Most organizations work when two parties fulfill their responsibilities. In the case of high schools, the deal is that if students come to school, the administration will educate them.

On Oct. 16, students were asked to come to school—to live up to their end of the bargain, and most of them did. While the sophomores’ diligence was repaid with the helpful Plan-ACT test, North did not repay the other attending students with an education. On that Tuesday, the school let the student body down. If the school won’t meet their responsibilities to students by educating them, why should students bother to come?

Now, the editorial board doesn’t endorse cutting class, the blue flu, or even senior skip day, but on that Tuesday the school didn’t give students very many options.
The school gets tax-money when students come to school; that’s one reason why perfect attendance is so important. But on Tuesday the school didn’t repay students with an education. No one attended a history lecture, a cooking class, or a physics course. Instead, the school facilitated—as one administrator labeled them—“fluffy ”activities. Put another way, the school stole from taxpayers by supplying no redeeming education to non-sophomores.

Further, North expresses a fear of being labeled a “priority school” by No Child Left Behind, but didn’t offer specialty-tutoring sessions that could only be possible on days like that Tuesday. The administration has done a great job over the last few years of building in times to help students in their struggles. On that Tuesday, however, the school faltered by not scheduling time for students to ask for help. As an administrator confessed, such scheduling would have required great effort, but not been impossible.
Lastly, it’s troubling that the school plagued many students with an unexcused absence for missing that Tuesday. Administration punished students for not showing up on that Tuesday when clearly they didn’t show up, either. They are, thereby, holding students to