Concert boosts school absentees
Source: http://keysnews.com/
By MANDY BOLEN
[email protected]
Citizen Staff Writer
The halls of learning were all but empty in some Key West schools Tuesday as hundreds of teens and pre-teens converged en masse on the 200 block of Duval Street for the afternoon performance of the Backstreet Boys.
The MTV-sponsored event prompted parents to allow their children to skip school entirely, or leave early.
Key West High School principal Jim Hollins reported about 850 absent students by mid-afternoon.
"It's like a ghost town around here," he said. "Somebody didn't use good judgment on this -- if they had waited two weeks, there wouldn't have been a problem."
"Let's put it this way, there have been a lot of 'orthodontist appointments' today," said Jennifer Hill, the office manager at Mary Immaculate. "The schools truly are empty, but this kind of excitement doesn't happen every day in our little neck of the woods."
Middle school students from Horace O'Bryant were already scheduled to have an early dismissal Tuesday, although it had nothing to do with the MTV presence downtown.
Most elementary schools reported a few absences and early pickups, but nothing as drastic as the situation at the high school.
It was a situation superintendent Mike Lannon understood very well.
"It's their culture," he said. "If I was a teen in today's market, I would definitely be asking my parents for permission to be there, too."
Lannon stressed that schools were officially open Tuesday to dismiss any half-truths students were telling their parents in order to join the gyrating throngs on Duval.
He also asked that parents cooperate with the school district and school administrators by sending an absentee note with their child to school today.
"We expect them back for Wednesday," Hollins said. "Unless MTV comes up with something else."
Algebra and history take a back seat to Carmen Electra and the Backstreet Boys, he added.
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