After a long night of homework you awake from your inadequate six hours of sleep, bolting out of bed since you want to make it to school on time. You throw on some clothes and head out the door, but, since it’s winter in New England, your car has a thick layer of frost or snow because you don’t get to park in the garage. You quickly scrape it off so that at least your side of the window is clear. Then you get into the freezing car that will not produce heat until you’re in the parking lot.

Now you can get to school, but in some cases you might have neighbors to pick up. Arriving at school you are behind a line of cars with parents stopping dead center in the road to drop off their child. (This child will not be late, but, of course, you might be.)

You park and sprint to the building over ice and look like a complete fool. In the building you run faster to your first block and reaching the doorway there it is… the death sound. The last bell… you jump into the room panting for breath, and what do you hear? Nothing other than, “You need a pass.”



Now after all that effort to get there, that’s what we have to hear. For a lot of us it’s not our fault that we’re late; it’s the people we have to pick up, or the students’ parents who are running late. Also, in case anyone is forgetting, many students live in Hampden or Springfield, where it takes extra time to get to school. Not everyone lives 5 minutes away from the school.

All students want is a little break. If teachers could just hold the attendance a few extra minutes and give us some leeway, there would be much shorter lines at the attendance office two minutes after the second bells ring. This would be especially appreciated during the winter months, when there are countless reasons many are just a minute late. Maybe teachers can just hold the attendance until after announcements, so that the students that slip in right after the bell rings won’t have to be marked tardy and have to sit for hours on a Saturday morning. After all, if students are marked tardy whether they are a minute late or 80 minutes late, there’s less to stop us from saving ourselves the rush and hassle.