons for this vary: they are not being sufficiently challenged, they have a learning difference or mental health condition, or they are simply not motivated by the subject matter. Alternatively, it could just be that it’s hard for them to sit through so much desk time’. Some students are just not interested in the work they’re doing. It could also be that many students can’t sit down and focus for hours on end. If you’re dealing with this then it could helpful if you try to distract yourself with things like talking to the people around you, drawing, or even listening to music if you can.  

Strict parents may be a factor as well. Many students can’t go out with their friends after school because parents don’t trust them or like their friends. An article posted by Meic.org said ‘’The main reason they want to say no is because they love you and feel you’re safest at home with them’. Most parents just want to know their kids are safe so letting them go off with a bunch of people they don’t know might obviously scare them. It’s all about trust, just gain that trust by following what they said, and they might let you out.  

All sorts of things can happen if you do decide to start skipping like calls home, bad grades, failing classes, parent-teacher meetings, repeat of the year, going to court, and possibly juvie. Even with all these the issue only looks like it’s growing. That’s why the school has begun to take a different approach to the crisis. If you haven’t noticed the school has put alarms at every exit so If you leave the guards will know and come to check. But that also hasn’t really done anything because students are still leaving.  

To see how bad the issue was I did a poll with ten people and asked them each 3 yes or no questions. The first question I asked was have you skipped this week alone. 8 replied yes. The next question was had you skipped a class at least once a week for the past month. 9 said yes while only 1 said no. My last question was Have you this year been threatened to be taken to court. 5 said yes and 5 said no. What most shocked me about the poll was that more students weren’t told to go to court. I think some people were lying. 

Many students have their reasons for skipping. But there’s also consequences that students could suffer from. It’s important to understand what can happen if you skip and that if anything is causing you to avoid school to tell someone you trust or try to do calming things to take the stress away.