Central needs to change the tardy policy

This past week I was settling into my AP United States history class when I was handed a green piece of paper. This slip informed me that I would have to attend after school detention, from 3:20-5:00 in the cafeteria.

These slips are given out to students randomly, and a detention can be assigned to anyone who is marked tardy once on Infinite Campus. Without taking academic standing or past record into account, your name is entered into the drawing.

This is the fatal flaw of the tardy policies. In the way they are set up now, no real change will come from pulling random students. If teachers and other staff want skipping to become less of an issue, the randomization of this process makes no sense. I am not saying the solution is to get rid of this system entirely, I think students should be held accountable for their actions. But focusing on people who skip regularly, or are tardy frequently, will decrease the amount of wanderers in the halls.

There are important aspects to take into account on why a student may be a couple of minutes late. For one, the reason most students are late to class is because they have to spend extra time waiting in the long bathroom lines during passing periods. This is the exact situation I faced, and is the reason I had to spend two hours after school when I could’ve been working or doing homework. Second, some students have schedules that force them to walk across the entire
building to get to their next class. With an allotted five minutes of trying to move through the busy halls, this can be difficult.

One of my classmates also fell into this same predicament, and the feelings on this policy are mutual. Punishing students who were late to class once, for good reason, is counterproductive. If we want to effectively decrease tardies and absences, there needs to be more of an honor system.

At the end of each week, compile a list of students with the most absences or tardies; this could even be a set number. For example, if you have over five in either category, you have reserved yourself a seat in cafeteria west. I know in the past they have done physical hall sweeps where they have gathered people in the halls after the bell to a designated room to give detentions. Even this would be more efficient than the system currently in place.

Policy change is necessary to ensure there is an effective decrease in skipping. The current systemCentral has in place benefits no one. Students still skip, and teachers in turn consistently have absent students.