by Sasha Albrecht
Guest Reporter
Yesterday I was informed that I’d hit the "ten tardy" mark which means I will be spending my day in ISS(In School Suspension). This raised a serious inconvenience for me because I had several important things I needed to do, as it is the last day of school before winter break. Naturally I was irritated with the prospect of having to spend the whole day in the ISS office rather than finishing my last minute work before leaving for two weeks. Several tests now have to be pushed aside until the New Year, by which time I will have inevitably forgotten all the details I have spent so much time attempting to dedicate to my memory. Now, my question is this: how is ISS a reasonable punishment for being a couple minutes late in the morning?
As students preparing to enter the "real world," I know it is for our best interest to practice punctuality before our tardiness can result in unemployment. However, I fail to understand how removing students from class is a reasonable punishment for their arriving late – it’s better to arrive late than not at all. The majority of students that find themselves in the ISS room are often falling behind in school already; I must admit that I am included. So, rather than spending the day attending to my classes and taking tests, I am doomed to sit in the same spot for the entire day making minimal accomplishments while falling further into the hole of homework that I’ve gradually dug myself into.
Our schools "ten tardy" policy is, in my opinion, a flaw in this school’s educational system. While running the risk of receiving ISS might be a motivational factor for getting me out of bed in the morning, I cannot say the same for some of the lovely companions I’ve met today who are, in fact, repeat offenders. In a school that avidly worries about our test scores, our attendance, and our punctuality, removing tardy students from their classes in order to condemn them to a day wasted in accomplishing nothing at all seems to contradict the other policies that our administrators spend so much time imposing upon us.
Is ISS really a sensible way for teaching students to attend their classes on time? I personally don’t think so. If anything it discourages from attending classes at all. While I might find sitting in the same room for a full day boring and uneventful, I can’t help but notice that many of the people on the ISS bandwagon seem to enjoy avoiding their work. They are essentially able to skip school while being counted present. This is only a method of crippling students, showing that simply arriving late to school can result in a relaxing day in the ISS room that could otherwise be dedicated to studying.
