Skip Day (also called Senior Day, Senior Skip Day, Ditch Day, Senior Ditch Day, Cut Day, or Senior Cut Day) is a tradition in schools where students in the

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

class

skip school Skip or Skips may refer to: Acronyms * SKIP (Skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), a human gene * Simple Key-Management for Internet Protocol * SKIP of New York (Sick Kids need Involved People), a non-profit agency aiding ...

Description

It is commonly held the school day following

senior prom The Lockheed Senior Prom was a classified black project conducted by the United States Air Force in conjunction with the Lockheed Corporation's Skunk Works for the development and testing of a cruise missile using stealth technology. Based on t ...

, the Monday after the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

, on

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

or other holidays on which students are not given the day off from school, or after another large event. Often, students will gather at an alternate location during skip day. School administration reactions can vary greatly in response to Skip Day. Some schools openly encourage the practice, helping the students pick a day to take off and advising teachers not to schedule exams on that day. There is no generally agreed-upon beginning to the tradition, but there are records of skip days as far back as the 1930s. The film ''

Ferris Bueller's Day Off ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' is a 1986 American Teen film, teen comedy film written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes (filmmaker), John Hughes. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, and Alan Ruck, with supporting roles from Jenn ...

'' was a catalyst for several Senior Skip Days in the 1980s and mid 1990s. At

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

, "Ditch Day" has become an annual tradition. The occasion was also notably depicted in

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's 2022 semi-autobiographical film ''

The Fabelmans ''The Fabelmans'' is a 2022 American coming-of-age drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tony Kushner. Loosely based on Spielberg's early life and beginnings as a filmmaker, the semi-autobiog ...

'', in which the protagonist

Sammy Fabelman Samuel "Sammy" Fabelman is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Steven Spielberg's 2022 semi-autobiographical film ''The Fabelmans'', which Spielberg co-wrote with Tony Kushner. A young American Jewish teenage boy who aspires to be ...

films 16mm footage of his school's "Ditch Day" at the beach during a

montage sequence A montage ( ) is a film editing technique in which a series of short shots are sequenced to condense space, time, and information. Montages enable filmmakers to communicate a large amount of information to an audience over a shorter span of tim ...

set to

James Darren James William Ercolani (June 8, 1936 – September 2, 2024), known by his stage name James Darren, was an American television and film actor, television director, and singer. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had notable starring and su ...

's " Goodbye Cruel World." This culminates in a short film that Sammy then edits, highlighting the events of that day, which is presented at his school's

prom A promenade dance or prom is a formal dance party for graduating high school students at the end of the school year. Students participating in the prom will typically vote for a ''prom king'' and ''prom queen''. Other students may be honored ...

Description

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Further reading