As spring break slowly came to an end, many students openly dreaded the thought of coming back home to Indiana, specifically SHS. This is likely because the weather is constantly unpredictable and the sun only comes out occasionally. Upperclassmen Jeanne Norwood, Sang Smith, Chris Barnett and Lawrence Martin traveled to Panama City Beach while on spring break to have a getaway to enjoy the warm weather.
The mix of juniors and seniors all expressed how much they dreaded their return to Indianapolis by tweeting and posting photos on Instagram from their luxurious vacation spots and captioning them all “I never wanna come back to Indy.” When school returned, the student body attendance dropped by 100 percent. Classes were in session, but students weren’t.
While these five students were vacationing in PCB, the rest of SHS’s student body was also taking full advantage of spring break and not returning to school. Senior Chris Barnett believes having fun and living life is more important than school, which is why he chose to stay in Florida.
“Staying up late with my some of my best friends, walking on the beach and going to underage clubs every night makes me feel so alive,” Barnett said. “During school, I barely get to hang out with my friends or do anything fun, so of course I would rather stay in Florida.”
After the first day of no students being back in school, the administration figured families were simply unaware of it being the first day back, so they began making phone calls home and telling teachers they could leave early.
Teachers went along with administration and rarely questioned what was going on. They sought help to rise the attendance rate by providing incentives, but nothing worked. Chemistry teacher Fred Kinnidy even offered extra credit points to each student who came.
“Teenagers always want something in return, so I took a shot in the dark. It didn’t work,” Kinnidy said.
According to principlal Ian Suiters, most parents thought it was still spring break, so they were not planning on their children coming home anytime soon. However, there were some parents who simply did not care to question their son or daughter’s truancy.
“We understand there may have been a mess up in recent announcements before spring break, so we hope to see all students first thing tomorrow morning bright and early,” Suiters said in the phone call.
The majority of parents immediately called their children and demanded that they take the first flight home. Other parents did not make any efforts in making their children come home.
Senior Sang Smith’s mother, Xiu Smith, was one of many parents who believed it was still spring break. However, when she was informed that school had returned, she called her daughter on the spot and scolded her for intentionally missing school.
Sang responded carelessly and told her mom she will try to be home when she can. Her mother was furious.
“I couldn’t believe my daughter would deceive me,” Xiu said. “She has never done anything like this before. Now, I won’t be able to trust her when she goes off to Harvard next fall.”
After three days, the school is still left deserted. Principal Suiters is beginning to worry that there will be no students to conduct a graduation ceremony. His work days now consist of re-watching kitten videos with “In The Arms Of An Angle” on loop in the background. He feels as though he has failed as a principal and that the graduation rate will decrease due to this.
“I am genuinely worried for these students. Some of them only have a quarter left, and they’re throwing it down the drain,” Suiters said. “I don’t know what else to do.”