You are strolling into school and “OH NO!” the bell rings and you are still on your way to class. You walk in to class a minute late only to sigh as you realize your teacher has already pressed the enter button to electronically send the attendance to the office.
It’s dreadful, you put your bag down and hike back down to the office; and from here you know your day can only get worse. You get to the office and are told to check in with your designated Assistant Principal at break. You are then handed what you feared—a neon orange slip. If you do not or cannot think of a legitimate excuse before break and have been late to school two times prior, you are doomed to get an office detention, which lasts a little over 40 minutes!
Most students complain about our current late policy because it is unfair. The process seems inefficient when you are barely a minute late to class, and then you need to check in, and proceed back to class. What if you’re supposed to take a test in first period? You could possibly waste 5 to 10 minutes (depending on how many students are late that day) waiting to get checked in. By the time you get back for the test, you are frazzled and stressed, all over being late by one minute!
For cases like these it is definitely unfair the punishment students receive. Why can’t the student actually do the time for whatever “crime” is committed? What if instead of serving over 40 minutes after school, you serve however many minutes you were late? This idea has been discussed by many students; however the Administration is concerned that if the punishment is not great enough, there is no negative incentive for repeat offenders.
So coming to school late is not okay. Interestingly though if a student were to skip school, there are no consequences except piled up late work. So, in reality there is more incentive for a person who is going to be a few minutes late to actually skip school completely. This is unfair and should not be the case. That is why, however late to school you are should be directly linked to how much time you serve. This newly proposed idea should be the new policy that is enforced.
Rachel • Dec 15, 2009 at 9:59 am
I wholly concur with Leah’s proposal on a resolution for the late policy crisis. Her idea of counting the minutes is pure genius and her intelligence exceeds any other person I know. Her superior thinking skills are critical towards finding a probable elucidation to the late policy predicament. It is my belief that Mr. Smith and Mr. Foley should strongly consider using her ingenious idea.
Kelly • Dec 2, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I think the late policy is too extreme, but i don’t think the solution is to correlate the amount of minutes you were late and your punishment (what if you came in 3rd period!). Getting to school on time can be hard especially in the winter, why not allow students five chances (like the absent policy) instead of the meager two.