Students at Weston Ranch High School have seen many new policies for the new school year. While students have been getting used to the new bell schedule, the latest policy creating a dilemma is addressing student tardies. To address the growing tardy situation, Weston Ranch High School has been conducting tardy sweeps.
To crack down on excessive tardiness, the teachers are instructed to close their doors right when the bell rings, thus catching the students who arrive late to class. Students then go to the quad and get assigned detention. While we understand the need to be in class and on time, tardy sweeps affect Weston Ranch High School students more than the staff realizes.
It’s challenging for some students to arrive on time, especially since they must complete daily symptoms checks, thus beginning the dilemma. Outside of school, there are traffic jams while parents and families are trying to drop off students. It is already hard enough to get into the high school parking lot during morning drop-offs since there are only two entries, front and back, which causes a massive back up to get to school on time. And while these two issues loom on the students’ minds, and students work hard to arrive on time, students can be about 10ft away from their class and still get a tardy slip.
“I was right outside my classroom once the bell rang, and the teacher already locked the door,” said one student who wished to remain anonymous. “I got to classroom8:40 am, and the traffic getting into the school was heavy. It took my mom 10 minutes to drop me off, and then it was 8:50 am. I was waiting in the line to show my daily symptom check, and it took me about five more minutes to get through the gate. My first-period class is in the 100’s building. It took me about five minutes to get to my classroom, and when I was about the enter my classroom, the door was already locked. Then, the bell rang, which caused me to go to the quad and wait about 15 minutes to get through that line of students.”
The student’s point is that tardy sweeps make students even later than they already are. For example, students could be one minute late and arrive at class 15 minutes later due to the line of other students who are getting their detention slips.
“I don’t like them,” said Maura Henriquez, Junior at Weston Ranch High School. “I got detention because of some of the uncontrollable factors. I don’t believe that it’s my fault there’s traffic, which causes me to be a couple of minutes late. It makes students later than they’re already are.”
Not only do these tardy sweeps affect our attendance, but it also affects the class time we have. Many students arrive 15-20 minutes late due to them as well. It’s just not worth the time we waste waiting in line and the after-school detention. In addition, due to a new schedule, our staff doesn’t realize we have an outside life, and we have chores and siblings to take care of.
In Conclusion, tardy sweeps cause a dilemma and are unnecessary for the school. First, it makes students later than they already are. Second, the school doesn’t realize there is traffic outside of school and long lines to get in, even if some students wake up early to beat the rush. Third, serving detention is a practical consequence, but some students may not attend due to personal reasons at home. If we let this continue, students will be more stressed and not be happy about it.