By: Leah Navarro & Johan Satorre
As of the beginning of the 2018/19 school year, the administration of Redwood high school is now confiscating the student ID cards of anyone who is late in the morning or returning from lunch. The school administration has shifted from last year’s ‘3 Strikes’ policy to a no-tolerance policy. Under the previous system, student would have their ID’s taken only if they have been tardy three times. Now, if a student is late, regardless of the reason, their ID is confiscated.
The change has been met with almost unanimously negative responses from students. Students feel that it’s unfair to students who are not habitually late. One concern brought up was that the students sometimes have no control over what happens in the morning. Often, when a usually punctual student is tardy, it is because of something uncontrollable, like car troubles, family, or a long train crossing through. When a student has a bad day, getting your ID taken away tends to make it worse.
Sydney Swarthout, ‘19, goes off campus often because she enjoys it, but since administration has put in this new policy on ID’s, Swartout does not want to go off anymore. “I think this policy is kind of annoying because right when that bell rings at 8:12 they lock the gate. I feel that it makes us more late because we have to wait in line, sign our name, and then walk all the way to class.” Swarthout believes the administration should give at least 5 minutes for students after the bell rings and then lock the gate. “ I have a nursing class at Mount Whitney so I leave at 12:30, but there’s no way to get my ID since I can’t come after school and Mr. Lor is never in his office before school.” Many students are late everyday, but that doesn’t mean it was their fault, as said by Swarthout, “ life happens.”
Chris Hernandez ‘19, is a part of rally club and he loves Redwood, but the recent decision by administration irritates him, “I personally don’t like it because there are genuine reasons to why people are late in the mornings and it just isn’t fair. If students have a genuine reason as to why they are late the IDs should not be taken, but a simple warning could work.” He admits, “It is kind of preventing tardiness, but just the idea of it is irritating.”
Riley Saelee ’22, believes that the ID policy has good effects for students. ” I think the new Id policy is a great way for students to learn their lesson when they are late from lunch and get it taken away.” Even though freshman are not allowed off campus, ” I believe it does affect freshman because they feel as if they are out dated just cause they can’t go off campus.” She thinks there should be an improvement if students are tardy in the morning, ” We never know what could happen or if we will get to school on time.”
Redwood Gigantea interviewed Principal Shin regarding the new policy, he said, “We used to punch the ID’s after each time a student was late, but we didn’t notice any change in student behavior… The staff decided that in order to be effective, the school’s tardy policy needed a little ‘Teeth’… Students that are late develop a pattern. They need to be punctual in life. Those that are late miss out on a lot of things.” Principal Shin ends emphasising, “The change isn’t because we want to punish kids, we just want them to change their bad behaviors. Ultimately, we want them to understand that being punctual is a lifelong skill.”
The student ID policy was put in to prevent more tardies, to help students be more responsible, and for parents to be more responsible with getting their kids to school on time, but is it the most fair and effective way to combat tardiness? The policy is still only 8 weeks old and still has yet to be proven, but it is certainly frustrating students that feel that their privileges are being unfairly taken away.
Johan Satorre
Johan ('20), is the Opinion Editor for the Gigantea. He is a two year member of Redwood Journalism. He enjoys history and politics and is a contributor to the Government and Politics section.
Tags: id, redwood high school, school ids, visalia, visalia ca
