Locked-door policy implemented school-wide to combat lateness

The new policy regarding student tardiness has been put into operation school-wide by the administration since Monday, Dec. 11. The policy was first tested in 9th grade hallways before being implemented for the entire school.

According to this policy, teachers of every period are required to lock their doors after the bell. Administrators and security personnel then patrol the hallways and give detention slips to tardy students, who are then readmitted to class. Detentions take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school in room 234 at 2:15 and 3 p.m.

The policy has been fairly successful thus far, according to security assistant Cedric Boatman, who says he has experienced little difficulty in implementing the policy.

"Teachers seem to like it," he said, and students "have no choice" but to comply. Boatman estimated that about 50 students had been given detention slips on Monday, the first day, and that this number would decrease as student awareness increases.

Fifty-eight students attended detention on Tuesday afternoon and 70 attended on Thursday, according to Boatman, who supervised both sessions, which were the first since school-wide policy implementation. All students in detention have fit in room 234, but if more come, it will expand to other rooms, said Boatman.

Students are assigned a day to serve their detention, most often the nearest Tuesday or Thursday. A student that is unavailable that day for legitimate reasons may be accommodated at the discretion of administration.

Those who do not attend the detention sessions will be given harsher punishments, such as in-school or out-of-school suspensions and/or conferences with parents and administrators. If students choose to skip the entire class period rather than receive detention, they will be dealt with accordingly as per the school's existing discipline policy.

The detentions will accumulate and stack for every period of every day. For example, if students are late for multiple periods in a single day, they will be given multiple detentions over multiple days. If an unreasonable number of detentions are accumulated, a meeting with an administrator will be arranged and proper disciplinary action will be taken.

According to Boatman, this is a permanent policy that will be strictly adhered to and enforced until further notice.

"We'll keep doing this until [administrator James] Short or [principal Phillip] Gainous says otherwise," he said.