Staff Editorial: Tardies for the greater good

Staff Editorial Board:2012-2013Although the Samo tardy policy has not technically changed, many students have witnessed a more strict enforcement of it this semester now that teachers are marking tardies themselves instead of sending students to house offices. For many students last year, consequences for tardies were, relative to this year, scarce. But despite the disciplinary policy remaining the same for this year, detentions and Saturday schools have been much more frequent for many students.Some have met this reality with frustration — where did this big change in enforcement come from, and why are we students being devoured by it? Seven, eight, nine hours of detention is a shockingly new, ugly concept to many — especially when the policy that enforces these detention hours has technically not changed.It is easy to deal with this practical change through intermittent expressions of annoyance. It is easy to reiterate how unfairly strict this increased enforcement is, how it is not worth anybody’s time, how being a few seconds tardy isn’t a big deal, etc.But no matter how valid these points might be, is it not a more efficient use of energy to improve at arriving at school on time? This sudden crack-down on tardies may seem random and ridiculous, but at the same time, we could be much more proactive about this issue by simply waking up five or ten minutes earlier — no matter how valuable those few minutes of sleep may appear at 6:15 a.m.Perhaps the tighter-enforced tardy policy may actually deserve our approval. It has motivated many of us on the staff of The Samohi to stop arriving late to school. In other words, it seems to work for us.The policy’s specifics often do seem a bit unfair — most prominently, tardies appear to be more harshly and immediately punished than flat-out absences. The fact that the difference between six and eight tardies equates to six full hours of Saturday school, furthermore, can also feel a little disproportionate.Such problems may need to be resolved, but the objective of the tardy policy remains fulfilled. The tardy policy is designed to motivate students to arrive to class on time, and while we can certainly be a bit upset about its sudden enforcement, its foundation helps maximize class time  — and we should not bash so harshly something that attempts to teach us the vital life lesson of being punctual. In the real world, you are expected to always be on time.eic@thesamohi.com