What Is A Tardy Sweep?

Periodically, we are asked by the staff to "crack down" on students that are late to class.

Don't get me wrong, compared to any other high school in my experience, this is far less of an issue at South than elsewhere. However, when teachers are investing all they have into student achievement and engagement, it's frustrating to have students walk in late to class. At the very least it's a disruption, but it can also cause somewhat of a restart to the class.

So occasionally we conduct a "hall sweep". It's pretty simple. We pick a certain period of the day and once the bell rings, teachers are asked to lock their doors and refer all tardy students to the auditorium. Once students report there, the administrators assign detentions to students caught in the hall sweep because obviously these students were tardy to class.

Each time we do this we get some complaints from students or parents. Of course, if a student has a legitimate excuse to be in the hall (i.e. sent to their locker by the teacher) the detention is cancelled. However, there are always some students that claim it was their first time being late and they are being unduly punished.

I don't believe a detention is too big a penalty for tardiness to class, and hopefully it will serve as a deterrent to future tardiness. I mention this because we will have another hall sweep in the near future, and I'm hopeful that an up-front explanation may prevent some of the complaints after it is implemented.

I believe it's obvious to all that punctuality is a good lifelong skill to possess, and this is something all high schools try to enforce. Students have seven minutes to move between classes here at South and that is ample time to get wherever they need to go. Often times, the tardy students are those that spend time socializing with friends and waiting for the last minute to start to class.

We believe this is an effective deterrent, we know that teachers and hall monitors request it, even though students caught in the sweep dislike it. It's one of the ways we use to curb tardiness to class.