West’s Tardy Policy

Jaylen Huling, Reporter

In the past year, West Anchorage High School has decided to create a new tardy policy. The guidelines and regulations of the new rules have some students upset.

The rules of the tardy policy state that if you are late and do not have a pass from an adult, you cannot get into class and you will be sent to a tardy station where you will get a detention.

Antonio Wyche has been a security guard at West for six years. “The purpose of the tardy policy is to make kids more aware of the importance to get to class on time,” said Antonio.

The goal was to decrease the amount have tardiness, and there has been a noticeable decrease over the past year. “The halls have also cleared up because of the new tardy policy,” added Antonio.

Although there has been a decrease in tardiness, there seems to be an increase in absences. On September 10th, 2015, Alaska Dispatch News released an article that said Anchorage School District data seems to have seen a slight decrease in attendance and performance.

The question is whether or not students are skipping school instead of coming to class late because they don’t want to get in trouble.

Tess Burnett, a West High senior, has a different opinion. She seems to believe the new rules have had the opposite effect on the school. “I know a lot of people, myself included, who would rather just not come back to school and skip when they know they are going to be late instead of facing the consequences.” She believes it’s way too harsh.

Something else to add is how much more class time the students miss when they are sent back to get a pass. Madison Frye, also a West senior, said it has actually made her an extra 10 minutes late. “When you are only a minute late and have to walk all the way back to the office to get a pass and then you have to wait in line it probably makes me at least 10 minutes later than I would have originally been”, she said.

A suggestion Tess made was that maybe the students should just get a warning first, and when they do get the detention, the teachers could just give it to the students right away instead of having to leave class.