Corey Faines of Bay Shore has never missed a day of school, from pre-K to high school graduation
Bay Shore High School student Corey Faines, who has never missed a day of school, at his graduation on Friday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
For Corey Faines, missing a day of school was never an option.
"I always told him that if you miss school, you miss a lot," his mother, Paulette McArthur, said. "I always told him that school is very important, and you need an education."
The lesson stuck: From pre-kindergarten at Brentwood Head Start through his senior year at Bay Shore High School, the 18-year-old has attended class every day without fail.
At his graduation Friday night, the accomplishment had just started to sink in for the teen.
"It's awesome to know not a lot of people have done it," Faines said moments before Bay Shore High's commencement ceremony. "I think I'm just realizing how big of an achievement it is, so I think it was really worth it."
The moment had a special meaning for his mother as well, who said she earned her GED later in life.
"To see him do what I couldn't do is such a blessing and an honor for him," McArthur, 44, said.
The two were joined by Faines' grandmother, Evelyn Whitmore, who wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with pictures of her grandson and "FAINES" written on the back with 5, Faines's basketball jersey number.
Faines with his grandmother, Evelyn Whitmore, and mother, Paulette McArthur. Credit: Morgan Campbell
It was fitting that both women were there to celebrate since, Faines said, they were the ones who pushed him to show up for school every day.
"She definitely set the foundation," he said of his mother. "When I was younger, I didn’t want to go to school, but she kept making me go to school."
Faines said his mother would help him get ready in the mornings, preparing his breakfast and ironing his clothes.
Eventually, he said, he fell in love with school.
"In high school, I never not wanted to be there ... It was like a second home to me," he said.
If he was feeling under the weather or was just unmotivated, he said his mother and grandmother were there to give him that extra nudge.
"I told Corey, 'Grandma will put you in the paper if you never miss a day of school,' " Whitmore said with chuckle. "He would get up every day ready to go to school."
Whitmore said that at one point, when Faines was in pre-kindergarten, she convinced him that a man named "Bob" would ring a bell for him if he was on time for class, when in reality it was a church bell that rang daily at 9 a.m.
"Whatever I had to do to motivate him," she said.
His perfect attendance streak was tested a few times. Once, Faines said he was tempted to skip class on a Thursday because he wanted to go to an out-of-state basketball tournament that started the next day.
"I was pleading with my mom," he recalled. Eventually, he said, "She was like, 'Ok, call your grandma,' and she just shut it down completely...She thought it would be a waste."
Corey Faines lays up during the Boys Exceptional Seniors All Star Basketball game in Stony Brook in April. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Faines, who played basketball for Bay Shore High, was named one of Newsday's 2025-26 All-Long Island First Team senior athletes earlier this month. He has committed to attend Nazareth University in Rochester, where he plans to play basketball and study business.
Ted Nagengast, Bay Shore's department chair of athletics, praised Faines for his perfect attendance and his dedication.
"I think number one, there are so many distractions in the world right now for kids to not want to go to school," he said. But, he added, "If you apply yourself and work hard like Corey has done and shown, there's a lot you can get from it. He's really a special kid."
