Perfect attendance since kindergarten? No sweat for West Harrison grad

Christina Perkins’ attendance at Saturday morning’s graduation was about as sure a bet as any you could make.

What’s one more day when you’ve gone 2,340 without missing, right?

Perkins went 13 years without ever missing a day of school. From kindergarten all the way through senior year at West Harrison High School, there was not one sick day for the class of 2017 graduate; her record unblemished by a skip or absence. So, of course, Perkins was one of the early arrivals for West Harrison’s graduation ceremony at the Coast Coliseum.

“I was not going to miss today. No way,” said Perkins, a member of West Harrison’s ninth graduating class and its first student with perfect attendance. “I had to show everybody that I made it.”

“The Streak” started when Perkins was in kindergarten and her family read in the newspaper about another Coast student who’d graduated with perfect attendance.

“At first we were like, ‘Hey, let’s try,’” she said. “And then I finished sixth grade with perfect attendance so we were like, ‘Let’s try to go all the way.’”

Perkins — who was a member of Mu Alpha Theta, Beta Club and Student Council, among other achievements and clubs — plans to attend Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, where she’ll pursue a career in nursing. After graduation, Perkins hopes to work at Memorial Hospital, her streak still intact.

During the ceremony, valedictorian Ashleigh Nicaise and salutatorian Sebastian Barnes challenged their 231 classmates to strive for greatness.

“They’re a really passionate and determined group of people,” Nicaise said before the ceremony. “I hope that whenever they set their mind to something that they go out and actually do it. I believe that they can.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 12:01 PM with the headline "Perfect attendance since kindergarten? No sweat for West Harrison grad."