Sweeping the halls at Houston

Your locker is jammed, you trip up the stairs, drop your notebooks and there is a group of students blocking the hallway that will make you late to your next class. For the past nine weeks, being a few seconds or minutes late to class didn’t seem to bother the students at Houston High, yet with the new quarter came a new tardy policy that has the student body talking.

Since the new quarter began Oct. 18, Houston administrators have been sweeping the hallways for those who fail to make it to class on time. Although the policy is meant to help, some of the consequences are unrealistic and contradictory.

The first time a student is tardy he or she gets a verbal warning, which is a very reasonable consequence. The second tardy results in another verbal warning and the student calls a parent if he or she was late to class for a second time. The third tardy leads to another verbal warning from administrators, a second phone call home to a parent and one detention. On the fourth tardy, there is a final verbal warning, a third phone call home and the student receives two detentions.

The consequence for the fifth tardy is what has our Hawks ruffling their feathers. On a student’s fifth tardy during the nine-week quarter, they are suspended for one day.

Although administrators have good intentions, this consequence for missing part of class seems to be more of a contradiction than a solution. If a student is punished for missing the beginning of class five times, making him or her miss out on four to six classes, depending on the day, seems more like backtracking rather than moving forward to solve the problem.

When the staff at Houston first introduced the policy to students there was uproar about how the new policy would take more time away from the classes. If you really think about it, instead of students simply walking into class a few minutes after the bell rings and joining in the activity, they now have to go to the office, listen to a short lecture about going to class on time and, depending on their offense, call their parents.

Not only have they missed an even larger portion of class, but it becomes extremely disruptive when someone has to open a locked door for students who come in late.

Aside from students missing important activities in class while they’re in the office, many students have been saying that a phone call to a parent about how they were late to class is going to become an annoyance to the parents. Many of the students, myself included, have also discussed how the annoyance won’t be about how any of us missed part of class, but more toward the fact that the school is making us bother parents about it.

Even though I don’t completely agree with the new policy, I can’t help but notice its potential.

During the last week of the first quarter, every teacher explained the new policy to their classes to make sure that when the first day of the second quarter came, every student would know what to expect. Each teacher emphasized the importance of arriving to class on time and how this is relevant to employability skills.

They explained that when we have jobs, we can’t always show up to work late because it doesn’t demonstrate professionalism, which is true. Learning to show up on time will not only teach students a good work ethic, but it could also help raise their grades.

Many teachers give points for being to class on time, and if students who were tardy constantly start to arrive on time, they have a chance to earn those points.

I will admit the first day the policy was in effect I thought the flow of students to and from the office was never going to stop, but the second and third day proved an incredible difference. Not only were the hallways empty with the exception of a student or two, but the fuss with the new policy seemed to decrease.

A week or two ago, when the one-minute bell rang, students would still be lingering in the hallways chatting or digging through their lockers. Now there seems to be an urgency that runs through the students in a wave to make it to class on time.

Even with the rapid improvement, I’m still not completely pleased with the new policy, but every great policy begins as a great idea.

I still think some of the consequences are unrealistic, but with a little work this policy could prove an extraordinary addition to an already excellent school. Until then, our Hawks will continue to reach their goals by getting to class on time without needing to be swept.

Kylie Boepple is a senior at Houston High School.