Senior Ditch Day 2009

I had this awesome idea. When I heard Senior Ditch Day was "scheduled" for March 6, 2009, I had to come up with something creative. How about coming to school on that day wearing a "Senior Ditch Day 2009" t-shirt? Sounded pretty good to me: done. So March 6, 2009 arrives. I was rather skeptical on who would follow through with this declared ditch day because, if I remember right, the senior class declared a ditch day last semester sometime and it was a complete failure. I show up at school in my garb and enjoy the emptiness; seniors actually did ditch. I arrive in my first period class to a class full of probably fifteen students, that's like half. People enjoyed the shirt and I enjoyed wearing it. I think most people found the irony amusing and questioned my thought process: my job is done. Second period won the least populated award. It was awesome, we pretty much just drew stuff the whole period (Ms. D said Beau could paint one of the walls. I'm going to help him. It's going to be epic, and that's being modest). Mr. Patrick Stevenson wins an award for "catch-phrase creator." He told me that I was ditching ditch day. That is exactly what I was doing, so I proceeded to tell people this. Mr. Patrick Stevenson gets all the credit.

Moving on: lunch. Today was the last day to turn in AP test order forms so I decided to turn it in during lunch with my buddy Mr. Scott Weir. We begin walking across campus and people really begin to notice what I am wearing. It was really interesting walking past people and feeling the heads turn with every step. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a big time celebrity, must be insane, and rather disturbing. Anyway, I successfully purchase my 3 AP tests (subject to change) and I begin walking back with Scott. This is where the story gets good, so it deserves a bolding:

I am walking past the band room when two administrators spot me. At first, I thought they were chuckling at my shirt, but that thought was quickly shot down with the exclamation "That needs to go!" I thought I heard wrong. Was I really getting dress coded for showing up to school wearing a shirt declaring a school wide holiday (in a sense)? I was at school! It wasn't like I was promoting Senior Ditch Day out of school while I ditched. I was at school the day many seniors were not. I asked her why I was being coded and she simply said "You heard me." Interesting. Mrs. Administrator told me I would be escorted to a restroom to turn my shirt inside out, so I follow a yard duty to my place of changing. While we walk, I told the yard duty I had been dress coded and I was just wondering what was offensive about my wear. I asked him what he thought was wrong with my outfit, and he proceeded to tell me "I think it is the socks." (!) This is a literally laugh out loud moment. Use the highly over-typed acronym as much as you want, because right now you actually are laughing out loud. Are you kidding me! This yard duty seriously saw nothing wrong. Anyway, he did not take me to the restroom, but to OCS (On Campus Suspension). And who runs OCS you might ask? Mrs. Brown of course! I couldn't tell if she was mad or not that I was being dress coded, especially since I sported a sweat band, sweet shades, and high-water sweats with yellow socks. I tried telling her the situation but she instantly shut me down. She said I had to read the "Dress Code Polices," a group of rules highlighting the severity of a dress code violation and the formality of a parent phone call and delivery of new clothing. I did read this and immediately following, I said "Look. Mrs. 'Administrator' caught me and told me all I had to do was turn my shirt inside out. She didn't say anything about making my parents come and give me a new shirt." I ended up turning my shirt inside out, thankfully, but not without and formal dress code violation and addition to my permanent record. If I violate the code again, I will get a Saturday school. It's not going to happen intentionally.

The rest: I walk to yearbook. My outfit now is really strange as I am wearing a simple white shirt. During the period, Ms. Kyra Wendling mentions my shirt and I have to explain my story. Many people could not believe something like that could happen, and Mr. Lev just got a kick out of it. I'm not going to lie. I now had a good story and a sweet blog post. People are going to want to read about this. It's big news. Not really, but it's bigger news than it would have been if I hadn't been coded. Later in the day, I saw Mr. Patrick Stevenson once more and I told him the situation and we both laughed a mighty fine amount. We also recalled the instance where he almost got Saturday school for sitting on the ground. Yes, you read that right: sitting on the ground. What is this world coming to? I honestly have no idea.

So this day went from a normal Friday, to a normal Friday without a bunch of Seniors, to a t-shirt busting, to a school wide news story. Pretty cool for just a day of the week. One last thought. Word of mouth is absolutely insane. One hour after it happened, three different people, all of which do not know each other, came up to me and said "I heard what happened! yadda yadda yadda." This stuff spreads like butter on hot toast. So here is the advise for the day: do not gossip.