By Axel Lagunas

Cutting or “skipping” classes is as old as, well, class itself. I would bet that there was not one hundred percent attendance in the first class ever given. There are many reasons why students would miss a class. Sometimes they are actually sick, sometimes they just need a break. It all comes down to the happiness of students who attend PHS.

This year especially, we all needed a mental health day. Dealing with the pandemic, masking in school, the work of catching up and working hard in school, all contributed to the occasional student skip.

I asked students around our school, why they might skip a class or a day of classes. The goal is to show why students skip, based on my limited pool of students who were willing to respond. Teachers and administrators are concerned about students coming to class, which makes sense, but it is also important for everyone to see the reasons behind a cut. Maybe better understanding of the reasons will lead to rules that are fairer.

The following are opinions of various students from PHS and their reasons for skipping class. To make this as detailed as possible, students of all grades were asked the questions. Some responses might surprise you. Students were asked: Whether you or someone else you know skips class, what is their reasoning for this? Here are some of the responses:

“We want to be able to enjoy life and not be stuck in a boring class. You only live once, why spend it in a class.” (sophomore)

“You may not like the class, you may not like people that are in the class. It can also depend on their mood.” – (junior)

“They don’t like the temperature, or the amount of homework that is given, it has also become a trend to not go to class and not do work, they’d rather be with friends’ ‘. (freshman)

“From what my friends have told me, they skip it’s because they either have friends they want to hang out with for certain periods or simply do not like a certain class and want to avoid the work and anything related to the class.” – (senior)

Additionally, another question was thrown at students. “Do you think it is the teacher’s fault or the student’s fault or both for why student’s skip?” Here are their responses:

“Some students don’t like teachers, sometimes there is no reason. It is both their faults but have a fun environment for students to want to learn would help.” (junior)

“Some students do not like teachers because they give too much work or they don’t like the way they teach.They also may just not like the teacher personally. It is both of their faults though, because there are also students who are uncooperative.” (freshman)

“Teachers, they are stressful, drama between students. It’s both.” (sophomore)

A striking conclusion was just how many students owned up and took responsibility for their own cutting. They know it is wrong, they do not just blame the school or teachers entirely, but they did it anyway. This is not a scientific study, just asking some of our classmates about their behavior.

Now that the voice of the student’s is shown it reveals reasons for why skipping occurs and may provide certain alternatives for solutions to these issues. Hopefully we can develop some rules that will make students feel more involved with the school, and maybe they would not cut.

In the spirit of becoming the best, there should be some input from students, enticing them to learn and part of that is coming to class regularly. Though, everyone needs a mental health day sometimes.