The Mycenaean

As of Tuesday, January 9, Leesville has a new tardy policy in place. Students that are late to class must now obtain a tardy pass from intermittent stations around the school before they can  enter their class. 

Students will give administrators and teachers operating the tardy pass stations their student ID numbers and full names to be entered into a google sheet system. The google sheet will automatically send emails to students and parents upon any tardy entry for a student. 

In addition to this new procedure, there are also new punishments associated with being tardy that will be implemented with the start of second semester. In a video shown to all students in the school and an email sent to all parents, the punishments were laid out as follows: 

• A daily email will be sent to parents and students, starting second semester, documenting tardies to each class. Tardies are being recorded during our “soft launch” as we fine-tune our systems. 
• An alpha administrator will contact parents if their student receives 3 tardies to a single class period.
• A single period of ALC will be assigned if the student receives 6 tardies to a single class period.
• One full day of ISS will be assigned if the student receives 9 tardies to a single class period.
• Two full days of ISS will be assigned if the student receives 12 tardies to a single class.
• Additional consequences, such as a short-term revocation of off-campus passes and/or parking passes, may be applied if a student receives 15+ tardies to a single class period. 

The new policy evoked numerous responses from students. While most are indifferent, some think that the policy might be even more disruptive to learning than before. 

“I’m never late, but I think it’s a little much anyways because people who are late are just going to lose more time from learning and waiting in that long line to get a tardy pass…they would get to class faster if they were able to just go,” said Noah Anderson, senior. 

On the other hand, administrators and teachers align themselves with the opinion that the new tardy policy is absolutely necessary; there simply wasn’t enough incentive to be mindful of the rules before there was more legitimate punishment for tardiness. 

“I think it’s obviously going to cut down on tardies, but it will also get kids to class quicker which will hopefully reduce class time interruptions,” said Robert Patterson, one of the teachers responsible for writing tardy passes in the Murphy building. “Hopefully, it will also take care of some of the kids who are frequently late, [and] then they might have a little bit more incentive to get to class on time once those consequences start rolling out.”