There are many new policies at Athens Drive this year, but one policy that is going to be enforced upon students and staff is tardy sweeps. This policy was made by Principal Dr. James Hedrick and the administration to help students get to class on time. This policy did take place last semester but it was not taken seriously by anyone. This semester it will be starting Jan. 27.
“I just feel that the new tardy policy is not good because even though we have six minutes to go to our next class it’s still not enough time if all of our classes are back and forth from upstairs to downstairs and vice versa,” said Tapengga Salsmen, freshman.
In one full day at Athens there are at least 30 to 40 tardies, and that is just during one day. Hall sweeps is a policy made up simply to get students to class on time. This policy not only gets students to class on time but it keeps them from disturbing the whole entire class. This policy is also supposed to help students stay out of trouble as well as get them to class on time.
“I feel like this new policy will not only help me get to class on time but also my peers because now we always have something to think about when wanting to be late to class,” said Halimat Oloko, freshman.
In the past years hall sweeps have been put in place, but they did not go as planned, so students got by without getting a consequence.This is a new year and now it really will be forced upon students. If students do get swept up there will be consequences such as lunch detention, In- School Suspension, phone calls home and possibly a few days out of school,depending on how many times it happened.
“This year I have a good feeling that the tardy sweeps will be made because there are a lot of tardies in our school,and i think it will cut the numbers of tardies down” said Oloko.
The tardy policy is not meant to get students caught or to take away their fun, but to simply get them in their classes and ready to learn on time. Having this policy at Athens will put a lot of thought in students minds to help get them to class on time. Whether or not students follow policy rules it will be implied, and consequences will follow if students still do not get to class on time.
“Having this policy added to the policies that we already have makes it harder because it feels like we have to rush just to get to class, but I do understand that if the school did not have policies like this, it would not have any structure,” said Jennifer Kinto, freshman.