Flood, stomach bug threatened his streak, but KY student never missed a day of school

A dream guitar and a little luck against illness and natural disaster helped Tristan Griffith never miss a day of school.

Griffith did not miss a day from the time he entered kindergarten at Lexington’s Maxwell Elementary School’s Spanish Immersion program, through Bryan Station Middle School’s Spanish Immersion program and until he graduated this year from STEAM Academy.

“It’s hard and there’s sometimes you just want to go home,” Griffith said. “When I was in elementary school and I would see kids leave early or just not show up, I’d be jealous.”

But he said, “It’s worth it in the end.”

Fayette County Public Schools Board member Christy Morris talked about Griffith’s accomplishment at the June planning meeting.

Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk said the district would explore how to honor such a student.

“I wanted to make my parents proud... my dad said he would buy me my dream guitar if I could do it and both were really good motivations,” said Griffith, 18. “I decided I’m going to go to school no matter what because I want this guitar.’”

The guitar was the noted Rickenbacker brand that Tom Petty was closely associated with. Griffith received it around the last day of school.

Throughout his school career, Griffifth missed a few minutes in a given day once or twice, such as when he left school near the end of one day because that was the only time he could get his driver’s license. But he was honored with perfect attendance awards in middle and high school.

There were a few close calls.

Griffith’s father, Ryan Griffith, said about nine years ago, the family went to a birthday party in Casey County on a rainy Sunday and ended up getting stuck in flooding.

“The water was over all the roads and we were freaking out. We thought ‘we’ve got to get back for him to make it to school’,” he said.

When the roads opened at 4 a.m., the family drove to Lexington just in time.

A stomach bug hit Griffith in elementary school, one of the few times he had an illness.

“I got lucky with not getting sick and the one day I was sick it was a snow day,” he said.

Ryan Griffith said he thinks his son would have not missed a day even if COVD-19 had not shut down in-person classes in March and schools switched to learning from home.

Griffith said his dad told him that he had only missed eight days in his own public school career: He said, “You just have to keep going and you’ll beat me.”

Meanwhile, Morris said she did not have data on how many students don’t miss a day from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“The district said this was not a data point that they collect at a high school level,“ said Morris. “Moving forward, it would be wonderful if we recognized students for this achievement.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 1:47 PM.