Eastlake High cracks down on tardies with detentions and parent notices

Eastlake High School has taken steps to address rampant student tardiness to classes after sharing statistics that showed a significant number of students have been arriving late to class on a regular basis.

In a March 11 newsletter to students and families, principal Todd Apple shared that 104 students had four or more tardies during the last week of February, representing 5% of the student body.

In response, the school has implemented a new tardy intervention protocol. It includes lunch detentions for “top tardy offenders,” who are students exceeding four tardies per week. During such a detention, students’ phones are confiscated and they are expected to write a reflection statement about their tardiness. Email notifications are sent to top tardy offenders and their parents or guardians every Monday.

Failure to show up for detention may result in escalated consequences, including hour-long detentions after school on Wednesdays or parent meetings.

“Frequent tardiness sometimes impacts the educational environment or requires the teacher to reteach material, restructure lesson plans, and delay learning,” Apple wrote in the newsletter.

Furthermore, Eastlake implemented a one-minute warning system before the start of each period by playing clips of pop songs to remind students to head to class quickly.

Since these policies were implemented, some teachers have started noticing a decline in tardies.

“I can absolutely say there has been a positive change in what I see in the halls,” said Kara Riely, a humanities teacher. “Students move more swiftly when the music plays and in general are doing better about being in class on time.”

Patricia Molina, a Spanish teacher, said that there was some decrease in the number of tardies after the implementation of the protocol, but recently that number has ticked back up again. 

“I believe that students have too many responsibilities and commitments on their side that causes lack of sleep or rest, as the main reason for tardiness,” Molina said. “Another is a lack of organization skills that produces students working late and sleeping less.”

She believes this exhaustion sometimes causes students to wake up late, making them tardy for school.

Some parents hope the school will go even further in enforcing a habit of punctuality amongst students, and upping the consequences.

“Teachers should close and lock the doors at the end of the passing period and not allow tardy students to enter the classroom,” said David Baer, an Eastlake parent. “Students that don’t make it to their next class should serve the period in detention with no option to make up the missed classwork.”