Every year the divide widens between supporting senior skip day and wanting to discard it. 

Teachers and students often have severely differing opinions on whether students should be allowed to have a senior skip day or not.

Students deserve a senior skip day because it is a tradition passed down from decades prior. 

Despite standing as an unofficial tradition, students across the United States have continued to pass it along. 

The movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” broadcasts the idea of a student skip day; and since then, it has become a shared experience for students across the nation. 

Although I didn’t go to Chicago in my dad’s stolen convertible, I did participate in this tradition. I went out to eat, hung out with friends, and also completed my schoolwork. What makes a senior skip day is not dependent upon what the senior chooses to do or not to do.

Although teachers attribute that the number of skip days has become out of hand, missing schoolwork for a day or maybe two does not mean the whole senior class will fall behind or that it would greatly affect their schoolwork.

With the bulk of information existing online, students have the ability to access all their schoolwork, staying caught up in class whether it’s the agenda, assignments or schedule. 

Teachers should acknowledge that senior skip day is a tradition and not just a way to disregard their classes for a day. A considerable amount of teachers also participated in their own senior skip day when they were students themselves. 

A variety of teachers claim seniors lack the foresight to coordinate the next senior skip day. Although this may be true for a select few students, this is not accurate for all.  

The majority of the 2023 senior class at BV is involved in the grade-wide group chat where the skip day was decided upon and coordinated. The day was agreed upon and executed by the students who wanted to participate, including myself.

Although this was supposed to be a fun, carefree day, the amount of guilt I felt for missing school was extreme from teachers, regardless of my parents being completely in favor of my participation in this tradition.  

The whole point of a skip day was to give hard-working seniors a break from school in order to relax or if they choose, go do something with their peers. 

If the senior skip day count exceeds two days, it is understandable teachers would get frustrated because this was not the original intention of a skip day. However, this does not make it any less of a skip day than it was back in the 1930s, when it originated. 

Nevertheless, students skipping one day of school, or even two, is not the end of the world and does not mean they will be unsuccessful or it will drastically change their future. 

Students deserve a day off to have fun with their peers — just maybe don’t pull a Ferris Bueller.

106 students surveyed