You walk into your class, and once again, your teacher isn’t there. “She’s been gone for almost two weeks!” you think. Your friend is complaining about his grade being an F just because the teacher hasn’t left any work to do. The substitute takes attendance, and then half the class leaves. If administration is very strict on students’ attendance, why don’t they enforce teachers’ attendance as well?

Many students at MHS have had teachers that have been absent for many days. Senior class secretary Randy Lopez said that freshman year one of his Dual Enrollment teachers was gone for 2 weeks. “I wasn’t able to turn in work on time so my grade was very low in the class,” he said. “When the work was graded, I think it was graded unfairly because the teacher wasn’t even in the class to see how we were doing the work.”

Some teachers, however, claim that many students don’t do the assignments that the absent teacher leaves behind. “When I leave and I’m absent for whatever reason, and it’s usually a serious reason like medical or my children, the work I leave for the students is to reinforce what we’ve already learned,” said a teacher who wished to remain anonymous. “Some of them turn in their work, even when I’m not here and they get graded for that. Others completely disregard what I leave for them and do absolutely nothing and sit and be on their phones for the whole hour and a half that they are in my classroom. And even when I am in the classroom, they’re still on their phones. So is it really the teacher’s presence that makes a difference in students’ success or failure or is it completely up to them?”

Some classes are graduation requirements and others give college credit so the teacher is very much needed in order for the students to earn their credits. SGA 1^st VP Zarai Huete, another senior, said that her upper level mathematics teacher was absent for 2 whole months. “She had us do assignments on Khan Academy, but I thought it was pointless because I wasn’t being taught. I was teaching myself,” she said. Senior Pedro Barraza, who is in the same class, said that it was difficult to finish the assignments on time because he didn’t know how to do them.

Some teachers would respond that students need to learn how to teach themselves. One teacher who wished to remain anonymous said that students need to understand that, yes, sometimes teachers are gone, but they’re not the ones getting the grade, the student is. “When teachers are absent, it’s because they have a valid reason; they don’t just leave because they feel like it,” he said. “I understand that the students can be deeply affected when the teacher is gone for a long time, like a week or two, but they also need to learn to speak up and assume responsibility for themselves.”

One of the biggest complaints is that when teachers are out, work does not get graded, which hurts students’ chances to raise their grades. Senior class treasurer Flavia Trujillo said that her grade stayed low when her geometry teacher was gone for 2 weeks. “Before he left, my grade was pretty low already. I had done all the homework that was assigned the weekend before he was gone, but I never got to turn it in because he didn’t come back in time before the 9-weeks ended,” she said.

Sometimes a teacher’s absence can’t be avoided, and many students accept that. SGA historian and senior Claude Joseph’s P.E. teacher was gone for 3 months because his wife had given birth. “It’s understandable,” said Claude. “I didn’t mind because the class would just sit in a room for the period listening to music or playing card games.”

Administrators understand how students are negatively affected by teachers’ absences. Junior class assistant principal Mr. Arscott said, “Students fall behind most of the time when the teacher misses more than a week. If the teacher left work for students to do, most of the time the substitutes are left trying to figure out what the work is because they don’t understand what the teacher left. Some students end up not doing the work because they don’t feel motivated when the teacher isn’t in the classroom.”

Ms. Diaz, who is in charge of coordinating substitutes, also said that when teachers are absent, especially for important classes like AP and classes that require EOC exams, the students can be affected greatly. “Just because there is another teacher in the classroom doesn’t mean that they are teaching. The job of a substitute is to babysit, honestly. They may be qualified in the subject they are substituting, but they may not teach the same way the actual teacher does. I think students who are in the ESOL department are affected the most, if a teacher were to miss more than a week, because they are required to take a test to move up ESOL levels,” she said.

Sometimes a substitute can’t even be found to cover for an absent teacher. Junior Gabriella Barraza said that in one of her classes there wasn’t a sub at all so the class signed in on a sheet of paper and left. Ms. Diaz said that what is usually done with classes that she can’t provide a sub for is to split them up to other teachers. “I don’t like doing that because wherever those students are put, it takes time away from that receiving teacher that may have 30 students to teach already.”

Like all humans, teachers sometimes need to take off from work. Is there really a way to fix this problem? Senior Luis Charles believes that teachers should be allowed only 2 days in a month to be absent. “They’re supposed to teach us and help us graduate,” he said.

Junior Jennifer Tejada said, “If teachers know they’re going to be gone for a while, they should leave a list of work that will be due when they come back, not just the work assigned in class, because students usually don’t do the classwork.”

Junior Maria Maldonado believes that administration should cut off the teachers’ paycheck if they miss a lot, even if it’s just a day.