My school is one of Illinois top ranking high schools, however this semester teachers have noticed a drastic drop in grades among the school’s senior class. Almost every teacher of senior students has noticed the trend in grade reduction among the senior class, and many are puzzled as to the reason for it.

This trend is caused by an illness known as senioritis. This year senioitis was first noticed among teachers in the math department. “Within the first week of school we noticed a drastic amount of students did not come to class with their homework completed,” said one math teacher. But math teachers are not the only one’s that have noticed traits of senioritis among the senior class, in fact teachers among every department have noted that their senior students are displaying traits of senioritis. Some cases of senioritis have seemed to spread to entire classes such as the school’s ‘senior foods’ class, a class taught by multiple teachers in multiple periods, yet every senior foods teacher at the school has reported drastically low scores on quizzes and tests.

It is quite evident that senioritis is a serious epidemic, however seniors with the so-called illness have shown a stark lack of concern for their situation. When asked about his condition on senior said, “Yeah I just don’t really care about my grades anymore.” When asked to comment on his current grades, the senior started laughing and shook his head to move on to the next question. This senior went on to say that the cause for his senioritis he said, “Well I’m already committed to college, and we do graduate in less than three months.” Several other seniors were interviewed that day, and almost every one had similar responses to the questions asked.

Though the true causes of senioritis is uncertain, many students claim that senioritis is caused by a lack of interest in learning, due to the approaching graduation date, however many teachers and parents believe it is just laziness. While the initial causes of senioritis are uncertain, the symptoms of the disease are quite observable. Some of the symptoms include:

- Not doing homework/studying
- Showing up late to class
- Not paying attention in class
- Instantiations laughter when discussing their grades
In most cases, senioritis first appears between the time seniors get accepted then commit to colleges, or by second semester. However, there have been rare cases of early-onset-senioritis, which is a form of the disease, which sets in on juniors during the week(s) after seniors graduate. Most students believe that the only true cure for senioritis is graduation, however one senior I interviewed suggested that the full effects of the illness do not wear of until the following fall when, “students go to college and realize that grades matter again.” Debate still looms as to when the full affects of senioritis wear off, but most agree that it is mostly gone by the time students are in college.

Seniors at my school, and those across the country, still have around three months left before they graduate, so for now only time will tell if students will be able to overcome the affects of senioritis and finish off their high school careers with strong grades, but that is looking rather unlikely.