Enforcement of school tardy policy stricter than last year, students say

Students have noticed a stricter implementation of the tardy policy and rising confusion about the detain policy this year, despite no change in disciplinary policy.According to I-House Principal Renée Semik, this is likely due to more effective recording of tardies.“Teachers are now more concerned about recording their attendance in Illuminate as accurately as possible,” Semik said.According to O-House Principal Clara Herran, the only big difference in the tardy policy this year is that students no longer have to arrive to class, drop off their belongings and then go to a house office to get a late pass. Instead, teachers are chalking tardies themselves.“We have asked teachers to mark students tardy when they come in late right into the attendance program on Illuminate,” Herran said. “The teacher can mark them tardy but they don’t have to deal with additional interruptions from having to tell the student to leave, and then the interruption of when they come back to the class 10 to 15 minutes later.”This does not, however, theoretically enforce stricter consequences for tardies — both this year and the year before, four tardies have merited a lunch detention, seven tardies a Saturday school, and so on, Herran said.According to Herran, however, the new system’s improved accuracy in recording all tardies efficiently — not just those that students go to the house offices for — might be resulting in more frequent disciplinary action.“I have seen an increase in students attending the lunch detentions and the Saturday schools, so it seems to be working better than the previous system,” Herran said.According to S-House Principal Jason Kurtenbach, 866 students have been tardy to class four times or more, 411 students have earned at least two hours of Saturday School, and 73 students have at least 15 or more tardies.“Each Saturday School has filled every desk available and had to turn students away,” Kurtenbach said.Though the suddenly stricter enforcement has left some students feeling hard done by, Amelia Reynolds (’15) believes that the policy is doing its job very effectively.“This creates way more detentions and Saturday schools but less tardies,” Reynolds said. “While I dislike the policy, I get fewer tardies now, so I guess it is working. I get scared every morning that I’m going to be tardy and get yet another detention.”According to Herran, the effectiveness of the policy in preventing tardies cannot be measured until the third grading period data is completely tabulated.“The big test will be this grading period, when we can compare it with [the second] grading period,” Herran said. “The consequences only really started the second grading period, so this one will be the big deciding factor if there is any improvement.”Reynolds said that the policy has, indeed, turned out to be effective.“I think the policy is somewhat reasonable, because I haven’t been late for two weeks and it’s only because I don’t want another detention,” Reynolds said. “I don’t believe that it is unfair that students that normally don’t get detentions are receiving them, because if they are tardy then they get a detention. That’s the policy and the rules.”Another policy in question is the detain policy which, according to Semik, must be discussed by the administration to ensure equal enforcement across the board.Several students have expressed confusion, as some teachers are accepting detains while others are not.Cameron Speyer  (’13) said that this discrepancy has caused problems in her classes.“One day I was at an early-morning choir rehearsal and I and four other choir members walked in with a detain. On presenting the detain, my teacher said, ‘I don’t accept those,’” Speyer said. “Everyone else is perfectly fine with [detains].”The current tardy policy does not allow for tardy passes or readmits, according to Kurtenbach.“[Students] are marked tardy by their teacher, then the office, via Illuminate, handles the discipline for excessive times tardy,” Kurtenbach said. “Students who did not come to class should drop off notes to the house office. No readmit will be written. They will be ushered to class quickly where they should be seated and taught.”According to Semik, the policy regarding detains is on the agenda for Thursday’s administration meeting.cdebeus@thesamohi.com