CHS has brought in 2009 with a new ID system intended to make things easier when arriving to school late. This system prints a pass out for students instead of inconveniencing a staff member to take the time to hand write a pass so that one can get to class.
Along with the annoyance factor, being late can be an issue due to CHS’ fairly strict lateness policy.
Different teachers have their own lateness policies. Some teachers give students a detention the first time they are late to their class while others wait until a student is late a few times to give them detention. Some teachers such as Mr. Hambor and Ms. Ford deduct class points when a student arrives to class after the bell.
“Some teachers stand in the first floor hallway and in the lobby and tell you to go to the office the second the bell rings,” junior Alicia Teague explained.
For CHS students, arriving late to school has become a bigger issue than it comes across. The problem is that instead of walking into class five minutes late, students ends up waiting in the “late line” for anywhere from five to twenty minutes. The line sometimes stretches all the way from the main office down near the nurse’s office.
“One time I came in late and the line was wrapped all the way down past the girls’ bathroom,” junior Kellie Smith said.
Although this situation seems hopeless, CHS’ updated student IDs come in quite handy. These cards have a bar code on the front of the card under the student’s school picture. In the case of arriving to school late, this card is swiped in the main office and intended to quickly print out a late pass. The plan for this system is that instead of a student having to wait for an available staff member and giving the students name so that they can have a pass written, they can slide their card, grab the pass, and arrive to class shortly there after.
How well does this system actually work? Teague arrives to school late fairly frequently.
“It’s a lot more convenient. With the swiper I can just grab the pass and go,” she said.
Smith seems to agree with the efficiency of the new ID swiper.
“It’s pretty in-and-out,” she stated.
Although the actual pass printing is faster, Smith says that the whole process ends up being a lot longer.
“They stopped separating the people by name. So instead of a few longs lines you have one long waiting line. Both systems are confusing but at least we aren’t forced to waste more time filling out random papers and waiting to get a pass made,” added Smith.