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New Tardy Policy Begins Second Semester

Students+walk+to+class+on+Nov.+17%2C+some+with+masks+and+without.+The+mask+policy+in+the+building+changed+to+be+optional%2C+as+compared+to+last+year+where+it+was+required.

Credit to Andrew Poertner

Students walk to class on Nov. 17, some with masks and without. The mask policy in the building changed to be optional, as compared to last year where it was required.

By Chase Pray and Alex Wheadon

As the second semester begins a new tardy policy comes with it. The new policy is much different where instead of teachers giving out tardies for each class now if you’re tardy to two different classes then you will get two tardies in total. While previously it was a three tardies per class system, the new change makes it so you get five in total.

“As the first semester progressed we saw more students hanging out in the hall so we knew our tardy system needed to be updated,” head principal Lucas Lammers said.”Instead of teachers having to hand out punishments we changed it too where the principles hand out the punishment.”

With the new policy comes punishments depending on how many tardies you have. The punishments begin at five tardies and steadily increase in increments of five. For example, at five tardies a detention is handed out and at 20 a two day in-school suspension is given. This system will reset every quarter with what they are calling a tardy party given to those who have no tardies in a specific time frame. 

 “So the first time I believe is one detention. So that’s when you get to five, the second time would be two detentions,” Lammers said. “Third time is Saturday detention, and after that we get to ISAP but not many students will get there.”

Another reason they decided to change the policy is because it was a bit of a burden on most teachers because if students were tardy three times in their class they would have to take time that could be used to teach students to write a detention. With this new policy the principles are taking care of handing out punishments so the teacher and student bonds won’t be strained and the teacher won’t have to take their own teaching time to hand out the punishments.

“Let’s say a student gets to the third detention I have to pull up their ID number and then I have to fill out the entire sheet which can take five to ten minutes,” ELA teacher Jani Wilkens said.