Published: November 24, 2008 08:30 pm      

As buck season opens, some schools log higher absences

PRINCETON — Students who slipped away from class Monday to go hunting might bag a trophy, but they will have homework waiting when they return to school.

Area schools saw extra pupils on the daily absentee lists as the first day of buck season opened in West Virginia The season continues until Dec. 6.

The number of students who may have been absent thanks to buck season varied at each school.

“We’ve got a few,” said Principal Ben Disibbio at PikeView High School in Gardner. “I don’t know how many are due to hunting.”

Unlike being sick, hunting is not an excused absence, Disibbio said.

“They’ve got to make up their work if they want credit for it,” he explained. “Boys will say, ‘Well, it ought to be an excused absence,’ but it’s not.”

At Montcalm High School, a few more students than usual were away from class, one member of the staff said. The absentee rate was 20 to 30 percent higher than usual. McDowell and Logan counties are excluded from buck season because the state Division of Natural Resources has determined that their deer populations are not large enough to sustain a gun season. This didn’t stop some McDowell County students from skipping class and heading for other hunting grounds.

“Yes, there are quite a few noticeable absences,” Principal Kathy Gentry said at Iaegar High School. “They don’t come in and say, ‘I’m going hunting,’ but it’s very well known in this neck of the woods.”

Gentry said that 45 to 50 of the 113 absences recorded Monday could have been hunters. Such absences are unexcused, but the students can make up their work. Hunting season is a time when young people bond with their families, she said.

How many students were absent because of buck season is difficult to determine, school officials in Mercer County and Tazewell County, Va., said. In Mercer County, students stay in school until Wednesday. Tazewell County students attend school only Monday and today.

“More absences are due to holiday travel,” said Principal John O’Neal of Graham High School. Students often leave early so they can visit relatives living outside the area.