Senior ditch day riles Naperville principals

The halls of Naperville North and Naperville Central high schools were quieter than usual Friday.

But it wasn’t until Tuesday morning that the suspicions of school officials were confirmed.

Central Principal Bill Wiesbrook said a note from the school’s registrar told him everything he needed to know about the response to this year’s so-called senior ditch day.

“I walk into my office this morning and I have this note that says 430 of my 680 seniors were verified as absent on Friday,” Wiesbrook said. “And there were many others unaccounted for. So nearly 500 of our 700 seniors were out of school for one reason or another.”

Wiesbrook said he was “frustrated” to see the “abnormally high” number of students not in class.

“Historically, our students have not engaged in lots of ditch days,” he said.

North Principal Kevin Pobst said he had nearly the same percentage of seniors missing Friday.

“You wouldn’t believe the remarkable number of reasons why our seniors were gone on Friday,” Pobst said Tuesday afternoon. “And almost all of those absences were called in or excused by parents.”

The week of April 25 was reserved for the administration of the Prairie State Achievement Exam to freshmen through juniors. Seniors were excused on April 27 and 28 but expected back in school on Friday. A majority, however, gave themselves a five-day weekend.

“I heard some buzzing that the seniors were thinking about not attending and I tried to pre-empt that by making three pleas,” Wiesbrook said. “Two weeks ago, I sent an all staff email encouraging teachers to expect seniors to attend class on April 29. I also met with all seniors on April 21, and personally told them that they were expected to attend school on Friday, April 29.”

He also placed a telephone call to the home of every senior, sending the message they were expected to attend.

“Hopefully at least half of those calls were picked up and listened to by parents,” he said.

At both schools, a majority of the absent students had a parent call to have them excused, putting school officials in an awkward position.

“We’re not in a place to question the validity of reasons we get when parents excuse students from class. We love our parents and have to trust their judgment,” Pobst said. “That being said, we’re trying to work in a partnership with our parents and some parents will interpret that relationship differently.”

Wiesbrook agreed.

“We ultimately need to trust our parents’ judgment because our parents are certainly more invested in their children than we are,” he said. “If students have a valid reason to not be in class, that’s fine. But the high number suggests a majority did not.”

It’s also common for upperclassmen to take off the Monday following prom, which will be May 9.

In a sternly worded email to teachers Tuesday, Wiesbrook told them to “please emphasize that attendance is expected.”

“I’m expecting students to attend class on Monday after prom,” Wiesbrook said. “That doesn’t mean they will and I’m not pretending to have some great power to make people do what I say.”

Seniors are already ending school two weeks before the other students and will not make up the two snow days.

“I feel like they’re already ending early,” Wiesbrook said. “I value their education here, and I want them to as well so I’d prefer they be present.”