Written by: Andy
Edited by: Mehek
Visuals by: Zoe
This Friday the 13th was unlucky for many high school students as parents opened their inboxes to an email from High School principal Mr. Birchenall about the recent number of late students.
According to his email, ISM has had “an issue with students arriving late to the first class of the day” following the COVID-19 pandemic. This was then supported by a statement that over two consecutive weeks, over 340 students had arrived late to school. Throughout the email, Mr.Birchenall communicated the sentiment that arriving late to class can be “very disruptive to the flow of the lesson and the pace of the teaching and learning.” As such, Mr. Birchenall stated that students are expected to be in school by 7:25 am at the latest.
All high school students who arrive late to their first class of the day must go to the high school office to pick up the notorious green-colored late slip. After interviewing Ms. Sam, one of the office’s secretaries, she discussed the tediousness of the task for Ms. Sam and Ms. Angel. Despite there being two different lines, “on bad days the lines go past the main HS corridor glass doors.”
The sheer number of late students grows so large that they “have to let the students write their name on the clipboard then we write on the green tardy slip, put their details, date/time and sign it.” This task, again, is further complicated by the fact that they must individually revise an average of 30 to 40 tardy students’ PowerSchool attendance records by the end of each day. Ms. Sam personally believes that the primary issue is that the students are “not getting into the habit of leaving earlier than usual.” As such, they must be “more mindful of the travel time and to factor in the daily morning traffic situation.”
According to both Mr. Birchenall’s email and Ms. Sam’s comments, the “two most common responses we receive are traffic and/or waiting for a sibling.” Both believe that these issues can easily be solved by leaving for school a bit earlier.
This sentiment is reinforced by high school Math teacher Ms. Carcamo, who stated that she has 1-2 students late daily for the first block every week. While this may not seem like much, considering that there are generally less than 20 students per class it is a significant amount. This tardiness delays the work of students and teachers, who spend time catching them up to speed. Many teachers believe that high school is about “preparing students for the next steps in life,” and they must abide the rules which will be forced in the “real world,” Ms. Carcamo said.
According to a 12th grade student who cited that they were “somewhat often late” to school, the main reason for being late is because of the timing. The issue is that “we compete with rush hour and all the other schools right beside us.” As such, the student believes that ISM should “receive students at 7:00 or earlier” or at 8:00, referring back to the 8:00am start time right after the pandemic ended. While they generally live 30 minutes away from school, “traffic blocks” that can “vary dramatically in intensity” can make their travel time range from 45 to even 60 minutes. As such, while the student understands the concerns of the amount of late students arriving at school, they do not “understand the complete strictness of the attendance policy.”
Regardless, following the email sent out by Mr. Birchenall, two primary stances are taken by our school community. One which believes that being late is unacceptable, and one which believes that being late to school is unavoidable.
