Tardy Policy Is Too Harsh

You're late to school because you couldn't find your homework. When you arrive at school the gate is closed because the bell has already rung, so now you have to go to the office and get a slip. In addition, not only do you make a fool of yourself walking into class late, but now you also have a one hour detention, just for being a few minutes late. Sound familiar? It should. This is the Fitz late policy. I think Fitz is being unreasonable with the late policy. Let me tell you why. 

There are many different ways to teach students how not to be late rather than having detention. One way to teach students to be on time to class is by having detention for the amount of time they were late for class rather than having an hour of detention because they were maybe just 2-10 minutes late?! For example, let's say that you were just two minutes late, it would be much better to write a sentence or paragraph explaining why you were late, rather than getting detention. And if you have to have detention, you should only get detention if you're ten or more minutes late, and the detention should be the amount of minutes you were late to class. An anonymous student said, “I think it’s dumb and not really necessary? I mean, what is the point of getting an hour of detention if you were like, I don’t know, five seconds late? It's unreasonable and it has to be changed.” As you can see, the late policy is unnecessary and only makes it harder as a student already being pressured to be at school on time, because right when that bell rings, if you're not completely in the classroom, that's an automatic detention. Another anonymous student stated, “I feel like it really just depends on the teacher. I’m not sure if it's detention if you're late to school or class. But if it's both and you're late to class, I think it’s really just on the teacher, and of course, if you're late to school there is no way you're getting out of detention.”   

Another example of why Fitz should get rid of detention is many of the students are late for a valid reason, but they are still forced to have detention. For example, students may have run into traffic which made them late, yet it is still considered as “their fault.” I believe that if you know you are going to be late and you have a good reason for it, your parent or guardian should call the front office and tell them that you will be late and dismiss you from getting detention. One student stated, “I’m usually late to first period because of my siblings, so my mom usually calls the office to tell them I’m going to be late and then I don’t get detention. Which is very helpful.” This is a great way to not get detention, but what about when your parent or guardian isn’t at home and can’t call the office? I think we should be able to call the office as well, but the issue here is that they might not believe us. In this case, the office should let the student be late but write their name on a slip of paper and ask for confirmation from the parent or guardian to make sure they weren’t lying. And if they were, then they can get one or maybe two hours of detention.

Not everyone agrees. Teachers believe that detention is a good way to teach students to be on time.  Physical education teacher, Mr. Couch, stated, "I think it's good. Teaching punctuality and responsibility is crucial for global future citizens of the new world ahead.” Serving detention may be silly to us students, but it does teach us a lesson about how life is and how we have to accept it. 

In conclusion, I believe that this new rule should be taken away COMPLETELY or just with new rules. I know it would be better for both students and teachers.