SBHS student Gabriella Alfred is a heavy sleeper. She always oversleeps, sometimes even through her alarms. So, from August to December, Alfred always rolled into school late.

“I got to school late like so many times,” said the sophomore, ” And I just went to whichever block I had to be in.

But, upon returning from winter break, Alfred and all students of South Broward High School got a surprise. 

A single file line of students wrapped around room 506 just across from the cafeteria. They were each given a pink slip of paper and were to report to the class they had to be in.

“They had us standing outside for like 10 minutes to get a pass,” said Alfred. 

Due to excessive tardiness of students at SBHS high school, the principal and administrators devised a new policy in an attempt to reduce the amount of late students. All students were to watch a 16 minute video regarding the new policy and our expectations .

The policy stated that all students were expected to be on time to all periods of the day. As soon as the second bell rang and those students were still lingering in the hallway, they were told to go to room 506 to receive a pink slip. If a student came to class with no required pass they could not be admitted into class. 

On top of that, there are extra penalties for the number of tardy slips you accumulate. Three tardy slips would lead to a referral and five means in-school suspension. Additionally, the number of days you spend in ISS can be increased with each tardy that is received. 

SBHS junior, Chasaty Morton thinks there is no benefit in ISS penalty. “Who really wants to spend all day in ISS?” said Morton.

Students in school suspension aren’t allowed to talk or even use their phones to do class assignments that they’re missing. This encourages students to skip to avoid being penalized. 

“I got to school late and I was going to get ISS, but I skipped,” said Alfred. 

Alfred has skipped to avoid having to go to ISS four times. “There was no point in going.”  

Chasaty Morton feels as if the ISS penalty is extreme and isn’t going to help with students’ attendance. 

“If I knew I was getting ISS for the next two days, I would just not go.” 

However, SBHS digital design instructor Betsy Macedo advocates for the tardy policy. “I have seen an increased number of students coming in on time,” said Macedo. 

Before the tardy policy, Macedo has gotten a plethora of excuses as to why students came to her class late.

“One of my students said they forgot to put a lock on their bike and it broke,” said Macedo.

 “I’ve also had students say they slept in or their mothers dropped them off late.” 

When the policy was instituted, every student got into Macedo’s class on time. Lots of students see flaws

” If before you weren’t on time, after the tardy policy began were you in class on time? 

If the answer is yes, therefore the policy works well.”

Gabriella Alfred has been working on her attendance and her getting to school on time in the morning. 

Although she has recently received two days of ISS, she is making adjustments and improvements to her schedule so she can be in class and ready to learn. 

“I haven’t been to ISS in a while now, so I guess the policy is working for me at least.”