The Pitch
Walter Johnson High School
February 15, 2013
Volume 58 Issue 5
6400 Rock Spring Drive, Bethesda, MD 20814
Work Hard, Play Hard
Pennies for Patients Carnival raises thousands for cancer research
“Carnival” found in News, page 3
By Sari Amiel
Cutting it Close: WJ students skip class
A
fter the late bell rings, some students can be seen jogging or racing to classes, while others walk in the other direction, pursuing activities on the opposite end of the spectrum. “Sometimes I just felt like it wasn’t really necessary to go to class, because we would just be watching a movie or…not actually doing anything,” said senior Meghan Brennan. Brennan began skipping classes in her sophomore year, before the current attendance policy was reinstated. Now, she skips on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. Brennan skips elective courses, like food trends and
yearbook, instead of academic courses, like English, math or social studies and avoids skipping on test days. “I don’t really need [my elective courses] to graduate,” she said. “I don’t feel like I should really have to go to electives every day.” On the other hand, senior Lucas Kane* skips classes when he feels he has an important reason to do so. “[I skip] the majority of times because there’s a test I haven’t studied for...and I’ll find a way to get it excused later,” he said. “Usually I’d do something like tell my mom I was sick at the time and she’d write me a note, or it’d go unexcused and the teacher wouldn’t [penalize] me.” Just as her reasons for skipping class vary, Brennan does not always go to the
“I don’t feel like I should really have to go to electives every day.”
same place when she skips. She often meets up with her friends, who also skip, or if it is the end of the day she goes home. She also sometimes visits other classes or goes to see a teacher that does not have a class at that time. Kane also often does the same and they both agree that skipping once made them each more inclined to skip in the future. “It’s kind of like, once you do it once and nothing bad happens, you think you can do it again,” Brennan said. She was only penalized for skipping once, last semester, after skipping multiple times in one week. “I got called down to Mr. [Micah] Wiggins’ office and I got lunch detention for one day, but it was only once, so I still skipped and nothing else happened,” said Brennan. According to Wiggins, the only reason a student would get detention once
Photo by Sarah Schecker
would be because the student is only caught once. Before Wiggins disciplines a student, either a staff member or attendance secretary Audrey Weissberg must notify him that the student has missed a class. Normally, students are given administrative detention during lunch. When Brennan was caught for an unexcused absence, her mother received a phone call informing her of the absence. “Sometimes [my parents] care, sometimes they don’t,” said Brennan. “I’ve never been punished at home for skipping.” Brennan’s mother, Liz, who gets calls from the attendance secretary whenever Meghan is absent, disagreed.
“Skip” continued in News, page 4
al, i r o t i Ed -8 pgs. 5
Inside, Check Out:
Feature, pgs. 13-16
Arts and Ent., pgs. 9-12
Sports, pgs. 17-20