11.   A significant number of truants skip school for reasons that go far deeper than defiance.

12.   All the St. Albans pols skip the school in their official biographies.

13.   But that is no reason to skip school.

14.   But what is really sad are the excuses the kids gave for skipping school.

15.   Choices he made early on -- not to skip school, not to spend day and night in a pool hall -- determined his course in life.

16.   Devastated by the death of his father, he flunked classes, skipped school and ran with a rowdy crowd.

17.   Eleven-year-old Yon Yeun and his friends were here the other day, skipping school to hunt grasshoppers and pick berries.

18.   He also rails indignantly when the boys try to shirk, fearlessly berating them for skipping school or not caring about their futures.

19.   He began drinking six-packs of beer and skipping school.

20.   He did tell a handful of reporters that he enjoyed opening day as a child in Cincinnati because he could skip school to go to the game.