Attendance doesn't mean actually being there. Okay. Call it what you all like and justify it even if everyone does it.
Liars lie. They lie because they want something and the only way - or most amusing - they can accomplish their conscious object is to create an impression in the mind of the other which is at variance with objectively verifiable phenomena. Lying is not about the words one uses, but about the impression one wills to create in the mind of the other. Meaning - the issue does not turn on "what words mean" but on the meaning we attach to words.