DISCIPLINE: Revisions to rules, stricter enforcement and technological incorporation point to stricter disciplinary measures.
By Martina Krakora, Staff Writer
Poly’s 2014-2015 year has brought new changes in discipline. Due to last year’s parking permit scandal (students were caught with forged parking permits), Poly administration has ordered and distributed completely new permits, which have made forgery harder to accomplish.“It’s the same parking permit, but it has a different look to it. It has a hologram on it […] so it’s harder to duplicate,” Assistant Principal Brian Frost said. Students would need extraordinary resources to forge one of these new permits.
In addition to new parking permits, on September 2, the attendance office began tardy sweeps. In previous years, it was the teacher’s responsibility to mark students tardy; however, this year that will be changing. After the last bell rings, teachers are to lock their doors so that students will be forced to find a campus supervisor who will write them a tardy slip. Only after receiving this slip will students be let into class. In addition to this change, the process of writing a tardy slip will soon be going digital. Frost speculated that the equipment will arrive sometime this semester. With this new system, campus supervisors will be able to quickly scan an ID card or punch in an ID number, and the tardy will automatically record on the student’s file. After scanning the student’s card or punching in his or her number, the campus supervisor will also be able to see how many times the student was previously tardy within that semester. According to the amount of tardies, the student will receive the corresponding consequences: first, second, and third tardy, detention; fourth tardy, Saturday school; five or more tardies will constitute a visit with Frost. Students will then be handed a pass to class.
What’s the reason for the change in tardy administration? “It [tardiness] is disruptive. It is also disrespectful to the people who are there on time,” Frost explained. This stricter enforcement and new technology is meant to decrease the number of student tardies. Even within the short time period in which it was implemented, the staff declared that the new tardy policy has already produced the expected results. In a recent email sent out to the parents of Poly students, administration claimed that there was already a decrease in student tardies.
Although administration felt that these changes would be beneficial for the student body, some Poly students did not have the same opinion. Parth Panchal (12) said that he “doesn’t mind” the changes to the parking permits but expressed dissatisfaction with the new tardy policy.
Although students and staff disagreed about the new policies, they will still take effect. The staff has good intentions: “We just want people to get to class on time,” Frost exclaimed—so don’t be late!