BY CHLOE ANNE BORJA

For students in high school, maintaining constant perfect attendance continues to be a recurring issue of interest. Although first period starts promptly at 7:50 a.m., the significant groups of students arriving to school late are numerous and conspicuous. Our school’s tardy policy implements a series of consequences based on the number of tardies and threatens repercussion towards citizenship grades in an attempt to combat the problem. The current policy, in brief, is rational: for most people to successfully pay attention to a set of rules, there needs to be clear consequences for being late.

As mentioned earlier, the current consequences are based on the number of tardies an individual has received. The first tardy is usually a warning from the teacher, or a confrontation about changing habits. Parent notification may follow a second tardy, with a possibility of detention depending on a teacher. By the third tardy, a teacher may become more involved, notifying a parent or guardian and scheduling a detention. The consequences of a fourth tardy include referral to the office, or even after-school detention. In drastic cases, if an individual accumulates five tardies or more, they may be subject to Saturday School. Eventually, a number of tardies and truants for one class in a grading period can impact citizenship grades. According to the student agenda, “any combination of 4 tardies/truants in the same class… will result in a citizenship grade of N, in that class.” Any student can also be subject to a U, or Unsatisfactory, if they accumulate 7 tardies or truants.

There is no denying that most students have arrived late to school at least once, thus including myself. All in all, it is very difficult to maintain perfect attendance throughout high school, considering workload, location of home, traffic, or other causes for tardiness. Consequently, one could argue that the punishments for tardiness are harsh, and the level of severity abrupt. For example, immediately receiving detention for a number as low as three tardies may seem irrational, and provides very little time for habits to change. Nonetheless, if one were to examine the droves of late students, a strict tardy policy is sometimes necessary.