GHS has a flawed system that leads students to miss entire periods instead of being just a few minutes late.
The rule is that three tardy’s in one class is a PowerHour detention. Every tardy following the third is another PowerHour detention with increased severity in punishment. The order is one PowerHour block, an entire PowerHour, and more severe punishments, like Wednesday School, Saturday School, or suspension/expulsion. For the first period, a tardy is clarified as a student who is late but less than 15 minutes late. After 7:45 a.m., students are to be marked as unexcused absence.
It would seem that getting to school more than 15 minutes late or missing the entire first period would be worse than being a few minutes late. Despite this, there is essentially no punishment for unexcused absences. After seven full school days of unexcused absences, or 49 periods, a letter is mailed home to parents warning the student about truancy. Following 10 full days of school missed, or 70 periods, another letter is mailed home that puts the student on contracts that states they cannot surpass 15 full days missed. The only punishment is that following 15 full days of unexcused absences, or 105 periods, students may be subject to expulsion.
This leads to issues for some students but also for the school. Students who try their best to get to first period every day, even if that means walking into class a few minutes late are receiving unfair treatment. It should not be the case that being late a few minutes three times receives more punishment than skipping first period almost 50 times. Students are realizing that they can avoid the punishment for being late by either being even more late or skipping the period all-together.
If the school does not look into a change to these rules, it will continue to negatively affect students and the school as a whole. Eventually students who try to come in on time will get sick of getting PowerHour detentions for being a few minutes late and will fall into the routine of skipping first period, too.
