Sacrificing education for the sake of punctuality seems to be Carson High’s unofficial tardy policy, as students are kept too long in the tardy “room.”

I agree being punctual is as important now as it ever will be, nothing can ever be achieved if one isn’t where they need to be, when they need to be. Promptness however, should never come before an individual’s ability to receive his education.

The concept of the tardy sweep is ingenious but the manner in which it is executed could use some improvement. I don’t see the point in having every single student stand out on the quad awaiting the arrival of every other tardy student until the very last one ceases the holdup.

After all the tardy students have arrived, each individual needs to be processed, the processing takes all but two minutes, which would be so much more practical without the half an hour of standing around waiting for every other tardy student to arrive.

Some students are a minute late, are five steps away from their class, and that minute really is not worth the half an hour spent in the tardy room. Anytime spent out of class is essential to a student’s grade. I have at least two classes, where within the first half an hour a warm-up has to be turned in, the homework must be turned in, and lecture has already begun, or a test has begun to be administered.

If a student isn’t there within that time they aren’t allowed to make those assignments up.

Is it fair for a student who is serious about their work to have their grades jeopardized all because their mom couldn’t find her keys one morning? There are some days like this past week for example, where there was a P.A. announcement saying “teachers please allow your students into class, there will be no tardy sweep today.” If a tardy room is to exist then shouldn’t it be consistent, if it is decided that on early Tuesday’s there will be no tardy sweep because it is a waste of time, isn’t it a waste of time everyday?

Once, I witnessed a student convince those overseeing the tardy room to let them go because there class “is just right there.”

If one student should be let free, shouldn’t all students be let free since all students have a class “just right there.” Another time, a teacher pulled each and every one of his students out of the tardy room because he was going to administer a test and he didn’t want his students to miss it or to have to repeat it for those few students.

As students are being released from the tardy room, it not only disrupts each classroom that any given student is going to, but causes a large fuss around the school as a whole. When everyone is in class, and some hundred plus students are walking through the school talking, it distracts classrooms from the work they are doing.

I once was in a class where every minute for five minutes we had a student walk in from the tardy room interrupting the lecture that had already began.

Perhaps we can have a tardy sweep that begins five minutes after class has begun so that those students who weren’t too late can still take part in their education, and as every single student is walking in tardy, they receive their tardy slip, and can be allowed to go to class.