This Friday, March 18th, students and faculty will perform at the annual WA’s Got Talent show hosted by the junior class. However, that is not the only event planned for tomorrow; this year’s senior skip day, not an administration-sanctioned event, coincides with the talent show.

As consistent with school policy for all sporting and extra-curricular events, students who have not attended at least four full blocks during the school day will not be considered present and will be unable to attend or perform in WA’s Got Talent. According to Lauren Coffey, advisor of the junior class, a representative from administration will be at the door on Friday evening with a list of students absent from school earlier that day, and those coming in the door must be checked against the list to make sure they were present.

In a post to the Class of 2016 Facebook group on March 11th, Vice-President of the class, senior Elijah Richards, informed seniors that, “[Mrs. Murphy] wanted me to inform everyone that we’re already leaving early for Capstone and not attending school next Friday could come off as slightly ‘arrogant.'”

According to the post, administration has pushed back against senior skip day because seniors already leave more than a month before graduation to participate in Capstone and do not have to attend honors or CP classes.

However, an anonymous senior felt that the senior Capstone program is not the same as a skip day and that preventing seniors who skipped school from attending the talent show would be detrimental.

“I think that since the internship program doesn’t exclude AP classes, students have a perfectly valid excuse for taking a legitimate skip day. I think for the vast majority of students, the internship program isn’t a skip day and the administration is being far too concerned about attendance on one single school day. I think that by preventing people from attending the talent show, they are reducing the effectiveness of the fundraiser and taking a very small issue out on the classes themselves,” said the student.

Additionally, other students felt that senior skip day is a tradition, and administration should allow seniors to skip one day without repercussions.

“I think it’s inevitable that [administration] tr[ies] to do something, seeing as we do get out early, but senior skip day has been a tradition across the nation, so it’s something seniors should be allowed to do. It’s one day. I don’t think they should really care all that much about it,” said another anonymous source.

On the other hand, Coffey does not believe that seniors skipping school will have a large impact on the talent show’s audience, though she was worried at first.

“We might lose a dozen students, but we expect a strong turnout from our juniors,” she said. “At first I was worried, but so many of our senior performers have committed to the show that we have plenty of acts. Looking at the weather, I am confident that many seniors will decide school is a better option than the beach at 47 degrees and will decide to come to the show.”

Though Dean Betsy Murphy declined to be interviewed, she said, “I just hope that those who committed to WA’s Got Talent make the right decision to be at school on Friday and perform as they are scheduled to do so.”