Student truancy is very important because it is essential that you prevent unnecessary absences as much as possible. There are multiple teachers and counselors that try and help to prevent truancy, but it is no one’s job more than it is the students. Some may think that upperclassmen miss more school than underclassmen but that is not always true. On average about 100 students per day are absent. This can be because of sickness, lack of a ride, home issues, or simply not caring. It is important that we do care and we come to school each and every day. Missing school not only affects students with their current schoolwork but it affects them in the long run. Students do not realize how important school is until it is too late or until they are facing complications.

Colleges look to see how often you missed or were late to school. The same thing applies with a job because if you have the reputation of being late, you will likely be demoted or fired. The school is always trying to prevent bad attendance and truancy for those exact reasons.

Not only do we have programs that try to help with frequent absences, but the middle school is also taking action when it comes to preventing poor attendance.

“Once you turn 15 and a half, the truancy officers are not going to come after you as much as they would a student of a younger age, we try to set an example for middle school students so that they will not get into bad habits before they come over to the high school. When you turn 16, you are no longer a juvenile. Truancy itself affects seventh to ninth grade students mostly, so we advocate for our high school students to get it together and set a great example for the younger students,” officer Tom Guswiler said.

We are always working to improve our school, from serving healthier food to making sure our students come to school every day. Our teachers and counselors work each and every day, along with student influencers, to set a better example than we did yesterday.

“We just want students to care about there attendance more than teachers do. Our school is not perfect but we’re working towards bettering RHS every day,” Principal Dennis Borse said.