Throughout the school year, tardy sweeps have occurred multiple times which are done to discipline students for arriving to class late. The goal of tardy sweeps is to reduce tardiness however many students have complained that tardy sweeps waste more time by arriving even later to class.
A recent tardy sweep occurred on Mar. 13 before first period and caused a mass amount of students to wait in a line from the gym out to the ASB building. Students were upset that they arrived to class more late than usual because of this tardy sweep.
“I walk in and it doesn’t help that I’m carrying 50 pounds of film equipment … and then I get directed over to the gym while I’m carrying all this equipment and you’re in line, a really long line, to get a piece of paper and a remark … it’s just like a waste of time,” said Benicio Jackson.
There are multiple reasons for students coming to school late. Some have to take the bus or rely on other forms of transportation, which can be unreliable at times and arrive late. There can be traffic jams that take 20 minutes to get by. Students can also be late due to the fault of their family members taking too long to get ready. Administration acknowledges this but maintains the importance of arriving at school on time.
“We know that there’s challenges to getting to school on time… right now we know the number of students who are tardy consistently. We’re talking not just one to 10 in a whole year, but consistent tardiness, and what research has shown is that a student who is consistently tardy, if you add up 15 minutes every day for the whole school year, that’s quite a bit of instruction and that’s going to put a student at a disadvantage,” said Principal Charles Park.
The lines for the tardy sweep started at the gym and ended around the ASB store, making it one of the longest lines this school has seen this year. In the Insight article “The new drop off system” last December a new parking lot next to the football field was supposed to ease the traffic problem, but it didn’t make much of a difference as many students are not used to going there.
The most recent tardy sweep occurred on Mar. 18, before 2nd period. This tardy sweep had less students be punished because most of the students were already in the school. There are also little to no excuses on why students are late at this time but the March 13 tardy sweep was just done at the worst time according to most students who arrived late that day.
“On average we have, every morning, about 100 tardies,” said Park. “What we are trying to do is educate parents and the student saying on time behavior is important,” he continued.
