Being on time is key for success in school, college, and life. WCHS has a tardy policy that reflects the necessity for punctuality.  The tardy policy for the 2022-2023 school year states that students are expected to be in class when the tardy bell rings. The each individual student’s tardy count will reset at the start of each quarter. Students who are 10 or more minutes tardy without an excused pass will be considered skipping and receive a referral.

Specifically, the policy states that the first tardy received will get a warning and reminder why it is important to be on time. For example, arriving to class after it has begun can cause students to miss important reminders, upcoming events, due dates, and content. Freshman, Emmerson Smith states, “I believe the policies in this school are fine as they are now.”

The second time a student receives a tardy the teacher will contact a parent, document the conversation and re-teach the importance of being on time for class. Waiting for tardy bell can create a mad dash to get to class at the last minute. Students can been seen running to get to class to make it “just in time.”  Unfortunately, for those students, it takes them several minutes to then settle into class, get out supplies, and begin to focus.

The third infraction a student will be assigned 3 days of lunch detention to reflect on why being late is an issue.  After the 4th tardy, a student will be given a referral with ISS. The idea behind the tardy is to teach students to be on time as they prepare for employment. Indeed, a job application website, states arriving late is a bad habit that must be avoided.  According to Indeed,com “You can get in the habit of being late. Once you’ve been late to one or more meetings, you can get in the habit of being late to future meetings and other important workplace gatherings. This can become a vicious cycle that can affect workplace behavior.”