I believe the Turner High School tardy policy is unfair.

The first reason I think the tardy policy is unfair is often, especially in the mornings, it isn’t the student’s fault that they are tardy.  For example, occasionally  someone’s parents might not wake them up on time. Why should a student be punished for their mom or dad’s mistake?

Another reason the tardy policy is unfair as some students have classes that are very far apart. Turner has a really big school and having to go from one side of the building to the other almost takes the full 5 minutes especially when the hallways are crowded. How is it possible for a student to go from the band room, all the way to Mr. Fessler’s room, get a drink and use the restroom in only 5 minutes? It’s impossible!

In addition to the tardy policy not being fair, I think the punishment for having too many tardies is too severe. For example, some people will get ISS for as little as two or three tardies, but other students will skip classes and never get ISS.  Sure the student might be late for class but at least they’re making it to class.  Why should they be punished more than skippers?

To fix this tardy policy and make it more fair I propose the following:   First of all students should be allowed to give a good reason why they were tardy in the morning and not be penalized for that tardy.  Another change I would like to make is that the passing periods are not long enough for students to take care of business in between classes. I think at least a 10 minute passing material in between classes would give students the time they need.  It would make the classes shorter, because they are already too long anyway.

And lastly I don’t think students should ever get ISS or even OSS for too many tardies.  Our school is all about getting students into classes.  Even though some students are late they’re still making it to class, and they’re still here to learn. Why punish those students?

While I agree that being on time in the real world is important let’s not forget that school isn’t really the real world it is training for the real world and students should be allowed to make mistakes and not be punished for them.  Let’s not forget, the students who show up to school are here to learn,  not to be punished.