“Well, if it isn’t one of our tardy queens…”, says Mr. Fitzpatrick, my advisory teacher, while I’m rushing through the door, just shy of four minutes late.
Since last year I’ve been jokingly awarded the title of either “tardy princess” or “tardy queen,” depending on who shows up earlier or more often.
I used to make an effort to be on time way back when (last year). You’d have to go through the office every time you were late, get your I.D. scanned and get after school detention for being tardy.
My advisory teacher has a strict rule regarding tardiness: you may not enter his classroom late without a tardy pass from the office, no excuses. None whatsoever.
Ever since I noticed that there were no detentions by the end of the first semester this school year, I started slacking off even more.
I no longer tried to be at school on time. What was the point, I thought? There was no punishment. I’d wake up late, maybe stop by for some coffee at Starbucks, and take my time walking to school, enjoying the morning breeze… until the first week of March.
It seems that Essick Allen, the dean, had asked advisory teachers to give him a list of their worst tardy offenders.
That was when I received a summons and got assigned after school detention with the plant manager.
Let me say that after school detention is now on the top of my “worst ways to spend my after school” list.
I had to walk across the quad right after school, with a rake in my hand, and rake the front lawn of the school, for an hour.
I personally believe that I deserved that punishment, and that it was a serious wake-up call.
It was a good experience for me because I now find myself waking up earlier, skipping breakfast, and fast walking to school to be on time, so I won’t have to embark on that walk of shame ever again or clean the school for free when I could be hanging out with friends instead.
Detention, in my point of view, is a mixed bag.
It’ll get some of us “tardy queens” to make an effort to be at school on time.
It also has it drawbacks; it’s not fair that they started these detentions near the end of the school year, and that only a handful of students from each advisory have to serve them.
If you’re going to give detentions out, it should either be every tardy student or none at all.
Jacqueline Portillo
Opinion Editor