By Tim DeLouchrey
Sports Liasion 

At 2:00 on a typical Wednesday afternoon, I did not proceed to the senior parking lot. I was, instead, on my way to the detention room.

I had been tardy to school often during the third term, and it had resulted in two office detentions.

To simplify the situation, I had to sit in a room for an hour because my ride to school had been running late. I do not drive myself, nor do I take the bus, so it is typically out of my hands whether I get to school on time or not.

While sitting in detention, Mr. Parent entered the room and said, “this will help them figure out how to get to school on time.”

I can not speak for everyone in the room, but I for one could not find the connection between why I was sitting in a desk for an hour and showing up to school a few minutes late on a few occasions. If all of the time I had missed due to being tardy was added up, I imagine it would be no more than twenty-five minutes or so.

That being said, it doesn’t even mathematically make sense. If I missed twenty-five minutes of school, I should be in office detention for twenty-five minutes right? And that is without factoring in the fact that I am not at fault for my tardies.

While sitting in detention, I was not thinking of how to get to school on time, but rather how unfair it was that I was to be kept here due to something that was out of my control and, to a degree, insignificant in my education.

Walking into a class three minutes late is rude, and I understand that. However, due to the rotating schedule, it is very rare that I am late for the same class more than once in a short enough time span that the teacher even remembers.

Realistically speaking, very little is done in the first three minutes of a class. The teacher is typically still getting everything together.

I am not advocating that all students should show up late because the first few minutes of a class doesn’t matter. I am simply stating that showing up a few minutes late shouldn’t warrant a detention.

But for some reason that is beyond me, administration finds it sufficient enough to throw ten students in a room for an hour after school.

Punishment can only influence someone for so long. It is highly likely that the students in the detention room with me will be on time for a couple days (if it is even in their control) and then return to their previous tardy ways. If that is the case, as it usually is, then no problem has been solved. In fact, the only thing that has come of this is more students that feel like I do: mistreated.

If other solutions were explored, such as finding the student a ride to school, or fixing a plan for them with the help of an administrator, students would not only be less bitter, but they would be on time in the future.

A possible system that incorporates both ideas could work as follows: If a student has five tardies for a term, they could be called down to the dean’s office to discuss why this is the case and a possible solution. An email could be sent to the parents of the student, as parent awareness could prove to significantly benefit the situation. If that particular student were tardy again after that, they could be given detention as at that point administration has done enough to try to help.

It may not be the responsibility of the deans to look after every student and get them to school on time, but a quick meeting from time to time would not hurt, and would certainly help many students.

In short, I find it highly illogical that rather than fixing problems, the WA rules insist that the problem be avoided, and instead, they simply jump to punishment.