Punctuality Not An Elective At Lc If Bell For Class Rings And Students Are Tardy, The Bell Is Tolling For Them

Lewis and Clark High School student body president Amy Budge said she “just lost track of time” during the lunch hour last week, talking with friends by her locker, when she heard the one-minute warning bell for fifth period.

She grabbed her books and ran through crowded hallways to her English class in the school’s basement. She hit the door a few seconds late.

Instead of being allowed to slink into class under the disapproving glare of her teacher, Budge found the door locked.

Under a tough new tardiness policy at the school, Budge’s few seconds of lateness mean an hour in the cafeteria. She was supposed to study, but instead ate lunch and talked to friends, who also had been late to class.

Students with an excuse from a teacher or administrator will be let into class.

“The thing I don’t understand is, I’m late two seconds and then I miss 54 minutes,” said Budge, an honor student who has been tardy without an excuse just once before. “That’s the part I have trouble with. I’m not really doing anything constructive just sitting there.”

LC vice principal Pam Scott said the policy is designed to combat a serious problem at the school. Last year, she said, LC had the worst tardiness problem in District 81.

The policy has worked so far, Scott said. Last September, about 7 percent of the students were late. This September, 4 percent logged tardies.

Comparisons for October aren’t available because of a glitch in an attendance software program.

“The climate here was that it was OK to walk into a class late,” said Scott. “It affects other students’ learning when the doors open and shut.”

Rogers High School has decided to copy the policy, said Mauri Paul, assistant principal for discipline. Rogers will conduct a trial run this week, giving teachers time to answer questions and students time to adjust.

The policy will go into effect after the Thanksgiving holiday, Paul said.

The policy is tough from top to bottom. Each time a student is tardy, a computer calls parents with a recorded message saying their child missed class. A letter is fired off after the second absence.

After a third missed class, students are given a choice between three hours of study hall on Saturday or a three-day suspension. The fourth absence results in a five-day suspension or 20 hours of community service arranged by the school.

Scott said the idea for the policy was offered by a student and heavily discussed by a panel of faculty, administrators and parents.

Paul said Rogers students have also requested a more stringent policy.

Students are given an extra minute between classes - six, instead of five - and twice a week have 50-minute lunches instead of the usual half-hour.

Scott said she has walked from one end of LC to another in four and a half minutes. If students have to go to the bathroom, they can check in with a teacher, then go to the restroom, she said.

But, as expected, students “have kind of chafed at it a bit,” said Allan Bredy, LC assistant principal.

Rogers students are already protesting. “We need to get people to class, but this is not the way to do it,” said Jamaica Vandolah, a junior, who said she has not had an unexcused tardy this year. “It will punish everyone.”

Paul is not impressed by the complaints. The new policy is not tougher because students are being given an extra minute to get to class - something they have always been expected to do.

As for what Budge and Vandolah call a loss of individual responsibility, Paul said students should get the opposite message.

“I would hope they learn being places on time is important,” said Paul. “That’s a lesson they need to have in the real world.”

, DataTimes