Bacon Bits: Students see tardy policies as unfair

When a student is late to class there could be many factors that influence that tardy. Perhaps a car wouldn’t start. Maybe there was a traffic jam because of a car accident, or treacherous driving conditions. Or maybe a student made an honest mistake and forgot to set an alarm for the right time.
Young adults should be taking responsibility for their actions and treating their education like a job in the real world. But a high school student is often under the age of 18, so parents should still have a sense of control over their lives. This is why in the event that a student is late to school and a parent contacts the schools to let the faculty know the circumstances, this absence should be excused and the student should not be punished.
  It is ridiculous to tell a student to spend lunch time in detention for a week because of a simple mistake that set back the morning for an hour. If this missed time in school is so precious. then why aren’t kids who miss a whole day of school, with no explanation as to why, not punished? If a student wakes up late for school, we may not want detention and decide to skip the whole day to avoid punishment. Skipping four classes of instruction seems much worse than missing one hour.
  In some cases a student who has served lunch detention may not even want to eat lunch the last 15 minutes of the period because many students go out to eat instead of spending money on mediocre school food. Many students want to take their lunch time to talk to friends or crunch in some study time. Making these kids spend half of their lunch in detention is denying them the basic rights that all high schoolers should be able to enjoy.
  Another example of unfair and absurd tardy policies at LHS is the policy which makes a student who walks into class late stay after school for 15 minutes and count off the seconds. This could be a fair punishment if the student is late for no reason and interrupts the teacher’s lesson, but when a student walks in before anyone has acknowledged the beginning of class they should at least be given the opportunity to explain the situation and apologize for any inconvenience. When a teacher denies the student this chance to defend themselves it is rude and downright disrespectful. It is incredibly insulting to punish a student with out giving them the chance to apologize. Another aspect of this that many find insulting is that some students can walk into class 10 minutes late and the teacher will be OK with this because that particular student has some unfortunate circumstance. This is ludicrous considering that the student who is receiving punishment for almost nothing could have a valid explanation but is not able to get a word in with the instructor.
  If a student is going to have their integrity questioned every morning then what is the point of showing up to class? Throwing out punishments for no reason is hostile and makes the learning environment unwelcoming, which makes it much harder for students to connect with the lessons. Why do teachers think it is OK to give unnecessary punishments for things that the school is already prepared to handle?
 Most importantly, if schools are supposed to prepare students for the real world then why are some students’ petty excuses and unfortunate circumstances considered while others are not respected enough to give an apology?
 News flash, the world doesn’t care how “unfortunate” life is and a boss won’t care if you are 30 seconds late. The world will care if you are able to defend yourself and apologize when you are in the wrong. So, the next time anyone tells you to stop defending yourself swallow your tongue, and prepare an argument, because you deserve respect just as much as anyone else.