The newest attendance policy added to the schools regulations regards students arriving late to class, stating that if a student is receives three or more tardies, that student is subject to detention. This detention, starting with  35 minutes during Patriot Period, becomes increasingly more penal with each successive offense. The extent of the punishment can find a student spending up to three and half hours after school time in detention. If you are not a morning person, I feel for you.

I understand the emphasis on being punctual, as any missed class time can be detrimental to a student’s understanding in that given class. That being said, missing class is punishment on its own. Forget the two minutes a day I see my good friends in the hallway and stop to chat.  I might as well take a route to class that avoids them at all cost, so I do not have the temptation of talking to them and missing the bell by a couple seconds. Due to this, I will be running from lunch on the first floor to my Spanish class on the third floor, knocking down any students that impede my way.

Despite my dismay over the attempt at exterminating all communication between friends and classmates in the hallways, the impact it creates on students in the morning is outrageous.  When implementing this new policy, the creators of this plan failed to put into consideration the commute to school. One would think that buses would alleviate a fair portion of this problem, but if you have ever been around the school at eight in the morning, it does not make enough of a difference. From experience, during this time frame, it would take up to 15 minutes to make a loop around the school via car and probably another 15 to find a parking spot.

No one is productive in their first period of the day. Whether I am five minutes early, or a few seconds late, I will still struggle to retain and apply information at that point in the morning. I am not suggesting that school should start later, but expecting four grades of high schoolers to show up promptly at the cue of a bell is just unrealistic. Maybe a five minute buffer period before the start of class, so that everyone can settle in and get ready for the day could be productive, but then again that would be throwing away more class time. You may be thinking that it would be wise to plan this five minute buffer into our own schedules before the start of first period. However, showing up five minutes before the start of school can cram you into the middle of the atrium between a flock of morning people who are in the midst of a shouting match with the rest of their kind. As a non-morning person, not only is this nearly impossible to build into my schedule, but being in a mosh pit at such an hour is about the last thing I want to experience.  

I am less passionate about punishing students who are tardy from second period onward, but I will not concede first period. Every morning the attendance sheet, in the attendance office which is for students who arrive late to school, is filled up with names, most of whom have unexcused absences. Some poor employee will be forced to stay overtime watching students doing homework instead of going home his or her family.  Do them a favor, do the rest of us a favor, and alter this new policy for those who are already at disadvantage in the morning.