From the words of someone who comes into school by car every day, the tardiness system at Braintree High School is an unnecessarily harsh one. Of course, the tardy system is inherently logical: it encourages being on time. The problem is that the system doesn’t teach this nearly as effectively as it could be because of one simple issue: it’s far too strict.
Consider that one day, you’re running slightly late to school. You’ve just barely made it on time, and you’re relieved to be inside, but as you start rushing to the class, the bell rings and you’re immediately told that you’re late and have to sign into the front desk. Or, perhaps, consider that you made it farther, past the main lobby, and enter class just as the bell rings. Despite being only a few seconds off, your teacher demands you return to the main lobby to be marked late. The walk of shame both there and back- judgmental eyes of your peers on their way to the bathroom glancing at you as they pass- despite not even doing anything malicious, is a burden, and it’s one shared by student upon student every day.
The system, as it stands, is far too strict. For students who don’t take buses and instead walk or drive to school, making it on time very frequently is a problem, and oftentimes, it isn’t even their fault. Should they encounter any slight delay to their schedule, they’ll frequently end up becoming late against their wishes. A student forgets it’s going to rain the next day? Now they’re ten minutes behind because there’s far more cars in the Access Road than normal. There’s plenty of other similar examples, ranging from snow and traffic to accidental extra sleeping that are well beyond a student’s control. Most students don’t want to be late, and yet they’re often marked as such thanks to the fact that any student entering after 7:35 is immediately considered late, no exceptions or concessions, regardless of how far off the mark they are and what impeded them to get there in the first place.
This timing makes the morning far more stressful than it needs to be for many students. If they see the time is past 7:30, it’s going to be a rush to the next class with a vague hope that, by some faint miracle, they can make it to a class on the opposite end of the building, all while listening to the teachers yelling at them in the hallways, constantly drilling to them exactly how many seconds they have left. Then they get marked late, and it’s drilled in there that students are breaking rules, lacking responsibilities, and they’re lined up at the front of the school to get a slip like they’re being lined up for arrest.
The real world is nowhere near this harsh for such a minor infraction. Sure, some exceptions probably exist out there, but in most jobs, being late to an appointment or meeting by a minute or two is cause for an apology and a hurried excuse about what caused the delay. Imagine a major company lining its tardy employees up at the front lobby of their building because they were a minute late. It’s completely ridiculous, and school should not be pushing the idea that being late brings with it punishment this severe.
The timing is unfair, strict, and hardly relevant, and yet it can lead to a detention and punishment. An increase of a few minutes, or a benefit to those who are already inside the school wouldn’t be unwarranted? It’s a small change, but it would help so many students be able to get to school without having stress and worry in the back of their mind. It’s something that should be changed to make sure students can have an easier life at BHS; not one focused about barely scraping a mark by seconds, but by making sure they can focus entirely on getting top marks without the dread of a tardy and future detention hanging over their heads.
