Senior cut day, an unsanctioned-yet-established Paly tradition, has always faced a varying amounts of pushback from teachers and the administration. This year seniors collectively changed the date from April 30 to May 21 so BC Calculus students testing on that day would be able to participate, though conflict persists.

Assistant principal Jerry Berkson says the administration does not officially condone senior cut day.

“It is not an approved absence,” Berkson said. “It becomes a cut and it’s not excused. It is not recognized as a vacation day or anything like that in any way…There’s liability issues as well, there’s safety issues. We can’t resolve those issues. There’s not a whole lot of ways to stop students from doing it but we can’t say go for it.”

Principal Phil Winston said, “My position is that there is no official school-supported senior cut day,” and of teachers’ decisions to collect assignments that “teachers have the right to change their due dates.”

World Literature teacher Kirk Hinton is compelling his senior students to attend school. They feel that he has taken a harsh stance on SCD, but Hinton maintains that it is like any other school day, and resultantly, he does not alter his teaching plans.

Hinton said SCD is just like any other academic day, and he does not make any specific plans for it.

“I don’t think of it as any different than any other school day,” Hinton said. “In fact, I don’t go out of my way to find out when it is, or to consider it when planning.”

Mr. Hinton described an assignment due on SCD that has been a point of contestation among his students.

“The assignment is an Outside Reading Book project worth 105 points (about 10% of the final grade),” Hinton said.  “This was assigned on Feb. 13, so students have had more than three months to do it.

Senior Scotty McComas is one of the handful of seniors who will have to attend school on SCD for his World Literature class. McComas expressed vexation with the situation.

“I’m not cutting on the 21st because I have Mr. Hinton,” McComas said. “I’m frustrated because Mr. Hinton had originally allowed the project to be turned in early but is now changing his policy … This year he even changed the project due date after the date of senior cut day had been changed.”

Other students had similar complaints.

“[We] have an outside reading book project due on the day of senior cut day … At the beginning of the semester he said that he will take in any work at anytime before the due date, but then a couple weeks ago he decided to change that,” Penny, a student who asked to remain anonymous, said. “He gave us no other choice but to come to his class on senior cut day, especially because we lose 10% on the project everyday we turn it in late. In class … I hear he gives out a silly quiz so that the people who didn’t come to class lose points and cannot take the quiz.”

According to senior Rachel, whose name has been changed so she may remain anonymous, Hinton explained his change of policy because “he wanted to collect all the projects at the same time.”

Rachel added that having to attend school “makes me angry and frustrated, because I would like to just chill on SCD and he’s added a stress. Like we don’t need any more.”

Penny’s feelings mirrored Rachel’s.

“[SCD] gives us a well deserved break after the Advanced Placement tests some of us took, and after we’ve all worked so hard to get into the colleges we’re going to,” Penny said.

Berkson backed teachers who have academic plans for SCD, and articulated other problems with the tradition.

“Teachers are paid to teach and if an assignment was meant to be due on that day it should be due on that day. We have things like field day now which is essentially like a freebee. We’re here to teach and we can’t promote studnts ditching an entire day of school.

Hinton explained his personal views about SCD.

“The law says that students have to be in class; I have a real ethical problem with a school that winks at or encourages bad student behavior,” Hinton said.  “I expect my first and second semester seniors to do the same work regardless of which semester I have them in class.  For students who are “upset” about attending school, I have a quote for them: ‘Sometimes I do what I want to do.  The rest of the time, I do what I have to do’ (Gladiator).  In the final analysis, there’s nothing that any of the faculty or administrators can do to make students attend school on any particular day; coming to class is a *choice*.  As in the real world, there are consequences for choosing to not come to class, just as there are on any other day.”