According to Google, a holiday is “a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done.” By this definition, May 1 is perhaps the ultimate holiday for Community High School seniors. There is Prom in the evening and, of course, Senior Skip Day. (I’m banking on the “no work is done” part of the definition.) While not a universally acknowledged holiday, Senior Skip Day is widely celebrated.

“The thing about Senior Skip Day is, every senior thinks their school has Senior Skip Day and every senior will report that their school has Senior Skip Day,” said Jonathan Thomas-Palmer, Community’s new physics teacher. He said that Senior Skip Day is created by what he calls “the snow day concept.”

“Many students want to have a senior skip day, so of course, they’re going to, by saying there is one, try to create one essentially,” Palmer said. “If you hear one person say it’s a snow day, suddenly you’re gonna have a foot of snow tomorrow, cause that’s what everybody wants. Many students want to have a Senior Skip Day, so, of course, they’re going to, by saying there is one.”

Just because Senior Skip Day is created by student participation doesn’t mean it is not a real holiday. After all, it is not only students who believe in Senior Skip Day; teachers believe in it as well. Teachers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described it as “a rite of passage.” Many teachers feel that Senior Skip Day is relatively harmless and even Palmer, who does not condone the concept, feels that students should not be punished for choosing not to arrive at school on May 1.

“I wouldn’t chose to make [skipping] more difficult,” Palmer said. “That’s not fair. I’m not going to identify this as a day to skip and therefore… I’m not going to do that. I don’t play that game. There’s no point in being mean. I’m not mean. That’s not my goal, my goal is to teach. So, I will continue to teach.” Palmer plans on having students who show up work on the Cedar Point project, which will be due later this month.

For their part, their seems to be a consensus among students that Senior Skip Day is beneficial or, at the very least, not harmful.

“I think it’s a harmless concept because I think skipping one day towards the end of your senior year is not going to change much in the grand scheme of things. I think it’s just a tradition,” said Mitesh Patel, a CHS senior. While Patel has not confirmed that he plans to skip on Senior Skip Day, he knows how he plans to spend his time if he were to skip:
“I would probably try to get some more sleep. I have to go pick up my corsage as well, that won’t take that long. I would find some other friends who are also possibly going to participate in Senior Skip Day and see what they were doing,” Patel said .

Patel is not the only senior planning out his hypothetical Skip Day:
“I think I would go to the DIA and have a good time at the art museum. If it was warm I would go to rolling hills or like, some sort of water park,” Raven Eaddy said.
Eaddy views Senior Skip Day in a very positive light. “I like it; it’s a special day that only seniors get to have,” she said.

Some students who are unopposed to the idea of skipping class on May 1 will be unable to avoid class completely. “I know that hypothetically, if I were to be skipping this Friday, I would then also, hypothetically probably come into Latin because I definitely have a project due that I need to turn in,” Alec Doss said.

While Senior Skip Day seems unlikely to disappear anytime soon, there is the possibility that it could change. “I’ve just heard of it as like a tradition here at Community that the seniors do it,” Anna Raschke said. “I was talking to Kevin yesterday and he said that his Senior Skip Day wasn’t [just] a planned day, but a day that they all decided to go to Cedar Point. I think that would be way cooler, to do something as a school. As a group we pick a day and all go and do something. Bond as seniors because it’s our last year together. Instead of just staying home and maybe getting together with your friends, it would be cooler to do it as a whole senior class.”