On Monday, November 27, after a three-day weekend, students were jolted awake upon hearing some frightening news: The tardy sweeps, a district-wide policy, will now have consequences other than the embarrassment of being locked out of your classroom.
“As soon as you get caught, you receive a detention,” Dean Juan Antonio Santisteban said.
Many students think that this change is much too harsh on students.
“I think that it [punishments] should be more lenient for students caught for the first time” said Junior Siena Krause.
These detentions will take place during lunch, with no after-school detention options available.
According to Santisteban, a student will merit “Rule School” detention after being caught in a tardy sweep three times.
“Rule school is a chance to have detention with either myself or Principal Perry, in which we start working with the student to develop a plan so that whatever the problem is can stop being a problem,” Dean Santisteban said.
Administration sees this as more of an intervention than a punishment, something to try and “meet students where they are,” as Dean Santisteban said. “It goes detention, after detention, ‘Rule School,’ and after Rule School, Saturday School.”
Despite the pushback from some of the staff, Sanisteban said the data from the daily tardy sweeps indicates that tardy sweeps are effective at reducing tardies.
“What if I was tardy for every period but the tardy sweep ones? Will I be punished for that?” said Krause.
The new policy has left students with more questions than answers.
“Tardy sweeps are going to be done once per day, sometimes more than once,” Santiesteban said.
One Junior stated that the daily tardy sweeps are “fascist”.
Santiesteban stated his sympathy for students.
“Man, you guys have a lot to catch up on with your colleagues, with your friends, and just moving from class to class, but it is very essential that we are in class on time because the lecture starts right away in some classes and even if you are just a couple of minutes late, it kind of throws off the flow,” Santisteban said.
According to Santisteban, the number student tardies reduced after tardy sweeps were implemented.
“Since we’ve been doing them [tardy sweep] once per day, our numbers [tardies] have been below 100,” said Santiesteban. During the fourth week of school, the tardy peak was 200 students.
