Despite the recent seasonal flu outbreak at Plant High School, senioritis remains a more enduring and challenging issue that affects the school annually. Senioritis is the feeling of lacking motivation or desire to attend school. This phenomenon is named “senioritis” because it predominantly affects seniors who believe that, since they are nearing graduation or have already been accepted to college, participating in high school classes is no longer necessary.
Though senioritis might seem like a minor sense of entitlement among students, it poses a significant problem at Plant. According to Kurt Thorston, an AP biology teacher at Plant, and someone who has witnessed his students’ senioritis firsthand, “Last year, 38% of my students were chronically absent.” To address this issue, Thorston implemented a rule that students who are chronically absent this year will be removed from the course and will not receive credit for their work.
However, there are two sides to every story. According to Vera Agne, a senior at Plant, when asked about her increased absenteeism this year compared to previous years, she explained, “There is a lot more college pressure and real-life stress that come with being a senior, which makes things like second-semester classes feel less important.”
Thorston expressed his perspective on senioritis, stating, “It is a system of self-sabotage. When you go to college, you cannot have that mindset, and you especially cannot have that mindset in the real world. There has to be a wake-up call for these kids to get back into the proper mindset.”
While Thorston’s classroom rule has been effective in reducing chronic absences, it may add stress for students like Agne, who are already burdened with real-world pressures. Although it is technically against school rules for students to have many unexcused absences, the question remains: Is senioritis merely an escape for some students, or just an excuse for laziness?
Copy of Untitled by GAVIN GRIDER