New first period late policy still considered

May be time to set your alarm

Simon Gibson Penrose, Staff Reporter
Originally published November 19, 2014

There may be a new policy in the making that would require students to get late passes for first period, just as you would if you were late to any other class. The Talisman asked  senior Victor Orr about the new policy.

T: Why hasn’t this policy passed yet?

O: “There are a bunch of legitimate reasons why people are late [to first period] like if a bus breaks down or just traffic. And people shouldn’t get a phone call home if they were late for a good reason. It should be an excused absence if anything. This would just make students angry and cause negative change in the school. The only thing it would improve is maybe help students incorporate traffic into their morning schedule.”

We also asked Principal Keven Wynkoop about the new policy.

T: Why do we need more possibilities to get late passes?

W: “Ever since we instituted the tardy passes, we’ve always had trouble deciding what to do with first period. I think it’s very complicated and I’ve never felt 100 percent as to what we should do. And over the years, there’s just been more and more of a problem with students showing up late to first period. Teachers feel that late students impact their instruction and negatively affecting the grades of students. With that, we’ve had many conversations about putting something in place and turn this around and help motivate students to get here on time.”

T: Students being late to first period is a problem and the administrators feel this needs to change. But how would this work?

W: “There’s always been the idea to apply the rules for periods two to six to first period. There have been a number of ideas that have come up like teachers tracking the number of times they’ve been late, a bit of a buffer so that maybe they don’t get lunch detention until the third tardy. But there hasn’t been a plan that’s been 100 percent agreed upon yet.”

T: Do you think this policy would be a good idea?

W: “I think we’ve reaches a point to where there’s enough students that are late everyday that I know some of [the reason they’re late] is within their control. If they knew there was a negative consequence attached to it, that would motivate some of the students to get there. So I definitely think that we need to do something, it’s just trying to come up with something that will on one hand motivate and on the other hand be fair. 

A late policy for first period may still be in the future, so it could be time for students to wake up a little earlier and get here on time.