Dad, Can I Skip School?

Last Thursday evening, Kathy wasn't home from work yet and Josh hesitantly brought something to my attention.

"Tomorrow is senior skip day."

"So?"

"Well, I kinda wanted to go to (friends name deleted) house."

"Uh, Josh, maybe you're not understanding how this senior skip day works. You skip and then you accept the consequences. You don't ask for permission."

It turns out he was worried more about mom's reaction than mine--Kathy always accuses me of being the soft one--especially since Kathy was bringing breakfast for the runners on Friday morning. In his mind it would be more difficult to explain a mostly skipped day than a completely skipped day.

I decided to take a stand. "Josh, if this subject comes up in the future, I don't know anything about it."

When Kathy called me on Friday to meet for lunch, I asked if Josh "talked" to her.

"About what?"

So I told her of the prior evening's conversation. Nope, he never said a word. Of course, he was at school so that would not be the proper venue for a conversation about skipping school. And she admitted that she didn't care if Josh did skip that day.

Our minds plotted. Every Monday morning we receive grade and attendance reports from Mead and Northwood. It's great because we can ask about specifics in each class which usually results in Josh and Steph bringing up their grades online where there is more granularity. Plus we get to double check attendance. Can you see where this is going?

Last night, after dinner, Kathy started going through the grade and attendance reports. She began with Steph who had several incomplete grades because she was home sick for three days last week. With the mood established, she turned towards Josh. After explaining a couple of grades...

"Josh, this says you were absent on the 26th."

"I'll check with the teachers on that."

"But how can they do that? You've been there every day. How can they say you're not there?"

"I don't know. Sometimes that happens."

"But that was Friday. I brought breakfast in that morning. You were there."

(long pause) "Oh...um...that was senior skip day."

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You are so busted!" Stephanie was relishing this moment.

And then to his credit, Josh owned up to it. He explained the detrimental effects of skipping school on his participation in track--Monday was the beginning of the season--and that's why last Friday was skip day since he was locked out of skipping until practically the end of school. It all makes perfect sense. Well, in a way.

Josh is a great young man.