With an ongoing tardiness issue, Pentucket High School has decided to start putting pressure on those who come in late. In my opinion, the new principal, Brenda Erdhart, has started to hand out late slips like Oprah Winfrey hands out cars, not to make people smile with a new car, but rather to encourage students to come in on time.
This past school year there has been a record number of late students which begs for some sort of reconstruction. Administrative policies like Ms. Erhardt’s are working to fix this issue.
The new rule states: “Everyone who arrives at school late will be noted. After being noted as late five times, you will receive a detention. Any subsequent offenses will result in detention.”
This begs the question: Is there a way to educate children on the concept of punctuality without punishing them for tardiness?
Now, by no means should a student willingly choose to come in late and not expect a punishment of some sort. Punctuality is a necessity, and is vital to students’ foundations in their post-high school career. When these students who are renowned for their consistent tardiness enter the workforce, a rude awakening will await them. At Market Basket, as with many companies, there is a grace period of 5 minutes after the time you were scheduled to come in.
Among the many people I have spoken to, there is an astounding number of negative comments regarding the punishments for this new rule. One anonymous junior said, “It is a disgrace to be punishing people who have otherwise done nothing wrong.”
On the other hand, when speaking about this issue with my own parents, they weighed in by saying that “school is a job and you can’t show up late to a job. Also, it teaches you kids how to get here on time.”
Although tardiness is an issue across the board at our school I believe that there needs to be some balance between handing out numerous detentions to students that have otherwise done no wrong.
Not only is it an issue for our students to be tardy to school, absenteeism is as well. According to the Department of Education, 14% of our district’s students have missed fifteen or more school days.
If the United States Federal Government is noticing that seven out of every fifty of our students are absent from school for more than fifteen days, is tardiness really the issue we should be facing?
Amauri Ciriaco • May 20, 2024 at 10:39 am
While I think coming to school late is not always a good thing it should be punished for. Most underclassmen take the bus and if they miss the bus by even 30 seconds they are late to school and if they don’t take the bus they are waiting for their older sibling or parent to get ready to leave the house as well. I think for olderclassmen there can be many factors as to why they are late and most of them are not intentional so I do n0t think there should be consequences instead they should try and teach the students how to be on time instead. I don’t think giving the students a penalty changes their actions.
Jacob Rivers • Feb 8, 2024 at 1:10 pm
I really think that it is necessary for students to voice their opinions; this article depicts a current issue and enables readers to think about what would be best for the student body. Recognizing both sides is essential, and the writer has achieved this by using alternative perspectives. Well done.
Katherine • Jan 30, 2024 at 10:30 am
Good take! This is such a controversial topic.
Sophie Marcus • Jan 29, 2024 at 9:48 am
At first this article peaked my interest because of the title and how this new tardy rule has been enforced. After reading this article, I liked how you explained both sides to the argument, one with the student and one with an adult. The question at the end was a really intriguing cliff hanger which are always beneficial to have because it makes the audience want to read more.