Caden Mai

Social Science teacher Jaime Gonzalez imagines what it might be like to show up to work and find nobody in her classroom to teach if other grade levels began participating in “senior ditch day.” Photo illustration.

Out of 663 actively enrolled seniors at San Juan Hills High School, only 231 students attended class on Oct. 31, 2023. That’s an attendance rate of about 35%. 

This occurrence of seniors abandoning school in masses isn’t an unusual matter. Coined “Senior ditch day,” the event originated in the 1930s and was further popularized following the 1986 film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 

Senior ditch day allows twelfth graders to enjoy their last year in high school while also giving them time to prepare for college. 

“I usually spend time with my friends on senior ditch day,” said Finn Lauterbach (12). 

However, while this widespread tradition sounds like a fun idea, we have to consider the potential downsides. 

For one, ditch day isn’t an annual holiday, it’s decided sporadically. That means teachers in senior classes don’t have time to plan for this event.

Instead, teachers have to deal with the prospect of what to do on ditch day. They won’t know for sure how many students will decide not to show up, so they must choose between teaching the remaining seniors present on ditch day (and potentially lecturing twice) or waiting until the following day to resume instruction. 

“I do what I normally do. I keep teaching,” says math teacher Jeff Prinz.

Consequently, skipping students aren’t able to complete their tests or classwork, causing a buildup of both teacher and student work loads. 

“The seniors keep on adding more and more ditch days. When I started teaching, it was only once a year on a specific day. In life, you don’t get to just skip out on work because you feel like it,” said Prinz. 

The last minute drop in attendance rates forces the office staff to think fast as well. 

“When many students take off, hundreds of parents call in to excuse some of those ditching students, clogging up the phone lines for parents who have genuine reason for their child’s absence,” said campus attendance clerk Kim Duffy. 

Another side-effect of the ditch day celebration is the loss of money provided to the school. 

“80% of our funding comes from attendance, so when the overall school attendance rate drops to 80%, it’s a huge amount of money lost,” said Duffy. 

Without sufficient funding, SJHHS won’t be able to maintain its quality of campus life and education standards. 

While there are tangible downsides of senior ditch day, students don’t believe that it negatively affects the school overall. 

“I don’t think it would affect us, we do it every year and teachers just accept it,” says Lauterbach. 

In fact, some students even view the ditch day as a benefit for everyone. 

“I believe ditch day gives everyone freedom and a chance to spend the day off,” says Nick Lambrakis (12). 

This conflict brings us to another idea: Is it worth the money to allow students to ditch? After all, the school still has to pay its teachers, but for what? Sitting in an empty classroom? 

The requirement for everyone else to attend school seems unfair—not just for staff, but for other attending students. 

With that in mind, senior ditch day is a slippery slope that draws into question the value of having school that day for anyone. Rather than only letting a part of school skip out, it’s better to either force school-wide attendance or cancel school altogether.