A calender-marked day that’s looked forward to by seniors, envied by underclassmen, and dreaded by teachers, is the day where the whole senior class decides not to show up.

Senior Ditch Day is an american high school tradition, where the senior class comes together and decides on a day to ditch.

Studies from the Chicago Tribune show that about 70% of seniors ditch every Ditch Day, which would obviously cause a large affect on teacher’s plans for that day.

Mrs. Rush, who teaches AP Lit, said that Ditch Day completely affects her lesson plans, causing her to have to completely revise them.

“Since now I know that my seniors are ditching that day, I [plan for it] ahead of time so I don’t walk in surprised and have to scrap a lesson that I may have worked on for hours and just give them reading time or study hall time… It’s in my plan book, and I plan for it every year, now.” Said Rush.

Mrs. Rush and surely many other teachers don’t see many pros over cons in the Ditch Day. They believe that the day is being normalized, excused, instead of it’s original intention of being an actual ditch.

The students, however, see Senior Ditch Day differently.

Emmah Pirie, one of the many seniors who ditched, had a successful and balanced Ditch Day, where she both got work done and got to spend time with her friends.  

“I was actually swamped with stuff that I had to do on Senior Ditch Day, so I actually got like college stuff done, homework stuff done. It wasn’t just a day where I was completely separated from school.” Said Pirie.

Corresondingly, Senior Sami Steffen spoke about the motivation for why seniors ditch.

“Seniors are done with school, and they want an excuse to just not go.” Said Steffen.

Steffen and Pirie both mentioned the stress of senior year putting a strain on many students’ mental health, so they believe the day-off is well deserved.

Though the different opinions of student and teacher shine through with magnificent colors, both groups have a solid point–however, it doesn’t look like Senior Ditch Day is going anywhere.