Grad Ends 13 Years With No Absences

Even among outstanding high school graduates, Enrique Sosa stands out for what he has done every school day for the past 13 years: show up.

He is the first student in the Garden Grove Unified School District and among the few anywhere to have perfect attendance, starting from his first nervous day of kindergarten. He graduates Tuesday from Santiago High School.

“I got chicken pox when I was in the first or second grade, but it was during Christmas vacation, and I was well when it was time to go to school,” Enrique, 17, said Thursday.

Despite his excellent grade-point average of 3.7 and his responsible attitude toward schooling, Enrique isn’t showing up for classes anymore. He’ll be joining the Army instead of going to college.

He was in fifth grade when he first realized he had never skipped a day. An attendance award in sixth grade made him determined to keep the streak going.

Garden Grove school officials say they cannot remember his attendance record’s being matched. Neither could officials at other Orange County school districts.

“Not only does Enrique come to school every day, it’s what he did while he was here that’s so impressive,” said Santiago Principal Don Wise.

Enrique carried a heavy load at high school, including calculus, physics and honors English. Only once after the fourth grade did he dip below his standard As and Bs, when he earned a C+ in calculus.

The schoolwork was often challenging but not necessarily the best part about school.

“I like being at school,” Enrique said. “The classes are hard, but it’s better than being at home sleeping or watching TV. I don’t like to waste time.”

Enrique had gone from grade to grade, year in and year out, with such quiet reliability that Wise realized only last month what the senior had accomplished.

“He came up to me about two weeks before our senior awards dinner and asked if we recognized people with perfect attendance,” the principal said. “I never heard of such a critter, and if there was we’d probably name the school after him.”

The school name remains unchanged, but Wise saw to it that Enrique received a plaque.

“If you had a whole senior class like Enrique, you wouldn’t have to worry about anything,” Wise said. “There would be no discipline problems, no grade problems, no tardiness.”

A student who relentlessly attends classes--even when parents, teachers and friends say they would understand if he missed a day here or there--has a self-discipline that carries over into other areas of life, his teachers agreed.

One of them, Gordon Enders, who taught Enrique advanced-placement civics and honors economics, said the student “never missed an assignment.”

“But also, he’s fun to be around,” Enders said. “The other kids look up to him.”

Enrique is a member of the wrestling team, Spanish club, German club and a Chicano student group.

School officials tried to persuade him to apply to college, but Sosa insisted on the Army. More than 2,340 days of classes and tests, papers and projects have taken their toll; one day, he said, he’ll head for college, but now he wants a break from the books.

“I was sort of tired of school,” he said. “I liked school, but I didn’t want to spend another eight years of my life” going there.