The Rise of Tardies at Westside High School

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Recently at Westside High School, there has been a rise in students coming to class late. Stemming from late buses to lamented carpool, lately, there has been some sort of rising from students being late. This tardy problem has been getting exponentially worse since the 2019-2020 school year.  The students recognize this is an occurring thing for most because morning classes start off with some students absent.

The tardy problem has been a prominent thing with the decline of attendance of students since the beginning of this school year. After COVID-19 hit, the motivation of students coming to school has not been proactive. The administration tried to come up with ways to fix this problem recently by having students get to class a little earlier and for teachers to not allow students in after the bell rings. The administration has also thought about making consequences for racking up tardies such as lunch detention and potential credit loss.

Dean Davis has been going on the PA system recently informing students and teachers on coming to school on time in an effort to notify students about the potential consequences. A student, Dharma Lopez, a senior at Westside, has talked about her reason for being tardy in the mornings. “I do in fact accept that I go into my first period late, but it is because I can’t control my bus coming in on time. My friends though, do come into class late because they woke up late due to the lack of motivation for school.”

Each student has different reasons for being late, but the statistics show that after COVID-19, those reasons have branched out completely. The main reason for the last 2019-2020 school year was because of lamented transportation, but this school year incorporates more students not showing up because “they don’t have the motivation.” What can Westside do to fix this?

The administration could start seeing and advocating for counseling or reducing the “tremendous” amount of homework“, said a few Westside students. “After a really hard virtual school year, starting with restrictions right off the bat does hinder our motivation for attendance”, said Amori Harrison, a Westside senior. Westside, by the few, agrees with the solution of advocating and reducing restrictions and believes will help tremendously.

Should Westside start taking this approach?