Time for Tardies

March 3, 2010  
Filed under Opinion

So you accidentally wake up 10 minutes late, and your car will not start; as a result, you arrive to school after the bell rings. What does that mean? Tardy.

Students are racking up the tardies more and more lately, myself included. What can this late behavior be attributed to? I think lateness to school can be accredited to the fact that we, the students, are tired. We are in the last half of the school year; people are busy with homework, sports, activities, college searches, jobs and other responsibilities. So can you blame a hard-working student if they are late to school a few times? I think not.

Now, I am not saying that I think students should not be punished for being tardy, but I do think that teachers should be a little bit more lenient. Some students have a genuinely legitimate reason for coming in after the bell and I think that the teachers should take that into consideration. Especially if the student is a hard worker and pays attention in class, the teacher should be more reasonable. However, if you have a student that constantly comes in after the bell, Sonic cup and cell phone in hand, then it is best to give them a tardy. If they are not even worried about being at school on time, then they deserve the consequence for not caring.

Being tardy to school and being tardy to class are two different things. There are plenty of valid reasons to be late to school and they should be dealt with appropriately, but there are not very many reasons to be late to a class during the day. On the rare occasion you were let out late by a previous teacher or perhaps had to walk all the way from the CTEC building to a class in the senior hallway, play it safe. To avoid the risk of getting another tardy, have your previous teacher call, e-mail, or write a pass that you can take with you to your next teacher.  Note to students (including myself): we have four minutes to get to class—use this time wisely! If you spend two minutes conversing with your friends or checking yourself out in the bathroom mirror, there is hardly any time left to get your class utensils, let alone walk to your next course. Be smart, hustle and you should get to class on time.

There are many different consequences for being tardy to class. For instance, if you are late to Mrs. Jenkins’ world history class after lunch, you must write your name on her chalkboard and serve five minutes with her after school by the end of the week. Now, not only do you have to serve time, but your name is sent down to the secretaries in the office and you receive another tardy in the books. I do not agree with this practice. What if I was just moving slowly that day and was 10 seconds late stepping in the door? What if I suddenly felt sick after lunch and had to make an emergency pit stop to the bathroom? What if I had to go stick my lunchbox back in my locker? I do not know how many other teachers use this rule, but I do not think that tardies should be official when you are coming back from lunch. Is not five minutes of labor after school enough to ingrain the memo into our brains? Yes, I think so.

If you rack up enough tardies, you may face more serious repercussions. When you reach five tardies you will receive an hour of detention. If you reach 10 tardies you will be forced to spend a day in ISS. If you get 15 tardies you have to go to Friday Night School. Each time you receive one of these consequences for tardies you will also receive a disciplinary point. Watch out, because seven points will get you out of school suspension for a day.

So in spite of all the trouble I could get into for being late, I feel as though it is worth it. If we did not have the disciplinary system in place, people would not even bother coming to school. I only ask that teachers take into account the work that some students do put in to arrive on time, even if they cannot always get there.  I also ask that students do their best to get to school on time, though without them being late, I probably would not be writing this story.

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Jaime Birzer

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