Skipping school happens at almost every high school across the country. Seniors, especially, are the students that tend to skip classes the most. This is the case at Orono High School.

“Skipping isn’t that hard,” senior Merritt Cook said.

At OHS, students said they skip to go out to lunch during fifth hour or to get out of taking a test. Skipping, of course, is officially an unexcused absence or truancy.

Senior Bayley Judge said he skips class at least one to two times a day. Seniors Alex Greenagel and Blake Swanson also admitted to being habitual skippers.

“We know,” Orono’s associate principal’s administrative assistant Heather DeLong said of students skipping repeatedly.

“Students who have a first hour study hall think they can sleep in and those who have seventh hour study hall think they can just leave,” DeLong said.

That misconception by OHS students is now turning into a legal problem for some repeated skippers.

All Minnesota public schools are bound by the Minnesota Compulsory Instruction Law, which states that “The students of the school district are required to attend all assigned classes and/or study halls every day school is in session.”

Orono Schools have to send in annual attendance records to Hennepin County and must abide by the county’s attendance rules, known as “be@school.” For open-enrolled students, Orono staff also works with the Wright County attendance rules.

All Orono teachers are required to send in their attendance on TIES Schoolview at the beginning of each class. If a student comes in late without a pass, he or she is marked tardy. A student is marked absent if he or she does not attend a class.

Teachers have gotten “a lot better” at sending in their attendance for every class according to DeLong, which means that OHS has an accurate record of attendance in accordance with Minnesota law.

For students, attending class is a legal issue. If a student does not go to class and does not have an excused absence, he or she is marked truant. After a certain amount of truancies, the county gets involved and students are faced with going to court.

According to the student handbook, “teachers can decline allowing students who skipped points back or allow them to take a test that they missed.”

Physics teacher, Greg Pusch’s policy is as follows: if a student has an unexcused absence he or she earns a zero on the test.

“[Some students] seem to get the test flu,” Pusch said. “Students who show to my class are sitting here saying ‘What am I doing here if they can skip and take the test the next day?’”

English teacher Jessica Frie said she understands why students skip once or twice a year, but not a few times every week.

Frie said that because of the habitual skippers, she is following the Orono policy exactly. In all of her classes,

students may not earn any credit if they have an unexcused absence. “It’s like calling in sick [for your job] when you have a bunch of work to do,” she said.

Skipping is frowned upon by teachers, parents and students not only because it affects the students’ performance in school, but because it also holds the school responsible for their students from 7:50 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Once alerted to the fact that a student has an unexcused absence or absences (either by teacher referral or attendance report), Associate Principal Caryn Boyd requests the student’s presence in her office.

Many students feel strongly about others skipping class, especially, to get out of a test or quiz.

“It’s not fair that a person who misses a test can get the same score as I can,” Jane Adams* said.

Some students have started to turn in their peers to teachers for skipping. The tolerance for skipping is beginning to run thin.

“Ms. Boyd and I have a great relationship. The entire office staff is very kind to me,” Greenagel said. “That being said, at least once a week, usually first or second hour on a Monday, I get the infamous ‘Boyd Slip.’”

Skipping, of course, goes down as an unexcused absence.

Excused absences are college visits, family vacation, personal sports event and medical leave.

All of these excused absences must be reported three day in advance to the office.

“There is a myth out there that club sports are unexcused absences,” Delong said.

Club sports events are excused as long as the athlete notifies the office three days in advance.

Before you skip school, remember these things: the office is not naive, a student could be punished in the classroom, and skipping school may result in a trip to Boyd’s office.

*Pseudonyms have been used to protect Orono student identities.