Recently, the school has implemented the tardy table policy, a measure introduced this school year with the purpose of discouraging students from being late to class. There is one table at the main entrance and one in the modular. Students who arrive after the 8:10 bell are expected to go the nearest desk and sign in on a form that keeps track of attendance and tardiness.

Although this new procedure was established to help students and increase school safety, it has seemed to cause more harm than good so far. The idea of sending students who are late  anywhere else besides their actual class seems counterintuitive, and the consequences that go along with it are pretty extreme. These punishments include lunch detention, after-school detention, Saturday school and even in-school suspension. There are bound to be days when even the most ambitious students are late to school because of circumstances out of their control. Waiting in line at the table to check in and get a pass wastes time students could be in class learning.

There have been many instances in which students have been forced to go to the tardy table and get a late pass, even though they arrived to their classroom only a minute or even seconds after the bell, which has made students unnecessarily miss class time, including announcements that may have been important to hear.

The tardy tables have increased student stress about being on time, potentially resulting in risky behaviors such as students speeding on the way to school and putting their lives in danger, not to mention the lives of others on the road. Being required to go to the tardy table has given several students a negative start to their day, on top of already being tired from waking up early every morning and facing whatever struggle made them tardy in the first place.

The tardy table policy was established with good intentions and sounds like it would be successful in theory, but it deserves reconsideration.