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Quick Tardy Policy Quiz:
A) Accept her fate and drive safely the rest of the way to the high school.
B) “Pause” when she reaches the stop sign and go out of turn, hoping the cars at the intersection will stop for her.
C) Pass the cars at the sign while dodging oncoming traffic and ignoring the stop sign, because risking a head on-collision is worth it to avoid semester tests.
Answer: Since option A is unrealistic and option B won’t save enough time, anyone who has ever been late for school will realize the correct choice is C. After all, the semester tests are a fate worse than death.
At least, that is the general attitude at Flathead High School.
Most students seem to feel that the new policy is just too restrictive. Everybody misses at least a little school, and tardies can be unavoidable.
It’s true that this year’s policy is a little harsher than last year’s, if you miss school for reasons that aren’t school sponsored.
There are some pluses to the policy, though. If you don’t miss any school, it takes six tardies in a class, instead of five, before students have to take semester tests in a class.
But the greatest advantage of this policy goes to those of you for whom the semester tests are unavoidable. The change in policy means that tardies no longer result in Saturday school, although tardies can make you lose credit in a class if you reach the limit of 10 “absences.”
Every two tardies received in a class gives a student an absence in that class. So after a student has gotten enough tardies and/or absences to take the semester tests, there is nothing to prevent him or her from reaching the maximum number of tardies in a class — fewer than 10 absences or 20 tardies, or any combination of the two.
The way it works out, students who care about not taking their semester tests — who, in general, had fewer than five tardies and three absences last year — are the ones who suffer harsher penalties. The students who didn’t care how many tardies they receive or, whether they have to take semester tests, are the ones who will benefit from the looser tardy policy.
Rules are made because some people can’t act responsibly on their own. So why should the students who aren’t responsible benefit while students who are suffer?
It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that a student could be unable to prevent being absent and tardy twice. Yet such a student would have to take the semester tests, just like a student who had missed two days of school and had 15 tardies. The student with 15 tardies wouldn’t suffer consequences any different than those the first student suffered, yet he obviously was more disruptive — seven times more, in fact.
Why does FHS link tardies to absences at all? Why not form separate penalties for tardies and absences, instead of considering them together?
Luckily for students, we can change the tardy policy. The system we are using now is temporary. Whether the administration ultimately decides to make the policy less severe or more so depends on the students. According to Vice Principal Peter Fusaro, a committee will meet some time this year to determine a permanent policy for our school. Committee members will listen to the comments of a member of the student council, and maybe FHS will end up with a policy the students can tolerate.
So try to get to class on time — and remember to stop for those four-ways.
- Jon Black
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