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News: A teen hasn't missed a school day in 13 years
Member Since: 11/4/2006
Posts: 37,808
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A teen hasn't missed a school day in 13 years
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DARNESTOWN, Md. - Cal Ripken, Iron Man of the Baltimore Orioles, played in 2,632 consecutive baseball games.
Stefanie Zaner, Iron Kid of Darnestown, is closing in on her 2,340th straight day of public school.
The 18-year-old is unlikely to get the standing ovation afforded Ripken for his streak when she arrives at Northwest High School on Friday for the last day of senior classes in Montgomery County.
But hers is a rare accomplishment. Not once in 13 years was Stefanie marked absent: not for a cold, a family vacation, a college visit or a senior skip day. She once went on a freshman trip to Shanghai with the school marching band and boarded the plane with her clarinet only after securing written assurance from the principal that the trip would not count as an absence. She has never broken a bone, thrown up or caught the flu or even a bad cough, she said.
"There were days in high school when I thought she was too tired to get up," said Debbie Zaner, Stefanie's mother. "But by high school, it was up to her. It wasn't up to me."
Perfect attendance for even one year is an elusive goal. Schools are germ factories. Kids play hooky. Families travel. Religious holidays sometimes require attendance elsewhere. Even conscientious students take the occasional personal day to prepare for a test or catch up on homework.
An informal survey of 20 local school systems turned up just one other graduating senior with perfect attendance since kindergarten (officially, 180 days a year, for 13 years, although the exact annual total hinges on snow days): Kristen Waddle, 18, of Brentsville District High School in Prince William County. A third student, Austin White of Mountain View High School in Stafford County, hasn't missed a day since first grade. There might be others.
'I don't want to be here'
Kristen's attendance effort in elementary school was nothing short of heroic: She showed up every day despite moving twice and changing schools three times. Staying home was boring — or so she heard from her brother. There was a no-TV rule, strictly enforced.
"We could sit in our room and read. That was it," she said.
The Prince William senior remembers nearly ending her streak once or twice in high school from sheer exhaustion. An after-school job kept her out until 10 some nights.
"I have these days where I'm like, 'I do not want to be here,' " she said. "I'm just the kid who shows up on those days."
Austin, 18, thinks he knows the moment he decided nothing would keep him from school. It was about fifth grade, the night before a standardized test. "I was puking buckets, and my Mom asked, 'Do you want to stay home?' And I said, 'No, I've got to go to school, I've got to take the test.' "
To keep the streak alive, the Stafford teenager has passed up national baseball tournaments. Even an ankle sprain sophomore year, he said, "wasn't a good-enough reason to stay home."
She earns the nickname
Stefanie, like Kristen and Austin, didn't enter kindergarten intent on never missing school. The goal crept up on her. Her principal at Darnestown Elementary School, Larry Chep, gave out annual awards for perfect attendance. She won a couple, then found she "really liked being recognized for something." By the end of fifth grade, when Chep recognized her for six consecutive years without absence, Stefanie stood alone.
Chep remembers her as "one of those kids you want in your school." Stefanie returns to Darnestown Elementary each spring to help her fourth-grade teacher take down her classroom and organize her closet.
Iron Man Cal earned his nickname by playing through injury. So did Stefanie, in a way, coming to school sick or, more often, dead tired. She's never had a serious illness or a high fever, she said, a claim to which friends and teachers attest. If anything, sniffly classmates fretted about making her sick. Austin and Kristen, too, are preternaturally healthy.
Solid student
Stefanie will attend the University of Maryland in its honors program. She wants to be a doctor. She is a straight-A student.
"That's since third grade," her mother said in the family kitchen.
"Since fourth grade," Stefanie interjected.
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msnbc.msn.com
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Member Since: 12/16/2008
Posts: 59,380
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Tht's bein intensed, tht kid needs help rite away, who wouldn't miss a day from school??
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Member Since: 5/4/2005
Posts: 21,850
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What a nerd. 
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Member Since: 10/21/2005
Posts: 19,258
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So? Your point?
I didn't miss one day in Middle School if I remember right. I got an award for perfect attendance. It was until 10th grade and I had medical issues that ruined my streak. I WOULD'VE had perfect attendance if it wasn't for the few surgeries in High School. =/
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Member Since: 6/17/2006
Posts: 6,541
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This girl and Kevin scare me.
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Member Since: 8/9/2004
Posts: 21,889
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Quote:
Originally posted by Departure
So? Your point?
I didn't miss one day in Middle School if I remember right. I got an award for perfect attendance. It was until 10th grade and I had medical issues that ruined my streak. I WOULD'VE had perfect attendance if it wasn't for the few surgeries in High School. =/
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Well, she beat you. That's the point. 
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Member Since: 5/16/2009
Posts: 576
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Um, wow.
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Member Since: 6/16/2006
Posts: 2,428
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Quote:
Originally posted by Departure
So? Your point?
I didn't miss one day in Middle School if I remember right. I got an award for perfect attendance. It was until 10th grade and I had medical issues that ruined my streak. I WOULD'VE had perfect attendance if it wasn't for the few surgeries in High School. =/
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Member Since: 3/2/2008
Posts: 14,823
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^That's why I don't like all these dumb attendance things. Schools always give out perfect attendance certificates and crap, but attendance isn't really something you can control very well. In your example, you were sick and had medical issues, so you couldn't go to school. No one has control over what diseases may strike their body. We like to think we do, but there's always going to be a way to get sick. Also, what if, God forbid, a loved one dies? You can't control that! I missed a week when my grandma, who was like me second mom, died in 2004. Also, what if your family had been planning this very expensive vacation at the end of the year, and thanks to snow days, the school year's been extended!? You can't back out of the vacation, you have to go! Attendance awards never made any sense to me and they never will.
As for the story, the kid needs to get a life and the parents need to be less strict. 
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Member Since: 3/31/2009
Posts: 7,064
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Definitely couldn't have been me 
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Member Since: 7/28/2007
Posts: 10,691
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Member Since: 5/10/2007
Posts: 11,195
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Banned
Member Since: 11/3/2005
Posts: 18,439
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HOLY COW.. that's difficult && impossible
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Member Since: 1/9/2009
Posts: 3,553
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I don't know how they did it. School is just
I'm always absent from school.
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Member Since: 6/30/2007
Posts: 18,079
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Holy! Are you serious?
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Member Since: 5/31/2008
Posts: 11,688
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Wow, pretty cool.
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Member Since: 7/28/2007
Posts: 10,691
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Quote:
Originally posted by xoxokely
HOLY COW.. that's difficult && impossible |
HOLY COW???? 
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Member Since: 8/9/2007
Posts: 10,408
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Wow
Just curious, did she have any tardiness?
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Member Since: 8/2/2006
Posts: 31,102
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If anyone strives for perfect attendance, then that is just sad. There are more important things in life than an award for being there every single day.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/11/2007
Posts: 63,796
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my friend is like that too,
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