Senior Ditch Day
October 22, 2018
This Monday, Dakota Ridge was left in a rather peaceful state with the first Senior Ditch Day of the year. The school was without practically one fourth of its total student body, and the effects were profound. Treacherous hallways became somber pathways, crowded classrooms transformed into idyllic spaces, and the parking lot was a barren landscape compared to its normal state. Even though this day left the school in a more calm state, not every opinion on the day was a positive one.
Given that Senior Ditch Day has been around since the school’s opening, it would be hard to imagine the school abandoning the tradition. Each semester, there is one official day picked, where seniors communicate amongst themselves to take a day off. Even though this is an “organized” event, the day is not excused, and class proceeds as usual.
For some teachers the day is a disturbance, but for others it is nothing more than a senior’s problem. “While it is annoying, I do understand that it is, for lack of a better term, a high school tradition, and as long as a student is willing to accept the consequences of ditching, so be it.” Mark Sherman, English Teacher at DRHS said. “But what really upsets me is when parents excuse their kids by faking an illness. There is something unethical about that.”
For the students themselves, the day can provide a time to get caught up on homework or just act as another day of procrastination and sleeping in. As said by Jacob Marshall (12), “I like ditch day as it is a cool tradition and it’s fun to miss school with a bunch of others. For some kids, these are the only days they’ll ditch school at all.”
When it is all said and done, the school day begins at 8:15 a.m. on October 22, and is over at 2:45 p.m. on October 22. On October 23, students return to school as usual and the day begins at 7:30 a.m. And as students return to school from a three day weekend, they are faced with a day’s worth of makeup work.
