High schools try to curb the seniors’ itch to ditch

Senior ditch day, a mainstay of teen fare such as “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Dawson’s Creek,” is an unofficial tradition shared by generations of students. But those illicit trips to the beach or Disneyland are drawing the ire of principals and district administrators, who say they cut into valuable class time and cost schools thousands of dollars in badly needed state revenue.

Today was unofficially designated as ditch day at some Southern California high schools, and principals spent Wednesday trying to make sure that classrooms were not empty.

“Please be aware that this is not a school sponsored or endorsed activity. It is not considered an excused absence,” Dan Burch, principal of Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, wrote Wednesday in an e-mail to parents.

He noted that the school could lose as much as $22,716 in state revenue depending on the number of absences and that students would lose instruction time.

“It’s not OK,” said Charles Salter, principal of Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo, citing the loss of two days of classes because of October’s fires. “I don’t want us to lose any more that aren’t planned days off. We need kids in school.”

Aliso Niguel’s seniors planned their ditch day for today, but they can occur any time during the school year.

Sometimes the date is linked to the class’ graduation year. In some districts, for example, the class of 2003 chose March 3, 2003, as their ditch day. The date is spread by word of mouth, e-mail, text messages and on MySpace.com.

But ditch days cost school districts state money, which is based on students’ daily attendance. Districts in recent years have been increasingly focused on maximizing attendance and the accompanying revenue, even raffling off cars to students with perfect attendance.

El Dorado High School in Placentia had 538 seniors last year, and about 100 were typically absent on any given day. But one day in May, the absence rate tripled. School officials estimate that the increased absenteeism cost the school more than $8,400, which could have paid for 647 copies of “Catcher in the Rye,” 25 new laser printers or 560 gallons of paint for art classes.

Beyond the financial toll, El Dorado Principal Karen Wilkins said, students miss out on education.

“It’s just not good for their kids to be out, missing work that needs to be made up, homework, class time, seat time,” she said. “What we’re doing at school, we feel, is important. What they’re doing at the beach they could be doing that weekend.”

Teachers sometimes purposely schedule tests on ditch day to encourage students to show up.

It works -- to a point. Karla Benefiel, who graduated from Tesoro in June, slipped into school solely to take a test in an Advanced Placement psychology class before gathering with 50 classmates at Thousand Steps Beach in Laguna Beach during their ditch day, which took place in May.

“It’s a break to get away from everything,” said the 18-year-old, now a freshman at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

To try to stem the absenteeism, principals e-mail and call parents and explain that despite what their teenagers tell them, ditch day is not an official school holiday.

Salter said he planned to speak with each parent who calls to report an absence today. Students who do not have a doctor’s note or other verifiable reason for being absent will be considered truant and ineligible to make up tests and to receive parking passes next semester, he said.

In Tustin, senior skip day takes place in the spring. Students must attend a Saturday school session to make up for the lost day -- and the lost revenue. The problem is not limited to California; one district in Wisconsin bars students who participate in ditch day from taking part in the graduation ceremony.

Locally, students don’t seem fazed by the consequences.

Aliso Niguel senior Paul Hayton, 18, said he and five classmates planned to play paint ball today. “I’m not too worried,” he said. “Every year they have a day. They just let you go.”

Joel Reaves, 17, also planned to skip school.

“I’m just going to sleep off Halloween and hang around with my friends,” the Aliso Niguel senior said.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Brandon Miller contributed to this report.