About five minutes after the final bell rings, a trickle of students begins to arrive at the office to collect late slips. A minute later and there's a line up. Give it another minute and the line begins to sprawl out the door. The school's new late policy is certainly cracking down.
Students aren't happy about the late policy. Aaron Hovey says that he thinks that it is over the top. "My classes are at opposite ends of the school," Aaron says, "and when I eat out for lunch I have trouble getting back in time."
He suggests that in order to improve things, that the policy become more lenient and give students more breathing room between punishments.
Mrs. Spitzer is in charge of the late desk. She says that the current late policy doesn't seem to decrease the number of late students. However there is no way of comparing the numbers to see if there is any change. "What it does do," She says, "is increase the number of detentions."
The teachers seem to be cracking down. They say that they have been instructed to send students for a slip if they come into the room a second after the bell. "They aren't understanding," says Maddie Johnson, "it makes it really hard to go to your locker" Maddie says that there needs to be a better way of processing the lates. People often take longer to get the slip then how much they were late by. "I once missed out on ten minutes of a test because I had to get a late slip."
Brett Schinkman says that it's ridiculous to have such harsh penalties for a minor offence like being late. He says that even though he's hardly ever late he doesn't like the policy.
Students needs and the late policy clearly do not coincide. If there is to be some middle ground found both sides will have to give and take.