Editorial: CVHS launches crackdown on tardy sweeps
CVHS launched a crackdown on tardies with several sweeps administered over the first month of the school year. Students who get “swept” and others who repeatedly arrive late to class will face detention. We at The Olympian oppose tardy sweeps.
We believe that tardy sweeps are not only ineffective, but that they also keep students out of class, contrary to what the tardy sweeps are supposed to do.
Tardy sweeps disrupt class time even with their loud announcement at the beginning of the sweep. Also, students caught in the tardy sweeps are forced to wait in a long line for their detention slips and miss valuable class time.
Not only that, we believe that they are unfair for students who are talking to teachers about assignments or using the bathrooms where bells aren’t installed and can’t be heard.
Supporters of the tardy sweeps argue that the sweeps make sure that the students are more aware of the fact that they need to be in class on time. Tardies are a problem though, considering the fact that just last year, there were about 42,000 tardies; that’s as much as 13 tardies per student!
There are various suggestions to compromise on the issue of tardy sweeps. For example, we believe that the three strike rule where the students have three opportunities to be tardy before consequences is fair. Another idea is to reward students for being in class on time instead of punishing them for being late. We could “catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
Although there are reasonable arguments on how to handle tardies, we at The Olympian oppose tardy sweeps as a solution.