What good can come of a &uot;skip day?&uot; It’s a question we have to ask in the wake of a recent senior skip day which drew hundreds of Natchez High students to Broadmoor Park and to dance with danger as fighting and gunshots drew sheriff’s deputies to the park.

The apparently annual event is not sanctioned by the Natchez-Adams School District, but that doesn’t stop hundreds of students from taking part. And, we must assume, hundreds of parents and school teachers and administrators from knowing about the day-long party. We know at least one did – as Broadmoor Park recreation officials have said that a parent signed for permission to use the park, as required by its rules.

The teenagers at Broadmoor Park were lucky this year – no one was injured in the fighting or injured by gunshots. But someone could have been … easily.

Senior skip days are no more a rite if passage than cutting class or underage drinking. They are a flagrant violation of the school rules that often involve underage drinking and parties.

We – as parents, adults, role models and a community – can no longer continue to endorse these types of activities with a wink and turned head. Whether it’s underage drinking on Friday nights or hundreds of teens cutting classes, it’s wrong. And it’s up to parents and adults to get that message across to youngsters.

The school districts must create – and enforce – serious consequences for students who skip school on skip days. Parents must set – and enforce – rules and expectations that don’t condone skipping school.

And students must set a higher standard for themselves, each and every day.