Students share strategies for cutting class; supervisors fight back

By: BEN FRUMIN - Staff Writer | Saturday, January 22, 2005 10:22 PM PST ∞

ENCINITAS ---- Ditching class at some San Dieguito Union High School District campuses is easy and more common than many parents and educators think, high school students said last week.

"It always has been (a problem)," said Leslie England, senior campus supervisor at San Dieguito Academy in Encinitas. "It always will be."

The award-winning district has a financial interest in keeping students in class, as more than 80 percent of San Dieguito's income is state money based on student attendance. A student must attend at least one class period for the district to receive funding.

San Dieguito expects to receive a state attendance allowance for this school year of $5,663 per student. Every student absence costs the district about $44.

That makes an annual tradition such as "Senior Ditch Day" pricey. Officials have estimated that a wave of ditch-day absences last year cost San Dieguito more than $45,000 in lost income.

While England said she generally gets students attempting to ditch to head back to class with a stern look or gentle reminder, she isn't afraid to dish out detentions, Saturday schools or referrals to the assistant principal if a student chronically cuts class.

Ditching 101

A number of students, most of whom would not speak for attribution, outlined several strategies for cutting class last week. Some ask to go to the bathroom or nurse's office and never return. If their class has a substitute teacher, some students have a friend say "here," so they're marked as present while they're really hanging out at a local taco shop. Few try to forge notes from parents.

"If people ditch on TV, they write fake notes," said academy senior Susannah Marcus. "That's not what you do in real life."

Students said the easiest way to cut class is to not show up in the first place, as some vigilant teachers take attendance multiple times every class period. That makes leaving once class has started a risk, as the paper trail can catch up with students.

"The machine will catch you," said La Costa Canyon junior Austin Uhler.

Once out of class, many students know a number of unwatched routes that allow them to easily and covertly get off campus.

"You wouldn't ditch from the front," said academy senior Kristin Coga. "You ditch from the back."

Students leave to go to a number of places, including restaurants, coffee shops, the beach, movie theaters, book stores or their homes.

"Some kids just go to take naps," said academy senior Jessica Trost.

A number of academy students said they'll often cut one of their classes to go hang out in a different class, such as painting or silk-screening.

"It could be any class, as long as the teacher likes you," Susannah said.

Austin, an honors student on La Costa Canyon's speech and debate team, said it isn't just bad students who ditch, estimating that honors students cut class just as much, if not more, than other teens.

Keeping an eye out

The district employs about two dozen campus supervisors who are generally charged with making sure that no one is on campus who isn't allowed to be, and that everyone who is on campus is where they're supposed to be. England said one of her primary concerns is deterring students from cutting class.

England said dozens of students try to ditch every week at the academy. La Costa Canyon campus supervisor Lori Branson said at least a dozen students ditch at her school everyday. Students at both campuses said those estimates seemed very conservative.

La Costa Canyon employs three campus supervisors, while the academy has four. Despite sentinels staking out high-traffic exits in the morning, before each class period and at lunchtime, students with a mind to ditch are often successful.

"There's four people and nine exits," England said. "The math's against you."

Branson said La Costa Canyon also has more exits than eyes, and that it can be very easy for people to sneak on and off campus through back routes at the east end of campus or near the tennis courts.

"If we don't have someone posted over there, they leave in droves," she said.

England said that while the presence of campus supervisors at the school's front entrance and student parking lots often deters students from ditching, where there's a will, there's a way.

"If you really, really want to ditch class, you're going to ditch class," she said.

Contact staff writer Ben Frumin at (760) 943-2313 or bfrumin@nctimes.com.

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