Rialto High School students should have an amount of time during 1st period in which they can show up without being marked late or truant.
Currently at Rialto High School, students are expected to come in at 8:40 AM and are marked truant if they are more than 10 minutes late. All students are affected by this as attendance is a requirement to participate in activities. For example, students are not allowed to go to homecoming if they have a certain amount of tardies or absences. This affects many students as dozens of students can be seen coming in after the 8:40 AM bell daily.
Due to the fact that students have breakfast in the classroom at the start of class, it is inefficient to mark students tardy or truant for showing up during that period as they are not missing out on any of their education. During the first 15 minutes of school, students are delivered breakfast for them to eat during class. This takes no time out of the class itself and students are left to their own devices while everyone eats breakfast. Because of this, there is no learning done during the first 15 minutes of class which means that students do not miss any education at all unless they show up past 8:55. Since students do not miss out on education until 15 minutes after their expected call time, it is unnecessary for the entry time to be strictly upheld as students who show up within that time period are still receiving the same education as students who show up 15 minutes earlier.
Furthermore, the argument that it instills responsibility into students also fails to recognize that most students do not come to school on their own. Some students have to take their siblings to school or wait for them. Some students also have to wait for their ride even though they are ready much earlier. While showing up on time to school is important, it fails to account for the fact that many students have conditions that they are not in control of.
The fact that students cannot control factors that result in them being late means that student tardiness to first period doesn’t truly represent their punctuality and ability to be timely for things that they are completely in control of such as a job. As the vast majority of students at Rialto High School are minors living with their parents, it is unfair to expect each and every student to arrive at a certain time without having some flexibility for students who have conditions that are out of their control and prevent them from meeting the exact time.
The fact that students can be punished by missing out on activities they will have very few chances to experience throughout their lifetime, even though they are not missing out on any of their education and for reasons that are out of their control, is unfair and does not help the students of Rialto High School in any way, shape, or form.
I agree with this article completely