4/9/2019

Students wait in the tardy line that stretches from the front doors
to past the new Spartans Cafe on Jan. 16 The weather was bad that
day so the line formed indoors. (DARWIN COODAVIA | SNN)

Lately, Lakewood has enforced its tardy policy. Students are forced to wait in a line even if they are only one minute late.

By JULIANNA RAYMOND
SNN Staff Writer

Students who come to school even a minute after the bell are funneled into a long line to receive late passes. School starts at 7:05 a.m., but if you get stuck in this line, you may get to class at 7:40 if you are lucky.

The line becomes so long it has stretched out the door and into the parking lot out front. While you are waiting in line, there are resource officers watching you and sometimes even dress-coding you. Students may get yelled at and sent to the back of the line if they even try to simply use the restroom. People waiting often get mad and try to cut the line or start a fight.

This is just ridiculous. Sometimes, an event outside of our control interferes with getting to school. Those of us who tried to get to school on time are then forced into being even more late.

There must be some other alternative to get students to class sooner, without wasting time standing in line to get a small piece of paper teachers will just throw away. We are told to be at school on time and be in class, but then we are forced to waste our valuable education time to get a small piece of paper, so we may enter our classroom.

This school should come up with a new late policy.

Here are some suggestions:  There should be a different way to determine the consequences for being late, if the students haven’t been late more than a certain number of days in the semester.

 Maybe another teacher or administrator - other than the one person writing passes in the morning - can help write passes.

  Finally, maybe the principal should make an announcement, declaring exactly what the late process will be and all the consequences of such. Some students think that the 7:05 a.m. bell is when they should start getting to class. There should be an announcement sent out to clarify that if they are not in class by 7:05, they are tardy.

The way things are being run now make it seem like it would be better to just stay home if you are going to be late. Get your parents to write you an excused absence and take a free day. I understand that the school wants to enforce the late policy and try to instill in us that we must be here on time and we must be in class when the bell rings, but at the same time there are other ways to more effectively do so.