Stop iOS Safari from Auto-Selecting First Drop Down Option

Does anyone have a Knack-friendly way to stop Safari on iPhones and iPads from always selecting the first option in a (connection) drop down?

I have forms which require users to select items from a connected list. Safari on iOS devices always auto-selects the first option in the list as soon as the list is activated. We are using this for an attendance tracker, and needless to say, the person with the first alphabetical name in the list attends everything, whether he was there or not... The best I could do for now was create a new connected record as "_". At least this way, when we see the "_" in the list we know to ignore it, but I'd like a better way as this screws up things like attendance counts, and makes the app look, amateurish.

I have read online about people adding empty and disabled options first in their lists, but I don't see a way to be able to do that here.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.