By Caleb Vance, Stevensville High School, Stevensville, Montana

It’s the final stretch of the second semester, and the last year for the seniors in high school.  Senioritis hits like the flu.  Students hard work either has or hasn’t paid off by this stretch of time, many have been accepted into colleges, and some have even earned scholarships in sports or just school to help pay off their higher education of schooling in the upcoming years. Others are planning to start their futures in the workforce, and focusing on anything but schoolwork. Senioritis are showing in every school anywhere, the symptoms are lack of motivation, no interest in classes, not participating in extracurricular activities.

After getting accepted into college, high school seniors may experience this. It is when students stop caring about high school and become extremely lazy, more so than someone with Senioritis. These students often skip school or come in late, or not even bother with work. They start to be care free about their homework and school. Often they can rebel against the rules of the school. Use their phone when not prohibited, ignore teachers directions, and not even look over their homework. All these students just wanting to power through the final year of high school, and get out into the big world. But senioritis symptoms can strike students at any grade level during the many months of the school calendar. This spring fever creates challenges for teachers, who are looking forward to the summer break themselves and have to fight with distractions from these infected senioritis students.

With the seniors fighting reduced attendances and dropping grades, the teachers can get frustrated also. With the teachers wishing for their summer vacations and homes life in the 3 month break, they still have to teach the kids what they need to know before they leave the school. Teachers are affected greatly by the infected students, them getting frustrated because the students not doing work, misbehaving, and ignoring them. Teachers can soon be prone to this time of the year; forcing more homework or reminding the students if they don’t pass they don’t graduate. Depending on the teacher, the quality of work expected may be different depending on the teacher. Some teachers keep their workload throughout the year and expect the same amount of effort from students. While others understand senioritis and are more laid back when students refuse to do work, most likely because the teachers have a slight symptoms of senioritis themselves and wanting it to be summer

Parents also have a similar view on senioritis as teachers do. While some parents continue to be strict about their kids’ grades and the amount of effort they put into their work, others don’t feel the need for their kid to try as hard in school as they once did. As some students take the lowered effort level from their parents as an okay, others feel it is their job to keep their grades up in fear of colleges withdrawing their application. One reason seniors keep their grades decent is because colleges still have the right to see second semester grades. If a student’s grades drop below the colleges acceptance bar, colleges have the right to withdraw the student’s application.

“Is senioritis dangerous?  Not as much as other conditions ending in “-itis.”  It won’t send you to the hospital”, but senioritis can lower your attendance and your grades. Is there a cure for this infecting disease? No there’s no cure for senioritis except summer.