Story by David Hynek

Seniors are about to graduate on Wednesday, May 23, and a steady rise continues in the grade-crippling disease known as “senioritis.”

Senioritis is the nickname that students and teachers alike have given the overall trend of seniors losing focus and slacking off in their scholarly responsibilities.

Senioritis becoming an even bigger problem at Kennedy High School in spring term, according to Cary Beatty, language arts teacher.

“Some parents are excusing their kids from class 11 or 12 times a trimester,” Beatty said. “If they don’t have the motivation to get good grades, and have already checked out of school, then there aren’t much we as teachers can do.”

Nick Appleget, sr., said he believes senioritis is a real issue that affects kids. “It exists very much. At the end of second trimester you can tell that it’s taking effect,” Appleget said. “I didn’t go to a lot of my 5th and 6th hour classes until very recently. I go a lot more now so I can finish strong and graduate, but right after second trimester I slacked off a lot.”

Hunter Corkery, sr., said he feels affected, too. “Oh yeah, it definitely exists. I’m pretty sure it starts junior year if I’m not mistaken.”

Lauren Crawley,sr., is accepted to college, and doesn’t believe senioritis is as terrible as some people say it is. “I’m still going to pass and I’m already accepted into college. It depends on the person, but overall as long as you don’t end up completely failing required classes most kids are fine,” Crawley said.

Though students might not think senioritis is a big deal, the number of F’s for seniors overall according to a list published to all teachers on April 25 is very high. Seniors that don’t get their grades up may not graduate.

Seniors may feel like there is a need not to come to school and they may have an overall dislike for school increases when students are about to graduate. “You see summer coming, and don’t feel the need to go. I don’t think there will be a bad effect, because its high school. It depends on who you are, and what your morals are, but once you get to college it gets more serious and a lot of kids buckle down,” Appleget said.

“I don’t think that it’s that big of a deal. I’ll be in college next year, and I’ll probably go back to being my studious self then. I think senioritis is just a phase that a lot of kids go through when they start realized high school is over. It doesn’t hurt them, it’s just something that happens at the end of senior year, and adults need to understand that,” Corkery said.

Although students aren’t too worried about senioritis affecting them negatively, some teachers disagree. “With only a term left of school it seems ridiculous to slack off at the very end, and even more ridiculous that their parents allow them to slack off by calling them out of class,” Beatty said. “My advice for juniors that are going to be seniors is that school doesn’t get out till the beginning of June. Don’t check out early.”

Teachers are attempting to stop this disease by their own means as well. “Grady, who’s my AP Econ teacher, has something called a Red Alert list which shows the kids failing his class. Since kids have to pass his class to graduate he’s trying to embarrass them in front of everyone to get their grades up,” Appleget said. “Also teachers have been telling my coaches I’ve been skipping, and I had a meeting with my coaches. So they got on my case and I can’t skip anymore in order to be a role model for younger players on the team.”