Students arrive late, tardy policy arrives later

Zaria Byers

Assistant Editor

The attendance office printed out 176 tardy receipts after 7:45 a.m. on a November morning. This is just a glimpse of a typical morning in the attendance vestibule. If a student arrives less than a minute past the first period bell, it may result in them not getting to class for at least 10 or more minutes because of the length of the tardy line that sprawls out of the building onto the sidewalk in front of the school.

During the 2021-22 school year, a policy was implemented to limit the number of students tardy to first block. That old policy is still printed on the tardy receipt that students recieve this year when they are late to first block. None of the consequences are enforced: loss of parking pass, ineligiblity to attend prom, after school ban and activity pass revocation. A chief complaint of the old policy was consequences only impacted students who drove or who were involved in school activities.

The old policy also required teachers to give a detention slip to any student that arrived late to second, third or fourth block without a pass. This policy was not enforced by all teachers, and a chief complaint was that it created more work for the teachers of late students or it was not consistent and therefore unfair to students.

The policy was short-lived because leadership positions in the school changed and now there is no clear policy in place regarding tardies.

Continue to pg. 4 for “Tardies”