About 230 seniors of the 1,075 in the Class of 2022 may not graduate this May.

According to Excel High School Forty years ago the US had the highest high school graduation rate in the world. Today, we rank at 19 for high school graduates. So, what causes people to drop out? One of them is connection students who drop out typically fell off the school’s radar. They don’t get noticed by teachers. They have fewer friends. They don’t feel a part of anything. Why would they care about a place that doesn’t care about them? The second one is unmotivation; students might not feel connected, or maybe they don’t realize how much a diploma or GED can do for them. The third one is it’s too hard when you’re a young teenager; there’s a lot you don’t know. School can be tough. There’s a lot to learn, and sometimes you must learn it fast. If you fall behind, everything can quickly become overwhelming; a third of people who drop out say that they were already failing. The fourth reason why is because it’s not interesting; depending on where you go to school, class selection can be limited. Nearly half of dropouts say school wasn’t interesting to them. It may have been because there were no classes they wanted to take or maybe they didn’t see the benefit of learning what they were being taught. The last reason is many students dropout simply because they must. Their family doesn’t have enough money, so they must get a job. They have an unexpected child they suddenly must look after. Whatever the case, life brought something their way that took priority over school because it had to. In these cases, dropping out isn’t a chance. It’s simply something they must do.

“I don’t have enough credits to graduate due to the pandemic and online learning. It made me unmotivated, especially when teachers cared more about work than student’s mental health,” senior Nuvia Rodriguez said.

Another Senior at Morton East also agreed that online classes were the start of his downfall.

“I didn’t find the purpose of attending online classes because it wasn’t real learning. It was difficult to concentrate at home, and that caused me to fail my junior year,” senior Diego Ochoa said.

Although the pandemic was a big reason why most students dropped from being an excellent student to not being able to graduate, behavior and attendance can be the second complication.

“I’m not graduating because my attendance is very low and I’ve gotten into many fights with other students here. I have to go to summer school and make up my credits,” senior Damian Iracheta

Lack of motivation can be the reason why many students missed so many days of school first semester.

“First semester of senior year was very difficult for me. I felt weird coming back to school after being out for a whole year; not just that, but the amount of work that was given was also tiring. I did not expect my senior year to go this way,” senior Diana Montalvo said.

Statistics convey that 25% of American students are drop outs during and even before their senior year.

“Due to online classes, Morton East lost a lot of students. They stopped showing up to school and dropped out to look for employment instead,” dean Ms. Alicia Cook said.