Opinion: Grace at the tardy table
While many students had to go to the office to get a Verification of Enrollment in order to obtain their permit or license, the VOE form is now only offered online.
While I understand that the school is very strict on tardies to ensure that students are not missing out their education, it can have the opposite effect. Counting morning tardies upon entrance to the classroom would be more rational and allow for students to miss less instruction time,
I am a late person. I’m the person that’s always just a couple minutes late to everything. I know that it’s bad, and I’ve needed to work on this for years now.
It seems at least once a week I flirt with being late to school or the CTE Center, yet I only received one tardy this semester. I concede that being tardy is wrong and should be enforced but in my eyes the district’s tardy policy is flawed in many ways.
In Frisco ISD high schools, students are allowed only one “free” tardy a semester. It’s unreasonable to think that a student could only be tardy once per semester. It would be more logical to reset tardies with every six week grading period as it wouldn’t make sense for someone to get punished for being tardy once in September and then again in the beginning of January.
Assigning students a lunch detention after the second offense seems to me like an ineffective way of showing students they must be on time. While a full on detention is excessive, I fail to see how a lunch of solitude will teach students about punctuality when their tardy might’ve been out of their control such as extreme traffic or oversleeping. Allowing a second tardy per semester seems fair as it is reasonable to expect a student might show up late twice due to uncontrollable circumstances.
The aspect of the tardy most in need of change is how they are given out. If the bell rang and students have not reached their classroom, they expect to be sent back to the office buy an assistant principal. This is senseless and takes even more time away from one’s learning experience. Those who enter the campus after 9 a.m. must enter the office and wait in a sometimes long line and proceed to class with a slip.
While I understand that the school is very strict on tardies to ensure that students are not missing out their education, it can have the opposite effect. Counting morning tardies upon entrance to the classroom would be more rational and allow for students to miss less instruction time.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the district should give up on tardies or have such a relaxed policy that would all but encourage students to show up late. However in its current state, the districts policy falls short of a logical system. While there is no perfect way to go about it allowing a second “free” tardy and counting tardies in the classroom would be a much needed start.
Lucas is a senior in his fourth year of Wingspan. As vice-president of Youth and Government on campus and at the Plano YMCA, he helps teach members bill-writing...