How many students stop and think about the impact made from skipping a class? Every administrator advises teens to not cut class, but they still do. Although the act may seem harmless at the moment, it can affect a student’s social and academic life. In the end, the number of times you skip adds up and has shocking consequences.

Cutting class is not beneficial. A few students will argue that skipping is fun and gets them out of a class they don’t like. The only “benefit” is probably getting some cardio in from walking around the hallways for forty minutes. However, in the end, missing a whole class period, or even half the period puts them behind the rest of the class. They’re going to have to play catch up and do twice the work the next day, and if they skip again, triple the work the next day. The cycle won’t end.

“I skipped all the time when I was a freshman and I didn’t realize how bad it was affecting my grades until just recently,” said Christian Cuevas, a senior at William Floyd High School.

Don’t wait until senior year to recognize that your grades are going to suffer from cutting. See it now. There is a direct relationship between attendance and grades. As one increases, the other does as well and vise versa. Even students that miss school because of a doctor’s appointment, sickness, or vacation get very stressed over their absences.

“My grandmother and I got sick in the same two-week interval where I missed a significant amount of schoolwork,” said senior Torianna Parsons. ”It’s crazy that a day or two can set a kid back two weeks, especially if the situation itself was out of their hands.”

Of course, skipping class will have disciplinary consequences such as detention or even suspension depending on how many times a student has done it. Even if it’s your first time skipping class, at Patchogue Medford High School at least, detention will be a repercussion that is taken.

“I do regret skipping class, I felt bad for lying and keeping secrets to keep myself out of trouble…,” said a Patchogue Medford student who’d prefer to stay anonymous. “As for my punishment [one-day detention], I thought it was a little much for only skipping class once but actions have consequences.”

Logically, if a student is skipping class every other day, their teacher will become concerned. It is very disrespectful to the teacher who is just trying to educate you; however, some teachers believe it’s a choice the student has to make for themselves.

“Honestly, kids skipping class is inevitable…,” said Pat-Med math teacher, Mr. Crane. “it’s their choice to miss valuable class time.”

As Mr. Crane said, cutting class is inevitable, of course, not for all students but the majority of students will skip a class at least once and in the long run, it is the students who are continuously skipping and choosing to lose their educational opportunity.

Cutting class all adds up in the end, to the point where it can keep you from graduating and why would someone want to stay in school even more if they don’t even want to stay in one class.