Picture this: you’re running late for your first period because of traffic, or maybe you had a rough night and couldn’t get any sleep. This is a common occurrence for many students who work

late, study late, or in general have a busy schedule. Most tardies at Athens Drive are from the first period.  Athens Drive’s current tardy policy is not inclusive for students with these problems, and when good students face ISS [In school suspension] for first-period tardies, the school’s values become unclear.

Students are allowed to be late five times before receiving punishment; after five, students receive lunch detention, which is fair depending on the circumstance. For every tardy up until the eighth, they get lunch detention again. On the eighth tardy, students receive in-school suspension. 

Receiving tardies while you are already in school is reasonable unless it is excusable. A few examples of an excusable tardy would be due to health issues or issues  that you physically could not prevent. Being marked tardy for being late to school, especially someone’s first period, should have lesser consequences…depending on the situation. 

Our school wants us to go to class and be there on time, but when students go to class and are just a bit late a few times they get sent to serve ISS. While in ISS, students just sit and are given access to use their laptop for a full 8 hours, which defeats the whole purpose of punishing “skipping”. Students who intend on attending and actively engaging in class with good grades should not be penalized with in-school suspension. 

When students find out that they are on the brink of receiving ISS, many purposely miss that class just to avoid being penalized. The school system needs to acknowledge outside factors that may be causing a regular student to be even minorly late to a class. 

While everyone hates to be in lunch detention, I do agree with this form of punishment. Students still get to go to every class and continue learning; they just don’t get the privilege to go off campus, or eat and talk with friends during their only break.

The #1 nationally ranked high school, Early College at Guilford, uses an individual tardy policy. When a student receives four or more tardies, they are sent to an administrator, counselor, or social worker to see what’s going on and how they can work with them. This system is more inclusive and understanding of the factors that relate to tardies. Athens Drive should embed this into their tardy policy.

 Students who actually want to be in class are missing in-person instruction and are isolated, which takes away from the entire classroom experience that helps students engage and learn. ISS hinders the educational experience for students and Athens Drive should enforce another form of punishment for tardiness that does not consist of sending students to ISS.