Tech graduate shrugs off 15 years of perfect attendance

LYNN – Bryan McAskill isn’t perfect, but according to him, his school attendance has been for the last 15 years.”It’s not a big deal,” he said sheepishly. “I coach football and basketball at Tech (Lynn Vocational Technical Institute), so this is more about showing the kids what it’s about. It’s not about me; it’s about them.”McAskill’s streak can largely be attributed to common sense and hard times.He said he was in the fifth grade when his teacher noted that he hadn’t missed school all year, he said.”I said, ?no, I haven’t missed it in five years,'” he said.At his elementary school graduation, school officials gave him clothes for his efforts “because I didn’t have a lot,” and McAskill said he was shocked to realize he could get presents for simply attending school.He managed to maintain his perfect attendance record through middle school and into high school. He is an LVTI graduate, namely for practical reasons, he said.McAskill admitted he grew up poor and said he went to school most mornings for breakfast and stayed for lunch “because I didn’t always have a lot to eat.”If he was sick, he would go to school so he could see the school nurse.”She had Band-Aids and medicine, so I don’t see the point in staying home because you’re sick,” he said. “And if I’m there I might as well go to class.”But McAskill said he rarely gets sick. He has never had the flu, he eats healthful foods, works out, and he’s only been injured once, he said.”I tore a ligament in my foot, but it was during the summer,” he said.The UMass Boston junior said staying in school during his high school years was much tougher than college. College has been easy “because I’m paying for it,” he said.McAskill said he had friends, however, who took a different path, gangs and trouble, and one was recently sentenced to more than a dozen years in jail.”I didn’t want to be like that,” he said.Now he tries to pass that message on to the kids he coaches and mentors, he said.”I tell them they don’t all have the same talents and skills, but they all have a way to improve themselves,” he said. “I did it pretty much through school.”Along with heading into his senior year as a human services/psychology major, McAskill is also an office assistant in the Dean’s Office on campus, a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, and part of the Leadership Discovery Program.He also interns with the Phoenix Charter Academy and volunteers with the Lynn District Juvenile Court where he mentors kids, helps them stay in school, and find jobs and homes if needed, he also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.He said he is also working with a group to design a playground/workout trail for kids.”I want to have the (Tech) kids help build it,” he said. “But it won’t be for a couple of years. We’ve just started.”In the meantime McAskill said he expects his senior year to go exactly as the rest of his school career has gone – smoothly and without absences.”I will graduate next summer,” he said. “I don’t think it will be a problem. I haven’t missed a day yet.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].