Seniors slump as graduation gets closer

An infectious disease is spreading rapidly through high schools across the land. The only cure: graduation.

Straight-A seniors are finding themselves daydreaming instead of studying. Students with once perfect attendance are skipping school to sleep in or go to the beach with their friends. They are coming to school late and goofing off.

Some have even started food fights in the cafeteria and worn pajamas to school.

"My head's definitely not in school work," admitted senior Richard Nicholas of Tampa's Plant High School. "I'm done with high school. Do I have senioritis? I guess."

As their high school days wind down and adulthood awaits at the other end of a diploma, many students confess to struggling with the senior slump. They feel more like they're marking time than completing their education.

"I've just been ridiculously lazy," said Antonette DeVito, a senior at Hudson High School in Pasco County. "I ask myself, do I do my homework or do I take a nap? I take a nap."

No doubt, senioritis has a strong grip on many 12th-graders with graduations just days or weeks away.

But the National Commission on the High School Senior Year reported last fall that the problem of senioritis goes much deeper than it appears.

The 29-member panel led by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley concluded that a majority of high school students are not taking difficult enough courses to prepare them for life after graduation.

Noting that only 44 percent of high schoolers are enrolled in demanding academic classes, the panel recommended the entire education system make the senior year a more meaningful transition to college and work by offering dual-enrollment in college courses and vocational internships.

Senior projects like those at Tarpon Springs High School in Pinellas County are lauded for keeping students engaged until the bitter end.

There, 12th-graders select a topic, such as fishing or diabetes, and research it. They write a detailed paper and make a presentation to a panel of judges by the end of their senior year.

Such projects combat the academic regression that some seniors undergo, said Stanford University education professor Michael Kirst.

Many students decide to coast through their senior year by taking easier classes, but that ends up hurting them later, he said. They don't realize it until they get to college and have to take remedial courses.

"I argue the students are responding rationally to a system that has" a disconnect between high school and college, said Kirst, who has written about overcoming the senior slump. "I'm worried because the senior year is the last year they have to prepare."

Ahmad Al-Jallad, a senior at Tampa's King High, said he has slacked off this year, loading his schedule with electives like conflict resolution and journalism.

Yet, he said he feels prepared to enter the University of South Florida this fall. In the meantime, senioritis is a constant companion.

"I think I've been a victim since ninth grade," said Al-Jallad, 17. "Toward the end you feel like you've been trapped so long, it's like 'Let me out!' "

Contributing factors to senior malaise are early graduation exams and college acceptance.

In Florida, required graduation exams are given in 10th grade. Add to that the fact that many colleges and universities began notifying seniors months ago that they were accepted.

For Clearwater High's salutatorian Amber Peabody, everything changed once she was accepted to the University of Florida in January.

"Once my plans were set, it was a lot harder to get into my studies," said the 18-year-old. "I didn't start slacking on my grades, but it's a lot harder to work for As."

Riverview High School principal Robert Heilmann said teachers try to keep seniors from "graduating early in their minds."

One motivation that seems to help is exam exemptions. Seniors can get out of their final tests if they maintain a C average and have no more than three absences in a class.

"That keeps them coming to school," Heilmann said.

Asli Omur, 18, said she has taken advantage of absences to stay home and sleep -- with her parents' approval, of course.

Like some of her classmates at Blake High School in Tampa, she often feels frustrated when school days don't pass quickly enough.

But a silver lining to her senior year is the relaxed atmosphere that seems to have replaced the intensity of years past. Seniors are singing on the bus. Girls are rolling out of bed with their hair a mess, wearing their pajama bottoms to school.

Forgot an assignment? No worry.

Omur doesn't see senioritis as a problem, but as a well-deserved break from four years of hard work.

"We're just ready for a new stage in our lives," said Omur, who plans to attend Emerson College and study film and photography. "The routine has become too much."

Calling himself a good student, Nicholas of Plant High said he hasn't completely tuned out of school. He's working hard to do well on his advanced placement exams so he can earn college credit.

But the real thrust of his last days of high school are on spending time with his friends, knowing their time together is coming to an end. He and several of his comrades skipped one day of school and spent the day at the beach.

"I don't want to burn out," said Nicholas, who has been accepted to Wake Forest University. "To me, right now, I'm valuing a day at the beach with my best friends rather than calculus."

-- Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com.

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