Let’s Not Be Tardy

XIAOYE WANG

Staff Writer

At Alhambra High School, over 50 students per day arrive late to school, with even more students arriving between periods two through six. This is a concern for both the teachers and the students because students miss out on important instruction that may be given out within the first minutes of class. The entire classroom is also affected by one student’s tardiness. In order to motivate students to arrive earlier, Alhambra High has added more consequences to the tardy policy.
If a student is tardy one to three times, he or she receives a teacher-warning and a call home. If the student is tardy four to seven times, A robo-call will be sent to the student’s house at six a.m. every day for two weeks. Students who are tardy eight to nine times will serve detention while students who receive 10 tardies will automatically receive mandatory Saturday school with a guardian. If the student receives more than 11 tardies, the student will be sent to the Student Attendance Review Board (SARB) and they may lose their right to participate in extracurricular activities.
However, these restrictions are designed to deter rather than punish. Tardies will be reset every semester in order to encourage students to make a change. These policies will help students realize the importance of school and will help them manage their time in a wiser fashion as well as prepare them for their future professions. In many colleges like NYU’s Stern School, for example, tardy students are not let into classrooms. According to careerbuilder.org, 1 in 5 employers have fired workers for being tardy to their job. With the tardy policies, students develop a schedule of being punctual that carries them well into college and future careers.
Overall, the tardy policy is a valuable lesson that teaches the students the importance of punctuality early on before tardiness becomes a habit that besets them in the future.