Tardies are an everyday issue at Santaluces. Whether it be spending too much time chatting, hallway traffic, or just getting to school late, students cannot escape being sent to the nearest monitor or administrator to collect a tardy pass. When the number of tardies reaches three, a student can face consequences like a session of Saturday school or Twilight.
In an effort to solve this problem, a minute bell is going to be used during class change, Principal Robinson told teachers at their faculty meeting on February 28. Students have exactly five minutes to get to class, a new bell will ring one minute before they must be in class to warn them to pick up the pace.
“We can’t use our phones to check what time it is or else the administrator will take them away. So we’re like ‘What time is it?’ ‘How much time do I have to get to class?’ ‘Do I have to start running right now?” said Junior Shelby Dudley. “But with the minute bell, we can be like ‘I have exactly a minute left, okay maybe I should go faster’ or maybe ‘I have enough time.’ It would take away our stress about being tardy or not.”
Students have five minutes to get to class. Although this will not be changed, students will have a one minute warning bell.The idea of the minute bell has been received well by almost all who have heard of it so far. One of the supporters is AICE International History and AICE Global Perspectives teacher, Mr. Jayne, who says the bell may help reduce tardies.
“It would be efficient because a lot of kids just take their time to get to class,” said Jayne. “Sometimes they can’t tell the time.”
