All, East High students, picture this: you go to college for four years to get a Bachelor’s degree, then you get a job at clearly the best school in the district. Now fast forward to a couple months into school, you’re super excited and nervous about this new lesson you’re about to teach. You were up all night planning and talking to yourself awkwardly in the mirror saying how perfect this is, then finally the day is here! You get to school and set up shop, everything is going perfect, just how you wanted. As students start walking in you can’t hide that huge cheesy smile inside anymore. As the final bell rings you look around and a large number of students are missing. Clearly you can’t just not teach the lesson so you proceed. A huge part of you is very disappointed, but the show must go on. You get 30 minutes into teaching your lesson and you have one student enter. You proceed to assist and engage your class as though no disruption has just occurred. After you completed your lecture, you go and assist that student to try and get them caught up. As you are in the middle of re-teaching your lesson, you have two more students mosey on in. You then start to get frustrated and wonder why your class is not worth showing up on time for.

Students roaming through halls, classrooms, bathroom stalls, and even the weight room now know that if you are 20 minutes tardy, you are sent to the Student Center for Behavioral Instruction (S.C.B.I.) classroom. Well, that is not a rumor. It is true, if you are tardy by over 20 minutes you will be sent to Mr. Ytzen’s classroom where S.C.B.I is held.

“All last year we had a huge problem with attendance,” Vice Principal Chad Street said. “…There is a 5-10 percent gap of students who are constantly tardy,” Street continued. “That’s around 200 students who are not getting the education they need.”

When asked what he hopes to get out of this program Street said, “We want to get to the bottom of why you are late, uncover what is the root of the problem, and what we can do to help fix the issue.” Helping is an understatement, not only is Mr. Ytzen there but there are also all counselors a couple doors down, social workers, behavioral coaches, and interventionist all there to unwrap the tardy mystery.

You then have students who voice their concern about the changes being made to East’s tardy policy. “With them sitting in that class they’re missing more learning time, and isn’t that what you’re trying to avoid?” senior Chloe Copley said.                            Nick Laferedo, a first time tardy offender, agrees. “I missed out on the lesson plan so I had no idea what I was doing, I think a three strikes and you’re out method would be great, that was the first time I was tardy all year and I still had to go sit in that classroom.” Laferedo said.

Copley continued to stress her reasons why she saw more negatives than positives coming out of this ordeal. “People that are going to be more than 20 minutes late will more than likely just think ‘well I might as well just skip’ and boy was she right, or at least just for this moment.

Junior, Zack Kehler reflected on the time he knew he and his friend were going to be more than 20 minutes late and decided just not to show up for that block. “They were either not gonna let us in or we were gonna have to go sit in that classroom, so what’s the point?” Kehler said. When Kehler was asked what his final thoughts were about the issue he responded, “You know, everyone is trying to standardize schools nowadays, but we are not standard so, it doesn’t work.”

Whatever your views on this new addition, let the record be clear it was designed to strengthen East High as a whole, not to single anyone out. Everyday this school is changing for the better, whether it be new additions or new tardy enforcement’s. Just like with any new thing, it takes time to adjust. Students when you’re walking in late to class try and look at the situation through your teacher’s eyes, see how this tiny inconvenience sets them back so far but they don’t make you feel any less important. Teachers, try and look at it from the students point of view, things do happen not all of us teenagers are hooligans, we do try and continue to try.  Now with that being said I know what you’re all thinking, “Time to reset my alarm clock, cause tomorrow, I got some learnin to do!”